(Delivered at the late Pittsburgh and Chicago District Assemblies.)
Nothing is more important for a Church than to know the source of its growth and increase, for otherwise its labors will be misdirected, and its energies frittered away; its work will be unprofitable, and its fruit barren.
The primary requisite for the increase of the Church is in a spiritual idea of God, and a spiritual idea of life from God, from which result spiritual intelligence and wisdom; and from this grand spiritual result flows the natural result of increase in numbers.
A spiritual idea involves both affection and thought, or the marriage of good and truth; and the marriage of good and truth, descending into the natural, produces love truly conjugial; and in this love we are told is the true spring and origin of the growth and increase of the Church. Hence we read in Conjugial Love, n. 202, "That offspring, born from two who are in love truly conjugial, draw from their parents the conjugial of good and truth, from which they have inclination and faculty, if a son, for perceiving the things which are of wisdom, if a daughter, for loving the things which wisdom teaches."
The object of these remarks is to consider the truth contained in this teaching, and especially this point therein, that in love truly conjugial, and in births from love truly conjugial, is to be found the true source of the growth of the Church.
The human form is a trine of soul, mind, and body. At birth there is soul and body, but not as yet mind, or will and understanding. The mind is the intermediate between the soul and the body, and while the mind does not have actual existence at birth, still the potentialities are there; the beginnings exist as derived from the parents, and are called inclination and faculty. "Offspring born of two, who are in love truly conjugial, draw from their parents the conjugial of good and truth, from which they have the inclination and faulty, if a son, for perceiving the things which are of wisdom, if a daughter, for loving the things which wisdom teaches."
Man has at birth from his parents the inclination and faculty, which become will and understanding, as he develops after birth; if this inclination and faculty be from conjugial of good and truth, on account of the parents having been in love truly conjugial, then the tendency of the child will be to the things of the Church, as it becomes a man or a woman. It follows, also, by the law of opposites, that if the parents are not in love truly conjugial, the offspring will not derive from them the conjugial of good and truth, and so the inclination and faculty for the things of spiritual wisdom will be wanting, but the inclination will be rather to the life of self and the world. It is possible even then for man to be led back to the Lord, but the turning will be rather to the life of self and the world. It is possible even then for man to be led back to the Lord, but the turning will be diminished. The hope of the Church, therefore, and the true source of its growth, is in marriages of love truly conjugial; and all the activities of the Church must be to the establishing of this fountain as the center of its life and increase.
And now let us briefly consider the subject of inclination and faculty.
We are taught that man continually inclines to that which he derives from his parents, (A. C. 8551); that inclination is connate from parents, that is, it is with man when he is born, derived from his parents. (H. H. 368, D. P. 105); that every one derives from his parents his disposition (indole), which is his inclination; for the likeness of parents, as to faces, genius and manners, are conspicuous in their immediate children and in the posterity from them, (C. L. 525), that nothing else is connate with man but the faculty of knowing, of understanding, and of becoming wise, and the inclination to love not only himself and the world, but the neighbor and God, (T. C. R. 335, 490);
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that hereditary evil is from parents, by whom the inclination to the evil in which they themselves are, is communicated to their children, (T. C. R. 469); that hereditary evil is from parents, not indeed the evil itself, but the inclination to it, (T. C. R. 521); that the rational is not connate with man, but the faculty of becoming rational, (A. C. 1893); that every man is born into the faculty of understanding truth, even to the inmost degree, in which the angels of the third heaven are, (D. L. W. 258); that man is born into no science nor into any love, but is in the darkest ignorance at birth (C. L. 134); he has not even any affection, nor any thought; but since he is born into inclination to love, and faculty to think, he may come into love to God and love to the neighbor, and thus into all intelligence and wisdom.
The teaching is clear, therefore, that the child when born inclines to the things which the parent actually loves, whatever these may be, whether they be good or whether they be evil; and at the same time he is born into the faculty of understanding the things which he inclines to love. Man therefore at birth has no will or love, no understanding or thought, but he inclines to the will and love, and to the understanding and thought of his parents, and will come into them unless he be turned away by some powerful influence. If the parents love the Church, the child will incline to love it and will come into the actual love of the Church and all the things of the Church, unless some powerful worldly influence intervenes and bends the mind away to things other than those which are of the Church.
These teachings, and many more throughout the Writings, illustrate and make most clear that which we have already quoted from Conjugial Love, no. 202, that children derive from their parents, who are in love truly conjugial, an inclination to love and the faculty to understand the things which are of spiritual wisdom; for love truly conjugial is a spiritual love in the natural of man. And, it is added, children draw from their parents inclinations to such things as are of the love and life of the parents.
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It is also added that children do not inherit the life of their parents which is from their affection; but they inherit the inclination to the affection and life of their parents, and at the same time the faculty or ability to come into the understanding which is the form of the affection. And we are told further, that if children inherited the affections themselves of their parents, and not merely the inclination to them, that thoughts and acts would immediately follow, and perverse inclinations could not be rectified. The child could not then be made different from its parents, and education would be of no avail to stem the tide of hereditary evil. Hence it is provided of the Lord that when a child is born with inclinations to the loves of his parents, a period elapses before affection is formed, and thought from affection, and act from affection and thought, in which period a turning away from the loves of the parents may be effected by education. Without this freedom to depart from that which the parent has loved there could be no amendment of life, and no proprium, or what is his own, could be formed in the child. If there be good inclinations, as well as evil, there must still be freedom of choice, the child must be free to reject even that which is good in the parent, and to resist his own inclination to it. This freedom of choice is provided for by means of the period of which we have just spoken.
Several numbers are devoted to the exposition of the teaching which we quoted in the outset, namely, "that offspring, born of two who are in love truly conjugial, derive from their parents the conjugial of good and truth, from which they have the inclination and faculty, if a son, for perceiving the things which are of wisdom, if a daughter, for loving the things which wisdom teaches."
In n. 204 we are taught that the ability to become wise is inherited by those who are born from marriages of love truly conjugial, above all others; no others are so inclined or have such a strong disposition to come into the things of Heaven and the Church as they; showing clearly where is to be found the true source of the growth of the Church, both in quality and in numbers.
The number (204) then closes with the teaching that the end is manifest,-manifest from the things which had been previously said,--the end for which marriages of love truly conjugial have been provided and still are provided by the Lord the Creator, viz., that the offspring of those in that love may incline to the things of the Church, and afterwards enter actually into them, and this for the increase of the Church and of Heaven itself.
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The real increase of the Church, therefore, is not to be by missionary propagandism,--however necessary this may be in the beginning of the Church,--but by the increased inheritance of conjugial love, from one generation to another, and so by all the means which minister to and cultivate this love of loves, which means are every active instrumentality of the Church in its every operation and use.
This is a truth that has been seen and acknowledged by us, and there has been some effort to put it into practice; and that this our faith has been well founded, is evident from the teaching before us from the work on Conjugial Love,--the teaching, let us repeat, that the very end for which marriages of love truly conjugial have been provided, their very end and their very use, is that the Church may increase on earth, and that the Church on earth may become the seminary of Heaven. And, let us also repeat, this is the very end to which all our work looks, and must ever look--our work, our worship, our education, and all our instruction; namely, that there may be marriages of love truly conjugial, so that this love may become, as it is in itself, the seminary, the seed, the producer, the very nursery itself of the Church and of Heaven.
And therefore we read in the concluding number of the series, (205), that the Most Ancient Church, and the heaven of that Church, increased in this way, and in no other, that is, by marriages of love truly conjugial. The teaching is as follows:
"I have heard from the angels that those who lived in the most ancient times, live at this day in the heavens, houses and houses, families and families, and nations and nations, in like manner as they lived on earth, and that scarcely any one from a home is wanting; and that the reason is, that love truly conjugial was with them; and that thence the offspring inherited inclinations to the conjugial of good and truth, and they were easily initiated into it more and more internally by the parents by means of education, and afterwards when they became of mature judgment were introduced into it by the Lord as if by themselves."
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The Most Ancient Church was a true Church, and we learn from this number what the true source of growth and increase was; we learn that the Church increased and Heaven was formed by marriages of love truly conjugial, and by the inclination from this in the offspring of the members of that Church to the marriage of good and truth: that the children at that time inherited from their parents all inclination to love the things of spiritual and celestial wisdom: and we learn further, that on account of this inherited disposition it was easy for them to be initiated into the things of the Church and of Heaven: and that this easy introduction was effected by education. in which parents played the instrumental part, or were the teachers of their children; and so the parents of that Church not only imparted to their children the hereditary inclination to good and truth, but they nourished that inclination in them, drew it forth, have it form, strengthened and established it, by means of instruction and education.
We are informed concerning this source of growth in the Most Ancient Church, because this is the source of growth in every true Church, and the New Church is to be established in this way; for every line of the Writings is given for the sake of the New Church and its upbuilding; and in these numbers in the work on Conjugial Love, (202-205), the teaching is as plain as language can express it, that this is what the Church is to look to and provide for in order that it may grow and increase, and that those who look for some other source will look in vain, and all work directed elsewhere will be in vain.
And now, applying the teaching concerning the growth of the Most Ancient Church to the conditions in which we are, we observe the following stages in the growth and establishment of the New Church:
1. Marriages of love truly conjugial.
2. Hereditary inclination to love the things of the Church.
3. A sphere of New Church education and life in the home.
4. New Church Schools.
5. A spiritual sphere of the Church for adults.
6. The opening of Heaven.
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We remarked in the beginning of this discourse that nothing is more important for a Church than to know the source of its increase, for otherwise its labors will be misdirected, and its work will be unprofitable and barren in result. Happy is that Church which has this knowledge; which not only knows, but believes that which it knows, which loves to think and do that which it believes. And we may affirm with confidence that we have come to know this, that we know it from the teaching in the passage from Conjugial Love, now under consideration. Our Church has been founded upon this principle of faith. But we need a renewal from time to time; we need again and again to look at that which is the cause and source of growth, that we may receive stimulus to renewed effort, and not falter until our part in the work is accomplished. And we do especially need to realize more and more fully that it is the life of love truly conjugial that is the essential factor in the Church's growth; that the children of that love will incline to the things of the Church; that every child will take an interest in that to which it inclines; that it will easily learn to love that to which there is a hereditary disposition; that if the home be a home where love truly conjugial is, there will be an atmosphere of interest in the things of spiritual wisdom, in which the child's inherited inclination will be easily called forth. And, further, if schools be provided to take up the work already begun, for the still fuller formation of the love of those things to which the child already strongly inclines;--if there he a spiritual sphere of the Church for adults, for which the child has now been prepared, and into which he can pass as he becomes a man; then Heaven will be opened, even as it was in the most ancient days, and angels and men will live as brethren together,-not outwardly together by open communication, but inwardly together in the love and affection of all truth and good, and Heaven will then be conjoined with the human race, and the Church will endure forever.
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DIVINE TRUTH Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH. 1905
A SERMON
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were made by Him. (John i:1, 3.)
THE Word here means the Divine Truth. This Word or Divine Truth is said to be with God and to be God Himself by whom all things were made, and in the fourteenth verse we are told that this Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Thus the Divine Truth is doubly identified as God, namely, first as God the Creator, and secondly, as the revealed God.
This thought of Divine Truth as personal, thus as a Person or rather as the Person, the God-Man, is not the common thought of truth. We think rather of a spoken or written statement. That is truth which is a true statement of the facts. Spiritual truth is a true statement concerning our nature as spiritual beings and our relation to the Lord. Divine Truth is whatever the Lord Himself speaks. The Word is Divine Truth because the Lord Himself spoke it through men or angels whom He filled with His spirit for that purpose, so that for the time human consciousness slept and the Divine spoke through them.
How shall we reconcile this idea of truth with the personal idea of it?
We are taught in the New Church that there must be and is one only substance, that is, substance itself, from which all substances are; and that there must be and is a form which is form itself, from which are all other forms: and that this one only substance and form is Divine Truth. Divine Truth is the one only reality, the very and only substance in the universe.
We are taught, moreover, that God did not create the universe out of nothing by the command of His mouth, but created it from and by Divine Truth, the substance of it from Divine Truth, the form and life of it by Divine Truth; thus He created all things from Himself.
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To the natural man this appears more than mystical, and yet this must be the beginning and inmost of all our thought of truth if we are to have any true and rational conception of what Truth is.
Truth is in God, and with God and is God. God is the infinite lover and thinker. Love and thought are human qualities. Love and intelligence are what make man, and a man is more human as he has more of love and intelligence. He who has infinite love and infinite wisdom is, therefore, the Divine Man, and we are men as we receive these from Him and come into His image.
But this love and wisdom of God-man are not something indefinite or intangible; not something hovering and floating within Him or about Him; not something cloud-like proceeding from Him. His Love and Wisdom are Himself. His substance is Love, His form Wisdom. His Wisdom is infinite because there are infinite forms which together constitute the Divine Form; and His Love is infinite, because these forms are of infinite substance, activity, and state. His Love and Wisdom are the state and form of the substance composing the Divine mind.
But not only may we think of the Divine mind or Nature as being the state and form of Divine substance, but we may also think of that Divine Mind as existing in its own complete Human Form, which form contains infinite forms.
"That in God there are infinite things anyone may convince himself who believes that God is Man; for being Man He has a body and everything pertaining to it, that is, a face, breast, abdomen, loins and feet: for without these He would not be man. And having these He also has eyes, ears, nose, mouth and tongue; also the parts within man such as heart and lungs and their connections, all of which taken together cause man to be man. In a created man these parts are many, and regarded in their combinations are numberless; but in God-Man they are infinite, nothing whatever is lacking, and from this He has infinite perfection. This comparison holds between created man and the uncreated man who is God, because God is Man; and He Himself says that the man of this world was created after His image and into His likeness." (D. L. W. 18.)
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This form of God-Man, infinite in the number of its parts and their perfection and their inter-relations, is the form of Divine Truth. Here is the origin of truth and of order. Truth is not, in itself, any spoken word. It is not, in the highest sense, anything going forth from God or proceeding from Him, though truth is spoken of as proceeding from Him, for this is the appearance. But Truth is really that Divine Form Itself in its order and harmony.
This is the living Truth. Its form is the Divine Form. And Divine Truth has no other form. In greatests and leasts it is the same, having infinite parts. Where Divine Truth is there God is with His infinity of level wisdom and power. God is One and indivisible. It is impossible that a part of God-Man should be present without at the same time the whole Divinity being there. So also Divine Truth is one and indivisable, and the statement of one Divine Truth involves all Divine Truth.
Truth as a statement, such as we commonly call truth, is anything that brings the Divine Brian present to the realization of men. A statement is truth so far as it reveals God, brings Him present so that man may open His mind to receive Him. God is, indeed, always and everywhere present. But how shall man realize that presence, know God, and intelligently receive Him?
God must reveal Himself to man not only to sight and touch, that there may be an objective and tangible idea of Him, but He must also reveal His mind and nature to man.
This revelation of Himself is effected by means of truth, the truth about Him and His dealings with His people in all ages. And these truths about Him, what are they but so many mirrors of Him? They are of no value in themselves as mere statements. They are of value only as they enable the mind to know, understand and receive God. They are truths because they are about Him and carry this image of Him.
Every truth comes from God and looks back to Him. It is but an instrument that enables us to look to Him. He Himself is at the heart of every truth. When this is not so, it has ceased to be truth and has become falsity.
Truth is but the description, the statement, of some form of the Divine Love and Wisdom. The Truth Itself is that form together with its substance in the Divine Mind, thus in God Himself.
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The statement of it is called truth because it is about that form which is Divine Truth and serves to open the mind to receive that form itself. To receive that form itself is to receive God Himself, for Truth itself is God Himself. Truth itself is not in books, even though they be Divine Books. These contain but signs and symbols, images and pictures which serve to prepare the mind to receive Truth.
But if truth itself is substance and form, and indeed Divine substance and form, thus the Divine Life, how can this truth be conveyed and received? How can man receive God? Man has been created in the image and likeness of God, his mind in the image of the Divine Mind. Man is not life, but a created organ to receive life. The mind of man has innumerable parts and forms, and these parts and forms are arranged in form to receive the Divine Life, to allow that Life to circulate freely through it and return to Him from whom it comes. The mind of man is the containing vessel, and the Divine Life circulates through it, giving it power to live and think as of itself.
The Divine Life moves in certain forms or ways according to the forms which compose the Divine Mind. When the mind of man is in order the inflowing life of God moves freely through its channels, and the result is saintly peace; man is in love to God from God and in love to man; he has perception of truth and falsity. When the order of the human mind is disturbed the flow of Divine Life is resisted. The vessels turn in one way, the inflowing currents in another. The result is unrest, distress, yea, the keenest agony. This is the pain that the evil fear in the judgment when they cry out for the mountains and hills to fall upon them and hide them from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne. This is why they most carefully shut out the Divine sphere from their abodes in hell and why they suffer the keenest distress if they but put their heads or arms out of the caverns in which they live.
The purpose of revealed truth is to bring the human mind into the true order and harmony in which it may receive the Divine Life and react with it. When any truth is seen, it brings the understanding its own form, at least temporarily. The truth can be seen only in that way.
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The mind that cannot take on the form of that truth cannot see it as truth--nay, cannot even see falsity to call it false. For truth and falsity are not seen outside of the mind but in it. They are seen by the very organic structure of the brain taking on that form. If the form is altogether foreign to the accustomed form of the mind, it is taken on with difficulty. If it is a form that is distasteful, it is soon rejected. If it is a form that is loved, the understanding returns to it, dwells upon it, lingers in it. Finally, the opposing form, into which the mind lapses when not held purposely in this truth, is recognized as opposed to the truth, is rejected, is put away by acts of repentance until at last it brings distress and loathing whenever the mind relapses into that false and evil form. By these means the truth is induced upon the will and is made permanent. This is the purpose of revealed truth and this is the manner of its operation to save man from sin.
When the will and understanding are in form and order like the Divine Will and Understanding, man is in God and God in him. Man is a form of love and wisdom, a finite image and likeness of God. Dead in himself and utterly empty of love, wisdom and life, yet he receives life from the Divine and lives and loves and is wise to all appearance of himself. For the inflowing of life cannot be known by any sense. Man's consciousness comes after its reception, not before it, below the plane of its inflowing, not above it. Hence he feels it as his own, and it is the Divine purpose that he shall so feel it. His humanity consists in his feeling that he lives from himself. Hence is his freedom and his rationality. And these are the Lord's image in man. Should these be taken away man would be but an automaton.
But while man must feel that he lives of himself, woe unto him if he confirms this appearance and calls it truth. To do so is to close himself to the orderly reception of life from God, to avert his face from God and turn all the vessels of his mind to another centre.
There is but one centre of life, namely, the Lord, who appears as the Sun of Heaven. From Him both good and evil have their life, its quality with each being according to the form which receives it. But all in the hells have turned themselves to the world or to self as their centre. Thus they make to themselves, as it were, a fictitious center.
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Those who make the love of self the centre of their life have turned the manifold vessels of their minds in the opposite direction to those of the Divine Mind, so that the currents of Divine Life must reverse all the intricate spiral windings of their minds in order to force its way through them. To do this would be to utterly destroy them. Therefore, of the Divine Mercy the evil are permitted to surround themselves with an atmosphere like themselves in its movement and quality. Or rather the Lord creates for them, through them, such an atmosphere. This receives the inflowing Divine Life and turns and tempers it to their reception so that they receive it not as it is in itself but in an accommodated form sufficing to give them a life that is not in itself life at all but is death, because the direct opposite of the Divine Life.
Divine Truth is substance itself, and from itself the very and only reality. Not only are the vessels of the mind brought into true form and order by means of truths, but they are created of the substance which is truth so that the mind of the regenerate man actually becomes truth. He becomes the form of his own truth. In fact, there is no living truth anywhere else in the spiritual and natural universes, but, first, in God, and second, in man. There are images and representations of truth on every hand in the spiritual world, and the natural world and in the Word. But truth is organic and living. It is human. In its essence it is the living Divine Being Himself. In finite form, living from Him, it is in man, an organic living form in his mind, and in derivatives in his body.
The natural or hereditary life of man cannot as such receive the unperverted Divine Life. It has been so turned to self and the world through generations of sinful ancestors that it cannot be turned back and reclaimed. It can only be rejected, and, as it were, closed up. The Divine cannot be received in what is man's own but only in what is Divine with him, and, therefore, the Lord, from the birth of man, makes preparation for the formation of a new will and understanding. He holds the hereditary nature quiescent while He gives, through angels, the infancy and childhood's life of innocence and love. So far as the child can be kept in this sphere of the life of Heaven and of the Word and worship, to that extent is he fitted to receive truths and embrace them with affection in mature life.
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Each truth received from without by eye or ear, when loved, forms, as it were, a mould into which the substantial living truth can flow and be organized and incorporated as a part of the mind of the regenerating man. For truth is always received in these two ways, viz., the form of it from without, the spirit and essence of it, which is the real living truth, from within. The inner inflowing truth cannot be retained without the form of truth consciously and willingly received from without as a vessel to receive and hold it.
It is to be remembered that this truth entering the mind through eye or ear is received when the organic forms of the mind are brought into the form of this truth. It is in this way that a vessel is provided for the reception of the truth which inflows from God.
This first conception of truth is necessarily crude and imperfect. It is lacking in particulars. The mind does not contain the many and perfected forms necessary to reproduce the truth fully. Nor are the substances of the mind sufficiently pure and responsive to be brought perfectly into such forms
But there is an inflowing stream of Divine creative life from within. When the forms of the mind are false and perverted it is comparatively like the sun shining on barren ground where there are no seeds. No fruitfulness results. But now that a true form is created and retained in the mind, the living Divine Truth inflowing from God can be received, at least partially. By this some of the crudities of form of this truth as it is reproduced in the mind can be removed and replaced by more perfect forms. True forms require pure substance, and purer substance is put on there. The old forms with their substance are removed to one side and new forms in new substance are gradually created by the inflowing all-creative Divine Truth.
This process is a successive one, constantly perfecting through time and eternity.
It is the inflowing living Truth which puts off the old forms and substances of the mind of the regenerating man and angel, and creates the new substances and forms of the new will and understanding. But it can operate only in and by revealed truth.
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The case is similar in nature, where the force that forms seeds and causes them to germinate and grow is from the spiritual sun; but this spiritual force can operate in nature only when the light and heat of the natural sun co-operate.
So with the formation of the new will and understanding in man. The power which does it is that of the Living Truth inflowing directly from God, but this can operate only in conjunction with the truth mediately received, that is, received through outward revelation.
But when this is given and man receives it and turns himself repeatedly and lovingly towards it, and brings his habit of thought so far as he can into harmony with revealed truth, then the Lord as the Divine Truth operates from within to recreate the forms and substances of the mind, bringing them into harmony with itself.
Thus the infinite forms of the Divine Mind are represented in the innumerable forms of the regenerate human mind; the perfection of the Divine substance is represented by the perfection of substances created from the Divine. In this way does the mind of man and angel become a form of truth, because a representation both in form and substance of the Divine Mind which is Truth Itself.
What is true of the mind is also true of the body, for the body derives all its life and quality from the mind. As man is regenerated his very body is renewed, and especially as to its inner and purer forms and substances it becomes a form of Divine Truth. The constant effort and tendency is to bring the body into full harmony with its soul. If this is not done here, it is done hereafter. And what is true of each individual is true of the Church and is true of Heaven. So far as the Church is a Church, it is so by virtue of the fact that its form and life are from God. What is from man cannot make the Church. The Church must be truth in form and substance. This can be only so far as the Church is anew creation by the Divine Truth. So also Heaven is not Heaven from anything proper to the angels, but solely by virtue of what is of the Lord with them.
And since Heaven, the Church, and each individual member of them, are recreated by the Divine Truth into the very image and likeness of the Divine, how evident it is that He can dwell in Heaven and the Church as the soul in its own Body!
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How evident that He can govern all with reference to each and each one with reference to all! How evident that He is the All in all of Heaven and the Church, the only life His Life, the only wisdom His Wisdom!
Thus is Divine Truth the one only substance, the one only form, and the one only reality in Heaven and the Church. Amen.
READING THE WRITINGS AND FAMILY WORSHIP HUGH L. BURNHAM 1905
Suppose each one of us knew that we must, within a few years, journey to and reside for a term of years in a foreign country, the manners, customs, thoughts, occupations and usages of which were entirely different from those of our own land, and that without special preparation on our part it would he impossible for us to enter or find the beautiful and desirable part of that land, but that we would surely be led astray into another and undesirable part, into captivity and loathsomeness, where we would soon lose all remembrance of everything good and true.
Suppose, further, that the Ruler of this foreign country should now provide us each with books, setting forth everything needful to be known by us in order to enable us to make the necessary preparation, and should also furnish to each earnest reader of those books, wise and loving counselors and guides to watch and lead his every step. Is it to be supposed that in such a case we would fail to seize the opportunity to prepare ourselves?
What, then, if we are to go, not for a time, but for eternity, either to a state of happy and peaceful usefulness or to one of miserable and restless vanities?
In the supposed case the time of our transplanting is placed a few years hence. In the real case it must be within a few years, and it may be shortly, or at once: but in any event it will be all too soon to allow delay in preparation.
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A merciful Providence gives to those newcomers to the other life, who have made even the slightest preparation, the opportunity to accommodate themselves to the new life, but the possibilities for persons made ready by accommodation are few as compared with the possibilities for those who go fairly prepared.
It would at first seem that all those once clearly comprehending this would take heed to their ways, but such is not the case any more than with those who, (while in states of exaltation incited by study of the Word or by worship or mutual love, or when in states of humiliation enforced by a realization of their evil selves), feel that the consciousness then with them of the all pervading presence and power of the Lord must remain and control their entire future thought and action, for, as we well know, these states quickly pass away.
And yet, in this very fact lies the possibility of our becoming and remaining rational spiritual beings to eternity.
Were it not possible for us to forget, or become as it were unconscious of God, of the life after death and of the shortness and uncertainty of human life, we could never come to love truth and do good as of ourselves.
While, then, it is this ability to so forget and thus act as of ourselves that makes it possible for us to become truly rational, it is nevertheless by not forgetting, or rather by recollecting, that we do become rational and spiritual.
Man does not become continually conscious of the existence of God, until after his opposing life has become quiescent; and his greatest happiness and true freedom is in realizing that he exists from God alone.
Lest, then, when we do forget, we do not again recollect, it is most expedient for us that we read often and reflect well upon the Word of God.
We may take a certain delight in reading the Writings, and yet through procrastination, through an indefinable fear of profanation, or through some other suggestion from the hells, we may permit ourselves to be deterred from regular reading.
Regular reading brings clearer thought, it brings increased affection, it brings association with the angels, and what is more, it not only increases the strength of the Church on earth, but strengthens the particular society in Heaven which is to become our eternal home, for while everyone who comes into heaven comes at once into a full knowledge of its languages and sciences, nevertheless the ability of all in each heavenly society to have this knowledge, depends upon the scientifics rationally acquired by its members while in this world, consequently each society is immeasurably strengthened through each member who has, while in this world, obtained a knowledge of many spiritual truths, and has confirmed them by natural scientifics.
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Of the many ways in which a frequent reading of the Writings prove a benefit to the Church, one most apparent is, that through reading, the laity have a clearer perception and understanding of the teachings given by the clergy, and the intelligent and affectionate reception of the truths they present will necessarily react upon the priests and increase their growth. Who has not had the experience, after thoughtfully reading perhaps only a page or two of one of the Writings and shortly afterward listening to instruction by a priest, of finding that the passage read had an immediate bearing upon the instruction given? The reason is that every truth has some direct relation to every other truth.
One element of strength in the General Church of the New Jerusalem is that some of the members have read a great deal, many have read some, and all are in the intention of reading the Writings; all are in an affirmative attitude toward the Writings, and have a general knowledge of the Doctrines of the Church. Hence the priests of the General Church have been able to give instruction which has not only added to the general knowledge of the men of the Church, but the intelligent reception of their teaching by the laymen has increased the teaching ability of the priests, for the teacher can only grow where there is intelligent reception of his teaching.
By reading the Writings, the laymen come into a knowledge of the generals of Doctrine, and the priests are then able to give instruction in the particulars. If the laymen do not read at all, the priests cannot well do more than give instruction on the generals of Doctrine. The ability of the priests to instruct in particulars, and the increased usefulness of the priests, depend, therefore, largely upon the extent to which the laymen read the Writings.
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Since our own future, the welfare of the Church and the welfare of our own society in heaven depends in part upon the manner and extent to which we individually read the Writings, we have every incentive to put aside every obstacle which interferes with such reading.
In respect to family worship we are told in the little work On Charity that it is a duty of piety to worship morning and evening and at meals. Family worship, then, is a duty of piety, and the Writings point out when, and how frequently, this duty should be performed.
Do the members of the General Church fulfill this duty?
The general impression seems to be that family worship is not quite so general and uniformly maintained by the families of the General Church as was the case some ten or fifteen years ago.
If such is the fact, then either there must be some justifiable reason for it, or we are remiss in the performance of the duty.
In the discussion of this subject at the District Assembly held at Toronto last January, it was stated that many found it impossible to have regular family worship. In some cases the head of the family left before the children were up in the morning and returned after they had gone to bed in the evening.
In some cases sickness interfered, in others the members of the family had to get up too early in the morning to have worship before going to work, and by night were too exhausted to read, etc.
After considerable discussion, our Bishop stated that no one was supposed to do more than he could. That if it was impossible to have worship twice a day, it might be had once a day, once in two days, twice a week, once a week, or even at such greater intervals as might be possible. That if nothing more could be done, one might, before going to bed, open the Word and kneeling before it repeat the Lord's prayer; and that if one was too tired to do even that, to then go to bed and go to sleep.
That certainly put the case very clearly. It is to be feared, however, that there are many instances where we assume it to be practically impossible to have regular family worship where it is merely inconvenient. Sometimes the excuse is that a considerable portion of the family cannot worship together, at least on certain days in the week. Some, for instance, find it inconvenient to have family worship on Sunday because the members of the family get up at different times on that day, and then, any way, they are going to church.
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On Monday the excuse is that it is wash day, and on Tuesday that it is ironing day. On Wednesday it is hard to arrange for worship because they have not had worship on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, and on Thursday it is so near the end of the week that they will wait until next week to make a fair start, and so on.
Why not make the same arrangements with reference to breakfast, all omitting to eat breakfast on Sunday because all cannot eat together, and because they are going to have dinner any way; and then omit breakfast on Monday because it is wash day, and so on?
If a family in the habit of eating breakfast together have this broken in upon by the work of certain days, by oversleeping, by sickness in the family or by other disarranging cause, breakfast is nevertheless eaten by all. It may be that the members of the family eat separately and that some eat merely a sandwich on the bus, or on the train, or at the place of business. Why then should not, if necessary, the members of the family treat this matter of family worship in the same way; worship together if possible, but if that is impossible or decidedly inconvenient or disarranging, then worship separately or in groups in the same manner in which they partake of their breakfast or their evening meal? Certain it is, that we all do that which we very much desire to do, and it must therefore be apparent to us, that if we fail in our duty to hold family worship or neglect to read the Writings as much as it is desirable we should, the principal and probably the only reason that we fail in this respect is because we have not the necessary affection, or probably what is nearer the truth, we permit other and less useful things, for which we have a greater affection, to crowd these more desirable things to one side.
There is nothing new contained in this paper and probably enough has been said to accomplish the object sought, which is to open a discussion with the end in view that we may arouse a greater affection for reading the Writings and maintaining a regular family worship, for if that affection can be sufficiently aroused we have the entire and self solution to the question.
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In conclusion, however, it might he said that the only way to arouse this affection is for each of us to enter upon a frequent reading of the Writings, and to make every attempt to maintain family worship until the habit has grown so strong that it causes sincere regret, and even pain, when anything happens to break in upon the regularity.
MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH C. TH. ODHNER 1905
THE ancient Greek accounts of the origin of the world and of the gods have been recognized by many of the older interpreters of Mythology as bearing a striking resemblance to the Scriptural stories of the Creation of heaven and earth, the Golden Age, the Fall, and the Flood. Though this comparison has inevitably suggested itself, no attempt has been made to follow it up systematically and in detail, nor could this have been successfully accomplished without that universal mathesis, that master-key which fits into every door,-the Divinely revealed Science of Correspondences.
In the absence of this guiding star, modern interpreters have attempted to establish the science of Comparative Mythology on a purely materialistic basis, but the result has been an unsatisfactory, unsystematic and ludicrous jumble of contradictory hypotheses, devoid of all religious, ethical, and artistic elements. According to the "physical" interpreters of the evolutionary school, the ancient Greeks were entirely destitute of any spiritual ideas, nay, even philosophical and moral conceptions were quite foreign to them. They were mere nature-worshipers. and all their beautiful myths were nothing but different phases of the apotheosis of dead matter. Everything was a sun-myth, or a moon-myth, or a cloud-myth, not to speak of earth-myths and mud-myths. The Greeks themselves compared this form of thought to Pegasus with his wings bound and chained to a plow.
In the New Church alone we are able to recognize the intimate relation between Theogony and Theology, between Mythology and Religion.
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Here we can realize that in the presence of Mythology we stand before a noble classical temple, the home of the Muses, the cradle of all art, poetry, and culture; to us alone has been given the key, and if we enter into the inner recesses we shall find ourselves in a sacred adytum which strangely resembles the interior of a temple of the New Jerusalem.
An effort was made, some years ago, to bring the light of the New Church to bear upon the mythological systems of ancient Canaan, Babylonia, and Assyria. For the results of these studies the reader is referred to New Church Life for 1889 and 1890. It is our purpose, now, to make a similar effort in respect to the Pantheon of ancient Greece and Rome, reviewing in a general way the most obvious correspondences which are there presented. The Writings of the New Church contain numerous references to this Mythology, with direct interpretations which to us are authoritative. Our own interpretations, though based upon the Divine Revelation, are offered only in the way of suggestion.
Mythology, being the science of ancient religions, is a sacred science and must therefore be handled with reverence and care. Two things are needed for its interpretation: correspondences and rational doctrine. Without correspondences Mythology will never open up its buried temples and treasuries, but correspondence is merely the key; within are labyrinthine passages and chambers where unguided imagination may easily go astray. A guide is needed, and this guide we have in the systematic theology of the New Church, which is one with the Doctrine of the Ancient Church, and which not only points the way but at the same time warns against false interpretations. But with both the key and guide at hand we may safely explore the labyrinth, and our journey will then serve most important uses. It will place our mind in communication with the celestial and spiritual heavens of the Lord's Ancient Churches. It will store the imagination with noble and beautiful images, the representative ultimates of heavenly thoughts and affections, and, above all, it will show that the Religion of the ancients is one with the Religion of the New Church, teaching the same Divine truths, inculcating the same lessons of moral and spiritual good, and leading the mind to the worship of the same and only supreme God, the God of the Ancient Church who is the LORD Of the New Church.
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CHAOS.
In the beginning, before heaven and earth were created, there existed a primeval egg, a "rude and undigested mass," an inert weight in which "the discordant atoms of things inharmonious were heaped together:" heat and cold, land, sea and air, being mingled in wild confusion. This primordial mass of heterogeneous matters was known to Hesiod and Ovid and all the ancients under the name of "Chaos," a word derived from the Sanscrit root "Cha." to yawn, to gape wide open, whence, in English, we have the word "chasm." Thus in the Graeco-Roman Chaos we find the same conception as in the Chaldean Tiamat, the Hebrew Tehom, the Scandinavian Ginungagap, viz., an immeasurable abyss, as the scene of the subsequent Divine work of creation.
When it is known that all ancient theogonies were derived from that part of the Ancient Word which is preserved in the opening chapters of Genesis, and when it is further known that the story of Creation in that Word deals not with the natural conformation of the visible heaven and the habitable earth, but with the spiritual creation, that is, the regeneration of man, and, in the internal historical sense, with the establishment of the first Church of God among men, it will be easily recognized that by "Chaos" is meant the original state of man, before his regeneration; historically it depicts the crude and almost animal condition of the first men created upon earth, the Pre-adamites, who, though furnished by the Creator with the seeds of all possible human development, yet, in the beginning, like all babes, were in a purely corporeal and sensual state, of themselves unable to distinguish or discriminate between good and evil, truth and falsity.
"To this discord God and bounteous Nature put an end." What "God" was this who existed before all the known gods of the Pantheon? To this question Ovid answers, "the Artificer of all Things," "whoever of the gods He was,"--in other words, the one and only real God who had become "the unknown God" in the declining days of the Ancient Church. He it was who first of all brought out of Chaos the "ample-bosomed earth," personified as "Gaea, the great mother of gods and men, which was expanded wide above the "gloomy Tartarus."
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Next out of Chaos "Erebus" and "Nyx," evening and night, were born.
GAEA, the earth, signifies the external man in general. Tartarus is the sensual proprium, Erebus and Nyx are the "darkness" and "thick darkness" reigning in that proprium. Thus the Theogony repeats in substance, and very nearly in form, the opening verses of the Ancient Word: "In the beginning God created Heaven and Earth. And the earth was empty and void, and thick darkness was upon the faces of the abyss."
OURANOS.
"Love then arose, most beauteous of immortals." Not the winged, mischievous Cupid, the son of Aphrodite,--for Aphrodite herself had not yet risen from the sea,--but EROS, Love, in the original sense of Divine Love, the "Spirit of God moving upon the faces of the waters." Nothing further is said in the Theogony of this Eros, but his creative power is suggested rather than described, for now "from Nyx arose ETHER and HEMERA," Light and Day, even as, according to the Ancient Word, "God said, Let there be Light, and there was Light. . . . And the evening and the morning were the first day." By the first revelation of Divine Truth from Divine Love the work of spiritual creation commenced; the first men began to be formed into a Church of God.
The Latin fable, related by Ovid, describes at length the successive days of creation, resulting finally in the creation of man and the glories of the Golden Age, but the Greek myth of Hesiod passes at once to the birth of OURANOS, the starry Heaven, first-born of Gaea and direct ancestor to all subsequent generations of gods.
It is self-evident that Ouranos personifies the first or Most Ancient Church, the Church of Adam or the Golden Age, which was a Celestial, i. e., heavenly Church, The name itself is derived from an archaic root OR, cognate to the Hebrew OR and UR, signifying "Light" and "Flame." and to the Sanscrit war, whence we have the Greek horao, to see the Latin verus, and the German wahr, true. It was the one true Church, the Church of heavenly light, truth, insight, and perception.
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But little is known of Ouranos as an individual deity, though many are the accounts of the Golden Age, depicted in glowing words by the classic poets. We learn, however, that Ouranos finally married his own mother, Gaea, and by this union he sealed his own doom for out of it sprang, first, a Proud and wicked race, the "Titans," and later on a generation of hideous monsters, the "Cyclops" and the "Hundred-handed," all of whom conspired together and effected the downfall of their heavenly parent.
This whole story simply describes the gradual downfall of the Most Ancient Church in the days when "the sons of God married the daughters of men," that is, when the men who had been gifted with celestial perceptions and loves, deliberately went back and profaned their truths by conjoining them to the earthly affections of the sensual nature from which they had risen and advanced. This back-sliding, this profanation of the celestial state, is fitly represented by Ouranos marrying his mother Gaea. Henceforth we find Gaea, the earth, cursed as the mother of a race of monsters with whom she plans for the destruction of her heavenly son and spouse.
THE TITANS.
"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare to them: they became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Gen. vi: 4-5.) Such were the descendants of the fallen Celestial Church, each succeeding generation becoming more and more wicked, until the last posterity became to monstrous that the world has never since looked upon the like of them, nor ever will again.
The fall of mankind was gradual: the first states were by no means as bad as the last. The first posterity of Ouranos and Gaea were twelve proud and powerful beings called TITANS, (a name which, according to some signifies "earth-born;" according to others "strivings," "those who were stretching out,"--to do violence).
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Some of these Titans, such as Oceanos, Themis, Mnemosyne, and Japetos with his son Prometheus, were relatively good, as were also the first posterities of the Most Ancient Church, and these afterwards made common cause with the Olympian gods in the war against Chronos. This seems to indicate that there were side-lines, descended from the first posterities of the Most Ancient Church, tribes or nations which remained in a relatively good state and which afterwards united with the subsequent Ancient Church, represented by Zeus and his associates.
But the later-born Titans were of a more and more sinister and over-bearing nature, and Ouranos, ashamed and fearful of his wicked offspring, thrust them out of sight in a cavern of the earth. This suggests the feelings of guilty shame of Adam and Eve, when after the fall they sought to cover up their nakedness. The sinner is unwilling to look his evils in the face, but tries to cover them up with the excusatory reasonings of merely natural and apparent truths. At first, also, there is some effort to control and restrain the brood of hellish "strivings,"-new-born Titans,--awakened by the indulgence in sin.
But the decline goes on. In the subterranean cavern the Titans are joined by the later and still more terrible offspring of Ouranos and Gaea,--the Cyclops and the Hundred-handed, who represent the later posterities of the Most Ancient Church,--the monstrous "Antediluvians."
The CYCLOPS were terrible giants having but one round eye, (cyclos-round, ops--eye),--a most graphic representation of the Antediluvians who, descended from celestial ancestors, were still spiritually "one-eyed." Their will and their understanding were still but one faculty, as was the case with their celestial ancestors, but now both will and understanding were evil. The understanding, filled with perversions of truth, at once excused and confirmed every vile lust arising from the evil will, and the will at once assented to every profane persuasion of the understanding.
The "HUNDRED-HANDED," (Centimani, Hekatoncheires), were monsters surpassing the wildest imagination. Their each possessed a hundred hands, and their legs were in the form of enormous serpents,--a fearful picture of the power of evil unrestrained. Each evil love, at first apparently harmless and respectable like the earlier Titans, after a while grows into a Cyclops, one-eyed, seeing nothing but its own fell purpose, which it excuses and confirms by every imaginable reasoning; and later on, thus nourished and comforted, it takes possession of the whole man with a hundred hands, progressing quickly by the aid of direful persuasions.
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These correspondences of the Titans, the Cyclops, and the Centimani are no vain imaginations of our own but are firmly established by the following account of the Antediluvian hells, described by Swedenborg in the work called Coronis, no. 38:
The hell of those who were of the Most Ancient Church is the most atrocious of all the hells, consisting of such as in the world believed themselves to be as God, according to the deceitful serpent, (Gen. iii:5); and deeper in that hell are those who persuaded themselves that they were really gods, from the fantasy that God had transfused His Divinity into men, and, thus, that there was no longer a God in the universe. In consequence of that direful persuasion, a deadly stench exhales out of that hell, and infects the adjacent places with so baleful a contagion, that when anyone approaches, he is first seized with a delirious madness, and presently, after some convulsive motions, he seems to himself to be in the agonies of death. I saw a certain spirit near that place lying down as if dead, but on being removed thence he recovered. That hell lies in the middle of the southern quarter, and is surrounded with ramparts, on which stand spirits, who with the voice of a stentorian trumpet call out, "Approach no nearer:
I have heard from the angels who are in the heaven above that hell, that the evil spirits there appear like serpents twisted into inextricable folds, as an effect of their vain devices and incantations, by which they allured the simple to assent to their being gods, and to believe that there is no God but they. The ancients, who couched everything under fables, described such persons as the giants who assaulted the camp of the gods, and were cast down by the thunderbolts of Jupiter, and were thrust down under the burning mountain of Aetna, and were called Cyclops: they also gave to their hells names such as Tartarus, and the pools of Achaeron; and the deep abysses there they called Styx, and those who dwelt there they called Lernean, Hydrae, etc."
This identification of the Cyclops and the Giants with the Antediluvian Nephilim, is of the utmost importance to the correct interpretation of the Greek Mythology. We have here a definite statement by Divine Revelation, from which we are able to determine beyond peradventure that Ouranas and his children represent the Most Ancient Church, while Jupiter and his generation refer to the Ancient Church after the Flood.
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Or, as Ovid testifies: "After Saturn was cast down to dark Tartarus, the world was under Jupiter, and the silver race succeeded." Without this definite clew it would be impossible to establish any systematic spiritual interpretation of the bewildering and often contradictory legends and genealogies of the Greek Pantheon.
We may now return to the history of Ouranos and the Titans, of whom the youngest and most wicked and cunning was named Chronos or Saturn.
CHRONOS OR SATURN.
Angered at the imprisonment of her children, Gaea induced her youngest-born, Chronos, to overthrow his father. As Ouranos one night descended to his treacherous spouse, Chronos armed himself with a sharp sickle, and cruelly mutilated him. But from the drops of blood, flowing from the wound, there arose a two-fold offspring. From that which fell upon the earth there arose a race of GIANTS and also the FURIES.
The former were enormous ones, all hairy, breathing flames and storms, with loud cries and dreadful hissing, hurling glowing rocks against heaven. The Furies were three fearful sisters, having pale, contorted faces, flaming eyes and clawlike hands, in which they carried scourges made of biting serpents. The Giants fitly represent the last fearful profanations of the Antediluvians, and the Furies their eternal punishments.
But the blood which fell into the sea gathered around it the white sea-foam (aphros), out of which arose the loveliest and most beautiful of the goddesses, Aphrodite or Venus Astarte. This wonderful myth suggests the thought that when celestial conjugial love was lost in the Most Ancient Church, a remnant of that love was preserved among the Gentiles--represented by "the sea,"--and among them, out of the natural love of the sex,--or the "sea-foam,"--spiritual conjugial love arose in the new or Ancient Church.
Having overthrown his father, of whom nothing further is related. Chronos now released his imprisoned Titan brethren and with them ruled supreme over the world.
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It is evident that he represents the last period of the Most Ancient Church just before the Flood, at the time of the final Judgment upon it. Hence we always find his frowning, sinister figure armed with the fitting symbol of a Sickle,--sometimes circled by a serpent biting its own tail,--and a Sickle always signifies "judgment" and "the end of the Church." In later ages, from the general significance of his symbol, Saturn came to represent "old father Time," and also "Death, the harvester," and finally he was looked upon as the benevolent patron of the harvests, but this was after the true correspondences had been forgotten.
The dying Ouranos had prophesied that "crooked-counseled" Chronos would himself be served with the same fate that he had meted out to his father. Fearing this end, Chronos devoured all his children immediately after their birth. Does not this suggest that everything of innocence, every newborn perception of good and truth, was profaned by the Church which existed before the Flood? As soon as perceived, it was at once swallowed up by the love of self, that is, was perverted by being applied to the puffing up of self-conceit and the excusatory confirmation of evil. Thus no new good or truth could any longer come forth from heaven to earth, and mankind would have perished in spiritual death, if the Lord in His Mercy had not now established a new Church upon the earth. But Rhea, the sister-wife of Chronos, finally gave birth a last son whom she quickly hid away in a cave on Mount Ida, while to her devouring spouse she gave a stone, wrapped up in swaddling clothes.
The story, in its literal form, has humorous as well as gruesome features, but within is hidden the pearl of spiritual truth. The birth of Zeus, or Jupiter, represents the coming of a new Divine
Revelation, the ancient Word, for the upbuilding of a new dispensation, a new Church, the second or Ancient Church, the Church of the Silver Age.
This new Word, however, was not in form an internal Revelation such as was with the most ancients--the men who had "the Word of God written upon their hearts." The Divine Truth could no longer be communicated in the form of celestial perceptions, (for these would at once have been perverted or "swallowed up") but it was now necessary to hide the Divine message under the sensual appearances of a literal sense.
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It is this literal sense which is represented in our story by "the stone wrapped in swaddling-clothes," which was given to Chronos to devour. In other words, the perverted Church of the Antediluvians was permitted to fall upon the letter of the Word, which they could pervert to their heart's content, while the internal sense, the Divine Truth itself,-the young Jupiter,-was safely hidden from their knowledge. Thus it was in the days of Enoch, "who was not, for God took him." "And it is the same in our own days, when the Heavenly Doctrine of the Internal Sense is being miraculously hidden from the Old Church, while the theologians and "the higher critics" are freely permitted to fall upon and devour the mere letter of the Word.
The genuine doctrine of the Ancient Word was in the beginning received by a very few persons, and the Ancient Church, like every new Church, grew very slowly and unknown to the world, yet steadily increased in the knowledge and understanding of the new Revelation. This fact is strikingly represented by the story of the guarded childhood of Jupiter, in the cave on Mount Ida,--a name which, in all the ancient tongues, signifies knowledge and insight. But as soon as full grown, young Jupiter attacked and dethroned his cruel father, and compelled him to vomit forth all the children whom he had devoured.* This means that the goods and truths which had been perverted, misunderstood and thus remained "undigested" with the perverted Church, were now freed from their perversions and restored to their true use and value in the new Church. Thus also at the present time, the truths and goods of Science, Philosophy, and Ethics have been misunderstood and perverted by the fallen Christian Church, but all will nevertheless be restored to their true use in the Lord's New Church.
* The stone, which Rhea had given Chronos to devour, was also disgorged, and was placed by the conquering god at the foot of Mt. Parnassus,--a significant myth suggesting that the letter of the new revelation became the foundation of all science and intelligence in the Ancient Church. (See A. C. 4966.)
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THE CHRONIDES.
Having set free the Chronides, his brothers, Neptune and Pluto, and his sisters, Vesta, Ceres and June, Jupiter by the aid of them and their adherents entered upon a long and fierce war, first against Chronos and the Titans, and afterwards against the Cyclops and Giants, who vainly piled Pelion upon Ossa in order to scale the Olympus and restore the old order or rather disorder of things. This represents the assaults of what was then the Old Church upon the New, by the accumulation of false reasonings against the newly established Truth. But they were all finally struck down by the thunderbolts of Jove, and were cast down into Tartarus where they were imprisoned forever in adamantine chains and placed securely under Mount Aetna and other volcanoes. It is their vain efforts to break loose that cause the earth to tremble and the mountains to vomit forth fire. (Compare the "great misty rock," under which the Antediluvians are imprisoned. A. C. 1266; S. D. 3358) Thus the final judgment overtook the Antediluvians. The imaginary heavens of the perverted celestial Church were cast down and turned into that first, deepest, and most direful of all the hells, which is described in the Coronis n. 38. But out of the celestial angels and spirits of the Most Ancient Church itself there was organized that first, inmost and supreme heaven which in Greek Mythology is signified by MOUNT OLYMPUS. (Compare De Verbo 7, where three mountains are spoken of, Olympus, Helicon, and Pindus. Of these "Helicon by correspondence signifies the superior heaven," while the hill known as Pindus signifies "the heaven below it.")
In the inner sense of the Graeco-Roman Theogony, Ouranos and his offspring stand for the Most Ancient Church in its purity and in its subsequent decline, while Zeus and the rest of the Olympian gods stand for the second or Ancient Church. In this new Church, though as a whole it was of a spiritual instead of celestial character, there were still three degrees or three generally reigning principles, both of truth and of good, and these are represented by the three sons and three daughters of Chronos and Rhea, who now divided the universe between them.
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According to our understanding of the representative character of each of these six divinities, they arrange themselves in the following order:
Truth. Good.
Celestial Zeus or Jupiter Hestia or Vesta.
Spiritual Poseidon or Neptune Hera or Juno.
Natural Hades or Pluto Demeter or Ceres.
Jupiter, reserving for himself the supreme rule over heaven and earth, represents the inmost or celestial degree of Divine Truth in the Ancient Church, that is, the celestial sense of the Ancient Word. Neptune, who, with his chariot and horses, ruled over the sea, stands for the spiritual or intermediate degree of Truth Divine, that is, the spiritual sense of the Word in the natural; and Pluto, who ruled over the riches hidden in the earth and over the kingdom of the dead, represents the ultimate degree of Divine Truth, or the literal sense of the Word, which by itself is dead.
Associated with these three gods or degrees of truth, were three goddesses, who represent corresponding degrees of good, or affections, or general forms of the Church. Vesta, the virgin goddess of the sacred fire, is the mythological name for celestial good, the love of the Lord, the celestial Church. Juno, the queen of heaven in the Ancient Church, signifies, as we shall show, spiritual good, the love of celestial truth, the spiritual Church, or Church specific. And Ceres, the patroness of the fruits of the earth, stands for natural good in general, good works, and the Lord's Church universal.
We regard it as more than a coincidence that Jupiter married, not Vesta, but June; that Neptune at one time united with Ceres, and that Pluto took for his wife Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres. That is, the truths of the higher degrees were conjoined with the goods of the lower degrees, according to the universal law described in the following teaching:
The heavenly marriage is that of good with truth and of truth with good; yet not between good and truth of one and the same degree, but between good and truth of an inferior degree and of a superior: that is, not between the good of the external man and the truth of the same, but between the good of the external man and the truth of the internal, or, what is the same, not between the good of the natural man and the truth thereof, but between the good of the natural man and the truth of the spiritual man it is this conjunction which constitutes a marriage.
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It is similar with regard to the internal or spiritual man, there subsists no heavenly marriage between the good and truth of the spiritual man, but between the good of the spiritual man and the truth of the celestial man, for the celestial man is in a superior degree. Neither does the heavenly marriage subsist between good and truth in the celestial man, but between the good of the celestial man and the Truth Divine which proceeds from the Lord. (A. C. 3592.)
This, therefore, leaves celestial good alone unmated to any finite degree of truth, but conjoined to the Divine Truth itself, and on this account Hestia or Vesta, supreme among the goddesses, remained a Virgin. And this, again, is another proof that the Mythologies of the Ancients are not mere heaps of confused legends, but an exact and well connected system of rational Theology, in complete correspondence with the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem.
(To be Continued.)
GLORIOUS PROMISE. 1905
"The good works of chastity in respect to offspring and posterity, are, that so many and such great evils should not be connate in families; for the reigning love of the parents is carried over into the offspring, and sometimes into far posterity, and becomes hereditary nature with them; this is broken and becomes mild with parents who shun adulteries as infernal and who love marriages as heavenly." (A. E 1002.)
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FOURTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE PITTSBURGH DISTRICT ASSEMBLY, OCTOBER 13-17, 1904 CHAS. H. EBERT 1905
The Assembly was opened with a reception at the Bellefield Club House, on Thursday evening, October 13th. The entertainment for the evening was arranged and provided for entirely by the young men of the Pittsburgh Society, and the success of the occasion was a fitting tribute to their efforts. Dancing occupied a large part of the evening, and if each one of the societies and circles in the General Church was not represented, it was not for lack of having a dance in its name.
The first session of the Assembly was held at the Church on Friday evening, October 13th. After the opening worship, Bishop Pendleton read his Address, which was an exposition of nos. 202-205 of Conjugial Love, on the subject of the inheritance of children born of consorts who are in love truly conjugial. The minutes of the previous year's meetings were read and approved.
Rev. N. D. Pendleton, as Secretary of the Assembly reported that he had been engaged exclusively in the pastoral work of the Pittsburgh Society during the past year, with the exception of two visits he had made in the District: once to officiate at the funeral of Mr. Mortimer Pollock, in Wheeling, W. Va., and another time to Greenford, Ohio, to officiate at the funeral of Mr. Rhoades. He spoke of the warm reception which was accorded him at both places.
Rev. J. E. Bowers reported that he had done very little missionary work in this District during the past year, but gave an account of his visits to various points in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and West Virginia.
The Bishop stated he had made an episcopal visit to the Middleport Society in May, where they had been without a pastor for some time. He spoke of the increased affection for the things of the Church manifest there, and remarked that this increase was noticeable throughout our body. As a result of this visit, a call was extended to Rev. W. L. Gladish, who accepted and removed to Middleport in July.
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Rev. W. L. Gladish reported that he hall preached at Givens, Athens, and Salem Centre, Ohio, and was making regular visits to places in the vicinity of Middleport, in addition to performing the pastoral work of that society.
The Bishop, in announcing that the meeting was now open for the discussion of any subject of interest to the Assembly, remarked that these district assemblies hall purposely not been completely organized in the beginning, with the idea of first developing an internal growth of the use, according to which the external organization could be perfected.
By request, Mr. Paul Carpenter read the report of the Treasurer of the General Church to the Executive Committee, which had been in session in Pittsburgh that day. The report expressed appreciation of the increase in contributions to the general fund during the past year--which increase amounted to $441.00--but deplored the decrease in the support of New Church Life, the subscription list including only 250 members of the General Church, out of a total membership of more than 700. The importance of every member of the Church's taking the Life was ably presented.
Mr. Paul Synnestvedt gave a resume of the proceedings of the Executive Committee with reference to the matter of incorporating the General Church, from which it appeared that the committee appointed by the Bishop to procure a charter, agreeable to the resolutions passed at the last meeting of the General Assembly, had found obstacles which made it questionable whether a valid charter, which would be suitable to our purposes, could be obtained under the laws of Pennsylvania, and would therefore make application for incorporation under the laws of Illinois.
Mr. John Pitcairn suggested taking up for discussion the Bishop's address, laying emphasis on the conclusion that the hope of the Church lies in the children. He gave an interesting account of some early missionary efforts in this vicinity, and pointed to these and some of the experiences related by Mr. Bowers as evidence of the total lack of interest taken in spiritual things by the public generally.
Mr. Bowers remarked that experience had led him not to encourage general public meetings too much, but rather to devote his time to those interested in the truth.
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Mr. Powell testified his appreciation of missionary visits, and asked what would become of the children of isolated Newchurchmen in this region were it not for Mr. Bowers's work.
Mr. Robert Carswell referred to the daily lessons from the Brief Exposition, in connection with the subject of the Bishop's Address.
Mr. Gladish said he had recommended the Brief Exposition for use at the New Church Exhibit at the World's Fair because of its clear presentation of the contrast between the New and the Old.
Rev. N. D. Pendleton considered the question of the proper presentation of the truth an important one, especially so to ministers. He said there was a time when he made a point of attacking the evils of the Old Church, but he learned that there were other ways of opening men's minds,--in fact, as many ways as there are minds of men.
He laid emphasis on the fact that, although we are busily engaged in other lines of work, more vital and important, missionary work--or the first presentation of the truth--must always be continued, as it is necessarily the first of all in time; and that all who fare the light of truth,--laymen as well as ministers,--carry this responsibility of presenting the truth to others whenever occasion offers. In this respect he thought there was room for improvement in our individual attitude,--considering each one as a custodian of the truth within his own sphere, and remembering that all the blessings which we enjoy are ours by virtue of the seed of Divine Truth in our minds. He closed with an appeal for a higher standard of faith in the Writings,--a faith which, while holding the Doctrines as the infallible Word, yet is not bound "literally and slavishly" to the mere statements of the truth, but aims to an ever more exalted perception of it.
The second session of the Assembly was held on Saturday evening, October 15th.
Mr. Bowers on invitation gave an account of his missionary tour through the Canadian Northwest during the past summer, which proved very interesting.
The Bishop called attention to the fact that the plan on which the Calendar now in use for daily reading from the Word and the Writings is based, will be completed in about two years, and suggested an expression of opinion as to a tentative plan for a perpetual Calendar, which has been outlined for use after the present one expires, calling on Mr. Gladish, who has been working on the new plan, to explain its purpose.
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The idea is to have a Calendar which, instead of providing for consecutive reading of the books of the Writings, as in the plan now in use, will take up the principal Doctrines of the Church in their order, giving the leading numbers throughout the Writings bearing on each one, before passing on to the next, thus enabling one to pursue a study of the whole teaching of the Writings on each subject presented. The reading thus furnished would be arranged to run for ten years, and could then be repeated, so making a perpetual Calendar which could be begun at any time, and could be printed in permanent form, possibly in the new Liturgy.
In answer to a question as to whether suitable passages from the Word would be selected, to read with the numbers from the Writings, the Bishop said he thought the consecutive reading of the letter of the Word should not be abandoned.
The teaching in the Writings that the historicals of the Word are more suitable for reading to children was referred to, and the Bishop replied that his remarks about reading the Word consecutively applied more to the private reading of adults, as it would be difficult to have any Calendar which would be universally suitable for family worship, it being incumbent upon the father to use his judgment in selecting the reading.
By request, the Bishop again opened the subject of his Address, by reading the numbers from Conjugial Love under discussion, and commenting thereon.
Mr. Gladish said the statement in the numbers quoted, that children born of two who are in truly conjugial love derive from their parents the conjugial principle of good and truth, etc., did not mean that the parents must necessarily be conjugial partners in order that their offspring might inherit these inclinations, but meant primarily that the parents must individually be in the state of the marriage of good and truth, or regeneration.
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Rev. N. D. Pendleton, speaking of the principle of conjugial love, said that we acknowledged it to be the inmost of the Church, in the acquisition of which the foremost thing was the shunning of evils as sins. He then suggested some practical means, among which was a distinct social life within the Church, as an ultimate plane for the cultivation of the conjugial.
Mr. H. L. Burnham, referring to Mr. Gladish's remarks, pointed out that where two married partners, both in the Church, were living together in the effort to attain to the conjugial state, they would be conjugial partners.
Mr. Jacob Schoenberger said he thought something ought to be done in regard to the reported deficiency in the income of the New Church Life, in order to guard against a possible necessity of having it abandoned for want of support.
Mr. W. C. Childs suggested that the business manager of the Life should take the lead in this, and ascertain by correspondence with former subscribers why their had discontinued it, so that if it were on account of lack of means some remedy might be devised.
Mr. S. H. Hicks gave assurance that the business manager of the Life had made considerable effort in this direction, and he thought part of the decrease was due to the fact that a number of subscribers who were in arrears had been dropped from the list during the past year.
Mr. S. S. Lindsay suggested that if some of the ministers would furnish a list of people with whom they came into contact, who were desirous of having the Life but had not the means, probably members could be found who would be glad to pay for their subscriptions.
On Sunday morning, October 16th, Rev. W. L. Gladish preached an able and interesting sermon, the attendance being 115. In the afternoon Bishop Pendleton administered the Holy Supper to eighty communicants.
On Monday evening, October 17th, a Men's meeting was held at Mr. Jacob Schoenberger's house. The topic for discussion was "The Means by which the Love of the Sex is transformed into Conjugial Love," the consideration of which aroused a great deal of enthusiasm.
On the same evening, the ladies had a meeting at Mrs. Norris's home.
CHAS. H. EBERT.
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Editorial Department 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
Owing to a confusion of names, an error was made in the news columns of the October Life where it is said that the Rev. T. F. Robinson has preached to the society at Nottingham for some years. The scene of Mr. Robinson's work is Northampton, not Nottingham.
Morning Light for November 26, publishes extracts from "a distinguished scientist resident in Europe, urging the republication of Swedenborg's scientific works, and the issuance of twelve tracts, in the style of "Foundation Truths," on "Great Scientific Truths" from Swedenborg. This "attack by 'flank movement'" he considers the only way by which a scientific age can be converted into a spiritual age.
Despite the apparent toleration which the Roman Catholic Church sometimes assumes, and the "liberal" tone of latter-day encyclicals addressed to her members in a free country, the love of supreme spiritual and temporal dominion with the consequent destruction of all freedom is, internally, as much the ruling love that Church to-day as it has been from the beginning. The spread of education and political freedom has curtailed its opportunities only. According to the Literary Digest, M. Anatole France, a celebrated member of the French Academy, in an elaborate article in the Neue Freie Presse (Vienna), setting forth the Vatican claim, says, "The Roman Church is at once a temporal and a spiritual power; [she has] the right to rule the world. . . . She cannot fulfill [her task of propagating the truth] without supporting herself by means of temporal principles, or, to use her own language, without making use of the secular arm. . . . The Pope is sovereign. Kings and emperors are his representatives. The Pope. . . is to the emperor what the sun is to the moon."
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No more autocratic claim was ever made even in the worst days of the War of the Investiture. Whether, if their claims could be enforced, the fate of independent thinkers would be any better now than then, may be judged from the following utterance of the Osservatore Romano, the official organ of the Vatican: "Freedom of the Press is an error condemnable and condemned, it is contrary to sense in philosophy, and in theology a monstrosity, in the same manner as freedom of worship and of conscience and of thought." What is wanting to the annihilation of these "monstrosities" but the "use of the secular arm?"
Traditions from the Ancient Church mingled with wild notions superadded by its degenerate descendants and flavored with a spice of mathematics that smacks of modern times,--these form the fantastic picture lately presented to the world by Baba Premanhand Bharati, a Brahman of Boston, in his book Krishna, The Lord of Love. On the authority of "the recorded facts in the Sacred Books of the Root-Race of mankind," he teaches, according to the Literary Digest, that there are four ages, a Golden, Silver, Copper, and "Iron (or Dark) Age," so-called from the abundance of these respective metals during the different epochs. The "Golden Age" was a period of 1,728,000 years, during which beautiful white giants, thirty feet high, dwelt in the garden of the earth in perpetual spring. Animals talked like men; men had no need for houses, and little need for food. They went naked; but there was no shame, for carnal relations were unknown, children being born in the womb of the mother by the potency of the mind-force of the male.
The "Silver Age," which lasted 1,080,000 years, was characterized by men seeking for happiness "on the surface of life, instead of in the depths of the spirit." Civilization commenced, and the average stature fell to twenty-one feet. Some, however, remained faithful to the old ideals, and this was the origin of castes. At the end of the 720.000 years of the "Copper Age." during which wickedness increased and the study of the sacred Scriptures ceased, Krishna made one of his regular aeonic appearances, (which take place at intervals of three hundred million years), dwelling in India for 100 years.
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His coming could do no more than shorten the present or Iron Age, where the love of spiritual wisdom is dying out. But a reaction will set in and the age will be purified for 144,000 years, when there will be a new Golden Age, after which, for the twenty-ninth time, the earth will again be absorbed into the Absolute Being-Krishna.
A REMARKABLE UTTERANCE.
"We could mention one or two churches where the people seldom, if ever, hear the subject of the Second Advent of the Lord even referred to in the pulpit, many of whom probably have no very clear idea, if any, that they are attached to a Church which represents the Second Advent.
"Again, we have heard some lay preachers, in making incidental references to the Second Coming, appeal to their congregations to look at the new inventions, the 'New Thought' (?), and the results of modern discoveries in science, exclaiming that such things were the Second Advent! From whence have they obtained such instruction? From their own intellectual findings. But we have to proclaim that the Writings of the Church are the Lord Himself in His Second Coming,--that the New Revelation as proclaimed by Swedenborg is the Lord Himself, and that that coming consists in nothing else. . . . It is not what congregations like or dislike in these matters. The question is and must be always, what is the truth concerning them."
The above remarkable words from the pen of the Rev. W. T. Lardge ("Uncle Vic"), are quoted from his farewell editorial in the December number of The New Church Young People's Magazine. They are remarkable not so much because of the journal in which they appear,--though this in itself is sufficiently remarkable,-but as being the only acknowledgment of the Writings as "the Lord Himself in His Second Coming" which has ever been made in any publication except those representing "Academy" principles.
That the doctrine is thus clearly proclaimed to the New Church in England is a cause for rejoicing. Similar teaching, though not quite so outspoken, was given in the Young People's Magazine two or three years ago, in a serial story, doubtless from the pen of Mr. Lardge, entitled "John Harvey," the hero of which appears as a staunch upholder of the Divine authority of the Writings.
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But with this exception the magazine,--of which, we should add, Mr. Lardge is only one of four ministerial editors,--has given little indication of championing the cause of the Writings against those who would detract from their Divinity. The final editorial, therefore, comes to us as a most pleasant surprise, although our joy is tempered by the fear that it will he actually the last appearance of any such fearless and outspoken teaching in that journal.
THE SWEDENBORG HOUSE AT ST. LOUIS.
The Messenger for November 16th was issued as a souvenir number for distribution to visitors at the Swedenborg House during the closing days of the World's Fair. An editorial on the enthusiasm generated by the Swedenborg House; a sermon "suggested by a visit to the St. Louis Exposition." by the Rev. J. K. Smyth; a talk about the House by Dr. Sewall; an abstract of a lecture delivered there by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck; and an account of the various receptions held, compose the literary features of the number. The illustrations comprise a portrait of Swedenborg, and a very interesting picture of the original Swedenborg house placed vis-a-vis with a picture of the copy at St. Louis.
The movement to erect this house was inaugurated by a committee appointed by the General Convention to prepare some New Church feature for the Fair. In January, 1904, this committee published its plan in the Messenger. Subscriptions were appealed for, and, it soon becoming evident: that the necessary funds would be raised, the work was set on foot.
"The known engravings" of the original house, (which has long since been torn down, but of which a fine picture in water colors is owned by the Academy of the New Church), were submitted to two architects, who produced from them independent plans and specifications, which were found to be practically identical. The work of construction was then entrusted to a St. Louis contractor,--a member of the St. Louis New Church Society, and the building was completed and furnished on or about the opening day of the Fair.
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The pictures in the Messenger show that the Swedenborg House is, in general external appearance, an accurate copy, on a larger scale, of the original building in Stockholm. There was no intention of reproducing the interior arrangement of the Swedish house, as this, consisting on the ground floor of three small rooms, would have been entirely impracticable for the purposes contemplated at St. Louis. Instead of this there was one main room, used for the reception of visitors and for lectures, with small adjoining offices.
The furnishings included a bust of Swedenborg, an original portrait in oil, copies of the photolithograph, and various editions of the Writings,--originals, reprints and translations,--including a handsomely hound set presented by the Chicago Society. Two ministers, the Revs. Messrs. Landenberger and Nusbaum, were in constant attendance, who kept a detailed registry of all visitors; constant attendance, who kept a detailed registry of all visitors; and there was also a lady representative of the Young People's League. These were assisted from time to time by visiting ministers who took part in the public lectures, which were given every week.
That the understanding has more than fulfilled the expectations of its promoters, cannot be questioned. It has been a missionary work on scale far more extensive than has ever before been seen in the New Church, and has resulted in bringing some knowledge of Swedenborg and his teachings to thousands who had never before heard of either. According to the Messenger it has also served to enkindle anew the interest of many who had become lukewarm to the Church. The total number of visitors is estimated at 25,000. Of these, however, only a few appear to have taken any real interest in the Doctrines themselves,---that is, so far as can be judged by the attendance at the lectures which, as we understand, was never more than about thirty persons, including members of the Church. Nevertheless, thousands and thousands of copies of books and tracts, including many of the Writings, have been distributed and sold; and while it is to be naturally expected that very few will take more than a passing interest in them, the Lord alone knows where and when the seed thus planted will spring up and grow.
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NEW CHURCH EDUCATION AT URBANA.
In the course of an account of his recent visit to Urbana University, Dr. Sewall, writing in the Messenger for November 30th, makes a somewhat significant attempt to present that institution as being thoroughly imbued with the spirit of New Church education. He refers to a conference which he had with the faculty and older students on "the subject of New Church education in general, and, in particular, of the practicability of providing distinctly New Church text-books in the various branches of scientific and philosophic study," and continues: "This did not mean, of course, the making over the true data of science. . .but the use and employment of them under the 'informing' guidance of the final philosophy of New Church truth, instead of presenting them under the biased construction of agnostic or materialistic theories. Can the Divine-human form be realized by the New Church student in all that he learns of the universe; and can this be made to appear in prepared New Church text-books of science?" Some introductory chapters of a "text-book for high schools and colleges" on "the Philosophy of Language," which Dr. Sewall is now engaged in writing, "were made the subject of an interesting and prolonged discussion, which showed that the subject had appealed really to the students as well as to the teachers present, and that at Urbana now, as in years past, the idea of New Church education is the vital one, not of merely being nominally in a 'New Church school' nor under a 'New Church teacher,' but rather, that of actually receiving in whatever is taught the fundamental principles of New Church truth as applying to that science, or of New Church motive as applying to this or that line of conduct."
All of this is very interesting and would be inspiring if past and present facts at Urbana corresponded more closely to the theories expressed above. It is still somewhat difficult to realize that "at Urbana now, as in years past, the idea of New Church education" is in any sense vital, when, as a matter of fact, all instruction in New Church Doctrine is being relegated to the category of optional studies, and has been so relegated for very many years past.
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That which any educational institution considers vital to its life and work, is in every case made obligatory, while the side-issues are made optional. But at Urbana this universal rule seems to be quite reversed; the vital study, that which called the institution into existence and which constitutes its sole raison d'etre, is made a matter of choice, to be taken or rejected as of secondary importance,-while the secular branches, the things of this world, are made primary and essential.
It is equally inconceivable how in such an institution, which does not first seek "the Kingdom of God," New Church textbooks can be prepared or used with any degree of general acceptance to its mixed classes of New Church and Old Church pupils, or how, "in whatever is taught," the fundamental principles of New Church truth can possibly be applied. The very first element, that of freedom of such application, would seem to be necessarily lacking, for the Old Church public, to which Urbana appeals for patronage, neither expects nor is led to expect any such universal application of the distinctive principles of the New Church.
It is manifestly impossible for any man or any body of men to serve two masters, for either the one or the other will be despised. It is painful to us to have to antagonize any institution which professes the name of the New Church, but this continued and confirmed determination on the part of Urbana University to mingle the Old Church with the New, seems to us far more dangerous to the spiritual welfare of the young people of the Church than would be education in a school professedly and openly of the world. For a mixed school cannot but have a mixed sphere and will inevitably produce mixed ideas, and, what is worse, mixed affections. Far better, then, to be either cold or hot.
SWEDENBORG AMONG THE DOCTORS.
Through the courtesy of the Rev. C. J. N. Manby we have received a recent number of Nordisk Tidskrift, (the Northern Review), a leading literary magazine of Sweden, in which there appears a lengthy and rather thorough account of the life and scientific significance of Emanuel Swedenborg.
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The writer is the well-known Professor C. G. Santeson, of Stockholm, whose name has been prominent from the beginning in connection with the recent movement in scientific circles in recognition of Swedenborg's services on nearly every field of learning.
Prof. Santeson is quite enthusiastic in his admiration for Swedenborg's scientific discoveries and attainments, and reviews at length the many and oft-mentioned anticipations of modern discoveries which, in the eyes of the learned world, cover Swedenborg with so much belated glory. The professor refers several times to the "frequency with which modern science in these Writings of Swedenborg happens across results supposed to be exclusively its own." But he adds, "Naturally, these are mixed with much useless dress, but still there may also be found ideas and anticipations which even our own day has not yet become capable of appreciating." By this "dress," we presume, the writer means Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical principles and doctrines,--the doctrines of correspondence, degrees, etc.--which alone made those "anticipations" possible. Swedenborg, the philosopher, is still as unknown to the learned world as Swedenborg the theologian, but some evidently are beginning to suspect that Swedenborg's science stands in intimate relation to his philosophy and theology.
Thus Prof. Santeson, after spending of certain "hypnotic or somnambulistic states" [!] occurring in Swedenborg's childhood, observes that "these traits have surpassing interest for they prove that the peculiar turn his life and activity took in later years implied no abrupt deviation, no suddenly appearing disorder of the mind, but that, on the contrary, it was the logical development of his entire personality. All his strivings, from beginning to end, were directed towards the study of the soul and of the spiritual world."
The same note is sounded in an article on "Emanuel Swedenborg as anatomist and physiologist," which appeared on November 19th in Aftonbladet, (the Evening News), the foremost daily journal of Sweden. Prof. Gustaf Retzius, through whose courtesy we have received a copy of this interesting and valuable article, adds the information that the writer, who signs himself "C. W.," is Dr. Carl Wallis, professor of the History of Medicine at the Royal Medical Institute of Stockholm, (Karolinska Institutet), and one of the most prominent modern scientific authorities in Sweden.
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Prof. Wallis, after reviewing his subject in the same strain of mingled astonishment and astonishment that characterizes all the modern scientific "discoverers of Swedenborg," admits that Swedenborg's anatomical and physiological works have as yet been so little studied that only a preliminary result can be said to have been gained." He, therefore, hails with great satisfaction the decision of the Royal Academy to undertake a thorough investigation of these works, and concludes in these words: "When a person, possessing such powers of observation and penetration, enters upon a new field of study as Swedenborg did in his later years, he cannot avoid carrying over into that new field the same method of study which he applied during his previous investigations. Does not this fact constitute a proof of the probability that a closer study of Swedenborg's works on the subjects of the mystical phenomena of Psychology will show that these latter works also contain much which has been far in advance of Swedenborg's own times? In the presence of the exact sciences the Isis-veil is beginning to fall away from these mystical phenomena. The doctrine of Hypnotism and Suggestion has already explained much that formerly seemed inexplicable in somnambulism and clairvoyance. An investigation of Swedenborg's works in the mystical field, from the point of view of modern science, ought to be a very profitable undertaking, and we imagine that some day such an investigation will he set on foot, now that the merits of this great man in other fields are beginning to gain recognition."
The members of the New Church are naturally interested in these movements in the learned world, and particularly in the attitude towards the theological Writings which the above extracts seem to indicate. Nevertheless, an investigation of these Writings, "from the point of view of modern science," would probably present as ludicrous a sight as the efforts of a camel to enter through the eye of a needle, and very likely would lead to the same lack of successful results.
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FAITH-CURE IN THE NEW CHURCH.
IN answer to the Academy's recent publication, the Laws of Order for the Preservation of the Conjugial, the Rev. S. S. Seward has recently issued a pamphlet of fifty-three pages, entitled The Saving Power of the Lord in relation to Purity of Life, copies of which may be had by applying to the author, at 849 St. Nicholas Avenue, New York City.
The writer professes to have treated of his subject "from a merely intellectual and doctrinal point of view,"-a claim which has caused some surprise, for we have found in the pamphlet more of sentimentalism, prejudice, and pietism, than of intelligence and New Church Doctrine. Self-evident contradictions and inconsistencies, extravagant charges, and inexcusable misrepresentations of the Academy's teachings, are crowded together in an inextricable tangle on every page of the pamphlet, but it would be a waste of our time and a tedium to our readers were we to enter into details. As an answer to the Laws of Order it calls for no reply, as every argument and objection brought forward by the pamphlet has been anticipated and met by the book. In fact, the author himself seems to recognize the failure of his effort to solve the question involved. "But we desist," he exclaims. "The subject is nauseous. The more we attempt to think it out, the more repulsive and impossible it becomes." (P. 42.)
With one who takes such an attitude towards a subject of New Church Doctrine it is, of course, useless to "argue the question," but it may be of use to such of our readers as have also perused the pamphlet to point out the untenable nature of the four main positions occupied by the author.
1. Mr. Seward most emphatically denies that the Laws revealed by the Lord in Conjugial Love, nos. 444-476, are "Laws of Order." To term them so, is to him "a gross, misleading, and dangerous perversion of the truth," (p. 16), and he "protests against it as unwarranted, untrue, and mischievous in the extreme," (p. 17). To him these laws are merely "laws of permission," nay, "they are not even laws of permission in the dogmatic sense," but "they are laws in the sense that they are governing principles that describe the effect of these permissions upon those that resort to them," (p. 44).
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They are therefore merely descriptive laws,--in other words, no laws at all!
In spite of this radical denial, Mr. Seward suddenly and most unexpectedly gives up his whole contention and "freely grants" that "they are laws of order, as all laws of permission are, in the general sense that they are laws of Divine Operation," (p. 15); and that "all the Laws of the Divine Operation are laws of order, when viewed from the Divine standpoint," (p. 14). Why, then, does he not continue to view the subject from the Divine standpoint, the standpoint of the Lord in His Doctrine? No other standpoint can be true or possible to the Lord's disciples.
2. He is thoroughly convinced that the permissions "described in Conjugial Love. 444-467, do not apply to the New Church, and that, in view of the saving power of the Lord, they need not apply," and he thinks that the teachings "cannot refer to any man who knows anything of the saving power of the Lord as a living experience," or "who has ever heard of that saving power, (p 33).
In face of this unqualified assertion he makes the admission that "We call understand them [the teachings in Conjugial Love], as laws of permission for the sake of those, both in and out of the Church, who cannot or will not understand the saving power of the Lord, and who may thereby be saved from greater evil." (p. 10). We have here the admission that these laws are applicable to some persons within the Church, though these may not he able or willing to understand the saving power of the Lord in the same manner as the writer understands it. And he evidently understands this subject as it is understood in the Old Church and by the adherents of "Christian Science."
3. Almost throughout his pamphlet the author refuses to admit that the cases to which the Laws in question apply, are cases of physical disease, but persists in treating the conditions as purely spiritual states, such as come under the general law of shunning evils as sins. He is positive that the case is not one of "wrestling against flesh and blood, a mere physical disorder as our brethren would have us believe, 'but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places,' (Eph. vi:12); and that we need something far more than a physical remedy for such a disease,--nothing less than Divine omnipotence itself," (p. 32).
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And yet, a few pages before, he has knocked down from under him this third pillar of his platform by the startling admission that the condition of which he speaks is one of "abnormal organization" in the "form and number of the spermatic arteries," (p. 29). Such abnormal organization is, of course, a condition of physical disorder, a "wrestling against flesh and blood," and we need not, therefore, discuss this point any further.
4. He denies that a physical remedy may be needed for such a disorder, and contends that it can be cured by faith alone. "The practical acknowledgment of the Lord as a Saviour. . .will not change the form and number of the spermatic arteries, but it will remit or send away, the evil spirits who take advantage of such abnormal organizations, and will give us relief from their power," (p. 29).
With this statement, which lays bare to the very core the misconception underlying Mr. Seward's whole position, we may place in contrast his general admission that "it is granted" that the spiritual and natural planes of life "are separated by a discrete degree, and that physical remedies will not cure spiritual evils, nor spiritual remedies cure physical ills," (p. 26),--an admission which removes the last excuse for maintaining the faith-cure theory, upon which he nevertheless insists.
Mr. Seward is indignant at the Laws of Order for characterizing his theory as one of solifidianism, Faith-Cure, and Christian Science Cure, but, pray, wherein does his theory differ from these? If the mere acknowledgment of the saving power of the Lord "will assure us of victory when tempted," then faith alone is, after all, sufficient for our salvation. And if the same acknowledgment will remit or send away the evil spirits who take advantage of an "abnormal organization" in certain structures of the body, why will not this acknowledgment act in the same healing manner in the case of all other abnormal organizations and diseased conditions in all other parts and organs? What else is claimed by the various schools of faith-cure, mind-cure, thought-cure, truth-cure, etc.?
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Take a case of tooth-ache, for instance, which, as we are taught in the Spiritual Diary, n. 4348, is caused by the influx of hypocritical spirits. Will Mr. Seward's "acknowledgment send away these spirits, and thus enable us to dispense with the services of the dentist? Nay, for here we have an actual condition and not a theory, and as long as the "abnormal organization" remains in the tooth, the plane remains into which these spirits will inflow,--any amount of mental "acknowledgment notwithstanding.
Mr. Seward imagines that the Academy utterly ignores and denies the "saving power of the Lord," when it merely denies his own miraculous application of it to the immediate cure of disease. He has for years harped upon this one string, repeatedly charging the New Church in general with not appreciating, as he does, the "saving power of the Lord." We well remember a paper read by him at the Ministers' Conference, held in Philadelphia in the year 1884, on "The Healing of Diseases by Divine Operation," in which the merits of "Faith Cure" were discussed; in this paper the writer announced his uncertainty as to whether the Faith Cure might not be the proper thing, but the strong opinion prevailed among the ministers present, that the Faith Cure was magical and that it ought to be discountenanced by and in the New Church. (See New Church Life, 1884, p. 107) We had hoped that the president of the General Convention had after these twenty years set himself free from his inclinations to this form of the old doctrine of salvation by faith alone, but his recent pamphlet shows that this is not yet the case.
Brushing aside a mass of irrelevant matter, such as the introduction of side-issues which are to be determined by each one according to his individual conscience and circumstances, and disregarding his frequent and rather pointed insinuations as to the demoralizing effects which must inevitably result from the Doctrine, we come to the main issue which underlies almost all the differences which have torn the visible New Church since its very beginning,--the issue as to the nature and authority of the Heavenly Doctrine itself.
Mr. Seward strongly denies that "the authority of Divine Revelation, has been attacked, or the freedom of the individual to regulate his own life by it," (p. 39), and yet he maintains just as stoutly that "the Church teaches" that the relations of pellicacy and concubinage, which for truly just and legitimate causes are allowed by the Lord in the work on Conjugial Love, "are not allowable to the members of the Church," (p. 46).
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What is this but a practical denial of the Divine Revelation? What is this but an interference with the freedom of the individual to regulate his life by the Divine Revelation which has been given to the Church,-not to the world, which will not receive it, but to the Church, the Lord's New Church! The Church forbids what the Lord allows! Or, as Mr. Seward expresses it: "When such charges are brought against us in the future [by the enemies of the Church] we can say:-'Yes, we admit that there are degrees of evil, as there are degrees of good. We admit that the indulgence in sexual obliquities, if kept within certain well-defined bounds does not destroy the conjugial so far as it is free from the love of adultery, or from a promiscuous love of the sex. But the Church teaches that. . .they are not allowable to the members of the Church." Whom, then, are we to believe, the Lord in His Doctrine, or the "Church" which denies the Doctrine?
The author insists that the Academy should accord to the General Convention, "as a body at least, just as firm a belief in the Divine origin and truth of the Writings as they claim for themselves," (p. 7), and he claims to accept "every statement in the work on Conjugial Love as fully and frankly as the Academy does." But the reality of his faith in the Divine origin and authority of the Writings may be gauged by his expressions of surprise at the statement in the Laws of Order that "Faith in the saving power of the Lord means, to Newchurchmen, faith in the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem,"-as if this was an unheard-of and shocking teaching. The teaching that "the Divine Truth, as now revealed, is the Lord in His Second Coming," he regards as a "somewhat mystical saying," as if it were not the plain and universal teaching of the Writings. And the denial of his faith-cure notion of the saving power of the Lord he characterizes as a denial of "more than the authority of Swedenborg. It is to deny the Lord Himself." (p. 29),--a conclusive proof that he regards the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem as Swedenborg's doctrine, and its authority as Swedenborg's authority, and not the Lord's,--human, not Divine.
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And as for the body which he represents, there once was a time when the General Convention had not placed on record its negative attitude, but after the "report," adopted in 1902, not even the president would dare to claim that the Convention "as a body" professes a faith in the complete and unqualified Divinity of the Writings.
We therefore find ourselves in perfect agreement with a t least one statement in Mr. Seward's pamphlet, viz., that without "just as firm a belief in the Divine origin and truth of the Writings," as that which prevails in the Academy, "it is impossible to arrive at full agreement, even on practical subjects such as that now under consideration," (p. 7). The discussion will be useless until both parties shall be willing to view the subject "from the Divine standpoint." Until then it will remain "a vexed question," "a difficult and delicate subject,"-for those who persist in looking upon it from the merely human point of view.
CELEBRATION AT BURTON ROAD, BRIXTON, LONDON. CHARLES TARELLI 1905
The services and meetings in connection with this Society are being maintained with the usual activity, and though no public report of its proceedings has of late appeared, reports of special services and meetings by means of what are called Church Letters have been privately circulated among those members and friends who cannot regularly attend.
On the 10th of October, 1904, an event of unusual interest took place, namely, a presentation to the pastor, the Rev. R. J. Tilson, B. Th.
Early in the year it had become known that on this date the pastor would complete a ministry of twenty-five years in the Lord's New Church, fourteen years of which have been devoted to the work in connection with the members and friends worshiping at Burton Road, and other friends who stand for the same principles in various parts of the country and abroad, associated therewith.
