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NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY, 1883.
     NEW subscribers for 1883 will receive the numbers containing the opening chapters of the story, "James Bronson," free.
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     BOUND copies of NEW CHURCH LIFE, both of Vol. 1 and of Vol. 2, may be ordered from the manager. Price, $1.25 per copy; postage free.
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     COMMUNICATIONS respecting the endowment of Churches, the Greenford society, and one in regard to Baptism we are obliged to leave over until next month.
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     OUR friends will confer a favor by sending us the names and addresses of New Church people of their acquaintance to whom specimen copies of the LIFE may probably be sent. We desire especially the names of those who are not subscribers to any of the periodicals of the Church.
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     SOME changes will be noticed in the constitution of the editorial board of the LIFE. Mr. G. G. Starkey, who has been connected with the paper from its first inception in 1879, has been obliged, on account of ill-health, to give up his editorial duties for the present. We trust that he will be enabled to resume his connection with the LIFE at no distant day.
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     WE wish to express our appreciation of the kindness of our correspondents, who, during the past year, have furnished the LIFE with news letters and news notes, and we trust that they will continue during the next year to keep us informed by postal or letter of the transactions of the Church in their vicinity, and all the little occurrences of interest to New Churchmen.
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     SHORT, pithy communications in respect to the Doctrinal and Practical questions before the Church are always welcome. We have been obliged, however sometimes to ask the indulgence of our correspondents on account of our limited space. The publication of interesting communications has been frequently delayed for this reason. The shorter a letter is the more likely it is to have a speedy publication.
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     OF the many questions which agitate the Church at present none, perhaps, is of such immediate importance as that in respect to Baptism, especially that phase of the question arising from the actions of the Maine and Ohio Associations In the present issue our readers will find a communication on this topic from a well-known New Churchman and in another column an article in reply to the same. Some of the points raised which we had not space to treat of this month will be taken up in our next number.
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     WITHIN the past few months several New Churchmen of prominence have passed into the spiritual world. The Rev. Augustus Clissold, the well-known writer, departed this life October 30th, in the eight-sixth year of his age. Rao Bahadoor Dadoba Pandurung, our Hindo brother, the author of a pamphlet which attracted great attention a few years ago, passed away October 17th, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. And on Monday, December 2lst, Henry James, Sr., the author of numerous books in respect to the Church, died in the seventy first year of his age.
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     IN the light of the new dispensation, all things must be made new, for the consummation and end of the former Church has afflicted not its theological dogmas alone, but all the branches of learning, all the secular employments. Our thoughts on every subject need be cleared up and put upon a New Church basis. This task of applying the truths of the Church to secular matters is one of the greatest difficulty. But though we can at first do this only to a limited extent, still something can be done. In the last number of the LIFE we published an article on education in the light of the New Church, and this month the teachings of the Writings are applied to the subject of medicine. The next Issue of the LIFE will contain an article in respect to language and literature in the light of the Doctrines. We hope to be able to present other similar articles in the future.
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     ONE great trouble with the meetings of the general bodies and the committees of the Church is that the members do not come together to deliberate, to learn, and to conclude from reason, but they assemble to vote and to get back to their private business as quickly as possible; The greater number are uneasy and dissatisfied unless the questions before them are pushed through by the brute force of a majority vote. The consequence is the Church has no settled policy, and matters are seldom permanently disposed of. The Doctrines are not studied, and principles of action drawn from them which can be applied to the government of the Church. A notable exception to this rule was the late meeting of the Revision Committee in Philadelphia Being the most important committee appointed for many years, its members seemed to feel their responsibilities. Let us hope that this committee will continue to hold meetings and to deliberate in the light of the Doctrines until it succeeds in drawing up a form of government permanent and rational because based upon the laws of Divine Order.
HAHNEMANN AND HIS DISCOVERY 1883

HAHNEMANN AND HIS DISCOVERY              1883

     SAMUEL CHRISTIAN FRIEDRICH HAHNEMANN was born at Meissin, in Saxony, on the 10th of April, 1755. His father, though not wealthy, was by no means unrefined and illiterate. By trade he was a painter on porcelain and gained considerable reputation as an artist. Not satisfied with the common schooling which Samuel received under the Rector, the careful father added private instruction. The son was taught that requisite of literary success, how to think. For this purpose the boy was shut up in a room to ponder over a theme which was given him to solve. (See Burnett's Ecce Medicus.) The results of this early training were plainly visible in after life, when, in the face of all opposition, the independent thinker developed into the masterly scientist and into the founder of the noble art of healing.
      But there was something back of mental discipline, without which training would have been of but little service; we refer to that rare gift-brains. So excellent was his supply of this article that at the age of thirteen he was appointed to give lessons in Hebrew, and at the age of twenty he was acquainted with eight languages- Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, Latin, Italian, French, English, and, of course, his native German.
      Poverty compelled Hahnemann's parents to keep him at work, so he was for a long time unable to carry out his earnest desire to study medicine. Trade, however, was distasteful to him; and finally, after a severe illness, his parents withdrew their opposition and permitted him to enter college.
      He matriculated with honors, and succeeded in maintaining his standing by arduous study, supporting himself meanwhile by translating scientific works from English and French into German. We who enjoy our rest and recreation can with difficulty appreciate the trials of one situated as was Hahnemann. Not only did he labor all day, but also sat up every third night at his work of translating, depending upon intervening nights for needed sleep. But Hahnemann, in the hands of Providence, was destined to fulfill a great use-destined because a capable and willing subject. His insatiable love for knowledge brooked no obstacles, and, plainly, Providence bent this to a good use. As we look back upon Hahnemann's history, we can see the preparation for the coming work of his active life. At first he was taught how to think, then he acquired general knowledge and especially a knowledge of languages, by the use of which he was enabled to support himself while pursuing his medical studies. Finding that expenses were greater at Leipsic than at Erlangen, he repaired to the latter place, and in 1779 graduated at Vienna's greatest university.
     In his subsequent wanderings as a young physician seeking for some office worthy of his rare talents he stayed awhile at Hettstadt, then he went to Dessan, at which latter place he devoted himself to chemistry and mineralogy. Here, too, he found his first wife, Henrietta Kuchler. And who will deny the providence of this choice? Woman shapes the fate of man. If she is true, loving her husband in the exercise of his manly faculties, she is indeed a help-mate, sustaining him in trials and strengthening his failing purposes. Such a true woman was Henrietta Kuchler. "Darling," said Hahnemann years afterward, when persecuted and impoverished, "darling, but for thy loving support I could not bear it." (see Burnett's Ecce Medicus.)
          The next important change which Hahnemann made was to repair to Dresden. Here he became the favorite of the chief surgeon of the hospital, Dr. Wagner, who chose him to take his high place during that surgeon's long illness. Of course, all these changes tended to broaden and vary Hahnemann's knowledge, the better to fit him for his future work. To the same effect were his studies during the immediately succeeding years. Thus in 1786 he published an authoritative treatise on Arsenical Poisoning. The next year he wrote upon the advantages of coal as a means of warming. Two years later appeared such works as Instruction to Surgeons, Chemical Investigations of Gall Stones, On Antiseptics, How to Dissolve Mercury, The Insolubility of Certain Metals, Means of Avoiding Salivation from Mercury, etc. And here we see his first digressions from the established school of medicine. Painfully aware of the ill effects of the abuse of mercury, he strives with all the energy of his noble soul to devise a corrective. He is now the doctor, the dissenter, and the philanthropist. Fully alive to the fallacies of existing systems of treating disease, he rejects them. "A number of causes," he writes, "have for centuries been dragging down the dignity of that divine science of practical medicine, and have converted it into a miserable grabbing after bread (Brodklauberei), a mere cloaking of symptoms, a degrading prescription trade, a very Godforgotten handiwork, so that the real physicians are hopelessly jumbled together with a heap of befrilled medicine mongers," (Ecce Medicus, p. 33.) Here he is the dissenter, and so thoroughly does he become convinced of the degradation of medicine, both as an honest calling and as a science, that he gives up practice altogether and returns to his drudgery of book-making at Leipsic. But his philanthropy did not die. Providence was with him in this "valley of shades." "Oh!" he exclaimed, "I cannot believe that the Almighty and fatherly good of Him whom we cannot even call by a name worthy of Himself; who so freely cares even for the tiniest of His animate beings that are invisible to our eyes-I cannot believe that He should inevitably deliver over His dearest and highest creatures to the pangs of disease."
     Then comes the first ray of dawn. The "valley of shades" is passed, and as our hero ascends the mountain side he catches the first glimpse of a day of hope. Still at his book-making, the old means of sustenance, he is engaged to translate Cullen's Materia Medica. Reading over the portion treating of quinine, he is struck with the contradictory accounts given of the properties of this bark. He determines to test its effects by taking it himself; and his amazement is great when he finds that it produces a series of symptoms almost identical with those from which he suffered when he had chills and fever. Can it be, comes the almost audible prompting, that drugs will cure what they will produce? "With this first trial," Hahnemann writes, "broke upon me the dawn that has since brightened into the host brilliant day of the medical art." The goal was reached, doubts and fears were dispelled, and the prayer of the philanthropist, "I cannot believe that He should inevitably deliver over His dearest and highest creatures to the pangs of disease," was answered. The thinker, the lover of learning for use and not for personal aggrandizement, was led to discover a truth that shall endure to eternity, bestowing blessings upon suffering humanity so long as disease exists on earth.
     Hahnemann named his new system HOMOEOPATHY, and distinguished it from the old school by terming the latter ALLOPATHY.
     The accepted formula, explanatory of the action of drugs, was "Contraria contrariis curantur." At first, unaware of the extensiveness of his discovery, Hahnemann adopted the motto: "Similia similibus curentur."

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But afterwards he confidently asserted: "Similia similibus curantur."
     Anxious to spread his beneficent art of cure, Hahnemann hastened to inform his colleagues of his discovery. But alas! they spurned him as a charlatan, threatened him with civil suit, and finally drove him, an exile, from his native land.
     Hahnemann's trials aroused in him much bitterness. His success as a homeopathist gained for him among the laity a most enviable reputation. Fortune smiled upon him, and soon he was able to exchange coarse raiment and wooden shoes and dry bread for more comfortable apparel and wholesome food. But when cruel persecutors reviled him and finally drove him out of house and home, privations multiplied so rapidly that they drove him almost to despair. His journey with his family was made in a rude wagon. He was compelled to travel over rough roads, was poorly provided with food, and suffered severely in consequence. While traveling over a hilly road his wagon upset and the whole family, with their goods, were thrown together into one confused mass. He himself was injured, one of his daughters suffered from a fracture of a leg, and his baby boy was so seriously hurt that he died shortly afterward. (See Ecce Medicas, p. 138.)
     Is it to be wondered at, then, that, stung to the quick, he retaliated and denounced his persecutors?
     But amid all his trials he never for a moment faltered in his determination to perfect his new art for the benefit of his fellow-men. Certainly self was not uppermost for all he had to do was to retract, and wealth and honor were his-again. It must have taken more than ordinary courage to withstand the patient suffering of his loving wife and the pitiful pleadings of his starving children. On one occasion, after the usual distribution of hard crusts of rye-bread, one of the children who was sick began to cry. On being questioned the little fellow replied in effect, I want my bread saved till to-morrow; I'm not strong enough to eat it to-day! Such incidents as this must have wrung the father's heart with agony, and nothing but the firm conviction that truth will prevail, could have sustained him in those deep valleys of despair.
     But "the darkest day, wait but till to-morrow, will have passed," and so it was with the dark hours of Hahnemann's trials. "The reigning prince of Anhalt-Kothen was an ardent admirer of Hahnemann and he offered the latter state rank and protection at Kothen." The offer was accepted, and our hero at last entered a haven of rest. But it was also a retreat in which he could devote himself to his favorite studies, uninterrupted by jealous and maligning foes; and well did he improve his opportunities. So widespread was his reputation and so extensive his practice, that the authorities were compelled to provide a separate mail-bag for his letters.
     It was after such vast experience as this that he published to the world his famous theory of chronic diseases. He taught that many affections were caused and perpetuated by the prevailing custom of checking skin diseases by powerful external applications, and that the only hope of permanent cure in such cases was to use drugs which acted from within outward, from central organs toward the skin. How in harmony is this with what we are taught in the Writings. Diseases, like evils, must not be suppressed, but must be driven to the periphery, where they can do the least harm.
     Hahnemann's wife, who had shared his sufferings, did not live long to enjoy with him his hard-earned fame. She died at Kothen in 1830, nine years after their acceptance of Prince Frederick's protection. In 1835 Mlle. Melanie d' Hervilly, a lady of French descent, became an ardent admirer of Hahnemann and of his system of medicine. At a later period she was united in marriage with him, and, obtaining the consent of the French cabinet for her husband to practice in Paris, she induced him to move to that city. Hahnemann was then eighty years old, but, possessed of a vigorous constitution, he was still enabled to pursue his arduous calling. Most of his patients were wealthy, but ever mindful of the poor, he set apart days for their reception and treated them with the same care that he bestowed upon his richest patrons.
     In 1843, at the ripe age of eighty-nine, Hahnemann finished his earthly career and passed into a world in which, we trust, he is still engaged in administering to the comfort and welfare of his fellow-beings.
     "When the last fatal hour had struck," writes Hering, "the sublime old man, who had preserved his vigor almost to his last moments, was patiently enduring the death agony. His wife exclaimed, 'Why shouldst thou who hast alleviated so much suffering, suffer in thy last hour? Providence should have allotted thee a painless death.' The he raised his voice as he had often done when he exhorted his disciples: 'Why should I be thus distinguished? Each of us should here attend to the duties which God has imposed upon him. Although man may honor more or less, yet no one has any merit. God owes nothing to me. I to Him owe all.' With these words he took leave of the world, his friends, and his foes."
     It is more than probable that this great boon to suffering humanity, Homeopathy, was one of the early effects of the New Dispensation. It is proper for man to try and cure diseases, and the LORD concurs with him in such work. If this work is undertaken in agreement with natural laws, the LORD can be in it, and the more it is carried out in true order, the more fully can He concur.
     Homeopathy as a system may have some fallacious rules, but Homeopathy as a law is strictly true. Hahnemann, we presume, knew nothing of the New Church, but as he was actuated by a genuine love of usefulness, he was enabled to see natural truths, which were hitherto wrapped in obscurity.
     The law of similars was foreshadowed before the time of Hahnemann. It glimmered in the popular doctrine of signatura rerum-a doctrine which led the commonalty to apply a sponge to a goitre because of similarity in form, and to give chehidonium in jaundice, because its juice, like bile, is yellow. The same doctrine induced the Indians to employ the pitcher-plant in small-pox, because its leaves look so much like the skin covered with festering pocks. Hippocrates wrote concerning like curing like, and the Chinese had some such knowledge ages ago. But all this simply means that traces of the knowledges of the Ancient Church are still discernible in the writings of its descendants. But as the science of correspondences was grossly perverted and finally was lost, so complete a system as that of Hahnemann could not be established until man's freedom was in a measure restored and orderly influx rendered possible. This system, as to principles, is in strict accord with the doctrine of correspondences, and so must contain genuine truths. Hahnemann did not possess the knowledge requisite to enable him to explain his system correctly, and hence many of his theories are fallacious. But his facts bear the most searching examination, and in the light of the New Church are seen to be rational truths.
     For instance, when he found that medicines administered in their crude form often caused painful aggravations of symptoms, he endeavored to modify their intensity by diminishing the size of the dose.

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To his astonishment, such modification, while it lessened some symptoms, developed new properties of which he was formerly entirely ignorant. He accordingly invented a process of attenuating drugs and soon found that substances hitherto regarded as inert actually possessed most wonderful healing power. Now, this fact, born of faithful experimentation, is an illustration of Swedenborg's doctrine of leasts; and this latter, in turn, is in agreement with the revealed truth that "everything divided is more and more manifold and not more and more simple, because what is divided and divided approaches nearer and nearer to the infinite, in which all things are infinitely." (C. L. 329.)
     Hahnemann's small doses, then, which have been so often subjected to ridicule that they have passed into popular joking, are really in harmony with sound principles and with revelation.
     We are taught that poisonous substances are of use to man because they contribute to absorb malignities, and thus also act as remedies (D. L. W. 336). They correspond to effluvia from hell, and so are the material ultimates of these effluvia. When, therefore, man is afflicted with disease-if a drug can be found which is, as it were, the material ultimate of the effluvium causing that disease-such drug can be employed as a curatie agent. For, since the disease is unnatural to the man, if a natural ultimate is furnished, the spiritual influx will rather choose its own ultimate, and so will adhere to the drug and be expelled with the latter from the system.
     According to Hahnemann's method of cure, drugs are first given to the healthy and their precise effects are accurately determined, hen when a patient is to be healed, that drug is administered which is most similar in effects to the disease effects. Thus is provided the natural ultimate containant of the effluvia which are causing sickness, and these leave the man and adhere to the drug.
     This truth is also deducible from the following:

     "Things unclean are wiped off by something equally unclean; the bite of a scorpion and of serpents is removed by their ashes or dust. Likewise in spiritual things unclean spirits take away unclean things. Evil spirits are brought forward that they may excite evils in man, and thus man not only becomes cognizant of them, but also recognizes them. They are evil or damned spirits, who thus receive those things into themselves, and, as it were, swallow them up, and thus man is liberated. I was often indignant that such unclean spirits excited so many evils, which lay concealed within in my nature, but I learned that without them there is no remedy, for thus wounds must be opened and healed; thus now the unclean ashes could separate the dead things in man." (See Adversaria 7,484-5.)

     We may illustrate the same truth in another way. When a drug is taken into the living organism its attack is manifested by a series of symptoms which represent certain definite lines of motion, just as a stone dropped into placid water will cause wavelets to spread centrifugally from the point of contact. These motions present two opposite phases, just as the concavity of a wave is opposite to the convexity. In selecting a drug, the similarity to the disease leads to its choice; but the curative action is in the opposite motion of the drug. For instance, belladonna induces dilatation of the pupils of the eyes. If, now, such a condition obtains and this plant is used, the cure is wrought during the secondary or opposite action of the drug; namely, contraction of the pupils.
     But this secondary action is in harmony with the reactive forces of the human system which are striving to remove the offending disease. Hence, selection is made by the similar and the cure by the opposite similar. That is, the drug which is similar to the disease becomes the material base of the disease-influx; and in the curative, reactionary efforts of the system the drug, by its secondary action, moves in the line of restoration to healths.
     Homeopathy, then, is firmly grounded in correspondences and cannot be destroyed. And since it is true it is worthy of our consideration, especially as that which tends to preserve health may aid in the establishment of the new and everlasting Church of the New Jerusalem.
COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS 1883

COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS              1883

I.
     COMMUNICATIONS with spirits and angels may be divided into two classes-first, Orderly; second, Disorderly.
     Orderly communication includes Divine Revelation, which has existed in all the Churches that have been on this earth, and which is the basis on which they rest. And it also includes certain unsought visions, etc., which do not have that authority which attaches to those things that are revealed by the LORD Himself for the use of' His Church.
     In the different Churches the Revelation has been different according to the varying genius of the people. Thus there have been more ways than one by which the inhabitants of this earth have received information concerning heavenly things.
     "In the most ancient times men were informed concerning celestial things, or concerning those things which are of eternal life, by immediate commerce with the angels of heaven; for heaven then acted as one with the man of the Church, for it inflowed through the internal man into their external. Hence they had not only illustration and perception, but also speech with angels. This time was called the Golden Age, from this, that they were in the good of love toward the LORD, for gold signifies that good. They are also described by Paradise in the Word. Afterward, information concerning heavenly things, and concerning those things which are of eternal life, took place by such things as are called correspondences and representations, the science of which things they drew from the most ancient people who had immediate commerce with the angels of heaven. Into those things heaven then inflowed with them and illustrated them. For correspondences and representations are external forms of heavenly things; and then, as far as men were in the good of love and charity, so far they were illustrated. For all Divine influx takes place from heaven into good with man, and through good into truth. And because the man of the Church then was in spiritual good, which good in its essence was truth, therefore those times were called the Silver Age, for silver signifies such good. But when the science of correspondences was turned into magical things that Church perished, and the third succeeded, in which, indeed, all the worship took place by almost similar things, but still they were ignorant of what they signified. This Church was instituted with the Israelitish and Jewish nation. But because information concerning heavenly things, or those things which are of eternal life, with them could not take place by influx into their interiors, and thus by illustration; therefore angels from heaven spoke by a living voice with some of them and instructed them concerning external things and little concerning internal, because they could not comprehend internal things. Those who were in natural good received those things in a holy manner: thence those times were called Brazen, for brass signifies such good. But when there was not any residue of natural good with the man of the Church, the LORD came into the world and reduced all things in the heavens and in the hells into order, for the end that man might receive influx from Him out of heaven and be illustrated; nor could the hells prevent and induce darkness; thus the fourth Church began, which is called Christian. In this information concerning heavenly things or concerning those things which are of eternal life took place solely by the Word; through that the influx and the illustration of man took place; for the Word was written by mere correspondences and by mere representatives, which signify heavenly things, into which the angels of heaven come when the man of the Church reads the Word.

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Thence by the Word the conjunction of heaven with the Church takes place, or of the angels of heaven with the men of the Church; but with those only there who are in the good of love and charity. But because the man of this Church has extinguished this good, therefore neither can he be informed by any influx and by illustration thence, only concerning some truths which yet do not cohere within good. Thence these times are what are called iron, for iron is truth in the ultimate of order. But when truth is such then it is of the quality described in David: 'Thou sawest iron mixed with clay of mud; they mix themselves through the seed of man, but they will not cohere one with another, as iron is not mixed with clay (ii, 43). From these things it is manifest how revelations have been succeeded from time most ancient ages to this day, and that at this day revelation is given only through the Word, but genuine revelation only to those who are in the love of truth for the sake of truth; and not with those who are in the love of truths for the sake of honors and lucre as ends."- A. C 10,355.
     The quality of the Divine truths revealed to the different Churches is described in the following from the Apocalypse Explained:

     "Inmost Divine truths were revealed to those who were of the most Ancient Church, exterior Divine truths to those of the Ancient Church, and outermost or ultimate Divine truths to the Hebrew, and lastly, to the Israelitish, with which Church at length all Divine truth perished. For at lengths there was nothing of the Word that was not adulterated. But after the end of that Church interior Divine truths were revealed by the LORD for the Christian Church, and now truths still more interior for time Church which is to come. These interior truths are what are contained in the spiritual or internal sense of the Word."- A. E. 948.

     In the most ancient Church the Word was not written, as in succeeding times, for they had not the art of Writing, and therefore the Divine truth, which was the Word, was given by immediate revelations it is at present in other earths in the universe. (A. C. 2896, 597, 607, 895, 920, 1114, 1125.) This immediate revelation must have been confined to families and have been constantly renewed, as at present is the case in other earths where they have not the art of writing and printing (E. U. 120), for in the most ancient times they dwelt apart, according to families and houses, there being little or no commerce at that time to spread the knowledge of what was revealed to other parts of the earth.
     Their states were very different from ours, for they had no articulate speech. Concerning their speech we read:
     "It was shown me by an influx which I cannot describe what was the nature and quality of the speech which prevailed among the men of the Most Ancient Church: that it was not articulate like the verbal speech of our time, but tacit, being effected not by external respiration, but by internal: thus it was speech-cogitative. It was also permitted me to perceive the nature of their internal respiration, how it proceeded from the navel toward the heart, and thus through the lips without anything of sound whilst they were speaking; and that it did not enter into the ear of another by an external way, and beat on what is called the drum of the ear, but by a certain internal way, and by what is called at this day the eustacimian tube. It was further shown me that by such speech they were enabled to express more fully the purposes of the mind and the ideas of the thoughts than can possibly be done by articulate sounds or expressions of the outward voice, which speech is in like manner directed by respiratioms, but such as is external; for there is not a single expression, nor any constituent of expression, which is not directed by mutiplications of the respiration. But with them this was effected much more perfectly, because by internal respiration, which because it is interior it is also more perfect and more applicable and conformable to the ideas of thought. Moreover, they were enabled to express their meanings by slight motions of the lips and by corresponding changes of the countenance; for being celestial men, whatsoever was the object of their thoughts shone forth from their faces and their eyes, which underwent a conformable variation-the face as to its form, according to the life of the affection, and the eyes as to light. It was not possible for them on any account to express with the countenance what they did not think in their hearts; and whereas their speech was effected by internal respiration, which is that of the spirit of man, therefore they were enabled to hold consort and discourse within angels."- E. U. 87.

     Their speech not being articulate, but cogitative, we can see that their speech with the angels was not audible, like that in the Jewish Church, but was a species of perception, and hence in another place it is said that the communication of heaven with them was perception. (A. C. 920.) By this communication with angels they received instruction only in generals, and from these generals they perceived many particulars without further instruction. (A. C. 895.) Instead of having the written Word and the perception of the internal sense, they had the ultimate objects of nature, and they perceived the correspondence of these things and thus they derived their wisdom. They cared nothing for the external objects of the world, but for the interior wisdom that they could learn from them, and they were thus in most profound thought. (See A. C. 2896; H. H. 115, 87; A. C. 920, 4489; T. C. R. 202.)
     Of whatsoever they saw in the world they at once perceived the correspondence, and by this their minds were elevated into interior wisdom and knowledge, and this wisdom was not concerning natural things but spiritual, viz.: the things concerning the LORD, heaven, and the Church. They did not have the sciences as we have at this day, but instead of them they had a knowledge of the more interior sciences of the Church and heaven, which were most delightful to them.
     From these things we may in some measure gain a knowledge of the quality of the men of the Golden Age, and see how entirely different they were from those of our times. But as this Church declined men became such that open intercourse with angels and spirits became dangerous. Their internal respiration ceased, and external speech arose. Writing was discovered and the perceptions and knowledges of this Church could thus be written down and preserved for the use of posterity, which was done by those who are represented by Enoch. These things formed the basis of the written Word, which existed before our Word, and which in the Writings of the Church is called the ancient Word, and which then became the means by which the LORD instructed the men of the Church at that time. Of this Word more in our next.
"CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS?" 1883

"CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS?"              1883

(See "Letters to the Editors.")

     "F. S." asks: "Can man destroy the foundations?" The LORD answers: "For the foundations are destroyed, what shall the just do ?"-Psalm xi, 3.
     "F. S." asks: "Can man destroy a Divine Sacrament ?"
     The LORD answers: "What true Christian does not acknowledge that the two Sacraments are holy, yea, that they are the most holy things of worship in Christianity ?"- T. C. R. 669.
     "They contain all things of the internal Church in one complex."- T. C. R. 670.
     "These passages (from the Prophets) have been adduced, that it may be known and confirmed from the Word, that the Church is such as is the understanding of the Word in it, excellent and precious, if the understanding be from genuine truths out of the Word, but destroyed, .yea, filthy, if from truths falsified."- T. C. R. 247.
     "That a Trinity of Divine persons from Eternity, or before the creation of' the world, is in the ideas of thought a Trinity of Gods, and that this cannot be abolished by the oral confession of one God."- T. C. R. 172.


6



     "That a Trinity of persons was unknown in the Apostolic Church, but that it had its origin from the Nicene Council, and was thence introduced into the Roman Catholic Church, and from this into the Churches separated from the former,"     . . . . "from that time began to be evolved out of the earth bundles of wicked heresies concerning God and concerning the Person of Christ, and to exalt the head of Antichrist, and to divide God into three, and the LORD the Saviour into two, and thus to destroy the Temple erected by the LORD through the Apostles, and this to such an extent that not one stone was left upon another, which was not thrown down, according to His Words in Matt. xxiv, 2, where by Temple is not meant the temple at Jerusalem only, but also the Church, concerning the consummation or end of which the whole chapter treats."- T. C. R. 174; Cf. A. R. 191; A. E. 220.
     "That from the Nicene and Athanasian Trinity has arisen a faiths which has perverted the whole Christian church. That both the Nicene and the Athanasinus Trinity is a Trinity of Gods, was shown above from their Symbols, (172); thence has arisen the faith of the Church of to-day, which is (a faiths) in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; in God the Father, that He imputes the justice of the Saviour, His Son, and ascribes it to man; in God the Son, that He intercedes and covenants; in the Holy Spirit, that He actually inscribes the imputed justice of the Son, and seals it firmly by justifying, sanctifying, and regenerating man; this is the faith of to-day, which alone is enough to prove that a Trinity of Gods is acknowledged and worshiped. From the faith of every Church comes forth not only all its worship, but also its every dogma; wherefore it can be said, that such as its faith is, such is its doctrine; that this faith, because it is a faith in three Gods, has perverted all things of the Church follows thence (from what has been said), for faith is the first principle, and doctrinals are the principiates, and principiates derive their essence from the first principle. If any one will examine the single doctrinals, as those concerning God, concerning the Person of Christ, concerning charity, concerning repentance, concerning regeneration, concerning free-will, concerning election, concerning the use of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, he will see clearly that a Trinity of Gods is in each of them, and if it does not actually appear in it, nevertheless it flows forth thence as from its own fountain."- T. C. R. 177.
     "Wherefore, to introduce into the Church the faith that there are three Divine Persons, each of whom singly is God, and of the same Essence, and the one born from eternity, and the third proceeding from eternity, is utterly to abolish the idea of the unity of God, and with this every notion of Divinity, and thus to effect the exile of all spirituality of reason; thence man becomes no longer man, but totally natural, differing from a beast only in this, that he can speak, being opposed to all the spiritual things of the Church, for these the natural man calls ravings; thence, and from no other source have sprung forth such enormous heresies concerning God; wherefore, a Divine Trinity divided into Persons has brought not only night into the church, but also death. . . . It is a truth, that to implant in an infant or a boy the idea of three Divine Persons, to which inevitably adheres the idea of three Gods, is to take from them all spiritual milk, and afterward all spiritual food, and finally all spiritual reason, and with those who confirm themselves in this (idea), it is to induce spiritual death."- T. C. R. 23.
     If the faith in a Trinity of Divine Persons is the faith of the Old or Former Christian Church, then is it also the faith into which a man is introduced by the Baptism of the Old or Former Christian Church. If this "faith has perverted the whole Christian Church," and "all things of that Church," then also has it perverted the Sacraments of the Church. If the understanding of the Word in the Old or Former Christian Church "be from truths falsified," and if for this reason that Church "is destroyed, yea, filthy," then also for the same reason are the Sacraments in that Church "destroyed, yea, filthy."
     But Baptism is a "sign of introduction into the Church " (T. C. R. 677), in other words, it means introduction into the Truths of the Church, and purification by them from evils and falses (T. C. R. 671), and as the Truth concerning the Divine Human of the LORD is the very and essential Truth of the Church, Baptism is a sign or a representation of introduction into the Truth concerning the LORD, and thence of worship of the LORD. "Baptism is holy and a Sacrameist, because it is for a sign and for a memorial that man can be regenerated by the LORD by truths from the Word: a sign for heaven, and a memorial for man."- A. R. 776.
     Time representation of the act of Baptism takes place in the spiritual world; the signification of the sign is there perceived, and this, not according to the outward form or mode of it, but according to the corresponding internal which appears and is represented therein. And by virtue of this representation there is effected a consociation and a conjunction between those in this world who are engaged in the act, and those in other worlds who perceive and are affected by its signification. If now, we rightly apprehend the position of "F. S." and the drift of his questions, he would have us believe that the angels to whom Baptism is a sign, on the one hand regard only the formularies employed by the person officiating, and not the understanding of them in the Church which performs the rite by its officiating minister; and, on the other hand, that they have especial respect to the will and thought of the officiating priest. Without dwelling upon the contradictory nature of these two things, we would remind "F. S." of the clear and uniform teaching of our Doctrines, that the Church, with man is, according to his understanding of the Word, and if the Church, then also the Sacraments; and of this teaching also, that the angels do not accept man's words for his thoughts, nor his expressions for his belief. This is true, whether man employs the literal expressions of the Word, or human language of his own. Every student of the Doctrines of the Church knows that the false and perverted ideas which men impart into the letter of the Word when they read it, repel the angels and attract those spirits who are in similar false ideas, and that, on the other hand, the reason why angels can be more fully present with children when they read the Word, is that they have no falsities of their own to interpose between the letter and the angelic perception of its spiritual sense. Since, then, Baptism is aim ordinance of the Church and performed by the Church, and not an ordinance of the officiating priest, minor of those who receive it, the very doctrine which forms the Church must be in it, for this doctrine is what teaches how it is to be understood, performed, and received. And when the priest, representing the LORD as He is known, acknowledged, and worshiped in the Church, pronounces the words, "I baptize thee in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit," will "F. S." venture to assert that the effect in the spiritual world will be precisely the same, whether by these words is meant the LORD our Saviour, in His Divine Human, or a Trinity of Divine Persons which cannot be named in Heaven because it cannot be thought by the angels nor uttered by their lips?

7


And if he admits, as we think he must admit, that the effect will not be the same, then what is the difference and what are the limits of the difference? For ourselves, we affirm that the difference is precisely that which exists between the idea of the one God, our LORD Jesus Christ, and the idea of three Gods and Lords. In the Heavens the LORD alone is known and worshiped; in the hells the LORD is denied and hated and many gods are worshiped.
     But "F. S" takes exception not alone to what we have said in respect to the representative effect, but also to our position as to the idolatrous nature of the Baptism of the Old Church. We call his attention to the following teachings of the LORD. In A. C. 1205 it is written: "In. internal worship alone there is a bond which withholds man from idolatry; when that is removed there is nothing that restrains. But there are idolatries not only external but also interior; those rush into external idolaters who have external worship without internal; those (rush) into interior idolatries who have external worship, the interiors of which are filthy."
     In A. C. 1211: "All worship is from faith and charity; what is not thence is not worship, but idolatry."
     In A. C. 1242: "In every Church there is an internal and an external, for without an internal it is not and cannot be called a Church, but an idolatry."- Cf. 1328.
     In A. C. 2177: "Such things (as sacrifices, etc.) would never have been commanded, unless they had represented Divine things; also that each (represented) something peculiar, for unless they had represented Divine things they would not have been anything else than similar things among the-Gentiles, who also had sacrifices, meat-offerings, libations, incense, likewise perpetual fires and many other things which they had derived from the Ancient Church, especially from the Hebrew Church, from which, because internal things were separated-that is, the Divine things which were represented, they were nothing else than idolatrous.
     Thence it may appear what the holiness of the Word is t those who are in heavenly ideas; yea, what the holiness was in this representative rite (Lev. xxiv, 5-9); thence it is called the holiness of holinesses, and on the other hand, how void of holiness it is to those who think that there is nothing heavenly in it and who remain only in externals as those who here perceive farina as mere farina, fine flour as fine flour, a cake as a cake, and that such things could have been mentioned without each of them involving something of the Divine. Those act similarly who think the bread and wine of the Holy Supper to be nothing but a certain rite in which there is nothing holy, when yet there is in them such a holy principle that by it (the Supper), human minds may be conjoined with heavenly minds, when they think from internal affection that they (the bread and wine) signify the love of the LORD and the reciprocal of man, and thus from interior (thought) are in sanctity." (Cf. A. C. 4444.)
     In A. C. 4825: "For idolatry is not only to worship idols and graven things, as likewise other gods, but it is also to worship external things without internals."
     In A. C. 4826: "There are many idolatries; there is the external and the internal, and each in general is the worship of the false and the evil." (Cf. 8932-8941.)
     In A. C. 9391: "By making a calf in Horeb and bowing themselves to what was graven is signified idolatrous worship, which is that of ceremonies, of statutes, of judgments, and of precepts in the external form only and not at the same time in the internal . . . . for he who is in external without an internal is in idolatrous worship, because his heart and his soul when in worship, is not in heaven but in the world, and he does not worship the holy things of the Word from heavenly love, but from terrestrial love."
     In A. C. 9424: "It is to be known that the internal sense of the Word contains the genuine doctrine of the Church - the doctrine here represented by Aaron and Hur (Exod. xxiv, 14) because it was from the external sense of the Word alone, without the internal, was merely idolatrous."
     The Old or former Christian Church denies and rejects the LORD, and believes in three Gods; the Old or former Christian Church denies and rejects the internal sense of the Word and of all things in the Word and from the Word, and derives its doctrine from the external sense alone, perverted and falsified by the evil which has destroyed that Church.
     Therefore we say, according to the above teachings of the doctrine of the New Church, that the entire worship of the Old Church is idolatrous and especially the principal things of that worship, the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper.
     "F. S." says: "If the above be true the inference is that Baptism in the Old Church baptizes or introduces the candidate into hell"? Undoubtedly, but with this qualification, that no one is introduced either into heaven or into hell so long as he lives in this world, but that he is internally associated with spirits in the world of spirits, who are under influences either from Heaven or from hell, as the case may be. To suppose that the external act of Baptism and the mere use of the letter of the Word without their corresponding internal can introduce any one into Heaven is to think essentially idolatrous thoughts.
     "F. S." should not have allowed himself to formulate such a question as this: "Is there any teaching in the Writings that Baptism was instituted for such purpose?" i. e. for the purpose of introducing persons into hell? Our only reply is-the LORD instituted Baptism. But that man can subject a Divine Sacrament to such evil purposes ought not to be a question with a well-informed New Churchman. What has not man done with the Word even from the days of the Fall? To what did not the Jews subject the LORD Himself when in the human on earth? And to what has not the Christian Church subjected Him in the Word fulfilled? Is not the perversion and adulteration of every truth and good of the Word the burden of nearly all of the prophecy in the Word? If man, by perverting the Word, can make it "a gate unto hell," why not a holy Sacrament? Is the Sacrament of Baptism more holy and inviolable than the Word itself, which is the LORD? Does not the thought that such a perversion of the Sacrament is impossible suggest the idea of an idolatrous reverence for the ordinance? We must reserve our reply to other points and questions in the paper of "F. S." to the next issue of the LIFE, concluding our present observations with some notice of the following question: "Can we believe that the LORD allows innocent children who 'have no more idea of faith than the shoots of a tree' (T. C. R. 677) to be helplessly introduced into infernal associations by means of their parents' devout, that is obedient and well-intended, use of his own Sacrament? Does the LORD so allow the letter of His Word to be used?"


8



     Certainly the LORD does allow these things; for are not children born from parents who are vile and filthy and corrupt, and are they not permitted to introduce their children into the very sphere of hell in which they themselves live; and in which they hear day after day the holy name of the LORD and the holy Word of the LORD profaned and blasphemed? How can a New Churchman ask such questions? That the LORD from His infinite mercy protects all children from the effects of their introduction in to such spheres; even as He also protects all states of simple good in adults is altogether another matter. If He did not in every moment of our existence guard and protect men and angels and withhold them from their evils, we should all plunge headlong into hell. And it is in order that He may so protect men and angels that He has come again to establish His New Church as the Divine means of the conjunction of Heaven and earth, now that the Old Church has been totally destroyed and immersed in the filth of its denial and rejection of the LORD.
MISCELLANY 1883

MISCELLANY              1883

JAMES BRONSON.

III.

     THE week following his meeting with little Ethel, Jim was very restless; somehow the companionship of his boy chums was distasteful to him, and their games did not interest him as of yore. Every day he would turn his footsteps in the direction of Colonel Butler's house or the forest, but he never went very near either place, "for," he reasoned to himself, "it wouldn't be the square thing to try and meet her when she says it would not be proper.
     One day his heart gave a great leap as he caught sight of a well-remembered little figure sedately walking up the principal street of the village by the side of a very fine-looking lady. He hastily crossed to the other side of the street and walked on, looking neither to the right nor the left. It cost him a severe pang to do this, and why he did it he could hardly have explained; perhaps it was pride-that pride which causes a poorly dressed man to avoid his rich acquaintances; or perhaps it was his innate desire to do the "square thing." Be it either way, Jim was experiencing a genuine state of wretchedness, yet that peculiar wretchedness which is cherished more than many a happiness, the usual state a boy's first love brings him to-or a man's either, for that matter.
     The afternoon of the same day he went down to the railroad station to see the trains come and go. This daily occurrence was the most exciting event in the day, and most of the idle villagers were always present to witness it, sitting on barrels or boxes, discussing politics, religion, temperance, greenbackism, or any other ism which at the time happened to be floating on the current of popular talk-or bothering the station-agent, busy with his clicking telegraphic instrument, with the question. "Is she late?" or "Is she on time?"
     Jim was sitting on the edge of the platform which bordered the track, when some one touched him on the shoulder, and looking up he saw Colonel Butler, evidently prepared for a journey.
     "You are just the boy I was looking for," said the Colonel, taking a small package from his pocket; "won't you please take this to my wife? I forgot to leave it with her when I left home."
     Jim eagerly took the package, and pretending not to see the piece of silver money the Colonel tendered him, ran off at full speed for home. Arriving there, he dashed through the house and out into the wood-shed. Procuring a bucket of water and a bar of yellow soap, he proceeded to wash himself in an alarmingly vigorous manner. After this he went to his room, where he arrayed himself in the best clothes he owned, and also put on his newly-greased hoots-blacking was an article he did not use. At first he was undecided whether to stuff the bottoms of his trouser legs into his boot tops, in the prevailing style, or not, but finally, in deference to city customs, he decided not to do so. Coming down-stairs after his toilet was completed, he met Aunt Amelia, and the old lady, throwing up her hands in astonishment, exclaimed:
     "Why, goody me, James, whatever possessed you to put on your Sunday clothes to-day?"
     Jim, somewhat abashed, replied, "I'm going to Colonel Butler's on an errand, and as they are nice people I wanted to look a little decent."
     Aunt Amelia rubbed her nose suspiciously, but before she could say anything further he left the house. The first person he met was Coonie Martin, and that boy in open-eyed amazement, said, "Why, Jim, what's the matter?"
     "Nothing, Coon," was Jim's brief reply, as he hurried on.
     A little further on he met Jack Johnson, and Jack said, "Hello! Jim, what on airth's the matter that you've got your go-to-meetin' clothes on
     Decidedly nettled at all the attention his good clothes were attracting, Jim curtly replied, "It's none of your business," and hastened on, but he took the back streets to avoid meeting any other acquaintances. Once in the Colonel's grounds he breathed easier, feeling that he was now in a place where good clothes would not excite comment-a place where people always wore "store clothes." He slowly walked up the winding path leading to the house, but saw no one; then he rang the door-bell, and to the servant who opened the door he gave the package with the brief message. She took it and asked him if he wanted to see Mrs. Butler.
     "No-o, I guess not," replied he, slowly; the girl waited a moment and then closed the door. Poor Jim felt sadly disappointed, as, with his hands deeply buried in his pockets, he retraced his steps. He had nearly reached the gate when a well-remembered little figure came dancing out from behind some shrubbery and stopping before him said, "O you mean boy! to pretend you didn't see me this morning, and never to go near the forest since."
     Life did not seem to be such a failure as a moment before it appeared to be. Jim's honest face lit up with a new light as he replied:
     "But you said it wasn't proper, as we hadn't been introduced?"
     "And you kept away and wouldn't speak and acted real hateful to me for that?"
     "Yes," replied matter-of-fact Jim, "but I didn't want to be hateful, for I wanted to see you again awful bad."
     "What funny things boys are," said the little maid, with an air of superior wisdom.
     "Have you been to the forest since?" asked he.
     With an impatient little shrug she answered pettishly, "Yes-that is, once or twice."
     Jim was puzzled, as many an older man has been, at such feminine inconsistencies; he was undecided whether she was reproaching him or not, but before he could settle the question in his mind the little one changed her demeanor to a very gracious one, and taking his hand, said:

9


"Come with me, James, I want to show you a book." She led him to a rustic seat beneath a noble oak tree, and when they were seated showed him an illustrated volume of fairy tales, and asked him if he had ever read of such things.
     "No," answered he, "but I've often heard the boys talking about fairies and ghosts and booggers."
     "Booggers, why, what sort of things are they?"
      "I don't know, but they are something the boys are mighty much afraid of in the dark."
     "Do you believe in fairies and-the other things?"     
     "No, I don't," answered he, after a moment's reflection.     
     "Why don't you?" asked she, evidently disappointed, "I'm sure this book tells of lots of nice fairies at least."
     "I think that people who say they have seen such things have had their spiritual eyes opened and saw spirits, and thought they were fairies and such things, and, after all, they were only people in the spiritual world."     
     The little lady opened her eyes as she said, "What do you know about the spiritual world?"     
     "Not very much, but I've read some about it in the Writings of my Church; that is," explained he, "what people call Swedenborg's books, but then he only wrote what the LORD wanted him to."     
     "Then you are New Church?"
     "Yes."
     At this answer she sprung up, and taking both his hands danced around like a veritable little fairy, exclaiming, "Isn't it splendid! Oh! my! but I'm glad." Then at his bewildered looks-"Don't you know I'm a New Church girl?"
     "Yes, it is splendid," said he slowly, and more as though he were a man than a boy. "You are the only one of my religion I ever knew excepting my father, and-and you are so different from any one else."
     "Where is your father and mother?" she asked.
     "Both are in the other world," he replied, quietly.
     "Then you are an orphan?" said she, with childish grace and sympathy, sitting down again beside him and placing one of her little hands on his shoulder.
     "Yes," he answered, "but it's all right, for the LORD knows what is best for all of us."
     "Yes," replied she, doubtfully, "but I wouldn't like to be an orphan."
      Jim gave the somewhat vague reply, "Well, you're a girl, you know." Then he said in a confident manner, "I'll be a man some day, and then-"     
     "And then?"
     "I'll work and make money."
     "What will you do with it?"
     "I'll buy a nice house and some fine clothes for Aunt Amelia, and I'll buy all the Writings of our Church     and a heap of other books-"     
     "And you'll buy some fairy books with real, real nice pictures, too, won't you?"     
     "Oh! yes."     
     As Jim paused, Miss Ethel, who had been very much interested in his plans, said, "And then what will you do?"
     "Why, I guess I'll get married," replied he, reflectively.     
     The next question came after a pause, "Who are you going to marry?"
     "I don't know; mebbe I can't get any one."
     Again there was a pause, and then she said: "Papa says that the Writings say that it isn't right to marry any one whose religion isn't the same as yours.
     "Do they? then, of course, I won't. Anyhow," he added, ingenuously, "I don't want to marry any other."
      "You are entirely too young, James, to think of such things yet," said Miss Ethel, with a sudden touch of her whimsical dignity; but she soon grew very bright and gracious, and the conversation became animated. She was telling him of the city in which she lived, when they were interrupted by the appearance of the lady with whom he had seen her walking in the morning. Jim was somewhat abashed when she appeared, but with innate politeness he arose, took off his hat, and made his best bow. Ethel, seizing the lady by the hand, exclaimed in a very excited manner, "Mamma, this is James; and what do you think, he is a New Church boy, just like we are." In her eagerness she let her wording get a little mixed.
     At the first piece of information Mrs. Wright smiled, but at the last she became interested, and said, "That is strange; I did not know that there were any of the Church in this place."
     "I am the only one," replied Jim, "and I have only lived here since my father died."
     "What was your father's name?"
     "The same as mine, James Bronson."
     She looked at him a moment, and then said, "Yes, I see now a strong resemblance; but you are so much more robust. I knew your father and mother, James, in my younger days. We were schoolmates. Come into the house with me; I want to talk to you."
     They went up to the house, where they met Mrs. Butler, a kindly old lady, and then Jim told all he could remember about his father and about his own life, and then eagerly questioned Mrs. Wright about his parents' younger days. It was a happy hour for him; the society and sphere were so different from anything he had ever before known. When he finally arose to go Mrs. Butler said, "I haven't thanked you yet for bringing me the package; allow me to do so now." She then went to a sideboard and brought forth some cake and wine, and said, "Before you go you must eat and drink with your new-found Church people; it is an old-fashioned custom, but a good one."
     After partaking of the refreshments, Jim reluctantly departed. As he slowly walked homeward he felt that an era of his life had closed and a higher one had opened before him. And so it had-not externally, but internally. He no longer had that vague feeling of being alone in the world-he had met his kindred.
     A few days afterward Mr. Wright came to take his wife and child home. . The evening before their departure Jim was made happy by an invitation to spend the evening with them. Mr. Wright was a thorough New Churchman, and had been much interested in his wife's account of finding this stray member of the Church in such a remote place. He questioned Jim closely as to his knowledge of the Doctrines, which, while not being very extensive, delighted Mr. Wright by its soundness. Turning to his wife, he said: "This shows the effects of real New Church teaching on children; this boy has been left to grow up absolutely alone, and yet the Truth has brought him through the trial unscathed."
     Mr. Wright was a highly educated man and knew how to talk, not only on the Doctrines but on other subjects, and in Jim he had an eager listener, and when the boy departed new ideas and views were in his mind, opening
up vistas hitherto undreamed of by him.
      [To BE CONTINUED.]
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE young people connected with Mr. Worcester's Society in San Francisco, held a "Sale" December 19th and cleared $122 for the benefit of the building fund.
PESSIMIST AND OPTIMIST 1883

PESSIMIST AND OPTIMIST              1883



10


     THE King gave two men good seed and sent them forth to cultivate and redeem the wilderness,
     One of these men went forth, and when he found good ground he sowed the seed. When it sprung up he faithfully attended to it. Year by year he slowly enlarged his field of labor. When asked how he was succeeding in his work he replied: "The little area I cultivated is bearing some good fruit, but it is difficult to keep the native plants from again taking root, yet each year the borders of the cultivated ground are enlarged a little-but so little compared with the vast surrounding wilderness that at times I grow discouraged. Yet how else can the wilderness be conquered than by slow and painful labor?"
     The other man went forth and scattered the seed broadcast; the more unpromising the locality the more lavish was he with the seed. The result was that in very many places a few of the seed would take root, lead a sickly existence amid the rank growth of native weeds, and then die out.
     When asked how he was succeeding he replied: I think I have abundant reasons for being hopeful. During the past year I have sowed thousands and thousands of the seed broadcast in the wilderness, and it is impossible but that such good seed must bear fruit and increase. In fact, on every hand you can see it growing side by side with the native productions, and it is rational to suppose-nay, it is certain-that it must eventually supersede all other growths, and thus convert the wilderness into a paradise."
Notes and Reviews 1883

Notes and Reviews              1883

     A FUND amounting to about $2,000 has been raised for the purpose of improving the Messenger.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society has decided to purchase some of the German translations for gratuitous distribution.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Publishing Society has employed a Spanish lawyer of Madrid to translate into Spanish the chapter on Repentance in the True Christian Religion. This, if satisfactory will be issued as a tract.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THREE numbers of the "New Church Popular Series     have thus far been issued: The World Beyond, Smithson's Letters on the Theology of the New Church, and Holcombe's Aphorisms of the New Life.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine is to be translated into Dutch, under their auspices of the Publishing Society. The services of a Dutch clergyman who is favorably inclined to Swedenborg have been secured.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     Rejected Communications is the title of a little pamphlet just issued by the Rev. B. F. Barrett. It comprises eight communications which have been rejected by various New Church periodicals. The pamphlet is for gratuitous distribution.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New Jerusalem Magazine is to be enlarged from 54 to 62 gages, the price remaining the same. The department of Monthly Notes and Comments" is to be subdivided into two heads called the "New Church" and the "Religious World."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A NEW and extensive work on the Science of Correspondences is soon to be undertaken by the Swedenborg Publishing Association of Philadelphia. Mr. Madeley's treatise on the same subject will be taken as the basis, but much new matter will be added.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE January number of the New Church Review will contain: "Does the Brain Think?" a discussion by Prof. Scocia of Florence, Italy; "The Conservatism of the Church;" a critical review of Wilford Hall's Problem of Human Life, and one of the North American Review as a religious teacher; also comments on the fall meetings of the Associations, noticing the new movements regarding episcopacy and Baptism. Subscriptions to the Review at $2.00, beginning with any number, may be sent to the publishers, Fairbanks, Palmer & Co., Chicago, Ill.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Calendar or Plan for Reading the Word and the Writings is this year issued on tinted cardboard. The morning lessons begin with the remaining part of Ezekiel that was not finished last year, and are continued through Daniel, the minor Prophets, Isaiah, and Jeremiah,. the doctrinal reading being from Divine Providence and from Heaven and Hell. The evening lessons finish the remainder of Luke and continue through John, the Apocalypse and from the Old Testament, the books of Joshua, Judges, and I Kings; the doctrinal reading being from Conjugial Love. Copies of this calendar may be obtained from the librarian of the "Academy of the New Church," No. 110 Friedlander Street. Price, five cents.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     AT A meeting of the Executive Committee of the A. S. P. and P. Society on November 28th, donations were voted to four public libraries, one clergyman, and two theological students. Five hundred volumes were ordered bound and twenty-five hundred printed. The Secretary reported the edition of ten thousand of the pamphlet edition of the Doctrine of Life with afforded advertising pages, printed in June, nearly exhausted, and another edition of ten thousand was ordered. Letters were read in regard to the purchase of one hundred sets of the new Latin editions by the Swedenborg Society in London, and the Secretary was requested to continue the negotiation. As some of our clergymen are applying for the Latin works, it is to be noted that the Secretary has no authority to distribute those works to ministers and libraries until notified to do so by the Convention, and no such notice has been received.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE recently published volume of the letters of Lydia Maria Child, contains, as might be expected, quite a number of references to the New Church. In a letter to her brother written when she was but eighteen, Mrs. Child says: "You need not fear my becoming a Swedenborgian. I am in more danger of wrecking on the rocks of skepticism than of stranding on the rocks of fanaticism." Twenty years later, in 1841, she writes: "Is it not strange that I can neither get in nor out of the New Church? Let me go where I will, it keeps an outward hold upon me, more or less weak, on one side while reforms grapple me closely on the other. I feel they are opposite, nay, discordant." In 1856, she says: "I have ceased to believe that any revelation written for one age or in one age can be adapted to all ages. I once thought that an inner spiritual meaning invested the Christian sacred books with a character infinite and eternal. I tried Swedenborg's key of correspondences, but it unlocked nothing." In the same year Mrs. Child writes: "To me there is a peculiar charm in Mr. Sears's preaching; for a kind of human halo of Swedenborgianism surrounds it. My first and deepest religious experience came to me through that medium, and such an experience is never entirely forgotten by the soul. The angel of my youth calls to me through Mr. Sears's preaching. Ah, would to God, he could give me back the undoubting faith, the poetic rapture of spiritual insight which I then enjoyed!" And again, in 1869: "I formerly thought the New Church opened for us a view of the eternal city with its gold and precious gems. It was a pleasant vision and it di much to help the growth of my soul; but happy as this state was, I would not go back to it if I could.'


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BRAIN 1883

BRAIN              1883

(The Brain, Considered Anatomically, Physiologically, and Philosophically. By Emanuel Swedenborg. Edited, Translated, and Annotated by R. L. Tafel, A. M., Ph. D. In Four Volumes. Volume One: The Cerebrum and Its Parts. Published by James Spiers, London, 1882.)

     IT is nearly a century and a half since Swedenborg completed his studies of the brain and prepared his manuscript for the press. Within that time hundreds of scientists have devoted their energy to the consideration of the structure and functions of the brain and have published the results of their investigations. With advantages arising from this extensive literature, from interchange of thought, and, above all, from new and improved methods of experimentation it might be expected that modern works would far excel a humble production of a hundred and fifty years ago. And even the New Church reader, while he respects the ability of Swedenborg, may, nevertheless, consider the science of the eighteenth century too antiquated to compete with that of "this enlightened nineteenth century."
     But, alas for the credit of the times and for the astuteness of the reader! modern works on physiology display but little that is new and true, save a more minute knowledge of the mere tissues of which the various organs are composed and a few new theories which recent facts tend to confirm.
     Late writers can furnish us with an almost endless number of new facts and can show us beautiful diagrams of the minute anatomy of the human body. But in the light of the New Church attempted explanations of the nature of life, thought, ideation, volition, and nerve force, of muscular action, digestion, nutrition, and circulation, are either utterly false or childishly superficial. Life is not viewed as an unbroken chain from the LORD; but the soul, if acknowledged at all, is silently thrust into the background and force is treated as if inherent in matter itself. What the microscope reveals, what chemistry discloses, what vivisection offers is accepted; for the senses can grasp it. And wonderful indeed are the products of such inquiry. But when the physiologist, using his store of facts, attempts to construct a living human being he fails most deplorably. Psychology to him is materialism. Animal heat, the warmth of love, and the glow of ardent affection are the products of the combustion of oxygen. Muscular power is the transference of heat into motor-force. There is no nerve-fluid except perhaps some modified form of electricity, and the only blood that courses through the body is the red blood made from the food we eat.
     The physiology of Swedenborg though old is not dead. True, it deals with the chemistry of life, but it super-adds the wonders of the hyper-microscopic world. It puts a soul into man and makes this the mistress of the entire organism. Life proceeds, or rather descends, from this soul clothed in accommodative forms from the purest substances of nature down to the crude matters of earth itself. Swedenborg's physiology lives. Animal heat is not merely that which the thermometer registers; it is also the activity of love, which is life. Nerve-force is the power of the soul manifested by means of a nerve-fluid. The red blood is not the only blood; a purer blood is manufactured the cerebral ventricles, and a still-purer is generated in the cortical glands.
     Swedenborg's physiology, recognizing the fact that motion is the expression of life, describes the human organism as a complex of parts, each possessing its own peculiar activity, and all working in accord with universal motions. The universals are: first, the motion of the brain, synchronous with that of the lungs; and second, the motion of the heart, perpetuated by the cerebellum through blood from the cranial sinuses into the right jugular vein and thence into the right auricle of the heart. These two motions are everywhere present in the body, acting together but not neutralizing each other, giving to every tissue its power to act and to exercise its peculiar expansion and contraction and so to perform its function.
     What a wonderful mechanism is this! How mobile, how receptive of impressions, how obedient to influx from the soul within! This is the living man, responsive to the soul as the latter is to influx from heaven and hence from the LORD, which Swedenborg presents us in contrast to the creature of modern physiologists.
     But further, despite the wealth of facts which have been added to the knowledge of the last century, Swedenborg competes favorably with his successors as a discoverer. No less than eighteen important facts in reference to the brain, many of which are attributed to recent investigators, were actually discovered by Swedenborg. Among these we may refer to the condition of the brain in sleep, the existence of foramina in the ventricles, the secretion of the choroid plexuses, etc., etc. These facts were not obtained by dissections, they were deduced as inevitable conclusions from a rational study of the brain and its functions. Is it not remarkable, then, that Swedenborg's facts, drawn from reasoning, should coincide with facts obtained by vivisection and other modes of experimentation? And is this not strong proof of the truth of theories from which such facts could be deduced?
     It will not do, therefore, for the scientist, be he a New Churchman or not, to assert that Swedenborg's work on the brain is antiquated, and so can be of no service to science.
     Seemingly impressed with this, coincidence of facts, Dr. R. L. Tafel, the able and energetic editor of the work under review, has brought forward many facts from modern books and has placed them by the side of Swedenborg's. This rich supply of annotations is distributed through the work as footnotes and also forms an appendix of about one hundred and fifty pages.
     Volume one of this work is just issued. It is a handsomely printed book of five hundred pages, treating of the cerebrum and its parts. Each separate subject is prefaced with quotations from anatomists and physiologists, contemporaries of Swedenborg, and also from authors of the present day. Then follows in each case an analysis of the part treated of. In this manner are considered the fabric and motion of the cerebrum, the cranium and its bones, the various membranes and their functions, the corpus callosum, fornix, cerebral ganglia, and the ventricles.
     In a clear, simple style, Swedenborg lays before the reader the mysteries of that complex organ, the brain. A thoroughly educated anatomist can derive the most benefit from it; but the merest tyro can learn very much from it, so plainly is it written, so free from needless technicalities and abstruse reasoning.
     If one follows Swedenborg he becomes intensely interested as he watches the master-hand pointing out the mechanical perfection of the cerebrum, its axes, poles, and centres; now directing attention to fibres subservient to the manufacture of the pure blood; now pointing to tracts destined to convey sensual impressions from body to brain; now locating the iorne of intellection and volition; now tracing out the districts ruled by involuntary will. Following the direction of the 'notions of the brain, the reader finds himself surveying the ventricular cavities, which exist between the cerebrum and the cerebellum. Borne on from cortical glands to callosal fibres, through the roof of the ventricles and down to the plexuses of red-blood vessels, comes the pure animal spirit.

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Here it weds itself to a dewy moisture secreted from the plexuses. Coming into the current of the third ventricle, this new blood is carried down through a funnel-shaped passage into the pituitary gland, thence to be sent into the jugular vein to proceed to marry with the red blood in the heart. In another direction he sees the potent brain freeing itself from coarse and impure material, that its delicate machinery may not become clogged and its work hindered. And finally, as he comes to the appendix, he is treated to a critical review of the book, conducted by the editor, Dr. Tafel. Many facts are here added tending to elucidate and to confirm the subject-matter of the book.
     If any one feels that he would not be greatly benefited by a perusal of this book, it must be because he is steeped in the materialism of the day and can see nothing that his sensual mind cannot grasp. Our advice to purchase the book is not meant for him.
CAN MAN DESTROY A DIVINE SACRAMENT? 1883

CAN MAN DESTROY A DIVINE SACRAMENT?       F. S       1883



LETTERS TO THE EDITORS
     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:- THE NEW CHURCH LIFE for December asserts that the sacrament of Baptism has become in the Old Church "idolatrous and of none effect in heaven," also that the acknowledgment of falsities of doctrine "deprives Baptism of all heavenly representation and effect and gives to it an opposite representation and effect."
     Will the writer favor us with the reference on which this assertion is founded?
     If the above be true the inference is that Baptism in the Old Church baptizes or introduces the candidate into hell. Is there any teaching in the Writings that Baptism was instituted for such purpose? If it were not instituted for this purpose, i. e., for the fixing of evil and infernal associations, then can man subject a Divine Sacrament to such evil purposes? Is not this equivalent to enabling man to invent an instrument or Sacrament of his own for his own purposes, or, in other words, to control not only the earthly acts, but the spiritual functions also, and thus to baptize at his will persons into heaven or hell, according to his, the officiating priest's, will? Can we believe that the LORD allows innocent children who "have no more idea of faith than the shoots of a tree" (T. C. R. 677) to be helplessly introduced into infernal associations by means of their parent's devout, that is, obedient and well-intended, use of His own Sacrament! Does the LORD so allow the letter of His Word to be used? Does He not protect the souls of the innocent and simple-minded from scandalous thoughts or beliefs when reading the letter of the Word? Can He not do the same for the Sacrament, which is only an enactment or ultimating of the letter in act?
     Were we to admit this possibility, namely, that man can turn a holy Sacrament into a gate into hell, who are they who are doing this? Are we not to infer from the article under notice that all are doing this who are not "New Church ministers"? Then until there were" New Church ministers" all Baptisms, being of the " Old Church," had this "idolatrous character" and the "opposite representation and effect" to that which the LORD designed it to have. Such, then, was the effect of the Baptism which Swedenborg himself received and which all those received who, having been "baptized into the Christian Church" (T. C. R. 677) went to form the New Heavens from which the New Jerusalem is descending. For we are to suppose that vast numbers of these had been baptized and yet were certainly not baptized by a New Church minister.
     But supposing that the writer fails to show from the Doctrine that Baptism at the hands of any but a "New Church minister" introduces into evil spiritual associations-or into hell-will he then insist that "it is idolatrous and of none effect in heaven," in other words, that even though it do no evil it has lost all power for good? When, then, has the great and essential Sacrament of Baptism effected its Divine purpose at all in this world! Shall we say up to the end of the third century and then nevermore until the first New Church minister was ordained? Can this be sustained from Doctrine?
     Does the writer in the NEW CHURCH LIFE believe that the Baptism treated of in T. C. R., chapter xii, is a Sacrament which, at the time that chapter was written (there being then no New Church ministers) had no existence or was not at all being exercised or its benefits enjoyed in all Christendom? That every thing here said about the "Christian Church," as distinguished from "Jews, Mohammedans, and Pagans," and as being the Church "where the Word is and the LORD is acknowledged," has no bearing on any institution then in existence, but only on a prospective organization of those who should be "baptized by New Church ministers." When Swedenborg, for instance, wrote the following words (T. C. R. 685): "That Baptism implies purification from evils and consequent regeneration must be plain to every Christian; for when, at the Baptism of an infant the priest 8igns him with the cross on the forehead and the breast, as a memorial of the LORD, he turns to the sponsors and asks whether they renounce the devil and all his works, and whether they receive the faith; to which question the sponsors in the child's name answers 'Yes.'"
     Did he write this of the Baptism then being practiced and enjoyed by Christians, or did he have reference exclusively to some future Baptism by "New Church ministers"? The description of the rite corresponds exactly to the rite as practiced in the Church of England. Does it correspond in all or any of these particulars here named to the rite as practiced by "New Church ministers"! And yet it is by these very signs or rituals, Swedenborg says, that "Christians" know the meaning of Baptism. As a matter of fact Christians did so administer the rite and did so understand its meaning as Swedenborg describes, whereas there are many "New Church ministers" (Priests?) who, however they may understand it, do not so perform it.
     If, therefore, the Baptism described in T. C. R., chapter xii, was not performed before there were "New Church ministers," as those would seem to hold who maintain that the Baptism there described has nothing to do with the Old Church and its "idolatrous" rites, and yet if it has never been performed by "New Church ministers," is it not a question whether there has ever been any real Baptism at all, at least since the days of the Apostles, and whether, therefore, the "Baptism of a New Church minister," which shall be a genuine Sacrament, be not still a thing of the future?
     In all this discussion it should be remembered that the Ohio Resolution neither invents nor equivocates nor interpolates anything of human prudence or convenience or cunning or pride, but simply posits the pure Doctrine of heaven itself-the SACRAMENT as Divinely given in the letter of the Word and as Divinely explained in T. C. R. xii, and H. D. 202, 207. It is for those who invent phrases like "Old Church Baptism," "New Church Baptism," "idolatrous Baptism," and the like, to assume the burden of proof and find the Doctrine that warrants those expressions.

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With these the Ohio Resolution has nothing whatever to do: it insists only on what the LORD commands, as these commands are described and interpreted by His Servant, Emanuel Swedenborg! It is important to remember, finally, that in instituting the Sacraments the LORD could have had no less universal, Divine, and lasting a purpose than in giving the letter of the Word itself. The letter of the Word illumines and helps a man according to his understanding of it. The LORD is with the reader of the Word according to a man's understanding of it! It is not according to the publisher's imprint or whether he bought his Bible at a New Church or an Old Church bookstore!-but according to the state of the man's mind and life that the Word becomes a blessing to him. Is it not so with the Sacrament of Baptism? Is not the LORD in it and by it with the child or man according to his own understanding and appropriation of it? If the child remains in this angelic society into which his Baptism (according to T. C. R.) introduces him, and grows up receptive of "Faith in the LORD" and at length in meeting with the Heavenly Doctrines cries out with joy: "Here is my LORD and my God, the Saviour for whom I have waited-here is the Church into which the LORD'S blessed GATE has, under His merciful guidance, led me, in spite of all the gates of hell which the evils and errors of the world have opened before me"-shall it be for the New Church to reply to him: "Oh! no, this gate which has kept you in a state prepared to receive faith in the LORD (677) is no Baptism at all-or worse, it is purely idolatrous because it was performed by one who was 'not a New Church Minister'"?
     Would not this be like telling the man who has come to accept the internal sense of the Word, as given in the Writings, that it is all wrong or of no profit to him so long as the Bible he reads is one that he bought of an Old Church Bible Society, and that to really experience the full benefits of the internal sense he must buy a new Bible from a New Church publishing house and begin reading it anew?
     If it be thought that some of the above analogies and inferences are put in strong terms may it not in justice be said that such, too, is the style of the article under review?
     But where there is good will, strong terms, if not in terms, cannot hurt. Let us have the plain, pure Doctrine and be willing to stand by that and that only let it strike and hurt whom it may. We may all desire and pray to be healed by such hurtings. F. S.
     URBANA, OHIO.
News 1883

News       Various       1883



Correspondence and News.
     WASHINGTON, D. C.-Our social meetings began in October, and are held every Wednesday evening at the houses of the different members of the Society. A programme was issued at the beginning of the season, giving the names and addresses of those who would accommodate the sociable, with the date of meeting and some intimation of the character of the entertainment for the evening. The meetings are usually opened by the Pastor with the LORD'S prayer and reading from the Word. This is sometimes followed by an address from the Pastor, or an original essay, or a selection read by one of the members. The rest of the evening is spent in conversation, interspersed with music and dancing; a collation is also usually served. On November 29th we had a dramatic performance by some of the young people. An admission fee of twenty-five cents was charged, and the proceeds went to the Christmas fund of the Sunday-school. The Sunday-school consists of something over fifty pupils. One of the classes comprises the five children of the Swiss minister, and, as they have but little acquaintance with English, a German teacher is provided for them. Mr. Fox is organizing a doctrinal class to be held immediately after the Sunday service. Sometimes the Pastor preaches Sunday afternoons at places in the vicinity. M. A. C.
     December 4th.

     IOWA.-On the 10th of this month I went to Burlington where I visited the two New Churchmen, Mr. Lahee and Mr. Spencer. The next day I went to Flint River, eight miles from Burlington, where there is a rural German New Church Society. There I preached three times, administering the LORD'S Supper, on Sunday, November 12th. On the 17th I came to Loffler Station, near Burlington, and visited Brother Wilhelm Schwarz and baptized his youngest child. On the 18th I went to Viele Lee County and preached twice at Ott's school-house and distributed German New Church tracts. On the 21st I went to Nauvoo, Ill. I there distributed a number of German New Church tracts. On the 23d I visited Dr. Ehinger and family, also the Rev. Mr. Elder, Pastor of the Unitarian Church, who desired some New Church tracts. Dr. Ehinger has something of a New Church library and endeavors to spread the New Church truths by lending books and by conversation. Returning home I called again at Burlington, and made the acquaintance of two Germans who have lately began to read the New Church books. In my conversation with them I found them sincere in searching after religious truths and hope they will fully come into the pale of the New Church.
November 28th.     J. J. LEHNEN.

     ALLENTOWN, PA.- An event has just occurred long to be remembered by us all-the dedication of our new House of Worship. The Rev. Messrs. Benade and Tuerk and a number of members of the Advent Society of Philadelphia visited us on the occasion, and for them we had a social on the evening preceding. The social was held at "Bohlen's Hall," a large room in the house of one of our members, and our place of worship hitherto. Several of our oldest members and first receivers in Allentown were present. In the course of the evening Mr. Schreck read letters from the Pastors of two other Societies of the Pennsylvania Association, the Rev. John Whitehead, and the Rev. L. H. Tafel, congratulating our Society upon the acquisition of a "home." In Mr. Tafel's letter he alluded to the fact that several members of his Society were present and that they brought an offering as token of the friendly relations existing between the two Societies. This offering was then displayed. It consisted of a copy of the Word bound in blue morocco, with a liturgy to match, an embroidered marker, and an inclined cushion or rest for the Word. All present were delighted and at once expressed their appreciation and thankfulness in appropriate terms. Shortly afterward Mr. Waelchly, the secretary of the Society, read the history of the New Church in Allentown; Mr. Sager completed it in a few words, and then asked Rev. Mr. Tuerk to tell us how it had come to pass that the Berlin Society, from a small beginning, had grown to be one of the largest in America. Mr. Tuerk explained in full that the growth of his Society was the result of holding fast to order. The Society was founded on the acknowledgment of the LORD in His Second Coming; care was taken to give the youth of the Church thorough religions instruction during the week for several months in the year, all members were baptized into the New Church, and very few married out of the Church;
     The happy meeting concluded by Mr. Schreck, in the name of the Society, thanking the venerable Mr. Bohlen for his forethought when building his house in leaving a large room as a place of meeting for his brethren in the Church until they were now able to have a church building of their own.
     On the next day, Sunday, the 10th of December, despite the inclement weather, over a hundred assembled at the church. This is a wooden building, painted an olive green, and stands on a terrace on one of the principal streets in the old part of the town. It has a frontage of forty-five feet and extends back eastward thirty feet. The chancel is in the east and the greater part of it in a recess the form of half a regular hexagon, each side of which is seven feet. The recess is lined with Lehigh pine, a wood of a beautiful red hue.

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The chancel is carpeted; the rest of the church is laid with cocoa matting. Within the chancel stand the altar-table and the pulpit. The font, the present of one of the members, stands on the first step.
     Shortly after 10 o'clock the Rev. W. H. Benade, the General Pastor of the Pennsylvania Association, followed by the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, carried the Word through the church, the people standing. He started from the eastern door, and, walking through the aisles up to the chancel, repeated the Psalm lxviii. Entering the chancel, he repeated the first five verses of the Psalm cxxxii; Mr. Tuerk responded by saying the sixth and seventh verses. Placing the Word upon the rest on the altar (we have no repository as yet) Mr. Benade repeated the eighth verse: "Arise, O LORD, into Thy rest, Thou and the ark of Thy strength." The remainder of this beautiful psalm was then read responsively by the priest and the people. After saying the words from the Apocalypse which treat of the appearance of the LORD as the Word upon the white horse, he added the words: "And I heard a great voice from heaven saying, Behold the Tabernacle of the God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people and He Himself shall be with them their God." He then opened the Word and spake the words: "And he showed me a pure river of water of life," etc., from the Apocalypse, chap. xxii. Hereupon followed the address of dedication, in the course of which Mr. Benade impressively gave a summary of the doctrine of the New Church, and closed with a fervent prayer.
     Rising from the prayer, he spoke the Psalm xciii "The LORD reigneth, He is clothed with majesty," etc., whereupon the people chanted the Sanctus: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts," following with the anthem: "When the LORD shall build up Zion." Then came the reading of the first lesson from the Word: 1 Kings viii, treating of the dedication of the Temple built by Solomon, and, after the singing of the ninetieth hymn of the Liturgy, the second lesson from Apocalypse xxi and xxii, treating of the New Heaven and the New Church, was read antiphonalty by the two ministers. Another hymn was sung, and then the first sacrament in our new House of God was administered by Mr. Benade, he baptizing a young lady and six children into the. New Church. The dedication hymn, 103. concluded the services.
     In the afternoon at 3.30 P.M. Mr. Tuerk, assisted by Mr. Benade, administered the Holy Supper in German.
     In the evening the church was filled by a congregation of about one hundred and seventy-five, who listen attentively to Mr. Tuerk's sermon in German on Genesis xxviii, 17: "And he feared and said, How terrible is this place; this is nothing but the house of God, and this is the gate of
heaven."
     At the conclusion of the morning and evening services about two hundred and fifty copies of the Doctrine of Life, pocket edition, published by the A. S. P. and P. S., were distributed. - - J. I.

     URBANA UNIVERSITY.- The theological students at the close of the Fall Term were examined in A. C., Vol. I; the work on Influx; Animal Kingdom, Chapters I to VIII; History of Roman Empire, through Justinian; and in Rhetoric. Essays were written on the Doctrine of Discrete Degrees, and on that of the Two Worlds. Mr. Hudson Harlan, a member of the class, conducted Divine services in church in the President's absence at Chicago.
     . . . A charming entertainment was given at Lyceum Hall for the benefit of the Ladies' Society, by Miss Bertha Cranch and Miss Lachmund, of Cincinnati, the former a reader, the latter an accomplished violinist and pianist. The programme did not descend to the low and vulgar selections so often introduced by accomplished readers to gain a little cheap applause, and the whole entertainment was thoroughly refined and delightful. Miss Cranch's greatest success was in a scene from "As you like it," and in Browning's "Good News from Ghent."
     . . . The Board of Trustees held an adjourned meeting in Urbana on December 12th, at which, beside the resident trustees, Messrs. Browne, of Cleveland, and Allen, of Glendale, were present. The Auditora reported the result of their careful investigation of the University finances and accounts, a sinking fund was established and plans adopted for the essential improvement of the college finances and the advancement of the institution in other respects. Efforts will be made at once to raise funds to make thorough repairs in the college buildings.
     The Urbana Choral Society has engaged the assistance of the famous soprano, Mrs. E. Aline Osgood, in its annual performance of the "MESSIAH" at Christmas this year. The performance will be given in Grace Church, which will hold about one thousand people.
     Christmas- Eve Vespers will be held in church on Sunday, the 24th, at 5 P. M., with children's recitations, carols, etc., and a collection of Christmas gifts for poor children. The solemn celebration in church with the Holy Communion will be held on Christmas Day.

     CHICAGO, ILL., WEST SIDE.- Though it is a little late, perhaps it will be interesting to your readers to know how we celebrated Thanksgiving Day here. The Pastor thinking that it would be useful to have a fall festival, concluded that we could not do better than adopt Thanksgiving Day. So it was decided to have a general Thanksgiving dinner at the church, to which all were invited. Accordingly when Thanksgiving Day arrived, about sixty members of the congregation assembled at the church, and set down to a dinner of cold turkey, hot vegetables, coffee, pie, etc., which was provided by the ladies. The tables were arranged so that they formed three sides of a square, and we were assigned our seats by slips of paper on which our names were written. When all were seated the Pastor asked the blessing of the LORD upon our feast, and then we began the discussion of the good things. After the first ardor had a little worn off, our Pastor, the Rev. Mr. Pendleton, made a few remarks about the day and the use of being thankful, i. e., of acknowledging that all that we have comes from the LORD. When he had concluded his remarks he called on Mr. Schliffer, the leader of the German Society, to explain the significance of the feast of ingathering. Mr. Schliffer made some interesting and instructive remarks.
     After a slight interval Prof. Blackman responded to the sentiment: "We ought to be grateful that the LORD has made His Second Coming, and established the New Church on the Earth." His remarks impressed all present with a deep feeling of gratitude for this greatest of blessings to mankind, and I am sure strengthened our love and faith in the LORD and His Church. These remarks were followed by a few words from Mr. Swain Nelson, upon the advantages we enjoy in the instruction and Church uses, which are performed in our midst, and the necessity of appreciating them and giving them our support. Our Pastor then introduced the subject of Conjugial Love, which was taken up by Mr. Win. Junge, in a neat little speech. The young folks, and indeed all present greeted his speech with applause, and each one mentally resolved to so live that they might receive this foundation love of the Church in their own hearts; and the married folks no doubt thanked the LORD for His blessings on their Conjugial Love.
     After a little more eating, Mr. Seymour Nelson arose, and was greeted with applause. When the applause subsided he spoke concerning the social life of the Church; reminded us of our need to be thankful that the young people loved the Church and its social life, and reminding the young folks that they ought to be grateful that they are encouraged and assisted in their social life. The formal speeches were then concluded by Mr. Hugh Burnham, who made a very interesting and profitable review of the blessings we, as New Churchmen, derive from our country. He thought we ought to love our country and thank the LORD for the many advantages we derive from it.
     When dinner was concluded, and the dishes, etc., removed, the children played some Kindergarten games, under the direction of Miss Susie Junge, who has charge of the infant class, and teaches them the letter of the Word by the Kindergarten system. The games were enjoyed very much both by old and young. In the evening we all adjourned to the house of Mr. Blackman to witness a little drama given under the auspices of the young folks' club. It was entitled "Sweethearts," and was well acted and much applauded. Thus ended our celebration of Thanksgiving Day, and we all voted it a profitable and entertaining way to pass the day. B.


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"THE AUTHORITY OF DIVINE TRUTH." 1883

"THE AUTHORITY OF DIVINE TRUTH."              1883

     IN Cincinnati, on Sunday morning, 17th December, Rev. John Goddard preached on the Authority of Divine Truth and the affirmative state in relation to it. "Then said they unto Him, 'What shall we do that we might work the works of God?' Jesus answered and said unto them: 'This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent,'" (John vi, 28, 29.) The following is a pretty full abstract:
     As professed believers in the LORD'S Second Coming, we shall not experience its results in ourselves, unless we really and earnestly believe in it. Such belief is the basis on which the hew states of mind, heart, and life, which characterize the Second Coming, must rest, and without which they cannot be implanted. What constitutes this belief? One says that it is the acknowledgment of the external [Divine?] authority of the Writings in which the truths of the Second Coming are revealed; another that it is a faith in these truths as fast as they commend themselves to the reason and affection.
     When the LORD was on earth and healed the sick He required faith in His ability as a condition. In the text it is declared a primal necessity to believe on Him, not that faith alone saves, but that it is the beginning to salvation.
     The claim that the LORD has made His Second Advent in the opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, may be difficult for people to admit, and it may be said that it would be better to present the truths so revealed without reference to their origin and without any appeal to authority. But this, as a matter of expediency, does not touch the question of Faith in the New Church. The Word is true. The Saviour's words and acts meant one form of faith to the early Christian; they may mean another to us. They are alive to-day. He required faith in His Messiahship, His Divinity, His power. He did not merely do the works of charity, making it the only thing of the Church, as some nowadays do, leaving doctrine entirely. And so now He does not heal the sick and cast out devils from men's hearts, and gather all the evil spirits in hell into heaven, because He cannot consistently with human freedom. He requires faith in Him because He cannot otherwise come with power and bless and save men.
     There are some who would seemingly receive New Church truths better if we would not present them as new. But would they be benefited by them? The LORD told some that if He had come in His own name they would have received Him, but because he came in His Father's name they would not receive Him. May we not be in danger of coming in our own name in preaching the truths of the Second Coming without any acknowledgment that they are such, as when from selfish reasons we shrink from acknowledging His Second Coming, for fear of being thought peculiar; of the reproach and ridicule of men; of the obloquy attaching to the name of the man by whose instrumentality the truths of the Second Coming were made known to the world? So far as we are governed by such things we are unworthy of the name of disciples of the LORD. We are faithless, not believing, and our LORD cannot touch us with His healing hand. 'Whoever is ashamed of me . . . of Him will I be ashamed."
     Power resides in ultimates. If we suffer the idea that Swedenborg was made an instrument to speak certain truths to the world to die out and permit the idea to enter that He was only one of many, a peculiarly enlightened man, but very likely open to mistakes and blindnesses, we forget that there was only one John the Baptist to prepare the LORD'S way, and only one John the Revelator to foretell His Second Coming. This leads us to neglect the Writings; tends to dissipate the power of the principles already imbibed; leads us to exalt our own intelligence and make our own mind the judge of things of which it cannot be a true judge as long as humility is not in us. It leads us away from humility and keeps us from looking up to one higher than ourselves.
     Imagine the power of a belief once thoroughly and rationally established that the LORD has indeed revealed for our use the truths of His Second Coming; that there is no error in them; that they are the very wisdom of Heaven should we not go to them for light and guidance-gladly apply them to our own lives; and, like the Jew of old, "bind them for signs upon our hands, and for frontlets between our eyes, and write them upon the posts of our houses and upon our gates"? Would it not seem to us the most sacred duty of our life to bring our children to a faith in them, and an understanding of them, and an obedience to them? Should we not escape the danger we incur by the lack of this faith of being carried away by the unbelieving, mocking, weakening, disheartening spheres which surround us on every hand, and take away that strength, that life, that zeal, that earnestness in which we should be strong to build up the kingdom of the LORD? Here follows A. a islo, showing that there is a sphere from every spirit and society of spirits, of their principles and persuasions which is of such a nature, that when it acts upon another spirit it causes truths to appear like falsities and calls forth all sorts of confirmatory arguments, so as to induce the belief that things false are true and that things evil are good. Hence it may appear how easily man e confirmed in falsities and evils unless he believes the truths which are from the LORD. Such spheres have a greater or less density according to the nature of the falses which gave them truth. These spheres can in no respect accord with the sphere of spirits principled in truths. ... There was perceived a sphere of incredulity which is of such a nature that the spirits from whence it proceeds believe nothing that is told them and scarce what is exhibited to their view.
     Have not nearly all of us suffered from such experiences and might not most of us and also the great multitude who have wandered away into the outer darkness, imagining that they could judge of truth without assistance, have been saved from such experiences if their feet had been planted upon the living rock?
     With this faith we should see in the Writings of the Church what hitherto has eluded us. Truths now hidden would unfold in beauty and power. If indeed the LORD has come, we should gain light and strength, for the promise was that He would come with power; It is said that we cannot force a faith by authority or assumption, it must be a growth. This is true, but the application of it may be false. Was the LORD'S question to the blind man, "Believest thou that I am able to do this?" unreasonable? There was that in His tone, in His tender, compassionate presence which convinced. And so we maintain there is enough in the New Church teachings-.-a. spirit, a depth, a power, a presence, a light, a "teaching with authority," and yet with the profoundest humility with gentleness and forgetfulness of self, which, combined with the reasonableness of the truth set forth, is enough to begin with.
     We can sum up all that has been said in the phrase so much used in our teachings-"the affirmative state"-that state of humility which is ready to bow down in the presence of the Divine truth-which desires it more than gold for the sake of bringing it into the daily life. We cannot see, we cannot gain an insight into Divine things so as to believe them unless we have something of this spirit. This is the soul of the faith which the LORD asks of the New Church-to love and seek the truth. For the promise is that those who thus ask shall receive; those who seek shall find; and to those who knock it shall be opened.
     Of one thing we may he assured, for it is everywhere taught in the Word, we shall not find the truth without humility. Nor shall we find it without revelation, or without acknowledging it to be revelation. Children have no more doubt of God and heaven than we have of sun and earth. The pure in hears see God. Z.
WILLIAM ROBERTS 1883

WILLIAM ROBERTS              1883

     WILLIAM ROBERTS, a well-known New Churchman of Philadelphia, departed this life, Wednesday, December 20th, at Brooklyn, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. Mr. Roberts was born at Haddonfield, N. J., but came to Philadelphia when a youth. For many years he was principal of one of the public schools. He was one of the most prominent members of the Philadelphia Second (or "Fourth Street") Society, and acted as its leader for a number of years. He was a frequent attendant at the meetings of the General Convention and took great interest in the current and past history of the Church, compiling a series of "Annals of the New Church in America," which appeared in the New Church Magazine and in the present New Jerusalem Magazine.


16



NEWS NOTES
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     THE winter term of the Urbana University begins on January 3d.
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     THE Boston Theological School has at present eight students attending its sessions.
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     THE congregation of the New Church Society at Lennox, Iowa, averages about fifty-five.
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     THE annual meeting of the Swedenborg Publishing Association was held in Philadelphia December 4th.
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     THE Christmas festival of the Advent Society of Philadelphia took place Friday evening, December 28th.
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     THE Rev. J. R. Hibbard, D. D., preached in Chicago, Ill., for the West Side Congregation, Sunday, December 17th.
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     THE Rev. G. Bussman enters upon his duties as Pastor of the First German Society, of St. Louis, in January, 1883.
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     THERE are four theological students now studying for the ministry under the auspices of the Urbana University.
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     THE Rev. B. D. Palmer has been doing missionary work in the vicinity of Ithaca, N. Y. A weekly class has been organized in Ithaca.
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     THE winter term of the schools of the Academy of the New Church opens Wednesday, January 3d. The Kindergarten, however, opens a day earlier.
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     THE few receivers at Bridgeton, Me., have undertaken to open a reading-room and establish a free circulating library of New Church books and periodicals.
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     THE Rev. Mr. Parnaelee, of Wilmington, Del., preached for the English Society, of Baltimore, Md., in the morning and evening of Sunday, December 10th.
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     THE Rev. Stephen Wood preaches once in two weeks at Lost Nation, Iowa, to good audiences. He also has a fortnightly appointment at Nashville, a few miles distant.
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     THE Rev. T. F. Wright, of Bridgewater, Mass., delivered a lecture, Sunday evening, November 28th, on "The Human Instrumentality in the LORD'S Second Coming."
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     THE New Churchmen of Gorand Rapids, Mich., recently held a meeting to consider the subject of calling some young minister and re-organizing the Society, which has lain dormant for nearly twelve years.
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     THE Rev. W. F. Pendleton preached for the Van Buren Street congregation of Chicago, Sunday, December 10th, the Rev. Mr. Mercer being absent attending the meeting of the Revision Committee in Philadelphia.
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     A GRATIFYING increase is to be noted in the congregations of the Church in Cincinnati. From September to November, 1881, the attendance averaged 161, while during the same period this year the average has been 227.
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     THE Pennsylvania conference of New Church ministers held its monthly meeting Wednesday evening, Dec. 6th. Papers from the Rev. John Whitehead of Pittsburgh, and Mr. W. H. Schliffer, of Chicago, were read and discussed.
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     THE Rev. C. Giles preached, Sunday morning, December 17th, in the Sunday-school building in connection with the new Temple of the Broad Street Society. His sermon was one of a series on the subject of the LORD'S Prayer.
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     THE Rev. John Goddard, of Cincinnati, is delivering a course of Sunday evening lectures. The subjects of the first three lectures were as follows: "Swedenborg, the Man," "Swedenborg, the Seer," and "Swedenborg, the Philosopher."
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     THE Rev. Frank Sewall, President of the Urbana University preached in Chicago (Van Buren Street) Sunday, December 17th, morning and evening, the Rev. Mr. Mercer filling an engagement to preach at the Illinois Industrial College.
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     THE Rev. F. Goerwitz, of Stuttgart, Germany, will remove to Zurich, Switzerland, in March. He will devote part of his time to the missionary work in Germany, and part to that in Switzerland, where, since, the death of Mr. Baumann, there has been no preacher.
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     THE Rev. John Bowers has been making a missionary tour through Canada. On Sunday, December 10th, he lectured in Clinton, Ont., to an audience of about fifty. He sold a number of books and baptized one child. He will return to Pennsylvania about the middle of January.
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     THE Providence, R. I., Society was organized as a distinct society in 1839, with a membership of eleven, it having been previously regarded as a branch of the Bridgewater, Mass., Society. It now has a membership of eighty-nine, and an average congregation of one hundred and twenty-five.
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     THE Finance Committee of the Boston Theological School state that more than one-half of the $50,000 fund has been subscribed and a large portion paid in and invested, but the income therefrom is not sufficient to meet the entire expense of the school. About $1,200 must be raised to meet the current expenses for the year.
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     THE Boston Highlands Society held a fair at the "Rooms" of their church, December 6th, 7th and 8th It was conducted under the direction of the Ladies' Sewing Club. There was an art table, a table for useful articles, another for cake and confectionery, a children's table, and a miscellaneous table, the last being under the charge of the Young People's Club.
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     THE Christmas exercises of the congregation and Sunday school of the Cincinnati Society were held in the temple and Sabbath-school room, Monday evening, December 25th. The programme consisted of reading from the Word, prayer and address by the Pastor, the singing of anthems, carols, an hymns by the children, together with a Christmas tree, St. Nicholas, and a collation.
     ON Wednesday evening, December 6th, during the session of the Revision Committee, a sociable and tea meeting was held in - the Sunday-school room of the Temple of the Advent Society. Supper was served at 7 o'clock and the remainder of the evening was spent in conversation and listening to the musical efforts of the "ghostly choir," and to recitations and music. About one hundred persons were present, among them a Dumber of the members of the Committee.
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     THE organization in England known until recently as the. "Auxiliary New Church Missionary and Tract Society," has adopted the new designation of "The New Church Evidence Society." The eighth anniversary festival was held on Monday, November 27th, in the church on Argyle Square, London. Mr. H. T. W. Elliott presided. Addresses were delivered by Messrs. Elliott, Highamn, Jobson, Denny, Spiers, and by the Rev. Messrs. O'Mant and Presland.
     THE Rev. J. K. Smyth, Pastor of the Boston Highlands Society, is delivering a course of lectures, Sunday evenings, to large audiences. The following are some of the subjects treated of: "The World of Spirits," "Heaven," "Hell," "What Shall I do to be Saved?". The course will be supplemented by two lectures on Emanuel Swedenborg, one giving a biographical sketch and the other treating of "the nature of his claims and the position which he holds in the New Church."
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     THE Committee appointed to revise the constitution of the General Convention, met in Philadelphia according to announcement, Tuesday, December 5th, at the Temple of the Advent Society. The session lasted several days and was, in general harmonious and satisfactory. Communications from various prominent members of the Church were read. No final action was taken, but another meeting will be held before the Convention. The question of Baptism was not raised and it is doubtful whether it is within the province of the Committee to deal with it. The following members were present: the Rev. Messrs. Hibbard, Benade, Turk, Goddard, Mercer, Reed, Reiche, Ager, and Messrs. Carpenter, Mason, Pitcairn, and McGeorge.
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     A FLOURISHING Young Peoples' Association is connected with the Providence, R. I., Society. Meetings are held fort nightly. The first part of the evening is devoted to the reading of essays and to other modes of literary culture, and the latter part to social recreation. Every alternate meeting a suitable time is devoted to the consideration of business, which, however, is left as far as possible, in the hands of committees. The meetings of the Association are attended by the Pastor and his wife and by many not members-all are welcome. The church entertainments are under the charge of the Association, subject to the approval of the Executive Committee of the Society. One of the chief aims of the organization is to promote the welfare of the Church. The young people have already done much useful work, and it is mainly owing to their exertions that the church debt has been reduced $500 during the past year.
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17



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1888.
     ADDRESSES of persons likely to be interested in the LIFE are requested.
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     CORRESPONDENCE giving news and items of interest to New Churchmen is solicited.
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     BOUND Copies of Vol. I and of Vol. II can be obtained from the manager. Price $1.25 per volume.
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     NEW subscribers whose subscriptions to the LIFE date from January, 1883, will receive free of charge, the November and December number of 1882; containing the opening chapters of the continued story.
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     FROM the Report of the Swedenborg Publishing Association we learn that the Memorial has done something "toward increasing the catholicity and hastening the adoption of a broader platform and a more liberal policy in the organized New Church in our country-as witness the action of the last General Convention and the subsequent action of the Maine and Ohio Associations of the New Church and the recent communications from Mr. Bewail in our New Church journals-all of which are clearly in the line of the policy urged by said Editorial." K
     THE leaders of the different "classes" are beginning to remind their members that the time for the next meeting of the Ministers' Conference is not very far off. The lack of papers at the last meeting was brought up as a reason for abolishing the Conference altogether.
     Let us hope that there will be no difficulty of this kind
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     IN connection with the article in the last number of the LIFE, on "Hahnemann and His Discovery," it is interesting to note that the only reference in the Writings to the Worship and Love of God is one in regard to the cause of disease. It is in Swedenborg's own Index to the Arcana, under the head Cause, and reads as follows: "The causes of diseases originally from the diseases or passions of the soul, note (a) concerning the Worship and Love of God. P. 107." The reference is to the last note of the 74th paragraph, where Swedenborg treats of the cause of diseases in a manner similar to that found in the Arcana, and explains somewhat more in detail.
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     NEWLY, organized societies often make the mistake of devoting all their energies to building a church, supposing that this is all that is needed to insure their success. But the first work which lies before a circle of New Churchmen is to procure a good, faithful minister, who will instruct them in the Doctrines and organize them in a proper manner. If they cannot support a settled pastor, let them arrange for regular visits from some minister. An eloquent and popular preacher, who can draw large audiences of strangers and make a sensation in the community, is not needed, for after the first excitement is over his audiences will dwindle down, and the people, disappointed in their expectations and having made little or no internal progress themselves, which might compensate for external failure, will become disheartened and may lose their interesting the Church and wander off with their children to some of the old organizations. But let them rather strive to find not an eloquent preacher, but a faithful preacher-one who, because he studies the Doctrines and is himself ever advancing, is able to lead his flock onward in the faith and life of the Church. With such, true success is assured. A house of worship is certainly desirable and will doubtless come in due time; but there are many things are more important. We know of more than one little society in this country which has a beautiful church building and nothing else.
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     NOTEWORTHY among the signs of the times is the series of discourses on the Bible recently delivered by the Rev. R. Heber Newton, an Episcopalian clergyman of New York. These discourses are an evidence of the ever-increasing tendency in the Christian World toward a total rejection of even the letter of the Word. Mr. Newton holds that the Bible is not, a "book let down from heaven, whose real author is God," and which was "dictated to chosen penmen and written out by their amanuenses under a direction which secured them against error on every subject on which they treated." "Much may be tradition and myth." Like Prof. Swing, he advocates the use of an expurgated edition of the Sacred Scriptures, and thinks that "the Bible ought not to be set in its entirety before all classes and all ages." The imprecation in the last chapter of. Revelation against those "taking away from the words, of the prophecy of this book" Mr. Newton considers an "impotent threat," which "a writer who was surer of his inspiration would not have appended." "Paul would not have bolstered up his writings with such an imprecation" New Churchmen, knowing that the Word is ineffably holy and Divine down to the very jots and tittles, must regard such irreverent and even flippant language with feelings of mingled sorrow and aversion. . . But what does the Messenger mean when, referring to Mr. Newton's sermons, it says, "The only instruction he gives relates merely to the appreciative study of the letter [of the Word] and tells us little how to reach and be benefited by its spirit"? Surely the Messenger does not consider that Mr. Newton's sermons have anything to do with an appreciative study of the letter of the Word!


18


USE OF LANGUAGE 1883

USE OF LANGUAGE              1883

     THE first speech in every earth was by the face and especially by the lips and eyes; for the face was formed to present the affections of the will and the thoughts of the understanding in a most vivid and perfect manner. The affections and thoughts of the most ancient men flowed forth spontaneously into the face, nor could they prevent them from so doing. But these most ancient peoples were sincere, and neither thought nor wished to think anything they were unwilling to have known. They loved the LORD and their fellowmen, and were not plotting evil against them which it was necessary to conceal.
     As their thoughts flowed forth so freely and so perfectly they were not troubled with the study of elocution or rhetoric, but without effort communicated their affections and thoughts in a manner as superior to vocal speech as a beautiful landscape is to a description of it.
     But, alas! men did not remain sincere and innocent but by degrees began to love themselves better than they did the LORD and the neighbor. Then they began to wish to conceal their affections and thoughts, for they were evil, and evil does not love the light. Gradually they obtained control over the muscles of the face, and, at the same time, began to use vocal expressions; Then they could say with the mouth what they did not think, while the face at first remained quiet and at length assumed the appearance of an unfelt affection.
     Thus vocal language gradually took the place of the language of the eyes and lips. It was not infused at once, but was learned little by little, for vocal language consists of expressions derived from the things of the world.
     At first vocal speech was correspondential: the sound corresponding to the affections and the meaning corresponding to the thought. Such a language was a natural outcome of the state of the most ancient people, for in their, primitive state they communed with angels, and natural things served them as means to think of spiritual things. When they saw the sun and felt its heat they thought not of the sun, but of the LORD and His infinite love. A beautiful landscape, with woods and meadows, through which flowed clear streams of water nourishing trees on the banks and watering flocks of sheep, did not delight them from its natural beauty, but because it served as a means of thinking of the goods and truths from the LORD, to which the landscape corresponds.
     So when their posterity fell their vocal language was correspondential, and when the LORD raised His people up again and established the Ancient Church, the chief delight of its wise men was in the science of correspondences and in writing books according to that science of the relation of the natural to the spiritual. The book of Job is a book of this kind.
     At this day the science of correspondences is lost to the world and language has become more and more external, and though it retains many correspondential expressions, they are not known and understood. The language nearest to the ancient languages, and therefore nearest to angelic language, is the Hebrew, the language of the Word.
     Let us inquire, now, what is the proper use of language. Manifestly, it is to convey, from one to another, thoughts, and, as far as possible, the affections from which those thoughts flow. It is, therefore, a mere servant of the thought; it is not an end, but a means, and being such, aught never to be allowed to obtrude itself and take the place of its lord and master. We ought not to pride ourselves on the beauty and purity of our English, lest we shortly find ourselves desiring our hearers to give more attention to our words than to their meaning. In reading the writings of others we ought not to let the mind dwell too much on the forms and expressions, but we ought to be chiefly concerned with the meaning. The proper place for language, or rather for the expressions     of language and the state of those who make them essentials, is taught in the following numbers: "Those who love only criticism, various readings of classical authors, the preparation of dictionaries, elegance of words; puns, etc., and who make these essential, though they are lowest means, become stupid, and, as it were, mere expressions." (S. D. 805.)
     Again:
     "It is the mere corporeal which expressions proximately contain, but thence it appears that those who place elegance alone in equivoque then in eloquence and poesy are only corporeal." (S. D. 1224.)
     And again we are most clearly warned against the evil of the affectation of elegance in discourse and in writing in Earths in the Universe 23, where speaking of spirits from the planet Mercury, it says:
     "There was a spirit from another earth who was well qualified to discourse with them, being a quick and ready speaker, but who affected elegance in his discourse. They instantly decided on whatever he spoke, saying of this, that it was too elegant; of that, that it was too polished; so that the sole thing that they attended to was whether they could hear anything from him which they had never known before, rejecting, thus, the things which were as shades to the substance of the discourse, as all affectations of elegance and erudition especially are; for these hide real things, and instead thereof present expressions which are only material forms of things. For the speaker keeps the attention fixed herein and is desirous that, his expressions should be regarded more than the meaning of them whereby the ears are more affected than the minds of the audience." (E. U. 23.)
     This teaching is direct and clear, and if we would not become merely corporeal we must heed it. To construct a beautiful external with no internal thought and affection is, like the worship of the Old Church, an external without an internal. It is like a paste diamond or plated jewelry-it will not bear examination, though at first it may glitter and deceive. We ought not to write with any affectation of elegance, nor ought we to admire such writing in others. Both tend to render us merely corporeal. If we would write, and write well, we must have some thought to convey, and that thought must be clear to our own understanding and therefore arranged in an orderly manner. Then write and use words to convey our thought to others as fully and clearly as possible. He is the best orator who can so speak that the minds of his hearers are kept continually on the subject of the discourse and never drawn off by the beauty of his voice, gestures, or language, nor, on the other hand, by their defects. When such a speaker speaks his audience goes away filled with the subject, never thinking of the oratory. As it is with speaking, so it is with writing.
     But, we may be asked, are we then to have no elegant writing, no beautiful and poetic language?
     To this question we would answer that it would be as sensible to say that the angels ought to have no beautiful houses, jewelry, and dress because some people set their hearts on them, as to say that there ought to be no elegant language because 'some affect it where it does not belong. As the beautiful houses, gardens, and ornaments of heaven serve the angels as accessories to lift up their thoughts and affections to the LORD, so beautiful - language ought to serve to exalt and lift up the thought within. The thought ought not to be, so to speak, consciously affected by the language, but the sounds of the words and the natural images presented ought to, by their very correspondence with the thought, render it more full and strong. The language ought to serve as a containing ultimate in which the affection and thought can be in its fullness and in its power.

19


But, like the letter of the Word, while serving this end it ought to fade out of sight in the refulgent beauty of the thought within. In a word, if the language is elegant, the thought ought to be more elegant; if the language is poetic, the thought ought to be more poetical. The language must correspond with the affection and thought. In A. C. 6414 we are taught as follows:
     "In discourses of elegance signifies gladness of mind. When the mind is glad and hilarious the speech is elegant." And we are told that the "angels spoke elegantly" with the ten visitors to their heaven, of whom we have an account in C. L. 17, etc.
     The language flows from the state of the mind. The connection between thought and speech is very close, so close that we seem to think in words when we really think ideas. Thoughts flow into the memory and there take on suitable words in which to go forth.
     But, we are asked again, if there is such a close connection between thought and word, why study language? Why not allow the thought to flow forth as it will?
     The answer is plain. Influx is according to form. If the thought does not find appropriate vessels in the external memory it must take the best it can find, and it thus will be crippled and imperfect as it comes forth. Then these imperfect vessels react upon the thought, rendering it cloudy and uncertain, for thoughts are not firmly fixed until founded on material expressions. Then, too, the study of the faults in our own language leads us to the discovery of the faulty thoughts from which they spring. While, on the other hand, the study of the beauties of the language of others must go hand in hand with a study of their beautiful thoughts. If such study is pursued in an orderly manner, we learn by practice to distinguish true beauty of thought and expression from false. Thereby our perceptions are exalted and perfected, and our delight in good and beautiful affections and thoughts is increased and rendered more exquisite.
     To illustrate: If we study what constitutes good taste in writing, we are led to consider our own taste, to meditate upon it, and perhaps to discover some of its faults and to put them away.
     So, too, if we study the sublime and learn what others have considered to be sublime and why they so consider it, we obtain knowledges which, if they are truths, will strengthen and exalt our perception and enjoyment of the sublime; for all influx is into truth, and we have no perception of the beautiful or of the sublime separate from the knowledges that we have acquired from our infancy up.
     The study of language, when the thoughts contained in that language are regarded as inseparable from it, may become a most profitable and delightful study, but if the internal is separated from its external it can prove but harmful and degrading, however much it may seem to glitter and shine like a gem of the highest water.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New Englander for January contains an article by the Rev. J. B. Thrall, in respect to Swedenborg and his religious teachings. Mr. Thrall criticises and patronizes and indulges in magazine wit, after the most approved style of modern theological essayists. Among other things he states that "Swedenborg might be appropriately termed the Jules Verne of Philosophy." As might have been expected, the article does not neglect to mention the "Memorial," the "Swedenborg Library," and Mr. B. F. Barrett, "who is reckoned among the most intelligent and liberal of confessed Swedenborgians.".
DELIGHTS 1883

DELIGHTS       Rev. L. H. TAFEL       1883

     Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth. Serve the LORD with gladness: cease before His faces with singing.-Psalm c.

     DELIGHT is the all of life with every angel in heaven, with every man on earth, and the all of life with every spirit in hell. All delight is of love and springs from its free activity, but it is of one nature in heaven and of the opposite nature in hell. In heaven delight springs from good and its truth, but in hell from evil and its false. Delights in heaven are varied according to the different varieties of good and truth, but in hell according to the varieties of evil and the false. As there are no two spirits who are in the same good and truth, so there are no two spirits in the same kind and degree of delight, and as there is a continued progress in good and truth, so there is a continual variation and progression of delights, so that to all eternity there will never be a return of states or of delights altogether the same. The will is not moved to anything except by delight, for the will is nothing but the affection and the effect of some love, and thus of some delight, for there is always something desirable, pleasant, or delightful which causes man to will; and since it is the will that causes man to think, there is not the least of thought but what springs from the inflowing delight of the will; and as there is nothing of affection and thought, so there is also nothing of the consequent speech and action but finds its cause in some delight.
     The reason of this is, that the LORD through His influx and presence actuates everything in the soul and mind of angel; spirit, and man. But as the LORD is Peace Itself, He is also all of blessedness and happiness and all? Of what is delightful, gladsome, and pleasant thence. Just as all of the activity of life flows from the LORD alone, so also all delight flows from His influx of love and wisdom. Not only does all the delight with the good spring from this influx, but even the wicked derive all their delight from the inflow of good and truth from the LORD. They indeed pervert the good into evil and the truth into the false, but - the delight nevertheless remains, perverted indeed into evil delight, but yet without this evil delight they would have neither will nor sensation nor life.
     Since delights are in their first origin Divine, it is a gross error to think that we ought not to enjoy any delights here if we would enter heaven. Heaven is a state of unending delights, and the best way to prepare for heaven is not by living in self-elected misery, but by rightly enjoying the delights mercifully granted us by our heavenly Father, rejecting delights which are perverted and therefore infernal in their nature, and rising continually to such as are more interior and heavenly, and enjoying also the pleasures of the senses with a thankful upward look to the LORD, thus making even external pleasures the receptacles open for the reception of heavenly delights and the means of consociation with angels and of conjunction with the LORD.
     A man who would aspire to enter heaven need not therefore to reject delights, nor the pleasures arising from wealth and possessions, nor those arising from honors and fame in the Commonwealth, nor the pleasures of conjugial love nor of friendship, nor the pleasures of music nor the delight in beauty of any kind, nor those arising from fragrance or sweetness, for all such external and corporeal delights with the good are derived from interior affections and, lastly, from the LORD. When these delights are open even to the LORD. When their sweetness immeasurably exceeds the delight as perceived by the merely sensual man.


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     Whatever man does with delight comes from the man himself, for it proceeds from his love, and love is the real interior life with man. The LORD is not pleased with worship or with obedience that is merely external or compulsory. He desires to be worshiped, and obeyed with delight, for then worship and obedience come from the heart, and thus from the whole man, therefore we are so frequently exhorted in the Word to "make a joyful noise unto the LORD, to serve Him with gladness, and to sing aloud to His name." And yet there is perhaps no exhortation and command in the Sacred Scriptures which is more frequently forgotten, even with such as are commonly regarded' as obedient, God-fearing men.
     One reason, perhaps, which leads many to neglect this exhortation is because they do not see how they can influence their heart so as to love and to take delight in that which seems opposed to the desires of the natural man. They think that when they shall have become regenerate all these things will, as it were, come of themselves, but that until this is the case they can do nothing to follow this injunction. But our text is directed to all, and especially to the natural man, for we read: "Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth." Thus it is not only the heavenly minded in their interior mind which in the Word is called Heaven, who are to praise the LORD with gladness, but the naturally minded, or man as to his natural mind, which in the Word is called "Earth." Many a one thinks, "I will leave such joy to others who have more reason for it, or to others who are in a more heavenly state; I cannot elevate myself from my anxieties and cares." Every man in such a state views his own cares and troubles as a high mountain, while those of others (because he knows little of them) seem to him to be few, and insignificant." And yet every' one who considers his case a little more rationally will soon see that the load of care and anxiety that he shoulders every morning is in great part, if not altogether an uncalled for and needless burden, for the LORD saith: "Take no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof;" and again, "Cast thy burden on the LORD and He will sustain thee. He will never suffer the just to be moved." it is usually not the care for to-day, but the care for the morrow that causes anxiety and trouble; not so much the doubt whether our strength and our means suffice for the work of to-day, but whether they will suffice for the morrow. If we will only trust in the LORD, cast our burdens upon Him, our mind will be relieved of its weary load, and we will then be able with heart and voice "to make a joyful noise unto the LORD."
     If man will only take to heart the truth that the LORD in His indefatigable love and all-seeing wisdom guides his every footstep, so that nothing either in the spiritual or the natural Ii e of man happens by accident, but everything is ordered by the fatherly love of the LORD, and if rightly used will contribute to his regeneration and thus to his eternal welfare-if man will take to heart these truths, he can easily put to flight his enemies that oppress and harass him, and emerge from his dark and cloudy state into the serene sunshine of his Father's presence and joyfully glorify the LORD.
     There are some, indeed, who know these truths, but yet do not act in accordance with them. They do not I see how matters can go right without some one's having care and anxiety about them, and if others do not bear the anxiety they think they ought to do it. They cannot see that all that is required of man is to do his part, I his duty, fully, and then to leave the rest to "itself,", as hey would say, but, more truly, to leave it to the LORD. They do not see that it is of no good to any one, least of all to themselves, to take upon themselves this burden of anxiety. The LORD saith to them as to all: "Cast thy burden on the LORD and He will sustain thee." If man can gain this victory over his natural loves and cupidities which cause his anxieties, he will emerge again into the trusting, peaceful state of his childhood, and can then thankfully and confidingly "make a joyful noise unto the LORD, serve Him with gladness; and come, before His faces with singing." The LORD, or JEHOVAH, to whom he then makes a joyful noise is the Divine Love, the presence of which he sees and acknowledges in everything of his life. In so far as man sees the omnipresence of the. Divine Love he will also take part in the LORD'S love toward all, and in serving and administering to the necessities of the neighbor he looks up through him to the LORD and co-operates with Him, and he does so thankfully and gladly from the acknowledgment of His infinite love and mercy. Then he not only "makes a joyful noise unto the LORD." but he also "serves the LORD with gladness and comes before His faces with singing." The faces of the LORD signify love, mercy, peace, and all good, for He can never look at any one but with mercy and love, nor can He ever avert His face, for His mercy is everlasting and is unchangeable: it is man 'who, when he is in evil, averts himself from the LORD. We come before His faces with singing when we acknowledge humbly and thankfully His unending love and mercy.
     Man, however, far more frequently turns to the LORD with a downcast, sorrowful face, than in gladness. For - when all is going well, man too often ascribes it to his own wisdom, or is careless and forgetful, loth to acknowledge that-he owes everything to the LORD. Far more frequently is it the case that man turns to the LORD when misfortune threatens or has overtaken him, Then, indeed, man remembers the LORD and comes to Him, not, however, with gladness and thanksgiving, but with sorrow and lamentation. Because we are so apt to forget the LORD, or to come to Him in a merely half-hearted and mechanical way, so long as everything goes well with us externally, therefore, no doubt, it is so frequently permitted by the LORD that misfortune should overtake us, so that we may thereby turn to Him and provide for our eternal welfare. It is also owing to our forgetfulness of the LORD, when surrounded by joy and happiness, that our states of happiness are so short-lived and so imperfect. Every joy and delight, in order to be living and lasting, must have within it the presence of the LORD. Man must look up through it to the Giver and Cause. Then it will have life and strength, and will so endure. But in so far as in our joys we forget the LORD, they are of necessity merely external, and therefore also short-lived; in so far as man thanks the LORD for all His goodness and mercy, he is apt to be contented, and therefore happy; but if he ascribes his good fortune to himself, he will evermore be dissatisfied, continually striving for more, and will be ungrateful, and even forgetful, of the many things granted him by the LORD.
     If we would live in contentment and peace, we should ever forget to come day by day "before His faces with singing," thankfully acknowledging his mercy and our unworthiness to receive His many gracious gifts. As we thus come before His faces, the heart and soul expand and open to the LORD, and He can flow in and impart new life and new strength. The LORD can infuse into man internal joy and peace, which will add new life and lustre to his happiness, and at the same time form remains with him to comfort him in trouble and to strengthen him in trials and, temptations.


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     Man's acknowledgment of the LORD and his conjunction with Him on the Sabbath is ever in exact proportion with his his faithfulness during the week in doing his work and in bravely shunning evil as sin against God. In proportion as man shuns evil the LORD can elevate him toward Himself and fill him with His life; in the same proportion, also, will man-feel and acknowledge the ever-present Divine Love and delight in thanking and glorifying the LORD. In proportion as man delights in thanksgiving, in the same proportion will the LORD be pleased with man's glorification. Every one knows how the human father delights in the happiness of his children, and how the lover delights in the happiness of his beloved; and yet all such happiness in the heavens and on the earths springs from the LORD alone, and is but a feeble and imperfect reflex of the infinite joy of the LORD over the happiness and delight of His children; over the happiness of the Church, which is the Bride, the Lamb's Wife. The unselfish, Divine Love of the LORD finds its chief satisfaction and joy in the happiness, delight, and peace of His beloved Church and in conjunction therewith, whereby He can give to her ever greater love, wisdom, and peace. In order that He may fill the thankful heart with His overflowing love and light and life, the LORD exhorts His Church:

Make a joy noise unto the LORD, all the earth.
Serve the LORD with gladness:
Come before His faces with singing.
CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS? 1883

CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS?              1883

     THE answer to the question, "When, then, has the great and essential Sacrament of Baptism effected it Divine purpose at all in this world?" lies in what has been stated from the teachings of the Church in the preceding part of our reply to "F. S." Baptism effected its Divine purpose just as long as the Church of which it was a Sacrament effected its Divine purpose and no longer. As a sacramental rite, possessing sacramental virtues and powers, Baptism has no existence apart from the Church in which it is instituted by the LORD. (See T. C. R. 670, etc.) When the Church comes to an end, its Baptism comes to an end. Now, the former "Christian Church has had two epochs, the one extending from the time of the LORD till the Council of Nice, and the other from that Council to the present time." (T. C. R. 780.) Therefore, during the existence of the primitive Christian Church, and during the existence of the succeeding Christian Church, the "Sacrament of Baptism effected its Divine purpose," and all men, including Swedenborg, who were born and baptized before the consummation of that Church, which took place in the Last Judgment, enjoyed the benefits of that Sacrament, even as they enjoyed such other benefits as the Lord in mercy could bestow on them through the instrumentality of other things of that Church and yet not entirely consummated and destroyed. This, of course, implies an affirmative answer to another question of "F. S.," which is to this effect: "Does the writer in the NEW CHURCH LIFE believe that the Baptism treated of in T. C. R. chapter xii, is a Sacrament which at the time that chapter was written (there being then no New Church ministers) had no existence, or was not at all being exercised or its benefits enjoyed in all Christendom?" Of course he believes this. When the LORD instituted His Church anew, He instituted Baptism anew. But Baptism in the New Church could not exist as a sacramental act until it was administered by the Church through one who was empowered to "administer the things of the Divine law and worship." And the writer in NEW CHURCH LIFE believes this because he believes the Divine revelation of the true meaning of the words of the LORD when instituting the Sacrament of Baptism in the former, but now consummated, Christian Church. In A. R. 750 we read:
     "Because it is here said 'until the words of God shall be consummated,' it shall also be said what is signified by the last words of the LORD to His disciples, these: Going forth, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to keep all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you for all days until the consummation of the age. Amen. (Matt. xxviii, 19-20.) Even to the consummation of the age, is even to the end of the Church (No. 658); and then, if they do not approach the LORD Himself and live according to His commandments, they are left by the LORD: and being left by the LORD they become as Pagans, who have no religion; and then the LORD is only with those who will be of His New Church." (See also T. C. R. 753-756.)

     Is it not evident that what is said in T. C. R., chapter xii, on the subject of the "Christian Church," refers to the "True Christian Church," and not to the old or former Christian Church, which has come to an end, "which is destroyed," which has been "left by the LORD;" because it does "not approach the LORD Himself and use according to His commandments." No man is "a Christian," or can be called a "Christian," who does not acknowledge and worship the LORD in His Divine Human. If "F. S." will examine the teaching in T. C. R. 685 in the connection in which it must be kept 'in order to be rightly understood, he will see that it treats of Baptism performed according to the doctrine of its uses as presented in the preceding numbers, beginning at No. 677. He will also see that he is only confusing himself and others by giving place to certain suggestions concerning the present and future administration of the rite. In T. C. R. 677. we read: "That the first use of Baptism is introduction into the Christian Church, and insertion at the same time among Christians in the spiritual world." We ask: To what Baptism does this teaching refer? To the Baptism administered in the Old Church, or to the Baptism administered in the New Church, the only living and 'truly existing Christian Church. The former is what New Churchmen mean by the phrase "Old Church Baptism," and the latter by the phrase "New Church Baptism." "F. S." stigmatizes these phrases as "invented phrases," as words without a real meaning, as phrases expressing a difference without a real distinction. As an intelligent New Churchman, he ought to know that the Christian Church which came to its end in 1757 still exists in name and appearance, and that they who are of this Church still administer the rite of Baptism and make much of it. He ought also to know that the Baptism which is administered in the New Church established by the LORD in His Second Coming, is performed according to the Doctrine in which it is prescribed, and that this Doctrine is a New Revelation from the LORD, and gives to whatever is done according to it a new internal.
     As to "idolatrous Baptism," "F. S." ought to know that our Doctrines frequently refer to "idolatrous worship," an external worship separated from true internals, and that, therefore, Baptism as an act of worship is idolatrous if it be separated from its internal. With this understanding of the language or phrases we have employed, will "F. S." say whether, as he reads T. C. R. 677, the doctrine there given refers to Baptism performed in and by the Old Church, or in and by the New Church, or in both; in other words, whether that doctrine is equally applicable to the rite when administered by a Catholic priest or a Protestant minister, as when administered by a minister of the New Church. From his paper in the LIFE we conclude that he does not admit of the distinction made throughout the Writings between what is of first Christian Church dead and of the Christian Church living.

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If we are correct in this conclusion, then we should like to know how "F. S." reconciles his understanding of the first use of Baptism with the teaching in T. C. R. 681, concerning the second use of Baptism, which "is, that the Christian may know and acknowledge the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Redeemer and Saviour, and may follow Him," concerning which it is said "that it inseparably attends the first"! How can this acknowledgment of the LORD "inseparably attend" an act of worship in a Church which violently denies and rejects the LORD JESUS CHRIST?
     While writing this paper we have been frequently reminded of a relation given in A. R. 675, which we should like to introduce to our readers. As it is too long for our space, we will confine ourselves to a few interesting extracts. The relation consists mainly of an account given to Swedenborg by an Englishman, a member of a small society in which there were two bishops, of a discussion which he and others of the society had with the prelates in reference to a paper let down from heaven that contained an exhortation to acknowledge the LORD JESUS CHRIST as the God of heaven and earth. They thus address the Bishops:
     "'Be pleased, Fathers, to hear us. We have believed that a Church was with us more than with others, which in the Christian world merited to be called the Principal, and a religion which merited to be called the Eminent; but illustration has been given to us from heaven, and in illustration the perception that in the Christian World at this day there is no longer a Church, no longer a religion.' The Bishops replied: 'What are you saying? Is not the Church where the Word is, where Christ the Saviour is known, and where the Sacraments are?' To this our spokesman answered: "Those are the Church and those make the Church, but they do not make it without man, but within man.' And further he said: 'As to the Church, can the Church be where three Gods are worshiped? Can the Church be where the whole Doctrine is founded on a single statement of Paul, falsely understood, and thence not on the Word? Can the Church be where the Saviour of the world is not approached and where He is divided into two? As to religion, who can deny that religion is to shun evil and to do good? Is there any religion where it is taught that faith alone saves and not charity? Is there a religion where it is taught that charity proceeding from man is nothing but moral and civil charity? Who does not see that in such charity there is not anything of religion? Is there in faith alone any thing of deed or work? and nevertheless religion consists in doing. Is there a nation in the whole world with which there is religion that excludes everything saving from the goods of clarity, which are good works-when yet the all of religion consists in good, and the all of the Church in doctrine which teaches truth, and by truths good? You see, Fathers, what glory we should have if the Church which is not, and religion which is not, should begin and arise with us.' Then (after further conversation), when one of those two Bishops heard his faith called dead, diabolical, and spectral, he grew so angry that he tore his mitre from his head and threw it upon the table, exclaiming, 'I shall not take it again until I have been avenged on the enemies of the faith of our Church but he moved his head, muttering and saying, 'That James! that James!' On the mitre was a plate, on which was inscribed, 'Faith alone.' And then suddenly there appeared a 'monster rising out of the earth with seven heads, having feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion altogether like the beast described in Rev. xiii, 1, 2, whose image was made and worshiped (verses 14, 15, the same chapter). This spectre took the mitre from the table, and spreading it out beneath, placed it on its seven heads; having done which, the earth opened under its feet and it subsided into hell. At this sight the Bishop exclaimed: 'Violence! violence!'"
      We were not aware that in our December number we were discussing the "Ohio Resolution," but since "F. S." is disposed to consider our article a discussion of that resolution, we shall add a few observations, not on the action of the Ohio Association, but in respect to the idea underlying the elaborate defense of that action, which appeared in the Messenger of December 13th. This idea is, that "the Sacraments, like the Divine letter of the Word, are above the accidents of human manipulation or legislative limitations." In support of this fundamental idea the writer of the article in question produces no direct and positive teaching of the Church, but he infers its truth from the general language of the Writings concerning the nature and uses of Baptism, and from the absence of any statement concerning the Old Church, and concerning introduction by Baptism either into the "Old Church" or into the New Church and he seems to imagine that he has a strong point of support for his inference in the fact that Swedenborg was not baptized in the New Church, but in the Old Church. We have incidentally referred to this point in such a way that any one may see, not only that this writer has sought support in something weaker than a straw, but also, and this is important, that he seems to leave out of thought and out of all his reasoning the Divine teaching of the Word and Doctrine, concerning the Last Judgment, its cause, nature, and effect; and then, not satisfied with his inference from the absence of certain expressions in the passages of the Writings cited, he opens a new line of argument with an affirmation so singularly compounded, that one will need to be on his guard lest his assent to a fallacy be gained by means of the good company in which it appears. He says: "Far from stating that any Baptism as a Sacrament can introduce into the Old Church, or into any false or evil association, the doctrine expressly declares that it admits 'into the Church where the Word is and the LORD is acknowledged.'" This is a begging of the question at issue. Is it true that the doctrine expressly declares that "any Baptism as a Sacrament admits into the Church where the Word is and the LORD is acknowledged?"
     The writer refers to Heavenly Doctrine, 202, 203, as authority for this statement. We there read:
     "Baptism was instituted as a sign that a man is of the Church and as a memorial that he is to be regenerated, for the washing of Baptism is nothing else than spiritual washing, which is regeneration. All regeneration is effected by the LORD, by the truths of faith, and by a life according to them. Baptism therefore testifies that a man is of the Church and that he can be regenerated, for in the Church the LORD, who regenerates, is acknowledged, and there is the Word, in which are the truths of faith, by which regeneration is effected."

     The reader, if he has followed this discussion with any attention, knows full well that the point of the discussion lies just in what is here assumed to be a declared statement of doctrine. The question is not whether" Baptism admits into the Church where the Word is and the LORD is acknowledged," but whether this rite when administered by a church or by the priest or minister of a Church which is dead, destroyed, and filthy, or "which is not," and the faith of which, as it still exists in name and appearance only, is "dead, diabolical and spectral," admits "into the Church where the Word is and the LORD is acknowledged." When the writer further says that the doctrine expressly declares that "it," that is to say, "any Baptism as a Sacrament admits into the Church where the Word and the LORD is acknowledged," he, by means of the little pronoun "it," makes the doctrine say, "any Baptism as a Sacrament," in the place of the simple word Baptism No such statement as the one here practically substituted (from the writer's conception of what it must-mean) for the language of the doctrine can be found in any place in the Writings of the Church. The argument following this very strange opening is quite in harmony with it. We cannot at this time pursue the analysis of this argument, as our attention is demanded by a statement in the article with which we are immediately concerned, to this effect, that the Ohio Resolution simply posits the pure doctrine of heaven itself the Sacrament as Divinely given in the letter of the Word, and as Divinely explained in T. C. R. xii, and H. D. 202, 203.

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Of course, as the writer well knows, there is no question between us as to the pure doctrine of the Sacrament of Baptism, but simply as to whether that doctrine applies to the sacrament in the New Church alone, or whether it applies in a like degree and sense to the semblance of the rite still administered by the semblance of a Church which "is not." The whole substance of the argument of "F. S." is evidently contained in this one statement in the article in the Messenger before referred to: "The Sacrament, like the Divine letter of the Word, is above the accidents of human manipulation or legislative limitations." In other words, as there is but one Divine letter of the Word, so there is but one Sacrament, and as the Divine letter of the Word cannot be destroyed, therefore the Sacrament cannot be destroyed. A bold assertion may impress the mind of the unthinking and impose itself as a truth, and a skillful juxtaposition of words may produce the persuasion of a close internal connection of ideas, and this to the extent of causing the reader or hearer to accept the truth of the one for the falsity of the other. "F. S." here gives us an example of how this may be done. He boldly asserts that "the Sacrament is above the accidents of human manipulation or legislative limitations," and by introducing immediately after "Sacrament," the words "like the Divine letter of the Word," he causes the thought of the Sacrament to be covered, as it were, and included in the greater idea of the Divine letter of the Word, so that it seems as if the predicate of superiority to human manipulations were really applicable to the one as well as to the other. Now the Sacrament is commanded and instituted by the LORD in the Word, and, like the letter of the Word, it has a representative significance and use; but these things the Sacrament has in common with the representative rites of the Jewish Church, which were abrogated because they had been altogether perverted, and especially with washing and circumcision in the Jewish Church, which were gathered into Baptism as their complex. All these are contained in the Divine letter of the Word, and in that letter and together, with it they were "made of none effect by the vain traditions" of the Jews, and this to such an extent, that the LORD Himself had to come into the world as the Word made flesh in order to prevent the Word from being altogether destroyed in human minds by "human manipulations," and thus also to prevent the human race from being destroyed by a total perversion, falsification, and adulteration of every truth and good of the Word.
     When the LORD gave to the Christian Church, which He established at His first coming, the Sacrament of "Baptism in place of the circumcision of the former Church, what He thus gave was not the Word, either in the spirit or the letter of it, for the LORD Himself was the Word fulfilled in His Divine Human even to every jot and tittle of its natural sense; but it was a sign, a representative, of introduction into the Church, of the acknowledgment of Him, and of regeneration, "a sign to the angels" and a memorial to man of these things. What He gave, therefore, was a "Sacrament," that is to say, a sacred rite, "a holy solemnity of worship," a most holy thing of its worship." (T. C. R. 667, 677, 699.) This is what is meant by a "Sacrament." Suppose, now, we see how the statement of "F. S.," under examination, will read when we substitute for the term "Sacrament" the meaning of that term as defined in the Writings, namely, "a holy solemnity or act of worship." Understanding that his statement refers to Baptism, it will run thus: "The holy solemnity or act of worship like the Divine letter of the Word, is above the accidents of human manipulation or legislative limitations." But an act of worship, be it in the Sacrament of Baptism or of the Holy Supper, or of prayer and praise of the LORD, is a human act, and as such it is an act in which human affections and thoughts are active, and which derives its quality as an act from those affections and thoughts. How a human act can be "above the accidents of human manipulation," which we take to mean' above and beyond anything that 'may come to it or happen' to it in consequence of human action or doing, is a puzzle that we shall not attempt to solve: And yet "F. S." asserts that the Sacramental act of Baptism is such an act. If he had said, the Divine command instituting the Sacrament of Baptism is in the Divine letter of the Word, a part of that Divine letter, as such eternal, and a perpetual ordinance for the LORD'S Church on Earth, we should gladly have assented to the truth of the statement. But in this case he would have been under the necessity of believing with us that men could make this ordinance of God of none effect, like all other ordinances and Divine laws, and so destroy it with themselves, as they have repeatedly destroyed the Church founded on the Word and by the Word. And be would also have been under the necessity of believing that a Church destroyed with man, and a Sacrament destroyed with man, would have to be instituted anew by the LORD Himself, in order that they might have an existence on earth, and that such an institution anew is not a renewal or revival by continuity, but a new beginning and formation in a plane discretely distinct from the preceding.
     It is not necessary to pursue this point any further. We may, however, express the hope that zeal for certain views concerning Baptism may not be suffered to lead their advocates to take the Sacrament out of the Church, or to lift it above the Church, to which it was given by the LORD to be one of the holiest rites, formalities, or ceremonies of worship (A. C. 1175), but that they may come to recognize and realize the truth, that what is predicated of the Church is also predicated of its worship, according to the teaching in A. C. 6587:

     "The internal of the Church consists in willing what is good from the heart and in being affected with good, and its external in acting this (good), and this according to the truth of faith which is known from good; but the external of the Church consists in the holy performance of rituals and in doing the works of charity according to the precepts of the Church. From which' it is evident that the internal of the Church is the good of charity in the will; when, therefore, this ceases, the Church itself also ceases, for the good of charity is its essential; external worship, indeed, remains afterward, as before, but then it is not worship, but ritual, which is preserved because it was so instituted; but this ritual, which appears like worship, is like a shell without a kernel, for it is the external which remains, wherein there is not any internal. When the Church is suck it is at its end." (See also A. C. 8762.)
     Such a ritual of worship is the Sacrament of Baptism, which is preserved because it was so instituted, but which is at an end as to its heavenly uses in the Church that has come to the end of its connection with the heavens and conjunction with the LORD. As the LORD has left such a Church, so also has He left such a Baptism.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ON Sunday, Jun. 14th, the Rev. O. L Barler filled his regular appointment at Huttin, Coles County, Ill., preaching twice and administering the Sacrament. Huttin is a district the country where Mr. Barler has been preaching at regular intervals for three years. It was altogether a new field with only one New Church family. A number of others have since become interested and contributed to sustain the work.


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COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS 1883

COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS              1883

II.

THE GIVING OF THE WORD AND THE REVELATION OF ITS SPIRITUAL SENSE.

     THE Word differs from all other Writings in this, that

     "JEHOVAH, the LORD, who is God of heaven and earth, spake the Word through Moses and the Prophets, and that consequently it must be Divine Truth, inasmuch as what JEHOVAH, the LORD Himself, speaks, can be nothing else. "The LORD, who is the same with JEHOVAH, spake the Word written by the Evangelists, many parts from His own mouth and the rest from the spirit of His mouth, which is the Holy Spirit."- S. S. 2.
     "The whole Sacred Scripture in its inmost is no other than God, that is, the Divine which proceeds from God; for it was dictated by God, and nothing else can proceed from God than that which is Himself and is called Divine; this, the Sacred Scripture, is in its inmost. But in its derivatives, which are below and from the inmost, the Sacred Scripture is accommodated to the perception of angels and men; in these it is also Divine, but in another form, in which it is called the Celestial Divine, the Spiritual Divine, and the Natural Divine, which are no other than coverings of God; since God Himself, such as He is in the inmost of the Word, cannot be seen by any creature, for He said to Moses, when he prayed that he might see the glory of JEHOVAH, that no one can see God and live. It is similar with, the inmost of the Word, where God is in His Esse and in His Essence."- T. C. R. 6.

     Since God as He is in Himself, and the Word as it is in itself, cannot be seen or perceived by any human being, there must be mediations between God and man by which that which was invisible may be accommodated to the human understanding; we learn, therefore, that there are degrees of the Divine Truth, which degrees correspond with the degrees of the universe as proceeding from the LORD. In the angelic idea of the Creation of the Universe from the LORD, at the end of the Apocalypse Explained, it is said from the sun of the spiritual world as a centre proceed circles one after another and one from another even to the last, where their end is subsisting in rest, and that those circles are spiritual atmospheres which the light and heat of that sun fill and by which they propagate themselves to the ultimate circle.
     When we know that the light from that spiritual sun in its essence is the Divine Truth, and also that the Divine Truth is the Word, we can see that the Creation of the Universe and the Ultimation of the Divine Truth in our Word must correspond. These degrees of the Divine Truth in its descent into ultimates are described in the Arcana Coelestia as follows:

     "Divine Truth is not of one degree, but of several. Divine Truth in the first degree, and also in the second, is what immediately proceeds from the LORD; this is above angelic understanding. But Divine Truth in the third degree is such as is in the inmost, or third heaven; this is such that it cannot in the least be apprehended by man. Divine Truth in the fourths degree is such as is in the middle or second heaven; neither is this intelligible to man; but Divine Truth in the fifth degree is such as is in the ultimate, or first heaven; this may be perceived in some small measure by man if illustrated, but still it is such that a considerable part of it cannot be uttered by human expressions, and when it falls into ideas it produces a faculty of perceiving and also of believing that it is so. But Divine Truth in the sixth degree is such as pertains to man, accommodated to his perceptions, thus it is the sense of the letter of the Word." - A. C. 8443.
     These degrees of the Divine Truth are related to each other as cause and effect; one produces the next one below it until it rests in the ultimate, or letter of the Word. It is similar in the universe; one sphere proceeds from the spiritual sun and this produces others until they rest in the ultimate earths.
     In the Most Ancient Church they had no written Word, but still the Word was revealed to them directly through the angels, and it was no less Divine because it was given in this way. It was the Divine Truth itself, because it proceeded from the LORD and took more and more ultimate forms until it came to the perception of men on earth, and within the truth thus perceived lay concealed more and more interior senses even to the LORD Himself.
     In the course of time degenerated, and it became necessary to give the Word in written form, since men could no longer be in open communication with angels; as in the most ancient times. So we learn that the art of writing was discovered toward the end of the Most Ancient Church, and the correspondences known to the most ancient people and also their precepts of life were written down and thus preserved for the use of posterity (A. C. 9353-4.)
     These things, derived from the most ancient times and arranged and written down for the use of posterity, constituted the Word in the Second or Ancient Church. This Word is called the Ancient Word, and it was in existence and use before the Word given through Moses, the Prophets, and the Evangelists came into existence. We are also taught that this Word is still preserved in Great Tartary. In that Word there were historical and prophetical books. The historicals were written in the form of a history, but were not literal events, and the account of creation is taken thence. We are taught in the Writings that Moses copied that account down to the flood from the Ancient Word, and Swedenborg by means of the angels examined and compared the account in our Word with that account in the Ancient Word in the heavens, and they found that not a single expression was lacking. This ancient Word was in use in many countries of Asia and Africa, but when the Ancient Word was perverted by a misapplication of correspondences, it was lost and another or was given in which the internal sense was not so deeply hidden, and thus it was-better adapted to the genius of the people who were' about to live on the earth. For further particulars concerning the Ancient Word, see T. C. R. 264-266, 275, 279; A. R. 11; A. C. 2895-2898; De Verbo, 15.
     After the Ancient Word was perverted and a knowledge of the genuine truth began to be lost, the Israelitish Church was established, in which all the rites, ceremonies, precepts, and statutes were representative and significative, but the people themselves knew nothing of this, and they, having no knowledge of correspondences, could not pervert the interior sense. This Word was given successively through along period of time, and it is composed of many books, written by the LORD through different persons as instruments. These books again may be divided into four general classes; viz.: the apparent, historical, prophetical, and the Psalms. Of these different styles we read:

     "The first was in use in the Most Ancient Church, whose method of expressing themselves was such that when they mentioned earthly or worldly things they thought of the spiritual and celestial things which they represented, so that they not only expressed themselves by representatives, but also reduced their thoughts into a kind of series, as of historical particulars, in order to give them more life; and in this they round their greatest delight. From the posterity of the Most Ancient Church Moses received what he wrote concerning the creation, the garden of Eden, etc., down to the time of Abram. The second style is the historical, occurring in the books of Moses from the time of Abram, and afterward in those of Joshua Judges, Samuel, and Kings, in which time historical facts actually occurred as they are related in the letter, although all and each of them contain things altogether different in the internal sense.

