ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE PRIESTHOOD              1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Vol. XXI.          JANUARY, 1901.          No. I.
     THAT the Priesthood are endowed with an especial enlightenment from the Lord, on account of their sacred office, is plainly taught in the doctrines of the New Church. It is also as plainly taught that this enlightenment is not received by all alike; and this teaching--is confirmed by experience, for some priests have a more interior perception than others, and all are not animated by the same zeal.

     Let us examine the teaching concerning the Enlightenment of the Priesthood with view to a clear understanding of the causes of the difference in reception, and especially in relation to good shepherds and bad shepherds.

     In the True Christian Religion, n. 146, we read:

     That the Divine Virtue and operation which is meant by the sending of the Holy Spirit, with the clergy in special is Enlightenment and Instruction. That there are in special. Enlightenment and Instruction, is because those are of their office, and inauguration into the ministry carries them with it.

     This passage brings clearly before us the teaching that the clergy have a light not given to others; as well as the fact that this light is conferred by inauguration into the priestly office. It is given that they may be able to instruct the people in the truth and to lead thereby to the good of life. This doctrine makes one with the teaching, given elsewhere, that truth should be insinuated by no others than teaching ministers, and also with the fact that in heaven no others are allowed to teach in the temples.

     This operation of the Holy Spirit is taught, with two important additions, in the True Christian Religion, n. 155, as follows:-

     Above in the third article it was shown that that Divine Virtue, which is meant by the operation of the Holy Spirit, with the clergy in special, is Enlightenment and Instruction; but to these, two intermediates accede, which are perception and disposition; wherefore there are four which with the clergy follow in order, Enlightenment, Perception, Disposition and Instruction.

     Enlightenment is from the Lord. Perception is with man according to the state of his mind formed by doctrines, which if they are truths, perception becomes clear from the light which enlightens; but if they are false perception becomes obscure, which nevertheless may appear as if clear from confirmations, but this is from fatuous light, which before the merely natural sight is similar to clearness.

     But disposition is from the affection of the love of the will, the delight of whose love disposes; if this is the love of evil and thence of the false, it excites a zeal which outwardly is harsh, rough, burning and fire-vomiting, and within is wrath, fury and unmercifulness. But if it is of good and thence of truth, it is outwardly mild, smooth, thundering and glowing, and within is charity, grace and mercy. But instruction follows as an effect from those as causes. Thus enlightenment, which is from the Lord, is turned into various lights and into various colors, with every one according to the state of his mind.

     Here it is clearly taught that although a special enlightenment or illustration from the Lord, is given to every priest when he is inaugurated into the ministry, nevertheless the light is differently received by each one, according to the formation of his mind by doctrinals, and according to the affection of his will. These differences in minds give rise to difference in perception and disposition, and from these to the difference in the quality of the instruction given.

     Let us first consider the Intermediate which is called Disposition and which is said to flow from the affection of the love of the will. Disposition gives rise to zeal.

     By disposition is meant the arrangement or order in which doctrinals are disposed in the mind in order to bring about an end, i. e., to accomplish a purpose. The truths of doctrine in the mind of a priest, be they true or false, are disposed in the mind with a view to obtain what he loves; and the zeal with which he preaches flows from his love, and is of the same quality as the love. If his love is evil, i. e., if he loves himself, his own glory and honor, above all things, then he uses his doctrine to obtain glory, honor, position and gain. If any persons or things do not favor and promote his honor and gain he inwardly and, so far as he dares, outwardly confirmations, but this rages against them.

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If he preaches true doctrine he nevertheless rages against those who do not receive it, or who oppose it, and even persecutes them, not because they injure the church, nor because he fears lest they lose their souls, but because they derogate from his glory, honor or gain, and for this reason he hates them.

     There is in his zeal no love of the Lord, no love of the church, no love of saving souls, but only the love of self or the love of the world; hence there is in his zeal no love and mercy, but instead thereof, hatred and cruelty.

     This is what is meant by the teaching "if this is the love of evil and thence of the false, it excites a zeal which is outwardly harsh, rough, burning and fire-vomiting, and within is wrath, fury and unmercifulness."

     The zeal of the evil priests is spoken of in many places in the Writings, where it is said that, even when they preach against evils and falsities, they are surrounded by evil spirits who inspire and lead them in the midst of their holy external.

     Concerning these we are taught:-

     It is similar with priests and presbyters who preach holy things and nevertheless live evilly and believe evilly; with these there are not good spirits but evil also when they are in worship which appears holy in external form, for it is the love of self and of the world, i. e., a love of obtaining honors and getting gain, and on account of fame, which causes them to burn and presents a holy affection, sometimes even so far that nothing of simulation is perceived, and then neither is it believed by them; when nevertheless they are in the midst of evil spirits who are in a similar state, and aspire and inspire. That evil spirits can be in such a state and that they are when they are in externals, and are held back from the love of self and the world, it is given me to know from much experience, concerning which from the Divine Mercy of the Lord, in those things which follow at the end of the chapter. Neither do they have communication with heaven with themselves, but they who hear and receive the word from their mouth have, if they are in a pious and holy internal; for it matters nothing from whom the voice of good and truth flows forth, if only the life is not manifestly wicked, for this scandalizes. (A. C. 4311)

     The source of zeal with evil priests, viz., from spirits of hell, is clearly taught in the above passage, and at the same time it is pointed out that even such priests can be used by the Lord to teach the truth, if their lives are not openly evil. An important truth is brought before us in the last few words of the above passage and, although it does not bear directly on the subject before us, I cannot forbear calling attention to it.

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This truth is that a manifestly evil life in a priest causes scandal in the minds of the laity, and closes the mind to the reception of the truth when taught by such a priest.

     Every priest ought to live a good life, i. e., ought to shun evils just as others ought; but it seems also to be the duty of priests to avoid the appearance of evil. By this I do not mean that a priest ought to avoid doing what is right because others think it to be evil, but I mean that he ought to guard lest he appear to be doing that which is evil, and ii he is reported as doing evil he ought to defend his reputation for the sake of his use.

     But to return to the subject of Disposition and the consequent zeal which flows from the affection of the love of the will. Priests are warned not to mistake the zeal flowing from an evil love, for the inspiration of the holy spirit. This warning is given in the number from the True Christian Religion, in which the especial enlightenment of the priesthood is first taught; and the warning is needed by all.

     But it is to be well guarded, lest they persuade themselves that the zeal by which many are seized while they are preaching, is the Divine operation in their hearts, for it is given similar and still more ardent with enthusiasts, and also with those who are in extreme false doctrines, yea with those who despise the Word; and worship nature for God, and reject faith and charity as into a sack behind the back, and while they preach and teach, hang it before the face as a certain ruminatory stomach from which they bring forth and raise up those things which they know will serve for food to their hearers. For zeal in itself regarded is a burning of the natural man; if there is within in it the love of truth then it is as the sacred fire which inflowed into the apostles, concerning which it says, in their Acts, that there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, which sat upon every one of them, whence they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, Chap. ii, 3- 4.

     But if within in that zeal or burning there lies hidden the love of the false, then it is as a fire hidden within wood, which breaks forth and burns the house. Thou who deniest the holiness of the Word and the Divinity of the Lord, take I pray thee thy sack from thy back, which thou mayest do freely at home, and thou wilt see. I know that those who are meant by Lucifer, who are those who are of Babel, when they enter the temple and more when they climb the pulpit, especially they who name themselves the society of Jesus, are seized by a zeal which with many is from infernal love and thence they vociferate more vehemently and draw deeper breath than those who are in zeal from heavenly love. (T. C. R. 146.)

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     This Disposition from infernal love and the zeal arising from it give rise to the persecutions and cruelties, which, done in the name of religion, shock the mind as we read the pages of history. This spirit is not dead at this day, though much restrained in its operation, as we may see if we but look about us, and still better if we look within, at the loves and desires of our natural man. The natural man strives for honor, for reputation and for gain, and we must continually strive against the zeal arising from natural loves alone, if we would be true priests of the Lord's New Church. Which one of us, if he has done the work of self-examination, has not discovered these loves rising up within him? Who has not found much of his zeal against those who oppose the truth, to arise from love of his own honor and gain? Which one of us has not been tempted to attribute and take to self the honor which belongs to the Lord, when the truth has met with a warm reception and our hearers come and thank us through whom the truth is given? These loves of honor, of reputation and of gain are the evils which we must persistently and continually search out and shun as deadly enemies to the church and to our own spiritual lives.

     As we shun these evils our minds will be open to the reception of the love of saving souls, the love which the Lord gives to the priesthood that serves him. Receiving this love and the consequent love of good and truth we will be inspired with the zeal that is compared to heavenly fire. From that love the truths of doctrine will be arranged in our minds and will be brought forth in our discourse with a view to lead our hearers to the Lord and to the worship of Him alone. Inwardly there will be patience and kindness with those who are unable to see the truth as soon as presented, and also with those who are never able to see as we do; though we teach the truth with no uncertain sound yet we will not be angry with those who do not receive it, but will labor persistently to present the truth in a form in which it can be seen. And when our zeal for the truth is excited by those who are, or appear to be confirmed in falsity and in the desire to injure and destroy the church, love and mercy from the Lord will nevertheless be within, so that we will be really at once to soften the outward form at the first sign of repentance or at the discovery that we have mistaken their attitude; and if they appear to remain in their state of evil and falsity we will do only what is necessary to protect the church; we will not follow them further, from hatred and revenge.

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     Into such a state of spiritual love for good and truth must the priesthood of the New Church enter more and more interiorly as the church advances in the faith and life of our Holy Doctrines. Then shall we have the zeal described in the True Christian Religion, where it says: "If it is of good and thence of truth, it is outwardly mild, smooth, thundering and glowing, and within is charity, grace and mercy. (T. C. R. 155.)

     Let us now proceed to the consideration of that priestly grace called Perception.
               (To be Continued.)
ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE DIVINE HUMAN 1901

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE DIVINE HUMAN       Rev. ALFRED ACTON       1901

     No one hath seen God at any time; the Only Begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set Him forth to view. John i, 18.

Lessons: True Christian Religion, n. 153, 154; John x.

     IN these words we are taught the Supreme of the Doctrines of the New Church, namely, that the Divine can be approached only in the Divine Human. God whom no one hath seen, is the Divine Itself, or the Divine Esse, which is the Divine Good; the Son who hath set Him forth, is the Divine Existere, or the Divine Truth, by which the Divine Good is set forth or revealed. Therefore the words mean in a general sense that no one hath ever seen the Divine except in the Lord's Own revelation of Himself as Divine Truth, or in the Divine Human. This is an eternal truth, signified by "at any time;" that is to say, it has ever been true, it is true, and it will be true for the countless ages to come.

     In order to understand this truth, that the Divine only appears to man through the Divine Human, it is necessary to understand the doctrine of Degrees. Every man has three degrees, a natural, a spiritual, and a celestial. In the lowest or natural degree is man's conscious and active life. This natural is equally with all men,--celestial, spiritual and natural; and also with all the evil. The fact that they have a natural, in which is active life and conscious thought, does not make men natural; for the quality of anything does not depend on the plane in which it exists, but on that from which it is ruled and actuated.

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Thus celestial men have indeed a natural, but their natural is ruled by influx from the celestial, and therefore they are not natural men but celestial; and so with the spiritual, their natural is ruled by influx from the spiritual; but with the evil the natural is the field in which all manner of evil affections and lusts have sway. To render this more plain let me use an illustration. Take the truth that God is one. This in form always remains the same, yet its quality is different with every man and spirit. With some it is a celestial truth, with others a spiritual truth, and with others again it may even be a falsity. Its quality depends not on the plane in which it exists, but on that which inflows into it. Every man, spirit and angel, therefore, has three degrees, the celestial, spiritual and also a natural,-not a material but a conscious plane, the natural of the spiritual. Within these is the soul itself; which is called the human internal, the dwelling place of a Divine. This inmost is invisible to man, it is inviolable by him, he has no knowledge of it, and hence the Divine good dwelling therein cannot be known to him, nor can the Lord be conjoined to him thereby; for man cannot be conjoined to that of which he has no idea and hence no knowledge.

     In order that man may be conjoined to the Lord and thus receive the Divine flowing from within, he must have knowledges--truths concerning the Lord--come to him from without, i.e., to the natural, in order that these, freely received, may form planes in his mind in which the Divine Good can be present, and by which he can conjoin himself to the Lord and the Lord to him. Thus we have this general truth, that the Lord as to Good cannot be present with man or conjoined to him except in and by the Divine Truth; and that when he does so approach the Lord, the Divine Good is also present and vivifies him. No one hath seen God at any time; the Only Begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath set forth to view. It is therefore as Divine truth that the Lord has always appeared to man, even in most ancient times, and never as Divine Good. His appearance as Divine Truth before His advent into the world is meant by the "Word" which was ill the beginning, which was afterwards "made flesh."

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"In the beginning was the Word; by it were all things made, and the Word was made flesh." It is also meant by the Lord when He says, "Before Abraham was I Am." This Divine Truth is the Divine Human.

     It was as Divine Truth therefore that the Lord appeared to the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church. But it must he noted that the Divine Truth as it is in itself cannot be seen; it is necessary that it take on a form in which it can appear and teach man, in which it call be present to him in his natural, that is to say, in which it can be seen and heard. Therefore the Divine Truth assumed a natural. Before the Advent into the world, however, this natural was assumed for the time being, from an angel, who was infilled with the Divine. The Divine Truth Appearing is Sometimes called the Human Divine, but after His Advent, when the Lord appeared in His own Natural, it is called the Divine Human. The Lord, then, appeared as the Divine Truth before the natural eyes of the men of the Most Ancient Church; not before the eyes of their material body,--for this was not necessary, since they were not immersed in material things, nor was their gaze fixed to earth,-but before the eyes of their spirit, which were often opened. Thus was the Lord seen to them as a Divine Man, thus did he speak to them face to face, and thus did they learn from Him, and by Him became receptive of the Divine Good, that is to say, "saw the Father." From this we can understand what is taught concerning the nature of the revelation made to that church, i. e., that it was by an internal way, by this is not meant that it was by an unconscious way, for that is impossible, but by sight and speech to them when their spiritual eyes were opened; this is also what is meant when it is said that they were instructed in dreams and visions.

     But this natural which was assumed by the Lord from an angel, was finite, and could not be so far filled with the Divine as to destroy all its finite limitations; for had that been the case, it would have become Divine, and the angel would have been entirely destroyed. Still this appearance, weakened as it was, was sufficient for the celestial men of the Most Ancient Church, for their internals were opened to the influx of the Divine Good, and therefore when the Human Divine appeared to them and taught them they at once received. and the good flowing from within gave them illustration and perception. Thus they were conjoined to the Lord and saved.

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     Not so however when men fell. When the Ancient Church had taken the place of the Most Ancient their internals were then nor opened to the Lord but to the world. And although the eyes of their spirit were sometimes opened and the Lord still appeared to them in the form of an angel and taught them, this of itself was not sufficient. There was not that heavenly affection in them that could receive the truth thus revealed. Evil had so invaded that truth had to appear to them in the most ultimate way, i. e., through the sensual, that they might commit it to their memory and thence receive it in their life, that it might be in them a plane from which they could understand and ill their way perceive the truths revealed to them by the angel of the Lord. For in the sensual evil assails man; in the sensual it must be met. Therefore we are taught that when evil took possession of man, the truths which the men of the Most Ancient Church had seen from within, were written dawn and preserved on parchment, that man might read them, learn of them, and that there might thus be formed with him a conscience from which he could see and receive the truth taught him when the eyes of his spirit were opened.

     But even this was not enough to entirely rescue him from the evil spirits by which he was surrounded. The Lord did indeed appear to men, as He had appeared to the Most Ancients: but perception being lacking the finiteness of the Angel by whom the Lord appeared so far weakened the influx of the Divine Truth, that it was not strong enough, they were not able to see it clearly enough to prevail against the malice and cunning of the internals. It was necessary that the Lord Himself should come to them and teach them in His own Divine Natural, that they might see truths in clear light, and thence put away the insinuations of the hells. And so we are taught that most of those who lived after the decline of the Most Ancient Church could not be elevated into heaven, but were held in the World of Spirits, and there suffered infestations by the evil which they could not avoid. But that they might still be held in a salvable slate the Lord gave them as the first and principal of those truths which were preserved from the Most Ancient Church, this: That the Lord is a Man, and that He would come upon earth and appear to them in His own Divine Human, and save them.

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This Truth was His ultimate presence with that Church. Thus they could think of him as a Divine Man visible to their eyes; thus they could be held in communication with the celestial heavens, and thus they could be prepared to receive the Lord when He came, and could be saved by Him.

     It may be asked why did not the Lord come at that time and reveal Himself to them in His own Divine Natural. The answer is given in the Writings. It is because evils were so direful, the perversion of spiritual things so interior, that had He come the evil would have interiorly profaned the truths revealed, and the good would hardly have been able to receive Him. Still, as was said, He did appear, both through an angel and also in the Promise concerning Him, but this was in such a form that the evil could not so interiorly profane. As the Lord foresaw, man became more and more immersed in evils, the truths which were revealed in the Word, and those which were revealed by the Angel of the Lord, became less and less understood by man, so that at length, with the Israelites, they were mere sensual and material truths, and even falses. When man had sunk so low that he saw nothing of spiritual truth, then the Lord came on earth; when the evil would no longer receive Him and hence could not profane, He, the Divine Truth which had appeared through an angel, descended and took upon Himself a body in which He could be seen of all men in His Own Divine Human. And that He might still further guard against the evil receiving Him, that He might even be rejected by them, He appeared in lowly surroundings, He was born in a manger. From the body which He thus assumed He cast out all perverse states which man had formed, and put on states fully and wholly receptive of the Divine, and thus He became even as to the Body, the Divine Truth with man. Then the men of the Ancient Church and those of succeeding ages, who had looked to Him as the Divine Man to come, were enlightened by His Presence, delivered from their bondage, and elevated into heaven.

     If you have followed me in this teaching concerning the Lord's appearance to the Church before His Advent into the world, you will be able to understand two apparently contradictory sets of statements which occur in the Writings, especially as applied to the Most Ancient Church. The one statement is that the Church worshiped the Lord in Human form as a Man, and were in the clearest light; and the other is that they, and all who lived before the Lord's Advent into the world, worshiped an Invisible God, with whom there is no conjunction,--that they saw truth as in a dream, dimly.

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They did indeed worship the Lord under a Human form, and were thence in clear light, because they worshiped Him in the form of an angel in Whom they perceived the Lord Himself; but the Lord was not immediately present with them to their natural except by an angel, and hence it is also true that they worshiped an invisible God, who was visible to them, and to whom they were conjoined, only by that which represented Him but was not Himself; and therefore their light, and the light in their heaven was dim, and as the twilight, compared to what it became after His coming, when He himself appeared to them. This is taught in the Word, when it is said, "And the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be as the light of seven days, when the Lord bindeth up the breach of His people." (Is. xxx, 26.)

     This doctrine of the Lord's appearance to man is the supreme among the Doctrines of the Church. Without it there is no knowledge of the Lord, and hence no life. And because it is the supreme truth of the Church, therefore the denial of it is and has ever been the supreme falsity attacking the Church. Evil is such that it denies all above itself, and especially the truth concerning the visible God. It can believe in an Invisible God, for this is to believe in no God, but it cannot actually confess God, i. e., believe and acknowledge the Visible God. Hence through all the ages, since most ancient times, there has been an attack on the Doctrine concerning the Lord's Divine Human. In the Ancient Church this manifested itself by a denial of the teaching of the Word that the Lord was a man, and especially of this, that he would be born on earth. It was maintained that the invisible could not become visible, and that it would demean God to be born a man. And this denial gained greater and greater strength as evil grew and men became sensual, as the time of the Lord's coming approached, so that when He came the world of spirits was filled with worshipers of an invisible God, scandalizers of the Divine Human, who, having confirmed themselves against Him to come were ready to scatter about their scandals against Him when He had come. And these evil spirits, finding fit subjects for their machinations in the sensual, atheistic Jews, were present with them to incite them to attack the Divinity of our Lord, to make Him a scoff and a sneer, and finally to crucify Him.

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And though these spirits were judged and cast into hell, yet so low had man sunk, so widespread was evil, that from hell they found subjects in the world of spirits through whom they could continue their attack upon the Lord's Divine Human, and the Lord foresaw that His Church would not stand.

     And so it came to pass. Despite the fact that the Lord had shown Himself to His disciples, had talked with them face to face, had taught them that He was to be worshiped, had shown them after His glorification that He was not a ghost or spirit, or breath of wind,--in short that He was not invisible, but was a Perfect Man, who talked with them and supped with them,--despite these revealed truths the Church soon forsook Him. The ancient hells, flowing through their subjects into Arius and his followers, again raised the standard of an Invisible God, again took up their attack on the Lord by denying His presence with man. And as evil increased with man, as the Arian crew in the world of spirits was enlarged and grew in audacity and malice, their dreadful and scandalous heresies infected the whole Church, until the Divine in the Lord was altogether denied, it was elevated above the Human, and the Human was thought of interiorly as a mere man, and the Father, the Invisible God, was approached, and to Him were all prayers addressed "for the sake of His Son."

     Then total damnation threatened the whole Human Race, mankind was in greater danger than had ever before occurred or will ever again threaten. More interior evils indeed had been active and present with man at the end of the Most Ancient Church; but then the Lord could close up interiors and reveal Himself in a more ultimate form, by which men could still be saved; but at the end of the Christian Church men were in danger of entirely separating themselves from the most ultimate presence of the Lord, and thus destroying all conjunction with Him and communication with heaven, that is to say, they were in danger of total and eternal damnation.

     To save the world from this dreadful consequence of the rejection of Him by the Church, the Lord came again to man, in a revelation of the true doctrine concerning the Divine Human.

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When the end was at hand He himself came in His Divine Human and established a New Church with the few who would receive Him, and to this Church He revealed in a rational and interior light that His Human is Divine, and that He Alone is to be approached and worshiped. All the Writings are to be referred to this one great End. All other truths are given us that we may see this one truth the more clearly manifest, for if we see this all others are living,--without it they are dead.

     The one great doctrine He has given His New Church--by which that Church can more and more clearly see the Divinity of the Human, see that it is indeed the Invisible God present with man,--is this, that the Lord in His Human did all things from His Own proper power; that from His own power he fought and conquered Hell, from His own proper power He united Himself to the Father and made His Human Divine; that the Divine did not act through Him, but that as man acts as of himself from the Lord, so the Lord in His Human acted out of Himself from the Divine. This is an angelic arcanum for the New Church; it is our safeguard. With this truth seen, we see that in the Divine Human God is man and Man is God; without it we can think only of an invisible God flowing through a Human Body. With it we are powerful against all the heresies which spring from those spirits who still keep up the conflict waged of old; without it we are well nigh powerless against them.

     For it must not be supposed that the attack of the Hells on the Lord in His Human stopped with the destruction of the Christian Church, or that they will hesitate to attack the truths now so clearly revealed. Nay, that conflict will not stop; it will rather grow the more active. The hells which through ages past have destroyed previous churches have ever found in every church their subjects and champions to carry on the conflict, to continue the assault; and so with the New Church. They will always find men,--good as well as evil; in and out of the organized Church,--who will become their instruments in destroying the Lord's presence with man. But they can never more prevail, for such is the nature of the revelation now made, such is the power of the light now shining forth from the Lord in His Glorified Human, that men if they will can be fully armed by the rational truths of revelation against every assault, however insidious. This is the interior reason why this New Church is the Crown of all the Churches which have been, and that it will endure to eternity.

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     To understand the nature of the attack on the Lord's Human we must understand in what way Arianism infests the whole Christian world at this day, even those who profess to believe in the Divinity of the Lord's Human; for in some similar way must we expect it to attack the New Church. We read in the Writings:--

     "In the end of the Church the Lord is indeed preached, and a Divine is attributed to Him similar to the Divine of the Father; but still scarcely anyone thinks of His Divine, because they place it above or outside of His Human; wherefore when they look to His Divine, they do not look to the Lord, but to the Father as to another, when yet the Divine which is called the Father is in the Lord. . . . Hence it is that man thinks no otherwise of the Lord than as of a common man; and from this thought flows his faith, howsoever by lip he may say he believes in His Divine. Let each one explore, if he can, the idea of his thought about the Lord whether it is not such: and when it is such he cannot be conjoined to Him in faith and love, and by conjunction receive anything of the good of love and the truth of faith. Hence now it is that in the end of the Church there is no acknowledgment of the Lord, i. e., of the Divine in the Lord and from the Lord. The belief is that the Divine of the Lord is acknowledged, because it is from the Doctrine of the Church, but while the Divine is separated from His Human, His Divine is not acknowledged interiorly but only externally.

     In a word there is indeed an external but no internal acknowledgment of the Divine. Here we are taught concerning the great falsity which now infests the Christian World, and which in one form or another will infest and try to destroy the New Church; for these teachings concerning the falses of the Old Church are given to the New Church. That falsity is, that the Divine is not in the Human but is above or outside of the Human; that is to say, that the Divine is in the Human but not of the Human; and that the Divine is now again invisible. In this there can be no idea of a visible God, and hence no conjunction; for that which is visible is rejected, against this destructive falsity, as I have said, is given the truth that the Lord fought out of Himself, from the Divine, and that the Divine did not flow through Him but into Him. This is the only possible way in which man can think of a visible God; all other ways project the thought into what is invisible. We cannot think of that as the Visible God which is only a medium through which the invisible passes, for then the thought is fixed on the invisible, that is to say, on nothing.

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Such thought may be compared to thought concerning man's soul without his body--which nevertheless is his soul appearing. And in order that man may be in no way deceived, the Lord when He appeared on earth as a Man; Perfect and Complete, did not tell his disciples to pray to the Father, or that the Father appears to them through Him. No! but He ever directed all their thoughts to Himself; in Him they were to believe, and by Him they were saved. And in His Second Coming He does not destroy this His teaching; He still bids us look to Him and to Him, alone, for He is God with us. And to still further confirm this He at His Second Coming appeared as a Man to Swedenborg; He appeared as a Man to His disciples, who recognized Him; he appeared as a Man to the spirits of Jupiter, and to those of Mercury, and He appears as a Man to the angels of Heaven; and this appearing is in His Divine Human.

     The subject of the Lord having acted out of Himself from the Father, i. e., from His own proper power, is of such importance to the comprehension of a Visible God that there is hardly a page of the Writings which does not in some way teach it; for unless we see this we cannot see God, but our sight will perish in a vain endeavor to see the invisible.

     Though the truths concerning the Lord are destined to become more and more plain to us, this one great fundamental we must ever rest in, that the Lord in His Human acted from His own proper power. This Truth shall be our defense against the attacks which will be made on the Lord of the Church. This Truth we must jealously guard, we must not suffer it to be impugned or weakened, for should we lose it we shall lose that rational sight of the Divine of the Lord's Human, the lack of which destroyed the First Christian Church, and without which there can be no genuine acknowledgment of the Lord as God made manifest to men. This Truth, therefore, that the Lord acts from His own proper power, is called the great angelic arcanum which is revealed now for the first time for those who will he of the New Church.

     It is the duty of every man of the Church to learn and meditate on these truths concerning the Lord, for He has revealed Himself that we may see him, He has taught that we may know. And one thing He tells us which we will do well to obey: To examine our interior thought and see whether perchance we do not think of Him as an invisible God, and to see to it that we do think of Him as The Divine Glorified Man Whom we may see, and to Whom we can be conjoined.

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For, "No one hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father. He hath set Him forth to view." The Lord alone in His divine Human-as the Divine Man, the God of Heaven and earth-is to be approached and worshiped.-Amen.
MEMORABLE RELATIONS ADAPTED 1901

MEMORABLE RELATIONS ADAPTED       A. A       1901

     IV. THE IRON AGE.

     Two days went by after the journey to the men of the Copper Age, during which Swedenborg receive no further visit from his companion on that journey; but on the third day the angel came again to him and proposed that they should finish the course of their visits to the men of the four Ages. "The last Age still remains," he continued, "which is called the Iron Age. The people of this Age dwell in the north along the sides of the west, but further to the west than the men of the copper Age."

     Swedenborg having prepared himself for the journey, they set off together, turning their faces to the north-west. And soon they entered upon a long and somewhat narrow road which stretched straight before them as far as they could see. Along this road they pursued their way, and as they walked on they talked together about the men whom they were about to visit.

     "The Ages which we have visited, and this to which we are now going," said the angle, "are meant by the image which Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon saw in a dream." And he quoted the passage from Daniel: "The head of this image was of fine gold, his breast and arms of silver, his breast and thighs of brass, his legs of iron, and his feet part of iron and part of clay." (Dan. ii, 32, 33).

     "The people of the God Age," he went on, "and also the people of the Silver and Copper Ages, we have already visited and have learned at what time they lived on the earth. As for the people of the Iron Age, who are meant by the iron legs of the image, they are the early inhabitants of Asia who lived therefore before the Coming of the Lord.

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     And as they talked on, he explained to his companion, that the people of the Iron Age were all those who had lived in Asia from the end of the Copper Age, which was before the time of Abraham, unto the time when the Lord came on earth; for after the Lord came, a new Age commenced. These early inhabitants of Asia had the Ancient Word, which they read, though they understood very little of it; still they learned that the Lord would come, and they worshiped Him according to their Word as far as they could.

     "It is quite clear," the angel said, among other things, "that the men of the Iron Age lived before the Coming of the Lord, for they are mentioned by the Ancients, who call the time when they lived on earth, the Iron Age."

     The Ancients, of whom the angel here spoke, are particularly the ancient Greeks and Romans, for in their writings they tell us a great deal about the four Ages of the earth. Many of their books have been destroyed, but we have some still preserved among us at this day. Among these are some of the writings of Hesiod, a Greek poet who lived nearly a thousand years before the Coming of the Lord. In these writings he tells us that the time in which he lived was called the Iron Age. We have also the works of Ovid, a Latin poet, who was living on earth at the time the Lord came. Under the guise of fables he describes the four Ages of the earth at some length.

     In the Golden Age,--according to these ancient poets, who learned from the writings of the wise men of still more ancient times,--continual spring reigned on earth; the earth brought forth freely without cultivation, and men lived in peace and security. But in the Silver Age came the heat of summer and the cold of winter; men had to cultivate the ground and to sow seed for their daily bread; and, to protect themselves from the weather and from evil animals and evil men, they built houses and places for safe retreat. In the Copper or Brass Age the desire to possess the goods of others began to grow strong, and every man fenced his fields and guarded his goods in order to protect them from his neighbor; then came wars and the burning of jealousy and hatred. And in the last Age wickedness increased almost beyond bounds, and men became hard and unyielding to each other, so that their time was called the Age of Iron.

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     So interested were Swedenborg and his companion in their talk about the four Ages that they went along without paying any particular attention to the country through which they were passing or to the road on which they walked. And when, after some time, they lifted up their eyes and looked about them, they found to their surprise that they had left the open country, and were now in a forest, to which their road, which had become a mere path, had led them without their noticing. This forest, they saw on examination, consisted of beech trees, chestnuts and oaks.

     They wended their way along the cool and shady path through the forest, Swedenborg little anticipating what lay before him; but when they approached nearer to the centre of the woods, a threatening sight met their eyes. For there, straight before them, though at some distance, they saw among the trees on the right of the path the heads of fierce leopards and glimpses of their bodies; while at the left of the path were great bears their shaggy coats just showing through the trees. These beasts seemed to bar the path against any further progress by the travelers, and Swedenborg in wondered much at their presence and especially at the strange fact that the leopards were all on the right of the path, and the bears on the left.

     His companion, seeing his wonder, said: "Those animals which you see in the distance are not bears or leopards, but they are the men who guard the approaches to the people of the north. These guards have a very keen sense of smell, and they can tell at once from the odor of the passers by, whether they are spiritual or natural. If they are natural they let them pass without hurt, but if they are spiritual their odor so excites the rage of these guards that they rush upon them and drive them away. For the men of the Iron Age are all natural men, and they cannot bear to have any one who is spiritual come among them, unless indeed he is sent by the Lord; this is why these guards are set here to keep all such away."

     He then explained to his fellow traveler who these men are who thus appeared in front of them as leopards and bears.

     "Those whom you see on the left," he said, "are men who, when they were on earth, read the Letter of the Word without caring to learn any true doctrine from it, for they are interested only in the narrative of the Letter. In our world all such men appear at a distance like bears.

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But those on the right, whom you see as leopards, are men who not only care merely for the Letter of the Word, but who also use it to support their false notions and ideas. At distance, such men always appear to us like leopards."

     While the angel was talking the two travelers continued on their way through the forest, and though they were drawing nearer and nearer to the animals who were guarding the way in front of them they felt no fear; for what had they to fear when they knew that the Lord was with them? And their trust in the Lord was certainly justified, for as they drew stil1 nearer the bears and leopards, seeing them, slunk away into the depths of the forest as if driven by some unseen Presence.

     And thus Swedenborg and his guide walked safely on, following the path until they came to the end of the forest. There they found that the road let them through thickets of wood; and going through these without any further adventure, they entered upon what seemed to be a country devoted to pasture. For all around them were fields upon fields of grass, each field being fenced around with hedges of box tree.

     When they had walked by these fields for some time, they noticed that the ground in front of them took a decided slope downwards, for in the distance before then and below they saw an immense valley wherein they could just discern the walls and higher buildings of many cities. Soon, their road leading down the slope, they descended and entered the valley. hey then found themselves in a large plain on which many cities were built, some large and some small. They went by several of the smaller cities, past which the road took them first, nor did they pause in their journey until they came near one of the largest of the cities. Then turning aside from the road on which they were traveling, and which had now become a wide highway, they advanced to the gates of this city and entered in.

     And strange was the scene on which they gazed, a scene unlike anything they had ever met with in their former journeys. Instead of fine streets, straight and wide, with houses on either side in beautiful and harmonious variety, this city had crooked and irregular streets, some long and some short, some wide and some narrow. And this irregularity of the streets seemed even worse; than it really was, by reason of the irregularity in the houses bordering them; for of these houses, some were high and some were low, some were big and some little, some near the street and others were far back.

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Altogether the picture was quite an untidy one. The houses were covered all over on the outside with plaster, so that they seemed to be built of plaster, but on a closer examination it was found that they were really built of bricks, with beams of wood laid between for door rests and roofs, and that the plaster was laid over these bricks and beams.

     Walking along the streets of the city, the visitors saw several open spaces at which many streets met. These open spaces seemed to be places of public resort, for in each one of them were many of the citizens gathered together. In the centre of these public places was a building which looked like a temple; but of these buildings they saw only the roofs and the upper part of the walls, as they were built partly under ground. They learned from some of the citizens, that these were the sacred buildings of the city, which were consecrated to worship. These sacred buildings were not built of bricks plastered over like the houses, but of hewn limestone; but their great peculiarity was not so much that they were built of cut stone,--thing which they had not seen in any of the cities they had visited before,--but that, instead of being built above the ground or upon it, they were built below the level of the ground, in places hollowed out for the purpose, so that to enter them one had to descend by steps. This seemed strange for a temple of worship.

     After a time the visitors entered into one of these sacred buildings. They went down three steps, and found themselves in front of a door. Passing through this they entered into a large hall or room, in which they came upon many of the citizens kneeling down in prayer. But these did not seem to be united in their worship, for they were scattered in different groups here and there about the room. Most of these groups were kneeling in front of various idols or images in the shape of birds, fishes, animals or men, set in recesses or on pedestals around the walls. To these idols the citizens were praying on their knees. But by far the largest of the groups was that which was standing in the centre of the temple. In the midst of this group, towering a head above the people, was a large idol in the shape of a man. Before this idol the priests were performing the rites of their worship, while the people stood about it in attitudes of reverence and awe.

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     The two strangers learned that this great image was the principal idol of the city, an idol which the citizens called the tutelary or protecting God of the city, to which they looked for special protection. To it, therefore, they were most careful to offer their prayers and praise, and that was why the group gathered around it was the largest of the groups.

     As they turned their backs on this sad sight and were leaving the idolatrous temple, the angel said to his companion:

     "Those idols which we have just seen began with the men of the Silver Age, but a very different use was made of them. Such images we saw on our journey to the heavens where dwell the men of the Silver Age. These men when, during their life on earth, they saw such images, thought of the Lord, and of the many spiritual truths that come from Him; it was their delight to represent those truths in images carved in stone and wood. But when the Silver Age came to an end, and men forgot what these images represented, they began to pray to the images themselves; and afterwards, when they at last forgot even that the images represented anything at all, they began to think that these lifeless figures were so many Gods, and thus they came to worship them. This is the origin of all idolatry."

     While the angel had been speaking, they had ascended the steps, and by the time he had finished they were once more walking on the streets of the city. And having now satisfied themselves as to the religion of the citizens they began to pay greater attention to the citizens themselves than they had done heretofore. And they were certainly worthy of an examination, not because of their beauty, but because of their strangeness.

     The men whom they saw on the streets had faces of a grayish ashen color, a color which would have given them a somewhat sickly appearance had it not been for a firm expression, particularly about the lips. But it was not the expression of firmness such as we see on the faces of noble and wise men, but was instead, rather hard and somewhat cold, in fact, so much so that it at once suggested the idea of hard, unyielding steel.

     But it was the dress of the citizens that particularly attracted the attention of the two strangers; to them, it was somewhat clown-like and comical. It consisted of an upper garment or waist fitted tightly around the body; to this, waist was fastened, just above the loins, a mantle, which hung down and covered the loins and the upper part of the legs all round.

22


On their heads, most of the men wore hats such as sailors wear, except that they were curled up at both sides and hollowed in the middle, so that on top they looked something like little boats. The rulers and rich men of the city were dressed in similar manner as the other citizens, though their dress was of richer material; but instead of the curled sailor hats, they wore on their heads round hats, tall and high. Yet, in spite of their strange clothing, and somewhat harsh appearance of their faces, the inhabitants of the city seemed to be peaceful enough and bore themselves courteously to the two visitors.

     Swedenborg and his guide spent some time wandering about the streets of this strange city, examining its buildings and its inhabitants. When they had satisfied their curiosity the angel, reminding his companion of the object of their journey, said to him: "Come! enough of this; let us now seek instruction about the marriages of this people."

     Then, walking along one of the principal streets near the centre of the city, they entered into the grounds or outer courtyard of a large house, one which evidently belonged to a great man. In front of the house they found the owner, and by his clothing, and especially by his tall hat, they at once perceived that he was one of the great men, or as they were called, magnates, of the city.

     The magnate received his visitors in a pleasant manner, and having heard from the angel the reason of their coming he courteously invited them to enter into his house that they might talk together at their ease. Entering with their host they were shown into the outer room of the house, and there the magnate invited them to be seated evidently not wishing them to enter the living rooms of his house, the doors to which were closely shut.

     After some little conversation, in which the angel told the host something of their journey to the city, Swedenborg asked if he would kindly, inform them about the marriages of the men of the valley in which this and the other cities were situated, and particularly whether they lived with one wife or with many.

     "In this country," answered the magnate, "we do not live with only one wife. Some of us have two, some three, and others more than three.

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What most delights us is variety, obedience, and honor, and these we would not get unless we had many wives. For if we had but one wife we would soon grow weary of her, but when we have many we are continually enlivened and refreshed with new variety. If we had only one wife what obedience would we expect from her? would she not be our equal instead of our subject? and would we not be continually disturbed by this equality instead of receiving pleasant flattery from our wives' obedience? When we have many wives we greatly enjoy the dominion we have over them, and we get much delight from the honor they strive to pay us; but if we had to live with one wife only our lives would be continually vexed by constant wrangling as to who should, be the, master." And then, warming in his zeal, he exclaimed, "And what is a woman? Is she not born subject to, man's will? Is she not born to serve and not to rule? And therefore," he concluded, "if this city, and in this whole country, every had more than one wife, and over his wives he rules. In his own house he is like a king, and from the obedience of his wives the receives royal honors. This is what makes the blessedness of our life."

     He paused, and Swedenborg amazed and shocked at these opinions, so opposed to all he had heard in the cities he had visited only a few days before, exclaimed in indignant surprise:

     "Where then is conjugial love, which makes two souls into one, which conjoins one husband and one wife together and blesses their life with every joy and happiness? That love can never be divided as you divide your love, for if it were it would disappear altogether."

     "I do not understand what you say, answered the magnate, surprised in his turn at the sentiments of his guests. "How can a man be more blessed than when each of his wives is striving to be his favorite, and is doing her best to give him every honor?"

     At this point their conversation was interrupted by a man entering the room. He passed over to the double doors leading to the interior of the house where the magnate's wives were, and, without having said a single word, disappeared into the house, leaving the doors ajar behind him. Through these doors there then came such a filthy odor from the apartments of the wives, that the two visitors could not continue the interrupted conversation because of the stench in their nostrils; so that almost immediately after the man had disappeared, Swedenborg rose up from his seat and shut the doors.

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     This odor from the interior of the house, which was so offensive to the guests, was the odor of the polygamical love which rules wherever there are many wives. For in the Spiritual World all man's loves can be smelt, and spirits can tell from the smell whether those loves are good or evil. Thus conjugial love smells like the odor of sweet roses, but polygamical love like the stench of filth and dung.

     When the doors had been shut, and the filthy odor excluded from the room, Swedenborg, disgusted at the very thought of it, said severely:

     "How can you be allowed to live in this country when you have no love truly conjugial, and when, besides this, you also worship idols?"

     The magnate understood Swedenborg to say conjugial love, which is the love between male and female animals; for he was not in conjugial love, and in the Spiritual World, those who are not in conjugial love cannot say the word Conjugial, nor can they hear that word when it is spoken by another; it sounds to them as if he had said connubial. And so, when he answered his guest, the magnate said:

     "As to connubial love, we are in that love, for are we not jealous about our wives' In fact we are so jealous that we do not let anyone enter our houses further than the outer room or vestibule. Does not our jealousy show that we have connubial love, and does it not show how great that love is with us?"

     "But as to our idols," he continued in a humble manner, "we do not adore them. But we are not able to think about the God of the Universe unless we have images before our eyes, for we cannot lift our thoughts above what we see."

     "But have you not many idols," retorted Swedenborg, "of different sizes and different shapes? How can you receive the idea that there is only one God, when you look upon so many idols and pray to them?"

     At this question their host seemed somewhat puzzled. But after a short pause, "This is a mystery to us," he said, "and we do not understand it. Still we know that there is only one God, and that something of the worship of the One God lies hid in the form of each of our images."

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     "You are merely sensual men," Swedenborg exclaimed warmly, "living altogether in the senses and appetites of your bodies. There is no genuine love of God among you, nor do you have any real love of the wife. And yet it is these two loves which make man a heavenly man; without them he is merely an animal."

     The magnate received these stern words silently, and, to judge from his appearance, in a humble spirit; nor did he show any desire to injure his guest, or in any way to resent his chiding.

     And so, for a moment, silence fell upon the company. And then, suddenly, there appeared shining through the gate by which they had entered the house, what seemed like lightning, which, entering the room, filled it with its clear light.

     They all gazed at the light in wonder and admiration; then Swedenborg, turning to his host, asked him what this unexpected sight meant.

     "Such a Light," said the host, showing in his face the joy of his heart, "is a sign to us that the Ancient One from the East is about to visit our city and teach us about God, that He is One, that He alone is Almighty, the First and the Last. He also warns us not to worship our idols, and he shows us that we must look upon them merely as images of the heavenly things which come from God.

     This Ancient One is our angel, and we reverence him and hearken to his words. He visits us and lifts us up whenever we fall away into an obscure worship of God, as we always do when we get foolish and deceitful ideas about our images."

     When he had finished speaking, his guests, pleased to see their host happy at the prospect of receiving instruction from the Ancient One, thanked him for his courtesy, and bidding him farewell they left the house and departed from the city.

     On their way home they again talked together about the four Ages of the earth, but this time about conjugial love in these Ages. And from all that they had observed in their four visits, they saw clearly that conjugial love had passed in a circle from the east, where it was in its purity and loveliness, to the South, and thence to the west and finally to the north; and that it had decreased as it had left the east, so that in the north it had almost entirely disappeared. In the east, that is in the Golden Age, they had seen it as a celestial love; in the, south, with the men of the Silver Age, as a spiritual love; in the west or Copper Age as a natural love, and this day they had seen it in the north as a sensual love.

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Such has been its decrease.

     In their talk on this matter they dwelt particularly on a fact, which they had noticed in each one of their visits, namely, that conjugial love had decreased in the same degree that the love of the Lord and worship of Him had decreased. In the east, love to the Lord was like precious gold for its beauty and purity in the south it was like silver shining with brightness; in the west it was also shining, but with the lesser brilliancy of copper, while in the north it had lost its brightness and remained as something firm like iron. And the two travelers, thinking of this connection which was so close between love to the Lord and conjugial love, no doubt recalled the words of their host in the Golden Age: "Husband and wife love each other, and live in delight and happiness only so far as they love and obey the Lord."

     As the two companions neared their home, they thought of the sad state of the world after the Iron Age, when conjugial love disappeared entirely from the earth, so that men ceased to know that there, was such a 1ove, and it seemed to them almost hopeless that that love could ever again exist on earth.

     "Yet" said the angel guide, "I cherish the hope that this love will be again raised up by the Lord the God of heaven, because it can be again raised up."

     And with this beautiful thought in their minds, and this confident hope in their hearts, the two friends bade each other farewell, and each went to his own home.               A. A.
NINETEENTH CENTURY. II. 1901

NINETEENTH CENTURY. II.              1901

     RATIONALISM IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH.

     To say that history repeats itself is only another way of saying that history is one. In human nature itself, and in the operation of laws of order which concern the relation of humanity to the Divine, are to be found all the elements of human life, which reveal themselves in the form of history. From the lives of others we may learn to live. In the light of revealed principles all history is seen to teach, in varying forms and ways, the universal truths which establish the relation of map to his Creator and Redeemer, and which reveal at once the, conditions whereby man by obedience may attain conjunction with his God, and also the operation in general by which Divine Providence compasses that crowning act of Redemption.

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And so far as man's part is concerned, all those illuminating truths are gathered into, the two great laws of love to God and love towards the neighbor,--the varying reception of which laws from God make human history.

     In man's attitude to the Truth, therefore-in the history of Doctrine and of thought,--are reflected the state and progress of the Church. For though the individual man may be able to conceal the state of his love, by assuming contrary principles before the world--or; per contra, his quality may be better principles,--the same cannot be said of the affection generally prevailing with any people or period, at least as regards any considerable length of time. Thus the love of spiritual dominion which ruled the Catholic. Middle Ages could not other than promulgate doctrines and enact laws which to one instructed and standing aloof from that sphere clearly disclose the underlying motive and quality of life. And when a people like the Germans of the Sixteenth Century, strong in natural will and in the growing might of natural intelligence--rises up to overthrow the tyranny of ecclesiasticism,--then in default of that integrity affection which would have enabled them to reject also the fundamental Romish falses of belief, the tri-personal godhead, the Vicarious Atonement, etc.,--that people will naturally enough fall next under the dominion of self-intelligence, and promulgate rationalistic, scientific and sensualistic doctrines concerning God and the Word-will exalt faith above charity and finally trample the latter under foot. A church which can promulgate such a doctrine as damns to eternal torment all outside her borders, shows a spirit which later; brings forth the horrid fruit of the Inquisition,--under the plea that the severest earthly punishment is as nothing to eternal hell fire which heretics and pagans inherit; but on the other hand, a doctrine that leads the church to, set up human reason as a sufficient test and discoverer of the truth of salvation, at produces denial of the Truth Himself Made Flesh, and, striving to "climb up some other way," draws away the church into naturalism.

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     Thus the Doctrine of any church, viewed from the enlightenment of understanding made possible by the Lord's new revelation, shows the quality of that church; and that quality will appear in the thought of the world around the church even though that thought be ever so hostile to her, in appearance.

     The opening decades of the Nineteenth Century were dominated by Rationalism, a school or phase of theological thought which was after all only the flowering of a spirit and tendency which runs through all history, having its roots in the very constitution of the unregenerate natural mind.

     As an eminent authority has put it: "a tendency to rationalism has existed to some degree wherever human thought has made the least advances;" to which we would add that not until it had gained the seat of authority in the Church did it disclose the full power of its destructiveness, a destructiveness the evidences of which are only too manifest in this the age of the aftermath.

     In its wider sense, then, rationalism has been defined as a "mode of thought which finds the test of religious truth in the human understanding, conscience or reason, and particularly in the understanding," or, according to another authority, it is "a cast of thought or bias of reasoning" which--"leads men on all occasions to subordinate dogmatic theology to the dictates of reason and of conscience, and, as a necessary consequence, greatly to restrict its influence upon life."*
     * Rationalism in Europe; W. E. H. Lecky. Introd., p. 16. Mr. Lecky here does not disparage merely the man-made dogmas of the Old Church; his position would invalidate the system of New Church doctrine also, with which it seems he was acquainted. See page 272.

     Note where this places the revealed Word. And note too the avowal quoted from a leading rationalist of the saner and more wholesome sort--that rationalistic principles tend greatly to restrict the influence upon life of "dogmatic theology,"--remembering that the whole system of New Church teaching is built upon dogmatic theology. "When doctrine is not received there is no Church, for the Church is from Doctrine." (A. E. 730.) From that theology we know the value that is to be placed upon a "conscience" founded upon such a principle--that if based upon anything else than the dogmatic theology of revelation it is merely human, lacking all spiritual quality or saving efficacy, while depending for even its semblance of a conscience upon external truths derived from the Word, superinduced upon a state of merely natural affection.

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     In short, rationalism's whole effort is to do away with that ladder of ascent provided by the Lord to elevate man from the merely natural state into the spiritual; and in this removal it seeks to lull man to a spiritual slumber or torpor, to an animal contentment with a merely natural existence, not the less animal because in it may be retained the lifeless forms of civil and moral virtues not connected with the spiritual life revealed from heaven. The ecclesiastical form also may be retained, with cultivation of an elevated and refined ethics, which many fail to distinguish from spiritually; but in the cult here described the enthroned god is self intelligence, and the power behind the throne, self will.

     Such, as we understand it, is the rationalistic principle; that individual adherents may be of different quality we take for granted.

     There is a true rationalism, however, which may be briefly defined as cultivation of an understanding of the Word and of intelligence thence; and to this the development of false rationalism renders, incidentally, important service, by the training of the mental powers incidental to the growth of the latter.

     "What is Truth" the nations have been asking ever since the race fell away from the perception of truth; and the answer must solve also the query, How may we know truth? It is only now that, from the Divine synthesis of revelation, man may go forward rationally and scientifically to answer this problem of the ages, an answer which is to disclose the path that leads back to the Elysian fields of perception lit by the sun-light of love. Truth is spiritual, and between the spiritual and the natural there is no communication by continuity: how then is man,--born in nature, his faculties formed from nature,--to become a receptacle of truth? Answer: by a knowledge of the two worlds, of spirit and of nature, by a knowledge of himself as formed to both and from both, and by conforming to those laws of order which bring the two worlds in him into correspondence. "Man, know thyself," is the oracle which coming to us from the mists of antiquity is now to be read in the broad light of that higher oracle which says, "To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven." This promise is to all men; it cannot fail to be fulfilled except with those who destroy the faculty in themselves,-who turn away from the sun of heaven though crying the while, "Light! More light!"

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     It is important to think of the real spiritual world as being Heaven; for there is where good and truth exist in their own essence and activity, constituting the very substantial which forms everything of angelic life down to the most external objects of angelic sensation. Whatever exists below this plane is only derived from it, and is designed to serve the one great end of man's elevation to it-that is, to a full and conscious reception of the Lord's life of love and wisdom which makes Heaven. To suppose that the Lord could create anyone and not endow him with the faculty and liberty by which to attain this the end of his creation, is to think insanely.

     Man's mind is spiritual as well as natural, and hence he is a citizen of both worlds, though consciously only of one. In his natural existence are present in embryo, though not in actuality, all the powers and possibilities of his spiritual life to come, and the question of their development and its course and extent, or of their non-development, depends upon the use he makes of the faculties which are active with him in the natural. Though he lives from the spiritual world he does not live spiritually in the natural before the spiritual degree has been opened in himself. Since the opening of this degree is nothing less than the introduction of man into the truth and good of heaven, as accommodated to the conditions of man's natural life, an understanding of it nearly concerns the question of how man is able to recognize truth.

     The thought of the understanding shines only from the 1ove of the will. The love from which Truth shines in heaven is the good with which truth there is conjoined in an indissoluble union, like the union of body and soul. To come into the truth of heaven, therefore, means to come into the love of good. But this love is spiritual, while the loves of the natural mind are natural, and before regeneration they are opposed to the loves of heaven; how then is, man to see truth in its own light? At the outset of life-adult life--such spiritual vision is impossible; but just as man has within him the germs of heavenly loves, so he has the faculty of apperceiving spiritual truth. And as, according to Divine order, his education is designed to introduce him successively into the natural affection of sensating; of knowing, of understanding, and into the spiritual affection of perceiving truth for its own sake, that education includes also the furnishing him with all those instrumental sensuals, scientifics, cognitions, and rationals which enable him to think, and which at last are to be illuminated by the spiritual light of perception.

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     It is not necessary here to go into the particulars of reformation and regeneration and of the order according to which truth is elevated from affections and delights of lower to those of higher natural states, even to the threshold of the spiritual. Suffice it to say that through all the wonderful and hidden leadings of the Lord He ever operates by the ultimate basis of man's conscious life,-by what which is with man as man's own; and that yet He never departs from His Divine order, which requires that He operate by what is His own with man, i. e., by what is Divine. Utilizing man's affection for scientific and rational things He accommodates His Divine Truth to those planes, by revelation in ultimates,--by the written Word,--all the natural forms of which hidden spiritual, celestial and Divine forms, connected in a Divine series and relation. This relation in general we call correspondence."

     By such Divine vessels or containants in the natural are the Divine verities of spiritual existence brought down to the earth of man's life; and from the correspondence thus effected, between man's earth and rudimentary heaven, does he apperceive from the spiritual in the natural the truths of life whereby he may direct his way. Thus we see that THE MEDIUM or means whereby man is introduced from the natural into the spiritual, is, the WORD OF THE LORD. And when man co-operates--lives the Word-then is fulfilled with him the petition and implied promise,--"Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."

     Among the many states of natural and impure affections-mediate, transient goods--whereby man in youth is led to acquire scientifics and doctrines of the Word, the Lord develops and preserves with him who suffers it one state which is the very germ of the spiritual with him--the very expression of that bent or choice whereby man turns from "other gods,"--from external adoration of men or idols and from that inner worship of self of which the former are but symbols,--to the worship of the Lord, and to His service. That state is one of affirmation that the Word of the Lord is true because the Lord hath spoken it.

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     The first thing of all with the man of the Church is--to believe the Word. (A. C. 9222.)

     The first medium (of conjunction between the internal and the external) is affirming or the affirmative of internal truth that so it is; when this affirmative exists man is in the beginning of regeneration and good operates from the internal man and causes affirmation. This good cannot flow into a negative principle nor even into a doubting one before this affirmative has place. (A. C. 3813.)

     They think from the negative who believe nothing unless they are convinced by rationals and scientifics, yea by sensuals; and they think from the affirmative who believe things to be true because the Lord has declared them in the Word, thus who have faith in the Lord. (A. C. 2588.)

     There are two principles, one which leads to all folly and madness, another which leads to all intelligence and wisdom. The former is, to deny all things, or, to say in one's heart that he cannot believe such things until he is convinced of their truth by what he can comprehend or be sensible of. This principle is what leads to all folly and madness, and may be called the negative principle. The other is, to affirm the things which are of doctrine from the Word, or to think and believe with himself that they are true because the Lord has so said; this may be called the affirmative principle." (A. C. 2568.)

     Note that one cannot have a belief in what the Lord has said unless he believes that the Lord has spoken,--and where else than in the Word' And let this be added:--

     "They who do not believe the Word from the Word never believe anything Divine from nature." (De Verbo, 6.)

     From these among many similar passages, it is clear enough that the inclination to good is what makes the mind lucid and increasingly receptive of truth, which truth opens the way to the influx of good itself.

     But heaven is granted only to those who know the way to it and walk in that way. And that way can be known to some extent by knowing the quality of those who constitute heaven, also by knowing that no one becomes an angel, that is, comes into heaven, unless he tarries with him from the world what is angelic; and in what is angelic there is present a knowledge of the way from walking in it and a walking in the way through knowledge of it. (D. P. 60.)

     But he who professes to seek for the truth yet has not the soul of truth,--or good,--in his heart, can never see the truth.

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     ...the conjunction of the Lord and the conjunction of heaven with man of the Church is by means of good; therefore if there is no good with him no enlightenment can be given; for all enlightenment when the Word is being read, is out of heaven from the Lord;....In the Word are all truths of heaven and the church, yea all the arcana of wisdom that angels of heaven possess; but no one can see these unless he is in the good of love to the Lord and in the good of love to the neighbor; those who are not, do see truths here and there, but do not understand them; they have a perception and idea of them wholly different from that which pertains to the truths considered in themselves; therefore, although they see or know truths still truths are not truths with them, but falsities; for truths are not truths from their sound or utterance but from an idea and perception of them. When truths are implanted in good it is different; for then truths appear in their own form, for truth is the form of good. (A. E. 365)

     It is plainly taught in the foregoing passages that far less importance attaches to the abundance or perfection of recipient forms in the understanding than to the forms of affection in the will. It is also involved, and definitely taught elsewhere, that every man has all the elements wherefrom, by the exercise of free will in favor of goods and truths, he may be gifted with them in unstinted bounty. Though reason is the organ of truth, and grows with reception of it, no profound nor specially logical reasoning powers are essential to the apprehension of saving truth; still less is man bound, as the rationalists would persuade him, to show his manhood by believing nothing which cannot be proved.

     It is believed by many that no truth can be seen by man except from confirmations [or proofs]; but this is false. In the civil and economical affairs of a kingdom or republic, what is useful and good can be seen only by knowing many statutes and ordinances there; or in judicial matters, only by a knowledge of the laws; or in natural things, like physics, chemistry, anatomy, mechanics, and so on, only when man has been imbued with the sciences. But in things purely rational, moral and spiritual, truths appear from their own light, if only man, from a right education, has become somewhat rational, moral and spiritual. This is because every man, as to his spirit, which is that which thinks, is in the spiritual world, and is one among those who are there, consequently is in spiritual light which enlightens the interiors of his understanding and as it were dictates. (D. P. 317.)

     We have apparently gone far out of our way in thus developing the doctrinal aspect of our subject, but we hope to show later that rationalism is sufficiently represented in the New Church itself to warrant us in seeking to establish from the Writings that in the principle that nothing is to be believed unless it be understood is contained an error fatal to spiritual faith, to acceptance of the Word, and thus to knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord.

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So long as the ministers of the New Church very generally, in their efforts to avoid odium before the world and the Church, fail to discriminate between ecclesiastical dogmatism and the just and genuine dogmatic authority of the Word of the Lord, we feet that small apology is needed for examining in the light of doctrine, at almost any length, the quality of so dangerous a position.

     The teaching is Clear enough, therefore, that the light of true reason belongs to a faculty the very existence of Which is no longer acknowledged by those who make things of sense and experience and the understanding formed thence, their guide and final authority in matters of faith. It is clear that the gate of entrance spiritual understanding,--the basis of reception of spiritual light, is the Affirmative spirit; that Rationalism, which denies this,--which inverts true order and kills every vestige of spirituality,-could be the product of no other than a consummated church,--that it rises from the very evil which destroyed all former churches; namely, that "they did not believe the Lord or the Word, but themselves and their senses, whence faith became annihilated, and when there was no faith there was no love of the neighbor, thus all was false and evil." (A. C. 237)

     But this dispensation more than any prior one has been able to confirm the fallacies and appearances of sense, by the very means which were Divinely intended the more fully to open the understanding, that it might be a basis and means of confirmation for spiritual things. For--"inasmuch as the sciences have closed the understanding so the sciences must open it again. (S. D. 5709.)

     This opening, however, will not be effected by the Old Church.

     In former times they were called "serpents" who trusted to things of sense more than to things revealed. The case is worse at this day, inasmuch as there are those who not only believe nothing unless they see and feel it but also who confirm themselves in such unbelief by scientifics unknown to the ancients, and thus occasion in themselves a much greater blindness (A. C. 196)

     If then we can show, in the light of history rationally interpreted, that practically all modern enlightenment is "rationalistic" in its origin and quality we shall have gone far toward establishing the true relationship between the Old dispensation and the New. This we will attempt to do.

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CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE 1901

CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE              1901

[DE VERBO.]

THE WISDOM OF THE ANGELS OF THE THREE HEAVENS IS FROM THE LORD BY MEANS OF THE WORD, TO WHICH THE SENSE OF ITS LETTER SERVES FOR SUFPORT AND BASIS.

     It was heard from heaven that among the most ancients on this earth there was immediate revelation, and that therefore they had not a written Word. But after those times,--when immediate revelation could be neither given nor received without danger to the souls of men, then, lest the communication and conjunction of men with the heavens should be interrupted and perish, it pleased the Lord to reveal the Divine Truth by means of a Word which was written by mere correspondences, and which on this account is of such a nature in its ultimate sense, that it embraces within itself the wisdom of the angels of the three heavens. This wisdom is not apparent in our Word, but still it is there,--in what manner, shall be told in a few words.

     There are three heavens, one beneath the other, and below these the world. In the highest heaven angelic wisdom is in the supreme degree, which wisdom is called celestial; in the middle heaven angelic wisdom is in the intermediate degree, which wisdom is called spiritual; and in the lowest heaven angelic wisdom is in the ultimate degree, and is called spiritual-natural and celestial-natural; in the world, which is below the heavens, there is wisdom in the last degree, which is called natural. All these degrees of wisdom are present in the Word which is in the world, but in a simultaneous order. For successive order in its descent becomes simultaneous, and hence the simultaneous becomes the complex of all its successives.

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The highest in successive order becomes the inmost in simultaneous order; the middle becomes the middle, and the lowest becomes the ultimate.

     The Word which is in the world is such a simultaneous [complex]. In its inmost is the Lord, as a sun, from which the Divine Truth and the Divine Good, light and flame, vibrate forth and propagate themselves through media even to ultimates. Next in this simultaneous [Word] there is the Divine celestial, such as is in the highest or third heaven, from which the angels there have wisdom. Then succeeds the Divine spiritual, such as is in the middle or second heaven, from which the angels there have wisdom. After this follows the Divine spiritual-natural and celestial-natural, such as is in the lowest or first heaven, from which the angels there have wisdom. The ultimate periphery of this simultaneous [complex] is constituted by the Divine natural, such as is in the world, from which men have wisdom. This ultimate girds about, binds together and thus contains the interior things, lest they should flow apart; thus it serves also for a support.

     Such is our Word in the sense of the Letter, in general and also in every part. When, therefore, it is read holily by man, its interiors are bound and unveiled, and each heaven derives thence what is its own: the spiritual angels derive their Divine spiritual, and the celestial angels their Divine celestial from which they have wisdom. That our Word is of such a nature has not only been told and heard from Heaven, but has also been shown and confirmed by much experience The Divine, in being let down from the Lord into the world, could not but pass through the heavens in their order, and, thus formed, exist in the world, so that it might return in a similar order through the heavens to the Lord from whom it is.

     XII.

     CONCERNING ILLUSTRATION BY MEANS OF THE WORD.

     Every man who is in a spiritual affection of truth, that is, who loves truth itself because it is truth, is illustrated by the Lord when he reads the Word. Not so the man who reads the Word from the mere natural affection of truth which is called the desire of knowing. Such a one sees nothing but what agrees with his own love or with those principles which he either has taken up himself or which he has derived from others by hearing or reading.

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It shall therefore be told whence and with whom there is illustration by means of the Word. That man has illustration who shuns evils because they are sins and because they are against the Lord and against His Divine laws. With him, and with none other, the spiritual mind is opened, and so far as it is opened so far the light of Heaven enters; and all illustration in the Word is from the light of Heaven, for the man has then a will of good. That will, when it is determined to this use, becomes in the understanding first the affection of truth, then the perception of truth; afterwards, by means of rational light, it becomes the thought of truth, thus decision and conclusion; and as this passes thence into the memory it passes at the same time also into the life, and thus it remains. This is the way of all illustration in the Word, and it is also the way of the reformation and regeneration of man. But first of all it is necessary that there be in the memory knowledges of spiritual as well as of natural things, for these are the store-houses into which the Lord operates, by means of the light of Heaven, and the fuller these are and the freer from confirmed falses the more is there an enlightened perception and a certain conclusion. For the Divine operation does not fall into an empty and inane man; for instance, into one who does not know that the Lord is pure love and pure mercy, good itself and truth itself, also that love itself and good itself in its essence is such that it cannot do evil to anyone nor be angry and revengeful; nor does the Divine operation fall into one who does not know that the Word in the sense of the Letter in many passages is spoken from appearances. Such a man cannot be illustrated in the Word [in such passages] as in the Psalms, where it is said of Jehovah that He grows hot and angry, and that He hath fire and fury, that His wrath burns even to the lowest hell; or where it is said that there is not an evil thing in a city which Jehovah hath not done, (Amos ii, 6); or that He rejoices in evil-doing as He hath rejoiced in well-doing, (Deuteronomy xxviii, 63); or that He leads into temptations, as [might be inferred] from the Lord's Prayer. Similarly in other passages.

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     To meet a number of inquiries, and in justice to our subscribers generally, it seems right to explain that the unusual conditions which have thrown the publication of this and the preceding number of the Life so much in arrears, are not likely to continue indefinitely. But as we have somewhat thrown ourselves out of line with the work in oar printer's office we cannot promise that the February number will be out strictly on time. After that however, we see no reason why the magazine should not come out regularly on the first of the month.

     The Index for 1900 will be mailed separately to subscribers, shortly.



     UNDER the caption, "Not Frightened by the Higher Criticism," is an editorial note in New Church Messenger for November 28, 1900, which, after some remarks on the consternation caused by the promulgation of the Copernican system of astronomy, goes to say:

     "And now many provinces of the Church are disturbed concerning the teachings of what is known as the 'higher criticism,' but in many places the fright is passing away and Christianity remains."

     In the language of the Divinely inspired psalmist we would ask, "If the foundations be overturned, what can the righteous do?" Where for the New Churchman is the doctrine of correspondences and of the internal sense of the Word in a "continuous series," if he accept the teachings of the higher criticism, which instead of a living Word, Divinely inspired in its very letters, and thus a unit throughout, gives him a patchwork of odds and ends hung upon a dried skeleton?

     And, furthermore, does the Christian Church remain? We will not in this place revert to the Doctrines of the New Church in which it is abundantly taught that the Christian Church has passed away and that only its outward form remains; but we will call attention to the doctrines now almost universally promulgated about the personality of Christ. Witness the "Life of the Master" by the Rev. John Watson, just finished in McClure's Magazine, also the "Story of a Young Man" in Ladies' Home Journal, and other like biographies of Christ that are now accepted and read with avidity; all of which are a product of the higher criticism. Is there anything but Arianism in all these! And is not Arianism a denial of the Divinity of Christ? And if the Divinity of Christ is denied does the Christian Church remain?

     The Messenger quotes Zion's Herald, a Baptist paper, as saying, "The higher critic has brought us much that is of priceless value, and he has taken nothing from us that we really needed." We admit the first part of this proposition that he has brought much that is of value, just as we admit that the evolutionist in his quest for facts to sustain his theory of the descent of species has discovered many things in the field of natural science that are of value; but that the higher critic has not taken from us anything that we really need we do not admit.

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Whenever the Lord while in the flesh spoke to His disciples He spoke not only of things then current or historical, but He also uttered things eternally prophetical for all times and states of the Church, and one of these prophecies is as follows:--"Ye make the Word of God of none effect through your traditions, which ye have delivered: and many like things ye do." Let the New Churchman beware how he accepts the traditions of the higher criticism lest he find himself on a tempestuous sea of error without rudder or compass.
GOLDEN RULE IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD 1901

GOLDEN RULE IN THE CHRISTIAN WORLD       A. A       1901

     In a recent address delivered in Philadelphia before a class of young men about to enter into the world of business, ex-President Cleveland bears some remarkable testimony as to the state of the Christian world. In the course of his remarks he says, "There seems to be an inclination in these days to adopt the version of the Golden Rule proclaimed by the cunning, horse-trading, money-lending character portrayed in a late popular novel: 'Do unto the other fellow the way he'd like to do unto you, and do it first.'"

     And Mr. Cleveland shows that, in his opinion, it is not the atheist or the agnostic alone who thinks thus, but the professing Christian, the man who with his mouth applauds the truths of religion. "This interpretation of the Rule," he continues, "if seriously proposed, would arouse loud and extended protest; and yet thousands and thousands of those who would protest the loudest are daily and hourly acting in precise accordance with such an interpretation. If they should candidly and truthfully express their ideas of the Golden Rule, they would say it was well enough for children, but utterly unsuited to the stress of business life."

     In the Writings this "inclination in these days" has been fully revealed, not from the observation of men in the world, but by an opening of the World of Spirits, where every man's heart is bared and his secret thoughts uncovered. And not only are we instructed as to the "inclination" but also as to its origin,--the loves of self and the world, loves so widespread that they have destroyed the Christian church and infect the whole of the Christian world. From this cause it is that the Word is more and more openly denied, or secretly relegated to children and the simple, and in its place men take the dictates of their own reason, which too often are the dictates of their own selfish interests.

     "What at this day," say the Writings, "is the Decalogue but as a little book or writing sealed up, and open only in the hands of little children and youth! Say to anyone somewhat advanced in age, Do not do this because it is contrary to the Decalogue, and who listens? The trial was made with many in the Spiritual World, and when the Decalogue or catechism was mentioned they rejected it with contempt; this was because he who does not shun evils hears the Decalogue or catechism mentioned, with some degree of contempt, as if he had heard some book for little children named, which is no longer of any use to him." (D. P. 329)

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What a confirmation do we have of this revelation of the interior thoughts of men, when a man of Mr. Cleveland's experience tells us that, if "thousands and thousands" of those who profess the loudest to believe in the Golden Rule were to "candidly and truthfully" express their ideas of that Rule, they would say "it was well enough for children, but utterly unsuited to the stress of business life." And yet there are New Church men and New Church ministers who, in their teaching, habitually minimize or nullify that of the Writings on the subject of the Christian world, by making it apply chiefly or solely to the evils of a past century.     A. A.
FIRST LOVE 1901

FIRST LOVE       H. S       1901

     WHEN we read in the blessed doctrines, and see in our lives, the dreadful taint of hereditary evil, and realize the almost irresistible impulse to evil which lurks within our flesh, we feel as if our lot, even from creation, were only death: for surely what is begotten of death can only end in death. But it is to the mercy and loving kindness of the Lord that we owe it that the case is not really so with us. Thanks to Him, we are not left to begin life from our hereditary proprium; but this is held in check, while we are given a heavenly start in life, by means of "Remains" of good stored up in us. Meanwhile His hosts surround us, and bear us up upon their wings, cherish us in their bosoms, and breathe about us and into us the inexpressible aura of celestial love. Thus Love, thro angel-love and mother-love, loaned as it were by the Lord,--is the beginning of our life; and what is more, this original beginning, the order in our first creation, is repeated at the beginning of every new state which we pass through in course of our regeneration, in order that we may always start from good, and not from our proprium, which is evil.

     That all men are given a measure of love and innocence in infancy is well known. The same is true of the initial states of marriage. Even with those who afterwards confirm themselves in evils, there is something in the first days of marriage which is, as it were, a foretaste of heaven. So also, we are told, upon the first entrance into the other life. The ones who resuscitate men, and initiate them into life there, are the angels, and at first, the celestial angels, with their sphere of ineffable peace; and we are told, that they are most tenderly solicitous, lest any the least thing of violence should intervene, to prevent man's entrance upon life being from the best that is with him. Afterward, if he leaves this state, it is of his own choosing.      The same principle, that thus affects our inner life enters into the lesser affairs of life, as in the enthusiasm which is wont to enter into the beginning of any new use, (but which is sometimes so difficult to maintain). As we fall away, however, from these first states of enthusiasm, let us not conclude that they were empty or fantastic, but remember and cherish them as gifts loaned us from heaven, to which, after our evils have in some measure been softened and removed, we shall be restored, like Israel to the promised land, not as strangers, but as dwellers therein.

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These first delights and enthusiasms are flower states, which must be followed by the green and bitter fruit, before the sun, beaming upon it through the long heat of summer, ripens and mellows it, and brings out the sweetness and the juiciness, which, unlike the flower, are capable of supporting life, and which fulfil the promise of the flower, through the "seed within itself, after its kind." These first or flower states are thus only a loan and a promise, a foretaste as it were of better things to come. The proprium lies all the time underneath and must come up, for in it resides that which gives the man his form, and makes his individuality. So for better or for worse, as he himself shall determine, it must come up, in order that, being met and overcome, man may "repent and return to his first charity," but now with everlasting met and overcome, and unassailable joy, yea, with songs of deliverance.

     As the long day of our life draws on to the hot and weary noon, and as the dew and the manna of the morning curdle and dry up in our hearts, let us turn back to our first charity, and be mindful of whence we have fallen, lest the Lord come quickly and remove our light out of its place, and the evening bring us no fulfilment of the morning's promise, but only bitterness and vain regrets. Merely to know that the "first love" was no vain dream, but a foretaste of that which is in store for us, is a great support and a great protection, for which the Newchurchman can be humbly thankful. H. S.
COMPLETION OF THE "SWEDENBORG CONCORDANCE" 1901

COMPLETION OF THE "SWEDENBORG CONCORDANCE"              1901

     IT will interest and gratify many of our readers to know that (with the exception of the two supplements) the MS. of the Concordance is now completed. That portion of the MS. not yet published will fill two and a half parts, and the two supplements will probably fill a part and a half more, so that four parts more will, in all probability, complete the issue of this extended work. The Compiler finished his long labor of over twenty-seven years just four days before the close of the Nineteenth Century.

     The two supplements (which were promised in the Introduction to the Concordance) will consist of an Appendix of omitted passages, and a Latin-English Vocabulary, that will give, in alphabetical order, the Latin words used by Swedenborg along with their English equivalents as used in the Concordance. The Appendix will evidently not be a large one, as but few omissions have heretofore been discovered, but more may be known of than have been sent to the Compiler; and as this is the last time for receiving such, all friends of the work who have omissions noted, are requested to forward them immediately to the Rev. John F. Potts, Huntingdon Valley, Pa., who will gratefully receive and make use of them.

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DISCLAIMER 1901

DISCLAIMER       JAMES S. PRYKE       1901

     To THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Dear Sir:

     Several of the Colchester friends, myself amongst the number, have read with no small astonishment the remarks which fell from Mr. John Pitcairn at one of the meetings held in connection with the recent General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Mr. Pitcairn is reported to have said that upon his last visit to England he found there what might be called a heresy which had attained considerable headway, namely, that the New Church is a continuation of the first Christian Church.

     By England I presume Mr. Pitcairn alluded either to the Church at Burton Road, London, or to that at Colchester, or to both, and I am therefore led to seek further information.

     I pass over the distinction which ought always to be observed between a "falsity" and a "heresy," also a consideration of the more grievous state implied by the use of the latter term, and ask if either you or Mr. Pitcairn will state more explicitly what this heresy is, where he heard it taught, by whom, or who his informant was,-we in Colchester being quite unconscious of the whole matter.

     Perhaps you will furnish some further explanation, or at any rate publish this disclaimer, against the most serious charge, which has thus been brought forward publicly but at present remains unsubstantiated.

     With hearty wishes for the prosperity of the New Jerusalem, I am, Yours faithfully, JAMES S. PRYKE., Colchester, England.
REPLY 1901

REPLY       JOHN PITCAIRN       1901

To THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     In reference to Mr. Pryke's criticisms of my statement that I was surprised to find a certain heresy in England on my last visit, I would say that from what I heard while there, as well as from opinions expressed by members of the Church in a journal of the Church in England, I was led to believe that some of our friends held a decidedly erroneous position in regard to the distinctiveness of the New Church. While I expressed simply my personal impression, this impression still remains. Nevertheless, since in the remarks criticized I did not make a charge of heresy against any particular individual, I prefer to leave the matter where it is, hoping that differences of doctrinal understanding may be discussed on the merits of the question involved, without the introduction of personalities or the imputation of animus. JOHN PITCAIRN.

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NEW CHURCH IN FRANCE 1901

NEW CHURCH IN FRANCE       F. HUSSENET       1901

     M. HUSSENET IN REPLY TO MR. OTTLEY.

TO THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     Having been shown the reply of Pastor Ottley--my friend, who has my entire respect--to the resolutions adopted by the members of the General Church at their last Assembly, and being personally put on trial, I may be permitted to rectify certain inaccuracies in his [Mr. Ottley's] communication, without, however, wishing a controversy, a thing always prejudicial to the Church, in whatever light one may look at it.

     Two important points appear in the letter of Mr. Ottley: 1st, his nomination as Pastor of the Church in France; 2d, the question of the Priesthood.

     In general, Pastor Ottley is right; he was appointed as Pastor of the church in France by Bishop Benade; and the first of order in every Church is the priesthood. But, where I am no longer in accord with him,--and I say it firmly, without wishing in any wise to offend him in this matter,-- is when he says that he was appointed our Pastor in accordance with our request, and after consultation amongst ourselves. I can say that, personally, I was never consulted upon this subject, and that I learned from the mouth of Mr. Vaissiere only after the Holy Supper, at the Temple of Camberwell, that Mr. Benade was going to ordain Mr. Ottley as Pastor of our Church. The fact having been accomplished, we accepted it, seeing it alone, without consulting us, without asking our opinion; but I repeat that of the fact in itself we have been very glad, and I, avail myself again of this opportunity to acknowledge the zeal with which Pastor Ottley has devoted himself to his little flock. But we did not go to London to secure a pastor, but to study the organization of the Church, and I had especially arranged with Mr. Vaissiere about this matter. But I do not incriminate Mr. Vaissiere, my poor friend, knowing how pure and laudable were his intentions, and it was rather characteristic of him to act by himself without asking anyone's opinion.

     We have never repudiated the order of the priesthood,--that is the error into which opposing members have fallen;--and if, nevertheless, some members among us, proceeding according to the old traditions of the Church in France, have favored worship led by a layman, they have done so upon their own responsibility, and I have suffered it, in my soul and conscience, only provisionally, to avoid a greater evil which would have led to our disorganization and dispersal. I do not think that it is contrary to the Doctrines to take a Society, just as it is, in order to bring them over gently to sounder ideas. I, a word; from evil the Lord draws good, and without quoting any passages of the Doctrines in support of this, it will be sufficient to recall the behavior .f the angels towards the spirits who are in falses of religion; they do not immediately take away their falses, and even enter into their ideas to turn them towards the truth.

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     He who sees from afar, sees badly; and, a curious thing, the greatest reproach that has been made against us,--is the repudiation of the priesthood; without having been asked our opinion in regard to it we have been judged by appearances. Had we not a right to act in complete freedom? Who can impeach our intentions? Why treat as errors all that we have done? Who has been among us to know the events? and in the words of an honorable Pastor in your last Assembly, "What would you have done in our place!" Though Mr. Ottley was our Pastor, I was not entitled to force him upon other members, and I took good care not to do so, knowing of a certainty that I would be met with a peremptory rebuff, and knowing too well the French mind about foreign matters to impose our ideas upon others. I remember that when Pastor Presland came to Paris to administer the Holy Supper, several of the oldest members did not wish to partake because he was an Englishman!

     I am persuaded that the ministration of Mr. Ottley could be only provisional amongst us, and I appeal to numerous experiences in the Church to show that a nation ought to be directed by Pastors taken from its midst, so as to establish the Church in her conformable to its manners and usages, as cannot be done with foreign ministers.

     I can state explicitly, that if the Church has been established amongst us such as it exists today, it is in consequence of unforeseen events, and he who has been at a distance cannot speak on the matter without risk of making a mistake. It is after all these considerations that we have instituted a Church which, as French, is entirely free and independent; and a notice sent by us to the General Church, and to the General Convention, during 1898, can acquaint every one of our intentions, showing how we thus understood the Church.

     It is not necessary to be very far advanced in the Doctrines to know that the New Church is universal, but as a French Church we had the right to act as we have done. To complete this information I refer to the "History of the Progressive Steps of the Church in France," addressed to the General Church last June.

     If we have had, as is true, opposition among us, on the part of Mme. Lesieur, and M. Paul Lucas,--opposition very legitimate, coming from them,--it is right to say also, that there are reasons known to me alone which may have influenced these honorable members, but they were too far away from us to exactly understand the events.

     Far from having capitulated to the enemy, I have always been able to maintain the most advanced ideas of the General Church, which has my full sympathy; and if today, even, I meet with opposition here among the new members of my Society, it is precisely because of the application and of the introduction of these principles which alarm some members, little advanced in the Church.

     I can certify that it truly needs great courage and great strength of soul to direct a Society of heterogeneous elements, to instruct it in the Doctrines, to make the members accept a new worship, and often endure painful assaults. And without pretending to direct the Church in France (my mind is far from such a Utopia!)

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I call say that the Church multiplies and fructifies; and if I miss the encouragement of certain members I have the consolation of feeling myself supported and sustained by the sound part of the Church. And, what is not to be despised, many strangers, attending our services, have felt themselves profoundly touched by their depth, and by the influx which flows from them.

     I now enter on a very delicate question--that of my relations with Mr. Ottley, during the march of events. I beg my very much esteemed friend not to consider my silence at that time as unfriendly and discourteous. Was I wrong not to keep him informed of those events? The thing deserves an explanation. I take it up from the beginning: A circle is formed, composed of the members of Mr. Ottley's circle, and of outsiders. Those persons come to request me to put myself at their head, in those critical moments. I accept, reserving however the question of the sacraments, and counseling them to refer the matter to Mr. Ottley. But they refused, alleging the right they had to organize themselves, not wishing foreign influence in any way. A delicate question for me. Ought I to have referred the matter to Mr. Ottley? What right had I to do this? And in the delicate position in which I was I would not by any means sec myself up as a candidate for the Pastorate; while any step taken by me outside of the circle would have been considered, especially at that moment, as somewhat disloyal, especially after what had taken place. Other members could confirm my words.

     I led that Society for some months without giving the sacraments, and I resigned from my functions in order to get out of the provisional condition in which we mere, so that the members could solve the question of the Pastorate, so that there might be a Church among us, and no longer anarchy. I was chosen Pastor, with the reserve nevertheless formulated, by three members,-Mme. Aiguillon, Mme. Hussenet, and M. Louis Lucas,-that I should be ordained.

     Meanwhile I never received the letter of Mr. Ottley, advising me to be ordained by Mr. Goerwitz, and to go to Switzerland at his expense. Did he send me a letter that has been lost in the mail? I cannot say. I will say further, that on his last visit to Paris, at a dinner at my house, three members, M. Louis Lucas, Mme. Neves and Mme. Aiguillon, asked him to ordain me as Pastor of our Society; and he replied that he would write about it to Pastor Tilson. He promised even to come in November,'98, with Bishop Pendleton, to ordain me. But we heard nothing more. But in a letter that I cannot find, he told me that as Pastor in the ad degree, he could ordain me, but, uncertain as to his intentions in regard to me, and out of respect for his freedom, I did not insist. Mme. Lesieur comes regularly to services, upon the advice, I think, of Mr. Ottley. As to Mr. Lucas, I am ready to show to whom it may concern some of his letters, of which here are some extracts, proving that he was not so unfavorable to us. He wrote to me, the 5th of June, '98,-"How happy I am to see that your circle is organizing! My opinion is that you ought not to hesitate to accept the role of priest of this circle. Kindly consider the following reasons..." The 29th of October, a little while before his death,--"I would be very happy to see you and to talk with you upon the subject of the Church.

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Do not believe, then, that I am hostile to your manner of seeing and of doing. I am really only holding myself in reserve."

     In that of the 1st of January, '99, he asks: "If Mr. Ottley has come to ordain the priest chosen by your circle, as was to be done in the month of November, according to what you have written me yourself."

     In conclusion, I have decided to send you this letter after much hesitation. What decides me to do it is, to protest against certain phrases contained in the letter of Pastor Ottley, which tended to depict the actual condition of the Church of France as chaotic. Happily it is not so; and without knowing the views of the Divine Providence in regard to us, I believe that we should not be abandoned, but on the contrary, encouraged to enter as soon as possible into the path of order, especially at this moment.

     And the resolutions in regard to us, taken by the General Church last June, can only incite me to continue with energy and without faltering, the struggle undertaken against the Old Church. To disunite us would be to destroy us.

     Kindly accept, Mr. Editor, the assurance of my fraternal good will.
     F. HUSSENET, Pastor of the Society, 12 Rue Thouin.
          Paris, France, Dec. 4, 1900.
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     The New Philosophy (October, 1900).--Since it assumed the magazine form, becoming, soon after, the organ of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, The New Philosophy in its first three issues has been handicapped by having to reproduce the accumulated minutes of three annual meetings of the body named. These, though very interesting to members and to those actively interested in the doings of the Association, were doubtless less so to the average reader. Therefore it was with a sigh of relief, we can imagine, that the new editor and his associates brought out the October number of 1900, the 32 pages of which teem with matter not only fresh and interesting, but also really important to the prosecution of scientific studies along the lines of Swedenborg's system.

     The instalment of the hitherto untranslated treatise "The Senses," (Part IV. of the Animal Kingdom), Englished by Professor Price, though short, is a treat for the clearness of scientific vision, the universality of view and the loftiness of tone which characterize this "Prologue."

     Swedenborg's own "Notes relating to the Larger Principia," transcribed and translated by Rev. R. W. Brown from the photo lithographed MSS., furnish valuable matter elucidative of Swedenborg's conception of the Natural Point, the bulk of which is contained, however, in Chapter II. of the Principia. In regard to this "Point" the author says that in order to define it "negative expressions are necessarily required," (p. 137), which of course involves nothing of the real negative spirit but only the statement of what the Point is not, the elimination of earth-bound ideas and terms the better to rise into a loftier realm of thought than that bounded by the terms of ordinary language: No philosopher ever lived who was freer from the negative spirit than Swedenborg.

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The quality of the negative or sensual spirit, which reasons from effects to causes and discredits all but sensual science, is laid bare with a keen blade where at the end of these "Notes" Swedenborg says: "in a word, natural philosophy from the centre is able to view simultaneously those infinite peripheries, or to measure her whole world at a single glance; she does not, as has been supposed, stick to the outermost peripheries, and like the fly, by means of much labor and effort, entangle herself more and more in the web, and become the prey and sport of her own wisdom and philosophy."

     In the extract from the Acta Eruditorum quoted by Professor Mann a bearing on the question of whether Kant might not have derived from review of the Principia thence his conception of that Theory of the Heavens which forecast the Nebular Hypothesis, might throw the unobservant reader in some confusion, by the omission of the quotation marks needed to introduce the various paragraphs of the extract. Professor Mann's brief introductory and concluding remarks are calculated to increase the chance of mystification, for in the first he says that he cites the review "in order to settle this phase of the question," and at the close says that he does not attempt to answer the question, for "it is perfectly evident to everyone that even Kant could not; "meaning, we presume, that probably even Kant could not say how much he was indebted to Swedenborg. If we are wrong we shall be happy to have our obtuseness sharpened up a bit.

     In "Notes and Comments" a letter from Mr. Freeth, President of Conference, acknowledges the communication and report of the "S. S. A." and breathes an encouraging word of interest and sympathy with the work of the Association.

     Professor Mann's note on the progress in "Atomic Philosophy" propounds finally the interesting query, "Is it rash to predict that the scientific activity of the century soon to begin will be directed toward a determination of the properties of corpuscles and their methods of uniting to form atoms?"

     There are also notices of Dreams of a Spirit Seer, (contributed by Rev. E. D. Daniels) and on The Soul, by Professor Hite; a Note by the translator of Swedenborg's Notes before mentioned, and a review of Sir William Thompson's Popular Lectures and Addresses, or his Three Hypotheses of the Maintenance of the Sun's Energy, by Miss Beekman, and finally a short article by Dr. Farrington, on the folly of "Artificial Parthenogenesis."

ILLUSTRATIONS IN MR. ODHNER'S NEW BIOGRAPHY OF SWEDENBORG.

     IN addition to our brief comments last month on this valuable contribution to the juvenile and educational literature of the Church, we desire to emphasize the interest and educational possibilities that lie in the excellent illustrations. For these we are indebted to the painstaking care and generosity of Mr. G. Woolworth Colton, of New York, who we understand published the book, in the name of the New Church Board of Publication, it is true, but actually at his own expense, and regardless of cost.

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As a result we have in these pages a portrait gallery which deserves particular notice, not only on account of the artistic merits in its reproduction, but also because most of the portraits are entirely new to the Church and to the world in general. Each one has an interesting history of its own.

     1. The map of Southern Scandinavia is a new but valuable feature in a biography of Swedenborg. It is published under the direction of Mr. Colton, himself, a map-maker of established and wide reputation. The names of those places which are mentioned in the text of the book are given in the map in heavy-faced type.

     2. The portrait of Bishop Swedberg, Swedenborg's father, here reproduced, was discovered recently, together with several of the other portraits, in an old Swedish volume of excellent engravings. It is far superior to the portrait published in White's Life of Swedenborg, and exhibits a strong, manly face, full of dignity and determination.

     3. Next follows a "View of Upsala," not as the old university-town appears at present, but as it was in the days when Emanuel Swedberg walked its muddy streets with school-books under his arm. This is a reproduction of an old engraving belonging to the Academy of the New Church.

     4. In the portrait of Ericus Benzelius, Swedenborg's brother in-law, educator, and most intimate friend, we meet a face of unusual interest, the face of a scholar, intellectual, refined and soulful. In comparing this face, and that of Bishop Swedberg, with the portrait of Swedenborg on P. 561 it has seemed to us that the latter bears the marks of the influence of the two former ones: Swedenborg combining the strength and manliness of his father with the refinement and penetrating thoughtfulness of his teacher. We cannot but feel grateful that such a father and such a teacher were provided for such a man.

     5. The portrait of Charles XII., "the madman of the North," is quite new to us, and decidedly different from all the other, non-descript and dough-faced portraits that we have seen before. Here we have character and expression quite in keeping with the terrible account of Charles XII. as revealed in the Writings. This portrait, as also the one of his sister, queen Ulrica Eleonora,--a Junonic figure with a beautiful and kindly face,--are reproduced from old engravings owned by John Pitcairn, Esq.

     6. Christopher Polheim, "the Swedish Archimedes," Swedenborg's scientific mentor and once intended father-in-law, is also a new face to the English-speaking public Linnsus, "the king of flowers," another of Swedenborg's friends, is better known.

     7. "Emanuel Swedenborg in 1734,"'--the Principia portrait,--is a very fine reproduction of what is known to be a very poor likeness. Far superior is the portrait of "Swedenborg in 1766," a reproduction of the original oil-painting in the castle of Gripsholm. It is the most beautiful of the various portraits of our author, somewhat idealized perhaps, but such as we like to think of his face. Swedenborg here holds in his hand the manuscript of the "Apocalypsis Relevata."

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     8. "Swedenborg's House and Garden," a home-like picture, reproduced from an aquarelle in the Library of the Academy of the New Church.

     9. "Swedenborg in his parlor. The original of this interesting portrait was painted by a Russian artist who presented his subject with the unkind gift of a very ugly face and a pair of legs entirely too short.

     In the reproducing of the picture the publisher managed to have the ugly face cut out and the usual portrait inserted, a great improvement upon the original; though unfortunately the legs had to remain as before.

     There are also five views of Stockholm, the Royal Palace, and Swedenborg's Summer-house.

     Of especial value are the religious elements of the book,--the descriptions of the spiritual world, the New Church Doctrine, and the account of the Children in Heaven, where the author has made what we understand is the first collation of practically everything revealed on the subject in the Heavenly Doctrines. All these furnish strong reasons why the book should have a wide circulation and secure a recognized position in New Church homes. The approach of Swedenborg's Birthday, January 29th, suggests an opportunity for deepening the impression of that anniversary by means of this new Life of Swedenborg.

     THE NEW CHRISTIANITY, for December, makes an adverse criticism on our November editorial, "The Cultivation of Charity,"--which it copies and in general commends. From our statement that some degree of brotherly confidence is due to men who have been led into the New Church, who "acknowledge the Lord and His own completed redemption,"--the New Christianity says "It is fair to infer that no others are entitled to our confidence." Considering our unquestioning acceptance of Swedenborg's doctrines in toto, (which teach salvation to the good, of all religions), and considering also that our context plainly showed that we were addressing ourselves to conditions of New Church society life, we leave it to the unprejudiced to judge how far the inference mentioned, was called for or "fair." Would our contemporary call it affirmative criticism?
ANNALS OF THE NEW CHURCH 1901

ANNALS OF THE NEW CHURCH              1901

     NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS.

     In the forthcoming number of the Annals of the New Church the compiler has brought the work up to the year 1851, inclusive. A complete index is to be added and with this the first volume of the work will have been finished. Arrangements for binding will be announced by the publishers.

     Then, in order to afford the compiler opportunity to complete his constantly growing collection of material for the second volume, publication of the work will be suspended for the period of at least one year.

     The friends of the work will confer a favor and perform a use by notifying the compiler of any errors or important omissions of fact which may come to their notice.

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FIRST NEW CHURCH WORK PUBLISHED IN AMERICA 1901

FIRST NEW CHURCH WORK PUBLISHED IN AMERICA       ERNEST A. FARRINGTON       1901

THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     The Annals of the New Church (p. 135) in stating that the first New Church book published in America was a work of Swedenborg makes an error which is perhaps of sufficient importance to warrant correction. The volume in question, which bears the title, "A Summary View of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church....collected from the Theological Writings of the Hon. Emanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ," is one of particular interest, as it marks the beginning of New Church publication in this country (See Newchurchman, vol. I, p.

     539). On the title-page is found the following imprint: "London: Printed. Philadelphia: Re-printed by Francis Bailey, at Yorick's Head, in Market Street-1787." The London edition here referred to was published in 1785 (See Annals, p. 126), by Robert Hindmarsh, in whose Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church (p. 29) we read: "Mr. Bailey soon wrote to me for more books, which were immediately forwarded to him, including a Summary View of the principal Doctrines of the New Church, written by the Rev. J. Clowes. Some of these he circulated among his friends, and others he reprinted at his own expense." It is thus evident that the author of our work is John Clowes, and in fact the style in which the book is written is unmistakable, revealing throughout the same simplicity and reverence which characterize all of his works.

     The statement in the Annals that the book is composed of extracts from the True Christian Religion is somewhat inaccurate, the only extracts being the headings taken from the table of contents.

     Thirteen of the fourteen chapters of the True Christian Religion are taken up by the author and explained in their order, the absurdities of the prevailing Old Church notions being pointed out, and the doctrines as presented by "the messenger of the New Jerusalem verities" being stated in a few well-chosen words. Some of the chapters have been divided, and an extra section treating of Temptation has been inserted after the one of Regeneration. No mention is made of the fourteenth chapter of the True Christian Religion, which treats of the "Consummation of the Age, the Coming of the Lord, the New Heaven and the New Church." The omission of this chapter--lest the teachings therein contained should offend the orthodox reader--gives the keynote to Clowes's position regarding the state of the Christian world, and explains the apology which he makes in his preface for the use of the term "Doctrines of the New Church." Throughout the whole book the teaching concerning the Second Coming is to a great extent ignored, and this flaw rather mars the usefulness of the work.

     But despite these faults the author has presented in a quaint and interesting style the principal doctrines of the Church, and it seems probable that when Mr. Bailey selected this work for publication he did so with a view to preparing the way for the edition of the True Christian Religion, which he issued by subscription two years later. ERNEST A. FARRINGTON.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

     THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

     Huntingdon Valley ("Bryn Athyn"), Pa--As mentioned in advance the feature of a Thanksgiving service was introduced this year. Pastor Synnestvedt gave us an instructive address; Mr. Hughes sang effectively the solo in Psalm 50, with choral accompaniment; beside which the orchestra played, as a beautiful interlude, Psalm 37.

     On Thanksgiving evening Shakespeare Social, given by Mr. and Mrs. Wells, proved a decided success.

     On the evening of November 17th Mr. and Mrs. Van Horn invited a number of friends to their house to witness the service for their son Walter's Coming of Age. Bishop Pendleton officiated. After the congratulations to the parents and to their son, the Bishop, on behalf of the parents, presented the young man with a beautiful copy of the Word, with a few words about the value of daily reading. Mr. Glenn, in answer to a toast, spoke in appreciation of his young friend's faithfulness and ability as church organist, testifying to his success in getting "good tones out of that old organ." Mr. Synnestvedt recalled that the first welcome he received on coming to Philadelphia a stranger, 16 years ago, was from Walter Van Horn, and this led to some reminiscences of old "Advent Society days."

     On November 24th Mr. and Mrs. Starkey gave a party at the "Hall" for Miss Margaret Miller, which was very much enjoyed. A feature being that for once dancing was quite subordinate to the playing of games.

     On December 2d Miss Ella Stroh took her much regretted departure for Canada. Her place in the Cairnwood household has been taken by Miss Hannah Nelson, of Chicago, who arrived here on the 4th.

     On December 9th Messrs. Herman and Emil Gunther, of Harrisburg, visited Bryn Athyn and attended services, and in the evening they were entertained at a meeting of the gentlemen, in Mr. Synnestvedt's new study. Very interesting remarks were made by Bishop Pendleton and a number of others, including the Messrs. Gunther, who told of the Church circle in Harrisburg, faithfully ministered to by the Rev. A. B. Dolly.

     On the evening of the 16th another but smaller party met at the same place to greet Messrs. Wm. Hammar and Roscoe Coffin, of Baltimore, who paid us a flying visit of a few hours.

     At the Principia Club, December 17th, Prof. Vinet gave the substance of a paper on Swedenborg's work on Chemistry, which however will be presented again, in more completed form at the next meeting. This time circumstances made the attendance very small.

     Mr. Synnestvedt's "little brown cottage" (his study) proves charming little addition to the landscape, and its interior is fully in keeping. For the present the Local School gratefully accepts the use of it in the forenoons as a much needed class room.

     On December 28th Bishop Pendleton left to attend the Local Assembly for Ontario, held at Berlin, December 31st and January 1st. An account of this occasion will doubtless be forthcoming in the February Life. Accounts received indicate that it was notable not only for the manifestation of the "Assembly Spirit" shown, but in the promise of important developments from this enlarging of the "Local Assembly" idea.

     The Society was exceptionally favored in having a visit, on November 27th, from two of the survivors of the terrible siege of the Embassies in Peking last summer.

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A one-time schoolmate of Messrs. Wells and Starkey, at the Vineland (N. J.) high school, and recently Medical Missionary at Tung Chow, Dr. James H Ingram, with his wife, made Mr. Wells a short visit and gave us a lecture in the evening in the "Hall." Dr Ingram is a fluent and forceful speaker, and held his audience spell-bound as with remarkable directness and comprehensiveness he drew graphic verbal pictures of the work and conditions, in China in general and at Tung Chow in particular, and of the terrible outbreaks and the siege. After the lecture, with tireless good nature and interest he answered question after question until nearly 11 o'clock. Out of the innumerable details,--all of such interest as to make selection difficult,--we may note those in which the Divine Providence appeared to operate so manifestly for the preservation of the besieged as to suggest strongly that some great use was represented by their being brought safely through the ordeal. For instance: twice were great conflagrations started by the Chinese without the defended territory, in high winds, in order to sweep the place of refuge and make it untenable. In each case, as the threatened danger had reached the very threshold of disaster, the wind veered and the flames swept harmlessly by. Then there was the wonderful "find" of 80 tons of wheat within the lines, which with the aid of 11 grist mills and 15 mules served to supply the 3,000 souls with the food which made the long defense possible. Then again, when their enemy, skillful in mine digging, had run a tunnel nearly 1,000 feet long and, as the anxious besieged knew, were prepared to blow them to the sky, at that very critical moment (as was learned afterward) the air had become so foul in the mine that it would support neither life nor combustion, and again a fearful peril was averted. Then again, the position of the only two gun platforms from which the Chinese could have effectively shelled the Legation, were so placed, that they dared not use them for fear, as was discovered afterward, that the shots which missed would hit either the tombs of the ancient Emperors in the one case or the Empress's palace in the other; beside a great many other instances of wonderful "good luck" as the world calls it. It is with real reluctance that we refrain from reproducing here more of the spirit and the details of this thrilling and realistic account of the most dramatic event in modern history. The audience considered the lecture itself quite an event. We were charmed with our guests and the visit was mutually enjoyed. S.

     Philadelphia, Pa.-On November 19th Mr. and Mrs. Knudsen entertained the society very pleasantly with a progressive euchre party at their house. After the card playing, refreshments were served, and toast was drunk to the Church. It is hoped that when we realize what delightful times we can have at these parties, in the different homes, we will have more of them. E.

     Pittsburg, Pa.-We had a very pleasant social on Thanksgiving eve, at which both Mr. Bostock and Mr. Drown made short addresses appropriate to the occasion; and then we had music and a recitation by one of the young ladies. Light refreshments and a few dances finished out the evening.

     The following night Mr. and Mrs. William C. Norris had their new home dedicated at Aspinwall, one of our suburbs, in the presence of the married people of the congregation. A very enjoyable evening was passed. C. R.

     Middleport,--The Sunday evening following Thanksgiving the society held its regular annual meeting, after the usual Doctrinal Class. Dr. W. A. Hanlin called the meeting to order with a few remarks as to the object of the gathering. The motion was then made by Dr. B. S. Hanlin that we invite our present minister, Mr. Keep, to become pastor of the society indefinitely, instead of minister for the ensuing year, as we have heretofore done.

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This was seconded by Mr. L. O. Cooper and after a little discussion was carried unanimously.

     The next question brought up was whether or not we should become an organized body of the General Church. As we are nearly all members as individuals some have thought anything more unnecessary; but at this meeting the general feeling seemed to be that to come into the General Church as a society is the next, and an important step forward we should take. It was moved by Dr. B. S. Hanlin, seconded by Mr. J. M. Cooper, that we express a desire to become an organized body of the General Church, and that the necessary steps be taken to inform the Bishop of the fact. The motion was carried without opposition.

     After some discussion of the external affairs of the local church the meeting adjourned.

     On Thanksgiving evening, Miss Francie McQuigg entertained the society with a card social, which we greatly enjoyed. Another pleasant event was a six-hand euchre party at the house of Mr. J. S. Boggess, on the evening of Dec. 14th. A. E. D.

     GLENVIEW LETTER.

My Dear "Life":--

     The greatest event of November was the Thanksgiving Feast, given by the two societies in the Carroll avenue church hall. We have it from those who are supposed to know, that it was the most representative gathering we have had, of its kind. Certainly everyone was present who could possibly come, and some who seemed very impossible; as for instance, Mrs. Alvin Lindrooth, of Denver, and Miss Lulu Osborne, of Dowagiac, Mich. One feature which added much to the sphere of good fellowship was the singing after each response to the toasts. These toasts were eight in number, the first being responded to by Mr. Henry Maynard, of Glenview, on "The reciprocal relations between the Immanuel Church of Chicago and Glenview." Mr. Maynard's speech was followed by the singing of "Our Glorious Church."

     The second toast was answered by Dr. Marelius, of the city church. The subject, "Benefits of Church Worship," brought to our minds "those other feasts to which we come on the Lord's day which are so good for young and old," and which take us out of the sphere of worldly things.

     The third speech, a quizzical address, full of generalities, on the "Future Location of the city Church," was fresh and interesting. Mr. Browne said: "The matter of church location signifies little. Where the church is there the people will be." He began by speaking of the "Groaning board, not groaning now so much as before, but giving ample evidences of wealth acid plenty," and reminding one that in the face of this "the only question which can disturb us is one of choice." He referred to "Extremely picturesque regions more or less remote," but refused to locate them definitely. Mr. Seymour Nelson improvised a little song about the "folks in town who will never fall down," which all the guests sang with much spirit. The toast on the "Need of Keeping the Young in the Sphere of the Church" was responded to by Rev. David H. Klein. Among other things he said: "If we would recognize the need of keeping the young in the Church we must realize the fact that there exist other influences which are evil. The influence of the Church leads to heaven, while the influence of the world leads away from heaven. One of the strongest of the Church influences is found in the home. Children feel the spheres of discord and should he kept from them. We need to guard ourselves lest we bring to the children the evil spheres from the world which are prone to affect us." Here at a signal from Mr. E. E. Boericke's guitar we all sang Alma Mater.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson next talked on the "Sphere of Women in the Church." He especially noted their influence on social life. Women keep the necessity of loyalty and devotion to the Church ever before us.

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     The sixth toast fell to the lot of Mr. William Junge, "Use gives delight in social life as in all else." The "Delights of wisdom are founded on use." This statement was followed by some practical suggestions as to how to be useful to the neighbor. The guests who are seldom with us were quite startled by the burst of music which came close upon Mr. Junge's remarks. "There was some ground just out of town" was rendered with the distinctive Glenview spirit which makes it one of the favorites.

     The toast on "Confidence as a basis for spiritual brotherhood" called forth some earnest words from Mr. Burnham which stirred the affections of all so that this song, so popular with us, was sung with even greater fervor than usual:

"Kind friends we're all arising
Each one his brother prizing,
With hand and heart united
We will pledge our love and trust
To each and every one.

     Rev. Andrew Czerny spoke of the "Influence of thought concerning heaven, on our daily life." He mentioned that those whose ideas of heaven make it a place where delights of the senses abound, usually live up to that on earth. "How different is the idea of a heaven of uses." Once more we sang "Our Glorious Church," and Pastor Pendleton, who acted as toastmaster, made a few closing remarks and the formal toasts of the evening were over.

     Some one said that such occasions were "miniature Assemblies," and we agree that they perform the same use, inasmuch as the Immanuel church as a whole is refreshed and stimulated by them: for here, as in all cases, union brings strength.

     On Sunday, November 18. Mr. and Mrs. Henry Maynard held the "Literary" at their home. Mr. John Synnestvedt read the first selection, "The Grey Champion." one of the "Twice Told Tales." His voice was well suited to this serious, dignified story so typical story of Hawthorne's. His was followed by Lowell's little poem of "The Courtin'," read by Mrs. David Klein; and the audience had ample opportunity for laughter when Mr. Klein read that irresistibly funny sketch called "The Guide," taken from Mark Twain's "Innocents Abroad."

     The Rev. N. D. Pendleton introduced his department of "Contemporaneous Events" with a report of Choate's address on Lincoln, which was given at a dinner in London recently. This report was read by Mr. Seymour Nelson, and called forth remarks and reminiscence, from Mr. Maynard and others.

     Mr. Pendleton, in line with our doctrinal classes which are on the subject of the "Souls of Animals," reported a lecture given lately at the Field Museum by a professor who has spent much time in studying animals to prove that they have minds. His definition of mind is "Ability to learn from experience," and this was amply proven by his ingenious experiments Soul, however, is a different matter.

     Mr. William Junge made a campaign speech on "Finance and the Household: Some masculine ideas of feminine work."

     His reforms in the matter of dishwashing and wearing apparel are unique. If the time devoted to dishwashing could be cut down one-half we might have four hours of leisure each day for two months of every year. The ladies were much impressed with the prospect. Mrs. E. E. Boericke pave a "Silhouette party" to the ladies on Friday afternoon, December 7th, at which some alarming features were developed.

     Rev. David H. Klein preached twice on Sunday. November 25th- at Chicago in the morning and at Glenview in the afternoon. The sermon was taken from the text. "Yea, even the hairs of your head are all numbered." T. K.

     Parkdale.-On Sunday, October 14th, a Social was held in commemoration of the 15th anniversary of the first formation of the Society in Parkdale, when toasts and speeches suitable to the occasion were given.

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Another Social on Friday, November 30th at which the coming Local Assembly at Berlin on New Year's Day afforded pleasant theme for conversation.

     On Sunday, December 24th, there were special Christmas services. In the morning, in place of the sermon, the pastor delivered an instructive address; in the evening a short service was held and the usual Christmas offerings made, first by the children and afterwards by the adults. The result was most gratifying, as it enables the Society to make a substantial reduction on the mortgage debt, a circumstance which will no doubt not only relieve to a very great extent the anxiety which has for some time past been experienced, but also act as a stimulus for further efforts towards providing for the financial needs of the Society in the future. CHAS. BROWN.

     REPORT OF MISSIONARY WORK.

     BY MR. BOWERS.

     West Virginia.--As several people have requested that my letters to the LIFE be continued, the following brief outline of work done is submitted:

     On Sunday, November 11th, services were held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Pollock, in Wheeling. I delivered a sermon and administered the Holy Supper to eight communicants.

     On Tuesday evening, November 13th, a discourse on the Doctrine of the Lord, in the Methodist meeting house at Graysville, Marshall County. No moonlight, and stormy, but had an attentive congregation of sixty. Was invited to come again. On several former visits I had preached in a school house in that vicinity.

     Thursday evening, 15th, a lecture in the school house two miles from Clarington, Monroe county, Ohio. About twenty hearers.

     Sunday morning, 18th, preached in school house near Welcome, Marshall county, W. Va. Attendance very small. People of the community are not very "hungry" for spiritual pabulum. The "few" appreciated the sermon.

     Ohio.-Monday evening, 19th, a lecture on the New Jerusalem, in Liberty school house, four miles from Clarington. Thirty-five or forty hearers.

     Tuesday evening, 20th, a visit with Mr. Isaac Linduff and family, at Steubenville.

     Sunday morning, 25th, services in the church at Greenford, Mahoning county. Disagreeable weather and bad roads. Preached and administered the Holy Supper. Only eight communicants this time; smaller number than usual. But several of the members were unavoidably absent. Still, all are warmly interested in the General Church; and the missionary always receives a cordial welcome among them.

     Sunday, December 2d, a meeting was held at the home of Mr. John P. Nye and family, at Hartsgrove, Ashtabula county. The discourse was much appreciated by the family and several of the neighbors.

     Pennsylvania.-The next place visited was Erie. Ten days were devoted to that city and vicinity. All the families and members were seen at their homes. The Church Circle at Erie is alive and growing. The spirit of unity and harmony prevails among the members. Rev. R. W. Brown's work is remembered appreciatively.

     Sunday, December 9th, services were held at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Edward Cranch, including a sermon and the Holy Supper, and preceding these the baptism of young Mrs. Jennie G. Marvin. Thirteen persons were partakers in the Communion. Mrs. Marvin and Mr. John Stidham applied for membership in the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Sunday, 16th, services at the home of Mr. and Mrs. J. R. Kendig, Renovo, Clinton county. Sermon and the Holy Supper. Seven communicants. Mrs. Sarah Creamer and Miss Joana Kendig, from Williamsport, were present.

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My pleasant temporary home was with Dr. and Mrs. C. L. Olds.

     Three days were spent at the comfortable and hospitable home of Mr. Dallas C. Van Sickle and family, upon the mountain, four miles from North Bend, and seven miles from Renovo. My having to leave so soon was mutually regretted. As the Van Sickles could not come to our service at Renovo, the Sacrament was administered for Mr. and Mrs. D. C. Van Sickle and Father Van Sickle, on the 19th.

     Was two days with the members of the Church at Williamsport; and, on the 21st, baptized the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Warren E. Creamer. A visit in Williamsport is always enjoyable.

     The next place was in the tops of the Allegheny mountains, at Philipsburg, Centre county. Three days with our kind friend, Mr. F. W. A. Shultz and brother and sister. The situation of their hospitable home commands b fine and extensive view of the grand scenery of the mountains. These friends always manifest their love for the evangelistic use of the New Church in a substantial manner, and do it with evident pleasure.

     Christmas day this year, as it happened, was spent in Clearfield county, near Jeffries P. O., with Mr. Stacy T. Bauman. My unexpected visit relieved his lonesomeness somewhat, as he is the only member of the Church we know of in that mountain region of the State.

     Was at Leechburg. Armstrong county, over Sunday, the 30th, with Dr. W. O. Heilman and family. Also visited Mr. George W. Baker, who is a receiver of the Doctrines. And altho' no regular service was held, considerable preaching was done in a conversational way, in connection with readings from the Writings. The Heilmans ate ardent lovers of the truths revealed by the Lord at His Second Advent, and earnestly desire the privileges and blessings of association with the Church, for the sake of the spiritual welfare of themselves and their children. John E. Bowers.
ERROR CORRECTED 1901

ERROR CORRECTED              1901

     By mistake the birth place of Mr. John Barker, whose decease was noticed in the December number, was given as Frankfort, Kansas. Frankfort, Kentucky, was meant. [Corrected.]
ADDRESS OF THE BRYN ATHYN COLLECTOR 1901

ADDRESS OF THE BRYN ATHYN COLLECTOR              1901

     The post office address of Mr. C. Hj. Asplundh, in the list of Local Collectors for the Orphanage, published last month, was given as "Bryn Athyn. It should have been, HUNTINGDON VALLEY, Pa.
CALENDAR READING 1901

CALENDAR READING              1901

     This year as usual, the Calendar for Daily Reading in the Word and in the Writings, is issued by the Academy Book Room. Price, 10 cents.
ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE PRIESTHOOD 1901

ENLIGHTENMENT OF THE PRIESTHOOD       EDWARD C. BOSTOCK       1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Vol. XXI. FEBRUARY, 1901. No. 2.
     II.

     We have left the grace of perception to be considered last, because there arises a question of interest in connection with this subject which we hope to solve, viz.: Has the affection of the love of the will anything to do with the reception of enlightenment which gives rise to perception? Or, is perception received independent of this affection thus alike by good and evil?

     We are taught in True Christian Religion, n. 155, quoted above, that:

     Perception is with man according to the state of his mind formed by doctrinals, which if they are truths, perception becomes clear from the light which illustrates, but if they are false, perception becomes obscure, which nevertheless may appear as if clear from confirmations; but this is from fatuous light, which before the merely natural light is similar to clearness.

     As this teaching is followed at once by the teaching concerning Disposition which is said to be "from the affection of the love of the will,"--it would seem at first glance as if the perception of the priesthood was independent of the will, and depended solely upon the knowledge of true doctrine. This view would seem to be confirmed by the fact that evil priests have preached with great eloquence and effectiveness, and are said in the doctrines to have performed most excellent uses to the church.

     But on the other hand we are also taught that the first Christian church has been brought to a state of Egyptian darkness, and that this started with its priesthood, who no doubt received the enlightenment of their office. That church began its downfall at the Council of Nice, where, we are taught, the leaders, actuated by love of Dominion, hatched out the doctrines of three persons, and of a Son of God from Eternity. From that time to this the priesthood have gone from obscurity to obscurity, in spite of their enlightenment, till there is no genuine truth left.

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     Now what light do the doctrines give us, that will bring these two views into a one?

     The answer to this question seems to rest upon what is meant when it is said that "Perception is with man according to the state of his mind formed by doctrinals."

     What is involved in the formation of the mind by doctrinals?

     It is plain from the teaching that if there is to be clear perception true doctrinals must form the mind. Can the mind of an evil man be formed by true doctrinals?

     In order to answer this question aright we must remember that the mind is both internal and external. The external of the mind may be formed by true doctrinals with both the good and the evil; but the internal mind is formed by true doctrinals in the good alone. This is because the affection of the love of the will forms the mind. Nothing enters the understanding but from the love of the will; love of self--of one' s own honor, glory, reputation and gain--suffers nothing to enter the interior of the mind but falsity; on the other hand it may and often does eagerly embrace true doctrine and introduce it into the externals of the mind. It does this when it sees its honor, reputation, exaltation and gain in those doctrines. So long as it sees these in true doctrines it retains them with affection, and by them exalts its understanding into heavenly light; but immediately it fails to see self and self interest in the truth, it casts it aside and enters into the falsity of its own love.

     With the good man, by whom mean the regenerating man, the state is different. He forms not only the external of his mind but also the internal by true doctrine; for he embraces the truth from the genuine affection of truth, i. e., for the sake of uses to himself and to others. By these truths his Internal mind is gradually opened and formed and from it there is influx into the interior natural and thence into the external of his mind.

     It follows from this that the perception of the evil man whose external mind is formed by true doctrinals, though it may be clear, will be external; he will not have a true internal perception by which he can see whether the doctrines of his church are really true or not, i. e., he will not see the interior truth in them, but he may have such a perception in his external mind,-when his understanding is elevated, as will enable him to preach with ability and effectively.

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     On the other hand the priest who is in the genuine affection of truth for its own sake, will have not only an external perception from the elevation of his understanding, but he will also have an interior perception of the truth in the doctrine, so that he will be able to distinguish between the true and false doctrine.

     An evil priest by nature loves falsity and hates truth; he will therefore incline to the reception of false doctrines; he will not be reliable, but prone to the formation and reception of false doctrines, especially when he sees his own power and honor in them. If he embraces such doctrines his understanding becomes distorted even as to its internal, and then, except so far as he is restrained by his love of honor and reputation, he goes on from falsity to falsity, till he ends in obscurity and darkness.

     A priest who is in the love of his use, by nature loves truth and therefore he is reliable; he does not embrace false doctrines, for from interior perception he sees the truth, and adhering to this, his understanding becomes more and more clear, from the light of illustration.

     By this is not meant that no good priest ever falls into error, for many circumstances, such as education, lack of information, the temporary prevalence of some love, may lead him to embrace doctrines which are not altogether true, or in which there are fallacies; but he will not embrace and confirm himself in doctrine that leads to evils of life.

     While evil priests have been and are made use of by the Lord to establish His church, yet they are of use only so long as they can be kept in the external reception of true doctrine. If such priests multiply in the church they destroy it by falsities of doctrine flowing from evils of life.

     Such I believe to be the teaching of the doctrine on this subject. I will now bring forward some passages to sustain this view.

     That evils of the will tend to obscure the understanding, in priests as well as in laymen, and lead man to form his mind from falsities rather than from truths, is taught in the following:

     And they filled them with dust,--that it signifies, through terrestrial things, i. e., the loses of self and of gain, may appear from the signification of dust that it is such, concerning which, n. 249.

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The sense is that they who are called Philistines, i. e., who are not in life, but in doctrine, obliterate interior truths by terrestrial loves, which are the love of self and of gain; from those loves they are called uncircumcised, n. 2039, 2044, 2056, 2632; for they who are in these can not do otherwise than fill the wells of Abraham with dust, i. e., obliterate interior truths of the Word by terrestrials; for from those loves they can never see spiritual things, i. e., those things which are of the light of truth from the Lord, for those loves induce thick darkness, and this extinguishes that light, for as was said just above, n. 3412, when the light of truth from the Lord draws near they who are in doctrine alone, not in life, are altogether darkened and made stupid, yea they become such that they are angry, and busy themselves in every way to dissipate truths; for the love of self and of gain is such that it does not suffer anything of truth from the Divine to approach near to itself. But nevertheless they are able to glory and be proud from this, that they know truths, yea they can preach the same as it were from zeal, but the fires of their loves are what burn and excite, and zeal is only fervor thence; which may appear sufficiently from this, that they are able to preach with a similar zeal or fervor against their veriest life. These are the terrestrial things with which the Word Itself, which is the fountain of all truth, is obstructed. (A. C. 3413)

     Here it is plainly taught that evil loves, and consequently those who are in them, "strive in every way to dissipate truths;" so that such priests as well as laymen, inwardly love and believe falsities, and also strive to bring them forth to destroy truth. Such priests therefore will be ready to take up falsities whenever they can obtain power, honor and gain by their means, and will prefer them to truths wherever they dare.

     In the Apocalypse Explained, speaking of those who are guilty of the second kind of profanation,-which is with those who have domination for an end, and the holy things of the Word, of the church and of worship, for means,--it is said:

     Those who are in this kind of profanation can not do otherwise than adulterate the goods of the Word and falsify its truths, and thus pervert the holy things of the church; those do not agree with the end which is the domination of man over them, for they are Divine, which can not be of service: thence it is of necessity, that the means may agree with the end, that goods are turned into evils, truths into falsities and thus holy things into profane; and this with increase as dominion which is the end is amplified. That it is so may appear from Babylon of this day, to whom the holy things of the Word, of the church and of worship are means, and domination is the end. As domination is amplified, so they make the holiness of the Word weak, and have elevated the sanctity of the papal dictate actually above it; they have arrogated to themselves power over heaven, yea over the Lord Himself; and they have instituted the idolatrous worship of living men, and also of the dead, and this even until nothing of Divine Good and of Divine Truth are left. (A. E. 1054 Contin.)

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     In this passage the inevitable outcome of the love of self and the love of the world in priests is clearly pointed out. It agrees perfectly with the explanation of putting dust in the wells of Abraham, quoted above.

     "Evil loves close first the internal mild and then the external mind, until all that is good and true is utterly cast out. When the mind is thus formed from false doctrines within and without, then the clear perception of good and truth departs and in its place there comes the obscure perception arising from fatuous light, which, however clear it may appear to him who is in it, is nevertheless thick darkness itself.

     But although this is true, nevertheless so long as evil priests can be held in true doctrine, from the love of honor or gain, they are able to retain the doctrines of their church in the memory, to call them out for use in preaching and to see them in some light while the understanding is elevated. In this state they are made use of by the Lord. Such priests, although surrounded by evil spirits while preaching, yet seem to see the truth and to believe it to be true while they are preaching.

     We read:--

     It was said by the angels, that then the interiors are turned from the world toward heaven, and that then he does not know otherwise, because then influx from heaven also can be given, otherwise than when the interiors are turned into the world and to self. (S. D. 4833.)

     In another passage we are told that simple good spirits are adjoined to them while they are in this state. (A. C. 6914.)

     That illustration received by a priest in such a state, is of the understanding alone, and not of an interior quality, is manifest, and is also confirmed by the fact that such a priest when left to himself, thinks in direct opposition to his preaching. That his preaching is from the memory only appears from the following:--

     [Referring to evil priests and to their state of zeal it is said.] But this state is a state of his thought from the memory of the body; which, that it is separate from the state of thought from the spirit, is manifest, for left to himself he thinks contrary to it. (A. E. 193a)

     The perception of an evil priest, from the inflowing enlightenment of his office, will be made clearer from a consideration of the general doctrine of the understanding separate from the will.

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In the Divine Love and Wisdom we are taught that the understanding can be elevated above the proprium, but that it still adheres to it and in fact is elevated by its means:--

     But nevertheless when the understanding is elevated above the love of the proprium, it does not recede from it, but draws from it that which is called the affection of knowing and understanding on account of somewhat of honor, of glory or of gain in the world; this somewhat adheres to every love as a superficies from which the love shines as far as the superficies, but to the wise it shines through. (D. L. W. 413)

     And further:--

     When the understanding from elevation is in wisdom, then love sees what is justice, what is sincerity, what chastity, yea what is genuine love; this, natural love is able to see by its faculty of understanding and of forming an intuition of things in the light of heaven, yea he is able to speak, to preach and to describe them as moral virtues and at the same time spiritual; but when the understanding is not in elevation, then the love, if it is merely natural, does not see those virtues, but for justice injustice, for sincerely, fraud, for chastity lasciviousness, and so on; and if then he thinks concerning those things which he spoke when his understanding was in elevation, he is able to laugh at them and to think only that they serve him for capturing minds. (D. L. W. 416)

     These teachings seem to make it plain that an evil priest can have no interior perception of the truth, although he may have his understanding elevated and so may see the truth in the light of the writer; and that while in this state he may preach the truth, and that such truth may be of spiritual use to those who hear.

     On the other hand, the priest who is in the affection of truth for its own sake and thus for the sake of genuine uses of life, will form not only the exteriors of his mind but also the interiors, by genuine truths of doctrine. As he advances in regeneration his internal mind will be more and more opened and formed by genuine truth from good and he will thus have a more and more interior perception from the inflowing light of truth. At the same time, the externals of his mind will be formed by the doctrinals according to his industry, natural ability, etc. And then too his understanding will be elevated and enlightened.

     Inasmuch as the internal mind is opened and formed as man is regenerated, the question of the enlightenment and perception of young ministers, may arise in the mind of some. It is manifest that a young minister, i.e. one young in years, can not have the interior perception which comes of the opening and formation of the internal man, except in the degree in which he has advanced in regeneration.

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But if his external or natural mind is formed by true doctrinals, his understanding may be elevated, and in a state of elevation of the understanding he may see and preach the truth and lead thereby to the good of life; his hearers will receive and perceive the truth according to their own capacity of reception. A young man therefore with a well stocked and well formed understanding, may teach and preach truth that is of use to the most advanced number of his congregation He will also be in the state to see truth in its own behalf, if his end is the salvation of souls, and if therefore there is in him the affection of truth for its own sake, for this will give character to his whole mind.

     It is not to be supposed that the priest is to teach only such truth as he himself has applied to life.

     It is provided that the understanding may be elevated above the will, in order that man may be reformed and regenerated. Therefore the understanding of the priest may be elevated far above his will, and while the priest like everyone else ought to strive to apply the truth to life, yet he ought to give his people the same opportunity that he himself has; before he can preach it.

     Moreover the affection of the priest, which is the love of saving souls, gives rise to the affection of truth as the means, and from this affection his understanding is elevated to see the truth by means of which he is to lead to the good of life. Thus without doubt every priest sees and teaches truths which he has not yet applied to his own life, but which he has sought, for the sake of his own life as well as for the sake of his people.

     Where this genuine affection for truth exists the man is not inclined to seize upon falsities but to distinguish them from truths and to receive the truth only. Such a priest therefore though he is not infallible, and though he may fall into errors from defects in his education, lack of knowledge, etc., will not fall into those falsities of doctrine which confirm evils of life; and such a priesthood will be a source of security to the church, which without it would go to pieces.

     There is another point concerning the illustration and perception of the priesthood which seems worthy of a little attention.

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We are taught that doctrine is to be drawn from the Word by one in illustration, and altho' the Doctrines of the New Church have been drawn from the letter of the Word and are revealed in the writings, yet these doctrines can not be understood, as to their particulars, without doctrine formed by a careful comparison of the teaching in different passages. The priests of the church are to draw out this doctrine and teach it to the church. From what is said about doctrine drawn from the Word by one in illustration it appears that only those priests who are in the genuine affection of truth have the perception to search out and see the doctrine of genuine truth. Those who are in the love of honor and gain will see only such things as agree with their own ends, and these are not truths but falsities.

     We read:--

     For the intellectual of the church is when man reads the Word and sedulously compares one thing with another that he may perceive thence what is to be believed and what is to be done. This does not happen except with those who are illustrated by the Lord and also who in the Christian world are called the illustrated; and that illustration does not take place with others than with such as desire to know truths, not on account of fame and glory, but on account of life and use. That illustration is received by the Intellectual with man, for the Intellectual is what is illustrated; this appears manifestly from this that they who have little of the intellectual never can see such things from the Word, but that they have faith in those whom they believe to be illustrated....It is believed that they have the intellectual of the church who know how to confirm the dogmas or doctrinals of their church by many things, and this even to a persuasion that it is so, and also they who know how to dexterously refute many heresies.

     But this is not the intellectual of the church; for to confirm dogmas is not of the Intellectual, but is of ingenuity in the sensual, and falls sometimes to the worst, and they are able to do it who altogether believe nothing and also who are in falses themselves; to this one and to that one nothing is easier than to confirm whatever he pleases, even so far that the simple are persuaded. But he intellectual of the church is to perceive and to see before any dogma is confirmed whether it is true or not, and thence to confirm; this is the intellectual which is represented by Ephraim. (A. C. 6222.)

     Here it is distinctly taught that only those who are in the affection of truth for the sake of life and use, have the illustration to perceive and to see what is to be believed and what is to be done, as they compare different teachings in the Word; and the passage also presents to us a very good picture of the quality of the intellectual with those who are in the love of self, which they and others often mistake for the intellectual of the church.

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     This subject is brought out further in the following passage:--

     By revelation here in the internal sense is not meant revelation such as was made to the Israelitish people from Mt. Sinai, that namely the Lord spoke with a sonorous voice and the people standing round heard; but it means revelation which does not take place by a sonorous voice, but within in man; this revelation takes place by an illustration of the internal sight which is the understanding, when man who is in the affection of truth from good, reads the Word; that illustration then takes place from the light of heaven, which is from the Lord as a sun there. From that light the understanding is illustrated no otherwise than the external sight, which is of the eye from the light which is of the sun of the world. When the understanding is illustrated from that Divine Light, then he perceives that to be true which is true, he acknowledges it within in himself and as it were sees it. Such is the revelation of those who are in the affection of the truth from good, when they read the Word. But they who are in the affection of truth from evil, i. e., solely on account of honors, gains, fame and the like, when they desire to know truths, they do not see them, but see only the confirmation of the doctrinals of their church, whether they be truths or falses. The light which then illustrates is not Divine Light from heaven but it is sensual light, such as is also with the infernals, which light at the presence of heavenly light becomes mere darkness; for these when they read the Word are blinded altogether to the truth, which does not make one with the doctrinal. (A. C. 8780.)

     The above teaching appears to be general in its character and seems to apply equally to priest and to layman. That this and similar teaching applies to both, appears especially from those passages in which preaching is spoken of. This thought gives rise to the question, What then is the difference between the illustration of the priest and the illustration of the layman who reads the Word from an affection for truth?

     The layman like the priest may have his understanding elevated, separate from his will; and in the case of evil men, one as well as the other--coming back to the light that makes one with the will--sees nothing of the truth which he saw while his understanding was elevated; both therefore despise and ridicule the truth.

     On the other hand a layman who is in the affection of truth for the sake of life and use, has illustration and thence a perception of the truth, so that he can see within himself that the truth is true before he confirms it.

     What then is the distinction? Answer: The illustration of the priesthood is for the sake of the church and its instruction and guidance.

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The illustration of the layman is for the sake of his own regeneration and for the use of his family. The illustration of the layman will therefore be limited to those things which relate to his own belief and his own life. It will not be necessary for him to see the truth in its broad application to the whole church and to the states of all, but to his own life and use.

     Nor again will it as a rule be necessary for the layman to form doctrine for himself, but only to examine the Word to see if the doctrine taught in the church be true before he confirms it.

     The order which seems to apply especially to the laymen is laid down in the doctrines, viz., first to learn the doctrine of the church from masters and preachers; then, looking to the Lord, to examine the Word to see if the doctrine be true. Here, if he is in the affection of genuine truth, he receives illustration from the Lord. When he sees it to be true then he may confirm it from the Word and from rationals and scientifics of all kinds. But if anything of the doctrine disagrees with the Word he is not to confirm it; but at the same time he is to take care lest he disturb the church.

     That the illustration given to the laity applies to their own state and to their own reception of the doctrine, is further confirmed by the teaching that truth is to be insinuated into the community by teaching ministers only, and by the fact that in heaven only ministers are allowed to teach in the temples.

     The illustration of the priest therefore is special, and relates to the use of instruction. It enables him to have a broader view of the truth, to see it in its application to the needs of the church and to the states of many who are under his charge. When I say to perceive it in application to the states of those under his care I do not mean as to particulars, for that is their business, but to see its application to the general need of the church and to teach it in a form from which each one can derive what applies to his own need.

     His illustration also enables him to see the truth in a system and in a form, and to arrange it for giving instruction.

     Such in general appears to me to be the difference between the illustration of the layman and the illustration of the priest.
     EDWARD C. BOSTOCK.

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FUTURE OF THE ACADEMY 1901

FUTURE OF THE ACADEMY              1901

(Read by Bishop Pendleton, at a supper given by Mr. John Pitcairn in celebration of Founder's Day, January 14th, 1901.)

     ON this day which we celebrate, the anniversary of the initial founding of the Academy, it may be well to take a view of the future as involved in the present situation; for if this be done intelligently, with no premature forecasting of eventualities, it will not only be useful, but a duty incumbent upon us. Every man, who loves his use, will desire to progress in it; he will study it, and by research and investigation bring the light of other uses to bear upon it; or his work will become mere routine, he will crystallize, or perhaps stagnate. So it is with those of us who are charged with the conduct of the affairs of the Academy; some of us must study its use, that it may progress, move onward in a continual development; if not, if the time ever comes that we go through our work as through a manual of arms, ever the same year after year, the real essential use of the Academy will be taken away from us and transferred to others more willing and more worthy of its great end and purpose.

     To study a use is to enter interiorly into it, and thereby prepare for the progress and development which is to come; for in the interiors of a use are contained all the potentialities or possibilities of its future unfolding; and he who enters into those interiors will see as with prophetic vision, or from universals, something of the immense fields lying before, fields that are already ripe for the harvest, waiting for the laborers, or for the varied instrumentalities which the Lord of the harvest will send when the Church asks for them in His Name. For the asking is inspired by the Giver, Who wills to give, and Who therefore gives to see as from afar, in order that man may humbly ask for and receive the good which is provided.

     An intelligent prevision of the development of a use is fundamental; for without prevision there is no provision. This is the principle of all progress, of all intelligent human effort.

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Civilization itself commenced when man began to exercise a prevision of the future and to make provision for it. A prevision of a future life encourages man in regeneration. Prevision inspires hope, confidence, faith; it animates and invigorates the mind in the midst of obstacles and difficulties; it cheers in trial and temptation; it stimulates in discouragement, or on the brink of despair. It is of the Lord and not of man; and we are told of a Divine Prevision of a heaven from the human race, accompanied by a Divine Prevision for the same universal end. Prevision with man is nothing else than the perception of an end, out of which is born a purpose to provide the means; and the first and most important of all the means is knowledge.

     An intelligent prevision of the future of the Academy logical necessity, for in it lies the hope of that which is to come, and the inspiration to work for its realization. Otherwise our work is without spirit and life, lacking the essential principle of progress, and we labor in the present darkness with no beacon light to guide, no restful haven in view; or with no intelligent purpose to stimulate our effort, no continual provision of a store of new knowledges for our daily mental nourishment.

     A consideration of the future of the Academy is one with the consideration of a higher education in the Church. The end of a higher education has been in the Academy from the beginning, and is involved in its charter. This end is with us yet; and the development of our use in the future will certainly be in this direction, as certainly as the use itself grows and prospers. We may now safely say that it was never intended in the Providence of the Lord that the Academy should become a Church, a Church with temples and ritual and worship; but a Church, if it may be so called, in a very different sense from that which is ordinarily understood by the term. I think we may say that the ultimate end and goal of the Academy is a use specific and grand, a use most essential to the establishment of the New Church, a use which, whether in the hand of the Academy, or in other hands, will be a leading instrumentality by which all things are to be made new, namely, the use of a higher education in the light of the spiritual truth of the Church. Our primary and our collegiate education, are but steps in preparation for that higher education which is to come, for which we have been and are now preparing and shall in the Lord's Providence continue to prepare in the years that are before us, until the ripe fruition is attained.

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     The object of this paper will be gained if what is here said can aid our minds to see a little more clearly than we have seen in the past, that a higher education in the sphere and light of the Church is the supreme end for which the Academy exists, and that it is our duty to look forward to it, and gradually prepare for it year by year, even though the fulfilment come not in this generation, or the next. When an end is seen, it is potentially fulfilled, though the ultimate realization may, in a wise Providence, be postponed. We may rest content then with small beginnings and a long delay.

     As is well known, the higher education comes after the primary school, and after the college, when the mind of the youth has become mature, and is ready to receive the teaching and application of the universals of science, is ready for a more full opening of the rational than is possible with the young under eighteen or twenty years of age.

     In one direction indeed the New Church higher education is well established, and considerable progress has been made; namely, in the domain of Theology. We have a School of Theology, founded upon the basis of sound doctrine and a faith in the Lord as He reveals Himself in His Second Coming in the Theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg; and though there is yet much to be desired, still the fruits of the Academy School of Theology are before the Church and speak for themselves.

     It is not the purpose of the present paper to discuss the external means of advancing the cause of a higher education, or to present any plan for future operations. This will come when the occasion arises and the work lies immediately before us; but now, when the possibilities of ultimate extension and establishment are remote, we may at least consider the end we have in view, and some of the broad universal principles that look to that end, in order that we may as we go along exercise an intelligent foresight of the things which are to come and which will come when it is right that they should do so. The first thing in every great work is the formation of an internal state, a state of intelligence and a state of affection, which come by study and meditation. This formation of an internal state is the true preparation for the uses that are to follow.

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Without affectionate interest, or love, without understanding, without knowledges acquired, no use is successfully accomplished. An end is blind without means in the understanding, and the end must produce the means.

     "The case herein is as with conjugial love, which does not appear in infancy and childhood, but still lies treasured up, nor does it come forth until all and single things are so arranged that it can manifest itself; in the meantime it produces all the means suit able to itself, or they are produced. The case is similar in the vegetable kingdom, in every tree and in every plant; there lies inwardly hid therein a conatus to produce fruits or seeds, but this conatus cannot manifest itself until it has first produced all the necessary means, namely, branches, leaves and flowers, and when these are produced, then the conatus comes forth into act." (A. C. 3610.)

     It is so with us in respect to the higher education; the end is with us, but we are as yet without the necessary means in the understanding. It would be comparatively easy to acquire a knowledge, of the means and methods of a higher education as they exist in the world,--and the knowledge and experience of the world in these things is of immense value -- a value that we have not perhaps sufficiently appreciated; but in the higher education of the New Church, the work before us is enormous.     A new theology involves. a new science, and a new science involves a new education. We have a new theology; the Academy has done this much for us; at the Academy has not yet given us a new science, nor has it give us a new education; nor are these to be found anywhere in the New Church. Small beginnings have been made, but this is all we can say. The new science and the new education are yet to come, and we are looking to the Lord to provide them by means of the Academy, even as He has given us a new theology. These two things will not exist in fulness with us until there exist the instrumentalities of what we have been calling the higher education. Do we realize the vastness of the task and the greatness of the mission?

     A perception of what we do not know is the beginning of knowledge, and in this beginning of knowledge our first duty is to dispel our own ignorance and by a state of intelligence on the subject come into some realization of the vast fields of virgin forests that lie before us,--of the wonderful possibilities of a new higher education and of the grand instrumentality it is to be in the establishment of the New Church.

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     Even the work of preparation for a New Church higher education is a work of vast proportions, and will require much time, much thought, much study, much research. In order to accomplish this work of preparation three things are necessary: first, the field of modern science is to be explored; second, the science and philosophy of Swedenborg must be mastered; and third, the science of the ancient Church must be restored. To do these things is a work so great that it will not only take time, but will require the work of more than one man to accomplish it. At any rate a number of men must come into a clear understanding of the correlation of these three great sources of the new science which is to be in the New Church, as the product of its higher education. For these three combined are to produce a science such as the world has never seen, and such as we hardly have dreamed of yet, in the highest flight of our imagination.

     The sciences of the Ancient Church were not natural sciences, as we understand them; though they were the origin of all the sciences and all the arts which we now possess. The natural sciences as we know them arose in the decline of the Ancient Church when man began to study effects rather than causes.

     The sciences of the Ancient Church were from a spiritual origin, that is, they were from the ancient Word. They were (1) the science of Correspondence, (2) the science of Representation, (3) the science of Influx, and (4) the science of Degrees; and what was more than these, they had also (5) a science of the Spiritual World, and (6) a science of God as a Man. All these are sciences of the sciences, and must take their place in the higher education of the New Church, as the head, beginning, and origin of all the sciences.

     The science of God as Man exhibits the universe, spiritual and natural, as being in His Image, and all things, from the greatest to the least, as striving to the human form. Without this as universal it is plain that there is no new science, no new higher education in the New Church. This science is in fact the science of all the sciences, spiritual and natural.

     The science of the Spiritual World is next in importance, and exhibits the spiritual world as present in the natural, as the all controlling, the all-impelling cause. How can there be a genuine science of effects without a science of causes? The science of the spiritual world exhibits to view the science of causes.

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     In the science of Degrees we see the operation of the universal law of contiguity. If continuity only be seen the human mind creeps in the dust, and cannot penetrate even the interiors of nature, much less to the world of spirit.

     The science of Influx brings to view the law of creation, and the law of the conservation of all things after creation; or what is the same, it exhibits the law of involution by which all things are created, and the law of evolution by which all things are preserved and perpetuated after creation. The modern higher education is doing wonderful things with the law of evolution; but because the science of influx is not known,--and its correlated sciences,--because there is no science of involution, the science of evolution is used as a means of making men more insane in spiritual things, or of confirming them more strongly than before in a worship of nature, or materialism; and this together with wonderful development in a purely sensual science.

     The science of Representation is the application of the science of correspondence to the things of ritual, by which the representative images seen in the ultimate heaven were reproduced in the worship of the Church. Out of this science spring the fine arts, and literature of all kinds.

     The science of Correspondence is the law of the relation by correspondence of all things of the natural world with all things of the spiritual world; and, as this law is universal, it presents to view the correspondence of the effect with its cause, of the reactive with its active, of the instrument with its age agent. The application of this law is to bring wonderful results in the study of nature alone, to say nothing of the study of the spiritual world as represented in nature and in the letter of the Word.

     These laws were the sciences of the sciences in the Ancient Church, and they are to be sciences of the sciences in the higher education of the New Church; and all the sciences must be classified under them. What a renewal there will be, and what marvelous results to follow, when these sciences are applied to the reformation of the sciences of the world!

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Then indeed will be seen a wonderful fulfilment of the prophecy, Behold I make all things new.

     Emanuel Swedenborg, in writing his scientific works, was led in the Providence of the Lord,--unconsciously led,--into the domain of the sciences of the Ancient Church, or into the sphere of their workings in the realm of interior nature; and in his beginning to study the Sacred Scripture, we find him expressing his astonishment at the agreement of the principles of his philosophy with the Word of God. They must agree; for we are told in the Writings that he had been a teacher of natural truth, and natural truth is contained in the natural sense of the Word of God. In Swedenborg's philosophy or science, therefore, our work is partly done, and the mastery of this is a part of our work of preparation for the higher education of the New Church.

     It was said that natural truth is contained in the natural sense of the Word of God, and it might have been said that natural truth is the natural sense of the Word of God. By the natural sense is meant the interior natural or spiritual natural sense, intermediate between the spirit and the letter, the sense of the Word corresponding with the natural heaven, and in which the natural heaven is. The six sciences of the Ancient Church, of which we have spoken, are the universals of the natural sense of the Word, and these are necessary for its interpretation. Under these sciences the natural sense treats of the interior laws of nature, which are the natural laws of creation and conservation; it treats of human society and its development from the beginning, and of its form as being human, including all things of government and the civil state; it treats of morals, or of the spiritual moral life of man in the world; it teaches the philosophy of history; in fact, all true philosophy is contained in the natural sense of the Word, the philosophy that is in science, in art, in all the forms of civilization. From the natural sense of the Word, or from the six sciences of the Ancient Church as given in the Writings, are to be drawn a philosophy of all tree sciences, by which they are to be reconstructed and reformed; this philosophy will be itself in its place a science of the sciences. For the Lord Himself has said that He will in His Second Coming rule all things by means of the natural truth of the Word, for He has said that He will rule all nations with a rod of iron.

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NOTE 1901

NOTE              1901

     In Apocalypse Explained, n. 514, the following sciences are mentioned as sciences of the Ancient Church, namely: the sciences of Correspondence, of Representation, of Influx, and of Heaven and Hell. The science of Degrees is not mentioned as a science of the Ancient Church, so far as I know, but that they had such a science is manifest in the letter of the Word; as for instance when the ark is described as having three stories. See Arcana Coelestia, n. 657, 658. This appears also in the Egyptian and Assyrian remains and in the Mythologies generally; an instance is the Assyrian composite animal or cherub, having the head of a man, the wings of an eagle, and the body of a bull. That they had a science of God as a Man, or a science of the Human Form, is evident. (See A. C. 9193, 9407; A. E. 151, et passim.)

     To these should be added the science of Order, as it is universal, and inseparable from the others. This makes seven universal sciences by which all things of nature and the natural world are to be interpreted, and under which all the arts and sciences are to be classified. These sciences were seen in their application by Swedenborg as a philosopher and student of nature, as is evident from his scientific works; and they are fully described in the Writings. W. F. P.
PARABLE OF THE SOWER 1901

PARABLE OF THE SOWER       Rev. EMIL CRONLUND       1901

     But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. (Matt. 13: 8.)

     THE Divine truth is absolutely necessary for the salvation of man. He has no other light, no other guide, and consequently no other road to Heaven. The truth must therefore find an abiding place in him, and he must will to be led by it. Now in order that man may receive the truth he must prepare himself by removing those things which prevent its insemination. That man may thus prepare himself for the reception of truth the Lord has pointed out in His parable of the sower what things prevent its reception and hinder its growth. This is one of the lessons that this parable teaches. It teaches that certain things must be removed and cast out, because they are diametrically opposite to the truth. Thus the Lord has not only taught us that we must know the truth, if we would enter Heaven, but He has also shown what must be done that the truth may be received, and what state the mind must be in that this may be accomplished.

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     Another lesson taught in this parable is that man's part in the work of salvation consists principally in removing the obstructions. The Lord explained to His disciples why certain men did not receive and retain the truth, and from His explanation it is evident that in every case where the truth was not received it was owing to the fact that certain obstructions had not been removed.

     With certain men the truth falls by the wayside, and the fowls come and devour it up. This takes place with those who are in no affection of truth, but are in the affection of falsity, and thus love darkness rather than light. With them falsity extinguishes the truth, for on account of not submitting their rational faculty to Divine revelation they see things that are not, as if they were, and things that are as if they were not. Thus their minds are not turned towards the Divine, but towards their own reason; and human reason not enlightened by the Divine truth cannot but be in darkness, for it perverts the truth. The love of falsity from evil is thus what prevents some from receiving the truth.

     There is also a certain class of men with whom the truth falls upon stony places, where it has not much earth. These accept the truth for external reasons, and apparently have an affection for it as long as it promotes their own interests. But when they find that it condemns their selfish loves and their evil and dishonest lives, and that it requires them to deal honestly with the neighbor, to love him as themselves and to consider his welfare, then the love of self rises within them like a scorching and destructive sun, which destroys the truth with them. Thus self interest in the obstruction that prevents this class of men from receiving the truth.

     Again, with another class of men the seed falls among thorns, and the thorns spring up and choke it. These are they who are in the lusts of evil, and who think nothing of defrauding the neighbor if they can thereby obtain the wealth of this world. The love of this world carries them completely away, and it occupies their minds to such an extent that there is room for nothing else. If any truth from the Word should enter, it is choked, and becomes unfruitful. With this class of men, therefore, the love of the world and the deceitfulness of riches are the obstructions that prevent the reception of truth.

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     When these various evils and obstructions have been removed by man as of himself, then the seed which the Lord as the Heavenly Sower sows, falls into good ground, and brings forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

     The perpetual endeavor of the Divine Providence is to make man into a good and fruitful ground. Man of himself longs to make himself into a bad ground where nothing but weeds grow, and this to make himself unproductive of good. The unfruitfulness of the different lands was not owing to bad seed or an unskillful sower: the same Sower sows the same seed in all, and with the same gracious design; but it is unfruitful in many because they are careless, inattentive, selfish and worldly minded.

     Another lesson taught in this parable is that with a great number of people, and indeed with the majority at this day, the seed of truth does become unfruitful. "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head." Evils and falsities are readily received by men, but the Divine truth cannot find an abiding place with them. In the hearts of most the Lord is denied, rejected and crucified; and if this is not done in words it is done in deeds. When the Lord is thus denied the mind cannot but be in darkness, even as there was darkness over the whole land when the Lord, after having been rejected and crucified by the Jews, died on the cross. This darkness was but a reflection of the still grosser darkness in the minds of men who had falsified and rejected the truth.

     The heart of man is not by nature a fit ground for the implantation of the Divine truth, nor can it be made so in a moment it becomes so gradually, as little by little evil and falsity are rejected, and as, one by one, every plant that the Heavenly Father hath not planted is rooted up and cast into the fire. Man cannot become a new creature in a moment; for if his evils and falsities, which before regeneration make his life, were removed suddenly, man would be destroyed. Neither can the life of Heaven be implanted in a moment, but gradually, day by day and year by year.

     For this reason it is that in the beginning of regeneration man does not love truth and good from a genuine affection of them, but in the beginning he does the commandments from simple obedience, partly from fear of punishment in hell and partly from the thought of reward in Heaven.

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Afterwards, however, as he advances, he abstains from evils because he is averse to them and detests them, and because he loves to do good, without entertaining any idea of reward. Thus the tares and the wheat grow together for a time until the harvest comes. The Lord said that the tares should not be rooted up until the proper time came, for He said: "Lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest; and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into My barn."

     Because in the beginning of regeneration man is influenced somewhat by selfish and worldly considerations, and because these move him somewhat to do what is right and honorable, therefore the Lord allows these tares to grow together with the wheat; for if the evils were removed and destroyed suddenly, the newly inseminated truth would be destroyed also. When the truth becomes firmly implanted with him who is regenerating, so that the love of good predominates over the love of evil, and man begins to be averse to evil, then the judgment comes,-the tares are rooted up, which can then be easily done, since man has then acquired a new life. It may thus be evident that man's old life and his old loves cannot be entirely cast out, until he has acquired a new life and new loves. When this has been done, then the seed falls into good ground and brings forth fruit.

     The good of life, or charity, is the ground in which truth is implanted, and it is indeed the only ground. It is said in the Heavenly Doctrines that the seed in good ground is with those who from the Lord love the truths which are in the Word, and from Him do them, and thus bear fruit. He who is conjoined with heaven by a life of charity is led by the Lord to see his evils, both evils of thought and evils of will; but he who is not in the life of charity takes no notice of evils, nor does he care to know what evil is; and thus the ground with him is unfruitful. But the ground is good and fruitful with him who abstains from all the evils forbidden in the commandments; for to shun evil is to do good: not to do evil to the neighbor or to think evil of him, is to do and will well towards him.

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     Whenever charity and good will are absent then the Church cannot grow, for hatred and ill will destroy the Church more quickly and more thoroughly than any heresy ever did. Because good will is necessary in order that the Church may be established, therefore when the angels announced to the shepherds the birth of the Lord, they sang: "Peace on earth, good will toward men;" meaning not only that the Lord loved the human race, but also that men must love each other in order that they may worthily receive the Lord.

     As there was nothing of charity or good will among men when the Lord came into the world, He said: "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." It was entirely new to the Jews to hear that they should love their neighbor as themselves. And to the Christian world the Lord's new commandment is just as new. It's the Lord's new commandment to His New Church, and without that commandment the Church could not be established.

     Because the Church is with those who are in good works. John, by whom was represented the Church in respect to good works, reclined at the Lord's breast. That the Church is in those who are in good works, is also signified by the Lord's words from the cross to John: "Jesus saw His mother, and spoke to the disciple whom He loved, who was standing by; and He said to His mother, Woman, behold thy son: and He said to that disciple, Behold thy mother, and from that hour that disciple took her unto himself." This signifies that where good works are, there the Church will be; for in the word "woman," the same as mother, signifies the Church. The Lord's saying of John to His mother, "Woman, behold thy son," signifies that he is the son of the Church and is of the Church who is in good works.

     Because the good of life is what receives the Lord He commanded His disciples to teach charity. And after His resurrection the Lord appeared to His disciples while they were on the sea fishing, and because they had caught nothing He said unto them, "Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast, therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes." The right side of the ship signifies the good of life. This makes clear the signification of the Lord's commanding them to cast the net there, namely, that they should teach the good of life.

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That they would thus convert the nations to the Church is signified by their finding in such abundance that they were not able to draw the net for the multitude of fishes.

     This same doctrine the Lord also taught when he said to Peter, "Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me more than these? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? He saith unto Him, Yea, Lord; Thou knowest that I love Thee. He saith unto him, Feed My sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me? Peter was grieved because He said unto him the third time, Lovest thou Me? and he said unto Him, Lord, Thou knowest all things; Thou knowest that I love Thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed My sheep."

     The Lord asked Peter three times whether he loved 'Him in order that He might impress upon the minds of men the necessity of love to Him and of charity toward the neighbor. Inasmuch as lambs denote those who are in innocence, therefore the Lord said to Peter, first, Feed My lambs, and afterwards, Feed My sheep, and again, Feed My sheep. Lambs here denote those who are in the good of love to the Lord; for these are in the good of innocence more than others; but sheep denote those who are in the good of charity toward the neighbor. Peter was commanded to feed, that is, to instruct these, inasmuch as with these only the seed will fall into good ground. With the rest it will either fall by the wayside or upon stony places or among thorns.

     Thus it may appear that charity and good works are altogether inseparable from faith. He who is confirmed in the doctrine of faith-alone, and "who has no affection of good and believes that charity is not an essential of salvation,--he never acts from an affection of good, but from an affection of delight, that he may live in the indulgence of his lust; and whosoever confirms himself strongly in this principle, does not act from an affection of thought but from a desire of self- pre-eminence, that he may be thought greater, more learned, and more refined than others, and thus may be exalted amongst the rich and honorable."

     There is no doctrine that is more frequently taught and insisted upon in the Writings of the New Church than this, that charity and faith must co-exist in acts, in order that they may become living.

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Charity and faith are perishable things while they are in the mind only. Charity and faith are not charity and faith before they are in works; and if they are only in the expanse above works, or in the mind, they are like images of a tabernacle or of a temple in the air, which are nothing but a mirage, and vanish of themselves. If therefore man were only to will well or were to think well from charity, and were not to do well and perform uses from it, would he not be as a head only, and as a mind only, which cannot subsist without a body? The Word of the Lord is nothing but the doctrine of love and charity, and it teaches that charity and faith must be joined together in works and "what therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

     It is said in the Writings of the Church that "those who know many things from the Word and do not live according to them, may be likened to those who scrape up wealth and lay it up in chests and coffers, making no further use of it than to look at it and count it; also to those who gather into their treasuries jewels of gold and silver and shut them up in vaults, solely for the sake of being opulent." Such are like the trader that hid his pound in a napkin, who said to his lord on the day of reckoning: "Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin: For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee,
thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at My coming I might have required mine own with usury? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. For I say unto you, that unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him."

     Those who retain the truth in the memory only, keep their pound laid up in a napkin, and therefore in the other life they are deprived of it.

     The Lord, in explaining this text to His disciples, said: "He that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the Word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty and some thirty.

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This shows that it is necessary first to hear the Word, then to understand it, and lastly to do it. In other words, the truth first enters into the memory, then into the understanding, and lastly into the will. It also shows that some advance further in regeneration than others. Some do not advance very far, and produce comparatively little fruit, signified by thirty. Others advance further and produce more, signified by sixty; while some reach a full state of conjunction of good and truth, signified by a hundred.

     Because the shunning of evils as sins against God is the Christian religion itself, it is said in the Doctrines of the Church, that in the other life it is not asked, what has your faith been, but what has your life been. When this is known, then the faith is known also.--Amen.
NINETEENTH CENTURY. III. 1901

NINETEENTH CENTURY. III.              1901

     RATIONALISM AND CIVILIZATION.

     IN accordance with the accepted Law of Continuity, if we would justly estimate the rationalistic spirit of the Nineteenth Century our study must include its manifestations in the past. We have endeavored to establish the connection by identifying that spirit with Self Intelligence--that "serpent" which from the first Age has been the seducer of the race. Indeed we think it would be hard to show any essential difference between the two; or to prove that what the Writings say of the "Negative," the perverted sensual and scientific,--as being a developing of the mere external, the apparent or sense life (self life) at the expense of the internal, the real or perceptive life--to prove that it does not accurately fit that system of thought which would confine our belief to things of our own consciousness; meaning by "consciousness" that life which takes no cognizance of any other source of its faculties than what is either inborn or perceptibly derived from without; revelation being therefore totally discredited. Though often subtly disguised, rationalism when stripped to its core is nothing else than human wisdom claiming to be sufficient unto itself. How far this is from wisdom, intelligence or rationality, is shown in numberless passages, of which we have quoted only a few, but representative of the rest.

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     In order to see the subject in fuller bearing upon modern conditions and problems and methods of meeting them, let us take a hasty review from the beginning of things. The Primitive or Celestial Church in its purity was composed of men in whom the inner life was as dominant as the self life was subservient. From the Lord love and wisdom without obstruction flowed from the internal man through the rational to terminate in the scientific, and as all planes were open to the Lord, love, the universal enkindler of light, flowed m and gave perception of the Lord's presence as the all of life. Hence even the sensual was as it were transparent, and the appearance there that man's life was his own did not deceive nor prevent the acknowledgment that all life inflows. General doctrinals, received through a hearing, served as vessels for innumerable particulars of truth, flowing in and multiplying. But all this was changed by man's inclining to proprium place of the heavenly proprium, desiring to impart to the truths perceived in the natural from the internal something of authority from the external itself wherein lay his sense-life,--to be wise of himself, to be as God! The more eminent the original state the more foolish and insane is its perversion.

     Good having been destroyed in the internal, man's rational no longer received light, but on the contrary an influx of falses from the corrupt will. Hence was provided the miraculous separation of the will from the understanding and the implantation in the latter of "intellectual good." Scientifics and rational things in the natural no longer receive light from the internal as before so as to reflect heavenly things, for the forms are now inverted and resist the Influx: sense life seems the only life, until the remains, or germs of good in the understanding, are brought to life and give man the power to affirm the Lord's Word. To bring this about, and in order that the perverted forms in the natural mind may not shut out all but false and evil things, the natural mind is to be stored with things of knowledge and understanding, natural in quality indeed but good in form and therefore correspondential to heavenly things, and capable of becoming receptive of them. First, the senses must be developed and scientifics implanted whereby intelligence is to be procured, and especially, the scientifics and doctrinals of the Word, into which heavenly things close as into their own plane.

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     Man without a revelation from the Divine cannot know anything about eternal life, nor even anything about God, and still less about love and faith to Him; for man is born into mere ignorance, and must after birth learn everything from worldly things, from which he must form his understanding; he is born also hereditarily into all evil, which is of self love and lore of the world, the delights thence derived are perpetually prevalent and suggest such things as are diametrically opposite to the Divine. Hence now it is that man of himself knows nothing about eternal life; therefore there must necessarily be a revelation to communicate such knowledge. (A. C. 10318.) [And therefore there must be also education in worldly things in order that the revelation may be comprehended.]

     Here is suggested the reason why what we call civilization arose not with the Most Ancient Church,--for they did not need it, either to illuminate their mind or for protection and defense,--since earth and mankind were at peace,--but it arose with the Ancient Church, who required to be taught by the scientific way. Yet we must not jump to the conclusion that because civilization arose on account of the externalizing of the race it will therefore vanish when an internal Church shall have been once more established. Ever is the "wrath of man" turned to the praise of the Lord, whose infinite ends overrule for good the evil and puny devices of the human heart. As we are told in the Spiritual Diary, n. 4663, the sciences which led the first men aside from the path of light must become the means of making man spiritually whole again, by scientifics of faith; and the real underlying meaning of civilization is there shown to be the communication of all parts of the earth for the sake of the spread of the Word, more widely than on any other planet. This world is the ultimate, and here the Word can be founded deep in the lowest things of nature and in the outermost scientifics of the mind, whereby it is made capable of reaching even the lowest states; and at the same time it affords a basis for the highest development possible to the soul and to the race. We may expect the future celestial Church to transcend all others; for its members will appropriate on all planes truths concerning the Lord's Glorified Human, so that from every least thing of His natural universe they will see His Face shining forth, even as in the micro-ouranos or spiritual universe of their souls, all things living cannot be otherwise perceived than as being Himself in them.

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Such a civilization and such a world as will then he seen the imagination of man has never pictured or conceived.

     We need dwell no further here on the civilization of the Ancient Church,--which is beginning to be appreciated by the modern world,--than to note that in its rise and its history, as might be expected in the light of its true use, it centered around the Church. Indeed it was only when there was no spiritually living Church on earth, but only the Jewish representative of one, that civilization was transferred to the Gentiles, with whom there survived something of the Church Universal; by which collateral line the place of an internal Church seems in a measure to have been supplied.

     Here a word of caution may not be out of place. Though the external way or approach to the truth in place of the internal way was an inversion of order we are not therefore to ascribe to the scientific state of the spiritual Church the negative state of those who reason from scientifics solely; for these despise internal things, while those who are of the true spiritual Church do acknowledge the internal in their affirmative attitude toward the Lord's Word. But since they cannot see truth in its own light, thus not what it is, but only that it is truth, it may be judged how general and obscure is the illustration of the spiritual as compared with celestial perception. In the laborious acquisition of truths by the man of the spiritual Church, and in the combats excited by discordant falses and evils in the tainted natural, is fulfilled the prophecy made to the Celestial Church when it fell: "In sorrow shalt thou bring forth;" and again, "In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art and to dust thou shall return." (Gen. iii, 19.) One who studies spiritual subjects at all seriously can appreciate the force of the curse, but especially if he reads at any length the pages of Old Church theology and of rationalistic philosophy. Thus the Ancient Church in its integrity was truly rational, and became "rationalistic" only in its decline. This brings us near the times of recognized history, the researches of which begin to deal more and more knowingly with the degenerate descendants of the Ancient Church.
     (To be Continued.)

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FIRST ONTARIO ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. HELD AT BERLIN, ONTARIO, CANADA. 1901

FIRST ONTARIO ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. HELD AT BERLIN, ONTARIO, CANADA.       F. E. WAELCHLI       1901

FIRST DAY-MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1900.

     Agreeably to an invitation extended by the Carmel Church of the New Jerusalem, Berlin, Ontario, a number of the members and friends of the General Church, resident in Ontario, met in the Hall of Worship of the Carmel Church, on December 31st, at 2 p. m., for the purpose of holding a Local Assembly of the members of the General Church in this province.

     There were present, besides the members of the congregation of the Carmel Church, sixteen persons from Parkdale, and ten from other points.

     The meeting was opened with religious services, conducted by Bishop Pendleton.

     The Bishop then gave an address, of which the following is the substance:

     Brethren and friends: Let us open our meeting with a spiritual thought, which will at the same time he a practical thought; for all spiritual thoughts are practical thoughts. Let that thought be concerning obedience, for obedience is an essential element of all organization. We see the importance of it in a family with children, and also in the school; also on the civil plane, and especially in military life; for without exact and ultimate obedience an army is nothing. Obedience to the civil law is also most necessary. We see also its importance on the moral plane, for without it there would be no true moral or social life. Still more true is this in respect to obedience to spiritual law. Without this there can be no spiritual life and the Church will pass away. This is a manifest principle, and yet it has been an issue in the Church in the past and is so even now. This issue is in regard to obedience to spiritual law as revealed to the New Church by the Lord in His Second Coming. Authority involves obedience. The issue is not so much as to the authority of the Writings as such, but as to whether they are to be carried out into life. All obedience begins by the literal obeying of the commandments, and obedience to spiritual law must begin in this manner; but it must not remain mere external obedience, or the Church will be external and may at the same time be full of internal evil. Obedience must be elevated from the external to the internal, the true internal resting on the external.

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The natural heaven is the heaven of obedience, but obedience as a mere external thing disappears in the higher heavens, and in its place there is internal acknowledgment and, in the highest heaven, love. But these higher things rest on the ultimate act of obedience. Obedience is the very principle of all organic law and organized conditions, and is the ultimate of the law of heaven and the Church.

     Associated with the idea of obedience is another, namely, the idea of the consociation of men with men. Obedience is obedience to the Lord; and obedience to the Lord consociates men with men in the world, spirits with spirits in the world of spirits, angels with angels in heaven, and even devils with devils in hell,--by compulsion. As obedience consociates the angels, so should it consociate New Churchmen; there should be a common obedience to a common law in a new Revelation. Obedience to the Lord in His Second Coming must consociate the men of the Church together. Then can it be said: "One is your Master, Christ; and all ye are brethren." This is not a new idea with us, for all the movements of our Church have been based upon it; but it is useful to reflect upon it. An old truth is ever new, if we are in new states, for then we see more in it. The truth concerning obedience and consociation thence it is especially important that we reflect upon it in the beginning of a new movement in the Church.

     I congratulate you on this gathering together of the members of the General Church in Ontario. It is a beginning which may lead to important results in the future. It was with pleasure that I heard of this meeting, feeling that it might be a beginning towards the attainment of an end which I had pointed out on a previous occasion.

     [The Bishop then read from his address to the General Assembly held in Glenview, 1898 (Journal, pp. 10-12), in which he outlined the need and usefulness of dioceses within the General Church. He then continued]:

     I have waited for indications that the plan here outlined might be inaugurated, and these seem now to be afforded. I wish, however, to make clear, that there is no intention of doing anything in haste. We must let things grow, watching the indications of Providence, and co-operating with Providence in the removal of obstacles. The Church must grow, and we must not seek to force its growth. We do not know the future; and yet in a sense we do, for we know that the New Church will be established. There must therefore be some degree of looking forward to the end which is in the future, and the cultivating of the hope that the end may be accomplished; and with this there must be the consideration of the best means for the accomplishment of the end.

     The organization of the Church with us must take somewhat the form indicated. There are various forms of Church organization more or less useful, but the episcopal form has greater strength than others, and so is more useful. The strength of that form will increase by multiplication, when we have several dioceses and several bishops. There will be an added strength to our body and to our movement: We should therefore have this in view as an end.

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In striving towards it, let us observe all speed, but no haste. We must avoid organization on paper. All organization must be based altogether on the needs of the Church, and these are, its uses. The Lord presents these uses, and we must be in a state to see them, and co-operate in the doing of them. The Church in Ontario is not yet ready for a fully-formed diocese, but it is ready to make a beginning looking to it. In order that the question of making such a beginning may come before you, I would suggest the consideration of the three following propositions: First, Shall these assemblies be made annual? Second, The choice of a permanent secretary. Third, The choice of a Name.

     The first proposition was taken up.

     It was moved by Rev. F. E. Waelchli, that annual meetings of the members of the General Church in Canada be held. Seconded by Mr. R. B. Caldwell.

     Mr. Jacob Stroh expressed his surprise at this matter coming before us. It was not thought of when the meeting was called, but he was much pleased with it. There seem to be indications of Providence that we should take this step, and in taking it we should bear in mind the teaching given by the Bishop concerning obedience to the Lord in His Second Coming.

     Mr. Rudolf Roschman said, that he also was surprised to find that we are so near the goal. Separate dioceses will give our body more stability. Such a diocese here will enable us to give more attention to certain work within our borders. But he hoped that the formation of a diocese in the future would not put up even the appearance of a wall between us and our brethren in the United States. We need to keep in touch with our brethren, and especially with the centre at Huntingdon Valley. But he did not think there was any danger of such dissociation. We would remain in consociation with the members of the General Church in other localities, and at the same time the Church in Canada will enter upon its uses with renewed vigor, and gather in many who are with us in heart, though not in organization.

     Mr. Richard Roschman was pleased to hear the Bishop's opening remarks on obedience. When the holding of this meeting was first suggested, he had hesitated somewhat, fearing that we might take some disorderly step. But he now saw that we have taken another step in the direction of obedience and the establishment of order. He liked the idea of a separate diocese. This would give us strength, and would also enable us to do more for the isolated receivers, for whom the Canada Association is doing nothing.

     Rev. E. J. Stebbing said he had somewhat the fear of separation from the centre, alluded to by Mr. Rudolf Roschman; but this had passed away, as the growth would be a natural and orderly one, and in such a case nothing was to be feared.

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He referred to the truth that the whole is as the parts, and that the more perfect the parts, the more perfect would the whole become, and in this perfection there was strength.

     Mr. Charles Brown spoke of the use of Assemblies. Those who have attended the General Assemblies can testify to their great benefit. They arouse enthusiasm for the Church. He was glad that we are to have such assemblies as proposed for Ontario. Parkdale could not entertain the General Assembly, but would be able to arrange for an assembly such as this. He felt that Parkdale should have it next year.

     Mr. A. K. Roy stated that he listened with interest to the Bishop's opening remarks, which fell In line with his own thought Spiritual thought is practical and must be directed to some use, for the Lord's Kingdom is a Kingdom of Uses. He considered this movement a useful thing and a matter of order. Dioceses need not always be according to geographical boundaries; this must be decided by needs. Still we know that in the Writings, in many places, people are classed according to certain general national characteristics ; and hence the dioceses would take on various forms among various people, and this also would be useful. He referred to a stirring appeal he had once heard from the Bishop for the freedom of the clergy, and had often thought of it since. It had also been a pleasure to him to note how fully the Bishop respects the freedom of the laity. This is the strength of the General Church, in which Church he has at last found a home. The methods in this Church are very different from the former methods of the Academy, of which he could never approve The laity of the Church now has freedom. The organization of dioceses must strengthen the General Church, and will open the way for the establishment of a House of Bishops, which would be of great benefit to the Church. The speaker thought Parkdale was hardly ready to entertain such an Assembly.

     Rev. E. S. Hyatt said that the one principle which ought to guide in all organizations is the emulation of the order of heaven; also the emulation of the spirit in which that order is carried out. The freedom we have in not that of having our own way, but of performing our uses, as do the organs of the body. Every part must perform its use in a state of subordination, without any part unduly Putting itself forward. We must not insist too much on our own will, but be ready to recognize the general freedom, observing the general state of thought on a given matter. We cannot always act in full unanimity, and there must be a certain degree of giving way to the generally prevailing thought. That which is the general will we must take and submit to. We cannot act together unless there be giving and taking. We must be prepared to subordinate our own wishes to the general wish. One of the great uses of organizations is that they bring us to be parts of a whole, thus into subordination. In heaven all are in freedom and the submission is voluntary. So it must be with us. We must be ready to enter into this new movement in the spirit of being willing to join in the general view of the body, and be willing to give way at times, heavenly order.

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Unless we do this, we will not come even into the emulation of heavenly order.

     After further brief discussion, the motion was put to vote and carried unanimously.

     The second proposition, that of a Permanent Secretary, now came up, and the Bishop's nomination of the Rev. F. E. Waelchli was confirmed by the Assembly.

     The third proposition, that of A Name, was brought forward. The Bishop suggested, The Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. After brief discussion, this name was adopted.

     Mr. T. S. Kuhl was chosen Assistant Secretary.

     The Bishop said that he did not think it well to go further in the matter of organization at present. This may be done as the needs develop. It does not seem necessary to choose a treasurer at present. It would not be well to diminish the financial support of the General Church. In time, however, there will be local uses calling for support, and he suggested the looking forward to the establishment of a High School within this body as a use of the future.

     On motion, it was resolved, that we take up for consideration the subject of

     EVANGELIZATION TO THOSE WITHOUT THE CHURCH.

     In order to introduce the subject, the Rev. E. I. Stebbing read a paper, of which the following is an abstract:

     EVANGELIZATION.

     The subject of evangelization is one that must arouse the affections of all, for is it not a glorious thing to make known to all the earth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the God of Heaven and Earth? This is the evangel or message which is to be proclaimed, and only the New Church can proclaim it. There need be no anxiety for the state of those who have not as yet heard of the new Revelation. It is not necessary to their salvation that all should. The Lord provides for the salvation of all who are willing to be saved. He knows who need the truths of the New Church and these He can bring to a knowledge of them in infinite ways of which man knows nothing. The Lord makes use of man, however, in this His work and indicates what he should do. We must look and wait for these indications.

     The teaching that the New Church is the Crown of all the Churches involves that all in the whole world are to be brought to a knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines in the Lord's own time.

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We must not expect much from the Old Church. Who are most like to receive? The Writings forbid the hope that the ministers or We are forced to the conclusion that none but the simple and the young are likely to receive the Doctrines. These must be taught that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. This is the primary doctrine of the New Church. If this is rejected the whole revelation will be rejected, for the doctrine of the Lord involves all that has been revealed. The distinctiveness of the doctrines of the Old and that of the New Church must be clearly made or evangelistic work will continue to be largely a failure.

     Evangelization in the Old Church is not a use immediately before the General Church. It will be a use of our body in time. We must wait for indications, which the Lord will lead us to see when we are prepared to take up the use. To evangelize to our own Societies and to isolated receivers already taxes our resources to the utmost. If we perform faithfully the work immediately before us we shall best be preparing for the work the Lord will indicate to us in the future.

     Mr. Jacob Stroh spoke of the great importance of the work of external evangelization, and of the difficulties connected with it. There is always great delight with us, and also with the angels, when some one is led to the Church. It is wonderful how people are led to the Church, often, apparently, by the merest accident, but really by the Divine Providence. He thought it would be well if the laity were to be more active in this use, by communicating the truth to their neighbors, friends or relatives. We of the General Church should keep this use in mind, although we cannot as yet to any extent undertake it.

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli said he was impressed with Mr. Stebbing's remarks concerning our not being anxious about the salvation of those who are not of the Church. The Lord provides for the salvation of all mankind. In every religiosity there is something by which men may be led to salvation. The Lord also so bends falsities that they may serve the rise of truths. We can be sure that the Lord will lead to the New Church all who can be saved only in the New Church. Still, the work of external evangelization is a work in which the Church must engage, for it is a means by which the Lord leads men to the Church, indeed, it is a Divinely appointed means for this end. It is the duty of the Church to go forth into the world and preach Unto men: "Repent; for the Kingdom of heaven it at hand," i. e., that men must turn away from the falsities and evils of the consummated Church and embrace the truths and goods of the New Church, for the Lord has made His Second Coming to establish His Kingdom anew.

     Such was, for the most part, the preaching of the early evangelists of the New Church. But the evangelists of this day have almost entirely departed from such preaching, the Church being infested by the spurious charity prevailing in the world. But even if there should be a return to true evangelistic work, we could not expect from it the results that followed the work of our first evangelists.

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The first work of the Church was that of collecting the elect; now must follow that of teaching them. External evangelization was in the beginning the primary work of the Church, but is now the secondary. The lack of recognition of this fact is one of the reasons why so many societies of the Church at large are dying out. With few exceptions, only so-called missionary sermons are preached, and the result is that there is no progress on the part of those who have been led to the Church; and when there is no progress, retrogression and decay must follow.

     The Bishop said that we might learn something from the experience of missionaries in the Old Church. He had recently heard a lecture by an Old Church missionary who had been in Peking during the siege, and was impressed with what he said concerning their method of work. They settle several people in a community, including a pastor and teachers, and establish a congregation and a school. These remain there and build up a church. This is an idea in evangelization which it might be well to keep in mind, though we are unable at present to carry it out. He did not think our evangelistic work in the Old Church would bear much fruit until we could settle pastors in certain localities, where they could gather around them those who would accept the teachings. A head-master and a lady-teacher might be associated with the pastor, and a school be started; for the young must be gathered in, as it is a fact that most of those who come in from the Old Church come as young people, or in early manhood. In the carrying out of such a plan we could not adhere to our principle of exclusiveness. The workers would have to work among the people. We might have to forego certain things in the beginning, which we must hold to in established Societies of the New Church; for instance, the rule as to baptism before entrance into our schools, might in these cases be waived.

     The Bishop spoke also of the movement in establishing university clubs as an idea which we might make use of in the future. Practically, we must do what we can in the present; but it is well to look forward to the future and hope for good things then to be done. Hope is a very essential element in life, which we should cultivate.

     Mr. Rudolf Roschman expressed his pleasure and interest in the Bishop's remarks. He had thought of work on these lines among isolated receivers, but had never thought of it in reference to those outside of the Church.

     The Bishop stated that a work we can look forward to as nearer at hand is that of stationing priests in weak societies and assisting them.

     Mr. A. K. Roy spoke of the university as a field where the work of evangelization could be done; but this should be by such as are especially fitted for it.

     Mr. Charles Frankish asked which of the Writings was the best to give first to an Old Church person.

     The Bishop favored Heaven and Hell, by the reading of which more persons had been led to the Church than by the reading of any other work. Those who have any remnant of religion believe in a future life and desire to know about it.