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Proceedings were accordingly privately started to take this opportunity for making a suitable acknowledgment of esteem and gratitude in some tangible form which should be as far as possible an adequate recognition of Mr. Tilson's great services to the New Church. The movement met with far greater success even than was anticipated.
The proceedings in connection with the anniversary commenced on the day previous, Sunday, the 9th October, when the morning service comprised an adult baptism, the administration of the Holy Supper to fifty-five communicants, the reception of offerings of fruit and flowers, etc., as a Harvest thanksgiving, and the dedication of a pulpit banner, presented by the pastor and Mrs.
Tilson bearing the inscription "Nunc Licet" worked by Mrs. Tilson. At this service the venerable Bishop Benade was able to be present and to partake of the Sacrament. The pastor was assisted by the Rev. W. H. Acton. There was a social tea in the afternoon, and in the evening, instead of the usual service, the pastor gave a special and lengthy address on the principal events in connection with his ministry during the past twenty-five years.
This was a good preparation for the next day, when a social meeting was held at 8 p. m. having the twofold object of celebrating the anniversary of the birth of Bishop Benade, whose birthday was the 3d October, and of making the presentation to the pastor. The Hall of Worship was very tastefully arranged as a drawing room; the attendance, which was a large one, included Bishop and Mrs. Benade and the Rev. W. H. Acton.
The secret had been well kept from the pastor as to the actual form the presentation was to take, and with his permission the program of the evening was arranged and carried out under the superintendence of Mr. E. W. Mission. The first part consisted of a musical selection of glees and songs well rendered and appreciated. The pastor then proposed the toast of The Church. After this came the toast to the health of Bishop Benade on the occasion of the anniversary of his birth, and "Here's to the Bishop our teacher and friend" was enthusiastically sung by the meeting. The venerable Bishop quite unexpectedly rose to respond, which was the occasion for an outburst of sympathetic applause.
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He spoke with a clear voice which was heard in all parts of the room. He expressed his pleasure at being present at the meeting, and rejoiced to find what was going on in the society; he wished it success,-which would certainly be attained if we looked to the Lord, for the Church was the Lord's and the Lord never failed.
Then came the event of the evening. It had been hoped and expected that the Rev. G. C. Ottley would have been present to make the presentation, but at the last moment he was prevented from leaving his home in Jersey. His place was, therefore, taken by Mr. Dicks, who after a few well chosen remarks, read the Illuminated Address, which was to the effect that the members of the congregation, having associated with them the school, and the wider circle at York, Liverpool, New Ferry, Northampton, Oakham, Bath, Bradford, Middlesborough, Tunrbridge Wells, Street, Natal, Cape Colony, France, Switzerland and Maderia, "ask your acceptance of the accompanying symbols of our grateful and affectionate acknowledgment of the manifold benefits of a ministry extending over twenty-five years of faithful and strenuous labor in the Lord's New Church," and earnestly and sincerely wish "that you may be long spared in health and strength to continue in the exercise of your great use." The address was signed by 106 persons.
The gifts were then brought forward; these were, first, a copy of The Massoretico-Critical Hebrew Bible by Dr. Ginsburg, in three volumes, including the "Introduction." Second, a Handsome English Lever, Keyless Gold Watch, with monogram R. J. T. outside of case, and, on the dome inside, the inscription: "presented to the Rev. Robert James Tilson, B. Th., by members and friends of the Church of the New Jerusalem, Burton Road, Brixton, in grateful appreciation of twenty-five years of faithful and strenuous labor in the Lord's New Church. October 10th, 1904-135." And third, what had been with difficulty concealed from view, a reclining chair and couch combined, with an adjustable reading desk, etc. In addition to these gifts, there was also a check from a small amount of the balance left after making the purchases.
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After the presentation, a large, handsome basket of flowers, carried by the two youngest girls of the school, was presented to Mrs. Tilson amid loud applause.
The meeting was then addressed by Mr. J. E. Waller, followed by the Rev. W. H. Acton, and Mr. Tarelli, the secretary and treasurer to the fund, who read extracts from some of the many letters he had received from various parts of the country and from Cape Town, Durban, Switzerland and Madeira, all expressing approval of the movement and thanks for the opportunity given to subscribe. Mr. Poulton also spoke, and concluded by proposing the toast of the evening, "The health of the pastor," which was enthusiastically honored.
The pastor then rose to reply, and asked to be excused from saying much, as he was so taken by surprise, and too overcome to express all he felt.
He sincerely thanked his friends for these handsome gifts, but he did not claim any merit for the use he had been instrumental in performing, all merit belonging to the Lord. He was, of course, glad that his work was appreciated. The gifts, too, were just what he wanted, and he should highly value them. He was glad also for their own sake, that the friends had made this effort. It showed that they valued the benefits which the Church offered. And he hoped they would continue to work together, for the further advancement of the New Church, and for their own regeneration.
After a few more remarks from other friends a memorable evening was brought to a close.
It may be added that the society has now resumed its new session, which, in addition to the Sunday services, consists of a week-night doctrinal class, for the study of the Apocalypse Revealed, in alternation with a study of the prophet Isaiah in its literal and spiritual sense, a fortnightly rehearsal of church music, a monthly Sunday social tea, occasional lectures on literary subjects, and occasional social meetings and home reading meetings.
CHARLES TARELLI.
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. The chief social event of the month was the Bazaar, held on December 2d. A unique feature was a popularity contest between the classes of the Seminary, the youngest class receiving the prize for the most popular booth. The editor himself could hardly condense a description of the Bazaar into a reasonable bulk for this column. A Chinese booth, where fair Mongol damsels sat enshrouded by the choicest Eastern treasures, amid gorgeous posters of striking originality, needlework that Arachne might envy, drawings that presage volcanic eruptions in the realm of Art, side-shows where coin miraculously changed into everything from whistles to peanuts. Then the costumes, the hubbub, and the gaiety,--cold type fails! After a fitting tribute to Terpsichore we went home with light hearts and still lighter pockets.
The Dormitory has at last opened its gates for the patient students, and any weekday evening the sight of this sturdy edifice all aglow with lights, tells its story of a dozen tireless thinkers deep in the pursuit of knowledge.
Among those who have recently gone from us to strengthen the growing circle of the "Saints," is Mrs. Margaret P. Starkey. Born at Johnstown near Glasgow, Scotland, to John and Agnes Pitcairn, May 18, 1838, she came to this country in 1846, making her home in Pittsburgh, and was brought up in the New Church faith, being baptized by the Rev. David Powell in 1847. As one of the earliest members of the Academy, she took an intelligent interest in the affairs of the Church. In 1881 she was married to George Starkey, who preceded her into the spiritual world in 1896. For over a year before the time of her death Mrs. Starkey had been a great sufferer, and we can rejoice with her now that she has attained her long-wished for release from pain, and has made her advent into the world of Life. R. W. C.
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PITTSBURG. The Fourth Pittsburg District Assembly has come and gone, but it will long remain in our memories as the most delightful and beneficial of the four we have held so far. As was the case with the General Assembly in June, the main success of the occasion has been the strong spirit of loyalty aroused. The formal meetings themselves did not develop much discussion. The subject of the Bishop's address was of deep interest and merited more than the mere appreciation expressed. And right here it is worthy of note that the formal sessions of an assembly, whether local or general, can awaken vital interest and lasting enthusiasm only by the discussion and consideration of spiritual and doctrinal subjects.
The Assembly opened with a most enjoyable reception and dance. The "best yet" everybody said. It was arranged and conducted entirely by the young men of the society, and thoroughly merited the unlimited appreciation expressed by all. On Sunday morning the Rev. Willis L. Gladish conducted the service, and preached a clear and strong sermon on the "Authority." There were one hundred and fifteen people present, and our little church was full to overflowing. On the afternoon Bishop Pendleton administered the Holy Supper to eight communicants.
The men's meeting on Monday evening was the climax of the Assembly in the spirit of loyalty and New Church good fellowship; in fact, this seemed to be the "motif" of the gathering. From the subject directly before the meeting, i. e., "The various means by which the love of the sex is changed to conjugial love," the conversation gradually drifted to "Spiritual fellowship." It was shown that this is the fundamental of New Church social life, and it is perhaps because we have been rather lacking in this respect that a sudden eagerness to talk of it, and feelingly, too, was aroused. AT all events, everyone, young and old, expressed some phase of the subject, and each addition helped to increase the ardor, and a new awakening crept over all of us-something long dormant yet still with us, and when we suddenly burst forth into that song of songs, "Our Own Academy," it was with hearts full of love and devotion to our beloved Church.
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We mere almost dazed by our own overwhelming enthusiasm. The most stirring and uplifting event of the evening was the arrival of an exquisite bunch of red and white roses with a written greeting to the men's meeting from the ladies. Every man arose on the instant and a toast to "The Ladies" followed. A reply was immediately despatched which is given below. We really wish we could describe how thrilled we were and how humble we felt, but as is always the case we could not put into words our hearts' response to the sentiment "The Ladies."
The ladies, meanwhile, spent the evening at the home of Mrs. Norris. The time was passed pleasantly in charades, music and conversation; but the main interest of the evening centered upon the roses despatched to the gentlemen with the beautiful quotation from that most beautiful relation concerning the wives in the rose garden: "Tell the inhabitants of your earth that there exists a love truly conjugial, the delights of which are myriad, scarcely any of which are yet known to the world; but they will be known when the Church betroths herself to her Lord and is married." Within an hour came the reply written by the Bishop: "We, every man of us here, desire to rise from our earth to your heaven of conjugial love." A hush fell on the rooms as the message was read. The words sank deep into the heart of every woman present, and filled us all with an earnest prayer that we might indeed he worthy to enter fully into the beautiful heaven of conjugial love. Bounteous refreshments brought the evening to a close, but our lords and masters being so engrossed in the ideal, the realities trundled home alone.
The only social event since the Assembly was the birthday celebration held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lindsay in honor of their son, Mr. Alex P. Lindsay, and Mr. Marlin Heilman. Both young men having attained their majority, made their confession of faith and were welcomed by our pastor into the Church. The ceremony was very impressive and much enjoyed by all present. Toasts followed and the evening closed with informal dancing.
The Pittsburg Society has sustained a deep-felt loss in the passing away of two of its members, Mr. Frederick Lechner, Sr., on November 15th, and Mr. Samuel Faulkner, on November 26th.
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Mr. Lechner had been in poor health for some time, but it was only in the last few months that the gravity of his illness was realized. He was born in Baden, Germany, on May 22, 1846, and came to this country with his parents in 1854. In 1872 he married Miss Anna Margaret Hoffman. A few extracts from the address delivered at the funeral by Mr. Pendleton will give a clear idea of the esteem in which Mr. Lechner was held:
"Mr. Lechner commanded the confidence and affection of all who knew him; in every relation of life he was honored. A beautiful attachment bound him to his family. Affectionate respect characterized his relations with his friends in the Church, and confidence and trust were evident in all his business associations. He was a Newchurchman, and this in deed more than in word, for his demeanor was markedly quiet and reserved. He gave expression to his thought only when some need arose and then always with characteristic brevity, but showing that his well balanced mind grasped fully the essentials of the matter in hand. These were but the external characteristics of the man,--and yet we are convinced that they tell a story of a corresponding spiritual or internal life which will fit him for a like usefulness in the Lord's heavenly kingdom to which he is now called. Wherefore we take keen pleasure in the thought of the arrival of this gentle but strong spirit in the abode which has been prepared for him."
Mr. Faulkner was born in Allegheny City on the 2d of June, 1851, and married Miss Rachel Hunter, a well known member of the Church, who passed into the other world some three years ago. "He died at the post of duty, a victim of one of those railroad disasters which so frequently shock the men of this day and generation. His calling, that of an engineer, always one of great responsibility, required in addition the virtues of calmness, judgment, forethought and a peculiar courage. For many years he followed his dangerous calling, and never suffered a serious accident until the last, which resulted in his death. . . . To the immediate family the loss is great and will be keenly felt. For he was lovingly cherished by his children and near relatives, and much esteemed by his friends who saw and recognized in him a man of sterling quality, one whom they were glad to know and call their friend." K. W.
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MIDDLEPORT, OHIO. The work in Middleport and vicinity goes quietly but steadily forward. A teachers' meeting for teachers in the Sunday School has been added to the midweek classes and another class to the Sunday School. The class for children in the country, eight miles from here, developed into one class for children and one for adults. These classes are held on alternate Saturdays. The attendance varies from seven to ten children and from six to eight adults. Our Sunday evening classes in Divine Love and Wisdom have been very interesting.
Thanksgiving was a red letter day with us. There was service in the morning, the church being very prettily decorated with vegetables, fruits and grains. And at 2 o'clock we sat down to a bountiful Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Boggess. A round dozen of our friends from the country were with us, including Mr. and Mrs. S. A. Powell and daughter, of Givens, Ohio. About fifty were present at the dinner. After our appetites were somewhat satisfied there were toasts and speeches. We considered some of our causes for thankfulness under the following heads: 1. The Farmer and the Harvests. 2. Our Country. 3. The Age we live in. 4. The Academy. 5. New Church Education. 6. The General Church. 7. Freedom in the Church.
The responses were fine and brought much laughter and applause; songs were sung. And we had a jolly good time. Visits have been made and some work done in Givens, Athens and in Monroe County. W. L. G.
BERLIN, ONT. On October 31st an enjoyable Hallowe'en Party was held in the school room. The evening opened with a masquerade, at which a large number appeared in costume. This was followed by a varied programme of amusements.
On Thanksgiving Day, November 17th, services were held in the morning. In the evening there was a social in the school room, which was beautifully decorated with grains, fruits, vegetables and flowers. The most delightful feature of the programme was the presentation of three tableaux fitting the occasion: the first was Millet's "Angelus," the second "Peace and Prosperity," the third "Canada."
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The Rev. J. E. Bowers preached for us on Sunday, November 20th.
THE MISSIONARY FIELD On September 15th, I arrived in Rockford, Ill, and remained with the members of the New Church Circle there one week. Half a dozen persons had become interested readers of the Doctrines since my former visit, about a year before. This was my fifth annual visit, and, as heretofore, my stopping place was with Mr. John Gustafson and family. The New Church is growing in Rockford. They hold meetings in a hall on Sunday mornings. The attendance is from eighteen to twenty-five. Dr. C. V. Urbom is the reader. As all are Swedes and children of Swedes, the exercises are conducted in their mother tongue, but they all understand the preaching in English.
On Sunday, September 18th, we held services, and the Holy Supper was administered to fifteen persons. Afterwards tables were set in the hall, and, including about fifteen children, thirty-eight persons partook of a well prepared dinner. Those who could stay, spent the afternoon in conversation, and in singing the Church hymns. At 6:30 supper was served, thirty-five being present. At 7:30 a lecture was delivered to an audience of fifty. Several said it was the most enjoyable day they had yet had in the New Church in Rockford. They are hopeful, and are looking forward to having a minister with them at some future time, to labor in the city and vicinity regularly. On Tuesday evening, September 20th, another discourse was given to an audience of about thirty. I was glad to meet two young Newchurchmen from Beloit, Wis., at these meetings.--Messrs T. L. Ahlstrom and John W. Hogarth,--who manifested a decided interest.
At this time (November 21st) forty-two places have been visited on this tour. But I regret that it is not possible to report concerning all of them. JOHN E. BOWERS.
FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
THE UNITED STATES. The Rev. H. C. Small was installed on November 6th as pastor of the BRIDGEWATER, Mass., Society.
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The services, which were conducted by the Rev. James Reed, included "a Fellowship Address," delivered by Dr. Wright, an "address to the people," by the Rev. Hiram Vrooman, and an address of "welcome to the town," by a local Unitarian minister representing the city churches.
The Rev. Samuel Worcester has severed his connection with the New Jerusalem church of PORTLAND, ME., in order to take up new work in his profession as a physician at the Sanitarium of Dr. Givens, in Stamford, Conn.
The Rev. G. H. Dole, formerly of BATH, Me., has become pastor of the Wilmington Society in succession to the late Rev. P. B. Cabell.
The Chicago Society, last November, voted $50 to each of its three ministers, to enable them to visit the Swedenborg House at the World's Fair, and become familiar with the work done there.
The special feature of the recent Thanksgiving services at Englewood, was the bringing of offerings of fruit and money to the altar. A portion of the offerings was given to a local Infant Nursery.
The services of the newly organized Swedish-American Society at ROCKFORD, ILL., are reported to be meeting with some success, the audiences ranging from 30 to 35 persons. Dr. Urbom, the leader, is temporarily acting as preacher.
New Church activity in MINNEAPOLIS which died out after the removal of Rev. J. S. David some years ago, has been recently revived by the formation of "The Swedenborg Reading Circle," which meets every Sunday evening.
The lectures delivered last year by the Rev. A. B. Francisco, in SAN ANTONIO, Texas, have resulted in the formation, after Mr. Francisco's departure, of a fortnightly reading circle of sixteen members, including one or two outsiders.
AUSTRIA-HUNGARY, The readers of the Life will be happy to learn that Herr Adalbert Jantschovitsch, of BUDAPEST, who in 1903 published a pamphlet in which he attacked the Rev. Fedor Goerwitz and defended the spiritualistic notions of the so-called "Christian New Theosophy," (see Life for November, 1903, p. 604), has recently published in the German New Church journals a complete retraction of his errors, under the significant heading, "Mein Pater Peccavi!"
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He has now become convinced that the revelations of the medium, Lorber, have come direct from hell, instead of from "your Jesus-Father," as the medium signs his blasphemous communications, and Mr. Jantschovitsch is profuse in his apologies to the New Church in general and to Mr. Goerwitz in particular for having produced much grievous disturbance in the Church. "Repentance is always in order."
Special Notice. 1905
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
HOME FOR RENT.-Comfortable eight room cottage in Glenview Park, three minutes walk from New Church Day School. City of Chicago is easily accessible from Glenview. Rent moderate, possession at any time. Address S. G. Nelson, 841 Marquette Building, Chicago, Ills.
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Title Unspecified 1905
XXV. FEBRUARY, 1905 no. 2.
WORD Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH 1905
I.
INTERNAL CONJUNCTION BY THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE.
Man's very life depends upon his conjunction with spirits and angels, and their life depends upon conjunction with man. Spirits enter into all things of man's memory and even speak among themselves from the things they desire thence, not knowing that they have them from man, (H. H. 292); somewhat as we speak among ourselves from the affection and enlightenment we derive from spirits and angels, knowing only by revelation that these are not from ourselves.
When man's will was good, as in the Most Ancient Church, angels and men were in similar affection and in similar thought and hence dwelt together. The Word was then written in the hearts of men and all the created forms of the three kingdoms of nature were but the ultimate forms or the letter, of that Word. Heaven was instructed and renewed through these ultimate forms of truth which the angels perceived in men's minds; and men were enlightened through the angels to read, at least in general, the same truths that angels did from the representative forms in nature. But when the imagination of the heart of man had become only evil continually, good spirits and angels could no longer be present but fled in terror from men. And since all life is derived from the Lord through Heaven, the death of all mankind and the destruction of the earth stood at the door and threatened.
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This was prevented by a Divine miracle. Internal revelation and enlightenment could no longer be given. But the Word was given by an external revelation in which the holy truths of Heaven were contained by correspondence. By this means men could have a Word that appealed to them by its literal sense. They could follow a complex ritual of worship and be delighted with its beauties, with little thought of what its particulars signified. Man's internals were closed so that his hereditary lusts did nor appear, and spirits in simple good were associated with the man of the Church who did not attend to such evils as did show themselves.
Now the angelic Heaven again turned toward the earth. The memory and external mind of the man of the Church was again filled with ultimate forms of truth. These forms were correspondences of the love and wisdom of the angels, and hence angelic affections and intelligence rested in them. Yea, the angels were instructed, enlightened and filled with happiness by the ultimate forms of the Word in the minds of the men of the Church. And Heaven and earth were once more united.
But this conjunction of Heaven with man was not with his internal or spiritual mind. It was in the natural mind, and, indeed, in the exterior natural. It did not depend on man's spiritual intelligence or the purity of his love. Any love, however external, which led to exact conformity to the ritual of the Word communicated with Heaven. In the Ancient Church there was an internal built up upon or within this external. There was instruction in the significance of the externals of the Word and of worship. Intelligence in spiritual verities was formed by this and by intelligence spiritual life was given. Men entered with the angels into the internals of their Word and to that extent were conjoined internally as well as outwardly with Heaven.
But with the Israelites and Jews there was no internal conjunction with Heaven. Heaven was present with them only in the outer natural. How far was the Church established in a good Jew, and how far was he prepared for Heaven by his careful following the Mosaic ritual?
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Remains were stored and preparation for the establishment of the internal Church was made, but that was all. His internals were not opened here. In the spiritual world the internal significance of the Word was opened to some extent and with that the Jew's own internals; he was tempted, vastated, instructed and prepared, according to his life in the world, for a place in Heaven. But even in the spiritual world this could not be done until the Lord came. He opened the Word for those in the other life as well as for those on earth; and it was not by the Old Testament as the Jew understood it, according to the letter, that Jews were prepared for Heaven but by the truths of the Gospel. Only those who accepted the truths of the Gospel and saw that the Jewish Word and worship were there fulfilled, could be admitted to Heaven.
When the Lord came He abolished the old covenant with the Israelites and Jews and established a new covenant. This new covenant is frequently spoken of in the Word of the Old Testament, as in Jerusalem: "Behold the days come in which I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. not as the covenant which I made with your fathers, for they have made my covenant void. . . . But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days. I will give my law in the midst of them and will write it upon their heart and I will be to them for a God and they shall be to me for a people." (xxxi:31, etc.)
By the house of Israel and of Judah is here meant all who can receive the Lord in faith and love.
The Old Covenant with the Jews was that they should keep the Mosaic law. Nothing more was required of them. This external covenant was abolished when the Lord came and a new covenant was made with those who could be really, that is internally, conjoined with the Lord by faith in Him and love toward the neighbor.
It was solely by the truths of the New Covenant, as taught by the Lord Himself and His Apostles and written out in the four Gospels, and by an intelligent acceptance of them, that the Church was established and conjoined with Heaven. It was not by the Word of the Old Testament that the Christian Church was built, but solely by the Word of the New Covenant.
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It is true that everything taught in the New Testament could be found within the letter of the Old Testament and could be confirmed by the Law and the Prophets. But these truths of the New Covenant were not seen there by the light of the Old but only by the light of the New Covenant.
The Old Testament itself was not abolished. It still had power, as before, to conjoin the natural mind of man with Heaven through its correspondences when it was read. But the internal conjunction with Heaven which now prevailed was brought about only by the genuine truths of the New Covenant.
These same truths could now be seen figured forth in the Old Testament. This confirmed the Church in them and strengthened the conjunction with Heaven: made that conjunction external and ultimate as well as internal. But so far as genuine truths were seen in the Old Testament they were seen from the teaching of the New Covenant. In fact, there was no other light in the Christian Church, but the light of the Gospel; any light they saw in the Old Testament was from that light.
The light of the New Testament, although it was an internal and genuine light and in harmony with the light of Heaven, was not by itself sufficient to prepare men for Heaven. It was too simple and general, and not sufficiently rational in form.
The Disciples had to be permitted to believe that they should be accounted more worthy than others because they had followed the Lord and that they should sit upon thrones judging others. And even in the spiritual world they could not be weaned from this foolish thought with its lust of dominion. The servant of the Lord in His second coming found them still insisting that they should be given power to judge men in the things of eternal life. (S. D. 1321.) By him they were taught the true doctrine of Heaven, that the Lord alone knows the state of man's life and He alone can judge, that by these words about judging the Lord meant that the truths, which they taught and represented, should judge.
Thus it was that even in the spiritual world the members of the Christian Church had to be taught the Heavenly Doctrine given by the Lord in His second coming before they could be vastated of their falsities and evils and prepared for Heaven.
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If this was true of the Apostles themselves after they had been seventeen centuries in the spiritual world, it must have been true also of those who thought themselves entitled to crowns because they had suffered martyrdom: and it was true of all after the Council of Nice, (325 A. D.), for none were admitted to spiritual temptations after that time. An internal Heaven could not be established from Christians until the Lord made His second advent and taught the rational, or internal, truth of His Word. Thus it was not by the New Testament, although this was an internal revelation as compared with that of the Old Testament, but it was by the Heavenly Doctrine revealed by the Lord in His second coming, that a Christian Heaven was established.
The Church established on the Word of the New Testament came to its end. Of the whole temple of doctrine which the Lord gave to that Church there was not left one stone upon another. The New Covenant was made void as the Old had been. The Church came to its end, and unless the Lord had speedily come for judgment and redemption, no flesh could have been saved. But He came. He came in the power and great glory of His Word. In the New Testament He had revealed the general natural truth of His Word. Now He revealed the rational truth of His Word. Here is given truth no longer concealed under type or figure; here are no proverbs or parables, but men are taught plainly of the Father. The Word is laid bare; the inmost truths of Heaven are given to men clothed only sufficiently in garb taken from the earth to adapt them to minds which still think in the light of nature. This is not merely the truth as it was known by angels in Heaven. It is that and more. It was taught in the spiritual world and written in this not from any angel but from the mouth of the Lord alone. (De Verbo XIII.)
The Word itself, which is Divine Truth, was represented by types and symbols in the Old Testament; was presented by parables in the New; but is first revealed or uncovered in the Writings.
This, therefore, in the Word par excellence. The Old Testament was but a sign of revelation to be given. This was also comparatively true of the New Testament; for "without a parable spake He not unto them," and the Apocalypse is, manifestly but a sign or revelation and not the revelation itself.
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But in the Writings we have the revelation itself which was prefigured in Old and New Testaments. We are in the light of this New Covenant. So far as we art a Church at all we think in this light. We read the Word of the Old and New Testament in this light. They are the Word to us by virtue of the light of the Writings. Without the Writings we could not hold them as the Word; we could not defend them as such against attack; we could not see the light of Heaven in them. Shall we gain the light by which we know and read the Word from that which is not itself the Word? Then we should be reading the Word not in the Lord's light but by light not His. And no wisdom, but only insanity, can be gained from the Word read in other light than the Lord's.
But we are taught that the Word is the Word in the letter and nowhere else. Then do they not have the Word in the Heavens? Yes, they have the Word itself in Heaven although they do not have the letter of the Word there. But the Word in Heaven rests upon the Word on earth and so becomes the Word in fulness, holiness and power. And does not the Word of the Writings rest upon and in the Word of the Old and New Testaments, and does it not realize its fulness, holiness and power in them?
The Word is like a man, and it has been formed even as a man is created. Man is born with a soul and a body. He has the rudiments of a mind but he has no mind at birth. The lowest plane of the mind is developed through the senses, the images they present in the brain of the things of the outer world and the affections awakened by them. This forms the sensual. Then the mind rises a little above the sensual and begins to classify facts. It still thinks in the light of nature, but according to general natural truths. In this way the scientific plane of the mind is formed. This is generally called the natural mind, because it is concerned solely with natural things. If now man admits the light of the spiritual world into his natural mind he rises to ideas that are not material. All the knowledges, both scientific and sensual, which his mind contains, are submitted to a new standard. There is a great judgment. The rational mind is formed. And now, although this is last formed, it is the very man himself. The whole man is governed through his rational. All his facts and all his affections take their quality from his rational.
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Yea, his very body in time becomes, at least, interiorly, such as is his rational soul. His rational mind rests upon his sensual and scientific and could have no existence apart from them. It is a rational only by virtue of the facts he knows and his rational understanding of them. His rational is in its fulness and power in his natural and nowhere else. Nevertheless it is the rational that is the very man himself and not his body. Thus is fulfilled the saying, "The first shall be last and the last first."
So it is with the Word. Its sensual was given first. This is the Old Testament. There its natural or scientific was given. This is the New Testament. Finally its rational was given. This is the Writings.
In the Old Testament the Divine Word is given sensual form. It was acted out before men's very eyes. The general doctrinals which are forever the basis of all religion were also given. Such are the ten commandments. In the New Testament God stands revealed in the natural world and the doctrine of love is given. Here are found all the genuine truths of life and of salvation in general form adapted to the natural mind.
But in the Writings all the facts of both Testaments are reviewed in the light of the spiritual world. The doctrine of discrete degrees is first made known both to earth and to Heaven. Apparent truths are distinguished from genuine truths, and the contradictions of the letter of the Word are reconciled. This is the work of the rational. In the Writings we have the Divine Rational, Divinely, hence infinitely, revealed.
This is the Word Itself which at first made and still makes the Old Testament and the New Testament to be the Word. To call them the Word and deny that title to the Writings would be like calling the body the man and making his mind to be human only because it is in a body that has a human form. It would be to think from the sensual and not from the spiritual. On the contrary, in the New Church the Writings are the Very Word because the very truth, and the letter of the Word is the Word from the truths of the Writings and according to them. While it is true that the rational truths of the Writings would not be the Word if separated from the natural and sensual truths of the Word which give them ultimate basis, yet they are not so separated nor can they be.
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Every doctrine taught in the Writings is taught in and by the letter of the Word; hence in the Writings themselves the Word is in fulness and power.
MOURNING. Rev. H. SYNNESTVEDT 1905
A SERMON
"And Jacob rent his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned over his son many days.
"And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to console him; and he refused to console himself; and he said, For I will go down unto my son mourning unto the sepulcher. And his father bewept him." (Genesis xxxvii:34-35.)
The words of our text describe the grief of the Lord over the wicked and deceitful destruction of truth and charity in the Church, and in a respective sense, the grief of the simple of the Ancient and primitive Church on the same account. Joseph is the Doctrine of the Divine Human of the Lord, upon which depends all that is spiritual in the Church. This doctrine the learned have made away with, and are now trying to comfort the simple, [Jacob], by false interpretations from the letter of the Word. But Jacob refuses to console himself. They have taken away his Lord, and he knoweth not where to find him.
Those who are in simple good, have genuine love for the neighbor, and in the activity of this love, find all their heart's delight; nor do they seek for reward beyond the delight itself. Such men actually feel the heavenly delight of serving others without any thought of self, the delight which is so incomprehensible to the merely natural man, and which, like the Israelites, they call "manna," or "What is it?" But they who are only in the truth of that good, that is, who, like the most of us, only know about it, without the spontaneous sensation of it, also regard merit: thus something of self is intermixed with their love of the neighbor. Such suffer themselves to be easily seduced by reasonings, for the understanding is not what feels things. These latter are signified by Midianites, the former by Ishmaelites.
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Hence, in the last verse it is said that the Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt, which means that they betray the distinctively spiritual things of the Church by recourse to false scientifics. The others do not have recourse to the scientifics represented by Potiphar. These are not the things which appeal to them, but only the good of the neighbor. When they are deprived of this, by being told that it is without importance in respect to salvation, and when they both see and feel the lack of it, they are affected with grief and pain. They have been deprived of their life's love, and no amount of reasoning or interpretation can console them.
"And he said, for I will go down to my son mourning unto the sepulcher." In the spiritual sense, these words also teach, that when once spiritual charity is lost, genuine natural good will soon follow it.
"And his father bewept him." Jacob represents not only men who are in natural good and truth, but also the Lord himself as to those two. In this sense,-that is, as applied to the Divine,-weeping signifies Mercy. Weeping does not proceed only from pain, but also from love, as we shall see more fully presently. Consequently when the Lord is said to weep, it means Mercy, for the word Mercy [Misericordia] means pitying heart or love grieving. It is in relation to the wretched state of evil in which mankind is constituted, that the Divine love is called Mercy; and when man apperceives this in himself, he implores mercy. Wherever, therefore, weeping is predicated of the Lord in the Word, this is what is meant: as in these places;--"I will weep with the weeping of Jazer for the vine of Sibma. I will water with my tears Cheshbon and Elealeh." So in the New Testament, where the Lord wept over Jerusalem, the Jerusalem over which He grieved, or which He pitied, was not only the City of Jerusalem, but the Church, whose last day, when there would be no more charity and thence no more faith, is what is understood in the internal sense. So where it is related, that He wept over the death of Lazarus. It was not the passing of a good man into the other world which grieved Him so sore, but the extinction of the Gentile good represented by Lazarus.
Mourning was one of the regular ceremonials with the ancients.
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Originating in genuine grief over the loss of goods and truths, and the sense of humiliation and repentance, it became in course of time merely a formal ceremony, or else a grieving over the loss of worldly and terrestrial things. There were many modes of lamentation in use, which are all mentioned quite frequently in the Word. The Jews, with their strong natural affections, were very prone to lamenting, and seem to have had tears always at their command. On the other hand, there was then, as there is now, much cause for sorrow over the state of the Church.
Weeping and wailing, crying out, tearing the garments, the hair or the beard, shaving the head and beard, making incisions in the flesh, striking the thighs or beating the breast, stamping with the feet, howling, fasting, rolling in ashes on the ground, heaping dust on the head, tying a tire over the mouth and beard, going with bowed head and slow steps, sitting continuously in a dejected posture, wearing sackcloth upon different parts of the body; in fact, all imaginable forms of self-degradation and humiliation were made use of to express their grief and sorrow.
Such exhibitions of self-abasement and self-abnegation were supposed by the Jews to please Jehovah, and to persuade Him in their favor, as He also permitted them to believe. Yet by each of these forms of mourning was represented sorrow for the loss of some particular kind of good or of truth, in general according to the signification of the part of the body so afflicted. When they beat their breasts, it was for the loss of some spiritual good of love to the neighbor. When they rent their tunics, it was for the loss of the truth of the same kind, for the tunic principally covered the breast. Whatever was done to the thighs or loins was for the loss of conjugial love, thus of every spiritual and celestial love, for these are all contained therein. So with the rest, with great variety.
All these art acts naturally flowing from the affection of grief or sadness over lost good or truth, as every affection of the will and soul has its corresponding gesture in the body. In general, a celestial affection is ultimated in the face and herd; a spiritual affection in the body, and natural affections in the extremities. Or, to put it more specifically, when celestial loves are affected the ultimation is perceived in the kingdom of the cerebellum or heart, or of other parts which correspond thereto, even to the most minute fibres.
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Spiritual loves affect the kingdoms of the cerebrum and lungs, and so forth. The body is like a wonderful instrument, so that whatever shade of affection is excited in the soul, is at once completely and perfectly ultimated by its particular fibre or bundle of fibres in the body. Wherefore each of these externals represents or reflects some affection of the loves which are the life of man.
Grief is an affection common to the wicked and to the just, yea, even to some extent to beasts, for it is the sensation of the privation of some delight. Love is the life of man, and its activity is perceived as delight. There are as many delights, therefore, as there are loves. But whenever anything assaults the love or prevents its activity or threatens to do so, then the opposite of delight is felt, namely, grief, or pain. It is still the activity of love, but with resistance.
Hence the sensation which we call pain, and that which we call delight, are the same thing within. It is life from the Lord acting in both cases. If it is allowed to flow unobstructed into its own ultimates, it is sensated as delight. If obstructed or opposed, it is pain, anxiety, grief. This is what is called temptation, and shows how the Lord is most present in temptation, and the more grievous the temptation, the nearer is His presence, since it is His very presence which brings on the temptation, when our evils oppose themselves. What hurts us is that we love these evils.
Every distinct step in spiritual progress is attended with difficulty and pain, for it involves a rearrangement and overturning of all our existing forms. Each step involves a death and a birth, and both are accompanied by pain, for both are resisted.
With the loves which flow in from our proprium, or hell, the case is the same. If they are allowed to flow uninterruptedly into their acts, they are in their delightfulness. But the other loves, flowing down from the Lord, being diametrically opposite, necessarily entail combat, to the death or submission of one or the other. But because we are born into the love of our proprium, it cannot be conquered without a struggle which suffers in temptation. When a victory is won, and the obstruction removed, then the life from the Lord flowing unhampered into its use, is first perceived as delight.
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As delight is an effect of love only as it flows down into the natural and sensual man, so pain is an ultimation on the same plane. It is usually when we are endeavoring to ultimate uses from the Lord that resistance becomes acute. This is taught in the Arcana where the pain of initiation is described, (6539), represented by the great wailing set up by the Egyptians accompanying Joseph to Canaan to bury his father, which was done upon their first entrance into the land, that is, at the Jordan, which represents the ultimates of the heavenly kingdom.
It is the same with each one of us. Every time we come to a crossing place we have to wail a little,--and yet, to desire to get along without change, is to desire death. Temptation-combats must be encountered at every important step of man's life, and of the life of the Church. What we did and thought yesterday, will not do to-day, without modification. Are we not told that without temptations man cannot be regenerated and thus come in and possess the land which the Lord has promised him? Who is idle enough to suppose that the Canaanites will vacate the land without a struggle? Has not the Lord said, "Little by little, will I drive them out from before you?" The land is at first in the hands of the enemy. We are born full of evils and falsities of every kind, to which wt strongly incline. Only by the intervention of the most powerful agencies can the course of our lives be changed,--namely by all the agencies of education and regeneration,--all of which involve labors. Even after entering to some extent into the Church, the Lord does not utterly drive out the inhabitants of the land, but leaves a remnant wherewith He may try His people; while near at hand are the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the uncircumcised Philistines, ever ready to rush in and assume dominion.
The New Church is and ever will he a fighting Church. The Lord has led us forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, to become men of war, for only by war can peace be established and maintained. Shall our hearts sicken and our knees grow faint at the sound of the trumpet and the sight of blood?
Shame upon those who cry "Peace! Peace!" when there is no peace. Peace without victory is surrender.
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It involves giving up all that is worth fighting for, because we are too weak or cowardly to keep up the necessary struggle, or, worse still, because our traitorous hearts are covertly in sympathy with the enemy.
The so-called "liberal" spirit of our times is of this nature. It is not hurt by assaults upon the goods and truths of the Church. On the contrary it says: "Why so much contention? Are not those things matters of opinion, wherein men may differ as much as they please? It does not concern us, if only they preserve a smooth external, and make profession of great natural affection, regardless of man's duality or belief."
Let us here, however, recall the teaching of the words of Ezekiel: "Son of man, behold I take away the desire of thine eyes with a stroke; yet neither shalt thou wail nor weep, neither shall thy tears come." (xxiv:16.) This teaches in the internal sense that "everything of the Church will be taken away from them, and yet there will not be grief over it." This state, and in contrast, the state of those who do care for the spiritual things of the Church is thus described in Arcana Coelestia, n. 2689, where the weeping of Hagar over Ishmael who was trying in the desert, is treated of.
"They who cannot be reformed, do not at all know what it is to grieve on account of this, that they are deprived of truths, for they think that no one can ever be anguished on account of such a thing. They believe that there can only be anxiety that one is deprived of the goods of the body and of the world, such as strength, honor, fame, riches and life. But they who can be reformed believe altogether otherwise. They are detained by the Lord in affection of good and in thought of truth, wherefore they come into anxiety when they are deprived of them. It is known that every anxiety and grief is hence, that one is deprived of those things with which he is affected, or which he loves. They who are only affected with corporeal and mundane things, or love only such things, grieve when they are deprived of them. But they who are affected with spiritual goods and truths, and love them, grieve when they are deprived of these. The life of each one is naught but affection or love. Hence it may appear, what is the state of those who are desolated as to goods and truths with which they are affected or which they love, namely, that their state is more grievous, because interior, and in the privation of good and of truth they do not regard the death of the body, nor do they care for it, but for eternal death.
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Their state is what is here described."
Sometimes it seems to the natural man as if the world were entirely full of sorrow and misfortune, and, indeed, such is the lamentable state of Christendom, that there is very much of it. Yet the mercy of the Lord shines through it all. We must learn to see His love in every apparent in, in order to bear trials patiently, and mitigate the evils which, in our evil state, are inevitable.
Let it be borne in mind, however, that Good never really suffers in the end. It is what we call good and consider true that suffers, viz., the good and truth of our proprium. These have to die before good from the Lord can be insinuated, and sometimes the most grievous sufferings are necessary before our self-love or conceit can be softened. So when the Word speaks of killing, robbing, plagues, captivities and the like, the angels think at once of the good end in view in the permission of these things. That it may also become good, there are spirits in the way who reject the ideas of good and falsity, so that only the idea of good and of truth may be presented. And moreover, when evil and falsity approach to those who art in good and truth, it does not appear as evil and false, but under another species according to the kind and state of goodness with them. For instance, when Esau threatened to slay his brother Jacob, in the internal sense or as understood by the angels, this is not to slay, but to deprive of that life which does not agree with truth. Wherefore privation of the life of truth from itself is not extinction of truth, but it is its vivification. For when it is deprived of its own life, then it is gifted with life itself, namely, through good from the Lord who is life itself.
It is similar when death is mentioned or thought of by man. It presents at ones with the angels the idea of resurrection, or entering into eternal life, for this is what they see when our natural eyes behold only the dead body left behind. So their eyes are opened to see that "the Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all His works."
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As the angels do, so should we; and though at first we may grieve and mourn over the lack of charity and verity in the Church, and in ourselves, if we acknowledge our own lack, and look to Him, imploring His mercy, He will turn our mourning into a dance, and our weeping into a song. "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more sorrow, neither crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away." Amen.
MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH C. TH. ODHNER 1905
HESTIA--VESTA.
THE first-born child of Saturn and Rhea was Hestia or Vesta, the virgin deity presiding over the sacred fire of the temple and over the household altar, the family hearth. She alone of the gods and goddesses possesses virtually no personal history; the only incident told of her is that, when Apollo and Poseidon both sought her hand in marriage, she placed it, instead, upon the head of Zeus, and vowed perpetual virginity; she, the supreme representative of celestial good,--superior even to celestial truth, was to be conjoined to no inferior degrees of finite truth, for her virgin heart was an altar devoted exclusively to the sacred fire of celestial love,--the love of the Lord, the love of Truth, infinite and Divine.
In the proper sense, those are virgins who are in the love of the Lord, that is, the celestial, and thus those who are in the affection of good. (A. C. 3081.)
The Celestial Church, being in love towards the neighbor from love to the Lord, is likened to a virgin. (A. C. 2362.)
Her name, in Latin Vesta, and in Greek Hestia, or, in its archaic form "Festia," was formerly explained as coming from the root STA, as referring to the fixed and established position of the domestic hearth, upon which flamed the fire which represented this divinity; but we much prefer the later etymology of the learned Max Muller, who has shown that the name was derived from the Sanscrit root VAS, (with the feminine ending ta), meaning "to glow" or "burn."* It was from this root that the Greek name for the hearth, (hestia) was derived, and it is interesting to note that our English word "feast" comes directly from the same origin, the feast of Hestia being anciently celebrated annually in each family by a special meal, in a reunion around the hearth.
* Chips from a German Workshop, II, p. 137.
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The statues of Hestia are extremely rare and of comparatively recent dates, here worship being conducted without any images at all, longer than that of any other divinity, the altar alone with is sacred flame being considered sufficient to evoke the idea of her presence. Her chief temple, the one in Rome, never contained her image. The few Greek statues and bas-reliefs represent her as a chaste and stately virgin, with a veil covering her head and shoulders; she is sometimes holding a lighted torch or lamp in one hand, and a sacrificial bowl in the other; more often she has no symbols whatever, but simply points upward with her hand and finger. The chief characteristics of her images are those of simplicity, tranquillity, and repose; as Plato says, "Hestia alone stays at rest in the house of the gods." (Phaedro, 247). This is as it should be; simplicity and tranquillity are the marks of celestial love.
The worship of Hestia is found in hoariest antiquity, and was well established among the Pelasgians, the common ancestors of Etruscans, Greeks, and Latins. An ancient Homeric hymn says that "to her was given to sit in the centre of the mansion, receiving the first and choicest portions of all offerings; she is honored in all the temples of the Gods, and she is to mortals the most venerable of the goddesses." In Olympia the altars of Hestia and Zeus were in the inmost sanctuary, and the invocations were addressed, and the sacrifices offered, first to Hestia and then to Zeus.
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And no deity received such universal homage as she, every domestic hearth being regarded as an altar of Hestia, where the father of the family offered his daily sacrifices and prayers when conducting the family worship. Thus we may see that the love of the Lord, the celestial love, was recognized as the supreme and at the same time the most universal of loves in the Ancient Church.
As the hearth was the centre and altar of every household, so the Prytaneum, (pyr-taneum), or altar to Vesta, was the central shrine of every city and village in Greece and Italy, and the safety of the city was regarded as depending upon the conservation of the sacred fire which must be perpetually burning there. This custom has been explained by the interpreters of the Evolutionist school as originating in the preciousness of fire and the difficulty of producing it, (by rubbing two sticks together), and the consequent "political economy" of having a central fire perpetually burning for the accommodation of all the households. But this does not explain the reason for the still more difficult custom of carrying fire over land and sea from the sacred fire in the mother city, when a new colony was founded. Is it not evident that something more than mere economy was involved, and that there was a sentiment, a religious feeling in regard to fire, which can be explained only by the correspondence of fire, as meaning love, and in this connection the supreme of all loves, the love of the Lord, upon which depends all other loves, the love of the Church, the love of the country, of the community, and of the domestic bonds?
The worship of Vesta was especially honored in Rome, where she had a famous temple and was served by the College of vestal virgins,--the most sacred institution in the city. This, also, is consistent with the Roman character, which was of a celestial rather than spiritual nature. There is the same difference between the Greeks and the Romans, as, in Greece itself, between Athens and Sparta; the Athenians were intellectual, philosophical, of the spiritual genius: the Spartans, and in primitive times the Romans, were more devoted to the cultivation of moral virtue, sublime patriotism, the good of life,--in other words, they were more of the celestial genius.
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In Athens, and in Greece as a whole, the love of the world reigned in the later days; in Sparta, and afterwards in Italy, the love of dominion, which is the perversion of the celestial love of the Lord. We may thus see the internal reason for the special worship of Vesta by the Romans. There was also an historical reason: the founders of the city, Romulus and Remus, were the sons of Rhea Sylvia, a vestal virgin, beloved of Mars. The meaning of this myth will be explained in connection with the account of the god of war.
The vestal virgins, six in number, were chosen from the loveliest and noblest of the Roman maidens, and the service was an honor eagerly sought for. They entered the service when between six and ten years of age, and were bound to it for thirty years, after which time they were at liberty to marry if they so chose. If in the meantime any vestal violated her vow of chastity, she was buried alive in the execrated field called "campus sceleratus," while her paramour was scourged to death in the Forum, but during one thousand years of Roman history only eighteen cases of this fearful punishment were recorded. The daily duties of these priestesses consisted in watching and feeding the sacred fire by day and night, and keeping guard over the "Palladium," a most ancient statue of Pallas, which was said to have been brought by Aeneas from the burning Troy; this was considered the holy of holies by the Romans, and was never shown to the eyes of the "ignobile vulgus." The extinction of the sacred fire was regarded as the sure precursor of some dreadful public calamity, and a heavy punishment fell upon any vestal who by carelessness allowed it to go out: in this case it had to be kindled anew directly from the sun, by means of mirrors and burning-glasses.
The sacred fire and the vestal virgins are frequently mentioned in the Writings of the New Church, as in the following passages referring to the perpetual fire of the Israelites:
In order that the Divine Good itself might be represented, it was commanded that there should be a perpetual fire upon the altar: "The fire shall burn upon the altar, and shall not be extinguished; the priest shall kindle upon it wood at each sunrise; the fire shall burn continually upon the altar and shall not be extinguished." (Levit. 6:12, 13.)
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It was very well known to the ancients that fire was a representative of the Divine Love, as may be manifest from the fact that this representative emanated from the Ancient Church even to remote nations which were in idolatrous worship, it being a known thing that these instituted a sacred perennial fire, and appointed virgins to keep it who were called Vestals. (A. C. 6832.)
The perpetual fire on the altar represented the perpetual and eternal Love, that is: Mercy of the Lord. (A. C. 2177.)
From this representation of the Divine Love, there was, among the religious institutions of the Greeks and Romans, a perpetual fire, over which the vestal virgins presided. This worship of fire as sacred, they derived from the Ancient Churches which were in Asia, in which all things of worship, were representative. (A. E. 504)
The number of the vestal virgins being restricted to six, is also of interest, in view of the fact that this number signifies not only labor and combat, (as it does in many places in the Word), but also the marriage of good and truth. (A. R. 610), that is, "the holy of faith, because it relates to twelve and three, whence is the genuine derivation of the number six." (A. C. 737.) For "the number six comes forth from three and two multiplied together; and three signifies all things as to truth, and two all things as to good." (A. R. 235.) The six vestal virgins, therefore, represent all the affections of good and all the affections of truth, serving and guarding that seventh, supreme and most holy celestial affection, the love of the Lord, which is represented alike by Vesta and by her sacred fire.
Compare with this the wedding ceremony in Heaven, described in Conjugial Love n. 21, in which "six virgins stood at the side of the bride, because the number six signifies all and what is complete."
Hestia or Vesta, the virgin goddess, is also known as the guardian of chastity, and this is because
Virgins are so named from the conjugial which resides in chaste virgins, and this term, therefore, means those who are in innocence. (A. C. 3081.)
And true virginity, genuine innocence, pure chastity, are to be found only in celestial love, love to the Lord, the supreme love of Divine Truth.
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ZEUS-JUPITER
Readers of Swedenborg's Writings are familiar with the references to "Jove,--so named perhaps from Jehovah." (T. C. R. 9; in D. S. S. 117, and De Verbo 15, without any "perhaps"). This suggestion is certainly worthy of consideration, though it is scoffed at by modern philologists who insist that Jupiter means simply "father Zeus." (Zeu-pater), and that the name Zeus itself is nothing but the Greek form of the Sanscrit Dyanus, god, whence is derived the Greek theos and the Latin deus and Jovis. But since the members of the New Church know from Divine Revelation that "Jehovah" is the most ancient name of God, may it not be reasonable to suppose that the Sanscrit Dyaus is itself derived from Jehovah? Moreover, it is an incontestable fact that the names of many, if not most of the Greek divinities, are derived, not from the Sanscrit but directly from the Hebrew, through the Phenicians,--as, for instance, Hellos from "El," Apollo from "Habaal," Astarte from "Ashtoreth," Bacchus from "Iacchus," Adonis from "Adonai," etc. And in the Assyro-Babylonian Pantheon we find as the supreme god "Ea," or "Hea," who under the name of "Iva" is represented as holding a sheaf of thunderbolts. It seems more likely, therefore, that Jupiter or Joe-pater was derived from Iva-pater, (Jehovah, the father), rather than from Dyaus. And it is also admitted by the philologists that the Latin Jove in the more ancient Umbrian dialect is Iuve, which is almost identical with the sacred Hebrew name.
As to the historical origin of the worship of Jupiter, we learn from the Writings that
Many of the gods of the Gentiles were nothing else than men, such as Baal, Ashtaroth, Chemosh, Milkom, Beelzebub; and at Athens and Rome, Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, Pallas, etc., whom they first worshiped as saints, afterwards as divinities, and finally as Gods. T. C. R. 292.)
And in the same work, (n. 159), it is said that these gods were originally monarchs to whom, alter their death, divine worship was extended. Thus also, among the Greeks, there was a legend that Jupiter was a most ancient king of Crete, and the cave in which he was born and the tomb in which he was buried were exhibited for long ages by the Cretans.
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The ancient divinities were thus originally great prehistoric individuals, archaic kings, queens, and heroes, venerated ancestors of races and nations, who in very ancient times were regarded as representative types of various Divine attributes. In later times, after the spiritual religion of the Ancient Church had degenerated into nature-worship, these representative characters came to be looked upon as personifications of material elements, phenomena and forces, as is graphically shown by Swedenborg in the True Christian, Religion, n. 178.
Suppose the Faith is that Nature is the creatress of the Universe. It would follow from this that the Universe is what is called God; that Nature is its essence; that the Ether is the supreme God, whom the ancients called Jove; that the Air is a goddess, whom the ancients called June and made the wife of Jove; that the Ocean is a god below these, who after the manner of the ancients may be called Neptune; and since the Divinity of Nature reaches to the very centre of the earth, there must be a god there also, who, as with the ancients, may be called Pluto.
There is a certain basis, therefore, for the modern materialistic interpretation of mythology. The gentiles, in their more degraded states, did worship the powers of nature; they did identify Jupiter with the ether, June with the air, Neptune with the ocean, Pluto with the bowels of the earth, etc, etc. But the fallacy of the interpreters is that they regard these degenerated conceptions as the original ideas, originating in the gross nature-worship which the doctrine of evolution postulates. Pantheism was a perverted development of the ancient Monotheism, as was known to many of the ancient Sophi and philosophers.
The ancient Gentiles acknowledged Jove as the supreme God, so called perhaps from Jehovah; and they also clothed with divinity many others who composed his court; but the wise men in the following age, such as Plate and Aristotle, confessed that these were not gods, but so many properties, dualities, and attributes of the one God,-which were called gods because in each of them there was Divinity. (T. C. R. 9.)
King of heaven and earth, supreme dispenser of justice, guardian of political order and peace, tutelary deity of hospitality, of compacts and of oaths,--in short, the personification of Divine Law itself,--all gods and demons tremble at Jupiter's omnipotent nod.
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Seated upon his ivory throne in Olympus, with the earth for his footstool, he holds in one hand the eagle-crowned sceptre and in the other the figure of winged Victory, while lightnings play about his awful brews, and Fame, and Fortune hover about his knees, and Hebe, goddess of eternal youth, presents to him the cup of living nectar.
Such was the supreme god of the Ancient Church as, in derivative and gentilized forms, this Church existed among the Greeks and Latins,--a spiritual Church, in which the intellectual side, the love of truth rather than the love of good, predominated. Hence around Zeus we find the emblems and symbols of the Divine Wisdom rather than those of the Divine Love,--the oak tree, the eagle, and the thunderbolt, truth eternal, rational and Divine.
The Oak signifies to eternity, for it grows to the greatest age. (A. C. 4552)
Art Eagle signifies the Rational, because it flies high and from aloft takes a wide view of the things which are below. Such was the signification of an eagle in the Ancient Church. (A. C. 3901)
A flying eagle signifies the appearance of the Divine Protection and Providence in ultimates, as to intelligence and as to clear sightedness. (A. E. 281.)
Lightnings and thunders, in the Word, signify Divine truth as to enlightenment and as to understanding (A. E. 273.) The "voices of thunders" are Divine truths which illustrate and perfect those who are in heaven, and terrify and devastate those who are in hell. (A. C. 7573.)
Victory, Fame, and Fortune; (i. e., the eternal blessings of Divine Providence), follow in the wake of all-conquering Truth, and HEBE, the affection of Divine Truth, gives eternal youth to those who are willing to drink the nectar of the water of life.
In Homer and the earlier poets Zeus uniformly exhibits a dignified and moral character, like that of a grave but good-natured and affectionate father. But as the decline of the Ancient Church went on, men began more and more to invest their idols with their own passions and evils, and thus Zeus in the later writers appears as a most unfaithful husband and as an unjust and revengeful despot, who strives in vain to avert the fate which Destiny has appointed for him as it did for Saturn and Ouranos.
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He is represented as knowing that his reign also would pass away; that he would be supplanted in the Olympus by his youngest son, the tempted, conquering, glorified Hercules. It is a more or less shadowy myth, but appears again and again in Aeschyles, Ovid, Seneca, and the Sibylline books, and it certainly seems like a prophecy of the Coming of the Lord in His human, when the Divine Truth itself was to take the place of the types and figures of the ancient, representative churches.
The many love-affairs of Zeus with earthly maidens gave rise to many ludicrous as well as indecent and scandalous conceptions and stories among the later Greeks, but even the modern naturalistic interpreters recognize that "his infidelities lose all their grossness if we recognize them as allegories which typify the great generative power of the universe displaying itself in a variety of ways." How much more so, then, when we come to see that the plural connections of Zeus, like the polygamous marriages of the patriarchs and kings in the Old Testament, could represent or typify the relations of the one all-loving God with the various forms of religious faith as existing among different Gentile races. There can at any one time be but one true and spiritual Church on the earth, with whom the Lord is conjoined in a spiritual marriage. This genuine or specific Church was among the Greeks represented by June, the only legitimate spouse of Jupiter. But though the Lord loves the visible Church, He loves also the various forms of the Church Universal, as existing among the good in all religions, in all, lands, and in all the earths of the Universe. And when the Church specific becomes perverted, when June becomes a jealous and rebellious wife, the Lord comes with a new Divine message to those Gentile nations in which there remains some simple and innocent love of the Truth, and in their virgin soil He then implants the seeds of a New genuine Church.
But when thus coming with a new revelation, He cannot at first manifest Himself such as He really is, as the Divine Truth itself, but must necessarily clothe Himself in various appearances of external good and truth, accommodated to the simple states of the receptive Gentiles. These appearances are represented by the various disguises of Jove in approaching the earthly maidens who were the objects of his love.
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And then, for those maidens, there generally began a period of tribulations and persecutions, inflicted by jealous June, by which is represented the Persecutions and temptations which the New Church must suffer from the Old, perverted Church.
Thus to Europa, the Phoenician princess, Zeus first appeared in the guise of a beautiful white steer who ran away with the maiden and landed her on the shores of a new continent to which he afterwards gave her name. By this is probably signified that civilization and religion were first introduced to the Gentiles in Europe, from Asia, by means of the Phenicians, and that the new truth won its way among them by appealing to their love of genuine external good.
A steer or bullock signifies Divine Truth accommodated to the natural or external man (A. C. 10026). It signifies also the good of charity and of innocence in the external or rational man. (A. C. 10021.)
Hence, therefore, we have the myth that letters and civilization were first introduced into Greece by Cadmus, the brother of Europa, who founded Thebes and in whose honor the Academy was founded at Athens. (Compare the Hebrew Cadem-the East.)
On the other hand, to Leda, who became the mother of Castor, Pollux, and Helen, Jupiter came in the shape of a snow-white swan. This beautiful bird of the water represented love truly conjugial, but in the lowest or natural region of the mind, even as the bird of paradise represents the spiritual, and the turtledove the celestial degrees of conjugial love. (C. L. 270.) This story would seem to signify that, to some of the earliest Greeks, civilization was introduced by means of true teachings concerning a natural orderly conjugial life, from which was derived on the one hand the mutual charity which is represented by the fraternal love of Castor and Pollux, and on the other hand that natural conception of conjugial love, which is typified by Helen, the beautiful queen, who became the Price of contest between the Greeks and the Trojans. The latter, perverted Asiatics of the fallen Church, sought to destroy that priceless love among the Hellenic Gentiles, but the new nation, after long and severe struggles, regained it and with it the leadership of civilization.
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(If any of our readers should consider this a far-fetched interpretation, let him consider the present struggle for conjugial love in the New Church: how the beautiful truth concerning this love first appeared to us above the waters of our former sensual conceptions; how it was well-nigh lost to the New Church by the practice of "mixed marriages," and how it may be restored by marriages within the Church, in spite of the desperate opposition of ancient fallacies and prejudices.)
To Danae, the priestess imprisoned in a brazen tower, Zeus came in the form of a golden shower, by which may be represented a new influx of Divine Truth among Gentiles previously fettered in the bonds of ignorance and falsity. The son of Danae and Zeus was Perseus, who, in his victory over Medusa and the setting free of Andromeda, seems to be another ancient prophecy of the Messiah, who, begotten by the power of the Highest, was born of an earthly maiden, conquered the hells, and redeemed the Church. But the other stories of the loves of Jupiter will be told and explained in connection with those of his children, such as Apollo, Diana, and Bacchus, who for their mothers had mortal women.
HERA--JUNO.
Supreme among the goddesses, as wife and sister of Zeus, stands Hera, the June of Roman Mythology. Her Greek name signifies simply Lady, or Mistress, (Hera, the feminine of Heros, as in old German Herrin is the feminine of Herr). The Latin name, Juno, is traced by some to the Greek Dione, the feminine of Dis, or Zeus; by others it is said to be a contracted form of Jovino, an ancient name of the feminine counterpart of Jove.
The marriage of Hera with Zeus was regarded by the ancients as by eminence the hieros games, the "sacred marriage," or as it is termed in the Writings "the heavenly marriage," between the Lord and the Church. And since all conjugial love flows from this heavenly marriage, Hera, as the bride and wife of her Divine husband, was regarded as the great tutelary deity of the sanctity of marriage, (Hera Gamelia, Juno Pronuba), and as the patroness and protector of all married women, (Juno Matrona, from matrimonium).
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She also presided over childbirth and was invoked by women in labor. As men used to swear by Jupiter, so women affirmed by Juno, and the name of "Junones" was applied to the familiar spirits attendant upon women. The month of June is fittingly named after this marriage-goddess, being that time of the year when heat and light are conjoined in equal degrees and universal nature celebrates its nuptials.
In her more primitive aspect June is a noble representative of that: spiritual good which loves celestial truth,--in other words, the Lord's genuine and specific Church, in heaven and on earth, as it was in the best days of the Ancient spiritual Church. Beautiful, majestic, with a dignified, matronly air, broad forehead, and large eyes, ("cow-eyed June"), the queen of heaven stands as a type of the chaste and faithful wife. Clad in flowing robes, with a diadem on her brow, she holds a sceptre in the one hand and a pomegranate in the other. The significance of the sceptre is self-evident. The pomegranate, on account of its multitude of seeds, was regarded as the symbol of marriage, the seminary of the human race. It signifies also the cognitions and perceptions of good and truth, (A. E. 403), and likewise the spiritual sight of an orderly mind, well filled with living truths, because this fruit is "pellucid even to the centre." (T. C. R. 403.)
The constant attendant and swift-footed messenger of June was IRIS, the personification of the Rainbow, by which is signified the Doctrine of the Church or "interior Divine Truth, such as is the Word in its spiritual sense." when reflected in glorious appearances upon the clouds of the literal sense, (A. E. 595). This Doctrine, also, is the messenger or message of the Church to the outside world, and, like the Rainbow, forms a covenant or connecting link between heaven and earth.
The peacock, of all birds, was especially sacred to Juno, and represents the same as the Rainbow, but in multiple form, the iridescent eyes in the peacock's feathers representing so many beautiful ideas of intelligence concerning spiritual truths. The same, probably, was originally signified by Argus, the hundred-eyed watchman of Juno.
Later and perverted conceptions of the Church and of marriage among the Greeks depict June as a haughty, jealous, and rebellious wife, violent-tempered and bitter-tongued, constantly quarreling with her spouse and relentlessly persecuting the unfortunate objects of his love.
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These changed conceptions tell the tragic story of the decline and perversion of conjugial love in Hellas and Rome. At first the wife occupied a most honorable position by the side of her husband. Later on the reverence for the wife was so misdirected to lead to her total seclusion within the sacred precincts of the home, away from the public gaze. Upon this followed a deterioration of her general culture and intellectual development, which gave the highly intellectual husbands a quasi excuse for seeking the more fascinating companionship of the heterae,-beautiful and vivacious harlots, for whom a liberal education was provided in the temple-precincts, with a view to financial profits for these "sacred" institutions.
Henceforth Juno assumed the representation of the Church Specific in a vastated state, when the genuine love of the Lord has departed and its place is filled by the love of dominion over the souls of men. Jealousy of her supremacy now becomes the chief characteristic of the visible Church, which regards with bitter hatred every manifestation of the Divine Love for those who are "outside the pale."
This hatred for the Gentiles has existed in every declining Church, and was especially exemplified by the Jewish contempt and arrogance which are depicted and reproved by the Lord in every page of the New Testament. To a Jew all Gentiles were unclean things, mere dogs, scarcely fit to pick up the crumbs from their masters' table. Hence also came that first struggle in the early Christian Church over the question: "Is the Gospel to be preached to the Gentiles also?"
It is the same in the Roman Catholic religiosity, with its arrogant motto: "Extra ecclesiam nulla salvatio," whence arose the doctrine of universal damnation for all who do not possess "the only saving faith." And it is the same in the Protestant churches, as is evident from their contemptuous and conscienceless treatment of all who do not carry about them the blessing of a proud white skin. We think the angry jealousy of Juno will be exemplified anew when the centre of civilization and the balance of world-power shall begin to shift from the white to the colored races,--when the "yellow peril," and the "brown" and "black," shall have become direful actualities.
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The spiteful cruelty of June is illustrated by the story of lo, the daughter of the river-god Inachus, to whom Zeus first revealed himself under the covering of a cloud, and whom he metamorphosed into a beautiful white heifer in order to protect her from the jealous persecutions of his spouse. But June, suspecting the guise, placed her under the surveillance of Argus, who possessed a hundred eyes distributed around his head. To set free his beloved, Zeus finally dispatched his messenger, Hermes, who killed Argus with a stone. June then sent an enormous and persistent gadfly to torment the unfortunate heifer, who, goaded by its cruel stings, fled wildly from one country to another, wandering in tortures all over the earth, until finally she found refuge in Egypt where Zeus restored her to her womanly form and beauty, and where she gave birth to Epaphus, the founder of Memphis and of Egyptian civilization.
This well-known story, when interpreted spiritually, is typical of the trials of every new Church. Io, the maiden, is the affection of truth among those who are in a gentile state, to whom the new Truth is revealed at first in a cloud of sensual appearances, and who are to some extent protected by their state of simple good, (the cow). Nevertheless, they are still kept in bondage under the Old Church, by its false reasoning and self-intelligence, which are represented by Argus.
He who (denies spiritual influx) may be compared to a crab which walks backwards, and his rational sight may be compared to the sight of the eyes of Argus in the back of his head, when those in his forehead were asleep. Such persons also believe themselves to be Arguses in reasoning. (Influx 9.)
The man who reads the Word under the auspices of his own intelligence, believes himself to be a lynx and to have more eyes than Argus. (T. C. R. 165.)
To those thus spiritually bound, the Divine Word then comes as a deliverer, here typified by Hermes or Mercury, the messenger who "brings word" from his master, but this time in the form of a stone, i. e., truth destructive of falsity. But though now set free from the dominion of the Old Church in general, false reasonings still infest the New Church which now enters upon a period of temptations, represented by the torments and wanderings of poor Io.
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Flies signify falsities of the sensual man, thus falsities of every kind. (A. E. 740.) Bees, in the evil sense, signify false reasoning, because the rational gathers what belongs to it from scientifics falsely applied, as bees obtain their store from flowers. (A. E. 410.) "Stings in their tails" signify skillful reasonings from falsities by which they persuade and thus inflict injury. (A. C. 6952)
It is significant that Io finally found "refuge in Egypt," i. e., victory in temptation by means of the letter of the Word. It may he that the story of Io refers to the early establishment of the Ancient Church in the land of Egypt.
(To be Continued.)
FIRST DRAFT OF "ARCANA COELESTIA" AND "APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED." ALFRED H. STROH 1905
According to the evidence which has been preserved Swedenborg began to write the Arcana Coelestia towards the close of 1747, and after completing the first volume in Holland in the autumn of 1745, traveled to England to arrange for the publication of the work. The manuscript copy of the Arcana Coelestia is not known to be in existence, and was in all likelihood destroyed when the printing was finished. However, the greater portion of the first draft has been preserved among other manuscripts by Swedenborg in the Library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. For particulars see, R. L. Tafel's Documents concerning Swedenborg's, references under "Arcana Coelestia" in the Index.
Dr. Tafel "compared carefully many of the errata pointed out by Dr. Im. Tafel, with the first draught copy in the Library of the Academy of Sciences," and declared that none of the errors occur in the copy written by Swedenborg's own hand, but that they must he regarded as having been introduced by the printer, and not by the author. (Documents, II., p. 977)
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Elsewhere Dr. Tafel says that the first draft "does not differ from the work as printed, but the MS. is frequently crossed out and corrected, thus showing the steps which Swedenborg took in preparing it." (Documents, II., p. 841.)
The writer, during his recent visit to Stockholm, had occasion to make an examination of the MS. of the Arcana Coelestia and also that of the Apocalypse Explained while endeavoring to answer certain questions concerning them which had been asked by a New Church minister in America. Results very different from those of Dr. Tafel were arrived at, and at that time the phototyping a of those manuscripts was advocated in the journals of the New Church in England and America because these manuscripts are not only of very great interest in showing how the Arcana Coelestia and Apocalypse Explained were written, but also because they correct the text itself in some places. In the present article a resume of the results of the examination will be presented, together with notices of collateral material.
Since the examination was made I have found that the Rev. J. R. Boyle published a pamphlet at Hull, in 1882, entitled, Critical Notes on the Original Manuscript of Emanuel Swedenborg's Arcana Coelestia. (Pages xvi and 24.) A portion of the pamphlet is controversial in nature, the subject being that of the authority of the Writings, but the Critical Notes take up the particular question of the quality and value of the first draft of the Arcana Coelestia. Mr. Boyle began by questioning the accuracy of Dr. Tafel's statements concerning the errata in the Arcana Coelestia. He says: "From the first moment that I read it, nearly five years ago, I have believed that it is not correct." In April, 1882, Mr. Boyle made a special trip to Stockholm in order to make a thorough examination of the manuscript, and his description of it and the tabulation of his results are very interesting. He evidently made a very thorough examination, and an account of what he found would fill a number of pages. He says: "Of 389 errors in the original edition, selected before I left home, I found not less than 183 in the MS., or about six in every thirteen." A review of the cases given leaves the reader with a conviction that the manuscript will be of very great value in correcting the text of the Arcana Coelestia.
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Mr. Boyle also advocated the reproduction of the manuscript by photolithography. He writes:
"Many of these variations between the printed edition and the MS. will convince the careful student of the desirability of a thorough and painstaking collation of the one with the other being undertaken. In some instances such a collation would discover readings in the MS. preferable to those in the printed edition. . . . In a larger number of passages the reading of the MS. would, I have no doubt, render valuable help towards the undertaking of the reading of the printed text.
"The question arises as to how such a collation should be made. The most satisfactory thing would be to place every student of Swedenborg in a position to make a collation of any and every passage for himself. This could only be done by photolithographing the whole work. This would avoid endless disputes and doubts in the future as to the accuracy of anyone's collation. It would also enable the student to trace 'the steps which Swedenborg took in preparing' this great and priceless work. Future generations, will, I believe, scrutinize and analyze every utterance of Swedenborg's, far more closely than his readers have done hitherto. The history of the development of his spiritual perceptions will be, to future students of his books, a matter of absorbing interest. And the effort will be made to ascertain as far as possible the various steps (erasures, interlineations, transpositions, amplifications, etcetera, etcetera), by which every paragraph and sentence came to assume its final form. For the sake of the student who will work hereafter, the Church should now unite to procure and preserve accurate facsimiles of the MS. of the ARCANA COELESTIA."
The statements which now follow are made on the basis of notes taken in Stockholm in 1903.
In the original edition of the Arcana Coelestia, there is no number 9049, and the words "Et si damnum fuerlt are not explained. On examining the original draft the reason of this is manifest. When Swedenborg came to copy number 9048 he went on writing number 9049 instead, and then continued with number 9050 as usual. The omitted number 9048, literally transcribed, reads:
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"9048. Et (sil si damnum fuerit, quod significat lasionem, (ut supra n:) constat absque explicatione."
The words in parentheses were crossed out by Swedenborg.
In number 9046 there are changes and near the end there occurs a reconstruction and an omission; number 9047 was amended. Then follows the short number quoted above, namely, number 9048. After this follows number 90491 answering to 9048 of the Tübingen edition, and to numbers 9048 and 9049 of the English translation of 1851, (London), where the number is divided near the beginning. After number 9049 of the draft (Tübingen edition, 9048) Swedenborg began in the draft to write number 9050 He wrote one line and crossed it out. Writing the number a second time he wrote nine and a half lines and then crossed out what he had written. Having written the number a third time he finished the writing of the long paragraph. As usual there are numerous corrections, and this is true throughout the volume. There is a change at the close of number 9293.
In number 9064 of the printed Arcana Swedenborg omitted the explanation of the phrase "et non operuerit illam," neither is the particular explanation given between numbers 9085-9086. Now in the original draft, in place of the printed number 9064, there is no number written out, but only the following:
"9064. Vers: 28 ad 36.
"9065. Et cum operuerit Et cum eorum"
The second line is crossed out and then follows number 9065. This at first seemed very puzzling, but it occurred to me that possibly Swedenborg's method was to write down the number, then pass on to the giving of the particular internal sense of the group of verses, returning afterwards to the construction of the number, giving the summary of the internal sense when writing the second draft. On comparison with other places where the groups of verses would come in, I found that this view was established. Therefore, it follows that the omission of the explanation of "et non operuerit illam" is due to the primary omission between numbers 9085-9086.
Swedenborg also wrote a first and second draft of the Apocalypse Explained, the second one for the printer, although the work was never printed by Swedenborg.
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The first draft differs from the second in numerous places, and contains material which will be of great value in correcting the text of the work as printed. What was said above in regard to the manner of composition of the Arcana Coelestia also applies to the Apocalypse Explained.
An interesting point as between the two manuscripts is the following: In number 746 f, according to the second draft, the word trahs (a beam) in 2 Kings vi., among other passages, is given an evil signification; but in the first draft Swedenborg states no more than that it has the same signification as "wood," leaving it to the reader to determine whether in the passages referred to it is to be taken in a good or evil sense, and it is quite evident that in 2 Kings vi., if not in the other passages, it is meant in a good sense.
But before giving the two readings bearing directly on this, it will, perhaps, be best to set before the reader the whole of the variations between the two drafts, which occur in this portion of A. E. 746 f.
The second draft reads the same as the first, (beginning at the quotation "Cur cernis festucam quae in oculo fratris tui") until the phrase "significatur informare de falso et malo, ac reformare" in place of which the first draft has "significetur informare et reformare." Again in place of "festuca ex oculo fratris" the first draft has "festuca in oculo fratris." In place of "in singulis quae Dominus loquutus est" the first draft has "in singulis verbis." In place of "per festucam enim significatur euile falsum mali, ac per trabem magnum falsum mali," the first draft has, "per festucam enim significetur exile malum, et quoque falsum, et per trabem magnum malum, et quaque falsum." The words "et quaque falsum" and "et quoque falsum" are in each case written above the line. Instead of "quod per festucam et per trabem significetur falsum mali, est quia per lignum significatur honum, ac inde per trabem verum boni, ac in opposite sensu falsum mali, perque oculum intellectus et fides," the first draft has, "quod per festucam et per trabem significetur malum, est quia per lignum significatur bonum et in opposite sensu malum, et per oculum significatur intellectus et quoque fides." The first draft has the numbers "37, 152" before, instead of after the references from the Arcana.
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And lastly, coming to the point referred to above, instead of "etiam trabs aliquibus in locis nominatur, et per illam significatur falsum mali, ut Genes:xix:8. II Reg:vi:2, 5, 6. Habak:II:11, Cant. I:17", the first draft has, "etiam trabs aliquibus in locis alibi dicitur, as per illam simile quod per lignum significatur," etc. The effect of this variation has already been noticed. The words "quod per lignum," it may be added. Are obscurely written above the line.
Another interesting illustration of the variations between the two drafts is in number 1146. Both drafts agree in speaking of the tooth of the camel as "ivory," but in the beginning of the number, in the first draft, "scientifica" was first written and afterwards crossed out, a different color of ink being used in the substitution of "vera et bona rationalia" above it. The ink is similar to that used in the second draft. A little further on in the phrase "ex significatione eboris quod sit verum rationale," the words "in ultimo ordine" were crossed out and "rationale" written above.
The Swedenborg Society of London has undertaken the phototyping of that valuable work, the Index Biblicus, and it is to be hoped that the not distant future will see an effort made to secure the valuable contents of the first drafts of the Arcana Coelestia and Apocalypse Explained to the Church by phototyping.
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MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG. 1905
THE LAST JUDGMENT, THE GENTILES.
125. Concerning the lot of nations and peoples outside the Church, see what has been written in Arcana Coelestia, n. 2589-2604, and in the work On Heaven and Hell, 318-328; also something in the little work On the Last Judgment, n. 47-51. That a new heaven has been formed both from Christians and from gentiles, and also the Lord's Church on earth, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 3, 244, 245, 246.
126. About the time of the Last Judgment, Christians appeared in the middle, where they were arranged at a distance from the center to the circumference, and also at the various quarters according to their light of truth from the love of good. Around this middle were seen the Mohammedans* arranged in like manner at the various quarters, nearer to the Christians [or further from them] according to the light of truth from good. Outside this compass were seen the gentiles arranged according to their religion and according to their life therefrom. All have similar lands divided into mountains, hills, rocks and valleys, and above them [i. e. the mountains and hills] are expanses where dwell the best of them who have received from angels truths of doctrine concerning the Lord and concerning life. Beyond the gentiles appeared as it were a sea, which was the last boundary. All these compasses taken together are extended not in a plane but in a globe like the earth, so that when I was conducted to the gentiles, after passing through the Mohammedans, I descended by a decline.
* Between them [and the Christians] were the papists.
127. When the Last Judgment was going on, those who were in the western quarter beyond the Mohammedans, were led away towards the east. They were led, not by a circuit, but above the northern plane of the Christians, and, what I wondered at, on high, so that they were transferred by a way above the Christians, and yet did not communicate with them.
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And they were then allotted places about the Mohammedans at the east and also at the south. On both sides of where the Mohammedan heavens are appeared openings descending into the depths. Thither were cast those of them who were evil, who had worshiped idols, and had thought nothing about God, and at the same time had lived a wicked life.
128. There is also a similar chasm on the northern side of the Mohammedan desert. Into this were cast the worst, and also many of the Roman Catholic religion who had worshiped the images of saints and had thought absolutely nothing about the Lord. These latter were gathered from the northern quarter under the mountains there and were mingled with the gentiles because they are similar. I then saw the whole northern valley even to the mountains there torn up to its foundations, and all who were there, scattered, and than there appeared in that place as it were a smokiness.
129. I was afterwards led beyond the Mohammedans to certain gentiles who were in the eastern quarter, with whom it was granted to speak. They said that they were sad because the Divine does not appear to them when yet they think of the Divine and speak about it: and, therefore, if there be a God [they had hoped] that He would send to them those who would teach them; but that they had long waited for this in vain, lamenting that perchance He had deserted them, and that there thus seemed nothing else for them but to perish. And then I heard angels speaking with them out of heaven, saying that God could not have been manifested to them because they had not been willing to believe that God was born a man in the world, or that He had taken on a Human, and that until they believe this, God cannot be manifested to them nor can they be taught, because this is the primary thing of all revelation. They said that they did indeed believe that God is a Man but that they could not comprehend that He was born a Man in the world. But answer was made them, that He was not born a Man like any other man, since He was not born of a man-father but of the Father Jehovah, and by a Virgin, and that thus He was unlike any other man; for a man's soul from a man-father is a recipient of life, but the Lord's soul from the Father Jehovah is life itself, which gives life to all; and that the difference as between the human and the Divine, and the finite and the infinite, or the create and the uncreate; and because He was such as to His soul, it could not be otherwise than that His body should become like His soul after He had rejected that of the body which He had taken from the mother; and that He, therefore, rose as to His whole body, nor did He leave anything of it in the grave, as is the case with every other man, who rises only as to his spirit and never as to his material body.
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And further, it was said that the Divine itself, as it is in itself, which is infinite, could not have done otherwise than reject the finite which was from the mother and put on the infinite, thus the Divine, from the Father. They said that they had known no other than that He was like any other man born from a man-father, and also that He so died, and was afterwards received by men as God, and that they now know that the Lord is not such a man as others are. After they had received these things they were divided, and those who had received the faith were instructed by angels in other matters of faith and love.
130. I was conducted to those who in the world had known nothing about God, but who nevertheless had led a moral life amongst each other; they were said to live in a certain island. They appeared to me not like men but like apes and yet with a human face.* They so appeared because they knew nothing about God, and the Divine is in the likeness of a man. One of the Christians is set over them by the Lord. I have spoken with him, and he said that they obey him and love him; that they are modest and are engaged in employments, but that at first they could hardly grasp things of religion, that after a time, however, there was given them a nearer communication with the Christians, and that they are beginning to receive something of religion, and that he cherished the hope that they could be reformed, for the reason that they had lived a moral life, are in obedience and are industrious.
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As to similar people elsewhere, see below.**
* In S. D. 5822 these spirits are said to appear like apes, and "some of them like dogs; but yet with a face almost human." To themselves, however, "they appear with a human face like other men. They come from an island somewhere off the west coast of Africa."--TR.
** In the original MS. this sentence is written in the margin.--TR.
131. There were likewise seen others, who had lived in an island in the West Indian seas, who had no knowledge* at all about God, thus no religion, and who yet had lived together in a sincere and friendly way. It was told me, that at first they appear destitute of rationality, but that nevertheless, because they had contracted no false principles against religion, some of them suffer themselves to be instructed like infants and are thoroughly perfected. It was shown that their life's delight was to will to serve under others. Some wealth was once given them, but they offered it to the angel who was instructing them, in order that he might receive them as his servants, that thus they might be instructed as to how they should live. It is an angelic delight to inform such spirits and to lead them to heaven.
* The Latin is cogitationem (thought), but this seems to be a mistake for cognitionem (knowledge), which is the word used in the parallel passage, S. D. 5880.--TR.
132. I was once in a sweet slumber, and when I awoke I saw around me some Chinese,* and I noticed that they sat with their legs crosswise, and were talking with each other. And it was ascertained that they had been sent to me by the Lord in order that I might know of what quality many of them are. The angels said that the delightfulness of my sleep had inflowed from the fact that angels had been speaking with them about God and about the wonderful things of wisdom, and that they had been so delighted at this that they had been in the tranquillity of some celestial peace; and that evil spirits could not approach because they were of a spiritual celestial genius.
* These were "Indian Chinese," S. D. 6067.--TR.
133. There were with me some spirits from Tartary,* who lived outside the Chinese wall, saying that their country is populous; nor do their know anything about war, saying that they are without the love of reigning and that they give the government to those who profess themselves able to rule and govern, and that if such a one cannot do it he is rejected with a fine; those who do what is right and just are loved. They said that all are engaged in work, and that they banish the lazy.
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They say that sometimes Christians come to them, and they marvel at their saying that God is a man, for they believe that all men know this; and they also say that they have the commandments of the Decalogue, and that they live according to them because God so wills. They said that they have a holy book of which others do not know, and that they understand it: inquiry was made, and it was the Psalms of David. They call the Chinese their friends because they are of their nation; nor do they think of war, saying that if any strangers should come, then, unknown to them, they would all depart, taking their provisions with them. I also saw a Christian preacher with the spirits of that region. They are of a tranquil disposition.
* Lesser Tartary is meant. See S. D. 6077.--TR.
THE LAST JUDGMENT ON THE PROTESTANTS OR REFORMED.
134. Before the Last Judgment which was a general one, less general judgments preceded which might he called preparatory, by which those who were more exteriorly evil were cast into hells. It should be known that between the time of the judgment effected by the Lord when He was in the world and that of the judgment which is now effected, spirits who hall lived a moral life exteriorly, and had confessed God with the lips but not interiorly or with the heart, hall ascended upon mountains and hills and had there made for themselves, as it were, heavens, where by various arts, which are very numerous in the spiritual world, all of them unknown in our world, they had ascended into mountains so that the world of spirits which is mediate between heaven and hell had been filled up with such heavens, and thereby the communication of the Lord and heaven with the human race had been intercepted. This also was the reason why the spiritual things of the Word and of doctrine therefrom were not disclosed until after the Last Judgment, for by the latter the world of spirits was purified and communication with man opened. If the spiritual things of the Word and of doctrine therefrom had been disclosed before, they would have been neither received nor understood; and if they had been received and understood, still hell, which then prevailed, would have secretly snatched them away from men's hearts and have profaned them. Those fictitious heavens are what are meant in the Apocalypse by the heaven and earth which passed away.
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With the fictitious heavens this was possible, but our visible heaven, which is the firmament, was altogether so created that it cannot pass away, for if it should, the angelic heavens would also pass away. It would be as when the foundation is taken away from a palace, or the base from a column, whereby the house and the column would fall. For there is a connection of all things from the first to the last,--from the Lord Himself to His last work which is the visible heaven and the habitable earth. The case would be similar if the human race were to perish, for thus, for a like reason, the angelic heavens would also fall to ruin.
135. Before the Last Judgment I often saw societies, which had made for themselves semblances of heavens, purged and also destroyed. There was one rock on which was quite a large city where those were who were in faith separate from charity, believing, as in the world, that faith alone saves, and this from mere mercy whatsoever the life may have been. They were in the lust of commanding; and therefore they stood at the sides of the rock, and in various ways infested those who were beneath. When visitation was made, and all there were found to be of such a character, I saw that the rock sank down into the depths together with the city and the inhabitants. The like was done elsewhere. But prior to this being done, the good are separated from the evil and the evil are in the middle; and then the middle sinks down while the borders remain: in the borders are those who are in the good of faith, that is, who are in charity.
136. All who have not denied God with the lips, although they have with the heart, and have led a moral life on account of the civil laws and also on account of reputation and consequent honors and gains, when they come into the other life betake themselves to societies where there are cities: and there as in the world they live a good moral life, from fear of punishment and of the loss of honor and gain. But when their externals are taken away from them, and they are let into their internals, they rush into infamous crimes. But when the wicked increase in number the society is perverted; wherefore angels are then sent thither who search out the state and separate the good from the evil; and the good are either sent to the sides of the society or are taken away.
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Then the city with the evil sinks down into hell, to a depth according to their wickedness. I saw once that four angels were sent to such a city who when they came thither entered into a house,* but the criminal spirits who were there, being excited by their presence into interior malice, as is [always] the case, rushed to the house where the angels were, shouting out to them, and they wish to come out and commit whoredom? They wished to urge them to it, and even attempted to offer violence, but in vain; in a word, they did like what was done in Sodom. And the city was completely destroyed and its inhabitants cast into hells. The reason why they wished to lead them forth to commit whoredom was because in that city were gathered those who in the world had accounted adulteries as allowable; also because they had been in falses of doctrine, by reason of having regarded life as of no account; moreover, to confirm these things they had falsified the Word, and all those who falsify the Word in order to confirm evils of life and falses of doctrine, account adulteries as allowable and are led into them.
* In a parallel passage (S. D. 4932), these visitors were "four good spirits who were sent into the cities to choose an abode for themselves."--TR.
137. I also saw a rock on which there had been such a city, torn up from its place and translated to another place at a remarkable distance: it appeared as if a cloud were being translated. And when it came to that place I saw that it also sank down, because there was their hell. The inhabitants had been first reduced into a state of stupor.
138. A great number of those who are in faith separate from charity betake themselves to rocks: while those who are in the love of self betake themselves to mountains which are higher than the rocks. Hence it is that in the Word, a rock signifies faith, and a mountain love. And when, before the Last Judgment, the evil had been thus congregated upon rocks and upon mountains, first there were suddenly felt concussions and earthquakes,--by which are meant perversions of state in respect to the Church--and afterwards follows the expulsion which is effected either by sinking, or by translation, or by casting out and thus thrusting down into hell.
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On the mountains and hills upon which are angels, the wisest are in the middle and the less wise at the circumferences; but on those upon which are the evil, the worst are in the middle and the better at the circumferences. The sinking in the middle appears like a Vortical gravitation, but in a spiral.