25


The third style is the prophetical, which took its rise from that which was so highly venerated in the Most Ancient Church. This style, however, is not connected, and in appearance historical, like the Most Ancient, but broken and interrupted, being scarcely ever intelligible except in the internal sense, in which are contained the greatest arcana, succeeding each other in a beautiful and order, connection, and relating to the external and internal man, the various states of the Church, heaven itself; and in their inmost to the LORD. The fourth style is that of the Psalms of David, which is intermediate between the prophetical style and; that of common speech. Here the LORD is treated of in the internal sense in the person of David as a king."- A. C. 66.
     The styles of the Word of the New Testament-partake of one or other of those described in the above passage, so that these four styles include the entire Word as we now have it in both Testaments.
     "The books of the Word are those which contain the internal sense; not those that have not are not the Word. The books of the Word in the Old Testament are the five books of Moses, the book of Joshua, the book of Judges, the two books of Samuel, the two books of Kings, the Psalms of David; the Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zachariah, Malachi; and in the New Testament the four Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and the Apocalypse." A. C. 10,325.
     It may be of interest to inquire how the LORD controlled the instruments through whom the Word was given so as to provide that every particular written therein should be His, and that nothing of the man's be inserted which would destroy the series and the Divinity of the Word. The entire Word is a revelation from the LORD, and it contains an internal sense in every particular, and it is this internal sense which imparts Divinity and holiness to the letter. In giving the letter of the Word so that it should be a perfect containant of the
interior sense, the LORD used the utmost care lest it be injured in the least degree, and He so controlled the human instruments that they would write nothing but what came from the LORD. We are taught that:
     "Revelations were made either by dreams, or by visions of the night, or of the day, or by speech within man, or by external speech, from visible angels, or by external speech from angels not seen."- A. C. 6000.
     And again it is said:
     "The things which were inscribed on the tables of stone were the first of the revelation of Divine Truth,, and were uttered before all the people of Israel with a living voice from the LORD."- A. C. 9416.
     And again
     "When the Divine was interrogated by the Urim and Thummim, an explendescence appeared, and at the same time a response to the subject of inquiry was pronounced in an audible voice, which was done by the angels; to whom by such explendescence it was revealed from the LORD; for the Divine Truths which are responses so appear in the heavens. The breast-plate, by Urim and Thummim, that is, by the explendescence of the light of heaven, revealed Divine Truths in a natural sphere, thus in ultimates."- A. C. 9905.
     "The angels, especially the celestial, have revelation from perception, so also had the men of the Most Ancient Church, and some also of the Ancient Church, but scarce any one at this day. Whereas very many, even those who have not been principled in good, have had revelations from discourse without perception, and also by visions or dreams. Such were most of the revelations of the Prophets in the Jewish Church; they heard a voice, they saw a vision, and they 'dreamed a dream'; but as had no perception, they were merely verbal or visual revelations, without any perception of what they signified."- A. C. 5121.
      The things thus seen or heard were by means of the spiritual sight and hearing, and at times the spiritual hearing flowed down into the natural hearing and affected the drum of the ear, so that even to the person hearing it seemed as though the voice came from without.
     The LORD also controls man by means of the spirits with whom he is associated, and since all man a thoughts come through spirits, the LORD can impart to him such thoughts and words as He desires to be written down. Yea, He controls all the movements of the body and even writes by controlling the hand. Swedenborg himself was permitted to experience these states of the prophets and writers through whom the Word was given, so that he might describe them, and that we might understand the methods by which the Word was given. He says that on the second tables which were hewn out by Moses the writing was written "by Moses, the angel of God Messiah directing the hand, therefore it is said that they were written by JEHOVAH." (Adv. 4104-6.)
     In some one or other of these various ways the thoughts, perceptions, actions, etc., of the writers of the Word were so controlled that the very words and ideas and the arrangement of them in a series were from the LORD through angels and spirits, the angels, spirits, and men being manifestly directed by the LORD, hence it is said in the New Testament when quoting from the Old, that such things were spoken by the LORD through the prophet. So also the LORD, in unfolding the internal sense of the Word, can make use of a human instrument, and at the same time guide and direct him so that the pure Divine Truth which is contained within the letter shall be expressed in human language adequate to the understanding and comprehension of men. For the purpose of thus opening the interiors of the Word, the LORD opened the sight of Emanuel Swedenborg and intromitted him as to his spirit into the spiritual world, so that he might see the magnificent and happy things of heaven and the miserable things of hell, and thus that the states of life in the spiritual world might be seen and described for the Word in its Internal sense treats of the heavens and the hells as well as of the LORD and the Church, and therefore, without the description of the spiritual world the internal sense could not be revealed. These descriptions were under the direction of the LORD, so that Swedenborg was guided by Him to the places and persons which He wanted to have described for the use of His New Church. The Doctrines of the New Church also were given by the Lord Himself, so that all things necessary for the establishment of the New Church were given by the LORD through Swedenborg. "The arcana which are revealed concerning heaven and hell, and, at the same time concerning the life of man after death" (as well as the revelation of other doctrines), is an immediate revelation from the LORD, and "at this day such immediate revelation exists because this is what is meant by the Coming of the LORD." (H. H. 1.)
MISCELLANY 1883

MISCELLANY              1883

     JAMES BRONSON.

     IV.

     AFTER the departure of the Wrights, Jim's life apparently settled back into its old grooves; apparently, but not really, for, young as he was, a determination to rise out of the life he was in had taken possession of the boy. At the age of fifteen he had left school, feeling that his maintenance was too heavy a tax on his aunt's slender resources. During the next few years he filled various positions in the village stores, and then through his friend Colonel Butler's influence got the appointment of station-agent for the railroad company. On receiving this appointment he was very much elated; though, having no intimates, he kept his elation and hopes to himself, indulging, however, in a few air-castles; but this fascinating occupation, especially fascinating to one situated as he was, he soon gave up, for he reasoned from the Writings that, as the LORD foresees and provides for the future, and yet leaves man in absolute freedom, therefore man's duty is to live the truth in the present and not indulge in idle dreams.


26



     During these years he saw nothing of Ethel, and only at rare intervals heard anything of her through his friends the Butlers. Though he had, now arrived at the age of manhood, he still fondly cherished the memory of the afternoon he met her in the old forest; and yet often a smile would steal over his features as he thought how he remained faithful to the memory of a mere child; but then he would reason that time had no more remained stationary with her than with him. At this he would try to picture to himself how she looked as a woman, and wonder if ever he should meet her again, how she would receive him, what he would say, and other things of like nature. In fact, Jim had sternly frowned down one class of air-castles only to have them replaced by another. But who will say that one just entering the threshold of manhood's life is not better for cherishing in his heart the image of what he regards as a pure and innocent being, and that such an image is not a strong support to him in his effort to lead a true, manly life?
     For a year or more he held his position as station agent, giving to the company his best talents and honest work; then a reformatory tempest passed over the village and swept him off to new scenes. The inhabitants of the place, living, as they did, out of the great currents of modern-life and having very little beyond their every day employments to occupy their minds, were prone to get very much excited over what in a city would be regarded with indifference. A church building had been erected by one of the local congregations and the members had gone into debt to do it; they had hoped for an increase in membership and interest, but had been disappointed, the unconverted villagers being no more ready to seek salvation in the new building than they had been in the old one. The debt commenced to press heavily on the congregation, and "something must be done," one of the chief members remarked. That "something" took the form of negotiations with a somewhat noted "revivalist," the Rev. Mr. Garrison. His terms were acceded to, and early in the winter he appeared and at once commenced a vigorous campaign against "the world, the flesh, and the devil." After the first week of the campaign had passed it would be putting it mildly to say that the village and surrounding country were excited; business was almost brought to a standstill, and every afternoon the church was filled to' its utmost capacity with sinners seeking the proffered salvation. The great revival was the sole topic of conversation, and any one who could not answer in the affirmative the oft-repeated question, "Have you saved your soul yet?" was regarded with suspicion and considered a hardened subject of the Wicked One.
     Jim had not attended any of the meetings, and as he was about the only one of any prominence, excepting Colonel Butler, who had not, his absence soon became a subject of talk. Finally a delegation of converted ones were sent to interview him on the subject and if possible induce him to come into the fold. They found him busy at work in his little office at the station. All of them being old acquaintances, he greeted them in a friendly manner, asked them to be seated, and then desired to know the object of their visit. Thus invited, the spokesman of the party said that it had been noticed with sorrow by all his old neighbors that he had absented himself from the glorious outpouring of grace now occurring, and that they, as his friends, had come to urge upon him to join the church. The speaker then said that he was one of the most promising and rising young men of the village and that his joining at this time would be a "shining example" to the other young men. He concluded by representing what a great satisfaction it would be to know that his soul was safe.
     Jim heard them through without interruption and with respectful attention. When, they awaited his reply he considered a moment and then said: "Friends, I am obliged to you for the interest you take in my welfare, and I thank you for your well meant advice, but there is one insurmountable obstacle in the way of my complying with your request."
     One of the delegation replied: "James, there should be no obstacle between a young man and Christ."
     "That is quite another matter," was the reply. "The obstacle I spoke of is this: that as I do not in the least believe in your doctrines or methods of salvation, therefore, if I were to comply with your request I should be acting a lie, which is something hardly consistent with repentance and salvation," concluded Jim, with a slight smile.
     As none of the delegation could dispute so plain a proposition or get around it, they departed. But the unrepentant one was not to escape so easily. Aunt Amelia for the past few years had sadly fallen from grace, as she confessed when "giving her experience;" she had been guilty of frivolity and worldliness; since Jim's financial condition had improved he had bought her some fine clothes, in which she "had taken sinful delight," and more than this, she had allowed him to read to her several novels, in which she had experienced wicked enjoyment. But since the great revival no one could accuse Aunt Amelia of "worldliness," for she had become the saddest and most tearful woman in the place. Failing in their first attempt to bring Jim in, the elders of the church urged his aunt to employ her influence with him, and so persistent and tearful was she in her entreaties for him to go "just once," that in desperation he finally consented.
     On the evening he went, on entering the church he tried to step into a pew near the door, but his aunt took him by the arm and one of the grave elders motioned to him, and, much against his will, he was led to the most prominent place in the church and all eyes were leveled on him as he walked down the aisle, for he was known to be one of the unconverted and they were becoming so scarce that the revival was in danger of dying out for want of fuel.
     After the singing of a hymn by the congregation the minister read a chapter from one of the Epistles and then delivered an exceedingly long prayer, in which it seemed to Jim that the LORD was more advised than beseeched. The minister commenced his sermon or exhortation in an easy, conversational, and almost humorous style; he showed the unrepentant ones the absurdity of their conduct, even in a business point of view, in refusing the proffered salvation when it was so easy to obtain; careful business men will insure their property against fire, but neglect to insure their souls against the same thing, and yet the former costs money while the latter is absolutely free. What foolishness!" From this vein the minister passed to one more threatening; he warned those men that in a day, an hour, a minute it might be too late; that in an eternal and
awful hell they would wail forth, "Too late!" and would wring their hands in an agony of remorse and passionately beseech Christ for "just one more chance;" but He would reply, "Too late!" and in a fearful hell of fire those wretched sinners would burn forever.

27


Such was the magnetic power of the speaker and so vivid was his picturing, that the assembled people seemed to shudder and shrink back, as though they felt the hot, sulphurous flames leaping at them.
     By this time the entire congregation was in a terribly excited state; some were groaning in agony, others shouting and screaming in a species of frenzy, and others either wearing pale and affrighted looks or sobbing us though their hearts would break. As for Jim, he was strangely affected; it seemed to him as though he was surrounded by lost souls or souls in torment, rather than by a congregation of those assured of salvation. The sphere affected him so strongly that he was fain to close his eyes and repeat the LORD'S Prayer. As he did so, a feeling of safety and protection came over him and he then watched the proceedings with curiosity and sadness. When the excitement was at its height the minister leaped down from the platform and went among the people, with a loud voice shouting, exhorting, singing, and praying by turns.
     Aunt Amelia, who sat beside Jim, was very much affected, and, weeping bitterly and finally kneeling beside him, she passionately pleaded with him to save his soul; but he gently placed his hand on the bowed gray head and said: "No, Aunt, there is no salvation in this place, and we had better go home." But she clung to him desperately as he attempted to rise, and calling to the minister, urged him to use his influence with her "boy."
     So earnest and eager was she that her entreaties attracted attention even amid the prevailing confusion, and as the minister approached, the noise in the immediate vicinity gradually subsided and a curiosity very mundane took its place. With the cessation of the noise a chill seemed to strike him as he said: "Young man, what objection have you to complying with our dear sister's request to save your soul?"
     Jim sat very quietly, lightly stroking his aunt's hair, she still kneeling beside him and looking up at him with the utmost eagerness. His reply, though spoken very quietly, was heard plainly, owing to the noise having till further subsided. "Because I do not in the least believe that any soul can be saved by your religion, much less by such methods as you resort to." They were strong words for the place and surroundings, but the speaker felt that, as the issue had been forced upon him, he would state the simple truth as he saw it.
     The minister was a good judge of men. He saw at once that this was a hopeless case, and he knew that reason, if allowed to enter, would ruin his work. Therefore, without hesitating, he turned, and in a loud voice exclaimed: "Brethren, here is a bad example of stubborn, worldly, and carnal mindedness. This poor, misguided human soul prefers his worldly associates to fellowship with Christ. We can do no more than pray for him; pray that the blessed Saviour may touch his hardened heart and open his blinded eyes. Let us pray."
     As the minister and congregation knelt to pray for him, Jim gently, yet firmly, freeing himself from his aunt, arose and walked out of the building.
     "Jim Bronson's scandalous conduct," as it was termed, brought him into unenviable notoriety and caused his life to be anything but pleasant; yet, strange to say; when it came to money matters or business transactions his word stood as high, or higher, than that of any other man in the place; was regarded as higher even than that of any of the "converted" by his brother converts.
     In due course of time the great revival ended, and the Rev. Mr. Garrison departed for other fields of labor. But the excitement had not had time to subside before the celebrated reformed tailor and temperance agitator, Mr. Eli Bot, swooped down on the village, and soon "public sentiment" was more aroused than ever. The Rev. Mr. Garrison had excited men about their own welfare, and Mr. Bot now excited them about their neighbors' welfare.
     Jim had seen the great agitator several times on the streets and had taken a strong dislike to him, for there seemed to be about him a certain I-am-better-than-you-are air that was not at all prepossessing but such were the wonderful stories of the man's eloquence and convincing arguments that one evening Jim attended one of the meetings. The first speakers were some of the villagers and they merely indulged in platitudes and uttered them in a very prosy manner, but when the great agitator arose things grew lively. His address was of the most approved pattern of the professional temperance agitator, and consisted mostly of wild statistics coined from the fertile brain of the speaker, and of bitter and vindictive abuse by a master in the art of abuse. At first Jim was amused, but as the speaker grew more rancorous and sweeping in his assertions his amusement turned to scorn; he was a man who took but little pains to conceal his sentiment, and had a way of looking at men whose conduct he despised that somehow aroused their most vindictive feelings. When Mr. Bot caught sight of that cool, contemptuous look, he at once became an enemy, and grew more furious and irrational than ever in his onslaughts on the "hellish traffic" and in his sweeping denunciation of the "infamous scoundrels" who manufactured or sold liquor, who "preyed like vampires on precious human souls," who "gloated like fiends over the tears of the widows and orphans," who "spread wretchedness, misery, ruin, disease, sin, and death over the land," and who "every year sent countless millions of the souls of their fellow-men to hell." After a passionate flight of this style the speaker suddenly paused, and after wiping the perspiration from his face, resumed, in an easy, jocular, and sarcastic manner, looking straight at Jim: "But, my friends, there is another and worse and more dangerous class still: your rich, honorable, high-toned, and eminently respectable citizen, who keeps his wine cellar and treats his guests to liquid damnation-the noble, hospitable man!" another pause and then he broke forth: "But, oh! what an awful act is his! what a horrible crime is his! better a thousand times were it if he killed his guests at once, for then he would only kill the body, but as it is he not only slowly kills them bodily but drags their souls down to everlasting hell."
     Jim's thoughts traveled back to the time when he drank wine with his loved friends, and to the many quiet and pleasant evenings he had spent since with Colonel. Butler and his good wife, at which wine was partaken of, and when he heard their conduct referred to in this manner by this person a feeling anything but peaceable possessed him.
     When the speeches were over all present were invited to sign the pledge. Nearly all the prominent men of the village were gathered around the table, and Mr. Bot, approaching Jim, with an ugly smile, said:
     "Mr. Bronson, won't you sign?"
     "No," was the short, sharp answer.
     "My young friend, is it possible that you approve of that infamous traffic founded on widows' and orphans tears; or," he added, with a sneer, "are you one of these who, having rich friends, with wine cellars, approve of the still worse practice of wine-guzzling in private?"


28



     Jim knew that village gossip had informed Mr. Bot of the "doin's," as they termed it, at the Colonel's, and he instinctively knew that the last remark was intended as a direct insult, so he very coolly and deliberately replied: "Mr. Bot, as you seem to be a man who indulges in very plain speaking, you will pardon me when I say that who my friends are, or what they do, is none of your business." Then, to avoid further discussion, Jim touched his hat at the assembled group and withdrew.
      [TO BE CONTINUED.]
TWO WAYS OF PUTTING IT 1883

TWO WAYS OF PUTTING IT              1883

     "THERE is but one way," said the Eagle, in his positive tone, "and that way is-to learn the truth, and then do it."
     At these words the Magpie shook his head, sighed, and then, with a commiserating smile, replied: "Ah! Eagle, Eagle, what a cold, truth-alone state you are in; your harsh and dogmatic way of putting it chills all the loving, sweet, gentle, and charitable emotions, and rudely crushes all noble aspirations, all warm impulses, all eager yearnings and longings for higher and purer things."
     "What! learning and doing the truth chills, and-"
     The Magpie interrupted him, and said:
     "My dear brother, cannot you see that we are living in a new age? Perhaps your way may have been of some use in the dark past, in breaking down cold and hard errors with equally cold and hard truth, but now"- here the Magpie grew fervid and eloquent-"but-now, behold in yon far East the Dawn! See the first faint flashing of the crimson arrows of the corning Light, shooting up into the blue, ethereal vault, of Heaven! Look! oh! look! with eager longing, warm yearning, restless stirring, and noble aspiration, for the coming event; the world, with bated breath, stands hungry and thirsty, and ready to drink in deep, strong draughts of the flaming, soul-satisfying, all-embracing- Herald of the magnificent New Day. O my brethren! what a soul-inspiring, blissful, delightsomely intoxicating thought it is, that the world is now ready and eager to receive and be permeated with the New, whether it knows it or not; for that New is everywhere, gentle and silent, yet it comes grandly as a mighty, irresistible ocean, sweeping away on its noble crest all the bigotry, evil worldliness, sectarianism, and narrow-mindedness that for ages past have enthralled, enslaved, and oppressed the poor, weary Birds, struggling along through life's dusty pathway, enthralled by the damp and clammy hand of superstition, enslaved by bigotry, and oppressed by surrounding evils, assailing them from every side. But now all is changing, and oh! how many souls exult and expand at the thought. That, my brother," concluded the Magpie, coming down to his usual tone, "is the way it should be put."
     When he ceased speaking he flew down from the mountain rock on which the conversation had been held to the valley below.
     A Hen, who had strayed up the mountain in search of food, and had listened to the oration, now said:
     "What a beautiful speaker Mr. Magpie is. When listening to him I always feel so good and so satisfied with

     But seeing a worm, she darted off without finishing. And the Eagle sat still upon the mountain rock and pondered.
NOTES AND REVIEW 1883

NOTES AND REVIEW              1883

     MR. BENJAMIN WORCESTER is about to publish a new biography of Swedenborg.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Morning Light publishes a very critical notice of the New Church Review by the Rev. Thomas Child.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE January number of the New Church Review contains an able criticism of Wilford Hall's Problem of Human Life.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE next number of Words for the New Church will contain an exhaustive review of the recently published work on the Brain.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE CALENDAR, or plan for daily reading in the Word and the Writings, can be procured from the Librarian of the "Academy of the New Church," 110 Friedlander Street, Philadelphia. Price five cents.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     WE learn with regret that Signor Scocia has been obliged, on account of the new and urgent labors which have devolved upon him, to suspend, for the present at least, the publication of his magazine, La Nuova Epoca.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     PROFESSOR PFIRSCH is still hard at work on the German translation of the Spiritual Diary. He is now beyond page 183 of Vol. III. Mr. Mittnacht has not yet come to any decision in regard to the time of its publication.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Manchester (England) Society has issued a pamphlet giving a report of the speeches delivered at a meeting recently held to make a stand against the "Academy of the New Church," which, the pamphlet informs us, is making rapid progress in England.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ONE of the recent volumes of the American Men of Letters devoted to an account of the life and writings of George Ripley, by the Rev. O. B. Frothingham. Treating of the "Brook Farm" enterprise, of which Mr. Ripley was one of the leading spirits, Mr. Frothingham says: "There were many Swedenborgians in the company; in fact, there was a decided leaning toward the views of the Swedish mystic, but no attempt was made to fashion opinion in that or any other mould."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE A. S. P. & P. Society will publish next week an edition of ten thousand of the Doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures uniform with the 32mo Doctrine of Life. Copies will be sent to any one who will undertake to distribute them judiciously, on receipt of postage, at the rate of half a cent on each copy ordered. Also an edition will be issued from the octavo plates, in paper covers, which will be sold at ten cents per copy, or at the rate of seven dollars per hundred. This is in view of the present agitation of the public mind in respect to the Bible.
APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE 1883

APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE              1883

     Aphorisms of the New Life is the title of the third volume of the "New Church Popular Series," published by Claxton and Co., of Philadelphia. The author of this neat little volume is Dr. W. H. Holcombe. It consists of 113 numbered paragraphs, giving a continuous presentation of "The Life of God in the Soul." Then follow "Illustrations and Confirmations"-(1) from the New Testament, (2) from Abbe Fenelon, (3) from Mad. Guyon, and (4) from Swedenborg.
     The author, in the first forty numbers or so, speaks in a manner philosophical of "The Life of Christ in the Soul," and then continues to the end of his "Aphorisms" with an interesting account of the LORD'S life on earth; interpreted in accordance with the doctrine of the "New Life" movement. A great difference between these doctrines and the Doctrines of the New Church is that the former maintain that Christ must again be tempted, crucified, and die within us, while the New Church teaches that the LORD'S body is fully made Divine, and can neither be tempted nor undergo corruption.


29



     Some of the extracts from Paul, Fenelon, and Mad. Guyon appended to the work are good, but the compiler forgets, in making them part of his book, that by taking their words we are apt to put our New Church ideas into them, and may understand them to mean something directly opposite from what their writers meant. The extracts from the Word and the Writings, comprising about a fifth of the volume, are excellent, and had they been published alone we should gladly recommend the book.
     The "Aphorisms" are written in the author's wonted style. But they are remarkable for a specious and continual profession of the acknowledgment of the LORD as the Author of Life, while beneath it lies a practical denial of the LORD. Where, for instance, is the acknowledgment of the LORD'S being the Word, and thus the Giver of Life, in the following: "Our LORD asserts the value and dignity of Divine Truth in its external forms . . . But it cannot do the work of Christ"? (No. 60.) The Divine Truth, in which is the Divine, cannot do the work of the Divine! Thus, while the burden of the book is "The Life of God in the Human Soul," the effect of it is to lead the reader away from the LORD.
     We are glad that the writer begins his preface with the declaration that "Here are a few paragraphs of my own." He pronounces his own judgment, for the paragraphs are certainly not from heaven, else how could such a statement as this occur: "We can never put anything into the soul from without" (No. 15), when yet it is a distinct and oft-repeated doctrine that "Good flows in by an internal way from the LORD, and truth enters an EXTERNAL way, and they enter into a marriage in the internal man"? (See A. C. 9995.)
     In his preface the author states that "The extracts from Fenelon and Mad. Goyon have no tendency to cultivate the spirit of mysticism." Perhaps not. The author's own paragraphs have it so much the more; for the whole effect of the book is to produce a feeling of "good" on the spirit of the reader, abstracting it from his life in the world and making him believe that he attains the "Life of God in the Human Soul" by a mere "abandon," a mere giving one's self up to "influx." In sooth, it reminds us very much of Swedenborg and the New Age, the teaching in which is to the effect that we need but sit down and wait for influx without any recourse to revelation. This is one of the pernicious tendencies of the "New Life" movement has brought out in the "Aphorisms:"-to ignore the Revelations made by the LORD in the writings of Swedenborg for the salvation of man, for the "Aphorisms" teach: "If every Church and every religion in the world as now constituted were swept from the human mind, the interior life and light in the race would pour down and create new and better religions and better Churches." This is in direct contradiction to the repeated teaching in the Writings of the necessity of Revelation. Man is never regenerated by a mere abandonment to spiritual influences. These influences are in direct accord with the state of the man, and hence the repeated command that we should shun evils as sins, and this, as we are taught, can 'be done only by learning from Divine Revelation what evils are sins. Hence, to teach as the "Aphorisms"' do is to ignore the Revelation of the LORD, and thus the LORD, and to revive in the New Church the old and dangerous heresies of Mysticism and Quietism. -
     So far does the persuasion of this doctrine carry the author that he even sanctions and invites Spiritism, as witness the following: "And sometimes He (the LORD) descends into our dark night of naturalism, moving among the winds and the waters, and when we see Him in things we do not understand, we mistake His manifestations for spiritualism and are foolishly afraid." (No. 64.)
     The very fact of the author's quoting extracts from the Writings still further illustrates his ignoring them as Revelation, for he quotes them and Fenelon and Mad. Guyon and Paul and the LORD (in the New Testament) and covers them all without distinction by the term "other writers!" (See preface.)
     In conclusion, we must say that we are sorry to see so much talent and genius as Dr Holcombe undoubtedly possesses enlisted in so bad a cause.
BAPTISM 1883

BAPTISM       D. McG       1883



LETTERS TO THE EDITORS.
     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:- Though an isolated receiver, I have been much interested in the discussions i a regard to Baptism and the specific New Church. I was glad to read the very able reply to "F. S." in your last issue. . . In A. C. 27021 find the following words: "Baptism is a symbol of the regeneration of man from the LORD by the truths and goods of faith; not that regeneration is effected by Baptism, but by the life signified by Baptism, into which life all Christians should enter who are in possession of the truths of faith in consequence of possessing the Word." As we have among us some very good special pleaders, I would ask them in reference to "possessing the Word." I have always had a good copy of the Scriptures. Does "F S." think I was in possession of the Word before I possessed the goods and truths of the Word? What would be my body without its spirit-but a dead corpse? What was the Scriptures to me but so much paper, type, and printers' ink? What is the written Word without the living Word, the understanding of which, being a dead horse (T. C. R. 623), destroyed by evils and the falsites contained in the creeds and confessions of a so-called orthodox Church? Some Will say that a great alteration has taken place in the Old Church. True, in this Canada of ours no sectarianism is permitted in our common school education. But attend any of the Sunday schools and you will find them still "grinding" in the orthodox mill. What a delusion to think that any of them has altered its faith or creed!
     SEAFORTH, ONTARIO.     D. McG.
GREENFORD SOCIETY 1883

GREENFORD SOCIETY       FRANK SEWALL       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:- Allusion was made in the December number to statements made in the Ohio Association to the effect that the church at Greenford, Ohio, was built partially by contributions from the Ohio Association. Whether the church building was erected with such aid I no means of knowing beyond the statement of your correspondent. The impression in regard to the relation of the Greenford Society to the Ohio Association doubtless arose in the Association from the fact that its first minister, the Rev. Mr. Spencer was ordained in the Ohio Association, while ministering at Greenford, and was partially supported during all the time of his ministry in Greenford out of the Association mission funds, including contributions from the Central and Southern Districts. Mr. Spencer officiated once a month in Greenford, and the Society there contributed a regular stipend to his support, but without the Association Mission Fund he could not probably have officiated there or, to state the case more exactly, during the year 1874-'75 the year the Society was organized, Mr. Spencer received from the Greenford Society $200, and from the Ohio Association $100. During the second year of his preaching at Greenford, Mr. Spencer received from the Association $120. (See the journals of the Ohio Association for the years 1874, 1875, 1876, Mr. Spencer's Reports.) The fact that Mr. Spencer was thus being in part supported by the Association, and that after his first year's labor in Greenford he presents a report of the Society to the Association, naturally led to the impression that the Ohio Association had helped in the first establishment of the Church at Greenford, and this, I think, is all there is of the matter.

30


No one in the Ohio Association pretends that the Greenford Society belongs to that body, it having never joined, and whatever communications or proposals to that Society have come from the Ohio Association or its officials have originated in nothing else than a brotherly interest, which naturally has continued to be felt in the Society since its organization, and which would prompt the Association to seek its co-operation in every proper way. I do not know how literally we are to understand the wording of the resolution recently adopted by the Greenford Society to the effect that it has "always been a member" of the Pennsylvania Association. But it seems an unusual circumstance that for two years at least after its organization and the building of its church, it should have had for its minister a preacher largely supported by the Ohio Association, if at that time the society was already a member of another Association.- FRANK SEWALL.
URBANA, O., December 4th, 1882.
ENDOWING CHURCHES 1883

ENDOWING CHURCHES       J. WHITEHEAD       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-I noticed in your paper some time ago that you adversely criticised the plan of endowing churches. I confess that I also have held to the same opinion, but I find passages in the Writings that incline me to the opposite view, which I offer for your consideration.
     In T. C. R. we are taught that "the Church is the neighbor that is to be loved in a higher degree, and the Kingdom of the LORD in the highest degree. Since man was born for eternal life and is introduced into it by the Church, therefore the Church is to be loved as a neighbor in a higher degree; for she teaches the means which lead to eternal life, and introduces into it; she leads to it by the truths of doctrine, and introduces by the goods of life. It is not meant that the priesthood should be loved in a higher degree, and from it the Church, but that the good and truth of the Church should be loved, and for the sake of these the priesthood; this only serves, and as it serves it is to be honored.- T. C. R. 415. "Every one is neighbor to himself" in this sense, viz.: "Every one should procure for himself the necessaries of life, as food, clothing, a habitation, and other things, which, in the civil life in which he is, are necessarily required; and these not only for himself, but also for his family, and not only for the present time, but also for the future; for unless one procures the necessaries of life he is not in a state of exercising charity, for he is in want of all things."- T. C. R. 406.
     Now, the Church is like a man, and also the various Societies in the Church. It would seem reasonable therefore, that the members of the Church and of the various organizations of the Church should look upon this man in the larger and smaller sense as individuals who are neighbor to themselves, and who should thus provide for their wants, "not only for the present, but also for the future, for unless one procures the necessaries of life he is not in a state of exercising charity, for he is in want of all things."
     Giving to the Church is not one of the things which a man is at liberty to omit if he so chooses without injury to his spiritual life, but it is one of the necessary expenses that the man of the Church must pay. It is written: "There are debts of charity-some public, some domestic, and some private. The beneficent acts of charity and the debts of charity are distinct from each other, like the things which are done from liberty, and those which are done from necessity."- T. C. R. 429. "The public debts of charity are especially duties and taxes which should not be mixed with the debts of functions. Those who are spiritual pay them with one disposition of heart and those who are merely natural with another. The spiritual pay them from good will because they are collected for the preservation of the country, and for the protection of it and of the Church, and for the services performed by officers and prefects, to whom salaries are to be paid from the public treasury."- T. C. R. 430.
     From the above we may see that the Church and one's country are classed together, and the necessity of paying taxes and duties for the support of both- is inculcated. In European countries the established Churches are supported by taxes imposed on the people, but in countries like ours or where we support a Church, differing from the established form, the same necessity arises of regarding the payment of taxes to the Church as a matter of necessity and a duty that we cannot forego.
     These things in regard to the necessity and support of the Church and its various uses. Now we come to the particular point of endowing Churches.
     In a relation after the chapter concerning charity and good works in T. C. R. an assembly is described in which various definitions of charity are given. One said, "My opinion is that charity is to ENRICH TEMPLES and do good to their ministers." After all the opinions had been given, Swedenborg requested that he might be allowed to declare his opinion, which being granted, he said among other things: "From these things there is this conclusion, that all those things which have been said from the benches on the right and on the left concerning charity, which are, that charity is morality, inspired by faith; that it is piety, inspired by pity; that it is to do good to the good as well as to the evil; that it is to be every way serviceable to relations and friends; that it is to give to the poor and to help the needy; that it is to build hospitals and to sustain them with gifts; that it is to enrich temples and to do good to their ministers; that it is the old Christian brotherhood; that it is to forgive every one his trespasses. All these are excellent instances of charity, when they are done from the love of justice with JUDGEMENT; otherwise they are not charity, but are only like streams separated from their fountain, and like branches plucked from their tree. Since genuine charity is to believe in the LORD and to act justly and uprightly in every work and office. Whoever, therefore, from the LORD loves justice, and does it with judgment, he is charity in its image and likeness."- T. C. R. 469.
     If according to the above passage, it is an excellent instance of charity to enrich, that is, endow temples (note that the word temple is used, showing that it applies to a specific society, and not to the Church in general), then it follows that there must be an orderly way of doing this, which, if carried out from "a love of justice with judgment, will result in good, and in good only." This endowing of temples will not produce the evils referred to in your article; it will not produce an unwillingness to give for the uses of the Church in those who love it and its uses.
     You mention an instance where some evil apparently resulted from an endowment. If this evil could be traced to its real source it would probably be found to be produced by some other cause, as from injudicious provisions in the endowment, disorderly states in the Society, want of subordination to some general body of the Church, or some-similar causes. We cannot see why you should object to the enriching or endowment of Societies formed for the purpose of pro- vi in for public worship and instruction in doctrine, which also includes the establishment of schools for these purposes, and yet not carry this objection to other societies of the Church which provide for the propagation of the Doctrines, the printing and publishing of the Writings, the education of students for the ministry, etc., etc. If the endowment of one Society produces evils, why not the endowment of others?
     The necessity of giving with judgment we think requires provisions against such evils as you fear. It requires due subordination of individual Societies to more general ones, so that the proper officers (the Bishops) of the general bodies shall have a care over the Churches, and see that "order is preserved," lest any subordinate Society or priest" from caprice or ignorance should sanction evils which are contrary to order, and thereby destroy it."- H. D. 318.
PITTSBURGH, PA.     J. WHITEHEAD.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     TRE exhibition of the Boys' School under the control of the Academy of the New Church, held Friday morning, December 22d, was one of the most interesting exhibitions given thus far by the Academy. Nothing was prearranged for the occasion. There were none of the usual pieces, dialogues and orations. But the recitations or examinations by the different classes, conducted by the respective teachers, served to give a very clear idea of the work by the school. It is proposed to hold a similar exhibition semi-annually.


31


News 1883

News       Various       1883


CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     RICHMOND, The Society here possess a pleasant little house of worship in which Mr. Beaman preaches the first Sunday of every month. There is a meeting every Wednesday night, where all present take their turn in reading from the Doctrines. The second volume of A. R. is at present being read.     L.

     BERLIN, CANADA.-Our Christmas festival took place in the church on the 26th of December and was quite a success. Sunday after New Year the Society celebrated the Holy Supper, and January 11th the annual meeting of the Society was held. The Social Club will have a tea party next week, to which the whole Society is invited. We have also made some changes in regard to our meeting: Every other Thursday evening will be devoted to choir-rehearsal exclusively.
     January 16th, 1888. R.R.

     ALMONT, MICIHGAN.- The beautiful little temple situated four miles northeast of Almont was well-filled on Sunday the 22th both morning and afternoon. Rev. Dr. Hibbard was present, and preached a good, wholesome New Church sermon, after which he administered the Holy Supper to eighteen persons. The day without was fearfully cold-15 degrees below zero-but the house was warm and the sphere was excellent.
     In the afternoon the subject was the Resurrection and especially the state of infants after death. This discourse was invited by the death of three infants-triplets-who all lived three weeks and died at the same time.
     Many strangers from the neighborhood were present. The Almont Society hold meetings every Sunday-New Church meetings.

     FUNDS FOR URBANA UNIVERSITY - The action of the Trustees of Urbana University will take me from my work in Illinois for about four weeks. My route will take me through Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Boston; etc. On the way I wish to engage in missionary work, particularly in new places when the way opens, with no reference or mention (so far as my public lectures and sermons are concerned) to Urbana College and its finances. I propose to do all in a quiet and unobtrusive manner. It is not now in my thought to make any mention publicly of money matters. But when I find a friend who has money more than he wants, and who is pleased "to do good with it" in the way I suggest, I shall be glad to help him do what he wants to do. The New Church ought certainly to have her schools. Some will prefer to subscribe to Philadelphia, others to Boston, and we hope some will give to Urbana-and increase the power for good of a use that has been well begun. I hold a subscription now of one hundred dollars that I have agreed, at the request of the subscribers, to divide equally with the school at Philadelphia, and I will cheerfully turn over to the "Academy" or to "Waltham" any subscriptions that may be handed me for that purpose. I hope I shall be welcome in this" round of duty "and that some good or use may come to the Church at large and to "Urbana University" in particular in this "trip East."
URBANA, O., January 18th.     O. L. BARLER.


     WASHINGTON, D. C.-Our Sunday-school festival was held Christmas evening, beginning at six o'clock, in the rooms of the Spencer College, Lincoln Hall. Some of the young people performed a play from the April number of St. Nicholas, "Prince Malapert of Moonshine Castle." -It was very well done. After the play the children marched with various evolutions around the hall, and at length gathered around the Christmas tree and sang "The Christmas Tree," from the Welcome. The presents were distributed, after which the children played games and were ready for their homes by eight o'clock. Some of the older ones stayed longer and engaged in dancing. Our Christmas service took place Sunday morning. The church was handsomely decorated with box, holly; and other evergreens. Wednesday evening our social meeting was tamed into a carnival of authors. We had the Marchioness and Dick Swiveler, Samuel Vehler and the Bar Maid, Columbia and Brother Jonathan, and two Oscar Wildes-one with a lily and one with a sunflower. There were, besides, many other characters. M. A. C.


     CHICAGO, ILL. (German Society).- The Christmas festival of the German Society was held Tuesday evening, December 26th, beginning at six o'clock. The church was brilliantly illuminated and handsomely decorated for the occasion. The audience was large, about one hundred persons being present. After reading the lesson from the Word, Mr. Schliffer made a brief address concerning the first advent of the LORD. He stated that the Jewish Church at that time was in a good external condition, but that it was devoid of all internal life. "To-day we have similar condition in the Old Church. The external forms of worship are inviting, and to all appearance orderly and good; but, as with the Jews, so with this Church, there is no internal life, but instead internal rottenness. It is a form without an essence. Mankind would have perished if the LORD had not made His Second Advent in revealing the spiritual sense of the Word through His servant Emanuel Swedenborg." The address was followed by recitations and songs. The Christmas tree was lighted and the presents distributed, with fitting remarks, to the delighted children. Mr. Schliffer was presented with a gold coin from the congregation.     A. B.


     URBANA UNIVERSITY.- The Rev. Mr. Barler, soliciting agent of Urbana University, began his tour on behalf of the College Funds with a lecture at the University Lyceum in Urbana on Wednesday, January 17th, on the "New Education," showing that nowhere but in a New Church institution can science and philosophy be pursued with a knowledge of the discrete degrees and thus in harmony with a true spirit of culture and true theology. Mr. Baler reported as the encouraging result of his first day's efforts, chiefly in Urbana, the sum of over twelve hundred ($1,200) dollars subscribed to the funds of the college, mainly for the improvement of the college buildings the coming summer. He will endeavor to raise ten thousand dollars ($10,000) for this purpose, as also to increase the Endowment Fund during the Eastern trip he now sets out upon."
     A pleasant social-party was given by the Entertainment Committee at Lyceum Hall last week, consisting of social games, reading, and music, in which the students and pupils of the several schools joined very heartily and agreeably.
     At the annual meeting of the Urbana Society it was reported that the total Cost of the new church edifice is between $10,000 and $11,000, on which only a small debt remains unpaid. Of this amount nearly- $800 was contributed by citizens of Urbana having no religious connection with the New Church. Five young people recently confirmed joined the Society.


     GALVESTON, TEXAS- The Sabbath-school work still continues with more or less success. I have, however not been able to make any baptisms here. Persons sending their children to me, though of no Church themselves, have, most of them, had their children baptized by Old Church ministers, and do not yet see the necessity of having them baptized by a priest of the New Church. This, however, I trust, will be overcome on a further acquaintance with the Doctrines and a more enlightened state. On account of being connected with the public schools here, my labors have been almost entirely restricted to the city and its surroundings. During the holidays I went out to Eagle Pass, on the Mexican frontier, and while there baptized the Hon. Thomas Lamb, the County Judge of Maverick, his wife and three-children. January 3d, I spoke to a few who were inclined to listen on the subject of the "Coming of the LORD" and the establishment of the New Church, one of whom was a Methodist clergyman, to whom I had listened the night before. He was, unfortunately, unwilling to go beyond the literal statements of the Word, and saw no reason why there could not exist three persons in the Godhead. On a frontier of murder, drunkenness, and theft, he delighted to sing:

     Jesus paid it all,
     Yes, a the debt I owe."

The Judge says he entertains a hope that some fruitful work can be accomplished there; and, being a young man of great vigor of intellect and earnestness of purpose, intends to do all he can in securing a favorable impression for the Writings.

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There are many intelligent persons in the vicinity, but who prefer either no religious restraints or hide themselves under the cover of Mr. Ingersoll's logic. Lawyers and men of standing who say they have never done anything during life for which they have experienced a pang of conscience, are not rare. When I make myself sufficiently acquainted with Spanish I intend feeling the spirit of the Mexicans.
     January 7th.     W.A.
MRS. EMILY S. WHITE 1883

MRS. EMILY S. WHITE              1883

     MRS. EMILY SEYMOUR WHITE departed this life on Sunday, the 24th day of December, 1882, at her residence in the village of Wyoming, a few miles north of Cincinnati, Ohio.
     Mrs. White was the widow of William E. White, an old merchant of Cincinnati (of the old-time firm of Carlisle & White), to whom she was married in 1821, and whose departure to the spiritual world preceded hers some twelve years. She had attained the great age of ninety-one years on her last birthday. For about fifty years she had been a member of the Church, becoming connected with the Cincinnati Society in 1833, but during the last thirteen or fourteen years of her life she was a member of the Wyoming Society, to the support of which and the building of its Temple she was a liberal contributor. In 1874 she conveyed to the Wyoming Society a large lot adjoining that on which the Temple was built, on which she had erected a handsome dwelling-house, to be used as a parsonage; at an expense of several thousand dollars of her own means. This gift was coupled with a certain condition, which being broken, the property (worth about $6,000) went to the General Convention to be sold, and the proceeds devoted to the publishing and circulation of the Writings of the Church. The proceeds will institute a fund to be kept entire and to be known as The Emily S. White Fund, the income only to be used. At the last meeting of the Convention (June, 1882) the income was primarily devoted to the circulation of the new Latin editions of the Writings. The names of William E. and Emily S. White appear upon the records of the Western Convention of the Church as early as 1830 and they both during their sojourn here were actively and zealously interested in the cause of the Church.
     With occasional exceptions of short duration, Mrs. White retained her bodily and mental faculties until her last brief illness. She was of fine appearance, and sweet, womanly dignity of bearing; tranquil and serene, yet ever cheerful, bright, and animated in social converse; kind, gentle, and courteous with all, her personal sphere was delightful to all, whether old or young, who approached her. Always usefully occupied, her, hands were never idle. She manifested in many practical ways a kind and benevolent interest in the welfare of others, and retained to the last her interest in the social life around her, in the daily events in the life of humanity, and in whatever was new and interesting in literature, and much of her time was employed in the study of the Word and the Doctrines of the Church. Finally, after the material body had outlasted by more than a score of years the ordinary term of "old age," and could no longer serve the purpose of this life, she left it, as we have every reason to believe, only to enter upon her eternal rest in a "mansion prepared for her."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



NEWS NOTES.
     THE REV. O. L. BARLER preached in Glendale, Ohio, near Cincinnati, January 7th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE young people connected with the Denver, Col. Society are about to organize a club.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Society at Topeka, Kansas, has an average attendance at public worship of thirty-seven.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Music Committee of the Cincinnati Society is taking steps to form a competent paid choir.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DR. THEODORE FOOTE is at present acting as superintendent of the Vineland, N. J., Sunday-school.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. R. HIBBARD preached his farewell sermon to the congregation in Detroit on December 31st.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. STEPHEN WOOD, of Lost Nation, Iowa, delivered a Christmas sermon at Norway, Benton County, which was much admired.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. JACOB KIMM has accepted a call to preach until April for a recently organized Society in Montgomery County, Missouri.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DURING a fire in the neighborhood recently, the house of worship of the Brooklyn Society was damaged water to the extent of from $500 to $1,000.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. O. L. BARLER made a missionary visit in December to the State of Kansas, going as far west as Larned, and delivering nine discourses in ten days.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. E BOWERS preached for the Greenford (Ohio) Society on the Sundays, January 21st and 28th. He will also preach there on Sunday, February 4th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     OF the theological students at the Boston Theological School, six are taking the regular three years' course, one a special course, and another a post-graduate course.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     JONAS RAWALT, one of the oldest receivers in the West passed into the spiritual world, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, December 22d, at his home in Canton, Ill.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE German New Churchmen of Portland, Oregon, have organized a "Missionary Union for the North Pacific Coast." Mr. C. Stark is the secretary of the new organization.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DURING the past year thirty-three members have been received into the Boston (Mass.) Society. Seventeen names have been dropped on account of deaths and removals.
Title Unspecified 1883

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     THE Second German Society, of St. Louis, under the charge of the Rev. C. L. Carriere, purchased a lot a few months ago for 14,500. They expect to build a church next summer.
Title Unspecified 1883

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     IN the brief notice which we gave last month of the meeting of the Revision Committee, the name of Mr. F. Dewson, of Boston, was accidentally omitted from the list of members present.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THERE are in the Dominion of Canada four New Church Societies, three of which are respectively in Berlin, Wellesley, and Toronto, Province of Ontario, and one in Montreal Province of Quebec.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. E. I. KIRK, M.D., until recently employed in teaching and preaching at Charleston, W. Va., has accepted a call from the Pomeroy and Middleport (Ohio) Society to preach for them for one year.
Title Unspecified 1883

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     THE Christmas festival of the Vineland (N. J.) Society was held on Tuesday evening, December 26th. The programme consisted of music and recitations and the distribution of oranges and confectionery.
Title Unspecified 1883

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     AT Oil City, Pa., there is, so far as known, only one New Church family. The head of this is Mr. Artemus Pitcairn, and he holds a Sunday-school in his own house regularly for the instruction of his children.
Title Unspecified 1883

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     THE Christmas programme of the Denver (Col.) Society consisted of reading from the Word and from the Writings, music, a "Letter Scene," a Christmas drama entitled "Playing Angels," and concluded with the distribution of gifts.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Christmas services of the Sunday-school of the Advent Society of Philadelphia were held on the evening of December 29th, at the Temple, on Cherry Street. The principal feature of the evening was an original Christmas drama, enacted by the children.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ON invitation of the Rev. E. D. Daniels, who is not yet ordained into the ministry of the New Church, the Rev. J. E. Bowers on Sunday, January the 7th, administered the Sacrament of this Holy Supper for the Toronto Society, being assisted by Mr. Daniels.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE SOCIETY at Toronto, Canada, of which the Rev. E. D. Daniels is the efficient minister, on January 5th held a meeting, and adopted the Philadelphia Liturgy, published, by Lippincott and Co. Hitherto the Liturgy prepared by the Rev. George Fields some years ago has been in use.     
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Christmas festival of the Allentown, Pa., Society was a very pleasant one. The new house of worship was filled, many strangers being present. The exercises were original in their character, embodying a Christmas dialogue, illustrating the doctrine of the Church respecting the Advent of the LORD.
PUBLISHERS' NOTICE 1883

PUBLISHERS' NOTICE              1883



33



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, MARCH, 1883.
     -FOR twenty-five cents we will send the LIFE for six months on trial, to any address. For this purpose a cheap edition has been issued on thin white paper of half the weight of that on which the regular edition is printed. Those who receive sample copies of the cheap edition and who wish to examine the regular edition will be furnished with a sample copy of the same on application. Back numbers will NOT be furnished on such trial subscriptions. Remittances may be made in postage stamps.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     NEW subscribers whose subscriptions date from January, 1883, will receive, free of charge, the November and December numbers of 1882.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A LARGE proportion of our space is taken up this month with the discussion of the subject of Baptism. This is a question of the utmost importance, and those who seek to stifle the discussion of it do but ill service the Church. The policy of the LIFE, as doubtless readers have ere this discovered, is not to publish articles to which no one can object, but rather to publish articles on topics on which differences exist and on which, therefore, light is needed. We do not wish differences to be concealed and covered up, for then they will never be reconciled.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     In the establishment of the New Church the first thing is to disclose the evils and falsities of the Old. This is important to be borne in mind and is too often wilfully overlooked in the New Church. Swedenborg emphatically declares, "It is necessary first to state the doctrinals at present maintained, that the contrast between the doctrines of the, present Church and those of the New Church may be clearly understood," and hence the forerunner of the True Christian Religion, the Brief Exposition, is full of proofs of the falsity, unreasonableness, and absurdity of the Old Church doctrines. The Apocalypse Revealed for the same reason, begins with a statement of the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and of the Protestant Church, and in the Apocalypse itself the state of the Old Church is described and adjudged before the New Church was
"CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS?" 1883

"CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS?"              1883

     WE are always glad to have "our misapprehensions removed," and to reconsider any judgment formed from doctrine when reasons sufficient are presented to lead us to think that "perhaps the doctrine as been too hastily construed." But "F. S.," in the paper published in the present issue of the LIFE, has quite failed to give evidence of misapprehension on our part, or to supply us with reasons of sufficient weight to justify a reconsideration of our reading of doctrine, he admits that we have "based our views squarely on the teaching of the Writings," but qualifies, or tries to qualify, the admission by adding "as these are understood by the writer." We have often heard and read this phrase in a connection similar to that in which it here appears and we have as often wondered whether those who employed it were at all conscious of how utterly they were wasting very useful words, not to speak of time and other things. Is "F. S." in the habit of citing the teachings of the Writings, "as these are not understood by him" that he should think it necessary to qualify our citation of them by saying that we have cited them as we understood them? How else shall we cite them? If we do not receive the teachings of the Writings into our understandings, we do not receive them at all; nor can we know anything about them. And when so received, they form our thought, and this is according to our understanding of those teachings, and not according to another, person's understanding, unless we be of those who first think from others."- H. H. 74.
     We admit freely, and once for all, that we always seek first to understand the teachings of the LORD in the Writings, and then, when we write, or speak of them, we strive to express just our understanding of them, and nothing else. And having made the admission, we do hope that "F. S." will hereafter save his time and ours, as well as his words. We do not wish to go into a disquisition on the difference between sense and nonsense. Having just relieved our mind, we proceed to remark that "F. S." has not altered our apprehension of his views, nor added strength to his position by this attempt to explain what "he means by man's inability to destroy a Sacrament." If, as he affirms, men "can not undo or prevent the work of the LORD or angels through divinely appointed means," how can they "make the Word of God of non effect by themselves? To make of non-effect" certainly means to prevent it from doing what it is "given to do for man To say that they cannot do this to others is neither here nor there. It can be done, it has been done, and it is done, and this not only by one man, but also by many men; and it is possible that it be done by all men. And when the Word of God is made of none effect by many men, and all are in danger of being drawn into the same evil state, the LORD brings the state to an end and gives to men His "Truth" in a new form, accommodated to them as they are in the new condition of things. The Church, formed by the Word, as the Divinely appointed means of the work of the LORD, has been so perverted and destroyed again and again as "to undo and prevent" that work.

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That "the Word of the LORD nevertheless abideth forever," is the same as to say, "The Word nevertheless abideth forever," for the LORD is the Word, and, when He says, "I came not to destroy the Word, but to fulfill," this does not mean that man cannot destroy the Word, because the LORD preserves it, but that, although "various external rites of the Church, which represented the LORD, aid the internal things of heaven and the Church, which are from the LORD; and which are in the Word of the Old Testament, have, been for the most part repealed, still the Word in its Divine holiness remains," etc. (A. C. 9349, etc.) Thus a holy rite of the Church may be commanded in the letter of the Word and yet be "repealed as to use," whilst the true internal of such a holy rite "abideth forever," and with it the letter of the Word as its containant. The Church is not the Word; the Sacraments of the Church are not the Word; but they are with men from the Word, which is the LORD, according to Divine institution and according to men's understanding of the Word of their institution and use. The understanding of the Word is the understanding and reception of the Divine Truth and Divine Good of the Word. So long as these are understood and received, and according to the quality of their understanding and reception, the Church, with its holy Sacraments, is with men, and they perform the work of which they are Divinely appointed means. But when the truth of the Word is perverted into falsity, and its good is adulterated into evil, then the Word is no longer with those who are in such a state; neither is the Church nor its Sacraments with them, for then men do not worship the LORD, but a devil. To say that the Word is not destroyed in such a case, because "it does not have to be re-written or instituted anew," is to say that the writing and book are the Word, even when separated from every sense of truth and good, which are its "spirit and life;" or, it is like having that the embalmed body of a man is still the man, even though his spirit in hell.
     That the Word, or Divine Truth, is never entirely destroyed with all men; that there are remnants of truth and good left from every Church which passes into the night of its consummation, and that the LORD, before a Church has come to its final end, establishes a "New Church, into which He gathers such remnants-these are truths not to be questioned. But "F. S." can only avail himself of these truths for the purposes of his argument after he has shown that the remnants of a Church are a Church; that the remains of truth and good in man are the truth and good of his life, and that the LORD, when He establishes the Church anew because a former Church is dead, imparts life at the same time to the body that has died and so brings a new and vigorous life into existence, to be accompanied by the shade of a former life, leaving to man the choice unto which of the two he will join himself. We do not propose to repeat our argument in regard to the peculiar manner in which "F. S." connects a Sacrament with the Word, and transfers what is true concerning the Word to a holy act of worship performed by man, as if they were one and the same thing. Neither shall we occupy space in characterizing, as it deserves, the persistence of "F. S." in begging the question by speaking of the performance of certain rites by men of the Catholic religion, or of some one of the Protestant religions, as Christian Baptism and Christian Sacraments, when the very formula employed in the rites is made by them to express a denial and rejection of the LORD, into whose name alone man can be truly baptized. As has been repeatedly shown from the Writings, the Church is with man according to his understanding of the Word, and the use of the Word in any Sacrament, of the Church, or in any act of worship is according to the understanding of the same.
     We are concerned chiefly with the latter part of the paper of "F. S.," published in the present issue of the LIFE. We cannot call it a reply to our two articles, in which we have endeavored to answer the questions put to by "F. S." in his first paper, and in which we have made sundry points that he does not notice, and     have put several interrogatories to which he does not reply. He seek, it is true, to make his meaning more clear to our apprehension, but with little success; his explanations are but repetitions of the substance of his original statements? Reiteration adds nothing to the force of an argument; re-assertions of unwarranted assumptions but make them more glaringly wrong, and questions twice or thrice begged are positions as many times confessed to be without foundation. Our position is a very plain, broad, and simple one: There is but one LORD, but one Church of the LORD, and but brie Baptism into the name of the LORD. The one LORD is the LORD JESUS CHRIST, as now appearing in His Divine Human out of the opened Word; the one Church is the. Church that knows, acknowledges, and worships Him alone, and this Church is the Christian Church, because it has its name or quality from Christ, who is the Divine Truth of the Divine Quo the Word made flesh and glorified, and the one Baptism is the holy act of worship instituted by the LORD in the establishment of the True Christian Church "prescribed in its doctrine and performed according to the same doctrine."
     There cannot be two LORDS, two Christian Churches, and two Baptisms in the name of two LORDS. Baptism is a sign, of introduction into that which constitutes a Church, viz.: Into the truth and good of its faith and life, if the Church have a true faith and a good life, or into the falsity and evil of its faith and life, if the Church be falsified, perverted, vastated, and consummated. A Church consummated is no longer a Church in reality and if no longer a Church in reality it is separated from the LORD, from the Word, and from all worship of the LORD, according to the Word and doctrine from the Word. To ascribe to such a body the valid performance of Sacraments is simply to deny the truth of these propositions from the last even to the first, it is to deny that the LORD has left the former Church because it has left Him, and it is to deny in effect the very end of the LORD'S Coming again, which is to establish a New Church by which the broken communication of mankind with heaven may be restored and the salvation of the human race effected. The whole reasoning of "F. S." is without coherence and without order, because the idea from which he proceeds has no coherence with the primary truths that must be in the ultimate truths concerning the Word and doctrine and the Church, so that all the intermediate things of faith and charity may be arranged and ordinated in the true form and order of heaven. No man, after death, is introduced into heaven without the acknowledgment of the LORD; how can man be introduced into a Church, which is the LORD'S heaven on earth, without, the sign of precisely the same acknowledgment of the LORD? A Church in earth, and all things of a Church on earth, are such as are its understanding of the Word," i. e., of the LORD, who is the Word. All this and very much more is taught in T. C. R. 700, and if "F. S." can convince himself from the teaching in this passage, or from the teaching of other parts of the Writings; that there is a true Christianity, which is not that of the new, true, and only existing Church of the LORD, we shill have to be content to leave him in his belief.


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     In our judgment, "F. S." suffers more or less, also, from a confusion of ideas consequent upon the introduction of an issue not directly involved in the main question, but which he seems to be disclosed to substitute for the real matter at issue. The point which he appears to have at heart is that we ought to leave the judgment as to the validity of one's Baptism to the LORD and to the individual conscience instructed by doctrine." On this point we have no controversy with him, on the contrary, it is a view that we have held, maintained, and acted on for years, as we believe it to be the only proceeding on the part of the Church and its ministers compatible with the conservation of human freedom and rationality. But, does not "F. S." see that the Church and its ministers are not required by the utmost respect for the freedom of an individual to adopt that individual's judgment as their own, and to make it their rule of practice? A minister may administer the Sacrament of the Holy Supper to a person not baptized in the New Church, if such person comes in the full knowledge of what constitutes worthiness to receive that Holy Ordinance. But this is a different matter altogether from an Ordaining Minister's accepting the individual judgment of a candidate for ordination as evidence of his preparation for that office. The candidate must be free to exercise his own judgment in respect to his understanding and reception of any and of all the Doctrines of the Church. But what becomes of Order in the Church, nay, of freedom and rationality in the Church, if the judgment of the ecclesiastical authorities is to be held subject to the judgment of an individual who asks of them the exercise of their functions! Every man must be respected and protected in the freedom of acting according to his own reason; but how can every man be so protected, if it be held that one man's reason is to dominate the reason of other men in cases where there is to be' mutual and reciprocal action?" And, if an individual is to be sustained in imposing his conscience upon others in one particular, why not in all particulars? A man's coming into the Church is one thing, and primarily a personal thing; but a man's coming into the ministry of the Church is a concern of others primarily and of his subordinately.
     The difference in the cases is clear enough, and the fallacy of the reasoning of "F. S." ought to be equally clear. Indeed, he admits our position, although he seems not to see the force of his own language. He says: "This (his preceding argument) leaves the judgment as to the validity of one's Baptism to the LORD and to the individual conscience, instructed by doctrine." We have italicized the last clause of the sentence for the obvious reason that it contains an exposure of the fallacy of the whole idea that seems to underlie the argument of this writer. A conscience is a true conscience, and thus a true plane for the government of man by the LORD (A. C. 4167), in the degree in which it is formed by truth and good spiritual, given in doctrine from the LORD and by instruction from doctrine. A person may be well disposed, and may be coming into the faith and life of the Church, but as yet have a conscience very imperfectly formed by more or less external and natural ideas of truth and good, in consequence of a more or less general and obscure understanding of the doctrine of Divine Truth. In such a case it is the duty of the Church to suffer the person to follow such light as he has, but, at the same time, to give him more and better instruction from doctrine, in order that his understanding may be more fully opened for the reception of greater light and the formation of a truer conscience. Of course, our reasoning will be a mere beating of the air to those who are on the safe plane of spiritual enlightenment as the supposed individual.
     It has been evident to us all along that in opposing the argument of "F. S." concerning the validity of the Sacrament of Baptism, preserved in its formula among the religions of the Old Dispensation; we were contending against another idea not brought forward, but constituting the real ground of the position of this writer. This idea is that of the continued existence of the Old Christian' Church, and a sort of inclusive relation of due dead Church to the new and living New Church.
     That "F. S." has such an inner lodgment of his faith in the matter of Baptism, we conclude from statements like the following (the italics are ours): "I do not find mentioned among the uses of Baptism, defined by Swedenborg in T. C. R., ch. xii, that of marking off the New Church from other Christians, but rather the simple one of distinguishing Christians from those not Christians."
     Again: "What raised the discussion of Baptism at this time was not a question whether men shall be baptized or not, or whether the New Church shall administer Baptism to all who ask it, but rather whether it shall require another Baptism of those who feel that their Christian Baptism is all that the doctrine of the Church requires." In his reply to Mr. Worcester "F. S." says but he seems to forget that His disciples or Christian Baptism is the very Baptism that Swedenborg defines as containing all the uses even the highest, namely, regeneration, and that consequently there can be no higher or more Christian Baptism than that of the disciples of our LORD." And finally, as the conclusion of that portion of his paper, in which "F. S." presents a series of plausible considerations in contravention of the views expressed in the LIFE, we have this distinct avowal of what we had surmised, put in the form of an interrogatory:
"If, then, there was, after the Last Judgment and before the organization of the New Church, a Christian Church in which the LORD provided that the Word should "be read and a knowledge of the LORD made possible, why should that Church not still be in existence, and why should its Baptism be not regarded as a genuine and not idolatrous rite?"
     If this is the real belief of "F. S.," it is with him fundamental to the whole question of Baptism as administered by the New Church, and as still observed, by the religions left among the ruins of the Old Church; And we have a right to ask: Why was this very heart of the position of "F. S." kept back until the last moment? Why was it not put in the fore-front of his line of argument? We have been left to contend with a subordinate point, and now, at the latest moment, we learn that this Writer has all along admitted the truth of our position, that a Sacrament is not a Sacrament without a Church of which it is a holy act of worship; inasmuch as the Sacrament that he has been contending for is but a part of the old and still existing Christian Church. "F. S." alludes to the length of our replica to his first communication. He might have saved us much labor of writing, and himself and others much labor of reading, had he gone directly to his point, and not disported himself over so large a field, introducing so many things which had to be met, not because of their real bearing upon the subject, but because of their misleading character: Now that he has placed behind, beneath, or by the side of the living and growing human form of the New Church, with its true and living Sacrament of the pale shadowy, ghostly figure of the Old Christian Church, still performing but with its hollow and lifeless ceremonies; a form which he endeavors to animate with vital forces, because he cannot see what the LORD, in His infinite mercy and wisdom, could have done without it for infants and others during a certain interval of time: now that he has, put himself squarely on the record, we can understand how he could speak of the Sacrament as he has spoken.

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The Old Sacrament still exists, because the Old Church still exists as a true Church. This being his position, "F. S." is, of course, prepared to furnish us with an explanation of the LORD'S words at the conclusion of his institution of Baptism, which are these: "And lo! I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age. Amen." Matt. xxviii, 20. And, of course, his explanation will be different from the one we have already cited from, A. R. 750, where it is said that after the LORD has left the Church which is at its end, "He is only with those who will be of His New Church," and this is the Divine explanation of the Divine words in Matt. xviii, 20, "Lo! I am with you all the days until the consummation of the age." It is now incumbent on "F. S." to show that the Greek word here properly rendered "until" does not mean "until," but "even after," and that the LORD promises to continue with that Church notwithstanding its total vastation and consummation; in other words, notwithstanding its total denial and rejection of Him and of all truth from Him.
     "F. S." objects to our statement that "he ought to know" certain things to which we have called his attention. Of course, we are willing to recall the words if he thinks that he "ought not to know those things," but we are not sure that we ought to accept his averment as to "the kind of light he needs." Our needs and our wants do not always coincide. A person may greatly need another light than the light in which he wants a subject to be viewed. And in this respect, as every one must read the Word according to his understanding of it, i. e., according to his light, so also must every one deal with the presentment of a teaching of the Word according to his understanding or light. The light given to one may sometimes be of service in clearing and expanding the light given to another. And inasmuch as such aid has often come to us and has been gratefully acknowledged, we shall gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded by "F. S." to present for his consideration our understanding of the teaching in T. C. R. 800, and following numbers. T. C. R. 800, etc., treats of "Christians, [i. e., of persons from Christendom,] by whom the Word is read, and with whom there is a cognition and acknowledgment of the LORD, the Redeemer and Saviour;" and of these it is said that they are in the midst of the nations and of the people of the whole spiritual world, because they are in the greatest spiritual light, etc. It is not necessary here to enter into particulars respecting the Dutch, the English, the Reformed, etc., etc. The statement covers them all, and treats of Christians from the earth in the spiritual world, after the Last Judgment. From this and other teachings in the succeeding numbers of the True Christian Religion, "F. S." concludes that Swedenborg "describes a state of things as actually existing," that there were at that time some Christians "among whom the Word was read and the LORD acknowledged," that the English and the Dutch, because of a certain internal quality, clearly discernible in the spiritual world, do actually occupy a central position among the nations and peoples of Christendom. Well, admitting these things to be so, and we have never heard of their being called in question, what are they supposed to prove? It is well known that not only at the time of the Last Judgment, but also since that event, there have been "some Christians among whom the Word was read and the LORD acknowledged;" there are such Christians at the present day, who are not of the external New Church on earth, and these are the remnants so frequently mentioned in the Writings, from among whom come those persons who, either in this life, or in the life to come, openly acknowledge the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and are introduced into His New Church. "F. S." further cites T. C. R. 270, to show that the Word which the Protestants and Reformed possess enlightens all nations and peoples by spiritual communication," and to this we add that this same Word, as our writer has so frequently endeavored to impress upon us, is possessed in its literal form by the New Church, which undoubtedly is the Church of which Swedenborg speaks in T. C. R. 267, and especially in n. 268, where the true ground and reason of the position of certain nations is in the centre of Christendom is thus given: "In this man [the universal Church], the Church where the Word is read and thereby the LORD is known, is like the heart and lungs, the celestial kingdom of the LORD as the, heart, and His spiritual kingdom as the lungs." This being so, "the LORD" from his love and mercy, infinitely desiring the salvation of all men, "provides that there shall always be a Church on earth where the Word is read, and by it the LORD may be made known."- T. C. R. 270. And now, why does "F. S." stop at this point in his reading? Why does he not give us at least the beginning of the next number (271) of the T. C. R.? We supply what he has omitted. It is this:

     Because it has been predicted that in the end of this Church [the Church with the Protestants and Reformed who possess the Word] darkness should also arise from non-knowledge of the LORD, that He is the God of heaven and the earth, and from the separation of faith from charity; therefore, lest thereby the gentiles understanding of the Word should perish, and thus the Church, it has pleased the LORD now to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word and to make manifest that the Word in that sense, and from that sense in the natural sense, contains innumerable things by which the light of truth from the Word, that ions among extinguished, may be restored. That the light of truth would be almost wholly extinguished at the end of the present Church, is foretold in many passages of the Revelation, and is also meant by these Words of the LORD: "Immediately after the affliction of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken; and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory."-Matt. xxiv, 29, 30.

     Our LORD here foretells that "they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory," immediately after the affliction of those days that is, at "the end of the present Church." By "present Church" is meant, of course; the Old Christian Church. If this Church still exists it is self evident that it has not yet come to an end, and if "the present Church" has not come to an end then the LORD has not yet made His Second Advent, and if the LORD has not made His Second Advent the New Church has not yet been instituted and there is no Church "where the Word is read and the LORD acknowledged" but the Old Christian Church. We leave it to "F. S." to reconcile his idea of the continued existence of the Old Church with the LORD'S teaching that "He comes at the end of a former Church to establish a New Church, and in this way always preserves a Church on earth in which the Word is read and the LORD acknowledged."
     But we must again note the peculiar way in which "F. S" tries to establish his point, rather by juxtaposition of statements than by the interior connection of the" teaching of the statements so arranged. He first sites T. C. R. 800, 806, 807 to show what is the position of certain Christians in the Spiritual World after the Last Judgment and therefore in the new heaven formed by the LORD.

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Among these are named the Reformed, a certain division of Protestants. Immediately upon this is made to follow T. C. R. 270, in which Swedenborg is not treating of the Reformed, nor of Protestants, nor of the state of Christians in the Spiritual World, but of the Word or the Sacred Scripture, that "by means of it light is communicated to those who are out of the pale of the Church and do not possess the Word." (See T. C. R. 267.) In the number cited, Swedenborg explains that by the "Word" he means the Word such as is possessed by sill Protestants and the Reformed; then he adds, "further," "that it is provided by the LORD that "there should always be a Church on earth where the Word may be read, etc.," and to illustrate this Providence of the LORD he says: "When therefore, the Word was almost totally rejected by the Pontificals-the Roman Church) from the Divine Providence of the LORD the Reformation took place, to draw forth the Word, as it were, from its hiding places and to bring it into use." Thus, that when the Romish Church had almost destroyed the Word, the Reformed Church was raised up; "as, also when the Word was entirely falsified and adulterated with the Jewish nation and rendered in a manner null, it pleased the LORD to descend from heaven and to come as the Word, and to fulfill it, and thus renew and restore it, and give light again to the inhabitants of the earth according to the words of the LORD in Isaiah ix, 2; Matt. iv, 16." (T. C. R. 270.) Having thus shown how the LORD established successive Churches for the sake of preserving the Word among men, Swedenborg goes further and shows that as the Primitive Christian Church follow the Jewish, so the Romish Church followed the Primitive, the Reformed Church the Romish, the end of the Reformed Church, which he calls "the present Church," and the LORD institutes the New Church. (T. C. R., 271.) So far, then, from establishing by juxtaposition of passages from the Writings that "there was such a Christian Church in existence, or at least a Church where the Word was read and the LORD could be made known, even during the interval between the Last Judgment and the formation of New Church societies," and that this Church, with its Baptism, continues in existence, the true reading and interpretation of these passages establishes the very reverse. The New Church has come into existence because the Old Church has come to its end, and the Word could no longer be preserved among men by means of those who had totally falsified its every truth and adulterated its every good, in consequence of which a total destruction of the human race impended. Numbers 267-272 of the True Christian Religion, therefore, instead of supplying "F. S." with "a simple and real solution of all difficulties involved in this subject," -if they are to be treated as he has treated them, will only involve him, and all who follow him, in an inexplicable maze of difficulties and lead entirely away from "the simple and real" truth of the matter.
     "F. S." seems to find a great difficulty in understanding what the LRDD could have been doing for infants and others "in the interval between the Last Judgment and the formation of New Church societies." We have not time to enter into a discussion of this question, would remind him of the frets that the Word was among men; that the state of the world of spirits was altogether changed immediately after the Judgment; that the LORD'S Providence could operate more fully and freely for the preservation of infants and the simple-minded Than be fore the Judgment, and that with the LORD there are no "interval of time, and there is no moment of time in which He did not know how to preserve and save those who can be preserved and saved. If he will study the teachings of the Church concerning the states of transition from a former to a New Church, beginning with Noah, he will see that his suggestion of a difficulty presents no difficulty at all. And we are free to add, after having carefully considered, these papers of "F. S.," that his real difficulty, and the difficulty of all those who think with him, lies in their not having formed a true conception of the Second Coming of the LORD, of the nature of the Church, and of the conditions which bring a Church to its end and render necessary the establishment of a New Church. Any attempt to include the Old Christian Church within the New Church is an attempt to destroy the New Church, and comes from the infesting spirits of the Draconic crew, who are inflamed with a deadly hatred of "the Son of the Woman."
COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS 1883

COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS              1883

III.
     DANGER OF COMMUNICATION WITH SPIRITS.

     IN the Word, seeking communication with spirits is strictly forbidden. In Exodus ixii, 18, we read: "A witch thou shalt not vivify," and we are taught in the Writings that this precept is one which ought altogether to be observed and done. (See A. C. 9349.)
     Again it is said in Leviticus: "Regard not them that have, familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards. I am the LORD your God," xix, 31. And again in the same: "And the 'soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits" and after wizards to go a-whoring after them;' I will even set my face against that soul and will cut him off from among his people." "A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit; or that is a wizard, shall surely be put, to death; they shall stone them with stones, their blood shall be upon them," xx, 6-27.
     And in Deuteronomy it is written: "When thou comest to the land which JEHOVAH thy God giveth to thee, thou shalt not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found in thee one who causeth his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, that divineth divinations, that interrogateth the hells or an augurer, or witch, or an enchanter, or one interrogating a python, or a wizard, or one inquiring of the dead; for an abomination to JEHOVAH is every one doing these things, and on account of these abominations JEHOVAH thy God is expelling them before thee. Thou shalt be perfect with JEHOVAH thy God. For these nations which thou art driving out hearken unto soothsayers and diviners, but JEHOVAH thy God hath not given thee to do so."-Deut. xxiii, 9-14.
     Such were the prohibitions against seeking communication with spirits in the Jewish Church. These laws are also in force now in this New Dispensation; for Swedenborg says that the law against a witch is one of those which ought altogether to be observed and done. "In many places in the Writings we are taught that it is forbidden to seek intercourse with spirits, and that such intercourse is extremely dangerous, and the reasons there for are given."
     Swedenborg was several times asked about communication, with spirits and how one could obtain it, but he uniformly answered by giving a solemn warning against seeking it, and at the same time he gives the reason it has been granted to him.


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     To one who desired to know the secret by which one could gain communication with spirits Swedenborg replied:
     The Word of God is everywhere written in such a style that when man reads it with affection and attention spirits and angels have a part in it, and adjoin themselves to him, for the Word of God is so written that it forms a bond of union between heaven and earth. The Loan, nevertheless so disposes it that spirits and men are seldom brought together so closely as to converse with one another, for by intercourse with spirits men are brought into such a condition, as to their souls, that they are speedily in danger of their life; wherefore I would dissuade all from cherishing such desires. The LORD Himself has been pleased to introduce me into converse and intercourse with spirits and angels, for the reasons which have been explained in my writings; wherefore I am protected by the LORD Himself from the many desperate attempts and attacks of evil spirits. The way in which spirits and men are kept apart is this: spirits are kept in spiritual and men in natural thought and speech, whereby they are separated so as to make one only by correspondence, the nature of which has likewise been treated of. As long, therefore, as spirits are in a spiritual and men in a natural state, they are not brought together so as to converse with one another, although they are together in affection; but when spirits converse with men they are out of their spiritual state and in a natural state like men, and then they may bring them into danger of soul, and life, as has been stated above. For this reason they have to be kept apart, so that the spirits do not know anything of man nor man of them, although they are always together, for man cannot live unless he is connected with heaven and hell, and thereby receives life.-Letter to Count Bonde, Stockholm, Aug. 11th, 1760; Documents, Vol. II, p. 232.

     Swedenborg, in his reply to a letter from the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt, says:

     In your gracious letter you ask how I came to have intercourse with angels and spirits, and whether this state could be imparted by one to another. Deign to receive favorably the following

     LORD our Saviour foretold that He would come again into the world, and institute a New Church; He predicted this in Revelation xxi and xxii, and also in several places in the Gospels. But as He cannot come again into the world in person, it was necessary that He should do it by means of a man, who should not only receive the doctrine of that Church by his understanding, but also publish it by means of the press; and as the LORD had prepared me for this from my childhood, He manifested Himself in person before me, His servant, and sent me to do this work. This took place in the year 1743, and afterward He opened the sight of my spirit, and thus introduced me into the spiritual world, granting me to see the heavens and many of the wonderful things there, and also the hells and to speak with angels and spirits, and this continually for twenty-seven years. I declare in truth that this is so. This took place with me on account of the Church, which I mention above, the doctrine of which is contained in my books. The gift of conversing with spirits and angels cannot be transferred from one person to another, unless the LORD Himself, as has been the case with me, opens the sight of the spirit of that person. It is sometimes granted to a spirit to enter and to communicate some truth to a man, bat still leave is not given to the man to speak with him mouth to mouth. This is also most dangerous) because the spirit enters into the affections of man's own love, which does not agree with the affection of heavenly love."(Amsterdam, 1771; Document., Vol. II, p. 387.)

     And again he says:

     Men are easily led astray by spirits who represent themselves men according to the quality of each one's love.-(Document., Vol. II, p. 210.)
     Spirits entice man a thousand ways, but woe to those who follow them.-(Documents, Vol. II, p. 209.)

     From these things we can see that there is a marked distinction between the state in which Swedenborg was and that of ordinary communication with spirits. He was granted this intercourse for the sake of the Church, in order that he might accurately describe the heavens and the hells and the intermediate state, and that by means of these descriptions the New Church might have this knowledge in a rational form, that we might know the states of heaven, hell, and the world of spirits without incurring the danger of open intercourse with spirits. By this knowledge we can also understand the where it treats of these subjects, and this knowledge is exact, for the LORD so guided Swedenborg and led him, that the information given in his Writings is free from error, whereas that obtained through intercourse with spirits is full of errors and the spirits lead man into all manner of falsities.
     The reason why communication with spirits is so dangerous is given in the following passage:

     But to speak with spirits at this day is rarely given, since it is dangerous, for then spirits know that they are with man, which otherwise they do not know. And evil spirits are such that they have a deadly hatred to man, and desire nothing more than to destroy him as to soul and as to body, which also takes place with those who indulge much in fantasies, so that they have removed from themselves the delights suitable to the natural man. Some also who lead a solitary life sometimes hear spirits speaking with them and without danger, but the spirits with them at intervals are removed by the LORD, lest they shonl4 know that they are with man for most spirits do not know that there is any other world than that in which they are: thus also they do not know that there are men elsewhere, wherefore it is not lawful for man to speak with them in turn, for if he should speak they would know it. Those who think much concerning religious things, and inhere in them, so as to see them within themselves, also begin to hear spirits speaking with themselves, for religions things, whatsoever they are, when man inheres in them from himself and does not interrupt them by various things which are of use in the world, enter interiorly, and there subsist and occupy the whole spirit of man, and they enter the spiritual world and move the spirits who are there. But such are visionaries and enthusiasts, and whatsoever spirit they hear they believe to be the Holy Spirit, when nevertheless they are enthusiastic spirits. Those who are such see falses as truths, and because they see them they persuade themselves, and they also persuade those with whom they inflow, and because those spirits also began to persuade to evils, in which also they were obeyed, therefore by degrees they were removed. Enthusiastic spirits are distinguished from other spirits by this, that they believe themselves to be the Holy Spirit and what they say to be divine. These spirits do not hurt man, because man honors them with divine worship. I have also spoken with them sometimes, and then also were discovered the wicked things by which they infused into their worshipers. They dwell together to the left in a desert place.- H. H. 249.

     Man in his unregenerated natural condition is intimately connected with evil spirits from hell. They dwell in his affections, his thoughts come from them, and they desire nothing more than to draw him down to hell an make him as evil and wicked as themselves. The true course, therefore, for man to pursue is to separate himself from these evil spirits as much as possible, which is effected by the reception of the truths of faith and by a life according to them. But when man seeks and obtains open communication with spirits he comes into consociation only with the evil, with his like, and they then know that they are with man. They excite his cupidities and lusts, and lead him by means of his affections. Thus the bondage which he is in to evil and falsity is strengthened so that it is almost impossible to escape from their power.
     We are told that evil spirit are such that they hold man in deadly hatred and desire nothing more than to destroy man both as to soul and body. Their efforts to destroy the soul are directed against his belief in the LORD and the Word, and against his efforts to lead a life in conformity with the commandments of the LORD. These things they can accomplish in numberless ways. They perceive his unregenerate affections and his thoughts; they see his weak points and they lead him by means of them. They confirm his false ideas and try to destroy and undermine his truths, and thus they try to lead him from one false and evil state to another, until they make him as much a child of hell as themselves.


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     As to the body, they try to inflow and destroy it, derange its function, produce diseases, insanities, and death; and were it not for the restraining power of the LORD and the angels they would speedily produce these things, but the LORD continually restrains and keeps man in freedom and health as much as man will permit.
     Knowing these things, we can see why Swedenborg would dissuade all from cherishing the desire to enter into communication with spirits, for even in the desire there is danger, for spirits can work on this desire and lead man by means of that to enter into the forbidden intercourse; "therefore we ought to shun a sin, even the desire to do what is evil. For to the New Church these things are an abomination and the LORD our God, has not given us to do so.
UNIVERSAL GATEWAY TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 1883

UNIVERSAL GATEWAY TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH              1883

     IF "W. D." will carefully read our article on Baptism in the January and February numbers of the LIFE he will see that we treat of Baptism as a Sacrament of the Church, and a representative of the faith of the Church. Like all other things of the Church's worship, this Sacrament or "solemnity of worship" is prescribed by doctrines and performed according to doctrine.- H. D. 6,124.
The "internal of Baptism is therefore the doctrine of Baptism, A. C. 3270, 6804, and the internal of this doctrine is the Divine Truth of the Divine Good, or use of Baptism reduced into a form accommodated to the understandings of men. If, then, men are in this doctrine of truth concerning Baptism when they are in the act of Divine worship denominated Baptism, the internal of the Sacrament is in its external, the internal being within them and the act without them. If this doctrine of Divine Truth concerning Baptism is not within men, then neither is it without them in the act of Baptism, and so the act is dead, that is to say, it is not Baptism. Further, if the doctrine of Divine Truth concerning Baptism, which is the internal of that holy act of worship, be perverted into falsities by men, then is this defiled internal in that external act with them, and the act also is defiled, and therefore not Baptism. The real subject of the doctrine of Baptism is not the sacramental act, as "W. D." seems to imagine, but the Divine use and purpose of its institution in the Church. And the Divine use and purpose of Baptism is the regeneration of man by an acknowledgment of the LORD, and a life, according to His commandments. Is not this use destroyed by a denial of the LORD and of the life of charity according to the commandments-in other words, by a falsification and perversion in the mind of man of the doctrine which teaches the nature, character, and uses of the Sacrament? And if the use is destroyed is not the Sacrament destroyed? How can it exist when its use ceases to exist? And how can its use exist when a Trinity of Gods is made to take the place of the one and only GOD in the doctrine which prescribes Baptism, and according to which it is performed? We do not find in A. R. 776 any statement to the effect that "a Trinity of Gods is not 1n Baptism itself." In regard to an infant, it must be borne in mind that the sacramental act is performed by others for the infant and not by the infant itself, and that the faith which cannot be infused into a suckling child is the faith that exists in the Church by which the Baptism is performed, and, further, "that the quality of the Church with man is according to his understanding of the Word."- T. C. R. 243. As has been shown elsewhere, the Sacrament of Baptism has no existence apart from the Church, inasmuch as it was instituted in the Christian Church, together with the Holy Supper, as a most holy solemnity of its worship. Now, "W. D." knows well that the whole includes the parts, in death as well as in life; and therefore, that if the Church be destroyed and comes to an end, every part of it must be in the same condition. If, by what he says concerning "a relative destruction," he means that the LORD always preserves a Church on earth, and, therefore, also an introductory sacrament or holy rite, by establishing these anew when former dispensations have come to an end, he says what is not to be questioned, but what has bearing upon the present question, if the entire and discrete newness of every succeeding dispensation be not admitted. As the Most Ancient and the Ancient Churches have ceased to exist, so also has the Jewish Church ceased to exist, and with them also their sacrament and rites. And now, the same is true of the Christian Church, established by the LORD at His first coming into the world. All these were various forms of the Church, various dispensations provided by the LORD in accommodation to the states of man, and all of these, as we are abundantly taught, were consummated by the falsification of the truth and the adulteration of the good, which had been their internal constituents. Where did this falsification and adulteration take place? In the minds, hearts, and lives of men, of course; just where the Churches came to their ends. When this life of the Church went out of the life of the men who composed it, the Church as a Church ceased, even as with man, when spiritual life goes out in him, he ceases to be a man. How, then, can "W. D." find any comfort or rational support for his view in the idea that "the destruction is not absolute; for the LORD still lives, and neither man nor devil can abrogate what He has instituted"? undoubtedly, there is a sense in which it can be said that nothing which the LORD has created can be absolutely destroyed. The LORD has created man-man cannot absolutely destroy himself-but he can make a devil of himself to the extent that he becomes altogether like bone. And then he is nothing, because "good with truth, and truth with good, are something; hence it follows, that evil with false, and false with evil, are not anything, for the latter are opposite to the former, and opposition destroys; in the present case it destroys that which is something."-D. P. 11. Wherefore, when the destruction of the Church is spoken of, its destruction with man is meant, not its destruction in the heavens or with the LORD. It appears necessary to say this, although it ought not to be necessary.
     "W. D. inquires: "Is T. C. R. 677 true everywhere on earth where Baptism is devoutly administered?" And if not, where not?" Certainly it is true of Baptism wherever so administered, but as certainly it is not true of that "Ritual," which is called Baptism, but which is as "a shell without a kernel," a mere external without an internal. And this ritual is all that is left of the holy act of worship called Baptism, that once performed a Divine use in the Old Christian Church. "W. D.," like others, when quoting the True Christian Religion and other Writings of the Church on this subject, seems to lose sight of the essential fact that he is quoting the Doctrines revealed by the LORD for the use of His New Church, and not for the use of the dead Church which "He has left," because it has denied, rejected, and slain Him." "W. D." finds a peculiar bearing in favor of his views in the words "at this day," quoted from T. C. R. 690. But why does he stop at "day"? The words are: "At this day with Christians." Only those are Christians who acknowledge and worship the LORD JESUS CHRIST.


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     "The gate of introduction into the Church was closed when the Church ceased to be the Church of the LORD'S, that is to say, in its final consummation and judgment.
     "W. D" asks: "Does the Church, which has falsified every doctrine, tell the truth when it says that the Sacrament of Baptism, when performed within its own pale, is the sign and seal of its own false faith?" We were not aware that this Church could or did tell so much truth. We shall be glad to have the evidence that it is beginning to tell the truth about itself, for then shall we begin to hope that the time is drawing near when New Churchmen will be freed from the infestation of thinking that such is not the truth, but that there is still some of the LORD'S life and operation left in that dead body. In A. R. 776, we read that some of that Church in the other world, whilst in a temporary state of instruction and illumination, saw and acknowledged that the things they had believed and taught were not truths, but falsities, but that this state soon ceased.
     Now, a few words as to infants and children, and the simple good remaining in the vastate Old Church. "W. D." asks: "Can infernal spirits ever be with infants; or, are angels always with them?" Undoubtedly evil spirits can be with infants, but they are not permitted to effect anything; the LORD protects them by the angels who are constantly with them. In A. C. 1667, it is said "So long as such good and truth (the good and truth of infancy) are possessed by man, whether it be in his childhood or in any other period of his life; evil and falsities, can effect nothing-that is, evil spirits cannot attempt to do anything or to inject any evils, as is very evident in the case of infants, of well-disposed children, and of simple-hearted persons, with whom; although evil spirits or the very worst of the diabolical crew were present, still they could not effect anything, but were kept in subjection. Infants and children have as yet no evil sphere of their own, because they are not in actual evils, and so' there is no medium by which evil spheres could operate upon them, except the spheres of their parents and immediate surroundings. To these latter spheres evil spirits may adjoin themselves, not to inject evils thereby, but to prevent to some extent the operation of the angels. Nevertheless, the LORD continually provides for them and for the simple good, and guards them against harm as much as possible, not by any miraculous rehabilitation of a destroyed Sacrament, for if this were possible it would necessarily involve the rehabilitation of the consummated Church itself as that body of which the Sacrament is an external member, but by many other means which might be enumerated in part had we not already surpassed our limits.
     The reply to the last question of "W. D." is involved in what has been already said. The Holy Spirit, which is the Divine Truth, cannot flow into a false and perverted form without being perverted and falsified. The sign of Baptism when Baptism is perverted and has become a mere ritual, is not a representative of Holy Truth and use, but of the opposite. For it must not be forgotten that the sign is perceived as to its real meaning in the other world, and effects association accordingly. If a man baptized as a child or as an adult, ignorantly into a false faith-for it is into the faith that makes the Church that the baptized person is introduced-is saved, such salvation is not effected by means of this Baptism, but ill spite of it, by other means directly provided by the LORD, who prevides and provides all things for the best, both for those who cannot be saved and for those who can be saved.
MISCELLANY 1883

MISCELLANY              1883

     JAMES BRONSON.
V.
     THE day after the incident last related, it was reported all over the village, that "Jim Bronson had openly insulted the good Mr. Bot." In accordance with that peculiar trait in human nature which causes an evil report about any one to be eagerly accepted and' a good one to be received with a smirk of doubt, this statement was at once accepted and grew, as only such reports can grow, until at the end of a week Jim was credited with being a man who delighted in insulting good men, and one who openly favored "rum-selling," dram-drinking, and all sorts of riot and debauchery. So strong was the feeling against him, that every one avoided him as they would a noted criminal. And yet he was known by all to be scrupulously honest and honorable in all his dealings, and no one had ever heard of his being intoxicated.
     The day after the scene at the prohibition meeting, Colonel Butler walked into Jim's office, and shaking hands with him said:
     "Jimmy lad, you hardened young sinner, I tremble to think of what is in store for you if you persist in your downward career; perdition will be a nil d fate for you, according to those good souls up-town."
     "Yes, very likely, "replied Jim, with a light laugh."
     "And is it possible that two such shining lights as Mr. Garrison and Mr. Bot have failed to accomplish your reformation!"
     "Yes, even they have failed, but the people here have accomplished another thing, they have succeeded in driving me away from the place. I can stand it no longer. I feel absolutely suffocated in the intensely moral and pious sphere that is abroad, and so have forwarded my resignation and only await the appointment of my successor before leaving the town."
     "Boy, boy, I'm sorry to hear this," said the gray-haired old Colonel; "I shall miss you very much."
     "Thank you," replied Jim, simply. "The only regret I feel is at the thought of leaving you and Mrs. Butler. I have often wondered why you, whose habits and views are so different from the others here, ever came to live in this place."
     "It was through a mistaken notion," replied the Colonel; then, as Jim looked at him inquiringly, be continued: "I had, as the reform newspapers style it, been a feeder at the public crib all my life. Before the war I was a politician-a genuine ringster; believed in self first, the ring next, and country third. I held office in our capital city, and in other large cities, both in this country and in Europe; saw the world and men, and the more I saw the less I believed in either. The war broke out and I drifted into the army, grew hardened to seeing human beings mutilated, and arose to the rank of as Colonel. After passing unscratched through many hot fights, I was at Gettysburg 'shot full' of Lee's lead, as the boys say, and then pensioned. Fortunately a crusty relative died interstate and I inherited his money. By this time I had lost all faith in mankind as seen in cities and yet I longed for simplicity and honesty in my fellow-men. True, I hadn't much of it myself, but that made no difference, I wanted to be with those who had. A notion that these qualities were to be found in the quiet and remote little country villages caused me to buy my place and come here to live-to spend my latter years surrounded with Arcadian simplicity and honesty."


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     "Well?" queried Jim, as the Colonel paused in his terse narrative.
     "After a long experience," he resumed, "I find the Arcadians to be as much addicted to petty fraud and lying as were the men I left, and to be without that redeeming trait, which the genuine man of the world possesses, freedom from mock saintliness. Ah! well," concluded the old Colonel, with a sigh, "I am as bad as my neighbors, and have no right to complain."
     "Why don't you turn to the New Church?" said Jim, after an interval of silence; "in its truth you would find the rest and peace you seek."
     "I have," was the reply, "and sometimes I have imagined I saw vistas of wonderful light and brightness opening up before me, but when I come to think of them rationally they disappear and I see they were but illusions."
     "Has it never struck you that when you see those vistas you are really rational? that you are then lifted above your old life, and that when they disappear it is because you look at Divine Truth from world-acquired view?"
     "Divine Truth, did you say?"
     "Yes," answered Jim, slowly, "Divine Truth. I have had very little intercourse with New Church people, and my views may be astray, but it seems to me that if those Swedenborg's Writings are not what they claim to be, that is, a revelation from the LORD, they are essentially false. I cannot believe them false, and therefore I accept them as Divine Truth, and what they state I implicitly believe."
     "An enviable state to be in," said the Colonel.
     "Yes," replied Jim, "for it gives one something above one's self to look to; gives one an infallible guide."
     "Perhaps you are 'right, lad," relied the Colonel. "I hope you are. I haven't the confidence in my own wisdom I once had. Your Church Writings somehow fascinate me and I should 'like to believe them, and perhaps God will grant me light some day, but it would be worse 'than useless for me to say I believe when I do not."
     "Yes."
     "I have not been a good man in my life," continued the gray-haired old veteran, "still, when I see real, genuine truth or goodness, or at least what I consider such, my heart and soul seems to go out to it?" He was silent for a time, tracing imaginary figures on the floor with his cane, then looking up he said: "That fanatical man, Bot, I fear, is working up a spirit of mischief here."
     "He is a fanatic I know," replied Jim, "yet I think the people have too much sense to be led into acts of violence."
     "I hope so, but you know that in other places such crusades, as they dub them, have led to mob violence and incendiarism," said the Colonel. Then arising, "But I am detaining you from your work with my talk and reminiscences, and will go.'
     That night there was the sound of a dull explosion, followed soon afterward by a red glare in the direction of "Martin's Hotel." Those who hastened to the spot found the moss-covered old building wrapped in flames.
     Jim was a sound sleeper and had not heard the noise, but the next morning on his way to his office he found nearly the entire population gathered around the smoking ruins; among them were old Martin and his helpless family, clothed in old garments furnished them by neighbors, and gazing at the ruins in a dazed and helpless manner. Jim approached the old man and asked, "how did this happen?"
     The old German looked at him a moment and replied: "They sent me letters, mid said in them if I did not stop mine hotel it would be worse mit me. I had lived here so long and so quietly that I noticed not those letters."
     "Well, what followed?" asked Jim, as the old man paused.
     "Last night there was an explosion, mine house was burnt, and we just got out mit our lives," replied the old man slowly, wiping the tears from his eyes.
     Jim turned to the crowd who gathered around to hear what was said and asked: "Does any one here know the authors of this scoundrely piece of work?" No one answering, he continued: "If I knew who they were I would spend every cent I possess to have them sent to the penitentiary."
     At this a low murmur went through the crowd' and Mr. Bot said: "You would send an over-zealous brother to prison who has rid this town of a pest-hole, but would not lift a finger to interfere with the traffic of a man who every day sent his victims reeling to vice and misery."
     This speech of Mr. Bot's, like most of his utterances, was mostly imagination, as Martin's Hotel was simply an old-fashioned place of entertainment for "man and beast," quiet and orderly. Turning to the speaker, and with blazing eyes, Jim said: "Your intemperate harangues have borne their legitimate fruit-cowardly incendiarism that came near murder, and all done in the name of temperance in the name of peace, order, and morality. Shame on such work!"
     At these words an angry murmur went through the crowd, and several voices said, "Come, Bronson, keep a civil tongue in your head."
     "Keep a civil tongue in my head?" retorted Jim. "Has it gone so far that a man cannot express his detestation of such cowardly work?"
     How far this contention might have gone it is hard to say, for Jim's old combative qualities were by no means extinct, had not Colonel Butler at this moment appeared, and with his easy and somewhat mocking air said: "It isn't worth while, Bronson, butting against the wall of public prejudice, especially when that wall is built by such a skilled artificer as Mr. Bot," making that personage a courtly bow. Then, looking at the ruins, he continued: "I suppose this is the work of those high-minded gentlemen who have lately sent me several missives, in disguised writing, warning me to make certain changes in the conduct of my household affairs, or it would be the worse for me. I desire to express my thanks to those gentlemen, if they are present, for the interest they take in my welfare, and to assure them that I have made arrangements to give them a warm welcome when they see fit to make their midnight call."
     The Colonel saw that in the present temper of all parties serious consequences might follow a further pursuance of the subject, and so he turned to Jim and asked: "Has your successor been appointed yet?"
     "Yes, he takes charge of the office to-morrow."
     "Then I suppose you will leave the town at once?"
     "Yes, I go the day after."
     At hearing this, many present forgetting their previous animosity and the disreputable character of the speaker, came-forward and expressed what seemed to be sincere regret at his near departure.
     During all Jim's troubles, Aunt Amelia's mind was in a very distracted state; her affection for him led her one way, and her propensity, shared by the majority, of the villagers, to accept all the quack medicines offered for the cure of man's spiritual diseases, led her another. She wept freely at the thought of his departure, but when he offered to send for her as soon as he was permanently located, she shook her head and said that she had been born in the village and would end her days there.


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     When it became generally known that he was to leave the place, public feeling toward him underwent a complete change; his sterling qualities only seemed to be remembered. On the day of his departure a large number of the villagers, assembled to bid him good-bye and wish him success in his future life.
     It was necessary for him to report at the division headquarters of the Company before being finally released, and so he at once repaired to the city where they were located. The day after his arrival he called and was shown into the private office of the grim old Superintendent, and received with, "Well, young man, you soon grew tired of service in this Company?" "No," answered Jim, "I did not, but resigned for other reasons."
     "What were they?"
     Jim, smiling at this abrupt question, briefly related the reasons for his course. When he had concluded, the Superintendent said: "So you are a whisky drinker and an infidel, are you?"
     These seemingly rude questions were, somehow, free from anything of an offensive nature, and Jim replied: "Being a New Churchman I am not an infidel; and while not believing it a crime to drink liquor, lam still a temperate man."
     "Hum! yes, I see, you are one of those who don't know how to keep quiet and float-with public sentiment-a young crank who thinks, it his duty to reform the world     
     Jim replied with a frank laugh: "Well, it needs reforming at any rate-or I do. Still, I do not set up for a reformer."
     "Yet you object to being reformed, and to reformers such as Bot and Garrison?"
     "I do, decidedly."
     When the business on which he had called was finished, the Superintendent asked: "Do you want employment?"
     "Yes, sir."
     "Your conduct has given satisfaction to the Company, and I don't blame you for wishing to leave the place you were in. I will give you a position in this office if you desire it."
     "Thank you, I accept."
     "I don't take much stock in religious men," said the Superintendent, "but you Swedenborgians believe you will go to hell if you steal, while the others don't. Fear keeps you honest. Call to-morrow. Good-morning."
     Jim departed without attempting to controvert the railroad man's notions, of New Church theology.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
TWO BRIDGES 1883

TWO BRIDGES              1883

     THE King required two bridges to be built, and assigned the building of them respectively to Engineer A and Engineer B. The first named performed his duty in this manner: He first studied authoritative textbooks, then from knowledge acquired, drew plans of the structure, even to the minutest detail. After this he assembled his workmen. If any man's work did not conform to the plans it was rejected. While the structure was progressing, the Engineer was visited by an enthusiast, who said: "Sir, you are building this bridge on a false principle, and it is my duty to tell you so. You are animated by the love of rule you enslave your workmen's minds by forcing them to conform to certain plans which you craftily tell them are drawn from authoritative text-books. The system on which things are done here causes men to be narrow minded, bigoted bridge-builders. To use an illustration, you and your men are shut up in a small room from which all air and sunlight are excluded. Give yourselves air, by which your lungs may be expanded, by which you may get progressive and broader ideas, or you perish."
     So spake the Enthusiast. But the bridge-builders heeded him not, but followed their plans, and the result was a strong, beautiful bridge, a bridge built by carefully studying and complying with the doctrines of bridge-building.
     Engineer B assembled his men and told them that they were to build a bridge according to the latest and most progressive ideas. "I do not," said he, "propose to trammel your minds with plans or any dogmas of textbooks, though, if any of you prefer those old ideas, no one will, I hope, object, and in return you should respect others ideas; by this course harmony will be established. All I ask of you is that each one will honestly do his work according to his own reason and sense of right, untrammeled and free. I would advise you all to study other bridges and endeavor to combine what is good in them in our bridge. In accordance with this latter suggestion, I have prepared this for your consideration as embodying my ideas." He then displayed to them a highly colored picture of a bridge, so complete that it even represented ladies walking on it with parasols, gentlemen with canes, and a little girl trunding a hoop, with a small dog barking and running beside her.
     Work was commenced. Each man did his work in accordance with his own ideas, and acknowledged no other authority. For a while all was harmonious, but when the time came to combine the results of each one's labor in the structure, it was found that no two men's work would fit or agree. The result was confusion and bitter quarrels, as no one would acknowledge himself to be wrong; then followed indifference, and finally the workmen departed, leaving the Engineer alone amid a confused heap of unmatched stones. No authoritative doctrine of bridge-building was allowed to enter in-the work on this bridge-hence no bridge.
REASONING FROM FALLACIES 1883

REASONING FROM FALLACIES       G F       1883



LETTERS TO THE EDITORS.
     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-Your January number contains a communication from "F. S." in attempted vindication of the Resolutions of the Ohio Association in recognition of the Baptism of the former Christian (usually called Old) Church, as being equally a constituent of the New Church, and claiming that it should be accepted as such; or that it indicates a more interior point of view to accept a form of words, irrespective of the ideas they are made to convey; than when they are used as the clothing of the definite and distinctive doctrines of the New Church; or that words are everything, but the meanings they convey, or that accompany them, however false, are equally acceptable and important. Are not such ideas (put forth under, the plea that man cannot destroy a Divine Sacrament) more in accord with the gross literalism and dead formalities of the most naturally minded men of that bygone Church, than they are with the spiritual perceptions and doctrines of the Church of the New Jerusalem?
     Your refutation of the inconclusiveness of such a plea, although full and unanswerable on the authority of New Church teachings, yet leaves the fallacy and inconsistency of its argumentum ad hominem exposed at every point.

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What need there to assume that Baptism into a false faith introduces the candidate into infernal societies any more than because wicked parents introduce and train their children into all evil practices that they must necessarily go to hell? Still, if it does lead there, is it not so much more praiseworthy in the New Church to do all it can do to counteract that influence? Or, because those vicious tendencies may have, been overruled by other agencies of the Divine Providence, that we should relax our efforts in doing the duty that has been committed to us by the revealed and orderly operations of the Divine Law? A mere sign, if it be empty, means nothing, but if infilled with a false idea means that falsity, as much as if, when filled with a true one, it means that truth, and a mere formula or sign man be filled with either-"according to his understanding of it," as "F. S." says, and in the Old Church the baptismal sign is made an idolatrous one, for it is infilled with the doctrine of that Church and so far separates from the New Church. And it seems evident that "F. S." only regards this sacrament as a merely external ceremony (or "rite," as he constantly calls it) and appears to regard as of no consequence what ideas, truths, or falsehoods it is made the instrument for conveying I We are not responsible for what has been done in the past, or former Church; our duty is in the present and in our own actions, and our instruction is given us in the Divine Law, as rationally understood. "F. S." asks if the LORD is not in the Sacrament of Baptism, i. e., he means in the sign made use of? No, not necessarily, for the reasons above given: The sign may be there, whether it be in the wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, and yet the LORD not be in either; (See 1 Kings xix, 11 et seq). So also the prophets of Baal made the sign for fire to come down from heaven to consume the sacrifice. But the fire did not come, for the LORD was not in it. (See 1 Kings xviii, 21). So the mere sign has no potency unless the LORD is in it. And the LORD is not in the sign made by an idolatrous priest, with an idolatrous faith, in the Baptism of the Old Church.
     But let us suppose that "F. S" is right in his revised ideas upon this subject, and that the Baptism of the Old Church is plenary and complete and accomplishes the legitimate ends and uses of Baptism, then by what right has the New Church assumed to have a new and distinctive service? Has it been: guilty of an act of usurpation all this while in requiring its' ministers to declare their belief in a new faith and then to be baptized into it, notwithstanding their former Baptism? And, assuming that that Baptism in its first establishment was a genuine one, could not its quality and character in the lapse of time have been perverted and destroyed? By implication "F. S." says no. A Divine Sacrament, he virtually says, cannot be destroyed! If this be so, then it should also be the case that the Most Ancient Church, which was Divinely instituted, has not come to an end, and was not destroyed by a flood of falses from evil; and that the Ancient4 Church never perished, and Lot had no need to flee from Sodom; the Divine Commandments were never broken or destroyed, nor the pure, symbolic worship of ancient times corrupted into profane and idolatrous worship; and that no one broke down the hedges of the Church, "so that all they who pass by the way do pluck her;" nor that the boar of the wood wasted it, or the wild beast of the field devoured it.
     There is no virtue left in a Church, in its rituals, or its sacraments after it has passed away, for then its forms, its ceremonies, and its traditions all pass-away with it or are mere effigies; and the New Church which succeeds it not only has a new name and new qualities, but new organic forms. In the establishment of the Christian Church the sacrifices, ceremonies, and circumcisions of the Jewish Church were all abrogated and new organic forms provided, and so when that Church passed away and the Church of the New Jerusalem was instituted, the former Eucharistic Sacraments, Baptism, etc., were abrogated also and passed away with it, and all this were made new-new in internals and new in externals also. They might be similar in outward form, but they had each a new birth from a new principle, or a new life; and the former had no more conjoining power with the new heavens then the ritual of the Jewish Church had with the Christian heavens after it had come to its end or consummation. It was very difficult for the novitiate Jew to see that the former idolatrous Churches of the nations round about were not as truly Churches, and their sacrificial worship as acceptable and orderly as his own, hence he recognized it and willingly mingled with and united in it. "They forsook the LORD and served Baal and Ashteroth." They went after other gods, following and serving them and their idols; going after the heathen round about them, even the priests, who sympathized therewith, uniting with them. (See Judges ii and iii, end 2 Kings xvii and xxiii): Subsequently, also, in. the early days of the Christian Church many of the converts from Judaism mingled with the Jews in their worship and sacrifices, notwithstanding its being forbidden; and so, in like manner, man of the priests of the New Church unhappily cling to the idolatries of a corrupted and consummated Church; and this is where the force of "F. S.'s" argument would properly apply; where he says; "Let it strike and hurt where it may"!, And the plea that is made for this idolatrous sacrament is, that it is not the peculiarity of any Church, but one that is founded on a Divine command, given by the LORD and recorded in the Gospels; but it was given to some one or some functionary to perform, and it was to those who represented the Church then established in its official capacity- His twelve Apostles-and this only for so long as it continued to be a Church, i. e., a true Church, or till the consummation of the age. When it ceased to be such a Church its power or authority departed with it, as had been the-case With the preceding Churches. And in one of Swedenborg's Memorabilia (A. R. 675) one of the personages there introduced affirms and shows,* "That at this day there is no longer any Church throughout the Christian world;" meaning, of course, a true Church but that a Nets Church would be established by the LORD at the end of the former one, signified by the New Jerusalem (see A. R. 879); and that none could enter there but those "who are in truths derived from the good of love to the LORD," or no others would be received there-none who are in the falsity of faith (A. R. 922); and that this Church was then about to be established (A. E. 665); and would be as distinctively a separate organic Church as any of the preceding Churches had been; and not that the same idolatrous Church still remaining in the world would be called a new one! as I have before abundantly shown. How fallacious, then, is the idea that either the doctrines or the symbols of the former Church can be continued into the New! or even that they may silently be recognition there. It is a dangerous doctrine, and a destructive one.

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Its operation in ecclesiastical government would be what independent State rights is in a civil one. On this claim slavery was permitted in one State contiguous to a free one, and yet under a common government and constitution; and we have seen its lamentable consequences. Under this toleration Polygamy exists in a Territory of the United States, in the immediate vicinity of the institution of Monogamy; and divorces are granted in one State for reasons not permitted in others, and yet recognized as equally valid under a common law. All this is unquestionably an evidence of a wide liberality, but whether it is a liberty that is conducive to human happiness or to a wise government there is no evidence to show, but rather the opposite. And a similar painful experience must inevitably result in the Church from a similar course, not only disturbing its unity, but disintegrating it and rending it asunder, for it is doubtful if one Association, instituted in an orderly manner, will think that "courtesy" requires it to acknowledge and recognize any one as a New Church minister who, by the act of the Church, has never been known as a member of it.
     How crafty is the subtlety of those evil spirits who thus seek to break up and disturb the peace and prosperity of the New Church by sowing the seeds of such divisions wherever they find soils congenial to their reception.
     DETROIT, MICH.     G. FIELD.
     * This article was written before I had received the February number of NEW CHURCH LIFE or I would have omitted those references from Swedenborg, which are more fully quoted in the second editorial on the same subject in that number. G F.
CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS? 1883

CAN MAN DESTROY THE SACRAMENTS?       F. S       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHUCRH LIFE:-Not to prolong discussion, but to remove some misapprehensions and to ask for a reconsideration of some passages of doctrine which have perhaps hitherto been too hastily construed, I beg the privilege of further space in the columns of the LIFE, and shall even, ask the editor's indulgence in allowing me to reply here to some remarks which have appeared elsewhere than in these columns.
     By man's inability to destroy a Sacrament, I mean his inability to undo- or prevent the work of the LORD or the angels through divinely appointed means. Men can most certainly, by rejecting the LORD, "make the Word of God of none effect to themselves, but the "Word of the LORD abideth forever," nevertheless, for those who will receive Him, and it does not have to be rewritten or instituted anew. "I came not," said: our LORD, "to destroy the Law and Prophets, but to fulfill them"
     I am asked: "To what did not the Jews subject the LORD Himself when in the human on earth?" To which I would answer that not all their rejection of Him could either turn His holy body into corruption or make His humanity in any way an avenue to hell for human souls. So the holy letter of the Word may be misinterpreted, defiled, torn asunder, and yet it remains the only possible link between the LORD and those who will receive Him. The outer garment of the LORD may be divided among the scoffing unbelievers, while the inner vesture remains intact. There is something in a Sacrament, as in the Word, which man cannot touch. It does not come and go at man's bidding, or by legislation of Churches.
A man may destroy it for himself, but he cannot determine its operation on another. This will depend wholly on the state and conduct of the recipient; it lies with him and the LORD: In the same sense the holy Sacrament of Baptism may have been "made of none effect" in thousands of instances through false teachings and resulting false belief and evil life; but the case that concerns us is the supposable one of a baptized Christian, or, if you please, a whole congregation of such, who not only have come to confess the LORD'S Divinity and to desire to follow- Him; but who believe that their Christian Baptism has conduced to this end, because Swedenborg defines Christian Baptism as having just these results as its propel use. Judging Baptism by the New Church doctrine of its use, can we deny that this is a valid Baptism? The Jewish Church came to an end at the LORD'S first coming, and yet we are taught that for the sake of preserving the letter of the Old Testament they were preserved as the "generation that should not pass away." The letter of the Word, which they "had made of none effect for themselves," was yet preserved, we may say miraculously, as the uniting medium between man and the LORD for the sake of the Churches to succeed. In a similar manner I have suggested that the Christian Sacraments, being founded, in, and, as it were, consisting of, the letter of the Word put into solemn and sacred acts, can have in them a Divine virtue for all who sincerely seek them, even though the Church in which they were originally given have become false and corrupt, especially since Swedenborg calls Baptism the "Christian sign," and explains that the Christian sign means also the Christian name which every one receives in Baptism. "This name all receive at Baptism, for it is in the sign."-(T. C. R. 682.) It is evident hence that what Baptism conveys or effects, be it only an external touch it is something which "all receive." This at once renders impossible the idea that Baptism of itself conveys or ingrafts in any way any peculiar phase of Christian faith or unfaith of the person administering; for then it could not be said that this quality or name "all receive at Baptism, for it is in the sign," but there would be one name or quality involved in the Baptism of one sect or denomination, and another in another. Whereas, the LORD and the angels see but one thing in Baptism, wherever or whenever administered, and that is the true consecration and coherent uses for which, and, for which only, the Sacrament was designed; the first having the name of Christian; the second, knowing and acknowledging the LORD; the third, following Him in the regeneration.- T. C. R. 685. These uses the Sacrament has had from its first origin in the Christian Church; the New Church has first come into a full knowledge of these uses, and in this knowledge can administer the Sacrament, but the uses have existed before; the New Church may help a man already baptized to realize these uses as no other Church can help him, but it cannot administer a Baptism having, any new or higher uses than the Christian Baptism, which alone Swedenborg defines and enjoins. The New Church may understand, practice, and enjoy this Sacrament with an increasing devotion and joy and gratitude, but it cann6t do more than help men to realize the uses which have been Divinely in it from the beginning, and at all times and everywhere, so far as men, could allow the LORD to operate in them. "Since, in the idea of the angels the three uses of Baptism were as one, therefore, when Baptism, is performed, read in the Word, and named, the angels who are present do not understand Baptism, but regeneration."- T. C. R. 685.
     Whether Baptism may be turned into idolatry, I will not discuss; the passages quoted in defense of such doctrine seem to me wholly irrelevant to the matter before us, since we are not concerned about any wicked abuse of Baptism, but simply with the case of men who have received Christian Baptism, and who, therefore, believe in the LORD and desire to unite with those who acknowledge Him in His Second Coming. Can such a Baptism, or a Baptism followed by such results, be idolatrous?
     Let us remember that there is no possible dispute between us as to the duty of being baptized or the duty of the New Church to administer Baptism to all who apply for it, or as to the vast advantage it must trove to every Christian, not only to know the true meaning and use of Baptism as now revealed in the New Church, but to be educated from infancy in the light of these Heavenly Doctrines; while we are all agreed perfectly in this, still I cannot see that it is the teaching either of the Doctrines or of history that the distinct existence of the New Church as a visible organization depends upon its members receiving their Baptism exclusively at the hands of New Church ministers, still less of those who have themselves been so baptized.

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The character and distinct existence of the New Church seem to me to depend more upon its understanding of the Word and its subsequent use of the baptismal Sacrament in realizing its proper effects on their lives, than in the human instrument by which the ceremony was performed. As a matter of fact, the organized, distinct New Church body did not so originate. The members of the original New Church societies were not, as a rule, member by Virtue of rebaptism, but by their receiving and publicly confessing their faith of the New Church. This does not make Baptism any the less the gate of admission into the Church, but it leaves the judgment as to the validity of one's Baptism to the LORD and to the individual conscience instructed by doctrine, and does not assume a judgment outside of these.
     Moreover, we are not taught by Swedenborg that the New Church is a new or distinct Church, by having any new externals of worship; whether a new letter of the Word, a new Sacrament or a new order of the priesthood. Rather are we taught that in externals the Church will remain as heretofore, but that the New Church is new by virtue of new doctrines, and the new good and truth revealed in the Word and conveyed -men since the Last Judgment: And lastly, I do not find, mentioned among the uses of Baptism defined by. Swedenborg in T. C. R., chapter xii, that of marking off-the New Church from other Christians, but rather the simple one of distinguishing Christians from those not Christians.
     I am aware that the real gist of the question before us lies right here. What raised the discussion of Baptism at this time was not a question whether men shall be baptized or not, or whether the New Church shall administer Baptism to all who ask it, but rather whether it shall require another Baptism of those who feel that their Christian Baptism is all that the Doctrine of the Church requires. The admissibility of a second Baptism, or its propriety even, has not been questioned, but only its necessity, as based upon a clear, unmistakable doctrinal requirement of the Church. Since my first article there have appeared a number of expressions bearing more, or less on this topic, but among them all the most important is an article by the Rev. John Worcester, in the New Jerusalem Magazine for January, and the LIFE'S reply to my article in its own columns; As they represent two quite different positions, I desire to make a brief allusion to each.
     Mr. Worcester I understand as attributing, since the least -Judgment as well as before, some influence for good to the Baptism as administered by Christians out of the New Church, but he asserts that "if a person so baptized" is earnest to become an "internal spiritual man, and to avail himself of every possible help to enter fully and deeply into the truth and the life of the New Church, he, too, will desire to be baptized" [this means, of course, re-baptized], "and will certainly experience from it the benefit that be desires." -N. J. Mag., January, p. 20. Against disturbing alternations of thought between the old and the new faith "there is no certain protection but Baptism into the New Church and it is the experience of New Churchmen who have passed through the change that in this is certain relief."-Ibid. The italics are mine, but it will be seen that the writer makes these assertions with dogmatic certainty, and yet they are nowhere founded on the Writings, as far as he has shown, but simply on a sentiment, or the "experience of those who, have passed through the change," and on an inference drawn from a single passage. I am free to say that this is not the ground upon which I can accept a requirement or so solemn an injunction as that of a Divine Sacrament. To prove that this step, i. e. the repeated Baptism, is absolutely necessary in order "for a man to become an interior spiritual man" there must be some doctrine clearly stated to that effect. The experience of few or many men, or the feeling of any one, however-highly respected, does not admit of the dogmatic "must"-a kind of expression which those" should be the more wary of who are in positions where their words have the most weight.
     It is true that Mr. Worcester attempts to prove the necessity of a second or repeated Baptism by the example of John's Baptism as followed by the disciples but he seems to forget that the disciples or Christian Baptism is the very Baptism that Swedenborg defines as containing all the uses, even the highest, namely, regeneration, and that consequently there can be no higher or more Christian Baptism than that of the disciples of our LORD. Mr. Worcester also adduces in support of this view the fact that Swedenborg teaches that in "the spiritual world every one is inserted among societies and congregations there according to the quality of the Christianity in him or about of him."-(T. C. R. 680.) - Mr. Worcester says that this insertion is effected "by Baptism." "He even quotes the passage, as if it read: by Baptism everyone is inserted etc. -Doubtless, it never occurred to him that this is not the only meaning of which this passage is capable. The passage in Swedenborg actually is, however, quite different, viz.: "By these things is illustrated the first use of Baptism, which is a sign in the spiritual world-that he is of Christians, where every one is inserted among societies and congregations there according to the quality of the Christianity within him or out of him." Of course, there is no difference between us as to anything here asserted, but only as to something not asserted, but inferred. We all alike believe that Baptism exists among Christians, and that every one is also inserted among spirits of similar belief to his own.: We all alike believe that New Church believers are associated with those of New Church faith in the other world, that this is a part of the order of that world, and that it is an inestimable advantage and blessing to every member of the New Church to be so associated. But does this passage prove, as it has been perhaps too hastily assumed to prove, that Baptism is what does this, that it not only inserts one among Christians, but also inserts one in his own peculiar society or congregation, or "kind of Christianity." This latter is certainly nowhere stated. On the contrary, we are expressly informed that "when a man changes his persuasions other spirits apply themselves to him" S. D. 4114); and that "as baptized infants grow up, the guardian angels leave them and they associate to themselves such spirits as make one with their life. Whence it is evident that Baptism is an insertion among Christians in the spiritual world."(- T. C. R. 677.) Would it have been logical for the author to have here written: "Baptized infants as they grow up associate themselves with those of like belief by being baptized again into their respective societies or congregations; wherefore it is evident that Baptism is an insertion among Christians in the spiritual world"?

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Does not this passage, therefore, if adduced at all in support of rebaptism prove altogether too much-namely, that Baptism is not only a general sign, but afterward must be repeated as a distinctive sign for every change of spiritual association in order to subserve its first use?
     The real reason for this use of Baptism as a distinctive sign is in T. C. R. 678 said to be that of preserving order, and the preserving of order is said in this number to consist of two things, "the separation of Christians from Mohammedans and Jews, and the arranging of all of the same religion into distinct societies. In order to effect the latter arrangement those of the same religion must first be brought together or separated from those of other religions. This is the, work of Baptism. So far as the doctrine given by Swedenborg actually goes, we are taught that Baptism does effect this separation of distinct religions; but I can not see that he teaches that it also effects the arrangement into societies of those of the same religion, especially as be tells us how these new associations are formed, viz., by spiritual attraction after the rational conviction is formed in the mind; and also as in this very passage he goes on immediately to show what disorder would arise "without the Christian sign, which is Baptism," namely, the insinuating influence of some Mohammedan or idolatrous spirit weaning the child from Christianity. But it is also said that there can be no order without distinction," and no distinction without signs, and then follow many illustrations, but all only demonstrating the great primary use of Baptism as what-distinguishing Christians into societies? The Doctrine does not say so, but simply "as a sign that one is of Christians." Is not then the inference a fair one, that the meaning here is, that where the general distinction is effected by the general sign, and thus Christians assembled in their places in the spiritual world, that then only the minor arrangement or subdivision is possible by free association into societies and congregations?"
     I submit this proposition to the candid examination of all sincere students and disciples of the Heavenly Doctrines. I have no desire to set up any theory in explanation of my own, but to get at what all may agree is a perfectly logical, unbiased, and honest interpretation of Swedenborg himself. Let me say here, too, that I neither desire nor would advocate any change from the present general practice of the Church, so far as this shall allow of a free interpretation of the doctrine involved; all that I do desire is to avoid basing our practice, whether in our legislation or in the advice we give, on a necessity imperatively demanded by Divine Doctrine, unless we are all quite sure that it can be so based, for I conceive that in generations hence, in foreign lands as well as at home, there may be not only congregations, but congregations and ministers together, openly receiving, professing, and preaching the Doctrines of the New Church, and yet without any of them having received Baptism "at the hands of a New Church minister." Why should this be impossible, or even improbable? And, in this case, shall we be entitled to say that they are not of the New Church because of this circumstance, and that members and infants baptized by these ministers must yet receive another baptism at the hands of our own authorized' clergy before we can call them "baptized" Christians at all, or before they can hope to become "interior spiritual men"? Whatever we may find expedient or useful at the present time, let us be careful about basing it on doctrine, or calling it a doctrinal requirement, unless it be one that an be held to equally in all times and all circumstances.
     The other position referred to is that of the LIFE in its reply to my article of the January and February numbers. It is much more definite than that of the Magazine, and thus much more easily comprehended, and it bases itself squarely and unreservedly on the teaching of the Writings, as these are, understood by the writer. It is a position that leaves nothing to sentiment or experience, and allows no divergence to right and left in any option or individual freedom of interpretation, or in the practice of the Church, certainly a clear, convenient, easy settlement of the whole matter-if true. Let me, in conclusion, briefly examine this position and what it necessarily involves.
     The writer in the NEW CHURCH LIFE affirms, on page 20, February number, that he believes: "That the Baptism treated of in T. C. R., chapter xii, is a sacrament which at the time that chapter was written (there being then no New Church ministers) had no existence, or was not at all being exercised or its benefits enjoyed in all Christendom." This belief is, of course, founded on the correlative one that the "Christian Church," or the "Church wherein is the Word and where the LORD is acknowledged," was also not in existence, or at least was not to be identified with the Christianity anywhere prevalent at the time Swedenborg wrote the T. C. R. In short, the Christian Church means exclusively the organized New Church-that is, the New Church with its regularly instituted clergy-and the Christian Baptism described in T. C. R., chapter xii, means exclusively a Baptism not then anywhere being administered but some day to be administered in the as yet unorganized New Church.
     On this supposition, of course, there could and can be no such thing as Christian Baptism any more, except it be at the hands of New Church ministers, consequently all distinction, such as the Magazine draws between Christian Baptism and New Church Baptism, as of two successive degrees even now to be passed through by a man coming from the Old Church to the New, is now abolished. Also all such interpretation of T. C. R. 680 (insertion into societies, etc.) as that on which the Magazine writer entirely relies for the doctrinal warrant of his teaching becomes wholly contradictory to the position in the LIFE, since if the only Christian Baptism now practiced introduces into the New Church exclusively there can certainly be no further use in its inserting in separate societies or congregations of the New Church, "according to the quality of Christianity within him or out of him" unless, indeed, even this passage be made to mean that New Churchmen are helped in finding their true spiritual association in the other world by being baptized anew as they change their membership from one New Church society to another.
     This conflict with the Magazine's positions, however, not the only difficulty presented by the LIFE'S treatment. If I am right in my inference that the writer means that after the Last Judgment there was no Christian Church in the sense as used in the chapter on Baptism until the New Church was organized and its ministry inaugurated, then what are we to understand by Swedenborg's statement in T. C. R. 800, that "Christians among whom the Word is read, and who know and acknowledge the Lord their Redeemer and Saviour, ARE in the middle of all the nations and people that: inhabit the spiritual world, for they possess the greatest spiritual light," etc.? and the statement immediately following, that "In this middle region, possessed by Christians, the Reformed have places allotted to them according to their reception if spiritual light from the LORD; and as the Dutch possess that light more deeply and fully they have acquired habitations in that middle region, etc.

47


Now, this was surely written after the Last Judgment, and it even describes a state of things as actually existing, and there must, therefore, have been, at that time, some Christians "among whom the Word was read and the Lord acknowledged,"- even though the organized New Church had not yet come into existence, and among these Christians who possess the greatest spiritual light at that time were the Dutch, among whom not only at that time, but today knowledge never to this day has a New Church society been organized! In T. C. R. 806, 807, a similar account is given of the English nation as being in the centre of all Christians, and there we are distinctly informed by the author that he means, in these descriptions, the people actually then living on the earth, but whose internal qualities he can clearly discover from the spiritual world. (See 806.) Again, in T. C. R. 270, a passage written most certainly after the Last Judgment and before the organization of the New Church, we read: "The Word which Protestants and the Reformed possess enlightens all nations and people by spiritual communication. The Lord promises that there should always be a Church on earth where the Word may be read and the LORD in consequence be made known."
     If, then, there was such a Christian Church in existence, or at least a Church "where the Word was read and the LORD could be made known," even during the interval between the Last Judgment and the formation of New Church Societies, must not the Baptism of such a Church, inasmuch as it effected through three uses of Baptism, have been genuine Baptism, and was not, therefore "the Sacrament described in T. C. R., chapter xii, even when being exercised and its benefits enjoyed "at least in some portions of Christendom"?
     If, then, there was, after the Last Judgment and before the organization of the New Church, a Christian Church in which the LORD provided that the Word should be read and a knowledge of the LORD made possible; why should that Church not still be in existence, and why should its Baptism be not regarded as a genuine, and not idolatrous rite?
     But further, when we reflect on the stupendous assertion that the very order of the whole spiritual world depends on Baptism "as the Christian sign" by which all those of Christianity are segregated from Mohammadan and Pagan religions, is it reasonable, or admissible even, that this Christian sign, or this important instrument of spiritual order, should have been entirely abolished or obliterated for the years elapsing between the Last Judgment and the inauguration of the first New Church minister?-even if it be said that it continued to be used as an idolatrous sign, associating the "dead Christian Church" with evil spirits of their like. Still, how does this meet the requirement of a sign, not for condemnation but for protecting Christian infants and others from idolatrous infections.
     These are some of the considerations that make it impossible for me to accept the position which the LORD so emphatically has affirmed in the passage quoted.
     I am frequently informed by the Writer in the LIFE of things that "I ought to know."- Perhaps the writer see better now the kind of light I need and be better able to afford me the knowledge I want than he has thus far done.
     As to my own position regarding the relation of the New Church to other Churches; as compared with the two I have thus alluded to, I cannot better define it than, by referring the reader to Swedenborg's description the Church in the numbers 267-272 of the True Christian Religion, where I believe, will be found a simple and real solution of all difficulties involved in this subject.
     URBANA, Ohio.          F. S.
UNIVERSAL GATEWAV TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 1883

UNIVERSAL GATEWAV TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH       W. D       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-I would like to ask you a few questions; but in order not to be misunderstood, allow me to draw your attention to an error into which, I believe, you have fallen. If the error is mine, my statement and your confutation will do good.
     You appear to confound the subject treated of with the doctrine concerning it. You thus teach that false doctrines are actually in the holy sacraments they must consequently be in the Word-in God Himself. But T. C. R. 177 says that a Trinity of Gods is in the doctrine concerning Baptism, etc., and A. R. 776 asserts that it is not in Baptism itself. "Faith" can in nowise be infused into a suckling," is said there also. The destruction of the "foundations" is therefore a relative destruction to those who think and will evilly-not to infants. The destruction is not absolute, for the LORD still lives, and neither man nor devil can abrogate what He has instituted.
     Can infernal spirits ever be with infants, or are angels always with them?
     Is T. C. R. 677 true everywhere on earth where Baptism is devoutly administered? and if not, where not? The words are: "As soon, as infants are baptized angels are appoin1ed over them, by whom they are kept in the state of receiving faith in the LORD but as they grow up and came under their own control and into the exercise of their own reason, the guardian angels leave them and they associate with them such spirits as make one with their life and faith." I am aware that Mr. Field says "The New Church is not called Christian, as the preceding Church had been," the inference drawn being that we, not being Christians, require a different Baptism. "Baptism, at this day, with Christians, represents the cleansing of the internal man, which is regeneration"- T. C. R. 690. Does regeneration introduce into hell?
     At what time did the satans wrench the LORD'S gate out, of His hands, plant it at the mouth of hell, and force Him to erect another of the same kind by which His own Church could be entered? For in my That quotation the words "this day" are used.
     Does the Church, which has falsified every, doctrine tell the truth when it says that the Sacrament of Baptism, when performed within its own pale, is the sign and seal of its own false faith? (See A. R. 776).
     Is it possible for false doctrines concerning divinely appointed uses to destroy those uses themselves in their application to the living remnant of the Church otherwise dead-that is, to those whom He has not left or in other words, who have not left Him?.
     When a dead church professes to baptize into its own false faith by water, can the Holy Spirit flow by correspondence potentially into the sign (apart from the inter position of the false ideas, or satanic associates of the officiating priests, as it can to the ears of devout listeners), leaving in the power of the person baptized to make it actual by a life of obedience to God? And if not, why not?"
     My own view is that Baptism, wheresoever devoutly valid until the one who has been performed, is baptized renders it invalid by a wicked life. He then enters hell; not, however, by the gate of Baptism, but by "gates of hell," which never prevailed against it.


48



     I ought, however, to add that I believe that a New Church priest ought willingly to re-baptize all who desire it and feel its need, for all are not constituted alike.
     PHILADELPHIA, PA.     W. D.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



     NEWS NOTES.
     REGULAR services are held Sunday afternoons at Riverside, Cal.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Maryland Association will hold no annual meeting this year.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Society in Pawtucket, R. I., is taking steps to build a parsonage.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. A. O. Brickmann is making a missionary tour through the West.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. J. E. Bowers recently baptized ten persons in New Florence, Pa.     
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. F. W. TURK of Berlin, Canada, will probably visit Europe next summer.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A CONFIRMATION CLASS of thirty members has, been formed in the Boston Society.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. L. P. MERCER, of Chicago, is delivering a series of discourses on Salvation.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. L. LEHNEN made a missionary tour to Quincy, Ill., and other places, in February.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. S. S. SEWARD of New York, is delivering a series of lectures on the Sacred Scriptures.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. JOHN GODDARD, of Cincinnati, preached at Glendale, Ohio, Sunday afternoon, February 11th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE INDIANAPOLIS SOCIETY, has raised $600 to aid in establishing a General Pastorate in the Ohio Association.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A NEW society has been organized in Easton, Md., by the Rev. J. B. Parmelee. The society numbers thirteen.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Pittsburgh Society recently sent a copy of the Brief Exposition to each of the ministers and periodicals in the city.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Sunday-school of the Boston Society numbers 150 children and 100 adults, the latter being divided in six classes.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE DENVER Society numbers thirteen active members. The attendance at worship ranges from twenty to thirty-five.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     REGULAR worship has been held at San Diego, Cal., for the past four years. The attendance ranges from fifteen to twenty
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. ALBINUS FROST, of Cleveland will have a month of leisure in the spring to preach wherever his services may be desired.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A CLASS made up of the members of the German congregation of Chicago is receiving instruction in Hebrew from Mr. W. H. Schliffer.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DR. JOHN ELLIS states that his reply to the "Academy's Review" of the Wine Question is in press. It will be a volume of over 200 pages.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A CLASS composed of members of the Pittsburgh Society has been organized for the study of Hebrew. This class is taught by the Rev. J. Whitehead.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. W. F. PENDLETON of Chicago, has charge of a Hebrew class, which meets every Friday at the Temple of the West Side congregation."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Society in Brockton, Mass., held a fair in the church vestry, February 13th, the proceeds of which were devoted to building a church parlor.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DURING the past month the Rev. J. B. Bowers has continued his missionary work in Pennsylvania, visiting Butler, Ruflhdale1, Greensburg, and other places.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A WEDNESDAY- EVENING doctrinal class has been organized in connection with the Broad Street Society of Philadelphia. The attendance is about sixty.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. B. PARMELEE has been invited to deliver a lecture, next month, at the Wilmington Opera House, on the subject of the "Cause and Cure of Infidelity."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ON Sunday, February 11th, the Pittsburgh Society held no services on account of the flood, the cellar of the church filled with water so that the furnace could not be used.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A PARLOR FAIR will be held March 2d; at the residence of Mr. E. S. Campbell, 631 Vine Street, Philadelphia The proceeds are to go to upholstering the Cherry Street Church
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A YOUNG PEOPLE'S association has organized in Denver, with sixteen members. Meetings are held once a month. Mr. Harry Lang, formerly of Philadelphia, acts as leader of the club.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     PROF. THOMAS FRENCH, of Urbana University, has lately been (by a unanimous vote of the trustees) appointed Professor of Physics in the Cincinnati University, with a salary of $2000.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN PHILADELPHIA, a class of young people, under the charge of Mr. E. J. E. Schreck, has been formed for the study of Hebrew. The class meets once a week, and uses Tafel's Interlinear of Genesis.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE BROAD STREET SOCIETY, of Philadelphia, during the past year has distributed 46,000 tracts and 6,000 copies of the Manual. At the annual meeting, January 8th, ten new members were received into the Society.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Vineland Society, on Wednesday evening, February 7th, held an oyster supper at the residence of Mr. N. P. Wiswell. An admission fee of twenty-five cents was charged, the proceeds to go to the Society. The affair was a great success.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE attendance at Worship in Wilmington is much larger than formerly, and there seems to be an increased interest in the Doctrines in the community at large. Mr. Parmelee's Sunday evening lectures are attended by many strangers.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE dedication of the new temple of the Broad Street Society of Philadelphia, will take place on Sunday, March 11th. The sermon will be delivered by the Rev. James Reed, of Boston. The Rev. L. H. Tafel of the Cherry Street Society, will also lake part in the exercises.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE ADVENT Society of Philadelphia has decided to send its pastor, the Rev. L. H. Tafel to Europe next summer for a vacation. He will attend the English Conference, which will meet at the church of the Camden Road Society, London, of which Dr. R. L. Tafel is pastor. Mr. Tafel will also probably visit Germany and Switzerland, and other places on the Continent.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE ANNUAL MEETINGS of the Pennsylvania Association will be held at the Cherry Street Church, Philadelphia, March 17th. The session will be a most important one, and it is desirable that all interested in the work of the Association should attend. The amendment of the constitution, in conformity with the new rules of the. Convention, will probably be one of the subjects which will come up for action.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE members of the Greenford Ohio, Society are now unanimously in favor of continuing their connection with the Pennsylvania Association, and desire to be visited quarterly by a minister of that Association who can preach both in English and German, as several of the members understand English imperfectly. The position taken by the Ohio Association on Baptism meets with no favor among them
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. A. LAMB continues his work for the Church in Connecticut; He recently delivered two lectures in Stonington. On account of unfavorable weather, the audiences were small; six copies of the True Christian Religion and a number of pamphlets were sold. In Ledyard, a lady, who has been a member of the Baptist Church for thirty years, has embraced the Doctrine of the New Church and has been baptized.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN Chicago, the interest in the work on the North Side seems to be revived. A separate church committee, consisting of Messrs. Pendleton, Benson, Forrest, Drinkwater, and Matthewson, has been organized. Services were reopened Sunday afternoon, February 11th, by, Rev. W. P. Pendleton. The congregation numbered thifty-one. Preparations are also being made for a course of lectures, three of which will be delivered by the Rev. L. P. Mercer and four by the Rev. W. F. Pendleton.
PUISLISERS' NOTICE 1883

PUISLISERS' NOTICE              1883



49



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

          PHILADELPHIA, APRIL, 1883.
     -For twenty-five cents we will send the LIFE for six months on trial, to any address. For this purpose a cheap edition has been issued on thin white paper of half the weight of that on which the regular edition is printed. Those who receive sample copies of the cheap edit ion and who wish to examine the regular edition will be furnished with a sample copy of the same on application; Back numbers will NOT be furnished on such trial subscriptions. Remittances may be made in postage stamps.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Baptist Messenger, of Pittsburgh, is publishing a series of articles on Future Punishment, by the Rev. Wm. Codville, of McKeesport. In these articles the Doctrine of the New Church, on this subject, is set forth, though its source is not mentioned. Mr. Codville, we understand, also preaches New Church truths from his pulpit. We hardly think, however, that he will continue very long to present the Doctrines of the New Church in orthodox journals and pulpits. He will either be obliged to leave the Old Church and openly acknowledge the New, or he will have to recede from his position and relapse into the Old Church, like several of the popular preachers of the day who began much as he has done.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     YEARS ago New Churchmen were popularly supposed to be a singular but harmless sort of people, who set plates for their departed friends and who expected to follow their mundane occupations in heaven. But nowadays we hear but little of these supposed cardinal doctrines, and Swedenborgians are by many regarded rather as "spiritualized" Unitarians. Sometimes, however, the old notions show themselves in conversation or in print. An instance of this kind is the following paragraph from the Pittsburgh Dispatch: "Peter Kimball, who lives in Cleveland and enjoying good health at the age of 74, says he owes all his good luck and life itself to an old fife, which he carries with him all the time. Forty years ago he was wasting away with consumption, and, by way of amusement, resorted to playing the fife. His health improved and he grew strong. He says he is a Swedenborgian, and expects to play the fife throughout all eternity."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Microsm for March contains the first part of Mr. Hall's reply to the criticisms of The New Church Review on the Problem of Human LIFE. This reply is, written in a trenchant but decidedly undignified style, occasionally descending to the familiarity and invective of a Western newspaper. In justice, however, it must be said that the reviewer has in great measure brought this upon himself; as his critique was seriously lacking in that dignity and repose which are generally supposed to be necessary characteristics of a quarterly.... The most noticeable thing in Mr. Hall's reply is his direct denial of having been a reader of Swedenborg when his book was written, and an implied denial that he is a believer in Swedenborg at the present time.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     The Catholic, of Pittsburgh, in its issue of March 3d, publishes an editorial half a column in length, commenting upon the Brief Exposition and a circular letter which were sent to it by the Missionary Committee of the Pittsburgh Society as well as to every other journal and to every minister of the two cities of Allegheny and Pittsburgh. Among other things The Catholic says: "We are kindly informed by the gentlemen that it is an easy matter for Catholics to incorporate themselves with the New Jerusalem Church. It is far from that. Such transit could only take place when the Catholic Church threw her creed and her claims to the winds and stultified herself in the eyes of the world. For Swedenborg, with his fantastic scheme of salvation, to absorb the Roman Catholic Church, would be like a pool of water absorbing the vast ocean. . . . Can it be possible that men of reason suppose for a moment that the Church which has stood forth as the Knight Defender of the Holy Trinity from 'Sabellius', Arius', and Servetus' days would fall so readily and upon invitation into the arms of Swedenborg, who called the Trinity, as a doctrine, absurd, false, and contradictory!"
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     MR. BENJAMIN F. GLENN, a prominent member of the New Church in Philadelphia, passed into the Spiritual World on Monday, March 5th. Mr. Glenn was carefully reared in the sphere of the Church and early imbued with a knowledge of its fundamental truths. Firm in the faith, Mr. Glenn was always to be found with those and among those who believed it to be the first duty of the New Churchman to acknowledge the LORD in His Second Coming in the Writings of the Church. This firmness of conviction in the LORD'S presence in the Doctrines of the Church, gave to Mr. Glenn's life that earnest devotion to what he sincerely believed to be the best interests of the Church, which we note as the marked characteristic of his life among us. Amidst all earthly trials he held steadfast to his faith, and was ever ready to do his very best for the promotion of the Church; This is not said in eulogy, but from grateful remembrance of the LORD'S mercy to him who is gone, and to these who have been encouraged and sustained by a devotedness and self-sacrifice not so common even in the Church that they should pass sign of recognition.