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If Heaven and Hell is not given, it should be some work containing Memorable Relations. In answer to the question whether the Life of Swedenborg would be useful for evangelization, he said he thought it would, especially with the young, who are always interested in biography.

     Mr. Roy thought the last number of Heaven and Hell describes the state of those who will be benefited by reading the Writings.*

     * [This number reads: "What has been said in this work about heaven, the world of spirits, and hell, will be obscure to those who are not in the delight of knowing spiritual truths, but clear to those who are in that delight, and especially to those who are in the affection of truth for the sake of truth, that is, who love truth because it is truth; for whatsoever is loved enters with light into the idea of the mind, especially truth, when it is loved, because all truth is in light."--H. H. 603.]

     Mr. Waelchli called attention to the Rev. C. T. Odhner's Brief View of the Heavenly Doctrines as an excellent work for evangelization.

     On motion, the meeting now adjourned, to meet the next day at 2 P. M.     

THE EVENING SOCIAL.

     AT 7 P. M. ninety-three members and friends of the Ontario Assembly met in the school-room for a social supper. The sphere of happiness which prevailed evidenced itself upon every face. After due time had elapsed, the toast to The Church was proposed, and Vivat Nova Ecclesia was sung. The next toast was to The Future of the General Church, to which, after the singing of Our Glorious Church, Bishop Pendleton responded, in substance, as follows:

     The future is known to the Lord alone, but angels have an intuition of things to come. This is true also of men, but not so fully. There is a hope of things to come, and so an expectation. Our hope is that the General Church and all its parts will grow and increase in all its agencies and instrumentalities of use, both internal and external. We spoke of one of these uses today, that of evangelization outside of the Church. We can judge of the future by the present as well as by the past. We can safely say that similar methods will continue in the future. The real increase is within the Church and from within.

     One form of progress in the Church is a continually more and more interior opening of the Word. I have had glimpses of the grand possibilities of the opening of the Word in its various senses. It is not often realized that the Word has a natural sense within the letter, in which is taught the truth of Science, the truth of nature, the truth of philosophy and of government, and the truth relating to moral life. All this is in the natural sense.

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All truth, in every degree, comes from the Word. The Lord Himself, it is said, when on earth studied only the Word; for everything is contained in it. In it there is an infinity of truth on every plane. We may look for a wonderful development in this respect. There is an unending prospect of things to come. There is no end to the riches and treasures in every use, and every use is from the Word.

     Another thing which will grow in the future with us is the "higher education." This has not yet been developed. It is something higher than the college, and belongs to the university, which we shall have in time. It is one of the very chief instrumentalities by which science is to be made new. The New Church is beginning to rise out of spiritual barbarism. Future ages will regard this age as barbarous on account of its false idea of God. A chief instrumentality to lift it out, is the University. Swedenborg sent his books to the Universities and the Clergy, because these are the instrumentalities for the spread of the Truth; but they rejected the opportunity given them. The universities are to send out ministers. From the University of the New Church the ministers are to go forth. We only have glimpses of this work, but it is one of the great possibilities of the future. We have little of the education that is to be, yet our clergy are far better educated in the doctrines than others. We need a thorough education in the other departments of the higher education. New Church science has hardly begun. When we see what is to be done, we are almost staggered.

     There are many other things of the future of our Church which might be mentioned, among them the great promise as to the growth of conjugial love. But the few things we have spoken of indicate what glorious things we can hope for.

     The Bishop's speech called forth a number of others, which led up to a toast to The Academy, proposed by Mr. Rudolf Roschman and responded to by the Rev. Messrs. Waelchli and Hyatt.

     Mr. Waelchli spoke of the wonderful growth of the Academy in Ontario. When he first came here twelve years ago, there were not more than ten persons in the province loyal to its principles; today there are nearly one hundred gathered at this table; and besides there are a number who are not present.

     Mr. Hyatt alluded to criticisms made of the Academy's early methods, and showed that those methods were then necessary. Methods which may not be orderly in times of peace, are often orderly and good in times of war. As is usual in General Church gatherings, this toast awakened great enthusiasm.

     Several other toasts followed, and then the Bishop proposed the final one, The Ontario Assembly of the General Church, and called upon Mr. R. B. Caldwell to respond.

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     Mr. Caldwell spoke of the great use of these meetings,--how they strengthen us in our love for and loyalty to the Church. This has truly been a great day for all of us, one which we shall ever remember, and the thought that such gatherings will be held annually is one which fills us with delight. The prospects for the growth of the Church in Ontario are certainly bright and fill us with hope.

     After the supper a programme of vocal and instrumental music and dancing occupied the time until half-past eleven, when all assembled in the Hall of Worship. After several selections from the Psalmody had been sung, a short but most impressive service was conducted by the Rev. E. S. Hyatt. He spoke of our entrance into a new year and into a new century, which should he for us an entrance into a new state. In order that such may be the case, we must seek to cultivate more fully humility before the Lord. The greater our humility, the greater will be our happiness and the glory of the Church with us. After this address, all knelt for a short time in silent prayer, and then, when the hour of the beginning of the new day arrived, prayed in unison the Lord's Prayer. Then followed the benediction and the closing of the Word. While the Word was being closed and returned to the repository all sang "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and this with an affection perhaps never felt before in the same degree.

     After the service came the wishing of a "Happy New Year" and a "Happy New Century" to one another, and strong indeed was the sphere of mutual love which prevailed in the speaking of these words of good-will.

     All then again went to the school-room, where refreshments were served. A toast was proposed to The Prosperity of the Church in the New Century, to which the Bishop replied, dwelling on the importance of mutual love in the Church. He spoke of the great necessity of being patient with one another's shortcomings. The Lord permits evils in our neighbor, why should not we also permit them?

     Then followed a toast to Our Country, which occasioned an outburst of patriotic enthusiasm, finding vent in song.

     Dancing now again followed. The "old folks" gradually disappeared; but how long the younger generation continued the festivities, the scribe does not consider it his duty to record.

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SECOND DAY--TUESDAY, JANUARY I, 1901.

     The Assembly was called to order at 2 p. m.

     The minutes of the previous day's meeting were read.

     The following letter from the Rev. J. E. Bowers, the missionary of the General Church, whose home is in Toronto, Ont., was read:

     Philipsburg, Pa., Dec. 28, 1900.
     Dear Brethren: The greetings of the missionary from the tops of the Allegheny Mountains, on the advent of the Twentieth Century! I much regret not being able to be with you on the interesting occasion of your celebration. And let me say, that I hope every member of the General Church in Canada, and especially every one who has the privilege to be present at your Local Assembly, will form a new resolution at this beginning of a new century: To be faithful to our beloved Church; to be firm in the faith; to cultivate mutual love and confidence; to co-operate with the Bishop and Pastors; in order that unity, peace and prosperity may prevail. For thus shall we come to realize the blessedness of being living and active and useful members of the Lord's crowning Church, the New Jerusalem. Affectionately yours. JOHN E. BOWERS.

     A letter was read also from Mr. Conrad Schweitzer, an isolated member of the General Church, resident in Colbeck, Ont., sending greetings, and expressing the hope that the General Church would soon be able to do more for the isolated members and their children. Unless the Church can come to the aid of isolated parents, their children cannot be kept in the Church.

     The Bishop now announced that on the day he left home the Rev. J. F. Potts had completed his work on the Swedenborg Concordance. [Applause.] He spoke of the importance and usefulness of this work. A number of the members expressed their delight at the completion of so important a work, and at this being the first public announcement of it. The great amount of labor involved in it was spoken of, as also the fact that it had become indispensable to every student of the Doctrines. The following resolution was then moved by Dr. Becker and seconded by Mr. R. B. Caldwell, and carried unanimously:

     Resolved, That the hearty congratulations of the Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem be conveyed to the Rev. J. F. Potts on the completion of his many years of labor on the Swedenborg Concordance, and its appreciation of the very great use which he has thus performed for the New Church; and that the Secretary be requested to forward a copy of this resolution to Mr. Potts.

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     On motion it was decided to take up for consideration the subject of

EVANGELIZATION TO THOSE WITHIN THE CHURCH.

     This was introduced by the Rev. E. S. Hyatt, who read a paper, a portion of which is herewith given:
     Evangelization within the Church necessarily includes work for all those who in the Lord's Providence are led to the Church, as well as those who first reach adult life within its sphere and those who have been connected therewith for some time. The work of evangelization is therefore essentially the work of keeping prominently before the members of the Church the glad tidings that they can be saved if they will, and that their first duty is to co-operate in extending the Lord's Kingdom in those regions which the Lord has placed nearest to them. It consists not merely in introducing the truth to notice; but ill striving to keep both the gladness and the duty before the attention, to the end that they may ever press forward in the appropriating of what the Lord desires to give them. Without continued voluntary endeavor to appropriate the blessings which make those tidings glad, both the gladness and the newness gradually wears off as far as such are concerned, and mere lukewarmness is apt to succeed.

     Evangelization is the spreading of the Lord's Kingdom, and our first duty is to spread that kingdom in ourselves, so that we may thereby become voluntary instruments of use in heaven to the whole human race, each according to his capacity. Now there are three principal and essential planes upon which this work should be ultimated, so far as opportunity is given us. The first is, as we all familiarly know, the plane of our own daily business, whatever that may be. The second plane is that of Conjugial Love. If we are not endeavoring to have continuously new reception of this, we are not on the path of regeneration. The third plane of evangelization is in the children which Providence has placed most immediately in our charge. First note that these three planes, although considered separately, cannot be deliberately separated by us. They are of those things which the Lord has joined together, so that we cannot be spiritually loyal on any one of these three planes, if we deliberately neglect the others. These then are the three planes upon which the uses of evangelization with the Church must be worked out by all who are really members thereof. This leaves the work of evangelization outside of the Church as a similar plane only with those with whom that work is one with their daily calling. How far those who are engaged in the work of evangelization within the Church should also branch out into the work of evangelization outside of the Church, is a question which each individual concerned has a right to settle for himself, according to what he judges to be the indications of Providence.

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The one thing to be remembered is that these things only become planes of our regeneration, so far as in doing the uses pertaining to them which in themselves are natural, we so combat and shun as sins our natural tendency to put temporal ends in the first place, that spiritual ends may take that place. All work that primarily involves this in the doing of it thereby involves interior evangelization on the part of those engaged therein.

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli said that evangelization to those within the Church consists in teaching those who are of the Church the Truth revealed by the Lord in His Second Coming, in order that they, by the interior reception of the same, may attain unto salvation. The Lord revealed this Truth for the sake of salvation, for in the Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church in its particular form, are the words: "Without the coming of the Lord into the world, no one could be saved. It is similar at this day; wherefore, unless the Lord come again into the world, in the Divine Truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved." This Divine Truth of the Word, in which the Lord comes, is given in the Writings of the New Church; and evangelization to those within the Church lacks its most essential quality if it does not clearly proclaim that men must look to the Lord in these Writings for salvation. Only where this is done, in the Church, can there be a genuine affection for the truths of the New Church, that is, only there can there be an affection for them such as is with the angels of the New Heaven. Where there is such affection of truth there will be progress; where it is not, there will be decline. It is because of lack of affection of truth, arising from unwillingness to look to the Lord in the Writings, that the New Church is dying but in so many places. The Church cannot be established where men regard the Writings simply as a delightful system of theology, but are unwilling to look to them, and to them alone, for salvation. In the General Church there has been no decline, but a steady progress; this is for no other reason than that the evangelists of this Church ever teach, and the members receive with affection, the glad tidings that the Lord has come the second time for salvation.

     The Bishop spoke of the historical aspect of this subject. There are in general two states with receivers: the state of the new receiver, and that of the New Churchman when he has entered more interiorly into the things of the Church. The state of the new receiver is one of great delight in the Doctrines and a desire to make them known to others, believing that they will see the truth when presented to them; but he soon discovers that this is for the most part an error. This first state determined the policy of the New Church organizations in the beginning. Gradually some in the Church fame to see that this was not the most profitable field, and that the Church needed to grow from within. But by far the greater part of the Church was confirmed in the state of the new receiver, and thus the New Church paused at the very threshold of its activity. The recognition of this state led to the organization of the Academy, whose object was first to evangelize within the Church, seeing that this was best for the life of the Church.

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A magazine was published called Words for the New Church. The name indicated the use, which was that of the internal evangelization, or the teaching of sound doctrine to those of the New Church. It was seen that a further and most important use was the education of priests who would do such work, and for this purpose the Academy established a Theological School. The first thing was to convince New Churchmen that they had a wrong idea of the state of the Christian world, of marriage, and of the Writings. The next thing was to educate our children in true principles, thus to evangelize with them; and for this purpose schools were established.

     The essential part of the work of internal evangelization is the expounding of the Word as to its internal sense. All in the Church need this opening of the internal sense. This idea is kept continually in view in the Theological School, and our priests are working in this line. Comparatively little of this work has been done in the New Church generally, up to this time. It is common in the Church to present some general doctrine, applying it to some text chosen for the purpose; such preaching is adapted to new receivers and delights them; but it soon ceases to feed the understanding of those who desire more interior things. This is an indication that the opening of the internal sense of the Word is needed.

     The leading idea in Academy work and in the General Church is evangelization within the Church, cultivating an interior understanding of the Word. The Word evangelizes when the internal sense is presented to man: it presents the Lord Himself as the Word in His Second Coming.

     Rev. E .S. Hyatt called attention to the truth that we can elevate our understanding above our will. It is easy therefore to know the truth, but we advance only when we see our evils. The genuine causes of evils in ourselves is what we must see and shun. As we advance into interior knowledge of the doctrines we can see these causes more clearly. We must learn to recognize the first evil to be shunned, and as me advance in regeneration we shall see more interior evils. We appropriate the doctrines only so far as we apply them to the shunning of our evils. If we allow the doctrines to point out our evils, and if we then shun them, the Lord will bestow new life upon us. In advancing in regeneration the intelligent understanding of the doctrines is only a means to expose more interior evils.

     Mr. Rudolf Roschman, referring to the Bishop's remarks, called attention to the duty of the laity to receive the evangelization of the internal sense of the Word with affection, realizing its importance. The efforts of the clergy can bear fruit only in so far as they are responded to by the laity by the reception of the truth into life. If this be done by each one individually, the Church as a whole will progress. He felt that the General Church could be encouraged in the belief that the laity are striving to fulfil these duties; and such being the case, the internal evangelization of this Church must bear fruit in ever increasing measure.

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GENERAL CHURCH WORK AMONG ISOLATED RECEIVERS IN ONTARIO.

     The foregoing subject being taken up, the Rev. F. E. Waelchli read a paper, of which the following is a summary:

     The Canada Association has practically ceased to do work among the isolated receivers in Ontario; and the Rev. Mr. Bowers informs us that in the future he will be able to do but little in this field. There therefore fairly comes before this Assembly the question, whether we shall make an effort to care for these people. If we decide to do so it is important that we should find means for instructing the children of the isolated; otherwise the results of our work, so far as numerical growth is concerned, will be as poor as those of the Canada Association, and the number of isolated receivers will continue to decrease. It is impossible for these people to send their children to our schools, but most of them would probably be able to send each of their children in turn to one of our centres for a brief period of time, for the sake of special religious instruction. The Rev. F. W. Tuerk, pastor of the First New Jerusalem Society in Berlin, has for forty years had an annual confirmation school, which all the children of that Society attend when they reach the age of about fourteen years. This school is held daily for a period of three months. It cannot be doubted but that it was the chief factor in the remarkable growth of that Society. Does not this suggest a work which we should, if possible, undertake? Should we not establish such a special school, for the sake of children of isolated receivers, in connection with one of our societies? Berlin would be best able to have it. There is no doubt as to there being pupils. Three months of religious instruction, such as the General Church gives the young, would certainly make an abiding impression. We could hope that these children would remain in the Church. Nor would the instruction be the only benefit they would derive during this time; for their association for that length of time with the life of a New Church society would implant remains of affection for the Church. But if such work were undertaken, the society would need to be satisfied with less carefully prepared sermons and class-instruction for those three months; and this is a. sacrifice which both people and pastor would not like to make, and would only be willing to make if convinced that some great use could be furthered thereby.

     The paper concluded by placing four questions before the Assembly: I. Should we try to arrange for visits by a General Church minister to the isolated receivers in Ontario? II. If so, I what arrangements might be made? III. Would a use be served by establishing such a special school as suggested? IV. Is this use of sufficient importance to warrant the less thorough performance of other uses for its sake?

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     The Bishop asked whether such pupils could be entered in the regular school classes.

     Mr. Waelchli explained that this could not well be done because these pupils would generally have completed the course of study of our highest class in the school. Besides, having these children for only three months, we would wish to occupy most of the time with religious instruction.

     The Bishop remarked that this movement is in the direction of a High School.

     Mr. I. G. Stroh gave some of the history and also personal reminiscences of Mr. Tuerk's confirmation school, and spoke of the great use it performed. He said he was much interested in the propositions under discussion, and thought that isolated children who attended such a school would have the desire to live in some centre when they grew up.

     Mr. Rudolf Roschman said there was no doubt of the use of priests' visiting isolated members, but thought that the work should depend on the response of those for whom it is done. The isolated receivers need to support the work; for the external support is a basis without which the use cannot be carried on, and services should not be expected gratis. He thought isolated receivers did not realize our efforts in this direction at Centres. They should consider that what is done for them is a sacrifice from those in the centres. They should regard it as a great privilege to receive the ministrations of a priest, and make all efforts to respond by supporting the Church.

     Mr. Waelchli said, that while agreeing with the previous speaker, he felt that there is a use in assisting such places where an earnest effort is made to support the work. This was done for us in Berlin in the beginning, until we had grown sufficiently to support the uses ourselves.

     Mr. John McGregor said that they always enjoyed Mr. Waelchli's visits to Huron County, and were looking forward to his coming again in the near future. He would guarantee that he should not be out of pocket by his visit. [Applause.]

     Mr. Waelchli replied that he had never been out of pocket in visits to Huron County; nevertheless it would not be possible for him to make these visits, were he not receiving support for work done elsewhere.

     Mr. R. B. Caldwell thought the laymen lacked instruction, and that if the financial question were properly brought forward we would not lack funds. We had reason to be gratified at the results of the work of the General Church in Ontario at the centres. We are blessed with good things. Take this meeting. It has been a surprise to all of us. We came up here from Parkdale with the idea of having a grand jollification. Instead, the Bishop, in his opening remarks, turned our thoughts to a spiritual idea, that of Obedience. That was truly evangelistic work for all of us. Then came the service last night, in which we were told of Humility. And afterwards the Bishop's impressive words concerning Patience. These three things were to the speaker the prominent ones of our meeting. Let us carry home with us the thoughts concerning obedience, humility, and patience. These meetings are a great opportunity for the evangelization we all need, and we can do nothing better for the isolated receivers than to impress upon them the importance of attending them.

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     Mr. Richard Roschman thought the Berlin Society would be ready to make some sacrifice in order to assist a use, where it is appreciated. As to the proposed special school, it had many things in its favor, and he would like to see it instituted. We must look to the children for the growth of the Church.

     Mr. Albert Doering said that he, as one of those whose children would attend such a school, could not sufficiently express his delight in it. He spoke of the benefit which he himself had received from Mr. Tuerk's confirmation school. As to the expenses for visiting isolated members, he thought it would be well if such persons would become members of the nearest society and support its uses.

     Dr. Becker asked why isolated members in the country might not locate at some point where they would be near a centre. And another speaker stated that, while this would be well, yet we must recognize that there is some reason in Divine Providence why New Church people are scattered in so many different places.

     Mr. Waelchli said that although we have not arrived at any definite conclusion as to the work among the isolated, yet there has been sufficient said to indicate that the Ontario Assembly desires to enter into this use. The subject could be brought up again at the next meeting. In the meantime the Berlin Society would probably do some work in this direction.

     The question of the Time and Place of the Next Meeting was now taken up. New Year was generally favored as the best time. Berlin indicated a readiness to have the Assembly again next year, and some of the Parkdale members thought that Society would be able to have it. It was thought best not to decide the question at present.

     As there are certain expenses connected with the Secretary's work, it was decided. on motion, that the Assistant Secretary act also as Treasurer, and receive contributions.

     Mr. Charles Brown offered the following resolution, which was seconded by Mr. A. K. Roy, and carried unanimously:

     Resolved, That as visitors to this Assembly we desire to tender thanks to the Berlin Society for the kind hospitality received at their hands, and to express our appreciation of the efforts put forth in this direction, and thankfulness to the Lord for the opportunity which has been afforded of bringing together the members of the General Church, which has resulted in the formation of the Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

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     Mr. Rudolf Roschman made a motion, very heartily received, in appreciation of the work of the ladies; and for the Berlin Society thanked Mr. Roy for his present to them of a punch-bowl.

     Mr. Roschman then spoke of the pleasure and benefit of the Bishop's presence with us, and moved that this Assembly extends its hearty thanks to the Bishop for his presence at this meeting. The motion was seconded, and put to the meeting by the Secretary, and carried by a rising vote.

     The Bishop thanked the Assembly and expressed his gratification and joy at being present, and his great pleasure in the promise for the future. He said he hoped for similar movements before long in other places. "In the Church," he said, "we accept no national lines; therefore I have felt at home with you as if in my own country. In the Church we are a one,--a one before the Lord and in our relations to one another."

     On motion it was then resolved, that the Assembly do now adjourn, to meet again at the call of the Bishop.

     The meeting closed with the singing of "Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem," and the benediction.

EVENING GATHERINGS.

     In the evening a Men's Meeting was held in the school-room, at which the Bishop read a paper on "The Love of the Sex." An interesting and useful discussion followed. The latter part of the evening was spent socially, and much enjoyed.

     At the same time a social meeting of the Ladies was held at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman, at which all had "a good time."

     In conclusion it may be said that the Assembly, from beginning to end, was to those present a great Church Festival, which will ever be remembered. For many it was the most delightful life of the Church that they had ever experienced This happy and useful beginning is full of promise for the future of the Ontario Assembly. F. E. WAELCHLI, Secretary.

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     THE idea of so expanding the "Local Assembly" as to take in all members of the General Church within reasonable distance of the place of meeting will be hailed as a happy one. For one thing, the intense love of all for our annual gatherings, coupled with a keen sense of the yearly drain they make upon the resources of our modest-sized body, has raised all anxious feeling in the minds of not a few. To hold the General Assembly less frequently, and to replace it to that extent with assemblies covering districts of practical size, seems a promising solution of the problem. The kindness and thoroughness with which our Canada friends, in the report furnished, have undertaken to let us judge for ourselves of the success of the experiment will be appreciated by all the rest of the Church, we feel sure.
GREAT LIFE WORK 1901

GREAT LIFE WORK              1901

     IN the passing away of Queen Victoria it would seem fitting rather to rejoice than mourn that one whose years were so full at once of high duty done and heavy responsibilities met,--not to speak of bitter private griefs,--in ripe old age has gone to meet that long-parted consort for whom it would seem the woman's heart beneath the ermine beat true to the end.

     The real significance of a human life lies in the uses which the Lord has effected thereby; and to none others as to the great ones of earth, if they be at all observant and humble, must the efforts of even titanic souls seem so puny, or the Unseen Hand that shapes destiny, so near and real. Though the personal character of the Lord's instruments evidently is one of the most important of the conditions which He uses in effecting Divine ends yet none others than those who perform the most eminent uses have like opportunity for knowing how far the apparent fruits of their achievements are due to the unforeseen, and how little they derive from the merely human.

     The Queen's life-work seems fitly rounded off by the profound impression its close has made; its best results illustrate the immense power which example in high places wields. It is unnecessary here to recount what that work, and the character which made it possible, stand for. But the thought is suggested that the reason for the power which virtue and worth exert in a largely evil world, is, that after internal perceptions of good and truth have been extinguished in the Church the Lord still saves from the wreck the indispensable light of common perception, through which the image and the influence of heaven are still preserved on earth, in externals. He ordains that life like the tides shall be ebb and flow,--that evil and the false of evil which darken human souls shall not always be at the flood-tide of activity; whence it comes that the mind is intermittently more or less open to the light of common perception, the flux and operation of which from the spiritual world ever quietly but steadily and therefore powerfully sets against the apparently unopposed torrent of human passions and so tends to maintain or restore equilibrium and order on earth.

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It is this common perception which enables even the evil to recognize goodness; yes, and even to be affected by it, not merely because from the good the evil need feel no fear no malice, nor that they hope to make gain from them, but for the additional reason that very many of the evil retain through earthly life something of natural good, so that in some form or other good has power to affect them; and this indeed it is which often makes good citizens and kind friends of men who when stripped of such external states in the other life, will become satans and devils. Relatively few while yet on earth succeed in so defying the mitigating ends of Providence as to break through all bonds and make of themselves manifest wild beasts. To all but the latter such a reign and life as Queen Victoria's serves as an object lesson, a potent restraint upon the license of the natural man, a perpetual reminder of the desirability of order and decorum, a stimulus to those "better impulses" of which even the very criminal are known not to be destitute. On the incentive to the good we hardly need enlarge.

     It ought to be very evident, however, that such external restraints are very different from the internal bonds of conscience, which latter depend for their life upon the individual's suffering the Lord to light in his mind the lamp of faith, the illumination of whose ray comes solely from the oil of love, the fruitage of a broken and contrite heart. Not following an example, nor avoiding evils which bring loss of repute, of gain or of bodily freedom, effects anything of saving grace, but the acknowledgment of the One Only Lord and the shunning of evils as sins against Him. To lead men to this is a work of many generations; it involves likewise the final closing of one of the great divisions or charters of the spiritual history of the race--the development, and also the later perversion, of the natural rational.
MRS. JACOB ANSHUTZ 1901

MRS. JACOB ANSHUTZ              1901

     JULY 29th, 1824-JANUARY 18th, 1901.

     MRS. ABIGAIL JANE ANSHUTZ (nee Pollock) was born in Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia): on July 29th, 1824. Miss Pollock was educated first in the country schools and then by the well-known Newchurchman, the Rev. David Powell, whom her father, Mr. Thomas Pollock, induced to come and teach school, providing for the purpose a large pleasant room in his own house. In 1845 Miss Pollock was married to Mr. Jacob Anshutz, with whom she moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, uniting there with the Society of the Rev. Chauncey Giles. In 1872 the family moved to Philadelphia, Pa., where they early affiliated with the "Cherry Street" Society and with the Academy of the New Church, the principles of which body they always considered as simply the plain teachings of the Doctrines.

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In May, 1892, their exceptionally happy married life was interrupted by the removal of Mr. Anshutz to the other world. Since then Mrs. Anshutz has been a regular attendant at the services conducted on North Street, until prevented by failing strength and hearing.

     Always an ardent and consistent Newchurchwoman, Mrs. Anshutz had a more than ordinary grasp of the Doctrines, and at the same time such kindness and largeheartedness that though she had an apt and direct way of pricking bubbles of error she awoke no bitterness in those whose views she at times felt compelled to oppose. But it is for those eminently feminine characteristics which are so essential to the upbuilding of the Church that she will be best and longest remembered--those which leave their token in the memory of a New Church home established, and in children, now become growth members of society, carrying into the world the principles instilled from earliest years. As one of those who knew and loved her best has testified, "Always enthusiastic, devoted, unselfish to a degree, her cheerful spirit will be felt as a benediction to all of her friends and relatives who came within the sphere of her influence." Of these latter, the ones most affected by her loss are two brothers, two sisters, three sons and a daughter. They hare this to console them in her taking away, that it meant to her, not only release from bodily infirmities, but an entrance upon that life which was so plainly her ideal, and the prospect of renewing a conjugial union the quiet strength of which only those most ultimate in the home ever had opportunity fully to appreciate.
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     Annals of the New Church. No. 18 (November, 1900). This number, which includes the years 1848 to 1850, brings the first volume to a close. The compiler is at work upon an index to the same, which will be mailed to subscribers as soon as finished. As previously noted the publication will then be suspended for a year or more, in order to allow the compiler first to obtain needed rest, and second, to work up the material, which greatly expands in quantity as we come down to more recent years. There seems to be a growing sense of the importance of this work.

     BOOKS RECEIVED.

     The Promise of Peace, and Other Sermons. By the Rev. John Worcester. A Memorial Volume. Boston. Mass., New Church Union. 1900. pp. 196. $1.00.

     Spectrum Analysis and Swedenborg's "Principia." Studies by Miss Lillian Beekman. For sale at the Academy Book Room, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.; Mass. New Church Union, Boston; New Church Board of Publication, New York; Western New Church Union, 901 Steinway Hall, Chicago.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

     THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM

     Huntingdon Valley (Bryn Athyn), Pa.-The Christmas holidays this year were much enjoyed, by the schools in particular and the society in general, in spite of a certain amount of sickness. At the Children's Festival, on December 24th, the features were much as usual, the only change being the placing of the representations of the annunciation to the shepherds and the adoration of the Magi, together in the centre of the room, instead of at either hand as heretofore; and the use of a temple-like structure under which they were grouped. After the service there was giving of private gifts and general jollity. The occasion was a specially "Christmasy" one, in the quieter and more enjoyable aspect. The children seemed in their happiest and sweetest mood. Said one who has only recently come among us, looking on at the scene, and alluding to the disparagement, sometimes heard, of the promise and growth of the Church from within, "The growth of the New Church from within is not a theory,--it is a condition." And asked if he had ever seen so many children together, enjoying themselves more, or better behaved, he replied, "Never, and do not expect to this side of heaven. Now while bur Bryn Athyn children could not pose for either seraphs or embryo Chesterfields, the foregoing suggests the happy sphere of the occasion and a hint as well of the delight afforded us older ones by their good times together. It does not seem as if one could get a suggestion of the sphere of those their angels who always do see the face of their Father in the Heavens.

     In the Christmas morning service Pastor Synnestvedt's sermon or address drew in strong colors the great necessity for the Lord's Coming,--both the First and the Second,--in view of the prevalence of that spirit which denies and rejects Him.

     On January 1st, as in our last observance of the opening year, we met in worship at 7 A M. and after the brief service partook of a simple meal together. Afterward a toast to the New Year and new Century went round, and Pastor Synnestvedt spoke very interestingly and instructively in review of the history of the New Church in the last 100 years. The theme which he carried through all the vicissitudes of the Church which he chronicled was that wherever we find that the Church has grown in living interest, in charity, devotion, and faithfulness to spiritual concerns and to the duties of life, and has kept its young in the Church, there we find there has been maintained the idea of New Church distinctiveness; and conversely, as regards the frequent backsliding and falling away, we find such due to relaxing the standard and looking to the world. To this cause is largely to be attributed the standstill of the Church as a whole.

     On the evening of January 4th the "Garrick Club" composed of some of our young folks,-gave under another name the play commonly known as "Our Boys," and simultaneously achieved a great success and added some $25.00 to the Building Fund.

     On the evening of January 14th, the anniversary of the founding of the Academy, Mr. Pitcairn gave a supper at Cairnwood to members of the General Council and to those of the faculty. The feature of the very enjoyable evening was a paper on the "Future of the Academy," by Bishop Pendleton, which opened up impressive vistas in the fields of Education and Science as they may be expected to develop in the New Church to be,--fields in which the Academy must do its share or else be content to see it done by others; for done the work will be. (The paper appears in this number of the Life.)

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     Swedenborg's Birthday (January 29th) was this year made the occasion of a testimonial to Rev. J. F. Potts, who in the closing days of the Century brought to a finish a work which future ages will recognize as epochal in its way. An account of the Banquet--at which Mr. Odhner presided and the young folks of the schools acted as waiters--with a report of the speeches and remarks, will be forthcoming in the March Life.

     Among recent visitors to Bryn Athyn the reporter notes--with fear lest in some cases his memory may fail him--Mr. Robert Carswell, who just looked in on us on New Year's day; Rev. Reginald Brown, who spent the holidays with us; Mr. Robert Caldwell, Jr., of Pittsburg; Mr. Paul Carpenter, of Chicago, and Mr. Joseph Kendig, of Renovo, who attended the "Concordance Banquet."

     THE PRINCIPIA CLUB.

     THE Principia Club held its regular monthly meeting on January 21st and listened to a second paper by Prof. Vinet on Swedenborg's work, commonly known as the Principles of Chemistry, but whose real title in A Forerunner of the first Principles of Natural Things, or of new attempts to explain Chemistry and Experimental Physics geometrically. The professor pointed out that the object of the work, according to the preface, is to throw some light on invisibles and the causes of natural phenomena. The work as we have it is incomplete, parts i to vii and xv to xxiv inclusive being missing; and the professor held that the missing parts could not be the Lesser Principia, as had been supposed by Dr. Tafel in the Documents; since the references do not at all agree.

     He took up the various chapters which are extant, beginning by considering Swedenborg's doctrine of a primeval ocean, which accounts for the shape of the present land, i. e., the formation of valleys, hills, and mountains: the paper contrasted this view with that of modern geologists, who hold that fire was the cause.

     In his consideration of part viii, which treats of the different positions of round particles, and of parts ix and x, which treat of water particles, the professor noted that modern science would unhesitatingly reject Swedenborg's supposition that a subtle igneous matter flows between the interstices of the water particles and causes their fluidity. It was pointed out that Swedenborg, in his "Chemistry, considers fire as an element, which is contrary to modern science and also to the Doctrines of the New Church, as in the True Christian Religion, No. 472, where it is stated that "heat and light are not creatable"--and consequently cannot be matter.

     Taking up part xi, which treats of common salt, the professor mentioned that Swedenborg had conformed to the method of reasoning then in vogue, viz., first a priori and afterwards a posteriori; and then going on to the chapter, which treats of the formation of salt at the bottom of the sea by the disintegration of the particles of water, and their falling into the interstices below, the essayist said that this is quite as impossible as would he the transmutation of lead into gold or changing the tulip into an oak. "Water," he said, "is a chemical species, and common salt is another one. Each of them has its own properties, and these properties are entirely different. The constituents of water have nothing to do with common salt." Concerning Swedenborg's statement that "the Saline element is water," he said, "it is possible to make common salt without using a grain of water, and consequently the saline element is not water." Speaking of Swedenborg's theory of the shape of the crystal of salt being the same as the interstice of water, i. e., a cube, with concave sides,--he said that it is now known that the crystals have always flat faces and that Swedenborg noticed this fact and accounted for it by the breaking of the crystal according to a line of particles of water.

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     Passing by parts xii, xiii and xiv with a mere mention of their subjects, he took up part xxv, which treats of the theory of lead, and called our attention to this statement of Swedenborg that "when lead is calcined its weight is increased by the fire only." He spoke of this as being entirely contrary to modern science, which shows that when lead is heated in vacuo, or where there is no air, no calx will be found, and that it owes its increase in weight to the combination of the oxygen of the air with the lead, and that fire has only caused the combination to take place.

     In general the professor held that Swedenborg founded the Principles of Chemistry upon the science of his times, in which were many errors or wrong interpretations of facts, whence the principles based thereon must necessarily also be erroneous. Nevertheless there were many things in the book which were true, and to a scholar the work as a whole would serve to give valuable suggestions, but would mislead a tyro.

     In the discussion which followed, Mr. Glenn thought that modern science was entirely at variance with the Principles of Swedenborg, and asked whether the professor had not entered into an examination of the work from the standpoint of modern science.

     Mr. Pendleton spoke of two conclusions he arrived at when he studied the work a number of years ago. First, that Swedenborg's Chemistry treats of invisibles and hence it is not a Chemistry as that term commonly understood: it treats of forms that are invisible and so invisible that they cannot he reached by any tests of the senses. Second, that no scientific work of Swedenborg can be understood without study of the Principia, where he defines what he means by element, viz., the forces of nature; and that the law of chemical union from within, by these elements, and not from without. This was the vital part of the work.

     Mr. Potts agreed with the criticisms the professor had made and even went further, emphasizing what he considered important errors in the Principles of Chemistry and the Miscellaneous Observations, and saying that it would be very unsafe to teach those works just as they stand. He said that the Divine Providence did not prepare Swedenborg to teach natural science, but that he was prepared for his spiritual mission by attempting to enter into the interiors of things, although he could not do so until his spiritual eyes were opened.

     The meeting adjourned to meet on February 11th, to further consider the subject.

     Philadelphia, Pa.--In December Bishop Pendleton made an episcopal visit to this society, which was the occasion for several gatherings of the members. On the 14th we met the Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton at a church social, given at the house of Dr. and Mrs. Cooper. The Bishop, in response to a toast, spoke on The Church as an Organization. He was followed by Mr. Cronlund, on The Growth of the Church. The remainder of the evening was pleasantly spent in general conversation.

     On the following Sunday Bishop Pendleton conducted worship, preaching from the text. "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world;"--John xvi: 33. In the evening there was a social gathering of the men at Mr. Zeppenfeld's house. On the evening of the 17th the male element, to the number of thirteen, met again,--this time at Mr. Knudsen's,--to hear Bishop Pendleton's paper on The Love of the Sex. An informal discussion followed, and the meeting broke up at a late hour.

     The Christmas service was held on Sunday, the 23d. After the close, our minister was presented with a new girdle by the ladies of the society.

     On December 30th Mr. Cronlund occupied the pulpit at Bryn Athyn, while Rev. Mr. Synnestvedt preached here. The latter's sermon dealt principally with the signification of the "two witnesses," mentioned in Apocalypse ix. and elsewhere, as being the two fundamental doctrines of the Church, namely:--the acknowledgment of the Lord in His Divine Human, and a life according to the Commandments.

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     Last Sunday Rev. Mr. Acton administered the Holy Supper to twenty-two communicants. He was assisted in the service by Mr. Cronlund.

     The doctrinal classes were suspended over the holidays, and resumed last week. E. January 17, 1901.

     Pittsburg, Pa.--Our Christmas celebration this year began on Sunday, December 23d, with a sermon in the morning service as a preparation for the Holy Supper, which was administered on Christmas morning. Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock were held the Children's services, at which offerings were made for the use of the Church and school. After the services a scene was shown to the children, representing the angels appearing to the shepherds, and the wise men bringing their gifts.

     On New Year's Eve the young folks gave a Social; it was intended to have a special service at midnight, but as Mr. Bostock was in and Mr. Brown away there was no one to officiate. However, we sang one of the Psalms and said the Lord's Prayer, and then wished every one Happy New Year and Century. (For this once we were all united on the Century question.)

     Between Christmas and New Year's there were two or three private parties in honor of the young people home from school, and of our visitors.

     Mr. Bostock has been ill since Christmas, but he is beginning to improve, and we are hoping he will be able to be out on the 29th, when we will have a supper in honor of Swedenborg's birthday, and also hold our annual meeting.

     We have enjoyed short visits lately from Mrs. Paul Synnestvedt, of Chicago (to her family here), Mr. Ralph Hicks, of Bryn Athyn, and Mr. Thomas Grant, of Kansas. C. R.

     Middleport.-Christmas evening was very pleasantly spent by the society at the home of Mr. E. Davis. A very amusing play given by three of our young people consumed the earlier part of the evening, followed by an impromptu musical program and various games.

     On December 27th, Mrs. J. S. Boggess gave an afternoon party, which was hugely enjoyed by the little folks, as well as by some of the older people who came "to bring the children."

     Sunday morning, December 30th, after an especially useful and interesting sermon, our pastor, Mr. Keep, administered the Holy Supper to about twenty-five members of the society.

     At the Doctrinal Class the same evening, the very interesting, though hardly unexpected announcement was made of the engagement of Miss Sybil Cooper to Mr. Ernest Farrington, of Chicago, who was enjoying a particularly pleasant visit here at the time.

     A Poverty Social, given by Miss Ida Semple, was the occasion of a very jolly evening, January 1st. One of the principal features of the evening was a spelling match, which created much amusement, as did also the collecting of the fines, for violation of the rules and regulations which had been sent with the invitations.     A. E. D.

     GLENVIEW LETTER.

     My Dear Life: There is usually great social activity around Christmas time, but the celebration Christmas day and the New Year party were the only two events in Glenview during the holidays.

     The celebration held at the Glenview club house at 10:30 Christmas day was attended by a delegation of city folks. The hall was dark and the chancel, which had been most artistically draped with white and trimmed in arbor vitae, was lighted by numerous candles placed on brackets at close intervals. On one side in place of the reading desk was the large table covered by a white cloth on which the offerings were to be placed.

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At the right a large box, also white, was lighted by as many candles as the cover could hold. In this box were the gifts of the Immanuel Church to the children, one for each.

     The two priests presided. The services inducted an address by Mr. Pendleton and the singing of the 40th Psalm, which had been learned for the occasion Mr. Klein took charge of the fifteen or twenty minutes devoted to the children. They four Christmas songs from the Hosanna and responded to his remarks by repeating long passages from the Word descriptive of the life of the Lord on earth. The sphere of the little children was very strong and every one was affected by their delight and surprise when they found out that the box contained gifts for them.

     The annual New Year's party was held New Year's eve as usual, tho' a few had expressed a desire to try the very early morning exercises. The Program Committee consisted of Mr. Harry Blackman, Mr. E. E. Boericke and Mr. Alfred Goerwitz. The gentlemen took part in some after-dinner sports to add to the entertainment, and there number of clever charades under the management of Mrs. Maynard. Anyone in the audience who could be used was called upon to take part without being told what the whole word represented.

     The services, just at midnight, were briefer than usual.

     There was the monthly literary evening at the home of Mr. Seymour Nelson. The readings were from Washington Irving. The first was the short sketch on "Christmas," read by Miss Sophie Falk. The second was the description of a Dutch Governor from Knickerbocker's History of New York, read by Mr. Seymour Nelson, and the third was the description of Ichabod Crane from "Sleepy Hollow." These selections were followed by two short poems of Brete Harte. Mr. Pendleton read nearly all of that wonderful story of "Lobs," by Seton Thomson, in further illustration of the theory that animals have minds.

     Mr. and Mrs. Junge were then introduced as professor MacGillicuddy and Mrs. Malaprop and gave us an original, well-plagiarized edition of an interview between these two famous people. The acting was perfect, the conversation extremely funny and the costumes in keeping with the characters. The humorous part of the "literary evening has more than fulfilled its promise

     We have good news this month. On January 18, Dr. and Mrs. Harvey Farrington, Mrs. E. A. Farrington, Miss Helen and Mr. Ernest moved to Glenview. In these centers each family counts for so much that we have reason to rejoice when one is added.

     On Sunday, December 30th at the invitation of the Presiding Minister of the Illinois Association. Rev. D. H. Klein preached at Kenwood in the morning and at Evanston in the afternoon. At the latter place,--about ten miles from here,--there is a newly formed circle of receivers of the doctrines. They make use of selections from the Psalmody in their worship.

     The Swedenborg Philosophy Club, of which Mr. Riborg Mann is president, has had two very interesting meetings. The members, between the meetings, read a certain number of pages in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, and when they come together discuss what they have read.

     The Friday class, too, has started in on new lines. Mr. Pendleton has asked each attendant to read individually certain portions of the Arcana, which are discussed each week. T. K.

     Berlin, Canada.--On December 5th, Miss Laura Stroh and Mr. Geo. Schnarr, both of this society, were united in marriage, the Rev. F. E. Waelchli officiating. The Worship by Hall had been beautifully decorated for the occasion, and at 3 P M. the bridal party arrived. After a short interval the organist began playing the wedding march from Lohengrin, and the bridesmaids, seven in number, entered--the bride of honor first, the others in twos--followed by the bridal couple.

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At some distance from the chancel the bridesmaids separated, forming an aisle through which the bride and groom passed. The latter halted before a portal of white marble over which "tender vines" grew. Above them was invisibly suspended a dove, also a scroll on which was written an appropriate passage from the Arcana. The service was short, but very beautiful and impressive. As the newly married couple passed from the church four little flower girls strewed their path with roses. Altogether the wedding was one of the prettiest and most elaborate we have had, and the sphere of the occasion was delightful. The wedding was followed, by a reception at the home of the bride's parents--Mr. and Mrs. Rudolf Roschman,--where breakfast was served to a large number of relatives and friends. Several toasts were drank, among the first proposed being one to "Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Schnarr." To this Mr. Schnarr made a happy, if brief, response. Other interesting speeches followed. The evening and early morning were given to dancing and general merry-making. A. E. M.

     The first Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem has come and gone, leaving behind it nothing but pleasant memories and renewed hopes for the future. As the records, published elsewhere, will show, the development of the original idea was a surprise to most of us. The uses of such Diocesan Assemblies are many. To mention but one--they will go far to solve the problem of the holding of the General Assembly annually. This in time will not be so necessary.

     The Bishop arrived on December 29th and preached on the following day on the text, "Be of good comfort, I have overcome the world." If the Ontario Assembly's first "Journal" is printed in the "Life," Berlin's share of its valuable space will have been more than consumed, modesty therefore calls a halt at this time. E. J. S.

     Parkdale.-On Sunday, January 5th, the Holy Supper was administered to 28 communicants; the sermon by Pastor Hyatt being from the text, "Speak to the Sons of Israel that they go forward."

     On January 9th a Social was held, light refreshments with wine being served. Toasts to the Church were duly honored. the responses dealing more particularly with the late meeting of the Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem and the affairs of the local society. After a short musical and elocutionary programme, followed by dancing, our friends separated to their homes at an early (morning) hour.

     Swedenborg's Birthday was duly celebrated here. In the afternoon the children were invited to the home of Mrs. Raymond and had a very happy time. In the evening there was a Supper Social for the adults and older children. Around the amply provided table speeches were made. After introductory remarks by our pastor and the singing of "Our Glorious Church," Mr. Caldwell opened with an appropriate and touching reference to the death of Queen Victoria, pointing out that instead of the prevailing sentiment which found expression in the ostentatious display of public mourning, from the New Church standpoint it should rather be an occasion of rejoicing at the passing into the other life of one who has in the Lord's Providence completed an un-exampled reign of sixty-three years. Reference was made to the happy married life of the Queen, and the teaching was recalled that "Truly conjugial lore is a source of protection against the Hells."

     After singing "God Save the King" Dr. Richardson, in a right local speech, paid a tribute to King Edward VII. and his consort.

     Then followed speeches on the "Home Life of Swedenborg," by C. Brown; "Swedenborg as a Man of the World," by P. Sellinger; on the vision in the inn at the time of the opening of the spiritual sight of Swedenborg, by C. Prankish; on the "Rules of Life," by R. Carswell; and in response to the call for a speech from the younger men Mr. A. Carter called attention to the fact that the late Prince Consort, and through him Queen Victoria, also Presidents Washington, Lincoln, and Garfield, were acquainted to some extent at least with the Writings of the Church.

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     By a rising vote Pastor Hyatt was requested to convey to Mr. Potts the hearty congratulations of the Parkdale Society on the completion of his noble work in connection with the compilation of the Concordance. C. B.

THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

     Michigan.--Swedenborg's birthday was celebrated in Detroit on the 30th of January. The topic in all of the usual Wednesday classes in religious instruction was Swedenborg, his life, personality and mission. The younger children had committed his Rules of Life to memory, and the older children and young people had been asked to write essays on Swedenborg. These were accordingly read in the classes, and a selection made for the distinctive celebration after the supper. Essays were read by Edward Wunsch, and the Misses Fredericka Howells, Julia Gould, Edith Mattison and Nellie Barnes.

     The Swedish and American flags were draped at the head of the Sunday-school room, completely filling it, with a large portrait of Swedenborg in the center, and the colors of Holland and Great Britain (the countries where the Writings were published), adorning the side walls. In large red letters Swedenborg's motto, "The Lord Will Provide," partly encircled framed copy of his Rules of Life.

     A Swedish repast, prepared under the direction of a Norwegian lady, took the place of the usual Wednesday supper. The exercises of the evening consisted in the singing of songs from the "Hosanna," as well as the "Swedenborg Birthday Song;" the reading of several of the essays; the concerted recitation of the Rules of Life; the reading of Miss Plummer's poem, "Swedenborg the Norseman," and the formal presentation of a banner. The essays were individual, well-written and well-read, deepening the impression of the great service rendered by Swedenborg, and of his wonderful preparation. The banner had been suggested by the sermon the previous Sunday, in which the Church was exhorted to unswerving loyalty to the Lord in His Second Coming, the text having been "Thou hast given a banner to them that fear Thee, that it may be displayed because of the Truth." (Psalm lx, 4). It was designed by an artist member of the Society on Sunday evening, the material was bought on Monday, and the ladies met and made it on Tuesday, another member of the Society meanwhile making the fine oak standard. The design is simple but effective, embodying the New Church teaching concerning the origin and proceeding of the universal principles of good and truth. The upper part of the banner is red, while the lower portion consists of seven alternate perpendicular stripes of white. The upper portion bears the Church motto, "Nunc Licet," in gilt letters. When the banner appeared, Mr. John A. Wells's poem, "The Church Militant," was sung to the tune "Jerusalem the Golden."
CREDIBILITY OF SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE 1901

CREDIBILITY OF SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE       W. F. P       1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
Vol. XXI.
MARCH, 1901.
No. 3.
(Read before the Principia Club, of Philadelphia, at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on February 11th, 1901.)

     IN this body and on this floor, the truth and usefulness of Swedenborg's Philosophical System has been called in question, and it becomes necessary for some one to come forward as a defender of the same; for it ought to be defended and its integrity maintained,-not for the sake of preserving Swedenborg's reputation as a scientist, as a philosopher, as an intellectual giant, not for the purpose of showing that Swedenborg anticipated many modern discoveries, not because it may be used as a means of evangelization in the learned world,-these things may have a place among the reasons for upholding the truth of his philosophy, but their place is subordinate and subsidiary to the great use his philosophy is to be to the New Church itself; because they furnish a foundation and basis upon which the spiritual philosophy of the Writings rests; because all its universals and many of its particulars are adopted and restated in the Writings; because an intelligent knowledge of it is necessary to a complete understanding of the Writings; and because the natural truth contained in it is essential to our New Church education. I cherish, therefore, and would express the most earnest and profound conviction, that the destruction of a faith in Swedenborg's system of science and philosophy would be a dire calamity to the Church. I feel called upon, therefore, to say a word in defence of that which is the clearest and most precious heritage of the Church, next to Revelation itself.

     I would respectfully suggest to those who assail the truth of this system, that so far their work is purely negative, and that it is incumbent upon them, before they destroy our faith, to be ready to give us something better; construction must immediately follow destruction, or only waste and ruin is left.

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A work that is purely and simply destructive is not in the way of order, and does not imitate the methods of Providence.

     There is another point for which I would in the outset beg consideration, which is this: if errors are to be found in a given system, they are to be found in the affirmative study of it,-a principle of criticism so often lost sight of that it appears almost like an unknown truth and one which in its first statement tends perhaps to excite incredulity. But it is a truth based upon a fundamental law of heaven.

     We read that when the angels draw near to a spirit newly arrived from the natural world, they do so in an affirmative spirit and with an open mind, hoping and wishing to find reigning in him a good end, or a love of good and truth. If they do not discover this they turn away with regret, feeling no delight in the fact that they have discovered evil or the falsity of evil in another; but if they find good as the ruling principle, they rejoice, and see in such a spirit the promise of a great use in heaven; and they pay no regard to faults of mind or character, considering them as of no moment, and as things which will in a short time disappear when the illuminating rays of heavenly light are poured upon them.

     So it is with the true critic of the works of men. Any human work, or any book written by man, will be approached by such a critic in an affirmative spirit, realizing full well that the negative attitude blinds the mind, darkens the understanding, obscures the intellectual vision, dulls and weakens the faculty of intellectual discrimination, closing the rational mind; instinctively perceiving, what is well known to the angels, that everything is to be regarded affirmatively at first, and that there is no injury or danger in this to a well ordered mind: not only no injury but a very great good; and that the false if lurking is all the more easily discovered thereby; for a heavenly light always illumines the affirmative mind, and guides it to just conclusions, since its background is charity, and a looking to the Lord.

     A true critic will not stop at the threshold of a book, and stumble over the blurs and blemishes that lie upon its surface, but he will go immediately to the heart of the thing, and see if this heart be sound; and if he finds that the heart or spirit of the book is sound, that its end is good, that its purpose is true, that its general principles are in agreement with universal laws, that they have been expressed with ability and force, he will rejoice and commend; he will not see or regard the little blemishes or errors that may appear in the circumference; for in reality they are not errors, but merely dim shadows that disappear when reviewed in the light of the general principles of truth the book is intended to set forth.

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But if he finds the book unsound at the core, that it has been conceived in an evil purpose and that the faults of this evil lurk throughout, covered over by spurious appearances of truth, he will not rejoice, but with a word of warning to the passerby, directing his attention to the truth that has been falsified or perverted, he will close its pages and turn away with sorrow and regret.

     The system of philosophy that comes from the pen of Emanuel Swedenborg is entitled to such a fair and affirmative examination, and we have the right to expect it at the hands of New-churchmen, who live and spiritually prosper in the blaze of heavenly sunlight that shines upon the world through the mighty brain of this man, chosen of the Lord, educated under the Divine auspices from his early youth, and thus prepared to become the efficient agent of the grandest revelation ever vouchsafed to man. But, some one replies, you exalt Swedenborg's science too much; you place it alongside of the Writings, and give it a Divine authority. If this were true it were a grievous fault, and grievously shall we have to answer for it. But the charge is not true, and experience has shown that the difficulty and danger is the other way; of which the indifference of Newchurchmen generally to the science of Swedenborg is a proof, an indifference that is a cause for mourning. Where are the men who have mastered his system? Let the reverberating echoes answer. There are a number who find errors, or say that it is obsolete and antiquated; and the majority, like Gallio of old, care not for these things; but the belief in it, and an appreciation of its worth, are confined to a few.

     But let us suppose that the charge is true, and that such a danger really confronts the Church. What is the duty of him who sees the danger?

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Let him show in an appropriate and rational manner,-in such a way as to bring conviction to the understanding,-that it is exceedingly unwise and unsafe to the Church to place any writing, even Swedenborg's, on a par with Divine Revelation; that such a course would tend to close the mind to the real value of his system, that it would tend to create a persuasive faith even in Revelation itself. But let him not, in his zeal for uprooting an error, undervalue the truth of this great philosophical system; and especially let him not in his zeal be carried on to the extreme of attempting to destroy it. A rational faith in the Writings cannot be built up on the ruins of Swedenborg's science. Is it wise, is it rational, is it just to attempt to destroy the faith of a few Newchurchmen in what they believe to be the greatest system of rational philosophy that ever came from the brain of man, because you see or think you see a danger of exalting it beyond its proper bounds and limits,-the danger of attributing to it immediate Divine inspiration? Assail the error, but do not attempt to undermine and destroy philosophic truth in order to remove the error. Are we to deprive ourselves of the natural truth taught by Swedenborg as by no other man, because possibly some one may in his zeal and enthusiasm exalt it to the dignity of revelation? Is an excessive zeal for natural truth to be corrected only by destroying that truth; Because Malvolio is over virtuous, shalt Sir Toby be deprived of food and drink? Because the drunkard abuses the natural gifts of God, shall his temperate neighbor be deprived of them? Because the child burns his finger, shall the candle be snuffed out, and the house left in darkness? Let us use the light which the 'Writings give us, and follow reason and discrimination in this thing. The immediate work of God in Revelation is not exalted by making a wreck of another work of God, even though that work be mediate and remote. The Divine work of Revelation is not aided and promoted by removing the efficient agencies for its administration among men. I would say this of any system of human thought, I would say this of Evolution, to some the great bugbear of modern science. I would say this of the "higher criticism" that is being abused to undermine the faith of men in the Word; that is, I would say, Turn not away from the truth because of error and abuse. And shall I not say the same of the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg, in which we find no perversion of the truth of nature, no abuse of the gifts of God, no effort to close the human mind to heaven and the Lord?

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I therefore appeal for a candid and affirmative examination of this philosophy,-not on the ground of authority, but for its self-evident truth.

     I would here say a word about the use of the terms philosophy and science as applied to the system of Swedenborg. I believe either to be correct. Swedenborg indeed speaks of himself in the Writings as having been a philosopher, or a teacher of natural truth, and it would therefore be proper to call his system a philosophy. The term science used broadly covers the same ground; and it is not misleading, unless we understand the term to mean physical science merely, such as physics and chemistry, as modernly understood. If so used it would be misleading. Swedenborg was not a physical scientist; that is, he was not a student and investigator of mere effects, or physical phenomena. For this he depended upon the researches of others. He soared into the world of natural causes, and from this interior world of nature he drew near to things of physical sense, approaching them from within or by a prior way; and I have an abiding faith that the principles of his philosophy intelligently applied will explain all the physical phenomena of nature, and that they anticipate a priori all the modern discoveries, and many that have not yet been made. I have this faith because I find him expounding the universal laws of nature; and universals include all particulars, even to the lowest and least. The man who will go with Swedenborg into the interior realm of nature and return with him to its outer boundaries will find all the later discoveries involved in his principles, if not actually described by him.

     But do not make the mistake of supposing that Swedenborg was a physical scientist as that term is now understood. The physical science of his clay was crude and general as compared to what it is now; and Swedenborg depended upon this science as the basis of his inductions; and this crudity appears in the terms which he uses. But avoid also the mistake of supposing that because the contemporary physical science was crude and general, that it was not sufficient for his purpose. Let us not unduly depreciate the work of the scientific men of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,-the work of such men as Malpighi, and Boerbaave, and Harvey and Boyle, men who were giants in their time, and in their chosen fields of work. I wish you could read the tribute which Swedenborg pays to Leeuwenhoek in the third volume of the Economy, yet untranslated.

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In fact the physical science of that time, as far as it goes, was as true as it is now. More was known than many are ready to believe; and we learn from the Writings that some things were known then that are rejected now. It is not the number of things known that provides the elements of success, but the ability to use what is known, to handle skillfully the instruments which are at hand even though they be crude. We live in the days of the magnificent ocean steamer; Columbus discovered a continent in a caravel; Swedenborg discovered a world with the crude instruments of his time, a world unknown save to those who know Swedenborg and know him as a philosopher. But it is sufficient to say that there was enough known to furnish Swedenborg with the timber of the ship which he built with his own hands, and in which he sailed into the limitless sea of the invisible world of nature, making discoveries which are unacknowledged by scientific men, and hardly acknowledged in the New Church. "'Tis true, 'tis pity, and pity 'tis, 'tis true."

     Let me repeat what was said; that Swedenborg's philosophy is entitled to a fair and affirmative consideration at the hands of Newchurchmen; and let me in addition lay before you what seems to me to be the fair manner of procedure in any investigation of the subject. A Newchurchman so minded will go at once to the very heart of the system, that is, to its universals. He will ask, Is there a true idea of God? Do we find the conception of a spiritual Sun? Does Swedenborg see that the human form is the form of all forms? Do the fundamental laws of Influx, of Degrees, of Correspondence, appear? Is there an idea of a universal order under a universal Providence? Is there a perception of the law of Series, which teaches that there is a connected chain of causes from the First which is God even to the last and lowest effects, and that even effects themselves are in such a chain of series? Any one familiar with the system of Swedenborg is ready to answer these questions at once in the affirmative; and such a person will expect to find no fundamental error where such laws are the dominant factors; though no Newchurchman will of course expect to find the same clearness of universal vision as when afterward the Lord began to speak through him to all mankind; he will simply see the Lord's Providence preparing him to be his efficient and faithful servant in His Second Coming.

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     In the first place, then, what was Swedenborg's idea of God? It is not necessary to pause long upon this; it can be made plain in a few words; we are not left in doubt concerning it. In a letter to Dr. Beyer he says:

     "I was forbidden to read writers on dogmatic and systematic theology, before heaven was opened to me; because unfounded opinions and inventions might thereby have easily insinuated themselves to me, which afterwards could have been removed but with difficulty." (Document 234.)

     This means that no false idea of God must be allowed to enter the interior thought of his understanding; therefore the Divine Providence was with him protecting, guarding, even from his youth, that he might not enter into interior consociation with the spirits of the Dragon, but that he might be consociated instead with the angels of heaven, and that he might be thus protected from the "unfounded opinions and inventions" of man. But this matter is settled in a few simple words in the Revelation itself, as follows: On one occasion in the spiritual world, some dignitaries of the Church were "talking together about three Divine Persons from eternity;" one of them set forth his views endeavoring to prove this false view of God. Swedenborg answered him in full, but we are only concerned here with one little sentence in his reply, "From my infancy, I have not been able to admit into my mind any other idea than that of ONE GOD." (T. C. R. n. 16. In the original Latin "one God" is in small capital letters.)

     There is other evidence, but this is sufficient. This is the teaching of the Lord concerning His servant,-that this man, chosen and prepared for the great office of Revelator, in the real thought of his mind, never had from his infancy any idea of three Divine Persons from eternity, never had any materialistic conception of God. We are justified then in the conclusion that the idea of one God reigned throughout his philosophy.

     It has been said, however, that Swedenborg could not have had a true idea of God before heaven was opened to him, since he occasionally uses language, even as late as the writings of the Adversaria, indicating that there was in his thought the idea of three persons of the Trinity.

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Those who have said this have not fully investigated the subject of Swedenborg's theology before the opening of his spiritual sight, and have not reflected on the fact that the sentence just quoted from the True Christian Religion is decisive, and that all his theological statements in the works written before the Arcana are qualified by it. "From my infancy, I have not been able to admit into my mind any other idea than that of one God." To such persons Swedenborg would speak as he spoke to the angels on one occasion, as recorded in the True Christian Religion, n. 26. "When I heard these things the angels perceived in my thought the common ideas of the Christian Church, concerning a trinity of persons in unity, and their unity in the trinity, relating to God; and also concerning the birth of a Son of God from eternity; and then they said, 'What are you thinking? Do you not derive those thoughts from natural light, with which our spiritual light does not agree? Wherefore, unless you remove them from your mind, we shut heaven to you and depart.' But then I said, 'Enter, I beseech you, more interiorly into my thought, and perhaps you will see an agreement.' They did so, and saw that by three persons I understood three proceeding Divine Attributes, which are Creation, Redemption and Regeneration; and that these are attributes of one God," etc.

     Swedenborg, therefore, would say to those who read the Adversaria, and works written before it, and who there see the appearance of three persons. "Enter, I beseech you, more interiorly into my thought, and perhaps you will see the idea of one God;-perhaps you will not detect anywhere any materialistic conception of God." This would indeed be a good rule for the critic of Swedenborg's scientific works to follow, in respect to all things which do not appear to agree with the Writings or with common knowledge. Enter more interiorly into his thought; and this may easily be done in the light of his universal principles. I suppose it is unnecessary to say that those of us in this Club, who believe in Swedenborg's science, do not claim for him the illumination such as he had afterward, whether on the subject of God, or on any other subject. In all his soaring in the realm of natural truth he reached a limit that he could not pass, and which no human being could pass without Revelation. He indeed soared like an eagle far away from the beaten paths of men, immensely farther than any other man ever has, or ever could, because he unlike other men was being prepared to become the instrument of the great Revelation.

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     1. And now do we find in his philosophy the conception of a spiritual sun? The teaching in the True Christian Religion, n. 75, is, that a knowledge of the spiritual sun is necessary in order to obtain a just idea of the creation of the universe; and the assertion has been made that as Swedenborg did not know of a spiritual sun, his philosophy of creation is not to be trusted. If it be true that Swedenborg had no idea of a spiritual sun, then it would have to be admitted that his treatises on the creation would have but little if any more value than those of other men who have written on the same subject; and we should be compelled to class him as a materialistic philosopher up to the time of the opening of his spiritual sight. But there is not a materialistic conception in all his science from beginning to end, and we are not driven to any such alternative. Swedenborg did have a knowledge of the spiritual sun! Not the knowledge he had afterwards, when heaven was opened to him and he saw that sun in all its glory; but he did have a knowledge of it, sufficient to exempt him from the charge of materialism, and to make his previous teachings on creation of immensely more value than the teachings of other men. But let us hear his own testimony.

     In the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, n. 254, he says, "There Is nothing more usual, even in the Holy Scripture, than a comparison of God with the sun." In n. 255 he says, "As the sun is the fountain of light and the distinction thereof in its universe, so is God the sun of life and of all wisdom." In n. 256, "God is the life of the universe, as the sun is the light of the universe." In n. 257, "As the sun of the world flows in one only manner, and without unition, into the subjects and objects of its universe, so also does the sun of life and of wisdom." In n. 260, "As the sun of the world flows in by mediating auras, so the sun of life and of wisdom flows in by the mediation of His Spirit." In n. 261, "As the sun of the world flows into subjects and objects according to the modified character of each, so also does the sun of life and of wisdom." In n. 266, "Inasmuch as the one sun is within nature, the other is above it." In n. 267, "Furthermore, by the omnipresence and universal influx of this life into created matters, all things flow constantly in a provident order from an end, through ends, to an end."

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Note here the doctrine of influx. In the Hieroglyphic Key, Example viii, "God is the sun of wisdom, is wisdom itself, as the sun of the world is the sun of light." See also the work on the Soul, Thesis v.

     In view of these statements, and others similar, let it not be said that Swedenborg had no knowledge of a spiritual sun; for it had already been given him to see in a general manner that there are two suns, one natural and the other spiritual. And the student of Swedenborg's philosophy will find not only a conception of a spiritual sun, but initial conceptions of all the other fundamental doctrines of the Revelation that was afterwards given through him. In fact, this was the method of his preparation, under the leadings of Providence. He was not introduced in one leap or bound into the blaze and glory of the light of the spiritual world. His illumination was successive and progressive. It is so with all preparation. Every man is prepared for his use by the generals of that use given him in advance of actual introduction; these generals prepare him. A man is prepared for the understanding of the Word by the generals of the Word given him in advance for this purpose; he is prepared for heaven by the generals of heaven put forth from heaven to prepare him; even as the blood prepares the food for itself by sending forth from its bosom the various salivary streams. The law is universal. Swedenborg is no exception to the rule; and as we read his scientific works we are filled with wonder at finding things we thought were only in the Writings. But this explains it. He must be prepared according to this law for the greatest work ever performed by human being. He himself tells us that he was prepared by the Lord from his early youth, and this was the manner of his preparation, namely, by putting into his mind, through the medium of his own researches, the fundamental laws of nature representative of the fundamental laws of the spiritual world, attended here and there with a glimpse, a vision as from afar, an intuition, an intimation of something yet to come, but leading him onward step by step until the opening of the light of the perfect day. Let those who deny or underestimate his previous teachings he careful that they are not carried too far.

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     2. Does Swedenborg see that the human form is the form of all forms? I pass this by for the present, as the subject is too vast a one to discuss within the limits of this paper; merely asserting that it is the essential idea in his doctrine of Forms, and that it is involved or expressed throughout in his treatises on the human body.

     3. Do the fundamental laws of Influx, of Degrees, of Correspondence appear? I would remark first, that the image of the spiritual world is impressed upon the natural world; we may therefore expect to find the universal laws of the spiritual world pressing as it were into nature, and represented in it. Swedenborg, with an acknowledgment of one God, with a general knowledge of a spiritual sun as the source of all created life, saw exhibited in nature the laws of which we speak; he saw spiritual law in the form of natural law,-or spiritual truth in the form of natural truth,-and his understanding was thereby enlightened and prepared to become the receptacle of spiritual truth and teach it to mankind. Why was this? Why was he a philosopher, or teacher of natural truth, before he was a theologian or teacher of spiritual truth? He answers this question in the Writings, and in a letter to Oetinger. To Oetinger he says that "spiritual truths have a correspondence with natural truths," and adds, "I was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared; and in fact from the year 1710 to the year 1744, when heaven was opened to me." (Document 232. See also Influx, n. 20, and T. C. R., n. 850.) He was introduced by the Lord into natural truth, and thus prepared.

     And now a word about influx. I take the following from the Economy of the Animal Kingdom: "Unless the sun flowed in unceasingly, all things formed out of nature would perish, and nature herself would return to her source; unless God flowed in unceasingly, all things gifted with life would die, and the universe would be annihilated; for whatever exists, must subsist by that from which it first existed" (E. A. K. II, 255.) Again, "As the sun flows universally, that is to say, most singularly, into the substances of its universe, and constantly so emprinciples them as to enable them to exist in a natural manner; so God flows most universally, and hence most singularly, into all things, and constantly vivifies them." (Ibid.) This number occurs in the series where he is treating of the two suns; and you will observe that the idea of influx necessarily carries with it the idea of a spiritual sun; Swedenborg had an idea of the one, and therefore he had an idea of the other.

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And the idea of influx carries with it also the idea of degrees and of correspondence. (See also the same work, Vol. II, 257, 267, 301, and the treatise on the Soul, Nos. 542, 556.)

     How about Degrees? Let us examine again the Economy of the Animal Kingdom. In Vol. I, 579 he affirms the necessity of a Doctrine of Series and Degrees as an introduction to a Rational Psychology. In Vol. I, 580, he says that "the science of natural things depends on a distinct notion of series and degrees." In Vol. I, 581, he declares that the doctrine of series and degrees teaches 'in what manner things are successively subordinated and co-ordinated, and in what manner they co-exist simultaneously in subordination and co-ordination," etc. Here is a distinct conception of discrete degrees. In Vol. I, 583, he speaks of degrees of subordination and degrees of co-ordination, making it clear that he sees in nature degrees of two kinds, such as are called in the Writings degrees of altitude and degrees of latitude. (See also Vol. I, 269, 580, 587, 601, 632, 648, 649; Vol. II, 205, 210, 211, 281, 290.) You will of course not expect to find the doctrine of degrees, or any other doctrine, stated clearly and authoritatively as they are afterward stated in the Writings. It is sufficient here to know that he did have a conception of discrete degrees, and at the same time of influx and of correspondence; and that it was necessary that he should so have, in order that he might be provided with a key to unlock natural causes, and by natural causes be prepared to see spiritual causes, or to have the great world of spiritual causes revealed to him.

     He has much to say about Correspondence in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom and in the treatise on the Soul; and the Hieroglyphic Key is a treatise on the subject. In the Economy, Vol. I, 176, he puts forth the idea that the things of a superior degree are so much more perfect than those of an inferior degree that they agree only by correspondence. In Vol. II, 281, of the same work, he gives four rules by which we may "discover and recognize what in a superior degree corresponds to a given thing in an inferior degree." In Vol. I, 648, he lays down five rules for determining the same thing.

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In the Animal Kingdom, n. 293 (chapter on the Kidneys), he says, "In our Doctrine of Representations and Correspondences, we shall treat of both these symbolical and typical representations, and of the astonishing things which occur, I will not say in the living body only, but throughout nature, and which correspond so entirely to supreme and spiritual things that one would swear that the physical world was purely symbolical of the spiritual world. . . . This symbolism pervades the living body; and I have chosen simply to indicate it here, for the purpose of pointing out the spiritual meaning of searching the reins." He refers in the beginning of this quotation to the Hieroglyphic Key, of which we shall speak presently. In the Worship and Love of God, n. 55, he says, "Correspondence is of such a nature, that by the simple transposition of the words signifying natural qualities, we are introduced, by the merest natural and moral truths, into real spiritual truths." Again in the same work, n. 65, "There is nothing whatever extant in nature but typically resembles its own origin or soul. And this soul is from heaven," etc. Again, in n. 74, "the ancient fables . . . are mere representations significative of things, and similar to celestial representations . . . Thus they express the human intellect by horses. . . . The sciences and intelligence they express by nymphs," etc. Then he adds, "The fables of the ancients were mere representations drawn from heaven; hence their minds were nearer to heaven than ours; for we are not even aware of the existence of such representation." In the Hieroglyphic Key we have an entire treatise on correspondence, from which we shall quote a few sentences. "There is a correspondence and harmony between all things, namely, of natural with spiritual. . . . The Egyptians appear to have cultivated this branch of learning, and to have signified these correspondences by a vast number of different hieroglyphics, not merely expressive of natural, but also at the same time of spiritual things" (Example xvi.). "The spiritual world is the region of antitypes or examples; the animal Kingdom is the sphere of images and types; nature is the realm of shadows or resemblances. There are many species of representations or correspondences" (Example xxi.). The last sentence in the book is this, "It is good to interpret the Holy Scriptures on these principles, for the spirit speaks spiritually as well as naturally." He sees here correspondences in the Word of God, as well as in the ancient fables, and in nature.

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     For want of space I pass by the subject of Order and of Series. Those interested will find a full treatment of them in the Economy of the Animal Kingdom. There is one law of order, however, that I cannot forbear to mention, because of its great importance, and because of the help it was to Swedenborg in opening to him the realities of invisible nature, namely, the law that nature is the same in greatest and least things. He makes mention of this law in his scientific works throughout, but we shall make only one quotation here. In the Economy (Vol. III, 215) he says, "What nature is in greatest things and in things obvious to the sense, such also she is in lesser, yea in the least things." Swedenborg, under this law together with the others we have mentioned, was able to penetrate the mysteries of nature, far beyond the realm of the microscope and of chemical analysis, and unravel problems such as no other man could do, ignorant of these laws. And what did he find? what did the Lord reveal, when heaven was opened to him? Nothing else than this, that these laws were Divine, universally operative in the spiritual world as in the world of nature. And what of the law in question? He was taught that "heaven is like itself in greatest and least things" (Heaven and Hell, Nos. 72, 200). Why is this law universal in both worlds? He was taught the reason,-we are taught the reason;-and what is the reason? Because "the Divine is the same in greatest and least things." See Divine Love and Wisdom, Nos. 77-82, where you will find an exposition of this most universal truth. It was necessary that Swedenborg should have this law as it is operative in nature as a part of his preparation to understand the realities of the spiritual world; and in his preparation we are prepared, you and I and all of us.

     I have endeavored to set forth these principles at some length, because they are all-pervading in his science, and establish that science as a system of natural truth, beyond all doubt and cavil, and confirm the teaching in Influx, n. 20, where we read that Swedenborg was once asked, how from being a philosopher he had become a theologian? He replied, "In the same way as that in which fishermen were made disciples by the Lord; and that I too from my earliest youth have been a spiritual fisherman." The questioner asked, "What is a spiritual fisherman?" Swedenborg replied, "A fisherman, in the spiritual sense of the Word, signifies a man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths in a rational manner."

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When this is read, standing as it does in the Divine Revelation for the New Church, there ought to be no need of further argument; for in the light of it a New-churchman is able to see that Swedenborg's philosophy must of necessity be a system of natural truth, and that he was not allowed by the Lord to roam at will in the realm of natural error, and then by some Divine miracle be rescued from the baleful effects of it, and without previous warning or preparation suddenly introduced into the atmosphere and light of spiritual truth. Such is not the Divine method of operation with the sons of men much less with the instrument and servant of His Second Coming.

     And now I wish to lay before you a truth of prime importance in the subject under consideration, namely, that there is in the Writings of the Church a restatement of the fundamentals of the philosophy or science of Swedenborg. We can indeed recognize throughout the Writings an agreement of the spiritual laws which are there, with the natural laws in the scientific works, and so far I have not been able to see any spiritual law in the former contradicting any natural law in the latter. It has been asserted that there are such contradictions, and I have heard some put forward, but in every case so far, to speak frankly, the assertion has come from a want of knowledge of the subject. But we are concerned at this point with the restatement in the Writings of the fundamentals of his science.

     There is much more of natural philosophy and science in the Writings than is generally known or appreciated, or can be seen in the, ordinary course of reading; and it is perhaps still less known that the science in the Writings is the same as that in his previous works throughout; put in a more general form, indeed, but still restated and confirmed in the light of heaven. This can only be seen clearly by a reader of the Writings, who is at the same time familiar with the scientific works. But I shall endeavor to present a view of this matter by citations from the Writings, which will show to him who observes and reflects that the generals and fundamentals of Swedenborg's philosophy are repeated in the Writings, thins establishing it as a new science for the New Church.

     It should be remarked that his scientific works are two-fold; one class treating of the laws of nature in general, and the other of those laws as exemplified in the human body.

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The general propositions we are about to give from the Writings cover these two classes of subjects, and confirm his previous teachings in the two classes of works mentioned. We shall present first the teachings of the Writings that directly restate and confirm in a general manner the philosophy of the Principia and that of the work on Chemistry. These teachings are:

     That the sun is nothing but fire, mere fire, pure fire, elementary fire. (A. C. 5079; Inf. 9; D. L. W. 89, 157.)

     That in the sun there is fire; the fire itself of the sun does not pass to the earth, but light in which there is heat from the fire of the sun. (A. C. 8328.)

     That the sun of this world consists of created substances,-the activity of which produces fire. (T. C. R. 472.)

     That through the atmospheres the sun exercises all its power, and produces all its effects outside of itself. (A. E. 726.)

     That creation proceeds to ultimates by successive degrees of compression and composition. (D. L. W. 184, 190, 207, 302.)

     That the earth and all things on it are created from the sun by means of the atmospheres. (D. L. W. 302, 303.)

     That the substances and matters of the earth have been created by the sun through its atmospheres, because nothing can come forth except from something which is prior to itself. (D. L. W. 302, 303, 305.)

     That the atmospheres store up the fire of the sun in themselves, temper it, and carry it down as heat to the earth, and in like manner the light. (D. L. W. 174.)

     That the atmospheres from the sun to the earth are discreted into degrees; and they stand related as simples, congregates of these, and as congregates of these again, or composites. (D. L. W. 184.)

     That there are three atmospheres below the sun, the magnetic aura, the ether, and the air; (and also a fourth, if the watery atmosphere be included). T. C. R. 32. Coronis 17.

     That there are as many degrees of atmospheres as there are degrees of heat and light. (D. L. W. 183.)

     That the atmospheres are formed to receive the heat and light which is from the fire of the sun, and carry them down in their bosom to the earth, and this by successive degrees, which are discrete. (D. L. W. 158, 174, 183, 191, 192, 197, 223, 299; Inf. 16.)

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     That the substances and matters of which the earths consist are the ends and terminations of the atmospheres, whose heat has ended in cold, their light in darkness, and their activity in inertness. (D. L. W. 305.)

     That in their progression downward the atmospheres decrease, and continually become more compressed and inert, and at last in ultimates so compressed and inert that they are atmospheres no longer, but substances at rest, or substances fixed as are matters of the earth. (D. L. W. 302, 303.)

     That the atmospheres are the active forces, the waters are the mediate forces, and the earths the passive forces, from which all effects are produced. (D. L. W. 178.)

     The atmospheres in ultimates are forces by which the substances and matters of the earth are actuated into forms. (D. L. W. 311.)

     That the atmospheres actuated by the sun hold all things in connection. (D. L. W. 152.)

     That the atmospheres are forces by which the substances and matters of the earth are actuated into forms, and are held together in forms both within and without. (D. L. W. 311.)

     And again, that substances and matters are held together in connection by their encompassing atmospheres. (D. L. W. 302, 310.)

     That the atmosphere is such in its least parts as it is in the greatest. (T. C. R. 364.)

     That in the greatest and least things of the universe there are action and reaction. (D. L. W. 263.)

     That no effect can exist in the universe without an active and a passive. (Inf. 11. S. D. 2722.)

     That for anything to be produced there must be two forces, an active and a passive. (A. C. 7754.)

     That there is in all things of nature an effort (nisus) to return to their origin. (D. L. W. 311.)

     That each thing in nature exists from something prior to itself, and this in a regular chain or series even to the First. (A. C. 4523, 4524.)

     That salt is not only the cause of savor, but also of odor. (A. C. 3718; Adv. 3,5431.)

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     That there is in salt a fiery principle which causes it to be conjunctive. (A. C. 9207.)

     That salt conjoins all things, even water and oil, which otherwise could not be conjoined. (A. C. 10300.)

     I would that I had time to make more clear to you that the entire philosophy of the Principia and of the Chemistry is reproduced in these general statements of the Writings, and in other statements that might be given. I must rest satisfied, however, with merely calling your attention to a few of the points mentioned, which are: that the sun is pure or elementary fire produced by the activity of its finites; that the sun produces from itself atmospheres by means of which all things of the earth are created; that the fire of the sun clothed by the atmospheres descends by three discrete degrees to the earth; that these results are produced by successive degrees of compression and composition; that in all things of the created universe from the greatest to the least, both in things visible and invisible, there is an active and a passive, or in the language of the Principia an active and a finite,-creation begins as soon as there is passive.

     But I cannot stop to expound this matter, though it is of such surpassing interest,-the fundamental law of all creative operations,-that in greatest and least things, visible and invisible, there is an active and a passive. The Principia is an exposition of this law from beginning to end. The general statements, I have quoted from the Writings, show further that all the substances and matters of the earth are held together in connection by their encompassing atmospheres; here we find in the Writings the fundamental law, the real interior cause, of all chemical union, as fully expounded in the work on Chemistry. But we must for the present pass this by. The quotations concerning salt are made, because his theory of salt is a universal in his chemical system, and also in his philosophy of the blood.

     Let us now make a few citations from the Writings concerning the human body, which, with many more like them, confirm Swedenborg's teachings concerning the true physiology of the human body, as given by him in the series of works on the Animal Kingdom; remarking in general that these teachings in the Writings, concerning the laws, and the operations of law, in nature in general and in the human body in particular, present facts and principles that are for the most part unknown or unacknowledged by modern science; which latter seems to constitute a bar and a hindrance to their full reception by many in the New Church at this time.

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     In confirmation of the philosophy in the series of works on the human body the Writings teach,-

     That the body is created according to the order of the whole natural world. (T. C. R. 71.)

     That the body is an organ composed of all the most secret things of nature, and according to the secret forces and wonderful modes of flowing. (A. C. 4523.)

     That there are organic forms in the human body so pure that they cannot be discovered by the eye, whether naked or assisted. (A. C. 4224.)

     That the ether flows in at the pores and holds together in their forms the interior viscera of the whole body. (A. C. 3628.)

     That the soul is from the father and the body from the mother. (T. C. R. 103.)

     That the cerebrum is dedicated to the understanding, and the cerebellum to the will. (D. L. W. 384; T. C. R. 160; Inf. 13.)

     That the voluntary sense is proper to the cerebrum and the involuntary sense to the cerebellum (A. C. 4325.)

     That fibres from the cerebellum rule also the voluntary parts, which is especially manifest when man is asleep. (A. C. 9683.)

     That the cerebrum sleeps, but the cerebellum never sleeps. (A. C. 1977.)

     That fibres from the cerebrum exhibit the voluntary sense in the parts which surround the body, and that fibres from the cerebellum exhibit the involuntary sense in the interior viscera of the body; for which reason man has no sense thereof, neither are those parts under the disposal of the will. (A. C. 4325.)

     That the muscles and the skin, and also the organs of the senses, receive fibres for the most part from the cerebrum; hence man has sensation and voluntary motion. (A. C. 4325.)

     That the membranes of the brain enter into all things of the body. (T. C. R. 60; S. D. 1730.)

     That the brain is in a constant state of animation, that is, of expansion and contraction (S. D. 1793; Adv. 990; Cf. D. L. W. 412; T. C. R. 577.)

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     That the pituitary and viscous matters of the brain are excreted through the cribriform plate into the nostrils. (S. D. 1793.)

     That the purest substances of the food are absorbed by the tongue, and taken immediately into the circulation, or direct to the brain. (A. C. 5175; S. D. 1021, 1035, 1742.)

     That there is in the blood and in the fibre an animal spirit, which is the vital essence of the body. (A. C. 9154; A. E. 1084; S. D. 914, 1968, 3459.)

     That the animal spirit is formed in the cortical glands of the brain. (S. D. 1059.)

     That the animal spirit from the brain, descending by the jugular vein, meets the chyle supplied by the thoracic duct, and both proceed together to the heart, to be formed into red blood. (S. D. 914, 1130.)

     That the lungs by their respiration act upon the whole body, even to its inmost parts, by means of the membranes, coverings, and sheaths. (T. C. R. 577; D. P. 180.)

     That all the motions of the body depend upon the respiration of the lungs, and the systole and diastole of the heart. (H. H. 446; D. Love V.; D. Wis. VI., VII.)

     But that the heart without the respiration of the lungs does not produce any motion. (T. C. R. 87.)

     That, (since all sensation and voluntary motion are dependent on the respiration of the lungs) there is no bodily sensation, nor voluntary motion till after birth, when the lungs are opened. (A. C. 3887.)

     That the kidneys purify the serum of the blood, and the renal capsules the blood itself. (S. D. 960, 962, 966; A. C. 5391.)

     That the renal capsules attract the purer blood and return it to the heart, that it may not all be absorbed by the spermatic vessels. (A. C. 5391; S. D. 968.)

     That the renal capsules and the Thymus gland perform their chief use before birth, and to new born infants. (S. D. 968, 1049; A. C. 5172.)

     The same uses in general are ascribed to the liver, the pancreas, the spleen, the lymphatic vessels, etc., in the Writings as in the Animal Kingdom. (A. C. 5183; E. U. 132; S. D. 1005-1019.)

     That the return of the fibres to their primes is effected through the blood vessels. (D. L. W. 316.)

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     That the blood and the other fluids do not follow the same law of gravitation as that which prevails outside the body. (S. D. 3727.)

     These are a few general statements from the Writings that are at the same time the generals of his philosophical series on the human body, as given in the treatises on the Animal Kingdom. More can be given; but there is enough here to show that there is in the Writings a general restatement and confirmation of his philosophy of the human body; and the affirmative student, versed in his science, will see this at once. If you do not see it on the first reading, you will see it the more you read, the more you enter into it studiously, and in the true spirit of research; and seeing so much of it repeated in the Writings you will advance with a degree of confidence that you have before you the very system of natural truth, of which the Writings speak in Influx, n. 20, and elsewhere; you will read and study with trust and confidence that you have before you a system containing the universal laws of nature, universals that cover and contain all particulars Not that you will hold the same mental attitude toward them as a whole as you hold to the Writings; not that you will see them as an immediate revelation from God out of heaven: For you do not ask when you read the Writings, Is this true? or discuss whether it be true But you will feel yourself free to ask this in reading his scientific works. You will be free because the Writings have made you free, and they have furnished you a standard of judgment; and with such a standard you will go forward affirmatively, and with confidence; but with any other standard, such as that of modern science, the truth of Swedenborg's philosophy will elude your grasp and you will see-errors.

     To return for a moment to the subject of the science taught in the Writings, let me ask, Can a faith in this science hold together with a denial of the system of natural truth which he taught as a philosopher? I present this for your serious consideration, and also this, that when you are disposed to deny the truth of any proposition in Swedenborg's science I would recommend that you examine the Writings carefully first, for you may happen upon a restatement of the same proposition Let there be caution, and prudence, and the avoidance of hasty judgments.

     You may ask, however, a question that has been often asked, and say-"We have the Writings, what need have we of Swedenborg's scientific works?"

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I would answer this question fairly and fully, and hope to be able to do so more fully than is possible within the limits of this paper. I hope to be able to show that they are needed for the understanding of the Writings; that they are needed for a new science in the New Church; that they are needed for a new education in the New Church. As Swedenborg was prepared by it to understand the laws of the spiritual world, so will we be aided by the same to understand more fully the laws of the spiritual world as revealed in the Writings. The minister and student of the Writings who has not been so aided has lost an opportunity, he has missed the sense and feeling of gratitude to the Lord's Providence for such a help in his studies and in his teaching. And his feeling of gratitude will swell when he thinks of the new science that is to come, and the new education; for he will realize that where there is a new Theology there must of necessity be a new science, and where there is a new science, there must of necessity be a new education; and he will be thankful to the Lord and His Providence that so much of this work has already been done for the New Church through the instrumentality of him whom the Lord was preparing for the office of Revelator.

     You who wish to investigate the laws of nature, you who wish to enter the realm of natural truth, you who wish to sail on a voyage of discovery into the pathless ocean of the interior world of nature, take passage on the good ship built by Emanuel Swedenborg. He sailed in it himself, and he left it as a legacy to us; it has survived the dust and decay of over a hundred years, and its timbers are as sound today as when they first passed from the hand of the builder. It is folly to build a ship of your own when so good a one has been provided to your hand, with sails set and colors floating to the breeze, magnificently equipped and furnished for the voyage. Attempt not to enter upon a voyage of discovery in an unknown sea, floating upon a mast taken from the wreck of a stranded vessel. Stand not upon the shore expecting to explore this sea looking through a microscope. Ah, the ship is ready, but the passengers are few! Yet it will live for many and many a hundred years to come, and there will be many to sail in it! Few now, but many then! I look upon the meagre list of the past, and I see the names of a Wilkinson and a Farrington. These, and others like them, have passed away to the world beyond the sea; and from the place where they are I think I hear their voices saying, Disperse the mists which rise up from the low grounds and valleys of modern science, and then thou can'st see clearly to remove the mote from the philosophy of Swedenborg. W. F. P.

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RENDERING TO THE LORD 1901

RENDERING TO THE LORD       Rev. DAVID H. KLEIN       1901

     What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvations and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people (Psalm cxvi, 12-14).

     THE psalm from which the words of our text is taken treats of the temptations of the Lord even to despair. These are most vividly described in the literal sense: The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell came upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. I was greatly afflicted. In these states of temptation the Lord in the Human prayed to the Father, or the Divine within Himself, for help: Then called I upon the name of the Lord. O Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul. That the prayer was heard and answered is shown by the words: I was brought low and he helped me. Return unto Thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath dealt well with Thee. Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling.

     The temptations of the Lord were temptations endured in order that the hells might be conquered, that the hold which they had on man, threatening his spiritual life, might be broken and destroyed, and that thus man might be redeemed from the power of hell and eternally saved for heaven.

     The victory in temptation, which wrought redemption for mankind, was effected by the power of the Divine within the Human. It was the Divine within Himself to which the Lord called while in temptation, as if to a Being separate from Himself; and in the words of the chapter just quoted may be found an acknowledgment that from the Divine alone is there power. So this chapter in its spiritual sense signifies also a celebration of the Father (or the Divine) by the Lord, because He assisted or supported in grievous temptation, and that by this celebration the Divine will be worshipped.

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The celebration and worship is especially treated of in the latter half of the chapter, beginning with the words of our text, "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me. I will take the cup of salvations and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people.

     After the combats of temptation which the Lord suffered as to the Human, there came periods of tranquility and peace; and it was in states such as these that there existed the "Celebration and Worship of the Father by the Lord." In the history of the life of our Lord on earth, man sees presented an objective image, from the contemplation of which he may draw the inspiration of his own spiritual regeneration and development.

     What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me. The spirit of these words is that of gratitude, and the deep thankfulness therein expressed is indicative of affection and love. There is an acknowledgment of One from Whom man has derived the happiness of life-its benefits, and consequently an appreciation of those benefits and of the Love which prompted them and gave them their essential life and character. Now it is the characteristic of love, or of an unselfish spirit, that where it has received it longs to give; that great as is the delight of receiving, yet that of giving and thus blessing another is greater; and the first thought, therefore, of such a one is, how he may give in return.

     But how shall man give to the Lord? and is it possible that man can give anything to the Lord? Does the Lord need any benefits from man? Such as He, with so much of merciful love, bestows impartially and bountifully on all men? Can a finite being,-circumscribed in his faculties, limited in capability, a receptacle of life-hope to add anything by giving to that Perfection of life which is infinite? Can we suppose anything to be wanting in the Lord's Divine nature which is to be supplied by something of man's giving.

     The answer to such questions depends on the conception which man has of the Lord and of his Divine life. The Jews' conception of giving and receiving was that of a bargain in which there was an exchange, and the essence of such an exchange of benefits was selfish; for then as now, the important factor in such a transaction was that one should receive, and if in the nature of things one received more than he gave he thought himself favored by fortune and singularly blessed.

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It was the same spirit which we see in the Jew as a race today; and all real affection and love was taken out of this proceeding by the fact that the giving of one was dependent on the receiving something from the other-unless something was received nothing was given. This state of life existed with the Jew in his relation to the Lord. He made a covenant or contract with him. Jacob says: "If Thou wilt number my seed as the stars; if Thou wilt make me victorious and great above mine enemies, then I will worship Thee and have Thee for my God." So to him most evidently it appeared that the Lord could profit by his worship, could receive benefits from him, as he in turn hoped to receive them from the Lord. To him the Lord was but one of many gods, striving in rivalry for the fealty, adoration and worship of the human race, and so he could not but feel that the Lord was the special object of his favor-that he was giving to the Lord.

     But what is the spirit of the words of our text? Most obvious it is that man of himself can give nothing to the Lord for he has nothing to give. Everything that he has is from the Lord-every activity of life, every faculty of thought. Not the least thing he has is self derived. And so what he gives or what he appears to give must needs be but a return of that which he has received. So it is that the words do not read "What shall I give to the Lord for all his benefits toward me?" but "What shall I render." And when we go back to the root meaning of the word as we find it in the original Hebrew (Shuve), we find that it means to return or restore. So in this idea of rendering there is not the thought of giving to the Lord that which he had not had before-of adding anything to the lustre of His glorious Name nor any particle to His Divine power. Man has but to realize the nature of his proprium, how evil it is in thought and purpose, to feel how impotent he is to give anything of real value of his own to the Lord. Even in the return of that which he has from the Lord, the part which he gives is infinitesimally small compared to that which he has received-as a grain of sand to the bulk of the universe; and man as he comes to realize day by day the degree and number of the Lord's benefit feels less and less his ability to return in kind a heritage so precious. This is always a necessary part of genuine gratitude, whether in man's relation to the Lord or in his relation to his neighbor.

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A mind truly grateful ever feels that what it bestows is but a poor return for what it has received. It ever feels its limitations in expressing its appreciation of blessings or benefits, and this in the degree that there is an appreciation of such benefits.

     It may then be asked what is meant by "His benefits towards me;" for on an appreciation of these benefits depends the character of the spirit which man puts into the first words of the text, when he asks the question "What shall I render to the Lord?"

     To enumerate the benefits which man has from the Lord would be to tell all the joys of heaven and the blessings of earth. They are all the derivations of the Lord's love and mercy, applied in countless ways. His love present at all times-His mercy, especially when man is in grief and temptation or tending to the life of a selfish proprium which is under the dominion of the devils of hell.

     But if it were asked what in a complex are the benefits which the Lord gives to man, it might truthfully be said that they lie in this: that man has the capacity of loving, with all which this involves. It involves life itself; for without love life is nothing. It involves also the faculties of freedom and rationality. It involves all that makes him a man, that gives him an individuality and a soul, that makes him a thinking and reasoning being; and it involves-highest of all-the faculty of being conjoined to the Lord.

     The Lord does not give this faculty to man without providing ways and means for its exercise; nor does He leave man in doubt as to how it is to be exercised. And this is done by means of the church and the truths of the church. They are a benefit consciously present with man through which he may realize,-what he would not otherwise,-the value of all those things in gratitude for which he is to render something to the Lord.

     If the highest use in which man is to exercise his capacity of loving is conjunction with the Lord, it involves the truth that he can love the Lord; for only by love can there be conjunction. And as love expresses itself in giving, there must be something akin to giving in man's love to the Lord. Unless man were kept in the appearance that he was giving, the delight of love would be taken away, and he could not truly be conjoined by love to the Lord; when yet of all things which the Lord wishes to preserve in man it is this-that he may love as of himself in freedom.

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     Now just as a regenerating man is in the appearance that he lives from himself, but realizes nevertheless that all life is from the Lord, so is he in the appearance that he gives to the Lord, although he realizes in heart that what he gives is but a return of the benefits which are from the Lord-a return of what is the Lord's own and not anything of himself. Whenever in his life he shuns an evil against the Lord and against the neighbor he makes a return to the Lord; and because this is done from love, there results the conjunction of which giving and receiving is an essential part. So while there is nothing of his own which man may give, there is much of what he has from the Lord which he may render in return. This is what constitutes co-operation on man's part which is so essential a thing in his salvation. "What shall I render to the Lord for all His benefits toward me?"

     "I will take the cup of salvations." This signifies the appropriation of the goods of faith on the part of man; thus it signifies the co-operation on the part of man just spoken of. The word take as here used has in it the idea of receiving or taking to oneself. When man appropriates the goods of faith from the Lord he makes them a part of his life, he approves them in thought and will, he takes them to himself.

     A cup signifies spiritual truth, or the same thing as wine within the cup; for containing vessels when mentioned in the Word, such as cups, chalices, vials or platters, signify the same as the thing contained, for they make a one. For this reason the Lord said to Zebedee's sons "Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of?" meaning that which was within the cup. So cup signifies spiritual truth and it also signifies temptation, for it is in man s effort to make truth a part of his life-to appropriate it-that temptations take place with him.

     In order that man may render something to the Lord for all His benefits toward him it is necessary to appropriate the truths of faith; and this is done through victory in temptation, by shunning evils as sins against God. It is necessary that man take this cup of salvation, just as the Lord, in order that the Human might be glorified, in His last temptation took the bitter cup on the cross in a combat so severe that He fain would have given way to despair and prayed that it be taken from Him.

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You will remember that the psalm from which our text is taken, in the first part, treats of temptations even to despair. Yet only by taking this cup could the Lord have fully glorified His human, and only by taking to himself this cup can man be regenerated. So man must as it were receive this cup at the Lord's hands, and drink of it even though he find it bitter to his taste. If he consider the internal sense of this psalm he will see that though the cup was bitter to the Lord yet after it there was a celebration and worship of the Father by the Lord, indicative of a state of peace and thankfulness. Then he will realize that the cup which he must drink is after all a cup of salvations, that which will save him for heaven; that it is a cup of victory over the evils of his proprium and of hell, and that by means of it it is possible for him to appropriate the truths of faith: which appropriation, as was said, is signified in general by the words, "I will take the cup of salvations."

     And call upon the name of the Lord. The spiritual signification of these words is a following out of what has been said-"To call on the name of the Lord," signifies worship-worship from the truths and goods of faith and love. The Name of the Lord is everything is one complex by which the Lord is worshipped; for a name signifies quality and to call signifies a perception of quality and an expression of willingness to be conjoined; and the worship here, therefore, is a worship from a devout and grateful mind.

     The name of the Lord also signifies the Divine Human; for only by means of this may something of the quality of the Lord be known through the visible God in whom is the invisible. Man calls on the name of the Lord in every act of the regenerate life. He calls on the name of the Lord every time he goes to the Writings to find there the truths which lead to life. In every act of worship he calls on the name of the Lord if he acknowledge that all that he does is from the Lord and nothing from himself, and that therefore all benefits are from Him.

     "I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all His people." A vow is an act by which man consecrates or devotes himself to the commission of some deed; and because it marks an intensity of purpose and of spirit, it has the force of solemnity and the sacredness of a promise. It may also be an expression of fidelity and thus of by or affection.

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It implies that what one vows is an expression of the will; and in the vow there is the determination that this will shall hold sway in the affairs of one's life and rule. Vows of old were generally made to a higher being or deity, and in this case the will of him who vowed was at one with this higher beings will, or was an expression of it. The vow of an evil man however is but an expression of his own evil purpose or will, and a determination that this shall prevail whatever else may suffer, whatever law of charity may be violated. Thus it is but an ultimate expression of his degraded condition, one which confirms it, and in most cases irrevocably fixes it among his like in hell. For however such a vow may for a time prevail, it is doomed in the end to be frustrated and its purpose or will thwarted.

     The vows which man will pay to the Lord in the presence of all His people are of a different character from this. In the internal sense these words denote "To will that the Lord may provide;" and in the supreme sense in which the Lord is treated of, they denote the state of Providence. Providence is the will of the Lord operating at all times in the lives of men for the sake of their salvation. And man pays his vows unto the Lord when he submits himself to that which the Lord in His mercy provides for him, when he makes his will one with the Lord's will, nor seeks to struggle against the stream which will bear him to the most happy lot possible for his condition; when he ceases to regard those vows of confirmatory evil which he is continually tempted to make, and ceases to question in bitterness of spirit the why and wherefore of things beyond his natural control.

     In vowing such a vow there is a desire from affection that what is vowed may come to pass, thus that the Lord may provide; and in the spirit of such a vow there is an acknowledgment that the Lord provides nothing but that which is for man's eternal welfare. What truer benefits can there be than the blessings of the Lord's Providence which He showers on us day by day, now on earth and to all eternity in the other world. The blessings which He gives us in the Church are manifold; and though we cherish these, at best we scarcely realize all that is involved in them, but grow to take them as a matter of course. To think from time to time of what our lives would be without them may help us to an appreciation of the benefits for which we are to render something to the Lord.

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This appreciation expresses itself in worship of the Lord, and you will remember that our psalm treats of "a celebration and worship of the Lord."

     It is customary to sing the words of our text in our worship at the time when the offertory is brought to the altar. The bringing up of the offertory and the singing of the words is an act of worship; but it is an act of worship with each one in just the degree that the spirit of the text is a part of his life. The offering, consisting of the coin of the commonwealth, is not in itself that which the Lord asks man to render for all His benefits toward him; and that man who thinks that by his financial support of the organized Church he has discharged the obligations of spiritual citizenship, or that he has returned or rendered to the Church and the Lord one jot of that which he has received, has failed in his conception of his spiritual duty.

     The offering which man makes to the Lord must be an offering of the life, from the heart,-an offering of gratitude from the heart. And if this be so it will find expression in the ultimate act of giving to the Lord by means of the offertory of the Church. Every spiritual act or thought is strengthened and supported by being brought to an ultimate expression; and when this is so there is power in the ultimate, for it has a life and soul within it. Otherwise it is dead, and it is the symbol of the dead Church; and if it be such it has no part or place in our worship. Having been brought to the altar the offering is devoted to the uses of the Church, through the officials who minister to it. The members of the priesthood of the Church are the servants of the Lord, blessed in His Providence with the privilege of being instrumental in the Lord's work of the salvation of souls. As the offering is an acknowledgment of the use which is performed, it is not an offering to the officials of the Church but to the Lord, and it is therefore primarily an acknowledgment of the Lord's use to man.

     The offering is brought forward as an offering rendered in common by the members of the congregation, and this idea is strengthened by the fact that together they sing the words of our text. In common or together have they received the blessings and benefits from the Lord, and so do they return in kind. But as each one has within him the acknowledgment which is the life of the words, however small may be the ultimate token of this in the offertory, it will be large in the eyes of the Lord; for truly, "Whether is greater the gift or the altar which sanctifieth the gift?"

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On such a one the Lord has conferred a new spiritual benefit and blessed him with the joy of giving. It is such a one who takes to himself the Lord's cup of salvations and pays his vows in the presence of all His people-Amen.
Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     NOTES.

     OWING to lack of space we defer till next month the publication of another letter received from Mr. A. W. Manning on "Creation only by Correspondences."

     THE departure for the other world, of Mr. Francis Dewson and of Mr. G. W. Colton, fills full the history of two lives notable for at least three characteristics held in common-zealous industry, high moral worth and uncalculating devotion to the New Church.

     Mr. Dewson passed away on January 13th, Mr. Colton on February 15th. Further notice will appear later.

     In all the making of books which has characterized the Nineteenth Century, to the Newchurchman there is nothing to compare with the production of the Swedenborg Concordance. This unlocking of the spiritual treasures of the Writings it is safe to assume is the precursor of an activity of thought, a development of doctrinal knowledge and a consequent increase in the understanding of the Word, calculated to make the event epochal. Whatever now unimagined depths of research, of classification and systemization of New Church Doctrine are yet to follow, the starting point and base of operations must always he, the Concordance-perfected, of course, with the progress of years, but substantially the same work which at the end of last year was brought to a practical conclusion by the Rev. J. F. Potts in the completion of his manuscript.

     It is a cheering thought that the increasing use of the Concordance will be the means of its growth and perfection-for despite the compiler's remarkable care he is after all, human. The discovery of imperfections will detract not one whit from the gratitude which he has so honorably earned; and he would shrink far less, we are sure, from such discoveries, than from finding such a lack of doctrinal study and interest on the part of the Church as would leave it ignorant of any shortcomings in the Concordance. Certainly these imperfections will be quite insignificant in comparison with the monumental excellences of the work. The Bryn Athyn celebration of this event brought out some thoughts which it is considered worth while to preserve, in the following account.

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SWEDENBORG'S BIRTHDAY-"CONCORDANCE" EVENING 1901

SWEDENBORG'S BIRTHDAY-"CONCORDANCE" EVENING              1901

     JANUARY 29TH, 1901.

     THE recurrence of the anniversary of Swedenborg's Birthday gave the Bryn Athyn Society a favorable opportunity of celebrating the recent completion of the Swedenborg Concordance. This took the form of a supper, held in the Club House Hall. The walls were draped with white and pink, while the blackboards on either side of the room were inscribed in artistic letters, with the principal dates connected with the "Concordance to the Theological Works of Emanuel Swedenborg," and with Swedenborg's own life and death. Our genial master of ceremonies, Mr. Odhner, presided, with Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton and Mr. and Mrs. Potts to his right, and on his left Mr. Pitcairn. Pupils of the schools waited on the tables, the girls dressed in the prevailing pink and white.

     The first toast was introduced by a speech by the Toastmaster, who spoke in general as follows:

     Swedenborg the Student of the Writings of the New Church.

     Ever since the memorable bi-centennial in 1888 it has been the happy and profitable custom of our Church to celebrate each year the birthday of him through whom was given to mankind the crown of revelations. Various aspects of the character, career and mission of Emanuel Swedenborg have been considered on these occasions: we have viewed him as a man, a patriot, a scientist, a philosopher, and as a revelator, and the succession of celebrations has added greatly to our general fund of knowledge and understanding of this man, the most remarkable the world has ever known or ever will know. In all this there has been no idolatry of Swedenborg as a man. No matter how much we may have studied him and admired and exalted him, he has remained to us simply a man, our brother and fellow-servant in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ; for in celebrating the day of his birth we have been celebrating and glorifying-not him, as a person-but the mercy of the Lord, who hath come again to the Church in the inspired Writings which were written by the mind and hand of His servant, Emanuel Swedenborg.

     The completion of the Concordance is but the continuation of the work which Swedenborg himself inaugurated, that is, the work of indexing the 'Writings, which he did because he found it absolutely necessary to his work. He was indeed inspired from God, but he was inspired spiritually and rationally, not physically or verbally. The Writings were indeed written by God through Swedenborg, but they were thus divinely written as to their spiritual substance of Divine Doctrine, but not as to their external or literal form. The ideas inflowing into Swedenborg's mind were one and all directly and immediately from the Fountain of Divine Truth, and not a single idea was taken, from any spirit or angel, or from Swedenborg's own human notions.

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But the clothing of these Divine ideas, their statement and expression, was taken from Swedenborg's own mind. Swedenborg thus wrote the Writings-not from himself nor of himself, but still as of himself. This at least is as I understand it. In appearance, to himself, while he was writing he labored as any other student of the Doctrines. It was his office to formulate in natural language the stupendous new truths that were dictated to his spirit, and on this account he found it necessary to prepare a series of indexes for his own works, in order to be able to refer readily to all the various statements of that which had been given him for the sake of the perfect and consistent expression of the truths that were further to be revealed. Thus immediately after his call to the office of revelator he began to compile a Biblical Index or Concordance to the Scriptures-in order that the Doctrines which were to be revealed might be based consistently on the harmony of the genuine truths in the sense of the Letter. The nature of this Biblical Index has been set forth in an admirable manner by the Rev. James Hyde in a recent number of the New-Church Messenger, and I take this opportunity to invite attention to the call of the Swedenborg Society for co-operation in the editing and publishing of this important work, which as yet has been inaccessible to the student of the Church.

     Next in order of time Swedenborg prepared a very complete Index to his Spiritual Diary, in order that he might have ready access to the inexhaustible record of his own experiences in the spiritual world, while he was writing the Arcana Coelestia. And again, he prepared a most valuable Index to the Arcana, which he used not only in the work on the later volumes of that production, but also in the composition of nearly all of the subsequent works. Afterward he carefully prepared an Index to the Apocalypse Revealed, and finally two different indexes to a work on the Angelic Wisdom concerning Conjugial Love-a work which as yet has not been discovered. And in the Writings themselves we find constant cross- references to previous statements in the same or previous works, and often pages on pages filled with references carefully classified and systematized.

     What does all this show but that the Lord most carefully guarded Swedenborg mind, so that every appearance of freedom should be preserved both to himself and to the readers of the Writings. Swedenborg was in no way obsessed, either by spirit or angel, nor by the Divine itself, but wrote down the ideas of Divine Truth as they calmly inflowed to all appearance as if they were his own ideas, he yet knowing and acknowledging at all times that they were immediately from the Lord alone. Thus it was a rational revelation, inflowing into Swedenborg's rational mind, and through his statements into our rational minds, the highest and most perfect of all revelations.

     This work of indexing the Writings shows that Swedenborg himself was the most close and profound student of that Revelation that can possibly be conceived of. And this brings us to the consideration of Swedenborg as a student of the Writings.

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The question has often been asked, whether it could be possible that Swedenborg understood all that he wrote, or understood all that it involved;-whether he understood it as well or better than the wisest men of the New Church will ever understand it in all the ages to come. To this we answer, "Yes," and "No." The subject will have to be divided. It was a rational revelation, not verbal dictation, and the Divine Truth necessarily passed through his understanding. He had mentally digested the whole body of Doctrine, and he understood every single statement. This is involved in the Lord having opened the eyes of his spirit even to the highest heaven; for the eyes of the spirit are the faculties of spiritual intelligence and rational comprehension. But if it be asked, whether he understood everything involved, as to all the infinite arcana hidden within every doctrinal,-we must just as unhesitatingly answer, "No." For he was but a man, finite such as we all are, while the Revelation is infinite and Divine, and given to be the light of all ages that are to come. As to particulars, as to interior perceptions and applications of the Truth in the Doctrines, he may not have understood certain teachings as well as some men of those students of the Writings who have followed after him. And the very fact that he prepared those Indexes shows that he himself recognized the limitations of his own understanding, and that he had to keep a guard upon the very expressions in which the Revelation was to be clothed.

     Here the speaker mentioned the indexes already in use, prepared by students of the Writings: Beyer's famous Index Initialis, undertaken with Swedenborg's own approval; James Hindmarsh's Dictionary of Correspondences, 1795; Nicholson's work of the same title, 1801; also that of Bolles, 1842; Le Boys des Guays's Indexes, Rich's Index to the Arcana-an admirable work but a little dangerous in its doctrinal arrangement and bearings; and Dr. S. H. Worcester's Index to the Apocalypse Explained. He concluded, by noting the fitness-in celebrating the completion of the first general index or Concordance to all the Writings-of remembering with gratitude one who had led the way in opening up their immeasurable treasures, the first student of them, and the first member of the New Church on earth; he proposed the time-honored toast

     "To the Memory of Emanuel Swedenborg."

     The "Ode to Swedenborg" was here sung by the company, feelingly.

     The next toast was, "To the 'Swedenborg Concordance,' now completed. May its usefulness be universal and never-ending in the New Church!"

     Said the Toastmaster:     Glorious things are opened to view in this work;-while this royal toast goes round let us sing of the 'Glorious Things which are spoken of the City of our God!'"

     The Toastmaster then asked Mr. Potts to tell the company something of the history of the Concordance; but before rising that gentleman was surprised by having two maidens (at the Toastmaster's request), crown his snowy locks with the rich green of a laurel wreath, a present from the Academy Schools.

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     Mr. Potts began his response to the toast by making the reservation that the Concordance though completed, requires still considerable work, in preparation of the "Appendix," which will contain passages and references unintentionally omitted from the main body of the work, and of the Latin-English Vocabulary; the latter, containing many thousand words, being in itself a serious undertaking. Fortunately, much of the drudgery of the latter has been done as the work went along, and the results are embodied in a MS. book, which has long been one of the most valuable books in the owner's library. Its revision and perfection however, will involve much work and care. But the compiler testified feelingly to his sense of release from the most severe part of his labors,-the unremitting translating and studying of passage after passage, daily, monthly, year after year; and a release, too, from the anxiety induced by the conviction that almost inevitably upon him alone,-as the only one trained for the work,-would devolve the bringing of it to a successful completion Hence he now felt himself a subject for congratulation, and very much appreciated the kind feeling of his hearers, and thanked them for that part of this their expression of it which concerned himself. But the real subject for congratulation was the fact that the work is completed Mr. Potts then went on to say:

     I began the work on Nov. 4th, 1873, being led to it by the absolute necessity of such a work to a thorough and safe understanding of the truths of the New Church Without it these truths can indeed be known and rightly understood in their more general form; but the moment that we pass from generals to particulars that is, try to study these truths interiorly, we find it impossible to do so unless we have all the passages before us that treat of the subject we may be considering. And in view of the extent of the Writings it is quite impossible without some such work as this Concordance to find all those passages. I found this to be so in my own studies, and at last was brought to a kind of despair, for having undertaken a profound study of the subject of Heaven, after months of study based on the existing indexes, I was continually finding new passages, so that I saw that nothing less than reading the whole of the Writings could insure my not having missed some essential material. Evidently the same difficulty must exist as to every other spiritual subject. Most persons are content to know these subjects in a general and superficial manner, but there are a few who thirst to know them interiorly. I had to minister to such in Scotland; I knew that there were others in England and the United States. I could see, too, that if the New Church system of truth were ever to make any continuous progress in the world it must be by always becoming more interiorly known, for otherwise the interest of the people would die out. People cannot be spiritually fed by having the same old ideas and doctrines served up to them forever, without new truths being put into those truths and doctrines. Yet it is dangerous to go much into the interiors of the Doctrines unless we have all the passages before us; it causes erroneous beliefs, and endless discussions, and thus discourages people from desiring to know the more interior truths.

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I did not expect that very many would care for such a work, but thought that if even a few would be profited by it it ought to be made, for their sake. Therefore, after consulting my friend, the Rev. R. L. Tafel, I decided to commence making a Concordance to the Writings. I then thought that it would take at the utmost five years. Well, it has taken over twenty-seven. I also thought that I should have to print it at my own expense, and that I should stand almost entirely alone in the making and production of the work-much as Swedenborg himself had to do in the making and producing of his works. But I found that as I went along good friends gradually rallied to my aid in the way of expressing interest and approval, for at first that was all that could be done to help; and among the very first of these were Messrs. John Pitcairn and Walter C. Childs, who in company with Dr. Tafel paid me a visit in May, 1875.

     The first person to help in the actual work was my brother Rawlinson, who for about two years, ending with 1878, worked faithfully at some of the clerical part of it.

     The first MS. of the Concordance (commonly spoken of as "the first draft") was completed about the end of the year 1885, and had thus taken about twelve years to make. But it proved to be only a preparatory work, and the whole of it had to be done over again, from the very beginning. These first twelve years of work had not made the Concordance; they had only taught me how to make it. The case was this: a concordance of this kind, as we now know it, had never been made before, and neither I nor any one else at that time had any conception of how such a work had to be made. The work I started out to make was a concordance constructed on the same lines as that of Cruden, to the Bible, made up of extracts of only one line each.

     Well, I used that first work in its MS. form in my own preparations for the pulpit, and I found that in practice it was not adequate. I found that after all I could not get the materials I wanted without the expenditure of an impossible amount of time in referring to the volumes of the Writings themselves. It was a terrible discovery, but I finally summoned up resolution to do the work all over again.

     There were other considerations that pointed the same way. Twelve years of practice in working on and translating into English the Latin Originals (for of course all my work was based on them from the very outset) had very much increased my powers of translating the Latin of Swedenborg into good English without interfering with its meaning. It is a very delicate operation; one by no means within the powers of a tyro. I was not indeed that to begin with, but you can well understand that twelve years constant grinding at it must have greatly helped me to improve myself in this respect.

     Another consideration was that I wanted to go over the Writings a second time, in order to glean the omissions that are inevitable in a concordance made up of selections only, and not-as with a Bible concordance,-of complete references to the words.

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The Swedenborg Concordance could not be made like that without being made to fill about twenty quarto volumes, the larger half of the matter of which would be quite useless to anybody.

     So, impelled by all these, and some other considerations, I decided to make the second draft of the work, which is the one that was completed December the 27th, 1900, four days before the end of the 19th century. There was, however, this difference in the case of the second draft-that it could be printed as fast as it was made. On account of its alphabetical construction, not a page of the work could be printed until all the volumes of the Writings had been gone over and the entries made in the ledgers; because of course there might have been an entry to make under one of the first words in the concordance from the last few pages of the last work that was gone over. But now, having the first draft made, and previous omissions having been supplied, we had all the references ready, and merely had to go through them one by one, finding the places in the Latin works, and studying, translating, and writing out the passage that was to be quoted.

     I may say that in the necessary preliminary of going through the Writings a second time in order to pick up references overlooked in making the first draft, thousands of such omissions were found; in fact it was quite a huge labor to enter them all under their proper heads; although this was done in figures only, and without any quotation of the words. But in some parts of the work I had the assistance of other workers.

     In the year 1886, and no doubt chiefly through the instrumentality of Dr. Tafel, who was a member of it, the Committee of the Swedenborg Society, of London, began to take an active interest in the work. And not very long after, the General Convention, in the United States, stirred up by the Rev. S. M. Warren, joined in that active interest. The result was that in the course of the next few years I received great practical help. The typewriter was almost unknown in Scotland in those days, but it was providentially brought to my notice just at the time when my right hand threatened to fail me altogether, through a disease caused by so much fine writing in making the first draft. I determined to obtain a typewriter; and this becoming known, my kind friends in London purchased for me the first Hammond typewriter that ever crossed the Atlantic to a purchaser. (I have since used up that and four others besides, including three Remingtons and one Smith Premier.) Another great aid that I received from these friends in both countries was the engaging as my amanuensis of the Rev. Arthur Faraday, who also assisted me in my pastoral labor in both the pulpit and the homes of the members of the Society; and he proved a most faithful and reliable helper so long as the kind of work lasted that could be done by an amanuensis, which was about two years.

     At this period my daughter Edith also began to work very devotedly at the Concordance, in conjunction with Mr. Faraday and for many years after he had left me; and, after her, my daughter Ellen, has continued to help me by finding and marking in the Latin books, from the first draft.

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The words that were to be operated upon.

     Thus, about the middle of the year 1886, we were ready to commence the making of the second draft of the work, which could be printed as fast as it was made.

     But who was going to undertake the expense of printing this huge mass of materials when expanded into their complete form? I determined to offer the work first to the Swedenborg Society, and if they declined to publish it, to go to America with it and see what could he done there. This was my fixed and well-determined programme. I anticipated difficulties, and feared great ones, for the expense of printing the work was going to be something very serious indeed, and I did not imagine that more than about fifty people in the whole world would care to possess a work of such a nature. But, wonderful to say, when the time came for printing, there was not the slightest difficulty.

     At the invitation of the Committee of the Swedenborg Society, I went to London, had an interview with the Committee, presented specimens of the finished MS. and the upshot was that in the most generous and noble manner the Committee undertook to publish the work. Since that time they have stood by the work and by me with unremitting devotedness. There has been no hitch, no hesitating, no looking back, no trouble of any kind. In all the period of time that has since elapsed-about fifteen years-there has not been a word of anything discouraging or unpleasant between us. In my opinion the whole Church owes a very deep debt of gratitude to the Swedenborg Society for this courageous and persistent action. For myself, I certainly feel for them a gratitude that is inexpressible. They have borne the whole burden and risk of the expense of publication, which must have been very great; for the Concordance contains more than 51,000 quarto columns of closely printed matter, on good paper and printed by Messrs. Morrison and Gibb of Edinboro', printers to Her Majesty's Stationery Office for Scotland.

     This firm has done its part of the work in a most intelligent and excellent manner. As a work of the printer's art the Concordance is a credit to all concerned.

     The Glasgow Society, of which I was then the pastor, were very kind in allowing me to devote so much of my time to the Concordance, for of course they knew all about it, and many of the members were among my warmest sympathizers in the work. But I was really doing the work of two men, and the time came when I could no longer do it, but had to choose between the work of the Concordance and the work of the ministry.

     I felt extremely reluctant to give up the work of the New Church ministry, for I have always regarded it as the most blessed work that a man can do, and in fact the separation from it has been the one great trial I have had in connection with the Concordance work. But as I said, I had at last to choose between doing that and sacrificing the Concordance work. It is true that this latter is a kind of ministerial work, but what I have missed in it is the coming into contact with Christian people in my work itself, and the ministering to them in regard to their spiritual needs and affections.

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I feared, too, that if I once broke away from it, I should get out of the groove, and never return to it any more in this world. I therefore held on to both works as long as I could but still the time came at last when I had to choose between them. The result was inevitable, for no one else could do the concordance work; and it was then that I came to America, and buried myself, away from every other kind of work, until the Concordance should be finished.

     But of course I had to live, and my family had to live, and the same noble Committee in London have paid me good wages all the time, and the General Convention has rendered good help of the same kind, and the Academy of the New Church has done the same, during the last ten years of the work; so that I have been well cared for every day of it, and have never wanted for anything.

     Thus for over twenty-seven years has the Divine Providence of the Lord been with me, His very poor instrument and most unworthy servant, and has brought me and the work through a series of difficulties that at the outset-if anyone could have foreseen them-must have appeared insurmountable. To me it seems a miracle. But the lesson I would draw from it is this,-that well-directed work for the Lord's New Church, even if carried on by a very weak instrument, if faithfully persisted in, is about the best supported work and the best paying work, in the best sense, of any work that can be done.

     Nothing could have been more fortunate for me, and for the work I was engaged upon. than the formation, at the time it took place, of this settlement of New Church believers at Huntingdon Valley (now Bryn Athyn). For here I could live in peace and quiet, surrounded by those who so fully sympathize with my work, and with nothing to distract my attention and energies from it. With the fine Academy library at hand I have had within easy reach all the works of reference required for my work, outside of those which I had already purchased for it. And in this beautiful country place, and with a nice house and garden of my own, I could breathe pure air, and also get the physical exercise I have always found so essential to the success of my work, in both quantity and quality. I cannot regard this as an accidental matter, but must always think of it as one of those Divine Providential circumstances which, in so marked a manner, have attended the making of the Concordance from beginning to end.

     The doing of this work has been a blessed work to me in many respects, and not the least as an educational training in the doctrines and truths of the New Church. It has been the means of correcting many mistakes and misapprehensions It has kept me in close contact with the Writings for many hours every day during a large proportion of my life, and it has thus kept me in close contact with the Spiritual World and the Internal Sense of the Word. This, in itself, must be an incalculable blessing to anyone who is disposed to take advantage of it as a means to living the Christian life. In itself, it is a sufficient reward for almost any amount of labor.

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     The making of the Concordance has not been, as some have supposed, a merely mechanical kind of work. It has not been like making a concordance to the Bible, in which a few words have to be copied on a fixed mechanical principle. The extracts in our Concordance could be made only by one who in each case had studied the context, for otherwise the compiler would not know whether it was worth while, in any particular case, to make any extract at all; nor would he know where to begin the extract, nor where to end it. It is evident that the compiler must have been a constant student, and must have been called upon to exercise good judgment in every moment of his work.

     In concluding these imperfect and very incomplete remarks, permit me to express before this company-which is a company so well representative of those who are commonly known as the Academy of the New Church-my high sense of the unfailing and unvarying kindness and consideration with which I have been treated during my stay and life among you. All along, you have respected my work, and you have respected my position as the doer of the work. You hold very strong theological opinions, and while I heartily agree with all those opinions in regard to what I consider their fundamentals, there are some things, regarded by you, and justly regarded, as of very high importance, in which I have had to differ from you; and, when occasion called for it, I have not failed to give utterance to my dissent; for to avow my opinions I regarded as a simple duty. But this has never caused your kindness toward me to waver, and I think it is a proof, and one of the best that could be offered, that you constitute a body of the Lord's New Church, not in profession merely, but also in reality. From the first day of my residence among you, to the present time-a period of nearly ten years-I have never experienced anything unkind or inconsiderate, in either word or deed, from any person connected with your body. It is a true saying that you must live with people to know them, and although I have not actually lived with you I have lived very closely among you, and in saying what I am now saying I know what I am talking about. And now that the main part of the work is completed, you at once signalize your kind appreciation and sympathy in creating this happy occasion.

     Miss Plummer, by request, now read an original poem on the Concordance, which was warmly received.

     The Toastmaster made some humorous remarks on "the hand that rocks the cradle and rules the world," and on Mr. Potts's inability to have achieved such a work if he himself had had to rock cradles. "Where would the Concordance be if the compiler had not had beside him one whose sympathy for the work had inspired him and sustained him in his long labors." Hence the Parnassian ladies had inspired the ladies of Bryn Athyn to testify their appreciation by a slight but significant token. Here Mrs. Odhner presented Mrs. Potts with a bouquet of roses.

     PRESENTATION OF THE LOVING CUP.

     And now the Toastmaster uncovered a more permanent token of the gratitude of the Bryn Athyn members,-a silver loving cup, suitably inscribed, which he filled pith champagne and passed to Bishop Pendleton, who made a short presentation speech, and proposed the toast:

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     "To the Rev. John Faulkner Potts, the Compiler of the 'Swedenborg Concordance,' and to his faithful Helpmate."

     The whole company, by tables, now filed past Mr. and Mrs. Potts, and drank with them out of the loving cup, singing meanwhile, to the tune of "Maryland, My Maryland," a song composed by one of the "Theologues, "Oh Father Potts we honor thee," etc.,-varied with other songs.

     "To Spiritual Freedom in the New Church, and to the 'Concordance' as a bulwark for its security."

     This toast was responded to by Mr. John Pitcairn, who alluded to the twenty-one pages of references on this important subject made available by the Concordance, and while reassuring the company that he did not propose to read them all or take up the whole evening with a discourse on Spiritual Freedom, he proceeded to quote some of the entries, including the following: (These are the reference numbers to the very suggestive extracts read by Mr. Pitcairn, as found in the Concordance, under the entry, "Freedom:" A. C. 892, 918, 507, 1749, 1947, 3854, 5428, 6125; H. H. 380; L. J. 33, 73-74; D. L. W. 116, 425; A. R. 97: D. P. 96-8; T. C. R. 508.)

     "Henceforth the man of the Church will be in a freer state to think about the things of the Church, thus about the spiritual things which are of heaven; because spiritual freedom has been restored. . . . As spiritual freedom has now been restored to man, the spiritual sense of the Word is now disclosed, and interior Divine truths are thereby revealed." (L. J. 73.)

     "I have spoken with the angels about the state of the Church henceforth. They said that things to come they do not know; but that they do know that that slavery and captivity in which the man of the Church has been heretofore is taken away, and that now from restored freedom, he is better able to perceive interior truths if he wants to perceive them, and thus to become more interior if he wants to do so: but still they have small hope of the man of the Christian Church." (L. J. 74.)

     The speaker noted how in past times the laity's acknowledgment of the Doctrine of the Priesthood had been the occasion for the accusation that they accepted, without the exercise of rationality, all that was taught by the priests; while on the other hand there has recently come across the water the assertion that the General Church of the New Jerusalem was practically formed and is now governed by laymen. Both charges he repudiated. It has been recognized formerly as now that laymen as well as priests may enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith,-may go immediately to the Lord in the Writings for instruction in everything that relates to faith and to life. Neither does this doctrine invalidate the instruction that comes by sermons and otherwise through the mediation of priests. In the recent obscuration immediate instruction had been more or less lost sight of, he thought and the mediation of the high priest had been too much exalted.

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Happily those days are over. Mutual confidence exists and spiritual freedom is restored. "Is there a layman," the speaker asked, "in the General Church of the New Jerusalem who does not recognize the office of the priesthood as taught in the Heavenly Doctrine? If there is I do not know him. And is there a priest within our borders who had not the freedom that belongs to his office? If there is he must be a rare avis. Such charges, my friends, are the figments of a diseased imagination. We are devoutly thankful that the Lord has made His Second Advent, and that the attainment of Spiritual Freedom is within the reach of every one; and the faculty to attain it has been rendered comparatively easy by the labor of our esteemed friend the Reverend John Faulkner Potts"


     "To Spiritual Unity in the New Church as based upon Freedom and Rationality, and to the 'Concordance' as a medium for its Establishment.

     To this toast, which was greeted with the chorus "Then together let us Stand," etc., Bishop Pendleton responded.

     When Divine Providence has an end in view a number of agencies are set to work to accomplish the end. There is the end of establishing Rationality and Freedom in the Church-the two are inseparable: true freedom is with true rationality, and conversely true rationality is with true freedom. These two together make the Church and heaven; they are the very human with men and angels; they are to make the New Church and to establish it And the Lord sets a number of agencies to work to bring this end about.

     There are spiritual agencies and natural agencies. Of the natural agencies may be mentioned Science. Education, Civil Freedom and many others. Above all the natural agencies there is Divine Revelation, and all that is involved in it. Redemption, the Last Judgment, the formation of a New Heaven, and Order, in Heaven, in Hell, and in the world-all these are agencies for the establishing of Freedom and Rationality with men. Revelation is the agency itself which establishes the Church, and when it forms the Church there are other agencies still at work to bring about a state of rationality and freedom.

     We have prominently in our minds an agency-the Concordance. There is no telling how great is its use in establishing rationality in the Church. There must be immediate and mediate influx into the minds of men. In order that there may be immediate influx with a man the doctrines must be rationally before him, so that he may read and study it. A broad and comprehensive view is essential to rational light on a subject, and it is difficult to have a broad view unless the whole doctrine be before us.

     The Concordance is valuable both to ministers and others. All of the Doctrine on a given subject may be found. In the Divine Providence, it was put into the mind of a man to do this work. We are grateful to the Lord in His Providence, and to the instrument. We are grateful to one another for uses, and this to the Lord Himself. Every minister will be especially grateful for the Concordance I have shared with the compiler the anxiety he has felt as to the completion of the work; his health has not always been good.

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But it has been the will of Providence that it should be completed."

     "To the 'Concordance' as the great promoter of Theological Progress in the Church."

     Mr. Acton responded beginning with the remark that he would have been better prepared to talk to the point of the use of the Concordance to the Theological Student-for he was apt to find the members of his theological classes with a volume of that work under their arm, resulting in his and the other theological professors being more or less on the defensive for quite a proportion of the time-adding that he next expected trouble from the Girls' School. But on the theme as presented, the speaker said that there was so much to say that there was hardly anything to say, except the very broad proposition that the Concordance is a very good thing.

     Continuing more seriously he said that one very good feature is that the work gives those who do not agree with us the means for opposing us. Turn to any long entry and you will find many passages which seem to contradict each other. This bringing out of apparent conflict he considered to be of the greatest use. When confronted with such contradictions we ask ourselves, Why did the Lord reveal it so? Swedenborg answers this for us: Enter more interiorly into my thought and you will see the truth. It bids us approach the doctrine on any subject from different aspects, and when we get a full and comprehensive view we then see there is no contradiction at all. It cultivates both thoroughness and independence of thought, and thins genuine rationality. From one point of view alone we can not understand the doctrine thoroughly apparently opposing views make us examine and see where the true understanding lies.

     The speaker referred to the Concordance as a fit production of this wonderful age of machinery. It is a splendid tool, and its production, as compared with the former indexes, is like the introduction of machinery in place of hand tools. It is an immense labor saver. The whole Church, of this day and of the future, will remember Mr. Potts.

     "To the Use of the 'Concordance' in unfolding the Word" Mr. Synnestvedt was called upon to respond to the sentiment, and though he pleaded the lateness of the hour and the probable fatigue of the banqueters, he was not excused He said in effect:

     We read in the Arcana that in the study of truths of doctrine that which a man does not get from revelation (doctrine) he supplies from his own phantasy, for his ideas must he filled in some way-nature abhors a vacuum We are taught that the Lord cannot inflow into an empty man, and that the greater the store of knowledges and scientifics with him the greater the illustration possible, and the more certain the conclusions; as we see in the newly translated work, De Verbo:

     "Concerning Illustration through the Word. Every man who is in the spiritual affection of truth, that is, who loves truth itself because it is truth, is enlightened by the Lord when be reads the Word; but not the man who reads it only from natural affection of truth, which is called the lust of knowing (cupido sciendi).

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The latter sees nothing else than what concords with his love, or with the principles which he has either seized upon himself, or imbibed from others, through hearing or reading. It shall therefore be told in a few words, which man has illustration through the Word, and whence.

     "That man has illustration who shuns evils as sins, and because they are against the Lord, and against His Divine laws. With this man, and with no other, is the spiritual mind opened. And as far as this is open, so far does the light of heaven enter; and from the light of heaven is all enlightenment in the Word. Moreover, man then has a will of good, which will, when it is determined to that use, becomes in the understanding first the affection of truth, then the perception of truth, then (mox) by means of rational light, the thought of truth: which, that it may go into the memory, passes at the same time into the light, and thus remains. This is the way of all enlightenment in the Word, and also the way of man's reformation and regeneration. But it is necessary that there should first be in the memory cognitions, both of spiritual and of natural things, for these are the stores (penuarie) in which the Lord operates by means of the light of heaven. The fuller these are, and without [or, "the more free from"] confirmed falses, the more illustrious the perception given, and the more certain the conclusions; for the Divine operation does not fall into an empty and inane man. As for example: he who does not know that the Lord is pure love, and pure mercy, and that love itself and good itself in its essence is such that it cannot do evil to anyone, nor be angry and vengeful, and who does not know that the Word in the sense of the letter in many places is from appearances-cannot be enlightened in the Word, where it is said of Jehovah that he is enkindled and angry, etc." (De Verbo, xii.)

     This is the value of having all the passages on the subject, so far as possible. We find some which seem to contradict, but there are no contradictions in the Writings, though the appearance of it may be as strong as that the sun rises and sets; but if we can't rise above the appearance it really shows that there is something crooked in our own minds.

     Without the Concordance it is hard to cover the ground fully enough to feel tolerably secure as to having before us what the Doctrines really do teach in the given subject. In practical use I find the work offers a temptation to superficial gleaning. But it will not do to consult the Concordance alone; it must be used as an aid to the reading of the Writings themselves. Often the extracts given will produce an impression which (doubtless owing to preconceptions in the mind) may be shown to be erroneous by reaching the whole passages in situ. On the other hand the extracts give enough to make possible a selection, to read up, where it is impossible to read all the numbers referred to. I remember one case where, after looking up over a dozen columns of references, a single passage was found which materially modified all the rest. It is in this way that the Concordance is of the greatest use in exposition of the Word.

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     "To the Use of the 'Concordance' in the Work of translating the Word and the Writings."

     Prof. Enoch S. Price responded as follows:

     "The work of translating the Word and the Writings must ever in the New Church be two-fold, viz., doctrinal and linguistic. Three things are required of the translator 1st, a good knowledge of the sacred tongues; 2d. a cultivated taste in the vernacular, and 3d, a thorough understanding of the doctrines of the New Church. This last he can acquire only by discriminating study of the doctrines; therefore whatever has been said as to the usefulness of the Concordance to the theologian and the preacher applies to the translator. This usefulness is simply incalculable."

     Mr. Synnestvedt here volunteered his opinion that Mr. Potts's translations of the Writings are the best extant; and the Toastmaster agreed that as a whole they will constitute the basis of future translations, that they will establish a "harmony of translations."


     "To the 'Concordance' and the aid it will give in the future development of New Church Science."

     To this the Rev. C. E. Doering read the following response:

     We may well ask what aid can a concordance to works that treat of spiritual conditions and laws be in developing a science which treats of natural conditions and laws? And yet the question involves its own answer. A New Church science must be essentially different from an Old Church science. And we can see that this is true when we consider that the science of any time has received its life and quality from the prevailing religion of that time. It has either been a living or a dead science, as the church at the time was either living or dead. That this is so may be seen from a study of the history of the people of this earth, from most ancient times. And where can we study the history of the most ancient and ancient peoples except in the Writings of the New Church...and the Concordance will very materially aid us in this study.

     Let us then briefly review the history of the sciences from their very beginning that we may see how they have made one with religion, and also that in reviewing the past we may get some adequate idea of what the science of the future is to be. For is not the New Church the heir of all the churches that have preceded it?

     Beginning with the Most Ancient People. They did not have science as we now understand it, but in place of it they had perception,.....a perception of the spiritual meaning of the objects of nature; for they were internal celestial men, and believed all things which were of the world, and which entered into their memory from the world, in the light of heaven; and hence when they saw natural things they did not dwell on them, but on the spiritual things to which the natural things correspond. Thus in everything in the natural kingdom they saw everything representative and significative of the Lord's spiritual kingdom.

     When the Church came to an end the Lord raised up the Ancient Church, which had not perception, nor direct intercourse with spirits, but the men of this Church were taught by doctrinals from their Word;-doctrinals which treated of love to the Lord and of charity towards their neighbor; and their sciences treated of correspondences.

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By these means they were instructed in the internal meaning of their Word and of the rituals which they used in their worship; by them also they were enabled to see spiritual things in the objects of nature; but not a priori but a posteriori, by knowledges which they had acquired by means of their bodily senses. With them, then, science, especially the science of correspondences, was the external means by which their spiritual was developed. It was with them, then, really a spiritual science and not a natural science, that is, not a science in which natural objects were studied in the light of nature but in spiritual light.

     But in the decline of this church, and especially in their posterity, natural science as such had its origin, and was gradually developed more or less among all the peoples, throughout the various countries, who were descended from that Church-especially by the Egyptians, Syrians, Arabians and Babylonians. This is evident from the Arcana Coelestia (n. 5223), where we read:

     "Egypt was among those kingdoms where the representative Ancient Church existed. But in Egypt the scientifics of that Church were chiefly cultivated which treated of correspondences, representatives and significatives; and by which those things were explained which were written in the books of the Church, and which were applied in their holy worship. Thence it was, that Egypt and also its king Pharaoh signified in general, scientifics.

     "The chief men among them, who were skilled in these scientifics and taught them, were magi and wise men. Those who were skilled in mystic scientifics and taught them were called magi, and those who were skilled in non-mystic scientifics were called wise men. The magi therefore cultivated the interior scientifics and the wise men the exterior scientifics. Hence it is that they signify such things in the Word. But after they began to abuse the interior scientifics of the Church and to turn them into magic, then Egypt also began to signify that scientific principle which perverts; the magi of Egypt and its wise men then also had a similar signification.

     "The magi of that time knew those things which are of the spiritual world. They learned them from the correspondences and representations of the Church, wherefore many of them also communicated with spirits, and from them learned those illusory arts whereby they wrought magical miracles. But those who were called wise men did not care for such things, but they solved enigmas and taught the causes of natural things. Therein consisted chiefly the wisdom of that time, and the ability to do such things was called wisdom."

     This number is important on account of the rise or generation of natural science. Hitherto there was strictly speaking no natural science, for natural things were looked upon as correspondences and representatives of spiritual things.

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But in Egypt there were those who cultivated the interior or mystic sciences and those who cultivated the non-mystic or external sciences and as in Egypt, so also in the other countries of the Ancient Church. Moreover the early Greeks and Romans derived their knowledge from them, for history records that the leaders and founders of Greek science and philosophy, as Thales and Pythagoras derived their's either at first hand from the Egyptians, or by serving an apprenticeship with such as had been there. From their time to the present the natural sciences have been more and more cultivated, until at last men have come to such a state, that nothing is considered to exist unless it has been demonstrated by natural science. Thus she has changed places with religion, so that from being a handmaid she has become mistress.

     This is the state that we find and with which we are constantly infested. The question then is, How is the New Church to develop a science that shall occupy her Own position in the Church, and thus be a means for the upbuilding of it? Before proceeding further let us take stock of the material we have at hand, from which a New Church science may be developed.

     In the first place we have the Writings of the Church; then we have the experience of men from ancient times down to the present and, third, we have philosophy, from the time of Aristotle to our own,-especially the philosophy of Swedenborg, which I do not call a New Church science, but a very important means in developing a New Church science.

     These then are our forces. How are they to be used? Primarily, of course, the Doctrines must be studied; for they are a revelation of spiritual states and conditions, and consequently of first causes, thus of spiritual laws which are universal, and which must be seen in their universal application in order that we may see the internal natural causes. From them also the Church will gradually learn the science of the ancients, namely, the science of correspondences and representations.

     Now, descending from the highest to the lowest, from heaven to the world, we find an immense storehouse of scientific facts, that have been accumulating for centuries. These must be mastered and arranged and classified, according to the spiritual laws which are given us in the Writings. But not only must we classify them, but to make the science complete, the natural laws, corresponding to spiritual laws, yea which are the forms in nature of the spiritual forces, and which govern the motion, order and arrangement of the parts, will have to be evolved, and here we can call to our aid the Philosopher Swedenborg as well as those Philosophers who preceded him. But especially Swedenborg, since he culled from those before him, and formulated a system of natural laws and principles which, so far as I have been able to find, agree with revealed spiritual laws. I need only mention for the sake of illustration his doctrines of Order, Degrees, Series, and his doctrine that the atmospheres are the forces in nature which by their pressure hold all things in connection.

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     But we cannot go more into particulars here, as our time is limited; so I will conclude with this one thought: that when the Church has a science which has its beginning in the spiritual and which descends from the spiritual into the natural, where it must rule and dispose all things into their proper relation and order, and from which is developed natural, in which the spiritual is also the governing principle-when this is done, the New Church will have a science such as the world has never yet seen-a spiritual-natural science which will form an ultimate basis and support on which the spiritual can rest; and by which it is made firm and established. And the Concordance, for which we are indebted to Mr. Potts, and which is so much made up of selections and ready references to the Writings, thus giving the doctrines on any subject in a nutshell, will have performed no small service in the development of a New Church science.

     The evening closed with some informal toasts, to the young ladies, the "'Concordance' Girls," to Mr. Kendig (of Renovo,-a visitor), the Waiters and Waitresses; to Mrs. Odhner (who had catered for the supper), and to King Edward VII., the king who acknowledges constitutional government, and who rules a nation distinguished for freedom of speech, which is essential to the growth of the New Church.
RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK 1901

RELIGIOUS OUTLOOK       J. E. BOWERS       1901

LETTER FROM MR. BOWERS.

     THE remark is frequently made, now-a-days, that a great change is being effected in the minds of the people, as to their views respecting matters of religion. Observation of the trend of things religious, in the so- called Christian world, convinces one that this is quite true, and the fact is of great interest to an intelligent Newchurchman. An intelligent New- churchman is one who learns and believes what the Lord has foretold in the letter of the Word, and also what He has revealed in the Writings of His New Church, concerning the state of the Christian world, in "the Consummation of the Age." To such a person, his observation clearly proves the absolute truth-as a matter of course-of all that the Lord teaches on the subject. And he accepts the truth, because it is evident that to ignore and refuse to believe the Divine teaching is to deny and to reject the Lord.

     A great change of religious views is taking place at this day. The natural rational is being cultivated by education. From the lumen of the rational, men see the absurdities of the old so-called orthodox formulated beliefs. Many are beginning to feel ashamed of creeds, statements which, when logically examined, represent God as a vindictive and cruel monster, or, in fact, annihilate the idea of the existence of God altogether. Some think that it is high time for such creeds to be "revised." But how many, and who, of the dissatisfied ones, would be willing to put the Divine Truths of the Word in the place of the falses of selfderived intelligence, the Lord alone knows.

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     The New Church evangelist finds many striking evidences that people generally are so submerged in the sphere of naturalism that spiritual doctrines and principles, whenever presented for their consideration, arouse in them a spirit of repugnance. They want to be amused and entertained by intellectual stage-players and have no desire to be instructed in the truths of the Word of God, by means of which they might be led into the way of salvation, and so attain the felicities of the heavenly life. The natural man is profoundly oblivious of the life truly human.

     We repeat, then, that there is a great change now in progress, on the part of the men of Christendom. And it is a change for the worse, on the part of those who cannot be led to know and to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ, in His Divine Human, as the one God of heaven and earth. Salvation is of the Lord alone, and by the reception, in faith and in life, of the Divine Truth now revealed to men. The Lord leads and protects all men, so far as possible; but He cannot save those who reject Him, and who are indifferent to the things of heaven and the Church.

     It is true that the changed conditions which have come to pass in these hatter days, are more favorable for those who are seeking for a rational interpretation of the Sacred Scriptures, than in former ages. "He that seeketh findeth." And while mankind generally are becoming more natural, more vastated of spiritual truth and good, the Lord finds the "few" who are as sheep without a shepherd, and He leads them, in wonderful ways, to a knowledge of the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem and thus into the fold.
J. E. BOWERS.
INDIAN INVESTIGATOR OF THE DOCTRINES 1901

INDIAN INVESTIGATOR OF THE DOCTRINES              1901

     WE are indebted to Mr. G. W. Colton for the following abridgment of a letter received last summer by the Rev. J. C. Ager from a gentleman in India, who is turning toward the New Church doctrines an enquiring eye. He writes

     "It is about two years since I first heard the name of that great philosopher Swedenborg by the conversion of Our M- R. B-, Esq., to that faith, and since then I have been enquiring where I could get all information about the great faith and doctrines of Swedenborg's. I wrote to several of my friends about it but could get no reliable information. At last I have seen your name and I write this to trouble you to appease my anxious mind.

     "Mr. M- R. B- has published two books in our vernacular (Gujarat), translations of English books, but he has not give the original names of the volumes; translations of titles are, "Love of Marriage," and "Heaven and Hell." These books do not give me any idea of that faith at all, but the originals must be grand, as he says in his preface that on perusal of the original he was at Once changed. This gentleman is now, three months ago, altogether converted to Christianity and has embraced the Swedenborgian faith, and by this conversion our old Orthodox people look upon him with hatred, and hence he is not replying to anybody about this faith. . .

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     "We are here about four or five friends who study nothing but religious faiths, and hence the search for this great religious system. Be good enough to supply me with several books and pamphlets on this system of Swedenborg, and after perusing them we shall note our doubts and ask you about them. We especially desire the two volumes before spoken of as having been translated by Mr. M- B-. I hear he has been giving lessons to some in this faith and that some of them are on the point of being converted to Christianity.

     "We Hindoos are forbidden to read the Bible, but I was educated in a Christian college, and hence my notions are all Christian, and in consequence I am not liked by my family; however, I am determined to work for the great cause of religion, but I have no' means to come over to America and learn about Theology. However I try my best to do what I can.          "B- F. K-,

     "Ahmedabad, India."

     This fall a letter from the same gentleman to Mr. Colton says that other works are to follow the abridgments of Conjugial Love and Heaven and Hell referred to as recently published in the Gujarat dialect. Mr. Colton quotes him as saying: "If these doctrines had been preached here instead of those by Christians, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, they would have before now had a large following, for they fully agree with our ancient writings in their purity."
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review       H. S       1901

"SPECTRUM ANALYSIS AND SWEDENBORG'S 'PRINCIPIA.'"

     To the average reader, who is interested in science from a New Church- standpoint, and would like to know more about it, one of the most helpful publications which has lately come to hand, is the Monograph by Miss Lillian Beekman, entitled "Spectrum Analysis and Swedenborg's 'Principia.'" The first thing that strikes the ordinary reader who is bold enough to read so weighty a subject, is that he is glad he tried it, for it unfolds in a clear and intelligible manner, just what he needs to know: First, what light is, and how it is propagated; also, the nature of the medium through which it passes. Much is said also of the relation of light to heat, and of the latter to fire. But perhaps the best idea of the ground covered, is to be gained from the titles of the fourteen chapters which compose the book.
I.     The Color Band Spectrum.
II.     Swedenborg on heat and light, and heat and fire.
III.     The Continuous or Rainbow Spectrum.
IV.     The Ultra-violet Range, and the Substance of the Sun Centre.

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V.     The Absorption Spectrum.
VI.     Selective Absorption.
VII.     The Use of the Selective Appropriation of Energy.
VIII.     Swedenborg's Doctrine of the Undulatory Pressure.
IX.     Heat Radiation.
X.     Transparency.
XI.     Reciprocative Action.
XII.     Correlation of the Doctrine of Undulatory Pressure, and Facts of Heat Transference
XIII.     The Frauenhofer Lines.
XIV.     The Frauenhofer Lines and the Principia.

     In all cases the materials are drawn from the heading modern authorities on the one hand, and from Swedenborg's science on the other. And as we go along, it is wonderful how the two come together, and explain and confirm the well-known scientific doctrines of the Church. Incidentally, it is gratifying to a Newchurchman to see how, even when compared with the best teachings of this age of scientific giants, Swedenborg still towers above them. It is worth something to know enough about the subject to realize at least this much.

     Any scientific system requires to be studied by specialists and by them collated and set forth, in order that others may appreciate it. The ordinary man, the layman, cannot hope to do much original research, but he should seek to have, through the aid of the student, an intelligent comprehension of the system, at least in its more important bearings. It is as a contribution to this use that the little work before us most commends itself to the thoughtful public. Notwithstanding this, it must be at the saint time of the greatest use and importance to the scientific scholar, as we understand that not a few of the startling prospects which it opens up by effecting points of contact between modern science and Swedenborg's Principia are entirely new. But as to this, its more proper use, let the scientists themselves speak.     H. S.
"Twentieth Century Memorial booklets, is on God," 1901

"Twentieth Century Memorial booklets, is on God,"              1901

     NUMBER one of the Conference "Twentieth Century Memorial booklets, is on God," and appears in very attractive form, with such excellence of selection in the passages of which the work consists as can not fail to serve a use, not only in a missionary way, but also to Newchurchmen.

     THE American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, which last year celebrated its Semi-Centennial, has issued a pamphlet "Memorial" Report. The contents include a list of the present officers; a chapter on The Origin and Growth of the Society; a copy of the Certificate of Incorporation; the Original Constitution (superseded by the By-Laws); By-Laws of the Society, and By-Laws of the Board of Managers of the Society: a statement of Bequests and Donations: Inventory of the Property and Invested Funds (at cost); a list of Publications of the Society; a list of Life Members, and Directions for Persons desiring to will property to the Society. We have received a very handsome Edition de Luxe copy.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     Huntingdon Valley (Bryn Athyn), Pa.-Pastor Synnestvedt's sermon of February 17th, on the "Rod of Iron" with which the nations are to be ruled-namely, natural truth-as it happens was especially interesting in view of the Principia Club's discussion on Swedenborg's "Chemistry" and his science generally, which have been called in question by the criticisms of Messrs. Potts and Vinet. The doctrinal classes, also, of the 8th and 15th, bore on the allied general subject i. e., the importance of confirmatory scientifics, dealing with the teaching of D. L. W. 351-2,- that natural truths can be made to support and confirm the conception of a Divine even more effectively than they can be made to appear to confirm atheistical principles.

     Social events of late have included a card party given by Mr. and Mrs. Synnestvedt to about a third of the Society; a little gathering at Mrs. G. R. Starkey's (February 13th), at which among other things toasts to Conjugial Love and to "Edward VII" brought out interesting responses from Mr. Acton and from Mr. Potts; and a card party by the "Cairnwood" young ladies, on the 20th.

     In spite of bright days we have had much sickness the latter part of the winter, the school being almost crippled the last two weeks in February. Miss Alice Grant was called home to Middleport by the very serious illness of her mother, her place in the Local School being filled by Miss Zella Pendleton.

     Pastor Bostock, of Pittsburg, gave us the great pleasure of a visit, from February 13th till the 21st, and seems to be making progress healthward. We have had flying visits from Miss Laura Ziegler and Miss Marie Ziegler.

THE PRINCIPIA CLUB.

     At the meeting of the Club, adjourned till February 11th, Rev. W. F. Pendleton opened the evening with a paper which, passing over the details of criticism of Swedenborg's science advanced at the previous session, by Professor Vinet and Mr. Potts, first discussed the proper attitude and approach to that Science, and then entered upon a searching analysis and comparison of the principles of science laid down in the Theological Writings and those enunciated in the scientific works. The paper, which appears elsewhere, took about 80 minutes, and was followed with rapt attention by a large audience. The speaker said in conclusion that he might take up the specific points of criticism later. As it was late, and as there were two other papers to be heard, the meeting was again adjourned, till the 14th.

     On the 14th Professor Vinet and Mr. Potts both read papers, in which for the most part they did not follow Mr. Pendleton onto the broader ground of his argument, but adhering to the original and more specific field connected with the "Chemistry" attacked what they considered particular points of error in the system.

     Prof. Vinet said that his reading was confined to the Principles of Chemistry, the Miscellaneous Observations, and the Treatise on Iron and Fire. He endeavored to show from Swedenborg's language that he meant by "Invisibles." minute particles of matter; that to an "element" he attributes the properties of matter; and that in calling fire an element he was therefore in error, for the Writings say that fire is produced by the activity of substances (in T. C. R. 472), and also (ibid) that fire [heat] and light are not creatable.

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     Mr. Potts (whose place in the Chair was here taken by the Vice President) said he had no wish to disparage the "good ship of Swedenborg's Science," for which Mr. Pendleton had appealed, but only to extirpate the traitors among the crew, who would destroy the ship,-the errors in the system. "Heat, a substance," is one of those dark fellows who has now been killed, as every one must see who is not quite blind on the subject. There is need of a new science, a New Church Science, the science of the Writings. Mr. Pendleton's paper had done good service in showing how much more of science there is in the Writings than many imagine.

     He said that there are two methods, one to begin from the Writings and from them to proceed to scientific confirmation and the other to begin from Swedenborg's science and then force the Writings to confirm it. From the latter method and the state it induces only repentance can open the mind again to truth; for it is very difficult to remove falsity when it has been confirmed. He contrasted the simple teachings of the Writings on the subject of Creation with the "cumbrous machinery of the Principia," and asked whether, if that machinery was in accord with the truth, it would have been ignored in the Writings, which say not one word about it? He laid much stress on discrimination, and the necessity for drawing distinctions between the truth and the error there is much of both in Swedenborg's science.

     The origin of matter was referred to. The Writings say that it was by condensation of the atmospheres; the scientific works, that it was by disintegration of particles of water at the bottom of the sea. He asked, What bottom of the sea could there be before matter had been formed? What did the sea rest on? Water could not have been the universal formative as Swedenborg claimed, for water is too light. The nucleus of the earth must have been formed, according to the theory, by very heavy matter.

     Another error was the part which the Flood plays in the Principia theory, against which the Writings state that there was no literal flood.

     It does not follow that for Swedenborg to have been led into the truth of revelation he must have been prepared by means of pure natural truth. There is instruction and discipline in our being let into errors. The speaker closed with a final appeal for discrimination.

     Mr. Alfred Acton noted that Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Potts both advocated discrimination; but they applied this differently. Mr. Pendleton would have us discriminate the appearances from the underlying meaning where Swedenborg seems to us in error; Mr. Potts accepts these things just as they seem, and would have us reject them, and save only what seems on its face to be true. Mr. Pendleton thinks that we discriminate when we take it that Swedenborg was not only a rational man but a rational giant, and that it is not reasonable to think that he could have made stupendous errors,-for he was under a special providence for a special use. Mr. Potts fails to discriminate, for he has previously said that Swedenborg, though a rational man, started with a theory of creation which made its first point identical with nothing, and then made the world out of a multitude of nothings and yet he says now that there are many good things in Swedenborg's science. He would discriminate more if he rejected the whole system, as being based on a fundamental error. The speaker agreed that we can be taught by our errors, but not in the way Mr. Potts says. Moreover it was no slight errors that were attributed to Swedenborg, but stupendous ones. He could not see how Swedenborg could have been led along by fundamental errors and thus all of a sudden change into true methods of thought. Such errors as Mr. Potts would ascribe to him can be seen to be silly, stupid errors, even by scientists. These things would be inconsistent with such rationality as Swedenborg's.

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     Mr. Potts deprecated the charge of attributing stupendous error to Swedenborg. As to rationality, it cannot be formed without errors arising and being put away; therefore Swedenborg must have fallen into error. But the speaker did not believe he had fallen into stupid errors. It being rather late for discussion adjournment followed, it being agreed that the next regular meeting of the Club should be omitted.

     Philadelphia, Pa.-Last Sunday Minister Cronlund preached the first of a series of sermons in exposition of the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.

     The regular quarterly meeting of the Society was held on Sunday, January 20th, after the service.

     The steady attendance at the young folks' doctrinal classes, which were started some time ago, testifies to the interest taken in them. On the 24th we were entertained at a little surprise party given to one of our number, after the class.

     On the evening of St. Valentine's Day Mr. and Mrs. Good gave a party at their home in West Philadelphia, which, with music, dancing, cards and games, proved a very pleasant occasion, indeed.

     We did not celebrate Swedenborg's Birthday in this city, but took part in the Banquet given at Bryn Athyn in honor of the completion of the Swedenborg Concordance.     E.

     February 15, 1901.

     Pittsburg Pa.-The annual meeting was held on January 29th, and up to the last minute we were in hopes that Mr. Bostock might be able to come, but he was not well enough. After the more substantial part of the supper we drank toasts to the Church, to Swedenborg and to Mr. Potts, each being prefaced by a few appropriate remarks by Mr. Brown. The business part of the meeting was opened by Mr. Brown's reading Mr. Bostock's report, in which was given a brief history of the trouble in the Church in England, and the reasons why he felt he ought to go and take up the work there, if he becomes well enough.

     The Treasurer's Report followed, and was encouraging in showing a surplus, though a very small one. The rest of the evening was spent in dancing.

     Mr. Bostock was able to preach on February 10th-assisted in the service by Mr. Brown-for the first time since the Sunday after Christmas.     C. R.

     Glenview, Ill.-Swedenborg's Birthday, Valentine's Day and Washington's Birthday have been celebrated in turn. Also several blizzards have kept the walking difficult. The first celebration, at Mr. and Mrs. H. L. Burnham's, came On the night of Swedenborg's Birthday and of our first snowstorm, and was informal.

     The "Literary" evening, held at Mr. and Mrs. Paul Synnestvedt's, was also snowy. Extracts from Emerson's Essay on Swedenborg were read, and several of J. Whitcomb Riley's poems. The shadow pictures were very funny. Mrs. Paul Synnestvedt played Wagner selections, and the storm-bravers felt repaid.

     At the School Social on January 29th review questions were asked on Mr. Odhner's Life of Swedenborg. The children did remarkably well, and the head of each class received a merited prize. A Valentine's Party, of all unmarried and unengaged young folk's, was given at Mr. and Mrs. Junge's. Details of anonymous poems, dainty cooking by the fair guests. etc. have to be omitted here.

     The most elaborate event was the Masque Ball. The Bandit, "Rainbow." "Night," "Morning," and the "Red Chess Queen," were among the first on the floor. The "Clock," standing during the evening, led many to suppose it real. Prizes for the best and for the most easily penetrated disguises, for the handsomest and for the funniest, were awarded three being secured by the Maynards. Out of 47 disguises the highest number guessed was 29.

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     On Sunday, February 17th, Rev. D. H. Klein preached in this city and in Glenview, on the first three verses of Psalm xxviii. For six Sundays, in the absence of Rev. L. P. Mercer, Mr. Klein preached to the new circle at Evanston.

     Hereafter until September, our services in the city are to be in the afternoons, while those in Glenview are to be at 10:30 A. M., according to the agreement.

     REPORT OF MISSIONARY WORK; BY MR. BOWERS

     Ohio-After calling upon Pastor Bostock, at his home in Pittsburg, on the first day of the new century, and a sojourn of four days with friends in that city, the work was resumed in this state. Keeping busy all the time, about two weeks passed quickly with the members of the Church at Columbiana and Greenford Preached at Greenford on Sunday, January 20th, and the next day went to Cleveland called on several families and sold a number of copies of Mr. Odhner's excellent little book, "Swedenborg for the Young." The portraits and pictures make the book attractive to the older people, as well as to the young.

     The next point was Vermillion Erie county, which place was the first visited when the writer began to do missionary uses in this state, February, 1894. On Sunday, January 27th, a meeting was held at the house of Mrs. Jane Andrews, at Vermillion and the discourse was favorably received.

     Two days at Napoleon Henry county. Twenty-five or thirty years ago a little society existed in that town, and the writer of this, in May, 1873, preached there two Sundays. Now only three men can be found who have even a general knowledge of the doctrines of the Church.

     Sunday, February 3d, was spent-snowbound with Capt. W. F. Williams on his farm near Liberty Centre, Henry county. He is a veteran of the war of the great rebellion and has been a believer in the Doctrines for half a century.

     Monday, 4th, went to Toledo and spent a day with the Rev. E. I. Kirk and family, The doctor continues to preach to the little society in Toledo; and during the past year has done a great deal of arduous work in the way of house to house evangelization, supplying hundreds of people with New Church literature.

     Michigan.-New Church people were visited at Jackson, Charlotte, Caledonia and Green Lake. In all places they are few. But by conversations on the doctrines, on the nature and purpose of the Lord's Revelation and new Advent, and by being supplied with reading matter of a wholesome quality ---the isolated ones are kept spiritually alive in the wilderness in which they dwell.

     In Gorand Rapids reside two elderly ladies, Mrs. E. N. Grigg and Mrs. M. A. Witham, who are intelligent and earnest members of the General Church

     Sunday February 17th, a useful meeting was held with the few receivers of the Doctrines in Kalamazoo, at the house of Mr. Brant C. Henyan. Besides the sermon, several points were considered in an extended conversation

     February 19th, a first visit was made to Mr. and Mrs. Theodore W. Valleau, near Goblesville, Van Buren county. Mrs. Valleau has been for some fifteen years a receiver of the Doctrines. It was pleasant to see a copy of the Word, and a copy of The Christian Religion on a stand in the sitting room-where this letter has been written. This point being only fifteen miles from Lake Michigan, it us now quite wintry here. The snow us two feet deep on the level, and, with a northwest breeze, "the beautiful" is still descending.
     JOHN E. BOWERS

THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

     Maryland.-At the half-yearly session of the Conference of Ministers of the Maryland Association, held in Baltimore, on February 15th, Rev. James Taylor led in a discussion of the topic: "How to Think of Charity," and presented a paper which, while ably showing the distinction between love and charity, is said to have beautifully presented their blending in the formation of a heavenly disposition. It is hoped that the paper will be published.

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     Illinois-On January 15th the Council of Ministers of the Illinois Association discussed the subject "The Standard of Ministerial Teaching," a paper being presented by Rev. N. D. Pendleton, who, with Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, was present by invitation.

     The Kenwood Parish, of Chicago, received a visit from Mr. Schreck from January 10th to 14th, who participated in services Friday and Saturday evenings and Sunday morning. He spoke on "NewChurchmanship, what is it?" and "Education in and for the New Church," beside a sermon on "Jacob parting from Laban." At a social Monday evening, at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Mercer, many of the members had an opportunity to meet Mr. Schreck socially.

     GREAT BRITAIN.

     Radcliffe.-On the evening of December 5th the Radcliffe Society gave a farewell party to meet the Rev. Percy and Mrs. Billings prior to the departure for Adelaide, Australia, where Mr. Billings is to take pastoral charge. Among those present were the ministers of Baptist, Wesleyan and Primitive Methodist Churches, beside Rev. A. F. Ferguson, of the Besses New Church Society.

     The Radcliffe Society, as an expression of their regret at the "severance of cordial relations.," presented Mr. Billings with a silver purse "lined with gold," an autograph and photograph album and illuminated address combined and a photograph group of members.

     Mr. Billings was for a time a student of the Academy, of the New Church, in Philadelphia. The good wishes of the Life go with him in the new field of his labors.
LOVE OF THE SEX 1901

LOVE OF THE SEX       W. F. P       1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Vol. XXI.          APRIL, 1901.           No. 4.
(A study of the subject, read at Men's Meetings in Bryn Athyn, Pittsburg, Glenview and Berlin. Published by request.)

     WE read in Conjugial Love, No. 46, that the love of the sex is the universal of all loves, being implanted from creation in man's soul and this for the sake of the propagation of the human race. In this love, therefore, is the very end of the ends of creation, a heaven of regenerate men or angels. By means of this love heaven is provided with inhabitants and will continue to be provided forever--naturally by means of births and spiritually by the evolution of conjugial love out of that love through the new birth or regeneration.

     This love, the universal love of the sex, being implanted in the soul of man and woman by creation, there is in each a conatus or endeavor after conjunction, yea, to a conjunction that they may become one. This endeavor is the love of the sex (C. L., 46), which becomes transformed into conjugial love by the evolution referred to, which is a process of spiritual purification, a process of unfolding or unswathing, that the prolific principle, as it were, the life and soul of the love of the sex, may come forth, expand and grow. For we read that conjugial love is in the love of the sex as a gem in its matrix (C. L., 97; Cf., 92, 93).

     The love of the sex as an active force commences when a youth begins to think and act from his own understanding and "the voice of his speech begins to become masculine (C. L., 446), thus at the age of what is called puberty; there are also other visible signs of this change.

     Now the love of the sex, as we learn from Conjugial Love, No. 92, has its origin from the marriage of good and truth from the Lord; and as this marriage is to take place in all the degrees of life down to the ultimate or lowest, we may conclude that the beginnings of the love of the sex, as an active and manifest force in the age of puberty, are but signs of the beginnings of the marriage of good in truth, constituting the beginnings of the natural rational; for the rational is formed in all its planes by this marriage.

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It is well known that at this period, the beginning of the age of youth preparatory to the age of manhood, young people begin to think for themselves and are capable of seeing truths in some degree of rational light; though the rational is as yet a natural rational, and the love is therefore the love of the sex and not as yet the love of one of the sex, or conjugial love. It is an interesting fact, therefore, that the active rise or putting forth of the love of the sex is coincident with the beginnings of the formation of the rational, and is not only coincident with it, but is the effect of it; that is, it is the active effect of the marriage of good and truth, or of the beginnings of that marriage.

     The effect of this marriage, or the rise and activity of that love, is at first on a low plane, or on the lowest plane, and by evolution ascends upward; for as we read (C. L., 447), the love of the sex is at first corporeal, for it commences from the flesh; next it becomes sensual, bearing a relation to the five senses; afterwards it becomes natural, similar to the same love with animals, being a roaming love of the sex; later it becomes natural rational, and at length spiritual; and it becomes spiritual when it becomes conjugial. It then descends and renews all the planes below even to the last.

     The love of the sex therefore is in its origin a good love, being implanted by creation for the sake of a heaven from the human race; but, like all things that are general, it must be filled with particulars that are true and good, or otherwise it becomes filled with particulars that are false and evil. No man can remain in what is general; a general is of no use unless it is determined and applied to particulars which are more interior and thus more universal. If the particulars which are applications are not supplied from heaven, they will be introduced from hell. So it is with the general love of the sex, which is good in its origin and must exist first in order of time, or man could never obtain the gem that is within the matrix.

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The general love of the sex must be applied and determined to a love of one of the sex, together with all the myriad things of heaven that are contained and infolded in it; or it will be applied and determined to the love of adultery and to all the things of hell that are in it. Man must therefore not remain in the natural love of the sex, however essential it is in its own proper place in the series of human progression; he cannot remain in it and remain innocent. If he remains in it the love of the sex becomes the love of adultery, and is no longer the matrix of the conjugial, no longer the body in which conjugial love is the soul, but an active dead form, opposed and hostile to the life of heaven.

     The love of the sex in its origin is, therefore, a mediate love, becoming afterwards conjugial love or its opposite, an eternal love of one of the sex, or an eternal lust for many. Let us then examine somewhat more fully into the distinction between conjugial love and the love of the sex, for much is involved in the clear seeing of this distinction.

     Let us have one point clearly before our minds to begin with which is, that the love of the sex is not the origin of conjugial love, but is its first, thus is a natural external in which is implanted a spiritual internal (C. L., 98); as the body is not the origin of the soul. Conjugial love does not arise from the love of the sex, but rises out of it (C. L., 98), as the soul rises out of the body when the body dies; and indeed the love of the sex, having performed its instrumental and temporary use, must die in order that conjugial love may rise and live; the love for many of the sex must recede and pass away in order that the love for one may take its place and eternally remain. For, since the love of the sex is merely natural, merely of the external or natural man, merely of the world, of the body, and of the flesh-being a love that man holds in common with the beasts of the field and forest--it is transitory as the body is transitory, as the life of the world is transitory, as animals are transitory (C. L., 48, 94, 95). But man, having in him a living soul, cannot pass away as animals do; and if he remains in the love of the sex, he remains as a wild beast in hell forever.

     Conjugial love, or a love of one of the sex, is a love peculiar to man; no animal has it, nor does it exist in the body of man until the body is renewed from the spirit. For conjugial love is not an external or natural love, but enters the natural from the spiritual, when the spiritual is opened by regeneration.

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It is the result of re-birth, and no animal is born again to see the kingdom of God; nor is the body re-born of and from itself, but is re-born or renewed from the spirit by regeneration. The kingdom of God is where conjugial love is the love of loves with man. Wherefore, so far as a man becomes spiritual, he puts off the love of the sex, and puts on conjugial love; puts off the state wherein he desires only external conjunction and puts on the state wherein he desires internal conjunction, or the conjunction of the spirit, and from the spirit in the flesh, which is given only with one wife (C. L., 38).

     The love of the sex, since it is a love of conjunction with many, and is in itself natural and animal, is impure and unchaste, and finally becomes adulterous and scortatory, as has been already shown; but in the degree that man flees adultery as sin the love of one of the sex puts off what is natural and animal, and with it what is impure and unchaste, and man and woman are united even to the very inmost things of life, in which is heaven and all the felicities of heaven (C. L., 93). There is then spiritual cohabitation (C. L., 158), they dwell together in spirit and in the spiritual world, they are angels of the same angelic society even while still in the natural world.

     This conjunction ever increases with those who are in love truly conjugial, and friendship along with it; but with those who are in the love of the sex in marriage--whose marriage is not really the love of one of the sex, but is the love of the sex limited to one--conjunction ever decreases until there is at least internal, if not external, separation (C. L., 241). For if the unchaste love of the sex is not removed in marriage conjugial cold arises (C. L. 256), and conjugial cold is in itself spiritual death.

     The reason, therefore, why conjunction, where love of the sex reigns, cannot increase but must decrease, is because such conjunction is of the body in the spirit; and the reason why conjunction ever increases where the love of one of the sex takes the place of the love of many of the sex, is because such conjunction is of the spirit in the body (C. L., 162); the former, being under the law of afflux from the natural world and from the body in the natural world, cannot penetrate interiorly into the spirit of man; but the latter, being under the law of influx from the spiritual world, or from heaven, starts from the inmost, and moving outward and downward descends into the interiors of the body and of nature, and then to the exteriors, remodeling and reforming all things, inspiring a new life and a new activity of life.

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All renewal from within outward is permanent and enduring; so it is with the love of one of the sex; but all renewal from without inward is but apparent and temporary; so it is with the love of sex.

     There are forms of the love of the sex not so damnable as those we have been considering; in fact, forms that may preserve from worse evils, or be made instrumental of good. We have seen that the love of the sex in its beginning has with it something of innocence, something of good, yea, that there is stored up in it a love of one of the sex, or conjugial love, as a gem within its matrix; there is in it, therefore, a looking to conjugial love, preferring it, wishing--longing for it, loving it. This love of marriage, lying inwardly in the love of the sex, does, indeed, afterwards depart with many, like the soul departing from its body; but yet with some it remains and is preserved for eternal life. With some it remains as a state that is preserved, held back, and restrained, until marriage; this is well and of Divine order. But with others--and here we have a new truth given to the world, but which is a hard saying to those not gifted with rational discrimination--with others, such restraint would injure the conjugial stored up within the love of the sex, and therefore it is of Divine leave that such a state may go forth into act, under the general law given in Conjugial Love, Nos. 444 to 460. With such the conjugial may still be preserved as a gem in its matrix, for the teaching as to this is similar to the teaching concerning the early love of the sex, namely, that conjugial love may be inwardly stored up in it, as the spiritual in the natural (C. L. 449)

     Polygamy is another form which the love of the sex takes, and which in itself is not so hurtful as the other forms which are opposite to the conjugial (C. L. 345). And indeed we are told that those among the Gentiles, who have believed and practiced polygamy from a principle of religion, and who have strictly observed civil and moral laws as laws of religion, are formed into a kind of natural heaven in the other life; though a heaven by itself distinct from the Christian heaven (C. L., 351, 352).

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     The question has sometimes been asked, Have women a love of the sex? What is the evidence of the Doctrines upon this point? We read in Conjugial Love, No. 161, that "there is nothing of conjugial love, and not even of the love of the sex with the men but only with wives and females." This was shown by actual experience in the spiritual world; on one occasion all the wives and females were taken away from the men, and together with them the sphere itself of the love of the sex was removed; and the men come into a state of such cold and indifference to the sex that they did not even know what a woman was. This was taken as convincing proof that men have no innate conjugial love, nor even any innate love of the sex, but that these innate loves reside only with women and wives. And yet we read in Conjugial Love, No. 296, that with men there is the love of the sex, but with women the love of one of the sex; and this is given as one of the reasons why election belongs to the man and not to the woman in betrothal. And still again in No. 330, that the woman before marriage wishes to be beautiful for the men, but after marriage for the man alone and not for the men; but that if she wishes to be beautiful after marriage far the men, and not for the man, such a woman has love of sex, and not the love of one of the sex.

     Now, of course, all of these statements are true, although they may appear somewhat contradictory. All that is necessary is to understand what is meant in each case.

     First, It is true that men have no innate conjugial love, not even any innate love of the sex, but that women have both of these by birth, implanted in them from creation. But men, while they have them not by birth, still they have them; these loves flow into them from women and react in them, and this reaction is felt by them as love; but this reaction or these loves would not abide in them were it not for the continual action and going forth of the sphere of those loves with women, as was shown by the withdrawal of the female sphere in the other world: where action ceases there is no reaction. Men therefore have neither of these loves innate in them, because the active of those loves is not in them.

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     Second, It is also true that with men there is the love of the sex, but with women the love of one of the sex. What the love of the sex is in women we shall consider a little later; it is enough here to say, that, although they have the love of the sex, the innate love of one of the sex is the primary love with them; that being innate with them, it is with them in their natural, and is purely a natural love at first; and that it becomes spiritual by conjunction with the spiritual affection of truth in the man. But the man has no love of one of the sex except by the opening of his spiritual mind through regeneration; that is to say, a man before the opening of his spiritual mind does not receive from the woman the sphere of conjugial love, but only the sphere of the love of the sex, his mind does not react to her conjugial, and his love of her is but the love of the sex limited to one; which exhibits to view the reason why the lamp of the conjugial burns out with most men after marriage. But every man feels and receives the sphere of the love of the sex after the age of puberty, because his natural reacts with this; but as was said there is no reaction in him of conjugial love until the spiritual mind is opened. This is the reason therefore why it is said, that with men there is the love of the sex, but with women the love of one of the sex.

     Third, It is also true that women have the love of the sex, but it is not the love of the sex such as the men have, on account of the difference in their nature and formation. It has been already shown, that even the sphere of the love of one of the sex flowing forth from the woman is received by the man as the sphere of the love of the sex--the man in whom the spiritual mind is not open, and this is true even where the woman no longer feels in herself a sphere of the love of the sex, but only of the love of the one man. But before marriage she had, in common with all virgins, a love of her own beauty for the sake of the men; this is her love of the sex. But behold what a light hold it has upon her! It disappears at once when she has been elected by the one man, and he has been received by her. It may be said that that takes place in her in a brief time which takes many years of regenerate life with the man; a proof that she has no love of the sex such as a man has, and that her love of the sex sits lightly upon her; though, as noted before, her love of the one man is not yet a love from a spiritual origin. The case is altogether different where conjugial love is dead, where the woman and the womanly is gone; such have a love of the sex that is worse than that of the men, from which there is scarcely a hope of recovery.

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     And now we come to the final question: Is there such a thing as a chaste love of the sex? Does it exist where conjugial love is? Does it exist with the angels in heaven? To this the Writings give an affirmative answer. There is a chaste love of the sex where there is a love of one of the sex, or, to put it negatively, there is no chaste love of the sex where there is no love of one of the sex, or conjugial love. And so we are instructed (C. L., 47, 99), that while conjugial love is being implanted the love of the sex inverts itself and becomes the chaste love of the sex; that the love of the sex remains and becomes chaste and yet more sweet than before, to those who are in love truly conjugial. And in the beautiful picture given us in the opening of the work on Conjugial Love, we are told that the ten visitors wondered why the virgins turned away from them, and the angel said, "I infer that your love of the sex is not chaste; in heaven we love virgins for their beauty and the elegance of their manners, and we love them intensely, but chastely (C. L., 22)."