139. There was a plain somewhat more elevated than the valley. In this plain was congregated a multitude of spirits who had learned to practice evils by means of cunning, and to station themselves invisible behind others, and thus force them to think and speak what they wish them to, and therefore evils and falses. They have contracted these arts by reason of their having been in the insane love of ruling over others. As it was then disclosed that their wickedness was consummated, their destruction followed. The whole of that plain was overturned; and the earth was then opened elsewhere and there rose up good spirits who had been kept concealed by the Lord in the lower earth and guarded lest they should be infested by the evil; and they succeeded in place of the former, and came in full number into possession of their land. Such things are represented by the Sons of Israel to whom the land of Canaan was given after the wickedness of its nations had been consummated.
140. After many judgments and quasi judgments had been executed (which were premonitory of the general destruction and judgment), and hordes of spirits who were impure had been cast into pools, lakes, marshes* and chasms, that is into hells, then came some who were skilled in the art of breathing into others and exciting them to evils of interior thought. They incited some souls against the Lord and against Divine Truth from Him, and from these the multitude, like one mass, became to be fermented. The tumult spread thence in every direction, as when a rebellion is started by a few persons and yet stirs up a crowd. I there saw the disturbance widely spread to many rocks and mountains even to their peaks and thence to the sides down to the bases. Their mind was to destroy those who acknowledged and worshiped the Lord and were in Divine Truths from Him.
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When it was noticed that the contagion had grown so wide then was the Lord's Advent for the general judgment. This Advent was the Lord's influx into them through the heavens, an influx which appeared like a misty sphere spread around over their mountains and their rocks; and it carried off the dwellers there, not by casting them down but by bearing them away. The Divine sphere entered into their interiors and laid them bare; and what lay concealed in their will and heart was thus made manifest. And it snatched them away and carried them off to hells according to the evils of their life. That Divine sphere was seen carried around in gyres, returning at different times: and it also dragged them out of the places where they held themselves concealed. This was done with some myriads within the space of an hour. When these things had been accomplished, the tops of the mountains receded, and the mountains themselves sank down even to the plain, and there was seen a solitude. Such things are meant in the Apocalypse by the former heaven and the former earth which John saw pass away; for the mountains there, with the rocks and valleys, appear like earth in our world, and the habitations upon the mountains are there called heavens. Those who were thus carried off and cast away are they who are meant in the Apocalypse by the Dragon and his two beasts (Chaps. xii, xiii), and the false prophet who was cast into the lake of brimstone and fire (Chaps. xix. 20: xx, 10)
* The MS. has here stagna (pools) written a second time; the word substituted for this repetition is taken from S. D. 5202.-T.R.
141. The judgment upon the Protestants or Reformed was effected as follows: They who had led a life of charity, which may also be called a life of faith, hall been all carried up into heaven long before the universal judgment; while all who in heart had denied heaven and had led an evil life had been cast by turns into hell as they came from the world. On those only was the judgment effected, who had professed religion and had acted as if from religion but only hypocritically; to these it was permitted to gather themselves together in many places in the world of spirits, and, as in the world, to simulate religion, but still they had no religion. These are the ones who made heavens for themselves and who are meant by the former heaven and the former earth; and by means of arts unknown in the world they art able to produce splendid things, and to persuade those who are similar that they are in heaven.
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Their exteriors communicated with the ultimate heaven but their interiors with the hells; and it was on account of the communication with the ultimate heaven that they had been tolerated, according to the Lord's words concerning the pulling up of the tares. The angels of the ultimate heaven were first separated from them and the communication was broken; as takes place comparatively with fruit seeds when they ripen, in that then the time comes for them to produce a new tree they separate themselves, as it were, spontaneously from the body of the fruit.
(To be Continued.)
Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
In a recent issue we noted the formation of a new Society in Elkhart, Ind., under the leadership of the Rev. Charles H. Mann. It appears, from the Messenger, that Mr. Mann had adopted as a sort of rallying phrase, "Religion in the workshop," meaning that religion is of the Life. This phrase has led a London weekly, The Sunday Companion, to give to its readers, under the heading "The Latest Sect," the startling information that "a new and unique religious sect or society is being formed in Elkhart, Ind.," the "original tenet" of the "new cult" being "that Divine worship should never be conducted in a church, but in the home, the workshop, or the business office."
As a commentary on the words "Divine Revelation" used by the Rev. James Reed, in characterizing the Writings, the following is significant; it is the opening sentence of an article by Mr. Reed which appears in the current New Church Review: "A precious revelation to the New Church, and one of Swedenborg's grandest contributions to religious thought, is his teaching concerning the various degrees of neighbor."
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There is something decidedly incongruous between a "Divine Revelation" and "Swedenborg's grandest contributions to religious thought."
The article by Col. James B. Keene entitled "Our Earth and the Maximus Homo." which appears in the New Church Review, is a valuable contribution to New Church literature and merits thoughtful perusal. Col. Keene takes very decided issue with those who, from the teaching that our earth corresponds, in the Maximus Homo, to the skin, draw the conclusion that it is and will always be inhabited solely by those who are in the lowest natural degree. From the Writings, and also from the scientific works, he shows the universal presence of the skin in the body; and he closes his article with an appeal to the revelation of "the internal senses" of the Word, as being, of itself, sufficient evidence, that men may be regenerated to the celestial heaven itself.
Writing in the New Church Review for January, the Rev. S. S. Seward says, incidentally, "Swedenborg said to himself, when he saw some of his writings on the shelves of a bookseller, that some day they would be esteemed more highly than those of any other writer: and then rebuked himself for the thought." We are not aware of any statement such as this occurring anywhere in the Writings; the only place there in which anything is said as to the sale of the Writings is the passage in Spiritual Diary headed: "That many will receive what is written by me," to which, perhaps, Mr. Seward refers. The passage reads: "I received a letter to the effect that no more than four copies [of the Arcana Coelestia] had been sold in four months, and this was made known to the angels. But they said that it must be left to the Lord's providence, and that this is such that it forces no one,--as might be done,--but it is not proper that they should read it first except those who are in faith; and that this was also known from the Lord's Advent into the world, He also might have forced men to receive His words and Himself, yet He forced no one. . . ." (S. D. 4422.) But this is very different from what is ascribed to Swedenborg in the Review, and unlike that, it breathes of the conviction that the books are not Swedenborg's but the Lord's.
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Morning Light for December 24, prints the following extract from "The Cyclopaedia of Fraternities," a Masonic work published at New York in 1899: "RITE OF SWEDENBORG: A mystical theosophical Masonic rite, consisting of six degrees which grew out of the Rite of the Illuminati (Avignon, 1796), into which the reveries of both Boehme (founder of the latter) and of Swedenborg (who was not a Free Mason) were incorporated. It has been presumed to have been long extinct outside of a few Swedish ladies; but S. J. Gould, in Arcana Fraternities, says that the Rite flourished in a Lodge in New York from 1859 to 1863, and that it is still practiced as a distinct Rite in the Dominion of Canada." Introducing this quotation, Morning Light speaks of Swedenborg's connection with Freemasonry having been "merely nominal." The writer of the article quoted was better informed, for the fact is that not one scintilla of evidence can be adduced to show that Swedenborg had any connection whatever with Freemasonry either "merely nominal" or otherwise. Wild assertions have been made to the contrary, but these have been fully disproved by Dr. Rudolph Tafel in his Documents concerning Swedenborg (II., p. 735.) It appears, however, that Chastanier and Pernety both founded Masonic lodges, the latter being, according to one authority, the founder of the Rite of the Illuminati, the highest degree of which "was based on the doctrines of Swedenborg" as interpreted by Pernety (ibid., I., p. 636).
An interesting confirmation of the teachings of the Writings concerning the origin of idolatry is afforded by recent investigations into the religion of the ancient Mayas, an early American race that occupied Yucatan and Chiapas. According to The New Christianity, Randolph J. Geare, writing on this subject, says in the first of a series of articles in The Scientific American: "The Mayas were not formerly idolaters, although ages ago they regarded the mastodon as fit to represent a god, because it was the largest and most powerful creation known to them. But it was only a symbol, and was not regarded as a real god. They also acknowledged the sun as the source of all light and heat, hence their worship of fire as emanating from the sacred orb. They believed in one unseen, incomprehensible power (Ku).
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The present Mayas, on the other hand, art quite different. They are idolators, and have blind faith in wooden saints or images, before which they devoutly say their prayers."
The same writer states that the Mayas believed in a resurrection on the third day after death, when they would come into "a place where they would suffer for their sins, progressing later to a happy state." And he affords further evidence which goes to establish a former and remote connection with the Ancient Church, which was spread over the greater part of Asia, by the statement that the Mayas practiced the rite of baptism which was called Zihil (to be born again), and consisted, in part, of sprinkling the child with water.
Readers of Prescott's Conquest of Mexico will remember that baptism was also in vogue among the Aztecs. With them the lips and bosom of the infant were sprinkled with water, and the goddess who presided over childbirth was implored "to permit the holy drops to wash away the sin that was given to it before the foundation of the world, so that the child might be born anew." The same author also shows that the Aztecs had a ceremony somewhat similar to the Eucharist.
From a brief review by the Rev. James Hyde, which appeared in the New Church Magazine for January, we gather the following particulars respecting the Russian version of The New London Swedenborg Society. As we have already noted in these pages, the work was undertaken primarily for the benefit of the Russian settlers in America. The translation was made from the many Russian manuscripts owned by the Swedenborg Society, by V. A. Klenovsky, a well known literary gentleman, and revised by a Russian scholar in London, who also translated the Prefatory Note, the cost of the whole work being defrayed from a fund left for the purpose by Mr. F. J. Toustanovsky. The Prefatory Note, which was written by Mr. Hyde, points out the omission from the translation of those sections which consist of references to the Arcana Coelestia, owing to that work being inaccessible in Russian; an exception is made, however, in the case of number 266 where the books of the Word are enumerated.
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Despite these omissions the original numbering of the paragraphs has been preserved. References to the Arcana and other works, which occur in the text itself, are retained, and the reader is informed that the words cited, as well as the full text of The New Jerusalem, may be consulted in English, French, German and Swedish.
It is a matter of regret that the Swedenborg Society has seen fit to make the omissions noted above. That the Arcana Coelestia is not published in Russian, does not seem to be a sufficient reason for this course, for it is well known that a large number of Russian readers are more or less acquainted with one or more other European languages, notably German; moreover, quite apart from the desire to consult the Arcana itself, which the publication of these sections would arouse, they themselves contain a vast amount of doctrinal instruction not obtainable in the rest of the work, making it in a very complete sense The Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem.
The statement in the Literary Digest for December 17th, that "there is a tendency among a certain class of modern theologians to hold that the main body of the doctrines and dogmas accepted by the Christian Church are to be credited not to Jesus, but to the Apostle Paul," is of especial interest to Newchurchmen in view of the teaching that Paul, "in his Epistles, has not mentioned a syllable of what the Lord taught, nor does he mention one of his parables, so that he has received nothing from the life and discourse of the Lord" (S. D. 4412). The Digest illustrates its remark by quoting from a recently published work on "The Beginnings of our Religion." written by a leading German theologian. The author of this work regrets "that Paul has sacrificed the rich contents of the life of Jesus, as well as his message, in emphasizing the two facts of his death and resurrection;" in consequence, Paul's teachings are "dreary and dark" in contrast to the "joyful words" of the gospels; and "the whole conception of justification by faith," as developed by Paul, is in contrast to the proclamations of Jesus." These opinions have naturally met with much opposition, and they have been directly controverted in two works by professors at Halle and Vienna; but neither of these authors seems to have been entirely successful in his main object.
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Indeed, one of them admits that Paul "nowhere directly appeals or refers to an utterance of Jesus" in support of his doctrine of justification.
Our readers will be at once reminded of the frequently repeated teaching that "the whole doctrine" of the present day Church has been fabricated "from a single saying of Paul falsely understood, and not from any Word of the Lord." (A. R. 892, 675; T. C. R. 389. etc.) It is strange that the German theologians, with all their acuteness, have never yet discovered that the doctrine of justification, which is laid to Paul, was never taught by him.
It is true that the doctrines of "Christianity," especially the mystical conception of the Trinity, are based on Paul and not on the Gospels, as is evident from the pre-eminent position which Paul's writings occupy in the Church. Yet the blame for the falsities that have destroyed the Christian Church cannot be laid to Paul. Had there been any spiritual enlightenment, the teachings of Paul would not have been "falsely understood" but would have been interpreted in the light of what the Lord Himself taught. Whatever may have been the opinions of Paul himself, his writings are among the "good books for the Church" (Documents, 224) which might have been interpreted in accordance with the truth. Yet, in the Divine Providence, they were provided in order that a false church might be based on Paul, rather than directly and profanely on the Lord's own teachings.
"It was permitted that the Epistles of Paul should be in the Church, lest those who were of the Church should do evil to the Word of the Lord in which there is an internal sense. And, therefore, it was not permitted Paul to take one parable, nor a single doctrine from the Lord, and expound and explain it, but he took all from himself. The Church does, indeed, explain the Lord's Word, but it does it by means of Paul's Epistles, wherefore also it everywhere recedes from the good of charity, and receives the truth of faith, which the Lord indeed taught but in such a way that the good of charity was everything." (S. D. 4824)
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DEGRADED JOURNALISM.
The New Church Messenger for January 4th constitutes a sort of symposium on marriage and related subjects,--with every reference to love truly conjugial carefully eliminated. The symposium is introduced by an editorial on "The President and Marriage Conditions," taking as a text the brave words of President Roosevelt in his recent message to Congress, where he declares that "If a race does not have plenty of children, or if the children do not grow up. or if, when they grow up, they are unhealthy in body and stunted or vicious in mind, then that race is decadent, and no heaping up of wealth, no splendor of momentary material prosperity, can avail in any degree as offsets."
It was an unexpected pleasure to find questions such as these taken up for consideration in the Messenger,--for the first time in its history, as far as we are aware,--but it soon became apparent that the chief purpose of the editor was not to throw the light of the New Church upon the subject, but, on the contrary, to show that the Doctrine concerning intermediates in Conjugial Love is no longer of any practical value, and he easily proves his point by distorting the Doctrine and at the same time presenting a totally wrong picture not only of "the times in which Swedenborg wrote," but of the actual conditions prevailing at the present time in this country. Closing his eyes to the overwhelming presence of prostitution, indiscriminate fornication and, worst of all, adultery, he asserts that not these, but the practices of pellicacy and concubinage are "the vices which are threatening the very foundations of the republic." These practices, therefore, "can no longer be held out as the remedies to save the state from moral wreck, but we must look abroad for the means by which to deliver the people from these inimical vices themselves."
The teachings in Conjugial Love concerning the intermediates are thus summarily dismissed as antiquated and useless. Instead of looking to the Heavenly Doctrine we must "look abroad" for means of saving the morals of the nation, and among these means we find "that sort of legislation and instruction in economics which will speedily bring the day when every man and woman in the land shall find it easy to earn their livelihood,"--by which, we surmise, the editor means some form of Socialism.
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The symposium is continued with a sermon on "Marriage and Home, Divine Institutions," by the Rev. W. L. Worcester. The sermon claims to "take a spiritual view of marriage," but in actuality presents only the natural-moral side of the subject. Much is said, and well said, about the blessings of the monogamic marriage and about the beauty of home-relations "when they are mutually kind and helpful," etc., but not a word about marriage as a spiritual and eternal union, based upon a common spiritual faith and common spiritual ends. And yet, without such an internal of genuine Religion, how can marriage be a Divine institution? Monogamy may be found even among animals, but the true Christian Religion alone can make marriage human, moral, rational and Divine. This, however, means marriage within, the Church,--a practice which the Messenger does not encourage.
Our contemporary has recently declined to continue the advertisement of the New Church Life, which for some years has appeared in its pages, but it dots not hesitate to lend its columns to an article openly recommending the practice of preventing offspring,--a recommendation which is accompanied by a suggestion as to how such prevention may be accomplished,--and this, terribile dictu, in the name of the Creator, the giver of life!
This shameless thing, happily unique thus far in the literature of the New Church, appears in a paper on "Parental Responsibility," by Mr. George E. Cook, who continues the symposium. The writer first apparently argues against "race-suicide," but suddenly reveals himself as an advocate of prevention, in a series of arguments worthy of the reasoning powers and moral conceptions of a Susan E. Anthony. The writer claims that "it is within the province of a wise man and woman to determine the number of children that their means and situation in life will permit them to rear and educate with fairness and generosity. Simply to breed indefinite numbers without taking into consideration their future, is injustice to self, to children, and the state.
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Impaired health and overtaxed strength to the parents, and among the children often an idiot, certainly no chance for education or a start in life. Did not the Creator, when He gave man the knowledge of the effects of limited periods, give him the right to make rational use of the knowledge?"
And the voice of the serpent, advising the men and women of the New Church to eat of this tree of knowledge, thus continues: "Parents are entitled to some self-consideration. Man was not intended to be an animal or even a Mormon, else the Lord would not have put a limit upon the number of wives. A loving father and mother with four or five well-taught and well-corrected children must surely be more pleasing in His sight than a pair of worn-out beings who have produced a large brood of quarreling, mental and physical degenerates." And then, to cover his retreat, he concludes: "From considerations of this sort, however, we must beware of going to the other and perhaps [!] more dangerous extreme,--the attempt to prevent completely [!] the most useful and consequently most happy employment the Lord has bestowed upon His creatures,--the proper rearing of a family."
The writer of the above extracts speaks but as the men of the world are doing everywhere, and cannot realize the wickedness of the spirits behind him. But to think that abominations such as these should be openly taught in a journal which claims to be a New Church messenger! From whence is the message? from the Doctrines of the New Church, or from the dictates of human prudence? from Heaven or from hell? A message which seeks to limit God's work of creation, and whose effect must be to retard the growth of the New Church and of the angelic heavens! The President of the United States has raised his voice in noble and emphatic protest against the destruction which human prudence and human selfishness is bringing upon society; prominent men in America and Europe have joined in this protest against the growing crime of race suicide, and now, at last, the official organ of the largest body of the New Church in America has spoken, but only to add its voice to the growing world-chorus which is clamoring for the limiting of the number of God's creatures.
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Is it possible that the General Convention will endorse the action of the editor in publishing this article in the Messenger, without a word of protest against this monstrous teaching which is put forth with an utter ignoring of the Infinite wisdom of the Divine Providence?--a teaching which can lead to but one result,--the self-extermination of that Church which permits such a journal to be its guide and teacher.
The shame of it, and at the same time the folly! "Four or five children," indeed! Why should "self-consideration" stop at this uncomfortable number, when once for all Divine Providence has been dethroned and the right of human prudence to interfere has been "rationally" recognized? Where is the limit which the sense of "injustice to self" will set to the demands of "self-consideration?" The birth and rearing of even a single child involves suffering and a certain degree of self-renunciation,--possibly impaired health, or even death! The one child may be an idiot as well as the sixth, and a single pair of children may be "quarreling mental and physical degenerates" as well as a "brood" of ten or twelve,--especially if bred and educated by idiotic and degenerate parents, so selfish that they are not willing to do for others what others have done for them, and so stupid that they cannot realize that interference with the laws of nature and Divine Providence must result in a cheerless and helpless old age,--the wife possibly a nervous wreck, deprived of the glorious joys of motherhood; the husband a withered trunk, without branches or fruits,--and both most likely lost forever in the hell of "self-consideration."
The same issue of the Messenger presents what purports to be a "review" of the Laws of Order for the Preservation of the Conjugial, published by the Academy of the New Church. The review, evidently written by the editor, is an illustration of the grave danger involved in the policy of silence which the present editor has maintained from the beginning of his regime. Unwilling to enter into any form of rational discussion of the most vital issues in the Church, and replying to frank criticisms only by veiled insinuations and unanswerable innuendoes, the Messenger has accumulated a volume of "odium theologicum" which suddenly bursts the bounds of assumed peacefulness and finds vent in an eruption of volcanic mud.
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Apparently recognizing his inability to answer the Laws of Order in a rational manner, the editor here descends to indecency and abusive personalities, which merit no other reply than that which Swedenborg gave to Ernesti:
"I have seen that they are mere blasphemies against my per-
"son, and I have not observed there a grain of reason against
"anything in my writings, and yet, to attack any one with such
"poisoned weapons is against the laws of honorableness, where-
"fore I judge it unworthy to fight with that, celebrated man by
"similar means,--that is, to reject and refute slanders by slanders;
"for this would be like two dogs who fight with each other, bark-
"ing, and with extended jaws; and like women of the lowest
"kind, who, quarreling, throw the filth of the street into each
"other's faces."
Having disposed of the Laws of Order in this fashion, the editor next directs his attention to the reply to that work by the Rev. S. S. Seward, viz., the pamphlet entitled The Saving Power of the Lord. The review is a monument on the grave of logic. The editor freely admits that Mr. Seward has not "written a reply that will be satisfactory to those who hold the position he criticizes, still less does he seem to us to have grasped the significance of the subject as found in Swedenborg." The failure of grasping the significance of the subject as found in the Heavenly Doctrine does not matter, however, for this notwithstanding the editor believes that Mr. Seward teaches "the practically right doctrine," and that Mr. Seward's contention for the saving power of faith alone "is absolutely right,"--at least so far as the American people is concerned.
The editor's various remarks about the American people are ludicrous in their inconsistency, and would be really amusing if they were not made with the evident purpose of setting aside the Lord's teachings in Conjugial Love. According to the editor the American race "is rapidly becoming a decadent people," and he feels that "the very foundations of the republic" are being threatened in this degenerate twentieth century.
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Thus the pessimist in the editorial on "The President and the Marriage Conditions," but in his review of Mr. Seward's pamphlet the dirge has become a paean, a very apotheosis of triumphant Americanism: "For the average American who is capable of a higher standard of morals than was practicable in the unwashed, unsanitary, and despotic eighteenth century, there is and can be practically only one orderly sexual relationship, namely, that of marriage," and he believes that "Mr. Seward's contention is absolutely right, that the Lord is present with the fulness of His saving power to help every American to work out in his own place and in the face of his own problems a private life in strict accordance with the best ideals of the American people."
Passing by these extraordinary claims of a special Divine favoritism for "Americans," we must enter a solemn protest against the Messenger's implied teaching that there was, in the eighteenth century, any kind of orderly sexual relationship other than that of marriage. The editor evidently believes that there was, and that Swedenborg taught such a doctrine in accommodation to his "unwashed" contemporaries, but the editor's conception of the Doctrine taught in Conjugial Love is as false as are his accusations against the Academy.
Let him learn, therefore, that Marriage was, is, and ever will be the only orderly sexual relationship. Marriage alone is of Divine Order, and Divine Order dots not change with the passing years. Marriage alone is of Heaven: marriage alone is conjugial: marriage alone is blessed by the Lord and the Church. But in order to protect marriage and to preserve the conjugial from profanation and destruction, there exist by Divine allowance certain sexual relationships which are intermediate between the conjugial order of Heaven and the adulterous disorder of hell,--intermediates which look and tend towards order. It has been the effort of the Academy of the New Church to uphold the Divine teachings concerning these intermediates as taught in the work on Conjugial Love, teachings which, because Divine, it has dared to term Divine Laws of Order. But it is the effort of the opponents of these teachings to identify the intermediates with the evil of adultery, and thus to destroy them as intermediates,--not realizing that by so doing they are destroying that which separates marriage from adultery.
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The hells desire nothing so much as the destruction of conjugial love, but in order to destroy it, they must first destroy the distinctions which act as barriers. But they assault in vain. "Hinc illae lacrymae!" hinc "tantae animis caelestibus irae."
In Memoriam. 1905
JOSEPH RANDOLPH KENDIG.
A large and promising family and a set of the Writings very much worn, such were the correlated evidences of a loyal New Church life which most impressed the visitor at the funeral of the late Joseph R. Kendig, the founder and leader of the little New Church circle in Renovo, Pa., who passed into the spiritual world on January 7, 1905.
Born in Cumberland Co., Pa., in the year 1839, Mr. Kendig was brought up in the faith of the "Winebrennarian" sect of the Baptist Church, (self-styled "Church of God"), and after preliminary education spent some five years as country school teacher. (In after years he used to say that the Writings of the New Church were "in themselves a liberal education." and by this and other means he obtained a more than average degree of culture.) At the beginning of the Civil War Mr. Kendig enlisted in defense of the Union, and served with honor until incapacitated by a wound at the battle of Fredericksburg After recovery he entered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and settled in Renovo in 1865, filling there several important positions in connection with the railroad company's central repairing works, from which the town derived its name.
Mr. John Pitcairn, then a young man, in the year 1872 resided in Renovo as superintendent of the Erie Division of the Pennsylvania Railroad, and while there placed a set of the Writings in the public library, and also arranged for the Rev. N. C. Burnham to deliver a lecture on the Doctrines of the New Church in one of the waiting-rooms of the Renovo R. R. station.
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Among the attendants was Mr. Kendig, who became so impressed with Dr. Burnham's clear-cut and unequivocal teachings that after the lecture he exclaimed to his astonished young wife: "If what that man says is true, then the whole world is wrong!" He forthwith repaired to the public library to procure some of Swedenborg's works, with the result that he joyfully embraced the Heavenly Doctrine, and quickly left the Winebrennarian sect of "foot-washing" literalists.
The Heavenly Doctrine fell into his mind like rain upon parched earth,--rich and fruitful earth. He was not of the kind of receivers who hide their light under a bushel, but he labored without ceasing to spread the heavenly light to others. Always ready to enter into argument and to lend a book, he became known to his admiring yet mocking fellow-townsmen as "New Jerusalem Joe,"--a truly proud distinction. But though his propaganda did not bear the great harvests which at first he hoped for, some did receive his message,--not only the entire circle of his family, but quite a number of others, both in Renovo and in other places.
During the course of thirty years and more, many ministers of the New Church have enjoyed the hospitality of Mr. Kendig's home,--Arthur O. Brickman, J. P. Stuart, J. R. Hibbard, and others, and especially our faithful missionary, J. E. Bowers, whose services were always deeply appreciated by our brother. And since 1887 many of the younger generation of the "Academy ministers" have spent their summer vacations in Renovo, as an experimental field for their first efforts, and all of these can testify that they found in Mr. Kendig a genial, sympathetic and encouraging companion.
Though deeply interested in the missionary work of the Church, Mr. Kendig still more deeply appreciated the reformatory and educational aims and principles of the Academy, and often expressed his gratitude that he had received the Doctrine through those who believed in the whole of it and not through those who are continually compromising between the New Church and the Old. He was a Newchurchman of the down-right, thorough-going kind, one who was not afraid of conflict for the sake of the Divine Truth.
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In the life of Mr. Kendig is illustrated what an isolated Newchurchman can do, if he is really in earnest, especially in the rearing of a large family in the Church and for the Church, in spite of moderate means and discouraging surroundings. The success of himself and his wife in this great work shows that after all the New Church home is the most essential instrumentality in the work of New Church education.
Memorial services were conducted on January 10th by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner, of Bryn Athyn, and the funeral rites of the Church were supplemented, at the grave, by the beautiful ritual of the Gorand Army of the Republic, of which Mr. Kendig was a prominent member. The memory of the deceased,--noble, brave, and spirited,--the serried ranks of the gray-bearded veterans,--the military salute fired over the grave and echoing among the mountains,--and, chief of all, the New Church family and the well-worn Writings,--all blended harmoniously at the passing of one who had fought well for his country and well for his Church.
To the above we may add the following tributes paid to him by the journals of his town:
"He was an interesting and entertaining speaker, and was often called upon to make an address either at a political or social meeting. His ability, integrity and earnestness, combined with a pleasing personality and charming social qualities, attracted to his side many staunch friends, who deeply mourn his death." (Renovo Record, Jan. 13.)
"Mr. Kendig was a strong man, strong in the consciousness of well spent years, strong to plan and perform, and strong in his credit and good name. His has been a pure, honorable and useful life, actuated by no selfish motives, prompted by patriotism and guided by truth and justice." (Renovo Evening News, Jan. 10.)
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. The children's Christmas eve celebration was introduced by a service in the chapel. The prophecies of the Lord's coming were read, following which Bishop Pendleton made a short address, dwelling particularly on the need of a herald of the Lord's coming.
The company later repaired to the gymnasium where, in addition to the usual scene of the stable in Bethlehem, beautiful colored magic lantern pictures, illustrative of the Lord's birth and life, were presented. Mr. Synnestvedt, in describing the scenes, read appropriate passages from the Word, and the sphere of affection was heightened by the singing of suitable songs by the children. Fruit and candy were distributed to the little songsters, and all went home laden heart and hand with Christmas greetings. On Christmas day communion was held in the chapel.
On New Year's Eve the young people danced until ten o'clock. Refreshments were distributed. and an hour was passed in pleasant conversation. A service was then conducted by Bishop Pendleton. The Bishop said that we were inclined at such times as this to review our past work. In this analysis we should not dwell upon externals but should discover whether the Lord was in our work. His presence assured real progress and finally salvation. Mr. Synnestvedt spoke of conjugial love as requisite to spiritual advancement. Mr. Doering gave us an interesting account of the formation of the calendar. At twelve o'clock all knelt and repeated the Lord's prayer. So was the New Year begun.
In chronicling the social events of the holidays a Titan memory and much paper is required. Neither being available, let it suffice to say that a rousing meeting of the boys was held, attended also by Bishop Pendleton and the professors, at which meeting the subject of brotherly love was discussed with much spirit.
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A social was held was held at Cairnwood characterized by the usual rain and good time.
Mrs. R. E. Caldwell, Jr., of Pittsburg, is at her parental home recovering from a long illness. Dr. Cooper, who, for some time, has been unable to attend to his many patients here, is at his post once more. "Englehame." formerly the home of the late Mrs. George R. Starkey, is now occupied by Miss Maria C. Hogan. In conclusion, the last school social must be mentioned, but only mentioned, for it was a spook party at which gibberish was spoken, and the reporter finds difficulty in reading his notes. R. W. C.
PHILADELPHIA, PA. The Advent church celebrated Christmas with special services on Christmas Day, at the close of which the usual Christmas offering for the pastor was made. The Young Folks' Club presented the pastor, Rev. J. E. Rosenquist, with a suitable token of their appreciation and love. On Wednesday, December 28th, the Sunday School celebration was held in the parlor of Mr. and Mrs. Roethner. The usual Christmas representation was exhibited, and after the services, which consisted in reading from the Word, addresses by the pastor and singing, the children received a beautiful box of candy and an orange each, for which the Ladies' Aid Society had provided. On the day following the Pastor went to Meriden, Conn., where he had been called to baptise an adult friend of the Church. After the baptismal act had been concluded the Holy Supper was administered to several members of the family.
On New Year's Day, after the regular Sunday services, at which a short address took the place of the usual sermon, the Holy Supper was administered to twenty-one communicants.
On Sunday, January 8th, the Advent church held its annual meeting after the conclusion of the regular services. The treasurer reported a small balance on hand, and said that the past year had been the most prosperous in the annals of the Advent church. The pastor in his annual address, as well as in the sermon, called the attention of the members of the Society to the necessity of every one doing his whole duty to the Church, both on the internal and the external plane.
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MIDDLEPORT, O. Christmas was celebrated for the children by a service and tree on Saturday, the 24th. The offering was devoted to our Building Fund. After the worship the tree was lighted and we all joined hands and circled about it singing "Gather Around the Christmas Tree." Then nuts and candy were taken from its branches and oranges from about its roots--or where its roots ought to have been--for the children. We were surprised in counting up all our children to find that we had to provide for twenty-nine. The ladies of the Society have made a beautiful robe for the minister, which was first worn at the Christmas services. The Holy Supper was administered after the morning service on Christmas.
The Society held an "annual" meeting Sunday evening, January 1st, the first for about eleven years. The election resulted in the choice of three young men on the board of four trustees. The first steps were taken toward bringing our Constitution into harmony with the requirements of the General Church, that we may be admitted as a particular church to that body. The reports made showed activity and progress. The mid-week classes here and in the country have been described before in these columns. Two more applications for membership in this Society were reported, making seven applications of persons living from eight to fifty miles away. We are at least enlarging our borders. G.
GLENVIEW, ILL. The Absence of reports from this center has not been due to any dearth of social occasions. The fact is that we have enjoyed several very pleasant gatherings, and it is only our modesty that forbids us to burden the readers of the Life with lengthy descriptions of these affairs.
Christmas was celebrated according to our usual custom with a service especially adapted for children. The delightful scene presented by the little ones giving and receiving gifts, by their describing in prose and song the most impressive events of the Lord's birth, and by their beaming, interested faces throughout, served to unite all into the one great family which we really constitute, and to remind us that it is this young enthusiastic generation on which the hope of the Church rests.
The New Year was ushered in at a very enjoyable dance social.
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During the evening we remembered all the Church centers by toasts and short speeches, dwelling on their most notable characteristics. On New Year's Day the Holy Supper was administered to somewhat over thirty communicants.
In December a new feature of our social life was inaugurated in the monthly "stein" parties or men's meetings. The two gatherings, which have thus far been held, have brought out some very desirable enthusiasm for the uses and support of the Church, and all look forward with pleasure to the next meeting.
In spite of considerable sickness the school has had a very successful fall term, and now Miss Gilmore has again taken up the work, as we hope, with fuller benches.
A new dwelling now graces the southwest corner of the Park, and Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Nelson and family are now "at home" in its spacious and attractive parlor. Doubtless before long we will be invited to its dedication. L. E. G.
BERLIN, ONT. On Christmas day, services commemorating the birth of the Lord were held in the morning. In the evening of the same day the School Festival took place in the hall of worship, which was decorated with festoons of evergreen. As the children entered the hall they placed offerings on a table before the altar. Offerings were also brought by others. The worship consisted of the reading of short lessons from the Word, each followed by an anthem or a hymn. After the worship there were four representations from the Word: 1. The three men appearing to Abraham. 2. The call of Samuel; 3. The angel appearing to the shepherds: 4. The wise men following the star. These representations, to the production of which the young people had devoted much study and work, were excellently given, and were a source of great delight to both children and adults. Afterwards the Christmas tree was lit up, and gifts were distributed to the children; the teachers, also, were the recipients of presents from the school.
On New Year's Eve a social was held to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman, and at the same time to see in the new year. After some time spent in dancing and other social pleasures, wine and cake were served, and toasts, relative to conjugial level were proposed and responded to.
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Several stirring speeches were made. When the midnight hour arrived, a toast was proposed to "The growth of the Church with each and all during the coming year," and responded to by the singing of "Happy New Year to All," "Dear Friends, We're All Arising," and other songs. There were with us at this gathering friends from Toronto, Guelph, Randolph, Milverton, Clinton, and Calgary.
On New Year's Day services appropriate to the day were held.
We have the pleasure of having with us for a few months Mr. Henry Scott, Mr. William Ferdinand, and Mrs. Charles Stephan, all of Calgary, in the Canadian Northwest, where the Rev. Mr. Bowers visited last summer.
FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES. Five lantern slide views of the SWEDENBORG HOUSE at St. Louis have been made, and are offered at a small charge, by the Rev. I. W. Stockwell, of Chicago, for the use of New Church Societies.
THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, of the General Convention reports an attendance of ten students, one or two of whom are not yet determined as to whether or not they will enter the ministry. Eight of them are in their first year.
On December 8th the members of the Boston Society tendered a reception to their pastor, Rev. James Reed, on the occasion of his seventieth birthday, when he was presented with a number of beautifully bound books. A congratulatory resolution was also adopted by the ministers of the Massachusetts Association.
The Rev. Clyde W. Bromell has resigned from the BUFFALO Society to become pastor of the Society at Roxbury.
The Rev. S. C. Eby has resigned from the pastorate of the ST. LOUIS Society. He has decided to give up all preaching for a while, but the Society is anxious to secure his services to preach for them every alternate Sunday.
The Rev. T. R. Hunter has resigned the pastorate of the TOLEDO, O., Society, and is now serving as missionary of the Ohio Association, and pastor of the Indianapolis Society.
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SOUTH AMERICA. The Rev. S. S. Seward writes to the Messenger for January 4th, asking for donations of Books of Worship, and Hosannas which may be no longer in use. He has received a call for about fifty of each for the use of the Rev. G. G. Daniel, a colored minister, formerly of Long Island, where he became interested in the Doctrines, and now operating in the missionary field in BRITISH GUINEA. Formerly working under the auspices of the African M. E. Church, he is now acting on independent lines.
AUSTRALIA. Mr. Richard Morse, after a tour around the world, extending over six months, during which he visited a great number of New Church Societies, including the Societies of the General Church in Bryn Athyn (where he was present at the General Assembly), and in London, returned to his home in SYDNEY on November 5th. A few days later the Society held a social meeting in his honor, at which he gave an account of his experiences, speaking at some length on the different New Church places visited. Mr. Morse also described his experiences to a meeting of the Society at ADELAIDE, which he visited en route to his home.
Title Unspecified 1905
Announcements.
MARCH, 1905. No. 3.
WORD. Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH 1905
II.
DOCTRINE FROM THE LETTER.
The writings are a Divine Revelation. They are given by inspiration from the mouth of the Lord alone (De Verbo 13). They surpass all the revelations that have been given hitherto since the creation of the world, (Inv. 44). They are the genuine truth of the Word, the internal sense, the spiritual sense. They are the Word of God in the highest, purest, most genuine form in which it can be given to men. The Writings are therefore our supreme authority in all matters of faith or of doctrine.
The Word in the letter is equally Divine with the Writings, but it is Divine Truth in its more ultimate forms where it is expressed according to appearances. And there are fallacies and even seeming falsities in the letter of the Word. To make the letter of the Word our only Divine oracle, to go there for the authoritative statement of Divine Truth and to place the Writings under the authority of the letter, would be to give sensual and scientific truth authority over rational truth. This is the way to darkness and confusion. The higher must govern the lower and not the reverse. Truth is of several planes or degrees. When the higher forms of truth are looked at in the light of lower forms they flatly contradict each other and the higher ones are denied. But when one is in the light of the higher truths, then lower forms of truth but serve to confirm the higher.
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To illustrate:
The Letter says that God is angry, that Be creates evil as well as good, that there is no evil but what He has done. The Writings teach that there is no anger in Him and it is impossible for Him to do evil. Looked at from the letter, these statements cannot be reconciled; but from the genuine truth it is seen that the mercy of God can appear only as anger to those who are in evil; and that the universal providence of the Lord, which prevents an evil deed unless good can be brought out of it, can be stated in no other way to children and the simple than as stated in the literal sense. There can be no clearness of vision and no state of confirmation and establishment in the New Church until the Writings are accepted as the Word of God in more internal form and are given absolute authority over the letter of the Word. Here are the genuine truths, which are the Word, plainly stated by the Lord Himself through His servant. These are the truths that from the beginning have made the letter of the Word be the Word. These truths have hall absolute authority in the letter from the first, and now that the Lord has drawn them out of the letter and given them to the Church they must continue to have the same authority. No middle ground is long tenable: where they have not such authority they will soon be denied.
But there are many passages in the Writings themselves which have been thought to teach differently. We are taught that "Doctrine is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word and to be confirmed by it. The reason is that the Lord is present with man and enlightens him and teaches him the truths of the Church there and nowhere else." (S. S. 53.)
"It is most important, therefore, for a person to study the Word in the sense of the letter: from that alone is doctrine given." (S. S. 56.)
"With these the first thing is to gather for themselves doctrine from the literal sense of the Word. Thus they light a candle for their further progress." (S. S. 59)
What can be the meaning of these statements? Can it mean that we are not to stud the Writings for the sake of understanding the Word? Are we still to go to the letter of the Word alone and work out our own doctrines from it?
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Are we to disregard all that the Lord Himself has given in the Writings and pass it by as though it had not been revealed?
No one can deny that the Writings from beginning to end are doctrine. We believe them to be the Lord's own doctrine of His Word. Can there be any reason for doing over again for ourselves what He has done? No one who believes that the Writings are a Divine Revelation could answer "yes" to any of these questions.
If the Lord has given the doctrine of the Word, drawing it from the letter and confirming it thereby, it is scarcely necessary for us to do that work over again. If He has given the genuine truth of the Word, which is the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, we are to seek it in the books where He has given it and not in any other book. Having found any doctrine in the Writings, one may examine it and confirm it as much as he wishes by the letter of the Word. But to go to the letter to find different doctrine or to find new doctrine not given in the Writings, would be in itself the strongest possible denial of the Divinity of the Writings.
1. In order to understand why the injunction is given to go to the letter of the Word and seek doctrine there, it is necessary, first, to recall the nature of the audience addressed; for Divine Revelation always takes its outward form from those to whom it is given. Those who were addressed believed in the Divinity of the Word; they did not believe in the Divinity of what Swedenborg wrote. What he said could, as yet, have no Divine authority with them. This is still true and will always be true of those not yet in the Church. To such it is said, "Go to the Word in the letter, which you accept as Divine. Seek there the genuine doctrine of the Word. Put no faith in councils or the teachings of a corrupt church. And you will find there plainly stated in the letter all the doctrines vital to salvation. These are the same truths which are taught here by the Lord Himself who prepared me and filled me with His spirit to teach these doctrines from His Word."
2. It is taught in the Writings that the Word has an internal or spiritual sense concealed within the literal sense: that the two senses correspond to each other. And many correspondences are given. He who accepts this and does not yet realize that the Writings contain the fulness of Divine Wisdom, and who is yet in self-intelligence, thinks that all he has to do to get the spiritual sense of the Word is to read it according to correspondences.
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To such it is said, "No one comes into the spiritual sense of the Word by means of correspondences, unless he is first in genuine truths from doctrine. If man is not previously in genuine truths he may falsify the Word by some correspondences known to him, for he may join them together and explain them to confirm what is clinging fast in his mind from some principle that he has adopted. Besides the spiritual sense is not given to any one except by the Lord alone; and it is guarded by Him as Heaven is guarded, for Heaven is in it. It is most important therefore for a person to study the Word in the sense of the letter; from that alone is doctrine given. (S. S. 56.)
The injunction has often been disregarded in the New Church. Many individuals and even theological schools have given more attention to correspondences than to the study of doctrine, and this for the sole purpose of doing what is here forbidden, namely, getting the spiritual sense of the word by correspondences instead of getting it from the Heavenly Doctrine where the Lord has revealed it and where alone it can be found.
When the Word in the letter is studied it is to be studied in the letter. Passage is to be compared with passage. The genuine doctrine of the letter is to be learned. This must be done to some extent by every one who teaches the Word. In such study the spiritual sense is to be let alone. It is not to be gained by putting together correspondences. But when one gets the true doctrine of the letter by study of the letter, if at the same time he is in the light of the Heavenly Doctrine and knows a few correspondences, he may see the spiritual sense shining out of the letter and beautifully confirmed thereby.
3. The Word is in its fulness, its holiness and its power in the sense of the letter of the Word. The letter is the basis and containant of the genuine truths of the internal sense. But who is to draw this genuine truth out of the letter and teach it as doctrine?
"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." (De Verbo, 21.)
Who has been wholly in the doctrine of Divine Truth and in illustration from the Lord but His chosen servant whom He filled With His Spirit to open and teach the Word from Him? Can any man of the Church at this (lay, while the darkness of night is thick all about us and we have caught but a few rays of the rising sun, call any one of this generation claim to be wholly in the doctrine of Divine Truth?
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No others can gain the spiritual sense from the sense of the letter.
4. Divine Revelation always takes its external form from the people to whom it is given, but its truths are of universal application. This is as true of the Writings as of the Word in the letter. It is true of this statement that the Word is to be studied in the letter and by the light of doctrine gained from its letter. The Word given to the Church of the New Jerusalem to be the source of all her light is the Heavenly Doctrine revealed in the Writings. The Church cannot gain this Doctrine and enter into its light from isolated statements, but only from systematic and thorough study of the whole body of Revelation given to her. The very fact that it is Divine Revelation and must be so stated as to teach at the same time those in the light of the Celestial Heaven and those in the light of this world, together with those in all intermediate planes of intelligence, makes it impossible that its truths should be so stated as to yield all their light to the casual reader.
The Writings contain the same light and all the light that is contained in the letter of the Word. He who believes they are Divine and yet doubts this, is capable of believing that there is more wisdom in a man's memory than in his rational or internal mind. For the relation of the Writings to the letter of the Word is the same as that of man's rational to his memory. This study of all the various statements of the Writings concerning the same truth, and in the light of related truths, so that the Church may see her doctrines from all sides and on various planes,--this study has hardly been begun.
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It is only as it is done that the Church will enter into the light of the Writings and into life according to them. By this study of the plain literal statements of the Writings and by drawing the doctrine of the Church from them and confirming it thereby, the Church will, throughout endless ages, enter more interiorly into the doctrine of the Writings. But should any members of the Church say. "We shall find the internal sense of the Writings by reading them according to correspondences," the perversion of the truth would be much greater than that read into the Old and New Testaments by many schools of mystics in the early centuries of the Christian Church. No Church can rise above the truth plainly expressed in the letter of the Revelation made to that Church. The distinctive doctrines of the Christian Church are contained in the Old Testament, but they could never be seen there by any man except from the light of the New Testament.
The Rational Truth of the Writings is contained in both Testaments, but could never be seen there until revealed by the Lord, and cannot be seen there now by any study of those Testaments in their own light, but only when read in the light of the Writings. The man of the primitive Christian Church derived all the light of his doctrine from the New Testament, none of it from the Old. But when he read the Old in the light of the Gospel he saw there the same truths which he had first seen from the New Testament. Thus he had a double sight of truth and was confirmed in it.
The man of the New Church must see the distinctive doctrines of this Church,--those that belong to the Rational,--in the Revelation given for this Church. Rational and spiritual doctrine must be first drawn from the letter of the Writings and confirmed thereby. Then, when the Old and New Testaments are read in the light of the Writings, the same truths may be seen in them, shining out with beautifully variegated lights and further confirmations.
SUMMARY.
Man can study the Word only in the letter. Any other study of the Word is but a pursuit of one's own fancies and not the study of the Word at all. The spiritual sense is given by a kind of revelation from the Lord alone while man reads the sense of the letter, and it is given to the degree that man is in genuine truth of doctrine.
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But the Word is now given to man in three forms which simulate discrete degrees. (See D. L. W. 256)
The Church which had only the Old Testament could not possibly get any but sensual truth from it. The Church which had also the New Testament could see beneath or within the letter of the Old the same truths that are plainly revealed in the New. The Church which has also the Writings may see within the letter of both Testaments all the truth which she gains from the letter of the Writings. The letter of the Word from which we are to derive our Doctrine is not the letter of the Old and New Testaments, but the letter of the Writings.
Yet this by no means disregards the Old and New Testaments, for every doctrine of the Writings is drawn from them, confirmed by them and rests upon them as its solid rock foundation. Moreover, the Church will read and study the Word of the Old Testaments with ever-increasing delight and profit as she enters into the truths of the Writings, seeing there in fulness, holiness and power what she first learns as doctrine from the Writings.
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DIVINE POWER OF THE WORD. Rev. W. F. PENDLETON 1905
A SERMON
"And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the multitudes were astonished at His Doctrine; for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."-(Matt. vii. 28, 29.)
The multitudes were astonished at the doctrine which the Lord taught in the Sermon on the Mount, and at the power of His words. They did not know that He was Divine, and that His kingdom was not to be of this world. Even the disciples were as yet ignorant of these two fundamental truths. But they saw a wonderful power manifested in Him; for He spoke to them as never man spoke, and performed miracles before their eyes never yet performed by any man.
It is not any wonder that they should he astonished; for He who spoke, even though they knew it not, was the God of Heaven and earth, the Creator of the universe, who had come to be the Savior of the world, had come to save men from eternal death. Is it a wonder that they should be astonished, even in their dense ignorance? that they should feel a power in His words such as was never felt before in the presence of any man, He spoke with kingly power and authority; He did not speak as the scribes.
The Lord had been speaking to them of His spiritual kingdom which He came to establish among men; and He closed His discourse with these words:
Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock; and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not; for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand; and the rain descended, and the floods came and the winds blew, and beat upon that house: and it fell; and great was the fall of it."
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Then follow the words, chosen for consideration today: "And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the multitudes were astonished at His doctrine; for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes."
In the closing words, which we have just read,--the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount,--the whole Doctrine of the Lord's discourse to His disciples is presented in a sum. What a man hears he must do; must not only hold it in his thought as a principle of faith, but it must be obeyed. When this is done there will be established in him the trinity of charity, faith, and works. But in the process of this establishment there will be temptations, or the judgment by which good is separated from evil and truth from falsity; the internal will be opened, and man, taken out of the society of evil spirits, will enter into consociation with the good in the other world; and the Church is established on earth with its foundation upon the rock of Divine Truth.
The Divine Truth, signified by the rock, is made the faith of the Church, which is the faith of charity, going forth into the life of uses. Upon this rock, the faith of charity, the Church is built--the same faith of which the Lord spoke, when Peter had confessed that He was the Son of the living God, "Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Mat. xvi. 18.)
Faith is not a foundation by itself, for such a faith is as a house built upon the sand, which falls when the storm of temptation comes; but it is the faith of charity, the faith which is the form of charity, or charity in its own form, a charity which is spiritual, which is the love of the good of the Church, a love of the use of the Church for its own sake, uninfluenced by the sphere of the world, and which is exercised without or the fear of worldly consequences.
It is seeing this spiritual good, which the Divine Truth reveals, that causes astonishment. The multitudes were astonished at His doctrine: for He spoke as never man spake, and revealed that which truth from a human origin could never reveal.
The word "astonish" signifies to be greatly surprised; to be filled with wonder; to be amazed, as at something new and unexpected, something never seen or heard of before, so as to cause regard to worldly reward even a suspension of the breath, something which fills the mind with silent wonderment and awe; and the Hebrew word which is translated in the Old Testament by the English word "astonish," signifies to become silent, to be struck dumb, which is the effect of great astonishment.
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It is astonishment like that of Daniel when he saw in vision the angel Gabriel, who came and stood by him and told him things to come. (Dan viii. 27) It is astonishment like that of Joshua when he saw the captain of the Lord's Hosts standing over against him, with a drawn sword in his hand. (Joshua v. 13.) Or that of John, when he heard a voice behind him, and turned and saw the Son of Man walking in the midst of seven golden candlesticks. (Rev. i. 11, 12, 13.) Or that spoken of in the Gospels, when those who stood around saw the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue brought to life by the touch of the Lord's hand: "they were astonished with great astonishment. (Mark. v. 42.) Or, as is said of the multitude, when the man who had been deaf, and had an impediment in his speech, was restored by a similar touch: "they were beyond measure astonished" (Mark vii. 37) Or, in what the people said, when in Capernaum, a city of Galilee, they heard the Lord on the Sabbath day: "they were astonished at His Doctrine for His word was with power." (Luke iv. 32.)
In these cases, and in others like them, those who beheld were astonished at the things seen and heard things never seen or heard before. And we may readily conceive the astonishment of the Revelator for the New Church, when the awe-inspiring scenes of the spiritual world were opened to his view; things so new and so wonderful, such as no one had ever imagined before or of the astonishment of man when he wakes in the spiritual world after death and sees the same wonderful things; and we know full well, from individual experience, of the wonder and amazement excited in the man of the New Church, when he first beholds the same wonders of the spiritual world, as revealed in the Writings of the New Church; and who then says to himself, "These things have been in the world over a hundred years and I knew it not; I have not seen them recorded in any human history, and no man has ever told me of them before; I am beyond measure astonished."
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The astonishment is at something new, unheard of, never imagined or dreamed of; and before this it could not have been thought that such things art in existence; but now,--here they are, here they exist, as living realities before the very eyes.
Wonder is excited at things natural which have never been seen before, and wonder and amazement on seeing the objective things of the spiritual world; but the wonderment is greater, and the astonishment more profound, when spiritual truth is revealed to the understanding and perception of man; for in such truth the Divine Majesty of the Lord is seen, as it call never be seen in things natural and objective. Those who are young in years or young in state, may not have yet felt this wonder and astonishment in its full measure and glory; if not, there is something still to come, something still to be revealed--not only wonder at the truth itself but astonishment and amazement at the majesty and power that is in the truth.
There is not only astonishment at good: but astonishment at evil, the nature and enormity of which has never been seen or imagined before. This is what is represented and signified in the following passages. "Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people hath changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, saith the Lord." (Jer. ii. 11, 12.) "And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment. Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, shall be made a desolation, and an astonishment." (Jer. xxv. 11, 18.) "Every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues." (Jer. 1, 13.) "How is Sheshach taken? and how is the praise of the whole earth surprised? how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations." (Jer. ii. 41.) And in the Apocalypse we are told, that when the seventh seal was opened, "there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" (viii. 1); by which words is signified the astonishment of the angels of the spiritual kingdom of the Lord, when the horrible state of those who are in faith alone was revealed (A. R. 389), the nature of which had been until now unknown to them. And we are told in a Memorable Relation, that on one occasion, when certain enormous falsities were uttered by spirits, the angels were silent for some time before they speak in reply, so great was their astonishment.
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The regenerating man passes from time to time through this two-fold astonishment,--astonishment at new truth revealed, and astonishment at the falsity of evil laid open before him.
The astonishment of the multitudes at the words of the Lord in the Sermon on the Mount is astonishment when the truth is seen and perceived; or, rather. at the power that is in the truth, for "His word was with power," and "He spoke as one having power;" for the word translated authority, means also power. "He spoke as one having power."
The mind is filled with wonder at the power which is in the truth,--the power which is in the truth is from the good that is in it. The cause of the astonishment therefore is at the good which is in the truth, or at the evil that is in the falsity.
An instance is given us in the fact that when the regenerating man first perceives that there is another good besides natural good, he is astonished. He has never seen or known of spiritual good; and seeing it so different from natural good, he is filled with wonder and amazement. (A. C. 8462). This is represented by the astonishment of the Sons of Israel when they saw the manna, a food which rained down from heaven: they had only known of the food which comes from the ground.
We are told that astonishment is a sudden and unexpected change of the state of the thoughts, arising from the presence of the Lord in His truth. In this change of state a new state begins; and hence we read that when the Lord had finished His discourse, the multitudes were astonished at His doctrine: and then He came down from the mountain, and began His work of healing the sick, by which is signified the presence of the Lord in the natural, performing the work for which He came,--to regenerate man. Astonishment is the beginning of regeneration.
Let us now proceed with a consideration of the words of the text. The Lord spoke as one having authority, or kingly power, and not as the scribes. Who were the scribes? How did they speak?
The word "scribe" in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, signifies one who writes. A scribe in ancient times was a writer by profession.
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He acted as a secretary for kings or other officials, or wrote letters for the people. Among the Jews the scribes made copies of the law, and they finally became, as a class, the interpreters of the law, expounding its meaning to the people. But as they were idolaters of the letter, they finally perverted its spirit by false interpretations; giving rise to the traditions of the Jews, by which the Word of God was made of none effect. The traditions had more force than the law itself.
The Lord spoke from the Word, and what He said had power--power to disperse the falsities of evil, power to redeem and save. The scribes spoke from their traditions, or from their own intelligence; and hence their word had no power to astonish or change the state of man, to elevate and save. The Lord spoke as one having power, but the scribes spoke as having no power. All power is in the truth of the Word, but no power in the falsity of human intelligence. By the scribes are signified therefore those who teach from the pride and conceit of human intelligence, and not from the Word, or from the Lord in His Word.
The scribe in a good sense is he who teaches from the Lord in His Word, and not from the pride of human intelligence, or from the vainglory of fame and reputation in the world. Such a scribe, speaking from the Lord, will also speak with power; but it is the Lord who then really speaks; the truth is His, and the power is His. Let it be remembered, however, that he speaks as a scribe and not as a Revelator, a distinction that is important. Still he speaks with power, and by the work of such scribes the Church is built.
The power of the Lord is seen even in nature, in the activities of the sun and moon and in the multitude of stars,--all of which are suns environed by systems of earths. His power is seen in the ethers and in the winds, in the waters, in the floods and in the streams. in the growth and development of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, in all the activities of man on earth, in the establishment and control of governments and kingdoms, in the order and organization of human society, and in the power of the natural mind and thought of man, in the control it exercises over the matter and forces of nature. All this power is the Lord's power, and it excites wonder in the mind; but it is as nothing when compared with the spiritual power of the Lord, the power that is in His truth.
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Let us consider far a moment the power that is exercised to bring about the regeneration and salvation of a single man. In order that one man may be saved, not only must the universe be created with its suns and systems, with its ethers and earths, with its kingdoms of nature, with its human society and government, and all held in order that man may be in natural freedom; but in addition to all this, and far more than all, the Last Judgment must be performed; the imaginary heavens composed of myriads of evil spirits, must be broken up; hell must be brought under subjection, and the heavens restored to their integrity; the Divine Truth must he revealed, and a Church established on the earth: the individual man must be taught the truth of revelation, and he must understand the truth, and have power imparted to him to live according to it; in the truth which he knows and understands Divine Omnipotence must be present to keep the whole of hell away from him, that he may not be submerged and destroyed, in order to remove from him the society of evil spirits in which he is, to introduce him among the good, and hold him there forever, in spite of the mighty forces of evil that are arrayed to prevent it.
Human language fails in the effort to describe such power: the natural thought of man is inadequate to grasp it. But the thought of man, elevated into spiritual light, may in a finite measure perceive it, and when it is perceived there is astonishment. In his astonishment he is inmostly moved, his affection is stirred, humility is inspired, and a longing for regeneration; he prays that this wonderful power may, he exercised for his salvation; with this is the beginning of a new state. Therefore, astonishment at the spiritual power of the Lord, power over heaven and over hell, and over the world, power to remove evil spirits, power against the falsity of evil,--astonishment at these things is the beginning of regeneration, the beginning of a true human life.
We have heard much said of the Divine Authority of the Writings, and it has become the chief article of our faith, the fundamental principle of our belief and practice; and rightly so, because their Divine Authority is their Divine Power,--their Divine Power to regenerate and save,--and because a perception of the Divine Power in them is the beginning of the Church.
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And it does not begin before; it may be preparing to begin, but it does not actually begin until the Omnipotence of the Lord in heaven and on earth is seen to be present in them. Omnipotence to establish the Church and to regenerate and save, which Omnipotence alone can effect.
It must be seen and acknowledged that in the Writings the Lord speaks as one having authority, and not as the scribes. No scribe speaks in them, they are not the product of human intelligence of human learning. The Lord Himself speaks in them; they are His Sermon on the Mount, they are the Divine Discourse which He speaks from the Mountain of His Divine Love to His disciples in the New Church; which He speaks to all men, who are willing to know Him and follow Him in the life of faith and charity, in the activities of spiritual work and use.
It is rightly, then, the chief article of our faith, that the Lord God of heaven and earth, our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ, is present in the Revelation He has made in His Second Coming, speaking there with Divine Authority to teach, and with Divine Power to save; speaking to every man who reads and hears, and opens his mind and hart to receive. We rightly hold, when we hold that the Lord is present in His Church to establish and perpetuate it, when He is seen to be present in the Writings with all His Divine Power, when He is seen to be in them in His Glorified Human as the one only God, when He is seen in them as the Word of God, speaking in them from His throne in heaven as the Ruler of the Universe, the Judge of all flesh, our Father and our Creator, King of Kings and Lord of Lords; speaking as one who has Divine Authority and Divine Power, and not as the self-instructed and self-intelligent scribes of a consummated Church.
If the Lord is not present in the Heavenly Doctrines of His New Jerusalem, in the Books of the New Church which we call the Writings; if they are not the Lord Himself speaking with Authority and not as the scribes, wherein is their power to save? Who is it that is building this New Church that is to endure through all the ages? Who is it that hath come a second time into the world? Where is the scribe who would dare to speak as those Writings speak?
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Men call Emanuel Swedenborg a madman because they do not see the Divine Power in what he has written, because they look upon him as a scribe like the scribes of the world: and he would be a madman, and the epithet would he just, if he wrote as a scribe, with the claims of a self-instructed scribe. No angel wished, nor spirit dared, to teach him any truth or any doctrine contained in his Writings, he was taught by the Lord alone while he read the Word; and should that man, who filled the holy office to which he was called, dare what no spirit dared? Would he dare to speak as a human scribe? Does he dare to set himself above us, and make himself the greatest of all the scribes because of his privilege of spiritual sight, and write from himself concerning the things of the spiritual world, and reveal from himself the spiritual sense of the Word, the Arcana of heaven, the eternal verities of God? He does not dare, he makes no such claim, he is not a self-convicted madman, an insane enthusiast, his whole career is a denial of the charge; the Lord speaks through him, speaks words of Divine Wisdom to His Church, speaks with Divine Power to build the New Jerusalem, with Divine Power to redeem and save every man who reads and hears and harkens to His Word: and the true disciple is astonished at His Doctrine.
The disciple is astonished,--astonished at the Divine Power revealed in the truth, astonished at the evil of the consummated Church revealed by the truth; and in this two-fold astonishment the Church begins, and the New Jerusalem is established on the earth to be the crown of all the Churches that have hitherto been in the world, and to endure forever. Amen.
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MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH. C. TH. ODHNER 1905
POSEIDON--NEPTUNE.
Among the sea-gods of the ancients there was a trine of divinities who succeeded one another as monarchs of the briny deep, viz.: Pantus, Oceanos, and Poseidon. PONTUS, whose name signifies "the deep," (compare fundus, bottom, and profundus, deep), is said to have been an elder brother of Ouranos, and seems to represent the first state of the Celestial Church, which was a state relatively simple and natural. He was succeeded by OCEANOS, the first-born son of Ouranos, who was one of the most amiable of the Titans, and who, in the first great world-war, sided with Zeus and the Olympian gods against Chronos and his "saturnine" crew. As the first-born of the Titans he represents the first posterity of the Moist Ancient Church in its decline, who were in a state still relatively good and honest. And it may be that he represented also those in the Most Ancient Church who remained in a state of simple good and who afterwards united with the new Ancient Church. However this may be, Oceanos seems to have cheerfully yielded the trident to his nephew, Poseidon, with whom afterwards his personality merges into one.
In POSEIDON we find again a sea-god as the first-born of his generation, a fact which is surely significant, indicating that in the Ancient Church, as in every general dispensation or individual regeneration, the first state was one of simplicity, a faith formed from the appearances of spiritual truth in the natural sense of the Word. But in order to appreciate this, it is necessary to understand the significance of the Sea, of which Poseidon, or Neptune as the Romans called him, was the presiding genius.
As Zeus, the god of the highest atmospheres, represented celestial truth, so Poseidon represents truth of the spiritual-natural degree, that is, spiritual truth accommodated to the natural apprehension of man. All collections of water, whether in the form of fountains, rivers, or lakes, correspond to the collections of truth in the natural mind of man, or of the Church in general.
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Thus fountains and wells correspond to the inmost perceptions of truth in the natural mind; rivers, to the leading principles or doctrines: of truth; and lakes,--especially the greatest of all lakes, the universal ocean,--correspond to the complex or greatest collection of all truth, which is the all-receiving, all-embracing Word of God as it exists in the natural world.
Waters signify truths, especially natural truths, which are cognitions from the Word. (A. R. 50)
The Sea signifies the generals of truth, such as is the truth in the ultimates of heaven, and with man in the natural man, which is called scientific truth; because in the Sea there is a gathering together of waters, and by waters are signified truths. (A. E. 275)
The Seas signify the cognitions and knowledges which are in the ultimates of the Church, in special the cognitions of truth and good, such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word. (A. E. 518.)
The Sea signifies the Divine Truth in ultimates, thus the Word in the letter. (A. E. 876.)
When, with these teachings in mind, we stand on the shore of the limitless ocean, we are impressed anew with reverential awe at the majesty, the all-embracing infinity, the unmeasured profundity, the irresistible force of that Word of God, of which the ocean is the mighty symbol. When reading the Word we find ourselves in the presence of the Infinite and Eternal-arcana within arcana, depth beneath depth; we cannot fathom the fulness of its meaning, but everywhere we perceive the voice of our Maker like the gentle murmur of the waves or the breaking of mighty billows. "The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: The God of Glory thundereth; the Lord is upon many waters. (Ps. 29:3.)
As we are able to see only the surface of the ocean, so, in this world, we necessarily call grasp for the most part only the surface-meaning of the Divine Word, that is, its literal sense. But as the surface of the sea is broken by the waves which reveal its nearest depths, so our understanding of the sense of the dead letter is vivified by the genuine truths which continually appear even in the natural sense. On the other hand, as the sea lends itself to destructive storms as well as to useful navigation, so the fallacious appearances in the literal understanding of the Word, when moved by the influx of evil affections may easily lead to false reasonings, doubts and spiritual controversies, in which faith will perish unless its doctrinal ships be built of the stout, safe beams of spiritual rational truths.
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"The tumult of the sea and of the waves," (Ps. 65:7), signifies the disputings and ratiocinations of those who are beneath the heavens, and who are natural and sensuous." (A. E. 706.)
To the Ancients these correspondences were well-known, and therefore they pictured to themselves the Divine Truth in the natural sense of their Word, as Jehovah sitting upon the Sea; or as David sang: "Thy way is in the Sea, and Thy path in many waters," (Ps. 77:19). And later on they named this conception of God, Poseidon, or Neptune, whom finally they worshipped as a distinct divinity, the great God of the waters.
Like Zeus, Poseidon is represented as strong and majestic of aspect, wearing a crown of sea-weeds, holding in his hand the trident or three-pronged sceptre. Seated beside his wife, Amphitrite, in a chariot made of glistening sea-shells, he is drawn over the waters by fiery steeds, and in his wake follows a host of trumpeting Tritons and Nereids, graceful sea-nymphs, gambling dolphins and other creatures of the sea.
The trident, being a sceptre, signifies the power of Divine Truth, but being the sceptre of Poseidon, and having three prongs, it signifies the power of Divine Truth in the ultimates of the Word, in which the three degrees of truth, celestial, spiritual, and natural, are together simultaneously, each powerful, each rational and "pointed." He who runs may read the symbol.
As the eagle with Zeus, and the peacock with Hera, so the horse is always and especially associated with Poseidon, and he himself even bore the surname of "Horse-Poseidon." He is said to have created the first horse by striking the ground with the trident, in the same manner as he produced the fountain on the acropolis of Athens. The winged steed, PEGASUS, was also produced by him. The modern interpreters confess that "it is difficult to give a reason for this connection of Neptune with the horse," especially in view of the well-known aversion of sailors to the use of this animal; various reasons are given, as that the horse was first introduced on board a ship into Greece, or that the horse is on land what a ship is at sea.
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But the Writings of the New Church explain that the signification of a horse, as the Intellectual, was derived from the Ancient Church to the wise men round about, and also to Greece. Hence it was that when they described the god of the sea they gave horses to him, because the Sea signifies sciences in general. And when they described the birth of the sciences from the Intellectual, they pictured a flying Horse which with his hoof broke open a fountain, where were seated the virgins who are the sciences, [the Muses]. Nor was anything else signified by the Trojan horse than an artifice of their understanding for the destruction of nails. Even at this day, indeed, when the Intellectual is described, it is a common custom, derived from these ancients, to describe it by a flying horse or Pegasus, and learning by a fountain; but hardly anyone knows that a Horse in the mystic sense signifies the understanding, and a fountain, truth; still less that the gentiles derived these significations from the Ancient Church. (A. C. 2762.)
As Poseidon, therefore, represents the Divine Truth in the natural sense of the Word in general, so his chariot signifies the Doctrine by which this Truth is conveyed, and his horses the understanding of the Word in the letter. The same is signified in the prophet who says of Jehovah: "Thou didst walk with thine horses through the Sea, through the heap of great waters." (Heb. 3:15.)
The wife of Poseidon, beautiful AMPHITRITE, whose "graceful, green hair encircles all the earth," is said by some to personify "the calm and sunlit aspect of the sea;" to others she signifies the shore which everywhere embraces the ocean, but to us she stands rather for the love of the Word in general, as her handmaids, the water nymphs,-Oceanides, Nereides, Naiads, etc.-certainly signify the affections of the truths of the Word.
The only son of Poseidon and Amphitrite was named TRITON, who always precedes his father as trumpeter and herald, and whose body is depicted as half man and half fish,--a very ancient conception which ranges all the way from the Babylonian Oannes, the Assyrian Nin, the Philistine Dagon, to the Northern mermen and mermaids. As to Dagon we are told that his image was "devised like a man above and a fish beneath, because a man signifies intelligence, and a fish knowledge, and these make one." (D. S. S. 23.)
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NEREUS, or PROTEUS, was another divinity of the sea. He was mild and peaceful, distinguished for his wisdom and love of justice, and moreover enjoyed the gift of prophecy and could assume any shape he chose. He was known as "the old man of the sea," and his name may be compared with the Hebrew nahar, river. The simple but genuine wisdom of life, derived from the letter of the Word, suggests itself as his significance.
DEMETER--CERES.
Demeter, in Latin Ceres, the daughter of Saturn and Rhea, was at one time married to her brother, Zeus, by whom she became the mother of Proserpine. By her other brother, Poseidan, she is said to have borne the winged horse, Arion, which is but another name for Pegasus. As her younger sister, June, represents the Church Specific, so Demeter represents the Church Universal; or as June, the queen of heaven, represents spiritual good, so Ceres, the patroness of agriculture and the fruit of the earth, represents natural good. And genuine natural good is the mother of natural intelligence on the one hand, (the horse), and of the natural affection of truth on the other, (Proserpine).
The most prominent event in the history of Ceres is the rape of her daughter, Proserpine, by Pluto, which evidently signifies the separation of the affection of truth from natural good in the Church universal, whence results that sadness and mourning and lack of spiritual progress and increase which are characteristic of the gentile nations, and which art depicted by the woeful mourning of Ceres for her lost daughter, for whom she sought in vain in her roamings through all regions of the earth, while the soil itself everywhere refused to yield its increase.
The name "Ceres" is explained by philosophers as coming originally from the same root as the word Terra, the earth; and it is also identified with the ancient German "Hertha." the goddess of nature, from which name, again, comes our English word "earth;" and if we go far enough back we shall find all this connected with the Hebrew Eretz, the earth. The Greek name "Demeter," on the other hand, is derived by some from "ge-meter," the "earth mother" or mother earth; by others from "di-meter," the "god-mother," the great mother of the gods, identical with Gaea, Rhea, Cybele, and Ops.
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In any case she still represents the Church in its widest sense, the Church universal, which is diffused throughout all the earth, and all the earths.
The fact is that Ceres, in the Ancient Church, occupied the same place and to a great extent held the same attributes and meaning as Gaea in the Most Ancient Church, and as Rhea or Cybele in that Church in its decline; that is, as modern interpreters put it, "personifying not the dead matter which composes the earth, but the passive productive principle which pervades it." This passive and at the same time living "principle" is the receptive and at the same time reactive power inherent in the earth, which, on the spiritual plane, is the same thing as that receptivity of spiritual life from the Lord which constitutes the fundamental or most universal characteristic of the Lord's Church with all mankind.
The bewildering multitude of heathen gods and goddesses will be greatly reduced and simplified when we realize that many, nay most of them art simply so many different names for the same spiritual principles, regarded in different aspects or planes, and by different ages and nations. Thus the Phrygian goddess CYBELE, whose worship later on spread throughout Greece and Italy, is clearly the same as Ceres; like the latter she is the goddess of nature or of the earth; like the latter she is called "the great mother," who has taught agriculture to mankind, and who is roaming through all the earth, grieving and seeking for a lost love. The Roman goddess, Ops, or "Wealth," is another form of Ceres, the "Bona Dea," who gave fruitfulness to the earth, and who was especially celebrated on the first of May, on which account she was also called "Maia."
Demeter and Ceres were, however, the most honored names under which the goddess of the standing corn and the harvest, and of agriculture and common civilization in general, was most universally worshiped. She it was who first taught uncultured men how to plow and sow and reap, and she is represented as continually traveling over the earth, teaching these most useful arts to distant nations, often accompanied by Proserpine and Bacchus. Her worship was therefore universal among the ancients, especially among farmers and the simple country people, by whom fanes were erected in her honor in every village.
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Virgil thus describes her rustic sacrifices:
To Ceres chief her annual rites be paid
On the green turf, beneath a fragrant shade,
When winter ends, and spring serenely shines,
Then fat the lambs, then mellow are the wines,
Then sweet are slumbers on the flowery ground,
Then with thick shades are lofty mountains crowned.
Let all the hinds bend low at Ceres' shrine;
Mix honey sweet for her with milk and mellow wine;
Thrice lead the victim the new fruit around,
And Ceres call, and choral hymns resound!
Her annual celebrations, the Cerealia, included the peculiar custom of hunting a fox to whose tail a torch had been attached. This curiously reminds us of the story of Samson in the Bible, who caught three hundred foxes and, turning tail to tail, put fire-brands between the tails and, setting them loose, burnt up the "standing corn" and vineyards and olives of the Philistines. (Judges 15:4, 5.) The Roman custom and the Hebrew story may have the same original meaning, expressing the antagonism of genuine natural good for the falsities of faith alone. (See New Church Life, 1893, pp. 179, 180.) It is self-evident that Ceres, as the patroness of the corn and the harvests, represents genuine natural good, or good works on the natural plane, such as are to be found not only among the intelligent members of the Church itself, but also among the simple in the Church and among all gentiles throughout the earth.
In form the representations of Ceres resemble those of June,--fair, matronly, and majestic of aspect, but with a milder and often somewhat melancholic countenance. She is clad in flowing robes and wears upon her head a wreath of the ears of corn. In one hand she holds a staff, and in the other sometimes a bunch of poppies, sometimes a sickle, or a sheaf of grain, or a cornucopia from which a wealth of fruit and Hewers is falling upon the earth,--the noble personification of genuine natural good, or good works, in the Lord's universal Church on the earth.
(To be Continued.)
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SWEDENBORG'S ALMANACS. 1905
In connection with the review of Swedenborg's Almanac for 1752, which appeared in the December Life, page 683, it is of interest to note that other almanacs of this kind may be in existence. In the archives of the American Swedenborg Society there is preserved a letter from Dr. R. L. Tafel to Dr. James H. Forbes, dated from Stockholm in 1870, in which Dr. Tafel writes. "Swedenborg's Almanack for 1750 was taken by a Swede to Chicago, about two years ago; perhaps you may obtain it by advertising for it in the 'Swedish American' in that place." Searches which have been made for this almanac have been thus far quite unsuccessful; possibly some of the readers of the Life may have come across it, in which case they would confer a favor by communicating with the editor. As long ago as 1820 one of Swedenborg's almanacs for the decade of 1750-1760 had been seen by a writer of the time. (Documents, II. p. 714) Possibly the almanac found in the Royal Library is the one just referred to.
As appears from the title-page of the almanac for 1752, almanacs of this kind were printed by the Academy of Sciences. Many of them were interleaved and were used for making memoranda, as the writer found by examining a great number of them in Stockholm. The almanacs are small and easily carried in a pocket (length 9.8, breadth 8. centimeters). Many of them are bound in a dark green paper, as is the copy for 1752 in which Swedenborg made his annotations. In this copy, on the inside of the front cover, there is written in the handwriting of former librarian Klemming an annotation to the effect that the almanac was a gift to the library by the wholesale merchant N. Wikstrom, on May 7, 1881; he had himself paid 216 crowns for it to Crusenstolpe's heirs. The student will find bibliographical notices of this almanac in Nya Kyrkans Tidning for July and September, 1903. A. H. S.
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Editorial Department. 1905
The Australian Conference has published a collection of 250 hymns under the title The Australian New Church Hosanna. Most of the selections are from the American Hosanna and the corresponding English work.
The paper on "The Use of the Sciences in the New Church," by the Rev. Emil Cronlund, which appeared in the Life for June and July, 1904, has been translated into Portuguese and published in our Brazilian contemporary, A Nova Jerusalem, of Rio de Janeiro. The friends there are about to publish a version of Edouard Richer's work. The Religion of Common Sense, and seem to be very active in their evangelistic propaganda.
A correspondent of Morning Light alludes to the fact that of the 6,448 members of the New Church connected with Conference, only 2,700 are returned as communicants; and he suggests as a partial reason for this, the use of the common (instead of the individual) cup, whereby "God's hygienic laws" are broken "in a flagrant manner." Conference ministers, however, say that the real reason is a lack of interest in the Church,--and most people will agree with them.
BOOKS RECEIVED. A Catechism of the Universal Christian Church, for persons of all Creeds and of None. A tract by Mr. T. M. Martin, of Toronto, Ont., Canada.
Scripture Symbolism. An introduction to the Science of Correspondences, or Natural and Spiritual Counterparts. By the Rev. E. C. Mitchell. (Philadelphia, W. H. Alden. 1904, pp. 352)
Over de hooge Beteekenis der Theologische Werken van Emanuel Swedenborg. By G. Barger (Voorburg, Holland, 1904, pp. 151).
We hope to give these works a more extended notice in a future issue.
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The Chinese are wont to refer to their race as the "celestial" people, and they call their empire "the Middle Kingdom." That this is not without a spiritual justification is evident from the following in the posthumous work On the Last Judgment, where Swedenborg relates that "Once I was in a sweet sleep, and when I awoke I saw around me some Chinese . . . who were sent to me by the Lord in order that I might know of what quality many of them are. The angels said that the sweetness of my sleep inflowed from this that the angels spoke with them about God, and about the wonderful things of wisdom, and that thence they were in such delight that they were almost in the tranquility of celestial peace: and that evil spirits could not approach, because they were of a spiritual celestial genius." (n. 132.) Quite in keeping with this their genius "the Chinese never ask concerning a religion 'Is it true?' but 'Is it good?" (Lore of Cathay, p. 196.)
In connection with the Ancient Word in Great Tartary, it is of interest to learn that the Russian military commanders, when first occupying Mukden, found there, in an ancient temple, "a pyramid of the most precious manuscripts known to the student world, for in the library of the palace there had been stored for two thousand years the written records of all the dynasties that ruled China, that is to say, all that had been collected by the Manchu conquerors, representing, at least, it is supposed five thousand years of Chinese history. This collection now reposes in the archives at St. Petersburg, though there is no mention in the lease that the Czar might take possession of them." (Philadelphia Evening Bulletin, October 10th, 1904.)
And Dr. W. A. P. Martin, president of the Chinese Imperial University, states in his Love of Cathay, that there are at Peking, connected with the Court, "great libraries unhappily not yet accessible to the foreign student." These facts suggest interesting possibilities for future research.
A correspondent to The Free Lance, a London weekly, writing on the question "Is Society Rotten?" uses some strong and forceful periods giving a tragic picture of the state of modern "Christianity."
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"Society is rotten because it is sceptical--and sceptical because it is rotten. The gospel of the ape-alliance,--with critical pity for the old sweet pieties,-penalises no passion; anathematizes no animal impulse; the main sections of the Church . . . have abandoned definite teaching on the subject of everlasting punishment. Hell has been elbowed out of the pews with infinite pulpit politeness: attitude, latitude, and platitude are not excellent exchanges for the moral austerity of the earlier formulations of condemnation. God is preached as too good to damn men, who are glossed as being too good to be damned,--men who really do believe they deserve to be damned. Hence some sense of unreality; some of the secret of indifference hardening into hostility."
In the Life for February, (p. 109), we quoted a statement by the Rev. S. S. Seward in the New Church Review, that "Swedenborg said to himself, when he saw some of his Writings on the shelf of a bookseller, that some day they would be esteemed more highly than those of any other writer; and then rebuked himself for the thought." We stated that we were not aware of any statement such as this occurring anywhere in the Writings, and supposed that Mr. Seward by mistake referred to a passage of different import in the Spiritual Diary. But a correspondent has called our attention to a passage in Swedenborg's Diary of Dreams for 1744, which probably forms the basis of Mr. Seward's still somewhat erroneous statement. The passage reads: "I saw a bookshop, and immediately the thought struck me that my work would be of greater effect than that of other writers. But my heart told me at once that each one must serve the others, and that our Lord has many a thousand ways to prepare a person, and that therefore every book must be left to its own merits, as a means near or remote, according to the state of the rational faculty of each man: nevertheless, pride would intrude, but may God control it, who hath the power in His hands." (Comp. Doc. II., p. 166.)
This passage, of course, refers to someone of the scientific works, written before 1744, and does not support the idea that Swedenborg regarded the Theological Writings as in any way his own or as subjects for his own states of pride or humility.
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The "Swastika" Cross, which has been adopted as the badge of the Young People's League, is the occasion for a letter from the Rev. Frank Sewall to the League Journal for January, wherein after saying that it has been explained what the symbol means in China, Japan, Yucatan, etc., he asks "some one who knows" to kindly tell him what it means to the Newchurchman "or what distinctive New Church truth or idea it conveys." To which enquiry, Miss Putnam, the designer of the badge, replies, "The 'Swastika' has absolutely no distinctively New Church meaning, per se; that is why I suggested it." We should hardly have expected to hear from a member of the Young People's League that the having of no distinctive New Church meaning makes a symbol peculiarly appropriate as the League badge. It seems, however, from the rest of the answer, that what is considered the particular advantages of this emptiness of meaning is that the New Church man with a knowledge of correspondences can put what he likes into it. Miss Putnam, it seems, has already supplied her "spiritual interpretation," and the editor of the League Journal now invites other members to supply theirs.
Another letter printed in the same number of the League Journal is from the Rev. W. L. Gladish, who, as an old friend of the League, views "with sorrow and concern" the League "Devotional meetings." "The person, young or old," writes Mr. Gladish, "who is willing to tell in public meeting of his spiritual experiences has had none worth telling about." And he concludes, "Which way is the League headed, to Canaan, or is it back to Egypt?"
KING SOLOMON'S WIVES.
An Icelandic correspondent, resident in Manitoba, informs us that he has translated into his native tongue the series of "Memorable Relations Adapted" which appeared in the Life during the year 1900-1902, and that his friends have much enjoyed hearing them read.
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The same correspondent continues: "An elderly lady asked me 'What to think of king Solomon having seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Was this literally true? If so he was not in conjugial love,'" and our friend promised to ask the Life to explain this mystery.
Solomon most certainly "was not in conjugial love," but the great number of his wives and concubines may be accounted for by the oriental custom of including in the royal harem all the female attendants, servants, and slaves. Nevertheless, Solomon was undoubtedly a polygamist of the worst kind, as he was also a tyrant and an idolator. But on account of his kingly office he could represent or serve as an external image of the Lord in His Divine Royalty. The Lord's kingdom exists in a most universal sense amongst all who are in some degree of good and truth in all the churches and religions of the whole world, whether Christian or Gentile. And thus the seven hundred wives could represent all forms of the Church, and the three hundred concubines could represent all forms of religion, to all of which the Divine love is extended. (D. P. 245.) But it is to be noted that this polygamy only represented the Divine marriage between the Lord and the Church, but did not correspond to it, for correspondence demands an actual agreement as to internal duality. The Christian marriage of one man with one wife can alone correspond or fully answer to the conjunction of the Lord with His one genuine and internal Church.
A NEW JOURNAL FOR THE YOUNG PEOPLE.
It is with genuine pleasure that we greet the appearance of our new contemporary, the Mercury, a social and literary magazine for the voting people of the New Church, edited and published at Bryn Athyn, Pa., under the editorial management of Mr. Fred E. Gyllenhaal and Mr. Raymond Pitcairn. The purpose of this monthly is to "promote distinctive social life in the New Church and to bind more closely together the young people of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, in common affection for the Divine Truth."
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Subscriptions are received by Mr. E. F. Stroh, of Bryn Athyn, and the price is 50 cents per annum.
The double number for January-February opens with some reasonable and serious reflections on "New Year Resolutions," by the Rev W. B. Caldwell, dwelling especially on the need of self-examination. "The Horologe of the Poets." by Miss Rita Buell, is the chief treat of the present number, and a very palatable dish it is, with its rapid review and finely conceived generalizations of the master-singers of the English tongue, and its final affectionate tribute to the "Alma Mater." The "School Spirit," by Raymond Pitcairn, is "something new under the sun" in the way of successfully blending enthusiasm of football with Christian charity and New Church chivalry. The editorials, though brief, are pithy and to the point, and the communications from the various centres are enlivened with some rich bits of humor.
The Life can only hope that its young contemporary will survive the "Sturm and Drang" of financial necessities, and to this end we would enlist the hearty co-operation of our readers. There is distinctly a need for a young people's journal in the Church in which the special interests and budding literary aspirations of the young folks may find free expression. The success of the Mercury is of vital interest to the Life, as a training-school for the development of future contributors and, possibly, editors. And, therefore, long life to the young messenger who flies with his feet as well as with the wings on his head!
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KNOWLEDGE, SCIENTIFICS, AND COGNITIONS. 1905
The importance of distinguishing between "Scientifics" and "Cognitions" is one of the first lessons taught in the letter of the Word and in the Writings of the New Church. The second day of Creation was introduced by the Divine words: "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it distinguish the waters from the waters," (Gen. i:6). And this is explained in the Arcana Coelestia as signifying that "after the Spirit of God, or the Mercy of the Lord, has brought forth into day the cognitions of truth and good, and has given the first light,--that the Lord is, and that the Lord is good itself and truth itself, and that there is no good and truth except from the Lord,--He then distinguishes between the Internal man and the External, thus between the cognitions which are with the internal man, and the scientifics which are of the external man. The internal man is called an expanse; the cognitions which are with the internal man are called the waters above the expanse: and the scientifics of the external man are called the waters under the expanse." (n. 24).
The Word, both in the letter and the spirit, thus distinguishes between cognitions and scientifics, but, strange to say, the New Church translators, in nearly all the English editions of the Writings, have failed to bring out the full meaning of this distinction. These two terms, "cognitions" and "scientifics," have been supposed to be particularly unintelligible to the average English reader, and the translators have therefore been experimenting with various substitutes, which, instead of making the distinction clearer, have thrown it into great confusion.
The first English edition of the Arcana Coelestia, translated by Mr. Clowes, and for half a century republished by the American Swedenborg Society, introduced the confusion by rendering both scientifica and cognitiones with "knowledges," but it at least retained the term "scientifics." The same is true of the old Boston edition of the Arcana, which in other respects, is excellent. Mr. Harrison's "Anglo-Saxon" edition of 1860 renders cognitiones and scientifica with "spiritual knowledges and matters of outside knowledge,"--which is not bad as an interpretation, but is not a translation.
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The same terms, in some of the volumes of the current London edition, are given as "ideas and elementary knowledges," though in the first volume of the same edition, (revised by Dr. R. L. Tafel in 1891), we find "cognitions and scientifics." No one edition of the Arcana is thoroughly consistent and uniform, but the Rotch edition of the same work, now being published at Boston, has made the confusion worse confounded. Determined upon the total elimination of both "scientifics" and "cognitions," the numerous translators and revisers who have been successively or simultaneously co-operating in bringing out this ill-fated edition, have resorted to all sorts of expedients and circumlocutions, rendering the three terms variously and bewilderingly by "knowledges," "things of outward knowledges," "something known," "matters of knowledge," "matters of fact," "knowledges of facts," "knowing faculty," "faculties of knowing," and what not,--making a perfect crazy-quilt of the terms.