50


REMAINS 1883

REMAINS              1883

     "REMAINS are all the states of affection for good and truth which are given to man by the LORD from first infancy, even to the end of life, which states are hidden in him for use in his life after death, for in the other life all the states of his life successively return and then they are tempered by the states of good and truth with which he has been gifted by the LORD. Without those man could not be man, for the states of cupidity or of evil without temperature by states of affection for good would be more atrocious than those of any animal."- A. C. 1906.
     How important then to cultivate the affections of good and truth in ourselves and in our children I How important it is for us to know how those affections are implanted, and whether we can do anything to favor their growth and development! It is a subject of paramount interest. We do not want to become worse than beasts, nor do we want our children to. Let us then look further and see if the LORD teaches us how He gives us the affections of good and truth, and if we can do anything to favor their reception. In A. C. 3183 we read:
     Sucklings and those giving suck are often mentioned in the Word, and by them is signified the first infant state, which state it is manifest is a state of innocence; for man is introduced as he is first born into a state of innocence, that it may be a plane of the remaining [or following] states, and be the inmost therein; this state is signified in the Word by a suckling. Thence he is introduced into a state of the affection of celestial good, i. e., of love toward parents, which, with them is in place of love toward the LORD. This state is signified by infants. Afterward he is introduced into a state of the affection of spiritual good or of mutual love, i. e. of charity toward his like [in age], which state is signified by boys. When he becomes still more a youth, he is introduced into a state of the affection for truth. This is signified by young man, but die following state by man, and at length by old man. This last state, which is signified by an old man, is a state of wisdom in which is the innocence of infancy.
     Thus the first state and the last are united, and man when old, as again an infant but wise, is introduced into the kingdom of the LORD. Thence it may appear that innocence is the first state, which is of the suckling- A. C. 3183.

     Here we are taught that the LORD begins to give man these states of good and truth by giving suckling infants a state of innocent love and confidence in The mother who nurses them, and that this is the inmost of remains; that He follows this by initiating them into a state of love for parents who are to them in place of the LORD; that by their love for parents, by their obedience and trust in them, the LORD gives them states of affection for good, which, in the future, are to be receptive of love toward Him, and thus of eternal happiness; and again, that as they leave this age and enter the next, He implants remains of spiritual good by means of their love for one another. Surely it is in our power to cherish and foster these affections. We can tenderly care for our little ones. We can encourage them to love us, to confide in us, and to come to us with all their joys and sorrows. We can sympathize with them, teach them, and lead them to do what is true and good. We can teach them to obey, and that too in time, from a love of their parents. And as they advance in years we can lead them to be kind and loving to their little companions. We can restrain their selfishness and encourage generosity. We can lead them to put their brothers and sisters and little companions first. Thus we can cherish and favor the implantation of the remains of good and truth, which will serve as ground in which the LORD can implant the scientifics and cognitions learned in boyhood and youth.
     The order in which this is done the LORD teaches us the following:

     Celestial things, which are of love, are insinuated from first infancy even to boyhood, also to adolescence, as man is then and afterward imbued with scientifics and cognitions. If man is such that he can be regenerated, those scientifics and cognitions are infilled with celestial things, which are of love and of charity, and so they are implanted in the celestial things, with which he has been gifted from infancy to boyhood and adolescence, and thus his external man is conjoined with his internal. They are first implanted in the celestial things, which were given in adolescence, then with those which were given in boy- hood, and at length with those which were given in infancy. Then he is an infant, concerning whom the LORD said: "Of such is the kingdom of God." This implantation takes place from the LORD alone, wherefore nothing celestial is given with man, nor can be given that is not from the LORD and that is not of the LORD.- A. C. 1616.

     Here we see that the LORD begins to regenerate man by using the good affections that He had implanted in youth and thence advances to those implanted in infancy. We see that when He infills the goods of in fancy with truths, man becomes again an infant but wise as an inhabitant of the heavens. The age of infancy is the most important of all, for then inmost remains are deposited. It is therefore most guarded by the LORD. He surrounds the infant with celestial angels. He implants in the human race a love for their offspring, so that even the evil care for and protect their infants. But still it is possible to hurt the tender states even of infants. That we may know how to guard this state let us read the following:

     There are three degrees of innocence, which in the Word are distinguished by sucklings, infants, and little boys. And because true innocence is not given without true love and charity also by the same, viz., by sucklings, infants, and little boys, are signified three degrees of love, which are tender love, as of a suckling toward its mother or nurse; love, as of infants toward parents, and charity, as of little boys toward their instructor. - A. C. 430.

     The age of infancy then is subdivided into three degrees. The inmost remains of all are deposited in the suckling by means of its tender love for its mother. How important, then, for mothers to nurse their children. How important that they should fondle and care for them themselves! And when, in the Divine Providence of the LORD, they cannot nurse them, how important it is to procure a suitable nurse. Or if this is impossible, as it generally is at the present day, how important that the mother should feed them and fondle them, that they may receive their nourishment in the mother's protecting sphere. How atrocious it is to give them a bottle and let them lie on the bed by themselves! How can the tender affection for the mother, as the author of all good, be implanted in this way!
     When this age passes then there ought to be an interval when the child is under the care of its parents and is initiated into love and obedience toward them. Still later it becomes the duty of the parent to provide a proper instructor of their little children, one, if possible, who is in the love of the Church and of her work; one who understands the spiritual uses of teaching the children to love and obey her; one to care for them as a solemn duty to the parents and to the LORD.
     When we look at the subject of educating our children in the light of such numbers as these, we find much to cause us to pause and reflect, much that leads us to see that we must give the subject our most careful thought. We see that things that are apparently natural and external are really internal and spiritual.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     NOTHING inconsistent with the essential principles of any natural science as given in the Writings of Swedenborg should be taught in our schools. Teachers should note this.


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COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS 1883

COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS              1883

IV.
MAN EASILY DECEIVED BY SPIRITS.

     The continuation of the subject concerning the danger of open communication with spirits, we will quote in full a passage from the Apocalypse Explained on account of its importance:

     Something shall now be said concerning the speech of spirits with man. It is believed by many, that man may be taught by the LORD by spirits speaking with him; but those who believe and will this do not know that it is connected with danger to their souls. Man, so long as he lives in the world, is in the midst of spirits as to his spirit, and yet spirits do not know that they are with man nor does man know that he is with spirits. The reason is that they are conjoined as to the affections of the will immediately, and as to the thoughts of the understanding mediately: for man thinks naturally, but spirits think spiritually; and natural and spiritual thoughts do not otherwise make one than by correspondences, and a union by correspondences causes that one does not know anything concerning the other. But as soon as spirits begin to speak with man, they come out of their spiritual state into the natural state of man, and then they know that they are with man, and they conjoin themselves with the thoughts of his affections, and from them they speak with him; they cannot enter into anything else for similar affection and thought thence conjoins all, and dissimilar separates. From this it is that the speaking spirit is in the same principles with the man whether they be true or false, and also that he excites them, and by his affection conjoined with man's affection strongly confirms them. Thence it is evident that no other titan similar spirits speak with man, or manifestly operate on him, for manifest operation coincides with speech. From this it is that no other than enthusiastic spirits speak with enthusiasts, then that no other than Quaker spirits operate upon Quakers, and Moravian spirits upon Moravians; it would be similar with Arians, with Socinians, and with other heretics. All spirits speaking with man are no others than those who have been men in the world, and were then of such a quality; that it is so, was given to know by experiences. And what is ridiculous, when man believes that the Holy Spirit speaks with him or operates in him, the spirit also believes that he is the Holy Spirit. This is common with enthusiastic spirits. From these things it is evident in what danger man is who speaks with spirits, or who manifestly feels their operation. Man does not know of what quality his affection is, whether it is good or evil, and with what others it is conjoined. And if he is in the pride of his own intelligence the spirits favor every thought which is thence in like manner, if any one favors particular principles enkindled by a certain fire which has place with those who are not in truths from genuine affections. When a spirit from similar affection favors man's thoughts or affections, then one leads the other, as the blind the blind, until both fall into the pit. The Pythonics formerly were such, and also the Magi in Egypt and in Babel, who on account of speech with spirits, and on account of their operation felt manifestly in themselves were called wise, but by that the worship of God was converted into the worship of demons, and the Church perished; wherefore such commerce was forbidden the sons of Israel under penalty of death.- A. E. 1182.

     From the above passage we may see how man can be led and deceived by spirits; they enter into his affections and when they are in open communication with him they know all things of his thought and memory. We are taught in Heaven and Hell that "It is not lawful for an - angel or spirit to speak with man from his own memory, but from that of man."- H. H. 256. And in the Arcana, that soon as any spirit comes to another, and still more when he comes to man, he immediately knows his thoughts and affections, and then what he has done, thus all his present state, exactly as if he had been with him through a long time." (A. C. 5383.) From which things it is manifest how absurd it is to expect to learn from spirits anything of use which one has not known before. They are not allowed to speak from their own memory, but from that of man; they cannot tell what they had learned in the spiritual world, but they know all man's state and see what he desires to know; they see the state of his affections, and from this knowledge they can lead man whithersoever they will.
     It would seem as if man could easily detect them if they used only his knowledges, for he desires to know something new; and if they cannot satisfy this knowledge and teach him something he did not know before, it would appear as if he could soon learn this. But spirits are very ingenious, quick at deception, and adept at lying, and they can easily mislead man by their arts. They can take things from man's memory and present them in various forms, so that the man will not recognize them as his; they can see what he desires to know, and pretend that they do know it. We are taught in the Diary that:

     Spirits narrate exceedingly false things, and they lie. When spirits begin to speak with man he should be on his guard, lest he believe anything from them, for nearly everything that they say is made up by them, and they lie; for if it should be allowed them to narrate what heaven is, and how the things in heaven are, they would tell so many lies that man would be astounded, and indeed with an earnest assertion [that it was true]; therefore it was not allowed me to have faith in those things which the spirits spoke. For they desire to fabricate; and whenever any object is spoken about, they think they know it, and they give opinions about it one after another altogether as if they knew, and if man should then hearken and believe, they would insist, and in diverse ways deceive and seduce; as, for instance, if it was permitted them to speak concerning things to come, concerning the unknown things in the universal heaven, concerning all things whatsoever man desires; but all things they would speak falsely, when from themselves. Wherefore men should guard themselves lest they believe them. Therefore the state o speaking with spirits in this earth is most dangerous unless he if in true faith, hey induce so strong a persuasion that it is this LORD Himself that speaks and commands that man cannot bus believe and obey.- S. D. 1622.

     They not only have this power to deceive and lie, but they can even mislead by assuming the character of others; concerning this we read:

     This has very often been shown to me, that the spirits when they spoke did not know otherwise than that they were the men concerning whom I thought, neither did other spirits know otherwise, as yesterday and to-day some one known to me in life, who was so similar to him in all things of him, as far as they were known to me, that nothing could be more similar; wherefore, those who speak with spirits should guard themselves lest they be deceived when they say that they are those who were known to them and that are dead. For there are genera and species of spirits of a similar faculty when similar are called forth into this memory of man, and so they are represented by them-they think that they are the same-then ahi those things are called forth from the memory which represent them, the words, speech, tones, gestures, and many things, moreover, they are induced so to think when other spirits inspire them, for then they are in their fantasy, and they think that they are the same- S. D. 2860, 2861, See also 4277.

     From the above we can see the folly of placing any reliance on the dicta of spirits when they assert that they are any particular person, for they themselves are deceived very often into thinking that they are the person when they are not. They assume the character from the knowledges concerning that person in the mind of man, and they assume that character and actually live and believe that they are the person. Then again we can see that howsoever strong the evidence they can easily see what the man knows and make the evidence so strong that he can scarcely resist; and all the while they will be taking the character from the man's mind.
     Again it is said:

     That if man is not in true faith as Quakers and enthusiasts that spirits persuade them not only that this spirit is holy, but they are even excited and instigated to crimes, for nearly the whole world of spirits is abominable and enthusiastic, and it desires with all zeal to obsess man; but the LORD guards and has a care for man.- S. D. 3781, see 3815.

     Moreover, there is something of compulsion in presenting spirits to the, sight of man, and he is thereby compelled to believe in the existence of spirits and in another life, and such compelled belief is injurious and irrational, while a belief from the Word and from the presentation of rational doctrines is not compulsory, and therefore it is a superior way and opens up a more interior and higher degree of the human mind.

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Hence we may see why the LORD permitted the Jews and early Christians to be convinced by means of the manifest operation of spirits, for they were external men and their rational faculty could not be opened and developed by doctrine alone; but in this age the rational faculty can be opened, and hence rational doctrines are now revealed, which will open this faculty and which will thus develop a higher degree of the mind than was the case with Jews or Christians. They were sensual men and needed to be convinced by means of the senses, but we can become rational and therefore we need rational doctrines to convince us.
     We are taught in the Diary:
     Why spirits do not manifest themselves before men and instruct them concerning the existence and quality of spirits:

     There are many reasons which are in the arcana and sanctuary of the LORD that such things do not exist; it is permitted only to relate that they cannot be manifested to the man who is not in the knowledges of true faith, because thus the LORD can be present, and guard lest the spirits bring damnation on man as to body and soul, for they hover around in troops and crowds, and. desire nothing else than to pervert, yea, to slay man. For when it is conceded to them to manifest themselves, then also they operate to the manifest sense into the ideas and will, of man. Moreover, to present spirits and the souls of the dead to the eyes of man and thus to urge to believe is also repugnant to the wisdom of the LORD, who does not break man but bends him.- S. D. 2393.

     In the Divine Providence there is an interesting chapter, the whole of which bears on this point. It is headed:

     That it is a law of the Divine Providence that man should not he compelled by external means to thinking and willing, thus to believing and loving, the things which are of religion; but that man should lead and sometimes compel himself.-D. P. 129-153.

     In this chapter we find the following:

     That no one is reformed by visions and by discourses with the deceased, because they compel. (134.)

     That neither can any one be reformed by discourses with the deceased is evident from the words of the LORD concerning the rich one in hell, and concerning Lazarus in Abraham's bosom. . . . Luke xvi, 27-31. Speaking with the dead would produce a like effect as miracles, concerning which just above, namely, that man would be persuaded and driven worship for a little time; but because this deprives man of rationality, and at the same time shut, in evils, as was said above, this enchantment or internal bond is loosed, and the evils shut in burst forth with blasphemy and profanation, but this takes place only when the spirits induce some dogma of religion, which is never done by any good spirit, still less by any angel of heaven.-D. P. 134 1/2.

From the above passages we can see a few of the wise and good reasons why the LORD now forbids us to seek communication with spirits. We can hope to gain nothing from them. They can give, us no useful and reliable information concerning the other world; they cannot lead us onward and upward in the regenerate life. On the contrary, those with whom we would come into consociation were we to seek it would be evil and false spirits, for we would be acting contrary to the LORD'S commands in His Word and Writings, and therefore we would sever ourselves from good spirits and angels. The spirits with whom we became consociated would endeavor to drag us downward toward hell. They would lie, and misrepresent and excite our evil affections and false thoughts, and by the most cunning ways lead us away from the LORD, faith in Him and His Word and Doctrine, and thus would they try to destroy us-both as to soul and body.
AUTHORITY VS. UNACCEPTABLE DOCTRINE 1883

AUTHORITY VS. UNACCEPTABLE DOCTRINE              1883

V.
     IN Conjugial Love 202 is the heading: "That offspring, born from two who are in love truly conjugial draw from their parents the conjugial of good and truth, from which they have an inclination and faculty-if a son, for perceiving the things which are of wisdom; if a daughter, for loving the things which wisdom teaches." Under this heading we read (n. 204):
     Hence it is manifest that an aptness and facility for conjoining good to troth, and truth to good, thus for being wise, is inherited by nativity by those who are born from such marriage above all others, consequently also for imbibing the things which are of the Church and Heaven.

     That this is most true and most important will appear in clearness in the' light of the truths concerning the conjugial relations in oar previous papers. Children of a love that is a truly (or truthly) Conjugial Love, having its fountain in the LORD'S truth revealed to the Church, its internal spirit in the rational wisdom of the husband formed in its light, and its ultimating body in the natural degree of the love of the wife for that wisdom, are above all others in the true order of life. And "such is the case," we are told (n. 206), "because the soul of the offspring is from the father and its clothing from the mother." This reason thus given is only another and most important instance of the law which we saw made the relation that of the spiritual with the natural, as soul with body; And the spiritual formed in the truths of the Church, and the natural in the love of them, cannot but give a heredity to the offspring that, above all others, is in the order of the life of the Church, with an inclination and faculty of soul and body for its reception. Any one can see, if he is willing to see, how certainly those parents forfeit for their children all this vantage ground who enter into the "heinous marriages," A. C. 8998 (comp. C. L. 242). or the marriages of mere "external affection," or "worldly-ambition," or other "enticements and concupiscences," from which they are generally contracted (n. 274), only to become soon internally loosed (n. 275), or from any motive whatever in forgetfulness that love truly conjugial is not a personal or emotional love merely (n. 98, 330-31), but a life of the truth and love of the Church (n. 66, 70, 130). To all, therefore, who have not destroyed, as this age especially above all others has destroyed, the "love of loves" (n. 402), there is here an additional and most important reason for conforming with the law of Divine order in this regard.
     The foregoing principles also bear on the manner in which parents should co-operate in the education of their children. We have seen that the Doctrines give to the wife the duty of "bringing up the infants of each sex, and of instructing the girls even to their age when they are devoted to and associated with men, . . . but the care of the instruction of the boys from childhood to youth, and after this until they become their own men, is of the duty proper to the husband" (C. L. 176). In the light of the above principles we see that there is an important reason for this which cannot, without harmful effects on the results, be violated. It is that the work of the two is not on the same plane, and therefore must supplement and complement each other, but are not interchangeable at the caprice of either. Here, too, the "progress" of modern new ideas is in the wrong direction. It assumes that, being in the same plane, there is no essential difference, or that if there is any difference it is in favor of women being the teachers of all indiscriminately, as being the best to reach the minds of the young.

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They are alone qualified in things of their own plane of womanly affection. But in the plane of the rational, for developing the faculties of judgment and justice men alone are qualified. And here is a point of the discrimination in which our New Church thought is singularly obscure. The popular tide of confusion of the spheres and duties of the sexes has seemed to render many of our people oblivious to the fact that the Doctrines make a distinction. We saw the point raised once at a large gathering of New Church people, both laity and clergy, and the statement of the truth on the subject seemed to surprise some numbers of those present as something they had never heard of. So much does a popular falsity seem to blind many New Church minds to plain truths that lie at the foundation of all the order and good of their life. It seems to be taken, for granted that there is an influx of new light into the minds of men, and that the new ideas everywhere appearing are its results, and therefore must be true. And so there is a neglect to consult the Doctrines to see whether they are true or false. Such a consultation would very quickly show, not only that many, if not most, of the new ideas are farther from the truth than the world ever was before, but also that it is not according to order that men should receive true ideas by influx, but only by the teachings of revelation, and that the only revelation from which men now can be taught any truth whatever is that made by the LORD to the New Church.
     The lesson taught in the doctrine in question is especially necessary to fathers. It is given to teach them that, they cannot rightly do as is the custom in this age of greed of money making, spend every moment of their time in this hot pursuit of the business of money making, leaving the care of the instruction of their sons to others, and those not qualified for the work, but hired simply for their cheapness. The conclusion of a failing merchant, that now he would go home and get acquainted with his family, might well be that of many among us from obedience to our teachings. The husband who studies and obeys C. L. 176 will never fail to see to it that he keeps acquainted with all their needs, spiritual and mental. The lessons contained in the chapter (C. L. 156-181) are of inestimable value and ought to be care- fully studied by all parents. One of great value to every mother is found in n. 174 in these words: "The duties by means of which above all other wives conjoin themselves with the husbands are the education of infants of each sex, and of the girls even to the age in which they are given in marriage." It is such an antidote to the prevailing besetment of the age for wives and mothers, as that in n. 176, is for husbands and fathers.
     Of the particular methods of education that are indicated by the Doctrines very much may be profitably said, enough to make a separate work. What has recently been said in these columns ought to be well considered by all their readers. In the immediate direction, however, our present line of thought is the duty of parents to give their children a clear-cut New Church education, not only in their spiritual, but their mental development, and not trust them to the false method of the day. These methods are all hap-hazard, and give a morbid and inharmonious development to the minds] that grow up under them. A glance at the fundamental outline of the growth of the mind as given in the Doctrines will show this. The child begins corporeal, a mere body, first to open in the sensual, with its sense faculties looking out upon the world, and receiving its impressions; next opens the scientific, with its knowledges gathered by the senses; next is the rational, taking cognizance of the reasons and causes of all these things, and this on its natural side completes the growth the natural mind as far as it can go on the natural plane, taking cognizance of only the things of the world. But through the whole process of the opening of these degrees there ought to be also going on the storing up of the germs of spiritual principles to "remain" against the time of the opening of the spiritual degrees. The Doctrines are full of instruction regarding the storing of these remains, and of the proper order for them to be stored for their future opening, viz., of the infantile celestial things of love; of childhood's spiritual or rational; of youths' moral or natural remains. It is very evident that the prevailing systems of education are in utter ignorance and disregard of all this perfect and beautiful order of mental growth, and can only make sad work of the whole process, and a misshapen product, in the end. This all urges upon the New Church parent the duty of seeing to it that his children are provided with instruction under New Church auspices, and in accordance with the order of growth which the Doctrines alone reveal and they alone can give. In no other way can he at all forecast the result of the work; otherwise it may be one thing, or it maybe another, had or indifferent; it can hardly run a chance in a score of being good. This being true, is it at all surprising that in so many of our families that are left to the mercies of a popular hap-hazard education and too often with almost nothing at home to mend the matter, there should be such a percentage of loss, not only to the Church, but even to anything of worth or value in life? Especially when we think of the natural and mental as the basis and continent of the spiritual, the importance of our duties in the case becomes very great and presses hard upon us for our attention. How do those of us meet them whose principal thought in the matter, from first to last, is only how to give their children a popular education and a good position in society, which means simply to turn them over to the civilized Paganism of the day? I have already treated somewhat fully of the spiritual aspects of the case; let these more mental and natural ones now come in to give them added force and power.
     We will now see how necessary all this makes the maintenance of the visible Church in its most effective form.
TRUE PHYSIOLOGY 1883

TRUE PHYSIOLOGY              1883

     BECAUSE, forsooth, the microscope reveals nothing organic beyond the cells of which tissues are seen to be composed, physiologists conclude that these cells are the initiaments of organization. Beginning with the egg, the various animal structures grow by the multiplication and division of the original primary cell. If a blood vessel is to be formed, it consists first of a disposition of cells lying in immediate contact in a line, and finally, by an obliteration of the parts touching, a tube is formed. This is the new vessel.
     The old adage, omne virum ex ovo, all life is from an egg-becomes now, omnis cellula e cellula-every little cell is from a little cell. There is no objection to the study of cellular physiology, provided the reader rejects the absurd hypothesis that he is investigating the primal forms of vegetable and animal organisms, beyond which life is not possible. Such an assumption is, in the light of New Church philosophy, false, degrading, and, finally, atheistic. For, despite the firm position of Lionel Beale that there is a Divine Architect who fashions protoplasm into an infinite variety of creatures, according to His Divine purposes, the tendency of the study and the tenor of the majority of students is toward materialism, "Vitality," says Huxley, "is a property inherent in certain kinds of matter."

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True physiology teaches there are many forms of matter beyond the ken of the microscope, though not transcending rational inquiry. To a consideration of these forms science must turn if it would be lifted from its merely sensual sphere to the lofty realms of reason.
     Dr. Wilkinson facetiously remarks: "Who of woman born can go further than to distill himself into gas, or to pound himself into cells? Annihilation, which God forbids, must be the next stage of smallness. These respective doctrines are the last solid points which are possible, and by nature itself there is no passage beyond them. After these the scientific men themselves must evanesce, for already their watchword to each other is 'Hail, Bubble Brother! Hail, Nucleated Cell.'" (The Human Body.)
     Swedenborg teaches that the form of the soul is spiritual; of the intellectory celestial; of the internal sensory, vortical; of the external sensory, spiral; of that appendix, which properly is called body, circular; its bones, cartileges, and similar structures are of an angular form, similarly the several elements which having entered the blood constitute it, in each globule of which lies hidden every form from first to last. (De Anima, p. 224.)
     So, then, physiologists, rejecting rational investigation, grope blindly among circular forms which are scarcely elevated above the view of the naked eye, while above them are exquisite forms of matter, and while even in the cells they are examining "lies hidden every form from first to last." To possess these treasures is the boon of the future. But meanwhile, aided by Swedenborg's scientific works, the man of the New Church may acquaint himself with many of the wonders of creation, gratifying to his love of knowledge and elevating in their influence upon his natural mind.
     To accomplish so great a desideratum, however, the student must first come to the LORD with humility and submission; must discard all that which is false and deceptive, and cling only to that which coincides with revealed truths. As he reads the literature of the day, he must keep before him, as so many critical tests of accuracy, the various philosophic laws with which he is gifted. Does what he reads agree with the doctrines of order, degrees, series, and use? Then it is to be accepted. Does it, above all, admit or imply a divine origin and not a self-subsistent existence? Then it is true.
     But, alas! where, outside the Church, can be found such trustworthy reading? Facts patent to the senses are indeed almost innumerable, but one searches in vain for sound theories and consistent philosophy. Take, for example, physiology. That the heart beats and the lungs move, that the food is digested and that the brains think, are admitted facts. But since a depraved science knows of no such thing as a soul, its existence is denied in toto, or it is silently put in the background, as unapproachable. The complex movements of the body are regarded as inherent in matter and so independent of the soul. Vital force is a visionary term, belonging to the last century. All vitality is now seen to be but the manifestation of chemical and physical changes in matter; so, then, thought is the effect of the combustion of brain tissue, digestion is, in the main, the saponificati6n of fists and the conversion of albumen into peptone, the aeration of the blood in the lungs is merely the exchange of oxygen and carbonic acid gas, and locomotion is the conversion of caloric into mechanical energy. Now Swedenborg comes to the rescue and offers us a physiology quick with life, active in every tissue and organ, and consistent in theory from first to last. Into the monotonous pulse of modern physiology he distills a new blood, born in the bosom of the brains and bearing their life to the utmost recesses of the dependent body. Into the bellows-like motion of the lungs he pours the life of thought, making the pulmonary animation accord with thought and affection, imparting to every organ an expansion and contraction in and by which it receives its power to act and to live. Out of the chemical laboratory he lifts the digested food and, sending it along blood vessels and lymph tubes, makes it to be appropriated, not as so much carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, not as so much fuel to feed the human furnace, but as matter corresponding to man's multiple needs, as material to be selected as his affections, which are of his life's love, desire and urge. Thus are soul and body wedded, and the latter shown to be but a material organism so constructed that the soul may descend and dwell in this nether world, while it is growing and perfecting for its eternal abode in heaven. This is true physiology.
JAMES BRONSON 1883

JAMES BRONSON              1883

     VI.

     IN the city where Jim so readily found employment was a New Church Society. He was in almost total - ignorance of the history and present state of the visible Church, as he had never since early childhood met any of its members excepting the Wrights, yet he always had a feeling born perhaps from his study of the Writings-that the Church would be to him home and peace. The peace and happiness of a home had never been his either as boy or man; often when in states of weariness and despondency, which even strong men feel at times, he had longed for the rest of a home, but never had found it; at such times he would feel that he was a stranger in a strange laud. With such views of the Church, it is almost needless to say it was with a happy heart and elastic footsteps that he hastened one evening to call upon the pastor of the New Church Society.
     Not being enough of a society man to possess a card, he merely asked the servant who opened the door in response to his ring if Mr. Charte, the pastor of the society, was at home, and if he could see him. He was informed that Mr. Charts was at home and was ushered into the parlor.
     While waiting there he glanced around the room. Everything in it, furniture, ornaments, books, etc., seemed to have an air of being thoroughly decorous and conscious that they were in order and eminently respectable. Jim felt slightly apologetic to the chair, which he moved somewhat as he seated himself; then a strong impulse came over him to get up and disturb something-move the furniture a little, disarrange the books-anything to break the spell. While repressing this desire the door noiselessly opened and Mr. Charte entered. He was a middle-aged man, neatly dressed in black. His face indicated gentle benevolence, and from his clothing came a faint perfume of dried lavender.
     "You wish to see me?" he asked, in a well-modulated voice.
     "Yes, sir," replied Jim. "I must introduce myself as James Bronson. I have but lately arrived in this city, ' which in the future will be my home. I am a New Churchman, but have never enjoyed the advantage and pleasure of Church worship or association, and I assure you, sir," went on Jim, heartily, "that it warms my heart to think of meeting and associating with those of my own faith."


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     "I am very glad to meet you," replied Mr. Charte, mildly," and I hope you will attend our services regularly. As you say, it is of course very pleasant to associate in brotherly love and unity with our brethren; we all in our society enjoy it very much." Then looking at Jim closely he continued: "Excuse me, but did you not live in Stoneville previous to coming here?"
     "No, sir," answered Jim, somewhat surprised, "but was my native place; I left there while still a child."
     "Yes, I see. Your parents, I presume, were members of Mr. Strong's society."
     "Yes, they were true and earnest members," exclaimed Jim, delightedly. "Did you know them?"
     The Rev. Mr. Charte gently shook his head as he replied, "I only knew the members of that society by- by general reputation."
     "And that must have been a good one," replied honest Jim, "judging them by my dear father."
     Mr. Charte did not reply to this, and changed the subject. It was not long before the conversation turned on the expulsion of a celebrated minister of one of the Evangelical denominations for heresy.
     "He is a little in advance of his denomination," remarked Mr. Charte. "They have not been educated up to the advanced position he assumed."
      "Advanced position?" queried Jim.
      "Yes; for he preached sermons very much imbued with New Church truths-broad, liberal, and all-embracing in their scope!"
     Jim's face wore a puzzled look as he replied, "Never having had the good fortune to be associated with New Church people or of hearing New Church sermons, I may have got very erroneous notions; but to be candid, I must say that I have regarded that celebrated sermon for which he was expelled as being nearer infidelity than the New Church."
     Mr. Charte made no reply to this, and Jim, with that great respect he had for the ministerial office, continued:
     "You must pardon me for my expression of opinion so different from your own. I have teen an isolated member of the Church all my life, dependent solely on the Writings for the truth, or perhaps I should say, on my understanding of them; I am very ignorant in the truth as yet, and was doubtless mistaken in this matter."
     "Living and reading alone as you have," replied Mr. Charte, "has in some cases a tendency to give one rather narrow views, and I think you have failed to grasp a full sense of what the New Church is. Your ignorance of the truth is not a matter of so much moment, provided you live a good life. In fact, too much study and acquirement of truth has a tendency to make men proud and contemptuous of others in comparison with himself, while, on the other hand, the more charity he has the more he becomes gentle, loving, and kind to all."
     "But I have always understood that truth was the sole-and only form of-" commenced Jim, with a bewildered look, when Mr. Charte interrupted him by arising and saying at the same time, "Pardon me, but I have an appointment, and will be unable to discuss this matter any further with you."
     Jim walked slowly homeward, and his face wore a troubled look. "Can it be possible," he thought, "that I have been putting my self-derived notions into the LORD'S truth?-that my mind has become warped through too much pride?". Such were the tenor of his thoughts not only during his walk homeward, but also for the remainder of the week. When Sunday came he hastened to the little New Church temple. As a stranger he was kindly and even cordially received and shown a seat. Rarely does a minister have a more attentive listener than Jim was that day. After the services were over several gentlemen came up and shook hands with him, and said they were glad to see him. While conversing with him Mr. Charte came and introduced him to them, remarking at the same time," Mr. Bronson has but lately come to the city; he, or rather his parents, were members of Mr. Strong's society." After a few casual remarks the group broke up and Jim walked home alone. For many succeeding Sundays he regularly attended services, and always listened to the sermons with the closest attention, but he failed to experience that joy, peace, and rest he had so often thought was to be found in the external Church, but instead his mind was tormented with doubts. What he heard was so often at variance with his preconceived ideas that finally a great fear assailed him. "I know, or think I know," he reasoned with himself, "that when truth and falsity meet in one mind there is conflict. Now, I, for the first time in my life, have listened to the sermons of a New Church minister, and the result is-conflict and doubts. There must be dangerous falsities in my mind or this could not be. Can it be possible that after all I am not of the Church?" Such was his fear, yet when he read the Writings he failed to see the truth in any other light than as he had always seen it.
     Socially he did not make much progress in the society. The first invitation of any kind that he received was from the pulpit, when the "members and friends" were invited to a social meeting to be held at the pastor's house. He attended, hoping to get a little better acquainted with the people and also to meet some one with whom he could converse on the points that were troubling him. He found the house well filled; several spoke a few pleasant words to him; but that was all. Mr. Charte said: "Glad to see you; hope you will have a pleasant evening." Having nothing else to do, he did what many another man has done under similar circumstances, viz.: tried to look cheerful and happy, and failed dismally. But' this was a role that ill suited his straight-forward character. "I am not cheerful and happy here," he thought, "and trying to look so is but acting a lie." With this in his mind, his first impulse was to go away, but considering that the fault was perhaps in himself, and seeing a group of gentlemen gathered around Mr. Charte, and inferring from words occasionally caught that they were talking on doctrinal subjects, he walked over and joined them in time to hear Mr. Charts say: "I think as much depends upon the minister's judgment in selecting the subject of his discourse as on anything else. The habit some ministers have of exercising no discrimination offends people and drives them away. You cannot build up a church unless the right topics are chosen for discourses, and unless the truth is popularized and adapted to what the world desires."
     As this statement was in keeping with many that had been troubling him, Jim said," Excuse me, sir, but will you not explain to me what is meant by adapting the truth?"
     At this question all eyes were turned on him, as if he had been guilty of a breach of etiquette. Mr. Charte after a moment's hesitation replied, "I mean by that, to place the truth before the world in a pleasing and attractive manner.     
     "But how is it possible to present, for instance, the truth that the first Christian Church is consummated with all that is involved in that term, in an attractive manner to the world?"


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     "It is needless to dwell on what is a mere historical truth," replied Mr. Charte, "for that Church was consummated and passed away at the time of the Last Judgment."
     This answer, instead of satisfying Jim's mind, only infused new doubts and perplexities, for instantly there flashed upon him another historical truth, i. e., that the Jewish Church, consummated nearly nineteen centuries ago, still lived as to externals and then numerous passages from the Writings so plainly and flatly contradicting Mr. Charte came crowding into his mind, that he felt dazed; and more, a horrible insinuation seemed instilled into him that he himself was spiritually insane-incapable of comprehending truth. With a' slight yet impatient gesture he drew his hand across his brow, as though to clear away something, and said, "There are many points that have been disturbing me lately that I should like to ask you about." Mr. Charte said nothing, but looked at him in a peculiar manner, and Jim, mistaking the silence for permission to continue, said: "In a sermon not long ago you explained that the second coming of the LORD was being effected more and more every day by means of a mighty influx of truth into the minds of all men, and more to the same effect. I had always believed it took place, as stated in the Writings, by means of a man; that that coming was in the spiritual sense of the Word now revealed to men; and as the spiritual sense is nowhere revealed, save in the Writings, that therefore in them has the LORD made his Second Advent. Viewing the Writings in this light, I cannot but accept them as Divine Truth, and anything that conflicts with them, or, rather, anything which seems to me to conflict with them, causes me to be much troubled."
     To all this Mr. Charte quietly replied: "Pardon me, but I do not think this is the proper time or place to discuss abstract doctrinal points; and furthermore, discussion and contention of that nature is a thing to be avoided; it has been the cause in many cases of great injury to the harmony and progress of the Church. If we had less wrangling over such matters and more charity it would be better-far better." He turned away and the others followed, leaving the questioner alone; as they did so Jim caught the fragmentary remark- I "the result of Mr. Strong's narrow and bigoted teaching."
     Although it was early in the evening, Jim departed, and as he slowly walked homeward new doubts began to arise in his mind, but they were of a different nature I from the previous ones.
     A few days afterward he was caught in a sudden and dashing rain; he sought shelter under an awning, as did also a well-dressed young man. The latter pleasantly said as he shook the water from his hat, "Quite a rain"- then, looking at Jim, "Hello! you are the new man who goes to Mr. Charte's church?"
     "Yes," answered Jim" I haven't been attending there long."
     "Well, how do you get on with them all?" asked the stranger, laughing.
     "I don't understand you?"
     "Don't you?" replied the other, gayly. "I'll explain, for you have appeared to me like a pretty good fellow. You see, father is a pillar in that church and so am I, that is" laughing-"I'm not a pillar but only a member, though I generally attend Dr. Pounder's church, where most of my set belong; you know it isn't exactly the thing socially to be too much of a Swedenborgian. Now you are full of old Mr. Strong's style of New Church-regular radical, swallow everything in the Writings whole; uncharitable, and all that; our people don't like anything so deucedly unpopular; and when a fellow holding your views comes among them they gently freeze him out. You see?"
     "I do and thank you," replied Jim, offering his hand thought it was my ignorance of the truth; I see differently now."
     "The fact is," said the young stranger with a sly look, we dearly love the 'Beautiful Truths,' but the other truths we prefer to let alone. I have rather fancied you, you seemed so serious, and all that sort of thing, and so I thought I'd give you a friendly hint. Take my advice and hunt up old Mr. Gerhardt, and you will find a congenial spirit."
     "Are there New Churchmen here who do not attend Mr. Charte's church?" asked Jim, surprised.
     "Yes, plenty of them," was the answer, "fellows who believe all over, cranks and such. But the rain has stopped and I must go."
     "I'm glad to have met you and I like you," said Jim, "for you are frank and square."
     "That's all right," was the reply, and after giving Jim Mr. Gerhardt's address, the young man departed.
      [TO BE CONTINUED.]
BENEVOLENT INTENTIONS 1883

BENEVOLENT INTENTIONS              1883

     SAID a fat and comfortable looking Goose to a Horse and Donkey one day in the farm-yard, "How I wish that I was rich in corn and other good things, and had nice, warm stables and barns! No fowl or animal should then be allowed to go hungry or cold."
     The Goose waddled off after giving vent to this benevolent sentiment, and the Donkey observed to the Horse, "What a truly good and kind-hearted thing the Goose is, and how charitable!"
     "Wouldn't it have been more charitable and good," dryly responded the Horse, "if she had wished that the fowls and animals had possessed those desirable things themselves."
     The Donkey make no reply, but stood with his ears drooping in a melancholy manner.
NEW CHURCH BAPTISM 1883

NEW CHURCH BAPTISM       V.E.K       1883



COMMUNICATED.
     THE first express confession of faith is the testimony of Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and upon this rock of true doctrine the First Christian or Apostolic Church was built. Confession of this faith always preceded Baptism.
     "What doth hinder me to be baptized?" "And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest;" "and he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

     It is evident from the earliest Church history, which is the book of Ads, that the Apostles considered Baptism in the name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST is synonymous with the trinal baptismal formula instituted by the LORD. Repent, says Peter, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. Peter and John prayed for the disciples that they might receive the Holy Ghost, for as yet He was fallen upon none of them, only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. The disciples at Ephesus who had received the Baptism of John, and who had not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost, were baptized in the name of the LORD JESUS CHRIST.

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We search the early history of the Primitive Christian Church, as given in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles, in vain for a single recorded instance of the trinal, or trinitarian, formula of Baptism being used.
     The name of the LORD signifies the all of doctrine and the all of worship; all that is Divine in the Church, or all the good of love and truth of faith that is from the LORD; and by salvation in the name of the LORD is meant in the true doctrine of faith, which is the doctrine of mutual love.
     This Apostolic Church, says Swedenborg, in consequence of worshiping the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and God the Father in Heaven, at the same time, may be compared to the Garden of God. It was founded in charity, its internals the same as those of the Ancient Church, though differing in regard to externals; and had the Church remained true, it had the capacity of enjoying fuller light.
     A second epoch succeeded, extending from the Council of Nice until the time when Swedenborg wrote. A Trinity of Gods was the only Trinity thought of by those who composed this Council, which was convened with a view to stop the progress of the Arian heresy. Not knowing that God Himself became the Redeemer, they attempted to vindicate and re-establish the LORD'S Divinity by inventing the fiction of a Son of God from eternity, who descended and assumed the Humanity.
     This was done, says Swedenborg, of the Divine Providence of the LORD, since if the LORD'S Divinity be denied, the Christian Church expires, and becomes like a monument adorned with this epitaph, "Here the Church lies buried." It was even, we are taught by Swedenborg, of the Divine Providence of the LORD, that the word Persons, three Persons and one God, were used, since without it, that is, without some idea of God as Man, or under the Human Form, no idea of God could have been maintained.
     Into this false and spurious faith of three Divine Persons from eternity, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, each singly and by Himself God and LORD, and into all that depends upon it, as the members of the body depend upon the head, viz.: vicarious atonement, justification by faith, imputation of Christ's righteousness, Christian Baptism, so-called, introduced its confessors.
     It was the solemn rite of initiation into the then Christian Church, admitting to all her benefits and committing to all her obligations. All their worship was an act of Faith.
     "What dost thou chiefly learn in these articles of thy belief?"
     "First, I learn to believe in God the Father, who hath made me and all the world. Secondly, in God the Son, who both redeemed me and all mankind. Thirdly, in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the people of God."
     There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the Maker and Preserver of all things both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."
     "The Godhead and Manhood were joined together in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is one Christ, very God, and very Man; who truly suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for actual sins of men."
     "The Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory with the Father and the Son, very and eternal God."

     The faith into which they were baptized, false as it was, by the Divine Providence of the LORD, preserved the good of that Church in a state receptive of faith in the LORD, in an acknowledgment of His Divinity, without which the Church would have perished; 'and after the Last Judgment all of the First Christian Church who were able to acknowledge the LORD to be the God of heaven and earth were admitted into the new angelic heaven forming by the LORD, that heaven consisting only of such as believe in the LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR, and approach Him immediately in their worship. This heaven, we learn from Swedenborg, is composed both of Christians and of Gentiles, who had been of such a quality as to be able to acknowledge the LORD, but chiefly of infants from all parts of the world who have died since the LORD'S Coming, for all these were received by the LORD and educated in heaven and instructed by the angels, and reserved, that they, together with the others, might constitute a new heaven.
     This First Christian Church, perverted and falsified, was, until the "Last Judgment," the Church of the Living God; the end was not yet. Just as the Jewish Church was still the Church until after the Crucifixion, at which time, we read in the Word, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and when, according to tradition, voices were heard in the inner sanctuary, at the time of the evening sacrifice, saying, "Let us depart hence."
     This was the Church of which in the Lutheran branch Swedenborg was a member. As well argue that because John the Baptist (the forerunner of the Messiah), the Elijah who was to come before the great and terrible day of the LORD, was born under the Mosaic Dispensation and subject to its rites and ceremonies and did not receive Christian Baptism, that, therefore, both rites or ordinances were equally satisfactory means of initiation into the Christian Church, as to say that because Swedenborg received Baptism into the then Christian Church at a time when there was no organized New Church on earth, because the New Heavens from which the New Church descends had not yet been formed, that, therefore, under a New Dispensation, as distinct from the Old or First Christian Church, as the Primitive Christian Church was from the Jewish, no distinctive New Church Baptism, with its accompanying confession of faith, is necessary. Also as well conclude that because our LORD, when on earth, took little Jewish children in His arms and blessed them, and said: "That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father, which is in heaven;" that, therefore, the rite of the Law of Moses and Christian Baptism are one and the same thing, as to bring forward the statement in T. C. R, "that when infants are baptized they are placed under the guardianship of angels," in support of Old Church Baptism as a means of introduction into the faith of the LORD'S New Church.
     In regard to the argument from the liberality of the Roman Catholics in admitting the validity of lay Baptism, we must remember that it was into the faith of their own Church and most frequently by their own authorized instruments that the recipients were baptized. The female members of the Society of Jesus penetrated into India and the far East and made their way into households closed to all others as nurses and attendants. They were instructed by their confessors to baptize all the sick and dying infants and children committed to their charge, and were taught the formula for so doing. So expert were they that under pretense of laying' the forehead of the dying child and whispering soothing words, they performed the rite of Baptism. It was the proud boast of their order that comparatively very few children intrusted to them died without Baptism, and that in one email district alone seven hundred entered through their means into eternal life instead of into eternal damnation.

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Even in cases of heretical Baptism, Catholics, Greeks, Reformed, and Protestants, meet upon, the broad basis of the Apostolic, or Nicene, and Athanasian Creeds into which they are baptized, their differences being mainly about forms of Church government and various minor matters which do not affect their creed or faith.
     The end was not yet, but we read in the Writings of the Church that "when a belief in three Gods was introduced into the Christian Churches, which has continued since the time of the Council of Nice, all the good of charity and all the truth of faith were banished, being utterly inconsistent with the mental worship of three Gods and the lip worship of one God; for in such a case the mind denies what the mouth speaks, and the mouth denies what the mind thinks, so that at length there is no belief either in three Gods or in one. Hence it is evident that the Christian temple, since that time, has not only tottered on its foundations and been full of chinks and clefts, but has fallen down and become a heap of ruins; and since that time the well of the bottomless pit has been opened from which the smoke as of a great furnace has ascended and darkened the sun and the air, and from which locusts have come forth upon the earth. Yea, from that time the desolation foretold by David has begun and increased, and to that faith and its imputation the eagles have been gathered together."
     The direful effects of this belief in three Gods, and all that belongs to it, were seen and deplored by the best religious minds at different times and under different circumstances, but the cause was unknown until revealed in the light of the New Church.
     In the fourteenth century, the "pious Fratricelli" loudly proclaimed their belief that the fatal gift of a Roman Emperor had been the doom of true religion. The Rev. John Wesley, in one of his sermons, said that "the greatest blow Christianity ever sustained was when the Emperor Constantine (called?) himself a Christian. Then Satan struck his master stroke from which the Church of Christ totters to this day. The Devil offered to the Church, the spouse of Christ, the same temptation he offered to the LORD, viz.: the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, and instead of repulsing him, she eagerly caught at the prize, and thereby let in upon herself a flood of worldliness, vanity, and folly, in fact, everything destructive of religion and godliness."
     It has been said "that no religious founder ever left more for His followers to do than Jesus." Witness the dissensions and heresies of the Apostolic age. There was the party of Peter and of Paul, of the circumcision and of the uncircumcision, in regard to which St. Paul says "He withstood Peter face to face," and accused him of double dealing. Were the early Christians or were they not, to observe the Jewish Sabbath, or new moon, or passover? Such questions as these cannot be considered the fancies or opinions of individuals, but involve general principles, and are but the 'outward signs of some deep and radical difference. In the question of the observance of Jewish feasts was implied the whole question of the relation of the disciple of Christ to the Jew, just as the question of sitting at meat in the idols' temple was the question of the relation of the disciple of Christ to the Gentile. There was the sect of Judaizing Christians, those who said that in all things the Law of Moses was to be observed, although the "Apostles, Elders, and brethren" taught that "it seemed good to the Holy Ghost that no unnecessary burden should be laid upon the disciples."
     In the Divine Providence of the LORD, in His own time, came the Roman legions, and of the temple at Jerusalem not one stone upon another was left that was not thrown down. The saying was fulfilled, "Zion shall be plowed as a field." The ancient sacrifices were abolished and the whole Jewish economy was brought to an end:

"Go, said the LORD, ye Conquerors,
Steep in her blood your swords,
And raze to earth her battlements,
For they are not the LORD'S."

     Spiritually, by the "Last Judgment" in 1757, has the same event transpired wish the First Christian Church. "The truth," says Swedenborg, "must be declared." The trumpet of the New Church or revelation of Divine Truth from heaven "giveth no uncertain sound." We read in the Writings of the Church: The last time of the Christian Church is the very night in which former Churches have set, as is plain from the LORD'S prediction concerning this night in the evangelists and in Daniel-"Ye shall see the abomination of desolation;" for then shall be great affliction, such as has not been since the beginning of the world and never shall be; and except those days be shortened there should no flesh be saved. And lastly, the sun shall be darkened, the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. And in John, "I must work the works of Him that sent me while it is day; the night cometh when no man can work." Since all light departs at midnight, and the LORD is the true light, therefore He said to His disciples when He ascended into heaven, "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the age;" and then He departs from them to a New Church.
These words were spoken directly after the command to baptize, which was given to the apostles; and now is the' Consummation of the Age, until which time only the LORD promised to be with the apostles in the First Dispensation, and the faith of the First Christian Church, which in its internal form, is a faith in three Gods, but in its external form in One God, has extinguished the light of the Word and removed the LORD from H is Church, and thus plunged its morning into midnight darkness. The Old Church is not only a vastated but a consummated Church, which, says Swedenborg, differ from each other as the shade of evening differs from the thick darkness of night; vastation being a recession from the Church, and consummation a full separation therefrom. The LORD departs from the Old to the New. We read in the Writings that the LORD called together His twelve disciples, now angels, and sent them through the spiritual world with a commission to preach the gospel there anew, since the Church which He had established by their labors is at this day brought to such a state of consummation that scarcely any remains of it are left.
     "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge," saith the LORD. In the fearful summing up of charges against the Old Church in the continuation of the Coronis to the T. C. R., we read: "No knowledge of the LORD, no knowledge of faith, no knowledge of charity, no knowledge of regeneration, no knowledge of Baptism."
     "No knowledge of the LORD," yet the Writings teach that one use of Baptism is that the Christian may acknowledge the LORD JESUS CHRIST, his Redeemer and Saviour. "No knowledge of faith, no knowledge of charity;" but another use of Baptism is that man may be regenerated, and all regeneration is effected by the LORD through the instrumentality of the truths of faith and of a life in accordance with them. Also, since every one who is regenerated undergoes temptations which are spiritual combats against evil and the false, the water used in Baptism likewise signifies those temptations; but Swedenborg teaches that spiritual temptation is at this day almost unknown, for he who is not in the good of faith cannot be admitted into spiritual temptations, because he would instantly succumb.

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The combats of temptation can only be sustained by the truths of faith from the LORD, because it is only thus the LORD can be present with man. If any were admitted into spiritual temptations without the truths of faith, they would succumb, and their state afterward would be worse than before, because then evil would have acquired power over the good, and the false over the true. Temptations are the essential means of regeneration and though they are rarely experienced in the world at the present day, they are well known in the other life; they are necessarily endured by the well-disposed before they can be elevated into heaven, in order that falses may be removed and truths insinuated. Another use of Baptism is introduction into the Christian Church, and insertion at the same time among the Christians of the' Spiritual World. In T. C. R. we read, "As real Christianity is now beginning to dawn, and the LORD is now' establishing the New Church, meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, wherein God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are acknowledged as One, because in One Person, it has pleased the LORD to reveal; the spiritual sense of the Word, in order that this Church may come into the very use and benefit of the Sacraments, Baptism and the Holy Supper." In the light of the Writings of the Church are either of the three uses of Baptism, viz.: -Introduction into the Christian Church, and insertion thereby among Christians in the New Heavens; acknowledgment of the LORD GOD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST as the only God of heaven and earth; and Regeneration (which uses follow each other; in order, and join with each other in the ultimate use, and thus cohere together in unity), accomplished by Baptism into the falses of the Old consummated Church? And if any one feels that he has been kept in a state receptive of faith in the LORD, will he not, and ought he not, to be all the more willing, after the example of our LORD Himself, to "fulfill all righteousness"?
     In regard to the question, "Can man destroy the Sacraments?" Revelation teaches that man can destroy everything, both human and Divine. Man can destroy his own soul. He can destroy the Church, and consequently the Sacraments, which are the most external things of the Church, and yet, as containing all else, they are the most holy. And in no way, we are taught in the Writings, is the Church more effectually destroyed than by attempting to join together the Faith of the Old I and of the New. "The Faith of the New Church cannot, by any means, be together with the Faith of the Former Church, and in case they be together, such a collision and conflict will ensue as to destroy everything relating to the Church in man." Man can pervert, falsify, and destroy the Divine Truths of the Word, "making," saith the LORD, "the Word of God of none effect through your tradition." Man can destroy the Worship of God by substituting the falsities of his own self-derived intelligence for the Truths of Revelation.
     "Howbeit, in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Upon the waters of the river of life.

"There goeth no galley with oars,
     Neither doth gallant ship pass by."

     "A person converted from the Old Church to the New does not have to buy a new Bible," but the LORD has given to the New Church in the opening of the Spiritual sense, as a distinct revelation of Divine Truth as was given in the New Testament as distinguished from the Old. The early Christians used the same Scriptures as the Jews; in fact, until the middle of the second century, the New Testament as a whole did not exist, and the Canon of the Old and New Testaments was not settled until the time of the Emperor Constantine. The Book of Revelation, is admitted by most critics to have been among the earliest writings of the Church, and it is placed by the best authorities in the year 68 of the Christian era. The Scriptures which the LORD said "testified of Him" were those of the Old Testament. Also the Scriptures which "Timothy had known from a child," and the "Scriptures which those more noble than those in Thessalonica searched daily whether these things were so." The Doctrine of the New Church is from heaven, because it is from the Spiritual Sense of the Word, and the Spiritual Sense of the Word is the same as the Doctrine which is in heaven. The Spiritual Sense is the very Sanctuary of the Word; the LORD Himself is in that Sense with His Divinity, and in the natural sense with His Humanity; and not an iota of this could be opened but by the LORD alone; this exceeds all the revelations which have hitherto been made since the foundation of the world.
     A most explicit distinction is drawn in the Writings between the Church Universal and the Church Specific. The Church specific on the earth is like the heart and lungs: and they that are without that Church are as the parts of the body which are sustained and kept by the heart and lungs: without this Church the human race could not subsist, nor could there be conjunction with heaven; for, the LORD is God of Heaven and Earth, and without the LORD there is no salvation. It suffices that this Church consists of a few comparatively; for through it the LORD can be yet present everywhere throughout the whole earth. The Specific Church is nowhere else than where the Word is rightly understood, and where the internals of the Church are within the externals. The Specific Church is now the Church of the New Jerusalem, and the internals of this Church cannot be with the externals of the Old and consummated Church. Since the "Last Judgment," we learn in the Writings, the Jews in the Spiritual World are forbidden to call their city Jerusalem, for since the Judgment, Jerusalem signifies the Church in which the LORD alone is worshipped with respect to its Doctrines; and no Church on earth has a right to call itself the "Church of the New Jerusalem," and its members of the "Holy City," except that Church where the LORD JESUS CHRIST alone is worshiped in His Divine Humanity, and where the Sacraments are duly administered according to that Doctrine. The New Heavens cannot flow into the dead, vastated, consummated forms of the Old Church. "New wine must be put into new bottles," or, as our LORD teaches in the Word, the "bottles will burst and the wine be spilled."
     The Church in the heavens cannot subsist unless there is also a Church on earth which is in concordant love and wisdom; for "the internal without the external is as a house without a foundation, or as a seed upon the ground and not in the ground, and so like anything without a foot-hold; in a word, as a cause without an effect in which it may exist. Hence it is that a New Church is always provided by the LORD when an Old Church comes to its end."
     In place of all externals, the two memorials of Baptism and the Holy Supper were appointed, and they are holy only by reason of the internal of Divine Truth which is in them in its strength and power, as it is in all ultimates.

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If the influx from the New Heavens can take place into one external form, one Sacrament of the Old Church, it can into the other, and those who are so well satisfied with the Baptism of the Old Church, consistency would require them to be equally well so with her Communion, and far better they should remain where they really belong than that a single breach should be made in the walls of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, whose length and breath and height are equal, for "not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any one of the cords thereof be broken."
     In the early ages of the Church, in the transition state, when the New Church was just coming into form and visibility in the world, some admixture of the Old and New was perhaps unavoidable, or at least might be tolerated, but, says the Rev. George Field in his able address on the Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper:
     Is this state always to continue, or has not the New Church assumed a separate and distinct organization, long enough yet to see and admit that neither Ordination, Baptism or the Eucharist in the Old Church are, or can be, any constituent parts of the New.

     If ignorance did not excuse, says Swedenborg, it would be all over with man; and there is a "time of ignorance God winketh at: but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent," and we must remember that ignorance "crucified the LORD of glory."
     It was revealed to Swedenborg that if he continued to commune in the Old Church he would lose all spiritual life, and although on his dying bed, at the earnest solicitation of the Lutheran minister in attendance he consented to receive the Sacrament at his hands, "he arranged the form himself, said, being an inhabitant of the other world, he did not need it, but took it to show the connection between the Church in heaven and the Church on earth." The New Church then, as an organized body, did not exist, and so could have no Sacraments. In another view of the matter, perhaps, in this case, he was left to the guidance of his own derived intelligence, to show how weak any man is when left to himself, as John the Baptist sent unto the Saviour, saying, "Art thou He that should come, or do we look for another?"
     May not the virtual repudiation of the Sacrament of Baptism in the New Church be one, if not the main, cause of the slow growth of the Church? That which falls ought to fall; that which succeeds ought to succeed. We read in the Writings that the Angels have faint hope of the New Church being established among the present Christian nations; that when a Church is consummated and perishes, the LORD always raises up a New Church somewhere; yet rarely, if ever, from the men of the former Church, but from Gentiles who were in ignorance. Surely, if one of the Sacraments of the LORD'S New Church, the Divinely appointed means of introduction into the Church, is repudiated and set aside, and those who refuse to enter by the gate into the City, but climb up some other way, are admitted to the inner sanctuary, the last faint hope of the Angels of the establishment of the New Jerusalem in our midst will be destroyed, and the sentence will go forth as of old- "Be it known, therefore, unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it;" and, "Ichabod, Ichabod, the Glory has departed," will be written over all our holy and beautiful places.
     CINCINNATI, OHIO.     V.E.K.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     WE publish with this issue a supplement containing the Instrument of Organization of the General Church of Pennsylvania.     
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



NEWS AND REVIEWS.
     A NEW edition of the works of Mrs. Mary G. Ware has been issued.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. L. P. MERCER has published in pamphlet form a lecture entitled The Soul and the Body. -
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Massachusetts Sabbath School Conference has recommended the republication in book-form of the Rev. John Worcester's letters respecting Palestine, published in the Messenger, and the papers by Mr. L. Worcester which have appeared in the children a Magazine.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     "WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH," No. XI, is now in the hands of the printer. It will contain the continuation of the monograph of the "Conflict of the Ages," and articles on the English Conference, the New Church Review, the Brain, the End of the World and a reply to the pamphlet of the Manchester Society attacking the Academy oft he New Church.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. GEORGE FIELD has issued a pamphlet of fourteen pages in answer to the strictures of the Rev. B. P. Barrett on his position as set forth in the LIFE and elsewhere, on the external New Church. This pamphlet will be sent to those applying to the Rev. George Field, 103 Selden Street, Detroit, Mich. We trust all our readers will procure a copy and read it carefully.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     SOME of the notices of New Church books which find their way into the newspapers are decidedly curious. The Philadelphia Times, for example, in its notice of Dr. Holcombe's Aphorisms, after quoting one in which "Remains" are mentioned and another respecting the Doctrine of the LORD, says: "All of which is simply elaborate Swedenborgian for much briefer and more pointed expressions known to every Christian man." The Times reviewer can scarcely be said to have a very keen appreciation of the distinction between the New and the Old.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. W. B. HAYDEN is engaged in preparing a little work on the Sacred Scripture. It will probably be a book about the size of Light on the Last Things by the same author, and will consist of three parts. Part I will treat of the general nature of the Divine Word, its inspiration and spiritual sense; Part II will present the literal and historical facts connected with Divine revelations from Antediluvian times to John in Patmos, together with some account of each book in the Bible, setting forth such facts as Sunday-school teachers and other students ought to know; Part III will treat of the diffusion and effects of the Word, giving an account of the different important versions and the great MSS. preserved to modern times, following down to the Second Coming of the LORD effected through the Word, and showing the wide-spread translation and diffusion of the Word since the new age began. This work is at present about half completed, and will not be published before next fall.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     WE have received a sheet, 11x15 inches, containing an article signed J. L. F., in answer to the critique of the New Church Review on the Problem of Human Life. This article was sent to the Messenger, and was very properly refused. This, by the way, is the second sheet containing rejected articles bearing the same signature that we have received. In the present instance his haste to get into print has placed the author in a decidedly awkward position. In defending Mr. Hall against the charge of plagiarism, J. L. F. says: "To some it will appear eminently unnecessary that A. Wilfred Hall should state the name of his teacher. No Swedenborgian can read the book without recognizing who the author is. Indeed, Mr. Hall makes no attempt to disguise it. Why should he? Could he conceal it with any hope of benefiting self? He must have known himself certain of discovery." Now Mr. Hall himself, in the March number of the Microcosm, makes the assertion that "the work [Problem of Human Life) was actually written before the author had ever read one of Swedenborg's books."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     FREEDOM AND FAITH IN THE NEW CHURCH is the title of a 91 page pamphlet written by Rev. R. L. Tafel, of London, as a reply to the report of a special general meeting of the Peter Street Society, Manchester, England, which we noticed in our February number. The Peter Street meeting inveighed against the Academy and "its most conspicuous member in England," Dr. Tafel for teaching the doctrine of the Priesthood, for tending toward the Papacy (!), for not respecting traditional authorities, but, instead of that, upholding the authority of the Writings as being the LORD'S Second Coming. Dr. Tafel sums up the Manchester speeches in five charges against himself, which he answers in his characteristic way by presenting not so much his own opinions on the questions involved, as the Doctrines of the Church.

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The pamphlet is therefore invaluable as containing digests of the Doctrines on the subject of the Priesthood, on the subject of the Second Coming of the LORD, and of the authority of the Writings. One of the most interesting parts of the pamphlet is one entitled "A Leaf of New Church History," giving an account of the, rise and continuance of the discussion in England on the priesthood and the authority of the Writings.
BISHOP'S GUN REVERSED 1883

BISHOP'S GUN REVERSED              1883

     A Bishop's Gun Reversed is the suggestive title of a duodecimo volume published by the Philadelphia Swedenborg Publishing Association," and consists of an attack on the New Church by the late Bishop Burgess, and a reply thereto by B.F. Barrett.
     Bishops Burgess's pamphlet of forty pages is entitled Swedenborgianism. It seeks to expose the principles and doctrines of the New Church, which, as being the opposite of the Episcopalian doctrines, are pointed out as being dangerous, delusive, unreasonable, and unscriptural. The usual charge of insanity is impliedly made against Swedenborg, and a number of his descriptions of the other world are held up for ridicule and pronounced unscriptural, as being contrary to certain portions of the literal sense of the Word, and some of the I doctrines are also falsely presented. On the whole, the pamphlet seems to be the honest conviction of a mind steeped in the doctrines of the Old Church and unable to see anything in spiritual light.
     Some of the misconceptions of the Bishop, which, however, do not much harm, are directly traceable to the teachings of men like Mr. Barrett, as, for instance, that Swedenborg "did not attempt to found a sect," meaning, of course, an external organization, "or to make many proselytes." So also that with New Churchmen it at least seemed "to have been no part of their design, but that they have been compelled by consistency to separate themselves from the Christian Church and form a new communion." Every reader of the great history of the New Church, Hindmarsh's Rise and Progress, knows otherwise. Another sentiment of the Bishop's, having a basis in the talk of certain New Churchmen, is expressed in the following: "You may possibly be told that there is no obligation to receive them (the things 'heard and seen'); that he sometimes erred; that the system does not rest on his authority, but commends itself by its own harmony and beauty." The Bishop is justified in saying this when New Churchmen so often deny the authority of the Writings and especially that of the Memorabilia, and hence the Bishop says truly, and with a logic we in vain seek for with certain New Churchmen: "On that supposition it stands on the same level with all speculations."
     Mr. Barrett's "Reply to this attack is entitled Episcopalianism, and is in three parts. The first part comprises seventy pages, presents "Episcopalianism in its own dress," and consists in skillfully, and often with amusing and telling effect, using Bishop Burgess's own words, but with alterations and amplifications, making them apply to Episcopalianism. Mr. Barrett in this part admirably exposes the false, unscriptural, and self-contradictory Episcopalian doctrines of the tri-personal God "without body, parts, or passions," of the resurrection of the body, of the atonement, and of the literal interpretation of the Bible, and defends "the precious truths which the LORD has mercifully revealed be "the promised second appearing of the LORD." This through Swedenborg," which revelation he confesses to part of the reply, besides being so much superior to Bishop Burgess's attack, on account of the truth therein presented, is also superior in the method of presentation. The logic and the scriptural proofs adduced are irresistible.
     Part II of the Reply, comprising fifty-three pages, consists mainly of extracts from the works of Episcopalian clergymen who have published Swedenborgian doctrines without mentioning Swedenborg. Mr. Barrett seems to denounce them for flaunting about in "borrowed robes," since he entitles this part of his book "Episcopalianism in Borrowed Robes." But in strange contrast with this, sentiments occur like the one expressed in the following: "I find no fault with the author, but commend him rather for not placing any ear-mark upon his book," ["ear-mark," we suppose, being synonymous with "the doctrines of the New Church," etc.] "Far better to do as he did-present the simple truth, and show its agreement with reason and Scripture, and leave the reader to find out for himself the source from or the channel through which it came. The mention of the name of Swedenborg would probably have frightened many an Episcopalian away from the rich repast." We are sorry to see Mr. Barrett thus recommend a course opposite to the one the LORD would have us take: "I am come in the name of my Father and ye do not receive me; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive.
     Part III, entitled, "Episcopalian ism at the Confessional," comprising the remaining fifty-two pages of the book, gives the "Confessions" of the Episcopalian ministers, Clowes, Gorman, and Hood, touching the relative beauty, trustworthiness, and the value of the Old and of the New Theology.
     We cannot refrain from commenting upon another remarkable contradiction in the book before us, the cause of which is undoubtedly the desire of Mr. Barrett to believe that the Old Church (likened in the Word to a dead body) is "resurrected" by having new life infused into it, coupled with the conviction which forces itself upon his mind from the signs around him that this is far from being the case. In his prefatory note he says: "It is to the honor of the Episcopal Church and proves its title to the claim of catholicity, that its ministers are allowed to read and preach the doctrines of heaven as revealed through Swedenborg undisturbed, as the several cases cited in Parts II and III of the following work clearly show." And yet on p. 18 we read: "Many of the ministers of the Episcopal Church see clearly enough the falsity of what is here enjoined. But they have no discretion in the case. They must make their consciences bend to the rubric-must utter, in a solemn religious service, what they sincerely believe to be a falsehood or surrender their credentials and leave the Church. To show how tyrannous is the Prayer Book and how authoritative and binding its injunctions (even when they are seen to be contrary to the Word of God), a minister was lately suspended from the exercise of his ministerial functions by the Bishop of Illinois because he omitted, and persisted in omitting, this portion of the baptismal service when christening little children." On page 57 we read: "Nor is this all-no, nor a hundredth part of the absurd and impossible things which the literal 'one-sense' theory, sanctioned and upheld by Episcopalianism, requires us to believe, or else deny to the Scriptures any proper divine inspiration, and cast them aside as belonging to the rubbish of a by-gone age. And what is the consequence? Precisely what we might expect. A covert and widespread and deep-seated skepticism is being fostered in the bosom of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Dishonesty and hypocrisy are produced in many who have sense enough to see the errors and absurdities embraced in the system, but not independence or moral stamina enough to openly avow their honest convictions.

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Some of its illustrious scholars and teachers are drifting into Arianism and naturalism and Deism; beginning to doubt and openly deny the proper divinity of the Saviour and the divinity and inspiration of the Sacred Scripture. And many are seeking to conceal their lack of an intelligent, earnest, living faith by increased attention to outward forms and ceremonies." This is Mr. Barrett's own evidence on the state of the Old Church, and yet at other times he would have us believe that the spirit of the New Heaven is pervading it!
     Again, on page 72, after showing what the Episcopal Church is doing to kill the "man-child," the Doctrines of the New Church, he says: "And so whatever influence the Protestant Episcopal Church is able to wield is exerted not to encourage but to stifle free investigation of theological questions; not to help forward but to hinder the progress of truth which the LORD has been pleased to reveal for the instruction and welfare of humanity."
     A Bishop's Gun Reversed will repay any one reading it as presenting a study of how the influence of the Old Church can struggle with the New Church in a New Churchman's mind.
News 1883

News       Various       1883



     CORRESPONDENCE.
     PHILADELFHIA, PA.- The new and very handsome "House of Worship" of the First New Jerusalem Society, on the corner of Twenty-second and Chestnut Streets, was dedicated on March 11th. The Rev. Messrs. Chancey Giles, Pastor of the Society; James Reed of Boston; S. S. Seward, of New York, and L. H. Tafel, of the Advent Society of Philadelphia, conducted the services. Besides those named there were present the following New Church ministers: Rev. Messrs. J. B. Parmalee, Wilmington, Del., C. H. Mann, Orange, N. J., and S. M. Warren, Boston, also a number of visitors from other societies.
     The services opened with a chant, during which the Rev. Mr. Giles entered with the Word, which was deposited on the altar. The first lesson from the Word was 1 Kings, viii, and was read by the Rev. Mr. Seward: the second lesson was John xiv, read by the Rev. Mr. Tafel.
     Before the sermon Mr. Giles made a few remarks, emphasizing the fact that that was a free Church, and that all, no matter what their conditions or beliefs were, who could find anything in the doctrines preached there that would do them good would be cordially welcomed and shown seats in which they might feel at home. After this a collection was taken up. The dedication sermon was delivered by the Rev. James Reed, which appeared to be purely missionary in its tenor, for while it was an elucidation of the text, according to the light given in the Writings, it was put in the form of being addressed to the world at large.
     After the sermon Mr. Giles read a short address, reviewing the steps which led to the building of the House of Worship. The prayer of dedication followed, and then Mr. Giles read the dedication proper.
     The services were interspersed with music, among which were two pieces composed for the occasion by Mr. W. W. Gilchrist.
     One peculiar feature, or rather omission, noticeable by a New Churchman, was that during the entire ceremony the Writings and the name of Swedenborg were only mentioned once, and that was in the formula of dedication.
     ST. LOUIS, Mo.- The Society here is looking toward engaging a permanent Pastor. Some time ago we received a visit from the Rev. Mr. Frost, of Cleveland. Mr. Eby, a student of the Boston Theological School, and a former Methodist minister, will also probably be invited to make us a visit. We have had no acquisitions to the membership of our Society for, many years except from New Churchmen who have come from other places. There are about thirty members, but the congregation when we have a minister averages from sixty to seventy. The Sunday School numbers thirty-five pupils and three teachers. One Doctrinal Class is studying the True Christian Religion, another the Child's True Christian Religion and the Infant Class receives instruction in the letter of the Word. Generally we have social meetings during the winter months, though during the past winter we have not. A year ago, in addition to the socials, the young people had a "Literary," each meeting being devoted to some author. This proved enjoyable and instructive, and once in a while a dancing party was given. C.
     March 18th, 1883.


     HAMILTON, CANADA.-We had a short visit from the Rev. J. B. Bowers on his way to Pennsylvania. As usual, we found his presence edifying and enjoyable.
     Last Sunday in one of the Presbyterian Churches here, the minister preached on the subject of chastisements. At the close of his sermon he said: "Now, my dear brethren, do not make a mistake in regard to the chastisements, the trials and afflictions sent upon you, and suppose they effect any change in your relations to God. They do not. They may make you better citizens and effect your relations to your fellow-men, bat nothing but the blood of Christ can change your relations to God. Faith in the all-atoning efficacy of His blood can alone make you a child of God." In walking home the following questions naturally came into my mind: "Can the Church be where the Saviour of the world is not approached and where He is divided into two? As to religion, who can deny that religion is to shun evil and to do good? Is there any religion where it is taught that faith alone saves and not charity? Is there a religion where it is taught that charity proceeding from man is nothing but moral and civil charity?" (A. R. 675.) In another church, I am told, the Rev. Dr. Burns, took for his subject the Bible, and, like other reverend gentlemen referred to in February LIFE, ridiculed, dissected, and eulogized it at will, closing the harangue worthy of Ingersoll, by calling the book of Revelation "the last excrescence of an ignorant and superstitious age."
     In regard to the light and life of the New Jerusalem coming down so generally as some of our brethren delight to think and teach, it has come under my observation that an Old Church minister was the authorized agent of the fraudulent firm of Fleming & Merriman, of Chicago, and had succeeded very well in getting his friends to place their money where it would draw from ten to twenty per cent. monthly This circumstance led me to think that the statements of Swedenborg, which, according to some, were only applicable to society a century ago, might possibly still apply, for instance (Ath. Cr. 80): "Since the love of rule, and the love of wealth universally prevail in the Christian world, and these loves are at the present day so deeply inrooted, that mankind are not aware that they in any case lead astray." The desire for ten per cent. monthly, that is, the return of the entire principal in less than a year's time, presents the state of those who have this desire, in a light not exactly in accord with the Doctrine of Use or the simple Doctrine of love to the neighbor. A desire for ten to twenty per cent. Monthly is incompatible with a desire to be useful to others.               X.
     February, 22nd.
MEETING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION 1883

MEETING OF THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION              1883

     THE Pennsylvania Association held its annual meeting Saturday, March 17th, at the House of Worship of the Society of the Advent, Philadelphia. There were present: Ministers the Rev. Messrs. Benade, Tafel, Whitehead, Bowers, and Bostock: Delegates-Messrs. Pitcairn and Cowley, Pittsburgh; Mr. John Waelchly, Allentown Messrs. Boericke, Starkey, Farrington, Campbell, and Felix Boericke, Philadelphia; Dr. Stacy Jones, Darby. Students-Messrs. Czerny, Schreck, and
Price.
     The reports of the various societies were read. These were rather encouraging, showing an increase in interest and number. In behalf of the Ecclesiastical Council, the President recommended the ordination into the first degree of the ministry, of Messrs. Andrew Czerny, E. J. B. Schreck, and W. H. Schliffer the ordination to take place at the close of this school year. In behalf of joint meeting of the Ecclesiastical Council and the Executive Council, the President submitted a new plan of organization for the Church in Pennsylvania. He explained that the recent action of the Convention in changing its constitution had left the various Associations free to adopt such forms of government as they wished.
     The new plan was then read section by section, discussed, and unanimously adopted. It was then adopted as a whole. Several new canons were proposed and adopted.
     In accordance with the new organization the following Council of the Laity was appointed: Mr. John Pitcairn, President; Dr. G. R. Starkey, Treasurer; Mr. Charles P. Stuart, Secretary, and Dr. F. E. Boericke, Mr. Alfred Matthias, and Mr. John Waelchly, Finance Committee.


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     The Rev. L. H. Tafel was appointed as the first member of the Consistory, and the Rev. John Whitehead was subsequently added.
     A motion to print the Instrument of Organization in NEW CHURCH LIFE, and the Journal in pamphlet form was referred to the Council of the Laity.
     A motion to divide the State into districts and a recommendation that isolated receivers should join the nearest society, were referred to the Council of the Clergy.
     At two o'clock a collation was served in the Sunday-school room. At five o'clock the Association adjourned.
NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION 1883

NINETEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NEW YORK ASSOCIATION              1883

     THE Association met February 22d, at 10 A. M., in the Temple of the Brooklyn Society, the Rev. T. C. Ager being in the chair. The Executive Committee reported that it had engaged Mr. Palmer as missionary of the Association at $125 a month, but that the amount subscribed to the Sustaining Fund must be at least doubled to enable the Committee to employ Mr. Palmer one year. Only $901.50 have been subscribed so far, $895.35 of which have been collected. After the report of the Executive Committee the reports of the societies were taken up. The larger societies are in a prosperous condition, the smaller ones, however, have to contend with various difficulties, pecuniary and otherwise. Mr. Schreck, for instance, said the reason that the Paterson Society had made so little progress was that its members have not the time nor the means to advertise very extensively. The Rev. Mr. Mann stated that the Orange Society in is sadly in need of a temple. The room they are worshiping not only crowded but also badly ventilated, so that many are kept away from worship. They are making strenuous efforts to increase their building-fund, which now amounts to about $1,700. The Mount Vernon Society is in a still worse condition. It had to suspend services for the present on account of the Rev. Mr. Dyer not being able to preach. The other smaller societies, viz., the Newark, New York German, and Riverhead Societies have managed to keep up their existence, but have not reported any material increase. A report concerning a prospective German Society in the eastern part of Brooklyn was received with applause. Mr. Diehl, the representative of that movement, stated that he had procured two lots in the centre of the German population, and that a chapel is to be erected before September. After these reports Mr. Palmer reported in regard to his work during the past year. Among other things, he stated that he had supplied over fifty ministers of different denominations with books, and thought it might be interesting to know that among these there were thirteen doctors of divinity and a number of other dignitaries. Mr. Palmer thinks that a great deal of good I can be done among this influential class of people, and believes that one of the most important things for a missionary to do was to visit the ministers of other denominations. Being asked what impression his visits seemed to make on such ministers, whether they showed any interest or indifference, or whether they were controversially disposed, Mr. Palmer replied that there was no sign of controversy, and if there had been he should have declined to enter into it, as he had no time for such work. Only three of all the ministers he met did not express a hearty approval. Being asked how he was received by the ministers of certain special denominations, he replied that Baptists and Quakers were mostly disposed to listen. Among the Quakers the Hicksite Branch were mostly cultivated and reading people, men of good lives. He did not know how they stood in regard to the doctrine of the LORD, but as far as the doctrine of the Atonement was concerned they all agreed with him. But, strange to say, Mr. Palmer's work among the clergy, so extensive and so promising, has not yielded an adequate return. But one Baptist missionary has embraced the cause of the New Church. Some are preach-sing New Church doctrines with success without acknowledging their source, and two Methodist ministers have embraced the doctrines of the New Church, and have left the Methodist Church, but went over to the Congregational Church, thinking that there they could get a larger hearing and do more good. Mr. Palmer does not exactly approve of that sort of doing, but still he thought it was a good thing that we were not all alike, and that it is very encouraging that everywhere the doctrines of the New Church are being preached.
     The hour (12 1/2 P. M.) for the reading of the President's Address having arrived, the Church after appointing a committee of three to nominate officers for the ensuing year, gave a short intermission, after which the services preliminary to the address began. The address was intended to call attention to the importance of the proper administration of Divine things. Mr. Ager, after enumerating the various uses done within the Association, said that most of them were attended to by special bodies organized for the purpose of performing them, but that the Association had chiefly to attend to the social and spiritual improvements of its members, and that therefore one of its chief uses was to choose and introduce competent men in the ministry, and to support them. He maintained that the common good depended on nothing more than on the proper administration of Divine things. He also remarked that the printing press has been a rival of the pulpit, but that it could take its place only if the Sacraments could be dispensed with. Print can spread the truths and circulate them widely but the man carries the Church itself, in its sacraments and rites, with him. Hence it becomes necessary that certain men devote all their time and thought to that use, for only then can it be performed well. In conclusion, Mr. Ager spoke in regard to the office of General Pastor. He said thud he always refrained from speaking on that point for fear of being misunderstood. But now he recommends that the Association should recognize the office of General Pastor, whose duty it should be to supervise and regulate the ministry, and that this office should be sustained by a permanent endowment fund.
     Afternoon Session.- At about 3 o'clock the Association reassembled. The report of the Sustaining Fund was taken up. Mr. Seward offered a resolution to the effect that Mr. Palmer be further employed as missionary of the Association, provided the necessary funds can be raised. He also spoke in favor of supporting a competent man as General Pastor. Some one asked in what part of the Association the funds were raised. Mr. Seward answered that half the money raised came from New York, a large amount from Brooklyn, but that isolated receivers had done very little. Mr. Burnham thought the fault lay in that the people were not asked to contribute, and he did not believe that New York and Brooklyn should do it alone. Somebody else thought it would be well to state the object of this fund in the circulars in such a way that people can see its importance. Mr. Seward replied that from fifteen to eighteen hundred circulars have been sent out; that this was good and ought to be followed up; but we should also have personal solicitors. He also stated that a large amount came from people with limited income, and stated that the first subscription he received was twenty dollars from a lady who was in poor health and not at all favorably situated. Mr. Mann, to show that people can give if they are willing, mentioned that about ten years ago thirty-seven hundred dollars were subscribed at a meeting of the Association for a certain purpose. One gentleman took the lead by laying five hundred dollars on the table.
     Mr. Ager stated the reason why so little money is forthcoming from isolated receivers is that they have not yet learned to give. One of the chief things people have to be taught is, how to give. But it ought not to be left to the missionary, for it puts him in a peculiar position. He would no more expect a missionary to solicit money for his support, than he (Mr. Ager) would go and ask the members of his Society to contribute toward his salary. But the Association hiss to do it, and this by continual reiteration. We should not feel discouraged because our circulars have not been responded to. Send them again, at least once a month, and sooner or later we will be successful.
     Mr. Seward's resolution was then carried. Mr. Mann offered a resolution to the effect that the Association approve of the President's suggestion, in regard to raising a permanent fund for the support of a General Pastorage, and that it take such action as d may deem wise. Mr. Ager rose and stated that he wished to bring this to the notice of the Association for the sake of its members, and especially for the sake of those who are not provided with the services of a minister. These ought to be cared for by the Association, for which purpose it ought to have a General Pastor to look after those who need such services. Massachusetts and Ohio have made the beginning, and other Associations are looking in the same direction. But he thinks that such a use ought to have a permanent existence, and. that Ohio had made a mistake in that respect. He would rather suggest that those thirty-five hundred dollars allowed by the Ohio Association for that purpose be made the beginning of a fund, and the interests of it be expended as far as they reach. When such a fund is once started it will grow. We have men who have money, and we ought to be able to raise from fifty to seventy-five thousand dollars in our Association, and the sooner we begin the better. The question was called for and the resolution carried. Mr. Wooster reported in regard to the results of his investigation into the conditions under which the Association could be incorporated, and then offered a resolution suggesting that the officers be appointed to effect the incorporation of the Association, the number of directors to be twelve. The resolution was carried.


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     The report of the Nominating Committee, being ready to report, recommend the following names as candidates: Rev. J. C. Ager for President, Mr. John Filmer for Secretary, and Mr. Thomas Nichols for Treasurer, and the following gentlemen for members of the Executive Committee: Rev. C. H. Mann, Rev. S. S. Seward, Rev. Oliver Dyer, the Messrs. Lockett, J. K. Smyth, H. M. Guernsey. Daniel Pomeroy, Thomas Root, and John Czerny.
     The nominees were then unanimously elected. Mr. Seward spoke in regard to the Sunday-school Conference. He stated that the Conference had no meeting last fall, and that he intended to call is meeting next fall, if some society should offer to entertain the Conference, if not he should let it die.
     After the Secretary was appointed to print the Journal and send a sufficient number to the various Societies, the Association adjourned.


ITEMS.

     THE Board of Publication has at lengths succeeded in securing its incorporation.

     THE REV. P. J. FABER is at present in Brooklyn. He is not engaged in Church work.

     MR. J. G. MITTNACHT, of Frankfort, Germany, thinks of making a journey to Palestine next autumn.

     THE REV. O. L. BARLER preached in Detroit on Sunday, Mardi 4th. The Society is without a minister.

     THE REV. F. W. TURK will be present at the sessions of the English Conference. He will also visit Palestine.

     THE REV. JOHN E. BOWERS, on invitation, recently made a missionary visit to the newly organized society at Easton, Md.

     THE Canada Association will hold its annual meeting this year a month earlier than usual-viz.: on the last Thursday in May.

     THE number of officers and teachers in connection with the Massachusetts Sabbath School Conference is 137; the number of pupils 1,291.

     THE Society in Greenford, Ohio, desire to organize a Sunday School. There are over 20 children of New Church parentage in that vicinity.

     ISOLATED receivers within the State of Pennsylvania are advised by the General Church to unite themselves with the nearest New Church Society.

     THE REV. G. BUSSMAN has commenced his work for the First German Society of St. Louis, and both Pastor and people seem well pleased with the prospect.

     THE number of Sunday Schools in the United States and Canada is reported at nearly five thousand, containing seven million pupils taught by nearly one million teachers.

     THE LANCASTER SOCIETY during the past year has continued to hold services, and a Sunday School with some increase in interest. Dr. Burnham officiates when his health permits.

     IN ALLENTOWN, PA., a class for the study of Hebrew meets regularly after Sunday School. This class is under the charge of Mr. E. J. E. Schreck, and numbers about ten members.

     THE Auburn, N.Y., Advertiser of March 22d, contains an article by Mr. James White entitled "Some Words About Cruelty, including cruelty to animals, from a New Church standpoint."

     THE PITTSBURGH SOCIETY has 97 members. New interest is being taken in the missionary course. A committee on missionary work has been appointed, and a quarterly collection for its benefit is taken up.

     THE Rev. E. R. TULLER, of Vineland, N. J., delivered, on Sunday, March 3d, a discourse on "Marriages in Heaven" to a large congregation of interested auditors, the topic having excited much curiosity.

     THE State of Pennsylvania and the adjacent districts under the jurisdiction of the General Church of Pennsylvania has been divided into two districts, one having its centre at Pittsburgh and the other at Philadelphia.

     ON Friday evening, March 30th, the young people of the Advent Society of Philadelphia gave a dramatic entertainment in the school-rooms of the Academy of the New Church for the benefit of the Ladies' Aid Society.

     THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION will hold its annual meeting April 5th, 1883, in the Church of the Boston Society. Among the matters which will come before this meeting, will be the revision of its Constitution and By-Laws.

     THE REV. A. O. BRICKMAN is now on a missionary tour through Kansas. He has visited Emporia, Americus, Pawnee Rock, and other places, and has preached both in English and in German to full houses. He finds an abundance of work in that region.

     THE ADVENT SOCIETY of Philadelphia has a membership of 116. The average attendance, English services, is 90, and at German services 25. A young folks' doctrinal clam of 43 members, meets every Monday evening. The Sunday School numbers 106.

     THE REV. B. C. BOSTOCK has been chosen Clerk of the Council of the Clergy and Corresponding Secretary of the General Church in Pennsylvania. All letters and communications relating to the General Church must be addressed to 110 Friedlander Street, Philadelphia.

     THE recent movement in Ohio toward the practical establishment of a General Pastorate seems to have had but little result. The Rev. John Goddard is to continue his pastoral work for the Cincinnati Society and to do for the Association whatever he may be able. Mr. Philip Cabell is to assist him in his work.

     THE REV. JOHN E. BOWERS has visited during the past year 26 places within the limits of the Pennsylvania Association, has delivered in all 60 discourses, 42 of which were within the limits of the Association, and has baptized 16 persons and administered the Holy Supper 10 times.

     THE Society at Middleport and Pomeroy, Ohio, is in an harmonious and prosperous condition under the ministrations of the Rev. Dr. E. Kirk. A class for the study of the Writings in the original Latin has been organized. The children of the Society also meet every week for dancing and general amusement.

     A CIRCULAR letter has been prepared by the Corresponding Secretary of the General Church of Pennsylvania, setting forth the work before the Church in the State, and inviting the hearty cooperation of all. This letter will be sent to every isolated New Churchman in Pennsylvania whose address can be procured.

     THE Young People's Association in connection with the Toronto Society is getting along nicely. Meetings are held on the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Sometimes the subject for the evening is a poet or a country. At other times a miscellaneous programme is prepared. A Ladies' Aid Society has also been organized.

     THE WEST SIDE CONGREGATION of Chicago held its Annual Tea meeting on Friday evening, March 30th. Speeches were delivered detailing the progress during the year and the plans for the future. A letter from the Rev. E. C. Bostock was read. This Tea Meeting takes the place of the Annual Business Meeting held in Societies for the election of officers and transaction of other business.

     THE attendance at public worship in Allentown varies from 20 to 60 in the morning, and in the evening from 70 to 150. The Society numbers 40 members, and the Sunday School contains 26 pupils. Mr. Schreck is delivering a course of discourses on the "Doctrines of the New Church." The pocket editions of the Doctrine of LORD and the Sacred Scripture, issued by the A. S. P. P. Society, are distributed instead of tracts.

     THE WEST SIDE CONGREGATION of Chicago for the past three years have been worshiping in the Sunday-school room in the basement of the church. Recently, however, it was decided to move upstairs, into the church proper. This has been repaired and a new carpet laid in the chancel. Services were held there Easter Sunday. Several persons were baptized and several confirmed, and the Holy Supper administered.

     THE quarterly meeting of the Board of Managers of the Swedenborg Publishing Association of Philadelphia was held at the secretary's room on Walnut Street, February 25th. It was reported that since the first number was published, about four months ago, 2790 volumes of the "New Church Popular Series" had been sold. The work on Correspondences was one-third stereotyped. The Editorial Committee were authorized to add to the "Popular Series" a work of two hundred pages to be entitled A Brief Statement of the Doctrines of the New Church.


65




INSTRUMENT OF ORGANIZATION
OF THE
GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA,
HERETOFORE KNOWN AS THE

Pennsylvania Association of the New Church.

I.

     Declaration.
     THE Church is the Kingdom of the LORD in the earths, corresponding to His Kingdom in the Heavens.
     The LORD conjoins these Kingdoms, that they may make a one. There have been four Churches on this earth since the day of creation: A first, which is to be called the Adamic; a second, which is to be called the Noachic; a third, which is the Israelitish; and a fourth, which is the Christian.
     There have been four periods or successive states of each Church, which (in the Word) are meant by morning, day, evening, and night.
     In each Church there have followed four changes of state, the first of which was the Appearing of the LORD JEHOVAH, and Redemption, and then its Morning or Rise; the second was its Instruction, and then its Mid-day or Progression; the third was its Declension, and then its Evening or Vastation; the fourth was its End, and then its Night or Consummation.
     After the End or Consummation of a Church the LORD JEHOVAH appears, and executes a judgment upon the men of the former Church, and separates the good from the evil, and elevates the good to Himself into Heaven, and removes the evil from Himself into Hell.5
     After this He forms a new Heaven from the good that are elevated to Him, and a new Hell from the evil that are removed from Him, and He introduces order everywhere, that they may stand under His auspices and obedience to eternity; and then successively by the new Heaven He begins and establishes a
New Church in the earths.6
     THE LORD JEHOVAH from this Heaven derives and produces a new Church in the earths, which is done by Revelation from His own mouth or from His Word, and by Inspiration.7
      This Divine Work, collectively, is called Redemption, without which no man can be saved, because be cannot be regenerated.8
     After those four Churches, a New Church will arise, which will be truly the Christian Church, foretold by Daniel and in the Apocalypse, and by the LORD Himself in the Evangelists; which Church was expected by the Apostles.9
      This New Christian Church is not established by any miracles like the former; but in place of them the spiritual sense of the Word is revealed, and the spiritual world is disclosed, and the nature of Heaven and Hell is manifested, as also that man lives a man after death.10
     This New and Truly Christian Church which is established by the LORD at this day, will endure to eternity; it has been foreseen from the creation of the world, and it will be the Crown of the four preceding Churches.11
     In this New Church there will be spiritual peace, glory, and internal blessedness of life; and these will be in this New Church, on account of conjunction with the LORD and through Him with God the Father.12
     This New Church is the Crown of all the Churches which have hitherto been on the orb of the earth, because it will worship one visible God, in whom is the invisible God as the soul in the body?13
     The Revelation of truths from His own mouth or from His Word, by which the LORD derives and produces the New Church on the earth,14 is the immediate Revelation made through His servant Emanuel Swedenborg, before whom He manifested Himself in person, and whom He filled with His spirit to teach from Him the Doctrines of the New Church by the Word.15
     The Doctrines of the New Church make one with the Spiritual sense of the Word,16 which was revealed that the LORD might be constantly present, because in that sense Divine Truth is in its light, and in this light He is continually present.17
     This is meant by the New Heaven and the New Earth and the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven in the Book of Revelation.18
     The Revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, the disclosures of the Spiritual World, the manifestations concerning Heaven and Hell, and the life of man after death; which make one with the Doctrine of the New Church contained in the Books written by the LORD through Emanuel Swedenborg, together with the purely Divine work of a Second Redemption effected in the Spiritual World, constitute the Second Advent of the LORD foretold in the Prophets, the Gospels, and the Apocalypse.19

     THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH.
     This faith is in God the Saviour, JESUS CHRIST, and in its simple form is as follows:
     I. That there is one God, in whom is a Divine Trinity, and that He is the LORD JESUS CHRIST.
     II. That saving Faith is to believe in Him.
     III. That evils are to be shunned, because they are of the devil and from the devil.
     IV. That goods are to be done, because they are of God and from God.
     V. And that these are to be done by man as of himself, but that he is to believe that they are from the LORD, with Him and through Him.20

THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORDER AND GOVERNMENT OF THE NEW CHURCH.
     As to the Order in which the Church is established by God, it is this: That God shall be in the whole and in every part of it, and that it is the neighbor toward whom Order is to be exercised. The Laws of this Order are as many as there are verities in the Word.
     The Laws which relate to God make its head; the Laws which relate to the neighbor make its body, and Ceremonies make its garments.21
     There are two things which must be in Order among men, namely, the things that are of Heaven, and the things that are of the World. Those that are of Heaven are called Ecclesiastical, and those that are of the World are called Civil.
     Order cannot be maintained in the World without Governors, who are to observe all things that are done according to Order, and that are done contrary to Order, and who are to reward those who live according to Order, and to punish those who live contrary to Order.
     There must be Governors, who shall keep the assemblies of men in Order who are skilled in the law, wise, and fearing God. There must also be Order among, the Governors, lest any one from caprice or from ignorance permit evils contrary to Order, and thus destroy Order, which is guarded against when there are superior and inferior Governors, among whom there is subordination.
     Governors over those things among men which are of Heaven, or over things Ecclesiastical, are called Priests, and their Office the Priesthood. But Governors over those things among men which are of the World, or over things Civil, are called Magistrates, and their Chief, where such governments exist, the King.22
     The Priesthood in the supreme sense is a representative of the LORD, as to every Office which the LORD performs as Saviour, and whatever He performs as Saviour is from the Divine Love, thus from Divine Good, for all Good is of Love; thence also by the Priesthood in the supreme sense is signified the Divine Good of the Divine Love of the LORD.23
     Because the LORD as to the whole work of Salvation was represented by the High-Priest, in the representative of a Church established in Israel, and the work of salvation itself by His Office, which is called the Priesthood, therefore to Aaron and his sons there was not given any inheritance and portion with the people, for it is said that JEHOVAH GOD IS their inheritance and
portion; for the people represented Heaven and the Church, but Aaron with his sons and the Levites the good of love and faith which makes Heaven and the Church, thus the LORD from whom it is; therefore He ceded the land to the people for a heritage, but not to the Priests, for the LORD is in them but not among men as one and distinct.24
     Priests are Governors for administering the things which are of the Divine Law and Worship.25
     They who are in ministries, by which are meant priestly offices and their duties,26 effect that the Divine is in the Commonwealth.27

THE DOCTRINE OF THE ORDER OF THE PRIESTHOOD.

     The Priesthood is a Representative of the LORD in His work of salvation in successive order.28
     The Priesthood which is represented by Aaron, is the work of the salvation of those who are in the Celestial Kingdom of the LORD; the Priesthood which is represented by the sons of Aaron, is the work of the salvation of those who are in the Spiritual Kingdom of the LORD proximately proceeding from His Celestial Kingdom; but the Priesthood, which is represented by the Levites, is the work of the salvation again proceeding from the former.

66


There are three things which succeed in order the celestial, which is the good of love to the LORD; the spiritual, which is the good of charity toward the neighbor, and the natural thence, which is the good of faith.29
     It is known that in order that anything may be perfect, there must be a Trine in just order, the one under the other, with communication between them; and, that this Trine makes a one, not otherwise than a column on which there is a capital, under this a shaft, and under this a pedestal. Such a Trine is man, his supreme part is the head, his middle tart the body, and his lowest part the feet and the soles of the feet. Every kingdom in this emulates man; in it there must be a king as the head, besides magistrates and officers as the body, and the yeomanry with servants as the feet, and the soles of the feet: in like manner in the Church, a Mitred Primate, Parish Superintendents, and Curates under them.30
     The Government of the LORD, in the Church is effected by the Priesthood in the following successive order: first, by the ministry of Government from the Divine Truth; secondly, by the ministry of Worship according to the Doctrine of Divine Truth; thirdly, by the ministry of Instruction in the Doctrine of the Divine Truth from the Word. By these ministries are the people taught and led to the good of life; and, to the end that these ministries may exist in the Church on Earth in an external as well as in an internal form,31 they are to be clothed by men set apart and inaugurated into the Ecclesiastical Order by the promise of the Holy Spirit, and by the representation of its translation by the imposition of hands in the act of ordination.32

THE ORDER OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN THE GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA.
     The third or highest office of the Priesthood in this Church, represented by the High Priesthood of Aaron, is the Office of General Pastor or Bishop of this General Church. To this office belong the charge, supervision, and government of the General Church in which it is set; to the same appertain the functions of accepting Candidates for the Ministry, of directing and supervising the studies of such candidates of granting to them authority to lecture and preach; of ordaining Priests, of installing Pastors, of consecrating Bishops; of dedicating Houses of Worship, and, in general, of providing for the maintenance of order an-song the Clergy and the Laity of the Church.
     The second or middle office of the Priesthood, represented by the Priesthood of the sons of Aaron, is the office of Pastor of one or more particular Churches. To this office belong the particular charge, supervision, and government of the Church or Churches in which it is set; to the same appertain the functions of administering the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper, of consecrating marriages, of teaching the Truth according to the Doctrines of the Church and by the Truth leading to the good of life, and in general, of watching over the maintenance of order among the members of the Church.
     The first or lowest office of the Priesthood, represented by the Priesthood of the Levites, is the Office of the Priest or Minister. To the same appertain the functions of administering the Sacrament of Baptism, of teach-sing and preach-sing the Word according to the Doctrine of the Church, of ministering to a particular Church under the supervision of the Bishop, or of acting as the assistant of the Pastor of a particular Church.


II.

Organization

OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA, HERETOFORE

CALLED THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION OF THE NEW CHURCH.

     I. This Church, constituting a part of the Most General Body of the New Church in America, styled The General Convention of the New Jerusalem in America," shall consist of all members of the New Church who acknowledge and receive the Doctrines and the Order above declared, and who desire to unite with other persons of a like mind in this General Church for the promotion of the ends or uses of its establishment.
     II. To the Ecclesiastical Order of this General Church appertain the administration of the things of the Divine Law and Worship, and the provision for things Divine among the members of the Church.
     III.     To the Laity of this Church belong the provision and administration of all things needful for the external existence of things Divine among the members of the same, and for the external administration of the things of the Divine Law and Worship.
     IV. To the Bishop, as the Chief Governor of this General, Church, shall be adjoined a Consistory or Council of Pastors of the Church selected by him; and the Bishop, with his Consistory, together with the other. Pastors and Ministers of this Church, shall constitute the General Ecclesiastical Council of the same.
     V. To the General Ecclesiastical Council of this Church there shall be adjoined a General Council of the Laity, having a Chairman, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, with a Board of Finance together with such other Boards as the needs of the Church may from time to time require. The Council of the Laity shall have charge and control of the civil and business affairs, and of the property of the body of the Church, and shall be the representative of the same in all matters relating to the civil law and government of the country.
     VI.     Joint meetings of the Council of the Clergy or the Ecclesiastical Council and the Council of the Laity may be convened at any time by the Bishop, according to the exigencies of the Church.

     III.

     Canons.

     I. The Chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer of the General Council of the Laity, together with the Members of the Board of Finance and of other Boards, shall be severally nominated by the Bishop with the advice and consent of his Consistory, but shall not enter upon the offices for which they are named unless their nomination be accepted and confirmed by a vote of the Church in general meeting assembled.
     II. The Officers of the General Council of the Laity, together with the members of the Board of Finance, and of other Boards, shall hold their offices for a term of three years, and until their successors shall be appointed.
     III. When a vacancy occurs in the Office of Bishop of thus Church, the same shall be filled by nomination made by the Ecclesiastical Council, and confirmed by act of this Church in general meeting assembled, and after confirmation the name of the Pastor selected for the office of Bishop shah be presented to the General Convention for the sanction the same, and for his consecration to the office.
     IV. General meetings of this Church shall be held annually at such time and place as may be determined by act of the body. Provided, that extra general meetings may be called by the, Bishop, when den-sanded by the needs of the Church.
     V. At all general meetings the Church shall be represented by the Councils of the Clergy, and of the Laity, and by delegates from Societies of this Church.
     VI. The delegates to the general meetings from Societies shall be chosen at the rate of one delegate for every ten members of such Societies.
     VII. The Treasurer of the Council of the Laity shall be the Chairman of the Board of Finance, which Board shall consist of the Trustees of Funds held for the use of this Church together with three additional members, named and confirmed as ordered in Canon 1.
     It shall be the duty of the Treasurer to receive all contributions and gifts to the fund and property of this Church, to hold and administer the same for the benefit and according to the needs of the Church, with the aid and advice of the Board of Finance, and to keep the same subject to the order of the Church in general meeting assembled or of its duly authorized officials.
     VIII.     The Secretaries of the Ecclesiastical Council and of the, Council of the Laity shall act as the Secretaries of the general meetings of this Church.
     IX. The Secretaries of the Ecclesiastical Council, and of the Council of the Laity shall each of then keep and preserve a record of the doings of their respective Councils in books suitable for the propose, in which they shall note the proceedings of the meetings held by Councils; such records shall be signed by the respective presiding officials and Secretaries at the end of every session, unless otherwise ordered.
     X. Measures or resolutions brought by motion before, the general meetings of this Church may, by a vote of one-fourth of the members and delegates present, be declared important, and when so declared, a vote of not less than three-fourth of the members and delegates present at the meeting shall be requisite for the final adoption of such measures or resolutions.
1 Conjugial Love 451. Apocalypse Revealed 65, 486, 555, 516.
2 Coronis to True Christian Religion, Summary 1. T. C. R. 753.
3 Summary 2.
4 Coronis Summary 3. Coronis I. II, III.
5 Summary 3.
6 Ibid. 3.
7 Coronis VI.
8 Coronis VII.
9 Summary 8. T. C. R. 125 772.
10 Summary 50, 51.
11 Summ. 52. T. C. R. 786. 787.
12 Summ. 53; 54.
13 T. C. R. 787.
14 Summ 3. Cor. vi.
15 H. H. 1. T. C. R. 779.
16 A. C. 9025, 9410.
17 T. C. R. 780
18 Revel. xxi, 1, 2. T. C. R. 751-786.
19 True Christian Religion 772-790, 115, 123. H. H. 1.
20 Summary Exposition 45.
21 The Christian Religion 55.
22 New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine 311-314. Arcana Coelestia 10,759-10,793.
23 Arcana Coelestia 9809.
24 Arcana Coelestia 9809.
25 Heavenly Doctrine 319. A. C. 10,709.
26 Concerning Charity 69.
27 Concerning Charity 70.
28 Arcana Coelestia 9817, 9509, 10,017.
29 Arcana Coelestia 10,017.
30 Coronis 17.
31 Arcana Coelestia 9805.
32 Arcana Coelestia 3858. 878, 6292, True Christian Religion 142, 146, 155. Coronis, IV, 7. D. L. W. 220.
PUBLISHERS' NOTICE 1883

PUBLISHERS' NOTICE              1883



67



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, MAY, 1883.
     -For twenty-five cents we will send the LIFE for six months on trial, to any address. For this purpose a cheap edition has been issued on thin white paper of half the weight of that on which the regular edition is printed. Those who receive sample copies of the cheap edition and who wish to examine the regular edition twill be furnished with a sample copy of the same on application. Back numbers will NOT be furnished on such trial subscriptions. Remittances may be made in postage stamps.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN his last work on the Wine Question, Dr. Ellis replies to our critique of his letter in our October number. He makes no new argument, and the replies to our various points are so manifestly wrong, that they need no refutation. Although he has found occasion to say more than we, we do not make it a cause to complain of unfairness. We have presented the truth as well as we knew how, and are content to let it do its own work.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Brooklyn Times of April 14th prints a discourse on Swedenborg delivered by the Rev. Mr. Gunnison, a Universalist clergyman of that city. It is one of a series on "Great Sects and Their Leaders." If his other discourses show as little knowledge of the subject as this one does, they are of little value. Some New Churchmen, however, may perhaps feel somewhat encouraged by the fact that Swedenborgianism is ranked among the "Great Sects."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE action of the Executive Committee in changing the time of the next Convention from June 29th to June 1st, in deference to the wishes of the Boston Society, is much to be deprecated, as it sacrifices the general uses of the Church to the mere convenience of some of the members of a local body. This early date interferes with the work of the schools and societies of the Church, and prevents those from attending who are engaged in educational work. It compels those who spend their vacations at the seashore to make two trips east if they attend the Convention. Such a change at this late day is especially unfortunate, as it will prevent some from being present who have made their plans for the season with the understanding that the Convention would be held on
the date at first agreed upon. It would seem that in determining the time of the meeting of the general body of the Church the chief effort should be to secure as full a representation of the different parts of the Church as possible, and that the interests of those who live at a distance, and who at best have to make sacrifices of both time and money to be present, should be first considered, especially as the great objection to the Convention is that it is usually under the control of that part of the country in which it is held and seldom represents the whole Church. But the Executive Committee seem to have other views. It is hardly possible, however, that a representative gathering can be secured at the next Convention if that Committee adhere to its present decision.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Messenger in a recent issue advised a correspondent to join in the worship and partake of the Sacraments of the Old Church, provided the congregation where he attends be "an affectionate, non-doctrinal people, who appear to be in the good of life." We are sorry to see such advice from a journal purporting to be the organ of the general body of the New Church in America. Every well-read New Churchman ought to know that the worship and Sacraments of the Old Church, whether administered among a doctrinal or undoctrinal people, affectionate or otherwise, are acts of a vastated Church, and as such are no worship and no Sacraments, and do harm and not good to those who partake of them. And even if the state of the congregation as to the good of life had any bearing on the case, it is certainly dangerous advice which makes so important a question to depend upon what is known to the LORD alone and concerning which man is forbidden even in the letter of the Word to judge.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE renewed attempt to introduce the Passion Play into this country ought not to command the sympathy of New Churchmen. It is indeed true that the Writings sanction the right kind of representation of holy things when done with a view to instruct men in things spiritual and thus to lead them to heaven. But respecting Old Church institutions like the Passion Play, the Writings teach us that they "are not allowed, because the idea of them remains after death, and is turned by the profane into profane representations, for the state of their disposition rules the matter of the representations in its single parts; wherefore, when the disposition is perverted, it follows that the remaining things which are contained have . . . . indeed a sad and profane aspect."- S. D. 233. When we consider that the Passion Play was to have been produced ostensibly from the sordid love of gain, and that probably the LORD would have been represented by some one who has no idea of the LORD in His Divine Human-the utter profanity of the movement becomes apparent. Even infants in the other world, when engaged in their representations, never dare to represent the LORD, but "some one else, so that it might be known in a distant sort of way that the LORD is signified."- S. D. 233.


68


COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS 1883

COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS              1883

V.

HOW COMMUNICATION WITH SPIRITS IS EFFECTED.

     THERE are various methods of open communication with spirits, as by speech, writing, visions, dreams, etc.
     There is abundance of evidence in the Word that spirits can speak with man. This speech is unlike natural speech in this, that it does not flow forth into the external atmosphere as sound; but still the speech of spirits and angels is perfectly audible; but it can be heard only by those who are addressed, because it affects the organs of hearing by an internal way. (A. C. 1635, 1867, 4652.) The sound does not come though the air into the ear and thence to the mind, but by an internal way the ideas fall into the mind, and thence they are clothed with the corresponding words and fall into the ear, and the very sound of the words is heard, but one standing by hears nothing, a proof that the atmosphere does not vibrate. (See Adv., vol. II, 1685, 514; vol. III, 679-681, 6965-6.) Spirits speak with man in his mother-tongue, or in some other language with which he is familiar. The reason of this is that they dwell in the things of his mind when they are present with him; their own natural memory is quiescent, and their spiritual speech ultimates itself in the things of the man's memory, and thence takes up words which he knows and understands. If at any time they should speak in an unknown tongue, it will be in violation of the law that they must speak from the memory of the man. That they are enabled at times to violate this law is evident from what is said in Heaven and hell 256; and instances are given by modern spiritism in which it is claimed that the medium received communications in an unknown language. In the above-mentioned passage it is said: It is not lawful for any angel or spirit, to speak with a man from his own memory, but from that of the man; for angels and spirits have a memory as well as men. If a spirit should speak with a man from his own memory, then the man would not know otherwise than that the things which he then thinks were his own, when yet they are of the spirit; it is like the recollection of a thing which yet the man never heard or saw. That it is so has been given me to know by experience. Hence there was with some of the ancients the opinion that after some thousands of years they should return into their former life, and into all its acts, and also that they had returned; they concluded it from this, that sometimes there had occurred to them, as it were, a recollection of things which yet they never saw or heard which came to pass, because spirits flowed from their own memory into their ideas of thought.- H. H. 256.

     From this passage it is clear that there is a spiritual law against spirits speaking to man from their own memory, but that still they can at times overstep the bounds of this law and violate it, even as they can violate other laws; but by such violation they bring punishment upon themselves.
     In regard to the power which spirits have of writing through man we read in the Adversaria:

     That these things have such a signification was revealed to me in a wonderful manner. Without revelation such things can never be understood. It was dictated to me but wonderfully in the thought, and the thought was led to the understanding of those words and held with the idea fixed in the single expression as if detained by a celestial force; thus this revelation took place manifestly. Of other kinds of revelations, which are many, God Messiah deeming it worthy, I will treat elsewhere. It is accomplished otherwise when the thought is illustrated manifestly by a certain light, and the writing is led so that not one little word can be written otherwise; but sometimes more insensibly, sometimes sensibly, even so that, the finger is carried along in the writing by a superior power so that if he wished to write otherwise he could not; and this not only with perception joined with the thing, but even, as once and again happened with a variety, without perception, so that I did not know beforehand the series of the things until after it was written; but this took place very rarely for the sake of information, that in this manner also revelations had been made. But these papers were destroyed because God Messiah was unwilling that it should be done thus. Nor was it permitted to dictate anything with a living voice; although they spoke to me with a living voice through so long a time almost continually, nevertheless when it should be written they were silent. But of these things, God Messiah being willing, it shall be treated more fully elsewhere, that man may know how revelations took place formerly in the primitive [Most Ancient] Church, then in the representative [Ancient], and at length in the symbolic [Jewish], that thence they may be able to acknowledge that there is not even a jot in the Books of Moses, the Prophets, and David which was not inspired, and thus that celestial things could be more fully contained under the form of natural things which are of the letter by which they are expressed.- Adv., vol. IV, 7167.

     Again it is said:

     That spirits, if they were permitted, could, through the man who speaks with them, but not through others, be as though they were entirely in the world, and, indeed, in a manner so manifest that they could communicate their thoughts by words through another man, and even by letters, for they have sometimes, and, indeed, often directed my hand, when writing, as though is it were entirely their own, so that they thought that it was they themselves who were writing, which is so true that I can declare it with certainty, and if they were permitted they could write in their own peculiar style, which I know from a very little experience, but this is not permitted.- S. D. 557.

     Spirits were with me as if I were in the world, not as with other men, for with me they were not only like men as to soul and memory, but also as to sense; they thought they were altogether as in the world; or had returned into the world; they could lead me, see through my eyes, linear others speaking through my ears-yea, if it were permitted, they could speak with them in their own speech, and write to them in their own style, but this is not permitted; through my hands they could touch others. It is different within others, for a state thus became to me from the LORD, that I might be possessed by spirits and still they not hurt anything, as with others who are obsessed, who then have not the control of themselves, while I was altogether similar to myself; and first I was in consort as before, not the least difference was observed; through some years such timings have been; wherefore, he who is in faith can be such; others, never, for they would immediately perish. Such is the world at this day that when one is possessed he immediately incurs a difference of life; such internal hatred reigns at this day.- S. D. 3963.

     When supernatural things are seen by man it is by the opening of the spiritual sight. This sight was opened in Abram, Lot, Manoah, and others who are mentioned in the Old Testament as seeing angels and other supernatural sights. The same was the case with the visions mentioned in the New Testament and also with Swedenborg. But sometimes spirits can impose on man and cause him to imagine he sees things; and many of the ghost stories and other marvelous things derive their origin from this source. The way in which these delusive visions are produced is described in the Arcana:

     The visions of some are much spoken of; who have said that they have seen many extraordinary things; they did see them, it is true, but only in phantasy. I have been instructed concerning those visions, and it was likewise shown me how they exist. There are spirits who induce such appearances by phantasies, that they seem as if they were real. For example, if anything, is seen in the shade, or by moonlight, or even in the open day, if the object be in a dark place, those spirits keep the mind of the beholder fixedly and unceasingly in the thought of some particular thing, either of an animal, or a monster, or a forest, or some such thing; and so long as the mind is kept in this thought the phantasy is increased, and that to such a degree that the person is persuaded and sees, just as if the thing were really there, when, nevertheless, they are nothing but illusions. Such occurrences take place with those who indulge much in phantasies and are of weak minds, and hence are rendered credulous. Such are visionaries.- A. C. 1967.


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     Enthusiastic spirits are of a similar nature; but these have visions about matters of faith, by which they are so firmly persuaded and persuade others that they will swear what is false to be true, and what is imaginary to be real.- A. C 1968.

     Speaking of the arts by which spirits can induce phantasies, it is written in the Diary:

     If it were permitted them to exercise such magic arts, they could easily induce on the minds of men to believe that they were miracles, for those [arts) have an effect on material and corporeal things. Thence arose the magical things of the Egyptians, thence are diabolical arts, of which elsewhere, thence are false miracles, which are of the devil, and which were of the magi of Egypt; so in many other things, then in those things concerning which just above concerning visions.- S. D. l765.
     Unless man is in faith with the LORD he can be easily induced to believe that such visions and similar things are from heaven, when yet they are, of the devil, for they cannot, indeed, be distinguished from true visions and from true miracles, except by those who are led by the LORD. But at this day such things are forbidden, for such crowds are detained in bonds, so that it is not allowed to them to wander beyond, except it is permitted to them for certain reasons.-1748, March 28th.- S. D. 1756.

     The obsessions which are spoken of in the New Testament are thus described in Heaven and Hell:

     There are spirits who are called natural and corporeal spirits. These, when they come to a man, enter into his body and occupy all his senses, and speak through his mouth and act by his members, then not knowing but that all things appertaining to the man are theirs. These are the spirits who obsess man; but they have been cast by the LORD into hell, and thus altogether removed, whence such obsessions are not given at this day.- H. H. 257.

     Spirits, by their magic arts, by means of phantasies, can induce the sense of touch (S. D. 374-5). They can induce the most acute pains, even upon men in the world (S. D. 376), and they do this by the perversion of representatives (S. D. 269). Yea, they can induce a joy and delight so like heavenly joy that they cannot be punished. Of this art which they possess we read:

     That external joy, as though it was heavenly, can be induced upon man, which nevertheless is impure, however souls may imagine it to be eminently heavenly. This diabolical crew, under the feet from the phantasy of cruelty, so infused it that I hence experienced a certain delight which occupied my entire body, even the viscera, and indeed in such a way that I thought I was in heavenly joy among the happy, for I was, as it were dissolved in delicious sensations, such as are experienced in delightful warm baths. I did not perceive or feel the causes of the delights, that they proceeded from cruelty, or from deception. But as to this body of delights now experienced, I have heard that it was filthy, although I could not perceive it -1747, December 22d.- S. D. 379.

     Spirits can also pervert the taste and cause sweet things to taste bitter, and the reverse, and they do this by means of deceitful phantasies. (S. D. 645.) Whatsoever they see or feel they can counterfeit as though it were real, whereas it is only external and fictitious. Wherefore the greatest prudence is required to distinguish between what is true and pretended, nor can they ever be distinguished except by faith in the LORD, and thus from the LORD, who gives the ability to discern such things. It is similar in the life of the body, when such genii are present and endeavor to seduce man. (S. D. 646.)
     From the principles now adduced from the Writings we can see how the Word was revealed, the mode in which visions took place, and also we can detect and thus be warned against the phantasies and fictitious things which evil spirits induce to mislead men by their false and evil visions and communications from hell.
SUBLIME 1883

SUBLIME              1883

I.

     GOOD and truth proceed from the LORD and return to the LORD. This flows from the essence of the Divine Love, which is to love others out of itself, to will to be one with them, and to make them happy from itself. In order that His Divine Love might go forth and ultimate itself the LORD created the Spiritual Universe and the Natural, filled the latter with innumerable minerals, plants, and animals, and then, as His crowning work, created man in His image and in His likeness.
     In His image that he may receive his Divine Good and Truth, in His likeness that by reciprocal love to the LORD the Divine Good and Truth may return to Him from whom it came, thus rendering man blessed and happy to eternity.
     Every created thing that is in order, contains within it the Divine Love and Wisdom of the LORD, and thus promotes the end of the Divine Love, viz.: The elevation of man to the LORD and his conjunction with Him, from which flows the happiness of the human race.
     But many things exist that are opposed to order, many things that draw man down from the LORD to self and thus render him unhappy and miserable. We continually meet these two classes, the good and the evil. It is the first principle of criticism in the New Church to distinguish between uses, actions, and things, to decide which are orderly and useful and which are disorderly and hurtful; which tend to elevate man to the LORD, and which tend to draw down to self. When this is decided we have next to distinguish the degree of use or of abuse, the degree of good or of evil. For all orderly things do not perform equally exalted uses, nor are all evils equally hurtful. Some uses affect our inmost being, elevating the thought and exalting the affections to the LORD, our Creator. Others keep the body in health and comfort, rendering it a fit instrument of the soul.
     Among the many objects and actions that move the affections and thoughts and thus affect our eternal welfare are those that raise in us the emotion of sublimity.
     In reflecting upon the sublime, these questions arise in the mind:
     What constitutes an object or an action truly sublime? Why does it fill us with such exalted emotions? What is its internal spiritual cause? Do sublime objects and actions cause sublime affections and thoughts in all persons and in all states? Are all objects and actions that are called sublime at the present day truly sublime? Are all those emotions which are called sublime truly sublime?
     In answering these questions, let us remember that true sublimity must, like everything else true and orderly, elevate man out of himself to the LORD. To do this an action must be good and true; an object must correspond to something good and true, for manifestly evil and falsity do not elevate man to the LORD.
     Bearing this in mind, let us now see what is considered sublime by those who have written on the subject. I quote first from Blair:

     The simplest form of external grandeur appears in the vast and boundless prospects presented to us by nature; such as wide, extended plains, to which the eye can see no limits, the firmament of heaven, or the boundless expanse of the ocean.
     All vastness produces the impression of sublimity. It is to be remarked, however, that space extended in length makes not so strong an impression as height or depth. Though a boundless plain be a grand object, yet a high mountain to which we look up, or an awful precipice or tower, hence we look down on the objects which lie below is more so.
     The excessive grandeur of the firmament arises from its height joined to its boundless extent, and that of the ocean not from its extent alone, but from the perpetual motion and irresistible force of that mass of waters.

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Whenever space is concerned, it is clear that amplitude or greatness of extent in one dimension or another is necessary to grandeur. Remove all bounds from any object and you presently render it sublime. Hence infinite space, endless numbers, and eternal duration fill the mind within great ideas.-P. 32.

     Beside the above, many other qualities are considered sublime, as the roaring of the wind, the bursting of thunder, and the shouting of multitudes.
     Blair says, also, that the exercise of great strength or power in any form raises the idea of the sublime, and this often when combined with danger.

     Hence the grandeur of earthquakes and burning mountains, of great conflagrations, of the stormy ocean, and of overflowing waters, of tempests of winds, of thunder and lightning, and of all the uncommon violence of the elements.-P. 33.

     Darkness and obscurity are also said to add to and exalt the feeling of sublimity.
     It is manifest that here no distinction is made between those qualities which elevate the mind and those which fill it with fear or astonishment. For while broad fields, high mountains, the ocean, and exhibitions of great strength, and even thunder and lightning, which correspond to what is good and true, may lift us up and fill us with truly sublime affections and thoughts, such objects as fill us with dread and fear only fill us with thoughts of self and self-preservation. Nor can darkness and obscurity, which represent the absence of good and truth, elevate the mind.
     When writers come to assign the fundamental qualities that enter into and constitute the sublime, we find them differing widely.
     Blair says:
     I am inclined to think that mighty force or power, whether accompanied with terror or not, whether employed in protecting or in alarming us, has a better title than anything that has yet been mentioned to be the fundamental quality of the sublime.-P. 37.
     Some have thought vastness to be the fundamental quality, and Burke attributes all sublimity to the emotion of terror.
     He says:
     A man who suffers under violent bodily pain . . . has his teeth set, his eyebrows are violently contracted, his forehead is wrinkled, his eyes are dragged inward and rolled within great vehemence, his hair stands on end, the voice is forced out in short shrieks and groans and the whole fabric totters. Fear or terror, which is an apprehension of pain or death, exhibits exactly the same effects, approaching in violence to those just mentioned, in proportion to the nearness of the cause and the weakness of the subject. . . . From whence I conclude that pain and fear consist in an unnatural tension of the nerves.-P. 162.

     On p. l65 he says:

     Whatever is fitted to produce such a tension must be productive of a passion similar to terror, and consequently must be a source of the sublime, though it should have no idea of danger connected with it.

     He then goes on to tell us that absolute rest or inaction renders the body languid, and thus subjects the nerves to convulsions, etc. This state is removed by exercise or labor. This is surmounting difficulties and produces a similar tension of nerves as pain or fear. But the finer organs of mind and body also need this stimulation and tension of nerves. So "a mode of terror is the exercise of the finer parts of the system."-P. 168.
     Mr. Burke then explains the effect of great mountains by saying that, being so large and uniform, as the eyes passes over them they make one, continued, unvaried image on the eye, which produces a tension of the nerves and thus somewhat akin to terror, from which flows the sublime. In a similar way he explains the effect of a continued row of round columns and also of a succession of uniformly loud sounds. Such an idea of sublimity is not only erroneous, but it is low and materialistic, drawing the mind down instead of raising it up. It makes it a merely bodily exercise.
     Since then it does not appear that either of these writers have discovered the true quality of the sublime, since they do not even appear to distinguish between true sublimity and the false appearance, we may ask what is the fundamental quality if the sublime? And we may answer in general, that the LORD is sublimity itself and from Him alone flows all true sublimity and elevation.
     And the most interior manifestation of the sublime is the influx of life from Him in place of the life of man's proprium, for this truly elevates.
APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE 1883

APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE              1883

     OUR review of Aphorisms of the New Life has called forth a letter from its author, which we publish in this issue. In order to meet the objection that the work practically denies the complete and full glorification of the LORD, and teaches that we can be tempted, the author, in the be inning of his letter, defines his doctrine of the LORD. This is to the effect that He became incarnate by clothing Himself with a human from Mary, which He again put off, no change being effected in Him, and that in a similar manner He puts on the human of every one of us.
     Regarding the LORD in Himself, or, if we may use the expression, from the Divine standpoint, He certainly has always existed in the Divine Human, and never undergoes a change, for He is one and unchangeable, and with Him there is an eternal PRESENT. But this view of the state of the LORD cannot and must not be introduced when we speak of" the wonderful processes of the glorification" of the LORD, and compare His temptation combats with those of man, for it excludes the idea of change of state which is implied in the work of glorification. When treating of the glorification, and comparing it to man's regeneration, we must think of the LORD as the angels do, and as is pointed out in the following:

     It has been told me from heaven, that in the LORD from eternity, who is JEHOVAH, before the assumption of the human in the world, there were two prior degrees actually, and the third degree potentially, as they also are with the angels, but that after the assumption of the Human in the world, He also superinduced the third degree, which is called the natural, and that by this He was made a man, similar to a man in the world, but still with the difference, that this degree, like the prior ones, us infinite and uncreate, but that these degrees in angel and in man are finite and created.-D. L. W. 233.

     Dr. Holcombe fails to discriminate between the two ways of looking at the Incarnation, and hence at one time says that the Divine Human never was tempted, so as to make it appear as if the charge against Him were unjust; but at another time states that "through it [the external man], as once through His own maternal nature, He is enabled . . . TO BE TEMPTED;" thus showing that in reality our criticism was well founded and just. Before trying to meet an objection, therefore, Dr. Holcombe should examine his position and see whether it is consistent with itself.
     The trouble seems to be that there is a widespread belief in the New Church, although not warranted by a single word in the Writings, that the LORD'S Second Coming is an undefined infusion of His love and faith into the world at large. Dr. Holcombe, as is apparent from his letter, also holds this doctrine.

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He goes still further, and quite consistently applies it to the individual regeneration of man, and by an ingenious but false presentation of the doctrine of regeneration, such as saying that the LORD "clothes Himself with our external man, tries to sustain the teachings that the LORD can be tempted. The LORD does not clothe Himself with our external man. He cannot, for the external man is the seat of the proprium, and "the LORD cannot dwell in any proprium of man, because it is evil."- A. C. 10,067. Hence, also, the LORD is not through our external man "as a medium, as through His own maternal nature, enabled to meet the hells in us, to be tempted and combat for us, and thus to unite us to Himself in the new proprium, even as He was united to the Father." The process of regeneration, including temptation combats, is described in the True Christian Religion, of which the following headings alone will show the falsity of our correspondent's position:

     That the first act of the new generation is called reformation which is of the understanding, and that the second act is called regeneration, which is of the will and thence of the understanding. That the internal man is first to be reformed, and by this the external, and that man is thus regenerated. That when this takes place, a combat arises between the internal and the external man, and then that which conquers rules over the other.- T. C. R. 587, 591, 696.

     This description of regeneration has a different sound from that given by our correspondent. In fact, the teaching in the Writings is diametrically opposed to his teaching in the words quoted from his letter.
     In the first place, the LORD does not use the external man of any of us as He did His own maternal nature In the way specified. It is written:

     That the LORD might make His Human Divine by the ordinary way He came into the world, that is, wished to be born like another man, and, like another, be instructed, and, like another, be reborn, but with the difference that man is reborn by the LORD, but that the LORD not only regenerated His Very Own Self, but also glorified it, that is, made it Divine. Further, that man is made new by the influx of charity and faith, but the LORD by Divine love, which is in Him and which is Himself. Hence may be seen that the regeneration of man as an image of the glorification of the LORD [not the reverse, as Dr. Holcombe puts it], or, what is the same, that in the process of time regeneration of man as in. an image, may be seen, although remotely, the process of the glorification of the LORD.- A. C. 3138.

     In the second place, the LORD, although combating for us, is not therefore tempted. We read on this subject as follows:

     The hells fight against man, and the LORD for man. To every falsity which the hells bring up, there is an answer from the Divine. The falses which are from the hells are cast into and inflow into the external or natural man, but the answer from the Divine inflows into the internal or spiritual.- A. C. 8169.

     In the third place, the LORD does not unite Himself with man as the Human was united to the Divine, as the following testifies:

     That there may be a more distinct idea concerning the union of the Divine Essence of the LORD with the Human, and concerning the faith he conjunction of the LORD with the human race b of charity, it is lawful to call the one union, but the other conjunction. For there was a union of the Divine Essence of the LORD with the Human, but there is a conjunction of the LORD with the human race by the faiths of charity, as appears from this: that JEHOVAH or the LORD is life. His Human Essence was also made life. . . . There is union of life with life, but man is not life, but a recipient of life. When life inflows into a recipient of life, there is a conjunction, for it is adapted to it as the active to the passive, or what lives in itself to what is dead in itself; which thence lives.- A. C. 2021.

     The failure to see the distinction between the LORD'S glorification-which has been accomplished once for all-and man's regeneration, leads our correspondent further to say that "thousands of passages might be cited from Swedenborg to show that . . . it is the LORD in us disposing of our infirm human nature just as [italics our own] He did of His own infirm human nature in His earth-life." Hence we feel constrained to quote at least one of these thousands of passages to show him his error:

     It is to be known that with the man who is being regenerated the purification from evils and thence falsities lasts continually, for, as far as man is purified from evils and falsities, in so far the truths of faith are implanted, and these are conjoined to the good which is of charity, and in so far then man acts from the good of charity. The purification from evils and falses with man is not a liberation from them, but is the removal of them. But with the LORD there was not this removal, but a casting out of the things which he derived from the mother, thus a plenary liberation from them.- A. C. 10,067.

     The passages which our correspondent adduces do not in the least sustain his point. They show that the LORD fights for us, but He does it, not "precisely as" or "just as" He did for His Human, as is evident from A. C. 10,057 and 3188 quoted above. How the LORD fights in man is, moreover, described in our quotation from A. C. 8159.
     In his comment on A. C. "1668" (this reference, by the way, is erroneous and we were sorry that we could not find the correct reference), Dr. Holcombe talks as if the LORD needed necessarily to sustain combats, and that the field therefor must he supplied by the proprium of human beings, when yet the truth is the reverse- that the proprium of man renders necessary the combats of the LORD.
     Does not Dr. Holcombe see that by claiming that the Divine Human, "which never was tempted nor ever can be," clothes itself with our human nature, precisely as" it had done with that of the "Son of Mary," and performs the same redemption, and then "unites" it to Himself-that thus he makes us all to be the LORD? So, on the whole, we find ourselves justified in having made the statement in our review of the Aphorisms:
     A great difference between these doctrines and the Doctrines of the New Church is that the former maintain that Christ must again he tempted, crucified, and die within us, while the New Church teaches that the LORD'S body is fully made Divine and cannot be tempted.

     In regard to No. 60 of the Aphorisms, we fail to see that Dr. Holcombe's explanation one whit reverses the judgment expressed in our review, that when he says "Our LORD asserts the value and dignity of Divine truth in external forms, but it cannot do the work of Christ," he virtually says that the Divine truth cannot do the work of the Divinity and thus denies that the LORD is the Word. "Christ" signifies the Divine Truth, or all of salvation by His doctrine. (T. C. R. 298.) The Writings of the New Church are the internal sense of the Word, the Divine Truth, the Doctrines of the LORD, and are therefore "Christ" in His Second Coming. We must go to them as to the LORD for guidance in every affair of life, and as we live according to the truths they contain, Jesus fills them in us with good, and thus enables us to receive the benefits of His redemption. And in this way alone is the Kingdom of the LORD JESUS CHRIST established within us and we become the recipients of His life. A Methodistic desire for "Christ" to come down into our souls and to ignore the Word or the Writings as not being able to do the work of Christ, only leads away from the LORD. If this is "a fearful charge to bring against the neighbor," it certainly is warranted in the premises.


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     We were to say the least-surprised at the proof our correspondent resorted to in order to show that truth does not enter by an external way. We thought that, in common with all New Churchmen, he knew that what he calls an "apparent truth," namely: "that truth enters by an external way," contains this genuine truth-which is in perfect accord with the passages he cites that while good is received immediately from the LORD, truth is received in the mind mediately through angels and spirits, and this only when there is presented to the senses of men the outward form of truth as written or printed in the Word and the Writings or enunciated in the ears of the man and when afterward called forth from the memory. This then presents an ultimate for the inflow of Divine Truth into the mind of a man, and without such an ultimate, be the man in ever so "good" a state, truth does not inflow. Hence the necessity of recognizing that we can get no truth except from the revelations made by the LORD through His appointed servants, for the angels themselves, even those of the celestial heaven (see A. E. 1024) must have such a revelation, which is their Word.
     But no! Dr. Holcombe would have us rely upon our own state of goodness for truth born from it, and therefore tells us-with what degree of infallibility we leave our readers to judge-that "Swedenborg has a great many passages which prove that truth, which seems to enter from without and to occupy the first, place in regeneration, is really the product and outbirth of good which already exists within, so that it always comes out of the soul and never goes into it."
     What do the Writings really teach on this subject?