     In two other Relations in the work (C. L., 44, 55) the subject is discussed at length. In the one Relation three novitiate spirits asked, "Is the love of the sex given in heaven?" The angel replied, "Your love of the sex is not given, but the angelic love of the sex, which is chaste and wholly free from the allurement of lust." The novitiate spirits were much surprised, and not understanding made doubting remarks; the angels indignantly answered, "You are altogether ignorant what a chaste love of the sex is, because you yourselves are not yet chaste; this love is delight of the mind and heart, and not at the same time of the flesh beneath the heart; angelic chastity which is common to both sexes prevents the passage of that love beyond the closure of the heart; but within it and above it the morality of a youth is delighted with the beauty of a virgin, with the delight of the chaste love of the sex, which are too interior and too fruitful of pleasure to admit of any description in words. But the angels have this love of the sex because they have conjugial love, and conjugial love cannot be given together with the unchaste love of the sex" (n. 44).

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     In the other Relation (C. L. 55) we are told that a most sweet melody was heard from heaven, and it was said that the angels were singing the chaste love of the sex, and the question was asked, "What is the chaste love of the sex?" The angel answered," It is the love of a man for a virgin, or a wife, beautiful in form and of graceful manners, free from every idea of lasciviousness, and the same love of a virgin or a wife for a man." And further it was said, "We in this spiritual world have enquired into all the species of love, not only into the love of a man for a man, and a woman for a woman, and into the reciprocal love of a husband and wife, but also into the love of a man for women, and of a woman for men; and it has been given us to pass through societies and explore them, and we have not yet found the common love of the sex chaste, except with those who from love truly conjugial are in continual potency; and these are in the highest heaven; and it has also been given to perceive the influx of this love into the affections of our hearts, and we have felt it exceeding every other love in sweetness, except the love of two consorts whose hearts are one....and (hence) this love is given only with those who are in love truly conjugial, and thence in eminent potency, because they by reason of chastity do not admit the influx of love from the body of any other woman than their own wives; and because they are in surpassing potency they cannot but love the sex, and at the same time hold unchastity in aversion; hence they have a chaste love of the sex, which in itself considered is interior spiritual friendship, deriving its sweetness from an eminent but chaste potency; but this eminent potency they have from the total renunciation of whoredom; and because the wife alone is loved, it is chaste. Now since this love with them does not partake of the flesh, but only of the spirit, it is chaste; and because the beauty of the woman, from an implanted inclination, enters at the same time into the mind, it is sweet." (C. L. 55.)

     This then is the chaste or angelic love of the sex, and is a love second only in importance to conjugial love itself, from which it springs. There is in the world a dim, a very dim, perception that there is such a love, and hence the phrase Platonic love; but it is supposed to exist as something separate from the conjugial, and as a substitute for it; as we have seen, however, such a separate existence of a chaste love of the sex is a phantasy, a pure chimera or figment of a perverted imagination.

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     In conclusion, it is plain that such a love is to be cultivated along with conjugial love itself, and is cultivated as the opposite infernal loves are shunned as sins. It goes without saying, that our boys and youths should be taught to shun these evils; let them also be taught the opposite virtues which are the essential virtues of a moral life; especially let them be taught to cultivate a gentlemanly bearing toward the other sex; for who will deny that respect and regard for the female sex is as a prince among the moral virtues? Let the boy or youth of the Church learn, that the person of a virtuous woman is as a sacred temple toward which he is to turn his face and bow with reverence and humility, a temple not to be profaned by polluted hand nor its image marred or injured by filthy thought and suggestion. W. F. P.
BITTER WATERS MADE SWEET 1901

BITTER WATERS MADE SWEET       Rev. ERNEST J. STEBBING       1901

And Moses made Israel to journey from the Sea Suph, and they went forth to the desert of Shur, and went three days into the desert, and did not find waters. And they came to Marah, and they could not drink the waters for bitterness, because they were bitter; therefore he called its name Marah. And the people murmured against Moses saying 'What shall we drink?' And he cried to Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him wood, and he cast it to the waters and the waters were made sweet; there He set for him a statute and a judgment and there He tempted him. (Exodus xv. 22-25.)

     HE who is altogether unacquainted with the truths which the Lord has revealed at His Second Advent will rise from the perusal of these words with no other idea in his mind than that they describe an incident in the trials and tribulations of the Israelites during their forty years of wandering in the wilderness. It is true that the miracle of making the bitter waters sweet might strengthen, with some, their faith in the Lord, but if their faith is founded on miracles it is merely persuasive and not saving faith. Consequently he who is unenlightened by doctrine would derive little or nothing from the perusal of these words that would contribute to his advancement in spiritual life.

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Yet, was it not for this use that the Word was given! The Lord had no other end in revealing the Word to man than that by following the teaching therein given he might be prepared for a life of happiness in heaven. The question may arise in the mind, "Why then is the instruction not given more openly?" The answer is, Because the Word is a Divine Revelation, accommodated to the states of all men at all times. There is no man; having a sincere desire to drink of the fountain of living waters, who cannot go to the Word and derive from it all that he may need for his present state. The Lord knows man's need; man can desire nothing which is conducive to his eternal welfare, but the Lord satisfies it. Does He not say, "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask Him" (Matt. vi, 8)? There is that in the letter of the Word which, did man but carry it out in his life, would ensure his salvation.

     But at this day the Lord has made known the spiritual sense of His Word, which He could not do at His first Advent, for He said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John xvi, 12). The Lord has now, however, revealed those things which the Church at His first Advent was unprepared to hear and obey, and what a flood of heavenly light now illumines the letter of the Word. The man of the Church may now see, in the historicals from which our text is taken, much more than a fragmentary account of the dreary wanderings in the desert, of a people desirous to enter the land of Canaan. Let this little be known,--that by Canaan, Heaven is meant, and that the trials and hardships endured during the journey toward the land of Canaan represent man's temptations, which prepare him for Heaven, and how differently and with what greater interest will we not read the historicals of the Word? altho' the internal sense of the historicals of the Word is not so clearly seen, since "historical things hold the mind down in the literal sense....and the more so because the internal sense differs altogether from the literal" (A. C. 6597).

     We wish in this discourse to consider somewhat the spiritual significance of the apparently trivial incident described in our text. Moses led the Israelites into the wilderness, and when they found nothing but bitter water they murmured against him.

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He, being instructed by God, made the waters sweet. The words describing these things in their internal sense describe one of the temptations which they pass thro' who are of the Spiritual Church and are preparing for Heaven. Being in the wilderness signifies a state of undergoing temptations. The temptation itself is described by the words, "And they could not drink the waters for bitterness, because they were bitter." The height of temptation, when the struggle is most severe, is signified by these words, "And the people murmured against Moses, saying, 'What shall we drink?'" The ultimate victory is expressed in the words, "And he cast the wood into the waters and the waters were made sweet."

     After every temptation there is consolation, and this is taught in the last verse of the chapter from which our text is taken, where we read, "And they came to Elim, and there were there twelve fountains of waters and seventy palms; and they encamped near the waters." As was said, the account of the life of the sons of Israel in the wilderness describes the temptations in their order which man must endure if he is preparing for the Heavenly Canaan. Temptations are the indispensable means by which he is prepared. This preparation is necessary, for man is born natural, that is, all his thought is natural, all his affection is natural, consequently his whole conscious life is natural. To enter heaven his thought and affection,--thus his life,--must be spiritual. The use of temptations with man is to enable him to subdue and cast out his evils, which alone prevent his thought and affection becoming spiritual.

     We see then that far from avoiding temptations, man should meet and overcome them. It is from the mistaken idea that all temptation should be avoided that Monasteries and Convents arose, and exist at this day. Evils are not in this way cast out, but they are hidden and held in check; but in the other life they rush forth with redoubled fury. In a word, he who suffers or undergoes no temptations cannot be saved. And in order to undergo temptation man must be prepared. The merely natural man is unprepared, consequently he suffers no spiritual temptations. Were he to do so he must assuredly fall.

     The preparation to undergo temptation is the formation of a new will and understanding, thus a conscience, in man. This conscience is formed by the truth and the affection of truth.

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It forms a plane where the angels call be present with man and fight for him against the evil spirits. The angels can use only the weapons with which the man has provided himself, or which he has been willing to receive from the Lord. These weapons are the truth, and his affection for it. The more truths he has, and the greater the affection of truth in which he is, the more interior are the temptations into which he may be admitted, consequently the more may he be purified from his evils. He who has no conscience, or with whom a new will and understanding are not forming, cannot be defended against the assaults of evil, for he has nothing wherewith the angels may fight for him; consequently he succumbs even in natural temptations.

     We see then in a general way the use of temptations, in confirming man in the truth which he has received, and in strengthening the love of it in him; and also, which is involved in what has just been said,--the uprooting of falses and the weakening of his evil loves. Every step man takes toward Canaan or Heaven is disputed by the evil spirits who are attendant on He must fight for the very ground he stands on; but having fought and conquered it can never be taken away from him. Thus is man's life one continual progression, in which he meets with and overcomes obstacles, and fights and subdues his spiritual enemies. "Six days shalt thou labor;" man must pass thro' these states before he can enter on the seventh, the Sabbath, the state of rest, rest from combat. "But the seventh day is the Sabbath to the Lord Thy God. Thou shalt do no work therein."

     Before regeneration man is in bondage to the Egyptians; the awakening comes; he determines to be free,--leaves the Egyptians and passes thro' the Sea Suph (or Red Sea)--that is thro' Hell,--a state of faith alone. He now comes into the state of temptation described in our text. That it is a progressive state is taught in the words, "And Moses made Israel to journey from the Sea Suph, and they went forth to the desert of Shur." Why to the desert? A desert signifies a state of temptation, when good and truth appear to be absent from man. This is always the case in temptations, for they are caused by the activity of man's evil loves, excited by evil spirits; and man's evil loves when aroused obscure good and truth with him. This is why man comes into the desert, or the state signified by a desert, in temptations.

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     As the temptation grew stronger, falses in the mind of the man rose up and altogether obscured the truths with him,--"And went three days into the desert and did not find waters." Waters are truths, and these words teach that man in this particular temptation comes into a state in which truths fail him; he "does not find waters," consequently he seems to be without that which will sustain him in the temptation. For, what must needs seem wonderful, and also incomprehensible to the mind of the natural man, the man who is regenerating needs and desires goods and truths for the sustenance of his spiritual life, as much, yea, more, than man in the world needs and desires food and drink for the sustenance of his body. The want of spiritual nourishment is more keenly felt than can the want of natural nourishment ever be. Let us keep in mind that we are treating of a spiritual temptation, consequently only the spiritual or regenerating man is affected. The natural man never suffers spiritual hunger and thirst. What are goods and truths to him? They are mere abstract names.

     As the temptation continues and man's desire for truth grows, the truths which he has learned are brought to light. "And they came to Marah." But, alas, these truths are no longer delightful to him. "And they could not drink the waters for bitterness, because they were bitter." By being bitter is meant that they are undelightful. Truths are always undelightful to the merely natural man, but never to the spiritual man, unless he comes into temptations. What is it then that renders them undelightful? It is because man is not in the affection of truth at this time. He cannot be in opposite affections at the same time,--"Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." In temptations man is let into his natural loves; these are active with him, consequently his spiritual love, such as the affection of truth, is quiescent, or as it were absent. Temptations are caused by nothing else than man's entering into his natural loves or his proprium.

     But it might be asked, Why should the absence of the affection of truth cause truth to appear undelightful? What makes truth delightful is the affection which is in it; this is called the affection of good, and this affection as was said is not active in temptation. All the delight of truth exists from good.

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     "The affection of truth derives its origin from good, because good loves truth and truth loves good, for these two are conjoined as in marriage. It is known that every one wills to be instructed in those things which he loves and has for an end. He who loves good, that is who wills from the heart to worship God and to do well to his neighbor, loves to be instructed in those things which are conducive thereto, consequently in truths. From this it is evident that all the affection of truth is from God." (A. C; 8349.)

     Consequently when good is not active with man, truth cannot but appear undelightful.

     There are indeed some who live evilly and yet wish to be instructed in truths, but there is not the affection of truth with them, but only the affection of confirming the doctrinals of the Church, for self-glory, that is, for fame, honor and gain. The genuine affection of truth is, to will to know what the truth is for the sake of life in the world, and for the sake of eternal life. Such as are in this affection come into temptation, and truths appear undelightful to them, when they enter into the love of self and of the world, which is their proprium. The undelightfulness of truth is the temptation itself. When it reaches this state man is in despair; "And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?"

     All temptation is attended with something of despair, otherwise it is not a temptation. Man is brought into a state of anxiety; this occasions despair in regard to the end, and in this the combat of temptation essentially exists. He who is certain of victory is in no anxiety, and of course in no temptation. The temptation we are treating of consists in this, that they complain and are in pain because the truths, which had before been delightful to them, and which consequently made their spiritual life, or the life of heaven, now appear to them undelightful, so much so, that they can scarce endure them. The merely natural man cannot believe that this could cause any pain, for he thinks and says to himself, 'What have I to do with truths, whether they be delightful or undelightful? if undelightful, I have nothing to do but reject them.' But it is otherwise with the spiritual man; it is the delight of his life to be instructed in truths and to be illustrated in such things as relate to his soul, thus to his spiritual life; when therefore these things fail, his spiritual life labors and suffers, whence comes grief and anxiety, with despair. (A. C. 8352.)

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     Despair is necessary, for it brings man into a state of humiliation, a state in which man realizes his own helplessness, when the loves of self and the world are crushed for the time being and he looks to the Lord for help: "And he cried to Jehovah." Never is the appeal in vain. Let man but realize his own weakness and supplicate the Lord for help to resist the temptation, and the Lord is ever willing: "And Jehovah showed him wood, and he cast it to the waters and the waters were made sweet." These words signify that truths again became delightful by the influx of good. Wood signifies this good. When man's own loves are not active then good-from the Lord can flow in into man, and it is from this good that man is affected and delighted with truths, as we have said. We read, "Their who are in the good of life, that is, who love God and the neighbor, love also the truths of faith; hence it is, that so long as good flows in and is received, so long truth appears delightful; but as soon as good does not Row in, that is, as soon as evil begins to predominate and to prevent the influx of good, instantly there is felt a sensation of what is undelightful in regard to truth; for truth and evil mutually reject and hold each other in aversion." (A. C. 8356.) It is to be borne in mind that the angels fight for man against the evil spirits. He is not conscious of the combat. The evil spirits fight from man's evil affections and from the falsities agreeing therewith; the angels defend him from the affection of good with him and from the truths agreeing therewith. All that man is conscious of is his anxiety and despair. After the temptation consolation follows. This is a state of illustration and affection, thus pleasantness and delight; pleasantness from illustration by truth and delight from the affection of good. Man as to his spirit is introduced interiorly into heaven, and to the heavenly societies with which he had before been associated; thus communication with heaven is opened, which before had, in part, been closed, and it is from this communication that man receives illustration and affection, consequently pleasantness and delight. (A. C. 8367.)

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     Every regenerating man must come to the waters of Marah and find them hitter, but in his extremity, let him pray to the Lord and the waters will be made sweet; truth will become delightful to him. The loves of self and of the world rule in every man before regeneration. This rule must be overthrown before man can enter the place prepared for him by His Heavenly Father; and it is overthrown only by continual and relentless warfare. For this warfare man must prepare himself. Who would think of fighting an enemy before arming himself? The Lord provides the means; but man must in freedom put on the armor. If man does not wish to fall pierced by the poisoned arrows of falsity from evil, let him put on the armor of Divine Truth, revealed for his protection, and the hells assail him he cannot be hurt. Man puts on this armor when he diligently reads the Lord's revelation to him to the end that he may apply it to his life, thus that by means of it he may be able to fight his evils. He who has this for an end is in the spiritual affection of truth, and always overcomes in temptation. May the Lord awaken in us an ever-increasing desire to put on His armor and go forth in search of our evils, that we may fight against and overcome them. When we do this, it is the Lord who fights for us and the victory is His; to Him therefore let us give all the honor and the glory. -Amen.
NEW CHURCH SCIENCE COMPARED WITH SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE AS THIS IS EXEMPLIFIED IN HIS "PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY."* 1901

NEW CHURCH SCIENCE COMPARED WITH SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE AS THIS IS EXEMPLIFIED IN HIS "PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY."*       JOHN F. POTTS       1901

* A paper read before the Principia Club of Philadelphia, at Bryn Athyn, on February 14th, during a discussion on Swedenborg's Principles of Chemistry.

     BEFORE reading that portion of my paper which I had prepared for our last meeting, I will briefly advert to the very interesting and in many respects very valuable paper read then by Mr. Pendleton.

     Mr. Pendleton's paper was not specially directed to the immediate subject before us-namely, the chemical theories of Swedenborg, and the ultimate constitution of matter--and I shall not now fol1ow him into the general subject of Swedenborg's trustworthiness, of which he treated in his paper; but there are one or two points in it which I think it only right and respectful to him to touch upon.

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     Mr. Pendleton made an eloquent appeal to us not to destroy the good ship of Swedenborg's science. Now, in the first place, I will say that the truth needs no such appeal. It cannot be destroyed. It is able to defend itself against all its enemies, and ultimately to conquer them.

     In the second place I will say that, in so far as I am concerned, I have made no attempt to destroy the ship of Swedenborg's science; but only to detect and kill some of the false and treacherous members of its crew. In doing this I am no enemy of the ship, but its true friend. If those traitors were left on board, they would at last destroy the ship. In saying this I am sure that I speak for Mons. Vinet also. He, like myself, is no enemy of any true science, but only of false science masquerading as true. He, like myself, is the foe only of the traitorous sailors on board that ship. At the first meeting he pointed out the presence there of one such named "Heat a substance," and he exposed and disabled him by quoting the statement in the True Christian Religion (No. 472) that "the sun consists of created substances the activity of which produces fire;" and that "heat, which is the primary activity, is not creatable:" and also by showing that modern science on the subject teaches the very same doctrine as the Writings teach.*

     [*It might have been added that in the Principia Swedenborg himself teaches that heat and light are caused by the motion of the ether, and thus himself contradicts the doctrine of his earlier works.--J. F. P.]

     In my long speech during the discussion that followed the reading of Mons. Vinet's paper, I pointed out several other mistakes in the work under discussion, and in its companion work styled Miscellaneous Observations, and among them the teaching of Swedenborg that the phosphorescence of the sea is caused by the oars of boats and other moving objects breaking up the particles of salt in the sea, which lets out the fire particles that are enclosed in the salt particles, and thus produces the appearance of phosphorescent light in the water, the real truth being, as is now well known, that these specks of light which Swedenborg imagined to be particles of his fire substance are small living creatures, or other forms of organic matter.

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     I need not now recall my mention of other similar errors in these works, for I have said sufficient to show what it is that I am aiming at; namely, the elimination from our acceptance and belief, of those portions of Swedenborg's science that are untrue. In his long paper, Mr. Pendleton kept quite away from the subject of these false teachings, and neither attempted to defend them, nor acknowledged that we had attacked them successfully.

     Mr. Pendleton further exhorted us to approach the study of the science of Swedenborg in an affirmative spirit; and then to assail the error in it. Well, this is precisely what we have done. I know that Mons. Vinet approached the study of the science of Swedenborg in a very affirmative spirit; and it was in that state of mind that he met with the staggering errors he has since brought before our notice. As for myself, I certainly approached this science in the most affirmative spirit possible. The Principia, the Animal Kingdom, the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, and several other of the scientific works of Swedenborg, were among the first books I ever purchased as a youth; and I read them much I would read the Writings themselves, namely, as a kind of revelation on the subjects treated of. This was probably many before anyone here had ever seen of even heard of these works-before the most of you were born. Having been born and brought up in the professed New Church, I quite naturally revered most highly everything that had come from the pen of Swedenborg; and it was only in middle age, as I began to use my more mature and rational judgment, that I gradually began to see that the teachings of these works could not be safely received without the exercise of some careful discrimination.

     I feel, therefore, that such an exhortation as I have referred to-in so far as it may be supposed to be addressed to me--is beside the mark; and is quite uncalled for. I did approach the science of Swedenborg: in an affirmative spirit; in that spirit I found errors in it; and now, for the sake of the truth, and for the sake of others who otherwise might be taught these errors as a kind of sub-divine revelation, I assail them. An affirmative spirit is all right; but it must not be carried to such an extreme as to keep us believing forever things that we have found to be untrue.

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     It is undoubtedly true that in the New Church we need a New Church science; but the principles--or principia--of this are to be found in the Divine Writings of the New Church, and nowhere else. It afforded me heartfelt pleasure--as indicating that we are fundamentally agreed on this question--to hear Mr. Pendleton repeat in his paper a statement that I have several times made at our meetings (and very emphatically at our last meeting but one) that there is a great deal more science in the Writings than people in general have any idea of. This is true; the general and fundamental principles of all true science are contained in the Writings; and the right line to take in studying and teaching New Church science is to study and teach these scientific principles of the Writings first and foremost, as the foundation of all our New Church science, and as the test of the truth of it. And, in addressing this meeting, I may perhaps be permitted to add that surely this is the true Academy method.

     This is the last preliminary remark I have to make, and it brings me, by a logical connection, to the opening words of my paper as prepared to be read at our last meeting.

     In dealing with the relation that exists between Science and the Writings, I think we shall all agree that the right course to take is first to find what the Writings teach, and then to confirm their teaching by that of science; and that the wrong course is first to take what science teaches, and then try to force the Writings to agree with it.

     By science I here mean any natural science, whether that of Swedenborg, or of anyone else.

     In the Writings, the Lord has given us a revelation of the principles of all science, and in studying any science we ought first of all to learn the revealed truths that bear on it. Then we have a light to guide us, and we can then discriminate between what is true and what is false in the science we are studying; and thus we can accept the truth in it, and reject the falsity.

     But if we begin by learning the science; if we take that science as our standard; if we receive it without discrimination; if we teach it so to others; if we thus confirm ourselves in it; it is then too late to go to the Writings to see whether that science is true or false, or how far it is true or false. We have commenced at the wrong end--not where Divine light is, but where human darkness is, and although, by intellectual repentance, we may ultimately escape from the clutches of the falsity we have confirmed, it will be a comparatively difficult matter to do so; and the difficulty will be great in proportion to the amount of the confirmation.

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     The reason of this is that all falsity is spiritual darkness, some falsities being, of course, worse darkness than others; but all are darkness of some degree of intensity, and from darkness light cannot be seen. Therefore, if we confirm ourselves in any false science, whether of Swedenborg or any other writer, and then read something in the Writings that contradicts it, we cannot see that it does so, because we cannot see the light of truth that is in that. We look at that truth through a dark medium, which darkens the truth, and extinguishes its light. These are general principles that we shall all agree to, and in order to be guided by them I will now begin my remarks by stating the doctrine of the Writings on the origin of the natural substances called matters.

     Some of the passages in the Writings on which the doctrine of this subject is based are as follows: "The natural atmospheres are....discrete substances, and least forms, originating from the sun of the natural world (D. L. W. 174). This passage shows that all the natural atmospheres originate directly from the sun. The Principia teaches that two of them originate directly from the earth. Again, "The atmospheres, which are called ethers and airs, from the highest to the lowest, or from the sun to the earth, are discreted into such degrees (of height); and they stand as simples; as congregates of these, and as congregates of these which, taken together, are called a composite." (D. L. W. 184.) This passage shows that the third atmosphere--the one we breathe--is formed by compounding the other two atmospheres in succession; so that the ether is formed by compounding the aura; and the air is formed by compounding the ether. Swedenborg's theory in the Principia partly agrees with this doctrine, and partly disagrees with it.

     Again:--"The atmospheres,-from the pure ether [or aura] to fair,--are homogeneous." (D. L. W. 192.) This quotation shows the same thing as the last, namely, that all the three atmospheres are composed of the same substance, and that there is no other substance but that in them.

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They are homogeneous. This substance is the substance of the aura; the other two atmospheres being merely made up of that, by successive composition.

     The same thing is still more clearly stated in D. L. W. 197:--"In the atmospheres....what is the first is what is solely regnant in all that follows; nay, it is the one only thing therein." The Principia teaches that the two lower atmospheres were formed partly from the substance of the earth.

     Again:--"The atmospheres, which are three in both worlds,...in their ultimates cease in substances and matters, such as are those in earths (or lands). As, in their progression downward, the atmospheres decrease, it follows that they continually become more compressed and inert; and, at last, in ultimates, so compressed and inert, that they are atmospheres no longer; but substances at rest; and in the natural world, fixed substances, such as are those in earths, which are called matters. From this origin of substances and matters it follows; first, that these substances and matters are also of three degrees; secondly, they are held together in connection with each other by the environing atmospheres." (D. L. W., 302.)

     This invaluable passage shows that matters are not formed by means of a further composition of the atmospheres; but by a mere condensation of them. In regard to this point the theory of the Principia is right. It teaches the same thing.

     But the passage also shows that it is by the merely becoming inert of the atmospheres that matters are formed; for when they become inert they become compressed, not because anything squeezes them together; but that by simply losing their activity they close up together of themselves; and thus become condensed into matter; just as steam, by cooling, loses its activity, and becomes condensed, first into water, and then into ice. Ice is not made from water by a process of composition; nor is water made from steam by a process of composition; but ice and water are made from steam merely by a process of condensation; and thus first of liquefaction, and then of solidification. This doctrine is simple and beautiful; and a child could understand it. In contrast to it the doctrine of the Principia, with all its cumbersome machinery of elements, actives, finites, and mathematical points, presents an instance of a theory most complicated, confusing, and difficult to grasp; and as to remembering it, or carrying it for long in one's head, I question whether anyone ever succeeded in doing it.

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Still, I by no means say that there is no truth in it; or that a student is not repaid by studying it. For it is undoubtedly right in some points, as it is also undoubtedly wrong in some points. And it certainly furnishes a capital exercise for the cultivation of the reasoning and cogitating powers of the understanding. The man who has thoroughly mastered it has performed an achievement that is by no means the work of a numskull. Neither do I doubt that there is in it a considerable approach to a true theory of the origin of matter that is worthy of the most careful study.

     This passage from the Divine Love and Wisdom also gives us a definition of matter; namely, that matters are substances at rest, or fixed substances, such as are in earths. The definition in the Principia is in close agreement with this. (Vol. 2, p. 331.)

     Again:-"The substances and matters of which earths consist...are the ends and terminations of the atmospheres, whose heat has ended in cold, their light in darkness, and their activity in inertness; but still, by continuation from the substance of the spiritual sun, they have brought that which was there from the Divine, which was the sphere environing God Man....From this sphere, by continuation from the sun, by means of the atmospheres, have originated the substances and matters of which earths consist." (D. L. W. 305.)

     This wonderful passage shows that matters are nothing but the ends and terminations of the atmospheres; and that they are deposited from it by their heat ending in cold; their light in darkness, and their activity in inertness.

     It also shows that the ultimate substance of the created universe is not mathematical points, but the substance of the spiritual Sun; and that from this substance all matters have originated, through the mediumship of the atmospheres.

     The whole of Swedenborg's complicated machinery of finites, actives, and also some of his elements, is here wiped out of existence by being wholly ignored. If such an important and essential machinery as that set forth in the Principia were really in existence, do you suppose that the Writings, when treating of the creation, would have ignored its existence? Yet that is precisely what they do right through from one end to the other.

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     Again:--"Of the atmospheres there are three degrees; for there exists a higher aura; the ether under it; and the air below this." (T. C. R., 32.) This Passage gives us the number of degrees of the atmospheres; and also the names of these three degrees of them.

     Again:--"The sun, from which all natural things proceed, was created at the same time (as the spiritual Sun); and, through it... by means of heat and light, three atmospheres that environ the (three spiritual atmospheres) as shells do nuts, or bark does wood, and at last, through these, the terraqueous globe." (T. C. R. 76.) This passage shows that the natural sun was created at the same time as the spiritual Sun; and also that the three natural atmospheres have the three spiritual atmospheres within them, as a nut is within its shell. It also shows that the water of the globe, as well as the land, created through the atmospheres.

     The last passage I shall quote in this connection is from the Coronis, and reads as follows: "Each world...consists and subsists from three atmospheres, or elements; of which the first proximately environs the sun, and is called the aura; the second is under this, and is called the ether; and the third is under the two former, and is called the air. These three atmospheres, in the natural world, are natural; and are, in themselves, passive, because they proceed from a sun which is pure fire." (Coronis 17.)

     This is the last deliverance of the Writings on the subject before us. It shows that the three natural atmospheres proceed from the natural sun, which is pure fire; that the first of them is called the aura, and extends right up to the sun; and closely environs it; that the second atmosphere is called the ether, and is under the first one; and therefore does not environ the sun so closely as does the aura; and that the third atmosphere is the one called the air, and that it is under both the others; and therefore does not environ the sun even as closely as the ether does.

     From the passages I have noted, then, we see that the Writings teach that there are three natural atmospheres, called the aura, the ether, and the air, and that in their ultimates they cease in substances and matters such as are in the earth's crust. These three atmospheres originate from the sun, and are distinguished from one another by degrees of height, or discrete degrees.

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As they advance from the sun outwards, they gradually become more and more inert and compressed; and at last they become so inert, and so much compressed, that they are no longer atmospheres, but substances at rest, such as are in the earth, and are called matters. It is not one of the atmospheres only that does this, but all three of them. And as the three atmospheres are of three discrete degrees, it follows that the matters themselves are also of three discrete degrees. That is to say, every particle of matter has in it three discrete degrees; the inmost of which is formed by the compression of the aura, the middle by the compression of the ether, and the outmost by the compression of the air.

     We will now pass to the consideration of the teaching of the New Church Writings on the ultimate constitution of matter.

     The Writings contain a very clear and beautiful doctrine of the ultimate constitution of matters. In Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 190, it is stated that "all things that come into existence in the world, of which trinal dimension is predicated, that is, which are called composites, consist of...discrete degrees." For example, "every muscle in the human body consists of least fibres; and these, compounded fascicularly, present larger fibres...and from bundles of these comes forth the composite that is called a muscle The like is the case in each and all things of the....mineral kingdom....In metals and stones there are conglobations of parts in a threefold order. This shows what discrete degrees are like, namely, that one is [formed] from another; and, through the second, the third; which is called a composite...From these things we can form a conclusion as to things that do not appear before the eyes, because the case with them is the same; as (for instance) with the atmospheres, with heat and light; and with love and wisdom. For the atmospheres are receptacles of heat and light; and heat and light are receptacles of love and wisdom."

     This passage explains both the constitution of matters and also that of the atmospheres. It shows that, for instance, a particle of air is a composite body of three discrete degrees. The first, or inmost, of these degrees is composed of particles of the aura; the second is composed of particles of the aura conglobated into larger forms, thus constituting particles of the ether; and the third degree is made up by compounding a number of these particles of ether into still larger and more composite forms, which are particles of air.

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We know how a muscle in the human body is made up, by compounding the least fibres, and then the larger fibres; and it is here said to be the same with the third atmosphere called the air: it is made up in the same way, by compounding the aura and the ether. Thus it is a real substance, and, if we go back to its ultimate constituents, we find that they are not mathematical points, but the aura or first atmosphere that issues from the sun and forms a sphere around it. The sun itself also is a real substance, still more pure than the aura, which is formed simultaneously with the substance of the spiritual Sun by emission from God Himself, but in a lower plane than the spiritual sun, and through it, but not of it.

     This passage also shows that as it is with the atmospheres, so also is it with heat and light--there are three degrees of each of them--three degrees of heat, and three degrees of light; and these degrees are built up in the same way as a muscle in the body, by composition. Modern science knows only of one degree (or possibly two degrees) of heat and of light, but the Writings reveal the fact that there are three degrees of each. And the reason they give is very significant. It is because there are three degrees of atmospheres. They are in fact the activities of them. This shows that each of the three natural atmospheres has its own degree of heat and light. The heat and light that we feel and see by our ordinary senses are only the grossest forms of heat and light. But we possess more interior senses, even in the natural body, that are capable, when opened, of sensating the interior degrees of natural heat and light.

     Let us now turn to Swedenborg's science, as contained in his Principles of Chemistry, and submit it to the test of Divine Revelation on the origin of matters. But in doing this how shall we proceed? Shall we proceed in a prejudiced manner, or in an unprejudiced one? I answer that the keynote to the method we ought to pursue is contained in the word discrimination. Swedenborg's science on any subject is not all true, and it is not all false. Let us not commence our investigations of it with a predetermination to make it out all true; nor with a predetermination to make it out all false. There is much truth in it; there is also much error in it. Let us try to draw the line between the truth and the error.

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And in doing this let us take the science of the Writings as our main touchstone or standard of truth, appealing also to the discoveries of modern science in so far as they are in agreement with the science of the Writings, and also in so far as they can safely be regarded as indisputable facts. In a word, let us approach the consideration of the subject in a true scientific spirit, which is the same thing as to do so with a love of truth for its own sake.

     With regard, then, to the origin of matters, which is the subject of this discussion, the teaching of the Writings is, that they originated by the condensation of the atmospheres. Swedenborg's theory, in his Principles of Chemistry and Principia, is, that common salt and the metals, and all other terrestrial substances, originated from the disintegration of particles of water at the bottom of the sea. (Pri. of Chem., p. 29.) Thus not only salt, but also gold, silver, iron, copper, platinum, and all the other metals, and all the solid rocks that constitute the foundation of the land, are said to be made of these submarine broken up particles of water. Let us see what a particle of water is here said to be made of, and then we shall be able to understand Swedenborg's theory of the origin of rocks, metals and salts. A particle of water is here said to be round, that is, spherical or globular, and hollow. Its inside is made up of a collection of things not specified. Its surface is made of crustals of the fifth kind; the surface of each of these is made of crustals of the fourth kind; the surface of each of these is made of crustals of the third kind; the surface of each of these, of crustals of the second kind; the surface of each of these, of crustals of the first kind, and these last are said to be made up of mathematical points. (p. 16.) Note, here, that in this work also, just as in the Principia, everything is supposed to be made up, ultimately, of mathematical points. In all Swedenborg's science we get back at last to mathematical points. These are said to be the inmost existence (strictly speaking, the inmost nothing, as I have before shown,) out of which everything else is said to be made. Now, therefore, we can see what happens when a particle of water is disintegrated by pressure. These crustals of various kinds are more or less set loose. They then fall down into the interstices between those particles of water which have not been disintegrated by pressure, and, like molten metal, run into moulds, they are cast in the shape of those interstices; and in this way we have new substances formed, such as common salt, and the metals.

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This is not the complete theory as to details, but is, I believe, an exact description or statement of it in its general form. Well, how does it agree with the teaching of the Writings on this subject?

     In the first place, I think we can see that there is a considerable approach to the truth. It recognizes the existence of degrees in matters, and although they are not called discrete degrees, yet from the description of them, it is evident that that is what they amount to A particle of water is described as being made up of six degrees. This is just double the right number, and in this respect the theory is undoubtedly incorrect. A worse mistake is that it places the grosser degrees toward the centre; and the purer and more interior degrees towards the surface in succession, until at last the highest degree is in the most external position. This is manifestly contrary to the doctrine of the Writings on the subject of successive order; and seems to be a fundamental error of this theory.

     One of the true points ill the theory is, that matters originated by compression. But the theory is in error in regard to the cause of this compression. It attributes it to the pressure of the superincumbent mass of sea water; whereas, the Writings say that it was owing to the atmospheres becoming inert as they advanced further away from the sun. It was a mere loss of activity in them. It was not that they were squeezed together, or that anything already formed had to be broken up; but, by merely becoming inert, the atmospheres condensed into those grosser forms that we call matters. There is here a manifest contradiction between these two doctrines. And the true doctrine is evidently the more simple, natural and orderly of the two. There is a process of destruction in Swedenborg's theory that is not contained in the doctrine of the Writings. According to him, everything has first to be made into water, and then some of the water has to be broken up into its constituent parts, and out of these all metals, minerals, and rocks have to be formed.

     Permit me here to advert to a difficulty that arises in regard to Swedenborg's theory, that all these solid matters originated at the bottom of the sea. If all the solid rocks of the earth's crust originated at the bottom of the sea, the question arises.

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What was that bottom made of before the solid rocks originated? What did the sea then rest on? The theory in question teaches that it was the pressure of the superincumbent mass of sea water that broke up the water particles at the bottom of the sea. But if the sea had no solid bottom, how could there have been any pressure? Pressure implies resistance. Possibly Swedenborg has somewhere endeavored to meet this difficulty; and if so I shall be glad to hear of and consider what he says about it.

     But there is a more fundamental objection than this to the theory of the origin of all solid matters at the bottom of the sea. At that stage of the earth's formation, if we are to believe the doctrine of the Writings on this subject, there could have been no sea, and no water. For if it was, as the Writings say, by the decreasing of the atmospheres in activity and expansion, that all matters were formed, it is evident that water would be one of the last of them to be formed, since it volatilizes at a comparatively very low temperature. The decreasing of the atmospheres in activity and expansion means their decreasing in temperature. So that it is evident that the more resistant to heat, of the elementary bodies must have been the first deposited.

     This deduction from the doctrine of the Writings also agrees with the indisputable teaching of astronomy--that the specific gravity of the earth is 5.6, which means that, taken as a whole, the earth weighs more than five times as much as an equal mass of water would do. This shows that the nucleus of the earth must be composed of very heavy matters; such in fact as would naturally be the first formed and deposited by the process of the origin of matters as taught in the Writings. Natural science, in this, as in so many other things, supports the teaching of the Writings, although it arrives at its conclusions by a different road.

     We will now turn for a moment to Swedenborg's Principia, in order to see the complete development of his theory of the origin of matters. We have already seen that he believed them to have originated from the breaking up of water particles at the bottom of sea, the components of which were then cast into minute crystalline forms in the interstices between other water particles. What does he say then became of the new matters thus formed?

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He says they floated up to the surface of the sea, and accumulated there, layer under layer, until they had formed a solid crust at least a mile thick all round the earth. Thus at that time all the land was at the surface of the earth, and all the sea was at the bottom of the land, shut up in it like the juice inside an orange, only that the water did not fill up the earth all the way to the center, but merely formed a vast coat,--like one of the coats of an onion--round the earth's nucleus, which he says was made up of what he calls fourth finites, perhaps a very thin kind of gas. His idea was this: that the earth then consisted of three degrees of substance. The inmost degree was a sphere made of fourth finites; the second was a thick layer of solid rocks and metals all round the water. What happened next? Having remained in this condition until the time of the flood, the earth underwent a sudden and terrific convulsion. For then the enclosed water burst through the outside layer of rocks, hurled them about in the most tremendous manner, and rushed over the top of the earth's crust with resistless violence, filling up the hollows in it, and thus forming the present seas and lakes; and washing out the metals and other minerals, and carrying them along to wherever there were cracks in the rocks, into which the waters swept them, and thus formed the veins of metal and other minerals that now exist in the earth's crust. This, then, is the completion of his theory of the origin of the solid matters that now form the earth's crust. I have put it in a few words, but have not altered it one iota. You will find it at pp. 328, 332, 356, 378, 379 and 380 of the English translation of the second volume of the Principia. The latter part of this theory is contained in one of Swedenborg's prefaces to his work on the Mineral Kingdom, but you will find this also there, at the end of the second volume of the Principia.

     Now I think we shall all admit that the close and completion of the theory is an absurdity. Swedenborg's theory of the origin of matters certainly ends in that. It leads up to that. Swedenborg here comes out from the obscurity of his invisibles into the open daylight of visibles, where we can all see plainly what he means, and where we can all see also--if we believe the Writings--that he is here wholly in error. For the Writings do most certainly teach that the flood was not a natural event, but a spiritual one.

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Yet here we find that the flood, understood as a natural event, is an essential part of Swedenborg's cosmogony, because without it the earth would he left like a great orange with all its land at the outside and all its water in the inside. Hear a few of Swedenborg's own words on this subject. "We incline to think, indeed it cannot he questioned, that our planet was perfect in beauty, delicious in variety, and like one vast paradise, before the flood; its surface unbroken and even, with no precipitous mountains or rugged rocks, no deep valleys, no lakes, and no seas: but that after the flood this order was reversed; that it changed its estate, and its surface became broken and uneven, from its outer crust being rent asunder by the waters." (p. 378.) (Oh Swedenborg, how thine imagination did sometimes run away with thee!)

     You see his language is unmistakable-there was the solid earth on the top of all the water, "one vast paradise," up to the time of the flood, and before there was any water on the earth's surface.

     Now, my friends of the New Church, what are we going to make of this? Are we going to try to explain away the teaching of the Writings on the subject of the flood, or are we going to admit that Swedenborg is here utterly and completely wrong? For myself I have no interest in the matter, but the love of truth. It is on the Writings and their Divine teaching that I take my stand. Will you also take your stand there, receiving their teaching just as it is given,--which cannot possibly be done however without constant looking to the Lord from a pure and simple heart?--will you do this; or will you still cling desperately to the attitude you have taken up, and have perhaps much confirmed yourselves in, towards the confessedly human and fallible writings and theories of Emanuel Swedenborg, the scientist?

     It is for discrimination that I plead, rational and clear-sighted discrimination, based on the heavenly doctrines of the New Jerusalem. It is not necessary to reject the whole of Swedenborg's science; but (if we are to be guided by those doctrines) it is necessary to reject a good deal of it. Much of his science is in harmony with the Divine Science contained in the Writings; and much of it is not; and between these two extremes there is a third large proportion that is of an intermediate and doubtful character, such that it is impossible to say, without much further research, whether it can be safely accepted or not.

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     No doubt, all Swedenborg's science, as being his, is interesting and worthy of being known; and it may all be safely studied by intelligent people, whether old or young, Provided they do it with discrimination.

     This science is also interesting as showing what was the character of his preparation for his great final office. If he fell into errors it is only what every finite being must do in undergoing preparation for anything. Even in preparing for Heaven we all fall into errors, and even into sins. And a shallow intelligence might ask, How is it possible to be prepared for Heaven by falling into errors and sins' But a wise intelligence would reply, How is it possible to be prepared for Heaven by falling into errors and sins? But a wise intelligence would reply, How is it possible to be prepared for Heaven without doing so? To err is human, and it does us good sometimes to err. It lowers our self-confidence, and self-love, and makes us more humble, and more disposed to trust to the Divine goodness and mercy. And this shows that a man can be prepared for an office by making mistakes, as well as by not making them. In Swedenborg's case the preparation for his office consisted in the mental training he underwent during the first fifty-seven years of his life; and it did not consist in being able to write New Church Science before he had been prepared to write it. This is evident to reason. When you are being prepared for a thing, it is no sign of a good preparation that you are already perfect. That would show that your preparation is a mistake, because you are already prepared. But what is a sign of a good preparation is, that you are doing your exercises well and honestly, making blunders, of course, but still persevering, and gradually perfecting your powers. JOHN F. POTTS.
NEW EDITION OF "THE SOUL." 1901

NEW EDITION OF "THE SOUL."       C. E. D       1901

     THE second and revised edition of The Soul, or Rational Psychology, is published jointly by the New Church Board of Publication, New York, and James Speirs, London. The work presents an attractive appearance, bound in the style of The Brain and the Spiritual Diary, and printed on splendid paper, which, however, because of its hardness, did not always take the ink as clearly and distinctly as might be desired.

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     The editor has added an introductory essay, on Science and Theology in the writings of Swedenborg, in which he treats of the relation of Swedenborg's works written before his illumination, to those written after; holding that "his science is not theological; his theology is not scientific; and yet they are related by a perfect correspondence."

     The editor also enlarges on the view presented in his preface, that, "it is not the knowledge of Correspondence that is supernatural or revealed, but the knowledge of the things that correspond; it is not the knowledge of Discrete Degrees that is supernatural or revealed, but the knowledge of the things that compose those degrees." This, as has been noted before in these columns, is important to bear in mind in considering the relation of the scientific and theological writings of Swedenborg. For without these knowledges, Swedenborg never would have been able to become the efficient instrument of the Lord in His second coming; since it was by means of the knowledge of correspondence and of discrete degrees, and other knowledges of a like universal nature, that he was able to investigate and discover natural truths ill a rational manner.

     By means of these doctrines Swedenborg endeavored to investigate the nature of the soul. He ascended step by step from outmosts, to the very threshold of the spiritual world, but he could go no further; and hence what he says of the soul is said in a tentative manner, and in most general terms. This, however, he knew: that the soul after death would not have a material body; but just what form it would be in he did not say. In one place he supposes that it will not be in a human form, and then says that it will have a form accommodated to the celestial aura in which it is to dwell, as a bird is accommodated to its aura; and then again he speaks of it as having a perfect human form. On this subject he was necessarily obscure, for by his analysis he could not ascend beyond natural limits; because the spiritual is a discrete degree above this; and to enter into this degree his spiritual sight had to be opened. But in the ascent he has given to the world and to the church invaluable treatises on the Senses, the Intellect and the Affections,--treatises which will greatly aid the Newchurchman to a wider and fuller comprehension of these same subjects as they are treated in the Writings.

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     The fourth and last part of the work, omitting the appendices, according to Mr. Sewall's arrangement, treats of immortality, and contains among others a section concerning the Divine Providence. This section, as well as the whole work, is well worth the study and contemplation of everyone, for in it there is brought out the important doctrine that Providence is universal and also particular, "since a universal never exists without particulars" (n. 551)--a doctrine about which much is said in the theological works.

     We wish to add a word in reference to the translation. The first edition was considered a faithful rendering and we find that this edition is an improvement on that. Changes for the better have been made, omissions inserted and typographical errors corrected. Some of these we here note:

     In n. 15, p 8, we read:--

     "The external organs of the senses, etc., are the modifications of the air and of the ether, and these modifications are the principal causes to which as to mediate organs the sensations exactly correspond;" this as against the former rendering: "The external organs of the senses...are the instruments for modifying the air and the ether, and these modifications are themselves the principal causes why the sensations exactly correspond to the mediate organs.

     N. 22, p. 15, "We may perceive by ourselves and naturally the harmony and disharmony of sensations;" instead of:-"We may perceive the disharmony by ourselves and naturally."

     N. 31, p. 25, three lines from the bottom:--"becoming" for "unbecoming."

     N. 94, p. 64, line 15, after "simultaneously"- "and views the form of the whole heaven," is omitted in the first edition.

     N. 100, p. 66, after "effected," the words, "in one organ or sensory, that is," are omitted in the first edition.

     N. 131, p. 77, after "from itself," the words "and in itself" are omitted in the first edition.

     N. 226, p. 143, four lines from the bottom:--"immortal" for "united."

     N. 228, p. 144. "Which in themselves are but clots, for "which in it are but clots."

     N. 313, p. 196, VIII., two lines from the top, after "throne," the words, "the fourth or iron age is when the animus subjects to itself the higher mind," are omitted from the first edition.

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     N. 313, p. 196, IX., "it encounters" instead of "outward things."

     N. 319, p. 218, "The mind possesses as in a certain centre of confluence whatever the man possesses," for--"the mind possesses these in order that man may possess something in a certain centre of confluence."

     N. 412, p. 259, "The very crafty man is a friend to no one but himself and he loves himself best of all;" for--"A friend is most liable to deceive himself in the degree that he is a lover of self."

     N. 509, p. 317, five lines from the bottom:--"Soul" for "life."

     There are other changes and corrections of a similar nature, but sufficient examples have been produced to show the superiority of the second edition.

     There are, however, one or two suggestions to which we would call attention, viz.: "in cerebro, cerebello e utraque," is translated "in the brain, in the cerebellum and in either medulla." We think an improvement would be, "in the cerebrum, in the cerebellum and either medulla." The same translation for cerebro occurs in n. 20.

     In n. 49, p. 46, tegumentis is translated "liguments." This is evidently a printer's error. The word may be translated either "teguments" or "coverings."

     Too much praise cannot be given Mr. Sewall for his careful and painstaking work, and a debt of gratitude is due him for his placing before the public a work, which will serve to prepare for a clearer understanding of the mechanism of the human mind, and the relation of the degrees in the mind to each other as given in the Doctrines of the Church. C. E. D.

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HOW GREATLY THE MEDIATE REVELATION WHICH TAKES PLACE BY MEANS OF THE WORD EXCELS THE IMMEDIATE REVELATION WHICH TAKES PLACE BY MEANS OF SPIRITS 1901

HOW GREATLY THE MEDIATE REVELATION WHICH TAKES PLACE BY MEANS OF THE WORD EXCELS THE IMMEDIATE REVELATION WHICH TAKES PLACE BY MEANS OF SPIRITS              1901

     [DE VERBO.]

     XIII.

     [I]. It is believed that man would be more enlightened and wise if he had immediate revelation by means of speech with spirits and angels, but quite the contrary is true. Illustration by means of the Word comes by an interior way, but illustration by immediate revelation comes by an exterior way: the interior way is through the will into the understanding; the exterior way is through the hearing into the understanding. A man is illustrated from the Lord by means of the Word so far as his will is in good; but a man can be instructed and as it were [quasi] illustrated by means of the hearing even though his will be in evil. But that which enters the understanding with the man whose will is in evil, is not within him but without him: it is only in the memory and not in the life, and that which is without the man, and is not in his life, is gradually dispersed,--after death if not before. For the will which is in evil either casts out [the truth], or suffocates it, or falsifies and profanes it. For the will makes the life of man and acts continually into the understanding, and regards as extraneous that which is in the understanding from the memory. But the understanding, on the other hand, does not act into the will, but it only teaches in what manner the will should act. If therefore, a man were to know from heaven all the things which angels ever know, or if he were to know all the things in the Word, and in all the Doctrines of the Church, and about which the Fathers have written and the Councils decreed, and if still his will in evil, he would none the less be looked upon after death as who knows nothing, because he does not will what he knows. And because evil hates truth, the man himself casts out the truths, in their place he adopts the falses that agree with the evil of his will.

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     [2]. Moreover, no spirit nor angel is allowed to instruct any man on this earth in Divine truths; but the Lord Himself teaches every one by means of the Word, and He teaches in so far as man has received good from the Lord in the will, and man does receive this good so far as he shuns evils as sins. Besides, every man, as to his affections and thoughts, is in a society of spirits in which he is as one with them, wherefore the spirits that speak with a man speak from his affections and according to them. Nor can a man speak with other spirits, unless the societies in which he is be first removed, and this cannot be done except by the reformation of his will. For every man is in a society of such spirits as are of the same religion as himself; wherefore the spirits that speak with him confirm everything which the man has made a part of his religion. Thus, Enthusiastic spirits confirm all things of Enthusiasm with that man, Quaker spirits confirm all things of Quakerism, Moravian spirits confirm everything of Moravianism, and so forth; Hence are confirmations of falsity which can never be uprooted. From these things it is evident that the mediate elation which takes place by means of the Word excels the immediate revelation which takes place by means of spirits. As regards my own case, it was not allowed to take anything from the mouth of any spirit, nor from the mouth of any angel, but from the mouth of the Lord Alone.

     XIV.

     CONCERNING THE WORD IN THE HEAVENS.

     [I.] THE WORD is ill all the Heavens, and it is read as in the world, and is preached from; for the Word is the Divine Truth from which the angels have intelligence and wisdom. For without the Word no one knows anything respecting the Lord, respecting love and faith, respecting Redemption, or the rest of the arcana of heavenly wisdom. Yea, without the Word there would not be a Heaven, even as, without the Word, there would not be a Church in the world: thus, there would be no conjunction with the Lord. It has been shown above, that a Natural Theology is not possible without a revelation, or, in the Christian world, without the Word. And if such a thing is not possible in this world, neither is it possible for any one after death; for such as a man is as to his religion in this world such he remains as to religion after death when he becomes a spirit; and the universal heaven does not consist of any angels created before the world or at the same time with the world, but it consists of those who have been men and who then were angels, interiorly.

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These, when in Heaven, by means of the Word come into spiritual wisdom, which is interior wisdom, because there the Word is spiritual.

     [2]. The Word in the Lord's spiritual kingdom is not such as is the Word in the world. In the world the Word is natural, but in that kingdom it is spiritual. The difference between them is as the difference between the natural sense of the Word and its spiritual sense, (the nature of which has been shown by many things in the Arcana Coelestia where all the things in Genesis and Exodus have been explained according to that sense). The difference is such that not a single word is similar. Instead of the names there are things: similarly, instead of the numbers and the historical things, there are things ecclesiastical And yet, what is wonderful, when an angel reads his Word, he knows not otherwise than that it is similar to the Word which he had read when in the world. The reason is, that he no longer has any natural ideas, but instead of these he has spiritual ideas, and the natural and the spiritual are so conjoined by correspondences that they make as it were a one; wherefore, when from the natural a man comes into the spiritual it appears to him as if it were the same. Nay, an angel does not even know that he is wiser than he was in the world, when yet he enjoys a wisdom so supereminent that it is ineffable in comparison with his former wisdom. Nor can he possibly know the distinction, because in his spiritual state he does not know anything about his natural state in which he was in the world; nor can he discriminate and make a comparison, because he does not return into his former state. But still the angel is being perfected in wisdom continually in Heaven more than in the world, because he is in a purer spiritual affection of truth.

     [3]. But the Word in the Lord's celestial kingdom is far more excellent and full of wisdom than the Word which is in His spiritual kingdom, and these two differ in a degree similar to the difference between the natural Word, which is in the world, and the spiritual Word, of which we have treated just above.

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For in the Word in the celestial kingdom there is an inmost sense, which is called the celestial sense, in which all things of the Word treat of the Lord alone. In that Word the angels read "the Lord" instead of "Jehovah," and instead of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or David, Moses, Elijah, and the other prophets, the Lord is mentioned; and His Divine, as understood by these names, is distinguished by peculiar signs. By the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, as also by the names of the Apostles, the angels read something concerning the Lord in respect to the Church. And thus in all other things. Hence it was made evident to me that the whole Sacred Scripture in its inmost sense treats of the Lord alone. The difference between these two Words, the spiritual and the celestial, comes in as between the thoughts which are of the understanding, and the affections which are of the will. For the angels of the celestial kingdom are in love to the Lord, and thence in the affection of good; and the angels of the spiritual kingdom are in faith to the Lord, and thence in the perception of truth.

     [4.] The spiritual Word and the celestial Word differ also as to the writing. The writing of the spiritual Word consists of letters which are similar to the printed letters of our world, but each letter makes a sense; wherefore, if you were to see that writing you would not understand one word, for it consists of letter upon letter in a continual series, with little lines and points above and below,--for it is according to the spiritual speech, which has nothing in common with natural speech. Those angels who are more wise see in their Word, thus written, arcana more internal than the more simple angels see. The things hidden therein are clearly evident before the eyes of the wise, but not before the eyes of the simple, just as is the case with our Word, but more so, in which also the wise see more things than the simple. But the Writing of the celestial Word consists of letters unknown in this world: they are, indeed, alphabetical letters, but everyone is formed of curved lines, with little horns above and below, and there are dots or points within the letters, and also below or above them. It was said that the most ancient ones on this earth had such writing; in some respects it agrees with Hebrew writing, but only a little.

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By such writing are expressed the affections which are of love, wherefore it involves more arcana than the angels themselves are able to utter. These unutterable arcana, which they perceive from their Word, they express by means of representations: The wisdom which lies hidden in this Word transcends the wisdom which is in the spiritual Word, as thousands transcend a unity.

     [5.] In order to understand the difference between the three Words--the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial,--take for instance the first chapter of Genesis where it treats of Adam, his wife, and the Paradise. In the natural Word which is in the world, the creation of the world is described, the first creation of man, and the earthly enjoyments and delights of man and of the world, and by the persons mentioned after Adam even to the Deluge are meant his posterity, and by the numbers are meant their ages. But in the spiritual Word, which is with the angels who are in the spiritual kingdom, these things are not meant, but in the first chapter is described the reformation and regeneration of the men of the Most Ancient Church, which is also called the new creation. In the second chapter, by the Paradise is described the intelligence of the men of that Church, by Adam and his wife the Church itself is understood, and by their posterities even to the Deluge are described the changes of state of that Church, even until it ceased, and finally its destruction by the Deluge. But in the celestial Word, which is with the angels who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom, in the first chapter is described the glorification of the Human of the Lord; instead of the Paradise, His Divine Wisdom is described; by Adam himself is understood the Lord as to His Divine and at the same time as to the Divine Human, and by Adam's wife is meant the Church, which, because it had life from the Lord, was called Chavah, from "life." And of her Adam said that she was his bone and his flesh and that they were one flesh, because the Church is from the Lord, and out of the Lord, and as one with Him: By the names, which are the posterities of Adam, are described, in the celestial Word, the successive states of the reception of the Lord and of the conjunction with Him among the men of that Church, even until there was altogether no reception and consequently no conjunction.

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     [6]. When, therefore, these first chapters of our Word are read by upright men, and especially by little boys and girls,--and when these are affected with joy on account of the state at the creation of all things and on account of the Paradise, then these senses are evolved, and the spiritual angels understand these things according to their Word, and the celestial angels according to their Word, and this without the angels being aware that a man or a little child is reading it. For these senses are evolved in their order because they correspond, and the correspondences are such from creation. From these things it is evident of what nature the Word is in its bosom, namely, that it has three senses,--an ultimate, which is natural for man, and which in most places treats of worldly things, or, where it treats of Divine things, these are yet described by such things as are in the world; a middle sense, which is spiritual, in which are described such things as are of the Church; and an inmost sense, which is celestial, in which are contained such things as are of the Lord. For universal nature is a theatre representative of the kingdom of the Lord, and the kingdom of the Lord, which is Heaven and the Church, is a theatre representative of the Lord Himself. For as the Lord glorified His Human, so also He regenerates man, and as He regenerates man, so also He creates him.

     [7.] From these things it may be manifest what is the nature of the Word in its bosom. The natural Word, such as is in the world in the Christian region, contains within itself both the spiritual Word and the celestial Word; for the spiritual sense of our Word is the Word in the Heavens which constitute the spiritual kingdom of the Lord, and the celestial sense of our Word, which is its inmost sense, is the Word in the heavens which constitute the celestial kingdom of the Lord. And, therefore, in our natural Word there are contained both the spiritual Word and the celestial Word; bur in the spiritual and the celestial Word the natural Word is not contained; on which account the Word of our world is the one most full of Divine Wisdom, and hence it is more holy than the Words of the heavens.

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     FREEDOM.

     Every one in heaven is free because he is led by the Lord and not by himself, and every one in hell is a slave because he is led by himself, or by the evil of love of self. So it is in the world with men; every one is conjoined with the Lord and consociated with the angels of heaven;--who is led by the Lord through heaven,--is in his spirit free.

     Man is either led by the Lord, or he is led by hell. He does not lead himself, though he appears to do so. When he is led by the Lord, he acknowledges the appearance that he leads himself, but knows that he is led by the Lord; but when he is led by hell he believes that he leads himself, and confirms himself in this belief more and more.

     To be led by the Lord is to be led by the truth of His Word. This is to be free. "If ye abide in my Word....ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." He who receives the Divine Truth of the Word in doctrine and in life, in understanding and in heart, is free. Why is he then free? Because he becomes a spiritual man, because as to his spirit he is elevated into heaven, because his internal spiritual mind is opened into heaven, and expands in heaven, because he is consociated with those in heaven who are free, because he is conjoined with the Lord who alone is able to give freedom to man. He alone is able to give because He alone is free, His freedom is Infinite. Man, receiving in his finite measure of the Infinite freedom of the Lord, is free because he is no longer led by himself, that is, he is no longer led by spirits from hell, who hold him in the bonds of slavery.

     Man is free when he puts himself under bond, and he is not free until then. He is not free until he gives others freedom by putting himself under bond. The natural man puts others under bond in order that he may be free; the spiritual man puts himself under bond that others may be free. The natural man considers how much freedom he can get, the spiritual man considers how much he can give.

     Much is said about freedom in the political world, but it is nearly always in the form of a demand. The autocrat demands freedom for himself, and he will enslave others to obtain it; and the democrat is inspired by the same purpose, and would do the same if he could, but in the Providence of the Lord he is under more restraint. Modern democracy does not flow from order in heaven as the result of the Last Judgment, as some have supposed; but it flows into the world from order in hell, as the result of the Last Judgment. There are more restraints, therefore, and hence greater freedom under a democracy than under an unlimited autocracy. But neither presents the form of government that exists in heaven, and is to exist in the New Church, a government in which men are free because of individual self-compulsion.

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     When man compels himself to live under obedience to the truth he puts himself under bond because he puts his evils under restraint, or the Lord for him. The bond first appears as a bond; he does not appear to be free; but afterwards the bond disappears as a bond. In full human freedom, as it is with the celestial angels, there is no bond, that is, they are not conscious of a bond. It sounds strange to say that a man is free when he is under bond, even the bond of self-compulsion. But the bond of self-compulsion is not a bond that is to endure forever. It is a bond that man puts himself under that he may become free. We is free even under this self-imposed bond, but it does not appear so, for he has put the lusts of his natural man under restraint. In the course of time, these wild lusts are tamed and subdued, and the Lord insinuates the affection of good, with the delight of good; in this delight there is all liberty; in it there is no appearance of bond,--man is free. Along with the affection of good comes aversion to the unbridled lusts of the natural man. In this aversion to them is freedom from them; they depart from his presence, with the evil spirits who embody them. No man has the sense of freedom in the presence of that which he loathes; but there is a full sense of freedom in the presence of that which he loves. The sense of freedom goes with the sense of delight, and the sense of the delight of good is heaven.

     All those who put themselves under bond by self-compulsion are not only preparing for freedom, but they are putting themselves in a position to be taught of the Lord, to be His disciples or scholars, to learn of Him. No others can learn of Him, no others will receive His instruction. If one is not interested in spiritual things, let him find the cause; and the cause he will not have to go far to seek. He has put himself under bond, he is not in the attitude to receive, the Lord cannot teach him, he is not free. Only under the bond of self-compulsion can he know the truth, and he is not free until he knows the truth; the truth, the truth alone, is able to set him free. "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house forever; but the Son shall abide forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."     W. F. P.
MR. FRANCIS A. DEWSON 1901

MR. FRANCIS A. DEWSON       G. G. S       1901

     As noted last month, on the 13th of January last Mr. Francis A. Dewson departed this life at his home in Newtonville, Mass., at the ripe age of seventy-three years. Articles in the New Church Messenger for January 23rd and 30th* and February 20th give an affecting picture of his life and personality, from which we chiefly draw.

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Mr. Dewson was a leader in the Church not only by his abilities and sterling integrity, but by the breadth and warmth of his charity,--living qualities the memory and loss of which make his vacant place in the Church seem to many an aching void which humanly speaking, cannot he filled. He filled many offices and discharged many functions; but into so many years of untiring devotion to both Church and business interests more features of interest and far-reaching influence must have been crowded than can ever be recorded except in the unwritten inner history of human life. We note among the positions which he faithfully filled, that of President of the Massachusetts New-Church Union, Secretary of the General Convention and for seventeen years Treasurer of that body; member of the Board of Publication; President of the Sunday-school Association of the United States, and officer of that body for a longer period; teacher and then superintendent of the local Sunday school; member of many Boards of the Convention, and Treasurer of the National Committee on the House of Worship in Washington; not to mention the unknown number of civic trusts of which he was a prominent and in some cases sole administrator. So distinguished was he for integrity and eminent business prudence and judgment, that, as the Messenger puts it, "trusts and executorships sought him out and as it were thrust themselves upon him."
     * This number contains a likeness of Mr. Dewson.

     But the real secret of Mr. Dewson's strong hold upon the high esteem and warm regard of the many who feel his loss lies not so much in the incorruptibility of his honor,--that quality has been possessed by some whose passing has caused few tears; it was not that he labored long and earnestly in uses both civil and churchly,--for men have done that also without calling forth such universal affection; still less was it the mere impressiveness of the great trusts and enterprises which rested upon his shoulders-a mere question of magnitude and proportion. It was rather, would seem, the two elements of humility and charity which shed over the details of his busy life an incense-like fragrance, and won for him the confidence and love of his brethren and associates. As the writers in the Messenger have shown with almost startling frankness, he was very human, and so far as heredity goes, had tendencies quite opposed to the characteristics which have come to make his name a landmark in the Church; so that it was not an indifference to the external goods of this life which made possible his career of conscientiousness and self-denial,--nor an imperturbable evenness of hereditary disposition which gives ground for the Messenger's editorial comment, that "However unkind-or unjust any person may have seemed to him to have acted, it took no deep root in his feelings or memory and he forgave and forgot;" or that, according to the testimony of another writer, "During his illness railway men, artisans, tradesmen, inquired after him with sympathy or sought his door with flowers," so that--"'I have lost my best friend,' 'He was a father to me, was uttered by many a lip." As a youth, it would seem that he was "irritable, impatient, and of luxurious tastes," yet his name became a "synonym for gentleness, forbearance and self-denying generosity." From the Messenger articles and from all the other testimony of which the Church is ready to furnish such an abundance, it appears that the pure gold of this rare nature was the product of the refining furnace of spiritual effort and combat; that its adornments were the fruitage of a heart-felt wish to do the Father's will, chastened and purified by an ever-present consciousness of human frailty and dependence on the Divine omnipotence. "And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, I will give him power over the nations."

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     To the qualities of humility and charity should be added a third, which is really involved in them,--justice or fair-mindedness. Mr. Dewson was so true a man that he expected to find truth in others, and hence was more inclined to take the trouble to look for it in them than to accept the first appearance of its possibly being defective with them. To look for the false and evil, or to gladly entertain ill thoughts of the neighbor, was foreign to his wholesome nature. This trait has been conspicuous in his treatment of members of the Academy and of the "General Church," and though they were for the most part not so well acquainted with him as his intimate associates, of Convention, they will always remember this trait in him to enhance their sense of his high worth.

     It may be said of Mr. Dewson that his life may be summed up in the sentence, The Church was to him everything. Such an ideal and motive and such a life history leave to the Church a precious legacy, as a living object lesson, an example and incentive to encourage and inspire men of the present and of future generations. G. G. S.
GEORGE WOOLWORTH COLTON 1901

GEORGE WOOLWORTH COLTON       G. G. S       1901

     WITHIN a trifle over a month, and having run a life course of the same number of years as Mr. Dewson, Mr. G. Woolworth Colton--as he preferred to write his name--on the 15th of February, left the scene of his untiring activity in the cause of the visible Church on earth to enter upon the vastly wider and higher activities of the world of realities. Like Mr. Dewson our friend Mr. Colton in his life erected in his simple way a monument to the priceless worth of a life consecrated to the service of the Lord's New Church. So steadfast was he, so simple, sincere, devoted and loyal, to the interests and principles of the Church--which was to him a spiritual mother to be loved with absolute filial devotion,--that none could come to know him without feeling that such a man possessed that with which earth alone could not enrich him.

     A few years since Mr. Colton retired from a life-long connection with the noted firm of map-makers and publishers, to act as Manager of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society. He was also a prominent member of the New Church Board of Publication. He carried his high standard of ideals into his business. From the New-Church Messenger of March 13th we cull the following particulars concerning this and other traits:

     "He was painstaking to a degree. No amount of reading and study was too great to verify the details of the publications he gave to the world.

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Compensation did not seem to have anything to do with it.... It seemed impossible for him to do anything unless he did it well. Nor did the magnitude of details disturb him. Since he has been Manager of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society he has introduced reforms that will be of great value in future. He could work more hours than most men. Indeed he was never happy unless at work. He carried his implements of labor home with him and used them until a late hour in the night....He was never absent from any of the meetings of the many Boards to which he belonged, and always took his share and more of the labors growing out of them. He shouldered responsibilities and undertook enterprises that few men would dare. He was a lovable man and a loving one.

     As the Messenger adds, editorially, "Mr. Colton was an ideal Secretary, and his painstaking fidelity were an astonishment to those who were familiar with it."

     Mr. Colton had an artistic taste, and he spent his own money freely in making the works he brought out "tasteful, substantial and right." Works which could not be profitable pecuniarily, but which he believed the uses of the Church called for, he often would undertake at his own expense. Several such were brought out during the last year of his life, of which Mr. Odhner's child's life of Swedenborg was one.

     His position in the New York Book Rooms he could have made an easy one, but, as his associate in the work testifies, this was not in his nature. For years previous he had spent all his spare time in furthering the publishing business of the Church, and accepting this position in the Rooms came as the culminating expression of his zeal and love for the work. He would spend hours in the informal missionary work with strangers brought about by his opportunities in the Rooms, and would labor late in the evenings on his correspondence with those who were looking toward the New Church, or just coming in. He frequently expressed a wish that he "had more time;" but--"There was no flourish of work. Everything was methodical. Everything was simple. Everything showed his painstaking habits. Back of all was a rich intellect. Back of all was the simplicity of his character."                    

     The present writer's experience with Mr. Colton was all in the line of the above testimony; and it is a pleasure to testify also to his frank friendliness shown toward the uses and members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. It was a spiritual stimulus to meet him and a deep satisfaction to cooperate with him in Church work. It is with a sense of mingled loss and of gratitude that these words of recognition are penned.     G. G. S.
CREATION ONLY BY CORRESPONDENCES 1901

CREATION ONLY BY CORRESPONDENCES       A. W. MANNING       1901

EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     Sir: In reply to George Holman in the December number, while I said that his articles on Creation were anti-New Church, yet I mean it to be understood only as being "anti" to the instruction given by the angel to Swedenborg, to make known to the world in which he lived that Creation in the beginning took place instantaneously, and was afterwards continued by propagations and seeds; as clearly set forth in True Christian Religion, n. 78, and explained again by Swedenborg in his own Index to the Relations; and even stronger,--True Christian Religion, Index XI., where it says, "All those things, they said, were created in heaven in a moment by God, and that they subsist so long as the angels are interiorly in the corresponding state of love and faith as to thought, and that that instantaneous creation evidently testifies a like creation even in the natural world, with this difference only, that the natural universe invests the spiritual, and that this investing is provided by God for the sake of the generation of one form and another, by which creation is perpetuated: consequently that the creation of the universe was effected in a similar manner to those instantaneous creations in heaven."

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     This confirms the instruction concerning instantaneous creation in the beginning, given by the angel to Swedenborg, for they cannot both be wrong. It is a revelation for the New Church, in opposition to the infirm fallacy of creation by this so-called scientific age, which makes the Creator as infirm as man, and which holds that this planet was cast forth from the sun of this world: as if anything less than a sun could come forth from a sun! for if it had the quality of the sun it would still be a sun. Then to think that our Heavenly Father--according to them--must wait epochs of time; as if He was so infirm that He had to wait to cool off what was thrown out, thereby making the Creator who created the miracles instantaneously (showing thereby the mode in which He creates) as infirm as the delirium of the inverted rational principle: absolutely making the Creator more infirm than the evil, who brought forth all the infernal correspondences in the world. No real Newchurchman denies this latter creation. Could the first evil animals have been created other than instantaneously and according to the mode as set forth in T. C. R. 78? for is it not the same creative life which enters the inmosts of every angel and demon, agreeably to what is written in Divine Love and Wisdom, that "all uses, both good and evil, are from a spiritual origin. . . . Hence it may appear that even evil uses are from the spiritual sun, but that good uses are converted into evil uses in hell." Hell being within man, and in correspondences outside of him. This clearly proves what is said in Arcana Coelestia, n. 3702, 3721, about man being the intermediate between God and Nature in both worlds: for it is clearly seen and readily admitted by Newchurchmen, that all evil correspondences in this world had their origin by diverting the influxes of life from God into evil lusts and corresponding thoughts, and to do so man's mind, with its inmost, must be the intermediate, both in the good and in the evil; for the life enters the inmost receptacle of the soul of each and all. This is well known in the Church.

     Now read number 9 of the Last Judgment and you will readily see it is written in appearances only, and not intended to contradict 3702, 3721, and Hieroglyphic Key, 29 and 36, Divine Love and Wisdom, 348, 349, and in fact the deepest philosophy in the Writings, which is, that all ultimates must pass through intermediates.

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End, cause and effect; there is no other order in the universe, only the appearance, which is fully explained in A. C. 3721.

     And to doubt that Instantaneous Creation in the beginning is the true law of primitive creation is to doubt the miracles in the Old and New Testaments, and to substitute the delirium of the rational mind in place of the revelations of God. Creation can take place only by correspondencies, which is fully and most clearly set forth by the evil correspondencies: for if the fall of man brought them forth then what God created must correspond to the unfallen man or the primitive people of the Golden Age. Now read Divine Providence, n. 275, and there it is recorded the kind of person he was; also what Swedenborg says about their being like the people in the planet Jupiter, who are celestial men.

     Newchurchmen above all ought to have a worthy idea of creation; and if they search the revealed Writings they can find it. Creation by correspondencies is always in the beginning instantaneous, and to deny this is to deny the philosophy of the Church: for all things outside of men are in particulars, and represent some affection or thought in the composite man. Evolution is a delirium of the man who goes to Nature instead of to God; for all correspondents are organized things, and each depends upon influx for life, which life animates and vivifies them. Life is not inherent as Evolution implies. If a leopard could change its spots then it could change its state and thereby represent a different affection to what it did with spots; but things outside of man have not the faculty of freedom bestowed upon them, because they can only represent a single affection or thought. There are no half thoughts and affections; every affection and thought, as representative correspondent, can only be in the singular number, and they cannot change and become another affection and thought, which evolution implies. Evolution never came from the brain of a man who had any idea of correspondencies. The Laws of Correspandencies, if understood, can explain all things in both worlds, and this has been given to the New Church by the Lord; and it is to its light that we must go if we wish to know the secrets concerning both worlds. The Lord alone creates; the Lord alone reveals. A. W. MANNING.
REPLY TO THE FOREGOING 1901

REPLY TO THE FOREGOING       GEO. E. HOLMAN       1901

To THE EDITOR NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     In reply to Mr. Manning's letter In the present number of Life, it is evident that in many respects he quite misunderstands my article, and he misinterprets some of the passages in the Writings which he quotes. He must forgive me, too, if I say that the notion which he apparently entertains--that the world, with all its inhabitants, was created as a perfected whole in a single moment--is scarcely one that can be seriously discussed. He gives to the word "instantaneous" in True Christian Religion n. 78; an emphasis and an application which are not warranted by a careful reading of the number, and it should be borne in mind that all processes in the material world necessarily involve time.

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     As to the "miracles" in the Old Testament; because an individual species was created instantaneously, it does not follow that the whole world and all that it contains came suddenly into being at the same moment; and a reference to Divine Love and Wisdom n. 312 will show that even a single individual was not fully formed in one moment.

     I do not think Mr. Manning can have weighed well the very strong grounds on which astronomers base their conclusions regarding the derivation of the earth from the sun, or he would not speak of the matter in such contemptuous terms. GEO. E. HOLMAN.
DISCLAIMER FOR THE SINGLE TAX 1901

DISCLAIMER FOR THE SINGLE TAX       HARVEY P. SKINNER       1901

EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     My attention has just been called to a communication in the June number of your paper [1899] wherein the author, who conceals his identity, attempts to refute the doctrine of the single tax from the Word and from the doctrine of the New Church.

     So far as my observation goes there are two things which no one who fully understands ever attempts to argue against. One is the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg and the other is the teachings of Henry George. I have heard many arguments against each, but have never yet heard one in which the author did not expose his ignorance of his subject. Your correspondent is no exception to this rule.

     Not only do men calling themselves New Churchmen advocate the single tax, but, among New Churchmen are found some of the ablest exponents of this doctrine, and the reason is plain to those on inside, for in the teachings of Swedenborg--the highest expression of spiritual truth--they find the key to the expression of its correspondent, the teachings of Henry George; the highest expression of natural truth.

     One weakness of the single taxers which causes their opponents--including your correspondent--to fall into further weaknesses consists in emphasizing the word land, whereas rent is our most emphatic word. It is rent rather than the land that belongs to the community, because the community produces it. Let rent be made common property through taxation year by year as it is produced, and land will become common property in effect, though remaining in private possession. Render to the community all that the community produces and leave with the individual all that he produces. Any other course is a violation of the command to which your correspondent calls our attention--"Thou shalt not steal."

     Your correspondent states that in New Zealand "a man whose real estate was valued at $100,000 was compelled to pay a tax upon it of $90,000 into the coffers of the State." In regard to this matter it appears that your correspondent is seriously misinformed, at least there is no foundation in fact for the statement in the working of any single tax experiment yet tried any place in the world, and it is perfectly plain to every single taxer that such a case is an impossibility under the workings of the single tax, and an absurdity under its teachings.

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     The above are not intended as arguments, but merely the expression of a few simple truths, the genuineness of which any one can satisfy himself by investigation.
     Sincerely, HARVEY P. SKINNER.
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     THE principal contents of the January number of The New Philosophy consist of Chapter II, of "The Senses," and an article by Miss Beekman,--"Mechanism in the Brain, by which Alternating Stales of Sleep and Wakefulness are produced."

     In "The Senses," in number 5, Swedenborg adds to the known external and mediate causes whereby the quantity of the blood in the arteries is determined,-namely, the propulsion or excitation of the heart and the promotive action of the arteries,--a third more vital than the others, that is, "invitation." Modern science, so far as we are aware, knows nothing of that suction or syringe-like action of the minutest parts of the organs, the glandular follicles, which make of organic action a living thing such as the scientific world seems not to have conjectured. The faculty of invitation involves also discrimination; and what a wonderful picture is presented to us of each organ acting in its own individual way in selecting the peculiar and suitable food required out of the hurrying stream of the blood.

     Miss Beekman's profound study on the "Mechanism of the Brain" is accompanied by extensive references, and is to be supplemented by an appendix.

     "Note and Comment" includes a review notice of Miss Beekman's recent work, Spectrum Analysis, and a short article or "Note" by Dr. Farrington, who exposes the ignorance which is covered by the popular term "vital selection," applied to the wonderful faculty living organs have, of selecting the food they need and rejecting all else. The doctor's contribution to the understanding of this occult subject would have been still more elucidative if he had gone somewhat into the modus operandi of his term "affinity in use," that whereby the organs have the power of selection.



     IN the Intercourse between the Soul and the Body (n. 20), the teaching is presented that philosophy is the hand-maiden and fore-runner of theology, since spiritual truths require for their reception and support basis of natural truth or natural intelligence.

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In that great struggle between The Old and The New which as yet has only begun,--and in that process of discrimination, of selection of the usable and of rejection of the chaff, which must enter into the "making new" of all departments of human thought and activity,--a very important part is undoubtedly to be played in the weighing of existing systems of philosophy in the light of spiritual principles. The enthusiasm which may be aroused for any given philosopher for his discoveries in departments legitimate and within his compass will have to be moderated by a recognition of his limitations; the point in which each thinker reaches his limit of insight and begins to grope in the fogs of mere self-intelligence, will sooner or later come to be known, and that which is useful in his system will be utilized and the rest cast out. In this sense we are sure that the rank given to many prominent philosophers will come to be reconsidered and immensely modified, their pretensions will be exposed and their spiritual blindness and the mischief of their teachings made clear. Hence we welcome the Rev. Theodore F. Wright's article in the January Review on "Kant's dealings with Swedenborg;" not merely because it makes a case against Kant as a plagiarist of Swedenborg, nor because it goes into perhaps partly unnecessary particulars to picture Kant's life as unamiable in its quality and as culminating in a repellant, dried up old age,--but because it puts a check upon a too warm admiration of his apparently elevated morality, by showing how it lacks the vital quality of a Christian spirituality: the final demonstration of which lack is seen in his progressive skepticism and in his growing agnosticism as to that spiritual existence which he is supposed to have gone far to establish.
ERRATA 1901

ERRATA              1901

     Mr. Pendleton's article, "The Credibility of Swedenborg's Science," as printed in our March number, the following corrections should be made:

     On page 121, the last word of line 18 from the bottom, "precious" should be "previous."

     Page 122, top line, "line" should be "life."

     Page 124, top line, "series" should be "suns."

Page 125, between lines 10 and 11 from the bottom, should appear the omitted line--"branch of learning, and to have signified these correspondences."

     Page 128, 10th line from the bottom, the second word, "the," does not belong there.

     Page 131, first line, "bane" should be "bar."

     Page 132, second line, "S. D. 1739" should be "S. D. 1793."

     Page 134, last line and word of the paragraph, instead of "Revelation" should be "Revelator."

     [These have all been corrected in the electronic text.]

     The loving cup presented to Mr. Potts at the celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday, was the gift of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. By an inadvertence this was not stated, but the Bryn Athyn members were credited with the whole thing.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

     Huntingdon Valley ("Bryn Athyn"), Pa.-The most significant thing in the past month has been the continued interest in the New Science, the attendance at the meetings of the Principia Club has been large, and the attention close. The interest taken by the young is especially noticeable; there is much contained in the philosophical principles of this New Science, which, from the basis of their New Church education, their understanding and affection can grasp; they have not the stumbling blocks that arise from the materialism of modern science.

     On March 4th that highly useful and unostentatious body, the Civic and Social Club, held its annual meeting. The reports, as well of finances as of uses, were considered very encouraging. The officers of the year just closed were re-elected.

     On March 1st in the Friday Class, the Pastor began a course of lessons on a subject that he has long looked forward to taking up. Discrete Degrees. It is from the basis of such spiritual principles that we are enabled to get glimpses of the grandeur of the New Science.

     Miss Beekman is with us again, pursuing her studies in connection with the exposition of Swedenborg's scientific works. She is doing much for those interested.

     I have had occasion before to remark upon the blithesomeness of our married people. Well, now they have had a German (March 5th). Who talks of the Elixir of Life?

     On the evening of the 2d the musical coterie, under the direction of Mr. Walter Van Horn, entertained us with a classical program, at which the performers did themselves credit. Mr. Richard Roschman, of Berlin, Canada, was present and was warmly greeted by his many friends here. The next evening the Town Fathers repaired to the Little Brown Study to meet the visitor, who spoke cheeringly of the encouraging outlook in Berlin under Mr. Waelchli's able administration.

     On the invitation of Miss Hogan the last School Social was held at Cairnwood, which means that an added zest was given to the occasion.

     Mrs. George Starkey entertained the young folks of the school on Saturday evening (the 23d), and they had a jolly time playing games.

     On the same day Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton, Mr. and Mrs. Acton, Mrs. and Miss Hobart, and Messrs. Pitcairn and Starkey took a trip to Allentown to be present next evening at the Silver Wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Ebert. Mr. Charles Ebert and Mr. Edro Cranch went from Philadelphia. We expect to hear in the Life an account of what is said to have been an unusually fine occasion.

     Work has been resumed on the Academy building. It will be a dignified structure, and a landmark for miles around. One can now better appreciate the commanding situation it occupies. The masons have reached the third story.

     Baseball practice has begun in the Athletic Club, and we are promised a fine team this spring.

     The Garrick Club promises another play at Easter time. The Garrick Club does not lack virtues; its chiefest is Hope. N.

     THE PRINCIPIA CLUB.

     The 30th meeting of the Principia Club was held on March 18th, with Mr. Potts in the chair. In order to express the fact that the subject under discussion had been extended, Mr. Pendleton moved, "That the subject before the meeting take the following form: Resolved, That the works of Emanuel Swedenborg, written previously to the period of his spiritual illumination, contain a system of philosophic and scientific truth."

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He also announced his intention at some future time to move the adoption of the resolution itself. The motion now was, however, simply to make this resolution the subject under discussion. The motion was seconded.

     After some debate the Chairman ruled the motion out of order, as contravening the established usage of the Club. An appeal was made against this ruling and sustained; the Chairman then called the Vice Chairman to the Chair.

     Prof. Vinet thought that the passing of the motion would suppress the liberty of the members, holding that the Club is not in a position to vote as to whether the scientific works contain truth or not; and he offered as a substitute: "Resolved, That the works of Emanuel Swedenborg written previously to his spiritual illumination be examined to see if they contain a system of philosophic truth or not." It was pointed out that the substitute did not differ radically from the original motion; and when put to vote it was lost. The original motion was then carried.

     Mr. Glenn read a short statement covering points connected with his argument at the meeting of January 21st, concerning which Mr. Potts had shown some misapprehension in his recent paper. Mr. Potts made a rejoinder which led to a mutual understanding between the two gentlemen.

     Mr. Charles E. Doering then read a paper in which he considered three points presented in the paper of Mr. Potts, as to (1) the Diluvial Ocean,--which he showed was not identical in Swedenborg's mind with the Scriptural Flood; (2) That in the Principia and elsewhere in the Scientific Works it is taught that the Sun is pure Fire,--in harmony with the teaching of the Theological Writings; and (3) that the Mathematical Point is not mere "Nothing," but the "seed of the universe."

     The meeting was then adjourned till March 25th; on which evening, in the absence of Mr. Potts, Vice-Chairman Synnestvedt presided. After the reading of the minutes the Secretary read a communication from the Rev. J. F. Potts, resigning his position as Chairman and as member of the Club, on the grounds:--that the reversal of his ruling at the last meeting had made it impossible for him to continue as Chairman; and that the plain intention of the Club ultimately to commit itself in favor of Swedenborg's system as a whole, made it impossible for him to continue with them on a platform he could not accept.

     Mr. Pendleton moved that the communication be received by the Club, and that a committee of three, including the Vice-Chairman, be appointed by the Chair to consider the communication, and to report at some future meeting. Carried. Mr. Pendleton and Mr. Pitcairn were appointed.

     Mr. Synnestvedt then followed with a long paper in which he examined Mr. Potts's strictures on Swedenborg's teachings concerning the nature of Salt; Fire as an "element:" the phosphorescence of the sea; and water as the first matter deposited in creation. The argument was not from the position of a professional scientist, but against Mr. Potts's assertions and assumptions he advanced opposing considerations based on easily understood rational, philosophical and scientific data.

     The second part of the paper dealt with Mr. Potts's comparisons and contrasts between the scientific teaching of the Writings and that of Swedenborg the scientist, and gave reasons for holding that in each case of alleged disagreement Mr. Potts had misinterpreted either the Writings or Swedenborg. The points considered in this connection were: 1. The doctrine of compression; 2. the two lower atmospheres formed not directly from the Sun but mediately from the earth; 3. the order of the degrees in the crustals of water particles: 4. the number of Degrees: 5. the bottom of the primeval ocean, and the substance of the earth's centre; 7. the formation of solids at the bottom of the sea, and the floating up of heavy particles of minerals, etc.;

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8. the objection that the Principia theory is too complicated, and 9. that the fact of the Writings not mentioning that theory ought to dispose of it as untrue. The substance of the paper is promised for the Life.

     Philadelphia.-The annual meeting of this Society was held on Sunday, March 3d, after the service.

     Mr. Cronlund made a brief report of the work done during the past year, showing that, although this is not yet a fully organized society of the General Church, all the functions of one are being performed. Public worship is conducted every Sunday; also a Sunday School for the children, and two doctrinal classes every week. The report of the Treasurer showed an increased balance on hand over last year. E.

     Pittsburg, Pa.--On February 21st the school children celebrated Washington's Birthday by an entertainment, at which a number of compositions were read and patriotic selections given. These were followed by a fancy drill, by the younger children in costume, and the whole affair was much enjoyed by those privileged to be present.

     On the evening of the 22d a Society Social was held, at which Mr. Bostock, who had returned from Philadelphia that morning, was present. He seemed very much benefitted by his trip and has since kept on improving, being able to conduct services every Sunday morning, and Doctrinal Class every Sunday evening since his return.

     On Wednesday evening, March 6th, a meeting of the Congregation was held, at which Mr Bostock told us of his decision not to go to England, and asked the members if they wished him to remain their pastor. All present signified their earnest desire to have him do so, and I think all feel a great relief now that the fear of losing him has been removed.

     The men of the Society have held one or two meetings lately for the formation of a local Principia Club. C. R. Pittsburg, March 15th, 1901.

GLENVIEW LETTER.

My Dear "Life":--

     At Friday and Wednesday class Mr. Pendleton is giving a series of lessons on the internal sense of the xxixth chapter of Exodus. The "shake offerings" and the sacrifice of the ram and bullock have been particularly interesting. The home readings between classes add much to the clearer understanding of the lectures.

     On February 21st Mr. and Mrs. Boericke gave a dinner to some of the married folks. The decorations were of paper, and some odd gifts of the same material brought by the initiated informed the others that the occasion was a "paper wedding."

     On March 3d Mr. and Mrs. Paul Synnestvedt celebrated the eighth anniversary of their wedding by giving a dinner to the unengaged young folks.

     Mr. Jesse A. Burt and Miss Emma Ziegler were married at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Burnham Saturday afternoon, March 9th A few near friends and relatives were present. Mr. Pendleton officiated.

     The room was decorated with a variety of flowers, tulips and roses predominating. Above the bridal pair a dove was suspended, nearly hidden with smilax and roses. The wedding party entered, to the strains of the Pilgrim's Chorus. After the brief ceremony the company sang the Fourth anthem, and as the joyous tones of the march from Lohengrin were sounded the newly married pair withdrew, only to return in a few moments to receive congratulations Then followed the wedding supper. Speeches, toasts and singing added much to the happy sphere. After the toast to the bride and groom each one in turn repeated, "May the Divine blessing be upon you," and then it was said in unison. Mr. and Mrs. Burt left for their home before the supper was over, and there were several hours of stories and reminiscences, to the accompaniment of guitar and vocal music. Another home has been added to the Chicago circle.

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     On St. Patrick's Day, or, rather, evening, some of the men who were among our first settlers were invited to a "Smoker" at the home of Mr. Harry Blackman. All secretly their wives came, too, and burst upon them when the evening was well nigh over. Then all adjourned to the dining room and drank a champagne toast to commemorate the day, just seven years before, when the Blackmans had moved to Glenview. The phonograph played an important part in the entertainment. Records were made of several of the voices. Those of the men were easily recognized. Each guest received a rose as a souvenir. T. K.

     LETTER FROM MR. BOWERS.

     Indiana.-My semi-annual visits to several places in this State have been made with considerable regularity now for the full term of seven years. The work has been done under the leading and favor of the Divine Providence; and the results are mostly hidden from the laborer, but are fully known to the Lord of the vineyard. Sufficient evidences, however, have appeared from time to time to show that the work has been spiritually helpful to those visited, of whom we speak as "isolated" members of the Church, and also to new receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines.

     Arrived at Topeka, La Gorange county, on February 21st. During my sojourn there of three days, opportunity was given to attend to correspondence. Also had much conversation with two gentlemen, a son and a son-in-law of a venerable New Church lady, who are naturally rational, but skeptical concerning spiritual things.

     Arrived at Bourbon, Marshall county, on February 25th, according to appointment, and was cordially received. Three parlor meetings were held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Fogle. The attendance was small, only those who are interested in the Doctrines having been invited, that distinctive instruction might be given. The general public is unapproachable by the New Church missionary, especially when "revivals" are going on, which tend to make people more and more obtuse as to spiritual things.

     At our last meeting in Bourbon, Thursday evening, February 28th, two persons were baptized, as mentioned in the notices, in this issue of the Life.

     On my arrival at Kokomo, March 1st, the expression of the face of nature was very different from what it had been farther north, as it was not veiled with snow The little circle of members at Kokomo remains the same but some light continues to shine in the surrounding "thick darkness." Discourses were delivered in Defenbaugh Hall, on Sunday morning and evening, March 3d. The subject in the evening was: "Is so-called Christian Science Christian or anti-Christian?"

     March 6th was spent in Richmond, with Mr. James A. Powell, the only New-Churchman we know of in that city. Good use was made of the time in the consideration of several topics of mutual interest.

     Ohio.--Got around the circuit and returned to this State on March 7th. Over night with friends in Washington C. H., Fayette county.

     On March 8th and 9th Had a good visit with our aged brother, Mr. William Dill, at Bainbridge, Ross county. He is in his eighty-third year, and reads ordinary print without glasses. He has a strong affection for the things of the Church; and on my departure,--that affection having been stirred by our converse,--he invited me, in a state of deep emotion, to be sure to come to see him, whenever possible, while he remains in this life.

     On Sunday evening, March 10th, a service was held at the home of our earnest New Church friends, the Dill sisters, three miles from Bainbridge. The discourse, which was ex tempore; was thought to be a suitable and a useful one. A young man who was present, to whom the Doctrines are new, and who has heard much said in opposition to them, declared that he believed every word of it. Possibly there may be good ground in his mind, into which the seed of truth could fall.      JOHN E. BOWERS.

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THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

     Maryland.--During the winter Rev. G. L. Allbutt has been doing Church work in the northwest of the city of Baltimore. Sunday services were opened by him in Horn's Hall, on December 2d, and continued for 15 Sundays, or till March 10th. The lowest attendance was 7, the highest 23. Thirty-six different persons attended in all. On the first Sunday in the New Year ten communicants received the Holy Supper. Nearly 500 houses have been visited in this section, some twice. Missionary cards, stating the three principal doctrines, were distributed, and also tracts, and several books were sold. Mr. Allbutt has now been appointed to take charge of the Richmond (Va.) Mission for several weeks.--Messenger.

     New York.--The Woman's Council of the New Jerusalem Church met on February 27th in the building of the New York Society. The forenoon was occupied mostly with an address by Miss McGhee on the subject, "How can we show the most helpful interest in the question of vice in our cities'" bliss McGhee has been connected many years with the "Rescue Work" in New York, and did not seem sanguine of great results, saying: "If five or six can be turned from a life of waste to a life of use, it is a victory for a lifetime. If even one can be reclaimed it is a noble work, and as much as we need expect."--Messenger.

     [Of course mere numbers and quantity are not in themselves to be considered in Church work, but still they furnish some aid in getting a sense of proportion. It is a question whether the same devotion of interest and resources directed to extending the benefits of New Church education to those who could not get it otherwise would not give greater returns when the "sheaves are gamed up.--Editor.]

     Massachusetts,--Rev. George S. Wheeler on February 17th resigned from the Bridgeport Society, and has accepted a call to Providence.
SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 1901

SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION              1901

     The annual meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association will be held in New York, May 27th and 28th. Further particulars will appear later.
FOR SALE 1901

FOR SALE              1901

     A GLENVIEW COTTAGE AND LOT.

     A Nice Cottage and Large Lot, in the Park, at Glenview, Illinois. Terms low. For particulars inquire of E. W. Rine, 440 W. 70th St., Chicago, Ill.

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SWEDENBORG ON THE DELUGE, ON "THE SUN AS FIRE" AND ON THE NATURAL POINT 1901

SWEDENBORG ON THE DELUGE, ON "THE SUN AS FIRE" AND ON THE NATURAL POINT       C. E. DOERING       1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
                              
Vol. XXI.          MAY, 1901.     No. 5.
     A REPLY TO CRITICISMS BY MR. POTTS.

(Read before the Principia Club, of Philadelphia.)

     IN a paper read before this assembly at the last meeting, Mr. Potts quoted from the preface to the work on Copper, where Swedenborg accounts for the varied formation of the surface of the earth; by the disruption of the crust, by a deluge; and comparing this with the statement of the Writings, that the Flood mentioned in the Word does not refer to a flood of waters, but to a flood of evils, he draws the conclusion that what Swedenborg says in his scientific works about a deluge or flood must be wrong. This conclusion would be correct if Mr. Potts had identified the Deluge mentioned in the scientific works with the Flood of Noah; but has he done so? We think not, and our reasons for this position are based on Swedenborg's own statements on the subject.

     In the introductory chapter to the work on Chemistry, entitled "On the first generation of salts, etc., in the Primeval ocean, with few remarks on the depth of that ocean," after speaking of the formation and shape of the land, he says on page 6-

     The circumstances here mentioned may have been produced by a deluge, but it may perhaps be doubted whether they all could have happened in Noah's deluge, which only lasted a single year. What renders it doubtful is that at this day the timbers and ribs of vessels and galleys have been discovered in places which are now forty or fifty yards above the level of the sea, etc.

     He goes on and gives other reasons why these things could not have been caused by the flood of Noah, but by an ocean which was at a great height above the present level of the sea.

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The same statement is repeated in a letter to Jacob A. Melle, published in the Acta Literaria Sueciae, and translated and added as an appendix to the Miscellaneous Observations, The reference occurs on page 152 of that work. Again in the same work, on page 30, he says--

     Not all the changes which have occurred in the crust of the earth were caused by the universal Deluge, but some were occasioned by the sea formerly existing at a height of many furlongs above the present level, whereby certain strata were produced with the petrifactions contained in them; while others, however, are owing to the great diluvian ocean.

     From these passages I think we may conclude, that whatever was Swedenborg's opinion about the Deluge mentioned in the Word, that Deluge was not the one he identifies with his primeval or diluvian ocean; also that it has not been shown from the Writings that there was no such primeval ocean or deluge as is described by Swedenborg, the scientist; neither do the evidences of our senses disprove it, but everywhere confirm it.

     The statement from the Arcana, where it treats of the flood of Noah, is this: "There is no particular flood here meant, much less a universal flood, but only the expiration or suffocation of those, who were of the Church, when they had separated themselves from remains" (n. 662). Please note that the passage does not say that there never was a universal flood at all, or that there were no particular floods. It only states that this is "not meant here"--viz., by the flood of Noah.

     The second point that I wish to take up is in regard to the fire of the sun, viz., that the teachings in the scientific works are fully in accord with the teachings of the Writings on that subject. Number I of the tenth chapter of the Principia begins thus--

     According to the tenor of the foregoing principles, the large active solar space could primitively have consisted only of actives of the first finite. That the solar ocean existing in the middle of the vortex is the fountain of all the motions which take place between the parts constituent of the world is, I think, perfectly clear.

     A similar statement is made in Number to of chapter five. In Number 4 of chapter ten it is said that actives-of the second finite also enter into solar space. Now I hold that any one who is familiar with Swedenborg's scientific works cannot fail to recognize that these actives constitute the fire of the sun, and thus that this is practically the same teaching as the one in True Christian Religion, n. 472,-"That the sun of this world consists of created substances--the activity of which produces fire."

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     To establish this all that is necessary is to show that, according to Swedenborg, a finite when it becomes active causes or produces fire. In the preface to the Principia Swedenborg gives a compendium of his Philosophy, or an outline or key to that work. On page 115 of this preface (English translation) he says respecting finites-

     That one is generated by the other, and that all the finites of the genus thus arising have the greatest possible similitude one to the other; and differ only in degree and dimension. . . In the same manner we affirm that Actives have the greatest possible similitude one to the other; that the fifth, fourth, third, second and first Actives are all of the same nature, differing only in dimensions and degree in the same way as finites; (and the same is said of elementaries).

     He asserts the same in the Appendix of the same work, page 264, Volume II. Likewise in article 2, Chapter VIII, Part III, there is a similar statement, and in Number I of the same part and chapter. There is a statement of his principles concerning the first active contained iii Part I, Chapter V, articles 1-7, and at the end of article 2 of Chapter VIII, he adds: "We now come to show that the actives of the fourth finite create subtle elementary fire, and the actives of the fifth finite, or fifth finites made active, the common culinary or atmospherical fire." The whole chapter then treats of these two kinds of fires, and in the consideration of them he refers to what he has already said on the subject of actives, and, in fact, quotes the general principles that he before enumerated.

     Now it must be evident to everyone that if actives are all of the same nature, differing only in degree and dimension, and if the actives of the fifth finite create the common culinary or atmospherical fire, and if the actives of the fourth finite produce or create a subtle elementary fire, it must hence follow that third actives, or actives of the third finite, would produce a more subtle fire; likewise the actives of the second finite would produce a still more subtle fire, and the actives of the first finite or actives of the first substantial would produce or create the most subtle fire. This is the inevitable conclusion from the premise:--that actives are all of the same nature, differing only in degree and dimension.

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If on active produces fire on its plane, then every fire on its plane; and consequently the actives constituting the large solar space produce solar fire. And as these actives are the activities of the first created substances--which substances are said to be the most perfect natural substances--it follows that the activities of these substances produce pure or most subtle elementary fire; or, we may say, nothing in the Writings, "an ocean of fire. He calls it this in at least two places in one of his scientific works. See Miscellaneous Observation, page 28, near the middle, and page 117, near the bottom.

     Now to prove that my conclusion from the premise is correct, viz., that all finites in activity produce fire, I will here quote from the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, I, n. 584:-

     In the mundane system there are several series, both universal and less universal. The series that the world comprises are three superior and three inferior. The superior series are those of the circumambient universe or world; the inferior are those of the earth. Of the circumambient universe or world there is a series of substances simply derived from the first substance by the order of succession. The, Second series is that which these same substances constitute when left to themselves and their own nature, or when endowed with the liberty of gyrating, whence comes fire, both solar and inferior elementary

     This is in entire accord with what is said in the Principia about finites when they become active, which they do when they are free to gyrate according to their internal nature or viz insita.

     But I think our point has been made clear, viz., that the first created substances in activity constitute the sun and produce fire, and we might add as a corollary that there are as many degrees of fire as there are finites.

     There is, however, one more number that I wish to quote from the Economy, n. 84, which I think will dispel from the minds of any one the idea that Swedenborg considered the substances themselves as fire,--but rather that he considered fire to be the activity of a substance; and that where he speaks of fire as a substance he is speaking metaphorically. The number reads as follows:-

     That fire glowing and luminous arises from the disengagement of the parts of the auras and from the excitation of the parts thus liberated into their natural gyration; and that flame is the smoke or soot, which consists of so many, as it were, molecular burning coals, or that it consists of small volant, ignited particles, can be shown to ocular demonstration; and as the knowledge of one opposite may be derived from the knowledge of the other we may hence deduce the nature of cold.

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It may thus be seen that nothing real exists in heat, fire, flame or cold, since they are only the affections and qualities of trembling and gyrating substances; or, on the contrary, of such as are quiescent.*
* Italics are mine.

     Another point that was brought out in Mr. Potts's paper--and indeed was brought out over a year ago, and was then answered on this floor, as also in the New Philosophy for December, 1899-is this: that Swedenborg's Philosophy teaches that the universe was created out of mathematical points, which Mr. Potts considers to be "nothing." If this charge were true then Swedenborg's system of Philosophy would indeed be "so much useless and superseded rubbish (New Philosophy, Vol. II, p. 59) If it were true all of his philosophical system would have to be discarded; for this point is, as it were, the staple on which the whole of his philosophy hangs, and in rejecting it we virtually reject the whole system. It seems almost incredible that any one who knows anything at all about Swedenborg's science should thus attack this point, for the reason that Swedenborg distinctly states that from nothing, nothing can come forth. (See The Infinite, p. 57.)

     In considering this subject the thought should be raised above time and space, for the point cannot be thought of from time and space, except analogically. Geometricians do this in their conception of the mathematical point. It is conceived of as prior to geometry--and hence cannot be defined by geometrical terms,--and yet as being the cause or the causate of all things geometrical. Length, breadth and thickness cannot be predicated of it, for these are only on the plane of geometry. But because these dimensions cannot be predicated of it, is it on that account nothing? Is Will nothing? is Thought nothing? or is Conatus [Endeavor] nothing? And yet can you predicate space of these? As Swedenborg puts it: "A simple ens cannot be conceived of geometrically, yet it is not on that account nothing." (p. 66.) Now since it is not nothing, it must be something--but not necessarily something material. Swedenborg calls it pure motion (Principia, p. 55), and defines what he means by this; and at the end of his explanation he adds:-

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     But if the reader still entertains a doubt, and cannot yet comprehend what motion is without something substantial, or what is meant by pure and total motion in the simple, I would observe that it is its state; should this appear equally to require explanation, I say, that it is its conatus [or effort] leading to a certain motion; and if this be not satisfactory, then I add, that it is all these taken together. I cannot give a clearer and fuller explanation of the interior nature of the simple, unless indeed the following be so considered, viz.: That in things subject to geometry there can be no state or conatus without motion; while in things that are beyond the reach of geometry, that is, in things simple, there can in like manner be neither state nor conatus without motion; yet with this difference, that in things geometrical they are distinct, and one is the cause of the other, while in the simple they are not distinct, but one is coexistent with the other, and all together present one simple mode and constitute a simple ens. (page 59)

     Keeping this definition in mind, namely, that it is conatus to motion, together with this, "that it exists from the Infinite" (p. 54), compare it with the following from the Arcana Coelestia:-

     What is from the spiritual world in natural things is called a force implanted at the first creation, but it is conatus; on the cessation of which action or motion would cease.* [So it is with] the motion of the muscles. Unless there were in it a conatus from the man's will and thought it would cease in a moment, for it is according to rules known in the learned world that when conatus ceases motion ceases; also, that everything of determination is in conatus, and also that nothing real exists in motion except conatus. That this force or conatus in action or motion is something spiritual in what is natural, is clear. (A. C., 5173.)
     * Italics are mine.

     To this number we will add this also from the Arcana: "From Influx there is conatus, from conatus there is force and from force there is effect." (A. C. 5116); and again,--"The internal of motion is conatus or moving force" (A. C. 9473).

     Now the influx from the Lord, when it becomes the something spiritual in what is natural, or when it becomes conatus or moving force, is what Swedenborg described in the Principia by his natural or mathematical point; which, let it be remembered, he also calls conatus, pure motion, and the seed of the universe. Our whole difficulty, to my mind, in regard to the subject, arises from this: that we have not a clear conception of what this something spiritual in the natural is, or, in other words, we do not understand clearly what conatus is.

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     But let me give an illustration of conatus or point and its derivation, from the creation of Man, for in the microcosm we have an image of the macrocosm. In the seed there is the conatus, from the influx from the Lord, to produce a form receptive of love and wisdom or a human being; from this seed there is produced the simple cortex from this simple cortex there is produced the simple fibre, and also the cortical gland, the active center from which, by means of the simple fibre as a reactive, the whole fabric of the human body is successively formed.

     The analogy to the macrocosm is apparent. The seed is the point; the simple cortex is the first natural substance; from this by derivation are formed the particles of which the first element consists,--corresponding to the simple fibre,--and from the first natural substances are also derived the actives which constitute the sun,--corresponding to the cortical gland,--which then acts upon the first element and brings it into a vortical motion; and then by the reaction of this element the whole of our solar system is formed successively. (Compare D. L. W., 316-366)

     I will only add one word more. There is nothing in our whole universe that did not begin from its point or seed or conatus. "For everything is like a seed from which grows a tree." (S. D., 2628.) "Nothing in nature comes forth except from seed." (Div. Wis., III, 2.) C. E. DOERING.
SWEDENBORG'S COSMOGONY 1901

SWEDENBORG'S COSMOGONY       HOMER SYNNESTVEDT       1901

A REVIEW OF THE REV. J. F. POTTS'S PAPER, "NEW CHURCH SCIENCE COMPARED WITH SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE AS THIS IS EXEMPLIFIED IN HIS 'PRINCIPLES OF CHEMISTRY.'"
PART I.

(See New Church Life for April. This review was read also before the Principia Club of Philadelphia, but is here offered in revised form.)

     IT is difficult to meet an assault like that of the paper under review, because it is not made as squarely as in former papers from the same pen (See The New Philosophy for October, 1899), but is at many points a compromise, and, like all compromises, is inconsistent with itself. In fact, it starts in with the declared purpose of making a compromise:--"Let us not start in with a predetermination to make it [Swedenborg's system of creation] out all true, nor with a predetermination to make it out all false, because it is partly true and partly false." (The italics are mine.)

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     In other words, we are exhorted to start in with the predetermination to make it out badly mixed. And yet, to say that a system such as this of Swedenborg's is unreliable, because not a consistent whole, is perhaps the most destructive arraignment that could be made. To tear planks out of the bottom of a ship is to destroy the ship, and the ship in question is Swedenborg's scientific system; so why try to evade the issue?

     To undermine and dissipate the affection for any truth, and confidence in its reliability, is to destroy it. The contention that the truth cannot be destroyed,* and therefore needs no defense is rather amazing, in view of the plain teaching that what is always assaulted in man is not the truth itself directly--for falsities are indeed impotent against that--but man's estimation of the truth. They cannot destroy the truth itself, but they can and do cut a man off from it, and thus destroy it in him. Nor can this be done more effectively than by just the method which is adopted in this assault--namely, by picking flaws, by ridicule, and by holding the mind in apparent contradictions, without allowing it to look about for a solution of them. To mix with such an attack any inconsistent admissions of a regard for these doctrines, cannot promote the cause of truth, for it only obscures the issue.
     * New Church Life (April). Page 186.

     In the main part of his paper Mr. Potts gives his idea of the true cosmogony, as taught in the Writings themselves, and then compares this with Swedenborg's teachings in the Principia, the Principles of Chemistry, and elsewhere. As to several most vital points he frankly admits that the two systems agree but where he alleges disagreement I intend to show that he misinterprets either Swedenborg or the Writings.

     But before taking up this, the main part of the paper, let us address ourselves briefly to the first part, wherein our faith in Swedenborg's science is assailed from the way of "Egypt," that is, from the standpoint of modern science. The points under this head are: first, Fire, an Element; second, The Phosphorescence of the sea.

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These points are adduced from a previous paper, which laid great stress also upon the Glacial Theory, as opposed to Swedenborg's teaching concerning diluvial action. But it was shown at the time that the said theory was now questioned by no less an authority than Sir Henry Howorth. Another claim made at that time, and which properly belongs to this part of the discussion, was that salt requires no water in its composition, and contains nothing answering to the "fire" which Swedenborg attributes to it. But if you will read what Prof. Ira Remsen says in McClure's for February at the end of his article upon "Unsolved Problems of Chemistry," you will see that scientists are just finding out that there is much yet to be learned about even so common a thing as salt, and also about water. Further, I might ask, If there is no fire in salt, how is it that they are now producing electricity from it?

     Next, as to "Fire an Element." I think that Mr. Doering has sufficiently shown that Swedenborg's idea upon this subject was far from being so crude as was alleged. Such obscurity as that attributed to Swedenborg about fire often arises from the fact that men entering into new fields are still obliged to use old terms-which, however, they must be allowed to define for themselves.

     Lastly, as to the "Phosphorescence of the Sea." For the purposes of this paper it is enough to point out that no essential part of the system is based upon this teaching. Perhaps our author was in error here. But on the other hand, as the subject, like the previous one, has never been taken up or examined into by one competent, from our standpoint, to do so, I claim the right to reserve my judgment. We know how these popular theories change; and surely the theory of the luminous marine animalcules requires as large a credulity as the suggestion of Swedenborg,--which moreover is a consistent explanation of the cause of the luminosity, while the other may not be the cause, but only a concomitant phenomenon;--as in the case of microbes, which our most advanced physicians regard rather as a result than as the cause of the diseases which they accompany. At any rate, we should decline to throw overboard whatever modern science rejects, without carefully weighing the new evidence which we have upon the subject. Otherwise we shall destroy some of the foundations of the Heavenly Doctrines themselves. Science, in the past, has contradicted not a few of the explicit teachings of the Writings, and still contradicts some; as for instance the sex of plants, the habitability of the moon (though some now admit the possibility of this), the primary colors as being red and white; and perhaps others.

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     Now when we remember that it took in one case fifty, in another case a hundred years before the scientists of the world were able to confirm some of Swedenborg's theories, we can well afford to wait, and meanwhile indulge in a little "campaign of education," before rejecting anything which forms a part of his scientific system, from the shifting ground of modern science alone.

     Under this heading I might also allude to a point brought out near the end of the paper, where it is claimed that water could not have been the first matter deposited, because it was then too hot. This is not based upon Swedenborg's theory of the condition at that time, nor upon anything in the Writings, as claimed, so it must be derived from the popular theory that the earth was formed of incandescent gases, which gradually cooled, thus forming a crust, at first white hot. Now in the first place, if this theory is true, the argument based upon it might have weight.

     But is it true? It is only recently that the attention of the scientific world has been called to the fact that it is not necessary to the nebular theory that the planets should have been formed, as is supposed, by a gaseous substance in a high state of incandescence. This theory is of a piece with that which supposes the sun to be merely an ocean of gases at a temperature of about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus even at this late day, they know much less about it than Swedenborg did, who, even in his earliest works, recognizes discrete degrees of heat before we come to the sun.

     Bear in mind also that weight or specific gravity is a relative property, probably not originating in matter itself, but dependent upon the superincumbent atmospheres. It must, therefore, have developed into its present state gradually. Similar must the case have been with the ultimate heat, such as the thermometer is capable of recording, which, as we know, is developed by local conditions at the surface of the earth, more than by proximity to the sun.

     So much then for those points of attack that are based solely upon modern science, which, as we know,--except so far as it lays hold upon universal truths such as the doctrines of series and degrees,--is bound to be extremely fallacious.

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     PART II.

     Now let us take up and review in the following order those teachings of Swedenborg which are supposed to be contrary to the Doctrines:

1. The two lower atmospheres, as to whether they are formed directly from the sun, or mediately from the earth.

2. The order of the degrees in the crustals of water particles.

3. The true number of degrees.

4. The bottom of the primeval ocean, and the substance of the earth's center.

5. Mathematical points the beginnings of all things natural.

6. The formation of solids at the bottom of the sea, and their "floating up," involving the question of the Flood.

7. How the compression of higher into lower atmospheres, and finally into solids, was effected.

     Besides these seven points of alleged divergence, two general objections are urged--namely (8), that the system is "too complicated," and (9), that the Writings "wipe it out of existence" by ignoring it.

     First, then, in regard to the statement that the Principia teaching, that the two lower atmospheres Proceed "directly" from the earth, is contradicted by the teaching of Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 174, that all three atmospheres proceed "directly" from the sun. To begin with, the word "directly," which I have enclosed in quotation marks, is interpolated. It is not there at all. The teaching is simply that these atmospheres are from the natural sun, but whether by any reactive mediation of the earth as to those two which proximately encompass it, or not, the passage does not specify. On the other hand, neither does the Principia, as I read it, teach that the ether and the air originate "directly" from the earth, but,--according to the truth,--by means of the higher aura in conjunction with the earth, as the reactive plane. See Principia, Vol. II, p. 277; also as to Air, p. 305.

     This is the general law with regard to encompassing spheres. But let me illustrate this by the spiritual atmospheres in their relation to a man in the world--for we are more familiar with these than with their natural counterparts.

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Now with man there are likewise three atmospheres, whereby he is spiritually created (and each of these is capable of subdivision into two or more degrees, according to the series).

     First, there is the universal encompassing atmosphere of good and truth from heaven. Then there is the man's interior sphere, and lastly his exterior sphere. Now these last two are formed, as we know, by the first, in conjunction with that which is reactive with the man. The first is indeed universally regnant within them, and is the one only substantial in them; but to say this does not eliminate the other element that arises from reaction, or reception. The soul is universally regnant in the body. Indeed, viewed interiorly, it is the one only thing in it. And yet it is greatly modified and variously clothed by means of that which it takes on through the reaction of the body which clothes it.

     The universal law is this:--Influx is from inmosts to ultimates, and thence to intermediates. Now in the creation of the human body, there is first an inmost "vital." This proceeds to a delicate little ultimate or "circumference" or enveloping membrane,--or swathing; as you choose to call it,--in short, to a reactive plane adapted to it, and through the action and reaction of these two a further form is produced--another plane, or enveloping. And so it goes, one plane after another--according to this law--until from the first initiament of a brain a complete body is formed. And this is precisely the mode described in the Principia. Not only is this not in opposition to the order of influx and creation as described in the Writings, but it is a beautiful illustration and confirmation of it. Indeed, without such truths to illustrate and confirm our doctrines, we could never so clearly understand them.

     As a further illustration, take for instance an apple. The sunshine beaming upon it causes it to expand and to emit, and to encompass itself with a sphere of its own. Mr. Potts seemingly would have us believe that this apple sphere was produced "directly" by the sun, and then the apple from the sphere. True, the encompassing sphere is from the sun, according to the language of Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 1741 but, as elsewhere explained, it is produced by means of the reaction of the recipient form. Thus the obvious fact that the apple gives off its own sphere, does not contradict the truth that it originates from the sun, since "the cause of the cause, is the cause of the thing caused."

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     If Mr. Potts's idea be correct,--if the higher atmospheres proceeding from the sun become by degrees more inert and compressed by mere removal from their center, without any co-operation or reactive pressure from receptive planes previously established--then why should the two lower degrees--the ether and the air-be limited to the earth's vicinage? Why does not the whole solar system consist of three rings or belts,--aura first, then ether, and lastly air? And if this were so, how could the planets exist in a habitable condition, at such very unequal distances from the sun? Compared with the infinitude of space in which they float, the sun's progeny of planets are very minute points, and there must be something reactive with them to determine the universally pervading aura to a further limitation, in order to adapt the sun's energies to their destined use--the use of human life upon those specks of matter.

     As to the second point,--the inverse order of the successive crustals in a water particle, where by a curious misreading the first are supposed to be on the outside. I would simply call attention to the fact that the higher forms only exist in the lower crusts, in their compounded form--not of course in their original form: otherwise they would simply fly off.

     As to the third point,--the number of degrees. The six degrees or finites from the sun to matter, which the Principia mentions, agree entirely with the teaching that there are three degrees of the Divine accommodation or tempering before we come at all to the three degrees of the heavens themselves. Degrees are many; Jacob's ladder probably had more than three steps, but always for purposes of rational consideration they are reducible to three,--which may be variously grouped according to the series.

     To the fourth point,--the bottom of the primeval ocean, the answer is contained in the teachings concerning the nature of the finites, that they are hard and resisting bodies, and when compacted, as the fourth finites are in the center of the earth, they are among the most resistive of all created things, and not a "kind of very thin gas." For in their stock substance they take back to the simples, which take back to the Infinite itself. They act, as it were, like the Divine Left Hand, reached out from the sun and placed under His work which he was engaged in fashioning with His Right.

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For there must be an anvil as well as a hammer for the forging of each link. If a familiar illustration will be of any assistance, let me instance the soap-bubble. The "bottom" of the sea which forms it is the imprisoned air. But this merely by way of illustration.

     Why the solids could not be formed at the center of the earth's mass, but had to be formed near the surface, is thoroughly explained in Volume II, of the Principia, page 276. (See also No. 10 on page 283, where resistance is described as of two kinds--from intense motion and from compression produced by a superincumbent weight.)

     As to the fifth point,--the reiterated charge that Swedenborg traces everything back to mathematical points which are "nothing," this has again been so ably and completely refuted by Mr. Doering that I need do no more than refer the reader to his paper.*
     * See pages 229, 230 of this magazine.

     Now as to the sixth point,--the formation of the solids at the bottom of the primeval ocean. The teaching is that certain crystals were formed and precipitated by pressure, breaking up as stated; and then, the pressure being relieved, certain fourth and fifth finites were somewhat freed, and came to the surface, together with some of these substances, and these entered into the formation of a crust. This, however, was successive as to its three degrees. It is not true, that according to Swedenborg all the metals and rocks were "formed at the bottom and then floated up," for only certain halogen salts and the beginnings of the mineral compactures were there formed, the completion of this process being effected afterwards, gradually, by means of the reaction of water, air and other things, the last being formed when vegetables had grown and decomposed. This is shown where the formation of iron, of gold, and of some secondary ores are described at length. Thus the three degrees of mineral growth are referable to three distinct cosmic epochs.

     But I can give here only a hint of all this; Enough, however, to show that it will not do to attack a single broad statement with out reading all the rest. To show how these primitive crystals could produce a variety of solids, I will simply call your attention to the fact recently discovered, that "angular compactures of fourth finites are what form the characteristic inert factor of the nitrogen and carbon compounds," and from modern chemistry we know what a variety of solids these are concerned in.

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     But to speak broadly,--is it not the universal law of nature that all solids are formed in and by their liquids, which are their menstrua? What forms the solids of the body but the blood? And what is the blood of the earth's crust but water? It is water that breaks down, and it is water that builds up, everything of the earth's surface;--this, of course, in conjunction with the sun's rays and the atmospheres. For water as we know corresponds to natural truth, by which all ultimate goods are brought forth. Let me only add to this the following from Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 178:--"Atmospheres are the active forces, waters are the mediate forces, and earths are the passive forces, from which all effects exist."

     As to the flood, and the part taken by such a catastrophe in the formation of the present strata,--hardly any one can deny that some such upheaval must have taken place at an early period of cosmic history. But whether this was the flood of Noah or not, Swedenborg did not profess to know, as Mr. Doering has also shown in his paper. Hence to adduce against this the teaching of the Writings, that by the flood of Noah was meant a spiritual upheaval, is beside the mark.

     As to the seventh point, let us leave that until we have cleared the deck of the two general objections urged against Swedenborg's system.

     First, as to the objection that it is complicated, and difficult to master.

     Any scientific-system needs, first its expounders, and then long and deep study to fathom all its depths, especially when it opens up new and unexplored regions. Who understands the theories of a Laplace or a Newton, except with the aid of deeply learned teachers; and even then it takes years. It is not a fault that the uninitiated cannot grasp all their intricacies without much study. How about the Theology of the Writings? The doctrine of degrees, for instance, is very complicated to the uninitiated, although in its general aspects simple enough to simple minds who make no effort to enter its penetralia.

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A child is satisfied with the merest sensual appearance, however fallacious; but a man wants to know How, and Why; he begins to compare and conclude; and then he encounters difficulties which must be met. Truth is manifold, though Good is one. It is a comfort to read in Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 306,--"It is enough then if the origin of the earths be perceived in some measure naturally." We can leave the particulars therefore to scholars.

     As to the other point we are asked: "If such an important and essential machinery as that which is represented in the Principia were really in existence, do you suppose that the Writings, when treating of the Creation, would have ignored its existence?"

     In answer to this, let me ask,-Because the Writings do not go into the detailed mechanism of these things, can they be said to ignore them? Are not the universal and general laws the same? Are we to be debarred from going into particulars because the Writings do not do so? On this basis, all the natural sciences are "wiped out of existence" because they are "ignored in the Writings."

     The position here would seem to be about that of the Mohammedans, who destroyed all books but the Koran upon the assumption that whatever was true was in the Koran, and whatever was not in the Koran was not true, and ought therefore to be destroyed.

     The fact is, that our science must begin where the Writings leave off. Science shows us the How, the Writings tell, What. This is revealed--but the other must be learned as it were from without, by investigation.

     This is true of all the sciences,--medicine, physics, botany, zoology and the rest. They are all touched upon in the Writings, and in some cases many important teachings given upon them; but are the sciences to stop here, where they begin? Are we not, on the contrary, directed to enter into the whole field of nature for the purpose of confirming the truths revealed from heaven?

     So now we come at last to the seventh point,--the manner or mechanism of the procedure from active to less active, and finally to the inert and fixed, which is after all the gist of any cosmogony. And here Mr. Potts exhibits more fully the misapprehension of the doctrine of Reactives which led him astray as to point one, above.

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The question is this: flow did inertness originate at the margin of infinite activity? Does activity become less active of itself, or must there be some colliding of activities whereby the necessary limitation may he effected?

     It seems to be admitted that the Principia is right as far as the formation of the atmospheres themselves is concerned,--namely, that they are formed by a process of composition. But when we come to matters, Mr. Potts says that these are not formed by any further composition, but by a mere condensation of the atmospheres already formed,-just as steam condenses into water, and this again into ice, by cooling and thus losing its activity. A better illustration for his purpose would have been the liquefying and solidifying of the air itself. Perhaps, however, this illustration was not used, because it suggests at once the enormous pressure required to condense it.

     Mr. Potts says (page 196):

     One of the true points in the theory is that matters originated by compression. But the theory is in error in regard to the cause of this compression. It attributes it to the pressure of the superincumbent mass of sea-water; whereas the Writings say that it was owing to the atmospheres becoming inert as they advanced further away from the sun. It was a mere loss of activity in them. It was NOT that they were SQUEEZED TOGETHER or that anything already formed had to be broken up; but by becoming inert the atmospheres condensed into those grosser forms that we call matters.

     This is indeed a curious explanation,--that compression takes place without any squeezing together ! and in fact, that limitation took place without any reactive forces, but that things "just got that way." This is indeed "simple and childlike" (p. 190), but it does not explain,--it is the answer suitable for the innocence of ignorance, not for a mature mind. We might well pass it by as a simple failure to explain did it not undertake to deity that the Writings teach the need of any reactive force in the production of ultimate matter, and thus reverse the whole order of influx, of action and reaction, and thus teach that nature in her ultimates follows a law different from that which obtains upon all the higher planes. (See the Concordance under "Influx," "Action") As it is written in Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 263: "In the greatest and least things of the universe, both living and dead, there are action and reaction; hence comes the equilibrium of all things." (See also n. 68, "In everything created by God there is reaction etc.)

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     PART III.

     Having undertaken to show the utter unreliability of Swedenborg's work as a Scientist before his call, the writer of the paper nevertheless feels called upon to explain how by these things he was prepared for his high office,--for the change is manifestly startling. He therefore explains:--

     A man can be prepared for an office by making mistakes, as well as by not making them. Swedenborg's case, the preparation for his office consisted in the mental training he underwent during the first fifty-seven years of his life; and it did not consist in being able to write New Church Science before he had been prepared to write it.

     To this answer, that scientific truths, capable of receiving and supporting the truths of the New Church, did exist and must have existed in the world before the Second Coming. Truths of this sort are provided of the Lord as it were from without. Neither can a rational mind be formed and developed by anything but truths, to which errors serve only as shadows.

     In infancy and childhood are many things which are not uses or truths in themselves, which nevertheless serve to introduce into uses and truths; they are like the scaffolding which, after the building is up, is a mere encumbrance; or like swaddling clothes. Such is all the thought and effort expended upon sports. But these are all as it were miniature uses; and even these serve to initiate the real states of good and truth,--like the scaffolding, which is all the time being used to lay the stones of the real building. There are, however, at first two kinds of things present,-- viz., those which will eventually be capable of receiving Divine Truth, and those which will absolutely disagree with and reject them; and a man's growth, and the formation of his understanding, depend upon the gradual elimination of the latter, and the confirming and appropriation of the former. The understanding is an organ of the spirit, just as the brain is an organ of the mind, or as the eye is the organ of vision. (See A. C., 3726)

     Now these organs are formed and perfected by their delights, which feed them. And they will take on a quality and form in agreement with that which enters into their composition. It is lust like the body itself and its food. A great deal enters in at the mouth which is not fit to nourish the system, and the digestive apparatus does exercise itself considerably in the elimination of it; but these are not the substances which build up, and thus form the body, and prepare it for its uses.

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Even the stomach itself is formed and maintained, not by the things which it rejects, but by the things which it imbibes. Therefore to say that a rational mind is formed and equipped for its uses by errors is entirely too sweeping. It is only by the elimination of errors that the mind grows; thus by truth alone can rationality be formed. The mere mental exercise expended in the pursuit of error may perhaps sharpen the sensual wits, but build a truly rational mind,--never.

     From what has now been shown, can we not see that Mr. Potts was at least premature in claiming that he takes his stand upon the Writings, and that those who "cling desperately" to Swedenborg's system of science do not?

     But let us briefly sum up. Mr. Potts bases his attack, first, upon several scientific objections, which, except in one case, I have shown to be not indisputable, from their own authorities. The further discussion of this branch of the subject is therefore left open for the New Church scientist. Secondly, in all the array of alleged discrepancies between the works under discussion and the Writings, we have found a misapprehension as to the teaching either of the one or the other--or, indeed, of both. (See p. 235, etc., above.)

     Instead of disagreement in each of these cases, the most wonderful harmony is seen to exist--and it is this which renders his science worthy of the high place which it occupies in our minds. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT.
BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN 1901

BLESSED ARE THEY THAT MOURN       Rev. FRED E. WAELCHLI       1901

     "Blessed are they that mourn; for they shall be comforted."--Matthew v., 4.

     IT is evident that mourning because of natural or worldly misfortunes is not here meant; for comfort does not always follow such mourning; and even when it does follow it cannot render man blessed, because in merely worldly comfort there is nothing of eternal happiness. But mourning because of spiritual misfortune is meant, that is, because of the lack of good and truth.

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They who mourn because of such misfortune will be comforted, and will be blessed.

     In the Word of the Old Testament mourning is frequently mentioned, and as the Churches before the Lord's Coming were representative Churches, mourning represented spiritual grief of mind on account of there being no truth and good. For mourning was on account of oppression by an enemy, on account of the death of a father or mother, and other like circumstances; and by oppression by an enemy was signified oppression by evils which are from hell, and by father and mother was signified the Church as to good and as to truth. And so also in other cases, spiritual mourning represented, with a difference according to the cause of the mourning.

     Every regenerating person desires to receive good and truth from the Lord, in order that by the reception of them he may enter into conjunction with the Lord, and receive from Him eternal life. Desiring this, he turns to the Word, wherein the Lord reveals the way of life, and acknowledges and lives according to the truths there given, and thereby his heart and mind are opened, and good and truth inflow from the Lord. In the good and truth thus received does he find his happiness. But there are times when it seems to him as if he had lost these heavenly gifts, bestowed upon him by the Lord. The reason why they seem to have been lost is because the evil loves and lusts of his natural man, having been excited by evil spirits, have taken possession of him, filling his mind with evil thoughts and affections. Nevertheless, the good and truth, which had been implanted, have not been lost, but abide within; and the good spirits, who are with man, seek to draw them forth.

     Thus there arises in man a collision and combat between evil and falsity on the one hand and good and truth on the other, causing in him an interior anxiety, which is called temptation. When man is in this state he spiritually mourns, grieving for the apparent loss of good and truth, and the apparent absence of the Lord from him; it seems to him as if everything constituting the Church in him had become totally devastated. But such is not the case, for the Lord is never, nearer to man than at just such times, helping him and sustaining him in his struggle against his evils, by the great power of the Divine Truth revealed in the Word.

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He who will turn to the Word of the Lord in the hour of temptation will receive strength from on high to endure unto the end; for he will find there the Divine Assurance that the Mercy of the Lord never departs from those who look to Him in their afflictions; and this assurance will fill him with hope and appease his restlessness of mind. Thus does the Lord comfort him. And greater still will be the fulness of that comfort when the temptation is over, the evil which had infested having been removed. Like as the glorious light of the sun spreads its bright rays over the green fields, after the dark clouds of the storm have been dispersed, and imparts joy and gladness to all nature, lifting the drooping head of the plant and bestowing a new beauty on the flower, so does the Lord, as the Sun of Heaven, shine in with comfort, after a state of temptation is passed, insinuating good and truth such as man knew not before, and gifting him with a new will, a new freedom, and a new proprium. In that comfort is heavenly blessedness. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

     Without temptations man cannot be regenerated, thus cannot attain unto eternal life and happiness. Unless man mourn, he cannot be comforted, and cannot be of the blessed. Therefore the Lord says in Luke: "Blessed are ye that weep now; for ye shall laugh. But woe unto you that laugh now; for ye shall mourn and weep" (Luke vi., 21, 25). They that weep are those who endure temptations; that these shall laugh signifies that they will be comforted and be of the blessed. But they that laugh now, are those who do not have temptations, because they have no desire for good and truth, and who give themselves up to the control of evil spirits; and live in the enjoyment of merely selfish and worldly delights. These, when they enter the other life, will mourn and weep, that is, will be in eternal misery. In the other life selfish and worldly delights are turned into weeping and mourning; these are the retributions and punishments which are meant in the Word by torments in hell,--and the hatred thence derived against the Lord, and against all things of heaven and the church, is meant by hell fire. Let all those, therefore, who lead a merely selfish and worldly life, know that just so great as is their pleasure and delight in such a life, so great also will be their eternal torment and misery.

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     They who live a merely selfish and worldly life, do have indeed,--like the good,--anxieties during their life in this world; but these are natural, and not spiritual anxieties; the two are distinguished by this, that natural anxieties have worldly things for their objects, but spiritual anxieties, heavenly things; they who have merely the former anxieties will not be comforted; but they who have the latter, will.

     There are but few who at this day experience spiritual temptations, because there are but few who are in the knowledges of good and truth, and still fewer who are in the marriage of good and truth,--that is, in truths as to doctrine, and at the same time in goods as to life; and no others but those are allowed to enter into spiritual temptations, inasmuch as if others were they would fall in temptations; and if they fell their latter state would be worse than their former state.

     The reason why no others can be allowed to fall into spiritual temptations but they who are in the marriage of good and truth, is because the spiritual mind, which properly is the inner man, cannot be opened in any others. Man has a spiritual mind and a natural mind, and each of these must be regenerated, in order that the entire man may be so. But the spiritual or internal mind is first regenerated by the Lord, and the natural or external afterwards, and the latter by means of the former. The internal mind is regenerated by embracing the truths of the Word concerning faith and charity, and by being filled with an earnest desire to live according to the same. When such is the state of the internal mind, there dwells in it the marriage of good and truth. It is then that the external mind can be regenerated, by being brought into a life of obedience to the internal. When the regeneration of the internal mind has been effected, and the regeneration of the external is about to take place, then it is that man enters into spiritual temptations. But if the internal mind has not been regenerated, and thus opened, there can be no temptations. The reason is, because heaven, that is, the Lord by heaven, through man's internal mind, flows into his external mind. There is no other way for heaven, that is, for the Lord by heaven, to reach man. And when heaven flows in, it removes the hindrances, which are evils and the falsities thence, which reside in the external mind, or in the natural man, and they cannot be removed save by a living acknowledgment of them by man, and with grief of soul on account of them.

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Hence it is, that in temptations man experiences anguish from the evils and falsities rising up into the thought; and in proportion as the man then acknowledges his sins, looks upon himself as guilty, and prays earnestly for deliverance, in the same proportion temptations are of use to him. From this it is evident, that man comes into spiritual temptation when his internal, which is called the spiritual mind, is opened, thus when he is in the way of being regenerated.

     When man's evils and falsities are removed then temptations are brought to an end; and being ended, joy flows in through heaven from the Lord, and fills his external or natural mind. This joy is what is understood in our text by the comfort which follows the mourning. All receive this comfort who undergo spiritual temptations. The reason why there is now comfort, is because the conjunction of marriage of good and truth has been effected also ill the external mind. Conjunction itself causes comfort, because it is the end of temptations; for everyone, when he comes to the end, has comfort according to the hard things which he suffered during temptations. In general it is to be noted, that every conjunction of good and truth is effected by temptations; the reason is, because evils and falses combat, and as it were rebel, and by every method try to hinder the conjunction of good with truth, and of truth with good. This combat exists between the spirits attendant on man, namely, between the spirits who are in evils and falses and the spirits who are in goods and truths; this is perceived in man like a temptation, as in himself; when therefore the spirits, who are in evils and falses, are conquered by the spirits who are in goods and truths, and forced to recede, the latter have joy through heaven from the Lord; this joy also is perceived by man as comfort, as in himself; but the joy and comfort are not on account of victory, but on account of the conjunction of good and truth; for every conjunction of good and truth in itself has joy, since it is the heavenly marriage, wherein is the Divine. The joy which man feels after temptations is the joy of heaven,--the joy which the angels have there. He has become of the blessed.

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"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

     The regenerating man is sustained during his states of temptation by the hope of the comfort which the Lord promises to those that mourn. Indeed, this hope is his comfort even in the time of mourning. While man is in temptations the good spirits and angels who are present seek to continually keep him in hope; and he who suffers himself to be cheered with hope remains steadfast in what is affirmative, that is, ill spite of the determined assaults of the hells; he continues to look to the Lord, confident that in the end the power of the Divine Truth will prevail. And not only does the Lord inspire man with hope mediately through the angels, but also immediately from Himself; for during temptations He is present, resisting the hells, by refuting the falses of the infernal spirits, and by dissipating their evils. This the regenerating man feels, for he realizes that a power not his own,--a power which can he the Lord's alone,--is sustaining him and saving him from utter destruction. The perception of this Divine presence and aid fills him with hope and encourages him to endure unto the end. Hope is essential to endurance in temptations; without it, would not look to the Lord, would not turn to His Word, would not combat against his evils, but would succumb to the power of hell. Therefore even in the darkest hour of despair there is with the regenerating man from the Lord something of hope, comforting him in his mourning; therefore it is said in the Word: "Blessed is he, whose hope is in the Lord, His God" (Ps. cxlvi., 5); "The Lord will be the hope of His People" (Joel iii., 16); "Be of good courage, all ye that hope in the Lord" (Ps. xxxi., 23.) ; "Thy mercy be unto us, according as we hope in Thee" (Ps. xxxiii., 22); "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance" (Ps. xlii., 5); "My soul fainteth. but I hope in Thy Word" (Ps. cxix., 81).

     Hope is spoken of in very many places in the apostolic writings, for with the primitive Christian Church it was one of the principal virtues. This, Paul teaches, where he says: "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three" (I. Cor. xiii., 13). With everyone who would attain unto salvation, these three must abide.

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     In order that hope may abide in man and sustain him in states of temptation it is necessary that he should have previously learned the truths of the Word, and have received the same with affection. The truths thus acquired and confirmed, as it were flow-in from the Lord when man is in temptation, and raise him up as often as he falls Into doubts and despair. Every temptation-combat is a combat against some particular evil or falsity, and in it man is sustained by some particular truth which he has learned; this truth is then the governing truth with him and the source of his hope. Other truths indeed are also on such occasion recalled, but they do not govern the interiors. Sometimes the truth which governs is not presented to view before the understanding, but lies hid in what is obscure, and still governs: for the Divine of the Lord flows-in into it, and thereby keeps the interiors of the mind in it. But it is not the truth itself, but the affection of that truth, by which the Lord governs those who are in temptations; for the Divine flows-in only into those things which are of the affection. The truth which is implanted and inrooted in a man's interiors, is implanted and inrooted by affection, and not at all without it. The truth which has been implanted and inrooted by affection, remains, and is recalled by affection; and when such truth is thus recalled it presents also the affection which is conjoined to it. The affection of truth, thus awakened to life by the Lord, strengthens man in his temptations, and is the genuine source of his comfort and hope.

     That the truth of the Word and of doctrine implanted by affection, is man's comfort in temptations, is evident from the Word, here we read: "Even when I walk in the valley of shadow, I shall fear no evil, for Thou are with me, Thy rod and Thy staff, they will console me." By the rod and staff which console or comfort man in temptations, are meant the truths of the Word. These truths comfort, because man knows that in them there is power to protect him against the hells.

     "THY rod and THY staff will console me." It is the Lord's truth, thus the Lord Himself as the Word, who comforts man in temptations. He alone can impart to man the hope of salvation. In vain does man seek to comfort himself; for he who seeks to do this will surely fall in temptation.

     That man cannot comfort himself, but that he must be comforted by another, that is, by the Lord, is evident from the root meaning of the Greek word translated in our text "shall be comforted."

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This word-paraklethesontai-means "to be called for," i. e., to be invited to come to one's self. It is the Lord who invites man to come to Himself; and he who responds to this call will be comforted. The Lord says: "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are burdened, and I will revive you" (Matt. xi., 28). Man comes to the Lord when he interiorly acknowledges Him, and resists the evils which are with him; for then he is led by the Lord, and not by himself, and the Lord resists and removes the evils.

     The word paraklethesontai, or "shall be comforted," means also, in a derivative sense, to be animated, encouraged, aided, helped; also to be instructed, as also to be cheered, exhilarated, and filled with joy, gladness and rejoicing. All these things are involved in the comfort which they that mourn receive from the Lord. During temptation He animates, encourages, aids, helps, and instructs man; and when the temptation is past, and man enters into the fulness of comfort, then does He cheer and exhilarate him, and fill him with joy, gladness, and rejoicing. "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

     That the Lord Jesus Christ is the Paraclete, or Comforter, He Himself clearly teaches in John, where he says: "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He map abide with YOU forever,--the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you" (John xiv., 16, 17).

     Here the Lord tells that He Himself is the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, who will come: "I will not leave you comfortless; I will come to you." The reason why He says that He will pray the Father to send the Comforter, is because by the Father is signified the Divine Good; and it is from the Divine Good of the Lord that the Spirit of Truth proceeds. The Lord Jesus Christ in His Divine Human is the Divine Good itself; and therefore the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, is the Divine Truth proceeding from Him. It is the Lord as the Divine Truth, within which is the Divine Good-thus the Lord as the Word--who comforts man in temptations, and bestows upon him, after temptations, that heavenly comfort, which is eternal blessedness.

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     We have seen that it is only the regenerating man, or the man in whom there is good and truth, who is brought into states in which he spiritually mourns; and his mourning is because of the apparent loss of good and truth, thus because of the apparent devastation of the Church with him; but that after the mourning comes the comfort from the Lord, and the firmer establishment of the Church with him. As it is with the individual, so also it is with the Church in general. When a Church comes to its end, having been devastated, the few in that Church who are in goods and truths, mourn, because it seems as if all good and truth would perish. But this cannot be, for the Lord always provides that there should be a Church; and when the consummation is at hand, He makes His Advent and establishes a new Church, into which are collected those who are in goods and truths; thus are they that mourn comforted and made blessed.

     It was thus when the Jewish Church came to its end, and the Lord made His Advent and established the Christian Church, and the same was the case when the Christian Church reached its end; for we read in Matthew (xxiv.), where the Lord foretells the end of that Church and His Coming then to establish the New Church: "Then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn; and they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory." That the tribes of the earth shall mourn, signifies, that all who are in the good of love and the truth of faith shall be in grief. That they shall then see the Son of Man coming, signifies that the Lord will make His Second Coming and reveal the internal sense of the Word, and establish a New Church, wherein those that mourn will find their comfort and their blessedness. There are indeed at this day but few who are willing to receive the comfort and blessedness which can be found in the New Church, and this is because there are in the vastate Christian Church but few who spiritually mourn--but few who are in grief of mind because of the devastation of good and truth. The Christian world does not mourn; therefore also it does not feel the need of comfort.

     But the New Church will not be without its states of mourning. This Church, as consisting of all those who acknowledge the Lord in His Second Coming, must have, like the individual man of the Church, its days of mourning; without them there can be no progress, because no putting away of imperfections.

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These days of mourning of the Church are the states in which, because of infestations from hell, the goods and truths, which are treasured, seem in danger of being extinguished. 'The New Church, as we know from its history, has more than once been in such states; but after the trial there has always been comfort from the Lord. As it has been in the past, so it will be in the future: the days of mourning will come; but we can be sure that they will always be followed by comfort, if we remain steadfast in the affection of truth; for then will the Lord encourage us with hope during the trial, especially with the hope contained in His Promise, that the New Church will endure to eternity as the crown of all churches which have hitherto existed; and when the trial is over, we shall find a blessedness of heavenly life in the Church, such as was not known before.--"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."-Amen.
NEW EDITION OF THE "PROPHETS AND PSALMS." 1901

NEW EDITION OF THE "PROPHETS AND PSALMS."       E. S. P       1901

     A NEW translation of the Prophets and Psalms,* translated and edited by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, and published by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society (1900), has been for some time before us. While this beautiful production of the printer's art has deserved an earlier notice, it will surely be in this case better late than never, for the Work in itself is of eternal value and will never cease to be worthy of notice.
     * PROPHETS AND PSALMS, or Summaries of the Internal Sense of the Prophetical Books. The Psalms of David, the Historical parts of the Word; a posthumous work of Emanuel Swedenborg, servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. New York. American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society. 1900. pp., 168, with Indexes. 312. Price, 75c.
     THE SAME in Latin and English: pp. 168, with indexes, 312. Price, $1.00.

     The editor's preface gives a careful description of the manuscript of the original Latin; it also mentions the titles under which previous editions of the English translations have been issued, and gives reasons for a slight change in the title of this one. The translator also speaks of the great difficulty of reproducing in type certain peculiarities of the original, and explains the expedients resorted to by which to obviate the difficulty.

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     The preface closes with a quotation from the introduction by the editor of the first Latin edition as follows:-

"TO THE KIND READER.

     "Among some of Swedenborg's letters were found the following remarkable and noteworthy references about the present work:

     "'Once when I was reading this book, celestial angels were present with me, who rejoiced greatly at heart over my intention of publishing it for the common good of the New Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.'

     "In order that the joy of the celestial angels be not vain, we adjudged it highly necessary to make this very useful little book public. Deign to receive the new treasure with a thankful mind, use it with a pious and sincere heart, and live forever."

     After the editor's preface follows an introduction by the editor and translator for the benefit of those unacquainted with the doctrines of the New Church, of which more further on.

     Following the introduction are five pages of "Intimations of this little work found in other works by Emanuel Swedenborg." It is well known to all Newchurchmen that Swedenborg wrote exhaustive treatises on but three of the books of the Word, namely, the Arcana, which treats seriatim of Genesis and Exodus, and the Apocalypse Explained and the Apocalypse Revealed, which treat of the Apocalypse. But, while he has not treated of the other books seriatim in extenso, he frequently mentions having studied and perceived the Internal Sense throughout, and the results of these studies are given seriatim in brief forms or summaries which constitute the work under review. The frequent mention of these studies are collected by the editor and here given in full, and are what is meant by "Intimations."

     On page three of the work proper is given a list of works "to be published" found written on the first page of the original manuscript. On page four are found references to "the Lord's State of Humiliation." These two things are not found in the Tafel edition of Summaria Expositio of 1860.

     The "Table of Subjects"--which we have been accustomed to call the "Universals"--is printed on a folder attached to page four, so that it may be laid open to view whenever using the work. As these "subjects" are continually referred to in every chapter and psalm this arrangement is a great convenience.

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The restoration of these marginal indexes of the author, which have been strangely omitted from some of the later editions, is a marked excellence of the present one.

     The summaries proper begin on page seven of the work; each summary is printed in a paragraph by itself, which is a new arrangement, and it seems to us a good one. This has, however, involved discretion on the part of the editor; indeed the editor himself says so in his preface, in regard in the placing of the numbers referring to the "Table of Subjects," and also in regard to the division of verses in cases where two summaries refer to one verse. As the editor says, "wherever in this respect a question may arise in the mind of the reader, recourse must be had to the original manuscript or its facsimile."

     The translation is in the main excellent; we could well wish that all translations of the Writings were as well done. To one thing, however, we must demur, namely, to the rendering of the phrase celebratio Domini, which rendering is always, so far as we have been able to see, "a song in praise of the Lord." We do not see the necessity of this interpretation-for it is not a translation--since there ought to be no difficulty in understanding the expression "celebration of the Lord." Furthermore the Latin language is in nowise wanting in words adequate to express in distinct form the idea "a song in praise of the Lord," and if this had been the thing meant we see no reason why it should not have been so expressed by Swedenborg. The first definition of "celebrate" in Webster's Dictionary is "To extol or honor in a solemn manner; as, to celebrate the name of the Most High." Is not this exactly what is done in those Psalms where the phrase celebratio Domini occurs?

     The work proper contains one hundred and sixty-eight octave pages, which are followed by one hundred and forty-three pages devoted to an exhaustive "Index of Words and Subjects," which again is followed by one page of "Index of Scripture Passages." These indexes are of great value to any student of the Word of God, but the value to the clergyman,--for instance in selecting portions suitable for use in public warship,--could hardly be estimated. For every addition to the literature of the New Church of such works as Potts' Concordance and this index, the Church is to be congratulated and the author thanked.

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     To go into the uses of the Summary Exposition to the Newchurchman in this review would seem to be unnecessary when it is considered that the teaching is well known that the Word is with man according to doctrine and that without doctrine it is not understood. When man reads the Word devoutly, with the knowledge in his mind that it contains an internal sense, even though that knowledge be not present in his conscious thought, the angels who are in the internal sense flow in and illumine his mind, still more so when even the generals of the internal sense are present in his conscious thought.

     We referred above to an introduction by the editor which professes to be "designed more especially for such readers as have not yet the knowledge of the doctrines of the New Church which is required for an intelligent use of this work." This introduction, while perfectly correct doctrinally, seems to us a little out of place. While we admit that there is a considerable difference of opinion in regard to such introductions, we question the propriety of them in these works of Divine Revelation. The introduction here found would make an excellent missionary tract and advertisement for the work, but, we think, should have been in separate form.

     The work under review has also been published in opposite pages with the original Latin, making with other like publications of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society a very convenient form for those who are studying Swedenborg's Latin or who wish continually to verify translations. As to the paragraphing and numbering of the Latin the same holds good as was said above concerning the English. The typographical beauty of the work is well worthy of notice. E. S. P.
NEW EDITION OF THE PSALMS IN LATIN 1901

NEW EDITION OF THE PSALMS IN LATIN       E. S. P       1901

     EVERY one interested in the translation of the Divine Word into his vernacular ought to hail with delight the book just lately put into our hands Psalmi ex Lingua Originali in Latinam ab Emanuele Swedenborgia translati, cum locis in operibus ejus per numeros et variationibus omnibus.-(The Psalms, Translated from the Original Language into Latin by Emanuel Swedenborg, together with the passages in his works and all variations indicated by numbers.*)
     * New York. American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society. 1900, pp. 257. Price, 75 cents.

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     The book is typographically an exquisite production and reflects great credit upon the taste of the editor and the publishers. In order to set forth the scope, purposes and methods of the work we can not do better than to translate the editor's preface, which is as follows:

     "This edition of the Psalms, prepared by order of the General Convention of the New Jerusalem, shows all the translations made by Emanuel Swedenborg, together with the passages in his works designated by numbers, and at the same time all the variations. The verses or parts of verses not translated by Swedenborg, with emendations, have been drawn from the version of Seb. Schmidius, which on account of its accuracy was esteemed very highly and frequently used by Swedenborg.

     "Messrs. Le Boys des Guays and Harle gave forth with great care a similar edition at Paris in 1877, but of the Index Biblicus, certainly of great value, they made but little use, nor did they fully show the variations. Searle's Index, of London, 1883, shows great fidelity, but, contrary to reason, omits the Adversaria and Index Biblicus. The labors of W. H. Alden, P. B. Cabell, E. Could, L. G. Hoeck, L. Rich, F. Sewall, G. N. Smith, L. H. Tafel, J. E. Werren, J. Whitehead, H. W. Wright and the undersigned, clergymen of the Convention, collected, in the years 1896 and 1897, all the translations of the Word made by Swedenborg and thereby very greatly promoted this edition. Nevertheless I have investigated the translation anew and have twice examined the precious Indexes. Many thanks are due the Reverend E. J. E. Schreck for his revision of these pages.

     "T. F. WRIGHT, Cambridge Theological School, 1999."

     This edition, unlike that of Le Boys des Guays and Harle, gives nothing of the internal sense of the Psalms, but only designates by numbers where it may be found in the Writings, and this to a considerable extent more fully than does their edition. As intimated in the editor's preface, the Adversaria and Index Biblicus are continually referred to, but the Summary Exposition of the Prophets and Psalms is not referred to at all. This no doubt seemed unnecessary, as the Summary Exposition is an index in itself.

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     It would be too prolix in a brief review like this to show to any great extent how great has been the care with which the work has been done; but taking at random a single Psalm--the sixty-third --and comparing with the edition of Le Boys des Guays and Harle, some idea of this painstaking can be obtained.

     The second verse shows five additional references to the Writings.

     The sixth verse shows five additional references and one variant reading not found in Le Boys des Guays and Harle.

     Verse eight shows four additional references.

     The tenth verse has a direct reference to Index Biblicus, while Le Boys des Guays and Harle refer indirectly, likewise also the eleventh verse.

     Great pains have been taken to indicate exactly what portion or portions of a verse have been translated by Swedenborg. In this Psalm, for instance, the tenth verse reads: Et isti "ad devastationem quaerunt animam" meam, "venient in inferiora terrae." The quotation marks indicate those portions translated by Swedenborg. Since the meam represents the inflection of a word in the original and not a separate word, it might seem hypercritical to indicate that this was not in Swedenborg's rendering, but it argues well for the care of the editor. In one instance, in verse seven, not translated by Swedenborg, the editor has followed Schmidius in translating a word in the original cubili meo where Le Boys des Guays and Harle have strato meo,--to better advantage, it seems to us, since the original root means to "strew" or "spread out."

     These few examples will suffice to show that the work has been prepared with the utmost vigilance, and we could not recommend it too highly to all who are interested in knowing just how and to what extent the Word was turned into Latin by Swedenborg.

     One thing in this edition seems a pity, and that is, a new set of abbreviations for references to the Writings has been introduced. It would seem to us much better either to follow the great standard index now before us, namely, Potts's Concordance, or to accept the abbreviations with which we have heretofore been most familiar. E. S. P.

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CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE 1901

CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE              1901

[DE VERBO.]

     CONCERNING THE ANCIENT WORD, WHICH IS LOST.

     [1]. I have been told by the angels of the third heaven, that there was a Word among the ancients which was written purely by correspondences, as is our Word, but that it has been lost; and it was said that this Word is still preserved among them, and is in use with the ancients in that heaven, who had possessed that Word while they were in the world. These ancient ones, with whom that Word is still in use in the heavens, were in Part from the land of Canaan and its borders, and also from various kingdoms in Asia, such as Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia, Chaldea, and Assyria, and also from Egypt, and from Zidon and Tyre; the inhabitants of all these kingdoms were in representative worship, and hence in the knowledge of correspondences. The wisdom of that age was from that science among them, since by it they had communication with the heavens and interior perception, and with many there was also conversation with spirits. But inasmuch as that Word was full of such correspondences as signified heavenly things in a remote manner, and hence in the course of time began to be falsified by many, therefore, by the Lord's Divine Providence, it gradually disappeared, and another Word was given, which was composed of correspondences not so remote, and this was given through the Prophets among the Sons of Israel. In that Word there were still retained the names of the places in the land of Canaan and round about in Asia, and they signified the like things [as in the ancient Word].

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On this account the posterity of Abraham, by Jacob, were led into the land of Canaan, and a Word was written there in which these same places were to be mentioned.

     [2]. That there was such a Word among the ancients is evident also from Moses, who speaks of it, and who took certain things from it, as in the book of Numbers xxi., 14, 27. The historical parts of that Word were called "The Wars of Jehovah," and the prophetical parts were called "Enunciations." From the historical parts of that Word Moses took the following passage: "Wherefore it is said in the Book of the Wars of Jehovah, at Waheb in supha, and by the streams at Arnon; and by the watercourse of the streams which went down even unto the place where Ar is inhabited, and it touched upon the border of Moab" (Numbers xxi., 14, 15). By the "Wars of Jehovah" in that Word were meant and signified the combats of the Lord with the hells, and His victories over them, when He should come into the world. These same combats are also meant and described in many places in the historical parts of our Word, as by the wars of Joshua with the nations in the land of Canaan, in the book of the Judges, and in the wars of David and the other kings.

     [3.] From the prophetical parts of the ancient Word the following passages were taken by Moses: "Wherefore the Prophetical Enunciations say: Pass ye into Heshbon; let the city of Sihon be built and strengthened; for a fire hath gone out of Heshbon, a flame out of the city of Sihon; it hath devoured Ar of Moab, the lords of the high places of Arnon. Woe unto thee, Moab; thou hast perished, O people of Chemosh; he hath given his sons that escaped, and his daughters, into captivity to Sihon, the king of Amorite. With darts we have destroyed them; Heshbon hath perished even unto Dibon, and we have laid them waste even unto Nophach, which is even unto Medeba." (Numbers xvi., 27-30.) Tat these prophetical things were called "Enunciations,"-and not "Proverbs" or "Composers of Proverbs" as the translators have rendered it,--is manifest from the signification of the word "Mash'lim [Hebrew], in the Hebrew tongue, which means not only     "proverbs" but also "prophetical enunciations," as may be evident from Numbers xxiii., 7, 18, and xxiv., 3, 15, where it is said that Balaam gave forth his "enunciation," which also was a prophecy, treating of the Lord; his enunciation is there called Mashal in the singular. The things taken by Moses from those parts of the ancient Word are moreover prophetical, not proverbs.

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     WITH the present number we mail to subscribers the long-delayed index to New Church Life for 1900.



     THE program of the coming annual meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association is given on page 280.



     WHILE the omission of the General Assembly this year will be universally regretted in the General Church of the New Jerusalem, yet there are compensations; witness the extension of the Local Assembly idea, instanced in the occasion at Berlin at New Year, and in the coming one at Bryn Athyn.



     THE address of the Rev. John DeWitt, Professor of Church History at Princeton, N. J., on "Confessional Revision and the Present Crisis," delivered before the Presbyterian Union of New York, on March 4th, is perhaps the most notable utterance on the subject which has yet been made. From the Presbyterian viewpoint his attitude against revision of the Creed is consistent and sound. He says that the present period--one of doubt, of criticism of all things fundamental to the Church, of attack upon and apology for religious standards,--is not the time to formulate a faith; for if faith is to be anything it must be positive: that is,--"The age is one of doubt, not of faith. Or, looked at from the point of view of Christianity, it is not constructive, but apologetic."

     The address points out that by the four existing parties of revisionists,--each advocating a different course from the others,--nothing definite is offered, nothing upon which to rear a reasonably satisfactory structure in place of the one to be torn down. Most palpably, in such a condition of things revision offers nothing more probable disintegration. And much as we think the Presbyterian and all other creeds based on the tri-personal God-head need reconstruction,--or, rather, "mending with a brand new one,"--we are not prepared to maintain that anarchy of belief would be an improvement on the present state of things; in which the Word is still read and esteemed holy. It is hardly necessary to add that there is only one new creed that would he true, and that already is extant.



     PROFESSOR DeWitt's address does not confirm the hopeful view of the state of the Old Church taken by many members of the New. Speaking as the mouthpiece of the most conservative elements in the old organizations it is of interest to note what he has to say on the fundamental idea of all religion,--the idea of God.

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Here, while he refuses to follow that vanguard of "liberalists," who, under the preposterous theorem that "Religion does not require a Theology." ignore or deny the personality and visibility of God,--the Professor, from his rocky fastnesses, can himself hold up no more spiritual a standard than the merely natural personality of an arbitrary--and therefore an inconsistent, unjust and unmerciful--God. This conception of God is shown where the address seeks a way of escape from the horrible doctrine of the predestination to hell of all non-believers in Christ--including gentiles and those who die infants;--and he finds refuge in conceiving the possibility of immediate Divine mercy toward those to whom God is pleased to show it, regardless of their own co-operation. He seems to find no better middle course between universalism and the damnation of the unbaptized than to fall back on the wisdom of those framers of the Westminster Creed, who--"taught that the Holy Spirit can regenerate infants involved in the race's fall, and adults guilty of overt transgressions, without means, without priest or sacrament or Bible, whenever and wherever He chooses, pleases, elects--call it what you will--to do so. This is the crowning glory of our reformed theology, as contrasted with medievalism. (The italics are ours.) What a departure from the God of Divine attribute-of infinite Mercy and Justice, of perfect Wisdom and Love! What a departure from a religion which "is of life," and the life of which is, "to do good."



     ANNOUNCEMENT has been made that the Rev. John A. Hayes, until recently Pastor of the New Church Society at Salem, Mass., and one of the more active minds among the younger ministers of the General Convention, has resigned from his society and from the Convention, and has joined the Unitarians. In a communication to the Salem News of April 1st, Mr. Hayes gives his reasons for his step, amounting in brief to a complete surrender to the Higher Criticism, which has undermined his belief in the New Testament--regarded by him now as "a collection of human writings of fallible men,"--and from which he has discovered "very much internal evidence for the strictly human view of the life of Jesus." On March 31st he preached his farewell sermon to the New Church Society and on the following Sunday "began work in the Unitarian pulpit."

     For the man who has once had his eyes sufficiently opened to the falsities of the orthodox creeds to give even a superficial adherence to the Doctrines of the New Church, if he recedes from these also, there are left, practically, only the alternatives of Unitarianism and atheism. And we know of no easier, more flowery and seductive a path to either than that of the Higher Criticism.

     Commenting on this remarkable step the New-Church Messenger, not content with expressing sorrow, ventures to "voice the feelings of the great majority, if not of all in the New Church," in extending "to him out good will and our desire that he may meet with spiritual peace, blessing and comfort in his chosen field of labor."

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That the organ of the largest organization of the New Church should encourage or even suggest the idea that comfort may be found in turning the back on the Lord and His revealed Word is matter not only for grief, but for energetic protest. It suggests to the reader not only that the Messenger is carried away by the desire to say something pleasant, but that it entertains the old but baneful idea that that Church does not now stand as the world's sole hope of salvation, and it would be only a matter of time till its function would be fully assumed and its place taken by the organizations of the Old Church. The Messenger's utterance if deliberate and unqualified deals a blow at the foundations of the New Church.

     On the other hand, that journal in the same editorial clearly presents the irrationality and externalism of that view which on account of apparent inconsistencies in the Letter,--which the Writings show to be compatible with Divine inerrancy in the spiritual and essential meaning and life of the Word,--would reject Divine Revelation. To this we would add that the mind which for such reasons could give up the visible Lord and the consolation of Holy Writ must have had no other than a most remote and superficial grasp of the Doctrines of the Glorification and Redemption and of the Divine Mediation.

     This act of Mr. Hayes is made more prominent by the fact that only recently the Rev. Albert Bjorck, now of Sweden, has reached the same goal, by another flowery and mellow-lighted path--that of Universalism. In connection with the fact that these two men were both class-mates at the Convention Theological School at Cambridge, we are reminded of the striking warning that in 1889 was voiced by the New Church Reading Circle anent the then imminent removal of the Theological School from Waltham to Cambridge, that Unitarian and agnostic stronghold. Says the Reading Circle:--

     "Shall we be able to fulfill the spiritual responsibility thus assumed! Is there in the Church a sufficiently clear understanding of the position and mission of the New Church in the world, and a sufficiently loyal acceptance of our calling and commission to found and keep distinctive and unseduced a school of the prophets in the very glare and glitter of all 'the learning of the Egyptians.' We confess grave forebodings."
LETTER FROM ALLENTOWN 1901

LETTER FROM ALLENTOWN       S. A       1901

     A SILVER WEDDING: A CELEBRATION OF CONJUGIAL LOVE.

     THE little circle in Allentown was all astir on March 24th (and had been for some days previous), to celebrate the silver wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Ebert. The occasion was made more delightful presence of guests from Huntingdon Valley and Philadelphia: Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton, Mr. Acton (the pastor) and his wife, Mrs. and Miss Hobart, Messrs. Pitcairn, Starkey, Charles E. Cranch and Charles Ebert (son of the host and hostess).

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In the forenoon Bishop Pendleton conducted service at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ebert, the attendance being twenty-seven.

     In the afternoon we sat down-some twenty-eight in all--to an attractive and most bountiful table, served in the rooms where the morning service had been held.

     I'll not attempt to describe the home-like charm of that afternoon and evening together. There were speeches, songs and choruses, full of affection, there was music and quiet cheer; but these are not what make a show on paper or in the telling. It was the speeches, however, and the talk on Conjugial Love, which made this time so especially pleasant and useful. I only wish I could reproduce all the thoughts presented, and in their original force and form; there was a practical application and suggestiveness in the truths as brought out, such as we seem only too seldom to find time and occasion for.

     Mr. Acton acted as Toastmaster.

     After the toast and song to "Our Glorious Church," Mr. Charles Ebert responded to "Our Guests," and testified to the great use of visits from the friends living at the larger centers. He was followed by the veteran John Kessler, who answering to the toast, "The Bishop," spoke of the value of visits from the Head of the Church, instructing and drawing the members into touch with the life and progress of the Church in its wider activities, whereby that natural brotherhood which is founded on unity of faith and community of uses in the Church is strengthened and confirmed. His welcome to the Bishop was a hearty and a feeling one.

     Mr. Starkey then introduced the subject of the evening, "Conjugial Love," recalling the Divine promise that that love would be revived such as it was with the ancients, because the Lord has now made His Second Coming, and that love is from the Lord alone, and is with those only who by the Word are made spiritual. He dwelt on the importance of this promise as being dependent for its fulfilment upon the reception of the Church, and in warm colors he painted the "celestial blessedness, spiritual satisfactions and natural delights" of conjugial love, which come only to those who go to the Lord and keep His commandments. Conjugial love exists genuine only where it is in this order, that is, where the blessedness of celestial life descends through spiritual satisfactions to terminate in natural delights of marriage as of first importance; and yet where this is done the delight fails too, for there is nothing permanent or living about delight in itself apart from the love to the Lord and the neighbor which make conjugial love celestial and spiritual. It is well for us to dwell on this teaching that conjugial love is celestial, that we may elevate our ideals and hold before us a precious and holy goal. We are taught that "conjugial love is celestial when a man with his consort whom he tenderly loves, and with his children, lives content in the Lord," or, as it is expressed elsewhere, "content with his few goods in his little house." (A. C. 5051; S. D. 2614).

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Contentment in the Lord means a living trust, and this is a willingness to be led by the Lord; it is humility and innocence, the very seed of spiritual life. The goods of this life, be they many or be they few, are so many means provided by the Lord for leading us to Himself; and if we will but be led we may rest assured that we have just what is needful to enable us to receive the Divine blessings. It is this trust which is receptive of the Lord's gifts, and especially of that best of gifts, Conjugial Love. But most of us, be our store less or he it more abundant, are only too apt to be discontented about the things which we have not, and fail to trust and realize that these are not needed. Could we only see it, by the spirit of discontent we shut ourselves to the fulfillment of the promise that Conjugial Love shall be restored. Mr. Starkey spoke with feeling of the peaceful, spring-like quality of love, of how it goes hand in hand with religion and makes the home a center of all heavenly influences; and he closed with a charming picture of heaven resting upon earth in the home of that man who, "with mind content in the Lord, resides in his little house, tenderly loving his wife and children."

     The toast to "Mr. and Mrs. Ebert" was introduced in a somewhat novel manner. First Mrs. Weirbach recited the poem "Because," by Miss Procter, which breathes of the love before marriage, especially that of the bride; and this was followed by "Darby and Toan," sung by Miss India Waelchli, in which the wife speaks of the joys of a maturer and undying love. Mr. Waelchli, responding to the toast, began by reminding us of his long acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Ebert. He quoted the marriage notice that had appeared in the Allentown Friedensbote, of March 22, 1876, of the event which had taken place four days before, in the residence of the Rev. A. O. Brickman. Mr. Ebert's father had been an earnest and pious receiver and had led his family of five children in right paths. Mrs. Ebert herself had come into the circle to become one of the leading souls and to build up with her husband a home "filled with a mother's cares, never tiring, ever active. How far will reach the warm and quiet sphere of an earnest New Church woman? who will tell? That sphere will reach to Bryn Athyn, it will go to Pittsburg, it will go to Chicago and Glenview and to Canada: and it will reach a thousand nooks and corners elsewhere. It will reach to Heaven; and Heaven itself will reach down with handfuls of sweets and treasures, silver links and golden ties for man and wife, for the papas and the mammas." Mr. and Mrs. Ebert had sat under the ministrations of Mr. Brickman, of Mr. Louis Tafel, and of Mr. Schreck, and had shared in Academy teaching and Academy life and society; and in them both there had been inculcated esteem for the heavenly treasure,--Conjugial Love.

     Mr. Ebert made a response which contained a great deal more than could be measured or expressed by the number of words used.

     "Marriage, the Seminary of Heaven, was the theme to which Bishop Pendleton spoke, though his opening words were a lament that he could not hope do anything like justice to its boundless possibilities.

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The whole of heaven is in it, for the whole heaven rests in conjugial love as a basis and foundation for its life and uses. We are taught that "love is conjunction," and it is added that conjunction is use, so that love goes forth by conjunction into use. And especially is this true of conjugial love, for by it heaven itself is multiplied not only in numbers, but in quality and state: the two go together, for multiplication in numbers would be nothing, unless there multiplication in quality of state. In this sense conjugial love is the seminary of heaven by natural and by spiritual births. In the world there is the natural use of producing offspring, whereby the race is multiplied, but in heaven the same use exists in its spiritual form,--he angels have spiritual offspring. From their conjugial love are produced ever new affections and ideas, and from these spring uses ever growing more perfect Wherever there is union there is a product. This is a universal law operative on every place. How great then the use of the union of Man and Wife in conjugial love! The use of natural offspring is confined to this world, but we must not think of this as the only or the principal use of conjugial love; it is the ultimate, in which the higher uses clothe themselves. While we are on earth it is the first in time, but not in end. Indeed it ceases with life on earth, but conjugial love itself continues to eternity, and its fruitfulness is also eternal.

     But we do not have to wait for heaven that there may conjugial love spiritual offspring. By the conjunction of consorts,--by conversation especially on things of the Church,--by application to uses,--in these and in other ways the union of minds is effected and from these there will be a spiritual product of love and wisdom, ever perfecting the uses in which the angels are engaged. We know very little of the uses of heaven except that they are spiritual. The uses of the Church are also spiritual but in the heavens they are myriads to every one that exists in the Church. It is from this that we can see something of the spiritual uses of conjugial love, in that from it are born those affections and thoughts that establish the Church and Heaven with man, and enable him to perform spiritual uses in the Church while on earth, and in heaven to eternity. The natural use of marriage in the ultimate in which its spiritual use is the seminary of that spiritual use--indeed every natural use is the seminary of that spiritual use to which it corresponds--for in the mutual love and care of natural offspring the minds of consorts may be especially united, whereby spiritual offspring are born, from which again there is closer union, resulting in more interior uses to heaven and the Church.

     Mr. Pendleton concluded by hoping that some one would study and develop this subject of the infinite uses of conjugial love. It is an immense subject, and the more we enter into it the more we will realize the mercy of the Lord in providing such a love for His people.

     Mr. Starkey added to what he had already said concerning discontent, etc., as anti-conjugial, that one of the ways in which we can shun the evil of discontent and lack of trust in the Lord is to avoid anxiety about the conjugial with ourselves.

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There is an especial Providence over the things of marriage, and we should rest in that. There are few marriages in which there are not at times states of comparative cold, and we are sometimes infested with doubts as to whether or not we are joined to our true partner. But such anxieties are to be shunned as opposite to conjugial love. Before marriage we should proceed in the desire for eternal union with judgment based on truth; but after marriage we must not give way to doubts as to our choice: Providence has brought us together and Providence has us under its care; and so long as we shun the evils opposed to conjugial love and perform its uses and obligations earnestly and faithfully, it is well with us. By resisting such doubts we come into the stream of Providence, which tends ever to unite consorts, to remove external dissimilarities between them, and to bring out the internal possibilities of accommodation to each other.

     The speaker referred also to the connection between the anti-conjugial and cruelty, brought out in the passages he had cited, as indeed everywhere in the Writings,--for when man looks to his own delight, he turns himself away not only from the conjugial but from charity also, and becomes internally if not externally unfeeling and cruel.

     Mr. Acton confirmed the first point, saying that many Newchurchmen accept the doctrine of conjugial love and forget the doctrine of Divine Providence; they believe that the Lord has created some consort for them, but forget that it is also He who has led them to her whom they have. Mr. Acton went on to connect what had been said with the Bishop's remarks, and gave as a potent reason why the name of the Academy inspires such a thrill of delight in the minds of our members, that among the Academy principles which we have all come to know and love so well, a very prominent place has been given to that of Conjugial Love, which Swedenborg says especially moves the affections.

     Mr. Pitcairn then spoke to "The Academy," first singing his song of "Companions in Union," all joining enthusiastically in the chorus. He referred to the Academy's being first to emphasize the Doctrine that marriages of different religions are heinous, and said that if we are now to keep our children in the Church and nourish in them a strong affection for the Church, it is largely because they are brought up in that idea of marriage. As the complement of the doctrine that when man shuns the opposite of conjugial love he shuns all evils, he showed that conjugial love is protection against the hells, and dwelling on this, he brought out the beautiful teaching that thence man has peace, which is "inmost joy of the heart, from security against the hells in every way and from protection from the infestations of evils and falsities thence." Peace is the inmost of conjugial love. In this doctrine lies the great hope of the future, for there is hope for the Church when the children are kept in the Church and are instructed in the doctrine of conjugial love.

     Bishop Pendleton confirmed the last speaker, saying that bringing up children in a home where there is conjugial love, in its sphere and its truths, is by far the most effective means of keeping them in the Church; far more than even New Church schools.

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Marriage in the Church means not merely getting married in the Church but a state of marriage, continued right on and growing as the years pass by, a state that survives all the trials and shocks of life, to the end of life, and even looking forward to an eternity together. He said that this is why the Academy has insisted on the doctrine of marriage within the Church, and he looked forward to its fruition in many, many silver and golden weddings in the happy time to come, when by a life of regeneration the Church shall have become really established, really married to her Lord.

     Mr. Acton added that a Church which puts conjugial love in the first place must prosper; for we cannot teach the doctrine of conjugial love without dwelling on the duty of shunning the opposite, and this includes the whole work of the Church. Our hope and prayer is that the General Church of the New Jerusalem is such a Church.

     This opened the way for the toast, "The General Church as the Home of Conjugial Love," to which Mr. Charles D. Weirbach responded. He cited the present occasion as proof that the theme enters into and penetrates our lives, social and otherwise. All other things are derivations from it, for it is the love of loves. We have had it instilled into our hearts, that the General Church teaches that conjugial love is the basis of all loves, and that the future of the Church depends upon that doctrine. He hoped that it would ever be a rallying point around which the sons of the Church would gather and about which the Church would grow.

     Mr. Acton referred to a silver wedding in the Church in his early years, at which there was nothing distinctively of the Church, and he doubted if there was another place in the whole world outside of our borders where an occasion of this kind would be celebrated with such joy and such affection,--so distinctively on the plane of the Church. With us thought and affection are definitely directed to Conjugial Love now given to the New Church. It is not merely the name of the General Church that we love, but the active love and life which it represents to us; it is this that brings us together and gives us such joyous celebrations.

     Bp. Pendleton said that Allentown illustrated the force of what had been said, and he spoke of the importance of maintaining the activities of the Church even in the smallest way. In 1898 he had met the heads of families here, and at that time they were discouraged; many had gone from them into other parts of the Church and there seethed to be no more growth, so that some thought they would perhaps better give up trying to keep going. But the thought had come to him and he had uttered it,--"it is your duty to keep alive." He had thought of it since and spoken of it in other places. It is a simple proposition, but it involves everything. Where there are but a few together it is vain to talk of the great things we would like to do,--it is not profitable to spend much time making plans,--but it is our duty to keep alive as a Church. The means will be supplied so long as we are contented to follow the indications and work along the lines of simplicity. This had been done in Allentown and he had thought it had been fully justified. He looked to see again an increase there.

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     Mr. Acton referred to the great mistake so often made, in thinking it the end and object of a Church to get a good congregation and a minister. The Church is for the sake of the regeneration of the individual. "Where two or three are gathered together in My name there am I in the midst of them."

     Here naturally followed the next toast on the program, "The Allentown Society," to which Prof. L. C. Brickenstein, of Bethlehem, who has closely identified himself with the society, responded. He spoke of the attractive traits of the Society, and its hospitality--"too well known to talk about." He had come out of a sort of wilderness, seeking an oasis,--that was why he was now there. He had found that the instruction in the General Church was of a superior kind; in former years he had been hearing many New Church essays, but he had found that the General Church systematically took the Word and explained the spiritual sense. In this he believed to lie the source of power of the New Church ministry; a layman cannot give this without going into the ministry himself. Speaking of the growth of societies he advocated simplicity in the beginning according to the conditions, and the waiting for a state of receptivity and invitation, citing cases where certain systems had been introduced where they were not wanted, with the result that the Church had suffered from a forcing process.

     Then followed some lively conversation on the formation of conjugial love with man, and the point was brought out that that same love of intelligence which in a man is conceit, when transferred to the wife, becomes love of the husband, that is, conjugial love; this is the rib which the Lord built up into a woman. This transference is effected by the Lord in ways unknown to man, even as Eve was created while Adam slept.

     From this we were led to the question as to the state of the unmarried, with respect to conceit,--are they still in self intelligence?

     Bp. Pendleton, answering this, said that the difference in state between the unmarried and the married is not an essential one. All are under Providence, and none is deprived of what he needs. It is necessary that there be some married ones in order that conjugial love may be with all, just as there must be a Church Specific with some in order that the Church universal may be with all. There must be a sphere of conjugial love in actuality that the sphere of married couples in heaven may be present on earth; and if any one loves the conjugial state he is consociated not only with those in this world but with those in the other world who are in that state. For some wise reason delay is sometimes permitted in the actual entry into marriage; as the Lord says: "What I do thou knowest not know, but thou shalt know hereafter. They can shun evils and should not be anxious. A man does not gain the things of true marriage merely by being married; he may be more conceited in marriage than others out of marriage.