From this confusion we have been looking forward hopefully to the new edition of the Writings, now being revised by the Rev. J. F. Potts, and of which the firstling, The Four Doctrines, has just been published by the American Swedenborg Society, but again we have been doomed to disappointment. In this new edition we find the following explanatory note by the translator, (at No. 18 of the "Doctrine of the Holy Scripture"):
Note the careful distinction made by Swedenborg between those knowledges that are merely in the external memory, and those which a man has some real knowledge of by experience or in some other way, and which are therefore not mere matters of the memory. The former he calls "memory-knowledges," (scientiae et scientifica); the latter simply "knowledges," (cognitiones). This distinction runs all through these works, and must not be lost sight of, the recognition of it being vital to the understanding of important doctrines.
And on the basis of this new experimental contrivance, the translator proceeds throughout The Four Doctrines and will, we fear, proceed throughout the Arcana Coelestia, thus unintentionally marring another edition of this work. For the definitions given in the above note are wrong, and the translator himself does not consistently apply them, as is evident from the very passage to which he appends his note, where he renders both scientific and cognitiones with the one word "knowledges."
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Why, in view of "the careful distinction made by Swedenborg," are not these words here translated "memory-knowledges and knowledges?" The same inconsistency is manifested again and again in the volume, showing that the new contrivance is not universally workable. The harm done is lessened by the translator's custom of adding the Latin terms themselves in parentheses after his renderings. We gladly acknowledge this evidence of his love of fairness and of consideration for the freedom of the reader, but we regret the necessity for the parenthetical clauses which, though they would be convenient to the student if uniformly introduced, nevertheless are cumbersome and distracting to the general reader: they invariably interrupt the flow of the thought and moreover serve to introduce an element of doubt. How much better if the meaning of these terms could be determined from the Writings themselves, and then uniformly applied, without any parenthetical clauses!
The definitions given in the footnote are wrong from beginning to end. Swedenborg does not call scientiae and scientifica "memory-knowledges," nor does he call cognitiones "knowledges, that is an interpretation by the translator, and a wrong one at that Swedenborg does not explain scientiae and scientifica as meaning one and the same thing; he does not remove the cognitiones out of the external memory, and he does not define them as "those which a man has some real knowledge of by experience or in some other way,"--for this is the very definition which he applies to scientifica!
It is much to be regretted that the translator, instead of improving upon the translation which he gives in the Concordance, has retrograded into a worse vein. In the Concordance he invariably retains the term "scientifics," "and though he renders both scientia and cognition with "knowledge," he at least makes an attempt to distinguish between them, scientia being translated with "knowledge," while cognitio is rendered "Knowledge," (with a capital K).
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This, of course, is a purely artificial contrivance which produces some awkward results, as in the meaningless sentence "Man is introduced into wisdom for life by knowing and Knowing, or by knowledges and Knowledges," [per scure et mosse, seu per scientias et cognitiones, A. C. 1555]; or the misleading statement "they are in the knowledge of Knowledges, [in scientia cognitionum, A. C. 3720], which makes the reader think of some supreme and holy knowledge instead of the faith-alone here signified by the Philistines.
This scheme did not prove satisfactory, but in the new edition of The Four Doctrines the translator makes no distinction whatever between scientia and scientifica, but runs both of them into the one term: "memory-knowledges," when nevertheless the two terms express distinct ideas. And by at the same time rendering cognitiones with "knowledges," he effectually obscures the distinction between the three terms, for knowledge and memory-knowledge is one and the same thing, since all knowledge is of the memory. The memory is the common containant of all kinds and degrees of knowledge, just as the stomach is the containant of all the food that has entered the body, or as the understanding is the containant of all truths and the will the containant of all goods. As soon as the knowledge has risen above the mere memory it is no longer called knowledge, but truth and good, just as the food when assimilated is no longer called food, but blood and flesh. To speak of knowledge and memory-knowledge is mere tautology, just as it would be to speak of "food and stomach-food," or "truth and understanding-truth."
Turning now from criticism to re-construction, let us consider the best renderings of these terms according to their true significance and revealed definitions.
1) As to SCIENTIA and SCIENTAE it is evident that we cannot afford to limit the meaning of these terms exclusively either to "knowledge" Or "science," since the Latin word involves both of these ideas. They may therefore be rendered with either, according to the indications of the context.
a). It is manifestly impossible and undesirable to rule out the good old English word "knowledge," which is to the verb "to know" exactly what scientia is to scire.
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"Knowledge" means "science" but it means more than that. "Knowledge," in English, is a term of universal comprehension, including not only all forms and degrees of attained knowledge,--whether it be termed general knowledge, or science, the sciences, scientifics, or cognitions,--but also the active state and faculty of knowing or understanding the things which are retained in the memory. "Science," on the other hand, has a more limited meaning, signifying especially classified and systematized knowledge, the accumulated and well-established whole of human learning, but it does not, in English, convey the idea of the state and faculty of knowing in the same wide sense as "knowledge" does.
b). The difference between the two ideas involved in the word scientia is exemplified in the following passage, where "Egypt" is treated of:
By scientias are not meant such scientiae as the learned have, but every thing scientific, which by experience and through hearing man has been able to learn from civil life, from doctrine, and from the Word. (A. C. 2718.)
It is evident that scientias here signifies knowledge in its most general and comprehensive sense, as something distinct from the sciences of the learned world. On the other hand it is equally evident from an analysis of the numerous passages brought together in the Concordance under the head of "knowledge," that Swedenborg uses Scientia in its distinctly "scientific" sense, far more often than is generally suspected.
2) As to SCIETNIFICUM and SCIENTIFICA While scientia may be rendered either "knowledge" or "science." according to the context, the limitations of the English tongue do not permit of the same liberty of choice in regard to scientificym and scientifica. The fact is that no Anglo-Saxon equivalents exist for these latter terms, and necessity and fidelity to the original therefore compel us to retain "scientific" and "scientifics." Scientificium means not only that which is of knowledge but especially that which makes knowledge, and no substitutes or circumlocutions can ever retain both of these ideas. "Scientifics" mean the innumerable sensuous impressions which as elements and particulars go to make up one single knowledge, like the innumerable "ideas of thought" which go to make up one single thought.
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We are no more justified in translating scientifica with "knowledges," than in translating ideae cogitationis with "thought." "Scientifics." we admit, is not to be found at present in the English Dictionaries, in the sense in which the term is used in the Writings of the New Church, but what does that matter? Some years from now the "Swedenborgian" definition will be found in every Dictionary, and the English language and human thought in general will be all the richer for our fidelity to New Church truth. The expression may seem strange, at first, to the neophyte in the Church, but everything seems strange to him at first. If he persists in reading he will soon become accustomed to the New Church meaning of the term. It is simply the old question of Mohammed and the mountain. Are we to flatten the mountain down to the level of Mohammed? Where will be the elevating result of such a process?
a). Now, as to the meaning of "scientifics" in the Writings, we learn that the term is employed in a two-fold sense, first, as signifying in general all things which are of knowledge and which go to make knowledge, and, secondly and specifically, as meaning the lowest, most ultimate kind, viz., "sensual scientifics."
In the natural mind there are scientifics of various kinds: there are scientifics concerning earthly, corporeal, and worldly things, which are the lowest; for these are immediately from the external, sensual things, or those of the body. There are scientifics concerning the civil state, its government, statutes, and laws, which are a little more internal; there are scientifics concerning those things which are of moral life, which are still more internal; but those which are of spiritual life are the most internal of all; these are the truths of the Church, which, in so far as they are with a man only from doctrine, are nothing else than scientifics, but when they are from the good of love, they then go above scientifics. (A. C. 5934.)
All these degrees of the elements of knowledge are called "scientifics" in general, but the specific meaning of the term is given in the following teaching:
Doctrinals are those things which are from the Word; cognitions are those things which are from these doctrinals on the one hand, and from scientifics on the other; and scientifics are such things as are of experience from self and from others. (A. C. 6386.)
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b). The magnitude of scientifics thus resolve themselves into three general kinds or degrees: "By ministering goods and truths are meant the goods and truths which are in the external man, which are called cognitions and scientifics; there are also goods and truths which minister to these again, and they are called sensual scientifics." (A. C. 10272.) Or, as expressed even more definitely, "Scientifics are of three kinds: intellectual, rational, and sensual. All these are inseminated into the memory, or, rather, into the memories." (A. C. 991.)
c). By "scientifics," therefore, when correlated with "cognitions," are meant sensual scientifics, the knowledges of external and ultimate things, the things of the natural world, which enter immediately through the external senses and are perceived by the sense itself, (A. C. 4360) Such sensual scientifics "serve as planes" for the "cognitions of spiritual and celestial things and "lead to" and " confirm" the latter. (A. C. 4360, 4966; A. E. 406, 654, 941)
3). As to COGNITION, this is a perfectly proper and intelligible word of the English language, recognized as such by all the English Dictionaries, signifying according to Webster, "1) the act of knowing, knowledge, perception: 2) that which is known." Being derived from cum and gnoscere, the term conveys a somewhat more intimate and interior idea than scientia, and has been recognized as meaning "entire conviction," (Worcester), and "certain knowledge, as from personal view or experience." (Century Dictionary). But this is a definition quite foreign to the Writings which invest the term with a meaning that is as new as it is distinctive.
The Writings show that cognitions are distinguished from science and scientifics not by virtue of any higher degree of assimilation than that afforded by the common retentive faculty of the external memory, but by virtue of referring to a higher class of subject-matters. The Writings show that cognitions, like scientifics, are merely matters of the external memory; that in themselves they are nothing but scientifics, though not sensual scientifics, and that they do not involve any more "real knowledge by experience or in some other way," than any other degree of scientifics. (See, above, A. C. 2718, 6386.)
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Like sensual scientifics, they are merely elements of memory-knowledge, but they are knowledges of higher things than the things of this world.
a). Cognitions regarded in themselves, are nothing but scientifics.
By "vessels," in the Word, are signified cognitions, which in so far as they are of the internal man, stored up in the memory, are scientifics. (A. E. 1146.)
The cognitions of truth and good which are with man, are stored up in his memory and are referred there among scientifics; for whatever is insinuated into the memory of the external man remains there as a scientific. (A. C. 27.)
b). Cognitions are interior scientifics, the scientifics of the Church, thus the knowledges of spiritual and celestial things, in a word, of doctrinal things.
The cognitions of good and truth are the scientifics of the Church. (A. C. 9755)
By the cognitions of good and truth are meant interior scientifics, such as are those of the Church concerning faith and love. (A. C. 9945.) The scientifics which are from the Word, or from the Doctrine of the Church, are called cognitions of truth and good. (A. C. 9723.)
By scientifics from the Word are meant all things of the sense of the letter, in which there does not appear what is doctrinal; but by cognitions of truth and good are meant all things of the sense of the letter, in which and from which there is what is doctrinal. (A. E. 545.)
For THE SAKE OF DISTINCTION, the scientifics which belong to the spiritual state and life are called cognitions, which are chiefly doctrinals. (N. J. 51.)
To illustrate: we know from science that the sun is the center of the planetary system: this is a scientific. But we know from doctrine that the Lord is the center of all spiritual life; this is a cognition.
c). Cognitions, like scientifics, are mere matters of the memory,--of the external, corporeal memory of the natural man.
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Cognitions are doctrinals which are in the natural or external man, that is, in his memory. (A. C. 4266, 1460, 9393.)
The ruminating stomachs of animals correspond to the memory of man. Into this he first collects spiritual foods, which are cognitions. (A. E. 242.)
That scientifics and cognitions are of the exterior memory. (Refs. N. J. 52.)
"Vessels," in general signify the things of the exterior memory, and, in respect to holy things, the cognitions of good and truth. (A. C. 9724)
Cognitions are of the memory of the natural man. (A. C. 9544)
As man is born natural, the cognitions which he imbibes from infancy, before he becomes spiritual, are implanted in his natural memory. (A. E. 403)
Confirmatory things are all in the corporeal memory, where are also the cognitions of faith. (S. D. 4037)
The things in the natural mind are all scientifics, thus also all cognitions of every kind; in a word, each and all things which are of the external or corporeal memory. (A. C. 3020.)
d). Cognitions are not, as has been supposed, "real" knowledges, made living "by experience or in some other way," any more than other scientifics. Nor are they knowledges elevated into the interior memory.
Cognitions are not in the man but are in the entrance to him, which is his memory, until they are in his will. (A. E. 232.)
So long as the truths of the Church go no further than the memory and the understanding, they are only cognitions and scientifics, and, relatively to goods, are outside of the man himself. (A. C. 9230)
Cognitions are nothing else than the truths of the natural man, but which have not as yet been appropriated to him. (A. C. 5276.)
The things inscribed on the interior memory are not called scientifics, but are called truths of faith and goods of love. (A. C. 9222, 5212.)
Cognitions and truths differ in this, that cognitions are of the natural man, not truths are of the spiritual man. (A. E. 242.)
The cognitions of good and truth from the Word, when there is in them what is spiritual from the Lord, are not called cognitions, but truths. (A. R. 900.)
e). From all that has been adduced it is evident that cognition refers to a special kind of knowledge, and therefore is a less inclusive and comprehensive term than the Latin scientia and the English "knowledge" or "science." Take, for instance, the expression "scientia cognitionum," which frequently occurs in the Writings. Which of these two terms is the general, and which the particular?
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Whether we render it "the knowledge of cognitions" or "the science of cognitions," scientia still includes and possesses the cognitions, and the latter are the particulars of which the former is the general. To translate this phrase with "the science of knowledges" is to reverse this order and to make it meaningless, for there is no such universal science of all knowledges. But the "knowledge of cognitions" at once makes it evident that the phrase signifies the knowledge of the doctrinals of faith, which, as long as it goes no further than the memory, is nothing but faith alone, (Philistia).
We must therefore earnestly plead for the retention of "cognitions," as no other word call ever express just what the Writings mean by cognitiones. Why look for other words, when we have in the English the exact equivalent of the Latin expression? The meaning of "cognitions" is not very recondite. Everybody knows what is meant by "cognizance, "recognition," "incognito," etc. and from these the reader will readily perceive the general significance of "cognitions," even without consulting any of the Dictionaries. The term may have a somewhat philosophical flavor, but then, the Writings are written throughout in a philosophical style, and it will not do to destroy this style; it would be as injurious as to destroy the poetical style of the Psalms or the prophetical style of the Apocalypse.
To sum up: Scientia should he translated "knowledge" or "science," according to the context. Scientifica should be rendered "scientifics," and cognitiones "cognitions." Such, at least, are our own conclusions, but as the subject is vast, and of vast importance, we earnestly invite correspondence, through the pages of the Life, from other ministers and students in the Church, on this interesting and disputed subject. It will be readily seen that great good would result, if, by study and discussion, the Church could come into some degree of common thought and common understanding on these points. If the Writings could be permitted to be their own interpreters, the past confusion would be done away with, the experimentation would cease, the translators would be spared a vast amount of worry, and the Church would be saved from the bewilderment resulting from the introduction of a new set of terms freshly invented by each successive translator.
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The Writings would then be, in English, what they are in the original,--uniform and self-consistent, and, above all, they would then, and then only, reproduce the actual sense of the original, and give to the Church the truth of Heaven as the Lord Himself in His love has revealed it.
NEW TRANSLATION OF "THE FOUR DOCTRINES." 1905
THE FOUR DOCTRINES WITH THE NINE QUESTIONS, translated and edited by the Rev. John Faulkner Potts, E. A., Lend. New York, 1904.
This work is published by the American Swedenborg Society as the first of a "Library Edition" of the Writings. It well deserves the name. Paper, type, and ink are of the very best quality, while the work of the proof-reader seems to be without a flaw. Add to this that the stitching and binding are of the best, and we have a volume which it is a delight to handle and a pleasure to read, and which must be pronounced as being, mechanically, one of the finest editions of the Writings ever published.
But its external perfection makes us all the more regret that we cannot avail ourselves of this beautiful edition. In point of faithfulness to the original it is inferior both to the Rotch edition and to Mr. Searle's translation published by the London Society; the latter is, indeed, an excellent translation, and one which it would be difficult to improve on, except in details.
We have long looked forward to a translation of the Writings by the compiler of the Concordance. In that work he not only gave to the student an invaluable treasure, but he also gave to the Church the best translation of the Writings which had thereto fore been made, showing himself concerned in the presentation of the exact meaning of his author, and this in the style adopted by that author. And, therefore, when he was called to work for the American Swedenborg Society, it was confidently anticipated that, while he would give to his translations a better finish and polish than was practicable in the Concordance, they would yet reflect the same faithfulness and the same respect for the original.
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But this expectation has not been fulfilled. Between the translations in the Concordance and the translation now before us there is little similarity. In the latter little regard is had to the style in which Swedenborg wrote the Revelation, and again and again the "same thing" is given to the English reader in another way. We do not speak of cases wherein the English idiom differs from the Latin, but of cases where the forms of the latter are equally in use in the former, and where there is absolutely no necessity for anything but a literal translation. A simple illustration is the almost universal use of the active form of the verb where Swedenborg uses the passive. A typical case is, Per crucem intelligitur tentatio (Li. 99), rendered "The 'cross' means temptation," which might just as well, so far as correct English is concerned, have been translated literally, "By the Cross is meant temptation." The former translation may seem the same thing, but it is not said in the way Swedenborg said it. The translator has unnecessarily put the idea in another form,--a course which does not argue great respect for the style of the Writings, nor give much hope for a really faithful translation. The acknowledgment of the Writings as a Divine Revelation should bring with it respect for even the style in which that Revelation is given to us, and should preclude all unnecessary change of that style from a fear lest a change in style might involve a change in meaning. Even in such apparently trivial changes as those noted above, there is always the danger that the meaning also may be changed, and the translator of the present volume has not escaped that danger. This is evidently the case where he translates qui afficiuntur veris (F. 3), "whose affection is excited by truths." The meaning of the Latin is that the truth affects the man from the good within it, or that the good within the truth affects the man, a meaning involving a doctrine entirely unknown in the world. But according to the translation the idea conveyed is merely the ordinary one of the man's own affection being roused.
Another very frequent departure from the style of Swedenborg, equally unnecessary and more objectionable, is the continual substitution of personal for impersonal forms.
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Thus ostensum est (S. 49), is rendered "We have shown" though in one case, at least (S. 107), it is translated literally, "It has been shown;" dicitur apud Lucam, (L. 35), "As we read;" dicitur "we say" (F. 32), "we have said" (Li. 20), "we are told" (F. 1). The change is the more marked in that Swedenborg does sometimes, though rarely, use the personal form, and this fact serves to emphasize his general and characteristic use of the impersonal form as best suited to the style of revelation.
In the book under review, as in most other translations of the Writings, especially the later ones, there is a consistent and unvarying omission of the "Quod argumentative" in the heading of chapters. The argument generally heard is, that in this respect Swedenborg wrote in the ordinary style of his contemporaries, a style which is now discarded. But so far as we can discover, this argument is not supported by the facts. An examination of the works of Leibnitz, Wolf, Descartes and Locke, as well as of several theological writers of that time, shows that not a single one of them makes this use of the word quod in the headings of either chapters or sections. Indeed, their headings are not dissimilar to what might be used by modern writers, or to those which translators give to Swedenborg. It would, therefore, appear that Swedenborg was more or less peculiar in this use of the word quod, and that he deliberately adopted it as suitable to his manner of disquisition. He uses it, moreover, far more frequently in the theological works than in the scientific or philosophic. And it is particularly suitable to the style of the Writings where truth is presented in the rational form of proposition and demonstration,--first as befits revelation, the positive statement, and then the rational proof. Why should Swedenborg be changed even in so small a matter as this, when it both distinguishes him from other writers, and is peculiarly suited to his writings?
The present work goes even further than most other translations in the rejection of the word quod, which is frequently omitted even in the text itself, as in a part of the Faith of the New Church (F. 34)
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In one case the omission was resulted in a defective English sentence; per spiritum intelligitur . . . quod Ipse Jehovah loquutus sit Verbum, is translated, "By 'spirit' is meant . . . Jehovah Himself spoke the Word through the prophets." (L. 46.)
Disregard for the style of the original is also shown in the cases where, apparently, the translator has deemed Swedenborg redundant. A pronoun is frequently substituted for one or more nouns, or even for a whole phrase: as in the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture, n. 8, where three lines, repeated from the heading of the number, are represented by the single word "This." The results of this editorial interference are not always happy. Thus we read "Truths are the means through which the good of love comes into actual existence (existit) and becomes something; consequently that good loves truths in order that it may do so;" the concluding words in the original are, quod bonum amet vera ut existat.
As little regard is hall to the order of Swedenborg's words as to the details of his style in other respects. The Latin of the Writings is, as a rule, so simple and direct that it can generally he translated practically word for word, and nearly always phrase for phrase, without the slightest violence to the English language; and it will generally he found that the ideas can be best set forth in a translation ii the original order is preserved. But in the present translation the editor makes it a frequent practice to entirely recast the original order of the sentences, sometimes, as it seems, as a mere matter of personal taste, and at other times, perhaps, because he considers the leading idea to have been put in the wrong place. Thus, what, literally translated, would read "That by means of the Word they also have light who are outside the Church and do not have the Word," is changed around to read "The people outside the Church who are not in possession of the Word have light by its means" (S. 104). Again, where Mr. Searle makes the literal translation, "Every man has this freedom not from himself but from the Lord," we find in the volume before us. "It is not from himself that every man has this freedom, but he has it from the Lord." (Li. 20.)
It is almost to be expected that a translation which pays so little respect to the style of the original, will he characterized by looseness and inexactness of rendition.
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The present translation is no exception, as may be seen from the following instances: Quod a Divino est, hoc in natura cadit in talia, etc. (S. 20). "What is from the Divine, descending into nature, is turned into such things," etc.; had Swedenborg meant "is turned into" he would doubtless have used vertitur. Quod Domino fuerit Divinum et Humanum, (L., 35), "That the Lord was Divine and Human. Si in amore miliae est ac in tutela aut in fama sentit bonum, etc., (Li. 39), "If he is in the love of military service and is sensible of its good, whether it be that of national defence or that of his own fame." etc.; Mr. Searle correctly renders this sentence. "If he is in the love of military service, and is sensible of good in the protection of his country, or in fame," etc.
More serious evidences of looseness are the frequent cases where interpretative words are added without any sign to show that they are additions by the editor. Thus comprehendere (L. 72), is interpreted, "intellectually comprehend;" Per adulterari in Decalogi sexto praecepto, (L. 74), "To 'commit' adultery' as mentioned in the sixth (or as it is usually called the seventh) commandment;" universalis idea, (F. 34-5), "universal idea or form," affectio usus, (25), "affection or love of use;" Quae pro vita ill aerunt, (F., 26), "which knowledges are to be learned and retained for the sake of that life:" and so in many other cases.
Similar to the above are the cases where the translator adds an emphasis not given in the original. Thus, where the Latin is, Quod nemo possit bonum facere quod bonum est a se, (Li. 9), the translator solicitously adds the word "really," making the sentence read "No one call from himself do good that is really good." Those to whom such an addition is necessary give little promise of comprehending the doctrines of the New Church; Swedenborg addressed himself to men with some degree of common sense. Fides (F. 31), is translated "Faith for real belief)," and cognitiones veri et boni non sunt fidei antequam, etc., (F. 25), becomes "The knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and of good are not matters of real belief (Fidei) until," etc.; but later on, (F. 33), the very same Latin words are rendered "that the knowledges of truth and good are not really things of faith." (ib.)
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A remarkable case of added emphasis is the translation of verum emim vero, a somewhat stronger form of the word verum (but), which the translator expands into "But I wish to say emphatically" (Li., 72), and he continues this emphatic beginning by translating et non, in the same number, by "and by no means; so ubi (F., 69), is rendered "precisely there." An addition to the text, which though put in brackets, is nevertheless an infringement on the rights of an author, is the insertion of the word "perhaps" in the following passage, (S., 117), ". . .over whom they set Supreme, whom they called 'Jove' [perhaps--see the True Christian Religion, n. 275-] from 'Jehovah.'" The addition should have been put in a footnote, rather than in the text where it forces itself upon the reader with the positive suggestion that, here, Swedenborg is mistaken.
As though to compensate for over-emphasis the translator in other cases decidedly weakens the force of his original, and in these as in the former cases, solely because he does not translate literally. Thus concludere is rendered "infer" a word, which, according to Crabbe, is used with respect to what is not decisive, while to conclude is final and decisive. The same authority may be quoted against the translation, in the Faith of the New Church, of subjugare by "subdue." "Subjugate," says Crabbe, "implies a state of permanent submission, whereas subdue may be only a nominal and temporary subjection;" this is in agreement with the use of the former word in the Writings. Elsewhere in the translation, the words "conclude" and "subjugate" are used, but there is no consistency. A weak and incorrect translation is "An absence of knowledges involves an absence of faith," (F. 29), . . . for Nullae cognitions . . . faciunt nullam fidem. The translator may have thought that a literal translation would not be in accord with modern ideas of expression, and he, therefore, became an interpreter. Quae tamen unum sunt, (L., 55), is rendered "Which, however, taken together, form a one," where "form a one" is decidedly weaker than the literal "are one;" the words "taken together" are added by the translator.
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It seems to us that "one" would be stronger than "a one" also in cases like the following: Divine Love and Wisdom "had been a one from eternity" (L. 1); "Charity and faith make a one" (F. 29);"The Divine called 'the Father' and the Divine called 'the Son' are a one in the Lord" (L., 46), (in the same number we read, "It is usual in the Word to name two Divines. . .which yet are one").
New renditions are frequently substituted for familiar phrases, and in some cases it is difficult to imagine the reason for the change. In the heading of a chapter (Li. 92) pugna contra mala is rendered by the familiar words "combats against evils," but in the chapter itself the same words are translated "battlings against evils" (Li. 99), and we read "concerning the Lord's battlings or temptations" (ib. 100; but elsewhere, it is "combats or temptations" of the Lord. (L. 33.) Pugnare is rendered "to fight" (L., 96), "To battle" (ib. 95), and "to do battle" (ib., 94). Constare potest, is translated "it may be considered settled" (F. 33), though elsewhere the same words are rendered "it is evident" (S. 110). Dictum est illis becomes "It was avouched to them" (F. 69); it is a pity that the pen which changed bonum into "really good," and fides into "real belief," could not have left us the simple "it was said to them." Vita civilis et moralis becomes "civic life and moral life," presumably because the ordinary man would not understand the term "civil life:" and yet he need only consult his dictionary. Bonum is translated indifferently "good (Li. 9), "really good" (ib.), "what is good" (ib. 1), and "that which is good" (ib.). Referunt is rendered "correspond" (S., 105); affectio veri, "the love of truth" (F., 30), affectio mediorum, "love of the means" (25), affectio ejus (sc.veri), "affection for it" (F., 30), though this is perhaps an unintentional mistake; yet affectio usus is translated "affection for use" (F. 14). Fides historica (F. 1), becomes "the faith of hearsay," a rendition which is the more unnecessary since Swedenborg himself in this very number immediately defines what is meant by this distinctive phrase. The new title of the second of the Four Leading Doctrines, which now reads. "The Doctrine of the Holy Scripture," is a most unfortunate translation. Ever since the establishment of the New Church this work has been known as the Sacred Scripture; and the title should not be changed except on weighty grounds.
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The fact that, in the world, where the Writings are hardly known, the Word is commonly styled Holy Scripture, can hardly be considered a sufficient reason. Moreover the change now introduced is not only unfortunate,--it has also the disadvantage of being incorrect. The Writings never use the term Scriptura Sancta, though they frequently speak of the Word as being Holy; but where the Letter is referred to it is always called Scriptura Sacra. There is more than a mere verbal distinction involved in this usage; Holy (sanctus) refers to internal things, while Sacred (sacer) refers to the external or form. By the new translation, opposed to the consistent practice of the Church from the beginning, this distinction, in the case of the Scriptures, is lost sight of.
Scientia and Cognitio, which are translated "memory knowledge" and "knowledge (cognitio)" we notice elsewhere in these pages. We need only note here, the lack of consistency in the matter of adding the Latin word cognitio. The very fact that it is added in so many cases, will naturally lead the critical reader to suppose, that in all other cases "knowledge" represents some other Latin word; yet he will nearly always find himself deceived.
A reasonable objection may be made to the insertion of Latin words in a translation of the Writings, that it is apt to produce a doubt in the mind of the unlearned reader as to the correctness of the rendering. The only cases where the insertion of the Latin is justified are where the translator is himself in doubt, or where he finds it impossible to convey the exact meaning of his author. Used in other cases it is, generally, either supererogatory, or a confession of looseness of translation. In the volume before us, in every case, so far as wt have noticed, where the Latin is added, the necessity for the addition would have been entirely obviated had the translation been faithful to the original. Take for example, the heading of a chapter in the Doctrine of Faith "The knowledges (cognitiones) of truth and of good, are not matters of real belief (finei) until." etc., and compare it with Mr. Searle's translation. "The Cognitions of truth and good are not of faith, etc.
The phrases Divinum a Quo and Divinum per Quod, (L., 30, 46), are simply transcribed by the translator, a literal translation and also an explanation being added in a footnote.
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It would seem better to have incorporated the literal translation in the text itself; indeed, no reasonable objection can be made to completing the phrases with the words obviously involved: "The Divine from which all things are," etc. In the Faith of the New Church, Divinum a Quo is translated "The All-originating Divine" with the Latin in parentheses.
Especially frequent is the addition of the Latin in the translation of the words existere and proprium. In a foot note on the former word we read "The coming forth (existere) of a thing is the presentation or manifestation of that thing as an actual reality. Thus the Latin word existere has a very different meaning from the English Exist, and cannot be translated by it without causing a complete misconception in the mind of the English reader." Against this conclusion, however, we find that Webster gives to the word exist a definition very similar to that given in the note. He defines it as "To be as a fact and not as a mode; to have an actual or real being, whether material or spiritual; to be manifest in any manner." All that is lacking in Webster is a knowledge of the New Church idea of existence; this can be obtained only from the Writings. But his definition of the word is sufficiently explicit and clear to not only justify, but to even demand its use for the translation of the Latin existere. In any case the translator would have been better advised had he retained the simple word exist and explained its use in a footnote. As it is, he has resorted to various expedients to translate the word, and in nearly every case he has so far fallen short that he feels obliged to add the Latin. Thus he translates: "Comes into actual existence (exisit)" (Li. 39), "Comes forth into manifest being (existit)," (F. 14), "Derives its actual existence or manifestation (trahit suum existere), (Li. 48), and so in other cases. The word is interpreted rather than translated.
The rendition of the word proprium is even more remarkable: first, because Swedenborg in his first use of that word (S., 60), distinctively defines it, and second, because the word itself, printed in italics, is frequently retained in the translation. Yet in a number of cases, without any apparent necessity, an attempt is made to translate it.
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Thus, Si (sc, falsum) cohaeret cum amore proprii et inde faustu sapientiae, (S., 92), is rendered "If it chimes in with his own love (amor proprii) and the derivative conceit of his own wisdom" ("chimes in with," involving the idea of what is alien or separate, does not translate cohaere); in proprio voluntatis (Li., 51), "in what is of self in the will,"--the Latin words being added. Sometimes the Latin is omitted, as in Cogitat ex suo proprio, "thinks from what is proper to himself;" cum non in suo proprio sunt, (Li., 7). "When not under the influence of self."
In the preface to the volume under review, the translator gives the reasons which have led him to translate the word instaurare by "to set up anew," after noting that the word has hitherto been translated "to establish," he goes on to say that it "unquestionably includes the idea of renovation or renewal, of restoration, and of erectioin (not of original erection but of the setting up again of something that has fallen down)," and that "it is evident that "establish" represents it very imperfectly. Moreover, a church that is established or an established church has another meaning. For 'establish' Swedenborg uses the word stabilire." We find ourselves quite unable to agree with the change thus proposed. An investigation of the word instaurare, both etymologically and from the point of view of usage, conclusively shows that the reasons given for the change are not well founded, and we trust that the translator will reconsider the matter.
Swedenborg never uses the word stabilire in connection with the establishment of the church: that word is used solely in the sense of confirmation in ultimates, and is thus used only in connection with the confirmation of law, order, or doctrine. The adoption, therefore, of the proposed new rendering of instaurare, would involve the entire elimination of the word "establish" as applied to the church.
The lexicons define instaurare as "to renew, repeat; to repair, restore: to erect, to make." But a study of the classical usage of the word shows that the idea of renewal is merely an accessory idea, involved sometimes in the sentence, but never in the word itself. In its etymological sense instaurare, from the Greek root STA, means simply to set up, make to stand, erect; the particle IN merely adding the idea of place, as in the related word instituere.
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There is, etymologically, absolutely no suggestion of the meaning "to renew," "to restore," or "to repair that which has fallen down." In confirmation of this we have so high an authority as Riddle and Arnold's English-Latin Lexicon, where we read (s. v. Renew) "To begin anew, renovare, renovare et insaturare, instaurare de integro. But "instaurare" of itself never means to renew, but to enter upon, etc.; see Deed. Syn. 4, p. 300."
But more important than the classical usage is the use of the word in the Writings. By far its most common use there is in speaking of the establishment of the new heaven, or of a new Church. It is manifestly evident that in all these cases the word contains no idea of "setting up again something that has fallen down," for one would hardly speak of setting up again, or renewing a new heaven or a new church. The translator himself seems to recognize the incongruity of such a rendering, for he translates the words novam ecclesiam instauraret, "set up a new church," (L., 20): but at the same time he adds in a footnote that the meaning is "to set up, not originally, but in restoration and repair." Quite evidently opposed to this interpretation are those passages in the Writings, where instaurare is used of the establishment of the Most Ancient Church (E. 664, 294), which was certainly not a renewal or restoration. The other uses of the word found in the Writings only go to further confirm this view. It is used in connection with the establishment of the church in man, not by doctrine but by life; of the establishment of a priest in his office: of the establishment of the Reformed Church by Luther: and of the establishment of the Quaker sect. In all these cases the idea of renewal is entirely inadmissible.
Even the words "to set up" used by the translator in the passage noted above, by no means fully express the meaning of the Latin instaurare. That word involves more than mere setting up: it involves the idea of setting up or founding so as to secure permanent existence, which is exactly the idea contained in the English word establish. This is indicated by the fact that while instaurare is constantly used in speaking of the establishment of the four genuine churches, it is never used of the Jewish church, which was merely the representative of a church, instituere being always used in its place (See A. C. 2986, which treats of the establishment of the Ancient and First Christian Church, but of the establishment of the Jewish Church.)
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That instaurare involves the idea of permanence is also indicated by the use of the word in speaking of the Christian Church being universally established in Europe (E. 670); and of the difference between the commencement of the New Church and its establishment (E. 665) "To set up this word is also used of the New Church; but instaurare should always be translated establish.
We have several times referred to the translator's notes, but they call for some further notice. There are about thirty of these notes, philological, bibliographical, glossarial, and interpretative. We have already alluded to the philological. The bibliographical are interesting and valuable both to the reader and the student. Most of the glossarial notes seem to be addressed to the reader not acquainted with Swedenborg, as they explain such familiar terms as Affection of truth, Divine proceeding, proprium, etc. Glossarial notes, however, being of general rather than specific application, would be of greater use if they were gathered together at the end of a work rather than inserted as footnotes. This would also allow the translator to enlarge his glossary, and would give him greater latitude in making his definitions. With the definitions in the present volume we are not always in agreement, as in the case of scientia and cognitiones. The note defining the word proprium seems unnecessary, since in the sentence immediately following that to which the note is appended, Swedenborg himself defines the word. Swedenborg's definition is, "Man's proprium is the love of self and the derivative conceit of self-intelligence" (S., 60), and this is sufficiently clear for all ordinary purposes. We imagine that the definition in the footnote, introducing, as it does, a phase of the meaning entirely different from that presented by Swedenborg, will be productive of confusion in the minds of most readers. That definition is, that the proprium is "that in man which results from the appearance that he lives. . . from himself . . . On this appearance is based our sense of individuality-our sense of self-our proprium."
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It would have been better to have left the word, as defined in the text, to speak for itself.
Of strictly interpretative notes there is but one, which thought very short is particularly objectionable as touching upon a question which is a matter of considerable controversy in the Church. The note is appended to the words, "In the Revelation after a description of the state of the Christian Church as it would be at its end, and as it now is. . ." To the word "now," the translator adds the note, "That is, in 1763." Is there any special reason for thus calling the attention of the reader to the fact that the work was written in 1763? This fact is plainly stated on the title-page and repeated in the preface. We can imagine but one reason for the note, and that is that the translator wishes to impress upon the reader the idea that the word "now," with all that it involves, is definitely limited to the year 1763; and, with this, to impress the further idea that the state of the Christian world, referred to in the text, is not at the present day what it was in 1763. This may be the opinion of the translator, but, as is well known, it is not the opinion of a large class of earnest students of the Writings. In any case, why not leave the reader to form his own opinion? It is the experience of this danger of having the opinions of translators thrust upon the attention of readers, that has led the Church to become almost unanimous in the opinion that all notes of an interpretative character should be excluded from editions of the Writings. Not that we would hold that such notes are necessarily harmful, or indeed without their value, but it is manifest that editions containing them will be more or less limited in circulation to those who are in sympathy with the opinions of the commentator. At the present day, it seems best that editions of the Writings be free from all comments, that they may be available for the use of the whole church.
We would not wish to close this review without a reference to some valuable features of the volume before us. The Index of Scripture passages, arranged from the Latin by the Rev. C. G. Hubbell, and the Index of Words, which is in the nature of a concordance, compiled by the Rev. Charles H. Mann, will be found useful to the studious reader.
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It is to be regretted that no other edition of the Four Doctrines is published with indices.
Another valuable feature of the work is the inclusion of that little known but extremely important tract "The Nine Questions." The editor, following the policy adopted in the American Society's former edition, has inserted the work at the end of the Doctrine of the Lord. Unfortunately it has never been included in the English editions of the Four Doctrines.
In common with other students of the Writings we owe to the labors of the respected author of the Concordance more than we can express. For that great work his name will always be remembered by the whole Church with affection and esteem. It has been, therefore, with particular regret that we have felt compelled to thus adversely criticize his translation of the Four Doctrines, and our regret is not the less keen when we call to mind the smooth and flowing English of which the translator has shown himself to have command; it gives us a hint of the translation for which we had hoped. But faithfulness to the original and not a smooth and flowing English is the essential thing.
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. History is making here, real live enduring history. There is no need for the chronicler at Bryn Athyn to blow bubbles out of common soap in order to present a respectable mass of news. The boiling down process is imperative. But "Facta non verba." In the first place, we slipped through a scarlet fever scare, which threatened to close up school and quarantine the boys' dormitory, with one case--and that case is now on his feet and demanding back meals.
Mercury, like its mythological prototype, celebrated its advent by stealing--not Apollo's cattle--but the "Life's" news notes. However the editor of the "Life" only smiles; he has mightier things in his quiver. Everyone enthusiastically welcomed the new arrival, but the welcome was not always substantial. The use of Mercury is undeniably present and pressing, but the means of support for that use are a little bashful about presenting themselves. Financial embarrassment or annihilation are imminent.
The Swedenborg birthday banquet was a bright page on our social calendar. Our veteran toastmaster, the "school-boy" logician, contributed his usual share of epigrams, flashes of wit and solid argument. The first three speeches were made by the theological students, two of whom read papers. The themes were, "Swedenborg in the dawn of the new dispensation" (Mr. C. R. Pendleton), "Swedenborg the wonderful" (Mr. R. W. Childs), and "Education in heaven" (Mr. F. E. Gyllenhaal). Mr. Pitcairn spoke in appreciation of the hope for the future as seen in the present. The Rev. Wm. H. Alden favored us with a speech, "The New Church, one and indivisible." Bishop Pendleton took occasion of this celebration to make public announcement of the names of the girls' and boys' dormitories, Glenn Hall and Stuart hall--so named in commemoration of two of the staunch supporters of the Academy movement, who devoted their life to its cause--Robert Morris Glenn and the Rev. James P. Stuart.
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Lincoln's birthday was celebrated by a party given by the Bryn Athyn Social Club, characterized by remarks by Bishop Pendleton, Mr. Pitcairn, Mr. Hicks and Mr. Price. Mr. Pitcairn gave a graphic account of President Lincoln's famous "underground" trip from Harrisburg to Washington, which trip was partly arranged for by the speaker, who also was with President Lincoln during a portion of the journey.
The singing of our school and congregation is steadily improving under the leadership of Mr. Raymond Pitcairn. The choir now has regular practice, but the singing is greater than the attendance.
The new organ (new since December) is being ably handled by Mr. Walter F. Van Horn.
The Sunday evening lectures have been discontinued. R. W. C.
PITTSBURG, PA. My rival, the enterprising correspondent for the news columns of Mercury, having- pretty well plundered my Christmas budget, I will content myself with merely seconding his remarks. The Children's service was a truly delightful and satisfying one to heart and eye and ear, and the many who had labored so faithfully toward the success of the celebration must have felt amply repaid when they saw the radiant faces and the little hands filled to overflowing with "presents from the Lord."
On Christmas day the Holy Supper was administered, but owing to the severity of the weather comparatively few were able to be present. The lack of numbers, however, did not take away from the spirit of the occasion; the beautiful salutation, centuries old, "Peace on earth, good will to men," rang in every heart, and the little church seemed full to overflowing With Christmas cheer.
The social event of the month was a birthday party given by Mr. and Mrs. Uptegraff for their daughter, Marguerite. Dancing and cards filled up the evening, which was a very pleasant one and much enjoyed by all present.
During the holidays following Christmas, our pastor, Mr. Pendleton, and his wife went South.
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Mr. Brickman and Mr. Stebbing both preached for us during Mr. Pendleton's absence.
Our celebration of the anniversary of Swedenborg's birthday was held on the Wednesday evening following the 29th. A very nice supper was served by some of the ladies, and after partaking thereof, the intellectual celebration commenced. Mr. Edward Boericke was a most genial master of ceremonies. "The Church" was, of course, the first toast. A toast to Swedenborg followed. Mr. Macbeth in responding brought out particularly the idea that it is Swedenborg's work rather than his personality that we honor. Mr. Curtis K. Hicks followed Mr. Macbeth with a few remarks on the dispassionate style of the Writings, reflecting to a certain degree the Preparation of Swedenborg as a revelator by means of science and philosophy. Mr. Alex. P. Lindsay delivered an eloquent speech on the influence of heredity, nationality and environment upon Swedenborg's character. Mr. Pendleton dwelt upon the nobility and honor of Swedenborg as a man, and pointed out that where these characteristics were recognized it would and no; a little in dispelling doubt concerning the truth of his spiritual visions. He added in this connection that faith in the Writings is threefold: First, confidence in the word of Swedenborg; second, rational conviction, and third, the perception of truth. Mr. Edgar Lindsay spoke of the indirect effect of our confidence in Swedenborg in influencing our relations toward our fellow-Newchurchmen. Mr. John Pitcairn gave us a very enjoyable account of the celebration in Bryn Athyn on the previous Sunday evening. Remarks were made by Mr. Schoenberger, Mr. Boericke, and others. The spirit and sphere of the occasion were unusually inspiring, and the evening ended with a toast to "Our own Academy," and with the same dear old song. K. W.
MIDDLEPORT, O. We fancy we feel a little quickening of life and courage and hope in the church in Middleport. We have been quite gay the last two weeks first came a social anything at Mrs. Grant's to meet Mr. Thomas Grant, her grandson, who stopped here a few days on his way to Pittsburg, where he is to make his home for a time. There were toasts and a few short speeches, the Church, as usual, being the centre of thought and affection, and there resulted a warming of our hearts that was noticeable in the sphere of worship and classes subsequently.
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Eight days later followed the celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday. This was also at Mrs. Grant's home, in the same big room in which the Church Society was organized forty years ago. Toasts were proposed to the Church, the Priesthood, the Academy, to New Church Brotherhood, to our absent ones and to several other worthy subjects. We considered Swedenborg as a citizen and as an instrument of Divine Revelation. One or two songs were sung appropriate to each toast, and finally we started in to sing everything in the book--and almost succeeded.
Last Saturday night (February 4th) we met again, this time at the home of Mr. I. S. Boggess to celebrate his sixtieth birthday anniversary. This, tool was a very pleasant occasion. There is a quickening of the affection for the Church and of the understanding of her truths as a result of these social gatherings when subjects pertaining to the Church art considered, that cannot be gained in any other way.
The new board of trustees elected January 1st prepared a constitution in harmony with the requirements of the General Church, and submitted it to the Society January 15th. After some slight changes it was adopted, and on the 29th the book being ready, a new enrollment of the members was made. Seven members were admitted from various places in this vicinity, and another application has since been received. There have been ten applications for membership in the General Church in this neighborhood during the last few months. The work is opening up all around us faster than we could have expected. Good sound work was done in this part of the State forty and fifty years ago, as well as since, and there are remains of it in many places that may yet he awakened into life. A very enjoyable trip was made to Waverly and Givens last week. At the latter place the wives and babies of Mr. S. A. Powell's two sons were baptized. The Church has no more loyal member than Mr. Powell.
It ought to be put on record that we have here a class for the study of Swedenborg's science. The young men, to the number of four, meet with the minister for this purpose once a week.
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We began modestly with "Tremulation," but may rise to the consideration of the sublimest themes. W. L. G.
TORONTO, ONT. During the past few months the Olivet church has somehow failed to record its proceedings in your honored columns. This has been due to no inactivity or apathy on our part, as is proven beyond a doubt by the announcement within a year of no less than five engagements in our Society. It may be that the chroniclers themselves have been much "engaged." Conditions in Toronto at present are most happy and conducive to the true material growth of the Church. On Sunday, January 22d, a new recruit was added to the ranks of the General Church, in the person of Mr. Wm. C. Swayze; was baptized by our pastor.
Celebrations in commemoration of Swedenborg's Birthday were held here on Friday, January 27th. During the afternoon a supper and social were given for the children, at which essays were read by the little ones, on the subject of Swedenborg's life. In the evening a social was held by the Society. A most instructive article by Prof. Odhner, published in the Life some years ago, entitled "Swedenborg, the Man who Dared to Tell and to Do the Truth," was read by the pastor, and toasts were ably responded to by several of the gentlemen. Lantern slides, illustrating scenes of Swedenborg's life and activity, including portraits of himself and friends, had been procured from Bryn Athyn, and a very interesting magic lantern entertainment concluded a profitable and enjoyable evening.
On Friday evening, January 13th, the young folks showed their appreciation of the splendid sleighing provided by the weather man, by holding a driving party. After a jolly ride a sumptuous supper was partaken of by all at the church. M. S. C.
BERLIN, ONT. Swedenborg's Birthday was celebrated with a banquet on Saturday evening, January 28th. There were four addresses: Swedenborg, the Gentleman, by Mr. Samuel Roschman; Swedenborg, the Worker, by Mr. Rudolf Roschman: Swedenborg, the Patriot, by Mr. Jacob Stroh: Swedenborg, the New-churchman, by Rev. F. E. Waelchli.
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Each address was followed by toasts and songs, suggested by the remarks of the speaker. The concluding toast was to the Young People, who had planned and prepared the banquet. Several of the "elders" expressed their high appreciation of the work the young people are doing in providing the enjoyable social life we are having this year, and encouraged them to continue in it. On the following day, Sunday, the subject of the sermon was: "The Second Coming, effected by the instrumentality of a man." (T. C. R. 779, 780) W.
COLCHESTER, ENGLAND. Our Children's Christmas party, on December 29th, was an eminently successful affair at which sixty-one persons were present. On entering the prettily decorated room, we found a great surprise, which had been held in, store for us, namely, a Christmas tree heavily laden with presents. Both tree and presents were the gift of our friend, Mr. Locke, who also provided us with the tea--meaning the meal as well as the beverage. After tea, and while the more ambitious parts of our program were in preparation, we had recitations by the younger children, panorama, etc. Then came the first big item of the evening,-"Fairyland." This was presented by the younger children. It afforded us great pleasure, and gave abundant evidence of the labor and care, both in the training of the children and in the matter of the costumes, which had been bestowed upon it by Mrs. and Miss Gill. The scene opened with Fairyland's king and queen enthroned in state and surrounded by their fairy court. Then came the gracious reception of their visiting subjects--our aid favorites, Jack and Jill, Humpty Dumpty, Jack Horner, etc., etc., each of whom was addressed by the king. The addresses were interspersed with singing by the fairies, and the whole scene concluded with a dance.
Our second presentation was "Dolly and the Doctor," given by three of the children, after which followed the old-time favorite, "Cinderella," presented by twelve of the older children. The dresses and costumes contributed to produce some very pretty and effective scenes, while the children entered well into the spirit of their parts. We all felt greatly indebted to Mrs. Bedwell for the labor which she had bestowed on the preparation of this piece.
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Then came the lighting of the Christmas tree and the distribution of presents by "Father Christmas," who was well represented in the person of Master Locke. The evening closed with hearty cheers for the friends who had contributed so much to make this social a record one both in the quantity and quality of its pleasant features.
One of the most interesting landmarks of the passing years, which we have annually enjoyed in Colchester, is the New Year's Social at the studio. On January 5th another link was added to the long chain. As usual we met at the invitation of our hospitable friends, Mr. and Mrs. Gill. We were first delighted with an exhibition, in the studio, of cinematography pictures presenting a variety of interesting subjects, some of them strikingly beautiful. After this, a bountiful supper was served in the reception room, a gramophone supplying us with an excellent selection of music. Then followed toast. In response to "The Academy," Mr. McQueen spoke of some of the uses performed by the General Church outside its own borders, chiefly by means of the Life and other publications. He also gave us several profitable instances of "ourselves as others see us." Mr. Czerny, responding to the toast "Our Pastor," dwelt on the importance of the priesthood,--its exalted use and the necessity of having men set apart and specially trained, if those uses were to be efficiently performed.
After the toasts various games were set on foot, and it was not until the early hours of January 6th that this delightful social was brought to a close. F. R. C.
FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES. The committee appointed by the meeting of the GENERAL CONVENTION in Washington, to devise measures for increasing the usefulness of Convention Meetings, has published in the Messenger a request for suggestions looking to this end. The committee is the result of a wide-spread feeling that meetings of the Convention should have more of the devotional and less of the business element than is now the case.
The BROOKLYN Society tendered a reception on January 6th, to the Rev. and Mrs. J. C. Ager, in honor of the completion of Mr. Ager's fortieth year as pastor.
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Among the addresses made at this meeting was one from a local Presbyterian minister. Many letters and telegrams were read, among the senders being the president of the Union Theological Seminary, ministers of the New Church, and ministers of the Presbyterian, Congregationalist, Reformed, Episcopalian, Methodist and Unitarian churches.
Swedenborg's Birthday was celebrated by the BALTIMORE Mission at a special service attended by twenty-four persons. The church was decorated for the occasion, and the services included an address by the pastor, Rev. G. L. Allbutt, and a sermon by the Rev. L. H. Tafel.
Swedenborg's Birthday was also celebrated by several of the parishes of the Chicago Society. At Englewood it was celebrated by the Sunday School on January 28th, the North Side Sunday School being also present by invitation. Essays on Swedenborg were read by three boys from the latter school. All joined in singing "Our Glorious Church" and the "Swedenborg Birthday Song." This is the first mention we have seen of the latter, unless it refers to a hymn by Miss Plummer, published in the Academy Song Book. After the singing came the "Swedenborg Birthday game," originally introduced at Englewood last year.
The celebration by the Englewood parish consisted of a special service at which were read passages concerning the revelation made by the Lord through Swedenborg (T. C. R. 846, 847.)
A special service was also held by the North Side parish, where the Rev. O. L. Barker gave an address on what Swedenborg says of himself in regard to his intromission into the spiritual world. Mr. Schreck was the preacher at both services.
At Humboldt Park the day was celebrated by the local Young People's League. Papers were read on Swedenborg's biography, on his personal life, on Swedenborg as a philosopher, as a seer, and as a Theologian. Three of these papers, including the last two, were by young ladies.
The Rev. F. A. Gustafson is conducting regular Sunday services at Rockford, Ill.
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The Rev. Messrs. C. A. Nussbaum and C. A. Landenberger have consented to fill the pulpit for the ST. LOUIS Society until summer. They are making diligent use of the register of visitors at the Swedenborg House, sending announcements of services to all addresses in St. Louis.
At a meeting of the ministers of the Illinois Association and friends, a committee was appointed with the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, chairman, to take preliminary steps looking to a repetition at the Centennial Exposition to be held in PORTLAND, Ore., next June, of what was accomplished in St. Louis. The committee has already secured the promise of space in the exposition grounds, and now calls for subscriptions.
SWEDEN. One of the most active members of the New Church in Sweden, Mr. Zacharias Edward Abrahamsen, passed into the spiritual world on November 26, 1904, at the age of seventy-four years. Born and bred in the New Church, he remained throughout life a faithful and liberal supporter of the Church. He was one of the leaders of the little society in Stockholm, which existed there for many years previously to the more general organization which was effected in 1874, and he afterwards took a prominent part in all the local and national uses of the Church in Sweden. He was one of the few who believed that the Writings of the New Church are the Word of God. "If they are not the Word," he said to the writer. "I'll have nothing to do with them." He was an hospitable, genial and energetic man, beloved and respected by all who knew him.
New Members of the General Church, January, 1905. 1905
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
Mr. AUSTIN H. EBLIN, of Rutland, O.
Mrs. JULIA EBLIN, of Rutland, O.
Mrs. ADA L. STEVENS, of Rutland, O.
Mr. HERBERT A. ASHLEY, of Wivenhoe, Essex, England.
Mrs. BEATRICE S. ASHLEY, of Wivenhoe, England.
Mrs. EVALINE DAVIS, of Middleport, O.
Mr. WILLIAM A. HANLIN, of Middleport, O.
February, 1905.
Mrs. W. THERESE SCHWENK, of Meriden, Conn.
Mr. LEO C. WILLIAMS, of Middleport, O.
Mr. WILLIAM CLIFFORD SWAYZE, of Toronto, Ont., Canada.
Notices. 1905
MEMBERSHIP IN THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
In answer to inquiries it should be made known that any adult person, having received the Baptism of the New Church, is eligible for membership in the General Church of the New Jerusalem, on sending personal application addressed to the Bishop of the General Church. Application blanks may be obtained from the undersigned or from anyone of the Clergy of the General Church. The names of new members will hereafter be reported in the New Church Life.
COUNCIL MEETINGS. C. TH. ODHNER 1905
The Council of the Clergy and the Executive Committee of the General Church will meet this year in Pittsburgh, Pa., in the month of June, the exact date to be announced later.
C. TH. ODHNER,
Secretary.
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Title Unspecified 1905
APRIL, 1905. No. 4.
SWEDENBORG'S SCIENCE A TRUE ULTIMATE OF SPIRITUAL TRUTH. Rev. G. C. OTTLEY 1905
It has been said on high authority that nothing is really "enduring" in science, since the facts and theories of one day are apt to be remodeled and recast at another period of the world's progress, and that nothing seems to remain of the elucubrations of the scientific mind except the purely historic aspect or phase.
How, then, can we legitimately claim that Emanuel Swedenborg's work as a man of science is of an enduring, permanent character and interest to the human race? The answer is simple: he above all men of science, past or present, and almost alone among them, endeavored to approach the external,--the factor of nature and creation,--from the standpoint of the Divine and the eternal, and he, therefore, gave them a vitality, a reality, which the hypotheses of the day,--those misshapen offspring of the scientific brain,--must ever fail to impart to them. Starting, therefore, from the principle, "that all things in the world originated from . . . one single fountain head and one primitive cause" he laid the basis of a stupendous system of Natural Philosophy in his first great scientific work, The Principia, published by him in 1734 at Leipsig and Dresden.
Now, what is the end of this work as compared with what has issued from other scientific sources? Its end and object is to show us that the world was created by its sun, which, as a stupendous ball of "pure fire," has brought forth the planet in which we live and the other heavenly bodies in which men live and breathe and lead human lives.
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The sun of this world is, therefore, made the center of creation and the first proximate cause of its existence; just as in Geometry the center is made the proximate cause of the circumference and not vice versa, which is the way of all madness and folly. But do we not see lurking in this very conception of the true origin of the universe, from its "natural" center, the spiritual truth subsequently revealed in the Divine Love and Wisdom that there is also a spiritual sun which is the first proceeding of God-Man, and which is the concealed parent of the natural sun, which it produced in time by correspondence, and with which, indeed, it makes one as cause and effect, as soul and body, as internal and external?
In the Divine Love and Wisdom it is written: "It is highly necessary to know that there are two suns, one spiritual and the other natural. . . . Unless this be known, nothing concerning creation and concerning men . . . can be rightly understood." (D. L. W. 107)
In assigning, therefore, to the natural sun of the Universe such a magnificent function or use,-that of calling into existence a planet or world,--he was laying the basis, although unconsciously, of a true natural idea of creation on which a spiritual idea could be built up. Accordingly, the student of the Divine Love and Wisdom, when he peruses the pages which are illumined by the great truths enumerated above about the "two suns" and their absolute necessity, sees at once the scope and significance of the Doctrine set forth in the Principia which he instinctively or naturally calls to mind.
In that case the natural has supplied a true basis for the apprehension of a highly important spiritual truth: a "highway" between Egypt and Israel has been opened up, never on this earth to be closed again by appearances or fallacies. But where else shall we look for such teaching on the natural plane?
If you turn to the best text-books extant and which purport to deal with great astronomical facts, you will be told that the Sun which is the centre of the Universe,--its very foils et origo--is simply "the remaining intensely hot nucleus of the original nebula from which heat is still radiated to the furthest part of the system," i. e., a "nebula which is a cloudy mass of matter, like one of those nebulous luminous clouds which can be seen in the heavens."*
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But such a "Sun" as the Science of the Twentieth Century would give us as a starting point or as a centre, "the remaining intensely hot nucleus of the original nebula," must necessarily contain within it those elements of exhaustion, of depletion, and final extinction, which are so clearly characteristic of all earthly and created substances. Generally so, and in keeping with this idea of the sun, its heat and light are gradually and steadily being exhausted, and we are told on the highest authority that it is simply a question of time when the sun will become a huge mass of ice on its way to the original chaos.
* See Earliest Conditions of the Globe, and the Nebular Hypothesis, p. 301, by Sir Archibald Geikie, F. R. S.
"Let us hope," says a writer, facetiously, in The Tilules, "when this state has been reached, the world will begin anew a fresh career." Yes; it is to be intensely "hoped" that this will be the instinctive exclamation of all lovers of the human species.
Where, however, is the idea of permanence, of eternal subsistence in such an idea of creation?
"If the foundations be destroyed what shall the just do?" will be the enquiry of every believer in Divine Revelation. What, indeed? If the sun on which the Natural depends for its existence, is, at some time or other,--I believe, according to Lord Kelvin's elaborate calculations, some fifty millions of years hence,--to be emptied of all its heat and light, what will become of the function, the use of the spiritual Sun which acts through the natural sun as a cause through its effect?
It does not need a transcendent genius to see what a fiasco would ensue and what a day-dream existence would finally become.
But if on the most external plane, the plans of heat, life, motion, and matter, we cannot go to the cosmological science of the day for the genuine principles of creation, shall we be in a better plight by knocking at the door of the other sciences,--say, for instance, physiology and the cognate sciences, which profess to teach something about man as the spiritual centre of the Universe, as the "end" of creation?
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Shall we learn anything of the human, as contradistinguished from the merely mechanical and animal, by consulting the works of anatomy and physiology in current use? "In no science," says Wilkinson, that master interpreter and exponent of Emanuel Swedenborg's physiology, "does the present state of knowledge appear so manifestly as in physiology; in none is the handwriting on the wall so plain. . . . Chemistry and cell-germs are the walls on which the lightning writes. Well may we call them walls; for it is impossible to conceive anything more limitaneous; prison starts us in the face while we are in that company. Who of woman born call go further than to distill himself into gas, or to pound himself into cells? Annihilation, which God forbid, must be the next stage of smallness. These respective doctrines are the last solid points which are possible, and by nature itself there is no passage beyond them. After these, the scientific men themselves must even see; for already their watchword to each other is, 'Hail, Rubble Brother! Hail, nucleated Cell!'"
Such being the mournful fact, no wonder the brilliant author of the "Human Body and Its Connection With Man," says, later on: "We have no faith in the present state of the sciences, excepting as the ministers of some industrial city. For educational purposes they are almost worthless. . . . For spiritual purposes they are equally negative."
And so they are, particularly in the domain of physiology and anatomy. And why? Because true physiology, as contradistinguished from mere organology, has for its end and purpose to teach us what man, as a whole and as a unit, is,--an heir of immortality and an organ receptive of the highest life that can be communicated from the Living God in the Heavens. Its object is to lay bare the uses or penetrations and thus the spiritual and divine elements locked up in human nature, in the various organs of the human body, beginning with the brain and proceeding downwards through the heart, lungs, stomach, spleen, liver, pancreas, to the little toe, which is as distinctively human as every hair of man's head,--a most ultimate presentation of a spiritual principle which has its lodgment primarily in the mind and through the mind in the brain with its final manifestation on the surface of the body.
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But instead of all this true concatenation of principles, this linking together of the two worlds, of mind and matter, what have we everywhere in the text-books which you can pick up on any bookstall? You have what is euphemistically called "organology," the study of the separate organs, organs severed from all connection with their contiguous tissues, coverings and all else, and presented to you as in a butcher's shop, like so many pieces of beef and mutton.
"Where," you ask, "does the distinction coma in between the human and the animal in all this lovely collection of bits and scraps?" For, looking at them outwardly, with the naked eye, they seem to be pretty much identical; the bones, the muscles, the various ligatures seem to be all alike. The reply vouchsafed usually is not unlike the memorable reply given to the uninstructed boy, who impertinently asked the keeper of a famous menagerie, "which might be the lions and which the tigers?" "Oh! my little dear," significantly replied the keeper, "you simply pays your money and you takes your choice."
But what is at the bottom of this huge misconception and perversion of physiological science? It is the initial idea that "man," as a scientist has said, "is only an animal among other animals."
Of course, this can be said, in a measure truly enough, of certain scientific men, who, by perverting their rational faculty, have made themselves worse than animals, lower than the beasts of the field. But is it true of those who have not thus debased their rational faculty-that faculty which is the very home of the "human" as we are told?
It is in the mind where, in reality, the differentiations exist, and as they exist there, they also exist derivatively in the body for those who have eyes to see with: they exist in the human body and its organs where, in the language of the Animal Kingdom, the "soul shows itself a sin its own kingdom,"--where it speaks with a language so full of love and wisdom that one can only wonder at the state which does not permit of the language being heard.
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In this way I could take you, step by step, through some of the other sciences and show you that whatever may be ultimately the result, at present, so far from supplying those accurate, absolutely certain and appropriate "forms" which are so necessary to a proper apprehension of spiritual truths, they literally destroy the reasoning faculty of men,--first, by implanting fallacies in the natural memory, and secondly, by closing all access to spiritual truth, to that greatest of all spiritual truths, viz., that God is an Infinite Man, a being of Infinite Love and Wisdom who has created the Universe and all it contains in order to perpetuate His Divine Work, that of perennially filling the other world with the inhabitants of this world and by sustaining heaven itself by a continual stream of regenerated men. As members of the Church, therefore, which professes to have the "oracles of God," we should try to become acquainted with the great natural truths set forth in the Principia, the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, the Animal Kingdom, and, finally, the work On the Brain, a regular library in itself on that subject,--books which, happily, are being brought to light once more by the praiseworthy efforts of the Swedenborg Scientific Association. For as Dr. Wilkinson often says:
"Swedenborg's method opens up vistas for intuition and ultimate sciences and services such as no mind before has divined on supposed possible. He has finally led the way; not resting in the gifts of inward sense, but traveling into induction after induction, and coming down to the home land of experience with abundant fruits of deduction and use."*
* Swedenborg Among the Doctors, pp. 39, 40.
And the reason of all this is abundantly clear in the light of the Divine Teachings of the Church:--"Scientifics are the ultimate and outward things, in which interior things are terminated in their order, which, because they are last and outermost, are things of service more than the rest. Everyone may know, for what purposes scientifics may serve, if he reflects or inquires respecting their use.
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When he thus reflects on their use, he may also comprehend the nature of their use. Every scientific ought to be for the sake of some use, and this is its service." (A. C. 1486.)
CONJUGIAL LOVE Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1905
A SERMON
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh. (Gen. ii. 24.)
In the world around us all relationships, domestic, social and business, spring from the home where dwell husband and wife. The home is the centre from which springs the love of children, the love of relatives, the love of friends: to supply that home is the object of all business, to safeguard it the end of all government. Imagine, if you can, the home taken away, and you will see the utter destruction of society.
This condition of things on earth is derived from a spiritual cause to which what truly makes the home owes its origin. For conjugial love springs from the marriage of good and truth, which, inflowing into the natural, presents itself as this centre and chief of all loves. And the marriage of good and truth exists with man from the marriage of the Lord and the Church which is the conjunction of the Lord and man. This heavenly marriage is the supreme type of conjugial love and the home that springs therefrom; and as the latter is the origin and sustainer of all earthly society, so the marriage of the Lord and the Church is the centre and the sustainer of universal creation.
The Divine love wills that others should be created outside itself; and from that love the Divine wisdom performs the work of creation. The continual presence of the Lord in this work, ever giving and ever dreaming to be received, is seen, in an image, in all things of the created universe, and ultimately, in the universal conatus which lies in all things to the production of uses which shall finally result in the heaven of angels. Created forms are so many planes, and, in their own sphere, so many centres for new creations by which the Divine pursues its end of conjunction with man.
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And, therefore, the whole world of nature is a theatre representing the heavenly kingdom of the Lord and His conjunction with that kingdom.
This representation is seen in ultimate form in the continual procreations of the kingdoms of nature, especially of the vegetable and animal kingdoms. Here the work of creation goes on by means of created forms, but without the exercise, by those forms of free will. But in the human kingdom it goes on with the free co-operation of man. Therefore, at the close of the work of creation this duty of co-operation was enjoined on man, that, by him as a willing agent, that work might be continued. After God had created man "male and female," He said, "Be ye fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth" (Gen. i. 28). And because the Divine end is not realized in the case of man, as with animals, by the mere cohabitation of the sexes: therefore, in the words of the text, which give the first revealed law concerning marriage, it is said that a man shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh; by which is meant that the procreation of the human race and of the angelic heavens is to be effected by the marriage of one man with one wife, that is to say, by a spiritual marriage. This is not, indeed, explicitly stated, for the words are merely that "they shall be one flesh," and these words have been used, as they were used by the Jews of old, as a countenancing of polygamy. Among the Jews this perversion was permitted, and they were even allowed to think that the Divine Word sanctioned polygamy; but when the Lord came on earth and established a church which should be Christian. He again laid down this law of marriage, making it emphatically clear that marriage must be between one man and one wife. "Have ye not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female: and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh. Wherefore, they are no more twain but one flesh. What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Matt. xix. 3-5.)
In their proximate sense, the words thus quoted by the Lord, bid a man leave the home of his parents and cleave to his wife.
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He must, as it were, emigrate from his old home and build up a new home with one with whom he may live in a love which is spiritual, holy, pure and clean above every other love. This home is to be a new centre, a nucleus of a new colony, and the source of still other centres, by means of which the Lord will continue His work of creation for the upbuilding of the Church on earth and of heaven in the spiritual world.
"It is not good for man to be alone." So read the words that introduce this first revelation of the law of marriage. It is not good either for himself, or for the end of creation with which he is to co-operate. And in these words the young men and women of the Church receive the Divine command to seek marriage: to look to the time when they shall leave the home of their fathers, and with the loved one of their hearts shall found a new home, a new centre of the Church and a new seminary of heaven. It is not good that man shall be alone! It is not good that he shall wish to be alone: for in the wish is contained the destruction of the Divine end in creation. It is good that he cherish with himself the desires for marriage; that he put away everything that opposes this desire; and that he pray to the Lord that the desire itself may be realized. Let him cultivate the love of marriage; but let him learn the Divine laws of marriage, that the new home he is to found may be the abiding place of heavenly love and the birthplace of future angels. Because it is not good for man to be alone, therefore, to him who truly desires it the Lord provides and prepares one with whom he may live in such a heavenly home; and if, in His wisdom, He grants not that these two meet in this world, He will surely grant it in the world to come.
The new home which the words of the text command man to found is to be a new centre for the continuation of the never ceasing work of creation. Not merely a centre for the creation of new men and women, but also of a New Church with which the Lord can be conjoined, and in which His presence will be fruitful of new goods, and truths, new joys and delights to eternity. For the marriage of one man with one wife is an image of the marriage of the Lord and the Church, the offspring of which are spiritual goods and truths with their delights and blessings, and the chief fruit of which is Love truly Conjugial.
A new home which is a home of conjugial love is a centre for new creations, both internal and external, the establishment of a marriage between the Lord and His Church producing its spiritual offspring, and the establishment of the image of that marriage between a husband and wife, producing its natural offspring.
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The marriage of the Lord and the Church is taught in the words of the text, understood in their supreme sense. In that sense, by the father and mother are represented the celestial and spiritual man and the presence of the Lord there; and by the wife who was built from a rib, is represented the external or natural man, or his proprium. The Lord is continually present in the internal of man, but, from his very nature, man is ever prone to turn away from the Lord and to himself; and, therefore it is that the Lord, as it were, descends in order that He may manifest himself to man even in the natural, that He may there conjoin Himself with man and man with Him. In this sense the text foreshadows the future fall of man and his immersion in externals, from which the Lord redeemed him. For although these words are the first law of marriage, they do not describe the first state of conjugial love. This is described when it is said, "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." (Gen. i. 27.) Here is described the state of the celestial man with whom the Lord was conjoined by an internal way, and who was thus elevated above the natural. It was when men began, though ever so little, to turn away from internals to externals, when Adam, though in paradise, yet "found no help-meet for him," that the Lord took out the rib and forming it into a woman, gave forth the law, that "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife."
It was when man turned entirely away from internals, and immersed himself wholly in externals, that the supreme descent here foreshadowed was effected. Then the Lord descended from the heavens and became present with man, not only as celestial truth, but as natural truth in which He Himself could be seen and received, and by which man might be conjoined with Him.
An image of this descent is seen in the course of regeneration. The father and the mother are the celestial and spiritual things stored up in man's internals in infancy and childhood; and by a man's leaving them is meant that, as he comes into the natural and turns away from the God-given things which have made him a man, there must be an influx and descent from these celestial and spiritual remains that they may be present in the natural, and may there be confirmed and established and bring forth new and continual uses.
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So a son leaves his parents, that the life received from them may be perfected and become the source of new life and new uses. The celestial and spiritual remains, which are the Lord with man, do thus descend or inflow, when man receives and is ruled by the Lord's revealed truth; and they vivify that truth with man by conjoining it with the genuine affection of truth. This conjunction is called in the Writings, the implantation of truth in good.
There is still another aspect in which the text may be viewed, and one which is most familiar to the Church; namely, as describing how truth must be received by man that the Lord may be present with him. In this view of the text the father and mother are evils of the will and falses of the understanding which form the proprium of the man from which he has his life. Before man can receive the Lord, he must leave his father and his mother, that is, must shun these evils and falses as he is given to see them in the light of the truth.
It is the marriage of good and truth with man which springs from and corresponds to the marriage of the Lord and the Church, or the Lord's presence and conjunction with him,-that is the origin of conjugial love and can exist only in the life of conjugial love. Man was created, not a single, but a dual being He was created with heart and lungs, will and understanding,-but, above all, he was created male and female, who together, and only together, shall form one man, the male a form of wisdom, the female a form of love, and the two together a human form of love and wisdom. That man and woman together are man and an image of God, is taught plainly in the Word: "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created He them." It is also seen to the life in the spiritual world, where two consorts sometimes actually appear as a single man, because, as to their internals, they are really one; and we are told that they are greatly delighted when it is permitted them to so appear.
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It is said that man is a form of wisdom and woman a form of love, but by this is not meant that man receives Divine wisdom from the Lord, and woman Divine love, for the Lord is received solely as Divine wisdom or Divine truth. But man is created to receive this truth as intellectual truth, and woman to receive it as the affection of truth. It is these two, truth and the affection of truth, which make man the image of the Lord, for these alone receive the Lord, and make the Church with man. Neither man alone nor woman alone can receive the Lord and become an angel of heaven. For the Lord comes as truth to the wife through the husband, and as the affection of truth, which is conjugial love, to the husband through the wife.
Of course, every man and woman is created to receive good and truth from the Lord, and to be thereby regenerated. But it is nevertheless true that rational truths or truths in rational form, come to women through men; and the love of those truths comes to men through women. This does not alter the fact that women must in freedom receive the truth, and examine and perceive it according to their desire and disposition; nor does it alter the fact that men must receive the affection of truth. But neither of these things can be done without the instrumentality of the other sex. This was shown vividly in the spiritual world, where the feminine sphere was once separated from some men, whereupon they immediately began to reject conjugial love, and to become mere reasoners about truths, without any thought as to use. The same may be seen, to a slight extent, in this world, in places where men congregate together for long periods of time without the companionship of women. But, in this case, the sphere of the other sex is still about them as to their spirits.
Because of this natural and spiritual interdependence between the two sexes, therefore, there is implanted in each a desire for conjunction with the other. At first, this desire is merely love of the sex,-neither chase nor unchaste, and in some respects it is similar to that love with animals.
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But it differs in this essential respect, that, with man, love of the sex is the matrix in which may be formed the love of one of the sex,-conjugial love. But this love is formed, and the matrix opened, only in the case of those who are regenerated. In the case of others love of the sex becomes unchaste and sensual.
It is by means of the love of the sex, and, with the regenerating man, the love of one of the sex, that the Lord brings the two sexes together for mutual help in the work of regeneration. For women, from their loves, are affected by the other sex, and are disposed to receive the rational things which come to them through men, and, in the case of wives, through the husband. And men are likewise affected from their love of the sex, or of one of the sex, to receive the amenities and softness of life, either internal or external. Neither could be regenerated without the other, that is, if they were removed from the other as to spiritual spheres, or as to thought and affection.
According as a man is regenerating the marriage of good and truth in him, resulting from the presence of the Lord, makes him a form of heavenly wisdom. And as wisdom seeks its consort,-the love of that wisdom,-so the whole life of such a man breathes from the Lord a desire to be united in closest union with one wife, who shall become more and more the form of that love. So as a woman is regenerating, the presence of the Lord in her makes her a form of the love of wisdom, and she in like manner breathes forth the desire to be united with one husband who is the form of that wisdom. This is from the Lord, for the Lord's love for the human race, and His will that it shall be conjoined with Him goes forth as the universal conjugial sphere which, received by man, becomes in him conjugial love.
It is only as wisdom and the love of wisdom are united that either really exists. And so, it is only as man is united to his consort in the bonds of conjugial love, that he can be truly a man, a form of wisdom, or she truly a woman. We are taught that the marriage of good and truth is not full and complete except in the marriage of one man and one woman. By this is meant, that it is not complete in actuality or ultimate power; for with those who are regenerating, if unmarried, it is complete, in potency, according to their desire for genuine and pure conjugial love.
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When the one of the other sex is with whom the regenerating man can be united in conjugial love the Lord alone knows. But He, whose providence is especially over marriages, tells us that if we are in the stream of His providence we will be led to her. Moreover He does not leave us without indicates. In the account of the meeting of pairs in the other world, those indications are a mutual perception that the one was intended for the other; in other words, a mutual love at sight of each other. May we not regard such a love, even on earth, as an indication of Divine Providence? Surely we may, if we truly desire conjugial love and seek it. Man cannot help falling in love, he can only examine the quality of that love, and see that it looks to eternal union. If he does this, and prays to be guided by the Lord, and to be strengthened in the shunning of extra-conjugial love, then, surely, he may trust and believe that she whom he has met, and whom he loves, has been led to him because he can be united with her in the bonds of conjugial love. And still more will he be confirmed in this trust when he finds that love grows with them, and that they become more and more jealous of separation. Conjugial love is promised by the Lord to His New Church, and the promise is not a vain one. It is a promise for now, a promise for every man who will fulfill the conditions.
With those who remain in evils, the love of the sex still remains, but it has changed its character. It is no longer the simple love of the sex, as it is with the young, neither chaste nor unchaste; but it becomes the love of self in the sex, the love of lasciviousness, of adultery, of dominion. The man becomes more and more a form of the love of his own intelligence, and the woman a form of the love of her own beauty and power. There is no marriage of good and truth within them, but rather the utmost resistance to such marriage, and, therefore, their whole being breathes against conjugial love and marriage, and in favor of love of the sex. In the hells this love sometimes brings them into a state which is a horrible suggestion of conjugial love. But even this is only by fits and starts; for any relation which such a man and woman may have to each other is as the relation between two self-centered beings, who come together only for the sake of self-pleasure and of dominion, and who quickly drift apart when their evil ends are no longer satisfied.
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So far as the Lord is conjoined with a man, so far is that man in conjugial love, whatever his external condition may be. And so far as a man is not conjoined with the Lord so far he is not in conjugial love, but in the opposite,-and this whatever the appearance may be.
And what is said of a man may also be said of the Church which is the larger man. So far as the Church worships and acknowledges the Lord, so far is conjugial love cherished, and its laws learned and loved. And, conversely, so far as conjugial love is not cherished; or so far as the Church does not regard it spiritually as holy, pure and clean above all other loves; or so far as it does not learn and love the laws of that love, so far it does not spiritually see and worship the Lord.
The Church and the man of the Church are to be judged by their attitude to conjugial love, as to what is their attitude to the Lord. By this standard we may see the fearful state of the Christian world and the Christian Church; and may judge as to the reasons for the slow progress of the New Church, where the doctrine concerning conjugial love has been revealed for over a hundred and fifty years, and yet is but little regarded or studied. And, most important of all, we can see our own depraved state, and our need of constant self-examination, of prayer to the Lord and of Divine guidance.
In considering the subject of conjugial love, we must not confuse the effect with the cause. Because we may seem to live in peaceful and happy married life, we must not necessarily conclude that this is conjugial love; still less must we conclude this, because we may read and talk about conjugial love, or dwell on its beauty. Some from nature, others from habit, and still others form other causes, find it comparatively easy to live a happy and peaceful married life. We, in our Church, are accustomed to be taught as to the holiness and purity of conjugial love, and it is almost second nature to us to speak of it in the light of the doctrines.
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But conjugial love does not come naturally to any man. The only inclination that is natural to us is the unchaste love of the sex. This every man has from heredity, whatever he himself may think; for each one of us has devils in hell for his spiritual father and mother, and the evils from these parents, in whatever form they may come to us, are inmostly full of hatred against conjugial love, because against the marriage of good and truth, of the Lord and of the Church.
There is but one way in which conjugial love can be attained, and that is by its descent from the marriage of good and truth,-by the presence of the Lord and conjunction with Him. Nor can we ever be conjoined with the Lord except as we leave father and mother; for so long as we remain their children we can by no means become the children of God.
I repeat, these evils against conjugial love are present with every one, and they remain with him unless he has seen them and shunned them. If he has not done this, then a happy married life and the absence of trials, all count for nothing; there is no genuine conjugial love. None but spiritual men can have conjugial love, and none others can understand what it is. Therefore, when the Lord repeated the Divine law of marriage given to Adam, He added, "All men cannot receive this saying save they to whom it is given."
The evils against conjugial love are so prevalent with us, so potent in our thoughts and intentions, that it seems almost unnecessary to examine ourselves, yet the opposite is the case. By examination we see whether we are tending-we, who are apt to go on from day to day without much interior reflection on our spiritual situation. By self-examination, moreover, especially in regard to conjugial love, we see hidden evils we had not seen before,-and in the act of seeing and acknowledging, we confess them before the Lord. Especially do we see the origin of extra-conjugial love in the turning away from the Lord and the spiritual things of the Church.
If, then, we would cultivate this love, if we would see it again raised up in the Church, we must cultivate the love of spiritual things, for it is in these alone that the Lord is present and conjoined with us.
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It is not by being kind, considerate and courteous to our consort that conjugial love can be established, for all these things can the heathen do. But it is by receiving within us the origin of conjugial love, the marriage of good and truth. If there is no love of spiritual things, and still more if there is a distaste for them, then conjugial love is yet to be attained. And there is no love of spiritual things where there is no disposition to sometimes read and reflect upon them. What we love we think about. And there is little or no conjunction with our consorts in the spiritual things of the Church, unless we love at times to read and reflect heart to heart with them on such things. And all this is impossible unless evils are constantly shunned as sins against God; unless truth becomes the standard of our life and not the wayward impulses of our own nature. It is by these means, and not by the mere observance of external courtesies and kindnesses to the consort, that man is made spiritual and gifted with conjugial love; but let it also be borne in mind that these external marks of love and devotion are the bonds of conjugial love, without which it cannot exist. They distinguish the first blush of married life, when the skies were serene and when heaven itself seemed to come on earth and establish a paradise of which the consort was the fairest flower. May these tender bonds, these heavenly externals be ever strengthened. Let us as husbands observe the marks of tender love and devotion which we know so well are the signs of love among the angels: and let us do this with the end of shunning everything, internal and external, that opposes, dulls, or destroys that priceless jewel of our life,--conjugial love. The spring and source of that love--the spiritual marriage of good and truth--can not be established with man, except as he shuns evils, and receives from the Lord the genuine affection of truth; that is, except as he leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife. But no man can spiritually do this unless he is at the same time in the effort of shunning all that is extra- conjugial, and in the desire of living in spiritual and chaste love with his wife. "Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh." Amen.
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WORD. Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH 1905
III.
FULNESS, HOLINESS AND POWER IN THE LETTER.
In our studies of the Divine Word we have seen that in the Writings we have the very Word itself; the Divine Love and Wisdom, which make the Word and are the Word, laid bare and revealed as fully as can be done to minds dwelling in time and space.
This is Truth and the very and only Rock upon which the New Church can be founded that the gates of hell may never prevail against her.
Knowing this fact we must not lightly value the literal sense of the Word. For we are taught that,
". . . the Word in its literal sense is in its fulness, in its holiness and in its power; and since the Lord is the Word, being the all of the Word, it follows that the Lord in that sense is most eminently present, and that from that sense He teaches and enlightens mankind." (S. S. 50)
And also, "Thus the Word is the Word itself in the sense of the letter; for in this, within, it is spirit and life. . . . The spiritual sense and the celestial sense are not the Word without the natural sense which is the sense of the letter; for they are like spirit and life without a body. (S. S. 39)
And we are taught that the reason the Word is the Word itself in the sense of the letter and is not the Word in the spiritual and celestial senses, except these rest upon the literal sense, is that every Divine works done in fulness, therefore, in ultimates, and the Word is not the Word in fulness except in the natural sense.
In the Lord there is the trine of Divine Love, Divine Wisdom and Divine Use. These three cannot be separated and exist singly but only together and as they are together in their last, which is Use, therefore, neither Divine Love nor Divine Wisdom are ever presented except in Use; nothing celestial or spiritual is ever created without, at the same time, something natural which is their ultimate and is the body of which they are the soul.
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Every Divine work, therefore, proceeds from the spiritual Sun but does not exist or subsist until it assumes an ultimate form in the natural world. Its celestial and spiritual things have no priority as to time, for the Divine is at once in firsts and lasts. There is no time with Him, no measurable processes by which affection awakens thought and thought produces deed as with us. But with Him the three are one, and when any work is done in the ultimates of creation it exists simultaneously on all prior planes. The Lord did not first create the spiritual world and then subsequently create the natural. They were created simultaneously, the spiritual being prior in a spiritual idea but not as to time. The extent to which one world was created and finished and furnished was the extent to which the other world was created and finished and furnished. The spiritual world could not exist without the natural any more than life can stand forth without form to contain it. On the other hand, the natural could not come into being without the spiritual, any more than a body can be formed without a soul to form it. The Divine, because He operates in fulness, can do nothing except in ultimates; but when He creates the ultimate He creates at the same time all the intermediate degrees between Himself and the ultimate work. He creates the ultimates through and by the prior degrees; hence they are said to be first, but the priority is not priority of time. Nothing can come forth and exist in any heaven unless at the same time its ultimate can be produced on the earth.
Because the Divine operates only in fulness, or on all degrees at once, no angels or super-human beings could be created in the spiritual world. For the same reason regeneration must be begun in the world and cannot proceed beyond the degree opened while man lives in the natural world. For the same reason a revelation of Divine Truth must always be given among men in the world and cannot be given in Heaven apart from revelation on earth. And because the Lord operates in and by ultimates, He effects judgment in the spiritual world only by means of revelation given on earth.
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This was manifestly the case at His coming in the flesh and also at His second advent.
It is because fulness of power is in ultimates that the Lord willed to be born in the world that He might become Divine in lasts as in firsts. Before this He had operated through the angelic heavens; by the incarnation and glorification He put on His full Divine power in ultimates as He had had it from the beginning in firsts, and by this He reduced Heaven and hell into order and holds them so to eternity.
And the Word on earth was not only given as the basis and containant of the Word in the Heavens, but it continues to be the ultimate means of instruction even to the angels.
But in speaking thus of the Word on earth it is to be understood that the Word in its threefold form is meant. The Writings are also a natural, and, therefore, an ultimate form of the Word. They were given in the world through a man and are adapted to the natural mind. They are a Divine work in ultimates and are in fullness, holiness and power relative to the Word in Heaven; although their truths are not so ultimate, hence not so full, so holy or so powerful as the Word in the Old and New Testaments, where Divine Truth is given in sensuous and scientific forms. And yet it is to be remembered that because the rational truths of the Writings art never given apart from the letter of the Word, they never lack the fulness, holiness and power of the most ultimate forms of Divine Truth.
Divine operation in ultimates, and simultaneously in all prior degrees when in ultimates, may find illustration in the fact that all man's love and all his thoughts from love look to deed. What man loves he wills, and if opportunity is given he does. To will and not to do, if possible, is not to will; hence in man's spirit he continually does what he loves and thinks. Love and thought have no real existence apart from deed. But when the deed is done then all the love and all the thought which produced it are in the work, and then first they subsist.
There are two degrees in which the Lord is present in fulness; the one is above all finite consciousness, the other is in ultimates (A. C. 6473, 10042).
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For truth in its ultimate form contains all prior truths. All the Heavens together with man are in the letter of the Word, the Heavens being in the letter through the minds of men. The truths of the internal sense of the Word are various in different Heavens, but all truths and all goods are gathered up and contained in the Word as given to men on earth. All the celestial and all the spiritual truths and goods of all the Heavens are together in the sense of the letter.
It is in the Old Testament, where truth is given in most ultimate form, that the unity of God is most clearly taught and that the Decalogue is given. Upon these most general truths all spiritual life, even in Heaven, must forever rest.
Again: what would be the value to man or angel of all that is taught in the Writings of the wonderful processes by which the Lord glorified His Human, if it were not known from the New Testament that the Lord really came to earth and took our nature upon Him, and lived the life of a man here in the world? After these truths of the letter of the Word are fully established the mind does not dwell upon them but rises to a consideration of the internal things involved. But were there not these literal truths there could be no power in the internal truths; nap, there could be no internal truth.