     When man is being regenerated or becomes a Church, he must first learn and imbue things which are of faith, that is, which are of spiritual truth, for he is introduced by the doctrine of faith or truth. For man is such that of himself he does not know what celestial good is, but must learn from doctrine, which is called the doctrine of faith. With the ancients it was disputed which was the first-born of the Church, whether truth, which is of faith, or good, which is of love. They who said that truth, which is of faith, was first-born, concluded this from external appearances, and established it as the first-born because it is first learned and must first be learned, and because man is introduced by it to good. But they did not know that good is essentially the firstborn, and that it is insinuated by the LORD through the internal man, that it may adopt and receive the truth, which is introduced through the external, and that in good; there is life from the LORD, and that in truth there is no life except that which is in it through good, so that good is the soul of truth, and appropriates and puts on truth, as the soul does the body.- A. C. 3863. See also 7056, etc.

     Dr. Holcombe seems not to see the distinction between the good in the beginning of regeneration, which is the intellectual affection for truth, and the good at the completion of regeneration, which is the affection from the will of good.

     Our correspondent's deduction and application of what is taught in A. C. 5649 is an utter perversion of the truth, and would tend to make men set aside all independent observation and research and all revelation, and render them dependent on spirits for instruction. What the LORD does teach in A. C. 5649 is: That it is false for man to presume that he acquires knowledge and truths by himself and prides himself on his discoveries and invention, be they in the world of thought or of matter. That, on the contrary, the LORD gifts man with knowledge and truth, whenever he, as of himself, yet with the principle of use reigning in him, both studies nature and peruses the Word in the light of Doctrine. And that even evil men when in the pursuit of knowledge, are gifted with knowledges through the spirits in connection with them, but they may be knowledges of what is false.

     Our correspondent says:

     Your writer seems strangely to have overlooked the stupendous truths so often enunciated by Swedenborg, that every man is a miniature form of the universe, a microcosm, to whom the external universe is only a fixed mirror in which the spiritual changes of the LORD'S kingdom within are perpetually being represented, and whose individual life is only that infinitesimal quantity of the infinity within him of which he becomes conscious on the sensory surfaces of his little organism.

     Things are not always what they seem. Our very idea which suggests to our correspondent that we "have overlooked the stupendous truth," etc.; really contained within it among the "infinity," which, according to our correspondent, lies within the "infinitesimal quantity," "of which we become conscious on the sensory surfaces of our little organism," this truth-that the LORD created the external universe as a mirror in order that man might see it, hear it, smell it, taste it, touch it, and thus ultimates might be prepared in him for the orderly reception of the influx from within. It is a fundamental law of the Science of Correspondences and thus of Influx, that nothing can inflow except into corresponding vessels in the ultimate, and Dr. Holcombe throughout his book and in his letter totally ignores or disregards this fundamental law, as it operates in the LORD'S work of regenerating and saving man.
     Of course, there are myriads and myriads of things in every thought of man. But they would not be there had not the thought, that is, the external receptacle of them, been placed in man by external means. So also there are myriads and myriads of things in the body of man-the microcosm, of which the mind is the microuranos. But, suppose our correspondent were to cease introducing the comparatively simple elements of bread and water, of meat and wine, into his system by the external way, i. e., through his mouth, would not the wonderfully complex and innumerable interior things of his body soon cease to exist? The body is an effigy of the mind. Things external must be put into it (and we hope our correspondent will now understand what we mean by this), and then will there be vessels capable of containing myriads of things. Were it otherwise, and could thoughts be produced immediately from within, what need would there then be of a written revelation, or, indeed, of any instruction? See what is written in C. L. 152*, or T. C. R. 162.
     Our correspondent is pleased to say:

     Having no correct conception of the true relation between the internal and the external, the writer supposes that I would repudiate the revelations of Swedenborg, and, indeed, all revelation, when I assert that if every Church and every religion in the world were swept away the interior life and light of the human mind would flow down and give us better religions and better Churches.

     Just because we have formed our conception of the true relation between the internal and the external from the LORD'S Revelation to the New Church, and not from Spiritism, do we hold the position criticised by Dr. Holcombe. We hold that it is wrong to expect instruction as to religion and the Church from an influx of interior life and light, such as Dr. Holcombe describes. And this position rests upon truths like the following: That "instruction opens the way for influx," A. C. 1802, 1495, 7058; that "influx is according to instruction," A. C. 3141; that "man is led by influx, but taught by illustration," D. P. 165; that "illustration comes from instruction," A. C. 3071.


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     Something shall be told in regard to those who expect influx. These do not receive any, except such few as from the heart desire it. Such sometimes receive an answer by means of a living perception in the thought, or by means of a tacit speech in it, and rarely by a manifest one, and then this: that they may think and act as they wish and as timer are able, and that he who acts wisely is wise, and he who acts foolishly is foolish, and they are never instructed what they should believe and what they should do; and this, in order that human rationality and liberty may not perish, which is, that every one act from freedom according to reason, in all appearance as of himself. They who are instructed by means of influx what they should believe or what they should do, are not instructed by the LORD, nor by any angel of heaven, but by some enthusiastic Quaker or Moravian spirit, and are seduced. All influx from the LORD is effected by means of the illustration of the understanding and by the affection of truth, and by means of the latter into the former.-D. P. 321.

     In his elucidation of his position on this subject, our correspondent tells us that the influx receives its determination from the form of the recipient object; but he does not tell us what it is that determines the form of the recipient. What else, for instance, causes a New Churchman to receive the influx of the truth that the LORD'S Human is Divine, than the vessels formed in his mind from the Writings? On this subject we learn in our revelation:
     That ALL instruction concerning the truths and goods of faith and of love, which make the Church, and enter into the worship, if from the external of the Word. . . . All the doctrinals of the Church which are serviceable for worship are given through the external of the Word, but only to those who are in illustration from the LORD when they read the Word, for then light inflows into them from heaven through the interned sense.- A. C. 10548.

     But because Dr. Holcombe, in common with many other New Churchman, does not recognize fully the doctrine of mediate influx, he goes on to say:

     We know what vast influx of spiritual light has been flowing into the world since the imaginary heavens of the Old Church were swept away in 1757.

     Whatever influx of spiritual light has been flowing into the world since 1757 could only be received and made effective as, by means of the truths revealed in the Writings, there were formed in the minds of men vessels receptive of the light. And not otherwise. For, influx is not instruction, thus does not communicate light; but doctrine from the Word gives instruction, and causes the formation of vessels in the minds of men receptive of influx, and thus provides the means of communication of light from the LORD.
     Instruction from the Divine is effected by influx, when the truth immediately proceeding from the Divine of the LORD inflows into the truth which proceeds mediately and produces instruction in the particulars of doctrine.- A. C. 7058. Read also the passages cited above, that-"instruction opens the way for influx;" that "influx is according to instruction;" that "man is led by influx, but taught by illustration," and that "illustration comes from instruction."
     "And we cannot doubt," Dr. Holcombe goes on to say, "that when the external heaven and earth of the human proprium flee away from before the face of the LORD and we have those conditions of chaos and emptiness in which self-love and self-intelligence are no longer active forces, the New Jerusalem of the LORD will begin to be established upon the earth." But how shall the external heaven and earth of the human proprium flee away except it be by the same means that the, external heaven and earth in the spiritual world fled away at the Last Judgment: by the instruction in Divine Truth by Divinely appointed means, which on earth are the Word and the Writings of the LORD? "Nothing of the truth of faith can be known except from what is revealed in the Word."- A. C. 865.

     "Alas!" exclaims Dr. Holcombe, in reflecting upon our conclusion that he revives Mysticism and Quietism. "Alas I" we are fain to exclaim. - Alas! for our correspondent, who does not see that he teaches, like the Quietists, that we must follow the promptings of the soul lost in an abandon to God, not being able to see that they are the promptings of enthusiastic spirits, who fill the spirit with a sphere of satisfaction and "holy delight" when they are worshiped as God, even though such worshipers be ignorant of the object of their adoration. The LORD teaches us to shun such a state as a sin against Him, and to hold fast to the law and the testimony. And that we are correct in this, our conviction of our correspondent's position, we see in the conclusion of his letter, in which Spiritism, Socialism, Agnosticism, and Nihilism are regarded as part of the LORD'S Coming!! For he says:

     Finally, it is a poor, flimsy, shabby philosophy or theology (certainly not Swedenborg's) which refuses to accept Spiritism, Socialism, Agnosticism, Nihihism, and everything else, as parts and parcels of a stupendous whole, an infinite system of Divine providences and permissions; all of them being manifestations, varying according to organic conditions and receptivities of the continuous coming of the LORD, who is descending from centres to circumferences, from primates to ultimates, to make all things new.

     Truly, every New Churchman will join us in our sorrow that any one professing to be of the New Church can consider the activities of hell to be a part of the Second Coming of the LORD.


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     Were it apparent that Dr. Holcombe regards "Spiritism, Socialism, Agnosticism, Nihilism, and everything else" of a similar character as evil states, deriving their peculiarity from the different conditions in hell, resultant on the LORD'S Second Coming, and that they are permitted by the LORD like other evil things, we should have nothing to say. But it is evident, both from Dr. Holcombe's book and from his language here, that he does not so regard them, but, on the contrary, he combats the idea that they are anything to be shunned as sins by New Churchmen, for he says in his book:

     And sometimes He [the LORD] descends into our dark night of naturalism, moving among the winds and the waters, and when we see Him in things we do not understand, we mistake His manifestations for Spiritualism, and are foolishly afraid.

     A manifest error in Dr. Holcombe's presentation of the subject of regeneration is that he takes a one-sided view of the LORD'S combat for man, and leaves his reader to think that the LORD will do all the work for him, when yet the teaching is clear and distinct: "That man in temptations should combat as of himself, and not remit his hands, and not expect immediate help, but that he still should believe that it is from the Lord."- H. D. 200.
     Again, the whole tenor of Dr. Holcombe's writing is that the LORD has not performed His work of redemption even in the lowest natural and sensual degree, or in "circumferences" and in "ultimates;" that the LORD has not fully glorified the human, and that therefore this is now to be done-a position utterly unsustained by any teaching of the Word and the Writings. He, moreover, holds that the Second Coming of the LORD is not an accomplished fact, but is still continuing, which again, in the sense in which he holds it, is totally subversive of the truth of the New Church as derived from the LORD.
     These are the main errors underlying all our correspondent's remarks, and they are errors so grave and serious that they should be clearly pointed out, lest others drift into them unwarned, to the destruction in themselves of the Church, which is "The Bride, the Lamb's Wife."
JAMES BRONSON 1883

JAMES BRONSON              1883

VII.

     As has been stated, Jim's views of what the New Church was had been drawn solely from the Writings, and his standard was a high one. He had believed that the members of a Church possessing such an abundance of truth must be as a large, united family; a family free from petty jealousy, envy, gossip, malice, tale-bearing, back-biting, and all other similar evils; a family where, should differences of an unpleasant nature arise, each one's first impulse would be not to accuse his brother, but to look into his own heart to see where the trouble arose. That this ideal had not been realized he was keenly aware, yet he had thought that the fault must be in himself, that he was not fitted to be one of the glorious family. With all this in his mind, the frank words of the young stranger he had met under the awning gave him a shock. The real state of the case commenced to dawn upon him, and he experienced a feeling nearer akin to cynicism than any he had ever felt before.
     On the following Sunday he again attended worship with the vague hope that things were not as they had been represented, but what he heard and saw only tended to confirm their truth. The sermon, now listened to with critical attention, was more unsatisfactory than ever, and the people colder and more distant. That even the first time, he did not attend the service. "Why should I?" he thought; "what I hear only causes doubt and antagonism. My views and theirs differ widely. I may be wrong, but until I can rationally see wherein I am wrong I had better stay away." The longer he dwelt on the subject the more restless and discontented he became; he almost wished himself back in the village, for there at least he was free from doubts. In this state he suddenly remembered what the young stranger had said about Mr. Gerhardt. "No doubt," muttered Jim, "he is a crotchety man, but I may as well see how many different beliefs it is possible to draw from what seems to me to be Divine truth."
     It was a delightful evening of early summer. He found the house he sought to be an old-fashioned stone mansion, surrounded by a large yard filled with trees and shrubbery. On entering the gate he noticed a group of people seated on a porch at the side of the house, so he walked around there instead of going to the front entrance. - The animated conversation of those on the porch ceased as he appeared and asked if Mr. Gerhardt resided there. In response, an elderly gentleman arose and said, "Yes; I am that person."
     Jim introduced himself by name, stating that he was a New Churchman who had been living in the city for some months, and had attended Mr. Charte's Society. Being a stranger, he had only learned recently that there were other members of the Church in the place besides those of the Society, and then he added that he had called with a view of becoming acquainted.
     When he concluded Mr. Gerhardt asked, "Are you any relation to James Bronson, once a member of Mr. Strong's Society?"
     "He was my father."
     At this reply, Mr. Gerhardt, taking Jim's hand, said: "The son of my old friend is welcome, twice welcome, to my house, not only for the remembrance of his father, but because I know he must be a firm and loyal man of the Church." He introduced Jim to those on the porch, and each as introduced gave him that peculiar full grasp of the hand that better than words says, "Welcome."
     The reception was so different from what he had expected that Jim was strongly affected; it seemed to him that the portals of the long-desired "home" had finally been passed, and as he seated himself in an easy chair in the midst of the group he said," I cannot comprehend why it is that I, who but five minutes ago was a stranger to you all, should have a feeling that I had known you as friends all my life."
     To this Mr. Gerhardt, with a genial laugh, replied: "Perhaps you have spiritually, though we must meet now for the first time naturally."
     "I hope so," replied Jim," I sincerely hope so, for this meeting has already done me a world of good. I was commencing to doubt whether there was such a thing possible for me as friendship in the Church."
     "Have you no friends in the Church?" inquired Mr. Gerhardt.
     "None," was the reply, "unless I can except Mr. Wright and his family, whom I met years ago; indeed, excepting them, I never met any of the Church until I came to this city."
     "How was it that you became acquainted with the Wrights?" inquired Mr. Gerhardt.
     Jim briefly explained, and then asked-
     "Do you know them?"
     "For many years," was the reply. "They are very dear friends of ours."
     "This grows better and better," said Jim, so earnestly as to cause a smile on the part of his hearers; then, after a moment's pause, he asked, "How is it that every New Churchman seems to know personally or to know of every other member of the Church?"
     "We are but a small band," was the reply, "and easily remembered, especially in the case of members and friends of Mr. Strong's old Society, now so much scattered. Though widely separated, they are still closely conjoined in their regard for each other and in upholding the truth so clearly taught them from the Writings by their honored pastor. But you, as a descendant from that Society, must now tell us of your life."
     So requested, Jim related the events of his life down to the time when he commenced to attend the services in Mr. Charte's Society. As he gave a sketch of the views he heard advanced there, of the doubts and anxieties they caused in his mind, Mr. Gerhardt grew restless, and when Jim concluded he broke forth:
     "Ja, Ja, the same old story; the same evasion of the real truth or bedaubing it with self-derived notions. I sometimes feel-but, pshaw! it is not of use to get angry, yet it annoys me to hear the truth so misstated, so perverted, if I may use the term, to meet what the world wants, instead of what it needs, as though the world's opinion were of more importance than the LORD'S Truth."
     "How do you get along with the Society socially?" asked Mrs. Gerhardt.
     "Very poorly," replied Jim. "I really wanted to make friends, but I think they do not like me." -
     Nothing further was said on this point and the conversation soon turned on doctrinal topics. Late in the evening, when Jim arose to go, Mr. Gerhardt said:


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     "I want you to feel with my house as though it were your home. You will always be welcome here."
     Jim found these words to be no empty formality. As time passed, and though he made many friends through Mr. Gerhardt's influence, still that gentleman himself was to Jim the chief attraction. He was a man who had studied deeply into the truth of the Writings, and one who viewed all matters in their light, and Jim's mind wonderfully expanded under his influence.
     Some months after making the Gerhardts' acquaintance Jim met one day one of the members of Mr. Charte's Society on the street. The person in question, after warmly greeting him, somewhat to Jim's surprise said;
     "I have something to say to you, if you have a few moments' leisure," and on Jim's signifying his readiness to listen, continued: "I have a very unpleasant and painful duty to perform, but it is a duty, and I will not shrink from it."
     "Well?" queried Jim.
     "You have not been to church lately, and I am told the reason is that you have made the acquaintance of Mr. Gerhardt and his friends and prefer their company."
     "Yes."
     "It is of them I would warn you," continued the speaker, in a pained voice. "It is not a pleasant thing to do, but as your friend I have no choice; it is a duty, and as such I do it." Then, after pouring forth for a quarter of an hour covert charges, innuendoes, and defamations against the characters and private lives of Jim's new-found friends, he concluded: "It is these people I
Warn you against associating with."
     Jim listened to all this with the immobility of a sphinx, and when the speaker had concluded said: "These are indeed very grave charges, and are especially so, coming from a man of your position; of course, you would not make them without proof of their being true. Will you give me your proofs?"
     Jim's very grave and earnest way of making this request caused the other to appear confused and to hesitate, but he gave a detailed statement of his sources of information.
     "Pardon me," replied Jim, when he had finished, but it appears to me that your authority is but rumor and idle gossip. I am opposed to condemning any one on such grounds. As a New Churchman, you will be glad to have these evil things against our brethren cleared up if possible: let us therefore go to these people and frankly state what we have heard and hear what they have to say in reply. That seems to me to be the only course a true man can take in such matters."
     But to this proposition his informant shook his head and replied: "It would be useless. I have done my duty in warning you against these people; I can do no more." He bowed slightly and departed.
     Jim, remembering that in all his intercourse with his new-found friends he had never seen anything to give the slightest grounds for what he had just heard, and' furthermore, that he had never heard from them the least gossip or reflection upon the private lives of any one, at once set down the stories he had heard as "scoundrelly lies." But still they caused him anxiety of mind all that day. When evening came he hastened to Mr. Gerhardt's residence, animated by the impulse that had governed him from boyhood in such matters-that of going at once to the accused or accusers and baying the matter cleared up or confirmed, for he had an impatient contempt for gossip and scandal. He found Mr. Gerhardt alone in his library, and after customary greeting said: "I have been told things to-day about you and my other friends that I do not like and do not believe; yet as my informant is a man who is a prominent New Churchman, I-I don't know what to think. It seems horrible that a man in the New Church should circulate such things if they are not true; yet I cannot believe them,- and almost despise myself for coming here to ask you about them."
     Jim's face wore such a miserable look and he spoke with such evident reluctance that Mr. Gerhardt said: "Don't go on. I will spare you the pain of repeating what you have heard. I will do it myself." Then he gave in substance all that Jim had heard, together with the name of his informant, and concluded with "Am I not right?"
     "Yes, sir," answered Jim, with downcast face and a look of humiliation; "forgive me for speaking of this matter at all."
     "No, no," replied Mr. Gerhardt, "you have acted in this as a true man should, for if these things are true your new friends are not fit associates for you, and if false it is their right to be heard in reply. You are willing to disbelieve them without hearing me, but I prefer to put you in the way of forming for yourself a rational judgment of the case presented to you."
     Then for an hour he explained the case to Jim without the least display of passion or feeling. Jim saw that what he had heard was but a surface indication of what almost amounted to a conspiracy. When Mr. Gerhardt had concluded Jim said, "What possible motive can these people have for their course?"
     "What a man's motives are is known to the LORD alone," replied Mr. Gerhardt, "and therefore I cannot answer your question. In its early days precisely similar attacks were made on the Church by the outside world to what are now made by men in the visible body of the Church on all those who believe, as did men in those days, that the Writings are Divine. Differences of views in regard to the Doctrines must exist, and until men will recognize the truth and be willing to allow individual freedom such attacks, I suppose, will continue with more or less virulence. Sure it is that such attacks upon the neighbor never spring from genuine charity and love to the LORD; the angels have no part in them."
     This affair was a rude shock to Jim, not so much on account of what he had heard as to find such a base spirit rife in the New Church. On stating this feeling to Mr. Gerhardt, he replied: "The people of the New Church, coming, as they do, from a dead Church, are in themselves no better than those from whom they have come out; they have the same envy, malice, hatred, love of self, of the world, of gain, and such evils; they have but one hope of salvation, and that is, not in aping goodness or making a mockery of charity, but in learning the truth and then doing it."
     "But isn't there such a thing as goodness among men?" said Jim, appalled at such views.
     "There is," was the reply, "but very few comprehend or allow themselves to see the truth on this point, notwithstanding the prevalent harping on 'being good' and 'charitable.' We are told over and over again in the Writings that no one can do good of himself, and that it is disorderly and evil even to try to do so; that the only way good can be acquired is to learn the truth and then do it. Do not think when you are living the truth that you are doing good, but live it because the LORD commands it because it is the only way of shunning evils as sins. When the truth is lived in this manner then only is good adjoined by the LORD. Yet, in the face of this, so plainly taught, many, even of the New Church, drift into the prevalent insanity of 'being good.'"


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     "Are we to refrain from thinking about doing good?" asked Jim.
     "Most undoubtedly," was the emphatic reply. "The Decalogue says thou shalt not do certain evils, and not that thou shalt do the opposite goods." Mr. Gerhardt here arose from his chair, and going to his book-case took down a volume, and after some search said: "Listen to these words from A. E. p 79, 'Cease therefore to inquire in thyself what are the good works which I shall do, or what good shall I do that I may receive life eternal? Only abstain from evils because they are sins, and look to the LORD, and the LORD will teach and lead thee.' When a man shuns evils from this principle and good is adjoined, then the thought of being good or of doing good, in the common use of the terms, is nauseating to him."
     Jim was profoundly impressed with these words, for they gave him a deeper insight into the truth than he had yet possessed. Still, his face indicated that he did not thoroughly comprehend the matter, and after a moment of silence he said, "I am unable to see the harmony between the passage you have just read and that oft quoted one that all religion has relation to life and the life of religion is to do good."
     "Yes," replied Mr. Gerhardt, again arising and going to his book-case, "as you say, oft quoted and I fear not always understood; it seems to conflict with the passage I have just read, but does not." Mr. Gerhardt returned to his seat with another volume, and opening it resumed: "The quotation you have mentioned is from the Doctrine of Life; here it is, the first heading, 'All religion has relation to life and the life of religion is to do good.' Now what is meant by 'to do good'? Let the Writings answer." Turning a few leaves he said: "The next heading is, 'No one can do good, which, is really good, from himself'-that gives us a little light." Again he turned the pages of the book he held and then read:
"'So far as man shuns evils as sins, so far he does what is good, not from himself, but from the LORD.' Do you see?"
     "Yes, clearly," responded Jim, "and I see that the conflict is not in the Writings, but in a mind with a false understanding of what doing good is."
     "There are no conflicts in the Writings for they are Divine Truth. The interpretation of the passages in question is one, man cannot do good from himself." Mr. Gerhardt here closed the book and laying it down arose, and after walking the length of the room once or twice resumed: "Why then should he think of doing good? He can only do good as he obeys the commandments. If he thinks of doing good he puts himself into what he thinks and tries to do, and what he does is then from himself and not from the LORD-therefore not good. If he obeys the commandments then he thinks of obedience. To what? To the LORD'S Word, the Truth. The first of the commandments is, 'Thou shalt not'- thus to know what evil is-what evil is in yourself and then shun it, because it is a sin against God. This is the teaching of the passage from Apocalypse Explained. And he who shuns evils does good from the LORD, that is, the LORD does it in him; this is the teaching from the Doctrine of Life. There is no conflict between them, but a beautiful harmony."
     Mr. Gerhardt ceased speaking and continued his slow walk to and fro the length of the room for some time in silence, and then resumed: "True charity thus begins at home, and he who begins to cleanse under the Divine teachings the house of his own natural life, as he continues the work finds so much to do that he has no time and less disposition to undertake the work of cleaning his neighbor's dwelling, and as he progresses he realizes that this is not his work but the LORD'S, who in mercy is doing all by His omnipotence that is possible to be done for every man. It may safely be said that the man who often or habitually devotes himself to the purification of other persons' lives neglects his own, while he utterly fails in undertaking what belongs to the LORD alone-to the LORD alone with the co-operation of those persons."
     When Mr. Gerhardt ceased Jim arose, and taking his hand said: "Dear friend, I thank you for the light you have given me on this subject."
     To this Mr. Gerhardt replied: "If I have aided you to see the truth I am glad, but do not take anything on my or any man's authority. Go yourself to the LORD for light; that is the only course for a New Churchman to pursue.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
STOVE PREACHING 1883

STOVE PREACHING              1883

     THE Stove in a well-ordered household once took it into his head that his mission was to preach to his brethren, the other utensils. He had not been prepared for this mission, but what he lacked in knowledge he made up in warmth, and the latter was much more than the former. He loved especially to hold forth on higher uses, the beauty of living for others and aiding and helping them-very good doctrines to preach when the preacher possesses the truth on those subjects, but when the preacher's knowledge amounts to almost nothing it leads to unlooked-for results, as was the case of the Stove's followers. For instance, the Coal-scuttle, animated by the Stove's preaching, spilled the coals he held out on the floor, and ascended to the mantel-piece, where stood the delicate Vase holding the flowers. These he took from the Vase and put into his own grimy maw, saying that he was stronger and therefore better able to perform that use. In doing this the Vase was knocked off the mantel and broken. "The March of Progress," said the Coal-scuttle, looking down at the fragments; then turning and seeing his reflection in the Mirror, he rushed forward to greet his brother and the Mirror was shivered to atoms. Not possessing the truth about this "remarkable manifestation," he adopted the falsity instead and at once posed as Revelator, not knowing that what he revealed was but a reflex of himself.
     The Poker thought to take the Pendulum's place, but in attempting to do so he pulled the Clock from its bracket and both fell with a crash to the floor and the Clock's mechanism was exposed to view. "So, so," muttered the Poker, viewing the wreck, "time is but the product of wheels, springs, and such contrivances. I see that the current saying, 'times are out of joint,' can be a vital and living truth." This incident changed the current of his intentions. "I must be a Shedder of Light upon Truth; I must, write books."
     "I can better cover the Tables and Piano than those narrow coverings now used," thought the Carpet. So with a mighty effort, producing dire confusion, he arose and spread his folds. Then, seeing that he not only covered the Tables and Piano, but nearly every other article, his soul exulted. "This is true broadness," exclaimed he; "I am all-embracing; I am a Type of the New Age.'
     But under the comprehensive folds of the Carpet was the Stove himself. Smoke and then fire soon followed and the House was in a fair way of being destroyed, when the Water came to the rescue. "Cold! Cold!" hissed the Stove, as the fire died out.


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     The House was saved, but in a state of confusion and desolation caused by Stove preaching.
QUESTION RESPECTING SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE 1883

QUESTION RESPECTING SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE       J. E. B       1883



COMMUNICATED.
     "DOES Swedenborg, in the True Christian Religion, No. 20, refer to his own Principia in his allusions to the origin of the universe from points?"
     In the True Christian Religion, No. 20, we read as follows:
     Unless an idea be formed of God, that He is the first substance and form, and of His form that it is the Very Human, the minds of men would readily imbibe idle fancies, like spectres, concerning God Himself, the origin of man, and the creation of the world: of God they would conceive no other notion than as of the nature of the universe in its firsts, thus of the expanse of the universe, or as of emptiness or nothing; of the origin of man, as of the conflux of the elements into such a form by chance; of the creation of the world, that the origin of its substances and forms is from points, then from geometrical lines, which, because they are of no predication, are therefore in themselves not anything. With such persons, everything of the Church is like the Styx, or the darkness of Tartarns.

     In the passage are briefly described the idle fancies which men readily imbibe respecting God, the origin of man, and the creation of the world "unless an idea be formed of God that He is the first Substance and Form." And one of those idle fancies respecting the creation of the world is, that the origin of its substances and forms is from points, thus independent of a personal Creator, who is divine, infinite; omnipotent. But when we learn what Swedenborg teaches, in his theory of creation respecting "the simple, or first natural point," we see plainly that he could not have had reference to his own Principia in the above passage of the True Christian Religion, because the manner in which Swedenborg describes "the first natural point," from which creation began, shows that his idea was something very different from the notion entertained by the scientists of "the origin of the universe from points." As in all of his scientific and philosophic writings, so in the Principia, Swedenborg continually ascribes all things to the Great Creator, whom in this work he generally calls the Infinite. Thus he says:

     The Infinite is the cause and origin of the finite world and universe, vol. I, p 25; II, p. 229.
     There is a first ens originating from the Infinite, vol. 1, p. 46.
     This first ens is the simple or first natural point, ib., p. 48.
     It is produced by motion from the Infinite, p. 49.
     It is the medium between the Infinite and the finite, p. 50.
     It is the same as the mathematical point, or the first ens of geometry, p. 51.
     It is the origin of every finite body, p. 52.
     It consists of pure or total motion, p. 53.
     It is the immediate product of the Infinite, p. 64.
     Motion is the [mediate] cause of all existence, p. 62.

     In these profound propositions and fundamental principles we have a most comprehensive definition of the first ens or entity, denominated in the Principia the first natural point, originating from the Infinite, who is "the cause and origin of the finite world and universe." There is, therefore, nothing in Swedenborg's science which admits of the idea of points of motion, as so many nuclei of future suns and worlds, originating in any manner independent of a personal Creator. The first natural point had its origin as a consequence of the desire and intention of the Divine Being to create a universe or planetary system. This universe was designed in the mind of the Infinite to be the means to bring into existence finite beings, who could be so endowed with faculties of will and understanding as to become recipients of good and truth from the Infinite, be thereby rendered truly human, and finally enter into a blessed life of immortality beyond the grave. How grand and beneficent the design! And how pre-eminently worthy is it of the Infinite who is the Author and Builder of the universe! a Being whose essential attributes are Divine Love and Divine Wisdom!
     From the first natural point, according to the Principia, the solar vortex or sun was gradually formed. By virtue of motion in the solar orb elementary substances were produced.
     These substances were not created out of nothing, for out of nothing not anything can be produced; but they were finited and ultimated from God, the Creator, in whom are all things in their fullness, even infinitely. Creation is by a gradual process. "All finite things came into existence successively; for nothing can be at once such as it is capable of becoming, except the Infinite." The volume of chaotic matter kept on increasing, as it formed around the sun, and wholly inclosed the solar active space with its immense molten mass. At length the motions m the sun caused the volume to concentrate itself into a belt or ring. This ring became gradually larger, and thus more attenuated, and finally, being disrupted, the different masses formed into globes of various dimensions, and by the impetus given em were projected into space. In this condition, the primary or newly born planets began their journey away from the parent sun. They continued their progressions by their rotations and revolutions, passed through innumerable changes and marvelous vicissitudes, found their orbits by the stupendous mechanism attaining its perfect equilibrium, and at last became earths, diversified by the wonderful forms of the mineral kingdom, adorned with the things of beauty and of use in the vegetable kingdom, animated by the vast variety of living creatures of the animal kingdom, and then were completed by becoming the dwelling place of man, the crowning work of all, because made in the image and after the likeness of God.
     In his Principia, therefore, Swedenborg accounts for the origin of matter. And the arguments which he presents, the experiments he offers, ma confirmation of his views, are profoundly philosophical. By a long course of solid reasoning according to fundamental principles, amounting at length to mathematical demonstrations, he gradually leads the reader up to the position whence he may obtain an intelligent idea of the manner in which the elementary substances composing the universe were originally produced. Thus, in the early part of the work, he observes that "no rational and intelligent philosopher can deny that the first ens was produced from the Infinite, as well as the rest in succession, or all the parts of which the world is composed."
     "Nothing that is finite can exist from itself, that is, without a cause to bring it into existence." Then the conclusion immediately follows: "Thus the ultimate cause of things terminates or begins in the Infinite; that is, in Him who exists Himself, and who consists not of parts; so that from Him finite things must of necessity have proceeded."-Principia, vol. I, p. 443.
     The scientists tell us nothing about the origin of matter. A predisposition toward naturalism and materialism on the part of nearly all of them has hindered their minds from being elevated and truly enlightened, even concerning the things of the physical universe. Hence they have too often given us merely the products of their lively imaginations, without being demonstrated by any rational considerations. In treating of the properties of matter, the forces of nature, or the origin of the stars and worlds, they have never been able to begin any farther back than their theories of vortices and the nebular hypothesis. And the theory formulated by one astronomer was successfully confuted by another, simply because fallacious. Being in self-derived intelligence, they readily imbibed idle fancies, like spectres, concerning the creation of the world and similar subjects.
     Swedenborg's theory of the creation of the sun and the planets is altogether different from the nebular hypothesis framed by La Place. And we here may remark, that it is a great error to ascribe to Swedenborg having participated in originating the nebular hypothesis. We do not wish our author to be patronized in this way.
     La Place conjectured that in the original condition of the solar system the sun revolved upon his axis, surrounded by an atmosphere which, in virtue of an excessive heat, extended far beyond the orbits of all the planets, these, as yet, having no existence. The heat gradually diminished, and as the solar atmosphere contracted by cooling, the rapidity of its rotation increased by the laws of rotary motion, and an exterior zone of vapor was detached from the rest, the central attraction being no longer able to overcome the increased centrifugal force.

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Such portions of the solar atmosphere, abandoned successively at different distances, would form "planets in the state of vapor. These masses of vapor, it appears from mechanical considerations, would have each its rotary motion, and as the cooling of the vapor still went on, would each produce a planet, which might have satellites and rings formed from the planet in the same manner as the planets were formed from the atmosphere of the son.- Whewell's Bridgewater Treatise, p. 181.

     When we now compare Swedenborg and La Place, we find that Swedenborg begins at the centre, La Place at the circumference. According to Swedenborg, in his Principia, creation proceeded from the centre to the circumference, while according to the nebular hypothesis of La Place, from the circumference to the centre. Swedenborg declares that "the Infinite is the cause and origin of the finite world and universe," and that, consequently, all things of nature were by successive derivations from God. La Place writes in the style and spirit of an evolutionist, without any distinct acknowledgment of a personal Creator, or even of the existence of a first cause.
     At the close of the Principia the author says:

     In writing the present work I have had no aim at the applause of the learned world, nor at the acquisition of a name or popularity. To me it is a matter of indifference whether I win a favorable opinion of every one or of no one, whether I gain much or no commendation. Such things are no objects of regard to any one whose mind is bent on truth and a true system of philosophy. Should it, therefore, happen that I should gain the assent or approbation of others, I shall receive it no otherwise than as a confirmation of my having pursued the truth. Should I not gain the assent of those whose minds being prepossessed with other principles can no longer exercise an impartial judgment, still I should gain the assent of such as are able to distinguish what is true from what is untrue, if not in the present, at least in some future age. Truth is unique, and will speak for itself.

     It seems appropriate to conclude this paper with the following passage:

     I was once asked how I, who was previously a philosopher, became a theologian. I answered, In the same manner that fishermen became the disciples and apostles of the LORD; and I added that I also, from my early youth, had been a spiritual fisherman. On this my inquirer asked, What is a spiritual fisherman? To which I replied, A fisherman, in the spiritual sense of the word, signifies a man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterward spiritual truths, in a rational manner-Intercourse Between the Soul and the Body, No. 20.
     TORONTO, CANADA.     J. E. B.
APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE 1883

APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE       WM. H. HOLCOMBE       1883

     EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:- The author of the critique upon the Aphorisms of the New Life in your February number says that I "maintain that Christ must again be tempted, crucified, and die within us, while the New Church teaches that the LORD'S body is fully made Divine and can neither be tempted nor undergo corruption."
     The Divine Human in which the LORD now exists never suffered, never was tempted, never was crucified, nor cars it ever undergo any such experiences. The Divine Human clothed itself with the human principle derived from the mother, in order to effect by means of that infirm human (which alone suffered and was tempted and crucified) the wonderful processes of the glorification.
     Now the glorification of the LORD is an image of the regeneration of the human soul. The LORD alone is the agent at work in all the secret processes of the regenerate life, He brings our external man into rapport with Himself clothes Himself with it, and through it as a medium, as through His own maternal nature, He is enabled to meet the hells in us, to be tempted and combat for us, and thus to unite us to Himself in the new proprium, even as He was united to the Father. He operates in us when we admit Him precisely as He operated in the Son of Mary.

     Thousands of passages might be cited from Swedenborg, to show that when the carnal nature in us undergoes temptations, sufferings, combats, crucifixion and death, it is really the LORD in us disposing of our infirm human natures just as He did of His own infirm human nature in His earth-life.

     To carry iniquities when it relates to the LORD, denotes to fight continually for man against the hells, thus continually to remove them, for it is a perpetual removal, mot only when man is in the world but also in the other life to eternity.- A. C. 9937.
     That JEHOVAH alone, that is, the LORD, fights and conquers the devil in man when he is engaged in the combats of temptations although it does not so appear to man, is a certain truth: for not the least thing can be injected into man by evil spirits except by permission; nor can it be in the least averted by the angels but from the LORD; so that it is the LORD alone who sustains all the combat and who conquers- A. C. 1668.

     As the Divine Human cannot be tempted, where does the LORD find a ground or field for combat except in our infirm human natures, which He adjoins to Himself for that express purpose? -
     Your writer says that in Number 60 I practically deny the LORD and lead the reader away from Him (a fearful charge to bring against the neighbor!) when I assert the difference between the work of John the Baptist and the work of Christ-the difference between the Baptism by water and the Baptism by the Holy Ghost, the difference between the first stage of regeneration by the truth of faith and the second stage of regeneration by the good of love. It is needless to quote from Swedenborg his reiterated statements that external truths are utterly dead and inert until vivified by the inflowing life of good from heaven. John the Baptist, who represented the Word in ultimates, declare that he was not the Christ, that he must decrease while the LORD must increase, that his mission was something different, inferior, posterior to that of the Christ, that he was of the earth earthly, and spoke of the earth, while the Christ was from heaven and above all. The New Church Doctrine everywhere teach that it is possible for a man to be thoroughly initiated into all this knowledge of the Word and all the Writings of Swedenborg, and yet not to have one spark of the life and love of Jesus Christ enkindled in his soul.
     It is almost incredible that a writer for a New Church journal, and therefore supposed to be at least a reader of Swedenborg, should find fault with the sentence, "We can never but anything into the soul from without," which is one of the simplest, clearest, and most fundamental truths unfolded by Swedenborg. His quotation from A. C. 9965, that," Good flows in by an internal way from the LORD, and truth enters by an external way, etc.," may be offset by Swedenborg's own repeated statements that such expressions are made according to appearances and are not genuine but apparent truths. Swedenborg has a great many passages which prove that truth, which seems to enter from without and to occupy the first place in regeneration, is really the product and out- birth of good which already exists within, so that it always comes out of the soul and never goes into it.
     Swedenborg says: The appearance of influx from the external into the internal by the medium of the senses is always a fallacy, for the course of influx is always from internal to external things.- A. C. 8721-6779.
     The influx of the LORD is into good, and by good with truth, and never contrariwise; thus into the will and by the will into the understanding and never contrariwise.- A. C. 6482, 6649, 6029, 8686, 8751, 10,158.
     I was at the same time instructed that all things of thought enter from within, but not from without, although it appears so, and it was told me that it was contrary to order that what is posterior should flow into what is prior, or what is grosser into what is purer which would be like the body flowing into the soul.- A. C. 3219.
     Your writer probably thinks that all the external truths of science, which seem to be acquired by our own labors and by observation and experiment, are really external things and are put into the soul during the progress of education. Swedenborg, however, affirms that all that man appears to conclude rationally from the scientifics of his memory, and thus of his own power, flows in gratuitously from the LORD. It is not perceived by men at this day, because they are immersed in worldly things and know nothing of influx.- A. C. 5649.


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     Your writer, no doubt, supposes that the letter of the Word, being the power of the LORD in ultimates, is a living external power which is put into the soul by religious instructions. Swedenborg, however, says:

     The Word of the LORD is itself dead, as it is bare letter, but in reading it becomes vivified by the LORD, according to the faculty of intelligence and perception granted to each one by the LORD; thus it lives according to the life of the man who reads it, on which account it is marked by an endless variety. This is written in the presence of angels.- S. D. 1877.

     Your writer seems strangely to have overlooked the stupendous truths so often enunciated by Swedenborg, that every man is a miniature form of the universe, a microcosm, in whose inmost the LORD resides, unto whom the Gorand Man flows, on whom all the heavens rest, in whose interiors are concealed all the goods and truths of the Word, whose life, emotional, intellectual, and sensational, is entirely by influx from within to whom the external universe is only a fixed mirror in which the spiritual changes of the LORD'S Kingdom within are perpetually being represented, and whose individual life is only that infinitesimal quantity of the infinity within him of which he becomes conscious on the sensory surfaces of his little organism.
     Note what Swedenborg says of this infinite life within us, in Divine Providence 199.

     The internal affections of thought, in which the external originate, never manifest themselves to man; of them he knows no more than one sleeping in a carriage knows of the road, or than he feels the revolution of the earth. Now, as man knows nothing of the movements taking place in the interior of his mind, which are infinite, beyond the reach of numerical computation, and yet the few externals that come within the view of thought are produced from these exteriors, while the interiors are governed by the LORD alone by His divine providence, and these few externals, together with the many, how can any one say that his own prudence controls all timings? If you should see but one idea of thought laid open you would see more stupendous things than tongue can express.     
     Natural thought, which the writer thinks is something put into the mind (as it seems to be), like the natural universe itself, has no independent existence, but is the last product or effect of interior things flowing outward, until they form an ultimate ground or mirror in which spiritual and celestial things are brought into our sphere of consciousness. Swedenborg says that in one single natural idea, apparently simple, more things are present than can be uttered. (S. D. 1639-41.) That every single thought is not only an effigy of the whole man, but contains within itself the universal heaven, (S. D. 878-1892), for myriads and myriads of things flowing in from the heavens concur to the production of a single human thought. (S. D. 237.)
     Swedenborg says, moreover, that every little boy is more learned "from himself or in himself" than the great philosophers who claim to be so learned (S. D. 226), and that the angels get more understanding from the interior ideas of infants, still unrevealed to themselves than they ever can obtain from adults. (S. D. 1923.) He says also, that

     The human race has entirely changed from those who lived in the Ancient Church and from those who afterward lived in the Primitive Church, who, if they now lived upon the earth, would know from experience and from revelation in themselves the spiritual meaning of the Word.- S. D. 200.

     If your writer will take these and many other seeming paradoxes of Swedenborg into his mind, and revolve them over and over for many years, connecting them logically with innumerable points of the philosophy and theology of the New Church, he will attain to a better knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines and the new life they teach than he seems now to possess:
     Having no correct conception of the true relation between the internal and the external, the writer supposes that I would repudiate the revelations of Swedenborg, and, indeed, all revelation, when I assert, that if every Church and every religion in the world were swept away the interior life and light of the human mind would flow down and give us better religions and better Churches.

     Now that a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven is a universal organic law, to which there is no exception whatever in the earth, in the world of spirits, or in hell. All religions, philosophies, arts, sciences, are revelations or evolutions from the interior, the external form they assume being determined by the organic conditions of the recipient. The reason why these things are not in a perfect heavenly external form is that the Divine life is obstructed and suffocated in the perverted forms of the natural plane of the human mind. These perversions have obtained fixed conditions in all the ecclesiastical, civil, and social forms of human life. We know what vast influx of spiritual light has been flowing into the world since the imaginary heavens of the Old Church were swept away in 1757. And we cannot doubt that when the external heaven and earth of the human proprium flee away from before the face of the LORD, and we have those conditions of chaos and emptiness in which self-love and self-intelligence are no longer active forces, the New Jerusalem of the LORD will begin to be established upon the earth.
     The new life of the New Church is the realization of the presence of the LORD in the soul, the dramatization of the living word in our daily experiences on the external plane. It awaits no influx from spirits or angels, but looks to the LORD alone, knowing that His influx is always present, always pressing upon us for acceptance and manifestation. This new life is the life of the branch in the vine. It is attained by shunning evils as sins against the LORD, and through successive temptations and vastations, whereby the old man is crucified and the new man is born and grows in us. It is well described by Swedenborg in A. C. 5651, and in many other places. But your writer does not comprehend it, and as Guyon and Fenelon are quoted in the same volume, he jumps to the conclusion by association and suggestion that this "new life" must be a revival of the old mysticism and quietism of the Middle Ages. Alas!
     Finally, it is a poor, flimsy, shabby philosophy or theology (certainly not Swedenborg), which refuses to accept Spiritism, Socialism, Agnosticism, Nihilism and everything else as parts and parcels of a stupendous whole, an infinite system of divine providences and permissions, all of them being manifestations, varying according to organic conditions and receptivities of the continuous coming of the LORD, who is descending from centres to circumferences, from primates to ultimates, to make all things new.
     Give my love to the writer of that article and if this exposure of its fallacies annoys him, tell him "faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."     WM. H. HOLCOMBE.
     NEW ORLEANS, LA.
SOME REMINISCENCES 1883

SOME REMINISCENCES              1883

     EDITORS OF THE NEW CHURCH LIFE:-I have been a deeply interested reader of the articles which have appeared in NEW CHURCH LIFE for some months past, respecting the two Sacraments of the Church. This is a subject which can hardly receive too much attention, it being one which reaches down to the lowest roots of our prosperity as a religious community-one that must be properly understood and faithfully acted u on before we can expect to be strong as a concrete, visible Church. I entertain no fear as to the final result of this discussion; it can end but in one way and that in these Sacraments coming to be valued and venerated as they have never been be fore, the consequence of which will be the spiritual elevation of every man, woman, and child in the Church, and a vast accession of religious, doctrinal, spiritual power to the sphere of its influence. And it will lead to another, an exceedingly important, result, a consummation most devoutly to be prayed for, which is that it will open the eyes of the Church to the importance, the imperative necessity, indeed, of calling to her pulpits and theological chairs men who have something higher to recommend them than "the gift o' the gab" or a facility in throwing off windy, wordy, vapid dissertations on subjects which they but inadequately understand, but, on the contrary, men who have been thoroughly, devoutly, prayerfully instituted in her Heavenly Doctrines-men who, as the French say, possess the courage of their convictions; in fine, men who, while looking to the LORD and not to the people for their perceptions of Divine Truth, are nevertheless zealous and faithful shepherds in leading that same people in the way of life and salvation.


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     Underlying the whole subject there are theological questions the discussion of which agitated the first Christian Church for many generations and caused much discord and contention therein; and besides these, there are a few questions of this kind which are proper to the New Church, or, speaking more precisely, questions which grow out of its relations to its predecessors in the line of Churches. I do not purpose, on the present occasion, to enter upon a formal, exhaustive treatment of any one of these questions. I intend that this communication shall be, in its leading feature at least, historical, or, to use a less pretentious word, reminiscent.
     At a meeting of the brethren, statedly held on Sunday afternoon at the house of the Rev. Thomas Worcester for the purposes of studying the Heavenly Doctrines and religious converse, Mr. Worcester read a paper in which he took the ground that the Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper as administered by the Old Christian Church, are not valid, by which I understood Mr. Worcester to mean not merely that they are weak, ineffective, shorn of the spiritual graces which they were originally intended to secure to those who worthily receive them, but that they are actually unauthorized and therefore illegal, something like a will or a deed that has not been properly signed and sealed; and the reason that these Sacraments are invalid in the Old Church is that the authority to administer them has passed over from that to the New Church, where alone the spiritual benefits of these Sacraments can be obtained. Mr. Worcester offered but one proof-text-one, however, which met the subject in every point, cleared the field of all objections, decided the question beyond the shadow of a doubt. This text is the last three verses of the twenty-eighth chapter of Matthew:

     And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you; and lo! I am with you through all the days, even to the consummation of the age.

     Mr. Worcester adduced nothing from Swedenborg in the way of illustrating this text. He would have found ample materials for this purpose had he deemed it needful to use them, but his audience was too well acquainted with the Writings of the Church to require it. I will give one or two specimen of what he might have brought forward from Swedenborg had he deemed it requisite to draw from this source. He would have found Swedenborg saying (T. C. R. 761):

     Since all light departs at midnight, and the LORD is the true light (John i, 4; viii, 12; xii, 35, 86, 46), therefore He said to His disciples when He ascended into heaven, Lo! I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the age" (Matt. xxvii, 20), and then He departs from them to a new Church.

     Again (A. R. 750) he says:

     Until the consummation of the age means even the end of the Church, when, if they do not approach the LORD Himself and live according to His commandments, they are left by the LORD, and when they are left by the LORD they become as pagans, who have no religion; and then the LORD is among those only who are of the New Church.

     Swedenborg's theological works are rich in passages like these.
     The paper made a profound impression upon my mind. The idea was new to me. A few obscure hints of this doctrine had reached me, but I had never seriously entertained them, and they had completely passed away from my memory. The only surprise with me was that the doctrine had not occurred to the Church before. I did not know then, as, by means of Mr. Field's Gates of the Church, I know now, that about two generations previous to that time it had been adopted by those truth-loving, single-hearted men, the fathers of the English branch of the New Jerusalem, as a foundation principle of their new religious communion. The doctrine now resented itself to me in an orderly, theological form, fully authorized by Sacred Scripture, and sustained by a chain of reasoning which seemed to me irrefragible, adamantine. I hardly need to add that I accepted the doctrine at once, unreservedly and with my whole heart; and when I went away to my port of duty, the old Kent Academy, Narragansett Bay, went away with my mind full of the subject. Walking one day in the academy yard, and musing on the subject which occupied so prominently my thoughts-regaling at the same time the outward sense with a view of the Narragansett, with its green islands, resembling at certain inclinations of the sun's rays a sea of molten silver set off with greenest emeralds-the thought flashed into my mind that I ought to be rebaptized; and, faithful to the heavenly perception, as I regarded it, I, at the next quarterly meeting, sought and obtained rebaptism.
     Not so much as the shadow of a doubt has ever passed over my mind as to the propriety or correctness of this step. I believe it has been of great benefit to me in the development of my spiritual life. At the time that Mr. Worcester read his paper nothing was said on the subject of rebaptism. An earnest, spirited, highly interesting conversation ensued, but I cannot recollect that anything was said on the subject of rebaptizing those members of the Society who had not received Baptism at New Church hands. Mr. Hayward inquired of Mr. Worcester whether, with his present views of Baptism, he should feel in future at liberty to receive any one into the Society without rebaptism. Mr. Worcester replied that he should not. It had always been the custom, hitherto, to ask the candidate for reception into the Society whether or not he had been baptized; if he had been, nothing further was said to him on the subject, but if he had not been, he was required to be baptized. The conversation was conducted in excellent temper, nor can I recollect that any decided objection was made to the doctrine of Mr. Worcester's paper, excepting on the part of the late Caleb Reed, Esq., and his objection, as it left no impression on my memory, I cannot reproduce. One of his remarks, however, I remember with great distinctness, which was that he received Baptism from the hands of his father, and, as his father was ordained previous to the Last Judgment, his Baptism was valid. Most surely it was, but to what end? To an introduction into one of the Churches which are in Asia, but not into the New Jerusalem.
     Whether I was the first one or the last of the former members who received rebaptism is a fact of little value, so far as I am aware; but that the rest of the former members, even, at last, Caleb Reed himself did, from time to time, as they felt moved thereto, come forward to be rebaptized so that within a comparatively brief period every member of the Boston Society had received a New Church Baptism is a fact of greater significance and importance. And all this was done, it should be carefully noted, from inward conviction, not the pressure of exterior influences. For the original settlers of New England evidently belong to that class of Englishmen who, Swedenborg says (D. P. 136) "do not suffer themselves to be forced to religion." This a noble feature in the Puritan character. Closely related to this feature, if not, indeed, identical with it, are two others, namely, the restoration of the rights of the congregation and education of people. For my own part, these are the only features in the Puritan character which challenge my admiration. Their theories of a Church and its minister I rejected long ago, and as for their religious dogmas, I never received them, and therefore have never been obliged to reject them. The New Englander of to-day has not lost the distinguishing traits of his ancestral character; he cannot "be forced to religion," but his respect for authority is not the less for all that. In respect to religion, he may in some instances have set aside authorities which his ancestors received and in which they implicitly placed their trust, and he may have incurred great error, both in thought and conduct, by so doing; but his respect although impaired, has not been totally lost for authority.
     We see this in the fact that no greater compliment can be paid to a New England community, great or small, than by calling it "a law-loving, law-abiding community." Club law finds no favor in any part of New England. J. O. C.


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NOTES AND REVIEWS
     A NEW edition of the Liturgy, published by Lippincott & Co., has been issued.
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     DR. JOHN ELLIS, of New York, has published another book on the "Wine Question."
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     The Public school is a handsome monthly devoted to the principles and methods of education.
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     ONE of the most interesting features of the Messenger at present is a series of "Reminiscences of a Pioneer," written by a prominent minister.
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     THE Christian Union refers to the late meeting of the Massachusetts Association as the "Annual Convention of the New Jerusalem Church."
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     THE Philadelphia Times of April 23d gave a somewhat extensive notice of the services at the new church on Chestnut Street the Sunday previous.
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     THE new Life of Swedenborg by Mr. Benjamin Worcester will contain about 450 pages and will be sold for $2.00. A fine edition for subscribers only will be issued at $2.50.
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     THE sermons on prayer lately delivered by the Rev. Chauncey Giles have been collected in a neat little volume of two hundred and thirty-four pages, issued by Lippincott & Co.
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     THE REV. SABIN HOUGH, of Brooklyn is preparing a work entitled Our National Destiny. It will make a volume of about five hundred pages, and will probably be ready for the press in a few months.
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     THE REV. DR. BURNHAM has now nearly finished the manuscript of his work on Degrees, which has occupied him exclusively for the past two years and which is the result of very many years of careful study.
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     THE American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society of New York has published the Doctrine of the Lord in tract form, frisking the third of the four leading doctrines which the Society has thus issued.
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     IN the midst of a humorous article on "English-women Abroad," the Saturday Review mentions that "when Swedenborg visited heaven, he found that the English there kept very much to themselves. So do our countrywomen abroad."
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     THE latest evidences of progress in this "new age" of ours is an expurgated edition of the Bible, "suitable for family use, and illustrated with selections from the Sacred Books of other peoples," the object being to expurgate all "improper and irrelevant" passages.
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     THE next number of the New Church Review will contain an article on "Christian Life," the continuation of Professor Scocias' "Lectures on the Brain," a review of the Republic of God, and notes on Cook's "Lectures," on "Constitution Revision," on "Centenaries," and on other topics.
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     THE paper on the "Doctrine of Future Punishment" read by the Rev. William Codville, of McKeesport, Pa., before the conference of Baptist ministers at Pittsburgh, has been issued as a pamphlet. Mr. Codville, it will be remembered, is a Baptist minister who is preaching New Church doctrine.
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     THE April number of the Microcosm continues the second installment of Mr. Hall's reply to Professor French's critique in the Review on the Problem of Human Life. Mr. Hall promises "finally to dispose of Professor French" next month, when he will analyze the 'locust argument" (as he terms it), which he considers "a most important discussion and one upon which Professor French is hopelessly befogged."
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     THE Committee on Education appointed by the Cincinnati Society has published in pamphlet form for local circulation a report by its Chairman, the Rev. Mr. Goddard. The Church in Cincinnati is favorably situated for practical results in the way of New Church education. Not only is there a large New Church population in the city and vicinity, but the Society has practically at its disposal a fund of $4,000, the proceeds of a sum given by the late Rev. R.
De Charms or the furtherance of New Church education in Cincinnati. Just outside the city is the handsome property of Foster Hill, which was left many years ago in the hands of trustees to be used for a New Church school, and, indeed a flourishing educational establishment was maintained there for a long time. It is doubtful, however, if the Educational Fund already in hand could be utilized at Foster Hill, which is at present outside of the city limits.
SOUL AND THE BODY 1883

SOUL AND THE BODY              1883

     THE SOUL AND THE BODY. A Sermon to Medical Students. By REV. L. P. MERCER. Published by Gross & Delbridge. Chicago: 1883.

     THIS sermon is an exposition of 1 Cor. xv, 44: "There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body."
     Its avowed object, to teach students of medicine that the soul is a real entity, possessing form, and that it rules the body, is well sustained and clearly expressed.
     In an appendix to the tract, Swedenborg's doctrine of the soul is illustrated by brief extracts from The Divine Wisdom, appended to the Apocalypse Explained. And this, in turn, is confirmed by quotations in the form of aphorisms from Vol. 1 of the work on the Brain, as translated by Dr. R. L. Tafel.
     We believe that the little book will fulfill a very useful mission. There are two or three statements, however, which seem to us ill-advised, if not actually false. They mar the subject, though they do not very seriously detract from its effect as a whole. In the first place, we object to the intimate blending of "seer," "ghost-seeing," and "clairvoyance." This, evidently, is unintentional on the part of the writer. Indeed, his emphatic words concerning ghost-seeing, "I have no love for the thing," prove this. But uninformed readers will most surely be misled by the seeming indorsement of spiritism. For instance, all through the sermon Abraham, John, Swedenborg, and others are termed seers. Very offensive, indeed, is the coupling of seer in the following: "The conclusion of reason from the facts and inferences of science, from the disclosures of Revelation . . . and the testimony of the seers and the clairvoyants," etc. Think of the conclusion of reason from the testimony of a clairvoyant?
     There is, throughout the sermon, an unwarrantable respect shown to modern science and also to the growth of "the great popular mind. Science, it is claimed, does not deny, it questions. Mr. Mercer, in illustration, refers to two cells that are apparently alike, and yet one develops into an oak and the other into a man. The potent forces which work these changes are inscrutable to science, and yet he continues: "Science leads thought to the brink of an unseen theatre of life, where the mind infers higher organisms. . .. . Science neither affirms nor denies this inference." (Pp. 9, 10.) The illustration selected is not a very happy one; for in no branch of experimental science is there more emphatic denial than in cellular physiology. A genuine science would not deny; on the contrary, it would confirm. But modern science is not the servant of reason; it is an exacting master. Because it cannot see or feel the soul, it not only questions the latter's existence, but arrogantly declares such existence impossible.
     Contrasting the current doctrine that the soul is nothing with the opinion of the commonalty that it has form, Mr. Mercer exclaims: " Thus the popular faith has been growing more human and more real." Rather should it be, "Has not been retrograding so rapidly into nothingism as with the learned." There is not the slightest evidence that it is "growing more human," and revelation and stubborn facts point directly to the contrary.


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     The concluding chapter of the sermon treats of the practical effects of a rational comprehension of an organized soul within an organized body. Some of these effects are well put, as when it is written, "It must lead to the study of the soul's influence upon the body." (P. 19.) But we fail to grasp the meaning of the following: "The relations of moral contact to pathology; and of the following: "If the soul is a substantial organism, -evil is to be regarded as a positive order," etc. What is meant by a "positive order"? Three or four lines farther on evil is more consistently called "moral disorder."
     Believing, as we do, that the physician cannot and should not usurp the office of priest, we most emphatically object to the closing words of Mr. Mercer's sermon: "When the minister to the sick can with faith, rational and inspiring, officiate as the priest of spiritual life, it will be well for human kind," etc.
     But as "a faith rational and inspiring forbids such officiousness, Mr. Mercer's words are entirely superfluous, and medical students may exclude them from among the practical effects of a recognition of the reality of the Soul.
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NEWS NOTES.

     THE lot adjoining the new church of the First Society of Philadelphia has been purchased by a Unitarian Society.
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     THE Society Register of the Boston Society contains the names of nearly 1,100 persons who may be said to belong to the congregation.
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     TWENTY persons were confirmed and eight baptized on Sunday, April 1st, by Mr. Giles in the new Church of the Philadelphia First Society.
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     THE trustees of the Urbana University purpose to proceed at once with their preparations for the new buildings, and hope to complete them for the fall term.
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     THE Finance committee of the Boston Theological School has sent a circular to New Church ministers asking that contributions be taken up for the support of the school.
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     MR. CADELL, assistant of Mr. Goddard in his work as General Pastor of Ohio, has arranged to make monthly visits to Glendale and Napoleon and bi-monthly visits to Indianapolis.
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     THE Rev. F. GOERWITZ spent Easter in Vienna, and the following Sunday in Buda-Pesth. On Sunday, April 15th, he preached in Stuttgart for the last time before his removal to Zurich.
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     EASTER services at Wilmington were very pleasant. Four adults and four children were received into the Church by Baptism. The number of communicants was larger than it had been for several years.
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     Mr. PALMER, missionary of the New York Association, has visited New Haven Conn., and reports that one of the professors in the College is in sympathy with the New Church, though not in favor of a separate organization.
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     Mr. J. F. Buss, whose name is familiar to the readers of the Morning Light, has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Society at Melbourne, Derbyshire, England. Mr. Buss up to this time has been the minister of a society in the island of Jersey.
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     THE visit of the Rev. J. E. Bowers to the newly formed Society at Easton, Md., proved pleasant and successful. Six meetings were held, the attendance ranging from twenty-five to seventy-five. All the members except one are new receivers.
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     THE REV. A. O. BRICKMANN continues his missionary work in Kansas with his customary success. "Eminent men, judges, ministers, lawyers, doctors, listen with bated breath to his lectures, and express their satisfaction with the many new ideas they get."
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     THE Rev. DR. HIBBARD preached in Urbana, Ohio, Sunday, April 1st, to a full house. The subject of his discourse was "Marriage: Its Origin, Uses, Duties, and Abuses." Mr. Sewall was absent at the time on a visit to Glendale to administer the Sacraments.
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     THE New Church Council of Mystic Conn., consisting of twelve persons, met on Easter Sunday at the residence of the Rev. Mr. Lamb. Resolutions in memory of the late Rev. J. P. Stuart were adopted. A Finance Committee of three was appointed. A paper on "The Books of the Divine Humanity" was read by Mr. Lamb.
On Sunday, April 15th, the Rev. J. E. Bowers preached acceptably for the German New Church Society of Allegheny City, Pa., about thirty persons being present. On the 22d he preached for the Society at Greenford, Ohio, and administered the Sacrament of the Holy Supper to Mr. and Mrs. C. Renkenberger at their home near Columbiana.
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     THE MASSAHUETTS ASSOCIATION met at Boston April 5th. - The Gloucester Society was admitted into the Association. The license of Mr. Benjamin Worcester was renewed. The Massachusetts New Church Union reported that its funds amounted to $55 000. The new constitution and by-laws were referred back to the Executive Committee, after extended discussion.
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     THE Rev. O. L. BARLER having spent the past two months in work for the Urbana University, has now returned to his field in Illinois. He preaches regularly to the societies in Henry, Hutten, Ill., and Jefferson, Wis., and occasionally at Canton, Peoria, and elsewhere. He sometimes preaches in orthodox pulpits, but not so frequently as formerly.
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     THE annual meeting of the Massachusetts New Church Union was held March 27th, in Boston. Its affairs were shown to be in excellent condition. Among the subjects under discussion was that of extending the circulation of the magazines published by the Union and of securing in their behalf the fuller co-operation of New Churchmen throughout, the country.
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     A meeting of the Corporation and Directors of the New Church Board of Publication was held in New York April 19th. Thirteen of the twenty members were present. Mr. Pulsifer, of Boston, was elected President; Mr. Guernsey, of New York, Secretary, and Mr. Bodine, of New York, Treasurer. A committee of five ministers was appointed to examine all works which may be submitted for publication.
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     THE Society established a year ago at Durban, Natal South Africa, has twenty-six members. Archdeacon Colley, who, though a member of the Established Church, is a receiver of the Doctrines, has reached for the Society several times. The members are said to be unanimously in favor of the doctrine of the authority of the Writings as set forth by Dr. Tafel. They re-echo the wish expressed by the Cape Town Society that, a missionary should be sent to South Africa.
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     AT the last meeting of the Pennsylvania Conference of New Church Ministers three papers were read. The first, on the Hebrew language, consisting mainly of extracts from the Writings, showed the necessity for New Churchmen to learn, this language. This was followed by an able essay on the Way to Order. The third paper treated of the Doctrine of the Second Coming as taught in the Writings, and as taught by New Churchmen. The writer of this last paper commented on the vague and misleading definition of the Second Coming of the LORD as given in books, tracts, and periodicals of the New Church, namely, as an influx of light and love into the world at large, s definition of the Second Coming never given in the Writings, but invented by1mcn. We understand that, pursuant to repented request, part of the paper will soon be published. The result of the presentation of the subject led to the following resolution, which was sent the Messenger:
     "In view of the statement made in the Messenger in its issue of March 21st, that it 'treats with courteous consideration the position of the minority,' and that it is its 'aim and determination to be, above all things, perfectly fair to every one,' the Pennsylvania Conference of New Church Ministers asks that the following quotation from the True Christian Religion be substituted for the last paragraph of 'the faith, of the New Church,' published weekly on the first page of the New Jerusalem Messenger, since fairness and courtesy to all demand that not any peculiar interpretation of the doctrine of the Second Coming, but the doctrine itself, as given in the words of Swedenborg, be published as 'the faith of the New Church,' and as something 'taught in the Doctrines of the New Church.'
     "'That the Second Coming of the LORD is not in Person, but that it is in the Word, which is from Him; and is Himself; that this Second Coming of the LORD is effected by means of a man, before whom He has manifested Himself in person, and whom He has filled with His Spirit, to teach the Doctrines of the New
Church through the Word from Him.'- T. C. R. 776 and 779." The editor of the Messenger has accordingly made the desired correction.
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83



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, JUNE. 1883.
     PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.-For twenty-five cents we will send the LIFE for six months on trial, to any address. For this purpose a cheap edition has been issued on thin white paper of half the weight of that on which the regular edition is printed. Those who receive sample copies of the cheap edition and who wish to examine the regular edition will be furnished with a sample copy of the same on application. Back numbers will NOT be furnished on such trial subscriptions. Remittances may be made in postage stamps.
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     A CORRESPONDENT from West Virginia writes "I am agreeably surprised to read the Instrument of Organization of the General Church of Pennsylvania. It is a perfectly clear, positive, comprehensive, and well-attested statement of New Church truths."
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     A MICHIGAN correspondent writing concerning the Instrument of organization of the General Church of Pennsylvania, which was sent out as a supplement to our April number, expresses the following opinion: "This Instrument is a juster expression and exposition of a basis upon which the New Church may rest than any with which I am acquainted. I thank you for sending it."
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     WE have received letters from two New Church ministers in the West, calling our attention to the Rev. E. A. Beaman's sermon in the Messenger of April 11th.
     One of them writes: "This sermon is indeed, as Mr. Brickman says in the Bote der Neuen Kirche, Rationalism worse than that of the philosopher Kant. I wonder I how the editor could insert it in the Messenger without remarks. He probably thought the people of the New Church should attend to that."
     The other minister writes: "Did you not see Mr. Beaman's last sermon (?) in the Messenger on The Body of the LORD? I think the editor did wrong to allow the publication of such pantheistic errors. NEW CHURCH LIFE     generally takes notice of such glaring heresies, and, therefore, I wondered why you allowed this to pass by unnoticed."
     Our excuse is, perhaps, the same as the editor of the Messenger would offer-we did not read the sermon.
     Our correspondents write strongly, but they are certainly justified, as the following from the sermon in question will show:
      "There is then, no part of the created universe but what is literally [italics our own] and truly a part of the LORD'S body. This makes God and the universe, that is, God and all that is from Him, one, from the highest clear down to the lowest."
     This includes man, reptiles, vermin, poisonous plants, etc. Such sermons, to a great extent, carry their own antidote. Nevertheless, they ought not be published as "The Sermon" of a New Church journal.
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     IT has been held by some that Swedenborg gives no distinct teaching regarding the non-efficacy of the Sacraments as administered by the Old Church clergy, and regarding the consequent necessity of being baptized into the New Church by New Church ministers and of partaking of the Holy Supper from their hands. But this opinion is a mistaken one, for in an article, entitled,
"Abomination of Desolation, Consummation of the Age, and Fullness of Time," published in an Appendix to the Diarium Spirituale, we have the plain and direct teaching that in the Old Church there is no cognition of Baptism and of the Holy Supper; which are hardly anything but ceremonies;" "that the whole Word is not anything; hence it follows that there is no Religion, no Church, no Worship, no Ministry" (p. 138). This teaching, we submit, is conclusive.
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     ACCORDING to a law passed April 16th by the Ohio Legislature "astrologers, fortune-tellers, clairvoyants, mediums, seers, etc., shall pay a license of three hundred dollars." (Section 36, License Law.) This act has produced great excitement and indignation among the Spiritists of Cincinnati, who consider it a gross insult and an outrage upon religious freedom.
     Spiritism is a great evil and has a very bad effect upon a community. Mediumship, moreover, is often a mere business, a mode of making money will little or no pretense of being of a religious nature. Still, our law-makers, when they attempt to regulate such matters, are on dangerous ground. The greatest care must be taken not to interfere with the freedom of any one to think and act as he pleases, provided he does not infringe up on the liberty of any one else. Man must be free to do ill, or he cannot do well-that is, be regenerated.
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     WITH this our June number go forth to all our readers our wishes for a happy and peaceful celebration of the nineteenth day of June, not inaptly called "the New Jerusalem Day" in the New Church Calendar. The memorable event, significantly recorded three times in the True Christian Religion, of the LORD'S calling His twelve disciples together and sending them out to preach the Gospel of the New Jerusalem, that the LORD GOD JESUS CHIRST reigneth, ought certainly be an occasion for stated rejoicing and happiness all over the Church. We hope the time is near at hand when all societies of the Church will celebrate the day as one of the great feasts. Only as we duly and interiorly appreciate the significance of that act of the LORD'S, and as we truly recognize the burden of the gospel which He sent His disciples to preach, shall we come into a realization of the words of the LORD: "Happy are they who come to the supper of the nuptials of the Lamb."
COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS 1883

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     VI.

MODERN SPIRITISM.

     IN the light of the doctrine which we have now adduced from the Writings, we can proceed to the investigation of the phenomena of modern Spiritism. These phenomena take the form of spirit-rappings, writing through mediums, and independent writing without using the medium's hand, hearing spirits speak, seeing various appearances, materializations, etc. All these phenomena have been gradually developed during the last thirty or forty years, until at the present day they are quite common, and every intelligent New Churchman ought to know of them and understand something of their nature and origin.
     In order that any of these phenomena may be manifested a medium is necessary, who shall be so subject to the control and operation of spirits that they can operate through his or her organism, and thus manifest their presence and power in the things of the world. These mediums become passive subjects, through whom the spirits act, and thus they are in a certain manner obsessed or possessed.
     In order that the phenomena may exist, the medium must not resist the influx or obsession, but must submit passively to the control of the inflowing spirit. These spirits who desire to obsess man are very wicked. Swedenborg says, "Those who are in adulteries and cruelties desire to obsess men more than others and thus to return into the world."- S. D. 2656. Again he says, "Evil spirits desire to rule man altogether. When it is permitted they would obsess not only the thoughts, but even the speech and acts."- S. D. 2659. He also says that the prophets were altogether obsessed by spirits, who occupied the body and all the senses (S. D. 2272); it was given him to perceive that such spirits were evil and insane, but in the case of the prophets the LORD guarded them from evil, whilst those who obsessed in the time of the LORD inflicted evil on their subjects.- S. D. 2272-2273. And again that it is exterior or external men who are acted on by the prophetic spirit and not internal men.- S. D. 2282. From the above it may be seen that to become a medium one must give himself up to the control of wicked, insane, and adulterous spirits, who desire nothing so much as to destroy everything good and true in man. They go to work, however, in the most cunning manner, pretending to love and cherish those things which the man believes to be good and true, whilst all the time they will be leading him into false ideas and evils of life.
     One phase of spirit manifestation is the moving of material bodies, spirit-rapping, and making sounds of various kinds. We know from the Word and the Apostolic Writings that similar power has been exercised in past ages. F or instance, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom; the rocks were rent; the angel rolled the stone away from the door of the sepulchre; when Paul was cast into prison the doors of the prison were opened, its foundations shook, and everyone's bands were loosed. These things show the possibility of power from the spiritual world acting into and upon material things. This power also is that by which the LORD performed all His miracles. Now there being an orderly mode of manifesting power, which was used by the LORD, the prophets, and apostles, for the establishment of His Church, we must not conclude that all power so manifested is good; for the magicians of Egypt could perform some things similar to Moses, and in the time of the Apostles, Simon Magus led away many by his false miracles. Evil spirits have-such power that by their magical arts they can imitate Divine miracles. This is taught in the Word and by Swedenborg. The difference between the two is that one involves Divine things and things of heaven and the Church, whilst the other does not. In the Diary we are taught that,

     If it were permitted to spirits to exercise their magic arts they could easily induce on the minds of men to believe that they were miracles, for these things ham an effect on material and corporeal things; thence came the magical arts of the Egyptians; thence diabolical arts, concerning which elsewhere; thence false miracles, which are of the devil and which the Egyptian Magi did, so in many other things then in those visions, which are illusions. Unless man is in faith in the LORD he can easily be induced to believe that such visions, and similar things, are from heaven, when yet they are of the devil, for they cannot be distinguished from true visions and true miracles, except by those who are led by the LORD.- S. D. 1756, 1766.

     From some cause it is manifest that these wicked spirits are now allowed to exercise their magic arts and produce things which appear like miracles, but since those who are in these things and aid and encourage them are in the denial of the LORD'S Divinity and the holiness of the Word, as we shall show further on, they cannot be in faith in the LORD, and therefore they are false miracles produced by evil spirits. If we examine the character of the spirit manifestations and the quality of the communications, we shall find that this denial enters into them, and that they are false and misleading in their tendency. The manifestations themselves are frivolous and ridiculous, such as raps, moving of furniture, materializing, forms to float in the air, etc. Again, it is generally required that the room be dark in which these things take place, an indication that the cause of the phenomena is in the kingdom of darkness; for darkness corresponds to falsity, and those who are in spiritual darkness cannot enlighten our minds with the Divine Truth.
     As to the true nature of the so-called materializations there may be two solutions. According to the passage just quoted, the magic arts of spirits have an effect on material and corporeal things. And in the Adversaria this power of materializing is affirmed* where it is said:
     * The materializations here referred to can take place only when it pleases the LORD. Probably at this day they seldom occur, but were more frequent in the Ancient Church. -

     An Angel of Messiah or His Spirit, whenever it pleases the Messiah can put on the human form, for they are almost men, but without flesh and bones; the very ultimate texture which is called flesh, with the muscles and similar things, then becomes in a moment when it pleases the Messiah, for in the air and ether there are rivers of such parts which immediately serve for those component things which regard the lower texture. There are there perpetual material principles from which all composition is possible, . . . but this takes place only when it pleases the Messiah.- Adv. vol. 1, 1467-1461.

     On the other hand, these phenomena may be the result of phantasy and may not be actual, material existences, most, undoubtedly, are phantasy. These would be explained in a manner similar to the visions referred to in A. C. 1967, 1968, in which spirits keep the mind fixed on a certain thing until the man is persuaded he sees that thing. To effect this the object which is so distorted as to appear like some other thing must be in a dark place, a condition required by spiritists in their materializations. In evidence that some such appearances are mere phantasy is the fact that some members of a circle may see and hear a thing and others do not. For instance, in a case reported in the Banner of Light for May 7th, 1881, some members of the circle saw more lights than others.

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And again, many heard a quartette of male voices whilst others heard only two; these being proof that the visual sight and hearing were not by means of the bodily senses. We are taught in the same paper that a dark place is necessary for successful and strong materializations, May 20th, 1882. The warfare against the use of cabinets is characterized as satanic (ibid.). Thus we see that the conditions required are such as are most favorable for the play of the arts of evil spirits in producing phantastic and delusive visions.
      Spirits have power to communicate with man in various ways, as by writing, speaking, etc., but when a spirit comes to man and obsesses him so as to write, speak, or otherwise communicate with him, the spirit comes into a knowledge of all things of the man's memory. So also when a man comes into rapport with a medium the spirit can know the contents of the man's mind although the medium does not, and then the spirit can through the medium inform him of things known to himself alone. This is a common test among spiritists and it is one of the surest ways of convincing men-that spirits do actually communicate. For instance, if a certain thing known only to the investigator and to one who is dead, is told to him, he at once concludes that it is the spirit-of that person who is communicating with him, when in reality it is another spirit who is reading the things in his mind and telling them. An amusing instance of this is narrated in the Banner of Light: At a so-called materialization a spirit appeared claiming to be a deceased soldier. He was recognized by some of the company; but to make the identification complete the spirit took out of his mouth a set of false teeth. This fact that the person in the world had worn false teeth was known to but one of his friends who was present, who had discovered it accidentally. He regarded it as a complete proof of the identity of the spirit; whereas to a New Churchman it is only a more convincing proof that it was not that person, but a cunning spirit who perceiving this fact in the man's mind used it to deceive him. Spirits do not retain their physical infirmities after death, and they do not even remember their state whilst in the world except on rare occasions, and when spirits communicate with man they do it from the things that are with the man in his memory.
     The whole drift and tendency of modern Spiritism is evil and against the teachings of the New Church, and this appears most clearly in their attitude toward the LORD and the Word.
     To the careless observer it may at times appear otherwise; but this appearance comes from the fact that isolated expressions are found in communications which "speak highly of the LORD and the Word. Spirits are cunning enough to see that they must lead man gradually and therefore they see what principles he has in the mind and lead him by means of them. If he has some reverence for the LORD and the Word they will pretend to have the same; but if some other person holding opposite views goes to the same medium they will confirm his views. Some New Churchmen are deceived in this way by spirits who claim to be New Church spirits.
     Spiritists generally regard the LORD as simply a very good medium,85 simply a good man who is nothing more than a teacher and philosopher in the spirit world to-day. In the Banner of Light for March 11th, 1882, W. J. Colville, in an inspirational address, said:

     When we speak of saviors; messiahs, or avatars, we signify men whose attainments Spiritually have been so great that they have been utterly incomprehensible to all ordinary minds; and yet there have always been a few prepared spirits who have been ready to welcome the new truths these great revelators have brought to light. We do not regard JESUS as anything more than a man, but he and others similar to him have epitomized in their single individualities the excellencies of all races, and presented a concrete picture of human possibility. They were, though only men, perfect men ere they quitted the mortal frame, and what they have become you may each and all become.

     Some of the expressions used by spiritists appear to admit the Divinity of the LORD, &it when they explain what they mean they fully deny it. For instance, in the Banner of Light for January 27th, 1883, after criticising one of Mr. J. K. Smyth's lectures, the editor proceeds to say:

     We have always spoken or Jesus as a divine man, a grand medium, a moat Apiece of the angels; to-day a teacher of moral philosophy in the spiritual realm.

     But when criticised by a Pittsburgh correspondent the editor further defined his views as follows:

     To intelligent spirits Jesus is a man-a good man and a noble teacher; loving and wise; NOTHING MORE. He approaches Divinity nearer than any others, as he is more unselfish and less impure. His example is inspiring, and may assist others to perfect themselves, but he is the SAVIOR of no one. This is our view and the view of spirit intelligences who profess to know whereof they speak, and unquestionably do.-Banner of Light, February 17th, 1883.

     Their attitude toward the Word is shown by the fact that they are now pushing forward the claim of a New Bible which they claim has recently been revealed through the medium of spirits.
     From the above quotations, and many more that might be adduced, we can see the utter lack of any real acknowledgment of the LORD and the Word on the part of confirmed spiritists. Moreover, they violate the spirit of all the commandments. They worship false gods, take the LORD'S name in vain, violate the Sabbath, dishonor their father and mother, they are spiritual murderers, adulterers, thieves, false witnesses, and coveters, for according to the explanation given by Swedenborg in the True Christian Religion, these commandments in their internal sense teach that the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who is JEHOVAH manifest in the flesh, is the One God, who alone is to be worshipped and acknowledged; that they who use the Word to prove falsehood, lies, or incantations, or who deny the Divinity of the LORD'S Human take His name in vain; to keep the Sabbath day is to be freed from falses and evils; the father and mother who are to be honored are the LORD JESUS CHRIST and His Church. Murderers are those who destroy faith and charity in the soul. Adulterers are those who falsify the truths of the Word and deny its holiness. Thieves are those who deprive others of their faith in the LORD and the Word by false and heretical teachings, and those who take away Divine power from the LORD. False witnesses are those who persuade that falsities are truths and truths falsities, and who blaspheme the LORD and the Word. Coveters are those who are in lusts which are contrary to the spiritual things of the Church, and in all these spiritual evils are those who are confirmed in modern Spiritism.


     MR. ANDREW CZERNY, a theological student of the Academy of the New Church, who has conducted Divine services for the New York German Society during the last three years, has discontinued his weekly visits to New York, and has been called by the Berlin, Canada, Society to officiate in the place of their pastor, Rev. F. W. Tuerk, during his travels in Europe and Palestine. Mr. Czerny will leave Philadelphia for Berlin soon after his ordination into the priesthood, which takes place on June 10th. He has been prepared for the high calling of priest of the New Church by a six years' course of study at the College and Theological School of the Academy.


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SUBLIME 1883

SUBLIME              1883

     II.

     WE read in the book of Revelation where John saw the LORD:
     "And when I saw Him I fell at His feet as if dead; and He placed His right hand upon me, saying to me, Fear not, I am the First and the Last."-i, 17. -
     Concerning the signification of this, we are taught that John was in a state of holy fear from which he was raised by the LORD.
     Of holy fear we are taught as follows:

     Holy fear, which is sometimes conjoined with a sacred tremor of the interiors, which are of the mind, and sometimes with horripilation supervenes when life from the LORD enters in place of the life ot1 the proprium. The life of the proprium is to look from self to the LORD. But life from the LORD is to look from the LORD to the LORD, and still as if from self. While man is in this life, he sees himself not to be anything but the LORD alone.- A. R. 56.
     When the LORD elevates man out of his state of holy fear, and as it were restores him to life, then man worships the LORD from the deepest humiliation. Man then sees his own littleness and the infinite greatness of the LORD, sees, indeed, that the LORD is everything and that he is nothing. This recognition of the Infinity of the LORD and its consequent humiliation we conceive to be the inmost of all true sublimity. This feeling elevates man out of his proprium and conjoins him with the LORD. Then man loves to be guided and led by the LORD alone, and. feels himself elevated into a state of peace and happiness. The Celestial Angels are most deeply affected by this influx of the Divine Life, for they receive it most interiorly, and hence they are affected with the most interior perception of the sublime.
     As the Divine Truth, in which is the Divine Life of Good, flows downward it is received less interiorly by the Spiritual Angels and still less by the natural. But nevertheless, with both it produces a holy fear, followed by a lifting up of the interiors, joined with adoration, and profound humiliation. This holy fear, which is a fear lest the Divine Good and Truth be violated, is the only fear the Angels have, and it is the only fear that at all approaches the Sublime.
     But as the Divine Truth enters the world of spirits and comes in contact with evil spirits, it seems to take on another form. It now begins to thunder and lighten. It sweeps on like a whirlwind, breaking the rocks, uprooting trees, filling the evil with terror, and finally sweeping them into their hells. To the evil the Truth seems destructive and hateful, terrifying, and full of revenge. It does not at all seem sublime. To the simple, who are at such times carried to a place of safety, such manifestations of the Divine Truth may be elevating, and thus as it were sublime. For while they see the effect of the wrath of God at the wicked, they are at the same time affected with a perception of His Divine Mercy to those who keep His commandments, and are thus filled with feelings of thanksgiving and self-humiliation.
     Visions of the effect of the Divine Truth in the world of spirits were often seen by the prophets and described in- the Word for the sake of the simple and to terrify the evil. Such passages affect us with sublime emotions. Witness the following:
     And He said, Go forth and stand on the mountain before JEHOVAH. Behold, JEHOVAH is passing-by. And a great and strong wind rent the mountain, and brake in pieces the rocks before JEHOVAH.- JEHOVAH was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but JEHOVAH was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake a fire, but JEHOVAH was not in the fire. And after the fire a still, small voice.-1 Kings xix, 11, 12.

     In the letter of this passage the sublimity seems to be in the manifestation of Infinite power and strength, that appears in the voice of the LORD, which is not affected in the least by the mighty whirlwind, the earthquake, and the fire. But as the Angels perceive the Internal Sense they see in the still, small voice the merciful, pacific Truth and Good of the LORD, which in the lower sphere appears as the whirlwind, earthquake, and fire. They are affected thereby with the deepest humiliation and reverence, and their minds are thus elevated and exalted to the LORD. Their delight is communicated to us, and thus we too are elevated and exalted to the LORD.
     Again we read:

     And one strong angel lifted up a stone as it were a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence, will Babylon, that great city, be cast down and will not be found any more.

     Here we have the natural image of a strong angel casting an immense stone into the sea and threatening to destroy the great city, Babylon. The image is sublime. Its sublimity, however, is from its correspondence. The angels and spirits associated with man see the internal sense only. To them the angel is the LORD. His lifting up the stone like a great millstone and casting it into the sea is a strong influx from Him removing profanations of the Word and casting them into hell. The threatened destruction of Babylon is the removal of the Roman Catholic Religion from their sight. By the contemplation of the Divine Power of the LORD to thus remove evil and falsity, they are elevated out of their proprium toward the LORD, and they are thus filled with a feeling of wonder and delight at the Greatness and Goodness of the LORD, and since they are intimately associated with us they communicate their feeling to us.
     As we are affected by things read in the. Word, so we are affected by the objects in nature. That is to say, everything affects us according to correspondence. For correspondence is the appearance of the internal in the external and its representation therein. It is the relation of the natural world with the spiritual, of body with soul, of man with angels and spirits, of effect and cause. Our affections and thoughts flow in from angels and spirits; if they were removed, we should instantly fall dead. But we do not receive their affections and thoughts as they are in themselves; by correspondence they become natural and thus flow in without our perception of the influx. The objects that impress themselves upon our senses serve angels and spirits as vessels into which they can flow.
     If then we wish to know why broad plains, mighty seas, or high mountains affect us with emotions of sublimity, we must seek the cause in the correspondence of these objects in the affections and thoughts of angels and spirits, of which these natural objects are the external appearance and representatives. We are taught that length and breadth represent the extension of the Divine Good and Truth, so that when we contemplate broad plains covered with innumerable houses, fields, and woods, stretching far as eye can reach, spirits and angels perceive the Infinity of the Divine Good and Truth, and are thus affected with an inspiring sensation of the Divine Mercy of the LORD. Their affection inflows and affects us with delight according to our state.
     Perhaps we are filled with a sense of expansion and delight without perceiving why; perhaps affected with a sense of the Great Goodness of the LORD in giving us so many natural blessings. "Or, again, if we have some knowledge of correspondences, we too may-be filled and expanded with a perception of the infinity of the Divine Good and Truth filling the heavens and the earth.


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     But though we are affected thus by broad plains, we are still more-deeply affected by great and high mountains.
     The cause of this is shown in the following:

     There are two kinds of degrees, viz.: Degrees in longitude and latitude and degrees as to altitude and profundity. The latter degrees differ much from the others. Degrees of longitude and of latitude are those which succeed from the midst to the peripheries. But degrees of altitude proceed from interiors to exteriors. Degrees of longitude and latitude are degrees which decrease from the midst continually to the peripheries as light decreases continually from flame even to obscurity, and as the sight of the eye from objects near to objects at a great distance; and, as the sight of the understanding from those things which are in light to those which enter into shade. But degrees of altitude, which proceed from the inmost to the outmost, or from the supreme to the lowest, are not continuous but discrete. For the case is as from the inmosts of a seed to its exteriors, and as from the inmosts of man to his extremes, and as from the inmost of the angelic heaven to its outmost These degrees are discriminated, thus distinct as the producing and the product. Those things which are in the interior degree are more perfect than those which are in the exterior degree, and no other similitude exists between them than through correspondence. Thence it is that those who are in the inmost heaven are more perfect than those who are in the middle, and these more perfect than those who are in the ultimate.- A. C. 10,182.

     From this we see that while broad plains raise in the minds of angels and spirits the idea of the extension of Divine Good and Truth, the idea is confined to its continuous progress in one degree. But when we view a great and high mountain, the angelic idea of the Infinity of the Divine Good and Truth proceeds from degree to degree, from heaven to heaven. It contemplates them as manifested to the Celestial in all their states from eternity to eternity. It contemplates their manifestation and adaptation to the spiritual and to the natural, until the mind is filled with wonder and reverence for the Divine Creator of all things.
     But the feelings excited by sublime objects in nature are not always truly sublime. As we stand upon a high mountain, for example, we maybe filled with a feeling of elevation and expansion arising from association with angels, but it may also arise from association with spirits I who are in the pride of self-derived intelligence. For a mountain by opposition signifies self-love, and if we are in a state to be affected by evil spirits, we may be filled by them with a feeling of self-exaltation and thence of elevation and expansion of mind and body.
     We are taught that spirits who are in the love of dominion, or in the pride of self-derived intelligence, appear to themselves to be exalted on high, to be above the heavens even when in reality they are deeply immersed in hell. They can exalt themselves, make themselves appear large and powerful, when in truth they are so weak and feeble that a single angel can disperse a horde of them by a look. When our self-love is thus excited and we seem to be elevated and expanded, we tare not truly elevated to the LORD and our feelings are not truly sublime. Such states should be avoided, for they are debasing.
     If we were to see a devil exalting himself on high and apparently clothed with strength, and there was in us any perception-of good and truth he would appear, not grand and sublime, but foolish and ridiculous, like a monkey dressed in a king's robes. So too it is with the creations of the human imagination. They may be something evil and false which is attempted to be exalted and rendered sublime. But such creations, however skillfully portrayed, can but appear low and debasing to one in the truth.

     To illustrate, take Milton's description of Satan:

     He above the rest,
     In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
     Stood like a tower; his form had not yet lost
     All her original brightness, nor appear'd
     Less than archangels ruin'd; and the excess
     Of glory obscur'd: as when the sun new risen,
     Looks through the horizontal misty air,
     Shorn of his beams; or, from behind the moon,
     In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
     On half the nations, and with fear of change
     Perplexes monarchs. Darken'd so, yet shone
     Above them all the archangel.

     Here we have a most powerful presentation of the Satan of the Old Church. But skillfully as the description is written, vividly as the image stands out before the eye, it is neither grand nor sublime, for it is not true. We are shocked to have Satan compared with the rising sun, emblem of the coming of the LORD, even though obscured by clouds. We can but wish that Milton had used his vivid imagination and powerful pen to describe something truly sublime.
     But we cannot pursue the subject further. We conclude that true sublimity is inmostly the Divine Good and Truth, the infinity of the LORD. Its external manifestations in nature are objects representative of the Divine Good and Truth, which by correspondence elevate, expand, and exalt the mind to its Creator, filling it with a sense of its own nothingness and of the LORD'S allness. It is a feeling that raises man to His LORD and SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified       Rev. W. F. PENDLETON       1883



A SERMON
     Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.-John xi.
     The LORD JESUS CHRIST is God Himself. He is, in the One Divine Person, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. When He is worshiped, God is worshiped. When we approach Him, acknowledge Him, make confession to Him, it is the Father Himself to whom we draw nigh; for the Father dwells in Him, as He Himself declared, and thus makes one with the Son, as the soul is one with the body. Hence, He also said, "He that seeeth me, seeeth the Father; how then sayest thou, Show us the Father Believest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me."-John xiv, 6-11.
     We can, therefore, understand why He commanded men to worship Him, why the disciples a number of times worshiped Him, as recorded in the Gospels, why He so often declared the necessity of believing in Him that men might be saved, that salvation is not possible except by and through Him. He never would have said these things were He anything less than God Himself.
     It is for this reason that He calls Himself the Door, the Way, the Truth, the Life; and this is the meaning of the text, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not, by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." And in the seventh, eighth, and ninth verses of the chapter He says, "I am the Door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them. I am the Door; by me if any man enter in, He shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture."
     To enter not by the door into the sheepfold but climb up some other way is to approach God the Father and worship Him, separate from the LORD JESUS CHRIST, when as we are instructed He is not a separate person from Him, but one with Him.

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To worship God the Father out of Christ is to worship an invisible God, and to worship an invisible God is to worship an inaccessible God, and with a God that is invisible and inaccessible man can enter into no conjunction; for it is conjunction with God that constitutes eternal life and saves man. To be conjoined with God, man must know Him and see Him, must see Him as a Divine Man. Unless God is seen and known as a Man, the thought concerning Him falls into vacancy, has no determination or limit, like the sight into the universe.
     In order that God might become manifest to man in a visible human form, before His Coming into the world, He presented Himself through an angel, and thus in the human form to the members of the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches, and also to Moses and the prophets; then He came into the world, assuming a Human for Himself, that He might no longer appear through an angel, presenting Himself as a Man before the bodily eyes of men.
     The infinite, invisible, inaccessible God, thus made Himself manifest to man's consciousness in the visible Divine Human, presenting Himself to man, as an object of worship which he could see and know, and thus love, and by love enter into conjunction and be saved to eternity.
     If, therefore, the infinite, invisible, unapproachable God be worshiped, as is done by the Old Church, man does not enter by the Door, which is the LORD JESUS CHRIST, but attempts to climb up some other way into the sheepfold, that is, into the Church and heaven, and the same is called a thief and a robber.
     They are thieves and robbers, because they steal from the LORD the sole Divinity which belongs to Him, divide that Divinity, with two other Divine Persons; or, as is done by many, take all Divinity from the LORD, claiming that the invisible God alone is the Divine, thus denying all doctrine or possibility of a Divine Human.
     What the Doctrines of the New Church teach is, that man must worship the Divine Human as God, must worship the LORD JESUS CHRIST alone as the Father for the infinite, invisible, inaccessible Father is in Him as the soul is in the body. It is by this Divine Human and by this alone, the infinite God comes within the reach of finite beings, becomes visible to finite consciousness, and accessible to finite affections. The Divine Human then is the Father Himself, that is the Father manifesting Himself to the human race; "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath manifested Him." No man hath seen God, signifies that no man can possibly see the Father in His infinity. The Son, which is the Divine Human, hath manifested Him, hath brought the Infinite Divine down into the range of human rational thought, hath presented a God before human rational sight, hath given us to eternity a Divine object of worship that we can see and know and love.
     When, therefore, we worship the Divine Human, when we worship the LORD JESUS CHRIST, go to Him alone for help, acknowledge Him alone as our Father in the I heavens, we are then and then only worshiping the invisible Divine, we are then only approaching the inaccessible God; for the Infinite God is in Him, and cannot be found out of Him. He is Himself that Infinite God manifesting Himself. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the Door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers; but the sheep did not hear them. I am the Door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture."
     The LORD has now made His Second Coming into the world, revealing Himself again as the Divine Man. But in this, His Second Coming, He does not reveal Himself before the natural sight in personal form as Man; this He did in His First Coming, and it is not necessary that it should be done again. He now reveals Himself to the rational sight in spiritual forms as Man. The spiritual form of man is the Divine Truth. The LORD, therefore, reveals Himself now as the Divine Truth, in which is the Divine Good. These two, together are the LORD.
     With men it is generally recognized that it is the quality of the mind that makes the man, rather than his personal form. If a man has not in him the quality of a man, he is not considered in reality a man, though he may have the outward form and semblance of one.
     So in the LORD it is His quality, and not his personal form, that makes Him a Divine Man. What constitutes His quality are Love and Wisdom, Good and Truth. These, in the spiritual view, are Man, and the revelation of these to the human race is the Second Coming of the LORD into the world. The revelation of these is contained in the Writings of the New Church, and hence these Writings are the LORD Himself in His Second Coming.
     The LORD again reveals Himself as the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He again presents Himself as the Door, through which, if a man enter, he shall be saved. We have shown that the acknowledgment of the LORD, the Divinity of His Human, the worship of that Human as God, is the door through which man is saved. This acknowledgment of the LORD involves a great deal. It begins with the acknowledgment of the general truth that He is God; but this general truth includes many particulars. To acknowledge the LORD involves the acknowledgment of all that proceeds from Him. To believe that He is Divine is to believe that all which proceeds from Him is Divine. As the Word is the proceeding of the LORD, it also is Divine, as to every most minute particular of it, both in the literal sense and in the spiritual sense. And as all which proceeds from the LORD is the LORD, the Word also is the LORD. Now, as the Word had become in the First Christian Church a sealed book, on account of falsifications and perversions, the Second Coming of the LORD consists of the revelation of Himself, manifesting His presence in His Word as the Divine Truth in which is the Divine Good.
     In order that His presence might be seen in the Word, He caused to be formulated in the mind of a man a system of Divine Doctrine, drawn out of the Word, presented in a rational form, so that the understanding might thus be enabled to enter into the mysteries of faith.
     This Divine Doctrine is the internal sense of the Word in a general form, and he who receives this Doctrine is enabled to perceive the LORD'S presence in His Word, His presence there as Love and Wisdom. This Divine Doctrine is the Door through which man enters into the Word, and dwells in it, as the angels or heaven dwell in it-for the sheepfold in the highest sense is the Word; doctrine is the Door.
     Now the LORD is not only the Sheepfold, but He is also the Door into the Sheepfold, as He Himself declares, that is to say, the LORD is not only the Word, but He is also the Doctrine which introduces to the Word; for let us ever remember that all which immediately proceeds from the LORD is the LORD in different degrees of manifestation and accommodation to man.
     What we wish to establish is that the Divine Doctrine presented in the Writings of the Church, from the Word, is the LORD Himself, making Himself present to man in that form, that He might thus to all eternity be the Door through which man enters into the eternal life of the Word.


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     We see, therefore, that the acknowledgment of the LORD involves much. (1) That the LORD JESUS CHRIST is God; (2) that the Word is from Him, is Himself and I hence Divine in every particular, and (3) since the Doctrine of the New Church is from the Word, that Doctrine is also Divine, and thus true in every particular; or, putting it in another form, (1) the LORD is God; (2) the LORD is the Word; (3) the LORD is Doctrine. These are in general the essentials of the acknowledgment of the LORD in the New Church.
     The New Churchman, therefore, must acknowledge that his Doctrine is Divine because from the LORD, thus must acknowledge that it is the LORD in His Second Coming. When the Doctrine of the New Church as contained in Writings of Swedenborg, is acknowledged as Divine, then the LORD is acknowledged as the Door, and we can see in interior sight what the LORD meant when He said: "I am the Door of the sheep.
     I am the Door, BY ME, if any man enter in he shall go in and out and find pasture."
     And in the text, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbed up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." The LORD in these words and the whole of the tenth chapter of John, is speaking as the Divine Doctrine, by which, as a door, the sheet, those who are in charity, enter into heaven and the Church.
     No one can enter into heaven except through the Divine Doctrine of the New Church. He must receive that Doctrine in this world or in the world of spirits, or he will never find the door which introduces to heaven and eternal life. So it is with the Church, for the Church is the LORD'S heaven on the earth. It is a fallacy to suppose that any one is in the New Church until he has entered through the door of Doctrine, or that the New Church can exist where its Doctrine is not known. Men may be in a state of preparation to enter, but they do not enter until the Doctrine is seen and acknowledged.
     It is important for us to fully realize that the Doctrine of the New Church has come to regenerate and save man. What is it that makes this Doctrine saving? What gives it the power to regenerate? It is the fact that it is Divine! Only that which is Divine has such power. It saves by introducing man into the Church and into heaven. "I am the Door; BY ME if any man enter in he shall be saved." This is the language of the LORD as the Divine Doctrine to us. Let us heed it and strive to enter by the Door into the Sheepfold.
     When Doctrine enters into man for the sake of introducing him into the Church; in order that it may effect that introduction it must be seen by him in two aspects.
     (1) Every particular truth of Doctrine must be seen as a command of God, and thus Divine, that the LORD in that truth is actually addressing him, and not a man. When he reads the pages of the Arcana or the Divine Love and Wisdom, he must realize that it is the LORD Himself who is talking to him. This is the first phase the truth of Doctrine must take in the minds. It is from the LORD; it is the LORD coming to save us. Unless we are affected with the truth of doctrine in this way it may enter the mind, but it-enters with no- saving efficacy. A truth, to have a saving quality in us, must be seen as from the LORD.
     (2) Every truth of doctrine is given that it may be applied to life, for it is in this way that it saves. When it is seen to be Divine, then its application to use must be seen, for these two go together. The two universal essentials, the LORD and the life, reign in every truth, and these two must be seen in every truth, or it has no practical saving efficacy to us. It cannot even be said that any truth of doctrine is really understood until these two, the LORD and the life, are seen in it, until it is acknowledged as a Divine command and seen in its application to use.
     When truth of doctrine is seen by the" understanding in these two phases, (1) it is given by the LORD, (2) it must be carried out, then does it introduce man into the Church, becomes the door through which he enters into the sheepfold.
     It is essential for us to know that not any truth of doctrine has power to introduce into the Church and heaven-has any saving efficacy until seen in these two phases. Suppose we should claim that the truth of doctrine is not Divine, not from the LORD; that the LORD is not in it, and attribute to it a human origin. By such a claim the, truth is shorn of all its saving power, for the most essential element is eliminated from it, viz.: the LORD. Take the LORD out of any truth and that truth is dead. This, is what is meant in the Word by stealing, in its spiritual sense; it is stealing from the LORD, for it ascribes to man that which belongs to the LORD alone. If we believe and confirm ourselves in the belief that a man is-the author of the Divine Doctrine, then we are guilty of spiritual theft. The LORD says, "I am the Door." When this is done the door of heaven is closed, and also the door to the Church; and if there is still an effort to get into heaven and the Church, it must be by some other way than by the door. This other way is the way of man's own intelligence, the way of false doctrine, and, concerning him who endeavors to get into heaven by the way of false doctrine, rather than by the Doctrine which the LORD Himself reveals, we are instructed in the text," Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber."


     THE basis of true science, and, in fact, of all true reasoning of any kind, is correct classification. Now, the mode of classification prevailing in the science of the present day is exactly opposite to the true one. This is especially the case in botany and zoology, for plants and animals are classified according to their forms and not according to their nature, according to appearance, and not use. Poisonous plants and edible plants, ferocious animals and domestic animals, are classed indiscriminately together. No distinction is made between those produced and sustained by influx from hell and those produced and sustained by influx from heaven. Nor is the fact considered that the most opposite things are often very similar in external form.


     THE following mention of Swedenborg occurs in the Memoir of Augustus de Morgan by his wife, a book recently published by Lougmans, Green & Co., London: "At this time (1848) a good many friends used to meet periodically at our house. Several friends addicted to what are called mystical studies found their way to us . . . Of these I think the Rev. James Smith, author of The Divine Drama of History, was the most learned and least appreciated by the world at large; for his estimate of Swedenborg as an authority on spiritual questions, and his admiration for Joanna Southcote as a typical woman, were thought to throw discredit on his good sense. Swedenborg is not held utterly contemptible now-though, as Mr. Smith said then, he is least understood by his own followers." Mrs. de Morgan unfortunately nowhere states who the learned Mr. Smith thought most appreciated Swedenborg.


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HISTORICALS OF THE WORD FOR CHILDREN 1883

HISTORICALS OF THE WORD FOR CHILDREN              1883

     THE Word is given to unite heaven and earth or angels with man. This takes place while man reads the Word both in the Historicals and in the Propheticals. The Historicals are given to initiate infants and children into reading the Word, and also that by them they may be introduced by degrees into doctrinals of interior good and truth.
     To perform these uses the Historical Word is written in a style suitable for children, viz., in the form of a story, and contains fallacies and appearances because children cannot comprehend more interior things nor can they understand what permissions are.
     Concerning these uses of the Word, and especially of the Historicals, we are taught as follows:
     The Word is given that it may unite heaven and earth or angels with man; for which reason it is so-written that by the angels it is taken spiritually, when by man naturally, and thus [somewhat] holy inflows through the angels by which union takes place. Such is the Word as well in the Historicals as in the Propheticals. But the internal sense appears less in the Historicals than in the Propheticals, because the Historicals are written in another style, but nevertheless by significatives. The Historicals therefore are given that infants and children may be initiated by them into reading the Word, for they are delectable, and sit in their minds by which such communication is given I with the heavens, which communication is grateful because they I are in a state of innocence and mutual charity. This is the cause that the Historical Word exists.- A. C. 6338.

     In this number we especially notice that while the letter of the Word is read by man there inflows from the angels somewhat holy, and that this communication takes place with children because they are in a state of mutual innocence and charity. We ought then to do two things, viz., encourage and foster states of innocence1 and mutual charity, and use the Historicals of the Word to initiate our children into reading the letter of the Word for themselves. In A. E. 803, (I,) it is said that children and the young ought to read the Word every day, either one or two chapters. These two things, innocence and mutual charity, and reading the Word mutually aid each other in the education of our children.
     We are taught further concerning this in the following from the Arcana:

     All the Historicals of the Word are truths more remote from Divine Doctrinals themselves, but still they are of service with infants and children that they may be introduced by them into doctrinals of interior good and truth - degrees and at length to the Divine itself. For inmostly in them is the Divine. When infants read those things and are affected by them from innocence, then angels are with them in a state of celestial pleasantness, for they are affected by the LORD with the internal sense, thence by those things which the Historicals represent and signify. It is the celestial pleasantness of the angels which inflows and causes the delight with infants.-n. 3689.

     When we see our infants and children delighted with the Historicals of the Word again and again, we may know that it is because the angels are affecting them with their celestial pleasantness in the internal sense, and we can feel that the LORD is storing up remains of good and truth for their eternal welfare. In this number is pointed out another use for the Historicals, viz., to introduce our children by degrees into doctrinals of interior good and truth. We read more about this use in the Apocalypse Explained as follows:

     The external of the Word which is called the sense of its letter [is written] according to appearances in the world, because it is for infants and the simple, who perceive nothing that is contrary to appearances, wherefore these by the sense of the letter are introduced into interior truths as they advance in age, and thus appearances are put off by degrees, and in place of them interior truths are implanted. These things may be illustrated by numerous examples: as that we pray lest God lead us into temptations. This is said thus because it appears as if God leads when nevertheless He leads no one into temptations. Similarly it is said that God becomes angry, punishes, casts into hell, does evil to the impious, and many similar things, when nevertheless God never grows angry, punishes, nor casts into hell, and does altogether no evil, bat the impious himself [punishes] himself by evil, for in evils themselves are the evils of punishment.-n. 631.

     Here we learn that the letter of the Word is written according to appearances in the world, "because it is for infants and the simple," and that they cannot perceive anything contrary to appearances. From this it appears plainly that we are not to teach children the true interior doctrines at first, but that we are to use the appearances, and teach them that the LORD is angry if they do evil and pleased if they do good. That He will punish them if they do evil, and if they persist that He will cast them into hell; and on the other hand, that He will reward them and lead them to heaven, if they are good. If taught that the LORD is not angry and does not punish, they cannot comprehend it, and will see no reason for shunning evils. To them it is not inconsistent with love to punish, for do not their parents love them? and yet they punish them when they are bad and disobey.
     The great necessity of the idea of reward and punishment in the beginning is manifest from the following:

     All worship of God must take its beginning from a holy fear in which it is [involved] that God rewards the good and punishes the evil. The simple and infants believe this because they cannot comprehend what permission is. And this according to the words of the LORD: "Fear more Him who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell." When thus in the beginning from fear they dare not do evil, love with good is successively insinuated, and then they begin to know and perceive that nothing but good is from God and that evil is from themselves; and at length that all evil is from hell.- A. C. 6071.

     All worship then begins with the idea that God rewards the good and punishes the evil. Thee if our children are to begin to shun evils they must begin from this state. They must at first shun evils from fear of hell. But as they advance in age, they can, by degrees, be taught interior truths; first, that nothing but good is from God, and that evil is from themselves; then that all evil, and consequently all punishment, is from hell.
     By observing these teachings of the LORD, and leading our children to read the letter of the Word; by explaining it to them, at first according to the appearances in the letter, and by degrees, as they grow older, according to the truths of the internal sense, according to genuine doctrine, we can promote their eternal welfare, we can do one of the most important uses given to us in the building of the New Jerusalem.
SWEDENBORG ON TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPERANCE 1883

SWEDENBORG ON TEMPERANCE AND INTEMPERANCE              1883

     INTEMPERANCE signifies an excess of eating and drinking, which is to indulge one's disposition, to sacrifice to Baccchus and Ceres, and to indulge (curare) the stomach. Temperance denotes a moderate degree of eating and drinking.-De Anima, pp. 132, 134.
     The antithesis here is between moderation and overindulgence. That by indulgence or excess Swedenborg means a perversion of the appetite by using as an end in life what should be merely a means, is proved in the following:

     When we respect single loves and pleasures as means, then we enjoy them temperately . . . but when we respect them as ends, but not as means, then we lapse into excess.-De Anima. p. 133.


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     A Christian hives in external form like others. He can grow I rich but not with craft and artifice. He can eat and drink well, but must not place his very life in these nor take delight in superfluity, and also not in drunkenness; that is, he must not live in a luxurious manner.- S. D. 5794.
     It would be well for man to prepare his food chiefly with reference to use; for by so doing hue would have for his object a sound mind in a sound body; where as, when the taste is the chief thing attended to, the body becomes diseased at heart, inwardly languishes, and consequently also thus mind, hence the madness of supposing that all the delight of life consists in luxury and pleasurable indulgences. Hence come dullness and stupidity in things which require thought and judgment whilst the mind is disposed only for the exertions of cunning respecting bodily and worldly things. Hereby man acquires a similitude to a brute animal.- A. C. 8378.

     That "moderation, in drinking" refers also to the drinking of alcoholic wine is proved by these words:

     Then the Nazarite shall drink the wine which before was forbidden him, because afterward he is sanctified; for then wine could not intoxicate him, because then the cupidities are no more excited by nature and by the body.- Adversaria, vol. iv, 6879, 6880.
     The wine here mentioned must be alcoholic; for it is said: shall drink the wine which before was forbidden.
     It is by perversion that wine, like food, becomes evil; and wine is perverted when used as an end in life, rather than as a means.
     It is an error to claim, as some have claimed, that it is abuse or excessive use which has a bad correspondence but not the substance itself. We cannot separate a quality from the thing itself; neither can we separate use from the object by which the use operates. A substance naturally good becomes itself evil if its use becomes evil, just as a man's entire body becomes evil: if his soul is evil; for use is the soul of the substance just as truly as man's soul is the soul of his body. Even the particles of the wicked man's body are altered.- T. C. R.
     That the substance misused becomes evil is clearly seen in the following:

     Grapes, out of which wine is made in the wine-press, signify the good of charity; and, in the opposite sense, evil.- A. E. 922.

     But there is another aspect of intemperance:

     Intemperance involves likewise defect; for defect of one thing is not given unless respectively to excess in another thing, as the defect of nourishing the body indicates an excess in saving expenses, and, moreover, is an excess of avarice or of abstinence, which likewise injures the body; therefore the [golden] mean of all is temperance.-De Anima, p. 134.

     Excess of indulgence is intemperance, and so is excess of abstinence.
RISE OF THE NEW CHURCH 1883

RISE OF THE NEW CHURCH              1883

     THE New Church, as its history shows, developed gradually and slowly. So gradual was its growth, that it is hard to fix upon any one date as the beginning of its external formation, and yet meet the various views of the Church.
     Robert Hindmarsh, whose name is intimately associated with the rise of the New Church, and two others began in 1783 to hold meetings in London, on Sundays, for reading the Writings and conversing on them. They were joined by John Augustus Tulk, and soon, advertisement in the newspapers, called a public meeting of receivers of the Doctrines. This meeting was held at an inn, and was attended by five men. The advertisements had called out two. One of them, however, came late, and failed to join the meeting, since, for want of a room, it had adjourned to another tavern. Hindmarsh, in his Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church, makes an interesting comment on the fact that they met as if by chance, five in number, at 5 o'clock, on Thursday (the 5th day of the week), on the 5th day of December, 1783. This was the first public meeting of New Churchmen. - Joined by a few others, they shortly after took the name of "The Theosophical Society, instituted for the purpose of promoting the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, by translating, printing, and publishing the Theological Writings of the Honorable Emanuel Swedenborg." They held meetings on Thursday evenings, and read the Writings. The Society grew in numbers, and their sphere of usefulness increased.
     In 1787 it was proposed to open a place of worship. A small majority being averse to separating from the Old Church, the minority, "desirous of having a new order of worship, united themselves expressly for that purpose, yet without discontinuing the usual meetings with the rest of their brethren." Accordingly they met, sixteen in number, on July 31st, 1787, "for the purpose of forming, by the Divine Mercy of the LORD, the New Church upon earth, signified in the Revelation by the New Jerusalem descending from [God out of] heaven." James Hindmarsh, the father of Robert, was chosen, by lot, "to officiate in the room of a Priest," to administer the Sacraments. He administered the Holy Supper to all except five, whom he then baptized. The first of these was his son.
     On Sunday, the 27th of January, 1788, they opened a chapel for worship.
     Although the Church was formed of a few of the "Theosophical Society," it seems that this Society was afterward merged into the Church. For, "in consequence of the Society having now assumed its proper character, and appearing externally before the world as well as internally in the sight of heaven, a regular and orderly Church," the "Theosophical Society" did, in May, 1788, adopt the name of "The New Church, signified by the New Jerusalem, in the Revelation."
     But the Church was not yet completely formed, since the priesthood had not been established. Hence we find that, after mature and serious deliberation, a full meeting of the members of the New Church took place on Sunday, June 1st, 1788, when Robert Hindmarsh was inaugurated Ordaining Minister both by lot and by the unanimous appointment of twelve men who had been selected by lot as representatives of the Church. The account of the selection of Robert Hindmarsh is very interesting, and we refer our readers for a fuller description of it to the Rise and Progress of the Ness Jerusalem Church, pp. 68-74. He then ordained James Hindmarsh and Samuel Smith into the Priesthood.
     As an additional item of the development of the New Church, we may mention that, starting with a call from the London Society, a General Conference of all the readers of the Writings was organized in April, 1789, by sixty or seventy New Churchmen from various places in England, and from Sweden, America, and Jamaica. Among the signatures to the declaration of principles of this Conference we notice the illustrious names of Henry Peekitt, August Nordenskjold, Henry Servante, John Augustus Tulk, and Benedict Chastanier.
     The General Conference later confirmed the establishment of the Priesthood and the Ordination of Ministers as commenced by Hindmarsh and his fellow New Churchmen.
     Thus the New Church was gradually formed, and it may be difficult to determine which date should be regarded as its beginning.


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     At its meeting, last year, the General Conference of England resolved to celebrate the 5th of December of this year as the Centenary of the New Church. As the first public meeting of New Churchmen who subsequently organized the external New Church was held on that day a hundred years ago, it would seem that this date should be regarded as marking the beginning of the New Church.
     It is a fitting day to commemorate, as it led to the excellent results attained in the first place from an unflinching adherence to the Truths concerning the Old Church and concerning the New, internal and external, which characterized the early members of the New Church-and in the second place from their unwearying perseverance in carrying these truths into practical effect, despite the opposition with which they had to contend from those who, being still to a great degree under the influence of the dragon, thought that New Churchmen should not appear in opposition to the vastated Christian Church.
DERIVATION OF THE BODY FROM THE BRAIN 1883

DERIVATION OF THE BODY FROM THE BRAIN              1883

     CONCERNING the initiament of man at conception, we read:

     I saw as it were a most minute image of a brain with a delicate delineation of somewhat of a face in front without any appendage. This primitive in the superior protuberant part was a compages of contiguous globules or sphierules, and each spherule was composed of others still more minute and each of these in like manner of the most minute of all; thus it was of three degrees. In front, in the flat part, there appeared something delineated for a face. The convex part was covered with a very fine membrane, which was transparent.-D. L. W. 432.

     This was of spiritual substance, but there is a natural initiament, which is the representative of the spiritual.
     In apparent opposition to this teaching is a generally admitted fact that in embryotic growth the spine precedes the brain. The initiament of the human body seems to be nothing but a membranous groove, destined later to become the central, canal of the spinal cord. Accordingly some physiologists, Kuss, for instance, believe that the brains are mere ganglionic appendages of the spine.
     There is, however, no real contradiction between Swedenborg's facts and facts from experiments. The soul is wholly from the father, and the membranous structure, called the blastodermic layer, which is seen to fold into a primitive groove, is derived from the maternal egg. This layer is the limiting membrane upon which the soul acts, and which in turn reacts upon the soul. The latter, the real formative force, shapes the former into a sort of mold, in which it erects in regular order the various structures constituting the body.
     This order is as follows: First, from the purest substances of nature the soul weaves into the human forum a fibre called the Simple Fibre. This plastic fibre receives immediately the activity of the soul and carries it into the natural world. By the agglomeration and intertwinings of these simple fibres, compound fibres are formed, by means of which the soul operates in a still lower natural plane. These latter by circumvolutions form nerves.
     The simple fibre, which has reached the periphery of the body, forms there a fibre destined later to bear ethereal effluvia from the cuticular pores to the brain; this is called the corporeal fibre, and it constitutes the lining of the arteries, connecting them with the cortical glands of the cerebrum.
     The soul has now descended to the face of the earth itself. By its simple fibres it draws needful supplies from the purest auras; by the corporeal fibres it imbibes emanations from minerals, plants, and animals, and by the arteries it takes in still coarser food.
     Nerves, stimulated by the soul acting immediately through the simple fibre, combine with blood-vessels to construct muscular tissue. The latter, in turn, gives rise to tendons and ligaments, and these finally to cartilage and bones.
     In all this constructive work, the soul is the builder, or rather the LORD is the builder, operating through the soul as a means. In the order of descent, the simple fibre is paramount, and even the rudest bone is but a hard, inert ultimate of this universal, simple fibre, this vicegerent of the soul.
     Now, the common conclusion concerning the priority of one structure to another, of the spine to the cerebrum, of blood-vessels to the heart, of skin to internal viscera, and so on, is formed in ignorance of an important law. We are taught that the LORD operates from firsts by ultimates into mediates. So in the construction of the body, the brains exist primarily as convolutions of the simple fibre, but when this latter reaches the terminus of its gyrations in the blastoderma of the impregnated egg, it begins to act from firsts (the purest form of the brains) by ultimates (corporeal fibres in the skin) into intermediates.
     So, then, the little groove noticeable very soon after the segmentation of the yelk of the egg and the formation of the blastodermna is a sort of ultimate, reactionary fold. And as the spinal cord is an ultimate of the brains, the construction of the cerebro-spinal system is there before it is at the site of the future head.
     That the body is a continuation of the brains, is beautifully illustrated by the growth of the eye. This organ at first is a little protuberance of the brain. As it develops it pushes outward from its point of origin, maintaining its connection by means o a long slender stem. The coverings of the protuberance are offshoots from the three enveloping membranes of the brain. The outer
of these (dura mater) becomes the white of the eye (sclera); the middle (arachnoidea) joins the selera and the next coat, and is called the membrana fusca; the inner (pia mater) is transformed into the choroid or black coat of the eye. At first the retina, which is the membrane upon which visual images are projected, does not present the peculiar arrangement of the optic nerve, but shows by its convoluted form that it is really a graft from the parent brain. The stem-like connection with the cerebrum is composed of brain tissue, and only gradually yields to the growing fibres of the optic nerve.
     Here, then, is a structure plainly a continuation of the cerebrum. But, it may be urged, the eye has a very exalted function, and is deservedly part of the brain. Can the same be said of other parts?
     The eye is employed as an illustration of our position, since, owing to its high office, its transit from brain to body is clearly demonstrable. But the principle applies likewise to every other organ of the body. The eye is a part of the body, as distinguished from the brain. It is situated at the terminus of a nerve, just as are the other organs of sense; and, like the latter, it is located where its use is. If other structures are remotely situated, it is because their respective uses are remote. And if they display tissues very different in structure from those of the brain, it is because in preparing them for their functions the simple fibre, as the vicegerent of the soul, clothed itself in coarse and coarser matter that it might accomplish its purpose.


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     How these various tissues originate from the primary brain-fibre may be illustrated by an example or two.
     Swedenborg taught, and many modern writers concur here, that when a nerve leaves the brain it carries with it a sheath composed of the cerebral coverings. But, true to the requirements of analogy and of discrete degrees, Swedenborg further asserted that these membranes, how I ever unchanged they may appear, are really of different texture in different parts of the course of the nerve. The dura mater of a nerve in the foot cannot be precisely the dura mater of the same nerve in the brain.
     Now, if this is true of an apparently continuous structure, how much more must it be true of structures separated from their origin by the imposition of new and discrete functions? And so, when the simple fibre, reaching the ultimates of the body, weaves itself into minute cuticular pores, it has a new function conferred upon it-imbibition of effiuvia from the air-and thus becomes converted into a new fibre, the corporeal fibre. Still, intrinsically, it is nothing more than the primal simple fibre. It has simply adapted itself, or rather has been adapted by the son, to the performance of a lower grade of function-namely, the furnishing of coarser food to the brain.
     But by means of this relatively coarse food, the cerebrum is now able to weave still coarser tissues-tissues removed another discrete degree from the parent simple fibre-and yet these are no less positively reducible to the fibre whence they originated. They are continuations of the brain into forms of uses in the planes of the body. Hence, Swedenborg exclaims: "Nothing is given in the universal body except the simple fibre, which is its whole" (De Anima, p. 5.). And this simple fibre it is which weaves the brain and the body, forming the ultimates into glandules precisely like the primal cerebral glandules, except that they are lower in degree, that those things which are primal in their beginnings may also he primal in their endings; thus are firsts and lasts united, thus is the brain present in every part of the body, and thus is the soul omnipresent.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     How many persons are there who have not at some period of their lives wondered how it is possible that the LORD could always have existed? There is a warning in the Writings against letting the mind dwell on this and similar topics, but all know how difficult it is to avoid it at times. Any one troubled by such thoughts may perhaps find a rest for his mind in the following illustration, faulty and vague though it be:
     That the LORD is goodness and truth itself is easily apprehended and acknowledged. This admitted, take shy natural fact or truth as the terms are used: for instance, the fact that twice two are four; any one can see that this is true now, and always will be true; then let him try to realize a time when it was not true, and he will exclaim, "Impossible! it always was true." Exactly: truth and good are uncreate-the LORD is truth and good; viewing in this light, it is impossible to conceive of a time when He did not exist.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE annual meeting of the Canada Association was held Thursday, May 31st, at the New Church Temple in Toronto. This date, a month earlier than usual, was chosen so as not to interfere with the session of the General Convention, which it was supposed would be held June 29th. The hasty action of the Executive Committee in changing the time of the Convention to June 1st will doubtless prevent any representation from the Canada Association from being present.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. E. A. BEAMAN has just made a missionary tour through the Southern States under the auspices of the Southern New Church Missionary Society.
JAMES BRONSON 1883

JAMES BRONSON              1883



MISCELLANY.
VIII.

     JIM had performed the duties of the position for which he was first employed about a year when he was promoted. One day an official from the main office made a visit of inspection, and in talking about the capacity of the various men in the office the Superintendent said: "That fellow, Bronson, actually works for the Company as though he were working for himself."
     "What does he want?" inquired the official, in a matter-of-course tone.
     "That is a question I have tried to solve," was the reply, "but the only solution I can arrive at seems unreasonable; it is that he does his work in the effective way it is done from religion."
     With an amused smile, and in a slightly satirical tone, the official said, "Original, at any rate; what other form does his religion take-austere, tract distributor, or every-man-my-dear-brother form?"
     "None of them," was the reply. "In fact, it was only lately any one knew he went in for religion much. You know Bluffin, our 'fighting clerk,' as we call him, though no one ever saw any special evidences of his bravery?" The official remembering Bluffin, the Superintendent continued: "Well, not long ago, it seems he got off a really vile joke, pointed with a Bible quotation. Bronson's face showed he did not like it in the least, and on being asked, he said so quite plainly. This was enough for Bluffin, and he took every occasion possible to crack jokes and make witticisms with Bible passages in them, and all directed at Bronson. One day I happened to be in an adjoining room-he arose from his desk to stretch himself, and while feeling the muscles of his big right arm, said, Bronson, if I were to smite yon on one cheek what would you do?"
     "Well!" queried the official, as the Superintendent paused to indulge in a quiet laugh of evident satisfaction.
     "Bronson sprung up, confronted the questioner, and said, 'I'd give you such a thrashing that you'd never forget it. I've half a mind to do it anyway;' and he could easily have done it, I believe, for he is over six feet high, and as lean and sinewy as a tiger. But he didn't, for the fighting man completely backed down, and since then has not made one boast of his personal prowess or got off a single joke. This affair pleased the other boys hugely, and since then they call Bronson their missionary.
     It seemed to please the official too, for he laughed heartily and said, "He is an original religious man, truly."
     "I have been on the lookout for some time," continued the Superintendent, "for a man on whose honesty and intelligence I could rely to help me in the increasing duties of my office, and I believe Bronson is just the man I want."
     "Then by all means take him," was the reply.
     And so it came about that Jim was freed from routine duty and placed in a position where brains and ability were required. He had never visited the village where Aunt Amelia lived since he had been driven out by the moral tempest, though he wrote regularly and sent her money "in an extravagant manner," as she said. In one of her replies, which were not regular, as she was a poor correspondent, she wrote that she was greatly distressed in trying to comprehend what was right; that she had always been taught that only those who professed faith in the Saviour were freed from sin, yet she knew that many who made that profession were bad and untrustworthy, while many who did not were apparently good and honest people; and she asked him to tell her what was the best course to free her mind from such tormenting doubts.


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     He, knowing her inability to comprehend doctrinal matters, wrote her not to worry over "matters of faith," but to believe that Christ was the only God, and with this belief to read her Bible, and she would receive peace. Some weeks after sending this letter; he received a dispatch from Colonel Butler that his aunt was dying.
     It was late in the afternoon of the same day when Jim entered the dying woman s room. She was lying with closed eyes, apparently asleep; motioning to the nurse to leave the room, he advanced to the bedside, and as he did so the sick woman opened her eyes, and with a visible brightening said, "Jimmy, darling, I was afraid you wouldn't get here in time, and I wanted so much to see you before I die."
     "Dear aunt," replied he, stooping down and kissing her, "I came as soon as I heard you were ill. I see now that I have been ungrateful to you-forgetful for your kindness to me when a boy-in not coming to see you before."
     "No, no!" was the weak reply, "you have been my sole comfort and support for years; after what happened this place could have but little attraction for you, and I was wrong-" here the weak voice ceased and she seemed to fall into a doze, but in a few minutes she again opened her eyes and said, "Since I have believed in the LORD alone and read the Bible, I have been very peaceful and happy, and am not afraid to die. But tell me, dear, will I have to lie in the grave till the resurrection day? you are so strong and good, tell me," and she looked at him pleadingly.
     "No, aunt," he replied, taking her hand, "death will be to you like a sweet sleep; you will awake in the spiritual world peaceful, quiet, and happy with none but angels near you. You leave nothing here save your tired body; your real self arises and in time seeks its life, which if good will lead you to a land of beauty, and you will return to the springtime of youth, never again to grow old and weary."
     She had listened to what he said with eagerness, and as he concluded said, "Thank you, my boy; I feel that what you say is true. I-won't you hold my hand a little longer; I think I can sleep." She closed her eyes and passed away so peacefully that he did not know of it until she had gone; then he arose and told those in the house of his aunt's departure.
     The news spread, and soon quite a delegation of the village -ladies came with woe depicted on their faces. "Poor thing, isn't it sad?" "What a dreadful occurrence!" "It should remind us that in the midst of life we are in death." "Poor Amelia, it's a comfort to know she saved her soul years ago." One of them, turning to Jim, who sat a quiet and perhaps amused spectator, said, "This is a very sad event for you."
     "I do not think it is," replied he.
     At this all the good dames stared at him in amazement. "Why, James! how strangely you talk."
     "Not at all," was the quiet reply; "the LORD saw fit in His love and wisdom to remove my aunt from this world to the next, and it is wrong to call His will sad and dreadful."
     The ladies could not or did not answer this. They drew back from him and soon departed. In an hour it was rumored throughout the village that Jim Bronson had talked and behaved in a most heartless and unchristian manner at his poor aunt's death.
     The few days he remained attending to the funeral he spent with Colonel Butler, who was sincerely glad to see him. One evening, in answer to a question as to how he was progressing in his reading in the Writings, the Colonel said, "I'm getting old and my eyesight is failing. I do not care to read much save from the Bible; it fully satisfies my soul. Queer, isn't it, that the broken down old politician and man-of the world should come to lean solely on that which he once laughed at?" The Colonel continued, after a moment's pause: "Your aunt, whom we buried to-day, showed me your letter advising her to simply read her Bible and to look to the LORD JESUS CHRIST alone as the only God, and I took refuge as she did in that way from doubts and mental struggles. Since then my life has been very peaceful-like the fading of an autumn day, and the day will soon be over, Jim."
     It was with pleasure that Jim again resumed his duties, after an absence of five days. The old Superintendent said as he entered the office, "Glad to see you back, my boy," and he said it in a way disconnected from business too. In the evening he turned his steps toward Mr. Gerhardt's house with a feeling of. "going home." Walking up the path bordered with flowers and shrubbery leading to the house, he saw a light in the parlor and heard music. The hall door being
opened, he entered without the formality of ringing the door-bell, and was in the parlor before he was aware that its only occupant was the musician, a young lady whom he had never seen before. His intention of surprising his friends by entering unannounced being frustrated, and feeling in an awkward position, he was about to as quietly retire as he had entered, and go through the omitted ceremony of ringing the door-hell, when the young lady turned and saw him. She arose with a haughty air that said as plainly as words, "Sir, what do you mean by this intrusion?"
     Jim blushed, stammered, and then frankly said, "The fact is, I am somewhat of a familiar here-too much so, it seems," he added smiling; "and seeing the hall door open, I took the liberty of entering unannounced; I trust you will pardon me."
     With a considerable unbending of dignity she replied, "Certainly; please be seated and I will call Mr. Gerhardt. What name shall I give?"
     "Bronson."
     The last touch of hauteur vanished. "Then you are James Bronson, of whom I have heard so much from Mr. and Mrs. Gerhardt during the past few days?"
     Jim bowed assent and felt rather uncomfortable.
     She did not go to call Mr. Gerhardt, as he hoped she would, after her last remark, but instead said reflectively, "I have also heard of you through a friend-an acquaintance of mine-though that was ages ago."
     "Indeed!" replied he, growing still more uncomfortable.
     "Yes," with a languid drawl; "I used to hear Miss Wright sometimes mention you."
     "Who, Ethel?" with sudden animation.
     "Do you know her?"
     "Yes, somewhat."
     "I'm glad to have met you," said Jim, arising; "is she well?"
"How I should like to see the dear little creature again."
     "Oh! yes, she is well enough. You seem interested in that young person?"


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     Nettled at the somewhat contemptuous tone of this last remark, Jim replied rather emphatically; "I am, for she was the first one of my own faith I ever met, and boy though I was, I believe she has had a powerful influence for good on my life."
     Doubtfully-"I hope you are not mistaken, but I am very much surprised."
     "Why?"
     "Surprised to think Miss Wright could influence one so."
     Jim, severely-"I regret to hear it, and am sorry that your evident prejudice and dislike blinds you to her good qualities."
     Young lady, sweetly-"Pardon me, sir, but as you have not met her for some years, and I have, I may be the best judge."
     Jim had not viewed the case in this light before. He frowned and looked at the floor, and the young lady took the opportunity of looking at him, and her mental inventory of him was: Tall, straight as an arrow, handsome-no, yes. I don't know; looks too cross. Dressed well-dressed as a gentleman, and not as a fop.
     Jim raised his eyes from the floor, and, unconventional man that he was, exclaimed: "It matters not whether I you have seen her since I have, or not, or what your opinion of her is, I know the little girl I met in the old forest does not deserve such."
     At this moment a step was heard approaching in the hall, and with a hurried "Excuse me," the young lady hastily drew aside the curtains of a window reaching to the floor, leading out on the piazza, and made her exit. As she left the room, Mr. Gerhardt entered, and after heartily welcoming Jim said, "I thought some one was in here with you, as I heard voices."
     "There was; I took the liberty of entering unannounced, and found myself confronted by a strange young lady."
     "Yes, she is visiting us;" then, with a laugh: "And so you availed yourself of the opportunity to get acquainted without an introduction?"
     "Not exactly."
     "At any rate, you seemed to be speaking in rather an animated manner."
     Jim commenced to think that perhaps he had been hasty, even rude, and he replied, hesitatingly: "Perhaps I was. I fear-in fact, the young lady, it seems, is acquainted with Ethel, and spoke rather disparagingly of her, and I-"
     "And you, like a loyal, but oh! such an unconventional man, defended the absent one," exclaimed the young lady in question, re-entering the room; then she broke into a most merry laugh.
     "And what right have you to slander our Ethel?" said Mr. Gerhardt, with a whimsical frown.
     "Indeed, Papa Gerhardt, I'll do just as I please. I always do, you know."
     "Not in this matter-at least while Jim is present."
     The pretty face cast a defiant look at Jim, and then a light suddenly dawned upon him. "Ethel-Miss Wright-it wasn't fair."
     Mr. Gerhardt-"No, Ethel, it wasn't fair to play such pranks on my innocent guests."
     Ethel, offering Jim a white little hand, and assuming humility-"Please, Mr. Bronson, forgive me, and I'll never, never do so any more."
     Jim, taking the hand, and then being loth to let it go- "Nonsense, it was downright stupid in me not to have known you at once."
     Ethel, withdrawing her hand, and drawing her little self up with dignity-" Indeed! and am I still so much a child?"
     Jim-"No, but you are still Ethel."
     Ethel, relaxing to her bright self-"Yes, I suppose I am. It cannot be helped."
     Mr. Gerhardt, to Jim-"You have often told me how she once refused to see you again because you had never been introduced. Now I'll introduce you, and then I'll vouch for her becoming a most proper young lady."
     Jim, rather earnestly-"I'd rather you wouldn't if it's going to make-any change."
     Ethel-"Oh! fie! Fie! to think of Mr. Bronson descending to compliments."
     Jim, seriously-"Compliments? I haven't been paying compliments."
     Ethel-"Worse and worse." Then Mr. Gerhardt laughed, and Jim followed suit, not because he saw anything to laugh at, but because he somehow felt very happy.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
CYNIC 1883

CYNIC              1883

     THE King once gave a man who desired to become a husbandman ten' acres of ground in the wilderness to cultivate. The man with ardor procured his tools and repaired to his allotted field. Arrived there, he stretched himself out on his back and bewailed his fate. "What a mockery this life is," said he, "I am almost tempted to wish I had never been born. It is cruel and disheartening to think that my abilities and aspirations should be confined to a miserable little ten-acre field when the vast, illimitable Wilderness lies before me, waiting for able hands such as mine to redeem it and make it fruitful. When I consider what a narrow and contracted sphere of usefulness is assigned me a great flood of bitterness comes ever my soul." Then he arose and went forth and became a Cynic.
WAS SWEDENBORG IN ERROR? 1883

WAS SWEDENBORG IN ERROR?              1883



COMMUNICATED.
     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-Undoubtedly those who have come to know the true doctrines of the Church ought not, as a rule, to worship where false doctrines are taught. This was proved by experience in the case of Swedenborg. He said that there was not the same need for religious observances there for him as for others, because he was associated With angels. Yet the fact cannot be disputed that Swedenborg requested a Lutheran Priest to consecrate for him the elements of the Holy Supper, showing thereby that he believed the priestly office, and all that pertains to it, did not pass away from within the borders of the Old Church on the earth at the time of its last judgment in the Spiritual world, but that it can only meet its death with the death of the Elect. The uses of the Sacraments, marriage, etc., remain alive with the remains of life, because they are of life; the false doctrines, being dead, are component parts of the carcass. That Swedenborg thus interpreted his revelation is too evident for argument.
          A SWEDENBORGIAN NEW CHURCHMAN.