     Mr. Pitcairn mentioned that Swedenborg was not married and yet the indication is that he was regenerated to a high degree.

     Mr. Acton, speaking to the same point, said the unmarried are or may be affected by the sphere of the affection of truth which proceeds from chaste wives in the Church, and being thus affected a man who is in the desire for conjugial love sees in his mind one who shall be his alone, and a time will come in the Lord's good pleasure when he will be conjoined with that one who shall realize to him his desire for chaste conjugial love.

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It is from this desire that conjugial love is born with him. If a man has the love of good and truth--and he must have, to be affected by the sphere of affection which proceeds from chaste wives--conjugial love is in him potentially even though not actually, and spiritual offspring are born with him. His conceit is taken away by the sphere of wives in the Church, and potentially by the sphere of that one whom he longs for.

     Bp. Pendleton endorsed Mr. Pitcairn's citation of Swedenborg as an illustration of the fact that conceit may be taken out of a man without marriage. If ever there was a modest man it was he. From self-intelligence he could never have entered into the interior light of truth which he enjoyed.

     And so with more singing, and the last cordial good nights, a truly golden occasion came to a close. May such occur more and more frequently as the years roll by.     S. A.
Notice 1901

Notice       HOMER SYNNESTYEDT       1901

     TO THE MEMBERS AND FRIENDS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     The Members and Friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are hereby notified that no General Assembly of the General Church will be held this year.

     A Local Assembly will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on June 19th and 20th, 1901. Members and Friends of the General Church, residing in Eastern Pennsylvania and adjacent parts of other States, are invited to attend this meeting. C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary G. C. N. J.


     ENTERTAINMENT AT THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY.

     THE Bryn Athyn Society will take pleasure in entertaining those attending the meetings of the Local Assembly to be held June 19th and 20th. It is also hoped that those who can do so will arrive sufficiently early on the 18th to attend an informal reception to be held that evening.

     Since individual notices will not be sent, our friends will confer a favor by communicating as promptly as possible with our Committee, Mr. C. R. Asplundh, whose pleasure it will be to assign the guests. HOMER SYNNESTYEDT, Pastor.

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Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

TWO NOTABLE LECTURES ON THE NEW CHURCH MINISTRY.

     THE NEW CHURCH REVIEW presents in its issues for January and April of this year two lectures delivered by the Rev. L. P. Mercer before the New Church Theological School, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, on the subject of The Ministry, the title of the first lecture being "Essential Qualifications" and that of the second, "Practical Suggestions." As being by far the most satisfactory public utterance on the subject which has appeared for many a day, these lectures deserve more notice than a bare reference or scanty summary.

     First, the Divine end, mode and means in instituting the priesthood are set forth in strong, easily grasped form. "In all dispensations of the church the Lord has ministered the Word and the 'knowledge and power of God unto salvation,' by means of finite, sinful men, 'chosen and ordained'--that they may 'go and bring forth fruit' in the great end of His providence, the regeneration of human souls."

     Priests are chosen not for their own excellence, not to minister in their own strength, but--"'God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty.'... Without goodness, greatness or wisdom their whole power consists in this: that they are 'sent,' 'chosen and ordained;' that they 'hear the Word of God at His mouth and give the people warning from Him.

     This humility and sinking of the man in the once is of prime importance, and without it there can be no growth in the church led by the priesthood. It is not, however, derogating from this to suggest that the words "without goodness," etc., seem to exclude that goodness, wisdom and greatness which are inherent in the use, and which not only may be with and in men, but must exist somewhere in the priesthood or there can be no ministry of Divine things. For the priesthood is a state of life, and though some priests may be only intellectually in the functions of their office, yet unless there were some who were also in them from genuine love the light would go out for all. True self-effacement does not require us to deny, any more than it permits us in particulars to claim, the Divine presence in human hearts, whether of laymen or priests.

     The source and means of priestly teaching and leading are thus clearly and squarely set forth: "The Lord teaches and leads men by means of doctrine from His Word, that they may be led in freedom as of themselves. The doctrine He provides by revelation and the power of life He gives by influx. He calls men to teach His truth and to lead by truth to the good of life; and He chooses for this ministry men like themselves, that if they will hear, they may hear the Lord and not the man, and if they will worship, they may worship the Lord and not the messenger."

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     Holy is the office, great the function, but from and in the Lord alone; grave the responsibilities, the difficulties and disappointments, but exceeding great the reward.

     Ministerial work in general is classified into two fields, as either of the student and closet scholar or of the pastor and preacher. Each of these two should possess something of that which is eminent in the other; and both should exhibit the following four qualifications: (1) A devout and intelligent conviction of the divine origin and authority of the doctrines of the New Church and their transcendent importance to men. (2) A rational and particular knowledge of the doctrines, "held in that synthetic grasp of mind which may be called perception of place and purpose." (3) A full knowledge of men; and interest in them as individuals--a sympathetic appreciation of particular states as developed under internal and external conditions--a respect for individualities and a supreme regard for growth or progressive development; and (4) Knowledge of the Word, as well as knowledge of the doctrine of the Church, and training and practice in applying these knowledges by thought of the spiritual truth within the letter.

     We are not quite sure what Mr. Mercer would include in his prescription that the minister "must know the heredity, the conditions, the quality of remains, the stages of growth, the states of conflict, the living states of men and women to whom he is to minister the truth," but we would have preferred to see some qualifying phrases that should suggest how very limited is any man's knowledge or field of observation in these things, especially as regards others than himself,--and perhaps especially, too, in the knowledge of the "quality of remains."

     In the "Practical Suggestions" the lecturer intimates he would have the Sermon marked by "reality." and adapted to the conditions which surround the giving of this particular kind of instruction. "Ask yourself: 'What am I going to say!' And if you cannot answer in a single direct sentence, find out how to answer before you begin to write or talk."

     The Sermon must also be addressed to a general audience. "The temptation will be to preach to the predominant class; to guard your statements, quote the Writings, argue your incidental propositions, and support even your illustrations to prove that they are valid and good. This is destructive of the instinct of the Apostle. It is the instinct of the student under fear of criticism. Fear God and love men. You are accountable to the Master for all classes that come under your ministry. The children are with you; the youth of the church are there, needing to see the application of truth to their opening and wondering lives; the inquirer is there, just beginning to think sanely and still fighting the ghosts of an old faith; the tempted are there, needing the encouragement the Word gives; the self-righteous, needing its rebukes; the sinful, needing its quickening; the self-deceived, needing its illumination. The proposition presented, the point in hand has its lesson for each of these...."

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     While renouncing that "platform sorcery which moves the affections without instructing the mind, the lecturer impresses the point that "the sermon is a speech which has for its object the awakening of affection and the determination of conduct." "There has been a notion in the New Church that we ought not to speak to influence the feelings; that it is a mistake. We are taught, indeed, 'that the interiors of the Word ought not to be opened by endeavoring to move the affections;' and so are we taught 'that the human understanding ought not to have any share in the exposition of the interiors of the Word.' It is obvious that the warning in the one case as in the other is against false methods for unworthy ends. The Word is not to be interpreted to suit man's selfish feelings, or favor the notions of his self-intelligence; that is all. As it is to be opened to instruct his receptive intelligence, so it is to be opened to move his good affections."

     But, while the immediate object of the sermon may be instruction, conviction, or the excitement of emotion--he goes on to say--the ultimate object is life; it sets forth something to be practiced. If a sermon is not practical, it is not simply that it is doctrinal, but because it fails to connect doctrine with life, whether that be the life of the external or of the internal man. The most practical thing for a man may be a little high thinking, but it must be with the effect that conscience is awakened to duty. "It is very important that the minister should understand this matter, and so meet the spiritual need of the people as to correct the very prevalent tendency to desire and be satisfied with exhortation to 'a good life.' The sermons that do not obviously and with power connect truths with life hare led people to think that the trouble is with the subject. They say, 'The preacher talks over our heads.' Failing to show the vital connection of high truths with internal and external practice, the natural disinclination to self-examination and repentance is strengthened, and the inclination to demand and enjoy something sweet, pious, pretty and good is mistaken for spiritual hunger. It is all wrong; and the mistake is generally in the minister's conception of what the people need and in his failure to meet that need."

     In preparing for the sermon the lecturer prescribes first, study of the text or topic. "The facts and truths concerning it are to be accumulated from the Word and the Writings. Then will follow reflection on the material gathered, in the light of general doctrine, with a view to men in general.... Then will begin to appear the particular principle involved which has a bearing upon the particular audience and upon present states." We would add that one of the first steps is, ascertaining the general doctrine of the chapter and text, which in very many instances can be secured directly from the explicit teaching of the Doctrines, or if not, can be derived thence by study.

     Mr. Mercer deals with the question of the advisability of expounding texts where the internal sense does not easily appear, by saying that if the summary of the internal sense can be seen, grasped and stated as a principle of life, that kind of exposition will produce the most effective of all preaching, for thereby the perceptive of correspondence and the conscience are both awakened, and a lasting impression is made upon memory and life.

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     Under the first of the four heads set forth above, we note this: "The confession of the intellect that the doctrine is divine and essential to the work of salvation is essential at the very entrance of the work. 'Priests are to teach truth and lead by truth to the good of life;' but they do not themselves lead. The Lord leads and teaches none the less that He does it by 'means of doctrine and preaching' through priests; and that the minister may come into the stream of the divine operation by these means, he must acknowledge the Lord only in them, and acknowledge Him wholly with soul and mind and strength... He [the minister] is not a teacher in his own right; he is an ambassador bearing the message of the Lord. His very calling and ordination is in the Lord's revelation of the internal sense of the Word, of the genuine truths of its letter, and of the true principles of rational thought.

     "This revelation is a thing divine. It has the Lord in it; and the power of God unto salvation is in it. Man can add nothing to it except to diminish it.... The truths He reveals must be taught, and taught as His, or the teaching is wholly out of the stream of His operation."

     Of the second mentioned requisite for the priests--a rational and particular knowledge of the doctrines of the Church held in a synthetic grasp of mind--this is said: "A great deal of the teaching that we read and hear is not clear and luminous as it ought to be, for want of this very condition. It abounds in truths, but shows a lack of coherency and ordered understanding, an absence of that sweep of vision which sees every truth in its relations to the whole body of truth, and estimates its meaning and purpose and power from a clear and assured insight into its relations. This is especially necessary in the direct ministry of the pulpit and in personal counsel. The sermon that fails of its mark will generally be found to fail for want of unity, coherence, proportion." "The training for this power [to fitly handle truths with reference to needs perceived] is analytic study and synthetic thinking, with inward acknowledgment of the Lord as priest and teacher and the living prayer of the heart that 'in Thy light we may see light.'"

     The distinction between the priest as the Lord's representative and as a man and a brother to his fellow members in the Church, is dealt with aptly and feelingly. "He must know all sorts and conditions of men in all states of their life." The following might well be taken to heart by every zealous young candidate for this calling: "You cannot make Newchurchmen to order after your conception of what they ought to he: they have to be grown by self-conscious processes determined by their choice, and guided by your ministry."

     Pastoral ministrations receive due consideration. Definitely as the paper recognizes the pastoral ends of the ministry, the sermon--it is maintained--is still the great agency, which "opens confession, leads to questions, and reveals states which give occasion for personal instruction, admonition, or encouragement. The need that the minister should live much with his people is that he may know how to speak to them from the Lord; and the more closely he touches their lives when speaking impersonally from the pulpit, the more will they reach out their hands to him as he goes in and out among them."

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Again: "I do not see how the preacher can fulfill his function unless he is the pastor in fact, thoroughly in touch with the people, and really the director of the whole scheme of education and life in the society."

     Concerning Church observances. "One thing to learn in pursuit of this double function is the value of a national and logical scheme of routine observance,"--that is, he would group the observances of the Church around the three great festivals, of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. "The Advent, culminating at the Christmas season, when we lead the people by the unity of the Gospel, collect and sermon to meditate upon the Lord's First and Second Coming; the Epiphany, when we think of the manifestation of His power and glory; the Lenten season, in which we contemplate His temptation combats, and His power with us in the shunning of evils as sins; Easter, as celebrating His victory and our new life; and Pentecost, as celebrating the giving of the Holy Spirit and His Divine presence and operation with our souls; and the Sundays after Pentecost as showing the way of life in miracle and parable--this constitutes a simple, natural routine, not only fixed in history, but based in the correspondence of the changing year.

     To this we would add that somewhere in the church's routine the festival above all distinctively New Church, the anniversary of the Institution of the Church,--whether that be identified with June 19th or with another date--ought to have some place.

     The final word is given to the high function of leading in public worship, where the minister, though he enter the chancel bearing the humiliation of man before the Lord, the needs of his people and the significance of the possibilities of the congregation and worship, in the chancel he is nevertheless the representative of the Lord,--"his personal unworthiness is aside, his fears and anxieties out of place; there is divine grace to impart, divine instruction to deliver and apply, divine blessing to promise and transmit by the imposition of hands. He stands between the people and the Lord, now to lead in their confessions and prayers, now to announce the Lord's speech to them, now to apply it in their own thought and tongue, now to communicate the promise of power to fulfill it in life."

     It needs no prophetic vision to say that the ministerial candidates who take such teaching to heart and carry it out in purpose and life, will be given their part in the building up of the New Jerusalem, here and hereafter.


     BOOKS RECEIVED: Volume XII. of the Rotch Edition of the Arcana Coelestia. Boston, Mass., New-Church Union. 1900. pp. 371, $1.25.

     JAMES JOHN GARTH WILKINSON: a biographical sketch (with portrait). By C. Th. Odhner. Huntingdon Valley, Pa. Academy Book Room. 1901. pp. 36. Paper, 30 cents.

     NOTES for New-Church Students on the Early History of Religion and the nature and significance of the Bible Lands. By Theodore F. Wright, Ph. D., Professor in the New-Church Theological School, Cambridge, Mass. Boston. Massachusetts New-Church Union. 1901. pp. 64.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     Huntingdon Valley (Bryn Athyn"), Pa.--On Easter Sunday the Holy Supper was administered.

     On Sunday, the 14th, Mr. Synnestvedt preached on the Third Commandment,-the kind of sermon that friends sneak of when they meet-about the Sabbath in everything,-in nature-in human life-in heaven, the Sabbath of rest from which comes new life, the Sabbath of peace and tranquillity.

     The Sunday following he preached on the use represented by the Angel Michael--that it is a universal use: he dwelt on the fact of the universality of function in Heaven.

     Miss Grant is back from a ten weeks' visit in Pomeroy, attending her mother in her last illness. Her place has been filled meantime by Miss Zella Pendleton.

     The children of the local school were given two weeks holiday at Easter, their teacher, Mr. Cowley, being in bad health.

     They are getting the roof onto the new college. The outlines are so simple and harmonious, so well proportioned, that it grows on one; it has not that very common fault of being too high. A girls' dormitory is to be built in the old orchard south of the new college, that is, toward the village, and near it a house for the janitor. The present school building will be for the boys, not for the girls as first planned. It is hoped that all will be finished in time for the opening of school in the fall.

     The Garrick Club gave "Pygmalion and Galatea." on April 11th, at the Club House. It was pronounced a dramatic success, although some did not like the plot, a difficulty conceded to be almost unavoidable. The thought found expression that some day we shall have a New Church Drama--have restored in its purity that ancient High Art;--and also the wish that some one would find out all that is to be learned about the Drama, or Art of Histrionic Representation in Heaven. Surely there are in the Writings broader ideals of all the arts than have yet been brought out. We would have our actors give us Heavenly plays, though we (alas!) be mortal.

     The night after the play found the Club House restored to its usual self, and Miss Charlotte Smith receiving her friends at what proved to be one of the brightest and gayest functions of the year. One of the cotillion figures, where all the girls were given dainty crepe paper hats, and the men bright colored wands, was a charming sight.

     We are visited by an increased army of robins and other songbirds, who have discovered the hospitality of our growing shrubberies and little orchards, and even of the porches and eves. They seem quite happy to find themselves honored guests and make sweet returns for their security:--the bright side of country life!

     But, oh, the windmill! You have seen the stately thing if you have been within several miles of here. It does serve us well to be sure, but it is as cranky as something alive with a mind of its own! (The water is very good--when we get it.) N.

     THE PRINCIPIA CLUB.

     THE 31st meeting of the Principia Club was held on April 15th, Vice Chairman Synnestvedt presiding. The Committee appointed to consider Mr. Potts's resignation and communication, reported, recommending the acceptance of the resignation. The Chairmanship accordingly is now vacant; and as the annual meeting occurs so soon there will probably not be any election before then.

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     Mr. Pendleton then read a paper entitled "The Scientific Works of Swedenborg, and the Writings." He began, differentiating the two sets of works by saying that the former are addressed to the natural understanding and the latter to faith:--the former make no claim to revelation, the latter do; and he went on to deal with the two kinds of influx, mediate and immediate, and the difference between direct inspiration from God and that from spirits. This brought in the question of Swedenborg's preparation and the nature, effect and use of the spiritual consociations in which this preparation so largely consisted, consequently the effect this had upon what he wrote before his intromission into the spiritual world. The potent factor of the love of truth from spiritual ends, which Swedenborg showed from his youth, was emphasized. Swedenborg's own premonitions of his high office to come, in the form of dreams and signs and by other means, were described,--which though Providential were yet mediate in character The conclusions of the paper were that the science in the Writings is the science of nature, and the especial result of his years of preparation; that it is not given as divine nor as anything new, but as natural confirmation of spiritual truth; which meets the position lately advanced that we ought to go to the Writings alone for the authoritative Science of the New Church: at the same time--we may add--it clears up the obscurity occasioned by failing to discriminate between the two planes to which the Scientific and the Theological Works belong and so making them equally authoritative.

     The paper was received very warmly, and the discussion which followed was in general affirmative. Two questions, however, were put to the essayist by Prof. Vinet: (1), as to whether he held that in the Writings there are two departments, one of spiritual truth, which is of revelation, and therefore Divine, and another of natural truth which is not revelation and therefore not Divine; and (2), as to how he would explain what Swedenborg says in his Book of Dreams (Document 208, page 148), about--"How I opposed myself (himself) to the Spirit: and how I enjoyed this, but afterward found that it was nonsense, without life and coherence. And that consequently a great deal of what I had written, in proportion as I had denied the power of the Spirit, was of that description; and indeed that all the faults are my own but the truths are not.

     To the 1st question Mr. Pendleton answered he regarded the statement of natural truths contained in the Writings as being natural truth, not as a new revelation of science, but as Science confirmed in Divine light. It is not Divine Revelation as something new, but its use by him in the Divine light in which he then was stamps it as Natural Truth.

     In response to a question Mr. Pendleton said that even the Apostles had an analogous preparation by natural truth for the spiritual truth which they were to have and to teach. They represented natural fishermen, and they were educated by the Lord Himself as to the natural truth of His Word. Paul was chosen to take the new truth to the intellectual Greeks, as the only apostle who had been sufficiently educated to meet their needs. There must be some philosophy in every man before he can receive the truths of the New Church, though it need not take what is known as the philosophical form. To become a spiritual fisherman necessitates first becoming somewhat of a natural fisherman.

     The Vice Chairman called attention to the fact that in each new Revelation the Lord uses things known before, as in the case of the Ten Commandments, given to Israel, which had been taught in all ages and nations, but were given Divine quality and authority by the Promulgation on Mt. Sinai.

     Mr. Pendleton added that the passage referred to in the 2d question by Prof. Vinet was not familiar to him and would require being read in its connection, in order for him to form a judgment upon its meaning.

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     Mr. Odhner agreed with the general position of the paper, at the same time making a distinction between the science and philosophy of Swedenborg, and the scientifics on which these were based, which latter he thought we should hold, in some particulars, may or may not be true. Out of these things the Lord has led Swedenborg to a true rationality; they need not all be perfectly consistent; the Lord could use only the materials found in the mind of the Revelator. It was a question whether Swedenborg, when he came to teach revealed truth, did not see his scientific teachings in greater light than when he wrote them. And did he not learn from the spiritual world things about natural facts of science which he did not know before!

     Does not a great deal appear in the Writings which does not appear in the Scientific Works! The speaker deprecated binding ourselves. Mr. Starkey maintained that there was no ground for apprehensions,--that no one seeks to make Swedenborg's science authoritative in the sense that it is to be received whether it is rationally seen or not. That is the difference between those works and the Writings, for the latter we are not free to reject after once we have acknowledged them to be Divine revelation, even though we may not understand. It is not the facts but the science and philosophy of Swedenborg which are the point at issue.

     After a few more remarks the meeting adjourned.

     Philadelphia.-On Sunday evening, March 17th, a Church Social was held at the home of Dr. and Geo. M. Cooper, which was made doubly pleasant by the presence of several of the young people from Bryn Athyn; there were several recitations and songs; one of the former, entitled "The Church Social," was especially enjoyed. Mr. Charles E. Cranch favored us with two guitar solos; light refreshments were served, and together with the general conversation a delightful evening was spent.

     On Easter Sunday a special Service was held. Mr. Cronlund preached from the text: Sing unto the Lord a new song. A solo by Mrs. Herbert Walker, sung as an interlude, was much enjoyed. The pulpit was beautifully decorated with flowers. A new carpet for the platform--the result of the efforts of the "Ladies' Aid"--was used for the first time, and adds much to the appearance of the hall.

     The Holy Supper was held on Sunday, April 14th. Rev. Alfred Acton officiated, with Minister Cronlund assisting in the service. There were twenty-seven participants.

     GLENVIEW LETTER.

My Dear Life:--

     The most important event of the last month was the wedding of Miss Jessie Carpenter to Mr. George Blackman on the evening of April 13th, at Glenview. Many children had been invited and added greatly to the sphere.

     The decorations of the chancel were particularly beautiful. Ferns and palms were banked, with lilies and hyacinths on either side. Overhead the asparagus fern hung in graceful and delicate festoons, caught to the ceiling in the center over a white dove with outspread wings. The bridal pair entered to the Lohengrin wedding march. The brothers of the bride and groom and the little flower girl were the only attendants.

     Music was played softly during the ceremony. As soon as the brief services were over the company adjourned to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Maynard, where an informal reception was held by Mr. and Mrs. George Blackman.

     On March 28th the school children gave a concert, which was attended by a number of parents and other interested people. Almost every child has had some lessons and so had something to do.

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This is the second time the school has played for an audience, and the improvement was noticeable.

     Miss Amena Pendleton is visiting her uncle, Rev. Dandridge Pendleton.

     Mr. and Mrs. Leonard and family have moved into the little Rose Cottage left vacant some months ago by the Boerickes.

     Rev. Charles H. Mann, editor of the New Church Messenger, is giving a course of six lectures at Steinway Music Hall, on "The Spiritual Man."      T. K.

     Berlin, Can.--The quarterly meeting of the Carmel Church was held on the 17th of March, afternoon and evening. The Pastor, Rev. Mr. Waelchli, in his address alluded to the chief events in the life of the society during the past three months. Among others beside the meeting of the First Ontario Assembly and the Bishop's presence were the celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday and the silver wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Steen at their home on February 16th. Another announcement of interest was the decision to extend the scope of our school by taking up the work hitherto done in the Intermediate Department of the College of the Academy, thus affording the opportunity to pupils to continue at home their studies for about two years longer.

     Rev. E. J. Stebbing in his report as Head Master alluded to this new undertaking and the nature of the work and the studies involved. He also reported the number of pupils enrolled as 36, with a better attendance during the past season than for three years, showing that less sickness has so far prevailed the past winter than usual.

     This subject and other uses mostly relating to the school and educational matters formed the chief topics of discussion at this meeting.

     On January 6th, after the matter had been under consideration for some time, monthly German services were instituted, and are now held on the first Sunday of each month.

     On Easter Sunday, April 7th, a special Easter service was held, Rev. Mr. Stebbing assisting the

     Pastor. In the afternoon of the same day the Holy Supper was administered, Pastor Waelchli officiating.

     On March 22d was held a masquerade party which was a grand success. About thirty appeared in costumes, presenting a very gay appearance.

     By the way in which husbands were kept guessing, it appears that the ladies excelled in disguise.     T. S. K.

     LETTER FROM MR. BOWERS.

     Ohio.--Arrived at Waverly, Pike county, on March 12th. The only New-Churchman known in the town is Lewis G. Dill, Esq., Judge of the Probate Court. His infant son was baptized on March 13th. Judge Dill takes great pleasure in his twenty-five volume set of the Writings, which he has had bound for use,--i. e., in law sheep.

     Two days at the country home of Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Powell, at Givens, Pike county. No public meeting; but a neighbor of the Powells, who had read the doctrines considerably, carne in to hold converse, which lasted the entire evening.

     Four days at Athens and vicinity, with three families, two of whom live in the country. Much conversation with A. M. Lewis, Esq., attorney at law, and his wife,--the "latchstring" of whose home is always out for the missionary. Also called on Mr. J. H. Cline, who some years ago was a student at the school of the Academy.

     The night of March 19th in Parkersburg, W. Va. Have often been entertained by a Presbyterian family in that city, with whom a New Church lady, Miss Alice Wetherell, makes her home.

     At McConnelsville, Morgan county O. a useful visit with three aged members of the Church. Did space permit, a page might be written about it.

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     At Zanesville, March 25th, had a pleasant call of an hour, with Mr. A. Carlow, an earnest believer, who greatly appreciates the excellent monthly feast provided for the readers of the Life. The same day went to St. Clairsville, Belmont county. The next day to Bellaire, and twenty-five miles down the Ohio river, to Welcome, Marshall county.

     West Virginia.--In that vicinity three families, in each of which there is one New Church person, were visited. Circumstances not favorable for services. On account of bad condition of the roads I could not go to the Ohio side of the river, where we have usually held meetings.

     Thursday evening, March 28th, preached in a school house, near Mr. Quincy Cresap's, Marshall county, on the Ohio river.

     Sunday, March 31st, services at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Pollock, in Wheeling. Sermon and administration of the Holy Supper.

     Three days with Mr. James M. Cresap and family, in Brooke county. Were to have meetings in the school house, April 2d and 3d, but the rain and snow-storm prevented this. On April 4th, returned to

     Ohio.--Passed the night with Mr. and Mrs. Samson Turnbull, at East Liverpool Columbiana county. This couple were associated with the Church in England, before coming to the United States some twenty years ago.

     The next place was Columbiana. An appointment had been made to have services at Greenford, Mahoning county, on Sunday, April 7th. Was with the Renkenbergers, who live seven miles from Greenford. Rains put the roads in such bad condition that we could not go. But Mr. Solomon Renkenberger, who is beginning to feel the infirmities of age, and was ill, requested the administration of the Holy Supper. His wife and all the children, who were at home,--four daughters.-took part. Pleasant visits were also made with Mr. Jacob Renkenberger and family, and the Wunderlins.

     Four days at Greenford, where I was entertained by the Rhodes family and other friends, and on Sunday, April 14th, we had services in the church here, and the celebration of the Holy Supper. Two aged members were prevented by illness from attending. JOHN E. BOWERS.

THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

     Michigan.--Circumstances not permitting of the establishment of a perish school in Detroit as yet, the religious instruction of the young given on Sundays is supplemented by classes on Wednesday afternoons. To meet the desire of the young people who grow up under the instruction of the Pastor, to make some public acknowledgment of the interest they take, at a time when the coming of manhood and womanhood manifests itself, a specially prepared rite of "Confirmation"--so-called for want of a better term--is used, in which they are addressed in a formal manner on the subject of the changes of state of children, and in which they express themselves publicly as desiring to prosecute the study of the Doctrines, in which they begin to take an intelligent interest. The ceremony has an excellent effect especially upon such young people as have not that strong sphere of the Church at home which comes from oneness of belief and devotion to the Church on the part of the parents. The rite is recognized as being not "The First Communion," but eventually leading up to it.

     Five young people were confirmed in this way last year, and five more this Easter.

     Mr. Schreck has been delivering a series of evening discourses of an evangelistic character in Detroit, with the result that several have become sufficiently interested to form a doctrinal class for the study of the Doctrines, and one lady has announced her desire to join the New Church by baptism.

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SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 1901

SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION       C. TH. ODHNER       1901

     ANNUAL MEETING.

     The Fourth Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association will be held in New York City, Monday and Tuesday, May 27 and 28, at the Rooms of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, No. 3 West 29th street.

MONDAY, MAY 27.

10 A. M.      Meeting of the Executive Committee.
11 A. M.      Meeting of the Board of Directors.
2:30 P. M.      Meeting of the Association.
          Report of the Secretary.
          Report of Treasurer.
          Report of the Board of Directors, incorporating the reports of the committees appointed to edit the new editions of the Principia, the Animal Kingdom, and the Lesser Principia.
          Report of the editors of The New Philosophy.
          Communications from the Swedenborg Philosophy Club of Chicago, the Principia Club of Bryn Athyn, and other communications.
1:30 P.M.      The Annual Address, by the President of the Association, Rev. Frank Sewall.
8 P. M.      Evening Session. The following paper will be presented for discussion: "The Relation of Swedenborg's 'Principia' to his 'Animal Kingdom,'" by Rev. W. F. Pendleton.

TUESDAY, MAY 28.

9:30 A. M.      Meeting of the Association. Election of officers.
10:30 A. M.      The following papers will be presented for discussion:
The Identification of Hydrogen and Third finites, with Scientific Verification of Swedenborg's Postulate, by Miss Lillian Beekman; to be presented by Rev. L. P. Mercer.
The doctrine of Spontaneous Generation, compared with baptism the theory of the creation of man in the 'Worship and Love of God,' by Prof. C. Th. Odhner.
Swedenborg's and Newton's theories of Light and Colors contrasted; by Mr. Alfred Stroh.

All reports and communications for the meetings should be sent to the undersigned before May 20th.

     The public is invited to attend the general meetings.

     By order of the Board of Directors.
     C. TH. ODHNER,
     Secretary of the Board of Directors.
ANCIENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE DOCTRINE OF DEGREES 1901

ANCIENT UNDERSTANDING OF THE DOCTRINE OF DEGREES       N. D. PENDLETON       1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Vol. XXI.          JUNE, 1901.          No. 6.
     IN a notable address delivered by Bishop Pendleton on January 14th, 1901, and published in the February issue of New Church Life, attention is called to the need of restoring the sciences of the Ancient Church, of mastering Swedenborg's philosophy, and of exploring the field of modern science, in order to prepare for the work of higher education in the Church.

     In a note appended to the address, the sciences of the Ancient Church are listed as seven; the science of degrees and order being added to those mentioned in Apocalypse Explained, n. 514, namely, the sciences of Representation, Correspondence, Influx, and Heaven and Hell.

     Doubtless the Bishop's request far the restoration of these ancient sciences means that we should discover, as far as possible, the understanding which the ancients had of them; for these sciences are also given anew to the Church at this day by Divine Revelation, and especially adapted to the understanding of the men of the present time. But we err greatly if we attribute our modern understanding of them to the ancients. This is strikingly shown in the case of the doctrine of Degrees. The Bishop was certainly warranted in adding that science to the list, for some knowledge of degrees was necessary to the understanding of those sciences which are specifically mentioned as belonging to the Ancient Church.

     With us the doctrine of degrees is based, in the first instance, upon a knowledge of the differences between spiritual and natural substances, that is, of their discreteness as to degree; and, we learn from True Christian Religion, n. 280, that this knowledge was hidden from the angels until the second coming of the Lord, and so we conclude that it must also have been hidden from the ancients on earth; since we can hardly suppose that a truth of such a character could have been known on earth and afterwards lost in Heaven.

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But we are not altogether without evidence of the lack of this knowledge among the ancients themselves; for we are told in Arcana Coelestia, n. 408, that the ancients regarded the stars visible in the natural heavens as the abodes of the angels. This being so, it is clear that they considered themselves able to see spiritual things with their natural eyes, which is proof positive that they did not know the essential difference between the spiritual and the natural; and not knowing this, their understanding of the doctrines of degrees must have been quite different from ours.

     At this day it would be rank materialism to believe that the stars are the dwelling places of the angels, for the obvious reason that it is now known that the stars are a part of a common system of material suns and earths. But it was not so with the ancients. They looked upon them as spiritual, and their belief on this subject continued down even through the middle ages, during all of which time the heavenly bodies were not so much the subject of scientific examination as of religious speculation. Thus Origen, and others with him, taking the statement that the "morning stars sang together," concluded that they were spiritual beings possessed of souls. But the most of the Church fathers agreed with the ancients in looking upon them as the abodes of immortal souls.

     In those cases where the ancients were from time to time permitted to see into the other world, their ignorance on this subject was unrelieved; for on such occasion they beheld above them the spiritual firmament set with stars, which they knew to be angelic societies; but they were unable to distinguish them in kind and quality from those which they were accustomed to see with their natural eyes. Thus their spiritual insight only confirmed their natural error--an error, innocent, childlike, and harmless so far as they were concerned. And this shows us how far from the truth modern writers are when they attribute nature-worship to the ancients simply because of the obvious relation of their gods to the heavenly luminaries, and invisible forces of nature.

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To the modern man these things are, of course, merely natural, to the ancients they were spiritual, and it is certain that their worship, in its origin at least, was a pure spiritual worship. They also knew that the heavens were found in the likeness of a grand man, and this accounts for their reference of the important luminaries to the different parts of the human body, especially to the different parts of the head and face.

     This peculiar custom is now supposed to have arisen from their perception of the beauty of the human form. But it is evident that it was only a part of the ancient doctrine of the human form Divine, which doctrine is most universal as well as most ancient, and is the source of all wisdom and knowledge; both spiritual and natural. See the exposition given in the Arcana, of the Ark, of the Tabernacle and the Sacrificial Altar, where it is shown that the reference of all things to the human form must be seen before their spiritual significance can be perceived. And it may be observed in passing that modern science has not altogether escaped a certain phase of that doctrine. However, in recognizing the doctrine of the human form in the modern theory of evolution, we are under no necessity of following that theory in all its windings, or of embracing its more repugnant conclusions.

     The ancient knowledge of the fact that the angelic societies appear in the spiritual firmament as stars; the confusion of the spiritual with the natural heavens; the recognition of the power of spiritual influence over men in the world,--all these combined to establish that which in after times became the spurious science of astrology--that science which essayed to interpret the fate of mortals by the movements and positions of the heavenly bodies. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera."

     Learned men tell us that astrology was the most ancient of all the sciences. The earliest records tend to prove this. Besides, plausible reasons are given to show that the facts of nature connected with astrology would be the first to demand some interpretation of the primitive man. But we have other and higher reasons for believing in the remote antiquity of this science. The very first part of the most ancient written revelation is clothed in what we may call a science of astrology. See the first chapter of Genesis. But this science, though apparently natural, was in reality spiritual; for being a science of the stars, it was on the face of it a science of spiritual, or supposed spiritual things.

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Yet of course the ancient people recognized the fact that the heavenly bodies were representative and significative of more interior spiritual verities. Thus that science with them was a true spiritual science, involving both correspondence and representation. It was their knowledge of this subject which induced them to look for a new star in the heavens as a sign that the Savior was born into the world. Indeed the tradition on this subject was so strong, and the superstition at length became so pronounced, that a new star was supposed to have appeared at the birth of several of the great men of ancient history.

     The question may arise as to whether the ignorance of the ancients concerning the actual constitution of the visible heavens was confined to the simple only. It appears that the error must have been universal, since it is difficult to see how any other idea could have been entertained. Merely natural truth has never been the object of revelation, but always the subject of discovery; and some such fact as that discovered by Galileo was needed before the ancient error could be rectified, and a sufficient basis established for a complete understanding of the doctrine of degrees. It seems moreover that a lack of such scientific natural truth is the normal condition of the race of man while it is yet celestial and spiritual, or while it is yet in the infantile and childish period of development; and this view receives support from the statement in Arcana Coelestia, n. 8379, that the inhabitants of Jupiter, who are most like our most ancient people, also believe that the stars are the abodes of the angels. This statement, at least, shows that ignorance on this point was not confined to this world alone.

     The point is established that the ancients were unaware of the real difference between spiritual and natural substances, but it does not follow that they knew nothing of degrees. The sensual evidence of a distinct and impassable degree separating the earth from the visible heavens above was ever before them. Besides, as the Bishop has shown, they represented degrees by various modes. But their ignorance of the essential difference between spiritual and natural things, of necessity qualified and limited their understanding of the subject; and our recognition of this fact enables us to draw a little nearer to what their real understanding was, by showing in a broad way what it was not.

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Their limitation in this respect, when recognized, will be found to have an important bearing on other matters, especially on the way in which the Word was given in the beginning. For instance, it becomes clear that the ancient people laboured under a practical necessity when they "spoke of spiritual things in a natural manner." To see this is important, for it relieves us of the necessity of thinking of the Word as artificially constructed so as to contain an internal sense. They spoke of spiritual things in a natural manner because they could do no otherwise, not having the ability to discourse in an abstract, rational manner, as is possible at this day.

     The first men were entirely ignorant of spiritual things. Their only knowledges were sense impressions, such as we find with little children as yet uninstructed in any science; but when the spirit of God moved upon them, and they received their first glimmerings of heavenly light, this light, of necessity, fell into and was expressed by, such sense impressions. In this way and in this mode the Word of Truth was given and expressed in the beginning, by virtue of a pure natural necessity. We know that it is the method of Providence to clothe the truth of revelation in the knowledges which a people have, and the most ancient man was no exception to the rule. It is interesting in this connection to note the fact that it is now claimed that the first speech of man must have been of a symbolical nature. It is not known of course that these symbols were used to express profound spiritual truth. However, the fact divined is sufficient confirmation; and it helps us to see that the ancient correspondential mode of expression was not of artificial construction, but was natural and normal. Such speech, and especially such writing, in later times no doubt became more and mote a conscious science. That is to say, when men ceased to speak of spiritual things in a natural manner instinctively, it became necessary that they should do so artificially or scientifically; and this marks the difference between the Most Ancient and the Ancient Church. At length as we know even the art was lost.

     The study of the relation of natural truth to spiritual truth is exceedingly instructive. There can be no doubt but that there is a perfect agreement between the two. But it is also certain that from the beginning of time there has been, to a greater or less degree, a conflict between them in the minds of men, and this because there has never been a perfect understanding of either the one or the other, which, however, is necessary to a perception of their perfect agreement.

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     Spiritual truth with the race has undergone several grand vicissitudes; natural truth, or rather, scientific knowledge, considered apart from the rise and fall of particular nations, has enjoyed an almost continuous, or at least a consecutive development. As we know, revelation is always clothed in the knowledge possessed by man at the time of the giving. But after a certain lapse of time, these knowledges, as such, are outgrown. The result is an apparent conflict between scientific discovery and revealed truth. Those who do not distinguish between the revealed truth itself and the antiquated knowledges in which it is given, in sustaining the conflict, fight a losing battle.

     Such was the conflict waged in the days of Galileo between science and the religious conceptions of the day. The learned doctors of the Church claimed that Galileo in spying into sacred things by means of his impious invention, had impugned the Word of God and invalidated the foundation of the Christian Church.

     The first effect of his discovery was that atheists, materialists, and opponents of Rome, of all kinds, rushed to his standard. Therefore in the common mind his theory was identified with pure materialism; for he had discovered that the heavenly bodies were only natural things after all, in fact, that they were but other suns and earths like our own, that they were not wheeled across the heavens by attendant angels, that they could not be the spiritual abodes of immortal souls, that they were propelled by a motion of their own, governed, in fact, by a general law of nature, and finally, that the sun, not the earth, was the common center. All of which things were supposed to contravene the plain teaching of the Word of God.

     With what a difference do we of today regard this discovery. We see that in the first place it made a less slavishly literal interpretation of the Word an absolute necessity. In the second place it exposed the important fact that everything visible to the natural eyes is merely natural, and not spiritual. And we see, moreover, that altogether necessary that this fact should become known before the true distinction between spiritual and natural substances could be revealed, thus before the perfect doctrine of discrete degrees could be given and understood.

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     From the several considerations presented in this paper it would appear that the doctrine of discrete degrees, in the sense that we usually understand these words, is peculiar to the New Church. This ground is not taken with the purpose of underestimating either the wisdom or the knowledge of the ancients, but simply to make what seems to be a proper and necessary distinction.

     Generally speaking, this age is far in advance of any other as to knowledge, both natural and spiritual. Wisdom is quite another thing. That, as we know, has through the successive ages, descended from the mountain top and gone down into the valley. N. D. PENDLETON.
SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF SWEDENBORG AND THE WRITINGS.* 1901

SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF SWEDENBORG AND THE WRITINGS.*       W. F. PENDLETON       1901

* Read before the Principia Club of Philadelphia, and also at the annual of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, May 28th, 1901.

     ALL Newchurchmen know that the works of Swedenborg usually classed as philosophic or scientific, cannot be placed in the same category with the Writings. The former treat of Nature and its laws, the latter of the spiritual world and the spiritual truths of the Word of God. The former are addressed to men of science and all interested in a deep study of natural laws; the latter speak to all men, especially to those who are to be formed into a New Church. The former are addressed to the natural understanding and the natural reason, to a reason that is affirmative to spiritual light; the latter are addressed to the understanding of spiritual things and also to faith. The former the author presents as his own, and begs the reader to point out the error if he finds it, and modestly and humbly submits his views to the consideration of the learned world; the latter speak with authority given with the most solemn assertion that there is in them nothing of the writer's own, nothing except that which is from God out of heaven. The former make no claim to the title of revelation; the latter exhibit the claim of an immediate revelation from God.

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The former are the views of a highly enlightened philosopher, being unconsciously prepared to be the instrument of the Lord's coming; the latter stand forth as that very Coming itself to establish the New Church.

     Since there are these striking distinctions between the two sets of works, both from the pen of the same man,--since the one is an immediate revelation from God* and the other is not,--and yet we are taught that the other is a system of natural truth**--and as such must be of great value to the New Church,--it would seem therefore to be a matter of great importance to obtain a clear idea of the distinction between the first set of works and the second, and of the relation of the one to the other.
     * Heaven and Hell, no. 1.
     ** Influx, n. 20.

     That the relation of natural truth to spiritual truth is one of subordination and service is plain; but let us endeavor to see, if we can, what this relation of subordination is, for if we minify or magnify that which in its nature is subordinate, in either case injury is done to that which is higher or supreme. To magnify natural truth beyond its place and sphere of use would be to injure the Revelation which it is intended to serve and illustrate; and to minify or undervalue it would tend to take away the foundations upon which spiritual truth rests with man. Such a foundation for spiritual things is the natural truth contained in the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg.

     In a broad sense all truth in the world among men is natural truth. This truth is the Word in its natural sense; for all truth, even natural truth, is in the Word and from the Word, even though men know if not. The Christian Church was introduced into this natural truth of the Word, and Swedenborg as a philosopher was led into the very center of it. He saw clearly where others saw dimly, because he more than others saw the God of the Lord, the source and origin of all truth. With him we see the hand of Providence guiding and leading, saving and protecting him from the falsifications and perversions which marred the work of other men, lifting him above the materialism which saturated the work of the philosophers of the Christian world, giving his philosophy a value to the New Church surpassing that of any other man who ever wrote or wrought in the field of nature or of human life.

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What, then, is the place of this great philosophical system of Swedenborg?

     First let it be observed that there are in general two kinds of revelation, two kinds of influx, two kinds of inspiration; one that is immediate from God, the other that is mediate through angels, spirits and men. God speaks immediately from Himself; and also mediately or through successive human instrumentalities. The former is what is usually termed Revelation, and is the infallible speech of God; the latter is also revelation, but is fallible because through fallible human instruments; for nothing is self-derived; even falsity is not from man but through man from hell, as truth is not from man but through man from heaven.*
     * That revelation is also mediate may he seen from the following numbers: Arcana Coelestia, 5121, 8694, 8780, 10355, 10384. Compare also 9103, 9905.
That mediate influx is influx by angels and spirits see Heaven and Hell, n. 297, 60; Arcana, 6063, 6307, 9682, 9683; Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 249.
That this is what is meant by the illustration of the Holy Spirit, see Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 150; Arcana, n. 9818.
     That there is mediate inspiration, or inspiration by good spirits and angels, see Arcana, 50904; Heaven and Hell, n. 391 That men are also inspired by evil spirits, see Arcana, n. 2338, 10309.
     That the Lord inspires every man, see Arcana, n. 5952, 8354, 10182; True Christian Religion, n. 457, 539; Apocalypse Explained, n. 825; Heaven and Hell, n. 517.

     The Theology of the New Church is indeed given through the medium of a man, but not through the mediation of angels and spirits to this man; it came immediately from God to him and through him to the world.* No angel wished nor spirit dared to speak to him and by him in the Revelation which was given. But this is not the case with the writings of men, nor with the writing of Swedenborg previous to the period of his spiritual illumination. All men who have written and taught, whether in the realm of spiritual or in that of natural truth, including Swedenborg, have so from mediate inspiration, and what they have taught, so far as it is true, may be called mediate revelation, given through the mediation of angels and spirits, with whom the man is associated while writing, and by whom he is inspired.

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Such is the character of the teaching of the priesthood. No priest speaks by immediate inspiration from God, but he does speak by a kind of mediate inspiration; and what he speaks is according to the quality or kind of consociation in which he is as to his spirit in the other world; and what he utters by mouth or by pen is to be valued according to its truth, or according to its agreement with the standards of truth fixed and established by immediate Revelation. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no light in them" (Isaiah viii., 20).
     * Divine Providence, n. 135; True Christian Religion, 779; Apoc. Explained, 1183; Heaven and Hell, 1.

     What then is the differentiation, if differentiation there be, between the previous or early work of Swedenborg and that of other men? The differentiation is to be found in the general fact of his preparation by the Lord from his youth for the office of Revelator, and by virtue of this fact, in his more intimate consociation with the angels of heaven than other men whereby he could be made the medium of a system of natural truth such as was not possible with men who were not in the line of such preparation, and who could therefore have no such interior angelic consociation. For every man is what he is by virtue of his spiritual consociation, and is prepared by the Lord for his use, by the angels or spirits who are with him, and the greater the use to be performed the more intimate and complete will be the consociation, in the work itself and in the preparation for the work. This consideration alone, while it does not divest the philosophy of Swedenborg of its mediate character, is still sufficient to differentiate it from the work of other men; and the Newchurchman, with such a thought in his mind, will expect to find in Swedenborg's philosophy a system of natural truth superior to that which has come from the pen of any other man.

     This is not a matter of theory but of experience, and I invite any Newchurchman who has not done so, to enter with an open mind into an examination of this great system; and I predict that he will find what is here said, to be fully substantiated; and he will be amazed,-perhaps at the commanding genius of the man, or perhaps at the wonderful Providence that was guiding and leading him.

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     Preparation is introduction into societies in the spiritual world, in order that man may become inspired for the use which he is to perform; and the greater the use the more intimate is the introduction and the consociation resulting therefrom. That Swedenborg had a more intimate consociation with the angels than other men, long before the actual opening of his spiritual sight, cannot well be doubted by Newchurchmen; nor can it be doubted that this was necessary for the sake of his preparation for the great work which was to come. But let us consider more fully the subject of his preparation.

     In the last number of the work on Influx we have the following teaching:-

     I was once asked how from being a philosopher I became a theologian. I answered, In the same manner as that in which fishermen were made disciples and apostles by the Lord; and that I also from my earliest youth have been a spiritual fisherman. This being heard it was asked, What is a spiritual fisherman? I replied that a fisherman, in the Word in its spiritual sense, signifies a man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths in a rational manner.... On hearing these things my questioner raised his voice and said, Now I am able to understand why the Lord called and chose fishermen-to be His disciples, I and therefore I do not wonder that He has also chosen you, since, as you have said, you have been from early youth a fisherman, in the spiritual sense, that is, an investigator of natural truths; that you have become an investigator of spiritual truths is because these are founded on the former....     Besides, what theologian among Christians does not study philosophy before he is inaugurated a theologian? Whence does he otherwise have intelligence? (Influx 20.)

     From this number we learn in general that the study of philosophy is the true preparation for the study of theology; that for this reason Swedenborg was a philosopher before he became a theologian; that philosophy is natural truth upon which spiritual truth is founded, and that therefore Swedenborg was led even from his early youth to the study of philosophy or natural truth; that he was not only a student but a teacher of it; that a true spiritual fisherman has a two-fold office, he is first a student and teacher of natural truth, and thereby he is prepared to become a student and teacher of spiritual truth; that the teaching of natural truth and the teaching of spiritual truth are so closely related that they are put under one idea in the term "spiritual fisherman," and are represented by the single term "fisherman" in the Word, and are also represented in the fact that the disciples of the Lord were fishermen before they were chosen to be His apostles.

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We learn also in general from the teaching in this number, that true philosophy is the means to spiritual intelligence; and finally that the truth of Swedenborg's theology, or the truth of Revelation in the Writings, is founded upon the truth of his philosophy, or upon the natural truth which he acquired as a student of the laws of nature. And therefore the conclusion is as it were forced upon us, that Swedenborg's philosophy is a system of natural truth, essential to his own preparation for the office of Revelator, assuming thus a position of momentous import to the spiritual fishermen of the New Church, outlining to them the means by which they are to be prepared to become true fishers of men.

     In Swedenborg's letter to Oetinger the same line of instruction is given, as follows:--

     Query: Why from being a philosopher. I have been chosen? Answer: The cause of this has been that the spiritual things which have been revealed at the present day may be taught and understood naturally and rationally; for spiritual truths have a correspondence with natural truths, because in these they terminate and upon these they rest.... For this reason I was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared; and indeed from the year 1710 to 1744, when heaven was opened to me. Every one also is led by means of natural things to spiritual things; for is born natural, by education he is made moral, and afterwards by regeneration from the Lord be becomes spiritual. The Lord has granted besides to love truths in a spiritual manner, that is, to love them not for the sake of honor nor for the sake of gain, but for the sake of the truths themselves; for he who loves truths for the sake of truth, sees them from the Lord, because the Lord is the Way and the Truth (John xiv., 6); but he who loves them for the sake of honor and gain, sees them from himself; and seeing from one's self is equivalent to seeing falsities. (Document 232.)

     From this letter we learn that he, a philosopher, and teacher of natural truth, was chosen in order that the things revealed might be taught and understood naturally and rationally, that is, because natural and rational truth, which is the same as philosophic truth, is necessary to prepare the understanding to receive spiritual truth, since in the New Church the understanding is to be admitted into the mysteries of faith; it was therefore necessary that man should be prepared with a well-formed understanding, an understanding formed by natural and rational truths, or philosophic truth, in order that the spiritual truth of revelation might be accommodated to the thought of men, and also because as he says, "spiritual truths have correspondence with natural truths, because in these they terminate and upon these thy rest."

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And we learn that the Lord Himself was leading him from his early youth, and preparing him; for he says, "For this reason, that is, in order that spiritual truths may be taught and understood naturally and rationally; and because spiritual truths have a correspondence with natural truths--"For this reason I was introduced by the Lord into the natural sciences, and thus prepared." We learn also from this letter that every man is led by things natural and moral to spiritual things, which suggests the remark that Swedenborg was not only led by them, as every man, but was also led to teach them, in order that he might be fully prepared; that is, he was led to study and teach, not only natural philosophy but also mental and moral philosophy in the course of his preparation. He was led first to study and teach the laws of nature in general, then those laws as exhibited in the human body; and after this, in the work on The Soul, he writes a treatise on mental and moral philosophy; and finally he expounds the spiritual-natural sense of the Word of God--beginning in the Worship and Love of God and concluding in the Adversaria was completed he was then as a vessel ready to receive immediate Revelation from God. But let us return for a moment to the letter.

     He discloses to Oetinger another feature of his preparation that is most important, "The Lord has granted me to love truths in a spiritual manner, that is, to love them not for the sake of honor nor for the sake of gain, but for the sake of truths themselves." This unselfish love of truth is manifest throughout his scientific works, and no one in reading them can fail to notice it. This exhibits an element in his preparation even more essential than the formation of a right understanding by means of natural or philosophic truth; or rather, a right understanding, and thus a true preparation could not have been formed and made without this most essential quality, the love of truth for the sake of truth.

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"For," as he says, "he who loves truths for the sake of truth, sees them from the Lord....but he who loves them for the sake of honor and gain, sees them from himself; and seeing from one's self is equivalent to seeing falsities." Now Swedenborg in writing the works that preceded the opening of his spiritual sight, either saw truths from himself or he saw them from the Lord. If he saw them from himself then they are insidiously false, and lead to evil; but if he saw them from the Lord, then he saw truths which led and prepared but ii he red him to see and know the Lord. If he saw truths from himself, he falsified those truths, and therefore he was not prepared. But this leads to absurdity, and in fact the question itself, or Swedenborg himself answers it, when we learn from him that he was led even from his early youth to see truths from the Lord, and that he who sees truths from himself sees falsities, that is, falsifies the truths. All this means as Swedenborg's philosophic system, and that he who sees such error there sees it from an error in his own mind, which prevents him from entering interiorly into the thought of Swedenborg. Or perhaps we should say that the "errors" are not errors but limitations, either in Swedenborg or in the reader,--most probably the latter Concerning the limitations of Swedenborg as a teacher of natural truth, I have spoken in a former paper. An "error," as that term has been applied in this Club, means a falsity that leads to harm; injury or evil, if adopted and applied; such errors are supposed to be in Swedenborg's system of philosophy; when yet the fact is, if error be removed from the mind of the reader, he will then not see error in Swedenborg's philosophy, but occasionally perhaps a shadow, that disappears as a dissolving view when looked at in the light of his general principles.

     Swedenborg tells us in a number of places that he was prepared by the Lord from his early youth for his great office. In the Adversaria he says:--

     What the acts of my life have involved I have been taught afterwards to some of them, yea, as to many of them, from which I could at length clearly see that the tenor of the Divine Providence has ruled the acts of my life from youth itself, and thus has governed, so that I have at length arrived at this end, [namely] that I could thus understand through knowledges of natural things, and could thus, of the Divine Mercy of God Messiah, serve as an instrument for opening the things which he inmostly concealed in the Word of God Messiah. (Adv. II., 839.)

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     In this passage we learn that not only did the Divine Providence rule the acts of his life from his youth, but that this was in order that he might be prepared through the knowledges of natural things to serve as an instrument for opening the inmost things of the Word of God. He had now come to see and acknowledge what was the Divine purpose in his studies of natural things, in his work as a teacher of natural truth, namely, that by means of the knowledges of natural truth he might be prepared to serve as an instrument in laying open the spiritual truth of the Divine Word.

     To the Landgrave of Hesse Darmstadt he writes:--

     The Lord our Savior 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 can not 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. (Document 246.)

     We have also the following teaching in the Writings:--"All things of my past life have been governed by the Lord." (S. D., 3177.)

     Again:--

     For this reason it has pleased the Lord to prepare me from my earliest youth to perceive the Word; and He introduced me into the spiritual world, and illustrated me more nearly with the light of His Word. Hence it is evident that this is more than all miracles (Invitation to the New Church, n. 55). [The reason given is that he might be prepared to teach the truths of the Church from the Word.]

     Some evil spirits once ascended from below and addressed him in a grave tone, saying--

     Why did your Lord reveal these secrets which you have just enumerated, in a long series, to you who are a layman, and not to some of the clergy? To which I answered that this was according to the good pleasure of the Lord, who prepared me for this office from my earliest youth. But yet I will ask you in return, Why did the Lord, when He was in the world, choose fishermen for His disciples, and not some of the lawyers, scribes, priests, or rabbis? Discuss this among yourselves and conclude from judgment, and you will discover the reason.

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On hearing these words a murmur was made, and after this, silence" (True Christian Religion, n. 850).

     Even while writing his scientific works Swedenborg was led to see that the work he was doing was but a preparation for a greater work which was to come, as we see from a statement quoted by Dr. R. L. Tafel, who in introducing it says: "That Swedenborg's philosophical studies were one of the principal means by which he was prepared for the perception of spiritual truths is stated in Part III of the Regnum Animale, which he was then, September 30, 1744, seeing through the press." (Document, 208, II., 140.) Dr. Tafel then quotes the passage as follows:--

     This signified that what I had written there with God's help was of such a nature that it would lead me on still further, and that I should see still more glorious things. [See also Document 209, p. 208. This was the signification of a dream in which some one appeared to him and said, "I do not know where you live"].

     In fact before his spiritual sight was opened, while he was still writing his scientific works, he received constant intimations of his preparation for a great work to come, by means of a remarkable series of visions and dreams, concerning which we have a full record in Tafel's Documents. He speaks of these dreams in Spiritual Diary, n. 2951, as follows:--

     Before my mind was opened so that I could converse with spirits, I had a dream during several years, by which I was informed of the things concerning which I was writing. [Conf. Spiritual Diary, n. 3177.]

     In the same work he says: "What I have learned from representations and visions is from the Lord alone." (S. D. 1647; Conf. Doc., 209, p. 189, n. 116.)

     From these Passages we learn that the intimations he was receiving were from the Lord Himself, and had reference not only to the work which was to come, but to the work which he was then doing, that is, the work in which he was expounding the philosophy of nature. Concerning this he speaks further, in Spiritual Diary, n. 2951:--

     Before my mind was opened so that I could converse with spirits, and thus be persuaded by living experience, there existed with me for several years such evidences that I now wonder I could remain all the while unconvinced of the Lord's government by the means of spirits.

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During several years not only had I dreams by which I was informed concerning those things which I was writing, but I experienced also while writing certain changes of state, there being a certain extraordinary light if the things which were written. Afterward I had many visions with closed eyes, and light was given me in a marvelous manner. There was also an influx from spirits, as manifest to the sense as if it had been into the senses of the body; there were infestations in various ways by evil spirits when I was in temptations; and afterwards when writing anything to which the spirits had an aversion I was almost possessed by them, so as to feel something like a tremor. Fiery lights were seen and conversations heard in the early mornings, beside many other things; until at last a spirit spoke a few words to me when I was greatly astonished at his perceiving my thoughts. I was afterwards greatly astonished that I could converse with spirits; as the Spirits were that should wonder. (S. D., 2951.)

     Now there are several things in this remarkable passage worthy of your serious attention, in connection with the subject that is before us,--the subject of the value to the New Church, of Swedenborg's philosophy. We note first the teaching that the Lord, even in this early period, was with him, governing and leading, but that it was at this time a mediate leading, that is, a leading through spirits, concerning which I have already spoken. This is shown in the heading of the article,-"That man is with difficulty persuaded that he is ruled through spirits;" and he wonders that he was not earlier convinced of the Lord's government through spirits; which evidently means that he now wonders that he did not see earlier that he was being led and prepared by the Lord through spirits for the work which was to follow. The spirits were evidently good spirits, and perhaps angels; for after saying that there was an influx of spirits, he adds that there were also infestations from evil spirits. He also says that--"When writing anything to which he spirits had an aversion I was almost possessed by them so as to feel something like a tremor." You will note also that he speaks of seeing fiery lights, and that he heard spirits conversing together in the early morning, and that at last one spoke to him. Finally I would call your attention to the statement that there was a certain extraordinary light in the things which were written, and that "light was given me in a certain miraculous manner.

     It is this "extraordinary light" in his scientific works that we have been endeavoring to set before you. Some of us have seen this light, and the light is good, and we would have others see it; and we humbly bow before this light, for we see in it the hand of Providence preparing this great man for his great work; we see in it the genuine laws of nature, given by the Lord to Swedenborg through the mediation of spirits and angels, such as could not be given save to this one man, but given to him and through him that the New Church might have a natural philosophy of its own, to save it from the materialism of modern science.

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Not only Swedenborg but all Newchurchmen are to have the benefit of this "extraordinary light."

     Swedenborg wonders that he had not perceived earlier that he was being led by the Lord through spirits, for he could now look and see that evidences of it were abundant, had he been able to read them aright. Evidences appear in the number we have just quoted, and other evidences are spoken of elsewhere; one in particular is important in this connection, namely, the fact that he had internal respiration from his childhood. It is well known from the Doctrines that the existence of internal respiration is an evidence of intimate association with spirits and angels; and it is also evident that any one who has internal respiration is in superior light, for he respires with the angels, and his thought is in correspondence with their thought. Swedenborg having internal respiration from his childhood, must have had a spiritual-natural light in his mind; and we are prepared to understand why it is that what he wrote, even as a philosopher, shines with an "extraordinary light." But let us hear him on the subject of his internal respiration. In the Spiritual Diary, n. 3464, he says:--

     I was first accustomed so to respire in early childhood, when saying my morning and evening prayers, and sometimes afterwards, when I was examining the concordance of the lungs and the heart; and especially when I was writing from my mind the things which have been published. For a number of years I continually observed that there was a tacit respiration, scarcely sensible, concerning which it was afterward given me to think, and then to write. Thus during many years, from my early childhood, I was introduced into such respiration, most especially through intense speculation, in which the respiration is quiescent; no otherwise is the intense speculation of truth possible. Afterward, when heaven was opened to me and I was able to speak with spirits, I sometimes scarcely breathed at all, for the space of an hour, only drawing in enough air to keep up the process of thinking into interior respiration. Thus I have been introduced by the Lord into interior respiration.

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     This passage in the Spiritual Diary bears the date of October 4th, 1748, about one year before the first volume of the Arcana Coelestia was published. It is plain, therefore, that the reference in the number just quoted is to his scientific works, in the writing of which he says that he had internal respiration,--"when writing from my mind the things that have been published,"--and he mentions in particular his study of the heart and lungs. He adds that after heaven was opened to him he was able to enter more fully into the exercise of the faculty of internal respiration, into which he had been "introduced by the Lord" from his early childhood.

     In connection with this passage from the Diary must be read what he says about his early childhood in a letter to Doctor Beyer:-

     From my youth to my tenth year I was constantly engaged in thought upon God, salvation, and the spiritual ills (passiones spirituales) of men; and several times I revealed things at which my father and mother wondered, saying that angels must be speaking through me. From my sixth to my twelfth year I used to delight in conversing with clergymen about faith, saying that the life of faith is love, and that the love which imparts life is love to the neighbor; also that God gives faith to every one, but that those only receive it who practice that love. I knew of no other faith at that time, than that God is the Creator and Preserver of nature, that He imparts understanding and a good disposition to men, and several other things that follow thence. I knew nothing at that time of that learned faith which teaches that God the Father imputes the righteousness of the His Son to whomsoever He will, and at such times as He chooses, even to those who have not repented and have not reformed their lives. And had I heard of such a faith it would have been then, as it is now, above my comprehension. (Document 243.)

     The fact that he had internal respiration from his childhood, and in this early period he was in constant thought on spiritual things, so that when he spoke it caused his parents to wonder and think that angels must be speaking through his mouth, exhibits clearly to view that he was even from this early period of his life in intimate consociation with good spirits and angels, and that by their mediate operation and influence the Lord was imparting to him a spiritual-natural light, superior to that of other men, and a light that we should naturally expect the man to have who was to be prepared to be the instrument of the Lord's Second Coming into the world. How could it be otherwise?

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     And we may not doubt that the Divine Love was drawing ever nearer and to this man, adapting and fitting his mind through the medium of spirits and angels, that it might finally manifest itself to him in the fulness of Divine Light and through him to all men, with saving efficacy and power.

     Now what do all these things mean,--the internal respiration, the visions, the remarkable dreams, the signs, the fiery lights, and other things of a similar character taking place before his spiritual illumination? They certainly mean something. They do not mean a direct and immediate Revelation from God, for heaven was not yet actually opened to him, without which there is no immediate revelation. They do not mean that what he wrote in this earlier period is to be accepted as infallible, for there is no such claim in anything he has said in them or about them. They do not mean that his philosophy is to be accepted without understanding and viewed without the light of Revelation to see whether it agrees therewith,--for its agreement with Revelation is its characteristic feature. But they do mean that there is a light more than ordinary in what he wrote before, as he himself says; they mean that he was intimately associated with the source of light in the spiritual world, the heaven of angels, in which light and from it he was able to see a light in nature which could not be seen by others, except through his eyes.

     But our judgment on this subject is not to be formed by visions and dreams, by miracles and signs; these are of use in the way of confirmation, in establishing the fact of ad intimate consociation with angels and spirits, in proving the mediate character of his early teaching; but the truth of his system shines in its own light, and bears in its bosom its own evidence of verity to a mind enlightened by Revelation; and to this light we appeal with hope and confidence in the ultimate result, believing that the candid and reflecting mind will upon investigation be satisfied and convinced of the exceeding great value of the philosophy of Swedenborg to the members of the New Church.

     And now we would say a word on the relation between the natural science that appears in the Writings and the natural science of Swedenborg's scientific works. We would observe first that the natural science in the Writings,--considered as to its outward form or literal statement,--is not spiritual truth, is not Theology, but it is natural truth confirmatory of spiritual truth.

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This natural truth was selected by the Revelator from the science current in the world, with which he was familiar, or from the science of his own earlier works. The Revelator frequently quotes the generals of his own science to confirm the truth of Revelation. This establishes their truth; for natural truth being confirmatory of spiritual truth, is by virtue of that fact true on its own plane. Natural truth confirms spiritual truth because it is in correspondence with it; and that which corresponds is true because it corresponds. Such is the nature of the scientific truth quoted in the Writings; it is true because it confirms spiritual truth, and corresponds with it. The natural science which appears in the Writings is therefore authoritative to the New Church; for its use in the Writings gives it a Divine confirmation.

     It would clearly follow, therefore, that the natural science in the Writings, considered as science, is not given as anything new, and is therefore not given, or intended to be given, as a new Revelation of scientific truth. It is not new, because Swedenborg had taught it before; some of it was known to men of science; and sometimes he introduces natural truth that is common and familiar to all. The end and object of the Writings is not to reveal scientific but spiritual truth; but for the sake of a clearer understanding of spiritual truth, natural truth, which was already known, is introduced to illustrate and confirm. Natural truth was so selected by the Revelator in the Divine Light in which he then was, and for this reason there can be no question of its truth. It is necessary to call attention to this, because the effort is made to show that the science of the Writings is something new, revealed from heaven by the Lord in His Second Coming, unknown before even to Swedenborg; when yet the fact is, he merely uses the natural truth he already knew to give form and body to the spiritual truth of Revelation; and earlier in his life he was introduced by the Lord into the natural sciences, partly for the reason that he might have at hand an abundant store of the knowledges of natural things, for this purpose. The fact that he so uses scientific and philosophic truth in the Writings, does not make that truth a new revelation but merely establishes the fact that is natural truth, corresponding with spiritual truth and therefore confirmatory of it.

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     To make a distinction between the Science of the Writings--considered as science--and the science of Swedenborg's earlier works, is to make a distinction that dots not exist, except the distinction between generals and their particulars. The generals are in the Writings; the particulars of those generals are to be found in the scientific works of Swedenborg. The generals include the particulars, and if the generals are true the particulars are also true; that is to say, if the science in the Writings is true, the science of Swedenborg's earlier works is also true; they stand or fall together. The distinction therefore between the science of the former and the science of the latter,--as if they were something separate and apart from each other,--is a distinction made without a knowledge of the facts.

     With this view of the science taught in the Writings and its proper place and relation with the science Swedenborg taught before, there is no danger of exalting his science beyond its true position of subordination to spiritual truth, there is no danger of making it a new, infallible, a Divine Revelation. But if the natural or scientific truth which appears in the Writings be regarded in its outward form as a Divine Revelation of natural truth hitherto unknown to Swedenborg and to the world, we are in reality driven to the necessity of regarding the natural truth of Swedenborg's scientific works as a part of the new Revelation, as a part of those works which are the Coming of the Lord to the world,--instead of being merely a preparation for that Coming. The science in the Writings and the science in Swedenborg's philosophy, is one, regarded as science; and the position that the former is a new revelation and the latter humanly self-derived, cannot be successfully maintained.

     The philosophic and scientific truth which Swedenborg introduces into the Writings, therefore, is not to be regarded in and by itself as an immediate Revelation from God, but is introduced for the sake of a clearer exposition and confirmation of the spiritual truth which is given by immediate Revelation, and by virtue of this use its truth is established, becoming thus on its plane an essential part of those works which are called by us the Writings of the New Church.

     And now we present as a final conclusion, that Emanuel Swedenborg stands before us in a two-fold office, that of a Revelator and that of a teacher of natural truth.

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Both offices are for the New Church; the one for its spiritual faith and life, as the medium of an immediate Revelation from the Lord, as the instrument of His Second Coming into the world, the other office for its scientific thought, its higher education, as a preparation of the mind of our youth for the understanding of spiritual things, guarding them from-the materialism of modern science, and as the means provided by which the wonderful discoveries of modern science are to be reduced into order for the New Church, the means by which the vessels of Egypt are to be made subservient to the uses of Israel.

     Swedenborg was prepared for both these offices under the Divine auspices, under the leadings of Providence. For his first office he was prepared by means of the use which he performed for his native country as Assessor of Mines. To perfect himself for this office it was necessary for him to study the natural sciences, both in the writings of men and in the laboratory of nature. And the evidence is complete that he did this in a most satisfactory manner.

     For his second,--his great office, he was prepared by means of the first, as he himself testifies. His second office is recognized in the New Church, for this recognition--with all that it carries with it--is that which makes a man a Newchurchman. His first office is as yet but partially recognized, for the immense value to the New Church of his scientific teaching is as yet but little seen or known. But the evidences are not lacking that a number in the New Church are beginning to see that Swedenborg as a man of science, as a philosopher, as a teacher of natural truth, occupies a place that is unique among men, and that the value and worth of his system of philosophic and scientific truth is unapproached and unapproachable by the teaching of any other man, from the
dawn of history to the present time. W. F. PENDLETON.

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PEACE THE GOAL OF REDEMPTION AND THE PALM OF THE REDEEMED 1901

PEACE THE GOAL OF REDEMPTION AND THE PALM OF THE REDEEMED       Rev. EMIL CRONLUND       1901

     Then came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, Peace unto you....
     Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you....
     And after eight days again...came Jesus...and said, Peace be unto you. (John xx., 19, 21, 26.)

     MAN during the course of his regeneration passes through two states in general, the state of combat and the state of peace. The evils which he loves and the falsities which he believes are stirred up within him by evil spirits, who arouse them to combat against good and truth. When man then, by power given him from the Lord, defends himself against the assaults of the evil, his spirit is in a state of anxiety and combat, he passes through the pains of spiritual temptations. When good and truth endeavor to assert and to defend themselves then the temptation begins and then the pain is felt. We experience physical pain when disease invades the body and there is an effort on the part of nature to drive it out and to restore man to a state of health. The effort of nature to heal is what is felt as pain. If there were no such effort there would be no pain, for there would be nothing to hinder the progress of the disease, and man would immediately succumb and die. It is the same on the spiritual plane. If man does not, from a love of good and truth, resist evils and falsities he cannot feel the pains of spiritual temptation. The effort of good and truth to defend themselves is what is felt as spiritual anxiety and pain. He who cares nothing for spiritual things, he with whom there is no endeavor to live a new life, makes no resistance when evil spirits lead him astray; he follows them willingly and becomes spiritually dead. The stronger is man's love to the Lord the more interior is the temptation, the more severe the pain that is felt. Man may be infested on all sides, so as even to doubt the very fundamentals of the Church; he may doubt for the moment whether there is a God, whether there is a life after death. The anxiety and the torment that the conscience feels at such a time can hardly be described in words.

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But if there were not in man some love to the Lord this anxiety and torment would never be experienced. Evil spirits tempt those only with whom there is something of the Lord, with whom there is something of conscience. He who is confirmed in evil cannot be tempted, for evil cannot tempt itself.

     They who undergo spiritual temptations trust to the Lord alone for their deliverance. They are indeed in doubt and despair concerning the end, for otherwise it is no temptation; but with them this doubt is soon changed into confidence and "despair is swallowed up in victory." "They looked unto Him and were enlightened; and their faces were not ashamed. This Poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles." The reason they are saved is, that "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit."

     Once when the Lord and His disciples were out on the Sea of Galilee a storm arose and the disciples, thinking that they would perish, went to the Lord saying, Save us; we perish. And He arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased and there was a great calm." As the Lord by His word of peace calmed the tempestuous sea, so He also by His same almighty Word subdues the raging of the hells within man when he goes unto Him. And here we come to the second state into which regenerating men enter; after temptation follows peace. It is said in the Word that the Lord will speak peace to His people, and that the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance forever. The state of peace after temptation may be compared to the calm that succeeds a storm, also to the Spring after Winter, and to the morning of dawn of day. It may also be compared to the Sabbath, of which the Lord said: "Thou shalt do no work therein."

     As the regeneration of man is an image of the Lord's glorification it follows that the Lord in His Human passed through states similar to those that man experiences. In the Garden of Gethsemane He said to His disciples, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful; even unto death." It is also said that He was in agony and prayed to the Father, and that "His Sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." This state is called the Lord's state of Humiliation or Exinanition.

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But having conquered the hells He said to the disciples, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you: Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." And on the day of His resurrection,--"at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you."

     This benediction was pronounced upon the disciples by our Saviour when He had fully glorified His Human, which makes it evident that all peace proceeds from the Divine Humanity of our Lord. Its origin is the Divine Marriage of Good and Truth in Him. Having overcome the hells He entered as to the Human into Divine Peace. Angels and regenerating men are admitted into the sphere of this peace, for the Lord said, "My peace I give unto you." This peace which proceeds from the Lord is Heaven itself; it is the Divine of the Lord which makes Heaven and all happiness there. It is by virtue of this peace that Heaven is an eternal Spring, an eternal morning without clouds, a never-ending Sabbath. It can exist only together with innocence, which is a willingness not to hurt anything that is of the Lord or of the neighbor; thus it is to will to be led by the Lord and not by self. This is innocence, and so far as man is in innocence so far he is in peace, for so far he lives in charity with his neighbor and is in protection against the hells, which is spiritual security.

     Heavenly peace is such that it transcends every idea of earthly happiness, for it is the Divine of the Lord inmostly affecting with, joy the souls of men. The words of natural language are inadequate to express it; only an image of it can be given, for it does not reveal itself to the external sight of man, but must be felt and perceived by the internal man. Swedenborg says, in the Adversaria, "By the Divine Mercy of the Lord it has been given me to experience something of this peace; but I sacredly attest that no language ever can express it; for it is complex of all felicities, with the highest degree of life, without the life which is wont to arise from concupiscences, the pleasures of the body, care and anxiety about future things. It is to be in the bosom of God Messiah." (Adv,. iv., 6925.)

     Peace exists by virtue of the Divine Unity. It is the offspring of the union between the Divine and the Human. And the teaching is, that in order that there may be peace there must be unity.

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The root meaning of the Creek word for peace is, "connecting into one." With those who are united together by the common bond of love to the Lord and love of His truth, there is peace. The truth by itself does not produce unity, but it is the recognition of the truth, and the love of it, that unites men as into a one. Wisdom has no power apart from love, which is evident from this, that although in the Word of the Lord and in the Writings of the New Church, truths are presented in the most forcible manner possible and in the most beautiful terms, still he who has no love of truth will not believe. The Heavenly Doctrines teach us that love is a longing and a striving after conjunction, for love longs and strives to conjoin itself with wisdom or truth, nor is it satisfied until its longing is ultimated. But love having found its heavenly consort, wisdom, they are united into one, and the result of their union is heavenly peace.

     In order that man may be in a state of peace, his internal and external man must be one. He must be entire, single-minded; He must have but one end or purpose steadfastly before him; he must will to be such as he wills to appear to be. In the Proverbs it is written: "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left; remove thy feet from evil" (iv., 25-27). When the external man is made the willing and obedient servant of the internal man, then man enjoys tranquillity and peace.

     Man is in peace when he is conjoined with the Lord; he is in peace when he is conjoined with the angels of heaven, and he is in peace when through the bonds of mutual love he is conjoined with his fellow-men. Peace is established when that which produces discord is removed. Evils of all kinds are what disunite and separate man from man, man from the angelic heaven, man from the Lord. When we do evil to others we remove ourselves from them. As love is spiritual conjunction so hatred is spiritual disjunction. Evil therefore is what produces all discord, all dissensions in the world. It separates men and causes them to stand alone, whereas the Lord's will is that they should dwell together in unity. "Behold how good and how lovely for brethren to dwell together in unity," are the words of the Lord. It is also written that--"It is not good for man to be alone," for be who through evils of life separates himself from others removes from himself the means of salvation, which are, the performance of uses to others.

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It is not good for man to be alone for the reason that we need each other. We do not live for ourselves alone, but also for the sake of others. When evils are removed then we are united with others and live in peace.

     When the Lord, the Prince of Peace, came into the world the Church was at an end, because men lived in hatred and all kinds of evils. They were spiritually dissociated from each other; they were separated from Heaven, separated from God; thus there was nothing of peace. But the Lord came that He might establish peace, and He did that by preaching charity; for He said, "This is My commandment, that ye love one another." By establishing His Church on the basis of mutual love He united man with man, He consociated man with the angelic Heaven, and He conjoined man with his Creator, thus establishing spiritual peace. The advent of the Lord into the world was accompanied by the proclamation of peace; for the angels who announced His birth to the shepherds, said: "Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth; peace, good will toward men." The Lord came to guide our feet in the way of peace, and therefore when He sent forth His disciples He charged them, saying, "And whatsoever house ye enter first say, Peace be to this house." These disciples were the messengers of peace sent forth by the Lord, who would continue His work by communicating to others that peace which they had received from their Lord and Master. And on the day of His resurrection--"came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith, unto them, Peace be unto you. And when He had so Said He showed I unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord." "Then said Jesus unto them again, "Peace be unto you." And this time He breathed on them, saying, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." And after eight days again came Jesus said, Peace be unto you." And having so said He convinced Thomas that He was indeed the Lord Jesus who was crucified and had risen from the dead: "And Thomas answered and said unto Him, 'My Lord and my God.' " From this it is evident that the goal of Redemption and the palm of the redeemed is spiritual peace.

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     The palm of the redeemed is spiritual peace, for by His coming the Lord exalted His omnipotence, so that He holds hell in order and under. His obedience to eternity. This "heavenly peace, which is in respect to the hells that evils and falses may not thence arise and invade, may be compared in many respects with natural peace, as with peace after war, when every one lives in security from enemies, safe in his own city, in his own home or in his own fields and gardens. It is as the prophet said, speaking naturally concerning heavenly peace: 'They shall sit every man under his own vine and under his own fig tree, and none shall make them afraid.' It may be compared also to recreation of mind and to rest after severe labor. It may also be compared with serenity after tempests, black clouds and thunders, and likewise with spring after a terrible winter has passed, and then with a gladness that comes from the new growths in the fields and from the blossoming in the gardens, meadows and forests. It may be compared also with the state of minds with those who after storms and dangers on the sea, leach the port, and set their feet on the wished-for land" (T. C. R., 304).

     No one can come into a state of peace until he shuns that which is hostile to peace and opposite to it. It was said that the regenerating man undergoes two states, the state of combat and the state of peace. The state of combat must precede, for the palm of the redeemed is not given until after their redemption. Man must conquer his enemies before he can expect peace, and therefore the Lord also said, "Think not that I am come to send peace upon earth: I come not to send peace, but a sword." (Matt. x. i. 34). A sword signifies the Divine Truth by means of which man combats against the hells. By that He sent a sword is meant, therefore, that He revealed His Divine Truth more fully, that He gave truths in greater abundance in order that man might more skillfully defend Himself against the hells. By sending a sword upon earth the Lord diminished the power of the hells. If He had not sent a sword He could not have sent peace.

     Regeneration cannot take place without truths, but before the Lord came into the world there was in the Church nothing but falsities and evils, consequently there was no combat between these and truths and goods; but when truths and goods had been unveiled by the Lord then it was possible for combats to exist.

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     "Because there was nothing of truth in the world before the Lord's coming therefore the spiritual could not undergo temptations until the Lord had glorified His human, and in this was present with them; if they had been tempted sooner they would instantly have yielded, for they who are of the spiritual Church are saved by the Divine Human of the Lord" (A. C., 8159; 9373).

     When the Church was in its infancy it was in a state of peace, because in mutual love, but the Lord predicted that the Church would come to an end because the state would not continue. And when His disciples asked Him, "When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the consummation of the age?" the Lord answered, "Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars." By wars here are meant spiritual wars, which are caused by falsities and evils in the Church. When these wars take place, and when evils and falsities prevail, then spiritual peace is found no more, and the Church is at an end.

     But by His second coming the Lord has established a Church in which spiritual peace is to reign forever. To the New Church the Lord has revealed truths more interior than have ever been known to any previous Church, and therefore that Church will be able to defend itself against all its enemies. "For the Lord our Judge, the Lord our Lawgiver, the Lord our King, He it is that saveth us."

     To all who enter into this Church, to all those who are in love to Him and in charity towards the neighbor, the Lord has promised spiritual peace; for He says: "My People shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." The Lord grant that we may so live that we become partakers of this heavenly peace.--Amen.
NO SALVATION FROM IMMEDIATE MERCY 1901

NO SALVATION FROM IMMEDIATE MERCY              1901

     "It is according to order that they who have lived well will be saved, and that they who have lived evilly will be condemned; hence it is impossible for those who are in Hell to be able to be led forth thence into Heaven and saved from the pure mercy of the Lord; for it is the reception of the Lord's mercy when they have lived in the world, through which every one is saved." (Arcana Coelestia, n. 8700.)

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REMEMBER THE DAY OF THE SABBATH, TO HALLOW IT 1901

REMEMBER THE DAY OF THE SABBATH, TO HALLOW IT              1901

     THE Ten Words of the Great Covenant, which our Mighty Creator impressed with His own finger upon the two tables of stone, contain in a summary the whole of the Divine law. They are therefore an epitome of the whole Divine Word. And as the rocks are the very bottom and foundation of all Creation, it is involved that these same laws are impressed upon all created things, from highest to lowest; since that which is the First and the Last in any series, as philosophy teaches us, is also in all the intermediates.

     True, the form in which these laws are embodied is not the same as that which was first proffered to our fallen race, and which could not be received on account of our unworthiness,--but the living Divine truth is the same, and it is to us a splendid illustration of the power and scope of the Divine law, and of the universality of its application.

     To write upon stone, in the spiritual sense,--or as understood by spirits and angels, among whom stones are the product of their states of love and wisdom,--signifies to so impress upon the memory by application to life, as to become fixed, and incapable of being blotted out. But to our materialistic minds, it is also useful to realize that these laws, which form the moral basis of human society, are also the same laws that govern nature herself in all her operations. Thus nature herself acknowledges but one Lord and Greater, and Him a Man, possessed of intelligent purpose and unity of design. Nature herself celebrates her Sabbaths--and indeed requires them--for she enjoys a rest and an interval of peace, at the end of each period and before the beginning of a new one. And so it comes to pass that man's body, which is an epitome of the world about him, has this law or necessity impressed upon it, the imperative need of periods of rest or cessation from its activities. The student of nature sees this law in the world about him, for every evening all nature is seen to relax, and in the morning she is actually seen to exult with a quiet peace.

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Not only the birds and beasts, but also every tree, shrub and blade of grass is seen to unfold itself, to expand with a new strange stirring of life from within, and to shower forth a sphere of blessedness which affects the inmosts of man's body with a deep exhilaration, and if his heart be attuned to wisdom, awakes in him the answering harmonies of the spirit. His bosom is stirred,--he rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race, and he joins the great anthem of the universe, which is singing the praise of its maker, the Dayspring from on High. Even the soil itself, and the very racks, are affected by these periodicities,--these Sabbath states of rest and peace, which follow the labor of the day, and prepare for--indeed, usher in with renewal of life--another day. Especially is this subtle sphere Perceived in the early spring, when with the daily alternation there coincides the greater cycle of a year,--when the world, after its long winter sleep, is one more aroused by the loving kiss of her lord, the radiant Phoebus. Now the birds put on a higher plumage, and sing a sweeter song. All living creatures respond with seven-fold activity and delight to the renewed influx, and all the face of nature is tinged with the first rosy blush of awakening life, not yet burst forth into full beauty, nor yet fully adorned with all its stately garb of many colors. Even the rocks, the mountains and all the waters, exhibit a harmonious vibration, and, as we know, exude a stronger, more prolific sphere, for they too live, and living, respond to the caresses of the Life of the world. As sang the Psalmist:--

     What is to thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills, like lambs?

     Tremble thou earth at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob: which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain Of waters. (Psalm cxiv, 5-8)

     It is the Voice of the Lord which doeth all this, and which bringeth judgment to the wicked, and peace and growth to the good; not by the thought of wisdom which it utters, but far more by the stirring of the abysses in our hearts, which is effected by the sound of love,--of Infinite mercy and loving kindness which speaks to us in that Voice. It is His Voice which we hear in the morning, and it is His Voice which all nature in the spring time; for by the Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

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In every beginning--the cause, the fountain of life, and thus the Father of all things, is the Divine Love going forth as the Word. "All things were made by Him, and without him was not anything made which was made."

     Thus the student of nature sees this great commandment impressed upon all things of this earth: "Remember the day of the Sabbath to hallow it;" even as it was written by the Lord upon the tables of stone. The same law is also reposited in the temple of the human body, where all nature brings of her first fruits and does her deepest homage to the Creator and His Laws. Here especially we see exhibited this law of the Sabbath--of the resting after labors, and of the sphere of benediction and refreshment, which prepares for ever new and greater works.

     But what is the source and origin of all these Sabbaths of nature? What is the subtle essence which so insinuates itself at these times, and makes all things to rest and anon to rejoice and go forth with eager gladness to new works? It is the Divine Marriage of Love and Wisdom, going forth from the Lord, by the Sun of Heaven, and inmostly affecting all things of His creation. It is the universal conjugial sphere, which inflows into all created forms, and by which all things live and are perpetuated. It is a reflection upon the plane of nature--where it is uninterrupted by the interposition of any of the perversions of human freedom and irrationality, and where therefore the Lord is able to spread out below us, as in a mirror, the beauty and the glory of His Heavenly kingdom,--where all is peace and growth, from the reception of His sphere from Him. It is with man alone,--in those few things which are committed to him, to use or abuse as he will;--that the heavenly peace, the Divine Sabbath state, can be disturbed. And here is where our lesson is to be learned from all this: Nature has her periods of rest--her Sabbaths; and without these, could not be refreshed, nor could renew her works. Man's body likewise must have such intervals of rest and recreation. This is the law written by the Lord upon these lower planes of life; and must not the same law apply to the life of the spirit? Yea, verily it must. But here he is left to apply it or not, as he pleases. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT.

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XV. (Continued). 1901

XV. (Continued).              1901

[DE VERBO.]

     [4.] That the Ancient Word also was Divine or divinely inspired, like our Word, is evident from Jeremiah, where almost the same words occur: "A fire hath gone out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, which hath devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the sons of strife. Woe unto thee, Moab; perished hath the people of Chemosh, for thy sons are snatched into captivity, and thy daughters into captivity" (xlviii. 45, 46). Besides these books, a prophetical book of that Ancient Word, called the "Book of Jasher" or the "Book of the Upright," is mentioned by David (II Samuel i., 18), and by Joshua (x., 13), from which it is clear that the historical there concerning the sun and the moon was prophesy from that book. Moreover, I have been told that the first seven chapters of Genesis are extant in that same Word, and so exactly that not one little word is wanting.

     The religions of many nations have been derived and carried over from that Word, as from the land of Canaan and various places in Asia into Greece and thence into Italy, and through Ethiopia and Egypt into certain kingdoms of Africa. In Greece, however, they made fables out of the correspondences, and out of the Divine attributes they made so many gods, and the greatest of these they called Jove, from Jehovah.

     XVI.

CONCERNING THE NATIONS AND PEOPLES OUT OF THE CHURCH, WHO HAVE NOT THE WORD, AND WHO THEREFORE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE LORD OR ABOUT REDEMPTION.

     Those who have the Word are few compared with those who do not have it. The Word is only in Europe, among the Christians who are called Reformed. It exists, indeed, also among the Roman Catholics, but it is not read, in the kingdoms adhering to that religion, such as France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, more than half of Germany and Hungary, as also Poland. In Russia the Word is read but little, but still it is believed to be holy.

     As to the Communication through the Word: The Word is taught and preached only in England, Holland, in some of the duchies in Germany, and in Sweden and Denmark, but it is unknown in Asia, Africa, and the Indies, among nations who are more numerous than the Reformed Christians. But, lest the Word should be destroyed, it was provided by the Lord that the Jewish nation, which has the word of the Old Testament in its original tongue, should survive and dwell dispersed throughout a great part of the earth. And although this nation denies that the Lord is the Messiah or the Christ who was foretold by the prophets, and although it is of an evil heart, still the reading of the Word by them has communication with certain heavens; for the correspondences communicate, whatever be the quality of the person who reads, if only he acknowledges that the Word is Divine. Thus at the present day, even as of old; for when the Jews adore as divinities Moses; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, David, Elias, and other persons mentioned in the Word, then the heavens instead of these persons perceive the Lord, without being aware of the person in the world from whom proceeds that holy of worship. Such is the conjunction of Heaven with man by means of the Word.

     XVII.

[BY MEANS OF THE WORD THOSE ALSO HAVE LIGHT WHO ARE OUT OF THE CHURCH AND HAVE NOT THE WORD.]*
     * [The Heading is supplied from the Thirteenth Chapter of the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Sacred Scripture.-TR.]

     [1.] Now [in regard to the conjunction of Heaven with man by means of the Word] the case is thus: there cannot he any conjunction with Heaven unless somewhere on earth there be a Church where the Word is and where by it the Lord is known, for the Lord is the God of Heaven and earth, and without the Lord there is no salvation. It is sufficient that somewhere on earth there be a Church where the Word is, even though it consist of comparatively few; for still, by means of it, the Lord is present everywhere in the whole world, and Heaven conjoined with the human race, for the conjunction is by means of the Word.

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But without the Word somewhere in the world there would be no conjunction with anyone.

     [2.] The reason why the presence of the Lord and the conjunction of Heaven with the inhabitants of earth is everywhere effected by means of the Word, is because the universal Heaven is before the Lord as one Man, and so also is the Church; and it is also actually a Man, because the Lord is Heaven, and He also is the Church. In that Man the Church, where the Word is read and thereby the Lord is known, is as the Heart and the Lungs, and as all the other members and viscera subsist and live from these two fountains of life ill the human body, so also do all those in the world--who have a religion in which one God is worshiped and who constitute the members and viscera of that Gorand Man which is Heaven and the Church,--subsist and live [from the Church which has the Word.] For by the Word in the Church; although it is with comparatively few, is life from the Lord through Heaven to all the rest, just as the members and viscera of the whole body have life from the heart and the lungs: there is also a similar communication. This also is the reason why the Christians, among whom the Word is read, constitute the Breast of that Man. These also are in the midst of all; round about them are the Roman Catholics; round about these are the Mohammedans who acknowledge the Lord as the greatest Prophet and as the Son of God; behind these are the Africans; and the nations and peoples of Asia and of the Indies constitute the outermost circumference. All those who are in that Man also look towards the middle region. Moreover, the greatest Light is in that middle region, where, as was said, are the Christians who have the Word, for Light in the heavens is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord as a Sun: the Light thence, as from its centre, propagates itself unto all peripheries, and produces enlightenment. From this source there is an enlightenment of the nations and peoples outside the Church, also by means of the Word,--for all light of truth with man is of the Lord through Heaven.

     [3.] As it is in the whole Heaven, so also is it in each society of Heaven, for each society of Heaven is a heaven in lesser form, and is also as one man in the sight of the Lord, (respecting which see the work on Heaven and Hell [n. 41 to 87]).

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In each society, also, those who are in the midst in like manner refer to the heart and lungs, and the greatest is with these; the light itself, and hence the perception of truth, propagates itself from this middle region towards the peripheries in every direction and makes the spiritual life of those who are there; and it was shown to me that when those were taken away who were in the middle and who constituted the province of the heart and the lungs, and who therefore had the greatest light, they who were round about were in shade, and were then in so little perception of truth as scarcely to be in any; but as soon as the middle ones returned, the light was seen as before, and the perception of truth was as before.

     [4.] From these things it may be evident that the Word which is in the Church of the Reformed gives light to all nations and peoples, by a spiritual communication of this kind; also, that it is provided by the Lord that there should always be on the earth a Church where the Word is read. On this account, when the Lord had been almost rejected by the Roman Catholics, then by the Lord's Divine Providence the Reformation took place, and there the Word was again accepted, and it is also held holy by a noble nation among the Papists.

     [5.] Since without the Word there is no knowledge of the Lord and thus no salvation, therefore when the Word had been altogether adulterated and falsified with the Jewish nation, and thus as it were had been made naught, it pleased the Lord to come into the world, and not only to fulfill the Word; but also to re-establish and restore it, and thus again to give light to the inhabitants of this earth, according to the words of the Lord in John: "In the beginning was the word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men, and the Light appeared in the darkness. He was the true Light which enlightens every man coming into the world" (i., 4, 5, 9). In the same: "Jesus said, I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in, darkness, but shall have the light of life" (viii, 12); and in Matthew: "The People which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up" (iv., 16).

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     [6.] Since it was foretold that at the end of this Church also, darkness would arise, owing to the want of knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord as the God of Heaven and earth, and owing to the separation of faith from charity, and since by this means the genuine understanding of the Word has perished, therefore it has pleased the Lord now to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, and to make manifest that the Word in that sense treats of the Lord and of the Church, yea, of these alone; and many other things [have been revealed] by means of which the Light of truth, which was almost extinguished, may be restored. That the light of truth was extinguished at the end of this Church, is meant by these words of the Lord in Matthew: "Immediately after the affliction of those days the suit shall 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 glory and power" (xxiv., 29, 30). By the "sun" here is meant the Lord as to the Divine Love; by the "moon" is meant the Lord as to faith; by the "stars," the Lord as to knowledges of good and truth; by the "clouds," the sense of the Letter of the Word; and by "glory," its spiritual sense; by "the Son of Man," the Lord as to the Word.
CREATION 1901

CREATION              1901

Thy voice, O Lord, calls forth from darkness
Celestial orbs of light;
Thy sun shines out, and light divideth
Between the day and night.
The stars around Thy throne rejoicing,
Their first glad anthem sing;
The choirs of earth to life awaking
With loud Hosannas ring.

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     ANY subscriber who failed to receive a copy of the Index to the Life for 1900 will lease notify the Publisher, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.



     ATTENTION of those concerned is called to the notice, on page 336, of meetings of the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, both individually and jointly with the Council of the Clergy.

     Also, to the cordial invitation of the Buffalo Society to those visiting the Pan-American Exposition.



     THE recurrence of "New Church Day" is an occasion not only for remembering and rejoicing over the founding of the New Church, but for reflecting upon the meaning of the proclamation of the Lord's Advent in His Truth, and for making the discriminations which the Truth makes, thus for setting apart our lives from non-religion and from irreligion, and from false religion,--for dedicating them to the Lord, and for seeking Him with newer, fresher aspirations,--with the resolve to be worthy of this the greatest blessing of an all-bounteous Providence. May the various centres send in cheering accounts of the celebrations; the omission of the Assembly suggests especial reason why they should be made the most of.



     THE New-Church Messenger of May 15th editorially raises and tentatively discusses certain points suggested by the question: "Is there a Spirit of Discontent in the Church?" The position taken is that there is such a spirit, which, however, is said to find expression not so much in public as in "quiet conversations which Churchmen have with each other." There is, to quote the Messenger language, a "feeling that the best is not being done that might be done; that our methods are not adequate; that we are not progressive; and that the Church is in some way being held back." And again: "There is naturally a feeling of disappointment that our numerical growth is so slow. . . . Not simply with those that are naturally impatient, but with those who are spiritually steadfast, there is feeling that in some way the possibilities of the Church are not being realized.

     It is not to be denied that increase in numbers, though a subordinate matter of concern in the progress of a spiritual body like the New Church, is desirable, and is calculated to bring about a fullness and variety of activities and uses which promote spiritual growth. But all Newchurchmen will admit that numerical growth is valuable only as it goes with internal growth--as the larger membership stands for genuine Newchurchmanship.

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To swell the ranks with men who are converts from persuasion, from interested motives, or even from a rational conviction which remains only intellectual, would exhibit a fictitious prosperity; more, it would constitute a grave weakness, a great danger. Still, there ought to be a natural increase of the visible Church, not only from births within the Church but also from accessions from the Old Church,--for, that all the well-disposed have been gleaned out from the old organizations, would hardly be maintained by the most extreme interpreter of the Doctrines on the subject of the vastate Church.



     THE Messenger disclaims being able to solve the questions it suggests, and in what it does say, ignores the principal source of New Church growth, increase within the families of the Church. This field lies within our own sphere of action, and for the results of the way in which it is dealt with the Church cannot altogether escape responsibility. It is not maintainable that the defection of the young people of the Church is because they are not amenable to instruction,--there must be some defect in the work that is done with and for them. That defect, as regards the New Church in general, seems to be a lack of conviction that the New Church is really NEW; that is, that it has come to take the place of all former and now obsolete means of furnishing men with a true spiritual home, and of leading them by the Lord's Truth into the life of regeneration and of heaven. The Messenger itself, in the same number, furnishes an illustration of this. On the page opposite to that on which the editorial ends, a correspondent,--speaking from the Brooklyn Society to intending visitors at the coming Convention in that city, and giving incidentally some account of the Society's work and surroundings,--explains its lack of growth and of missionary success, by saying that "the simple fact is that the preference of the community is for other forms of Christian teaching than ours." This sentence voices the too common idea that the difference between the "teaching" of the Old Church, and that of the New Church, is merely one of degree; and this in the face of the plain, literal statements of the Doctrines that the former Church was Christian in name only, and that "The Christian Church such as it is in itself is now first commencing" (T. C. R. 668).



     IN SO far as the New Church takes its stand on the teaching of The True Christian Religion, just quoted, it will not have to lament a stationary and even receding membership. For the children who receive such virile instruction will feel its power and will learn to look to its source, the Writings, to guide their path, and to the Church as their spiritual nourisher; and when we thus strengthen the citadel, those without the fold--they who despite obscurity and error are in some affection of truth--will be attracted to the storehouse whence that affection may be fed.

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And at the same time such teaching will be a strong tower of defence against assaults from without, the most dangerous of which will be not the open, fierce attacks, but the insinuation of insidious falses, especially by those who under the garb of charity, etc., of accepting "much of the New Church," hide denial of the Lord.



     THE Messenger discounts the explanation sometimes advanced for the deficiency in numbers in the New Church, namely, that the Doctrines being spiritual must be received spiritually, and that for this there must be preparation, which is said to be even now going on; on which the Messenger comments: "But we who have received these teachings are not more spiritual than many about us."

     We are not sure that we catch the Messenger's meaning, but if it is that membership in the visible New Church (without reference to particular organizations) has little to do with spiritual development, we must dissent. It has a great deal to do with it; for the truth which such membership carries with it is what forms and qualifies spiritual good,--not to go into the matter of the spiritual associations involved. The simple and uninstructed, those whose good has not yet been formed by truths,--are not yet in spiritual charity, except rudimentally; and though the quality of Newchurchmen cannot be gauged by the amount and quality of truth which they have, it is not right to assume that internally they are not in accord with that truth. In so far as they are in accord with it they will be in greater spiritual light and heat than those who have not genuine truth. Keeping in mind the teaching that the spiritual man and the natural man appear similar in externals, we must believe that Newchurchmen in general are "more spiritual than many about us,"--which is claiming very little.



     WHAT keeps the masses out of the New Church, as one of the foremost of New Church liberals once said, is that "they have no taste for spiritual things." This means that they love the things of the unregenerate nature more than the things of heaven. What keeps most people out of the New Church is a state of the will rather than of the understanding. Many seem to think that if we could only so accommodate the truth as to make it plain to people, they would receive. Passing by the implication that thus Divine Revelation is not visible in its own light, nor equipped for what the Lord has designed it to effect, we would suggest that the mere rationality or reasonableness of the truth has much less effect with men than is supposed. The vital need is for "the self-evidencing reason of love" (see Canons, page 1). Many imagine that numbers are kept out of the New Church by the incredibility of its claims, as, that it has a new revelation. But Mrs. Eddy made the same claim, and yet within a few years her followers have numbered over a million. When it is considered that Swedenborg offers pure reason, and that Mrs. Eddy offers for the most part pure nonsense and worse, the growth of Christian Science tells its own story as to the receptivity of the Christian world.

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OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE THE "SPIRITUAL DIARY" AVAILABLE IN THE GERMAN TONGUE 1901

OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE THE "SPIRITUAL DIARY" AVAILABLE IN THE GERMAN TONGUE       C. H. A       1901

     THE manuscript copy of the German translation of the Spiritual Diary, entitled Geistige Tagebuch, which was made by the late Prof. W. Pfirsch at the expense of Mr. J. G. Mittnacht, and since his death held by his niece, Miss M. Mittnacht, of Biebrich-a-Rhein, has been presented by that lady to the Academy of the New Church "with the condition that the German Swedenborg Society shall have the free use of the MS. in case it be the first to apply for it, and providing that there is a decided prospect of its publishing the work in the near future.

     "So long as this Society does not ask for the MS. the Academy of the New Church has the right to dispose of it as it would over other property, to publish it or let others publish it as they see fit."

     The Manuscript has been received by the Academy and consists of 5,618 carefully and clearly written pages.

     The publishing of the Spiritual Diary in the German language will involve a great expense, possibly from $3,000 to $5,000, but it is recognized that the importance of having all of Swedenborg's works available in the modern language cannot be estimated by money; and this opportunity to make the Spiritual Diary available in the German tongue may commend itself to the New Church public, and especially to Germans, as presenting a use worthy of some sacrifice and energetic effort.

     In order to make a beginning I would suggest that the German New Church bodies co-operate by inviting their members to subscribe towards the work. By publishing the entire work, say in ten parts at $1.00 a part and with 500 subscribers, the work could be done within a period of possibly five years.

     If any definite arrangement can be made the readers of New Church Life will be informed about it. C. H. A.
HEBREW IN THE GIRLS' SEMINARY 1901

HEBREW IN THE GIRLS' SEMINARY       H. T       1901

MY DEAR FRIEND:--

     Our Principal wishes me to answer your inquiries about Hebrew as taught in the Seminary since I have been taking up that subject during preparation here.

     We have just one lesson a week, and no home work; the instructions were, not to teach the language scientifically (which I am not prepared; do), but to interest the girls and excite their affection for the language of the Word,--the language that has departed least from that most ancient language that came down from Heaven.

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This was in some cases hard to do.

     The girls read, but not readily; they know little of punctuation and accent--matters of importance to Hebrew scholars, but not to us; we are concerned with more interesting things. Our vocabulary is small as yet; we do not go into grammar except here and there, when something interesting or quaint comes up, especially if it illustrates the general agglutinative character of the language.

     So, you see, the progress in acquiring the language is slow; it is not considered necessary that the girls become Hebrew scholars; in following the instructions given more has been taught about Hebrew than of the words and construction of the language itself. I have tried to give them an idea of its peculiar quality, its perfect fitness for the use for which it was created and wonderfully preserved. Its straightforward putting of the thought, its lack of the artificial and the unnecessary, its simple dignity, its comprehensiveness,--these things make even the translated Word a monument of English. One word in Hebrew may mean many things--even from "opposite to opposite,"--as our much-loved teacher used to say,--that it might better contain the tier upon tier of internal meaning.

     The angels frequently talked with Swedenborg about Hebrew, as you will see in the Concordance. They told him that every letter--every little part of a letter--contained a complete spiritual sense! The Jews themselves have a kind of pictorial meaning, besides a mystic sense,--their Kabala, connected with the alchemy and black art of the Middle Ages.

     We have talked about the peculiar character of the Jews, a nation unique in history; we remark especially their literalism and their tenacity; characteristics used of Providence to preserve the letter of the Old Testament, not only before the coming of the Lord, but during the Dark Ages. Their devotion to the Letter caused them to revere the very shape and size of each character, nay to count every point and fill the margins with copious notes about trifles. A more interior nation would have profaned the Word, but the Jew preserved every jot and title, of which it was foretold not one would pass from the law till all be fulfilled. The tenacity of the Jews is well known,--a stiff-necked people, they guarded the Book which they considered their own, the history of themselves; the chosen people, beside whom all others are despised.

     We have studied the Ten Commandments very carefully. If one had knowledge and insight and power to adapt, one might spend weeks teaching the commandments alone. They were the first part of our Word to be written; they contain all that follows; they are so holy that there is nothing more holy--Berith Jehowah, the Covenant of the Lord. I have tried to give the girls a vivid picture of that great drama of the giving of the Covenant; the voice of the Lord on the mountain; the awestruck multitude below; the glory of the clouds that hid Jehovah from their sight; the bounds set that they should not pass lest they die; their forsaking of the Covenant almost immediately, and when Moses, descended with the "Ten Words" written by the finger of God, he found them dancing and feasting before a golden calf!

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     The thrilling scenes that accompanied the Ark--Aron Beritli--wherever it went; the waters of Jordan stood aside for it; its presence caused the walls and towers of Jericho to fall; the God of the Philistines fell on his face before it; they who touched it died; they who revered it prospered. It found a resting place finally,-beqodesh haqqodashim--in the holy of holies, in the midst of the House of Jehowah, where it remained for five hundred years; every stranger who attempted to profane its seclusion died on the threshold. But finally the temple itself was burnt, the Covenant destroyed by the Babylonians--the Romists of that time. True, the temple was rebuilt in the second time or Reformation of the Jewish Church, but Aron Berith Jehowah was not there. Now, in the filthiest city in the world, in the midst of a most desolate land, under one of the worst of governments, a Mohammedan Mosque stands on the spot where stood Hebral Jehowah,--the glorious temple where once rested the two tables of stone, the Ten Words of the Covenant,--so holy that nothing was more holy.

     In connection with the reading of the first part of Genesis we have had talks about the internal historical of that book, many questions and remarks on the subject being suggested by Mr. Odhner's eloquent lectures before the schools on the subject of the beginnings of church history, especially on the Golden Age. The Monday morning lectures connect themselves wonderfully with other lessons. Many are the questions sent back to the lecturer, or carried to the religious instructor. The interest which the recent Chinese disturbances aroused throughout the Church, in the possible recovery of the Ancient Word, is reflected with the girls, and great is the pleasure in knowing that these very verses of Genesis which we are now studying are from that Most Ancient and Divine Book. With that Book came civilization upon the earth; from the nations who had it. we inherit the Arts and Sciences; Cadmus (from Kedem, "the East"), indeed is the messenger of those nations.

     The influence of the revival of Swedenborg's Science among the elders also is felt in the school room, and great is the enthusiasm for it. We know nothing about it? To be sure! But the little things we do learn apply themselves so wonderfully to what we already know of other things every little thing we learn from it is so perfect an analogy of everything above and below, it is so wedded to the Hebrew, they so shine upon each other, that with Swedenborg we may be astonished at the agreement.

     We know in our little Hebrew class that by mayim--"waters," the ancients whose vocabulary was simple, meant "what flows,"--or atmospheres. We know that in the Scientific sense the "Spirit of God" is the ether, for the ether signifies that Spirit; "hovering," for the ether surrounded the great whirling mass that was void and dark in the beginning and brought it light: "Weyar Elohim, eth ha-or, ki-tov."

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We have been told also why the great luminaries were created on the fourth day. The Adversaria explanation of this is clear and lives and shines in the Arcana explanation. I would say much more, but I weary.

     The Word as literature is a phase of the subject that ought to be brought out. I have as yet been able to give only suggestions of the different styles of writing and their causes; the literature of the East; the many translations and mistranslations; the Targums, the Talmud and other commentaries, the Septuagint, the Vulgate, Ulfilus, Luther, King James the Bible Societies.

     I beg you will excuse the length of this letter on the ground of the breadth of the subject. I cannot do justice to its depth.

     The Holy Land,-Eretz tova, eretz machale mayim, ayanoth uthehomoth,--once the garden of the world, is now barren, but we have it as it was, between the covers of a Book; shall we not use this countersign--this password, the Hebrew language, and enter into the garden gan be-edhen mi kedhem? And if the children learn the countersign, shall they not learn of the Garden, too?

     This pass-word indeed represents the whole, and carries with it a sphere that those who live it may know, may see in the eyes of the little class that sits opposite,--the light of the garden in the eyes of the daughters of the Church who are bred there,--well, at least a glimpse of that light. We can see what might be from a knowledge of what has been, in our New Education, and in the light of the minds that lead us. I am, most sincerely yours, H. T. Bryn Athyn, Pa., March 1, 1901.
MEMORIAL MEETING 1901

MEMORIAL MEETING              1901

     FOR THE LATE MR. ANDREW KLEIN.

     THE departure of Mr. Andrew Klein to the other world, which took place on May 7th, was the occasion for a Memorial Meeting, held in the Club House of the Civic and Social Club. The attendance was quite full, and the simple service and the subsequent elevating thoughts as well as the interesting details of Mr. Klein's life and services in the Church, which were brought out, made the occasion very far from one of mourning and grieving, notwithstanding that Mr. Klein was deeply loved by his family and regarded with affection and esteem by all who knew him. His position as standard bearer of the Academy Doctrines in Brooklyn, for many years, made the historical element prominent in the speeches. Number 1854, of the Arcana, was read, which treats of the great advance, from obscurity to clearness of state, which death brings, and of the entering into things eternal in place of those which are temporal. After the closing of the worship, Pastor Synnestvedt called upon those who had known most of Mr. Klein and his life work, first remarking upon that gentleman's unassuming but steadfast character, and referring to a number of the Adversaria which presents the idea that man lives after death, not only in the conscious life of the other world, but also,--in a natural sense,--in this world, among posterity, by the results of what he has done here, which continue in an endless series.

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     Mr. Samuel A. Klein, youngest son of the deceased, was the first called upon, and he spoke of his father's early life, among sheep and farmers, in Germany; of the early studious and religious bent of his father; of the limited circumstances of the young orphan boy (he lost his parents while quite young); of the voyage to America in his 21st year, and of his marriage with Miss Rosina Herold, of Baden Baden.

     Blessed with a family of fourteen children they reared eight, of whom five are still living. Their son, David, is in the ministry of the New Church, according to their earnest wish from the time of his birth, at which they were just coming into the Church together. The first of the Writings with which they met, was Heaven and Hell. In February, of 1894, Mrs. Klein passed into the other world. A year ago Mr. Klein came from Brooklyn, with his two daughters, to live in Bryn Athyn with his remaining daughter, Mrs. Henry Cowley, wife of another of our ministers, with whom were living also the children of his son-in-law, Mr. Anton Sellner. In the speaker's words: "It was here that he spent the last year of his life, surrounded by kind friends, and enjoying the happy family sphere of his loving children and grandchildren." Reference was made to the eager looking forward to reunion with his wife which had seemed only intensified with the passage of the years.

     Mr. Klein's service to the Church in Brooklyn was then outlined by the Rev. C. T. Odhner, who testified to the importance of the part which had been taken by Mr. Klein as a pillar in the Church for some thirty years. He was born in Langmeil, Bavaria, in June, 1828, and came to America in 1849. Though brought up a Lutheran he joined the Baptists, and rejoiced in the thought that he had now found the true religion. But at last he turned from the irrationality of Old Church doctrines, and some time in the "60's" he came across a German book, by L. Hofaker, Schriften aus Gott, describing the spiritual experiences and teachings of one Johannes Tennhardt. Amid a mixture of spiritism and New Church doctrine enough of the latter was seen to attract Mr. Klein and some of his friends to its beauty. Long and diligent inquiry among German booksellers at last brought him a number of other books by Hofaker, and in the package was one by Swedenborg. Soon afterward (in 1871), Mr. Klein, with other German New Church receivers, separated from the Baptist Church,--of, which he had been a prominent member,--and united with the newly-formed German New Church Society in New York City. Here also he took an active and prominent part, becoming the superintendent of the Sunday-school, and standing but firmly against the introduction of spiritistic principles and practices. He was a strong supporter of the pastor, Rev. Leonhard Tafel, who subsequently became one of the first professors in the then newly-established Theological School of the Academy of the New Church.

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     The work of Dr. Tafel bore good fruit in New York, and two young men of the society, Messrs. Schreck and Czerny, who came to the Academy to study for the ministry, helped to present the Academy principles to quite a number of persons in New York, among these our friends, Mr. Klein and his family.

     After Dr. Tafel's death, in I880, the Society was served by the Rev. L. H. Tafel, of Philadelphia, and also by Messrs. Schreck and Czerny. So much opposition developed against Academy principles that the friends of the Academy found it necessary to separate and to form a distinct organization, which was done on April 26th, 1881, under the style, "First German New Church Society of Brooklyn." Mr. Klein was president, Mr. W. Muhlert, secretary, and Mr. John Czerny, treasurer. The Society, 17 in number, applied for admission into the General Church of Pennsylvania; and they rented a hall on the corner of South Third street and Fourth street, in Brooklyn. For a time Mr. Schreck served them, preaching regularly once a month, while Mr. Tafel administered the Holy Supper. In 1886 the Rev. W. F. Pendleton began to conduct services in English, once a month, while Mr. Waelchli preached once a month in German. These services, both in English and in German, were taken up in 1888 and 1889 by the Rev. C. T. Odhner, occasionally changing with Rev. Enoch S. Price, the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, and others.

     Those were happy days, the friends united as one family, with Mr. Klein as the genial patriarch; the pleasant hall nicely fitted up for the services, the flourishing Sunday-school, the remarkable musical development among the members, the dinners and socials and walks out to the "Kapelle" on Sunday afternoons, the hearty, jovial German sphere and the great earnestness and interest in spiritual things.

     Then came the differences which led to a division in the little circle, in which Mr. Klein and family remained devoted to the principles and the cause of the Academy. Once more with the merest handful around him, Mr. Klein took up the work de novo, opening services in his own home, 172 Broadway, Brooklyn, where a new circle was formed in connection with the Academy movement. Here the circle was served from time to time by ministers of the General Church,--first Mr. Jordan and then again Mr. Odhner. In 1895 the circle rented a beautiful hall on Bedford avenue, and there conducted services for several years. Rev. Alfred Acton began to visit the circle regularly in 1896, and was succeeded in 1898 by the Rev. Andrew Czerny. And now, although Mr. Klein and family have left Brooklyn, the work is still progressing there, under the pastoral direction of Mr. Acton.

     Though the most modest and gentle of men," Mr. Klein was truly a war-worn veteran in the many battles of the Church. and Mr. Odhner drew a feeling contrast between his lonely position, wounded once and again by the separation of long-time friends, enduring it for truth's sake,--with the advantages of the larger centers, with their close association of numbers. The speaker closed with a tribute to the dear ones who had gone before our friend, especially his wife--a very mother in Israel,--who are now rejoicing with him and forbidding us to grieve.

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     Rev. Alfred Acton took, as the theme of his remarks, the teaching from the Adversaria to which Mr. Synnestvedt had alluded,--that man has two heritages, the heritage which he leaves behind him in this world and that on which he enters in the other. The one is according to the other, for according to the uses which a man performs, is his eternal reward. These uses do not end with his life on earth, but they give birth to new uses and their generation never ceases. Especially is this the case with uses which involve the growth of the sphere of the Church. The work done by Mr. Klein in Brooklyn had been the prime instrument in keeping our Church alive there. And this, the use and effect of his love for our Church, had not ceased with his departure--its fruits were with us now, and so long as the Society existed in Brooklyn Mr. Klein would be remembered by the fruits of that heritage which he has left behind him.

     He has now entered upon the eternal heritage which the Lord has prepared for him; he has entered into the other life--not into a strange, unknown, unreal world, but into a world we know, a real world, peopled by real people. Before he wakes up in that world he will as in a vision see many beautiful things and will experience a sphere of great peace; and when his eyes are opened--perhaps even now--he will behold before him those whom he has left behind. It may be but for a moment that he will see them, but that moment will be enough to serve him as a gentle bridge of passage from the little village of this world to the immense city in which he now is. Then angels fair of face and gentle of voice will inform him of this new world, and will lovingly welcome him. What joy then will be his; what beauteous sights meet his eyes! For when a new spirit believes the words of those who welcome him, he is led to heaven and shown the glorious paradises there, such as human eye has never seen or human thought imagined. And can we doubt that our brother will have this belief? Nay, he will behold these beauties and he will receive new joy from the living joys of heaven, which will strengthen him in his future progress through the world of Spirits.

     There is something delightful in the contemplation of this death. It is the death of a man whose uses in this world had been accomplished. He had died in the midst of his friends--in the active sphere of a Society of the Church, and it is with joy that we must think that when his uses were; done he was permitted to attain the desires of many years and to live among friends of the Church, and that in their midst he departed in peace. And especially must we rejoice when we think of that meeting to which he has looked forward for many years, with her who was his wife. No more will there be the sadness of parting, but the blessedness of life together will grow forever.

     When we think of these things--of the beauties and joys of the world and above all, of that supreme joy of life the meeting with one beloved--we cannot but rejoice that our friend and brother is taken from midst to enter upon his eternal heritage.

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Natural grief will remain for a short time, but even this will be tempered and sweetened by the spiritual peace coming from the realization of these things; and when the natural grief has passed away this peace will remain and give forth its joys.

     Bishop Pendleton, being called upon, testified briefly but earnestly to Mr. Klein's lovable qualities and to his strong loyalty, instancing a time when the speaker had been utterly discouraged with the prospects for the Church in Brooklyn, but when Mr. Klein had developed a strength under the quiet demeanor, which had been very grateful and strengthening.

     Rev. George G. Starkey volunteered a few remarks to the effect that Mr. Klein's quiet, even-going temperament had supplied a restful element which is only too rare among our nervous, pushing American types; and he spoke of the strength which the German element had contributed to the visible New Church, in happy combination with the Anglo-Saxon. He might have added, as indeed was mentioned afterward by a friend in conversation, that there was an unusually innocent sphere about Mr. Klein, so that one did not sense his advanced age, especially since he seemed well-preserved and rather more healthy than the average.

     In conclusion the assembly sang "When the Mists Are Cleared Away," a song which, though not a New Church production, lends itself perfectly to the expression of the New Church sentiment concerning charity on earth and its looking forward to a heavenly, trusting future of mutual love and trust together.
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     TRANSLATOR OF THE POCKET EDITION OF "HEAVEN AND HELL."

     The identity of the translator of the Swedenborg Lecture Bureau edition of Heaven and Hell which was published in pocket form by the Bureau and later by the Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, concerning which Mr. A. K. Roy, in our December number made inquiry, has been supplied by that gentleman on information received from Mr. Edward A. Whiston, of Newtonville, Mass. The translation is that of the old "Boston Edition," of 1825, on which a number of translators labored, revised for the edition in question, by Mr. Benjamin Worcester. By many the translation of the Rotch edition is now preferred; but despite the greater literary finish of the latter we think that the faithfulness of the former in the rendering of terms which need to be retained as Swedenborg used them in order to preserve distinctions that are lost in the freer translation, we hold that Mr. Roy's estimate of the earlier version is well grounded.

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     A REACTION AGAINST THE HIGHER CRITICISM.

     NEW CHURCH LIFE has always maintained that the dominant spirit in that phase of Biblical science which is known as the "higher criticism," is a fruit of modern "self-intelligence" and is therefore anti-Biblical and irreligious in character and tendency, and this notwithstanding the uses which may be served incidentally by whatever genuine facts may have been or may be unearthed by the critics. The influence of this criticism we have considered as destructive of belief in the Word of God, and therefore as vastatory in character and effect. Those who hold with us in this must accept the great spread of that school of criticism as being of permissive character, and humanly speaking deplorable. All light is from the Word; and to take away reverence for it is to undermine the very foundations of human institutions. But as these foundations are so important we may expect a reaction in favor of a more reverential view of Holy Writ, which should serve to somewhat stem the tide and rally around a safer standard that conservative element in the world upon whom must in large measure depend the preservation of external sanity of thought, and the stability of things. Encouraging in this line is the following review article which we extract from the London weekly Times (April 12, 1901):--

     "There are not wanting signs that the destructive impulse of the 'higher criticism' has partly worked itself out, and is giving place to a more conservative tone in dealing with the Old Testament Scriptures. As the last half of the 19th century has relegated to the background of New Testament criticism the disintegrating speculations of Baur and the 'Tübingen School,' so possibly the early part of the 20th century may see a gradual return to more sober speculation as to both the composition and the historical authority of the books of the Old Testament. It is certainly a sign of such possibility that one of the most learned of Oriental scholars in this country--the Rev. D. S. Margoliouth, Professor of Arabic in the University of Oxford--avows himself strongly opposed to the confident dogmatism with which some modern critics pull the Old Testament to pieces. Professor Margoliouth, it may be remembered, advocated more conservative views in a paper read at the last Church Congress; and he has followed up that paper with a volume entitled Lines of Defence of the Biblical Revelation (Hodder and Stoughton), based largely upon original study of Hebrew and Arabic texts. The ordinary reader, the 'man in the street,' so to speak, of Biblical study, will note with satisfaction that a scholar deeply versed in Hebrew and Arabic literature protests against the minute dissection of the sacred texts by certain critics, on the ground that we know so little of classical Hebrew that 'the simplest correction of a Biblical text is a hazardous undertaking,' and that 'the assumption that we can locate disjointed fragments of Hebrew is to be summarily rejected.' Professor Margoliouth maintains the unity of Isaiah, disposing of the historical difficulties in the way of ascribing the later chapters to the same date and authorship as the earlier--or rather, putting them aside--by the suggestion we do not yet know all the phenomena of ancient prophecy.

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He scouts the idea that any considerable proportion of the Psalter is post-exilic. The collection, he thinks, was compiled in the Solomonic age, and the tradition of Davidic authorship may therefore be accepted more freely than is usual at present. The headings of the Bible version, according to the Professor, refer to authorship, not of the words, but of the airs to which they were sung, and the same Psalm may have been set to music by different persons. Replying to the objection that what we know of David's life is inconsistent with authorship of such devotional literature, Professor Margoliouth urges that, even in the matter of Bathsheba, David behaved unusually well in feeling any compunction for such a transaction--better in fact than many later crowned heads would have done."

     The fact itself of a journal of the Times's prominence evincing such evident satisfaction in the healthier reaction, as is to be seen in the foregoing, contains its measure of encouragement for the idea that the time when the world shall be ready to give up the Bible, has not come yet and may be far distant. For the sake of the simple good, and for the permanence of things, it is to be hoped--humanly speaking--that this is the case. We would just note we are somewhat surprised that a man of the Professor Margoliouth's acquirements and presumable knowledge of human nature should suppose David's evil character being a bar to his writing in a manner wholly inconsistent therewith.



     Morning Light (May 4th). Here is how the Rev. R. R. Rodgers tries to set a correspondent of the Birmingham Mercury right on the latter's misconception of New Church belief: "First of all, your 'Visitor' tells his readers that Swedenborg 'considered himself inspired.' Permit me to assure both your 'Visitor' and all who may have read his words, that there is not the slightest justification for the statement--that is, if the word 'inspired' is used in its ordinary sense of 'being directed by or proceeding from the Holy Spirit.' Swedenborg never claimed anything of the kind. He claimed to have his spiritual eyes opened, and he claimed to have been called by the Lord to write on theology. But this is no more than what every clergyman claims in his 'call' to the ministry."

     If for Swedenborg to be so completely under the guidance of the Lord as to enable him to say, "What I have written is not from any spirit or angel, but from the Lord alone," is not to be "directed by the Holy Spirit"--to be "inspired,"--pray what in Mr. Rodgers's eyes could be so described? If Swedenborg was not inspired how is the New Church a "new dispensation," or anything but one of the innumerable sectarian progeny of a Church which is "Christian in name only," and which from its cradle has been so torn with schisms and heresies as to proclaim the premature extinction of a light which might have lighted the whole world had its keepers been faithful and fed it with the oil of love to God and of love toward the neighbor?

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

     THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     Huntingdon Valley (Bryn Athyn), Pa.--Spring this year has seemed more prodigal than usual of her beauties, and flowers and fruit blossoms have been making Bryn Athyn a garden; so that nature seemed in sympathy when we gathered on May 9th to lay away in earth the material body of Mr. Andrew Klein. Our cemetery is on the further side of the hill, opposite the Club House, on a gentle slope toward the west, set in a grove of beeches and young cedars, laurels, wild grape and cherry trees, anemones and violets, now dripping with recent rain. The white coffin with flowers laid upon it was carried to its resting place, where all stood around with flowers in hand waiting until the earthly part should be returned to earth, but thinking of the heavenly part returned to heaven. The Pastor read a short service and the kindred earth was laid around what had served the soul of our friend departed, and now rested in the bosom of its mother. Afterward the flowers, like the gentle thoughts of that mother, were laid upon the place and covered it,--pansies and roses and cherry blossoms and wild flowers gathered by childish hands, and a wreath of violets made by the school girls; and the beech trees shook down their glistening rain drops, and the sentinel cedars nodded and a robin sang and the brook murmured, and our hearts answered that death is the gate of life--Ah, beautiful gate! Children and grandchildren of the departed, and all the guests, turned to their homes with a dearer picture of the home of our Father above taken from the sweetness of their mother earth below. It has always been this way in Bryn Athyn, ever since the custom of all putting flowers on the grave, started at the funeral of Doctor Starkey, when the young people who had never seen a funeral before, made a large wreath for his grave as a sign of their affection for the Doctor, who had been so kind a friend to them all.

     The Memorial Meeting in the evening was an occasion one would not like to have missed; but an account is given elsewhere. N.

     Pittsburg, Pa.--Things have been pursuing the even tenor of their way here, except that the school children have been varying the monotony slightly by taking turns having the mumps.

     Mr. Bostock, I am sorry to say, remains about the same, being still confined to his bed; consequently Mr. Brown is very busy.

     On the afternoon of the 2d of May the teachers took the school children to the woods on a wild flower gathering expedition, the results of which were instructive as well as enjoyable, furnishing the botany class with enough specimens to last them for some time.

     On Friday evening, May 3d, a society supper was held, at which the question of how to celebrate the Nineteenth of June was discussed. All seemed agreed that it should be celebrated, but it was not fully decided just how it should be done. Some favored a service, some banquet, some a special celebration for the children, and a few ambitious ones a combination of all three. The day has never been celebrated very much here and Mr. Bostock thinks it is time we were making a beginning.

     The ladies are to hold a meeting tomorrow afternoon (May 14th) for the purpose of founding a Ladies' Aid Society.

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     An interesting announcement made last month was that of the engagement of Miss Anna Schoenberger to the Rev. Walter Brickman, of the Allegheny New Church Society. C. R.

     GLENVIEW LETTER.

My Dear Life:

     The wedding of Miss Lona Fugate and Mr. Harvey Brewer took place on April 24th in Chicago. The ceremony was private, only thirty being present. This wedding brings to mind the fact that the Immanuel Church of Chicago and Glenview has celebrated eleven marriages in less than three years. We have not stopped yet, though our three years are now over. The engagement of Miss Helen Farrington to Mr. Alvin E. Nelson has been announced. The wedding is to take place some time in the fall.

     Mrs. Theodore Bellinger, of Waterloo, Canada, has come to Glenview to visit her daughter, Mrs. Harvey Farrington.

     The spring in this vicinity is a most trying time, though a brave party of young folks took a 'bus ride to the woods one Sunday and found it pleasant in spite of the decidedly cool temperature. This year the prevalence of the chilly lake breeze has been responsible for much illness. Social life has suffered in consequence. Just now the sympathies of the Park go out to Mr. and Mrs. Harry Blackman, whose children have the diphtheria. T. K.

     Berlin,--During the last month the pastor, Mr. Waelchli, has made two visits, one to Huron and one to Dufferin counties, and in both places found a sincere interest manifested in the Church. During the pastor's absence Rev. Mr. Stebbing preached on both Sundays.

     On April 26th, instead of the monthly social the young people gave a play, to which we had looked forward for some weeks, and in the expected treat we were not disappointed. The school children were also invited and greatly enjoyed the same.

     We have now an Athletic Club in our circle here, organized a few weeks ago. At the same time arose the question of leveling the playground and putting it into better shape for various games. This involves considerable labor and expense, and after some discussion it was left in the hands of a committee of club members to oversee the work, who are getting a good athletic training by the assistance they are giving to the men at work.

     On September 18th last the men of the Society met at the house of Mr. Rudolf Roschman, where it was decided to hold regular meetings every two weeks. The subjects to be discussed with those pertaining to the natural. civil and moral planes of life, as well as others of interest that might come up. Pastor Waelchli, at that meeting, read Conjugial Love, No. 164, which enumerates certain moral virtues, and it was decided to take up these subjects in the order there given. At the next meeting the subjects of Temperance and Sobriety were taken up and freely discussed.

     By the consideration of these subjects on all planes of life, and by the reading of numbers from the

     Doctrines bearing on the same, very interesting and useful meetings resulted. The first half of the meeting is somewhat formal in character, and afterwards, with refreshments added, takes on a more social sphere. It was found that, instead of taking a new subject at each meeting, half a dozen meetings could be devoted to each subject, and one meeting was only enough to properly open it up and to get a glimpse of its infinite contents.

     Under "Probity" so much was involved that a number of meetings were devoted to it; T. C. R., n. 317, presented many interesting truths, which were considered in the order given, and studied in connection with various numbers from the Doctrine of Charity. Many interesting features of the meetings presented themselves by being considered from the light of the New Church, including such matters as Trusts, Labor Organizations, Strikes, etc. The meetings are always well attended and much appreciated.          T. S. K.

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     LETTER FROM MR. BOWERS.

     Ohio.--On April 15th, I set out from Greenford, to make a smaller circuit within the territory of the larger circuit which had been completed, and went to Cleveland. In that city and vicinity several families were called upon, and with some of the members of the Church lengthy conversations were had concerning matters of Doctrine. Had a brief but pleasant visit with Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe B. Kendig, formerly of Renovo Pa. Mr. Kendig is the chief draughtsman in the office of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad Company.

     Three days at Vermillion, on the shore of Erie, in the county of the same name. During the time, from April 19th to 21st, Boreas was let loose, and swept across the waters with great force. My temporary home being at a farm house near the bank of the Lake, the tempest made a roaring sound like that of the rapids above the Falls of Niagara. No meeting could be held on account of the storm and because of illness in the New Church family. Nevertheless, my stay there was of some use.

     The next place was the city of Mansfield. A few months ago Mr. Joseph A. Frankhauser and family went there from Monroe county. They made me welcome in their new home.

     Near Ashland, April 24th, Mr. and Mrs. H. E. Renkenberger were visited. The brevity of our time was mutually regretted. Mr. Renkenberger has during the past few years become very decidedly interested in the Doctrines. He sees more clearly than ever the distinction between the spiritual Faith of the Church and the naturalism in the beliefs of mere nominal Christianity. And to those who really see this distinction, the one is as the light of a perfect day, and the other as the gloom of a hideous night.

     Near Gallon, Crawford county, a useful visit was made with a young man, Mr. Franklin P. Burger, and family. Mr. Burger first became a believer in the Doctrines by reading. Those friends entertained me with performances on one of the best Graphophones. And a "record" was made by and for the instrument, of a recital by me; namely, of the New Church Creed; the three essentials of the Church; the definition of "religion," in the heading of Doctrine of Life, n. I; and Verses 1, 2 and 5 of Apocalypse xxi. The wonderful instrument repeats every word distinctly, as it was spoken.

     Sunday, April 28th, meetings were held, morning and evening, in the school house, at De Cliff, Marion county. A new reader, whom we met, told us that he had read Heaven and Hell through twice, in the past winter. Audiences were small--fifteen and twenty-five-but all were attentive to the discourses.

     In Canton, a day with Mr. Gustavus Elbel, who received the Doctrines in Pittsburg, some twenty-five years ago.

     Sunday, May 5th, with Mr. John Harris and family, at Canal Dover. They became New Church believers in Wales, whence they came to America, ten years ago. All the members of the family are musical, being singers and musicians. Mr. Harris is one of the positive and heroic class of Newchurchmen, who can see clearly the difference be between the New Church and the Old, and who speak as they think. We had much conversation with two gentlemen who are amateur astronomers. They are skeptical, but there is hope that in the course of time they will become believers, because they seem to be affirmative. In the evening we had the pleasure of viewing the moon through their telescope.

     Monday evening, May 6th; a parlor meeting was held at the house of Mr. C. T. Athearn, at Jewett, Harrison county. Mr. and Mrs. Athearn and their daughter are the only New Church people in this village; but they "let their light shine."

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     A call with Mr. Isaac Linduff and family, at Steubenville, and possibly a meeting there, tomorrow, will bring my work in this State to a close for the present. JOHN E. BOWERS.

THE CHURCH AT LARGE.

     Massachusetts.--On May 5th the congregation of the Theological School Chapel in Cambridge, under the Rev. T. F. Wright, was received into the Church as a regularly organized Society by the Rev. James Reed, General Pastor of the Massachusetts Association. Seventy-one persons had enrolled. After the benediction the Holy Supper was administered. Mr. Reed preached on the text: "God setteth the solitary in families" (Ps. lxviii, 6), dwelling on the necessity for mutual service, naturally and also spiritually. "Human contact furnishes spiritual atmosphere.... 'See how those Christians love one another' ought to be said of you assembled here today.... This is a community where pride of intellect asserts itself. Maintain a simple, childlike trust in the Divinity of the Lord. You have an unceasing cause for thankfulness in that for you the promise has been fulfilled: 'God setteth the solitary in families.'"-New Church Messenger (in abstract).

     Washington, D. C.--"At the meeting of the Society of Philosophical Inquiry, at Columbian University, on April 30th, the Rev. Frank Sewall read by appointment a paper on Hegel's "Philosophy of Religion," in which he compared Hegel's doctrine of the logical development of the world as "Idea Realizing itself," with Swedenborg's doctrine of the progress of Esse, Existere and Procedere. Credit was given to Hegel for the serious and noble purpose in his philosophy to show that Christianity is the logical completion of religious idea, and that it is grounded in the necessary postulates of reason itself. Mr. Sewall on May 6th also read before the Ministers' Club, an organization embracing the leading representatives of the various Churches in Washington, a paper on 'Christ in Our Public Life.'"-New Church Messenger.

     [In the study of human philosophy we should never forget that all existing systems but Swedenborg's, must fail to establish anything of religion except as they start from principles taken avowedly from Revelation.--ED.]

     Illinois,--The Church Society has sold the Steinway Building, realizing a sum sufficient to relieve all the churches from debt and equip the several parishes for efficient work.

     The Rev. Eugene T. E. Schreck has accepted a call from the Kenwood Parish to become its Pastor. He will enter upon his new charge after the summer vacation.

     Morning services at the Church of the Divine Humanity, Englewood, are attended by a larger number of people than ever before in its history.

     The Western New-Church Union and the Chicago Society have secured new quarters in the Steinway Building, in rooms 617 and 618. These rooms are pleasant and comfortable, being more commodious than those formerly occupied on the ninth floor. This will be the permanent headquarters of the New Church in Chicago, and friends of the Church are invited to make themselves at home there when in the city.-New Church Bulletin.

     Germany,--The Rev. F. Goerwitz visited Berlin last October, and on the 28th administered the Holy Supper to 27 persons. Regular meetings have been held at the residence of Herr Zimmerman, Yorkstrasse 44A, Hol, 1 Tr. A constitution, proposed by Mr. Goerwitz, has been adopted, and the society organized.

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     This society is the result of a movement inaugurated by Mrs. Theresa Richter, who at one time was connected with A. Artope's society, afterward dissociating herself from it. The society began as a small reading circle, composed mostly of women. Mr. August Schmidt is the patriarch of the body, being 89 years old. He was formerly the Chief Gardener of the Botanical Garden in Berlin. He has recently presented an organ to the society, and also a fund of L1,200 for a temple in Berlin, placed in trust with the General Conference.
CALL FOR A MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1901

CALL FOR A MEETING OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM       JOHN PITCAIRN       1901

     A meeting of the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in the College Building of the Academy at Huntingdon Valley (Bryn Athyn), Pa., on Tuesday, June 25th, 1901, at 10 A. M.

     A joint meeting of the Council of the Clergy and the Executive Committee will be held at the same place on Wednesday, June 26th, at 10 A. M.
     JOHN PITCAIRN. Chairman.
TO NEW CHURCH VISITORS AT THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION 1901

TO NEW CHURCH VISITORS AT THE PAN-AMERICAN EXPOSITION              1901

     The Pan-American Exposition is now open at Buffalo, N. Y., and the Buffalo Society takes this means of assuring all New-Church people and their friends of a cordial welcome to its services.

Morning services at 10:45 o'clock.

Evening services at 7:30 o'clock.

The Church is at the corner of Atlantic and West Utica streets. Come and make this your church-home while at the Exposition. REV. FRANK A. GUSTAFSON, Pastor, 44 Eighteenth Street, Buffalo, N. Y.
Repeated Notices. 1901

       Various       1901

OMISSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

     The Members and Friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem are hereby notified that no General Assembly of the General Church will be held this year.

     A Local Assembly will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on June 19th and 20th, 1891 Members and friends of the General Church, residing in Eastern Pennsylvania and adjacent parts of other States, are invited to attend this meeting. C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary, G. C. N. J.

ENTERTAINMENT AT THE LOCAL ASSEMBLY.

     The Bryn Athyn Society will take pleasure in entertaining those attending the meetings of the Local Assembly to be held June 19th and 20th. It is hoped that those who can do so will arrive sufficiently early on the 18th to attend an informal reception that evening.

     Since individual notices will not be sent, our friends will confer a favor by communicating as promptly as possible with our Committee, Mr. C. H. Asplundh, whose pleasure it will be to assign the guests. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT, Pastor.
DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH 1901

DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH              1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Vol. XXI. JULY, 1901. No. 7
     IN view of certain doubts that have been newly raised in regard to the Distinctiveness of the New Church, as well as in view also of the constant recurrence of ancient objections, it seems useful to consider anew the reasons for the faith that is within us in respect to the existence of the Lord's New Church as a visible or organized body, distinct from the Old Church and separate from it in all things, external as well as internal. We propose, therefore, to review the various ways in which this most important subject has been understood by the men of the New Church, and to present as fully as we can the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem regarding the present and future conditions and whereabouts both of the Old and the New Christian Church,--how, when, and where the latter is to be established, and why it exists and continually must exist distinct and separate from the former, not only in Doctrine, but also in worship and in life.

     THE TEMPTATIONS OF THE NEW CHURCH.

     It was foretold in the Apocalypse that the "Woman with the Man-child" would be persecuted by the Dragon for "a time, and times, and the half of a time," and we have surely witnessed the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy. A hard and bitter struggle for bare existence,--for a mere foothold upon the earth,-such has been the history of the Lord's New Church from its beginning up to the present time, and such it may still be for ages to come. Water as a flood has been spewed out to swallow the Church and the Man-child within her, the genuine Doctrine of Truth. But whence have these "waters" come? Not from the Dragon in the Old Church round about us, for his attempts from that direction have been but few and feeble, and his tail was soon cast down.

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But it is from the Dragon in our own midst, in the false understandings and the evil wills of ourselves as struggling members of the New Church,--it is from these hiding-places that the real infestations have come upon the Church. From the Old Church without us we have sustained but little damage, but it is from our own selves, from the enemies within our own households, that we have had and still have everything to fear. It is the members of the New Church that have made the struggles of the Church so bitter, by their refusal to yield to the Church a secure foothold in the natural world, or even a place of refuge in the wilderness.

     Speaking for the Church as a whole, and from some knowledge of its history, we cannot but confess that we have been pouring out upon the Doctrine of Truth, almost incessantly, such a stream of perversions, heresies, and falsities that it is a wonder the Church has survived. The verdict is based on mournful facts, and the evidence is as singular as it is incontrovertible; for never in the ecclesiastical history of mankind has any new and small religious community exhibited so many and so radical perversions of its Doctrines, in so brief a period, as has the New Church in the Christian world. The members of the early Christian Church, during the first century of its existence, cannot be compared with us in the wealth of perversions, for the heresies in the Apostolic Church can be counted on the fingers, whereas among professed "Swedenborgians" they can scarcely be numbered. This is cause for humiliation and repentance, indeed, but not for discouragement, for it proves that there is still something living within the New Church, something which Hell considers worthy of its attention; for, in spite of all this, the love of the Divine Truth is still alive within the Church.

     The New Church is essentially an internal Church, and her temptations, therefore, are necessarily internal, coming from within rather than from without. Nevertheless they are severe only in proportion as they are at the same time external, or as they concern the external of life as well as the internal of doctrine. It is especially the life of the Church and the Doctrine of Life that has been and is being assaulted, and as the whole of faith and the whole of life is most externally and collectively ultimated in the organized and visible body of the Church, we cannot wonder that the efforts of the Dragon have thus far been directed chiefly against the distinctiveness of the New Church.

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     Distinctiveness, indeed, is merely a matter of boundaries, of ultimate discriminating lines of thought and action, which to many have appeared too external to be worthy of much consideration. Yet in ultimates resides all power, and if the Dragon were only able to break down the distinctive ultimates, the walls and bulwarks of the New Jerusalem, his filthy crew would soon lead into captivity the men of the Golden City. Against the distinctiveness of the New Church, therefore, he has raged from the beginning, and against it he is still plotting and planning, but now appearing mostly in angelic garb, with honeyed phrases of toleration, charity, and universal brotherhood.

     AN HISTORICAL VIEW.

     In the early Christian Church the first internal temptation was in regard to the distinctiveness of the Church, and the attack came through some of the most worthy members of the infant Church;-nay, some if not most of the Apostles themselves seem to have entertained, at first, the idea that Christianity was but Judaism reformed, that the Christians were not to separate themselves outwardly from the Jewish establishment, but to continue to worship in the ancient temple, and retain the whole Mosaic ceremonial law. Bitter experiences soon taught them how futile was the hope that the light of Christianity might permeate and reform Judaism, and the efforts of the Church now turned to the more receptive fields of the Gentile world. Still there were those whom no experience could teach, and sects of Judaizing Christians remained for several centuries, active only in condemning their brethren who had left the Jewish corruption.

     Thus also, after the Second Coming of the Lord, some of the first apostles of the New Church in Sweden and in England fondly cherished the delusion that the Heavenly Doctrines would; be speedily received by the clergy of the Old Christian Church, and that thus the New Church would be established by an internal reformation within the Old, and this without noise and combat. These first receivers were persons of learning and position, many of them distinguished clergymen in the established churches, cautious disciples who, for fear of the Jews, "came to Jesus in the night," honorable men enough, according to their light, but perhaps not made of the stuff of martyrs.

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They were willing enough to form and to join private "societies of gentlemen" for the publication of anonymous translations of the Writings of "the Hon. Baron" Swedenborg, but when, in these very societies, the proposition was first made to separate from the Old Church in external worship as well as in internal faith, then these brethren took offense, remonstrating and protesting with increasing vigor against the measures of the more outspoken members, who, in general, were from the humbler strata of society.

     Thus began the first great struggle within the New Church, the controversy between the "separatists" and the "non-separatists," whose discussions fill the pages of the earliest journals and pamphlets of our Church; the non-Separatists accusing the others of narrow-minded and intolerant sectarianism, and protesting that "the Hon. Baron" had never "contemplated" any such thing as separation from the mother Church. The "separatists," on the other hand, replied that they could not be guided by Swedenborg's supposed personal contemplations but only by the dictates of their own conscience as formed by the plain declarations in the Writings, from which they furnished long lists of luminous passages-which, however, were explained away by their more learned opponents. The non-separatists apparently carried off the palm of victory, with the result that, towards the end of the eighteenth century, there seemed to be nothing left of the New Church in England, as was regretfully observed by even the leaders of the opposition to the separation from the Old Church.

     Nevertheless there remained in a few places struggling and silent little societies of humble receivers, who were willing to be looked down upon as contemptible sectarians rather than to lose the privilege of worshiping openly the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God. Little by little these societies increased and took heart again, until they dared to renew their long interrupted general conferences. But as the Church in Great Britain now began to grow in wealth and "respectability," and as the Old Church gradually assumed a more tolerant and even patronizing attitude to the quiet little "sect" of Swedenborgians, it began to be unpopular to attack or oppose or even to allude to the "Old Church" in any way whatever.

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The laity demanded less doctrinal sermons, and the ministers of the New Church became more and more fond of "exchanging pulpits" with those of the Old; thus the fraternal feeling for the Old Church has kept on growing, until now each indication of a breaking down of the line of demarcation is hailed with joy in the English New Church journals, while any daring reminder that "the Old Church is dead as to doctrine" is frowned down with severe displeasure.

     In our own country the history of the issue has been different to some extent, but with the same general results. Here we had no venerable and awe-inspiring Established Church to contend with; nor were there many Old Church clergymen among the first receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines in America. Most of the new receivers seem to have come from the Methodists and Calvinists, from which bodies it was more easy to break away, as they themselves were nothing but "dissenting sects." Fearless and sturdy societies of the Church were thus established in various centers in this free young nation, and the necessity of the external distinctiveness of the New Church seems to have been taken for granted. Planted in a freer soil, the New Church in America seems to have developed from the beginning on a more internal plane than in Europe, and when the inevitable hour of temptation arrived,--in the middle of the past century,--it came in the guise of very internal considerations indeed.

     Again the infestation came through the medium of Old Church clergymen who had received the general Doctrines of the New Church, and who even had openly united with our external organization. They reasoned thus: Since the time of the Last Judgment there is but one Church in the spiritual world--the New Church, established triumphant in the New Heaven. This New Heaven is now connected With and operating upon all the good in the Christian world, who, also by virtue of the Last Judgment, are now in a freer condition of thought and of reception of the truth. Now, since truth is received only in good, and since it is perfectly evident that goodness is vastly increasing in the Christian world, and since, moreover, all our thoughts and ideas are from the spiritual world alone, it follows that the New Heaven by immediate influx into all good Christians, but especially into the minds of the clergy, is inspiring them with the truths of the new dispensation, almost without their noticing the grand changes of thought, and thus is establishing the real New Church in the midst of the magnificent ecclesiasticisms of what used to be the Old Church.

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     THE "PREMEATION THEORY."

     Thus, by a chain of specious reasonings, and by a thousand confirmations from the wonderful material progress of the age, members of the New Church developed what is known as the "Permeation-theory." Week after week, and year after year this phantastic but glittering air-castle has been exhibited before the astonished congregations of the New Church, until now the very palladium of the New Church in this country is the precious conviction that the New Jerusalem is surely and rapidly descending into the Protestant Churches, with or without the assistance of Swedenborg's Writings; and that it is but a question of a comparatively brief time when the grand procession of Protestant Christendom,-the larger and universal New Church everywhere,-shall have caught up with the advance-guard of our own conservative and rather conceited little sect of Swedenborgians. Then, when this glorious moment has arrived, there will no longer be any need of our separate organization, or, indeed, of our special Revelation, except as a very luminous and helpful though somewhat antiquated commentary on the Bible, as revised perhaps by the "Higher Criticism."

     Thus the men of the New Church at this day are still "dreaming the dream of the ages," the dream that obsessed our ancestors in the Church a century ago. Thus the same question that occupied the attention of our great-grandfathers is still being debated: whether there are any really valid reasons for the existence of the New Church as an organization separate from the religious world round about us. Far from decreasing in volume and intensity, the doubt is becoming more and more general, as the Christian world day by day is presenting a more pleasing aspect to the superficial observer, while the organized New Church each year is presenting a more and more discouraging table of statistics. If the incessant representations of leaders in the New Church are correct; if the world at large is actually becoming the real and greater New Jerusalem,--why, indeed, should not the rank and file listen to those who ought to know best, take them consistently at their word, and join that great and brilliant throng which smilingly invites us to "Come out of that narrow little sect," "Come out of those steep, forbidding walls of antiquated doctrine,"--to unite in the worship of the "Fatherhood of God"--the invisible and unimaginable God,--and in the "brotherhood of men"--the men who glory in their indifference to any faith or to any spiritual truth.

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     Thus the Dragon is echoing the cry of our God: "Come out of her, my people!" Come out of what? Come out of the only Church in this world that uphold the sole Divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ and maintains the worship of Him alone? Come out of the only body in the world that now maintains the integrity, infallibility and absolute holiness of the Word of God, and the life which is of true charity, the life which consists of the shunning of evil? Scarcely; scarcely! That is the voice of Satan, not of God! It is the very opposite that is meant by the Divine command, "come out of her, my people!" Come out of her that worships three gods or no god! Come out of her that is tearing the Word of God to pieces by ancient perversions and modern criticisms! Come out of her that is teaching that salvation is attainable by faith-alone, or by good works alone, without repentance, without the shunning of evil before the doing of good! Come out of her, I my people!

     "INTERPRETATIONS" VERSUS PLAIN DOCTRINE.

     Now, whatever may be the cause of all these misconceptions respecting the whereabouts of the New Church, the fault certainly does not lie in the New Revelation, which is clear and explicit enough on the subject. It is our intention to present here a summary of the teachings of this Revelation on this long-mooted question. These teachings have been brought out before, over and over again, but cannot be brought out too often nor in too great an abundance, in order to show that the Writings really do teach the distinctiveness of the New Church. And in so doing it seems necessary to call attention to the plain fact that the doctrine concerning the distinctiveness of the New Church is not a mere matter of opinion, nor of our own understanding or "interpretation" of the Heavenly Doctrines,--as is continually suggested by those who doubt the existence of any absolute standard of Truth.

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The New Church does not depend for its doctrine upon the notions or interpretations of this or that man or of this or that "school of thought;" for the Revelation which the Lord in His Second Coming has given to the New Church is not written in hieroglyphics or enigmas, but is addressed in simple, definite, and self-interpreting language to the rational understanding of all men who have ears to hear. The Theology of the New Church is a Science, the most exact, systematic and logical of all sciences; and in order to learn the full import of any one of its general doctrines we simply need to study this scientific Revelation, systematically and without prejudice, collecting as far as is possible all that has been revealed on any special subject, comparing one teaching with another, permitting the general teachings to interpret the particular ones, and thus draw logically demonstrable conclusion as to the whole. When this is done we do not interpret the Doctrines, or intrude our own notions into them, but the Lord Himself interprets them for us, and thus, against our own prejudices and recalcitrant self-will, it is actually possible for us to learn the Lord's Truth and the Lord's merciful will, for the redemption of our understandings and for the subjugation of our self-will. Were this not the case, we would be helpless indeed!

     WHAT AND WHERE IS THE NEW CHURCH?

     First, then, what do the Writings teach as to the meaning of the word "Church?" The answer to this is plain: "The Church is the Lord's Kingdom on earth,"* and "the Lord's Kingdom is the reception of the Divine Good and the Divine Truth."** The New Church, therefore, is the new reception of the Divine Good and Truth,--or the reception of that which the Lord has newly communicated to men on earth. And since the Divine of the Lord, which makes the Church, is communicated to men by no other means than the revelation of the Divine, it follows that the New Church is nothing else than the reception of the New Divine Revelation. And as this New Divine Revelation has been effected through the medium of the inspired servant of the Lord, Emanuel Swedenborg, it follows further that the New Church means simply the reception of the Heavenly Doctrines revealed by the Lord in the inspired Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
     * Arcana Coelestia, 2928
     ** Apocalypse Explained, 683.

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     This is the plain and common-sense answer to the question: what is meant by the New Church? It is the answer which any New Churchman will give at once, unless he has been obscured by the notion that the Heavenly Doctrines are possibly communicated through some other channels than the Writings of Swedenborg,--that they are being instilled into the clergy of the Old Church by some kind of immediate influx or inspiration of truth from the New Heaven, or that the good people in the Christian world everywhere are being taught these new Doctrines through an immediate perception while reading the Letter of the Word. In either case the Writings of Swedenborg would be quite superfluous, for in either case every good man would be another Swedenborg, an inspired revelator and discloser of the Spiritual Sense of the Word, enjoying open communication with the inmost heaven and the personal manifestation of the Lord Himself. And in either case Swedenborg would he telling a falsehood when he testifies,--"that the manifestation of the Lord and the intromission into the Spiritual world surpasses all miracles. This has not been granted to any person, except to me, since the time of creation." *
     * Invitation to the New Church, no. 52.

     Now, since those who reason about a possible establishment of the New Church independent of the Writings of Swedenborg have gained their very first idea about the existence of a New Church from no other source than those very Writings, they cannot but respect the testimony of Swedenborg as to where the New Revelations is to be found. And that testimony is so unanimous that it is truly surprising that any doubt should exist.

     Out of the abundance of statements to the effect that the Doctrines of the New Church are revealed in the inspired Writings of Swedenborg, and are to be found in them alone, we need to adduce only the following:

     The 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.*
     * True Christian Religion, no. 779.

     That this "man" was none other than Emanuel Swedenborg is shown beyond peradventure further on in the same number. And again:

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     The New Church is not instaurated and established through miracles, but through the revelation of the Spiritual Sense, and through the introduction of my spirit and at the same time my body into the spiritual world.*
     * Invitation to N. C., vii.

     Lest, therefore, the man of the New Church like the man of the Old Church, should wander in the shade, it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit.*
     * True Christian Religion, n. 771.

     It will be noticed that "the man of the New Church" is here identified with him who reads and accepts the Writings of Swedenborg. Equally definite is Swedenborg's letter to Oetinger, where he testifies that the New Church will come only in the proportion that the old doctrines are extirpated, and that this will be brought about "through this work."* (Brief Exposition), and that after the appearance of The True Christian Religion the Lord would "operate both mediately and immediately towards the establishment, throughout Christendom, of a New Church, based on this Theology."**
     * Documents ii, 274.
     ** Documents ii., 383.

     This last passage has been understood to teach that the Lord, by influencing the disposition of all in Christendom, would immediately establish the New Church everywhere, but we know that the Lord does not force the will of any one, either by violence or by coaxing. But by His immediate operation he sets men free to receive the Truth, if they are willing to receive it, but by His mediate operation He teaches the Truth, through His written revelation, to those who are willing.

     That no one can enter the Lord's New Church except by the gateway of knowledge and faith, openly and consciously gained through the new written Revelation, is clear from the following teachings:

     "And over the gates twelve angels," signifies the knowledges by which man is introduced into the Church, and guards lest anyone should enter into the New Church, unless he be in these knowledges from the Lord.*
     * Apocalypse Revealed, n. 903.

     Those who have confirmed with themselves the faith of the Old Church, cannot, except with great danger to their spiritual life, embrace the faith of the New Church, unless they have first disproved, one by one, and thus have extirpated the former faith with its dogmas.*
     * Brief Exposition, n. 103-4.

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     How these "knowledges" can be gained, and how this severe intellectual repentance is to be effected, except by the direct study of the Writings of the New Church, let those tell who can. But these Writings, or the Doctrines revealed in these Writings, are not only the sole gateway into the New Church on earth, but equally so into the New Church above, for these Doctrines are the only Doctrines of Heaven, and the Writings exist there as well as on earth:--

     Hereafter no one comes into Heaven, unless he is in the Doctrine of the New Church as to faith and life.*
     * Canons, Trinity, viii.

     No one comes into the New Church, thus no one is hereafter received into Heaven, except he who acknowledges God, one in Person and in Essence, in whom is the Trinity, thus the Lord; and unless by some combat he removes and shuns evils as sins.*
     * Last Judgment (posth.), n. 352.

     This means nothing less than the reception of the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem concerning the Lord. But finally, to remove all doubt, we read the following in the work On the Athanasian Creed:-

     When the [Christian] Church was being established by the Lord, the primary thing was to acknowledge and receive Him: that He is the one of whom the Word of the Old Testament treats: that He is God, and hath all power. The case is similar at the present day, when the New Church is being established, which is called the New Jerusalem, and when its Doctrine is being taught: the primary thing is to know and believe that the Lord is the only God, from whom is all salvation. It is for this that this is now being taught; this is the reason for the present work, for without this faith no one comes into the New Church or receives anything from its doctrine; consequently after this no one can be saved without this faith. For henceforth it is not allowable to believe in three equal gods and to sap one, nor to think of the Human of the Lord as separate from the Divine, as is done by so many.*
     * Athanasian Creed, n. 213.

     It does not seem possible that stronger evidence can be required in order to Drove that the New Church means nothing more and nothing less than the conscious reception, in faith and in life, of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, and that this Doctrine is revealed and is to be found nowhere else than in the theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. And as there call be no reception except by the people who receive, it follows that the New Church exists nowhere else than among those men and women who have actually received these Writings.

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For we are taught that "by the Church which is called the 'Bride,' is not meant those who are in falses of faith, but the Church consisting of those who are in the truths of faith,"* that is "those who are able to receive the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,"** and, ultimately and definitely, those who actually have received it.
     * Apocalypse Revealed, no. 955.
     ** Apocalypse Revealed, n. 88.

     These alone, therefore, constitute the New Jerusalem on earth or in Heaven, for these alone have entered through the gate and are dwelling in the Holy City, either as to their understanding or as to their will. There is no other gate into this sheepfold than the revealed Doctrine of the New Church received in the rational understanding. He who would enter through some other way, whether by "influx," or "perception," or "permeation," or natural goodness, he is "a thief and a robber."

     This Doctrine, as stated in a universal summary in the preface to the True Christian Religion--"the Faith of the New Heaven and of the New Church in a Universal form"--is there declared to be the "gate by which there is entrance into the temple,"* and the collective whole of all those who have thus entered,--whether known to one another or not,--constitutes the Lord's Universal New Church. But the simple good in the Christian world and the members of the Lord's Universal Church among the Gentiles, who have not yet received these Doctrines, cannot yet be said to be members of the New Church. They are not yet within the city of the New Jerusalem but are on the way to it. The gates are open to them, night and day, and they will all enter in, when they are really,--either in this world or in the world to come.
     * True Christian Religion, n. 1.

     THE GOOD IN THE OLD CHURCH.

     But, it has been asked, Are we not Apocalypse Revealed, that all those in the Christian world who have religion, i. e., those who do good and who love truth, constitute "the Universal New Church" in all its varieties, as signified by "the Seven Churches which are in Asia,"* to whom the New Revelation is addressed? Is not every good man essentially a New Churchman?

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Yea, we know that prominent teachers in the New Jerusalem have set forth this idea, and have even taught that since the Church is the Church essentially from good, and since the New Church is now the only Church, therefore the essential New Church, the New Church in an essential and celestial sense and potency, is constituted of all those everywhere who are in the good of life.
     * Apocalypse Revealed, n. 66.

     This is supposed to be a most comforting conception, broadening our view, delivering us from the narrow bonds of sectarianism and exclusiveness, and enabling us to mingle with our fellow men with the feeling that every good man is really, though unconsciously, a brother and fellow member of the Lord's New Church. (On the other hand it enables us to look down upon professed New Churchmen with the feeling that they are only members of the external Church, and that, though they may be away in advance intellectually, still they cannot claim our sympathy in the same degree as the "celestial" members of the New Church in the grand world at large!)

     Now, we might remain in this idea, if we were to stop our inquiry at the introductory statement in the Apocalypse Revealed, n. 66, and shut our eyes to the numerous teachings which qualify it and explain its meaning. But if we continue our investigation we will find that "the Seven Churches" have a two-fold signification and a two-fold application. They describe first the spiritual condition of those who will be of the New Church, but are not yet actually of it; and secondly, the spiritual condition of these same, after they have received the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, thus when they are not only potentially but also actually members of the Lord's New Church.

     For in the introduction to each of the chapters in the Apocalypse Explained which describe the Seven Churches we are told that these are the ones who are "invited" and "called" to the New Church; but surely they cannot be said to be actual members of that Church until they have had an opportunity to accept the invitation and the call. And again we are taught that by the Seven Churches are meant, "those in the Christian world who accede to the Church,"* i. e., who approach and draw near to it,--those, therefore, who are not yet within it.

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And these persons are further defined as "those who will be of the New Church on the earth,"**--"those who are in falsities as to doctrine, but who, provided they are not in falsities from evil, will receive the truths of the New Church and will acknowledge them,"***--thus, in general, "all in Christendom who are able to receive the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,"**** and "from whom the New Church can be formed."***** These are the ones who are exhorted in the Revelation to "hold fast that which they have" until the Lord comes, that is, "to retain and live according to the few things which they know from the Word concerning charity and faith, until the New Church is formed."****** These persons, therefore, constitute the Universal New Church in a potential sense only, but not in any actual sense whatever; for a prophecy does not become an actuality until it is fulfilled.
     * Apocalypse Revealed, n. 10, 43.
     ** A. R., 70
     *** Ibid, 183.
     **** Ibid, 88.
     ***** Ibid, 69.
     ****** Ibid, 145.

     It is absolutely necessary to rational thought to discriminate between what is potential and what is actual. Potentially the Divine Human of the Lord has existed from eternity, but what a difference to us men between this and the human actually assumed in the world and glorified! Potentially the New Church also has existed from eternity, in the eternal counsel of the Divine Providence, but actually only after the Lord had effected and had been received in His Second Advent! Potentially every man who is willing to be saved is an angel, but what a difference between angels and the poor, sinful members of the militant Church on earth!

     It will not do, therefore, to apply the name of "New Churchmen" to those who are still in utter ignorance of the fundamental truths of the New Church,--men who have not yet become the disciples of the Lord in His Second Advent,--men who still are in the fallacious appearances of the Literal Sense and who have not yet the faintest conception of the glories of the Internal Word. And though these simple good Christians are said to be in "the good of religion," yet it is plain that their good can be measured only by the truth which they possess. They cannot be expected to do better than they know. But though their desire for better things is genuine, still, as a matter of fact, neither the good nor the truth with them is as yet genuine and spiritual, since they are not yet in the truths of the Spiritual Sense of the Word, and therefore cannot yet be in the good of spiritual truth.

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It is these persons that are described in the Word as "spirits bound," and as "souls under the altar,"--spirits who are still in the Lower Earth, in the sphere of Hell, dominated as yet by the imaginary heavens of the Old Church in this world,--men who are seeking for the Truth, longing for Redemption, and anxiously awaiting the Lord. Potentially, in spe, in a future sense, these are of the Lord's Universal New Church; actually, they are in the vastated and consummated Church, although internally still members or remnants of the primitive Christian Church.

     Concerning these good and simple-hearted Christians we are told that--"after death they reject the doctrine of the present Church....and convert themselves to the Lord God the Savior, and with pleasure imbibe those things which are of the New Church,"* and again,--"All who have led a life of charity, and still more those who have loved truth, in the Spiritual world suffer themselves to be instructed, and they accept the doctrinal things of the New Church."** And these future New Churchmen, "before they have accepted the Doctrine of the New Church, are likened to trees that bear good fruit, although but little, and also to trees that bear excellent small fruit.... In Heaven these are clothed with raiments of a red color; and after initiation into the goods of the New Church they are clothed with raiments of a purple color, which acquire a beautiful yellow glow as they receive truths also."***
     * True Christian Religion, n. 536.
     ** Ibid, 799.
     *** Ibid, 537.

     (To be Continued.)

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SPIRIT OF MERCY 1901

SPIRIT OF MERCY       Rev. GEORGE G. STARKEY       1901

     But if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. (Matt. xii., 8.)

     Lessons: Matthew xii.; Divine Providence, n. 355.

     ALL doctrines centre around the Doctrine of the Lord. It is according as man's idea of the Lord is a true one and in proportion as he loves and cherishes that idea, that the truths of the New Church enter both into his understanding and his life. In this respect there is room for unlimited development. And as we give a higher place in our affection to the truth involved in this thought, it is to be hoped that we shall come more and more to approach and know the Lord in His Divine Humanity,--to meditate on His Divinely Human attributes, and on the innumerable modes in which these reveal Him to us. Is the degree that we do this we may hope to come into the sphere of those angels whose inmost joy is felt "when they are in thought concerning the Lord, and concerning the salvation of the human race by the Lord's making the human in Himself Divine;" for we are further taught that "in order that the angels might be retained in that most celestial joy and at the same time in wisdom, therefore that Divine process is fully described in the internal sense of the Word; and in it at the same time is described the process of the regeneration of man, for the regeneration of man is an image of the Lord's glorification" (A. C., 5249).

     Mercy is an attribute which especially reveals to us the Lord in His own Divine Love, from which He was willing to undergo all the assaults and pangs of Hell, even to the worst of them. For mercy is the face of Love: infinite in its reach, there is no soul so lost in the depth of self-inflicted misery but that the Divine Mercy follows and surrounds it and saves it from worse depths to which it would blindly rush; while to those who open themselves to that tender, life-giving sunshine, the very fibres of being are warmed and made to vibrate with a gentle rhythm which inmostly is peace, and which in the world to come will give forth pure harmonies of unselfish joy and mutual pleasures, of which in this life even the just call only obscurely dream,--and which are but faintly shadowed forth in earthly states of contentment and charity.

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For the arcana of mercy include all things of love to the Lord and of love toward the neighbor.

     To love itself no other attributes are competent than those which are of pure love, thus of mercy toward the universal human race, which is, that it wills to save all and make them happy to eternity, and to transfer into them all things of its own: thus from pure mercy to draw all who are willing to follow, to Heaven, that is, to itself, with the strong force of love....

     To feed His flock, to gather the lambs with His arms and carry them in His bosom, and to lead those that are with young, [these] are predicated of His love or mercy (A. C., 1735-6)

     The Lord withholds no blessing with which man can possibly be gifted. There is no other limit to Divine Mercy than man's willingness and capacity to receive; and here is seen how perfectly in Divine mercy love is united to wisdom, for despite the Lord's unfathomable yearning for man's reception of mercy, and for conjunction with him, it suffers not the slightest infringement of that freedom of choice without which the gift of existence cannot be thought of as other than a mockery and a paradox. When man receives mercy it is because he is willing to become a form of mercy, from the Lord.

     Another name for the Lord's mercy is Divine Providence, which is mercy coming into effect, whose infinite care while it watches even over the tiny insect and blade of grass, rules winds and tides, yea, directs the course of suns and planets in their sweep; and all in order that it may gather the lives of a universe of helpless human creatures under the outstretching wing of its benignant protection. Though the nature of Love be gentleness itself, yet it is also the very essence of resistless Power, and achievement; for the Divine End--from eternity to eternity the same--is the formation of a boundless heaven, formed from the human race; and though--because the Divine Power stays its hand so far as human will is concerned--man himself may defeat that end with himself, and though myriads do this, and have done and will do it, yet we cannot doubt--we know for a glorious certainty--that the Lord's Redemption, like His creation, is a Divinely perfect work, and that by the reception and application of the Truths of the New Dispensation to human lives, prophecy will be fulfilled, and the "bruised reed and smoking flax" of human frailty will at last give place before the Divine Truth, and the Lord shall send forth "judgment to victory," in the ESTABLISHMENT OF THE NEW CHURCH.

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     The universality of the Divine Providence, its impartiality, and overflowing bounty, its pure unselfishness and tender care even of the perverse, are set forth in the work on the Divine Providence, as follows:--

     The Divine Providence does all things from pure Mercy, because the Divine Essence is pure Love, and this it is which operates by Divine Wisdom; and it is this operation that is called the Divine Providence. This pure love is pure mercy for these reasons: 1. It operates with all men throughout the world, who are such that they can do nothing for themselves. 2. It operates equally with the evil and unjust and with the good and just. 3. It leads the former in hell and rescues them from it. 4. It there perpetually strives with them, and fights for them against the devil, that is, against the evil of hell. 5. It came into the world on this account, and endured temptations, even to the last of them, which was the passion of the cross. 6. It continually acts with the unclean to make them clean, and with the insane to make them sane; thus it labors continually from pure mercy. (D. P., 337.)

     Thus while with the wilfully evil the Lord ever strives to withhold them from the extreme depths to which they tend,--that is, from profanation, the nearest possible approach to annihilation or nothingness,--and while with those who turn not away He labors to purify and enlighten and make them into images and likenesses of Himself,--in both classes, with each and all, the Divine endeavor is continually to impart the highest degree of life and delight which the subjects of His mercy will permit; and all this without the slightest demand for compensatory return; only that in order to receive the real blessing of His bounty,--or spiritual life,--man must reciprocate the Divine Love: "He hath showed thee O man what is good; and what doth the Lord require thee, but to do justice and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God?" (Micah vi., 8.)

     That with man which resists and prevents the reception of Mercy and so brings him into miseries, is pride of self-intelligence and self-love,-his Proprium or self-hood. So long as he follows the dictates of his own conceits and the impulses of his own will,-which is to be spiritually dead,--he cannot receive spiritual life, its light and its joy.

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Man is formed out of the dust of the ground, to which state he clings until he can be brought to suffer himself to be raised by the Lord, whose love toward His creatures--so lifeless and so helpless against their proprium,--is Pity and Mercy itself.

     For the proprium is a necessary background and basis without which there could be no finite reception of life. It is proprium confirmed and cherished instead of being subdued, which makes of man a form destroying life. God does not withhold His mercy merely because man of himself is dead and corrupt and filthy, but He cannot impart it unless man recognizes and acknowledges that it is mercy and not any inherent life or merit of his own which makes him live--unless man becomes not his own but the Lord's. In proportion as he does so he is rescued from a state of death and misery and receives life and happiness. And the life and blessing which he thus receives cannot but go forth to others, for this is inherent in such life; and so by a reciprocal giving and receiving he enters into and shares in that common sphere which makes the just all brothers and sons of the Most High.

     But mutual love, which also is celestial, consists in this: that one not only says but also acknowledges and believes that he is most unworthy, that he is something vile and filthy, and that the Lord, out of an infinite mercy, is continually drawing and keeping him out of hell, into which he is continually attempting, nay desiring to plunge himself. That he acknowledges and believes this is because it is the truth; not that the Lord or any angel desires such acknowledgment and belief from any one, with a view to receive homage by his abasement, but to prevent his being puffed up with pride, when yet he is such; as if dress should call itself pure gold, or as if a fly of the cesspool should call itself a bird of paradise. In proportion therefore as man acknowledges and believes himself to be such as he is, he recedes from self-love and its lusts and regards self with abhorrence: and so far as this is the case with him he receives from the Lord celestial love, that is, mutual love, which consists in a desire to serve all. These are understood by the least who become greatest in the kingdom of the Lord (Matt. xx., 26. 27). Hence it may appear that what principally disjoins the external man from the internal, is self-love; and that what principally unites the external man to the internal, is mutual love; which cannot exist before self-love recedes: for they are altogether contrary. The internal man is nothing else than mutual love. . . . But whoever is in mutual love acknowledges and believes that all good and truth are not his but the Lord's, and that the ability to love another as himself, and especially--as the angels--to love another more than himself, is the gift of the Lord; from which gift and its happiness he departs, in proportion as he departs from the acknowledgment that it is the Lord's (A. C., 1594)

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     Is proportion as man departs from the reception of mercy he comes into punishment, which still is of mercy, for to indulge the evil doer is to permit evil to the good, and this in the Doctrines is called "unmerciful mercy." (S. D., 3593, etc.)

     To transform man from the condition likened above to a loathsome insect, to one represented by a beauteous bird, is not an impossibility--to the Lord; but the miracle cannot be effected except as man prepares himself for the change, by humiliation, and thus by obedience. He who would save his spiritual heritage must lose the unregenerate life; for it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich in the pride, the righteousness and the enjoyments of the life of self, to enter the kingdom of heaven.

     In humiliation of heart there is an acknowledgment of himself that he is mere filth and at the same time an acknowledgment of the infinite mercy of the Lord toward such a being; and when the mind is kept in these acknowledgments it lets itself down toward hell and prostrates the body, nor does it elevate itself until it is elevated by the Lord. This is the case with all true humiliation, accompanied by a perception of elevation by the Lord's mercy. (A. C. 1999.)

     The means of introducing man into humiliation and worship, and into resistance to evil, are truths; for "immediate mercy," or a mercy which operates without means, is but the dream of a diseased or perverted mind. It was said above that Providence continually labors to make the unclean clean; and this it does by truths, for truths are the universal cleansers: but hereby truths from good are meant.

     The truth which makes man to be a church is that truth which is from good; for when man is in good he then from good sees truths, and perceives them, and so believes that they are truths, but this in nowise unless he be in good. Good is as a little flame, which gives light and illuminates and causes man to see, to perceive and to believe truths: for the affection of truth from good determines the sight thither and draws it from worldly and corporeal things, which occasion darkness. Such is the truth which Benjamin here represents; that this is the only truth of the church, see n. 5806, that is, the only one which makes man to be a church. Conjunction is effected by this truth with the truths which are beneath; for unless this truth were subjected to internal good, that thence it may have the influx of good in itself, there would be no reception of the mercy which continually inflows from the Lord through internal good, for there would be no medium; and if no reception of mercy there would be no conjunction. (A. C., 5816.)

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     These "truths which are beneath" are truths of the natural degree, and these abound in the world and are used by good and evil alike for the laying bare of evil; indeed the natural man delights in uncovering evils--but not his own. The real healing and removal of evil is an internal removal, and is effected only by truth which is from good. It is truth not conjoined to good which is meant where it is said that Divine Truth condemns everyone to hell, but that Divine Good saves and elevates all to heaven (A. C., 2258), which statement sounds as if the Divine Truth and the Divine Good were not one, whereas they are infinitely and eternally one in the Lord and thence are conjoined throughout the created universe, except with him who separates them; but it is to be understood thus: From the Lord Good and Truth descend in a heavenly marriage, fruitful in mercies past the telling for those who will enter into the spiritual nuptials. To man, not yet in that marriage, comes good in the garb of truth,--the truth of Revelation,--while inmostly present is Good Itself or the Lord, standing and knocking, urgent to be received, His hands overflowing with the benison of spiritual life. Let man but obey the Truth and reject sin, and good flows in from within and becomes conjoined with the truth; as man thus opens the door the Divine Bridegroom enters and sups with him. But if man deliberately close the door, evil instead occupies his internal, and then evil, because it is opposed to the good of which truth is the form, thrusts itself--and the man with it--outside the sphere of good, from which the truth becomes to him a form condemning and as it were destroying; for the good which is the essence of truth finds in him no welcome but resistance, and in showing him his quality, that it is opposed to heaven, it seems to thrust him down to hell; when yet it is strictly his own quality and choice which take him there.

     As it is stated in the Arcana:--

     ...All the truths which proceed from the Lord are from His Divine Good, thus are nothing but mercies, but whereas men do not receive the mercy of the Lord they expose themselves to damnation, for then they are in evils, and evils condemn. (A. C., 7206.)

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     In so far as man confirms evils in his life in so far he locks the door against the Lord, then, especially if he even go so far as to throw away the key,--that is, if he confirms himself in mind and heart against the Lord,--the Divine Mercy can do longer enter, but stands without, and man joins the company of the lost, whose misery because it contains nothing of repentance, cannot be taken away. "They will cry and none will hear; unto the Lord, and We will not answer them." It was the prevalence of such a state among men at the time of the First Advent which was perceived by the Lord in His finite human--whose internal was the very Love of saying the human race--which racked His spirit with a shuddering anguish, described in the letter of the Word as a "horror of great darkness" that fell upon Abram in the going down of the sun. (Gen. xv., 12.)

     Thus we are taught "the Divine sphere which encompasses and protects Heaven, is a sphere of Divine Truth conjoined to Divine Good, but that which guards Hell is a sphere of Divine Truth separate from Divine Good." (A. C., 9534)

     To prevent that confirmed disjunction of good and truth and to effect their conjunction, is the end and whole endeavor of the Divine Providence. Looking toward this end the Lord ever labors to separate evil from good and to keep them distinct. This He does in order that remains of truth and of good may be preserved and gathered together into order and series as the ranks of an army against the opposing hosts of evils and falses, which are likewise arranged in their own order and connection. The issue must be distinct, and the struggle when begun does not end except with man's natural life. In the process of this separation the Divine Surgeon must, with firm though loving hand, lay bare the corruption of man's nature; but He then binds up the wound with the wine and oil of His healing truth and good; so that in the sharp, exploring truth man may perceive, if he will, the Love which thus shows him his life-in-death state for the sake of life eternal.