The Lord's presence with every man and angel is in his natural, where his conscious thought is. It is by this that His presence can be perfectly adapted to every one. His presence in all the higher degrees of the human mind and soul is according to His presence in the natural. It is, moreover, only in the outmost degree that instruction and enlightenment are given. No truth is ever imparted from within. It comes in from without through sight or hearing or other or the bodily senses. What the senses report is recorded in the organic substances of the brain. These sense-impressions go no higher. They do not rise up to make intelligence or form any higher degrees of the mind. They form the lowest or sensual. But now, by influx from the spiritual world, man is enlightened in these ultimate forms of truth; judgment is formed, intelligence is built up. The same forms, reported through the senses, may serve to make one man wise and another insane, according to the use made of them.
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Nevertheless, it is true that without these sense-impressions no intelligence could be built up.
What is true of each individual is true also of the Gorand Mass composed of the Heavens and the earths. All intelligence given on internal planes must be based on truths revealed in outmosts. All new truth must he first revealed on the earth. Then the angels can enter into the myriads of ideas which compose these ultimate truths, and men in turn can he enlightened from Heaven to see many particulars not seen at first. But the angels cannot receive truth until it is known in ultimate form to men, so that their wisdom may be drawn from it and may rest upon it.
It is to be remembered that while power is in ultimates and Divine operation is there in fulness these are not there from the ultimates themselves, but from internal things The Word in the letter is the Word solely from the Divine Truth within the letter. Separated from its spirit the letter is dead. With men and angels the letter of the Word has power according to their knowledge and acknowledgment of the truth within the letter. Of the infinite fulness that is in the sense of the letter man can receive only so much as he is prepared to receive by a knowledge of rational or spiritual truth. Lacking this knowledge the precious things of the internal sense may instruct the angels while man reads the Word bodily, and through them his mind may be stored with remains to be opened in the other life; but the man does not rationally receive the internal sense nor does be have power in or by the letter to confuse falsity and to make progress in regeneration, unless he knows genuine truth. There is no truth and no true doctrine but what may be seen in the letter of the Word, may be drawn therefrom and confirmed thereby. And only doctrine that is drawn from the sense of the letter and confirmed by it has power in Heaven and from Heaven. And this is because Heaven inflows and the Divine operates only in the letter of the Word or in doctrine based on it; for here the Divine is in fulness, holiness and power, and nowhere else. If it were possible for a spiritual sense to be given apart from and not based upon ultimate truth it would have no power, even as a mind without a body would have no power and would be nothing.
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The truths of the letter of the Word are the first truths to be received. Rational truths cannot be seen before a rational mind is formed. Initiation into the Church must, therefore, be by the letter of the Word. And the general truths or doctrines of the letter, containing such things as are essential to salvation, serve forever as a firm basis to higher forms of truth.
Judgment and purification are always effected by the truths of the letter of the Word. Man perceives his evils only in ultimates (A. R. 6782) To conquer them he must have truths in ultimates. It is indeed from the Writings that the man of the New Church is enlightened to see his evils as sins; but he does not gain the full Divine power necessary to the conquest of sin, until he sees his rational truths confirmed by some "Thou shall not" of the letter of the Word. Here the full power of the spiritual sense and the help of Heaven operate in the letter.
The new understanding or rationality by which the Church is formed is built up principally by the Writings. The internal from which regeneration proceeds is formed by the truths of the Writings. But judgment and purification in the external man, that the internal may be established, are effected principally by the Word in the letter.
Therefore, the Word and the Writings are not to be separated any more than body and soul are to be separated; or than man's natural mind is to be separated from his rational. Nor could we separate them if we wished. The Lord Himself, through His servant, has drawn the genuine truth of the Word out of its letter and has revealed it and confirmed it by the letter. No doctrine of the Writings is taught apart from the letter of the Word. Therefore, every doctrine is in its fulness, holiness and power from the letter of the Word as it stands in the Writings, and we should have to do violence to the Writings themselves were we to separate any of their teachings from the holiness and power of the letter of the Word.
In the Writings the letter of the Word is not weakened or rejected, but takes on the glory of the internal sense.
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Now, even in the world, the sensual and scientific planes of the Word have the glory that they had with the Father before the world was created. By their close conjunction with the sense of the letter the Writings are not merely spiritual, as is the Word in Heaven, but have flesh and bones. Here is a complete Divine presentation of the Word which was with God and was God. And as in the Lord the Human was in the Divine and the Divine in the Human, the union being reciprocal, so the literal Word is in the Writings and the Writings are in the Word. And he who separates them and makes one more Divine than the other is in danger of finally denying the Divinity of both.
VEGETABLE SEEDS AND THEIR COVERINGS. J. B. S. KING 1905
The existence of externals, and their function as protectors and containents of interior things, is an important and distinctive feature of New Church Doctrine and Philosophy. As a necessary consequent and correlative of internals, they are everywhere implied in the Writings, and in many places they are directly treated of. No better introduction to the subject can be found than Nos. 30 to 33 of the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, which end with the quotation from Isaiah: "And the Lord will create upon all the glory a covering." (iv. 5.) (Quod Jehovah creet super omni gloria obtegumentum.)
The universal doctrine of discrete degrees, the doctrine of the internal and external man, of the internal and literal sense of the Word, and the doctrine of the Incarnation and Glorification, all show at once to the Newchurchman the vast scope and importance of the subject of externals; and like all general truths and principles they bring many particulars into harmonious and orderly connection. For instance, many confusing details of anatomical science are brought into admirable order by a knowledge of the functions of various external capsules of different organs in the body.
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Yet this is a part of Anatomy that has been much neglected, and of which the import has been missed in a large measure by modern men of science. Thousands of isolated facts,--the accumulations of science,--need but the light of this doctrine to bring them into orderly sequence and connection. "Like a bird of paradise, it flies near the eye, even touching the pupil with its beautiful wings, and longing to be seen," but Science will not, see it. It almost seems as if the wonderful instrument--the microscope--which increases the power of the human eye by six hundred or more, has a blinding effect upon that interior eye of the understanding, by means of which the Doctrines of the New Church may be descried.
So far as the writer knows, there is, in English literature, but one attempt to deal with the subject of externals. Thomas Carlyle wrote a book that professes to treat of the philosophy of clothes, but it is admitted, even by Carlyle's admirers, to be ill-arranged and whimsical; and from a New Church view-point, it certainly displays small knowledge of the subject. Considering how much turgid eloquence and extravagance was engendered in Carlyle by his slender knowledge, one cannot help speculating as to what vertiginous heights he would have risen, had he possessed some of the light thrown upon the subject by the Doctrines.
Of tunics, veils, coats, husks, integuments, envelopes, skins and shells, all exhibiting and illustrating some modification of the function of an external, the natural world is full; but in nothing is so excellent an epitome of the subject shown as in natural fruits and seeds.
Seeds and fruits are very frequently mentioned in the Word and the Writings, and because of their important correspondences they are of special interest to Newchurchmen. In form and structure, these natural products are as various as art the species of plants existing upon the earth; they range in size from quite microscopic forms to huge structures weighing many pounds, like the pumpkin and the coconut but however diversified in form and structure, they consist essentially of an inner tender part, the embryo or germ of the future plant, and various coats, husks and coverings that surround and protect it.
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The covering that immediately surrounds the embryo, is called the endopleura or tegmen; outside this is the episperm or testa, which may be considered the outermost coat of the seed proper, but the whole seed with all its coats is usually embedded in the center of the fruit, which also constitutes several protective investments. These are in general, (1) the endocarp, often of a hard and stony nature; (2) the mesocarp, (or sarcocarp), of a succulent and pulpy character, and (3) the epicarp, constituting the ordinary skin. These various structures are well shown in the plum or peach, fruits in which the several investments are separable one from another. The skin of the plum or peach is the epicarp, the edible flesh or pulp is the sarcocarp, while the stone, hardened by the formation of ligneous cells, represents the endocarp. On cracking the stone, the true seed, with its brown episperm, is revealed; the main body of the kernel is the endopleura, and at one end of the kernel, may be the embryo.
The delicate embryo, covered thus by resistent envelopes, is protected from the storms and hardships of this rough world. Rains may beat upon it, winds may blow it about, or animals may devour it; it may float upon the waters of streams, or sink to seek the soil of river bottoms, according to its nature; it may lie in waste heaps of decaying vegetable refuse, it may be bleached by the sun's rays, or congealed by their absence;--but its strong envelopes will guard it from the solvent action of water, the disintegrating effects of frost, and the digestive processes of the animal stomach. Many seeds may be, and are destroyed, but in the fulness of time some of the superabundance produced by every plant is sure to reach its destination, the bosom of the great common mother--the earth.
In addition to their wonderful husks, tunics and protective covering, seeds, by means of modifications in their structure, are provided with the most remarkable appendages and annexa designed to facilitate their diffusion over the earth. The cocoanut (cocos nucifera), the Florida sea bean (mucuna urens) and the sea apple (manacaria), are furnished with hulls so resistant to the action of salt water and of so buoyant a nature, that they can float on the surface of the ocean, buffeted by wind and wave, for many days, and still preserve their vitality until they reach some friendly shore.
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In some floating seeds, the modern device of building ships with water-tight compartments is completely anticipated. Others are provided with feathery appendages--the coma or pappus--or with flattened wing-like contrivances--the samara--that enable them to fly on the wings of the wind to far-off destinations. Familiar instances of these are the dandelion (taraxacurn) and the milk-weed (asclepias). Very common is the device of fitting the seeds with sharp prickles or burrs, as in the burr-grass (cenchrus), which sticks to the first human or animal passer-by, and thus makes the animal creation its carriers.
One of the most interesting, yet least known, methods of seed dispersion, is the device for throwing or projecting seeds as if by a voluntary motion. When the seeds of the common tare (vicia sativa) are mature, they dry in such a manner as to produce a strong unequal tension on the two sides of the pod, causing it to split apart and curl spirally with so sudden a movement that the seeds are thrown to a distance of several feet. In the squirting cucumber (ecbalium agreste) the fruit, owing to the pressure caused by the internal osmosis of its fluids, bursts with such violence that the seminiferous juice is discharged to a, distance of thirty Or forty feet. By such wonderful contrivances, and there are hundreds more than those mentioned, the embryos are preserved from injury, and at the same time provision is made that they shall be scattered broadcast over the earth to ensure the reproduction of their kind.
The fixation of the seed in the soil is the end of one state and the beginning of another. Now starts a new process, a process of unclothing, of stripping off, of new-birth, so to speak. The embryo, which has been so carefully protected by its various garments--tegmen and testa, endocarp, sarcocarp and epicarp--is now to be stripped of all these coats and delivered to the care of the soil. Under the softening and disintegrating influences of the moist earth and the vernal heat, the several husks, skins and shells that have successfully withstood the wintery elements, are quickly rotted, dissolved and opened, and the germ, delivered to the bosom of the great alma mater, soon sends the slender root down, and the green shoot up.
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In some part of the plant, usually the seed, there is stored up a quantity of fine nutriment, destined to serve the embryo in its first growth, when too feeble to derive pabulum directly from the earth. This store consists of some form of amylaceous, saccharine or oily matter, the presence of which gives seeds their nutritive value to man and animals.
By consulting the Concordance, it will be seen that the references to seeds and fruits are extremely numerous in the Writings, and that the confirmations and illustrations they afford to the Doctrines are endless. Some of the more obvious will now be mentioned.
THOUGHT AND SPEECH.--Consider how, by analogy, or correspondence, these vegetable processes apply to the more internal ones of thought and speech or act. Thought, like the embryo of the seed, is too volatile or subtle to pass from one mind to another without suitable clothing; too frail to pass naked through the world of time and space. The abstract thought descends into the lower regions of the mind and takes on an inner garment from the forms stored up in the internal sensual--the imagination, and this becomes an internal image, or an idea. It then takes on an outermost garment of speech or vocal utterance. Thus enswathed in these various garments, it is adapted to transmission through the intervening space to the ear of the hearer. The period of descent from thought to speech corresponds to the growth of the seed and its protective coats. The period of its transmission though brief when compared to the long voyages of vegetable seeds, corresponds to the time when it is blown about the world, exposed to the violence of the elements. The ear of the listener corresponds to the earth; for just as the soil removes the coats of the seed, so the ear removes the several clothings of the thought. The outer ear receives the coarser sounds, the inner ear the more delicate modulations, the imagination resolves the ideas or metaphors, and at length the abstract thought is delivered to the mind of the hearer.
THE WORD.--A further application may easily be made to illustrate how the celestial and spiritual senses of the Word are covered, contained and protected by the natural or literal sense.
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The latter, composed in an unpolished style, and dealing with the history of a sordid race, is like the rough shell and husk of the seed, for it has protected, and still protects, the priceless embryo of Divine Truth from blasphemy in the minds of men. But the minds of those who are to be of the New Church, who "listen to what the spirit teaches," are like the fertile earth, which resolves the integuments of the seed into their elements. To such the sense of the letter as it were passes away, and they gaze upon the internal sense as revealed in the Writings.
REMAINS.--In the little stores of delicate starch, sugar and fixed oil that are found in the albumen or other part of the seed, is a beautiful image of the storing of remains. In many places in the Writings we are taught concerning the secret storing up of remains of good and truth in the interiors of man. It is by means of these remains that the spiritual life is fed and sustained in the temptation of after years, and they are well represented by little stores of starch, sugar and oil deposited in the interiors of the seed, in silence and darkness, there to rest until the necessities of development call them forth.
There is a detail here that is worthy of notice, because it shows that correspondences go down into the minutest particulars. Starch and sugar are organic bodies consisting of the same elements,--carbon, hydrogen and oxygen, but in a slightly different proportion. Chemically, they differ from each other only by a single molecule of water. The addition of a single molecule of water to the starch molecule converts it into sugar. Thus it is water, (correspondentially, truth), entering into the very constitution of the starch substance, that turns it into sugar, (correspondentially, good). Starch as starch cannot be used either by plants or animals, for in that state it is insoluble, inert and lifeless. Sugar, on the other hand, is sweet, soluble, flexible and adapted to use. This transformation of starch into sugar is a constant process in the physiology of both plants and animals. It is this that turns the tasteless corn into the sweet or sugar corn, and the harsh taste of unripe fruit into the pleasant sweetness of maturity. It is a similar (though not quite the same) process, that turns the astringent persimmon (diospyrus Virgin iana) into a sweet, edible fruit and the bitter sagebrush (artemisia) into a nutritious fodder for cattle.
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It is to be observed that the mere mixing of water with starch will have no such effect; but it must be combined with it. The water molecule must enter into the very constitution of the starch molecule before the transformation takes place. Oceans of water merely mixed with it, will not avail. And so truth in the understanding avails not, however abundant; it becomes good only when it enters the life. Here is also presented in an image how truth is conjoined to its own good.*
* The chemistry of this well-nigh universal process in both plant and animal life, is shown in the following equation:
C6H10O5 + H2O = C6H12O6
(starch) (Water) (Sugar)
AN IMAGE OF THE INFINITE AND THE ETERNAL.--In the marvelous power which is in all seeds to produce- their own vegetable forms in perfect order, and in. the endeavor which they exhibit to multiply themselves at so prodigious a rate as to be beyond the reach of either imagination or arithmetic, is presented an image of Infinity and Eternity. This is indicated in Divine Love and Wisdom, 60, and elsewhere. Also in the indefinite variety of shapes, size, forms, modes, propagation and dissemination of seeds is shown forth the infinite variety of truths and their accommodation to the diversified state of men.
THE USES OF IGNORANCE.--Seeds do not germinate perfectly in the light, even if all other conditions, such as moisture and warmth, be favorable. The darkness beneath the soil is one of the requirements of healthy germination. Neither does the infant develop well in the presence of premature knowledge. The little mind begins its growth in dense ignorance and darkness, but surrounded by the warm sphere of the mother's love. Like the seed it must have warmth but not light. The infantile senses, affected by the delights of touch, taste, smell and sight, are the means by which good is insinuated but at first without truth.* The correspondence is evident.
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The seed starts to grow in darkness and vernal warmth, the infant in ignorance by means of the affections. Just as light is retarding to the perfect germination of the seed, so does premature knowledge interfere with the harmonious development of the child.
* See Bishop Pendleton's Address. "Stages of Religious Education," in the Journal of Education, 1903.
THE SUBSTITUTION OF GENUINE TRUTH FOR THE APPEARANCE OF TRUTH.-When an apple falls to the ground and goes through the natural processes of decay, the epicarp and the sarocarp, which have hitherto served the seed as a nest to grow in, must soften and rot, the endocarp and the testa, which have hitherto served the embryo as a protective shell, must split open and burst before germination can take place, and a new state be entered into. Thus do appearances of truth and external affections serve the childish mind for a time as a protection against the profanation of genuine truth. Childish ideas, beliefs and affections preserve our innocence and hold us in the capability of being saved, but in the process of development they must give way and perish before the constant accession of new truths.
For instance, the puerile idea of a God, who is angry, who punishes and who is jealous, however necessary at a certain period, must pass away before a truer idea of God can take its place in the mature mind. The storge or animal affection that parents feel for their children must perish before an internal, spiritual affection for children can be born. The love of the sex is at first but a rough husk or shell to protect the conjugial, and must pass away as the more internal love comes into activity.
Who can contemplate the exquisite order, harmony and proportion of natural things, and the wonderful beauty of correspondences, without being deeply moved? At times it affects the mind like the strains of majestic music, or transports it to a kind of ecstacy. It was such a contemplation, no doubt, that caused Sir Thomas Browne, in a page of quaint sublimity, to draw a comparison between the architectural harmonies of nature and music. The passage begins thus, "Even that vulgar or tavern music which makes one man mad, another merry, in me strikes a deep fit of devotion and a profound contemplation of the First Composer. For there is a music wherever there is an order, harmony or proportion, and thus far we may maintain the music of the spheres; for those well ordered motions and regular paces, though they give no sound to the ear, yet to the understanding they strike a note most full of harmony, there is something in it of Divinity, more than the ear discovers, it is an hieroglyphical and shadowed lesson of the whole world and creatures of God; such a melody as the whole world well understood would afford the understanding."
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But the consideration of the subject cannot be more fitly ended than as it be-an, by the reading of No. 33 of the Doctrine of the Sacred Scripture, with its final quotation:
"Quod Jehovah creet super omni gloria obtegumentum."
CORRECTION. 1905
A correspondent has kindly called our attention to an error on page 182 of our last issue, where the statement is made that the Nine Questions has never been included in any English edition of The Four Leading Doctrines, and he points out that it is included in the edition published by the London Swedenborg Society in 1846. We regret the error, and are somewhat at a loss to account for it except on the principle that "to err is human;" for on examination we find that the Nine Questions was also included in the London Swedenborg Society's editions of 1826, 1876, and 1889. It is, however, omitted in Mr. Searle's translation published in 1896.
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Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS
Root Principles on Rational and Spiritual Things is the title of a work by the Rev. Thomas Child, written as an answer to Haeckle's "Riddle of the Universe." It is published in a cheap paper edition, by H. R. Allenson, London.
The Christina Advocate, of New York, publishes some interesting statistics, tabulated by the Rev. Dr. H. K. Carroll and the Rev. Dr. D. L. Leonard, the design of which is to show the net increase or decrease of the various religious denominations during the year 1904. "The Church of the New Jerusalem" is credited with 134 churches, 133 ministers, and 7982 communicants, a decrease in churches and ministers of 10 each, and an increase in communicants of 13.
From an advertisement Printed on the covers of a recent popular edition of Heaven and Hell, published by Frederick Warne & Company, of London, England, apparently under the auspices of the London Swedenborg Society, it appears that the same publishers have issued a companion volume, entitled "God, Creation, Man. By Emanuel Swedenborg" It is advertised as "a supreme work in philosophy" and as "Swedenborg's great theosophical work." From a long synopsis of the book, which is part of the advertisement, it is seen to be Divine Love and Wisdom under a new title. This practice of changing the titles which have been given by Swedenborg to the books of Divine Revelation seems to be a growing one in England. It is as presumptuous as it is unnecessary. Would Bacon, Locke, or Hamilton be treated thus by English publishers?
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There have been many wild notions and strange theories put forth by Newchurchmen and in the name of the Church, but the following, which we quote from our Australian contemporary, The New Age, is probably a unique example of a New Church preacher advocating before a New Church congregation a theory in outspoken contradiction of the Writings. The quotation refers to the Christmas services of the Sydney Society:
"The address was given by Mr. Ball, who spoke on the Lord's Advent. Mr. Ball departed from the New Church teaching on the reasons for the Advent, preferring the more modern doctrine that mankind had developed through the ages from an original state of degeneration to one of such perfection as made it possible for the Lord to come upon earth and dwell with men. However, the address was much appreciated!"
A sad but eloquent testimony to the almost utter extinction, among the leading men of the Christian Church, of belief in the Divinity of the Word, is given by the Literary Digest, in the statement that Professor Noesgen, of Restock, "has the reputation of being the only German university theologian who still believes in the verbal inspiration of the Scriptures." Whether Professor Noesgen is actually the only believer, or not, is of little consequence. The fact that he has that reputation tells its own story. As the upbuilding of the New Church is to begin from the university, so the destruction of the Old Church has come from its universities which have everywhere spread abroad the blight of spiritual devastation. And now they are completing their work by removing the last vestige of even external faith in the Lord and His Word.
The same tale of rejection of the Word is told of the leaders of thought in the Established Church in England. Writing in The Nineteenth Century and After, Mr. W. H. Mallock, the well known English author, charges that "the most thoughtful and highly educated of the Anglican clergy" have repudiated her essential and fundamental doctrines. In confirmation of this charge, he cites their admissions that "the Gospels are full of errors," and their denial of every miracle in the New Testament, except those of the virgin birth, and the Resurrection.
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It is well known, however, that these also have been openly denied by Anglicans of high ecclesiastical rank.
Mr. Mallock is answered by two members of the very class he attacks, but their answers are but an additional evidence of the correctness of his charge. They freely admit the rejection of the miracles; and one of them adds, that the only reason for the retention of belief in the Birth and Resurrection, is "because of their inherent importance in their closer bearing on the Christian faith." A Christian faith founded upon the rejected Word!
Referring to the editorial note on Swedenborg and Freemasonry, which appeared on p. 109 of the February Life, Dr. W. A. McFall, writing from Peterboro, Ont., kindly sends us the following extract from The History and Cyclopedia of Freemasonry, by Robert Macoy:
"Rite of Swedenborg. This rite was established by Emanuel Swedenborg, the eminent philosopher. . . . His rite was composed of eight degrees divided into two Temples. The first temple contained the degrees of Apprentice. Fellow-craft, Master, and Elect. The doctrines of these degrees related to the creation of man, his disobedience and punishment, and the penalties inflicted on the body and soul, all of which is represented in the initiation. The second Temple comprises the degrees of Companion Cohen, Master Cohen. Gorand Architect, and Knight Commander, and Kadosh. The enlightened Mason will find much of the element of Freemasonry in the Writings of Swedenborg.
"The Marquis de Theme, in 1783, taking up the system that had been adopted in the lodge of Avignon in 1760, modified it to suit his own views, and instituted what afterwards became known as the Rite of Swedenborg."
In a footnote to the above the author adds "Swedenborg was well versed in the ancient languages, philosophy, metaphysics, mineralogy, and astronomy were equally familiar to him. He devoted himself to profound researches in regard to the mysteries of Freemasonry, wherein he had been initiated; and in what he wrote respecting it, he established that the doctrines of the institutions came from those of the Egyptians, Persians, Jews and Greeks."
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All of which shows the boundless "stretchability" of the human imagination,--when unhampered by facts.
The New Christianity for February publishes a letter written from Ashworth, a village far to the north of Ontario, Canada, which is of particular interest as showing the undiminished reverence for the Writings maintained by an isolated receiver despite the efforts which New Church writers have recently made to detract from the authority of those Writings. The writer, who signs herself "Mary Hall." expresses surprise that the New Christianity "endorsed Mr. Hoeck's statement that 'we cannot live the spiritual sense of the Word, for that is abstract,'" and she continues. "At the beginning of Arcana Coelestia it is said that the internal sense is a living principle, and how is anything abstract to be thought of as something living? It may be represented in an abstract way, but the spiritual sense itself is the Divine Truth itself. Is regeneration an abstract thing? Besides, New Church folks believe the second coming of the Lord in the clouds of heaven to be a coming of the internal sense. Are we to regard this coming as merely an abstraction?" The writer does not seem to be aware of the fact, that this is just how it is regarded by very many "New Church folks," and that the largest bodies of the Church have distinctly repudiated the idea that the coming of the Lord is "a coming of the internal sense." Continuing, she says: "I thought the mission of the New Church is to lift us out of external thought. or darkness, into spiritual thought, or light, by means of what is revealed in the spiritual sense of the Word."
The reply by the editor of New Christianity is a pitiful illustration of obscurity endeavoring to guide enlightenment. "It is not 'the mission of the New Church to lift us out of external thought' into spiritual." "We cannot live the spiritual sense of the Word without clothing it in some ultimate form by which to direct our actions."
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"That sense has been revealed to us not so much that we should live it, but to furnish natural grounds for upholding the doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Word, and for increasing the light that is spread upon its natural sense."
The January issue of the New Philosophy contains the second and last installment of Miss Beekman's article on Radium. She here takes up the subject of radio-emanations, commencing with a valuable presentation of the teaching of the Principia respecting the spheres or effluvia of bodies, and their action on the ether. Some interesting comparisons made between radio-emanations and human spheres art strongly suggestive of the possibilities in the extension of our knowledge of the doctrine of spheres by a study of spheres and their operations in the kingdom of nature. Thus speaking of the property of radio-active salts, that they communicate radio-activity to all substances remaining for a time in their vicinity, she says "It recalls the story of certain individuals, who of themselves were blind to a truth, and even averse to its affection, but who, when brought into the presence of another who was profoundly versed in that truth and ardent with the active love of it, found themselves so affected . . . that they themselves saw that truth and were affected with the ardor thereof. But so soon as they departed . . . they no longer either perceived or loved." So in a body,--induced radiation seldom long survives its preparation from the vicinage of true radium. A large portion of the paper is devoted to the not yet fully settled question as to whether radium loses weight by its radiation. Even if this be proved, the loss will be, admittedly, so infinitesimally slight, that, Miss Beekman contends, we may consider the emanation as practically perpetual, the radio-activity being balanced by continuous regeneration of the acting material. On this phenomenon she brings to bear the doctrine concerning the continual presence and operation of the Divine in nature, from which nature exists by continually subsisting.
The same number of New Philosophy also contains an article, by Dr. E. A. Farrington, on Swedenborg's Chemistry, which, though brief, gives the dearest exposition of Swedenborg's theory of the creation of matter that we have yet seen.
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Especially interesting are the experimental confirmations which Dr. Farrington adduces; particularly the experiments tending to confirm the theory of the production of salt in water by means of intense pressure.
NEW WORK ON CORRESPONDENCE. 1905
Scripture Symbolism. By Rev. Edward C. Mitchell, Philadelphia, Pa. 1904. Pp352.
This volume purports to be "a practical elementary work, as an introduction to the great Science of Correspondences, a handbook with which the student may acquire a rational and systematic idea of the philosophy and of the leading facts of Correspondences, representatives and signs," for use "in gaining a better understanding of the Divine Word."
The author states that the understanding of the "the spiritual meaning of all parts of Scripture . . . can come to him only whose mind is prepared for such insight, not only by a knowledge of correspondences but also by an interior mental state in which a perception of spiritual truth can be enjoyed," which is quite true if by this state of mind is meant one thoroughly prepared by a systematic knowledge of the true doctrine of the Word, a knowledge which can only be obtained by a rational comprehension of Theology. A true idea of correspondence must come from the spiritual sense of the Word, but this sense "no one can see except from the doctrine of genuine truth." It is essential therefore to first set forth the doctrine. "Doctrine can never be seen from the spiritual sense" but the spiritual sense must be seen from doctrine. (De Verbo, 21.) And if in this volume Doctrine is authentically given, we wonder why we fail to find even a single reference to any passage of the Writings, either in unacknowledged quotations or by reference to a book or number.
We note some subjects treated of in the Dictionary of Correspondences not here given, as, for instance, the interesting and important significance of numbers, weights, names, etc. We miss a general doctrinal preface, though "the three great essentials of religion" are said to be "emphasized in the Scripture texts herein quoted:
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1. The Divine character of our Lord, Jesus Christ; 2. the Divine character of the genuine books of the Bible, as the Word of God; 3. the necessity of living all our daily life in accordance with the Divine Commandments in both their literal and spiritual meanings." We find, however, no "systematic idea of the philosophy" of the Divine Human; the inspired books of the Word are not even mentioned; the doctrine of life is limited to discursive comments or sermonizings on particular morals.
This book takes the inverted course of losing the general principle of the subject "in a sea of particulars." But until the general doctrine can first be explicated and then made to shine through the several gems of truth in Scripture passages, we fear that works of this sort will have a mere sporadic value, to be read for casual interest now and then,--and then dropped.
We may say in praise, however, that of its kind it is the best handbook yet published; the subjects are treated in a style terse (when not discursive), and the author makes clear his meaning: supported by numerous texts from Scripture. A good index completes this tastefully bound volume. W. E. B.
INTERESTING WORK IN THE DUTCH. 1905
Over de hooge Beteekenis der Theologische Werken van Emanuel Swedenborg en de Verzoening die daarin gevonden wordt in den tegenwoordigan Strijd over Babel en Bibel. (On the high significance of the theological works of Emanuel Swedenborg, and the Reconciliation which is found in them in respect to the modern controversy about "Babel and Bible.") By G. Barger. Published by J. Lokker, Voorburg, Holland, 1904, pp. 165.
We may well hail with joy the appearance of this volume, which is the very first publication, in the Dutch tongue, in systematic defense and exposition of the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem.
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It is strange, indeed, that in the country where so many of the Writings were first given to the world, a century and a half ago, there should at the present time be but one professed
Newchurchman, the author of this work, Mr. George Barger, formerly of Utrecht, now of Voorburg, who for a number of years has been indefatigable in his efforts to spread the light of the Lord in His Second Coming among the secluded, ultra-conservative, obstinately unimpressionable Dutch nation.
The absence of this light in Holland is due neither to lack of opportunity nor of national intelligence. Most of the Writings were published there by Swedenborg himself,-from the Four Doctrines to the True Christian Religion. As early as 1788 the work on Influx was published in Dutch, probably by Mr. William Gomm, then secretary of the English embassy, and in 1790 Mynheer Ysbrand van Hamelsveld published a large volume of selections from Swedenborg's Writings. In the early part of the nineteenth century pastor Tydeman, of Dortrecht, and Mr. Charles Ley, an Englishman at Leyden, did what they could to make the Doctrine better known in Holland. Some knowledge of Swedenborg, even though mixed with adverse criticism, must have been disseminated by Prof. Van Oosterzee's sketch of "de Noordsche Geestznziener," in 1873, and by the more extensive but spiritistic work of Mevr. Elisz van Calcar in 1882. A Dutch translation of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine was published in New York in 1888, and Mr. Barger's Dutch version of Heaven and Hell has been before the public for a couple of years, but thus far without visible results.
The reasons for this lack of progress of the Heavenly Doctrine in Holland are revealed in the Writings themselves in their disclosures of the remarkably conservative characteristics of the Dutch nation. "Their thought being constantly engaged upon business," (S. D. 5826), "they are intensely opposed to internal things; in silence, only opposing in general," (ibid. 3515). Since the victory of Supra-lapsarian Predestination at the Council of Dort, they are more profoundly immersed in the doctrine of Faith alone than any other nation, and "never want to change what they believe," (S. D. 3527) "not giving up the principles of their religion even if convinced that they are wrong," (Cont. L. J. 49)
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Nevertheless, after various vastations in the other life, many of them receive the truth and "afterwards become more constant than others, so that they may be called constancies; nor do they suffer themselves to be led away by any reasoning, fallacy, or obscurity," (ibid. 49).
We must not be hopeless, therefore, of the cause of the New Church among the Dutch, and Mr. Barger's recent publication may prove to be an entering wedge with some at least. Sumptuously printed and furnished, it is one of the most attractive volumes we have ever seen, and the contents show that the author is not only a close observer of recent movements in the scientific and theological world outside of the New Church, but is also a deep and sound student of the Writings and an intelligent reader of contemporary New Church literature.
The apparent occasion for the volume is found in the recent controversy in Germany and elsewhere, started by the famous Deltisch lectures on "Babel and Bible," in which the historical priority of the Assyro-Babylonian codes was asserted to disprove the verbal inspiration of the Hebrew Scriptures. Mr. Barger now introduces the teachings revealed in Swedenborg's Writings respecting the Ancient Word, as affording a middle ground of "reconciliation" between the contending claims: proving on the one hand that the earlier chapters of Genesis were copied by Moses from more ancient but still Divinely inspired documents, and on the other hand re-establishing, faith in the verbal inspiration of the Word by the doctrine concerning the internal sense. The author handles the subject very systematically and skillfully, introducing the doctrine by calling attention to the harmony of all the mythological legends concerning creation. Paradise, the Fall, the Flood, etc., and their evidently common source in the early chapters of Genesis. He here quotes freely from the collection of legends published in New Church Life for 1903 and 1904, and quotes also from the introduction to our articles on Origen in New Church Life for March, 1903, to show that there existed an idea of the internal sense of the Word among the early Christians.
After this introduction the author presents a brief but interesting account of Emanuel Swedenborg, followed by an exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church respecting the Word, the Sacred Scripture, Heaven and Hell, the Second Advent of the Lord, and other doctrinals, the whole supported by numerous proof-passages from the Bible.
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Finally, he gives an account of the rise and progress of the New Church, with a chronological list of all of the Writings in their Dutch titles, and a very full catalogue of current New Church literature in English, French, and German. On the covers of the volume he publishes an advertisement asking for information concerning the whereabouts of the "missing" work on "Conjugial Love," and of the second copy of Summaria Exposition on which Swedenborg wrote the inscription "Hic Liber est Adventus Domini," adding that information concerning these works will be thankfully received by the author or by "The General Church of the New Jerusalem, Bryn-Athyn, P. A. U. S. America."
PRESIDENT ON RACE SUICIDE. 1905
President Roosevelt is continuing his unsparing attacks on race suicide,-that growing curse of the "Christian" world, which is spreading with such alarming rapidity in the United States. He has on many occasions endeavored to expose this evil to the light of day, to open the eyes of his fellow-countrymen to the terrible inroads it is making in their midst, and to instruct them as to the duties of marriage; and he has recently made this subject the basis of an address delivered at Washington on March 13th, before the Mothers' Congress.
He shows that the family life of a country is, by far, the most important question that can come before its citizens. "The nation is in a bad way if there is no real home, if the family is not of the right kind, if the man is not a good husband and father . . . if the woman has lost her sense of duty; has let her nature be twisted so that she prefers a sterile pseudo-intellectuality to that great and beautiful development which comes only to those whose lives know the fulness of duty done, of effort made, and self-sacrifice undergone. . . . No piled-up wealth, no splendor of material growth, no brilliancy of artistic development, will permanently avail any people unless its home life is healthy."
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The growing tendency of modern educational ideas to destroy this home life does not pass unnoticed in this connection. "It is one of the old truths, which will be true as long as this world endures and which no amount of progress can alter," that "the primary duty of the husband is to be the home-maker, the breadwinner, . . . and that the primary duty of the woman is to be the helpmeet, the housewife and mother. The woman should have ample educational advantages, but, save in exceptional cases the man must be, and she,. . .generally, ought not to be trained for a life-long career as the family breadwinner. And, therefore, after a certain point the training of the two must normally be different because the duties of the two are normally different. This does not mean inequality of function, but it does mean that normally there must be dissimilarity of function."
He is merciless in his denunciation of the man or woman who shirks the responsibilities and duties of the home,-chief of which is the "blessing" of offspring. "Such a creature merits contempt as hearty as any visited upon the soldier who runs away in battle." And a race consisting of such men and women, "that is, a race that practiced race suicide, would thereby conclusively show that it was unfit to exist, and that it had better give place to people who had not forgotten the primary law of their being."
Nor does he fail to see the danger of some such event happening in our own country. For that this type of men and women exists there, is made "unpleasantly evident" to him by the statistics as to dwindling families, and "in equally sinister fashion, by the census statistics as to divorce, which are fairly appalling." And in further confirmation of these sinister evidences, he refers to "articles such as that which I actually read not long ago in a certain paper, where a clergyman was quoted, seemingly with approval, as expressing the general American attitude when he said that the ambition of any save a very rich man should be to rear two children only, so as to give his children and opportunity to taste a few of the good things of life.'" "The intelligence of the remark," comments the President, "is on a par with its mortality;" it is the "sordid theory that the whole end of life is to taste a few good things."
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The address has attracted considerable attention, and has doubtless been widely read. But while we honor the President for his high moral position, and for the courageous and persistent manner in which he presents it, yet we cannot but think that the growing sentiment of the country-of the entire Christian world-is against him. He appeals to duty, to patriotism and to the laws of nature, and this may have a temporary effect with some. But with an increasing number "the good things of life" are the only real attractions, and compared with these, duty has little weight. There is no real belief in God, or in the spiritual world, still less any care for spiritual things; and without these there can be no lasting sense of duty. Duty may be performed, but unless there be something spiritual behind it, it will be performed only so long as moral or material benefits are seen to be thereby attained. The growth of race suicide is indeed threatening the very existence of the Christian world, but this is only a manifestation of the spiritual desolation which has overtaken it.
IS THERE A "DIVINE FEMININE IN GOD?" 1905
The "Dual Nature of Deity" forms the subject of an article in the Contemporary Review, which has attracted wide attention and upon which the New Church Messenger for February 15th bases a lengthy editorial under the remarkable heading "The Mystery of the Divine Feminine in God." The writer in the Contemporary Review, Mr. George Barlow, believes that "Womanhood, Divine Womanhood, forms a portion of the Godhead," and in support of his notion refers extensively to Swedenborg as one who, with Charles Kingsley, Laurence Oliphant, and others recognized a bi-sexual nature in God. This Divine Womanhood, as a portion of the Godhead, the author finds "indicated in the clearest terms in the Hebrew version of the Old Testament," but holds that it "has been almost entirely lost sight of in our translation.
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Almost the only passage in which the idea has been preserved is the passage in the first chapter of Genesis: 'and God (Elohim, the dual) said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. . . . So God (Elohim) created man in His own image, in the image of God (Elohim) created He him: male and female created He them.'"
Mr. Barlow's knowledge of Swedenborg's teachings is evidently of a most limited range. He says, for instance, that "a high, but inferior order of angels, Swedenborg thought, were unable to grasp the conjugal idea, and found happiness in the single or unwedded condition." His knowledge of the Hebrew language seems to be equally slight, as is manifest from his statement that "Elohim" is the dual form! And the idea of a "Hebrew version of the Old Testament!" Is it not absurd that the learned Contemporary Review should have allowed such ignorant blunderings in its pages, and that the Messenger should not only reprint them without criticism, but also base an elaborate argument on such a foundation?
"Notwithstanding a certain admixture of a possibly objectionable transcendentalism" the editor of the Messenger finds a wealth of "opportuness and significance" and of "genuine insight and charm" in the rambling lucubrations, [lucus, a non lucendo], of this discoverer of "a Divine feminine in God." Nay, he goes much further and traces this notion to the work on Conjugial Love,--by the murky way of Spiritism in its worst form. "Laurence Oliphant," he says, "carries us back to Thomas Lake Harris and both of them to Swedenborg." Indeed, we had supposed that the New Church as a whole had by this time come to recognize that these spiritists carry us away from Swedenborg instead of back to him, and that every member of the Church would blush to mention the name of Swedenborg in connection with a publicly exposed impostor, such as Thomas Lake Harris.
HISTORY OF THE HERESY.
The heresy of which the Messenger now makes itself the mouth-piece is as ancient as falsity itself. It found its first expression in the worship of gods and goddesses in the declining days of the Ancient Church.
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It was transferred from pagan Greece and Rome and Egypt into the Christian Church, when Mary was made "the mother of God," upon whom, as the Messenger observes with apparent approval, "the Church poured all its faith in and love for Divine womanliness." The same heresy arose anew in the Dark Ages when countless ascetics made the image of the Virgin the defiled object of a suppressed pruriency, and it took upon itself a new garb in the "Quietism" of the seventeenth century, when fanatics such as Madame Guyon and Madame Bourignon proclaimed the eternal "motherhood" of the Deity. And the latest form of the heresy is found in modern "Christian Science," founded by "Mother" Eddy, who has adopted for her sect a paraphrase or, rather, parody of the Lord's Prayer, in which their hermaphroditic deity is invoked as "Our Father and Mother God, all harmonious."
As might be expected, this heresy of ancient and modern hells would sooner or later seek to infest the Lord's New Church. It insinuated itself first through the lascivious spiritism of Thomas Lake Harris about the middle of the last century, and it continued to infest the Church for many years through some of the pseudocelestialists who made the late New Church Independent their recognized organ. From these, however, we must except G. W. Christie and Dr. W. H. Holcombe who came out against this heresy in vigorous and manly fashion. In his Letters on Spiritual Subjects the latter writes to a fellow-celestialist: "When G. W. C. read your article on the Divine Motherhood, he exclaimed, 'This doctrine of a Divine Father and a Divine Mother,--a divine Two-in-One, taught by Harris and here seen and felt by P[ond], is more abhorrent to me than the three persons in one God of the Old Church. It is utterly false, fantastic and degrading." And Dr. Holcombe then proceeds to demolish the heresy in a series of arguments which we recommend to the consideration of the Messenger and its readers.
The heresy next cropped up in a somewhat unexpected quarter, --in staid and unemotional New England where, however, a new and very quiet kind of Quietism had been developed through the influence of a late president of the General Convention, who was also the president of the Convention's Theological School in Cambridge.
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Carried away by an intense but more or less external zeal for the person of the Saviour, this teacher and some of his disciples were fond of dwelling upon "the sad, sweet, loving face of Jesus," His "goodness and gentleness," His "tenderness and helpfulness," while they strenuously opposed the teaching that the Divine Truth now revealed in the Writings of the New Church, is the Lord in His Second Coming. Nay, the notion was promulgated that this "tenderness" and "helpfulness" of Jesus,--He who with a scourge drove the money-changers from the Temple,--represented "the feminine" side of God, while the masculine and less tender qualities of the deity were expressed by the Jehovah of the Old Testament who revealed Himself in thunder and lightning on Mount Sinai.
This spiritual poison, so sweet and plausible in appearance, spread far and wide in the Church, and it was at the same time supported by a former editor of the Messenger, who greatly loved to dwell upon the "celestial" characteristics of this New Age, in which "the new woman" was to take the lead in things intellectual, because she now represents the Divine Wisdom,--the feminine counterpart of the Divine Love. The present editor, it seems, has inherited the traditions of his predecessor as well as those of his theological instructor, and in his recent teachings on "the Divine Feminine in God," he brings these evil seeds to their inevitable fruition.
THE HERESY FORMULATED.
Recognizing that Mr. Barlow "contents himself with the mere statement that there is a Divine feminine in God, and that the cosmos is surcharged with the element of sex, without undertaking to present any formal philosophical reasons." Mr. Eby undertakes to supply the missing "philosophy." According to him the Divine Human is the Divine feminine, "the eternal womanliness of God;" the Divine Man is a Divine Woman, a goddess!
"The secret of this whole subject of the feminine side of God," he says, "is the secret of the Divine Humanity, which can be understood only in the degree that the truth is grasped that the essence of love is masculine and the essence of wisdom is feminine.
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The Divine love is the inmost of the Divine Personality, and cannot dwell alone, but must necessarily be of the Divine Wisdom," etc. The Divine, therefore, is essentially masculine, and yet the editor insists that the Divine Human is "the external embodiment of the external womanliness of God," and that the "Lamb of God. . .is the essential innocence, the Divine feminine, which men approach when they worship the Lord in His Divine Humanity." And this Divine feminine he next presents as the bridegroom and husband of the Church: "In this relation the bride again becomes the Lamb's wife in the marriage between the Divine Human and the Church!"
THE HERESY OPPOSED TO DIVINE REVELATION.
It is hideous to contemplate such irrational and profane adulterations of the inmost and holiest Doctrine of the Church. Whence does the editor derive his notions of the "Divine feminine?" Not from the Word of God, which is our only source of knowledge concerning Divine Things, for neither in the Word of the Old Testament, nor in the Word of the New Testament, nor in the Word of the Heavenly Doctrine is there to be found one scintilla of evidence that God is woman or that there is any "feminine side" whatever in the Divine Nature.
Throughout the successive Revelations, God has manifested Himself as a Divine Man, and this not only as Divinus Homo but as Divinus Vir, whose names and attributes are all masculine. In the Old Testament He revealed Himself as Jehovah, the Ancient of Days, the Father of Eternity, who promised to come to men as the Prince of Peace, the King of His kingdom and High-priest of His Church.
And when the prophecy of the ages was fulfilled and Jehovah assumed the human, did He not assume the human of a male child, a son, a boy, who was circumcised on the eighth day? "While He was an infant, was not the Lord like an infant, and while a boy, like a boy?" (T. C. R. 110.)
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Why did He not assume the human of a female child? According to Mr. Eby it was simply because "the Divine love that should come to the Hebrews in the form of a woman would never have received enough recognition to have been crucified. But coming as a Son of God and Son of Man, Messiah did at least receive sufficient recognition to obtain an imperishable place in the history of the world."
What an unworthy, flippant and shallow idea! As if the supreme end of the Incarnation was to gain crucifixion and thereby historical recognition! The editor still labors under the Old Church dogma that the passion of the cross was the whole of Redemption. No! the Lord assumed the male human in order to reveal Himself such as He actually is,--in that human which is the only possible and thinkable external embodiment of Himself, corresponding to and expressive of His eternal and infinite Manhood and Fatherhood. And He assumed the male human be cause He was the Word in the flesh, THE DIVINE TRUTH, which must come to men in the form of rational teaching adapted to the rational mind. And this form and this mind is the masculine form and mind, which is able to lift itself above its own native affections and thereby take the lead in the regeneration of the individual, the couple, and the race. The Lord was born a man child because by no other means could He have glorified His human by separating His human understanding from the inherited will of evil.
By fulfilling the Word, by filling His human understanding full with the Divine Rational Truth, He made that human understanding a Divine understanding, the Divine Truth itself, the Divine Wisdom itself. As such He fought,--a masculine action,--He fought and conquered the hells and became our Redeemer the Hero, the Mighty One in war, and by the same victories over the hells within the assumed human will, He glorified that will and made it one with the Divine Will, the Divine Love itself. And all this took place within the masculine body which He had assumed. He glorified that body even to its ultimates, and arose after death with the whole of that body which He had assumed in the world.
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In it He was seen by His disciples and in it He was recognized by Mary Magdalene as "Rabboni,"-Master,--the Divine Man, not woman.
And in this Divinely Human body,--still male,-He arose unto Heaven and above all the heavens, and ascended unto the Father,--not as the Wife of the Father,--(an insane thought),--but as One with the Father, as the Heavenly Father Himself. As such He was seen by Swedenborg, in company with many who had known Him in this world,--and was recognized as having the very face and form which He possessed in the world, (S. D. Minus, 4831),--as the same Divine Man.
When, finally, in the fulness of time, the Lord revealed Himself in that Human which He had glorified, and came again to His Church, in His Second Advent, how did He come? As a Divine Woman? No, but as the "male son,"-filius masculus,--born by the "Woman" who fled into the wilderness. This woman is the Church, and the son, the "male son,"--notice this remarkable emphasis!--is the Doctrine of the New Church, which is called "male" because it is a Doctrine of Divine Rational Truth (A. R. 543. Read the whole of this wonderful number.)
It is this Doctrine which the Dragon would destroy, and he surely has destroyed it with those who have so emasculated the Doctrine, who have so deprived it of its virility and rationality as to represent it as teaching that the Divine Human is the "external embodiment of the eternal womanliness of God." The irrationality of this heresy is appalling! Its promulgator intimates that the Divine Human is feminine, because under its domination "men come under the sway of the Divine tenderness of truth not separate, not critical, not condemnatory, but glorified by the fulness of the Divine love." Now, "tenderness" is an attribute of love, and love, according to the editor, is essentially masculine. How, then, can it be feminine?
The Dragon is cunning, and his cunning is great. He knows that the "male son," the Divine Human now revealed, is the Doctrine of the New Church, and now he seeks to destroy at one blow the true conception of the Divine Human and at the same time the true conception of the Doctrine of the New Church, by declaring the one to be feminine, and the other to be "not critical, not condemnatory," but full of loving "tenderness' for everything whether good or evil, true or false.
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"Not critical, not condemnatory!" Let anyone open a volume of the Writings and read a single page anywhere, and he will quickly find that the doctrine is critical and condemnatory of evil and falsity; that it rings upon these not "peace," but a sword. The Messenger would wrest that sharp, two-edged sword out of the hand of the Lord in His Second Coming, and would make Him instead-that which He is not. But the blasphemous attempt is vain.
THE "DIVINE MARRIAGE" PERVERTED.
Falsity, in itself regarded, is nothing but truth perverted, and we find that this heresy about the "feminine side of God" is based upon a perversion of the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine concerning the "Divine Marriage.
The Writings do, indeed, speak of the "Marriage" of good and truth, of Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, of the Divine Itself and the Divine Human, but it is inexcusable in a Minister of the New Church to view this marriage as a marriage in the literal and sexual sense of the term, as a marriage between what is masculine and feminine. For the teaching is plain and repeated, that the relation between the Divine Itself and the Divine Human is a union, a unity in the most absolute sense, and it is only compared to a marriage for the sake of adaptation to the comprehension of external minds. The relation is only, "as it were," a marriage (A. C. 1432). "The Unition of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence is not to be understood as that of two who are distinct from one another, and who are only conjoined by love, but it is a real unition into One," (A. C. 3737). "That 'cohabitation' in the supreme sense is the Divine Itself of the Lord, and His Divine Human, is because the Divine Itself which is called the Father is in the Divine Human which is called the Son of God, mutually and reciprocally, according to the words of the Lord Himself in John, 'Jesus said, Philip, he who seeth Me seeth the Father; believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me.' This union is the Divine Marriage itself, and this union is not a cohabitation, but is expressed by 'cohabitation' in the sense of the letter.
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For those things which are One art presented as two in the sense of the letter, as in the case of the Father and the Son, nay, as three, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." (A. C. 3960)
These teachings should have been well known to one who occupies the office of a teacher to the whole Church; he should have know that God is One and Indivisible. The one-ness of God means His absolute unity,--not duality. There is but one Divine Substance,--Infinite Love. The Divine Wisdom, or the Divine Existere, is not a substance per se. In itself it is nothing but Form: standing forth, manifestation and appearance. Form is nothing apart from its substance. Truth is nothing apart from good. Understanding is nothing apart from the Will. Faith is nothing apart from Charity. Wisdom is nothing apart from Love. Existere is nothing apart from Esse. The appearance of a thing is nothing,--nothing at all, absolutely nothing,--but the thing itself appearing.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN UNION AND CONJUNCTION.
We must by all means observe the distinction between union and conjunction which is taught in the Heavenly Doctrine. "There was a union of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence; but there is a conjunction of the Lord with the human race." (A. C. 2021.) "There was a union of the Lord with Jehovah; but there is no union of man with the Lord, but conjunction." (A. C. 2004.) The unition of the Divine Essence with the Human Essence was effected by the total elimination and rejection of everything merely human in the Human Essence, the latter being completely infilled with the Divine Essence. In this unition, therefore, there was nothing approaching to a conjunction of two distinct elements, or a merging-together of two separate essences into a one. If that had been the case there would, indeed, have been effected an addition of something new to the Divine Essence, something which the Divine did not possess before, but such an addition is impossible since the Divine is Infinite.
Between the Divine Itself and the Divine Human there is an absolute union.
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Conjunction, or marriage, cannot be predicated of this union, since conjunction means the joining together of two separate things, and marriage means the conjunction of two distinct beings,--but the Divine and the Divine Human are not two separate things or two separate beings. The conjunction of two finite minds in love truly conjugial is only the image of the heavenly marriage of the Lord and the Church, and, no matter how closely conjoined a husband and wife may become, each of them will to all eternity retain distinct individualities. Their mutual relation will forever remain a conjunction and can never become an actual union. "Because woman is from man, and their conjunction is a kind of re-unition, it may be seen from reason that it is not a conjunction into a one, but an adjunction, close or distant according to the love, and amounting to a contact with those who art in love truly conjugial: this adjunction may be called a spiritual cohabitation which exists with married partners who tenderly love one another. however distant they may be from each other as to the body. (C. L. 158)
The heresy of the Messenger is the fruit of the sensual idea of God, and of the merely sensual and sexual idea of marriage which still so largely predominates in the New Church. It comes from the habit of thinking of God from His person instead of thinking of Him from His Essence. "To think from Person about Essence is to think materially even about essence: but to think from Essence about Person, is to think spiritually even about Person." (A. R. 611.) The thought of God from Person if persisted in, results in a thought of His loneliness, and of the necessity of His having another Divine Person as His companion, or in the thought that "the Divine Love cannot dwell alone," as the Messenger puts it in voicing this sensual and material idea of God. The sensual man reasons thus: Man (homo) is the image and likeness of God. Man is male and female, and therefore God is male and female. But this is to reason backwards, from externals to internals, from appearances to realities, from effects to causes,--a posteriori, which is forbidden.
If, on the contrary, the men of the New Church would think of the Person of the Lord from His Essence,--if they would think of Him as He has come in His Second Coming, as the Divine Truth which is the form of the Divine Good,--in short, if they would think of Him As THE DIVINE WORD now opened,--the sensual idea of a bi-sexual God would quickly disappear and with it the horrible monsters of dualism, tritheism, and finally atheism, which with yawning mouths lie in wait for him who ventures to reason concerning the Divine from the thought of the sensual man.
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THE UNITY OF GOD ASSAILED.
The heresy promulgated by the editor of the Messenger is a monstrous assault upon that supreme Doctrine which forms the inmost shrine, the very holy of holies of the New Jerusalem,--the Doctrine of the Unity of God. For in ascribing masculinity to the Divine Love, and femininity to the Divine Wisdom or the "Divine Humanity," he ascribes a different sexuality to each, and the very idea of sexuality involves separation. (The word "sex comes from secare, to cut asunder.) He separates them into two beings, differing sexually as man and woman differ from one another, making of the one a Divine Husband and of the other a Divine Wife, a god and a goddess. And then, to make his heathen triad completer he adds yet a third person, a divine son born of this goddess, for he informs us that this Divine feminine "in its turn gives an absolutely new duality to the Holy Spirit which goes forth with a Masculine power to beget all the graces and capabilities" of the Church.
We have here, masquerading in New Church garments, a recrudescence of the old pagan notion of a Divine family father, mother, and son,--Jupiter, June and Mars.--Osiris. Isis and Horus,--a trinity of persons more grossly tritheistic than that of the Old Christian Church, for in the latter the three persons art at least not differentiated as to sex. Anyone possessing a remnant of rational thought can see that difference as to sexuality means difference as to personality. A masculine soul forms for itself a masculine body, and the two make a masculine person. And a feminine body postulates as its formative cause a feminine soul, the two making a feminine person.
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To teach that the Divine Soul differs as to sex from the Divine Body, and that the Divine Body differs as to sex from the Divine Proceeding, is to teach that each differs in toto from the other,-each having its own soul and its own body, and each possessing its own separate and sexually differentiated personality. "Beware, therefore, lest there be fixed in your mind the idea of three gods, and lest the mouth, which has in it no idea, sound, 'one god.'" (T. C. R. 173).
CONJUGIAL LOVE DESTROYED.
In striking at the absolute unity of God, the Messenger at the same time strikes at the very fountain-head of love truly conjugial, for this love flows from the marriage of the Church with the one Lord, and depends in every step upon the idea of the unity of God in the Church. "Those who approach the Father as a person by himself, and the Holy Spirit as a person by himself, these have not conjugial love." (A. E. 995.)
The Messenger has set up a trinity of Divine persons with whom the Church can have no conjunction. It destroys the heavenly marriage between the Church and her one Lord and thus destroys also the Christian conjugial which flows from this Marriage. Where is the "conjugial" in the marriage of the Church with a masculine Holy Spirit and at the same time with a feminine "Lamb?" Such a monstrous conception surely belongs to the "insanities of scortatory love."
Instead of elevating woman to a plane of equality with man, this heresy degrades her, makes her a creature utterly and hopelessly inferior to man, and thus again strikes at love truly conjugial. For if the essence of love is masculine and the essence of wisdom feminine, then the masculine is love and the feminine is wisdom, and woman, consequently, is an inferior to man as wisdom is inferior to love, or as faith is inferior to charity, or as form is inferior to substance. In fact, since love is the substance and the only actual and real thing in the universe, while wisdom is only the external form and manifestation of love, the editor of the Messenger makes the male internal and the female the external, man the soul and woman the body, man the master and woman the servant, man the something and woman the nothing.
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Between these there can be no equality and no conjugial relation. But the truth is that both man and woman are inmostly forms of love, both have the same human essence, both are equally human beings and as such,-as to essence, equally the image and likeness of the Creator. The difference between them is only a difference as to form, a difference as to mental as well as physical formation, the male form representing the active and creative force of the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, and the female form representing the passive, receptive, and reactive force of the Church. In the Lord there is nothing passive, nothing receptive, and nothing reactive, and therefore there is nothing feminine in God.
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. The most important feature of news this month, is the establishment of a "Hospital fund," for the College dormitories. The necessity of having such a fund impressed itself especially upon our genial friend, Mr. S. H. Hicks, and, like a good business man, he took a very practical way to inaugurate it,--at the same time giving us a delightful time. He invited the whole society to an entertainment, given in the gymnasium, at which contributions could be made for this use. The result was a total contribution of about two hundred and sixty dollars,--a pretty respectable sum to begin with. Part of this has been devoted to settling some old accounts incurred when there was no hospital fund, but a considerable balance was left for the establishment of a permanent fund, and the "Hospital fund" may now be considered as a permanent institution.
Apart from the laudable object for which it was given, the entertainment itself was a rare treat, and also a decided dramatic success. Miss Broomell, of Philadelphia, an elocutionist inimitable in her child roles, was the principal "star." The program also contained several musical numbers, all rendered by our own young people, which contributed in no slight degree to the success of the evening.
On the incoming list we welcome the names of Miss Mitchell. Mrs. Bellinger and Miss Centennia Bellinger, whose sojourn in Europe was pleasant and beneficial, and Dr. and Mrs. Ernest A. Farrington, who will make their permanent home in Philadelphia. R. W. C.
PITTSBURGH, PA. On the evening of February 21st we danced at the Bellefield Club. And how we did dance. Staid mothers of families frisked about like girls in their teens, and one genial grandfather was heard to declare that "we ought to have them once a month."
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The floor was fine, the music inspiring, and, judging by the general enthusiasm, there's another good time coming--we hope it's almost here, for "it's been long, long, long on the way."
Though the local philosophers do not boast of their ability to fully comprehend the kaleidoscopic labyrinths of actives, finites and elements, still with praiseworthy persistence they brave all weathers in their laudable efforts to worship at Urania's shrine.
On every alternate Thursday evening a number of the young men meet at Mr. Pendleton's home to study under his direction the work on Conjugial Love. Though only three classes have been held, they have proved most beneficial and instructive, and discussion is becoming more general each time. K. W.
GLENVIEW, ILL. Among the events which have transpired since our last report, the house warming at the beautiful new home of Mr. and Mrs. A. E. Nelson and family deserves first place as regards both time and importance. The inviting hearth, our genial host and hostess, to say nothing of the welcome repast set before us, made all who had dared the blasts of a Glenview blizzard feel more than well repaid.
The first part of the evening was taken up by tours of inspection and admiration, after which in speeches and toasts we gave the edifice as well as its inhabitants, a royal welcome into the circle of the "Park."
Besides our regular Friday lectures, by the pastor, which continue to be unusually well attended, we enjoyed during the last month an interesting talk by Mr. Charles Francis Browne, on his late European tour
On March 5th Mr. and Mrs. Gyllenhaal held a very pleasant reception in honor of their silver wedding. Their friends overwhelmed them with congratulations and good cheer, not to mention the silver, and started them well on the road to the golden wedding. The meeting, in fact, served to cheer us all after the days of depression caused by the loss of one of our boys.
On Thursday, March 2d, Ariel Burnham, at the age of seventeen, passed into the other world.
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A quiet, unassuming youth, he had won a place in our midst by the earnestness and character he displayed. He had been educated in our school in Glenview, from which he had gone on to Bryn Athyn. His loyalty to his Alma Mater was strikingly shown in eagerness and hope to return to her, a hope which lasted to the end. L. E. G.
CHICAGO, ILL. It is said that one cannot gauge the true historical value and setting of the events of the immediate present and that it is necessary to await a calm and distant future when they may be viewed in perspective. We submit this as a well-devised excuse for not sending our news notes during the last few months. Some of your correspondents complain that they have donated their entire supply to Mercury, but we are glad to say that it is not necessary for us to make this excuse.
Immediately after our Local Assembly in October Bishop Pendleton installed the Rev. W. E. Caldwell as our pastor, performing the interesting though simple ceremony in the presence of a large gathering of our own members and the friends from Immanuel Church, Among other things, the event proved the importance of the rite, and the value of doing all things "in an orderly and becoming manner."
In the Doctrinal Classes during the winter the past-or has treated of various subjects, among them a series on Education, on Remains, on the New Heaven, and on the Series of Churches upon this earth. On two occasions we have had lectures from Mr. Charles Francis Browne, who gave us very interesting accounts of his recent trip abroad, illustrated by views of European cities, and of the great works of art to be found there. Recently also the Rev. Reginald frown has delivered two lectures on Physiography, illustrated by stereopticon views of land formations in every part of the world. In his explanation of the causes of mountains, plains, rivers, etc., a new charm seemed added to the beauties of mother earth. He was happy in his choice of pictures, for Chicagoans do love mountain scenery.
It is perhaps too late to speak of our Christmas and New Year celebrations. Suffice it to say that both were delightful and successful events.
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We also observed Swedenborg's birthday with a supper and appropriate speeches prepared by numerous gentlemen, (with and without the aid of encyclopedias). The addresses were not confined to Swedenborg's life and works, but some were devoted to the consideration of other philosophers, notably Leibnitz, Wolf, Newton, Descartes, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The accounts embraced their biography, their spiritual state as revealed in the Writings, and the prominent features of their teachings. This proved both entertaining and instructive, besides adding luster to the greatness of the Swedenborg Philosophy by contrast.
Washington and Lincoln birthdays were celebrated here on February 20th with a stag party attended by most of the men from Immanuel and Sharon churches. Patriotic toasts were drunk, and numerous national themes expounded in the light of the Church. The Father of our Country and the Preserver of the Union were duly honored in word and song, but the real demonstration of the evening was reserved for our living President, Theodore Roosevelt. E. A. F.
BERLIN, ONT. The chief event in the life of the Carmel church during the past month was the dedication of the new house of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman, on Wednesday evening, February 22d. The entire Society was invited, and few, if any, were absent. The service opened with the Lord's Prayer, which was followed by the reading of lessons from the Word and the Writings and the singing of selections. The pastor then delivered an address, at the close of which he placed the Word and one of the Writings in the repository. Mr. and Mrs. Roschman also took one of the Writings to their own room. The pastor then declared the house dedicated to the uses of a family life which is in accordance with the truths concerning that life revealed by the Lord in the Writings of the New Church. The service closed with the singing of the fifteenth Psalm, a prayer, and the benediction. After the host and hostess and the members of their family had received the congratulations of their guests, several toasts were proposed.
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Mr. Rudolf Roschman, responding to "The Old House," spoke of the many important events in the history of the Church in Berlin, which had taken place under its roof, and especially of its having been the place where this Society worshiped for several months after its separation from the old Society. Mr. Richard Roschman responded to "The New House," and Mr. Jacob Stroh to "The happiness of our friends in their New Home." Mr. and Mrs. Peter Bellinger, of Toronto, being with us, a toast was proposed to the Toronto Society, and responded to by Mr. Bellinger. Other toasts followed: The Academy, the Carmel Church, Our School, and more besides, and were responded to by the hearty singing of our social songs. Afterwards there was dancing, without which our young folks, and some of the older also, would not have considered the house properly initiated. The evening was one of the most delightful our Society has known. W.
LONDON, ENGLAND. The work of the General Church society here is making steady progress. The present meeting place is already felt to be inadequate for the proper performance of the uses of a school and Church.
It is satisfactory to be able to report that increased interest is being taken in the services and doctrinal class, as well as in the social meetings,--in fact, they appear to have progressed together, as ought to be the case.
In addition to the ordinary weekly doctrinal class there is a young people's monthly Sunday evening meeting at Mr. Howard's house, where the work on Conjugial Love is being studied under the guidance of the pastor.
Mr. and Mrs. Elphick have held several Sunday evening "at homes," the most recent one taking place on Swedenborg's birthday. On this occasion the pastor of the Society presided, and a number of the gentlemen present spoke at some length, each dealing with a particular aspect of the state of the world at the time of the Second Coming of the Lord, and the necessity for the new Revelation given through Emanuel Swedenborg This meeting proved to one of the most useful and enjoyable Swedenborg birthday celebrations yet experienced by the Society.
In addition to the above-named meetings, there have been several monthly socials.
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At one of these, held February 14th, an attempt was made to bring out the latent poetical, rhymatical and musical talent of the members. A prize was offered for the best toast for social meetings, with suitable verse to sing to it, each competitor to sing his own composition, and to lead the company in so doing. Mrs. Elphick was the only lady competitor, and well deserved the lady's prize, as she not only composed the words, but also the music, to the sentiment "The City of Light."
"THE CITY OF LIGHT.
O, may our thoughts, as birds on wing,
Seek a congenial clime:
Pierce thro' the dark and clinging cloud,
Rise above space and time.
O, may we view the sparkling light,
Shed from the shining city bright.
Mr. Rey Gill obtained most votes for his toast to "The Babies," which will undoubtedly become popular at many future socials
"THE BABIES.
(June-"Here's a health unto His majesty.")
Here's a health unto the babies dear,
And their Ma-ma-ma-ma-ma-mas,
And may they grow up twice as good
As their Da-da-da-da-da-das.
And he who will not drink this health
I wish him neither health nor wealth,
Nor yet a baby for himself;
And its ma-ma-ma-ma-mama-mama-ma,
And its ma-ma-ma-mama-ma-ma.
Whatever posterity may conclude as to the poetical qualifications of the competitors, there can be no doubt but that those taking Part in the meeting had a very good time.
FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES. The AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY has taken from the register of visitors to the Swedenborg House, the names and addresses of several thousand persons, to whom it is intended to send New Church literature.
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At the semi-annual meeting of the ministers of the MARYLAND ASSOCIATION, held at Baltimore, February 20th, a paper was read by Dr. Sewall, in which the writer laid much emphasis on the importance of the teaching that the account of Jonah is both historical and representative. The paper resulted in considerable discussion as to whether "Swedenborg's statements regarding the Letter of the Word were to be accepted as authoritative for the Church!" The position taken by the Rev. Arthur Mercer was, "that in view of the unsettling effects of modern critical research, the New Church could not afford to plant itself on any predetermined theory as to the external character of the Old Testament,--its internal meaning, which gives it its vitality, being the same in any case." This apparent indifference as to the Letter of the Word, whose historical narratives are said by the Writings to be true history, is somewhat surprising as coming from a member of a body which has so far exalted the Letter, that it has quite overshadowed the Doctrine. And if "Swedenborg's statements" on this subject are not to be accepted as "authoritative for the Church," where shall she go for light? To the priests of Higher Criticism?
At the same ministerial meeting, a paper was read by the Rev. George Dole dealing with the materialism and agnosticism which now overwhelm the Christian world. "The Lord alone can de liver men, but only when they acknowledge revealed truths, and, from the light of revealed truth and the acknowledgment of God, co-ordinate scientific truths." The paper maintained that the duty of the New Church to the world consisted in the promotion of internal spiritual life, and of interest in the Church.
In an account of missionary work done by him in TEXAS, the Rev. A. B. Francisco reports an attendance in general, larger than during his former visit. But "at Lampas the attendance was small, owing to the circulation by some of the Methodist brethren of the statement in the Writings that Paul and David are in Hell."
The Messenger for January 25th is devoted entirely to an illustrated article by the editor, on the "SWEDENBORG HOUSE." If appears that the idea of building this house at the Fair was first suggested by the Rev. C. A. Nussbaum.
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Another item of interest is the statement that the pattern adopted for the use of the architect was a cut of Swedenborg's residence, published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Magazine for 1872, "which seemed to be copied from a photograph taken only a few years before the house was destroyed." This cut was sent to Mr. Eby by an old lady, an inmate of the Old People's Home in Chicago, who had been a member of Mr. Hibbard's congregation.
The Messenger gives the final estimate of the number of visitors to the house as over 66,000; to these visitors about 80,000 tracts and booklets were distributed, the tract most in demand being "Who was Swedenborg and what Are His Writings," of which 26,000 were used.
Title Unspecified 1905
Announcements.
Special Notice.
THE ANNUAL MEETINGS.
The annual meeting of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Pittsburg, on Wednesday, June 21st, and on Friday and Saturday, June 23d and 24th, 1905.
The Executive Committee of the General Church will meet at the same place on June 21st, and a joint meeting of the two Councils will be held in Thursday, June 22d.
The Teachers' Institute will meet at the same place on Monday and Tuesday, June 26th and 27th.
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Title Unspecified 1905
MAY, 1905. No. 5.
HOME. Rev. F. E. WAELCHLI 1905
Familiar to all are the words of the song:
"There's no place like home,
A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met with elsewhere.
Truly there is about every home, in which love, peace and concord reign, a charm from the skies, for simple good spirits attach themselves to it; and when the love, peace and concord are from a spiritual origin, the charm is greater still, for then angels dwell in the home.
Man can find nowhere else a charm like that which pertains to his own home; the house and all things pertaining to it are objects of tender affection. Why it this? Is it because of the nature of its structure and of the material of which it is built? No; but because it is the containant and ultimate of the life which he loves, thus a representative of that life. The life attaches itself, as it were, to the house, and is expressed in all things of it and in it. But the life which pertains to a house, or the family-life, is in its turn again a house, containing its occupants, which are the minds of the persons constituting the family. Their minds dwell in the family--life as in a house, and impart to that house its character.
And again, these minds are a house, that is, the affections and thoughts which constitute the minds are a house in which dwell either the Lord and heaven, or self and hell.
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Thus there are houses within houses.
The highest, or the mind of man, is a house in which the Lord dwells, when the affections and thoughts which constitute it are from Him and turn to Him. The affections are then goods, and the thoughts truths, and between them there is a marriage which makes them to be one house. From this marriage offspring are procreated, which are derivative truths and good. And the partners of the marriage are both filled with the love of serving the Lord by a life of love and charity towards the neighbor. It is evident that such a house is a dwellingplace of the Lord, and thence also of heaven. Yea, it is a heaven, a "house of God." The Lord and heaven, and hence also the Church, are in all parts of the house, in its inner chambers, its outer halls and courts, that is, in all things from inmosts to outermosts.
But this house, as existing with those who constitute a family, must have a house on a more external plane to dwell in, and this is the family-life. This house, that it may be true, must be such that what makes the mind may ultimate itself therein; in other words, it must be the ultimate of the marriage of good and truth, and such it can be in a genuine sense only when there is with husband and wife the life of love truly conjugial, or the effort towards this life. This life exists where husband and wife together look to the Lord and worship Him; together love the truths of the Church and seek to grow in the knowledge and understanding of them: together endeavor to do the goods which the truths of doctrine teach, and render to each other mutual aid in so doing. It is this life which makes family life genuine and heavenly. In fact, it can by itself alone constitute family-life, as is the case where, in the Divine Providence, husband and wife do not have, or do not as yet have the added blessings of children.
But even if there be no children, there must be the desire that there should be: and when children come, there must be the desire that there be more; for conjugial love must have conjoined with it the love of offspring, even as the marriage of good and truth in the mind must have conjoined with it the love of spiritual procreation. If, in response to this love, children are given by the Lord, the family-life becomes more fully a house of the mind, for there then enter into that life the duties of the care and education of children, which the propagation of goods and truths finds its full ultimation and basis.
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Both spiritually and naturally there then come into fulfillment the words of the Lord: "Thy wife shall be a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house; thy children as olive plants round about thy table," (Ps. 128, 3.) By the care and true education of children, the bond of conjugial love between husband and wife is strengthened, and thus in the performance of these duties the house becomes more fully a home.
The family, as one house, has its relation to other families, or houses; for each family is a greater man, and family is related to family as man to man. This relation, to be true, must be that of mutual love or charity, ultimating itself principally in hospitality. A family-life which does not include hospitality, but is self-contained, lacks an essential quality necessary to its being a house in which a heavenly state of mind can dwell. For a heavenly state of mind involves, as charity. This love ultimates itself, so far as concerns family-life, principally in the exercise of hospitality. There can be no doubt whatever that where hospitality is a part of family-life, the minds involves, as we have seen, the love of the neighbor or of the members of that family become more disposed to the love of the neighbor or charity in all the walks of life. The mind is turned away from self to others; it dwells on the means of making others happy. Hereby again are the bonds of conjugial love strengthened, while at the same time the children are initiated into love to the neighbor.
The family and the family-life, again, need a house in which to dwell,--the ultimate house, constructed of material substances. This house becomes, as it were, the very embodiment of the family-life, that is, of conjugial love, of the education of children, and of hospitality. The house, as it were, expresses and stands for that life, or, more true, it represents (re-presents) it. Who that enters a house does not in a measure perceive the sphere of that life emanating from the very house and its furnishings? In common discourse we speak of a house as representing its life; thus we say: This is a good house: this is an evil house; also, this is a house in which God dwells; or, this is a godless house. It is true that a house in this world is not, as in the other, a perfect representative of the life which dwells in it.
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External conditions, and the fixed nature of things here, may make this impossible. Nevertheless, in a measure, the house here is also representative, for the character of those dwelling in it attaches itself to it and ultimates itself in it. Every house takes on a certain quality from those who dwell in it. The reason for this is that the spirits which are with man seek to rest on the ultimate of man's worldly surroundings. The longer a family dwells in a house, the more does it become representative of the family's life, and the stronger do the affections become centered in it. And if for any reason this is not the case, if a state arises when man no longer feels "at home" in his house, he seeks for a new one. And when he selects for himself or builds a new house, what is it that impels him to select a certain one or to build according to a certain plan? Is it not largely, even though not entirely, because that plan appeals to something within him? What we call a man's taste is really nothing else than an expression of his peculiar form of mind.
That which above all imparts a character or quality to a house is the conjugial state therein prevailing. Where there is conjugial love, husband and wife constitute spiritually one house, that is, a house which is a unit, and in which, consequently, there is harmony and peace. This unity, harmony, and peace attach themselves to the ultimate house itself. In the other world this is the case in all fulness, for we read in the Doctrines that in heaven no other married partners but such as are one angel can dwell together in one house. "It is impossible for married partners to dwell together in one house unless they are mutual inclinations; if they are external inclinations, and not at the same time internal, the very house itself separates, and rejects and expels them." (C. L. 50.) This means that the very house becomes for them a divided house; that is, there comes to pertain to the very house a state which makes it impossible for them to dwell together in it. They desire to flee from it. In this world there is something similar. We see, therefore, how the conjugial state imparts a quality to the very house, making it either delightful or undelightful, especially to the married partners.
As the conjugial state imparts a quality to the house, so also does the character of the training and education of the children and the nature of the hospitality which is exercised. If the children are trained and educated primarily for the Church and heaven, this will be represented and felt in the very house.
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So, too, if the hospitality flows from mutual love of heavenly origin.
It is evident, therefore, that the house which a family inhabits is the ultimate in which is represented the life and mind of the family; and not only are they represented therein, but it is the very foundation on which they rest. It is a law of order that all things which pertain to the life and mind of man, or to his spirit, rest upon a basis of earthly substance. Where the mind and life are heavenly, or in the endeavor to be heavenly, there thus exists the order in which heaven rests on earth. Even in a wider sense heaven rests on earth. For heavenly things with the angels rest upon the earthly things which are in the mind of man, and the earthly things in the mind of man rest upon the actual earthly things with which his body comes in contact. A house, built of earthly substances, thus becomes the very habitation and dwelling place of all that pertains to a family; for not only is its natural life spent therein, but its spiritual life rests upon it as on its basis.
Since, therefore, the house is such an ultimate, and since it stands as the representative of the life that is within it, it is of order when a family enters a new house, in which it intends to live for a length of time, that the house be solemnly dedicated. Such a dedication is a sign that it is the desire of those inhabiting it, that their affections and thoughts and the family-life be dedicated to the Lord, and that the house be His house, in which He shall dwell, and His Will, revealed in the Word, shall rule.
The Lord's presence in a house is His presence in the minds and lives of the family: but as those minds and lives are in the house itself as in their ultimate and are there represented, therefore, it is according to order that the Lord be also representatively present in the very house. This representative presence of the Lord exists when the Books, which are His Word, rest in a place that is set apart for them and is reverenced as holy; and from whence also they are taken when the family assembles for daily worship. The Books of the Word, resting in the sacred repository, are, therefore, the ultimate representative of the Lord's presence. Wherefore, at the dedication of a house, the placing of the Word in its threefold forms in the repository, is the act representative of the dedication. This act is a sign that the Lord as the Divine Truth, in which He is present with men, is to be present in the sacred repository of the minds and lives of the family,--in their affections and thoughts, in their conjugial love and family-life in general, and in their hospitality.
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Such a dedication cannot otherwise than serve as a powerful ultimate for the initiation of a heavenly sphere into a house; it is as it were an invitation to the angels to take up their abode in the house, an invitation which they accept with inmost joy. And this auspicious beginning of the life in a new house will as a first state enter into the states which follow, and, being strengthened in them, will cause the house to become more and more a habitation of the angels and a house of God.
LORD KNOWN IN THE BREAKING OF BREAD. Rev. ENOCH S. PRICE 1905
A SERMON
And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and gave to them; and their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. And they said one to the other. Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures? And they rose up that same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known unto them in breaking of bread. Luke 24:31-35.
Breaking bread and giving, on the part of the Lord, signifies to instruct in the good and truth of faith, or to gift man with celestial good; on the part of man, to receive and eat bread broken and given by the Lord, is to receive instruction in the good and truth of faith, or to be gifted with celestial good.
Bread in the Word is an expression used to signify all food in general; its spiritual significance is spiritual food which is the good of faith, that is, faith carried out into the affections and acts of life. This involves that, for the internal or spiritual man, truth as well as good is food; though where the doctrine enters into particulars, drink signifies truth, and food, or bread, good. Let us consider the following general doctrine:--
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"EVERY man's nature is such that his spirit is greatly delighted with knowing,--so much so that knowing almost seems of all things the most desirable; it is his food whereby he is nourished and refreshed, as is the external man by terrestrial food. This food, which is that of his spirit, is communicated to his external man, to the end that the external man may be adapted to the internal. But the different kinds of food succeed earth other in the following order: Celestial food is every good of love and charity from the Lord; spiritual food is every truth of faith; on these kinds of food the angels live. From these exists a food, which is also celestial and spiritual, but of an inferior angelic nature, on which angelic spirits live. From this again exists a food celestial and spiritual still inferior, which is that of reason, and thence of science; this live good spirits. Lastly comes corporeal food, which is proper to man while he lives in the body. These kinds of food correspond to each other in a wonderful manner. Hence also it is plain, why science is very pleasing to itself; for the case with it is as with appetite and taste: wherefore also with man the act of eating corresponds with scientifics in the world of spirits, and appetite and taste correspond with the desire of sciences." A. C. 1480.
With this general doctrine in mind we will proceed, and in the consideration of our text we wish to call especial attention to the words, "He took bread, and blessed it, and brake and gave to them," (the two disciples) "and their eyes were opened and they knew him." And after the two had returned to Jerusalem, "They told what things had been done in the way, and how he was known unto them in breaking of bread."
In these words in their internal sense, it seems to us, is contained the answer to the question. How is man to see and know the Lord in His glorified human? Those two disciples saw Him and knew Him in the breaking of bread. In the breaking of bread shall He be seen and known by the Church, that is, by all men in whom the Church is; for two disciples signify the Church, and the whole Church, for two signifies conjunction which is of good and truth, and this it is in man which makes the Church.
The chapter in which our text is found is the one in which correspond to each other in Luke gives the closing scene in which the Lord was manifest to the senses of men on earth.
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Luke more than the other Evangelists writes, so far as the external appearance goes, in a clear historical style, and this gospel appears, more than the others, to be a mere narration of events as they were seen by the natural eyes of the disciples; but the writing of Luke, not a whit less than the others, contains an internal sense not appearing in the narrative, except to the prepared mind.
This closing scent was on the first, day of the week,--the third according to the ancient manner of reckoning, from the day of the crucifixion of the Lord,-when He rose from the tomb, not in the gross natural body which had been laid in the grave, for that had been dissipated into the elements from which it had come, but in a glorified body of divine spiritual substance.
According to Luke's narrative none of the disciples saw or knew Him at first, but they recognized in some degree that He had risen, for they saw angels who told them that He had risen, but it is said, "Their words seemed to them as idle, and they believed them not." Even Peter, who represents faith itself or the understanding of truth, did not know what had happened: for when he looked into the sepulcher, and saw, not the body which they had buried on the sixth day of the previous week, but only "the linen clothes laid by themselves, he wondered in himself at that which had come to pass;" this notwithstanding the fact that Peter had repeatedly heard the Lord say that He must die, be buried and rise again the third day.
Now that same day, two of them went on a journey from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus, and while they were on this journey. "Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were holden that they should not know him."
Men's eves are always holden until they can bear sight, and these two disciples, although they had long known the Lord while in the flesh, now that He appeared in His resurrection body, did not know Him at all, not even though He "began at Moses and all the prophets, and expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself."
But when "he sat at meat with them, and took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them, then their eyes were opened and they knew him;" and the keynote of their narration to the prophets, others when they had returned to Jerusalem was, "how he was known unto them in the breaking of bread."
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The breaking of bread had occurred at the end of a journey; now a journey is a progression through space, and the spiritual signification and correspondence of progression through space is progression in state. This journey of the two disciples to Emmaus from Jerusalem is a progression of the man of the Church in doctrine; especially is this so because they were accompanied by the Lord Himself in person in His resurrection or glorified body: but they did not know Him,--they were so entirely unaware of who He was, that they narrated to Him His own history.
Thus every man proceeds or journeys, in a kind of faith alone state, in which he talks and thinks about doctrine, but not from it: in this there is some acknowledgment of the truth, but no real internal perception that it is the truth itself from the Lord, thus the Lord who saves man from his evils, and provides a final home for him among the angels. Although on this journey he is accompanied by the Lord,--for he knows, intellectually, from parents, priests and teachers, that the Lord is in His doctrines, yet he does not recognize the Lord. This recognition comes from perception only, which is higher and more internal than reason, and yet by no means opposed to reason enlightened by genuine truth. It is only at the journey's end, the end of a given progression, during which he may be assailed with doubt and despair,--when the two disciples, the man of the Church, with such truth as they now had in their understanding, and such good as they had in their will, sit down at meat with the Lord, and receive from Him the bread which He has blessed, broken and given, that man knows the Lord for a certainty in His glorified Human,--the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church; for then first in this real appropriation of good to his life, man is gifted with the perception that it is the Lord who has been with him, instructing him, "beginning at Moses and all the prophets," that is, in the whole complex of the doctrines of the Church.
This applies to every man of the Church, in every progression of state; for in the end of every such progression, which is not a retrogression, he is gifted with a perception that makes the perception he before had comparatively ignorance of the Lord. And this will be the case to all eternity; for man's capacity for improvement is limited only by the fact that he is finite, and while the finite can never attain to the Infinite, it can progress, and, with the regenerate, it ever will progress, in the direction of the Infinite, that is, in the direction of the Divine.
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The doctrine that the Lord is seen and known in the appropriation of good from the Lord, has especial application to the young. New Church parents take pains to teach their children the doctrines of the New Church,--they take them to church to hear the preaching and instruction of priests,--they provide schools in which they may receive daily training; and all this from infancy to adult age, and. since there is with children a natural willingness and inclination to receive instruction, the Lord Himself draws near and goes with them; but, though they in a sense see Him, still their eyes are holden, and they do not really know Him. This is because children and youth, in all their years of tuition, are not in actual free will, but are under obedience to their elders, which makes the best possible basis for free obedience to the Lord, when they come to years of rationality and their own right.
Although the Lord accompanies the children all the way on their journey through the years of tutelage, and teaches them concerning Himself, they will never know him at all, if at the journey's end they do not. of their own free will, invite Him to tarry with them, that is, if they do not freely accept and acknowledge the teachings they have received as the real truth; but even yet they will not know Him, unless they eat bread which he has blessed, broken and given them, unless they receive Him into their hearts by applying and appropriating the good of His truth to the reformation and regeneration of their lives. If they do this, they will know the Lord and He will vanish out of their sight, that is, He will cease to be seen in the sensual and scientific vision of their memory alone, but will remain a living reality in their rational and spiritual vision. Then they will return to Jerusalem and will relate to their brethren how their heart burned within them, while He talked with them by the way, that is, they will become real members of the New Church, because they will have the New Church in themselves; for He has become "known unto them in the breaking of bread."
This doctrine ought to remove from the minds of parents some of the anxiety in regard to their offspring, as to whether they shall be of the Church or not.
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You parents cannot make Newchurchmen of your children. You can furnish the means, the instruction, and by those means, can lead in the right paths for child-life, and the Lord will accompany with tender guard and guidance, although the children do not really know Him. But when it draws toward the close of that day of travel, which close is the beginning of the new day, when they cease to be children, your responsibility ceases, and it remains with your children to choose for themselves the paths in which they will thereafter walk, whether they will tarry and break bread with the Lord, and then return to Jerusalem, or allow Him to depart from them, while they continue on in their journey into the world of self and of hell. Pray that they may choose the former course, trust in the tender care of the Divine Providence, and cease to be anxious as to the outcome. The Lord wills that everyone should be saved and no one lost; and He will save your child, if the child will accept the salvation.
There is but one thing about which a Newchurchman ought to be anxious, and that is about his own evils; but even here he ought not to cultivate anxiety and give way to it, for anxiety argues distrust.
But there is still another view of this doctrine of conjunction by the appropriation of good from the Lord, that will be useful for us to consider to-day, namely, this: How is a man to know positively what is Divine revelation and what is not? This is a question every man must answer for himself sooner or later.
Ever since the fall, men have continued to appear at intervals, claiming to be divinely inspired, and the world is to-day full of books purporting to be the inspired Word of God. How is man to distinguish between the genuine and the spurious?
The first means is the examination of the internal evidence of the books themselves, in the light of reason with which God has gifted man, as an instrument with which he may "prove all things and hold fast that which is good."