     [The Rev. Arvid Ferelius, in a letter to Professor Tratgard in
Greifswalde, makes the following statement: "When I asked him whether he was willing to receive the LORD'S Supper, he replied, 'With thankfulness,' and then he added that my question was very opportune; and although being a member of the other world, he did not need this Sacrament, he would still take it in order to show the close relation which exists between the Church above and the Church here below, and he then asked me whether I had read his views about the Sacrament of the Altar. I then asked whether he acknowledged himself to be a sinner. He replied, 'Certainly, as long as I carry about this sinful body.' With much devotion, folding his hands and uncovering his head, he read the confession of sins and received the Holy Sacrament." Docum. concerning Swedenborg, vol. ii, p. 558.

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The Rev. Arvid Ferelius was the Lutheran Priest" referred to by our correspondent. He does not say that Swedenborg "requested him to consecrate for him the elements," but that he asked Swedenborg whether he was willing to receive the LORD'S Supper. Swedenborg's reply does not express the reasons given in the Doctrines for the institution and reception of the Holy Supper. Our correspondent is at liberty, of course, to infer many things from the act of Swedenborg, but he certainly puts a strain on his liberty when he claims that this act "shows what Swedenborg believed" as to the priestly office, etc. How the use of a Sacrament, which is a representative rite, can "remain alive," when its internal, which is its doctrine, is dead, or how a form can be alive when its soul or essence is dead, we fail utterly to comprehend. If this is Swedenborg's "interpretation of his revelation," it must be said of it, not that "it is too evident for argument," but that it is beyond all argument. Besides, the example of Swedenborg is not an argument, nor is it a reason for our doing as he did, and the example of one act only partly explain, if explained at all, should not be adduced against the teachings of the doctrines. We are to be led and governed by what the LORD has revealed, and not by what Swedenborg did when acting as of himself like other men.- EDITORS.] -
NATURAL KNOWLEDGES IN THE WRITINGS 1883

NATURAL KNOWLEDGES IN THE WRITINGS              1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:- The Rev. S. Noble, in his articles on the Integrity of the Word, bases a strong argument on the assertion that Swedenborg's "communication with the spiritual world did not give him a knowledge of natural facts but of spiritual." Many New Churchmen of the present day, who question the authority of the Writings as to some particulars, make the same assertion. But is it true? By virtue of his inspiration would Swedenborg not see which of the knowledges he has acquired from the natural world were true and which were not? And in this sense did not the spiritual world give him a true knowledge of natural facts? But in addition to this, we have his direct testimony to the effect that he did receive a knowledge of natural facts from the spiritual world. For in T. C. R. 846, and C. L. 532, he says, "that it is at this day revealed by the LORD that the sun of our world is pure fire." In E. 12 111, we are taught how, from the spiritual world, Swedenborg learned that the moon has an atmosphere. And in A. C. 4738, he tells us that the proceedings in a certain Council on earth centuries ago "were revealed to me." This is concerning a historical but natural fact, and we adduce it against Mr. Noble's position, because in the place from which we quoted his words he denies that Swedenborg could have learned anything from the spiritual world concerning the Masorites and their work on earth. - E. S.
"MAKING THE WORD OF GOD OF NONE EFFECT." 1883

"MAKING THE WORD OF GOD OF NONE EFFECT."       E. J       1883

     "THE Word signifies all doctrine concerning charity and thence faith."- A. C. 1288.
     The Doctrines of the New Church which the LORD meant by His words quoted in our text are made of none effect in various ways, to suit self-derived or preconceived opinions of men in the Church.
     For example, some make the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning conjugial love and concerning scortatory love of none effect by claiming that this Doctrine is the spiritual Doctrine, but that the celestial Doctrine is different. According to their "celestial" Doctrines, a man must continue to live with his wife, even though she be the most depraved of women, and vice versa. See N. C. Independent for April.
     Others make the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Priesthood of none effect by saying that it was written for the Old Church ministry, and they are strenuously opposed to having it applied to the New Church, although it is the Heavenly Doctrine.
     Others, again, make the Doctrine of the New- Jerusalem concerning the Old Church of none effect by asserting that it applied to the Old Church of Swedenborg's time and that it does not apply to the "Christian" world of to-day.
     In these, and in many other similar ways, do men in the New Church "make the Word of God of none effect." E. J.
"BIBLE RIDDLE." 1883

"BIBLE RIDDLE."       FRED. L       1883

     To illustrate the idle way in which time is spent in Protestant Sunday-schools, and the want of the "Spirit that quickeneth," the love of the LORD JESUS the CHRIST, the warmth of the Divine Sun in the spiritual heaven, take the following

     "BIBLE RIDDLE."

     "A young Bible student was asked, 'How many boys are there in your class?' He replied as follows:
     "Multiply the number of Jacob's sons by the number of times which the Israelites compassed Jericho, and add to the product the number of measures of barley which Boas gave Ruth; divide this by the number of Hamam's sons; subtract the number of days Noah was in the Ark before the waters of the flood were upon the earth; and also subtract the number of Lot's family when they dwelt in a cave. Also subtract the number of days of the week in which the Israelites gathered Manna; multiply by the number of men who went to seek Elijah after he was taken to Heaven; add Joseph's age at the time he stood before Pharaoh; divide by the number of stones in David's bag when be killed Goliath; add the number of furlongs that Bethany was distant from Jerusalem; divide by the number of anchors cast out when Paul was shipwrecked; multiply by the number of wives saved in the Ark, and the product will be the answer.

     "Scholars and Teachers are requested to solve this Bible Riddle, fill out the blank below and return in the class envelope NEXT Sunday."

     It is not strange to me that those whose time is thus occupied should turn out spiritual moonlings and vacuities, or, worse still, blasphemous infidels. - FRED. L.
OPEN LETTER 1883

OPEN LETTER       EDWARD CRANCH       1883

John Ellis, M. D.:
     Your books on the Wine Question seem to fail of their point; as I would condense their argument, it is this:
     Alcohol is always a poison, never found in wholesome food or drink.
     Fermented wine contains alcohol, therefore is always bad (except as a remedy in disease).
     Wine, as the word is used in the Word and by Swedenborg, may mean unfermented wine; therefore it is probable that wherever it is spoken well of, it means unfermented wine ONLY.
     That is the gist of the whole argument, hanging on a probability, a great big "IF." (See Reply to the Academy, p. 20, 3d line from the bottom.)
     Until that probability becomes a certainty, I must consider that in A. R. 653 and elsewhere where vinum is used without qualification, and especially when compared with mustum, it means fermented wine.
     In Leviticus x, 5, 9, I think that both unfermented and fermented wine are included in the prohibition, and solely on account of the correspondences of both.
     As for alcohol being essentially a poison, medical authorities are equally divided on the question.
     EDWARD CRANCH, M. D.
ERIE, PA., May 7th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



NOTES AND REVEIWS.
     THE REV. R. R. RODGERS delivered a lecture before his society on his American tour.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     History of the Portland Society of the New Jerusalem is the title of a pamphlet of fifty-two pages by Mr. David Page Perkins.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Swedenborg Publishing Association of Philadelphia has just issued No. IV of the "New Church Popular Series," a work by the Rev. L. P. Mercer, entitled True Character of the Bible.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE first volume of a series of Sunday-school Manuals has just been published by the Massachusetts New Church Union. It forms Vol. I of the "Bible Series," and contains Bible Stories for the Youngest Classes, being prepared by Mr. F. A. Dewson and four of the teachers in the Boston Sunday-school.


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Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     MR. GILES' lectures, which he is now delivering respecting "Our Children in the Other Life," are to be published in a form similar to the pocket editions of the Writings.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     WE learn that "Mr. Beswick has just finished a work on the Great Pyramid of Gizeh in Egypt, which will be published this summer with superb illustrations explanatory of the secret meaning, design and use of its chambers and passages. It will "be published during the next two months, probably sooner."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Messenger in its able notice of Dr. Ellis's Reply; bestowal the following ambiguous commendation: "As a whole, the book is the most exhaustive presentation of the author's extreme position and the most powerful argument in its support he is capable of making." All of which is doubtless very true.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE annual meeting of the Cincinnati Society was held May 7th. The attendance was large. Mr. Goddard reported that he had officiated at fifteen baptisms, fourteen confirmations, four marriages, twenty-one funerals during the year; eighteen persons had been received into the society. Notwithstanding his duties as General Pastor, he had been able to do more work for this society than ever before.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     Words for the New Church, No. XI, contains over one hundred and twenty pages of reading matter, seventy of which are taken up by the closely printed Notes and Reviews. "The Conflict of the Ages" treats of the Greek Church, Mohammedanism, and The Revival of Learning. The Notes and Reviews consist of a short notice of the English Conference, which opens, strange to say, with an apology for its lateness. We are surprised at this, as we had hitherto regarded the Serial as a publication with a contempt for the limitations of time and space which bear so heavily on its brethren. The second article is a good humored but lengthy critique of The New Church Review. The third is a review of the first volume of the work on The Brain; the fourth in is a critique of Dr. Holcombe's book, entitled The End of the World, the numerous falsities which lurk in its pages being exposed. The "Manchester Pamphlet" is examine in a spicy article, heeded "A Stand Against the Academy." Mr. Rodgers' letter published in the New Church Magazine attacking the Academy is dismissed with a brief mention.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     Rev. DR. R. L. TAFEL'S reply to the pamphlet issued by the Manchester (Peter Street) Society has been rejoined to by two of the Peter Street speakers, Messrs. E. J. Broadfield and Jonathan Robinson, each of whom has published a pamphlet on the subject. Mr. Broadfield's pamphlet is entitled A Reply to Dr. Tafel on Freedom and Faith in the New Church, and comprises thirty-nine pages. Mr. Robinson's companion-pamphlet is of the same size and style as Mr. Broadfield's, but of forty-seven pages, and bears the title, The Word and the Writings Being a Reply to Dr. Tafel's Pamphlet on Freedom and Faith, and to Some Statements in Elms Work entitled Authority in the New Church.
     We hope that this doctrinal combat going on in England, which has produced four pamphlets, and promises still more, will have the good effect attendant on spiritual conflicts of bringing more prominently to the notice of New Churchmen generally the weighty principles involved, and of instigating a more ardent search for the truth, and a clearer, more rational, and more correct conception of the truth on both sides. This can be effected the more certainly in proportion as all personal aspersions are left out and only abstract principles discussed.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Baptist Messenger, of Pittsburgh, in its issue of April 7th, publishes a notice nearly a column in length of the Brief Exposition sent out by the Missionary Committee of the Pittsburgh Society. The Messenger states that its editor has "read much of Swedenborg" and considers that while "his mystical scheme of things is in some respects beautiful, it is too artificial to be a voice from heaven." The Messenger is not much afraid of the New Church. "Swedenborg," it says, "will never sway the World. He is too metaphysical, too dreamy, too theoretical a schemer. . . . Yet we respect the Swedenborgian and his 'New Church' far more than 'Russellites' and their 'New Church,' because the former claimed inspiration and the latter is just as dogmatic and tries to be as wise,-as elaborate in its new delineation of the 'hidden things' and seems to forget that Russell is not inspired." Unintentionally, no doubt, the Messenger mere gives a sharp rebuke to those numerous hangers-on at the outskirts of the New Church, who expect to do so much for the new truths (of which they themselves have but a faint glimmering, by concerning Swedenborg's name or by striving to mystify his Divine Office and inspiration.
     From this review we can also learn that not all the Baptists of Allegheny County are following in the footsteps of Mr. Codville.
APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 1883

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED              1883

     The Revelation Explained according to the spiritual sense, in which the secrets are revealed which were predicted therein and have been hidden hitherto. A posthumous work by Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin into the German.- J. G. Mittuachut, Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1882-3. Four volumes crown octavo.
     This new and eagerly looked for addition to the library of the German student comes to us in a beautiful dress. The paper and type are good, and the impression is excellent. The passages from the Word are printed in peculiarly beautiful type.
     As we are informed in the preface, about half of the Latin original was translated by Pfarrer Wuster. Upon his death, Professor Pfirsch engaged in the work, revised the part already translated, and translated the remainder. The high standing of Professor Pfirsch as a linguist vouches for the accuracy of the translation.
     The treatises on the Divine Love and on the Divine Wisdom are added, as usual, and to make the work complete Mr. Mittnacht has translated from the English and added the Index of words and subjects made by Tulk, and has also added an Index of Scripture passages. In this last is the only defect we find, for Mr. Mittnacht has omitted the references to those passages which are only cited and not quoted in the Writings. This we believe is false economy, for from experience we incline to Le Boys des Guay's opinion who in the preface to his General Index of Scripture passages says: "We have neglected no citation, for such a citation as at first glance might appear of too little importance to be specified might upon examination be of great value, and also because such a remark as might interest some readers but little, might be of very much interest to others."
     This work is but another testimonial of Mr. Mittnacht's zeal and devotion to the cause of the New Church. And in giving so much time and money for its publication he manifests a greater love for the spiritual progress of the Church than do our American publishers, who since 1846, when the only American edition appeared, have left the Church in America to send to England for an English translation.
     We are disappointed at not finding any indication that the German translators have co-operated with the Latin editor of the same work, since by means of such mutual help- both the Latin and the German editions would doubtless have become more perfect. In fact, there seems to be too little co-operation in the Church at large, where it might well be introduced. And while a number of American New Church scholars have been co-operating with the editor of the Latin edition of the Writings now publishing, we should like to see the scholars of the whole Church in England, Germany, and America labor together in the grand work of the publication of the Writings.
News 1883

News       Various       1883



CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     LENNOX, IOWA.-We hold German Sunday-school regularly each Sunday. The school has a corps of efficient teachers and is well attended by children and young people. Every alternate Sunday we have Divine service, the Rev. J. J. Lehnen, of Norway, Benten County, officiating.

     CHICAGO, GERMAN SOCIETY.- The young people of this Society are taking an active interest in the Church. They are still receiving instruction in Hebrew and Anatomy. The Hebrew Class meets twice a week, and its members are making good progress, and are able to read quite fluently. Since January, sociables for the little folks have been held each month.

98


At these meetings fifteen minutes are devoted to doctrinal instruction. Mr. Schliffer teaches them concerning the planets, their inhabitants, and their respective distances from the sun. Monthly sociables are also held for the adults. The first part of the evening is set apart for the study of the Doctrines.

     SAVANNAH, GA.-We have not been altogether without pastoral visits this season. The Rev. George Field stopped a little while going to and returning from Florida during the `winter and was very welcome. Lately we have had a very pleasant visit from the Rev. E. A. Beaman, and some good sermons and lectures to encouraging audiences. Mr. E. O. Hinkley was here during April to attend the meeting of the Southern New Church Missionary Society, and gave us a good sound lecture, which as a man of fine legal train he is quite able to do. It speaks well for our doctrines to have good lawyers as receivers. Prof. Parsons' influence in this Way was great, and had its effect with thinkers. Mr. Beaman left us to go into Alabama. Our scattered friends are delighted when a New Church minister makes his appearance. It is one of the conditions of happiness with many. No man of the Old Church feels such joy, for the measure of truth does not approximate. Our local society has its final lot indebtedness to meet the latter part of this month. We haven't all the money, but are hopeful that we can manage it under Providence. * * * * *
MEETING OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF NEW CHURCH MINISTERS 1883

MEETING OF THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF NEW CHURCH MINISTERS              1883

     THE General Conference met this year at Brockton, Mass., on May 27th, and continued its sessions for several days. We learn from the Messenger that two General Pastors, twenty-three Pastors, and two Students attended. As is natural, most of those present were from Massachusetts, while none of the ministers residing west of Wilmington, Del., attended, owing to the sudden change of meeting to a month earlier than at first determined.
     In the absence of the President, Rev. J. R. Hibbard, the Rev. Joseph Pettee was appointed president pro tem.
     The annual address, delivered by Rev. W. H. Hinkley, treated of "Heavenly Government."
     A letter from Dr. Hibbard was read, reviewing the history of the Conference, and suggesting that it had no longer any use to perform, and that it might be merged into a House of the Clergy of the Convention, the Convention as the representative body of the New Church in this country to consist of a House of the Clergy and a House of the Laity the latter to be made up of lay representatives. Dr. Hibbard concluded by resigning his position as President of the Conference.
     A Committee of three, who were appointed to consider this letter, recommended certain resolutions, which were adopted by the Conference. They were couched in terms appreciative of "the long and efficient labors of the Rev. Dr. Hibbard," accepted his resignation and expressed the willingness of the Conference to "lay down its life" when it becomes clear to all that it should do so.
     The Rev. S. H. Worcester, as chairman of the Class on the Text of Swedenborg, referred to the recent translation of Swedenborg's work on the Brain as a matter of congratulation, and gave an account of the republications of the Writings in Latin. This led to discussion, and to the adoption of the following resolutions:
     Resolved, That the Conference would express it's deep interest in, and high appreciation of, the work of republishing the Writings of Swedenborg in the original Latin, which work is now going on through the editorship of the Rev. S.
H. Worcester and the agency of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society.
     We venture to suggest that perhaps Dr. Worcester and the Publishing Society would be better pleased with material help than with repeated but fruitless encomiums. It seems that all the talk concerning this work has had the effect of the immense sale of five copies of the Apocalypsis Revelata, and a single contribution of $50, and a resolution of the General Convention to aid, which has not been carried out.
     Another resolution was passed by the Conference appreciative of the New Churchmen in France, who have been at work publishing Swedenborg's translation of the Word with his explanation of the spiritual sense.
     The following five papers were read during the first four days of the meeting:
     "Teaching by Public Bible-Reading," by the Rev. T. F. Wright.
     "The Sex of Plants," in vindication of Swedenborg's teachings on the subject, by the Rev. John Worcester.
     Two papers on "The Use of the Divine Appellations in Public Worship." one by the Rev. T. F. Wright, the other by the Rev. John Worcester. These papers considered whether the name "JEHOVAH" or "LORD" should be used in public worship.
     The fifth paper, "Is Baptism in the Former Church useful to the Man of the New Church?" was read by the Rev. J. A. Lamb.
     The question, "Ought New Church Ministers to Exchange with Ministers of the Old Church?" was also discussed.
     The Rev. Mr. Hayden was elected President of the Conference.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



NEWS NOTES.
     REV. P. J. FAHER preaches occasionally to the German Society in New York
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE address of the Rev. John Whitehead is now Catherine Street, B. F., Pittsburgh, Pa.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A SOCIETY has been formed four miles from Arvonia, Kansas, by the Rev. W. M. Goodner.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Bridgewater Society celebrated, May 29th, the fiftieth anniversary of its formation.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. JOSEPH S. DAVID is preaching for the New Churchmen of Bridgton and North Waterford, Me.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     MRS. CORNELIA ROHAHA FORD, wife of the Rev. Alfred E. Ford, of Florence, Italy, departed this life April 22d.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. CHAUNCEY GILES will sail for Europe July 7th. He will probably be present at the English Conference.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. L. H. TAFEL and the Rev. F. W. Tuerk will sail for Europe June 13th. Both will probably be present at the English Conference.     
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE German Missionary Union of the New Church in America will hold its eleventh annual meeting in Philadelphia at the church corner of Cherry and Claymont Streets, Friday evening, June 8th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Allentown Society has withdrawn from the General Church of Pennsylvania on account of the new rules in respect to the Priesthood. It is hoped by this action to secure the cooperation in the work of the society of a number who have not hitherto taken any active part.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. E. BOWERS is now engaged in missionary work in Canada. On Tuesday evening, May 22d, he preached at Ingersoll and baptized a child. He then visited the New Churchmen of London, and on the 29th returned to Toronto to attend the meeting of the Canada Association.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ON Sunday, June 10th, the Rev. W. H. Benade Bishop of the General Church of Pennsylvania, assisted by the Rev. W. F: Tuerk, Presiding Minister of the Canada Association, will ordain Messrs. Andrew Czerny and E. J. E. Schreck into the first degree of the Priesthood The ordinations will take place in Philadelphia at the Temple on Cherry Street, above Twentieth.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. K. SMYTH, who has been serving the Boston Highlands Society as minister for the past year, was installed permanent Pastor, May 6th, by the Rev. Joseph Petter. The Highlands Society has requested its Pastor to wear the robe of his office, and has adopted the Psalter Edition of the Book of Worship because of the full Psalter therein contained, and because in that edition the word LORD is used instead of JEHOVAH.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Commencement of the College and Theological School of the Academy of the New Church will be held in Philadelphia, Thursday evening, June 14th, at the School Rooms on Cherry Street, above Twentieth. Essays will be read by Messrs Schreck, Czerny, Price, and Parker. The degree of Bachelor of Theology will be conferred on Messrs. Czerny and Schreck, and the degree of Bachelor of Arts upon Mr. Parker. The Schools of the Academy of the New Church will re-open September 16th.
Title Unspecified 1883

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99



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
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All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
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     PHILADELPHIA, JULY, 1883.
     PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.-For twenty-five cents we will send the LIFE for six months on trial, to any address. For this purpose a cheap edition has been issued on thin white paper of half the weight of that on which the regular edition is printed. Those who receive sample copies of the cheap edition and who wish to examine the regular edition will be furnished with a sample copy of the same on application. Back numbers will NOT be furnished on such trial subscriptions. Remittances may be made in postage stamps.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     The Christian Union, of June 14th, contains quite long letter "From our own correspondent," giving an account of the "New Church General Convention."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     At the late session of the General Convention, the Ecclesiastical Committee reported that a letter had been received from the Rev. Charles Harden, stating that he could no longer be a minister of the New Church, on account of a change of views in reference to the New Church, the Second Coming of the LORD, and the relation of Swedenborg to it." The same reasons existed for his withdrawing from the New Church as formerly applied to his withdrawing from the so-called Old Church;
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE RT. REV. JOHN WILLIAM COLENSO, Bishop of Natal, died recently, after a brief illness, in his seventieth year. He is famous as the first to make known to the English-speaking public the "results of German criticism-" "results which now meet with so wide-spread a reception in the Old Church, being exemplified in the writings of such men as Swing, Smyth, and Heber, Newton. Bishop Colenso's work on the Pentateuch, published in 1862, occasioned great excitement at the time, and he was deposed from his see by the Convocation of Canterbury. This action, however, was declared void by the Privy Council on the ground of "no jurisdiction." Twenty years ago Christendom was not so far "advanced" on the road to total infidelity as it is to-day. Bishop Colenso's book called forth a number of replies, one of which was from the New Church point of view by the late Abiel Silver. One of Colenso's assistants in Natal was, we believe, Arch-Deacon Colley, a receiver of the Doctrines of the New Church.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New Church Independent for June reprints from the May number of the LIFE Dr. Holcombe's reply to our review of his book, Aphorisms of the New Life. This reply is republished as No. 13 of "Letters on Spiritual Subjects" and, strange to say; it is headed "Answer to Criticisms of the Philadelphia Academy upon the aphorisms of the New Life." Now, in the first place, there is no such institution as the "Philadelphia Academy." There is an "Academy of the New Church," it is true but, as its name indicates this is not a local body, but is composed of New Churchmen in America and Europe (see Announcement on the cover of Words for the New Church). And in the second place, the criticisms to which Dr. Holcombe's letter is a reply, are not the criticisms of the, Academy, but the criticisms of the NEW CHURCH LIFE. The Academy has a publication of its own, a serial, Words for the New Church, which is amply sufficient for its needs. And when Academy wishes to express its opinion about any book or on any other topic, it does so in its own serial, and not in the LIFE. The review of Dr. Holombe's work, the End of the World, which appeared in the last number of Words, is an "Academy review," and any reply which the author makes to it may properly be termed an "Answer to the Criticisms of the Academy of the New Church."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     By, far the most important discussion at the recent meeting of the Convention was that respecting the reprint of the Latin of the Writings. At the session in Chicago resolutions were passed that the General Convention subscribe for a sufficient number of copies of each volume of the Latin reprint to furnish a copy to each theological school and library of the Church, and to each New Church minister and student, and that the Board of Publications be requested to refund the Latin Fund with interest, and that that fund, together with the interest the Mrs. Emily S. White Fund, be devoted to the above purpose. No express provision having been made for the carrying out of these resolution, the Executive Committee decided to take no action, but again to bring the I matter before the Convention, which was done at the recent meeting. Though the amount involved was but trifling and the use of the greatest importance, the debate seems to have lasted all one afternoon and the next morning. It resulted in a resolution requesting the Board to restore the Latin Fund without interest and pay it over to the Publishing Society, to be used at its discretion for the gratuitous distribution of the Latin reprints. This discussion developed the fact that there are a number of New Churchmen who know of more "live," practical, Pressing, and important uses for a general body of the Church to perform than the publication, and thus preservation for posterity, of the Writings in the original, as they were given by the LORD. This is the more strange as some of the Latin works are even now so scarce that they cannot be had at any price! The so-called "live," practical, and pressing uses which the Convention is so ready to aid with its money and authority are to a great extent merely local uses, which command the sympathy and co-operation of only a part of the Church.


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ADAPTATION OF THE BODY TO INFLUX FROM THE SOUL 1883

ADAPTATION OF THE BODY TO INFLUX FROM THE SOUL              1883

     THERE are two grand kingdoms in the heavens, which correspond to two grand provinces in the body-that of the heart and that of the lungs.
     Influx is into each of these provinces: into that of the heart, through the will and through the pulse everywhere; into that of the lungs, through the understanding and through the pulmonary motion everywhere.
     Influx is effected by the reciprocal approach of parts to similar parts, between which there is unity of purpose and desire or use; hence each, separate system of the body is so constructed by the soul that its successive parts mutually accord and co-operate.
     In addition to this co-operative influx, there is another form, called alternate, by means of which the separate systems of the body unite by alternate action. This is effected primarily by the alternate union of will and understanding and of the heart and lungs, and secondarily, of all parts belonging to these two kingdoms.
     That influx may be permanent, the receptive body is so limited that there is action and reaction. Action is primarily from the soul; reaction is primarily in the finest substance, which receives the soul's impress and thus reacts. Each successive reagent becomes an active for its immediate successor, and thus life descends, until reflected by the circumambient skin.
     In a universal sense, the external cuticle is the common reagent, which bounds and limits all and returns the life-currents to the brains. In a particular sense, the limiting membrane of every organ, and more particularly of each integral part of every organ, is the reagent which binds its own and limits the influx.
     Let us now examine into the workings of the various parts of this human machine, that we may the better trace the wonderful currents of vital, influx from soul into body.
     The Cerebellum corresponds to the celestial heaven, and the Cerebrum to the spiritual heaven. These two organs occupy distinct places, though they are connected by fibres from the Superior Cerebellar Peduncle, which pass up intimately associated with the Corpora Quadrigemina, and probably are distributed to all parts of the Cerebrum.
     They represent the involuntary and voluntary functions of mind and body. From each descend nerve-fibres to be distributed side by side to every organ and tissue. Their respective influxes are made one by alternate conjunction. So intimate is this union that they appear to act as one. This unity is brought about by an outward submission of the Cerebellum to the animatory motion of the Cerebrum; though in mostly the former is under celestial surveillance, striving ever to carry out the demands of the voluntary, to preserve order, and to restore order after the fitful and irregular action of the will.
     By this involuntary the LORD made the man, and by it He freely offers man the blessings of life. Hence the Cerebellum never pours its spirit into the Cerebrum, except when invited by the animatory motion of the latter.
     The first union of the two brains is in the Medulla Oblongata, and from the isthmus down even to the end of the Spinal Medulla. Nerves, called cranial and spinal, forty-three pairs in all, are sent forth to do the bidding of the brains.
     By means of fibres in the posterior columns of the spine, as well as by the Par Vaga and Sympatheticus, the Cerebellum is present everywhere, and by posterior, lateral, and anterior columns, as well as by nerves from the base of the Cerebrum, the latter is present, everywhere.
     The mutual and alternate conjunctions of these various nerves present a beautiful exemplification of the nature and course of influx.
     Consistently with the law of action and reaction, external parts are made to agree with internal. In no other way can, influx proceed downward and outward to its numerous determinations. Our study, then, will embrace several features: We are to trace the tracks of inflow from soul into body, or harmonious relations of these, various tracks, and the external aids by which their purposes are effected.
     The brains, in addition to their direct action, also operate in the body below by ganglia, which are profusely scattered here and there in the course of the nerves. They collect nerves from several directions, and though these may be bound on different errands, their purposes are harmonized by being brought under the one animatory motion of the ganglion, through which they pass. These ganglia also receive myriads of impressions from the viscera, which they nullify or modify, so as to shield the brains from unnecessary disturbance.
     A most important means of co-operation of brains with body are the organs in the chest. Of these, the heart corresponds to the will, and the lungs to the understanding. Hence every volition, every thought, is at once felt in the chest, and thus are the upper two cavities, cranial and thoracic, united.
     Relatively to the Cerebrum, the lungs open the body that the nerve-fluid may flow in, hence they are the corresponding external of the Cerebrum. But relatively to the surrounding tissues in and on the chest, the lungs are internal, acting in the body in response to the power of the heart, and the surrounding structures are their externals or planes of reaction.
     Of the cranial nerves, ten pairs supply the face, mouth, and special senses. The common regulators of these nerves are the, Fifth Pair, the sensitive nerves of the face. Springing both from Cerebellum and Cerebrum, they marry the involuntary to the voluntary. They also harmonize the senses and make external parts agree and act as one with internal. Does a state of grief obtain in the soul, then the Fifth Pair communicate with the Lachrymal Glands, and tears flow; with the Facial Nerves, and the muscles assume an expression of sadness; with the Auditory and with the nerves employed in speech, and the voice is mournful, while every sound strikes the ear dolefully.
     When we are engrossed in thought, the other world must be shut out. This is effected by the Fifth Pair, which control the Third Pair, so that the latter shall contract the Internal Recti Muscles and the pupils, thus shutting out considerable of the light and turning the eyes inward and downward in a useless position. Thus are externals shaped in correspondence with internals, and as influx is always into corresponding forms, a conjunction of soul and body is effected.
     The neck unites head and body. Within its walls are nerves, vessels and tubes, making it a grand highway. The skull has its own neck, the medulla; and the chest has its, the mediastinum, through which descend vessels of all kinds to the chest and abdomen. These highways are axes, toward which motion from the circumference always tends, and in which centralization takes place before the forces are sent forth anew to work in regions below.


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     In the neck, just about the root of the tongue and in the fauces, the Fifth Pair surrender their sway to the great controllers of the body, the Par Vaga and the Sympatheticus. Henceforth, all visceral actions, save speech and voluntary breathing, are governed by the Cerebellum. Still, the sway of the Cerebrum is respected, and even unconscious movements are synchronous with conscious affection and thought, as we shall presently see.
     The Par Vaga and the Sympatheticus are married; and wherever they go hand-in-hand, the first, as the husband, corresponding to truth, or rather to wisdom, as it is cerebellar, regulates, steadies, inhibits; while the second, as the wife, corresponding to love, gives lavishly of her spirit, and would exhaust her stock but for the check of her partner.
     In order to make speech, and at times respiration, voluntary, the Par Vaga receive a pair called the Spinal Accessory Nerves, which send branches to the larynx and muscles and also externally to the Sterno-cleidomastoid and Trapezius Muscles. By this wonderful arrangement, when one desires to speak, loudly and to throw the voice to a distance, the same nerve which internally manages the larynx also externally raises and fixes the chest by means of the two muscles mentioned. So innermosts and outermosts conspire to the same end, aiding influx.
     As if to make the union still more perfect, the Sub-occipital Nerves from the cervical spine join the Accessory in the neck. Now, since the former send branches to the posterior Cervical Muscles, when we make extraordinary use of the Accessory, the Sub-occipital elevate the head and so favor the distant pitch of the voice.
     A still further conspiring of the Cervical Nerves to join head and chest externally in harmony with the Vaga, etc., interiorly, is the sending of branches to the scalp, the ear, and the face, as well as downward to the upper thoracic regions. Coming now to the chest-cavity and its walls, we find the heart and lungs co-operating with the brains.
     The will, which is the life, needs in the body a receptacle corresponding to its cerebral receptacle. This is the heart. The pulsatile influx into the will becomes the pulse of the heart and arteries, the two acting as one by correspondence, and so by co-operative conjunction. The manner of this conjunction is briefly as folk lows: The Cerebellum, one duty of which is to propel the pure blood manufactured in the Cerebral Ventricles, pushes forward also the venous blood contained in the various Intra-cranial Sinuses. These latter meet posteriorly in a depression with the rather extravagant name of Torcular Herophili. This depression is almost always situated a little to the right of the median line, a fact confirmatory of the use made of it by the Cerebellum; for the latter thus has at its disposal a large proportion of blood, which it can force into the right jugular vein and thence into the right ventricle of the heart. Thus is the heart stimulated by a volume of blood, animated by the same force which animates the nervous supply to the heart: internal and external means accord, and the pulse of the will becomes the pulse of the body, I and a corporeal influx is provided that unites brains and chest.
     In the act of respiration the whole thorax is engaged. The Vaga incite the lungs, and the muscles on and between the ribs, muscles which receive spinal nerves that are animated by the same brain-motion that affects the Vaga, elevate the ribs. At the same time the diaphragm is depressed, and the lungs expand in receiving the inflowing air.
     Now, the lungs are enwrapped in two membranes, called the pleurse, which bind and connect the outer-most constituents of the thorax to the innermost of the lungs; namely, the air-cells, for they are continued into the latter by connective tissue. By their outer layers they adhere to the ribs, sternum, intercostal muscles, and to the dorsal and intercostal nerves. By their inner layers, they spread out over the convex surface of the lungs and of the diaphragm, and join the pericardium. Therefore, the pulmonary motion, synchronous with that of the brain, is communicated 'likewise to the entire thorax, and another means of influx is effected from head into the second large cavity of the body, the chest.
     Just as within the cranium the Cerebellum and the Cerebrum act as one, so within the thorax, by alternate conjunction, heart and lungs act as one. The Cerebellum is not penetrated by the Cerebrum; neither is the heart by the lungs, though conversely the Cerebellum reaches to the very inmost of the Cerebrum, and the heart, by its vessels, the very centre of the lungs. And there, in those secret recesses, the heart weds the lungs, covenanting to send to the latter, as their animatory motion shall invite, all of the blood. Further, it agrees to contribute its pure blood, enriched by the lungs, to all parts of the body with a pulsatile power, acting alternately in every place with the animatory pulmonic motion. The lungs, on their part, extend the influx they receive from the brain to the overlying pericardium, thus contributing to the influx of nervous fluid into the cardiac nerves.
     The Diaphragm is a wonderful structure. Lying between chest and abdomen, it marks the boundary between these two great cavities. Passive by its coverings, Pleurss and Peritoneum, it is also active by means of its muscular layers. It is the equation of the work of chest and abdomen, uniting into one the numerous movements of the viscera. By its muscular contractions it acts on the abdomen and reacts on the chest, and so even on the brains, conjoining all. As it is attached peripherally to the borders of the lower ribs and to the integuments, it operates on external as well as on the internal parts, making them concur.
     It is a regulator of the action of the will. When we awake from sleep, our organs are at once brought into a semi-open state, ready to obey any behest. This arousing is effected by a partial contracting of the diaphragm which thus keeps the ribs and contiguous parts slightly raised, as it were, constantly on the alert. When the mind relaxes, as in a renewal of sleep, the diaphragm yields.
     It is by the diaphragm that the out-flowing motions from heart and lungs are harmonized; for its centre is an irregular tendinous surface, upon which are spent the heart's throbs and the lungs' animation. Here, then, is completed the marriage vows of heart and lungs, here is the double influx from brains into thorax united that it may advance, into a still lower theatre of 'life, the abdomen.
     The Stomach, closely bound by the peritoneum, and also firmly attached to the diaphragm and the oesophagus, is a sort of central wheel about which the other viscera move. This is the reason why it lies so close to the nether boundary of the chest, that it may be the first to transmit pulmonary motion. It is supplied by the Vaga and Sympatheticus; which supply heart and lungs; therefore it is interiorly governed by the same nerve currents. Externally, the abdominal integuments receive nerves from the dorsal, as well as the lumbar, spine-another means of conjunction with the thorax.
     The OEsophagus from its position "brings together and unites the lowest things and the highest, from the lips, tongue, and palate, from the lungs' motion; from the diaphragm, to the stomach as an abdominal centre, whence motions are spread through all parts below.

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Since lips and tongue, are intimately associated with facial and also with intra-cranial movements, these too are united by the oesophagus with the abdomen.
     The head, then, is internal to the chest and to the abdomen, the chest is internal to the abdomen, while, at the same time, chest and abdomen are internal to their respective environments, and so influx descends into the third great cavity of the body, the abdomen.
     Will and understanding, operating by influx in this lowest cavity, display their activities in most complex forms. The pulsatile motion from the will, expressed in the beating of the arteries, and the animatory motion of the understanding, expressed in the proper motion of the lungs, incite the abdominal viscera to expand and contract and to move in curves, which, if delineated, would puzzle a mathematician's eye to trace them: The dual life-current has reached its field of ultimates and has plunged into an intricate labyrinth seemingly unexplorable, We see how true this is when, the abdominal cavity being exposed, we attempt to systematize the doings of stomach, liver, spleen, and also of twenty, or twenty-five feet of intestine twisted into apparently inextricable folds. Had we the key to this maze of wonders we could enter and unravel its mysteries; but even from the slight information we already possess, we are filled with admiration when we contemplate the handiwork of the Divine Architect. In the management of the food by the stomach and intestines, in the purification of the blood by liver, pancreas, and spleen, in the careful, sifting of good material from bad, in the rejection of the latter and the absorption of the former, in all these, we ace the ever-watchful operation of the Divine Providence.
     But the abdominal viscera must be examined somewhat minutely if we would see their adaptation to influx from the soul. They are encased in a membrane, the peritoneum, which serves them as do the pleurae the thoracic organs. It sends trabeculae around and into the several organs, limiting them and at the same time uniting them in the common motion of the lungs. The stomach, like a central wheel, sets the other viscera in motion, acting thus as an internal to the peritoneum. From the stomach proceeds a stream of activity, flowing spirally to the first portion of the intestines, the duodenum, which latter, that it may receive and intensify the influx, is made to sweep in a spiral curve of ten inches in length from the pylorus to the convoluted jejunum. Continuing through jejunum and ileum, the motion extends to the coecum. Here exists a sort of hinge, by means of which-the motion of the small intestines is transferred in a converse direction to the large bowel, and the labor of digestion is imposed upon the powerful muscular and ligamentous structure of the colon. The intestinal contents, even thus near the rectal outlet, are to be triturated and beaten lest the smallest trifle of usable material be lost or rejected.; As in the Gorand Man, so in the individual, only evil is cast out; the mercy of the LORD, the mustard-seed of good, saves-and we read in the Word of the bowels of mercy.
     The result of digestion is the separation of food taken into two distinct classes. Of these, one is excrementitious and is eliminated; the other is nutritive, and is absorbed by appropriate organs and carried to a haven of rest called the Receptaculum Chyli. This harbor of safety is one of the most remarkable spots in the human body. It is located just where, many channels of vital activity, come to a common place of quiet-a place of abbatic peacefulness, a fitting correspondent of heavenly rest. Here, opposite the first lumbar vertebra, the brains, through the spinal marrow end;, here the ribs end, and, so respiratory motion ceases; here, Vaga and Sympatheticus meet, and many blood-vessels converge to pour their contents into the, Vena Portae, a sort of secondary cardiac chamber. Externally over this spot the abdominal muscles concentre in front, and the large trunk muscles behind.
     Into this tranquil port come the stores of stomach and intestines, and blood and serum from liver, spleen, and, other purifying viscera. The innermost mind in the cerebellum, operating through media already described, evokes from this Receptacle the essences and chyles it needs to nourish the body; it bears them upward through a slender tube until they reach the heart. But the route is one of uninterrupted peace and quiet; for the Thoracic Duct into which the Receptaculum empties, proceeds upward close to the anterior surface of the spinal column and runs through the abdomen and chest in the general axis of the body, and hence through a succession of centres of rest. As the Duct empties into the left sub-clavian vein, a few inches from the heart, it yields its gently flowing contents to the passing current of blood. Fresh spirit, descending from, the laboratories of the Cerebrum and entering the same vein through the jugular, vivifies the chyle; and thus compounded, the quickened red blood speeds on to the heart. That which was food is now blood, purified that it may be incorporated into the human organism, and the use of influx from soul into abdomen is accomplished.
     Finally, the four extremities are to be considered. Arms and legs correspond to power; hence, they are furnished with muscles, which are composed of a motor-fibre compounded of Simple Fibre, nerves, and corporeal fibre. They are an ultimate means by which Volition, directed by Intellection, is carried into effect; and the result is power. We will to grasp this or that thing, to walk here, or there, to move the limbs in correspondence with our emotions and thoughts, and immediately they obey. The influx is through the Simple Fibre first, then, into its composite nerves, then into the compounded tissue, muscle. The, motion is indeed altered in form; but as the several structures employed are co-associated by co-operative conjunction, they act as one, and the final act is the outward expression of the interior will and thought. This is the reason that the arms represent power: they are composed of muscles, tendons, and bones, which are the ultimates of the changes of state and of form in the brains.
     But the cerebellar influence, though mainly, spent in nourishing the body and in controlling the several viacera, isn't wanting in the functions of the extremities. Trusty servant of the Cerebrum, it takes charge even of voluntary functions when thought is occupied elsewhere. We will to walk, and the legs obey; but we may continue our perambulation indefinitely without any farther voluntary effort, the Cerebellum, through the posterior columns of the spine, is watching for us. We learn to play the piano, we acquire certain movements of features and attitudes of body; but when once made our own, these act;, as it were, automatically; they have come under the sway of the involuntarily acting Cerebellum. It is more than a poetic figure to state that angels guide our sleep-walking or that they protect the venturesome child in its early tottering steps. What physiologists coldly attribute to automatism, to mere reflex-action, Swedenborg attributes to celestial angels, who, guided by the LORD, operate upon man through the Cerebellum.
     Happy will be the day when the New Church shall possess the earth and when man, obeying the silent influx of celestial angels, shall perceive this influx as wisdom in his understanding, and shall permit the union of involuntary with voluntary from his inmost thoughts and volitions to the ultimate steps he takes as he walks in the way, of the LORD.

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His face, no longer masked, will shine with the light of truth and will be ruddy with the glow, of love-the window of his soul. His body will be adapted to the influx of his soul, and his earth will be a paradise of Eden.
COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS 1883

COMMUNICATION WITH ANGELS AND SPIRITS              1883

VII.
     CASES IN THE NEW CHURCH.

     THE first authentic account of open communication with spirits in the New Church is to be found in the Diary of James Johnston, recently published in this country. He claimed to be a reader and believer in the Writings of the New Church as revealed through Swedenborg, and he frequently refers to them. Johnston claims that he had communications with angels, that he was present at their meetings and saw and conversed with them as one man converses with another in the worlds. He thought that he had a most important mission to perform, an in this work he was called upon to, represent the state of the Church by doing many silly and ridiculous things, such as wearing bloody shirts, outlandish clothes, walking to certain places, and other trifling things, which the spirits persuaded him were of the utmost importance to the well-being of the Church.
     Johnston evidently accepted the Doctrines of the Church as taught in the Writings as far as he understood them, but being a poor laboring man with little time for reading, and not having access to such works as, the Spiritual Diary, which were not yet published, he was ignorant of many points of doctrine, and not knowing Swedenborg's teachings concerning them, he formed ideas of his own, and the so-called angels confirmed him in these ideas, which things were false and contrary to the Writings. His case, like many others, is a confirmation of the doctrine that spirits speak with man from the things of his own memory, that they lead him by means of them, and when he requires more particulars they are ingenious enough to invent fictitious things and lies to lead him and gain still further control over him.
     He teaches that the body of the LORD which was crucified was composed of nothing of this world, but was Truth Divine (p. 14), and the "angels" agree with him. On the other hand, we are taught in the Writings that "The LORD in the sepulchre thus by death rejected all the human from the mother and dissipated it, from which he underwent temptations and the passion, of the cross." (De Domius, p. 42.) "Thus we find that Johnston was in error. He also errs in his idea of the LORD'S Second Coming, its nature, how and when it was effected, the "angels" still agreeing with him in his errors. He dates the LORD'S Second Advent December 21st, 1828. He was the chief instrument on earth by which it was effected. He says that no one before him was fitted to be an instrument to effect the Second Advent. In these things he is in direct opposition to the Writings.
     He is also in error in regard to the nature of the illumination of Swedenborg and of the work done by him in making known the Divine Truth to men. He says that the reason why others have not the same gift as Swedenborg is that they do not live the proper life (p. 366).
     He evidently thought that Swedenborg's state was one of simple communication with spirits like his own, whereas Swedenborg himself says the, revelations given through him "excel all revelations which have been hitherto made from the creation of the world." (Ins. N. C. 44); and again what he received was not from any spirit or angel, but from the LORD alone.
     Johnston and the spirits also attempt the role of prophets, but none of their predictions were fulfilled. They also tried to tell what was going on in other parts of the earth. For instance, during the war between Russia and Poland, the "angels" claimed that they went to the seat of war and aided the Poles, and by their help the Poles were victorious and gained their freedom; but the facts of the case were that the Russians were victorious and the Poles were subdued. The "angels" at length explained matters by saying that the Poles were spiritually free, although naturally they were slaves.
     They claimed to see and know what was being done on earth in various places without the aid of mediums, who were in communication with them; whereas the Doctrines teach that an gels and spirits know nothing of what is being done in the natural world except by the aid of men who are in open communication with them.
     The so-called angels who were with Johnston were not angels but lying spirits, who pretended to be certain persons when they were not. For instance, they personated the first man and his wife, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, and many others, who all claimed to be angels in high station in heaven, but from facts made known through Swedenborg, we know that there were no such persons as Adam and Noah, also that most of these prominent characters of the Old Testament, such as those mentioned by Johnston, were wicked and adulterous men who are now in hell. Johnston had evidently conceived a great reverence for these ancient patriarchs, and the spirits, knowing that they could gain a more complete control of him by pretending to be those persons, did so, and everything that they said he accepted as truth.
     The case of Johnston shows that he was deceived and misled by deceitful spirits. He sought communication with them, and thus, acting in violation of the Doctrines, he went outside of the protecting sphere of the Divine Truth and fell into the snares of the evil spirits. His communications were received between the years 1817 and 1840; thus they were long before the subject of modern Spiritism attracted public attention.
     Another case of communication with spirits in the New Church is spoken of about the year 1845. One prominent in New Church circles sought and obtained communications with spirits and claimed to have his senses opened into the other world. The facts in regard to this case, so far as we are aware, have not been published, and have been kept private so that we cannot obtain accurate knowledge concerning the particulars of these things. How far these openings, deliberately sought and obtained by those who had a knowledge of the other world from the Writings, may have had the effect of promoting the disorderly manifestations and communications of modern Spiritism, is a problem which 'we cannot now solve, but they no doubt were important factors in the great movement and openings which have since taken place.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE selection of officer at the late meeting of the Convention resulted in the re-election of Mr. Giles as President by a vote of seventy-one to twelve, there being, no opposing candidate; of Mr. Plantz as Vice-president by a vote of forty-five to forty for all other candidates; of Messrs. Hinkley and Seward as Secretaries;, and in the election of Mr. Dewson as Treasurer in place of Mr. Jewett.


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GENERAL CONVENTION: 1883

GENERAL CONVENTION:              1883

     THE session of the General Convention recently held in Boston seems to have been very pleasant and harmonious. The social sphere must have been exceedingly enjoyable, as those who have experienced the hospitality of the Boston Society can well believe. Like all the previous meetings of the Convention in Boston, this was a very large gathering, although 'considerably smaller than that held in the same city in 1877. This Convention numbered one hundred and forty-three delegates and ministers; still, it was very far from being a "fairly representative body." Of the one hundred and forty-three present, ninety (a large majority) were from the single Association of Massachusetts, and one hundred and twenty from New York and New England, leaving but twenty-three to be divided among the other parts of the Church.
     A comparison between the attendance at the session in Chicago last year and that in Boston this year will explain why the General Convention accomplishes so little and why it has no settled policy. The representation from Canada was reduced from five at Chicago to one at Boston; Illinois, thirty-one to, five; Ohio, twenty to eight; Pennsylvania, eleven to one. On the other hand, the representation from Massachusetts was increased from fourteen at Chicago to ninety at Boston; New York, from seven to nineteen; Maine, from none at all to ten. The Convention in the East and the Convention in the West are always very different bodies. But this year the Convention was made more sectional than usual on account of the inconvenient time of meeting.
JAMES BRONSON 1883

JAMES BRONSON              1883

IX.

     IT is almost superfluous to state that on renewing his acquaintance with Ethel, Jim at once "fell in love," which, fortunately for themselves, young men are apt to do; it neutralizes, if even for a short period, many of their bad traits, and as a class they are not altogether lacking in the latter qualities.
     In reality, he had been in love with her ever since their first meeting without being conscious of it, and her presence only was needed to develop that love. The lacking element, i. e., her presence, now entering in his life, he forthwith became the happiest man in the city, or thought, quite properly, he was; this state wai9f course at times varied by his becoming the most miserable of mortals. As all married people who may read this have passed through this state, and marriageable ones are probably experiencing it, and the coming generation will experience it soon enough, it is needless to write of Jim's joys and sorrows at this period. About two weeks after Ethel's arrival, he was one day hastily sent "up the road" on business, was absent a week, and on his return found that she had gone home;
     Then it came about, on a day when his chief in office was reading to him an important order from headquarters, that the chief paused, and looking at him said, "You know what that means?"
     Jim gave a start, looking confused, and then frankly said: "Pardon me, but in truth I have not heard a word you were reading."
     As this may seem like a rather irrational state for him to be in, a word in explanation: A few days previous to his sudden departure "up the road," a friend of Ethel, a man about his own age, had appeared and devoted much of his time to her, and she, after the manner of women (innocently, no doubt), had managed to make Jim exceedingly miserable, without apparently altering her bearing toward him in the least.
     When he made his frank avowal, the Superintendent looked at him keenly and said: "Jim, "what ails you I lately? Are you in money trouble?"
     "Not in the least."
     "Have you got into any kind of a scrape?"
     "No, sir," was the reply, though spoken in slightly doubting tone.
     "Then you must be in love," was the positive assertion. "I remember now seeing you several times lately with an exceedingly winning and pretty young girl, and I do not remember ever having seen you with a lady before. If I am right, take my advice and get married."
     This was rather peculiar conversation to occur in a railroad office between superior and subordinate, but they were alone and their relations toward each other were peculiar. The Superintendent was unmarried and alone in the world, seeming to care for naught aside from his duties. From their first interview he had taken a strong liking for Jim, and this liking had gradually grown beneath a grim exterior to be almost a fatherly love.
     "You are right; but suppose I cannot?" was Jim's reply to the last remark.
     "Then I pity you-I pity you, indeed; but, boy, boy, do not let any fancied slight or obstacle come between you and the woman you love."
     "Nothing fancied shall," was the quiet reply.
     "I am glad to have you say so," replied the Superintendent. "I once knew a man who, like you, loved a fair young creature; he, in his miserable pride, allowed an imaginary slight-a trifle, to separate them; they met but once afterward-she was dying then."
     Here the speaker stopped, and made a search among the papers on his desk, evidently to overcome the tremor in his voice. "She had been true and faithful to him through all his foolishness. The abject remorse and tortures that man suffered then and afterward were such as I hope few men ever undergo. That man is living today, very prosperous, but very lonely."
     Jim watched the speaker, busied with his papers, and saw through the thin disguise and knew he was telling his own story. "That man," he continued, "isn't a Spiritualist, and yet he tells me that it has happened, when in almost utter desolation; a feeling that the lost one was present has come over him. Of course, it was but imagination."
     "It may have been or it may not have been," replied Jim.
     "You New Church people, I hear, have a belief that you will meet those-that in a case like that of the man we have been talking about, if they really loved they will meet never to part again?" There was an anxious tone in the voice of the questioner.
     "We not only believe it, we know it," replied Jim, in his usual positive way.
     The Superintendent made no reply to this, but said, "You have never had a holiday since you have been employed in this Company, though entitled to one. If you wish, I will grant you a month's leave of absence."
     "Thank you; will take it."
     Then the Superintendent, in his usual official tone, resumed the reading of the paper that Jim's absence of mind had interrupted; this time he followed its meaning easily, for he had a holiday before him and knew how to dispose of it.
     On the morning of the first day of Jim's leave of absence, Mr. Gerhardt gave him a letter and said, "This will introduce you to a friend of mine."

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He put the letter in his pocket without reading the address. Late the afternoon of the same day he arrived at his destination, went to a hotel and in the evening called at the residence of Mr. Wright. In response to his inquiry, the servant informed him that Mr. and Mrs. Wright were not at home, and "Miss Ethel is out spending the evening." Very much disappointed, he turned away and wondered what he should do to pass the time that evening alone as he was in a strange city. While considering the matter he remembered the letter Mr. Gerhardt, had given him, and taking it from his pocket read the address, "John Worthington, Esq.," with street and number. "I've heard the Gerhardts speak of him as being a sound New Churchman; I may as well call, thought Jim.
     He easily found the house, and in response to his ring he heard a pattering of tiny feet, and the door was opened by a pretty little child. She had evidently run to get ahead of the servant, who paused some distance from the door. The little one, seeing a stranger, at first drew back and partly closed the door, then, taking a keen look "at Jim's face, she opened it again.
     "Does Mr. Worthington live here?" asked he, very politely lifting his hat to the little one.
     "Yes, he lives here; he is my papa. Please to walk in."
     He followed his little guide into the parlor and then said, "Will you give this letter to your father?"
     She took it and ran off as fast as her feet would carry her and presently returned at the same gait and said, eagerly, "Papa says he will be here in a minute; and you are Jim; that is"-correcting herself-"Mr. Bronson. I'm so glad to meet you. I'm Alice," she added by way of introduction, and then put both her hands in Jim's.
     "Alice, I am delighted to meet you," replied he, "but how did you know me?"
     "I heard papa read the letter, and then I knew you were Jim. I've often heard mamma and papa and Ethel and all of them talk about you," replied she, and then' she said, "Ethel is here."
     While she was talking a gentleman had entered the room, and now said, "Mr. Bronson, this is an unexpected pleasure. As that little chatterer there says, we have often talked about you and wished to meet you; now that one's wishes are fulfilled, allow me to extend to you a hearty welcome."
     The greeting of both father and daughter caused Jim to feel at home at once. After a few minutes the former said, "Let us go to the informal sitting-room, where my wife is."
     "Yes, do," chimed in the little one. "Come, James, I'll show you the way." She took his hand and led him toward the door.
     "It strikes me, Miss Worthington," said her father, following "that you are getting acquainted fast."
     "But papa, I like Jim and so does everybody, I think." She said everybody, but had evidently intended at first to be more definite.
     "I hope so," replied he, laughing, "though it is more than I deserve."
     As the three entered the room, a handsome lady arose and Mr. Worthington said, "Alice, this is our friend, Mr. Bronson, or Jim, as Miss Worthington already calls him. Mr. Bronson, allow me to introduce you to my wife," and Jim thought he could detect a tone of pride in his host's voice.
     After welcoming him, Mrs. Worthington said, turning to Ethel, who had arisen as they entered, "I suppose an introduction to Ethel is unnecessary?"
     "Yes," he answered." In this instance the formality can be dispensed with."
     Ethel laughed as she replied, "We seem destined never to be introduced formally to each other."
     "You poor, slighted creature," said Mr. Worthington, a commiserating tone, "let me hasten to give you your rights."
     "Foreign intervention is not desired," replied she, saucily.
     "But, Ethel," he answered, "sometimes such intervention is a good thing, and you know I'm an excellent foreigner, thoroughly trustworthy."
     "Are you?" in a surprised tone.
     "Are you?" he answered, in the same tone. "Ungrateful creature! Young people have changed since our young days, haven't they, Alice," turning to his wife. "They, at least, would have thanked one who offered to give them their rights."
     "Sit down, John, and let Ethel alone," was her reply. "Yes, my lady," said he, seating himself beside his wife. "You see, Bronson, to what a state of prosy obedience a once bold and free man is brought. And yet there is talk in the world of woman's rights!" glancing at Ethel.
     "Yes, I see," replied Jim.
     "John Worthington," said Ethel, "for a man who is as much in love with his wife as you are, the manner in which you sometimes talk is really ridiculous."
     "She means philosophical," murmured he.
     Turning to Jim, she continued, "What do you think this man once did when he was 'bold and free,' as he says?"
     "What was it?"
     "Why, in Europe, before he was married, he suddenly became very poor-had not enough money to pay his way home, and Alice, the dear girl, gave him a little to help him, and--"
     "That was kind of her," said Jim, with an implied doubt as to John's part in the transaction.
     Ethel, impulsively kissing Alice-"She is the dearest and best person that ever lived. Well, he took the money, an din place of spending it, like a sensible man, he hoarded it away in the most romantic manner, simply because it was something she had given him; the funny part of it is, that he has the same' money yet hid away in one of those iron chests men use, I expect."
     "Fire-proof," said John. "Speak correctly, Ethel, do not say iron chests, but fire-proof."
     "I don't care what their names are," said she. "Anyway, he is as romantic as a young girl "
     "More so," interrupted John, placidly, "young girls are eminently practical."
     "And yet to hear him talk sometimes one would think he was-was-I don't know what"-this impatiently
     "My child," replied John, in an argumentative manner, "you are young, and being a woman, you therefore lack the capacity to fathom the minds of men."
     Ethel, loftily-"Fathom! the idea."
     Unheeding her, "Allow me to enlighten you. You see, I am a deep man-"
     "Now I am astonished."
     "And that little money transaction with this fair little lady,"; lightly touching Alice, "was the deepest and shrewdest bit of business I ever did, when taken in connection with certain matters going before and needless now to state; for by accepting the money I formed a tie between us, and when I offered to return it-how was it, Alice?"
     "I think you can tell the story," replied she.


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     "Let me see; there was something said about me remaining custodian of the money and of its owner also; anyhow, that was the way the matter was arranged. So you see, Ethel, instead of my part in that affair being romantic it was deeply practical; for had I said"-this in a tragical voice-"'No! I am not a beggar!' to her generous and impulsive offer, it might have resulted in my retaining my freedom, which, to be candid," concluded he, dryly, "would have been extremely unsatisfactory to me."
     "So I should imagine," replied Jim.
     "You see, Mr. Bronson-or Jim, I'll call you Jim; if-"
     "Thanks, I hope you will."
     "Well, then, Jim, by way of apology for all this talk about myself and wife, I would state that Ethel here is such a lackadaisical young lady-"
     Ethel, indignantly-"I am not."
     "That I feel it my duty to at times arouse her. But, Ethel, let us make peace and talk of something more entertaining to our guest than of my old love affairs."
     Jim passed a most delightful evening, and it was late when Ethel started up, after looking at her watch, and exclaimed: "I declare, I forgot how late it was. I ought to have been home an hour ago."
     When she was ready to depart, Jim said, "May I have the pleasure of seeing you home?"
     "Certainly."
     "And I," said John, "shall take paternal delight in seeing you both safely through the danger. I want to go to the hotel with you," he said to Jim, "and get your luggage and bring it here, for you are to make my house your home during your visit."
     "I cannot think of-" began Jim.
     "Yes, you can; you may as well be guided by my experience and yield at once, for this autocrat," indicating his wife, "has issued the mandate, and there is nothing else to do."
     "I accept, and thank you both," replied Jim:
     After his' return, and when Jim had retired, Mr. Worthington said to his wife: "He is a capital young I fellow; there is a straight-to-the-point style about him I like. What a fine thing it would be if he and Ethel were to form an attachment. And do you know," continued this obtuse man, "it struck me once or twice during this evening that he did care for her-I mean, care in a way different from mere friendship and that."
     Alice laughed as she replied-"What a deep and discerning man you are to have seen that!"
     He looked a little doubtful as he replied, "You mean?"
     "That he is as much in love with Ethel as somebody else once professed to be with somebody else, and has come here solely on her account."
     "What a wise little woman," said he, admiringly, "to have discovered all that. It is a good idea having him here, for I can aid him in many ways, you know."
     Alice, with an amused look in her bright eyes, replied, "I think your best plan will be to do nothing."
     "Yes, precisely," was the dutiful reply.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
AFFIRMATIVE AND NEGATIVE 1883

AFFIRMATIVE AND NEGATIVE              1883

     AN open book lay in the field. The Bee saw it, stopped his work, and flew over to where it lay to examine it. He contemplated the open pages closely and curiously, and then exclaimed: "So this is a book: one of those marvelous creations in which it is said knowledge can be stored up just as I store honey in the comb, only the honey in the comb can be exhausted, while it is said that no matter how many draw knowledge from a book the supply still remains the same. Wonderful! Wonderful! He again closely scanned the pages, and while so doing the Fly alighted on the open page, hastily ran over it, and said: "Hello! A book: what is it doing out here?"
     The Bee, absorbed in his study, said, "Isn't it wonderful to think that knowledge is contained in those black-looking lines."
     The Fly first rubbed his fore-feet together, then complacently smoothed down his wings with his hind legs, after the manner of his race, and replied: "How unsophisticated you are to believe such tales."
     "Tales?" queried the Bee.
     "Yes," replied the Fly, "mere superstition. I've carefully examined hundreds of books in houses, and there was nothing to be found in any of them save those meaningless black lines: therefore, my dear fellow, you see I'm perfectly competent to give an opinion on the subject." So saying he flew away.
     And the Bee said: "Now what a fool that Fly is: because his little pate cannot grasp the great mystery of books, he asserts the mystery does not exist."
REPRINTS 1883

REPRINTS              1883

     FACT.

     MILTON wrote, "Hail! Horrors, hail!" The French translator made it, "Comment vous portez-vouz, Messieurs lea Horreurs, Comment vous portes vouz."
     This the free American translator renders, "How d'e' do, Horrors, how d'e do"

FICTION.

     First Frenchman.-"My brethren, amid the many duties we see opening before us there is none of so great importance as the one of reprinting the works of our great poet in the original. These works are the very basis and foundation of our Miltonian Society, and surely our first duty is to keep them pure-to reserve them in the original tongue. Our English scholars tell us that our translations are defective, that one, to appreciate the beauties of Milton, must read him in the original; that until we can read in the original we are more or less in the dark. Yet in view of this fact-of this vital fact-there are those in our Society who, while the do not avowedly oppose this reprint, still really do so by claiming that the spreading of the translations is of more importance than preserving the original in its purity."
     Second Frenchman.-"I think my respected brother takes a wrong view of the case. I speak as a practical man. We, have not enough money to perform one- third of the uses we wish to, and I appeal to your common sense, brethren, which is the greater use, reprinting with our limited means a few musty old English manuscripts in their original tongue which few of us can read, or bending all our energies and means to give France, the magnificent poetry of Milton as we have it in our extant translations? Our friends on the opposing side speak darkly of errors and such bug-a-boos and horrors. Why cannot they recall the words of our great poet. Did he fear such things? No; for he says in lines never equaled for keen satire, in words showing the contempt of his great mind for such trivial bug-bears, "How d'e do, horrors, how d'e do." (Great applause.)


     THE Theological School; College and Boys School under the control of the Academy of the New Church, will reopen in Philadelphia, Wednesday, September 19th.


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IS BAPTISM IN THE FORMER CHURCH USEFUL TO THE MAN OF THE NEW CHURCH? 1883

IS BAPTISM IN THE FORMER CHURCH USEFUL TO THE MAN OF THE NEW CHURCH?       J. A. LAMB       1883


COMMUNICATED.
     As SOME of our eminent teachers differ concerning the use of Baptism in the former Church, we submit the following:
     "'Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away,' signifies that the internals and externals of the former Church should perish, but that the Word of the LORD should abide."- A. C. 4231.

     As the LORD rejects both the internals and externals of the former Church, He rejects the Sacraments of that Church, and a Baptism into it on earth is insertion among similar Christians in the world of spirits. Concerning their state, the LORD teaches that, "They who are of the Old Church and thereby removed from heaven, are in a sort of inundation as to their interiors, and indeed over the head; this inundation is not perceived by the man himself whilst he lives in the body, but he comes into it after death; it appears manifestly in the other life like a cloudy mist, with which they are enveloped and thereby separated from heaven. Such is the quality and character of almost all those within the vastated Church; for they have externals but no internals; hence the inundation of their interiors spoken of above;"- A. C. 4423-4.
     In the light of the above statement, how is it possible that Baptism can have any saving quality in the former Church? For we are taught that "Baptism is an external thing, which, without an internal principle, contributes nothing to salvation, but it does contribute where the internal is conjoined with the external."- A. E. 475. In the vastated Church, as we have seen, the internal principles which give value to Baptism are wanting. How little we are willing to accept as truth from the LORD what He has revealed to us concerning the lamentable state of the vastated Church!
     "That the LORD when He spoke with the disciples concerning the consummation of the age, and concerning His own Advent, that is, concerning the end of the present Church and the beginning of the New Church, predicted these things, viz.: that there should be great affliction, such as was not from the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be, Matt. xxiv, 21, that there should be the abomination foretold by the prophet Daniel, and that, after the affliction of those days, the sun should be darkened and the moon should not give her light, and that the powers of the heavens should be shaken.-Matt. xxiv, 15-29.
     "That there is such an affliction and desolation in the Church is utterly unknown and unseen in the world, because it is everywhere said [by those in the Church] that they are in the very light of the gospel, so that if an angel were to descend from heaven and, teach anything else he would not be believed. That this is said by the Roman Catholic Church, by the Greek Church, and by each of the three Reformed Churches distinguished by the name of their leaders, Luther, Melanchthon, and Calvin, and in like manner by each of the heretical Churches, which are manifold. But this predicted affliction and desolation is very palpable in the spiritual world, since all men after death come into that world and remain in the religion in which they were in the natural world; and the light there is spiritual light, which detects everything."- Canons, p. 52.
     Since, as has been shown, all men after death come into the spiritual world and remain in the religion in which they were in the natural world, it follows that the statement in. T. C. R. 680, viz.: "For in that world every one is inserted into societies and congregations according to the, quality of Christianity either within him or without him," can have but one meaning. And this meaning makes it certain that a Baptism in the Catholic Church is an introduction into that Church in the natural world and at the same time an insertion among Catholic spirits in the spiritual world. The same principle applies to every other Church. The quality of a Baptism is therefore immutably fixed by the quality of the religious organization in which it occurs. Hence Baptism in the former Church is Old Church Baptism, and in the New it is New Church Baptism."
     As we may see, these two Baptisms have nothing in common, but are diametrically opposite in their quality, uses, and effects. For while the new conjoins with heaven, the old separates from heaven. Indeed, the religious faith of the former Church is so damaging to the souls of men, that unless the LORD should raise up a New Church which shall abolish the faith in three Gods and teach a faith in one God no flesh could be saved.
     "The morning cometh, and the night signifies that while those have illumination who are of the New Church, yet that it is still night to those who are of the Old Church."- A. C. 10,134.
     Baptism in the vastated Church is therefore an introduction into an organization in the natural world and at the same time an insertion among a class of spirits in the spiritual world whose religious faith is a faith of night; but Baptism in the New Church is an introduction into a body in the natural world, and at the same time an insertion among a class of spirits in the spiritual world whose religious faith is a faith of day.
     To the above we may add, that as "The coming of the LORD denotes acknowledgment of Divine Truth by those who are of the New Church and denial by those who are of the Old Church" (A. C. 10,134), therefore Baptism in the New Church is introduction into a religious body which is in a state of affirmation concerning the LORD'S New Advent, while a Baptism in the Old Church is an introduction into a religious body which is in a state of denial concerning that great event.
     But it is claimed the word Church is used in such a sense as practically to obliterate the distinction between Old and New in regard to Baptism. But surely they who have slain the two witnesses which are the very essentials of a Church; and confirmed themselves in two things diametrically opposite to them, viz., "that it is not the LORD but God the Father who should be am preached, and that a life according to the precepts of the Decalogue is not saving," see A. R. 500, cannot constitute the Church meant in the instruction of the Heavenly Doctrines concerning Baptism. This instruction must be intended solely for those who are to be of the LORD'S New Church. This view is very clearly confirmed in T. C. R. 669, where it is said: "The two Sacraments may be compared to a double temple, one of which is below and the other, above. In the lower the gospel of the LORD'S New Advent is preached, and also regeneration and consequent salvation by Him."
     But where in the whole Christian World is there a Church that preaches the gospel of the LORD'S New Advent? Nowhere, we answer, outside the organizations of the New Church.
     But that the instruction of the LORD in His New Advent concerning Baptism is designed solely for those who are to be of His New Church is further confirmed in T. C. R. 668, where it is said that there is something Divine in the institution of Baptism which has heretofore lain hid, because the spiritual sense of the Word was never before revealed.

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"That sense, however, is revealed at this day, because the Christian Church, such as it is in itself or its true nature, is now commencing, the former Church being Christian in name only, but not in essence and reality." In view of this clear statement, how can any one be in doubt about the true meaning of the word "Church" in H. D. 202 and 203?
     Baptism is a holy solemnity of worship containing in one complex all the interior things of the Church. In the New Church it is more than a "ceremony of initiation into an outward organization." It is an acknowledgment of the LORD in His New Advent. It is introduction into the Christian Church, the former Church being Christian only in name. It is a Sacrament of the LORD'S appointment, and has in it the power and virtue of the Divine Omnipotence. It is an act in which the LORD writes upon a person who overcomes opposing forces "His new name, and the name of His Holy City, New Jerusalem," both as to internals and externals (see Rev. iii, 12), and he thereby becomes a pillar in the temple of God to go no more out forever.
     All power is in ultimates, and in the Church nothing is so ultimate as her Sacrament of Baptism. This is her gate. And as in a well-fenced field, if its gate be taken away the fence would be rendered useless and the field obliterated by an abandonment of its gate, so would the New Church be destroyed as an external body by the neglect of that new and distinct Baptism which is her birthright.
     Surely, he who loves the New Church, and enters it through the gate of the LORD'S appointment, will be led of the LORD and find a blessing for his soul. But he who would enter it by a Baptism, which, as we have shown, is of an opposite quality, robs his soul of a blessing and inflicts a wound upon the New Church by bringing into it the subtle infestations of a class of spirits who are at war with the New Jerusalem.
MYSTIC, CONN.      J. A. LAMB.
CANADA ASSOCIATION 1883

CANADA ASSOCIATION       E. D. DANIELS       1883



CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     THE Canada Association of the New Jerusalem held its twentieth annual session at the Temple of the Toronto Society from May 31st to June 3d inclusive.
     The Association was called to order by the President, the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, of Berlin, the Rev. E. D. Daniels chosen Secretary pro tem, a Committee on Credentials appointed, and the meeting duly constituted.
     The President read his report as Pastor of the Berlin and Wellesley Societies, showing a large amount of work done, and those Societies in prosperous condition; also his report as Delegate to the General Convention at Chicago, which was interesting and instructive. The Secretary of the Toronto Society submitted his report, showing occasion for encouragement. An interesting letter and a report were also read from the Rev. E. Gould, Pastor of the Montreal Society, who was prevented from being present on account of the meeting of the General Convention being called at the same time with that of the Canada Association. The Strathroy Society reported that they still keep up their organization, but the only meetings held are those of the Executive Committee.
     The Rev. J. J. Lehnen was invited to take part in the discussions of the Association.
     A committee was appointed to revise the list of isolated receivers, which Committee have performed the work assigned them.
     The report of the Mission Fund was not very encouraging, but it was decided to continue, and, make more thorough trial of the plan of local mission boards now in operation.
     The President read a communication which he had received from the Toronto Society requesting the ordination of their Pastor, who had preached to them for over nine months, and it was voted that the request be granted. An important addition was made to the fundamental doctrines of the Association by the incorporation of certain passages from the True Christian Religion concerning love to the neighbor.
     The election of officers resulted as follows:
President, . . . Rev. F. W. Tuerk, Berlin.     
Recording Secretary,. . . R. Carswell, Toronto.
Corresponding " . . . Rev. E. D. Daniels, Toronto.
Treasurer,. . . Theo. Bellinger, Waterloo.
Executive Committee
E. Simkins, Toronto.
W. S. Robinson, Toronto.
R. Roschman, Berlin.
Jacob G. Stroh, Waterloo.
J. D. Ronald, Brussels.
Henry Doering, Milverton.

     The Treasurer, William Hendry, of Berlin, and the Recording Secretary, T. M. Martin, of Toronto, both sent. in their resignations, and declined renomination on account of ill-health. They had served for many years, and resolutions were passed appreciative of the uses which they had performed.
     By request, the Rev. J. E. Bowers gave a general report of his missionary work in Canada and the States, and he was authorized to continue his missionary labors in Canada as he had been doing.
     Resolutions of thanks were passed to the Toronto Society and friends for their entertainment, for the use of their Temple, and for the assistance which they had rendered the Association in performing its uses; also to the Secretary pro tern, for his services. The Toronto Society was authorized to carry on a course or courses of lectures in different parts of the city, and an appropriation was voted from the Mission Fund to defray the expenses of so doing.
     On Friday evening a social meeting was held at the house of the Pastor of the Toronto Society, attended a large number of persons. Refreshments were served and the evening was given wholly to social enjoyment. On Sunday morning the Pastor of the Toronto Society preached a sermon before the Association and a large congregation on "The LORD and His Redemption from 1 Sam. xvii, 34, 35, after which he was inducted into the first and second degrees of the Priesthood by the President, the Rev. Messrs. J. E.. Bowers and J. J. Lehnen being in attendance. On Sunday afternoon the President baptized the wife and two children of the Toronto Pastor, and, assisted by the ministers present, administered the Holy Supper to about seventy-five communicants. In the evening the President delivered his annual address to the Association. This was on the subject of order, and was composed almost wholly of quotations from the Writings, which were given not as the opinions of a man but as the truth of the LORD. The address was timely and well received. The members of the Association begin another year's work with the determination to perform their uses more faithfully, and they pray for, the best welfare and safe return of their President from his European tour.
     Four ministers and about thirty delegates and visitors from other places, were present.
E. D. DANIELS, Secretary pro tem.


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GENERAL CONVENTION 1883

GENERAL CONVENTION       FEANK W. VERY       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-I write this, thinking you may like to receive a short account of the proceedings at the Convention. I shall, however, merely touch on a few points of special interest.
     President Giles' address was an earnest plea for charity and freedom of opinion, and a protest against making the boundaries of our organizations too rigid. The "Man-child" must grow, and the garments we make for him must allow freedom of growth.
     The argument for intellectual freedom was admirable: "Divine Truth is infinite;" "No finite mind can see it in all its aspects and relations;" "Our aim should not be to silence others, but to help them to express themselves fully and freely."
     Perhaps the address, if carried out to the letter, might make some breaches in the wall of the New Jerusalem. It meets with the approval of Mr. Barrett and those who think as he does. The Convention passed a resolution indorsing the address, for which I voted in the affirmative, but afterward thought I ought to have said "No?" for while agreeing with it in the main, it seems to me, on more careful reading, to advocate a freedom which might allow the teaching of rank infidelity.
     The reading of reports occupied the afternoon of Friday.
     Saturday afternoon an interesting letter from Professor Scocia was read, speaking of opposition he had encountered from a Catholic monk in Sicily, who published a violent attack upon our Doctrines, which Professor Scocia refuted in Nuova Epoca, the controversy attracting much attention, with the result of increased interest in the Church.
     A letter was read from a company of receivers of the Doctrines at Barren Fork, in Arkansas; asking that a missionary be sent them if practicable, as none of them had ever received New Church Baptism or the Holy Supper; if not feasible, they begged for a few words of advice from the Convention. The letter was referred in the afternoon to the Board of Missions, with the recommendation to grant the request, and also hereafter to publish such applications in the Messenger, since if known they would certainly meet with a hearty response. The resolution was drawn up by Mr. MCGEORGE.
     Letters were read from Mr. Boyesen, stating that he had been allowed to lecture in the hall of the Academy of Science, at Stockholm. Also one from Mr. Winslow, of Copenhagen, telling about his rebaptism and the way he came to believe in its necessity. He had all along the idea that we regarded rebaptism as compulsory; and the application of force in matters of conscience being repugnant to him, he conceived a prejudice against it; but when Mr. Stone was allowed to be ordained without rebaptism this idea was removed, and he was able to look at the other side of the question fairly with the above result.
     The Rev. John Worcester's address was on "The Work of Training Men for the New Church Ministry." He laid principal stress on the teaching of those departments of natural knowledge which treat of the countries, peoples, and things mentioned in the Word; above all, teaching the literal sense of the Bible, and the spiritual sense from Arcana Coelestia, Apocalypse Revealed, and Apocalypse Exp1ained. With these must be learned doctrines, good habits of speech, etc.
     Mr. Reed commented on the usefulness of Convention's School, the large number of ministers already educated there, the increasing demand for such education, and called further attention to the case of Old Church ministers receiving the gift books; their faith in old doctrines is destroyed, yet they are not ready to preach the new for want of instruction. He advocated granting pecuniary aid to such in making the transition.
     Mr. Paine gave a word of cheer to young men looking toward the ministry, pleaded for more affection in our ministry, or, as he put it, more religion. Dear, tenderhearted, innocent man. It grieves me to find one word of fault with him; but he said people were going back to the Old Church in many places to get religion! In the Methodist revivalist sense, I presume. I can only say they must have confounded religion with enthusiasm.
     Mr. Dyer made a characteristic speech, hitting out right and left, regular sledge-hammer blows: "Never was anything done with money?" "Ministers are like poets-born, not made"! "A young man who's got the love of saving souls-can't keep him out of it; it's the right sort of men we want first."
     Mr. Hobart thought differently. Given the men, we must instruct them. Every workman has to learn to use his tools. Mind is the hardest sort of material to work on, and needs better tools and more labor.
     Mr. Giles said he believed he agreed with what Mr. Dyer meant. It was of first importance to have right stuff to make a minister of.
     I omitted to state that Mr. Seward, who spoke after Mr. Reed, called attention to two things: first, that the Church could not exist without ministers; second, that if we compared the prosperity of those societies which first built a large temple and looked out for a minister afterward, and of those who procured a pastor first of all, and met in halls, or even private houses, until they could afford to build, we should have no difficulty in deciding which was most important.
     Mr. McGeorge finally rose and said that it was once reported that the "wickedest man in New York" was going to preach for them. He didn't know how that was, but thought that any man who could be so utterly reckless and dissolute as to oppose the appropriation of money for such a purpose as this, was just about the wickedest man he knew. He moved that a fund of 650,000 be raised for the support of the Convention school.
     Mr. Dyer-I second that motion.
     The same was passed amid much merriment.
     In the afternoon Mr. Pettee made a few remarks on the plan of mission work by the Board, which was to reach those regions not included in districts occupied by Associations nor readily reached by them. Mr. Hinkley spoke of the loyal mountaineers of Tennessee enjoying much religious freedom, and apparently very ready to receive the Doctrines. Mr. Smith had been invited to speak more than once before the students and professors of a sectarian institute of learning at Crossville, where much interest was manifested. Cumberland County was the only one to give a majority against repudiation, and Mr. Hinkley believed this was largely due to the labors of New Churchmen. It was desirable for Mr. Smith to extend his labors. The next best field is Kansas, which, being a large and growing community, occupied mainly by active men from New England, is in a favorable state for reception. Of the Southern States, Georgia is the most likely to respond favorably. Some of the colored people appear able to receive, with affection, the idea of the Divine Man Jesus, and as this is the central doctrine, it is a hopeful sign.
     Mr. Barler read a paper on "Helps and Hinderances of Missionary Work." He began by quoting the Memorable Relation about the writing from heaven let down into the spiritual world, where it shone as a star, but finally disappeared in the darkness of the earth.

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He applied this to the opposition encountered by all missionary work, but ended (as I thought rather inconsistently, with his text) with a statement to the effect that there was much less darkness in the world than was commonly supposed. Mr. Hinkley spoke of the distrust which many of our people manifest toward missionary work and combated it. I confess to being one of those who do not take so "roseate" a view of the situation as some, agreeing rather with the position taken by Dr. Hobcombe in End of the World, and looking upon the Writings themselves as the best missionaries. For this reason I can more heartily sympathize with such a work as Professor Scocia's.
     Mrs. Brotherton was invited to address the Convention. She spoke of the work of missionaries in India, attributing the amelioration of caste, abolition of suttee and sacrifice of children, with other great reforms, to the power of the letter of the Word, now translated into twenty-seven dialects of Hindostan, and asked if this could be done by the giving of the letter, what might we not expect from the knowledge of the spiritual sense of the Word. She then spoke of Italy, referred to Garibaldi's entrance into Rome as the ultimation of the fall of the mystic Babylon; mentioned the entrances of a cart filled with Bibles into Rome behind the conquering army and their distribution among the people as especially significant. She then read a translation of Professor Scocia's auto-
biography which was intensely interesting.
     I cannot do justice to it in the short time at my disposal.
     A resolution was passed on Saturday, with only one dissenting vote, allowing freedom of choice to a Society wishing to affiliate with an Association of different geographical position. This disposes of the Greenford matter.     
     I was somewhat disappointed with Mr. Ager's sermon on the elder brother in the parable. He confined himself pretty much to the literal sense. He applied it to the present receivers of the New Church, who are very seldom from the class that has had much experience of their own evils, but he failed to tell us just how we were to get out of our state of self-complacent admiration of our present condition, and I don t know that I have ever seen it very fully treated.
     Sometimes, it seems to me, we have to be allowed to feed the swine ourselves before we can come out of it, and that sooner or later all get a lesson of this sort-fortunate if it be quickly learned.
     In the afternoon a Confirmation, Baptism and the Investiture of Mr. Goddard as General Pastor were per formed, after which the organ gave forth the tender music of Handel's "Pastoral Symphony," from the "Messiah," inviting the weary and heavy-laden to come unto Him who alone can give peace and rest, and the, Holy Supper was then partakes of.
     On Monday, June 4th, Mr. Sewall offered a resolution expressing our appreciation of the services of the late Rev. J. P. Stuart, which was passed.
     The resolutions in regard to the Latin reprints, which were passed by the last year's Convention, but which have not been carried out, were then taken up. The debate was opened by myself with a few considerations in regard to the importance of the work. I spoke of the preservation of the Word by the LORD through the instrumentality of wise and scholarly men, of its being made permanent by means of dead languages, of the giving of the Writings for the New Church in Latin, of the reception of Divine Truth through the Word as the cause of history, influencing all mundane events of the renaissance as a preparation for the unfolding of spiritual science, concluding with a reference to "Expurgated Editions" of the Word, as proving that the preservation of the Writings for the New Church is absolutely required, in order that the Word itself may be preserved.
     I had supposed that these were mere truisms, but afterward found that, with two or three exceptions, I stood alone in my opinion. Mr. Dewson referred to these and other somewhat similar things from another speaker as mere theories quite unworthy of the attention of a practical business man, and said that a good test of the importance of a work was the popular appreciation of it and the readiness with which money was given for its support.
     If this is true, the arguments of the promoters of this work have been completely overthrown, for never was money given more grudgingly Mr. Warren made rejoinder that we should never have had a single Latin Edition of any book, except what Swedenborg himself published, if we had waited for popular demand. This is a subject the importance of which can scarcely be understood by one who has had no experience as a translator. No edition yet issued is free from errors.
     Mr. Seward showed specimen copies of the new edition and spoke favorably of it. After a few other speeches, the hour for elections arrived, and the subject was laid on the table until the afternoon, when Mr. Ager described the work from the standpoint of the Publishing Society, stating that they, had already encroached considerably on their capital, believing that the presence in our midst of so able a worker as Dr. Worcester was a Providential indication that the time had come for this work, which, if not done now, could not probably be so well done for fifty years to come. But whether it should go on or stop must now depend on the action of the Convention. The hour being late, the subject was again postponed until the next morning, and the whole of Tuesday forenoon was taken up with the discussion. The Rev. John Worcester opened the debate with a "discriminating" criticism of Dr. S. H. Worcester's work, commending his painstaking care, explaining that this greatly increased the cost of the plates, as Dr. Worcester would not allow any error, however small, to go uncorrected. He commended his unusual sagacity in deciphering the nearly illegible MSS.
     The speaker thought a great mistake had been made in the choice of books to be reprinted. Apocalypsis Revelata was not needed. The treatises appended to Apocalypsis Explicata, viz.: De Charitate, De Ultimo Judicio, De Domino, and Coronis were greatly needed. Mr. Wright told about the editor's methods, and the exhaustive index of Apocalypsis Explicata which he was preparing. The latter, he thought, if prepared by one of us, would be the last work we should ever undertake. Mr. Hobart moved to rescind the resolution of the previous Convention concerning Latin reprints. The Latin Fund was such only in name. It had been given to the Board of Publication. He read from past journals to prove this, and said that taking away the Latin Fund from the Board of Publication would be an act of injustice. Mr. Seward denied this, and said that although the Board had announced the desirability of applying the Latin Fund to other uses, the Convention had never authorized them to do so. It would be a greater wrong to rescind the resolution at this late day. The. English Conference, which had been invited to co-operate, might justly accuse us of breaking faith. Mr. Warren, as a member of the Committee which raised the Fund, told the true story of the Latin books which were bought of Mrs. Tafel, burned in the great Boston fire, and for which seven hundred dollars were received from the insurance company.

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This seven hundred dollars was rightly named the Latin Fund, since the money had originally been given expressly for the purchase of the Latin books. Mr. Dewson thought the whole thing was a mistake. The resolution provided that not only the books already published should be donated, but others as they issue from the press no limit being assigned. No business man would ever commit himself in such a way as that. Moreover, this offer of gift books to the ministers was somewhat of the nature of a bribe and was a temptation to them. He did not want to see the ministers treated as objects of charity. The requirement of interest on the Latin Fund from the Board was unjust. When this money was put in their hands, they had not been told to put it out at interest. He proposed that only the principal should be paid, and that the free distribution of books should be restricted. Mr. McGeorge seconded the resolutions, asserted the right of the Convention to reconsider any previous legislation shown to have been unwise, provided only that any consequences which might have been already incurred be provided for. He defended the Board from what he considered an implication of. Mr. Seward, that its action had, not been straightforward. Mr. Reed gave a very calm and judicious review of these questions, showing how they should be looked upon when viewed in their relation to justice and right. He proved that the Latin Fund had not been given to the Board, also considered the action of the Convention sacred, and thought it should not be revoked while so many were absent who passed these resolutions. Mr. Paine took offense at Mr. Dewson's allusion to the ministers. He for one, would not accept the gift books, and hoped none of the ministers would. They could afford to pay for them. He was better off than most of his neighbors in his little village, who only earned three hundred or four hundred dollars a year, while he had six hundred dollars. Mr. Warren said we were not all of our friend's happy disposition, and "passing rich at forty pounds a year." But the distribution of the books was to be looked on rather as an act of charity to the Church. It was better that the books should be used, rather than gather dust on the shelves. Mr. Sewall moved to strike out the words "New Church" before libraries. Thought the books, should be given to the libraries of all the great universities. It was a striking evidence of the belief of the New, Church in the universality of its Doctrines that it was the only religious body that now dared to publish it works in Latin. Mr. Dewson modified his resolutions so that they give discretion as to distribution of books to the Publishing Society. The resolutions were passed. A prodigal expenditure of time for such a parsimonious expenditure of money of time for such parsimonious expenditure of money!
     To return, to the proceedings of Monday: At eleven the election of officers was begun, and in the intervals, while votes were being counted, various minor business matters were considered.
     Mr. McGeorge introduced a resolution appropriating money to foreign missions, which was Passed. The sums were as follows: Italian mission, $150; Copenhagen, $150;     Mr. Schiwick, $100.
     Mr. Seward offered a resolution congratulating Professor G. j. Webbon on his eightieth birthday. It was voted that the Committee on Revision of the Constitution be continued.
     Mr. Sewall proposed to designate candidates for the ministry in the catalogue in order that only such students should be supplied with gift books; also that blank forms of application be prepared. Carried. It was voted that the Ecclesiastical Committee should consider blank forms for marriages, baptisms, membership of societies, ordination, etc., and report.
     Mr. Giles was made a messenger to the English Conference.
     A resolution was introduced instructing the Ecclesiastical Committee to define more clearly the duties of the General Pastor. Mr. Sewall moved to amend by inserting the words, "Presiding Minister or." I proposed to substitute for these words, "Presiding Minister, Bishop, or," and was ruled out of order. Much discussion followed, but very little agreement. "A motion by Mr. Lamb to lay on the table was lost, twenty-five to twenty-seven, and the resolution as amended by Mr. Sewall was passed. Whatever is done will, of course; come up for adoption by the next Convention.
     The announcement of the results of elections, and the acceptance of the invitation from the First Philadelphia Society to hold the next Convention in their new House of Worship completed the business of the forenoon.
     The afternoon, with the exception already' noted, was devoted to a consideration of the work of the Board of Publication. Mr. Pulsifer, thought the publication of the Messenger was the highest use of the Board. By hundreds it is welcomed as their own minister. It never wilt boa source of income. It should be improved, and should get the full time of its editor, who ought to have a wide knowledge of outside events and the needs of the people.
     A reduction of expenses might be made by dispensing with the New Church bookstore in or having simply a business head quarters, the books being distributed from Philadelphia and Boston, but he would be sorry to have this become necessary. Mr. Mann spoke of the wide circulation of the Messenger. The sun never sets on its constituency-3,000 per week-none of their ministers preached to so large an audience. Though humble, we would not exchange it for any of the more pretentious religious weeklies. It is like his little chapel at Orange, where there is no enchanting music, grand architecture, or fine oratory. There are plenty of churches in New York where all these could be obtained for less money; but why pay two cents for a barrel of cheese when a basket of bread can be bought for five cents?
     Next, do not forget that though we may be surfeited with spiritual truth, there are many starving people to whom these small distributions are the all of life. Mr. Hayden said we must count the children who also read, making 10,000. The Messenger is greatly prized by many clergymen of the Old Church, and also by our own people abroad. He advocated the retention of the book-room. Sight arouses curiosity. If you wait for things to be called for, three-fourths are not sold. The money had not all been sunk on the book-room, but much had been spent on the photo-lithographs, manuals for the young, returning Latin Fund, etc. Mr. McGeorge said it wasn't necessary to extol the Messenger. It was like air and water. We can't do without it, not withstanding it has served heretofore as an outlet for the fault-finding, propensity which we all have. Every one can do a little to support it. Get subscribers. Give it to some one who can't afford to pay for it. Write the news, etc. Mr. Church and Mr. Seward made some humorous remarks.
     Mr. Dyer-People are all the time asking for, something; they are not ready to give. Emerson says, "O discontented man! why grumble? if ye want anything; pay the price and take it." If everybody has the right to find fault, we can't have a great and successful paper.

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Don't want a great, successful paper. Great, successful papers are made where you begin to smell brimstone! Of course, every man in this room knows the best way to conduct the Messenger. Better let him do it and pay the expenses himself. Tried it myself once for a little while. Everybody MAD! The only great success we can have is in fighting our evils.
     Mr. Dewson thought the ministers were having too much to say-time for the sheep to bleat a little. Spoke of the need of Sunday-school manuals. Plenty of material furnished in overwhelming force by the Old Church but it must be remade to adapt it to our wants. Mr. Worcester thought Mr. Mann should be independent, and ought to be the judge of what should and what should not be published. Let not, sharp, acrimonious things enter, but give good bread. Mr. Paine told what was done with a single copy of the Messenger which had been read in several households. Advocated the writing of little articles, the best we had to give, which the editor might lay by in his drawer to fill up with when needed. He compared this to the giving of the two mites, which he thought meant the very best there was in us. He said we did not know how wide might be the influence of anything we did. He told of a short article which he had published about the belief of the ancients concerning a Divine Man in the Sun. It had recently turned, up again in India. I did not hear the resolutions which were finally passed in support of the Messenger.
     The Conference on the evening of Monday, June 4th, was exceptionally interesting. Mr. Gilchrist's "Te Dominum" was rendered by the choir. The opening address was by the Rev. William B. Hayden, on "Changes of Faith of the Christian World, and their Significance in the Light of the New Church."
     He spoke of the dissatisfaction with existing creeds, manifested in the Old Church, of the efforts to modify them, and of the general acknowledgment of the necessity for a New Theology. Amid the endless variety of opinion, each one thinks the progress of the future will be in the direction he is pursuing. The traveler who stands below Niagara sees the water moving toward the falls, but underneath the great body of the stream is moving on irresistibly to the placid lake beyond. Some alarmists try to excite fears of the encroachments of the Catholics. This is only a surface eddy. Whether they know it or not, all the denominations of Christendom are being carried along by the spirit of the age, and in the great battle of Armageddon, which is preparing, they will have to put on the armor of Him that sitteth on the White Horse; if they will be victors over the hosts of infidelity.
     The Rev. Frank Sewall followed with an excellent address on the "Inspiration of the Scriptures" which I will not attempt to epitomize, lest I do it injustice. After this the Rev. Oliver Dyer entertained and instructed his audience with a discourse on "Probation and Judgment," as viewed by the Christian World and by the New church. "According to Thy name, O God! so is Thy praise unto the ends of the earth." According to a man's idea of God, so will he worship Him, and by this standard will he regulate his own life. The Jews worshiped God Almighty, or, more literally, God, the Thunderer, and in common with pagan nations regarded Him as a wrathful, revengeful God, to be propitiated; and ages of worship of this fetish God have so ingrafted the fear of Him on the minds of men, that even the Christian of to-day, in presence of sudden and terrible danger, will fall down on his knees and try to buy Him off by promising all sorts of amendments. Such a God is regarded as an arbitrary tyrant, who could just as well have written a decalogue commanding man to steal, lie, etc. With such views of God, it is not surprising that there should be at the same time, absurd and monstrous ideas about hell, varying from a picture of a hell filled with the wails of unbaptized infants, to that of Universalism, which used to stand at the front door of heaven, saying that everybody may come in, but which now stands at the back door, saying anybody may go out. After a scathing review of Christian absurdities, the speaker gave the New Church teaching, "As a man makes his bed, so shall he lie." He showed us the bed of suffering which the evil make for themselves in hell, and by its side the Great Physician, alleviating pain.
     The Convention adjourned on Tuesday to meet in Philadelphia on the fourth Thursday in May, 1884, the day of commencement having been changed from Friday to Thursday at the suggestion of the Rev. J. R. Hibbard.
FEANK W. VERY
News 1883

News       Various       1883

     ST. Louis.-On Sunday, June 3d, at the church of the "First German Church of the New Jerusalem," the Sunday school dedicated a beautiful banner, inscribed on one side with the name of the Sunday-school and date of its founding (A. D. 1868), on the other side with a picture of an open Bible, in which are the words: "Lasset die Kindlein zu mir Kommen" (Matt. xix, 14). The banner is made of very heavy silk, scarlet one side and purple the other. At the same time a large United States flag was presented for the use of the Sunday-school. There were present one hundred and fifty-five scholars and twenty teachers. The Congregation also responded in good number, and our church was well filled. The banner was presented by the little daughter of the Rev. Mr. Busmann, with an appropriate recitation, to Mr. H. Klages, president of the Sunday-school Association. Mr. Klages responded in a pleasing manner. The flag was then presented by the little daughter of Mr. Klages, with well-directed verse, to Mr. F. H. Beimes, treasurer of the Sunday-school Association and president of the Church Society. Mr. Beimes' response was an expression of feeling for our great country and for the children that live therein. Rev. Busmann closed with an address to the children, taking good care to impress upon them and their parents the importance of Sunday-schools. All were agreeably entertained.
     On Monday, June 4th, the fifteenth annual picnic of the Sunday-school was held. Prompt1y at eight o'clock in the morning, the children were in line, headed by the Knight Templar Band, and marched (the banner preceding the girls and the flag before the boys) to the Fair Grounds and Zoological Garden. This place is well adapted for picnics, as it comprises eighty-five acres, and is well provided with shelter in case of rain, and, besides, presents many attractive features not be had at any other place. The Zoological Garden occupied the attention of the little ones a long time. Lunch was served at ten-thirty, where all, regaled themselves, and were soon again dispersed in all directions in pursuit of pleasure. The music and good floor of one of the Exhibition Buildings offered a fine opportunity for dancing, which was much indulged in during the day by old and young. A programme of plays was arranged for the children for various prizes. The most interesting of these was one for the boys. Two classes, numbering together about twenty boys took off their shoes, which were then thrown in a heap and well mixed. The boy that found his own shoes and got them on first received the first prize. Equally interesting games were played with all the children, and their joy was the pleasure of many adults that witnessed them. At 6.30 all departed for home, having enjoyed themselves to their hearts content, although some of the little ones were doubtless pretty tired. Rev. Busmaun worked very hard for the children who bear him much love.


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     LONDON.-On Monday, June 10th, a most agreeable evening was spent at the New Church College, in England, by a large and select company of members and friends (among whom we noticed Mr. Ruskin) the object of the concert being to make up, if possible, a slight deficiency in the Society's funds.
     It was organized by Miss Alice Bateman, a talented daughter of our late deeply lamented minister, and founder who, with her well-known suavity and genius, contributed directly and indirectly to the delight of all. The artistes being all so endowed, it seems scarcely fair to particularize, but the writer was especially pleased with the rendering of several songs by Mr. Tietkens, a tenor of great ability, who sang (among others) Balfe's "Come into the Garden, Maud," with great taste and feeling: Miss Thomas, a young New Church student of the Royal Academy, and member of the Argyll Square choir, delighted us with her sweet voice in "The Better Land," etc., gaining an encore "Fast! Friends," a laughable comedietta performed by the Misses Young and Webster was particularly enjoyable also the recitations and piano-forte playing of Miss Alice Bateman who gave, with rich humor, "The Owl Critic," and with much fervor and expression, Robert Browning's Herve Kiel." Two very sweet performances on the violin by Miss Perrott must not be omitted, each gaining an encore vote of thanks by our eloquent and much-esteemed friend Mr. Elliot (which was carried by acclamation), brought this pleasant entertainment to a close, and no doubt supplied the need which suggested it.     B

     CHICAGO.- The German Society of Chicago met on the l9th of June in order to celebrate it, because on that day, in the year 1770, the LORD sent out His Twelve Apostles in the Spiritual World to preach His new Gospel, His Second Advent (T. C. R. 79). For this occasion the double parlors of Mr. Rosbach's house were thrown open, and a table well spread from one end to the other with delicious things was provided. In the centre of the room above the folding doors were two large banners, bearing the inscription: "ADVENTUS DOMINI Nineteenth of June, 1779." On the wall, facing our minister was a large oil portrait of Swedenborg, 28x28, encircled with evergreen. This portrait was painted by Mr. Gunther a member of the Society. More than thirty persons were resent. "After the refreshments were partaken of the Rev Mr. Schliffer set forth the reasons for this feast and its importance. The Rev. Mr. Lehnen then spoke on Conjugial Love. This was followed by a speech in behalf of the young people of the Church. The feast was closed by the Reading of a poem by Miss Mary Priborsky on the New Jerusalem. The gathering was indeed a gladsome one, and will long be remembered by all who were present. R.


     BERLIN, CANADA- At his request, the Society granted Mr. Turk, who has been its minister for the past twenty-six years, a vacation of six months in order that he may visit Europe. Mr. Turk left on the 7th of June. Before his departure a social meeting was held to bid him farewell. The great respect and affection in which Mr. Turk is held, both in the Society and the community at large, is shown by the large attendance at this meeting. Although many persons were prevented from being present, more than two hundred assembled. After supper was served, the Social Club presented to Mr. Turk a very handsome field-glass. The remainder of the evening was occupied with music and addresses from some of the members, and with the presenting to Mr. Turk of a purse by his Waterloo friends, Finally, the Pastor spoke a few touching words in farewell, assuring them of his attachment and love. At the close of the meeting each of the members personally bid Mr. Turk farewell. R. R.
     

     WILMINGTON, DELAWARE.- Sunday, June 24th, was an unusually interesting day the number of communicants at the LORD'S Supper being larger than heretofore. One adult and two infants were baptized. Our Society is prosperous and expectant. Mr. Parmelee will spend his, vacation of two months in New England, during which time repairs will be made upon our Temple to the value of several hundred dollars.     P
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NOTES AND REVIEWS.
     THE preparation of the articles relating to the New Church in the Schaif- Herzog religious Encyclopedia has been intrusted to Mr. Giles.
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     THE Trustees of the British Museum are reprinting separately articles of special importance from their catalogue of printed books. Among those issued is that on Swedenborg, the demand for which has much exceeded expectation
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     THE Athenoeum states that Launcelot Cross, author of the Characteristics of Leigh Hunt, will shortly publish a volume entitled Hesperides, which will treat of the intellectual and moral influence of Hunt, Hazlett, Wordsworth, and Swedenborg.
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Title Unspecified              1883

     A THIRD reply to Dr. Tafel's pamphlet, Freedom and Faith in the New Church, has appeared. It bears the title of The Letter and Authorship of Swedenborg and the "Freedom and Faith" of Dr. Tafel, and is written by Mr. H. S. Sutton, of Manchester.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     REPRINTS of the Latin of De Cultu et Amore Dei, Regnum Animale and Oeconomia Regni Animalis, edited by the Rev. Thomas Murray Gorman, have been published in handsome and convenient form by the well-known London firm of Kegan, Paul, Trench & Co.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Old Testament Company of Revisers have completed the last revision of the Old Testament and are at work on the appendix. The entire work will probably be published next spring. Its appearance will not probably be attended with the excitement which marked the appearance of the Revised New Testament, as it has now become evident that the new revision is not destined to supersede the authorized version to any great extent. The sale of the Revised New Testament has now almost entirely ceased.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     WE learn from the Morning Light that "the publication of tracts in the Welsh language is being energetically carried on." Sixteen numbers of Leaves from the Tree of Life and several tracts by Dr. Bayley and Mr. Giles have appeared. The expenses of the work have been borne thus far by the Missionary and Tract Society and by Mr. Collett of Cardiff in about equal proportions. Twelve more Leaves from the Tree of Life are ready for publication awaiting funds. Bush's Reasons is also to be translated. Would it not be better to use this labor and money in publishing the Writings themselves in Welsh, rather than tracts which are a very uncertain foundation for the Church? The Writings first, tracts afterward!
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Title Unspecified              1883

     THE following is an extract from Dr. S. H. Worcester's report to the Ministers' Conference:
     "That the first volume of Swedenborg's treatise on the Brain has now been published is known to you all, and is a matter for thankfulness and congratulation. The able and untiring editor must find encouragement in its hearty reception by the Church. Appreciatory and valuable reviews have appeared in the periodicals of the Church. Let me call special attention to the review just given in Words for the New Church. I do not know who wrote it; but it gives evidence that Dr. Tafel and Dr. Wilkinson are not alone in their fitness for useful work in connection with Swedenborg's anatomical and physiological writings."
"RECORDS OF JESUS REVIEWED." 1883

"RECORDS OF JESUS REVIEWED."              1883

RECORDS OF JESUS REVIEWED, and Fifty Questions Answered through Five Hundred Reverend Reasoners. By BENJAMIN F. BURNHAM The Union Co., Boston, 1883.

     THIS work claims to present "The most advanced thought extant on the fifty principal topics concerning the birth, the life, the death, and the character of Jesus Christ." One noteworthy peculiarity of the book is that it consists chiefly of extracts from other writers, the Author's work consisting mainly of grouping, arranging, and connecting them together, and marshaling them to support the views of the Unitarians, that Christ is but a mere man, that the Bible is but a collection of ancient books, possessing no real authority, and that all supernatural events, etc., are but fictions of the imagination wrought into their present form by the hand of tradition.


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     The author selects as his motto a quotation from Goethe: "They were dulling their teeth at the shell while I was enjoying the kernel," and he vainly imagines that he is presenting a higher and more interior view of the topics he treats of than have been treated of elsewhere, when yet in the light of the New Church we can see that he is in the outermost rind of things and has not the slightest conception of the real truth. The book is a good illustration of the trend of modern liberal theology, and we can see clearly that the entire drift of it is away from and' not toward the New Church, and the last end of it will be in the ditch of Deism, Naturalism, and Materialism. We can, only give a few specimens.
     The doctrine of inspiration is similar to some views brought from, the Old into the New and applied to Swedenborg, which have been a cause of discussion in the Church in recent years. We quote: "The Writers of the Bible in most instances wrote under extraordinary elevating influences, but were not entirely exempt from liability to mistakes.... Perception joined with inspiration makes the man of genius, the man of science, the discoverer, the statesman, the poet, the prophet . . . We do not say the Bible is true because it is inspired, but we say it is inspired because it is true."-P. 28. In regard to the generation of JESUS CHRIST, he denies the historical reliability of the account in the First and Third Gospels; hence also the Annunciation to Mary he holds to be "a poetic legendary outgrowth of the loving imagination of the friends and followers of Jesus, when He became famous."-P. 46. Also the Conception is another product of the figurative tendency of oriental expression to have so pure a character as Jesus created of a holy spirit, and that tradition has enhanced this simile to the present metaphor or hyperbole."-P. 51. But he holds that "Joseph was the father in the most natural sense."-P. 51. He also denies the Resurrection of Jesus in any actual real sense, but that it was simply a form of belief assumed by the faith of Christ's surviving friends, and thus the whole is a chapter of their inner life and not of this outer life.-P. 194.
     The whole book is not remarkable for the doctrines taught, for these are only old heresies dished up anew, but rather for the, array of eminent names in orthodox Churches which are brought to the support of some particulars of his doctrine which really destroy the Word and the Church founded on it. To those in the New who think that the Old is approaching the New we would recommend the perusal of this book that they may see the real trend of modern advanced thought, and that they may more clearly see that unless the central doctrine of the New Church, the Supreme and Sole Divinity of The LORD JESUS CHRIST, is received they can receive no spiritual light from heaven, but that all the truths which they take from the Word they falsify, for we are taught in True Christian Religion that, "The LORD at this day is forming a new angelic heaven, and that it is formed of those who believe in the LORD GOD THE SAVIOUR, and go immediately to Him, and that the rest are rejected. Wherefore, if any hereafter come from Christendom into the spiritual world, into which every man does come, after death, and does not believe in the LORD, and go to Him alone, and then is not able to receive this because he has lived wickedly, or has, confirmed himself in falses; he is repelled at his first approach toward heaven, and his face is then averted and turned toward the lower earth, whither he also goes, and conjoins himself with those there who are meant in the Revelation by the dragon and the false prophet. Every man also in Christian countries who does not believe in the LORD is not hereafter heard with acceptance; his prayers in heaven are like ill-scented odors, and like eructations from ulcerated lungs; and if he thinks that his prayer is like the perfume of incense, still it does not ascend to the angelic heaven otherwise than as the smoke of a fire which .is driven back by a violent tempest into his eyes."- T. C. R. 108.
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NEWS NOTES.

     THE REV. DR. HIBBARD preached for the Society at Almont Mich., Sunday, June 10th.
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     THE Annual Commencement of the Urbana University was held Wednesday, June 27th.
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     ON Sunday, June 17th, the Rev. Dr. Hibbard preached in Chicago at the West Side Temple.
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     THE German Society of Chicago, under the charge of the Rev. W. H. Schllifer, has been incorporated, to enable it to hold property.
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     THE Allentown Society has secured the services of the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck as its minister for at least twenty-six Sundays of the coming year.
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     THE next meeting of the General Convention will be held in Philadelphia at the new Rouse of Worship of the First Society,
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     THE St Louis' Society has engaged the Rev. S. E. Eby, student of the Boston Theological School, as its minister for one year, beginning in September.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE annual picnic of the Social Club of the Advent Society of Philadelphia was held Saturday, June 9th, at the Eastwick estate, on the Schuylkill, near Darby.
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     THE Committee on the Revision of the Constitution has been continued. Mr. Reed having resigned, Mr. John Worcester has been appointe4 on the Committee in his place.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DURING the absence of the Rev. L. P. Mercer at the Convention, Mr. H. Schliffer preached in the Van Buren Church, Chicago, and the Rev. H. C. Vetterling preached for the German Society.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. J. E. BOWERS preached, in Wellesley, Ontario; on Sunday, June 17th, in the absence of Mr. Turk. Services were held in German; the attendance was large. Mr. Bowers will lecture at Clinton and other places in Huron and Bruce Counties during the next few weeks.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ON Sunday, June 10th, in the Temple on Cherry Street, Philadelphia, the Rev. W. H. Benade, Bishop of the General Church of Pennsylvania, ordained into the First Degree of the Priesthood Messrs. Czerny, Schreck, and Schliffer. The ceremony was impressive. The Sacrament of the Holy Supper was then ministered by the Rev. F. W. Turk, assisted by the Rev. L. H. Tafel and the Rev. Richard De Charms. Several visitors from a distance were present.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Sixth Annual Commencement of the College and Theological School of the Academy of the New Church was held Thursday evening, June 14th, at the School-rooms on Cherry Street, Philadelphia. An essay on "The Importance of Natural Science in the New Church" was read by Mr. W. E. Parker. This was followed by a poem in blank verse by Mr. Enoch S. Price on the subject of "Life." The youngest class of the Boys' School then recited in unison the Ten Commandments in Hebrew. An essay on "The Prophecy Concerning the New Church," was then read by the Rev. Czerny, and one on "The Doctrine of the LORD" by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck. The degree of Bachelor of Arts was then conferred by the Chancellor upon Mr. W. B. Parker, graduate from the College, and the degree of Bachelor of Theology upon the Rev Messrs. Czerny, Schreck, and Schiffer, graduates from the Theological School. The exercises were more interesting than usual, the essays being not only improved in quality, but also in length, being shorter than heretofore.
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115



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST, 1883.
     PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.-For twenty-five cents we will send the LIFE for six months on trial, to any address. For this purpose a cheap edition has been issued on thin white paper of half the weight of that on which the regular edition is printed. Those who receive sample copies of the cheap edition and who wish to examine the regular edition will be furnished with a sample copy of the same on application. Back numbers will NOT be furnished on such trial subscriptions. Remittances may be made in postage stamps.
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     THE New Church Independent has moved into its new office, 144 Thirty-seventh Street, Chicago, Ill. The editor says "the building is paid for," and very naturally feels comfortable about it. We offer him our congratulations.
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     THE Rev. Sabin Hough, in an article in the Independent, mildly yet decidedly charges the Rev. Chauncey Giles with teaching unsound doctrine; that the doctrine of the LORD as given by him is strongly Unitarian. He calls for a thorough examination of that which Mr. Giles is giving to the public as New Church teaching.
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     MR. WILFORD HALL having demolished the "wave theory of sound" and silenced all the scientists-their replies having been absolute silence-now proceeds to tame or abolish the reckless cyclone and tornado. The task will be, perhaps, more difficult than the taming of the scientist, and if he succeeds the men of the West and South are in gratitude bound to subscribe for the Microcosm, and, what is more, pay for it in advance.
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Title Unspecified              1883

     IN an article on "Ralph Waldo Emerson" in the1 July number of the Unitarian Review is this passage: "I don't know any instance of his (Emerson's) entire truth to himself, while absorbing from without all that was related to him, more remarkable than his complete immersion in the theology of Swedenborg without losing his foothold and being swept away by the New Jerusalem Church. And the result was that no writer has given us such a fair and full estimate of the great Swedish seer as he has. This, of course, is not admitted by the disciples of the New Church, to whom Swedenborg's unique system of theology is absolutely without a flaw."
     Emerson no more had "a full and fair estimate" of the Writings than a duck-pond has the measure of an ocean. If he had grasped their truth, he would not have been guilty of writing so much high-sounding nothingness as he did."
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     DR. HOLCOMBE, in his last letter on "Spiritual Subjects," says: "Your strongly condemnatory opinion of the attack of the organ of the Academy, NEW CHURCH LIFE, on my little book of Aphorisms is shared by a great many others. I did not anticipate such an attack on the interior life, even from that embryonic papacy which expects to be the colossal ecclesiasticism of the future." Really, Dr. Holcombe ought to spare a few moments from the contemplation of the "inner life" for the study of more mundane matters; then he would not write such silly stuff as the foregoing.
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     THE New York Observer for June 28th contains an attack on the New Church in the shape of an article by Dr. Howard Crosby, with an approving notice by the editor. The article has not even the merit of originality, being composed solely of the same old lies which have done duty for such men as Dr. Howard Crosby and the Rev. Joseph Cook for the past century, and may be briefly summed up in the charge that the New Church is merely a cloak for vice, immorality, and irreligion. If these reverend gentlemen believe what they say, they are to be pitied for their dense stupidity; if they do not, which is quite probable, we have the satisfaction of knowing that a lie is harmful only to those who utter it.
     Perhaps such attacks are permitted by Providence to show certain good people in the Church that when the Writings say the first Christian Church is dead and corrupt they really mean it is dead, and not that it is rapidly being "permeated" and built up by the New Dispensation, as so many New Churchmen blindly and willfully hold.
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     THE REV. MR. RODGERS, in his last "Letter on America" in the New Church Magazine of London, says:
     "One of the best examples of native, unstudied humor I heard was given me by a farmer. . . After some conversation I asked, 'And what time do you rise in the morning?' His reply was, 'Well, mostly as soon as the sun is up,' and then, with a knowing look, he added: 'It would be very ill-mannered to rise before him, wouldn't it?' Beyond this my memory was taxed with scarcely anything in the shape of native humor worth remembering."
     After much study, we have failed to discover the humor in the farmer's remark. Perhaps that failure may be accounted for by our being American. What our countrymen lack, though, Mr. Rodgers has largely, for instance, where he says that "in all America there are no beggars and no organ grinders." Punch never made a better joke than that. The only fault we have to find is that frequently his humorous passages, given under form of facts, are not-not, quite as sharply defined as they might be; the humor is too deep, so to speak; there is danger of its misleading people.
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     THE Rev. T. H. Tafel has secured return passage from England on the Abyssinia on sail on September 1st.


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SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 1883

SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES              1883

     I.-Music.

     IT is our purpose to offer in a series of articles some suggestions concerning the reformation of the arts and sciences.
     That the Divine enunciation, "Behold, I make all things new," extends to science, would seem to admit of no doubt. And yet. New Churchmen practically deny this; for either they fail to apply the truths of the Writings, or they rest in the delusion that the scientific world is in some unexplained way receiving the reforming influence of spiritual influx.
     When we carefully scrutinize the theories of the learned as we find them set forth in various text-books, we see that they are nearly all false, delusive, or hypothetical.
     At first such an assertion as the one we have made strikes us unpleasantly. It aims a blow directly at the life of the science of the day. It assaults our schools and colleges, our own education, and possibly our daily vocation. Libraries teem with choice literature, and there is scarcely a student who does not feel that such an attack is a personal affront, since it involves him with his favorite teachers and authors. But if the indignant reader will leave all maudlin sentimentalism for the, weak-minded, and will strive in the light of revealed truth to see for himself what is the interior condition of art and science, he will soon learn how vainglorious, is the boast of this proud nineteenth century. It is to such readers that we desire to address ourselves.
     In the first place, however, we must be clearly understood. Our war is not waged against truth. What there is of truth in the learned world, be this fact or theory, we wish to recognize and utilize. Neither do we contend with those convenient resting-places in the progress of science which afford theories and principles not exactly true and yet not really untrue, but which serve as means for more extended experimentation and investigation. Our only objection to these lies in their employment as conclusive. For the sake of perspicuity we may enumerate some of these theories-as the theories of gravity, elements in chemistry, atomic and molecular weights and equivalents, origins of languages, derivation of organized forms from protoplasm, etc. No one of these is true, and yet so many facts enter into their formation that they serve a great use provided they are not accepted as infallible, for if they are so accepted they warp judgment and hinder the discovery of genuine principles to which they but approximate.
     Our war is waged against the great central fallacies of science and against their host of subordinates, which permeate every variety of art, every branch of science, even into professions, trades, institutions of education, and into common modes of thought, speech, and action.
     But what is a theory and what a principle? A principle, briefly defined, is a fundamental truth; a theory is an abstract of principles explanatory of them.
     The chemist and the physicist reduce matter to atoms; the physiologist reduces organic life to structureless protoplasm; the astronomer discourses learnedly upon the duration of the sun's heat and the consequent existence of the universe, or calmly depopulates all the planets save, only the little orb upon, which he admits that he lives; the mathematician rests contentedly in the exactness of his science, while his pupils make figures tell as many contradictory stories as ingenuity can devise. The philologist writes learnedly of the origin of language and discources soberly the theorem, "Did thought produce speech or speech thought?"
     Doubtless it will be granted that these are errors; but is it not evident that they are all logical deductions from premises which are universally accepted? And if the conclusions are false, are not the other terms of the syllogisms also false? If theoretical chemistry is true, then is the, atomic theory; but Swedenborg says that there are no such things as atoms. If physiology and histology are true, then is the protoplasmic theory true; and yet we are taught that organised forms become more multiple as they are divided until they reach such a complex structure that no microscope can reveal them. If the admitted theories of astronomers concerning the composition, of air, ether, the heavenly bodies, etc., are true, then is it true that the moon is void of -atmosphere and water, that the sun possesses a limited amount of caloric, that it contains many familiar metals and gases, etc.?
     It is the intentional or ignorant rejection of the essentials of all theories that has crippled science and reduced it to a mass of facts real and apparent, and of theories utterly false or wrongly co-associated. These essentials are a recognition of the LORD as the creator of the universe, of discrete degrees;, of the difference between spirit, nature, and matter, of the laws of order, series, correspondence, and influx.
     In place of these essentials, science has substituted the same god that wrought the utter ruin of the Church, the natural distinct from the spiritual. As the atheist denies the LORD, saying that there is no proof of His existence, so the scientist denies or rejects all that, his senses fail to discover; he has no proof of anything else. Consequently his reason is bound to the memory made, by his five senses. The intellect which receives light from the revelation of Divine Truth has never been cultivated, its doors are closed, and light from it is the uncertain ray that comes forth like a sunbeam struggling through a narrow chink only to be lost in the surrounding inky blackness.
     But let us apply these essentials to an examination of the existing arts and sciences, and first, let us turn to music as one of the fine arts.
     Sound is usually defined as the sensation excited in the organ of hearing by vibrations of air and other media. This is quite true, but it gives no adequate ideal of the full import of the word. Common air is capable of being thrown into vibrations, and these, impinging on the ear, are appreciated as sound. But these vibrations are the composite of three kinds of motion, each of which, so far as its modus operandi is concerned is as much sound as is the combination of the three in common air. To fully comprehend our theme, then, we must briefly consider aural motions from the parent sun to the earth's surface. There are three atmospheres, aura, ether, and common air. The first is in the second and third, and the second is in the third. Motion in the highest atmosphere is vortical, in the next is spiral, and in the lowest, undulatory. When the latter is made to move, as when a bell is struck, there result in this atmosphere three sorts of motions, related to each other as cause and effect; that is, the undulatory motion is possible because the higher auras are active in the lower, and the vibrating air induces an ether motion and also an aural motion.
     The auditory nerves are designed after the model of the atmospheres. They receive in their composite form the undulatory motions of common air, but by means of finer fibres, formed of particles akin to the particles of ether, the sound wave is elevated to what we may call the second or ethereal degree, and then by means of still finer fibres, sound is elevated to the aural degree.

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From this latter the soul is affected, and here and here only is real sound.
     In the spiritual world, sound is the influx of Divine Truth into the various spiritual atmospheres, manifesting itself interiorly in the several heavens, as affection in the angels, and as harmony in the orderly disposition of atmospheres there. In the higher planes and inmostly in the lower it is tacit, but as it descends it becomes more and more sonorous, until, as it approaches the inferior regions, it manifests itself in thunderstorm and earthquake.
     In the natural world, music originates in a similar manner. In the higher auras, sound is tacit (A. C. 8823), representing the influx into nature of spiritual affections. And so man's affections flow forth into these planes and his affections have a natural vehicle into which they may descend. When these tacit motions descend to the common air, they are appreciated as audible sounds. If they flow forth from natural inanimate creation and from animate forms in an orderly manner, so that they are the ultimate correspondents of interior states, they are musical and harmonious; if they flow forth irregularly, disorderly, they are discordant sounds. When a musical instrument is, as we rightly express it, out of tune, the vibrations excited in the air are unharmonious and disagreeable, for the orderly descent of atmospheric activity from vorticals into spirals and thence into waves is disturbed.
     There are, however, two sorts of sounds, and consequently two kinds of harmony. We have defined true sound above, such sound as comes forth in the music of the zephyrs, in the roar of the winds, in the crash of the thunder-storm; such natural outbursts of feeling as give origin to the birds sweet notes or the gladsome carols of children. This sort of sound corresponds more or less fully to the celestial heavens. But there is a form represented by human speech and song which is not spontaneous, springing from the will; it is articulate, recitative, discrete. [A. E. 323, Regnum Animale, pars iv.] It flows from the understanding and expresses the affections only as these are contained in the ideas which the vocal organs form into words.
     Agreeably to all this, we observe that there are two sorts of musical instruments, one emitting pulsatile, continuous sounds, corresponding to the celestial; the other emitting interrupted sounds, corresponding to the spiritual.
     The chief object of music is to arouse the affections, that we may thereby be associated with angels. When our thoughts and affections are pure, appropriate songs introduce us into choirs and we receive the more abundantly of Divine blessings. True music delights the soul, restores harmony in the body, and actually tends to aid in the normal performance of bodily functions; hence we see how essential it is to cultivate music. In the Church, it tends to exalt the mind and to prepare for holy worship; in the home, it enlivens the social sphere, softens the passions, and refines the manners. It attracts the young and keeps them from the thousand and one allurements incident to city life. And when sociability grows so strong that joy and happiness o'erleap the bounds of voice and, song, the affections, stimulated by music, come forth still more ultimately in the dance. So is the affection that started from the soul converted in its progress, first in the glowing but silent fluxion of the purest nerve-fibre, then in the motion of the cortical glands of the brain into conscious thought, then in articulate sound into joyous song, and finally into the dance. Dancing and sports denote interior festivity, for all festivity is from the delight of the love in which man is, and internals are expressed by externals. See A. C.
10,416.
     Does music as now understood fulfill all that is required of it? We aver not. In theory, it is defective, and without a knowledge of correspondences, composers cannot fully express in music and song every play of emotion and every affection of thought.
     Much in music is spontaneous, and this is grandly displayed in many tender and pretty melodies, as well as in the composition of the great artists. But that adaptation of music, which in olden times was so complete that it affected the angels with joy by reason of its full correspondence with the choirs of heaven and with the rhythmical speech of the angels, needs New Church composers to bring it forth anew.
     Is it not high time that our talented artists arouse from their lethargy, shake off, their allegiance to the music of the Old Church, and employ their gifts for the advancement of the New?
     The task is indeed arduous, but the harvest will be proportionately rich and abundant. It is a long route from the imperfect music of to-day to the grand music of the future of the Church; but a beginning must be made, and as every one is regenerated in his use, is the New Churchman faithful if he neglect to apply the teachings of the Church? Can the musician read the beautiful theories of music taught by Swedenborg in the Principia and in the Animal Kingdom, and supplement this with the grand disclosures concerning music in the Arcana, the Apocalypse Explained, and elsewhere, and still plod on in the old way, satisfied with his lot, assured that he is doing his duty, confident that he is a faithful steward? From the paucity of efforts in this direction, either the musician is self-satisfied, or, and we hope this is the case, he has not yet read what the Church teaches on the subject.
     We venture, in conclusion, to offer a few suggestions to those able to utilize them.
     Church music requires more than one form of instrument for its complete effect. In ancient times, sacred music was performed on various instruments, as timbrels, psalteries, flutes or pipes, harps, etc. (A. C. 4138.) The object of this variety was to give expression to the two forms of harmony of which we spoke above-one corresponding to celestial, and the other to spiritual things. We need, then, in addition to the usual wind instruments (organ, melodeons), stringed instruments. And the musical composition must be such that the orchestra by isolation or combination of instruments can accurately express any required emotion or sentiment. In addition to orchestral music, singing is needed, and this varies in effect, according as it approaches continuous harmony, favoring wind instruments, or the recitative, favoring instruments that correspond to the spiritual.
     If a calm and peaceful sphere is produced by the rich tones of an organ, tending to enhance the sphere of worship, this merely emotional state, useful as it is, can be made much more useful by the addition of chants, hymns, and, psalms. But in the matter of hymns the Church is poverty-stricken. Some of those which are introduced into books of worship are ambiguous, others are meaningless, and still others are positively false. Few, if any, are so written that they embody the truths of the Church. The psalm, whether in chants or in so-called "Selections," should be an exact translation of the letter of the Word; or, if the Hebrew is understood, which we trust will be the case in the near future, the psalm should be sung in that language to insure a more complete influx.

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Then, when it is desired to sing hymns, the words should as accurately express the internal sense of the Word as does the chant the literal sense; and the accompanying music should be adapted as nearly as possible to the meaning of the hymns.
     Songs treating of the internal sense enlighten the mind while they delight the affections. They in the Ancient Church, who knew what was meant by the words of the songs they sung and "thought it and were thence affected, had internal gladness; the angels who were attendant on man were at the same time, on such occasions, in glorification of the LORD: hence they who sang and they who heard songs had heavenly gladness from the holy and blessed principles which flowed in out of heaven, in which gladness they seemed to themselves to be, as it were, taken up into heaven. Such an effect had the songs of the Church among the ancients; such an effect also they might have at this day."- A. C. 8261.
HEBREW LANGUAGE 1883

HEBREW LANGUAGE              1883

     I.

     No language is so important to the New Church as the Hebrew, for it has pleased the LORD to give the greater part of His Word to the Church in this language, By its means man is conjoined with heaven and thus with the LORD Himself. In it man receives the instruction which teaches the way of eternal life.
     Let us call to mind some of the headings of the articles in the work on the Sacred Scripture that we may have the importance of the Word more clearly before us. We read:
     "The Sacred Scripture or the Word is Divine Truth itself." "In the Word there is a spiritual sense, and it is in all and every part of the Word." "It is owing to this sense that the Word is divinely inspired, and holy in every syllable." "The literal sense of the Word is the basis, the continent, and the firmament of its spiritual and celestial senses."
     This basis, firmament, and continent of the spiritual sense is given to us in the Hebrew. In that language the LORD Himself comes to us in fullness and in power. He comes to us in vessels most perfectly adapted to contain and convey His divine instruction, that we may be led to eternal life. When the Word is translated into any other language, the basis, firmament, and continent becomes more or less imperfect, and therefore less powerful against evil, no matter how well translated. And this from various causes. First, because man is imperfect; does not and cannot fully comprehend the spiritual senses of the Word, and therefore cannot clearly see those language vessels which will most adequately contain the life of the Word. Second, the Hebrew language is of a quality better adapted to contain the internal sense than any other natural language. It is a language especially provided by the LORD to contain the truth of His Divine Word. It was not taken by chance.
     How important, then, for the New Church to study the Hebrew and read the Word as given by the LORD. Without doing so we cannot understand the Word in its fullness and in its power. We cannot clearly see the internal spiritual senses in the external literal sense. And when the internal is not seen in the external, it is deprived of its fullness and power. Then, too, as we read the Word in the Hebrew there is more full and perfect conjunction with heaven and the LORD. So important is it to have the Word read in the original, that the Jewish nation have been preserved because they so read it.
     Man's imperfect ability to translate the Word in fullness and in power into another language is manifest.
     The quality of the Hebrew language will appear from a consideration of the teaching of the Church.
     In H. H. 237 we read:
     "Angelic language has nothing in common with human language, except with some words which sound from a certain affection, but not with the words themselves but with their sound, concerning which something will be said in the following . . . It was said to me that the first language of man in our earth agreed (with the angelic), and that the Hebrew language agrees in some things."
     Here we have the first qualification of the Hebrew which fits it to contain the internal sense, viz., agreement with the angelic. This will appear more fully as we advance.
     We read again:
     "One time also there was sent to me from heaven a little chart in which were written only some words in Hebrew letters, and it was said that every letter involved an arcana of wisdom, and that they were within the reflections and curvatures of the letters and thence also in the sounds. Thence it was manifest to me what is signified by these words of the LORD, "Amen, I say unto you, even until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one little horn shall not pass away from the Law.'"-Matt. v, 18.
      That the Word is Divine, as to all its apices, is also known in the Church, but where the Divine lies in every apex is not known, for which reason it is to be said. Writings in the inmost heaven consist of various inflected and circumflected forms, and the inflections and circumfiections are according to the form of heaven. The angels by them express the arcana of their wisdom and also many things that cannot be enunciated by words. And what is wonderful, the angels know that writing without art and master. It is given to them as speech itself. For which reason this writing is heavenly writing. It has been said to me that the most ancients on this earth before letters were invented also had such writing, and that it was translated into the letters of the Hebrew language, which letters in ancient times were all inflected and not somewhat terminated as lines as at this day. Thence it is that in the Word are Divine things, and the arcana of heaven also in the yodhs, apices, and little hones."- H. H. 260.
     Here we are taught how the LORD provided that the Hebrew language should agree with the angelic language and thus be of such a character that the Word written in it could be inspired as to every yodh and little hone. And we see, too, that the Word written in the ancient Hebrew letters contains the internal sense even more fully and completely than the Hebrew as written at this day. And we may reasonably conclude that copies of the Word written in this ancient Hebrew are preserved by the LORD for the use of His New Church when in the Divine Providence the Church shall reach a state in which such copies will be useful. But in the meantime, the conjunction with heaven is very full and complete when we read the Word in the Hebrew of to-day.
     We read:
     "The celestial Angels spoke with me concerning the Hebrew language, saying, that all the letters or syllables there have a correspondence, and that, according to flexures and incurvations, they signify internal things according to the celestial forms."- S. D. 5620.


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     There were shown to me certain syllables (of the celestial writing). They were only curvatures in various forms almost as with certain Orientals. It was said also that the ancients, when writing first began, wrote thus, viz.: those who were before the Hebrews, before the Hebrew language, but that the Hebrew tongue indeed approached to some extent, but still that it recedes from those, since there are there sharp terminations in the syllables which are not in the celestial tongue; but still in those things and in each of the expressions which are in the Word there are in the syllables themselves celestial things which are understood by intermediate angels, thus the intimates also there. But in other writings such things are not given, only in those which are from the Divine, thus in the words in common spiritual writings which are not from the Divine, indeed somewhat lies hidden but not according to correspondences."-D. S. D. 5580-1-2.
     Thus, although the Hebrew of to-day recedes from celestial language because of its sharp terminations, still every syllable contains an internal sense which is understood by intermediate angels. We are taught further concerning this in the following:-(S. D. 4671.)
     "Also, a little chart was sent, written in Hebrew letters as they wrote them in the most ancient times. They differed little from the Hebrew letters of to-day, but still some little, and the angel who was with me said that all things that were written there could be comprehended from the letters alone, and that every letter contained some idea, yea, the sense of ideas, and also he taught what [ ], what [ ], and what [ ], signified-but what the others it was not permitted to say. And also, he said that all things of the Word are thus inspired, and that the third heaven knows thence when the Word is read by man in the Hebrew text, every Divine celestial which is inspired, and that all and singular things therein treat concerning the LORD. Such sense cannot be explained because it is the celestial itself, of which not one idea can be expressed. From this it may appear that the Word, according to the words of the LORD, is inspired as to every yodh, and as to every little hone. I spoke with him concerning the origin of that thing, that the form alone of the Hebrew letters present those things, and he deduced the cause from the form of the flux of heaven which is such. And because they are in that flux who make the foundation of order, that thence they have perception."
      That a great use is here opened to the members of the New Church. By reading the Word in the Hebrew text they enable the celestial angels to perceive the celestial things of the Word in every syllable and letter. And what a use to the members of the Church to be thus conjoined with the celestial angels. For as we are taught, the angels with man communicate their delight hi the internal sense of the Word to men as they read the letters, and thus remains of good are stored up for use to all eternity. We will continue this subject in a following paper in which other qualities of the Hebrew language will be presented.


     IN the report of the proceedings of this year's General Convention, in the Bote der Neuen Kirche, the title of "Bishop" is prefixed to the name of Rev. John Goddard. In a foot-note the editor says:
     "We say 'Bishop.' The General Convention calls this, their Priest-caste, General Pastors; formerly they called them 'Ordaining Ministers.' 'Bishop' is the thing meant, and this title is at least biblical, for which reason the Pennsylvania Association now uses it."
JAMES BRONSON 1883

JAMES BRONSON              1883



MISELLANY.
x.
     IT is late in the evening, or, to be more exact, nearly midnight, and the Worthingtons and their guest are enjoying a sociable talk previous to going to bed. Theirs is a house where the venerable old proverbs of the "early to bed" order are not heeded much. The conversation at first was about the play they, Jim and Ethel had witnessed that evening. It happened that the plot of the play hinged on marriage, and this naturally brought up the subject of conjugial love. "It seems to me," remarked Mr. Worthington, "that very few, even in the New Church, have any notion of what that love is, beyond the vague one of loving, marrying, and being true to one woman."
     "Well, isn't that true?" asked Jim.
     "True so far as it goes," was the reply; "but such an answer is like giving the solution of a mathematical problem in the words, 'Take the cardinal numbers and use them correctly.'"
     On being pressed to give a better solution, Mr. Worthington at first demurred on the grounds that he was not competent, but being urged he said: "It is a doctrine that only a deep and earnest student of the Writings can grasp at all fully. What little I know on the subject I got from such a student, or, rather, it was by means of his labor in grouping together the various portions of the Writings bearing on the subject that I was enabled to see. Briefly and imperfectly summarized, the doctrine is that conjugial love has its origin the conjunction of good with its own truth in man. A man is a form of truth from good or a form of the love of growing wise. What use a form is can best be shown at this day by an illustration of its perversion-for instance, a man with an intense love for money for its own sake. Such a man will study diligently bow to acquire it and be a form of the love of growing wise in money-getting. Such a love is one of the perversions of the true love of growing wise."
     "Why is man called a form of the love?" as Alice.
     "Because love is life from the LORD, and man is but a receptacle or form receiving that life. Another illustration of the perversion of the life so received is that of a man who loves to acquire knowledge and nothing further. Such a man is like a miser who hoards and loves money for its own sake."
     "Surely it is not wrong for a man to love truth?" asked Jim.
     "Certainly not," replied John, "but to love truth in himself is an evil love, and here is the vital point of the doctrine. This love is the love of one's own intelligence inmostly, in which is a denial of the LORD as the only wise and the only source of wisdom. Note the distinction: the love of growing wise-of acquiring wisdom-is good and proper with man, but the love of that wisdom in himself is not proper to man but to woman, for woman is the form of the love of the wisdom of man. In true marriage the wife is the proprium of the Understanding, and the husband is the proprium of the Will of the conjugial partners. Woman was created out of man by a transcription of his proper wisdom; that is to say, the love of this wisdom was transferred from the man to the woman so that conjugial love between a man and a woman might exist, and this cannot exist if the man loves his own wisdom, but it can exist if the man love his wife and not himself, and the wife love the man's wisdom and not herself.