     To genuinely see and acknowledge that of ourselves we are nothing but uncleanness, is not easy; the appearances against it are so many, and they so appeal to our natural loves. The recognition must be gradual. The youth whose training in the uprightness, honorableness and decorum which bring with them the presence and sphere of heaven, cannot be expected to realize that these noble things are not yet his own.

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Yet the truth is that they are only adjoined to him, and this for the double end that heaven may he present with--though not yet in--him, and that the evils of his natural may be kept within bounds while heavenly seeds are implanting; later, in the power of ripened faculties, he is to take up for himself the work of cultivating his soul-garden and of rooting out the noxious things which would make it a wilderness. But meanwhile, so long as he is conscious of respecting and loving those spiritual adornments, he cannot sense the impurities which lie concealed in natural affections not yet made spiritual, nor the seeds of opposition and conflict which exist in his mind. The like may be said of the maiden,--whose youthful brightness and tender graces, whose home-blessing qualities and whose zeal for the truth, all make her seem an angel to her loving friends. Before adult life all these things are indeed of the Lord with man, but not yet of man in the Lord. They are means by which the Lord provides man with the spiritual resources--food, strength and weapons,--with which to battle for his dawning spiritual life when he shall stand at the threshold of mature life. And similar, indeed, it is with us all, even when we grow older;--for the most part we are still in the mists of appearances, full of conceits and merits and phantasies of our own goodness, and this despite many, many truths received on the subject. It is not a matter of truth, but of affection for the truth; and the affection for this particular kind of truth is a plant of slow growth.

     Of itself not even the acknowledgment of our evil self-hood opens us to the Lord's mercy so as to perceive its sphere in our lives. Labor and combat are indispensable. Before we can "love mercy" we must "do judgment," or else our acknowledgment is as ineffective as would be a general confession of sins without searching out any one sin to put it away. Acknowledgment is nothing unless we realize the peril our souls are in,--unless the truths from which we seem to see our evils so clearly while those evils are not especially active,--unless those truths are held to, and made shields and weapons of defense against the hells at the time when these flow into our evils and their delights. We may suppose we are in the spirit of mercy when we are only in non-combat, when skies are calm and the world goes well with us, and we go about our uses and enjoyments with a sense of gratitude to God and a kindly feeling toward the neighbor.

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But when things go wrong,--when our will seems thwarted by the provisions or permissions of Providence, when our relations with the neighbor are disturbed, or when the hells arouse in us some dormant or unsuspected lust and rush in with their infernal crew to cover up the ugliness of that evil with excuses and glamours until it seems really not so bad, but delightful and even allowable,--then are the powers of mercy set in array against hell and the proprium. Then comes the life and death struggle for mastery. It is not enough that man intellectually see the evil of his own life's loves and the Divinity of the Lord's life,-but he must with his own hands stifle one by one the brood of falses and evils springing from his nature, though to his affection they seem the very offspring of his being: I need not enumerate them,--in general they are self-justification and self-exaltation at the expense of the neighbor in all the degrees of that term. We all condemn them; and we all naturally incline to include them.

     Now the Lord does not arbitrarily wrest away from man these darlings of his soul; an must himself, freely, from the dawning affection of truth within him, take the stand and resist not only their arrogant usurpations, but also their blandishments--their pretty, soothing ways; and though he be torn in spirit, like the upright judge of old who condemned his own guilty son to death, yet he must steel his heart and show no false mercy to these sons of the Ammonite and Moabite, but must take their life,--that is, he must reject their delights. And if the hells throw off all disguise, and in arrogance, hatred and fury rise up against the angels of the inner man, to sweep their victim away by the rush of their onslaught, then must man needs cling steadfastly, desperately and even blindly to the truth of Revelation, and to its principles which he has confirmed, even though from the stress of combat that truth seem to him no longer living or dear, nor able to succor,--though the earth beneath seem as iron and the heavens above as brass. Without some such experiences and extremities man's humiliation can hardly become of the life, and truth will hardly find in his spirit its consort good, but will remain single and barren.

     Still, the mere fact that a man has never come to such straits, should not discourage a man, nor make him fear lest the storm come and catch him unprepared.

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The Lord suffers no temptation to assail a man until he can meet it, does not drive out the wild things of the field and forest before crops and gentle animals can find sustenance. Only let man be humble, and acknowledge that the work whenever and however done must be the Lord's work and not his own. "A bruised reed will He not break and smoking flax will He not quench until judgment go forth to victory." "For He knoweth our frame, He remembereth that we are dust."

     What other refuge is there to compare with that of trust in the Lord's mercy. In it there is rest unspeakable; rest from the strivings and assumptions of the proprium, rest from assaults, without or within. For when man places his welfare in spiritual things, which are safe from the vicissitudes which most disturb the men of this generation,--in that degree he is lifted above the sphere of evil, whether in himself or in others. In the Word and in the Writings there is everywhere associated with the subject of mercy a peace which is above all treasures, which passeth understanding. In the Divine Presence hushed are the vain murmurings of the natural mall. A realizing sense of the Divine Mercy will deliver man from the spirit of anxiety and complaining,--that canker, whose gnawings so blight the fair blossoms of the Lord's gift of life.

     The Divine forbearance in not removing evils before man can be prepared and gifted with spiritual life, is strikingly set forth in the teaching of the Arcana n. 761, which is, that the angels, knowing that the evils and falses with man are not his own before he has confirmed them, but are from evil spirits, not only do not impute these to him, but they even defend them, as being part of his life, which to take away would leave him without delight of life and so without life. What mercy is here shown! That not only the angels but Good Itself, to which evil is absolutely opposed and abhorrent, should deal with man's defiled life so patiently, with such wisdom and providence, such undiminished love! But were it not so, what man would see life? "If Thou, Lord, shouldest make iniquities, O Lord, who should stand." Indeed we are taught that even the angels are not pure in the Lord's eyes, and that He sees the Universal Heaven or Gorand Man not such as it is but such as he wills it to be (A. C. 1871).

     The Lord alone, Who is the sole Remover of evils--knows the state of man's affections, and so knows in what order evils can be removed with him.

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He regards man's ends, and other things He passes by as not of guilt; He looks to essentials which are of mercy, and not to the formal things of life, of morality and piety, except from the former and as means. To the Pharisees, who would pattern the lives of others according to the beautiful but lifeless externals of their truth separate from good, He said: "if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy and not sacrifice, ye should not have condemned the guiltless." He alone knows which evils can profitably be brought to man's notice and which should be left undisturbed. Premature exposure may only excite unduly evils with which man is really not yet able to cope. "A bruised reed will He not break and smoking flax be will not quench."

     The Lord speaks to man through his affection of truth, not to his love of fame or other worldly promptings. Therefore He does not coerce man except when man himself too far infringes the freedom of others, and then the Lord provides that the restraint, if man will not exercise it himself, shall he applied by human instrumentalities, according to established order on the various planes of human life, in society, the state, or among individuals. And in proportion as human governors, ministers and monitors will model their administration after Divine models, they will more and more recognize the due relation and proportion between the things of "mercy" and those of "sacrifice;" and as men receive this administration in its own spirit,--remembering that truth from good is less sensitive to disorders coming from without (that is, from others) than is truth-alone (for good is deeply disturbed only by that assault upon its life which comes from the foes of its own household)--then will earth come into tune with heaven,--then will mercy and truth meet together; justice and peace shall kiss each other.

     "And in that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of the heaven and with the creeping things of the ground and I will break the bow and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and I will make them to lie down safely. And I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in justice and in judgment and in loving kindnesses and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord." (Hos. ii., 18-20.) Amen.

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"NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS." 1901

"NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS."              1901

     THE OLD CHURCH AND THE NEW.

     THE necessity for seeing and applying in life the doctrine concerning the state of the Old Church, depends upon the necessity for seeing the Lord in His Second Coming. This necessity again is one with the necessity for that Coming--the vital necessity which existed for revealing to men their lost state, their separation from God, and for effecting judgment between the evils and falses prevailing with men and the salvable elements which remain-which elements are comprised in general in the affection of truth, first natural and then spiritual. Thus the necessity is for a new and wholly distinct dispensation of truth to men, which involves also the absolute need for recognition of the source, form and embodiment of that truth, and a turning from all false Christs such as were foretold by the Lord Himself when He was upon earth. This means that for that needful and new truth we are to look solely to the New Jerusalem, and not in any sense to the obsolete forms of truth as, they exist with the Old Church, essentially the same now as when Swedenborg wrote, over one hundred years ago. For if when he wrote the Divine Truth hall already been so extinguished as to require a new revelation of the Lord in the Word,--now restored as it were anew in the internal sense,--then to that Church we cannot look for truth, for any manifestation of the Lord, save the "sign of the prophet Jonah." That sign is the manifestation, the appearing of the Divine Human in the spiritual sense of the Word, executing judgment and separation between New Church and Old, according to reception of that sense.

     The same causes operate to prevent the reception of the internal sense of the Word which alienated men from God in the first place,--evils of life and falses which favor evils. The falses and evils which vastate and consummate a Church and make the founding of a new church necessary, are what draw the boundaries of distinction between the Old and the New as they exist side by side on earth, effecting a real internal separation which in the other world--where internals appear--makes a visible separation, which ought to find expression on earth. The evils and falses of the Old Church of a hundred years ago are the evils and falses of the Old Church today; for their removal is impossible except through means,--means which have been pointed out and prescribed by the Lord, but which have not been embraced by the Old Church as a body, nor so far as call be judged by any considerable number of individuals.

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The removal of evils is possible only through confession of sins, repentance, reformation and enlightenment by the Lord; for the laws of re-birth apply to a collective man or Church as they do to the individual. A study of order and the means whereby reformation is effected shows how lacking is the Old Church in the first essentials of reformation,-how far from taking the first step. There has been no definite confession of organic evils and falsities, no rejection of fundamental dogmas, still less an approach to the Lord where alone He appears in His Second Coming, in the Writings of the New Church, although that approach is open and free to all alike. Whether we are right in so broad a statement,-whether the various modifications of view observable in the denominations, are such as to now render inapplicable the abundant teachings of the Writings on the death of the Church, may be judged from study of the teachings themselves, a number of which we have brought together in these pages.

     "The fall of the First Christian Church, like that of all preceding churches, was a yielding to the proprium and a consequent aversion from the Lord, followed by all inevitable falsification of the true doctrine of the Lord and a shutting of Him out from sight of men. From this naturally followed the dogma of faith-alone as the means of salvation. In these two falsities we have the parents of all others. The rejection of the good of life as being the true means, was to be expected from a state which was so averse to God and so to God's will as to destroy His very image in the thought of men. God's will is good-will and the doing of good to men. Since a god whose attitude to his creatures is pictured wrathful and vindictive yet readily satisfied by the unjust sacrifice to his glory, of an innocent Victim, constitutes a fit type of the worship of a self-willed and perverse Church, so is the dogma of faith-alone, or Salvation without the works of the Law, an apt expression of the state of that Church as to its ruling loves,--a state which, cold as to every spiritual love, seeks to win heaven and escape the consequences of non-obedience to the Law of Life, by a mere figment of the understanding, that is, a faith into which the will does not at all enter.

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     The "Abomination of Desolation" is when there is no love and no charity, which being desolated, abominable things reign.... Truth is said to avert itself from good and to look to doctrinals when it is no more at heart what life makes a man of the Church but what doctrine, when nevertheless it is a life according to doctrine that makes the man of the Church, not doctrine separated from life (A. C., 2454).

     Every Church at its beginning regards the goods of life in the first place and truths of doctrine in the second; but as the Church declines it begins to regard truths of doctrine in the first place and in the second goods of life, and at length in the end it regards faith alone (A. R., 82.)

     The very truth of the Church is, that love to the Lord and love toward the neighbor are primary things. This truth cupidities extinguish, for they who are in the life of cupidities cannot be in a life of love and charity, for they are altogether opposed. The life of cupidities is to love self only, and not the neighbor except for the sake of self; thence they extinguish charity with themselves; and they who extinguish charity extinguish also love to the Lord. For there is not given a means of loving the Lord except charity. The affection of charity is celestial affection itself which is from the Lord alone. Thence it may appear that cupidities of evil extinguish the very truth of the Church; which being extinguished, a means is hatched out which is called saving; viz., faith, which, when it is separated from charity, truths themselves are defiled; for then it is no more known what charity is, nor even what is the neighbor, consequently neither what is the internal of man, and not even what heaven is. For the internal of man, and heaven in man, is charity, that is, to will well to another, to society, the country, the Church, the Kingdom of the Lord, and so to the Lord Himself. Hence it may be concluded of what quality are the truths of the Church when those things which are essential are not known, and when cupidities reign. (A. C., 4776)

     The present faith has separated religion from the Church, for religion consists in acknowledgment of one God, and in the worship of Him from faith and charity (B. E., 45).

     That the universal Christian Church at this day teaches those same things, [that, "those who have obtained faith are not only reputed just and holy but that they are so I and that their sins are not sins in the sight of God'] is manifestly evident from the Council of Trent, the Augustan and Augsburg Confessions, and from the commentaries attached to them and also received (T. C. R., 640)

     It is the authoritative utterances of the Church that give form and stability to the faith of a Church, and this despite any amount of private disagreement and recession therefrom short of disintegration of the external Church itself.

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A Church is a collective man, and must be judged by its collective or organic acts and pronouncements. By these it is bound until they are repudiated. Such repudiation is not involved in the mere excision of those balder statements of the Creeds which antagonize the most ordinary sense of right and consistency. There can be no essential changes in the Creeds so long as the tri-personal Godhead and Vicarious Atonement are retained, and the doctrine of Faith-alone. These two are the foundations upon which has been reared a superstructure the modifications and alterations in which do not touch the foundations. That falsity really inheres in the apparent truths that are enounced by the so-called "liberal" leaders of the Church, is indicated in the teaching of the Writings,--that the "Making of all things New" which the Lord in His Second Advent and institution of the New Church is to effect, involves, first, the opening and rejection of the tenets of the faith of the present Church, and then the revelation and reception of the Faith of the New Church (B. E., 95), and it is added,--

     "The reason why the falsities of the tenets of the faith of the present church must first be opened and rejected before the truths of the tenets of the New Church can be revealed and received, is, because they do not agree together, no not in one single point or particular; for the tenets of the present Church are founded upon a faith in which it is unknown whether there be any essential of the Church or not. Now the essentials of the Church which conjoin themselves with a faith directed to one God, are, charity, good works, repentance and a life according to the Divine Laws; and forasmuch as these together with faith affect and move the human will and thought, they conjoin man to the Lord and the Lord to man. Since, therefore, none of these essentials enter into the faith of the present church at its first coming, which is called the act of justification, it cannot he possibly known whether this faith be in man or not, consequently whether it be anything, or only an idea of something; for it is said that man in the act of justification is like a stock or a stone and that he can neither will, think, cooperate, no, nor even apply or accommodate himself to the reception thereof in the smallest degree,--see above" (B. E., 96,).

     The "opening and rejection" of falses, here enjoined, call be effected only by Divine Truth. The ability to discern and fix upon the essential and fundamental false principles underlying the old creeds can come from no elsewhere than the fundamentals of New Jerusalem, and on no other lines can the discrimination and judgment proceed.

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Therefore, in the Divine instruction given on this head, the rejection of the Old and the reception of the New are inseparably joined together. (See Brief Exposition, n. 95.)

     The statement italicized by us in the above quotation (B. E., 96) antagonizes the appearances of "agreement with the truth" which are very frequently met with in the preaching and writings of the Old Church ministers, and the appearance of agreement is completely dispelled when they are examined in the light of such teaching as the following:

     "It may be known that the false can be confirmed equally as well as the true" (A. C., 824).

     The reasonings by means of which the defenders of faith separated from life have imposed upon falsities the appearance of truth by which they seem to themselves to have cleared up discordances with the word, have been treated of before; but that they have not cleared up these discordances but have woven as it were an invisible spider's web that they might induce a faith in falsities, can be seen from what has been presented above; also from this, that, by doctrine, preaching and writings, they assiduously assert that faith was given as the means of salvation because man is unable to do good of himself; also that god continues to operate whatever is good in man while man is unconscious of it, and by this operation the evils that are done by the man who is justified by faith, are not sins but infirmities of nature; also that deliberate or voluntary evils are forgiven, either immediately afterward or after some repentance of the lips; and finally that it follows that by works and doing in the Word faith, and to have faith, are meant. Thus for themselves and for the entire body of the Church they give license and free rein to act and live in the indulgence and enjoyment of all lusts; and as this dogma is pleasant to the flesh and to the eyes, the common people gladly accept it (A. E., 802).

     But, because the leaders of the Church fear an open scandal before the world-which despite consummation is in an external thought based on the genuine natural truths of the Word,-and because Providence watches over the state of the remnant of simple good who do not enter perceptively into the real character of their false faith, but receive and appropriate whatever looks toward good of life,-the leaders of the Faith-alone church juggle with the truths of the Word so as to make their scheme of salvation apparently not discordant with the Truth.

     (To be Continued.)

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     WE are informed that the Rev. John A. Hayes, whose going over to Unitarianism we recently associated with the location of his alma mater, the "New-Church Theological School at 'Unitarian Cambridge,'" really graduated three years before the removal of the school from its former quarters. We regret the mistake, and gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity to correct it.



     THE annual meetings of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, of the Council of Ministers of the General Convention, and of the Convention News Department proper is made full and interesting, especially by reason of the accounts of the "Nineteenth of June" celebrations at some of the centres. Unfortunately the account of the celebration at Bryn Athyn, and of the formation of the "Philadelphia District Assembly," must be held over for lack of space.



     THIS year there was no General Assembly to report, but it is proposed to present next month an abstract of the proceedings of the annual meeting of the Council of Ministers, and of the "Joint Council" of the ministers with the Executive Committee. Of these meetings, in Bryn Athyn, it is enough to say that they were exceedingly useful and enjoyable, and that in each body a step was taken which though in no way startling in character is in the line of progress, and important in the further development of the General Church; we refer especially to the organization of the Council of the Clergy into classes, and of the step taken looking to the lightening of the Bishop's labors.



     CORRESPONDENTS whose communications have been left unconsidered from lack of time and space, will please exercise leniency and patience until the present demands upon the editorial management have lightened somewhat. During August all communications to this magazine should be addressed simply, "Editor of New Church Life, Huntingdon Valley, Pa."
VALEDICTORY 1901

VALEDICTORY              1901

     IT seems proper to repeat here the announcement made at the last public meeting of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, that, in order to meet a recognized need, the present editor of New Church Life has been appointed secretary to the Bishop.

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The conduct of the Life is to be consigned to the care of Rev. C. Th. Odhner, as editor-in-chief, and Rev. Alfred Acton, as assistant editor, both members of the present "Editor's Council." The change will take full effect in September. The August number will be brought out by a committee appointed to edit an abstract of the Council meetings recently held in Bryn Athyn.

     The present incumbent, while welcoming the new appointment on more accounts than need be specified here, would not be content to leave the editorial chair without testifying to the many benefits and pleasures which its occupancy has brought him, and to the friendly interest and cordial support which have been given to the use under his management,--as well by contributors, and by readers and correspondents, as by those whose literary and editorial labors have supplemented his own, and also by those who have given indispensable financial and other material support to the use, in many and various ways; he feels that there has been a high degree of friendliness, charity and liberality shown by all concerned. To those who have in charge the elder and other contemporary journals in the New Church he wishes to express thanks for kindly treatment and for courtesies shown.

     Associated as he has been with the Life from its very inception, over twenty years ago, and identified as he has been with its more active management for considerably more than the five years' editorship, it is not to be supposed that in taking up the inviting and congenial duties of his position the present writer will lose his interest or his affection for the Life; quite the contrary. Indeed he would feel much less happy over the change, but for knowing that the interests of the magazine are to be looked after by such capable, well-equipped and energetic workers as Messrs. Odhner and Acton, in whose trained hands he expects to see the journal increase in scope and efficiency. With all confidence, therefore, and with best wishes, he commends the Life and its new management to the continued and cordial support of its readers and friends, to whom he now bids farewell.
SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 1901

SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION              1901

FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING; HELD IN NEW YORK, MAY 27TH AND 28TH, 1901.

     IN contrast to the third annual meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, which was the smallest yet held, that of 1901 was the largest and most encouraging. True, contrary to hopes, no pronounced stride or achievement marks the year's work. yet the progress made in preparing the     Principia for final publication is not to be despised; the translation of the Lesser Principia is under way; the same may he said of the revision of the Animal Kingdom; the organ of the Association,--The New Philosophy,--is settling down into channels of broadening usefulness, while the subscription list of the same, as well as the roll of members, under the active and efficient administration of the Treasurer and Manager, show gratifying evidence of his zeal and industry, and establish the work of the Association on a substantial basis beyond what we have had.

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     The Fourth Annual Meeting of the Association was called to order at shout 2:00 P.M.. Of Monday, May 27th, with President Frank Sewall in the chair. The attendance at this and the subsequent sessions, as shown by the roll, included thirty-one members and thirty-nine visitors, among the names being a number of the most prominent in the ministry of the General Convention and of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Quite a number of ladies were present and gave close attention to the proceedings. The Rev. Arthur Faraday, of Snodland, England, was present and by invitation took part in the meetings.

     The Report of the Board of Directors incorporated the reports of the various committees, including: the Committee on the conduct of The New Philosophy; on the production of the new edition of the Principia; on the Lesser Principia; on the Animal Kingdom; and on the Translation of "De Sensibus." The Report announced the appointment of Mr. Carl H. Asplundh as Business Manager of The New Philosophy, of the Rev. Enoch S. Price as chairman of the Committee on "De Sensibus," and of the Rev. C. Th. Odhner as chairman of the Committee on translating Swedenborg's early scientific treatises into Swedish.

     The Board also recommended the proposed publication of Swedenborg's hitherto unpublished Scientific Manuscripts, according to the plan presented by the Treasurer; of which below.

     The Committee on the "Principia" reported that the First Volume, revised and annotated, is now in the hands of Messrs. Tansley and Rendell, the English Committee, awaiting their further revision. The revision of Volume II, is expected to be simpler and more quickly accomplished than that of Volume I.

     The translating of the Lesser Principia is progressing, but as yet only thirty-five out of three hundred pages have been completed.

     For the Committee on the "Animal Kingdom" Mr. Stroh made an informal report that the first three chapters had been revised and were ready to be sent to Dr. Farrington.

     The Editorial Board explained in their report the difficulties which had occasioned delay in bringing the publication of The New Philosophy up to time, and due acknowledgment was made of the assistance of the Treasurer in getting out the numbers in good form. Mention was made of a special arrangement which had been made with the Translator of "De Sensibus,"--now published serially,--in the absence of copyright.

     The Secretary's Report mentioned the names of five members deceased since the last annual meeting,--Messrs. Auchterlonie, Colton, Parsons, Wilmarth and Worchester. A revision of the roll of members, in accord with minute 160 (see New Philosophy, July. 1900, p. 85) shows a present membership of 140, of whom 90 have been added since the last meeting.

     The Treasurer's Report, in addition to the financial statement, contained information relative to the affairs of The New Philosophy, and to the correcting of the roll, together with an account of the Treasurer's successful efforts toward increasing the membership.

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     The Reports of the Auxillary Bodies, the Principia Club of Philadelphia and the Swedenborg Philosophy Club of Chicago gave interesting accounts of the year's transactions; the Principia Club having conducted a useful discussion of the status of Swedenborg's Science and Philosophy, while the Philosophy Club has pursued a course of systematic study of the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, with comparative and confirmatory side-lights from medical, physical and other allied sciences.

     A request by private letter from France, for an elucidation of the subject of the Vortical Form,--which was accompanied by the expression of a great interest in the work of the Association, on the part of several members of the New Church in Paris,--was referred to Miss Beekman.

     The Treasurer, Mr. Asplundh, presented a plan for the production of a copy of the unpublished scientific manuscripts of Swedenborg,--consisting of some 3,200 pages,--and for their early publication, the expense to be borne by the Association, the Swedenborg Society of London, and the General Convention in America. The two-fold consideration, that the contents of these works in many cases bear immediately upon subjects now engaging the attention of our investigators,--notably Miss Beekman in her remarkable researches and comparison of Swedenborg's Science with that of the day,--and that these works as they exist in manuscript only, in the Library of the Royal Academy, in Stockholm, are liable to destruction by fire at any time,--impelled the Association to recommend the plan to the Board of Directors.

     The hour of 4:30 P. M. had been appointed for hearing the President's Annual Address. The President gave an encouraging review of the year's work, and presented at some length considerations bearing upon the recent discussion of the place to be assigned to Swedenborg's Science and Philosophy, in relation to the theological teaching of the Writings themselves. But for an appreciation of the deep thought and suggestiveness of this the more serious part of the Address readers are referred to the July New Philosophy.

     In the Evening Meeting a letter from the Rev. Samuel Beswick, C. E., bearing on a paper which he had sent criticizing Miss Beekman's promised identification of Hydrogen with Swedenborg's Third Finites, was read. Discussion of the question of time and place of the next annual meeting resulted in leaving it to the President and Secretary, with full power.

     The paper of the evening was that of Prof. C. Th. Odhner,--"The Doctrine of Spontaneous Generation, compared with the Theory of the Creation of Man contained in the Worship and Love of God. First was presented a compilation of all the passages in the Writings which teach that the original creation of organic matter--the vegetable and animal kingdom--was effected in the same manner as creation is effected in the spiritual world, i. e., instantaneously and immediately, out of the effluvia in the atmosphere, without the organic processes of conception and birth.

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With this the paper contrasted the theory in the Worship and Love of God, where Swedenborg represents animals and men as being created out of oviform matter in individual vegetables. The writer regarded this theory as an allegory, the literal form of which must be discarded as not in harmony with Divine Revelation, but containing nevertheless important and fundamental truths within the playful and fictitious form of the story.

     In the ensuing discussion Messrs Schreck, Mercer, Acton, Sewall, Hughes and Stroh took part, practically no support being given to the conclusions of the paper, though all testified to the thorough study which it evinced.

     Mr. Schreck testified to the thorough study contained in the paper, but had not arrived at the same conclusions.

     Mr. Mercer took a similar stand. He agreed with the paper that the Worship and Love of God is an allegory, but not such an allegory as the paper suggested, for this amounted to its being of no value at all. We need not regard the birth of man, as there given, to have taken place in exactly the way stated, but we can see that Swedenborg describes in beautiful and poetic form how the first man was produced from the vegetable kingdom and nourished in the loving embrace of that kingdom. How much more satisfactory this is than the theory of the paper, which leaves man as it were suspended in mid-air, having no place on which to rest,--no nurturing mother from whom to draw sustenance.

     Mr. Acton said that by taking Swedenborg's phrase "In momento"-"instantaneously"-literally and rigidly, the whole cosmogony of the Principia is overthrown: one passage quoted in the paper, says that not only all things vegetable and all things animal, but also all things mineral, were created "in a moment." According to the strict interpretation of "in momento" what becomes of those numbers in Divine Love and Wisdom which represents the process of the creation of matter as having been a gradual thing?-first the sun and by that, by gradations, earths and matters. To the speaker, "in momento" meant not that creation was effected without processes, but that influx from the other world into this, makes its own processes.

     Mr. Sewall endorsed Mr. Acton's arguments, and pointed out that it is unsafe to make a summary judgment of the Worship and Love of God except from a thorough knowledge of its contents. He had given much study to the work, and had made it the subject of a paper,--afterward reprinted from the New Church Review (October, 1882),--and he had been more and more impressed with the truth of the theory it presents.     To him it seemed beyond a doubt that the doctrine that the first man was born on the noblest of trees,--the crown of the vegetable kingdom,-was the most rational view of the subject which hall ever been offered. We can have no more satisfactory view.

     It is to be hoped that notwithstanding the length of the paper it may find a suitable channel of publication, since without study and comparison of the many passages therein adduced from the Writings neither can justice to be done to the writer nor a mature judgment formed on the subject.

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     On the forenoon of the Second Day the chief business was the election of officers, which resulted in the re-election of President Frank Sewall, Secretary Eugene J. E. Schreck, and Treasurer Carl H. Asplundh, while of the former Board of Directors the only change was the retirement of Dr. Whiston, on account of pre-occupation, his place being supplied by the election of Prof. Lewis F. Hite.

     The meeting then listened to a studied and impressive paper by the Rev. W. F. Pendleton, "The Scientific Works of Swedenborg and the Writings" (which appears in both the July number of The New Philosophy and the June number of New Church Life), followed by a paper written by Miss Beekman, and read by Mr. Mercer, on "The Identification of Hydrogen and Third Finites, with scientific verification of Swedenborg's postulate." Time was lacking for discussion of these two interesting and important papers; which also applies to a third, by Mr. Alfred Stroh, on "The Value of Swedenborg's Science and Philosophy, illustrated by a comparison of his theories of Light and Color with those of Newton:" this paper gave an historical resume of theory and experiment on light and colors, from ancient to modern times; Newton's theory--from his Opticks--was compared with Swedenborg's; and Swedenborg's experience with Newton in the other world was recounted; and in conclusion the points at issue were treated in the light of modern scientific investigation, with an indication of how the problems that confront the student of light and color must sooner or later be solved by the philosophical principles laid down by Swedenborg.

     The meeting was adjourned subject to call by the President and Secretary.
ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION 1901

ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION       GEORGE G. STARKEY       1901

     AS SEEN BY A VISITOR FROM THE GENERAL CHURCH.

     THE annual meetings of the General Convention and its allied bodies, coming this year as they did immediately after the meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, and being held in the same city, a number of the members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem who attended the Association were induced to stay over for the larger meetings. This was made the easier for several of us by the kind hospitality of members of our own Brooklyn Society, and of course, with other visitors, we shared in the abundant courtesies and kind provisions of the entertaining Convention Societies, of New York and Brooklyn. As I attended all of the meetings to which my strength was equal, some account will doubtless interest the readers of the Life.

     THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS.

     The Council of Ministers opened in New York on Tuesday afternoon, May 28th, the Scientific Association having closed at 1 o'clock. The president of the Council, Rev. James Reed, occupied the chair.

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Committee business took up most of the afternoon. Our friend, the Rev. Arthur Faraday, whose recent visit with his wife to Bryn Athyn was so much enjoyed, and who is present in America as the accredited messenger of the English Conference to the Convention, was given a cordial welcome. The privileges of the floor and the usual courtesies were later extended to the Rev. Messrs. Odhner, Acton and myself, as visiting ministers of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. Forty-six ministers of Convention were in attendance, four students and five guests.

     About fifteen papers were presented to the Council. First came the Annual Address, delivered on Tuesday evening by the Rev. Charles H. Mann, immediately after a brief religious service. His topic was, "The Child and the Man in the Church," and he contrasted the infantile stage of a Church's life with the manhood into which it should grow, using as an illustration the united views and interests of the infant which to it seem so all-important but which give place to the wider vision and larger scope of maturer years. The address seemed to class as infantile the interest and importance that has been attached to such matters as baptism in the New Church, and the various efforts made to formulate ritualistic, hierarchical and credal standards for the organic New Church; among the illustrations cited was the discussion on "what became of the material of which the Lord's body was composed," which was a phase of the historic controversy of over fifty years ago, in the English branch of the New Church, on the subject of the Glorification. The writer of the Address would hare the Church look forward to outgrowing such things, seeking to find the truth in all positions, rather than concentering on immature and limited views; and rather than disputing upon doctrinal differences, and attempting to prescribe thoughts and doctrine for other people according to fixed standards, it would have Newchurchmen realize that "the best way to proclaim the truth is to live it; and in this connection it was suggested that few come into the Church through the mere didactic preaching of the Doctrines. In short, the Address deprecated our tendency to attach too great importance to our own standards and wry of applying the truth, and to the organizations which we have established. In conclusion: "We New Church people of today have a very superficial grasp on the great principles which the Divine Father has permitted to come within our reach in the Writings of the New Church. We are barely skimming along the surface of the verities of the New Jerusalem." What I personally liked about the address, apart from the indefiniteness of credal standards advocated, was its strong presentation of the littleness of man's efforts and prudence contrasted with the infinity of the Divine Providence, and the lesson of humility and patience which was strongly urged. But as a whole it impressed me as to be classed with the many efforts we meet, to exalt life at the expense of doctrine, though doubtless the writer would disclaim this plain putting of the position.

     In introducing the discussion of the paper the President, while appreciating the merits of the same, referred to the risk we might incur, of having no standard of truth at all if we followed to closely the line of thought indicated.-

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Mr. Voorman sustained the address; our standards change; what we see today we shall not see tomorrow; our Church a part of the greater church around us, which includes all the great minds which have contributed to the progress of the age. In some way the speaker seemed to claim Shakespeare among other great minds, as a result of the new Dispensation, but if he established the connection I failed to catch it.-Mr. Callan, while complimenting the address, complained that in its suggestions for our guidance it did not point us to anything outside our personality or of the line of individual regeneration. Mr. Callan, as I understood him, is one of those who believe that it is greater and nobler to go forth and battle with the evils of the world than to center our thoughts on our own evils and their removal.--Mr. Roeder spoke of a good side in us all which will be saved and a had side which will be condemned and lost. Our little ecclesiasticism represents only one-seventh of the grand work that is being done by the Churches. He hailed the trend of the address as pointing to a relief from the burden of responsibility which we assume in taking upon us to set up standards for other people.-Mr. Tafel thought that we should take care to retain standards of right and wrong, a necessity which was not distinctly recognized in the address. He extolled as having been anything but childish the great discussion on the Glorification, to which reference had been made.--Mr. Wright among other remarks testified to the achievements of those who have gone before us as not having been childish. The discussions of the past on baptism, degrees in the priesthood, etc., had been useful as leading up to our present understanding of the truth.-Mr. Warren queried whether, if the paper be correct, we need any revelation at all. He thought that, unless we have some standard to go by, In the present perverted condition of the human understanding we are pursuing an ignis fatuus in our search for truth. He paid a tribute to the great minds which had been engaged in the discussion on the Glorification, such as Noble and Clowes, and lamented that we have not such "infants" among us now.

     In conclusion Mr. Mann contented himself with saying in reply to his critics, that the address had spoken of the childish state as a very proper one in itself, and not as a cause for reproach, and he explained that he had not intended to condemn the more important part of the discussion of the Glorification.

     It may be well to interject here that later in the meeting Mr. Crownfield deprecated the practice of criticizing the annual address in open meeting immediately after its delivery, as derogating from the sphere of the worship of which it may be said to be a part, and from the dignity befitting the appointment and the occasion. After full discussion it was decided to replace the annual address by an annual sermon which naturally would debar controversy.

     On Wednesday morning, under Class II, on "Biblical and Doctrinal Study," Mr. Warren read a paper on "What Degrees are involved in the Human assumed, and whence taken?" in which the clear doctrine of the New Church was presented with the force and dignity of authority and knowledge.

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To a question on the subject of the limbus he admitted a doubt whether it is to be regarded as the inmost of the body or as the outmost of the soul,--that is, whether it is from the mother or from the father.

     The papers presented at the Council of Ministers must be either not more than fifteen minutes in length or else must be given in abstract. It is with some hesitancy,--in view of its incompleteness and other shortcomings,--that the following report of the outlines of some of the papers read before this year's meetings is presented; my excuse for offering it is than no such outline is furnished by the Council itself, when yet such deliberations are of interest and importance to the New Church, which it may be assumed and desires to keep in touch with the trend of doctrinal thought of the larger New Church bodies. If I fail to rightly represent any one it will be with no such intention, and with all the will in the world to make good the error if it he pointed out to me.

     Mr. Daniels read a paper in abstract on the question "Did that Human, or any degree or part of it, which was assumed by means of birth from the Virgin and life in the world, from any Proprium which was attached to, or a part of that Human which was from the Father?" We must await the publication of the full text of this paper before commenting on it.

     A very satisfactory paper was read by Dr. Wright on "Swedenborg's Translations of the Psalms," which called forth an interesting discussion on the subject of Swedenborg's renderings of the Word into Latin.--Mr. Tafel read extracts from a letter which he had received from the late Dr. S. H. Worcester, at the time of the controversy on Translating the Word, in which the writer had endorsed Mr. Tafel's position in favor of translating each Hebrew word by an English one, adopted as the unvarying equivalent or synonym, as contrasted with the practice of varying the English to meet changing requirements of the text. Unless my memory fails me Dr. Worcester held that the fact that Swedenborg used various Latin terms to translate the same Hebrew word is not to be taken as a guide in translating the Word, on the ground that it was not Swedenborg's mission to furnish such a standard; the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem is indeed from the Lord, but in its expression Swedenborg was left to act as of himself, in the exercise of such faculties and equipment as had been vouchsafed him.-Mr. Ager said that he had found no key to solve all the points of difficulty encountered in translating Swedenborg's renderings of the original. There are cases where several different translations are made of the same Hebrew term in as many lines. He mentioned that now and then Swedenborg seems to have been affected by the Swedish translation of the Word with which he had been familiarized from childhood.--Mr. Schreck suggested caution in giving explanations for the variations in Swedenborg's version He thought that it could be shown that various terms are needed in rendering the same term in different places--that no one expression is sufficient in all cases.

     In the afternoon Mr. Spiers read a paper on the "Expulsion from the Garden of Eden in its Relation to Human Development," which, however, I did not hear. I arrived in time to hear the latter part of a paper by Mr. W. L. Worcester on the question "Except for occasional Correction will the final State of the Hells be a State of Punishment or Suffering to their inhabitants?

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If so, How can it be reconciled with the Divine Love and Wisdom in Creating the Universe?"' This paper took the impregnable doctrinal position that those who come into hell by their choice and confirmation of a life of evil, remain there forever; such amendment as they have is no more than a degree of outward order secured and maintained by punishment and the fear of it. But herein the Divine Love and Mercy appear in the providing that character shall he essentially fixed after death, for thus true freedom is attained for the good, and for the evil a quasi freedom and the greatest amount of enjoyment compatible with the nature of their chosen life, at the same time that they saved from a worse fate, which is profanation. Thus Divine Love vouchsafes what we must believe in the case of every soul is a life which to him seems worth the living.

     In the ensuing discussion of these papers Mr. Hire inquired, What determines the fact that man's state cannot be changed?--Mr. Spencer called attention to the chapters on the Hells and on Vastation, in the Arcana (first volume), and cited number 967, which is to the effect that "unless evil could be removed by means of punishments, those in whom it exists must be kept in some hell to eternity." His rejoiner to the common explanation offered for such passages,--that Swedenborg then speaks only of vastations in the "lower earth" of the intermediate world,--was, that these statements occur where the hells are treated of as clearly distinguished from vastations. The well-known descriptions of the elevation of spirits from "the pit," were I think referred to.--Mr. Hardon took the remarkable stand, that though the Doctrines seem to teach the eternity of the hells he could not adapt his feelings to the teaching, although when pressed by Mr. Sewall he would not confess to repudiation of the Doctrine.-Mr. Tafel showed that those who were elevated from the pit were really in the lower earth, which in places is called hell, and were elevated at the Last Judgment. Among other things he denied that the devils and satans get worse, as one of the speakers had pictured; they remain stationary in evil.-Mr. Daniels could not reconcile eternal suffering with the Divine Love; he would rather not have been born if it had to be with the contingent possibility of being eternally wicked. Still he did not question that the Writings teach that hell is a fixed state; for otherwise there would logically be no stopping short of a final elevation of all created beings to the highest heaven. But he queried whether suffering would be eternal; might it not be that the final state of those in hell will sustain the same relation to the heavens that the natural mind of each angel does to his spiritual mind? for we know that with them the natural mind quiesces.--Mr. Schreck said that the philosophy of why the hells are eternal is the same that underlies the creation of men on earth instead of in heaven,-there must be a basis. The foundation determines the nature of the superstructure, which can never be changed.-Mr. Warren said that man reaches on this earth the lowest hell he can ever descend to. Would it be more difficult to prevent evil coming into the world than to terminate it after it has come into existence?

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It is no easier to reconcile perfect love with the existence of evil than with its eternal duration. Love stretches out to those who are in need; only those can be helped who suffer themselves to be helped.--Mr. Crownfield said that the explanation of the eternity of the hells and the fixedness of state there, is one with the cause of evil--the necessity of giving freedom to man.--Mr. Ager said that the question is one of growing importance to the Church; he thought that no adequate answer had yet been forthcoming. We ought to provide one. On his motion a Committee of Seven was appointed to consider in full the question of the finality of the hells, going thoroughly into its several phases, to report to some future meeting of the Council; the members appointed comprised Messrs. Ager, Worcester, Daniels, Warren, Stone, Tafel and Hite. These names are a guarantee that if the gentlemen represented are all impressed with the need voiced by Mr. Ager, an interesting and thorough ventilation of the subject will result. But it is a surprise to me to hear that the New Church is suffering for the lack of a theodicy in every way reasonable, satisfactory and comforting. Mr. Worcester's paper not only is based on teaching which is duplicated or supplemented on nearly every page of the Writings, but, as I recollect it, ably covers all the fundamentals involved. But of course there may be a great use in gathering together some of the more prominent and absolutely explicit statements of the Writings on the subject, and in confirming before the natural understanding the infinite Mercy and Justice of the Divine Providence.

     Mr. Cabell sent a paper, which was read by Mr. Sewall, on "The Power of the Word in Working Moral Reform," or, as given in the Messenger, its power "to inculcate Moral Lessons." The subject was instructively treated in the light of the discrimination that exists between the three degrees of power, internal, middle and ultimate, as represented by the terms, potentia, potestas and virtus; all three are present simultaneously in the Word, whereby is all power and saving efficacy, all working out of Divine Ends; as is especially exemplified in the Commandments.

     Mr. Dole read a paper on "The Creation of First Forms," in which he contrasted modern "evolution" with the principles which are involved in a true use of that term. He showed that though modern science makes all evolution continuous, the subject cannot he genuinely understood except from a knowledge of discreteness,--as between the spiritual and natural worlds--and of the Science of Correspondences, which interprets the relation of the two worlds. Such a true system would admit many of the facts of modern "Evolution" but would refute its principles and explain its facts, its problems and its achievements. A true Doctrine of First Forms depends upon three essentials,-1. A Personal Divine First Cause; 2. a universe created in three degrees; and 3. an efflux from the Divine into the universe though and according to those degrees, with a return to the First Cause, or God, completing the circle of life. The atmospheres were outlined in the paper, with their properties and potencies in creative processes. The laws of creation are still operating.

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The conclusion was, that the whole rests upon a true idea of God, without which a true idea of creation is impossible, and that while many things seem to favor the modern theory of evolution, that theory in itself is an appearance, which will not be made a truth until explained by the internal principles of a true science founded upon a true theology.

     Mr. Hay followed with a paper on "The Relation of the Theory of Evolution to New Church Philosophy," which displayed much conscientious study of the subject in its two-fold bearings, theological and scientific. He in part showed the opposition between evolution and "creationism," and presented a summary of Swedenborg's theory of creation. But though I took notes I would prefer to wait until the full text of this paper and also of Mr. Dole's are published before attempting to comment upon them.

     On Mr. Dole's paper Mr. Hite (on Thursday morning) commented, saying that the attempt to deal with the creation of first forms takes us beyond the region of science into that of metaphysics, but the paper seemed to be all effort to explain creation in terms of scientific conception and of common experience. The terms of common sense are inadequate to deal with creation in first principles. Swedenborg had to use the terms which he had, in the sense given them in scholastic philosophy. We need a new vocabulary and new conceptions in order to understand Swedenborg and expound his doctrines. Although Evolution properly belongs to science and not to philosophy, evolutionists are not always consistent, but do go outside their province and introduce philosophical theories.

     Mr. Daniels was in full sympathy with Mr. Hite's criticism, and thought it a mistake to enter upon the study of Swedenborg's science before metaphysical foundations have been well laid. He recognized in Mr. Dole's paper, however, an attempt to illuminate the subject by the method of eminent analogy. Mr. Mercer also pointed out a failure to clearly differentiate the two orders of influx, mediate and immediate.

     Mr. Sewall read a scholarly paper on "Progress in the Doctrine of Final Causes," which treated the external advance of metaphysical conceptions of the First Cause, along natural lines parallel with the spiritual concepts of Swedenborg, or at least as tending more and more to such a parallel. Thus materialism has had to give way to the recognition of a Supreme Intelligence, which again had to be supplemented by the conception of Will or Love, as being necessary to the doctrine of a Supreme End; by which doctrine alone can the universe be understood.

     Mr. Daniels read a paper on "Schopenhauer and Swedenborg," in which his analysis, though designed to be as appreciative as might be of the former philosopher. dismissed his pretensions by the statement that man cannot by his own unaided searching find God.

     Mr. Dole confirmed this by citing the case of a modern philosopher, a prominent educator (of Harvard, I believe), whose printed utterances had led Mr. Dole to think that he really had some knowledge of God, but who showed himself, upon private investigation, not to have risen above nature. The philosophical systems may educe facts which are true, but their very facts as they state them are false.

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Hell itself has its will and understanding, for this is seen throughout the universe, but only in the Divine Human, Who is Will and Understanding in their first principles, do we have an adequate origin for the universe. The world is not arriving at a knowledge of God, but there may be a use subserved by philosophy in preparing some to receive the truth in philosophical form, as Swedenborg gives it.

     Mr. Ager thought that the advance in the idea of the Human is as marked as any other evidence of progress in thought. The modern conception of the personality of God comes very near being somewhat equivalent to our conception of the Divine Human.

     Mr. Hite said that this is the direction in which we are moving. In order to take our place in the world and take our part in the progress, we must make ourselves masters of the philosophical thought of the times.

     In the afternoon Mr. Vrooman read a paper on "Co-operation versus Competition," in which he took the position that competition is inimical in character and opposed to the spirit of the New Church, while co-operation is fraternal and expressive of charity.

     Mr. Mayhew took exceptions to the generalizations of the paper as being too broad. Competition is not necessarily from hell, as where it breaks down monopoly.-Mr. Hardon also objected to the statement that all competition is from hell. The great object of true social and economic conditions is to see that each individual shall have what belongs to him.-Mr. Roeder referred to the struggle for existence as divisible into natural and artificial; competition is artificial. The struggle with natural conditions on the other hand is inevitable and providentially designed to develop man's faculties, and this may enter into co-operative methods.--Mr. Vrooman specified that it is the spirit of competition which is from hell.-Mr. Whitehead referred to the competition described in the games of the young who are being educated on the confines of heaven. There is a true love of excelling which is from heaven. The evils which accompany competitive systems are internal and cannot be gotten rid of by modifying external forms.-Mr. Seward said that nothing from hell can do us any harm unless we give way to it. Competition is what we make it.--Mr. Crownfield thought that it was all a question of the animus that men put into their business. Co-operation may take the evil form which is called "conspiracy."

     Mr. Spiers read a paper on "Marriage in its Sociological Relations," which dealt with marriage in its social and civil as well as in its spiritual aspects, and he concluded that it is the duty of the state to provide the needy with the means of earning bread so that its foundations may not be weakened by men being deterred from marriage by stern necessity; while it is the duty of the Church to use its influence to exalt marriage above its natural aspects, and to unfold its spiritual quality and uses.--Mr. Dole commented upon the paper favorably.

     Mr. Landenberger contributed a paper on "What shall the Missionary Preach?" He must preach that the Heavenly Doctrines are the Lord's truths, but his position is peculiar; the pastor preaches to those who understand the basis on which he preaches, while the missionary often deals with those who are ignorant and even opposed.

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His message must be burning; it will strike terror before nod behind as it comes to those who are in ignorance and falsities and evils. Therefore he must have discretion, valor, justice and judgment. The paper counseled a different course for the missionary preaching in an orthodox pulpit from that which may be followed when preaching independently, as in a hall: he should not take advantage of his position to crowd Swedenborg down people's throats but should use the term "New Jerusalem" rather than thrusting Swedenborg to the fore. When preaching in a hall he should preach more plainly, that the Doctrines are the Lord's.

     Mr. Frost gave an outline of a method of evangelizing which he had been following with success; he assumed that we ought to begin where Swedenborg left off; he began with natural science and ended with spiritual science. He first circulated cards by means of friends, announcing lecture or "talk." At the "talk" he started with Swedenborg's natural life and uses, exhibited copies of Swedenborg's scientific and other works in the original editions; showed how he ended his scientific work with the Worship and Love of God; described the intermediate works, Index Biblicus, and Adversaria, showed specimens of the Arcana, told how it was published by Swedenborg at his own expense, the proceeds being given to the propagation of the Gospel; summarized Swedenborg's mission as having been "devotion to the better understanding of the Bible and a better Christian life;"--he went below the surface of the Bible, even as men go now
under the surface of the ground. His chief tool was, the science of correspondences. The speaker then would distribute copies of the Heavenly Doctrine, John Worcester's New-Church Catalogue, and other material. This objective presentation he had found never failed to produce a profound impression, instances being given, in the localities where he had labored. He exhorted his brother ministers to imitate his example, and prepare lectures on Swedenborg.

     Much interest was excited by this account, Messrs. Taylor, Crownfield, Faraday, Gustafson, Hinkley and Schliffer responding. Mr. Taylor spoke with true evangelistic zeal; but asked what we are going to present to the world? Have we anything new? Are we going to cater to the thoughts of a Church that is gone to pieces simply because they are not really to welcome the New? We have been afraid of bringing into prominence the distinctiveness of the New Church; but we have never met with real success except from the straight-from-the-shoulder preaching.-Mr. Crownfield referred to the three places in the True Christian Religion which speak of the evangelization of the twelve Apostles to the whole Spiritual World,--including the Heavens,--the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sole God of Heaven and the Church. That Doctrine is the distinctive New-Church Gospel.--Mr. Faraday said that experience showed that the world is not ripe for that universal spread of the new Gospel for which we look, although there has been sufficient opportunity; and the conclusion is forced that our first duty is to strengthen the centers we already have, and that it is from these that the New-Church influence is to grow and extend.-

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Mr. Gustafson laid stress on following up the pulpit ministrations by going into the homes and teaching in the quiet sphere and freedom of the household.-Mr. Hinkley cautioned against confining the view of missionary work by endorsing any one method as exclusive of others, citing Mr. Giles in support. He preached to the people what he at the time felt the people needed, not to them as Old Church people but as the Lord's people.

     This includes the greater part of what would be likely to interest readers of the Life so far as I am able to present it. There was considerable discussion on making the Psalter edition of the Book of Worship form Convention Book of Worship, and on adopting, with certain modifications, this order as the uniform order of worship for Convention bodies; but this, together with the question of printing the Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church from the True Christian Religion as a preface to the Book of Worship, was referred to the Committee on Liturgy Revision. A motion was adopted giving the sense of the meeting that the date of Convention should be further away from Decoration Day, on account of the engagements of many of the ministers in connection with that event.

     The officers elected for the ensuing year are: President, Rev. James Reed; Secretary, Rev. H. C. Hay; for the annual sermon, Rev. S. C. Eby, with the Rev. L. H. Tafel as alternate.

     The hospitality of the New York Society (Rev. J. K. Smyth, pastor) to ministers and guests, provided opportunity for very pleasant social converse at the collations served on Wednesday and Thursday at the Park Avenue Hotel, and at the reception given Wednesday evening, at the residence of Mr. C. S. Holmes on West Forty-sixth street, where a feature of special entertainment was the violoncello playing by Messrs. Smyth and Hoeck, to Miss Holmes's accompaniment, from music adapted by Mr. Smyth. GEORGE G. STARKEY.
VISITORS' IMPRESSIONS OF CONVENTION MEETINGS 1901

VISITORS' IMPRESSIONS OF CONVENTION MEETINGS       N       1901

DEAR MR. EDITOR:-

     You ask a difficult thing when you ask for our impression; of the Convention, because it is always pleasant to agree entirely with those who are cordial to one and show good-will toward what one loves; and yet we should ill deserve such cordiality and good-will if we were not sincere; and since we feel their sincerity in their good-will, we will trust them to see our good-will in our sincerity. Also we should ill deserve the privilege of the great lessons of our Alma Mater if we allowed personal considerations to influence us for or against an organization of the Church.

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We are more than ever convinced of the innate necessity for distinctiveness; because they do not want their organization to be like ours and we do not want ours to be like theirs.

     Another reason why it is hard to give our impressions is because they are complex. It is not just to take a part without the whole; almost everything one could say has to be qualified by something else. The people of Convention seem so different from each other that one cannot make a sweeping statement about them all, except this; in general the difference between the General Church and the Convention as a body, is the difference between the full acceptance of the Writings and the partial acceptance of them.

     One cannot speak but from one's own standpoint; these are the impressions of Academy girls born and tried, Academy girls of their own right and freedom. If we be narrow we shall learn better in the only Church that teaches the Absolute Authority; for what is broader than Divine Truth? What more charitable and loving? What more free?

     It was delightful to be on the common meeting ground of the Swedenborg Scientific Association; it is there we can vent all our enthusiasm for Swedenborg the man, the giant; there is where the men of the two bodies show their good-will for each other. It was for this occasion that we went to New York; but we accepted the kind invitation of one of our members in Brooklyn to stay over to the Convention.

     The theory of Creation, as given in The Worship and Love of God, was one thing discussed; our delegation was divided on the subject; there is much more for the Principia Club to do next winter. The quotation was made from the work mentioned, that the first woman was created on "a neighboring apple tree;" it is interesting in this connection to look up the etymo1ogy of the word "apple." I do not think that any of the ladies objected to the statement, for since we are told to take the wisdom of a man on these subjects, why not take the wisdom of the knightliest and humblest of men, who is now living with his wife in the wisest and knightliest and humblest of Heavens?

     The leaders think the progress of the S. S. A. very encouraging. Still more work might be done and more appreciation might be shown for the work already done; we wonder why more people of Convention did not show an interest, but we are reminded that not all our own people see the "new vision." One of the leaders of the Association says that it is the "consecrated imagination" that one needs, to see it.--but enough of that.

     It was with great interest that we attended the meetings of the Ministers' Conference, the Sunday School Association, the League of Young People and the Convention itself, to hear and see the people of whom we had heard and read so much. There was much individual expression of belief in the Authority, but it was not the leading topic; there was much personal expression of good-will toward the General Church. I have said that there are different classes of people in Convention; there are those who love the Authority and think well of the Academy; there are those who say that the Academy is the heart of the Church nod look to the Life as to a teacher; there are those who see no difference between the two bodies; there are those who love the Church in an uninquiring way; those who call us brave; those who call us narrow; those who are worldly and magnanimous, and not fewest those who are not aware of us.

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     There is great diversity of opinion amongst the ministers. They do not discuss their differences much, however; most of the time is taken up by the reading of papers; one feels the lack of doctrinal discussion, especially the talks that would seem naturally to follow the reading of a strong paper, the free expression of differences, and the harmonious adjustment of them that comes with the clear putting of universal truths from the leaders. Their ideas of freedom are not like ours; one misses the simplicity, the strength and enthusiasm and unity that comes from an undivided acceptance of the Word of God as given in the Writings; one misses the sphere of conviction--"thus saith the Lord, by the pen of his servant! look and see for yourselves." True there was much individual expression of belief in the Authority, but it was not always stated authoritatively and instructively. It must be remembered that their body is not intended to be like ours; it is a democratic organization, composed of men who differ greatly but work together. I suppose that this is the reason that the sphere is not so strong;--perhaps if the sphere were stronger the ladies and young people would show more interest. The ministers differ so from each other; one gentleman could not reconcile the Divine Love with the eternity of the hells; another showed beautifully that the Divine Mercy is the cause of their eternity;--still this truth was made more beautiful than absolute.

     One lovely thing, the presence of so many old people, was noticeable. It was beautiful to see a white haired man, venerable and revered, teaching about the Glorification. But they are so different, so very different from each other. One young minister talked as if Shakespeare were a result of the New Church!

     There was much that was "sound," but there was nor much appreciation of it (they do not like our good old word); there was much that was fine, but it all seemed to stop short of something,--to stop short of the keynote.

     It is hard to say that one is disappointed when one remembers the cordiality and kindliness, but we could not help being impressed in the Sunday School Association by the lack of anything vital to New Church education; it is sad to think if all the little ones who,--as indeed one speaker testified-receive only half an hour a week of that which most concerns their eternal welfare. True the speaker was applauded, but the subject was changed.

     The meetings of the League of New Church Young People were well attended. The league has been of great use in bringing the young people together, and in bringing them to Convention. Young and old are very proud of the League, and are happy to have so many young people there; but many who attended the meetings of the League did not attend the other meetings. There isn't the idea of a Church Festival about their annual gatherings, as in ours; the Convention is mostly for transaction of business.

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However, there was much that one would think would be of interest to young people. The tributes to Mr. Dewson and Mr. Colton were inspiring; the Swedish affair was interesting as was also the talk about having more news in the Messenger, and other things.

     We wondered at first why the young people should go off up the river during the first sessions of Convention, but it seemed to be of more real value to them to be together, and to become acquainted with members of the league from the various places. At any rate, the trip was charming; some of us accepted the kind invitation to be of the party. Many older people were aboard; their cordiality, and that of the young people, was much appreciated by the strangers; the reception committee deserved the compliments it received.

     In one of the League Meetings a speaker said that one of the happiest incidents in the past year had been a message of friendliness from an Old Church religious organization of young people (believe me, the League has more to be thankful for than that). We felt a deep sympathy for those young people of the League who are trying to provide for themselves that which we have had so bountifully provided for us from the cradle. Many of them have never even heard of the Academy. Just think! They do not know that there is a body that teaches the Absolute Authority, and educates its children in the Church, and keeps separate from the social life of the Old; many who have heard have forgotten.

     It is said that one of their members who once met some of the Academy people remarked that they all liked to talk about the Church, even the girls. There are those in the Convention also who like to talk about the real things of the Church, even the girls,--or all would have been lost long ago in the broad shallows of tolerance,--tolerance for that which the Writings condemn. There was one sermon preached which did not teach a single thing that one could not get easily outside the Church; there was another sermon, however, which taught the Truth for the Truth's sake.

     Toward the end, in the last session, they began to discuss their raison d'etre (that which was the right and reason for the formation of the Academy twenty-five years ago),--they began to discuss whether Truth be Truth. Is God, God? and this under the ambiguous form of a resolution--"Were the Writings written by the Lord through Swedenborg, or did Swedenborg write them from the Lord?" One gentleman said that once on a visit to an Academy Church he had been pained at seeing the Writings in the Chancel. (Hic liber est Adventus Domini; scriptum ex mandato.) But it was given to a committee of five; there was no chance to take sides.

     We bade our friends good-bye a little sadly, I think, and turned back to Bryn Athyn; back Home,--back to the mothers and elder sisters who let us go for a little while,--back to the sweet and lovely sphere of the women who left kindred and friends and what the world loves, for the joy of the New Truth and its peace, and for the sake of the younger generation, that rises up to call them blessed. N.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

     THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     Huntingdon Valley (Bryn Athyn), Pa.--The Rev. and Mrs. Arthur Faraday, of England, visited their old friends here, Rev. and Mrs. Potts, for a few days on their way to the Convention in New York. We all had the pleasure of meeting them on May 24th at the last Friday Supper of the season. Instead of the usual Doctrinal Class we were much interested in hearing Mr. Faraday talk of the Church in England and his work there.

     On the 27th Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton invited to their wedding anniversary all the young folk of the Academy, and nobody else! It is said that the Academy boys and girls arranged the supper and program, and carried it all through themselves. I hear from one source that our little women did their part gracefully and graciously, and from another source that our little men "did fine,"--toastmaster and speech-makers.

     We had one extra Principia Club meeting this month to hear a paper by Mr. Alfred Stroh, "The Relation of Modern Science to Swedenborg's principles of Nature, especially his doctrine of Fire."

     It brought us right to the Science of Swedenborg; heretofore it has been more of philosophy, and although the philosophy is more easily grasped by the unscientific, there was much that anybody could understand. I understand that at least an abstract of it will be published soon.

     When the friends came back from the Swedenborg Scientific Association and Convention we all assembled at the Club House Thursday evening, June 6th, to hear about it. Much interest was manifested in the various accounts and opinions expressed.

     The schools closed on June 14th; there were no graduations, but this is said to have been the best year of school work since the move to the country. Some of the scholars stayed over for the District Assembly. It is hard every June to part with the young people to whom we have become attached during the year, but we all look forward to having them with us again.

     Willow Grove parties are a feature of Bryn Athyn life in summer. Sousa has been there and Damrosch is there now. Are we not fortunate to be only four miles across country from such a delightful place? The influence on the musical taste of the community is apparent.



     The Local School closing, which our correspondent has not mentioned, was rather especially enjoyable this year. There was a somewhat "old-fashioned" but interesting program, of composition, recitations and school songs. This was followed by honorable mention of some of the pupils and words of warm commendation from the Pastor to the whole school; in his remarks the quality of Mr. Cowley's work received most appreciative testimony; for the last eight weeks he had taken the place of the sick Head Master and so had had opportunity of judging of the work done. The work of the other teachers also was not forgotten, especially that of Miss Zella Pendleton, who had proved valuable as a substitute during Miss Grant's absence, and later during Miss Lucy Potts's shorter one. The awarding of prizes for conduct and scholarship was followed with closest attention by old and young alike, and aroused enthusiasm. Then in honor of the national occasion ("Flag Day") the school sang "The Star Spangled Banner," and then filed out of doors, to patriotic music and waving flags, and there we witnessed a short drill and listened to a military salute to the flag.

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     On July 1st ground was broker for the projected Girls' Dormitory which is under contract to be ready by October.

     The passing away of Miss Plummer, our hymnist and writer, just before the "19th," gave to that festival a touch of tenderness and of "other-worldliness" which was noted by all, and especially felt and appreciated by her nearer friends,--not a few in number. As soon as practicable some account will be given of the Memorial Meeting which closed the day's exercises, at which were presented many interesting features of our friend's life and character, both of which exhibited strong individuality, but especially an all-pervading and unusual love for the Church. G. G. S.

     Philadelphia.-The past two months have seen considerable activity among us. On April 18 we had a church social at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Good. The attendance was smaller than could be wished for, but, thanks to our hostess, this did not prevent those present from enjoying themselves. There were games, music and dancing. An amusing feature of the evening was the selection of partners for conversation on a, given subject for a period of several minutes; then partners were changed and another topic given, so continuing until the Weather, Music, Books and Politics had been thoroughly discussed; not to mention the recitation of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes. The interesting feature with which the game is supposed to end--voting--the ladies for the least entertaining gentlemen, and vice versa--was, by common consent, dispensed with.

     Some notice ought to be made of a children's birthday party, which was given here some time ago, the occasion was so bright and charming. Eight children met in the afternoon, at Mr. Knudsen's residence to celebrate Charlie Knudsen's eighth birthday. One of the eldest girls was given charge of the games, which included Pinning on the Chinaman's queue,--for which a prize was given; passing the ring; hunting the button, etc. Tea was served, and a blessing was said in unison. From bon-bons placed at each plate out came comical caps, the little company looking very pretty in the various styles. Tea finished--which with little ones soon comes to pass--all marched to the tones of the piano, carrying small flags and singing "Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," and other patriotic songs; after which followed "knocking the peanut bag," and games. Then came recitations and dances, the girls showing exceptional talent and skill. There was delightful harmony throughout, the influence of Church and family training being plainly noticeable.

     The last social of the season was given last month at Mr. Roehner's house, and in point of numbers, as well as in the entertainment provided, was decidedly successful. The program included music, singing, dancing and a recitation. During the course of the evening Mr. Cronlund said he would like to read selections from the classics at our socials, from time to time, in the hope of furnishing some instructive entertainment. He pointed to the fact that these classical writings contain natural truths which have been handed down from ancient times. For that evening he had chosen a chapter from Cicero on "Virtue as the source of all Happiness," which proved to be very interesting.

     We have recently enjoyed two visits from Pastor Synnestvedt, of Bryn Athyn. On June 2d he reached a most instructive sermon on Conjugial Love as applied to the thought and life of each individual.

     Last Sunday (June 9th) Rev. Mr. Acton administered the Holy Supper to our congregation. The discourse preceding the sacrament dwelt on the spiritual aspect of our Lord's betrayal by Judas Iscariot.

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In the afternoon of the same day we had a picnic at Willow Grove Park.

     A quarterly meeting of the Society was held on May 26th, after services, to conclude the business for the year. A communication from the proprietor of the hall in which we worship, allowing us the use of the hall for social purposes four nights during nest year, without extra charge, was received with a vote of thanks. The matter of finding a suitable name for the society, which had before been discussed, was again presented, in order to keep it before the members, and have one chosen by the time me are ready to be organized into a society of the General Church by the Bishop. "The Society of the Advent" seems to be the most desirable name offered so far. It was decided to follow the past few years' custom, and suspend services during the summer months, i. e., from June 16th to September 1st. This does not, however, apply to the young folks class, which Mr. Cronlund has consented to continue all summer, at the request of the members of the class. C. H. E., June 16, 1901.

     Baltimore, Md.--On February 28th, last, the Baltimore New Church Reading and Social Circle, which was called into existence over a year and a hall ago, was honored by a visit from Bishop Pendleton, and the question of regular pastoral visits from the General Church of the New Jerusalem was considered, though no definite action was taken. At the nest regular meeting, March 7th, it was resolved to invite the Rev. Emil Cronlund (suggested by Bishop Pendleton), and application was made to the Bishop for the privilege of such visits and ministration. This was cheerfully granted, and accordingly the first Sundry services under the auspices of the General Church of the New Jerusalem were held in this city on Sunday, March 24th, at the home of Mr. Peter Knapp. The attendance was twenty-two, and all enjoyed the meeting very much.

     On the next evening Mr. Cronlund presided at our Circle meeting, which had been postponed from the third Thursday of the month, and instructed us in the Doctrine of Faith. A vote of thanks was tendered to him for his useful visit, and he was requested to visit us and conduct services once a month, on the Sunday after the third Thursday of each month, an invitation which he accepted with expressions of pleasure. We have rented a hall at the southwest corner of Gap and Baltimore streets, for one Sunday of each month, for a year. Our trust is in the Lord, and our prayer that He will prosper His Church among us.

     Since the foregoing was written (which was April 16th) the Circle has held services regularly once a month in the I. O. M. Hall, on April 21st, May 19th, and June 16th, Mr. Cronlund officiating and also presiding at the Circle meetings on the Monday evenings immediately following.

     On Sunday, June 2d, the Circle received the Holy Supper from the Rev. Carl Th. Odhner, who also preached on The Last Judgment and its effect in the Natural World. (Exod. iii., 22.) Mr. Odhner came especially to perform the marriage service for Mr. Emil Gunther, now of Harrisburg, and Miss Kate Diener, of Baltimore. It may be of interest, as it is a pleasure to us, to state that Mr. Odhner is now a corresponding member of the Circle, having been elected June 3d.
PETER KNAFF, Sec'y.

     Pittsburg, Pa.--Oar school closing took place last Friday afternoon, June 14th. It was the most interesting occasion of the kind we have had, and the exercises were very much enjoyed by quite a number of the parents and friends. Mr. Brown read a letter from Mr. Bostock to the children, expressing his great regret at being unable to be with them, and his wishes that they might have a happy vacation, and that the two whose last year at the school this has been may continue the good work which they have been doing here, in the Seminary and at Bryn Athyn, which they hope to attend next Fall.

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The children then read some compositions and gave some recitations, after which they presented the little play. "The Queen of the Land of Nod," In a very creditable manner indeed. On the evening of June 11th the Scientific Club held a meeting, to which the ladies were invited and at which Mr. Kintner read an interesting paper on the "Laws of Pennsylvania."

     During the past month we have had two enjoyable surprise parties, one at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Kintner and the other at Mr. and Mrs. Schoenberger's, in honor of Miss Anna Schoenberger and Mr. Walter Brickman.     

     Our Nineteenth of June celebration was quite a success. We had a very nice service in the morning at half-past ten, conducted by Mr. Brown. The only drawback was the very small representation of men present, most of them being less to say there was a very full representation at the supper in the evening, and all present had. I think, a very enjoyable time. After the substantials were disposed of several toasts were drunk, responded to by Mr. Brown, Mr. Macbeth, Mr. Lindsay and Mr. Brickman, the last-named responding to the toast, "The Church Universal." A final toast was in memory of Miss Plummer, of whose entrance into the spiritual world we had heard just when about to sit down to table. The evening ended with the usual of recreations.     C. R.

     GLENVIEW LETTER.

     My Dear "Life":--On May 25th Mrs. Paul Synnestvedt and Mrs. David Klein gave a Flower Social at the Glenview Club house, to which all were invited. Each guest few wore his favorite flower, when it was possible, and a quotation concerning it. The dandelion came in for its share of good-natured abuse, and the graham flour, and the bean, found admirers with apt verses. Sentiments on a great variety of flowers were read. The decorations consisted in a shower of nearly seven hundred roses which covered the ceiling; screens of red and white poppies which hid the blackboards; huge bunches of lilac and honeysuckle, and a screen of yellow and white chrysanthemums (the roses and chrysanthemums, of paper) made the piano a riot of color. This instrument was placed with its back to the company and the top was covered with numerous vases of flowers, behind which was a screen of violets and poppies. There were long white curtains at the windows, and these, with many small stands placed at irregular intervals and surrounded by chairs, surrounding them, and a center table with its parlor lamp and accompanying rocker, made the poem quite cozy and cheerful.

     The first part of the program included the reading of quotations; singing by a chorus of fourteen; reading of Riley's poem, "The Clover," to the accompaniment of piano music; a violin solo, and a vocal duet.

     The second part of the program consisted of charades, about twenty in all, intermingled with songs sung by the company. The "cat tail," "tulip," "red poppy," "Sweet William" and "golden rod" mere very simple; but "burdock," "son flour," "tea rose" and "columbine" taxed the ingenuity quite a little.

     Ned Maynard and Mr. William Junge then gave a farce consisting of puns on the names of the commonest flowers. The two actors were dressed as Jester and King, respectively, and did the short scene with great spirit.

     After a few dances the guests departed, leaving the loveliest sight of the evening to be witnessed by the few who were to "clear up." The wires overhead were shaken lightly and the shower of roses was an actuality.

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     The celebration of June 19th began with the Communion service the evening before. There were in all sixty-two communicants, as this was a union service, and the city church was well represented. There was a change in the service, in that Pastor Pendleton passed the bread and wine instead of having the partakers come to the chancel as heretofore.

"June the 19th, day of days,
We'll forget thee, never.
From our hearts we'll sing thy
     praise,
June 19th, forever!"

     Wednesday at 10:30 A. M. the Glenview Club house was filled with members, the congregation numbering about eighty-five, nearly fifty being children. The singing of the 19th Psalm; the responses repeated by the children; their singing of two songs from the Hosanna, and Mr. Pendleton's address to the children made the occasion a happy one. Mr. Pendleton said among other things that the children should never forget the three great days, Christmas,--to honor the Lord; June 19th,--to honor the Church, and July 4th,--to honor their country.

     Father Ferret, whom we have not seen in Glenview for a very long time, was able to attend all the services, and everyone was more than pleased to have him with us.

     The banquet set for 5:30 o'clock was delayed because of the number of guests. The hall was decorated with peonies and syringa blossoms; a great flag fringed with leaves of the black locust was hung over the ceiling, and each of the six long tables, presided over by a special host and hostess, was decorated with great jars of flowers. The very salad was ornamental, the cake and candies were red and white and the Academy flags emphasized the color scheme. Six of our young girls and boys waited on the tables. Among the visitors were Father Forrest, Mrs. Bellinger, Miss Amena Pendleton, Mrs. Wallenberg and Miss Emily Wallenberg.

     Mr. Pendleton was toastmaster, and in announcing the toast to the "Nineteenth" he said among other things: "Today we celebrate the institution of the Church, in the spiritual world, not its foundation in the natural world. But beside this spiritual significance there is a special sphere with us. A thousand pleasant memories throw a halo over the past and make the inspiration for the future. The very essence of the New Church is felt on this occasion, as if the Lord drew nearer. The day should be sacred and holy, but it should also be glad and festive."

     The second toast was responded to by Rev. Andrew Czerny, "Hold fast that which we have." After speaking of the unique character of June the Nineteenth, Mr. Czerny said that there was great danger of losing what we have because of the states of indifference into which man is liable to fall. After this toast we sang a new song, written for the occasion:

"Hold to the Church that comes
From heaven above.
Hold to our glorious faith,
Pledge it our love.
Hold fast each brother's hand,
Banish unrest!
In the Church, in the Church
We shall be blessed."

     The third toast, responded to by Mr. Seymour Nelson on "The True Valuation of Spiritual Instruction in the Church," brought forth some interesting thoughts.

     "The mission of the Church is the salvation of souls. In order that man may be saved he must renounce the loves of self and the world into which he has been born and admit in their stead the loves of the Lord and the neighbor into his soul. This he is unable to do from his own intelligence, but requires teaching and leading outside of himself; and there the Lord makes use of the Church." Mr. Nelson spoke of the attitude of the layman of the Church towards spiritual instruction given by the Priest. "Do we place the true valuation on spiritual instruction! Do we exalt it high enough?

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For we cannot place it too high."

     Mr. Junge responded to the fourth toast with great spirit: "Show me my part that I may do it." There is an esprit du corps with New Church people which differs from patriotism. Our people ought to be most loyal because of the wealth of truths in the doctrines. The uses of the New Church are so manifold that each one has something to do."

     "The Church as a refuge and strength" was the toast assigned to Mr. Maynard. "Individuals are a church only so far as they make the truths a part of their lives by affectionate living."

     Dr. Farrington spoke on "Conjugial Love." "May the gold of the wedding ring never have an alloy." "The wedding ring holds in its tiny compass the happiness of the human race, temporal and eternal."

     The toast to "The Academy" was responded to by Mr. Burnham, and all sang, "Our Own Academy." This ended the formal speeches. Mr. Nelson proposed a toast "To those in the spiritual world." We all joined heartily in the toast to "Father Forrest," who asked Mr. Pendleton to answer for him, and then made a very few remarks himself. He spoke of the pleasure it was for him to be present, though he feared it was the last time he would be able to come. He said the day had done him much good. "Maybe it has made a new man of me. I may grow Younger now." Mr. John Forrest then proposed a toast to our pastor, and shortly afterward the company broke up. Everyone entered into this celebration as fully as he could, for each one felt that, in view of the fact that assemblies are to be held to include the "19th," this might be the last one the Immanuel Church could hold together. This may have been one reason that the celebration was so complete a success.

     Berlin, Can.-The chief events for the month in this centre have of course been the Nineteenth, and with it at the same time the advent of the summer vacation and school closing.

     Services commemorative of the Nineteenth of June were held on the Sunday previous. Rev. Mr. Stebbing assisted the Pastor, Mr. Waelchli. The service was very impressive and delightful, the large attendance no doubt helping to make it more so. In the afternoon of the same day the Holy Supper was administered, Mr. Waelchli officiating.

     On Tuesday evening, June 18th, were held the school closing exercises. That the children enjoyed it, with ice cream to wind up with, and vacation at hand, can be taken for granted. It was, however, also enjoyed by the adult members, most of whom were present. After the singing of several hymns and repeating the Commandments in Hebrew, Mr. Stebbing addressed the pupils on the subject of mutual love, making plain what they ought to carry out during the coming vacation. The Pastor also spoke on the same subject in language suitable to their understanding.

     After the closing the audience turned their chairs about and enjoyed a play given by the children. The Play was taken from the story, "Little Men," by Louisa Alcott, and was very well and intelligently rendered, reflecting much credit on Miss Annie Moir in the time and trouble she took to bring it to such a standard. After the play followed ice cream, and into this enjoyment those who will form the next A, B, C class entered heartily.

     On the evening of the Nineteenth a banquet was held, about seventy members being present. A particularly festive sphere seems to prevail on this day. There was no exception on this occasion. Several toasts were prepared. To the first, "The Church," all sang "Our Glorious Church." "The Blessings we enjoy in the Church" was responded to by Mr. Theo. Kuhl, who spoke of the revealing of the internal Sense of the Word as the greatest blessing, and that through this we enjoyed all other blessings and could put a true and internal affection into the things and uses of our lives on all planes.

392




     The next toast, "Loyalty to the Church," was responded to by Mr. Richard Roschman, who spying the red and white flag close by pointed to the same and said: "That is what we should be loyal to,-- the Good and the Truth; and he referred to loyalty to the priesthood, and the necessity for loyalty in our lives, and for every one to do the various duties and uses in the Church."

     The next toast was proposed to the "Academy," the Pastor expressing his pleasure in proposing this toast today, this being the 25th anniversary of the Academy,--its silver jubilee. All rose to sing "Vive L'Academie." Mr. Rudolf Roschman, responding, spoke of that zeal and enthusiasm for the Church which were in the earlier days of the Academy, and said this was probably due largely to the fight necessary in defense of Doctrine, an illustration of which is seen when a nation is at mar, when loyalty and enthusiasm are aroused and ultimate themselves be alluded to the reasons why the Academy first came into existence, and to its mission, concluding by proposing the song, "Our Own Academy, which was heartily responded to.

     The Pastor then read a message of greetings from Bryn Athyn in response to a similar message to the friends there from the Carmel Church. This called forth a toast to the friends at Bryn Athyn with "Hoch Sollen sie Leben." A n toast to the ladies in charge of the supper concluded this part of the program.

     After clearing the tables dancing was indulged in chiefly by the young people.     T. S. K.
SUMMER ADDRESSES 1901

SUMMER ADDRESSES              1901

     After July 1st, and until the last of September, the address of the Rev. W. F. Pendleton will be Wildwood, N.J.

     During August and September the address of Rev. Geo. G. Starkey will be Wildwood, N. J.
JOURNAL OF THE FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING 1901

JOURNAL OF THE FIFTH ANNUAL MEETING       Various       1901

Of the Council of the Clergy of the
General Church of the New Jerusalem,
HELD AT
BRYN ATHYN, PA.,
FROM TUESDAY, JUNE 25TH, UNTIL FRIDAY, JUNE 28TH, 1901

TUESDAY MORNING, June 25th.*
     * Of the private sessions of the Council, only such Minutes as are of general interest are published in this Journal.

     1. The meeting was opened with worship, conducted by Bishop Pendleton.

     2. The following members of the Council were present:
Bishop Pendleton.
Pastors Bowers, Czerny, Price, Odhner, Waelchli, Pendleton, Synnestvedt, Acton, Keep, and Doering.
Ministers Starkey, Cowley, Klein, Stebbing, Cronlund, and Brown.
Candidates Caldwell and Stroh.

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     3. The Bishop, after concluding the opening exercises, stated that though circumstances did not permit the holding of a General Assembly during the present year, yet it was held advisable to suffer no interruption of the annual meetings of the Council of the Clergy. The Executive Committee of the General Church had also assembled in annual session during the present day, and a joint meeting of the Council of the Clergy and of the Executive Committee would be held on Wednesday, June 26th.

     4. The reading of the Journal of the last annual meeting of the Council was dispensed with, as the minutes were very lengthy, and had not yet been properly condensed. The secretary stated that he would condense the minutes during the coming summer. Rev. H. Synnestvedt, Rev. A. Acton, and Rev. C. Th. Odhner were appointed a committee to pass upon the minutes, when completed.

     5. The following reports from the ministers of the General Church were read by the Secretary:

     REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.

     1. As Secretary of the General Church I have to report the publication of the Journal of the Fourth General Assembly, held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 17-21, 1900.

     2. The membership of the General Church numbers at present 578 persons, showing a net increase of 18 members over the membership reported in June, 1899. In all, 27 new members have been received since the last report, while, the other hand, 4 members have resigned, and 5 have passed into the spiritual world.

     3. The Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist has resigned from membership in the General Church.

     4. Candidate Reginald Brown was ordained into the first degree of the Priesthood, by Bishop Pendleton, on Oct. 21, 1900.

     5. The Clergy of the General Church at present numbers twenty ministers and two candidates.

     6. The following are the members who have been removed to the spiritual world:
Mr. Calvin Raymond, of Toronto, March 16, 1900.
Mr. Thomas White, of Toronto, May 4, 1900.
Mrs. George Ziegler, of Philadelphia, September 12, 1900.
Mr. Andrew Klein, of Bryn Athyn, May 7, 1901.
Miss Evelyn E. Plummer, of Bryn Athyn, June 18, 1901.

     June 24, 1991. C. Th. ODHNER.

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     SUMMARY REPORT OF REV. J. E. BOWERS,

For the year ending June 15, 1901.
Since the General Assembly, in June, 1900, the time employed in evangelistic work was eleven months. The results are shown in the following condensed statement:

Number of cities, towns and villages visited,                         89
Number of places visited twice,                                   40
Adult isolated New Church persons met,                              190
Individuals and families seen twice,                              70
Number of children in the families,                                   114
Isolated members of General Church visited,                         48
Sermons and lectures delivered,                                   56
Baptism administered: Adults, 4; children, 9,                         13
Administrations of the Holy Supper,                                   12
Applications for membership in General Church,                         12
Books sold, including 41 copies C. T. O.'s Swedenborg,               145
Communications written,                                         514
Number of miles traveled,--in Ontario and parts of eight States,          7,503
Amount received in contributions,                                    $373.50
Amount paid for traveling expenses,                                   110.75
Received from the General Church,                                   100.00

     REPORT OF REV. RICHARD DE CHARMS.

     My report of ministerial work for this year must be made along the same lines as that of last year. Regular services of worship each Lord's day have been held. The Festivals of the Lord's Birth and Resurrection have been observed. The Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered in connection with those festivals. I officiated at the baptism of an infant. There has been one death, that of an infant. There have been no marriages. The Doctrinal Class, meeting weekly, has been kept up. The True Christian Religion has been used as a text-book for study. The forms of worship and methods of study and work have been the same as explained in previous reports.
Denver, Col., May 28, 1901.     RICHARD DE CHARMS.

     REPORT OF REV. E. C. BOSTOCK.

     On account of my continued illness, Mr. Reginald Brown was invited to become my assistant in September, 1900, and since that time he has been engaged in both school and church work; in fact, he has done the greater part of the work. In October, 1900, he was ordained into the first degree of the Priesthood by Bishop Pendleton.

     Of the four teachers in the school, two are employed all the time. One, Miss Cora Rott, gives drawing instruction twice a week, as a contribution to the school-use, and the fourth, Miss Olive Bostock, gave her services to make up in some measure for my forced absence.

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     Two of the children baptized were not in our Society, but one of them has since come under the influence of the Society, and is enrolled in the school.

     During the year I dedicated the house of Mr. Wm. Norris, of Aspinwall.

     Pittsburg, Pa., June 1st, 1901. EDW. C. BOSTOCK.

     REPORT OF REV. ANDREW CZERNY.

     During the past year I continued to work in the Humboldt Park Parish of the Chicago Society. The monthly services for the Germans were kept up, as also the work among the young people of the parish in the same was as reported last year.

     During the past year I administered the Holy Supper three times, officiated at one baptism and one burial, and conducted services once for Mr. Saul.

     Chicago, Ill., June 12th, 1901. ANDREW CZERNY.

     REPORT OF REV. E. S. PRICE.

     I have during the past year done no General Church work, except to attend meetings of the Council of the Clergy and the General Council. I also delivered a course of lectures on Latin literature to the Society at Bryn Athyn.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 1st, 1901. ENOCH S. PRICE.

     REPORT OF REV. C. TH. ODHNER.

     During the past ecclesiastical year I have continued in my work as Professor of Theology and History in the Theological School and the College of the Academy of the New Church. The account of my work in this capacity will be found in the reports of the principals of these departments in the school.

     In the general work of the ministry I have been able to do but little, but I have preached twice to the congregation in Bryn Athyn, and once to a circle of friends of the General Church in Baltimore, on which occasion I also administered the Holy Supper, and officiated at a wedding.

     In the literary field, my time has been much occupied by the completion of the first volume of the Annals of the New Church. I have also prepared a brief sketch of the life of Emanuel Swedenborg, for the use of children and the young. This has been published at New York by the New Church Board of Publication.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 24, 1901. C. TH. ODHNER.

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     REPORT OF REV. F. E. WAELCHLI.

     On the 2d of September, 1900, I was installed by you as pastor of the Carmel Church of the New Jerusalem, in Berlin, Ontario, and thereupon entered into the duties of this office.

     Services have been held regularly, excepting on three Sundays of the summer vacation of the Rev. E. J. Stebbing, who had charge of the Society before my coming to Berlin.

     The doctrinal class mentioned in the statistical report is the general class for the Society. This meets on Friday evening of each week, excepting on the last Friday of each month, when a general social is held instead. The class is preceded by a social supper, which is much enjoyed. The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine is being read; but once a month the evening is devoted to the study of the principles of education. Singing practice follows the class.

     There is also a weekly doctrinal class for the young people, reading the Doctrine of Charity. Once each month there is a young people's social instead of the class.

     Men's meetings, for the discussion of questions on the moral, civil, and natural planes of life, are held twice a month.

     Ladies' meetings, in the homes of members, are held once a month. During the afternoon the teachings of the Doctrines relating to the education of little children are read and considered. This class is followed by a supper, and after this the evening is spent socially.

     The Pastor's Council holds regular monthly meetings; so also does the Executive Committee. Quarterly meetings of the Society are held, and found to be very useful.

     The work of our school will be reported to you by the Head Master. My part of the school work is the religious instruction.

     Besides my work in Berlin, I preached once in Parkdale; also, visited several places in Ontario, where there are small circles of receivers of the doctrines, and conducted services, viz., at Clinton, Huron county, twice; Milverton, twice; Wellesley, once; Cross Hill, once; West Montrose, once (a funeral service); Colbeck, Dufferin county, once. During my absence from Berlin on these occasions the services were conducted by the Rev. E. J. Stebbing.

     The great event in the life of the Carmel Church during the past year was the First Ontario Assembly of the General Church, held here on December 31st, I900, and January 1st, 1901. As secretary of this Assembly, I sent a report of the same to the New Church Life, which was published in the February number.

     Berlin, Ontario, Canada, June 21st, 1901. FRED. E. WAELCHLI.

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     REPORT OF REV. N. D. PENDLETON.

     The only change of any moment in the external affairs of the Immanuel Church during the past year., is that the Wednesday doctrinal class has been held at the house of Mrs. Wallenburg, 132 Walnut street, Chicago, instead of at the Church building, 430 Carrol avenue, as heretofore.

     Owing to the fact that the city branch of our Church is rather small and the attendance on the doctrinal classes there averages from ten to twenty only, this change has proved very satisfactory. All the members of the class have expressed their appreciation of the kind and sincere hospitality of the ladies of the Wallenburg family.

     As to the general state of the Church under my charge, I will say that those members, who have for years sustained the work of the Church here, continue to do the same with unabated vigor.

     As for my own part of the work, I have during the past year made a special effort to reach the interests and affections of the people through the Friday and Wednesday doctrinal classes, by expounding the internal sense of the Twenty-ninth chapter of Exodus, which in the literal sense treats of the ordination of the Jewish priest priesthood by sacrifices, and in the internal sense, of the Glorification of the Lord's Human, the infilling of the heavens with Divine Good and Truth by the Holy Spirit proceeding after Glorification was effected, and the consequent establishment of the Church on earth, and the regeneration of man.

     This effort seems to have met with decided success, some of the people feeling that they have never enjoyed the classes more. I record this because I know of no better test of the state of the Church with a people than that which is evidenced by the degree of this interest in spiritual instruction.

     Several causes have operated to draw our people nearer together than formerly, and this has resulted in a marked increase of kindly regard and mutual love.

     Our school has just closed another year of successful work. The Headmaster, the Rev. D. H. Klein, reports an improvement in the deportment of the scholars, and though my own connection with the school is but slight, I can add that such improvement is manifest.

     Glenview, Ill., June 26, 1901.          N. DANDRIDGE PENDLETON.

     REPORT OF REV. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT.

     The pastorate of the Bryn Athyn Church has occupied my whole time this year, except three Sundays, when I had the pleasure of exchanging pulpits with Rev. Emil Cronlund, who is in charge in Philadelphia. Since Easter, however, owing to the illness of Mr. Cowley, most of my time has been devoted to the parish school. In this emergency my fellow-ministers here have very kindly lent their aid by taking turns in supplying the pulpit. This arrangement has not only relieved Mr. Cowley from any anxiety on account of the work, and given me time to enjoy a useful and pleasant change, but has also afforded an opportunity to hear, among the rest, from our two senior theological students, Mr. W. B. Caldwell and Mr. Alfred Stroh.

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     Details as to the school and its work may be found in Mr. Cowley's report, and in the School Catalogue about to be published by the Academy. I wish, however, to add here that Mr. Cowley having grown actually into the use it is desirable that he be recognized hereafter as the Head Master.

     The services have been well attended, our statistician, Mr. Chas. Edro Cranch, having recorded an increased attendance, in spite of the removal of several Cairnwood employees who used to attend. An innovation of some note was the holding of regular services on Thanksgiving Day. The services were adapted to the occasion, and were well attended, and also, apparently, much enjoyed. The "Sunrise Services" on New Year's morning were not quite so successful this time, as the Pastor was left to wrestle alone with too great a subject,--the Nineteenth Century.

     The social life has gone on about as usual. The Principia Club has had a very lively and useful season. The Civic and Social Club has been perfecting its accommodations, and thus its usefulness.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 1st, 1901. H. SYNNESTVEDT.

     REPORT OF REV. ALFRED ACTON.

     Of my work during the year there is practically nothing new to report. I have continued to serve as Professor of Theology in the Theological School and as pastor in Allentown, Pa., and Brooklyn, N. Y. The only change in the former place, since my last report, is that the Sunday School instituted last year was dropped, owing partly to the removal of one of the pupils to the school at Bryn Athyn.

     In addition to the duties indicated above, I have continued to act as Secretary of the General Council and as a member of the Editor's Council of New Church Life.

     Huntingdon Valley, Pa., June, 1901.          ALFRED ACTON.

     REPORT OF REV. CHAS. E. DOERING.

     During the past year I have been engaged by the Academy of the New Church, teaching mostly in the College and Intermediate Departments, while one hour a week was devoted to the study of the Principia with Messrs. Caldwell and Stroh, of the Theological Department.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 1st. 1901. C. E. DOERING.

     REPORT OF REV. HENRY E. COWLEY.

     My entire time during the past year has been devoted to teaching in the Local School here, under the headmastership of the Pastor. There are now 45 children in the school, divided into six grades or classes.

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Three teachers are giving all their time to the work. Miss Alice Grant is in charge of the primary department, which now holds its sessions in a more attractive place across the road. Miss Zella Pendleton taught this department for about two months, during the absence of Miss Grant at the bedside of her dying mother.

     Miss Lucy Potts served this year her cadetship as a teacher, having mostly to do with the third and fourth classes. She missed hardly a lesson during the year, and is now considered equal to any emergency. It was the introduction last September of a new class, without having graduated any, that made the employment of a third teacher necessary. Since our Easter vacation, my health has been such that I have been unable to continue my part of the work, which has been carried on by the Pastor.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 1st, 1901.          HENRY B. COWLEY.

     REPORT OF REV. DAVID H. KLEIN.

     As Head Master of the Immanuel Church School of Glenview, my time for the most part has been devoted to the specific work of the education of the young. The school consists of twenty pupils, who are divided into four classes, the highest of which is following a somewhat advanced course of instruction in an effort to parallel the first year's course of the intermediate department of the Academy School.

     The teaching work of the school is done by Miss Clara Hanlin and myself, the Pastor of the Society, Rev. N. D. Pendleton, devoting himself to the uses of the Church, save for three hours a week, when Religious instruction is given to the children by him.

     During the summer of 1900 I preached once at Bryn Athyn and six times at Toronto. On the invitation of Rev. L. P. Mercer I have preached twice to the Kenwood Parish in Chicago, and have conducted his mission in Evanston for six Sundays. I have also preached twice to the societies in Glenview and Chicago.

     Glenview, Ill., June 1st, 1901. DAVID H. KLEIN.

     REPORT OF REV. E. J. STEBBING.

     When my last report was rendered I was acting as minister of the Carmel Society, Berlin, pending the choice of a Pastor, and I also had charge of the local school. The Rev. F. E. Waelchli was called to the pastorate in June last, and my duties as minister ceased in September, 1900. I have, however, continued as Head Master of the local school to the present time.

     I preached for the Carmel Society during the summer, with the exception of three Sundays in June, when I took a vacation.

     I have preached for Mr. Waelchli on eight occasions when he was visiting isolated receivers, and once when he was called to officiate at a funeral. I have also assisted him in the Christmas and Easter services.

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     During a visit to Huntingdon Valley in June, 1900, I preached for the Rev. H. Synnestvedt.

     Nearly the whole of my time has been given to the school work in Berlin, in which I have been assisted by the Rev. Mr. Waelchli and the Misses Moir, C. C. Bellinger and Isabel Roschman, the latter two ladies as Dancing and Singing teachers, respectively.

     School opened on September 4th with 34 pupils. This number was later increased to 37, making it the largest attendance in ten years, or since the separation from the First Berlin Society.

     Arrangements hare been made to undertake the work of the Intermediate Department in September, and it is hoped that this may become a permanent work in our school.

     Berlin, Ont., June 19th, 1901.      ERNEST J. STEBBING.

     REPORT OF REV. EMIL R. CRONLUND.

     As minister of the Society of the General Church in Philadelphia, I have conducted public worship every Sunday morning. I have also held a doctrinal class on Wednesday nights, in which Heaven and Hell has been studied; a young folks' class on Thursday night, in which the True Christian Religion has been used as a text-book; and a Sunday School, in which the children have been taught the Letter of the Word.

     Rev. Mr. Acton has administered the Holy Supper to the Society three times, on which occasions I have acted as his assistant.

     In the fall of last year a Ladies' Aid Committee was appointed, consisting of five members, whose principal duty it was to provide for the social life of the Society. Their efforts have largely contributed to the success of this form of Church activity.

     I have exchanged pulpits four times with the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt. I have officiated at one funeral and baptized one infant.

     In addition to my duties in Philadelphia, I have assumed charge of a small circle of believers in Baltimore, preaching there on Sunday evening once a month since the month of March. A doctrinal class is held on Monday nights, in which Conjugial Love is studied.

     Philadelphia, June 21st, 1901.     EMIL R. CRONLUND.

     REPORT OF REV. REGINALD W. BROWN.

     During the early part of June, 1900, I was Still pursuing a special course of study at Bryn Athyn. Later in the same month I attended the meetings of the Council of the Clergy, and of the General Assembly, acting as assistant secretary in both bodies.

     As a candidate for the ministry, I spent two months,--June 30th to August 31st,--in Erie, Pa.

     During these two months, and beginning on July 1st, Sunday services were conducted regularly, with an average attendance of twenty persons; the largest attendance at any one service being twenty-six.

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     Doctrinal classes, followed by a short singing practice, were held every Wednesday evening, the average attendance at these being ten persons. They were held at the various homes in a regular rotation, which the Erie Circle has established in its reading meetings through the year. The Sunday services also, after the first three meetings at the home of Dr. Cranch, were conducted at the different homes in the same rotation.

     We also had a "Sunday School," as the children were pleased to call it, every Wednesday morning, at which I gave the children instruction in the Letter of the Word, in Hebrew and in singing. Through the courtesy of Dr. and Mrs. Cranch, the children met at their home, where we were granted the use of the sand-tray, and of a very fine collection of materials, which Mrs. Cranch has gathered together to illustrate the stories of the Word to the children. By these means, so kindly placed at my service, I made a humble effort to continue the work by which Mr. Klein had evidently won the affections of the children several pears before. The number and the interest of the children made me feel that there is a great field for building up in Erie, if it were only within the limits of possibility to have regular work throughout the year. The average attendance at school was ten; on two occasions there were thirteen, and on one sixteen.

     Opportunities presented themselves amongst the young people, most of whom are in need of regular care and instruction,--in need of a social life together. As a means to supply these needs we set apart an evening, once a week, for the young people, to be opened with instruction in the Doctrines and followed by a dancing class and general social time. The time of my stay permitted only three meetings, which were a very encouraging beginning. At one of these meetings there were nine, and at another ten young people present.

     The progress in the interest of the work during the two months was very gratifying, and I for my part became more and more interested in the field that continually opened itself, and its possibilities. I will acknowledge, that with others who manifested warm and devoted interest in the Church and its progress in Erie, I looked forward to continuing the work there a little longer, but that was not to be.

     On the 28th of August I received a call from the Pittsburg Society, to act there in the capacity of Pastor's Assistant, and as Head Master of the Pittsburg School. I accepted the call, and arrived in Pittsburg on September 1st. The suddenness of my departure from Erie was due to Pastor Bostock's illness, and to the desire to open the school as early as possible, in September. Since that time I have had charge of the School. I have also conducted Sunday worship and Doctrinal classes during Mr. Bostock's illness.

     I was ordained by the Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, on the 21st of October, 1900, into the first degree of the Priesthood.

     Pittsburg, Pa., June 20, 1901.          REGINALD W. BROWN.

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     REPORT OF CANDIDATE W. B. CALDWELL.

     At the invitation of Mr. Emil Gunther, one of the members of the General Church in Harrisburg, Pa., I spent two months there in the summer of last year (1900), and preached for the Society of Rev. Mr. Dolly on nine Sundays during his absence, and also held weekly doctrinal classes. The average attendance at services was 9; at doctrinal classes, 6.

     On Sunday, the 9th inst., I preached for the Bryn Athyn Society at the invitation of the pastor.

     This is the only active work I have to report, the balance of my time having been devoted to the pursuit of my studies in the Theological School of the Academy.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 13th, 1901.     W. B. CALDWELL.

     REPORT OF CANDIDATE ALFRED H. STROH.

     During the past year my studies in the Theological School as a candidate have been continued. In the months of July and August, 1900, I taught a small school at the home of Mr. Dallas E. Van Sickle, giving instruction in the Letter of the Word, the Memorabilia of Conjugial Love, and in some of the secular branches. I also conducted a doctrinal class on Sunday mornings, using the Doctrine of Charity, and preached twice during the summer, first at Renovo on July 15th, and again at the home of Mr. Dallas E. Van Sickle on September 2d. I also preached once at Bryn Athyn on May 12th, 1901.

     Bryn Athyn, June 14th, 1901.          ALFRED H. STROH.

     REPORT OF THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     My work during the year has been confined chiefly to editing New Church Life. Among the various features of the contents of the magazine during that time I may mention the following: The double number for July and August contained the Journal of the Fourth General Assembly, which together with the editor's "Impressions" gave a reasonably full account of that remarkably enjoyable occasion. Subsequent numbers reproduced the sermons delivered during the Assembly; the Rev. E. C. Bostock's paper on "The Enlightenment of the Priesthood," delivered at the public session of the Council of the Clergy; and the proceedings of the Teachers' Institute. The meeting in Canada, which occurred December 31st and January 1st, at which time the formation of the Ontario Assembly was effected, was fully reported for the Life by Pastor Waelchli, the secretary of the body, and the account appeared in the February number. A prominent feature during the latter part of the winter and spring has been the discussion on what is the proper estimation of Swedenborg's Science.

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The long and able papers prepared for the same were published in the Life, eliciting an interest not confined to our body. The papers referred to were:--"The Credibility of Swedenborg's Science," by Rev. W. F. Pendleton (March); "New Church Science Compared with Swedenborg's Science," by Rev. J. F. Potts (April); "Swedenborg on the Sun, the Deluge and the Natural Point" by Rev. Charles E. Doering (May); Swedenborg's Cosmogony," by Rev. Homer Synnestvedt (May), and "The Scientific Works of Swedenborg and the Writings," by Rev. W. F. Pendleton (June). A paper written in the same spirit with some of the foregoing was that of Rev. N. D. Pendleton's, on "The Ancient Understanding of the Doctrine of Degrees" (June). The development along the lines of Swedenborg's Science has been otherwise evidenced in the contents of the Life, and especially in the reports of the Principia Club. Among the Doctrinal articles should be mentioned that on "The Love of the Sex," which though prepared by the Bishop only as a study, has met with much appreciation. A study on "The Nineteenth Century, meant to show the rationalistic tendency of the past century, begun by the Editor in the December number, 1900, and continued in those of January and February, has been left uncompleted as yet, owing to a need which arose for the Editor's services in matters outside the department of the Life. It is hoped that the series will be completed within the year. The adaptation of the Memorabilia, by Mr. Acton, has been continued, and has given considerable satisfaction. The translation of De Verbo is not yet completed. I may speak of the increased regularity and improved quality and interest of the communications in the News Department, which have been very much appreciated by the readers and the Editor. The improvement in this branch is a great gratification to me. I wish that I could record a similar advance in the matter of producing review notices of New Church works as they appear, a department in which the assistance of the other ministers in the General Church is much needed. Greater promptness on the part of contributors of serious articles is another desideratum, which I would like to urge a little upon the attention of those concerned.

     It seems only proper, in concluding this my last report as Editor, to mention the retirement from this position which is necessitated by my having received and accepted the post of secretary to the Bishop. Keenly aware as I am of the room there is for decided improvement in the conduct of the magazine, I can only say that the use has had and always will have my strong affection, and that, in other hands, it may go on and reach somewhat nearer its possibilities is the earnest wish of one who has simply tried to do for it what he was able.

     In addition to the foregoing, I may report that on May 19th I preached in Bryn Athyn, in Mr. Synnestvedt's place, an opportunity which was greatly appreciated and enjoyed by one who has had few opportunities in this the most fully satisfying field of ministerial labor.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa., June, 1901.     GEORGE G. STARKEY.

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     6. The Time of the Annual Meetings was considered, but after some discussion the Council once more concluded that the latter part of June was the most convenient time for these meetings.

     7. The Council adjourned until 3 P. M.

     TUESDAY AFTERNOON.

     8. The Council having re-assembled, it was Resolved, on motion, "That the Rev. Alfred Acton be requested to communicate to the Rev. E. C. Bostock an expression of the sympathy of this Council with him in his illness, and the hope for the speedy recovery of his health."

     9. The Council took up for consideration the following questions, communicated by the Rev. Richard de Charms:

     "Is the sphere of worldliness so active in the General Church as to impede and impair its uses? What is the duty of the Priesthood in view of its probable injurious presence?"

     Rev. Alfred Acton expressed himself as uncertain what Mr. de Charms meant by his questions, but said that the love of the world is no doubt strong among us. He believed, however, that the love of the Church was stronger still, and that this love will continue to increase in strength. States of apathy will of course arise every now and then.--Rev. D. H. Klein believed that the interest in spiritual things was stronger now in the Church than for several years before.--Rev. F. E. Waelchli pointed out that the General Church is at present in a state of peace, when the external enthusiasm may not seem as great as in the former states of combat. Nevertheless, he believed, there was more interior progress in the Church during the present state; there was greater delight, at present, in the things relating to the interior life of the Church.--Rev. C. Th. Odhner believed that the Church had grown decidedly less worldly. The past states of the General Church appeared more intensely spiritual than the present, because our faith was then being formed; but first states are apt to be more external, partaking more of a love of faith alone, than succeeding states of application of the things of faith. The faith remained the same as before, but it was becoming more clear, firm, and mature.--Rev. J. E. Bowers expressed some surprise at Mr. de Charms's questions. He thought there had been a great deal of progress in the Church of late years. The sermons in New Church Life, for instance, were more clear and practical than the profoundly intellectual ones of past times.--Mr. Acton compared the first state of the Church with the "honey-moon" time of marriage, when conjugial love seems more bright and active than afterwards. The enthusiasm of first states is bound to recede somewhat, but where the desire for regeneration is earnest, the subsequent states will become less external and less worldly than former states.-

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Rev. George Starkey thought it very useful for the Church to examine itself as to the worldliness which is ever present, but believed that the progress of the Church depended upon individual examination and repentance. As far as he had observed there had been considerable growth in the Church.--Mr. Odhner wished that Mr. de Charms, in his questions, had pointed out, more definitely, in what way he feared that worldliness may be coming upon the General Church. A merely general confession of sins does not help to remove any special evil.

     10. The Council considered the subject of New Church Life.
     
     Mr. Odhner spoke of the desirability of a conference on the organ of the General Church at each annual meeting of the Clergy; the editor would thereby have the benefit of the criticisms, suggestions, or approval of the Clergy as a whole.--Mr. Waelchli thought that New Church Life suffered somewhat from the fact that it was edited in the strongly educational and scientific sphere of the Academy Schools. It was not yet fully the organ of the General Church, inasmuch as many of the articles were rather too scholastic. In going about among the people, he had often found copies of the Life with pages uncut, excepting the last ones, which contain the News Notes. He believed there should be more short, easily digestible and practical articles, in order to feed the simple as well as those who are more advanced.-Mr. Bowers said that he had found the Life highly appreciated among the isolated New Church people with whom he had come in contact. Some, perhaps, had complained that the depth of certain articles made them beyond their grasp, but he himself was very well satisfied with the management of the Life, and spoke of its great use to those who do not have the benefit of regular pastoral instruction in established societies.-Mr. Synnestvedt wished that there were greater cooperation on the part of the ministers in the writing of short, practical articles such as had been spoken of; not all writers were able to produce these. Nevertheless, it would not be well to cater too much to readers of a lesser degree of interest and intelligence.-Mr. Czerny believed that the high standard of the Life should be maintained.-Mr. N. D. Pendleton thought that the Life should endeavor to feed especially those who take a keen interest in the spiritual things of the Church; these were the ones who formed the centres in the Church, and if they be well instructed, they would communicate their interest and their light to those who are more in the circumferences. He highly approved of the general management of the Life.-Mr. Waelchli took exception to the idea that the magazine should only keep the intelligent readers in mind. The simple must be fed also. In the world of spirits there are two different kinds of teaching, one kind for those who are in more external or general states, and another for those who are more intelligent. These two states exist in all societies, and it is sometimes difficult to accommodate the sermon so as to feed both.-

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Mr. Acton had found that the Life was read very diligently by many who are not deeply intellectual, while it was neglected by some who are quite intelligent. Whether scholastic articles were suitable or not, did not depend so much upon the intellectuality as upon the love of the spiritual things of the Church.--Mr. Odhner said that we should not quarrel with those who only read the News, as such showed at least a love of the things: which related to the life of the Church. He believed that the News department performed a very important use in feeding and cultivating the affectional elements, especially the interest of the members of the Church in one another and in the life of the various societies. This department had been very much developed in the Life of late years.--The Bishop quoted the words of the Lord to the Cyrophenician woman as showing that those who are in the centre of the Church should be fed first.-Mr. Starkey, the editor, said that he had been much gratified by the criticisms and the words of approval which had been expressed. The limited space of the Life made it difficult to meet all demands or to do justice to all classes of readers. He thought there would be an improvement if there were more articles adapted to the class of readers of which Mr. Waelchli had spoken, and he invited the pastors in the Church to come to his assistance in this field more actively than they had done in the past.--Mr. Bowers urged the desirability of bringing the numbers out more promptly.--Mr. Starkey said that no one had suffered as much as he from the tardiness of the Life, but he would not trouble the Council by detailing the really remarkable series of causes which had operated adversely during the past six months.

     PUBLIC MEETING.

     TUESDAY EVENING.

     11. The Council assembled, in public session, at 8 P. M.

     12. On motion, the Rev. John Faulkner Potts was invited to take part in the deliberations of the Council.

THE ANNUAL ADDRESS.

     13. The Rev. N. D. Pendleton, according to the appointment of last year, delivered the following Annual Address:

     THE "URIM AND THUMMIM" IN THE NEW CHURCH.

     THE life of religion is to do good, yet the quality of good is drawn from the truth with which it is conjoined. That good may become spiritual it must be joined with the truth of revelation. It is for this purpose that truth of revelation is given, and by it the Church. The Church, therefore, is the conservator of that truth which comes down from heaven by revelation, which, when received and loved by man, so qualifies his good as to render it spiritual, and makes him a fit inhabitant of heaven.

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     It may therefore be said that the Church holds from the Lord, the gift of eternal life, and under His auspices is enabled to extend that gift to all who will receive of it. It would appear, therefore, from this that it is the kind. This will hardly be question, since no other valid reason for the existence of the Church can be found. We may therefore define the Church, in a most general way, a, a body of men associated together for the purpose of promulgating revealed truth, with a view to the salvation of human souls.

     There are many churches, differing widely among themselves as to creeds and external observances; all claim to be in possession of revealed truth, and to have for their motive the salvation of human souls. We cannot deny this claim, at least so far as the several denominations of the Christian Church are concerned; for it is a literal fact that these denominations have the Word, which embodies the fulness of revealed truth, and they certainly give as their object the salvation of souls. Yet it is given us to know that the day of these churches is past; that while they have the Word, still they have it not, since they have destroyed its truth by their creeds, and its goods by the evils of life, and have thus closed the way to heaven, from whence salvation descends.

     From this we may conclude that a true Church is characterized by the fact, not only that it possesses the Word of revealed truth, but that it is thereby enabled to keep the way of heaven open; and that only so long as it does this is it worthy of the name and purpose which it assumes. This is clearly taught in the Arcana, by the statement that the Church is established for the purpose of keeping open communication with heaven. Evidently so; otherwise no mortal could be saved. Upon this point we must fix our minds, for it involves the inmost life of the Church.

     It was stated before that the function of the Church is to promulgate revealed truth. This may be described as the function of the Church in extending its benefits out of itself to others; but its inmost function which it exercises within itself, is that of holding itself in active communion with heaven from whence comes its peculiar powers as a Church. If this be not done its promulgation will be of little avail, and its pretensions to the gift of eternal life, a delusion.

     It may here be urged that the men of the Church must live a good life in order that the way to heaven may be kept open. This condition is certainly a sine qua non. But the foregoing statements are premised for the purpose of accentuating the supreme internal function of the Church, and with the intention of leading to the consideration of a certain means of holding communion with heaven which is directly associated with the office of the Priesthood of the Church, and without which, I am persuaded, the life of the organic Church will languish and fail. This means of communication is suggested by what is said in the Arcana concerning the Urim and Thummin given upon the breast-plate of Aaron as a means of Divine response to inquiry on the part of the priest.

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     The learned are in doubt as to what special thing is meant by the Urim and Thummim, and as to how responses were given by it. Some suppose that it refers to a miraculous alteration of the tribal letters engraved upon the stones of the breast-plate, by means of which the answer to inquiry was indicated. Others suppose that it refers to two images, similar to the teraphim, placed in the folds of the breast plate, which uttered oracles by a voice. Still another, and later, opinion is that the Urim was a clear, colorless stone, set in the breast-plate, and the Thummim, an image similarly placed. The priest by gazing steadfastly upon these is supposed to have thrown into an ecstatic state, during which time he lost consciousness of self and received spiritual illumination and insight as to the proper response. This latter opinion is doubtless suggested by the modern use of the crystal in inducing the hypnotic state. There is no dispute as to the literal meaning of the words. "Urim" means "fire," "flame" or "light," and "Thummim" "perfection" or "integrity." Swedenborg confirms these definitions, but adds, that in the angelic sense Thummim means explendescence or shining forth.

     But as to the actual nature and function of the Urim and Thummim which was said to be given upon the breast-plate of Aaron, we are informed in the Writings that it was a flashing of lights from the stones of the breast-plate. But let the teaching on this subject be reduced to several statements.

     1. The light of heaven flashed from the stones of the breast-plate, with variety according to response.

     2. By a like flashing of divers lights, Divine Truths, which are responses, are given in heaven.

     3. When the priest saw the flashing of lights from the stones, he also heard a living voice giving the answer. This voice came from an angel whom the Lord enabled to interpret the meaning of the explendescence.

     4. By this explendescence of heavenly light, Divine Truths were revealed in the ultimate or natural sphere.

     5. A like explendescence is presented inwardly with those who seek truth because they love it from the heart, and love it as good.

     6. This flashing of light appears in ultimates, that is, in truths in the ultimate order, such as those of the letter of the Word; therefore the light was seen to flash from the stones of the breast-plate, by which stones the letter of the Word was represented.

     We conclude from this that the explendescence or shining forth of lights was significative of the internal sense shining through the letter. Nothing else can be meant by the statement that the Urim and Thummim signify in the spiritual sense "the shining forth of the Divine Truth from the Lord in Ultimates," where responses are given. Spiritually interpreted, therefore, consultation of the Urim and Thummim is an appeal made to the letter of the Word, from true doctrine, by one who seeks truth loving it as good. When this is done, illustration is given, which is an explendescence of heavenly light reflected by the ultimate truths of the letter of the Word.

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In this way the man of the Church may have active and indeed perceptive communication with heaven. This mode of communication comes within the special function of the priesthood, and is called Exposition. In short the sermon is, or ought to be, the result of consultation with the Divine by Urim and Thummim. And it is clear beyond a doubt, that unless the sermons or teachings of the priesthood be of this nature, at least in some degree, the life of the organic Church will languish and fail. The teaching of doctrine alone, or as such, is not sufficient. The teaching of doctrine as a science from the memory is not sufficient. Truth, to have a vivifying power, must be taught with illustration, from heaven opened. The flashing of light must be given as a response to inquiry. When this is done it may be regarded as a sign that the Church is in the performance of its chief internal function of holding communication with heaven, and that she is in the power of her calling.

     It might appear that I make the welfare of the Church to depend upon the sermon, or the exposition of truth given by the priesthood a statement might lead to a misapprehension. The claim is that the true Church is of necessity in communion with heaven, and that on the part of the priesthood of the Church such communion manifests itself in consulting the Divine by Urim and Thummim; and that the result of this consultation is given in the sermon or teaching, as a demonstration of the heavenly things involved in a text of Holy Writ. In this exposition the priest needs two things: First, he must be acquainted with the general doctrine covering the text. Second, he must have a knowledge of the correspondence of the words of the text. These two things are a matter of science. They are simply a means to an end. The end is, that the priest may by them, as a means, be illustrated, and from illustration may teach, and may lead the Church under his charge by the truth of heaven to the good thereof.

     Now in order that the priest may enter into this state of illustration, he must love truth from the heart, and must love it as good; for it is clear from the teaching quoted above, that unless truth be loved in this way no illustration is given. And this brings us to the conclusion that an evil priest may indeed teach truth by confirmation from the memory, as a science, but that he can not consult the Divine by Urim and Thummim. If he attempts to do so, no response is given; his eyes are closed to the explendescence of heavenly light; for to him it is not given to see the truth "as in itself true." The ability to do this is peculiar to the good.

     Let it be remarked here that by a good priest is meant one who has unselfish love of truth, and by an evil priest one who has a selfish love of truth. Far be it from me to arrogate good to a priest because of his seeming illustration in spiritual things. We may be, and doubtless are, unable to distinguish between a brilliant confirmation of doctrine, and a genuine perception of truth.

     But of this we may be assured; no one can be illustrated in spiritual things unless he have an unselfish love of truth. No external judgment should be made in this matter, for one may have a saintly external and yet be in a selfish love of truth; another may be in manifest evils, and yet have an unselfish love of truth.

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     Unless the Divine be consulted by Urim and Thummim the life of the Church will languish. In other words, unless the heavenly verities, or the internal sense of the Word be extracted from the letter, the Church will suffer a spiritual famine.

     It may be said: "This is done for us by the Divine hand, in the Writings; there we find the internal sense revealed; there also we find that sense formulated into doctrinals for the Church. What need we more than this?" I answer that there is a need beside this; a need which must be filled by living men. The Church at all times, if it fulfills its true mission of holding active communion with heaven, must needs interrogate the Divine and receive response. You say: "Go to the Writings for your answer." Yes, go to the Writings; but full response is given only when the truth of the Writings is applied to the letter of the Word, whence is drawn the bread of life. This living bread, this heavenly food, which supplies the vital life of both heaven and the Church, is given by consultation according to Urim and Thummim. When from love we see the letter of the Word blaze with the glory of its internal sense, we say, Behold, the letter is glorified before our eyes! and we may add, Behold the doctrine of truth is vivified.

     The truth of the Writings glorifies the letter of the Word, and the letter of the Word by reaction vivifies the truth of the Writings, and then the truth is seen to be in itself true. To see and perceive this wonderful thing done, requires illustration, the illustration that comes of consultation according to Urim and Thummim. As said before, such consultation is possible only to those who have an unselfish love of truth, and who love it as good. Others may understand and teach the doctrine of revealed truth, and also the letter of the Word as it should be understood in accordance with that doctrine. Such interpretation is useful, and it covers a large part of the work of the priesthood in general, and of every priest in particular; but this is not the consultation of active communication, which is so essential to the spiritual life of the Church. It may be asked: Will any priest arrogate to himself the power of thus consulting the Divine? No; this power--which is nothing more than an unselfish love of truth--is not to be arrogated, but to be prayed for. Surely we are given to hope and believe that it exists in the Church, and with the priest of the Church, at least, in some small degree; for it would be a strange if not impossible anomaly, to conceive that Providence would set a false priesthood over a true Church.

     However, the purpose of my paper is to consider the aim of the priesthood; to consider, not what the average sermon is, nor what any, sermon may pretend to be, but what the highest type of sermon should be; i. e., the result of a consultation of the Divine by Urim and Thummim, given by one who loves truth as good; and who by virtue thereof has the gift of illustration and perception in spiritual things, and thence the power of expounding the internal sense of the Word so that the letter may be glorified with a flashing of spiritual lights before the eyes of the Church; so that the doctrine of truth, which is recognized as of faith, may be vivified and vitalized, and thus enter deeply into the love of all who are receptive of it.

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     By such consultation something comes from heaven to the Church that does not and cannot come in any other way. This something is called Divine Response. It is the Lord answering man in a wonderful way by a Divinely appointed means. The Writings of the Church and the letter of the Word are both given in order that man may have the means of such consultation and of receiving such response when given.

     That there may be no doubt as to the nature of this response, and as to how it is given, I will quote a single sentence from De Verbo: "As, therefore, all answers from heaven have been and are made by means of things as are of the sense of the letter, and as therefore the sense of letter was represented by the Urim and Thummim in the Ephod of Aaron this garment was the last or ultimate one.

     Observe the statement that all answers from heaven have been and made by such things as are of the sense of the letter. And consider in connection the oft-repeated statement by Swedenborg, that he was illustrated while reading the Word, and then the nature of consultation by Urim and Thummim will become manifest.

     The illustration, however, which Swedenborg enjoyed was the inspiration of a prophet, and his writings are a part of the Word of revealed truth, having the authority thereof. To him alone it was given to consult the Divine by Urim and Thummim, and then speak with absolute authority to the Church. But it would be a grave error to insist that priests should not, as in like manner, consult the Divine and seek response; for to do so would be to deny them the function of exposition and in interpretation, which I am convinced is their especial and supreme function, the for the exercise of which is the reason for the existence of their office. For beyond a doubt, the priesthood of all times and every Church, was chosen and instituted as an adjustable and adjusting medium between the Word of revelation and the varying states and needs of mankind: this being so, it must follow that the chief function of the priesthood is that of interpretation; and interpretation requires illustration, which is communion with the Divine, whence arises perception.

     The function of every priesthood was expressed by some mode of interpreting the Will of God; and the function of the Christian priesthood is to interpret the Will of God as it is revealed in the spiritual verities of His Holy Word. Yet there is a radical distinction between ancient and modern priestly interpretation, and this because ancient revelation was given by involution, while modern revelation is given by evolution. Ancient revelation was given as a Divine Drama, the actors moving in their parts all unconscious of the external verities involved in and signified by their actions; modern revelation is a Divinely given interpretation of the heavenly things involved in this Drama.

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It is clear therefore that the characteristic function of the Christian priesthood refers to such interpretation; that is, the unveiling of the hidden mysteries involved in the Divine Drama.

     The statement that the chief function of the priesthood is that of government, and that priests are therefore gifted with a peculiar perception in matters of Church government, has been made much of in the past. But if by government is meant the management of the affairs of the Church, the statement can not be sustained. For it must be evidenced that such government is entirely secondary and subordinate to the sacred function of consulting the Divine, by Urim and Thummim; or, as stated in the Writings, the function of the priesthood is to teach truth and thereby to lead to the good of life. True priestly perception, therefore, refers exclusively to the spiritual verities of the Word, and their application to the states and needs of the Church. Whatsoever of perception there may be in the other subordinate and more external matters is a gift peculiar to the individual.

     But to return to the especial purpose or point of the paper. The constant need of the Church is that the internal sense of the Word should be preached,--preached with the power and clearness that comes of illustration,-preached so that all who have eyes to see may see the flashing lights of revealed truth, given in response to inquiry, shining through the letter of the text with power and great glory. An abstract truth taken from the Writings and logically demonstrated, will indeed convince the rational mind so that the man will affirm the truth as of reason. Still such conviction and affirmation is as yet external. But let the same truth be given from heaven by response according to Urim and Thummim,--let it be seen that this truth lies at the very heart of the Word of Scripture which on occasions it illumines with a miraculous glory, then within the mind of man is produced an interior or perceptive conviction of the truth, because then the truth is seen in its own light, to be true, and is loved as good. Such truth as this is the very bread coming down from heaven giving life to the world; it is the living Lord present in His Church.

     13. (a) Mr. Synnestvedt, introducing the discussion on the subject of the Annual Address, said that if anything were needed to show the necessity of the love of the truth, in the priesthood, this address would do it. In the past there had been much dwelling upon the superior illustration of the priesthood, without enough recognition of the fact that such illustration was given by the Lord, according to the needs of the Church, and that a priest's reception of that light, was in the measure of his contact with those needs. Such illustration "passes through man to man," so that the light, when given through the Urim and Thummim, is transmitted to all in the congregation. All illustration is on the basis of use, and this reconciles the view just given, as to the highest priestly function being the obtaining of more interior insight into the Word, with that other familiar teaching, that its highest function is the government of the Church. For as we know, that government is essentially a leading by just such truth, to the goods of life, the ordering of external ecclesiastical affairs being secondary to this.

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Some of the trouble in the past had come from the assumption that the high priest had an illustration which the others could not follow. This was as irrational as it would be to hold that of two consorts the man could rise into rational illustration and not share it with his wife. The very thing which makes it possible for the high priest to have that illustration is the need of the Church for it. Use is the basis of all illustration. The thought of the Church had fallen into obscurity--a thought of the government as being management. The government of the Church as an organization is one thing; the government of the men of the Church is another.

     13. (b) Mr. Odhner said that he had been powerfully impressed by the statement in the Address that Interpretation and Exposition of the Word is the supreme function of the Priesthood There was no other way of leading by the Truth to the good of life, then by drawing forth the Divine Truth from the fountain of Light itself, the Letter of the Word, in which alone the Truth is in its fulness, holiness and power. Light, in itself, does not effect the eye with sight. It is seen only when reflected in the atmospheres; so also the Divine Truth appears in its full glory and power when seen reflected in the clouds of the Letter of the Word. The scientific study of the Heavenly Doctrines is, indeed, necessary in order that our eye may become opened so as to be able to see, but the object which is to be seen by the opened eye is the doctrine of life which is reflected from the literal sense. When this is seen, then the Lord is seen, for He is Life itself. The speaker agreed with the Address in the teaching that a wicked priest, who had no genuine love of the Truth, cannot properly perceive the oracles or gleams of light which shine forth from Urim and Thummim. After much study on the subject he had come to modify the views expressed by him at the Council meeting of last year. The Writings teach most distinctly that an evil priest "cannot but fill the wells of Abraham with dust: he cannot but choke up the perceptions of interior truth with the dusty notions of his self-intelligence. These "wells of Abraham" are the same as the gleams of light from the jewels in the Urim and Thummim. When properly understood, this teaching does not conflict with the accepted Doctrine of the Academy, that an evil Priest may still be able to bring the means of salvation to man.

     13. (C) Mr. Starkey, speaking of the necessity that there be a genuine love of truth in order to there being the flashing of the Urim and Thummim, or true spiritual enlightenment and leading, held that this arrogates nothing to the priesthood, especially as to anything exclusively theirs; for except the Church to which the priesthood ministers, be also in the genuine affection of truth, there will not be that state of life, nor that development of spiritual needs and uses, which excite priestly affection and perception and thus give occasion for the Divine response. He also said that the priestly leading from a state of good cannot be absolutely known or demonstrated to be such--it is a matter of perception, which has force only with him who perceives an onlooker cannot say in the case of a society and priest which, for illustration, he would assume to be in the affection of truth,-"Here is true light and leading;" and of another society whom he would suppose to be in little or no perception because in little good, but who accepted with equal implicitness the ministrations of a priest who caters to their state, but who consults self intelligence instead of the Urim and Thummim,--"Here is mere natural rational lumen."

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These things are known to the Lord alone, and the appearance may be the opposite of the reality. We know moreover that for a time at least the instruction given by an evil priest may really feed; and also that even after he has destroyed that ability by having his evils come out, so as destroy confidence with some, others who do not see those evils as such, and who have not lost confidence, may receive benefits. Let those to whom a given priest's teaching appeals, follow it and get what they can, and leave the rest to the Lord. But real growth--continued, internal growth,-will be only where the affection of truth is genuine.

     13. (D) Rev. J. F. Potts said that the teaching of Mr. Pendleton's paper in so far as concerns the main question treated of therein, was entirely right. The letter of the Word, and that is where the power is-the power is in the ultimates of Divine truth. The whole of the Word is, in the letter in simultaneous order; all its internal senses, all degrees of them, and also the Lord Himself, are present in the letter of the Word in simultaneous order, so that when preacher quotes the letter of the Word in the ears of the people he does not quote the mere letter, but the whole of the Word, from inmost to outmost. It is the voice of the Lord Himself speaking with Divine power, and with irresistible power. This is felt by everyone who regards the Word as holy; and this is why there is such a peculiar power in the words of Scripture. There are no words like these words. However well and ably a preacher may present his teaching, he will still fail of his greatest influence and success if he fails to bring the very words of Scripture to bear. Let a Christian minister make the most thorough study of his subject that he can, and let him present it as deeply and interiorly as his hearers can follow; for the more he does this the greater will be the power that will then be felt in the quotation of the sacred words of the letter which contain and enforce the letter of the Word, and confirmed thereby. This does not mean that it is to be done once and for all by Swedenborg, but that it is to be done constantly and perpetually by every Christian preacher. And it is done when the preacher proceeds in the manner which the speaker had briefly described. The people do then really see the teaching in the Word, and hear it confirmed thereby with Divine power; and the voice which they hear is the voice of the Word of God itself speaking in their hearts and understandings.

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     13. (e) Mr. Acton pointed out that while all light is given in the letter of the Word, still we must not lose sight of the fact that the Writings are a Divine Revelation, and are also the Word of God, and there alone is the light by which to read the Letter. Every revelation is the explanation of the preceding revelation and is based on it, and this in order that the idea of one Lord of Heaven and earth may be preserved. Thus the Writings are everywhere based on the Letter of the Word; on every page of them we find it quoted. But we can see the truths of those Writings only when we see them contained in and confirmed by the Letter; otherwise they will be to us only a philosophical system of truth, not a revelation of Divine Truth.

     In regard to sermons he thought that we should not limit our idea of the sermon to an exposition of every detail of the text. Such sermons are no doubt the most interior expositions of the Word; but there are also doctrinal sermons,--sermons teaching a doctrine of the Church and based on the general meaning of the text. The Writings use texts in both ways, sometimes to give the particular internal sense--sometimes to serve, by the general meaning, as a confirmation of some doctrine.

     Touching the question as to whether the Priest must be a regenerating man, that he may have illustration to see the internal sense of the Word, which had been introduced by Mr. Potts,--he agreed with that gentleman that this was not necessary. He did not agree with the paper that the interior perception of truth with the priesthood is what connects the Church with heaven. That perception is given by the Lord to every good man when he receives Him. It is the Lord present with the members of the Church, which conjoins the Church to heaven. The priest teaches truth in an external way; the Lord alone can give the real reception and perception of it. The priest can thus teach even when he himself has no real interior perception of the truth he teaches. This is illustrated by the case of devils, who when their evils were temporarily removed spoke spiritual truths in a wise manner. Indeed when evil priests come into a state of zeal they have as it were an interior perception of truth; this, however, does not remain with them, but so long as they live on earth the memory of it remains, and from this they can preach interiorly and wisely as if from an interior perception and belief.

     13. (f) Mr. Synnestvedt said that the approaching to the Lord, as described in the paper, is not, as he understood, the method used every day, but refers rather to the highest function of the priesthood, whereby more vital matters were enquired about. You can hardly expect every sermon to be such a model; as with the High Priest of old, who only went into the Holy of Holies once a year, and consulted Urim and Thummim only upon the most important matters. He was glad to see someone bring out the idea, that there may he various kinds of sermons, for the needs of the people vary considerably, and the priest's own illustration varies.

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Besides, in order to cover the whole ground, some discourses must be devoted to instruction, others more to exhortation, and so on. "Please do not expect every sermon to be a 'chef d"auvre.

     13. (g) Mr. N. D. Pendleton concluded the discussion by emphasizing again the teaching that the Doctrine of the Church is to be drawn from the Letter of the Word and confirmed by it: that the truth of Doctrine glorifies the Letter, and that the Letter vivifies the Doctrine. The speaker was convinced that the priest who is not a regenerating man would ultimately lose his apparent illustration, if not in this world, at least in the next,--with a strong tendency to do so in this world also.

     14. After a brief discussion as to the exact manner in which oracles were given by the Urim and Thummim in the Israelitish Church, the Council adjourned until Thursday, June 27th. C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary.

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JOINT COUNCIL MEETING 1901

JOINT COUNCIL MEETING              1901

     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY AND THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

     (Abridged extracts from the minutes.)

     WEDNESDAY MORNING, June 26th, 1901.

     Present. Council of the Clergy: Bishop Pendleton; Pastors Czerny, Price, Odhner, Waelchli, Pendleton, Synnestvedt, Acton, Keep and Doering. Ministers: Starkey, Cowley, Klein, Stebbing, Cronlund and Brown. Candidates Caldwell and Stroh. Executive Committee: Messrs. Pitcairn, Glenn and Asplundh.

     1. The meeting opened with reading of the Word and prayer.

     2. The Rev. C. Th. Odhner, on account of increasing duties, resigned as Secretary of the Council of the Clergy in order that his successor might act in this meeting for the Council. He nominated the Rev. George G. Starkey for the position, and the Bishop approving, the members of the Council of the Clergy confirmed the nomination.

     THE BISHOP'S REPORT.

     3. The Bishop, in lieu of the Annual Report, which had heretofore been made by him to the General Assembly, presented a verbal report to the Joint Council.

     Passing in review the general progress of the Church, he said that the Church had experienced a state of peace, that there had been evidence of growth, and that the promise was for future peace and growth if only we are able to keep the natural man from becoming aroused and getting possession of our judgment in any way. With self-control on the part of all, the prospect of further peace and growth can hardly fail to be realized.--The decision of the Bishop in conjunction with his Council, not to hold a General Assembly this year, was briefly explained. It had not been thought well to put upon the Church the effort and expense.--It had been foreseen that there would ultimately be a development in the direction of the formation of dioceses; last year a move was made in Canada looking in that direction, in the formation of the Ontario Assembly. A similar step was now before us here. It was desirable to do a few things at a time.

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There will probably be steps taken in the same line, in Pittsburg, and possibly in Chicago.--The need for division of episcopal labors had been felt for some time, but without seeing clearly how it could be effected; but now a satisfactory solution for this time had been reached.* Nevertheless it would be well to keep in mind the limitations of human strength and to provide for a division of labor as soon as may be practicable and useful. In the Church as in the family it is the part of wisdom to exercise that prudence which constitutes part of man's reaction with Providence, and to provide for the future.--The question of including the Nineteenth of June in the annual meetings of the Church, had been considered at Berlin and rather adversely; but the experiment at the Assembly last year had produced a reaction, having been so successful that those present then were now almost if not quite unanimous in favor of incorporating this festival in the Annual Meetings. But since then had come up the idea of District Assemblies, with less frequent holding of the General Assembly, and in proportion as this is carried out the old method of holding the celebrations of the "19th" at home in the various societies, which has been so much enjoyed, can go on as before, except in those years when a General Assembly occurs.--The question of handing over to the local or parish schools the work hitherto done by the Intermediate Department of the Academy Schools, had already been discussed by a joint meeting of Teachers and the Academy Corporation. One thing in its favor,--it would relieve the Academy of that work; and it would also tend to keep the young a little longer out of the more mature sphere of the College and Seminary. On the other hand it is important not to place too great a burden on the societies, which already have a great deal to carry in proportion to their resources.--The Orphanage use was not actively before the Council at this meeting. According to the Report of the Treasurer of the Fund there is over two hundred dollars for which there has been no call as yet.--The Liturgy had been going on, but not very rapidly. Mr. Synnestvedt had consented to undertake the compilation of a Book of Prayers in connection with it. Miss Plummer until the time of her death, had assisted by the preparation and adaptation of hymns. He had modified his original idea of giving various services formed on certain themes, and had concluded to have but one service, of such a nature that it could be varied. In general it had been made much simpler than the service which he had prepared last winter and submitted to the criticisms of some of the ministers. Those criticisms had been useful, and the present service was now in such form that he did not think that it could be seriously objected to. So he had sent it on to Mr. Whittington, who had kindly promised to set to music the Introit, Magnificat, Benedictus, etc. Many things had been cut out which he would have been glad to retain, but he had not felt able to take time and strength to educating others up to it. There was one feature, however, the retention of which he felt inclined to insist upon,--the recitation of the Commandments while the people are on their knees, for the sake of its effect of humility and repentance.-

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The work in England was not in a satisfactory state, Mr. Bostock's failing health having prevented the carrying out of a plan which had seemed to promise a solution of the difficulty. It was still hoped, however, that Mr. Bostock's health will improve enough to permit of his ultimately taking charge of the circle in London.
     * The step taken is explained on page 450.

     4. The Report of the Secretary of the General Church, and that of the missionary, the Rev. J. E. Bowers, were read. (See reports pp. 394 and 395.)

     THE ORPHANAGE.

     5. The meeting took up for discussion the question submitted to it by the Executive Committee, as to whether money contributed for the Orphanage Fund could be applied to the support of orphans not children of members of the General Church.

     The opinion of the General Assembly last year was quoted as having been, that while children of General Church parentage should be primarily beneficiaries of the Fund, still this should not rigidly exclude other children who should prove suitable objects for assistance.--(See Mr. Acton's remarks in the Journal of the Fourth Assembly, page 410.)-Mr. Pitcairn illustrated the need for such discretion by stating a case in point.-Mr. Glenn, while agreeing, that the Church should aid orphans who give promise of becoming loyal members of the Church, even though coming from outside our own boundaries, added that the only question would be as to the way in which aid should be given. This would carry the matter back to the question as to what those who had contributed had intended in relation to the disposal of the Fund.--The Bishop thought that there was no doubt that children of the General Church had been especially in mind, but he thought the contributors would not oppose aid being given from the Fund to other deserving cases, like the one cited by Mr. Pitcairn.--Mr. Waelchli believed that the members of the Church would be glad to hear that the Fund had begun to be applied, there being no immediate use for it among the children of our own connection. The case in point seemed to be Providential. He believed that there would be an added interest in the work of the Orphanage by the definite use being brought before it.--Mr. Acton pointed out that the discretion involved applied only where there was reasonable prospect of such orphans becoming faithful members of the General Church.     The present case certainly came under this head.

     After some discussion the meeting unanimously recommended that, in the case cited, the Executive Committee make use of the Fund of the Orphanage, to such extent and for such time as it may deem advisable.

     Mr. Waelchli suggested that quarterly reports of the Orphanage be resumed; the use should be kept before the Church; it is not much heard of now.-Mr. Glenn thought that the present step would have a greater effect in enlisting the interest of the Church than when contributions were made simply for accumulating a Fund.

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     PUBLICATION OF THE JOURNAL OF THE COUNCIL.

     6. The question of Publishing a Journal of the Council was taken up.

     Mr. Acton spoke of the great use, both natural and spiritual, which would be served by publishing the report of these meetings, as a means of arousing interest in the larger uses of the Church, and drawing the members closer together, thus strengthening the organization.

     7. Rev. N. D. Pendleton offered the following resolution, which was adopted:

     Resolved, That a journal of the public meetings of the Council of the Clergy and of the Joint Council, be published in New Church Life, with such other matters of the several official bodies of the General Church of the New Jerusalem as may hereafter be determined upon by the officers-of the respective bodies.

     PUBLICATION OF A VOLUME OF SERMONS.

     8. The advisability of publishing a volume of sermons was considered.

     The Bishop said that the publication of such a volume had been considered favorably years ago, in the General Church of Pennsylvania, in connection with the subject of sermons in New Church Life.--Mr. Synnestvedt said that not a few of the isolated members like to read a sermon on Sunday, and that, for members of our body, there are few if any suitable outside the sermons published in the Life. He narrated his experience in recently looking over a quantity of sermons from various sources written on a text which he was studying; he had found only two of them of any real service, and one of these was by the elder de Charms, and the other by one of our ministers. He thought we should begin to look to the future and to select from the sermons in the Life. This could be done by keeping the type standing, with the idea of printing a volume later. A good sermon will bear reading more than once.--Mr. Bowers said that it might be a good plan to re-publish some of the best of those contained in old numbers of the Life, since the Editor complains that nowadays it is hard to get hold of sermons.--Mr. Asplundh said that this would not be necessary since the Nineteen Years' Index, soon to be brought out, will make all these sermons accessible; any one could ascertain from the Index the sermons he wanted, and the writers of them, and could write for the back numbers containing them. The Book Room has on hand a large stock of nearly all back numbers.--To this it was replied that not many persons would go to this trouble, while on the other hand a volume would be more convenient and cheaper.-

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Mr. Odhner referred to the volumes of sermons used in Sweden and Germany, "Postillas" as they are called, many of which contain Luther's sermons, more or less revised. Swedenborg had commented very favorably on a "postilla" of New Church sermons published by Dr, Beyer. Such a volume ought to be carefully planned and the sermons classified, as into expository, doctrinal, evangelistic, etc. He suggested the arranging of a series of sermons to be written on some single chapter, with the idea of publication, first in the Life and then in a volume.-Mr. N. D. Pendleton testified his conviction that the most spiritual work done in the Church comes through the sermons. Looking back on those preached by our best men he thought we could hardly do better than to make a collection of them.--Mr. Odhner thought we should look to continuity and the unfolding the internal sense.--Mr. Acton doubted whether he for one would feel much inspired to write, when doing it "to order" in the way suggested. He said also, that many of the good sermons of the early days of the New Church would be too wordy for our purpose; he favored taking those that appear in the Life.--Mr. Starkey on the other hand thought that Mr. Odhner's plan had hardly been sufficiently appreciated. He was strongly in favor of continuity in bringing out the internal sense; he liked sermons in series, as being powerful and full. There are certain chapters in the Word of such especial application for the New Church, and so fully expounded in the Writings, that, he thought, to take one of them as suggested would afford food for any congregation and inspiration for any of our ministers who would try to write on texts from it.-It was objected that the use of such a volume of sermons would be limited chiefly to the isolated;--but it was replied that members of societies are liable to need sermons at special times, especially in the summer vacations, etc.; and moreover that the exposition is important to ministers.-Mr. Waelchli thought that the Church would outgrow any special volume of sermons, and that it was not yet ready for Mr. Odhner's plan.--In reply Mr. Odhner illustrated the usefulness of his plan by the series of sermons on the Glorification which had been preached by the various ministers connected with the Academy congregation in Philadelphia, as having been very educational to himself and he thought to others.-Mr. Asplundh suggested that whenever, as sometimes occurs, a society is especially pleased with a particular sermon which they have heard preached, they might contribute something toward the expense of publishing it.-Mr. Waelchli favored publishing at the end of the sermon the prayer offered at the time of preaching it; and perhaps also the reference to the Lessons.

     9. The Council here adjourned, to meet in public session at 3 P. M.

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     PUBLIC MEETING.

     WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON.

     10. The meeting opened at 3 P. M.

     11. The Report of the Treasurer of the General Church, that of the Manager of the Book Room, and that of the Treasurer of the Orphanage were read. (See pp. 452-455.)

     12. Mr. Asplundh read extracts from the report of the Treasurer of the Academy of the New Church.

     From these extracts it appears that a catalogue of the Writings is being prepared by Mr. E. A. Farrington. This catalogue will show, not only what editions are now in the library, but also all the editions, in all languages, which have ever been issued.--The photo typing of the first volume of the Spiritual Diary has been completed at a total cost, including paper for the next volume, of $2,496.63, of which the Academy's share is one fifth, or $499.38.

     THE CALENDAR.

     13. The question as to whether the Calendar for Daily Reading in the Word and the Writings is sufficiently used to warrant the cost and labor of production, and whether, therefore, it should be continued, was taken up and discussed.

     Mr. Asplundh stated that about 100 copies of this year's Calendar have been sold, but he thought that at least half that number had been taken by those who wished to help the use, rather than to read the lessons.--On the other hand it was suggested that most of those copies that are in use represent a number of persons using each copy.--Mr. Pitcairn testified to the use the Calendar had served in the past in assisting to form the habit of daily reading in the Writings; but he thought that the same necessity does not now exist. (In response to his call for a show of hands only a minority of those present recorded themselves as now following the Calendar.)--Mr. Asplundh said that it was used mostly by those who have no children; those who have them had found it not well adapted to family worship.--Mr. N. D. Pendleton said that the seriatim reading of the Arcana according to the Calendar had played an important part in his theological education. Later there had been a general falling off in the reading. He thought that there are times when we can do certain things which later fall into disuse as not meeting the state. These may nevertheless be revived again when the state is ready for them. He had been expecting to see the Calendar taken up again. If we do stop for a year or two, there may be a revival then, though he did not advise stopping for such a purpose. At all events we ought to continue recognizing the use, and if we do stop now, look forward to resuming it later.-

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Mr. Waelchli also recognized the use of the Calendar in the past; the time had now come in which it might be dropped, but he thought we could not expect to revive it. Conditions had changed, and people had adapted their family worship more to the children; a great deal of care had been taken in selecting from the Writings for this purpose, preference being given to those portions relating to the other world.-The Bishop spoke of the opening there was for a perpetual Calendar, as promising to be of great use to the Church. If there should be a suspension now, the revival might come in that form.-Mr. Acton remembered that when the Calendar reading was first inaugurated there was much enthusiasm, but subsequently many had confessed to having failed to keep up the reading. To suit some readers the lessons had been made very short, and for others the recommendation had been made that they read up the references where these were given, but this makes it study rather than worship. He considered the Writings not well adapted to Calendar reading in family worship, as they excite the rational thought, and a limit cannot well be placed on the length of the lessons so as to suit all. You cannot force people to read just certain portions and no others. The main thing is to teach the people to read the Writings; then leave it for individuals to apply, allowing for differences in taste and state. He thought it would be very well to have a Calendar of lessons to be read in Sunday worship by the pastors of societies. This would meet the idea of choirs. For family worship, he suggested dropping the lessons from the Writings, and having a perpetual calendar of lessons from the Word.--Mr. Reginald Brown questioned whether the Calendar was well adapted for reading in worship with children.--The Bishop said that the Writings were better adapted for individual reading than for family worship.--To Mr. Caldwell's suggestion that the Calendar might be published in the Life, it was returned that it is much more practically convenient to have it in card form.-Mr. Asplundh favored a perpetual calendar of readings from the Letter of the Word, with quotations from the Writings bearing on the internal sense. It would not matter then if one fell behind in the reading.-The Bishop pointed out that in the Calendar as already published a portion is given to the Letter. The idea had been to read right through the Writings in chronological order as published by Swedenborg. He had heard gratification expressed at the opportunity thus afforded to read the Writings through. To stop now would interrupt the course, and this had restrained those who had been inclined to abandon the plan.--Mr. Acton said that perhaps he had spoken rather strongly in disparagement. He recognized the use of the Calendar to the isolated. In this way some are acquiring the Writings, a volume at a time. Under the circumstances it would be best not to leave the course unfinished. It is a good rule when we have determined on a course of conduct, to keep on with it except for very good reasons.--Mr. Odhner pleaded strongly for the Calendar as one of the institutions which had characterized the Church from the beginning. He asked, Have we outgrown our interest in reading the Writings?

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Is the family worship for the use of the children only? If we should attempt to give up the Calendar we would hear cries of distress from the distance. We must not forget the doctrine of choirs. Let us help those who cannot read the Writings on independent lines; others are free to use their own selections.-Mr. Acton suggested that there are no parts of the Writings that are of interest for children, which will not be of interest to adults also. He did not think the number of Calendar readers was any indication as to how many read the Writings.--Mr. Pitcairn said it was not well to put a false conscience on ourselves with respect to following the Calendar.--Mr. Bowers, being questioned, regretfully admitted that not many among the isolated follow the Calendar. He had tried to get them to do so, but people do not readily take up the practice of regular daily reading of the Writings. Some of the isolated, however, do read.--Mr. Glenn spoke of some having given up following the Calendar because of the pressure brought to bear upon them by the necessity for reading so much at a certain time, under all circumstances. This he thought was approaching the use from the wrong side; it brings in perfunctoriness, which destroys the use. Times, states and conditions vary; trains have to be caught, business engagements press, etc. At other times, where there is no pressure, persons often want to read more than the amount of the lesson. The great thing is, the habit of reading rather than the amount. We should hardly develop the greatest rationality by fixing requirements too rigidly. He had observed a sphere of condemnation for the man who did not read according to the Calendar. Still, if there were twenty persons who believed that they would benefit by keeping on with the Calendar he considered it would be well worth the money to continue it.--Mr. Starkey thought that to some persons the necessity to keep up with a set course, acts as a stimulus and aid.--Mr. Acton said that the soul of the Calendar movement is that it leads the members to go to the Lord every day.

     The question was raised during the discussion whether this meeting was competent to take action in the matter, and Bishop Pendleton replied that it was. At the conclusion he said that he took it to be the sense of the meeting that the publication of the Calendar should be continued.

     THE ATTENDANCE OF CHILDREN AT THE HOLY SUPPER.

     14. The usefulness of the presence of the children at the Holy Supper was discussed.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton spoke of the custom of having children present at the Holy Supper, and brought up the question of its usefulness. He understood that Bishop Benade had approved of it. Some exclude the children, thinking that they would regard it with greater reverence if it were not made common. He rather favored having none but communicants present, but recognized that there were arguments on the other side. He wished to hear from the other ministers, in order that he might know whether there were definite reasons for or against the custom.-

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Mr. Synnestvedt considered it a case for being guided by "symptoms." If it works well then it is a good thing. In each society it would have to be decided from the experience of parents and pastor by observation. He himself regarded the attendance of children as highly beneficial; he had been surprised to find the interest they took in it. The act is one of those very ultimate things which we are taught is especially potent with children; they are powerfully impressed with the sphere. But if it were found that they were getting careless about it, it would then be best to leave them out. We could not compel a state of reverence and appreciation of holy things.-Mr. Waelchli also testified to the benefit and deep impression which the Holy Supper made upon children, as he had discovered while teaching the children in the schools; and he had found that they recognized with pleasure and reverence the words used in the service, when met elsewhere. No doubt Remains are implanted then. He added that he was not in the habit of asking children to be present at the Communion when held as a special and separate service.--The Bishop agreed that there should be no constraint about it; but when the young wish to be present he favored their being permitted,-he did not refer to very little children. He added that, as Bishop Benade had said, children are very sensitive to spheres.--Mr. N. D. Pendleton explained that the subject had arisen in his mind especially as the result of their experience at the service held in Glenview on the afternoon of the "19th." No children had been present, and the sphere had been so particularly strong, peaceful and affecting, that some had asked whether it would not be better to leave the children out always.--Mr. Acton thought that the effect on children was analogous to that made by the letter of the Word and the external things of the Church.--Mr Synnestvedt said that unless the children can be trusted to be quiet they ought to be left at home; we ought to celebrate the Supper in a peaceful state, and without any sphere of anxiety in any way.--Mr. Odhner appreciated the great use of the object lesson afforded by the Holy Supper, but it might be well to consider that the essential use is for the adult--it is the marriage supper of the Lord with His Church. He would not exclude the children, nor make an effort to have them come.-The Bishop remarked that it may be well at times to have the administration exclusive; it would not do to push the matter too far either way.-Mr. N D. Pendleton referred to the children being apt to imitate the ceremony;--but the Bishop advised that in such cases and in other forms of playing at worship, they should be left alone, except when something intrudes which needs to be corrected.

     15. The meeting adjourned.

     In the evening a Men's Meeting was held, at which the topic of discussion was "The Idea of Eternity in Marriage," as suggested meeting surpassed by Spiritual Diary, n. 6110. In the speeches and the sphere the meeting surpassed any previous meeting of the same kind.

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     COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY.

     THURSDAY MORNING, June 27th.

     15. After the usual opening worship the question of Organization of the Council into Classes was taken up. After some discussion, in which opportunity was given to the members to express their preferences for particular departments, the following classes were formed:

     I. Exposition of the Word. Bishop Pendleton; Revs. Czerny, N. D. Pendleton, and Keep.

     II. Doctrine. Rev. Alfred Acton; Revs. Odhner, Starkey and Cronlund; Candidates Stroh and Caldwell.

     III. Church History. Rev. C. Th. Odhner; Revs. E. C. Bostock and A. Acton.

     IV. Ritual. Bishop Pendleton; Revs. de Charms, Starkey and Keep.

     V. Education. Rev. H. Synnestvedt; Revs. Bostock, E. S. Price, F. E. Waelchli, C. E. Doering, D. H. Klein, Reg. W. Brown, and H. B. Cowley; Candidate Stroh.

     VI. Science. Rev. C. E. Doering; Rev. R. W. Brown, and Candidate Stroh.

     VII. The Priesthood. Rev. F. E. Waelchli; Revs. Bostock and Synnestvedt.

     VIII. Evangelization. Rev. J. E. Bowers; Revs. Waelchli and Cronlund.

     IX. Sacred Languages and Biblical Science. Rev. E. S. Price; Revs. D. H. Klein and E. J. Stebbing.

     16. Rev. Andrew Czerny read a paper on the Visibility of Divine Truth, and the Glorification of the Human, which was discussed at some length.

     In connection with the foregoing subject, Mr. Synnestvedt referred to a former discussion concerning the showing of pictures of the Lord to children; and he asked whether it would not be better to say to them "This is like the Lord," rather than, "This is the Lord."--Mr. N. D. Pendleton did not like the former expression, saying that thus you suggest a doubt to the child. There was no use trying to teach a child distinctions it cannot comprehend.--Mr. Synnestvedt thereupon pointed out the importance of having the best possible representations of the Lord. Thorwaldsen's statue was spoken of with great appreciation, although the wounds in the hands were considered a drawback.-

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Mr. Price described the introduction of a small copy of that statue into the service in a Swedish New Church service, in Stockholm. He wondered whether we had not exaggerated the evil of graphic images. In ancient times they were used in place of writing. Is there not a possible use of the graphic which we might employ?--Mr. Acton thought that the Protestant objection to the use of statues, etc., in worship, a good one, as regards adults.--The Bishop referred to the teaching that the simple may think of the Lord on the cross. It is most important to have some ultimate idea of the Lord as the visible God.

     17. The meeting adjourned.

     PUBLIC MEETING

     THURSDAY AFTERNOON.

     18. The first subject taken up was that of Pastoral Visiting

     PASTORAL VISITING.

     Mr. Keep said that he desired to hear a discussion of the scope of private pastoral instruction, especially with reference to pastoral visiting. According to his idea it is in this way that people can best be instructed in private, on matters which have been broached in public, and on matters of a personal nature. He spoke of the great use, benefit and encouragement which it is to the pastor to come thus closely into touch with his flock, individually, and of the beautiful sphere of freedom and cordiality which it introduces. Without this individual contact a pastor's work must fail, and the opportunity for this should be kept uppermost by the pastor in making his calls. A visit in which there has been no instruction on spiritual things has not fulfilled its highest end. The people can hardly realize the help which it is to a pastor to have them come to him in an intimate way in order that he may assist them to apply more particularly to their individual needs the truths which it is his function to provide The evening Doctrinal Class does not meet the need, for many there hesitate to bring forward their private interests and concerns; some are timid and suppose their affairs are too trifling to be brought up before the class; and there are some things which are essentially private The most interior benefit in the pastoral work, for the people, is involved in their realizing the spiritual benefit that is possible in this opening up of individual states. The pastor's visits, therefore, he thought, ought to be considered as something more than social intercourse; there is always time for relaxation of that sort, and it should not be allowed to usurp the place of more interior functions.--The Bishop said that in former days there had been a prejudice against pastoral visiting; it had been said in the old Minister's Conference that it was the "greatest humbug of the age." It was said that our ministry was a student ministry, and that they need the time for study of the Doctrines and of the Word and of whatever will subserve their function.

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When they have attended to these duties they need relaxation and recreation. They had rebelled against the perfunctory visiting and praying with the people. The truth, however, lies between the extremes. Later the use had been admitted, with a confession that we had gone too far in the other direction. Conversation on the Doctrines is certainly useful, but the merely social feature is not of so much importance. It is a question of how to develop the sense of what such visits should be like. It is an important means of instructing and educating the people.--Mr. Odhner said that visiting is a powerful means of evangelizing, especially among people not very well instructed in the Doctrines, as in a town where the New Church circle is small and the pastor in calling upon his flock is likely to come into contact with others; in this way he will get more results than from lectures. But for a society well-advanced in the teachings there is less need for calls, except among the simple, with whom the personal element has a powerful effect,--those who are on the outskirts and feel that they are not so much wanted. But it is only preparatory for other work.
ILLUSTRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD 1901

ILLUSTRATION OF THE PRIESTHOOD              1901

     19. The Rev. C. Th. Odhner read the following paper:

     IS IT ESSENTIAL THAT A PRIEST BE A REGENERATING MAN?

     This question has lately been brought to the attention of the Church, and has led to a lively and-interesting discussion which really involves the whole doctrine concerning the Priesthood.

     To the writer and others it seemed at first that this question re-opened the old controversy as to whether the effectiveness of the teachings of a minister depends upon the degree of his own regeneration,--in other words, whether the minister's personal experiences in the regenerate life are of equal value with the Lord's Revealed Truth. In this aspect the affirmative of the question seemed utterly repulsive and self-evidently false and absurd.

     On a closer examination, however, it has become evident to the writer that wider issues are involved in the new question than in the old one; that it does not refer to the effectiveness of the priest's ministrations in the external performance of his use, but to the internal conditions with the priest himself upon which depends the nature and degree of his own reception of the Holy Spirit.

     The question, in its real purport, is of course: Is it essential that a priest be a regenerating man in order that he may be truly a priest? For it is self-evident that a priest, as a man, must necessarily be a regenerating man, in order that he may be saved. In this respect there can be no difference whatever between a priest and any other man.

     The question, therefore, amounts really to this: Can an evil man be a priest?! To this, the Doctrines of the Church answer both Yes and No! He can, and he cannot.

     Clearly, there are two sides to this question, as, indeed, to every question.

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And for this very reason there are in the Writings two "classes of passages" on this subject, two distinct and very emphatic general teachings which, at first sight, may seem to contradict one another, but which, in the light of a third "class," are seen to be in perfect internal harmony.

     What then are the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines on this subject?

     1. What is meant by the "priesthood," and by "priests?"

     "The priesthood was a representative of the Lord as to the work of salvation, for this was from the Divine good of His Divine love. A. E. 31:6, 375.

     "Priests are called 'ministers' because they represented the Lord as to the good of love." A. E. 155, 444(6), 527, etc.

     "...The same may appear from the representatives which exist even at this day; for all kings, whosoever they are and of whatsoever quality, by virtue of their royalty represent the Lord; in like manner all priests, whosoever and of whatsoever quality they be, by virtue of the Sacredotal." A. C. 3670.

     From these teachings, then, it is clear that the priesthood is at this day, as it ever was, a representative office, and that it represents the Lord in His Divine work of Salvation.

     2. By what means does the Lord extend His Salvation to men? Evidently, by His own Divine Presence with them. But how is He present with men? Is He present immediately, in His own essential Divine? No, but by means of the Holy Spirit, which is the Divine Truth or the Word, and which is also the Divine Virtue and Operation. Hence we learn:

     "The Divine Virtue and Operation which are meant by the Holy Spirit, are, in general, reformation and regeneration and justification; and according to these, purification from evils and remission of sins, and finally Salvation." T. C. R. 142.

     3. How, then, does the Holy Spirit come from God to men, bringing salvation unto them? The Doctrines answer:

     "The Holy Spirit, proceeding from God by His Human, passes through the angelic Heaven into the world, thus through angels to men. It passes thence through men to men, to the Laity." Canons. (The Holy Spirit, iii., iv.)

     4. The Clergy being thus the "chief" (though not the only instrumentality in this world by which the Holy Spirit and Salvation proceed to the men of the Church, the question arises: By what special gifts and graces is the Clergy thus enabled to serve in the work of Salvation?

     "The Divine Virtue and Operation, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, with the Clergy especially, is Illustration and Instruction. The Lord's operations enumerated above, as well with the Clergy as with the Laity, flow in from the Lord and are received by those who are in the Lord and the Lord in them, but that [with the Clergy] there are especially Illustration and Instruction, is because these are of their of their office, and inauguration into the ministry carries them with it." T. C. R. 146.

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     In addition to these two there are [with the Clergy] two intermediate ones, which are Perception and Disposition; wherefore there are four things which follow in order with the Clergy: Illustration, Perception, Disposition, and Instruction. The Illustration is from the Lord. The Perception is with the man according to the state of his mind as formed by doctrinal things: if these are true, the perception becomes clear from the light which illustrates; but if these are false, the perception becomes obscure, although it may appear as if clear by virtue of confirmations, but this is from a fatuous light, which before the merely natural sight is similar to clearness. But the Disposition is from the affection of the love of the will; the delight of this love is what disposes....The Instruction follows as the effect from these things as causes. Thus Illustration, which is from the Lord, is turned into various lights and into various colors with each one, according to the state of his mind." T. C. R. 155.

     5. These, then, are the spiritual and especial gifts which the Lord grants to His servants in His priesthood, in order that they may receive and communicate to others the Holy Spirit by which alone Salvation is effected. But the question immediately arises: do all priests receive these gifts alike, or in the same measure and degree! Does the reception of the Divine Influx depend, even with priests, upon the condition of the recipient vessels!

     "The Holy Spirit, that is, the Divine Proceeding, is never of man, but is constantly of the Lord with him. Hence it does not inhere, and it does not remain, except so long as. the man who receives it believes in the Lord, and at the same time is in the Doctrine of Truth from the Word, and in a life according to it." Canons. (Holy Spirit, iv: 4.)

     "That a clergyman, because he is to teach Doctrine from the Word concerning the Lord, and concerning Redemption and Salvation from Him, is to be inaugurated by the promise of the Holy Spirit, and by the representation of its transfer; but that it is received by the clergyman according to the faith of his life." Canons, ibid 7.

     6. We have here direct and conclusive evidence on the point in question. The teaching does not refer only to the reception of the Holy Spirit by any and every man in general, but to the Clergy in especial, and to the clergyman not only in his personal, but also and distinctly in his official capacity. His reception of the Holy Spirit, as a clergyman, depends not only on his intellectual faith and doctrine, but on the faith of his life, and on his life according to that faith. Inauguration into the office does, indeed, bring with it the presence of the Holy Spirit, but it does not inhere, and it does not remain with him, except so long as he (a) believes in the Lord, (b) is in the Doctrine of Truth, and, (c), is in a life according to it.

     7. If, then, the reception and permanence of the Holy Spirit with a clergyman depends upon the "faith of his life," and consequently upon his "life," does it follow, that an evil priest, by his evil life, really deprives his flock of the means of salvation, as far as he is concerned? In other words, Is the salvation of the people in any sense dependent upon the personal regeneration of the priest?

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     Assuredly not, for it is clear that the ultimate salvation of any man is dependent, essentially, upon his own desire for it, and upon it alone. The Lord does not suffer His salvation to be thus circumscri6ed by finite environments, and He has therefore placed the essential means of salvation beyond the destroying hand of any human agency. Not only are the Word and the Doctrines open to every one,--if not in this world, at least in the next, but, even in the hand of an evil priest, the Word and the ultimate things of the Church are just as holy and just as efficacious for salvation, as in the hand of a good priest.

     It is to be noticed, moreover, that the teaching in the Canons is not that the Holy Spirit cannot be received even by an evil priest, but that the Holy Spirit is received according to the faith of his life. Now, "life," and the "faith of life," may be either internal or external, real or assumed. Hence an evil priest, who assumes a holy external, and who professes and simulates a holy faith of life, is able to receive the Holy Spirit into those most external vessels in his mind which still are in some degree of order, and is hence able to transmit it, in full, to others. We say "in full," because a man, be he ever so good, cannot add one iota to the fullness or holiness of the Holy Spirit.

     8. If, then, even an evil priest can receive and transmit the Holy Spirit, would it not follow that it is not essential that a priest be a regenerating man, in order that he may be truly a priest! The answer of the Doctrines is, No! For with an evil priest the Holy Spirit does not inhere, and does not remain. And the reason of this is, that such a priest is destitute of that primary and essential priestly gift which as an inmost soul enters into and qualifies his entire use, the gift of genuine illustration.

     The Doctrine is plain and unmistakable:

     "Those are completely deceived who believe they are in illustration while reading the Word, when yet they have as an end honor, gain, and reputation." A. C. 10551.

     Does not this refer especially to a clergyman? Who else is apt to derive "honor, gain, and reputation" by his theological studies?

     "There is the Intellectual of the Church, when a man reads the Word and carefully compares one thing with another, and then perceives thence what is to be believed and what is to be done; this does not fall to the lot of anyone except those who are illustrated by the Lord,--and this illustration falls to the lot of no others than such as long to know truths, not for the sake of reputation and glory, but for the sake of life and use....Moreover. they who are regenerate receive from the Lord an Intellectual which is able to be illustrated." A. C. 6222.

     Hence, those who are not in the life of regeneration, not only have no internal sight of Truth, but they do not even have eyes wherewith to see. Again,

     "Doctrine is to be collected from the Word; and while it is being collected, the man must be in illustration from the Lord; and he is in illustration when he is in the love of truth for the sake of truth, and not for the sake of self and the world.

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These are illustrated in the Word while reading it, and see truth, and make doctrine therefrom. The reason this is so, is that such persons communicate with Heaven, thus with the Lord; and so, being enlightened by the Lord, they are led to see the truths of the Word such as they are in Heaven; for the Lord flows in through Heaven into their understanding; for it is the interior understanding of man that is illustrated." A. C. 9424.

     And if these teachings be not sufficient, the following will serve to place the question of genuine illustration beyond dispute:

     "They who are in the love of self and of gain cannot possibly do otherwise than 'fill the wells of Abraham with dust,' that is, obliterate the interior truths of the Word by things terrestrial; for from those loves they can in no wise see things spiritual, that is, the things which are of the light of truth from the Lord, inasmuch as those loves cause darkness, and darkness extinguishes the light of truth." A. C. 3413.

     And the rest of the passage, which we will quote further on, shows distinctly that by those who thus fill "the wells of Abraham" with dust, are meant particularly preachers who are evil men.

     9. In startling contrast with these teachings,--yet only an apparent contrast,--comes the general doctrine concerning Representation, as applied to priests as representatives.

     "That in representations the person is not regarded."--A. C. 665, 2010, 4208, 4515.

     "It matters nothing of what quality is the person who represents, if only he be in external worship according to the laws and statutes; for representation does not regard the person but the thing, and with the person it does not require anything more than what is external in worship." A. E. 443.

     "It is a general law of representation, that nothing is reflected upon the person or the thing which represents, but upon that which is represented. As, for instance, every king, whoever he was, in Judah and Israel, nay even in Egypt and elsewhere, could represent the Lord: their Royalty itself is the representative: thus the worst of kings, such as Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, Saul, and other kings of Judah and Israel, of whatever quality they were. Similarly all priests, whoever they were, represented the Lord: the Priestly itself is the representative; similarly the Priests who were evil and unclean, because in the representative things there was nothing reflected upon the person, whatever was his quality." A. C. 1361. (See also A. C. 1409.)

     "...Hence it was that kings, both bad and good alike, represented the Lord's Royalty; and the high-priests, both good and bad alike, when they discharged their office in an external form according to the statutes and commandments, represented the things belonging to the Lord's Divine Priesthood." A. C. 4281.

     "That it is a thing of indifference what be the quality of the man who represents, whether he be evil or good, and that evil men may alike represent, and did represent the Lord's Divine, may be seen, Nos. 665, 1097, 1361; the same may appear from the representatives which exist even at this day; for all kings, whosoever they be, and of whatsoever quality, by virtue of their Royalty represent the Lord.

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In like manner all priests, whosoever, and of whatsoever quality they be, by virtue of their Priesthood. The royalty and the priesthood are holy, whatever be the nature and quality of the person who ministers therein. Hence it is that the Word, when taught by a wicked person, is equally holy as when taught by a good person, and also the Sacrament of Baptism and the Holy Supper, and the like. Hence, also, it may appear that no king can in any way claim to himself anything of the Holy which belongs to his royalty, nor any priest anything of the Holy belonging to his priesthood. In proportion as either claims anything thereof to himself, or attributes it to himself, in so far he is a spiritual thief, and brands himself with the mark and character of a spiritual theft; and also, in proportion as he does evil, that is, acts contrary to what is good and true, in the same proportion a king puts off the representative of Holy royalty, and a priest the representative of Holy priesthood, and represents the opposite."--A. C. 3670.

     "[Evil priests] can have no communication with Heaven in themselves; but they who hear and apprehend the words which these speak,--provided they are in a pious and holy internal,--do have communication; for it is of no consequence from whom the voice of good and truth flow forth, provided their lives be not manifestly wicked, since this causes scandal." A. C. 4311.

     10. These teachings, therefore, very clearly negative the question whether it is essential that a priest be a regenerating man in order that he may be a priest,--negative it, that is, as far as the merely representative character of the priestly office is concerned.

     "It matters nothing,"--"it is of no consequence," "it is a thing of indifference,"--whether the Driest, as a representative of the Lord, be good, bad, or indifferent. His own goodness does not add, and his own wickedness does not detract anything whatever from the effectiveness of his representative functions. Evil and unclean priests, nay, the very worst of them, can represent the Lord equally well with the best of men. (Even unclean and ferocious beasts, such as lions and eagles, represent the Lord in the Word.) For the representative is merely the instrument and agent, the pen, the voice or the form, which represents, or brings back the presence, and makes actual the presence, of that which is represented. In receiving a message from a friend, it is the message alone which is of any consequence to us. The messenger, or that which brings the message, is of small moment, whether it be a postage-stamp, or a telegraph-wire, or the postman. The agent simply acts according to prescribed order, and requires attention only when interfering with the transmission of the message.

     Thus also with a priest in his merely representative character. The Message which our Lord sends us through him, is His Divine Truth either in the written Word and Doctrine, or in the sermons and the representative ordinances of the Church which are according to the Word and the Doctrines.

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This Message is the same whether it be delivered by a good man 'or a bad one. All that we require, or have a right to require, is that the priest shall deliver the Message as he has received it,--neither detracting therefrom, nor adding to it any notions of his own. The interior character of the messenger is not our concern. The priest's own regeneration is his own affair,--his alone!

     Yet, as we would distrust the honesty of a messenger who is openly and notoriously a thief or a forger or a liar, so we cannot accept as an honest representative of the Lord a priest who openly leads an evil and scandalous life, for we would have no assurance that such a messenger would not tamper with the Divine Message. With this distrust or certainty in our minds, he would no longer represent to us the Lord, but the opposite,--the devil and all his works. (And yet the same priest can represent the Lord to those who do not as yet know him for an evil-doer.)

     All that is required of the priest, in his merely representative character, is therefore that "he should be in external worship according to the laws and statutes," (which means also that he should teach according to the revealed Doctrine); that he "should discharge his office in an external form" according to these statutes, and that his life "be not manifestly wicked, since this causes scandal."

     11. Here we have, then, that "second class" of passages, which, indeed, would be irreconcilable with the "first class," were it not for the existence of a "third class" of teachings from the same Divine Instructor, which explains, reconciles, and harmonizes both. In the second class we taught, as plainly as can be done, that an evil man may represent the Lord in the priesthood,--and thus be a priest--just as well as a good man. And yet, in the former group of passages we are taught just as plainly that an evil man cannot possibly have within him the true light, the genuine illustration, which constitutes the very essential of the priestly gifts.

     In order to solve this enigma, it is as ever necessary to discriminate between what is internal and what is external, and, in this particular case, to distinguish (1) between genuine representatives and were representatives, and (2), between genuine illustration and apparent illustration.

     12. In respect to representatives, the keynote is found in Arcana Coelestia, n. 4288, where we are taught to distinguish between a Representative Church, and the Representative of a Church:

     "There is a Representative Church, when there is internal worship in the external; but there is the Representative of a Church, when there is no internal worship, but still external. In either case there are almost the same external rituals: similar statutes, similar laws, and similar precepts. But in the Representative Church the external things correspond with the internal, so that they make a one; but in the Representative of a Church such correspondence does not exist, because the externals either are without internal things, or else disagree with them. In a Representative Church celestial and spiritual love is the principal thing, but in the Representative of a Church corporeal and worldly love is the principal thing.

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Celestial and spiritual love is the internal itself, but where there is no celestial and spiritual love but only corporeal and worldly love, there the external is without an internal. The Ancient Church, which was after the Deluge, was a Representative Church; but the one that was instituted with the posterity of Jacob, was only the Representative of a Church....Hence it may be manifest what is the distinction between a Representative Church and the Representative of a Church, viz., in general, that those who were of the Representative Church communicated as to their interiors with the three heavens, for which the external things served as a plane; but those who were of the Representative of a Church, did not communicate with the heavens as to their interiors, but still the externals in which they were held, could serve as a plane [for such communication], and this was, miraculously, of the Lord's Providence in order that something of a communication might exist between heaven and man by means of something like a Church, for without the communication of heaven with man by something of a Church, the human race would perish."

     13. Bearing in mind this important distinction, we may understand how it could he that the murderous kings and the unclean priests of Israel could represent the Lord. They did represent, but only by what was most external with them, by means of mere roles assumed and acted out in accordance with prescribed forms, just as an actor represents and carries as a mask a character with which he may not have the least internal sympathy. The Jewish priests, therefore, were not genuine representatives, but mere representatives. They were not true servants of the Lord, but the servants of His servants. They did not represent immediately, but only mediately, at second hand. They were the representatives of representatives, hirelings in the enemy's country, who for the sake of reward were willing to forward the Divine Message which in the first instance had been sent by the Lord's own messenger-servants,--the angels. If a true representative of the Lord had appeared among the Jews, they would have killed him, even as they killed the Baptist, John.

     And thus it is that evil men in any Church may still represent the Lord,--mediately, at second hand. For even the Lord's New Church, internal though it be, is still Representative, being planted in the world of nature which as a whole is a theater representative of the Kingdom of God. Hence truly it may be said, "This world is a stage, and we are the actors in it,"--some truly representing the things of the Lord's Kingdom, making it present again in this mundane sphere,--others, it may be, merely acting it out in form and appearance for the sake of whatever profit they may gain for themselves. Such priests are, like the Jewish priests,--mere representatives of the representative Church,--men who are not internally priests, but who represent the true priesthood,--men who have no genuine illustration within themselves, but who still are able to confirm and develop from their memory, ingenuity and reasoning, what they have received from others,-parrots who can repeat and externally illustrate that which has been given by the Lord through those who are in genuine illustration.

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     14. This brings us to the subject of genuine illustration, versus quasi-illustration.

     Even as we have learned to distinguish between genuine representatives and mere representatives, so the Doctrines teach us to distinguish between genuine illustration and quasi-illustration, the former being spiritual, and therefore real, the latter being merely natural, and therefore only apparent.

     "Truths in the natural man are scientifics and cognitions, from which man can think, reason, and conclude naturally concerning the truths and goods of the Church, and concerning the falsities and evils which are opposite to them, and thence be in some natural illustration when reading the Word; for the Word in the Letter is not understood without illustration, and illustration is either spiritual or natural. Spiritual illustration exists only with those who are spiritual; and they are spiritual who are in the good of love and of charity, and thence in truths; whereas mere natural illustration exists with those who are natural."--A. E. 176.

     "Most persons believe that those are in illustration who can reason about what is good and true, and about what is evil and false, and that their state of illustration is great in proportion to the subtlety and acuteness with which they speak about these things, and at the same time confirm them by many scientifics. Nevertheless, it may be, that they are in no illustration, although in an imaginative and perceptive faculty. They are in some capacity of knowing these things, but in no affection of doing them."--A. C. 4214.

     "A man is illustrated through the Word when his will is good; whereas a man can be instructed, and as it were illustrated through the hearing, when his will is in evil." De Verbo, 13.

     15. An evil man who is a priest may therefore possess three of the priestly gifts mentioned in True Christian Religion, n. 155. He may, nay must, possess the gift of Instruction which belongs to him by virtue of his ordination, and which as the most ultimate use of the priesthood is indispensable in order that his services maybe accepted by anybody. He enjoys the gift of Disposition, from and according to the love in his will, that is, the zeal for his office, and the manifestations of this zeal are almost similar with the good and with the evil. He can enjoy the gift of Perception, according to the truth of the general doctrines of the Church to which he belongs, although this gift, with the evil, is not genuine perception but is described as an "imaginative faculty;" and he can even enjoy a certain degree of Illustration, but only an "as-it-were" or quasi illustration, a natural illustration respecting spiritual things, but not a real one, not a spiritual illustration respecting both spiritual and natural things. Hence the very essential of the Priesthood is absent with him, and he cannot, essentially and really, be a priest.

     16. The state of the understanding does, indeed, qualify the reception of the illustration, but not it alone.

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Even a devil may be elevated to the light of heaven, but only temporarily or momentarily. The state of his will does not permit him to remain in that light. Thus also with an evil man on earth, if confirmed in his evil, for such a one is essentially a devil. The light hurts him, and so he turns himself away from it. His evil love is bound to interfere with the working of his understanding, and to introduce darkness therein, although neither he nor others may be aware of it in this world. The Holy Spirit, or genuine illustration from the Lord, cannot "inhere" and cannot "remain" with such a priest. Nevertheless, he may remain in a natural degree of illustration while in this world, if there be with him a natural kind of love for the priestly use.

     "The affection of use is in general, of two kinds: there is a spiritual affection of use, and there is a natural affection of use; both are similar in external form, but altogether dissimilar in the internal form; wherefore the one is not known from the other by men in the world, but they are well distinguished by the angels in Heaven. For the one is altogether opposite to the other; for the spiritual affection of use brings Heaven to man, but the natural affection of use, without the spiritual, brings Hell. For the natural affection of use is only for the sake of honor and gain, thus for the sake of self and the world as ends, but the spiritual affection of use is for the sake of the Lord and the neighbor."--Div. Love, (A. E.) xvii.

     And this natural affection of use for the sake of evil ends brings with it an energy and a kind of illustration which not only simulates the spiritual, but often, apparently, outshines the energy, illustration, and effectiveness of those who are in a spiritual affection of use:

     "For there are men in the world who perform their functions and offices with much study and labor and ardor,--magistrates, prefects, and officers,--by discharging them with all diligence and industry; priests, and presiding ministers, preaching with ardor as from zeal; authors, writing books with piety, filled with doctrine and learning: and others similarly; and by this also they perform eminent uses to the Church, the country, society and the fellow-citizen. And yet, many do these things from mere natural affection, for the sake of self, in order that they may be honored and elevated to dignities, or for the sake of the world, in order that they may have gain and grow rich. These ends, with some, kindle the affection of performing uses to such a degree, that at times they perform more excellent uses than those who are in the spiritual affection of use."--Div. Love, xvii.