That it is lawful and needful for man to exercise this instrumentality is taught in the letter of the Word, where the Lord warns His disciples, saying, "If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ or there; believe it not.
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For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect. Behold I have told you before. Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold he is in the desert; go not forth; Behold he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of Man be." Matt. 24, 24-27. There are other similar passages.
The last sentence of this passage also contains the touchstone of the examination we have referred to; for, unless "the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth unto the west,"--unless human reason be enlightened by the Lord who is signified by the east,--man will not be able to perceive the coming of the Son of Man; he will not be able to see the Divine in revelation even when he does examine it, and consequently will not be able to distinguish between the true and the false.
How then shall man be converted to the Lord? How shall he know the Lord in revelation? To convert oneself is to turn aside from one's way, this man does when the desire to receive the good of truth as well as to know the truth, awakens in him, that is, when the desire to turn from his way in order to amend his life by shunning his evils, by means of doctrine from the Lord, arises in him,--when this affection becomes active in him, then first he will know the Lord, for then it is that he ceases to walk and talk, and invites the Lord to tarry with him; this invitation will always be accepted, and when they have sat down together the Lord will take bread, bless, break and give to him, and his eyes will be opened, and he will know Him. It is then in the shunning of evils according to the Lord's doctrines that he will receive and appropriate the good of the Lord's truth, and he will be gifted with the perception that this is the truth, and that the Lord with all His love of saving the human race is in it; and furthermore, he will perceive that that other thing which claims to be Divine revelation is a fabrication of falsity, inspired, indeed, but by the devil and his angels.
But it may be asked, Are not the followers of other doctrines than the Word and the Writings sincere in their beliefs? In a sense, yes; and in so far as they are in simple states? and so far as circumstances in the Divine Providence have prevented them coming into the light vouchsafed to the Newchurchman, they are not to blame for their beliefs, and they will be saved and instructed in the other life.
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But as concerns the followers of the innumerable cults of the learned, and would-be learned world, they do not wish to be reformed by the correction of their evils by the Lord. They either wish to have all necessity and responsibility of reformation removed from them, by being saved by faith alone; or they wish to stand upon their own superior excellence, as needing no reformation. The teachings of these two classes will be found by the one who desires to shun evils as sins against God, to have no saving efficacy.
Such a man will find, in a similar manner to that in which he recognized the Lord in the Writings of the Church and in the letter of the Word, that He is not in their teachings.
There is nothing in any purported revelation, outside the Word and the Writings, that will lead to the good of life; for that is acquired only by the shunning of evils,--recognized evils. Enlightened reason will tell you this if you search those books; but search them with the desire to be purified of evils, and it will become plainly manifest. For the New Church alone, of all extant religions, teaches that man is saved by the shunning of evils as sins against God.
Whoever reads and studies the Word of God in the letter and in the spirit for the sake of salvation will be accompanied on his journey by the Lord, who will instruct him in all things of His Word concerning Himself who is salvation,--who removes man's evils and implants His own good in their stead. This good man appropriates to himself by co-operating with the Lord in the removal of evils; then he shall know the Lord in the Word and Writings in the "breaking of bread."
"Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come into him, and sup with him, and he with me." Amen.
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MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH. C. TH. ODHNER 1905
HADES--PLUTO.
In the division of the world between the three sons of Chronos, the rule over the "lower world." that is, the interiors of the earth and the kingdom of the dead, fell to Hades or Pluto, who is somewhat difficult of interpretation owing to the variety of aspects under which he may be considered.
His name, HADES, or more properly AIDES, signifies "the invisible one," being derived from "a" not, and "eido," to see - referring either to his renowned helmet which conferred invisibility, or else to the invisible realm over which he ruled. The name PLUTO is probably connected with the Greek word ploutos, meaning "wealth," referring to the mineral riches hidden within the bowels of the earth.
As an individual, Hades is represented with a majestic aspect like his brothers, but with a more stern and gloomy countenance,--dark, heavily bearded, and with tightly closed lips. On his head he wears a peculiar crown on which is represented the crescent moon and under this an inverted crescent, with its horns pointing downward. In one hand he holds a key, and in the other a two-pronged scepter. At his side is the helmet of invisibility, which on one occasion he lent to Minerva who again bestowed it upon Perseus when this hero went forth to slay the Gorgon. At his feet sits the three-headed dog, Cerberus. These symbols will be of assistance in the interpretation of Hades in his threefold aspects.
First, as the brother of Zeus and Poseidon, and as one of the three world-rulers, Hades must represent one of the three universal degrees of Divine Truth in the Word of the Ancient Church.
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Now, if Zeus represents celestial Truth, or the celestial sense of the Ancient Word, and if Poseidon represents spiritual Truth, or the genuine sense within the natural sense, it follows that Hades must represent the most ultimate degree of Divine Truth, the natural sensual degree, or the merely literal sense of the Word, the "letter which killeth," the dead letter.
As such we find Hades as the god of the interiors of the earth, in which, as in the letter of the Word, there are inexhaustible mines of wealth, invisible on the surface but obtainable to those who "dig," i. e., investigate. As such also we can understand the meaning of the key, the two-pronged scepter, the composite crescent on his crown, and the helmet of invisibility. The key here signifies the Word closed as to its inner meanings. The two-pronged scepter,--each prong of which is a little flame,--seems to signify the power of the Word in the letter, with its twofold correspondences, ranging from opposite to opposite, each word having both a good and an evil significance. Compare in this connection the angel with the flaming sword, (or "sword of a flame"), guarding the way to the tree of life,--by which is signified the Word in the letter, which can be turned and twisted so as to confirm either truth or falsity. The double crescent signifies faith derived from the letter of the Word, which may turn upward to heaven or downward to hell. The helmet of invisibility also points to the literal sense which at times makes the spiritual sense invisible, that is, incomprehensible. Cerberus, in the best aspect, signifies the same letter, which acts as a guardian over the internal sense, preventing profaners from entering in.
Secondly, in his character of judge of the dead, Hades not only represents the judgment which is passed upon every one after death, but also the World of Spirits or that intermediate world in which the judgment is effected, as well as the general state of spirits when first entering the other world,--a state of sensual appearances derived from nature and the literal sense of the Word.
Here, again, we see the fitness of the composite crescent, turning upward and downward, and of the key which opens the gates of heaven and of hell. Cerberus, also, represents the guards which are set at the gates of heaven and of hell, preventing the unworthy from entering heaven or from passing out of that "bourn from which no traveller returneth."
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It is evident that in this aspect of Hades, the Greeks borrowed liberally from the Egyptian conception of Osiris, the judge of the dead. In fact, in later times, he was distinctly identified with the Graeco-Egyptian divinity Serapis, (Osiris-apis), and the emperor Julian, (the "apostate"), states that an oracle informed him that Pluto and Serapis are the same divinity.
Thirdly, when, in the decadence of the Ancient Church, the love of the world made the idea of death a fearful and intolerable thought, the conception of Hades was perverted into a conception of hell and damnation. Pluto now became identified with another divinity, Plutus, the god of filthy lucre, the love of the world and of riches, for the sake of pleasure and dominion, and it is in this aspect that Pluto is referred to in the Writings of the New Church.
Those, with whom the love of the world and of riches make the head were called Mammons by the ancients in the Church; the Greeks called were them Plutos. (T.C.R. 404.)
Swedenborg describes one who said he was Pluto, being one of those called Plutonics, who have the phantasy of seeing immense treasures of gold. (S.D., 4428)
Certain avaricious monks are like the infernal gods whom the Ancients called Plutos. (A. R. 752)
Those who love to rule, especially those whose religiosity demands that they are to be worshiped as deities, are compared to Plutos in hell. (D. P. 139; compare A. R. 792)
It may be suggested that the myth of the three brothers, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades, is a more or less indistinct echo of the ancient knowledge of the three sons of Noah,--Shem, Japheth and Ham. Shem represents the genuine, spiritual and internal Church and seems to fit in with the idea of Zeus. Japheth represents the external Church among those who were in simple good, and corresponds well with Poseidon. And Ham, whose name means "black," and who represents the external Church corrupted by the love of the world, may well be identified with the black-visaged, forbidding figure of Pluto, in his evil aspect.
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PERSEPHONE-PROSERPINE.
As the daughter of Ceres, and as the wife of Hades, this goddess appears in a twofold aspect; as a beneficent deity, virginal and smiling,--and as the queen of death and of hell, stern, pale-faced and sable-robed. Her name has been variously interpreted; some say it signifies "one who showers food;" according to other authorities it means "light-destroyer," or "death-bearer." (from phero, to bear, and phonos, death).
The story of the rape of Persephone was a favorite theme among the ancient poets. Light-hearted and merry, the youthful daughter of Ceres was gathering flowers in a meadow, when suddenly Pluto appeared in his chariot drawn by four coal-black horses; he strikes the earth with his two-pronged scepter; an abyss opens and he disappears with the wildly crying maiden, who now becomes the queen of the nether world.
Torch in hand, her despairing mother seeks for her beloved in every land. Distressed by grief, she forgets her function as fructifier of the earth; year after year no harvests appear, until finally Zeus, to save perishing mankind, commands Pluto to yield up Persephone. But as the latter, before her departure from Hades, had eaten some seeds of the pomegranate, she is bound to return for a time to the realms of Pluto, like Eurydice in the story of Orpheus. It was finally arranged that she is to spend three (according to other accounts, six) months with her mother above the ground, but the rest of the year with her gloomy consort below. Hence, when each year Persephone reappears on earth, all nature rejoices with Ceres, and gladly yields its increase; while, when again she disappears, the skies weep and all nature mourns during the dreary winter months.
As the daughter of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture and plentiful harvests, Proserpine clearly represents, in the natural sense, the coming of spring and renewed vegetation. Her emblems, in this connection, are ears of corn and a cornucopia, and as such she is often depicted as the consort of Bacchus. But as the melancholy queen of Hades she represents winter, and she is now depicted as partly veiled, holding a pomegranate in one hand and a torch in the other.
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A black cock is also among her emblems
Persephone, as a maiden and the harbinger of spring, fitly represents the youthful natural affection of truth, while Ceres, the goddess of harvests, represents good works, or natural good in the Church universal. In this light, the story of the rape of Persephone becomes the story of the Ancient Church, and of every Church, in its decline, when the affection of truth is separated from good works by means of Pluto, the merely literal understanding of the Word,--a process which we may see illustrated in the Roman Catholic Church, where external good works remain though deprived of the affection of truth, the love of spiritual things. In this Church the clergy have usurped for themselves the wine of the Sacrament and also the reading and interpretation of the Word, just as Pluto violently carried away Persephone, while to the people is left the bread alone, and external goad works as the sole means of salvation, (Ceres left alone). As in the Christian Church, so also in the Ancient Church, this spiritual rape was committed by those "plutonics" who are represented by Ham and the sons of Ham, the Church of Babylon.
The ever-recurring reappearance of Persephone represents, on the other hand, the fact that the affection of truth, or the love of spiritual things, is bound to reassert itself in the Church after every state of spiritual winter, as it did in the Christian Church at the time of the Renaissance and the Reformation, as it has done in the New Church after the establishment of the Academy, as it does periodically in the life of every regenerating man. "For during all the days of the earth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night, shall not cease." (Gen. viii: 22.)
As the queen of Hades, seated beside her husband upon an ebony throne, with her face veiled like Isis, and in her hand the pomegranate and the torch, Persephone would seem to signify, in a good sense, the Divine Mercy which tempers the stern decrees which would be meted out to all, were Truth alone to reign. Nevertheless, justice must be done: the good rewarded and the evil punished, as symbolized by the pomegranate and the torch. The cock, also, signifies judgment.
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As Pluto, here, is identical with Osiris, so his wife, Persephone, is identical with Isis, the veiled goddess. One Greek writer, Archemachus in fact identifies her with the Egyptian goddess. The veil may refer to the inscrutable decrees of Providence which judges not as we would judge.
In the opposite sense, however, Persephone when separated from her mother, and as the queen of hell, strikingly represents the state of the affection of truth when separated from good works and conjoined only with the fallacies of the merely literal sense of the Word,--a state of faith alone, gloomy and forbidding, "light-destroying" and "death bearing" to the souls of men.
THE REALM OF HADES.
The ideas of the Greeks and Romans in respect to the life after death were clearly derived from the Ancient Church, in which many of the Magi or wise men enjoyed open communication with the spiritual world and thus were able to describe that world as it then actually existed. The further back we go into antiquity, the clearer stand forth these ideas and the more do they resemble the descriptions of Heaven and Hell and the Intermediate world, as revealed in the Writings of the New Church The knowledge of the spiritual world, possessed by the Egyptians and Assyro-Babylonians, was in later ages communicated to the gentiles in Greece and Italy, but was there clothed in forms of fable and fiction and thus rendered somewhat dim and confused.
The supreme heaven, represented by Olympus, was by universal consent placed far above the skies. But as to the whereabouts of the rest of the spiritual world there seems to have been considerable obscurity. By the oldest writers, such as Homer and Hesiod, it was placed far to the West, beyond the uttermost boundaries of the occidental ocean. But the later and most common idea placed the realm of Hades in the interiors of the earth, to be approached by living men only through certain vast caves and subterranean passages. One of these, according to Roman traditions, existed near lake Avernus, a dismal pool in the Campania; hence Avernus became a general name for Hell, as in Virgil's famous strophe: "Facilis est descensus Avenzo,"--easy is the descent to Hell,--to which the poet added, "But to return and re-enjoy the day, this is a work, a labor."
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Having arrived at the confines of Pluto's kingdom, all spirits found themselves, first, on the banks of Acheron, a black and bridge less stream, too swift for even the boldest swimmer. The only means of crossing was by the ferry of CHARON, a grim old boatman who would accept no passenger without being paid the sum of a penny, the "oboaus." The ancients, on this account, were careful to place a small piece of money under the tongue of the deceased. All those who could not produce this sum were obliged to wait for one hundred anxious years, at the end of which they would be ferried over, free of charge. We conceive this whole myth as referring to the state of vastation in the World of Spirits, and we are reminded in this connection of the words of the Lord in Matthew: "Verily, I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." (v:26.) That is, no evil spirit is let down into hell, until he is vastated of the last vestige of good and truth, and no good spirit is elevated into heaven until he is delivered from the last remnant of evil and falsity. Old Charon would seem to represent the inexorable justice which demands this vastation before the final judgment.
Having safely passed the Acheron, the newly arrived spirits find themselves in the great Hall of Judgment, where Pluto and Proserpine sit in gloomy state upon their ebony throne, surrounded by the three judges, Mines, AEacus, and Rhadamanthus. While waiting for their turn before the judges, the spirits of the dead wander about in Hades, or the World of Spirits, which is described as dreary, dark, and cheerless. All the dead are here together, good and evil, young and old, all more or less anxious and discontented, sighing for the joy and activity of their former life on earth. Achilles, when questioned by Odysseus, declared that he would rather toil as a peasant on earth than be a king in the gloomy abode of departed shades. Later on, however, Achilles is described as being among the blessed in the Elysian fields.
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While Pluto himself presided as supreme judge of the dead, the actual decrees were delivered by the three subordinate judges, Mines, AEacus, and Rhadamanthus, who, according to the account of Socrates, (in Plato's Gorgias, 168), are seated in a meadow "at the three roads, of which two lead to the Islands of the Blessed, and the other to Tartarus." Conducted by Hermes, each soul must stand up before one of these judges, by whom he is searchingly and impartially examined as to his thoughts and actions.
What is good with him is separated from what is evil, and each is placed in one of the scales of Themis, the blindfolded goddess of justice. If, then, the good outweighs the evil, the soul is conducted to the Elysian fields; but if the evil outweighs the good, the soul is handed over to the Furies, the three livid and merciless daughters of Acheron and Nyx, who with scourges made of stinging serpents drive him over the rivers of hell and through the brazen gates of Tartarus.
Guarding the approach to Hell sits CERBERUS, "a three-headed dog, as cruel as fate," who fawns upon all who are about to enter, but effectually prevents their return from the infernal regions. Such hell-dogs are still being seen in the spiritual world, as, for instance, those guarding a hell of modern adulterers, described by Swedenborg in Conjugial Love, n. 79.
We passed through formidable forests in a region bordering on the west, and there were lakes out of which crocodiles raised their heads, and opened at us their wide jaws beset with teeth; and between the lakes there were terrible dogs, some of which were three-headed like Cerberus, some two-headed, all looking at us as we passed, with a horrible hungry snarl and fierce eyes. . . . The angel told me that all these wild beasts were representative forms of the lusts of the inhabitants whom we were about to visit. The lusts themselves were represented by those horrible dogs their deceit and cunning by the crocodiles, etc.
And again:
I saw a great dog, like the one called Cerberus by the ancient writers; the gape of his jaws was horrible. I was told that such a dog signifies a guard lest a man should pass over from heavenly conjugial love to the infernal love of adultery. When a man passes from the former love into the latter, opposite one,--the delight appearing almost the same,--then such a clog is presented, as it were guarding, lest the opposite delights should communicate with each other. (De Conjugio, 104.)
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Cerberus often stands as a representative of Hell itself, and figures in this character in the story of Hercules, who in his twelfth and last labor took the hell-dog captive. This is a very clear prophecy of the work of Redemption, wrought by the Lord in His Human, who overcame the power of Hell and "led captivity captive." The conception of this hell-dog is universal throughout all the mythologies, from the Egyptian "dog of Typhon" in Amenthi, to the Scandinavian "Garm" who "horribly howls by the Gniupa-hollow."
As the Heaven of the Ancients was divided into two very distinct regions: Olympus and the Elysian fields, so Hell was similarly divided into Ersbus and Tartarus. We must remember that we have to do here with the time when the third or lowest heaven, and the opposite hell, had not yet been formed. Erebus, the land of shadows, (compare the Hebrew Ereb, evening), is often used as synonymous with Hades, or the intermediate world, but according to Homer it was distinct from Hades, and beneath it was Tartarus. It answers, therefore, to the second or Satanic hell, the hell of the Ancient Church.
The deeper hell, or Tartarus, was surrounded by three dismal rivers, of which the first, Cocytus, or "river of lamentation," consists of the tears which continually flow from the eyes of the damned in Tartarus. Beyond this is the Phlegethon, a river of fire, and the third and last is the fearful; Styx, which means "hateful," and which winds its black and poisonous waters nine times round about the prison of fallen gods and monstrous men. By the first river was probably signified the stream of falsities issuing out of hell, and by the second, the flood of evil loves; while by Styx is perhaps signified the state of profanation which especially characterized the hell of the Most Ancient Church.
The ancients called the most ancient hells Tartarus, and the deep places there they called Styx. (Cor., 38.)
This river, therefore, was regarded with so much awe that the most binding oath, among gods or men, was "by Styx," as the most dreaded place of punishment for perjury.
Tartarus itself, by the evidence of New Church Doctrine as well as by the testimony of all classical writers, was the deepest and most ancient hell, the place of punishment for the revolting gods and certain monstrously wicked men, even as Erebus was the prison of ordinary mortal evil-doers.
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Here, in vast caves of eternal darkness, surrounded by the triple rivers of Hell, and girt about with triple iron walls and brazen gates, were to be seen the once god-like Titans who had fallen from heaven, and the hundred-handed Giants and other antediluvian monsters, each one writhing and hissing in impotent fury under the load of fire-spouting mountains, such as AEtna and Vesuvius. The sound of groaning and cursing fill the air, mingled with the whistling of scourges incessantly plied by relentless furies. Addison thus describes it:
Dreadful gleams,
Dismal screams,
Fires that glow,
Shrieks of woe,
Sullen moans,
Hollow groans,
And cries of tortured ghosts.
Here, too, are the scenes of punishment of those malefactors whose extraordinary crimes have filled all mankind with awe. Here are seen the forty-nine Danaides,--sisters who, on their wedding-night, treacherously murdered their bridegrooms; their punishment is the unending task of trying to fill with water a bottomless tub,--a dismal picture of human self-intelligence, which, faithless to the Divine truth, is condemned forever to the vain pursuit of false notions which never permanently satisfy the mind.
Up a steep mountain-side a groaning and sweating man is rolling a huge round rock. He is Sisyphus, an ancient king of Corinth, who was noted for the treacherous cunning with which he way-laid travelers and even attempted to deceive the very gods. He has been rolling this stone uphill for ages, but whenever he reaches the summit of the mountain and fancies his task done, down it slips from his hands, rolling to the very bottom compelling him to begin his hopeless exertions anew. Thus it is with all the tasks undertaken by human prudence and self-confidence, without reliance upon Divine Providence: and thus are the devils in Hell forever plotting and laboring to accomplish their fell designs, but though their schemes always fall to the ground they are ever ready to try again.
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Most dreadful of all is the punishment of Tantalus, a king of Lydia, for killing his own son, Pelops, and placing the remains as food for visiting gods in order to test their omniscience and divinity. Though standing up to his chin in a limpid pool, the waters ever recede when he bends to drink: above his head hangs a branch, loaded with all manner of luscious fruits, but they elude his hand whenever he reaches forth to grasp them, and thus he is "tantalized" throughout eternity. Such is the lot of self-reliance when it has sacrificed its faith on the altar of scepticism. Such is the history of human Philosophy, for instance, which, though everywhere surrounded by the indisputable evidences of Divine Love and Wisdom, still reaches out for "Natural Theology" in its own way, denying Divine Revelation and depending upon human science and reason alone. For thousands of years it has pursued its hopeless task, but the water of life and the fruits of the tree of life have ever eluded its self-confident lips and hands.
In bright contrast with these horrible scenes are the pictures which the ancient poets afford of the final reward of truthfulness and virtue, in the heavenly societies which thy termed "the Elysian Fields" or "the Islands of the Blessed."
The way thither leads across the river Lethe (oblivion), from the water of which each spirit is obliged to drink and which possesses the wonderful power of causing a total forgetfulness of the past sorrows and troubles of earthly existence. This evidently refers to the closing-up of the corporeal memory which all spirits experience when entering upon their permanent homes in the eternal life. Swedenborg thus describes certain spirits who
were oblivious of themselves and of those things which were of their self--love. The ancients outside the Church also had a knowledge of these states of oblivion, but they had derived it from the Ancient Church, and they called them Lethean waters which they drank. (S. D. 1773)
The Elysian Fields mean literally the "effulgent fields," fields of light, and were so called from the radiant light shed upon these abodes of blessedness by a sun and constellations which were not of this earth. ("Solemque suum, sua sidera norunt," Virgil).
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We will not attempt to describe these heavens, but will let the poets speak for themselves.
Hesiod, speaking of the race of heroes and demi-gods who in prehistoric ages inhabited Greece, says that to them after death
The God designed
A life, a seat, distinct from human-kind;
In those blessed Isles where Saturn holds his reign,
Apart from heaven's immortals; calm they share
A rest unsullied by the clouds of care.
And yearly thrice with sweet luxuriance crowned,
Springs the ripe harvest from the teeming ground.
(Works and Days, 162-177.)
And Homer, in the Odyssey, makes the prophet Proteus foretell a glorious future for the hero Menelaus:
But oh, beloved of Heaven! reserved to thee
A happier lot the smiling Fates decree:
Free from that law, beneath whose mortal sway
Matter is changed, and varying forms decay,
Elysium shall be thine: the blissful plains
Of utmost earth, where Rhadamanthus reigns,
Joys ever young, unmixed with pain or fear,
Fill the wide circle of the eternal years:
Stern winter smiles on that auspicious dime;
The fields are florid with unfading prime.
From the bleak poles no winds inclement blow,
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow,
But from the breezy deep the blessed inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale.
This grace peculiar will the gods afford
To thee, the son of Jove, and beauteous Helen's lord.
(Odyssey, iv: 561 pp.)
Other references to the Islands of the Blessed and the Elysian fields are to be found in Pindar and the works of Plato, but the most complete and the most noble description is the one given by Virgil in the sixth book of the Aeneid, where the "pious Aeneas," having safely traversed the dangers of Hades and the horrors of Tartarus, led by the guiding and protecting hand of the Sibyl finally passes through "the ivory gates" of Elysium, in order to consult his beatified father, Anchises.
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Thus having soothed the queen of Dis,
They reach the realm of tranquil bliss,
Green spaces, folded in with trees,
A paradise of pleasances,
Around the Champaign mantles bright
The fulness of purpureal light;
Another sure and stars they know,
That shine like ours, but shine below.
There some disport their manly frames
In wrestling and palrestral games,
Strive on the grassy sward, or stand
Contending on the yellow sand:
Some ply the dance with eager feet
And chant responsive to its beat.
Others along the sward he sees
Reclined, and feasting at their ease.
With chanted Paeans, blessed souls,
Amid a fragrant bay-tree grove,
Whence rising in the world above
Eridanus 'twixt bowering trees
His breadth of water rolls.
Here sees he the illustrious dead
Who, fighting for their country, bled;
Priests, who while earthly life remained
Preserved that life unsoiled, unstained;
Blest bards, transparent souls and clear,
Whose song was worthy Phoebus' ear;
Inventors, who by arts refined
The common life of human kind,
With all who grateful memory won
By services to others done;
A goodly brotherhood, bedight
With coronals of virgin white.
But not from the poets alone: but also from the classic artists, we learn what real and living ideas the ancients possessed of the glories of heaven, so different from the vague "Christian" notions of a bodiless and useless existence in the world to come. In the scenes descriptive of Elysium we find that life there was not one of pleasures merely, but of useful occupations. In these "asphodel meadows," which none but the pure in heart, the truthful and the generous can be suffered to tread, each one is engaged in employments resembling those on earth, and whatever had warmly occupied his attention in his first life, continues to be a source of virtuous enjoyment in the new life.
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One famous painting, however, represents a long procession of blessed Elysians as engaged in profound meditation, with folded arms and bended brows, silently communing with the muses and the gods. This picture finds fitting words in Swedenborg's description of those in the other life who are continually in reflection.
They dwell in a place which is pleasant and herbaceous, like the Elysian fields, nor do they want to be disturbed by anyone, because they have delectation in thinking. (S. D. 1232.)
The ancient Athenians themselves, with whom Swedenborg was privileged to converse in heaven, told him that
When we were men in the world, we believed in the immortality of the soul, and we assigned to the blessed ones places which we called the Elysian fields; and we also believed that the souls were human figures or forms. (C.L. 182.)
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MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG. 1905
THE LAST JUDGMENT
THE LAST JUDGMENT ON THE PROTESTANTS OR REFORMED
(Continued.)
142. All the Protestants or Reformed of whom there was still some hope, were collected in the middle, where they were arranged according to their nationalities in the world; for according to these were also the diversities of their dispositions or affections. But above them,1 and also around them were those who had read the Word and had frequented churches, but yet had made nothing of evils of life, loving themselves and the world above all things; there was an immense multitude there. Surrounding the middle region, in which were Christians who had been in the good of faith and charity were dark caverns stretching obliquely into hells which occupied a wide space below, where were hells beneath hells. Such gulfs and chasms lay around that middle region on every side,-east, west, south and north; thus the hells extended even under this circuit made by the Papists round about the Reformed. All who were interiorly evil had been disposed around the Christian middle, and from every quarter they were led down into those gulfs and cast into them. Thus, into the eastern gulf were cast those who hall been collected from the east; they were such as hall been in the love of self and especially in the love of ruling, nor had known anything whatever except that faith alone is saving. Into the southern gulf were cast those who had been versed in the doctrinal tenets of faith; into the western gulf those who had been in the love of the world; and into the northern, those who had been in no intelligence, but had merely listened to preachings and had received no instruction afterwards.
1. That is, on an "extensive mountain" in the middle region; see S. D. 537.-TR.
143. Those at the south were led down first, then those at the west, and, lastly, those at the east. This happened at the same time that the eastern Papists were being led down to beyond the northern tract.2
2. Concerning these Papists and the judgment upon them, see nos. 190-111, also S. n. 5337-5346, and 5405-5412 1/2.-TR
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144. When this had been done their dwellings were laid waste and destroyed.
145. Afterwards I saw an immense number of those who had lauded faith alone, and yet had possessed no faith because they had paid no attention to the evils of their life,--both the learned and the unlearned saying that they have the Word and the true doctrine, that they know the Lord, and many other things, and that, therefore, they, above others, would be saved. They were led away in a multitude, first to the west, afterwards to the south, on the other side of the waste Babylonish tract there, and even towards the east and still farther. And they were divided; [some] were scattered towards the north, nor were they seen any more. And many were led back,--but hither and hither; this translation was effected in order that they might be explored as to whether: they had any faith such as they had boasted of; whether, to wit, their faith was only a science,--which is not faith; or, whether there was anything of life in it,--which is faith. And it was given them to perceive that they had had no faith, but only something scientific without life.3
3. The "Babylonish tract, "referred to in this paragraph, was the region about the great Western Sea into whose waters vast multitudes of the evil Papists were cast at the time of the Last Judgment (S. D. 5351, 5296-5304; the latter numbers include a diagram showing the position of this sea in respect to the Papist quarters). This Western Sea is frequently mentioned in the account of the judgment of the Catholics. Into it, from its northern shore, were cast the inhabitants of the rich city of the Jesuits and of its tributory cities (S. D. 5296. 5337); the same fate also overtook the inhabitants of the new city raised up in its place, (S. D. 5409). From the north shore, Benedict XIV plunged into this sea on his entrance to the hells of the crafty (S. D. 5817.) From the south and west shores Catholic spirits who were addicted to magic and phantasies were cast in, and their magical apparatus was turned into powder and scattered over the surface of the waters (S. n. 5502). Once, the sea overflowed, and completely inundated the region occupied by the Italians and Neapolitans whose mountains had previously sunk down to the depths. (S. D. 5636.)
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The Protestants mentioned in the text, were brought in a westerly direction to the south side of this sea, and were "thence brought back towards the south on the other side of the waste Babylonish tract, and as far as to the east there, and also still farther, beyond its middle." From this point they were divided, as related in the text, some going to the north and others being brought back towards the south, where they were explored by being "borne hither and hither, now forward, now back." This exploration lasted for an hour. (S. D. 5351.) It was made in the south "because in the south, places are distinguished according to Divine truths." (S. D. 5351, cf. 5363.)--TR.
146. When they were in the southern quarter near a gulf there, there came forth a multitude which had been concealed there from early times, who likewise said that they had had faith, and that they would be saved by reason of faith alone--yet, they had thought nothing about life. This multitude then approached them and was mingled with them.
147. From a certain mountain region4 a multitude was brought forth, who had led a moral life, not from any religion, but merely from fear of the law and of the loss of fame, honor and gain; thus without any Christian lift; wherefore, so far as they could do it unknown, they perpetrated evils. Because they had not acquired to themselves any communication with heaven by means of a life from religion, they were led around to the southern and western quarters, that they might be explored as to whether they had any religion of life; and because they had none, they were rejected.
4. This is the mountain region mentioned in S. D. 5347 See note to n. 142 SUP.--TR.
148. Finally came those who had been versed in the doctrinal tenets of the church, and, in like manner, had led a moral but not a Christian life, because they had lived, not from doctrine, or the Word, but for the sake of fame, thus before men and not before God. And. being explored [it was seen] that they had nothing of conscience, because nothing of the religion of life. These were cast out of that mountain region.
149. All these, who were divided into the three classes, were driven so far away that they could not be seen except as a dark cloud; and they were dissipated5.
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It was told me from heaven that they were cast down into uninhabited and desert places, and thus were separated lest they should consociate together.
5. In S. D. 5353 the comparison with the cloud is continued: "And this cloud was divided and dissipated."--TR.
150. The dispersion of these three classes was made to all the quarters, east, south, west, and north, whence they can never return; and this all the more, since every knowledge of religion is taken away from them. Concerning life in deserts, see elsewhere.6
6. In S. D. 5355 it is said that these of the second and third class were scattered more deeply into the deserts than those of the first class, and that some of them are among gentiles of no religion who lead a wild-beast life. Further, from S. D. 5535, treating of Protestants of the "former heaven" who were "cast into desert places towards the west," we learn that there "they wander about, and they dwell together in their huts under magistrates who hold them in bonds by means of penalties." A more particular description of this desert life is given in n. 219 inf., where it is said that, after the judgment, those in faith alone dwell in a desert in vile huts, where they line solitary lives with some harlot. They are in mutual dread of each other. They receive bread and water daily. The desert is a stony one, with roads winding between great heaps of stones, but without either shrub or tree.-TR.
151. The angels wondered that there is so great a multitude in the Christian world entirely ignorant of the truth that religion is a matter of life, imagining that religion consists in thinking something or other, and that by thus thinking they absolve themselves from every obligation of life,--[a dogma] which they have made up from this: that, by the Lord's merit, they art exempt from the poke of the law, and that no one can do good from himself, and that ii he does, it is meritorious: and yet this is so far from religion of life that it is no religion at all.
7 But all who have thought with themselves that evil must not be done because it is sin against Divine laws, and who thus, so far as they could, have abstained from evils,--all these have received something of conscience, and, in the things which were of their faith, although they were spurious, there was much life; and they were saved.
7. In the manuscript this is numbered by Swedenborg, as a separate paragraph, but is not so printed in the Latin edition.-TR.
152. The cleansing of the middle where the Reformed were, lasted a long time; and those who were in the church without the church in themselves, or in doctrine and religion [without doctrine and religion] in themselves, were, by turns, cast into the gulfs surrounding the middle, and many of them into deserts.
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These cleansings lasted for a long time after the judgment.
153. I once saw many spirits, sitting around a table in a certain house, who looked like rich merchants; and still more spirits were approaching so that there were quite a number of them. In fact they appeared as though upright, and they were dressed as though they were angelic spirits. But I saw that they were all cast into desert places, and into woods,--thus outside the societies of the upright. The reason was stated, namely, because, in the world, they had lived, in external form, like Christians and had acted well, but this solely for the purpose of acquiring a reputation for sincerity and honesty in order to make gain therefrom; and that they had not done the least thing for the sake of God or the neighbor, but all for the sake of themselves; and that, therefore, they have no communication with heaven. Once it is that they were cast out thither, where they roam about amongst robbers, and themselves commit robbery. For when external bonds are taken away from such spirits they become robbers. They would become robbers even in the world, were it not that externals, which are fears for the loss of fame and hence of gain, held them in bonds.
154. In the western quarter was seen a multitude whose speech sounded sincere, so that from their speech they might be thought to be, as it were, sincerities. By their speech and reasonings concerning sincerity they could induce the simple to believe that they were of such a character, but still it was found out that, within, they were like wolves, because without religion and hence without conscience. I have heard them consulting together as to how the simple might be deceived and their goods stolen away from them; some were consulting to do this, in order that they might thus obtain dominion. And then they assailed them from behind and inspired evils into them, for in this way they are able to subjugate. But their doings were seen in heaven and they were cast into a hell about the western tract of the middle region;8 for they were insincerities and also wickednesses-deviseers of arts with the end of gain and dominion.
8. In S. D. 5395 this hell is described as being "in front under the western tract."
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155. Afterwards were explored, as to what idea of God they had held 1. those of the Reformed who had led merely a life of piety; 2. those who had frequented churches and made themselves guilty of all sins, but had now explored themselves; 3. those who believed that they had led a Christian life, in that they had lived morally well because of the civil laws; 4. those who had been hypocrites.9
9. The numbers indicating these different classes are not the same in the translation as in the original manuscript. In the latter the paragraph reads: "Explorati sunt postea ex Reformatis 1) qualem ideam Dei habuerunt. 2) Qui solam pietatis vitam egerunt" &c. (Afterwards those of the Reformed were explored, 1. as to what idea of God they had held. 2. Who had lived merely a life of piety, &c.) Thus number 2, in the original, is changed to I in the translation, and so forth. The first of the numbers, in the manuscript, seems to be an error since it refers to a matter as to which all were explored, while the remaining numbers refer to the different classes who were explored It should be added, however, that the following paragraph (n. 156), opens with a reference to the first number: "1) Explorati illi qualem ideam de Deo gabuerunt" (1. They were explored as to what idea they had held concerning God);but throughout the whole chapter there is no further reference by number to the subdivisions of n. 155.--TR.
156. They were explored as to what idea they had held concerning God. They were exposed as having thought only of God the Father, and of the Lord as being [a man]10 like themselves; this comes from their belief that the Father has compassion for the Son's sake. And they had then thought nothing concerning the Divine of the Lord. Thus, when they thought of one God they had not at the same time thought of the Lord; when yet [the Word teaches that] the Father cannot be approached, since no one seeth Him but the Son alone and that the Lord is the Way, thus that the Father is to be approached by Him; and that faith must be a faith in Him, and not in the Father. Hence they could have no determinate idea of God except as of a breath or cloud, or as of nature in its leasts; and there is no Divine idea of the Lord when He is thought of as a common man. The angels complained that they were disturbed by this their idea, which was communicated to them;11 and very many of these spirits were brought down into the quarters round about.
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And the places to which they came then appeared gloomy; for the true idea of God makes clearness itself. Some of them were brought into places underneath according to their life; some in order that they might be further informed. And yet it is only those who have lived well who receive a Divine idea concerning the Lord. I saw that those succeeded to their place who had been kept concealed by the Lord lest they be hurt by the contagion; these are meant, in the Apocalypse, Chap. XX, by those who were slain and were delivered out of the graves.
10. So in S. D. 5378.--TR
11. Who these angels were, who made this complaint, is indicated in the parallel passage in the Spiritual Diary (5379): "The angels complained that their thoughts concerning the Lord were marred, owing to the multitude of such spirits round about them. . . . They were round about." --TR.
157. Afterwards I saw those who had led a life merely of piety, and in idleness, led away from the others. They had been continually in prayer and not at all in truths, merely knowing that salvation is from mercy and that sins are remitted, but knowing nothing as to what sin is. They had despised others in comparison with themselves, and had also condemned them on account of cares of the world; a considerable number of them had placed merit in prayers. Of these also did the angels make complaint, especially, because they induce sadness upon them. They dwelt at the side,12 wherefore they were driven away to their own places; there they retain their worship, but they are driven to work. They were brought down into the northern plain because they were in ignorance of such things as lead to heaven.
12. I. e. at the side of the heaven where these angels were; see S. D. 5392: "In heaven, they said of them that they dwelt at one side there, and that if they meet them or direct their gaze thither they induce a sadness which mars all their joys, and also dulls the truths of their intelligence and wisdom, making these as if they were of no account in the consideration of any matter; but that, nevertheless, these spirits are tolerated, although they wished them away."-TR.
158. Hypocrites who have spoken well concerning God, the neighbor and the country, butt by themselves, have thought the contrary, were explored and cast into hell. They wished to speak well concerning the Lord's Kingdom and concerning heaven, for this is then the country, but their interior thought was explored,-which was for themselves alone and against the rule of the country; wherefore, when they were let into their interiors they perpetrated dreadful crimes.
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They were cast into bells, being first deprived of all that they had drawn from the Word and from their doctrines by which they had deluded others.
159. Preachers who know something of the doctrine of their church, and, after they have been instructed in the schools, and have come into their functions, no longer care for- it, nor for the Word, except with the object of being able to preach and of being elevated to higher offices or of gaining wealth; and thus who live in ease and are mere worldlings and not Christians,--these are sent into a hell in the northern quarter towards the west, far from the middle,l3 where a dense fog is seen; and they then become stupid.14
13. In S. D. 5574 the place of this hell is given more definitely as being "not far from the boundary of the middle."--TR.
14. The nature of this stupidity is shown in S. D. 5514, where it is said that after they have been sent into the fog and there allotted their places under the earth, "they do not know whether the Divine is anything. They commonly ask, "What is the Divine? What is the Lord? What is heaven? What is hell? Thus they live in a kind of stupidity."-TR.
160. All are separated according to their life, thus according to their affections,--not according to their external life, but according to their internal, for this is the life of the thought from will or affection, and no one has internal life except from religion; external life is a life of morality in the state and according to the laws of the state; wherefore moral life, unless it draw its quality from spiritual life and thereby change its appearance, is not spiritual life with any man; consequently there is no conjunction with heaven, and they who are not conjoined with heaven are conjoined with hell; and in such case, although, in the world, they have not done evil, yet, after their departure from the world, they do evil from delight; thus their state is changed.
161. Concerning the Dragonists. Who they are, who are meant by the Dragon, may be deduced from what has been said in the Apocalypse Explained, also that by the tail of the dragon is meant faith separate from charity, which has dragged down the stars from heaven, that is, the knowledges of truth and good.
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162. The dragonists were separated; many of them, when in the world, had been priests, who had confirmed themselves in faith separate from charity. They were explored in various ways, as, by the inspection, in light, of the back of the head. With those who were merely natural and hence infernal, the back of the head is filthy, hollowed out, and altogether bony. They are led down to places where they are deprived of the exteriors which have been induced on their faces artificially, and the face is regarded according to the affections and the interior thoughts thence. What was human in their face is then taken away and something diabolical succeeds in its place. They are also explored by being turned to the east, and thus to the Lord; and then from the east there flows in a spiritual affection concerning the Lord. And then they instantly turn themselves back again to the west,--like a spring, which recoils when it has been twisted backwards. In this way, also, angels explore newcomers to their heavenly societies.
163. There are also some who desire to hear truths; they believe they are saved if only they know them. But when they hear that truths are for the sake of life, and that so far as truths of life become actual, so far truths of faith also live, they depart, feeling the utmost disgust for lift, but not so for the truths which are of faith, because these they can talk about.15 The truths of faith which do not live unless truths of life become actually such, may be enumerated; and it may be mentioned which are truths of faith, and which truths of life.16
15. S. D. 5540-5541 gives a more particular account of these spirits. After they had heard the doctrine respecting truths and life they became sad; and all rejected the doctrine. From their sadness, Swedenborg also came into a state of sadness. They were then "sent down into the lower regions toward the north, where there is some little communication with heaven." While here they asked Swedenborg whether all things in the doctrine were to be lived, adding at the same time that this was an impossibility for them. The answer is siren that it is not difficult, if only they will live sincerely, for the reason that to do otherwise is a sin against God and the neighbor, whereupon they replied that they did wish to live sincerely. But on examination it was found that this was very far from being the case, and they were therefore dismissed; "for," the passage adds, "living sincerely includes all such things, as, that one must trot steal," &C.-TR.
16. In the manuscript the concluding words of this paragraph are emphasized by "N. B.," written in the margin.--TR.
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164. Everyone can see that charity consists in not stealing from anyone, either by artifice or openly; that charity consists in being wholly unwilling to commit adultery with the wife of another; that charity consists in not doing injury to the neighbor in hatred and revenge; that charity consists in not reviling another, and so forth. He who abhors these things as sins, has charity, for he loves the neighbor.
165. Afterwards I saw an immense number, both sent forth from the heavens and rising up from below, and also of those who bad seen left, who were allotted their places, mansions and dwellings, in the east, those in the clear good of love and of charity; at the west, those in the obscure good of love and of charity; at the south, those in truths from good in clearness; and at the north, those in truths from obscure good,-all acknowledging the Lord as the God of heaven and earth.
17. The term Mansion is used in the Spiritual Diary in the sense of Society, cf. John xiv, 2.-TR.
(To be Continued.)
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Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
From our Icelandic correspondent, Mr. Ari Egilson, of Brandon, Man., we have received a little volume entitled Hvers Yegrta eg er Nykyrkjumadur, being an Icelandic version of the Rev. Chauncey Giles's work, Why I am a Newchurchman, translated and published by Mr. Egilson in the 1899. We have not seen any notice of this, the first New Church collateral work in the ancient "Norrona tongue." Mr. Egilson informs us that "it did not sell very well," but the volume would become better known if it were included by our publishing houses in their catalogues.
Although there have been, thus far, only 186 subscribers to Mercury, instead of the 400 called for, that intrepid little journal has respectfully declined to die, and appears in a second number, with the announcement that it will continue to appear monthly for at least a year.
The March number contains an interesting account by Miss Eleonora Schoenberger, of a trip to Washington made by the Seminary class of '04. This is supplemented by a letter from "Goranddaughter" telling of the trip made by the class of '05. Under the heading "Swedenborg's Poems" is printed a translation by Mr. Alfred Stroh, of Swedenborg's first poem, which, so far as is known, is also his first literary production. Mr. Stroh will contribute other of Swedenborg's poems in subsequent issues. A new department has been added to the paper, which will be devoted to the interests of the children. It is under the management of one of the young ladies of the Normal School, and will reflect the "splendid work being done in our schools." The development of this department will be watched with interest. Its addition should add to the usefulness--and incidentally to the clientele--of our youthful contemporary.
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We have read much in the Messenger that is opposed to the Doctrines of the New Church, but we were hardly prepared for the advocacy of Faith alone and death-bed repentance, which is contained in its editorial for March 29th. Speaking of the penitent thief on the Cross, the Messenger says: "We have no sympathy with that sort of speculation which suggests that this penitent malefactor may after all have been a decent sort of fellow. . . . For we all know [?] that he may have been a hundredfold more vicious and criminal than his impenitent companion. The gist of the episode lies in the fact that when he comes into close touch with the infinite this man senses a Divine quality and responds. . . . The thief dropped into the background: the man came forward in the consciousness and bowed in reverence before the humanity so divinely good. In the depths of his soul occurred that mystical, marvelous swing of the inmost volition by which we choose the best by some power greater than ourselves. This freedom to righteousness is what saves man, what makes him the spontaneous functioner of the life of heaven. This inward affiliation to the spirit of the Messiah gives quick insight. What the disciples had not learned by years of association. . . this malefactor. . . perceived at a glance.
We could not expect to read a more ardent support of the destructive heresy of Faith alone in the most orthodox of Old Church publications. And yet the writer is a New Church minister, and the editor of the official organ of the General Convention!
In pleasing contrast to the growth of race-suicide in communities which are supposed to represent the greatest development and enlightenment, comes a report of widely different conditions existing among the French-Canadian farmers, or "habitants" of the Province of Quebec. In 1890 this Province passed a law giving a land grant to every couple who were the parents of twelve or more children. Last June this law was amended so as to allow the beneficiaries to receive a money grant in lieu of land. Since then, according to the Toronto News, (March 1), the Government has been overwhelmed with applications, and the official who has charge of the investigation of these claims, states that there art not less than 12,000 families in the Province of Quebec comprising twelve or more children in each family circle.
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The habitants of Quebec are a simple, frugal and industrious people. They are eminently conservative and preserve the language and many of the ways of the French peasant of three centuries ago. But while they have not made the strides in modern "civilized enlightenment," which have been made in the old Fatherland, or in the communities around them, neither have they come into their vices: Compare, for instance, the birthrate among these descendants of old France, with the birthrate in the France of to-day--with its culture and learning! Compare it with the rate in Ontario, the Province neighboring on Quebec, with the United States, with England! The contrast suggests a tragic illustration to the warning given by an eminent bishop of England, and reiterated by President Roosevelt, that if those who represent our highest civilization, and ability and culture continue to sacrifice the laws of God and of nature to the pursuit of material objects, the places which should be filled by their descendants will be taken by the offspring of men who if less cultured are more sturdy and more faithful.
A careful study of children in relation to the question of heredity,--a study which was extended over five years,--has led Professor Karl Pearson to a similar conclusion. According to The Literary Digest, the professor, in a recent article in Biometrika, gives the warning "that, in England the proportion of the superior intellects to the mediocre and inferior is diminishing, and he attributes this to 'race suicide' among the intelligent classes." His general contention is that education can only develop what is in a child, and that it cannot create. Therefore if a man has not inherited ability to learn, education cannot make him learn. And from this he goes on to show that it is the inferior and mediocre classes that have large families, and concludes, "The worthless elements will gain enormously on the valuable ones unless we find the means either to diminish the fertility of the former--which is impracticable--or to increase that of the latter, which is practicable, for it depends on themselves, their relative sterility being relatively voluntary."
The article suggest reflections as to why this dreadful crime is permitted to be widespread in the Christian world,--or what use it is made to subserve.
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It is certain that among the higher classes, interior corruption, sensualism, materialism and atheism are more widespread than among the lower classes. And we are taught that heredity cannot be changed except by religion. Religion is the last thing that the higher classes, as a rule, will receive, and in the gradual decadence by race suicide, we may see a permission of the Lord by which the too great accumulation of hereditary evil is checked. But what of the classes which have large families? Among the middle classes, these are generally men and women who have preserved in themselves a healthy moral tone, and it is among such there is more hope for the spread of the New Church.
Still it must be admitted that in highly civilized communities, it is generally the lowest classes that are most fruitful. And it will be a sad outlook for the country when men with depraved tendencies, and without the refining influences of culture and education to control their externals, become the predominating in influences in its councils.
The only hope for the Christian world is in the New Church, and especially in its growth from within. And yet there are not wanting Newchurchmen (?) and even New Church (?) organs which advocated "limited prevention" in the Church itself.
IMPORTANT EXEGETICAL WORK. 1905
"THE TWO BOOKS OF KINGS EXPLAINED. A complete Exposition of their Spiritual or Internal Sense. With copious proof-references to the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and short explanatory Notes, By the Rev. Henry Maclagan." James Speirs. London, 1905, pp. 710. Price $3.75.
The appearance of this volume will be hailed with pleasure by all students of the Word in its internal sense and will be of special value to the ministers of the New Church when expounding a portion of the letter of the Word which has not been explained seriatim in the Writings and to which these seldom refer in a direct manner. The historical books, on account of their connected and interesting literal sense, keep the mind of the reader more continuously bound to that sense than is the case with the prophetical books, and thus withdraw the mind from the internal sense, (A. C. 2075, 7973).
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To expound the continuous internal sense of such books as the Kings is, therefore, a work of considerable difficulty, requiring not only a scientific knowledge of correspondences, but also and especially a wide, sound, and systematic grasp of the laws and doctrines of the internal sense.
Whether the author of the present volume,--the Rev. Henry Maclagan, of Melbourne, Derbyshire, an ordained minister of the New Church,--has succeeded in producing "a complete exposition" of these two Books of the Word, may indeed be considered doubtful, and it is also questionable whether a finite mind can definitely and accurately translate the literal sense, word for word, verse for verse, and chapter for chapter, into its corresponding and continuous internal sense,--and this in parallel columns. The author, in fact, admits that he has brought out the internal sense "only in a certain aspect," viz., in its general application to the successive states of the Church and of the regeneration of the individual, and even this only in a very limited, compressed and summarized manner. Nevertheless, imperfect in various ways as the author's attempt may be, the volume is undoubtedly full of useful suggestions, and the collections of "Proof References" from the Writings, which are appended after each chapter of the text, are altogether invaluable. The text used is that of the Revised Version, "as being in the main nearer to the original Hebrew than the Authorized Version," and the "proof references include not only all the direct references to the Books of the Kings which are contained in the Writings, but also references to the revealed explanations of parallel passages, expressions, idioms and significatives in all other portions of the Word. A feature of special value is the literal translation of every Hebrew proper noun occurring in the text, as a guide to its internal meaning. Here, however, there is room for some caution, in view of the new light which is being thrown upon the significance of personal names by modern archeological discoveries not yet recorded in the Dictionaries.
The volume is characterized by a reverent attitude towards "the WRITINGS," and by a pleasing simplicity and modesty. The author has evidently expended on his work an immense amount of conscientious labor, and the result is a solid and lasting contribution to the exegetical literature of the Church, far more valuable than Bruce's First Three Kings of Israel, and more thorough in some respects even than Clowe's Psalms and Gospels.
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It is a work which a minister of the New Church cannot well afford to do without.
ROBERT HINDMARSH MALIGNED. 1905
The February and March issues of the English New Church Magazine contain "Some Notes respecting Robert Hindmarsh: with a Critique," by the Rev. James Hyde, apparently written for the purpose of belittling and besmirching the character and work of the venerable founder of the organized New Church in Great Britain. By way of introduction, the Biography of Robert Hindmarsh, by an American author, comes in for the following compliments: "This book shows no sense of proportion, no historic perspective; it magnifies the insignificant, and belittles the worthy; it paints the subject's errors as his great achievements, it guesses where it should either hold reserved silence, or seek out the facts; and above all it sees the variable and: human subject as an infallible and hierarchical monitor--mistaking the transitory for the permanent. As a contribution to a genuine history of the New Church, and an estimate of its place in general history, it is like the same author's Annals of the New Church, of small value."
Having delivered this "crushing" ipse dixit judgment the writer proceeds to show his own sense of historic proportion and significance by devoting the greater part of his two articles to a mass of minute particulars dealing with the life of Robert Hindmarsh outside the New Church,--his childhood experiences in his father's Wesleyan boarding-school, his personal relations, and his career as a stock-broker in London,--all of which may be quaint and curious but has no evident bearing upon the history of the New Church.
The rest of the "Notes" are bristling with ill-natured aspersions and unsupported accusations against the first of our "Church Fathers," which exhibit more of the spirit of Ham than of the benevolent attitude of Shem and Japheth. What Hindmarsh has to say of his own activity in his Rise and Progress of the New Jerusalem Church "will be read by the cautions cum grano salis."
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"Not to be relied on at all times, especially when confronted with opposition where he expected support and submission (for his nature was such that he could not conceive another view than that he himself had taken), he was nevertheless not satisfied with generalities where particulars are obtainable. It is probably due to this feature of his character that, fifty years later, he traced the initiation of all things in the organized Church to himself. Such temperaments engender persuasive delusions."
Does Mr. Hyde expect that the New Church will be "satisfied with generalities" such as his sweeping accusations against a great and good man, without the evidence of "particulars!" Dictatorial and intolerant judgments such as these are rather apt to create the impression that their author has read into Mr. Hindmarsh's character his own inability to "conceive another view than that which he himself has taken," and that it is rather he himself who is "not to be relied on at all times."
Quite in keeping with the ipse dixit nature of Mr. Hyde's accusations, he makes the startling announcement that prior to Mr. Hindmarsh's first movement to organize a New Church society in London, "or, to be more exact, in 1776, a Society of readers of Swedenborg, under the name of the 'London Universal Society for the Promotion of the New Jerusalem Church' was established. It would appear that there were not many members; but Benedict Chastanier, Henry Servante, and the brothers Nordenskjold, with C. B. Wadstrom, were among them." This announcement, if based on facts. is of no small moment as it adds seven, hitherto unknown years to the history of the New Church as an organized body, but--where is the evidence, where art the facts upon which Mr. Hyde bases his assertions? The only published announcement of the "London Universal Society" was made on the title-page of the London New Jerusalem Magazine, in 1790. If Mr. Hyde possesses private sources of information as to the existence of this society in 1776, why does he withhold the evidence of so important a fact from the general public of the Church? This course of procedure is one which is not usual among scholars.
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TYPOGRAPHY OF THE WRITINGS. 1905
Some twenty years ago, when the American Swedenborg Society commenced the publication of the Latin reprints under the editorship of Dr. Samuel H. Worcester, a style of printing was adopted which has since come to characterize not only the Latin reprints, but also the English translations published by the Society. We refer to the practice of separating the Scripture passages from the body of the text, and printing them in smaller type. This practice is peculiar to the American Swedenborg Society, and has never been adopted by other New Church publishing houses in their editions of the Writings.
When the Apocalypsis Explicata appeared in this new style, we felt some doubt as to whether the differentiation in type was altogether commendable, but this doubt was, naturally, much modified by the consideration that the Latin reprints were intended mainly for the use of students. Now, however, that the same style of printing is obtaining in the English translations which are primarily for the use of general and consecutive reading, the doubt is raised with added force. Matters of type are, of course, merely external, and are largely matters of taste, de quibus non est disputandum-and can be safely left to the judgment of the publishers. But in the present case, something more is involved than a mere matter of taste, namely, the question of convenience and utility to the general reader.
We recognize at once that there is much force in the contention that by the separation of Scripture passages from text, the work of consultation and reference is greatly facilitated. And this is especially the case in works like the Apocalypse Explained, which contain large numbers of quotations, and many of whose passages are chapters in themselves; though it does not apply with so much force to works such as Heaven and Hell, Divine Providence, etc. But, after all, ready reference is only a comparatively minor consideration, especially in the case of translations, the primary use being the reading of the Doctrine together with its confirmatory passages. Moreover the growing number of editions of the Writings containing the subdivisions of the Concordance will more and more tend to eliminate this question of reference as an argument in support of the practice to which we refer.
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However, no objection need be made to the mere segregation of the Scripture quotations. The objection is rather to the fact that they are printed in smaller and more closely leaded type. The Scripture passages are an integral part of the Doctrine which they confirm, establish and illustrate; and they are as much intended to be read, and as necessary to be read, as the text itself with which, indeed, they make one. This unity is certainly not emphasized by the small print in which they appear. In fact, instead of calling attention to the Scripture proofs, this way of printing them would tend rather to the impression that, if anything, they are of somewhat less importance than the text--the subconscious feeling being that what is put in smaller type is of minor value. Not that the earnest reader would, merely on this account, omit reading them, but that, as now printed, they do not encourage the reading. This is notably so in the case of old people and those who are afflicted with weak sight, who find small print trying to the eyes and more or less difficult to read.
It seems to us that the objects limed at by the Swedenborg Society can be as readily attained by the separation of quotation from text without the use of different fonts of type. No one will lose by this change, and some will he the gainers.
But while the separation of which we speak may be useful in many cases, it can be carried to an undesirable extreme. And this has been done in the editions of the Writings to which we refer where in several cases the "rule" of separation seems to have outrun the "reason" of usefulness. Short quotations of two or three words, and sometimes of a single word, or even a single reference, have been unnaturally taken from the text, even where they form an integral part of the textual sentence and are necessary to its grammatical completion. See, for instance, the following examples:
"They are they who are called
Worthless servants"
"Because His body was not material. . .therefore
He came to His disciples when the doors were closed;
and after He appeared
He became invisible."
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Divine Unity in Divine Trinity is represented by the 'three men,' who are also called
angels.
But in His Divine Unity, He is called
Adonai
and also
Jehovah."
In cases like these, the artificial and unnatural separation is without any apparent use to either student or reader; indeed, it must tend to have a disturbing effect on any one who is reading continuously, and who is quite unprepared to see an artificial break on the page quite at variance with the absolute unity that exists in the sense. And the disturbance is more noticeable in Passages where Swedenborg makes a number of short running quotations interspersed with a few words of comment or introduction.
It should not be difficult to apply some discrimination in this matter of separating Scripture quotations. Where they are given as specific quotations and are without any relation to the grammatical construction of the text, no harm is done by printing them separately. But this should certainly be not done when they are a part of the textual sentence,--when, in effect, they are not so much quotations as the incorporation, in the text, of Scripture phrases.
In this connection a mild protest might also be made against the growing practice of putting every single word, referring to Scripture, in quotation marks. Thus: "The Lord's 'eyes' signify;" "The Lord's words are called 'spirit' and 'life:'" "By the 'sun' is here signified," etc. In such cases many editions of the Writings do not use quotation marks, and we have yet to hear of the reader who has suffered any inconvenience thereby. They are superfluous, and being so there is no need for their incorporation merely for the sake or consistency in so external a matter. The devices of the printer's art are meant solely to assist the reader; but where they are used unnecessarily, they are apt to destroy their own usefulness. The truest art is that which least obtrudes itself.
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NEW TRANSLATION OF HEAVEN AND HELL 1905
HEAVEN AND HELL. THINGS HEARD AND SEEN BY EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. London. Frederick Warne & Co.
The popular form in which this book appears, the advertisements on its covers, and the name of the translator, indicate it as a new development of the Swedenborg Society's work of publishing and distributing the Writings. The book is evidently designed to attract popular attention, and from its external appearance--seeming not unlike a popular novel--and the low price, (sixpence), at which it is sold, is well adapted for popular distribution. It is issued in light green paper covers, on which are printed an engraving of Swedenborg; a commendation of his teachings, by Elizabeth B. Browning; and another by Emerson-thus containing the false impression that Emerson was a friend to Swedenborg's writings. The double columns of clear type on good paper will doubtless prove attractive to the general reader.
In this, as in other editions of the Writings Published in England, the author has not been allowed to retain the title to his own work, "On Heaven and its Wonders and Hell; from things heard and seen. By Emanuel Swedenborg," being changed to "Heaven and Hell. Things heard and seen by Emanuel Swedenborg." The change is an unwarranted interference with the rights of an author, and he--the servant of the Lord.
The "Preliminary Notice" by the translator, the Rev. James Hyde, gives an account of the author's life and works. The ac count lacks somewhat in historical proportion and it contains a number of inaccuracies. Thus, while the writer enumerates the small and comparatively minor works published by Swedenborg, (one of which, "on Saltworks (1718)" was never published), yet the Principia the most important of the early works, is passed in silence, while the great anatomical works receive a bare mention. Several of the statements respecting Swedenborg are simply traditions, or the personal fancies of the writer, who, in his usual manner, puts them forth without the slightest suggestion of evidence. Thus, he says that Swedenborg was prevented from obtaining a degree from the University of Upsala on account of the plague, when, as a fact, there is no evidence either that he sought a degree or that he was so prevented.*
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Equally without the statements that Swedenborg remained in England until 1713; and that The Intercourse of the Soul and the Body was written as an answer to a letter from Immanuel Kant--who is not known to have ever written to Swedenborg. That the attack on Swedenborg made by the Gottenburg Consistory was occasioned by the "supposed heresy" contained in the work on Conjugial Love, is simply a misstatement of historical fact. The same also applies to the assertions that Swedenborg studied "under the guidance of Edmund Halley, then Savillian, professor of geometry at Oxford," and that he studied anatomy "under the best masters in Paris, Amsterdam and Italy."
* The plague did not visit Upsala until the year 1711.
Coming to Swedenborg's claims as a revelator, the translator takes the commendable course of presenting these in the words of the Writings themselves, quoting the familiar passage, (T. C. R. 779), which ends with the declaration that the doctrines had been received "from the Lord alone, while I was reading the Word;" and also the equally familiar passage, (Influx, 20), in which Swedenborg tells how he became a "spiritual fisherman."
The "Notice" describes the book as "a popular edition, slightly abridged by the omission of references, and relieved of some technical terms by the adoption of equivalent phrases better suited to general reading." This led us to expect a very "liberal" adaption of Swedenborg to the supposed needs of the world, but a critical examination of the translation has given us some surprise in this respect. It appears to be a revision of Hancock's translation, published by the Swedenborg Society in 1850 and reprinted in 1896; but the revision is sufficiently radical as to amount to, practically, a new translation. So far as general faithfulness to the Latin is concerned it is an improvement, but in the more important matter of New Church terminology it is decidedly inferior.
The translator has, however, retained many terms more or less peculiar to the New Church, where other translators have thought some change necessary. Thus he retains the expression "subsistence is continual existence," a phrase which, in the latest American translation of Heaven and Hell, is rendered "Continuous existence, is ceaseless springing forth."
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The noun "Divinum," so often thought unintelligible unless translated "Divine principle" or "Being," is rendered simply "the Divine;" so also we find "Divine Human" and "Human." We also note the retention of such words as "exist," "subsist," "good" (the noun), "interiors," "exteriors," "corporeal," "civil good," "proceeding," "explore" (also translated "examine"), "is affected" and other words which have been, and still are, thought by some to be unsuited for English ears.
"Technical terms" which have been "adapted" are: Arcanum, rendered "mystery," "secret," "secret meaning," "hidden meaning," "hidden truth," "truth;" Concupiscentia, "lusts of the senses;" scientifica, "scientific thoughts," "known facts,"--neither of which can be considered correct, even as interpretations. Esse is variously rendered "being," "essence," and "essential being;" and a short but most important sentence containing this word (existere ex esse intelligitur per procedere, [n. 139,] is entirely omitted.
A most bewildering variety of "equivalent phrases" is used to translate the simple words sensualia and proprium. For the former we find "sensuals," "sensual things," "things sensual," "things of sense," "things of the senses," "senses," "sensual ideas," "ideas begotten of the senses;" sensualia corporis (sensuals of the body), is rendered "things of bodily sense;" sensualia corporea, "corporeal sensual things," "things of man's bodily sense," "the bodily senses;" sensuales homines, "sensual men," "man as to the senses," "men who think from the senses." Proprium is translated variously "self," "a self," "selfhood," "own selfhood," "the selfhood of man," "what is man's own," "what is of themselves." Amor conjugialis is everywhere rendered "marriage love;" though "conjugial" is retained in the phrase "conjugial delight." The substitution of "marriage" for "conjugial" is particularly regrettable in view of the great and essential difference between marriage love, as it is known in the world, and the conjugial love of the Writings. A note of explanation, such as Swedenborg himself gives (C. L. 98), is all that would be necessary to enable any reader to understand the expression Conjugial love.
But even supposing interpretations necessary for the "general reader" there is absolutely no justification for the great variety of interpretations.
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Why, for instance, should not "sensual things" for sensualia, or "selfhood" for proprium, have been used for those words in all cases instead of in some only? The variety occurs even in single sentences; as, in a sentence in n. 280 where proprium is rendered "self," "selfhood," and "what is of themselves;" and in another sentence (in. 158), it is "a self," "selfhood," and "what is one's own. Signiticatur is "is signified," "signifies" and "denotes;" and conjunctus, "conjoined," "joined," and "united." The translator is not consistent with himself. Inconsistency, indeed, is the great weakness of all translators who attempt to interpret or otherwise alter New Church terms. In the use of these the Writings themselves are most exact and consistent.
Other instances there are in which the translator's desire to "adapt" has resulted in changes which are neither adaptations nor yet translations; as when he uses "thought expressed " for "thought speaking;" "direct revelation" for "immediate revelation;" "sharing" for "communicating." To the same cause, perhaps, are due some positive mistranslations, such as "ignorant" for "ignorance," "delight of the soul" for "delight of the mind;" "in the form of a man" for "man in an image;" "are that love in form" for "are that love." Still it must be admitted that such cases are the exception rather than the rule.
Whether textual interpretation, or "adaptation," is advisable, even for the "general reader," may well be a matter of doubt. Explanatory footnotes, such as are given in the Philadelphia edition of Heaven and Hell, are undoubtedly of great assistance to the understanding of unusual terms; and since such notes can be made to supply all that is needed for the comprehension of the text, it seems undesirable to limit the reader: to a textual "adaptation" which, however good, cannot be so full and complete as a direct translation. Moreover, it should be remembered that the implantation of new doctrines is effected most easily when new terms are employed to express them. And this applies to all branches of learning; it was Cicero who said, Novis rebus nova ponenda nomina (to new things new names must be given).
The work before us makes at least the sixty-third English edition of Heaven, and Hell, and--including revisions, all but one of which are practically new translations, the sixteenth English translation. Of these editions, much the best art the pocket edition published by the Boston Lecture Bureau, translated, we believe, by Mr. Benjamin Worcester; and the Philadelphia edition translated by the Rev. B. F. Barrett.
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The latter has the advantage of including the references to the Arcana, and an index. Unfortunately the Boston edition is out of print, while only a few copies of the Philadelphia edition are now on the market, the plates having been destroyed by fire.
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. Stewart Hall and the Dining Hall were dedicated by Bishop Pendleton on March 19th. After a short dedicatory service the Bishop gave, in each building, an address wherein he dwelt on the uses for which the building was erected. At the banquet following, our veteran toastmaster wore his accustomed badge of office, despite his pleadings to be placed on the retired list. He described the newly dedicated buildings as sacred places, since their uses looked to the Church. Mr. Pitcairn gave an account of the founding of the Academy; this was particularly interesting as coming from one who spoke from experience. Other speakers were the Bishop, Mr. Brickman, Mr. Vinet and Mr. Doering. Mr. Price, responding to "The College," spoke of the need for a longer college course; while Mr. Synnestvedt gave an excellent address on the uses of the Normal School.
After the formal program, there were a number of impromptu toasts and speeches. Of the latter, special mention should be made of the maiden speech, in Bryn Athyn, of Dr. Ernest Farrington, which dealt with the subject of Swedenborg's Science, and emphasized the importance of studying and developing it.
The attendance was very full, a goodly number of our Philadelphia friends having come out for the occasion. Both the dedication service and the banquet that followed strengthened our appreciation of the gift of these beautiful buildings for the uses of the Academy, and our confidence in the stability and promise of the Academy work.
Bishop Pendleton, on the sixtieth anniversary of his birthday, was given a surprise party by the Bryn Athyn society. What was professedly a Friday supper blossomed out into a rousing banquet. A loving-cup, suitably inscribed, was presented by the society to the Bishop. The speeches were numerous and spontaneous, and contained expressions of love and good wishes to Bishop Pendleton, and appreciation of his work in the government of the General Church.
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On April 14th the Senior class of the Seminary planted a vine; and a poem and paper, read by two of the young ladies, delighted the good-sized audience. The Senior class of the college then planted a tree, which occasion was enhanced by an earnest address from one of the young men, and the reading of a Latin class history by the president. Mr. Odhner gave the signification of the vine, and Mr. Acton spoke of the uses of the tree, the affection which it represented, and closed with the hope that the strengthening sphere of an increasing number of loyal alumni would be more and more present in the schools.
Among our recent visitors were Miss Wager, of Cleveland, O., and Mr. Alec McQueen, of London, England, who paid us a flying visit on his way to Pittsburg.
GLENVIEW, ILL. We may say that the last month here has been characterized especially by lectures, commencing with a very interesting discourse by Mr. J. B. S. King, on the Eye; the two following Friday evenings were taken up with a very enjoyable and useful course of illustrated lectures on Physiography by Rev. R. W. Brown of the University of Chicago. Mr. Brown also devoted an afternoon to a talk for the children on Indians whom he had studied in a recent trip West.
Though no important social functions have occurred this month, the young folks have enjoyed informal card parties and dances, the report of which we generously leave to Mercury.
The regular monthly meetings continue to arouse enthusiasm and afford excellent opportunity for exchange of views on the chosen topic of the evening. Thus far we have considered Friendship, Enthusiasm and the Relations of the Chicago and the Glenview societies. Not to leave out the ladies, I would say that they hold weekly meetings at which, as far as I know, they read books, have an attendance of twenty-five, and collect money with which they do things for the church.
At least one great and noteworthy event has transpired of late, and that is the most welcome return of Dr. J. B. S. King and family to Glenview after an absence of seven or eight years.
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They have come to stay and seem perfectly at home. We also anticipate the early return of Mr. Scalbom and his family.
This increase in numbers, more rapid than that ordinarily reported on the last page of the Life, adds strength to the society and fills most of the houses which have been vacant over winter.
To close, we have the following visitors to register this month: Mr. and Mrs. Ed. Boericke, Mr. Thomas Grant, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Synnestvedt, all of Pittsburg; Miss Sophie Falk and Miss Hannah Nelson, of Bryn Athyn, and Mr. Jules King, formerly a pupil of our school here, now of the United States Navy. L. E. G.
DENVER, COL. On the evening of Swedenborg's birthday our little circle was entertained at supper by Mr. and Mrs. Bergstrom with a few toasts and speeches appropriate to the occasion, after which came a phonograph program. The sphere of affection at this meeting was a very strong one and made the occasion specially delightful.
The prospects of resuming our church uses seem remote. The hope had been expressed that services might be resumed next fall, but at this meeting Mr. Stasltep made it clear that it was hardly possible that he would be able to take up the work then, as, even if his health permitted, he would be obliged, for financial reasons to enter into other than ministerial work. It is a matter of great regret to see the Church uses languish, but perhaps this is only a forerunner of better times in store. It is apt to be darkest just before dawn. G.
TORONTO, CAN. The baptism of Mr. Carson, on March 26th, was a happy event to our society, especially since Mr. Carson is soon to be married to one of our young ladies. They have both recently become members of the General Church.
We are now having an interesting series of sermons, on the fifteenth chapter of Luke, commenced by our pastor some weeks ago. The Wednesday class is also taking up the study of a series in the Word, the subject being the Seven Churches; and at each class Mr. Cronlund reads a paper dealing with this subject. Unfortunately, owing to an unusual spread of illness, the attendance at these classes and the supper that precedes them has diminished somewhat of late; but good health is rapidly returning with the delightful spring weather we are now enjoying. M. G. C.
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THE MISSIONARY FIELD. Since January 1st, New Church people have been visited in, and in the vicinity of, thirty-five places, in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia. As far as the writer can judge, this tour on his big circuit has been as useful as any he has ever made in the same length of time--three months. It is impossible, in the space which can be given in the Life to this report, to mention, even in a general way, all the places and the people visited. and the things that were done. The work done recently has been with individual members of the Church, in families, and in small circles. In no case did the way open to hold public meetings. In several instances, however, persons who had never heard the preaching of New Church doctrine were present at meetings in the homes; evidently under the leading of the Divine Providence. Thus the Lord can lead people to make a beginning to know the truth, in a way that appears as if it were by chance, though it is not, there being no such thing as chance.
The members of the General Church whom I have visited, and also others who are readers of the Life, although they live isolated, take much interest in learning of the different views held in the two general bodies of the Church as to the nature of the Writings; for the truth is seen in clearness by contrast with its opposite. From articles and criticisms that have appeared in the periodicals of the Church the past few months, the divergence is seen to be very marked; and the people desire to understand the points of difference.
I wish here to thank all the members and friends of the Church who have been visited on this and on many former tours for their kindnesses to me, and for their continued friendly aid and cooperation in the uses of New Church evangelization. It is the Lord's own work for the salvation of man. For it is only the knowledge of the Divine Truth of the heavenly doctrine revealed by the Lord in His Second Coming, and the life of religion according to the precepts of the Word, that can save men from the soul-destroying spheres of naturalism and atheism, which now almost universally prevail throughout the so-called Christian world.
JOHN E. BOWERS.
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FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES. The next meeting of the GENERAL CONVENTION will be held at Boston, commencing June 10th, and that of the Ministers' Council on June 6th.
The committee appointed to devise measures for the improvement of Convention meetings, as a result of its deliberations has made provision for three sessions to be devoted to conference on religious subjects. The subjects are, the Functions of the Convention, by the Rev. S. C. Eby; the Duty of the Church to its members, by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck; and its Duty to those outside, by the Rev. J. C. Ager. In order to hasten the formal business of convention and thus give time for these conferences the committee has further resolved that it shall act, at the meeting, as a committee of business to which all new business shall be referred and which shall assign the time for its consideration by the Convention.
The AMERICAN SWEDENBORG SOCIETY has sent a consignment of the Writings, in English, to Japan, where they will be taken care of by Mr. George Sale, who will sell or present them as circumstances may dictate. The books will be exhibited for sale both in Kobe and in Yokahama. This action was taken owing to reports from Mr. Sale and elsewhere that the knowledge of English is becoming so general in Japan that it was felt to be wiser to make use of present translations rather than to incur the expense of Japanese translations, which, after all, might not be satisfactory.
The consignment also included fifty copies of the Heavenly Doctrines in Russian, published by the London Swedenborg Society. It is expected that these will find their way into the hands of Russian prisoners.
At the Humboldt Park, Chicago, church, on the evening of February 21st, by authority of the ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION the Rev. J. S. Saul was invested with the functions of ordaining minister "during his continuance in office a presiding officer of the Association." The service was conducted by the Rev. S. C. Eby, who was assisted by the Rev. Messrs. E. D. Daniels and C. H. Mann. After the investiture, "the right hand of fellowship was given Mr. Saul by Rev. John W. Stockwell on behalf of the ministry, and by Mr. C. H. Cutler on behalf of the laity of the Association."
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GREAT BRITAIN. Among the students of the London NEW CHURCH COLLEGE is the Rev. Claud Wilson, "a colored gentleman from Sierra Leone, formerly connected with the Wesleyan body there, but now receiving a New Church education."
The NEW CHURCH ORPHANAGE at its annual meeting reported the number of its wards as 27, of whom 22 are "immediately under their mother's protection."
The Society at EDINBURGH, which has worshiped for nearly sixty years on Infirmary street, is about to remove to a new building on the corner of Gorange Loan and Findham Place.
The Rev. W. T. Lardge, whose utterances in support of the Divinity of the Writings were noticed in the Life some time ago, has been appointed president of the PRESTON and District Sunday school Union (Old Church). Morning Light commends the appointment as giving opportunity to bring the New Church to the front and enabling Christian workers to realize that her doctrines are both reasonable and scriptural.
GERMANY. Swedenborg's Birthday was celebrated this year in BERLIN by a feast in which the two New Church societies of that city united. Mr. Albert Brecht lectured for an hour and a half on the subject of Swedenborg's life and his work as a scientist and theologian, after which all sat down "zur gemeinschaftlichen Kaffzetafel." The children of the New Church people took part in the celebration, which is described as exceedingly useful and pleasant.
Mr. Edward R. Zahn, one of the most prominent members of the New Church in Germany, died at Calw, Wurtemberg, on January 30th, at the age of seventy-five years. Mr. Zahn was one of the founders of the German New Church Publishing Society, which was formed after the death of Dr. Immanuel Tafel, to continue the work of translating, revising, and publishing Swedenborg's Writings. He served for many years as secretary and afterwards as President of this Society and, being an accomplished linguist, was of great use in revising the translations. Two of his sons, also members of the New Church, reside in Greece.
AUSTRALIA. The issue between those who uphold and those who deny the Divine authority of the Writings has ever been the dominant issue in the New Church, just as the issue regarding the Lord's Divinity was the supreme issue in the First Christian Church.
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As in the latter, so in the New Church this issue has been present and active from the very beginning of the Church. In the United States, in England, and in Canada, it has come to open combat, the result of which was a final and complete separation between the opposing forces, and there are now in the New Church two fundamentally distinctive bodies, the one proclaiming the Lord's real presence in His Divine Human in and as the Writings of the Church, and the other denying this presence in terms of varying emphasis. This has naturally led to a development and crystallization of the two positions represented by these bodies, and the presentation of their clearly defined differences of the New Church in all parts of the world.
In Australia the issue seems to have been present from the early days of the Church there; for while the New Church in Australia has, in general, been more or less opposed to the position now represented by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, the Adelaide Society, we learn from the report of its minister, the Rev. Percy Billings, "acknowledges the Doctrines of the New Church. . . as the Lord's own teachings, as Divine Truths and Laws for human life, and, therefore, as the Word of Life of the Divine-Human Lord to men. This is not a new acknowledgment for this Society, but one in which it has been brought up from its early years." Hitherto the issue has not become an open one; but now both sides have drawn up their forces to fight anew on a smaller scale, the great battle of the New Church. The Adelaide Society under Mr. Billings, and the Brisbane Society under the Rev. W. A. Bates (President of the Australian Conference), have both published a definite statement of their opposing positions, and both seem resolved to bring the matter to an open conflict at the meeting of the Conference on April 22d.
Historically speaking, the open conflict commenced with the withdrawal by Mr. Marchant, of Brisbane, of his annual subscription of $260 in aid of the Adelaide Society. At the annual meeting of the Adelaide Society on January 17th, the committee of the Society reported that, in consequence of this withdrawal, they would have to face a considerable deficit during the coming year. Alter expressing their thanks to Mr. Marchant for his past support, they continued: "We are confident that he has misunderstood the position taken by our minister, whose views of the teachings of the New Church are of the most exalted character.
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We are extremely sorry that he does not see with us on this important subject, and trust that he with others will be led by Providence to see the truth."
When this part of the committee's report came up for consideration, it was stated that the reason given by Mr. Marchant for the withdrawal of his assistance, was "a letter written by our minister to the friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in America, which letter appeared in the August-September issue of New Church Life. The letter was read to the meeting, and the meeting failed to agree with Mr. Marchant's views of its contents, and seemed to be of opinion that other reasons must have influenced Mr. Marchant's decision against the Society.
"Much surprise was expressed at the opposition being shown by prominent Newchurchmen in Australia, to the teachings and work of Mr. Billings," and the meeting listened with pleasure to a kind letter and a donation of $100 received from Mr. John Pitcairn in response to an appeal made to him.
"The opposition shown by Mr. Marchant and others to the attitude of the Adelaide Society towards some of the teachings emphasized by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, led to the consideration and unanimous passing of a series of resolutions, copies of which were forwarded to the Secretary of the Australian Conference, and to the Editor of The New Age. They appear in the March number of the latter journal. It may be added, that the meeting at which they were passed was "well attended and thoroughly representative." The resolutions are as follows:
"1. That the Adelaide Society of the New Church declares its acknowledgment that the Teachings contained in the theological writings of Swedenborg are Divine Truths and Laws for human life, and are the Word of the Divine-Human Lord, descended from Him out of Heaven, to the rational mind of man.
"2. That the Adelaide Society of the New Church declares its belief that an acknowledgment of the Doctrines of the New Church as Divine Truths and Teachings and as the Word of the Lord for the rational mind of man, given by the Lord to man through the instrumentality of Swedenborg, is fundamental and necessary for the establishment and growth of the New Christian Church and of the true Christian Religion.
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"3. That the Adelaide Society of the New Church expresses the desire and hope that the 'New Church in Australia,' at its Conference to be held this year in Melbourne, will declare that it acknowledges the Teachings contained in the theological writings of Swedenborg to be Divine Truths and the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ to the rational mind of man, and that it acknowledges the Coming of these Teachings to be a Coming of the Lord, the Teacher to man, and that this Coming was effected through the instrumentality of Swedenborg.
"4. That this meeting has full confidence in the minister of the society and in his teachings, and trusts that he may long continue his ministrations in Adelaide."
Referring to this meeting, the correspondent of the society writes in the March number of The New Age" "It is a most interesting and important fact that the doctrinal position as declared by these resolutions has been that of the Adelaide Society of the New Church from the earliest times of which we have any record, and one of our oldest members, who has been on the church roll for forty-seven years, expressed astonishment that any professing Newchurchman in Australia should hesitate to acknowledge the Divine origin and authority of the doctrines of the New Jerusalem. We may add that this is a valuable testimony to the faithfulness of the work done by the Rev. E. G. Day, and other leaders and fathers of the Society."
Following the passage of these resolutions, at the quarterly meeting of the Brisbane Society, on January 25th, "the Rev. W. A. Bates, as President of Conference, announced that the Adelaide Society, at their annual meeting, held on January 17th, had passed a resolution expressing the desire and hope that the New Church in Australia at its [next] Conference. . . will declare that it acknowledges the teachings contained in the theological writings of Swedenborg to be Divine Truths and the Word of the Lord Jesus Christ to the rational mind of man, and that it acknowledges the coming of these teachings to be a coming of the Lord." . . . This announcement led to an "interesting conversation" and to some remarks by Mr. Bates, in which "much information" was given.
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The nature of the "information" may be judged from the fact that, "at the conclusion of Mr. Bates's remarks, a desire was at once expressed to pass a resolution affirming that the theological writings of Swedenborg are not the Word of God." The President, however, was anxious that no vote should be taken until all had further considered the subject; and the meeting was therefore adjourned till the following Wednesday, February 1st. But the adjourned meeting, which was "well attended and fully representative," showed no change of mind. After a lengthy "conversational discussion" the following resolutions were carried "without a single disentient:"
"1. That the members of the Brisbane Society of the New Church hereby affirm their conviction that the Sacred Scriptures alone are the 'Divine Word,' being 'Divinely inspired and holy in every syllable,' (T. C. R. 200), and standing entirely alone among all writings.
"2. We further affirm that we have the strongest rational rounds for believing that the Lord is making His second coming by giving a clearer revelation of Himself and of the spiritual sense of the Divine Word, and that this revelation was rationally perceived by Swedenborg, who was appointed by the Lord to communicate information to mankind on these important subjects."
By the time this issue of the Life is in print, the Australian Conference, at which this supreme subject of the Nature and Authority of the Writings is to be discussed, will have become a matter of the past. It promises to be an historical meeting, and the report of the discussion and proceedings will be awaited with interest by all Newchurchmen.
The subject of the Divinity of the Writings has also been recently put before the SYDNEY Society, of which Mr. Richard Morse, who attended the last Assembly at Bryn Athyn, is the secretary. On January 29th, the leader, Mr. Spencer, in an address commemorative of Swedenborg's birthday, quoted the well known paragraph from the T. C. R. 779, "where Swedenborg speaks of the doctrines having been received of the Lord who manifested Himself to him," and from this teaching the speaker argued "that, therefore, Swedenborg had a divine mission, but added that everybody also had a divine mission, and that Swedenborg's differed only in degree!!"
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New Members of the General Church. 1905
Announcements.
February, 1905.
MRS. MARY POWELL, of Givens, O.
March, 1905.
MRS. LEONORA BARROWS, of Middleport, O.
MR. HARVEY P. SKINNER, of Middleport, O.
MRS. HELEN E. SKINNER, of Middleport, O
MR. F. L. KENDIG, of Charleroi, Pa.
MR. GEORGE B. HEATON, of Woodbury, N. J.
MRS. LONA Grant ARMSTRONG, of Hebbardsville, O.
April, 1905.
MISS FANNY WAELCHLI, of Allentown, Pa.
MR. FRED. W. CARSON, of Niagara Falls, Ont., Canada.
MISS NELLIE G. MCLAUGHLIN, of Toronto, Ont.
MR. CHARLES S. COLE, of Glenview, Ill.
MRS. EMILIE M. COLE, of Glenview, Ill.
MR. MARLIN W. HEILMAN, of Philadelphia, Pa.
MR. DOUGLAS W. HART, of London, England.
MR. N. C. HANSEN, of Philadelphia.
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MISS EMMA ROEHNER, of Philadelphia.
MISS STELLA M. ZEPPENFELD, of Philadelphia.
MR. WM. E. ZEPPENFELD, of Philadelphia.
EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION FRANK SEWALL 1905
Will be held in the Rooms of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, 3 W. 29th St., New York City, Monday, June 5, 1905.
10 A. M. Meeting of the Board of Directors.
11 A. M. Meeting of the Association.
12:30 A. M. Annual Report and Address of the President, Frank Sewall, M. A., D. D.
3 P. M. Address by Alfred Henry Stroh, on the Development of Swedenborg's Science and Philosophy.
All reports and papers should be sent to the President, 1618 Riggs Place, Washington, D. C., before June 1st. As action will be taken on the incorporation of the Association involving a permanent name, a large attendance of members, is desirable. The public are cordially invited to all the meetings of the Association.
FRANK SEWALL,
President.
ANNUAL MEETINGS. 1905
The annual meeting of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held in Pittsburg, on Wednesday, June 21st, and on Friday and Saturday, June 23d and 24th, 1905.
The Executive Committee of the General Church will meet at the same place on June 21st, and a joint meeting of the two Councils will be held on Thursday, June 22d.
The Teachers' Institute will meet at the same place on Monday and Tuesday, June 26th and 27th.
For Sale. 1905
FOR SALE OR RENT. Ten-room House on 100 foot lot fronting on church property in Glenview, Illinois. Ideal opportunity for family desiring to locate in a New Church center. Address Lewis R. Blackman, 1105 Steinway Hall, Chicago.
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Title Unspecified 1905
JUNE, 1905. No. 6.
HIDDEN MANNA. Rev. W. F. PENDLETON 1905
A SERMON
"To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it." Apoc. ii. 17.