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Conjugial love is implanted in woman from creation, and as she was created out of man, her love seeks to return into the love from which it was taken by loving its form, which is the wisdom of the man."
     After this somewhat long speech of John's there was an interval of silence, broken at length by Jim, who said: "I suppose the true way for a man to win a woman's love is to acquire wisdom-something proper for her to love?"
     "Yes, it seems so," replied John, "and yet I think there is an error in it; that is, so far as it contains the idea that the mere acquiring of wisdom fits a man for the honor of a woman's love."
     "I do not catch your meaning," replied Jim.
     John laughed as he replied, "I hardly catch it myself. What I am trying to get at is this: that each man's wisdom is peculiar to himself, and each has a form of its love, or woman, that belongs to it alone, and there can be but one-its conjugial partner. Therefore, the acquiring of wisdom should be with the idea of that woman only, and not for any of the sex in general."
     "I see your meaning now," said Jim. "There is but one form, or woman, created for each individual man, and no other woman can possibly fill her place; or in other words, it comes to the truism that a thing can only exist in its own form."
     "Precisely," replied John. "When one has a knowledge of this doctrine, many things in the lives of men are made clear. We often hear it said of a man that it was his wife who made him what he is, and by a knowledge of this doctrine, we can see how it is; for man, when he is alone, is very apt to let his wisdom rust in comparative idleness. Woman is eminently practical she cares not to search and acquire of herself, but to put in use that which is acquired."
     "According to the doctrine," said Jim, "the man who loves his own wisdom, or, in common parlance, the 'conceited' man, is in the queer position of occupying a woman's place in regard to himself; that is the reason, I suppose, why it is said that a woman cannot love a conceited man, for her place is filled by the man himself."
     "Yes," answered John, "and such a man, it seems to me, is a fair example of the 'Unitization of the sex' we hear so much about of late."
     The evening following the one on which the foregoing conversation occurred, Jim returned 'home,' as he called it and found John and Alice alone in their favorite room; the former was reading to his wife.
     The book was laid aside as Jim entered the room, but he did not seem in a conversational humor, but sat for a long time absorbed in thought. Finally looking up, he said, "I have asked Ethel to be my wife, and she has consented."
     "My dear fellow," said John, taking him by the hand, "let me congratulate you, for you have won a prize."
     "Thank you," was the simple reply; and then he again seemed lost in thoughts
     John looked at him a moment and said, "Pardon me, Jim, for saying so, but you seem more depressed than elated."
     "Do I?" replied Jim, turning his serious eyes on the speaker. "I am not. I am intensely happy, and yet have a feeling of fear; my whole soul and life is so bound up in her, she is so preeminently first in every respect to me, I fear my love for her stands above my love for the LORD, for heaven, and the Church, and that I were to lose her, I should, like Job, curse the, day I was born." He arose and slowly walked to and fro through the room. "I know all this is irrational, but it surges through my mind. I dread to contemplate what
I should become were I to lose her."     
     "Do not fear," said Alice, quietly, "for in your love for Ethel is contained love to the LORD, to heaven, and the Church. I know her to be a true New Church girl; she has given you her love, and-"
     "Do not think for a moment," exclaimed he, hastily, "that I in the remotest manner doubted her. I was troubled at the bare thought of the loss of her-of the loss alone-but it is passed now."
     In due course of time Jim and Ethel were married, and as his duties were such as to prevent any extended bridal trip, the young couple went at once to the neat little house which Jim had bought and commenced housekeeping. Ethel said, with a laugh, that they would take the bridal tour when they were old, dignified, and rich, and that she would rather manage a house "all our own" than go to Europe, "wouldn't you, Jim?" and he decidedly assented, for his life was where she was.
     The first anniversary of their marriage was passed at Mr. Gerhardt's. There were a number of other guests besides. Mr. Gerhardt's house was situated in the suburbs of the city and the spacious grounds surrounding it were shaded by large trees and screened from the street by dense masses of foliage. The weather being very warm, the party, after dinner and about sunset, left the dining-room for the shade of the trees and the cooler air of the grounds. An animated conversation sprung up on the subject of "giving," which after a time Mr. Ralph Lighte interrupted by saying: "My friends, when I view these beautiful grounds I feel, as did Mrs. Pardigiggle when looking upon a similar scene, that they are well suited for speech-making; now, by some law, the origin of which has never been discovered or given by learned men, the after dinner hour is pre-eminently the time for speech-making."
     "Perhaps because after dinner man is not apt to resent things," suggests Mr. Worthington.
     "I indignantly repel the insinuation," replies Mr. Lighte, "and I move that Mr. Gerhardt give us his views on the subject of giving in the form of a speech."
     This being heartily seconded, Mr. Gerhardt arose, and I after some pleasant remarks said: "All present know and acknowledge from the Writings that their worldly possessions are a gift from the LORD. Yet how many of us are free at times from a feeling that these goods are the results of our own shrewdness?' When a man entertains this feeling, what does it lead to? That when he gives to the Church he is conferring a favor. On whom? The LORD, for the Church is His. Giving from such a feeling fails to accomplish the primary end of giving- that of benefiting the giver. I do not say this with the end of having more money given to the Church, but to impress upon all the necessity to themselves of giving something of their means. Some may think, 'What little I could give would be of small benefit.' Such a thought comes from the idea that the giver is the one conferring the favor-a false notion. It is needless, perhaps, to say that still falser would be the position of one who gave because he thought It would benefit himself in the next world-of paying his way to heaven. We should give from a love of use, and the LORD'S Church is the highest use on the earth."
     When Mr. Gerhardt had concluded, Mr. Lighte said: "It seems to me that Mr. Gerhardt might have added to his excellent remarks by 'saying that if we cannot feel the delight in giving, we can at least see the truth and compel ourselves to follow it; in other words, we can fight our disinclination to give as we would any other evil."


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     Mr. Worthington arose and' said: "As my friend Ralph has set the example of making appendices, if I may so call them, to Mr. Gerhardt's remarks, I will follow his example. After a man has determined to give, the question then arises, to what? for in the Church there are very many uses requiring money. Without in the least disparaging the missions, either home or foreign, the colleges, the tract and publishing societies, and other like uses, I must say that in my opinion the organized body or society is first in importance. A strong, well-organized body might well be compared to an army, strong in proportion to its discipline and members. If for want of means it disbands, as has been the case in so many instances, it in great part, if not wholly, loses its power. The missionary and the tract are proper adjuncts of societies, but they are not primary. There have been many generous givers in the Church, but the donation of a large sum by one man does not and cannot take the place and do the work of smaller sums given by many. Had the societies that once existed and have passed away been supported by generous givers at their start, they would have grown, and as years rolled by and their children came into-" here the speaker paused and cast a quizzical look at a minister present, then he resumed: "Just at this point the thought struck me that I have been indulging in a little lay preaching, and as a natural sequence went astray. I said these societies died out for want of generous giving. I mistook an effect for a cause. Why were those men not givers, I am almost tempted to say New Churchmen, for this is my individual opinion only-a man who cares so little for the Church as to be unwilling to contribute something toward her proper support can care but little for that of which he professes to be a member. There are few men so situated that they cannot do something toward gratify their loves; hence, if they fail to give to the Church, it is a logical conclusion that their love in that direction is so small they do not care to gratify it. The 'why' for this state of things I will not enter upon."
      Space will not permit an account of the numerous informal addresses made upon this occasion, but in conclusion the remarks made by him whose early life has been so imperfectly sketched will be given. Mr. Lighte, who by tacit consent had assumed the position of chairman of this informal meeting, said, "I now call upon our young friend, 'our Jim,' for some remarks, and from all present the call was echoed.
     Tall, handsome, and earnest as ever, he arose and; said: "This has been to me a golden day, such a day as in my boyhood I had vaguely dreamed of and longed for, and I humbly thank the LORD that in His Divine providence He has guided me to it. There are present here some younger than myself who have all their lives keen favored with the protecting sphere of a strong and united New Church Society or home. That they realize and are thankful for their favored state I fully believe. But the day may come in the lives of some of them when they will be called upon to go forth into the world away from these protecting spheres. If such a day should come to any of them, they will then realize more than ever the advantages they now enjoy, for it will be a day of trial-of trial in which alone the Divine Truth they have acquired can protect them. I do not wish to be egotistical, but perhaps a brief mention of my own life may be useful in showing the advantage, the necessity, of children receiving sound instruction in the Church. In my childhood's days I received true instruction in a society such as is given in the one of which many present are members. Very early in life I was cast adrift in the world, away from the Church or any belonging to it. Then it was that the true and unwavering manner in which I had been taught saved me, for I was but a child, an irrational form of hereditary or natural evil. I clung to the truth blindly, not because it was seen by me to be the truth, but because those whom I had loved and respected had told me it was, and it carried me safely through the trial until the LORD endowed me with rationality to see. To see that what I had been taught was His truth, to see that of myself I was but a weak and evil mortal, and to see that but for His truth given to me when a child, I should have fallen-how low I care not now to contemplate. The common habit of teaching children, if it can be called teaching, that they must not be bad, but good little children, and giving them nothing further save that- the evil go to the bad place and the good to heaven, may be right, but for my part I prefer teaching that comes with a 'Thus saith the LORD.' I prefer it for children as well as for men."
     What better place to leave our friends than this? Their lives are not finished, nay, are but commenced, but it is not our province to follow them further.
      [THE END.]
DIFFERING VIEWS 1883

DIFFERING VIEWS              1883

     THE people knew not their King or his law, so low had they sunk. To save them, the King called to him a man, and gave through him to the people that which they had lost and more. The people smiled, and called the man a mystic or a lunatic when he offered them the King's writings. They pretended to believe in a King with one body and three heads1 or three bodies and one head, they were not sure which; but they really believed in themselves only, hence each one was his own King so far as he dared be without offense to his stronger neighbor. Still, a few acknowledged their true King, and in time the number increased. Then came some queer phases.
     Some said the writings, as they termed the King's revelation, were the man's, and they would believe only what they saw fit. They measured them with the yardsticks of their own minds. "What cannot be so measured," quoth they, "is open to doubt. Our yard-sticks are our only standards." They said the man wrote as he did because of his goodness. If any one became better he could improve on what was written. Others said all such knowledge came by "influx," that every one was receiving it to a greater or less degree. Still others said they had made the necessary advance in goodness, and spoke very approvingly of the man's "pioneer work," but claimed to be doing higher work or of its doing through them. Not many of the believers believed this, whereat it was hinted that they were not good enough yet to be capable of it. One queer thing about the "higher ones" was that no two of them in the least agreed in what they said beyond the fact that they were "celestial." Many of the things in the King's writings were so plainly true that the people at large took them and said they were their own discoveries. Some said this was larceny, and others that it was evidence that loyalty to the King was "permeating the masses."
     Lastly, there were some who took the very practical stand that the writings were the King's, because the man who penned them positively affirmed it, and because from their very nature and scope they could not be otherwise. Strange to say, these practical ones, living among a people who prided themselves on being practical, were regarded with some suspicion.


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"APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE." 1883

"APHORISMS OF THE NEW LIFE."       WM. H. HOLCOMBE       1883



COMMUNICATED.
     EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:- As you believe the Writings of Swedenborg are Divine, and as I accord them an authority second only to that of the Word, it must be a matter of great interest to us to know what they really do teach. As we differ on some important points, we may both be benefited and possibly brought nearer together by comparing opinions in an amicable manner.
     In the first place, however, let me say that you have entirely misconceived the drift and tenor of my little book on Aphorisms. You write as if I taught that we must hang our arms idly down and wait for influx to teach us what to do, or that man had no active part in the work of regeneration. You cannot point to a sentence in the Aphorisms which has any such teaching or tendency. On the contrary, the perfect consent and strenuous co-operation of the human will with the Divine will is everywhere inculcated as the primal necessity of the spiritual life. (See particularly Aphorisms, from 101 to 112.) Your quotation, therefore, from D. P. 321, and your allusions to "the promptings of enthusiastic spirits" have no logical applicability to anything I have written in that little volume.
     I have received scores of letters from the most intelligent New Church people, many of them New Church ministers, cordially indorsing the volume and failing to detect the least trace of the terrible heresies which you imagine you have found in it. How can that be accounted for? Did you not come to its perusal prejudiced against it, having already prejudged it, not on its own merits or demerits, but foregone conclusions derived from your conception of my general heretical status, from your standpoint as to the real meaning of the New Church? or did the mere names of Guyon and Fenelon precipitate you to the conclusion that I indorsed all and everything those authors have written? If you had carefully compared the extracts I made from them with the illustrations from Swedenborg at the end of the book, you would have discovered that I made no selections from Guyon or Fenelon but those which were in thorough accordance with the Heavenly Doctrines.
     It would be well for you, who seem to think that there is no orderly state of the human spirit in this world but that of a closed and fixed natural condition, entirely instructed from without, to consider profoundly the following extract from Swedenborg, which gives the key to the spiritual states of Guyon and Fenelon, and of a great many people in the present day, concerning those at this day who are, as it were, a remnant of the Ancient Church;
     "There are still some who retain and preserve much of the Ancient Church, and who are especially distinguished by that feature of it by which they perceive whether anything is good. For this reason, also, they are rejected of others, who suppose that they are to be classed with enthusiasts; when yet this was a peculiarity of the Ancient Church, that they had a perception of what was good, and thence of what they should do, acknowledging the operation of spirits, but recognizing in themselves that only of the LORD'S spirit and rejecting others."- S. D. 1987.
     As my own statement of the doctrine of regeneration was very imperfect, and your answers to my position entirely unsatisfactory, please let me re-state the question, and see whether it cannot be made more clear to our minds.
     The general truth is this:
     "In regeneration, as in a kind of image, it appears how the LORD glorified His human principle, or, what is the same thing, made it Divine, for as the LORD altogether changed His human state into Divine, so also the LORD with man, when He regenerates man, altogether changes his state, for He makes his old man new."- A. C. 3296.
     How this work is effected in man is stated in very clear, and yet general terms in the following words:
     "In the conflicts or temptations of each man, the LORD works a special redemption, as He wrought a total redemption when in the world."-By conflicts and temptations in the world, the LORD glorified His humanity, that is, made it Divine; in like manner now with man individually, when he is in temptation, the LORD fights for him, conquers the evil spirits who infest him, and after temptation glorifies him, that is, renders him spiritual. After His universal redemption, the LORD reduced to order all in heaven and hell; with man, after temptation, He does in like manner, that is to say, He reduces to order all the things of heaven and the world that are in him. After redemption the LORD established a new Church; in like manner He also establishes what pertains to the Church in man, and causes him to be a Church in particular.- T. C. R. 599.
     We all know the differences between the glorification of the LORD and the regeneration of the individual- that man is made only spiritual, not Divine; that his evils are only removed and not extinguished; that hereditary evil from the father remains to eternity; that no perfect correspondence between the internal and external can ever be effected in him, etc. In the above extract, Swedenborg tells us some of the resemblances. The central fact is that in both cases the whole result depends upon victory in temptation combats. This our LORD obtained by His own power, the power of the Divine Love flowing into the Divine Truth. There is no power anywhere else, no inherent power in angels or man. The LORD alone effects our regeneration, and He effects it by a process similar to that by which He achieved His own glorification. He takes on or assumes our infirm nature and He sustains all temptations in and through angels and good spirits consociated with us, whose new propriums are His own in them, and thereby conquers our hells and reduces all things in us into regenerate order.
     Swedenborg says "that the Lord with man sustains temptations, and subdues evil and the hells."- A. C. 4287.
     Unless you realize that fact, the whole philosophy of the incarnation and redemption has escaped your grasp, and you are satisfying yourself with words and not things. The LORD performs His work of redemption even to the ultimates of the corporeo-sensual degree only in His own body, and not in ours, although he ever stands ready to perform a similar work in us. The special redemption of the race and His own Second Coming cannot be said to be accomplished until He has entered the general body of humanity and transformed the entire race to the image and likeness of Himself. This is now going on with ever-increasing rapidity, and the result will be that new life, the life of heaven, which from your present external standpoint you repudiate as a fantasy.
     Swedenborg alone has explained to us the mystery; how the LORD continues perpetually to assume our individual humanity, to sustain our temptations, to subdue the hells in us, and to withhold us from evil. He does it by influx from His Divine natural humanity, and that influx is both mediate and immediate. The mediate influx is through the heavens, in which the LORD is all in all, for the LORD constitutes heaven and, the angels are in heaven only as they are in the LORD.

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In order to bring Himself into personal rapport with men; so as to bear their sins, sustain them in temptations, and subdue their evils, He selects from the celestial and spiritual kingdoms of the heavens two angels and consociates them with each individual in such a manner that those angels assume the spiritual states of the man, so that they know no otherwise than that they are the man himself.
     These angels, while engaged in this mission of assumption, are what Swedenborg calls subject-spirits, made use of as media for special purposes, not doing their own work in the heavens, but living in the world of spirits and representing and imitating the affections and thoughts of a whole society, and through that means representing the whole heavens and the LORD. Man invites his evil spirits to himself, but the LORD alone sends the good spirits to us, choosing them, changing them, and arranging them according to the exigencies of our spiritual lives, which He alone comprehends and provides for. It is thus that the LORD, through angels and good spirits as media, assumes our states, maintains our equilibrium and free agencies, bears our temptations, conquers for us, and creates in us-that new proprium which is His own flesh and blood and makes us "members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones."
     These subject-spirits seem to themselves to feel, think, peak, and act of themselves-but it is not so; it is the LORD who feels, thinks, speaks, and acts through them as media. It is thus He comes into rapport with man on the natural plane of his mind, into which the I hells flow. It is thus that He is present with us in temptations-so present, according to Swedenborg, "that it is incredible." So it was also with the LORD in His earth-life. He had societies of angels attendant upon Him and ministering to Him, because He willed to do all things according to order, and yet He received nothing from them but only through them from the Divine.
     So is it with ourselves. The tells inflow with the external or natural man, and the answer comes, not from ourselves, not from our angels, but from the Divine flowing through the heavens and through our angels into our internal man. See A. C. 8769, which you have quoted, and which suits my purpose much better than it suits yours.
     You thus see, without my going into the vaster and profounder subject of the immediate influx of the LORD through our human internals (H. and H. 39) and our remains of good and truth-you see how the LORD can "array Himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd putteth on his garment" (Jer. xliii. 12) and be present with us, even the worst and in hell itself, always according to reception.- A. C. 2706.
     The more you study this phase of the infinite work of regeneration in the light of Swedenborg, the more readily will you come to understand and accept what I have written on the subject.
     There is no difference of opinion between us, although you seem to think there is, in relation to the importance and uses of external truth, the external Church, the external Word, and external instructions of all kind. Man is now born in utter ignorance (though he might be born into all knowledges, A. C. 1902), and he must be initiated into truths by instruction, so that from natural he may become spiritual, and from spiritual celestial. Even the progress of our LORD in the union of the human essence with the Divine was effected according to this instruction by continual revelations. (A. C. 2500.) We only differ as to the standpoints from which we view these things. Looking from an exterior sensual standpoint, you view them as objects of thought. Looking from an interior natural standpoint, I see them subjectively, or as correspondences which reveal to me the causes which produce them. (A. C. 10,204.) You are perfectly right as far as you go. Not going as far as I go legitimately and logically, I seem to you to go wrong.
     I plant myself firmly upon such general truths as the following, announced by Swedenborg:
     There is nothing in externals but what is produced from the interior and thus successively from the inmost. A. C. 994-5.
     The things which appear in externals flow in from the interior, and solely from the LORD.- A. C. 1954.
     Thoughts and ideas exist by virtue of influx from within and not from without.- A. C. 3220.
     The internal clothes itself with such thing in the external as may enable it, in that inferior-sphere, to produce effect.- A. C. 6275.
     The life of the external man is sensual and exterior, or it is natural and interior, according as his truths are from external objects or from the causes of them.- A. C. 10,254. -
     The Aphorisms of the New Life are legitimate deductions from these and similar universal truths of the New Church. They are instinct with the spirit of the Heavenly Doctrines, and your assault upon them, which would have come with better, grace from a man of the Old Church, is eminently unfounded and unjust.
     Your fundamental error is that you take the condition of man in his lowest external state as the normal type and standard which regulates God's government toward him, regardless of what he has been in the past or of what he may be in the future. You seem to forget that he is not now in an abnormal, disorderly state, from which the Second Coming of the LORD is to rescue him. The loss of perception, the development of conscience, the ultimation of the Word in several forms, the establishment of external worship (A. C. 4493), and the necessity for external instructions are all signs and proofs of the decadence of the spiritual life and of a fall from interior and superior to exterior and inferior conditions.
     You do not seem to realize the stupendous fact that the New Church is to be a celestial Church, and the life of genuine New Churchmen is to be a celestial life. You do not rise in your philosophy or your theology above the conception of a life of obedience in the external man. You forget that the marriage of good and truth, the heavenly marriage, does not take place between good and truth of one and the same degree, but between the inferior of the one and the superior of the other. (A. C. 3952.) Thus the natural truths of the 7 Word are married to the spiritual goods of a superior degree, and this produced the spirituality of the first Christian Church. So the spiritual truth of the New Church ill us must be married to the celestial goods of the degree above, and that will ultimate the celestial life in the world.
     Study the laws and phenomena of the celestial life as unfolded in Swedenborg if you would understand and even foresee the forms in which the heart of the LORD'S New Church will finally be manifested in the world. You will then perceive that there are two sources of revelation and instruction, one that takes a comparatively external way through the understanding, necessitated by the fall of man, and the other, a far higher, holier, more interior, and preductive way, through the regenerated will. You will see that after man is initiated into truths according to your own conceptions, if those truths are really conjoined to good, he rises into a discretely higher state, when not only the former truths become clearer and clearer to him but innumerable other truths, never known or revealed to him before, are imparted to him, until "the light of truth from good increases immensely, and becomes a continuous lucidity, for he is then in the light of heaven, which is from the LORD."- A. C. 3833.


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     Read also the following memorable paragraph from Swedenborg, and see in it the state which not only once existed generally in the world, but' which has occasionally cropped out in all ages and Churches, and which is the sure heritage of the men of the New Church in whom spiritual truths shall be conjoined to celestial goods."
     The men of the celestial Church are such that they perceive all the goods and truths of heaven from the LORD by influx into their interiors: whence they" see goods and truths inwardly in themselves as implanted, and have no need to learn them by a posterior way, or to treasure them up in their memory.- A. E. 739.
     Now it possibly seems to you that such people are possessed by enthusiastic spirits, and receive their revelations and instructions outside of the Word and the Church. But it is not so. The Word, which created all things, is something infinitely greater than that little portion of it we see in the literal sense and in the Writings of Swedenborg, for it is the infinite Divine Wisdom-the Divine Truth, omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent. When we are in the RD and the LORD in us, we are in the Word, in heaven, in the Church. If we abide in the Vine we shall bring forth much fruit, but not otherwise, for without Him we can do nothing.
     You are afraid that if our regeneration was so close an image of the LORD'S glorification as I represent it to be "we would all be the LORD," and the Doctrines would be charged with Pantheism. Have you no clear conception of the meaning of the life which is "hid with Christ in God"-or of our LORD'S own words, "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I in him"? Does not Swedenborg say that when the externals of an angel are quiescent, he knows no otherwise than that he is the LORD Himself? Does he not state that the new proprium is a new life given us to feel as if it were our own, but that it is really the LORD in us, while we ourselves in our own propriums are filthy masses of excrement? Why is it that New Churchmen have never yet in their writings, their sermons, or their journalism fully accepted Swedenborg's doctrine of the new proprium and pushed it to its only logical issue-the perfect sanctification of the soul and the redemption of the body from the power of all sin-or, in other words, the LORD'S life in us, and not our own?
     You are entirely wrong in affirming that there is no source of knowledge but external instruction through the Word and the Writings. That may be true of the child, but it is not so of the adult, who in the course of his regenerating life has had the spiritual or celestial degree opened in him. Such a man is in the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word without knowing it, and he may be illuminated from within by the light of heaven flowing through a regenerated will into his understanding. There is no other way of accounting for the tremendous spiritual, rational, and scientific progress of the last hundred years, which has not been made by the formation of vessels of reception by instruction in the Writings. The interior Word is descending everywhere through the opening of the celestial degree, and producing innumerable approximations to Divine Truth in the minds of men without the slightest aid from the Writings of Swedenborg, or from those who seize upon them to build upon external Church without the least authority from the, LORD for doing so.
     You do not seem to recognize the difference between instruction and illustration By instruction the memory is supplied with knowledges which are still in more natural light. Illustration is from the celestial or the
good or the life through the rational and inflates the mind with spiritual light. It is the source of an indefinite multiplication of truths from good. It starts from instructions in externals, but becomes itself a continuous interior instruction.
     I commend to you the following references to Swedenborg. If you will study them and grasp their logical bearings upon all points involved in our discussion, you may see reason to modify some of your own opinions, or you will at least get a clearer conception of mine.
     The order of progression by education is apparently from scientific to celestial truths, but in reality it is the celestial which flows in through the successive degrees, and adapts rational and scientific truths to itself.- A. C. 1495-128.
     Particular instruction in doctrine is given by influx, when truth immediately proceeding from the LORD'S Divine human is conjoined with truth that proceeds mediately, for thence is perception.- A. C. 7058.
     Illustration is from the influx of the light of heaven into the light of the world, but it cannot be given without affection.- A. C. 3138.
     They cannot be illustrated who are in externals, but only those who are in the affection of truth, and no others are in the affection of truth but those who are in the good of life.- A. C. 7012-8694.
     Those who are in the good and explore the Word for the sake of truth, come into illustration and perception - whereby truths are revealed to them.- A. C. 8694.
     Those who are illustrated or illuminated, understand the Word according to its interiors, and they make for themselves doctrine therefrom to which they apply the sense of the letter.- A. C. 9382.
     They are illustrated by the light of heaven, and see what other do not, who are in the affection of knowing truths, and who preserve in thought the distinction between the internal and the external man.- A. C. 5822.
     The Word cannot be understood the better without doctrine made therefrom by the illustrated.- A. C. 10,324.
     The time will come when there will be illustration.- A. C. 4402.
     You say that the external heaven and earth of the human proprium is to flee away, just as the external heaven and earth of the spiritual world fled away at the Last Judgment, viz.: by the instruction in Divine Truth by Divinely appointed means. Such is not Swedenborg's account of the matter, influx for judgment and for instruction are two different processes. Read Swedenborg's account of the causes of the breaking up of external heavens and earth, whether they exist in the spiritual or the natural world.
     The LORD, when the judgment was at hand, caused the heavens to draw near over the, world of spirits, and by this approach of the heavens, such a change of state in the interiors of the minds of those who were below was effected that they saw nothing but terrors before their eyes.- A. R. 342.
     Winds exist (in the spiritual world) from a strong and powerful influx of the Divine principle through the heavens into the lower parts of the spiritual world; and when the influx comes, it fills truths and goods, that is, it fills those who are in truths and goods with the Divine principle as to their soul and spirit; but those whose interiors consist merely of falsities and evils, and their exteriors of truths mixed with falsities and of good mixed with evils, cannot sustain such influx from the Divine principles; consequently, they make themselves to their own falsities and evils, which they love, and reject the truths and goods, which they do not love except for the sake of self and of appearances.- A. E. 419.


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     When the Divine principle proceeding from the LORD flows in intensely, the apparent goods with the evils are dissipated, inasmuch as they are not goods in themselves but evils, and evils cannot sustain the influx of the Divine principle; hence it comes to pass that the externals of such are shut, and these being shut, the interiors are opened, in which there are nothing but evils and falsities thence derived, whence they come into grief, anguish and torment, and in consequence thereof cast themselves down into the hells, where similar evils and falsities have place.- A. E. 419.
     From these paragraphs you see that the organic spiritual causes of the Last Judgment were not "instructions according to Divinely appointed means," but a more intense influx of the Divine principle through the heavens into the world of spirits, the descent of the LORD, the approach of the heavens above the world of spirits nearer to it, and the opening of the interiors of the people in that world, so that the good became better and were elevated into heavenly places, and the evil became worse and precipitated themselves into infernal consociation.
     I believe that the causes thus inaugurated in the spiritual world are still operative, and that judgment and the Coming of the LORD are continuous events-keys to the history of the last hundred years and to the still more astonishing history which is impending. You do not believe it, mainly because Swedenborg has not said so. Swedenborg was no prophet and did not undertake to unveil the future. What was the future to him has now unfolded itself, and it can only be explained by the sublime principles and truths revealed in the Writings of the herald of the New Church. You refuse to see anything outside of Swedenborg. I accept all phenomena, all authenticated facts, including all the evil effects of the LORD'S coming to the evil, not excepting Spiritualism, of which I am not "foolishly afraid," and study and explain them by the light of the Heavenly Doctrines. When I you attain to the same degree of rationality, you will discover that I am not a Spiritist or a victim of enthusiastic spirits. In the meantime, let us allow the largest liberty of opinion to each and all, and still, like John's little children, let us "love one another."
     WM. H. HOLCOMBE.


REPLY.
     WE again make room in our columns for a rejoinder from Dr. Holcombe.
     In answer to his letter, published in our May issue, we gave a somewhat detailed critique of his position. We care not to enter upon another lengthy argument. Still, it may be useful to call attention to the fact that, although Dr. Holcombe has twice taken opportunity to defend the doctrines which we criticised in our February number, he practically admits the justice of our criticisms while seemingly decrying them as unfounded and I unjust.
     The points we made, and with which he was not satisfied, were, first, that he teaches that "Christ must again be crucified and die within us." This he does repeatedly. One example will suffice:
     "The New Life is the spiritual conception, birth, growth, baptism, works, death, resurrection, ascension, and glorification of Jesus Christ in the individual soul." - Aphorisms, No. 2.
     The author takes shelter in Swedenborg's teachings "that the LORD with man sustains temptations and subdues evil and the hells"- A. C. 4287. Had he examined the numbers referred to under this proposition, namely, A. C. 987, 1661; 1692, he might have understood this expression correctly, and not used it in the sense ma which he uses it, nor stretched it to mean that Christ must again undergo death within us.
     Our next objection to the Aphorisms was that they teach that "Divine truth in its external forms cannot do the work of Christ" (No. 60). Dr. Holcombe still insists upon this, and all his explanation will not change its meaning, namely, that the LORD'S truth cannot do the LORD'S work. If he truly does not mean this, we should expect him to be willing to acknowledge that his language should have been different. Instead of this he intrenches himself in his position.
     Again: We objected to the teachings in the Aphorisms that "We can never put anything into the soul from without" (No. 15), and showed its opposition to the doctrine of the New Church. The author, conscious, probably, of the force of the truth brought to bear against his position, pleads advanced regeneration to explain away the teaching of the LORD on the subject, and by perversion of doctrine; which we suppose his interior view of things authorizes, confirms his own teaching. In illustration of his perverted statements of doctrine we call to mind the sentence in his last communication, that "The glorification of the LORD is an image of the regeneration of the human soul," which is the reverse of the truth. At the time we supposed it to be a mere slip of the pen, but in his present letter occurs another statement:
     "The natural truths of the Word are married to the spiritual goods of a superior degree. . . The spiritual truths of the New Church in us must be married to the celestial goods of the degree above, and that will ultimate the celestial life in the world."
     Which, again, is just the reverse of the truth revealed in A. C. 3952, to which he refers. For there, totally subversive of this celestial life theory, which is seemingly founded upon this number, stands this law: That the celestial marriage exists between the good of a lower and the truth of a higher degree. From these considerations the conclusion is forced upon us that all this is not mere chance, but that it is in evidence of the perverted line of thought that runs through this author's writings.
     As to another criticism upon the Aphorisms: The very first of the extracts which Dr. Holcombe makes from the writings of Madame Guyon, whom he gratuitously classes among those compared by Swedenborg to the people of the Ancient Church, is the following:
     "Let us labor with all our might to enter into perfect love, into a spirit of faith, and a total abandon to the leading of JESUS CHRIST; and then we will soon experience the things we are ignorant of at present. The more we believe in the power of GOD and His love for men, the more we permit ourselves to be conducted to GOD by a blind abandon, the more will we love purely, and the more will we be enlightened as to the truths which are contained in the mystical sense of the Scriptures."
     Because Dr. Holcombe adopts such statements, that one must abandon himself blindly to influx from the other world, we charged him with the tendency of teaching his readers to give themselves up to spiritual influences without an active shunning of evils as sins. Did he really mean to teach otherwise he Would have adopted language different from that just quoted, or would have recalled it when his attention was drawn thereto. Instead of this, he makes a show of teaching the shunning of evils, while the spirit of his book, as an unprejudiced perusal of it has evinced, is to lead the reader to think that heaven will flow into him upon his merely abandoning himself to it.


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     The last charge to which the autl1or replied was to the effect that he countenanced Spiritism. Spiritism is an infernal evil; but Dr. Holcombe does not see fit, clearly and explicitly, to affirm this, and to enter the ranks of those who fight it as one of the direst infestations of the New Church. And he who is not against a thing is for it.
     We are sorry that Dr. Holcombe should take the position he does on all these matters, but hope that he may yet become convinced of its falsity. Returning to him sentiments akin to those with which he has kindly closed his two letters, we thus sincerely take our leave from him.
BOOKS OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY 1883

BOOKS OF THE DIVINE HUMANITY       J. A. LAMB       1883

     ARE the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg from the LORD alone? Are they of Divine Authority both in heaven and upon earth? Are the books which contain the New Revelation the LORD'S Advent?
     These are questions of profound interest to the man of the New Church. They are intensely practical in their bearing upon the quality of our religious life as disciples of the LORD'S New Advent. If the books are from the LORD alone we can find the LORD in them. If they are from Swedenborg we can find Swedenborg in them.
     If they are of Divine Authority, both in heaven and upon earth, they are the measure of all else; and are the throne of Divine Glory in ultimates. They are the Divine Charter of the New Jerusalem, and their dominion in the minds of both men and angels "is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and their kingdom that which shall not be destroyed," according to the notable prophesy of Daniel vii, 14.
     If the books of Emanuel Swedenborg are the LORD'S Advent, they are Divine. They should be held separate from human books, and ADVENTUS DOMINI written upon their REPOSITORY.
     If these books are the LORD'S Advent, they are the fulfillment of the Biblical prophecies of that event, comparatively as the New Testament is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament.
     The revelation of God is in books. The Word begins with five books of Moses and ends with five books of JESUS CHRIST. The five books of Moses are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The five books of JESUS CHRIST are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Apocalypse. The former named books are in the Old Testament, and the latter in the New Testament.
     In the books of the New Testament the LORD'S Advent in person, as the Word made flesh, is announced, illustrated, and confirmed. As this first Advent is foretold in the prophetic books of the Old Testament, so in like manner the Second Coming of the LORD is foretold by Himself and by His apostles in many places in the books of the New Testament. And as the first Advent is announced, illustrated, and confirmed in the books of the New Testament, so in like manner the Second Advent is announced, illustrated, and confirmed in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
     And as the incarnation of the LORD was the fulfillment of the prophecies of the Old Testament, so in like manner, His Second Coming in the books written by Swedenborg is the fulfillment of the prophecies of the New Testament.
     At the first Advent, the LORD came as the Word made flesh. At His Second Advent, He comes as the Word made Spirit. At the LORD'S incarnation, He glorified His Humanity. At His New Advent, He glorified His Word. Its seven seals are now opened; the days of the voice of the seventh angel are come, and "the mystery of God is finished as He hath declared to His servants the prophets."-Rev. x.
     "The LORD'S Advent involves two things, the last judgment, and after it the New Church."- A. R. 626.
     And in the True Christian Religion we are instructed, "That this which is the Second Coming of the LORD is for the sake of separating the evil from the good, that those who have believed and who do believe in Him may be saved, and that there may be formed of them 'a New Angelic Heaven and a New Church on earth, and without this Coming no flesh could be saved."- Matt. xxiv, 22, T. C. R 772.
     If we give to this statement that careful consideration which its importance demands, how can we avoid the conclusion that the questions raised at the beginning of this paper require an affirmative answer?
     The Second Coming of the LORD is an act of the Divine Omnipotence, effected in accordance with the laws of Infinite Wisdom, and from its centre to its circumference is a work purely Divine. And "what is Divine always operates in ultimates from first principles and so in fullness. Ultimates are such things as appear before the eyes in the world."- A. E. 475. All power is in ultimates. And ultimates, as we have seen, are such things as appear before the eyes in the world.
     The books which contain the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem are such ultimates, and meet the demands of the case in all fullness and perfection.
These books are, therefore, the LORD'S books, and in them He is continually present in His Divinity. They are, therefore, infallible and of unending authority both in the heavens and upon the earth. For in the Canons for the New Church we are instructed that "No one can hereafter come into heaven unless he be in the doctrine of the New Church as to faith and life. The reason is that the New Heaven, which is now being established by the LORD, is in faith and life according to that doctrine."
     The books of the LORD'S Second Advent are the Word and its doctrine conjoined, like soul and body in man. They are the ultimate by means of which the evil are separated from the good, the New Heaven formed in the spiritual world, and a New Church established in the natural world, without which no flesh could be saved. To separate the books of Swedenborg, which are the interior Word, from the Bible, which is the exterior Word, is to be misled by a fallacy of the senses. For the living Word is within man and not without him as to its virtue and saving power.
     That the Bible alone is a sufficient rule of faith and practice is believed by the first Christian Church. But they are in darkness, and their religious faith is a faith of night. In this lamentable state they must continue until the Divine Truths of the LORD'S Second Advent are seen in the light and acknowledged. (See Coronis.) Concerning their unfortunate condition in the spiritual world, we are instructed that "They who are of the Old Church, and thereby removed from heaven, are in a sort of inundation as to their interiors, and, indeed, over the head; this inundation is not perceived by the man him- self while he lives in the body, but he comes into it after death; it appears manifestly in the other life like a cloudy mist with which they are encompassed: and thereby separated from heaven.

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Such is the quality and character of almost all those within the vastated Church; for they have external but no internal principles, hence, the inundation of their interiors spoken of above."- A. C. 4423-4.
     "No communication with heaven by the Word exists with those who are in false doctrines; but their reading is dispersed on the way like gunpowder inclosed in paper when fire is set to it and it is thrown into the air."- T. C. R. 209. We are, therefore, safe only when we go to the Writings for information in regard to the letter of the Word; for surely if we go to them we can find the LORD in His New Advent and be led by Him into all truth. They have been given "solely for those who will be of the New Church," A. E. 475, and by them the conjunction of both worlds is established. Without them, as we have seen, no flesh could have been saved. And Swedenborg declares in his invitation to the New Church that "The spiritual sense of the Word has been disclosed by the LORD through me, which was never before done since the Word was revealed in the Israelitish Scriptures, and in that sense is the very sanctuary of the Word. The LORD Himself is in that sense with His Divinity, and in the natural sense with his Humanity, and not an iota of this could be opened but by the LORD alone. This exceeds all the revelations which have been hitherto made since the creation of the world. By this revelation a communication has been opened between men and angels, and the conjunction of both worlds has been established."-Inv. 44.
     The power of the Divine Omnipotence is in the ultimate or natural sense of the Word. But this sense has no such power when separated from the internal sense. Consequently the evil could not be separated from the good without the revelation in the books of the LORD'S New Advent. They are the voice of the seventh angel, after the sounding of which there were great voices in heaven saying, "The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our LORD and of His Christ;" and thereby is signified that Divine Good and Divine Truth is then received, when the evil are separated from the good and cast into hell; for then both the superior and inferior heavens can be in illustration, and thence in perception of good and truth, which could not be the case so long as the evil were conjoined with the good; the reason is, because so long as that conjunction had place, the interiors of the angels, who are in the inferior heavens, could not be opened, but only the exteriors, and the LORD does not reign in externals with spirits and men separate from internals, but in internals and from them in externals; wherefore, before the interiors of the angels of the ultimate heaven were opened, which are spiritual and celestial, that heaven could not become the kingdom of the LORD as it could after the separation of the evil from the good.- A. E. 684.
     The internal sense of the Word is therefore its sanctuary and the LORD Himself is in that with His Divinity. It is therefore the throne of the Divine Glory from which the evil are separated from the good, without which no flesh could be saved. And the books of the LORD'S Second Advent are this Divine Glory in ultimates and the external inheritance of the New Jerusalem. They are the "Interior Word," A. 12 948; the "Essential Word," L. J. 28; the "Divine Doctrine of the Word," A. C. 3712; the "Life and Soul of the Word," A. C. 1405, 4857, 1984, and rest upon the exterior Word as their basis, and are evolved from it and confirmed by it. They constitute a wok purely Divine from centre to circumference and are the very sanctuary of the LORD, who is continually present in them. The Divine Humanity of the Word is not elsewhere manifest and without this we could not see the LORD'S face, neither could His name be written in our foreheads.
     In conclusion we may remark that those who separate these books from the Bible are misled by a fallacy of the senses, because their virtue and power is within man and not without him, and inasmuch as the books of the LORD'S New Advent are the interior Word and therefore Divine Doctrine, their relation to the Bible, which is their ultimate continent and basis, and thus the exterior Word, is precisely like the relation of soul and body in man.
MYSTIC, CONN., March 7th, 1883.
J. A. LAMB.
RIGHT AND WRONG USES OF THE BIBLE 1883

RIGHT AND WRONG USES OF THE BIBLE       Rev. B. Heber Newton       1883



NOTES AND REVIEWS.
     This book is another indication of the trend of modern thought. The author denies that the Bible is the Word of God, but still he affirms that it contains the Word of God. He thinks that the different books of the Bible were written by men; they are the results of their study; they are not infallibly true; in fact, they are full of errors, mistakes, traditions; they are in a very different form from that in which they first existed, etc. We came search for things true and good in its pages, and when we find these we have the Word of God, but the books must be ascribed to the writers, and God is not the author in the sense of dictating them. They are superior to the sacred books of other religions only because the Jews had a higher perception and conscience in religious matter. After laboring through several lectures to destroy the belief in the authority, infallibility, and truth of the Bible, he endeavors to repair the damage he has done by urging his hearers to read the Bible, pay no attention to the inaccuracies and errors so-called, but to enter into the spirit of the Word by seeking out beautiful hand elevating passages. He urges them to teach their children to read it daily, to read with them the tales of its noble men, and to commit to memory the choicest passages. After degrading the Word to the level of men's writings, he tries to elevate it out of the common works of men; but in vain, for he takes away its distinction of degree, he denies its real inspiration, when he denies that it contains an internal sense; of this he says:
     "I am solemnly warned against such learned puerilities every time I turn to my shelves and encounter Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia. In ten goodly volumes he interprets Scripture history after this fashion: 'And Rebecca arose: hereby is signified an elevation of the affection of the truth; and her damsels: hereby are signified subservient affections; and they rode upon camels: hereby is signified the intellectual principle elevated above natural scientifics.' Of all this pious sort of folly we may say with the Master, 'Enough.'"
     We give this quotation to show his appreciation of the Doctrine of the Internal Sense, of the only thing which can restore a belief in the Divinity and Holiness of the Word after one begins to doubt. S. S. 4.) The author does not seem to have the first idea of the meaning of the passage he quotes from the Writings, and uses it to throw ridicule on the true doctrine. He must know that the above is a general summary; which Swedenborg goes on to elaborate and explain, and he must either be entirely incapable of grasping interior ideas or else he tries to put the worst appearance forward in order that he may the more easily discredit it.

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If the author had read the full explanation and had also understood it and come into the state described, he would have seen the folly of his present position and the truth and glory of the internal sense, for it there describes the elevation of the affections out of such miserable stuff as we find in the author's own book into the light of heaven itself. See A. C. 3190.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     NO. 6 of the New Church Review was issued about the middle of July. This number contains three papers-first, "The Tractarian Movement;" -second, "The Preparation of Swedenborg," by Thomas Freeman Moses; and third, "Religious Thought in the Seventeenth Century," by Ella F. Mosby.
     Among the book notices is one on Energy: Efficient and Final Cause (James McCosh, D. D.), opening with: "We rejoice, in this bright and vigorous little treatise, to recognize a bold step made by our Calvinistic philosopher above the theology of the billiard table." What that sort of theology is, is not very clear. In conclusion, the reviewer says of the principles of the book that they "will be found excellent stepping-stones for sincere and thoughtful students across the turbulent waters of the doubt and denials of our time into the quiet and fertile lands of a genuine spiritual science, or a theology as afforded in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg." Never having read the book, we are unable to deny this rather poetical conclusion, but, in view of Princeton's late movements, we feel safe in asserting that, if it can be so used, it will be against the decided protest of Dr. McCosh.
     In a reply to a criticism of the Review, contained in the last number of Words for the New Church, it is twice said that the Review goes to the Doctrines as a "learner." It seems to us that no New Church paper should publish a doctrinal statement until convinced it is correct as written. The Writings are clear and distinct enough for a man to gather therefrom positive conclusions, and until they are positive they ought not to be published unless in the form of query. Men conducting New Church papers should be earnest and thorough learners from the Writings, for their own benefit and for that of their readers. If their work goes forth with a "This is our opinion, and we may be wrong," its good is lessened or destroyed. Many points in this reply are open to very decided criticism, but as the controversy is the Academy's, and not ours, we will pass them by.
     Benjamin Worcester's Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg receives some sharp and deserved comments, especially when he speaks of the spiritual power 6f the Catholic being "so great in restraining the evil passions of men, in educating and curing souls."
     The "Notes" in this number treat of matters pertaining to the last meeting of the Convention, and contain considerable spice. The transferring of the Latin Fund from the Board of Publication to the Printing and Publishing Society is commented on as follows: "The new Board may not see, in this action, what we think others may in time come to see, namely: That the Convention has, in a measure, repudiated the services of its own nominal agent, and trusted or transferred directly to an entirely foreign agency an important and useful measure." The note headed "Abuse of Good Music in Boston" contains' a very decided criticism, not of the music or its rendering, but of its place in the service, for instance, the singing' of the Anthem, "I will lay me down in peace and sleep," etc, just before the sermon.
     The Review is always a welcome and interesting visitor to us.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THAT well-known topic, "The State of the Christian World," seems to be the most sensitive point for the majority of New Churchmen, and anything but a rose- colored view is received with aversion. The New Church Review goes with the majority, and in its last number still holds to its position, figuratively expressed by,-"The olive leaf should accompany the sword." No one, of course, will object to the olive leaf, Though what good it will do is rather obscure.
     The orthodox of the Old Church frankly state that they will go to heaven, and that all others will go to hell. The liberal divisions pride themselves on their charity and claim that all will go to heaven-if there is such a place, some of them add in a whisper. Wrapped up in the faith of many New Churchmen seems to be a similar belief: We will go to heaven, and they think it unkind in any one to hint that probably many of the world will not. There are perhaps none but that will say, "I want to go to heaven," and yet most likely if the life of heaven could be arbitrarily thrust upon them there would be few, very few, but that would wail forth, "All our happiness has departed; we are in hell." The fact is that it is in the life of hell that the mass of mankind, irrespective of religious belief, find their delights, for that life, tersely and rudely put, is "looking out for number one;" it is of one's own pleasure, gain, honor; comfort, the placing     of one's own pleasure first, and making that of others secondary. The heavenly delight and life is just the reverse. Let each man analyze his wish for heaven, his ideal heaven, and he may be startled to find it is hell he is longing for instead.
     Thus we see that the state of the Christian world is very far from the heavenly state. The aversion to looking squarely at the truth likely springs from a lingering taint of the old idea, that hell is a place of torment, where men are sent against their will, whereas we know the truth to be that men go there of their own will, because only there do they find their happiness, low as it may be.
     Again, we know that no one can enter the heavenly state who does not acknowledge our LORD JESUS CHRIST to be the only God. How many outside of the New Church have this acknowledgment?
     And again, we know that the second great commandment and essential is that "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." How many outside or inside the New Church do this? Let each one look into his own heart and answer to himself.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Banner of Light is a Spiritualist paper published in Boston. Its issue for July 14th contains a two column editorial, headed "New Church Virulence," directed against the LIFE, and especially the article on Modern Spiritism in our June number, which it regards as exhibiting a "baleful spirit," and as being conceived in the worst spirit of sectarian illiberality and bitterness.
     The most interesting part of the editorial is a statement of the Spiritualistic "Doctrine of the LORD," if we may use the term. As the Banner of Light is the leading paper of its sect, or religion, we can reasonably accept that statement as coming with authority. Briefly, it is "that there is a true sense in which JESUS was an incarnation of the Infinite Spirit of the Universe." "If all human beings are in reality the 'offspring' of the One Father . . . then He must implant in each one an element of His own essential being. . . . In JESUS this divine element was embodied more fully than in most men, . . . and this constituted Him in a special sense 'the son of God.' . . . It has been said, indeed, in these columns that JESUS was nothing more than a man. But it is plain that He taught that man is a great deal more than many have imagined-that in every man is incarnated a germ of the Infinite Spirit, capable of expanding into consciousness with the All Father. This is a momentous truth." (The italics in the foregoing are not ours.)


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     Plainly put, the "momentous truth" seems to be that every man is his own God, or rather that the human race is God, or the "All-Father." This is the only conclusion we can arrive at from the Banner of Light article, yet we trust it is not what is meant, for such a belief, if confirmed, entails direful consequences in the next life. The writer denies that the Spiritualists as a body have adopted the "New Bible" Oahspe. "Probably the general opinion of Spiritualists, when intelligently made up, will be that the work is of undoubted spirit-origin, containing (like all other Bibles) much that is good, more that is doubtful, and at least some palpable errors and inconsistencies."
     The extracts we have given will show in what dense darkness the Spiritualists are plunged.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Bote der Neuen Kirche in speaking of the fact that the Rev. Chauncey Giles has been engaged to write the article on the "New Church" for Dr. Herzog's
Theological Encyclopaedia, says that with all respect for Mr. Giles, it would have been better had this task been given to "a committee of capable theologian."
     The same paper, in a review of the last number of the Words for the New Church, says:
      "This excellent work (xi, part v), merits the highest praise, for it is in fact an exact theological Journal (serial), spreading the Truth and Light, as never yet has been done by any other New Church work. The "Conflict of the Ages" is the chief contents of the last number, and treats of the ecclesiastico-historical subject in the light of the New Church with such versatility, and at the same time so impartially and truthfully, that it is genuine happiness to consider ecclesiastical history in this glory."
LETTER FROM ENGLAND 1883

LETTER FROM ENGLAND       L. H. T       1883



CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     WE arrived in Liverpool on Friday afternoon, June 23d, at four o'clock. We were afraid we could not go over the bar at the mouth of the Mersey, which can only be crossed at high tide, but our vessel made haste and survived at the bar just at two and a half-the outside limit of time at which we could pass it. Thence we had yet to go up fifteen miles to the city. At four we cast anchor in the river, and as the ships cannot get to their docks, except at high tide, the mail, luggage, and passengers were transferred to a lighter, a boat somewhat larger than one of our tug-boats. On this lighter, before we went on board, I was looking about for Mr. Tilson, to whom we had telegraphed from Queenstown. I did not see him, but instead of him I discovered my brother, Rudolph, or rather he first discovered me, for as I did not expect him at Liverpool I was not so much on the lookout for him. The people on the lighter were very much astonished to find us anchored in the river for they had supposed that we should not be able to cross the bar. The lighter took us up to the Custom-house Station, where we had to wait until all the luggage was examined. Though this examination was very superficial; yet it kept us till about six o'clock. Then we proceeded to the hotel and had supper. After which we went out to Mr. Tilson's, who lives in the suburbs. At eleven o'clock Mr. Tilson showed us the way back to our quarters.
     On Saturday we proceeded southward by the Midland Railway. My brother went half way with us to Derby. The scenery along this railway is very beautiful. Hill and valley, limpid streams and little lakes, make every now and then beautiful scenes where one would love to linger. My utilitarian tendency was further gratified by the fact that every inch of ground seemed to be applied to use.
     As we passed from Lancaster to Derbyshire, the scenery became more romantic. Beginning at the top of the chain of hills that divides the waters of the west and the east, there is a beautiful little narrow valley called Millers' Dale, in which the railway dashes down by the side of a beautiful brook, which afterward empties into the Trent.
     At Derby we met Mr. J. F. Buss, from Melbourne. At Kentish Town, the northern station in London, we were met by Mr. Spiers, who attended to everything very kindly and who took us to my brother's house and stayed with us for dinner. Then he took us to the Camden Road Church, of Gothic architecture and larger than ours in Philadelphia, and thence to his house near by.
     On Sunday I proceeded with Mr. Tuerk to church in good time, so as to have everything in order and to know what would be required of me. They had made the arrangement, not unusual here of getting one of the students to read the whole of the liturgy, except the Ten Commandments, so that I had no trouble. The service is longer than ours and contains three hymns, one chant, and one anthem. They still retain the old English liturgy, not having adopted the new English one.
     I preached on the text, "O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, not comforted!"
     The church is somewhat harder to fill than ours, as it contains an organ in its gallery and a transept, and the voice seems somewhat caught thereby. After services we drove out to Mr. Whittington's to dinner.
     In the evening I preached on the text, "They that trust in the LORD are as Mount Zion."
     Monday we visited the New Church bookstore in the Swedenborg Society's room. There we saw many interesting things. The portraits of noted New Church I ministers, one of Swedenborg, the table (mahogany) on which he used to write while in London at Mr. Shearsmith's, a cane that belonged to him, with the initial's engraved on the head of it, also the photographs of General Muravieff, who had been so active in procuring the liberation of the Russian serfs, also that of his son and of four noble ladies belonging to the New Church. All these had been brought over from Russia in 1863 by Dr. J. Bayley.
     From here we went to Westminster Abbey, and passed the greater part of the day looking over the inscriptions, the statuary, and other curiosities in that memorable pile. We also heard part of the afternoon service: fine singing, a beautiful, sweet, and mellow-toned organ. We found the poets, the ancient and modern kings of England, generals and sea-captains, men of science and general learning, grouped about in the main aisle and in the many adjacent chapels, which are all connected into one. There were also a great many noble lords and ladies bedded there, and even babies, whose only claim seemed to be in the names they bore and their blue blood.

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Among the kings and queens I was especially pleased to find Mary Queen of Scots in a place of honor, with a well executed (as far as I could gain a view of it) statue, in recumbent position. If I mistake not, one or two of the marble fingers had been I broken off, as, indeed, was the case everywhere, whether by accident or the rapacious claw of the curiosity hunter it might be difficult to determine.
     From Westminster Abbey we went to the Parliament Buildings over the way, which from the towers at the two extremities at first strike one as being a great cathedral. The paintings in the corridors present in part the conflicts between the kings and Parliament, also other features of English history. I was somewhat surprised to find also a painting setting forth the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers. Besides these paintings, the corridors are adorned with the marble statues of the great parliamentary orators. As strangers have no general admission, except on Saturdays, we did not seethe halls of the House of Commons and of the House of Lords. We saw, however, the High Court of Appeals sitting, with their queer wigs and peculiar in their ways. The lawyers spoke in such low tones that, though we were quite near to the judges' bench, we could only hear occasional snatches.
     In the evening (June 27th), we had a delightful organ recital at the Church. The playing was the best I had as yet heard, and the organ remarkably sweet-toned and powerful. Madame Bolingbroke has, I think, the finest alto voice I yet have heard, both as to power and sweetness.
     June 28th, we saw the great Cathedral of St. Paul's and went up on its dome. The Cathedral is very huge, but its fittings more simple. A number of common wooden benches with backs to them, then further on common chairs with canvas-covered seats; most of the windows were plain glass, altogether, hardly what I had expected.
     From the dome there, is, then the sky and air are clear, a wonderful prospect, but few persons have seen it, for even when the weather is clear there is usually a mist or haze, confining one's view, to two or three miles, as was the case in the present instance. Still, we saw the great London bridges and many spires and roofs. The wind was so strong that I left my hat inside.
     From St. Paul's we went to Hyde Park, the great London Park, where from five to seven in the evening on fair days "everybody that is anybody" go out driving. We saw numberless carriages, most often of fine style, with footmen and liveried coachmen.
     On Saturday we were out at the Sunday-school picnic of the Camden Road Society. It was held at Rickmansworth, a park belonging to Lord Ebeury, and which is kindly lent to Sunday-school and other parties when applied for in a proper way. It is about one and a half hours distance from our house, reckoning our walk and the railway ride. We had a beautiful day after a thunder-storm and rain the previous night, which at first made us believe that the weather would be foul.
     After we got there we went to the lodge to leave our wraps and baggage. Around the lodge was a very pretty garden, with grass plots, trees, bushes, and artificial thickets, having a small river on one side, but even this fenced off by trees and bushes, so that the whole was inclosed by green, with no fence or other, limit appearing, and only after a careful examination one finds how small space it really is. It was a three-cornered plot, about a quarter the size of Logan Square in Philadelphia.
     After dinner we took a long walk through the park, and yet we saw only a part of it, for it is very extensive and it was too warm to walk far. So we lounged about, chatting and looking at the mansion and grounds. There were a large herd of deer, we saw some sixty of them-with does and fawns, they were quite tame, though not enough so to allow us to go quite up to them. There were also many sheep, cows, and horses. The park was especially noticeable for its many fine old trees, elms and oaks, standing singly or in groups, with long stretches of green between; all open, so that you could ride or drive freely in any direction through the park. Besides the elms and oaks there were also various other kinds, as linden, plane, yews, firs, pines, etc. The little ones of the picnic amused themselves with various games, shuttle-cock, jumping rope, etc., while the men and boys had a game of cricket and also of "rounders," this latter being somewhat like our base ball. Tea was served in the lodge, and soon after all went home, after having passed a very pleasant day.
     Sunday, July 18th, the Rev. Mr. Tuerk preached in the morning and in the evening, at Camden Road Temple.     L. H. T.
BERLIN, MICH. 1883

BERLIN, MICH.       W. D. M       1883

     -We have just had an unusually interesting time in our society life. The Rev. J. R. Hibbard got here on the sixth to stay over Sunday. The first evening he delivered a sermon on "Jacob's Ladder;" or, "the way with steps," to a small congregation in our little country temple. On Friday afternoon we had a social meeting of members and friends at the house of Mrs. J. Reid, when her daughter's child and husband were baptized. On Saturday Mr. Hibbard baptized the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Ives at home. At 10.30 on Sunday we heard an interesting sermon on "the Bread of Life," the temple being well filled, after which the Holy Supper was administered, some having come twenty miles to participate. At 3.30 the temple was still better filled, and a sermon on "the Mustard Seed" delivered, and Mr. Hibbard bid us farewell, intending to start early next morning. But the most interesting part was yet to come. Mr. J. Marshall, who had met Mr. Hibbard on his arrival and taken charge of him all through, had taken him nearly to the station, when it was found that Mr. Hibbard's cloak had been left behind. So they came back, and started again for the afternoon train, when they met Mr. Arnott, who had just arrived from Grindstone City, and who intended to have been present on Sunday for the purpose of being baptized, but had not received the notice sent him till Saturday evening, and had come about ninety miles on Monday forenoon, hoping Mr. Hibbard might still be here-even making unusual railroad connections, or he could not have reached here before night. So Messrs. Marshall and Hibbard drove back again, taking a roundabout road, so as to invite as many as possible of the friends to meet at Mr. Marshall's house in the evening, where we had another pleasant meeting and four baptisms, a child of one of the members and Mr. Arnott and two sons-in-law of Mr. Marshall, after which Mr. Hibbard talked on the particular providence of the LORD as illustrated in the little things that resulted in the present meeting. Thus we had seven baptisms at this time, all the four men having wives previously connected with the Church
     W. D. M.
     June 16th, 1888.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DR. TAFEL is, we understand, preparing an extensive pamphlet in reply to his various critics. It will have for its principal theme that of Verbal Inspiration.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



131



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

          PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER, 1885.
     WE are indebted to friends in this country and Canada for newspapers containing articles referring to the Church. These papers are preserved, and are not only of interest and value to us now, but will be, perhaps, of still greater value to the future men of the Church. We tender our thanks for papers sent, and hope that all our readers will remember that such papers are always welcome and of use.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Tribune, of Altoona, Pa., August 9th, contains the following: "Rev. John W. White, Presbyterian pastor at Mitroy, Muffin County, is charged with circulating Swedenborgian tracts and preaching heretical views. He will be tried at a session of the Huntingdon Presbytery, which meets for that purpose at Lewistown, on the 4th of September." So ends another well-meant attempt at bringing the New into the Old.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A SCIENTIFIC investigation of the phenomena of Spiritism is in progress under the auspices of the Pennsylvania University. The late Henry M. Seybert, a Spiritist, of Philadelphia, had so much faith in Spiritism that he left a large bequest to the University on condition that it institute a formal and scientific investigation of its claims, A committee of five of the leading professors has been appointed to undertake the task.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     OUR readers will please to make the following corrections in the last number of NEW CHURCH LIFE. On page 118, lines 17, 22, and 42 from bottom, and on page 119, line 27 from bottom, for "hones" read "horns." The "little horns" referred to are small lines of Hebrew letters such, perhaps, as the upward dash of [ ]. On page 119, line 38 from bottom, read [ ] instead of [ ]. The letter [ ] is the "jot" and the "jodh" referred to in the article.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     PROTESTANTS in this country and Germany are already beginning to celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther, which will occur on the tenth of November. The Writings give us much information as to Luther, his character and motives, as well as his state in the other life; and much also in regard to the real nature of the Reformation. We hope to lay before our readers an article on Luther in the light of the New Church.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN a recent lecture by Mr. W. J. Colville, delivered in Horticultural Hall, Boston, on the subject of the resurrection, published in No. 22, Banner of Light, the lecturer said: "Swedenborg revealed a stupendous truth of paramount importance when he declared that the spiritual body is inclosed during earthly life in the physical form, and that when dissolution ensues it goes out into the spirit-world perfectly human, but beautiful, or the reverse, by measure as the indwelling spirit is exalted or debased."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ANOTHER Congregational minister has fallen into heresy. The Rev. Charles W. Park, a nephew of Professor Park of Andover, has avowed his belief in a future probation for all men," and his rejection of infant baptism. As is usual with "advanced" thinkers he has doubts respecting the "Bible." Congregationalism is evidently rapidly disintegrating. Many of the best minds, under the name of "New Orthodoxy," are going halfway (or further) to meet German Rationalism, while the faithful are withdrawing to safer folds.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Longmont Ledger (Colorado) of August 17th has editorial notice of the Rev. J. R. Hibbard's lectures delivered in that town. The editor refers to him as a "clergyman of the New Jerusalem Church so-called," and after a very complimentary description of his appearance and style, says: "As the Ledger is not in any technical sense a religious paper, it will not attempt any criticism of Dr. Hibbard's theology beyond the mere statement that we have seldom listened to a clergyman of any denomination who laid down his premises more clearly; and whose conclusions seemed more legitimate and natural."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A CORRESPONDEET, commenting upon the instrument of organization of the General Church of Pennsylvania, published as supplement to our April number, wishes to know why, in using the name of the LORD in several places, "LORD JEHOVIH" was used in place of "LORD JEHOVAH." The answer is that the Coronis, from which those Principles are taken, gives the name as LORD JEHOVIH. The reason for this appears in Arcana Coelestia 1793: "In the Word there often occurs LORD JEHOVIH, yea, as often as JEHOVAH is called LORD, He is called not LORD JEHOVAH, but LORD JEHOVIH, and this especially where temptations are treated of." In A. C. 2921, we are taught that it is said LORD JEHOVIH," especially where The help of omnipotence is sought and supplicated for." See also A. C. 1819 and 9167.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A FRIEND and subscriber in Illinois writes, taking us to task for our articles on "Communication with Angels and Spirits" and our criticisms of Dr. Holcombe's Aphorisms. In referring to what we stated in regard to Johnston's Diary, he says: "As to the contents of James Johnston's Diary, I have to inform the LIFE that they are true and also not the only ones existing at present, since I can and will give a continuation of said Diary as soon as the LORD will give the command. This record dates from the 10th of December, 1880, and contains facts demonstrated to me."

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Our correspondent further says that the Church between the years 1880 and 1889 will undergo great changes of state, and "this change is taking place even now." He further states: "Since I am warned not to give publicity to my experiences until the proper time, I only want to draw the LIFE'S attention to one more point . . . namely, the Conjugial Principle, or, as it is sneeringly called on page 120 of the LIFE, 'unitization of the sex,' which is an established truth or fact with me." We are warned not to "make light of this sphere," since it "is the Holy Spirit which the LORD in the last days will pour out upon all flesh." Again, "how Christ is undergoing death within us in an arcanum known only fully by people principled in Conjugial Love."
     In speaking of the Writings, our correspondent says, that they "are essential and indispensable for to make the LORD truly manifest to mankind, yet after a man has found the central truth through the Writings and opened his heart unreservedly to the LORD, one can and does receive instruction directly from the LORD through the Word, and the LORD also gives such demonstrative lessons which will send him on the path of regeneration with formerly unknown rapidity."
     The state of our correspondent seems to be analogous to that of Christy, Harris, Johnston, Pond, and many others, and the moral to New Churchmen is very plain     -let Spiritism alone.
PATH OF LIFE 1883

PATH OF LIFE              1883

     EVERYTHING in the natural world exists by reason of a cause in the spiritual world. The thing that corresponds b called a representative, and the word expressing the natural object is called a significative. Thus words signify and things represent the spiritual things to which they correspond. And this is true not only of the sun, the earth, fields, minerals, trees, animals, but of the very gestures and actions of man. For these represent the things which are of the mind. Thus are they representatives, and since they concord they correspond. Hence all our actions and words are significative. They are full of meaning. In the New Church we must never ask in a light, off-hand manner, when we do anything:
     "What does it signify?" Everything we do signifies much. Every action of ours, every word of our lips, is recorded in our book of life as surely, as indelibly, and as lastingly as the words and actions of the prophets are recorded in the Book of the LORD-the Sacred Scriptures. Every action of ours is representative of an impulse, every word of a thought. In our memory stands recorded in significative characters everything which our body has enacted. That memory is an open book in the other life. At any moment when the LORD pleases, He can turn to any leaf and let the angels read there of our actions and words. Shall we go through life unmindful of the lesson which the sciences of correspondences, of representatives and of significatives impress on us? Let us beware of our feet, our hands, our lips, that they enact what is in correspondence with noble affections and true thoughts. Let our gestures and speech be representative of what is good and true within us. Then will what is written in our Book of Life, be significative of things spiritual and celestial. And in order that we attain this, we must so fashion our desires and thoughts that they concord with the internals which are signified by the literal sense of the Word. If our internals agree with the internals of the Word, our externals, like its externals, will be significative of what is pure and good and holy.
GERMANY 1883

GERMANY              1883

     THE Church in Germany has been in the last years passing through a series of fermentations and vastations by which erroneous ideas and tendencies, which had been doing their mischievous work hitherto unseen, came manifestly to the surface, thus enabling the Church to grapple with them and with the help of the LORD to dislodge them.
     To the casual observer it must seem strange that the Church has made so little headway in Germany in this first century of the Church. Some have attributed this to a lack of receptivity of the German mind; but this seems to be a mistake, for in America, under different circumstances, a relatively large proportion (about one thousand) of the German-speaking population belongs to the New Church. A glance at the history of the Church in the various countries throws some light on the subject. In England and America one of the first acts of the Church organically assembled was to come into the Divinely appointed order of the Church through the consecration of priests and the orderly administration of the sacraments. This has been the case in Germany for a few years, and we have no shadow of doubt that the lack of progress is mainly owing to the opposition to the Divine order, or at least its non-reception.
     If we wish to reap a harvest we make use of the Divinely appointed means to that end; if we wish to be useful in the upbuilding of the LORD'S Church we must also use the Divinely appointed means; if we do not, we need not be astonished at our failure. The natural result of a rejection of the priestly office in the Church in Germany has been the practical denial of the New Church as a separate organization. If there is no need of New Church priests, of course there is no need of New Church sacraments; but since the sacraments are clearly enjoined in the Writings, the next consequence of this position was that the dead Baptism and Communion of a dead Church were accepted, instead of the living sacraments of a new and living Church.
     The tendency of late movements has been to bring back the Church to its true moorings and to establish it in a form more orderly and therefore more receptive of the influences of the New Heavens.
     In Flacht, Wurtemberg, there is an old and reliable circle of about twelve families who hold fast to the faith. The Church was introduced there by Dr. Im. Tafel, whose father was the Lutheran pastor of Flacht, and who toward the end of his days was favorably disposed to the Doctrines. Numerous active members of the Church have come (some to America) from this village, the best known and most active being Mr. J. G. Mittnacht, now of Frankfort, the publisher of New Church works and editor of the "Neukirchenboetter."
     In Stuttgart and in the surrounding towns are Circles which are regularly visited by the Missionary, the Rev. F. Goerwitz. The centre of New Church operations in Stuttgart is at Mr. Amman's. He and his wife, originally from Switzerland, came to Stuttgart partly in order to have the advantages of New Church worship under Rev. F. Goerwitz, but they arrived after his removal to Zurich had been agreed upon. They still hope that another year may bring back the Missionary to reside in Germany, and that their efforts may be more effective in building up the Church there.
     There are other living centres in Germany, and the German Union is doing its best to supply them with spiritual food; but the cry there as elsewhere is: "The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few: pray ye therefore the LORD of the harvest that He would send forth laborers into His harvest."


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SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 1883

SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES              1883

2.-POETRY.

     AKIN to the subject of our previous article, because expressive of affection and thought in symbols and sounds, is written and spoken language.
     The first speech of men on every earth was by the face and the lips, in agreement with the speech of angels (A. C. 607, 1118). In origin, speech was an effigy in the face of the will and thoughts of the speaker; it was angelic language terminated in things of space and time. At first it was soundless, or, at most, like a gentle aura almost tacit (A. C. 7359 to 7361). Its affection was represented in the face and its thought in the eyes (Ibid., also S. D. 5587).
     We cannot fully conceive of the delights of the paradisiacal days of the Golden Age, but from revelation we may learn something of them. Heaven and earth were in sweet and peaceful accord. Nature, unperverted, mirrored forth to man the exquisite beauties of the spiritual world, and displayed to him in living panorama the shifting scenes of his mental world. Foliage was rich and variegated; birds of elegant plumage and exquisite voice adorned the trees and filled the pure air with joyous song. Nature received her influx through man, and so changes in him impressed the earth in endless variety. As husband communed with wife, as mother tenderly caressed her child, as lovers, heaven-mated, met for the first time, all nature warmed with enhanced activity; birds, catching the inspiration, carolled their richest notes, flowers poured forth their fragrance more abundantly, and the very atmosphere grew purer and more inspiriting.
      With the fall came many changes within and without man. The will was miraculously separated from the understanding; instead of perception, man had conscience; instead of an ability to feel what was true and thence to know, man had to be taught by an exterior way and learn to see what was true; he was no longer celestial, he was only spiritual. The celestial man did indeed see truths when presented in natural objects or by a speaker, but he saw these out of himself as spiritual truths. When he accepted them, however, it was his perception which guided him and they became in him celestial instead of spiritual. (See S. D. 5597.)
     With the mighty changes in man's spirit, came necessary transformations in his body. Influx was no longer uninterruptedly from cerebellum (the seat of the involuntary will) into cerebrum (where dwell volition and understanding); and the body, which had been ruled by the kingdom of the will and the heart, was now to be ostensibly transferred to the kingdom of the understanding and the lungs. Before the fall, influx from brains into body was soft and pulsatile, as shown in the heart's beat and in the respiration, which latter was internal, proceeding from the navel toward the heart and thereby through the lips, and thence through an ethereal, easily moving atmosphere into the middle ear of the listener. After the fall, influx was still from cerebellum into heart, but as the man had become spiritual, the cerebrum had to assume control, and spiritual influx is undulatory, not pulsatile. As the lungs correspond with the understanding, they too had to be moved in this undulatory manner, and so external respiration became established. With changes in brain and lungs arose the necessity for changes in the expression of affection and thought. The face, no longer controlled by the involuntary will, contracted its most delicate fibres and failed to effigy the soul; ideas, no longer presentable in their natural corresponding forms, required other means of representation; the lungs, obedient now only to the cerebrum, failed to convey thoughts in the gentle aspiration of internal breathing, and the sonorous, articulate expressions of external breathing came into use. The ear lost its power to hear through the Eustachian tube, and the external ear became the means of the reception of articulate speech.
     But how great the contrast! Formerly, man could express more in an instant than afterward he could in an hour; formerly, so soon as a truth was presented to him, he perceived it at once; afterward he was compelled to learn it by an external way, reason about it, strive to live it, and then an internal dictate called conscience convinced him of its genuineness: formerly, ideas flowed into their corresponding natural forms and were at once perceived; afterward they were expressed in articulate sounds and in symbols which had to be learned and which were more or less imperfect and arbitrary. (A. C. 8249.)
     At first words were few in number, but as the Doctrine of Correspondences was cultivated they expressed as accurately as could be influx from the spiritual world. Thus arose articulate language. The original characters employed to designate ideas were curved, resembling somewhat written language in heaven; hence, we may infer that the Ancient Word, even more than our present Word, written in old Hebrew, possessed a full influx by correspondences into every word and every curve of every letter.
     But as man's degeneration continued, he perverted and destroyed his knowledge of correspondence, and language, sharing in the ruin, became less and less perfect, until now its construction is effected in entire ignorance of its true source and of many of its uses. (See S. D. 5595.)
     In the Providence of the LORD, however, there is preserved in every dialect something of correspondences which associates with the other world and which furnishes a means for eventual reformation. This is manifest in many words and expressions as well as in the construction of several kinds of sentences and in figures of speech. There is also an association with heaven in the use of words, no matter how arbitrarily they are formed, to express true ideas, such ideas as are revealed in the Word or are properly deduced thence. Association here is in the meaning of the words.
     In all dialects and languages there is a sort of universal ground of influx, out of which words of every variety are constructed and out of which they can be constructed so as to correspond with spiritual things. We refer to vowel and consonant sounds. If any one will take the trouble to form the five vowel sounds in the order they are usually given (a, e, i, o, u), pronouncing them in their purity as represented in the words far, fell, fill, go, rule, he will see that from the wide-opened mouth necessary for the first letter he has gradually progressed until, with the last, his mouth is reduced to a contracted tube, elongated by the protrusion of the lips. He can modify these, but in their totality they express the basis of all vowel sounds in all languages. These vowels are derived from the spiritual world, and, as Swedenborg expresses it, do not belong to the language, but to the elevation of its words by sound to various affections; therefore, in Hebrew the vowels are not expressed. (H. H. 241 et al.)
     Consonants, so called because sounded with the vowels; vary considerably in different languages, and are more artificial than vowels; they are more articulate and correspond to the ideas of thought which are from affection.

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They are principally responsible for the harsh, bard, and sibilant sounds in language, and differ in combination according to the genius of the people.
     Words formed from these two sorts of letters are signs standing for definite ideas; and their arrangement into sentences gives signs standing for a series of ideas or the sequences of thought. As to meaning, they are one with ideas, hence, as stated, they associate with the other world; but if they can be so formed and so are ranged as to become orderly vessels of influx, their conjunction with heaven will increase proportionately. We are taught that words including the vowels a, o, and u have an especial elevation toward the celestial heavens, especially if associated with soft instead of harsh consonants; they correspond more to good; but words, including e, i, and y, also words with a preponderance of consonants, correspond more to truth. We believe that, herein lies the germ of the future grammar of correct language.
     Meanwhile, it is incumbent upon the New Churchman to do all in his power to preserve, as far as possible, what we may term the purity of language. Principles are needed and should be followed. In the growth of a tongue there is a constant tendency to changes in the meaning of words and to the production of new terms. All this is proper; but great care is needed to prevent corrupt growth. Secondary and tertiary meanings should never be tolerated unless they are legitimate derivatives from the primary; and new words should never be entertained unless they are properly formed and express ideas more fully than can be done by synonymous terms.
     Much attention should be paid to precision and accuracy of expression, for the soul of language lies in the meaning of its words. Especially should the student of English cultivate rhetoric, since this language is such composite tongue, and has surrendered the greater part of its inflections. One merit of English lies in its wealth of synonyms, derived from languages of nations of diverse genius, and thus capable of giving full expression to facts, and to supply facts for the New Church is one of the leading uses of the world of science of to-day.
     But, alas! true rhetoric, like true music, is yet to be written. Who but the New Churchman can rightly define sublimity and emotional effects generally? Who can write of harmony, of taste, of figure, but he who comprehends their true import? The rhetoric of to-day views its subjects from a natural point of view only; the rhetoric of the Church includes also the spiritual view; the two are comparatively as a panting on canvas and the realization of the same in natural scenery; the one is cold and lifeless, the other warm and quick with life. But the time will come when the reforming hand will extend the renovating truth of the Church to language and bring it more fully into the uses of the New Dispensation. Already the good work is begun and pupils in the schools of the Academy study a rhetoric not yet transferred to books. May the LORD prosper all such endeavors.
     A very needful exercise to the New Churchman is the proper employment of figurative language. Metaphor seems to be natural to language, rendering words more capable of vivid expression than can any other form of writing. It is a part of correspondences, but, like all phases of this science is now often grossly perverted. It is the high privilege of the man of the Church to correct faulty figures and thus to enhance the value of his language. And nowhere is this pruning more needed than in poetry the Poetry is complement of music, adding to its emotional effects intellectual pleasure derived from the creations of the imagination. As in the one, so in the other, there is much that is spontaneous, flowing from a genuine love of art; but there are dangers besetting the author that only the truths of the Church can overcome. The imagination is a noble faculty, but if it is not held subordinate to the rational, it will run wild and carry its possessor into all sorts of fanciful and foolish conceptions. The poet may indulge in the loftiest flights of imagination, but unless truth underlies the whole, his poem is but a "castle-in-air," the delirious invention of enthusiastic spirits that have stepped in between fancy and reason and fatally severed them. (See C. L., end of 267.)
     Akin to errors just mentioned is a not uncommon mistake among even noted writers of using words in a vague, dreamy way; or simply because they suit the metre and rhyme, or have a euphonious sound. Tennyson, laureate though he is, writes in the Lotos-eater of hearing "the dewy echoes calling"-pretty, but what are "dewy echoes"?
     Byron, lamenting his separation from a life-long acquaintance, uses the following ridiculous figure:

     "Yet envied every fly the kiss
     It dared to give your slumbering eyes."

But more important are violations of correspondence and inane revelings of imagination referred to above. Blair ma y take Addison to task for coupling in one figure such incongruous terms as bridle and haunch-as though horse and ship were synonyms-or he may venture to chide Horace for inconsistently associating urit (he dazzles) with praegravat (he weighs down), and we will admit the justice of his criticisms; but our labor extends further. When Milton in sublime verse writes as no one ever wrote, describing the fallen Satan, we look on enraptured until he essays the personal appearance of his hero:

     "He, above the rest,
     In shape and gesture proudly eminent,
     Stood like a tower. . . as when the sun, new risen,
     Looks through the horizontal misty air,
     Shorn of his beams; or, from behind the moon,
     In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
     On half the nations, and with fear of change
     Perplexes monarchy. Darkened so, yet shone
     Above them all the archangel."

     Though favorably eulogized, this passage displays an extravagant figure in "disastrous twilight;" but when, worst of all, though in compliance with rule, Satan is compared to a grander object, the sun, we, who understand something of correspondences, cannot but shrink from the sacrilegious figure. If the reader deems us hypercritical and claims in defense that poetical license excuses Milton, we remind him that nothing is true or conjoins with Heaven that is contrary to correspondences. (A. C. 8615.)
     In prose, as in poetry, attention should be paid to figure, words, clearness of expression, and soundness in teaching.
     A useful initial exercise for one desirous of perfecting his knowledge of language is a study of the precise use of words and a nice discrimination of synonyms. At first the student should adhere to the literal significations of words; he is thereby kept in the way of progress, something as implicit obedience keeps the child before the growth of rationality and freedom. But here a temptation arises, one which must be overcome. Not satisfied with critical analyses made for the sake of practice, he grows hypercritical. He continually searches for errors, forgetting that at times even the greatest writers make mistakes, and he keeps his attention so rivetted on mere words that he is transformed into the cold egotist.

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Swedenborg informs us that those who dwell persistently on terms without paying due attention to the ideas intended to be conveyed become in the other world almost like idiots.
     As the student progresses, he gradually becomes elevated out of mere literalism into freedom of thought and of expression. He employs words accurately, but not mechanically. His mind takes possession of the facts of his memory and uses his knowledge of words to give vent to ideas hitherto either vague or inexpressible. If his memory is stored with the truths of the Church, he soon begins to employ words with meanings quite different from those he formerly used. Indeed, terms that he defines by the very words of the dictionaries, carry different ideas to his mind than they do to the Old Churchman's. He is gradually adapting thought and speech to argument with correspondences.
     If what he attempts to write is philosophic or scientific, it should be couched in good language, free from pedantic and useless terms, and rich in the solid words of our mother tongue. If it is a novel, the plot should be true to life, and the details such as the scenes and characters require, without any forced attempts at moralizing or any misappropriate religious sentimentalism. If the writer understands the doctrines of the Church, he can weave the checkered events of everyday life into a story that is replete with moral and true religious thought and instruction, whether his characters are good Sunday-school children or Parisian gamins.
     If the writer's ambition leads him to the composition of the drama or the comedy, his task is a most useful one, and his responsibility proportionately great. All the efforts of his predecessors enter with full force into his grand purpose. He needs the genius of the poet, the power of caricature of the novelist, the intellect of the philosopher, and, in addition, a vivid but correct imagination and an insight into human character that nothing but a highly cultivated inborn talent can impart.
     But when his work is finished, how powerful can it become for good or evil! As is object-teaching to the delighted child, so is the theatre to the adult; he lives an age in a single evening; he is lifted out of himself and travels with the actors through scenes of deepest emotion and horrid tragedy, or along pleasant and peaceful paths of domestic life, or is refreshed with comedy, and his passions grow accordingly. If the gifted writer catches his inspiration from the Church, he leads his audience through genuine wit and humor to an understanding of truths; through scenes of carnage and cold crime, into a desire to shun their dreadful reality; or through a picture of married life into a contemplation, of the delights of Conjugial Love.
     If any one of our readers is engaged in literary and scientific works, it is his bounden duty to strive to bring down into his use the teachings of the Church. What though at first they seem obscure and impossible of application, light comes with prayerful attempts to use them.
     In the matter of reformation of language, much is yet untouched and unexplored. But the way is clearly marked out for us: language is to return to its purity; when written, it is to express truths and affections in the forms of the words and in the sequence of the sentences; when spoken, its tone is to convey the state of feeling of the speaker, which the words convey his thoughts. As man regenerates, he will throw off the mask of deception and discourse with his face again, something as of yore (A. C. 8249). Rational good will appear in his face from a certain fire of life, and rational truth from the light of this fire (A. C. 3527), and the language of wisdom will be established.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified       Rev. L. H. TAFEL       1883



A SERMON.
     "Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things."-Matt. vi, 31, 32.
     The more man receives the Divine Truth in his understanding and in his life, the more he comes into the angelic state in which all care and anxiety for the morrow is hushed and everything is left calmly into the hands of the LORD, with a perfect trust and confidence that He will do all things well. Convinced that everything ordered or permitted by the LORD is for the best to those who allow themselves to be led of Him, and this whether they may appear to be good fortune or ill fortune, man then devotes himself to the fulfillment of the duties he sees before him, shunning evil as sin against the LORD and performing his uses as of himself; from his freedom according to his reason, but still with the humble acknowledgment that all of good and of truth that animates the affections and brightens and directs the thoughts is from the LORD alone.
     Into this state, and thus into the peace of Heaven, the man who receives the Divine Truth is continually advancing. But it is different with the man who ascribes all things to human prudence or to accident. Such a man thinks it his duty to immerse his thoughts in the cares of business. These follow him without ceasing to the fireside and to his worship, and, enveloping him like a dark cloud, they would keep out all the sunshine and peace of Heaven. The all-seeing LORD knows full well 'this tendency of His children, and He also sees its baleful effects, therefore He warns us in our text in the words: "Be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these."
     Of these things it is farther said: "For after all these things do the Gentiles seek." The Gentiles or nations are in the Word those who are in the good of love to the LORD and in charity, but in an opposite sense, as it is used where the perverted state of man is spoken of, it signifies those w7ho are in love of self; and thence in self-glorying. Those who continually look to self are guided by its desires, and thus elevate self in the place of the LORD. In consequence, they are ever occupied with worldly and corporeal things, and thence with cares and anxieties. But with the worshiper of the LORD it should be different. Those who are His followers must ever look to Him, he guided by Him, and repose in Him an entire confidence, knowing that our Heavenly Father knoweth all our needs. Hence we see that there is no need of giving heed to worldly cares and anxieties; they come not from angels, but from evil spirits, and should therefore be remanded to their own proper place.
     We are, indeed, taught in the Writings that we are in, no way forbidden to provide both for our present needs and also for the future, but this must never degenerate into anxiety and distrust of the Divine Providence, as it is with those who are not content with their lot, and who do not trust in the LORD but in themselves, looking to what is worldly merely and not to what is heavenly.

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With such men worldly cares and anxieties have no end, because the desire of possessing wealth and power continually increases with what it feeds upon, and when they suffer worldly losses they lose at the same time all joy in life and cast aside all of faith. But those who trust in the LORD preserve an equanimity in the trials of this life. When they are successful and become wealthy, they do not put their heart on riches; if they acquire honors, they do not consider themselves as more worthy than others, and if they are impoverished they are not cast down, for that which they love above all things remains inalienably their own, and they know that everything that happens to those that look to the LORD serves for their eternal welfare. For the Infinite Love and Wisdom, the operation of which we call Providence, has continually for its aim the eternal salvation and happiness of all.
     But the Divine Providence does not occupy itself only or even chiefly with the wants of the body of man, but I rather with the needs of man's soul, and thus with that part of man which is to live forever. Earthly and worldly things are viewed in the light of the Divine Providence chiefly as to their effect on the spiritual and eternal life, and it is only as spiritual things acquire their true position and influence with man that man becomes rational so that he can rationally and fully cooperate with the Divine Providence. In the internal sense of the Word, where eating and drinking are spoken of; the nourishment of the heart and soul, of the will and the understanding, of man is understood; and by eating is signified the reception and appropriation of good, and by drinking the appropriation of truth; for, internally considered, the Word ever treats of what is internal and lasting and not of what is merely material and transitory. Unless man is spiritually nourished and instructed, at the same time that his body is nourished, he is not a man but a beast. Therefore also those who put all their delight in feastings and banquets, and daily indulge their palate, are dull as to spiritual things, however well they may be able to reason concerning worldly and corporeal things. These when they pass into the other life lead a beastly rather than a human life, living in stupidity and insanity instead of intelligence and wisdom. But those who receive and appropriate to themselves good and truth from the LORD are thereby conjoined with the LORD, living in the LORD, and He in them. For good and truth from the LORD are the Divine proceeding which makes and constitutes Heaven, and in which alone the LORD can be present with man as in His own appropriate dwelling-place and tabernacle. For the LORD cannot dwell with man and thus be present with him in what is of his own proprium, for this is evil and infernal, but only in that which is of the LORD with him, in which the LORD can be present as in His own.
     There may be with man selfish cares and anxieties not only with respect to the body, but also with respect to the soul. Everything which tends to fix man's eye and attention chiefly on himself is narrowing and cramping and tends to withdraw him from that love to the LORD and love toward the neighbor in which consist all the law and the prophets. Self-examination is indeed necessary in order that man may see his evils, may combat his evils, and be delivered from them; but when these are seen, and man has confessed them before the LORD, and asked and prayed for His assistance in the conflict against them, man should not allow himself to be continually harassed with doubts and anxieties as to the life of his spirit any more than as to the life of the body. The first thing in the spiritual as in natural life is to "cast thy burden on the LORD, and He will sustain thee." As to man's spiritual life, even as with reference to man's bodily life, the LORD commands us: "Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink?" We are to do our share to provide for our spiritual sustenance, even as we do with our bodily nourishment, but after we have done this, we should not allow ourselves to be distracted with cares and anxieties, but, trusting in the LORD, we should go right forward in our work, trustingly, humbly, lovingly. The LORD will ever provide the good of love necessary to sustain us in the performance of our uses just in proportion as we shun the evils that we see within us, and which alone bar the way to our reception of spiritual life.
     To every one that overcometh in the conflict with his evils, the LORD promises the rich rewards of eternal conjunction with Him and thus of eternal happiness. The LORD does not ask of any one what he cannot accomplish; nor does He, on the other hand, promise anything but "to him that overcometh." For it is only as man in co-operation with the LORD clears the way by abstaining from evil and thus rejecting it, that room is made for the reception and safekeeping of the good affections from the LORD. Man should therefore not give himself up to solicitude and anxiety as to his state of good: "Be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat?" But he should nevertheless do all in his power to put away his evils as they show themselves. Then he may be assured that the LORD will flow in and quicken and strengthen him with the good of His Love: He will feed him with the Bread that cometh down from Heaven. Cares and anxieties do not come from Heaven, but from evil spirits, who take advantage of our evils and our unbelief to involve us in doubts and in despair. Such states must, of necessity, come in the progress of our regeneration, but it is not necessary nor useful to call up' what will make these states lasting, nor should we cling to them as being of use to our souls. The true state of progress is faith and trust in the LORD and the endeavor of shunning our evils and of thus keeping open the way for His influx and presence with us. This sunshine of the Presence of the LORD is the state to be sought for and desired. The storms and the darkness arising from the evils with men will of necessity call forth those states of despair and humiliation and self-annihilation which are necessary to crush out our inherited and acquired evils, but our endeavor should ever be to emerge out of these states into those of humble trust and confidence in the LORD and an entire willingness to be led of Him. Thus will we be fed with heavenly manna and evermore strengthened for our journey through the wilderness.
     As we are often apt to despair as to our state of good, asking anxiously: "What shall we eat?" so again we are often troubled at the dimness of our understanding of the truth, and we ask anxiously: "What shall we drink?" But if we only rightly use and apply to our life the Divine Truths vouchsafed us by the LORD, we shall soon emerge into a brighter life of intelligence, and as the falsities springing from our evils and from the fallacies of the senses are with us dispersed, we shall enter ever more clearly into the bright light of the Divine Truth, be instructed and understands Then, also, we shall be clothed in genuine truths and be in true intelligence, not from our self-intelligence, but from the Divine Truth revealed to us by the LORD.
     Our text teaches us that we should have no anxiety as to the good or truth which must enter our life, nor as to the intelligence which should clothe us, but that we should in every case carefully use the means given us by the LORD, leaving the result trustfully and confidingly in His hand.

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That which causes us to be anxious and solicitous about our own goodness, our appropriation of the truth, and our intelligence, is not from what is heavenly within us, but from our self hood, our desire of appearing well and being honored by others, and of reaching a high place in Heaven: "after all these things do the Gentiles seek." It is not the angelic spirit which desires to be great in the kingdom of the LORD, it is mere selfishness, for the LORD saith: "Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion' over them, and they that are great exercise authority over them. But it shall not be so among you; but I whosoever will be great, among you, let him be your minister; and whoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." The only life-principle which is heavenly is the love of performing uses, and thus of serving and of ministering. Where this rules and has sway everything else is comparatively of slight importance: external honor and gain are not rejected, but they are held to be of altogether secondary importance, and attention is given to them merely as helps or accessories to the use. So also the mind ceases to be solicitous and anxious about its states of good and of truth and of its intelligence; being mindful only of shunning the evils which would tend to interfere with the reception and indwelling of the LORD, and thus with the performance of uses from the LORD. While not being solicitous about ones own states of good, of truth, and of intelligence, proper care is evermore taken to do all that lies in our power reject what is opposed to the Divine Good and Truth and to Divine Revelation. For we then, knowing full well that as the way is prepared and the door opened, the LORD who in His Infinite Love is knocking at the door of every heart, will enter in and sup with us and we with Him.
     And as the LORD is present with us, we are supplied with all we need in never-ending abundance; for the LORD in His unending love and wisdom is ever ready and desirous to give to us an abundance of all blessings we can receive:
      "Be not therefore anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewith shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye need all these things."
MIRACLES 1883

MIRACLES              1883

     THE miracles spoken of in the Word of God have been and still are the occasion of much difference of opinion in the world: the infidel rejects them, the rationalist endeavors to explain them away, but to the believer in the LORD they give light and an insight into the close relation existing between the LORD and all His works. Divine Truth proceeding from the LORD has in it all power, for it is the presence of the LORD Himself on a lower plane; thence is the power of truth in ultimates; not that truth in ultimates has in an orderly state of the world power without the internals contained within, but truth in ultimates has power according to the presence of internal, living principles within it.
     "Divine Miracles proceed from this Divine Truth, and they go forward according to Divine order. The effects in ultimates are miracles when the LORD pleases that they should be presented in such a form."- A. C. 7337.
     Magical miracles differ from Divine miracles as hell differs from heaven; there is in them no internal corresponding to the apparent external, and thence they have no power of subsisting, but they are phantasies produced by magicians, which they succeed in palming off for Israelites by cutting off the influx from heaven, which enables men to distinguish between what is actual and what, is phantastic, and thus inducing an obscurity and dullness in the apperception. Concerning such dullness we read: "Such a dullness is also, induced by magicians in the other life, and this by an abuse and perversion of order. For they know how to take away the influx from heaven, and when this is taken away a dullness as to the apperception of truth ensues. They also know how to induce fallacies and to present them in light as in the light of truth, and at the same time to obscure truths themselves; they also know how to inject something persuasive, and thus to dull the apperception of truth, besides various other modes. When there is this dullness, falses appears as truths, which are signified by sorceries and enchantments; from this it is manifest how magicians can present something similar as to appearance."- A. C. 7298.
     The magicians in ancient times in Egypt "knew such things as belong to the spiritual world; they learned them from the correspondences and representatives of the Church, wherefore also many of them communicated with spirits and learned from them illusory arts, through which they performed magic miracles. Magic is nothing else but a perversion of spiritual things and a perverse application of order in the spiritual world; thence magic descends. But this magic is at this day called natural magic, because nothing above or beyond nature is any more acknowledged, as the spiritual is denied, unless the interior natural be thereby designated."- A. C. 5223.
     From this we see that magic is produced through illusory arts, that is, deception of the senses, so-called optical delusions, which in some cases indeed are performed by trickery or sleight of hand, but the more important and difficult of which are nothing else but phantasies induced on the mind; phantasies such as are common among evil spirits being presented before the spiritual eyes of men, while the influx from heaven is intercepted, and while the spectators think they see with their natural eyes. It may seem difficult to believe that man in his waking state should see with his spiritual sight-with the same eyes with which he sees in dreams. This is especially the case when the number of spectators is great, as it is thought impossible that the eyes of so many people should be opened at the same time many of whom may be infidels and unbelievers in spiritual, things. But that this offers no manner of difficulty may be seen from this, that the whole people of Israel had their vision of the spirit opened at the same time so as to see the LORD at His appearance upon Mount Sinai. That this appearance was before their spiritual eyes we are plainly taught in the Arcana:
     "When the LORD appeared to the whole congregation on Mount Sinai this apparition was a vision, which was different with the people from what it was with Aaron, and different with Aaron from what it was with Moses; the prophets again had a different vision from Moses. There are many kinds of visions . . . A vision before those whose interiors are closed is altogether different from vision before those whose interiors are opened . . . Visions are the more perfect the more interior they are. With the LORD (while on earth) they were most perfect, because He then, had a perception of all things which are in the world of spirits and in the heavens, and He then had an immediate' communication with JEHOVAH" (who dwelt in His inmost).- A. C. 1728.
     Visions with such as have their interiors closed are often mere phantasies; this when they do not, as in the case at Mount Sinai and with the pillar of fire and pillar of a cloud, proceed directly from the LORD.

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Concerning such phantastic visions we read: "The visions of certain persons are much spoken of, who said that they had seen many things; they also did see them, but in phantasy. There are spirits who induce such appearance through phantasies that they appear as if they were; as when they see something in the shade or in the moonlight or also in the daytime; when an object is in obscurity, then the spirits hold the mind fixedly and continually in the thought concerning a certain thing, whether this be an animal or a monster or a forest or of any other thing, and while the mind is held in this state the phantasy is increased and grows to such a degree that he is persuaded, and sees altogether as if they were such when yet they are nothing else than illusions. These fall on such as indulge much in phantasies and are of weak mind and thence become credulous; these are visionaries."- A. C. 1967.
     These visions and phantasies are of the most external kind, and have something natural as their basis into which phantastic spirits flow in and adjoin some corresponding idea, which shapes and rules over the things perceived by the senses. But there are also phantasies seen by the spiritual eyes only without such external accompaniments. Of these we read as follows: "When it is permitted to evil spirits or their leaders, then they can so dexterously represent any person whom they wish, if that person has only been seen and known to the man (to whom they appear), and' this so skillfully, that not a jot of the voice or anything that was natural to him is lacking. This the spirits led me to experience two or three times; they presented certain ones before me who were known to me in their life, with whom I spoke for a length of time, who were of such a nature as they were in their life; but still in every case I doubted whether they were the same, which I also told the spirits. Thus they can put on any person they please, if the person was only, known to the man."- Adv. IV, 5021.
     These magical illusions explain most if not all the appearances of men in the magic of the day called spirit manifestations and materialization of spirits. As to the phantasies which prevail among evil spirits in the other life, and which of consequence may also be infused by those in this life who learn from them their illusory arts (see A. C. 5223), we rend in the following:
     "Evil spirits in the other life are hardly anything else but cupidities and phantasies; they have acquired no other life. Their phantasies are such that they perceive no otherwise at all but that it is so. The phantasies of men cannot be compared with them, for they are in a more excellent state even concerning this. Such phantasies are perpetual with the infernals, where one cruelly torments the other through phantasies."- A. C. 1969.
     "The sensitive life of spirits is of two kinds, real and not real. These are distinguished from one another by this, that all which appears to those who are in heaven is real, but all that appears to those in hell is not real, For whatever comes from the Divine, i. e., from the LORD is real, for it comes from the very Ewe of things and from Him who is life in itself; but whatever comes from the proprium of spirits is not real, because it does not come from ewe in itself and life in itself. Those who are in the affection of good and truth are in the life of the LORD, thus in real life, for in good and truth the LORD is present through affection; but those who, are in the evil and in the false through affection, are in the life of the proprium, thus in a life not real, for in the false and in the evil the LORD is not present. The real is distinguished from the not real by this, that the real is actually such as it appears, but the non-real is actually not such as it appears. Those in hell have equally sensations and know no otherwise, but that it is actually and really so as they perceive, but still when they are inspected by angels, then these things appear as phantasies and disappear, and the spirits themselves appear not as men but like monsters. It was also given me to speak with them concerning this, and some of them said that they believe them to be real, because they see and touch them, adding, that the senses cannot deceive; but it was given me to answer that they are not real, because they are in things contrary to or opposed to the Divine, namely, in evils and falses, although they appear to them as real . . . Unless it were given to them of the Divine Mercy of the LORD to apperceive so, they would have no sensitive life, thus no life, for the sensitive makes all of life. Let those, therefore, who come unto the other life beware lest they be deceived, for the evil spirits know how to present before those who have recently come from the world various illusions, and if they cannot deceive, still they endeavor to persuade, thereby that there is nothing real, but that all things are ideal, also those things that are in heaven."- A. C. 4623.
     These persuasions seem not only to infest the spirits in the other life, but also men in this world and even those of the LORD'S Church who do not comprehend the differences between the realities of heaven and of the, phantasies ruling with evil spirits in the world of spirits and in the hells.
     "Sorceries signify the art of presenting truths as falses and falses as truths. These arts correspond to the phantasies, by which the wicked in the other life present to the eyes beautiful things as foul, and foul things as beautiful, which phantasies are also a sort of sorcery, for they are also abuses and inversions of the Divine order."- A. C. 7297.
     These phantasies are farther described in the following: Those (in the other world) who attribute all things to fortune and their own prudence and nothing to the Divine, even as they did in the world, can in various ways imitate Divine things. For they present palaces almost similar to those in heaven, they present groves and fields in sight almost similar to those which are of the LORD with good spirits; they adorn themselves with splendid garments, aye, the Sirens even induce on themselves a beauty almost angelic, but all this from art through phantasies; but all those things, however they appear similar in external form, are still filthy in their internals, which is also immediately made manifest to good spirits by the LORD, for if it were not manifested they would be seduced. Their external is taken away, which being removed, the diabolical nature within is laid bare This external is taken away by light proceeding from heaven, by which the fatuous light, which is that from phantasies by which these things are produced, is dispersed."- A. C. 10,286.
     From this we see that it is an easy thing for evil, spirits to create around themselves beautiful scenes for a short time at least, and thereby to deceive all those to whom they show them. A striking example of this kind of magic we have at this day in what is called mesmerism. Here those who are brought into subjection to the will of the mesmerizer are made to see all manner of beautiful or of disagreeable objects called into existence for the time being by the mesmerizer and the magic spirits associated with him. From the accounts given of the wonderful exploits of Chinese, Japanese, and Hindoo jugglers, it would seem that they possess the power of thus exciting and controlling the phantasy of all their spectators.

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Only thus can be rationally explained their apparent climbing up into the sky, their beheading men and afterward restoring them to life, and many other apparent miracles which are recorded by so many trustworthy witnesses, that it would not seem rational to draw into doubt at least the fact that such things at various times appeared to be done.
     That the miracles of the Egyptian magicians were per formed in some such manner seems most likely, and, would indeed seem to be the necessary conclusion from the teachings of the Writings, where we read that "The magicians of Egypt learned from the evil spirits illusory arts, through which they performed magical miracles." (A. C. 5223.) And when we read that magicians in the other life induce dullness by cutting off the; influx from heaven and then induce phantasies of all kinds, it seems clear that we have here the real explanation of magical miracles, and that magical miracles therefore are illusory, things seen in the spiritual world in a state of open vision, but that these things in the spiritual world are not really existing things, but phantastic appearances such as ever surround the evil spirits in hell and the evil spirits in the world of spirits.
     But we must be very careful to distinguish between magical and between Divine miracles. Divine miracles are such as flow from the inmost down even into the ultimates, and because they have in them the Divine, which is living, actual, and real, therefore the miracles also are actual and real. We read, "The Divine miracles also contain in them spiritual things, from the highest even to the lowest, for it is Divine to act in first principles and to present these to view even in ultimates." (A. E. 239.) And again, "The Divine miracles have the Divine within them, and, therefore, signify Divine things, but magical miracles have nothing Divine in them and, therefore, signify nothing." (A. E. 419) "The miracles performed by the1 LORD as recorded in the New Testament as well as those in the Old signify the state of the Church and of mankind who were saved by His coming into the world, namely those who received the faith of charity were then liberated from hell." (A. C. 6988.) But we must not think of the Divine miracles as being in any way in opposition to the Divine Order or in violation of it; it is simply done by an influx of Divine Truth, in a mode to which we are as yet unaccustomed and according to laws not before known. We are taught, "The Divine miracles were performed according to Divine Order, but according to the Order of the Influx of the Spiritual World into the Natural World, concerning which order no one has known anything hitherto, because no one knows anything concerning the Spiritual World."- T. C. R. 91.
     Divine Order is everything that is done according to the Divine Truth. Therefore, we also read, "All things in heaven and in hell are arranged in order by the Divine Truth, thence is all order also on earth miracles were performed according to it; in short, the Divine Truth hath in itself all power so that it is power itself."- A. C. 8200.
     That the miracles of the LORD did not take place before the internal senses of the surrounding multitudes, but before their external, may be seen in what is said above, that the Divine acts from first principles even into ultimates, but it is stated even more fully in the following: "All miracles and actions of the LORD when He was in the world signified Divine celestial and spiritual things; i. e., such things as are of heaven and of the Church, and this because they were Divine, and the Divine always operates in ultimate from first principles and thus in fullness. Ultimates are such things as appear in the world before the eyes."- A. E. 475.
     From these passages it is evident that in the miracles of our LORD, we see Him acting as the First and the Last in first principles and in ultimates creating the bread with which he fed the thousands, and creating the wine at the marriage in Cana of Galilee: so also in the miracles of Moses, the Divine acted through him from the first and middle planes of which Moses knew nothing even down into ultimates, in which he obeyed the Divine command. It is evident that as soon as we have in mind an omnipotent Creator, from whom all is and who continually sustains the universe and all that is therein, there is no rational or logical difficulty in conceiving Him as modifying the substantial and material forms around Him into consonance and correspondence with those Divine operations which He was then accomplishing in the spiritual world. That this omnipotent Creator was clothed in flesh did not deprive Him of the power of operating, especially when one degree after the other in the assumed human had been rendered Divine Wisdom and Divine Love, veiled at last only by a most perfect material form, permeated and filled to overflowing with Divine Love, Wisdom, and Power. Nor is the conception much more difficult in the case of Moses and of other mediums of Divine miracles in the Old Testament. For there the Divine Power descending from the Sun of Heaven through the Heavens and the World of Spirits found as its obedient instrument a man who could for the time being serve as an Angel of the LORD on earth, through whom, in correspondence with his obedient actions and gestures, there could flow forth in miraculous manner the operation of the Divine Omnipotence. It was only at the Divine command and in obedience to the Divine behest, when the Divine from the inmost even to the outermost resting on him as a correspondent receptacle flowed forth, that he could do anything, and even then it was owing to his representative character as the Word, the Divine law, that the LORD could operate through him the mighty works which wrought the liberation of Israel, thus representing the final salvation of mankind to be effected by the LORD in His Divine Human, the God Man, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the Ending, the Almighty.
HEBREW LANGUAGE 1883

HEBREW LANGUAGE              1883

II.
     IN our first article we considered the great importance of the Hebrew language to the New Church. We there presented from the Writings some very important teachings from which it is manifest that Hebrew ought to be studied, not by the clergy only, but by the laity also. For from those teachings we learned that by reading the Word in the Hebrew we performed a use both to the Church on earth and to the Church in heaven. To the Church on earth, because we are thereby enabled to receive from the LORD out of heaven a stronger influx of Divine Good and Truth. And to the angels in heaven, because while we read the Hebrew they can more fully and completely perceive "every Divine Celestial which is inspired and that all and singular things therein treat of the LORD."
     We also learned that the Hebrew language was provided by the LORD to contain His Divine Teachings, and that to this end the Hebrew more than any other language is in agreement with spiritual language; so much so that it contain an internal sense in every syllable and in every letter, and in the ancient Hebrew in every flexure and little horn.


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     In that article it was said that the use of the Word, in Hebrew was 'so important that the Jewish people have been preserved to this day because they reverence the Word in the Hebrew more than Christians do. In order that this may be seen more fully, we quote from the Writings:
     "Inasmuch as the tribe of Judah was of this character [i. e., immersed entirely in externals] more than the other tribes, and at this day, as formerly, accounts the rituals holy which may be observed out of Jerusalem, and also have a holy veneration for their fathers, and a particular reverence for the Word of, the Old Testament, and inasmuch as it was foreseen that Christians would almost reject that Word, and would likewise defile its internal things with things profane, therefore that nation has been hitherto preserved according to the LORD'S words in Matthew, chap. xxiv, 34. It would have been otherwise if Christians, as they knew things internal, had also lived as internal men; in this case that nation, like other nations, would many ages ago have been cut off."- A. C. 3479.
     "That the residue of the worship of that nation is to have an end with the end of the Church of this day in Europe the LORD predicts in Matthew: 'Amen; I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away until all these things are done,' xxiv, 34."- A. C. 10,497.
     That the Jewish nation was preserved on account of the Word in the Hebrew is taught in the following:
     "That nation is preserved and scattered around through much of the world for the sake of the Word in its original tongue which they above Christians hold holy; and in each thing of the Word is the Divine of the LORD; for it is the Divine Truth united to the Divine Good which proceeds from the LORD; and thereby the Word is the conjunction of the LORD with the Church and the presence of heaven; and there is the presence of the LORD and of heaven wherever the Word is read in a holy manner. This is the end of Divine Providence, for the sake of which they have been preserved and scattered around through much of the world."-D. P. 260.
     From this teaching we may learn that it is of Divine Providence that the New Church should study and read the Word in the Hebrew and hold it as most holy from the LORD. For the Jewish worship is to come to its end at the same time as that of the first Christian Church. The sooner, therefore, we begin to study and read it the sooner will we place ourselves in the stream of the Divine Providence.
     Having before us again the great importance of studying the Hebrew, we may consider some further qualities which render it a fitting containant of the Divine Truth.
     Those who have studied Hebrew know that the letters are all consonants and that the vowels are expressed by points above and below. Why this is so we are taught in the following
     "Since vowels do not pertain to a language but to the elevation of its expressions by sound to various affections according to the state of each one, therefore in the Hebrew tongue vowels are not expressed and are also variously enunciated. Thence the angels know the quality of man as to affection and love."- H. H. 241.
     "I have learned from angels that the Hebrew language is such that only the sense of the letter is to be attended to, not so the letter, which was confirmed from many things; wherefore, also, it was written without points in the beginning. When it was thus read without points then the sense only was attended to and thence were formed vocal accents, as every one also who is versed in that language may know. If any one reads it in the Word without points, unless the sense is followed, he can never know what sense is in it; especially in the prophets; vowels and similar things adjoined thrust down the sense to the letter. Then if many read the same prophetic books without points they form many senses thence. And if they should place vowels every one according to his sense, then the letters would have been pointed differently by each one, and when it could not thus be pointed according to the sense they would have sought anomalies in the words in order to form the Word to their sense. For the language is such that there are very many anomalies. Wherefore it seems to be conceded [that points be inserted] lest readers should twist the sense variously, every one according to his, phantasy, in the state of human mind in which he is, namely: when in the body; since thus he would pervert the sense variously, every one according to his genius.
     Wherefore it was conceded that points should afterward be put to it, which, whether Divinely inspired can be somewhat known from the prophetic writings where the sense is understood by no one except the LORD and to whom the LORD pleases to reveal it."- S. D. .2414.
     From these numbers we learn that the Hebrew was formerly written even without points to indicate the vowels, so that every one as he read might supply such vowels as were in correspondence with the particular affection excited in him. In this way the influx and perception of the Word with angels and men were more full and complete. But in time all men became evil and filled with the, desire of confirming their own notions from the Word, the LORD provided that vowels should be indicated by points. While this did not prevent the perversion of the Word, it rendered it less easy and consequently less, frequent and more' external. And we may infer that the time will come in the New Church when the Word will be read in Hebrew without points.
     Another quality derived from angelic language is that it passes softly from one expression to another by means of the word "and." Concerning this we are taught:
     "The speech of celestial angels is also without hard consonants, and rarely glides from consonant to consonant except by the interposition of an expression which begins with a vowel. Thence it is that in the Word the little word and is so often interposed, as may appear to those who read the Word in the Hebrew tongue in which that little word is soft and on both sides sounds from a vowel. From the expressions also in the Word in that tongue it may be known to some extent whether they pertain to the celestial class or to the spiritual class, thus whether they involve good or truth. Those which involve good draw much from u and o, and also somewhat from ii, but those which involve truth draw from a and e."- H. H. 241.
     "I read something in the Hebrew language without sharpness [absque aspero], passing over the vowels quickly, as if only sounding, and from the syllables alone they formed the celestial sense in the inmost heaven and they said there was correspondence. Those who were of the most ancient time spoke almost thus among themselves from correspondence, but the celestial of this day not so, but still they understand. I read in the Hebrew language Psalm xxxii, verse 2, without sharp accent and in a manner almost without vowels, and then they said that they understood what it was from the sound, viz.: this, 'That the LORD is merciful, to those that do evil. It is said from 'sound,' and it is meant from the natural speech of those who were there."- S. D. 5622.
     It will thus be seen that the Hebrew language is adapted fully to contain the LORD'S Divine Truth, and that there can be no rational doubt of the necessity of the members of the New Church studying and using it. But the Hebrew has still further qualities which we will consider in another article.


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EAGLE - AND THE TOM- TIT 1883

EAGLE - AND THE TOM- TIT              1883

     It happened one day that the Eagle and a Free Tom-tit were large an magnificent library. A copy of Word of God lay on a table, and the Eagle, standing before it, said, "This book is the Word of God."
     "Eh! What? How's that," replied the Free Tom-tit, as he hopped about after the manner of little birds. He examined the Word; first out of one eye and then out of the other. Then he hopped away again, and after examining many other books returned and said to the Eagle, who, in the meantime, had remained contemplating the Word. Said the Tom-tit, "I find other books on which the same words are printed. Which of them is the Word, then?" The Eagle looked at him in astonishment. "If both are the Word, then each is only half the Word and it should be so stated." The speaker stood looking up at the Eagle a moment, his head on one side, and then continued in a bantering tone, "Besides, when you come to think of it, there may be five hundred other copies, in which case you should say, this is the five hundredth part of the Word," and the little fellow laughed heartily.
     "Oh I come, Tommy, you are talking nonsense," replied the Eagle, good-naturedly.
     "Am I?" was the nettled reply. "You say that is the Word of God? Now open your blind eyes and you will see in that book hundreds and hundreds of thousands of words, and the same in the other books. Now, then," he continued, with a pugnacious hop, "which of them is the word? Come, now, my fine fellow, you said the word, not words. Now show me that word."
     To this the Eagle did not reply, but looked at the Free Tom-tit as he would at a curiosity. Somewhat mollified by the silence, the latter continued, "I will let you out of the corner in which I have driven you by means of your strict literality. The use of the term 'Word' is a mere external error. The title should be the Words of God. When I meet such mistakes my intelligence at once mills the error with the truth."
     "You supply the intelligence the Word lacks?" queries the Eagle.
     "Yes," was the innocent reply.
     Then, seeing the Eagle make a motion to depart, he continued: "But stop one moment. I'm not through with you yet. You said this book was the Word. Now, if you will take the trouble to examine, you will find in the volume before you, and also in all the others, many so- called Books-the books of this, that, or the other man. Now, sir, tell me which is the book?"
     As the Eagle did not at once reply, but instead regarded the speaker with a look in which was somewhat of pity, the Free Tom-tit resumed: "Again, through your foolish habit of swallowing things, have been able to corner you, and yet your statement is nevertheless true though inaccurate; true, in a sense bolder and grander than that of the letter, but only to be got at by reading plentifully between the words. Those books, as a whole, contain the words of God, though mixed up with much that is inaccurate, obsolete, and erroneous. I use my intelligence in separating the pure gold from the dross."
     "Hence your intelligence is the measure of what is the Word of God? What the mind of a Tom-tit cannot grasp is inaccurate; obsolete, and erroneous? My little friend, I fear that the pride of your self-deri."
     "What!" broke in the Free Tom-tit, in a towering rage, "you dare speak that, way of Me? You hard-faced, superstitious, narrow, dark, unwholesome, repulsive, croaking, pessimistic-." How long this stringing together of adjectives would have lasted is hard to say, had not the Eagle spread his broad pinions and sailed away and up into the free, blue sky, where Tom-tits' wings never carry.
NEW CHURCH AND THE WORD 1883

NEW CHURCH AND THE WORD              1883

     THE New Church is the custodian of the Word-on it she is founded; with the revelation of its internal sense she came down from heaven to men and abides among them. It is by the New Church Writings that we are taught the correspondence between things spiritual and natural; it was through a man, selected and prepared by the LORD as a Revelator, that to her and for her use the letter of the Word was made luminous by the Spirit therein dwelling. We can hardly sufficiently realize that this higher and interior sense is for the New Jerusalem. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. The same was in the beginning with God." This we know and believe. Do we assuredly know, and from the heart accept, that this same Word was made Flesh and dwells among us; that we, we men of the Now Church, have beheld His Glory? Do we, as we ought, prize this privilege, rejoice in it, above all, use it?
     As the Word is written for the New Church, as its spiritual sense is unfolded for the work and life of the New Church, and its eternal truths are the Doctrines of the New Church, the relation between it and the Church is close as is that between the soul and the body of man. And this relation is active and reflex in its action. The possession of the Word by the Church gives her life and strength and confidence. Through it comes the influx from the LORD whereby alone the Church can live; by it she has intercourse with the Church in the heavens; it is the chain whose golden links firmly bind in a one the New Jerusalem below and the New Jerusalem above; it is the golden ladder on which ascend and descend the angels. And similarly the Church acts on the Word. We need not here refer to the upholding of its internal sense which is made the Church's duty; that is a theme too great for us to enter on here. We can allude to but one single point in this work of the Church which affects the Word. It is this: she makes the Word a holy thing-it is no longer a mere book, but the book; she does not speak of its authors, for she knows no author but One, that is the LORD. Hence she lifts it out of the reach of the criticism of self-derived intelligence and refers its interpretation to a heaven-derived science, far removed from mere verbal hypercriticisms and pretentious textual interpretations. While she invites the closest critical study, she bids us in our study keep the truth, and the truth only, before us-not to degrade the Word of the LORD by fanciful guesses, by arbitrary interpretations, by bringing it down to the level of a dream-book or a collection of words only. "Be ye clean, ye that hear the words of the LORD"-clean in souls, clean in mind, clean in hands, and clean in scholarship.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     Swedenborg verified by the Progress of the Past Hundred Years, is the title of a new work of 150 pages by the Rev. Dr. Bayley.


142


BIBLE STORIES FOR YOUNGEST CLASSES.* 1883

BIBLE STORIES FOR YOUNGEST CLASSES.*              1883



NOTES AND REVIEWS.
     AT last year's meeting of the American New Church Sabbath- School Association a Committee, consisting of Rev. Messrs. Frank Sewall, J. C. Ager, L. P. Mercer, and Messrs. Win. N. Hobart and F. A. Dewson, was appointed to prepare a series of Bible and Doctrinal Text-Books.
     Bible Stories for Youngest Classes is the first of the series. This is a pretty little volume of 219 pages, printed at the Massachusetts New Church Union Press.
     It contains thirty lessons from the Old and twelve from the New Testament. The design of the work is to aid Sunday-school teachers, and the admonition is repeatedly given that the book is not for children.
     While examining the book, the question presents itself to us: What is there in it which marks it distinctively as a work of the New Church different from anything that the Old Church could furnish? As an educational work of the New Church, it ought to offer things which will help the children when arrived at maturity to understand and receive the spiritual truths of the Word more clearly and truly than we do now.
     But almost the only thing which shows that the work was prepared by those to whom is revealed the glory of the Word is the Doctrine of Remains as presented in the introduction, and in connection therewith an exposition of the necessity for children to become acquainted with the letter of the Word.
     But we fail to see the, principles contained in the Doctrine of Remains carried out in the work itself.
     As applied to the use of the Word, the Doctrine points out:
     First. The reading of the Word as far as possible in the very words given by the LORD. Either the Hebrew should be read to the children, or a literal translation should be furnished them.
     Secondly. The explanation of the literal sense should be such as to call up in the imagination of the child a picture that will correspond as much as possible with the spiritual truths within.
     Thirdly. Knowledge of the LORD and of heaven, as now revealed to us, should be implanted wherever the literal sense offers an opportunity.
     Fourthly. The expressions used in explanation should be such as are warranted by the Doctrines or by the Sacred Scriptures. In this connection we may mention the fact that the term "Bible" is used almost exclusively in the 2IIanual. Neither the Sacred Scriptures nor the Writings of the Church ever mention the "Bible." The Sacred Scriptures gives us many other names, such as "The Scriptures," "The Law," "The Covenant" (or "The Testament"), "The Word," etc. The Bible is not the Word.
     In strange non-conformity with the principles announced in the introduction, we find that the plan of the lessons is for the teacher to give the story from the "Bible" in her own words, impressing only a verse or two from the letter of the Word on the child's memory. Even those teachers who recognize the doctrine that the historical parts of the Word were written mainly for children and boys cannot, even if they wish, carryout this doctrine, since the lessons indicated in the book are sometimes too long, either to let the children read the story or to read it to them.
     It seems unjustifiable that, in view of the fact that there is so much in the Writings concerning the mode of understanding, teaching, and illustrating the literal sense of the Word, and especially the historical parts of the literal sense, this should be totally overlooked in the work before us, as well in regard to the instructions to the teachers concerning the individual lessons, as also in regard to the general principles of teaching as laid down in the introduction.
     The instructions given to the teacher on page 7 of the introduction tell her to consult commentaries on the letter, and "such spiritual light from the Writings of the Church as will open the mind to its deeper influences." This is excellent advice, but as the book is designed to instruct teachers of little children who must learn the literal sense and can receive nothing more interior, it would have been better to refer the teachers to the explanations of the literal sense as found in the Writings.
     In books of this character one naturally expects literal translations of the Scripture texts. Were this expectation fulfilled many of the petty explanations of the terms used in the English translation would not have been needed.
     For instance, on page 14, we read, "'The heavens declare'- What does declare mean? Yes, the heavens tell us-'the glory of God, and the firmament showeth' (or shows) 'His handiwork' (or, the work of His hands)." A literal translation from the Hebrew would have obviated this last explanation, since the Hebrew reads, "the work of His hands." On page 19, we have another illustration, when in accord with the authorized translation we read, "'And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.' What do we call a keeper of sheep? A shepherd." Here we hardly see the necessity of the explanation. Besides, the Hebrew text reads, [ ] "shepherd of sheep." Again, on page 68, the authors call the attention of teachers to the mistake their scholars may fall into of thinking that when the term "Children of Israel" is used it means little boys and girls. This might have been made a fitting occasion to remark to the teachers that the word translated children should correctly be translated sons.
     Do not the compilers of this book in their otherwise laudable endeavor to explain, to the apprehension of children the meaning of expressions occurring in quotations from the Word give damaging proof of the errors of those who, having a worshipful reverence for the Authorized Version, maintain that it should be retained for the sake of little children.
     So far as we can judge, the intentions of the compilers of this book have been well carried out. The book is excellent in its way, showing those how to teach who assume the role of teacher but know nothing of education. They who look for more than this will be disappointed, for the book gives us no more than any educator can give us. It is not distinctively "New Church."
     Were this book a guide to instructors to teach the literal sense as it should be taught, in the light of the spiritual sense, it would embody the principles contained in the Writings. For throughout the Writings, when the spiritual sense is given, the literal sense is explained in preparation therefor. Then, instead of being told, when narrating the story of the deluge, to omit the mention of the bow in the cloud (see page 26), we would be admonished not to omit anything, since the LORD wrote everything in connected series; and that when speaking of the bow in the cloud the teacher should tell of the beautiful accounts of rainbows in heaven which Swedenborg gives us.


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     There is a strange feeling that the teacher's object should be to hurry through the "Bible," for as we are told to omit the bow in the cloud, we are also told to omit the story of Lot, because "it would make the lesson too long" (page 30). Why not make a special lesson of it, then?
     How interesting, and how in accord with the spirit of the literal exegesis as found in the Writings, if even the 15th lesson on "The Giving of the Manna" was before the class the teacher would tell of the manna that falls in heaven, or when the sending of the Apostles is treated of allusion were made to their mission in the other world.
     There ought to be a constant reference to the LORD and to heaven in the instruction given to little children. If when teaching the literal sense we Will always turn to the Writings, we shall find abundant opportunity to refer to heaven. The knowledge of the wonderful things to be seen and heard in heaven is one of the Divine blessings accorded to New Churchmen, and we should show our gratefulness for this blessing by making use of it. What better remains for future regeneration can be' stored up in children than those of the knowledge of the Word, and connected with it the knowledge of heaven? The two are closely allied in the instruction of adults, and should be in the instruction of children.
     Thus the account of the garden in Conjugial Love, No. 13; should be read by the teacher, as it would help her in her explanation of the Garden of Eden. We have also indicated how the bow in the cloud, the manna from heaven, and the sending of the Apostles should be illustrated.
     Nor is the instruction the Writings give limited to accounts of the wonders of heaven. To illustrate what light the Writings throw on the literal sense and the method of its presentation, take the story of the flood. If we read the account in the Arcana with especial reference to the explanation of the internal sense, we shall be enabled, to explain how the ark was constructed; that it was divided into two compartments, one on the right side and the other- on the left, to represent the mansions; that the window was in front toward the left, and the door on the left side of the ark; and, using the vivid imagination of children, to whom all things are living, we can, without going beyond their comprehension, liken the ark to a man, the window to his eye, and the door to his ear. Then the angels attendant on them will find proper ultimates on which their interior understanding of the story can rest, and the children will have true remains stored up in their internals for future use.
     This principle introduced in the book before us would have made it truly a New Church "Manual of Religious Instruction "
     * MANUALS OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. BIBLE SERIES. No. i. BIBLE STORIES FOR YOUNGEST CLASSES. New York: The New Church Board of Publication, 1883.
DOCTRINE OF CHARITY.* 1883

DOCTRINE OF CHARITY.*              1883

     WITH great pleasure do we announce the publication of this small but valuable work. It is a most practical guide to actual goodness, and the Church has reason to thank the translator, the Rev. S. M. Warren, and the publishers, the Philadelphia Tract and Publication Society-, for presenting it in this new form.
     The edition before us is one of the good fruits born of the reprinting of the Writings in Latin. Doctrina de Charitate was the first reprint the New York Publishing Society issued, and upon this reprint the present translation is based. From the preface the reader will learn one of the treat uses wrought by' the reprint and by the reproduction by photo-lithography of the Writings of the Church. The manuscript-one very difficult to decipher-was photo-lithographed. This photo-lithograph was used in the reprint of the Latin, and the reprint was used by the translator. In consequence, twenty-eight of the one hundred and ten pages are an interesting and valuable addition, never before published in English, and much of the preceding portion of the book is more correctly rendered. For instance, in No. 110 of the first English edition, among "the externals of the body which belong to worship," there is mentioned "in the case of every man, communicating free and sincere instruction on religious matters." This has led some to believe that the Doctrines here sanction lay-preaching. - The new edition will convince them of their error, since we there read, "and with every one, the instruction of children and servants in such matters."
     In Nos. 2 and 3, the Latin words cognoscere and scire are respectively translated, "take cognizance of," and "know," against the old translations, "know" and "perceive." While the new translation may seem a little labored, it expresses the idea of the Latin which the old does not. Did space permit, we could call attention to the explicit distinction made by Swedenborg between the two words cognoscere and scire, a distinction which ought always to be preserved in translations.
     There may be a few errors in the new translation, as where, on page 13, tinniens is translated "empty" instead of "tinkling," but they are unimportant and comparatively rare.
     The translation is remarkable as an evidence that beauty of English diction is compatible with an almost literal rendering of Swedenborg's Latin, and as such is worthy of study by those who are interested in this subject. The few notes made by the translator are instructive and full of interest.
     To all those who wish to obtain clear and divinely true answers to the questions: "What is good?" "What is charity?" "How can I show my love to my neighbor?" we warmly recommend this little work. Priests, magistrates, public officials, judges, generals, and others officers of the army and navy, men of business, workmen, farmers, sailors, servants, are mentioned and have their particular duties pointed out to them.
     As an illustration of the practical tendency of the Writings of the New Church, none better can be selected.
     * THE DOCTRINE OF THE New JERUSALEM CONCERNING CHARITY- A posthumous work of Emanuel Swedenborg. Translated from the Latin.
Philadelphia: New Church Tract and Publication society. 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 iii. Cloth, 116 pp.; 10 cents.
LETTER AND AUTHORITY OF SWEDENBORG 1883

LETTER AND AUTHORITY OF SWEDENBORG              1883

     THE LETTER AND AUTHORITY OF SWEDENBORG, AND THE FREEDOM AND FAITH OF DR. TAFEL. By H. S. Sutton.

     This is one of the numerous pamphlets lately issued by members of the Manchester, England, Society. It is a curious bit of work, and, aside from its unseemly adjectives and comparisons, seems to be more Unitarian or Freethinking in spirit than New Church. This pamphlet is in strong contrast with the one written by Mr. Broadfield, of the same Society, for the latter's, while sharp and keen as a presentation of the writer's views and replies, is remarkably polished and courteous in tone.
     We do not purpose noticing what is said against Dr. Tafel and the Academy, as that is of small importance. Perhaps, too, it is of little moment what is said against the Writings, still it is interesting, as showing the views of some New Churchmen-not many, we a matter of surprise that a writer with the least experience should have been guilty of seriously advancing the argument contained in the "supposed dialogue" between a "Free New Churchman and a Swedenborgian Literalist," given at the beginning of the pamphlet.

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The dialogue is intended to cast ridicule on the fact that on two copies of the Brief Exposition were written "by command," "This book is the LORD'S Advent," or, rather, not so much 'on the fact as on any one believing in its truth. The argument is that as the statement was written on two copies, then "This is half the Advent" is the true rendering that should be on each, or if the entire edition is included, then "This is the five hundredth part of the Advent" would be the wily it should be put. This style of reasoning hurts nothing save the writer's reputation for common sense.
     Swedenborg's solemn assertion, that "While I am writing, I am gifted with a perfect inspiration," etc., is flatly said to be "nonsense." The writer admits that Swedenborg received the "living truth of God," "but he was left to write it as best he could." It is a curious and almost an amusing fact that this assertion places Mr. Sutton in precisely the position he scornfully accuses others of being in, i. e., that of looking to Swedenborg instead of to the LORD. According to his assertion, that mighty event, the Second Coming of the LORD in Divine truth, was to Swedenborg alone, and he was left to impart that truth to the world "as best he could." Of course, those who wish to look to the person, Swedenborg, for Divine truth are at liberty to do so, but we imagine that the majority in the Church will prefer to look to the LORD. Further along, after noting a number of errors in Swedenborg's books (commonly known as the Writings), the errors are said to be "little slips" "which he [Swedenborg] would have corrected had any one called his attention to them." Now, on reading this one naturally thinks, What a pity it is that Swedenborg could not have had a bright nineteenth century man to revise and edit his imperfect works? Perhaps it is not too late yet; the man of the nineteenth century has measured the Word by the gauge of his own little intellect, and revised, corrected, or omitted many parts of it, so what is to prevent the same type of man from "revising" the Writings-of making human intelligence the standard of Divine Truth? This may appear as a harsh query to some, but how else can it be when a writer asserts of the contents of works claiming to be revelations, that this in their contents is Divine truth and that is "obsolete," "effete," or "erroneous"? When it is remembered that every particle of knowledge of spiritual things any man has, comes from the Writings alone, and that without their light we all would be in Egyptian darkness, it is amusing to see wise little men branding this in the Writings as "living truth," because they can see it to be so, and branding that as "obsolete," effete, etc., because it does not agree with their notions.
     True it is that men would arise and crush the Vandal who laid hands on the ancient or modern classics; but then, the case is different with Swedenborg, for we are told, "As good old Homer nods at times," "so even Swedenborg was not at all times equally wide awake." Hence, at the times when Swedenborg dozed and nodded over his work, he gave us not the Divine Truth, but "nonsense." This occasional somnolent tendency of Swedenborg has resulted in there being much that is false and self-derived mixed up with the "living truth," indeed, it could not have been otherwise, in view of the fact (!) that the Second Coming of the LORD was to him only, and he, poor, drowsy old man, was left to give' the truth that is the only hope of a world "as best he could."
     The second part of this New-New- Church pamphlet treats of Ecclesiastical Governments and opens thus: "So far we have been among Swedenborg's trivial clerical errors." Then the teachings of the Writings on Church government and the priesthood are called "scattered fragments," that "should have no force whatever for New Churchmen." We are flattered that with the light of this wonderful New Age we "may see now what a, great sage's guesses seem to have missed." Then in the new light we are given the true Church order, concluding, "Such, briefly, is the heavenly (?) order for New Church government. It was not given to Swedenborg to bring this in." What a great mission is this pamphleteer's! first, to expose the false teachings of the Writings, and then give instead the true "heavenly order." A few carping cynics may say that it smacks of very human conceit, this giving of man-made notions as "heavenly order:" but what are they when pitted against this Mighty New Age of self-derived intelligence?-an intelligence that styles what the Church has heretofore regarded as Divine truth to be "odds and ends," "mere feeble imitations of things antiquated and effete," etc., etc. According to the new heavenly order the Press is to be the chief priest, assisted by subordinate priests in the guise of "Sunday-school teachers, book and tract writers [also, we infer, pamphlet writers], societies and distributors," and so on. Who, in the absence of a distinctive ministry, is to administer the sacraments of the Holy Supper and Baptism, or Marriage is not stated. Perhaps they, too, are "mere feeble imitations of things antiquated and effete." True, the pamphlet does not so style them, but the logical results of its doctrine if carried out leads to that conclusion. Why may not the man of the coming twentieth century sweep away the Holy Supper, Baptism, yes, and even Marriage, as our pamphleteer has so many other antiquated notions. This may seem like putting an extreme supposition, but if the man of to-day rejects certain portions of the Writings, why has not the man of to-morrow an equal right to reject the portions which are accepted to-day in Manchester?-to say that the sacraments and marriage are "mere feeble imitations of things antiquated and effete"? This danger will always threaten those who accept as Divine Truth only such teachings of the Writings as they choose to be true and reject the remainder.
MESSENGER vs. SWEDENBORG 1883

MESSENGER vs. SWEDENBORG       X       1883



COMMUNICATED.
     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-Dr. Howard Crosby's invidious attack upon Swedenborg in the Observer a few weeks ago has called forth several replies, one of which, by the editor of the Messenger, is so remarkable that I wonder it has not attracted your attention.
     The Messenger, despite the clear statements of Swedenborg, says the latter "does not declare that David and Paul are in the other world associated with the worst devils;" and, further, he asserts that Swedenborg was deceived by spirits.
     In regard to David and Paul, we learn from the Spiritual Diary that they were undoubtedly bad men. Paul associated himself with the worst devils, the Messenger to the contrary notwithstanding (See S. D. 4413.)

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He hated the internal of the Word (Diarium Minus 4561), desired to be greatest in heaven (S. D. 4412), and was such a disturber that finally "he was carried down below, where he does not know that he had been Paul." (Diarium Minus 4562.)
     David was among adulterers (S. D. 3673), and is described as a wicked man and the subject of the wicked. (S. D. 3682.)
     I presume from the position of the Messenger it will be claimed that Swedenborg was deceived by spirits; I but there is no proof of such an audacious assertion True, in one place evil spirits called forth David and presented him with his instruments as an innocent person but immersed in an obscure cloud (S. D. 3851); and the direct statement precedes that David is a wicked subject of the wicked. (S.D. 3682.) And, too, in many places Paul and David are denounced in emphatic and unqualified terms. Surely it will not be retorted that Swedenborg was deceived in all his statements concerning these Biblical characters. If it is, I reply that the visions, conversations, etc., related in the Diary were not from any angel or spirit but from the LORD alone (S. D. 1647). Are they, then, a deception?
     I feel that the Messenger has erred in its attempt to defend the Church. It has placed a cudgel in the enemy's hand that may be vigorously wielded in counter-attack. I hope the blow will fall where it belongs. The body of the Church does not fear its calumniators, and is ready to stand up for the truth as the LORD gave it.     Dr. Crosby can denounce Swedenborg if he chooses, and can call him immoral because of his work on Conjugial Love; but every statement Swedenborg makes is a living truth, which will continue its Divine use long after those who would despoil it are gone and forgotten. The truth will endure forever.
Yours, in the Church,     X.
CORRECTION 1883

CORRECTION       FRANK W. VERY       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-In my account of this year's Convention, the change in the day of commencement was stated to have been made "at the suggestion of the Rev. J. R. Hibbard." Dr. Hibbard informs me that this is a mistake, and that he "never made any such suggestion, at least not of late years." Will you oblige me by inserting this correction.
FRANK W. VERY.
     OBSERVATORY, ALLEGHENY CITY, PA.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     THE Maine Association will be held in Bath, on the first of September.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     REV. F. W. TUERK preached in London on July 18th and August 12th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. G. F. STEARNS has resigned the pastorate of the Society in East Rockport, Ohio.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE annual meeting of the Swiss New Church Union took place on Sunday, August 12th, in Zurich.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     MR. JOSEPH N. SECHRIST, of Greensburgh, Pa., departed this life, June 30th, in the 61st year of his age.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     DR. J. Q. A. COFFEEN, a well-known New Churchman, of Wyoming, Ohio, passed into the spiritual world August 9th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Ohio Association will meet in East Rockport on September 14th. As usual, the Ministers' Conference will be held on the day previous.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     REV. L. H. TAFEL preached in London, England, on July 18th; in Zurich, Switzerland, on July 22d; and again in London on September 19th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. A. F. FROST, of Cleveland, has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Detroit Society. His engagement will begin with the middle of September.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Washington Society is making great efforts to pay off its debt of five thousand nine hundred dollars. Aid from New Churchmen in other places is solicited.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Schools of the Academy of the New Church will reopen on the 19th of September. Miss Junge, of Chicago, will be added to the corps of teachers of the Preparatory Department.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A monthly New Church journal of Copenhagen, Denmark, has been suspended on account of the ill-health of the editor, Mr. W. Winslow. He hopes to be able to continue the publication of Salem next year.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE hall where the San Francisco Second Society has worshiped since 1870 was destroyed by fire, August 3d. The Sunday-school library and books of worship belonging to the Society were burned. Another hall has been engaged.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Government official who formerly was present at the meetings of the New Church in Vienna has for some time past stopped his visitations. The last semiannual meeting of the Vienna Society was held on July 1st.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE friends in Buda-Pesth (Hungary) have received $17.00 from Canada as contribution to the publication of Letters to a Man of the World in the Hungarian language. It is devoutly to be hoped that this translation, which has waited so long for print, may soon be published.-Neukirchenblatter.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     ON the 8th of August a few select friends of the New Church in Connecticut met at Lyle's Beach (west end of Fisher's Island). The pleasant sail, the refreshing sea-air, and, more than all, the delights of the social spheres of those who constituted the company made the occasion memorable for its joy and gladness, and we trust for its use to the Church.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE work on the new building in connection with the Urbana University has been begun. . . The Rev. O. L. Barber has been appointed Principal of the Young Ladies' Department. Professor Cabell will again act as Professor of Ancient Languages, though still continuing his work as assistant of the General Pastor of the Ohio Association. The College opens September 26th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE practice in New Church Societies of suspending public worship during the summer months is not yet quite universal. Worship has been held throughout the summer in Pittsburgh, Bath, Chicago (West Side), Allentown, Fryeburg, and other places. Services are also held in the Chapel of the Chestnut Street Church of Philadelphia; a sermon is read by Mr. I. N. Gregory; the congregation, however, is quite small.