     "The external of man's thought sometimes seems not to be in itself such it: places an agent below itself, which is called the love of means, and instructs it to take heed and watch, so that nothing from its lusts may show itself. This agent, therefore, from the cunning of its chief, that is, the life's love, talks and acts according to the civil things of the kingdom, the moral things of reason, and the spiritual things of the Church. Some do this so craftily and so ingeniously, that no one sees that they are not what they seem to be in speech and act; and at last, from the habit of concealment, they hardly know it themselves. Such are all hypocrites; such are priests who at heart care nothing for the neighbor and do not fear God, and yet preach about the love of the neighbor and the love of God."--D. P. 109.

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     "The impious or wicked can perform uses equally with the good and the pious, yea, with greater fire, for in the uses they regard themselves and the honors as the uses; therefore, to whatever height the love of self climbs, the lust of doing uses for the sake of one's own glory is there set on fire. There is not such fire with the pious or good, unless kindled below by some honor."--D. P. 250.                                             

     17. But whence may evil men possess this remarkable degree of natural and apparent illustration? Not from Heaven, surely, for they are not associated with it, nor from their own spirit-associates in Hell, for no light or illustration, even the most essential, can come from the abode of darkness. The Doctrines answer:

     "Men in the world, who, although they are inwardly devils, are still kept by external bonds in a pretended regard for what is honest and just, and in well-doing, and, in order that they may be so kept, there are adjoined to them spirits who are in simple good: this was the case with the evil who were in the lower region of Heaven before the Lord's Coming, and who then could be impelled to speak truth and to do good from their own self-loves, in like manner as evil priests, nay even the worst, who are inwardly devils, are able to preach the doctrinals of their Church with such ardour and pretended zeal as to move the hearts of the hearers to piety; nevertheless, at the time they are in self-love and in the love of the world; for the thought respecting honor and gain is what universally rules in them, and from that fire they are excited so to preach; the evil spirits with whom they are in association, and who are in like love, and thence in like thought, are what lead them, but to these are adjoined simple good spirits.--A. C. 6914.

     18. Now, if we bear in mind the important teaching that the Holy Spirit or, what is really the same,-illustration-does not inflow immediately from the Lord to man, but mediately, through Heaven, and thence from man to man, we may see how the spiritual association of a man necessarily influences and qualifies his illustration. A good man is conjoined with the angels of Heaven, and the illustration which he receives through them, is therefore direct and permanent. But an evil man has no conjunction with Heaven, and though, while in the sphere of his office, he is associated with "simple good spirits." he still is not conjoined even with them, but they are only adjoined, by means of the evil spirits who for the time are deceiving them by a good appearance. When these simple good spirits are released from the evil ones, the mediate, reflected, and borrowed illustration of the evil priest most necessarily cease. Hence we read:

     [Wicked] "men, who teach, and who reason concerning Divine Truths, have two states: one when they teach and think from Doctrine; the other when they think apart from Doctrine by themselves. While they are in the former state, then they are not in a state from themselves, because they are only in thought from doctrine, and when they are in this state they know not otherwise than that the things which they say are Divine truths; they then take from the memory those things which they speak."--S. D. 5917.

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     "Ministers who are hypocrites are like doors hung on a round hinge, which can open either way; such is their mind, for it can be opened towards Hell or towards Heaven; and when opened toward the one, it is closed toward the other; for, what is wonderful, when they are ministering in holy things and teaching from the Word, they know not but that they believe those things, for the door is then closed toward Hell; but as soon as they return home, they believe nothing, for the door is then shut toward Heaven."--T. C. R. 381.

     "[Evil Priests] who despise the Word and worship nature instead of God, cast faith and charity as it were in a bag behind their back; and whilst they are preaching and teaching they hang it before them as a kind of stomach, like that of a ruminant, from which they select and give out such things as they know will serve for food to the hearers."--T. C. R. 146.

     As a further illustration of the powerful influence of the sphere of one's office,--resulting from the temporary or occasional association and adjunction of simple good spirits,--we would merely refer to the incident related by Swedenborg respecting the atheistic diplomat in the other world, who, as soon as he "put on the priestly garments," immediately began to preach, most zealously and eloquently, the very truth which he had controverted just before. (D. P. 197.)

     19. Innumerable passages may be adduced from the Writings proving the general teaching which we now consider sufficiently established, viz., that the genuine and permanent illustration of a priest depends essentially upon his reception of the Holy Spirit in the faith of a regenerate life, but that nevertheless an evil priest may, for the time being, enjoy a natural illustration, an apparent, quasi illustration, which will enable him to represent the Lord to the people and to feed them with the Bread which to them is the Bread of Life. He can be a priest, even though he be not a regenerating man, but he is a priest only in appearance, only in the merest externals, an actor-priest, not a real priest. And while the Lord, through such a priest, can secure the means of salvation for His people, yet He does not by such a priesthood, lead the Church as a whole onward and forward, into newer and higher planes of the understanding of truth and of the life of good. A "status quo" can be maintained, as in the Jewish Church, but nothing more. The evil priest can only preach from memory. He has no genuine originality, though he mar appear to have. Nothing new and better can through him flow in from the Lord through Heaven. He preaches merely from the illustration of others, and if all the priests of a Church were such, that Church must perish, and a new one must be raised up. An evil priest may indeed preserve all appearances, and continue in apparent usefulness to the end of his days, yet he cannot contribute anything to the increase of the general light; nay, he must necessarily contribute his share to the increase of general darkness, since he "cannot possibly do otherwise than fill the wells of Abraham with dust," that is, obliterate the interior truths of the Word by things terrestrial.

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     Every priest is a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord, but an evil priest cannot possibly be an honest laborer. He has no love for his use, except for the profits he may derive from it. He hates his Master, and he cannot possibly do otherwise than endeavor to do all the harm he can, secretly, surreptitiously, to the vines in the vineyard. The wheat which such a man would sow in the field would still be wheat, but he could not possibly avoid the indulging in the pleasure of mixing tares with it. The real master whom he secretly serves,--the devil within him,--would compel him to do so, as far as he dares.

     In a summary, then, we may say, It is not essential that a priest be a regenerating man, in order that he may be a priest. But it is essential that a priest be a regenerating man, in order that he may be an honest priest, and thus a real and genuine representative of the Lord.

     20. But if this be the case, would it not follow that the Truth, which a good priest teaches, is received by him into his own good, and that thus the truth which we receive from a good priest, is no longer the Lord's Truth, but the truth of the good of the priest, thus the priest's own truth? No!
For though the good which a regenerating priest receives from the Lord does indeed become the new proprium of that priest, still we have nothing to do with the own-hood or individuality of the priest. He still is only a messenger, but an honest messenger. And the Message is not conjoined with him, is not his own message, but is only adjoined to him;--he only carries it,--for the Priesthood with him is still only adjoined. For we are taught:

     "What is Divine cannot be appropriated by man as his own, but can only be adjoined to him, and thereby appears as his own." D. P. 285.

     And again:

     "The Lord's conjunction with man is by means of His Divine Truth, and this, in man, is of the Lord, thus is the Lord, and by no means man's; consequently, it is not man. Man, indeed, feels it as his own, but still it is not his, for it is not united to him, but is adjoined." A. R. 222.

     And finally:

     "As man is finite, the Lord's Divine itself cannot be conjoined to him, but only adjoined; as, for the sake of illustration, the light of the Sun cannot he conjoined to the eye, or the sound of the air to the ear; but only adjoined to them, and thus give the ability to see and to hear." T. C. R. 718.

     Hence, the Truth which a regenerating priest is able to receive through his genuine illustration, is no more his own than is the truth which an unregenerate priest receives through his apparent illustration. But in the latter case it is merely a natural eye that sees, but in the former it is a spiritual eye that sees, and a natural tongue that tells.

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And a natural eye can see but the appearances of things, while a spiritual eye call see real things,--infinite things. Who will accomplish more real good for the Church, an evil man who is a priest, or a good man who is a priest! The former may be zealous, and learned and orthodox, and even intelligent, but the latter alone can be wise. And only a wise priest can be a good priest.

     The Bishop followed the paper by reading the following notes which he had made on the subject, in the order in which he had jotted them down:

     "What is it that makes a priest an efficient instrumentality, and thus an efficient representative of the Lord?

     "What is to keep the proprium of the priest out of the representation, and him from profaning it? Either internal or external restraint, or both.

     "That there is great danger from this source is seen from the Jewish and Christian Churches.

     "What are the means used by the Lord to keep the personality, the proprium of man out of the representation?

     "Priests must not mar the representation and they must labor to make it efficient,--both from conscience.

     "As a teacher of truth the priest speaks from the Lord, and thus represents Him. If he be in good, or in the love of truth for its own sake, he will labor to present nothing but the truth and thus labor to be the efficient representative and thus the efficient servant of the Lord; he will continually seek for the truth, will not think it is his own, or claim it to himself, but will ascribe it all to the Lord. But if he be in evil, or loves the truth only for the sake of himself and his own fame, then when the incentive to do this is removed, he will teach what is false, and lead to evil. This he will do in the other world if not in this, when the inducement to do otherwise is removed.

     "The good priest will stand when temptation comes, and the truth is assailed, but the evil priest will not.

     "The latter has no conscience as to whether a thing be true in itself, but his concern is whether he can make it appear as true. Hence the constant danger of heresy. (See T. C. R. 318.)

     "Heresy, or false teaching, from a man who means well--who has conscience--is of comparatively little hurt, because he does not lead to evil of life.

     "It is therefore essential and vital to the Church that priests be regenerating men, that they be not governed by love of dominion, glory, fame, or the lust of wealth. For these loves in the priesthood have consummated the former churches,--that is, have been the chief and powerful instrumentality in this process. For according to Divine Providence, n. 109, the quality of the internal of thought is in their external of thought, even though it does not so appear; under the heading that the external of man's thought is in itself such as is its internal.

443




     "It is taught in Divine Providence, n. 110, that the true priest 'preaches from love toward the neighbor and from love to the Lord;' then the external of thought is in agreement with the internal and they act as one. That the outside also may be made clean.' His external thought is indeed in a special illustration from which he teaches--i. e., the Lord teaches.

     "When the evil man puts off the garments of a priest" he speaks only what is false. (D. P. 197.)

     "In the presentation and use of the office the priest is acting from an end; if the end be the salvation of souls, all his speech and leading will be modified, qualified and determined in accord with that end: but if the end be self, all his speech and acts in his office will be inwardly infected by this, and also be modified, qualified and determined according to it, when the restraint shall be removed; and he will be continually seeking the removal of the restraint.

     "It must be remembered in this connection that the love of saving souls is a part of the priest and is essential in the representation, the essential of the priest, and without it the priest is only the dead image of a priest.

     "There must be an internal in the representation, and this is that internal--first in the other world, in heaven, and then in the Church, and then in the priest himself. The representation is not complete without this threefold internal,--though it may be in the outward form complete without the third or last.

     "The best way to remove the personality of the priest is for him to shun evils as sins, so that he may not profane the office and destroy the representation.

     "The love of saving souls is also of the Lord. This is the good of the Priesthood. (Life 39.)

     "A true priest and a good shepherd is he that desires that men should live well. (A. C. 250.)

     "Can a priest lead interiorly to that which he does not interiorly see and acknowledge?

     "The priest who is in evil interiorly is interiorly in falsities, and there will be a continual striving for these to come forth.

     "How they undo their work in the other life. (A. C. 724, 4689, 3069, 4799, 8353.)

     "There must be in the Church a hope that the priesthood is in good as a basis of confidence.

     "The good of the priesthood is a part of it, an essential part, without which the structure is not complete. Without this good the Church cannot be perpetuated: for the love of saving souls is the ruling love of the Church and so of the priesthood, and constitutes the internal of the Church, the internal of all its uses.

     "In a spiritual or internal church the Lord is not only present in external worship, but at the same time also in internal worship. (A. C. 4311.)

     "The use of the priesthood is to teach and lead to good. It is better that he himself should believe and love the truth which he teaches. If better, why?

444




     "A priest teaches and leads according to the quality and form of his mind. (T. C. R. 154.)

     "If the truth taught by the priest is the expression of his own good or life he is representing himself and not the Lord, and the truth is profaned.

     "It is admitted that the priest should be a regenerating man, in common with the other members of the Church,--for thus is established an internal of the Church, to which the men in the priestly office contribute their share, which is done by shunning evils and the honest and faithful performance of their use for its own sake, which is for the sake of saving souls.

     "What is the state of special illustration in the priest! It is elevation of the understanding from the common or general affection of truth, which he shares or does not share interiorly. If it were from a particular affection it would be the truth of his own good, and he would be able to teach only what is of his own state.

     "It is stated in Arcana Caelestia, n. 8780, that those who are in the affection of truth from evil, when they read the Word "do not see truths, but the things which confirm the doctrinals of their Church, whether they be true or false."

     "'Man is illustrated by the Lord through the Word, so far as his will is in good, but man can be instructed by hearing, and as it were illustrated, although his will is in evil; and what enters into the understanding of a man whose will is in evil is not within but without him, only in the memory and not in the life.' (De Verbo, n. 13)

     "What is to be guarded against is that the priest does not claim unto himself anything of the holy of his office. (See A. C. 3670.)

     "The evil end of an evil priest is revealed when he is in full freedom. (A. C. 1029.)

     "The teaching that a priest may be in evil and yet perform his use, leaves the matter in doubt, and removes the persuasion as to the state of any individual priest; for it would give him persuasive power or the power of inducing persuasive faith. The internal of men cannot be known with any certainty in this world.

     It is clear, then, that the body of the priesthood should be in good, that good should be the dominant quality, and not evil, that there may be a" internal Church. But at the same time an individual Priest here and there may be interiorly in evil, and yet teach truth, and deceive all, even through the course of his natural life, but not after death. This may be and yet the Church may spiritually flourish.

     Mr. Starkey said that from (New Church) history we could confirm the statement that the evil priest tends and seeks to come into freedom to teach the falsity in which his mind internally is. Not that we can say that any given priest has been interiorly evil as to his ruling end, but some have been for the time being in evils which have destroyed the priestly representation; as these evils have gradually come to the surface, and as the priest came under their sway he began to twist the truth to favor his ends and so disclosed his state.

445


It was next to impossible for them to keep up the masquerade indefinitely.

     Mr. Acton, in elucidation of his position on this subject, said that he wished to emphasize the truth that the salvation of man does not depend upon any man but on the Lord alone. It is of the Divine Providence that He should use good men in His priestly work, because otherwise profanation would be incurred by the priest, and this the Lord ever guards against. In a living Church, such as the New Church is, and as the former churches in their integrity were, the priests were and will be good men; when the churches were devastated the priests were evil men,--it was of Divine permission, in order that they might hasten the devastation--that truth might not be seen and profaned. The whole point of the controversy was, the influence that the interior state of the priest has on his work. When a man has an interior illustration such as all good men have there is a tendency with him to study and acquire truth; but evil men may be brought to the same study and inquiry by external incentives. The tendency of a good priest is to teach the truth,--of an evil priest, to teach falsity. But a priest may have qualities which may be of use to the Church, and the Lord at times provides that such a man may have worldly incentives inciting to see and preach the truth. He did not agree with the statement that an evil priest cannot lead the Church on. He had the ability to go to the Writings and studying these, where the truth is plainly set forth, to derive from them what will lead the Church. Not he, but the Lord leads; and He leads by the external faculties of the man. Every man can elevate the understanding so that he can see the truths revealed in the Writings. An evil priest can be separated from his evils,--can be temporarily elevated above them; then truths can inflow and come to him as in a glorious light, as they did to Paul. The tendency, however, all the time is for him to deny the truth; but the Lord may keep him in the preaching and teaching of the truth, even to the end of his life, or,--what would be more in accord with the usual method of Providence,--till he can be separated from the Church. The Lord does not will that men should become profaners, but still He has led and can lead the Church on, even by evil priests.

     Mr. Starkey drew a contrast between the illustration of a priest wholly occupied with the saving of souls, and inspired by an interior perception of what makes for the genuine--not the mere external--putting away of evils, in truly human freedom on the part of his flock and in an interior perception on his part, of the real spiritual needs of the Church,--as against the merely intellectual perception of truth which one would have who was not in the love of anything but his own fame and gain.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton thought that Mr. Acton's remarks were a clear admission of the truth of Mr. Odhner's position. An evil priest cannot lead the Church,--it is not he but the Lord. Man must either have a genuine illustration or he must pretend to have it. That which is a pretense can never lead, spiritually.

446




     Mr. Acton spoke in elaboration of what he had said. Of himself, an evil priest would lead the Church to hell. But the Lord leads him by the truth outside of himself to lead the Church to Heaven. This is effected by means of the selfish love of that priest. He may get the incentive to study; he will not do it from internal free-will, but will be led by circumstances to do it. It would be shocking indeed to hold that evil is a benefit to the Church. It is in spite of evil that the Lord leads the Church. A good priest, despite his weaknesses, and an evil priest, despite his evils, is made to lead the Church.

     Mr. Odhner said that the shepherd cannot possibly lead his flock unless he goes on ahead. If he only points the way, they will go ahead and leave him out of sight, and he will cease to lead.

     Mr. Potts suggested to this that the priest is to lead them by truth, not by his own good.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton said that a devil may indeed be elevated into the light of heaven so as to see truth, but he believed that there was an essential difference between his sight and that of the good priest. If the view of the truth be merely intellectual there will be nothing expansive about it,--it would not expand and multiply in a devil's mind, in the angel's it will. That is what illustration is,--truth loved with a love sufficient to make it grow and fructify, which can occur with a good man but not with an evil one.

     Mr. Crezny said he had no doubt that the Church would not continue to progress if the priesthood is not good. Paul's work would not have lasted but for the Apostles. He dill not use the Lord's parables but self-derived intelligence. In the end it proved destructive of the Church.

     Mr. Acton emphasized Mr. Potts's remarks. The priest does not lead by good, but he can lend only by truth to good; and this an evil priest can do. As to Mr. Pendleton's point, if it were logically carried out it would destroy the force of many passages which teach the effectiveness there may be in the ministry of an evil priest. The doctrines speak of the wisdom with which an evil man may teach truth. When he descends into his evil his eye is clouded. Still he has eyes and can see if he wills. When the devil, who has been elevated, goes back to his evils he loses what he had seen, forgets it, makes a fool of himself, and denies what he has just been affirming with conviction. But in this world the memory enables the evil man from prudence or external wisdom to hold the truth which he has seen in the light of Heaven, to preach it; and this the Lord permits that by that truth the Church may he led to good. Both the good and the evil may be shepherds, i. e., leaders by truth. He was not a defender of the devil. He only contended that the Lord can protect and lead the Church even under an evil priest; that the Church is not dependent on the regeneration of her priests, but on the regeneration of her members. If they can be led the Lord will lead them. It is a law of heaven that as the Church comes into order it will be more able to cast cut the evil. That is one way in which evil and also unfit priests may be cast out. But still, in the Divine permission an evil priest may lead the Church--yea, and lead it onwards-- to the end of his life.

447




     Mr. Doering asked, Is the illustration of the priesthood an interior or an exterior illustration into the use? Mr. Odhner had in one place brought out the idea that the state of good which is the state of the priesthood does not affect illustration into the office, and in another part of his paper he seemed to say that it did affect it.

     Mr. Acton said that the illustration peculiar to the priesthood,--official illustration.--is external. In addition there is an illustration to the individual, which is internal, an illustration which brings man an internal conviction that the truth is true. This illustration is common to all men who are in good, and according to their good.

     Mr. Pendleton objected to Mr. Acton's definition of the priestly illustration as being external. It is external with those priests who are external; it is according to the vessels which are prepared to receive it.

     Mr. Doering said that he had meant, illustration from without the man into the use of the office; that he understood to be external; but illustration into the good of his life is internal. The illustration from without is from the office of the priesthood which is adjoined to man, while the illustration from within is from the state of the priesthood which is conjoined to man, and external and internal were used in that sense.

     Mr. Odhner said that good is conjoined, truth is adjoined. Food is conjoined with the body when it is appropriated, but light is only adjoined to the eye; it cannot be dissociated from its source.

     20. The Council adjourned to meet at 8 P. M.
PUBLIC MEETING 1901

PUBLIC MEETING              1901

     THURSDAY EVE., June 27.

     21. Rev. J. E. Bowers read a paper entitled "Evangelization."*
     * The paper will appear in another issue of New Church Life.

     Mr. Waelchli, opening the discussion of the subject, wished that the paper had made an application of the distinction which exists between internal and external evangelization among the isolated. That both kinds need to be done is evident. As a Church we have taken up the work of the internal kind, yet we have never lost sight of the importance of the external, and we entertain the hope that we may some time take this up also. Something has been done in this direction from time to time. Mr. Bowers has done considerable among the isolated; and we are glad that this is being done. But the work is attended with many discouragements. It is scattered over a great district. There are some who do not seem much benefitted, or do not appreciate the visits of the missionary. There are others, however, who love the Church and regard the visits as opportunities to enjoy its ministrations and to have its sphere in their homes; though there are probably but few of these.

448


Still it is important that the work should be done. The speaker gave some enjoyable illustrations of cases of isolated receivers among whom he had found a strong love for the Church, and a sincere desire to bring up their children in the same love. He added that although these missionary visits are so useful me can never expect great external results from them. Occasional visiting map feed those who need the Church, but it will do no building up and establishing of societies; the work will barely hold its own. It would be better if the work were divided and there were more men in the field; but even that would not he sufficient. What is essential is that a man be put into a locality centrally located so as to minister frequently to the isolated round about. "Perhaps when we have dioceses, surrounding localities will receive more attention. We have been taking steps in the Berlin Society looking in that direction. We contemplate getting out a pamphlet telling of our work and school, and sending a copy of it to every Newchurchman in Ontario. We already have the prospect of several pupils coming to us from among the isolated, and this increase of numbers will be of great use to our school. Heaven is perfected by numbers, and so with the Church on earth."-Mr. Potts said that though the subject of Mr. Bowers's paper had been given as being that of "Evangelization" very little had been said about evangelization as that term is usually understood. At the same time he recognized the larger sense of the term, as involved in what has been called internal evangelization. But the distinctive meaning of the term as he understood it is the breaking up of fallow ground,--making a beginning or the Church. When the Lord first began to institute His New Church on earth, He made use of an agency which did not exist when He founded the First Christian Church,--namely, the press. Swedenborg never preached a sermon or delivered a lecture. We should be ready to take hints from the Lord's own conduct of the work of evangelization; the press is the most powerful means we can employ; we can get more results by it from the same amount of outlay, than in any other way. Still it does not follow that other agencies are not to be made use of. The time has gone by when people will come to hear a lecture; they are instructed through the press. Yet no doubt there is work to be done by a missionary, but he must be your best man. If you can get at the ministers you can get at everybody. But it is no use whatever to send out into the world a man not equipped for the work. To get a poor man. a cheap man, doesn't pay in business nor in the Church. As to the Academy and the General Church of the New Jerusalem he had this to say: Every general body in the professed New Church has its own use which it is qualified to do, and it is a mistake for that body to attempt to perform a use for which it is not qualified. To speak candidly he did not think it the use of the Academy to do missionary work, and he included himself in thus speaking, for he was of the same stamp.-Mr. Bowers did not agree with Mr. Potts, that Academy men could not perform the work of evangelization.--Mr. Acton said that he was much impressed with Mr. Potts's presentation. It requires the best men to do this work, but they must be men who want to do it.

449


Those who study the Writings most could do it best, but they are interested in internal evangelization. The General Church is more particularly interested in the internal work of building up the New Church, and it cannot afford to decentralize its use. This fact seems to indicate that with the General Church the work which Mr. Potts had alluded to, cannot for the present at any rate, be other than an incidental use. There is need for the General Church to do the work that lies before it. The speaker was pleased with the plan adopted in Ontario.--Mr. Odhner did not believe that external evangelization was not one of the uses of the General Church. As every part and organ of the human body has its own digestive apparatus, by which it is fed immediately, so also every general organization or Church must have its own medium of evangelization by which it provides for its growth. These means will differ according to the quality of each body, but in every general Church, as it grows, the missionary work must become one of the general functions. He had believed, in former times, that there would be a variety of Churches in the New Jerusalem on the basis of a difference in uses, but on resection he had come to regard differences in doctrine and life, and the differences in the genius of men, as the proper lines of demarcation between different churches. As for the General Church of the New Jerusalem, he looked upon it as a complete Church, and as the future representative body of the New Church in this country, and he regarded the priesthood of this Church as fully prepared to perform evangelistic work when opportunity offered. For, after all, the missionary of the New Church was not required or expected to do anything else than to announce the Heavenly Doctrines, pure and unadulterated. He who is well prepared in these Doctrines, is fit to perform any use in the Church.--Mr. Waelchli mentioned as a sample of evangelistic work of "Academy" men, the Brief View of the Heavenly Doctrines,--"one of the best works of the kind ever published."--Mr. Bowers said that it would be very well if Mr. Waelchli's method could be carried out, but the Church is not ready for it. He bore testimony to the fact that two or three visits a year are a great deal better than none. His work had been largely more internal than external evangelization. He had not gone into lecturing in halls, etc., but had visited the isolated. He thought Mr. Waelchli was mistaken in saying that not much was accomplished in this way. It had often been said to the speaker, "If you did not come among us the Church would die out here." The missionary learns very little about the results of his work, but here and there it does come out.-Mr. Potts explained that in describing the missionary work that is generally done he did not refer to such work as Mr. Bowers is doing. He regarded that as pastoral work,--gathering up the scattered sheep and lamps. It is really episcopal in its nature, it is "overseeing." All know how devotedly Mr. Bowers works.--Mr. Bowers instanced a case in Columbus, O., where strenuous efforts had been made by advertising in the papers and otherwise announcing the occasion, to secure an audience for a lecture by him; yet the attendance was only five, not including the Newchurchmen present.

450


This is but one case out of many. "You can't get people out to hear spiritual things. They don't want it."--Bishop Pendleton then announced that in response to his statement that he needed help in the episcopal work and duties connected with it, the Executive Committee had taken action looking to his relief. Mr. Starkey was to give him assistance as Secretary, and for that purpose was to give up the editorship of New Church Life. The Life is to be conducted by Mr. Odhner, with the assistance of Mr. Acton.

     This brought the public meetings to a close.

     FRIDAY MORNING, June 28th.

     22. The meeting was opened with reading from the Word and prayer.

     23. Bishop Pendleton read to the Council a Service which he had prepared during the winter for the projected Liturgy, submitting it for consideration and criticism in detail. The Service as a whole met with general appreciation and approval.

     24. Mr. Synnestvedt was appointed to prepare the Annual Address to the Council, for next year.

     25. The question of Publishing the Minutes of the Council was considered and in that connection the Bishop referred to the use which in this way may be subserved by preserving valuable material which otherwise would be lost; he instanced a valuable paper on the Holy Supper, by Mr. Sewall, which had been published years ago by the American Conference of New Church Ministers in the Journal of that body. It was decided by the Council that publication of such parts of the transactions as would be of public concern and interest was desirable, and the newly appointed Editors of New Church Life were appointed a Committee to cooperate in editing abridged extracts from the Minutes for publication in the Life.

     26. With a few remarks by the Bishop expressing gratification with the meetings, the Council of the Clergy was adjourned.
     GEORGE G. STARKEY, Secretary.

451




     THE CLERGY, OF THE General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1901.


BISHOP.                                        ORDAINED.
Licensed.     2d Degree.          3d Degree.

Rev. William F. Pendleton,
     Huntingdon Valley, Pa.          May, 1872      Sept. 3, 1873      May 9,1888

PASTORS.                                   1st Degree.          2d Degree.
Rev. Leonard G. Jordan, Oakland, Cal.          June 6, 1869     June 6, 1869
Rev. John E. Powers, Toronto, Ont., Can.          May 11, 1873     May 11, 1873
Rev. Richard deCharms, Denver, Colorado          . . . . . . .     Jan. 21, 1877
Rev. Edward C. Bostock, Pittsburg, Pa.          June 6, 1880     Sep. 6, 1885
Rev. Andrew Czerny, Brooklyn, N. Y.               June 10, 1883     Mar. 21, 1886
Rev. Rev. Enoch S. Price, Huntingdon, Valley, Pa. June 10, 1888     June 19, 1891
Rev. Carl Theophilus Odhner, Huntingdon
     Valley, Pa.                               June 10, 1888     June 19, 1891
Rev. Fred. E. Waelchli, Berlin, Ont., Can.     June 10, 1888     June 19, 1891
Rev. Edward S. Hyatt, Parkdale, Ont., Can.     June 10, 1888     June 30, 1889
Rev. N. Dandridge Pendleton, Glenview, Ill.     June 16, 1889     Mar. 2, 1891
Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.     June 19, 1891     Jan. 13, 1895
Rev. Alfred Acton, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.          June 4, 1893     Jan. 10, 1897
Rev. Richard H. Keep, Middleport, Ohio          June 27, 1897     May 22, 1898
Rev. Charles E. Doering, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.     June 7, 1896     Jan. 29, 1899

MINISTERS.
Rev. George G. Starkey, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.     June 3, 1894
Rev. Henry B. Cowley, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.     June 19, 1898
Rev. David H. Klein, Glenview, Ill.               June 26, 1898
Rev. Ernest J. Stebbing, Berlin, Ont., Can.     June 26, 1898
Rev. Emil Cronlund, Philadelphia               Dec. 31, 1899
Rev. Reginald W. Brown, Pittsburg, Pa.          Oct. 21, 1901

CANDIDATES.                              Authorized.
Mr. Wm. B. Caldwell                         June 7, 1900
Mr. Alfred H. Stroh                          June 7, 1900


452




TREASURER'S ANNUAL STATEMENT.
June 15, 1900-June 25, 1901.

RECEIPTS.
Balance on hand June 15, 1900                                        39
Received from:--
Cal.--Ontario                                   $ 1 00
Col.--Denver                                   12 57
Ga.--Macon                                        20 00
Ga.--Valdosta                                   100 00

Ill.--Chicago and Glenview                         122 60
Ill.--Rockford                                   25 00
Ill.--Sandoval                                    1 70
Kan.--Lindsborg                                    3 00
Md.--Baltimore                                    3 50
N. Y.--New York                                   46 50
N. Y.--Rochester                                    1 00
Ohio--Bainbridge                                   10 00
Ohio--Columbiana                                    7 50
Ohio--Greenford                                   20 50
Ohio--Givens                                   3 00
Ohio--Middleport                                   57 59
Ohio--Waverly                                    3 00
Penna.--Allegheny                                   10 00
Penna.--Allentown                                   22 60     
Penna.--Erie                                   6 00
Penna.--Jeffries                                    6 00
Penna.--Johnstown                                    5 78
Penna.--Harrisburg                              26 00
Penna.--Huntingdon Valley                         1617 97
Penna.--North Bend                              3 00
Penna.--Philadelphia                              210 00
Penna.--Pittsburg                                   111 15
Penna.--Scranton                                   8 00
Penna.-Westown                                   2 00     
Penna.-Williamsport                              3 00
Neb.--Omaha                                        3 00
W. Va.--Greysville                              1 00
Texas--Houston                                   25 00
Canada--Berlin and Waterloo                         183 40
Canada--Colbeck                                    2 00


453



Canada--Milverton                                   2 00
Canada--Toronto                                   36 35
Canada--Wellesley                                   2 00          2724 71
New Church Life, received from subscribers          393 98
New Church Life, aid from Academy                    1000 00     1393 98
                                                       4119 08
EXPENSES
Bishop's Salary, 1 year                              2000 00
Bishop's Traveling Expenses                         181 79
A. H. Stroh, Traveling Expenses to North Bend          11 00     
Missionary Uses--
F. E. Waelchli, balance from last year               35 00
J. E. Bowers, balance from last year               25 00     
J. E. Bowers, services for year                    100 00

Printing Treasurer's Quarterly Reports, Circulars, etc.     42 00
Postage on Correspondence                         14 13
Assembly Journal, Stenographer                    45 00
New Church Life--
     Printing                                        1013 67
     Editor's Salary                              600 00     4067 59

Balance on hand                                             51 49
                                                            4119 08
ACCOUNTS DUE JUNE 30TH, 1901.

Bishop's Salary for June                         166 67
Editor's Salary for June                         50 00
Printing June Life                              64 62
                                                        281 19
Cash on hand                                              51 49
Present Deficiency                                        229 80

CARL HJ. ASPLUNDH, Treasurer.

Examined and found correct.
     JOHN A. WELLS,
     R. M. GLENN,
          Auditing Committee.

454




     REPORT OF ACADEMY BOOK ROOM.

     In presenting the report of the Academy Book Room the Manager of the Book Room desires to report the following:

     During the year the following Academy Publications have been disposed of:
38 copies           Odhner's Life of Swedenborg.
6      "          Life of Hindmarsh.
130     "          Brief View of the Heavenly Doctrines.
18     "          Book of Doctrine.
7      "          Burnham's Discrete Degrees.
1      "          Benade's Conversations on Education.
28     "          Psalmody.
75     "          Parts of Psalmody.
63     "          Liturgy.
5      "          Words for New Church (3 vol. I, 2 vol. II).

     And merchandise to the amount of $738.43 has been sold, consisting of the Writings of the New Church and works not published by the Academy.

     During the year the Book Room has published in book form A Biography of Wilkinson, by C. Th. Odhner, reprinted from New Church Life. As this has been brought out recently there have been no sales as yet.

     The Annals of the New Church, of which 18 parts have been published, has now reached the year 1850, and the compiler, Rev. C. Th. Odhner, Considers this period proper for the finishing of the first volume, which consists of 575 pages. An index is now being prepared, after which the volume will be bound. Owing to other pressing duties the compiler has found it necessary to discontinue the publication for the present.

     The second volume of the Psalmody has been resumed by the publishing of fascicles 1 to 3, comprising Psalms 51 to 55.

     The progress of this work has been very slow for several reasons; one has been that there is no special demand for any additional new music, as the Church seems to have been amply supplied by the 50 Psalms already published. The needs of the Church in the future must, however, be considered. The work of composition is, therefore, being carried on, and the Psalms are being printed consecutively. Thus far Psalm 56 has been reached. This Psalm will be published in a short time and it is hoped that others will follow at intervals.

     A Book of Songs, compiled by A. H. Stroh, has been published during the year.

     The reading Calendar has been published for the year, but the cost of printing has not been covered by the sales. It will, therefore, be necessary to decide whether this should be continued.

     Miss Beekman's Spectrum Analysis has also been published under the auspices of the Book Room and the expenses of the publication have been covered by a private individual.

     Bryn Athyn, June 25, 1901.      CARL HJ. ASPLUNDH, Manager.

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     REPORT OF THE TREASURER OF THE ORPHANAGE.

The contributions received for the Orphanage Fund during the year ending June 1, 1901, were as follows:

1900.
July 3d.      From Mr. C. H. Asplundh, Bryn Athyn contributions      $179.82
Nov. 8th     From Miss Lydia Rhodes, Greenport, Ohio               2.00
     8th      From Miss Mary Rhodes     "           "                    1.00
     12th      From Mrs. Charles S. Smith, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.     5.00
Dec. 11th     From the McCandless Family, Pittsburg, Pa.          3.00
     27th      From Mrs. F. O. Breitstein, Brooklyn, N. Y.          1.00

1901.
Jan. 15th     From Mr. C. H. Asplundh, Bryn Athyn contributions     54.95
     17th     From Walter C. Childs, Yonkers, N. Y.                 5.75
     17th     From Mr. Arthur T. Maynard, Glenview contributions     2.30
June 4th.      From Mr. George T. Scott, Waterloo contributions     21.15
4th.     From Mr. P. Bellinger, Toronto contributions           3.00
     10th.      From Mr. C. E. Lindrooth, Denver                     2.00
     15th      From Mr. C. H. Asplundh, Bryn Athyn contributions     7.12
Total                                                       $288.09

     The above amount is deposited with the Seaman's Bank for Savings, No. 74 Wall street, New York City.

     The following gentlemen are acting as local collectors:

Mr. C. K. Asplundh, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Mr. P. Bellinger, 226 Dunn Ave., Parkdale, Ontario, Canada.
Mr. Robert B. Caldwell, 919 Carnegie Building, Pittsburg, Pa.
Dr. S. B. Hanlin, Middleport, Ohio.
Mr. A. E. Lindrooth, 822 I7th St., Denver, Cole.
Mr. Arthur T. Maynard, Glenview, Ill.
Mr. George Scott, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Mr. Charles D. Weirbach, Commonwealth Building, Allentown, Pa.
New York, June 17, 1901. WALTER C. CHILDS, Treasurer.

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STATISTICAL TABLE.

General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1901.

Societies.                    Pastor.               Members     Average
Attendance
Allentown, Pa.                Rev. A. Acton               11          16
Baltimore, Md.                Rev. E. R. Cronlund                     15
Berlin, Ont.                Rev. F. E. Waelchli          61          74
Brooklyn, N. Y.               Rev. A. Acton               9          9
Bryn Athyn, Pa.               Rev. H. Synnestvedt           82          111
Chicago and Glenview          Rev. N. D. Pendleton           71          70
Denver, Col.                Rev. R. DeCharms                13          17
Erie, Pa.                                              12          20
Middleport, O.                                         32          25
Parkdale, Ont.                Rev. E. S. Hyatt                29          44
Philadelphia, Pa.           Rev. E. R. Cronlund          30          27
Pittsburg, Pa.               Rev. E. C. Bostock          46          51
Isolated Members                                        182
Total                                                  578          479


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EVANGELIZATION.* 1901

EVANGELIZATION.*              1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Vol. XXI. SEPTEMBER, 1901. No. 9.
     * Read before the Council of Ministers on Thursday, June 27th, 1901.

     "And as ye go, evangelize, saying: The kingdom of the heavens is at hand." Matth. x:7.
     "Evangelization is annunciation concerning the Lord, His Advent, and concerning the things which are from Him, which belong to salvation and eternal life." A. C. 9925.

     THE Church is the Lord's kingdom, or heaven, on the whole earth. Everything of the Church is from the Lord, and indeed from His Divine Human. The Church on earth is the foundation of the angelic heaven. The Church is in conjunction with heaven as an external with an internal, or as a body with a soul; and therefore the Church and heaven together make one by correspondence, the Lord's eternal kingdom with the angels and with men.

     Since heaven is a kingdom of uses, the Church cannot be established on the earth, except by means of the performance of uses. Evangelization involves all the uses which constitute the Church, by virtue of which the Church exists, and which the men of the Church can ever accomplish. All things of evangelization are comprehended in the Divine admonition to the disciples: "And as ye go, evangelize, saying: The kingdom of the heavens is at hand."

     The Church of the New Jerusalem began to be formed in the year 1770, after the Lord had sent out the apostles into the whole spiritual world, to preach the everlasting gospel that the Lord God Jesus Christ reigns, Whose kingdom shall endure for ages of ages. The establishment of the Lord's kingdom among men has since proceeded steadily, and no ground that has ever been really gained by the principles of the Church in human minds, has been lost.

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     In the first age of the New Church, the work of evangelization was done in a most general manner, and necessarily so. The men who had learned to appreciate and to love the sublime things revealed in the Writings, and whose eyes were opened to behold the transcendent beauties and glories of the opened Word, went forward in the promulgation of the new gospel with heartfelt earnestness. Those who became priests proclaimed before the world the Divine truths with zeal, and in a fearless spirit. In the intense desire to lead the people to a knowledge of the truth, and in accommodation to the states of dense ignorance which prevailed concerning spiritual things, the things mostly taught were the generals or universals of doctrine concerning the Lord, the Divine Trinity, the Resurrection, the Spiritual World and the Future Life of Man.

     This was well, because generals of knowledge must precede particulars, as the walls or frame-work of a house must be built before the interiors. On the other hand, always to remain in generals, and not to enter into particulars of doctrine, will soon bring a man to a standstill and put an end to his spiritual development. Acquiring mere general knowledges, without the particulars by which the generals are infilled with spiritual ideas, would be like the folly of continuing to build the walls and roofs of houses, without finishing and furnishing the interiors, and thus preparing them for the uses of habitations.

     By the teaching of the generals of the heavenly doctrines, the "simple" were reached and instructed, and societies were organized in different parts of Europe and America. Thus a beginning was made in the great work of evangelization. But this was merely preliminary, a preparation for the establishment of the Church in a then future age, on its legitimate basis,--on a foundation so firm in the truth of faith from the good of love with men, as to resist all the assaults of the wicked of both worlds, and to stand secure forever.

     A reason why the Church should evangelize, or do general missionary uses, is because the simple are scattered throughout the world and are like "lost sheep," to "hem the disciples are told to go. The Good Shepherd seeks them, finds them, brings them into the fold and feeds them.

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He instructs them in a manner accommodated to their state of reception, and according to their spiritual needs.

     It is of the Divine Providence that there are isolated receivers of the heavenly doctrines in so many places, a few here and a few there, all over the country. Their being isolated and situated as they are, is the best that can be in the meantime. It is for their own ultimate good, in their preparation for heaven, and finally for association with the blessed. It is also for the good of others, in a way and to an extent which it is hardly possible for them to know to realize. For the Lord can exert an influence and a power for good, in a whole community and over hundreds or thousands of people, through a single individual who receives the Divine truth, who believes in the Lord in His Divine Human, and who lives according to the precepts of the Word.

     The so-called Christian world is in a very bad state. There is much violence in the land, and a widespread spiritual desolation prevails. But who can imagine how much worse it would be if there were not disciples of the Lord in the New Church, among the people of the world? The sincere disciples even at this day, are "the salt of the earth." For the Lord is in the world by means of the Divine truth from the Divine good with men; and thus He puts forth His Divine power to restrain the evil, to protect the good, to maintain somewhat of external order in society, to save the human race from perishing, and the earth itself from being blotted out of existence.

     In the earlier days it was a common thing for New Church missionaries to have large congregations. People of all beliefs or of no faith in any religion, would come to hear sermons and lectures on the new doctrines. Some would come out of mere curiosity, some to oppose, and a few with a desire to learn about spiritual things. But it is quite different now, Even during the past twenty years a marked change has taken place in the state of the people of the world. The spirit of agnosticism has been spreading like wildfire, and the people generally have become more and more indifferent to the things of heaven and the Church, and to genuine religion in any form. The moral sense is obtuse. Intellectual tastes are vitiated by false principles. The understanding of men is inverted, so that the light of truth appears as thick darkness to them.

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     The fallacies of self-intelligence are the result of the exercise of spiritually unenlightened human reason. The internal mind is closed up, and the external consciousness only is active. Millions are naturally rational, but spiritually insane.

     In this state, the sphere by which men are animated is not from above, but flows in from beneath; it is not from the Lord and the angels, but from hell and infernal spirits. This sphere is in violent opposition to the Lord and all things of heaven. And it follows, therefore, that those who are under the influence of this sphere of the dragon, will naturally shun the places where the new gospel is preached. The mere announcement that a discourse is to be given on some spiritual subject, will cause this sphere to flow in and produce, in the minds of many, a strong feeling of aversion. Those who are favorably affected by such an announcement, at this day, and in whose souls it will cause a desire to hear and to learn about things spiritual and heavenly, are, at this day, very few. So we need not wonder that the audiences of New Church evangelists as a rule are small.

     There is a distinction of uses of evangelization, which may be mentioned here. There is what may be called external evangelization in the world, and there is internal evangelization among those who have come into the Church, either by being born of parents who are members, or as proselytes from those outside. It is clearly the duty of the Church to do both these kinds of uses. If we sow the seed of truth broadcast, so far as there is opportunity to do so, the Lord will see to the growth and increase, so far as this is possible. The simple are to be brought to a knowledge of the truth. To the poor and needy the new gospel is to be preached; and to those who are hungry and athirst, is to be given the bread and the water of life.

     The Writings say that those who are to be of the New Church are to be "collected, inaugurated and instructed." Proselytes and others who have some general knowledge of the doctrines, are to be collected, inaugurated by baptism, formed into classes and instructed. By receiving the particulars of doctrine, they are so because enlightened members of the Church, and firmly grounded in the faith. Then they may be added to, and may co-operate with, and help to sustain and strengthen, the organized centres of the Church. And even should they live at some distance from the centre nearest to them, the very fact of being associated by membership with a strong and an active Body of the Lord's New Church, will be an inspiration and spiritually helpful to them.

461




     During a number of years it was the endeavor of the writer to the uses which were spoken of above as external evangelization. The efforts were, principally, to preach to the world at large, in the hope of reaching the few who might be receptive of the truth. Missionary discourses were delivered in halls in towns, and in country school houses; and the meeting-houses of the various sects were often granted for our use, especially in the United States. The subjects were usually announced by means of printed bills. Eighteen or twenty years ago there would frequently be quite full houses. Occasionally an Old Church preacher would be present, and watch his chance to make an attack. Prompt replies would be made, which would intensify the interest, and have a good effect. We never learn much about results, but several cases are known of persons becoming believers in the doctrines through the work done in the missionary field in this way.

     But as was said, there has been a change in the state of the people. It has become more and more difficult to get the public to come to hear preaching. for the reasons already mentioned. During the past seven or eight years, therefore; more attention has been given to internal evangelization. There has been more done in the way of visiting and holding conversations with the isolated believers in the doctrines. Meetings have been held in the homes of the people, and more distinctively New Church instruction has been given. The effort has been to give the teaching in such a manner as to make lasting impressions also upon the minds of the young. The idea has been to make every individual Newchurchman, and every New Church family an incipient centre, from which there may be internal growth, and from which the influence of the Church may go out to others who are well disposed, and who may thus in the Divine Providence of the Lord be led to a knowledge of the truths of faith. To this end the people everywhere have bees repeatedly exhorted to read the Writings, as the only means of obtaining enlightenment concerning spiritual things.

     It has been and is regarded by the writer as a blessed privilege to engage in these uses under the guidance of the Lord of the vineyard, and under the auspices of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

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And here it may be added that if these uses have been done more effectively, and more in accordance with the spirit of the heavenly doctrines than was the case in the earlier years, it is owing to the formative influence of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and of the stalwart order of the Church which preceded it.

     Since the Church in all respects is new, and this is realized more fully as the minds of the men of the Church are opened more interiorly, it follows that there will be new developments, in the process of time. Some years ago, therefore, it was made clear to the minds of a few that the time had come to begin a new movement of evangelization in the Church. They saw the mission of the New Church, and the Lord's commission to the disciples as applying to the priesthood in the Church of the New Jerusalem, in a new light. They were profoundly impressed with the idea involved in the Divine command: "And as ye go, evangelize, saying: The kingdom of the heavens is at hand." As interpreted in the light of the heavenly doctrines, it was evident that this command put upon the ministers, the shepherds of the flock, solemn duties and responsibilities as to their part of the work, in the establishment of the Church.

     To the few, then, it had become painfully apparent that the methods generally pursued were inadequate, in many respects erroneous, and hence in the long run must inevitably fail to accomplish the desired results. The preaching of the pastors to their societies was almost entirely of a very general character. Many things taught in the Writings, which are absolutely essential to a thorough knowledge of the doctrines, and to a genuine faith in the Church, were regarded as non-essentials. Some thought it was unnecessary for people to know many particulars of doctrine. The Divine authority of the Writings,--the Revelation in which the Lord effected His Second Coming, and by which the Church of the New Jerusalem is founded,--was denied by many clergymen and laymen. The Divine teaching concerning the state of the Christian world, was generally rejected and ignored, Consequently, the distinctiveness of the New Church, with regard to education, social life, marriage, and Divine worship, was not acknowledged or appreciated. In all respects the New was considerably mixed up with the Old, in the minds of nearly all the members of the Church; and a grievously adulterated state it was.

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A condition existed which appeared to threaten serious consequences to the whole Church in the future, should it be permitted to continue. It was clearly seen that unless some change should be effected, there must in the course of time ensue a sort of stagnation and deadness; that there must come a state of dissolution, and a going backward instead of forward; for the real New Church cannot live at all, except in so far as it is kept distinctive.

     It is now quite evident to many, that it was in the order of the Divine Providence that a marked change should take place. There was a man who had grown venerable by faithful service in the Church, and who had become well-fitted to be the leader in the new movement,-a movement of evangelization on a more interior plane. This man, a prominent figure among the men of the Church; a man of intellectual power and a clear insight into the doctrines; fearlessly and courageously went forward, and lifted up the standard for the people. That standard was: The authority of the Divinely Inspired Writings, in all matters of doctrine and of life, in all things of faith and practice, in the Church!

     The men who had been fully prepared for this acknowledgment, were led to come to this standard. They came into association with the standard-bearer, who was able to give them still further instruction. And after due deliberation, by a harmonious action, "The Academy of the New Church" was instituted a quarter of a century ago, namely, on the nineteenth day of June, I876 And thus there was inaugurated the most important movement of interior New Church evangelization which has ever taken place in the history of the Church in the world. And what tremendous issues, what momentous consequences, mighty and far-reaching, were involved in that small beginning; although it was regarded with suspicion by many, and as of but very little significance. Yet it is written: "A little one shall become a thousand, and a small one a strong nation." (Isaiah lx: 22).

     Already there has been some growth and increase. The uses which have been performed no finite mind has the power to estimate. In the Divine Providence of the Lord, unspeakable blessings, joys and consolations have been imparted to many individuals and families, in consequence of the work that was begun by the Academy, twenty-five years ago.

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That work is in its mere beginnings still; but the effects of it will last for many generations; and the men of the Church in the centuries to come, will read with intense interest about these remarkable developments in the Church which we have witnessed, and in which we have had the privilege to take part, in our day.

     The heavenly uses of evangelization, namely, the annunciation concerning the Lord and His Advent; education in the Church, that the young may be trained for the world and for heaven; the education of priests, that they may go forth to evangelize, and that men may become enlightened and rational Newchurchmen: in a word, all these and many other uses will, we have reason to hope and believe, continue to be done, and this more and more extensively and thoroughly.

     Therefore, in this early dawn of a new and a brighter spiritual day for our benighted race; in this time of limitations and feeble beginnings; in our laboring under difficulties, in our struggles, and perhaps occasionally even sufferings which have to be endured: notwithstanding all these drawbacks, there is in what has come to pass in the establishment of the Church thus far, much to inspire us with fortitude, as well as to demand our gratitude and to quicken our aspirations.

     The Lord always provides for His Church the best things which can be given, and at the exact time when they are needed. He so overrules affairs that with those who really: in faith and life, in heart and soul, are of the Church, there may be progress,--spiritual growth and development,--individually, and hence collectively. But there can be no progress without changes of state, in the body of a Church composed of many members, even as this is impossible in the case of an individual member.

     Changes in the state of societies or associations of the Church, formerly, in several cases were produced by evangelizing according to the spirit of the heavenly doctrines. The teaching of the truth caused conflicts, and later separations; but nothing of the Church was lost or injured in the least. The intelligent Newchurchman is aware that on account of diverse minds, and discordant elements in societies or bodies, the separations were unavoidable, and hence were for the good of the Church, although they were not agreeable to the merely natural affections. As a result of the legitimate separation of the two different classes of people formerly working together in some of the societies, who in many things held opposite views of what the Writings teach, there has been a development in the Church which otherwise would have been quite impossible.

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     The General Church of the New Jerusalem is becoming more and more a homogeneous body, because the members are in the effort to acknowledge the Lord alone, and to learn what He teaches, that they may apply it to life. And if there are any who are not in the endeavor to do so, they are only nominal and not live members. But let no one forget how great a privilege it is to be an active member of such a body of the Lord's New Church.

     This body is now doing various uses, all of which are uses of evangelization, as this term is defined in the Writings. It may be said in all confidence, that it is as certain as the progression of time, that there will be advancement as to state, in this Church, as well as in the universal New Church throughout the whole earth. The Church shall henceforth be founded upon the everlasting Rock of Divine Truth, as now revealed to men. The Lord's kingdom is to be extended among all nations, and is to endure forever and ever. J. E. BOWERS.

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CONJUNCTION OF THE WILL AND UNDERSTANDING 1901

CONJUNCTION OF THE WILL AND UNDERSTANDING       Rev. HENRY B. COWLEY       1901

     And Leah conceived again and bare a son; and said, Because Jehovah hath heard that I was hated. He hath therefore given me this son, also; and she called his name Simeon. And she conceived again and bare a son; and said, Now this time my man will cleave to me, because I have borne him three sons; therefore sits called his name Levi. Gen. xxix, 33, 34.

     The births of all the sons of Jacob represent, in the supreme sense, attributes of the Lord; and in the internal sense, they denote the successive states of the Church in its progress towards interiors, or, in particular, of the man of the Church in the process of regeneration. The first state of regeneration, when man receives faith in the understanding, is represented by the birth of Reuben. Faith in the understanding, that is, the reception of truth, gives to man spiritual light by which he may see his evils, and may be prepared for the combats of temptations. When Reuben was born Leah said, "The Lord hath seen mine affliction."

     Now whatever a man has to fight for, that he learns to love above all things; as for instance, freedom, home, country, Church, etc. And that for which he fights becomes more and more a part of his will and life. Hence when, in the process of regeneration, a man has to defend this first faith, which is faith in the understanding, it enters deeper and deeper into his interior life, that is, it becomes more and more a part of his will, which is his life.

     This first faith, which is the faith of the understanding, thus become of the will, is what is represented by Simeon. Simeon was named from hearing, as Reuben was named from sight. "And Leah said, The Lord hath heard I was hated, and hath given me this one also. And she called his name Simeon" Hearing, we are taught, is a kind of interior sight, and the teaching is confirmed by the anatomy and physiology of the internal brain.

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     The reason given for the statement is, that hearing appeals more to the affections of the will and thereby persuades; while the sight of the eye is of the understanding alone. Hence one is more moved to do what he hears than what he sees. The very word itself; to hear, involves also the idea of obeying what is heard. If is evil more strongly expressed in the synonymous words to hearken and to attend. The organ of hearing, the ear, represents obedience, and in the Gorand Man of Heaven, those societies of angels who are in unquestioning obedience to the truth, constitute the province of the ear. In the Israelitish church, this representation was carried out in the law given by Moses regarding a master and his servant. If, after a service of six years, a Hebrew bond servant did not desire to be sent away free, but preferred to serve his master for life, then the master was to bore the servant's ear with an awl, and he was to serve him for ever: This indeed did not correspond to the highest form of obedience, for it represented the state of a man who does not desire to understand the truth, but who wills it from obedience. In this sense, the ear has a somewhat lower signification.

     The state represented by Simeon is a degree higher than this, for the man who is in that state, has something of an understanding of truth, having passed through the state represented by Reuben, and having so far progressed that he wills to do the truth which he has received in the understanding. This faith of obedience,--the affection of truth which leads one to do the truth,--is the only true faith. There is no other affection of truth; there is no other true faith.

     A man cannot remain in the state represented by Reuben. In other words, faith or truth cannot live in the understanding alone, for a man's life is not in his understanding but in his will. This is what is signified by Leah's words, "The Lord hath heard that I was hated," namely, that faith in the understanding will die if there is no will to receive it. Hatred is death, for it is the opposite of love which is life. Now the will of man is depraved from birth, nor can it become anything else than depraved; for man has received from heredity an inclination to all evil. Hence, his will is not a fit receptacle for the new faith which he has received in his understanding. It is necessary that he have a new will; and this the Lord gives to every one who will receive it. It is the beginning of a new proprium.

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If man will receive this Divine gift of the Lord, by trying to obey the truth, then the new faith which he has taken into his Understanding will come into the will, and receive new life from the Lord. "Jehovah hath heard that I was hated and hath given me this one also. And she called his name Simeon."

     Among the twelve disciples who had a similar representation to the twelve sons of Jacob, this new faith is represented by Simon, who is called Peter. This disciple represents faith in a two-fold aspect. When he is called Peter (a rock), then he represents the same as Reuben,--faith in the understanding, or truth considered by itself; but when he is called Simon, or Simon son of Jonah, he represents the same as Simeon,--faith in the will or the affection of truth. Simon is only another form of the name Simeon.

     As faith in the understanding cannot live unless it be received in the will and become the will of faith, so neither can the will of faith live unless it go forth into act and become charity. This coming forth into act is represented by Levi. Thus we have three degrees or steps in the regeneration of man, represented by the first three sons of Jacob;--faith in the understanding, faith in the will, and faith conjoined with charity. "And Leah conceived yet again and bare a son; and size said, Now this time my man will cleave to me because I have borne him three sons. And she called his name Levi."

     The name Levi in its original root means to adhere, to cleave to, to be closely conjoined with; thus in the internal sense it signifies mutual love or charity, since it is love that conjoins and love must be mutual. A love cannot live unless it have an object toward which to direct itself and be reciprocated; it is thus that it becomes mutual. The same idea of mutual love or charity is further contained in the secondary meaning of the Word in the Hebrew, that is, to lend and to borrow, to give and to receive in return, in other words, to have mutual intercourse for the sake of uses, the internal of which is charity or mutual love. In order to come into mutual love and be conjoined with his fellow-men in a life of charity, a man must first be himself internally a form of charity; his will and understanding must be conjoined in mutual love; hid faith in the understanding must be received in the will, and, the two becoming one, they must go forth as one into the acts of his life. The birth of Levi must follow the birth of Reuben and of Simeon.

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     When it refers to the Lord, mutual love is the Infinite Love and Mercy toward man in the depths of evil and falsity into which he has fallen. This is the supreme sense of the words of Leah, "This time my man will cleave to me." The only way man can be withheld from his evils is by means of the truths of the Word and of doctrines from those truths. Therefore the Lord establishes the Priesthood among men, to teach these truths and to lead to the good of life. In the Israelitish Church, where everything was representative, the tribe of Levi was set apart and dedicated to the office of the Priesthood, to teach the people the Word, to keep them in the worship of Jehovah, and to intermediate between Him and them.

     The priestly function, therefore, is the intermediary between God and man; the means of man's conjunction with heaven. By the priestly function here, is not meant only the office of the priesthood in the Church, but the priestly quality in every man of the Church, that is, the spiritual love of good and truth which is called charity; for that is the essential of the Church which is represented in the internal sense by the priesthood; and it is that love which is signified in this connection by the words of Leah, "Now this time my man will cleave unto me." Charity must be in the Church throughout, and it must be in every man of the Church before he can become a Church in least form. Hence it was, that the tribe of Levi received no inheritance, but was scattered throughout the other tribes, carrying out this representation of universality.

     This internal affection of good and truth is just as necessary to the establishment of the Church with each individual, as the priesthood is necessary to the establishment of the Church: in general. Indeed it is this affection which is man's guide in determining what is evil and false and what is good and true. A man who is not in charity, that is, in the affection of truth and good, cannot judge of what is true or of what is not true; he is not a wise man, for wisdom is of the life and not of the understanding alone.

     It is said of the sons of Levi that they were chosen to minister unto the Lord, and that every controversy and every plague should be according to their word (Deut. xxi: 5). The internal sense of this is, that the affection of good and truth, which is charity, is to minister to the Lord and to teach those things which are of the Church, and to distinguish falses from truths and evils from goods.

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     Every controversy and every plague should be according to their word. (A. E., 444.) Thus it is Levi, the priestly within us, that is to teach us the way we should go; just as it is the duty of the priests of the Church to teach and to lead to the good of life.

     It is not lawful for a man to submit spiritual truth to the judgment of the natural-rational, generally called in the world the intelligence or reasoning faculty, any more than it is lawful for laymen to govern the Church in matters purely ecclesiastical. Spiritual truth must be judged on its own plane, and by the spiritual-rational,--the internal perception of truth--which is given to man when he comes into charity. It is the development of that faculty that makes a man truly wise. It is even given in some slight degree to every man who has but made a beginning in the Church. For instance: When a man sees, as he can see even from the natural-rational, that the Writings are true, it is this spiritual love of good and truth which gives him thus to see, even though he may yet be obscure as to many particulars. He will never see it from the natural-rational alone. This spiritual love, called charity, also distinguishes a good priest from an evil one.

     This love of good and truth is the priestly quality in every man; and it is by virtue of it that every man is admonished to receive the doctrines which he hears, even from the priests, only so far as he finds them to agree with the truths of the Word. What right would a layman have to pass judgment, even in his own mind, on the teachings of the priests, in matters of religion, did he not have this priestly quality within him? A priest is in a certain illustration which he receives from the Lord by virtue of being in that office; and a layman, who is not in that office, would have no right to disagree with the priest in matters of religion,--matters of doctrine,--unless he, as an individual, were gifted by the Lord with this same perception. It is, indeed, of a somewhat different nature from the illustration of the priesthood, but it comes from the same internal,--the spiritual love of good and truth. The difference lies principally in this, that the priest has this illustration as a preacher in the Church, as a public official, and by virtue of his office, while a layman has it only as an individual, and not as a teacher in the Church, because he is not in the illustration of the office, nor prepared for the performance of its functions. There is danger to both priest and layman, in recognizing the existence of this exalted quality with man, of its giving rise to conceit and self-glory.

471


But it must be remembered that it is known to the Lord alone what persons are internally in the spiritual love of good and truth, and, therefore, are forms of charity. And further, that progress towards interiors gives rise to more interior temptations, to states of obscurity and even to despair, if that is necessary to break man's pride and bring him into a state of humility. It may therefore be borne in mind as a general principle, that an apparent step forward in regeneration,--a seemingly more interior opening of the degrees of the mind,-- if it give rise to conceit and self-satisfaction, is merely an appearance. It is a creature born of the adulterous union of self-love and self-intelligence.

     Since charity, or the spiritual love of good and truth with every man of the Church, and especially with the office of the priesthood, is the means whereby man is saved, therefore the inmost from which this affection flows, is the love of saving souls; and the priesthood in the supreme sense represents this love in the Lord, which in its operation toward the human race is called the Divine Mercy. The priesthood therefore in this sense represents every work which the Lord performs as Savior (A. C., 9809). It is on account of this high representation of the office that it is said in the Arcana and elsewhere that priests should have dignity and honor; but a wise priest will attribute all such dignity and honor to the Lord, knowing that they are for the good of the Church to which he is ministering as an humble servant of the Lord. The good of the Church is above that of the priesthood, which is but a means of establishing and preserving the Church. We read on this subject in the True Christian Religion, where the degrees of charity are treated of, that "it is not the priesthood which is to be loved in a superior degree, and from it the Church; but the good and truth of the Church are to be loved and the priesthood for the sake of-these. This is only of service, and as far as it is of service, it is to be honored." (T. C. R., 415.) The priesthood, therefore, is not the Church, nor is the Church established from the priesthood. It is the Divine of the Lord which makes the Church, manifested to us in His Word. Thus it is from the Lord, through and by means of His Word and doctrine drawn therefrom, that the Church is established and that man is regenerated. This is what is involved in the birth of Judah, treated of in the verse following our text.

472


But though the Church is not established from the priesthood, yet the priesthood is a most necessary means to its establishment. It is an institution, as has been said, of the Lord's Divine Love and Mercy toward the human race; it is the means of salvation to both priest and layman; it is the means of conjunction of Heaven and the Church. "And Leah said, This time my man will cleave to me because I have borne him three sons." The three sons, as we have seen, are, faith in the understanding, faith in the will, and faith in act, which is charity.

     This latter necessarily involves the two preceding ones. The man who is in charity or the life of truth, is also in the will of truth, and at the same time in the understanding of it. We is interiorly affected by the truth and takes sincere delight in doing it. Every delight is the necessary ultimation of some love, and is the life of that love; for a love cannot live unless it be ultimated, and the ultimation is the delight of the love. Therefore, the love of truth, which is faith, cannot live unless it become charity and go forth into the acts of man's life. Thus Levi completes the trine of understanding, will, and their conjunction in act which is charity. "And Leah said, This time my man will cleave unto me, for I have borne him three sons. And she called his name Levi." Amen.

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"NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS." II. 1901

"NO MAN CAN SERVE TWO MASTERS." II.       GEORGE G. STARKEY       1901

     THE modes in which the teachers of the Old Church juggle with the letter of the Word, and either play craftily with or confuse the common perception, or common-sense, of their hearers, by dexterously so applying the genuine doctrine of truth as it bears on man's own spiritual poverty and helplessness, as to do away with his co-operation in the work of salvation, is shown in the following teachings:

     Those who are in simple good acknowledge the Lord's Human as Divine, and also that the works of charity must be done in order for a man to be saved: and those who are in faith-separated know this and therefore they do not strenuously insist on it before every one, and scarcely at all before those who are in simple good, chiefly because they dare not go against common sense (A. C., 4754).

     "And the stroke of his death was healed" signifies the discordance [of faith-alone, with the Word] apparently cleared away by means of devised conjunctions of works with faith....But as the doctrine declares that Faith-alone without good works is what saves, some make no account of good works, saying in their heart that everything they do is good in God's sight, and that evils are not seen by God. But as "deeds" and "works" and "doing" are so frequently mentioned in the Word, and as they are compelled to reconcile the Word with that dogma, they devise modes of conjunction that are not consistent, and yet are such that faith is kept separate by itself and works by themselves, to the end that salvation may be in faith and nothing of it in works. (A. E., 786.)

     But the conjunction of faith with good works, and by it apparent agreement with the Word, is received otherwise by the less learned. These know nothing about the degrees of justification, but they believe that Faith-alone the only means of salvation; and when they see from the Word and hear from the preacher that goods must be done and that man will be judged according to his works, they think that faith produces good works, for they have no other idea than that faith is to know the things that the preacher teaches, and thence to think that it is so; and because this comes first they believe that faith produces good works, which they call the fruits of faith, not knowing that such a faith is a faith of the memory only, and viewed in itself is a traditional faith because it is from another, and thus is another's in themselves, and that such a faith can never bring forth any good fruit. Into this error most in the Christian world have fallen, for the reason that Faith-alone has been received as the chief means, and even as the sole means, to salvation (A. E., 787).

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     Although Faith-alone has permeated the whole fabric of the Old Church to such an extent that one might suppose the number of those not wholly tainted with it to be practically nil, there are a number of passages which indicate that among the laity there are many who have been little or not at all indoctrinated by it; but examination of those passages will show that they do not necessarily involve spiritual vitality among the laity in a degree proportionate to their ignorance and lack of confirmed falsity. With many there is the ignorance of indifferentism, with many others, lack of comprehension, etc., but this very indifferentism, ignorance, etc., are the outcome of Faith-alone, which may fairly be chargeable with the whole state of vastation. That both clergy and laity are included in what is said of that dreadful state, is manifest from the following:

     When these two classes [the clergy and the laity] are explored as to whether they have anything of God, of faith, and of charity in themselves, it is perceived that they have nothing, consequently nothing of heaven, of the Church and of salvation--only with those who have done goods from religion, since these in the spiritual world, are receptible of faith in the Lord God the Savior" (Can. ix.; 6 Trin.).

     From a theology founded upon a trinity of persons in the Divine, and upon the doctrine of justification by Faith-alone, without the works of the law . . . there arise mere ratiocinations and lusts of falsifying truths. (A. R., 701-2).

     The quality and state of the Reformed Christian Church as to Justification of Faith, is set forth at length in the explanation of Chapter xiii. of the Apocalypse. That it is not the part of wisdom to ignore that duality and state, is plainly taught in Apocalypse Explained:-

     And the number [of the beast] is six hundred and sixty-six,-signifies that its quality nevertheless is from all falsities, end all evils therefrom, in a complex....Its being said to be a matter of intelligence to count that number does not signify that it is a matter of intelligence to know or find out the signification of that number, but that it is a matter of intelligence to inquire and see the falsities and evils which make the quality of faith separated from life. That the quality of that faith is such as to falsities will be seen in what shortly follows. That it is also such as to evils is because when the good works are removed (and they are removed when it is believed that they in no manner justify or save) it follows that in their place are evil works; for a man must be either in goods or in evils (A. E., 847).

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     It is further taught in unmistakeable terms, that the defenders of Faith-alone manifest an apparent love of truth from good, which nevertheless is a love of falsity from evil arising from self-intelligence, and that the truths which they advance are wholly vitiated by the internals of their doctrine; yet that with the simple such truths are as it were divested of their infection, and assimilated in life. But the fair-seeming moral and intellectual life of the Old Church in general is stated, with equal explicitness, to be merely natural, meritorious, and defiled throughout by the love internally ruling in that Church, which is concupiscence of the natural man.

     Consider, then, what the Christian world is at this day; how many are there who shun adulteries, frauds, unlawful gains, hatreds, revenge, lies and blasphemies, not because they are opposed to the Word and thus to God, but because they are opposed to the civil laws and for the sake of reputation and from a fear of loss of honor and gain in the world, then search interiorly into the reason and you will perceive that it is because they do not believe that there is a heaven and a hell or a life after death.... Whatever a man does, be it small or great, is an evil work when it is not done from religion, and, with us, from the Word (A. E., 825).

     And because the divorce of faith from charity is the destruction of the very marriage of good and truth which makes heaven and the kingdom of the Lord, we need not be surprised at the great number of passages in the Writings which declare that among Christians spiritual adultery is ultimated in its natural counter-part as it is among no other nations on earth.

     The reason why adulteries are less abhorred by Christians than by any barbarous nation, is because in the Christian world at this day there is not a marriage of good and truth, but a marriage of evil and the false (A. E., 1008).

     As to adulteries, and principles about them, Hell is as it were open and received in the Christian world; not so much out of it (S. D., 5832).

     But what makes the adulteries and other enormities of modern Christendom especially horrid and lethal to the soul, is the deceit which accompanies. For those who have had the truths of faith, derive and retain from them the ability to put on heavenly forms as no others can; and they do this, inducing a nature which is quite covered up on earth but which when represented in the other world as nauseating and horrible beyond imagination.

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     It thence appears that what is called the Christian world is almost of the character of the ante-diluvians, deceitful, acting invisibly, covertly and indeed from a similar persuasion, wherefore their life is similar, namely, the life of winter. Indeed the world called Christian is in this respect worse than the ante-diluvian, that it accounts adulteries as nothing, and when adulteries are thus counted, it follows that they have nothing which savors of love, and they wish to destroy societies, because they are against them. Hence, too, they become cruel, which is inseparable from adulterers, for the result of a single adulterous act is a proneness to cruelty (S. D., 3598).

     The deceitful, and the most deceitful, are in general such that they take scarcely anything else from the idea of man than what is innocent and celestial, and by means of that lay their plots against man, by turning it in various modes to his destruction, and by enticing to adulteries and other enormities; so that to ensnare by means of innocence and celestial things is the very acme of deceit. There are those in the other life who make a pretense of holy, celestial and innocent things with a view to obtain dominion over all on earth and in heaven, caring nothing for right or wrong provided they can obtain dominion.

     I spoke with these saying that they have contracted their nature from celestial and innocent things concerning which they thought nothing, as is the custom of popes and papists at this day,--in the same manner as kings and their chief ministers openly write and publish falsehoods which all know to be falsehoods...

     This hell, to wit, that which contains the region of the left heel, is at this day much increased, for at this day they are multiplied by adulterers and the cruel, or those who delight in adulteries and cruelty, and have such phantasies there; indeed many who in the life of the body in the society of men, appeared also modest and gentle, concerning whom men would never have suspected such a thing, and who are in dignities, and there delight in these their phantasies, and prefer that pleasantness to every pleasantness. Thus one loves to torture others, even those most friendly. (S. D., 2643).

     But the fearful degree to which the hellish inheritance of the modern age crushes down upon the scanty embers of spirituality by which the race is still kept existent, is indicated by the assault upon mankind in its stage of helpless innocence, the age of implantation of remains.

     Pleasantness from such a nature [from adulteries and cruelties] arising from these things, is at this day so common that it also extends itself to; infants (S. D., 2623).

     Any one who is not unusually unobservant or inexperienced, knows only too well how far this applies to the present day.

477


Indeed, if we are not infatuated with the external loveliness of the smoother side of modern life we will involuntarily confirm every one of the foregoing teachings. For at this day how much charity is there? how much of honesty, even, or the moral virtues,--which are only effigies of spiritual virtues, but effigies which are indispensable to the growth of the Church as they are to the stability of society? Is there not wide-spread incredulity of the existence of charity in the neighbor? Does not every transaction and every relation require to be hedged about with safeguards against wrong-doing? Is not he who shows himself free from the necessity of being bound by external restraints looked upon with wonder, or, what is still more likely, as being a master in hypocrisy? Are the crimes that flood our daily papers to be regarded as exceptions and anomalies, or rather as the awful fruit of a tree whose poisoned juices thus bring to the light of day the otherwise largely hidden quality of the sources of its nourishment and life? Is there no confirmation of the tendencies of the age in the increase of diseases, even though modern hygiene may have lengthened the term of natural life nor in the increase of the most insidious and deadly of diseases, such as cancer, and of nervous diseases, less terrible in aspect perhaps but which sap the vitality of the race, take away its human quality and doom thousands of nervous sufferers to a sort of living death? Look below the surface of modern life--and not so very far below, either do not distrust, discontent, rebellion against Providence, rancour against the neighbor, discord and worse in the marriage relation--the fundament of the Church and of heaven--confront the truly observant on every hand? Is not gambling a hideous evidence of the universal lust for acquisition for the sake of self, without regard to use,--to the "neighbor" in the many forms of that term, the brother, the society, the state, the Church, and the kingdom of the Lord? Is not the striving of the natural man everywhere against the operations of Providence and assertive of self-intelligence, human prudence, and self-will! Do not these evils invade the New Church itself, while outside, the tide overwhelms all but those whom the Lord wonderfully and mercifully protects by the omnipotence which from the same sunshine and rain works out the welfare of just and unjust and bends even the wrath of man to praise.

478




     Since, then, it is so plain that the Truth that makes man more than a good citizen of this world, even a citizen of heaven,--is to be had only where the Lord offers it to the lips of him who humbly seeking finds, and finding gratefully drinks at the Divine Fount, and since the source of other fountains are the muddy quench not unsatisfied desires of the heart, is not our duty plain to choose our walk in life, our affiliations and companions in all those affairs which rise above the plane of merely natural intercourse and exchange of the more external benefits and uses of life? Is there not involved here something far deeper than mere amiability and pleasant relations with our fellow-man,--is it not a question of loyalty to the truth understandingly and discriminatingly applied to life? Do we know so much of what constitutes true charity--which we are taught was being extinguished through centuries until it has become almost unknown except in its merely natural semblance and effigy,--so long as our understanding of spiritual things is as yet so much in the infantile stage of the dawning Church? Let us above all things discriminate between the state and duality of individuals,--of which though we may have perceptions we can in this world have no conclusive confirmation,--and the state and quality of the Church, which is the Lord's instrumentality for being present on earth, among human ends and human affairs, with His own eternal Divine Ends of regeneration and salvation. And reflecting upon this we ought to be able to see that the Lord does not employ two such instrumentalities at the same time to serve as His Church Specific, but that when men have destroyed the Church it must be raised up totally new; and this, although of those not yet extricated from the associations of the obsolete body, there may be many who will be saved,--not by but in spite of the faith which they externally support. But for all those who see where the truth is there can be but one allegiance and one fold.
     GEORGE G. STARKEY.

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DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH. II. 1901

DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH. II.              1901

     THE INVISIBLE CHURCH NOT OUTSIDE THE VISIBLE CHURCH

     There are those who reason that since truth is visible, but good invisible, therefore the visible New Church consists of the open receivers of the New Revelation, but the invisible New Church consists of all good men, universally,--thus forgetting that the invisible Church resides within the visible Church, and not outside of it, even as the soul resides within the body, and not outside of it. This applies to the Church Universal as well as to the Church these truths constitute the external or visible part of the Church Universal with them, whereas those who are also in good according to these truths, constitute the invisible or internal part of the Church Universal. Even so in the New Church. Those who possess the faith of the New Church constitute the visible New Church, but among these believers those who are in good according to these and Spiritual truths constitute the invisible New Church, and are the only real and genuine members of the New Church,--but who these are, the Lord alone knows. Their good, however, is very different from the good of simple Christians, and the still more simple and external good of the Gentiles, for it is spiritual good, resulting from the victory of spiritual truth in spiritual temptations. So much so is this the case that we are taught that those of the Church Universal in the other life do not dwell together with those who are of the genuine Church, but separate from them, in heavens of their own,--and this in spite of the fact that they have been instructed after death in the general truths of the True Christian Religion. (Arcana Caelestia, 925, 7975, 3778, 2049; Conjugial Love, 347.)

     THE LAST JUDGMENT STILL CONTINUES

     Others, reasoning from the fact of the Last Judgment, maintain that since the Old Church is dead and judged, there is no longer any Old Church in the world, but the New Church is the only Church in existence.

480


And, since the Church Specific is the heart and lungs to the Church Universal, and since the heart and lungs have been made new by the Last Judgment, therefore the body which lives from the heart and lungs has been made new also, for, they maintain, there cannot be a new heart in an old body. Whence it follows that the Church Universal is identical with the Universal New Church!

     It is, indeed, difficult to untangle this mass of confused reasoning, but it is clear that it is based on a misconception as to the immediate effects of the Last Judgment.

     For the Last Judgment which took place in the year 1757 was a judgment upon the Old Church, as it then existed, in the spiritual world, not in the natural world. The imaginary heavens which were then cast down were the accumulation of hypocritical Christians who had occupied certain regions in the lowest heaven. These were then judged, and the World of Spirits was cleared of their presence. But was this the final exit of the Old Church in the spiritual world? No, for there were still wicked men among Christians, and these, after death, immediately began to form colonies of their own,--of brief duration, it is true, but they were still imaginary heavens on a miniature scale. None of these colonies has been permitted to remain more than about twenty years, we are told, yet new supply is abundant and constant. This is what is meant by "the Dragon being cast down to the earth," for this succession of draconic colonies is still continually acting upon those on earth who are of the same evil and falsity as they themselves.

     But what is it that enables these dragons to establish, even temporarily, their imaginary heavens? What but the appearance of Christianity with which they surround themselves, and by which for restricted periods they deceive the simple good! And what is it that causes their downfall? What but the Divine Truth of the Heavenly Doctrines which the angels bring to the simple, and which, by unmasking the evil, sets free the good.

     Now it is clear that if the Old Church still exists in the spiritual world, and if the Judgment is not yet completed upon it, but is constantly recurring, it is because the Old Church still exists in the natural world, where the vastation and the Last Judgment are proceeding still more slowly. And as in the other world, so here on earth, it maintains itself solely by keeping up the appearance of religion and the external functions of a Church, whereby the simple good are led to believe that it is actually the true Christian Church.

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And the Old Church will continue to do this, until it has openly rejected even the external things of Christianity, and until the Judgment actually comes upon each one of its members, i. e., when the Heavenly Doctrine is presented to and rejected by every wicked Christian, and is presented to and accepted by every good man in the Christian world. Then, and not before, there will be an end to the Old Church.

     THE DEATH OF THE OLD CHURCH NOT A SUDDEN EVENT.

     No person with common sense will insist that the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem has already been presented to all in the Christian world, and that all have had an opportunity of either rejecting or accepting it, for the mere existence of the Writings is as yet known to but a few, and of these few there are still fewer that have any correct idea of their contents. The Last Judgment, therefore, has barely begun to be effected in this world, nor will it be completed for ages and ages to come. It is clear, therefore, that the Old Christian Church still exists externally as a Church in this world,--inwardly corrupt and moribund, dead as to the true spirit of Christianity, hopelessly and inevitably dying even externally, but not yet completely dead! Sick unto death at the root, rotten in stem and branch, the ancient oak of the Christian Church still retains more or less intact the outer and the inner bark, by which it is still able to clothe itself with verdure and even to bear some fruit,--is able to remain still the appearance of spiritual life.

     And this "bark" is nothing else than the Letter of the Word, which the Old Church still possesses and from which, professedly, it still derives its teachings. As long as the Clergy of the Old Church are able to keep up this profession, so long will they be able to persuade the simple good to remain with them, and so long will they be able to perform externally the functions of a Church Specific, i. e., of providing a medium of conjunction between Heaven and Earth.

     On the face of it, the Old Church is performing these functions more actively than ever before, even as a tree often bears its richest crops just before its death. For never before was the Christian world more active than now in "charitable" work, in missions to the heathen, and in the translation, publication, and distribution of the Letter of the Word to all the ends of the earth, nor was that Letter ever studied more minutely and extensively than at the present time.

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It is this increased external activity that deceives so many New Churchmen into thinking that the true New Church is being built up within the Old, by some invisible influx or agency.

     THE DISPLACEMENT OF THIS OLD CHURCH BY THE NEW, A GRADUAL PROCESS.

     But the worms that consumed the marrow are now gnawing at the outer bark also, and in the degree that Skepticism and "Higher Criticism" are effective in destroying the faith in the Letter of the Word, in that proportion will the tree wither and its leaves fall, nay, in that proportion will the highest form of civilization disappear from the Christian world. Most devoutly we should pray that this disintegration of external Christianity may not take place more rapidly than the simultaneous organic increase of the visible New Church, for otherwise the simple good would be left without a home and the Gentile world without a medium by which the Letter of the Word may reach them. The signs of the times are alarming, indeed, yet there is bound to come a re-action, before long, against the flood of denial of the Word which just at present seems to be overwhelming the Protestant Church. At any sate, the organized New Church is certainly not yet ready to take over the external ecclesiastical uses which the Old Church is still performing to the simple and to the heathen, as is shown most strikingly by the doubtful attitude that New Churchmen assume toward the authority of the New Revelation and as to the whereabouts of their own Church.

     But, it may be asked, can there possibly be more than one Specific Church or general dispensation on earth at one and the same time! No! Essentially, internally, in the sight of Heaven and the Lord, there can be but one genuine Church Specific at any one period, yet it is clear that a remnant of the Old Church Specific is preserved while the New is being raised up, and that the displacement is not a matter of a day or a year, but of centuries and ages. For we are taught:

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     "It is provided by the Lord that when a Church is ceasing to be, a New Church is being raised up, and this at the same time; for without a Church somewhere on earth, the human race would perish." (Arcana Caelestia, 2323. See also 4535, 10134.)

     This, while the Jewish Church is as dead spiritually as dead can be, yet its blind faith in the Old Testament in the Hebrew has been a medium sufficient to keep it alive externally as a sect or religion for nearly two thousand years. And thus also we learn that even the Ancient Church has not yet fully disappeared from the earth, although internally and as a whole it was consummated and judged from five to ten thousand years ago. And what is it that still preserves a fragment of the Ancient Church among the tribes of Great Tartary? What but the fact that the Ancient Word is still preserved there, and that worship is still conducted there according to it. As the Lord regenerates man, so also He builds up His Church. The old will, the old heart, is never reformed or regenerated, but a new will, a new, clean heart, is created,--separated most distinctly from the Old proprium, or the Old Church within him. But as regeneration is not effected in a moment, but is the work of a life-time, so is the upbuilding of the true Church the work of ages and ages. In the meantime, while the New is growing, the Lord still is able to use the old proprium for the purpose of external uses. He Permits man to act from mixed motives until the new will and the new understanding has penetrated into and purified the external mind also. Thus, as the Lord does not abolish the reign of the old states at once, neither is the Old Church abolished at once. It is evident, therefore, that while the New Church will increase to all eternity in this world, the Old Church--that is, falsity and evil,--will be decreasing in the same proportion, yet never totally ceasing to exist. The Last Judgment, which began in 1757, will therefore be continued as long as there still are evil men to be separated from the good.

     THE NEW CHURCH NOT YET ESTABLISHED TRIUMPHANT ON EARTH.

     At any rate, we are distinctly taught that the New Church was not to be established triumphant, immediately after the Last Judgment, for

     "the ordination of the Heavens and the Hells has continued from the day of the Last Judgment until the present time [1770], and still continues." (True Christian Religion, 123.)

484




     "While the vastation lasts, and before the consummation supervenes, the Advent of the Lord is announced, and Redemption by the Lord, and after this a New Church." (Coronis, xviii.)

     "That the time is protracted before the New Church is fully established after the Last Judgment, is an arcanum from Heaven which at this day cannot fall into the understanding, except with a few." (Apocalypse Explained, 624.)

     How "few," indeed, those are who can grasp this teaching is only too evident from the long-continued state of doctrinal confusion and obscurity in the New Church.

     From what has been shown above, viz., that the Old Christian Church is still externally performing certain heart-and-lungs functions to the Church Universal in this world, it follows that the New Church on earth has not yet taken external possession of its position as the Church Specific, except in an initiatory, minute and almost invisible manner. Nor will it do so except in the degree and proportion that it becomes actually and organically established among the "remnant" in the Christian world, and afterwards, enters organically into communication with those who are of the Church Universal,--bringing to them not only the Letter but also the Spiritual Sense of the Word, for this is the distinct function of the New Church.

     Remember, we are speaking of conditions in this world! In the other world the New Church is, indeed, established triumphant as the only Church Specific to those who are in that world. But the Church in the spiritual world is not the heart and lungs of the Church in the natural world, but it is its invisible soul and spirit, and it inflows and operates through the medium of all those in this world who in any measure acknowledge the Lord and regard the Word as holy. The Old Church has not yet completely rejected the Divinity of the Lord and the Holiness of the Word, and its worship is still to some degree--though in an ever decreasing degree--effective in opening Heaven to those who have not yet become aware of the internal corruption in the Temple. The New Heavens are, indeed, inflowing with the simple good, but cannot ultimately establish the New Church with them, except in the degree that organic vessels of spiritual truth from the New Revelation find lodgment in their minds.

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For the angels of Heaven are not permitted or willing to instruct men immediately In the truth,--for then human freedom would be destroyed,--but they are in the continual effort to awaken with men a thirst for the truth, and to guard the freedom of the understanding of men, so that the truth may be seen, when presented, and when man is willing to see and receive.

     The simple good, and the men of the Church Universal, are therefore those to whom the New Gospel is to be proclaimed, in order that they, too, may take up their cross of spiritual temptations and follow the Lord in His Second Coming. But if the Church Universal were already the Universal New Church, then the mission of the Church Specific would already be accomplished, and there would remain no more work for it to do.

     Those who maintain that the New Church has been established universally and triumphantly by the mere fact of the Last Judgment, are closing their eyes to the plain evidence of human history as well as of Divine Revelation. When the Lord executed the Last Judgment upon the Jewish Church, did that Church suddenly become Christian, or did all good Jews suddenly become disciples of the Lord, or did all the Gentiles throughout the world suddenly become Christians, either in name or in spirit? Evidently not, for the Jews still remain Jews, and the Gentiles are still Heathen,--for the progress of the Gospel, which was intended for them, was arrested early in the Middle Ages on account of the internal corruption of the Christians, and from that time to the present day not a single heathen nation has become converted to Christianity. And if the Church Universal among the Gentiles has not yet become the Universal Christian Church, still less has it already become the Universal New Church.
               (To be Continued.)

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     WITH the present issue, the editorial management of New Church Life passes into new hands. This step, however, does not involve any change of front, as the new editors have been more or less intimately connected with this journal, as contributors or as members of the editorial board,--one of them for ten, the other for eighteen years. They have not accepted the new responsibility without considerable hesitation, in view of their up diminished duties in the Schools of the Academy. As yet, the present arrangement is somewhat in the nature of an experiment, and it is not impossible that further changes will become necessary, if the editors find themselves unable to carry the double burden. The success of the experiment will depend largely upon the measure of co-operation from the friends of the journal.

     The importance of maintaining the standard of our magazine is well recognized by our friends, to whom the Life represents the sole organ for the expression of those grand and vital principles of New Church thought and of New Church life, for which the Academy has fought and bled in years gone by, and upon which the General Church of the New Jerusalem is founded. To many of us, this journal has become an integral and indispensable part of our life in the Church. We have grown up with it, most of us from early youth. For long years we have witnessed its fearless championship of the pure truths of Heaven. We have seen it defamed and execrated for its loyalty to Divine Revelation. It has been our teacher and leader in times of combat and in times of peace. It has been the most uncompromising and advanced exponent of spiritual truth that we have known of in the history of the New Church. From its pages we have learned some of the most important principles of the conjugial life, and of education in the Church, which have become the foundation-stones of many happy New Church homes, and upon which we rest our hopes for the future of the Church. It has been the medium of communication between brethren, distributing the strengthening sphere of the common thought and affection; and we know also that its usefulness has not been confined to those of our own immediate connection.

     These are some of the reasons why New Church Life is cherished by the members of the General Church, and are adduce these things, not in the spirit of corporate self-congratulation, but in gratitude to those who have labored before us in this field of work. Rut the love of use is ever progressive; it does not rest satisfied in simply maintaining a status quo, however excellent, but is continually striving for nobler and richer fruition. There must be progress in the Church, or she will turn into a pillar of salt, paralyzed and petrified in the admiration of former states. As the organ of a living church, the Life must therefore be ready to go forward into fresh fields, wherever the way is opened by the Divine Leader.

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The path of progress can be in but one direction,--that of an ever more faithful and interior study of the Heavenly Doctrines; and this advancement does not depend upon the editors alone, but upon the spiritual activity and zeal of the clergy, and of the Church as a whole.

     Among the laity, let the friends of the Life banish the thought that they cannot, each and all, do something for the general spiritual progress of the Church. They can all study the Writings, and in this study, questions of understanding or of action will arise continually. Let them write down these questions, and send them to this journal; the discussion of them may be of more interest and use to the Church as a whole than the writers themselves may suspect. Again, there are a great many thinkers and students in the Church who have but seldom graced the pages of the Life. Let these forsake that extreme of modesty which easily runs over into otiosity, dignified, but of limited usefulness to the neighbor in a wider sense. By their silence they may be doing harm, indirectly, in depriving the Church of the benefits of that light which the Lord has given them, but which, surely, was not meant to be enjoyed by them alone. For all these, as well as for our regular contributors and correspondents, on whose faithful assistance we are counting confidently, we have this closing word: Your co-operation is needed now, more than ever before.

     The Council meetings, the journal of which fills the last issue of the Life, were a great success. Those who were present at the public meetings felt that they took the place of the General Assembly so far as the discussion of purely spiritual subjects was concerned. In fact there was more of such discussion than is usual at the General Assemblies, where in past years, the matters discussed have been more frequently questions of application to the needs of the Church. Bur, of course, all missed the sphere of a general Church Festival so conspicuous at the last Assembly. To have this, it is necessary that there be that concentration of the spheres of affection for the Church and of the delight of spiritual and natural friendship, which can be fully secured only when there is a large and representative attendance of our members.

     The enjoyableness of the recent meetings consisted principally in listening to discussions of the doctrines of the Church, by, practically, the whole body of the clergy. It was the large attendance of the--we were about to say, foreign--ministers, representing so many different centres of activity, which gave the meetings their general character. Seventeen of the twenty-two ministers of the General Church were present, as compared with eighteen a present at the meeting in 1900; and of the four absentees, one was prevented from attending only by serious illness. So much cannot be said for the Executive Committee, only five of whose members were present.

     One important result of the meeting of the Council of Ministers, was the formal determination by the Council to hold meetings every year whether there is a General Assembly or not. It is essential to the continued growth of our Church, that its ministers meet together at not too long intervals, for mutual consultation on the doctrines of the Church and on the spiritual needs of our organization; and the decision we have recorded above is an important one, because it goes far to insure such meetings.

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The benefit is not confined to the minister alone, nor does it arise merely from the delight of seeing friends and fellow-workers It is a spiritual benefit,--a benefit which manifests itself in greater illustration and increased ability to perform the work of the Church. It is felt by each society; it is felt by the Church as a whole, in the increased activity and consequent growth of spiritual and theological thought,--though it may well be, that the gain is not so much appreciated, as the loss would be felt, were the meetings of the ministers entirely suspended.

     The Council of Ministers will meet annually in June, and--we hope we are not betraying secrets--if there be a special desire on the part of other Societies, at other places besides Bryn Athyn. It is not improbable that the Executive Committee will also make arrangements to hold its annual meeting at the same time and place. If this can be done, it is to be hoped that more of the members of that committee will be able to so arrange their business, as to give the Church the benefit of their presence and counsel.

     As the Church grows and it becomes more unfeasable to hold General Assemblies every year, these annual meetings of the ministers, supplemented by a large and representative Executive Committee, will become more and more essential to the welfare of our Church, not only in the discussion and consultation of officials, but also from the meeting together of many of our members. For there is no doubt that as these meetings come to be recognized as regular institutions of the Church, others of our members besides those of the Society, where the meetings are held, will make an effort to attend; just as is the case in the Convention and Conference which are attended by many New Churchmen who are not official members. It is by coming together in the sphere of the Church that we are strengthened in spiritual faith, and that our loyalty to the Church and our confidence in our fellow-members are increased.. Especially do those who are isolated from all New Church association feel the value of these meetings; alone from month to month, to attend a gathering of the Church is to them the crowning event of a year.

     And now, when a year comes that a General Assembly cannot be held, the meetings of the Councils will be found to supply many of the benefits of the General Assembly without the labor and expense inseparable from a large Church Festival. We can still come together.



     IN describing his impressions of the recent Convention, the Rev. John Goddard, in the Messenger for July 10th, refers to "the Swedish matter" (the case of Mr. Bjorck), and in this connection offers the following advice: "If the New Church minister has doubts of his own in the matter of belief, he should not trouble the Church with them. And if they are so important that he cannot be silent about them, let him leave the pulpit." This suggestion, if taken as a general principle, is open to misunderstanding and misapplication, for it might be so construed, as to leave a minister no room intellectual freedom,--no middle course between the stifling of his own understanding of the Doctrines, and his complete separation from the Church.

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It is only when doubts attack the very fundamental doctrines of the Church with which he is connected, and even then only when the doubts have become convictions, that a minister should feel if incumbent upon him to leave the Church. And here there is something to be said as to the duty of the Church. Every Church should have some order by which it can determine cases of this kind, and separate its ministers when those ministers are preaching and teaching against its fundamental doctrines. It should not be left to the minister alone to determine whether or not he is acting in disorder, when he has already confirmed himself in such act. But all this is said as applying only to cases of doubt and denial of the essential doctrines of the Church. There are, and necessarily will always be, many differences of opinion among the ministers of a Church, respecting the human interpretation of the Divine Doctrines. And in these cases they must be in freedom to discuss those differences both before their fellow-ministers, and in the public journals of the Church. Without this there would be no freedom of thought, which is the very essential of the New Church and of all spiritual progress in the understanding and perception of truth. The Church will not suffer from these discussions. Whether the doubter's position be right or from, the truth will be better established by full and free ventilation, and the Church as a whole will gain increased light. It is when discussion is stifled that truth halts in its progress; and then, as history shows, the doubt, no longer to be stifled, eventually breaks all bounds, and completely separates the doubter from his associates. Let the motto of the New Church, and of every New Church Body be "Nunc licet,"--now it is allowed to enter intellectually into the mysteries of Faith.



     THE Same writer in the Messenger, speaking on the subject of the Authority of the Writings, expresses his belief that "neither the view of these Writings which makes them the product of a mere man, however gifted, or the view which makes them the immediate, uninterpreted voice of the Lord, can supply the need of the true New Churchman." We are at a loss to understand how "the True New Churchman" is to regard the Writings, if they are neither the work of God nor of man. Should he be a sort of Semi-Arian, believing that the Heavenly Doctrines are neither merely human, nor altogether Divine; neither hetero-ousian nor homo-ousian, but something indescribable between the two,--homoi-ousian, of a substance similar to the Divine, but not the same with it;--God-spoken, yet not the Word of God!

     Semi-Arianism was only a miserable compromise, making a futile effort to reconcile faith with infidelity; at heart it was essentially Arian. There could be no compromise between the acknowledgment and the denial of the Divinity of the Lord.

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Nor can there he any compromise between the acknowledgment and the denial of the Divinity of those Writings by which alone the Lord has come again. If the Writings are not "the immediate, uninterpreted voice of the Lord," then they are not the "immediate Revelation," they purport to be (see H. H. 1), but simply the interpretations of a mere man. Tertium non datur. As the early Christians could be satisfied with nothing less than the doctrine of the absolute Divinity of the Lord, so the members of the New Christian Church can have their need supplied only by the unqualified acknowledgment of the Heavenly Doctrines as the Divine Human disclosed in the splendor and glory of Heaven, and speaking directly and without human interpretation or interference to the mind and heart of "the true New Churchman.



     THERE are comparatively few in the New Church, in these days, who altogether and openly reject the authority of the Writings. The hetero-ousian view of the Doctrines has been exploded and its destructiveness is generally recognized But the homoi-ousian compromise has largely taken its place. It is admitted that the Writings are a Divine Revelation, but still it is thought that there may be in them "what seem only partial truths, or truths seen through the medium of an imperfect Church or science;" they are acknowledged to be Divine, but not in a complete sense,--not infallible,--not immediately inspired,--not to be compared with, and still less to be called "the Word of God." A halting, hesitating, unintelligible position, this:-essentially negative, and void of strength and courage. What field can it give to the truth-seeker, who, tired of human speculation, hopes to find in the New Church a positive, affirmative faith? What progress can a New Churchman make in spiritual life, if he must stop at the very gate of the New Jerusalem, wondering whether the voice, which is calling him on, is the Word of God or the word of man?

     Those who know that the Writings are the Word of God cannot possibly afford to remain with their ever-hesitating brethren. They must go on, forward and inward, even though they regret the separation which apparently divides the Church on earth. There can be no going backward. Neither Arianism or Semi-Arianism can ultimately prevail in the Lord's New Church.



     THE recently published Report of the American New Church Evidence Society draws rather largely upon the imaginative faculty in hunting for "evidences" of the influence which Swedenborg's teachings and New Church thought are supposed to exercise upon "the religious, philosophical, literary, and scientific life of our times." The report claims for the New Church nearly everything that has the least semblance of truth in these fields of thought, and several things which are quite out of the sight of the unaided eye. Kant, Coleridge, Goethe, Emerson, and Carlyle,--all these, it is claimed, have been "largely, if not decisively, influenced by contact with Swedenborg's Writings." They may have read something from the Writings, indeed, but in how far have these intellectual giants been thereby influenced towards any affirmation of the Divinity of the Lord and the Holiness of the Word,-the very essentials of New Church thought?

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There is a tendency among us, New Church people,--we have all experienced it,--to read our own ideas into anything that affords the least opening, to discover "New Church truths" wherever common sense and the inspiration of genius have been at work. But is it not high time that we begin to exercise a little more critical and historical judgment, and cease to deceive ourselves and others by this childish inflating of soap-bubbles; these imaginary pictures of an "influence" by the New Church, which, on sober thought, we cannot help recognizing as having been "powerfully lacking" in the callous, skeptical world about us? From all round we hear the mournful cry, that the Doctrines of the New Church are "not wanted" by the Christian world. Of course, not! Nor were they ever wanted; nor will they ever be, by the great and the learned who give the "tone" to "modern thought." Why, then, do we not look at things squarely as they are, rather than as we would like them to be? Why this hunting for crumbs of comfort from the tables of the rich men of the world? Is it not undignified, to say the least, when we know that if there is anything of genuine truth in the writings of these great men, it is but fragments from our own table, the heavenly feast which the Lord has spread out before those who are willing to receive the bread of life from His own hand?

     All contributions to the pages of the Life should be written on one side only of the paper, and should be copied in legible handwriting, with a generous distance between lines, and a sufficient margin.
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     NEW PUBLICATIONS.

     Woodpile Recollections. By Charles Louis Olds. The Abbey Press. New York, 1901,--pp. 140. This neat little book comes as a surprise to some of the old friends of the author, who, when trusting their health in his keeping, had not suspected in the Doctor an imaginative faculty sufficiently vivid to cast a halo of romance over the driest of all possible subjects, the "woodpile." Here and there we meet with a few New Church ideas, though they do not seem to have much connection with the general subject. The book is well written and is full of quiet humor.

     The Power of Thought in the Production and Cure of Disease. By Wm. H. Holcombe, M. D., Chicago. Purdy Publishing Co. 1901. The first edition of this pamphlet was published in 1890, and was reviewed in Vol. x of this journal, p. 61. It endeavors to engraft New Church ideas upon the solifidian tree of "Christian Science," but the "graft" of rational truth does not fit in with the "stock" of magic. It will never bear any valuable fruit.

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NEW CHURCH JOURNALS 1901

NEW CHURCH JOURNALS              1901

     New Church Messenger. July 10. The series of "Impressions of the Convention," by different writers, makes interesting reading. There is a unanimous agreement that the recent meeting was one of the best ever held. Mr. Warren Goddard criticizes one of the reasons advanced for holding the meetings at a time which is inconvenient for the busy "common people" of the Church. Mr. Job Barnard, the newly-elected vice-president, contrasts this convention with the troublous one, held in Washington, 1881 (when the "Academy" people made things rather interesting). Rev. John Goddard dwells with pleasure upon the presence of so many young people at the meeting, as the great hope of the Church. So does Mr. W. N. Hobart, who is also gratified at the presence of members of the General Church, "as indicating more important results in the near future." Mr. Hobart, we think, deceives himself, if by these words he means that there will be a speedy reunion between the General Church and the Convention. The presence of members of the General Church at meetings of the Convention indicates nothing more than does the occasional presence of members of the latter body at the General Assemblies. The two bodies undoubtedly have many things in common, but the principles and methods, or rather, the ends and points of view, are so radically different in each body, as to make any amalgamation an impossibility. Each is performing uses for the Lord's New Church, and every lover of the New Jerusalem will therefore have an interest in both,-but a discriminating interest.

     The literary editor (Rev. Frank Sewall), commenting on recent articles in New England Journals, shows that "the dividing lines between the New England Trinitarians and Unitarians are becoming rapidly obliterated." The orthodox theological schools in Banger and Andover are exhibiting a remarkable decline, both in doctrinal vigor and in the number of students attending. The tendency, nowadays, is to consolidate these schools with the (Unitarian) Divinity School of Harvard. The editor observes: "We confess that with a tendency towards the 'non-denominational' attitude of Harvard, which means, most of all, the relaxing of the revealed standards of Divine Truth, we do not see that the theological training of the Congregational Churches of New England offers strong inducement for earnest students."

     The New Philosophy, July, 1901. This number contains the Transactions of the fourth annual meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, an abstract of which appeared in the July number of the Life. The journal contains the interesting annual address by the President, the Rev. Frank Sewall, the reports of the various officers and committees of the Association, the plan for the publication of Swedenborg's remaining Scientific Manuscripts, and Bishop Pendleton's paper on the Relation between "the Scientific works of Swedenborg and the Writings," which was read the meeting.

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It is delightful and wonderful to observe the prosperous condition of the Association, and the quiet but steady energy which seems to inspire its members.

     The New Christianity. July. We were rather surprised to see this our contemporary deal a blow at its favorite, the "Permeation-theory," in the concluding remarks of an article on "The Consolidation of the Churches:" "The outside forces, now militating against denominationalism, have their use as outside forces, but to hope that they will bring down the New Jerusalem out of heaven from God, is to hope in vain." This is sound, common sense, but, surely, the same cannot be said of the Rev. Charles Harden's paper on "The New Church and Swedenborg," where, in opposing a dreaded literalism, he says: "Even the writings of Swedenborg will one day become but the grave-clothes of Lazarus" (rather a mixed correspondence);..."the truths as conceived by the illuminated Swedenborg is that wall," (which is supposed to imprison the aspirations of the seeker for truth). "The Truth itself is the unwailed world. One is slavery; the other is freedom." Does the writer prefer the unwailed "world" to the walled city of the New Jerusalem!

     The Rev. Adolph Roeder, in his Impressions of the recent Convention in New York, bewails the sorrowful fact (if it is fact), that "in the Convention proper some of the younger men bring to the work that illiberal literalness that has the odor and bane of academic groves about it." Mr. Roeder, evidently, is not an admirer of Plato. Again, he says, "Mr. Bjorck was again before Convention, pleading against a foregone conclusion, because Convention fails to see that Mr. Rosenquist and Mr. Boyesen pull stroke oars for Mr. Manby, just as Convention for the past eight years has failed to see all sides of the situation in Germany and Switzerland." Mr. Manby, it should be known, is the fearless and untiring champion of the Divinity of the Lord and the Holiness of the Word, versus the Unitarianism and Universalism of Mr. Bjorck, just as Mr. Goerwitz has been the champion of the pure Doctrines of the New Church versus the Tulkism and Theosophy of Albert Artope. If the Convention has "failed to see" the necessity of supporting the enemies of the New Church, so much the better for the Convention!

     The Church owes gratitude to the New Christianity for its courage in publishing extracts of a recent translation of St. Liguori's Moral Theology, a standard Roman Catholic work containing directions respecting the questions to be asked by priests in the Confessional. A copy of this work is in the Academy's Library, and an examination of the book will show that our contemporary has not by any means quoted its worst passages. The book surpasses belief: it is an open ecclesiastical brothel, the most profane and adulterous daughter of the great Mother of harlots that we have seen. Marie Corelli evidently was not acquainted with this "Moral" Theology, for otherwise The Master Christian would probably have been made too strongly flavored for delicate palates. "Saint" Liguori died in 1787, but the use of the villainous book has been sanctioned by successive popes, down to the present one.

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The publication of a complete English translation would be useful, in exhibiting in all its revolting nakedness the hellish Babylon which was judged a hundred and fifty years ago in the spiritual world, but which still keeps up the pretense of holiness in this world.

     The New Church Independent. May. A writer in this journal expresses a misconception which possesses at least the merit of novelty: "The offspring of conjugial mates in the celestial heavens become the spirits of natural men and women in the natural world....They descend to earth and take on the third principle of life, which makes creation possible." There is no foundation whatever for such an idea, in the Writings of the New Church. The soul-form of every man is from the earthly father, not from any spiritual parents in the other world. And the offspring of the spiritual marriages in Heaven "are not natural offspring, but spiritual offspring," that is, love and wisdom, from the conjunction of good and truth (C. L., 44). The accumulated number of angels in the Heavens is unthinkable, while the number of births on the various earths is comparatively small. If these latter were the ultimations of the heavenly offsprings, the potency and fertility of the angels must be feeble, indeed.

     JUNE-JULY. The same writer elaborates his fanciful theory of the offspring of the angels. This offspring is identified with the "familiar spirit" who "Swedenborg says . . . is always with a man," his exact resemblance. It would be interesting to have the reference to this teaching (?) of Swedenborg's. The angel-born familiar spirit attaches itself by natural particles smaller than atoms to a natural child on earth of the same sex. Then commences an adjustment of reciprocal influx; spiritual influx flowing from the familiar--now the "soul-ego"--to the body, and "physical influx" from the body to the soul-ego. It is unnecessary to follow these phantasies any further. The whole theory is a perversion of the doctrine that man is born a spiritual being and is utterly opposed to the Writings. It was a pleasant surprise to notice in this number a sermon on "Peace" by the Rev. E. Cronlund, reprinted from the Life.

     Morning Light. May 11th. Under the caption "Hic Liber est Adventus Domini" Mr. Hyde presents his interpretation of the inscription written "on all the books in the spiritual world" and, "by command," on two copies (one being the Brief Exposition) in Holland. The article shows a lack of clear distinction between the Advent of the Lord and the reception of Him by man. Mr. Hyde extends the meaning of the words "Hic liber" to include the reception of the Writings by men, thus making the Advent of the Lord "gradual" and "by degrees." Thus he says that Swedenborg "regarded the Lord's Advent as a fact unrestricted as to time, for he specially observes that the New Church (and therefore the Lord's Advent) is to be by 'degrees' and 'gradually' realized." "No one can confine the Advent which establishes the New Church to the period within which the books stating the truths but not constituting their acceptance in the minds of men were written or printed."

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Of course these statements are true if by "Advent" we understand the reception of the Lord by man; but this is the Advent to the man, not to the Church as a Church. If we are to define the term "Advent" as Mr. Hyde defines it then the Lord has not made His First Advent, but is gradually effecting it, for countless myriads yet unborn are still to learn of and accept Him in that Advent. Nor does a careful reading of the passages appended by Swedenborg to the inscription, and which Mr. Hyde adduces, support his position. From those passages we learn that the Advent of the Lord is the last time of the former church and the beginning of the New Church, and that it is the appearance of the Lord from His word. That appearance has been effected in the Writings, by which the Lord establishes the beginning of a New Church; and it is these Writings which Swedenborg undoubtedly referred to when he wrote "Hic Liber est Adventus Domini." The growth of the New Church is the fuller acceptance of the Lord in His Advent, but it is not that Advent itself. We agree with Mr. Hyde when he says "The saying (Hic Liber est Adventus Domini) is not to be confined to a single volume, but extends to the whole body of truth enunciated in 'all the books'...of which this one is but the Summary Exposition;" but we do not agree with him when, in the very next sentence, he weakens the force of this clear statement, by saying, "Moreover it belongs, even then, only to the vital though slow acceptance of those truths on the part of the Church, and not to their declaration, unresponded to, to claim the high title of being the Lord's Advent,--a title worthy, by its prophetic nature, of being written by command.' " At this day, when "permeation" teaching is rife, and the New Church is seen everywhere except where it is, we cannot emphasize too much the truth that the Lord has made His Second Coming, and that He is now present in the World, in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.

     May 25th. Rev. J. Ashby contributes an interesting article on "Providence arranges the time of one's death;" and Rev. A. Roeder a simple statement in popular form of the "Principle of Vastation." This number also contains a continuation of the correspondence in the Birmingham Dolly Mercury on the status of Swedenborg and his teachings. In this correspondence, Mr. R. R. Rogers says of Conjugial Love, which "Visitor" had been informed was kept "under lock and key:" "The first part, on 'Conjugial Love,' ought to be read by every man and woman living. But the worst of all crimes...the social curse of the age. It is not on a pleasant subject, and it is not a subject which we wish either our sons or daughters to become familiar with, but I know of no one who locks it up. And if people do not feel called upon to lock up the histories of Abraham, David and Solomon...then there is nothing to conceal in the book written on the vilest of all iniquities known to man." He does not take into account the fact that these teachings are given, not to make men familiar with the evils, but to make them familiar with the Divine warning against them. They are evils which infest not any small or special class but the whole Christian world.

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Addressing himself to the assertion by "H. S." that Swedenborg claimed to be inspired, Mr. Rogers enters a protest. He gives three classes of inspiration, 1. Life or Influx; 2. thought, and, 3. the inspiration of the Prophets. Swedenborg's "inspiration" comes under the second class. "In this sense Shakespeare as a poet was inspired in the highest degree; Darwin also as a scientist was inspired; and in the highest degree Swedenborg was inspired as a writer on theology." We have heard of Swedenborg being inspired like Shakespeare, but it comes to us as something new, to hear of his inspiration being put on a par with Darwin's. If Mr. Rogers is correct, then the New Church is nothing but the "highest" of the religious sects, founded by the "highest" of theologians, and we must henceforth give up our claim for it as being the Divinely established and only true Christian Church. Mr. Rogers, in defending the New Church, is over anxious to save it from the condemnation of the so-called Christian world. Swedenborg himself acted very differently when he was attacked. He boldly proclaimed that he was directly commissioned and instructed by the Lord alone.

     The New Church Magazine. July. The long and valuable series of sketches of the history of the various societies of the New Church in Great Britain is continued in the present issue by a summary history of the Camden Road Society, of London. This Society shares with the Argyle Square Society the distinction of being directly descended from the Society in Great East Cheap, the first of all the distinctive societies in the New Church, but it is facile princeps as to past eminence in the history of the Church. In support of this assertion we need but mention the names of the pastors who have successively served this Society in the course of the past century: Joseph Proud, Thomas Churchill, Samuel Noble, William Bruce, Samuel M. Warren, Prescott Hiller, Rudolph L. Tafel. Of late years, however, the Society cannot be said to have lived up to its glorious past.

     The Rev. Edward Jones contributes a very interesting article on "The Doctrine of the Future Life in Ancient Egypt," which is well worth reading for both its theology and its science. The Inaugural Address by the Rev. J. T. Woodford, the president of the recent General Conference, contains some earnest and striking thoughts, from which we quote the following passage: "The former Church has been deposed. Yet who needs to be told that it is with us still? As a system it is shaking itself free from a good many humanly imposed religious fetters, and in this we see signs of emancipation and progress. But this is by no means all it is doing in this direction. It is also shaking itself free from a belief in, and a reliance upon the Word of God as a revelation from heaven. More and more the Bible is coming either to be openly labelled, or silently and indifferently treated, as 'literature.' A general and rapid disintegration is going on, side by side, with what the New Church is willing or able to do by way of up building and restoration. This latter work seems painfully slow. In this we cannot pretend to see any sign of true progress. For when so many of the leaders of religions thought can offer nothing better than their enlightened (?) views upon the Scriptures, too often by way of diminishing or belittling its light, it is by no means for us to flatter ourselves that the New Church, as an organization, can afford to be taking its rest because of the changes evidently going on around it.

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We have to look deep enough into appearances to get at the realities beneath them; and an incisive judgment can but say, as to this condition of religious loosening: 'If this be progress, it is progress backwards...on the way to the destruction of faith and of all the noble moralities and forms of righteousness it should bring in its train. For, as the Psalmist was inspired to cry, 'If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?'"

     Nya Kyrkans Tidning. June-July. Rev. C. J. N. Manby, in a series of able editorials, is defending the Integrity of the Word and the literal truth of the story of the birth of the Lord against Mr. Bjorck's "higher criticisms" and denials of the Lord's supernatural conception and complete Divinity. The clouds which for some years have hovered over the New Church in Sweden, are now being dispelled by Mr. Manby's clear expositions of the genuine Doctrine, and by the rapid theological evolution of Mr. Bjorck into open Unitarianism.

     Den Nya Kyrkan. May-June. This Swedish monthly, which is edited by Rev. Joseph E. Boyesen, has now reached its sixth volume. The last issue contains, among other articles, a translation of Prof. Odhner's sketch of the earliest history of the New Church in Sweden, and an Easter sermon by Rev. J. E. Rosenqvist. In connection with the recent expulsion of Rev. Albert Bjorck from membership in the legally recognized "Swedish Congregation of the New Church," the journal quotes from an article in one of the Stockholm dailies, on the question: "To what Church does a person belong who has been excluded from a dissecting sect?" In other words, "does he, by virtue of such exclusion, again become a member of the Established Church of Sweden, from which he had separated?" The question is answered in the negative, but may involve certain legal difficulties.

     Nunc Licet. May-June. In this Swedish journal, with a Latin title, the Rev. Albert Bjorck continues his efforts to uproot the fundamental doctrines of the New Church, and this with a skillful cunning, the like of which we have never witnessed. The phraseology of the New Church is still retained, but the light of heaven has been utterly extinguished from the terms, and the fatuous glow of infidelity has been submitted. In the eyes of Mr. Bjorck, who still claims to be a minister of the New Church, the Gospel history of the supernatural conception of the human of the Lord has been proved utterly false by the investigations of "Higher Criticisms." With this, he throws overboard the whole doctrine of the sole and exclusive divinity of the Lord, and finds in Christ simply a man, born of human parents, finite in every sense, limited as to knowledge, intelligence, and power, but finally, by the victory of "unselfish love;" developing an "ethical and moral character," which may be called the Son of God,--a state of Divinity which may be reached by any one who will try! Little by little, the heresy is unmasking itself, and it will not he long before Mr. Bjorck will no longer be able to infest the New Church in Sweden, or anywhere else.

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PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1901

PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY              1901

     A LOCAL ASSEMBLY was held at Bryn Athyn on June 19-20. On the morning of the nineteenth, the Bishop conducted the opening services and Mr. Synnestvedt assisted, preaching on Revelation xxi, 3. The theme was, the new Gospel announced to the world, and the Divine preparations for this announcement. The offertory was devoted to the Orphanage. After the service, came the banquet. The Rev. Alfred Acton acted as Toastmaster. During the dinner we received a pleasant surprise in the shape of a telegram containing hearty greetings from the Berlin Society. A telegram of reciprocal greetings was sent in response. After the opening toast to "the Church," the Toastmaster introduced the speeches with a few words expressive of the significance and use of the celebration He then proposed the Sentiment, "June 19th; its message to the New Church." Mr. C. E. Doering, responding, spoke of the sending forth of the Apostles in the spiritual world to announce the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which was the beginning of the New Church in the world of spirits. This did not take place until after the completion of the Writings, when the Lord had come in the glory of the Word, casting down the imaginary heavens, and forming a new heaven of the remnant. Then the New Church could be formed in the interior sphere of the world of spirits, and, afterwards, on earth. The same gospel was to be preached here also. But here, reception had been slow. The speaker then dwelt on the present state of peace as being the time to prepare for the assaults which are always sure to come, for in no other way can the New Church be established. We are to prepare by teaching and also by living the Message, for it is one which calls for repentance of life. As applied to the general Body this means, protecting the uses of the Church, and avoiding all that threatens theme. Everyone, priest and layman, must put his shoulder to the wheel. Mr. Odhner responded to "The Message of the 19th to the Spiritual World." He took as his theme "The Twelve Apostles, the First Priests of the New Church."* "The Message of the 19th to the World" was the theme of remarks by Mr. Starkey, who spoke of the wider view we need to take of the New Church as it is to be. Something more than mere wish' for numerical increase may he within the natural desire to see the New Church extend its borders and gather into the fold the hosts of earth. The spread of the New Church will. for years to come, doubtless be chiefly through the children within the Church, but in time it will spread among many. Essentially the means by which these are to be brought into the Church are similar to those by which Newchurchmen are made out of our children,--first, the implantation of remains, then the development of natural intelligence, and then the annunciation of the glad tidings.
     * Mr. Odhner's remarks, which were written, will be published in the October number of the Life.

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     After a short recess Mrs. Herbert Walker sang the song, so beautifully expressive of conjugial sentiments, "Darby and Joan." Following this, Bishop Pendleton responded to the toast, "Conjugial Love, the gift of the Bishop Pendleton responded to the toast, "Conjugial Love, the gift of the 19th. He noted that in the memorandum concerning the 19th in T. C. R. 791, it is added, that this was done according to the Lord's words, "Blessed are those called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." He then read several extracts from the Writings, on the subject of Conjugial Love. The Toastmaster referred to the conceptions of conjugial love sometimes found in the poets and ascribed their failure to produce any real effect to the lack of a religious foundation. To preserve the conjugial, we must look to the Church where the doctrine of conjugial love is taught from Religion. He proposed the toast, "The General Church of the New Jerusalem." Mr. Pitcairn, in response, said that Conjugial Love is one of the fundamental doctrines which characterize this Church,--marriage within the Church and all that that involves. Many looked back to the old days of the Academy, as a time of greater enlightenment; but the General Church had taken the place of the Academy as a Church, and he ventured to say that we had advanced; and we will advance still further if we apply to our lives the doctrine of Conjugial Lore. He then read the Relation, Conjugial Love 32.--Mr. Synnestvedt spoke to the impromptu toast, "The Babies," and said that they are the chiefest blessings of conjugial love. In the mutual performances of uses there can alone be growth in the conjugial, and in the rearing of offspring the fullest mutuality is secured. It is a great perversion where children are looked upon as other than blessings, as is too generally the case in the world.--Mr. Pitcairn expressed astonishment that it has been only within recent years that the doctrines concerning conjugial love and its importance have been generally taught,--that the truth has been brought out that it is only those who will be of the New Church who can know that love.--The celebration concluded with toasts to the Hostess (Mrs. Odhner), the Rising Generation, Miss Plummer, and Our President and Country.

     The second day of the Assembly was inaugurated by a brief opening service, conducted by Bishop Pendleton. After the service, the Bishop explained the omission of the General Assembly this year as due to the need for economizing time, strength and money; he rehearsed the history of the effort to enlist the interest of the English brethren in the idea of Dioceses as offering a solution to the threatened overtaxing of the resources of the present center, and also for the national differences of temperament which have led some to desire independent national churches. The recent formation of the Ontario District Assembly has been a step in this direction. He then asked, Has the time arrived to take a similar step here? The Secretary read letters of greeting to the Assembly from the Rev. L. P. Mercer, the Rev. James Taylor, M. Hussenet and the Society of Rue Thouin, Paris, and Mr. W. C. Childs.

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The Assembly expressed appreciation of the letters, and the Bishop was requested to make suitable replies.

     Bishop Pendleton called attention to the fact that this was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Academy.--The question of the formation of a District Assembly as a body larger than the ordinary Local Assembly, but smaller than the General Assembly, was then discussed. The Bishop said that the move is a distinct expression of what already exists,--it expresses a use. He would propose avoiding the appointment of a Treasurer at present, as liable to result in weakening the General body;--Mr. Acton said that the very fact that we were meeting here instead of in General Assembly foreshadowed something of the diocesan plan. Ultimately there will be individual bodies in the Church, with distinct ministers, but our body is too small for that now.-Mr. Synnestvedt saw both something to be afraid of in the new move and something that showed its necessity. He feared any weakening of our already very small body; on the other hand we are faced by conditions, which are the leadings of Providence.-Mr. Odhner said that for years we had gone on a basis of ignoring geographical limits in Church affairs. There will be varieties, too, even in one country, where it is so large as this.--After further discussion, the Bishop announced the sense of the meeting as affirmative to the formation of a District Assembly.

     The question of Annual Meetings was taken up.--Mr. Synnestvedt said he was not in favor of having an annual meeting of the District Assembly in the same year as the meeting of the General Assembly. Mr. Acton thought we might have both, if the General Assembly did not come often, and in that case we might send delegates from the District to the General Assembly. Mr. Glenn said that the strain of having annual meetings had been experienced by us upon in three different general bodies. We should avoid that which would defeat the very object of a Church Festival.--Bishop Pendleton said that the question of having an annual meeting has to be determined each year.--He then nominated Pastor Synnestvedt as Secretary of the new District Assembly, and this nomination was confirmed by vote.

     In the afternoon, the question of a name for the Assembly; was discussed. After considering the "Eastern" and the "Atlantic District Assembly," the meeting adopted the title, "The Philadelphia District Assembly.-A short discussion on the "uses of the District Assembly" resulted in a unanimous agreement that they were practically the same, though on smaller scale, as those of the General Assembly.--The question of "Episcopacy" was then discussed The Bishop explained that on account of the growth of the work the question of assistance in the episcopal work has become a practical one. In addition to the duties of the Bishop's office the present incumbent has the superintendency of the schools. These two uses are altogether too much for one man to do well. Present movements look to a division of the work, but that division will be slow.--There was some discussion on the question of the government of the Church under dioceses, but nothing definite was concluded.

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     Before adjournment, the Rev. J. F. Potts announced the completion of the Appendix to the Concordance, which is now in press.--The Assembly then adjourned.
GENERAL CONVENTION 1901

GENERAL CONVENTION              1901

     THE eighty-first meeting of the General Convention was held in Brooklyn, N. Y., from June 1st to June 4th.

     At the opening session on Saturday, the President (the Rev. S. S. Seward) delivered the Annual Address, on "Loyalty to the Truth." The Address was a forceful presentation of the necessity for loyalty to the "Divinely revealed" Doctrines. Various reports and communications were read. The Theological School reported a gift of $40,000 for the endowment of a chair of elocution. Urbana University reported an attendance of 51 scholars, 16 of whom were from New Church families. The report of the trustees of the Iungerich Fund showed that, after fulfilling all the requirements of the trust, they still had money in hand; Mr. McGeorge, therefore, asked the Convention to suggest some use to which this money might be applied. The Convention thereupon recommended to the trustees the publication of the Brief Exposition in Latin, for gratuitous distribution to the Roman Catholic clergy.

     In the evening, a service in preparation for the Holy Supper was conducted by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck and the Rev. T. F. Wright. A marked feature of the service was the reading of a lesson from the Writings.

     On Sunday afternoon, the Holy Supper was administered to 361 communicants. The administration was preceded by the ordination of Andrew Parsons, of San Francisco, until recently a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and Abraham Knobel, of St. Louis.

     On Monday morning the Rev. Arthur Faraday, the messenger of the English Conference, was formally welcomed. The Rev. Alfred Acton read a memorial from the Swedenborg Scientific Association, asking for financial assistance from the Convention to an amount not exceeding $300, in the proposed work of copying and printing Swedenborg's unpublished scientific MSS.--Mr. Sewall, in moving a grant of $300 to the Association said that the Church should not let a single line written by Swedenborg, go unpublised.--Mr. Warren, supporting the motion, dwelt on the value of the scientific works in preparing Swedenborg to understand spiritual truths. He quoted Swedenborg's own statement that he was prepared by the Lord "from his youth."--Mr. Carter, the treasurer, spoke in support of the motion. The motion was then carried.--The Rev. Albert Bjorck, who had arrived from Sweden too late for the opening of the Convention, read his report. He had resigned from the Stockholm Society in the interest of peace, and was now holding missionary services with an average attendance of 65. A majority of the Society favored him, "although their votes were defeated in the meeting of the larger Society, of which the Society in Stockholm is, according to Swedish government laws, a parish."

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This parish, under another minister, was receiving support from the Board of Missions, and he asked that like support be given to him in his work.-Dr. Lindstrom moved that the report be referred to a committee consisting of the Revs. F. Sewall, L. P. Mercer and J. Werren, and Messrs. Job Barnard and H. P. Chandler. He thought that since there was a dispute between the Board of Missions and Mr. Bjorck, the latter's report should he passed on by an impartial committee-Mr. Reed moved that the consideration of this matter be deferred until the Board of Missions has made its report.-Mr. Hinkley thought the report should have been sent to the Board in the first place.--Mr. Ager thought Dr. Lindstrom's proposition a fair one.--Mr. Reed's motion was then carried.--The Committee on Photo typing Swedenborg's Manuscripts reported that the first volume of the Spiritual Diary had been completed. Acknowledgment was made of the work of Mr. C. Hj. Asplundh and the Rev. J. E. Boyesen.--The report of the General Council announced the extinction of the Milwaukee Society.

     In the afternoon the report of the New Church Evidence Society was read. According to this report, "the influence of Swedenborg's teachings and New Church thought pervade the religious, philosophical, literary and scientific life of our times."-The Rev. A. Faraday read the Address from the English Conference; and the Rev. J. Reed read the reply of the Convention. The rest of the afternoon was devoted to the consideration of the report of the Board of Missions. Addresses were made by the Rev. A. B. Francisco, the Rev. J. E. Thomas, who gave an interesting account of the work among the colored people of Washington, D. C. and the Rev. A. Parsons; the Rev. F. A. Gustafson made an earnest plea for the greater care of the children of the Church. The results, he said, will be far greater than are obtained by sending out tracts, most of which are thrown into wastebaskets. The Rev. A. Faraday also addressed the meeting.-Mr. Bjorck's report was then taken up and referred to the Board of Missions.

     On Tuesday morning came the annual discussion of the report of the Messenger Board. Different views were expressed on the subject of "improving" the Messenger. It was recognized by all the speakers, that the paper should he supported by the Church as a whole. Discussion on the development of the News Department resulted in the recommendation to the Messenger Board "to increase the amount and improve the quality" of the "religious news" in the paper.--The discussion of this subject was interrupted throughout by the election of officers, which was going on at the same time. This interruption was, marked that one of the last acts of the Convention was to request the General Council to suggest some change in the procedure or time of elections.--Preceding the balloting for President, Mr. Reed, one of the nominees, asked his friends not to vote for him. The office was of such dignity that it should be held by one man, for a number of years. The balloting resulted in the re-election of Mr. Seward as President, and the election of Mr. Job Barnard as Vice-President.

     In the afternoon a committee was appointed to inquire into the status of the Church property at Darby, Pa.--The Rev. G. G. Starkey, of the General Church, addressed the Convention in appreciation of the evidences of brotherly feeling shown him and other visitors from Bryn Athyn.

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He spoke hopefully of the widening of the ground of general uses on which the Convention and the General Church could meet.--The Board of Missions reported that it had considered Mr. Bjorck's report, and also a communication from the Stockholm Society, and it recommended that the Convention continue to support Mr. Manby "as the missionary of the New Church in Sweden."-Mr. Hinkley read a personal statement giving a history of the disturbances in Sweden, and the action taken by the Board in connection therewith.--Mr. Bjorck protested against the report and statement, as one-sided. There would have been a very different report had the proposed committee been appointed. He had come to believe that Swedenborg taught the possibility of salvation after death, and personal enemies had made this a cause for persecution and slander. If a man is to be crowded out of the ministry because he believes in Infinite Love, and especially in Infinite Wisdom, the New Church can have no influence among men. Mr. Manby, who was essentially an Academy man, had excommunicated him, and he had been obliged to bring the matter before the public courts. If the Convention adopted the report, it would be aiding men who were "unscrupulous" and "not morally true." The matter was referred to the new Board of Missions.--The completion of the Concordance having been reported, Convention passed a resolution of congratulation and thanks to Mr. Potts.--Memorials referring to the late F. A. Dewson, G. W. Colton, G. W. Simpson and J. F. Goddard were adopted in silence and by a rising vote.--The Rev. A. Roeder moved that a committee of five ministers he appointed to consider and report "whether the Lord wrote Swedenborg's theological works through Swedenborg, or whether Swedenborg wrote them of himself from the Lord," and "whether or not the books are the Word." Mr. Parsons supporting the motion said that in the Academy's Church in Philadelphia, he had seen, some years ago, Swedenborg's works collected in the Sanctuary side by side with the Word, and it had affected him very painfully. He thought the matter should be seriously discussed by the ministers. If these books were the Word, we should know it; and if they are not, then there should be some clear expression to that effect. A motion to refer to the General Council was lost by a vote of 19 to 20; and a motion to lay on the table, by a vote of 19 to 24. Mr. Ager said that on this subject there had always been and always would be difference of opinion in the Convention. He thought the Convention should leave the matter alone. It could not decide doctrine by vote, and it would be an entire departure from its usage, if it attempted to do so.--Mr. Schreck moved an amendment to the effect that the proposed committee should report to the Council of Ministers.--Mr. Parsons said he did not particularly desire that there should be any vote on the desired report, nor had he any objection to its being made to the council of Ministers. All he wanted was, that the ministers should give the subject serious study, and let the Church have the benefit of that study. The resolution as amended was then carried, and the President appointed the committee.

     After some further business, the Convention adjourned sine die.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

     FROM OUR REGULAR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Baltimore, Md.--During the summer months, Mr. Alfred Stroh is administering to the friends of the General Church in this city. Services are held every Sunday and Mr. Stroh also conducts a doctrinal class during the week. P. K.

     Berlin, Ont.--A memorial meeting was held on Friday evening, July 5th, to commemorate Mr. Henry Stroh, Sr., who died on the 28th of June. The pastor opened the meeting by reading Heaven and Hell, n. 426 and 427, and then invited those present to speak what was in their hearts and minds on this occasion.--Several members spoke of Mr. Stroh's life and of the lessons we can learn from it. The struggle through which he and others passed in the early days of the Church in Berlin were spoken of.--Testimony was given as to his love for the Truth, a love which led him to an earnest study of the Writings. Few in Berlin had read them as much as he. He had a strong aversion for ideas put forth in the Church not in harmony with the doctrines, and such ideas were wont to receive from him a condemnation which could not readily be made more emphatic It was his loyalty to the Truth which led him to join in the Academy movement here, ten years ago, and to separate from the congregation in which he had labored for many years.--His success in keeping his children in the Church was also dwelt upon. His three sons, who, of his family of nine children, are still in this world, are earnest and loyal members of the Church; and their children, in
turn,--ten in number,--will, from all indications, become the same.--Mention was also made of his love of uprightness and integrity in business dealings.--The formal part of the meeting was closed with singing the hymn "Holy Habitations." A social then followed, during which there was a toast to Mr. Stroh's entrance into the other life, to which all responded by singing. "When the Mists Are Cleared Away.

     Our Sunday services have been somewhat shortened during the hot season, and the Friday evening suppers have been discontinued during vacation. There have been several picnics and fishing parties at different points on the Gorand river, and a general school picnic is booked for August 1st.

     Rev. and Mrs. Synnestvedt and family have been visiting here; also, Miss Margaret Cowley, of Pittsburg, and Mr. and Mrs. G. V. Glebe, of Huntingdon Valley.

     The enthusiasm of the Athletic Club is not dampened by the warm weather, and base ball is regularly indulged in. T. S. K.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa.--It is not in human nature to remain contented in one place When we lived in the city, all who could came out here for their summer holidays. Now everybody who is able to do so, escapes from this pastoral region to recuperate at the seaside, or anywhere else, during the heated season. This summer, the exodus has been greater than ever. Even our bishop has deserted us for the cooling breezes and the mosquitoes and the meditative calm of Wildwood, N. J. With him went his family and his private secretary. Miss Alice Grant is summering at the neighboring town of Holly Beach, where also Mr. Odhner, for a short time, sought new inspiration by sweet communion with the blue fish, the porgies, and other habitants of the deep. Our pastor, with family; has also been a-fishing, in the beautiful Muskoko Lake in Canada; he was assisted in his labors, for a few weeks, by Mr. and Mrs. Glenn. "Cairnwood" is quite deserted, pending extensive repairs, and the whole Pitcairn household has fled to Allenhurst, N. J.

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Father Potts, with four of his daughters, is taking a well-earned rest on his farm in boreal Vermont. During the absence of Mr. Synnestvedt, the Church services here are being conducted by Rev. Emil Cronlund. The attendance has been good, in spite of the many absentees.

     While there is profound peace in the settlement, there is no end of activity at the "old" school building, where Mr. Asplundh is trying to keep busy a small "commando" of Academy boys, who are supposed to assist him in cataloguing and packing the library and other properties, preparatory to the great "trekking" to the new Academy building. The latter is now undergoing the finishing touches; the dormitory for the girls is rising up rapidly nearby, and the former school building, is being altered interiorly, to serve henceforth as a dormitory for boys. Rev. R. H. Keep is spending the summer here, engaged in seeing through the press the long expected Nineteen Years' Index to the Life. E. L.

     Buffalo, N. Y.--After the Council of the Clergy of the General Church, at Bryn Athyn, the sessions of which closed on June 28th, was with friends in Buffalo. N. Y., over Sunday, June 30. Here I saw for the first time the handsome new chapel of the Buffalo Society of the New Church, and attended the services here morning and evening.

     Not having been previously informed concerning this matter, it was rather a surprise to me to see the minister, Rev. F. A. Gustafson, appear before the congregation clothed in a priestly robe. The robe seemed to be made like those of the ministers of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, but with a purple stole, having white crosses at the ends.

     At the morning service, instead of a regular sermon, the pastor gave a brief admonitory address occupying less than ten minutes, to the communicants on this occasion.

     At the evening service, the Rev. C. H. Mann, editor of the Messenger, was present. The pastor conducted the worship, and Mr. Mann preached, both ministers wearing the robes. JOHN E. BOWERS.

     Glenview, Ill.--The first notable event since the banquet on June 19th was a "kitchen surprise," given for Mr. Alvin Nelson and Miss Helen Farrington. Nearly all the folks in the settlement gathered at the Nelsons in the evening of July 2d, carrying kitchen utensils of every description, which were deposited in a huge pile about the astonished couple. Many of the gifts were accompanied not only with the name of the giver, but also with an appropriate and humorous verse or two, which were read aloud by Mr. Nelson, and were the occasion for much merriment.

     The Fourth of July was celebrated with a general picnic amongst the trees on the Park hill ["Hill!"]. The intense heat somewhat marred the festivity of the occasion, but this was, in part, compensated for by the profusion of dainties spread upon the tables. Shortly after dinner, a slight sprinkling of rain from threatening storm-clouds, sent the whole party hurrying to the club house, in a long and motley caravan, but no sooner had shelter been reached than the rain stopped. The rest of the afternoon was occupied in the singing of patriotic airs by the children, and rifle-practice and bicycle racing by the young men and boys. A heavy thunder-storm cleared the atmosphere for the gorgeous display of fire-works in the evening.

     On July 20th, Rev. and Mrs. D. H. Klein gave a bon-fire party at "The Evergreens," in honor of their guests, the Rev. and Mrs. E. J. Stebbing, and also as a farewell to the Glenview people, Mr. Klein having accepted a call to the Middleport Society. Potatoes and-sweet corn were roasted in the ashes, steak was broiled on the glowing coals, and marsh-mallows toasted at the fire.

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Later, when the flames had died down, and the embers were casting a mellow and romantic light against the tall spruce trees, the party gathered in a semi-circle around the fire, and sang love-songs, college ditties, some pathetic, some semi-comic. A visitor remarked on the way home: "They all seem like one great family." Among recent visitors to Glenview, we may mention Mrs. Wm. B. Aitken, Mr. and Mrs. Scalbom, of the Englewood Society; Miss Doering, of Topeka, Kansas, and Misses Eloise and Evelyn Gilmore, of Scranton, Pa. H. F.

     Middleport, O.--The Rev. D. H. Klein, the new pastor of the Society, arrived here on Friday, August 10th. On the following evening, a very enjoyable social was held, at which the members of the Society made Mr. and Mrs. Klein cordially welcome to their new home. The opening services of Mr. Klein's pastorate were attended by over 60 persons.

FROM CONTEMPORARY NEW CHURCH JOURNALS.

     California.--The two New Church Societies in Los Angeles have now united into one society, under the pastoral care of Rev. W. W. Welsh.

     Illinois.--The Humholdt Park Parish, of Chicago, is erecting a house of worship on California avenue, facing Humholdt Park.

     The congregation in Englewood is reported as being in a very flourishing condition; several new families have taken pews in the temple since the beginning of the year. The pastor, Rev. T. A. King, is one of the best known ministers in the community, and has frequent calls for services outside of the parish.

     Massachusetts.--More than fifty pupils attended the New Church School in Waltham during the past year, two-thirds of these being children of the New Church parents. All of the regular teachers are members of the New Church.

     The recent meeting of the Massachusetts Association was attended by twenty-one ministers and eighty-six delegates. The Rev. James Reed, who is the general pastor of the Association, presented an address on "The Three Essentials of the New Church, and Loyalty to Them" "On account of the recent defection of one minister [Mr. Hayes], there was a general reviving of the faith, and this feeling was well expressed by the essay. The Rev. A. F. Frost has been engaged as the missionary of this Association, which now numbers 1,732 members. (A membership of 1,849 was reported four years ago.)

     New York.--A "Neo-Christian Union" was organized at New York on June 4th by seven New Church ministers. The object of the Association is to secure "a freer expression and wider publication of the individual views, doctrinal and applied, of all who believe in and endeavor to live by the Two Great Commandments, than is now accorded them." The Union is pledged to support The New Christianity as a means to this end. It is wonderful to think of this ultra-independent journal now having become the organ of ecclesiastical organization,--possibly a budding "ecclesiasticism." What would Mr. Barrett have said to this!

     Ohio.--The Urbana University celebrated its semi-centennial anniversary on June 19th. Five New Church ministers were present, together with many former pupils, and also the leading Old Church clergymen of the town. A few of those present had witnessed the laying of the foundation-stone of the college building, fifty years ago. The Rev. Frank Sewall, in his Memorial Address, reviewed the history of the Institution, and brought out many interesting recollections of former teachers and students, some or whom have become distinguished in the New Church or in the world.

     Canada.--The venerable Frederick William Tuerk,--for forty-four years the pastor of the First New Jerusalem Society in Berlin, Ont.,--was called into the Spiritual world, suddenly, but very quietly, on July 3d.

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Mr. Tuerk was born at Dusseldorf, in Rhenish Prussia, on September 23d, 1820, emigrated to America, 1849, and settled at Pittsburg, Pa., as a missionary of the Lutheran Church. While here he became acquainted with the Doctrines of the New Church, but continued to preach in Lutheran pulpits until 1857, when he openly united with the New Church and was ordained a priest of the New Jerusalem. He was now called to the pastoral charge of the growing young Society in Berlin, Ont., which under his faithful care, grew to be one of the largest New Church congregations on this Continent. In 1862 he was elected president of the Canada Association, and was consecrated an ordaining minister, in 1864. For further details of his life, see the interesting biographical sketch by Rev. E. J. E. Schreck in the Messenger for April 10th.

     It should be added that Mr. Tuerk was for many years a member of the Academy of the New Church, and an earnest advocate of its principles and methods. Owing largely to his personal sympathy with the Rev. Louis H. Tafel in the latter's conflict with the Academy, Mr. Tuerk withdrew from this body in 1891. But the effects of his former consistent teachings remained with many of his people who now found it necessary to organize themselves into a new society, the present "Carmel Church," of Berlin. Mr. Tuerk continued to serve the First Society until the time of his death, but has been in feeble health for a number of years. The funeral took place on July 7th, and was conducted by Rev. Albert B. Francisco, the newly-elected successor of Mr. Tuerk, assisted by Rev. F. E. Waelchli, the pastor of the Carmel Church, of Berlin.

     Great Britain.--An interesting social meeting was held at York, on April 24th, to inaugurate the honorary pastorship of Rev. A. Stones, when the members of this new Society had the opportunity of inspecting a valuable collection of "Swedenborgiana,"-including the photo typed edition of the Summary Sensus Intenri; several of the original editions of the Writings; a medal of Swedenborg; views of Swedenborg's home and house; leaves from the ancient poplar tree which is the only present remains of his fine garden; photographs of Swedenborg and of New Church Ministers, past and present; copies of various New Church journals, liturgies, etc., the whole accompanied by addresses from various sneakers. This instructive and entertaining method of evangelization is on the same plan with the one recently introduced in America by the Rev. A. F. Frost, the missionary of the Massachusetts Association.

     The twenty-sixth annual meeting of the Scottish Association of the New Church was held at Glasgow on April 25th. The Rev. P. Ramage, the retiring missionary of the Association, advocated greater simplicity in methods of work, and less anxiety as to results. We should attend simply to sowing the seed and leave the results to the Lord. He emphasized the statement that "the Christian Church is perishing for lack of Divine Truth," and illustrated it by relating some of the questions which he was asked at lectures, which showed that "in the world there was no knowledge whatever about the Spiritual world." He expressed surprise that at this day, when the reasoning faculty is so much developed in all other directions, it should be utterly set aside in reference to religion. Mr. Andrew Eadie expressed his belief that "the Christian world was not in a fit state to receive the truths of the New Church, and to live according to them, and he did not see that we could congratulate one another upon the speedy prospect of the New Church doctrines actually being accepted by Christian people.... In the preparation of a paper on 'The Church,' he was much struck summer with the frequent statements in the Writings, that the Christian world is not at its worst; that it will get still worse than it is at present.

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He believed that is what is taking place, and that we were not yet at the end of the Christian Church." Still it is our duty to proclaim the Second Advent, simply that the truth may be preached; it may he simply for the judgment and dire punishment of the Christian world. This was why he supported the work, and not from any hope of increase in our numbers from the Christian world. "There will be a few who will come and listen to the doctrines of the New Church; there are still fewer who are ready to think about them and accept them; and there may be still fewer who are willing to deliberately try to apply these doctrines to their lives."

     The annual conference of the "New Church Sunday School Union" was held at Blackburn on May 8th. "The leakage from Sunday Schools" was the chief topic of discussion. According to the Rev. W. H. Claxton, of Norwich, "authorities put the loss of scholars at 90 per cent. That might be an exaggeration, but it was nevertheless true that a very large proportion of the scholars drifted away." The Rev. Mark Rowse, of Leeds, proposed as a remedy that the idea be impressed upon the minds of the Sunday School workers that the Sunday School should be regarded as the children's Church. They should apply themselves more to the education of the affections of their scholars, and develop in them "a deep attachment for the Church." When they grew up they should not let them he lost. Mr. Claxton recommended the formation of Junior Members' Societies as the solution of the problem, these societies to provide recreation in the form of music and elocution. and also lectures dealing with the truths of the Church. Mr. A. Bates, the chairman, asked the members not to become "so intellectual that they forget to be religious." If children saw their parents were whole-heartedly for the Church, they would follow their example.

     The Missionary and Tract Society held quite an enthusiastic meeting at London on May 22d. The direct missionary work, in the way of assisting and building up the missionary stations in the neighborhood of London, did not present any specially encouraging results, but great hopes were founded on the fact that the society had presented, gratis, five thousand New Church works to the clergy of the Old Church. In spite of the unanimous experience of the New Church during a whole century, this society still believes that the Heavenly Doctrines will be eventually received by the clergy of "what-used-to-be" the Old Church, and by them reach the "teeming millions" which "our own small and feeble organization is utterly unable to reach." Rev. Thomas Child urged the Church to persevere in the work of distributing the "Silent Missionaries," "even though it should mean the demolition of their own little organization." Rev. Isaiah Tansley courageously defended the despised little "sect" of the organized New Church. "The organization had been referred to as a scaffold, necessary and useful in the erection of a building; but he thought the structure, in the erection of which it was supposed to be instrumental, was one of a rather indefinite kind. He regarded the New Church organization as far more than a scaffold; it was a permanent structure."

     The association known as "The New Church College," held its annual meeting on May 30th. It is a hopeful sign that the college in Islington, after being unoccupied for a dozen years or more, is now reviving under the direction of a resident principal, the Rev. Isaiah Tansley. There is now some prospect that the work of candidates for the ministry may be focussed at the college, "instead of being spread all over the country," as heretofore.

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     The "North of England Missionary Society" held its annual meeting at Manchester on June 4th. Among other things it was reported that a Society of fifteen members had been formed at Chester, with Mr. H. W. Whitehead as Leader. This is the first establishment of the New Church in that ancient city of the Romans. The chairman, Mr. Harold Robinson, in moving the adoption of the various reports, said that "the Society would duly appreciate the good features of their work to which reference had been made,--the new Society at Chester, and the success of the Preston lectures,--so that we ought not to be discouraged. Still, he felt that the prospect of the various religious institutes of the land were not particularly bright. There was manifest a spirit and love of pleasures, and of various kinds of sport, as well as the recent display of militarism, which hindered the growth of religious activities, and of true spiritual life. It had taken all their energies to maintain the standing of the smaller societies of the Church. Two of these were in a specially unsatisfactory condition.... He did not wish to be considered pessimistic, still it was well to look at matters as they really are."

     The Swedenborg Society held its ninety-first anniversary on June 11th, Mr. Charles Higham presiding. The Secretary, Mr. James Speirs, reported a total delivery of more than 76,000 volumes and booklets, during the year, as compared with 11,751 last year. Of these, 1-738 were the writings in English, 22 in Latin, 5 in French, 146 in Welsh, 34 in Russian, 3 in Dutch, 2 in German, and 1 in Arabic. 136 volumes had been presented to Public Libraries, among others that of the Welsh colony in Patagonia, and that of Durban, Natal. A committee had been appointed to prepare a Glossary of technical terms used by Swedenborg. The Swedenborg Scientific Association has sent the alterations they propose to make in the translation of the Principia, but the work of comparing the translation with the original is so formidable an undertaking that its completion cannot be looked for at an early date. A new edition of the Infinite will soon be in the printer's hands. During the year the Society has published a new edition of Heaven and Hell, translated by Rev. J. R. Rendall, and the sixth volume of the Apocalypse Explained, re-translated by Rev. Isaiah Tansley. The Doctrine of the Lord has been published in Welsh, and Rev. W. Rees has completed the translation of the Doctrine of the tongue; he will now proceed to the translation of the Doctrines of Life and of Faith. Substantial assistance has been given to the New Church Book Association of Stockholm, for the publication of Vol. xi of the Arcana Coelestia in Swedish. Rev. W. Winslow, formerly of Copenhagen, but now residing on the Pacific Coast, has undertaken the revision of the Doctrine of the Lord in Danish. The completion of The Swedenborg Concordance is described as "the great event of the year." Mr. C. J. Whittington, in introducing a resolution expressing the satisfaction of the Society at the completion of the Concordance, and congratulating the Rev. J. F. Potts upon the successful termination of his long labors, spoke feelingly of the greatness and importance of this work. Rev. J. Hyde, testifying to the value of the Concordance, hoped it would be used as a guide and not as a substitute for the Writings themselves.

     The ninety-fourth session of the General Conference was held at the Church in Camden Road, on June 17th-21st. An account of this meeting will be given in the next number of the Life.

     "New Church Day" was observed at Norwich on June 16th. The officiating minister, Rev. W. H. Claxton, preached in the morning on the text: "The woman fled into the wilderness" (Rev. 12: 14), and in the evening on the equally appropriate text: "A short bed, and a narrow covering" (Is. 28:20). The special service of glorification, prepared by the Rev. W. T Lardge, was used on this occasion.

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     Sweden.--The Rev. Robert Bjorck on February 14th was formally excluded from membership in the "Swedish Congregation of the New Church" on account of having caused a most serious disturbance in the Church by fundamental perversions of the Doctrines and by personal agitation. Mr. Bjorck, claiming that his exclusion was illegal, has now taken his case to the public Sacred Scripture into the same courts, but the decision has not yet been rendered.

     Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist, of Gottenburg, on March 25th and 29th delivered two public lectures in Stockholm, on the subjects of Swedenborg's life, visions, and doctrines. The large hall was crowded on both occasions, and the lectures were favorably reviewed in the daily papers.

     At a social meeting of New Church people on March 27th, Mr. Rosenqvist delivered an address on the duty of the Church to the children and the necessity of New Church Education A movement has been organized for the establishment of a New Church orphanage, and a fund is being collected by the "endless chain" method. Mr. Rosenqvist's address is "Djupedalsgatan. Gottenburg. Sweden."

     A petition, signed by eighty persons, has been sent to the General Conference in England, asking for the induction of Rev. Adolph T. Boyesen into the office of an ordaining minister. We learn that the request has been refused.

     Mr. Bjorck has opened an antiquarian book store, as a means of support. He is also preaching to an independent society of some thirty persons, formerly connected with the New Church.

     The Nineteenth of June was celebrated for the first time in Gottenburg, this year, Mr. Rosenqvist explaining the significance of the day to the members of his congregation.

     Germany.--The newly-organized New Church Society in Berlin held its first annual meeting on June 5th. The Society, unable as yet to engage the services of a permanent pastor, has placed itself under the general pastoral direction of Rev. Fedor Goerwitz, who pays visits to Berlin from time to time. Mr. Goerwitz writes to us, correcting the statement made in the June issue of the Life (p. 336), that the founder of the new Society, Mrs. Theresa Richter, was at one time connected with the movement of Albert Artope, but afterwards disassociated herself from it. We had formed this impression from a letter in Nya Kyrkans Tidning, but Mr. Goerwitz informs us that Mrs. Richter was never at any time or in any way connected with Artope. So much the better!

     The German "Swedenborg-Verein" held a special general meeting at Stuttgart on June 16th, under the presidency of Herr Adolph Eckstein. Changes were made in the Constitution, and steps were taken, looking to the application for legal incorporation of the Society.

     Switzerland.--The members of the New Church in Herisau and vicinity celebrated festival of unusual interest on April 21st, when Pastor Goerwitz received six new members into the Church, through the Sacrament of Baptism. The Holy Supper was administered to nineteen communicants. Herisau was formerly stronghold of Artope's heresy, but the circle now appears free of its late infestation.

     Austria-Hungary.--There are still two distinct New Church Societies in Vienna. One of these has placed itself under the general pastoral charge of Rev. Fedor Goerwitz. Mr. Goerwitz paid his semi-annual visit to this Society, on June 10th administering the Holy Supper to thirty-five persons, and preaching on the text: "No man putteth New wine into old bottles. (Luke 5: 37) The other Society, formerly connected with the Spiritistic movement of A. Artope, seems to be gradually recovering from the evil effects of this connection. This Society held its annual meeting on January 27th, when a resolution was passed looking forward to a closer union with other members of the Church.

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     Mr. Goerwitz visited Gy6rkony on May 17th, where he remained for two weeks. The Holy Supper was administered to fifteen persons. Many members of this circle have recently emigrated to America. Herr Franz Krupka has been the leader here for five years, but has now returned to Budapest, his former home. The services will be continued by Herr Michael Wenhart, at his own house.

     Australia.--Rev. Percy Billings writes us on May 8th from Adelaide, his new pastorate:--"As we are beginning to settle down to our work here in Australia I will fulfill my promise by letting you know somewhat about the New Church and the Church work in Adelaide and district. The present membership of the Society is about 80. The average morning attendance has been about 55, since I came, and the average evening attendance nearly 100. The average attendance at the first six Sunday afternoon meetings has been 41-2. These meetings are being much enjoyed and appreciated, and are attracting several strangers. The Thursday evening meetings have so far averaged 17. Glenelg is a new field. It is a pretty little seaside town, about seven miles southwest of Adelaide, and has a population of about 5,000. The meetings here are beginning to be a great success, as to quality; the average attendance at the last four meetings has been 17. These Thursday and Tuesday evening meetings will be continued for nine months in the year, and we are hoping for excellent results from the work in Glenelg. The general outlook for the Church here is quite encouraging."

     According to hand-bills, of which Mr. Billings sends copies, the Tuesday evening meetings are held in Glenelg Town Hall, the topics being "Questions That Need Answering." Under this come the following, treated in April and May last: "Who are we, and where did we come from?" "What are we here for?" "A little while,--then, what!" "What will Heaven be like, and what shall we be like in Heaven?" "How could Jehovah-God come into a human body on this earth," etc. The syllabus of the course followed in the (Adelaide) Thursday evening "Conversations," has included such subjects as, "That there is a Natural and a Spiritual;" "That the Natural is the External and the Basis of Creation;" "That there is an Internal and an External of the Natural and of the Spiritual," etc., ending with "The 'Cosmos,' the 'Microcosm,' the 'Macrocosm.' " The "Social Sunday Afternoons," follow a program, which includes "A half hour with the one of the World's Greatest Men and Women;" then an hour's consideration of the subject of the afternoon; and Social Intercourse and Tea, the latter at 5:45, and charged for at the rate of six pence, or twelve tickets for 4s. 6d.; children under 14, half price.

     Mauritius.--Mr. A. de Chazal, the newly-elected president of the New Church Society in Port Louis, Mauritius, at a meeting on May 5th, addressed the Society on the subject of "The Priesthood," pointing out the importance of the office, and the necessity of securing the services of a regularly ordained New Church minister. The Society had now existed nearly half a century. Much good work had been accomplished under the successive leadership of laymen such as Edmond de Chazal, Napoleon Lesage, and George Mager, but the speaker believed the time had now arrived when the need of the priestly office was more than ever felt. A fund of L300 was raised at the meeting, for the purpose of defraying the expenses of a New Church minister in going over to this distant island.

     On June 7th, a deputation from the Society, waited on the Governor of the island. Sir Charles Bruce, and presented a petition asking for government assistance in supporting a minister.

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The Hen. W. Newton, K. C., senior member of the Council of Government, in a short but sympathetic speech, urged that the petition be granted. He stated that in fairness, as other religious bodies receive grants from the government, there was no good reason why the New Church should not also obtain one. The Governor in reply, said that though he could make no pledge as to the ultimate decision of the Council of Government, yet he could assure the deputation that the petition would receive his most careful attention, and would be considered with an open mind, and a disposition favorable to the object of the Society.

     There is something touching in the thought of these far-away brethren, holding together loyally year after year. Forty years ago they (or their fathers) applied to the General Conference for a pastor, but none could be found then. We hope they may be more successful at this time. The knowledge of the French language appears to be a necessary qualification for a candidate for the office. From the exceedingly interesting history of this isolated Society we believe that the field would yield rich return for earnest labor.
ANNOUNCEMENTS 1901

ANNOUNCEMENTS       Rev. CHARLES E. DOERING       1901

     The Theological School, the College, and the Girls Seminary of the Academy of the New Church, will open on October 7th, 1901. All applicants for admission into the schools should address the
REV. CHARLES E. DOERING, Sec., Huntingdon Volley, Pa.
JUST PUBLISHED 1901

JUST PUBLISHED              1901

Journal of Education of the Academy of the New Church, with Prospectus and Catalogue of Academy Schools. Sent, free, on application. Address:     CARL HJ. ASPLUNDH, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.
WANTED 1901

WANTED        S. M. JUNGE       1901

A New Church lady, to assist in teaching, and in lighter household duties, in a family consisting of two adults and two little girls. Correspondence is solicited. Address: Miss S. M. JUNGE, 432 Carroll Ave., Chicago, Ill.

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TWELVE APOSTLES 1901

TWELVE APOSTLES       C. TH. ODHNER       1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
Vol. XXI.          OCTOBER, 1901.          No. 10
     THE FIRST PRIESTS OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     THE significance of the Nineteenth day of June has often been considered in the New Church, and it is, indeed, a theme which can never be exhausted,--the day which inaugurated the universal, never-ending, all-victorious proclamation of the Second Coming of the Lord. In words of sublime simplicity we are told that on the Nineteenth day of June, in the year 1770, after the manuscript of the True Christian Religion had been completed, "the Lord called together His twelve disciples who had followed Him in the world; and the next day sent them all forth into the universal spiritual world to preach the Gospel that the LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST reigneth, whose kingdom shall be for ages of ages." (T. C. R., 791.)

     When reading this, the thought occurs, Why were the twelve disciples thus called to become the first evangelists of the New Jerusalem?

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Was it on account of any superior degree of angelhood or spiritual intelligence? Among all the countless myriads in Heaven, why were these twelve the ones most fitted for this glorious work? The question is of interest in its historical aspect, as involving the post-mortem history of the great founders of the Christian Church, but more especially in its practical relation to the corollary question: Why are we ourselves, the members of the infant church on earth, called to the discipleship and apostleship of the Lord in His Second Advent? But, first, let us consider the historical side of the question.

     Much has been said, in ecclesiastical literature, about the personal characteristics of the various apostles,--about Peter, the impulsive, vacillating, militant disciple, John, the gentle, affectionate thinker, Thomas, the doubter, Judas, the traitor, etc. But all this study of personalities has been of very small use in the understanding of the Spiritual Sense of the Word, where individuals' entirely disappear in the infinite sphere and splendor of the one Divine Man. Of the apostles themselves very little is known, and this is obviously of the Divine Providence, lest much natural knowledge respecting them should infest our mind when reading the Word, and thus keep the thought arrested in the merely literal sense.

     For the same reason, perhaps, there is but little said in the Writings respecting the individual apostles and their condition in the other world; yet, by putting one statement with another, we are able to form a picture of them collectively, and to draw a conclusion as to the reasons why they and no others were chosen as the first heralds of the new and everlasting Kingdom.

     The first news that Swedenborg brings respecting them is that they were saved and had become angels, but that "there are myriads in Heaven who are more worthy than the apostles," and that they "are held in no greater estimation than others, in the other life, being only in the interior heaven." (S. D., 1330; H. H., 526)

     Not such a poor place, that, "the interior heaven," but still not the inmost heaven, which they had supposed they would gain, while in this world they were quarreling about the seats of preference in the kingdom to come. Poor, ignorant, simple-minded fishermen of Galilee! They understood hardly anything of the heavenly arcana which were being given to them in translucent parables, day by day. They applied to their own insignificant selves all the glorious things which the Lord spoke respecting the kingdom of Heaven. And though they were repeatedly rebuked for their foolish arrogance, and though the parables were explained even to their simple comprehension, they nevertheless carried with them into the other life the deeply rooted notion that they were to sit on the twelve thrones of Heaven, forever judging the souls of all mankind. And though, in the course of centuries, they became angels of heaven and consequently in their interior mind had a true idea of the situation, still the former notion was so ingrained in their external thought, that, when they were let down from the interior heaven into the World of Spirits, they at once fell back into the imagination that they were to be the universal judges, and they were then unwilling to open the gates of Heaven to any but those, who, like themselves, had suffered persecution and martyrdom in this world.

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Such was their temporary persuasion when Swedenborg first met them, on March 13, 1748. (S. D., 1321, 1325.)

     As to the individual apostles in the other world, we are told nothing, except that "Peter does not appear to: any one, and is a simple spirit who has no more power than any one else." (A. C., 3750.;) It seems clear that they had kept together, in one society or company, for it is said that "the rest of the apostles, in the other life; have rejected Paul from their company, and no longer recognize him as one of themselves" (S. D., 4412), and this because Paul was forever striving after supereminence over the rest. As in this world, so in the other, he was particularly averse to Peter, "saying that Peter understands nothing and thus can do nothing, and that Paul, and not Peter, ought to possess the key of Heaven." (S. D., 4631.) And because of this domineering, contemptuous spirit, Paul was finally cast into hell.

     But the other disciples, single-hearted though simple-minded, on account of their undivided, rock-founded faith in their Lord, seem to have been among the very first of those spirits who received the Lord when He came again as they had seen Him depart,--in the clouds of Heaven, in power and great glory. With the appearance of Spiritual-Rational Truth, the obscurities and fallacies fell away from their vision. They saw no longer "as in a glass, darkly," but now "eye to eye." They had no need of argument or persuasion, for they knew, from personal experience, from "things heard and seen," from three years of daily and marvelous intercourse that HE who now appeared as the only God of Heaven and earth, was the same Lord whom they had followed from the sea of Galilee to the hill of Golgotha. And by this knowledge, imbedded in the very foundations of their beings, they were able to perform a most important, fundamental use, in testifying before "the universal spiritual world" that the Human of the Incarnation was the Divine Human of the Second Advent.

     We can form an idea of the universality of this use,--not only to the spirits of all the ages from this earth, but also to the spirits of all other earths in the entire universe,--when we read in Arcana Caelestia, n. 7173, respecting the appearing of the Lord to certain spirits from the planet Mercury; while once in the company of Swedenborg and other spirits from Tellus, they beheld the Sun of the spiritual world, but at first they did not see the appearance of a Face within that Sun, and on this account they were inclined to doubt what Swedenborg had told them about the Lord.

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"But suddenly the Sun appeared again, and in its midst the Lord....Afterwards the Lord appeared also out of the Sun to certain spirits from this earth, who, when they had been men, had seen Him in the world; and one after another confessed that He was the Lord Himself, and this they testified before the whole company. (See also S. D., 3292.)

     With this vision and memory of the Lord impressed forever on the immortal substances of their inmost natural mind, the apostles were able to render a most important service to that man of the eighteenth century who had been commissioned the revelator of the New Church. Thus, while Swedenborg was writing the True Christian Religion, and was treating of the Visible God in whom is the Invisible, he states that "these things were written in the presence of the twelve apostles of the Lord, who, while I was writing these things, were sent to me by the Lord." (T. C. R., 399.)

     It is evident that they were thus sent, in order to keep the revelator in the sphere of a most ultimate, definite, absolutely unquestioning thought respecting the Lord as the Visible God,--in the sphere of those who had actually heard, seen, and touched Him as a person in this world, and who had also seen Him, glorified, at the Transfiguration and the Ascension. To them, and thus to Swedenborg and to us, "the Visible God" was and is a reality, even on the ultimate Plane of sensual thought.

     This, then, was the reason why the twelve apostles, and no others, were called together on the Nineteenth of June, in the year 1770, and the next day were sent forth to preach the Gospel of the Second Advent to the universe of human beings,--"each one in his appointed region." (T. C. R., 4,108.) Not because of any superior angelhood or personal supereminence, but simply because these twelve, above all other spirits, knew the Lord. For it is a universal law that "all power resides in ultimates," and since the apostles, of all men, had the most ultinzate knowledge of, and faith in the Lord, these, therefore, could be the most powerful, the most convincing evangelists of the Second Coming. Who could gainsay them? Who could doubt them? Had they not seen Him?

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And not only were they able to testify to the Divine identity of the Spiritual Truth as now revealed, with the Lord whom they had known in the Flesh, but they could bear witness also to the identity of the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem with the Doctrine of genuine Christianity which the Lord had revealed to them on earth, and which they had transmitted to the primitive Christians. But these two functions were essentially one.

     The spiritual history of the Apostles carries with it an inspiring lesson to us as members of the infant New Church, for we are in very much the same situation as they were. Like them, we are obscure and lowly people, simple fishermen, seekers for truth, completely unknown to the great and the learned. Like them we are weak and vacillating in our faith, now asking foolish questions, now hotly affirming, rarely understanding, every now and then denying our Lord. But we are told that such simple people were called to become apostles "because at that time very many were imbued with nonsense, so that they could not apprehend the things of faith, as the unlearned could." (S. D., 1216.) And that is the very reason why the New Church in this world is composed of people who have been unable to comprehend the learned "nonsense" of the intellectual world, persons who, mostly in their youth, have been called to forsake their few belongings, to follow the Light which needs no argument but its own self-evident Glory.

     It is an inspiring thought that all of us, every single man and woman, have been called to apostleship in the New Jerusalem. We must, indeed, first become "Disciples," that is, learners, before we call become "Apostles," or teachers of the Truth. But it is not meant that we should forever remain disciples merely. We are schooling for a use, an everlasting mission, the proclamation of the new Advent and Kingdom of the Lord. That is what we are preparing for here below. That is the reason why the Pearl of great price, the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, has been bestowed upon us while still living in the natural world. Countless are the millions who will receive the Heavenly Doctrine when they enter the other life, and some of these may even be more intrinsically worthy, and may attain higher and more internal states of angelhood than those who in this world have been members of the New Church. It is not because we are any special favorites of God, or because we are more worthy than others, that the inestimable blessing of New Churchmanship has been given to us here on earth.

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Nor is it, as we have heard suggested, because we are naturally inclined to be worse than others, needing special and unusual means of salvation,--for the Doctrine of the New Church is the universal; and the only means of salvation, in this world or in the next. But it is in order that we may be prepared for and led to that use which the Lord has in store for us, a special use in both worlds. What this use may be, we may infer from the story of the twelve apostles. The man who in this world has embodied the Truth in his life, in the ultimate things of his mind, will in the other life have a bony firmness, a membranous cohesion, a muscular power in the teaching of Truth, which is necessary in the structure of the Gorand Man. Among those who receive the Heavenly Doctrine in the other world, there may be those who will be called to higher, more subtle and living functions, but still they cannot testify, from an ultimate faith acquired in the natural world, that the one and only faith acquired in the natural world, testify that the one and only God of Heaven is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ who lived and was worshiped on earth as the Son of God. This indicates the apostolic functions awaiting the members of the Visible New Church on earth. For it, they must prepare themselves, tarrying in Jerusalem, abiding in the Doctrine, Until they are endowed with power from on high. C. TH. ODHNER.

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COMING OF THE SON OF MAN 1901

COMING OF THE SON OF MAN       Rev. J. M. SHEPHERD       1901

     Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

     For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect. Matt. 24:3, 4, 24.

     This 24th chapter of Matthew is remarkable for its predictions of what would be the sign of the Coming of the Son of Man. It tells of the desolation of the Apostolic Church in the vivid picture-language of Correspondence. The darkening of the sun and the falling of the start, from heaven signify the blotting out from the ruins of professed Christians the true idea of God, and the Gospel Truths which lead to heaven.

     Man is created with a mind capable of knowing and loving the Lord God, who every moment creates and sustains him as an immortal being. It is this very capacity for God that keeps man in touch with the Divine, and makes him immortal; without it he would be a mere animal, utterly incapable of rational thought, much less of conscience. Hence, the most vital need of every man is to know and acknowledge the only True God, for without this, man is immersed in the darkness of naturalism.

     The 24th chapter of Matthew is not only prophetic of the end of the Apostolic Church through the desolation and profanation of Divine truth, but it tells of a new manifestation of truth,-a New Coming of the Lord. Not a coming to the outward senses, as in the beginning of the Apostolic Church, but a manifestation of Divine truth, and a perception of Divine love, to the spiritual feelings and thoughts of men. The Christian churches have been looking for the Lord to come in the clouds of the earth's atmosphere so long that they have almost ceased to expect Him in any form. But the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem teach that the Lord in His Divine Humanity is now coming,--perpetually coming to all who have eyes to see Him,--coming in the clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory.

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The Lord God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of peace, comes in the new revelation of spiritual truth to all who are really of and in the New Church. The clouds of heaven in which He appears are the literal sense of His Holy Word. And He is revealed to the devout reader within that sense, in the attributes of Divine love and truth, seen not merely with the intellectual eye, but with the clarified reason, born of God. For this is Life Eternal to know Thee, the Only True God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast seat.

     Thus it is our most blessed privilege,-whether we have realized it or not,--to dwell in a new region of spiritual light,--the light in which angels think. Or, in other words, to dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

     Now thoughts concerning the Infinite God are the most vital things that can enter the human mind, because through them we are either conjoined with God or severed from Him. It may be thought that so long as men of the Church believe in a Supreme Being, or acknowledge a first clause, it makes but little difference to their spiritual and moral character whether they have true ideas of God or not. But this is a great mistake. For the concept of God is the foundation of all religion, and it circulates as the blood through all our thoughts, motives, and deeds. Therefore, it is absolutely essential to the spiritual well-being of man that the Lord God be truly known, i. e., clearly seen and apprehended through the clear vision of inward or rational truth. And this inward light can only be seen in the spiritual sense of the Holy Word, for nowhere else is the Lord revealed to the human mind. Through that sense we can see Him and acknowledge Him as the Divine Man. The One who alone has an underived life,--the One who alone is Life, and from whom we every moment derive all that which makes us finite images of Him. To see this, to acknowledge this, to know and feel this to be the great central truth,--the Truth of All Truths,--and to love to have it so, is to be true Christian men, and sons of the Heavenly Father.

     The beginning of the long fall of the Human race was the doubt, which finally led to the denial, that God is very man. Very few among professing Christians believe that God is actually a Divine Man, and fewer still believe that Jesus Christ was the only God manifested in the flesh.

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The trend of modern thought is toward the utter repudiation of such an idea. And the reason for this is the wide extended Naturalism, in and out of the churches. The natural man feels all-sufficient unto himself, he believes he is life, and is able to guide and take care of himself. He is necessarily an evolutionist, for he believes that all thought, reason, and action are evolved from the depths of his own mind. There can be no felt need of a Savior by this man, for he believes that the tendency of man has ever been upward from the beginning. Such thought when confirmed is fatal to spiritual life, for it inflates the heart with pride, and clouds of thick darkness cover the mind. It is this state of heart that builds the great gulf between heaven and hell, and causes the widespread denial of the Redemption through the Divine Human of the Lord. Every self-centered man is in the denial of these great truths, whether he be in or out of the Church. If he be in the Church, this unbelief may be covered by outward party. There are many reasons why the inner and the outer life are often widely different; we all live more or less under the fear of what the world will think and say of us. And so the evil of self-love and the pride of our imagined self-derived intelligence may easily be covered by a fine show of external Christian polish; for alas! the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? We can only know it through the grace of God.

     The Holy Word in its internal sense is the physiology of the human spirit. It reveals the inner nature of man from his creation, telling how he rose from a state of natural good into spiritual and celestial manhood, and how he finally fell down to the depths of utter depravity.

     In the Heavenly Doctrines we have the history of the churches that have existed upon this earth from the beginning. How they rose, and how at last they have all hitherto fallen. When a Church is on the decline "there begins to be no faith, because no charity, which state implies that they are against the good of charity, hence the genuine acknowledgment of the Divine Human and the Holy proceeding of the Lord. Wherever evil reigns in the heart, these truths are necessarily denied, and, coupled with this denial, there is contempt of others who do not honor and worship them, yea, even delight in revenge and cruelty against them.

522


The Pharisees in their day who openly denied the Lord were better than such at this day, for now many for the sake of self-worship and foul gain worship Him with a holy external, but within them is deeply hidden profanity." (A. C., 2354.) Let us not imagine that because we have such searching truths of doctrine revealed in the Writings, that we are out of danger of such a terrible state as this, for human nature is the same in all men.

     The Second Coming of the Lord is not to the wicked and impious, nor is it to those who are at ease in Zion, but to John, the companion and brother in tribulation, who hears the voice and turns to see it. And the turning implies the reception of some heart-searching truths,--not merely a cold intellectual acknowledgment of the general doctrines of the New Jerusalem, but a heartfelt acknowledgment of the Divine Human of the Lord, seen and adored in the clearly revealed spiritual sense of the "Holy Word." But that blessed truth which brings the Divine presence, also reveals the nature of our own proprium to us. While it clearly reveals to us the Divine Man, who is the only God, the only Redeemer, the only Savior, it brings to light this correlative Truth,--that we have no power of ourselves to love anything unselfishly; that we are not only devoid of life, but also of both good and faith; that, in fact, we are only organic forms of self-love.

     The men of the most ancient church knew above all others that all life, and love, and truth,--in a word, all that is good and beautiful and true,--were of and from the Lord God. Yea, they knew through conscious perception, that in the Lord their God they lived and moved and had their being. Nor did they want to be their own, but the Lord's, for they loved to be guided by the Lord in all things. So it was a beautiful custom of- theirs to say, "And the Lord said, or commanded," meaning that whatever was just and right was commanded by the Lord, as though by a directly spoken word. That was the Golden Age of human innocence, the age of true love to God, and thence of brotherly affection for each other. And because of this; it was the age of pure Conjugial Love, for the pure in heart alone see God and have this highest of all of God's blessed gifts. Thus, the Celestial Man alone is a true Son of the Heavenly Father. For he alone has the Truth written on his heart.

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These most ancient celestial men knew that Jehovah God was very Man, and that they were finite likenesses of Him, in the degree that they loved and adored Him; Hence they were so intensely alive that Nature was to them a grand picture-book of heavenly wisdom. Every bush was afire with God, for all Nature mirrored and proclaimed divine things, There were no clouds then to hide the face of their Heavenly Father. No I the clouds came when sin came in the long after ages. As the love of self gradually grew upon them they lost their beatific vision, until all true thoughts and ideas about God faded from their minds. Then if they thought of God at all, He seemed an invisible, unknowable something, far, far away. Then in their insane fancies they believed themselves to be god-men. This is pictured by the serpent's promise, ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil.

     And now in this our day, when a few see the Son of Man in the clouds of Heaven, history repeats itself; The old cry of the serpent, "Ye shall be as gods," is being proclaimed through all the Christian world. And to the selfhood of man, how pleasant to the spirit and good for food this tree of death doth seem! What do I mean by this? I mean the flood literature on Theosophy, Christian Science, Spiritism, Mormonism and kindred cults. Listen to the opening paragraph of a fascinating book,--one of three,--by Trine, called the "Life Books." He says the great question of life for every man, is,--"How can I make life yield its fullest and best? How can I know the True Secret of Power? How can I attain unto a true and lasting greatness.? How can I fill the whole of life with happiness,--a peace, a joy, a satisfaction that is ever rich and abiding,--that ever increases, that imparts to it a sparkle that never loses its lustre, that ever fascinates and never wearies." What a seductive bait is all this for the average man, whether religious or non religious! Is not this tree,--which bear's the fruit of the knowledge of how to make life yield its fullest and best, and gain full power over men and Nature,-a Tree to be desired and good for food? Ah! Brothers and Sisters of the New Church, listen to the answer that the author of this book gives, and then compare with the glorious truths revealed through Emanuel Swedenborg,--truths which are the Second Coming of the Lord to the one who has ears to hear. He says,--"You and I are Life. If all is God, then all must be He." "I fully agree with Max Muller when he says,--'I cannot agree with Athanasius when he says that we can become gods; man cannot say become God, because he is God.' "

524


"And if the God-powers are without limit, does it not follow that the only limitations man has are the limitations he sets to himself, by virtue of not knowing himself." "Jesus Christ Divine? Certainly Jesus was Divine; but he was Divine just in the same sense that you and I and every human soul is Divine." "When we come into the realization of the fact that we are God-men, then again we live accordingly, and have the powers of God-men. In the degree that we open ourselves to this divine inflow we are changed from mere men into God-men." Is not this the voice of the serpent, saying, Ye shall be as gods knowing good and evil? I need quote no further. This is the substance of the answer to the opening paragraph where he holds up the tempting bait to the selfhood of man, which ever hungers for pleasures, greatness, and power. There is no word about the inherent selfishness and depravity of man,--no sign that man is a fallen being and needs an Almighty Redeemer. No! All he needs is to awaken from the dream that he is but a finite, selfish, evil form of life, and realize that he and God are one. But, brethren, listen to the Lord's faithful witness; he tells a very different story. He says, "By continual sensuous pleasures, and by the loves of self and the world, consequently by lusts,--which are the going forth of those loves,--man has acquired a life for himself of such a sort that he is nothing but a life of such things. This life cannot accord at all with heavenly life. For no one can love worldly and at the same time heavenly things. To love worldly things is to look downward; to love heavenly things is to look upward. Much less can any one love himself and at the same time his neighbor, and still less the Lord. He who loves himself hates all who do not render him service; and so the man who loves himself is very far from Heaven, which is to love his neighbor more than one's self and the Lord above all things. And for this reason man is regenerated by the Lord, by means of temptations, and so turned as to bring him into agreement. This is why such temptation is severe, for it touches a man's very life, assailing, destroying and transforming it, and is therefore described by the words,--The fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the flood-gates of Heaven were opened."