It is a truth well-nigh lost in the Christian world, that the combat of temptation is necessary to regeneration; that a continued internal warfare through life, against evil as sin, is an absolute essential for the subduing of the natural man, and for the making the spiritual man the dominant factor of life; that resistance to evil in the will itself is the only way to its removal, and that its removal is only gradual and successive. In fact, it has become a principle of faith, and so of practice, that combat, or resistance to evil, is not necessary, except that which requires its covering and concealment from the eyes of the world; for it is taught that man is saved by faith only, and that evil is removed by an act of grace and mercy, when man has faith without any co-operative human effort. Hence men generally do not know, and are unwilling to know, that resistance to evil,--as of one's self from the Lord,--continued through life in the world, is the means provided of the Lord, the Divine Method, as it were, by which evil is removed, by which the new birth takes place, and man is saved.
Because of the unwillingness of the natural man to know this,--his thought at the same time being obscured and darkened by a false theology,--he is not able to set that this most essential truth is taught in the Word of God throughout.
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This is nowhere more manifest than in the second and third chapters of the Apocalypse, where the message to the Seven Churches is given; and so important is this fundamental law of spiritual life,--the necessity of combat and victory in temptation,--that it is said seven times, or to each Church as follows:
To the Church in Ephesus, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God."
To the Church in Smyma, "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death."
To the Church in Pergamos, "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and upon the stone a name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it."
To the Church in Thyatira, "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. . . . And I will give him the morning star."
To the Church in Sardis, "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot his name from the book of life."
To the Church in Philadelphia, "Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out."
To the Church of the Laodiceans, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in His throne."
To "overcome" is a word in the Greek language which is used for battle, conquest, victory; but in these passages it is used for spiritual victory in temptations, the victory of the spiritual man and the subjugation of the natural man; for the natural man resists the spiritual, and must be overcome; but he is not overcome except through a long war. Victory is given in the end, and the reward of victory,--a reward that comes only through combat; but it does come by combat, with variety according to the state of reception.
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They of the Church of Ephesus are to eat of the tree of life. They of the Church of Smyrna are not to be hurt of the second death. They of the Church of Pergamos will eat of the hidden manna, and are to receive a white stone. To them of the Church in Thyatira will be given power over the nations, and they shall rule them with a rod of iron. Those of the Church in Sardis are to be clothed in white raiment. They of the Church in Philadelphia are to become pillars in the temple of God. And to those who overcome, of the Church of the Laodiceans, the Lord says, "I will grant to sit with me in my throne."
But these things so plainly written, are still unknown; and men, not knowing them, cannot be given the knowledge of that which comes by temptations, the knowledge of the Lord as the God of heaven and earth, the knowledge of heaven and the life after death, the knowledge of heavenly happiness and delight. Since these things are concealed,--and must be concealed from all that
have not the actual experience of spiritual combat,--therefore we read of the hidden manna, and of a new name upon a white stone, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.
In general, heaven and eternal life, with all the happiness thereof, are promised to him who overcomes in temptations, but with variety according to the state of those in each Church. For by the seven Churches are represented all in the Christian world, who are capable of being reformed and made spiritual, and among whom a New Church is to be established, the states of which will be various according to reception.
Those in each Church will suffer spiritual temptation on account of their resistance to evil and falsity; but this is described as a special characteristic of those in the Church of Pergamos. They, more than the rest, are to undergo spiritual temptations; for this is more necessary for some than for others; and as this is true of a number of persons, so as to constitute one of the general states of the Church, therefore it is specially treated of in the message to the Church in Pergamos.
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Spiritual temptations are caused by the assault of the interior rule falsities of evil, or bi the evil spirits who are in such falsities, exciting them in the mind, disturbing spiritual repose, causing anxiety for the life of the Church, and bringing salvation itself into doubt, leading at times even to states of discouragement and despair.
The interior falsities of evil are those which present the outward appearance of truth, in which the fallacy is not readily seen; and which, coming with a power that seemingly cannot be resisted, obscure the thought of truth, and cause to disappear the delight of the affection of truth. Reasons against such malignant falsity do not readily suggest themselves; and although there is still faith, the mind seems disarmed and powerless, with resulting grief and approaching despair. There is danger of yielding at this time, of falling by the wayside, of turning back from the war: but where there is persistence, light comes, strength is given, and victory follows, for the Lord never forsakes those who keep their faces turned upward, even though there be grief, anguish, and despair.
The reward of victory which will be given them if they overcome is that they will he introduced to an angel feast, and fed of the hidden manna; and a present will be given them of a white stone, with a new name engraved upon it, and no one will be able to read the name, but those who eat at the feast, who receive the gift of the stone.
It is remarkable in this text, that something is to be given as the reward of victory, which will not be known. The food is such that it will be invisible, or concealed from the common view, but will be clearly seen and enjoyed by him who eateth it; and the new name written upon the white stone will be in a language that cannot be read except by him that receiveth it.
These words are significant; they contain a meaning that is most profound; and the meaning it is now our privilege to know, for it is revealed.
The hidden manna is the Lord Himself present in the Church, and that which His presence imparts to those who have conquered in temptations.
Even as He Himself has said, "Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
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The bread of God is He that cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world, I am the bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread that cometh down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven, ii any man eat of this bread he shall live forever. The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John vi. 31-33, 49-51.)
And also in the institution of the Holy Supper, "Jesus took bread and blessed, and brake it, and gave unto His disciples, and said, Take ye, and eat; this is My body." (Matth. xxvi. 26.)
"The bread that I will give is my flesh." "This is my body which is given for you, this do in remembrance of me." (Luke xxii. 19.) The Lord gives Himself in giving that which is signified by the manna, the bread, the flesh, His body. That which is the Lord Himself is His Divine Love, and this is what He gives to those who conquer in temptations,--His Love, which if a man receive he will live forever; and if he receive it he will love again, he will love the Lord and the neighbor; and to love is to live, for he who loves lives by love; it is the food, the manna, the bread, the flesh of the Lord, the eating of which is life and happiness that endureth always.
Although the heavenly manna gives life, it is unknown, invisible, except to those who receive it and live by it, a food that nourishes their souls, their minds, and even their bodies, but a food unseen by the natural eye, a food unknown to those who see only with a natural sight; for they know only material food, and believe there is no other; they do not see even the subtle, invisible food of nature; and it is of them the Lord spoke, when He said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of." (John iv. 32.) And also when He said that "Man doth not live by bread, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord." (Deut. viii. 3.)
Man is nourished by his love; he is nourished from heaven by his love; he is nourished of the Lord through heaven by his love,--his love of use. This nourishment is "The bread which is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."
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It is the hidden manna, that is given by a way unknown, the internal way from heaven.
Men think that it is natural food that nourishes, and it does so appear to the senses: but without the food which angels eat, imparted by the invisible way from heaven, the food which is love, the food which is by man's love in his use, neither the soul nor the body is nourished, nor does man live.
This is the reason why to perform use, to work, is to live. Men think that they live by the wages they receive, which buy their natural food; but this is a fallacy. They must have natural food, indeed, which corresponds with spiritual food, and because it corresponds they live,--not from the natural food, but from that invisible food, of which it is but the natural embodiment and instrumentality.
This is the reason why the idle man dies; he dies spiritually if not naturally. Angel's food cannot be imparted to the idle, and even in hell evil spirits must work if they would live. And the evil man in the world lives by his work; the Lord gives the bread of life even to him; for He withholds it from none. But the evil man who works is still idle in his spirit; he does not love use for its own sake. Therefore his interior mind or spirit is not nourished. He cannot he fed from heaven except to his exterior mind and life. His external is continually refreshed and vivified by his work; but his internal mind dies, because it is not fed: and in the other world, he becomes a vile drudge in hell, driven to labor that he mat preserve his miserable existence.
Happy is he who loves use for its own sake, for he it is who eateth of the hidden manna, he it is who hath overcome in temptations, whose interior mind is open to heaven, and who adores the Lord in His Divine Human as the God of heaven and earth. He it is who is nourished from heaven, soul and body, by his love.
The Lord Himself is the hidden manna, the bread of heaven, the bread which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world,--to every man that liveth in the world, to each according to his state of reception. And the prayer of the spiritual man is, what the prayer of His disciples was, "Lord evermore give us this bread."
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And the Lord said unto them, "This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world." (John vi. 50, 51.) "Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John vi. 54)
This is the bread that is eaten in the Supper of the Lord, the Holy Supper; and it is of this feast the Lord says concerning him who worthily partakes, "I will sup with him, and he with me." (Rev. iii. 20.)
Physical bread indeed is eaten in the Holy Supper, but what is this but a mere act of the body that has nothing significant about it, except by what it represents, and of which it is the natural correspondent and counterpart. It is a spiritual feast to those who worthily approach,--in having repented of their sins,--and art in the endeavor to live a new life; and the new life is the life of love, love to the Lord and love to the neighbor; they who are in this life, which is implanted by repentance, are introduced more fully into it by the Holy Supper,--the great central feast of the Church, in which is concentrated the all of the Word, the all of the Church, and the all of worship, and indeed the all of heaven and the Lord. By this feast man is introduced into the company of the angels, and into the presence of the Lord; he receives thereby new life, the life of love, the heavenly food that is to nourish him in his daily use and work; for heaven is then opened, and it is not again closed to him who worthily draws near and partakes.
It is said of the Israelites, when they ate of the manna in the wilderness, that "man did eat angel's food." (Psalm lxxviii. 25) Little did they know,-they knew nothing whatever,--of the real angel's food, which is spiritual and celestial love. The Lord by a miracle created a natural food, which rained down upon them from above, that their lives might be preserved in the desert, where no food was: a food which at the same time represented the angelic food, the hidden manna, but which was far more unknown to the Israelites than the manna which they saw before them.
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Their ignorance of heavenly food was also represented, in the name that was given to this new food. When they saw it lying upon the ground, they cried out Man-nah,--What it is? "For they knew not what it was." (Exod. xv. 26.) Moses did not give them the true bread from heaven, this could not be given to them by Moses, nor could they receive it. Only the Father Himself, the Divine Love, can give the true bread from heaven to those who approach Him in humility of heart, from seeing and acknowledging their evils as sins against Him. The Israelites did not even know what the manna was, much less did they know of the manna which it represented; nor does the natural man now know what it is, what the hidden manna is. The Christian world at large does not know, it does not know the Lord, it does not know what love is, it does not know what truth is, it does not know what life is, it does not know what the spiritual is-for the spiritual is love,--it does not know what heaven is,--for heaven is love, the Lord is love. Their ignorance is as dense as that of the Israelites in the wilderness. For the hidden manna is now revealed, the Lord in His Divine Human is revealed, love is revealed, the spiritual is revealed, heaven is revealed, in the Writings of the New Church. And the cry is the cry of the Israelites in the wilderness, What is this? For they know not what it is!
And it cannot be known, save to those who are able to receive it, save to those who worthily approach it, even as they who worthily approach the Supper of the Lord; for in those Writings is the heavenly feast, the hidden manna; in them man doth eat angel's food; in them is the bread of God which cometh down from heaven and giveth life to the world.
To those who are able to eat of the hidden manna,--to them is also given a white stone. The hidden manna is the Divine Love revealed in the Writings to those who are able to receive it; and the white stone is the Divine Wisdom that is there; revealed to those who are able to receive it. And this wisdom cannot be imparted to others, for it is said that upon the stone a new name is written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it.
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A new life, a new qualify of life, is given from the Divine Wisdom revealed in the Writings, which will be wholly unknown and unrecognized by natural men. They will see something peculiar and strange, and will merely say, What is this? but they will not know what it is.
A new quality and state of life will be given from the Lord to those who know and love Him; a quality unknown to others, for they do not know the Lord, and not knowing the Lord, do not know what is from Him. "And I will give to him a white stone, and upon the stone a new name written, which no one knoweth but he that receiveth it."
This new name written upon the stone is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only God of heaven and earth, in whom is the Divine Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and whose Human which He assumed in the world was glorified and made Divine. The new name is therefore the Divine Human of the Lord, and it is said to be written upon the white stone, when this name is acknowledged in the Church, and by the men of the Church.
It is a name that has been unknown in the Christian world since the Council of Nice. It is not known because it is not believed. What a man does not believe, he does not know, although a knowledge of it may lodge in his memory; after death it will vanish even from the memory. Because it is not known it is called the hidden manna, and now the new name; new because unknown and lost for ages, but now revealed anew again. It is revealed anew, and is a new name in the world, but it is still unknown, except by those who receive it. The Lord is unknown, His Divine Human is unknown, the Lord in His Second Coming is unknown, the spiritual sense of the Word is unknown, the Divine Doctrine of the New Jerusalem is unknown, the Church formed by that Doctrine is unknown--all these are unknown because men are unwilling to know and receive; for they can be known only by those who are willing; and those only are willing who already acknowledge in their hearts, though obscurely, the Divinity of the Lord. For only to him that hath can it be given to have more abundantly.
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What is true of the Lord and of Doctrine from Him, is also true of the Church formed by Him through Doctrine; it is unknown save by those who are in it, or who have the Church in them. This Church is also called the New Church, because in it is written a new name. To the angel of the Church in Philadelphia it is said, "Him that overcometh I will make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven, from my God, and I will write upon him my new name." (Rev. iii. 12.)
Who knows what the New Church is, what its heavenly Doctrine is, save those who are in it, save those who have received it? When you have tried to make it known, have you not failed? The Newchurchman walks abroad daily with a consciousness of that within him, a power from on high, the Divine Truth of the Lord, the faith in His Second Coming, and yet he realizes his utter helplessness to convey an!: idea of it to the men he meets. How gladly would he give it, and yet he cannot. But the Lord has foreseen this, and provided that it should be so. It is better not to know and believe, than to receive and profane that which is known and believed. And hence the new name is written only on those who know and receive it in heart and life, who believe and love what they know and profess, and who are ready to enter ever more interiorly into the knowledge which is given unto them.
Where is the record of the presence of the New Church among men, save with those who receive it? Do you find it in the edicts of emperors and kings, in the decrees of senates and parliaments? Search the pages of history and you look in vain. Look into literature, enquire of the wise and learned, go out into the business world, among men in all the walks of life, and where do you find mention of it? There is a notice indeed of Swedenborg, and of a Swedenborgian sect, but where is any genuine knowledge of it, of its real quality of life? The bread of God which cometh down from heaven is here to feed the hungry, and to give live unto the world; but men are not hungry, they will not have life, even though it be so freely offered.
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Those alone who receive, can see and know, believe and love. How true then that the heavenly manna is hidden from the view of the natural man, and the new name written upon the white stone, is known only to those who receive it; who receive the reward of victory, promised to those who overcome, and which can be given only by temptation combat. This is the bread of God which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. If any man eat of this bread he shall live forever. Amen.
SWEDENBORG'S THEOLOGY FROM 1728 TO 1738 ALFRED HENRY STROH 1905
During recent years the nature of Swedenborg's Theology before the opening of his spiritual eyes has begun to receive some attention from New Church students. The subject is of interest not only in connection with the general question of Swedenborg's preparation for his unique office as Servant of the Lord but also because it has been found that many questions which are essentially theological were successfully treated by Swedenborg from the philosophical standpoint while he was still a scientist, that is, prior to 1743 when his spiritual eyes were opened, although for some years before that time he had received communications from the spiritual world by dreams and signs. The object of the present paper is not to consider the whole question of Swedenborg's theology before 1743, but to present some documentary evidence bearing on the subject and belonging to the period of 1728-1738.
Beginning his scientific work as an experimental philosopher, Swedenborg soon passed from the surface of experiment to the underlying philosophy of science. From a letter addressed to the secretary of the Scientific Society of Upsala, written in 1729. We learn that for a number of years Swedenborg had occupied himself with a thorough investigation of the mineral kingdom, also deducing principles of nature a posteriori and a priori. It would seem that after writing some of the volumes contemplated in the prospectus. On the Genuine Treatment of Metals, Swedenborg passed on to the writing of the Lesser Principia, which was possibly not completed until as late as 1728 or 1729.
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In this work there are references which exhibit Swedenborg's abiding faith in the Sacred Scripture, among others one which shows that he accepted literally the statements concerning the creation of living things as given in Genesis. The scheme of particles as given in this most interesting work is essentially the same as in the larger Principia, although the theological materials prefixed to the latter are lacking. Nor is there any statement in the work which would show that Swedenborg clearly distinguished between the spiritual and natural worlds, a distinction which apparently he did not express until he wrote the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, begun in 1738 Presumably Swedenborg had at least drafted some portions of the work on the Infinite, etc., before 1734, the date of its publication; and if this be the case it seems likely that the manuscript De Mechanismo Animae et Corporis, reproduced in Vol. III. of the Photolithographs and which will soon be published by the Swedenborg Scientific Association in an English translation, was written after the work on the Infinite, instead of before it, as Dr. R. L. Tafel concluded in the Documents. However, this may be, the manuscript on the Mechanism of the Soul and Body contains some theological passages which may aptly be quoted here:
"23. That only from a knowledge of the soul and of the mechanism of the body can we deduce that there is a God and a creator; but the contrary is the case if we postulate the soul as a something unknowable and secret and something far removed from sense; that is the nearest road to atheism and naturalism.*** [doubts] likewise lead us into doubting concerning the infinite, which could not at all be the case, could we see all things with the eyes of angels; but let us stand still before the first simple or the first created entity, and adore the origin of all things as something most unknown to our senses, but which according to our senses ought to be, since nothing could be without it. Thus, therefore, we will come out of the darkness of atheism and of naturalism to the highest light, or to that which certainly ought to give the infinite, although we do not understand this.
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It may be added that the more deeply we proceed into the knowledge of nature, the greater light do we come into, and as it were from the darkness itself into a knowledge of the deity, which we can thus in no way deny; thus natural philosophy will lead us truly to a confession of the infinite. All doubts and secret things lead us into devious paths, all opened things lead us into confession of God. That philosopher is unlearned and dull, and does not reach the threshold of true philosophy, who does not acknowledge God.
* * * * * *
"25. That there is a nexus of the infinite and of the simple, of God and of the first entity, but that there is no mechanical or geometrical nexus; that there is no natural nexus; that neither is it similar to a natural [nexus]; that we cannot comprehend that nexus.***
"26. That God rules the world by media, and that the Divine Providence does lot act immediately into men, but mediately. ***
"27. That the media of the Divine Providence are intermediate and angelic substances, or [substances] with souls similar to ours.***
"28. The intermediate substances cannot but perform all things most rightly and according to the will of God."
In this manuscript and in other materials dating from the same period there are many references to the composition and qualities of the highest substance in the body, its immortality and perfection; but this material must be treated separately.
In a fragment which probably dates from this same period, treating of The Infinite, the Indefinite and the Finite, which will also be published in the near future by the Swedenborg Scientific Association, there is the following climax:
"11. In the soul and in its understanding and perception there is no infinite save only the deity of the universe (numen universi)* * * The infinite, therefore, is the deity in respect to the finite perception of our soul, likewise in respect to the world itself as existing of degrees and moments, or as limited within the series of degrees and moments, for in the infinite deity there are no degrees, moments, series, determinations, limitations, or anything natural.
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It cannot be said that in itself it is infinite, that is to say, if it conceives itself within its essence abstractly from the world, but its infinity is in respect to us and the world, for it does not respect itself infinitely, because it itself is infinite; neither can it be said that it respects itself finitely; both statements are inappropriate; thus whatever you express concerning it is inadequate and expresses nothing. Therefore, we do not progress beyond the sphere of our reason, or beyond our finiteness, for infinity transcends all conception; therefore, it is a crime to wish to penetrate beyond what it has deigned to reveal, for continually there is no penetration; and if anyone attempts to go beyond this, which is familiar in the case of those who strive to be known as learned, they precipitate themselves into mere shadows and know less than those who are content to be no wiser than the common people in regard to these things. The very attempt itself of penetrating involves the mind in darkness, so that even in the scrutiny of natural things a man may be blind, and may fall into dreams of opaque night, and into hypotheses incongruous and strange to a right mind, for inevitable error thus overshadows the mind in the scrutiny of infinity, so that even in finite things there is mere thick darkness. which enfolds, spreads over, and confuses it."
Dr. L. R. Tafel assigns the year 1738 as the date of the treatise on Faith and Good Works, published in the Posthumous Tracts; and this treatise is usually considered as the first distinctly theological work by Swedenborg before the opening of his spiritual eyes. However, in the same volume as that in which the Mechanism of Soul and Body is contained, (Codex 88), there is a page entitled On Faith in Christ, which antedates the treatise on Faith and Good Works by several years. Immediately preceding this page there are a number of theses which were possibly written by Swedenborg in contemplation of a new work. We will close this article by quoting this page and the one Out Faith in Christ in full:
"1. Concerning the infinite and God.
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2. Concerning nature and created things, that they are all geometrical and mechanical; concerning corpuscular philosophy.
3. That the soul, angels, and man with his internal and external senses are mechanical and natural.
4. That a different conception (cognitio) leads directly to atheism.
5. The arguments of atheists are refuted.
6. That its [i. e., the soul's] essence may be demonstrated, and all its acts, communion, immortality, state after death according to its preceding lift; its state with those defiled by vices; that the Sacred Scripture coincides plainly with these things.
7. In general concerning the elements and their motion; concerning tremulation and undulation; concerning the membranes and tremulation in them from the gross to the subtle; concerning life in general.
8. Thus the senses and the remaining things in order.
"Concerning faith in Christ. 1. It is clear that no one can be saved except by faith in God. 2. That no one can be saved except by Christ. 3. It is asked whether we can be saved only by faith in Christ. 4. It is replied that a distinction must be made between those who know Christ and those who do not know him; those who know Christ, or who are Christians, cannot distinguish Christ from God or the Father, hence they cannot be saved except by faith in Christ, because that faith is the same as faith in the infinite; therefore, they who do not have faith in Christ, or what is the same thing, who deny Christ, they cannot be saved, because faith cannot be separated and be in God and at the same time in Christ. But they who do not know that Christ has come into the world, can nevertheless believe in God or in the infinite, neither do they on that account deny Christ, wherefore they may also be saved, because there is faith in both, since they do not deny, for they do not know; but there cannot be salvation of them except by Christ, for He suffered for the whole world, as well for those who know Him as for those who do not know Him, so that salvation is only by Christ. 5. Before Christ not a thousandth part of the Jews believed that such a Messiah would come who would only care for souls, but [they expected one] by means of whom they would rule the whole world, therefore, they could not be saved; but salvation does not take place except by Christ.
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6. If Christ had been born in a corner of the world, so that He would have been known by no one, they could still have been saved by faith in God, but there is no salvation except by Christ. 7. It pleased Him to show Himself in order that He might indicate and show to them that He had come on account of souls and not on account of a worldly empire, in order that we might see in Him an image of the worship and life which we ought to lead, in order that we might attain and be rendered fit for receiving faith. (See the Photolithographs, Vol. III., pages 139-140.)
DRAMA AS A TEACHER. LOUIS B. PENDLETON 1905
The newspaper is often spoken of as the great teacher of the public, referring, of course, chiefly to mere scientific knowledge. It is probable that in large towns the theatre will compare favorably with even the newspaper, because what is learned there is more vividly impressed on the mind. But when among Newchurchmen we speak of the drama as a teacher, we think at once of the inculcation of the moral virtues. It is here that the modern drama too often fails,--not that the cardinal virtues are purposely ignored or consciously belittled, but that too much sympathy is excited for evil doers.
I once had a talk with Julian Hawthorne on the subject of the statement in the Writings that no evil is presented in the dramas enacted in heaven. I said that from my point of view it was difficult to understand how any strong effects could be produced without picturing evil conditions, remotely if not directly. Mr. Hawthorne, who, by the way, said he had been a reader of Swedenborg for twenty years, suggested that the unfolding of the heavenly drama might resemble the opening of a flower. This is a very pleasing thought, but it would hardly be safe to apply such a principle to the drama of this world.
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We in our terrestrial grossness, can not sit attentively for three hours before a drama resembling the mere transformation of a rosebud into a perfect bloom. We must have strong sensations and startlingly situations. We can appreciate happiness only by contrast with tragedy, and can see virtue in its beauty only by contrast with vice in its ugliness.
The drama of the day, therefore, so far as its construction is concerned. is thoroughly adapted to our needs. The fault is in the manner in which the evil is presented and in the impression too often left on the mind that wickedness is not so wicked after all. It is a very suggestive fact that the most serious dramas of the modern stage are the most unwholesome. The so-called problem-plays reach no right solutions of the problems presented, and too often tend to shake the foundations of the established ideas of propriety and good morals. There are many plays that are merely amusing and recreating, or otherwise harmless,-farces, comedies, and romantic dramas of a somewhat hackneyed type,--but this can not be said of the serious dramas of the so-called higher class, which are higher only on the artistic side. The writers of these plays think that their duty is done if they achieve the artistic. This, and to be successful through every possible means, are for the most part the only aims. It is not the observers alone who are troubled with no fear of doing the public harm. I have been impressed with this in talking about dramatic construction with several playwrights, one of whom has produced some of the greatest successes of recent seasons.
An interesting illustration of the unhealthy modern drama is Pinero's play called "Letty," produced last winter. Letty loves a man above her in station who wishes her to ignore the requirements of the law and the church. She almost yields, but finally resists successfully, and in order to be respectable and to settle herself in life she marries a semi-idiotic young photographer, whom, because of his manifest inferiority, she can never really love. The moral of this play, as one dramatic critic expressed it, is that the wages of virtue is life in a photographer's shop. I feel sure that the harmful impression left on many minds was that if Letty had been strong enough to defy convention she might have been happy,--at least for some years; but on account of her weak desire to be respectable she deliberately wrecked her whole life.
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Another recent play by Pinero called "Iris" furnishes further illustration. At the outset Iris is in every way charming, and, as presented by a competent and attractive actress, she wins all hearts. She seems to represent true womanhood, and yet in the end she deliberately gives up a pure love for infamy and the possession of coveted luxuries. There are reasons why her worthy young lover should leave her for two years, and meanwhile he confidently expects to make his fortune. Iris is left in possession of two pounds a week, and thus is in no danger of actual want. But she hates her back room, and sighs for expensive gowns and champagne suppers. She finds it impossible to wait two years for the pleasures she craves. So the loathsome tragedy indicated above is enacted, and the effect left on the mind is that of a hideous nightmare. Ordinarily the skillful playwright can excite as much sympathy for the evil doer as any sentimentalist can wish, but in this instance Pinero failed, although he is regarded as one of the most artistic and is certainly one of the most successful playwrights of the English-speaking world. Iris sinned not because of a great love beyond her control or because the spectre of starvation stood at her door, but because she insisted on an abundance of flattery, chiffon and champagne. The immediate possession of these was valued above true love with every comfort after an interval of waiting. Even the most tolerant and "broad-minded" were revolted by such a spectacle.
The reflecting observer can hardly fail of the conviction that among serious modern plays the healthiest are the most inartistic. I refer to the cheap sensational melodramas in which virtue is promptly rewarded and villainy is as surely overtaken by the punishment befitting the crime. Witnessing one of these productions at an obscure theatre in Philadelphia last winter, I was surprised to see the villain appear after every act, sneaking before the curtain from right to left, while the hisses that rained upon him suggested the violence of a March blizzard in the northwest. The hero then followed, and as he strutted proudly across he was greeted with smiles and great applause.
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Good moral sentiments were also applauded throughout the play. It was all very naive and child-like, but it indicated a healthy state of mind among the uncultured people present, and showed that such plays were good for them.
If the people can not be taught that virtue is its own reward it is desirable that they at least be kept as long as possible in the hope and belief that virtue some day will be rewarded and villainy punished. Their own welfare and the good of society in general require it. The weakening of such faith can be seen in many directions, and particularly in the labor agitations of the present time all over the world. For generations back the laboring people have been supported by the hope that if they lived well they would get their fair share of the good things of life in another world. But now that faith in another world has weakened, they are more and more determined to demand their share in this world. Such a demand is not unreasonable in itself, but it will in time lead to disastrous revolutions which might be at least partly checked, and the impulse behind them made less destructive of the good of all concerned if a faith in an over-ruling and beneficent Providence could be kept alive.
In conclusion I would say that, although direct instruction in good morals on the stage would be absurd, the serious modern drama of a more ideal sort should display the highest art and literary beauty, and at the same time make the dearest distinctions between good and evil by exalting the one and condemning the other, thus tending to help instead of to harm the public. Unfortunately the combination of qualifications necessary for work of this kind is rare.
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TALMUD. D. F. HANNIGAN 1905
It has been pointed out by Swedenborg that the reason why the common image of Jacob and Judah still remains in their posterity, so that they art easily distinguishable from all other peoples, is that they have "adhered firmly to their system of religion. (T. C. R. 103) The Jews possess those distinctive characteristics which belong to an unmixed race. The predispositions which they have inherited have not only remained unchanged in them but have actually increased so that, in the language of Swedenborg, any person may "recognize a Jew by his face, eyes, speech, and gestures." (T. C. R. 521.)
In order to form a comprehensive view of the Jews, as a people, we must not merely study their history as recorded in the Old Testament, but also what is written about them in that extraordinary work, The Talmud, which some writer has characterized as a monument of wisdom and--of foolishness.
What is The Talmud? It is the Jewish Code of Law with elaborate commentaries on this Code: and it covers a period of about a thousand years, commencing about the year 500 B. C., and extending down to the year 500 of the Christian era. In addition to a Code of Laws, The Talmud contains a collection of Jewish legends, and a religious philosophy of life, which, as we shall see, is peculiar to that singular and unmalleable race.
It has been asserted that we have no authentic version of The Talmud. Renan in Les Apotres, says:--"On salt qu'il ne reste aucun manuscrit Talmud pour controler les editions imprimees." But, in spite of this statement, we have a great abundance of Talmudic fragments, so that we can form a reasonable estimate of it as a whole.
The history of The Talmud is very curious. It was proscribed and burnt over and over again. In 553 it was interdicted by the Emperor Justinian. Pope Julius III. issued a proclamation against the "Thalmud" (as it was called) in 1553, and Pope Paul IV. issued a similar proclamation in 1559.
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Other popes also displayed a violent hostility to The Talmud. Plus V. condemned it in 1566, and Honorius IV. discredited it as "that damnable book." Clement V., when asked to have The Talmud burnt, expressed a wish to know something about it, but could find nobody who could give him the desired information! This comparatively rational pontiff thereupon suggested that three chairs should be established in Hebrew, Chaldaic, and Arabic, as the three tongues most nearly approaching the idiom of The Talmud, and proposed as sites for these chairs Paris, Salamanca, and Bologna or Oxford. This suggestion was never carried into effect. Subsequent popes continued to anathematize The Talmud blindly, in utter ignorance of its contents. In fact, a "learned" Capucian writer, Henricus Seypinius, referred to it as if he believed it to be a man, not a book! At length, the enemies of The Talmud obtained from the Emperior Maximilian a decree for its destruction; but this malignant ukase was not carried out owing to the intervention of the eminent German Hebraist, Reuchlin, who refused to give his approval to the burning of the work. He maintained that even if it contained attacks on Christianity, it was better to reply to such attacks. "Burning," he caustically remarked, "is a ruffianly argument." Having studied the subject thoroughly, he wrote a defense of The Talmud, and for this he was subjected to cruel persecution. But, owing to the influence of Duke Ulrich of Wurtemburg, as well as the literary companionship of Erasmus, he defeated the machinations of his enemies.
The first complete edition of The Talmud was issued in the year 1520--the very year in which Luther burned the Pope's Bull at Wittenberg.
The word "Talmud" signifies "doctrine." The name was given by the Jews to their body of laws not comprised in the Pentateuch. Originally it was forbidden to reduce it to writing, and hence it bears the name of the Oral Law, to distinguish it from the Written Law contained in the five books of Moses, of which it professes to be the guardian and explanation.
The Talmud consists of:-1. The Mishma (the text). 2. The Gemara (commentary).
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The compiler of The Mishna was Rabbi Jehudah, surnamed "Hak-kadosh" (the holy), who died about the beginning of the third century. The Mishna is divided into six books entitled:--Zeraim ("seeds"); Moed ("festivals"); Nashim ("women"); Nezikim ("damages"); Kodashim ("sacred things"); and Taboroth ("purifications"), There are sixty-three treatises dealing with these six books and containing additional laws collected by the successors of Rabbi Jehudah.
In setting up their Oral Law, the Jewish Scribes violated one strict injunction not to add to the Law of Moses, (Deut. iv. 2). It is well-known that traditional precepts additional to the written law were, at an early date, current in Israel. Isaiah complains of these human ordinances. (Isaiah xxix. 13), and Christ charged the Pharisees with making the Word of God of no effect by their traditions.
As The Mishna was not sufficient to satisfy the Jewish doctors, they formed The Gemara on its basis. The word "Gemara" means "complement," and this portion of The Talmud contains the opinions and discussions of wise men on The Mishna. There are two Germaras, the Serusalemitic and the Babylonian. The former was completed at the close of the fourth century, and the latter was chiefly compiled by Rabbi Asher (427 A. D.), head of the school of Sara in Babylon. The Babylonian Germara is nearly four times as large as the Jerusalemitic, and is much more highly esteemed by the Jews. It contains 2947 leaves, or double that number of folio pages.
The Mishna is written mostly in Hebrew in its later form, with a mixture of Aramaic, Greek, and Latin words. The language of the Germara is corrupt Chaldee or Aramaic. The style is rugged and difficult. The subjects dealt with in The Mishna are civil and moral law, religious philosophy, ethics, psychology, mathematics, magic, medicine, geography, zoology, and botany. The entire work is of so heterogeneous a character that it might, without injustice, be pronounced chaotic. Isaac Disraeli rightly called it "a Prodigious mass of contradictory opinions." The Talmud audaciously puts the Oral Law above the written Word of God. "Attend, my son," we read in one passage, "to the words of the Scribe rather than the Law of Moses."
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Hebrew scholars have recently made an attempt to glorify the Talmud at the expense of the New Testament.
The lore of The Talmud is in violent contrast to that of the inspired Word of God. With the exception of the Rabbi Hillel's declaration that "we should not do unto others what we would not like to be done to us," there is very little in the work that can be compared with the teachings of Christ. It may be noticed that Hillel only emphasizes the negative side of our duty to our neighbor. It is scarcely edifying to find Hillel boasting that he "knew the language of demons." How different is the spirit of this Jewish Rabbi from that of Emanuel Swedenborg! It was not until the time of Maimonides, one of the least materialistic of the Jewish writers, that the readers of The Talmud were advised to search for "the hidden sense."
It might be asked:--Is there a hidden sense in The Talmud? I doubt it. There are certainly some beautiful sentiments, which, however, do not rise much above the level of the Higher Paganism. For instance:--"Do not make woman weep, for God counts her tears." "The best preacher is the heart; the best teacher, time; the best book, the world; the best friend, God." "Hospitality is the expression of Divine worship."
Admirable as these passages may sound as proverbial philosophy, they contain little that throws light on the internal side of man. The Talmud itself bears evidence, in every part of it, of the ignorance of the Jewish doctors with reference to spiritual truth. According to Swedenborg, the Jews, after death, are more ignorant than other people of the fact that they are in the spiritual world, for the reason that "they are wholly external men, and think nothing about religion from the interior." We learn that when told that "interiorly in the Word there is a spiritual sense in which the Christ or Messiah is much treated of, they answer that this is not so, and some of them say that interiorly in the Word or in its depths there is nothing but gold, and they say other things of the same kind." (T. C. R. 844, 845.)
While we have in The Talmud much that is interesting in Judaism, cannot fail to see that it furnishes additional evidences of the fact that the Jews were idolators at heart, for they have persistently ascribed holiness to external forms rather than to the internal meaning of ritual.
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The Jews rejected the Lord, because He told them that His Kingdom was "not of this world." They "wished for a Messiah who would exalt them above all the nations of the world, and not for any Messiah who would provide for them eternal safety." (T. C. R. 205.) And so we find in even the most beautiful legends in The Talmud an alloy of materialism. The work has its attractions for the scholar; but it has none of the spirituality of the Word. It is the expression of human weakness, human presumption, and human ignorance, rather than of Divine Truth and Wisdom.
DEATH OF BISHOP BENADE. 1905
By cablegram from the Rev. Robert J. Tilson, we learn of the death of the Rt. Rev. William Henry Benade, at London, on May 22d, at the age of eighty-nine years. A memorial meeting was held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on Sunday evening, May 28th.
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Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
"To approach the Lord is to approach the Word of His Divine Revelation; to know His Divine Truth is to know Himself; to live from that truth is to live from Him, to be conjoined with Him, as the branch with the vine."--The Helper.
The Journal of the General Convention for 1904 again reports a decrease in membership, this time of one hundred and thirty members. This falling off has been going on steadily for a number of years. In the year 1900 the body reported a membership of 6,926 persons; it now numbers 6,579,--a decrease of 347 within four years. What is the Convention doing that it is not even holding its own? Where are its children that should grow up to take the place of those who pass away? Where are the new converts who should be brought in by the missionary propaganda to which the Convention as a whole professes its entire devotion? If our brethren of the Convention will not be convinced by doctrinal reasons, can they forever shut their eyes to the fact that practical results do not speak in favor of the principles, policies, and methods, at present prevailing among their leaders?
The Messenger for April 19 publishes a sermon by the Rev. E. A. Beaman, whose subject is The New Jerusalem, but whose object is apparently to lead men away from the light of the New Jerusalem, to the darkness of their own self-conscious imaginations. Mr. Beaman finds his key-note in the extract that "he who has arrived at spiritual good has no more need of doctrinals," (A. C. 5997), and from this he is led to assert that "The Writings--which are nothing more than the most precious fruits of the New Jerusalem,--do not give the faintest ray of real light. . . .
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You must be in spiritual good before the light can shine in your mind." He illustrates his meaning by referring to the cage of a man who had been "a devoted reader of the Writings over fifty years, but who then became less interested in reading doctrinal explanations than in reading the Word itself. This was because he had actually risen into that high state of mind in which he saw the light in which such verbal explanations had been made. He, like Swedenborg, had come into a state of 'spiritual good,' and therefore did not need 'doctrine.' . . . The Lord taught him as He did Swedenborg." And yet, despite this state of "spiritual good," making it unnecessary to read the Writings, Mr. Beaman continues, that when we come into this state we shall "understand Swedenborg in all his Writings as we never understood him before. We shall value his Writings none the less [?]"
And all this is appended to a partial quotation of a sentence, which, read in full, is "He who arrives at spiritual good has no more need of doctrinals which are from others." There is nothing in the Writings which can ever be twisted to mean that the regenerate man will ever grow, or ever desire to grow, above the need of the Divine revelation of doctrine.
Even more astonishing than Mr. Beaman's utterances is the editorial commendation of the Messenger, which characterizes the Sermon as "really a message to the Church!"
Purely natural and sensual ideas respecting the Lord's advent into the world are apt to find expression at Easter-time even from the pen of New Church writers. They generally take the form of "a fond contemplation" of the Lord's "experiences." Of such a character is the editorial in the Messenger for April 12, where, writing on the text "It is finished," the editor says, "'It is finished' meant that the Lord of life had run the gamut of man's range of earthly, finite experience, and had identified Himself at every point of that experience with the welfare and necessity of the race of men. Man's problems are no longer man's alone; they are henceforth the daily problems of God's Providence." "No longer!" "Henceforth!" The Lord's "finite experience!" and His "daily problems!" There is not a suggestion of the Lord's Divinity, or of the Divine work of glorification.
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The thoughts uttered are such as would be echoed by a thousand pulpits, where the Lord is no longer preached; but search the Writings from beginning to end and we shall find not the faintest suggestion of them.
In all things utterly destructive of the remnant of belief in the Lord and the Word which still remains, in externals, in the Christian world, the learned are taking the lead. And in the learned world, German theologians are the foremost and most determined uprooters of every essential of Christianity. Hardly a week passes without some new denial, some new materialistic argument being developed in that country, and too often they are approved and welcomed by the learned elsewhere.
One of the latest examples is the advocacy by a prominent pastor, advanced in years, of the theory that the pulpit should teach the "most advanced" thought. As to what this thought is, he says, as quoted in The Literary Digest, "The religious consciousness of former generations was based on Divine revelation. This conception has now disappeared from religious thought. We do not now believe in a lower world of hell. There can no longer be any claim to a revelation in the old sense of the word. Investigations of science and history have made religion something entirely different from what it had traditionally been supposed to be. It has been found, too, that Christ is a historical person," but "The deification of Christ has not stood the test of real historical investigation."
The address has, of course, made considerable stir in conservative circles, but the principal objection brought against it, seems to be that it is opposed to the church of which the speaker is a minister.
The same denial of Christ was made by Professor Harnack, who, in a recent lecture to the students of the University of Berlin, contended that "the Christ as he appears on the face of the Evangelical records is not the actual Jesus of facts," but that He was simply an historical personage. "The moment he was hailed by his disciples as the Messiah, His name became linked with a multitude of prophecies and legends. . . .
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Current conceptions and ideals were applied to him and the actual memory of the historic person was modified by doctrinal ideas of what the Messiah was to be." And the professor having thus cast aside every guide to the knowledge of Christ, as unreliable, then goes on to discuss "how far is Christ's personality unique, and how far can we accept the paradoxical in his case?"
More and more are modern developments confirming the teaching that in the Christian Church not one stone is left upon another. Charity, so-called, humanitarianism, and other Public moral virtues have increased, but looking below the surface we find a rapid growth of atheism, of materialism, and of their inseparable companion, the deification of human goodness.
The cruelty of the merely scientific mind, and the insane tendencies of modern civilization, were never more clearly exhibited than in the case of a bill "for the prevention of idiocy," which was recently passed by the Pennsylvania Legislature, but happily vetoed by Governor Pennypacker. The bill provides that "in every institution in the State intrusted with the care of idiots and imbecile children a neurologist, a surgeon, and a physician shall be authorized to perform an operation upon the inmates for the prevention of procreation,"--in other words, authorizing wholesale and indiscriminate emasculation. The Governor, in his veto message, sarcastically suggests "that the safest and most effective method of preventing procreation would be to cut the heads off the inmates, and such authority is given by the bill to its staff of scientific experts." He issues a timely warning against the cruelty of scientific experimentalists, and holds that "it is far better for humanity to bear its own ills than to escape them by knowledge only secured through cruelty to other creatures."
He shows that the bill "violates the principles of ethics. Those feeble-minded and imbecile children have been entrusted to the institutions by their parents or guardians for the purpose of training and instruction. It is proposed to experiment upon them, not for their instruction, but in order to help society in the future. It is to be done without their consent, which they cannot give, and without the consent of their parents or guardians, who are responsible for their welfare.
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It would be in contravention of the laws which have been enacted for the establishment of these institutions."
"These laws," the Governor continues, "have in contemplation the training and the instruction of the children. This bill assumes that they can not be so instructed and trained. Moreover, the course it is proposed to pursue would have a tendency to prevent such training and instruction."
Lovers of freedom and justice have cause for thankfulness to the fearless Governor, but it is humiliating and fearful to know that such a bill should have actually been adopted by the Legislature of one of the greatest and most "enlightened" States of the Union,--the same Legislature, by the way, which has adopted the unjust and tyrannical law which forbids the marriage of cousins. All such measures are directed against the freedom and possibilities of conjugial love and belong to the intentional interference of human prudence with the Government of Divine Providence. The feeble-minded may be developed and imbeciles may be cured, but even incurable idiots have a right to that which the Creator has given them. Few, if any, of the latter are apt to marry and have offspring, but even if this were the case, the children of an idiot could still become angels of heaven.
SACRIFICES ABHORRED IN ANCIENT EGYPT. 1905
The Rev. Melvin Grove Kyle, in an article entitled "New Light from Egypt on the Sacrifices," (in the April issue of the Bibliotheca Sacra), presents conclusive evidence that the ancient Egyptians did not practice the rite of animal sacrifices, thus confuting one of the main contentions of the "higher critics," viz., that the Israelites derived their ceremonial laws from Egypt, even as, by the same token, they borrowed the Ten Commandments from the Babylonian code of Hammurabi.
According to the critics, who reason mostly from philological analogies, the Old Testament is nothing but a crazy-quilt composed of patches borrowed from every land and every age, and its claims to original and homogeneous Divine inspiration are regarded as unscientific frauds.
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But Dr. Kyle, in a review of the net results of archeological discoveries gained from the monuments themselves, shows that these have destroyed fortress after fortress of the "Port Arthur" of the critics, until very little remains of their boasted citadel.
After years of original and comparative study, Dr. Kyle is able to prove that the altars, so frequently depicted on the monuments of Egypt, though always laden with viands of every kind, were intended only for offerings of good will to the Church and the priesthood, but never used for the sacrificial burning of these offerings. The only monumental exception to this rule occurs among the sculptures of Tell-el-Amama, where an altar is depicted with flames leaping up from it to greet the sun-god, Aten. But the reigning monarch of the period, Amenhotep IV, or "Khu-en-Aten," (the servant of Aten, as he called himself), "was the great heretic king of Egypt, who introduced a foreign, probably a Semitic, religion. His heresy was bitterly opposed by the Egyptian priesthood during his life, and at his death they rose in revolt, put one of their own number upon the throne, banished the strange god and his cult, reinstated the Egyptian religion, and took the mummy of Khu-en-Aten from the grave, tore it in fragments, and scattered it to the four winds. Could anything testify more strongly to the abhorrence of the Egyptians for a worship which gives the only instance in all the sacrificial scenes of the burning of sacrifices?"
The writer concludes his interesting article with the significant observation that as, among the Egyptians, "there was no proper substitution of the victim for the offerer, there was, likewise, in their religious views, no idea of satisfaction for sin through the sacrifices, as is clearly corroborated by the Book of the Dead, where the hope of becoming the 'justified' is grounded constantly upon good works, and never upon the sacrifices which have been offered."
The article is of special interest to Newchurchmen as affording ample confirmation of the repeated teaching of Swedenborg, one hundred and fifty years ago, that "the Egyptians abominated the Hebrews on account of sacrifices, because the Ancient Church was ignorant of sacrifices, and regarded them as abominations, after they had been instituted by Eber, [the ancestor of the Hebrew Church and nations], in that the Hebrews wanted to please God by the slaughter of various animals." (A. E. 39131; comp. A. C. 1241, 2180, 7119, 7456.)
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Incidentally, Dr. Kyle informs us of the valuable fact that "James William Thirtle, in his recent work an the titles of the Psalms, shows conclusively that the Psalter was in its present form so long before the days of the Exile, that the meanings of those titles were already completely lost at that time."
"NINETEENTH OF JUNE" IN ANCIENT TIMES 1905
In connection with the celebration of the Nineteenth of June as "the New Church Day," it is of interest to learn that this date has been the occasion for great religious celebrations throughout the ages, as far back as human memory reaches.
From Chambers' Book of Days, (Vol. I., p. 794), we learn that "this day is kept by Roman Catholics as one of their highest festivals," being honored with the sublime title, of "Fete Dieu." It was "held as a celebration of the name of God, when the people bring their offerings to Him as the King of Heaven. The consecrated host is carried through the open air, the whole population turning out to do honor to it, and kneeling as it passes by "This celebration was observed throughout the Middle Ages and may still be witnessed anywhere in Belgium, or in even more splendor in the south of France. "On rising in the morning, the whole scene is changed as by magic from the night before: the streets are festooned and garlanded with colored paper, flowers, and evergreens, in every direction." The crowds are out in gala attire to witness the gorgeous processions of children, nuns, friars and priests, who march by, chanting the Litany and swinging censers about the "host."
Chambers shrewdly suspects that this Christian festival was simply a continuation of the Greek and Roman celebration of Minerva, whose chief feast was held on the Nineteenth of June, this being regarded as the birthday of the goddess. (See Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. XVI, p. 437.)
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In Rome this was celebrated every year, but in Athens every four years,--the "Panathanaia" or "All-Athenian,"--when all who could claim Athenian birth or citizenship flocked to this the greatest of all the festivals of the intellectual metropolis of the classic world. On these occasions a sacred ship was carried in procession, bearing on the mast, as a sail, the splendid new robes which had been woven by Athenian maidens for the gold-and-ivory statue of the goddess on the Parthanon. This Greek celebration is supposed, again, to have been borrowed from the ancient Egyptians who in a similar manner observed the festival of the goddess Isis. And thus we may trace the religious observance of this great day back to the Ancient Church itself.
To Newchurchmen this celebration of Minerva on the Nineteenth of June is of decided significance, for this goddess clearly represented the Doctrine of the Ancient Church. Her birth from the pregnant brow of Jove is significant of the Divine origin of Heavenly Doctrine immediately from the Divine Wisdom itself. Her perpetual virginity signifies the purity of the Doctrine. All her emblems are representative of Doctrine,--the helmet, the shield, the spear, the spinning wheel, the ship, and the horse,--not to speak of the Medusa, the serpent, and the owl, all of which will be explained when, before long, we come to Minerva in the series of articles on "Mythology in the Light of the New Church."
As the "birth-day" of the Doctrine of the Ancient Church was celebrated on the Nineteenth of June, so, also, the same day witnessed the fatal birth of the Doctrine of the tripersonal Trinity in the Christian Church, since it was on that day that the Council of Nicaea met in the year 325. May we not regard it as more than a coincidence than on that day, also, the cause of Divine Doctrine was avenged upon the powers of darkness, when, the True Christian Religion having been finished, the Lord called together His twelve apostles in the spiritual world, on the Nineteenth day of June, in the year 1770, and the next day sent them forth into the whole spiritual world to proclaim the everlasting kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Second Advent?
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There is no such thing as mere "coincidence" since the Lord's Providence is universal and therefore governs all things, even the most minute. We may therefore regard it as providential and of spiritual significance, that the great day of the New Church should fall upon the same day which, from hoariest antiquity, was celebrated as the birthday of Heavenly Doctrine.
ISSUE IN AUSTRALIA. 1905
The great conflict, ever being waged in the New Church respecting the cornerstone of our faith,--the Divinity of the Writings,--has in Australia centered itself around "The Adelaide Resolutions" which were published in the May number of the Life. "The Adelaide Resolutions" bids fair to become a phrase of historic importance and one which will doubtless soon become familiar to the whole Church as expressing the presence of "the Academy doctrine" in Australia.
As noted in our last issue, these resolutions were passed by the Adelaide Society, as an expression of its unequivocal belief in the Divinity of the Writings as the "Word of the Lord," and of its hope that this view would be shared by the Australian Conference at its meeting in April. They were almost immediately followed by counter-resolutions passed by the Brisbane Society, under the leadership of the president of the Conference, the Rev. W. A. Bates, distinctly declaring that the Writings "are not the Word." With this fundamental issue thus clearly defined, it is evident that the effect of the Adelaide resolutions and their discussion in the Conference will mark a distinct development in the Church in Australia, more important than any which has hitherto taken place there. We have, as vet, seen no news respecting the Conference itself, which was held on April 22d, but there is abundant evidence that both parties to the "issue" have been engaged in active preparations for the meeting.
The greater part of The New Age for April, is given up to the question of "the Adelaide Resolution."
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It opens with an article by Mr. W. J. Spencer, the leader of the Sydney Society, wherein, under the heading "The Adelaide Resolutions," he resolutely attacks the Divine authority of the Writings.
From the same number of The New Age we learn that the Sydney Society has also contributed its quota to the discussion of the question involved in the Adelaide Resolutions. This was at a quarterly meeting of the Society, when Mr. Richard Morse read a paper on "The Inspiration of Emanuel Swedenborg." The position taken by Mr. Morse seems to have met with little if any sympathy from the meeting. One of the members said that Swedenborg has been made out to be a "mere machine" and that "a fisherman might do the same work, since the Lord did everything." Another admitted that "there was a sense in which it is true that the Lord had made His Second Coming," but he was "shocked" at the idea that its "fulness and completeness could be through one single mind." He believed there would be many other revelations, that every one was a possible subject of a new revelation, and that the time would come when written revelation would be unnecessary.
But while The New Age has been preparing in its own way for the Australian Conference, the Divinity of the Writings has not lacked an able and fearless defender, Mr. Richard Morse, who, during his visit to America and England last summer, became personally known throughout the New Church. His defense comes in the form of a handsome pamphlet, entitled Divine Authority. The Old Issue, which is entirely devoted to the promulgation of those principles of genuine truth which are commonly known as "Academy doctrines."
This pamphlet, which may be continued as a monthly publication,--under a different name, we hope,--contains two articles by the editor and publisher, one on "Divine Authority" and the other on "The Inspiration of Swedenborg;" it contains further, a most timely reprint of the tract by the Rev. J. F. Potts, How can we obtain the Religion of the New Jerusalem, which was published by the New Church Educational Institute in 1889 and was reviewed in the Life, (1890, p. 200); this is followed by a short article by Mr. F. W. Hellberg on The Scientific Writings of the New Church; reprints of The Adelaide Resolutions; extracts from an editorial by the Rev. W. T. Large (printed in the Life for January, p. 31) and a summary of "The Principles of the Academy," by Bishop Pendleton.
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The immediate reason for the appearance of this publication, as explained by Mr. Morse, was the approaching Conference at which questions would come up which "are invariably associated with the department of the New Church known as the Academy." But, he explains, the real underlying reason for the publication is the desire to see in Australia a journal which shall "maintain the distinctiveness of the New Church, and the Divine Authority of the Doctrines."
Mr. Morse states that he is solely responsible for the production and cost of the present issue, but he invites those in sympathy with him to contribute financially and also to make suggestions respecting future work. Mr. Morse, and indeed all lovers of the New Church in Australia, are to be heartily congratulated on this new periodical, which is as necessary as it is timely and valuable. We freely commend it to the attention and support of our readers. Contributions may be sent to Mr. R. Morse, Cliff street, Arncliffe, Sydney, N. S. W., or if sent to the Life will be duly forwarded.
The opening article on The Divine Authority quotes the Rev. W. A. Bates as saying, "I cannot agree with the Academy respecting the doctrines as the Lord's doctrines," and then goes on to expose some of the methods being practiced to undermine the Academy. "The President of the English Conference has deemed it not inconsistent with his office to warn the Church in Australia against the Academy. He seeks to effect this by sending extracts from Laws of Order and copies of letters of greeting to the General Church from the Revs. Percy Billings and R. J. Tilson. . . . It is impossible to find any excuse for an action so extraordinary. The President must know that there are New Church people in the American Convention and English Conference who hold the same essential views as the Academy. And he ought to know that the Church in Australia is in touch with the vital questions in other parts of the world, and, moreover, has the same access to the Writings that others have."
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Mr. Morse then quotes from the pen of a friend through whom he had received the president's "documents:" "I earnestly pray you not to call the Heavenly Doctrine 'The Word,' and not to make the reading of the Doctrine a substitute for the reading of the Holy Word in. the Church. I pray you never to allow anything to lead you to set aside the Divine Word in favor of any other book." The false insinuations contained in this extract, and "the great wrong done to a worthy people," are quickly exposed by Mr. Morse, who refers to "the definite and able literature of the Academy," as well as to his own experience at "Academy" services, as showing the profound reverence which is there paid to the Letter of the Word.
He has some words to say as to the manifest injustice of the English President in sending only extracts from Laws of Order, [a work which though thus attacked in secret, remains publicly unanswered], and he himself characterizes the work as "an endeavor to maintain the laws of order given by the Lord for the preservation of the conjugial, from the misinterpretation of Church councils."
The article closes with an appreciation of the General Church. "Close observation of it and of the New Church generally, caused me to regard the General Church, as a body, as the advance guard of the New Church in the world to-day."
Space will allow only the briefest notice of the excellent article on The Inspiration of Swedenborg. Mr. Morse gives copious extracts from the Writings showing the nature of internal and external inspiration, and that Swedenborg enjoyed a perfect and unique internal inspiration and dictation from the Lord, received naturally into his understanding. In connection with his conclusion that the Revelation made through Swedenborg to the Crown of Churches, is indeed the Word of the Lord, he calls attention to the interesting fact, that the Writings were acknowledged as "the Word itself in its internal sense" by many Newchurchmen in the early days of the Church, "who studied them in their own light incommoded by any previous human opinion concerning them." (See The Aurora, 1799, Vol. I. n. 6.)
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Utterly apposed to the whale spirit of Divine Authority is the article by Mr. Spencer on "The Adelaide Resolutions," to which we referred above as appearing in The New Age. Mr. Spencer does indeed allow to the Writings the shadow of Divinity, but he denies them all its substance. The Writings, he admits, "are Divinely inspired;" "they are the second coming of the Lord;" "invaluable as restoring the Word;" "they contain genuine truths from the Word in great abundance," we are to hold them in affection "next to the veneration which we cherish for the Word;" "they are 'the friend' of the Heavenly Bridegroom but not the Bridegroom Himself," but they are nevertheless "the product of a finite mind and not the Word of the Lord." The product of a finite mind, and yet the second coming of the Lord! What is this but a deification of the finite mind of Swedenborg?
Perhaps no better answer could be made to the above article, than the paper by the Rev. J. F. Potts, reprinted in Divine Authority which we have already mentioned. It is just as applicable to-day as it was when written. "The cry of weak-kneed Newchurchmen is always 'the Word.' But it is only a parrot cry, because the moment it is investigated it is found to be just what it says, 'the Word,' and the word alone, that is, the word without the meaning; and words used without meaning are the words of a parrot. That there is really no sense or meaning in this cry is evident from the fact that the people who use it try to make a distinction between the Revelation of Divine Truth which is contained in the Writings on the one hand, and the Word of God on the other. Whereas, if they were to think for a single moment before they spoke, they could not fail to see that there is no such distinction. These two things are the same thing. The Revelation of Divine Truth which is contained in the Writings is the Revelation of Divine Truth which is contained in the Word of God. . . . But if this be the case, it may be said, 'why, therefore, not go to the, Word of God direct?' To this question the answer is, 'Because you cannot find this Revelation there.' No one can reveal the Word of God but God Himself. Who are you that claims to possess this power. . . .
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In the Writings every single point has been revealed from the Word of God by God Himself, and therefore every single point of them is Divine, and is the Word of God."
The pamphlet published by Mr. Morse, it is understood, will be sent to all the ministers in the New Church, and "the Old Issue" is thus likely to be re-opened throughout the Church. Further developments in Australia will be watched with great interest and will be noted in the Life. In the meantime, let us do all we can to uphold the hands of those in that distant continent who carry the banner of "the Lord's Authority."
MASCULINE AND THE FEMININE. 1905
The communication on "The Divine Wisdom as our 'Mother,'" which is published in the present issue of the Life, brings up for further discussion the important subject which was dealt with in the editorial on the supposed "Divine Feminine in God," in our April number, but which, from lack of time and space, we could treat of only in a general way at that time. Nor art we able, even now, to enter fully into all the aspects of this subject, which indeed involves the most profound arcana of our faith, but we present the following only as an attempt to elucidate certain leading principles, hoping that, if as to any point we are obscure or in error, we may be assisted and corrected by wiser minds.
The issue now before the Church in respect to the "Divine Feminine" has made evident the fact that the New Church in general at the present period enjoys but a faint conception of the absolute unity of God and of the supreme Monism which pervades the entire theology revealed in the Heavenly Doctrine. Surrounded as we art on all sides by the tritheistic thought of the whole Christian world, and with the idea of a tri-personal God ingrained into our very fibres by inheritance from some fifty generations of Old-church ancestors, it is with the greatest difficulty that we can come to any thorough realization of the very first and most fundamental truth of the New Jerusalem: that God is One,--not three, nor two persons or beings or essences,--but One; absolutely and indivisibly One.
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Hence, as is shown by the fact of the present discussion, it is only too common among Newchurchmen to think of the Lord as divided into two separate essences,--a love-essence and a wisdom-essence, or a masculine "element" and a feminine "element,"--even as they are apt to think of truth as some substance or thing separate from good, or of the human understanding as a mental organ composed of some substance which is different from the will-substance. It seems that many of us have been set free from the grosser forms of tritheism only to fall into the arms of a dualism which, if allowed to run its full course, can logically lead to nothing but the ancient Manichaean and Gnostic heresies.
There is an appearance, we grant, of this dualism on the surface or in the letter of the Doctrine,--an appearance which entirely vanishes as we learn to place particular and general truths in their proper subordination to universal principles. There is an appearance that the dualism which exists in all created things and beings exists also in God, since He is their cause. There is an appearance that man and woman are different not only as to sex but also as to human essence. There is an appearance that in each person the will-faculty is masculine and the understanding feminine, (or vice versa), since they are spoken of as "married." There is an appearance that good and truth are in themselves two different things, since they can be "conjoined." And there is an appearance that the Divine Esse is distinct in God from the Divine Existere, that the Divine Love is of a different essence from the Divine Wisdom, that the Divine Human is in some sense separate from the Divine Itself, since they are spoken of as "distinct" and also as "married." And since marriage is the ultimate relation between the masculine and the feminine sexes, therefore, by force of inductive reasoning, the Divine Esse or Love or the Divine itself is regarded as masculine, and the Divine Existere or Wisdom or the Divine Human as feminine. It is to be observed, however, that this reasoning is based upon appearances alone, and our correspondent is quite mistaken in thinking that there is any "explicit language of Swedenborg" stating that "the Divine Wisdom in the highest sense of the Word is feminine."
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Such a statement cannot be found anywhere in the Writings of the New Church.
THERE IS BUT ONE DIVINE ESSENCE. 1905
The Messenger, in teaching that "the essence of love is masculine, and the essence of wisdom feminine," makes love of a different essence from wisdom, and at the same time makes man of a different essence from woman.
This theology, however, is not the Divine Theology of the New Church, as taught in the True Christian Religion and throughout the Writings, but is rather, we suspect, the theology of the new-woman movement which "demands recognition" for womanhood an all planes even the Divine. "Why," asks this school of thought, "should male man alone claim to be the image and likeness of God? Since God created woman as well as man, there must be in Him a Divine Feminine Essence as well as a Divine masculine." In some of the "New-thought-isms,"--notably Christian Science,--they make the feminine element the inmost of the Divine, but the Messenger contents itself by making the masculine essence the inmost, and the feminine essence the external element or "side" of the Divine. But neither school seems to have a very clear understanding of what is meant by "essence,"--Divine or human,--and what is meant, essentially, by the masculine and the feminine.
Love is not an essence by itself, but is the esse of all essence. And wisdom is not an essence by itself, but is the existere or standing forth, or manifestation and appearance of its own esse. Essence means esse in existere. The Divine, essence is the Divine Love in, and together with the Divine Wisdom. It is the Esse and Existere as one,--the Divine Substance in the Divine Form of the one God.
"As Wisdom derives its existere from love, the Divine Wisdom also is Esse. From which it follows that Love and Wisdom, taken together, are the Divine Essence; but taken distinctly, Love is called Divine Esse, and Wisdom is called Divine Existere." (D. L. W. 34) Again, "the Divine Soul of God-Man is what is meant by the Divine Esse; and the Divine Body is what meant by the Divine Existere," which together make the one Divine Essence. (D. L. W. 14.)
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Between the Divine Love or Esse, and the Divine Wisdom or Existere, there cannot be any sexual relationship such as that between the masculine and the feminine, any more than there can be any sexual relation between a soul and its own body, or between a substance and its own form, or between a person and the appearance of that person. If the person is male, his standing forth or appearance is bound to be masculine. It can never be feminine and yet be his appearance. The round disk of the sun is the existere or standing forth of the sun. Is the disk of the sun anything separate from the sun? Is it of some essence different from the sun? Its simply is the sun as outlined to us through the atmosphere!
Even so "the Divine Existere is the Divine Esse. It is CALLED 'existere' in relation to heaven." (A. E. 972). Divine Wisdom is not a substance or essence per se separate or different from Divine Love, for "Wisdom is nothing but the "image" of love, since love presents itself to be seen and known in wisdom." (D. L. W. 358) Thus also the Lord's glorified Human, which the Messenger would make the essentially "feminine side of God" and thus the passive and receptive element in God, "is not a form recipient of life from the Divine, but is the Esse itself of life," (A. E. 525:6). "When the Human of the Lord had been made Divine, it was no longer an organ of life, or a recipient of life, but was life itself, such as is that of Jehovah Himself." (A. C. 2658.) "The Divine Human from eternity was the Divine Truth in Heaven, thus the Divine Existere; which afterwards in the Lord became the Divine Esse, from which is the Divine Existere in Heaven." (N. J. 305.) This is what is meant by the words: "As the Father hath life in. Himself, so hath He given to the Son, to have life in Himself." (John v:26.) "Existere is predicated of the Lord, but only during His abode in the world, where He put on the Divine Esse. But when He was made Divine Esse, Existere could no longer be predicated of Him, except as something proceeding from Him." (A. C. 3938) And therefore, even on the hypothesis of the Divine existere being feminine, femininity could not be predicated of the Lord, who in Himself is nothing but Divine Esse.
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Though we are accustomed to think of the Divine Wisdom as distinct from the Divine Love, "yet these two in the Lord are not two, but one. . . . These two, which in the Lord are one, proceed from Him as a Sun, as two distinct things: the wisdom as light, and the love as heat. They proceed distinct in appearances, yet in themselves s they are not distinct." (D. Wis. I; A. E. 1228:2.) In the same manner there is an appearance that good and truth are in themselves two distinct things, and therefore we read that "good is what acts, and truth is what is acted upon," (A. C. 4380), whence it would appear that good is an active masculine force, and truth a passive or feminine force, but this relation does not exist in the Lord, but between the good and truth which have been received from the Lord by created beings. "The Divine Good and the Divine Truth which are in Heaven from the Lord as a Sun, are not in the Lord, but from the Lord. In the Lord there is only Divine Love," (H. H. 139). "The Lord is nothing but Divine Good, and the Divine Truth is not in Him, but from Him." (A. C. 5704), just as light, as such, does not exist in the sun, but from the sun, in the atmospheres. In the sun there is nothing but solar fire, but in proceeding this solar fire is separated, (though only apparently so), into light and heat.
The essential difference between the union which is predicated of the Divine and the Divine Human, and the conjunction which is predicated of the active and the passive, is clearly set forth in the following important teaching:
"In order that there may be a more distinct idea of the Union of the Divine Essence of the Lord with the Human Essence, and of the Conjunction of the Lord with the human race by means of the faith of charity, it is allowed to call the former, here and in what follows, A UNION, but the latter A CONJUNCTION. . . . For Jehovah or the Lord is Life, and His Human Essence also was made Life, between Life and Life there is a Union. But man is not Life, but a recipient of life: when Life inflows into a recipient of life, there is a conjunction, for Life is adapted to it as the active is adapted to the passive, (sicut agens patienti), or as that which in itself is living is adapted to that which in itself is dead but which thence lives.
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The principal does indeed appear conjoined with the instrumental, as if they were one, but still they are not one, for the former is by itself, and the latter also is by itself. Man does not live from himself, but the Lord out of Mercy adjoins man to Himself, and thus makes him live for ever; and because they are thus distinct, there is said to be a conjunction." (A. C. 2021.)
To predicate femininity of the Divine Wisdom or of the Divine Human of the Lord is therefore to attribute to it what is passive; it is to dissolve the union which exists between the Divine and the Divine Human, and to make it, instead, merely such a conjunction as can exist between two beings, each of whom "is by itself." Such an idea is utterly ruinous to sound and rational thought respecting the unity of God.
THERE IS BUT ONE HUMAN ESSENCE. 1905
If it were true that "the essence of love is masculine, and the essence of wisdom feminine," then man and woman would be different as to essence, and there would be two human essences: a male love-essence, and a female wisdom-essence. But since there is but one Divine Essence, and since man (homo) was created in the image and likeness of God, therefore there is but one human essence, and this essence is common to men and women, since in both sexes there are the two essentials which constitute the common essence, viz. . . will and understanding.
"The esse of man's life is his will, and the existere of his life is his understanding." (A. C. 4985) In man as in woman, the inmost is love, or will, or affection: and, in both, this esse clothes itself or stands forth and manifests itself as wisdom, understanding, or thought. The will is that inmost vessel which receives the good of the Divine Love, and is therefore created in the image of the Divine Love; the understanding is the form of the will, even as the Divine Wisdom is the form of the Divine Love, and the understanding therefore receives the truth of the Divine Wisdom and was treated into the likeness of it.
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This one essence is called human essence, because it differs from the Divine Essence in being finite, and from animal essence in being rational. What is beneath the rational is of the animal; what is above the rational is of the Divine. Rational will, in and together with rational understanding, this is that essence which makes man and woman each a human being.
As the human itself is "an organ of life, but not life in itself," therefore human essence, with both sexes, is merely passive, a created vessel, in itself finite and dead. As to human essence, therefore, both man and woman are merely receptive and reactive, and this human essence, therefore, can with each one become a church individual, even as all together constitute a Church Universal, a "Maximus Homo," which, as a universal passive, receptive, and reactive force, can be the "bride" and "wife" of the Lord.
As to human essence men and women are equally human because equally reactive. Each is a separate individual homo or human unit, and will to all eternity remain as such without loss of personal identity. Each may, indeed, be conjoined in conjugial love with one of the opposite sex, even as each may be conjoined in charity with fellow-beings, and in supreme love of the Lord with the Divine Bridegroom, but this relation is in each degree a conjunction and not a union. Each is a separate immortal soul, endowed with the human essence of will and understanding, of freedom and rationality. Each is equally responsible for eternal salvation upon his or her own free choice and actions, and both man and woman, as human beings, stand upon an absolutely equal footing before their God--neither being independent of the other, and yet neither being superior or inferior to the other. This, then, is what men and women have in common.
There is, however, an appearance of separation in the human essence itself. There is an appearance that will and understanding are two separate and essentially different substances or essences, because we speak of a "marriage" between the will and the understanding.
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There is the appearance that the will is the active and masculine, and the understanding the passive or feminine in each individual home, but, again, this is merely an appearance. For the will is not an essence by itself, but an esse, and the understanding is not an essence, but an existere, and since neither is an essence by itself, therefore neither is a being by itself, but both together constitute one being. They are, indeed, two different faculties or essentials, but of the same human essence. For we are taught: "It is said of truth that it goes forth or proceeds from good, when truth is the form of good, or when truth is good in a form which the understanding can apprehend. And it can also be said of the understanding that it goes forth or proceeds from the will, when the understanding is the will formed, or when it is the will in a form apperceptible to the internal sight," (A. C. 5337).
We cannot, therefore, properly predicate sexual differentiation between the will and the understanding, and the "marriage" between them is relatively a union rather than a conjunction, since it takes place within the same individual human being. The will is not actually either male or female by itself, nor is the understanding actually of one sex or the other by itself, but in the male both will and understanding are actually masculine, as in the female both are equally feminine. For "the masculine in the male is masculine in every part of his body, even the most minute, and also in every idea of his thought and in every spark of his affection; and so, likewise, the feminine in the female." (C. L. 33.)
This immutable law is illustrated by what the Writings teach respecting the vegetable kingdom, in which there are not, as commonly supposed, two sexes, but only one sex, and that the masculine, while the earth is the common mother. In each plant the stamens represents the masculine understanding and the pistil the masculine will, which operate together to produce the masculine seed, even as the stamens and the pistil co-operate in the production of--not new plants, but vegetable seeds. (T. C. R. 585)
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But in the woman both will and understanding are equally feminine, for both co-operate in the production of the feminine ovum, which, being passive and receptive, is "the common mother."
"Sex" means separation,--from the Latin secare, to cut asunder,--and the term applies in a special sense to the feminine sex, which is rightly spoken of as the sex, since it was the woman, the Ish-a, who was so-called "because she was taken out of the man," the Isha,--a fact which is true spiritually even if not literally.
The very fact that she was taken out of the man,--bone of his bone, the love of wisdom from his love of growing wise,-shows that she is of the same human substance and essence as the man, the "cutting asunder" or differentiation into a separate sex affecting only the form, or, rather, the determination of the form,--the human form of the male being so determined as to represent the active and begetting form of the Creator, and the human form of the woman being so determined as to represent the passive, receptive, conceptive and reactive form of humanity as a whole,--the form of the "Maximus Homo" or the Church.
This differentiation as to form was provided for the sake of the third human essential, viz., use; not only for the sake of the natural use of propagating the species and thereby providing for the eternal increase of Heaven, but for the sake of spiritual increase with both man and woman by the propagation of goods and truths in the form of spiritual and celestial thoughts, affections and works. They were thus separated from one another as to form, in order that by a conjunction which will eternally approach closer towards unition they might mutually complement and perfect one another in a heaven of conjugial love.
That the active force is represented by the masculine form and the passive force by the feminine form, is evident from the teaching that "the whole Maximus Homo is a passive force, (vis patiens sen vis passiva), which is called dead in itself; but the Lord Alone is the active, acting or living force; hence is the marriage: and hence heaven is compared to a bride or wife, and the Lord Alone is the Bridegroom." (S. D. 3419.)
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DIVINE WISDOM AS OUR "MOTHER." 1905
It is perfectly true, as our correspondent points out, that in the commandment "Thou shalt honor thy father and thy mother," a spiritual angel by "mother" understands the Church, while a celestial angel by the same expression understands the Divine Wisdom, (S. S. 67), and thus that the Divine Wisdom in the highest sense of the word is our mother.
This, however, is not the same as to ascribe femininity to the Divine Wisdom, for femininity means the complex of everything feminine or womanly. Femininity is not a merely figurative expression; it does not mean what is similar or analogous to some one quality in womanhood, but it means that which is actually womanly and it means all the qualities and attributes which constitute the feminine form as distinguished from the masculine.
Feminine qualities are sometimes attributed to men, but in each case it is only one feminine quality that is so predicated, and then only in a figurative or representative sense, as in the passage "These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins," (Rev. 14:4), the "virgin" here being the common representative type of the pure affection of truth in the Church Thus, also, in attributing "motherhood" to the Divine Wisdom, only one of the functions and qualities of womanhood is attributed to it, and this only in a representative but not actually sexual sense.
Our correspondent himself supplies the key to the apparent difficulty in this question by quoting the teaching in the Arcana Coelestia, n. 8897, where it is stated that "'mother' signifies truth, and in the supreme sense the Lord as to Divine Truth, thus His Kingdom; for the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord, makes Heaven."
When it is said that the celestial angels look upon the Divine Wisdom as their "mother," it simply means that they look more interiorly than the spiritual angels upon the general teaching that the Church is our mother. For they perceive that it is not the Church as an assembly of men, or Heaven as a collection of angels, which is our mother, but that it is the Divine Truth from the Divine Wisdom of the Lord in the Church, which causes the Church to be a Church and thus our spiritual mother.
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In other words, it is not the Divine Wisdom, such as it is above the Heavens with the Lord Himself, that is actually our mother, but the Divine Wisdom such as it is IN HEAVEN with the angels and such as it is in the Lord's Kingdom among men on earth, since this is what makes the Lord's Kingdom. In thinking of motherhood, therefore, the celestial angels think of that which is received, viz., the Divine Wisdom, while the spiritual angels think of that which receives, viz., the Church.
It is the same when we think of earthly motherhood; our mother has not conceived us from her own power, since she is not life in herself, but only an organ receptive of life. It is the life inflowing into her and received by her that has enabled her to conceive us, and thus in a supreme sense we may say that life is the real mother of our earthly body. Nevertheless, life does not actually conceive in any ultimate and immediate sense, because life is an active force which begets; whereas it is the passive and reactive vessel of our mother's body that has actually conceived us, but from the influx of life. It is the Infinite that begets; it is the finite that receives and conceives. If there were not finite forms there could be no finite conceptions, either natural or spiritual. And by the same law, the Divine Wisdom is not our "mother" except by the finite medium of Heaven and the Church.
DIVINE WISDOM NOT FEMININE. 1905
Since the feminine represents the passive force, we must examine the qualities of the passive force to see if they apply to the Divine Wisdom. If they do not apply, then the Divine Wisdom is not feminine.
What is meant by passivity? It means that which suffers itself to be acted upon. Is the Divine Wisdom "acted upon" by the Divine Love? No, because it is one with the Divine Love. What is one does not act upon itself, but upon another.
What is passive can be predicated only of that which is created, but "actives are not creatable like the passives." (T. C. R. 472.)
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Is the Divine Wisdom created or creatable? No, for it is infinite and eternal.
"The spiritual, being a living force, is active, and the natural, being a dead force, is passive." (Influx 11.) Is the Divine Wisdom "a dead force" No, for it is the living form of Life itself.
What is passive is receptive of the active. Is the Divine Wisdom the receptive of the Divine Love? No, for it is infinitely and eternally perfect, as the Divine Love itself, and therefore cannot receive anything which it has not from eternity possessed.
If the Divine Wisdom were passive in any sense of the term, it would be absolutely passive and passivity itself, since what is Divine is absolute, and every Divine quality is that quality in an absolute and infinite sense. So also, if the Divine Wisdom were feminine, it would be absolutely feminine and femininity itself, and in this case the Divine Love would also be feminine, since all Divine qualities, attributes and essentials are absolutely homogeneous.
But since the Divine Love is the active itself, and the Divine Wisdom is one with the Divine Love, it follows that the Divine Wisdom also is the active force itself, or the form, existere, manifestation or appearance of the active force, which, among created beings, is represented by the masculine form. And in this masculine form the Divine Wisdom or the Divine existere actually manifested itself, when "the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us" in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we cannot at all admit the idea that the celestial angels would look upon the Divine Wisdom as "incarnated femininity." The ultimate masculine Human which the Lord assumed on earth, was assumed once and for all, for all the earths and for all the heavens of the universe.
Far from being "feminine," the Divine Wisdom is that Divine Seed which has begotten all life, for it is that WORD which was in the beginning with God, and which was God, and by which all things were made. This Word became Flesh, and became one with the Father, and is, Himself, our FATHER WHO IS IN THE HEAVENS. C. TH. O.
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ECCLESIASTICAL AUTOCRACY J. E. B 1905
Communicated.
EDITORS New Church Life:--It must be gratifying to all who love the Lord's New Church, to see the Life so earnest in the endeavor to maintain the purity and integrity of the Heavenly Doctrines. We have come to witness an extraordinary and a most lamentable state of things, respecting the editorship of the New Church Messenger. In that paper there are frequently published statements which are contrary to, and subversive of, the Divine teaching in the Revelation of the Word to the New Church. But of the thousands of members of the Convention, not a man writes one line that ever appears in the Messenger, in dissent as to such a method on the part of the editor, or in defense of the truth of doctrine! Is it not astonishing that such a form of ecclesiastical autocracy, such a stultifying condition of things, can exist and be tolerated in what is professedly a body of the Lord's New Church? J. E. B.
DIVINE WISDOM AS OUR "MOTHER." J. HENRY SMITH 1905
EDITOR New Church Life: I have read with a great deal of interest your comments in New Church Life for April on Mr. Eby's article in the Messenger some weeks ago on "the Mystery of the divine feminine in God," and I am glad that you have given so energetic a presentation of the subject from an opposite standpoint. Mr. Eby's utterances I consider very unfortunate and very misleading, yet at the same time we cannot deny, without rejecting explicit language of Swedenborg, that the Divine Wisdom, in the highest sense of the Word, is feminine in character, for "a celestial angel understands by father the Lord's Divine Love, by mother his Divine Wisdom. (S. S. 67.) The commandment to honor father and mother is understood by the spiritual angels to refer to the Lord and the Church, but by the celestial angels to mean the Lord's Divine Love and Divine Wisdom?, (Ibid).
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By father in the internal sense of the Word is signified good, he says, and by mother truth. He quotes the expression "look unto Abraham your father and unto Sarah who bare you," and says that by Abraham and Sarah are represented the divine marriage of good and truth.
In the internal sense, to love father and mother, according to Swedenborg, is to love good and truth. Therefore, because of this signification of father and mother, in the representative Jewish church, several laws were enacted concerning parents and sons, in all of which, in the internal sense, is signified good and truth, and in the supreme sense the Lord as to Divine good and Divine truth, as, for instance, "cursed is he who esteemeth lightly his father and his mother." These statements are from Arcana Coelestia, 3703, a very long number, in which Swedenborg goes very fully into the signification of father and mother.
In A. C. 8897, Swedenborg says that by "honoring thy father and thy mother" is especially signified love for good and truth, and in the supreme sense for the Lord and his kingdom. "The reason why the Lord in the supreme sense is denoted by 'father' is because He gives new life to man, and by it makes man a son and heir of his kingdom; and from the signification of mother as denoting truth, see n. 3703, 5581; and in the supreme sense the Lord as to Divine Truth, thus, His kingdom; for the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord makes heaven."
Furthermore the church is a spiritual marriage from good as a father and truth as a mother. (A. C. 5581)
The Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, according to Swedenborg, are not two but one, but are treated of as two on man's account, for his comprehension. I cannot see that to predicate femininity of the Divine Wisdom, as the celestial angels seem to do, and masculinity of the Divine Love, converts God into two beings, a male and a female, any more than to regard a male man as a virgin and a woman, and the wife of the Lamb, in his capacity of a member of the Church, really makes a woman of him.
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That everything predicated of the Lord with reference to His incarnation and the salvation of mankind by Him is masculine in the literal and spiritual senses of the Word, there can be no doubt; but whether the celestial angels in their view of the Divine Wisdom as a divine mother, and thus a feminine something, would look upon this wisdom incarnated as feminine, is beyond my capacity and knowledge to determine.
The conjunction of the Lord with the human race is in the proprium or selfhood, that is, in the woman who was built up out of the rib taken from Adam, which is the same woman who afterwards figures in the Apocalypse as the bride and wife of the Lamb. It was this proprium or selfhood, if I understand Swedenborg aright, that our Lord took upon Him, and by means of which He became manifested to human vision. In other words, the Lord condescended to become, on an external plane, this woman; but you cannot say, as language is ordinarily employed, that the Lord was a woman any more than it can be said that you and I are women, because we inherently possess and are this proprium, to which the Word attaches a feminine attribute. All mankind is the woman of Genesis and Revelation; but we would be a pack of fools to say, in consequence that there is only one sex in the world, and that the feminine. We must therefore form some other idea of what male and female mean spiritually.
Celestial woman is the correspondent form of wisdom (A. C. 4434, 4843, 8647), while celestial man is the correspondent of good; but spiritual woman is the correspondent form of good, that is, of good from truth, not good itself. Wisdom is like a wife (T. C. R. 41), and all spiritual offspring are produced by charity as father and faith as mother (T. C. R. 377.) "The marriage of celestial love is with wisdom." (D. L. W. 427).
I would like more light on this subject of the feminine aspect of wisdom, and would like to set it further treated of in New Church Life.
Very truly yours,
J. HENRY SMITH.
Washington, D. C., April 11, 1905.
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. Spring was unusually good to us this year, and gave us a perfect Easter Day Communion service was held in the morning as usual, and a large number of communicants took part in the sacrament.
At five o'clock on Easter evening the betrothal of Mr. Emil Stroh and Miss Evelyn Frankish was solemnized in the church in the presence of a number of friends. This was the first betrothal ever held in church in our community, and the beautiful service seemed to be rendered doubly impressive by the sacred surroundings.
The sermons during the month have been of unusual interest. Mr. Acton's on "The Internal and External Man," and Bishop Pendleton's on the subject of "Judge Not," being especially instructive.
The Friday class has continued uninterruptedly, and with but one exception, has been well attended, interest in the Bishop's lessons from Heaven and Hell being well sustained. On Friday, May 12th, Bishop Pendleton being absent, the evening was devoted to an account by Mr. Odhner of the controversy now going on in Australia, respecting the Authority of the Writings.
On Wednesday, May 10th, we enjoyed one of the prettiest social and spectacular events we have ever experienced. It was in the form of a Japanese evening with scenes from the "Geisha," under the able direction of Mrs. Heath, who has spent much time and patience in the instruction of her young troupe, gathered principally from the ranks of the College and Seminary. Some of the young people showed surprising talent, and the Japanese costumes proved unusually becoming to all the participants. The beautiful doings and quaint gestures: the pretty faces and the gay gowns; and then, the exquisite decorations--all served to make a scene which charmed the audience and led them into greater enthusiasm than even Bryn Athyn audiences are wont to show.
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We heartily hope that Mrs. Heath will continue her good work, and that wt may look forward to other evenings as enjoyable as this. R.
THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS. The evident need for this department is a sufficient excuse for its inauguration. Alumni and parents will no doubt desire that it be made a permanent department.
In general, the notable event of the year is the completion of Stuart Hall, and its house-warming may, therefore, claim some recognition. It was truly a house-warming, from the welcome at the cheery log-fire-to the last, hearty "good-night." The visitors on their arrival were ushered into the reception-room from which a screen barred the wondering Stuart Hallboys. A few long minutes passed, the screen was put aside, and the expectant boys entered. They hardly recognized their accustomed abode,--framed pictures, a photograph of old "General" Stuart, and an abundance of flowers; it seemed as though the blank walls, weary with gazing at uninteresting adolescence, had now smiled at the more congenial presence of the ladies. As "President" Lechner, of the Stuart Hall Club, put it: "We wish we'd left all the rooms for the ladies-to decorate." The Club rendered a song to Stuart Hall written for the occasion, the sentiment of which was better than the harmony. The boys' rooms were now examined, the inspection revealing a pleasing variety in the decoration of the walls, and a general neatness (as usual). The next quarter beard from was the "Rathskeller." which is ordinarily the cellar. Here a little play, "Forget-Me-Not," was presented by two of the boys, Mr. Lechner and Mr. Faulkner. The next development was a lunch served by willing if not experienced waiters. Strains of dance-music now called the young people to the reception-room, while the more wise remained in the Rathskeller under the pleasing spell of Mr. Heath's stories and Mr. Farrington's phonograph. Upstairs the "all-join-in spirit assured a good time.
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Unfortunately someone glanced at a watch and at his announcement that it was midnight the company made their hasty adieus.
On April 29th occurred the last of a series of dancing classes given by Miss Nellie Smith. Luckily for the learning of the polacca, the patience and efficiency of the teacher overbalanced the loquacity and awkwardness of the pupils.
Easter week the students of the Theological School enjoyed a leafing vacation, much to the indignation of the pupils of the other schools, who say that they owe their loss of an Easter vacation to the suggestion of one of these same Theological students. As chroniclers rather than critics we change the subject.
The Senior classes are making their departure a triumphal one. They have been invited out to supper at several homes in Bryn Athyn. At Mrs. Hicks's they talked of old times; at Mrs. Acton's the young men responded to various toasts, and in particular, to the class motto, "Be faithful;" at Mrs. Pendleton's they picnicked on the parlor floor; and at Mrs. Bostock's the young men of the class presented the young ladies of the Seminary Class with class pins. Both classes are busy preparing papers for the Commencement.
The Senior class of the Seminary is taking a course with Professor Odhner in the correspondences of Egypt. Mr. Odhner also continues his lectures on Church History to the schools having finished the history of the Most Ancient Church, and taken up the Ancient Church.
Professor Marks, of Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pa., recently gave the scholars an interesting and able lecture on the history of music.
On May 16th a school social was held at which an improvised quartet gave the oldest song in the English language. The fact that it was a gift was its redeeming feature. We also played a musical game, in which questions were answered by the rendering of pieces on the piano. R. W. C.
PHILADELPHIA, PA. The Easter services of the Advent church were this year of special interest. The Ladies' Aid had provided a sufficiently large number of beautiful plants and flowers to decorate the Hall of Worship, which, therefore, presented a most attractive appearance: to this may be added that flowers and plants were also presented by individual members of the church.