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Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. J. KIMM has organized a New Church Sunday-school in Florence, Iowa, at Keen's Schoolhouse (three miles north of Norway), with thirty-one pupils, and he is preparing a class of young' people for confirmation. On Pentecost he baptized three children,' and preachers once a month for the old people in German. The Sunday-school is conducted in English and is in a promising condition. Mr. Kimm is able to preach fluently in English and German, and intends to devote his time next winter for missionary, purposes, and those who wish to engage his services may address him at Watkins, Iowa.
DUNDAS, ONTARIO, CANADA 1883

DUNDAS, ONTARIO, CANADA       X       1883

     - The New Church people of this vicinity met in Temperance Hall, Dundas, Sunday, July 29th, to hear a lecture by the Rev. J.
E. Bowers on the subject, "What it is to die." There were about forty persons, one-half being receivers of the Doctrines to a greater or less degree. From the interest taken in this meeting a feeling of encouragement prevailed, and hopes were expressed that another trial might be made in the course of a few months when Mr. Bowers will be returning from Pennsylvania. Dundas is centrally located, and we hope all who incline to the New Church will become interested in making the visits of Mr. Bowers both pleasant to himself and useful to the Church. The true growth of the Church will be in proportion to its growth in the individual, and all New Churchmen know this to be a slow, tedious work-in fact, whose experience does not teach him that to eradicate one small vice the most desperate and lengthy struggle man can possibly engage in is necessary, on his part? "Shun evils as sins is a command which meets him everywhere. While in the very nature of the New Church we may look for no rapid progress or startling increase of numbers, we hope to be successful in forming a Society sometime. As the Church takes form within each novitiate and develops there through the process of shunning evils as sins, we have reason to believe the outward manifestations will follow in a desire to meet together to worship the LORD in His Divine Humanity.     X.
ZURICH, SWITZERLAND 1883

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND       F. G       1883

     -Yesterday, Sunday, July 22d, Pastor Louis Tafel, of Philadelphia, conducted our worship. His text was from Zech viii, 9-12, and was chosen as "a comfort of the LORD to His New Church," which the members ought to bear mind, especially in this time of small beginnings, as strengthening and encouraging. For to nothing else than to the building of the New Jerusalem does the internal sense of the words of the LORD refer: "Thus says the LORD of Hosts, Strengthen your hands, ye who is these days hear these words out of the mouth of the prophets, on the day when the foundation for, the house of the LORD 15 laid, to build up the temple."
     The sermon was for us, in fact, strengthening and encouraging. With us in Switzerland and in Germany there is, still more than in America and England, a "time of small beginnings," and the presence of a representative of the priesthood from a country where the Church is better developed has a vivifying effect upon our small circle, since it makes us truly conscious of our conjunction with the whole Church. We are very grateful to Pastor Tafel for devoting this Sunday to us, despite his limited time. To-day he departs for the South.
     Pastor Dr. Rudolph Tafel and wife, from London, also gave us the pleasure of a visit last week. He visited the Reading-class, which meets every Thursday afternoon at the residence, of Miss von Struve, but on account, of other engagements could not stay over Sunday. Both Messrs. Tafel came direct from Wurtemberg. On Monday, July 9th, they were in Flacht, where they spent a few hours with the New Churchmen of that place pleasantly and incitingly. On the evening of the same day they joined in Stuttgart in the residence of Mr. Ammam the friends of that place.-F. G., in Neukirchenblaetter.
DENVER, COLORADO 1883

DENVER, COLORADO       H. L       1883

     - Services were discontinued for the summer on the last Sunday in June. On the 18th ult., Dr. and Mrs. Hibbard arrived here to spend the summer, guests of Dr. B. A. Wheeler. On the following Sunday Dr. Hibbard preached to a good sized audience, taking into consideration the number of members that were out of town. Dr. and Mrs. Hibbard remained until after 24th ult., the day of the G. A. R. parade, after which they went to Buffalo Creek, a small place about forty miles from here, in the Platte Caflon, where Dr. 'Wheeler's family are spending the summer. A week or so after they had arrived in the mountains; Dr. Hibbard wrote down to Mr. De Charms that he intended to hold services at Dr. Wheeler's on the 5th inst., and to have as many of the Denver people to come up as could. There were ten that took this opportunity for an enjoyable trip up one of the grandest canons in Colorado. The train left Denver at 8.20 A. M. The first twenty miles is over the prairie to the mouth of the canon. The ride up this canon is very beautiful, but it is so rugged that few people make the trip who do not experience sea-sickness in some degree. We arrived at Buffalo at 11.40, and immediately proceeded to Dr. Wheeler's house, a short distance from the station. Arrived there, a rest of a few minutes was taken before service began. The usual opening services were used, the responses being read instead of sung. After this the 28th chapter of Genesis was read; this was followed by the sermon. The text was from the 28th chapter of Genesis; the subject, Jacob's ladder. He showed very clearly the spiritual meaning of the text, viz.: that by the ladder was represented the Word, the medium by which men have conjunction with Heaven and Angels, and the ladder represented the Word or that medium. After the sermon, a walk up the mountains was indulged in by most of the party, and on their return lunch was served. At 3.40 the Denver delegation left for home, and thus ended a very delightful day. Dr. Hibbard starts on a missionary tour through the mountains this week. The total number, at the service in the mountains was twenty, including the children.     H. L.
August 7th, 1883.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE following table will show the membership and increase of the largest Societies connected with the Convention:
                    Membership     Increase
Boston,                646*          0
Berlin,               235          7
Cincinnati,               233          1
New York,               218          20
Portland,               182          33
Boston Highlands,          120          5
Brooklyn,               117          1
Philadelphia,          117          16
Washington,               109          0
Bridgewater,          102          18
Pittsburgh,               97          2
Providence,               93          10
Riverhead,               90          5
     * A decrease of 5.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



147



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER, 1883.
     IN England, Subscriptions to the NEW CHURCH LIFE will be received by Mr. JAMES SPEIRS, 36 Bloomsburg Street, London, W. C., at the rate of four Shillings a year.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     OWING to the Last Judgment performed in the spiritual world in 1757, the Christian world has come into a more free way of thinking on spiritual subjects. The result is that the infidelity which dared not show itself and often lay hid beneath an assumed religious exterior, proclaims itself more and more boldly.
     To judge by the reports in the Hamilton (Canada) Tribune of the speeches of Mr. Charles Watts, this gentleman shows in a forcible manner that the Christian Church has been consummated, and mercilessly pits the literal sense of the Word against the sects of the Old Church, demonstrating that they act directly contrary to the mandates of the Word. Thus the experience of a naturally-minded man testifies to the truth of what our Spiritual Doctrines teach.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE fo1lowing is the key-note of a sermon recently published in the Morning Light, "How are we to know that a doctrine is from God and not a human opinion? By living according to it. This is an infallible and the only infallible test."
     Further on occurs the following: "Let a young man or woman take the two great commandments, which teach love to God and man as the cardinal principles of life, and can there be any doubt about the outcome of that life? Again, "Let us do the LORD'S will according to the truth we have gained." It seems to us that the last two quotations contradict the first one, for if we can only discover the truth by living it, why are we told to live the truth we have gained, when according to the writer's first assertion, the very fact of our having gained it shows we must have lived it already.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New Jerusalem Magazine for September editorially discusses the question, "Are we right in organizing?" in its usual calm and peaceful style, and, we believe, arrives at the conclusion that, all things considered, it is rather a good thing that the New Church is organized. After mentioning the zeal of those who have not organized, in spreading the "Truths of the New Age." the editor says: "The question, Are we right in organizing? is simply a question of use. There is no need to debate it in an abstract manner, and it is not now necessary, though interesting and profitable, to examine on this point the teaching of the Writings, for it is simply a practical question." . . . The statement also is made that "No one questions the wisdom of the organization of the Methodist Church, because great good has been done." The longer this sentence is studied the clearer becomes the fact that it is capable of several very different meanings. If the Magazine means that the Methodist Church has done "great good," the teachings of the Writings on the subject of faith alone at once presents itself. How can great good come from a Church whose corner-stone is the deadly falsity of instantaneous salvation by faith alone? Will the Magazine kindly solve the problem for us?
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE September number of the National Temperance Advocate contains an article from the pen of our friend, Dr. John Ellis, telling how Communion wine may be made by first boiling and then "canning" or bottling it. As the Church has had this process, so "well known to the, ancients," very, fully described in Dr. Ellis widely circulated books, it is needless to dwell upon it further. The following extracts from the Advocate will give our readers a specimen of what the temperance party delights in. The scene is "a certain station in Mississippi." The writer has noticed a lot of empty barrels, and says, among other things: "This beverage of hell is rotting the vitals of the land;" the people who drink it are "lazy, mangy, nasty mortals;" "Oh! for a thousand funerals a day to exterminate this lazy, good-for-nothing generation!" and much more of the same stamp. One cannot help wishing that the able New Church writers in the "temperance" party would proclaim and teach the only means by which the curse of drunkenness can be swept from the earth. Let them first found the party on the acknowledgment of our LORD JESUS CHRIST, in His Divine Humanity, as the One and only God, and then let each individual resolve to shun evils as sins against Him. If the party will acknowledge the first and live the last, in whatever part of the world they prevail, then drunkenness will flee away, and fraud, lying, stealing, blasphemy, hypocrisy, and all other hell-born traits will follow.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN the last number of the LIFE we noted the fact that the "Rev. J. W. White, Presbyterian pastor at Milroy, Muffin County, was charged with circulating Swedenborgian tracts and preaching heretical doctrines." The trial before the Huntingdon Synod resulted in the deposition of Mr. White by a majority vote. When the decision was announced, the Rev. J. C. Wilhelm, of Peterburg, also a Presbyterian pastor, arose, and, to the great surprise of every one, stated that he agreed with Mr. White, and asked that his ministerial connection, be dissolved. His request was granted. Though in the formal charges the name of     Swedenborg was not mentioned, still we understand that both of the deposed pastors have been readers of the Doctrines for a number of years.


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Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE September number of the New Church Independent contains a letter from Dr. Holcombe in answer to the review in Words for the New Church of his book, the End of the World. He says that there are two ways of arriving at the truth and that his critics have not found the "interior way." He found it by many "hideous temptations," from which he was delivered, "mainly in a single day," "by a realization of the presence of the Divine Man in ultimates-a Divine natural Humanity standing right by me ready to assume my states if I would only utterly give myself up to Him." He passed at once into a "Sabbath State," which "has continued and grown steadily ever since," and which has enabled him to "realize the truth unfolded in the End of the World." The writer devotes several pages to show that the internal sense of the Word can be found without the aid of the Writings by those in whom the celestial degree is opened.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Boston Advertiser of August 30th contains a long editorial on the "Swedenborg Anniversary." Referring to the "sneering and frivolous account" of the Centenary meeting which appeared in the London Telegraph, and to that in the Times, the Advertiser says: "This is an easy way to get rid of an historical phenomenon which calls for an intelligent explanation rather than for the unsupported charge of lunacy. The Swedenborgians are strongest in England and the United States; they have always been good citizens, and they have a right to celebrate their anniversary; for during a full century they have been indefatigable and lavish in distributing the works of the great mystic. If Swedenborg or his followers have done any harm in this world the world has yet to hear of it. On the other hand, it Is an unquestioned fact that during a whole century a great many choice spirits in the choicest nations have been proud to do the work of Swedenborg.. . . But the main point is that he has actually founded a new Church, and that his strongest following is among the Lancastrians, the New Englanders, and the Germans, who are usually supposed to be very precise and reserved in their notions of belief . . . So learned a man as the German Tafel has been the literary executor of the great Swede, and
even the Catholic Mohler has been attracted by him."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     OF the five thousand registered members of the New Church in this country, one-fifth are of German descent. The following table will show the number of members in the principal Societies and Circles of German receivers:-

     Berlin, Canada,                         225
     St. Louis, First Society,     . .          81
     St. Louis, Second Society, .               118
     Monroe County, Ohio,     . .               66
     Baltimore,          .     . .     . .     .     61
     Wellesley, Canada,           .     .     60
     Benton County, Iowa,               .      .     50
     Chicago, .     .      .     .     . .          40
     New York, .                .          .     37
     Allentown, Pa.,                         30
     Manchester, N. H.,          . .          26
     Lennox, Iowa,                          25
     Wellesville, Mo.,                         20
     Greenford, Ohio,           .               20
     Burlington, Iowa, .                    12
     Philadelphia, .                         44
     Pittsburgh,          . .                    26
                                        940
HEBREW LANGUAGE 1883

HEBREW LANGUAGE              1883

III.

     BEFORE presenting further teachings concerning the Hebrew language, we will briefly remind our readers of those presented in former articles. We were enabled to see how very important it is for the members of the New Church to study the Word in Hebrew, for thereby they receive a stronger influx from heaven, and by that strong influx the Letter of the Word becomes more powerful against evil and falsity. Then, too, we perform a greater use to the angels of heaven, who can perceive the internal sense more fully when the Word is read in the original tongue in which it was given by the LORD.
     We were also taught that the Hebrew is adapted to receive the internal sense of the Word, because more than other languages it agrees with angelic language. Since vowels do not belong tea language, but to the elevation of its expressions to affections, Hebrew was first written without vowels. These were inserted by every one according to his affections. But to prevent perversion of the Word, the LORD permitted the vowels to be indicated by points.
     Another quality also which the Hebrew derives from angelic language is that it passes softly from one expression to another by means of the word "and" ( ).
     Concerning this wonderful language, we are further taught in the Spiritual Diary as follows:
     "That the Hebrew language is such as to comprehend ideas, and, indeed, that the words are such that in every one there are many ideas, so that they are more general ideas than the words of other tongues may appear from many things; then, also, that there were no vowels there that the sense, of the letter might be known from the interior sense, but not the interior sense from the sense of the letter, which takes place more when the vowels are adjoined. Wherefore he who perceives the sense of the letter from the interior sense, better understands what is written in the Hebrew letters without vowels than with them. Therefore, also names are not distinguished by larger initials. Therefore also there is not distinction by commas and similar [signs] which are in languages in which one gives attention to the sense of the letter. Moreover, the mode of speaking in the Word is natural, not artificial, as may manifestly appear from many things-for example, they speak almost everywhere as if the person himself spoke; it is not said that he thus spoke, but as if he were speaking. So in other things."- S. D. 2681.
     And again we are taught that
     "There are many words [voces] in the Hebrew tongue which contain the complex of many ideas in one, from opposite to opposite, so that the sense cannot be understood, except from the series, and this from interiors different from other languages, because they (the Jews) were in representatives, so that many things might be in one common idea and thus they might not come to interiors because they were such."- S. D. 2833.
     This is a most important teaching concerning the Hebrew and one which has a direct bearing on translation. For if, owing to its representative character, each word contains so many ideas that it must be understood according to the series and this from the interiors, it follows that a perfect translation can only be made by New Churchmen who know this fact and who have the means of acquiring the internal sense according to which     the letter is to be understood.
     And from this we may also see why the Latin translation in the Writings is so perfect, for it was made from the internal sense.


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     It is to be noted here that while a word contains the complex of many ideas, they are from opposite to opposite, i. e., from one extreme to the other of the same general or root meaning, and that the idea does not run off into any foreign or opposite meaning.
     We are further taught how the Hebrew favors the internal sense in the following:
     "In the foregoing it is said that Noah was just and whole, that he walked with God, and here that he begat three sons, and, nevertheless, they regard future things. It is to be known that the internal sense is, such that it has no ratio of times. This also the original tongue favors where sometimes one and the same word is explicable to any time, as it also does not distinguish between words. Thus the interiors are more evidently manifest. That language derives this from the internal sense, which is more multiple than ever any one is able to believe. Thence it does not suffer itself to be finited by times and by distinctions."- A. C. 618.
     Again:-
     "In the original tongue one series is not distinguished from another by interstitial signs, as in other tongues, but it appears as if continuous from beginning to end. Those things which are in the internal sense are indeed similarly continuous and flowing from one state of a thing into another, but when one state is terminated and another succeeds which is important, it is indicated by 'it was,' 'it came to pass,' and changes of state less important are indicated by and, for which reason they occur so often."- A. C. 4987.
     The internal sense does not suffer itself to be finited by times and by distinctions, for it is very multiple, and we may see from' the above teachings how well the Hebrew is adapted to contain this illimitable spiritual sense. In its original form it has no vowels, so that these may be inserted by each reader to correspond with the affections excited by the internal sense. Its words contain many ideas in one general idea, so that the internal sense may be contained in its varied applications. It is not distinguished by commas, but passes softly from one state to another by means of the word " and," [ ] which with "it was," or "it came to pass" ( ) indicate the changes of state lesser and greater. The Hebrew language, too, is not so strictly limited as to times as that the same word may be applied to almost any time, and being derived from the angelic language it is natural and not artificial. It is a language, then, well-fitted to contain the internal sense of the Word, and great profit may be derived from the study of its forms and constructions aside from the inestimable benefit to be derived from reading and studying the LORD'S Word as it came from His mouth. What New Churchman would not gladly embrace an opportunity of studying this vessel of the LORD'S revealed will?"
AIJTHORITY vs. MODERN SCIENCE 1883

AIJTHORITY vs. MODERN SCIENCE              1883

     A SUBJECT on which New Churchmen, if they would be wise, will hold to the authority of the Doctrines, is the assumptions of modern science. Otherwise, they incur not only the danger of being always wrong, but being put to sad discomfiture in the end; for modern science, though very positive and dogmatic in its assumptions, is equally fluctuating and fickle, denying as positively to-morrow what it positively affirms to-day. Whereas, he who is anchored in the truth that the Doctrines are the teaching of the LORD, and, therefore, true, will find himself always right and always safe. He will not be subject to the mortification of being compelled to retract his positions every time that fickle science chooses to demand it of him. We might safely take this ground as a result of what we have seen in our former papers on "authority," and rest there in confidence of the result, that what the "LORD has said" is true, and He will vindicate and establish it in the end. But we need not wait for that defense which is to come in the future, but may assure ourselves, from events already appearing, that the LORD is already arising to vindicate His own. Our aim in this paper will not be to argue the question at length, as it is not necessary, but only to offer a few of these facts, if so be we may help to strengthen the feeble knees of those who are disposed to surrender the teachings of the Doctrines at every dogmatic demand of an ever changing, so-called science.
     The main point we wish to present is that the discoveries of modern times are leading toward, rather than away, from the teachings of the Church on the points involved. A few instances will show what we mean.
     At the time that the LORD came in the Doctrines of the New Church, the universal idea in Christendom was the Newtonian one of a vacuum. It was supposed that I all the planetary bodies moved in absolutely empty space; shot, as it were, by some power out into this empty space, they continued to move by the imparted impetus, simply because there was nothing to stop them. It was the lowest materialistic thought corresponding to the lowest materialistic tendencies of an age in which all spiritual thought was consummated. The Doctrines came, announcing the opposite truth that such a thing as a vacuum is simply impossible, that the whole universe is a plenum, filled full from its Divine Source in the LORD down to the lowest ultimates in the material earths. New Churchmen had a struggle indeed to maintain their loyalty to a doctrine so contrary to all the thought of the age, enforced by the dogmatic positiveness which materialism always assumes, and backed by appearances that, with the dextrous manipulation which materialism can ever use, were, with the little true facts then known, hard to controvert it. For more than a century, New Churchmen were in this position, taxed by the world as lacking common sense in following a visionary in the belief of an idea that plainly was not so. Even so late as within our own knowledge of the Doctrines, the Newtonian idea was unquestioned and subjected us to the jeers of college mates, on seeing Newton's recantation of the vacuum theory in the D. L. and W. 82. Queerly enough, however, almost immediately a lecturer was around, showing that there is a medium in the planetary spaces and presenting the new-found facts which demonstrate it. The tables were turned on college mates, making them decidedly less disposed to jeer. But then there was the compensation for them that they could make a point in favor of the old theological teaching that the earth was to be destroyed by fire; for could we not see that a planetary medium meant planetary resistance and retardation, and, finally, the catastrophe of falling into the sun and being burned up! Materialistic still; no idea of a living, Divine, maintaining power. It is only within a few years that it has occurred to modern science that possibly the magnetic force may have something to do in carrying forward the planetary movements. At least, we are out of our trouble from this quarter. Our conclusions ate no longer disputed, whether our doctrine, of the Divine maintenance of all things is accepted or not.
     A little later than Newton arose La Place, with his celebrated Nebular Hypothesis, by which he has ruled the world's thought almost to the present hour.

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His, too, was a materialistic thought of a mere mechanical falling together of matter diffused through space till the aggregated masses formed worlds. It was the circumference forming the centre. And some New Churchmen were not sure but it was so, although the Doctrines of the Church teach that the worlds were evolved from the suns as creative centres, through which a living, creative power from the LORD perpetually operates, making sustentation a perpetual creation. And all the steadfast have had to withstand the powerful sphere of the materialist idea, every day growing more positive and dogmatic, until within the last few years, when discoveries have been made, showing that the sun is the centre of creation, and making it probable to many scientists that such creation is perpetually going on, perhaps with many worlds yet to come. And so we have no more trouble on that score.
     For many years scientists asserted that the sun was a solid globe as opaque as the earth and perhaps as cool, giving light and heat from a luminous envelope. The Doctrines of the New Church taught that it is a globe of pure fire. New Churchmen had to withstand the pressure of the popular notion if they maintained their teachings. Some did not feel very sure about this and were a little disposed to weaken. But lo! one day the younger Herschel proclaimed that his observations proved the sun not to be a solid, cold globe, but a vortex of pure fire. And now the spectroscope has proved it beyond a question, and that trouble is over.
     Vivisectionists showed that the loss of the cerebellum took away the coordinating power of the muscles. Their conclusion was: Therefore, the cerebellum is not the love or will organ, as was the belief of the ages. A curious kind of "therefore," of course. But that was the way they fixed it. And they did it so positively that some scientifically inclined New Churchmen were not strong enough in their convictions of the truth of their teachings that the cerebellum is the organ of the will or love to stand by them, but admitted that the scientists undoubtedly had, in this instance at least, corrected an old-fashioned error of a man not up with the times in science. He was only a human and fallible medium any way, liable as any of us to be mistaken. But now this very old-fashioned notion is coming to the front again, and our dogmatist and our weak-kneed brother must stand corrected together. Science must rebuke, not the Doctrines, but itself. The human fallible medium is not so badly mistaken at last.
     In view of these and other similar facts, we can confidently abide by our teachings on all points of divergence between them and the ever-changing decrees of science, knowing that the discomfiture awaits not those who so abide, but those who forsake our teachings to follow the fickle fancies of so-called science. We may certainly rest in, the assurance that on every point, whether scientific or otherwise, on which the Doctrines give a certain and definite teaching, that teaching in the end will be vindicated. What "is from the LORD" and "is written" true. And time will show it to the discomfiture of the weak and the strengthening of the steadfast.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A RECENT number of the Independent contains part of a letter from "G. W. C.," giving a revelation of the "interior" appearance of the Editors of NEW CHURCH LIFE. We are told that "in the interior they appear like a huge dog lying upon a mound of hay, incapable of eating it, and threatening death to any animal, that seeks it as life-sustaining food."
SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 1883

SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES              1883

     3.- ARCHITECTURE.

     A HOUSE corresponds to man's mind, and all things in the house to the goods and truths that he has received from the LORD. (H. and H. 186 et al.) Mansions in heaven so far surpass in beauty and magnificence houses on earth, that they cannot be adequately described in natural language. They are not the production and, workmanship of any Angelic hand, but are framed by the Builder of the universe; wherefore architectural art is in them in its essential perfection, from which are all the rules of that art in the world. (C. L. 12.)
     But if the art of architecture is, in its purity, derived from heaven, its rules must so far agree with heavenly rules as that which is natural can agree with that which is spiritual.
     The form and construction of the angel's house, its division into rooms, its ornamentations and immediate surroundings, are a molding of spiritual atmospheres and spiritual substances corresponding to the goods and truths, of the angel's will and understanding; and earthly habitations can be like heavenly only when they too are constructed according to the laws of correspondence, which laws, in such an application, become the LORD'S rules of architecture on earth.
     In the Ancient Church human architecture must have been more like that of heaven than it now is in its most perfect presentations. But as man sank lower and lower, first perverting and then losing the knowledge of correspondences, houses and palaces, because necessarily effigies of man's affections and thoughts, became more or less imperfect and defective.
     It is one of the delightful privileges of the New Churchman to reform this art and eventually to be enabled to provide homes of beauty, edifices of transcending grandeur, and temples worthy of consecration to the Builder of the universe, the LORD.
     Architecture is from a Greek word signifying master-builder, and implies more than simple constructive work; it implies the art of building according to principles of beauty, stability, and usefulness. It is an art which provides material structures corresponding to the qualities of the mind; and as correspondences are interiors coming out into exteriors (A. C. 5423), that building is in accord with genuine architectural laws which is in agreement with correspondences. One may be satisfied with the shelter of a rude house, but not with its architecture. It requires beauty of form, harmony of parts, justness of proportion, and complete symmetry to draw forth delight and satisfaction.
     In all buildings there are essential material qualities, which are the ultimates of mental qualities; and which, when properly applied, awaken their corresponding affections. These are directions of lines, whether curved, angular, or straight; size and dimensions; length, height, breadth, and depth. From the combination of these arise beauty or deformity, harmony or disharmony, proportion or disproportion. Size impresses the mind with the grandeur or with the insignificance of an object; height and depth with awe; length and breadth with its practical utility, arising from its capacity. "Proportion depends upon the employment of mathematical ratios. It is a curious but significant fact, that such proportions as those of an exact cube, or of two cubes placed side by side-dimensions increasing by one-half (e. g., 20 feet high, 30 wide, and 45 long)-please The eye more than dimensions taken at random."- Enclyc. Britannica.


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     A graceful curve, like the volute of the Ionic capital or the foliated capital of Grecian- Corinthian, affects the mind very differently from the hard-lined base of some massive pillar; the one impresses us as beautiful, the other as strong.
     Glancing hastily at the various orders of architecture known to history, we see in them evidences of I ancient art and of modern degeneration. We see traces of the descent from the grace and beauty of a high order down to the existing state of architecture. And this is true, even though history goes no farther back than a few thousand years before the Christian era. We admit the crudeness of pre-historic relics, and the imperfections of Assyrian, Indian, and even of Egyptian I architecture. But still, we can see in some of these evidences of a by-gone period, when art was far more perfect than it has ever been since. Much of our boasted knowledge to-day was commonplace information with the ancients. Several thousand years before Christ, Egyptian scientists knew the distance of the earth from the sun; and, too, they were able to quarry, transport, and place blocks of stone of such gigantic size as to defy the competition of modern mechanics. In the relics of architecture preserved in Eastern countries we see monuments of an art fast fading away, but which still preserves some of the beauty and majesty of former days. And when Greece borrowed her art from the East, she selected many of the relics of architectural beauty and incorporated them in her several styles.
     In olden times, the people, aware of the correspondence of the spiral, muse have often employed it in architectural work. All the finest operations of the mind are performed in vortical and spiral curves, and influx into nature is into vorticals, then into spirals, then into circles, and lastly into angular forms. The immeasurable celerity of the first diminishes in the others until it comes into heavy inertia in the last. Will not, then, those natural forms, which are voluted and curved, constitute a higher order of material correspondence than stiff, triangular, and weighty forms? The eye rests on the rolling, grassy hills and calls them beautiful; it turns to the rocky mountain and calls it awful; it views a landscape, in which there is a blending of curved clouds, undulating shrubbery, and meandering streams, and terms it beautifully picturesque; it views a city, with straight-laid streets, rows of symmetrical houses, stately mansions, towering spires, and massive domes, and save but for the softening influence of mist or the modifying effect of rich and variegated foliage and pleasant surroundings, would never call it beautiful.
     Now, these curvings were revived, or rather preserved, in the eyma of Grecian moldings, in the choice of leaves and human figures for ornamentation, and in the volutes of the capitals.
     It is not a little remarkable that this curve is precisely the "line of beauty" of Hogarth-a fact of which, it is claimed, he was wholly ignorant.
     The Romans, borrowing architecture, as they did other arts, from their polished neighbors, altered it to suit their own taste, and then, as their conquests multiplied, extended it over Europe. To Grecian styles they added circles-a lower form of architecture. They built amphitheaters, circular tombs, forums, and triumphal arches. "Disregarding the delicate refinements of the Greeks," the Romans "secured a freedom of design that resulted I at length in our pointed architecture."
     Pointed arches, tall, pyramidal spires, and other attributes of modern architecture, mark another step downward. It is not that these forms are in themselves void of beauty; perversion comes from their universal use or from their misapplication. The Goths, from whom we derive the appellation Gothic Architecture, came from Asian Minor, and doubtless brought with them many Eastern customs. What influence they had upon Roman architecture is not known; neither is it known that they introduced the pointed arch into the architecture bearing their name. But however this may be, similar arches have been found in Asia, and hence must have been in use long before the civilization of Europe. So, when we mark the descent from graceful curves to plain circles and thence to angles and angular arches, we refer to an undue preponderance of one style over the others. Round forms represent spiritual good, and quadrangles natural good (A. C. 8458, 9717, A. E. 905); things true are represented by lines and triangles. Figures, then, differ in degree, and to be genuine, architecture must dispose circles and angles according to order. The high parts of an edifice require a preponderance of spiral and circular forms; the lowest, as the support of the parts alone, demand lines, triangles, and quadrangles. We say a preponderance, because angles are not wholly inconsistent with roofs and upper walls. Use decides; if for example, strength is required, then strength is the use that is to be carried into effect by appropriate means. Now a pointed arch is very strong, and since it is made by the intersection of two circles, it represents ultimates in its angles, and yet it still retains a high degree by its curves; hence it serves as an external for superior parts. But this is no reason for converting a roof into a long series of arches and angular vaultings, like the ceiling of some underground sepulchre.
     In some respects our present information gives us an advantage over the ancients. Quite likely they built according to correct principles, but without the variety possible now.
     What will be the architecture of the future we know not. With the growth of the Church new designs and combinations will arise. The artist, however, will retain all true geometric forms, knowing well just when and where to use them. Still, our inability to foretell the future should not deter us from doing all we can in the present.
     Architecture comprises three grand uses-the providing of homes, of public buildings, and of temples of worship. We shall consider only the first and the last.
     A man's home is his heaven on earth. From it he goes forth to the duties of the day, and to it he returns as to the centre whence he derives strength for renewed efforts on the morrow. He delights in the conjugial sphere of his wife, and with her seeks to extend their mutual blessedness to their children and to all the rest of the household. His first thought in making a home is to do the bidding of the LORD, for the love of home is Conjugial Love, and this comes, only when evils are shunned as sins. In endeavoring thus to live, he learns that to practically carry out Divine commands, externals must not oppose internals; they must agree, for thus only can heavenly joys descend and dwell in the house and make it a home.
     A house is a representative of a human form (A. C. 10,184), its roof corresponds to the head, its walls to the body, and its foundations to the extremities. As the interior makes the man, so the rooms make the house, and as the ruling love of man penetrates and inmostly controls every part of the body, so the primal object of the house, as its sole or chief use, permeates everything in and about the building. The idea of a home, then, as the primal object of the class of architecture under consideration, is first in the artist's mind, and every other thought is subsidiary. Looking to the common good of the family, a room is provided with such furniture as all need, and is called by some such appropriate word as sitting-room. No one person's taste is consulted to the annoyance of others, neither is there anything there that cannot contribute to the common welfare. Individual and special requirements are considered in separate apartments, as the library, sewing-room, play-room, and so on.


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     The bed-room of the husband and wife is centrally located, or is one of the most elevated apartments of the house. It is a retreat of Conjugial Love. It stands alone or communicates with two rooms, one the especial apartment of the husband and the other of the wife. (See C. L. 270.) The walls of the bed-room are not foursquare, casting straight-lined shadows; their monotony; is broken by bay-windows, tasty alcoves, or graceful curves. The ceiling is not flat and of sombre colors, or dazzling white, but is decorated with exquisite sculpture, intertwining vines, or is tinted in bright colors, so blended as to throw out a roseate light. The wife, full of conjugial thought for her husband, adorns the room with specimens of art, either judicious purchases or, happily, the work of her own hands.
     Apartments devoted to the children are in every way adapted to age and sex. The division of the ante-rooms of the bed-chamber of the father and mother, referred to in C. L. 270, represents two lines of duty incumbent on husband and wife respectively, two lines, however, which are repeatedly adjoined, that they may harmonize and produce the utmost good. The apartment of the husband corresponds to the understanding, and represents the reign of truth throughout the house; the apartment of the wife corresponds to the will, and represents her universal rule of love. The education of infants of each sex and of girls belongs to the wife; that of the boys from childhood to manhood to the husband. (C. L. 174, 176.) And to constitute a home for the young, their surroundings must, as far as possible, correspond I with their age and sex. The senses are developed by objects upon which they are exercised (T. C. R. 335), and so the architecture of the children's rooms, including the furniture, must present such objects as they need for their normal development. It is universally admitted that tops, whips, and kindred toys belong peculiarly to one sex, and dolls to the other; but the distinction must go farther. All may be taught the various branches of education, but the manly qualities of the child are brought out by the paternal teaching, in which "understanding, thought, and wisdom take the lead," and the womanly qualities are brought out by the maternal instruction, in which "will, affection, and love take the lead." (C. L. 175.) The father may give advice as to the furnishing of all the children's apartments, but as to the girls' the mother should decide. Can any one doubt, then, that the boys' rooms should be supplied with such toys as tops, miniature engines, mechanical tools, etc., with pictures expressing manly qualities, heroic deeds, and the like, and that ceiling, walls, and furniture should correspond? Can any one doubt that the mother should provide her girls with dolls and embroidery and similar work fending to refinement and elegance, and that everything in the rooms should be conducive to loveliness? The boy brings to his sister a sectional engine, which he can take apart and readjust at pleasure; she admires the toy and helps herself, and him, too, by her affectionate regard for that which is to him a source of intellectual delight. She, in turn, brings to him a specimen of her embroidery; he expatiates on the wonderful number of I stitches taken and the accuracy of the pattern; he is delighted with its mechanism, she with enhanced affection derived from his intellectual appreciation.
     Of the culinary department we have time to say but little; we merely wish to urge upon New Church women the desirability of employing servants of their own religion. How else can the injunction of the Writings that the head of the house is to teach children and servants be properly carried out?
     The parlor is more public; it represents the common ground of meeting of family and friends. Its architecture should tend to extend the delightful home sphere out into the useful task of entertainment. Works of art adorn the walls, chairs and sofas are invitingly arranged, and the room is filled with an atmosphere of welcome. If the chairs are stiff and uncomfortable, like certain so-called reception chairs; or if they are covered with perishable material, annoying to the visitors occupying them, they defeat the object of a parlor and serve no purpose but to gratify the vanity of the hostess.
     The architecture of the house itself is very important. The building resembles others in general, but differs enough to avoid tiresome sameness. Walls, windows, doorways, and roofs may be shaped one way or another, according to the peculiar taste of the builder, but never unharmoniously and out of just proportion. Doors vary in size; that through which guests enter should be large and inviting; that through which ashes and other offal is taken away should be as small as possible and well concealed. It is out of taste and out of order to provide a modest private dwelling with huge steps, and doors of wood painted and riveted to imitate the portals of an old time castle or a mighty fortress. How can the gentle welcome of the home struggle through such barriers and greet the friend's knock or bell-ring? A door is that which introduces (A. C. 2356), and it should correspond to that to which it leads. Windows signify the rational things of truth (A. C. 651, 55), and should never be gloomy, darkly curtained, and glazed with ill shaped glass, distorting objects seen through them. Plain, clear, or stained glass may be used; curtains may be used for protection, but material colored to suit the room is preferable to the gloomy drapery so common nowadays. Hall-ways and stairs need close attention; the former gives access to the various rooms on a floor, the latter to the several stories of the house. The hall in most houses is so dark that guests seem introduced into a tomb instead of into a home of the living. The walls too often are painted or papered in imitation of large stones, like the entrance to a prison cell, forbidding alike to visitors and family. The staircase, like the front door, is inappropriately designed. Its balustrade is of cold iron, of highly polished stone, too low-set to give support, or is "adorned" with some unsightly figure, menacing every one who enters, or with a wean- some statue of a slave in an impossible attitude, holding aloft a lamp. Should the stairway to the: common sitting-room be steep, narrow, and dangerous? Should the approach to the rooms of the husband and wife be unornamented, straight, and set into a cold, sombre wall, and the whole dimly lighted by a solitary hall-window, heavily curtained? Does not common sense revolt?
     As to the general style of architecture, however, houses will vary; one artist prefers vaulted roofs, high walls, and tall windows; another, convex roofs, relieved with pretty pinnacles, broad windows, and doorways warmly welcoming; still another prefers irregular outlines, unique walls, presenting something unusual at every turn. The first suggests to the mind one we may be allowed to term the stately intellectual gentleman, the second the genial host, the third one fond of variety.
     But whatever the style, it never does violence to correspondences, or presents a single feature detrimental to the prime purpose of a home. In adornment, all is done to express various degrees by a proper construction of curves and angles and by a wise and tasteful display of appropriate colors.

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The ancients so built their houses that the roofs could be used to walk on. (A. C. 10,184.) Doubtless when man becomes so regenerate that the climate will improve-for man has much to do with the vicissitudes of the weather-the roof, since it corresponds to superior good (A. C. 3652), will be ornamented with beautiful tiles, with windows to admit the light of heaven, with hanging vines and flowers, and adapted for other uses than mere protection. Even now a happy combination of beauty with utility would go far toward removing one, of the most unsightly features of a city, ill-shaped, dirt begrimed roofs. Personally we assert that we never feel so forsaken as when we enter a city, even our own city, and feel the oppressive sphere of dark and gloomy houses, streets smeared with mud and thronged with busy, selfish men, whose very company is lonesomeness itself. Only once did we miss this sphere, and that was when we entered that gay and brilliant city, Paris, whose happy inhabitants wear at least an exterior of politeness. And we believe that the chief cause of our light-someness was that the streets are wide and beautiful, the houses pretty and bright-colored, and their roofs, though dark and sooty, unobserved in their great height from the pavements.
     It does not follow because we advocate ornamental roofs that therefore we reject such necessaries as lofts, chimneys, etc. The roof corresponds to the head, and as the head has a body covering, well protected by a wonderful series of arches between the outer and inner layers of cranial bones, hair, and also glands, which latter are vents for bodily exereta, so the roof may have needful rafters or arches of masonry, tiles or some similar protection, and serviceable chimneys. Still, the loft should be comely, the chimneys ornamental and so arranged as not to deposit soot; and there is no more excuse for ugly shingles on the house than for unkempt hair on the head.
     Some houses are rendered unsightly by the smallness and flatness of the roofs; others, like the palatial residences of Bryn Mawr, seem to be overwhelmed with roofs, which, slanting from the ridge-pole to the back buildings and thence over the top of a porch or rear shed, look like a huge candle-snuffer, ready to demolish the walls below. Girard College in Philadelphia is magnificently roofed; the new Public Buildings, grand and elegant as to their walls, are sadly marred by an arching, roof, lavishly covered with unsightly slate.
     By a proper combination of light and dark paint, the latter color serving only for contrast, houses can be made extremely attractive; and when practicable they should be surrounded with gardens, in which flowers, plants, and trees are arranged in a manner suitable to the purposes of the house. Central in use, if not in space, the house is surrounded by trees of luxuriant growth, rich in fruits and foliage; next come olive trees or trees of similar signification; then vines, sweet-scented shrubs, and, lastly, as fit externals of a home, timber trees of the forest. Trees and shrubs might extend from the house as inmost in endless orbs or circles as of a perpetual spiral. In the intervening spaces seats are interspersed, formed of the young shoots of the trees and overrun with fragrant vines, while from above hang tempting fruits. In the perpetual windings are pathways opening into flower-gardens and then into out-skirting lawns, stretching to the public highway. (See C. L. 13, and for another style consult A. C. 10,514, E. U. 151.)
     If these views seem Utopian, let the reader, before dismissing them from his mind, try to apply one or more of them, and he will soon learn to appreciate them all, aye, and more, too, he will consult the numerous Passages in the Writings of the Church bearing upon architecture, and will strive as circumstances permit to raise himself out of his unheavenly mode of living. If he purposes building or furnishing, he will look first to use, and into use as an ultimate of influx will come light guiding his footsteps. If the use is ornamentation, he will endeavor to select such designs as are true not only to visible nature, but also to revealed nature; he will look to their genuineness in correspondences. Painting, since it concerns for the most part external form, has reached a high state of perfection; but to be really useful, a picture must be correct in grouping, that is, in design, and must display that quality which the future artist will know so well how to bring forth, a vividness or life-touch coming from an interior conception of the subject. To possess pictures that are not flat, dead canvas, but seem almost to breathe and live, is the effort of the genuine connoisseur.
     Further, the architect finds himself wonderfully free from the debasing influence of fashion. With usefulness uppermost in thought, he selects furniture for wear, not for show; he buys vases, statuettes, and statuary because of their inherent value, not because they are "all the style." His daughters embroider and paint, not that their handiwork may be vainly displayed, or, as is the case in several schools, because "it's the fashion," but for the sound reason that they are gifted with a talent, to cultivate which, is to use what the LORD has given them.
     Mayhap he is poor in this world's riches, and is compelled to live in a house architecturally distasteful furnishing is of the plainest and crudest kind, but still he is the architect of his home, and as he lives, so is he building his eternal abode in the other world. He cannot delight in sculptured walls and luxuriant gardens; but if he rules himself and governs his family, he is growing in Conjugial Love and preparing his little ones to follow in his pathway. Like the wealthy, he can build in the East an ark to receive the Word, and he can teach his family the glorious truths of the Second Coming. He can fill his humble dwelling with an atmosphere of love,- not an atmosphere bland and enervating from mere affableness or that pseudo-charity which springs from dispassionate "goodishness," but from a charity born of truth inculcated and lived.
     His furniture, though common, is adapted to use; though his walls are bare of works of art, his mind is cultivated, and in leisure moments he takes his family to public galleries and museums, and to learn from nature's free school. Thus does he implant in the growing minds of his children the true relation of heaven and earth, of spiritual home and natural home, of an architecture derived from man and an architecture founded upon the laws of the Builder of the universe.
     Still more important to the New Churchman, because of its high um, is the architecture of the temple of worship. Defects in the dwelling concern the family; defects in the temple, the Church. If it is ever true that only genuine correspondences avail in heaven (A. C. 8615), it is true of the house of worship. And yet there are edifices dedicated to the LORD which once belonged to Old Church denominations, and in which were preached the doctrine of three Gods, of the non-divinity of Christ, and of salvation by faith alone. Do our people believe that the spirits left the building when the worshipers did? Let ministers teach them better. Even new temples fail of their full purposes, because priest and people neglect the plain teaching of the Doctrines, and pander to the notions of novitiates, or throw out tempting inducements to the members of the former Church, forgetting that the first requisite is to provide for the healthy growth of the Church that is, and the second to endeavor to augment its membership.


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     The old-time Methodist meeting-house, with straight-backed pews, cruel reminders of mock solemnity; the cold, dimly lighted Episcopal church, with vaulted arches, fitted, as aptly illustrated in Westminster Abbey, only to o'ertop sepulchres; imposing cathedrals, awfully grand in their massive proportions-all fail in the first requisite of formal worship, the orderly adaptation of means to influx from the LORD. The house of God is an ultimate of order (A. C. 3720); and if it is erected contrary to correspondences, communication with heaven is intercepted (A. C. 3482) and disjunction results (A. C. 8610). Yet New Church temples are constructed without altars, with no light falling upon the chancel save stray beams from far-off side windows, and with walls polluted by bricks, which signify falses. (A. C. 1296.)
     Order requires that degrees shall be recognized; that there shall be an altar in the east, toward which all look; that the walls of the temple shall be made of material having a true correspondence, etc. If these requisites are duly considered, whatever variety may obtain, arising from the peculiarities of the people, will be orderly. But we venture to assert that the altar will not be surmounted with a sharp, angular roof, or the chancel supported by hard-lined columns. The eye, glancing up from the body of the church, will not see groined vaulting, long arcades, or unplastered rafters, looking like an exposed loft.
     Perhaps the temple will be very high, suiting the people's ideas of the greatness of the LORD; perhaps the body of the building will he quadrangular, with-columns and courts; perhaps semicircular, but with the altar a little back of the centre; perhaps compartments devoted to clergical meetings or to general doctrinal instruction will be provided with three tiers of seats (A. R. 962); certainly the doctrine of degrees will be observed in one way or another in all, and whatever the shape of the temple, its walls will not be painted in dead colors, and its interior shrouded in darkness. Strange perversion that makes coloring a subsidiary art to architecture. (Encyclop. Brit.) When it is admitted that colors are appearings of truth derived from an emanating plane of good (A. C. 4742), artists vying with the historic richness of Egyptian and Assyrian tinting, and the beautiful painting of early Italian days, will adorn the graceful ceilings and side walls of temples with appropriate sculpture and colors. With walls, roof, pews, and altar orderly disposed, with music of becoming variety, worshipers intelligent in the doctrines, sermons replete with the truths of the revealed internal sense of the Word, and priests robed like those of heaven, surely then the tabernacle of God will be with men "and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people and He Himself shall be with them their God."
BOOK 1883

BOOK              1883

     A GAUDILY bound book in a college library once addressed his companions, most of whom were sturdy-looking fellows dressed in leather. Said he: "After mature deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that colleges are all wrong. They are designed for instruction and they do instruct, a few, but what is that few, when compared to the multitude outside? I tell you, friends, there is too much organization here; learning is not a thing to be confined to a few masters and disciplined classes within the narrow bounds of a college organization. It should be free as air. What right have a handful of men to bind and fetter this glorious boon with their petty rules and restrictions, and to arrogate to themselves the title of college? They have not the right; They should go forthright into the midst of the ignorant masses of the world, and, instead of confining learning to the select few in the school organization, they should educate a nation. Away, I say, with these 'professors' and their narrow organizations, and let learning go forth free and untrameled; then, and not until then, will the clouds of ignorance be dispelled."
     The head master entered the library, and seeing the gaudily bound book, picked him up, and after examination carried him out of the library, and as the door closed an old tome dryly remarked, "College tyranny."
PHILOLOGICAL QUESTION 1883

PHILOLOGICAL QUESTION       E. S       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE: In Heaven and Hell 241, quoted in your second article on Hebrew, the statement occurs that the Hebrew word for and "is soft and at both ends sounds from a vowel." [Vav] is the letter used in the Hebrew to express and. In grammars, in dictionaries, and in Tafel's Interlinear we are taught that it should be pronounced with our English v sound excepting before Sheva movable and the letters [ ]. Does it not seem from the statement quoted that it should always be pronounced as before Sheva movable, etc., namely, [ ], or rather like the sound of our ic before a vowel? It seems to me that the expression, it "sounds on both ends from a vowel" (utrinque sonat ex vocali), is also intended to teach us to call the letter [ ] instead of vav.
     Apply this to the most holy name, JEHOVAH, and we have in it a word composed entirely of vowels, and, in fact, of all five vowels, which thus express the Entirety of Love (cf. A. R. 29), "the aspirate h in the name of JEHOVAH being the only one which involves the Divine, and it signifies I AM or TO BE [Esse]." (A. C. 2010.)
     I submit this as one of many illustrations that the science of philology, like the other sciences, to be studied truly, must be studied in the light of the Writings of the New Church.     E. S.
HAMILTON, CANADA 1883

HAMILTON, CANADA              1883



CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     - At a lecture given here last night by Mr. Watts, a Secularist, of London, England, Rev. Dr. Burns, a Methodist minister, replied that Mr. Watts, in his argument against the inspiration and consequent errorless nature of the Bible, was simply stating what every Protestant minister believed and theological student was taught in the schools of Canada and the United States. "No one believes the Bible to be free from error and no one believes it to be inspired throughout," and further to make plain his meaning he began, as is his custom, to place the book of Revelation before the audience in an amusing and irreverent way. Will our friends of the New Church who believe the Old is coming into the New explain these statements of an eminent Doctor in the Methodist Church, as well as the head of its Seminary in this city? The Doctor is in error in regard to the point he makes in reference to the belief of the Protestant ministers of Canada and the United States, or the New Churchmen who seem to think they see a wonderful progress toward the general acceptance of New Church Doctrines are.


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CENTENARY AND OTHER MEETINGS 1883

CENTENARY AND OTHER MEETINGS       Z       1883

     EDITOR NEW CHURCH LIFE:-By no means wishing to forestall a more able correspondent, I offer with humility my poor mite to your treasury of items, and tender you this little scrap of information respecting one or two of the more social reunions of Conference, selecting, perhaps (as a woman), a few trifles east aside by the more ambitious "lord's of the creation," and hoping that, as in the multitude of counsel there is safety in variety of description there may be pleasure.
     After the good fortune of hearing an excellent discourse by the Rev. L. H. Tafel on Sunday, 12th, at Argyle Square, and having an introduction to the Rev. C. Giles on the opening night, where many long parted met and brought their ideal friendship into ultimates by the warm pressure of the hand, I attended the conversazione on the following Wednesday, held at the Athenaeum, a building adjoining the Camden Road Church. I should think about four hundred had assembled. The tout ensemble was charming, not so much the effect of outward decoration-(this, to an American eye, no doubt, seemed meagre)-but of the sphere of sympathy which shed light and warmth around, investing with a brighter halo those brows frosted by the hand of time, among whom, radiant with the child-like innocence of benevolent old age, sat the widow of the late Thomas Goyder holding her little court of devoted subjects. The proceedings commenced with a pianoforte solo by Mrs. Gardiner, the daughter of Mr. Smith, another veteran of the Church, who not long since passed to the better land. A programme of delightful music was then executed, conspicuous among the solo singers being Mrs. R. L. Tafal; who gave "Still is the Night" in her mother tongue with great purity of voice and depth of feeling. Madame Bolingbroke Mudie was, as usual, a star of the first magnitude, and I was particularly pleased with the rendering of "Bid Me Discourse" and (on a recall) of "Within a Mile of Edinbro' Town" by a lady whose name was unknown to me. Mr. Barber, principal tenor at Argyle Square, sang, with his melting, voice, "My Queen," with so much pathos that a lady at my side whispered: "I'm sure he has found her." I replied: "Yes; his soul speaks from several years of happy conjugial experience." The part-songs were sung as on1y the Camden Road choir could sing them, the conductor being their talented organist, Mr. Whitington. Before ascending to an upper room for refreshments, dispensed by fair volunteer waitresses, a call echoed throughout the room for "Dr. Bayley," when it was found that that gentleman had actually absconded!-not with the receipts of the entertainment, but with a reserve fund of strength and ideas for the Centenary meeting on the morrow. The Rev. Mr. Storry was then called to the platform. Apologizing for his unexpected position he in an able, short, and almost pathetic speech, alluded to the time when, in the course of nature, the older among them would be removed, and what pleasure it always gave him to think that as each of these stepped from a life's platform, an arm unwearied by the weight of years was always ready to carry forth the banner of truth. He said he had attended Conference for forty years, and pictured the progression of the world at the time of a similar experience on the part of the young.
     On Mr. Stormy sitting down, a perfect hurricane of voices demanded "Mr. Broadfield," who is evidently in as high favor with young and old as in years past, and will always be classed with the former, should he live to one hundred. His speech was genial and humorous and seemed, so usual, to be uttered in a sunbeam, though it commenced with an apology (whether in jest or earnest, I know not) for words he had spoken at the morning's skirmish. Whatever they were, the applause which followed his silence must have convinced the greatest skeptic that he was forgiven.
     While enjoying a strawberry-ice in the refreshment room I looked up and saw the Rev. L. H. Tafel. The temptation was too great. I said, mentally: "I will introduce myself. Courage, faint heart! In America the humblest may approach the President;" and so we met and separated after a few words of pleasant conversation. I found I need not have been afraid, for his manners were so affable and kind.
     Dancing followed, and it was gratifying to observe that in one or two instances agile limbs were not fettered by the cruel hands of time, and rather shamed the lassitude of youthful partners. Thus ended this delightful meeting of friends, who it is not likely will ever assemble on earth again. May recognition be mutual in heaven!
     On August 16th the. Centenary meeting was held in the Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, a spacious Gothic building appropriated to such gatherings. The scene of this eventful commemoration was (as though emblematic) near-the sky-"far from the noisy crowd's ignoble strife"-approached by two or three spacious flights of steps opening right and left, but, like love and wisdom, means tending to one great end. It is surrounded by galleries, which, with the area below, were crowded with a living sea of souls-each, let us hope, a drop swelling the ocean of Truth. On a platform at the end sat in the presidential chair Dr. Bayley, supported by our staff of ministers, each, like a noble tree, dispensing the sand species of fruit; varied only by its particular idiosyncrasy. The proceedings commenced with a hymn. Then Dr. Bayley gave an interesting account of the first formation of the Church, consisting of five members, one hundred years ago, who assembled in a cottage-house at Ludgate Hill, its gradual extension and removal to East Cheap, and its development to the present day. He playfully alluded to a few adverse and foolish criticisms in the Times of to-day, reminding his audience that the New Church must be of greater importance, since it was considered by its enemies worthy of attack. His stricture on spiritism was received with much enthusiasm. The Rev. J. Presland followed with a succinct account of the progress of the Church in this its first century.
     The Rev. C. Giles was next introduced, receiving the compliment of a standing audience, whose applause was loud and genuine. He spoke of the rise of the American New Church in language too short, I felt, for so eloquent and interesting a speaker, and was followed by the Rev. L. H. Tafel, who seemed, by his deep, heartfelt, spiritual fervor, to draw his hearers nearer to the hosts of heaven.
     The Rev. P. Ramage next spoke on the subject allotted to him with his well-known fluency and breadth of thought, eliciting bursts of applause.
     Music next lent its charm in Spohr's "God, Thou art Great," Miss Perugini and Madame Bolingbroke Mudie and husband being principal vocalists.
     The Rev. J. F. Potts dwelt more especially on the state of the Christian world. His unadorned speech must have probed any wavering heart.
     The. Rev. Dr. Tafel's style, as usual, was deep and plain-an unconscious imitation of the great Writer's whose utterances are his chief study and delight.
     The Rev. J. Deans, in a charmingly unaffected and practical manner, presented the lessons taught by the first century of our Church, and his hearers testified their approval in a most demonstrative manner, while the Rev. T. Child created some amusement by referring to 'his' position as the last or tail, but ended with some deep and stirring reflections on the future of the Church.


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     A hymn and benediction concluded this interesting ceremony, which, being "a thing of beauty, will be a joy forever."     yours faithfully,     Z.
     LONDON, August 18th.
OHIO ASSOCIATION 1883

OHIO ASSOCIATION       S. S. C       1883

     THE annual meeting of the Ohio Association was held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the 14th, 15th, and 16th days of September, in the Temple of the New Church Society of East Rockport. Delegates and visitors were present from Cincinnati, Glendale, Urbana, East Rockport, Cleveland, South Toledo, Canton, Seville, Pomeroy, Middleport, Newark, etc.
     The weather was delightful during the entire session. The meetings were conducted with great harmony and unity of sentiment and feeling. The Association was opened at 11 A. M., Friday, with worship, after which followed the address of the Rev. John Goddard, the subject being the duty of the man of the Church to consecrate himself to its uses-not merely in a sentimental, but in a practical, way, by bringing his hands full of offerings, his time, his labor, and his property to the LORD, from whom he holds all things in trust, for His service.
     A copy of the address, together with the report of the Board of Missions, is to be sent to every member of the Church in the Association.
     The usual routine of business, reading reports from the Societies, ministers, missionaries, University officers, occupied the afternoon; from which it appeared that on the whole the Church was increasing and was making good progress in its work throughout the Association. The General Pastor had been absent from his own pulpit but one Sunday (at Indianapolis), but had spent considerable labor in correspondence and directing the missionary labor. Under his direction Professor Cabell had been preaching at Indianapolis, Napoleon, Glendale, and other places. Missionary work had also been done by Rev. Messrs. Sewall, Stearns, Bartels, Frost, and Beaman.
     In the evening there was a very pleasant reception at the house of Mr. I. D. Wagar, a member of the Society. His spacious parlors were well filled, and with social converse, music, and refreshment there was a delightful evening to a late hour.
     On Saturday morning the Association met, and after further consideration of the report of the Board of Missions, took a recess for worship, Professor Cabell delivering a very interesting discourse upon the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin inscription upon the Cross at the Crucifixion, "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews."
     In the afternoon the Sunday-school Union held a meeting and discontinued its organization, turning over its work and assets to the Association, after which the Association again met and concluded the work of the session.
     It was resolved to raise an endowment fund of fifty thousand dollars, to put the support of missionary labor into regular and permanent form, so as not to be entirely dependent upon the uncertain and varying amount raised by the annual appeal for contributors. A Committee on Endowment was appointed, consisting of S. S. Carpenter, of Cincinnati; J. H. Norton, of Napoleon, and Miles B. Stevens, of Cleveland.
     In the evening addresses were delivered by the Rev. O. L. Barler, of Urbana, on Education; the Rev. Ellis L. Kirke, of Pomeroy, on the Holy Supper, and the Rev. Frank Sewall, on matters of general interest.
     On Sunday morning there was a sermon by the Rev. Frank Sewall on "The prudence of the serpent and the simplicity of the dove." The ordinance of Baptism was administered to a child. Professor Philip Barrand Cabell was ordained into the ministry of the New Church, with power to baptize, administer the Communion, solemnize marriages, etc. He was presented for ordination on behalf of the Association by S. S. Carpenter and M. G. Browne. The General Pastor, the Rev. John Goddard, officiated, Mr. Cabell being supported by the Rev. Messrs. N. C. Burnham, A. J. Bartels, F. Sewall, and Ellis I. Kirk, after which the Holy Supper was administered to a considerable number of communicants. In the evening the Rev. Ellis I. Kirk delivered a sermon on the Second Coming of the LORD, which he repeated in the pulpit of the Cleveland Society on Monday evening.
     On the whole, the meeting of the Association was a very pleasant and useful one. While no entirely new measures were adopted, provision was made for carrying on the work of the Church, especially in the mission field, more extensively and efficiently. It is hoped that the appointment of the Special Committee on the Missions Endowment may produce good results of a permanent character. The discussions were carried on in the spirit of charity and harmony, and there is room to believe that all went home with a renewed and strengthened determination to do more effectually, the uses of the Church.     S. S. C.
ENGLISH CONFERENCE 1883

ENGLISH CONFERENCE              1883

     THE English Conference assembled this year in the Church of the Camden Road Society, of which the Rev. Dr. R. L. Tafel is pastor. In point of numbers the meeting is said to have been the most largely attended in England. Some of the smaller societies in Lancashire were, indeed not represented, but the difference was more than made up by a full representation of the London societies and by the presence of several delegates from societies not usually represented in Conference.
     The Conference was of unusual interest, partly because the Centenary of the outward Church was to be celebrated, and then also because several questions likely to come up before Conference had been discussed rather warmly in a dozen controversial pamphlets written by authors of great weight and influence in the Church, whereby the mind of the Church had been thoroughly aroused. But it seems that the pamphleteering crusade had served as a vent to excited feelings, as also to show that some of the supposed adversaries agreed more nearly than was at first supposed. So when Conference assembled, its members seemed ready to meet one another half way, and a compromise was arrived at more or less satisfactory to all the parties concerned.
     The Camden Road Society has unusual facilities in providing for meetings of this rind. Its church is fully large enough to accommodate even a larger body than the present Conference. Then it has in a separate adjoining building a large library-room and a Sunday-school room. Besides all this, there is next door the Athenaeum, the large apartments of which were in this case used for the daily serving of tea at 5 P. M., as also for the converiazione on Wednesday evening.
     The Conference met, as usual, on Monday evening, the Rev. R. Storry, the retiring president, in the chair; for, as is probably known the English Conference believes in rotation in office and has a new president every year, he being nominated the year previous, and elected and inducted into office on Tuesday morning of Conference week. On Monday evening there was the usual tea-meeting at 5 P. M., at which old acquaintances were renewed and new ones made, after which the Conference was called to order in the church at seven o'clock.

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After introductory services, the ministers and representatives of the various societies present signed the roll of Conference. The Conference attaches more importance to this than the Convention does to the presentation of the credentials of its members; for whoever as not signed the roll by the end of Tuesday evening's session is debarred from acting as a member of that year Conference.
     On Tuesday morning the first business in order was the election of a new president. The Rev. R. Storry moved, and Mr. J. Speirs seconded the election of Dr. J. Bailey, who, being elected unanimously, was introduced by Dr. H. L. Tafel and received with applause. Dr. Bailey responded to this in a happy little speech, exhorting the members to promptitude in the dispatch of business, as well as to courtesy and deference toward those who differed from them in their views. The retiring president was, as usual, elected vice-president. The Rev. Whitehead was re-elected with an advanced salary to the secretaryship, an office which he has held some ten years, for to this office, as well as to that of treasurer, it seems that the principle of rotation in office does not apply.
     The invitation of the Society in Birmingham that the next meeting of Conference be held there was unanimously accepted. A notice was at the same time given that the Society in Derby hoped to entertain Conference in 1885. It thus seems that there is no difficulty in England of obtaining invitations for the entertainment of Conference. This is in part owing to the good common sense of the societies in Great Britain, which do not throw themselves into great unnecessary expenses, but simply supply what is needful.
     One of the subjects on which disagreeable controversy was expected was the nomination of a president for the next year, but the matter was passed by till next year. To do this, Mr. E. J. Broadfield, of Manchester, moved to suspend the rule requiring each Conference to nominate the president for the next succeeding Conference. In support of this resolution he referred to the pamphlets which had been written on the subject, and expressed his desire of avoiding a painful personal controversy, and expressed the hope that they might be able on a future occasion to give a unanimous vote in favor of a gentleman whose name had
been prominently brought forward. He knew that there were some who would say: Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes, which means: "I do not trust Peter Street even when bringing a peace-offering," but he assured Conference he had no personal feeling against any candidate.
     The motion of Mr. Broadfield was seconded by Mr. J. Bragg and supported by the Rev. J. Deans. The Rev. J. F. Potts said that he felt it his duty to say something in behalf of the Rules. He considered the suspension of the Rules a bad precedent and disorderly. He lamented the fact that circumstances had arisen which made a violation of the Constitution seem the best way out of the present difficulties. If he did not oppose the present resolution it was simply from his regard for the good of the Church, and he hoped and prayed that the time would soon come when the necessity for such measures would be past. If charity had not been so much talked about, and practiced so little, there would not, now be any aced of such a measure. As it was, this talk about charity was enough to make one sick. For the sake of peace he would refrain from opposing the measure. This speech was delivered with great feeling and evidently made a deep impression, though one or two members expressed themselves dissatisfied with the censure conveyed. The motion to suspend the rules prevailed, with only three dissentient voices against eighty-seven, and it was unanimously agreed that the nomination and election of the next president be the first business on the Tuesday of the next session.
     Rev. R. R. Rodgers, in proposing the Conference preacher for next year, said he wished to show that his party could be generous; that they believed in fighting like gentlemen, and they would, therefore, invite, the enemy into their trenches. He believed in carrying an olive branch, and, therefore, proposed Dr. R. L. Tafel as the preacher for next Conference. This was seconded by another member from Birmingham.
     Mr. J. F. Buss replied by asking whether the President-elect of Conference could also act as the Conference Preacher. The question was answered in the affirmative by the Chair. The Rev. J. R. Tilson, in speaking on the question, said that he did not like the way in which the resolution had been offered. While it would give him the greatest pleasure to listen to Dr. Tafel, he must object to the tone of the proposer, as it implied patronage. While the proposer of the resolution disclaimed any, idea of patronizing, Mr. Tilson affirmed that the manner in which the proposition had been brought forward savored of the manner and spirit shown in a certain journal of the Church, and came from the same source. He therefore moved to amend by substituting another name. Dr. Tafel requested that another name be substituted, as he might not be present in Birmingham. Mr. E. J. Broadfield stated that he did not think it right that Conference should reject a good and useful proposition simply because it was thought that the motive of the mover was not all that might be desired. He hoped that Conference would pass the resolution, and if Dr. Tafel should not find it in his power to attend, a substitute might be appointed in good time. Mr. J. Speirs seconded the amendment, and proposed the name of the Rev. W. C. Barlow.
     Mr. J. F. Buss, in supporting the amendment, protested against the inappropriate manner in which the original motion had been brought forward. It seemed to imply that Dr. Tafel had done an injury to the Society in Birmingham. The somewhat sombre tone of the discussion was here broken by the jocular remark of the Rev. J. Deans, who said that he thought this was all a mistake; that, on the contrary, Birmingham felt it had done Dr. Tafel an injustice and wished to make amends. Mr. Rodgers here put in, saying that if the hand held out by him was thus rejected, it was a sign that the other side desired enmities to continue. [Cries of "No, no."]
     The Chair here interfered, saying that Mr. Tilson had evidently taken Mr. Rodgers' jokes (nobody had before suspected that there was a joke) seriously. He requested that Dr. Tafel would not insist on his refusal, but would get some one to take his place if he could not go.
     After some further remarks the amendment was with-drawn. Dr. Tafel rose (greeted by cheers) and stated that he took Mr. Rodgers' remarks as he had given them, and thanked Mr. Rodgers and his friends in Birmingham for their invitation. [Prolonged applause.]
     Throughout the sessions, Conference was most free in its expression of approval or disapproval of opinions and sentiments, and was especially free in its expression of approval of any conciliatory speech or action. After the reading of some reports, the Rev. R. R. Rodgers introduced the resolution, that the Conference welcome the Rev. Chauncey Giles, President of the General Convention in America and its Messenger to Conference; also the Rev. F. W. Turk, President of Canada Association of the New Church, and the Rev. Louis H. Tafel, of Philadelphia, and invite them to be present at the sittings of Conference and to address the Chair whenever they desire.
     He then specially addressed himself to the task of introducing the Rev. Chauncey Giles to the Conference, under the varied aspects of author, of personal friend, of New Church minister, and of Messenger of the General Convention. He enlarged on the fact that the writings of Mr. Giles were to be found in most New Church households and were valued by all. As his personal friend, Mr. Giles had kindly cared for his reception at his arrival in America, and-with the same kindliness he had received him when he came to Philadelphia and provided for his reception everywhere he went, and had thus introduced him to all the Church. Speaking of Mr. Giles as New Church minister, he would make mention of his success at home and of the fact that he had been heard with delight by so many New Church people in England. As to the other two ministers, of whom he did not know much, he would leave it to others to introduce them to Conference.
     Dr. R. L. Tafel, in seconding the resolution of Mr. Rodgers, moved to amend by adding the name of Mr. Elisha Simpkins, of Toronto, and spoke of the fecundity of Mr. Giles' pen, which continually supplied us with tracts and other publications, and dwelt especially on his last work, On Prayer. He then stated that, as the preceding speaker had spoken of Mr. Giles biographically and bibliographically, it would seem called for that he should pursue a similar course with respect to the other two gentlemen.

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As to the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, he was chiefly known as author from his translation into German of that dreadful book, the Authority [applause], from which fact you can probably see the general trend of his views. The other gentleman, his brother, had, like himself, dabbled in languages, and was especially known as author from the German translation of the Bible, in which he had assisted his father and himself; thus aiding in the production of the first New Church translation of the Bible from the original languages. He was also employed in another work, of which they may have heard, the Interlinear Translation of the Bible, in which he was associated with his father and the speaker and had done a great part of the work, which he was even now engaged in completing. His brother was, besides, one of the editors of-dare he name it?-the serial known as Words for the New Church [applause], and, to speak somewhat from behind the scenes, he had contributed to it a number of articles. As to their ministerial work, the Rev. F. W. Tuerk had distinguished himself by the development of the Society in Berlin, Canada, which, under his able administration, had grown from a small beginning to be now the second largest Society in Convention. As to the ministerial work of his brother, he was the minister of a Society, of which he believed they had already heard, called the "New Jerusalem Society of the Advent," and he is known as-here comes another terrible word-as "the Academy Preacher," as he had among his audience the whole faculty of the Academy of the New Church, which was more than he [the speaker] would like to have [laughter]. Both these gentlemen were also Councillors of that awful body, of which they had heard so much, the Academy-and this, perhaps, explained Mr. Rodgers' lack of acquaintance with them. The members of Conference had now an opportunity to obtain information concerning the Academy, not from third or fourth hand; but from first hand. As to Mr. Simkins, he was not in the same position; he was not so far as he knew, a member of the Academy, but a very useful and zealous member of the Executive Committee of the Canada Association, which occupied to that Association a similar position as their Council occupied with respect to Conference.
     The Conference showed its assent to the resolution of welcome by a rising vote. The President of Conference then introduced the Rev. Chauncey Giles as the Messenger of the General Convention. After having been received with applause, Mr. Giles stated that he had not brought a message, but had come himself instead of one. He explained the reason why the interchange of those addresses which were so delightful and useful had been of late so irregular. He also spoke of the great use his visits to England were to him in enlargening is views and also in strengthening him, as he at his return felt all England behind him supporting him. [Applause.]
     The Rev. F. W. Tuerk, being called upon, spoke of the former intimate relations existing between the Canada Association and the Conference, and how in process of time it had been found more useful for them to connect themselves with the General Convention in the United States, with whom they could co-operate more easily. He also spoke of the great desire a entertained for many years of visiting the Conference. Detained by circumstances beyond his control, he had now, when it had become practicable, at last carried out his desire to see his friends of Conference thee to face. [Applause.]
     The President, in introducing the Rev. Louis H. Tafel, stated that he had had the pleasure thirty years before of seeing him in his German home when he was yet a boy, and that it afforded him great gratification to introduce his new-old friend to Conference. In addressing Conference, the Rev. L. H. Tafel stated that he stood there not as a representative of the Academy of the New Church, but as the representative of the New Jerusalem Society of the Advent, Philadelphia, the members of which take an intense interest in all that is connected with the Advent of the LORD and with the establishment and spread of the LORD'S kingdom upon the earth, and who were therefore also deeply interested in the great Centenary commemorating the establishment of the External New Church upon earth. In their behalf he extended their greetings and the assurance that they would be present in spirit at this momentous occasion. That it was their prayer that the LORD would be present at the deliberations of Conference, and so direct it that every action in this centenary year would be a step forward in the spread of the LORD'S kingdom, and in the spread of that mutual love in which Heaven and the LORD Himself can dwell with men. This mutual love he assured them, would rest upon them in proportion as every one was intent on guarding and preserving the freedom of every other member even more jealously than his own. [Applause.]
     Mr. Simkins, being celled upon, spoke of the struggles, of the Society in Toronto, and of the fair prospects now lying before it. He also spoke of his great desire to be present at Conference, which had enabled him to overcome the difficulties in the way, and he assured them of the great pleasure it afforded him to be present among them. [Applause.]
     Tuesday afternoon was, as usual, devoted to the meeting and work of committees. This usage seems eminently practical, as the committees have thereby an opportunity for ripely considering the matters to be submitted to Conference.
     In the evening the Conference sermon was delivered by the Rev. T. Mackereth, who treated very ably the subject of the Transfiguration of our LORD, as presented in the Gospel by Matthew. This was preceded by a lengthy but very interesting review of the state and progress at the New Church in this, its first century. One of the important facts presented was, that though great services have been rendered by New Churchmen who were separated from the Old Church, still the enduring progress of the Church was especially secured by those who united together in an organized effort for the establishment and spread of the New Church upon earth. After the sermon, as usual, the Communion was administered, the number of communicants being about one hundred and seventy.
     On Wednesday the Conference settled down to hard work, and dispatched a good part of its regular routine business; such, for instance, as related to the Building Fund, to the National Missionary Institution, to the appointment of a National Missionary (Mr. R. Gunton), to the Students' Aid Fund, to the Missionary Committee, to the Foreign and Colonial Missions, to the reappointment of Mr. James Speirs as the Conference Agent, to the election of the Council, to commemorative resolutions respecting departed friends, to the appointment of the Examining Boards, of a Committee for the Revision, or, rather, Codification of the Rules of Conference, to the appointment of Conference Solicitors, to the hearing of the Reports from the ex-President, the Secretary, and the Council.
     It is not the aim of this report to enter into the particulars of this routine business, but rather to consider the salient points and the policy displayed in dealing with them. With respect to the Building Fund, it is evident that this Fund is quite a different institution in England from what it is in America; it is in every respect a live institution, with live men behind it. It has performed eminent uses, and is in a position to perform more. The present amount of the fund is L2,166, or some $10,800, with a cash balance in hand of $8,365.80. A resolution to request every society to set apart one Sunday's collection far the Fund was, under the circumstances, deemed uncalled for, but the attention of all the Church was called to the importance of the Fund, and a strong committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions for it.
     The Committee of Foreign and Colonial Missions reported on the missions in Sweden, Denmark, and Eastern Prussia; it also presented a report of the Rev. F. Gorwitz, on the Church in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. From this it appeared that he is now ministering to the Church in these great regions at a salary of L135. The report of the Committee showed that in England as in America, the interest in foreign missions is very limited, and it was only owing to a generous anonymous contributor that they were able to send their contributions to the three missions supported namely, to Stockholm, L40; Copenhagen, L25, and Monethen, L25.
     In the election of the Council, which in England performs he same duties as the Executive Committee of the Convention in America, our English friends seem to have fallen into he same mistake that the Church in America has had to complain of, namely, that the majority refuses all representation to the minority, and that the majority of the Council is made up of the representatives of two or three large societies.

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The Conference has not, indeed, reached that low estate that was reached in a certain meeting of Convention; where a member who had not even been nominated was silently substituted by the ruling majority for one of the open nominees. Still, the result remains the same, the majority excluding the minority from all representation-on the Council. Thus, for example, we see the Church in Scotland this year left without any representation on the Council.
     The report of the ex-President shows among other matters that there is still a lamentable absentation from the Holy Communion-"Societies of one hundred members (in one case over two hundred) return twenty, fourteen, twenty-three, sixteen, seventeen, twenty-four as the average attendance at the Holy Supper." One of the ministers reports: "There is a general disinclination to take the Sacrament." It might be interesting to consider how much the disorderly distribution of the Holy Sacrament by laymen (for unordained licentiates cannot be considered priests or ministers) has had to do with the disesteem in which the Sacraments are held in England. In the few cases in America where laymen have taken it upon themselves to administer the Sacrament, it has been found that the greater part of their Society regularly abstained from it, and we believe that the attendance at the Holy Supper is ever in strict proportion with the acknowledgment among the people of the priesthood and its holy uses.
     The report also makes feeling mention of the departure to the other world of the Rev. R. Abbott and Rev. J. F. Wynn, ministers recognized by Conference; also, of Rev. Augustus Clissold, who had for a long time generously supported many uses of the Church.
      The Secretary's report shows five thousand four hundred and nine registered members, an increase of, only nineteen during the year. This small increase is in part owing to a purging in several of the societies of their lists of membership, omitting those not actual resident members.
     The summary of investments of Conference shows a total of L58,019 14s. 6d. (about $280,816.36), though a part of these investments seems to be in danger from shrinkage in the value of lands on which they were loaned.
     The evening was passed in a delightful conversazione, given in the large hall of the Athennum. The meeting opened with an excellent concert, given by the choir of the Camden Road Society assisted by a few friends. The Society is highly favored in having such an array of musical talent and so able a leader as Mr. C. J. Whittington. Mrs. Mudie (Madame Bolingbroke), Mrs. Tafel, and Mrs. Naylor, and Messrs. Coffin, Barber, and Mudie chiefly distinguished themselves, and were enthusiastically applauded. The singing was followed by a collation upstairs, and by dancing in the great hall, to the evident pleasure of all participators.
     Thursday proved to be the culminating day of Conference, not only on account of the Centenary Meeting in the evening, but also on account of the discussions in Conference. The Society at Manchester (Peter Street) had given notice that they would propose two resolutions in Conference, and unusual and extraordinary means are said to have been made to make sure that they should pass with a heavy majority. An intense interest was therefore felt in the discussion. At a member's request, the two resolutions were divided, the first reading as follows:
     "In view of recent discussions in the Church on the question of authority and ecclesiastical regulations of the Conference,
     "Resolved, That this Conference, while recognizing the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines, declares its opinion that in signing the Conference roll no member is in any sense pledged to the doctrine that the assertion that there are actual mistakes, not simply printers' errors, in those Writings which contain the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem is equivalent to a denial that the LORD has effected His Second Coming through the instrumentality of Swedenborg."
      Mr. E. J. Broadfield proposed the first resolution, and commenced by stating that he remembered no occasion when he had spoken with a graver sense of responsibility. He desired that these might be his last words on the subject.
In referring to Mr. Potts' remarks on the subject of charity, he said that he was not conscious of having said anything in his pamphlets violating charity. He had used strong words about Dr. Tafel, and Dr. Tafel had replied in kind, and yet they were not strong words after all. Conference was inclined to take a generous and comprehensive view of the whole subject, and he felt sure that these resolutions would pass. He could state, not from a spirit of presumptuous pride, but from a knowledge based on facts and information, that the result of the contest on the presidency would not have been in agreement with Mr. Deans' desires-there was an overwhelming majority on the other side. But he hoped that they would, after passing these resolutions, come to such an agreement that they would be able to give a unanimous vote, or practically so, to Dr. Tafel, for he had no personal feeling against Dr. Tafel. [Cries of "Hear, hear."] There was a distinct issue before the Church; mistakes had been made on the one side and on the other; there had been a manifestation of feeling on the one side and on the other. He felt sure that Dr. Tafel would only desire to be the candidate of the whole Church. There was at present a difference in the Church. Dr. Tafel thinks that his peculiar views are defended by the Declaration of Faith, and that those who sign it signified their acceptance of the same. This resolution simply affirms that persons in signing the Declaration do not accept Dr. Tafel's views. By passing this resolution the uneasiness felt by the majority, that they in signing these rules might be assumed to declare what they do not mean, will be allayed. He did hope we would not have a discussion on authority and the ministry. It had been alleged that the resolution ought not to quote the words of Dr. Tafel; but the resolution does not declare that we must not believe what he teaches, but simply that the Conference does not affirm it. Dr. Tafel, Mr. Robinson, and Mr. Sutton may spread their views in whatever way they choose, but Conference ought to be common ground for all. The speaker, after acceding to some slight amendments in the wording of the resolution and to the omission of the quotation marks, proceeded. He conceived that Dr. Tafel has a right to his views and a right to spread them. The resolutions were not intended to attack any man or any section, and they will be found to meet the approval of many. [Applause]
     Dr. Tafel now arose and was vociferously cheered. He stated that in rising to second this resolution it gave him great pleasure to see that the Conference is about to declare the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines. This was the one point he had been so long contending for. Conference had been hitherto satisfied with declaring its belief in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg; now Conference advances another step, so as to declare their infallibility. He himself does not go any further. He had been complimented by Mr. Broadfield with possessing common sense. He herewith desired to return this compliment and to acknowledge that the members of the Society which offered these resolutions possessed common sense. This being the case, they could not wish that the second part of the resolution should contradict the first. This was what common sense required. The first part must contain that principle which rules throughout the whole. The mistakes mentioned in the second part of the resolution could, therefore, be only the smallest and most trivial, which would not interfere with the infallibility declared in the first part. He said that he wished that the quotation marks omitted at the request of Mr. Potts had not been omitted; then every one on referring to the passage quoted would have found that he, in ma in his statements in answer to the late editor of the Intellectual Repository, had in view, not merely trivial mistakes, but actual mistakes in Doctrine, such as had been alleged in the Repository. If only trivial mistakes, reconcilable with infallibility, had been alleged, the controversy and the pamphleteering would never have commenced. He believed that the Manchester Society had not, intended to put contradictory propositions into the same resolution. In affirming that Conference declares the infallibility of the Doctrines, it affirms that these Doctrines are Divine, are from the LORD, and not from man, for the LORD is alone infallible. In seconding the resolution he makes no retreat, and if it should be said that the Manchester Society makes no retreat in this resolution, but has all along believed in the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines, he humbly asks pardon for having misunderstood its position.

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In conclusion, he takes great pleasure in seconding the resolution. [Prolonged applause.]
     Rev. Thomas Child said that it gave him great pleasure to see Dr. Tafel seconding the proposition, for Conference has nothing to do with the individual opinions of those signing the rules. Each one signs the rules before God, and is responsible to himself. But Dr. Tafel, in seconding this resolution, also acknowledges that there are errors in the Writings of Swedenborg. No matter that these are said to be trivial, if there are mistakes made by Swedenborg himself, then the infallibility of the Writings is at an end. He therefore, called on Dr. Tafel to explain how he could reconcile errors in Swedenborg with the infallibility of the Writings.
     Mr. A. Payne questioned whether this discussion was for the good of the Church. Charity should be the bond of unity, not uniformity of creed. He proposed to pass to the next business, but the proposition was voted down by a very heavy majority.
     Mr. Calderwood did not like the ugly word "infallibility," and therefore proposed to amend by substituting, for the words "while recognizing the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines," the words: "while receiving the Heavenly Doctrines as a revelation from the LORD through Swedenborg." This amendment was supported also by others as essentially meaning the same thing, and as not containing the, obnoxious word "infallibility."
     The Rev. W. C. Barlow, in supporting the amendment, stated that he believed in the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines, but not in the infallibility of every letter in the Writings.
     The Rev. J. F. Potts, in answering the remark of Mr. E. J. Broadfield on the lack of charity, stated that those remarks were not applied to him, and thought it rather queer that Mr. Broadfield should take it upon himself to address Conference as he had done. He did not believe in pamphleteering. When policies had to be defended men would do things that astonished their friends. He had always believed that there was no vital difference of opinion in the. Church with respect to the authority of the Writings, and here was the proof. One extreme wing-that in Manchester-here brought forward resolutions declaring the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines and these were seconded by the other wing. If they had taken the trouble to define their terms they would have found that they all thought alike, excepting on such trivial differences as about priests and the like. The shower of pamphlets had ceased, and he hoped it would not recommence, and so also he hoped the misunderstandings would pass away from that day and that there would be a restoration of the former unity [applause]. In answer to Mr. Child's question: "Are there any errors in the Writings of Swedenborg?" he would reply for his friend, Dr. Tafel, whose views on the subject he had known for years. Dr. Tafel had written to him years ago that he knew there were trivial mistakes, such as slips of the in the Writings of Swedenborg, and it could not be otherwise, as the inspiration of Swedenborg was internal, not external. Dr. Tafel had never dreamed of saying that Swedenborg was infallible. He (Dr. Tafel) had been much misunderstood by people, but he was as bad as they, for he thought others rejected the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines. Dr. Tafel, with the same generosity shown by him at the Conference at Liverpool, now takes the slap in the face contained in the latter half of the resolution [cries of "No, no,"] because the resolution acknowledges the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines. He congratulated Conference and he congratulated the Manchester Society that they now came up to the mark, acknowledging the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines, and when the resolution was passed he hoped that the arches of the Church which had so often re-echoed with the preaching of the Authority, would re-echo with the cheers that this great principle was now openly acknowledged by the Conference.
     Mr. Jonathan Robinson expressed himself agreeably surprised at the way the resolutions had been received. There was, however, quite a difference between the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines and the infallibility of Swedenborg or of everything in his Writings. He preferred Mr. Calderwood's amendment, as it would be to many more acceptable than the expression, infallibility. He would prefer not to see the questions of authority and infallibility discussed in Conference. Conference should not declare itself on disputed questions, but should remain common ground for those holding differing views. There had been something said about charity. He was not aware that in anything he had said he had violated charity; but, if he had, he sincerely apologized for it. He did not believe in minimizing differences, but would rather accept as brethren those holding differences of opinion. There are differences of opinion in the Church, and these will be talked about. The Words for the New Church and NEW CHURH LIFE would continue to set forth their views on authority, and so would their opponents; but they should be considered as standing on an equal footing. Though he held that there were errors in the theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, he would still he acknowledged as receiving the LORD in His Second Coming.
     The Rev. J. Deans congratulated Mr. Robinson on the stand he had taken. Conference should not cease to be common ground for all New Churchmen. He also desired to add something on the subject of the pamphlets. Everybody had been apologizing or withdrawing something or other; he, therefore, wished everybody to know that he also withdrew and apologized for everything he had said which anybody might think required withdrawal and apology. He hoped the present resolution would be withdrawn, as it formed a bad precedent. It would be received either as meaning nothing or as being a censure or slur cast on certain views expressed by Dr. Tafel. Crown the work of reconciliation by not letting us enter it upon our minutes. Rev. J. R. Boyle supported the amendment, on account of the associations clinging to the word infallibility, which are not palatable. He had not found the word in his Bible Concordance, nor in Swedenborg, nor anywhere else except in connection with a certain gentleman in Rome. Truth would be all infallible. Doctrines may be merely our understanding of them. There can be no infallible human conception of truth. We get rid of this difficulty by the amendment from Liverpool.
     Rev. T. Mackereth urged that as the amendment and the resolution mean the same thing, why could the amendment not be accepted by the mover and the seconder of the original resolution?
     Mr. E. J. Broadfield signified his willingness to accept the amendment, but Dr. Tafel jocosely said he rather liked the I sound of "the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines."
     Mr. J. Speirs urged that Mr. Boyle's argument that the word "infallibility" would be misunderstood outside of the New Church was of no importance; that there were a number of words used in New Church theology which would be either misunderstood or not understood at all outside of the New Church. Yet, this was no reason why we should not use them. So, again, when a New Churchman used even such words as Trinity or Atonement, he would be sure to be misunderstood outside of the New Church, and yet no one supposed that therefore we would stop using the word. As to the word "infallibility," it had been used long ago in the Church by its earliest ministers. As to Mr. Boyle's states meat that truth is infallible only in the LORD, but in man it is tainted with imperfections and finite, this assertion would prove too much, for it would be just as applicable to the Word in the Letter, and yet this was acknowledged as an infallible guide. Doctrines given us by the LORD are from that very fact infallible. He further pointed out that the first assertion of the resolution contradicted and neutralized the last. He would consider it a misfortune if the resolution should pass.
     The Rev. R. J. Tilson stated that he had listened with pleasure, not unmingled with amusement, to the unanimity in favor of the belief in the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines. Nevertheless, there was the equally palpable fact that there was a division in the views maintained. We have no right to minimize differences, but we ought in charity to agree to differ. It had been said, "We do not want a discussion on authority," but in his opinion that was the very thing the Conference stood most in need of; yea, and a discussion on the Academy of the New Church, too, so that these matters might be settled once for all.

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The friends of the Academy were neither afraid nor were they ashamed of the doctrines they held. They have never ascribed infallibility to Swedenborg, but to the LORD alone, and to the Doctrines in which He has made His Second Coming. In going to the Heavenly Doctrines we go to the LORD, as He has revealed Himself to His Church. In this case, as in others, our friends on the other side put ideas not our own into our words; As to the question of mistakes in the Writings, there was such a possibility; for Swedenborg was internally inspired while he was in perfect freedom to use his own language and the facts of his science for illustration. Still, as this was the Second Coming of the LORD He would so overrule him as to prevent mistakes, and this both in science and in doctrine.
     Mr. A. Eadie said that he was glad Mr. Deans had spoken. No resolution of the kind should be passed. It was evident that Dr. Tafel took the resolution in a sense that was not intended, and would support it from a view quite different from that of the original mover. Conference should sanction neither view.
     Mr. Broadfield replied to the objections that had been raised by Mr. Deans and Mr. Speirs, and the vote resulted in the adoption of the first resolution by seventy-two against ten votes.
     On reassembling in the afternoon, Mr. E. J. Broadfield moved the second resolution: "That, while admitting the ecclesiastical regulations of Conference are capable of amendment and are likely to be modified according to the changing requirements of the Church, this Conference declares its opinion that no member, in signing the Conference Roll and defending the existing rules, can be properly charged with conniving at a violation of spiritual doctrine."
     Dr. Tafel, in seconding this resolution, said that here, again, he fully agreed, especially with the first part, namely, that the rules of Conference concerning the ministry were capable of amendment [laughter], and he had come to this conclusion by comparing them with the Heavenly Doctrines. But he viewed Conference, which was composed of individuals, as he would view a single man, and would pursue with Conference the same course as he would pursue with a rational New Churchman. The freedom of Conference must be respected. There must be no personal urging or moral suasion; no coercing of the consciences of men. It is the duty of New Church ministers to preach the truth as found in the Writings of the Church. An appeal to the Heavenly Doctrines is no coercion. He had made such an appeal in the year 1872, under the idea that when New Churchmen saw that the Doctrines require a thing, they would feel themselves bound by it. Under this idea, he set forth the Ecclesiastical Orders, as he found it in the Writings, and save notice that he would introduce a motion on the subject in the next Conference. But, before the meeting of Conference, he had found that the case was more complicated. Even then, in the year 1872, he thought it a duty to respect the freedom and the rationality of Conference, and he had waited his time and refrained from bringing the matter before Conference even up to that date. At this time also, it was not he, but the Society in Peter Street, which brought the matter up. ["Hear! Hear!"] He did not indeed believe that the requirements of the Church would change, but our ways of looking at them would change. The time, he was sure, would come when an agreement with the order as laid down in the Heavenly. Doctrines would be arrived at. There must be no binding to maintain the present status of things. After a rule ha been passed, it must indeed be observed until it is abrogated. An observance of the rule and a defense of it in that sense is not a violation of a spiritual law. But, on the other hand, Conference cannot be put on the same level as the Church Councils of old; it is not infallible. Whenever an amendment of the rules on ecclesiastical order is brought forward, the rationality and freedom of the Church will be regarded. In time, the Church will probably grow into a greater love of order.
     The Rev. Jos. Deans and Mr. J. F. Buss opposed the resolution as unnecessary, and Mr. Deans moved that the Conference pass to the next question, but the motion was lost. After Mr. Broadfield's reply, the resolution was passed by a heavy majority.
     A large committee was appointed to consider the working of the Augmentation Fund.
     The President of Conference and the Rev. J. Presland were requested to prepare a suitable reply to an article in the Times of the day, which was full of gross misrepresentations respecting the New Church. A brief and politely worded communication to this effect was accordingly, in due time, sent to the Times, but this worthy paper disdained to take any notice of it or to take back any of its gross slanders,
     Suitable answers to the addresses from Vienna and from Switzerland were authorized, and it was voted to print the congratulatory addresses received.
     In the evening the Centenary Meeting was held at Farington Hall under the presidency of Dr. J. Bayley. The audience was variously estimated at from between one thousand two hundred and one thousand four hundred, and, by far, the greater part of the audience were evidently New Churchmen, to judge from the discriminating and enthusiastic applause given to the speakers. As an account of this meeting is given elsewhere in these columns, we only give a brief abstract of the substance of the addresses.
     Dr. Bayley, in opening the meeting, took occasion to reply to the silly tirade against the New Church contained in the morning's Times, and declared of New Churchmen that "no body of Christians condemn the table-rappings so completely as they do," and that the writer of the article in the Times, if present, would find that, "as far as these things are concerned, he might just as well be in a meeting of the Convocation of the Church of England." The Rev. J. Presland followed with a brief summary of the history of the Church in England and the colonies. The Rev. Chauncey Giles, of Philadelphia, in speaking of the Church in America and elsewhere, declared that the New Church was the only one growing by "an extension of the thoughts into new realms of spiritual knowledge. . . . It is indeed the only Church making any progress at all in the elevation of the life." After this the congratulatory addresses from Vienna and from Switzerland were read by Mr. Jas. Speirs. The Rev. L. H. Tafel, speaking on the manner in which the Doctrines were communicated to the world, maintained "that the Divine Truth flowed in and was received in the internal mind of a man, who was thereby filled with the Spirit of God, and thus inspired;" that this Divine Truth was by Swedenborg "clothed in natural language and expression;" but "in consequence of his intense desire of being led in all things of the LORD there could be with him, conjointly with entire freedom, a continual overruling and guidance of every statement and expression, so as fully to accomplish that revelation of Divine Truth in which the LORD effects His Second Coming." The Rev. P. Ramage, in presenting the distinguishing features of New Church doctrine, especially dwelled on the agreement between the Heavenly Doctrine and Science, on the presentation therein of a Divine Personality in the LORD JESUS CHRIST in His Divine Human as the only object of worship and love, and on the Doctrine of Charity, which, as he declared, was "the central sun in the Swedenborgian system." The Rev. J. F. Potts, in speaking on "The New Church, External as well as Internal," declared that "there is no Church, nor even a state of the Church, in any assemblage or congregation of men, unless in that assemblage or congregation one God is acknowledged, and that the LORD
JESUS CHRIST is He." He further maintained that so far as England was concerned, the only congregations of men organized upon this basis were to be found "in the societies represented at their Conference and nowhere else." Though this doctrine is unpopular with those who are looking for the vivification of the Old Church, it seemed to find favor and ready reception with the audience, for this speaker, like those who preceded him, was enthusiastically applauded. He was followed by the Rev. Dr. R. L. Tafel, who spoke on the motto of the New Church, NUNC LICET. In explaining this watchword, he plainly showed that "the truths of revelation, and, hence, the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, can be fathomed and received only by the application of spiritual, and not of natural reason "for its' doctrinals are continuous truths disclosed by the LORD through the Word." The whole speech was listened to with rapt attention and frequently interrupted by cheers. The audience by this time was so wrought up to enthusiasm that the safety-valve of applause was ever and anon raised.

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The Rev. J. Deans, to afford some relief to the strained attention, clothed his serious remarks in a humorous garb, which at once relieved the long-continued strain and kept the ear of the audience. Among the lessons of the first century, he enumerated the following: "That the progress of truth is slow-always slow; but it is sure-always sure "that the external organization of the New Church has been an absolute necessity for the spread of the Church;" "that work and success go together, or nearly so;" "that it is of no use to tone down the truth of the New Church to please anybody," etc. As an enthusiastic advocate of the Blue Ribbon movement, Mr. Deans could not help putting in a good word for his favorite: cause, but the humorous way in which it was done precluded any one's taking offense at it. The Rev. Thomas Child, in concluding the chain of addresses, took occasion to give free vent to his humor on his thus serving as the ornamental caudal appendage, and at the same time as a prophet respecting "The New Church of the Future." But alter this humorous introduction he did not fail to present a glorious image of the Church of the future, as being principled in the love to the LORD JESUS CHRIST and thereby regenerated into an image and likeness of God, concluding with the fervent words: "The Church is to be 'the Bride, the Lamb's wife.' Oh! the love of the pure husband for the pure wife! Oh! the love of the chaste wife for the chaste husband!-a faint reflection of the purity and glory of that grand marriage of God with man." [Prolonged applause.]
     A hymn and the benediction concluded this meeting, probably the most impressive and enthusiastic of any yet held by the New Church on earth-a foretaste, no doubt, of higher glories in years to come.
     On Friday there was some routine business, such as the appointment of a Treasurer, the presentation of the statistical report the granting of licenses-the new feature connected with the latter being that a licentiate was for the first time appointed in a foreign country. Dr. R. L. Tafel, who presented the request from W. Winslow of Copenhagen, expressed himself satisfied as to the qualifications of the candidate, but refused to propose the extension of a system which he believed was not in accordance with the order laid down in the Heavenly Doctrines. Mr. Winslow's request was, however, granted. Three theological students were adopted for support by Conference; pensions also were granted to a number of incapacitated ministers and leaders, and to widows of ministers.
     On occasion of the election of the Joint Committee to Supervise the Education of the Conference Theological Students, an animated discussion arose. Mr. J. F. Buss insisted that the present arrangements for the education of the Conference students were entirely unsatisfactory. Mr. Buss has the misfortune of being a young man, though evidently a licentiate of unusual promise. He touched the majority in a very tender spot, and it was interesting to a looker-on to see the mode in which he was treated. His attack was evidently unpopular, and he was from various quarters invited to sit down and stop, and was lastly called to order. The scene approached more nearly to an excitement than any we witnessed; The Rev. J. F. Potts, of Glasgow, who at various occasions served as the voice of conscience in Conference, felt himself called upon to interpose a few warning words, saying: "Are you Englishmen? Be fair! be fair. I will not see a young man imposed upon!"
     The charges made by Mr. Buss were replied to on behalf of the Joint Committee by the Rev. Jos. Deans, who maintained that the Committee had done the best for the students that the circumstances allowed. After the subject had been fully discussed, the old members of the Joint Committee were re-elected with the exception of one member, whose ill-health prevented his regular attendance.
     A resolution congratulating the New Church Temperance Society was passed with little objection, while most of the members were still away at their noonday luncheon.
     This was followed by an important discussion on the New Church Magazine. The Magazine Committee proposed that the Magazine be discontinued after the issue of the December number, and that the Council negotiate for the purchase of the Morning Light, and make an appeal for a guarantee fund. The main reason given was the falling off in the sale of the Magazine, which in five years had been reduced to little more than one-half. No allusion was made to the fact that the falling off of the subscriptions was nearly synchronous with the stand taken by the Magazine against the infallibility of the Heavenly Doctrines, the only reason alleged for it being the establishment and growth of the Morning Light. Mr. William Hughes ably supported the motion; he stated his regret that the Magazine should be discontinued, but it was evident that the Church preferred a weekly to a monthly periodical. He stated that he understood Mr. Speirs would promise not in any way to engage or have part in the publication if any other periodical while agent of Conference. Mr. Speirs, in answer to this, stated that all he promised was not to take part in any publication which would interfere with the one under discussion. Rev. Jos. Deans moved that the matter be referred to the Council, to report to the next session. This motion was supported by several speakers, and a number of reasons were urged in its favor, i. e., the greater expense of a weekly paper, the uncertainty as to the cost of purchasing the Morning Light, as well as the expenses of conducting the same when purchased. Doubts were also expressed as to the Conference's needing any organ. Conservatism was also appealed to, in that it was not well to break off from the customs of a century by making a sudden change. So the amendment prevailed, and the matter was referred to the Council for more mature deliberation.
     In consequence of this action, the Rev. R. Storry was re-appointed editor of the Magazine, and complimented on his impartiality in conducting this periodical. In accepting the appointment, Mr. Storry took occasion to explain the insertion of a certain letter respecting the Academy of the New Church in the Magazine. He had thought that by inserting the accusations against the Academy he would give the members of the Academy an opportunity of showing in what respect these were misrepresentations. Dr. H. L. Tafel, in answer, replied, that he had expected a different kind of explanation, and that he had not heard Mr. Storry express any regrets for the insertion of that "scurrilous letter," This strong term caused some excitement in Conference and various exclamations. The Rev. L. H. Tafel then addressed Conference, and while repeating his previous statement that he was not there as the representative of the Academy, added that he had not been spoken to by any member of the Academy with respect to bringing this matter to the attention of Conference. Still, it had been expected that the English Conference, with its love of justice and fairness, would disavow the letter in its organ, which raised accusations against a numerous body of the Church in America. As to the Academy, he was proud of being a member of it, and it had never spoken a word or done an act for which he was sorry or which he regretted. In answer to the statement that the Academy would by the publication in the Magazine have an opportunity of denying these accusations, he stated that the Academy would never condescend to answer such an article, and that its members were surprised that it could find a place in any New Church paper, and most of all, that it could appear in the organ of a general body of the Church.
     These words were spoken in a very impressive manner, and seemed to make quite a sensation, and the Rev. H. Storry expressed his deep regrets for having inserted the letter.
     On Saturday the business was chiefly such as is incidental to the winding up of a large church meeting-amendments of rules, some committee reports, the consideration of the best mode of nominating and electing the officers, committees, and the Council of Conference. The preparation of a list of tunes for the Conference Hymn-book, and the printing of the Creed for insertion into the Conference Liturgy received more or less attention, the whole concluding with a hearty vote of thanks to the Camden Road Society or the excellence of their arrangements, and for their great kindness, courtesy, and hospitality.
Thus ended the Seventy-sixth Session of Conference, the most largely attended and one of the most interesting of its annual meetings. According to the testimony of one of the leading ministers, "The atmosphere prior to the Conference was very stormy, but as soon as the members met there were indications of fair weather; ere long it was set fair and had finished very dry."
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163



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
     General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
     Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
     E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER, 1883.
     WHILE man reads the literal sense of the Word, the angels attendant on him perceive the spiritual sense. Foreign words or mistranslations disturb them and break the series of their thoughts.
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     A NUMBER of articles have lately appeared in the Messenger on the subject of Orphan Homes in the New Church. We are glad to see that the Church is beginning to realize the importance of such work.
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     HENRY WARD BEECHER delivered a remarkable sermon Sunday morning at Plymouth Church, Brooklyn, in the course of which he announced his adhesion to a mild form of Swedenborgianism."-(The Evening Call, Philadelphia.) We presume the "mild form" was just enough to be a disavowal of all of the essential doctrines of the New Church.
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     WHY this persistent denial that Swedenborg says that David and Paul are in hell? The Messenger makes it; Dr. Bayley, in his reply to the English newspaper attacks, reiterates it. It is strange that New Church people should believe a man to be in heaven who was a confirmed thief, murderer, and adulterer; for this is the character the Word gives King David.
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     WITH many people, New Churchmen as well as others, epithets serve instead of arguments. The epithet "illiberal," for example, is often deemed a complete refutation of the doctrine of the distinctiveness of the New Church. A reference to the Pope of Rome is frequently thought quite to overthrow the authority of the Writings, and the doctrine of the state of Christendom is sometimes answered with the epithet "pessimistic."
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     IT may be profitable for us to bear in mind Luther's devotion to the work of translating the Bible, and then reflect whether we are showing our appreciation of the LORD'S Coming to us, when we give into the hands of the New Church the current and necessarily faulty translations of the Word, while yet the light of the New Day that has arisen upon us clearly shows how it should be correctly rendered, that thus it may be read in its Purity, and the LORD known in the vessels of the literal sense which He Himself has created.
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     OUR London correspondent, "Z." writes concerning her report of the "Centenary and Other Meetings," published in our last issue, as follows: "I fear I have given the Times just reason for one of its most flagrant misrepresentations, by stating that the widow of the Rev. Thomas Goyder was present at the conversazione. I should have written Daniel, as I believe the former lady has for many years been an inhabitant of the spiritual world."
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     "WHAT was His Creed" is the title of a small poem appearing recently in a contemporaneous publication and supposed to be based on the first proposition of the Doctrine of Life, which is quoted as text. It is a pity that New Churchmen do not consider that proposition in connection with those that follow, which tell what "to do good" consists in. The spirit of the Doctrines is altogether foreign to that of the poem, which extols a goodness consisting only in piety and almsgiving and disclaiming any "creed" or "belief." If "the Faith of the New Heaven and the New Earth," which forms the introduction to the True Christian Religion, and is presented in four or five of the other works, is not to be called a creed we need a new revision of Webster's and Worcester's definitions.
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     UNDER the heading, "The Episcopal New Church," the New Church Review comments as follows upon the General Church of Pennsylvania: "That an Association of New Church Societies should organize a General Church upon the only ecclesiastical polity clearly defined in the Writings of Swedenborg is not so surprising as the fact that not until a century after the first attempts at Church organization this step should at last be taken, and then only be regarded in the light of a curious novelty. This step has been taken by the Pennsylvania Association in the adoption of the title of a General Church and the election of a Bishop. Far from being a new or unrecognized principle of church-organization, this has, from the first beginning of our Church's existence, been not only recognized as plainly indicated in the Writings, but as indorsed by the best judgment of the Church-at-large. Thus the late Dr. Thomas Worcester openly declared, in an article entitled, 'A View of the Pastoral Relation,' in the New Jerusalem Magazine, vol. xix, p. 182, that the Episcopal order is recognized as the true order in the New Church, and that every member of the Committee of the Convention who voted for a certain Rule of Order adopted relating to the office of ordaining ministers did so because he believed it to be a part of the true order. The movement of the Church in Pennsylvania is one of deep interest and significance. It means to us an honest putting-off of timid subterfuges, by which the people are either flattered or deceived in regard to the real nature of their Church-organization, and a willingness to call things by their right names and let the people judge of their usefulness by seeing them openly and honestly practiced."


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MARTIN LUTHER 1883

MARTIN LUTHER              1883

     WHILE the Lutheran world is exercised over the four hundredth anniversary of the birthday of its founder, and a strong sphere of interest in his life is permeating the whole civilized world, this is a fit occasion for New Churchmen to consider the life and work of this remarkable man. We do not purpose to enter upon a narrative of Luther's life-the country is flooded with short and with extended biographies of him-but we wish to present from the Revelations made by the LORD at His Second Coming various particulars of his real character and of his motives, in order that they who read of his interesting career may he able to look somewhat behind the scenes and judge intelligently of his actions as they appear to the world.
     All are doubtless familiar with the account of Luther given in True Christian Religion, n. 796, and we content ourselves with the bare mention of it. To some it has seemed singular that Luther is said to have dwelled in a house like the one at Eisleben, when yet the greater part of his life was spent at Witteziberg. But he spent the last month of his earthly life at Eisleben, whither he had gone to settle a dispute between the Counts, of Mansfield, and there he received people until prevented by his illness. Luther was no exception to the rule that all, upon wakening to the other life, appear to themselves to continue living in the same place in the natural world. And there, it appears, he stayed until the Last Judgment.
     Before his vastation he was, in the habit of exciting crowds of hypocrites and others against such as were in faith from charity and who conjoined them in thought and life. He loved to quarrel about matters of belief and was among those who believe that they know everything and that nothing can be mentioned which they do not know better than anyone else.
     He abode among these "from the time when he entered the other life. He had not yet been fully vastated, and could, therefore, elevate himself and show of what quality he was in the other life. He was a quarreler, trusting in himself; speaking alone; angry at all who did not consent, inveighing against all who dissented, whoever they might be; defending faith alone, caring little for life, not knowing what charity is; nor what the neighbor is.
     That he was a hypocrite was shown by his excitations and it was told that he spoke one way with the princes and another with the common people, so that he believed differently, from what he said, and that he produced a new thing from the itch of commanding. In a word, that he was a hypocrite. It was shown him also that he was in darkness, not in light, and that he did not know what the light of heaven was, which was shown him. Such [spirits] disturb in others all tranquillity of mind and another conscience, and all the freedom of thinking concerning the Word, inducing their opinions as from the Divine, infesting all who do not receive."- S. D. 5105.
     This is the power of persuasion, which he had in an eminent degree, and which was the, real cause of his power in this world, without which he could not have effected the so-called Reformation. It manifested itself in a peculiar way in the removal and taming of the fanatics, Zwilling and Carlstadt, the Zwickan prophets, and others who had created quite a disturbance in Wittenberg during his sojourn at the Wartburg and caused his leaving that hiding-place to resume his duties at the University and at the Castle Church. The hold which the persuasive principle had on Luther, and the method in which he was vastated of it, are graphically depicted in Spiritual Diary, n. 5911, 5914.
     Nevertheless, at heart, Luther was principled in good, and although even the warning voice of an angel could not restrain him from separating faith from charity, he did not think, from the principle of his doctrine, when left to his own reflections, and when partaking of the Holy Supper, in which most holy act man is left alone with his Saviour, he could not think, in accord with his doctrines concerning faith alone and concerning the Holy Supper itself; but whenever he wished to think in accord with it, he was so moved that he was tortured as to his mind, and therefore ceased thinking that way at the Sacrament. (S. D. 5910.)
     Above all things, Luther loved to reason and to confirm by reasonings, hence his repeated avowals at the Diet of Worms that he could be convinced only by proof from Holy Writ or by "cogent reasons." When before the Commission at Worms, the Elector Joachim asked him: "Do I understand you correctly, Doctor? You cannot be convinced by any other means than by the Holy Scriptures?" Luther answered, "Yes, your Grace, or by clear and cogent reasons:" And yet, had they presented reasons, it would only have led to wrangling.
     In the other world, he said, he seldom found such as could reason with him concerning his doctrines, and he grieved that he could seldom have that enjoyment which craved. He was told that the reason of this was that his dogmas were the productions of his own thought, and that he continually reflected on the connection of things with their first principles, and that they who do this love to reason, and to present and hear arguments of that kind, while, on the other hand, his followers thought but little about such things, and then only when they preached and taught. For the rest of the time they busied themselves about worldly and bodily affairs. They thought from others and not from themselves, not entering upon interior thought, while he was engaged in such thoughts from morning until evening. (S. D. 5915.)
     "He is still preserved, although he was in falses of doctrine, because, nevertheless, in his talk he had spoken much of the good of life, and he was told, that as oft en as he was in the good of speech and of life, he did not think from his doctrine of faith alone, as is done also with others, which was confirmed by various things." S. D. 5916.
     In fact, many of his writings contain glimpses of truth; he even approached to a true conception of the Trinity, and the fact that good works are necessary seemed to impress him repeatedly. Hence, after another account of his love of reasoning and wrangling we are told in the Spiritual Diary that he wished to receive the doctrine of the marriage of good and truth or of love and faith, but could not before the principles of faith alone were banished from his mind. Still, the angels expressed hope for him because as often as he had thought from his spirit in the world, that is, as often as he was left to himself and at rest, he thought of good works and made them part of his religion. This was the reason of his speaking so much and writing about the good of life, although he did not incorporate it in his doctrine, for then he would think that man cannot do good of himself and that if he does it, he does it for the sake of heaven and ascribes merit to himself. When he would get out of the thought of his spirit into a talk with others, then he would speak of faith alone, as if his mind were completely turned around. This was the case when he was in the delight of his life, in the enjoyment of glory. What he thought to himself in obscurity clung to him from his boyhood, for he was born in the Catholic religion, which insists on good works, and afterward became a monk.

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But his strong desire to break loose from the Pope led him into a blind obstinacy in favor of faith alone. " Luther narrated, that when he was in the world he was told by an angel from the LORD that he should beware of faith alone, because there was nothing in it, and that he for some time took care and recommended works, but that still afterward he continued to separate faith from work, and to make it alone essential and saving." This statement found in the Spiritual Diary, P. VIII, Appendix page 13, is reiterated in another form in Divine Providence, n. 258.
     In connection with this, it is interesting to note that Calvin told Swedenborg that he had corresponded with Luther about faith and good works and had shown him that if faith alone were accepted, the truths of the Word would be contradicted, that therefore faith and good works should be conjoined. He added, that Luther hesitated, but answered that if he made works part of his doctrine he could not separate so well from the Roman Catholics. (S. D. 6041.)
     There are long and interesting passages in the Spiritual Diary concerning Luther, treating of his position and his principles before the Last Judgment. These passages are briefly summed up in the Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment: "What Luther's lot is shall be told elsewhere, for I have often heard and seen him. Only this, he often wished to recede from his faith alone, but in vain; and therefore he is still in the world of spirits, which is in the midst between heaven and hell and there he sometimes suffers hard things."
     The Continuation Concerning the Last Judgment was published in 1763. Eight years later the True Christian Religion appeared, containing the following interesting episode from the spiritual world
     The president of a certain council stated that he was consociated with a famous man in the natural world. Swedenborg asked, him where that man lived. "Not far from Luther's tomb," was the answer. "At this," says Swedenborg, "I smiled and said: 'Why do you speak of his tomb? Do you not know that Luther has risen again, and that he has renounced his erroneous opinions concerning justification by faith in three Divine persons from eternity, and is therefore transferred to a place among the happy of the new heaven, and that he sees and laughs at those who are running mad after him?' And he rejoined, 'I do know, but what is this to me?'"
     This short anecdote completes the account given in the latter part of the Trite Christian Religion.
     While we may deplore Luther's headstrong introduction of the pernicious falsity of faith alone, we have abundant cause of rejoicing in following the directing hand of Providence guiding Luther step by step to the restoration of the Word to Christendom. His finding of the Bible in the library at Erfurt, his entrance into' the monastery of the same place, his call to the University at Wittenberg, and his study of the Hebrew and Greek there, his flight to the Wartburg on his return from Worms, and his later joint labors in the Augustinian Monastery with Melanchthon, Cruciger, Bugenhagen, Jusius Jonas, Aurogahus, and Rorer, are links in a chain that bound the Word fast to the consciousness of Christendom, which was thus prepared for the coming of the LORD two centuries later.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE new index to scripture passages referred to or explained in the Writings, which has been prepared by Mr. Searle of the Camden Road Society, London, is now passing through the press.
FAIRY TALE 1883

FAIRY TALE              1883

     "I LIKE an outspoken man, one who always speaks as he thinks." Saying this, my friend put on his hat and left.
     Now there was nothing personal in this remark; it was merely a sort of summing up of our conversation, and I fully agreed with him. I mused for some time on the subject; my reverie was then interrupted by a little lady, who entered without the formality of opening the door. She was dressed in some kind of gauzy pink stuff, wore pink slippers and carried a white rod in her hand with a star on one end of it. I was rather astonished at her sudden appearance and looks, and for a moment could only stare at her; then, recovering, I arose and said, "I beg your pardon. Will you have a chair, Miss-Mrs.-I fear I do not recall your name."
     She replied, "You never saw me before. I'm a fairy."
     At this I sank back in my arm-chair somewhat nervously and said, "Oh!" a very convenient and noncommittal interjection.
     "Yes, I'm a fairy."
     As this reiteration seemed to imply that she saw doubt in my previous remark, I said: "Happy to make your acquaintance, Miss-your Honor-I mean Ladyship."
     She smiled and replied, "Why don't you speak as you think?" Then she stopped my reply by holding up a finger and saying, "No, don't fib; you are not pleased to see me, but are nervous and a little frightened." I could not deny the fact, and she continued: "Just now you were wishing that every one would always speak as he thinks, and I have come that your wish may he gratified." In some mysterious manner she produced and handed to me a hat which seemed to be my own, and said-"Whenever you wear this hat every one will speak to you as he thinks and you will do the same."
     I mechanically put the hat on my head and at once said-"I wish you would go away," and immediately I was alone. I rubbed my eyes, smiled at my fancy, and
I thought, "Must have been dozing." Then I arose, yawned, and started out for a stroll. The first person I met was a burly tramp, and he said, "I say, you-give me some money."
     I replied, as I gave him five cents, "I think you are a scoundrel, and I give you this money as the easiest way of getting rid of you, besides I'm somewhat afraid of ruffians like you.
     He took the money and said, "If we were alone I'd club you and take everything you have."
     "Vagabonds like you ought to be put to work," I said.
     He scowled and said: "I won't work. I hate begging, and I hate those who give me money. I'd rather knock people down or break into houses, and would get all my money that way if I were not afraid of the police."
     After this we parted, and somehow the conversation had not surprised me. The day was warm, and I stopped in the shade of a tree and took off my hat for greater coolness. A man I knew to be an inordinate and prosy talker came along, buttonholed me, and began a long story. While thinking of a polite excuse for escaping, I put on my hat and then said: "I've heard your old stories before; I don't believe the half of them, and I think you are an insufferable bore."
     He replied: "I always thought you were a conceited upstart, but I like to talk to any one who will listen."
     We parted, and I soon met another friend, who taking me by the arm, said: "I want to borrow two dollars. I will give you my note for the amount, but I haven't the slightest intention of ever paying it."


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     I replied: "I know you are a scamp and haven't the slightest intention of lending you the money." I took off my hat again and added, with a thoughtful look: "Unfortunately, it isn't convenient for me to let you have that amount just at present; as I'm a little short myself." We shook hands and parted. I had gone but a short distance when I met a man I esteemed highly; he was walking rapidly, but stopped when I spoke to him and asked him the cause of his haste; he replied, "I have some stock in a company that has just failed; the news has not spread yet and I want to sell the stock to a friend of mine. I shall tell him I sell because I am pushed for money; he will beat me down in price, and chuckle to think he has me in a corner, and I'll let him think so. Afterward I shall say I knew nothing of the failure when I sold. He won't believe me, but dare not contradict me."
     "Neither of you are honest," I said.
     "Honest!" replied he, looking at me vaguely; "what does that word mean?"
     He did not wait for an answer, but hurried on. The next man I met was a shopkeeper. He looked pleased, and I asked him what had happened, and he said: "I have just sold a fellow a lot of spoiled goods for a big price, and the best of it is, he is going out of the country, and will not find it out until it is too late to make a fuss about the matter. It was a fine stroke of business."
     "What a swindler you are!" I said.
     "I don't know what the word means," replied he. "I'm a sharp business man and I think you are a fool."
     "Why?" I asked.
     "Because when I sell you anything I can always get more for it than I could if you weren't."
     I met many other people during my stroll, and we conversed with perfect frankness. I told one gentleman that I thought he was a very good man, and he said he thought so too. A lady friend I met gave me an invitation to a very select party to be given by her; she told me that several men whom she wanted to attend had sent their regrets, and that she was forced to fill their places with "undesirables" like me,
     The last persons I met were three young ladies. I took off my hat to them and we conversed in a very bright and witty manner; then I put on my hat again and we spoke to each other with great freedom. I told one of them that I admired her very much, and the conversation became so rapid that I have but an indistinct recollection of it, as we all talked at once; finally we separated, each one going off alone.
     I hurried to my room, flung my hat on the floor; and threw myself into my chair. I hadn't enjoyed my walk in the least. Then the fairy appeared, and I remembered what kind of a hat I had been wearing. I said to her sternly: "What is the meaning of all this foolishness?"
     "Ungrateful mortal," replied she. "Your wish has been gratified, and you call the result foolishness."
     "Of course I do. Through your influence, or that of your wretched hat, I and my friends have been for the past two hours talking folly."
     "Yes," replied she, with downcast eyes, "you all talked just as you thought."
     I winced at this but could not dispute it. Then I asked, "What is the moral of all this?"
     With a little shrug she answered: "I suppose the moral is that you should cultivate good thoughts as well as good manners." Then she touched me with her wand, and with a start I glanced around the room and found myself alone.
LORD AS A MAN 1883

LORD AS A MAN              1883

     ON the 19th of June 1770, the LORD called together his twelve disciples, and commissioned them to go forth and preach the gospel that the LORD JESUS CHRIST reigneth. A simple command, yet all-embracing. The same command the LORD gives to His ministers, the priesthood of the New Church. If the priest leads to the knowledge and acknowledgment of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, he fulfills his duty, and then only. All the truths of the New Church tend to that alone. The one truth of the dominion of the LORD JESUS CHRIST must reign in the Church and in its every least particular, and where it is not, acknowledged, heaven is closed. Where this thought is firmly implanted, it extends to the whole heaven, and the more it is infilled with particulars, into the more particular societies of heaven does the thought extend; and in proportion as the thought and love of this truth becomes more full, more true, more just, and more living, man draws nearer to the LORD and enters more fully into conjunction with Him.
     The first idea concerning the LORD must be that of a Divine Man, of a glorious Person having the same outward shape as the beings whom He created into His image and likeness. No matter what qualities we may attribute to God, be they those of Love itself and Wisdom itself; if when thinking of the LORD we have not before our mind's eye the image of a Divine Human Person, our thought will not be true and abiding. It will be dissipated and vanish, even as the sight of the natural eye is lost in immensity when it gazes not upon some concrete object. We cannot think of the character of any human being without having an image of Him before us. Much less can we think of the qualities of the Divine Human without having an image of Him before us. And hence the Writings teach that "the faith in the LORD GOD, the SAVIOUR, who is God and Man, and can be approached and seen in thought, is a faith having a determination, and when once received, remains. It is as when one has seen an emperor or a king; as often as he recollects him, his image returns. The sight of this faith is as the sight of a white cloud, in the midst of which is an Angel, who invites man to himself, that he may be lifted into heaven. Thus the LORD appears to those who have faith in Him, and He approaches every one in proportion as one knows and does His precepts, which are to shun evils and do goods, and at length He comes into his house, and together with the Father, who is in Him, makes His abode with the man, for JESUS said, 'he who hath my precepts and doeth them, he it is that loveth me; and he that loveth me will be loved by my Father, and I shall love him, and shall manifest myself to him, and we shall come to him, and make our abode with him,' John xiv, 21-23." "These things," says Swedenborg, "were written in the presence of the twelve Apostles of the LORD; who, "while I wrote these things, were sent to me by the LORD."- T. C. R. 339.
     Again the Writings say: "The conjunction with an invisible God is as the conjunction of the sight of the eye with the expanse of the universe, the end of which one does not see, and as the sight in the midst of the ocean, Which falls into the air and into the sea, and perishes; but the conjunction with the visible God is as the sight of a man in the air or sea, extending the hands and inviting into his arms."- T. C. R. 787.
     Thus we have given to us by the LORD the outline of the image which we must form of Him. This outline is supplemented by Swedenborg in his explanation of the first commandment. He then presents the picture of "one Divine Person with rays of heavenly light about the head, with the superscription: 'This is our God, at the same time Creator, Redeemer and Regenerator, thus Saviour.' Would not a wise man kiss this picture, and carry it home in his bosom, and by its aspect make glad his mind, and that of his wife, and of his children and servants."


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     The end in the creation of the earth was the conjunction of the men of the Church with the LORD. But man is natural, and hence he thinks naturally. He can have no idea at all of abstract things, unless he adjoin something natural which has entered from the world through sensual things. Without this his thought perishes as in an abyss and is dissipated. Therefore, lest the Divine with man altogether immersed in corporeal and earthly things should perish, or, remaining with some, be by them defiled by an unclean idea, and together with it everything celestial and spiritual, which is from the Divine, therefore it pleased JEHOVAH to present Himself actually as He is and as He appears in heaven, namely, as a Divine Man. This Divine, or this of JEHOVAH in heaven, is the LORD from eternity. This same LORD also took upon Himself when He glorified or made Divine in Himself the Human, as He manifested in the form in which He appeared before Peter, Jacob, and John when He was transformed. (A. C. 1510.)
     The account of the transformation of the LORD on the mount completes our image of the LORD: "His face shone as the sun, but His garments were white as the light." Matt. xvii, 2.
     Thus, then, conceiving of the LORD as a Divinely Glorious Man whose face shines as the sun, enveloped with a halo of splendid light as with a garment resting on a white cloud filled with the light, and extending His hands to us, inviting unto His arms, we have a general picture of the LORD before us, and are prepared to consider the qualities of the LORD so that we may get a fuller, more true, and more just idea of this Divine Person, even as, after being introduced to the person of a new king, we have the image of his external form before our mental vision. But from that time on, this image becomes brighter and more beautiful, and filled with a thousand particulars of the real man, as in the course of the king's reign we learn more and more of his affections and thoughts, of his character and of his rule. But the external image is necessary first of all, and must exist as the continent of the internal qualities.
     The distinguishing characteristic between the New Church and all former Churches, and which leads to her conjunction with the LORD, is her ability to see and worship the visible LORD, in whom is the invisible. But this involves not only the mental vision of an objective image of Him: it involves the recognition of Him as the God who is the Word. While the former Churches may have had a consciousness of the LORD as being a Divine Person, none of them had the true idea of Him as being the Word. And this idea alone will bring full conjunction. In the New Church, if men do not recognize the LORD as the Word, they cannot become fully conjoined with Him, however much they think they worship Him as a Man. The worship of the LORD as a Divine Man and as the Word, whom we see ever more clearly in a clear and rational reception of His Divine Truth, is the worship which makes the New Church the crown of all the Churches. It is the worship which the whole Word-the Old Covenant and the New-treats of in every chapter and verse and syllable. And in the transfiguration on the mount we have that one representation of the LORD recorded in the letter of the Word in which He manifested Himself as He appears to the angels in the sun, and thus it was the prophetical representation of His worship. "After six days JESUS takes Peter and Jacob and John his brother, and brings them up into a high mountain alone. And He was transformed before them, and His face shone as the sun, but His garments became white as the light. And behold, there were seen by them Moses and Elias speaking with Him. But Peter answered and said unto JESUS: 'LORD, it is good that we are here. If Thou wilt, we shall make here three tents, for Thee one, and for Moses one, and one for Elias.'"
     The LORD in His glory as He appears to the angels in the sun, surrounded with the Divine light of His Divine Truth proceeding from Him, is seen on a high mountain with Moses and Elias, who represent the letter of the Word. Into this letter the Divine inflows from the LORD, who is its internal, for this is signified by their talking with him. And by whom is He thus seen? By Peter, Jacob, and John, who represent the three chief principles of the New Church: Faith, Love, and Love in Act or Charity. And they see Him when led by him onto a high mountain. When with the three principles of the Church firmly implanted in us we come into a state of fervent love to Him from Him, we can see Him in His glory, and then alone. Then we see that He is the Word, that He it is who infills Moses and the Prophets with the infinite fullness of Divine Truth. But even as the Word we see Him: the Visible One in whom is the Invisible; of the Divine Good itself, burning with the intense Divine love toward the whole human race; to save, beatify, and make happy to eternity, and to appropriate His Divine as far as possible, we see nothing. The Divinely bright and glorious Divine Truth which clothes the Divine Good, and by which the LORD accomplishes the object of His love. This we see and we see it as the saving, life-giving power that resides in the Word, by which the heavens, and the earth were made, "the flocks and herds, and also the beasts of the fields, the bird of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea, those passing the paths of the seas," and by which man is made, yea, created and formed anew, under whose feet all these are placed. "O JEHOVAH, our God! how magnificent is Thy name in all the earth."-Psalm viii, 7-10.
     Thus regarding the LORD as the Word, we truly behold him as the Son of heaven, as the Infinite, Immense, and Eternal One; Almighty and Omnipresent, the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End; Who Was, Is, and Is to Be; Who is Love Itself and Wisdom Itself, the Very Life, the Only One from whom are all things, and from whom proceeds the creative and formative and life-giving sphere of Divine Truth. Then our faith from the LORD is prompted to the heartfelt and humble worship of Him; it prostrates itself and wishes to build tabernacles to Him.
     And why can we see the LORD only when we acknowledge Him as the Word? Because the sight of man's spirit is his understanding, and the understanding can only see truths. The LORD is inmostly in the truths of His Word, and the more rationally we see these truths and acknowledge them as being from Him, and, therefore, being Himself, the more fully do we enter the light, the nearer do we approach Him. Seeing Him thus in His truths-a thing never possible to preceding Churches-we can thus truly become conjoined to Him; for aspect conjoins-not indeed intellectual aspect alone, but an intellectual aspect from the affection of the will, and the affection of the will is not, unless man does the LORD'S precepts.
     Such aspect of the LORD in His truths implies an acknowledgment of the Writings of the New Church as the infallible, because Divine, Truths of the LORD; for the Writings of the New Church are the LORD'S Second Coming.

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We cannot become conjoined with the Divine Human itself, but with the Divine Human in Heaven, and the Divine Human in Heaven is the Divine Truth of the LORD. The Writings are this Divine Truth, and we must love and cherish them as being the LORD'S Divine Human, for else we cannot become conjoined with Him.'
     In the internal sense of JEHOVAH'S words to Moses, "Not shall man see me and live," the LORD teaches that the Divine itself cannot be seen as it is in itself; but as it is through the LORD in Heaven. It is said through the LORD in Heaven, because the LORD is above the Heavens, for He is the Sun of Heaven, but still He is; present in the Heavens; for there is the Divine Truth, and the Divine Truth, proceeding from the LORD as the Sun, is the LORD in Heaven, therefore the Divine Truth is His face; and this Divine Truth constitutes the interiors of the Word, of the Church, and of worship.- (A. C. 10,579.) This Divine Truth proceeding from the LORD is "Our Father in the Heavens," to whom we I daily pray in the LORD'S Prayer, because it is the Visible God in whom is the Invisible.
     On this subject we read in the Apocalypse that they who are of the New Church " shall see His Face, and His Name shall be on their foreheads." The internal sense of this, as explained in the Apocalypse Revealed, is as follows: "By seeing the Face of God and of the Lamb, or of the LORD, is not meant to see His Face, because no one can see His Face as it is in His Divine Love and in His Divine Wisdom, and live; for He is the Sun of Heaven and of the whole spiritual world; for to see His Face as it is in itself would be like entering the sun, by the fire of which one would be instantly consumed. But the LORD sometimes presents Himself to be seen outside of His Sun; but when He veils Himself and presents Himself to their sight, which is done through an angel-as He has also done in the world before Abraham, Hagar, Lot, Gideon, Joshua, and others-wherefore those angels were called angels, and also JEHOVAH; for the presence of JEHOVAH was from afar within them. But by 'They shall see His Face,' is not meant thus to see His Face, either, but to see truths 'which are in the; Word from Him, and by means of them to know and acknowledge Him; for the Divine Truths of the Word make the light-they are like mirrors in which the Face of the LORD is seen." n. 938.
     All the Churches hitherto have been so many states of Humanity taken in the aggregate, progressing from infancy to manhood. The true, ration all manhood begins now. Man is man by virtue of his wisdom, by virtue of the rational reception of truths from the LORD. And now, for the first time since the creation, begins the truly rational reception of the truths of the LORD. For in the prophecy in which the New Church is told, "Thou shalt be a crown of adornment in the hand of
     JEHOVAH, and a diadem of royalty in the hand of thy God" (Isaiah lxii, 3), the crown of adornment is the wisdom which is of good, and the diadem of royalty is the intelligence which is of truth, and both these are truly predicable only of the New Jerusalem.
     The New Church is a virgin; it is humanity grown to the marriageable age, and it is now to be married to the LORD, the Bridegroom and Husband. A wife is a wife only in proportion as she receives the propagations of her husband's soul into herself; and loves to do so. The Church becomes the Bride and Wife of the LORD only in proportion as she receives the truth from the LORD alone into herself and loves to have it so. But a bride does not become a wife until she receives the ultimate continent of the propagations of her husband's soul. And in a similar manner the actual conjunction of the LORD with the Bride- Church does not take place until the Church receives the ultimate continent of His Truth: the letter of the Word and the Writings, and cherishes them as holy things.
     The Word begins with an account of the creation of the Church: "At first God created heaven and earth." The Word ends with the betrothal and marriage of the LORD and the Church. "He that testifieth these things saith: 'Behold! I come quickly. Amen.' 'Even come, LORD JESUS."' 'These words, as we are taught in the inspired volume of the Apocalypse Revealer, signify: "The LORD who revealed the Apocalypse and has now opened it, testifying this gospel, that in His Divine Human which He assumed in the world and glorified, He' comes as the Bridegroom and Husband, and that the Church desires this as the Bride and Wife. The LORD first says, 'I, JESUS, have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches;' by which is signified testification before the whole Christian world that it is true that the LORD alone manifested the things written in the Apocalypse and those which are now opened. Hence, 'He that testifieth these things said' means the LORD who revealed the Apocalypse and who now opens it testifying. He testifies this gospel, for He here declares His Advent, His Kingdom, and His ritual Marriage with the Church. For He says, hold! I come 'quickly. Amen' Yea, come, LORD JESUS,' and by gospel is signified the Advent of the LORD to His Kingdom. Here it is to the spiritual marriage with the Church, because this New Church is' called the Bride and Wife, and the LORD her Bridegroom and Husband. And here at the end of the Book the LORD speaks and the Church speaks as the Bridegroom and Bride. The LORD says, 'Yea, I come quickly. Amen,' and the Church says, 'Even come, LORD JESUS.' These are the words of betrothing to the spiritual marriage. And the LORD comes in the Divine Human which He took upon Himself in the world and glorified, for He names Himself Jesus, and says that He is the Root and Offspring of David. And the Church here says, 'Come, LORD JESUS.' "- A. R. 960.
     When with the exultation of, the bride with which she beholds her bridegroom corning; when with the inmost peace and holy delight with which the wife receives her husband unto herself; the New Church shall say in truth, "Yea, come, LORD JESUS," by acknowledging in heart and life His Divine Revelations in the Word and the Writings to be He Himself in His Divine Human that they are filled with the glory which He imparted to them by His glorification, then shall we be enabled to realize in fullness the Divine words of the LORD in Isaiah: "JEHOVAH will delight in thee, and thy land shall be married;" and those others in Zephaniah: "Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion! Be glad from all thy heart, O daughter of Jerusalem! The King of Israel is in thy midst. Do not fear evil any longer. He shall rejoice in thee with gladness. He shall be silent in thy love. He shall exult over thee with singing aloud."-iii, 14-17, 20.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     Heaven and Hell is soon to be translated into the Finnish language under the auspices of the A. S. P. and P. Society. This will be the first of the Writings printed in that little spoken language. We do not know of a single New Churchman in Finland, except Professor Nordenskjold, of Helsingfors, a relative of the famous arctic explorer.


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LUTHER'S BELIEF 1883

LUTHER'S BELIEF              1883

     ONE of the main works of Luther's that treat of the Trinity is that On the Last Words of David, and it may not be unprofitable to glean some of his statements therefrom. (He says, folio 151-152 of the second edition, 1557):
     "To speak of the Humanity of Christ: In itself it is a real creature created at the same time with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and we dare not suffer it to be believed that the Father alone or the Son alone or the Holy Spirit alone had created this Creature or Humanity. But it is an Opus indivisium Trinitatis, a work created of all three persons as one only God and Creator of one and the same work. As the angel Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary, Luke i: 'The Holy Spirit will come upon thee, and the power of the Most High will overshadow thee.' Not only the Holy Spirit upon thee (does he say), but also the Most High, that is, the Father, will overshadow 'thee with His power, that is, through His Son, or the Word. 'Therefore also that which is born in thee shall be called the Son of the Most High.' So that the whole Trinity is here as one Creator and has created and made the one work, the Humanity. And yet the Person of the Son was alone united with it and has become Man, not the Father nor the Holy Spirit. And of this Man you cannot say, This is God the Father, or, This is God the Holy Spirit, but you must say, This is God the Son; although God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one only God, so that you say quite right of the Man, This is God, and there is no God beside, but say incorrectly, This is God the Father, or God the Holy Spirit, but must say, This is God the Son. As St. Paul says in Coloss. ii: 'For in Christ dwelleth the whole fullness of the Godhead.' And yet by this the Father and Holy Spirit are not robbed of that same Godhead, but with the Son and Man Christ, one only God. From this you see how the three Divine Persons are to be believed variously within the Godhead, and are not to be commingled in one Person; and yet the one Divine Being is not to be separated, nor are three Gods to be made, but exteriorly toward creatures is one Creator, so totally one that also the creatures which the Persons take upon themselves variously are the one work of all three persons, as one God."
     Folio 153 of the same work, Luther says:
     "The Humanity of Christ is not a mere sign or empty form, even as the dove was not an empty form, and the voice not an empty form or image. But the Humanity in which the Son of God is revealed by itself is full and united with God in one person, which will sit to eternity at the right hand of God in His Kingdom, as David has promised. The dove is a form assumed by the Holy Spirit for a time to manifest Himself; not united with Him in one person to eternity, but again forsaken, even as the angels assume human form to appear therein, and again leave it. This also was the case with the voice of the Father, for there is no promise that this should remain thus eternally, but was a temporary manifestation."
     Again on folio 155 it seems as though Luther had an obscure Idea of the truth concerning the sole Divinity of the LORD. For he says:
     "The God who led the people of Israel out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and guided them in the desert by means of the column of cloud and the column of fire, and fed them with heavenly bread, and done all the wonders which Moses describes in his book, and who brought them into the land of Canaan, and there given kings and priesthood and everything, is even that God and none other but Jesus of Nazareth, the son of May the Virgin, whom we call Christ our God and Lord whom the Jews crucified, and to this day blaspheme and curse."
But he spoils this again by such statements as "that Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the son of David and the Virgin Mary, is real Man, God's natural eternal Son," etc., folio 145.
     As regards the life of charity, we find among the verses written in the Bibles of various friends, the following explanation of Matthew xix, 17:
     "If thou wilt enter into the life, keep the Commandments? The Commandments must be kept, or there is no life, but mere death. For, also faith is nothing, where love (that is, the fulfilling of the Commandments) does not follow. I Cor., 13. For Christ, the Son of God, came not, nor did He die, in order that we should be freely disobedient to the Commandments, but that we should fulfill the Commandments through His help and co-operation. Therefore, as it is said, work without faith is nothing. So also, it is said, faith without fruit is nothing either. For works without faith is idolatry, faith without works is a lie and no faith."
     Again, in explanation of the words, "If ye remain in me," etc., he says: "That is it, that we should remain in Him. This is done when His words remain in us, that is, if we keep them in the true faith, and live according to them in act. Thus everything is possible, and everything for which we ask will be granted."
PASTORAL LETTER 1883

PASTORAL LETTER              1883

     THE appearance in the spring of last year of the pastoral letter issued by the Fourth Provincial Council of Cincinnati gave us occasion to show how "holy and splendid in externals" is the Roman Catholic Church when yet, as we are taught in Apocalypse Revealed 731, "it is so profane and abominable in internals." In his pastoral letter recently published the Rt. Rev. John A. Watterson, Bishop of Columbus, gives us another proof of the holiness and splendor of the externals of his Church. He treats of schools and education in a masterly manner, and his letter must be to thinking Catholics a most forcible plea for Catholic schools. The principles enunciated are in themselves true-most true-and yet, applied to the end which revelation assures us the Roman Catholic Church has in view, they become false-utterly false.
     If New Churchmen who claim to have at heart the establishment of the LORD'S Kingdom on earth would but see the force of what the Bishop says, and use the truths enunciated for truth's sake, their end would be accomplished more efficiently and more quickly. Consider some of the propositions: "Chief Element of Education, Religion," "Home generally Insufficient for the Religious Training of Children," "Sunday-school No Sufficient either," "Religion not Separable from True Education," "Religion the very Life and Soul of Education," "Religion should Vitalize and' Direct every Branch of Education." Does not this suggest a train of thoughts concerning the great importance of New Church schools? It may seem singular that we must go into the enemy's country to show the citizens of the New Jerusalem how to enlarge and ennoble its citizenship,' but at the present the New Churchmen are slow to listen to principles laid down in the Writings. It seems they prefer to follow examp1es set by the Old Church. If so, this one certainly merits their attention.