     No! my friends, all is not good. All is not divine; human nature is not sweet and heavenly, in and of itself. No! there are too many ugly facts in us, and around us, for us to be put to sleep by such a siren song as that.

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The love of self which is the root of all evil is a tremendous power in the world. It is the power of hell; Spiritually speaking, it is the Devil. And the only chance of escape from it and its consequences is through the power of Jesus our Redeemer to overcome it. He that overcometh? I will give to eat of the Tree of Life. There is no other alternative. We live through DELIGHT; either in the delight of self-love, or the delight of love of God and the love of use. The delight of self-love is the tree of death. The love of the Lord is the "Tree of Life."

     When the devil promised Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He would fall down and worship him, he simply meant, if He would leave the love of self in the heart, He could have all things else. "Sentiment, worship, external goodness, seeming self-sacrifice, nay all that is true and beautiful and good shall be yours, only let it be done for the sake of yourself." That was the Temptation. This is the tempting bait of the three Life books. For if we claim to be God-men, and sing the song,--"All is Good," we deny the Redeemer, we ignore the Savior, we feel all-sufficient unto ourselves. To seek to know the secret of power, and even to seek to attain true and lasting greatness and the pleasures attendant on these things, is not a true religious motive, no matter how much it may be embellished with lofty poetic, theosophical or religious sentiment. True, millions are asking,--"How can I fill the whole of life with a happiness, a peace, a joy, a satisfaction that is ever rich and abiding, that never diminishes, that imparts to it a sparkle that never loses its lustre, that ever fascinates and never wearies?" However desirable these things are, however heavenly they may seem, when they are sought as an end they are not life Eternal. They are not the religion of Jesus Christ, but the religion of self-love. Why are not Trine's Life Books and Mrs. Eddy's teachings the True Gospel? Because they deny the Divine Humanity and ignore the evil of self-love, and make man all-sufficient unto himself. They need no Savior. Man needed no Redeemer. All is good. Every one is a Christ when he awakens to the grand fact of the dignity of human nature. But he who sees the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven will also see the true nature of all these cries of Lo here! and Lo there! The elect, those who have seen and known the Son of Man, will not he deceived by such signs and wonders. No, not so, but they will with bowed head and heartfelt humiliation be able to say,--l have heard of Thee with the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee.

526




     Christian Science and Theosophy teach that life is one, or, as they put it, all is spirit; but they profane a great truth, because they think from continuous degrees, and teach that life in all conditions and degrees is divine. But the heavenly doctrines teach that life descends according to the law of influx in steps or planes one below another. While it is true that all life is divine at its source, it is far from true that all life is divine after it descends into finite forms. The character of the life of all finite forms depends entirely on the nature and quality of the form that receives it. In the beast-form it is brute-life, in the human form--it is human; selfish, or pure, according to the character of the recipient; in the self-centered man it is simply demon-life.

     A knowledge of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem is fatal to all pantheistic belief, because those doctrines reveal the True God, the true nature of man, and the relation between them; hence they solve all the problems of life and death. "Blessed (indeed) is he that readeth, and they that hear (i. e., obey) the words," for they bring peace to the soul. Hear what these doctrines teach on this most vital question of the relation between God and man.

     "The distinction between the Divine Man who is Life, and the (finite) man who is only a recipient of life, is like that which subsists between the Uncreate and that which is created; and between the Infinite and the finite, which distinction is such as to admit of no ratio. For there is no ratio given between the Infinite and the finite; thus there is no ratio between God as man and another being as a man, whether he be an angel, or spirit, or a man in the world."

     The carnal or natural man believes only in himself; he feels himself to be great, and worthy of honor and renown. He takes evil for good, and the false for the true. But alas! how mistaken he is. For even in the most celestial angel the proprium is nothing but evil and its falsity. There is none Good but One, God. These, my friends, are appalling truths, and very humiliating to the unregenerate heart of man. But to know and acknowledge them is life, and health, and spiritual growth, and finally, rest and peace for the soul. But he who cannot see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven can never in heart acknowledge these blessed truths.

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Even though he be religious, his religion will only be external; and until it becomes internal, his eyes will not be opened. He that doeth the truth cometh to the light.

     In the four Gospels, the Lord God, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, is manifested in the person of Jesus Christ, a living Man among men, and we are told that He rose from the grave with His whole body, glorified and made Divine. Hence God is forever visible to the enlightened thought of the man of the Church, as the Divine Man in bodily form. And in His Second Coming we think of Him in that Glorified body, surrounded by the divine effulgence of light, or the glowing and radiant sun of heaven, which is Divine Love and Wisdom; from which all things live and move and have their being. This Divine Love and Wisdom united as a One, is the Holy proceeding from which, and by which all things live. Thus even in the Word, we do not meet the Lord in thought as Love and Wisdom in the abstract sense, though His love and wisdom in that sense are in us, and around us, but in our thought of Him, and in our worship of Him, we grasp the form of the Divine personality at the same time that we feel His love and see His truth.

     The belief in some abstract power as the invisible God is fatal to Christian life. Even Herbert Spencer, the giant agnostic of the nineteenth century, believed in such an abstract God. For he said,--"There is one thing of all things the most certain, that in us and around us there is a power that creates and sustains all things." But after his sensuous reason had compelled him to make this confession, he was forced to make another,--"and yet"--he said--"this power is of all things the most unknowable."

     Ah, yes! forever unknowable outside the Divine Humanity, God manifested in the flesh. Unknowable because that which has no form,--no embodiment,--is unthinkable. Hence when the Writings declare that God is very man even in Ultimates,--it should send a thrill of joy through the soul of him who reads it, because this is the truth of all truths. It solves all problems. Without this Truth this grand: universe becomes to us a magician's dream, and manhood and human life a mockery and a delusion. Ah, my friends! the doctrines of the New Jerusalem are the most precious treasures of human thought. Study them, especially the doctrine of the Lord, carefully and prayerfully until it becomes to you the most certain of all truths.

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Anchor your soul to it, for there is nothing else that can sustain you in the temptations that are here, and that must increase in tenfold intensity in the near future.

     The false prophets and false Christs are indeed showing great signs and wonders, and seducing many; even some who have walked among us as brethren and sisters have been seduced by their glittering baits. Only the Elect are safe. And by these are signified those who have turned to see the voice of Divine Truth. The Lord comes to John,--i. e., He reveals His glory and power to those who have surrendered all to Him,--those who are in the Good of Charity. For only these can say with Job,--I have heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee.

     And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not: I am the first and the last. I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive forever more, Amen. Yes, once dead in our memories, once a hear-say Christ, but now the living Christ within His Church-in our hearts, to be alive forever more, Amen.
LIFE'S TWILIGHT 1901

LIFE'S TWILIGHT       Evelyn Elizabeth Plummer       1901

WRITTEN ON THE APPROACH OF DEATH.

Softly the shadows o'er my path are falling;
My westering sun sinks low;
Loved voices, not of earth, are sweetly calling
My soul, and I would go.

Not till my senses, in their dull decaying,
Had left my soul more free,
Could I detect the heavenly music playing
And glorious visions see.

They fill the Valley of the Shadow, leaving
No trace of fear or gloom.
Oh, joy! 'Their light from Source Divine receiving

Gives glory to the tomb.
                    --Evelyn Elizabeth Plummer.

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DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH. III. 1901

DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH. III.              1901

     THE FUTURE STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD.

     But, it will be asked, is it possible for us to ignore the evident signs of the times,--to close our eyes to the marvellous change in the Christian world, the stupendous progress of the past century in moral and intellectual improvement and material development? And are we not authorized to regard these things as the descent of the New Church in the whole world, when we are taught by the Writings that "henceforth"--since the time of the Last Judgment--"the men of the Church will be in a freer state of thinking about spiritual things," (Last Judgment, 73.) and that "the slavery and the captivity, in which the man of the Church has been heretofore, has been taken away, and that now, from restored freedom, he is better able to perceive interior truth and to become more internal." (Ibid, 74.) Or, as stated even more distinctly, "the state of the Lord's Kingdom after the Last Judgment has been made different from what it was before it; for the reception of Divine truth and good after it, is more universal, more internal, easy, and distinct." (Apocalypse Explained, 1217.)

     But if we examine the whole teaching of those important passages in the work On the Last Judgment which deal with the future state of the Christian world, we shall find that the new state of freedom which there is described, is not identical with the New Church itself, but is the condition which makes possible the establishment of the New Church among the remains of the Old. We read:

     "ON THE STATE OF THE WORLD AND OF THE CHURCH AFTER THE LAST JUDGMENT.

     "It will be quite like what it has been heretofore: for that grand change which has been effected in the spiritual world does not induce any change in the natural world as to external form; and therefore there will be henceforth civil things just as before; there will be wars and treaties of peace as before, and all other things which belong to societies in general and in particular. But as concerns the state of the Church, this it is which hereafter will not be the same; it will indeed be similar as to external appearance, but will he dissimilar as to internal appearance.

530


As to external appearance there will be divided Churches as before; their doctrines will be taught as before, and in like manner the religious things with the Gentiles. But henceforth the man of the Church will be in a freer state of thinking about the things of faith, thus about the spiritual things which are of Heaven, because spiritual freedom has been restored; for all things have now been reduced into order in the Heavens and in the hells; and thence inflows all thought concerning Divine things and against Divine things. But this change of state is not observed by a man in himself, because he does not reflect upon it; nor does he know anything about spiritual freedom or about influx." (Last Judgment, 73.)

     "I have spoken many things with the angels, concerning the state of the Church hereafter; they said that things to come they know not, because to know things to come is of the Lord alone; but that they do know that the slavery and captivity in which the man of the Church has been heretofore, has been taken away; and that now, from restored freedom, he is better able to perceive interior truths, if he wants to perceive them; and thus to become more internal, if he wants to so become; but that they had small hope of the men of the Christian Church, but much hope of some nation remote from the Christian world." (Ibid, 74.)

     From these teachings it is evident that though the Lord has indeed effected the Last Judgment and the final universal Redemption, and thus has anew opened the way to Heaven for man, yet He has in no wise interfered with human freedom either to receive Him or reject Him in His Second Advent. Human freedom is not only as free as it was before, but even more free, and human nature is still human nature. The freedom to receive the light is greater than ever before, but so also is the freedom to reject. "The reception of Divine truth and good" is now "more universal," simply because those who desire the Light are now more free to receive it than they would have been before the intervening clouds had been cleared away, and before the Light had appeared. But still, as ever before and as ever hereafter, this reception depends solely and absolutely upon the willingness of man to receive it. The single question remains then: Is the willingness more universal? Are the men of the Christian Church more willing, now, to receive the Light, more willing to become internal men?

     How can we know? Judging from the slow reception of the Heavenly Doctrines heretofore, it would appear that they are not.

531


The Light has certainly been offered to the world freely and for nothing, by all possible and thinkable means. The Writings have been published in sixteen different languages, and have been issued in over three thousand editions, and in millions of copies. And the Doctrines have been set forth in countless discourses, and have been distributed in millions upon millions of copies of tracts. The literary activity of the New Church has been greater than that of any other religion ill the world, not only in proportion to its age and membership, but out of all proportion in every way. And what is the net result? A glorious one, when we consider that some have received, but most remarkably discouraging, when we consider the many who have not received. As has been well put by a bitter enemy to the New Church (Mr. White), "the material out which Swedenborgians can be produced is quickly exhausted in any one city." The rest simply cannot be brought to read or listen, no matter what inducements may be offered, any more than a horse can be made to drink if he is not thirsty. Were they offered a fortune, they could not be made to read and digest a single volume of the Writings. Their minds revolt at the sight of the titles of the books. The willingness does not seem to be universal. The "hungering multitudes" are singularly apathetic.

     The statement of the angels "that they have small hopes of the men of the Christian world" is thus fully borne out by the testimony of History. And this is not only the prognostication of the angels, or our own observation from evident facts, but it is Divine Revelation, for the Lord Himself has actually opened to us a distinct view of the future of the old Christian Church,--a prophecy which, though unpalatable, is nevertheless Divine and therefore infallibly true. What are the words of this prophecy? They are these:

     These "doctrines" are the dogmas concerning the three divine

     1. "As to external appearance there will be divided Churches as before, and their doctrines will be taught as before." (Last Judgment, 73.)

persons, the vicarious atonement, the imputation of the merit of Christ by faith alone, and all the rest,-which have been taught, and still are being taught and will continue to be taught throughout Christendom,-dogmas which are as different from the Doctrines of the New Church as darkness is from light.

532




     2. "The destruction of this Church [the Christian], is foretold by the Lord in the Evangelists, and by John in the Revelation, and is what is called the Last Judgment; not that Heaven and earth were then to perish, but that a New Church will be raised up in some region of the earth, the former one remaining in its external worship, as the Jews do in theirs, in whose worship, as is known well enough, there is nothing of charity and faith, that is, nothing of the Church." (Arcana Caelestia, 1850.)

     This agrees entirely with the prophecy that there will be divided churches as before, and that their doctrines will be taught as before. Now we learn in addition that the Old Christian Church will remain in its external worship, as the Jews do in theirs; i. e. will become a mere externalism, and formalism, and ecclesiastism, such as the Jewish,--lifeless, stereotyped, cold and dead, such as Catholicism has become already. Not a pleasing Prospect this, such as to fill us with enthusiasm and sanguine expectations for the growth of the New Church in the organization of the Old!

     3. "The Dragonists have been cast down from Heaven into the World of Spirits, and are thence in conjunction with the men on earth, whom, from hatred of the New Church they excite to persevere in their falsities and derivative evils." (Apocalypse Revealed, 558.)

     Here we have the reason why the doctrines of the divided Churches in Christendom "will be taught as before." But this is stated still more clearly in what follows:

     "This I can relate: that those in the Church who hereafter confirm faith alone with themselves cannot recede from it, except by serious repentance, because they conjoin themselves with the dragonists who are now in the World of Spirits, and who are in great agitation, and there, from hatred against the New Church, are infesting all whom they meet; and because they are conjoined with men on earth, they do not suffer those to recede from them, who have once been caught by their reasonings; for they hold them as bound with chains, and then shut their eyes, so that they can longer see any truth in the light." (Ibid, 563.)

     "How the case is with the rejection of an Old Church and the adoption of a New Church, scarcely anyone knows....The people of the Old Church are not about to perish, but the Church perishes, principally as to the states of the interiors....In such case Heaven removes itself from them, and consequently the Lord, and transfers itself to others, who are adopted in their place....Those who are of the Old Church are then in a sort of inundation as to the interiors. . . .

533


It is like a cloudy mist with which they are encompassed, and thereby separated from Heaven. The state of those who are in that cloudy mist is such that they cannot possibly see what is the truth of faith, and still less what is good, for the light of Heaven, in which is intelligence and wisdom, cannot penetrate into that mist. This is the state of the vastated Church." (Arcana Caelestia, 4423.)

     How clear it is from this, that our sanguine brethren in the New Church, the permeationists, do not take the presence and influence of the dragonists in the spiritual world into their calculations, when they dream about the immediate establishment of the New Church within the Old. And in the last passage quoted, what serious words, and yet how clearly applicable! Have we not all come into contact with that "cloudy mist" which is spoken of, and which makes it so utterly impossible to present one single ray of truth, or rational idea, to our friends and relations in the Old Church,--labor as hard as we may!

     4. But what is the reason? From what hellish pool does that mist arise which has enveloped the Old Church in the impenetrable darkness of night? The answer is plain:

     "The reason of this [night in the Church] is because evils increase every day, and in so far as they increase, so far one infects another like a contagion, especially parents their children; moreover hereditary evils are successively concentrated and thus transmitted." (Ibid, 10134.)

     We need not quote further respecting the doctrine of hereditary, evils, for it is well-known that hereditary evil never grows less, but is constantly accumulating and increasing in volume and vehemence in a Church that has once entered the downward grade. The only possible means of checking this growing avalanche is by universal, serious, and complete repentance, and this can be effected only by the universal acceptance of a New Divine Revelation. There was no way of cleaning the dung-crowded stables of Augeas except by Hercules letting in a whole river of water upon it. But if the doors of the stable are closed, how then can they be cleansed? But let us listen further to the words of the prophecy:

     5. "'He calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night Watchman what of the Night The Watchman said, The Morning cometh and the night also.' (Isaiah xxi: 11, 12.) By 'watchman' in the internal sense, is meant one who observes the states of the Church and its changes, thus, every prophet.

534


By 'night' is meant the last state of the Church; by 'morning' its first stage. By 'Seir, from which the watchman cries, is signified the illumination of the nations which are in darkness. 'The morning cometh and also the night,' signifies that although those hare illumination who are of the New Church, yet that it is still night with those who are in the Old." (Ibid, 10134.)

     6. Where the Lord is in His Second Advent there is the New Church, but where the Lord is not, there is the Old. And where is the Lord? In the tomb, among the dead? Nay, He is risen, and is among the living.

     "The last time of the former Church, and the first of the New Church, is what is called the Consummation of the Age, and His Advent; for the Lord then recedes [departs] from the former Church, and comes to the New Church." (Ibid, 4535.)

     "'And I shall be with you all days, even unto the Consummation of the Age,' signifies even to the end of the Church; and then, if they do not approach the Lord Himself, and live according to His precepts, 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 solely with those who will be of His New Church." (Apocalypse Revealed, 750.)

     7. A terrible prophecy, this, for those who love the Old Church; yet the inevitable and immutable Law of Divine Order. Not that the Lord leaves the men of the Old Church, but they leave the Lord, and become as pagans who have no religion. A miserable fate, for our proud Protestant races, but one which is surely theirs, unless they receive the Lord in His Second Advent and live according to His precepts! But will they receive? The prophecy gives but "small hopes," even for the external of the Old Church, as a Church:

     "'Heaven and Earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away, signifies that the internals and externals of the former Church shall perish, but that the Word of the Lord shall abide." (Arcana Caelestia, 4231.)

     In the passages quoted above we have a gradual unfolding of the gradual passing away of the Church from those of the Old Christianity. Its doctrines will be taught as before, and divided Churches will exist as before. They will remain in external worship, as the Jews do in theirs. Hereditary evils will increase, and the shadows of night will gather thicker and darker, until finally even the externals of the Church will perish, and the men of the Old Church become as pagans who have no religion.

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What can we do with these plain statements? How can we ignore them, or explain them away?

     THE CHURCH TO BE TRANSFERRED TO THE GENTILES.

     8. But the sad, sad story continues:

     "The reason the interior things of the Word are now being opened, is that at this day the Church is vastated so greatly,--that is, is so devoid of faith and love, that although men know and understand, still they do not acknowledge and still less believe; except a few, who are in the life of good and are called 'the elect,' who can now be instructed, and with whom a New Church is to be instituted. But where these are the Lord alone knows: there will be few within the Church: it was the Gentiles with whole New Churches were established before." (Ibid, 3898.)

     "With respect to the Churches the case is as follows: in the beginning charity is held as the fundamental,...but in process of time charity begins to grow cold and to become none; afterwards there arises hatred towards one another. . . . There were several Churches which have come to such an end: the Most Ancient Church thus expired about the time of the Flood; in like manner the Ancient Church which was after the Flood, and also a second Ancient Church which was called the Hebrew Church; and lastly the Jewish Church. . . . Afterwards a New Church was raised up which was called the Church of the Gentiles, and which was an internal Church, in as much as interior truths were revealed from the Lord; but this Church is now at its end, because now there is not only no charity, but hatred instead of charity, which hatred, although it does not appear in an external form, still exists internally and breaks forth externally as often as possibility allows, that is, as often as external bonds do not operate to prevent it. . . . There are several causes of such decrease and destruction. One is that parents accumulate evils, and by frequent use, and at length by habit, implant them in their nature, and thus transmit them to their offspring hereditarily. . . . But when the Church is consummated and perishes, then the Lord always raises up a New Church elsewhere, yet seldom, if ever, from the men of the former Church, but from the Gentiles who before were in ignorance." (Ibid, 2910.)

     "It is to be known that when any Church perishes and a New Church is being established by the Lord,--rarely, if ever, is this effected with those with whom the Old Church had been; but with those with whom there was no Church before. It was thus, when the Most Ancient Church perished: then the New Church which was called 'Noah' was established with the Gentiles. . . . In like manner when this Church perished; then the semblance of a Church was instituted with the descendants of Abraham, for Abraham, when called, was a Gentile, and the descendants of Jacob in Egypt became still more Gentile.

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After this semblance of a Church had been consummated, the Primitive [Christian] Church was established from the Gentiles, the Jews being rejected. In like manner it will be with this Church, which is called the Christian." (Ibid, 2986. Com p., 4747.)

     9. Notice this direct statement "In like manner it will be" with the Christian Church. There is no "perhaps" about it, but it will be with the Old Christian Church as it was with every preceding vastated Church. Is there nothing to be considered, in this, by those who continually insist that the New Church, differently from other Churches, will be established within the vastated Church? We could fill a volume with similar direct statements of the same prophecy, but cannot here do more than adduce a few:

     "From these things it may be evident, whence it is that a New Church is always established with nations who are outside of the Church, which takes place when the Old Church has closed Heaven against itself. Hence it is that the Church from the Jewish people was transferred to the Gentiles, and also that the present Church is now also being transferred to the Gentiles . . . and, what is wonderful, the Gentiles adore one only God under a human form; wherefore, when they hear of the Lord, they receive and acknowledge Him; neither can a New Church be established among any others." (Ibid, 9256.)

     10. All this, of course, is perfectly well-known to most of the members of the New Church, but many have interpreted these "Gentiles" as meaning people in the Christian world who have become "gentilized," that is, such as have lost faith in any of the existing Churches,--those who, from indifference or from lack of any religious education, have not imbibed the falsities and interior evils which really constitute the Old Church. But though this may he true in a secondary sense, and very remotely, yet we are distinctly taught that by the "Gentiles" is primarily meant the heathen nations outside the Christian or European world.

     "By the Holy Jerusalem descending from Heaven is meant a New Church with the Gentiles, after the present one which is in our European world has been vastated." (Ibid, 9407, 2955, 9643, 9717, 9863.)

     To be Continued.

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     GOD IS A MAN, NOT A SUN.

     Facilis, descensus Averno! From the worship of the Lord in His Divine Human to the worship of an idol of fire, there is but a step,--a step over a precipice,--and it is accomplished. Such a step, it seems to us, is taken by a writer in the Messenger for August 21st, who essays to prove that "God is Love." Starting out with some very true definitions of Divine Love, he exhibits the nature of Divine Influx, which from eternity to eternity is One and unchangeable, and which can do nothing for one man but what it is constantly doing for all. "The Lord, or the Sunshine of Love Itself," he says, "is to human beings what the solar radiance is to the infinitely varied plant life of earth." "If the Lord becomes personally manifest to angels or men, the cause is not, in any sense or manner whatever in anything different that He does, but entirely in difference in their recipiency." "The Lord,--Love Itself,--never did, and never does, anything special for one man or angel, for the sake of accomplishing a special divine object, that He is not, all the time, doing for all men and all angels."

     Forgetting that the Divine Influx, or, what is the same, the Divine Providence, is universal because it is ever most particular, singular and special, the writer next applies these premises to the subject of Divine Revelation. "By such well established general principles we are driven to the conclusion that influx was the same to Moses, to Isaiah," and to Swedenborg, and, as well, to all other men.

     The revelations, as results, were different, simply because the recipients were different. Each one 'lifted' his tool upon it.' No words, no ideas, no doctrines ever as such came from the Lord." (Italics our own.) "The Lord has 'thoughts' only in the 'supreme sense' of Truth Itself." "The common idea of the Lord's having already formulated thoughts or doctrines to 'dictate' to the 'Prophets,' and that He selected certain men for the reception of such dictation, finites Him, robs Him of His divinity, makes Him in His thoughts and ways as we are in our thoughts and ways."

     Here, then, after a plausible introduction, we suddenly find ourselves face to face with a kind of sun-worship, "the lowest of all kinds of worship," in the guise of New, Church Doctrine. Instead of a living, speaking, comprehensible God, a Divinely Human Person, we have, a mechanical, supposed-to-be spiritual Sun, which can do nothing but radiate, simply shine, everlastingly in one and the same way,--a divinity which no more could come down to earth and speak with men, than the fiery ocean of our solar system could come down and speak. Instead of a Divine Priest and King and Father, we have merely a "Sunshine," which, the writer says, "really has no such personality as man has," and consequently is unable to formulate thoughts and words, and to communicate "doctrinal principles."

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     But God is not a Sun: He is a Man. "Beware of thinking that the Sun of the Spiritual world is God Himself." (D. L. W., 97.) What personality do we have, that He does not possess! Did He not create us in His own image and likeness? Did He not assume the Human and glorify it? Did He not rise with His whole Body? "A spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have." If He was able to come down to earth in Person to speak His Word to men,--to formulate thoughts and words and doctrines, surely He was able to select men and to dictate His Word to them, for "special Divine objects."

     Beware of thinking that God is a Sun. Beware also of thinking that the Divine Influx is merely a streaming forth of heat and light from a Spiritual sun. "The Sun of the Spiritual world is not the Lord Himself, but from the Lord: the Divine Love and Wisdom proceeding from Him appear in that world as a Sun." (D. L. W., 86.) Rather let us think of the Divine Influx as the operation of the Divine Man, unchangeable, indeed, (even as the operation of a finite man is unchangeable, in so far as it proceeds from the same ruling love), yet infinitely varied, and possessing infinite possibilities of mode and method.

     It is true, indeed, that all Divine Operation is effected solely by "Influx," but so also is all human operation. In all that a man may do, whether he be working with his mind or his hands, it is always the man outflowing and inflowing: it is the man himself proceeding unto others. And if a finite man, by his influx, is able to communicate formulated ideas, thoughts, and teachings, is able to select his scribes, and dictate his words to them, are we to suppose that the same cannot he done by the Omnipotent!

     The arguments of the writer are those of all who deny the possibility of Divine Revelation. If the Lord was not able to dictate words and doctrines to the Prophets and to "select certain men for the reception of such dictation," then the Word of God cannot possibly be the "Word," literally inspired, infallibly true, perfect and Divine in every jot and tittle, but is simply the words and doctrines of fallible men, a library of Jewish literature, in no sense removed from all other writings such as are the results of common influx.



     Having thus easily disposed of Sacred Scripture, the writer, a veteran New Church minister, next attacks his special aversion, the authority of the Revelation that has been given to the New Church. Swedenborg's inspiration, he claims, was in no sense exceptional or different from that of all other men, except "'in the sense in which all men, thus developed to the love-stage, are exceptional." "Swedenborg was unique in the kind, breadth, and depth of his vast learning, and thus in the kind and measure of his recipiency; but he was not unique in what the Lord gave him, or did for him, more than for other men."

539




     Again we have the same mechanical Monism, the same dead idea of a Spiritual Sun, which can reveal itself only according to the size of the peep-hole on earth. According to this notion, it was not the Lord who came again, and performed the Last Judgment, and revealed His Divine Human, but it was only Swedenborg that came and wrought. The messenger and the Divine Message are made one and the same. The truths and the Doctrines are no longer the Lord's, but simply Swedenborg's ideas and doctrines,--merely the results of his own "vast learning" and highly' developed "love-stage."

     It seems rather surprising that a New Church journal, without a word of warning, should place before its readers such an insidious snare as the article in question. Are there not organs enough in the world for the undermining of faith in Divine Revelation and for the denial of a personal God? In view of recent events, such as the transition of New Church ministers into open Unitarianism, is there not room for caution in the reasoning concerning sacred things? The sphere of the whole Christian world is hostile to the Lord and His Word, and the sphere of the New Church itself is none too affirmative towards its own Revelation. Dangers are lurking on every side. There is no safety except in the simple, rock-founded faith in the visible, audible, personal Lord, and in His own inspired Word and Doctrine.

     To the men of the New Church it is given to wander on Alpine heights of spiritual perception. Universal vistas are open to their view. Yet, let them beware how they roam about: it is unsafe to climb these mountain tops, unless following closely and humbly the heavenly guide of Revelation. Beneath, the proprium is ever yawning, and mists of self-conceit are rising from its caverns. A step aside,--and faith lies crushed in the abyss of infidelity. But, hand in hand with the Guide, there is nought to fear.

      THE RECOGNITION OF "NEW CHURCH DAY."

     From the very beginning of the New Church there have always been a number of New Churchmen who recognized the importance of the statement in the Writings respecting the 19th day of June, that on that day in the year 1770 the Lord sent forth His twelve disciples into the universal spiritual world "to preach the Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ reigneth." They saw in this, the Lord's own announcement of His Coming, the first open manifestation of that Coming. and its first fruits in the establishment of the New Church. This recognition of the 19th should, naturally, have led some to desire that the whole of the New Church on earth would unite to make that day the great Feast day of the Church. But neither in the Conference in England, nor in the Convention in America, were any steps ever taken in this direction. It remained for the Academy of the New Church to inaugurate the celebration of New Church day.

540


More than a hundred years after the disciples had been sent forth by our Lord on their far-reaching mission, a body of New Churchmen, known as "Academicians," met together on the anniversary of that sending forth, and celebrated the Lord for His Second Advent, for His Revelation that "the Lord Jesus Christ alone reigneth." Since that first celebration, "Academicians" have never failed to observe every recurring 19th of June; and now, in the General Church which is founded on the principles of the Academy, the celebration of the 19th as a day of festival and thanksgiving is a fixed custom, a permanent institution.



     It is strange and remarkable, in view of what we are told in the Writings of the 19th of June, that, of all the Bodies in the New Church, there is but one which celebrates New Church day. A few of the ministers of Conference and Convention have, it is true, inaugurated such celebrations in their own societies, either by special services on the nearest Sunday, or by a festival on the day itself; but these celebrations have in every case come from the personal initiative of the minister of the society, and have never received any open support from that general body of the Church to which he belonged. The Academy and the General Churches which have been identified with it, have always stood alone in this respect.

     But during the recent Conference meeting, an effort was made by one or two of the English ministers to have Conference recognize the 19th of June as New Church day, by "the observance of the Sunday nearest that date." The motion to that effect was, however, rejected by the Conference, the reason for voting it down being, that "it was thought best not to make a recommendation of what all did trot approve and what every society was free to observe if it felt so disposed." It is difficult to imagine any tangible reason sufficiently powerful to bring a New Churchman to the position of not "approving" of the celebration of a day mentioned by the Lord in His Revelation as one on which an important event took place, and we regret that Morning Light has not included the discussion of this question in its Conference report. It should be a matter of interest to every New Churchman to learn the reasons for a "disapproval" which, to many, is quite incomprehensible; certainly no rational man can be contented with the mere assertion, that one does not "approve." However, we would not quarrel with those of our English friends who do not "approve," so long as they leave those who do "approve" in freedom. But surely the time will come when New Churchmen will learn to appreciate what the 19th of June means to the New Church, and what spiritual and natural blessings will follow its heartfelt observance by the whole Church?



     But the Editor of Morning Light seems to have got beyond the stage of not "approving." In his notes on the Conference he says, "The 19th of June, called by some 'New Church day,' was observed by the Conference this year by attending to its business in business hours and by enjoying itself later in the day at a Conversazione," etc.

541


Is this a bit of quiet fun that the Morning Light is poking at those who observe the 19th of June as New Church day? or do we see an undercurrent of contempt for them and for the day itself? What, we wonder, would our contemporary say if some New Church journal printed similar remarks respecting Christmas or Easter? We can almost imagine his indignation at such a slighting, to use a mild term, of the great days of the Christian Church. Can he not also see that to hundreds of New Church people his own remarks are, to say the least, a slighting of the great day of the New Church! He may answer that Christmas day or Easter are holy days because on those days there happened some notable and all-important event in our Lord's Advent into the world. But cannot something similar be said of the 19th of June? On that date did not a great event connected, inseparably connected with the Lord's Second Advent, take place? At Christmas or Easter we celebrate, not so much the specific acts which happened on those days, but rather the whole of the Lord's Advent as typified and centred in those acts. Those days are to us welcome times when we can publicly praise and glorify the Lord for His Coming into the world. And so with the 19th day of June. On that day we celebrate not so much the sending forth of the Apostles, as the Second Advent of our Lord typified and as it were crowned by the Divine Announcement to the universal spiritual world made free by the Last Judgment, that He alone reigneth. We are told that the whole heaven from East to West and from North to South united in one grand and harmonious Glorification of the Lord for His Second Coming to man. Shall not the Church which descends from heaven do likewise? Shall not her members also feel and give joyous expression to their gratitude to the Lord for His Divine Mercy in revealing Himself to them, and saving them from the powers of darkness and night? Surely, if we truly feel that the Lord has come again, we needs must praise Him for "His goodness and His wonderful mercy," praise Him not only individually but as the Church established by Him. And what better day can the Church choose to unite with Heaven in open praises of the Lord, than that day on which, as He Himself has told us, He sent forth His Apostles to announce the good tidings that He had come in His power, and that He alone reigneth?



     There is an intimate connection between the acknowledgment of the Lord in His Second Coming and the observance of the 19th of June. Has the Lord made His Second Coming? If he has, then nowise man will deny that the Church which was then founded by Him, not only should publicly proclaim that Coming, but should also, publicly celebrate her Lord for it. Nor will he deny that the 19th of June is pre-eminently the day for such celebration. But if the Lord has not made His Second Coming, but is now making it, if Swedenborg was not inspired except as Darwin and Shakespeare were inspired, if the Writings are not the Lord speaking to us, His very Word, but only the illumined writings of an eminent theologian, then, of course, there is no imperative necessity for the Church to celebrate the 19th of June.

542


It is on this question of whether the Lord has or has not made His Second Coming, that the celebration of the 19th hinges; and the history of the New Church shows us, that so far as that Coming has been recognized as having actually taken place, there has been a disposition favorable to openly praising the Lord for it on the 19th of June; and that where that Coming has not been recognized as an actual and definite event, the 19th of June has been neglected, or observed only "by attending to business in business hours."
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     NEW PUBLICATIONS.

     New Church Life. Vol. xx. 1900. The first year's issue of our Journal in Magazine form makes a very handsome and convenient volume. It is substantially bound, and can be obtained at the Academy Book Room at the price of $1.50.

     The Faith and Principles of the New Church. By Rev. J. J. Thornton. Liverpool. 1901. 22 pp. This discourse was delivered by invitation at the Unitarian Chapel in Hope street, Liverpool. It is an attractive pamphlet, clear. straight-for-ward, and dignified in substance and style.

     The Twelve Gates of the New Jerusalem. By Rev. John S. Saul, Chicago. Western New Church Union. 1901. 19 pp. An evangelistic discourse, written in clear, simple, eloquent language, and published in a most dainty style,--a delicious looking morsel appealing for immediate assimilation. How different, these twentieth century publications, from the old-fashioned tracts of our forefathers, with their overloaded title-pages and often forbidding aspect! Nevertheless, they had their readers, as many, perhaps, as our modern brochures.

     Seven Steps in the Making of a Man. By H. Gordon Drummond. James Speirs, London. 1901, 114 pp. In a series of sermonettes, skillfully veiled in the style of essays, this charming little volume expounds the story of Creation in the first chapter of Genesis, a revealed in the Arcana Caelestia. The author, unfortunately, omits any reference to the source of his teachings, a neglect which is inexcusable, if intentional, and calculated to destroy the value of the book as a means of evangelization, Nevertheless, the work is enjoyable reading even to a New Churchman, on account of its artistic style, and its original, suggestive manner of stating familiar truths.

     The Annual of the Urbana University. Published under the auspices of the Delta Sigma Literary Society, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the College. Urbana, Ohio, June Nineteenth, 1901.

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     This is a handsome pamphlet of seventy-two pages, adorned on front and back with the monogram of the institution. The contents are divided into several sections, viz., "History of Urbana University," "College Societies," "Alumni Notes," "Stray Shots," "Epitome of Course of Study," "Faculty of the University," and "Equipment of Museum and Laboratories."

     The historical sketch shows that the School has been in successful operation for half a century (with a brief interruption during the Civil War), and that a number of men, now widely known in the Church, or in the world, have received their collegiate training in her halls. The department of "Stray Shots" contains the usual facetiae of a College Society; it is well-named, for the "shots" largely go wide of the mark. The Epitome of the Course of Studies gives an interesting descriptive account of the secondary grade studies for the Collegiate department. The Museum and Laboratories seem to be well-equipped for elementary work in the natural sciences. The list of the Faculty contains the names of six professors and teachers.     E. S. P.

     New Church Education for children and how it can be obtained. Carmel Church of the New Jerusalem, Berlin, Ont., Canada. 1901. (16 pp.) Between the covers of this pamphlet the absolute necessity of New Church Education is set forth in a manner as clear and cogent as it is brief. No New Church parent can read its pages without being led to seriously reflect on his responsibilities before the Lord, and, let us add, it seems impossible but that he must also receive something of the zeal and love for the training of children for heaven which breathes forth from every page. After a statement respecting the duties of parents and an examination into the merits of Sunday Schools and Public Schools, the writer describes the work of the Berlin School, and gives terms of admission, board, etc. From the latter items it appears that every effort has been made to enable children from a distance to attend the School. For children and youth not able to take the whole course, there is a special three months' course in Religious instruction. The writer concludes with a presentation of Education as "the great missionary work," and holds up before us the fascinating and zeal-inspiring dream of what the New Church would be now, had all her children remained faithful. The pamphlet is being sent to every obtainable New Church address in Ontario and vicinity. Copies may be obtained on application to the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, Berlin, Ont., Canada. We wish the Carmel Church success in their zealous endeavor to extend the benefits of New Church education.

     Journal of Education of the Academy of the New Church, with Prospectus and Catalogue of the Academy Schools. Huntingdon Valley, Pa., 1901. (83 pp.) Although the Schools of the Academy have been in existence for a quarter of a century, there has been, up to the present time, no complete public presentation of the important educational work which they have been performing for the New Church. In 1880 a curriculum of the Theological School, a leaflet of two pages, was issued, and ten years later a pamphlet of twelve pages, containing the names of all the teachers and pupils in the schools.

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But from neither of these small publications was the reader likely to get more than a hint of the extent of the work carried on by the Academy. In the Journal of Education now published, that work is set forth in its entirety, and it will no doubt come as a surprise, and give much food for reflection to those of our New Church friends who, perhaps, have not followed the continued and steady growth of the Academy. There is evidently some merit in methods, the pursuit of which has resulted in the growth of its Schools from a very insignificant beginning to their present development as shown in the Journal. Besides the charter and constituency of the Academy, terms and conditions of entrance into the Schools, the curriculums of the different Departments, and such other matters as usually pertain to a School catalogue, the Journal contains much that will be of interest to New Churchmen generally. The detailed reports of the work done in the four Departments during the past year will be interesting reading to parents of past and prospective pupils. An Address by Professor Price on the need of distinctive New Church education presents in a clear manner the spirit which animates the Academy in its work. Professor Odhner contributes a history of the Academy Schools, introduced by a brief sketch of the origin of the educational movement in the New Church, and the causes which led up to the establishment of the Academy. This history is, very appropriately, followed by a list of all past and present teachers, graduates and pupils of the Academy schools.* There are also some interesting illustrations, one showing the first school of the Academy, another, the building it will occupy in the coming year. A comparison of these two pictures will give some idea of the growth of the schools. The school building which is now being vacated, which is the subject of one of the illustrations, will be used as a boys' dormitory. For the first time in its history the Academy is prepared to house its pupils. There is no picture of the girls' dormitory, as the building is still in course of construction, but the architect's plans are given. An appendix to the Journal gives some general information respecting the parish schools of the General Church. With the varied contents bearing directly on practical New Church education, the Journal will, no doubt, be read by all who are interested in that work, and should have a large circulation.
     * Those owning copies of the Journal are requested to insert on p. 76 the following omitted line:

"Pendleton, Charles. . . . Macon, Ga. . . . C. . . .1899-1901."
NEW CHURCH JOURNALS 1901

NEW CHURCH JOURNALS              1901

     New Church Messenger. August 7th. "Out of courtesy" to a vote passed at the "Round Table" meeting which was held in connection with the late Convention, the Messenger, while mildly protesting, publishes a paper on the question: "Is there a Spirit of Discontent in the New Church!" The writer replies most enthusiastically in the affirmative; as means of improvement he suggests quite radical measures:

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"Throw aside the elaborately constructed ecclesiastical machine!" "Abolish creed!" "Break down every distinction between sacred and secular!" kindest cut of all: "Turn over our much-managed New Church Messenger to peaceful, private enterprise!" In other words: Let the Convention cut off its tongue, its limbs, and its head, and there will then no longer be any "Spirit of Discontent" in that body of the New Church.

     August 14th. In an excellent editorial on "The Hells reduced to Order," the Messenger explains the immediate effects in the natural world, resulting from the grand reorganization of the spiritual world at the time of the Last Judgment: "the special point we wish to call attention to now is that the amelioration of life on earth is not wholly an evidence of a nearer influx of heaven, but that it is due also to the more refined character of evil consequent upon the reorganization of the hells. Evils have presented themselves in more orderly and even in elegant guise, since the hells have been reduced to order. Hell, to-day, has put on the livery of Heaven, and has chosen to cover its uncouth form with refined clothing and a becoming mask. The vast changes in public morals which have taken place in the last century are not mere changes for the better. They are also the more delicate and subtle methods which the emissaries of hell have assumed in obsessing the spirits of men. Thus the lust for unjust gain which in ancient times would make man a freebooter, in modern times leads him to a life that is spiritually no less one of robbery, but is outwardly and ostensibly one of order and of obedience to law." "Pessimism is from hell, but optimism may not be from heaven."

     "We are constrained to believe that much of the orderly life of the world today may be only a kind of orderly life of hell; because the motives of hell, the love of self and the world, the hatred of the neighbor, jealousy and contempt, may all most successfully obtain the objects of their insanity in a life of outer order and decorum, which for this reason they assume."

     In some notes on the subject of "Co-Education," the Messenger quotes from recent addresses made by Prof. Stanley Hall, the president of the Clark University Summer School, and remarks: "So powerful has been the drift of opinion of late in favor of co-education of boys and girls, and of identity of college training for men and women, that to read an opinion like that pronounced by this distinguished psychologist and educator in the heart of Massachusetts, is really startling." We cull the following from the quotations: "'It seems that the better the education of women, the fewer children they have. I plead for the higher education of women, and welcome them to every opportunity available to man, but I would open to them another education which is more favorable to motherhood, that it is desirable that they should study womanhood.'.... 'Woman's colleges have done little or nothing for the proper education of women.'... 'It looks as if the colleges were training for independence and support and celibacy, and that they let motherhood take care of itself.' 'These college women are extremely attractive, enjoy keen pleasures, and are active, and their mentality makes them the best of good fellows; they are at home with the racquet and in golf--and are often in every way magnificent, but they are not mothers, and to attempt to marry them is one of the too frequent tragedies of married life.

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We must educate primarily and chiefly for motherhood. While girls may be trained with boys, co-education should cease at dawn of adolescence, and if continued it seems to rub the bloom of each away.'"

     August 28th. The portrait and biographical sketch of Rev. Albinus F. Frost continues the interesting and valuable series of biographies of Convention ministers, which has been running through several volumes of the Messenger.

     The New Church Review. July, 1901 The Rev. James Reed, in a paper on "The Three Essentials of the New Church," shows that the Divinity of the Lord, the Holiness of the Sacred Scripture, and the life of Charity, are distinctly Proclaimed and taught nowhere else than in the visible New Church. Mr. Warren Goddard, in his biography of "John Marshall," presents a very pleasing Picture of that eminent jurist, but the paper is entirely secular in character, and seems out of place in a New Church magazine. The article on "Charity between Nations," by Mr. Herbert S. Kempton, portrays in vigorous strokes the utterly self-seeking and heartless spirit which still predominates in international politics; the paper deserves to be widely read, both within and without the New Church. Mr. Gilbert Hawkes, in this issue, concludes his lengthy treatise on "The Hypothesis of Evolution in the Light of the New Church;" the writer takes many extreme and peculiar positions, evidencing more learning in the particulars of Doctrine than a clear grasp of fundamentals. The article on "The History of Trinitarianism," by Dr. Wright, is a review of the utterly Arian Critical History of the Evolution of Trinitarianism by L. L. Paine, professor of Ecclesiastical History in Banger Theological Seminary, ancient stronghold of trinitarian orthodoxy. The "new Christology" certainly does not seem to be evoluting in the direction of the New Jerusalem.

     Mr. Charles W. Harvey, in a learned paper on "The Doctrine of the Trinity," sketches the origin and development of the Doctrine respecting the three persons in the Godhead, from the time of the Apostles to the time of Swedenborg The purpose of the paper is to show that "the history of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity has not been wholly a retrogression," and that "the teaching of the new dispensation has been rather a crown and a fulfillment of the best of the old, than a repudiation of it." We cannot entirely accept this statement. The Doctrine of the New Church is distinctly a new revelation, not in any sense an evolution of the ancient Theology. Neither the apostles, nor any of the Fathers, still less any of the medieval theologians had any genuine conception of the Trinity. The understanding of this Doctrine, instead of becoming clearer and more perfect, grew more and more obscure, until all light of truth respecting it was extinguished in the night of the vastated Church. The writer is unfortunate in his attempt to elucidate the Doctrine by theological speculations of his own.

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Speaking of the Lord during the process of Glorification, he exclaims: "What have we here? Two persons, with one general range of consciousness? or two planes of consciousness, within one range of personality? I think it matters not at all which way you put it, the duality is unquestionable." We think it matters a very great deal, indeed. Never at any time, nor in any sense, were there "two persons" in the Lord. "Natures" and "persons" are not synonymous and should not be confounded, or the foundation-rock of the New Church will crumble into a heap of sand. The looseness of the following statement is even more deplorable: "There must have been in Him also inner and outer self, a duality of personality almost [!], certainly of consciousness; with the inner self, the inner consciousness, continually developing, growing more enlightened, now gradually, now by distinct steps." What! The "inner self," the Divine Soul, the Infinite Father, "continually developing," "growing more enlightened!" There is a serious misunderstanding here, of the nature of the Glorification; it did not consist in the ascent of the human to the Divine, but in the descent of the Divine into the human. As the Divine, the "inner self," descended into the human proprium, expelling thence all things finite, this "outer self" was gradually more and more filled with light, until finally it was completely occupied by the "inner self," and thus became one with it, the Light and the Life itself.

     In a paper on "The Norse Mythology," Mr. Henry Wunsch attempts to present the spiritual significance of the Scandinavian Cosmogony and Theogony; the paper is interesting and suggestive, but the correspondences are not sufficiently established to prove of positive value. "Is Religion Declining?" is a paper by Rev. John Whitehead, who answers the question both in the negative and the affirmative; the writer does not seem to have quite made up his mind on the subject.

     The Editorial Department is teeming with interesting items, which space alone forbids us to mention in detail. Among the "Biblical and Doctrinal Studies" we find two brief but important papers: "Our Lord's Assumption of the Human," by Rev. S. M. Warren, and "Notes on Swedenborg's Translation of Psalm Passages," by Rev. T. F. Wright. The former paper contains a statement which seems to call for an explanation: "In the descent of the Divine soul to the lowest ultimate of the human, and there clothing itself with a material body in the womb of a virgin, in and by the very fact of this descent, the Divine passed successively through and took upon Himself all the intervening degrees of the finite human, and that according to Divine order He could not otherwise have taken upon Himself the intervening degrees of the human than by thus clothing Himself first with an ultimate material body." Are we to understand that the Lord assumed the ultimate body before He assumed the intervening degrees? If so what does the writer mean when he says, that "in the descent [to that ultimate degree], the Divine took upon Himself all the intervening degrees?"

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     The New Church Independent. August. The Sermon by the late Henry Weller is an exposition of a passage in Job. Happily it is not often that texts from the non-canonical books are selected by New Church sermon writers. Mr. Weller shows in a striking way the utter materialism of the age, and the necessity of light from heaven, but we find no statement as to the Writings being the sole source of that light.--In "Christian Science and the teachings of Swedenborg on diseases," Linnaeus Fenton has much to say on the: entire absurdity of the claim of Christian Scientists that all diseases can be cured mentally, though he admits the probability of this in the case of mental diseases. His remarks on these latter are extremely interesting and suggestive to anyone who has wondered at the "marvellous cures" of the Christian Scientists. The article as a whole makes profitable reading. It is unfortunate that the Editor of the Independent should endeavor to tear down what the writer has built up. He finds a "great deal of good" in Christian Science faith; it is "spiritualizing" and comforts like "the voice of Christ." He recommends a careful study of "Science and health."--In a dialogue on "What is life?" we find life defined as "the formative principle of all things--born from Divine Love, directed by Divine Wisdom, and carried out by Divine Power." Life, then, is some "principle" separate from God but born of Him. Our impression is that the Doctrines teach, not that life is from love, but that life is love. With the exception of the definition of life, the article is very lucid, especially in the treatment of the theory of evolution. The writer shows that creation is the gradual involution of life in lower and lower forms of matter, and he successfully controverts the theories of the evolutionists who make "man the father of God," and "God, the last link."

     The New Church League Journal. May. While welcoming this new contemporary, and wishing it all success, we feel that the "American League of New Church Young Peoples' Societies" has made a mistake in forsaking its cozy corner in the Messenger. What the New Church needs in these days is not a multitude of small journals, but a few good and strong ones, representing a concentration of uses, interests and efforts. The contents of the League Journal exhibit great social activity in their Young Peoples' Societies, in the way of entertainments, games, etc., but do not indicate much realization of what is meant by the distinctive social life of the New Church, the spiritual life on the natural plane, in which the Conjugial is the dominating influence.

     Neukirchenblatt. August. This German-American journal appears this month in a frame of mourning surrounding a portrait of the late Rev. F. W. Tuerk. The issue contains also the beginning of a New Church novel, "Stiefmutterchen," the Little Stepmother,--by Herr Adelbert Jantschovitsch, of Buda Pesth. It seems more like a sermon than a story.

     Morning Light. June I. Mr. A. Eadie contributes an able and thoughtful article on "The Church, what it is and where." After giving the respecting the Church Universal and the Church Specific, he proceeds to answer the question, Where is the New Church! A two-fold answer is given.

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"The invisible New Church. . . . is scattered over the whole globe, and is in the sight of the Lord as one man." But the visible New Church is founded on doctrine and is composed of all "who openly profess the essential doctrines of the New Church." Mr. Eadie evidently has no sympathy with the "permeation theory, for he strictly limits the New Church to open professors of its doctrines. "If the organized New Church is not the New Jerusalem on earth, then, so far as man can tell, there is no New Church on earth at all." Doctrine, though it does not of itself constitute the Church, is yet one of its essentials, and the only essential which man can see, and which he is justified on judging." Throughout the latter part of the paper, there is what seems to be a growing misuse of the term "Invisible New Church." The invisible New Church is made synonymous with the Church Universal, for both are said to be "scattered over the whole globe," and therefore not dependent for their existence on genuine Doctrine. Since the New Church is composed of all who profess its doctrines, it is more than difficult to see how in any sense whatever, the invisible New Church can be composed of those who are ignorant of those doctrines. The invisible New Church must be within the visible New Church, and constituted of all those who are in the genuine acknowledgment of the doctrines of the New Church. The invisible New Church and the Church Universal are not the same, though of either it may be said that its members are known to the Lord alone. The genuine New-Churchman is a member of the Church Universal, but the member of the Church Universal is not necessarily a genuine New Churchman. We are not aware of any teaching in the Writings respecting a new Church Universal or a new Universal Church. If there were such a Church, then there is also an old Church Universal which has become corrupted, judged and destroyed. Of this we have no word. Since the Church Universal consists of all who are in good, it is difficult to conceive of any other corruption than corruption of life, and this the Lord cannot remedy without destroying man's freedom. There cannot be corruption of true doctrine, for such doctrine is not essential to the Church Universal. All its members can be saved whatsoever their doctrine, so long as there is conjunction with Heaven by a Church Specific where the Word is read and understood. It is when the Church Specific becomes corrupt, and genuine doctrine is in danger of being lost, that a New Church is raised up; and this, for the end that the Church Universal may be preserved and continued. The term "New" as applied to the Church can only refer to a new Revelation of Divine Truth, and therefore it can never justly be applied to the Church Universal.

     From an editorial note in this number we learn that in the Love Letters of Prince Bismarck, it is stated by the Prince himself, that his mother, a woman of great power of mind, "was much attached to Swedenborg."

     June 8th. The correspondence column contains a letter from the Rev. W. T. Lardge appealing for a recognition by New Church Societies of the 19th of June by a special prayer, or a reference to the day in the sermon on the nearest Sunday.

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In his own Society at Preston he had recognized the day by both these methods, for several years, and he offered a copy of the prayer which he used (composed by the ]ate Rev. John Presland) to any who would like to use it. He concludes by recommending the observance of the 19th by the coming Conference.

     July 20. In the Correspondence column is the inevitable protest against the teaching of Mr. Buss's sermon, that the Old Church is dead,--dead really and now, and not 150 years ago, or in some imaginary sense. Mr. H. C. Adcock writes commenting on the statement that the continuance of the Old Church would be marked by an increase of falsities and evils, and asks whether we are to understand that this increase has been in the minds (the italics are Mr. Adcock's) of the several millions of professed members of this 'dead' Christian Church, and whether in the numerical growth of this 'dead' Church there has been a corresponding deterioration these last 150 years in the doctrine and lives of its members. Are they "worse men and women than were their immediate forefathers? Does the possession of true doctrine by a Church confer upon it the sole monopoly of spiritual progress?" Needless to say he answers these questions in the negative, and this on the ground of "common sense, to say nothing of Christian Charity and the teaching of the Word." His own opinion is that the Old Churchman is often the spiritual equal of the New Churchman as far as the Christian life is concerned." There are vast numbers of interiorly good people outside the New Church, and professedly inside this Old 'dead' Church, who are yet bona fide members of the Lord's universal New Church" (sic). All these are in the interior, i. e., "the practical acknowledgment of the Lord." From Mr. Adcock's letter, and his way of writing the "Old 'dead' Church," we are tempted to believe that he only reluctantly admits that that Church is dead. The Writings are too explicit on that point, so he strives to mitigate the 'deadness' as much as possible. It is as though he were to say, "Yes, the Writings teach that the Old Church is dead, but--well a very large part of it is spiritually alive." One wonders what constitutes death.

     New Church Magazine. August. In the "History of Argyle Square" we are astonished to see the assertion that the "London Universal Society" was founded in the year 1776, thus seven years before the Theosophical Society, which was instituted by Robert Hindmarsh in 1783. It would be interesting to know the authority upon which this assertion is founded. If true, it is an entirely new and very important discovery; but it cannot be accepted without substantiation.

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     In an article on "Swedenborg's Bibles," the Rev. J. Hyde gives a bibliographical account of the Hebrew and Greek editions, together with the Latin versions, used by Swedenborg. The article closes with an interesting suggestion as to the use which Swedenborg made of the Swedish versions of the Scriptures. His father left an original Swedish translation in MS., which was never published; and Eric Benzelius, the elder, made a revision of the old Swedish version. In what way and to what extent, the different editions and versions of the Scriptures entered into Swedenborg's work, is left for treatment in a future article.

     The Sermon by Rev. J. F. Buss, which was preached before the recent Conference, is an excellent and fearless presentation of the distinctiveness and life of the New Church, and the death of the Old Church. The words "Ye are the light of the world," which Mr. Buss takes as his text, are now addressed to the New Church, as, when they were spoken by the Lord, they were addressed to the small group of the disciples. The New Church is the sole centre of spiritual light and life to the whole world, because it alone has the Word. It is true that the Old Church has the Word; and so also had the scribes and lawyers of old. But these are not called the light of the world because with them there is no just understanding of the Word, and "there is no Church except where the Word is justly understood." (S. S. 79.) The New Church "alone possesses or is able to possess a true understanding of the Word of the Lord." The sermon deals with the oft-mooted question: Is the Old Church dead now? Many will "perhaps admit that what has been said was true 150 years ago when the Old Church died...but will insist that since that time a very great change has come over the religious thought of Christendom. Some even go so far as to affirm that when the Old Church died, it was forever done with, and that the whole Christian world...is now the New Church of which we are but a part." Mr. Buss admits that there has been a vast change, but he states the nature of the change by quoting from the Writings, that "falses and evils increase continually in the Church once perverted and extinct." (A. C. 4503.) Although many irrational doctrines have been rejected by the Old Church in late years, yet at the same time the essential doctrines of the Divinity of the Lord and the Word have been so repudiated, even "in thousands of so-called 'Christian pulpits' as to be held up to ridicule." "Is that the mark of the New Church?" Mr. Buss pertinently asks, "Is it not rather an evidence . . . that falsities and evils have 'increased continually?" The Sermon, as was to have been expected, has already caused protest.

     The New Church Young Peoples' Magazine. August. This is the British counterpart of the American League Journal. It is published at Manchester by the New Church Sunday School Union, and has quite a religious tone, though it does not seem to be very distinctively of the New Church. It is a relief to see nothing in this magazine about the "Boys' Brigades," which of late have been so much in evidence in our English contemporaries, with their parades and "Captains" and "Chaplains" and all the rest of the military affectation.

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ENGLISH CONFERENCE 1901

ENGLISH CONFERENCE              1901

     THE annual meeting of Conference was held at Camden Road, London, from June 17-22. There were present 35 ministers, 5 trustees and 77 representatives.

     The Address of the President, the Rev. J. T. Freeth, passed in review his official work during the year. Mr. Freeth spoke far from hopefully of the prospects of the small societies. His visits to them had called forth in him "mingled feelings of hope and disappointment." While with some there is prospect of future prosperity, others are "almost in extremis." Among the reasons for this "sad state of affairs" he names dissension, distance from the Church, and "indifference almost amounting to apathy." The real danger to these societies, he thinks, lies "in the very little that Conference...on congregational lines, can do to help them." The rest of the Address consists mainly of answers by the ministers and leaders of societies, to questions which the President had addressed to them. To the question of how to aid these small societies, many and varied suggestions are made. Several of the answers are to the effect that such societies should be visited by one minister only, and not by several in turn; others, that the small societies should have some connection by representation, visiting, etc., with the nearest large society. One man proposes a tax on members of the Conference, to put up buildings for these societies, but he gives no hint as to how these buildings are to be filled; and another, disagreeing with Shakespeare as to the value of a name, suggests as the remedy, "Call them congregations not societies." The replies to the question, Is interest in the Holy Supper increasing in the Societies? give, according to the Address, "no indication of general improvement" in this respect. To the request for suggestions as to how to "deepen the piety of our members and to increase their attendance at the services" 26 replies are recorded. Several of the ministers urge the duty of insistance on our distinctive teaching, while one says the need is "a more earnest preaching of the Doctrines in their integrity and purity." Others think the remedy lies in some change in the form of worship, and various changes are suggested, from "special services with a New Church selection of Sankey's hymns," to "more ritual and reverence of attitude. Of course, we meet with our old friend "Give each member something to do." One curious suggestion is to "eliminate the controversial aspect of our evangel and the conceit of having the truth." Does this mean that truth will enter in before its opposite is removed? or that we are to preach the truth without being certain that it is the truth?

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To the question, Did the ministers associate "with ministers of other denominations in public and religious work," all who responded expressed their willingness to enter into such association; 12 replied that they were excluded from it, 4 that they are members of their local Free Church councils, and 16 that they are associated with temperance and moral movements. The replies to the question as to the chief difficulties to "your society's progress" are quite varied. A few ministers are fortunate enough as to have no such "difficulties;" some lay the blame for the lack or slowness of progress; on the public, who are "indifferent" and "will not think for themselves;" others, on external conditions, such as buildings, distance, etc.; but most of them hold that the fault lies with the New Church people themselves. Among the "difficulties" they mention are "indifference and apathy among born New Church people," "lukewarmness, especially on the part of the men," "the love of money," "the Writings are no longer read," and "want of interest in the rank and file of our members."

     The Address concludes with the mention of the receipt of two applications to the conference. One was from the society in Mauritius for a minister who could speak French; and the other was from the society of the Rev. A. T. Boyesen, for his consecration as an ordaining minister. Mr. Boyesen had written to the President, expressing "his entire acceptance of and loyalty to the doctrinal standards of the Conference." This latter application was signed by most of the prominent members of Mr. Boyesen's society, one of the signatories being Fru Therese Swedenborg. When, later in the session it came before Conference for action, it was declined by that Body with an expression of "its regret at its inability to comply."

     Considerable time was devoted to the discussion of the President's Address. Mr. Freeth, who opened the discussion, referring to the congregational system of the Conference in its bearing on the question of sustaining the small societies, said we would "not be able to do much more than we do, until we adopt a system like the Wesleyan, and payment by the Conference." He agreed with the suggestion that visits to small societies should be made by the same ministers. Touching on the suggestions as to the needs of the larger societies, he thought that there should be short sermons of 15 or 20 minutes, and a more earnest preaching of the Doctrines in their integrity and purity. The apathy of born New Church people was notable, and also the acceptance of the present day small things as a finality. If we believe in the approaching end of our organization we cannot hope to improve. (We might add here, that the advocacy of shorter sermons seems to have met with general approval. The Editor of Morning Light in his Notes on the Conference, suggests "that the Conference Sermon should be limited to 20 minutes by rule." It would be interesting to know what proposal would be made for enforcing the rule.) Mr. C. Bayley thought the greatest need was more home worship and reading of the Bible and the Writings. Rev. T. Ashly advocated a more optimistic view of the situation, as also did the Rev. E. C. Newall, who suggested the holding of one-hour religious meetings with models and lantern.

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Mr. A. Eadie said we need mote repentance. The State of the Christian world showed this, and optimism would not lead to any great success. The Christian world presents no vessels to receive the truth, for evils prevent. All the Commandments are broken, and intelligence is used to justify the acts. New forms and brighter services are of no use unless repentance precede. The Rev. T. Child agreed with Mr. Eadie, but he added that since the New Church is to be the Crown of all the Churches its uses must be as wide as the world. No direct preaching of repentance will bring repentance about. We must formulate the Doctrines and exhaust their application to the world's work, if we will realize what we aim at.

     The report of the Council contained a request for the appointment of a committee to enquire into the whole question of New Church day-schools, especially with regard to giving greater attention to religious instruction. The committee was duly appointed by Conference with instructions to report at the next annual meeting.

     The Secretary's report contains the information that two of the societies had no celebration of the Holy Supper during the past year. The Secretary also reported a net decrease, during the year, of 23. Regarding this annual decrease of membership, the Editor of Morning Light in his Conference Notes, somewhat facetiously remarks: "An old, and somewhat old-fashioned member of Conference, when he hears a speaker, especially a minister, deprecate the counting of heads, etc., etc., habitually turns to the Statistical Table, and usually when he raises his head his colleagues notice that a grimmish smile covers his well-known face, and sometimes he whispers, 'A still tongue makes a wise head.' For in his opinion, annually decreasing numbers show that somebody is in the wrong place."

     The committee on isolated receivers made a rather gloomy report. It shows an apparent increase in the number of isolated receivers, but "a considerable decrease would have been shown had it not been for the addition of the names of the receivers at Hastings and Reading, owing to the dissolution of the societies at these places." The number reported is 996 in 408 localities. The isolated receivers have shown a decreasing interest in the work of the Committee, and "it seems probable that on its present lines this work has served its best use." The suggestion is made that isolated receivers be divided into groups about the larger Societies and be placed under local charge, and that they have representation in Conference.--The Junior members Society report an increase of membership from 576 to 875.

     The Committee on the Translation of the Word reported the completion of Gen. xxi-xxiv, which were now in the hands of the American Committee. The Rev. Jas. Hyde is preparing a Hebrew concordance of Genesis showing the renderings adopted by the Committee. When this report came before Conference, it was proposed that the Committee publish what they have translated, as a specimen of their work.

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This was opposed by Mr. Hyde on the ground that the last chapter of the Old Testament might afford reasons for alteration in the first. The Rev. E. Jones, supporting the motion to publish, said that if we live to become Methuselahs we should not live long enough to see the complete translation. He thought we might have at least a few chapters "before we go hence." The Rev. I. Tansley desired to defer publication at least until Genesis was completed; it would then be of use for more than criticism. Criticism was only valuable when made by those qualified to criticise. Mr. Robinson thought that the Committee's work was to translate, the Conference's to judge. He supported publication. Eventually a motion was passed authorizing the Committee to publish if practicable.

     The report of the Committee on Liturgical Services raised quite an animated discussion. The Committee had revised the Book of Common Prayer (Church of England) as used at Wretham Road Church, Birmingham; they had also prepared two Responsive Services. Taking up first the adoption of the Responsive Services, the Rev. J. R. Rendell explained that the endeavor of the Committee had been to enlarge the Responses, and to use common rather than Latin words. The Rev. J. F. Buss made very sweeping criticisms on the Services. There was no thanksgiving for the Second Advent, for the Spiritual Sense, or the New Church. He objected to the lessons being taken from the Old and New Testament. Both lessons should strike the same key, and this could not easily be done by taking the lessons from both Testaments. He thought that if one of the lessons were taken from the Writings, the sermon would flow more easily from the Word and the Writings. Among verbal criticisms was the objection to the use of the word "generation" in the Commandments, which is neither according to the Hebrew nor according to Swedenborg. The Rev. T. Child objected to the Services in tote. They lacked coherence, and their phraseology was crude. He criticised putting responses between the Commandments; the Commandments were given by the Lord as a whole and ought not to be divided. He had heard no statement of principle. If the New Church has no principle "let us adopt the best set service we can find, and that is the Book of Common Prayer." But the New Church has a principle; it is, that the order of worship shall follow the order of regeneration. The Rev. A. E. Beilby thought the services lacked in the poetic and symbolic. The Rev. J. J. Thornton thought they would be improved if more distinctly doctrinal. Mr. Rendell, responding, said that all New Church doctrine could not be put into a single sentence. The general doctrines, including that of the Second Advent, were sufficiently recognized in the services.--The revised Book of Common Prayer met with no warmer reception by Conference than had the Services. Mr. Gardiner opposed its adoption. He thought that if we were a living Church we should be able to produce a book that will embody our aspirations. The Rev. W. T. Stonestreet thought that since we could not write our own hymns, neither could we write our own prayers. He supported the Book of Common Prayer on the ground of catholicity. Mr. Child pointed out that hymn-writing was of the poetic faculty, and therefore belonged to all denominations.

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Mr. E. G. Dow thought it lamentable that the New Church with all its beautiful truths could not produce a prayer book of its own. If this revision was the best they could do, they had better wait until they had men who can produce a New Church Liturgy. The Rev. R. R. Rogers thought that until we have men who can write a book of prayers, we could not do better than use the book proposed. It comprises the picked material of a devotional aid. Mr. Speirs feared the Book of Common Prayer could never be revised to meet our needs, without the addition of new elements in which our distinctive doctrines, were set forth. It could be revised to contain nothing opposed to our doctrines, but it would then be incomplete.--Both the Book of Common Prayer and the Responsive Services were referred back to the committee with the understanding that all suggestions would receive consideration.

     The Magazine Committee's report was also the occasion of a lively discussion. It resulted, however, as usual, in nothing more than the status quo ante. Mr. Child moved that there be a department in the Magazine for articles with which the Editor did not agree. Both Mr. Tansley, Mr. Rendell (the Editor) and Mr. Stonestreet opposed the motion on the ground that the Editor should be left in freedom. Mr. Buss on the other hand agreed with Mr. Child. He had suffered by having editorial opinions substituted for his own. He contended that the Magazine should be open to all articles not clearly opposed to the Doctrines. Mr. Rendell explained that in a Magazine of which so many copies go to Free Libraries (440 copies are distributed in this way every month), the words "The Lord instructs us in," as an introduction to a quotation from Swedenborg, were not advisable. He promised that all articles should be considered on their merits, and added that there was no difficulty in filling the Magazine. Rev. J. Deans asked the editor not to be too hard on the way contributors express themselves. Mr. Gardiner referred to the suppression of the phrase "The Writings of the Church." Mr. Beilby said he, too, could complain of passages cut out from articles, illustrations changed, and even titles altered, so that he could not at first recognize his own article. But he took it as an editorial prerogative and did not complain. The motion was then withdrawn and the Editor and Assistant Editor re-elected.

     The consideration of the report of the Missionary Council took up considerable time. The Council had reported that the income is quite inadequate and that the prospect of receiving the L700 required each year is very small. Mr. Backhouse in presenting the report said that the missionary fund is on the verge of a precipice, and he urged the members to contribute. The work concerns the future and cannot be estimated by counting of heads. Eighty years ago the Rev. Mr. Proud had been most successful, even in the wilds of Yorkshire, and societies had sprung up; but almost all have died away for want of continuity in the work. Mr. Child complained that he had been dropped from the missionary work because of minor differences.

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Conference was creeping to an autocratic form of government; it appoints a Council and the ministers on the council appoint themselves largely to be its agents. The Rev. W. A. Presland thought the root difficulty was in the lack of continuity. Little societies die out because we do not exercise patience. If societies with a minister grow slowly, how can we expect societies with only a missionary minister to become self-supporting in a few years? Mr. Eadie said that the Church should be convinced that missionary work is a duty. But, judging from the meagre support, it was not so convinced. For himself, he had in the past been inclined to leave Christian lands to fill up the measure of their iniquity, but he had asked himself, What does the Word teach? and he had seen that it was our duty to proclaim the truth. The Lord has made his Second Coming, and therefore this is His time, whether it is ours or not. And though He has no great hope for the Christian world, we are preparing His way, though it may be for judgment. The work must be done, not merely for the addition of members, but for the salvation of souls. The Rev. P. Ramage said that not lectures, but bright services, were needed. There was an impatience of doctrine, and an inclination to hear about practical Christianity. He thought there was no need for depression. Mr. Kitch (of Cape Town, South Africa,) thought we should work in the present without fear of results. If we are spiritually moved, fear will not deter us. The New Church is to be the Crown of all the Churches, and we can help to bring that day nearer. Mr. Tansley, noting the almost universal denial of the Divinity of the Lord and the Word, said that our mission is to maintain the Word as the Lord's Word. It is committed to our peculiar charge. Our organization is not done with, and we need not heed those who say it is. We must stick to the ship. Mr. C. B. Bragg, turning to the financial aspect of the work, advocated assessing the income of our members, and asking a poundage of them. This was supported by Mr. Cunliffe, who referred to the Jewish tithes. We are too much wrapped up in the spiritual sense to pay enough attention to the Letter. By tithes we could get all we needed, for all would give if they saw a principle in it. Mr. Spiers spoke of Wales as the most promising missionary field; it should have the exclusive services of a missionary. Two new Societies had already been established there. Mr. Deans noted that his best work had been done in the small societies. There followed some discussion on the necessity of a larger force of lay preachers, and the Missionary Council and the College were asked to devise some scheme for training a large number for the small societies. Mr. Bayley advocated the formation of debating societies as being very valuable in this direction.

     Early in the session the Rev. J. J. Woodford was elected President for the ensuing year, and presided during the meeting. The Rev. J. Ashby was nominated as President for next year.--Votes of condolence were passed on the decease of several members, among them being the Rev. J. Martin and Mr. H. S. Sutton.--The son of the late Rev. E. M. Pulsford was adopted as a student for the ministry, the two present students being readopted.-

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A resolution was passed instructing the Council to present a loyal address to the king. Mr. Eadie's was the only dissentient voice. He protested, not from want of personal loyalty, but because he thought that the loyalty of Conference was due only to the King of Kings.--"The observance of the Sunday nearest the 19th of June was advocated in a motion, but it was thought best not to make a recommendation of what all did not approve, but what every society was free to observe, if it felt so disposed; it was therefore lost."

     The Rev. W. E. Hurt moved a recommendation for the formation of temperance societies. Temperance work, he said, was religious work, and the formation of these societies would fill our Sunday Schools and hence our churches. The Rev. W. H. Claxton opposed the motion on the ground that the formation of such societies would place a minister in opposition to laymen in his society. The motion was lost.

     After the Conference Tea-meeting, a public meeting was held, in accordance with a minute passed last year, "for the revival and arousing of the missionary spirit." Mr. Chas. Higham addressed the meeting on the history of the missionary work in Great Britain, beginning with the street preaching of Mr. R. Mather and Mr. J. W. Salmon, and from that first work tracing up the history of the various missionary societies. Mr. Deans gave an interesting account of the methods pursued in the missionary work. The aim of the missionaries was to preach the truth boldly and fearlessly as the Lord's truth, and their endeavor has been to work where there is a nucleus of isolated receivers. (These are, undoubtedly, two very important features of really successful missionary work.) Mr. Deans appealed for the fostering of small societies and commended the new plan of sending missionary ministers to live in these societies from one to six months. As an ideal, he thought that concentrated sustained effort was still better, but to do this, men are needed. Mr. Rogers spoke on "Missionary work the one great need of the age," setting forth the ignorance and denial of the truth so prevalent in the world, and our duty in enlightening it. Mr. Rogers says nothing about the one great need of the Church, a need which was brought to the notice of the Conference during its recent meeting, on more than one occasion, when the "indifference and apathy of born New Churchmen" was referred to. We admit the value, the great value of missionary work as an essential use of the Church, nor would we underrate it or our duty in pursuing it, yet we would that the attention of New Church people were more often called to the "one great need" of the Church. That need, and a crying need it is, is to educate its members, its "born" New Churchmen, to receive the doctrines, to study them, and to see in them the Lord in His Second Coming. When this is done, then true missionary work will be done; but: so long as this remains undone, or imperfectly done, so long will the cry of "apathy" on the part of the New Churchmen continue, and so long will the missionary work, having no strong centre in the "sons of the household," he lacking, and the cry for its support continually go forth with but indifferent results. If we cannot keep our own children in the Church, is there not something radically wrong? and can we hope to convert others, and keep them? The one great need of the New Church at this day is New Church Education.

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MEMORIAL MEETING FOR MISS PLUMMER 1901

MEMORIAL MEETING FOR MISS PLUMMER       G. G. S       1901

     Bryn Athyn, June 19th, 1901.

     THOUGH belated, by several contributory causes, an account of the Memorial Meeting, which was held June 19th, in Bryn Athyn, for Miss Evelyn Elizabeth Plummer, contains sufficient inherent interest to make its insertion in the Life desirable. Following after the celebration of the day, it found us in a particularly sympathetic mood, and besides, awakened associations connected with Dr. G. R. Starkey, Mrs. Pitcairn, and Miss Jessie Moir, whose departures in each case a little preceded "New Church Day."

     After a short but impressive service; which included the reading of Heaven and Hell, n. 414 concerning growing young in heaven, and the singing of "Jerusalem the Golden," the company gathered to hear from those best acquainted with Miss Plummer the chief incidents and features of her life and character.

     Mr. John Pitcairn said that he had known Miss Plummer twenty-three years. She was born sixty-six years ago. The youngest of a large family, she had come into the world unwelcomed and unappreciated. She had left home when twelve years old to make her own living. Under great difficulties she at the same time gratified an ambition to obtain an education, and she had developed into a woman of more than average information and intelligence. When eighteen years old she became a receiver of the Doctrines, and some years afterward went to Boston, where she joined Mr. Reed's society. After the war she taught school several years in the South, and then nine years in Boston, where she succeeded in getting control of a very unruly and difficult school. Her health gave out, however, and, in danger of a collapse, she went to France, where she met Miss Margaret Pitcairn, and afterwards Mr. Benade and the speaker and other Academicians. The ideas Mr. Benade presented were to her quite new, but seemed true, and after some difficulty she accepted them, becoming more and more profoundly impressed as they grew upon her. She was employed by Miss Holmes--afterward Mme. Humann,--to take charge of the New Church Library in Paris, where she remained several years. Then she taught in the family of the Rev. Alfred Bellais, in Rambouillet. In 1885 she returned to America, settling in Philadelphia, and she has ever since remained associated with the Academy uses here. She was distinguished by a sincere love for the Doctrines and for great conscientiousness and zeal. A passage in Ecclesiastes which was a favorite with her, runs: "Or ever the silver cord be loosed or the golden bowl be broken," and as she wrote of one who went before her to the other world, so we may say of her: "For loosed is the silver cord, and broken the golden bowl of a well-beloved soul."

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     Mr. Starkey spoke of his knowledge of Miss Plummer, beginning with her return to America, and his experience of her kindness to the sick, of her rugged earnestness and of the reformer's blood which ran in the veins of her family and showed itself in her.

     Bishop Pendleton referred to his having met Miss Plummer in Georgia in 1872. He had called on her with Mr. Geo. W. Chase, a southern New Churchman, and she had brought out the True Christian Religion and plied him with questions, which was very characteristic. The next time he heard of her it was through Mrs. Pitcairn. She had been engaged by the Academy in its work, and had given the speaker valued assistance, especially in writing or revising hymns for the projected Liturgy. She had had a presentiment of her approaching end and had dwelt on it in a conversation with him not many hours before going into the other world. She had talked especially about her evils, but her faults were largely on the surface, and he believed that she would easily be led to those parts of the other world where they are who love spiritual truth.

     After reciting Miss Plummer's last poem, which was written on the approach of death, the speaker continued: She has now reached the land whence come all truth and poetry to men. We doubt not that her growing young in heaven will be rapid,--doubt not that her use will be connected with poetry, which was so dear to her heart.

     Mr. Cowley spoke of the delight she would take in the music and choirs of heaven, for she had loved music and had constantly regretted her inability to sing.

     Mr. D. H. Klein spoke of her interest in the students at the Academy--of her many acts of kindness and sacrifice for them, and of the encouragement her sympathy had been, in their states of doubt and self-distrust.

     Mr. Acton said that her great interest in the students seemed to be an external of her love for the Church. She was so anxious that they should be faithful, that even after they had become priests,--he added humorously,--it followed them and worried them if they "went wrong" in any respect. Beneath the austerities which had arisen from the early conditions of Miss Plummer's life, we had felt the loveliness of the woman and her sincere affection for the Church, and he had often thought how beautiful she would appear, could we but see her spirit. In conclusion, the speaker referred to the supreme joy which Miss Plummer would now experience,--denied to her in this life,--in meeting her conjugial consort.

     Mr. Alfred Stroh testified to her friendship for him as a student and to the indelible impression she had made during a long stay in his father's family at Berlin. During two summers' close association with him in his work at North Bend she had among other things told him a great deal about the state of the Christian world, of which she had seen a good deal. She made a strong, sincere friend, and would be missed here, but more so on the "Mountain" (at North Bend, Pa.).

     Mr. Price noted that her entire family of brothers had lost their lives in the Civil War. She had grown up with a great abhorrence of battles and blood, yet her first great experience in life was the siege of Nashville, and it was an experience to hear her describe it.

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Speaking of, her intense love for the Church and for its members, he said that her conversation always connected in some way with the New Church.

     Mr. Bowers quoted the remark made by her when he had first met her,--at a time of considerable stress,--"I am Academy through and through." Referring to the future life, he quoted from Divine Providence, n. 73, which says: "Any one may come into this [true, spiritual] freedom if only he is willing to reflect that life is eternal, and that the temporary enjoyment and bliss of a life in time are but as a fleeting shadow, compared with the never-ending enjoyment and bliss of a life in eternity."

     Mr. Synnestvedt paid a tribute to the usefulness of Miss Plummer's Lessons in Anatomy for children, saying that they had brought pupils to our schools. He referred also to her longing for affection and her intense gratitude for manifestations of it, especially from children. On occasions like these we enter into the sphere of the celestial angels who surround the deceased, and who look for nothing but the good in the person. Hence the proverb, "Of the dead speak nothing but good." Why can we not continue in that sphere of ignoring' the faults of others, in respect also to those who are left still with us! Probably because our own selfish interests and conceits are not yet put to sleep; but it is a subject for earnest reflection; and he suggested the usefulness, when we get to worrying about our neighbors' faults, of thinking such thoughts of them as we would be cherishing if they were suddenly taken from us.

     Mrs. Wells said that Miss Plummer had spent her last evening in their house; the speaker had walked home with her and helped her make ready for bed; to meet her state of longing for the other world, she had repeated to her Susan Coolidge's beautiful poem "When," which had pleased her so much that she said she must copy it. And so she fell asleep, never to wake to this life again. Mrs. Wells repeated the poem to the company; it is to be hoped that the Life may publish it soon.

     Here the formal meeting came to a close, but in the breaking up of the audience the subjects already introduced were continued by conversation in groups, and among the anecdotes recounted of our departed friend were not a few of a rather amusing kind, which nevertheless did not in the least jar on the softened state of the company. In fact her personality was much subordinated to the themes connected with the other life which had been brought home to us all so strongly this evening.      G. G. S.
"JOURNAL OF EDUCATION" APPRECIATED 1901

"JOURNAL OF EDUCATION" APPRECIATED              1901

     FROM a minister of the General Convention,--one who for many years was strongly opposed to the Academy,--we receive the following encouraging message: "Your publication was duly received, as also the Journal of Education. The latter was a great surprise to me, but a very pleasant one.

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I had no idea that the Academy people were so far in advance of the Convention in this all-important use. I am in hearty accord with you in this matter, as well as in many others. I am beginning to see why the Lord permitted the Academy to be born. For long years I had a very sorrowful heart for the outlook of the New Church in the midst of the so-called Christian nations; it seemed to me to be a dreadful failure, and I could see no hope for its development; in fact, as far as my experience went, it seemed doomed to final extinction. The New Church in this State is not nearly as strong as it was forty years ago, and I think the same can be said of it in many other places. Then the crisis which brought about the separation of the Academy people from us seemed to me a great step backwards. Then there came a crisis and a day of judgment to them. But what seemed to me their death and burial has proved a resurrection into newness of life. And now I see hopes for the New Church." . . . "You have my sincere prayers and my hearty sympathy in your noble efforts to bring the coming generations of New Church children under the eye and sacred influence of the Church."
Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Baltimore, Md. The services and doctrinal classes have continued as usual, under the leadership of Mr. Alfred Stroh. The work on Conjugial Love is being read on the first and third Thursdays of the month; on the other Thursdays, the subject of the Divine Providence is considered. The public services are attended by about fifteen persons, and the doctrinal classes by ten. P. K.

     Berlin, Ont.--Our annual school picnic was held on August 1st. All the children and most of the adult members took the opportunity to spend the day at the Gorand River, and all pleasantly enjoyed the outing. On the evening of August 20th a social was held in honor of a number of visitors from other centres, who have spent part of the summer here.

     The School reopened on Tuesday, the 2d of September, with an enrollment of thirty-five pupils which number, it is reasonably expected, will be increased to thirty-nine in a few weeks. The assembled in the school room at to 10 a. m., and after a religious service, addresses were made. Head Master spoke to them on the subject of obedience, pointing out its importance and necessity, and enumerating its beneficial results in the school room, among which quietness, cleanliness and happiness were most desirable. The Pastor followed with remarks on the subject, pointing out that the hells consist of those who have never learned obedience; thus that obedience leads to all happiness, but disobedience to misery and discontent. The attendance of parents and friends, among the latter being several visitors, added much to the occasion. An outdoor social in the afternoon rounded out the occasion.

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     The prospective addition to the School is from the family of an isolated receiver, who wishes to live with his younger children in Berlin in order that they may receive the benefits of a New Church education.

     Our Friday evening supper and doctrinal class were resumed on September 13th. T. S. K.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa,-Your correspondent, being a new hand, made a few mistakes in last month's communication, and he now hastens to correct them. Our pastor was said to be "a-fishing" in Canada, but we learn that he didn't catch a fish. And the boys, who were assisting Mr. Asplundh, did not help him to "catalogue" the Library, but were simply packing the books, and have now themselves been sent a-packing. Some of our friends here have pointed out to your correspondent that neither wit nor romancing are required of him, but simply facts. He cannot, therefore hope for any co-operation from them, but will have to depend upon his own, untried reportorial resources.

     This being the "off-season," it cannot be said that are crowding thick and fast just now, but still we are not entirely without news. The newest of all are the two or three babies who have "settled" amongst us within month or so. Our pastor returned to his flock on August 22d, and did much to dispel the feeling of lonesomeness. The regular services have been resumed, and the many empty seats are gradually filling up, as one after another of the exiles are returning to home and duty. An informal social,--the only one during the summer,--was held on Sunday evening, September 1st, to greet several visitors, among them Mr. and Mrs. Emil Gunther, a newly-married couple, originally of Baltimore, but at present residing in Harrisburg, Pa.

     On September 3d the "folks" were treated to a very pleasant surprise by receiving, quite unexpectedly, a general invitation to wedding. The groom was Mr. A. L. Hager, and the bride Miss Hilda Synnestvedt, sister of the officiating pastor. Both bride and groom hail from Chicago, but their future home is in Boston. Mrs. Reifstahl, formerly Miss Amy Synnestvedt, was also present. "The Club House was garlanded with a profusion of the fragrant clematis paniculata. The bride" (we are quoting the words of the "Society" chronicler), "wore a simple, but exquisite, gown of white applique, [?] with a wreath and girdle of clematis and pink roses. The groom was wreathed simply in smiles." (This is not a joke, but a fact.) Dancing and refreshments followed upon the ceremony, and most of the young people accompanied the pair to Bryn Athyn station, whence they departed amid a shower of rice and hearty good wishes."

     The new School building is now very near its completion, and the beauty and convenience of its interior arrangements are each day becoming more evident. To those who knew the Academy Schools at Friedlander street the doubt occurs: Can all this be meant for us? No; not for us, but for the most glorious use in the wide world. Nothing can-be too good for it.

     The Life has already moved into its office in the new building, and the editors, also, are "wreathed in smiles" as they sit in their easy chairs by their truly magnificent double desk, surrounded with all the implements of defensive, and (to some, possibly,) offensive warfare. But we dare not reveal any further secrets of the editorial "sanctum." E. L.

     Owing to delay in the business arrangements of the Parish School, we were not prepared to open until Wednesday the 18th of September instead of the preceding Monday.

     In spite of the depressing rain there was great rejoicing among teachers and pupils at meeting again to continue their work together. One unhappy circumstance, which all united in deploring, was the absence of our much loved head master, but as we live in hopes of seeing him back during the winter, all arrangements have been made with this in view.

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Miss Grant has left her Primary School in charge of Miss Lucy Potts, in order that she may take upon herself the more arduous task of teaching Mr. Cowley's department, and Miss Zella Pendleton has kindly offered to help her in the work, Miss Jane Potts, as usual, will give drawing lessons, and Mr. Synnestvedt, religious instruction and Hebrew.

     School was opened by our pastor at 10 o'clock. After the reading and singing, he made a very interesting and appropriate address, telling the children, in simple words, the use of education in developing the innocent and ignorant infant into an intelligent and rational man or woman.

     He likened their minds, on returning to school, to an unwritten page which must be filled by everyone with care, and particularly he impressed the necessity of a good beginning, for then it would be easier to continue in an orderly way throughout the school year.

     The service was concluded by singing the national hymn, "Oh, Lord, Our God, to Thee."

     The calling of the roll necessitated the scoring out of the names of our First Class of last year, who have gone onward to the more advanced field of the College and Seminary.

     When Mr. Synnestvedt announced the progression of the Second to the First Class, and so on, from the Infant Class upward, a general smile of expectancy and pleasure crept over the faces of the little ones.

     All such thing contribute to the delight which is felt in resuming their work; to our New Church children, there is no place like school after the summer vacation. L. E. P.

     Glenview, Ill.--The marriage of Mr. Alvin E. Nelson and Miss Helen Farrington was solemnized, in our place of worship on August 1st. About one hundred guests were present. The hall was prettily decorated with palms, ferns, and flowers, the ceiling being festooned with garlands of asparagus vine. Two white doves were suspended from the center between the curtains. The ceremony began promptly at 7 p. m. and was followed by a social reception, Dr. Harvey Farrington acting as toastmaster, and Messrs. Pendleton, Burnham, Junge, and Seymour Nelson replying to the toasts. The newly-married couple soon afterwards left for their home in Chicago.

     Middleport, O.--In July a unanimous call was extended by this society to the Rev. David H. Klein, of Glenview. The call was accepted, and on August 10th the new minister and his wife were welcomed by a reception, held at the old homestead of Mrs. Esther Grant. The toast of welcome was proposed by Dr. Bradbury Hanlin, who, on behalf of the society, expressed cordial greetings and wishes for their continued happiness of Mr. and Mrs. Klein in their new home.

     On Sunday, August 11th, Mr. Klein preached here for the first time. The congregation numbered sixty, including the children. After an interval of nearly three months, without public worship, the resumption of services was much appreciated.

     The Hobart re-union, at the house of Mr. James Boggess, on August 13th, was an interesting event. The call for a meeting of all who had Hobart blood in their veins rallied thirty persons, the majority of whom were members of the Middleport Society. The minister and his wife were present by invitation. A number of interesting letters, dating as far back as 1849, had been brought to light recently, and were read aloud. Though not dealing wholly with matters relating to the New Church, there was in the letters enough of suggestion to bring back a vivid picture and a sweet remembrance of the early days of the Church in this region.

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It was pleasant to hear the references to those early leaders who long ago have gone to the eternal life, but whose work is bearing fruit at this day. Among those present at the reunion there were children who belong to the fifth generation of New Church descent.

     The doctrinal class has taken up the study of The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine; the classes are held in private houses, and have been well attended.

     Mr. Klein has visited several points in the county in order to become better acquainted with New Church people in the vicinity. He has called upon members at Kyger, Leading Creek, Rutland and Athens.

     On Friday afternoon, September 6th, Miss Francie McQuigg gave a ladies' social, for which a unique program had been arranged. Near the close of the afternoon the news came of the assassination of President McKinley, the first word being that the shots had been fatal. The meeting hastily adjourned amid great excitement. All the people here have been greatly affected by the tragic event, and Mr. Klein's fervent prayer on Sunday morning found a response in all hearts.

     Miss Clara Hanlin leaves soon for Glenview, where she is to take charge of the local school.

     Miss Charlotte Smith, of Bryn Athyn, is to leave for home in a day or two, via Buffalo, after a long summer visit in Middleport. T. K.

     Mr. Klein's sermon of September 15th, on the death of President McKinley, was published in the Republican Herald, of Middleport, September 20th.

     Ontario, Can.--On August 29th I visited Mr. Robert G. Brown and family, near Streetsville. They are isolated, as they live just a little too far from Toronto to attend the services at Parkdale. The distance is about twenty-three miles. But Mr. and Mrs. Brown, with their little son, hope to attend the next 'meeting of the Ontario Assembly of the General Church. They read the Writings and the Life, and are interested in the things of the New Church.

     In the evening, August 30th, I arrived at the home of Mr. Conrad Schweizer, in Dufferin county. He had bargained for the sale of his farm, with the intention of going to Berlin or Waterloo, and hopes to send four or five of his twelve children to the school of the Carmel Church.

     Sunday morning, September 1st, we went to the home of James McLuhan, ten miles away. The Holy Supper was administered to fourteen persons, some of them not members of the New Church.

     I spent two days with the Hendersons, near Burford, Brant county. It is a quiet, restful place in the country, where many visits have been made by the writer during the past twenty-two years. The quaint old farm house is nearly hidden out of sight from the road by a forest of fruit trees of all kinds. The "old people" are departed, and their children who remain are growing old. Mr. Joseph Henderson is the only one we know of in that part of the country who takes a decided interest in the Church.

     I arrived at Mull, Kent county, on September 6th. This place is about sixty miles from Detroit, Mich. Mr. Thomas Woofenden is the leading Newchurchman in this vicinity. Raised by parents who were sceptics, he became a believer in the New Church; and he and his wife and seven children were baptized by me some eighteen years ago. A dozen or more grandchildren have been baptized since, two of them during the present visit. Mr. Woofenden has for some years been a reader of the Life. J. E. BOWERS.

     Philadelphia, Pa.--The regular Sunday services were resumed on September 1st. Mr. Cronlund preached from the text: "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord,"--(Isaiah Iv: 8). A slight change has been made in the order of worship, so as to include the opening service on page 3 of the Liturgy.

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     The Sunday School has opened with seven pupils. The difference in the age of the children made it necessary to divide them into two classes, to accomplish which Mr. Cronlund secured the assistance of Miss Sophie Roehner as a teacher. C. H. E.

FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES, The Rev. E. J. E. Schreck on June 23d visited his new field of labor, the Kenwood Parish, Chicago, Ill. During the summer months, he has been conducting a "Summer School" at Almont, Michigan, and will not enter upon his work at Kenwood before October 1st.

     Springfield,--After an interval of nearly half a century, there is again a New Church Society at the capital of Illinois. It was organized on June 3d by Rev. L. P. Mercer, the general pastor of the Illinois Association. Twenty-one members have signed the constitution of the Society.

     La Porte, Ind.--The New Church Assembly and Summer School, which has been held annually in this neighborhood for a number of years, opened on July 14th. The Rev. L. P. Mercer has delivered lectures twice a day on such subjects as Swedenborg's Science, Creation and Evolution,

     Correspondences, the Assumption and Glorification of the Lord's Human, etc., all illustrated by the blackboard. The attendance of New Church people has been rather disappointing, this year, but several strangers have been present at the lectures. We learn from the New Church Independent that these assemblies have been finally discontinued.

     Baltimore, Md.--The "Northwest Mission" in this city has continued its work throughout the summer under the charge of the Rev. G. L. Allbutt, who regularly conducts Sunday services at Horn's Hall, on North avenue.

     GREAT BRITAIN.--The Society at Brightlingsea held its anniversary services on July 21st. In the afternoon, the church was filled to hear the cantata, "The building of the Temple." This cantata was written and composed by two New Churchmen, Mr. J. S. Bogg and Dr. Root.

     The Rev. J. J. Woodford, the President of Conference, visited the Society in Newcastle-on-Tyne on Wednesday, August 21st. After a short service in the evening, Mr. Woodford addressed the members, pointing out the value of missionary work, and urging the support of the Missionary Ministers' Fund.

     At the annual services of the Preston Society, four young people were received into membership by a public confession of the faith of the New Church. This is the first occasion in the history of the Society of a public confession of faith by adults. The Rev. W. T. Lardge, the pastor, expressed the hope that the practice inaugurated would be kept up. It was the most orderly way of being introduced into the Church.

     GERMANY--Berlin. The Rev F. Goerwitz, the first general pastor of the New Church among the German-speaking nations, paid a visit to the new society in Berlin during the first days of June. The Holy Supper was administered to twenty-eight persons, and a series of lectures, sermons, and meetings followed. It is pleasant to read the communication from this society in the Monatblatter, so earnest, devoted, and grateful for the ministrations of the Church. It really seems, and we hope it will prove true, that the New Church has actually taken root in the great capital of Germany. When we consider the remarkable fact, that fully one-fifth of the members of the New Church in America are of German birth or descent it seems surprising that the "Vaterland" hitherto has been so unreceptive.

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But "remains" exist in every nation of Christendom, and these will be called forth as soon as the time is ripe. In Germany there have been great and many obstacles to the growth of the New Church: the restricted freedom, the emigration of New Church people to America and elsewhere, the devastating influence of spiritism, and the speculative, unpractical form of mind with many of the past leaders. But in Mr. Goerwitz the little flocks in Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, and Germany have a faithful, untiring, and practical general Hunter, who has led into was of order and use. His field is enormous, however; his age is advancing, and his health is not as robust as in former years. It would be wise for the Church in America and England to consider the means of providing him with an able assistant.

     HUNGARY,--On his recent visit to Buda-Pesth, Mr. Goerwitz administered the Holy Supper to twenty-four communicants; he also baptized a young lady, Miss Elsa Holt, who, the following day, was united marriage to Mr. Emanuel Peisker. This, we understand, was the first New Church wedding in Hungary.

     SWITZERLAND.--The Rev. Emanuel Goerwitz, of Boston, paid a short visit to his home this summer. The societies in Zurich, Bern, and Herisau greatly enjoyed his presence and services. He returned to America on August 11th.

     BRAZIL--The Messenger of August 14th contains highly interesting communication from Senor Levindo Castro de la Fayette, of Rio Janeiro. We learn that this gentleman, formerly chancellor of the Brazilian Consulate General in France, received the Doctrines of the New Church in Paris, 1892. Having been baptized by M. Humann, he returned to Brazil, in 1893, and settled at first in the village of Lamim, in the State of Minas Geraes, where a few converts were gained for the Heavenly Doctrines. At the close of the Civil War in Brazil, Senor de La Fayette settled in Rio de Janeiro, where, in April, 1894, he commenced an active propaganda for the New Church. A circle of receivers began to gather about him; French translations of the Writings were imported from Paris, a New Church library was collected, and a lecture hall was secured. The first general assembly of the New Church in Brazil was held at Rio de Janeiro on June 5th, 1898, nearly forty members being present. Senor de La Fayette was now chosen as the regular leader, and a Missionary Society was instituted, under the title "Associaciao de Propaganda da Nova Jerusalem." In October, 1898, this association began to publish a monthly journal called A Nova Jerusalem, which was distributed gratis. The Sunday services have been kept up regularly since June, 1898, but "the worship of the Sabbath is reserved solely for those who have already accepted from the heart and from the understanding the doctrine of the New Church." On Thursday of each week there is public religious instruction in the court of the Temple, 10 Rua Maria Jose, when "we are discussing at the same time with all those who do not accept our doctrine." Senor de La Fayette, at the request of his brethren, has administered the Sacrament of Baptism, but desires to be regularly ordained into the Ministry of the New Church.

     In a letter to the Life, Senor de La Fayette informs us that he has lately spent nine months in France, but has now returned to Brazil. "The New Jerusalem, introduced by me in this country since 1893, grows every day in number and prosperity; we are about a hundred, eighty of whom are in Rio de Janeiro, and twenty in other towns, of Brazil. Almost all are very poor, so that I cannot be helped efficaciously by them in the preaching of the New Gospel. I have fourteen works of the New Church translated into Portuguese since some years, but I have no means to publish them.

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Our paper, A Nova Jerusalem, so necessary to the diffusing of the new doctrine, is not published since 1899, from the want of funds, but I hope it will appear again, and shall be sent to you....The New Church in Brazil has lived without any foreign help, but I think it is now the moment for our brethren in America to help it, in its endeavor to increase our influence in this so important a country.

     MEXICO.--The Messenger announces the death of Rev. James E. Mills, at San Fernando, on July 25th. Mr. Mills was formerly pastor of the Brooklyn Society, but withdrew from active work in the Ministry many years ago. He was well-known in the Church as a writer in the Messenger, The New Christianity, and other papers, his contributions being generally of a radical, anti-ecclesiastical character.

     AFRICA,--The Society at Port Louis, Mauritius, applied to the English Conference for a minister who could speak French. They desired to enter into an arrangement with such a minister, for two years, at a remuneration of L225 a year. The application was presented to Conference, but no suitable man could be found. A similar application was made by the Society forty years ago, and with the same result. History repeats itself. We extend our sympathies to our brethren in Mauritius. After all heartening again to meet with failure. But let us hope that the "turn in the lane" will soon appear.
DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES 1901

DISTRICT ASSEMBLIES              1901


ANNOUNCEMENTS.


Notices.
     A District Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Glenview, Ill., on Friday to Sunday, October 18th to 20th. The only evening meeting will be held on October 18th. Members and friends of the General Church in Illinois and neighboring States are cordially invited to attend.

     A district Assembly of the General Church will be held at Pittsburg, Pa., on Sunday to Tuesday, October 27th to 29th. Members and friends of the General Church in Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, are cordially invited to attend. C. TH. ODHNER, Sec. Gen. Church.

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MEMORABLE RELATIONS ADAPTED 1901

MEMORABLE RELATIONS ADAPTED       A. A       1901


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
Vol. XXI.          NOVEMBER, 1901.          No. 11
     V. THE IRON-CLAY AGE.

     Up till now, Swedenborg had visited only those who lived in happiness and contentment, though, as we have seen, those whom he had last visited--the men of the Iron Age--were by no means in the same happiness as were the men of the Golden, Silver and Copper Ages. Still, even these were happy in their own way; they did not injure each other, but lived in friendship with their fellows; and occasionally they were visited by an angel from the East who instructed and comforted them.

     But now, he was to visit men who would have nothing to do with the angels; men who lived as far away from heaven as they could, and who would attempt to do harm to any angel who should come amongst them. The cities he had seen before presented pleasant sights; he was now to visit places filled with horrors, and where danger was encountered on every side.

     His former companion and guide whom the Lord had sent to him again came to his house and asked whether he wished to visit the Age which followed the Golden, Silver, Copper and Iron Ages. "Do you wish to see what it has been and is even now, for this Age still endures. If so," he concluded, "follow me, and you will see."

     In further conversation, the angel explained that the Age of Iron mixed with Clay is that Kingdom of which Daniel spoke when he explained to Nebuchadnezzar the dream of the statue whose head was of gold, its breast of silver, its thighs of copper, its legs of iron, and its feet of iron mixed with clay. After Daniel had shown what was meant by the gold, silver, copper and iron parts of the statue, he continued, "And there shall arise a kingdom after those four in which iron shall be mixed with miry clay; they shall mix themselves like the seed of man but shall not cleave together, as iron does not mix with clay." It was the men of this kingdom or Age whom the angel now proposed to visit.

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     Having made himself really for the journey, Swedenborg started out with his guide, and thus they commenced their fifth visit. They set their faces towards the Southwest. On the way, the angel explained to his companion the situation of the country for which they were bound. "It lies," he said, "in the country between the South and the West, but at a very great distance further West than the country of the men of the Copper and Iron Ages, and also at a greater depth, for the land sinks downward as one proceeds westward."

     While they were talking on this subject, the travellers had been steadily pursuing their way towards the country which lies between the South and the West; but when they finally reached this land, the road on which they were going turned to the right, and following its turning they found themselves with their faces toward the West.

      They had not journeyed long in this new direction, before they came to an immense forest through which their road led them. Unlike the woods seen in their former journeys, this forest offered neither cool shade for the travelers' rest nor beautiful trees to gladden his eyes. It was dark and loathsome, and the very sight of it was enough to fill the mind with fear and dread. Many the trees were devoid of leaves, as if these had been eaten by sects; others were withered, as if blasted by storms. Some of leafless trees were covered with fruit, but It was unsightly to the eye and bitter to the taste. There were also trees that were pleasant to the sight, with their bright berries or inviting looking fruit but the berries were poisonous, and the fruit was like the Dead fruit, dust and ashes within. Here the ground was covered with briars and brambles, and there, with rank weeds growing on the banks of stagnant pools which infected the air with their pestilential and poisonous vapors. From these pools huge crocodiles crawled forth, and resting on the slimy banks, with upraised heads gazed at the passing travelers, opening at them their wide jaws beset with immense rows of sharp teeth.

     As our travelers entered along the narrow path more deeply into the forest, they saw still more frightful sights. Between the pools, and roaming about as if in search of prey, were terrible dogs such as are never seen on earth.

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Some had two heads and others three,--like Cerberus of the Greek fables, who guarded the gates of hell; and each head was turned to the travelers with gaping jaws and fierce eyes from which horrible hunger looked forth.

     As they approached the western end of the forest, beasts yet more frightful met their view,--beasts as fierce and cruel as they were strange. Here were great red dragons having seven crowned heads, each fiercer than the other, and on these, ten sharp cruel looking horns; their tails, which were covered with sharp spikes, were long and powerful; and these they lashed about in fury, as though, in their rage, they would draw down the very heavens. Here also were leopards such as embodied the most powerful parts of leopards, bears and lions. Their bodies were the bodies of leopards; their feet the terrible and strong paws of bears; and each leopard had ten crowned horns and seven fierce heads whose mouths were as the mouths of lions.

     And yet, despite the horrible dangers of the way, Swedenborg and his companion passed through all safely. Some unseen restraint seemed to have been placed on the dread beasts which they passed, for, although these were at times close to them, they contented themselves with savage looks and subdued growls, but offered no violence; indeed, at the approach of the travellers, those nearest the path slunk a little backwards into the gloom of the forest.

     All this time Swedenborg and his companion were engaged in conversation on the people whom they were about to visit, and on the scenes through which they were passing.

     "These wild and savage beasts," said the angel, pointing to the beasts around them, "represent the fierce and cruel lusts of the men whom we shall visit. The dogs represent their horrible and filthy delights ever seeking the destruction of the innocent. The crocodiles whom we saw with their heads appearing above the surface of the pools represent their secret cunning as they strive by plots to rob and kill. And their hatred of the Lord and their desire to destroy heaven are represented by the leopards and the dragons. The men themselves, however, do not live in this forest; here are only the animals whose natures agree with their own. Nor do the men dwell just beyond the forest; we must first pass through a great desert before we come to their abodes.

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Thus they are wholly and entirely separated from the inhabitants of the former Ages, for they are different from them in every way. They indeed appear to be like them, with heads, bodies, loins and feet, but," he continued, referring to the image seen by Nebuchadnezzar, "there is nothing of gold in their heads, nor of silver in their: breasts, nor of copper in their loins, nor even of pure iron in their feet. Nay, they are nothing but graven images of men,--images made of iron mixed with clay and holding but loosely together. In their chests the iron and clay are mixed with copper, in their loins with silver, and in their feet with gold. To us, they are like upside-down men, and when we look at them from the light of heaven they seem like-clowns who walk upon their hands with feet up in the air; or like animals lying on their backs, kicking up their feet, and looking to heaven with heads buried in the earth."

     By the time the angel had finished this long description of the man of the Iron-Clay Age, the two travelers had drawn near to the end of the forest, and soon, emerging from its gloom, they came upon the desert of which the angel had spoken. This was, if anything, more dreadful and fearful than the forest. Nothing but stones, stones stretched before them as far as the eye could see. Not a tree was in sight anywhere,--not a sign of vegetation to relieve the weariness of the scene. Nothing but stones. These stones were collected into great heaps, some as large as small hills; and from the ditches between these heaps crawled forth poisonous vipers, and serpents with many heads. And as the travelers journeyed on, great flying serpents with bodies like dragons, furnished with immense tails, flew up from the ditches as if to arrest progress. But they passed safely through all these fearsome dangers.

     The desert sloped abruptly downwards to the West, and ended in the valley where dwelt the men whom they sought. Having passed through the desert, they saw before them in this valley what appeared to be a great number of black dots scattered about without any order or arrangement. But as they approached nearer, they noticed that these black dots were so many small huts, and that these huts formed a kind of city with irregular and streets,--the whole shrouded in gloom.

     Encouraged by the sight of their goal thus lying before them, the two friends hastened their steps, and passing down the side of the valley they entered into the city.

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But when they had come in they found themselves in black darkness. No sky appeared above their heads, so that the light of heaven was shut out and they could see nothing. In prayer, they both looked up towards heaven, and immediately it was opened to them, and they became surrounded with light. But the light did not spread through the city, which was still wrapped in gloom, so that the travellers appeared like columns of light walking in the darkness.

     Surprised at this strange thing, Swedenborg asked some of the men whom they met whether they were able to see, since the sky did not appear above them. They stopped and stood staring at him in a perplexed manner, evidently regarding him as a fool asking senseless questions.

     "What are you asking us?" they said. "Why, we see clearly; we are surrounded with light."

     "Darkness is light to them," said the angel, turning to his companion, "and light darkness. To them we appear to be in the darkness and themselves, only, in the light. They are like owls and other birds of night who see in the night-time but are blinded in the light of day.

     The street in which they stood during this brief conversation, which was that by which they had entered, was very narrow, being rather a lane than a street; but they observed that it became wider as it went on.

     Journeying along this street, they made a closer examination of the dismal huts of which the city was composed. They were low structures rudely built of branches of trees blackened by burning; and were covered with mud which served the double purpose of keeping out the cold and of sticking the branches together. The roofs were of black slate, giving a color to the huts which well suited the gloom of the city. It was no wonder that, at a distance, they had seemed like black spots on the ground.

     The two newcomers, proceeding farther to the centre of the city, looked into many of these little huts, the doors of which stood open; and into some of them they entered. In each they saw a man and his woman. These, though one might think they were husband and wife, had none of that shining beauty in their faces which had distinguished the men of former Ages, nor did their looks express much if any love for each other.

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     Swedenborg and his guide stayed a little time in several of the huts and, in furtherance of the object of their journey which was to learn about the conjugial love of that Age, entered into conversation with the owners.

     "Do you, in this city, all live in your own homes with one wife only?" was the question repeatedly asked by Swedenborg, and the replies, which were hissed rather than spoken, all showed that the men of that city knew not what a wife was.

     In the last hut visited, in answer to this question, the host hissed out, "What mean you by 'with one wife only" Why don't you say 'with one harlot only?' What is a wife but a harlot?"

     And then, explaining why they lived with only one woman, he said: "By the laws imposed upon our city we are not allowed to commit fornication with more than one woman. Still," he added and the fire of evil lusts shone forth from his eyes, "we don't think it dishonorable or unbecoming to do this. In fact," he said boastfully, "among ourselves we take pride in it, and, indeed, we have
more pleasure in it than polygamists."

     But his following words betrayed how unjust he deemed laws of the city, and how unpleasant and irksome he felt their restraint. "Why," he asked, "can we not have many wives? In all the societies around us, the men are allowed to have more than one, and why should this be denied to us? What is life with only one woman but captivity and imprisonment? But in this city, we often break the bars of our prison and, rescuing ourselves from slavery, make ourselves free. And who can blame us," he concluded defiantly, "for asserting our freedom whenever we are able?"

     "Friend," replied Swedenborg warmly, "you speak as if you had no religion. What man that has any reason does not know that adulteries are profane and hellish and that marriages are holy and heavenly? Are not the devils of hell in adulteries and the angels of heaven in marriages? Have you never lead the commandment 'Thou shalt not commit adultery?' or the saying of Paul that adulterers cannot enter heaven?

     Much amused at the earnest manner of his guest in defending what seemed to him so light a thing as marriage, the host laughed loudly and contemptuously, regarding his guest as a fool, if not, indeed, as a madman.

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     He was, perhaps, about to tell him as much, when suddenly there came running into the hut a man, who, addressing the strangers, announced himself as a messenger from the chief of the city. "I am sent," he continued in a harsh voice, "to bring you two into the forum of our city that you may be examined; for we have seen you enter in a shade with which you covered yourselves, and we know that you have come in secretly, and as spies and enemies, to disturb our peace."

     "Yes!" said the angel in answer to an inquiring look from his companion, who remembered that far from being in a shade when they entered the city they had been surrounded with light, "they saw us in the shade because the light of heaven in which we were was to them the shade, and the gloom of hell is to them light. This is because they do not see any evil as sin, not even adultery, so that their eyes are utterly darkened."

     During the latter part of this speech, the two visitors had been moving to the door of the hut, followed by the host and the messenger, and when the angel had finished they stood outside in the street. Here they found a number of the men of the neighborhood gathered together who gazed on them with curious and unfriendly eyes. But their progress was much too slow o suit the messenger who had so imperiously demanded their attendance at the court, and who was now especially angry because of the character which the angel had given to the men of his city.

     "Come!" he said, roughly, "you must go at once to the forum; and," he added, threateningly, "if you will not go willingly, I have, the force to drag you there."

     Straightening themselves up, the two newcomers turned their faces to the speaker, and the angel said calmly: "We will not be pressed, still legs will we be dragged into your forum, but we will go with you freely.

     The quietness of their manner and the dignity and firmness of this speech seemed to impress the crowd with a sense of the strangers' power, for when the angel had finished, some of the men who had been pressing nearer to them in threatening attitudes moved sullenly back and made way.

     They then proceeded down the street accompanied by the messenger and followed by such of the crowd as desired to see what would be the outcome of the examination of the men whom they called spies.

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     And as they went they noticed that the street became wider and wider, giving more room for the growing mob that followed them. There were many turnings, so that they could not often see far ahead. When they had passed the last turn they saw that the street had become so wide that it formed a large open space or market place in which it ended. For, look around as they would, they could see no inlet or outlet to this open space except by the street along which they had come. They learned afterwards that this was a peculiarity of the city; each principal street being narrow at first and wider as it went on until it became an open place for public resort. Thus each street at its end was blind, and there were, therefore, as many public squares as there were streets.

     The square, or, as the messenger had called it, the forum into which they had entered, was the principal square of the city. At its western end, and facing them on their entrance, stood the public hall where sat the principal men of the city. This hall was, of course, larger than the houses of the city, but it was not built in much more substantial manner. Behind the hall was a court where the chief men were wont to walk.

     No order was observed in the reception of the two suspected spies. When they entered the forum they found their further progress to the public hall obstructed by an immense crowd of citizens, who having heard of the arrest of the strangers had collected to witness their discomfiture, and, perchance, to delight themselves with the sight of torture. All thought of allowing the men to appear before the chief who had summoned them seemed, however, to have entirely deserted this evil-looking mob who refused to make way for them.

     Thereupon, some lawyers, seeing that the mob was in anything but a pleasant mood, came up to the angel and his companion as if to protect them, and whispered in their ears, "Be careful not to say anything against religion, government or good morals." "Indeed," they answered, "we will not speak against religion nor against government or morals, but rather in favor of them."

     The lawyers, seeming somewhat dubious as to what this and confident acceptance of their counsel might mean, slunk back into the crowd.

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But the two fearless strangers, without giving any further thought to the lawyers, turned boldly to the crowd, and in a clear voice asked:

     "What is your religion concerning marriages?"

     At the mention of the word marriages, loud murmurs and hissings were heard, and some of the crowd shouted out, "What have you to do with marriages in this city? Marriages are marriages."

     Undaunted by this the strangers put another question:

     "What is your religion concerning whoredoms?" they asked.

     Again the crowd murmured, and this time more threateningly, and those who had answered the first question said: "What have you to do with whoredoms? Whoredoms are whoredoms; let him that is guiltless cast the first stone."

     "Does your religion," was the third enquiry, "teach that marriages are holy and heavenly, and that whoredoms are profane and hellish?"

     At this the mob broke into open laughter, mockery and contempt, shouting out its objections to the words of the strangers. "Ask our priests about these matters!" they shouted, "religion is their business, not ours. We will accept all that they tell us."

     "Haven't you ever heard," added a man in the front, "that the understanding becomes insane when it examines into mysteries? and religion, you know, consists of nothing else but mysteries. In any case, what have deeds to do with religion? Is it not the saying of pious things about expiation, satisfaction and imputation that will make souls blessed? What have good works to do with this?"

     The crowd was now become thoroughly angry and pressed around the two strangers as if to do them bodily injury, so that it was well-nigh impossible for them to give an answer to the questions that had been hurled at them, even had they desired to do so. Seeing this, some of the men of the city who appeared to have authority, and who were called by the citizens wise men, came up to the friends and said to them:

     "Come! let us get away from here: the crowd grows angry, and there will be an uproar if you stay any longer. Behind the public hall is a walk where we can talk quietly over this subject without interruption. Come! let us lead you there."

     As it was the object of their journey to the city to talk with its wisest men, the two travelers willingly followed their guides, who persuaded the crowd to let them pass.

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     When they came to the walk, the so-called wise men asked the newcomers, Whence they had come and what was their business in the city.

     They replied, "We have come here to learn about marriages, whether they are holy with you, as they were with the men of the golden, silver and copper Ages."

     "How, holy?" responded their questioners, surprised at what they had heard. "Are not marriages merely of the body and of the night? How, then, can you talk of holiness about them?"

     "Are they not also of the spirit?" retorted Swedenborg, "and what the body does from the spirit, is it not spiritual? All that the spirit does, it does from the marriage of good and truth within it, and this spiritual marriage enters into natural marriage which is the marriage of one husband and one wife."

     "You exalt marriage too high," replied the so-called wise men, in a proud and superior tone. "You mount up to spiritual things, and who in the world has ever been able to begin that way and then to come down to ordinary affairs and give a proper judgment about anything at all." And then, with a scornful laugh and a mocking pretense of humility, they added, "Perhaps, sir, you have the wings of an eagle and can soar up to the highest regions of heaven and see these things plainly. We cannot."

     Swedenborg at once took up their comparison, and quickly rejoined:

     "From the heights where the ideas of your minds fly, can you know, or could you ever know, that there is such a thing as the conjugial love of one man with one wife, into which all the blessings, happinesses and pleasures of heaven are gathered? Or you from those same heights know that this love is given by the Lord just so far as man receives good and truth from Him, and thus becomes a true man of the Church?"

     On hearing these words, the wise men, so-called, turned their faces away and murmured to one another, "These men are into the air with their judgment and throw their empty guesses about like nuts." And then, turning again to strangers and addressing them, they said aloud:

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     "We will give you a direct answer to your vain theories and dreams. You say that conjugial love is given by God so far as man receives good and truth. But what, pray, has that love to do with either religion or God? There is no connection between them. Is not conjugial love according to health of the body? Do not the heathen have it just as much as Christians, and the wicked as much as the good? Is it not stronger in warm climates than in cold, and can it not be strengthened by medicines? Do not beasts, and especially birds who go in pairs, have it as well as men? We tell you, it belongs to the flesh, and has nothing to do with the Church. What is the difference between a wife and any other woman? You are fools to talk of conjugial love coming from the holy things of the Church."

     Swedenborg was extremely indignant on hearing these hellish opinions, and he replied with much warmth, "You talk from the insane ravings of lust, and not from the least spark of Conjugial love. You do not even know what that love is, for you have nothing of it. Now, we know from your own words that you belong to the Age of iron and clay. You make conjugial love and whoredom one and the same thing, and yet they can be no more joined together than can iron and clay." And then with a sweep of his hand, so as to include them all, he concluded, "The men of this city believe you to be wise, and they so call you, but you are anything but wise."

     On hearing this fearless speech the men were filled with rage passing all hounds. Forgetting all about their professed desire to protect the strangers from the fury of the crowd, they rushed out into the forum and called upon that same evil crowd to come and cast them out bf the city. The people, all too willing, obeyed the summons and, with threats of violence on their lips, came rushing to the spot where stood the two unarmed strangers. Unarmed indeed they were, but not defenseless; for before the furious people had time to lay hands on them, they, infilled with power from the Lord, stretched forth their hands over the city, when suddenly a great change took place. In the air, above the forum and over all the streets and squares of the city, appeared the monster flying dragons from the desert threatening the inhabitants with injury and death; while moving swiftly along the ground came swarm upon swarm of vipers and of many headed poisonous serpents.

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Soon the air was filled with the most dreadful cries of terror as the frightened inhabitants fled from the destruction that threatened them. Away from the forum they ran; away from the streets; away from the city now given up to beasts of prey; away, away they fled, far, far to the west. Long after all danger was left behind, the people continued their mad flight, until at last, blinded by terror, they rushed headlong into the great gulfs of the West, where they were swallowed up.

     The two friends were left alone,--alone and uninjured; for that power which had protected them through all the dangers of the forest and the desert was with them still, and neither serpent nor dragon dared approach.

     Saddened by the recollection of the tragic scene they had just witnessed, they took their silent way through the now deserted city.

     "Thus," said the angel, "is this country emptied of its wicked inhabitants. Every day newcomers from the earth enter into it, and its former inhabitants are by turns cast out into the Gulfs of the West. These gulfs are the entrances to hell and, seen from a distance, they appear like lakes of fire and brimstone. All the men who come here and are afterwards cast into these gulfs are both spiritual and natural adulterers." A. A.

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GOLDEN CALF 1901

GOLDEN CALF       Rev. J. E. ROSENQVIST       1901

     They have made to themselves a calf of what is molten, and have adored it, and have sacrificed to it, and have said: These are thy Gods, O Israel, who made thee to come up out of the land of Egypt.--Exodus xxxii, 8.

     In the chapter from which our text is taken the spiritual teaching given is, that a church could not be established with the Israelitish people, since they were altogether in externals without anything internal; and that, to Prevent their profaning the holy things of heaven and the Church, interior things with them were absolutely closed. This their quality is signified by the golden calf, which they worshiped instead of Jehovah. The golden calf was thus the external sign of their utter externalism, a sign of their internal emptiness as to all that belongs to heaven and the Church.

     But let us remember that the spiritual teachings contained in the words of our text have a direct bearing on the spiritual life of every man of the Church at the present day. Let us bear in mind that the events described in the historical parts of the Word were not written for the sake of preserving for all future times the history of the Israelitish nation, for of what spiritual value would that be No! they were put on record by Divine command and under Divine direction in order that the man of the Church, who, during his life in this world, passes through the states of reformation and regeneration, may learn from the spiritual sense of the acts and doings of that representative people, the true and internal nature of the process of reformation and regeneration; that he may be warned of the numerous pitfalls before him; that he may be instructed concerning the Ways and means of traveling to that promised land which is found in heaven, and which is thus the end that we all should have in view throughout our pilgrimage on earth. With this view, with the intention to derive from the spiritual sense of this account some spiritual life, let us consider this subject of the Golden Calf. Let us start with the idea in our minds, that we are all born for heaven, even as the land of Canaan was originally destined for the Israelitish nation, or this nation for it.

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Did not the Lord promise it to Abraham even before he had a son? Did He not repeat His promise, long before the Israelites became what might be called a nation? Did not the Lord intend you and me and every created being for heaven, even before our birth, nay before our conception? We can thus see this point, that, as the Lord did intentionally with the Jewish people, so He does intentionally with every man. He intends to bring us safely to heaven, as He intended to bring the Israelites into the land of Canaan. But a long journey lies before us, as there lay a long journey before the Israelites.

     The poor Israelites born and reared in Egypt did not know anything of the promise of the promised land. In their miserable slavery in Egypt, they had forgotten, long, long ago forgotten the promise given to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; nay, they had forgotten not only the promise of the possession of a land flowing with milk and honey, but also the One who had given that promise--they knew not Jehovah. What a picture of that man who, born for heaven as he is, yet, while in the external, merely natural state signified by Egypt, enslaved under the cruel yoke of sensualism and naturalism, forgets his heavenly destiny, forgets the promises of eternal life in heaven with the Lord, and finally forgets the Lord Himself, and with all this, sinks down deeper and deeper into spiritual slavery and destruction! But the Lord, does He forget His promise? Nay! man may forget his promises, and he may pretend to forget them, especially when he knows that those to whom the promise was given have forgotten about it. Not so the Lord. Did He forget His people even though they forgot Him? No, for He says: "I will remember my covenant with thee." And so, in the Lord's own time, a Moses raised up, and Aaron is appointed to assist him, and they two with Divine authority hid the enslaver to loosen his deadly hold on the suffering nation, they compel the tyrant to let them go. Then the people, having been aroused to a realization of their miserable existence by the words of Moses and Aaron; having been reminded through them of the promise given so long ago, and so long for gotten; having learnt from them of Jehovah, the God of fathers; having doubted the genuineness of the Lord's message, at last follow the leadership of Moses and leave the accursed land of slavery and death.

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What else is meant by these remarkable events described in Holy Writ but a description of the rescue of every man of the Church from eternal damnation? We have seen how man in the merely natural and sensual state forgets everything heavenly. But God forgets not. The Lord's own time comes, when that man who knows of nothing but spiritual servitude; who lives a slave of sin; who dwells in the Egypt of sensualism and naturalism as it were in his own native country; who is without desire, and, therefore, without hope of delivery; a time comes, repeat, when he hears the voice of Moses and the voice of Aaron within himself, the voice of the Lord in the letter and the spirit of the Word, announcing to him that the land in which he lives, in which he serves as a miserable bondsman, is not his native land. The Word of the Lord tells him that his own land, the land for which he was intended, the land for which the Lord created him, is a land of freedom, and a land of plenty; not a land of slavery and want. But it is not easy to convince such a man that his life up to the present time has been a state of slavery. And why? Because he has never known what true freedom is. It is equally difficult to persuade him that he has been in a state of want, for he has never known what it is to have his spiritual wants supplied. Speak to a man who professes to have no religion and suggest to him that he is not spiritually free, and he will with scorn refer to the man of religion as being the enslaved one and to himself as being the one truly free. Suggest to him that he is in want of spiritual food; that, if he does not supply his internal man with its necessities, he must die; he will pity you for your ignorance. But though men can do nothing, though their reasonings may not convince such a one of his pitiable state, yet the Word of God can. The Lord shows through His Word by the mouth of the spiritual Moses and Aaron, that such a man's state is perilous, that he must give up the slavery which he calls liberty and the land of famine which he regards as the home of plenty.

     And then begins the struggle. Man now desires to leave, but Pharaoh, his ruler, his own proprium, his evil love, says, No! The Lord fights for such a man. Ten plagues are brought on Pharaoh to compel him to let the people go; that is to say, the man undergoes to the full infestations of every kind until he is willing to give up entirely his old master.

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And at last the day of deliverance comes, he hurries out of the Land of Egypt to flee to the promised Land of Canaan. But he is soon compelled to stop. His steps have been so directed that all at once he faces the barrier, of the Red Sea, and, turning, he finds to his horror that Pharaoh and his whole army are pursuing him; that is, he finds himself confronted with states of temptations greater than ever, and instead of Divine protection he sees nothing else than his old enemies, his old love pursuing him and wishing to gain full possession of him once more. He cries out, he murmurs, he demands to know why he was not left alone in the first place, since now death in the waters of the sea or capture by the enemy must inevitably follow.

     But the Lord says through His servant, Moses: "Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord." In our states of distress, and in the most grievous temptation-combats, we must stand still and see the salvation of the Lord; that is we must let the Lord bring salvation in His own way, and not obstruct the influx of love and saving strength, which emanates from Him. Though we stand with the very gates of hell before us and our bitterest enemies behind us, still we must trust in the Lord's salvation. How this salvation will take place we know not; but if we are ready to obey the Lord, then our salvation is sure. The enemy comes nearer and nearer; our situation looks gloomier and gloomier, when, lo! all at once the deep waters of the sea part and the way thus miraculously opened invites us to cross the sea on its very bottom, the waters standing up as a wall on both sides. Thus has to go through hell itself, the valley of death, if he would escape his enemies who press closely behind. And if we trust the Lord, we are able to do spiritually that which the Israelites did naturally. With the Lord's omnipotent help we are able to through seas of falsities and still not be engulfed by them; and then, as a crowning glory of the Lord's work, as a final assurance that the Lord will indeed lead us to the promised land, we see our enemies, who, pursuing us, have also entered between the watery walls, engulfed in the now returning waters of and evils which were not allowed even to moisten the soles of our feet while we traversed this miraculous path. As Moses and the Israelites on this occasion rejoiced and sang songs of praise to the Lord, so do also we feel grateful at the time for having been rescued from certain destruction.

585


But this state of thanks and praise is short lived indeed; we meet with new difficulties, we murmur and are satisfied, we murmur again and are again given what we want. Yet, all this notwithstanding, we, like Israelites, at the first opportunity forget the Lord and make unto ourselves a golden calf, to whom we ascribe Divine Omnipotence and whom we worship as our God.

     It is a shocking fact, but a fact it is, that this is done in the New Church, that is to say, among those who professedly belong to the Church of the New Jerusalem. It is done unwittingly, but done none the less, and the description of this act of Israelitish idolatry should be an object lesson to us, teaching us to observe ourselves, our own conduct, to recognize the worship of the golden calf in order that we may shun it before its terrible consequences befall us, as they befell the Israelites. Let us see how the worship of the golden calf starts. Moses had been up on the mountain communing with God; and we read, that, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, they gathered together to Aaron, and said to him: "Arise, make us gods who may go before us." Moses here signifies the internal of the Word and of worship, and Aaron the external of the Word, of the Church and of worship separate from what is internal. The people signify the man of the Church. The teaching here given is that the worship of the golden calf begins with the man of the Church when he is separated from the internal things of the Word, of the Church and of worship. When this is the case, he turns to the Letter of the Word separate from its spirit, and demands that there be produced something which he may worship, since the internal (Moses), which before made the presence of the true God perceptible, has absented itself. So it is with the man of the New Church at the present day. Here is the lesson which we ought diligently to learn. For often it is the case, that after the first state of enthusiasm has passed, the man of the Church begins to look around for various exciting causes to keep his enthusiasm somewhat alive. The internal beauties of the Church do no longer animate him with joy and affection and desire for a deeper insight into their hidden treasures; the doctrine of the Church begins to be something commonplace; a reference to its plain teachings often excites the rebukeful answer, that that doctrine was well known and needed not to be quoted.

586


New and startling statements and deductions are looked for and eagerly laid hold of, while the fundamental truths of doctrine are merely disregarded; they are on the mountain near God, not in the heart of man, for if they were in the hearts of men then the internal would not be absent.

     What is this internal? You say, the internal sense, the internal meaning of the Letter of the Word. True, but it is more than that. Cannot anyone see that the internal sense or meaning of the Word may be lifeless and useless, nay, what is more, dead and, harmful, if its teachings are not regarded as vital to man's existence, that is to say, when not lived? Let us, therefore, not remain in the false notion, that-we are in the internal of the Word when we know its spiritual sense; for it is when we live it that we are in it and not before. Those who do not live according to the spiritual teachings of the Word, in a measure separate the internal from the Word, and, we read in the Arcana, "He who separates the internal of the Word, of the Church and of worship, separates from it the holy Divine; for the internal of those things is their spirit, but the external is the body of that spirit, and the body without the spirit is death. To worship, therefore, what is dead is to worship an idol, in this case, to worship a golden calf and proclaim a feast to it and thereby to make the people dissolute" (10397).

     We have seen how the worship of the golden calf begins, viz., when the internal of the Word is separated from the external. Let us now see how the golden calf is made.

     When the people asked Aaron to make unto them an idol to worship, he told them to pluck away their ear-rings of gold from the ears of their women, their sons and their daughters, and by this is signified the extraction of such things from the sense of the Letter of the Word as favor external loves and the things thence derived. The ear-rings are the representative tokens of the obedience and perception of the delights which are of the external loves, for by ears is signified obedience and perception, by gold the good of love, in this case the delights of external loves. Then we read that the people did so, and, they having handed their gold to Aaron, it is said that he formed it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf.

587


This was the way in which this natural golden calf was made; and, spiritually considered, it shows us how the spiritual idol is formed which is represented by the golden calf. The man who separates the internal of the Word from its external applies himself to the Letter of the Word, or to the external statements of doctrine; he brings his ruling loves to bear upon the interpretation of these, and he carves out or forms to himself an ideal which agrees with his ruling loves; false doctrines are thus hatched, formed by man under the guidance of some evil love. The formation of these falses, cohering and appearing as if they were truths, is signified by a graven thing; their conjunction in favor of external loves, in order that evils may appear as goods, is signified by a molten calf. Since each is meant by the golden calf, therefore it is here said, that Aaron formed it with a graving tool, by which is meant the formation of falses that they may appear as truths; and by his making gold into the "calf of what is molten," and afterwards casting it into the fire, and the calf coming forth (v. 24), is meant conjunction in favor of external loves that evils may appear as goods. Such also is the case with every doctrinal which is made from man and not from the Lord. It is made from man, when he regards his own glory, or his own gain, for an end; but it is made from the Lord, when the good of the neighbor and the good of the Lord's kingdom is regarded as an end. (A. C., 10405.)

     Let us therefore diligently look to the Lord, and shun evils as sins against Him, for this is the only way in which we may avoid the great danger of making to ourselves a golden calf; that is, of being led by our own evil loves, and of being persuaded that they are our gods who have delivered us from spiritual slavery and death, thus of breaking that first and holiest of the commandments: "Thou shalt have no other gods before my face." Amen.

588


IDEA OF ETERNITY IN MARRIAGE 1901

IDEA OF ETERNITY IN MARRIAGE       R. H. KEEP       1901

     In the Spiritual Diary we are taught that unless eternity be regarded in marriage, the wife is not a wife, but a concubine.* How are we to understand this statement? Are we to think that every requirement is satisfied, that the words and the meaning of the words are fulfilled when the lover and husband thinks of living with the chosen one forever? Let us see. For the sake of illustration think, if you please, of the first days of your conjugial happiness, of those first states of bliss with your beloved when you came to realize that she was all of earth and all of Heaven to you, and the Father in the Heavens was the only Being besides in the whole universe. Did you then reflect consciously on the idea of eternity? You were in eternity, you were in the presence of the Eternal One. You did not think about eternity; you were lifted up into its arms, and life and love to you were life and love forever and forever. The gates of the Eternal Kingdom were open wide to receive you, your love brought you eternal life, for your love was given to you by the Father of Eternity. "There the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore."
     * S. D., 6110 (Latin Ed.: Pars iii. p. 213, paragraph 16).

     Your first thoughts were thoughts of gratitude and praise, humility and worship; these things are of Heaven, the everlasting, the eternal.

     You were in love, that is to say, you were conjoined with angels and spirits who were animated by the conjugial of good and truth. So you were unconscious of time, you were abstracted from it, you were above it, you never thought of your love ceasing, and thus you really and spiritually thought of eternity in your marriage of soul and mind, although the intuition did not descend into conscious thought. Consciousness then was on the plane of the internal mind rather than on the plane of the external. It was perception rather than science. But as the soul must rest in a body so intuition, perception, must be founded in science, in the thought of the external mind, in the reason and its conviction. Otherwise when the storm rages and sweeps over the frail and tender thing just newly born, it will be in danger of death.

589




     After the return of his forces to the consciousness of thought; concerning time, it is of right and reason for man to corroborate himself in his new position by spontaneously thinking and speaking, about its endurance to eternity. Then he must see and know that he desires to live forever with the chosen one, his beloved. The idea of spiritual and mental separation from her is torment to him, and the ceasing of her love would be death to all he holds dear in life. Then he comes to know and realize that he needs her and this perception continually increases. The reason of this conviction is due not merely to the faith in the doctrine of the eternity of marriage, not because he knows that marriage without the eternal is not marriage, but because the Lord who is the Holy Union of the Divine Essentials of marriage continually inspires him with the conjugial of truth for good and good for truth. Before marriage he knows and desires that it must be to eternity, after marriage he also wills it to be so, and, furthermore, perceives that he actually loves in the other the things which are eternal. Eternity of state and eternity of time are both intangible, elusive, but the truly human essentials of eternal life which each beholds in the other are comprehensible. The young man is conscious of his beloved's devotion, her faithfulness, her love. He is softened and brought low at her feet by the gentleness and tenderness of her nature. He is so affected by her sweetness and purity that he is, as it were, awed into humility. He marvels that such a glory and such a blessing should come to him, so unworthy.

     He seems dazed with the beauty and the wonder of it all, like one in a dream, like a child in an enchanted land. But when he awakes, he awakes to find it all a reality, and the more conscious he becomes, the more real, the more permanent, the more eternal becomes the truth and the fact.

     Therefore, since love is conjunction, he realizes that he is one with her in essence and existence forever and forever. The matter; then, is not a subject for debate or review. There is no room, no place for doubts.

     If doubts intrude, they do not arise from the minds of the pair, but from the infernal connection of scortatory and meretricious spheres in the hells below.

     They will no more be admitted than thoughts of stealing or lying or cheating, of adultery or blasphemy or murder.

590


They are unworthy of notice, they are not to be considered, they are nothing. To admit them, to think about them for an instant, would raise them to a position of importance, the devils would flatter themselves and glory in it.

     So we conclude that the idea of eternity in marriage is the idea of the spiritual potencies that the Lord puts into activity while He is conjoining two souls and two minds into an image of His blessed and everlasting Kingdom. It is not possible to love what cannot be comprehended. Whatsoever of blessedness and beauty, of holiness and love He hath granted to us in this present, can be appropriated and appreciated, and if we are truly humble and thankful now, He will lead us forth into the future, yea He will abide with us forever even unto eternity. If we love, while time endures, only those things which are worthy to be loved, we shall continue to love them when time shall be no more. If you men truly love your wives alone and will that the thought of none other shall ever enter your mind the idea of eternity is in your idea of marriage.     R. H. KEEP.
ANGER IS IMPOSSIBLE IN GOD 1901

ANGER IS IMPOSSIBLE IN GOD       E. C       1901

     IT is generally admitted by those who are of the Christian world, that God is Love, but they do not see that they contradict themselves when they also claim that there is a species of anger in God, which they call "holy anger," but which nevertheless is a destroying anger.

     In order that the Word may be accommodated to all sorts and conditions of men, there is an appearance in its literal farm as if there were anger in God. And unless the Jews had been allowed to believe in this appearance as a reality, there could not have been even an external acknowledgment and worship of God with them, thus not even the representative of a Church, which was nevertheless a requisite on account of the peculiar state of the world at that time.

     But that anger is impossible with God is evident from this alone that since He is Absolute, if He were angry at any time He would be Anger itself; and likewise since He is unchangeable He be always angry.

591


And since He is infinite, if it be admitted that God loves at all, at any time, it must be conceded that He is Love Itself, and that He must always love. Anger and love, being opposites, could not exist together in Him Who is absolute and unchangeable. "If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand." (Mark iii, 24.) E. C.
CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE. XVIII. 1901

CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE. XVIII.              1901

[DE VERBO]

CONCERNING THE CONJUNCTION OF HEAVEN WITH THE MAN OF THE CHURCH BY THE SENSE OF THE LETTER OF THE WORD.

     BY much experience it has been given me to know that the Word opens Heaven to man; that is, when a man reads the Word or speaks from it, there is effected a communication with Heaven. I have read through the prophetical Word, from Isaiah even to Malachi, and it was given to perceive that every chapter, nay, every single verse, was perceived in some heavenly society. But because it is the spiritual sense that is communicated, and not the sense of the Letter, the angels of these societies are not aware that these things come from any man: the things which are within the Word appear to them as if they thought them from themselves.

     There were with me some African spirits from Abyssinia; on one occasion their ears were opened, so that they could hear a chant from the Psalms of David in a temple in this world. They were affected with such delight, that they joined in the singing. After a while their ears were closed, so that they could not hear the singing, and then they were affected with a delight still greater, because spiritual; and at the same time they were infilled with intelligence, because the Psalm, in the internal sense, treated of the Lord and of Redemption by Him.

592


The delight of their hearts' joy was communicated for a little while to a heavenly society from the Christian world, and by this means that society came into a similar state. It became manifest, hence, that there is a communication of the universal Heaven by means of the Word.

     I pass by a thousand other experiences by which it has been proved to me that the sense of the Letter of our Word produces such an effect, nay, that the spiritual sense without the accompanying natural sense, does not communicate with Heaven. The reason is that the Lord inflows from firsts through ultimates; consequently, from Himself into the natural sense of the Word, and thence calls forth or evolves its Spiritual and celestial sense, and, thus enlightening, He teaches and leads the angels. For this reason the Lord is called in the Word "the First and the Last."

     It is evident, from this, that the doctrine of the Church, unless collected and confirmed from the sense of the Letter of the Word, is of no authority, because it does not communicate with Heaven; but doctrine from the sense of the Letter and together with it, is of authority.

     XIX.

THE TRUTHS WHICH ARE CALLED TRUTHS OF FAITH, AND THE GOODS WHICH ARE CALLED GOODS OF LOVE ARE INEFFABLY INCREASED IN THE INTERNAL SENSES, AND THUS IN THE HEAVENS.

What the Natural Sense is without the Spiritual and the Celestial, and vice versa.

     [1]. The reason [of the increase in the internal senses] is that natural things are effects of things spiritual, and spiritual things are effects of things celestial; and an effect consists of so many things which are causes and which do not appear to the eyes, that they may be said to be infinite in number. The effect is gross, and the cause enters into everything of the effect, and composes it as its general, in which particulars and singulars ark altogether beyond the sphere of ocular sight.

593




     [2]. This is comparatively like a tree which appears before the eyes, luxurious in branches, leaves, and fruits: all these are effects. But if you could inwardly examine the branch as to its fibres, the leaf as to its veins, the fruit as to all and each of its inconspicuous parts, or the seed as to its Inconspicuous things from which the tree comes forth with all its parts; you would see what innumerable and ineffable things lie within, hidden to the eyes. Once, in the presence of the angels, a flower was opened as to its interiors, which are called spiritual, and when they beheld this, they said that there was within it as it were an entire paradise consisting of things ineffable.

     [3]. It is also comparatively like the human body as to all its members and organs which appear before the eyes, in their relation to its interiors where there are so many organic forms,--the purest arcana of all the sciences, making so many bodied from the one body,--that you might say that into the human body are brought together the arcana of all the sciences,-Physics, Chemistry, Mechanics, Geometry, Acoustics; Optics,--arcana which can never be explored; because they cannot be grasped. Such is the internal in respect to the external, or the spiritual in respect to the natural, or the celestial in respect to the spiritual. The natural, regarded in itself, is nothing but an external form which is called the effect of things spiritual, and the spiritual an external from which is called the effect of things celestial; everything spiritual, therefore, is from the celestial, and everything natural is from the spiritual. Hence it is manifest how one is to understand, that truth is the from of good and that good has its quality in truths; for in truths is form, and without form there is no quality; and moreover that truth exists from good as from its living cause. If you remove good from truths, it would be as if you took the kernel the flesh from a fruit, the skin alone remaining. Truth without good, therefore, is turned into something fantastic, which outwardly appears like the real thing, but inwardly is empty. Such is the natural without the spiritual, and such also is the spiritual without the celestial.

     [4]. Since there are ineffable things in the spiritual, which do not appear in the natural, and innumerable things in the celestial, it is evident what the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial senses are; that they are ineffable in relation to one another.

594


They succeed each other like science, intelligence, and wisdom. On this account, also, the men of the earth, because they are in natural light, are called by the angels "knowing," but the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom are called "intelligent," and the angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom are called "wise."

     [5]. The Word in the sense of the Letter may be compared to a tree, girt with a sound and vegetating cortex or bark; and the spiritual sense may be compared to the nourishment of the tree from its various saps and essences, which in part ascend from the ground, and in part are sucked in from the air and the ether by means of the heat and light of the sun. If the sense of the Letter were alone, and there were not at the same time the spiritual and celestial senses, it would be like a tree without sap, nay, like the bark alone without the wood; but together with these senses it is a tree in perfect condition. In the tree, moreover, all the sap passes from the root through the bark or cortex, but when the bark is removed, the tree withers away. So also would it be with the spiritual sense of the Word without its natural sense.

     XX.

THAT ALL THE HOLINESS OF THE WORD IS IN THE SENSE OF THE LETTER, AND THAT THERE IS NO HOLINESS IN THE SPIRITUAL SENSE WITHOUT THE SENSE OF THE LETTER.

The spiritual sense without the sense of the letter would be like, a house without a foundation, thus like a house in the air; it would be like a human body without the skin, a body in which everything would be dissipated. All the interior things of the body have connection with the peritoneum, the pleura, and the skins; similar is the connection of the spiritual sense with the sense of the letter. The spiritual sense without the sense of the letter would be like the contents without that which contains, thus like wine without the vessel which holds it. It is similar with the spiritual without the natural, or the Heaven of angels and their wisdom, without the human race and the Church with their intelligence from the sense of the letter. It is the sense of the letter of the Word with man that makes the connection and the conjunction. This also was the reason why the Lord came into the world, for everything of the sense of the letter had been so falsified by the Jews, that at last [the truths of the sense of the letter] were not with man any longer.

595


On this account the Lord came into the world and took upon Himself a Human; in order that He might become the Word also in the sense of the letter or the Divine Truth in ultimates; wherefore it is said that "the Word became Flesh" (John i:14).

     It is similar with the power of Divine Truth. All power in the spiritual world belongs to the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord. The nature of the power of Divine Truth in that world may be illustrated by many things from experience: respecting this experience many things might be adduced. And all the power of the Divine Truth resides in the sense of the letter of the Word; in the spiritual sense without the sense of the letter there is no power, but only in the sense of the letter in which is the spiritual sense. Therefore when spirits bring forward something from the sense of the letter, there is effected a manifest communication with Heaven, but not if they bring forward something from the spiritual sense without the sense of the letter.

     All responses from Heaven, therefore, were effected and are effected by such things as are of the sense of the letter, on which account the Urim and Thummim in the Ephod of Aaron represented the sense of the letter: the Ephod being the outermost garment. On this account, also, it is said in the Apocalypse that the foundations of the New Jerusalem consisted of twelve precious stones, and also of pearls, all of which signify the sense of the letter. The Cherubim above the Propitiatory similarly signified that sense. By it, therefore, responses were given to Moses and Aaron.

     The order in which the interior things of Divine Truth, from which is the wisdom of the angels, dispose themselves, is simultaneous order, in which order the sense of the letter is that which contains.

     All things of the doctrine of the Church must therefore be confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word, and anything of doctrine that is not confirmed by the sense of the letter of the Word, does not have power. But a doctrinal, which is confirmed by the sense of the letter as to genuine truth, does have power. The appearance of Divine Truth also has power, in so far as it may agree with genuine truth, but it has less power. But the falsified sense of the letter of the Word has no power. It shuts Heaven, and does not open it.

596




     XXI.

CONCERNING THE SPIRITUAL SENSE: THAT NO ONE CAN SEE THE SPIRITUAL SENSE EXCEPT FROM THE DOCTRINE OF GENUINE TRUTH.

     From the Doctrine of genuine truth the spiritual sense may be seen, when there is some knowledge of correspondences. But one who is in false doctrine, cannot see anything of the spiritual sense: the correspondences which he knows, he draws and leads [to favor] the falses of his doctrine, on which account he is able still more to falsify the Word. Since, therefore, the truly spiritual sense of the; Word is from the Lord alone, it is not allowed for any one in the natural world or in the spiritual world to investigate the spiritual sense of the Word from the sense of the letter, unless he be wholly in the Doctrine of Divine Truth and in illustration from the Lord. Thus from the Doctrine of Divine Truth, when confirmed from the sense of the letter of the Word, the spiritual sense can be seen; but never can the Doctrine be seen in the first place from the spiritual sense. Falsely thinks he who says to himself: "I know many correspondences: I am able to know all the Doctrine of Divine Truth: the spiritual sense will teach it to me." This be cannot be done in this way, but, as was said, it can be done if a man says to himself: "I know the Doctrine of Divine Truth; now I am able; to see also the spiritual sense, if only I know correspondences." But even then, he must moreover be in illustration from the because the spiritual sense is the Divine Truth itself in its light; which is meant by "glory," while the sense of the letter is meant by "a cloud" in the passages in the Word where this is treated of.

     That there is a spiritual sense in the Word may be confirmed by ten passages in the Prophetic Word, beside the statements in the Gospels and the Apocalypse. These might be adduced, and it might be shown that they would not mean anything without a spiritual sense.

597


Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     WHAT CONSTITUTES A NEW CHURCH SCHOOL?
     THE literary editor of the Messenger, in concluding his review of the Academy's Journal of Education, makes the following statement: "We confess to find nowhere in this Journal a New Church idea of Education, or, better stated, a solution of the problem of New Church Education, whether in principles asserted in text-books used, in discipline, worship or personnel, which in any way justifies these schools in assuming such a superiority over other New Church Schools as to imply that these other schools have 'gone out of existence,' or 'have ceased to be New Church save in name only.'"

     As a matter of fact the Journal of Education neither states nor implies that any of the New Church schools now extant has "gone out of existence" or has ceased to be New Church save in name only. Nor is there anything in the Journal that justifies the charges of "assumption of superiority" which the critic feels free to make against the schools of the Academy. We must confess surprise at the Messenger's ethics of quotation, and its readiness to pronounce judgments.

     But while the Journal did not say that any of the existing New Church schools has ceased to be New Church save in name only, is it not a fact that some of them have become less distinctively of the New Church than they formerly were or than it is desirable that they should be? This fact will be disputed, no doubt, and it will be useful, therefore, to consider the question, What is it that constitutes a New Church School?

     That which applies to the whole, applies also to all its parts. The School is but a part of the Church, and what is true of the Church must be true also of the School. We will be able, therefore, to tell what makes the New Church School when we know what it is that makes the New Church itself.



     Our critic himself suggests a very terse and telling answer to both questions when he describes the Academy Schools as "not differing essentially from other schools, except in the matter of the religious instruction." That, indeed, is the only essential difference between a New Church School and an Old Church School, provided the life according to the instruction is taken for granted. The New Church itself does not differ essentially from the Old Church, except in the matter of Religion, but this difference means--everything.

598




     The mere presence of certain New Church teachers or New Church pupils does not necessarily give a New Church character to a School. Some of the professors and students at Harvard, for instance, may be members of the New Church, but that does not make Harvard a New Church University. Nor is it the mere "name and auspices" of the Church that constitutes the New Church School, as witness the numerous "New Jerusalem Free Schools" in England, which were conducted under the auspices of the General Conference and retained their names for many years after they had developed into purely secular institutions.

     The instruction in the Doctrines of the Church is the primary essential, the sine qua non of the New Church School, even as it is the primary essential, as to time, of the New Church itself. What would one think of a professed New Church Society, if it forbade its minister to teach New Church Doctrine in the pulpit, permitting him only to teach it privately to such members as specially asked for it? Could such a Society properly he called a New Church Society? We think the critic in the Messenger would demur at such a proceeding. And what would one think of a professed New Church School if it deposed the religious instruction from its throne above the worldly sciences, thrusting it into some obscure corner among the conditional or elective studies, to be given only to such pupils as specially ask for it? Could it be claimed that such a School was loyal to its name? And yet it is well-known that this very policy is regularly pursued at two of the "New Church" Schools in this country for which the Messenger is apologizing.



     But, more important still, how can a School be a New Church School without the distinctive sphere and life of the Church? Imagine a professed New Church Society, in which one-half or two-thirds of the members openly profess the faith of the Old Church, associating with the New Church minority only because of some external reasons! What sort of a New Church sphere and life could there be in such a Society? And what sort of a New Church sphere and life can there be in a School where, say, only "sixteen out of fifty-two pupils are children of New Church parents, the rest being the children of parents who do not permit them to be instructed in New Church doctrine or to attend New Church worship?

     But some one might reply that the truths of the New Church are continually and quietly being instilled or insinuated by the teachers into the minds of these Old Church pupils. If so, the teacher is not dealing very honestly with the parents of those pupils. Or, if the parents do not mind, why is not doctrinal instruction given openly to all the pupils? The "insinuating" method has been tried sufficiently by secret New Churchmen in Old Church pulpits, and it has been found a failure as well as an imposition.

599


By what ethical or practical argument can the same method be justified in the professed Schools of the organized New Church?

     What spiritual homogeneity can there be in a School where some of the teachers are members of the New Church and some are members of the Old, and where some of the pupils are instructed in the Doctrines of the New Church and the others attend the Sunday Schools of the Old Church? And in a School where the Old Church children predominate in numbers, are there not grave dangers to the New Church children? Young people are naturally influenced by external things. In things external the New Church cannot possibly compete with the Old. In a mixed School, therefore, the influence, the magnetic attraction, will be altogether in favor of the Old, the great, the magnificent.

     If, indeed, the New Church children were being taught the truths of the Church, systematically and emphatically, the School would not long remain "mixed," for those of other persuasions would before long find the sphere too uncomfortable to remain in it. But the danger enters in where, as is too often the case, the Heavenly Doctrines ale taught "peacefully," as beautiful intellectual abstractions, without the presentation of strong contrasts. Here, then, New Church young people are apt to form "friendships of love" with those of the Old, which map prove to be clogs and stumbling blocks throughout their lives in this world, and even, for a while, in the other world. And worse still, in a School where both sexes are educated together, attachments may be made between those of different faiths, which can result only in tragical sufferings to young hearts, or else in heinous conjunctions of dissimilar minds.



     The Schools of the Academy do not indulge in any "assumption of superiority" over these mixed Schools as to "text-books used," "personnel," etc.

     They have never yet entered the lists of competition with other institutions in regard to external excellence. Their chief aim is to give an education for the Church and for eternal life, with as good a preparation for usefulness in this world as the means will allow. They are primarily religious Schools, and on that plane are unquestionably superior to secular or semi-religious institutions. And while the Academy Schools do claim to have mastered all the mysteries involved in "the solution of the problem of New Church Education," they have recognized the existence of certain prerequisites for the solution of this problem.

     These prerequisites are, 1. Systematic, persistent and emphatic instruction in the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, as an unconditional and all-governing study; 2. Spiritual homogeneity of faculty and pupils, and, 3. The sacrament of New Church Baptism as the inviolable condition for admission into New Church Schools, as the ultimate gate of protection against heterogeneous spheres, and as the final pledge of security for the permanence of New Church instruction and of New Church life.

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     HONEST MISSIONARY WORK.

     In an address delivered during the recent Conference, the Rev. Joseph Deans, speaking of the methods recently followed in the missionary work in England, says: "We have spoken with no uncertain sound. We have not tried to catch the people with guile. We have neither been afraid not ashamed to preach the great doctrine that now is the time of the Second Coming of the Lord. We have not tried to keep the name of Swedenborg in the background, nor have we set forth the truths of the New Church either as originating with him or us, but as coming to us through him, from the Lord alone." These are notable and pleasant words to hear from the mouth of a New Church missionary. With the New Church truths clearly presented in the way described, good missionary work is bound to be accomplished, which will result either in conversion, or, as Mr. Andrew Eadie is fond of putting it, in judgment on the Christian world. But such has not always been the practice of New Church ministers. Many of them, in their speech and writings, seem to take special pains to omit all reference to the fact that it is the Lord, not Swedenborg, who speaks to us in the Writings, or that the Lord has made His Second Coming in those Writings; some of them even suppress all mention of Swedenborg. We are reminded in this connection of a story told with unconscious humor by a correspondent of the Messenger. A religious work by the Rev.-, a prominent New Church minister, a work "deeply enjoyed even by those not especially interested in the New Church," was purchased by a woman not of the New Church, who read it with much enjoyment. Later she and her husband became interested in the Church, and both of them were "surprised" and pleased to hear that this "favorite book" was written by a New Church author: We heard of a somewhat similar incident which happened some time ago. Two New Churchmen, one of them a new receiver, were traveling together. The latter, addressing his companion who was reading, said: "What are you reading?" "I'm reading a by the Rev. Mr.-," answered his friend. "Indeed! I read a book him some time ago; he seems to have read something of Swedenborg" "Seems," was the indignant retort; "why he's our most popular New Church minister." "Well, well, who would have thought it." It is to be hoped that such cases as these are rare.



     But it is by no means uncommon for New Church ministers to suppress, especially before those not of the Church, the Divine character of the Revelation to the Church. Indeed, the Conference affords an apt illustration of this statement. The Editor of the Magazine explained to that Body, and there seems to have been little if any protest against his words, that "in a magazine of which so many copies go to Free Libraries the words 'the Lord instructs us in,' as an introduction to a quotation from Swedenborg, were not advisable." Of course Mr. Rendell would not suppress Swedenborg's name, and in the Magazine itself there is abundant evidence of the acknowledgment of Swedenborg's Writings as the standard of the Church.

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But this very fact makes it the more remarkable that the Editor should wish to suppress the phrase referred to. If, as Mr. Deans says, the truths of the New Church have come to us, through Swedenborg, "from the Lord alone," then it is our mission to teach these truths as the Lord's truths,--and this, even to those who go to Free Libraries. Is there not otherwise something of sailing under false colors? Why, then, should any New Churchman hesitate to say that it is the Lord who is teaching? or to introduce his quotations from the Writings, by the words "the Lord instructs us in?" Not that we would necessarily advocate this formula, but why suppress it when used? Do we hope to have more weight with men as the bearers of Swedenborg's message than as the bearers of the Lord's? Or, is the man who will listen to Swedenborg and not to the Lord likely to become a New Churchman! He might become a believer in Swedenborg's spiritual philosophy, but will he become a receiver of the Divine Revelation?



     It is the lack of proclaiming the truth that the Lord has made His Second Coming in the Writings, and that it is He who there teaches the Church, that is largely responsible for the rise and growth of the false notions regarding the reception of the New Church by the Christian world. Many men accept a New Church truth here and there, because it appeals to their "reason," and too many of our ministers prefer to persuade themselves that such men are evidences of the extension of the New Church, rather than, by proclaiming that these truths are the Lord's truths, to risk their open rejection. It was not for such work that the Lord sent forth His disciples. He sent them, not to preach the truth and hide Him, but to preach Him, and the truth as His. Let the New Church missionary go forth with this spirit and purpose, and, whatever the apparent result of his work, he may rest assured that the Lord by His Truth will bring to pass His own Divine ends.
ANENT "FREEDOM OF SPEECH." 1901

ANENT "FREEDOM OF SPEECH."              1901

     The recent assassination of the chief magistrate of our country has called forth much discussion on the subject of Freedom of Speech. It is urged, on the one hand, that the present nearly unlimited freedom should be curtailed by more stringent laws than those now existing, while on the other hand protests are raised against these suggestions as threatening to undermine the fundamental principles upon which the Republic is founded. While it is not within the sphere of the Life to join in a discussion of civil affairs, the following teachings of the Writings will be of interest to our readers, as furnishing food for reflection, on both sides of the question:

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     "The better of the English nation derive this [interior] light from freedom of speaking and writing, and thereby of thinking; with those are not in such freedom, this light is covered up, because it has no outlet." (T. C. R., 807.)

     "As the Germans are under a despotic government in each dukedom, they are not in the freedom of speaking and writing like the Dutch and the English; and when the freedom of speaking and writing is restrained, the freedom of thinking, that is, of taking a large view of things, is restrained also...Influx adapts itself to the measure of freedom of uttering the thoughts." (T. C. R., 814.)

     "In England there is freedom to speak and to write, but no freedom at all to deceive others, to persuade to murder, to rob and to kill,...but the opposite is the case among the Italians, who have almost complete freedom to deceive and also to kill, on account of there being so many places of refuge, but there is no freedom whatever to speak and to write. (S. D., 5629.)

     "It is known that man is in full freedom to think and will, but not in full freedom to speak and do whatever he thinks and wills." (D. P., 281.) "Everyone can see from rational light that it is within the freedom of man to think evilly or well, sincerely or insincerely, justly or unjustly and also that he is free to speak and act well, sincerely, and justly, but not evilly, insincerely, and unjustly, and this on account of the spiritual, moral, and civil laws, by which his external is kept in bonds." (H. H. 597.)

     "In kingdoms where justice and judgment are guarded, one is required not to speak against religion, and not to do anytime against it." (D. P. 129.)

     "The external cannot compel the internal, but the internal can compel the external.... The internal may be compelled by the external to speak ill of the laws of the kingdom, the moralities of life, and the things of the Church. Thus far the internal may be compelled by threats and punishments; and it also is thus compelled, and ought to be. This internal, however, is not the internal that is properly human; but it is an internal that man has in common with the beasts, and they too can be compelled."     (D. P., 136)

     "There must be obedience to the king according to the laws of the kingdom, nor is he to be injured in any way by deed or word, for upon this depends the public security." (A. C., 10806.)

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Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     NEW PUBLICATIONS.

     "Prayers" is the title of a very tastefully gotten up little booklet of some fifty pages by the late Rev. John Worcester. It bears the imprint of the Massachusetts New Church Union, Boston, and is well printed upon good paper with wide margins, and is withal a pleasure to the eye. The first fourteen pagers are devoted to a sort of running commentary upon the Lord's Prayer, with something of the spiritual sense woven into it. Then follow thirty-two brief prayers, each headed by a passage of Scripture, in connection with which the prayers were doubtless used. The style throughout is simple and elegant, with much of humility and piety in it. It takes something of the poet to write prayers, and Mr. Worcester seems to have possessed that gift. Here is a good specimen of the Prayers:--

     "The spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue.-Samuel xxiii, 1, 2.

     "FATHER in heaven, Who art the Love and the Light of Life, make Thy Word holy to us by Thy presence. Touch our hearts with Thy love for good life as we read, and open our eyes to understand Thee and the way of life that Thou lovest. We are strangers on this earth, and without Thy commandments a prey to every evil. Be Thou our Shepherd, lead us in green pastures and beside still waters. Comfort us in the valley of the shadow of death, sustain and bless us with Thy goodness and truth, and bring us to the home in heaven with Thee. For Thou alone art good and wise, and without Thee we are nothing. Amen."

     It is surely not upon the affectional side that any fault can be found with Mr. Worcester's teaching. and leading. H. S.

     General Index to New Church Life. Volume I to Volume XIX, 1881-1899. Academy of the New Church. 1901. Pp. 87. Price, in paper, 75 cents; bound in cloth, $1.00, postage included.

     The appearance of this small, but important, volume will be hailed with pleasure by all the friends of our Journal, but especially by the systematic students of the Doctrines and of the development of the New Church. A particular description of the work will be unnecessary, as specimen pages have been sent to all the present subscribers of the Life: It may be added, however, that the compilation of the Index is the work of Rev. C. Th. Odhner, who was relieved of the tedious labor of verifying the references by the kind and patient assistance of the Rev. Messrs. Price, Acton, Doering, Starkey, Cowley, and Cronlund, and by Messrs. Asplundh, Wm. Farrington, and others. The latter half of the volume was verified; and seen through the press by Rev. R. H. Keep.

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     The uses of a work of reference of this kind are so obvious that we need not dwell upon them at any length. As is stated in the "Introductory Note" to the volume, "the aim of the 'General Index' is two-fold: to open up the accumulated wealth of thought and study which is stored in the volumes of New Church Life, and to make accessible the data of New Church History which are recorded in its pages." This aim, in general, we believe has been accomplished, though no doubt less perfectly than would have been the case had it been possible for the compiler to devote more time to the work. Thorough consistency is an ideal most difficult to attain, and "printer's errors," in a work of this kind, are the "weaknesses of the flesh," very reprehensible, yet not mortal sins.

     Historically, the General Index has not attempted to include all the events in the "Church at large" as recorded in the News columns, but has confined itself mostly to societies and individuals who in some way or other have been connected with the "Academy movement." Nevertheless, the Index will be found of great value in its references to the more ancient history of the Church, particularly in the entries under "Swedenborg." A future edition of Tafel's Documents will not be complete, without incorporating the many new documents concerning Swedenborg which from time to time have been published in the Life.

     Special efforts have been made to aid the students of Doctrine by means of numerous suggestive cross-references. The lists of Sermons and Scripture Texts will be of great practical value to the preachers in the Church and our educators and scientists will find a wealth of material in the classified entries under "Science in the Light of the New Church."

     Die Wahre Glaube, und die Glaubensform der Alten Kirche, in Neukirchlicher Beluchtung Zusammengestellt. (The True Faith, and Creed of the Old Church, contrasted in New Church Light.) By Peter Claassen. St. Louis, Mo. 1901. 246 pp. Price, 50 cents.

     This recent missionary work is addressed especially to the members the Mennonite Church, and places the doctrines of the Old Church sharp contrast with the Doctrines of the New. The ground is covered in eighteen chapters, which, as to subject and sequence, follow closely the order of the True Christian Religion. The work consists largely of extracts from the Writings. Copies may be obtained from Rev. C. A. Nussbaum, 1911 N. 12th St., St. Louis, Mo.

     The author, Mr. Peter Claassen, is the leader of the New Church Society of ex-Mennonites at Rosthern, in the province of Saskatchewan, Canada. The work among the Mennonites in this country seems to be growing into important proportions, and a few words as to their history may be of interest to our readers. The Mennonite sect was founded by Simon menno, an Anabaptist reformer in Friesland, who died in 1561. His followers were distinguished not only by their opposition to infant baptism, the taking of oaths, military service, etc., but also by their revival the ancient Monophysite doctrine that there was but one single nature in Christ while on earth. They are thus related to the Patripassians, Sabellians, and other heretics of the better class, who "err on the right Side."

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They are, or were, particularly opposed to the use of the term "persons" in connection with the doctrine of the Trinity. The Mennonites have been, for ages, simple, primitive, industrious farming people. Continually subjected to persecutions in Germany and Holland, many of them found refuge in Russia, where flourishing colonies were established under the special protection of the government. In 1871 the government, however, broke its pledges to the Mennonites, by attempting to force them into military service. As a result, the colonies were broken up, the Mennonites emigrating in large numbers to the United States and Canada, where they established prosperous agricultural colonies. Like the Scotch, they are very active, theologically, and like them have suffered much from internal dissensions on minor points of doctrine and discipline (as, for instance, whether Christian simplicity would permit the wearing of buttons instead of hooks on their garments). They have split up into some twenty different sects, the most "straightlaced" of whom, the "Hookers," or "Amish," are especially strong in the neighborhood of Berlin, Ont., Canada. It may be that the Mennonites are especially receptive of New Church Doctrine on account of a simple, obscure belief in the sole Divinity of Christ. We could point to several other peculiar sects, such as the Waldenses, of Switzerland and Italy; the Grundvigians, of Denmark; the St Thomas Christians, of India, and others, who, on similar grounds, may prove to be fruitful fields for New Church evangelization.

     Heaven and its Wonders, and Hell. From things heard and seen. From the Latin of Emanuel Swedenborg. London. Swedenborg Society. 1899.

     We have not had opportunity before now, to notice this the most recent edition of Heaven and Hell which is not a reprint or revision of any previous version, but an entirely new translation, the work of Rev. James R. Rendell, B. A., who has been assisted by Rev. Isaiah Tansley, B. A., and Mr. John Stuart Bogg. Judging from a cursory examination, the rendering seems satisfactory in general, but does not exhibit any unusual marks of excellence, such as to explain the raisort d'etre for a new translation. We have seen several versions of Heaven and Hell, made within the last twenty years, which seem just as good as the present English edition. The latter may be superior in certain respects, not yet ascertained. It is always easier to find faults than merits, however, and we recognize that it would be impossible to produce a translation which could not be improved, or which would suit every standard of taste and judgment.

     We notice in the volume before us an effort towards a literal and faithful rendering, but there seems also to be a lack of system and of well-established principles. The translation at times is too literal, and at other times too freely interpretative. There is noticeable also a peculiar tendency to use synonymous Latin expressions, where the words used in the Original would have done just as well and better,--as, for instance, the substitution of "tribulation" for "affliction," "affects" for "moves, "modify" for "vary," etc.

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Where we hare the some words in English, with the same meaning, why try to improve on the Original, except where some distinct advantage is to be gained! Why try to be original instead of following the Original! A striking instance of this tendency occurs in the closing words of No. 1, of the present version,, where the translator has it: "Such a direct revelation is now made, because this is what is meant by the coming of the Lord." The word "direct" is no less Latin in origin than the "immediate" of the Original. It is a shorter word, it is true, but it introduces confusion in the well-established theological terminology of the Church. Are we henceforth to discourse about direct revelation, direct influx, indirect revelation and indirect influx, instead of mediate and immediate revelation and influx!

     The translator has everywhere abolished the introductory, "That" of headings and sentences. This, however, is a serious mistake, for the "Quod" in all these cases is argumentative, and the general elimination of the word deprives the style of the Writings of its argumentative character and force.

     On the whole, however, the faults are comparatively few and far between, and the edition will probably do as well as any other of the existing translations.

     The thought has often occurred, that a prefatory note, describing the bibliographical history of the work, would be of great interest and value in each edition of any one of the Writings. This would be of use not only from a literary point of view, but also from a decidedly practical one. The very fact that Heaven and Hell, for instance, has had so remarkable a history and has seen so many editions in so many different tongues could not fail to arrest the attention and excite the interest of the new reader, and to increase his respect for the importance of the work before him.
NEW CHURCH JOURNALS 1901

NEW CHURCH JOURNALS              1901

     New Church Messenger. September 4th. An editorial on Christian Science quotes largely from some articles by T. J. Hudson, LL. D., who, in "Everybody's Magazine" for June and July, undertakes to tell "The Truth about Christian Science." Subjecting this "Science" to the pitiless scalpel of cold logic, he pronounces Mrs. Eddy a "psychic," which seems to be the modern scientific equivalent for "a natural," and explodes her whole theory in short order: "She undertook to tell how to heal the sick, when, according to her theory, nobody was, or could possibly be sick; because God is all, and God could not be sick. Moreover, there is no such thing as matter, and, consequently, nobody has a body to furnish a basis of sickness or of pain. Besides, matter cannot feel pain, first, because there is no such thing as matter, and, secondly, because there is no such a thing as pain."

     "Is there a Spirit of Discontent in the New Church'" This question has now been ventilated in the Messenger for many months past, and the fact that there is a Spirit of Discontent seems pretty well established.

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It is not a startling discovery. There is, there was, and there always will be present such a spirit. Some are discontented with good things, and some with bad things. Some of the recent writers on the subject are virtually anarchists in the Church, and these receive a well-merited and effective rebuke by "A Layman" in the issue under notice. It is an excellent paper, full of common sense and sound doctrine.

     September 11th. In a further editorial on Christian Science we learn that this "cult" has adopted a paraphrase of the Lord's Prayer, addressed to "Our Father and Mother God, all harmonious." The editor attempts to excuse this horrible blasphemy, as being only "a crude way of trying to express the completeness of the divine nature; thus that He is not masculine alone, nor yet feminine alone, but all inclusive of the elements which enter into our idea of Father and Mother. This is a truth contained in the New Church teaching that God is a Being of infinite Love and Wisdom." This, certainly, reveals a very "crude" notion of what is meant by the Divine Marriage. In the New Church we are not to worship any "Divine Mother," Divine "Man-woman," but the Divine Man, who, revealing Himself as the Son, took upon Himself the human of a boy, a male child. In this masculine Human, glorified and united with the Father, the Lord is to be adored as the Bridegroom and Husband of His Church. The idea of any sexual duality in the Lord is to be utterly abhorred, execrated, and banished from the thought. It is a hermaphroditic blasphemy, repugnant to man and woman alike, destructive of every true idea of the unity of God, and thus subversive of everything conjugial. The Divine Love is not an infinite self-love, but the infinite love towards the human race,--the Church.

     September 18th and 25th. The editorials on the assassination of President McKinley are distinctly New Church in tone, viewing the national calamity in the elevating, comforting, spiritual light, which is shed by the Heavenly Doctrine alone. How different, these clear, calm, up-building words, from the frenzied, blood-thirsty, anarchistic screechings which, as reported in the public press, have been heard from the most popular preachers in the Old Church! Not revenge, but spiritual instruction, is what the nation needs. This alone can heal its wounds, and this alone can combat anarchy or any other evil.

     The illustrated biography of Rev. Charles Holbrook Mann, the editor of the Messenger, is a deeply interesting story. The series of biographies of living New Church ministers is of great historical value, and the accounts of the manner in which each one first received the Heavenly Doctrines are inspiring to young and old. One and all carry with them the lesson that there is a "special Providence" for each individual, through devious and most wonderful ways leading each one to the light for which he seeks.

     The New Church Bulletin, our bright and newsy little contemporary in the West, quotes largely and with very appreciative comments from Rev. N. D. Pendleton's address on "The Urim and Thummim," which was published in our August issue.

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Commenting on the long-continued discussion in the Messenger on "Discontent in the Church," the editor remarks: "In a somewhat extended experience with men, we have noticed that the 'radical' who stands alone in some notion or the advocacy of some reform, is the most irresponsible Pope in the whole human breed." This, no doubt, is very often the case, but it would be unsafe to adopt this observation as the universal rule. Luther, for instance, was regarded merely as a pestiferous and contemptible "crank" until he began to get a following. But the greatness of his following did not add one whit to the righteousness of his cause. Neither majorities nor minorities of men possess any inherent argumentative weight. The only majority that can be recognized in the New Church is the majority of spiritual reasons. The man "who stands alone" may at times be right.

     The Sower is a four-page illustrated New Church Sunday School paper, published by the Western New Church Union once a week during nine months of the year. It is the only one of its kind at the present day in this country, and has now reached its tenth volume. In the Sunday lessons praiseworthy efforts are made to introduce something of spiritual sense adapted to the comprehension of the young.

     The Bible Interpreter. This is the most recent and at the same time most petite of all our New Church contemporaries. It is a twelve-page monthly, 5 x 7 inches in size, and is published "in the interest of Biblical Science" by Rev. J. E. Collom, at Denver, Col. The September number contains "Bible Readings" by Rev. Adolph Roeder, an editorial leader of the "The Sanctity of Marriage," and "Letters from Heaven,"--these being talks with young people about the spiritual world.

     Bote der Neuen Kirche. September. With the present number this German-American journal enters upon its forty-seventh volume. It was founded by Rev. Arthur O. Brickman, in 1854, and is edited at present by Rev. C. A. Nussbaum, at St. Louis, Mo., as the official organ of the German Synod of the New Church. Under its present very able management the paper is performing a great use among our German brethren.

     Morning Light. August 10th. In an interesting clipping from the Liverpool Daily Post, we get an idea of how our services are, viewed by the ordinary man of the world. Describing the interior of the Liverpool Church, the reporter says, "The Holy table occupies the centre (of the back wall) and on it was great volume with the opening towards the congregation." Later he remarks that the Swedenborgians seem always to call the Bible the Word Of the Liturgy, he says that it might, "without violence, be used by denomination of Christians. I noticed only one marked deviation, Lord was addressed personally in most places, where God would been appealed to in most Christian services." Rather an important" deviation."

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The reporter naively adds "This was not an accident." The responsive service he describes as "a sort of Litany in modern platform English." Of the sermon he says, "I presume a New Church sermon is nothing if not mystical. There was a fascination in the theme, and in its confident but dreamy treatment, though an ordinary Christian might feel it had no very practical bearing. In this, however, the Swedenborgian would earnestly disagree with him. Neither in the sermon nor in the Liturgy did I observe any mention of the Holy Spirit, though our Lord was said to be a Divine Trinity."

     In the editorial columns notice is taken of the claim, made by the Spiritualists, that Swedenborg was one of them. The Two Worlds Of July 26th, giving a first installment of a "model spiritualistic library," of 71 books, places as the first division of this library the works of Swedenborg, which constitute Nos. 1-25. In the second division, which is headed "Religious books," is Hindmarsh's The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, which is the only New Church work in this division. The editor of Morning Light comments, "But as this division includes Tom Paine's The Age of Reason,...we find our views becoming rather hazy as to what constitutes a religious book. It is a book which attacks religion, or is it one which defends and expounds it?" The exclusion of New Church collateral literature is another evidence of the spiritualist's claim that Swedenborg was their best friend, but his followers their worst enemies.-In the "Junior members' corner" the Rev. W. H. Claxton gives a list of lectures which have been delivered at Junior members' meetings. Out of 68 lectures 10 are on religious subjects. Some of these should be of especial interest, such as (with lantern) "Emanuel Swedenborg." "The face of Christ as represented in art," "Past and present ministers and churches;" (without lantern) "Courtship and marriage," "Anglo-Saxon theology and New Church teaching." Mr. Claxton comments on the paucity of religious topics in the programmes of the Junior members' meetings, "the disparity being far greater than appears," and he advises all societies Catering to the young to include monthly religious meetings of some kind in their programmes.

     In the correspondence column we find Mr. Buss's answer to Mr. Adcock. We are somewhat surprised to hear Mr. Buss say, "All (Mr. Adcock's questions) run on the assumption that in speaking on the Old Church. I meant the people who are externally associated with the various denominations of popular Christianity; . . . an assumption for which my sermon affords not the slightest justification." We also must plead guilty with Mr. Adcock, of assuming that Mr. Buss referred to the people, that is, the majority of them; if he did not, what then is the Old Church which "increases in evils." And Mr. Buss, in his next paragraph, gives us reason to suppose that we have not misunderstood his sermon, for he says, "No one can deny that the changes I indicated are changes for the worse, that they are 'increases in falsities,' involving 'increase in evil;' or that these changes have taken place and are increasingly taking place in the visible Old Church."