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SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 1883

SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES              1883

     4.-NATURAL SCIENCES

     By natural history we mean a narration of natural facts; by natural science, the systematizing of these facts according to natural laws. The first, based upon observation, contains many more truths than the second, which requires an intimate knowledge of the principles governing the universe.
     To some it may seem presumptuous in us to call into question the scientific learning of the day; but our position is a firm one, for it is founded upon the teachings of the Church, before which the boasted lore of man falls into utter insignificance.
     To make our position plain, we will call attention to some of the leading errors of science. Failing to comprehend the grand truth that the expanse is from the centre, and not vice versa, scientists wrongly interpret the creation of the universe, the relation of sun to earth, of particle to particle, and of planet to planet; and as the part operates upon the same principles that the whole; does, they fail to correctly understand the form and activity of the particles which constitute the atmosphere and those which make the earth itself.
     Misunderstanding the relation between the LORD and the spiritual world to the natural world, scientists fail to comprehend the law of contiguity as well as the manner in which the two worlds are co-associated. Even if we begin with nature, still they exhibit an ignorance of the shape and quality of the sun, the number, form, and uses of atmospheres, and of much pertaining to the composition and action of the strata of the earth. Gravity is improperly explained, colors are misinterpreted, and finally many fallacies are admitted concerning minerals, plants, and animals.     
     The causes of these fundamental errors lie principally; in the ignorance of the world upon just those subjects which the Writings treat of so fully, namely, the doctrines of the Divine Human, of the Gorand Man, of the nature of spirit and matter, of degrees, of correspondences, etc.
     To state briefly the truths opposed to the errors we have enumerated, and to present a few suggestions on reformation, is the object of this paper.
     The universe was created, not out of nothing, but from the LORD-and yet not of the LORD; for that which proceeded from Him made one with Him only by being; in accord with Him, just as one's sphere is from that one, but is no longer of that one. (D. L. W. 294.) As this creative sphere made successively new forms, these became more and more inert, heavy, and solid. (Ibid. 305.)
     The Divine Proceeding is the sun of the spiritual world, by means of which were created the spiritual atmospheres and the spiritual world. The atmospheres are the containant of Divine Love, which is heat, and Divine Wisdom, which is light, and are formed of three grades" of minute forms that originated in the sun. These grades are forms of uses, and store up within themselves love and wisdom, heat and light, and bring them into substantial forms in the spiritual world or earth.
     The LORD is a unicum, for He is infinite, and what is infinite is a unicum, since the infinite things it contains are one. (A. C. 10,261.) Hence, that which proceeds from Him, as the Spiritual Sun, is full of indefinated things; and these descend through the atmospheres and form the immeasurable varieties of objects in the spiritual world.
     As creation proceeded from the spiritual Sun as a centre, all below represents an expanse from that centre, and not vice versa, as is usually taught. " And as every particle partakes of the qualities of the whole, every particle of the universe possesses an activity, or an endeavor to activity, called a conatus, operating from its centre peripherally. Inmost in a particle is life from the sun; next, activity derived from the sun into the tiny but agile forms obtained from the highest atmosphere; next, force transferred to inherent forms from the second atmosphere; then, power from the lowest atmosphere, common air, and, finally, weight, angularity, inertia, etc., from matter drawn from the earth itself.
     If, now, we transfer our study to the natural world especially, and remember that it is associated with the spiritual by correspondences, and that correspondences represent a contiguity from the spiritual sun down to spiritual ultimates, which ultimates he collated in our earth and actually formed our earth; and, further, that the natural world is maintained in integrity by this in- lying spiritual, and by a contiguity of substances from the natural sun to the solid earth-we shall be able to understand how the universe was created and how it is sustained.
     The natural sun was made by the spiritual sun, and is the receptacle of the latter (T. C. R. 360, 76), drawing thence its life; of itself it is pure fire and is dead. (Ibid. 472.) The natural atmospheres, aura, ether, and air, were derived from the natural sun, and contain in order the three spiritual atmospheres, which latter give to the former their form, their activity, and their power. "And the earth, composed of matter, owes its activity to the spiritual sun and atmospheres, which, through the natural, are in the earth as in a receptacle; the earth is the sheath or body of the spiritual world,"(T. C. R. 695),- and all matter is derived from spiritual substance. (T. C. R. 280.)
     As all that proceeds from the LORD is in the human form, creation, viewed as to uses instead of form, is an image of man (D. L. W. 322); hence the sun is not a ball of fire, the atmospheres are not composed of inert atoms, and the motions of the earth, as well as the forms of life on its surface, are not mere mechanical and chemical effects. They are efforts of an inherent life, which is spiritual and which in uses corresponds to the functions of man. This grand truth, that lifts man out of groveling materialism into the contemplation of creation as the living work of a living God, is wholly absent from modern scientific inquiry or is so obscured as to be indiscernible and ineffective in preventing the prevalent atheism.
     Geologists talk of the mighty upheavings of the earth as the work of chemical changes and the mechanical effects of floods; physicists treat learnedly of the attraction of gravity and make common air a transparent pile of dust, embosomed in a jelly-like ether; chemists talk of atoms and molecules, of catalysis, nascent state, and affinities; but all neglect the innate life, which gives them and their subjects existence, or else they declare that life to be an inherent property of matter, thus violently severing it from the only One who is life.
     Swedenborg, on the contrary, makes everything quick with life; everything moves and breathes, obeying its innate use, which is its soul. The sun sends down heat and light; they marry with the earth, and vegetation springs up (T. C. R. 308); he flows with his essence into trees and plants, vivifying them and opening their inmost recesses to the reception of spiritual influx (364). And that they may grow and bear seed, and that their seed may in turn mature, juices, like so many types of blood, are drawn forth from the earth, a grosser juice for the trunk, branches, and leaves, a purer for the fleshy parts of the fruit, and the purest for the seeds. (S. S. 66.)

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Then the seeds, falling in the earth, receive from mould an exhalation that insinuates itself into their inmost parts and makes them germinate. (T. C. R. 785.) This emanation or exhalation exhibits the life of the mineral world; everything expands and contracts, taking in what it needs, and pouring out an effluvium that goes forth to perform some use; so the very ground lives. Even minerals are fed; they draw their respective elements from subterraneous exhalations. (S. S. 66.)
     Can one look on the panorama of nature as Swedenborg displays it, and see life in the cooing of the dove, in the roar of the lion, in the gentle play of the zephyrs, in the tornado and the earthquake, in the hard crust of the earth itself; and then turn back to his books and complacently read the cold science of the day?
     We have asserted that the rejection of the doctrine of degrees is one of the causes of scientific errors. Let us see how this applies to some of the truths quoted from Swedenborg. We stated above that there are three sorts of juices in a tree. Does science recognize this? No more than it admits three kinds of blood in man, three atmospheres in the world, and three forms of matter in everything. And yet this doctrine lies at the foundation of animal, vegetable, and mineral formation- ye, more, degrees of matter are a requisite for the transporting of heat and light from the sun, for the existence of gravity and for the integrity of the globe itself. Think of it, New Churchmen sit serenely scanning the pages of a work on physics that ignores the very essentials of existence!
     Without three auras, the sun's heat would consume us and there could be "no light" or the earth. Without auras there could be no magnetic force to affect the ethereal, no ethereal to affect the aerial, and no combination of power to press the earth uniformly, and keep its parts in situ and in equilibrio, and produce what we call gravity. (See Regnum Animale, pars iv.) Common air holds the exteriors of bodies in form, and ether their interiors. Ether impels the earth in its rotation (T. C. R. 30), bears common air as upon wings, enabling it to vibrate and to penetrate the solids of the earth. Ether gives to water its capacity to vaporize and turn into steam, imparts to minerals and vegetables their power to expand and contract (T. C. R. 499), to undergo chemical changes, to dissolve and to re-form; and ether derives its power from the higher aura, this from the sun, and the sun from the LORD. If all things were of one degree, these mighty effects could never take place; or if they could, every noonday sun would be a consuming fire, and every effort at mundane activity a direful earthquake.
      If we have succeeded in demonstrating from Swedenborg that it is not presumptuous to question the science of the day, let us consider how we may begin the difficult but necessary task of reformation.
     If we would keep our children in the Church, we must not permit them to learn from the text-books commonly used in schools and colleges. Under an appearance of sound teaching lurks an insidious foe, that will slowly and surely undermine home instruction and carry its victims hopelessly away from us. Especially pernicious is the boarding-school or education abroad, for then children have not even the modifying influence of the home. If circumstances prevent us from entering our young folks in New Church schools, then it is incumbent upon us fathers to point out the fallacies of the books, and to teach how to discriminate between natural facts and arbitrary theories.
     Beginning with the arrangement of animals and plants into classes, and sub classes, we can show the absurdity of including men with the mammalia. We can determine the correspondents of various animals and then classify them, taking into consideration not merely form, but also use. The same suggestions apply equally to botany. It is absurd to include in one order the edible pea and the deadly lathyrus simply because they agree in some particulars.
     Not to do violence to the child's mind, which we would do were we to declare that two plants, the pea and lathyrus, for instance, have nothing in common even though they agree in form, we may resort to an expedient. We may incorporate them under one class-name, but at the same time designate one as possessing a good use, and the other as a perversion of order, possessing an evil use. In all cases, whether we are treating of animals or plants, use, which reveals internal qualities, requires our first consideration, external form our second. (T. C. R. 96.) Thus guided, we may arrange our zoology somewhat after this manner: We consider first the highest classes, quadrupeds. Of these cattle, comprising all laboring animals; are the most important. Members of the flock corresponding to the affection of good of the internal man are first; they are lambs, sheep, kids, goats, etc. Next follows the herd, good in the external-oxen, heifers, steers. Horses, mules, and asses signify such things as- relate to truths.
     These are to be followed by birds, which signify thoughts. Eagles represent the immediate perception of truth; singing-birds, truths obtained from arguments, and magpies, truths received on authority. Doves, from their affection, and birds of exquisite plumage, as the bird of paradise, signify the chaste delights of conjugial.
     Fishes belong next in the order of descent; they signify truths in the natural man. Insects, lower still, signify ignoble qualities, though not necessarily falses. To make any arrangement interesting and instructive, we should strive to fix the uses of the animals or classes of animals by copious references to their habits, for habit displays life, and life is affection extended into use. Habits divide animals into three sorts-good and cleanly, savage and wild, and intermediate. The first sort comprises cattle, many birds, and harmless insects; the second, ferocious beasts, many insects, birds, etc.; the third, lions, eagles, peacocks, bears, serpents, etc.
     Very necessary, too, it is to inform children of the operation of Divine Providence in turning vile animals good uses. For instance, as annoying as are adult mosquitoes, their larvae so purify stagnant water that they render tracts of land inhabitable which otherwise would be fatal to human life. Dragon flies digest hundreds of pestering insects; loathsome toads and tree-frogs dispose of an incalculable number of plant-lice and even of caterpillars. Worms, vile representatives though they be, plow up the land, eat and disgorge tons of earth, and convert dead leaves into food for plants. Spiders, with webs spreading in countless traps upon fields and among bushes and trees, ensnare millions of insects annoying to man. In nature's workshop idleness is never tolerated; everything is created to perform uses, and if the uses are evil, still, they are turned to man's good. All evil creatures serve the grand purpose of affording corresponding ultimates for hellish influxes that else would so infest man as to overwhelm him and make his regeneration all but impossible; they absorb malignities. (D. L. W. 336)
     In contrasting animals and plants, we should call attention to their difference in degree. The souls of both are of spiritual origin, but vegetables, formed, as they are, in and on the earth, are in the ultimates of the spiritual (Ath. Creed 98), and are so nearly void of life that they are said to be only natural forms originating in an endeavor of the natural forces; they are uses, not affections. (Ath. Creed 96, D. L. W. 346.)

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Animals are in accord with the flux of spiritual substances and forces (Ath. Creed 96); therefore they approximate more closely to the human. They move, have affection and sensations, utter cries, procreate their young, etc.; plants possess no locomotive power, have no sensation, and need the mother earth to aid in perpetuating their kind. True, many plants, such as the sensitive plant, the droserae, etc., exhibit something like sensation, and some, as the Venus fly-trap, can digest insects and meat; but these attributes are less general and far less perfect than in animals; they are, comparatively speaking, a feeble effort to display a quality inherent in all creation, from the crudest mineral to man himself-the effort to develop into the human forma, which is from the LORD. It is because of this tendency that plants are nutritious; they strive to germinate into animal forms, and therefore when eaten readily become animalized. (See D. L. W. 310).
     But there is another important lesson to be derived from this tendency. It teaches the progress of creation and the relation between the three natural kingdoms. Minerals endeavor to vegetate (D. L. W. 61); vegetables throw out exhalations, which become insects. (Ibid, 62.) And yet it is not inferable that the mineral grows directly into the vegetable and the latter into the insect; they always preserve their respective degrees; but when the mineral world is so ripe that vegetable forms can subsist, their spiritual cause, pre-existing as an endeavor, now comes into activity and shapes the willing matter in to forms of a higher plane. And when the vegetable world is ripe and animal forms can subsist, the spiritual forms of the latter come into activity, utilizing the odorous emanations, that correspond to the affections of which animals are forms.
     It must be remembered, further, that this co-association of two or more of the kingdoms of nature does not destroy the respective tendencies of the combining forms; the mineral still possesses the effort to vegetate, and the vegetable to animalize. There still exists the "ultimate principle derived from the Divine in created things" (D. L. W. 61), but now in the presence of a nobler manifestation in a higher kingdom the lower subordinate themselves and thus serve as corresponding uses on their several planes. Man combines all degrees but he could not if the minerals and vegetables he eats did not consent and co-operate in the construction of his form; hence the reason why he appropriates from food eaten only such ingredients as correspond to his affections; and things that correspond are conjoined, the lower carrying out more ultimately the purposes of the higher.
     From this lesson we alto learn how to solve the vexed problem of scientists concerning evolution. Darwin unifies the souls of plants and animals by deriving the latter from the former by continuous development; Swedenborg separates them. Darwin denies spontaneous generation; Swedenborg advocates it, though admitting that all things come from seeds. (D. L. W. 312.) We infer that in spontaneous generation something like a germinative principle, "seed created" (A. E. 1211), precedes.
     We learn likewise from this useful lesson what Swedenborg means when he says, in the Worship and Love of God, that animals and maim were derived from plants. An interesting confirmation of this method of growth is the case of a little substance with the imposing name, Chlamidomyxis Labyrinthuloides. It consists of one cell, lives like a plant in the leaf of the Sphagnum, until, finally, growing rapidly, it bursts its confines and comes forth as an animal. (See Carpenter's The Microscope and its Revelations.)
     We think, too, that this same lesson helps us to understand what Swedenborg means by saying that corals in the bottom of the sea endeavor to vegetate. (D. L. W. 61, A. E. 1208.) Exception is taken by some to this, because corals are now known to be animals. But this fact granted, we still have the truth that the secretion from the polyps is mineral, and who will deny that the budding of the coral, its growth into arborescent forms, and its readiness to grow from graftings, so like vegetables, is not an endeavor in the mineral, guided by the instincts of the animals themselves?
     But to see clearly the marvels of nature we must admit that there are three degrees. The knowledge of degrees is, as it were, the key to open the causes of things and to enter into them; without it scarcely anything of cause can be known, for without it objects and subjects of both worlds appear so general as to seem to have nothing in them but what is seen with the eye. Interior things which lie hid, can by no means be discovered unless degrees are understood those who do not conceive the creation of the universe by continual mediations from the first, cannot but build unconnected hypotheses, disjointed from their causes, which, when examined by a mind that looks interiorly into things, appear, not like houses, but like heaps of rubbish. (D. L. W. 184, 303.)
     Botany requires the same reconstruction that zoology does. Use and habit are the guides. The perfect vegetables are fruit trees, the less perfect are vines and shrubs, and the imperfect are grasses. (D. L. W. 346.)
     Vegetation supplies shelter, fragrance, and ornamentation. Sometimes a highly poisonous plant or tree furnishes nourishing food. Tapioca comes from the noxious Jatropha manihot, the poison being readily separated from the starch; potatoes, tomatoes, and egg-plants grow from plants full of deadly solanine.
     As vegetables and animals correspond to qualities in man, they are markedly influenced by man's state; they are modified by domestication and they become more or less impressed by his sphere as well as by his mental powers. These are facts that the student should consider in investigating, as Darwin has, the effects of climate, hybridism, domestication, etc.; for not only do physical changes affect organic forms, but also do man's psychical changes. Aconite loses its toxic properties when grown in frigid regions, and, raised in the narrow side-streets of a European town, its tops are eaten with impunity. A horse is so impressed by one driver that he will trot rapidly with him and fall at once into a lazy walk when the reins are handed to the other. Rev. W. H. Benade in his little book on animals relates an instance of some cavalry horses, which, obeying the bugle-call, broke their halters and formed themselves into two opposing rows, as if arrayed for battle. The astonished bugler, desiring to see what would he the result, sounded the charge, when the fierce steeds, imbued with the warlike spirits of their masters, engaged in dreadful combat and many were killed before they could he separated,
     Further, we must correct the common teaching concerning the sexuality of plants. They are all masculine in relation to the earth as feminine; the apparent distinction into male and female parts is true only so far as these two principles belong to the male and represent that union which results in the formation of the masculine seed.


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     Again, the accepted physiology of plants is as defective as that of man. This will be evident when we come to review human physiology. Meanwhile we suggest a careful study of the c6rrespondences of bark, leaves, fruits, etc., as given in the Writings.
     Evolution, in one modification or another, has permeated both botany and zoology. Our only safety lies in its refutation by the doctrine of degrees. If we succeed in convincing our children, they will find that nearly three-fourths of recent literature in natural history is merely an accumulation of interesting facts, more or less absolute according as they are unbiased observations or conclusions from preconceived theories.
     If the study is physics and chemistry, we must acquaint ourselves with the numerous facts presented in the Writings and with the theories inculcated in the Principia. When both agree, we can speak confidently of the new truths to be substituted for the errors of the text-books. When they do not agree, we must employ knowledges from the Writings alone. Thus views physics presents scarcely a principle that does not need modification. It asserts that the sun contains in a vaporized form, hydrogen, magnesium, calcium, sodium, iron, manganese, nickel, barium, strontium, etc.; whereas the truth is these are all mundane. The sun is composed of substances the activity of which is pure fire. (T. C. R.)
     It is declared that the moon has neither water nor atmosphere (though this is recently denied by some experimenters). Swedenborg describes the lunar climate and asserts that the moon is inhabited.
     Heat, light, and electricity are described as modes of motion and are said to be interconvertible. Swedenborg says that heat and light are as separable as are good and truth. They are not creatable (Ath. Creed.) Concerning their manifestation, heat is the expansion of ether from its central motion, and thus represents good, or the esse. Light is motion diffused from a given centre through a contiguous medium or volume of particles of ether, for ether is then reflected from everything it touches, and thus an idea of the object is presented to the eye; so light, like truth, exists without man. (See Principia, and also A. E. 726., II.) Electricity is the tremulation of ether by friction of a hard body. It comes through particles too small to affect common air These particles are the magnetic effluvia. Heat and light per se must be substance; if otherwise, there is no natural equivalent of spiritual heat and light, which are substance and form. See D. L. W. 299, in which the atmospheres are described as containants of heat and light, and also No. 174, in which it is asserted that the atmospheres receive and store up fire and bring it to earth.
     The sun's ray, it is believed, is composed of seven or more colors, three of which, red, blue, and yellow, are irreducible and are called primary. Swedenborg, both in his philosophical and in his theological works, insists that colors are variegations of light and shade, and that they are reducible to two, red and white. These upon a dark ground combine to form all possible varieties. In this important discrepancy between new and old science, there can be no doubt that Swedenborg is right. As if to give unusual emphasis to the subject, he relates a conversation with Newton, in which the latter finally admits that his former views on color were wrong, and then occur these remarkable words: "These are the words of Newton himself; which he wishes that I should communicate." (S. D. 6064, and S. D. Part vii, p. 85.)
     Swedenborg grants that the centre of gravity is the common centre of our earth (A. E 159), but he teaches that this is a force derived from the sun, and is not a "pulling" earthward. Newton himself; commenting on the nature of his discovery, stated that he knew not whether the force was a pressing down or a pulling. (See Chambers Encyclopaedia.) In Regnum Animale, pars quarta, p. 146, we read that the principle of gravity is primarily in the highest aura, and that it is derived thence into inferior auras, becoming the heavy inertia we call gravity in the earth itself; and in D. L. W. 310 it is stated that in earths there is an endeavor to produce uses because their "substances and matters are the ends and terminations of the atmospheres which proceed as uses from the spiritual sun; and as the substances and matters of which earths consist are from that origin, and their masses are held in connection by the circumpressure of the atmospheres, it follows that they have thence a perpetual endeavor to produce forms of uses." And again, in Regnum Animale: "Gravity increases according to the degree, and arises from those things which are the least heavy, or from the pure forces" (p. 146).
     If our children are taught that matter can be reduced to indestructible atoms, we must correct the pernicious error by referring to the doctrine of the Church: it is a fallacy of the merely natural sense that there are simple substances such as atoms.. (A. C. 5084, IV.) . . . It is asserted that a substance so simple exists, that it is not a form from lesser forms . . . . such do not exist . . . that all that there are innumerable things in the first created substances, which are the least and most simple will be seen when forms are treated of. (D. L. W. 229.) The false theory of atoms is one of the most dangerous of the fallacies of physics, for it leads to the reduction of matter to nothing, and thence to atheism, instead of to the truth that "everything divided is more and more manifold," because it "approaches nearer and nearer to the infinite." (A. R. 329.)
     If the subject taught is geology, the child should be defended against the many wild speculations that characterize this fickle branch of study. Many indeed are the beautiful and wonderful facts of geology, as, for example, the evidences of volcanic disturbances and of earthquakes; the marks of seas where now are towering mountains and fertile valleys; the varied composition of rocks, telling a history of bygone plants, gigantic ferns and trees, and extinct animal forms; the terrible effects of floods and the dissolving influences of fire. Interesting, too, is it to read of the dipping of rocks, their faulty joints, their "cutters" and "backs." known to every worker in quarries, and known to be veins, as it were, through which water, like blood, can circulate, penetrate into the earth's depths, be converted into vapor, and then pass upward again to aid in the mighty transformation of the huge body of earth. But that these changes and activities are merely chemical and mechanical, without a Divine Guide, is absurd. That clay was 'deposited from the tail of a striking comet, which spread fire and ruin over the earth, killing all living beings except the few who escaped into caves, as Donnelly teaches in his Ragnarok, seems too ridiculous to find credence; yet the book has reached its sixth thousand.
     When we know that there have existed three churches before the Christian, and that man must have peopled the earth thousands of years before the time of Moses, should we not take the evidences of modern inquiry with more than "a grain of salt"?
     Some very interesting and instructive geological facts are supplied by Swedenborg; as that minerals are protected (C. L. 389); that salt came from water (see Chemistry and also A. C. 9207); that the centre of the earth is composed of "fourth finites," which, unfolding as they come to the surface, form the "fifth finites" (oxygen).

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It is probable, too, that Swedenborg is correct in presuming that a universal flood occurred under the action of which mountains were formed and the earth assumed its present shape.
     The many falsities of science, some of which we have pointed out, will gradually give way before the solid advances of the New Church; to hasten the work we must add our mite, remembering that unless we do the Church cannot be fully established. We dare not sit passively waiting for the future to do what we are neglecting; for in the degradation of science there are not only falses, but there is also an insidious tendency to materialism and to atheism.     Fortunate is the child who has remains and who can be kept in a state of innocence during his minority; he may not see, the trend of his studies, and with the dawn of rationality may come the promise of a brighter day. Still more fortunate is the child who is reared under the protection, of the Church in her own schools or under the care of a private tutor.
MIXED MARRIAGES 1883

MIXED MARRIAGES              1883

     NEARLY two years ago we published a sermon on marriage by the late Rev. R. DeCharms. A prominent feature of this sermon was the forcible presentation of the doctrine that marriage must be contracted on a religious basis, that it is a religious institution, and can rightfully take place only between those of the same religion. The following extract from the Autobiography of the Rev. David Powell shows the belief in regard to this matter of another of another of the ministers who were most prominent in the Church fifty years ago:
     "I always abhorred the principle and the practice of contracting marriage for money; and when I have heard persons, as is often done, alluding to dunes as a consideration in such matters, it has only aroused a feeling of disgust. In this particular I acted according to my professed conviction of right, however much I may have erred in other matters of equal importance I now allude to the fact that the young lady now my wife was brought up in the strictest sect of Calvinism, a Seceder. She, however, was not a member, and at the time of our marriage was quite skeptical as to the truth of her parents' religion or the Church of her birth.
     "But the Church doctrine of marriage of persons of different religions is so important that I feel constrained to introduce an extract here from the Arcana Coelestia. The case herein is this: They who are born within the Church, and from infancy have been imbued with the principles of the truth of the Church, ought not to enter into marriages with those who are out of the Church, and in consequence have been imbued with such things as are not of the Church. The, reason is, because there is no conjunction between them in the spiritual world; for every one in that world is consociated according to good and the truth thence derived, and since there is no conjunction between such in the spiritual world, neither ought there to be any conjunction on the earth; for marriages, regarded in themselves, are conjunctions of minds (animi) and of minds (mentes), the spiritual life of which (minds) is derived from the truths and goods of life and charity. On this account marriages on earth between those who are of a different religion are also accounted in heaven as heinous, and especially between those who are of the Church with those who are out of the Church." (A. C. 8998.) This doctrine I firmly believe is true and ought to be religiously observed. For Conjugial Love is the crown of all loves, and in the Divine Providence of the LORD is the purest love in the Church, and hence the welfare of the Church will require the strictest attention to be paid in forming the marriage relation.
     "In the case of my first marriage, two general conditions of the Church may be alluded to 1st. There were but very few young people attached to the New Church, and often only, one family residing in a place, and not another 'within' a hundred miles. This early situation of things-much my own-was unfavorable to forming marriages, in the Church. 2d. Among the first receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church the Writings of Swedenborg were scarce, and but few were taught much beyond the most general fundamental doctrines of the Church. But few-as in my case-ever saw the extract given above from the Arcana Coelestia, or were early instructed in its doctrines before entering into marriage, the most important relation of life. Hence marriages often took place contrary to the doctrine of the above extract. But now these conditions are giving way. In the latter particular, it is true, the practice is yet defective enough. It has to be admitted that what true marriage is, is too little taught to the youth of the New Church and too little pressed at home. But it is to be hoped the Church will soon awaken to the importance of this subject. Not intending to write an essay on marriage. I need not dwell on that point here Suffice to say, that in my own case, although I did not act according to the teaching of the extract alluded to, the two conditions above mentioned were the principal cause.
     "It may be well to state as the mention of a fact that for the first six years of our married life my wife manifested no disposition to favor the Doctrines of the New Church. This was a source of heartfelt regret. It was so, no doubt, to both of us, and I know I often felt it keenly. Nothing but mutual forebearance, patience, and a determination to do the best we could enabled us to get along comfortably together. To this I may add that she was a woman of excellent strong mind, well informed for the day, and of most strictly honest and virtuous principles. I endeavored to be governed by the same. But after about six years she began to read the, Writings of Swedenborg with interest. This was to me a most welcome fact. The first favorable opportunity, after reading for sometime, she received the rite of Baptism into the New Church at the hands of Rev. R. DeCharms, and continued an orderly and affectionate member ever after."
COMPROMISE 1883

COMPROMISE              1883

     "BETTER half a loaf than no bread," Very true; but this, like most other maxims, is capable of being misapplied. Compromises and mutual yieldings are well enough in regard to personal preferences and personal advantages; but compromises of principle, of right and wrong, truth and falsity, are quite another thing.
     "Compromise" seems to be the watchword of the day. We find compromises on every side in Church, in State, in business. Two opposite principles of action come clashing together, a conflict seems just at hand, and the spectator already begins to reckon up the loss and to guess which will have the victory, when suddenly all settles into external tranquillity, in a moment the opposing lines vanish, and not a semblance of strife remains. The spell which has quieted all this tumult, the magic word at the sound of which all melted away like a dream, was "compromise." Each side has yielded a part of what it deems right and proper; each his given up half the truth and yielded to what it considers wrong and false; and thus it was that external harmony was restored and external conflict for a time prevented.


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     But what is any external without its internal? what is external quiet and peace, if internal quiet and Peace be lacking? for internal harmony never comes from yielding up the LORD'S truth and giving way to falsity. No good and noble thing comes from an evil source. External peace may come from compromise; but not internal peace. The conflict still rages within, and it will not have to wait long for an opportunity to again break forth much worse than before. People are so apt to seek to cover up unpleasant things, to make the exterior calm and mild; they care little for the interior and the real, and much for the exterior and the form-so that the outside is pleasant; let the inside be what it may!
     Yes, we meet compromises everywhere. The law recognizes the danger of compromise and makes compromise with crime, itself a criminal offense. There are those who hold compromise religious beliefs who, as they say, have a kind of "religious mosaic composed of nice things culled from every sect." There are those in the New Church who compromise with the Old Church. And, again, we have medical compromises-compromises between Homoeopathy and Allopathy; as if there could be any middle ground between "like cures like" and "opposite cures opposite!" Compromise is the keystone of modern polities. Governments are made up of a series of compromises of a series of yieldings to the wrong. It is no wonder that a breath sways them! We have had innumerable political compromises in our own country. For a half a century we compromised with slavery, and each compromise seemed to put the question at rest forever. But we now can see the folly and the cowardice of these compromises. They only served to make the conflict the bitterer when it did at last come."
     Now, compromise means just one of two things either that the combatants are contending about something which neither has at heart, that the conflict is one of words, not of ideas-only external, and not internal; or, as is too often the case; it must mean that they lack confidence in the right, they are afraid to maintain their own convictions. They forget that the truth is the LORD'S and is all-powerful. In the other world the "omnipotence of truth appears to the very eye. All hell cannot stand against a single angel; and will tremble before a little child.
     So much for the world of matter; but there is another world-the world within us-the world of mind. Here, also, compromise finds, its way. How often do we not compromise with sin; we do but half our duty often-times: When a conflict arises between duty and pleasure, instead of fighting it out we far too often resort to compromise-we do half what we ought to do and half what we want to do, or perhaps we do nothing at all.
     If the other side is right, yield squarely and manfully-don't try to take mean advantage as the price of giving away; but if you are in the right, if you are convinced that you have the truth on your side, don't yield an inch!
JUDAS AND PAUL 1883

JUDAS AND PAUL              1883

     IN a previous article, published some time ago, we showed the probability that Judas is in heaven, since in T. C. R. 791 it is stated that on the 19th of June, 1770 the LORD sent His twelve disciples "who followed Him in the world" forth throughout the whole spiritual world; and in n. 4 of the same work we find the expression: "His twelve apostles, now angels."

     There is a number in the Adversaria which makes it still more likely that Judas is now among the angels: "Some are reformed more quickly and some at the moment of death; but then they are such as have been prepared before in a wonderful way which they themselves do not know; otherwise if by the mercy alone of God Messiah, then they undergo infernal torments; as it was related to me about Judas, the traitor, concerning whom, however, there it said to be hope, because he was one of the chosen who were given by Jehovah the Father to God Messiah as God Messiah Himself said." The language of this passage is peculiar and obscure, still we may gather from it that at the time when the Adversaria was written, there was hope with those that spoke with Swedenborg, either that Judas was already in heaven or that he eventually would be saved.
     "Thus Judas, who stole from the money-bag, and who finally betrayed the LORD, is now probably among the blest. But where is Paul?-the saint who is venerated throughout Christendom as one of the wisest, noblest, and best of men, and to whose memory countless cathedrals raise their stately spires? If Judas, the thief; the traitor, is in heaven, where is Paul, that holy man who traveled far and wide preaching the gospel? To this question the Writings give a much clearer answer than in regard to Judas-an answer which must strike those who hear it for the first time with surprise and sorrow-an answer which may serve to impress upon us all the lesson: "Judge not according to the appearance, but judge just judgment." Swedenborg was permitted to see and speak with Paul many times; and surely it was for some wise end that the Writings record so particularly the condition of Paul in the other life.
     We have only space to mention a few of the most striking passages. In S. D. 4321, it is stated that Paul was associated with a certain devil who imagined himself to be the very devil that deceived Adam and Eve. "It was given me then to hear Paul speaking with him and saying that he wished to be his companion and to go together and make themselves gods . . . Moreover, being infested by adulterers while I slept, these two, when they perceived that I was infested, lent aid, and so stubbornly held me in that vile train of thought that I could scarcely release myself."
     In S. D. 4412 we learn that "Paul was among the worst of the apostles, which has been made known to me by much experience . . . He did all things from the end that he might be the greatest in heaven and judge the tribes of Israel. That he afterward remained such appears from very much experience, for I spoke with him more than with the others; yea, he is such that the other apostles in the other life rejected him from their company, and no longer will recognize him as one of themselves."
     In S. D. 4631 (Minus) it is said that Paul wished to be the introducer to heaven, and desired that the LORD should receive those whom he might introduce. "He said that he wished to take this (office) from Peter, . . . because he (Paul) had labored more; Paul is altogether turned against Peter."
     Here truly is something for us to think about: Judas in heaven, Paul associating with a devil! The sinner is saved! the saint is lost!
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Urbana University has in all sixty-nine pupils, of whom ten are in the kindergarten, thirty-three are in the girls and young ladies' departments and twenty-six in the college. The University seems to be prospering.


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WORDS 1883

WORDS              1883

     WE are much more under the bondage of words than is generally supposed. People often agree in words when they differ in thought, and, on the other hand, the same thought is sometimes expressed in almost opposite terms. Thus, for example, New Churchmen have found apparent ground for encouragement in the world about them simply because some of the old doctrines appear in a new wording. They have attended the worship of the Old Church and have come home declaring that "they have heard a real New Church sermon," but the fact of the case is, they have put their own ideas into the words of the sermon and what was rank falsity to the minister was truth to them. This fact is treated of in the Apocalypse Explained 810, where it is said: "If two persons disagree they make use of similar expressions; but still the perception is dissimilar. And it is the perception of a thing that en uses it to be true or false. I have heard lovers of falsities speak altogether in a like manner with those who were studious to speak truths, and still one was in truth and the other in falsity. For the things which both expressed in similar language they understood dissimilarly; and according to their understanding they explained passages from the Word."
     Men often discuss for hours about some point of doctrine in regard to which they hold very different views, and finally come to a verbal agreement. Each supposes that the previous controversy arose merely from a mutual misunderstanding of terms, but the fact of the case is that the agreement is a misunderstanding. They have agreed on a certain set of words, and that is all; the same, words express a totally different idea to each.
     A gentleman once said in my hearing: "Put the doctrine of the Authority of the Writings of Swedenborg just as strongly as you like; heap up all the adjectives you can, and I will agree to it." And yet this gentleman was very far from having any true belief in the Authority of the Writings; the Doctrines had no bitterer enemy. His assertion amounted just to this: that it is exceedingly difficult to frame a statement which shall express this doctrine so strongly and exclusively that it cannot be explained away.
     The Council of Nice sat for many weeks trying to devise a formula of words susceptible of but one interpretation. The Nicene Fathers wanted to state the Trinitarian doctrine in such a way that Arius, who rejected the "Trinity from the beginning," could not consistently sign it. Creed after creed was drawn up and presented, but Arius and his followers were willing to sign them all. At length a statement was found which proved to be exclusive; but the whole difference, between the Nicen- Creed and the creed of Arius consisted in a single letter, and that letter was the smallest in the Greek alphabet,
     That exclusive term which the Fathers had so much difficulty in, finding was homoousion, but if this was changed to homoiousion it expressed the belief of Arius precisely. So after that the controversy between the followers of Athanasius and those of Arius seemed on the surface to be merely a quibble about a single little letter. That apparently insignificant iota rent Christendom in twain. And yet it was no quibble; two false things could hardly be more different than these two religious systems, separated externally by a single letter.
     And so, even now, controversies arise about apparently trivial matters, about single words, single letters, sometimes-controversies which seem mere verbal quibbles to the superficial; yet the difference between truth and falsity, heaven and hell, may lie concealed in that single word or letter.
CONFIRMATIONS OF DOCTRINE 1883

CONFIRMATIONS OF DOCTRINE              1883

     IT is remarkable that New Churchmen will be blind to the teaching of the Doctrines concerning the state of the Christian world when yet the Old Church itself confirms the teaching. Two such confirmations have lately appeared. The Protestant religion testifies to the disintegration as to truth, and the Roman Catholic religion bears witness to the degeneration as to good. In the Convention of Protestant Episcopalians, recently held in the city of Philadelphia, Bishop Clark, of Rhode Island, in his opening address, said:
     "We hear a great deal in various quarters of new departures in theology; old creeds are revised and modified and explained away-sometimes they are wiped out altogether; multitudes of men are adrift and blown about with every wind of doctrine, and some have ceased to believe in anything. . . . It is a most noticeable fact that in those quarters where the most rigid and elaborate forms of doctrine were once enforced, as in the city of Geneva and in other parts of Europe, there prevails at the present time the most radical and ruthless unbelief in everything supernatural."
     And the Roman Catholic Bishop Watterson, of Columbus, in his Pastoral Letter asks:
     "Why is it that our literature is growing more infidel in tone, the press more sensational, the popular views of marriage more profane and sensuous, and the social relations more licentious, the idea of a future life more vague, and sentimentalism, emotionalism, humanitarianism, and naturalism becoming the ruling isms of the day? Why is it that divorce, adultery, fornication, feticide, and infanticide are so frequent? With all our advantage ages of secular education, infidelity, materialism, indifferentism, irreligion, and immorality are on the increase."
     He says it is "because, as a rule, education and religion do not go hand in hand." Very true, providing one understands the "True Christian Religion," made known by the LORD through Swedenborg, because no good or truth is left in the Christian Church.
USE OF THE REFORMATION 1883

USE OF THE REFORMATION              1883

     ON the 10th of this month Christendom will celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of Luther's birthday. At a time when all minds recall the Reformation begun by the German monk, it is the peculiar privilege of New Churchmen to know from the LORD the reason for the Reformation and the good accomplished. It did not uproot the faith in three Gods. It did not restore the doctrine taught by the LORD. In the room of a doctrine inculcating the doing of meritorious works of charity, it established the equally false doctrine of faith alone. But with the Reformation some light gleamed out into the darkness of spiritual night that had settled over Christendom from the time of the Nicene Council. This light arose from the restored Word. "It is provided by the LORD that there should always be on earth a Church where the Word is read, and by it the LORD may become known. Wherefore when the Word was almost rejected by the Papists, by the Divine mercy of, the LORD the Reformation took place; and thence the Word was drawn, as it were, from its concealment and sent into use."- T. C. R. 270.
     "The Reformation came to pass for the sole reason that the Word, which had lain sepulebred, might return into the world. It was in the world for many years but yet entombed by the Roman Catholics, and thence no truth of the Church could become manifest the LORD could not be known, but the Pope was worshiped as God in place of the LORD.

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But "when the Word was drawn out of its sepulchre, the LORD could become known, truth could be drawn thence, and conjunction given with heaven."-Inv. 24.
     But all too soon were these privileges abused and the light of the Word turned into darkness by falsifications, until now the Word is again rejected by all Catholics and Protestants and a New Church is established where the "Word" may be read by the light of its Spiritual Sense, and the LORD made known as being that Spiritual Sense in the Word.
GEORGE MACDONALD 1883

GEORGE MACDONALD              1883

     THERE is a certain class of novels concerning the value of which New Churchmen differ. I refer, to those novels which give evidence that the author, though not a member of the New Church, has read the Writings. The most powerful writer of this class is George Macdonald, who is considered by many as "almost a New Churchman." It is, evident from the works of this author that he has read the Writings of the Church and rejected them as a Divine Revelation; but, admiring many of the truths there formed, has adopted them as his own, and mixing them with his own notions, has used them as brilliant ornaments for his own philosophy. That this philosophy is mere falsity is evident from the fact that it has not as a foundation a true acknowledgment of the LORD. There is not given with man a single truth-spiritual, rational, or even sensual-that does not depend upon his acknowledgment of the LORD. If then a man has a false idea of the LORD, he has not a single truth. Every stream flowing from an impure fountain is defiled and the Water of Life mixed with it cannot cleanse it, but becomes itself defiled.
     Many New Churchmen think that truths from the Writings sent out into the world, no matter in what connection, will do service, will help to lead some one to heaven. When they read Malcolm they think that a simple good man will, be charmed and benefited by the teachings of the book in regard to the wisdom and love of God, salvation by life, not faith, the Divine Providence, and a few minor points. Probably a man in simple good would be charmed by the book, and it would prove a temptation and a snare to him, for these beautiful truths which would appeal so to his love of good and truth are unfortunately so mixed with falsities and notions that only a man intelligent in the Church can distinguish between the small amount of wheat and the much chaff.
     A man ignorant of the pure doctrine of the LORD would probably find the idea of God presented in this book very seductive, for although Macdonald teaches distinctly two Gods, God, the Father, and His Son, "our Elder Brother," he clothes his abominable doctrine in words so gracious and beautiful as to make it very attractive. The one phrase, "our Elder Brother," is enough to condemn a man as a religious teacher. It entirely excludes the idea of the Divinity of the LORD, and if a man denies the Divinity of the LORD, all the other truths in the universe cannot save him, and to him they are not truths, because not acknowledged as coming from the LORD, the source of all truth.
     There are many New Churchmen who think that if an author desires to aid the regeneration of his readers it is of more consequence that he should incite them to lead unselfish, pious lives, than that he should give them fundamental truths of doctrine. What man would build a beautiful palace on a quicksand? A man cannot attain to good of life until he has put away his evils as sins against the LORD, and this can be done only by means of truths.
     These novels then set forth the religion of their author, a religion which is the creation of man's self-derived intelligence, ornamented with truths stolen from the LORD'S Church. Evidently they cannot be instruments for spreading the true Christian religion, and they are dangerous to a man just in proportion to his ignorance of the Church.
"KEY" TO THE SACRED SCRIPTURES 1883

"KEY" TO THE SACRED SCRIPTURES              1883

     WE have received a prospectus issued by the Swedenborg Publishing Association, which announces the publication in the immediate future of a work on "The Science of Correspondences, the Key to the Heavenly and True Meaning of the Sacred Scriptures." The table of contents published in the prospectus promises a rich and interesting treatise on the "Science of Sciences." But the title is faulty. We are not aware of a single statement in the Writings warranting us in, calling the Science of Correspondences a "key" to, the heavenly secrets of the Word. True, it is often-almost universally-called so in the New Church, but from a mistaken view of this chief of sciences. People repose with great assurance on the thought that, with the "Dictionary(!) of Correspondences" at hand, they can "unlock" the casket that contains the priceless jewels of the Divine Truth, and that they can "translate" the literal sense into the true internal sense, as they would English into Latin. The thing cannot be done, and if attempted will bring the person great Injury.
     The Science of Correspondences is no such "key." The internal sense indeed furnishes us with a key. (A. C. 6415.) "By means of the internal sense as with a key are opened the Divine truths as they are in heaven, thus Heaven and the LORD Himself; who is the all in all of the Word in its inmost sense." (A. C. 8988.) But Swedenborg himself warns us against the error which at present is all too common in the New Church, of accepting the Science of Correspondences as such "key." For he says: "It may be supposed that the doctrine of genuine truth might be obtained by the spiritual sense of the Word, which is given by the Science of Correspondences. But doctrine is not obtained by this, but is only illustrated and corroborated; for, as was before said, n. 208, a man, by some correspondences which are known, may falsify the Word by conjoining and applying them to confirm that which is fixed in his mind from a principle which he has imbibed."- T. C. R. 230,
     Let us not put forth to the world a falsity, even though through usage and confirmation it has assumed the semblance of truth and has been accepted as such by many.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Massachusetts Association held its semi-annual meeting, October 11th, in Salem. The Constitution and By-laws, which were referred back to the Committee at the last session of the Association, were adopted as offered without change or discussion. The Massachusetts New Church Union reported increased activity. "The recent newspaper criticisms on Swedenborg have produced a decided demand for the work on Conjugial Love, several of the clergymen of these churches having purchased the book, or taken it from our circulating library. We have taken occasion to request such persons to read: the whole book carefully from beginning to end before passing judgment upon it. One, a Methodist, on returning it, remarked that he found no sentiment in it which he could not indorse."


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Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. I. M. See, in, a letter to the Brooklyn Eagle, says: "Some years since, while I was pastor of the Wickliffe Presbyterian Church, of Newark, N. .J., the Rev. J. W. White, who was last week deposed from the Christian ministry by his Presbytery . . . advised me to read the Writings of Swedenborg. To my very great profit, I did so. It was not long before I was very thankful to Mr. White for his advice."
TORONTO, CANADA 1883

TORONTO, CANADA              1883



CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     -On the last Sunday in August, the Rev. E. D. Daniels, pastor of Toronto Society, preached an annual sermon, in which, after reviewing the work he had tried to do, and saying that no one but the LORD knew the real results, he gave the following as to external results: "The congregations have averaged one hundred on Sunday mornings, and a little over that on Sunday evenings. Some new comers of intelligence and worth have come among us, who will, some of them soon, be baptized into the Church. There have been one marriage, and five funerals besides that of Mrs. Tuerk, at Berlin. Twenty-six have been baptized into the Church-sixteen children and ten adults. Of these, ten were baptized by Mr. Tuerk-eight children and two adults; two were baptized by Mr. Bowers-both children; and fourteen by myself-six children and eight adults. One person has left the Society-which, Society, with us here, is a different and more restricted thing than the Church proper-three have made application to join it, and their applications are now pending, and others will do so soon." Mr. Daniels reported the Sunday-school, Young People's Association, etc. as well attended and performing a good use. He makes much account of training the young.
SWEDEN 1883

SWEDEN              1883

     - The Rev. Mr. Boyesen continues his zealous work for the Church in Sweden. At present he is engaged in translating the True Christian Religion into Swedish. Besides this, he has his regular pastoral duties in Stockholm and acts as missionary all over the country, and sometimes visits Denmark. Wherever he goes he is received with interest. The press usually gives favorable reports of his work. In Gotenberg (the city of which Swedenborg speaks so highly in S. D. 5036) the interest seems to be increasing rapidly. A Society is about to be formed. Mr. Hanson, editor of a short-hand journal, is stenographing Mr. Boyesen's sermons and is much interested in the Church. Mr. Boyesen asked the English Conference at its last session for aid to enable the Society in Stockholm to build a temple. The Conference resolved to try to assist them. If this temple can be built, it will be a great step forward for the Church in Sweden. The Stockholm Society has received a contribution of 53K from the Society in Gardner, Maine, and it is to be hoped that contributions from other Societies will follow.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE REV. GEORGE FIELD has removed from Detroit to Orange Park, Clay County, Florida.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     NATHANIEL S. SIMKINS, of New York, departed this life October 18th, in the fiftieth year of his age.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE St. Louis English Society resumed services on Sunday, September 16th, under the ministration of Rev. S. C. Eby. The Sunday-school was opened September 30th.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     HENRY GRAEBEE, a prominent New Churchman of Polk County, Iowa, recently passed into the Spiritual World.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New York Sabbath-school Conference met in New York city October 20th, at 2 P. M. The attendance was small.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New Church Society in San Diego, Cal., has become incorporated under the laws of the State of California. The corporation is to exist for fifty years.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE work on the reprint of the Apocalypsis Explicata is going steadily forward. The inestimable enlarged index is stereotyped as far as and including Bonum.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. DR. HIBBARD has removed from Detroit to Philadelphia, and is engaged in developing certain of the uses of the Academy of the New Church. His address is No. 2040 Cherry Street.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Australian Conference wishes to establish a library, and has appealed to the Church in England and America for donations of original editions and photolithographic MSS. of Swedenborg.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     HENRY I. SCHMITT, a New Churchman of Buffalo, West Virginia, connected with the General Church of Pennsylvania, recently passed into the Spiritual World. He was a firm believer in the Divine Authority of the Writings.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Swedenborg Publishing Association are about to publish a pamphlet, for gratuitous distribution, containing a history of the case of the Rev. Mr. White, written by himself. Contributions in aid of the enterprise are solicited.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     PROFESSOR YON HJALTALIN, rector of the university in Reiykerawik, Iceland, is translating into Icelandic The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine. The same famous scientist some years ago also translated Divine Love and Wisdom.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE New Church Lecture Bureau of Boston has issued a new and revised edition of Heaven and Hell, which it sells at the remarkably low price of ten cents a copy, or fifteen cents, including postage. An edition of ten thousand copies is already exhausted. The translation is the work of Mr. Benjamin Worcester.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Scandinavisk Nykyrktydning, the Swedish New Church monthly, has made some changes in its editorial board, Mr. Boyesen now being sole editor. Its former editor-in-chief is said to have removed to this country; where he will be engaged in translating into Swedish the more extensive works of Swedenborg.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN Denver, Colorado, worship was resumed September 2d. The Sunday-school consists of three classes, two of which are taught according to the Kindergarten system. The Rev. R. De Charms also conducts a doctrinal class, which meets in his study every Tuesday evening. The subject at present under consideration is "The Four Churches," after which the doctrine of the Sacred Scripture will be studied. The Social Club held its first meeting on. October 5th. The Ladies' Aid Society will probably hold another fair this fall.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



179



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

BOARD OF EDITORS:

CHARLES P. STUART
General Editor
E. P. ANSHUTZ.
Managing Editor,
ANDREW CZERNY,
E. J. E. SCHRECK.

TERMS-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

All communications must be addressed to the Business Manager.
E. P. ANSHUTZ,
No. 1802 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia. Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER, 1883.
     THE NEW CHURCH LIFE does not tell us why Paul is remanded to hell-whether on account of his devotion to morality and religion, or because he did not believe in Swedenborg. Which?" Christian Register.
     Neither. He went to hell because he preferred it to heaven.     
     IT will be remembered that the Centenary of the external New Church occurs this month. Although the General Church of England held the Centenary Meeting during their session, still the actual date of the meeting of Hindmarsh and his fellow New Churchmen was December 5th, a hundred years ago. The reader of Hindmarsh's Rise and Progress, cannot fail to see the directing hand of Providence in every single step of the early Church, and the story of its beginning is of interest even to the children.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN the report of a lecture recently delivered before the Peter Street Manchester, England, Society, by the "Rev. W. J. Woods, B. A., a well-known Congregationalist minister, on Some Old Wives' Fables," occurs the following:
"Among the Kickapoo Indians there was a legend to the effect that in ancient times man was furnished with a beautiful, long-haired tail, but on account of man's wrong doing not only were their tails cut off, but were turned into women. The lecturer said that woman was still found following, hanging lovingly about the heels of man." This, we suppose, must have been intended to be humorous, but we trust it is not a fair specimen of British wit.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Rev. J. F. Potts, Glasgow, in a lecture on "The going forth of the pale horse," says "Unitarianism is the real and the rising faith of modern Christendom. The denial of the Divinity, of LORD JESUS CHRIST, is the secret of faith or no-faith that is rapidly permeating the so-called Christian theology of the present day. Who can read its literature-the writings of its most cultured and advanced men, the books of weight and learning and power-and remain ignorant of this fatal sign of dead Christianity? I do not say that these works contain decided and     open attacks upon the LORD'S Divinity. That is not their characteristic. They are too pale for that." Elsewhere in the same lecture: "Paleness is the color of a corpse, and it is representative of the utter absence of spiritual life."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A WELL-KNOWN lawyer of Philadelphia has been pronounced insane, by a "jury" and by "experts." He conducted his own case, and his defense was that a villainous crew had obtained power over him, and were constantly talking to him, much to his distress. He was uncertain who they were, but said they obtained their power by a discovery in electricity, whereby they were able to exercise complete control of him at times, and to know everything that was in his mind. Doubtless a true history of the case would show that the unfortunate man had been "investigating" Spiritism. If this is the case he is not insane (as the word is generally used), but, if anything, in a worse state, for he is "possessed of a devil." Men laugh at Spiritism and call it trickery, whereas the truth is that it is one of the most malignant and dangerous evils that today beset men.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     OUR duties to the Church and our privileges in the Church are identical. Every duty rightly understood is a privilege. To provide for the support of the Church is a privilege, a blessing accorded to the man of the Church. One grows really rich in the proportion that he gives out; not in the proportion that he receives without giving out. "Give and it shall be given unto you." With exercise of giving the delight of giving increases; and in the same ratio the means increase. Next to the LORD, the Church is our neighbor in the highest degree. Hence it has the highest claim to our charity. Every one has a real delight in contributing his substance to that which gratifies his dominant-love. If the Church be his dominant love-as it ought to be-his greatest delight will be in giving of his substance for the welfare of the Church ha we may look upon as a duty will become a genuine pleasure if we cultivate the habit of devoting a proper portion of what the LORD has blessed us with to the uses of His Kingdom on the earth.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IN an article in The Index headed "Religious Quackery," the writer, J. F. M., takes the New York Sun to task for its many-sided religious views, and asks, "Does he [the editor] fondly imagine that the victorious tide of modern criticism and thought will be stayed by the dogmatic puerilities of that dreamer of strange dreams, that great Christian Buddhist, Swedenborg?"
     The assumption that modern criticism, thought, and life is a victorious tide is not new; it is, in fact, somewhat threadbare, being a sort of common cry of all who are outside of the orthodox Old Church and not in the New. It is the one point, and the only one, on which they all agree, hence it has become rather monotonous. Leaving out of the question the useful inventions or discoveries of mechanics or of students of nature, what truth have men like J. F. M. to offer the world? They trample revealed truth, and call the act "the victorious tide of modern criticism," etc. In return they offer-chaos, a chaos of silly theories, mere froth on the tide of modern falsity.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



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     THE Epistle of James has never been a popular book in the Old Church. From the earliest times there have always been those who rejected it from the canon or had grave doubts as to its authenticity, on the ground that its teaching, is contrary to the Pauline doctrine of Justification by Faith. We do not wonder that the champions of faith alone are displeased at such teaching as that "man is justified by works and not by faith only;" "for as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Luther at one time became so disgusted with such sentiments, directly opposed, to his pet doctrine, that he called the Epistle of James "a right strawy epistle." In the other world, as most will recall, a certain prelate became so enraged at being confronted with the teaching of James that he snatched his mitre from his head and threw it on the table, saying, "I will not resume it until I have taken vengeance upon the enemies of the faith of our Church," and he shook his head, muttering and saying, "That James! that James!"-(T. C. R. 389.)
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A FRIEND of the New Church advised Mr. White, the heretical Presbyterian, to appeal to the Synod from the decision of the Huntingdon Presbytery. But Mr. White will probably not do so, inasmuch as at the meeting of the Synod the following report of the Committee on the Rev. John W. White's case was received:
     "In the case of Rev. John W. White the Presbytery erred in that, after having carefully and patiently tried and convicted the brother of gross departure from the faith and doctrine of the Church, they permitted him to withdraw from the Presbytery without censure while a motion to suspend him from the ministry was pending. The Presbytery should have inflicted such censure as the grave errors of this pastor demanded, according to the discipline of the Presbyterian Church. In taking this exception, the Synod appreciates the motives which manifestly influenced the members of the Presbyteries in dealing as they did with their co-presbyter and the extreme gentleness and forbearance which they manifested toward him. But their departure from the strict constitutional mode of proceeding must not be accepted as a precedent. The Synod the more contents itself with a single exception in view of the healthy stand for orthodoxy and for adherence to our standards which the Presbytery took in the case, and which is especially commended by the Synod."
APPARENT PROSPERITY OF A DEAD CHURCH 1883

APPARENT PROSPERITY OF A DEAD CHURCH              1883

     THOSE who feel discouraged at the slow growth of the New Church-as shown in the fact that at this, the end of the first century of its existence, there are probably not more than 50,000 New Churchmen in the whole world, ought to remember that increase in numbers is not always in proportion to increase in vigor but sometimes the reverse. Christianity, though an external Church compared with the New Church, increased comparatively slowly as long as it remained in its purity and only advanced rapidly as its vitality departed. When at length it became Christian in name only, at the end of the third century, it attained its external and apparent triumph and banished Paganism from, the court and from the cities to the remotest recesses of the country. But the greatest ostensible growth of Christianity has been since its utter consummation at the Last Judgment in 1757. Since that time the number of Christians has, more than doubled. "Never," says a writer in the North American Renew, "never has Christianity, nominal or real, advanced as during the present century." The number of Evangelical Christians in the United States has risen from 364,000 in 1800 to 10,000,-000, in 1880. But Unitarianism; which is undoubtedly the dominant faith (or lack of faith) of Christendom, and to whose bounds all except "the remnant" are certainly tending, outwardly seems to be gaining comparatively slowly, having increased only 35 per cent, in thirty years, while the orthodox sects have increased 250 per cent. in the same time.
TEACHING 1883

TEACHING              1883

     THE best instructors learn as much as they can from others who have been successful in the work of teaching, but they do not form themselves upon them as models. Nothing is of so much value and importance in a teacher as that individuality of working which enables him to reach the individuality of his scholar. This is conditioned by a strong love for the use, a thorough grounding in true principles, and a sufficiency of knowledge with an aptitude for communication. Methods of instruction are but tools which we must learn to handle, but which must never be allowed to handle us. A master mechanic will produce an elaborate and elegant piece of work with a very limited number of tools, while his apprentice will torment himself and those around him by hunting up all the tools in the shop in order to bungle into existence an unsteady footstool or a cranky table. The one thinks the thoughts, which find vessels in his mind, thus his own thoughts, and carries them out to their resultant effects in his own way, the other relies upon his memory of the thoughts of others and becomes a mere imitator of their modes of imitating them.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     "Love, charity, and compassion do not exist if they be merely an affection (or sentiment), unless there be (also) knowledges of faith, thus an understanding instructed in the knowledges of faith. Without these there is no conscience."- S. D. 8600.
SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES 1883

SUGGESTIONS ON THE REFORMATION OF THE ARTS AND SCIENCES              1883

5.- ART AND SCIENCE AS APPLIED TO MAN.

     IN the four previous articles we hastily reviewed the fine arts and sciences, keeping uppermost in thought their relations to the crowning work of creation, Man. For him was the world made. For him sun, moon, and stars were, called into existence, and the earth was clothed with living forms. From the first activity, of creating points to the construction of the globe itself and to the production thereon of plants and animate creatures, there was but one purpose actuating every particle of the universe-the production of the human form, a type of the Divine Architect.
     The human form is not determinable from the external shape, but from internal qualities. It is a receptacle of good and truth from the LORD, bringing them forth into activity, which is a life of use. Hence, all creation possesses the common attributes of reception, appropriation, rejection of what is useless, and application of the useful in life. The mineral breathes, takes in its food, rejects what is not needed, and exhales its effluvia to fulfill its appointed office. A piece of quartz seems wholly inert and motionless; but a microscopic clipping is seen to be moving in wonderful gyrations, which, if the particles are freed by means of water, moves too, rapidly to be followed with the eye. And the whole earth, in addition to its revolution on its axis and around the sun, heaves its huge sides in mighty efforts at respiration.

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When the barometer marks a change of one degree the land has sunk two or three inches and the water a dozen; when the barometer returns to its former position it marks the return of the earth to its rotundity again.
     Plants take food from air and ground, digest it, reject the useless, appropriate the good, and thus obtain power to perform uses. And so it is with animals.
     So this common attribute, expressing the human, is in all things, and makes Nature a grand theatre, in which are continually displayed man's affections and thoughts in living, ultimate, material forms-forms ever striving to that complete form which is the image and likeness of the Maker, but never reaching their ambitious goal, because lacking the interior, highest degrees that make man truly human by uniting him by means of will and understanding with the LORD to eternity.
     Do we appreciate the sublimity of Nature? Do the artist and the scientist see in nature, as in a mirror, human qualities reflecting man and revealing a First Cause? We think that the evidence presented in former articles compels a negative answer. And now, as we turn to contemplate man and consider the relations of arts and sciences to him, shall we find that he is understood? If natural objects that correspond to him are imperfectly comprehended, is be himself rightly comprehended? A rational conclusion compels the answer, No! and an inquiry into the literature of science confirms such a conclusion.
     Man now presents a picture of disorder. He is disorderly in art, in science, in social life, in civil government, and in religion. Too often the New Churchman, who has not ignorance to plead in excuse, is very loath to come into heavenly order; his task is but begun when I death calls him away. He complies helplessly with I fashion, cultivates unimproved the art of a fallen Church, listens with delight to scientific lectures that are full of fallacies, discards the work on Conjugial Love as improper reading for his family, and as a consequence; fails to appreciate the import of social life and of the - home, and dilutes his religion until, shorn of church-order, it is scarcely distinguishable from that which it is supposed to supersede.
     In describing man the anatomist, aided by delicate chemical reactions and microscopes, is able to reduce the human form to a marvelous disentanglement of exquisitely fine structures. The investigator is at first repelled by the cadaver; then he is interested in viewing tissues after tissues as the dissecting knife is adroitly employed in separating them. A tiny sliver of bone, a minute drop of blood, or a section of one of the organs of the body is mounted on a microscope, and how wonderful are the revelations to the eye! The investigator turns to the physiologist and asks, "Can you put life into these tissues and tell me their use in the human economy?" With a sage expression, the learned professor begins his task. He describes the ingestion of food, gives the chemical composition of the saliva, gastrio juice, bile, pancreatic juice, and intestinal fluid. The blood, with its three sorts of corpuscles-he is up to the times, and so says three instead of two sorts, as formerly believed-he reduces to salt, lime, potash, water, and a few "proximate principles." To the inquirer he condescendingly explains that by the latter he means substances like albumen, which cannot be subdivided without chemical decomposition. Muscular action is the result of a shortening and hardening of the fibres of the muscles. Ideation and volition are effects of changes in the substance of the brain, as proved by the excretion of phosphates after mental exertion. During thought the brain-tissue is consumed and the chemical phosphates are the ashes.*
     Disturbed by the crudeness of the methods described and eager to learn something of the life that makes chemical changes possible, the inquirer asks for the primal cause of the many physiological phenomena. Is there not a soul? "Yes, but we know nothing of that we are concerned with the body, and this is governed wholly by natural laws. You see, every tissue of the body is reducible to little round bodies we call cells. We are sure of this, we can see them under the microscope. Here, for instance, on this stand is a drop of blood see how its tiny cells move; they are alive. Now turn to this microscope, on the stage of which is spread the web of a living frog's hind foot. I prick it with a needle. See how the blood shrinks away, leaving the delicate membrane pale; the blood-vessels have contracted under the irritation of the needle. But now look, see the blood rushing to the injured spots-there, notice those little cells squirming their way through the capillary walls. They are live cells, and if you reduce them farther you will find only protoplasm." "What is that?" "Why, it's a strictureless, formless substance, the first former of all organized beings. If we could but make this protoplasm"-and the professor's eyes flash with an eager desire-"we could have the wherewithal to create living creatures."** Sculpture would no longer be confined to cold marble, animate forms more beautiful than the incomplete developments of unintelligent nature would be readily-produced; and, indeed, I almost think that the obstetric art would become a piece of passed and painful history, soon to be numbered with the dark ages!"
     "But," urges the dazed inquirer, "is there nothing beyond this protoplasm?" "Nothing but atoms," I promptly interrupts the professor, "and atoms, you know, are irreducible; beyond them is nothing."
     Slowly, and wrapped in troubled thought, the inquirer turns from the man of learning and wends his way homeward. As he ponders he says half-aloud to himself, as if the new-distilled poison were striving to fix itself in the confirming effects of thought formed into articulate words: "This wonderful form, man, whose composite is so excellent a mechanism, whose microscopic structure is a labyrinth of intricate network before which the finest lace is but entangled thread, is reducible to a mass of jelly without form or shape, this jelly is reducible to atoms, and these to nothing!" And then with stealthy but lightning speed rushes into his mind the irresistible conclusion of his line of thought: "There is no God; all beyond is nothing!" We know one who was in such a direful state, and we know what agony it engendered. Eagerly he scoured the city libraries and sought counsel from eminent men. At one time he derived ineffable delight from a perusal of the works of Lionel Beale. Protoplasm, or, as he terms it, bioplasm, is not, in his estimation, identical in all created forms it is molded by a Divine Architect into such devices as He in His wisdom conceives. Oh! what a haven of rest was this! But it was not long-lasting.

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Bioplasm, continues Beale, is alive; the tissues it forms are dead. We die into nerve and muscle and skin and bones! The soul is somewhere or other in this living corpse, ready to speed on its ethereal flight-when all the bioplasm dies into tissues and no more can be derived from food to replace it. What a mockery to make God the creator of such a living cadaver!
     To continue our subject in the conversational style we have almost unconsciously drifted into, let us suppose our inquirer, after careful study, fails to satisfy his mind, and seeks advice from a New Church scientist. The latter, perceiving the state of mind of his guest, begins by an allusion to the LORD as the Creator, and urges his listener to keep uppermost in thought the central truth that the LORD is the only life, and we are but receptacles of life. Next, he begins with the seed, as a graft from the paternal soul, formed in the understanding and gradually covered with coarser and coarser envelopments as it descends in the body. It is a spiritual human form, clothed with matter, and so full of a desire to develop into a human being. Then he delineates with care and minuteness the termination of this seed-how, as the active, it operates upon the membranes of the maternal egg and molds them into structures of every degree, they serving the part of the re-agent-how first the highest hyper-microscopic fibres are created, folded into perfect spirals; how, secondly, coarser fabrics are made, until soon tissues appear that under the microscope show round cells "Ah!" exclaims the inquirer, with unfeigned delight, "here are the cells the professor showed me. Then they really exist, don't they?" "Certainly and so does protoplasm, but you see they are, as it were, two-thirds of the Way down the succession of degrees of creation, and are, therefore, not first-formers or first-formed. Organic forms grow more and more multiple and complex as we divide and subdivide them, because as we approach the Infinite we approach an infinite number of corresponding forms in the highest regions of creation, not atoms, and surely not nothing." The New Churchman looks squarely into the honest eyes of his listener, and sees in their intelligent brightness the flashing of a long-sought truth and the utter banishment of all doubt as to the existence of a God.
     The new being formed and born, the inquirer is ready to follow his teacher into the dissecting-room and study in the dead the wonders he sees in the living. He looks with some trepidation upon the analytical work of the operator; the dreary thoughts of his former visit crowd upon him. His teacher continues: "Now, you know that the heavens constitute a grand man, from which inflows life into man's will aid understanding, thence into the pulse of his heart and the breathing of his lungs, and so throughout the entire body. In addition to this influx there is an especial inflow from each organ of the Gorand Man into corresponding parts of the body. This life is the soul and is in every minute part of the body, like the hand in the glove, or, to use a homely comparison, like water in a sponge. Look here, at this dead brain; it appears like a convoluted mass of putty; but follow me a moment. In this gray matter lie little cells, from each of which go fibres to the body. In these tiny glands, which are primary receptacles of the will and the understanding, flow volition and thoughts from the Gorand Man. That such volition and thoughts can be present in cruder forms, and, finally, in the external world, a fluid flows through the fibres and carries an impress received from them to the utmost parts of the body." "What is that fluid called?" "The nervous fluid-the blood of the nerves." "But I thought that the red blood was the only blood of the body." "So you've been taught; but physiologists fail to recognize discrete degrees. The nerves are a degree above the red blood and must have their own responsible fluid, and this fluid, becoming a pure white blood in these cavities in the brains, these so-called ventricles, which I expose with my knife, go into the red blood, vivifying it and enabling it to carry out in a lower plane the bidding of the brains in a higher. The nervous fluid moves in vortical curves, this pure blood in spiral, and the red in undulatory, and so its corpuscles are round-" "I see," broke in the enthusiastic listener, "the cells belong only to his third degree; why, there is an immeasurable field for study above cellular physiology!" The teacher smiles, much pleased with his pupil's progress. "Yes, even nature, though finite, is full of indefinated things and can never be exhausted, however indefatigable may be the student."
     The instructor then proceeds to explain again how the soul, by means of the nerves, produces blood-vessels, muscles, viscera, skin, gristle, and bones; how one depends upon its predecessor, like effect upon cause; how they agree in the common attributes of reception, digestion, separation of usable from non-usable, and, finally, effecting their respective uses; explaining that each part expands and contracts because the little parent cells in the brain expand and contract and thus live, and each successively created form receives its ability from the first source, carrying out its function in its own way. "That all may act in harmony, agreeably to one common motion," continues the teacher, "the heart beats in accord with the pulsatile motion from heaven into the man's will, and the lungs expand and contract at the same time that the brains do when they receive their animatory motion from heaven. These two forms of motion are contributed to every fibre of the body, thus enabling each organ to move independently in accord with its distinct influx and yet in harmony with all by reception of the common motions.
     "You seem to value motion as a sort of representative of life?" "Yes, life is so manifested, and by studying the variety of motions we learn the quality of each organ. We thus see that the eye is molded in the motion of the ether, and, consequently, responds to the stimulus of light; that the ears are shaped in the motion of common air, etc."
     "You do not seem to attach the same importance to chemical phenomena that my previous instructors do. They reduce animal heat to the effects of combustion digestion to the action of ferments; muscular action to the conversion of heat into force, etc."
     "No doubt physical laws are externally the rules of the human body, but these are subservient to the spiritual; they have a soul just as man does, though varying from man's in kind and degree. They must, therefore, ever be subservient to the spiritual, and must also preserve an order arising from their degree of importance. In studying the physiology of digestion, for instance, we look first to correspondences, and we learn that man takes out of what he eats just those things which corresponds to his affections, and rejects the rest. Then the various digestive fluids, by virtue of which he is enabled to digest his food, are controlled by his brain and cannot be reduced to mere chemical agents.
     "It is the same with animal heat; in its beginning it is the man's love, which is his life. This affects the finest fibres of his body, then coarser fibres, and finally man infests itself in those chemical changes which the physiologist calls combustion."


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     "I see, now, how blindly I have been led by the dominant, science of the day. The method you pursue robs this mutilated cadaver of all its unpleasantness and makes every fibre a form of life. I seem to see the soul molding its body for its own purposes, supporting itself in this mundane sphere by corresponding material from earth and atmosphere, learning of the movements of other objects through the air impinging on the ear, tasting earth's delicacies through the tongue, coming in contact with material things through the sense of touch, and seeing earth's varied panorama by means of that noble organ, the eye. How wonderful is this doctrine of correspondences that leads to so much delightful information!"
     "You are quite right, but you must, likewise, give due credit to other doctrines. Without a knowledge of the doctrines of series, degrees, influx, order, and use, correspondences are indeterminable and so are of no use. And until scientists accept this fact, their labors will never be crowned with success. Neglecting series and degrees, they fail to recognize the higher auras, and so reject the idea that there are pure forms in the human body made of the particles of these auras. For the same reason, they fail to see that there are: three degrees of sap in plants and three of blood in man. For the same reason, too, they reduce the body to cells and to protoplasm, leaving such a hiatus between these and the highest that they can form no comprehension of the soul, and so they often deny its reality and refuse to listen to Divine revelation, which alone can instruct and lead to the truth. Scientists know little about order, so they write dissertations which, to a man of reason, appear very absurd. One declares that life starts from the solar plexus of nerves, which you know, lies behind the stomach; another places the seat of life in the spine, making the brain an appendage, and nearly all physiologists derive the entire body from the two membranes into which -the maternal egg is resolved and which are called blastodermic membranes."
     "I see the wisdom of your words," responds the inquirer, as the teacher rises to go, "and I see, too, that they involve more than I at first dreamed of. If man is so disorderly in physiology, he must also be disorderly in other departments of education." "The more you investigate the state of the world in the New Church and outside of it, the more evidence will you find to confirm your newly formed conclusion." "Do you mean to say in the Church?" "Yes, unhappily, we are all descendants of the fallen Church, and we bring many of our, infirmities with us into the New. We know, for example, what genuine art is, and yet we sit listlessly, remaining satisfied with old forms of music, with defective poetry and inaccurate language, with dwellings that are frequently unworthy the endearing name of home, with paintings and sculpture often beautiful indeed, but seldom full of that vivid quality and correctness of design which true art will some day bring. We build temples of worship and dedicate them to the LORD; but we copy imperfect architecture, grossly violate genuine correspondences, and then complete our abuse of order by railing against the priesthood and other essentials of true order-" "Ah!" interrupts the inquirer; "there seems to be but little difference between disorder in the temple and disorder in science." "Very little, except that the abuse of the Church precedes that of science and causes the latter. If there are not degrees in the LORD'S formulated Church there are none in nature. If, now, we admit degrees in nature, how can we deny them in the Church? As order develops in the Church the minds of men will be prepared to see disorder in art and science. Men will, awaken to the alarming influence upon the young of text-books that to-day pass unquestioned. They will see with chagrin-how they have misunderstood their own body and bodily functions, how crudely language expresses true emotions and thoughts, how unsuited are homes and public buildings-in a word, how lamentably they have neglected the blessings which the LORD has abundantly provided for their use. But until order develops, suggestions toward the reformation of arts and sciences will either be unappreciated or will be treated with derision and contempt."
     * The trend of physiological inquiry to-day is fatally directed toward materialism. If it is thought we are extreme in our views, let the following from a standard medical journal serve to sustain us: "The progress of physiological investigation has referred many of the functions carried on in our bogies to purely physical causes. . . . . What I am here urging is that the
remaining factors of our living should be regarded from the same point of view." (Prof. Alichin in the N F. Medical Journal, Aug. 26th, 1883). The italics are ours.
     ** This idea was actually expressed by an eminent professor in a lecture delivered to a large class of students.
CATALOGUE OF SWEDENBORG'S LIBRARY 1883

CATALOGUE OF SWEDENBORG'S LIBRARY              1883

     AT a meeting of the Camden Road Society, of London, held October 9th, Dr. Tafel "displayed a curious document which he had received from Sweden a few days before. It was the catalogue of the library which Swedenborg possessed at his death, and which was sold by auction in Stockholm on the 28th of November, 1772.
It was valuable, Dr. Tafel said, as it showed the precise editions of all Swedenborg's authorities. It also showed the immense scholarship of the man and might be said to contain no trash whatever. Of course, the books were not all of the same value, as it contained books presented to him and also books of his younger days. Hitherto there has been an impression that Swedenborg only used two editions of the Bible, the Hebrew-Latin of Van der Hooght, and the Latin of Schmidius. This catalogue shows that such was not the case, as Swedenborg owned four different Hebrew Bibles, seven different Latin Bibles, and three Testaments. The only Bible in foreign language was the English Bible. His grammars and dictionaries in all languages of which he knew even a little were numerous. Of miscellaneous religious works he possessed twelve only, among which were the English Book of Common Prayer, Venne's Complete Duty of Man, and a history of the Moravian Church. History is little represented except the history of Sweden, but travels are very numerous. He possessed only two minor works of the Fathers. He had a good collection of law and Parliamentary works. . . . Of poets he had few and of novels none, unless one volume of tragic stories may be claimed as an exception. He had a number of encyclopaedias, all in German; indeed half of the whole library was in that language. He was apparently deeply interested in botany, but very little in zoology. Although he had twenty works on anatomy, he had only one work on medicine.
     Dr. Tafel concluded by intimating that he would by and by have the complete catalogue printed in English, together with a full analysis of the character of the works included in it."-Morning Light.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     IT seems-to us strange that the New Church has not yet taken hold in earnest of the work of making a New Church translation of the Word. The Catholics, the Baptists, the Jews, and other sects have each a translation of their own, and "advanced" scholars of the Old Church have the revised version. But the New Church has existed one hundred years without a translation made in the light of the Doctrines. Catholics, Baptists, Jews, and "advanced" scholars seem therefore to care more for their falsities than New Churchmen do for their-truths. How long must we wait? We have-not even an edition of the Word alone, either in the original or in English. The copies of the Bible used in our churches nearly all contain the books which the Writings expressly state "are not of the Word."
PRIESTCRAFT AND LAYCRAFT 1883

PRIESTCRAFT AND LAYCRAFT              1883



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     WHEN we look at the present state of the LORD'S Church upon earth we find that it is, in a great degree, distracted through an undue exercise of power-on the one side by ministers of the Church, and on the other by laymen of the Church; and this evil is limited not to this country only, but is equally, if not even more, prevalent in the Church in Europe.
     When we speak of an undue exercise of priestly power, we do not, of course, allude to the orderly exercise of priestly power as defined in the Writings, and which consists in administering the affairs of the Church, and thus of things ecclesiastical. These are given by the LORD into the hands of the priest to administer, and so long as the priest exercises his functions according to Divine Truth, with the end of preserving the Divine order in the Church and of leading men by truth to good and thus to the LORD, it is not the priest that rules, but the LORD, and there will be prosperity, tranquillity, and peace. But when the priest abuses his office, so as to lead men to honor and revere him instead of the LORD, and thus to make men his own personal followers and to domineer over the Church, then the priest is in the undue exercise of his powers and prerogatives and is guilty of priestcraft.
     So, again, when the layman uses the powers God has given him in performing uses for the Church in accordance with the laws of the Divine order and under the direction of those whom the LORD has appointed the governors of the Church, these will be order, progress, and prosperity. But when laymen set aside those whom the LORD has appointed as governors and endeavor to rule independently in the Church without and regard to the laws of Divine order, and more yet if they endeavor to subject to themselves those who of right should govern the Church, then laycraft rules in the Church and with it anarchy, disorder, and strive.
     The priest who looks to self and wishes to be revered and adored as to his own person, is infested by spirits, who during their life on earth were in a similar love and practice. Concerning such we read:
     "Dragons are those who were in no doctrine, but in the letter of the Word alone, which they applied to whatever they wished, to favor their principles and their loves. So also those of others, especially those of the powerful and rich; thus they applied them to flatter the delight of their own love and that of others; thus in obscene and heinous adultery they committed adultery with the Word. These could not, in consequence, be of any doctrine-borne, like the wind, here and there, knowing altogether nothing of the truth and being not at all in the affection of truth for the sake of truth. Such were also sensual, not thinking beyond the [literal] sense, hating the interiors of the Word and also having in aversion the doctrines of the Church; for he who does not learn the truth from the doctrine of the Church, is in no doctrine, nor can he be in the affection of truth. These were asked from doctrine concerning things. They answered by some passage of the Word from whatever doctrine they chose; but when they were asked how the Word there was to be understood, and also elsewhere in passages which are dissimilar, they were not willing to listen, much less to answer Sometimes some from the diabolic crew proposed something heretical and false, having first gained their favor by paying them honor; then they immediately searched out passages from the Word to confirm them, so as to confirm evils and falses; thus that God is fury, anger, and wrath; that all evil is from Him; that He can save, but is not willing to do so, etc."- S. D. 5422.
     In so far as man thinks of self, evil and infernal spirits can lead him whithersoever they please and even toward any hell; but those who do not think of self, but of the neighbor, they cannot move; still less those that think concerning the LORD. (S. D. 5463.)
     A minister who thinks of his own honor and gain is thus completely in the hands of such spirits and learns of them how to captivate and gain over his hearers to himself. Such a minister never first addresses the rational faculty of his hearers, exhorting them to exercise their rational thoughts in the examination of the doctrine that he preaches, but, following the example set him by the serpent in the garden of Eden, he first addresses the woman, the proprium of the members of the Church, before applying himself to the man, their rational faculty.
     In agreement with this plan, such a minister first addresses himself to the affections of the lower natures of those members of the Church over whom he wishes to exercise a controlling: influence. These affections he flatters, and thereby seeks to gain influence over them. And afterward he feeds and stimulates them by administering, unto them in various ways, until at last he converts them with his own personal love of ruling, and then he begins to rule and govern these persons by means of these affections. In order to establish his power over these persons, he falls in with their notions and ideas on matters and things in general, whether they be true or false, and accepts them as the out-birth of a superior intelligence: He also consults them in spiritual matters, and regards with deference any opinion which they choose to express. These opinions he afterward retails to them again in conversations and letters, and even from the pulpit, and thus confirms them in their own ideas; and by such means he causes them to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
     For this purpose, a minister addicted to priestcraft usually selects persons who occupy a more or less commanding position in society by virtue of their worldly riches or their rank in life. These persons the minister cultivates by applying himself to the affections of their proprium, and after their proprium, represented by the woman, has eaten of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the rationality of these persons, is poisoned as well and they are no longer able to see the truth in spiritual light, but only in natural light. The consequence is, that the rationality of these persons, represented by the man, eats also of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; and after that they no longer offer any resistance to any special teaching or dogma that the ministers may seek to impose upon them.
     After a minister addicted to priestcraft has established his power over the leading men of his own congregation and made them personal followers of himself, instead of followers of the LORD, he extends his operations and goes around among the members of the Church-at-large, feeling their doctrinal pulse; and the doctrines which they and other "good men" like themselves, express a willingness to hear expounded from the Word he retails to them from the pulpit, preaching, at the same time those general truths of the Church which, on account of their generality, are unobjectionable to any one. In the delivery of these general truths and in the exhortation to a good life in general, he often becomes eloquent and carries his hearers away with him into a personal admiration of himself;, Such a minister, in H. D. 315, is said "to teach, and not to lead, to the good of life, and thus to the LORD," and, therefore, he is said to be a bad shepherd."


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     Those among the members of his own Church who claim the use of their own reason in-the examination of spiritual matters, and who refuse to believe blindly what the minister teaches, are objects of aversion to him, and so, also, are those among the ministers in the Church who do not follow his example in the presentation of the truth to their bearers. Openly he may, indeed, profess friendship and charity toward all, even those by whom he feels that his own personal rule in the Church is opposed; but secretly he intrigues against them and makes use even of slanders and calumnies in order to rake up an opposition against them; or, again, he plans attacks and persecutions against them through other people, he himself remaining out of sight in the background.
     Other ministers of this sort; again, scent a rival in every prominent colleague in the Church. Any success on the part of any of their fellow-ministers distresses them, and while, in their aspiration to the highest place in the Church they are full of deference and cringing servility to the laity, they treat their fellow ministers with contumely, and even with open discourtesy.
     Ministers addicted to priestcraft hence are not satisfied with exercising the priestly function in the Church, and with, thereby, leading men to the LORD, but they wish to attach the laity to their own person and thus, to make them blind followers of themselves. The consequence of this, so far as their own society is concerned, is that the love of the Divine Truth gradually vanishes out of the hearts of the members of the Church, and instead of increasing in intelligence and wisdom in spiritual matters, and thus in the spiritual understanding of the Divine Word, they actually acquire a distaste to the teachings of the spiritual sense, and, together with their ministers, wander about in the obscurities and the mazes of the ethereal sense of the Word, like the Dragonists mentioned above. When, on the other hand, laymen claim the right to rule the Church, the consequences are equally baleful and destructive of all spiritual life.
     Lay rule manifests itself in the Church in two ways. Intrinsically, those who seek to establish this kind of rule in the Church are in the denial of the ministerial office altogether. They deny that the performance of the ministerial uses requires any men specially set apart for this work. They not only assert that the uses of the ministry belong to all men, but they may go even so far as to declare that the doctrine of a "Distinctive Ministry" is "a doctrine utterly false, which threatens to divide, and even to destroy, the Church."
     Those who are in the denial of the ministry are usually, also, in the denial of the Sacraments, because, according to what they define as a narrow prejudice derived from the Old Church, the simple-minded in the Church have an idea that the proper observance of the Sacraments requires men specially set apart for this work, and thus a "Distinctive Ministry." One of their usual arguments for the abrogation of the Sacraments is, that the New Church is an internal, and thus a spiritual, Church, and, therefore, does not need any externals of worship.
     The denial of the ministry includes also a denial of the efficacy of ordination in communicating to the clergy those special gifts of the Holy Spirit, which are enumerated in the True Christian Religion 146 and 155.
     When those who are possessed with laycraft, in contradistinction from "priestcraft," find that, in spite of their opposition, a "Distinctive Ministry" is, nevertheless, introduced into the Church, their opposition assumes a different form, and appears in the endeavor to subject the priestly function to lay rule. In their attempt to subject the ministerial function to lay rule, they first aim at isolating completely the priestly function from the administration of the secular affairs of the Church, and this they do by denying to the minister any share whatever in what they call the business affairs of the society. They therefore deny him a scat in the Executive Committee or Church Council, and refuse to have him in the chair at the society's meetings. The minister, they say, should attend to the spiritual affairs of his congregation, and ought not to meddle in its worldly affairs.
     Another tenet introduced by those who favor a lay hierarchy is, that the minister is not the servant of the LORD, but the mouthpiece of his society; that he must not preach the truth, as he finds it in God's Word and in the doctrines of the Church, but as it is agreeable and pleasant to the members of his congregation. That therefore he must never run counter to any of the special views of the leading members of his congregation, and that in his sermons he must always remain on neutral ground, so as not to offend the self-love or amour propre of his hearers. Further, in respect to the doctrines which the minister is to preach and the sentiments which he may express at a society's meeting, it is intimated to him that he must take his cue from the ruling laymen in the society; and he is warned that he must not on any account act in freedom according to his reason, because if he does so he will be charged with priest- craft and a desire to break down the freedom and rationality of his congregation.
     Woe, therefore, to the minister of such a society if he acknowledges a Master superior to his lay masters, and if he preaches doctrines which are considered unnecessary, false, and inexpedient by the lay oracles of his congregation. A minister, they say, must endeavor to make himself popular, and attract strangers to the Church; but by preaching doctrines which are peculiarly New Church, and bringing forward in his sermons the spiritual sense, he makes the service unattractive, and drives strangers away.
     Among those who desire to set up a lay rule in the Church there are also those who keep in the back-ground, and who, in order to cover their own movements, prefer to operate through others. Only at special occasions they emerge into the foreground in order to repress a tide which threatens to destroy the stronghold of their lay hierarchy.
     A minister who has been enslaved by laymen in his congregation, and who has been compelled by them, for the sake of peace and his daily sustenance, to renounce the ministerial government of his congregation, in time becomes, as a natural consequence, an object of contempt even to the ruling members in his society. For in proportion as he degenerates more and more into their mouthpiece, and as in his public and private utterances he takes his cue more and more from his oppressors, he is inwardly derided and despised by them as well as by others, until at last, utterly broken down in his own estimation and in that of his fellow-members-of the Church, he either retires to a small congregation or into private life.
     If a minister, on the other hand, preserves the dignity of his office, and refuses to subordinate himself and his office to the opinions of his congregation; and if, intent on doing his Master's work, he preaches the truth as he finds it taught in the doctrines of his Church, and fearlessly and boldly declares war against the evil loves in the natural man of his hearers, then those who wish to set up lay rule in the Church, and whose love of dominion is balked in its attempt of subjecting to itself the priestly function in the society, raise an opposition against the minister, determined on driving him away from his sphere of usefulness.


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     The means resorted to for this purpose are various. If their power as laymen is based on worldly possessions, they withdraw their support from the minister, and, by raising the cry of "priestcraft" against him, they try to estrange the hearts of his congregation from him. Or, again, they try what the charge of heterodoxy and heresy may do; or, finally, they seek to blacken his private, character by circulating calumnies and slanders about him.
     These are some of the means to which laymen, animated by a desire of ruling in the Church, resort in order to injure and destroy the influence and usefulness of a minister who remains faithful to the charge of his Master and who upholds the sacredness of the priestly office, and defends it against the assaults of those by whom that office is denied.
     Strange combinations sometimes have resulted when those who are principled in "laycraft" meet with one who is addicted to "priestcraft," and when both pursue a common enemy-a minister who remains faithful to the charge of saving souls, and of establishing the dominion of the LORD'S Truth in the Church. They enter into a sort of compromise for the time, and form a kind of alliance, but before long the minister, by applying himself to the weaknesses of the proprium of his lay brethren, makes them his' personal followers, and thus extends his own dominion over the consciences of the members of the Church.
     These are not mere imaginary cases in which laymen have sought to corrupt and to enslave the priestly government in the LORD'S New Church on earth, and in which "priestcraft" has sought to enslave the laity in the Church into mere personal followers and adherents. Examples of either may be found in America, as well as in England and elsewhere, so that it is by no means an idle question if we ask, By what means can the LORD'S New Church be preserved from priestcraft and from laycraft, and thus by what means may the freedom of conscience be preserved in the New Church?
     The final solution of this question will be found in an implicit obedience to the Heavenly Doctrines. It consists in giving the government of the Church into the hands of its divinely appointed custodians, while the laity give them their full and hearty co-operation and assistance. Priests will do their-part by acting in everything, not according to their individual opinions and views, but according to the Divine Truth as revealed in the Writings, which should be with them a lifelong study. Laymen will do their share in choosing for themselves only such priests as they see are sincerely endeavoring to carry out not their own will, but the LORD'S. When the government shall be intrusted to their hands, then self-seeking and ambitious strife will cease; then the Divine Truth, and thus the LORD Himself, will rule, and there will be in the Church an ever- increasing "spiritual pence, glory, and beatitude of life."
SIGNS AND MIRACLES 1883

SIGNS AND MIRACLES              1883

     THE LORD in dealing with us never compels us by manifesting His will in any miraculous way, either by spirits who speak with us or by more mediate spiritual influences, such as miracles, signs, or tokens. The LORD does not desire to rule us and to communicate His will to us in this way, for this would be destructive of our will and of our rationality, since in that case we would be neither willing as of ourselves nor thinking as of ourselves, but would act without considering either our will or our understanding, following a blind impulse like the animal instinct. The LORD gives to us "Moses and the Prophets," His Word and doctrine thence; by this we are to form our will and understanding; this Divine Truth we are to obey as the will of the LORD, and in doing so we make free use of, our will and of our understanding, and both are thereby strengthened and increased. If man does not obey the will of the LORD as it is now revealed in His opened Word, neither will he obey the will of the LORD as he may imagine it to be revealed to him by visions or conversations with the dead or by signs and tokens, all of which are but the influx of the spirits who surround us, who thereby cunningly lead us and confirm us not in the will and way of the LORD, but in the will and way of our proprium, which they skillfully exalt and feign to be the will of the LORD Himself: "And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiars spirits, and to wizards that peep and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?-for the living to the dead? To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."
     It is by far better for a man and for the Church that it should do something which might seem an error while acting from its best affections and best rationality, than that it should do what would be outwardly useful and successful by following some juggling token or soothsaying trick; for the first action would still be heavenly, as it has within it the desire to do the LORD'S will in the LORD'S way, while the latter would really be giving up the helm to the spirits that surround us, with a blind hope that it may result in accomplishing the LORD'S will, but yet with a strong possibility that it may be otherwise, not unaccompanied with many by an eager and overruling desire that their own will may be done. The example of the Israelites is, indeed, again here invoked, but just as they were driven to external worship by externals, by miracles, and plagues, so they were guided by external tokens and signs, because an internal heavenly free will and rationality could not be formed with them; but now that the LORD has revealed internal truth and communicates internal goods, in order to develop again a heavenly freedom and rationality upon earth, He also expects, that men will be guided by these, and not expose themselves to be misled by enthusiastic and deceitful spirits: "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rose from the dead."
     We are taught of the LORD in the Writings, that the reason why the heavens are not open on this earth, and men do not speak with angels so as to be instructed them, is "because the inhabitants of this earth are in ultimates, into which they have thrust themselves through ruling, through the love of eminence over others, and through the love of possessing all things of the world whence most men are sensual and in ultimates, therefore heaven is closed, and if it were opened men would immediately perish; for the spirits from this earth who are such breathe nothing but murder, and the man whose interiors are opened would be led by the good pleasure of such spirits so as to destroy himself. Men would also profane holy things, for as soon as they turn to the world they deny, yea, ridicule, heavenly things, as nothing respectively. Thereby the angels with whom they are as to their interiors are hurt, and also heaven; wherefore the angels avert themselves, and thus the internal man is closed. If, therefore, the other world should be opened to them after heaven has been estranged and the angels have removed themselves, then the infernals would lead them not only to nefarious things, but even to their own destruction, for they breathe nothing else but that one may destroy the other."- S. D. 5151.


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     Those who are in such states indeed persuade themselves that they have only good spirits around them and would therefore be guided through heaven by the LORD. But we are plainly forbidden all such proceedings in the words: "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rose from the dead." It may here be noticed that the word hear, translated with to be persuaded, is also frequently rendered to obey, and thus refers to the will and the life as well as to the understanding. We know from the Writings that all men have evil spirits around them even until they are regenerated to the seventh state and become celestial, concerning which it is said in the Arcana, that "most of those who are regenerated at this day reach only the first state, some only the second, some the third, fourth, fifth, rarely the sixth, and hardly any one the seventh."
     And it is not likely that those who give up the guidance of the LORD through the Word and throw themselves into the hands of spirits, and who thus disobey the command of the LORD, are these extremely few, especially when the Writings teach us that the guidance of the LORD through the Word is far preferable and far superior to the mediate revelation through spirits and angels which prevails on other earths. Concerning the knowledges of the truths of faith from the Word on this earth, we read that they serve for a ground into which spiritual and celestial truths of faith can he implanted, without which ground they are not easily inseminated and augmented, wherefore, although the inhabitants and spirits of this earth correspond to external sensation, and thus are corporeal, approaching more nearly the beastly than the human character, yet when their exteriors are vastated they more easily come into the inferior and the inmost heaven; and because some bring these things with them from the life of the body, therefore they also serve for ministries for instructing others who have not such knowledges from revelation, wherefore the LORD loved our earth above others. (S. D. 1531.) This fact ought to be a great encouragement to us, and a great incentive to acquire the knowledge of faith as well as intelligence and wisdom, for in so far as these are acquired here, man is in superior wisdom and can perform higher uses in heaven to all eternity; for we read: "It is to be known, that they who were in wisdom in this world will be in wisdom in the other life, and indeed in wisdom appropriated to them, but they who were not in wisdom in the world, but in the good of life, can indeed receive wisdom through them, but this is not appropriated to them, so that when the wise ones recede from them they are in simplicity as before." (S. D. 5188.) On this account also it is that the wise ones of the Most Ancient and the Ancient Churches, who were in the knowledge and perception of representatives and correspondences and thence knew the internal arcana of the Church, serve for the communication of wisdom throughout the heavens; wherefore they are scattered throughout all the heavens in order that others may attain to wisdom through them (S. D. 5187), and this wisdom when communicated appears to each one as his own; yet when such a wise man is taken away from such a great, angelic society, the state at once is obscured, and darkened until he returns. To the New Church there are given arcana of wisdom from the opened Word superior to any hitherto revealed, and the New Church, if it treasures them and loves them, rejecting the evils and the falses that spring from the proprium, and are excited by evil spirits, can be in a state of light and love superior to any before granted on earth. The angels are delighted at such a firm and ever-increasing basis upon the earth; they lovingly and delightedly enter into the reading of the Word and its unfolding upon the earth, and those who receive these truths in their life may forever perform high and delightful service to their brother-angels in heaven. And, above all, the LORD, who loves our earth above others, is beginning to enter into the loving, peaceful conjunction with the Church upon this earth, with "the woman encompassed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars," with "the Bride, the Lamb's Wife."
     Let us not allow this precious boon to be snatched from our bands by the evils that flow into our natural proprium, and especially not by that siren voice, which would induce us to leave "the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb," in order that we may listen to the mutterings of enthusiastic, deceiving spirits that flatter us by appealing to, our self-esteem and vanity. The LORD in His Love warns us in the words: "They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them, if they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they obey if one rose from the dead."
KABALA 1883

KABALA              1883

I.
     TRUTH is often the best illustrated by its opposing falsity. Hence it has occurred to us that perhaps the proper way in which the Word should be studied can be most fitly shown by referring to some methods in which it has been degraded under the guise of study. With this view, we would give some illustrations of a subject too little understood, it may be-we mean the Kabala of the Jews.
     This word, Kabala, properly means reception (that is, of instruction). Practically, it means a system of interpretation of the Scriptures. It does not concern itself with doctrines properly so called but refers entirely to the understanding of the etymology and orthography of the sacred text. It is thus thoroughly in externals, for with the spirit of the Word, its maxims of life, its revelation of Divine Truth, it has nothing to do. It seems utterly purposeless, unless we suppose some end inhering in the Kabalistic arts, whereby from the Scriptures can be deduced methods of averting evils, healing the sick, and putting devils to flight. There is no more spirituality in this system than in a book of charades, which say, "My first is this, my second is that, my third is the other." Yet, unpractical as it is, the Jewish scribes have made out of it a system painfully philological and mathematical.
     We have said that the Kabala deals principally with the etymology of the text, that is, with the letters composing the words. Here a little preliminary explanation is necessary.
     The Hebrew alphabet, which consists of consonants, exclusively, is made up of twenty-two letters or characters, five of which have a different form, according as they are used at the beginning, or in the middle of the word, or at its close,- in which last case they are called final letters. Now, these letters are not only phonetic; but numeral signs (this is a peculiarity not only of the Hebrew, but of the Arabic, Syriac, and Greek languages), thus serving a double purpose. Thus the first nine letters, from Aleph to Teth, not only represent certain sounds, but serve for numbers, as the Arabic numerals 1 to 9.

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Then the next nine letters, from Yodh to Tzaddi, are the signs for the tens, from 10 to 90 inclusive. There remain then four letters, which stand for the hundreds, from 100 to 400. The five final letters, that is, final Caph, Mem, Nun, Pe, and Tzaddi, make up the numerals from 500 to 900. Thus the Kabala considered every word as representing a number as well as a part of speech, and have tried in many cases to establish some relation between the meaning of the word and the number represented by the sum of its letters considered as numerical signs. Hence, when they find two words in which the numerical value of their component letters is the same, they would establish some sort of relation between them. Thus in Zech. iii, 8, we read: ". . . for behold me causing to come forth my servant, THE BRANCH." Here, in the original, this Divine appellation is ( ) Tzemakh, the word being written with the letters Tzaddi, representing 90; Mem, representing 40, and Kheth, 8. Hence the sum of those letters is 138.
     Now, in the word ( ) m'nakliem (see Lament. 1, 2, 9, 16, etc.), meaning the one comforting, or the comforter, we have Mem 4 , Nun 50, Kheth 8, and Mem final, here considered the same as Mem initial, and the sum of all these numbers is, as in Tzemakh, 138.
     Whence it follows that the office of this promised "Branch" is that of a comforter. This is, indeed, a glorious truth, but we are glad that we are not dependent on a fanciful system of numeration for its proof.
     Another example. In the blessing of Judah, Gen. xlix, 10, we read the words, ( ) Yabhe Schiloh, "will come Shiloh." Now, applying to each letter of this clause its corresponding value as number, we have Yodh 10, Beth 2, Aleph 1, Schin 300, Yodh 10, Lamech 30, He 5, the sum being 358. Then, in the word Messiah, ( ), composed of four letters, we have Mem 40, Schin 300, Yodh 10, Kheth 8, or, as above, 358. This proves the identity of Shiloh and the Messiah. Sometimes these blind leaders of the blind write more than they know. This coming of Shiloh is Adventus Domini, the coming of Him who is the Prince of Peace. And thus coming, He is the One who is the Anointed, the Messiah, the One consecrated with the oil of the Divine Love.
     Still again: In Isaiah lxi, 9, we have a prophecy concerning the Jews in their dispersion. The LORD says, "And shall be known by the nations, their seed and their children among the peoples, all seeing them shall recognize them . . ." This latter clause, in the literal sense, simply says that when they are seen they shall be known as Jews. Now, the first verb here, "seeing them," is in the Hebrew roeyhem, the numerical value of the letters being 200, 1, 10, 5, 600, or in all 816. In addition to this arithmetical interpretation, the Kabalists used an anagrammatic method; they made an arbitrary division of the alphabet, putting eleven letters opposite eleven, and changing a word by using, not its own letters, but those opposite to it in their system. They apply this system to the second verb in this clause, "Shall recognize them," and transform Yakkirum into another expression, Kurk'mah, "crocus-color," or yellow. Now for the practical application the number 816 first obtained is a date, the second is a color of a garment, the ineauing being that in the year 816 the Council of Venice were to decree (as they ) that every Jew should wear a saffron-colored robe. Just think of it! the very idea that the LORD was in this lesson producing the dye of Shylock's gabardine!
     But one more illustration of this higher mathematics of the Kabala. And let us say here, it is not taken, from any musty medieval much-ado-about-nothing lore but was given us by a Rabbi considered as well versed in all such matters of profound research. It may be questioned whether the absurdity or the blasphemy of the case is the greater. In Exodus iii, 14, we find the LORD communicating to Moses His Most Sacred Divine Name, Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh, or, I AM WHO I AM. Here are two similar words, Ehyeh, a form of the verb, Hayah "to be," connected by Asher, or the relative pronoun "who." Standing, as it does, between two similar, or, rather, two identical words, this relative implies a close connection; or it is, in fact, a sign of multiplication, and the clause means that Ehyeh is to be multiplied by itself. This might seem absurd, did we not know that, like every Hebrew word, Ehyeh represents an aggregation of numbers. For Aleph is 1, He is 5, Yodh is 10, and He again is 5, the sum being 21, whence. Kabalistically considered, this phrase is 21X21 or 441, this being its numerical value. Now, truth in the Hebrew is Emeth, whose letters respectively signify numerically 1, 40, 400, or added together, 441, the same as given above. Hence, according to these learned men, this Holy Name is but another form of Truth. But what a foolish, nay, impious, way to reach this magnificent ideal unknown to themselves, these scribes communicate the sublime fact that the LORD is Truth; but how silly the process of its evolution. Read A. C. 6873-6883, where we learn that these words, being the Name of the LORD, and hence His quality, represent the esse and existence of all things in the universe, and then think of all this nonsense of a relative pronoun being an arithmetical symbol, and the name of the LORD a sum in multiplication! How thankful we should be this Light is come into the world, even though some men, in the self-conceit of their own proprium, love darkness rather than light, and thus willfully do not know the Name of the LORD.
THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE 1883

THOUGHT AND LANGUAGE              1883

     THOUGHT and language react upon each other. Bad style in thinking is often the cause of bad style in writing. Inaccurate and confused thoughts naturally- fall into inexact and disjointed language. But, on the other hand, bad thinking often comes from a careless use of words. A thought which is poorly expressed is likely to lose its clearness in the mind of the writer. Language reacts upon thinking. Hence it is important that we should guard our words well. It is not enough to have good intentions in the will; we must also have good in act. So we must not only see that our thoughts are right, but we must watch our words as well, or else bad thoughts will find entrance in spite of us. When writing we should force ourselves to say exactly what we mean, and not something else which only approximates' to our thought. We should not allow ourselves through indolence to slur over our language or else we shall find it difficult to prevent ourselves from slurring over our thoughts in like manner.
     Our every-day speech seems an unimportant matter. A word is but a breath, we think, and is soon gone forever. We seldom remember our own conversation-unless it be our successful jokes-and other people seldom remember even these. What matters it what our language is, so that our thoughts are right and our neighbors have no ground for contemning our manners or education? To most of us, the words we use seem of little moment:


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     It is so easy to exaggerate, to use superlatives where they do not belong, and to intersperse our conversation with a little of the prevailing slang, the exact truth seems too dull and tame-the exact facts are not startling enough.
     It seems as if ladies' conversation, for instance, would I lose something of its charming piquancy and vivacity, without exaggerated expressions and here and there something which, is very nearly slang. But true brightness in conversation lies in sparkling thoughts and not in saucy words. And it is a poor makeshift to seek to cover up a dearth of thoughts with exaggerations and slang.
     Exaggerated speech produces exaggerated thought When distinctions between little, things and great ones; slight feelings and deep ones, are destroyed in speech, the thought, too, will become inexact and confused, and hence our conclusions will be hasty and ill-judged. Exaggerated speech and thought is the cause of much of the bombastic, high-flown-but vague-writing which fills our newspapers and is often seen in more respectable places.
     The use of slang, too, leads to bad thinking. Slang often expresses no idea at all when rigidly analyzed. And when any ideas are expressed, they are usually of the vaguest and most ill-defined nature. And instead of being more expressive than correct language, slang is really far less so, and is usually resorted to when ideas are either altogether lacking-are too confused to be expressed in correct words. It originates, like exaggerations, in an effort to be witty without witty ideas. It is easy to see how slang reacts upon the mind and weakens it by promoting either no thinking, or vague thinking.
     In regard to the ill-effects of that kind of slang, which consists of what are known as "bywords" and which often approaches profanity, we have direct teachings in the Doctrines. And this teaching applies, we think, to all forms of slang and misuse of language, though in a less degree.
     "There was a certain spirit- well disposed, but who, when he saw anything disagreeable or shameful, was excited by other spirits and said that what he saw was more ugly and abominable than the devil. Thus this form of speech, which consisted in naming the devil, had become familiar to him. The spirits (with whom he was associated) were indignant that he should so frequently use this mode of expression, when, indeed, he restrained himself for a time; but still he continued to speak in this manner; wherefore he was let into the veil (a mode of punishment) as into a sack, where he suffered anxiety. When he was delivered, he came to me and I perceived the anxiety and terror which he had suffered; he told me that when he was in the veil he despaired of ever being delivered."- S. D. 4056.
TRUTH 1883

TRUTH              1883

     IT was the night on which our set of young people met. I was the second arrival, the Professor having preceded me. He was sitting in an easy chair in a corner of the room, and I walked over to him and said, "Well, old man, how are you?"
     He returned my greeting. I sat down in another easy chair beside him, and having nothing to say, I said nothing. But he had; said he:
     "Do you realize what an untruthful set we are?"
     "No, I don't, and I don't believe we have a single untruthful member."
     "And I don't believe we have a single truthful one."
     I stared at him.
     "There is not one of them," he continued, "of whose honesty. I have the slightest doubt or whose word I would not take on important matters, and yet all or nearly all of them speak untruthfully on minor matters, you among the rest."
     "I?"
     "Prove it."
     "You just now called me 'old man,' and I am not thirty years of age."
     I broke out laughing at this and said, "You don't call such things untruthful, do you?"
     "Am I an 'old man'?"
     "Well-no, you are not."
     "You said I was, and now you say I am not, hence one of your assertions is not true."
     Oh! bother I would you have our conversation become prosy for fear of a little harmless exaggeration that is not intended to deceive any one, and does not?"
     "Let me reply by asking you a question: Does it speak well for your intellectual abilities or your friends' that the only escape from being prosy is in distorting the truth?"
     I did not feel called upon to reply to this. Others were, arriving now, and the Professor said: "Let us remain quiet here for a time and listen to the conversation, which we easily can do, as our young couple have not as yet learned the beauty of a well modulated voice."
     We listened.
     "It's awfully cold to-night!"
     "Yes, frightfully! I nearly froze to death coming here."
     The Professor murmured, "The thermometer registers four degrees below freezing point, and yet it is 'awfully and frightfully' cold, and that bright-looking young person a few minutes ago was near to death by freezing!"
     Again:
     "O my! how hot this room is! I'm just baking."
     "Yes, it is terribly hot. Let us shut the register."
     "No, don't; it might make the room too cool for some of the others."
     Professor, to me: "Anything that is below a terrible baking heat might be too cool for some here. But that regard for others was good. I liked it."
     "I'm awful glad to see you, Angelina." They kiss. "I was afraid you would not come."
     "So was I, for I was just dying with the headache this afternoon."
     "You poor dear." They kiss again.
     "I've got something dreadfully funny to tell you."
     "What is it? About-?" giving a knowing look.
     "No, not that."
     "Oh! do tell me; I'm perishing to know."
     "It happened coming here to night, and I just thought I'd expire laughing-and Clarence nearly died.
     They go out of the room with arms around each others' waists.
     Professor, dryly: "What narrow escapes from death!"
     Clarence, to friend: "Wasn't it a jolly wind storm to day?"
     Friend: "Yes, a regular old hurricane."
     Clarence: "I was nearly scared out of my shoes this afternoon. I was rushing down street in an awful hurry when crash! something fell right behind me; it sounded like a house falling, and I jumped about ten feet and then looked back, and saw that it was a big tin pan the wind had blown down from the front of a tin store where it had been hanging."
     Professor: "Scared out of shoes-rushing-awful-crash-house failing-jumped ten feet,-or the fall of a tin pan!"


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     Young lady to ditto: "Seraphina's baby is just too sweet to live. It's the darlingest thing ever was, and when I saw it to-day with its cunning little red sack on I just felt like eating it."
     Professor: "Cannibal!"
     Pretty girl to good-looking young man: "You are the horridest man ever lived. I'll never speak to you again."
     They walk out of the room laughing and talking.
     Professor looks at me and says nothing.
     Serious young man: "How did you enjoy the opera, last night?"
     Musical young man: "It was perfectly superb. I never enjoyed anything so much in my life. Madam Valsalti sings like an angel."
     Professor: "Poor angels! Poor young man! whose summit of happiness was reached in listening to an opera."
     Saucy young lady to Professor and me: "Why are you so silent? Are you plotting a conspiracy?"
     Professor: "No, we were listening to the conversation of our friends."
     "I know you have been plotting something. I am dreadfully afraid of you."
     "I do not think you are.
     "I guess I know my own mind."
     "I hope your guess is not correct."
     "Why?"
     "I do not want you to fear me."
     "Set your mind at rest. I do not fear you in the least."
     "Then why did you say you were dreadfully afraid of me?"
     "You aggravating man! you know I didn't mean it."
     "Then why did you say it?"
     She laughed, made him a mock courtesy, and replied, as she walked away, "Because I wanted to."
     I laughed also and said, "It won't do, Professor."
     He turned the full light of his spectacles on me and replied: "I say it will do. If our friends once realize that exaggeration is untruthfulness they will avoid it."
SWEDISH WORDS IN THE DIARY 1883

SWEDISH WORDS IN THE DIARY              1883

     WE regret to notice that in the new edition of the Spiritual Diary the flagrant mistranslations of Swedish words still remain.
     Swedenborg seems to have used the Swedish language in the Diary whenever he could not find a suitable expression in Latin. Swedish words occur more frequently in the later volumes of the work, which have not yet been published in English, and the publisher would do well to secure the services of a competent editor before printing.
     In the volumes already published we find errors like the following:
     In n. 583 the words "Koppor, Kopparrig" are rendered "copper colored" instead of "small pox" and "pockmarked."
     In n. 913 "om briliianter" is translated, "because they had a brilliant light," instead, of "concerning jewels."
     In n. 1412 "darest jag vis ar" meaning, "if I am certain," are given the opposite signification,     of "whereof I am certain."
     In n. 1432 "om armarm nastan som hos os, med sadana armar, som brukus I England I stalle for handuaffar" is translated "the arms are covered nearly as ours are, but with the sleeves as they are worn in England, cuffed, in the place where otherwise the gloves are turned up;" the correct rendering is as follows:-"Around the arms almost as with us, with such sleeves as are worn in England, instead of cuffs." These are a few specimens of the ignorance of Swedish shown by the translator of these volumes. It seems as if he had depended entirely on the translations given by Dr. Im. Tafel in his notes to the Latin edition. And when Dr. Tafel had left words untranslated, the imagination of the English translator was permitted to roam ad libitum. Any one with the slightest knowledge of Swedish, can give the meaning of the words used by Swedenborg; even the use of a Swedish dictionary would have obviated these glaring errors.
HISTORY 1883

HISTORY              1883

     EVEN the most learned scholars, when they attempt to portray the history, customs, and feelings of ancient times, fall into the grossest errors. And this is not to be wondered at, for the key-stone of ancient civilization is beyond their grasp. They know nothing of the Ancient Church, from which all ancient civilization sprang; they know nothing of correspondences, which formed the basis of ancient art and literature. Ewald, for example, though one of the greatest scholars that ever lived, yet, being unenlightened by revelation, utterly mistook the spirit of antiquity. In the following, he teaches the exact opposite to what every New Churchman knows to be the truth: "The invention of a history without foundation in facts-the creation of a person, represented as having a real historical existence, out of the head of the poet is a notion so contrary to the spirit of all antiquity that it only began to develop itself gradually in the latest period of the literature of any ancient people and in its complete form belongs only to the most modern times." The fact is that, actual history, the narration of actual events, "was a notion so contrary to the spirit of all antiquity, that it only began to develop itself gradually in the latest period of the literature of any ancient people, and in its complete form belongs only to the most modern times." History, in the modern acceptation of the term, was little known among the ancients; they cared but little for the mere accounts of natural occurrences, like the: Hindus and other Eastern nations nowadays. They had history, and, indeed, it was their favorite kind of literature, but it was invented history, "without foundation in facts." They delighted to frame fictitious narrations and to embody their wisdom in the form of stories and tales; the most profound truths of religion and philosophy were presented in fictitious narrations in order that they might be vivid and full of life. All other styles of composition were deemed dull-and tame. Instead of being unknown, fictitious histories in ancient times must have been, very numerous. Fragmentary and disjointed remnants are to be found in the mythology - of Greece and Rome and of other nations. The meaning of the myth about Pegasus and the fountain is explained to us in the Writings, and we can thus see clearly how heavenly wisdom was portrayed in the form of stories.
     The development of actual history was a slow and gradual one. First came books like Job, entirely fictitious, but made so life-like and vivid as to seem very real. Then as the Ancient Church declined and the knowledge of correspondences became fainter, this style changed into one partly based upon actual occurrences and partly correspondential, like the Iliad, in which actual occurrences and correspondences are commingled and interwoven with facts. There probably was a city called Troy and a war about it, but we know that at least some of the incidents of the Iliad are correspondential and not actual.

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The Trojan Horse, for example, never really existed, but represented "nothing else but an artful contrivance of the understanding to destroy walls." (A. C. 2762.)
     After this there were histories which contained no correspondences and were based on actual occurrences, but they differed from modern histories in an almost total absence of what is termed the "critical faculty." Writers made little attempt to discriminate between true and false data. Their object was not so much to preserve the records of the past merely because they were records, as either to produce an interesting and amusing narrative or to convey some moral or political lesson. This use of the historical form as a means of setting forth in an attractive way the ideas of the author on some other topic long survived the introduction of history as a record of events. Xenophon, for instance, is supposed to have portrayed not the real Cyrus, but an ideal, prince, and some hold that Tacitus invented much of his Germania in order to rebuke the growing vices of Rome by contrasting them with savage virtues.
     This origin of history in the fictitious narratives of the Ancient Church will serve to explain and to some degree excuse the numerous historical forgeries perpetrated by the early Christians. They seem to have had little scruple in framing fictitious Gospel narratives and Epistles wherever they thought they were needed. It will also account for the loose ideas respecting historical accuracy which have always prevailed among Eastern nations, and the utter confusion of ancient chronology.
CORRECTION AND A REQUEST 1883

CORRECTION AND A REQUEST       B. F. BARRET       1883


COMMUNICATED.
     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-In the November number of your paper I notice the following item of news:

     "The Swedenborg Publishing Association are about to publish a pamphlet, for gratuitous distribution, containing a history of the case of the Rev. Mr. White, written by himself. Contributions in aid of the enterprise are solicited."

     Please allow me to say that you have been misinformed or are mistaken on three points in this paragraph. The Swedenborg Publishing Association have had nothing to do with publishing the pamphlet here referred to. It is published by Mr. White at his own expense, but not "for gratuitous distribution." Nor was "the history of the case" "written by Mr. White himself." The proceedings at the trial-including Mr. White's closing and extremely interesting speech, never before published-were all taken down by a good stenographer and are now given to the public in an octavo pamphlet of ninety- five pages. Mr. White sent the entire proceedings to me, and, after a careful examination of them, I advised and encouraged their publication, not doubting that the cause of truth and righteousness would thereby be served; and in this belief, and as a personal favor to this true, devoted, and most estimable man, I cheerfully and on my own responsibility carried them through the press for him. And now I assume the further responsibility of asking our friends everywhere to purchase a copy of this pamphlet (twenty-five cents, post-paid), and contribute such sums as they feel-free to toward the expense of publishing it (something over two hundred dollars). This is my request, and not White's. I know how he is situated, and sincerely hope that he may be relieved of the whole expense of publishing this pamphlet, which I believe is destined to advance the cause of the true Christian religion. B. F. BARRET
GRRMANTOWN, November 17th, 1883.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified       R. G. BROWN       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-In a "sketch of the London Printing Society" contained in the New Jerusalem Magazine of October 1842, the following occurs:
"The Society makes donations of various works, from year to year, to public and private libraries, and also to prominent authors. Thus we notice, that to G. A. Herand, Esq. (editor of the Monthly Magazine), was presented Heaven and Hell, The Theology, and Earths in the Universe; to Thomas Carlyle, The Theology; to
Charles Dickens, Heaven and Hell; to Mr. Townshend, author of Facts in Mesmerism, The Theology, and Divine Love and Wisdom." Now we will proceed to look for results which may possibly be attributed to the above donations.
     In the Weekly Globe, published in Toronto, Canada, the following occurs in the issue of June 2d, 1876; in the ecclesiastical news "A London correspondent of the Chicago Times writes as follows: 'In some of the literary circles of London there is no one of the eternal men so much talked of as Swedenborg. Mr. Carlyle having looked upon the great Seer all his life as a visionary lunatic, now says he stands rebuked. He looks upon him as one of the loftiest minds in the realm of mind, one of the spiritual suns, that will shine brighter and brighter as the years go on, and that more truths are compassed in his Writings than in those of any other man. His great prescience with regard to modern scientific discoveries is simply astonishing.'"
     I send you the two extracts as given in each paper, as showing the results of work, though a space of over thirty years intervened between cause and effect.
R. G. BROWN.
STREETVILLE, ONTARIO.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified       SEDGE       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-What shall we say to the boasted religious freedom of our country, when the children in the public schools have the Bible explained to them in accordance with Protestant doctrines and the Protestant religion is insinuated in their minds by other means? Not all our New Church children, unfortunately, have that thorough religious instruction at home or at Sunday-school which would give them the discernment and force of -character to act like two girls of my acquaintance, one of whom, twelve years of age, told me this story. In the public school which they attend they are sometimes required to sing a hymn in which occur the words, "We worship one God in three persons." These two girls, who sit near each other, perceived the falsity contained in these words, and thought the best they could do would be to substitute "one-for three," and so they sing, despite the blank looks cast at them by their schoolmates.     SEDGE.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified       F. Goerwitz       1883

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-In your interesting account of the English Conference (October number), the statement occurs that the Committee of Foreign and Colonial Missions "presented a report of the Rev. F. Goerwitz on the Church in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland." This might convey the impression as if I had sent a report to the Committee, which is not the case. The information contained in the Committee's report concerning the Church in those countries (see Minutes of the Conference) does not emanate from my pen, and evidently has been collected by the Secretary of the Committee Dr R. L. Tafel, in part from the Neukirchenblaetter, and in part during his journey through Switzerland.
Yours truly,
F. Goerwitz.
ZURICH, Nov. 12th, 1883.
GENERAL INDEX 1883

GENERAL INDEX              1883



192




NOTES AND REVEIWS.
     THE energetic English publisher of the New Church, Mr. James Speirs, has presented the Church with a new General Index to Swedenborg's Scripture Quotations, edited by Mr. Arthur Hodson Searle, of the Camden Road Society of London. The volume is tastily gotten up with the exception of the bust of Swedenborg impressed on the cover, which is a poor specimen of art, and unfortunately also disfigures the covers of the work on the Brain and of the Spiritual Diary. As to its contents, the Index is practically a revised and anglicized edition of Le Boys des Guays' Index General, and is of eminent value to every reader of the Writings, enabling him to find the explanations of Scripture passages as far as directly given in the Writings.
     In the work before us there are several improvements over the old Index, chief among which are the reference to the Documents Concerning Swedenborg. But we are sorry to note the omission of references to the Adversaria. It is true, the editor says: "That work belongs altogether to Swedenborg's preparatory stage," but some there are who doubt whether it belongs there altogether. Besides, there is much in the Adversaria explanatory of the literal sense of the Word, references to which are valuable and even necessary.
     As heretofore noted in these columns, the letters which were affixed to the numbers, in Des Guays' Index to indicate whether the citation is quoted or merely referred to, as also whether the explanation is full or brief, have been omitted, and the numbers which contain a quotation of the words of the text are simply printed in full-faced type. There may be some advantage in the new method of indicating quoted texts, but we doubt the wisdom of omitting to indicate which references are explained. While a close student of the Writings will look up all the passages referred to by Swedenborg, be they particularly explained or not, there often arises a case when he has not time and it is necessary for him only to get a general idea of the passage. This he can do best from one that is indicated as being explained, and he should be spared the trouble of looking up all the passages cited until he finds the one he wants. Moreover, the needs of laymen in this respect would have been better consulted by indicating the explanations.
     A noted improvement in the work consists in thee introduction of references to the seriatim explanation of the verses of Genesis and Exodus in the Arcana and of the Apocalypse in the Apocalypse Explained and the Apocalypse Revealed, but the improvement would have been more marked had these references been more clearly distinguished from the rest.
     The editor remarks, "In the absence of any uniformly adopted subdivision of the long numbers in the Apocalypse Explained, we have considered it useful to add references to the pages of the photolithographic edition-the fundamental edition-of that work." We regret that the Latin reprint is so slow in making its appearance, since the logical system of subdividing the long numbers as therein adopted by Rev. S. H. Worcester bids fair to become adopted generally and ought to have been adopted in the General Index.
     Other improvements are that the difference in the division of chapters and verses between the Latin and the English Bible are noted and that the references to "chapters cited" have been placed at the head of the chapter instead of at the end, as is the case in the Index General.
     The references to the Documents now first appearing in Index form are a needed addition, and will doubtless be welcomed by all that possess this invaluable work.
     We bespeak for the General Index a cordial reception on the part of all earnest New Churchmen and have no doubt that its very great use will become more and more appreciated-especially among the practically minded.
DAWN.* 1883

DAWN.*              1883

     THE LORD has made His Second Coming, and established the New Church, that men may be regenerated and become angels.
     He has given to men written truths that, by means of them, they may examine themselves, and, looking to Him, may shun evils as sins.
     The distinctive end of a New Church paper or periodical should be to examine in the light of the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem the thoughts, opinions, and states existing in the Church, That their quality may be known, and to put before the Church the results of the examination.
     This end, as a soul, should be present in all things of the paper. All our teaching should be directed toward discovering and shunning evils and falsities, that Divine Order may be established. Good cannot reign in the Church or in the individual till evil be put away.
     Keeping, then, this end in view, we see that the ways in which it may be carried out are various. One man writes poetry, another prose. If the end of each be, by his work, to benefit his neighbor, to lead to the good of life, and if his means is in Divine Order, then he will perform a genuine use. The form of no two New Church periodicals will be the same, though one end may actuate them both.
     The purpose we have indicated is not so apparent in The Dawn that we have been able to recognize it. We have read more than one article that to us does not seem to be in agreement with the Doctrines of the Church.
     The following appeared in No. 22 of The Dawn: "A pleasant manifestation of Christian brotherhood took place last Sunday evening in the Anerley Church. On the occasion the Rev. P. Ramage exchanged pulpits with the Rev. S. A. Tipple, of Upper Norwood. Both congregations greatly enjoyed the change." The Rev. S. A. Tipple is not a minister of the New Church.
     In the issue of Nov. 8th, in an article entitled, "What does the Doctor say?" we read: "Alcohol, in all its forms, is a fertile producer of indigestion, of irritation, of induration, of cancer, even of the stomach, and other like affections. The narcotizing and paralyzing effects of alcohol so blunt the healthy sensibility of the stomach that it holds out no sign of distress, no signs of its sufferings; but though the external manifestations of disease may be absent, the moderate drinker should know that morbid changes may exist; and that while he is sipping his wine, or regaling himself with his brandy and water, he is laying the foundation of a broken constitution, and inviting premature decay and death." (Dr. Collenette.) This, again, is contrary to the Doctrines of the New Church.
     The editor of The Dawn does not seem to test his articles and material by the Doctrines of Divine Truth, for as revealed in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

     * The Dawn, an English New Church weekly, sixteen pages, under the direction of the Rev. P. Ramage, published by E W. Allen, 4 Ave. Maria Lane, London, E. C.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883



193


     THE publication of Salem, the Danish New Church periodical, has been resumed.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     MR. AGER'S article on Swedenborg, which appeared in Frank Leslie's Magazine for December, has been reprinted in parts in the Messenger. It is soon to be issued in tract form by the Tract Society of Mr. Giles' church in Philadelphia.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     WE have received the Journal of the last annual meeting of the Canada Association. It contains the President's excellent address on Order, embracing "the true order of the LORD'S New Church, and how it can be obtained," and "The Church, her Organization, Membership, and Worship."
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE revised and enlarged edition of the Rev. Edward Madeley's work on Correspondences, which was announced by the Swedenborg Publishing Association, of Philadelphia, has appeared. It is a neat and well-printed book and will doubtless be useful. We hope to give a more extended notice in the next number of the LIFE.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Tract Society, in connection with Mr. Giles' Society, of Philadelphia, is about to publish a pocket edition of the Doctrine of Faith, together with extracts from elsewhere in the Writings bearing upon the subject. Mr. Giles' sermons on Our Children in the Other Life will also soon be issued in pocket form and sold for ten cents.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Swedenborg Lecture Bureau, of Boston, seems to be full of life and energy. A second edition of ten thousand copies of Heaven and Hell is to be issued and distributed among teachers in schools and colleges; this is to be followed by a fourth edition of twenty thousand to be sold for missionary purposes at the rate of six dollars per hundred. It is needless to say that one copy of Heaven and Hell is of more value than a bushel of ordinary tracts.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE discourses of the Rev. J. F. Potts on the "End of the World" have been published in tract form, and his society in Glasgow is distributing them gratuitously. We only wish that all the sermons and lectures which are so extensively circulated as tracts nowadays were half so ably written or half so sound in doctrine as Mr. Potts'. The writers and publishers of tracts may perhaps get some new ideas on the subject of what tracts ought to be by a careful reading of these discourses.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     A new edition of the work on Divine Love and Wisdom has been recently published under the auspices of the Swedenborg Society. It is newly translated by Dr. Wilkinson and Dr. Tafel in accordance with the new rules respecting the rendering of Swedenborg's Latin. We are glad to find that the Church in England has at length come to see that none but the best talent of the Church should be employed in translating the Writings. The present translation of the London edition is a disgrace to the Church-and especially to the Swedenborg Society, which is directly responsible for it.
Title Unspecified 1883

Title Unspecified              1883

     THE Critic of October 13th gives a short review of Mr. Worcester's Life and Mission of Emanuel Swedenborg. It says: "Here we have no violent, dissenter, no dogmatist crazy after converts, no radical with mind apparently occupied more with those who are going to oppose him than with those whom he is laboring to oppose. Here have we rather the gentleness, the simplicity, the dignified sweetness of one who feels that he has only to make known the good tidings he has heard to be immediately followed and believed; one who hopes that you will listen to him because he has something so beautiful to tell; one who, finding in himself a most appalling capacity for faith; can yet charitably understand that it may be necessary for you to approach the goal by reason. To those who have thought of Swedenborg as merely a dreamer of dreams and seer of visions; it will be a curious revelation to learn of his vast intellectual attainment and accomplishment. . . . The least credulous must acknowledge that at least he was a marvelous man."
BERLIN SOCIETY 1883

BERLIN SOCIETY              1883



CORRESPONDENCE AND NEWS.
     DURING several months past our pastor, the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, has been absent on a trip to England and Europe, during which time the Rev. Mr. Czerny, of Philadelphia, has very acceptably officiated in his stead, and made friends of all with whom he has been associated.
     On the 26th October, Mr. Tuerk returned, hale, hearty, and much improved. His return relieved Mr. Czerny from further duty, and his friends prepared a purse to be presented to him previous to his leaving for home. The evening of Friday, the 9th instant, was selected for a social in the basement of the Temple. After the supper the seats were arranged in order; Mr. Jacob Stroh, of Waterloo was Chosen chairman; on taking the chair he thanked the audience for the honor they had shown him by electing him chairman, and explained the objects of the meeting which were, first, to present to our pastor, Mr. Tuerk, with a "Welcome Home" address, and second, Mr. Czerny with a "Fare well" address and purse.
     On behalf of the Society Mr. George Billinger, one of our oldest members, read the address of "Welcome Home to Mr. Tuerk," and he (Mr. T.) replied in suitable terms, and added a very interesting account of his travels, etc.          Mr. William Hendry, of Berlin, was then called on to read the address and make the presentation to Mr. Czerny; this completed, Mr. Czerny in a short but feeling reply, expressed his thanks for the kind presentation and address, and the kindness he had received during his stay in Berlin. The purse contained about eighty-four dollars. The unanimous feeling of our Society in respect to Mr. Czerny cannot be better expressed than in the words of the address.
     "We have in no ordinary degree enjoyed and been edified by your professional ministrations, and your dignified and affable deportment on the wore social plane of life. We have admired and appreciated your fitness and ability to disseminate the Heavenly Truths of the LORD'S New Church, and Your devotion to her cause."
     "It having been ordained that you must soon leave us to labor in other fields of the LORD'S Vineyard, we embrace this opportunity of expressing our sorrow to part with you, and to present you with this purse as a tangible token of our respect and esteem; and we pray that the LORD will preserve you in health and strength to labor in His service throughout a long, useful, and happy life."
     During the evening the proceedings were nicely varied and enlivened by the church choir.


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     All enjoyed a pleasant evening, and arrived home about the seasonable hour of ten.
     I omitted to mention that during his reply Mr. Tuerk referred in eulogistic terms to the good and useful work The Academy is and has been doing in the preparation of candidates for the New Church Ministry, and the Purity of the doctrines inculcated and wished it a long and successful continuance in its good work. These sentiments were heartily received and approved by the listeners.
     BERLIN, Nov. 20th, 1883
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     THE Theological School of Boston opened its sessions October 9th with eleven pupils.
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     THE REV. W. H. HAYDEN and wife will spend the winter in Washington. Their address is No. 1605 "I" Street, N. W.
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     THE American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society has decided to purchase a building in Lafayette Place, New York city, for thirty thousand dollars.
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     THE REV. W. H. SCHLIFRER having terminated his engagement with the German congregation of Chicago, is now on alternate Sundays at Henry, Ill.
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     THE REV. J. E. BOWERS has been recently engaged in missionary work in Canada. He visited the isolated receivers in Ingersoll, and baptized ten persons, three adults and seven children. He is now making a tour through Michigan.
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     THE REV. DR. HIDBARD has general charge of The missionary work of the "General Church of Pennsylvania," particularly in the Eastern District. He is now making a tour of the State in order to fix upon the most favorable points for active and continued work. The Rev. Andrew Czerny, having finished his work in Berlin, Canada has gone to Pittsburgh to enter, upon his duties in the Mission field of the Western District.
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     THE subject of the Church in Sweden is attracting considerable attention at present. A number of letters respecting it have appeared in the Messenger. It seems to be the general opinion that some memorial of Swedenborg ought to be established in Sweden. Several plans have been suggested, the most practical of which is that the Society in Stockholm be so aided as to enable it to erect a suitable temple to worship in.
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     MR. FROST and family are now duly settled in their new home at Detroit. Mr. Frost has entered upon his duties with great energy. A class to study the Doctrines has been started, which meets every Friday and uses The Apocalypse Revealed as a text-book. Sunday evening lectures are soon to be commenced. In the Sunday-school every pupil over fourteen years of age is in the pastor's class, this class has more than twenty members and is constantly increasing. Mr. Frost has arranged to be at home every Tuesday evening to receive those who may wish to consult him.
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     THE work of caring for orphans, especially (but not exclusively) those of New Church parentage, has been added to the numerous uses of The Academy of the New Church. The Academy does not propose to erect an orphan asylum or carry on an industrial farm, but intends, so far as means are given it, to provide homes for orphans, where they will receive instruction and be brought up in the Church. It has already under its charge five children. This department of the Academy is under the direction of the Rev. Dr. Hibbard, who may be addressed at No. 2040 Cherry Street, Philadelphia,-Pa.
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     Mr. SCHIWEK, who has been preaching earnestly in East Prussia, is suffering from diseased eyes. This winter, he says, sickness follows sickness. At one time he lost his voice, which, after partial restoration, was followed by catarrh of the chest, and at last accounts he was suffering from weakness and pain in the eyes. "How good," he exclaims, in a letter to the Neukirchenblaetter, "is it that the merciful LORD has granted me the gift of preaching extemporaneously, with the Bible and my notes alone before me." It will be remembered that Mr. Schiwek is partly though probably not sufficiently sustained the Convention.
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     THE Michigan Association met in Detroit, October 27th and 28th. Delegates from Detroit Ypsilanti, Ruby, St. Clair County, Milan, Fowlerville, and Port Huron. The Detroit Society was received into the Association, which now includes all Societies in the State except that at Gorand Rapids. The Rev. Mr. Frost, of Detroit, was chosen Presiding-Minister; the Rev. Mr. Shepherd of Ruby, Vice-President; Mr. Eugene Laible, Secretary, and Mr. J. B. Wayne, Treasurer. The officers were constituted a Tract and Mission Board to maintain a depository of New Church books, and to distribute tracts. Hereafter missionaries are to receive three dollars per diem while actually in the field, and traveling expenses. All contributions received are to be turned into the Treasury.
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     THE Messenger states that the Executive Committee of the "Convention" Theological School have decided to establish a New Church correspondence school, to enable clergymen and students in theology, whether connected with the New Church or not, and others, who on account of distance are unable to obtain the assistance they need in study, by personal association with New Church organizations. The School is not for those New Church people, however who can meet instruction in regular ways from their own ministers. "The school will issue fortnightly a leaflet, assigning portions to be read, indicating the more important subjects for attention and asking questions upon them, giving opportunities also for questions in return. As the answers are received printed sheets will be prepared, explaining the points which seem generally to require comment. The first leaflet is to be issued January 1st, 1884, and the others fortnightly until July. "A fee of five dollars a year will be required, which may be increased or diminished or remitted under proper conditions."