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Mr. Adcock's essential point, however, is, that there are more good in the Old Church now than there were 150 years ago. But how can there be an increase of falses and evils in the Old Church, unless it be in the people of that Church? Can there he such an increase in the abstract doctrines of the Church? Assuredly not. The teaching quoted by Mr. Buss undoubtedly means that there is in the Old Church an increase in the number of those who are in evils and falses and a decrease in the number of those who are in good and truth. And this is corroborated by the further teaching that, from those in the Old Church who are in good, the New Church is gradually built up, that is to say, that the good are gradually withdrawn from the Old Church to enter the New. In a Church once perverted, therefore, the number of the good is ever decreasing. If not, then the Church is not perverted, it is a living Church.

     August 17th. In "Influx and recipiency" Rev. E. A. Beaman, by confining his view to the material influx of the natural sun, so interprets the law that influx is one and all change is effected in recipients, that we are forced to the conclusion that influx is automatically regulated by creation; thus, in effect, that it is creation that governs the universe, the laws and operations of the Divine Providence being all subject to it. It is true that all change is effected in recipients,' but it is an equally important truth that the Lord inflows as a Divine Man; that He created the recipients; and that He continually governs them. By emphasizing only the one truth Mr. Beaman leaves on the mind of the reader the impression that since everything depends on recipiency, therefore the Lord can do nothing man; "He cannot create a single fibre or quality of our being but through our own free action." And yet the Lord is continually operating in ways unknown to man and against man's will, if not to lead him to heaven then to keep him from a lower hell. What are chance, accident, death itself, but operations of the Lord made without man's choice? At birth He gifts the unconscious infant with remains, and throughout life He is ever providing, restraining and permitting, that man may be uplifted. We are "creatures of circumstances," if by circumstances we understand the operations of the Divine Providence. This teaching does not involve that man is not responsible for his own salvation, for the Lord continually preserves his freedom; but it shows that the Lord is the Sole Governor, that He does not allow man to govern himself except so far as this is necessary for the preservation of freedom, and that He is continually over-ruling. It shows that man is free, only when he is conjoined to the Lord, and that otherwise he is a slave. Were this not so, man would not only pervert but entirely reject all influx and "rush into the lowest hell." It may therefore be said that the Lord's presence with every min is a special providence working for his special salvation. In the course of the article we read "We know not how God Himself originated." We are forced to think that there is some omission or misprint here; no New Churchman could possibly make such a statement.

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     A paper on "Divine Sympathy" by W. L. W. gives an excellent presentation of the teaching respecting the Lord's temptations. Unfortunately the writer makes these temptations the basis of the Divine Sympathy. He says that in them the Lord "had searched to their depths the motives of human life" and that therefore "His teaching came from His own experience." If this were true then there was no "experience" of human motives and no "Divine sympathy" before the incarnation. The Lord suffered temptations, not that He might know the weakness of man, but that He might meet and conquer the hells; and when He taught, it was not from the "experiences" of the infirm human, but from the Divine and in the state of Glorification. (T. C. R., 104.)

     September 7th. Mr. Dakeyne, the author of "A History of the Bolton Society," gives an interesting description of an old MS. in two volumes written by that humble New Church worthy, Samuel Dawson. The volumes contain extracts from the Arcana formed to make a dictionary of correspondences, extracts from the Principia, sketches of Mr. Clowes' sermons, and jottings of conversations with that gentleman at Doctrinal classes, besides many quaint herbalists' recipes. Samuel Dawson was born in Lancashire in 1744. He settled in Bolton as an herbalist, and, although not an educated man, yet, having a considerable knowledge of herbs, he was very successful. In 1778 he came into the New Church through Mr. Clowes, whose services and classes, although held ten miles away, he frequently attended. His memory was phenomenal, as attested by the MS. which he left behind him, and it was of great service to him and his New Church friends. He would listen to a Sermon by Mr. Clowes one Sunday, and on the following Sunday would deliver the same sermon, from memory, to the little society at Bolton. To this society he ministered for thirty years, and with great success. He was an earnest New Churchman, full of affection and zeal for the Doctrines, and the extracts which Mr. Dakeyne prints breathe of a spirit Of deep piety and of spiritual love for the Church. Samuel Dawson was the first of that great number of people who received the doctrines through Mr. Clowes, and he was the instrumentality of founding the earliest New Church society in the world, that of Whitefield, Lancashire.

     If ridicule kills, then Mr. R. S. Gilliard in "Mystery, Miracles and Science" has given a most deadly blow to modern philosophy. In an even flow of gentle satire he exhibits the mouse which the mountain of science has brought forth: that all things begin and end in protoplasm. Mr. Gilliard does not see that this has helped us one tittle "beyond what Parmenides taught centuries ago, that 'man is made of mud by the action of heat and cold,' for a man would as lief be made of mud as of protoplasm." But, he adds, "the Greeks were not so credulous as modern scientists, for they never confounded man with his mud, still less did they make mud man's creator." The article has much to say on the superior rationality of the Greeks as compared with modern irrationality, rind a vivid contrast is drawn. "Fancy getting our philosophers teaching, as Socrates did, the duty of doing the will of the Supreme Being.

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This is too simple to be philosophically taught now-a-days." The Creeks looked upwards in the search for truth, but "modern philosophy says, 'if you want to know life, study protoplasm."' The paper is well worth reprinting. We give the following extract wherein is described the predicament of the man tossed from the horn of religion, where everything is incomprehensible, to the horn of science. "All things are going to be plain now. He is made to love the journey on to the new mystery. He finds it, however, to be like veritable sea-mud, the more you get into it the more you stick. 'See, my friend,' says his leader, 'how delightfully plain everything is here. Your old teachers dealt with matters they admit to be incomprehensible. Here the truth is to be found. Now you will understand life, for don't you observe that non-living symmetric matter of which the world is composed, interacting under the influence of symmetric forces, forms asymmetric compounds....' 'Stop!' says the neophyte, 'let me lift my leg out of this mud,' and tries to lift his leg, but can't; but he mutters 'Non-living matter literally means dead mother, does it not?' 'No! No!' says his teacher, 'not when it is symmetric.' 'Oh, I see,' says the neophyte, still trying to move his leg out of the mud, 'but-but what makes it symmetric, and why isn't it something else? Oh, my leg, I wish I could move it. 'Don't be too hasty, my friend,' says his teacher, 'it will all come plain and you will move your leg sure enough when you get further into the mud and take in what I have to say to you: It is the symmetric forces you have to think about.' 'Yes, yes, I think I begin to see,' says the neophyte, 'but, bother this mud, why are the forces forces, and why do they have influences?' 'Listen,' says his teacher, 'and I will explain. These forces form asymmetric compounds; and now you understand that, just learn this truth, that this contrivance always yields enantiomorphous molecules! (racemoid form) or pairs of enantio-morphous groups within the molecules (mesoform, you observe); but are you ill, my friend?' 'No! No, not ill,' says the neophyte, 'but I must go back. Oh! nothing personal, it is only this mud exhausting my progressive powers. He thus offends the scientific understanding, and gets tossed again."

     September 14th. In "Descent of the New Jerusalem" Rev. C. Griffiths answers the questions, How! when? where? and with whom? in a manner denoting much study and careful thought. To the questions How and when? he says, that the New Church descends and becomes visible on earth, in exact proportion as "its distinctive doctrines are believed and applied to life, and actual external separation is effected." Mr. Griffiths lays great importance on the external separation from the Old Church, and quotes the teaching that the new and the old cannot possibly be together (B. E., 103), and that "a new revelation effects a reparation in both worlds." (A. E. 641.) Answering the remaining questions, he quotes from A. R., 69, that the "New Church is formed of those who approach the Lord only, and repent of evils," and adds, "There is no other religious body known to us in the world, apart from our own communion, which fulfills this condition, and therefore no other Ecclesia, assembly, can be the New Church."

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Mr. Griffiths thinks the present organizations of the New Church cannot continue to exist as they are now. We are near a time when the doctrines will be forcefully presented, and being paraded before the public in the daily newspaper's, will meet with a terrible onslaught. If, now when the Church is at peace, interest and zeal are failing, how, he asks, will it be at that time? He answers that the Church will be taken away from us and established with others more worthy, unless "we revive the early and first love of the Lord and of His last revelation to men, in the hearts of New Churchmen; but, especially, create that love in the bosom of the young. This especially is our business and the immediate work to which we should turn our attention" It is to be regretted that Mr. Griffiths did not dwell more on this latter necessity, and show how the young are to be cared for.

     Mr. Buss answers Mr. Adcock in a clear, incisive and convincing manner. He does not admit that the good in the Old Church are in "the interior acknowledgment of the Lord," and shows that they are only in the tacit acknowledgment of Him. They, therefore, cannot be located in the New Church. Mr. Adcock asks whether we are to say to a good Old Churchman, that, although he is a good man, yet because he is not in correct doctrine, he has no place in the New Church It must have surprised and perhaps shocked him, to read Mr. Buss's laconic answer: "Surely, the most obvious reflection of common sense upon this question, is 'Well, what of it."' Mr. Buss himself, however, would put the question differently, and in a way that answers itself. He would say to the Old Churchman, Because you do not acknowledge the Lord as the only God, because you do not acknowledge the internal sense of the Word, and because you do not believe that the Lord has made His Second Coming "it will be at once obvious to you, that you do not belong to the New Church. And I would expect his instant and unreserved assent to the proposition; what is more, I should get it." There is another point, on which New Churchmen often have obscure and hazy notions, that Mr. Buss explains in a delightfully clear manner. He is answering Mr. Adcock's assumption that "a good life is necessarily a New Church life," and he quotes from A. C., 3310, which he applies in a convincing way by requoting with the addition of the word "New" before "Church." "In order that good of life may be constituent of the New Church (or be New Church good of life) there must be New Church doctrinals derived from the Word and implanted in that Good; without such New Church doctrinals, it is indeed the good of life, but not as yet constituent of the New Church." A good man in the Old Church leads a Christian life, but not a New Church life until it is qualified by New Church doctrine known and accepted

     September 21st. The Sermon by Rev. W. A. Presland is written "in memoriam William McKinley," and was preached the Sunday following the President's death. Mr. Presland takes as his text, Ps lxx, 11, 8.

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     New Church Magazine. September. Mr. H. W. Robilliard, in "Pagan Survivals," a review of J. Garnier's The true Christ and the false Christ, gives some striking extracts from that work showing the pagan origin of a multitude of the customs, rites and even doctrines of the Church of

     Rome. The canonization of saints is traced to the pagan worship of heroes as demi-gods; the tonsure and the circle around the heads of saints, to the worship of the sun-god. The priests of Osiris and of the Persian sun-god shaved the head, as also did the priests of Rome. The rite of the "bleeding heart" is traced to the pagans, both in Chaldea and Rome, with whom the heart was especially sacred. Even baptism was a pagan institution. The doctrine of purgatory is seen among the Creeks "whose greatest sacrifice was offered for the sins of the living and the dead." An astonishing parallelism is shown between the rites of the Romanists and those of the Buddhists, and the Mass is traced to "the sacrifice of the thin round cake in the mysteries of Isis" of which it is "an exact repetition." While the existence of Christian rites among the heathen, as, for instance, baptism, does not necessarily prove that they have been copied by Christians, it strikingly confirms what the Writings teach as to the pagans being the devastated remnants of the Ancient Church. In the case of the Romish Church, however, it is notorious that many of their rites were drawn directly from the heathen. Mr. Robilliard quotes some remarkable passages from Roman Catholic writers, showing the blasphemous worship of the Virgin and the profane claims for the pope. The following is from a work published in 1867: "Mary's proper substance is properly and really given (in the Eucharist) and we eat her body and drink her blood since the body of the son is the body of the mother." In a recent issue of a newspaper published at Rome, the pope was spoken of as the "perfect image of Jesus Christ, Priest and King" and the Vatican as "that privileged place where Jesus Christ sits visibly in His vicar." All this is involved in the Romish doctrines, but it does not often come out so baldly.

     Mr. George Trobridge contributes a "Sketch Sermon," but if New Church ministers should take it as a base or model for their sermons, their congregations will not be overburdened with spiritual food.

     Mr. Jonathan Robinson, in "Thoughts on the Conference Sermon," endeavors to show from the Writings that the Old Church is growing spiritually better. He does not hesitate to face the difficulties of his position, for he cites the very passage, which, of all passages, would seem most to contradict it,--"Falses and evils increase continually in a Church on perverted and extinct" (A. C.. 4503). "Surely," he says, "this cannot go on now continually, or the expressions 'fullness of time' and 'Consummation of the Age,' have no meaning." Therefore, he argues, the limit of the "increase" was reached in 1757 at the time of the Last Judgment, after which event the Writings contain "definite and extensive declarations of a hopeful character." Proceeding on the same line of argument, it might be just as well maintained that there can be no "increase" of falses and evils in a Church once "extinct" for "Consummation of the Age" is certainly not a stronger expression than "extinct."

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Mr. Robinson's position implies logically that the Old Church became, extinct before the Consummation of the Age, and that therefore there was a time when there was no Church Specific on earth. But this is contrary to the Writings. We must, therefore, come to the conclusion that, in the Old Church, "falses and evils increase continually" after the Last Judgment. Not, indeed, that the Church is made more "extinct," but that its spiritual desolation becomes more manifest. The internal denial of the Divinity of the Lord and the Word has, since the: Last Judgment, become increasingly an external denial also. Mr. Robinson regards this as "a not unhealthy sign. Concealed unfaith is not better than open unbelief." But surely, the open denial of the Lord and the Word is not a healthy sign! and because it is open, it is not any the less denial! The manifestation of concealed "unfaith" was a marked feature of the Last Judgment, and by it the evil were cast down from their imaginary heavens. There are many New Churchmen, who, like Mr. Robinson, display both zeal and ability, in their efforts to demonstrate the spiritual betterment of the Old Church. But after all their arguments have been exhausted, there still remains the primary question, unanswered by them. Why was the New Church established, if the Old could be revived?

     The New Church Young Peoples' Magazine. September. Our impressions of this journal improve on further acquaintance. Our statement last month, that "it does not seem to be very distinctively of the New Church" certainly does not apply to the present issue of the Magazine, which, throughout its varied contents, succeeds in bringing in many spiritual ideas in a decidedly attractive form. Our readers, especially the younger ones, would find much to interest them in "The Adventures of Dick Double in the Underworld,"--a continued story dealing with the journeyings of an English boy in the world of spirits, and his experiences in "Mineland" and "Thineland." The story is full of dash and "go," but seems faithful to the teachings of the Church respecting the spiritual operations of the mind.

     Nya Kyrkans Tidning. September. Mr. Manby, in an excellent editorial, develops the internal historical sense of the Lord's Parable on "the Unjust Steward," in its application to the history of the Jewish and the Christian Church. Both of these have proved unfaithful to their stewardship, having defrauded their Master of the "oil and the wheat," by perverting the genuine doctrines of charity and faith. And both have managed to make friends with the Master's debtors, by pandering to the loves of self and the world. Thus is explained the prosperity of the Jews in Christian lands, so long after the stewardship was removed from them. This, also, explains the apparent security of corrupted Christianity in the civilized world. It maintains itself simply by reducing the bills of oil and of wheat, by continually reducing the standards of good and of truth.

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But it has been put out of the stewardship, nevertheless, and a new stew and has been appointed, a steward, who, we are told by the Divine Prophecy, "shall not pass away." The editor promises to give, in the next issue, the internal sense of the Parable, in its application to the individual. We wish we had space for a translation of the whole of the article.

     Praeco Latinus (the "Latin Herald"), of Philadelphia, opens its August issue with an illustrated account of "Academia Nova Ecclesia," occasioned by the appearance of the Journal of Education of the Academy. For the benefit of our more learned readers we reproduce the opening sentences of the review:

     "Inter eos qui veto genuinoque tele methodum nostram Tusculanam viva voce tradendi incunctanter amplexi sunt, opusque caeptum inde ab initio fide ac constantia prosecuti sunt hodieque prosequnntur, est societas Virorum, qui sub legibus huis Reip. sese in Academiam Ecclesiae Novae, constituerunt, ut educandae inventuti asseclarum Ecclesiae Novae, quae de Novis Hieroslymis se appelat, pro virbus consulterent."

     "Ecclesia de Novis Hierosolymis discipuli sunt illustris quodam Emmanuelis Swedenborg, qui plurima docta et arcana scripta reliquerat, quae discipuli et asseclae revelata profitentur et venerantur. Quum auem scripa haec Latine concepta et exarata sint, Swedenborgiani non mercenarii sunt cultores Latinitatis, sed ex vera pietate veroque amore."

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OPENING OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS 1901

OPENING OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS       W. B. C       1901

     The Schools of the Academy opened in their grand new home on Monday, October 7th. The spacious Lecture Room on the third floor was utilized for the occasion, as the Assembly Hall will not be opened until the dedication, ceremonies, which will take place in the near future. When the muster gongs rang through the corridors for the first time, they carried a thrill to the hearts of those who for years have cherished fond hopes that the beloved uses of the Academy would some day be blessed with such a permanent earthly home as has now been provided, and it was with glad faces that teachers and students assembled together at its call.

     The exercises were very simple. Prayer, lessons from the Word and the Writings and singing made up the short programme. But the distinguishing feature was the superintendent's address, which sounded notes of gratitude to the Lord that struck responsive chords in each one of us. Congratulating the pupils, teachers and parents upon their first assembly in the new building, he said that one of the first thoughts to come to us on entering is that of the importance of New Church Education, "The new building is a sign before our very eyes of our estimate of the importance of this work. The Lord has put it into the hearts of men to desire New Church Education, and he has given them also an understanding of the means and methods to be employed therein. He has also put it into the hearts of men to provide the ultimate instrumentalities without which the work could no more be done than the soul could work without a body of flesh and bone. This new building represents to us the mercy of the Lord to His Church, and His merciful providence in providing a use which is one of the principal means by which the Church is established among men. Our first thought, then, when we see this magnificent new building, is of the Lord, and our second thought will be of the neighbor--of the men who have been inspired to provide it for our use,--of the great labor, the thought and the work, which has brought it into existence, first by providing the means, then by the construction. Wherever we go in this house, and wherever we look, from top to bottom, We see the results of anxious thought and earnest labor; and, therefore, out second thoughts is of the neighbor and of gratitude to the neighbor for what the Lord has given through him for our use, and for the use of the whole Church. I will not speak at large upon the subject at this time, as I will have more to say to you on another occasion, but I desire that words expressing the gratitude we feel may sound in this building on this opening day of our School year.

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I will call your attention to the lesson read from the True Christian Religion (No. 647), which brings vividly to our minds the distinction between the New Church and the Old. The point that is established there is, that this distinction enters into all parts of the work I of our Church. It, therefore, enters also into this part, which is the Education of the young. This must be distinct. Not only must the worship and the social life of the Church be distinct, but the education of the children must be distinct,--distinct in the School and in the home. There must be a distinct family life. Education is not performed in this building alone, but also at home. There it begins, and without it the School work will not be of much effect. Education is three-fold,--(1) in the home, (2) in the School, and (3) in the leading of the Lord's Providence by a multitude of means from man's birth and throughout his life. Some of the best men in the world have had little education either at home or school. The Lord is the Divine Educator of man and of the Church, and He educates every day. He is with you, educating you in your games, in your walks, in your thoughts,--everywhere. The Lord is leading us every moment. We must not exaggerate the importance of scholastic education. The work which the Lord does within man is the greatest, and the external work of education is given to man that he may co-operate with the Lord.--first in the home and then in the School. Let us remember that we here are but co-operating with the Lord, and that He who is doing the essential work also gives work for us to do. This building proves that in His Providence the part the Church has to do may now be performed more effectually. It is a very inspiring subject and opens be our mind's eye vistas of the future. We cannot foretell the future, but the Lord inspires hope into the thoughts of men. He tells us the Church will be established, but He does not say that it will be established with us. We must work for that; it is a life and death struggle,--the establishing of the Church,--for all the hells are against it. Only the Lord can resist them, for they are like a vast ocean bearing in to overwhelm us. Only by the acknowledgment of the Lord as the Divine Man are we able to resist the mighty waves which would swallow up the Church. On this inaugural day let us think of these things, fondly hoping that our work may last for a very long time. This building is accommodated to our uses for a long time to come; let us pray the Lord to give us wisdom to do the work as it should be done, from Him, as if of ourselves."

     The Address was followed by the singing of the fifteenth Psalm, which the school was dismissed.

     But although the opening services were held on the 7th the actual School work did not commence till two days later, as it was found impracticable to use the class rooms before. The work is now, however, in full swing and we are looking forward to a happy and prosperous year. W. B. C.

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NEW CHURCH IN BALTIMORE 1901

NEW CHURCH IN BALTIMORE       ALFRED H. STROH       1901

EDITOR New Church Life.

     Thinking that it might interest the readers of the Life to hear something about the progress of the Church in Baltimore, where I, have been laboring during the summer months, I propose to give a brief account of the bodies there, especially the one in sympathy with the General Church. Some twenty years ago the Rev. Adolph Roeder, having then recently left the Theological School of the Academy, became pastor of the Society founded by the Rev. A. O. Brickman, and performed here an excellent and lasting service by calling attention to the first numbers of New Church Life. Several members were thus led to read it, and have been regular subscribers ever since.

     On these foundations the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, by his energetic and untiring labors, was enabled to build further, a number of the members of the German Society, and some also of the English, the oldest Society in the United States, gladly receiving the advanced teachings which, by association, have become known as the principles of the Academy. These members of the Church, on September 5th, 1899, organized themselves as the "Baltimore New Church Reading and Social Circle."

     The Constitution defines the uses and objects of the Circle as:

     "First, the Reading and Study of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church revealed by the Lord through the instrumentality of Emanuel Swedenborg; and, Second, the cultivation of such Social Life as maybe conducive to the establishment of the true Christian brotherhood."

     One of the qualifications for membership is given as "the acknowledgment of the Divine Authority of the Doctrines of the New Church."

     When the Rev. F. E. Waelchli left his field in Baltimore to resume his former Pastorate in Berlin, Ont., the needs of the Circle were ministered to by the Rev. Emil Cronlund during the winter of 1900-1901, regular monthly services being held in a hall at Baltimore and Gay streets.

     There are now four distinct organizations of the New Church in Baltimore, (1) the original English Society, (2) the German Society, (3) a small "Mission" composed of members formerly connected with the English Society, and now ministered to by the Rev. G. Laurence Allbutt, the former pastor of that Society, and (4) the "Circle" and its sympathizers, most of whom are members of the General Church.

     The latter part of July and the months of August and September were spent by the writer with the members of the "Circle," regular Sunday services being conducted in the Hall, and Doctrinal Classes and Circle Meetings being held, usually on alternate Thursday evenings. In the Doctrinal classes the subject of study was the laws of the Doctrine Providence, nos. 70-99 of The Divine Providence being especially considered, while in the Circle Meetings the study of the work on Conjugial Love, begun by Mr. Waelchli, was continued.
     ALFRED H. STROH.

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SWEDENBORG AS A PREACHER 1901

SWEDENBORG AS A PREACHER       ALBINUS F. FROST       1901

EDITORS New Church Life.

     AT the recent meeting of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, as reported in the New Church Life for August, the Rev. J. E. Bowers read a paper on "Evangelization." In the discussion which followed the Rev. J. F. Potts said, "Swedenborg never preached a sermon," and his advice was to follow the example of Swedenborg, and use the press as the great means of New-Church Evangelization.

     It is the purpose of this communication to present Swedenborg as a preacher, yea, as an evangelist, and to show that he has not only given the doctrines of the New Church to the world by means of the press, but has set the example of what evangelical preaching is. This is shown in the Apocalypse Revealed, 531.

     "To this I will add this Relation. I was suddenly seized with a disease almost deadly: my whole head was weighed down heavily; a pestilential smoke ascended from the Jerusalem which is called Sodom and Egypt: I was half-dead with severe pain: I expected the end. I lay thus in my bed for three days and a half: my spirit was affected thus, and from it my body. And then I heard around me the voices of them that said, 'Lo, he who preached repentance for the remission of sins, and the Man Christ alone, lies dead in the street of our city.' And they asked some of the clergy whether he was worthy of burial; and they said that he was not; 'let him lie; let him be looked at.' They passed to and fro and mocked. In truth this happened to me, when this chapter of the Apocalypse was being explained. Harsh speeches of the scoffers were then heard, especially these

     'How can repentance he performed without faith! How can Christ the Man be adored as God? When we are saved of free grace without any merit of our own, what need we then but the faith alone, that God the Father sent the Son to take away the condemnation of the law, impute to of His merit, and thus justify us before Him, and absolve us from our sins by His herald the priest, and then give the Holy Spirit to operate all good in us? Is not this according to the Scripture, and also according to reason?' These things the crowd that stood by applauded. I heard these things; but could not answer, because I lay almost dead, But after three days and a half my spirit recovered; and I went forth in the spirit the broad way into the city and said again. 'Repent, and believe in Christ; and your sins will be remitted, and ye will be saved: if not, ye will perish. Did not the Lord Himself preach repentance for the remissions of sins, and that they should believe Him! Did He not command the disciples to preach the same?'"

     Then follows much respecting the nature and results of true repentance and that it was easy for the Catholics to confess their sins, but very hard, for the Protestants or Reformed to do this, and the Relation concludes thus:

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     "After this there was heard as it were thunder, and a voice speaking from heaven, saying, 'We are astonished! Say to the congregation of the Protestants, Believe Christ, and repent; and ye shall be saved.' And I said so: and I added moreover, 'Is not Baptism a sacrament of repentance, and thence an introduction into the Church? What else do the sponsors promise for the one that is to be baptized, but that he shall renounce the devil and his works? Is not the Holy Supper a sacrament of repentance, and then introduction into heaven? Is it not said to the communicants, that they should by all means repent before coming? Is not the Catechism--the universal Doctrine of the Christian Church-a teacher of repentance? Is it not there said, in the six precepts of the second table, This and that evil thou shalt not do? and not this and that good thou shalt do? You may hence know, that as far as one shuns evil, he loves good; and that before this, he does not know what good is; yea, nor what evil is.'"

     Thus we see that Swedenborg did not hesitate to go into the very streets of the great city spiritually called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified, and to preach the Gospel, the same Gospel preached by the Lord and His apostles two thousand years ago, and the same Gospel now being preached in the whole spiritual world by command of the Lord on June 19, 1770.

     That Gospel is, and it is the everlasting Gospel spoken of in Rev. xiv, 6: the Man Christ alone, and repentance for the remission of sins, without which is no salvation. And all that Swedenborg has taught, or the Lord has revealed to the New Church, is simply to make clear and to enforce this Gospel. The doctrines of correspondence, degrees, remains, proprium, temptation, the internal sense of the Word showing the processes of the Lord's glorification and man's regeneration, conjugial love, heaven and hell, redemption, the Trinity, the sacraments, influx, Providence, the Last Judgment and the Second Coming of the Lord, and each and every other doctrine, is simply for the sake of the Man Christ alone and repentance for the remission of sins. The whole of the Word, of worship, and of the Church, both external and internal, is this Gospel, the Man Christ alone, the only Man, the God-Man, the in whom the Divine Human and the Human Divine, and then that men should actually believe in Him because they shun evil as sin against Him. There is no such thing, then, as external and internal evangelization. This is an attempted distinction without a difference. Man can do no internal spiritual work or evangelization. Man can baptize with water, but the Lord alone with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Man can use his hands and feet, but he cannot manage his heart, lungs, stomach or liver. However much of the internal or Spiritual Sense of the Word a man may understand and teach, it is all respecting the Man Christ alone and repentance for the remission of sins.

     We see now that Swedenborg and the doctrines of the New Church are no innovations, but are Christian and apostolic. We see what the Gospel is which the New Church ministers must preach, or the New Church will never be established on earth. We see that very little has been done to preach the Gospel by the New Church.

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We see that the doctrines of the New Church in the books written by Swedenborg are given to enable the ministers of the New Church to preach the Gospel. Man is instructed by the eye or ear in a knowledge of the Gospel,--by the eye through the printed page which is mainly intellectual instruction; by the ear through preaching, which moves the will principally. The two methods supplement each other. In the New Church we are to have both the book and the preacher.

     And the Lord says: "The field is the world," which means, "The Church everywhere," says Swedenborg. Hence if the Church is to be everywhere, men must go out into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. Swedenborg went throughout the whole Spiritual world, and all the time he was preaching the Gospel. The Memorable Relations are full of accounts of his preaching. And the General Church of the New Jerusalem, the General Convention of the New Jerusalem, every State Association, every New Church Society, every New Church minister, and every man and woman of the New Church, must awake to realize that there is but one thing to do, and that is, "to preach the everlasting Gospel to them that dwell on earth, and to every nation, kindred, tongue and people." The New Church has never as yet really done this. Some are not willing to do it. Some think there is no use in trying to do it. But if we as a Church are willing to preach this Gospel we shall find the fields are white for the harvest. We shall find that it is as true now as two thousand years ago, "And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the Word by signs following." ALBINUS F. FROST.
Cambridge, Sept. 2, 1901.
MR. SHEPHERD'S SERMON 1901

MR. SHEPHERD'S SERMON       JOHN E. BOWERS       1901

EDITOR New Church Life.

     The sermon by the Rev. J. M. Shepherd, in your issue for October, is an instructive and a useful one. In plain terms, it teaches according to the truth of Doctrine on the subject. But it is a glaring inconsistency, to give the text of the sermon with a notoriously false translation in it. So far as the writer of this note is aware, there is no passage in the Four Gospels, where, in the original, the expression, "The end of the world," occurs. No doubt the author of the sermon knows that it is "The consummation of the age."                     JOHN E. BOWERS.

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Church News 1901

Church News       Various       1901

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Bryn Athyn. After a long and rather sleepy vacation, the settlement has now awakened to the normal state of activity and life. The many migratory members have now all returned to their winter nests; new arrivals have added to the general sphere, the regular doctrinal classes have been resumed, the work of the Schools is in full swing.

     A most interesting Memorial Meeting in honor of President McKinley was held on the evening of September 19th. Old and young were present, stirred by loyal and sympathetic feelings; there was also quite a number of visitors from the neighborhood. After introductory services, Mr. Synnestvedt addressed the meeting in words of great earnestness. He was followed by remarks from Mr. Odhner, Mr. Potts, Mr. Charles R. Pendleton, of Georgia M, Acton and Mr. Price. The meeting was thus of quite a representative and international character, England and Sweden uniting with the North and the South in expressing the universal sorrow, and in diagnosing the causes, especially the spiritual causes, of the crime which has struck at the common heart or of the nation. Many interesting suggestions were made, both as to these causes and as to possible remedies. It is a pity that I cannot give even an Outline of the remarks of the various speakers. An affecting feature of the evening was the singing of the beautiful hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light," which was new to most of us. Mr. Synnestvedt closed the meeting by reading Julian Hawthorne's touching and inspiring sketch of the married life of Mr. and Mrs. McKinley.

     The arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Bostock and Miss Sherman was signalized by a general social, the first of the season, on Friday October 4th. Mr. and Mrs. George Starkey acted as hosts. A dialogue, called "The Eloqutionist," was a very amusing feature of the program. The annual meeting of the Bryn Athyn Society was held on October 1st. The pastor in his report of the year's work suggested some new arrangements for the coming year, particularly in regard to the Friday classes. A new plan for the weekly suppers has been adopted by the feminine committee of the whole, which is known as "the Ladies' Meeting."

     Among recent visitors to the settlement I must record Mr. and Mrs. James Cooper of Middleport; Mr. Peter Knapp and Mr. Grebe, of Baltimore; Mr. A. Gilmore, of Scranton, Pa., and Mrs. G. A. Macbeth, of Pittsburg, and Mr. Ernest Robinson, of Toronto L. E. P.

     Academy Schools. Bryn Athyn. Your correspondent in chronicling from time to time the doings of the Academy Schools, may occasionally report events which may seen more or less trivial to the "uninitiated," but he knows from experience how much such details mean to those who once have nestled under the wings of the Alma Mater, and whose heartstrings will still vibrate to the memory of the songs, the feasts, the comradeships and the earnest work in our beloved Schools.

     Just at present the foremost topic in our minds is perhaps, the grand new edifice which has become out School-home. It certainly tempts the poet's fancy, and is so fine in every way that our stock of appropriate superlatives seems exhausted for the present; we hope to have a new supply for use after the Dedication.

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Some of our neighbors in "the village" have expressed concern at our thus "spreading ourselves;" they hope we are "justified" in thus providing so munificently for the few present scholars, while the prospect of the "many" seems to be in the far-distant future. They cannot appreciate the deep-seated faith of the New Churchman in the future growth of the Church, a confidence which would indeed be of "faith alone," if based on the expectation of numerous converts from the Old Church. The future of the College and the Seminary seems assured, when we look upon the oncoming generations now preparing in the local schools. From Bryn Athyn alone eight pupils have entered the Academy Schools this year. The total attendance at present mounts up to thirty, or seven more than last year, an encouraging increase in these days of small things.

     One and all have hailed with great pleasure the arrival of Rev. E. C. Bostock and family, who have taken up their residence at the Boys' Dormitory,--the former Academy building, which has been altered so as to make a very comfortable home. Those of us who are privileged to dwell within its hospitable precincts are fully appreciating the tender care of our new foster-parents. At present all the visiting pupils, girls as well as boys, are accommodated in the Boys' Dormitory, pending the completion of the Girls' Dormitory. The Pittsburg sphere, by reason of a delegation of six youths and young ladies, is very strong in our present home. (I refer, of course, to the brisk intellectual sphere, not to the presence of any "fumee de Carbon").     W. B. C.

     Middleport, O. On Saturday, October 12. Mr. and Mrs. Klein gave a general social. Pictures were the feature of the evening. Over three hundred photographs and prints of people and scenery had been hung for the occasion. One group of special interest was labeled "Loaned Collection of New Church Celebrities." On a huge card over the mantle separate photographs of the General Church ministers were mounted, the Bishop occupying the central place.

     In other parts of the room were pictures of other ministers and prominent laymen of the Church. Among these were placed an interesting series of New Church patriarchs, including Bishop Benade, the Rev. Messrs. Powell, Hibbard, Stuart, Burnham, Brickman and Tuerk.

     One wall was devoted to some fine reproductions of life masks and studies from Grecian art. Another room, labeled "Famous People of All Ages," contained numerous photographs past and present of members of the Middleport Society. There were baby pictures and quaint old daguerreotypes, which were only recognized after prolonged study.

     While the guests as a whole were examining the pictures two by two they were spirited away into a mysterious operating room, and those who returned told nothing of the horrors thereof. As a result, late in the evening there was a display of many silhouettes on a background of white, which all were invited to identify. Some who had not taken to heart the sign at the head of the stairs, "Leavevanity behind, all ye who enter here!" would not or could not recognize their own shadow pictures, and great was the merriment when they were discovered.

     On Saturday afternoon, October 5th, the older children of the Sunday School were given a social by Mr. Klein. Five of these children live several miles out in the country and are not able to come to town during the winter. They had a lively and most enjoyable time. Since August, four new children have come to the Sunday School.

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     Although it is rather late we should like to speak of the services here at the time of President McKinley's death. Mr. Klein delivered a special sermon, preceded by appropriate readings, on "Charity in Magistrates" from the Doctrine of Charity, "Love of Country" from True Christian Religion, and the chapter on "Ecclesiastical and Civil Government" from Arcana Caelestia. In the evening a memorial meeting was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Boggess. It was really remarkable to find how many of our members were acquainted personally with Mr. McKinley. Their reminiscences were most interesting. An account of his life with many anecdotes was read, and we all joined in singing the hymn, "Lead, Kindly Light." T. K.

     Pittsburg. The principal social event of the past month was the marriage, on September 18th, of Miss Anna Schoenberger, one of our "Academy girls," to Rev. Walter E. Brickman, the pastor of the Society in Allegheny. The nuptials were consecrated by Rev. E. C. Bostock, in the New Church Temple in Allegheny which had been prettily decorated for the occasion. In the evening a large and most enjoyable reception was held at the residence of the bride's parents, our faithful friends, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schoenberger. About 11 o'clock the newly-married pair amidst the usual shower of rice, left for their home in Allegheny, but all the young people remained, and danced until the wee small hours. In melancholy contrast with this happy event came the news that our pastor. Mr. Bostock, with his family, were soon to leave us to take up their residence, temporarily, at Bryn Athyn.

     The local school opened on September 16th, with nine pupils,--eight boys and one girl; another little girl is expected to enter in a few weeks. Miss Venita Pendleton, of Bryn Athyn, has now entered on her work as teacher in this school.           C. R.

     Detroit is the principal gate of entrance into Michigan from the in Dominion of Canada. I arrived in that city September 11th, and called on two members of the society there; regrets were expressed at the resignation of the pastor, Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, whose labors have been attended with a good measure of success.

     At Gorand Rapids, the old society which has been in existence for about half a century is now reduced to some half a dozen members, three of whom were seen. They are in possession of a valuable lot, on which stands a building quite good enough for use, but no New Church services have been held for several years. Two ladies in that city, Mrs. E. N. Grigg and Mrs. M. A. Witham, are zealous members of the General Church. They are interested readers of the Life, and so keep informed as to what is going on in our Body, and in touch with the sphere of the Church, which they regard as great privilege.

     A useful visit was made with Mr. Charles Rice and family in Allegan county. At Kalamazoo, my temporary home was with my genial friend, Judge William W. Peck,--conversation with whom on the Doctrines is always enjoyable. Two other earnest readers of the Writings in that city are Messrs. T. H. Rowe and B. C. Henyan. They all read the Messenger and the Life. On September 19th, in company with Judge Peck, I attended the memorial services, in the Academy of Music, in honor of our late beloved President McKinley.

     Sunday, September 22d, was passed with Mr. and Mrs. Valleau, near Gobleville, Van Buren county. On the same day an appointment was made for me to preach in the evening in a Baptist meeting-house in the country. Two young men went around and gave notice to the people in the vicinity. A congregation of seventy-five listened attentively to a discourse of forty minutes.

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At the close, about a dozen persons expressed themselves as having been interested in what they heard,--an indication that there was some "good ground" for the seed of spiritual truth.

     On September 23d, I called on the Rev. J. H. Ragatz, at Benton Harbor, who is now aged and feeble. He was active in the Church among the Germans in Chicago, in the early days of the Rev. J. R. Hibbard and Mr. J. Y. Scammon. In the evening I got on board of the fine steamer for Chicago, and arrived at Rockford, Ill., eighty-seven miles west of the great metropolis, on the evening of September 25th. The friends here gave me a cordial welcome. I stopped with Mr. John Gustafson and family. Lectures on the Doctrines of the Church were delivered in a Hall on the evenings of September 26th and 27th, and on Sunday afternoon, the 29th. The subjects were announced in two daily papers. The attendance at these meetings was, respectively, thirty-six, sixteen, and twenty-six. The first evening one American was present, but with that single exception all those who attended the meetings were Swedes. (The wife of one of these, however, is American.) Rockford has a population of some thirty thousand or more, and it is said that of these twelve thousand are Swedes.

     At the meetings twenty-one books were sold, of which ten were copies of the "Brief View of the Doctrines," by Rev. C. Th. Odhner, and five of "Swedenborg for the Young," by the same author. There are twelve persons interested in the Church in Rockford, so far as is known. They are all Swedes, except the one mentioned above, but nearly all understand the English language. Copies of the "Brief View" were bought by several persons newly interested. The friends and members of the Church thought the meetings were decidedly successful; and that probably still more could be accomplished, if they could have more frequent visits from a minister, especially if they could have one who is able to preach in Swedish also.

     Sunday morning, September 29th, we had a meeting at the home of Mr. John Gustafson and family. A sermon was read and the Holy Supper was administered, in which eleven persons, besides the minister, took part.

     My visit to Rockford was much appreciated; it was to me an interesting experience in the work; and many hearty invitations were extended to me to come again.

     On my return one day was passed in Chicago, and one at Glenview, where I met Pastor Pendleton and several of the members. Mr. D. E. Leonard, whose acquaintance was made in Michigan eighteen years ago, some months since, with his wife and their four bright children, went to live at Glenview. Two of the children are in the School, and the parents enjoy the privileges of the Church.

     I arrived at Marion in the afternoon of October 3d, where two days seemed more like two hours, so quickly the time flew at the hospitable home of Mrs. Mary Wade.

     The few members of the Church at Kokomo always appreciate the visits of a missionary. As they are earnest believers in the Doctrines, we have much conversation. I was with them over Sunday, October 6th. and preached to small audiences morning and evening. JOHN E. BOWERS.

FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The following account of the "New Church Summer School" in Almont, Mich., will be of deep interest to our readers. We quote from the Messenger of September 18th:

     "The Almont (Mich.) New Church Summer School is a fruit of faith. The season has proven the vision seen by its hopeful originators possible of realization. The school centre is a little country church that for a generation has been the religious focus of a few New Church families.

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It stands four and a half miles from a railroad and ten miles from an electric car line. The families have grown, and scattered widely. The Rev. E. J. E. Schreck during his vacations has been gradually drawing together the children and children's children of these New Church homes. The urgent need of more instruction than could be given in the Sunday service led him last year to institute a two-weeks' term of day school, open to all who cared to attend. Three distinct demands were evident in the problem presented by this particular field, namely, first the need of elementary instruction; second, an inexpensive opportunity to obtain instruction; and, third, such an esprit de corps as would attract and hold all who were prompted by whatever motive to come. But truth seeks to express itself in simple forms, and Mr. Schreck has succeeded wonderfully well in the solution by use of the simplest, most natural means possible, and seemingly the only way available under the circumstances.

     Tents were used for the accommodation of those from a distance and the result warranted the efforts against rain and other inconveniences. The progress in two weeks and the great need and desire for further teaching, now only the more uncovered by what had been given, planted the brave thought in one or two minds to make the School a permanent thing among them. Accordingly a two-story frame house was built this summer and used for the students to live in. A tent and shed supplemented the cooking department, and the church was the school room. The communal life thus established was carried on with comfort and homelikeness and larger number could be accommodated. Fifty six students registered in the week-day classes of the School, most for all the term, a part for only a day or so. Class I., composed of children, was instructed in facts about the Word, taught the commandments and New Church faith and listened to the reading of Odhner's "Life of Swedenborg." Class II., young people, learned of the Word, chief doctrines of the Church and of the spiritual world. Class III., those more advanced in life and study, dealt with questions arising from day to day. Much attention was given to musical practice, both during the hour set apart for it and at other times. The most popular hour was that scheduled for the Hebrew lesson, when young and old were taught something of the sacred character of the language and its use in conjoining men with the spiritual world. During the two weeks the School learned first to recite and then to sing a verse of Hebrew together for use at the final Sabbath service.

     The delightful family feeling and affectionate sphere of good will and eager searching for the life of charity and intelligence were the most marked features of the whole undertaking. The ready co-operation in the necessary work of every day, the hearty part in the several social evenings, the interest expressed on the Sundays when the little church was filled with reverent attendants, and the plans for the future, were signs that the project has met with genuine need. The raising of a camp flag (red and white, representing good and truth), the singing of a specially written school song, the after-dinner speeches at the final meal together in the dining room, the arranging and ornamenting of the house and yard, all these things welded the spirit that will tend to call the pupils together again another year.

     The following places were represented by the students: Almont, Imlay City, Corunna, Yale, Otsego Lake, Brown City, Battle Creek, Walkerville, Albion, Capac, Detroit, Leonard, Ann Arbor, Deford, Mich., and Chicago, Ill."

     Greenacre, Me., is a summer resort frequented by students of comparative Theology. All kinds of "un-orthodox" faiths and philosophies have representatives there during the vacation months; it seems to be a kind of "parliament of religions" on a small scale.

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During the past summer, New Church influences have been at work in a rather marked degree, and much interest has been excited through the series of lectures delivered by the Rev. Messrs. Roeder, David, Werren, and Sewall. Outsiders are quoted as having said that "Greenacre is bound to go Swedenborgian in the future; the current is set strongly in that direction."

     The Rev. Ellis I. Kirk has been engaged in "house-to-house evangelization" at Toledo, O., for nearly two years, and is now calling for means to continue the work. He reports that about ten thousand persons have been approached by him with the offer of New Church books. Of this number, about two thousand five hundred were willing to accept the loan of a book, and of these, again, some eight hundred and fifty were ready to receive a second book. At a third visit, about two hundred and fifty were pleased to see the missionary again. A gradual sifting resulted in a steady decrease of persons interested, but Mr. Kirk believes that with continuous attention at least fifty out of the whole number would ultimately be gained as actual members of the organized New Church. The length of time required for this result is not stated, but it would be interesting to see the method fully and fairly tried. The method has been tried many times before,--with indifferent results,--but all such efforts have been spasmodic. Steady and well-sustained work is bound to be effective in any place.

     The missionary propaganda which the German Synod inaugurated some years ago among the German Mennonite farmers in Kansas has resulted in the organization of several little societies and circles of new receivers. These brethren were visited, recently, by the Rev. C. A. Nussbaum (the pastor of the First German New Church Society in St. Louis, and editor of Bote der Neuen Kirche). Mr. Nussbaum, who is able to preach with nearly equal facility in the French, German, and English languages, left St. Louis in the middle of July last, and stopped first at Monett, Mo., where he preached the New Gospel in French to a colony of Swiss Waldenses. Continuing his journey, he next, visited Pawnee Rock, Kansas, where he was met by Rev. Benjamin Unruh, the ordained minister of a New Church Society of former Mennonites. The brethren here possess a temple of their own, and are increasing in numbers. At Moundridge Mr. Nussbaum preached twice in English to large audiences of Mennonites, Methodists, Catholics, and others. He next traveled to Pretty Prairie, where there is another ex-Mennonite New Church Society, under the ship of Mr. August Huxmann. The Mennonites here are very favorably impressed with the Heavenly Doctrines; the missionary remained four days, and sold thirty-six copies of Mr. P. Claassen's new book, "The True Faith." Having visited members of the Church at Eudora, Kansas City, and Leavenworth, Mr. Nussbaum returned to St. Louis. In his account of his interesting journey, Mr. Nussbaum states that the farmers in Kansas are doing pretty well, after all, in spite of the terrible drought, having made an excellent harvest wheat; nay, he was told by the New Church contingency of the "sufferers" that are even prepared to pay up their overdue subscriptions to the Bote.

     After some seven years of spiritual famine on the Pacific Coast, there are prospects now of some active missionary work being done in Oregon and California, the Board of Missions of the Convention having employed Dr. N. Claflin to give his whole time to work of visiting New Church people in these regions, and to sell and distribute books and tracts.

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One would suppose that this sort of work could be done best by a regular clergyman, but Dr. Claflin comes highly recommended, "bringing to the work a long experience an active member of the New Church in different parts of the United States, a conservative spirit, and an earnest love for the Church and its doctrines."

     The work in the South has long been in a comatose condition, but the Board of Missions has now engaged the Rev. Alexander Henry as resident missionary in Savannah, Ga.; he is to supply also the circle in Beaufort, S. C., and what is left of the New Church in Jacksonville, Fla., as far as the means and opportunities permit.

     CANADA. Probably the most boreal of all New Church Societies on this continent is the one at Rosthern, in the province of Saskatchewan (to the north of Assiniboia and Manitoba). This is a settlement of German Mennonites, to whom the Doctrines of the New Church were introduced by Mr. Peter Classen, some eight or ten years ago. The society recently purchased a lot for a church building, and has established a flourishing Sunday School. The members seem to be especially interested in the religious education of their children.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The President of Conference, Rev. J. J. Woodford, began his official visits to the different societies of the Church on August 21st. The places visited include Newcastle, Bradford, Sheffield, London, Liverpool, and Wigan. From the latter town Mrs. Woodford was to have gone to Hull, but the sudden death of Mts. Woodford on September 27th made a postponement necessary. These official visits must be of great value to the Church as tending to unify its interest and its work. They give the President of Conference far more influence in the direction and overseeing of the affairs of the Church than can, possibly be exercised by him merely as the chairman of an annual meeting. Their value, however, would be much increased if the term of the presidency were longer than one year.

     The New Church College, London, held its opening exercises on September 24th. In his opening address, the Principal, Rev. I. Tansley, speaking of the objects of the college training in preparing students for the ministry, said that while many studies must be pursued, "the particular field of work was the theology of the New Church. The students ought to aim at becoming specialists in a knowledge of Swedenborg He who had a profound knowledge of the Doctrines ought,-other qualifications being taken for granted--to be best able to present them, even to the simple mind.

     In order to increase its efficiency, the Committee of the Junior Members' Society is now divided into three sections, namely, Scotland, North of England and South of England. The Rev. J. F. Buss, W. T. Lardge and W. H. Claxton are the respective sectional secretaries. The secretaries are now engaged in the preparation of a Manual for Junior Members in which will include "a brief, yet clear outline of the principal doctrines of the New Church." The Junior Members' Society has recently entered upon its second year's course of daily reading from the Word and Writings, and has the issued a daily Calendar conveniently printed on cardboard. The readings from the Writings begin with the Doctrine of Charity. In this and in other ways the Society has done good work in fostering the interest of the young in the things of the Church. And its work has not been without fruit. The last annual report shows that of the 100 outgoing junior members. 80 have become members of the New of Church. In the absence of New Church education, these Junior Members' Societies are of great, if not, indeed, indispensable value, and we wish them every success, though, we may add, the wish is coupled with the hope that our friends will come to see that the most effective way of attaining the object they have at heart, is distinctive New Church education.

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     In pursuance of his plan of missionary work, the Rev. J. Deans, the Conference missionary, has taken up his labors in Bury, where he will remain for the next few months. The opening services were held on October 6th. This makes practically a new beginning in Bury, as the Society there had entirely ceased to hold services and the Missionary Council reported to the last Conference that there seemed "little, if any, prospect" of resuming them.

     On September 22d the small Society in Chester celebrated its first anniversary, it having been instituted by Rev. J. Deans on September 25th, 1900. There were 27 persons present at the services. Mr. H. J. Whiteside, the Leader, in his sermon dealt with the difference between the New Church and the Old.

     The Rev. J. Deans, preaching in Hull on September 14th, made a touching reference to the death of President McKinley. Reference was made to the same event also by Rev. G. Meek, preaching to his Society in Jersey (Channel Isles).

     During the harvest thanksgiving services held in Kearsley, Yorkshire, on September 15th, the pastor, Rev. Hector Ferguson, in the course of a lecture, referred to the assassination of President McKinley, who, of all men, "should have been the last victim of anarchy." He dwelt briefly on the spirit which animates all anarchy.

     The Society at Liverpool held its reopening services on Saturday and Sunday, September 14-15. During these services a fine, large pipe organ contributed by a friend of the Society was used for the first time. On September 14th, at a short special service, the President of Conference recognized Mr. H. J. Whiteside as a "lay preacher." Mr. Woodford was assisted by the Pastor, Mr. Thornton, in a very impressive service. During the evening meeting, which was presided over by Mr. Woodford, a resolution was unanimously adopted at the tragic expressing "profound sorrow death of the President of the United States, abhorrence of the act which his life was taken, and heartfelt sympathy with Mrs. McKinley and the American people in their deep grief." On Sunday the 15th Mr. Woodford officiated morning and evening. In his sermon he alluded to the death of President McKinley. All the services were well attended, friends coming from Manchester, Glasgow, Southport, Chester and other places.

     During the services at Paisley on September 15th, Rev. C. A. Hall, the pastor spoke feelingly of the death of the American President. He referred to his assassination as revealing an element of diabolism in the world most appalling in its nature. An abstract of the sermon was published in one of the local daily papers.

     SWEDEN. The Rev. C. J. N. Manby, as usual, has spent his summer vacation in extensive missionary journeys in the country districts, visiting the isolated and the smaller circles of the Church, confirming young people, and delivering well-attended lectures in the larger town. We believe the time is gradually approaching, when a more general organization of New Church in Sweden may be effected. The Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist has also made a missionary journey during the summer, largely at his own expense. The method was somewhat novel he took a trip on a steamer, from Gottenburg to Stockholm, along the coast of Southern Sweden, distributing New-Church Literature wherever the steamer landed, and delivering lectures at Helsingborg and Stockholm.

     The Rev. James Hyde with wife, of London, spent several weeks in Sweden this summer, continuing his investigations of New Church documents and literature.

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While in Stockholm; he preached in English to the society of Rev. A. T. Boyesen, the latter acting as interpreter in the pulpit.

     From a recent letter of Rev. Joseph E. Boyesen we learn that the work of photo typing "Codex 3" of the Spiritual Diary has now commenced. (This Codex contains Nos. 3428-6096 of the whole work.)

     It is a great relief to hear that the manuscript containing Swedenborg's "Additions to the True Christian Religion" (See Doc. ii: 758), has been found in the Royal Library; it had been missing for some time.

     The case of Rev. Albert Bjorck had a second hearing before the Civil Courts on August 12th, the plaintiff claiming that, while he differed from Mr. Manby, he did not differ from the Doctrines of the New Church,--an assertion which can be easily disproved from his own published statements. Mr. Bjorck may, indeed, be vindicated by a Civil Court which is ignorant of New Church Doctrines, but this cannot reinstate him in the confidence of the New Church in Sweden.

     SWITZERLAND. The twenty-seventh General Assembly of the Swiss New Church Union was held at Zurich on August 25th. Forty-eight persons attended the meeting; six new members were received into the Union. By the receipt of several small-legacies, the permanent fund for the support of a minister was increased to the sum of 17,560 francs ($3,400). Affectionate messages were received from members of the Church in Berlin, Stuttgart, Dresden, Goppingen, Zschopau, Vienna, and Budapest. After the usual reports had been read, and officers elected, the meeting was concluded by all taking dinner together.

     From the report of Mr. Goerwitz we gather the following interesting statistics, which will give an idea of the relative strength of the various New Church circles in Mr. Goerwitz's extensive diocese:

Communicants
Switzerland:
Zurich                                        50
Bern                                             11
Herisau                                        23
Nesslau                                         8
                                             92

Germany:
Berlin                                        27
Dresden                                        8
Bielfield                                        8
Stuttgart                                        7
Additional                                        10
                                             60

Austria Hungary:
Vienna                                        35
Budapest                                        24
Gyorkony                                        15
74
Total                                                  226

     These are the first definite figures we have ever seen as to the number of active members of the Church in the German-speaking nations.

     Italy. Rev. Loreto Scocia, of Florence, last year published a very practical little missionary work contrasting the Doctrines of the New Church with those of modern Christendom. The book has been widely distributed in Italy and has gained some new adherents to the Church. Our indefatigable brother has now in hand work on "The Errors and Dangers of Modern Spiritism," which he hopes to publish in a few months. In March, this year, the London Swedenborg Society turned over to Prof. Scocia all the remaining copies of the Italian translations of the Writings, for gratis distribution to the various public libraries throughout the peninsula. The expenses involved in distributing the books (1,128 copies) have been defrayed by Col. Bevington, of London.

     Towards the close of the year 1900 a considerable number of persons in the city of Trieste established a circle for the study of the works of Swedenborg. A few of these persons had previously been connected with the spiritists, who then began to attack and slander the New Church in a spiritistic journal published in Florence.

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Signor Scocia replied in his own paper, and a controversy arose which called further attention to the Heavenly Doctrines. "In consequence, the number of the friends of the Church have increased, especially at Trieste, where regular Sunday meetings are held at the house of Signor V. Risegari. The meetings are opened with prayers from the Italian New Church Liturgy, after which follows the regular reading from Swedenborg's work on the Divine Providence, closing with a free examination of the truths which have been read."
WANTED 1901

WANTED              1901


ANNOUNCEMENTS.



     A New Church person to help with the housework. Address, for particulars, Mrs. H. Synnestvedt, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.

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WHY WAS THE LORD BORN ON THIS EARTH AND NOT ON ANOTHER? 1901

WHY WAS THE LORD BORN ON THIS EARTH AND NOT ON ANOTHER?       E. C. BOSTOCK       1901


Vol. XXI.
DECEMBER, 1901.
No. 12.
     THE answer to this question is given in the Arcana Caelestia (n. 9350-9361) and is no doubt familiar to most of the readers of this magazine.

     The principal cause was that the Word might be written on our earth, and thereby it could be made manifest that God became Man, not only to the men, spirits and angels of this earth, but to those who come into heaven from all earths.

     In this connection we are informed that when the Word is read on our earth, the internal and inmost senses are perceived by all who are in heaven, from whatever earth they may have come, and that thereby they are in the delight of their wisdom which is supported and inrooted in the ultimate truths of our Word, and especially in the great truth that God became man.

     No one can enter heaven unless he has an idea of God as of a Divine Man; for this reason the Lord reveals Himself to the inhabitants of every earth in the Human Form. This He does by means of angels as He formerly did on this earth.

     Upon our earth alone has He actually assumed the Human and glorified it. From our earth alone have come spirits and angels who have actually seen the Lord when He was present on earth in His Human; as well as many others who know from the letter of the Word that the Lord so became man.

     These angels and spirits, we are told, teach others, who do not have this knowledge, and all those who have worshiped God as a Divine Man receive this truth with joy, for from their internal state they are able to perceive its truth, when they hear it from those who know.

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     But while this great use of the birth of the Lord and of the written Word is most manifest, yet we do not fully comprehend its importance, nor can we see why our earth should be chosen, unless we comprehend the teaching contained in the following:

     "To the causes which have been before brought forward, it is to be added, that the inhabitants, spirits, and angels of our earth refer, in the Gorand Man, to the external corporeal sense, is. 9107; and the external corporeal sense is the ultimate, in which the interiors of life close, and in which they rest, as in their general, n. 5077, 9212, 9216: Divine Truth in the letter, which is called the Word, is similar; which for that reason also is given in this earth, and not in another and because the Lord is the Word, and its First and Last, that all things might exist according to order, He also willed to be born in this World, and to become the Word, according to this in John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; this was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath manifested Him, I, 2, 3, 4, 14, 18. The Word is the Divine Truth. But this is an arcanum that falls into the understanding of few only." A. C. 9360.

     From the teaching contained in this passage it appears that the Lord chose to be born on our earth because, of all the earths in the universe, ours is the lowest or most ultimate. All the interiors of life close in, and rest upon life as it exists in our earth, for we correspond to the external corporeal sense.

     It is because the affections and thoughts of the men of this earth dwell upon external corporeal things, that the arts of writing and printing could be developed here, and thus the written Word could be given and perpetuated. For the same reason commerce could be provided, by means of which the Word can be spread over the whole earth. Since the Lord is the Word, and, inmostly, it is from Him and concerning Him, it is manifest that it could not have been written unless He had assumed the Human on this earth.

     If this earth is the ultimate or lowest earth in the universe, it clearly appears that the Lord could enter into the very ultimate of order, only by birth upon our earth. Only by the assumption of the human on our earth could He combat with evils in their lowest and most ultimate form, and by so doing bring order into the very ultimates of the universe.

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     By His Coming in the very lowest of all earths He became actually the Last as He before was the First. From Himself He established the Written Word and thereby the Church which actually knows and worships Him in His Divine Human; and by so doing He established a basis and a resting place for the universal Heavens in the very ultimate or lowest planes of life.

     The importance of such a resting place and support for the interior and inmost degrees of life appears to us only as we comprehend the doctrine of ultimates. There is not space to consider this doctrine in any fullness in this article, but it may be of interest to bring forth one or two points in connection with the subject before us.

     In the Spiritual Diary it is said:

     "It was observed also from experience that as ultimates are directed by the Lord from prior things, thus also, on the other hand, prior things from ultimates. and the Lord is the First and the Last, or in firsts and in ultimates, that thus all things of heaven are directed, and therefore He became man, that He might be in ultimates from Himself, and not from other men, thence He Himself directs all things from Firsts and Ultimates; ultimates through prior things in heaven, and prior things through heaven from ultimates; thence the connection." S. D. 5615.

     By His assumption of the Human in our earth the Lord procured for Himself an ultimate or basis by which He is able to hold all things in order from Himself. This is according to the laws of perfect order, for in perfect order interiors proceed to their ultimate and there reaction takes place.

     So important is it that there be an ultimate or last, where the knowledges of good and truth exist in such a most ultimate form as they are in our Word, that it is said in the Spiritual Diary that the Lord "loved our earth more than others."

     The number in which this statement occurs brings out some useful instruction concerning these ultimate knowledges, which it will be well to have before us.

     "Thence it may appear that the inhabitants and spirits of our earth are the external sense, and that they approach to corporeals and thus to the nature of brutes more than to the human, as they also said concerning the spirits of our earth; but although they are such in our earth nevertheless they have the knowledges of the truths of faith, which serve as it were for ground in which spiritual and celestial truths of faith can be inseminated; without such ground they are not easily inseminated, and thus the truths of faith grow; wherefore also they come more easily into the interior and inmost heaven, after exteriors are devastated, and because such carry something with them from the life of the body they also serve for the ministry of instructing others, who have not such knowledges from revelation, wherefore the Lord loved our earth more than others.

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For, that order may be perfect, celestial and spiritual verities ought to be rooted in natural verities. But it is to be observed that the knowledges and ideas of angels are indefinitely more profound than the ideas of men, but nevertheless they are rooted in natural verities; verities thus succeed and correspond to one another mutually." S. D. 1531.

     The Lord is here said to have loved this earth more than others because it is the lowest or last, for the existence of the ultimate natural truths of our Word, in the minds of men here, renders it possible for spiritual and celestial truths to be inrooted in natural truths, and thus to make a perfect order possible. The Lord is said to have loved this earth better than others, not from any difference in His love, but from the fact that the reception of His love is full and complete in the ultimate and thus includes all from inmosts to outmosts. In this connection it is interesting to note what is said in the Arcana Caelestia of the Lord's love for the disciple John:

     "Because interiors present themselves together in ultimates, therefore, as was said, the last, if in perfect order, is held more holy than the interiors, for there the sanctity of the interiors is complete.

     "Because in ultimates interiors are together like the thought and will of man in deeds or works, i. e., in spiritual things, his faith and love, therefore John was loved by the Lord more than the other disciples, and he lay at His breast (John xiii, 23; xxi, 20, 22), because that disciple represented good works . . . thence also it is manifest, why the external or ultimate, which is in perfect order, is holy more than internals regarded one by one; for the Lord when He is in the ultimate is at the same time in all, and when He is in this, interiors are contained in their order, connection and form, and in supervision and guidance at pleasure." (9824.)

     In loving our earth more than others the Lord loves all together, and as one; the reaction and manifestation of His love to all taking place in the last or ultimate of order.

     That spiritual and celestial truths ought to be inrooted in natural truths, that order may be perfect, and that when they are so inrooted the ultimate is most holy, is a very important truth.

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     It shows how important it is for us, not only to enter into spiritual and celestial truths, but to see these truths as they come forth and present themselves in natural truths such as are contained in the letter of the Word. Still more important is it that they be inrooted and made firm by a life of obedience to the genuine truths of the letter of the Word.

     From the teaching given in the passages quoted it appears that the possession of ultimate natural truths, such as we have on this earth, makes it possible to rise to higher and more interior states, if we but make a right use of them. It is said "wherefore also they come more easily into the interior and inmost heaven, after exteriors are devastated," and in another number where the spirits of Mercury are represented as commenting on the gross and external nature even of the truths revealed to the New Church, and at the same time upon the quality of the people of this earth, which is such that they wondered if they could become angels, it is replied that those who live in the good of faith and charity are no longer in external and material things, but in internal and spiritual. "When they come to that state, they are in light above that in which are the spirits of Mercury." (A. C., 6929.)

     Another reason why the Lord willed to be born on this earth is that the multiplication of truth takes place in the ultimate. As truths multiply and increase the ultimate becomes more full and the state of all is rendered more and more perfect.

     "It was said to me by the angels, that the Lord willed to be born in this earth, where Divine Truths are handed down by writings, and thus from the first times, because thus the truths of faith can be multiplied here more than with others, and be preserved; but with others they are only learned from parents and are thus retained in the memory, and then mostly in succession of time they perish, but here not so; thus also the angels of heaven can not only be perfected, but they can also perceive the happiness and felicity of life, for the Word read in this earth passes even into heaven through correspondences, as was shown; thus also the truths of faith can be communicated with the angels of other earths; this is the reason, that the Lord willed to be born here, and to become while in the world, Truth Divine, i. e., the Word, and afterwards Divine God, i. e., Jehovah." (S. D., 4663.)

     In the light of these truths, of how great moment it appears to read and study the Word in its letter.

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When we thus read the Word in the acknowledgment of its holiness and especially when we read it in the light of the interior truths revealed by the Lord for His New Church, the universal heavens are affected; the interior wisdom and delight of the angels from all earths finds an ultimate resting place and support upon our earth.

     The primary cause of this great use of the Word is that therein the Lord Himself appears before the minds of men as a Divine Man in the ultimate of His universe; and upon the knowledge and acknowledgment of this great truth the universal heavens rest and are supported in order and connection to eternity.

     That this great truth may be kept perpetually before the minds of all in the Christian World, even though they do not read the Word, it is of the Divine Providence that once a year the birth of our Lord is celebrated. Then with many this celebration is but external and even worldly, but the knowledge that the Lord was born is nevertheless present.

     With the New Churchman this season should be made the occasion of meditation on the great truths of the Lord's Coming, and at the same time of impressing these truths on the minds of the young.

     When he knows the import of the Lord's birth to the whole universe, what New Churchman can make Christmas a time of mere merry-making?

     The knowledge that the universal heavens rest upon the existence of this great truth in our earth should stimulate us to read the Lord's Word more diligently, to strive more faithfully to embody its great truths in our lives, that we may do our humble part in the great use which He has, in His mercy, deigned to give to the lowest of His people.     E. C. BOSTOCK.

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GLORIFICATION 1901

GLORIFICATION       Rev. ALFRED ACTON       1901

     The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. (Luke i, 35.)

     The birth of our Lord into the world is described in the Writings as the miracle of miracles. And well may it be so called since by it God Himself-Infinite Love and Infinite Wisdom-was made manifest to men; He walked with them, was seen of them, and taught them speaking as man to man. So great a miracle is this, so incomprehensible to the natural man, that it has been made by this sensual age the great stumbling-block to faith. Few really believe that it was the Lord Himself who was born on earth, though many confess it with their lips; and still fewer have any conception of the means by which His coming was effected. Being unable or unwilling to acknowledge that it was Jehovah Himself who was born, men, from traditionary or historical faith, take refuge in the belief or dogma, that He who was born was the son of God-a separate and distinct Person-a faith which contains in its bosom the denial of our Lord. And during the past centuries of the Christian Church, this latent denial has been more and more manifested to view, until at this day denial is well-nigh universal in the Christian world. With many, it appears as an open and total denial, as with the Atheists and unitarians; with many, as a thin veneer of belief, under which is contained and often manifested in conversation, a mock and a sneer at the idea of a virgin woman bringing forth a God; with many as an outward acceptance of the teachings of the Word, but accompanied with the attribution of earthly qualities to Him who is Divine.

     This widespread and wider spreading denial has its origin in the sensual state of man. Men are unwilling to see what does not appeal to their senses, what they cannot see or hear or touch or apperceive, that is, wholly grasp with their natural reason unenlightened by the spiritual.

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No virgin ever before brought forth a son, says or thinks the sensual man, and how can such a thing be? And answering this question negatively, he either denies openly, or covers his denial with a merely traditionary belief. To such men the birth of our Lord is merely a miracle, a miracle not showing forth the wonderful workings of the Divine Love by its own Divine Wisdom or Order, but a miracle which conceals an impossibility. And yet the same men see, daily, miracles performed before their very eyes. Is not the birth of a man a miracle? From that which is as it were nothing, a perfect human form is produced, complete in every respect, natural and spiritual; with every organ and member, even to the least and innermost vessels, perfectly formed; with a full capacity for seeing and thinking, and willing and doing. Surely this is a miracle!

     This perfect formation of a human being does not come from the human father, for then the father's life would be separated from him; or, it would be divided, and this again and again subdivided as new generations are born; and the finite which is thus divided must at last become nothing; yet men now are equally human and living as their most distant progenitors. Or, if it is argued that the life of the offspring comes from the human father, and that this life, thus proceeding, is not finite, then is the Infinite or God diffused among all men, yea, and among animals and in the inanimate world. All men and things are God, and there is no God among them.

     Man is not life but a form receptive of life. Hence man cannot transmit life; he can transmit only a form receptive of life. This form is itself formed in the human father from the influx of the Lord's life with him; and this form, in the womb of the mother, is constantly receptive of that same influx. It is the Lord Himself who builds up a perfect human form in the womb. Influx from Him, proceeding through the inmost forms received from the father, takes from the mother the materials for a human body. And therefore the Lord is called "Man's Former from the womb." By Isaiah, "Thus saith the Lord who made thee, and formed thee from the womb," xliv, 2; and by Job, "Did not He that made me in the womb, make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb?" xxxi, 15.

     Here then is a miracle occurring daily; the formation of a human soul and a human body by the Lord.

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And, perforce, men must believe in the fact of the miracle, though they understand it not, and though the more insane among them deny any cause for it other than a merely material one. Men acknowledge the fact of the miracle, because they see it. But they do not see in like manner that the Lord was born; and, being sensual, they will not so elevate their understanding as to see that what the Lord operates in the formation of every human being is a manifestation of the Divine declaration that the Holy spirit would overshadow the Virgin Mary, and that she would then conceive and bear a Son who should be called Jesus, that is, Saviour.

     The common idea of a miracle is that it is a subversion of one or more of the laws of order. This, however, is a false notion, for it is equivalent to saying, that a supreme manifestation of God's Wisdom consists in His setting aside the laws of that Wisdom. There are no miracles of such a nature. There was no difference made in the laws of Divine Order, in order that the Lord might be born on earth. He fashions every body that is born, and so He' fashioned a body in the womb of Mary in which He might appear and might dwell with man. But in the case of the birth of man, the body is formed, not directly by life itself, but by life flowing through created interior forms received from a human father; while in the case of the Lord, the body was not formed by life flowing through created forms, but it was formed by life itself, which is also Form itself, but Infinite and Eternal form. It was this Life, "the power of the Highest," that overshadowed the virgin-the Divine itself inflowing into and vivifying the womb of Mary,-from which she conceived and brought forth Him who was the Son of God, the Divine Itself manifested before the eyes of man.

     The creation or birth of all things, animate or inanimate, is a miracle, for it is a wonderful manifestation of the Divine Love and Wisdom; the birth of a man is a greater miracle, for it is the manifestation of the Divine Love and Wisdom in an image; but the birth of our Lord is the miracle of miracles because it is the manifestation of the Divine Itself.

     The Lord was born, as to His body, the son of Mary, and, as to His soul, the Son of God. The human body which He took from Mary was but a form, but it was a form fashioned of human substances,-of substances on which were impressed evil forms, forms which, when vivified, would of themselves turn inflowing life into evil lusts and appetites; for those substances were taken from fallen man and partook of his evil nature.

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The human that was born, and of which Mary was the mother, was an infirm human, a human which was like the human of another man, a form apt and ready to pervert all inflowing life.

     In such a human was our Lord born, and the whole work of Glorification consisted in the rejection of this human and the formation of a new human which should be born not of man, but of the Divine Itself. In this formation of a Divine Human there was no reversal of the laws of order by which the universe is governed. The order in which the Lord glorified His human was the order in which man is regenerated. But the conditions were different. For the soul of the infirm human was Divine, but the soul of man is a created form receptive of the Divine.

     In a certain sense, every man casts off the human which he derives from the mother with all its appetites and desires; for his soul which he has from his father rules all, and rejects that which it cannot make wholly receptive of itself, and thus a part of itself. But, because the soul of man is finite, even as his body is, because the loves which he receives from his father are human, even as the disposition which he receives from the mother, therefore the casting off of the maternal with man does not consist in an actual complete casting off, but in the complete subjugation of that maternal to the nature derived from the father, and a rejection of that which is heterogeneous and which therefore cannot be subjugated. The paternal nature, being evil, can reside with the nature derived from the mother, but only as with that which is beneath itself as a subject. Thus the evil man retains something of his maternal heredity, in the bent given to his loves by the influence of what he derives from the mother. Still, as was said, in a certain sense he does cast off his maternal human, since what he derives from the father dominates all. This forms the maternal into an image of itself.

     If, however, man is regenerated, that is, receives from the Lord a new internal which shall rule his life in place of the evil internal which he has received from his earthly father, then this latter is removed to the sides, and becomes as it were absent and the maternal human is wholly dissipated.

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That the paternal cannot be dissipated in like manner is because it forms the very proprium, or proper life of man, the basis of his individuality, and if it were dissipated man would cease to be a man, and would become an automaton through which life from the Lord would flow without reception or reaction. But the maternal is not thus the very proprium of man, but is that which the proprium takes to itself. So long as the proprium is loved, so long does it retain and make its own, the evils in agreement with itself which the man receives from his mother. But when man by the shunning of evils as sins against God receives a new proprium from the Lord, the former proprium is laid aside because it cannot be dissipated, and the evils received from the mother which are external to it are wholly dissipated, because they are not a part of the very life of man, unless, indeed, the man has made them so. It is necessary to have a clear comprehension of this teaching of the Church, if we would understand the doctrine concerning the Glorification of the Lord. For in the Glorification, the Lord wholly cast off what he had received from the mother, and he did this in accordance with the order in which man is regenerated.

     With the Lord there was nothing whatever in what He derived from the Father; that is to say, there was nothing whatever in His Soul, which could reside with the maternal human, which could appropriate the things derived therefrom and make them its own. The one was infinite, the other finite. There could be no other subjugation of the latter to the former, than complete annihilation even as to the body. The maternal human could not be made an image of the Divine, for infinity separated them. Therefore, with the Lord, a new human was to be formed which should be one with the Divine, and in which the Divine could appear in a perfect image. With the Lord, as with man, that which was derived from the Father finally ruled all; but with man the paternal human is a finite form receptive of life, with the Lord it was an infinite form which was Life itself.

     And when this infinite life, the Divine love itself, became present in a human body with all its infirmities, so contrary, even to Infinity, were the two natures, the one Divine the other human, that not for long could the combat between them be delayed. During His very early infancy, while the evil forms derived from the mother lay dormant, unopened by any knowledges, the Divine inflowing from within met no obstruction, and shining through the human spread over it its Divine innocence and peace,-an innocence and peace so great that in the new born babe at Bethlehem it moved the shepherds and the wise men to awful adoration.

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They perceived, not a human infant, but the presence of the Divine.

     But at the first implanting of knowledges, the infirm human began to reveal itself. The forms impressed thereon were opened and they resisted from their inmost nature the influx of the Divine. The human desired that the inflowing Divine be turned into evil. It was resisted. The Lord perceived this state in his human. He saw that the desires which He had inherited from the mother were evil; He felt them as it were in Himself; but from His soul He perceived that no compact could be made with them,-that they were not, and could never become, receptive of the Divine life. And gradually as they were manifested to Him, He rejected them; rejected them entirely and completely, so that they formed no part whatsoever of His life. In their place He introduced new desires-a new Human which had in it nothing of evil, nothing of the mother, but which was born immediately of the Divine,-the Glorified Divine Human.

     Thus the Glorification of the human was a successive process, a process gradually accomplished by the successive rejection of that which was of the mother,-gradually accomplished by temptations even to the last and most bitter, when all that was merely human was finally cast off.

     With man, the nature of the father manifests itself in early years, and, I suppose, the greater the contrariety between his maternal and paternal heredity, the earlier the latter will manifest itself. But with man this manifestation of the loves derived from his father involves little if any conflict, since both the paternal and maternal heredity are evil and there is no intrinsic contrariety between them.

     But with the Lord, whose Father was Jehovah, the manifestation of the paternal heredity involved the most grievous conflicts even in early childhood. In the lightest manifestation of evil in the child, the Lord perceived the utter opposition to His Divine. Feeling it within Himself, He yet perceived from the Divine within and by the Word in which He was instructed that it was to be utterly rejected, that no alliance could be made with it.

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This it was that made the grievousness of His temptations, grievousness which, beginning in infancy, grew more and more bitter during the whole of His life on earth, as He more and more perceived that not one evil, nor many evils, were to be rejected, but the whole maternal human.

     Newchurchmen have often asked why the temptations of the Lord were so grievous since He had no evil heredity from the Father, but only from the mother. In answering this question, it must be noted that the existence of temptation does not depend on the fact that inmost forms of life are evil, but it depends on the presence of evil tendencies in the natural into which the hells can inflow and through which they can assail.

     With man, the hells inflow through the loves which are of his inmost life, that is, his inmost unregenerate life; but this is not necessary for the existence of temptation nor for the greater severity of temptation. The result of it is, not that man is therefore more severely tempted, but that he can never be saved unless he is regenerated, that is, born anew; and that, even in the rebirth, his old loves can never be exterminated but can only be removed to the circumference of his life.

     With the Lord, the hells did not inflow through His inmost loves derived from the Father, but they nevertheless inflowed; for in the natural human which He took on were forms of evil, lusts and desires which made one with hell and in which and through which hell could be present and assail.

     While the Lord had no evil from within, yet the hells could excite evils in His natural as they do with every man. But the Lord, because He was purity itself, could wholly reject them, while man can only remove them to the background, can only constantly turn away from them; they are still with him, and he is withheld from them only by the constant presence of the Lord.

     Thus the Lord, though He was Good itself, could yet be tempted as severely, yea far more severely than any man; for the severity of temptations depends on the quality of the good resisting. Because He perceived the whole nature of the hells assaulting Him, the Lord resisted them even to their inmost nature, and from their inmost malignity they assailed Him, exciting in Him desires which no man could possibly resist. To Him alone could be revealed the inmost desires of evil, and He alone could fight against and conquer them.

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     The Lord's whole life was a combat against the hells; first against external evils, and gradually against more and more interior evils even to the Cross.

     By these combats the Divine Human was formed; that is to say, as the loves and desires inherited from the mother were gradually cast off as they became manifest, so new loves and new desires from the Divine became manifest in Jesus Christ, so that in Him God was made Man, and Man God. We must bear in mind that the Divine Human is not a created body, either natural or spiritual, which the Lord gradually formed and then added to His Divine, but it is the revelation of the Divine itself before the eyes of man in a human form,-a revelation which was not complete until the human body had been cast off in the sepulchre and the Lord was seen in His own Divine Human.

     That manifestation was obscured when the Lord was on earth in the body which He had derived from Mary; it was obscured by the evils of the mother; but yet it was often manifested to the disciples and others, when, after temptation, the human became as it were absent, and the Lord in his state of glorification taught that He was God. We are told in the Writings of the Church that the Lord was in this state when He taught and when He did miracles, and, more manifestly, during the transfiguration. But after His passion, when He appeared to His disciples, He showed Himself to them as the Conqueror over hell and death, and the Teacher of everlasting truth, the Lord over heaven and earth appearing fully in His glorified Human.

     It was by assuming an infirm human and therein conquering all that opposed His Divine, that the Lord has revealed Himself in a human form, not the human body born of Mary, but as the Divine Man as Whom He revealed Himself to His disciples,-Who taught from His Divine and brought salvation to the world.

     Because He came on earth, we can see Him and think of Him as a man; and because while in the human which He then assumed all that He taught was solely from the Divine, therefore, we can see and understand His Divine Truth appearing visibly before us,-the truth of the One God visible to all men. In this way He became the Word made flesh and dwelling among men; the Word in which He Himself speaks to man and instructs him, and by which He gives man of His Divine strength that he may resist the hells.

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To Him, the one visible God of heaven and earth, we ascribe all honor and all glory for ever and ever. Amen.
DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH. IV. 1901

DISTINCTIVENESS OF THE NEW CHURCH. IV.       C. T. ODHNER       1901

     A POSSIBLE HOPE FOR THE CHRISTIAN WORLD.

     Is there, then, no hope whatever that the men of the Old Christian Church, or their descendants, will ultimately receive the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem? Yea, though there are "small hopes," still there is some hope, and this hope is based on two different conditions or contingencies. The first of these is the presence of those "few remains" of primitive Christians who still exist within the external borders of the Old Church, and who gradually will be gathered into the external borders of the New Church, even as they have already begun to be so called out. These people, however, cannot be called "Gentiles." for they are distinctly and most earnestly Christians, good religious persons who in simplicity worship the Lord and read the Word in holiness. These, and their descendants, are to form the beginning of the New Church in the Christian world, by separating from the Old Church, but of them we will speak more later on. But in the proportion that these "remains" actually are called out, in the same proportion there will remain less and less of actual Christianity in the organizations of the Old Church, and the vastation will proceed until, as we have seen from the Doctrines, the men of that Church shall have become as pagans with whom there is no religion." This process of degeneracy may yet take hundreds, if not thousands of years, but in 'the meantime the New Church itself,-and with it the centre of civilization,-will have been established in its greater glory and fulness among the Gentiles in Asia and in Africa. And then, secondly, from that center of the New Church, the light may again spread to the descendants of the present Christian nations, when these have become so utterly gentilized that even the semblance of Christianity has disappeared from among them. Such, at least, seems to be the lesson in the following important teaching:

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     "With respect to interior worship being obliterated, or annihilated, the case is this: the Church cannot be established anew in any nation, before it is so vastated as to have nothing of what is evil and false remaining in its internal worship: for so long as there is evil in the internal worship of a church, those principles of good and truth which ought to constitute its internal worship, find obstacles to their admission,-as may appear from this fact, that they who are born and educated in any heresies, and have confirmed themselves in them so as to be altogether persuaded of their truth, can with difficulty, if ever, be brought to receive truths which are contrary to their false persuasions; whereas, with the Gentiles, who do not know what the truth of faith is, and still live in mutual charity, the case is otherwise. This was the reason that the Lord's Church could not be reestablished amongst the Jews, but only amongst the Gentiles who were not in possession of any knowledge of faith. . . . So, in the case here treated of [the establishment of the Jewish Church], those were chosen, among whom all knowledge of the good and truth of faith was obliterated, and who, like the Gentiles, had become external idolaters." (Ibid, 1366, 2986.)

     As, therefore, the Jewish Church was established among a gentilized nation of the Ancient Church, and as the Christian Church was established among Gentile nations which were remotely descended from that same Ancient Church,-for the Greeks and Romans, Celts, Slavs and Teutons have their common ancestor in Japheth,-and as, finally, we are told that the Church of the New Jerusalem is to be established in its glory among the completely heathenized descendants of Ham, so also there is a possibility that the descendants of the present corrupt Christian Church may, in some far distant period, be received as heathen converts into the New Church.

     But before that day shall have come, what upheavals and revolutions and vastations will the Christian world have witnessed! The seeds of degeneracy and decay which close students in the world have recognized in the modern civilized nations, will before then have blossomed forth in 'ways we cannot even imagine; yet we are not the only ones who have foreseen the day when avaricious and land-hungry Christendom shall no longer be able to rob and oppress the black and the brown and the yellow men,- the day when these latter shall have received the Letter of the Word and the externals of civilization. The day will come when the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem shall have been received by the countless millions in Asia and Africa,-the day when Japan and China and India and the Mohammedan world and the nations of the Dark Continent shall have awakened from their ages of slumber, shall have joined hands together and risen in their might against their common enemy, the impious, thieving, cruel, adulterous white man, who thinks he is a very god of light, yet inwardly is more irrational, more stupid, because more selfish, than the despised heathen.

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Then, when his pride has been utterly broken by humiliation upon humiliation, when he sees that the light and the power has departed to the Gentiles, then, perhaps, he will begin to see reasons for investigating the Doctrines of the Church of the Gentiles, the True Christian Religion which had been offered to him, but rejected ages agone, the Revelation to the Church of the New Jerusalem.     C. T. ODHNER.
NATIVITY 1901

NATIVITY              1901

     AT the season now approaching the thought of the Church turns again to the contemplation of the most momentous, the most sublime of all events in the history of mankind,-the birth of the Lord in Bethlehem. The scenes, the incidents and persons connected with that event recur to view. From year to year we tell the sacred story to our wondering little ones, unconsciously implanting in their hearts imperishable remains of love to the Lord. Sufficient for them is the story in the Letter of the Word, but for "children of a larger growth" the mysteries of infancy have been opened, disclosing wonders still more glorious arcana of the Mercy and Wisdom of the Divine Love, who came down to earth in the helpless body of a new born child.

     In the celebration of the Incarnation, it is most important that the members of the Church should not remain merely in the literal sense of the story of the Lord's birth, but, resting on the literal sense, rise as far as possible into the angelic understanding of the event which is being celebrated.

     For this purpose it will be useful to call to mind some of the suggestive teachings in the Writings of the New Church, from which a connected idea may be gained as to the spiritual meaning of the Gospel story of the Lord's Nativity.

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     JOSEPH, THE FOSTER-FATHER.

     "By Joseph [the son of Israel] is represented the Lord's spiritual kingdom, or the spiritual man, thus the good of faith." (A. C., 3969.)

     "That the Lord was called 'the son of the carpenter' was because a 'worker in wood' signifies the good of life from the doctrine of faith." (Ath. Creed., 102.)

     "It was necessary that the Lord should be born of a virgin, in lawful marriage with Joseph." (De Justificatione, 65:38.)

     MARY, THE VIRGIN.

     "A betrothed virgin signifies the truth of the Church, about to be conjoined with good." (A. C., 3164.)

     "The virgin, by whom the Lord was born, signifies the Church as to the affection of truth." (De Justificatione, 65:37.)

     "The Lord did not acknowledge Mary as His mother, but the Church; and therefore He called her 'woman,' and the 'mother' of the disciple John." (C. L., 119.)

     "In other places she is called His 'mother,' but not from His own mouth." (T. C. R., 102.)

     "It was once granted me to speak with Mary the mother. On this occasion she passed by and was seen in heaven above my head in a white garment as of silk; then she paused for a short time and said that she had been the mother of the Lord and that He was indeed born from her, but that when He became God. He put off everything human from her, and that, therefore, she now adores Him as her God and is unwilling that any one should acknowledge Him as her son because in Him everything is Divine." (T. C. R., 102.)

     BETHLEHEM.

     "Bethlehem signifies the Word as to its spiritual sense, and the Lord willed to be born there, because He is the Word." (A. E., 700.)

     "As by Bethlehem [the 'house of bread'] is signified truth conjoined to good in the natural man, therefore David was born there and was anointed king, for David as king represented the Lord as to truth from good; and on this account also the Lord was born in Bethlehem, because He was born king, and with Him from nativity truth was conjoined to good." (A. E., 449.)

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     THE INN.

     "An inn signifies the exterior natural. This natural is the inn, or the place of rest or of passing the night, for things of knowledge." (A. C., 5495.)
     "An inn signifies a place of instruction. The Jews at this time were in mere falsities by the adulteration of the Word; this is what is meant by there being no place in the inn." (A. E., 706.)

     THE SWADDLING-CLOTHES

     "It is said that He was wrapped in swaddling-clothes, because swaddling-clothes signify the first truths, which are the truths of innocence, which also are the truths of the Divine Love." (A. E., 706.)

     THE MANGER.

     "A manger in a stable signifies spiritual instruction for the understanding; this also is signified by the manger in which the Lord was layed, when born; for a horse signifies the understanding, and hence a manger signifies the feeding of the understanding." (De Verbo, I.)

     THE SHEPHERDS.

     "These things [revealed through Swedenborg] cannot be received by the learned in the world, but by those who are not learned; and it is the same in this case as it was with the shepherds who adored the Lord when He was born, in that they could receive and believe and adore from the good of faith, while the Rabbis could not. If the angel had inflowed with them, his message would have been instantly rejected and extinguished. Such also is the case in the world with the internal sense of the Word." (S. D. Minus, 4736.)

     THE WISE MEN OF THE EAST.

     "Those were called Magi, or wise men, who were in the knowledge of spiritual things, and who thence also had revelations." (A. C., 5223.)

     "As the Syrians, or 'the sons of the East' signifies those in knowledges of good and truth, they were called 'wise men,' as in Matthew, where it is said that wise men from the East came to Jerusalem. For in Syria were the last remains of the Ancient Church, and therefore in that land the knowledges of good and truth were still preserved." (A. C., 3249.)

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     "That a knowledge of correspondences remained with many of the people of the East even to the coming of the Lord may be evident from what is said of the wise men of the East who came to the Lord when He was born." (S. S., 23.)

     THE STAR IN THE EAST.

     "From the prophecies of the Ancient Church the wise men of the East knew that the Lord was to come into the world and that a Star was then to appear to them. It was of this Star that Balaam, who was likewise from the 'sons of the East,' prophesied: 'I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh: there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall arise out of Israel. Numbers 24:17." (A. C., 9293.)

     "The wise men saw a Star from the East, because the Lord is the East; and because they were in knowledge concerning the Advent of the Lord, therefore a star was seen which went before them, first to Jerusalem,-by which was represented the Church itself as to doctrine and as to the Word,-and thence to the place where was the infant Lord. For a Star signifies knowledge of good and truth, and in the supreme sense the knowledge respecting the Lord." (A. E., 422.)

     "'The bright and morning Star' (Apoc. 22:6). The Lord is thus called from the light with which He came into the world." (A. R., 954.)

     GOLD, FRANKINCENSE, AND MYRRH.

     "That the wise men from the East offered these things was because in the East, from ancient times, there remained with some the science and the wisdom of Ancients, which consisted in understanding and seeing heavenly and Divine things in the objects which were in the world and on the earth. Hence it was that they knew that gold, frankincense, and myrrh signify the goods which were to be offered to God." (A. C. 9293.)

     "They offered Him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh: gold signifies good, frankincense and myrrh the things which are grateful because from love and faith, and which are therefore called 'the praises of Jehovah.'" (A. C., 113.)

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CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE 1901

CONCERNING THE SACRED SCRIPTURE OR THE WORD OF THE LORD, FROM EXPERIENCE              1901

[DE VERBO]

     XXII.

     CONCERNING THE WORD.

     IT is necessary that man should understand the Word according to the Letter, in very many passages, as, for example, what the Lord says about cities and about the successive states of the Church; in the Prophets, in very many passages, as, for instance, about Tyre; in the Apocalypse, and about the Paradise. The reason is because the angels are then in the spiritual sense with the man.

     XVIII.

     CONCERNING THE WORD.

     1. Various things respecting the marriage of good and truth in the Word, as may be shown from passages there.
     2. That there are certain chapters and expressions especially pertaining to good, and others especially pertaining to truth.
     3. Some pertain to celestial good and truth, as where it treats of the Jews, and some pertain to spiritual good and truth, as where it treats of Israel.
     4. That each single chapter refers to some one society [of Heaven], and many to all societies.

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     5. That in certain passages there is a sense resulting from the letters alone.
     6. That numbers, and the names of persons and places signify things [as may be shown] from examples.

     XXIV.

     CONCERNING THE WORD.

     In the spiritual kingdom in its superior region they have the Word so written that it can be understood ever more intelligently by the intelligent, but in a simple manner by the simple,-a Word in which there is interior intelligence and interior writing. This is effected by various punctuation marks above the letters, and these marks signify affections. The series of the marks express interior things of intelligence, and this continually before the more intelligent. This Word was seen by me; something was seen of it. There was seen also something of the Word in the celestial kingdom, in which still more arcana were designated, but by means of various curvatures and spiral forms above and within the letters, such as are peculiar to the celestial kingdom. These arcana are transcendent beyond measure, nor can they be comprehended by an angel of the spiritual kingdom; they cannot even enter into their thoughts. It was therefore said to them that they cannot approximate the wisdom of the angels of the celestial kingdom, even as those who are in a natural sphere cannot approximate the intelligence of the angels of the spiritual kingdom: the latter is altogether transcendent, as has been experienced very often. From experience it has been made evident to me that the intelligence of the angels of the spiritual kingdom is ineffable and incomprehensible to those who are in the natural kingdom, and that the wisdom of the angels of the celestial kingdom is incomprehensible and ineffable to those who are in the spiritual kingdom. But in respect to the Divine Wisdom of the Lord, this transcends all wisdom to such a degree that there is no comparison, for all the intelligence and wisdom of the angels is finite, but the Divine Wisdom of the Lord is infinite, and there can be no comparison between the finite and the infinite. The intelligence and wisdom of the angels is finite, because the angels are recipients, and all recipients are created and hence also are finite.

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     XXVI.*

     CONCERNING THE WORD.

     Exploration was made as to the manner in which the spiritual angels utter the words of their speech, and it was found that they utter or pronounce them according to ideas, and from the ideas of the things which they signify. Thus, when they utter or pronounce the words "horse and carriage," they express these by a word which is significative, as "horse" from ideas concerning "understanding," and "carriage" from ideas concerning "doctrine from the Word." In like manner all other words. They speak, therefore, of those things which they see, from their correspondence, just as men do. In a word, they give names to things from correspondence.

     Thus it was now disclosed to them that they have correspondences in the words of their language. This they had not known before, but it was disclosed to them in this manner: in the natural, with me, they explored their ideas respecting those things which they had thought in a spiritual state. In short, the words of their speech are all formed from correspondences.

     It was asked how they write the words "horses harnessed to a carriage." They replied that they write only "L," and that this letter expresses that idea. It was then asked how they write "the understanding of doctrine," and they replied that they write it similarly by the letter "L," but that they are then in superior thought. Hence also it was made manifest that there are correspondences in the words of their language; few of them paid attention to this, however, even as there are few in this world who think about spiritual light, or enlightenment and illustration, when the light of the understanding is spoken of; or who think about spiritual fire or heat, when heavenly fire is spoken of, as that it kindles the heart, not knowing that fire and thence heat correspond to love which is of the heart, that is, of the will, and that light corresponds to truth, which is of the understanding.
     [THE END.]

* No paragraph marked "xxv," can be found in the original MS.

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Editorial Department 1901

Editorial Department       Editor       1901

     A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

     With the month of December the thoughts of all Christians are turned to that event which took place at Bethlehem nearly two thousand years ago. But in the midst of all the celebration and rejoicing how many look upon the birth of our Lord as the coming of God Himself into the world? The Writings answer the question clearly and explicitly when they tell us again and again that few at this day believe that the Lord was God. The traditionary faith still remains, a faith mingled with falses respecting a son born from eternity, a second person the appeaser of a wrathful God; but few indeed look upon Him whose birth into the world they yearly celebrate as aught but a mere man,-a good man, a holy man, the best of men, but yet a man. In the universal rejoicing which comes at Christmas there is scarcely anything of the internal joy over the coming of our Lord Which was voiced by the angelic hosts in the glorification heard by the shepherds; scarcely anything of the interior joy which filled the apostles and their sons of the early Christian Church when they thought of the visible Lord. The external delight with which such joy is fittingly clothed still spreads its mantle over the Christian world, and we hear everywhere the greeting "Merry, Merry Christmas;" but with few is the happiness of Christmas connected with the living thought that on that day God Himself appeared. Men still talk about the birth of our Lord; they still go to their temples on the day of His coming and there listen to the story of His birth; they still observe more or less the externals of a true acknowledgment and worship of Him. But this is of the Divine Providence that the simple may be protected from the universal sphere of agnosticism, and be kept in the worship and acknowledgment of the Lord.



     The signs of the times point to an increase in the external denial of the Lord's Divinity. The latent denial revealed by the Writings is becoming more open, or less thinly veiled, and if this should go on unchecked it would not be long before the supreme doctrine of the Church, the acknowledgment of which conjoins man to heaven, would be entirely lost to earth. But the Lord at this day permits open denial to spread because He has Himself appeared, to check and resist its ravages. He has instituted His New Church, and to that Church is now committed the sacred duty of preserving the knowledge of the Lord among men,-of preaching the Everlasting Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ is God and that He alone reigneth.

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     The Second Coming of the Lord in nowise lessens the duty of the Christian to celebrate and praise Him for His First Coming; nay, it makes that duty more imperative. The Lord's new revelation teaches us that the supreme and central doctrine of the Church is the doctrine concerning the Divinity of the Lord's Human. Turn to the Writings and you will find on every page, in every sentence, the admonition to approach and worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and the warning, that unless we look to Him who was born in Bethlehem, we acknowledge no God but ourselves, no Truth-giver but our own intelligence. We see in a new and glorious light the supreme necessity of approaching and celebrating the Lord in His First Coming. How great, then, the privilege of the man of the Church that He can turn his thoughts to the Lord, especially on the day of His Coming, that he can think of Him as God and can hear His words as the words of the Divine Truth And how great his duty to instruct his children concerning the Lord and to initiate them into affection for Him who appeared before the eyes of men! In the New Church, Christmas will ever be a day of praise and celebration of the Lord, a day on which men may be confirmed in the acknowledgment and worship of the One Visible God. And at this day, more than ever, is it necessary for us to desire and seek this confirmation. The increased joy which surrounds us at Christmas time, if it comes from within, must come from the increased fullness and ultimation of our acknowledgment of the Lord. That acknowledgment conjoins us to the angelic hosts; we partake of the heavenly joys which enter into their glorifications, and those joys seek and find expression in external happiness and merriment. Therefore Christmas is a merry day, as well as a holy day. The devout heart sees cause for nothing but joy and gladness in the Coming of our Lord, and to such a heart Christmas, because it is a day for "Glory to God in the highest," is also a day for "Peace and good will toward men."

     IF THE LORD HAD COME IN SPLENDOR.

     The constant will of the Lord is that He should be acknowledged from the heart. It is not difficult for a man to deceive himself and think that he interiorly acknowledges the Lord when in fact he is merely in persuasion from the spheres of those around him. Suffice it to say that no one acknowledges the Lord from the heart unless he receives His Word as the Divine Truth, and no one does this unless he shuns evils as sins. The continual end of the Divine Providence is that all others should be kept from external acknowledgment lest they profane the holiest doctrine of the Church. It was for this reason that the Lord was born in the lowliest estate, and that throughout His life upon earth He lived in poverty. In the posthumous work De Athanasia Symliala we read: "That the Lord lived in so humble a way so that He was scarcely distinguished from a common man, that He did not live in splendor as a God, was in order that the Jews should not acknowledge Him as the Messiah from externals, but from internals. Therefore, He did not wish to give them signs from heaven. For if they had acknowledged Him in any other way and had afterwards seen that He would not elevate them to be lords over the earth, they would have receded and thus have become profaners.

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That He might have possessed all things is evident from the fact that He fed the five thousand, and afterwards the four thousand, that He gave wine to those in Cana and that He could give a coin from a fish; but that He wished to seem poor was from the cause mentioned." It was from this same reason that He was born in the most humble surroundings. "If it had pleased the Lord He might have been born in the most splendid palace and have been laid in a bed adorned with precious stones; but this would have been with those who were not in any doctrine of truth, and would have been without any heavenly representation." (AE 706.)



     It is well known that at the time the Lord was born, the Jews were in active expectation of the promised Messiah. But they looked for one who should come in earthly power, should deliver them from the yoke of the Romans and should make them lords over the earth. This belief is curiously evidenced in the fact that when the birth of the Lord was first reported Herod "was troubled and all Jerusalem with him." Herod and his court feared an earthly power which should overshadow and perchance dissipate their own; and it was to prevent this, that the cruel massacre at Bethlehem was ordered and carried out. With the sensual Jews looking for an earthly power, consider what would have been the consequences had the Lord come "in splendor as a God!" Hundreds and thousands of the rich and powerful would have followed Him. But how evil would the following have been! And how universal the profanation when that following became convinced that the Lord regarded not the things of earth! Worldlings, flatterers, courtiers and hypocrites-these are the men who would have received Him, as is evident to all who have read history. The poor and the humble are allowed no place among such men. Therefore the Lord was born in a manger, therefore He, the King of Kings, pursued His days on earth in poverty.



     All the acts and circumstances of our Lord's life on earth from His birth to the crucification represented the manner in which the Lord appears to man and the manner in which He is received. And in His Second Coming, the Lord appears to man and is received by man internally, as He had before appeared and been received externally. The correspondence between the circumstances of the First and Second Comings cannot always be seen by us, but in many events it is remarkably clear.

     The world now expects a Messiah. But, like the Jews of old, it looks for a Messiah who will fulfill its own hopes, who will come with pomp and power and give some external and convincing manifestation of His identity. Such a one they are ever ready to receive, and indeed here and Messiah.

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But, as the Lord came in poverty in order that the Jews might not receive Him, so now He has come in a plain and simple revelation that the evil and sensual might not receive Him, lest receiving and being afterwards convinced that He has no gifts for them after the desires of their hearts they reject Him and their last state be worse than their first.

     Speaking according to the passages already quoted we might say, If it had pleased the Lord, He might have come in a revelation written in letters of gold and filled with the most convincing scientific and sensual truths; but this would have been to those who are merely external and have no interior love of truth. That He might have so appeared is evident from the glories He showed to Swedenborg, and from the illustration even in things scientific which He gives to those who approach Him in His revelation The Lord chose to come in a revelation which appears to the external man simple and unimposing in order that none might receive Him but those who could acknowledge Him from internals and not merely from externals. He has come in such a way that the poor "shepherds" can see in Him, Christ, the Lord, while the rich Jews, seeing nothing of their hopes, reject Him. "The Lord's revelation cannot be received by the learned in the world, but by those who are not learned. It is the same in this respect as it was with the shepherds who adored the Lord when He was born, in that they could receive and believe and adore from the good of faith, while the Rabbis could not. If the angel had inflowed with them, his message would have been instantly rejected and extinguished. Such also is the case in the world with the internal sense of the Word." (S. D. Minus, 1,736.)
Monthly Review 1901

Monthly Review              1901

     NEW PUBLICATIONS.

     A Calendar for Reading. "American League of New Church Young People's Societies. Daily Lessons from the Word and the Writings, 1901- 1902." Heavy paper, pp. 4. This calendar which is compiled, we believe, by Rev. W. L. Gladish, is somewhat similar in style to the one published by the General Church. The text-books for doctrinal reading are Heaven and Hell and New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine. Special lessons from the Word are provided for the most important days in the Christian year, such as Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and New-Church Day (June 59th).

     The Concordance. After a delay of seven months we receive at last the 116th part of the "Concordance." It is dated "May, 1901." The present issue concludes the work itself, the last entry being "Zuzim." Then follows the beginning of an Appendix, which contains two classes of things omitted from the main body of the work, 1st, a few extracts from the Writings of doctrinal importance, and, 2d, numerous cross-references of English words, which will be found of essential usefulness.

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After this Appendix there is yet to come a Latin-English vocabulary, designed especially for use to translators and other students of the Latin of the Writings.

     The Journal of the General Convention, 1901. Year by year the Journals of the General Convention increase in interest, perfection or arrangement, and in the number of pages. The Journal of 1900 contained 241 pages; the present volume numbers 271. Unfortunately, the growth of the membership does not keep pace with the steady increase of pages. In 1900, by the addition of the "German Synod," the membership rose to 6,926; this year it sank to 6,814. Last year there were 113 societies and 90 ministers; this year there are 108 societies and 99 ministers, thirty-six of whom, we understand, are not actively engaged in priestly uses. This, certainly, is not much of a showing for all the missionary work that has been done by the Convention since the year 1817. If an equal interest had been taken in the work of New Church Education, what would the membership of the General Convention be now? As Mr. Dewson once said, "There would be no New Church temple in this country large enough to contain the representatives of the Convention."

     The reading of the reports in the Journal produces an impression very different from the account of the annual meeting itself. In cold type, the struggle of the New Church for mere existence becomes painfully apparent. There seems to be a plenty of invested funds, and yet comparatively little work done. The report of the Messenger Board sounds particularly discouraging. "On three occasions within the past two years efforts have been made to induce persons affiliated with the New Church, but whose names do not appear on our mailing list, to become subscribers. At least 4,500 persons have been approached in this way, and copies of the Messenger placed in their hands; yet at the end of two years we can only report a net gain of 116. The Board is forced to believe that the present number of subscribers, 2,390, represents, practically, the number who care to maintain and read the paper, and that no very large increase to this number may for the present be expected." This is a very sensible conclusion, and involves the lesson that it is those who are "hungry" that should be fed-fed, not on milk and water, but on good, strong food.


     The Parables of the New Testament spiritually unfolded, by Rev. E. C. Mitchell. Second Edition. Philadelphia, W. H. Alden, 1900.

     In his preface to this work the author informs us that he is "indebted" to Swedenborg "for the general method of interpretation and for the principles and facts of correspondences and representations," and that he has also adopted the suggestions of "other commentators." This announcement naturally leads us to suppose that the work is addressed primarily to the Old Churchman, and that it contains an "unobtrusive" presentation of the doctrines of the Church, that is, a presentation without any mention of the Church itself. But when we read the work, we are almost at a loss what to think on this point.

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On the one hand we find such statements as the following: 'About a hundred years ago the Christian Church became corrupted in doctrine and in life, and the Lord made His Second Coming in the revealing of the inward spiritual sense of His Word." (p. 223.) "A New Churchman must form his whole life in the light of the New Church and give it the distinctive quality of the New Church." (p. 48.) On the other hand, we find no mention of what the New Church is; no statement of its fundamental doctrines; and the work is far from giving the impression that the truths presented are Divinely revealed. Even Swedenborg, the "Commentator," who is introduced as "having declared himself called to a spiritual mission," is only mentioned casually, and nowhere, throughout the book, do we find a single reference to the Writings. These omissions are the more remarkable in view of the author's statement (p. 46) that "we must have a new system of doctrine ... and a new way of life . . . and this fact shows the uselessness of trying to smuggle New Church ideas into a man's mind without letting him know their distinct quality. He can never make any practical use of the new truth until he acknowledges it as new truth in the new doctrine." We should suppose that if one is to accept the new truths as "new" and "distinct" he ought certainly to have some clear idea of what the New Church is and of its doctrines. It may be objected that exegetical works are not treatises on doctrine, but this only goes to show that such works should be addressed primarily to the New Church. Missionary works must present the doctrines of the Church confirmed from the Word; for we are clearly taught that the doctrines must be seen and acknowledged before the spiritual sense of the Word can be seen. Mr. Mitchell, it is true, in each of his expositions, explains the doctrine involved, but he plunges at once in medias res, and the reader is suddenly introduced to a hundred and one particulars of doctrine, such as degrees, remains, the three heavens, the Last Judgment, etc. So many of these particulars are (necessarily) mentioned, and sometimes with little or no explanation, and so little is said about the New Church itself, that we can imagine the Old Churchman after reading the book wondering "what it's all about." We are almost on the point of concluding that, after all, it was meant for the New Church reader, but, then, we are again confronted with the statement as to the author's "indebtedness," and as to the "other commentators" and decide that it must have been addressed to the Old Churchman.
     
     However this may be, the work is interesting and suggestive to one who is familiar with the general teachings of the Church. But the New Churchman will regret the frequent, and not always consistent substitution of new phrases for the familiar and distinctive terminology of the Writings; such as "symbolises" for "signifies," "mental marriage" for "spiritual marriage," "mental heavens" for "spiritual heavens," "inward meaning" for "spiritual sense, though we find also the term "spiritual meaning." The expositions are, in general, clear and plain presentations of the spiritual sense, though we cannot always agree with the author's applications, especially when he treats of the "signs" of the New Church, or of the natural good of the world which he confounds with genuine natural good.

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But Mr. Mitchell has detracted from the value of the work to a considerable extent by his consistent omission of the references to the Writings on which he has based his interpretations,-interpretations which cannot always be accepted without direct corroboration from the Writings. Still the work will have a use in the Church, and we welcome its appearance in a second edition.

     Mr. Mitchell contemplates writing a companion volume on the parables of the Old Testament. We trust that in this work he will address himself to a distinctly New Church audience, for New Churchmen will certainly be his most appreciative readers. Books without number have been written for the benefit of the Old Church, but the needs of the New Churchman have been far too little considered. The value of works explanatory of the spiritual sense of the Word cannot be doubted, nor their importance overestimated; they serve to make the Lord more present in His Word. But if their authors will enter into the interiors of their subject they must address themselves to the New Church. With such an audience before them, they will be able to add very materially to the Church's knowledge of the Divine Word, for they can leave the threshold and point out the beauties of the city itself.
NEW CHURCH JOURNALS 1901

NEW CHURCH JOURNALS              1901

     New Church Messenger. October 2.-The assassination of President McKinley forms the central theme of the editorials and the sermon in this issue, and is the subject for a "Symposium" with contributions from Judge Albert Mason, Dr. T. F. Wright, Rev. Frank Sewall and others. The Rev. George Henry Dole contributes his valuable series of articles on Modern Evolution by an expose of its denial of "The Absoluteness of Right and Wrong." The writer here attacks Evolution in its weakest and yet most vital spot, by giving proofs positive of its immoral and destructive inwardness. It is shown by quotations from the works of Herbert Spencer that right and wrong, according to the evolutionists, "have their origin in human relations and are developed as new conditions of society make additional demands. If there were only one person on the earth, whatever he would desire would be right. But as the number increases, land is occupied, food is scarce and social relations are developed, right and wrong have increased meaning. Right and wrong, good and evil, are, therefore, merely relative terms, having no absolute existence." "Justice is developed from revenge." "Lying and truthfulness are due to coercive or non-coercive social structures." Chastity in the sexual relations "is determined by the needs of the species." Mr. Dole remarks: "The immorality of evolutionary reasons would never have appeared so clearly if evolutionists had stopped before they attempted to apply their principles to moral questions and offer them in explanation of the spiritual development of man. Evolution is apparently innocent in its beginning. Eventually it throws off the sheep's clothing and appears in its execrable and awful wickedness."

     October 9. In an editorial on "Man's protection from profanation" the editor makes so much of the doctrine that "man is not admitted interiorly into the truths of faith and into the goods of charity, except so far as he can be kept in them even to the end of life" (D. P., 221), that he practically excludes the possibility of profanation.

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"It is true," he says, "that Swedenborg describes the terrible condition of those who have thus profaned the truth: but we do not recollect that he anywhere asserts that he ever actually beheld one in such a state. And we are, therefore, led to believe that the protection assured us in the words above quoted we may rest upon as ample and efficient." By such an application of the Doctrine the Writings are made to contradict themselves. If Swedenborg "describes the terrible condition of those who have thus profaned the truth," it is because there have actually been those who have committed profanation. And the conditions which Swedenborg describes are not imaginary possibilities, but horrible realities which he himself witnessed. Read, for instance, his conversation with certain antediluvian profaners (A. C., 1268), and his description of the Antediluvian hell (Cor., 38). Read also the whole article on "Profanation" in the Concordance and there will be left no doubt about the possibility and actuality of profanation. There are many kinds of profanation; the kind which the Lord "prevents" is "the most grievous to all," but that this does not mean any absolute Divine interference is evident from the fact that the Writings describe the fate of those who have actually committed this very kind of profanation (A. E., 1158, 1160). Moreover, there is direct and conclusive teaching on the subject. No one is permitted to receive good and truth in affection and faith, unless he be such that he is able to remain in them to the end of his life. But those who profane cannot be prevented from it." (A. C., 3402). For there are minds so obstinate and persistent-such for instance as Charles XII.,-that they could be prevented from the worst kind of profanation only by the destruction of the free will-a thing which is never done. The danger of profanation, therefore, is still a real and actual one. To the man of the New Church, above all others, profanation is possible. It is wrong to inspire them with a sense of absolute security. Rather let him be warned to watch and to pray.

     In his review of "New Church Life for September" the literary editor of the Messenger remarks that "the new editorship of this magazine is signalized in this number by the re-statement even under more decisive terms of the extreme positions of the Church organization of which this is the organ." Just what these "extreme positions" are is not clearly indicated. But the reviewer imputes to us the belief that "the preaching of the distinctive principles of the Academy, 'the Authority of the Doctrines,' and this to the exclusive circle of the avowed adherents to the Organization and their children, appears to be the final interpretation of our Lord's commission to his apostles." This is, to us, "a dark saying," dark because of a notable absence of the light of charity in its suggestions. Nevertheless, we would accept it as the platform of the Life, if it were revised so as to read: "The preaching of the distinctive principles of the Academy, and especially the authority of the Doctrines, and this to the members of the New Church everywhere, and to their children, is the first duty of a New Church Journal, and the most immediate application of our Lords commission to His apostles."

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For the "distinctive principles" of the Academy are nothing else than the universal principles of the New Jerusalem.

     The literary editor insists that "nowhere [in the Writings] is the acceptance of the authority of Swedenborg nor of his writings as the Word of God mentioned as a part of this new Gospel which is to save the Church and mankind." What a lamentable contradiction! The critic himself terms the Writings "the new Gospel" and in the very same breath he denies that this Gospel is "the Word of God." Is not "the Gospel" the Word of God? Very different from the above are the burning words in the communication of the Rev. W. L. Gladish on "The Remedy" for the "Discontent in the New Church," in which he most earnestly recommends as the one cure for the ills of the Church the acknowledgment of the Heavenly Doctrines as the Lord's truths. "We must acknowledge the Theological Writings of Swedenborg as Divine Revelation; that they are not his books, but the Lord's books; that they are the Lord's own opening of His Word and, therefore, are to be implicitly obeyed as His own voice and command." "If we think of it as Swedenborg's opening of the Word we have merely human intelligence, we are following a man and may well be called 'Swedenborgians.' There is no power to regenerate in truth accepted as from a man. Only that truth accepted as from the very mouth of the Lord has power to create a new heart and renew a right spirit. We accept the Letter of the Word as Divine, butt if we accept the deeper truths which the Church teaches, as but human, therefore fallible and to be passed upon by ourselves, and to be accepted and rejected as we see fit, we are but feeding our self-intelligence and would be better followers of the Lord if we knew nothing more than the Letter of the Word. We must place these Writings by the side of the Word as the Divine opening of that Word and as the very means by which the Lord has presented Himself anew to men.

     October 16. It is suggested in the department of "The Young People" that Young People's Leagues be established among the youths of the New Church who are attending the Colleges of the Old Church, and this not so much for the purpose of holding fast the members to the faith of the New Church as rather for the sake of making proselytes. The argument advanced is remarkable. "A university affords good ground for the planting of new ideas. . . . The student entering for the first time into the wonders of psychology or evolution begins to realize that there are many new truths in the world, many marvels of which he is ignorant. He comes to hold his former ideas in light esteem, to have more confidence in his professors than in his parents, and in his new opinions than in his old, and to believe that whatever is new is right. Hearing first of the New Church in such an atmosphere and in his honored Alma Mater, he will look upon it as akin to the other advanced teachings which he is meeting with every day. He accepts a new science and a modern philosophy; why should he not listen to a new theology?" And so, together with "Evolution" and Higher Criticism, and Agnosticism, and all the rest, which the student receives from his professors, he naturally drifts into New Church Theology as upheld by a small coterie of "Swedenborgian" students!

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But which is most likely to prevail, the general sphere or the particular, the wolves, or the few lambs that have been thrust into their den? The very fact that the young student will have "more confidence in his professors than in his parents," is as striking an argument for distinctive New Church Education as has ever been presented. If you desire that your son should forsake the New Church, send him to be instructed by those who deny the Lord and His Word.

     October 23. The keynote struck by the Rev. W. L. Gladish is warmly taken up by the Rev. W. H. Alden in a brief, but telling letter. "If we accept Swedenborg's own claim for them, his Writings constitute a Divine Revelation not less truly than those the Word, although in a different way." "These Writings are the external means by which the Lord has effected His second coming." "Can we then regard these Writings too highly? I do not believe we can. I therefore rejoice that Mr. Gladish has struck at the very heart of the matter, and wish to join with him in his affirmations." But Mr. Alden cannot rejoice more than will the readers of the Life at these strong, courageous words of Mr. Gladish and himself. In marked contrast with Mr. Alden's declarations is the statement in the very next column, where Mr. S. H. Spencer, of The New Christianity, proclaims his independence of all Divine Revelation: "The Divine Truth, which regenerates man, which leaves him free and makes him truly free, is not contained in books; and the acknowledgment of any books as 'the Lord's books,' the bowing down before theist, the handling of them with ostentatious reverence, is gross and hurtful idolatry." Having thus denied that the Divine Truth is contained in the Word and the Writings, Mr. Spencer proceeds to apologize for "self-intelligence," "for if we do silence what we call self-intelligence we silence all in-wrought intelligence and become lifeless, meaningless, expressionless images, like moulded images of iron or clay." Comments on this seem unnecessary.

     New Church Independent. September. This number is quite a remarkable one in the way of contrasts. Between its covers we find clear statements of the doctrines, placed side by side with notions drawn from any source but the Writings. One is almost led to wonder what class of thoughts the Independent represents. The anonymous article "On this Rock will I build my Church" is a terse statement of what are generally known as Academy teachings." The opening sentence strikes the right keynote: "The Writings are not man's, they are the Lord's through a man." "They are Divine Truth, or, if you please, the Word." Shall we, the writer asks, bow down to and obey theist, or "shall we do as we have done?" He shows the fruits of the past in the "remarkable and discouraging" losses in membership: "In scores and scores of places where New Church societies thrived, there now remains scarcely a vestige. The young people formed alliances with those out of the Church; finally married out of the Church, and are lost to the Church." If the Writings are true "then we are justified in separating ourselves from all other churches." But if they are not true "we might as well disperse, for the New Church has no right to exist."

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"But there are those," the article concludes, "who are persuaded by the best of evidence that the Writings are what they claim to be, the only rock on which the Lord at this day builds His Church"

     Contrast with this the following, from one of the editorials: "The Christian Science Sentinel copies our editorial and says 'We assure our brother that his words of tenderness find a grateful place in the hearts of all Christian Scientists.' We are very thankful for the courtesy of our Christian Science contemporary and we hope that our brotherly relations will continue." "There is a great deal of good in Christian Science." "The very reading of Science and Health, and nothing else, has cured many diseases." [!]

     The sermon is an arraignment of poor "spiritual" man and a deification of "celestial" Woman. "She fell because she was highest." Now, she is ruled by the reason of man, but when she rises 'her natural method of mental operation" will "govern the race."

     It is a relief to turn from this fantastic nonsense to the heavenly scenes presented by "Octogenarian" in "Marriages in Heaven." Referring to the marriage of Queen Ulrica Eleanor (S. D., 6009) the writer says "there was no priest, festival nor any formal ceremony. This conclusion must be revised by the light of S. D., 6027, which was omitted from the printed Diary. There it is shown that a priest officiated; that congratulations were received first from little children and then from adults; and that there was a wedding feast at which 30 persons sat down. (See, Concordance, Vol. IV., p. 547.)

     The editors announce that "as there does not seem to be sufficient demand for it" the Independent may be abandoned "at the close of the present volume."


     Morning Light. October 5th. Looseness of thought on the part of New Church ministers concerning the interior doctrines of the Church incidentally shows itself every now and again in the most surprising statements. The Rev. John Elstob in a sermon on "Hades, not Hell." teaches that the Lord, when He was on earth, "hallowed every condition of human existence" and "experimentally fathomed the deepest depths of the mystery of death." These may be very high sounding phrases, but they are certainly not the teachings of the Church. The Lord is omniscient, He can do nothing "experimentally;" and far from "hallowing" He rejected all that was human.

     October 19th. It has been noticed in many quarters that as the attractions and opportunities of the world increase, fewer and fewer of those who would make good ministers enter into the theological seminaries. In this issue of Morning Light we are reminded of the existence of this lamentable state of affairs, both in the Old Church and in the New. From an editorial note we learn that one of the Bishops of the Church of England thinks the time has now come when individual congregations "should set themselves the task of finding candidates for ordination;" while Rev. W. H. Claxton, writing to the Junior members, says: "In the New Church, as in other religious bodies, there is a remarkable and almost unaccountable slackness in the supply of men for the sacred uses of the ministry."

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The same condition of affairs is pointed out in a "Notice issued by the New Church College and printed in Morning Light of Oct. 5th.

     A controversy has begun on the subject of the "Universal New Church." The discussion was started by a paragraph in Mr. Buss's letter on the "Old Church," in which he incidentally mentioned that the use of the term "Universal New Church" in A. R. 6 does not involve that the good in the Old Church belong to the New. To this, Mr. Adcock, writing in the issue of Oct. 12th, rejoins by quoting from the passage in question "The Universal New Church is described with its various particulars by the Seven Churches." To this he adds the teaching in A. R. 363 that the "great multitude" round about the twelve tribes signifies the inferior heavens and the exterior New Church. Then, after referring to other passages to the effect that a man in the good of life "is really in the truths of doctrine" (A. R., 82) he concludes as follows: "While the avowed New Churchman who truly lives the New Church life may find his spiritual home in the internal and more vital regions of the Lord's New Church, 'a great multitude which no man can number' are included by the Lord in the exterior regions of His Universal New and only Church." In the following number of Morning Light the Rev. G. W. Wall challenges this conclusion which he says is based on the assumption that "the seven churches describe those already in the New Church, which is simply astounding." He then refers to A. R. 10 and 69, showing that the seven churches signify all "out of whom the New Church can be formed." "The messages to the churches," he continues, "point out what is wrong with those who are thus represented, and how the defect is to be remedied so that they may become of the Church; for the church is the church baths as to doctrine and as to life."

     The New Church Magazine. October. In the concluding paper of his review entitled "Pagan survivals" Mr. Robilliard quotes from his author the statements, that the custom of building churches facing the east comes from the pagan worship of the sun; our church spires come from the pagan obelisks and minarets, emblems of the sum's rays; the cock with which they are surmounted is the herald of the god of day, or the sun god, and the cross as a Christian symbol comes from the pagan estimation of the tree with lateral branches as symbolic of the generative principle of life, and therefore of struggle and warfare. But Mr. Robilliard shows how external is the view that regards these "survivals" as remains of nature worship. To the New Churchman they are so many evidences of a wide spread Ancient Church where the Ancient Word was known and the science of correspondences cultivated. He confirms this by referring to the promise concerning the Lord, remains of which are to be found in all heathen traditions. "The familiar figure of Virgin and Child runs through them all." "In Egypt we have Isis and Osiris" (Horus?); in India "Indrani is shown with a babe at her breast."

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"In Thibet, China and Japan the holy mother Shing Moo is presented with a child in her arms and a glory around her." "In Scandinavia Thor crushes the serpent's head with a mace; in Greece Apollo slays the serpent Pytho; in Mexico the Great Spirit Teotl is incarnated for the purpose of destroying the genius of evil. The very universality of a belief in a coming Messiah is in itself an evidence of a Divine Revelation."

     In a review of the principal papers read before the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Rev. J. R. Rendell makes some interesting extracts from Swedenborg's Scientific works. The Address of the president was a plea for grounding our ideas upon "reason and fact" and not merely on visual observation. Mr. Rendell compares this with Swedenborg's statement that we must be instructed by the senses and by reason. The comparison is somewhat misleading, for though modern science acknowledges the necessity of reason, yet a "reason" in which he materialism and infidelity is as far removed from the "reason" of Swedenborg as light is from darkness. It is natural, not rational.

     Reviewing another paper, Mr. Rendell quotes from Swedenborg a passage in which "we have, so far as we are aware, the first statement that heat and light are associated with the motions of the ether." We are reminded by this, that every now and again the discoveries of science confirm the scientific teachings of Swedenborg, and this should prove an incentive to New Church students to read and study those teachings.

     The son of the famous Charles Darwin gives voice to the logical outcome of the theory of evolution. His study of the motions of plants heads him to attribute to them the "ghost of consciousness." Of course Mr. Rendell entirely demurs from any such notion, but, he says, "even this is not so extravagant as the assertion of Professor Haeckel in his recently published Riddle of the Universe, that 'matter and ether are not dead and only moved by intrinsic force; but they are endowed with sensation and will; they experience an inclination for condensation, a dislike for strain; they strive after the one and struggle against the other.'" Mr. Rendell's comment is terse and pointed. "'Ibis appears to us," he says, "to be extravagant nonsense. Yet it is what the materialistic philosopher is driven to. He cannot but recognize sensation and will in man, and, therefore, is logically bound to attribute them to all matter. But surely folly can no farther go."

     The increasing denial of the Word is the subject of one of Rev. J. Ashby's "Notes and Comments." Formerly, when the New Church, in teaching the spiritual nature of the Word, showed the harshness and cruelty of the Letter, she was accused of denying the Word. But now while the New Church is still faithful, the men of the Old Church, her former accusers, have made the harshness of the Letter a reason for the rejection of the entire Word as Divine. In confirmation of this, Mr. Ashby quotes from Mr. Stead, who, writing in the Review of Reviews, tells us, that what is wanted is "an edition of the Bible which would preserve all that was of vital interest for the present generation, winnowing away the husk and chaff of Hebrew genealogies and other matters which have long ago become mere irrelevant tophammer to the general reader."

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Mr. Ashby adds "Mr. Stead is the organ of speech for thousands" in this opinion, "but it is not till this day that men have felt free to express the sceptical thoughts that are in them."

     Mr. Ashby gives another illustration of the scepticism of the age in a notice of an article in the October Fortnightly Review on "Do men desire immortality?" The writer of this article from his observance of "the ordinary conduct of men" is emphatically of the opinion that the world ecclesiastical and secular does not in reality believe in a life hereafter, because such a belief would form an impediment to action. He points out that this does not necessarily mean that the doctrine of immortality is rejected, indeed he shows the reverse to be the case. It is "because the religious doctrines of immortality are not taken as facts that they are accepted." Men prefer to profess them, and then suppress all thought of death "by a resolute and systematic determination not to entertain it" rather than to think about and examine them. Unwittingly, perhaps, he indicates the cause of this universal unbelief, as being the growing power of worldly loves. We are reminded of the doctrine of Permission. How sad would be the state if men generally saw the truth respecting the future life! The seeing would not change the materialism, but the materialism would become profanity. The writer proposes to test his conclusions by applying to the educated classes for "candid" answers to a number of searching questions. "Do yon prefer to live after death? and why?" "Do you desire a future life whatever the conditions? and why?" "What elements in life are felt by you to call for its perpetuity?" and "Do you now feel the question to be of urgent importance to your mental comfort?" But even if the answers to these questions came by the thousands and were entirely "candid" we fear they would not reveal how almost universal is the denial of the future life. The historical faith is too deeply rooted in men's external mind by education and tradition to be suddenly denied even after all internal faith has perished. Most men do not care to think of internal things, and are content to rest in external belief so long as this does not interfere with their pleasures.

     Monatblatter. October. The editor, in commenting upon a letter from Mr. John Czerny, of Brooklyn, N. Y., gives a brief sketch of the history of the "First German New Church Society, of Brooklyn, E. D.," which at one time was connected with the General Church of Pennsylvania, and adds this information: "The society hoped to be able, in time, to engage a German-speaking minister of their own; but they were not permitted to collect contributions for this purpose, because they were obliged to hand over all contributions to the 'General Church.' As a consequence, the society dissolved its connection with that organization." The editor has clearly been misinformed. The society in question left the General Church because a majority of the members embraced the cause of the Rev. L. H. Tafel in the latter's conflict with the Academy and the General Church.

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FIRST CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1901

FIRST CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY       B. C. P       1901

     After a collation, at which sixty persons were present, the Assembly was opened by Bishop Pendleton on Friday evening. Oct. 18th, at the Club House of the Immanuel Church, in Glenview.

     A short selection from the Word and the singing of "The voice of one crying in the wilderness" preceded the reading of the Ninth Law of the Divine Providence from the Athanasian Creed, No. 37: "That the Lord does not, without the use of means, teach man truths, either from Himself or through the angels, but that He teaches by means derived from the Word, from preaching and reading, from conversation and intercourse with others, and thus from private reflections arising out of them; and that man is thus enlightened according to his affection of truth grounded in use; otherwise he would not act as if from himself."

     Introducing the subject of a more complete organization the Bishop said in brief: "The Lord does not teach man directly from Himself or by influx. He is taught by preaching, reading, conversation, and, lastly, by reflection. These are the means used by the Lord in imparting truths. The first, preaching, involves a priesthood-teachers concerning the things of eternal life-and the priesthood involves organization for the purpose of carrying out the laws of the Divine Providence. The more complete the organization, the more effectual the preaching. The second means, reading, involves the study of the Writings, which is of the greatest importance. Man must come face to face with the truth that is given him. The Writings are a divine instrumentality. Man is, in fact, taught to read that he may study the Writings. What man, unless he be without affection, can read in them without an inspiration toward a better life. The third means is conversation. The man who has the affection of spiritual truth is saved. This shows the necessity of those being united who have the same general affections. Every man also who loves the Writings is unconsciously in conversation with good spirits. The fourth means, reflection, though mentioned last, is the end and purpose of all. There is the greatest necessity for self-examination. Listening to preaching, reading the Writings, and conversation with others concerning the things of the church and eternal life all suggest reflection, which involves repentance. Organization is instrumental to all these things. The church is internal, organization is external. The church, in the spiritual sense, is doctrine; organization is the external instrumentality to the true establishment of that which is the very Church with man. The results of organization are illustration, affection, and light in the mind from the sun of heaven. The man is elevated into that light, and is able to look down on himself and discriminate. We thus see some of the uses of organization. It is our duty, therefore, to gradually perfect our organization.

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The great use of the General Assembly is that it brings us closer together. The organization of parts, or distinct assemblies, is a step in advance. In the future when the church has grown large enough to permit of it, these will become dioceses with a bishop over each."

     The Bishop dwelt particularly on the necessity for slow growth. "We do not want organization on paper, but in actual uses. Let us not hurry on blindly, but prepare ourselves to receive that which comes of Providence."

     The questions before the Assembly for discussion were: -1st. Desirability of meeting every year. 2d. Selection of a name. 3d. Appointment of a secretary.

     Mr. Hugh Burnham, in remarking on the first question, thought there was no need for prolonged discussion, as all seemed heartily in accord.

     Mr. Forrest wished to know whether forming a District Assembly changed our position toward the General Church and what the uses of the District Assembly would be.

     Bishop Pendleton said that it did not materially alter the position of the society at present, save that it involved the appointment of a secretary to assist the Bishop in the District. And there is the great spiritual use of meeting together in these assemblies.

     Mr. Swain Nelson thought the assemblies would be of great use to isolated members.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson. "I see clearly from the teaching that there is a distinct use in increasing the opportunities of the Bishop's office. We ourselves have been too self-sufficient, being satisfied with the admirable instruction we have received for years past, but outsiders also need help. I can see that this annual meeting may be of great use to our isolated members. It gives a greater sphere to the General Church. I am most heartily in favor of meeting annually."

     The Bishop. "There being no objection, the decision is unanimous that this body meet annually."

     Rev. N. D. Pendleton was nominated secretary by the Bishop and confirmed by vote.

     The name of the body then came under consideration. After some discussion "The Chicago District Assembly" was decided upon.

     Letters from isolated members were then read, and the Assembly adjourned until Saturday afternoon.

     The second meeting was opened by the singing of the Sanctus, and the reading of the 76th Psalm. On motion the subject of "The Spirit and Purpose of our Organization" was taken up for discussion.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton said:-"Our purpose is manifest, namely, that of caring for members of our body here and in places adjacent. It is an effort to bring us into a common bond. It gives to our Local Assemblies a larger purpose, and turns our thoughts and affections to the fact that there are isolated members who would be benefited by coming into a closer union.

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It is a larger outlook, increasing the purpose of the Bishop's visit. I, too, am opposed to paper organization, and am desirous of doing actual work. There are three practical means toward that end; letters, visits between members, and official visits by the secretary. It has an important bearing on our affairs here. For instance, we must make such a disposition of our uses that the secretary may be free to leave the society for a week or two at a time. All may help in one way or another. What we want to do is to make the District Assembly a real living thing. We should consider, frankly, the difficulties in our way. It seems as if we had already more than we can manage, so we must consider this question from all sides. If our use be a genuine one we shall be blessed in our undertaking."

     Mr. Seymour Nelson. "We are all aware of the efforts made by men enthusiastically interested in forwarding the work of the church in the circulation of tracts. But results show but small percentage of members brought into the church by such means. But any one of us can think of people who have come in as if by an accidental discovery of the truth. There is wisdom in foregoing any persistent effort to gather in the multitudes. But we are turning our minds to a far more promising use in the building up and encouragement of isolated receivers. It will be a great help to those who are struggling on alone to know that we are thinking of, and are trying to help them."

     The Bishop strongly approved Mr. Nelson's remarks. "A few knowledges put into the mind of a true New Church man or woman, in the right and orderly way, are of great use. Our body is unable at present to do much external missionary work. The chief use of our organization is to be of benefit to our own members, to isolated receivers and to others who are interested."

     Mr. Burnham believed that missionary work could be done much more easily if a layman assists the priest. "People, as a rule, are afraid of the minister. The living interest among the laymen of the Academy excited interest in others and made them realize that the church could be brought down to the everyday things of life. If visits are made back and forth between us and those interested the results will be far beyond anything done so far. It will help to confirm with laymen the things which the priest teaches and will arouse affection, one for the other."

     Mr. Swain Nelson. "All the church people desire that every one in it may have the same delight. It is an act of charity and strengthens mutual affection.

     Mr. Maynard. "We all know the benefits, pleasures and difficulties of community life, but the balance is on the side of the advantages. We occasionally find isolated receivers who desire to come among us. They ought to be encouraged to come and receive the advantages of the church and school. We might build up the church by using every reasonable means in our power to induce them to come among us."

     The Bishop "What has fostered our work is the desire of parents to have their children brought up in the school and the church. This love is, interiorly, the love of their eternal salvation."

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     Mr. Burnham. "Our pastor has spoken of us as having all we can do. All through the world men look to busy people to do the added uses. We have a great many uses-more far reaching than we at first realized, but we can undertake this. We can not only spare our pastor for brief periods, but we can induce members to come among us. We all recollect the pleasure we used to feel in the early days of the Immanuel Church, in having visitors from the centre. Visits arouse affections for the things of the church. Newcomers bring new ideas that make us think. If this activity is entered upon it will open up a vast field and there will be a great use derived by the church in doing something outside of itself."

     The Bishop. "There was an element of doubt in my mind as to Chicago being able to have a District Assembly, there being so few outlying members. But the more we talk of it the more I see the great advantages. It is impossible for me, personally, to visit the smaller circles, but through the District Assemblies the work of the General Church can be ably carried on in greater detail. I rejoice in this movement, but we must not, and do not, expect great things. Let us be satisfied with small beginnings. The Lord never undertakes anything with man and then recedes. Man may recede from Him, but, if this is His work, He has already turned to us."

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton "The use is assumed; we will do the best we can. All the suggestions made this afternoon are quite practicable. We propose to put ourselves in a favorable attitude towards this work. In past years our minds were closed towards the conception and consideration of such thoughts. Now we have placed ourselves in a position to actually see and do these uses. It will redound to the benefit of this community, for it is a larger policy and we have needed it. I hope that the next meeting will see something actually done."

     The time of the next meeting was left subject to the call of the Bishop and Secretary. After some discussion of minor points the Assembly adjourned.

     On Sunday morning Bishop Pendleton preached in Glenview to a congregation of seventy-four persons, and on Sunday afternoon he administered the Holy Supper to fifty-four communicants. B. C. P.
DECENNIAL OF THE CARMEL CHURCH 1901

DECENNIAL OF THE CARMEL CHURCH       F. E. W       1901

     THE Carmel Church of the New Jerusalem in Berlin, Ontario, on the 27th of September celebrated the decennial of its institution. The actual date of the decennial was the 12th of July, but it was thought best to postpone the celebration until after the summer season.

     After the usual Friday supper in the schoolroom, the members of the Society assembled in the hall of worship and listened to an address, chiefly historical in its character, by the pastor. The address traced the history of the events, which, from the time of the first institution of the New Church in an external form in this world down to the time of the establishment of this particular Church, reveal to us the merciful Providence of the Lord in preserving in the New Church in general, and in this community in particular, an acknowledgment of the Lord in His Second Coming, and in finally establishing a distinct organization of the Church based upon this acknowledgment.

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The work of Robert Hindmarsh, Richard de Charms and W. H. Benade was dwelt upon. The history of the Church in Berlin was followed from the time of Mr. Christian Enslin, who received the Doctrines in 1832, and who, on the organization of the Central Convention, became a member of that body. Through his instrumentality the Church in Berlin had a sound beginning; and later, under the pastorate of the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, it progressed in the true understanding of the Heavenly Doctrines, established an order of Church government to a considerable extent in harmony with those Doctrines, and finally, in 1888, instituted a New Church school. The address gave a full history of the First New Jerusalem Society in Berlin from 1888 to 1891, telling of the two parties which came into existence in the same, the one favoring Academy principles and the other opposing them. The pastor of that Society at first had adhered to the principles of the Academy, but later on espoused the cause of its opponents. The struggle came to a head at a quarterly meeting held on Thursday, the 9th of July, 1891. After this meeting the friends of the Academy felt that they could no longer worship with the old society, and accordingly on the following Sunday, July the 12th, they assembled for worship in the house of Mr. Richard Roschman. The Rev. F. E. Waelchli, who had been head-master of the school, officiated at this service. Concerning this event the Decennial Address said: "That service was the institution of this Church. It was for us a happy day, the day on which we entered upon our freedom."

     The pastor closed his address with the following words: "And now, what shall I say in regard to the life of this Church during the first ten years of its existence? I feel that I am safe in saying that it has been a life of progress-a life of growth into a more interior understanding of the precious revelation in which the Lord has made His Second Coming, and also of growth in the perception as to what is the life which that revelation teaches both for the Church as a composite man and for the Church in the individual. We have come to see more and more clearly that the Lord in His Divine Human reveals Himself to His New Church in the Writings, which are the Word in its internal sense; that the Old Church is dead and consummated, and that the New Church must in all things be distinct from it; that the priesthood is the appointed means for the establishment of the Church; that there must be order and at the same time genuine freedom in the Church; that marriages of those within the Church with those out of the Church are heinous in the sight of the Lord and of heaven; that the Church must have its own distinct social life; and that our children must be educated in distinctive New Church schools. These and other things we have come to see ever more clearly. These considerations impress upon us the fact that there is a difference, a very great difference, between the General Church and the General Convention, a difference so great that a re-union of the two bodies is out of question.

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The issues at the time of separation are the issues of today. I think, in fact, I am certain, that of those here present who attended that first service ten years ago, no one regrets the part which he thereby took in the effecting of the separation and the establishment of this Church. The cause we cherished then, the cause of pure doctrine and true order in the Church, this we cherish today. May we all remain true to it. And may our children after us remain true to it. Then will the Carmel Church of the New Jerusalem grow and prosper and perform its exalted uses for countless generations to come."

     Several members of the Society then addressed the meeting.

     Mr. Jacob Stroh contrasted the happy state which we have enjoyed during the past ten years with the trying states of conflict which preceded. We have learned many new things which now no longer seem new to us; but other new things-new truths and new things of life-are constantly being brought forth from the Doctrines. The more we grow, the more there will be revealed to us. There is a great, an infinite treasure in store for us. Among the things we have learned to understand and to prize is the conjugial; and we are constantly seeing more fully how vital this is to the Church. There are some persons without the General Church who believe that they are in sympathy with us. If they are, it is their duty, for their own sake and for the sake of the Church, to come to us. We, who are of the General Church, should above all things be content with our lot. All we need we can find in the General Church, and we can get nothing like it elsewhere. The teachings given and also the life of the Church are different With us from what they are anywhere else in the New Church; a step towards reunion with those who have remained in the old state would be a backward step, a step impossible to take.

     Mr. Rudolf Roschman spoke of the pleasure which he was certain all felt, in hearing the history of the labors of those who had devoted their energies to the establishment of the Church on true principles. Foremost among these principles is the acknowledgment of the authority of the Writings, the acknowledgment that they are the Word revealed by the Lord in His Second Coming. Few in the Church at large believe this; yet everyone, who is willing to look to the Lord in the Writings, can see that it is true. He remembered the first time he heard the teaching that the Writings are the Word. It came to him almost as a shock. It seemed like too great a claim. He felt a certain fear in thinking of them thus. But that feeling passed away as the teaching came into clearer light, and now he would feel just as great a fear of the thought that the Writings are not the Word. The separation which took place ten years ago was a separation because of differences of faith and thence of life, and those differences still exist. We have lately been told that some of those from whom we separated entertain the idea that the difficulties at that time were external in their character, and that the split could have been avoided if certain persons had acted differently. This may indeed be the appearance, but it is not really the case. Injustice towards us apparently drove us away, but injustice alone would not have effected this had there been with those whom we left a recognition of true principles.

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Since that separation we have been able to develop in freedom, and have spent ten happy years. If we maintain our distinctiveness, that happiness will continue. We can never join those from whom we separated, unless they accept the genuine principles of the New Church. We wish them success in their work, and rejoice in any true progress they may make. But we have our own uses and our faith, to which we must above all be loyal. It is useful at this decennial celebration to review our position and resolve to maintain it at all costs.

     Mr. Richard Roschman, after alluding to the happiness and the sense of freedom which all felt at the first service of this body ten years ago, spoke of the necessity of all continuing in that affection of truth which has characterized the Academy movement here and elsewhere from the beginning. The Academy has always insisted on the importance of the reading and study of the Writings; and unless we do this, we cannot make progress.

     After the close of this part of the celebration, a social meeting was held in the schoolroom, in the course of which a number of toasts appropriate to the occasion were proposed and briefly responded to. A strong sphere of love and loyalty to the Church prevailed throughout, and all will remember this celebration as one of the happiest events in the history of the Carmel Church.     F. E. W.
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MARYLAND ASSOCIATION 1901

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MARYLAND ASSOCIATION       ALFRED H. STROH       1901

     It was my privilege to attend the 41st annual meeting of the Maryland Association, held at Wilmington, Del., on October 18th-20th. From the printed minutes of the five annual meetings held from 1896 to 1900 (pp. 73), copies of which were distributed during the meeting, it appears that there are societies in the following places: Baltimore (English and German), Easton and Preston, Md.; Richmond, Va.; Washington, D. C. (English and African); and Wilmington, Del. Besides these societies there are isolated receivers within the limits of the Association, in Maryland, the two Virginias, Delaware and the District of Columbia, the total number of persons within the bounds of the Association aggregating over six hundred, of whom 377 are members of the Association. At the close of the neatly printed minutes (pp. 59-73), there is given a valuable directory of "Names of Places where there are Believers or Readers of the New Church Doctrines, with names of such so far as ascertained, including Members of Organized Societies." The energies of the Association are largely devoted to Missionary work in Virginia and Maryland. During the last year this has been carried on with gratifying results by the Rev. G. Lawrence Allbutt in Richmond, Va.; by the Rev. Lewis F. Hite and the Rev. P. B. Cabell in Virginia; and in Maryland by the Rev. J. E. Smith, the missionary of the Pennsylvania Association.

     The Conference of Ministers opened on Friday, the 18th, at 11:00 a. m. After new members had been elected and visitors invited to take part in the deliberations, the Rev. G. Lawrence Allbutt read an interesting paper on How to Think of Faith," dwelling especially upon the importance of a living faith which will lead to good works.

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The paper also dealt with the development of Faith in the Christian Church and pointed out the interesting fact that the word faith occurs only twice in the Old Testament. The reading of the paper was followed by a discussion during the morning session. The afternoon session was mainly occupied by a paper by the Rev. J. E. Thomas and discussion of the apparent doctrine of a duality of Persons contained in John viii: 17, 18, where the "two witnesses" are treated of.

     In the evening there was a meeting of the Sunday School Union at which reports were read, followed by an Address by Mr. Arthur Mercer, on "The Aim of instruction in the Sunday School." A considerable portion of the Address dealt with the explanation of the degrees of the mind and their correspondence to the eras of the Kings, the Judges and Patriarchs, in criticism of an article on that subject in the Sower.

     At 10:00 a. m. on Saturday the Association itself had its first session. The morning was mainly occupied by the reading of the reports of societies, ministers and officers. From the report of the First Colored Society, of Washington, D. C., and supplementary information, it appeared that the society was almost entirely disintegrated when the present pastor, the Rev. J. E. Thomas, first took up the work, but that by his earnest labors the members had been brought into the fold again. The German Society, of Baltimore, reported a restored harmony since the withdrawal of certain members and the establishment of a separate society under the auspices of the General Church.

     The report of the Committee of Ministers recommending the ordination of Mr. Arthur Mercer was accepted and approved.

     The morning session closed with the Report and Address of the General Pastor on the "Remedy for Anarchy," showing that the origin and cure of social distemper are spiritual in nature.

     During the afternoon session the Rev. P. B. Cabell delivered the Annual Address, in which he considered the reasons for the slow growth of the Church, drawing attention to the relations of the church on earth to the New Heaven, and holding out the hope that by effective missionary work the organizations of the Old Church would fall into line and follow the banner of the New.

     In the evening there was a meeting of the League of Young People, whose organization has not yet been completed. Mr. W. McGeorge, of Philadelphia, delivered an address on "Killing two Birds with One Stone," securing external progress and harmony by shunning the internal obstructions to them. There then followed a social meeting in the church parlors.

     On Sunday morning the Holy Communion was administered by the General Pastor, the Rev. Frank Sewall; Mr. Arthur Mercer preached on the prayer of the disciple Philip: "Show us the Father and it sufficeth us." In the evening there was a sermon by the General Pastor.
ALFRED H. STROH.

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CHURCH NEWS 1901

CHURCH NEWS       Various       1901

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     The General Church of the New Jerusalem. On Oct. 7th Bishop Pendleton left Bryn Athyn on his autumn tour, visiting the societies at Denver, Chicago and Pittsburg in turn, and reaching home on the last of the month, in improved health. During his visit at Glenview the Chicago District Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was organized, the Bishop presiding; and at Pittsburg the Pittsburg District Assembly was similarly organized, on the lines already established at Berlin and Bryn Athyn. On the 27th he also ordained into the Pastoral Degree the Rev. David H. Klein, who, as previously noted, has taken charge of the Middleport Society.

     The Academy Schools. As the sound of hammer and saw have not yet ceased in the new buildings, and as there is yet much to be done to bring the interiors and the surrounding grounds to completion, the Dedication will not take place until some time in the new year. In the meantime both teachers and scholars are appreciating more and more not only the convenience, but also the comfort of the large, light, airy class rooms and stately corridors, though one must confess to a feeling of grim fatality and inevitability about the unerring regularity of the gongs which are governed by a wonderful time-clock. There is a glorious opportunity for the sons and daughters of the Academy to make this home more and more homelike. For example, there are so many fine places for pictures. The Art Room already assumes the garb of the busy studio, and Miss Potts's pupils may be reasonably expected before long to fill some of the nooks and corners with products of their handiwork.

     In the Lecture Room adjoining, we have been privileged lately to attend weekly lectures by Prof. Odhner on Church History, in continuation of a series begun last year. He has now completed the period of the Ancient Church, after a minute presentation of the Ethnology and Theology of that Church, as described in the tenth chapter of Genesis, and he has been delighting us with the wonders of the internal historical sense of that chapter, which in the Letter consists of mere names.

     Miss Sherman, who is to have charge of the Girls' Dormitory when completed, is teaching in the Seminary, and the students in the senior class of the college are receiving lessons in anatomy from Dr. George Cooper, of Philadelphia.

     After a long summer's vacation the spirit was high for the first school social of the season held at the Club House on the evening of Oct. 26th, as also for the housewarming or "dedication" of the Boys' Dormitory on the 9th inst., at which almost fifty young people of Bryn Athyn and Philadelphia helped kindle the flame. The evening began with "a show in the garret," where the attic philosophers were privileged to expend their wisdom on an hour's entertainment, to warm up the boys' sanctum in the third floor. An imitation of the Pan-American Midway was attempted and approved as worth the price (eight cents), and after the brief attraction, "Theatre Dormitoire," had delighted two audiences, all adjourned below, where the hostesses of the evening, Mrs. Bostock and the young lady residents, had provided dancing and games of great originality. In one of these we were carried back to childhood's days by being asked to make pencil illustrations of a Mother Goose Rhyme given to us. Then these works of art were displayed on the walls and all present given a chance to guess the subject of the sketches.

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After this pleasing diversion and valuable kindergarten lesson, refreshments were served, including a birthday cake. This event, while strongly reminding us of both tasks and social times in the past, seemed to complete the conversion of the old College, and it now goes forward on the "pillowy" waves of Dormitory existence. Parents will no doubt be gratified to hear that of their own free will their sons and daughters have established at table a system of penny fines for sundry violations of etiquette, the fund thus accumulated to be used for a party which will give opportunity for a display of the exquisite manners thus acquired. The resultant situation is curious for it will be evident that no large fund can be accumulated except by much misconduct, and much misconduct does not augur well for good manners at the party. The predicament awaits solution.     W. B. C.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa. A very interesting meeting to talk about "Democracy," was held here on Monday evening, November 11th.

     The speakers in general favored the republican form of government as against autocracy; some treated the subject from a political, and others more from a spiritual point of view, but no conclusion was reached, and the discussion is to be continued at a future meeting. One speaker suggested that we consider the general subject of government, and understanding that, we can more easily discuss the different forms.

     After the Doctrinal Class on Friday, Nov. 1st, the Bishop gave us a very interesting account of his trip to the different societies from which he had just returned; we enjoyed hearing about the District Assembly in Pittsburg, at which several of our members had been present.

     A class in Anatomy is being held on Tuesday evenings Mr. Synnestvedt having felt the usefulness of this work in connection with the study of the Writings.

     The young people, feeling the need of some regular social life this winter, have formed themselves into a "Club" for that purpose.

     Halloween was the occasion for a very mysterious gathering at the Club House, where many figures draped in white glided in through the door which was opened by some unseen power, and found themselves in a dimly lighted room, confronted by a ghost with outstretched arms and glowing countenance waiting to receive them. One corner, draped in red, was Occupied by a fortune teller of recent fame, who brought to light many personal secrets to the astonishment of her hearers. Later in the evening when he weirdness of spookdom had disappeared from the scenes, a shadow play by Howells called "The Oyster Man," was hailed with much merriment     L. E. P.

     Middleport. On Sunday Oct. 27, there were no services here owing to the absence of Mr. Klein, who had gone to Pittsburg to attend the District Assembly.

     The evening class of the Sunday following was given up to a full account of the Proceedings of the Assembly met which great interest was shown. Some announced their intention of making every effort to attend next year. T. K.

     Parkdale. Although no report from here has appeared in the columns of the Life for some months, the Parkdale society is still alive, and is pursuing the even tenor of its way; judging from external appearances, it is making slow but steady progress. During the summer months, classes were discontinued and things were generally quiet, butt there is now evidence of re-awakened activity. A meeting of the society was held in September to arrange for the work of the coming season; it was decided to invite the next Ontario Assembly to be held in Parkdale. Since early in the year the ladies have been holding fortnightly meetings, affording an opportunity for coming together, and to receive instruction from the pastor.

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In the evening the gentlemen have been invited to be present, and all have practiced singing. It is now proposed to combine the Ladies' meetings and the Wednesday evening doctrinal classes. On October 17th a reception was given to Mrs. Hyatt, who had just returned from a visit to England. Toasts were proposed to "the Church," "the guest of the evening," "the coming District Assembly," etc. A little dancing brought a very pleasant evening to a close.
C. B.

     Philadelphia. Since the resumption of the Wednesday evening doctrinal classes, on Sept. 25th, all phases of our church life are active. Business meetings are held once a month, after the class. At the quarterly meeting on Sept. 29th, the fact was disclosed that there is a very small surplus in the treasury, while the expenses will be increased this year. A committee was appointed to circulate a letter among the members, showing the exact condition of affairs.

     On Oct. 4th Miss Addie Zeppenfeld invited a few of her friends to join in an evening of merriment at her house. The following Sunday there were whisperings of a party to be given at Mr. Roehner's house that evening; and this turned out to be in honor of Mr. Chas. Ebert on his twenty-first birthday. The young folks' doctrinal class was held there that evening, and after the class a few of the married folks arrived, making a party of about twenty. After music and singing, all were asked into the dining-room where a table with refreshments greeted their eyes, in the centre of which was the birthday cake with twenty-one lighted candles on it. Each one in turn then put out a candle, at the same time making a wish; and truly, the sincere expressions of good will which were voiced that evening were such as to be an inspiration to any one receiving them.

     Mr. and Mrs. Knudsen celebrated the second anniversary of their marriage, and also Mr. Knudsen's fiftieth birthday, with a social at the hall of worship, on Oct. 14th. The first part of the evening was given to music and dancing. Then followed a short program of speeches. Mr. Cronlund referred to the great pleasure it gave us to have friends from Bryn Athyn as guests, and thus to reciprocate in a small way the many favors accorded us by them. The first toast, "Conjugial Love the Foundation of the Church," was responded to by Mr. Synnestvedt. He said that while we speak of one doctrine or another as being the fundamental doctrine of the church, they all really make one. He also compared the ordinary external charity between married partners, with the true, spiritual charity, which comes from a mutual looking to the Lord. The former serves very well for a time, but only the latter will survive the many trials of life. Mr. Acton, in response to the toast "Marriage the bond of Conjugial Love," cautioned against the idea of supposing that conjugial love can be had simply by marrying within the Church. More than that is necessary; it must be worked for throughout our whole life. All then joined in drinking the health of the host and hostess, and to singing a song composed for the occasion. Mr. Reuben Walker, in a brief retrospection, told of our host's introduction to the Doctrines of the Church, his appointment as treasurer of the society, and finally, his marriage to our hostess; closing with the wish that they may long enjoy the blessings of conjugial love. Mr. Knudsen, in replying, remarked that it seemed almost "like a memorial meeting" to hear so many complimentary remarks about oneself. With a tribute to the eloquence of the former speakers, he expressed a deep appreciation of the kindness of their friends, and alluded to the usefulness of occasions like these, in releasing us from our daily cares, and developing our social natures. Mr. Acton proposed a toast to the Philadelphia Society, which was answered by our Minister.

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He said the prospects two years ago for maintaining a society here were rather gloomy, but now that the work is established, we could go forward with renewed hope and confidence. Some more dancing brought to a close the most enjoyable social we have had for a long time.

     We are pleased to greet Mr. Will Hanlin, of Middleport, among us. He is located here, while pursuing his studies in medicine Rev. R. H. Keep was in the city for a short time, but has now left for Atlanta, Ga. C. H. E.


     Pittsburg, Pa. The Pittsburg District Assembly opened on Sunday morning. October 27th, with services conducted by Bishop Pendleton; the Rev. David Klein was ordained into the second degree of the priesthood and the Holy Supper was administered. We had only sixteen guests, not as many as were expected, but that only made the sixteen all the more welcome, and we hope that they will spread the sphere and interest, of the now established Annual District Assembly among their friends, so that next year we may have twice or thrice sixteen. In the evening there was a general meeting, when various subjects were freely discussed. On Monday afternoon the meeting, mostly composed of ladies, listened to and joined in a talk on education by Bishop Pendleton. Many questions were asked, showing that all felt of what vital importance the subject was to New Church life. An informal supper was served, in which the gentlemen, freed from their business, joined, and the meeting was continued in the evening with many interesting speeches from both clergy and laity. Tuesday was spent by the guests and hosts in visiting each other. This very important use was discussed at one of the meetings, and we can imagine how hard it must be for the isolated members to realize the distinctiveness of the New Church when they so seldom visit other members.

     Tuesday evening we all joined a thanksgiving reception. Miracles had been wrought in our absence, when the little church had been transformed into a bower of beauty. Various grains and autumn leaves decorated the walls and in the centre of the room there rose a pyramid of fruit and vegetables arranged according to their correspondence. Many interesting speeches and toasts followed the general greetings, and there was a very strong sphere of thankfulness to the Lord for our many blessings.

     The Assembly practically closed with this reception, although the gentlemen held a special social which, from all accounts, must have been very interesting, although the gentler sex were not invited. A.


     Mr. Bowers' missionary work. I arrived in Ohio on October 10th, and made the usual visits at Washington, Bainbridge, Waverly, Givens, Athens, McConnelsville, St. Clairsville, Bellaire, Bridgeport and Steubenville. Several places which usually have been visited in the southeastern part of the State could not be reached on this tour on account of the lack of time. For the same reason the visits at most places were shorter than usual.

     On Sunday, October 20th, services were held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Pollock, in Wheeling, W. Va. The sermon on that occasion was addressed more especially to the young people present. The Holy Supper was administered, seven persons besides the minister partaking.

     I arrived in Pittsburg on October 25th. Attending the District Assembly held in that city from October 27th-29th was a pleasant privilege. The services on Sunday conducted by Bishop Pendleton, and all the other meetings, were exceedingly instructive, and spiritually elevating and cheering. The Church sphere was manifest in warmth and zeal, and everyone seemed to be happy. It is hoped that more of our isolated friends within reach of Pittsburg will attend the Assembly next year, and so enjoy the spiritual benefits of association with the brethren of our Faith in the Only Lord.

     After the Assembly, four days passed quickly with Dr. N. O. Heilman and his estimable family, at Leechburg, Pa., where the missionary always receives a cordial welcome.
John E. Bowers

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     Colchester, England. It is, indeed a great pleasure to be able to communicate some news from here, after the prolonged state of isolation which it has been our lot to pass through. We were delighted to hear of the arrival o Rev. Andrew Czerny in this country. In the company of our London friends, Messrs. Dicks, Morris and McQueen, he paid his first visit to Colchester on Sunday, September 29th. Twenty-two friends were present at the meeting, which was held at Mr. Gill's studio. Mr. Czerny took an early opportunity to make clear his relations to the friends of the General Church of England,-that he was not our pastor, but had come to carry on the work until the health of Mr. Bostock should permit him to take it up. After some conversation it was arranged that Mr. Czerny should visit Colchester fortnightly, to conduct worship in the morning and hold a class for the children in the afternoon. A suitable room having been secured, our first services were held on October 13th, the attendance, including the children, numbering forth-nine. In the afternoon a memorial service was held at the house of Mr. and Mrs. J. Bedwell, whose eldest daughter had just passed into the spiritual world. Mr. Czerny's address brought clearly to view the intimate relation of the two worlds, and the service was felt by all to have been very useful. On October 27th, Mr. Czerny again preached here, the congregation numbering fifty. In the afternoon religious instruction was given to the children, several of whom afterwards expressed the wish that the service had been longer. F. R. C.

     London. The members and friends of the General Church here are now entering upon a new state in their New Church life. For some time they have been looking forward to the pleasure of welcoming back among them their old and tried friend the Rev. E. C. Bostock, who had consented to cross the Atlantic once again to take charge of the work of the General Church in this country. But Mr. Bostock's continued illness will delay his arrival in England for some time, and in the meantime we will have the services of Rev. Andrew Czerny who has already commenced the work amongst us. Though Mr. Czerny has been with us but a few weeks, he has made many friends here and there is every indication that his labors will be highly appreciated. We are now searching for a suitable room in which to hold our services, but in the meantime Divine Worship, doctrinal classes, and school uses are being conducted in the private residences of the members. G. A. McQ.

From Our Contemporaries

     United States. The Massachusetts' Association held its autumn meeting at Providence, R. I., on October 10th. The addresses delivered by the various speakers were one and all distinguished by a special emphasis on the necessity of a more earnest spiritual life and on the need of a closer study of the Word. Rev. J. E. Werren urged that the Hebrew language be taught to the children of the Church. Rev. A. F. Frost, the missionary of the Association, reported the formation of a new society at Bedford, Mass.

     The Boston Society finds itself confronted with a serious problem. By a recent decision of the city authorities, the grade of Bowdoin street is to be lowered, and as a result the entrance to the New Church temple will be thirteen feet above the street level. It is a question now before the Society whether to remodel the church, or to make a change of location.

     The Rev. Emanuel Goerwitz, who for two years has been the assistant minister of the Boston Society, has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Society in Bridgewater, Mass.

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He will enter upon his new field of labor on December 1st.

     The new chapel for the Convention's Theological School at Cambridge will probably be ready for use within a month. The chapel, built in true Gothic style, will have a seating capacity for two hundred and fifty persons. The architect, Prof. H. M. Warren, of Harvard University, is a member of the New Church.

     The report of Rev. J. B. Spiers of mission work done by him in New Hampshire and Vermont is rather novel in its perfect frankness and is full of practical lessons to the Church. "One of the curious things discovered in these missionary trips was that there were receivers of the doctrines in the same village, and in some instances acquaintances, who did not know of each other's faith. Could such have let their light shine as they should?" "In many instances earnest receivers of the heavenly doctrines took no New Church periodicals." "Scarcely a month passes but I come upon some one who used to attend Mr. Silver's meeting in Contoocook, . . . but who seem to have settle into a state of indifference or into the feeling that the Lord will accomplish His will regarding us and others without our active co-operation." But the most significant and the most discouraging of all his experiences is the following: "In the seventy homes in the missionary field which I have called, so far as I can remember there are barely ten young people under twenty-one. Of the thirty New Church homes in Contoocook parish there are only five or six with children and these children are growing up with none taking their places." The meaning of all this is to obvious to need any comments. But how is it with New Church families in other districts? In how far are they free from the contagion which is spreading universally throughout the land? And why do the ministers and the journals of the New Church keep silent?

     The Rev. J. S. David, after a pastorate of two years, will leave the Vineland Society at the close of the year. The recent loss of a number of leading members and supporters of the Society makes this step necessary, much t the regret of the remaining members, who have greatly appreciated Mr. David's services.

     The services at Cincinnati reopened on September 22nd under the direction of Rev. L. P. Mercer, who has now taken up his residence in this city. A plan has been adopted for the deeper doctrinal instruction of the members of the Church, which is to include instruction on "the Church in the Home," and on the education of children in and for the Church.

     Toledo, O. "Yesterday afternoon the First Emerson class held its meeting with Mrs. George Vrooman. While the reading for the day was from Emerson, the thoughts strongly suggested the teachings of Swedenborg, and the greater part of the time was given to the discussion of the Swedenborgian theology, first, through quotations, and later, by a well written paper by Mrs. J. W. Myers on Swedenborg's Contribution to Science, Philosophy, and Symbolic Thought.

     "Emerson's high estimate of Swedenborg as a scientist and philosopher was sustained by the further research of the writer of the paper, while the light value placed upon his theological views by Emerson was commented upon quite freely by the class. As a large number had been reading and thinking along this line a very interesting and profitable discussion was the result, and although the time was too short for a logical setting forth of the cardinal points in the doctrine of the Swedenborg many will be induced to study further so interesting a subject. The class adjourned to meet in two weeks at the same place." (From The Blade, or Toledo, October 29th, 1901.) This is a new development of which we have heard nothing before.

     The Michigan Association held its annual meeting at Detroit, September 28th and 29th. Beside the two ministers of the Association, the Rev. Messrs. Schreck and Shepherd, there were present, as visitors Rev. John Whitehead and Rev. Thomas King, together with delegates, members and visitors from various parts of Michigan, Ohio and Canada.

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The treasurer reported the receipt of over $600 from all sources, contributed mainly as aid to the Detroit Society. There are three societies connected with the Association, Detroit, Almont, and Gorand Rapids, the latter completely inactive. Beside the members of these societies, there are some three hundred isolated New Church people in the State. The President, Mr. Schreck, in his report, described the recent reawakening of interest and activity in the Association, the success of the efforts to maintain New Church services in at least one Society in the State, Detroit, and the promising outlook there and at Almont. Mr. Schreck, though about to remove to Chicago, was re-elected President of the Association, with the understanding that he will be relieved of this office as soon as a new pastor shall have been elected by the Detroit Society.

     On Oct. 13th, the Detroit Society unanimously adopted a testimonial resolution, formally expressing the high appreciation of the society of the important work performed by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck during the period of his pastorate. The Rev. John Whitehead, until recently connected with the Convention's Theological School in Cambridge, has been engaged to minister to the Detroit Society for three months.

     The valuable property of the Chicago Society, on Van Buren street, having been sold, sufficient funds have thereby been procured to equip all the parishes of the society with comfortable houses of worship. The Kenwood parish has secured an eligible lot for a new church building. Mr. Mercer has removed to Cincinnati, but Mr. Schreck has now entered upon his work as Mr. Mercer's successor at Kenwood. Mr. King, beside attending to his regular work at Englewood, has been preaching every Sunday afternoon at the temple on the North Side, but we hear with sincere regrets that he is threatened with nervous break-down. The field in Chicago and vicinity is rapidly growing, but the laborers are few and over-strained.

     The German Synod held its 14th annual meeting at St. Louis, Mo., on October 19th to 21st. There were present the Rev. Adolph Roeder, president; Rev. C. A. Nussbaum, secretary, and the Rev. Messrs. Sudbrack, Huxmann, Bussman, Unruh and Eby, together with many delegates and visitors. Reports and letters were received from the societies in Burlington and Norway Ia. Pretty Prairie and Pawnee Rock, Kansas; Fort Hunter, Pa.; St. Louis, Mo.; Rosthern, Canada; Berlin, Germany: Vienna, Austria; and Budapest. Hungary. A great deal of literary and evangelistic work was reported. It was resolved to cooperate in the proposed publication of the Spiritual Diary in the German translation, the manuscript of which is preserved by the Academy of the New Church. Steps were taken looking to an amalgamation of the two German New Church journals published in this country, the Bote and the Neukirchenblatt. A committee was appointed to participate in making preparations for a "Parliament of Religions" during the coming "World's Fair" at St. Louis, in 1903. On Sunday, October 20th, the Synod and the German societies in St. Louis joined in worship with the English society. The Rev. C. A. Nussbaum, in his report of the First German Society of St. Louis, gives sensible advice on a subject which is greatly troubling the German New Church brethren throughout this country,-the inevitable tendency of the young people to forsake the German for the English tongue. German parents are apt to exercise compulsion to counteract this tendency, with the result, in most cases, that the children drift away from the Church as well as from the German language. Mr. Nussbaum, however, teaches that "the minister who has at heart the salvation of souls by bringing his flock to the Lord, has nothing to do with Germanity, but with Christianity."

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     The Rev. James E. Thomas, the ardent and intelligent young minister to the African New Church Society in Washington, D. C., during the past summer paid a visit to his friends and relatives in Alabama. He was repeatedly invited to preach and teach in various colored churches and Sunday Schools. The older scholars always "showed great interest in the teachings and were not slow in asking questions. This I encouraged, and at the close of the lessons it was common to hear them say: 'We wish we could have you all the time to teach and preach to us. We did not know that there was so much in the Bible.'" Preaching by invitation to an audience of six hundred in the "big" Methodist church at Tuscaloosa, of which Mr. Thomas was once a member, he found rapt and eager listeners. "Perfect silence reigned, except when broken by some occasional 'amens,' 'truth,' or 'preach the Word.' After the sermon an old man came forward and said: 'I want to thank this young brother for that grand sermon. I have never heard anything in all my life like those beautiful truths he has just presented to us. God grant that he may live long to unfold to his race the loving truths of God's Word. I would give anything if I knew more about the doctrines of his Church and had the ability to tell men about them as he has done.' Then, turning to me, he continued: 'Here is ten cents to help forward the good work in which you are engaged. I wish it was ten dollars.' The entire congregation was amazed, the pastor of the Church seemed dazed, and when the old man had finished, he said: 'Brother - is evidently full to overflowing, for as long as I have been pastor of this church he has neither addressed you in public nor made any comment upon any sermon.'" Before leaving Alabama, Mr. Thomas had the pleasure of receiving his mother, brother, sister and aunt into the New Church. His account in the Messenger is quite inspiring and augurs well for future usefulness. He was at one time private secretary to Rev. James Reed, and, before his ordination, took a complete course at the New Church Theological School in Cambridge.

     CANADA. The thirty-eighth annual meeting of the Canada Association was held at Berlin, on September 13th-15th, Rev. F. L. Higgins, of Toronto, presiding. Resolutions were adopted in commemoration of the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, and of President McKinley. On Sunday, October 14th, the Rev. L. P. Mercer, who was present by invitation, installed the Rev. A. B. Francisco as pastor of the 1st New Jerusalem Society of Berlin.

     The former organization of the New Church at Hamilton, Ont., having become defunct, a new society has recently been organized through the efforts of Mr. J. J. Bowman and Mr. William Addison. The present society numbers twelve members, of whom only five were members of the former society. Weekly services are held at the residence of Miss Brierly.

     In the November issue of the Life, we gave some news of the New Church Society at Rosthern, Saskatchewan. We are now able to give the more definite information that this interesting society numbers seventeen adult members and is conducting a Sunday School for twenty-two children. It is reported that the interest in the New Church is growing in this farmer community, and that several families are drawing nearer to the Church.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The late Peter Joel Livsey, of Manchester, who died last August, has bequeathed to the Swedenborg Society, L5,000; to the Manchester Printing and Tract Society, and the Conference Clerical Pension Fund, each, the interest of L2,000; to the New Church Orphanage, L500: and smaller sums to the Italian Mission and other uses. Subject to these and other charges, the residue of the estate goes to the English Conference.

     A meeting of the North of England Missionary Society was held in Manchester on October 5th. Twenty Societies were represented and the attendance was over 60. The Chairman (Mr. Jonathan Robinson) suggested that, since "the Divinity of the Word was being assailed now as never before" it would be advisable for missionaries to take up the explanation of difficult passages in the Word.

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But he emphasized the importance of also "instructing those who regularly attend the services of the Church." The meeting was devoted to a consideration of the needfulness and methods of missionary work, particularly the former. Most of the speakers, including Rev. Messrs. Freeth, Deans, Stonestreet and Beilby, believed in the "old methods,"-by preaching and lecturing, but one thought that new methods were needed, and he supported an idea suggested by Rev. J. J. Thornton, that the missionary should go to the people, especially to those who live in the slums.

     Early in October the society in Accrington celebrated the centenary of its Sunday School. Daily meetings were held from Oct. 2d to Oct. 6th. The attendance was very large. On Wednesday, Oct. 2d, at a meeting of parents of present scholars 500 were present, who listened to short addresses by old scholars. On the following afternoon an entertainment was given to about 250 of the younger scholars, and in the evening the senior scholars, and teachers assembled. The most interesting meeting, however, was the great reunion of old scholars and teachers held on Saturday evening. About 2,500 invitations had been sent out for this meeting, and over 1,300 persons attended, 1,000 of whom sat down to tea. Addresses were given by Rev. Wm. Westall and others, and letters were read from old scholars, including Mr. Clowes Bayley and Mr. E. J. Broadfield. The most unique of these letters was one from the "Accrington New Church colony" in Providence, R. I., U. S. A. It was signed by 30 "old scholars," all of whom are now members of the Providence Society. On Sunday the Church was crowded to the aisles, the congregations numbering over 900. An "old scholar," the Rev. J. R. Rendell, who is now the pastor of the Society, officiated. The celebration was quite an event in the town, and the local paper contained a very full account of the proceedings, together with an historic sketch of the Sunday School; it also issued an illustrated supplement containing pictures of the church, and the new schools, and portraits of Mr. Broadfield, the Rev. J. Bayley, a former pastor of the society, and the Rev. J. R. Rendell, the present pastor. The growth of the New Church among the sturdy people of Lancashire was, in the early days, something phenomenal, and the whole County is now thickly dotted with New Church societies, or remnants of societies. The Accrington society is the largest of these, and its Sunday School is, in point of attendance, the largest in the New Church. What an opportunity here for the establishment of distinctive New Church day-schools!

     During the meeting of the Junior Members' Society of Birmingham (Moseley) on Sept. 26th one of the members, Mr. A. L. Nash, read a "searching little paper" on "Should New Church people attend other places of worship?" Mr. Nash answered the question in the negative, maintaining that "no New Churchman ought under any pretence whatever to attend the church of another denomination, even supposing there was no New Church in the neighborhood." He considered "their very presence at another church" was "the acknowledgment and furthering of a false cause." In the discussion that followed it was pointed out "that Mr. Nash's ideas seemed somewhat intolerant and extreme; yet, when the dangerous notion that an external church was scarcely necessary, and that it hardly mattered where one went so long as one knew what was right,-an idea very prevalent among New Churchmen just now-was taken into account, then the truth of Mr. Nash's remarks must be admitted."

     The Rev. Lewis A. Slight, of Northampton, has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Brightllngsea society, where he will begin his labors on January next.

     At the Harvest Festival of the Camberwell Society, London, held on Sunday, Sept. 29th, at each of the services Psalms were sung from Mr. Whittington's Psalmody for the New Church, published by the Academy.

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Several of the Psalms from the Psalmody are also sung on every alternate doctrinal class night.

     SWEDEN. The case of Rev. Albert Bjorek versus the "Swedish Congregation of the New Church" in Stockholm is still before the civil courts. On September 16th, Major P. Laurell and Rev. Joseph E. Boyesen were called in as witnesses. The former maintained that Mr. Bjorck had not taught any doctrine differing from that of Emanuel Swedenborg, and had not caused any disturbance in the Church (a most astonishing statement), while the latter testified that the plaintiff certainly deviated from the Doctrine of the New Church, particularly in regard to the doctrine concerning the eternal duration of Hell. The final verdict was to be announced on November 4th.

     A New Church Young People's Society has been organized in connection with Rev. J. E. Rosenqvist's society at Gottenburg. Mr. Rosenqvist's fund for a New Church orphanage is gradually increasing. The founder, in urging the claims of this cause in Nya Kyrkans Tidning, says, "May not the time come when, in the other life, we will be asking of novitiate spirits, 'What news from the earth?' and we will be told, among other things, 'Why, that orphanage, Providentia, which was founded while you lived on the earth, has borne and is bearing most glorious fruits. I was, myself, a deserted, homeless child, but was taken in charge by the Providentia and was educated in the doctrine and life of the New Church. By this means I have learned to love and venerate the New Church.'" Arguments such as these will appeal to the members of the New Church. Contributions have come in not only from various places in Sweden, but also from America.

     AUSTRIA. It was stated in the September issue of the Life that there were two separate societies in Vienna, one of these, the smaller one, having placed itself under the direction of Rev. Fedor Goerwitz. The other one, the original society, strenuously opposed the teachings respecting the Divine authority of the Heavenly Doctrines, Baptism in the New Church, Order, the Priesthood, etc., and was finally carried away by the wild phantasies of Albert Artope. After many severe experiences and purgations this society has now returned to a sense of loyalty. At its annual meeting, on July 21st, several of the leading members, especially Messrs. Wiener, Sedhaczek, and Kodeischka spoke of the need of unity in the Church and the desirability of ministerial services, and a resolution was finally passed, unanimously, requesting Mr. Goerwitz, on his next visit to Vienna, to preach to this society. This seems a promising sign, and it is to be hoped that a union may be effected on the basis of sound and firm principles.

     HUNGARY. On September 19th, a Young People's Society was organized in connection with the New Church Society in Budapest, for the purpose of studying the Heavenly Doctrines and developing the social life of the Church. The first social of the new society was given on September 29th. Recitations were rendered in the German and Hungarian tongues; the program was largely musical, several of the members being teachers of music. The young people meet regularly each Sunday afternoon. Mr. Adelbert Jantschowitsch the senior member of the Society, is delivering a course of public lectures on the Woman Question, Conjugial Love, and kindred subjects.

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ONTARIO ASSEMBLY 1901

ONTARIO ASSEMBLY       F. E. Waelchli       1901


ANNOUNCEMENTS.



     The Second Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in the place of worship of the Parkdale (Toronto) Society on Tuesday, December 31st, 1901, and Wednesday, January 1st, 1902. All members and friends of the General Church are invited to attend.

     The program of the meeting will be as follows:

Tuesday Afternoon, Dec. 31st, 1901: Opening Services-The Bishop's Address,-Report of the Secretary,-Historical Address, by Rev. F. E. Waelchli.

     Tuesday Evening: Social-New Year's Service at Mid-night.

     Wednesday Afternoon: "Judgment," a paper by Rev. E. S. Hyatt,-"Freedom" essential to the growth of the Church," a paper by Rev. E. J. Stebbing.

     Wednesday Evening: Men's meeting.

     Visitors will be entertained by members of the Parkdale Society. Address Committee through Mr. P. Bellinger,     226 Dunn Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
F. E. Waelchli
Sec. Ont. Assembly.