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Special services were prepared for this occasion. After introductory exercises the Rite of Confession of Faith was administered to five young persons three maidens and two youths. At the conclusion of this service the pastor, on behalf of the Society, presented each confessionist with a red and white rose tied together with red and white ribbons. The presentation of these signs of love and good will were accompanied by appropriate remarks directed to each individual as the roses were handed over to them.
The administration of the Holy Supper followed, at which thirty-nine communicants partook,--the largest number since the majority of the Advent church removed to Bryn Athyn; the attendance at worship, fifty-six persons, was also the largest since that event.
After the services the newly confirmed members of the church presented the pastor with a "golden" sign of our love and affection.
The Secretary of the Advent church, Father Walker, was glad to have three adult members of the General Church sign the roll of membership of our little Society,--an external sign of progress much appreciated by all the friends of the Advent church.
On May 1st a general and most enjoyable social was given by the congregation, especially for the purpose of giving a hearty welcome to the new members of the Society, young and old. This social was indeed a great success. But preparations had also been made for it. Our esteemed treasurer, Mr. Knudsen, had formal charge, but he succeeded admirably in enlisting the interest and co-operation of young and old to make this social what it turned out to be,--the social event of the year. There was much artistic taste displayed in the decoration of the hall, the beautiful flag decorations with inscriptions in white on red background of "Philadelphia," "Bryn Athyn," "Welcome," etc.; the Chinese lanterns suspended from invisible cords running lengthwise and across the hall,--all combined to give the whole a festive and most attractive appearance.
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Add to this the "May-pole" reaching from the floor to ceiling, with its abundance of red and white ribbons to be used in performing the May-pole dance; the unusually large number of young and happy faces, the girls, sweet and beautiful to behold,--and you cannot wonder at the pastor's remarks in his speech of welcome, when he said that all this suggested to him the state of eternal youth as it is in heaven, and added that the New Church alone was the Fountain of eternal youth, to which he welcomed all the new members of the Advent church, expressing also the hope and conviction that both young and old would cheerfully work together for the welfare and progress of the Lord's New Church.
The program provided for speeches by the pastor and Father Walker, who gave a very interesting account of the rise and growth of the Advent church, and also by Mr. Knudsen, who, in well chosen terms, pointed out some of the important duties every member of the Church ought to consider his or her privilege to perform. These two last speakers spoke in response to toasts to "the Church" and to "the new members of the Advent Church," while refreshments were being served. To describe the rest of the entertainment is beyond my power. I can only say that the dancing, the singing, the crowning of the May Queen, the exhilarating presence of a number of young folks from Bryn Athyn, the general sphere of good will and the very satisfactory way in which the programme was carried out,--all contributed to make this social event useful and pleasant, the only drawback was that the time seemed all too short, especially as the Bryn Athyn friends had to leave before the close. R.
BALTIMORE, MD. Our Easter celebration was held on Easter Sunday morning, and was a happy occasion for all present. But one scholar was absent. Two children visitors were present, making a total attendance of twenty-five. An inscription "He is risen," was formed of green leaves on the wall. A number of songs were sung from the Hosanna, and an address upon the occasion was delivered by the superintendent.
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After the close of worship, potted plants in bloom were presented to the children, when bright faces denoted the pleasure with which they received them.
Our congregation has a bright future before it in the children, and if the parents do their duty in instructing them, great results will be realized.
At a special meeting of the business committee of the congregation, held May 4th, a building fund was started with the modest sum of $5.50; but we have fair prospects of this sum being augmented in the near future. B. R.
PITTSBURG, PA. Pittsburghers cannot complain of any lack of activity during the months of March and April. There is an old-fashioned game, "Boston" by name, too well known to need description,--well, during the month of March we played "Boston:" that is to say, we moved. It seemed to be in the air,--the Alec Pitcairns, the Lechners, the Pendletons, the Coffins, Miss Cowley,--it would puzzle last summer's visitor to find them all now, though the result of all the change has been rather centralizing than otherwise.
Festivities commenced April 7th at that home of hospitality, the Schoenberger residence. There was entertainment for all. Those who wouldn't, or couldn't, dance hied themselves to the upper floor and squandered their time at cards while the lovers of Terpsichore delighted themselves, and possibly their partners, to the music of a "Lechner and Schoenberger" piano.
On Monday evening, April 10th, the gentlemen held a "wake" at the home of Mr. Herbert Fuller. Mr. Edward E. Boericke was the occasion. Because Mr. Boericke and his wife have departed this Pittsburg life (and elected to bury themselves in Philadelphia), and because they will be much missed by all of us we took the occasion to present them with a loving cup as a token of our love and good will.
Miss Elsa Lechner gave a card party to the unmarried people, mostly, on the following evening. The prizes that evening were captured by two of our semi-professionals.
One Tuesday evening, the 18th, there was a surprise party in honor of Mr. Edgar Lindsay's birthday.
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First there were cards and then a jolly good dance. Mr. Pendleton in the course of the evening announced the marriage of Mr. Hermann Lechner and Miss Lutie Tenley, at Miss Tenley's home in Bellevue, Kentucky. Mr. and Mrs. Lechner will soon make their home in Wilkinsburg.
Mr. Alex McQueen, of Colchester, England, is the latest convert to Pittsburgh; Mr. Walter Rott has returned to his native heath; Miss Hogan and Miss Falk spent some weeks with us, as also Miss Boggess, of Middleport. And Mr. Seymour Nelson has been so frequently about these premises that we suspect him of designs on the "Greater Pittsburgh" bill. Annexation is all the rage. Glenview next!
Miss Esther Boggess has sent in her resignation as teacher of the local school to take effect at the end of the present term. Needless to say, it was accepted with much regret by the committee. K. W.
MIDDLEPORT, O. We have had a very pleasant Easter service which was attended by more than fifty persons; four young men were confirmed and there were thirty-two communicants at the Holy Supper. The week that followed witnessed two afternoon receptions attended by the ladies of the Society, and an evening gathering at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Boggess, at which they announced the engagement of their daughter Esther to Mr. Arthur Lechner, of Pittsburgh. Mrs. Grant, of Ellingwood, Kansas, has been visiting Mrs. William Grant for several weeks; other recent visitors have been Miss Clara Wallenberg, of Chicago, and Mrs. Lechner and Mr. Arthur Lechner, of Pittsburgh.
Our Sunday evening doctrinal classes in Divine Love and Wisdom have been very interesting, and attended by almost the whole congregation; many questions are asked, and there is a general discussion of interesting points. W. L. G.
BERLIN, ONT. On Easter Sunday, services appropriate to the day were held. The hall of worship was beautifully decorated with plants and flowers. In the afternoon the Holy Supper was celebrated.
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On Monday evening, April 24th, the Annual Bazaar of the Society took place. An enjoyable evening was spent, and a neat sum was realized for the general treasury.
At the doctrinal class on Friday evening, April 28th, the Rev. James Taylor was present with us. Mr. Taylor has for two years been pastor of the Convention Society in Berlin, but is now leaving for another field of work. Being called on to address the class, he spoke of the duty of a New Church minister to preach the Doctrines in their purity and nothing other than the Doctrines. He dwelt particularly on the necessity of teaching the truth concerning man's evil state and the consequent need of the shunning of evil. Mr. Taylor's friends in the Carmel Church regret to see him leave, and wish him all success in his future work. W.
TORONTO, ONT. On Sunday evening, April 16th, a very pleasing event took place at the home of Mr. Norman Carter, when his three children were baptized. Several members of the Society were present,--and a useful evening was spent in conversation on the uses of Baptism.
The Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered on Easter Sunday, April 23d, and the baptism of Mr. W. G. Lynn, added to the beauty and impressiveness of the Easter services.
On the evening of April 23, the betrothal of Mr. F. Carson and Miss N. G. McLaughlin was celebrated in the church building, a general invitation having been extended to the Society. The occasion proved a delightful and festive one, the response to the first toast being a paper by the pastor on the subject of "Conjugial Love." Other toasts,--"Friendship in the Church," "Growth Of the Church by means of Conjugial Level" etc., were ably responded to by the gentlemen. Mr. Carson, who has but lately identified himself with us, expressed in a brief but hearty response to a toast to the "betrothed couple," his deep satisfaction in having been led to a knowledge of the Church, and the happiness he had experienced in our midst.
At one of the recent Wednesday suppers, the desirability of purchasing a piano for the uses of the Society was discussed, and a decision reached to accomplish this end as soon as possible.
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At a social given at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Somerville on April 17th, an offering was taken up for the purpose of inaugurating this fund. M. S. C.
COLCHESTER, ENGLAND. On February 5th, by invitation of Mr. and Mrs. Motum, Swedenborg's birthday was again celebrated at their home. Twenty-four persons were present, among whom we were pleased to have friends from London and Wyvenhoe. During the supper toasts suitable to the occasion were responded to, and a delightful evening was spent.
The twenty-sixth anniversary of Mr. and Mrs. Gill's wedding day, on February 17th, was one of the most enjoyable occasions it has been our good pleasure to attend,--a veritable feast on every plane. All the adult members of the Society were invited, fourteen being present. On taking our seats for supper, our curiosity was excited by small rolls of paper secured by red and white ribbon, in the form of finger rings, which were placed before each guest. Mr. Gill explained that each roll contained a statement from the Writings having reference to marriage, which was to be read, and which, he hoped, would provide food for interchange of thought and conversation. To this Mrs. Gill added the suggestion that the rings might adorn our fingers. The remarks which then followed, as the different statements were read, created a most delightful sphere, and one which can be fully appreciated only by those who delight in meeting brethren in the Church and in giving their share of the Lord's bounty to themselves for the general good and upbuilding of the Church. F. R. C.
THE MISSIONARY FIELD. Since my last report fifteen places have been visited in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Services were held in several places, as follows:
At the home of Mr. Solomon Renkenberger and family, near Columbiana, O., on Sunday, April 2d.
In the church at Greenford, O., on Sunday, April 9th. The attendance was sixteen persons, and there were fourteen communicants.
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At Pine Grove, Wetzel Co., W. Va., on Sunday, April 16th, I gave a lecture on Immortality and the Life after Death, in the "Christian" meeting-house. A congregation of seventy-five gave close attention for about an hour.
At the home of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Yost, in Bellaire, O., on Sunday, April 23d. Eight persons were present, including our members in Wheeling, W. Va., and seven took part in the communion.
At the home of Dr. U. O. Heilman and family, in Leechburg, on Sunday, April 30th, discourse was given, after which we had an extended conversation on the Doctrines.
Sunday, May 7th, was spent with my friends, the Shultz family, at their home on the mountain side near Philipsburg, Centre Co., Pa. Besides the family two persons were present, and a sermon was read. I needed a rest, and remained longer than usual--a week.
Four days passed quickly with the Van Sickles, on the mountain near North fend, Pa. Went to Renovo on May 12th, and on Sunday, 14th, we had a meeting at the home of Mrs. Joseph R. Kendig. The absence of Mr. Kendig, with whom I had many good visits in the course of nearly twenty-five years, was a marked change in the Circle at Renovo. All the members of his family, however, take an active interest in the Church. Thirteen persons were present at our meeting; and there were eight communicants, including Mrs. E. I. Kirk and daughter, from the mountain.
During this part of my tour New Church people have been visited in twenty-six homes. I was made welcome in all of these homes, and we had many useful conversations concerning the Church, and on subjects of the Heavenly Doctrines. JOHN E. BOWERS.
From Our Contemporaries
UNITED STATES. At the annual "home-coming" of the Boston Society, fifteen new members were enrolled. In the afternoon the Holy Supper was administered to two hundred and sixty-six communicants.
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A feature of the day was the presentation to each individual attending the celebration, of a copy of the "Bennett Sermons," a set of four sermons delivered last autumn by Mr. Reed and Mr. Hay.
It is reported that the Society at EAST BRIDGEWATER, Mass., is about to lose the services of the Rev. J. D. David, and will resume relations with its former pastor, the Rev. Clarence Lathbury.
During its recent meeting, on April 18th, the Council of Ministers of the ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION devoted one session to a consideration of means for making the sessions of the General Convention more useful. Mr. Mann thought they would be more inspiring if made less mechanical. One of the lay speakers deprecated making the meetings a "round up" of the Church, and seemed to think they should be more business-like; he also urged that professors in any degree interested in either the scientific or theological writings be given a place in the meeting, and their expenses paid. More practical was the suggestion to change the time of meeting to the second week in September. Other suggestions were for a more democratic body, and for more change in officials.
As a result of a reading circle formed in 1898, a German New Church Society has been recently organized in MILWAUKEE "in the presence of the Rev. Wm. Diehl, of Brooklyn." The Society, which numbers twenty members, has applied to the Illinois Association for the authorization of its "leader," Mr. Edward Richter.
The SAN FRANCISCO Society is reported to have taken on new life and activity during the last two months, under the labors of the Rev. Wm. de Ronden-Pos, who has been elected permanent minister subject to his ordination by the General Convention.
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Notice. A. CZERNY 1905
Announcements.
The Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in Great Britain will be held at Colchester, August 5th to 7th. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. Visitors are requested to send notice of their coming to Mr. F. R. Cooper, of Salisbury Avenue, Colchester.
A. CZERNY.
For Rent. 1905
A furnished house in Bryn Athyn, Pa., consisting of nine rooms and bath. For further information address Miss Carrie A. Hobart, Williamburg, Wayne Co, Indiana.
"The Inn" at Bryn Athyn. JAMES M. COOPER 1905
"The Inn," formerly used as a dormitory and dining hall for students at the schools of the Academy, has been partly remodeled, and suitably fitted for the purpose of a family hotel, and is now open throughout the year for the accommodation of guests. Centrally located in the midst of New Church homes, and midway between the College and railroad station, a few minutes walk from either. Post office, telegraph and express, with a frequent train service to Philadelphia by two lines of railway. Telephone in the house, electric light, gas and all conveniences.
The opening of "The Inn" meets a want which has been long felt, especially by those desirous of seeing something of the work of the Academy and of becoming acquainted with the workers In addition to this, the fine health-giving air and the beautiful surrounding country, extensive views of which are commanded from "The Inn," highly recommend Bryn Athyn as a desirable place for those who seek rest and recreation during the holidays.
For rates, by the day or week, address
JAMES M. COOPER,
Bryn Athyn, Pa.
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Title Unspecified 1905
JULY, 1905. No. 7.
VALEDICTORY ADDRESS. RAYMOND PITCAIRN, B. A 1905
(Read at the Graduation Exercises of the Academy Schools, Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 16, 1905.)
BISHOP AND PROFESSORS, MEMBERS OF THE CORPORATION, AND FRIENDS OF THE ACADEMY:
The hour has come when, as pupils of the Academy of the New Church, we must bid farewell to our Alma Mater. We have arrived at a milestone in the journey of life, where the road of youth meets that of manhood, and we appear here to-day to voice our affection and to give public testimony of gratitude for all that we have received to equip us for life's future career. In looking back over the way already trod, the hand of a bounteous Providence is seen ever present, leading and providing for her wayward children, heaven's most precious gifts. To be born of New Church parents,--to have sensation awakened, at the very dawn of life, in the loving sphere of a New Church mother,--to spend childhood within the sacred precincts of a New Church home,--these are blessings which have been accorded to all of this graduating class.
Each of us has had the advantage of New Church training in primary schools, and this work has been continued during the years spent at the Academy, and, now, we stand ready to go forth from her gates laden with wealth for future life,--the blessings of our Alma Mater.
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What is this Academy, and whence is her wisdom? She is a teacher, a servant of the Lord, and the Lord is her wisdom. Her foundation stone is the acknowledgment that "the Lord is the Divine Fountain from which all life proceeds." All wisdom is from the Word,--the Lord revealing Himself to man; and it is in the light of the Divine Truth of the Word, that the Academy conducts her education.
Man is born that he may become spiritual, or he is born for heaven, and therefore he is born for no other end than that he may perform uses, for heaven is the kingdom of uses.
Preparation for a life of heaven is the work of the Academy. This work is twofold, embracing instruction and education; instruction of the understanding, the forming of a plane of habitation for the things of wisdom,--and education, or the drawing forth and cherishing of the remains of heavenly affection implanted by the Lord in infancy, and the establishment of these affections in his heart. The soul of such education is the acknowledgment of the Lord in His revelation. Here is a true center around which to grow, and the body built on this foundation can never fail. The prophecy has been fulfilled, "Behold. I make all things new," for the Son of Man has come in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory; the light of truth has shone on heaven and on earth, and the revelation is on all planes; it is universal.
During our sojourn with the Academy, we have studied many of the spiritual things of heaven, and also the sciences of the earth. We have learned something of the wealth of antiquity, and something of the learning of the modern world has been brought before our eyes. On our travels through the wondrous land of science, we have been guided by a never-failing light, given by our Alma Mater. This light is the law that nothing in nature can possibly exist except from a spiritual cause; that there is nothing unconnected with the First, who is the Lord; that the visible universe is a grand theater, representative of the Kingdom of Almighty God.
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The divine life of the Lord flows into all created things, even to the most minute and ultimate; from his Life they live, and their life consists in the ability to return the Lord's love by the performance of uses.
The beginning of creation is in God, and the power, finally, to return the life of God, is the Divine in creation, for as He Himself hath said: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." From an understanding of this truth, we may know the reason for the sublime harmony of nature, we may see how all creation breathes as one, how all things therein correspond to heavenly and spiritual uses which are directed by the Divine Man. This knowledge is the key to true learning. When interpreted by the science of correspondences, the scroll of nature becomes an open volume, a marvelous book pregnant with undiscovered lore. What a fruitful field of hidden treasure may be revealed by means of a true conception of Nature's fundamental laws. In the light of the crowning revelation, how different is the study of nature from the materialistic science of the world! How much deeper is the meaning of natural philosophy!
Throughout the years of our training, the school has ever striven to show us the universal presence and operation of the Lord. In science, in history, in language and religion, this has been the constant underlying theme, and it has enabled us to realize that fundamental truth which should be always guarded with the greatest care throughout life's training,--man can do nothing from himself, and man knows nothing from himself. Look at the heavens,--behold this stupendous solar system, the myriads of suns beyond this sphere, yea, beyond the sight of eye, each with its planets and satellites supporting their countless multitudes of men. Human conception fails, the mind reels and is lost in this picture of the infinite. Or, turn your sight to the wonders in the secret labyrinths of nature; examine the smallest flower, the minutest crystal; how much is there that is beyond the ken of man! "When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him?" And yet all these are but the foundation of a structure that is in another world.
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Even the understanding that mar, imagines to be his own is as nothing. "He who . . . knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing," who can sincerely acknowledge that "he neither knows nor thinks that he knows," has found the entrance to wisdom's temple; his ear is open to revelation; and this alone can unveil the mysteries of the temple. The opening of the eyes to these mysteries in the light of heaven is the work of the Academy,--a work that can never be understood, and the power of which can never be appreciated except by those who acknowledge the Lord in His second coming.
Man is as ground in which seeds are sown; such seed, if it fall on good ground, will bear glorious fruit, not merely for a time, but to eternity. Happy the man in whom are implanted seeds from on high. We fully realize that what we, in our humble measure, may have received from our Alma Mater, cannot be rightly valued by us now, but we know that a true appreciation of all that the Academy has done for us will ever grow and become more real, just in so far as we apply to life the principles that we have learned.
It has been our great privilege to be educated in these halls, in the strong sphere of loyalty to the truth and conviction of principles that signalize this body. We have had the loving hand of our Alma Mater to guide us in our youth, to show us the truth, while ever striving to cultivate a love for the things of heaven, within our stubborn natures. Can words express gratitude for such blessings? Why have we been chosen from among all the inhabitants of the earth, to receive the teachings of the Lord's New Church, under the most propitious circumstances? We cannot tell. "It is the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes."
We are now about to leave you and go forth into the world. This is a crucial period in our lives. The supreme test of loyalty to our trust will come when, separated, as it were, from the strong love and affection that here prevail,--from the immediate sphere of protection, under the nurturing wings of our Alma Mater,--we come face to face with the alluring and contaminating influences of the world.
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For the protection that we have had within these walls, we are profoundly thankful. Its true worth will be realized ever more and more, as, by actual experience, the depraved state of the Christian world shall become more fully known to us, and the hypocritical and clandestine nature of its iniquity will be more openly laid bare.
The threshold of adult life has been reached, and a more mature and nobler state of life awaits us. The careless liberty of youth must give way to the responsible freedom of manhood. The stream of life has broadened until it has become a river, and the current can no longer trickle here and there, but, with gathered force, must form a channel through which to flow ever onward toward the final goal.
A mighty work lies before us. The burdens of our fathers must be lightened, and the time will soon arrive when a new generation must assume the responsibilities and bear the burdens of those who have gone before. We look with wonder on the work they have accomplished, and a belittling sense of our own weakness overcomes us. How can we carry on the work that they have begun so nobly? And when we realize that in stagnation there is death, that the work must grow,--our responsibility seems appalling, and more than we can bear.
Such a feeling of dismay is bound to beset us when we contemplate what has been already done, but should not be entertained, for inwardly it is of self, and originates in a distrust of Divine Providence. The feeble efforts of men are of no avail unless the Lord be present in their undertaking. "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it." All the old Academicians are still working for the same cause they loved so well on earth, and in the land of light and love where they now are, can serve the cause far better than they could on earth. If we but keep this truth before us, and trust that the Lord is ever in this noble work, courage will revive our fainting spirits, and undaunted, but in humility of soul, we shall strive to do our part, and help to carry forward the exalted standard of our own Academy.
How shall we enter into this work?
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The answers are many, and it is left for each one to decide how he may best serve the Alma Mater. One thing let us remember: that, whether our abode be here in the center of the activities of the Church, or whether the call of duty to worldly employment take us far from the home we love so well, we may still be joined in spirit with our friends and old companions, and have as deep an interest and as true a love for our Alma Mater,--be as true members of the Lord's New Church, as though we remained present in body; for "it is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing."
In contemplation of the duty that will shortly devolve upon us as members of the Church, a warning presents itself. It is not sufficient to be carried along by those who take the lead in its various uses. It is most easy to be borne along by the sphere of those who are really loyal, and to think that their fidelity is in us, and from the influence of their affection to imagine that we are profoundly interested in what may affect us very little from within. Nor is it enough to remain in the first understanding of the truth. "Affection is the soul of spiritual knowledge." Truth must be brought forth into life; it must be of love, for love conjoins to life the object of its affection. From such truth alone is genuine and growing perception. It is in living the life of truth that we love our school,--the Church,--the Lord. "He that heareth my words and doeth them, he it is that loveth me."
Daily we have been instructed in the Heavenly Doctrines; daily we have been taught the inmost secrets of the Word, and have heard expounded the holiest teachings of the Church. The water of life has been given freely, and we have been bid to drink. Each has taken according to his measure; but how lasting is the impression made upon our lives? How often do we meditate deeply on the things of heaven? To utter glibly from the memory is easy I the natural man is delighted with the rational truth disclosed by revelation; but does the spiritual degree of the mind lie dormant? Where is the danger, for this is an age of spiritual torpor, and the sensual nature of man? lusting for what is of the earth and earthly, is most vigilant lest its joys be made subservient to what is of heaven. We must force ourselves to wake from the sensual sleep that to the natural man seems life itself, and fervent should be the prayer: "Save me, O Lord, lest I sleep the sleep of death."
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This life is a battle to the man who would be spiritual: a hard battle which he must fight against his own heredity, with its enticing and seductive allurements, if he would overcome. The more truth a man has the fiercer will be the onslaught of the infernal crew against him, the more will they hate and try to cast him down.
The mighty sword of truth has been placed in our hand. In whatever trials the future has in store for us, we must use this weapon faithfully. (Ginou pistos): "Be thou faithful." Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give to thee a crown of life."
The short hour of school life is over, and we try in vain to express our gratitude to the Academy,--to you who have given your thought and experience to the uses that have made this education possible,--to you who have presided over the work, and to you, our teachers and professors, who have carried out the work. For the unselfish interest you have shown us, not as masters, but as friends, we thank you. You have endeavored to cultivate in us a spirit of freedom and rationality. To be with you, to have had the influence of your wisdom to guide us during the formative period of our characters, has been our great good fortune. Through you we have received the most precious learning the world has ever known. What more can be said? Silence would seem a fitter expression from overflowing hearts. This place we have loved, the very ground is dear to us; and now in this commencement of our life as men, we bid farewell to you, our Alma Mater. And in leaving, a prayer rises to our lips, that your great work may prosper. And, "as God gives us to see the right,--let us strive on to finish the work" that for us you have so well begun.
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PERFECTION BY CORRESPONDENCE. Rev. W. F. PENDLETON 1905
A SERMON
"Be ye therefore perfect, Even as your Father, which is in heaven is perfect. Matt. v. 48.
The discourse of the Lord to His disciples, called the Sermon on the Mount, occupies three chapters in succession, the fifth, sixth, and seventh of Matthew. In this discourse the law of charity is the subject throughout, or the law of love to the neighbor. And since the general subject is love to the neighbor, love to the Lord is also treated of, for where the one is, the other is, and the one is not anything without the other.
The words of the text close the series of the first of the three chapters which contain the Sermon on the Mount.
We are told that the Lord, seeing the multitudes, went up into a mountain and sat down, and when His disciples had come unto Him, He opened His mouth and taught them; and the teaching was concerning the law of charity or love, how it is established, and the ways and means to that establishment.
It may also be said, that the subject of the Sermon on the Mount is regeneration, for regeneration is the means by which love or charity is established in man. Or it may be said, that the correspondence of the external man with the internal is the subject of the series; for regeneration is the means by which this correspondence is effected, and man is in this correspondence when he is in charity. And the correspondence of the external man with the internal,--which is the same thing as the conjunction of the external man with the internal,--is the special subject treated of in the last verse of the fifth chapter, the first chapter of the discourse on the mountain. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven is perfect."
The Lord's discourse to His disciples beg-ins with the teaching that temptations are the first thing in time by which charity is established, or by which the external man is brought into correspondence with the internal.
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This is taught in the first twelve verses, which contain what is called the Beatitudes, or Ten Blessings; in these it is also shown that temptation is of great variety, and that after each state of temptation there follows consolation, or blessing.
In temptation which is persisted in until there is the blessing of consolation, the Church has its beginning, and the Church is then sailed the salt of the earth and the light of the world; for without the Church in which is charity, even though it be with but a few, there is no salvation nor even any enlightenment to men. But none of these things could take place unless the Lord had cone to fulfill all things of the law; and He now tells His disciples that this was what He had come into the world to do, in telling them that He had not come to destroy the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them.
Then the teaching follows that the Church must also fulfill the law of the Decalogue, for it is to expand internally and grow externally; and although there have been temptations, the external is not yet in correspondence with the internal. "Except your righteousness shall exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven" (verse 20). This was said because the external of the scribes and Pharisees was not in correspondence with their internal, and the disciples were not to be like unto them.
The Lord then teaches them that the commandments are to be kept in order that a full correspondence of the external with the internal may be established; and following this the discourse treats especially of the evil of hatred, which includes all the evils mentioned in the commandments. If this be shunned all evil is shunned, and correspondence is established.
When hatred is shunned as sin, the first fruit is conjugial love; and so the evil which opposes conjugial love--the lust of adultery--is now spoken of. For as the first product of love is conjugial love, so the first product of hatred is adultery. This therefore is to be shunned that conjugial love may be confirmed, and the Church established.
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And as conjugial love is in itself a celestial love, the celestial state is next set forth where the Lord teaches his disciples that they are to swear not at all, and that their communication is to be, Yea, yea, and Nay, nay.
Following this, the second product of hatred, which is revenge, becomes now the subject of the discourse. The Lord tells His disciples that they are not to observe the old law of "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," but that they are not to resist evil,--"Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," and other words to the same effect.
And so if resentment and revenge are not cherished, but shunned as sins against God, love is established; and the Lord therefore now discourses about love, saying, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven."
Men are to be the children of their Father in heaven; in this is the vital principle of the whole discourse; man is to be brought into the image of God. This is effected by regeneration; by regeneration love is born and established in him, and when there is love the Church on earth is in correspondence with the Church in heaven, the external corresponds with the internal.
The Lord has good will toward the whole human race, to every man in it whether he be good or whether he be evil; hence it is added. "For He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust."
We are children of our Father in heaven when we likewise have good will to all. The fact that the evil make use of the blessings they receive to do evil, to multiply their evil doings, does not alter the principle that there is to be good will towards them, or a love of their good--not a love of their evil, but a love of their good. Man justifies himself in cherishing resentment to the evil, or to those who do evil to him. Let every man search Himself and he will find that this is true; but so long as it is true he is not in correspondence with heaven, he is not a child of his Father in heaven, he is not in the image of his God. It was not so with the Lord; when He was in the world, the whole of hell wished and endeavored to destroy Him: but in His combat and resistance to this endeavor, there was in Him nothing of resentment and revenge, but a love of bringing all things and all men into order I and order is good--good both to the evil and the good, and the best possible good to all, the best possible provision of Divine Mercy.
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The evil which the evil do is indeed to be resisted, that they may cease to do evil; that they may be brought into order, and no longer bring injury to others; that they may no longer overturn the order in which all men should be, and so they may no longer bring injury upon themselves. But this resistance to evil is not to be from ill-will or revenge. When revenge is shunned, there is good will to all men, and not merely to those who favor and are friends to us. Hence the Lord then said to His disciples, "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?" And then the Lord adds the words which close the series of the first chapter of the Sermon on the Mount, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father, which is in heaven is perfect."
The general ideal the interior purpose, of the whole chapter is made manifest here. Man is to be like God, he is to be made in His image, the Church on earth it to be like the Church in heaven, the external of the individual man is to be brought into correspondence with his internal. To bring this about there is to be combat, evil spirits are to be resisted, evils are to be shunned, and he who is to be of the Church is to depart from evil associations in both worlds. Then order is established, and order is correspondence. Man is to be brought into an order that corresponds with his own internal form--heaven, as it is with the good. But even if he be not in good, still he is to be brought into order; if there is no internal in him from heaven, he is to be brought into an order like that in hell; an external is imposed upon him by fear, against his will, corresponding to an internal, not in him, but in heaven. This is the case with all the evil in both worlds; for all men must come into order either by love or by compulsion. This is the Divine decree, and there will be no shadow of a turning from it; it will come to every man in the end as sure as he exists; for if otherwise, the whole creation would fall, and the human race would perish.
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To come into order, which is correspondence with heaven, is what is meant by being perfect. And the law is expressed in the words of Revelation, the law for the evil and for the good, a law for the whole human race. "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect;" which words mean in their most general sense, that every man is to come into perfection, or that which resembles it.
No human being is ever to reach absolute perfection; this is true only of the Divine Human of the Lord; man can never be made perfect to all eternity; but he is to continually grow in perfection, and become more and more as his Father in heaven; his human is to be like the Divine Human, and more and more like his natural is to correspond to a spiritual that is in heaven; and this spiritual is to become his own internal if he be in good; but he is to be brought into an external correspondence with heaven, even though he will that it be not so, and resist the operation of Divine order. The image of God is impressed upon the good internally and externally, but upon the evil only externally. But it must be impressed upon all. For order is to be universal; all things must be made perfect, even as the Father of all things is perfect, and the Divine Truth goes forth to all. Let your perfection be like the perfection of your Father in heaven, and then ye shall be blessed; and when this is done, even the evil have a relative degree of blessing. And so the idea appears, which is the universal of the series-the happiness that is in order.
The Lord is kind even to the unthankful and the evil, when he reduces their external into order,--into correspondence with heaven; for then they have some degree of happiness, for happiness is only and always in order. And we see here illustrated the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine, that order is not in hell, but around hell; order is not in the evil, but it environs them, preserving them from evils immeasurably worse, which they would suffer. Understood in this sense, it may be said that even the are saved. "He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil." (Luke 6:35.) "He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the evil good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust." (Matt. 5:45)
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As was said, order is correspondence,-correspondence of the external with the internal,--either a correspondence of the external with the general internal of heaven, as it is with the evil; or a correspondence of the external, not only with the general internal of heaven, but also a correspondence of each individual man with his own internal from heaven. The latter order is the complete order, and this is the form which is said to be perfect. It was also shown that charity is what makes the perfection of the form of love to the neighbor which has within it love to the Lord. Love is what conjoins the external with the internal, or the Church with heaven, or man with the Lord; but love itself, or order itself, or perfection itself, is the union of the Human of the Lord with His Divine, which was effected by glorification when He was in the world. It is from this union, this Divine Order, this Divine Perfection of the Lord, and at the same time from His Divine Presence, as Love in Heaven and the Church, that He has power to make man perfect; and hence the significance of the words, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect;" and hence also the significance of the fact that this Divine Sermon was spoken on a mountain; for by a mountain is signified the Divine Love in heaven, from which is all Revelation. Love is first called a mountain into which the Lord ascends, and speaks to His disciples; it is the mount of transfiguration in which He was beheld in His glory by His three chosen disciples, Peter, James, and John, and where they fell upon their faces and worshiped Him. Love is first called a mountain upon which the Lord ascended and sat, and from which He spoke the words of the Divine Sermon to His disciples; and then Love is called our Father in heaven, before whom we are to bow in awe, reverence and humility, like that of the three disciples, when in their astonishment they saw their Lord in His glory.
The same universal truth, the same Divine idea of perfection, the perfection which man is to take on,--the image of the Divine Perfection, the image of Order, the image of Love, appears frequently in the Word, as in these passages: "The disciple is not above his master; but every one that is perfect shall be as his master." (Luke 6:40.)
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"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love." (John 15:9, 10.) "That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us . . . that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one." (John 17:21, 22, 23.) "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne." (Rev. 3:21.) And, speaking to certain of the Pharisees, who had said to Him, "Get thee out and depart hence; for Herod will kill thee," the Lord said, "Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures to-day and to-morrow, and on the third day I shall be perfected." (Luke 13:31, 32.) He was speaking of His Glorification, or His Union with the Father; for perfection, as was said, is the union of the Human with the Divine.
It may be well now to examine what the natural mind is, when it is in order, or in correspondence; or what it is when it is said to be perfect. What it is when it is not perfect, or not in order, becomes plain to the individual in the course of his regeneration; for the natural man cannot be brought into order or correspondence with the spiritual, or be regenerated, until the real quality of the rational is made known, and it is seen to be, what it really is, of itself nothing but evil. To know this, and then to see and acknowledge it in oneself, is an essential step in the mediatory process by which regeneration is effected, or the natural is brought into correspondence with the spiritual; and the Lord, in the Sermon on the Mount, reveals this state of the natural man; and He grants a perception of its truth to the individual, who is capable of regeneration, who is capable of being made perfect even as His Father in heaven is perfect.
The natural mind is not laid aside at death; man carries it with him into the spiritual world I and it remains with him to eternity, such as it was formed or reformed in the world.
399
The body is left behind, and the natural or corporeal memory,--the memory of the external things of this world,--is laid asleep, put to rest, becomes quiescent,--the internal memory remaining, or all things that have been impressed upon the life by habit, or by continual deeds or practice in the world. The body and its memory is put off as a garment; but the natural mind cannot be laid aside in this manner; for it is the ultimate or external of the man himself, and remains with him to eternity. Since it is therefore at first nothing but evil, and cannot be put off, it must be reformed, regenerated, brought into correspondence, so that it may serve the spiritual in heaven forever.
If the natural were laid aside at death, order would not be complete in heaven, and the angelic form would be imperfect; there would be something wanting. An angel would not be an angel without a natural that has been brought into correspondence with his spiritual by life in the world. The necessity of regeneration in the world, by life in the world, that a complete order may be established, a complete or perfect form made to exist, becomes manifest. This order, which is Divine in the Lord, this Divine correspondence of the Human of the Lord with His own Divine. by a complete Glorification even to the ultimates of flesh and bone, was effected by the Lord when He was in the world; that He might become in His Human our Father in heaven, and take unto Himself in His Human the power by which He would be able to all eternity, without let or hindrance from the hells, to make man perfect even as He is perfect,--every man who is willing that his natural shall come into correspondence with his spiritual by regeneration.
As has been indicated in what we have said, as is taught everywhere in the Doctrine of the Church, as every man sees in himself who is willing to see, the natural is vicious and depraved by birth and inheritance, with a tendency to all evil, a tendency that would come into actual effect, into which the natural mind of every man would surrender itself, were there no restraints imposed by the conditions of life among men, or without the merciful and over-ruling providence of the Lord, which ever operates to curb the unruly will of man; a will which he has by inheritance, and which he indulges and adds to, by his own actual life so far as he dares; and which he does indulge and add to in the chambers of his secret thought, wherein there is nothing to hinder or restrain the activity of his natural propensity to evil.
400
This activity of the natural mind, its innate tendency to evil, the actual acquirement of evil, the adding to the store of his inheritance, making his own the evil of his ancestors, must be curbed, restrained, and abolished; and the means are provided, the means by which it may be done, and can be done, and will be done if we are willing to co-operate in the great work which the Lord came into the world to accomplish, and wills to accomplish with every man that is born. And therefore He says to every man, and says it because He is able to perform what He says, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect."
We are informed in the Heavenly Doctrine, that without correspondence there is no holiness (S. D. 2158); that is, without correspondence there is no complete form, no human form, no angelic form, no Divine Presence in heaven and the church. We are also taught that holiness resides in ultimates; that is, holiness results from reaction of the natural with the spiritual; and when the natural does not react with, but reacts against, the spiritual, there is nothing holy, but all is profane. For the origin of all that is profane or evil is in the reaction of the natural against the spiritual. But when the natural, brought into correspondence by regeneration, reacts with the spiritual, the state called holiness results. The angels are holy because their natural, brought into order while in the world, eternally reacts with their spiritual. Holiness is perfection, it is eternal happiness; and this is the blessing pronounced by the Lord, in the opening of His Sermon on the Mount, on all who conquer in temptations. With every man who conquers, the Lord causes his natural to react with his spiritual, endows him with holiness, gives him happiness, and says unto him, as He said to His disciples on the mountain, "Rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven."
401
In a perfect form, or when there is perfect order, the internal acts through its own external, or the cause through its own effect, or through its own instrument,--without jar, hindrance, or friction; or without being aware or conscious of the instrument; just as the soul is not conscious of the body, its instrument, when the body is in order, or in health; it is so with all habits of the body, that have become established by constant use. Therefore in every perfect form there is a perfect correspondence of the instrument with the cause, so that the instrument as it were vanishes, and the cause only appears.
The most perfect created form is the human or angelic form, especially the form of the celestial angel. In this form there is a perfect correspondence of the instrument with the cause, of the external with the internal, or of the natural with the spiritual, The angels are hardly aware that they have a natural; the natural, which is the instrument of the spiritual, acts so perfectly, responds so promptly and completely to every call or impulse of their spiritual, that there is scarcely anything that causes them to reflect upon having a natural. The correspondence is so complete, that to the angel his natural is as it were nothing; it is as if it did not exist; or, as if it were transparent glass through which one looks at objects, without being conscious of the glass through which he looks. (S. D. 2156.) The natural with us in the world is imperfect, and we are therefore constantly reminded of its presence, like the creaking of machinery that is out of order. The natural therefore with us often affords the chief topic of thought and conversation. But the angels when they meet together do not talk about their bodily ills, since the machinery with them is in perfect order, and they are not conscious of the working, or, as we would say, are not self-conscious. Hence the teaching that the thought of the angels is not determined to persons,--neither to their own person nor to that of others,--but to things. The internal constantly appears in their external, and is transparent through it; hence their conversation is of things relating to spiritual intelligence and wisdom.
402
Such is the perfection of their form; and this is the form that is meant when the Lord said to His disciples that they were to be perfect, as their Father in heaven is perfect, which means also that they were to take on by regeneration a perfection similar to the perfection of the angels in heaven; for the Father in heaven dwells in them.
We see, therefore, that correspondence is a very practical thing, and not merely a beautiful doctrine that has been now revealed anew to the world, which we are to use as a key to unfold the interior things of the Word, by which we are to unlock the mysteries of nature. This use of correspondence, or the doctrine of correspondence, is great, transcendent, sublime; and without it the Word is a sealed book, and nature is closed,--all closed except the things in them that are visible to the senses; and without a knowledge and understanding of the law of correspondence, and at the same time of genuine doctrine, the thought remains sensual, and cannot be elevated into spiritual light,--the light of intelligence in which the angels are. But the practical thing about correspondence to the individual appears in the necessity of his own external coming into correspondence with his internal by regeneration, by the removal of those things which obstruct and hinder its operation; which things are evils of sin, and which are, therefore, to be shunned as sins against God, against our Father in heaven, against the perfection of angelic life; and which destroy the perfection of the form which was originally given to man by creation. To come into such correspondence, is the one end of human life in the world; and everything that exists in nature, and in the activities of natural life, is a provision and an instrument, to be used in the Merciful Providence of the Lord, to bring about the perfection of the human form,--the correspondence of the natural with the spiritual,--before, man departs from the life of this world, and enters upon a higher stage of existence; which correspondence is the gift of the Lord,--not the acquirement of man,--but the gift of the Lord, when man shuns evil as sin against Him.
Let us remember, therefore, that to be perfect is to be in correspondence; and at the same time let us note with affection, and profound gratitude to the Lord, what He says unto us in His Heavenly Doctrine.
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"Blessed is he who is in correspondence, when he goes into the other life; or whose external is then in correspondence with his internal." (A. C. 2994.) Amen.
MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH. C. TH. ODHNER 1905
ARES--MARS.
Among the numerous divinities who constitute the second generation of Olympian gods, Ares or Mars, the first-born son of Zeus and Hera, possessed the undisputed primogeniture, even though he did not in actual importance rank with such gods as Apollo, Mercury, or Vulcan. As the first-born son, Ares must relate to some principle of truth or faith, rather than to good or charity; and as it is truth that fights against evil and falsity, it is not surprising to find in Ares the great god of war. It is the same in all other mythological systems: the first-born of the supreme god is always the war-god. Thus in Babylonia and Assyria, the fighting divinity was Merodach, first-born son of Ea; and similarly Thor, the first-born of Odin, among the Northmen.
The names of Ares and Mars are admittedly of an unknown origin. Ares has been compared with the Greek words arren, male, areta, valeur, aristos, best, and the Latin arma, weapons, the primitive notion of "goodness," according to the evolutionists, having been that of manly prowess in the arts of war. The name Mars, also is supposed to be related to mas, masculine, but all this is mere guesswork. We, therefore, venture to suggest that "Mars" is but a "memmated" or strengthened form of "Ares," and that the latter, like so many other names of Greek divinities, is of Semitic origin, derived from the Hebrew Ari, a Lion, the fitting symbol of all those qualities which are represented by Ares: strength, courage, and fierce love of battle.
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As the first state of faith with man may turn either to genuine faith, fighting for the authority and purity of Divine Truth, or co faith-alone, fighting for self-exaltation and the love of dominion, so also Ares is represented by the ancient poets and artists in two very different aspects. In his more noble form he is described in one of the Homeric hymns as a "sun-god, who makes courage and valor to stream into the hearts of men;" as "the god of the golden helmet, shield-bearing, clad in armor of bronze, strong and untiring;" and in this character also the sculptors have represented him as the model of a classic hero, youthful, vigorous, naked and beardless, sometimes splendidly armed with shield and spear, cuirass, and a helmet crested with a winged lion, or with a lance in one hand and winged Victory in the other; or, unarmed, with Victory in the one hand and a branch of olives in the other, the noble picture of a true warrior who
Does not love war, but peace; even in the war he continually loves peace. He does not go to war, except for the defense of his country, but when the war has commenced, he is the aggressor, when aggression is defense. (Doct. of Charity, 164.)
That in other statues he appears fierce and terrible does not militate against his good character, for the Divine Truth always so appears to those who are in falsity and evil. Even in a just war, no mercy must be shown to the enemy, "for the end is victory, and thus the common good, and in this end there is the mercy of salvation for many." (S. D. 4346.)
In the supreme sense, therefore, Ares or Mars is simply the ancient name for Divine Truth, militant and victorious, even as the Lord Himself in this aspect is called a "Hero," a "Man of Wars," and "a Hero of Wars," because by His Divine Truth He conquered the hells and forever protects His Church.
On the other hand the War-god is often represented as the personification of wild rage and blood-thirstiness, the love of fighting for the mere sake of fighting and slaving. As such he bears the appellations "impetuous," "blood-stained," "man-slaying," "town-destroying," a gigantic monster "roaring as loud as nine or ten thousand men," and covering with his body seven hundred feet of the ground.
405
In the Iliad he sides with the Trojans, and is frequently worsted by the calm strategy of Minerva in this story he seems to represent the spirit of faith-alone, the cruel faith of the Old and vastated Church, of which Troy is the type in the struggle with the New Church among the Helienes. As the genius of fury and destruction he is now seen accompanied by evil demons such as Deimos, Terror, Phobos, Fear, Eris, Strife, and Bellona, the furious goddess of battle, whose altar was the only one on which human sacrifices were offered.
Whether in his good or evil aspect, Ares is always associated with Aphrodite, who sometimes figures as his legitimate partner, sometimes as his paramour. This conjunction of Courage and Beauty was a favorite theme among the classical artists, and inspired some of the noblest productions of ancient art, as, for instance, the Venus de Mile. In its proper and original meaning this represents the important truth that the prize of conjugial love can be won only by manful combat against evil and falsity, and therefore we read that of this union were born two lovely children, Harmonia and Cupid. Order and Heavenly Love. But in later days this beautiful myth was perverted into the most scandalous tale in the whole "chronique scandaleuse" of the licentious Creeks. Ares here makes illicit approaches to Venus, the faithless wife of poor old Vulcan, but the latter catches them in an invisible net and exposes them to the whole Olympus. Classical scholars now agree in the admission that this filthy story is a later interpolation in the Odesse, but even as such it is representative, reflecting the corrupt state of Creek morals in the time when Faith alone was united with adulterous love.
Among the Greeks in general, except with the Spartans, Ares was held in small honor, though the Areopagus, or Hill of Ares, in Athens, was anciently named after him. Courts of justice were held here in the open air. But by the Romans he was called "Marspiter," "father Mars," and was worshiped as, next to Jupiter himself, the chief protector of the Roman state, (in whose honor they named the first month of their new year, Martius).
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This was but natural, since he was regarded as the father of Romulus and Remus, the twin founders of the city. This myth, also, is evidently representative, and fitly describes the essential elements which made up the national character of the Roman people. In its best aspect this character was begotten of Mars, the love of fighting for what was then regarded as Divine truth, viz., law and order in the State; and it was conceived by Rhea Sylvia, the vestal, that is, the love of stern virtue, self-sacrifice, and sublime patriotism. Such was the character of the representative Romans of the olden days, from Lucretia and Brutus, the Horatii and Fabii, Cincinnatus, Manlius and Virgidius, down to the Gracci and the younger Brutus. Afterwards these celestial characteristics, being perverted, produced the infernal love of universal dominion, a love which was inherited from the heathen Empire by the "Christian" Church of Catholic Rome.
HEBE--JUVENTAS.
Hebe, the goddess of youth, was the daughter of Zeus and Hera and sister of Ares. Her name, like the Latin Juventas, means simply "Youth," including particularly the age between fifteen and eighteen years. This was the period which among the Greeks was fixed as the age of "hebe," and with this may be compared the teaching that
Those who die as infants, grow up in heaven, and when they reach the stature in which, in the world, are youths of eighteen years, and virgins of fifteen years, they remain in it. (C. L. 3-14)
As goddess of eternal youth, it is she who greets the apotheosized heroes on their entrance into Olympus, presenting to them the cup of Nectar which immediately restores them to the first bloom of youthfulness and beauty, and endows them with immortality as the reward of victorious combats. And since we know that "growing old in Heaven is to grow young," (H. H. 414), we find that Hebe constantly waits upon all the gods at their Olympian banquets, pouring out for them that same elixir of eternal life, from which each day they quaff unending and ever-renewing youth.
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When anyone first comes into the eternal life, he is among the angels, and therefore seems to himself as it were in the flower of youth. (A. C. 187.)
Those who are in mutual love, in Heaven, continually advance towards the springtime of their youth. (A. C. 553)
In Heaven they are continually brought by the Lord into a more perfect life, and at length into the flower of youth. (A. C. 4676.)
By the artists Hebe is always represented as a charming young girl, her light garments adorned with roses, and on her head a wreath of flowers. In one hand she carries the amphora of nectar, and with the other she presents the cup of eternal youthfulness. Like Ganymede, she is often seen playing with the royal eagle of her father, a picture which brings to mind the beautiful words of the thanksgiving: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. Who satisfisth thy mouth with good things; who renewst as an eagle thy youth." (Ps. 103:2, 5). For it is by the Nectar of Divine Truth that the angelic intelligence is daily advancing more and more into the innocence of wisdom.
Modern scholarship has established that Hebe is but another name for the original Greek conception of Aphrodite, a Venus chaste, virginal and heavenly, the "Venus Ourania." For Hebe is the daughter of Zeus and Hera, as Aphrodite, in the most ancient legends, is the daughter of Zeus and Dione," but Dione is simply the feminine of "Dios," or Jove, and thus identical with Hera. Moreover, like Aphrodite, Hebe is called "the most beautiful of the goddesses," (as by Pindar), and in many passages she is called "dia," the regular epithet of Aphrodite. The ever-green Ivy, also, was sacred to both goddesses, who are essentially one and the same.
This brings us nearer to the inmost significance of Hebe, and to the very fountain of eternal youth, the conjugial of good and truth, or the Heavenly Marriage. As in the mere natural sense, marriage is the source of a perpetually renewed and youthful mankind so is the spiritual marriage the source of a never ending succession of new truths and new goods from the Lord,--new conceptions, perceptions, ideas and affections to all eternity.
408
Thus also in Heaven
Those who are in love truly conjugial return to their manhood and youth; the husbands become young men, and the wives young women. As such continue to grow young more interiorly, it follows that love truly conjugial continually increases. The reason that man thus grows young in heaven, is that he then enters into the marriage of good and truth." (A. E. 1000.)
There is a legend that Hebe at one time slipped in an awkward manner in the company of the gods and spilled her nectar, on which account she was dismissed from her service, and a beautiful youth. Ganymedes, was carried from earth by the eagle of Zeus, to serve as cup-bearer in Olympus. It seems, however, from a later passage in the Iliad, that she was restored to her office. Ganymedes seems to have been merely a male Hebe, and Hebe herself is sometimes called "Ganymeda." Nevertheless, the myth seems significant, and calls to mind a similar story in the Eddas about IDUNA, the goddess of youth among ancient Northmen, who "keeps in a box the apples which the gods, when they feel old age approaching, have only to taste of, to become young again. It is in this manner that they will be kept in renovated youth until Ragnarok."
Once it happened, however, that Iduna and her apples were carried away by Loki, the cunning and malignant spirit of mischief, who for a time was permitted to dwell among the gods in Valhalla. "The gods, being thus deprived of their renovating apples, soon became wrinkled and grey; old age was creeping fast upon them, when they discovered that Loki had been, as usual, the contriver of all the mischief that had befallen them," and so, under threats of condign punishment, they forced him to return Iduna and her apples. (Mallet, Northern Antiquites, pp. 421, 460) Swedenborg, also, relates the following real occurrence in heaven:
On a certain occasion two married partners were present with me from heaven; and at that instant the idea of what is eternal in marriage was taken away from them by an idle, disorderly spirit who was speaking with craft and subtlety.
409
Hereupon they began to bewail themselves, saying that they could not live any longer, and that they felt such misery as they had never felt before. When this was perceived by their co-angels in heaven, the disorderly spirit was removed and cast down; whereupon the idea of what is eternal instantly returned to them, and they were gladdened in heart, and most tenderly embraced each other. (C. L. 216.)
One of the most beautiful myths of the ancients represents "blushing Hebe" as given in marriage to Hercules, after the latter has finished his twelve "herculean" labors and had immolated his tempted natural life upon the funeral pyre of self-sacrifice. The story of Hercules is the chief of the numerous legends from the Ancient Word which foretold the coming of the Messiah, the future Redeemer of mankind. and his marriage with Hebe not only reveals the fact that the ancients possessed a knowledge of marriage after death, but also represents, in the supreme sense, the Divine and eternal marriage of the Church with her Divinely-human and glorified Lord. This marriage became a favorite theme with the artists of the ancient world, who perceived, but did not yet clearly understand, the meaning of this noble legend.
Something needs to be said, in connection with Hebe, about the Nectar and Ambrosia which constituted the drink and food of the gods. The origin of the word NECTAR is unknown, though some have compared it with naegateos, "new-made," which recalls the words of the Lord: "But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." (Matth. 26:29.) By common consent the ancients regarded Nectar as being some kind of heavenly wine, unobtainable by ordinary mortals, of extraordinary fragrance and power to restore and preserve life forever with the fortunate few who were vouchsafed to taste it.
The name of AMBROSIA, the food or meat of the gods, has been compared with the word ambrotos, immortal, and has been traced, without a shadow of uncertainty, to the Sanskrit a-mrita, the elixir of immortality, which again is derived from the privative as not, and mri, (Latin mori), to die.
410
What the ancients who knew correspondences, meant by this heavenly food, may be evident from the words of the Lord in John: "I am that bread of life. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever." (vi:48-51.) And in the Apocalypse:
To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the hidden manna, by which is signified hidden wisdom, such as is possessed by those who are in the Third Heaven. (A. R. 120.)
To these who conquer in temptations there is given the delight of celestial love from the Divine Human of the Lord. . . . The reason it is called "hidden manna" is that the delight of celestial love, which is received by those who are conjoined with the Lord through love, is quite unknown to those who are not in celestial love; and this delight can be received solely by him who acknowledges the Divine Human of the Lord, because it proceeds therefrom. (A. E. 146.)
And, in general, we are told that the ancients "called the meats of the gods ambrosia, and their drink, nectar; for they knew that meats signify celestial things, and drinks spiritual things." (A. C. 4966.)
MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG. 1905
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
THIS LAST JUDGMENT ON THE PROTESTANTS OR REFORMED
(Continued.)
166. Many in the Christian world were also exposed who had had an understanding of truth but not a will of good. In the beginning such spirits are accepted among the upright because they can speak about many things even truths; moreover in the beginning, the understanding with them is enlightened but the will is laid to sleep. Such spirits were collected together on the mountains in the western quarter.
411
They league themselves with the upright who are in the ultimate heaven, who do not enquire as to things of the will but believe that those who speak intelligently are also good. But I saw such spirits,--that they were absolutely devoid of charity; and they secretly consociate with the evil and, first by reasonings and afterwards by arts, they infest the upright, until they are conjoined and devoted to themselves; for in this way they prevail against others. Many such were in heavens which they had made for themselves; and they interposed themselves between the Lord and man in the world, and so obstructed the way that the Divine operation could not have its force. Very many of this character are in the pride of self-intelligence from the love of self, and in the delight of domineering. I once saw such spirits in a somewhat high mountain in the western quarter towards the north, and everywhere round about on the sides of the mountain; and they persuaded themselves and others that one is in heaven from mere intellectual light and not at the same time from heavenly heat; they are most dangerous. I saw them cast down from the mountain and from the sides of the mountain, and a gulf underneath opened itself and swallowed them up,1 and they sank deep down and were let into darkness. For they then received falses in place of truths, and turned themselves to things contrary [to truths]. Such is the understanding when led by an evil will. The evil who had conjoined themselves with them, because they no longer had the power of resistance, were cast down into their various hells,--some into hells under the mountains, others into hells under the plains.2
1. In S. D. 5698, it is said that "the mountain opened, and swallowed them up."--TR.
2. This happened on March 30th, 1757 (S. D. 5699).--TR.
167. Those who were in faith separate rose up in insurrection, exciting a rebellion well-nigh universal. Their Dogma3 and their learned leaders rose up against those who acknowledged the Lord and a life of love from Him.
412
They stirred up all, except those who were in the eastern quarter,--these were guarded by the Lord--even to certain Mohammedans who were in the northern quarter. They sent forth companies of 50 to many places, in order that they might stir up those who were there;4 and those who remained and directed were divided into companies of 10. Their mind was to destroy all who acknowledged the Lord alone, and works together with faith as being saving; almost all of them were without religion, and hence without conscience. But when they set out to do this, and were in the endeavor to destroy others, a force flowed down from on high, or from heaven, by which they were cast down, to a number exceeding many thousands, to the hells. They also conjoined themselves with Papists and with monks who in the world had proclaimed themselves Christs and had thought nothing of the Lord's Divinity. When the whole crew had been cast down, the leaders were taken; and they became black as devils, both within and without; and they became so monstrous that they would be scarcely recognized as men. For man is such as he is as to life; he who is black as to life, afterwards becomes black even from head to heel. It was found that they had not rebelled from zeal on account of the doctrine of faith alone, but from the delight of ruling and of doing evil for the sake thereof. This was the combat of Michael and the Dragon: for all such who have insinuated themselves into heaven are drawn forth thence and cast down. They are Michael who worship the Lord and [who make] works conjoined with faith saving; for since the one is not given without the other, therefore they save conjointly.
3. The editor of the Latin edition reads Dagon in place of Dogma.--TR.
4. The number of the places to which these companies were sent was 100, and the object of the delegation was that spirits in such places might be employed as subjects (S. D. 5731 1/2, 5758).
The words of the original, ablegebant 50, are translated "they sent forth companies of 50." This is undoubtedly the true meaning, as is evident from the parallel passage in the Diary, (5758), where we read, "They sent them out 50 by 50." See also the Index to the same work, s. v. Reformati, 57311/2, where it is said "They sent them out 100 by 100."--TR.
168. The combat of the Dragon with Michael was afterwards as follows, for it lasted some days: A hand was seen stretched out over the heavens by the Lord.
413
In the western quarter towards the north5 there appeared as it were a great back6 raised above the middle towards heaven; angels in immense number were seen there. In that entrance were the dragonists; and they spoke with them concerning the Lord and concerning the goods of charity and thence of faith. All then turned towards them and listened to what they would say. And the dragonists were forced into the thoughts concerning the Lord and concerning faith alone which they had had in the world; and then most of them were possessed of no Divine idea of the Lord, nor of any idea of charity and works.7 The angels answered them wisely on this matter, but in vain. [They said], moreover, that all the angels in the heavens do not perceive the matter thus; but it was in vain.8 And at last, after the combat, when the dragonists were willing to give no further response except what was beyond the matter or beyond the truth, though they were unable to do so, they were adjudged to be cast down from every place where such spirits were. But when they said they would make resistance, the Lord was seen descending from the Sun in a bright cloud;9 and He gave judgment that all who were found to be of such a character should be separated and alienated. And then they were cast down successively and by turns according to the chain of the societies of heaven; towards the western quarter an immense number--and a thousand then appeared as one.10
414
The grievous collision of truth and falsity which pertained to temptation was felt within me. The whole western quarter was full of such spirits who had been cast down from the heavens; and then the earth was seen to open, and they were cast down and were covered over with a dense cloud. They were all such as would never have abstained from thinking and willing evils but only from doing them by reason of fear. This happened in 1757 on the 11th day of April.11 From the southern quarter to the western the dragonists were seen in a curved line under the sign of a tail;12 at the south, there, were those who had been versed in the degrees of justification13 and had confirmed these with themselves.
5. The Latin is occiderztenz (west), but this is doubtless a slip for septentrionalem, which latter occurs in a parallel passage, S. D. 5742.-TR
6. This "great back" was the appearance of the combat reaching towards the heavens which were above the middle . . . where were myriads of angels," (S. D. 5742); i. e., it was the appearance of the dragon endeavoring to drag down the heavens.--TR.
7. In S. D. 5742, this is said of the listeners, who were spirits of the imaginary heavens: "The heavenly doctrine, especially the doctrine concerning the Lord, was opposed by the dragonists; and then everyone who was listening was reduced into the state of his thought concerning the
Lord, which he had had in the world. And it was then made plain that most of them had rejected the Divine of the Lord," etc.--TR.
8. Some account of this conversation is given in S. D. 5742-TR
9. This cloud was an angelic society, see C. J. 28.--TR.
10. The number was so great that "it could not be calculated except by reckoning hundreds of thousands as a single one." S. D. 5743-TR
11. This date is mentioned as the feast of the Passover, S. D. 5746.-TR
12. In S. D. 5735 it is said that the dragonists proceeded from the south to the west "in a curved line like a tail."--TR.
13. "The degrees of justification" seems to refer to the "progressions" or stages of faith alone which are enumerated in S. D. 6014; cf. N. 183 infra.-TR.
169. The Lord's heaven was first inherited by such as had acknowledged Him and had lived well,--who had had heaven in themselves; afterwards, succeeded those who wished merely to have heaven outside themselves. To these latter it was also granted to make heavens for themselves, which they called heaven when they saw the magnificent things, such as palaces, arcades, paradises, and many servants. But, since their internals were not in correspondence, such things disappeared; and then by phantasies and the abuses of correspondences and by many arts, they provided for themselves things similar. This did not last long, however, for they placed everything in delicate living and in bodily pleasures, and thus they became wholly external such as they had been in the world; and then came the judgment, after which followed continual purifications of the societies from such spirits.
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170. Many of those who are in faith alone, because they have no conjunction with heaven but all conjunction with hell, are in the love of ruling. They are explored in the following way: From the societies of heaven they look down to the places beneath; and when they see spirits, whether many or few, walking about there, they rule their thoughts, infest them in various ways, and by phantasies cause many things to appear to them to which they are led; their inward delight is to precipitate them into hells. They are of such a character that they do not want to be led but to lead; this is their delight; wherefore they cannot be led by the Lord, for the Lord leads by the affection of use, and this is not their affection. With them use is to domineer, and, therefore, they successively deny the Lord, and rely upon arts, which are many, by which they have dominion. They put their trust in their own prudence, and ascribe nothing to Divine Providence; and when the reins are loosened they rush finally into such a state that they think there is no God. And yet inseated in them is the desire to domineer over heaven and to be there in place of God; this is inseated in the love of ruling for the sake of self. I once saw that a certain spirit in a small society was permitted to set in order those who were there. He set them in order as a spider sets its webs, placing himself in the middle and making paths in every direction, with the command that all should look to him; but that society was absorbed by the hells which were underneath. All who are of such a character desire [to come] into heavens; and they climb up into high heavens where they believe that the exercising of dominion is the delight of life,--but use is this, but when they have been explored they are cast down. They are wanderers; they direct their course from one society to another, always seeking to fill official positions.
171. That they are distinguished according to their ideas of the Divine, as 1. They who [have thought] concerning the union with the Father. 2. They who [have thought] solely of the Lord's Human and nothing of the Divine, although they knew of it. 3. They who have acknowledged three Persons and have not made them one God by essence; these are specially distinguished. 4. They who [have thought] solely of the Father; these are without a God.
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5. They who have not believed in the Lord from eternity.14
14. An additional class is given in S. D. 5821, Where these distinctions are given under the heading "The arrangement of the Heavens in order."--TR.
172. All are preserved who in the world had acknowledged the Divine of the Lord and had shunned evils as sins, especially those who had acknowledged the Divine Human, and had approached Him. But the rest who had thought of the Lord as of a common man, are rejected among the Socinians and Arians who, at first, are under the heavens nearest above the hells, and afterwards are in the hells.
173. They who were in faith alone persecuted me. They attacked me15 by bringing me into a state like that in which they themselves were by means of a like respiration and a like pulse; thus also into like thought and affection. And, in respect to God and salvation, I was in an obscure cloudiness as though immersed in water; and it was perceived that I had no communication16 with heaven; and it was said that they have a similar communication.
15. The Latin here is Me persequuti sunt illi qui in sola fide, me persequuti mihi intulerunt," etc., for which we read in S. D. 5827, Me persequuti sunt illi qui in sola fide, se congregarunt, et violentiam inferebant," etc. It would seem therefore that, in the Latin of the text, the second me persequuti is a slip for se congregarunt, in which case the translation would read "They gathered themselves together and attacked me;" or, what is not improbable that it is a slip for violentiam, when the translation would be "They attacked me with violence."--TR.
16. In S. D. 5827 the words are: "I perceived that I had scarcely any communication;--TR.
174. Many of those who are in faith alone and had committed nothing of truth and good to life, for the reason that they had rejected all moral life coming from a spiritual origin, saying that it effects nothing, and that evils do not condemn, and that the Lord had fulfilled the Law for them and had taken away damnation, and that, of themselves, they cannot do good still less fulfill the Law,--many of these become rebels and put forth various scandals against the Lord, as is the case with all who have not lived their religion, even if, in the world, they had not thought amiss concerning the Lord.
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They were explored and it was found that they had committed nothing of truth and good to life, and that they had a mere acquaintance with something of the Word which was like any other scientific matter in which there is nothing vital. And they then appeared without clothes,--for clothes signify the truths of life; and then they became completely devoid of understanding, even as to what was just and right.l7 It was said to them that they had lived without religion, and they were cast into the southern gulf, and were thus carried away.
17. In this state they appear exactly like gentiles who have had no religion, S. D. 5828, cf. nos. 130-131 supra.--TR.
175. Some of this character were let out of hells in order that they might be transferred to another hell. And it was then permitted them to act according to their will. Then they at once desired to force their way up to higher places by means of phantasies, and they were in the endeavor to do evil. It was recalled to their memory that, in hell, they had said to each other that if it were allowed them to go forth they would be just as wise as others. Certain ones then spoke with them, saying something of intelligence in which was the light of truth; and when they heard them they were seized with such anguish that they fled away. This was done several times in order that it might be confirmed that such spirits, even when the state is changed, do not sustain the light of truth, thus of intelligence. They said that they were doing them harm, but answer was made that with each other they said different. Hence it was made clear that they who are in hell can never live in the light of heaven, thus in heaven; and least of all in the heat of heaven, which is love.
176. After the judgment, all societies were disposed according to nations, in an admirable order. The order was according to affections in the heavens, and according to cupidities in the hells. They are then straightway purified by means of communications with the evil, and hence by means of a quasi fermentation; and then the alien are cast down like things heterogeneous.
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Sometimes the purification is effected by the society becoming like a single man; they who are in the man remain, they who are outside the man are rejected. After the judgment, it is not permitted to thus ascend into heaven and be cast down thence, but each one is determined in such direction that he may go the way that leads to his society.
177. Afterwards societies were formed most accurately, distinguished as to all the genera and species of the affections of good and of truth; and also corresponding infernal societies. All spirits, after they have been vastated, are now led along by designated ways tending to the interior societies which correspond and are analogous to their life; nor are they allowed to turn aside in any other direction, or to stay in other places, still less to form for themselves societies and as it were heavens, according to life in externals, as was formerly the case. It is, perhaps, supposed in the world, that man is saved and comes into heavenly societies according to his thoughts which are of the understanding of truth; but no one is saved according to these, but only according to affections and thoughts thence, thus according to the good of the will and thence the understanding of truth. For man is man from his will and his understanding thence, and not from the truth of the understanding separate from the good of the will; the understanding merely teaches how man must will and act. The evil are led along the designated ways with difficulty, for they wish to go to the sides where they are sensible of the presence of the good both below and above, to whom they are eager to do evil; for all ways are such as are the societies above and below them.
178. After the judgment the ordination of the Reformed lasted a long time, for the reason that with them is the Word and with them the Lord is known, and they are therefore in the middle; and there is the greatest light, which passes from that middle to the peripheries where are also the gentiles. On this account the ordination of the Reformed lasted a long time.
179. All those are retained in the heavens who have had the delight of some use, whether it be the delight of an office for the sake of uses, or of business from sincerity, or of some study, provided only there be the delight of use and the acknowledgment of God.
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These can be held in order by the Lord, because the Lord inflows into uses. But they who have led a life of idleness, merely in social companies, [or] in offices solely for their own glory, cannot be ruled by the Lord; and because they are not members of the society, considered as a man, they are rejected. There is an application to the function of the blood.18
18. This last sentence is written in the margin and was not included in the Latin edition. The words in the original are: Applicatio Sc. functio pro sangui[ne].--Tra.
(To be continued.)
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Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
The set of photolithographed manuscripts of Swedenborg, in ten volumes, formerly owned by the late Mr. C. N. Allen, of Glendale, O., has been deposited by the Glendale Parish in the Library of Congress at Washington.
We invite the attention of our readers to the advertisement of "The Inn" at Bryn Athyn, published in the June number of the Life. The establishment of this "pension," which was opened some time ago, has a somewhat important bearing on the work of the Academy and the General Church. The need of such a place of public entertainment at Bryn Athyn has been felt for many years, and the want of it has doubtless resulted in preventing some who would otherwise have visited this beautiful locality to see something of the great work that is being done there.
It is to be hoped that parents who send children or young people to the Academy Schools, will avail themselves of the opportunity, now presented, to visit the Schools, where their presence, particularly on special occasions such as Commencement Exercises, will contribute much to the delight and fulness of sphere. To members and friends of the General Church who would enjoy spending a vacation at this centre, to become more intimately acquainted with it, and to those not connected with this body but who may care to see for themselves, "The Inn" gives the opportunity to "come and see."
In the second number of our Australian contemporary, Divine Authority, Mr. Morse contributes a telling answer to Mr. Spencer's attack on the "Adelaide Resolutions" in The New Age for April.
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He sums up Mr. Spencer's argument, as follows: "It perpetuates the fundamental errors which prevent the Lord from being seen and acknowledged in the New Church as the Divine Truth in His Second Coming, and it is a denial of the truth that the Lord has made His Second Advent in and as the Writings given through Swedenborg. While such an argument is countenanced," he continues, "the New Church will remain in the wilderness persecuted by the Dragon, and Societies will struggle along in a weak and spiritually emaciated condition."
There is also an article by Mr. F. W. Hellberg, advocating the discussion of the Issue from a study of the Writings as a whole and not as is so often done, from isolated statements which may be turned either way. His own conclusion is that "the Writings are identical with the Divine Humanity of the Lord."
Endeavoring to establish the position that Swedenborg's "illumination" was on the purely spiritual plane, and that therefore the Writings are not to be regarded as authoritative in respect to "facts, literal verity, physical science and civil and ecclesiastical polity," The New Christianity for April speaks of Swedenborg as possessing a mind "given to high and interior philosophic contemplation," a mind which for that very reason was apt not to rest sufficiently on external data, but apt "to be both impracticable and credulous." The writer continues "Whether, through spirits from other earths, he has given us correct descriptions of the peoples on those earths, remains to be proven before those descriptions can be generally accepted." It would be interesting to know what would constitute a proof of these revelations to the eyes of The New Christianity. But why confine its incredulity to the earths in the universe? Why, on the same basis, should we believe the descriptions of the other life? of heaven? of hell? These, surely, involve "facts and literal verities," which, nevertheless, can never be "proven" by scientific processes. The attitude of The New Christianity is neither new nor Christian, but is simply the ancient denial of the possibility of Divine Revelation.
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The editor of the Neukirchenblatt for June takes up the question "Is there a Divine Feminine in God?" He quotes at length from the editorial on this subject in the April Life, and agrees so thoroughly with our arguments and passages that he uses them quite freely as his own. Nevertheless, he is not "so deadly earnest" as the Life about the matter; he accuses us of being "too fond of creating sensations," and especially deplores the use of the term "heresy" in this case. "If we were to go heresy-hunting," he says, "we might find little or big heresies even in the Life," and instances as such a heresy our statement that "man as well as woman is inmostly a form of love, and that both have the same human essence. In proof of the "heresy" of this teaching he adduces a number of passages from Conjugial Love, as that "the truth of good or the truth from good is the masculine, and the good of truth or the good from that truth is the feminine," (C. L. 88), but he neglects to add the explanation given in the same number, viz., that "by the truth of good or truth from good is meant wisdom from the love of growing wise." Especially unfortunate for his own argument is Mr. Tafel's rendering of the passage "the male is so created that he may become love from the love of growing wise, and the female is so created that she may become the love of the male from his wisdom," (C. L. 66),--which he translates "the male is so created that he may become love from the love of growing wise," etc., etc. This, of course, was a mere lapsus calami, but his misconception of the doctrine is a lapsus theologiae. The inmost faculty of life with man as well as with woman is the will, and thus affection and love. This fundamental and primary doctrine the editor terms a "heresy" and "a new discovery," and he surmises that we have been led to it by "an overly great gallantry towards the fair sex." No comments.
SCIENTIFIC AND PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISES BY EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. 1905
This is the title of a pamphlet of 60 pp., 8vo., recently published by the Swedenborg Scientific Association as the second part of a series to include all Swedenborg's lesser scientific treatises, and also such sketches and fragments as may be available.
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When completed the whole will be issued in book form.
Although the present installment is entitled Part II, it is yet the first to appear. But we understand that Part I is now in the hands of the printer. Part II contains six small tracts: 1. The Infinite, the Indefinite and the Finite; 2. The Mechanism of the Soul and the Body; 3. Observations on the Human Body; 4. The Way to a Knowledge of the Soul; 5. Philosophy of Universals; and 6. Corpuscular Philosophy in Brief. Most of these are slightly revised reprints,--three from the New Philosophy and one from the Posthumous Tracts translated by Dr. Wilkinson; but the tracts on the Infinite, and on the Soul and Body appear in print for the first time--having been transcribed and translated by Mr. Alfred H. Stroh, the editor of the whole volume. The former is merely a fragment of a somewhat larger sketch, the beginning of which is lost; but the latter is a complete work and is the largest in the series. The translation appears to be a faithful one, but it is occasionally marred by too great an adherence to literal conformity with the Latin, resulting at times in unnecessarily awkward and stilted phrases.
While all the tracts in this series are of considerable importance, and invaluable to the student of Swedenborg's philosophy, the greatest interest will undoubtedly attach itself to the little work On the Mechanism of the Soul and Body, and this not only because it is entirely new to the student, but also, and still more, on account of its intrinsic value. It has an important bearing on the question of the Limbus, for there can be no doubt but that the "Soul" here described by Swedenborg is in very many respects identical with the "Limbus" of the Writings.
The work thus inaugurated by the Swedenborg Scientific Association, of collecting the smaller scientific work and fragments and publishing them in book form, is similar to the work set on foot by the General Church with respect to the theological Writings. The printing of translations in periodicals but illy meets the needs of the student. Journals become lost, or rare, or otherwise inaccessible outside of public libraries, and the translations are often almost forgotten.
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But the plan of collecting them together and publishing them in a compact form will not only serve to make them easily accessible for reference and study, but will give opportunity for publishing the various fragments, notes, and complete little work which are to be found in the Photolithographs, and also those, the manuscripts of which have not yet been reproduced. Thus it will be an added means by which the Church may finally secure the publication of everything that Swedenborg wrote.
CONTRASTING PICTURES. 1905
From a "limited" family to no family is an easy step, and is indeed the logical consequence of the arguments most frequently adduced in defence of limitation. For if prudence and prosperity are the sole criterions by which the question is to be judged, it is plain that the decision to have no children would be equally justifiable as the decision to have a limited few; there can be no question of duty. "We want quality, not quantity," says Miss Susan B. Anthony. Her reasons are purely maternal, and with the "advanced" woman of the day, these same reasons are leading to the still more unnatural cry, "neither quality nor quantity."
It is in advocacy of this that "A Childless Wife" contributes to the Independent for March 23 an article on "Why I have no family?" The burden of her argument is that mutual financial independence is the sole foundation for a happy marriage. The old "servitude" of the wife has rested upon her financial helplessness. Of course the bearing of children increases this "helplessness" and thus confirms the wife in her "servitude;" even with a good husband she is but the "slave of a kind master." What a picture of marriage! A financial partnership, a legalized concubinage, where dame Nature must not be allowed to enter in to disturb the nice balance between the money-making powers of the two partners.
A great deal is also said about the "loss" which motherhood inflicts on society by "destroying the woman's earning power and social usefulness," and converting the man into a mere "money-making machine" for the support of a family.
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Of course the logical outcome of this is that the decrease of children will be in direct ratio to the increase of woman's "intelligence," "independence," and "usefulness to society;" and since we should hope for the latter, we must naturally expect the former, until, at last, the very climax of "usefulness to society" will be reached--in its extinction!
It is like entering into the air of heaven to turn from "A Childless Wife's" article to that by "An American Mother" which immediately follows it. It is headed "My Large Family," and the author defends the family as the only basis for the love of marriage and the love of home. Before her marriage she and her husband had been given much advice (or temptation) as to their relations to each other, "but somehow, as we had not been created in this relation, we understood each other better as husband and wife. So, without irreverence, we laid the consequence of our honest union upon our Father." Troubles came,--privation, death, and worst of all the cry of "friends" that this course "was one of shame." And now the mother contemplates what is left her. "I find there are left to me four useful, graceful daughters and four stalwart sons." "But my joys are not alone in these dear ones left in the school of earth. Some are on that other shore with him whose memory is so precious to wife and children who remain." And could she live her life over again with full knowledge of its trials she would still put her hand into the hand of that same beloved one, and together, with yet more trust and confidence, we would walk in the same way." Contrast these two pictures, and ask yourself, In which is true love and happiness?
ACADEMY ARCHIVES. 1905
All lovers of the history of the New Church,-and all who love the New Church will love her history,--will be interested in the news that a great collection of old letters,-hundreds of them, bearing on the early history of the New Church in America,--has recently been discovered in a box which many years ago was presented by the Rev. W. H. Benade to the Academy of the New Church, but which was not opened until a few weeks ago.
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Not only did we find there a great mass of old manuscripts and letters written by Mr. Benade himself between the years 1845 and 1887, but in a bundle marked "Central Convention papers" we found a veritable mine of most important and interesting documents of New Church History, collected chiefly by the Hen. John Young and the Rev. Richard De Charms, and ranging from the very beginning of the New Church in this country up to the middle of the last century. This collection includes letters from Francis Bailey, John Young, William Hill, John Clowes, Samuel Woodworth, Holland Weeks, Lewis Beers, John Hargrove, Wm. Schlatter, Jonathan Condy, Condy Raguet, M. M. Carll, C. I. Doughty, Thomas Worcester, Samuel Worcester, Prof. Bush, Immanuel Tafel, and many others of the founders of the New Church in America, England, and on the Continent,--all of them contributing to the formation of a view of the inner history of the Church, such as cannot be gained by documents hitherto published. The Archives of the Academy, already voluminous and invaluable, have thus received a most important accession, and we hope, from time to time, to be able to publish some of these interesting documents in the New Church Life.
While on this subject, we would make an earnest appeal to our readers to remember the importance of preserving all letters which have any possible bearing upon the history of the New Church,--locally or generally; even mere references and scraps, which at the present time may seem insignificant may at some future day he of great value to the historian who otherwise could not be supplied with some missing link of information. And there can be no better way of preserving them, than by sending them for safe keeping in the Archives of the Academy. Here they will be classified, catalogued, and preserved in a fire-proof vault, where they may be consulted by students of the history of the Church, and kept for the use of future generations who will look back upon the beginnings of the crowning Church with far more interest than we can now imagine.
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Let all our friends, therefore, contribute to this general fund of information for the future,--and nearly everybody possesses some letters written by ministers or leaders of the Church, or documents referring to the history of some society or circle. Let us have the old letters which are stored away in trunks and boxes in the garret, or attested copies of them.
At the present time we especially desire to obtain all letters written by the Rev. W. H. Benade, or referring to him, as a biography of this great leader in the Church is in the course of preparation. Mr. Benade did not write much for publication but was a great letter-writer and his letters freely exhibit the qualities of his wonderful mind. Anything in these letters, which may be of a personal or private nature, will, of course, be respected and be kept out of print, but the history of his life and work will be richer and more complete in the degree that our friends comply with this appeal.
"THE AFFECTION OF GOOD AND OF TRUTH." 1905
Our respected friend, "S. M. W.," in The New Church Review for April, takes strong exception to the principles of translation advocated in the editorial on "The Affection of Good and of Truth," in the July number of the Life, for 1904, (p. 379) "S. M. W." is convinced that affectio boni and affectio veri should be translated "affection for good" and "affection for truth," and he is so earnest in his contention that he maintains that good and truth "are not now thought of, or conceived of, as exercising or giving forth affection, but the intelligent people, who know and use the language as it was and is," and that our construction of the terms is not only "occult" and "extra-grammatical" but also "involves a fundamental doctrinal and philosophical error." But our critic himself, in the latter part of his reply, adopts the very position which he so strongly condemns in the first part, in application, at least, to a certain "class of passages in the Writings."
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In these passages, which, he says, are "very numerous," truth is treated of "in a sense hitherto unrecognized, and therefore unknown to the language of men, and which is consequently extra-grammatical. These are passages where spiritual and divine truth is spoken of, after, by being lived, it has entered into the life and constitution of a man, and so has become subjective within him, and thus is no longer in any sense outside of him,--not even in his memory, nor yet in the under- standing merely, but 'the law of God is in his heart.' Then truth as the form of good, becomes much more than an object of affection. It becomes a living substance whence affection goes forth." (Italics our own.)
With this position we heartily agree, but are bound to go much further, by applying this principle to all Truth, since the Divine Truth, whether lived by man or not, is in itself "a living substance whence affection goes forth,"--being nothing less than Divine Substance itself, the most substantial of all substances, the substance of the living God! How can there be any human affections except from this one and only source? To insist that the affection of truth is from the man, and not from the truth, is to maintain that man himself is the source of his affections, thus the originator of his own life.
In spite of his final admission, "S. M. W." reasons that "if the affection went forth from the truth and the good, and not from man.--if it were the affection of truth and of good, it could never be for the sake of self, but would be of the same quality as its source, and carry with it its own heavenly nature." We cannot accept this argument. An evil man can recognize a truth, and, if he sees that he can use it for some selfish end, his understanding is affected by that truth; the affection which resides in that truth is communicated to him, and is received by him as such in his external mind, and this to such an extent that he can by means of it communicate heavenly affections to thousands of men, and thereby lead them to eternal salvation. The fact that the truth, even when taught by an evil priest, is able thus to affect men, shows that the affection proceeds from the truth, and not from the man, for in the latter case it could only arouse evil affections.
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Again, our friend reasons that "as all truth is presented to the mind, and is received, from without, and affections flow from within, the assumption that the genitive in affectio veri is always subjective, and that the affection flows from the truth into man, involves a fundamental doctrinal and philosophical error; it reverses the order of influx." But is it not evident that after the truth has been received from without, and is lodged in the mind of man, it can no longer be said to be without him? And the affection of truth then flows from within the truths in the mind,--not from within the proprium or the own will of the man himself, from which comes nothing but the affections of evil and falsity, since the proprium is nothing but evil and falsity. To say that the affections of good and truth come from such a defiled source,--this, indeed, "involves a fundamental doctrinal and philosophical error."
"S. M. W." himself quotes the teaching that "until man knows truths from the Word and from the Doctrine of the Church, he cannot love them, for there is no affection for what is not known, --affectio ignoti," (A. C. 10661),--in itself a sufficient proof of our contention: the knowledge and the truth must precede the affection of knowledge and the affection of truth with the man; the thing which affects must be received before it can communicate its affection. But if it were true that the affection of truth is from the man, in the first instance, and not from the truth itself, then the affection of truth could exist independent of the truth; there could then be an affection for what is not known,--which is impossible.
What applies to the affection of truth applies to all other affections, even the affection of knowing, (affectio sciendi), which "S. M. W." always renders "affection for knowing," although Swedenborg distinguishes between the affectio sciendi and the affectio ad sciendum. (D. L. W. 404). Our critic seems to think that the affection or knowing originates in the man himself, but what if there were nothing knowable, nothing to be known? It is the thing that is known,--in other words, the natural fact or natural truth in the memory,--which first communicates its own good or its own affection,--the affection of knowing,-and then and thereby arouses and awakens the further and objective love or affection for knowing,--more knowledge.
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For every truth, whether natural or spiritual, has its own good or its own affection, nay, in itself it is nothing but that good or affection in a form adapted to the intellectual faculty, and it is this good which affects or causes the affection by means of its form.
Our friend has misunderstood us if he thinks that we would rule out the affection for truth, as if there were no such affection. What we maintained was that his proposed rendering of affectio veri "does not convey the full meaning of the original," and that "it limits the meaning of the original to one single, subordinate, and relatively external idea, which indeed is involved in the original expression, but does not dominate in it." And on this ground we stated that the affection of truth and of good "is the only literal rendering of the original," since the of involves both ideas, whereas for is exclusively objective.
The main objection of "S. M. W." seems to be based on a rule in Latin grammar, teaching that "the objective genitive is used with substances of transitive signification, to express the object of the transitive force. Such substantives are those which are derived from transitive verbs, and express the notion of the verb; others denote affection, etc.," and he then makes so sweeping and rigid an application of this rule as to assert that "bonum and verum, in the Phrases in question, in any grammatical meaning of the words, are never subjects but objects of affection." But he fails to observe that the word affectio is primarily of an intransitive force, derived from the passive form of the verb afficere, and meaning first "a state of being affected or influenced,"--thus a superimposed state or condition,--and hence "a disposition towards an object." (See White and Riddle). Thus, in affectio veri, the subjective idea of being affected by the truth is always primary, and the objective idea of being disposed towards the truth is secondary.
In closing, we must express our gratitude to "S. M. W." for quoting a passage which had not before come to our notice, and of which he himself does not appear to grasp the import,--a direct teaching which effectually disposes of the claim that the affection does not reside in the truth itself, and is exclusively the affection of the man himself for the truth.
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This passage states that "Spiritual beauty is affection of interior truth, because truth is the form of good." And it continues: "But the truth of faith does not make the beauty, but the affection itself which is in the truths of faith, which is from good,--sed ipsa affeccio QUAE INEST VERIS FIDEI QUAE EST A BONO." (A. C. 5199.)
"FETE DIEU" IN CANADA. A. K. ROY 1905
Communicated.
EDITOR New Church Life:--
Your article in the June Life on the 19th of June contains a brief notice of the "Fete Dieu" or "the elevation of the host" as it is styled by the Papal authorities.
Your readers are informed that the pageant may be witnessed "anywhere in Belgium" or in even "more splendor in the South of France."
It is not necessary to go so far as either France or Belgium to see this festival observed with all the pomp with which the papacy knows so well how to impress the ignorant populace.
Visit either of the cities of Montreal or Quebec and it can there be seen celebrated with great magnificance and splendor.
The Host is carried through the principal streets of Montreal, starting from the parish church of Notre Dame in the Place D'armes under a gorgeous canopy borne aloft by ecclesiastics in equally gorgeous apparel. The whole atmosphere is charged with incense. The populace drop to their knees in the dust or mud as it passes, devoutly crossing themselves. All other traffic is stopped. I have repeatedly seen it and have also seen the hats of those in the crowd, who did not voluntarily remove them, knocked off. This they would not dare to do now, however.
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In numerous towns and villages of Quebec this festival is similarly observed. Once it was attempted to carry the host on the streets of Toronto, but it resulted in a riot, and has never been repeated. I am not aware that it is carried anywhere in Ontario except Ottawa.
Yours truly,
A. K. ROY.
Toronto, Ont., June, 1905.
"SCIENTIFICS" OR "MATTERS OF KNOWLEDGE." S. M. W 1905
EDITOR of New Church Life:--
The paper in the March issue of the Life on "Knowledge, Scientifics, and Cognitions" is a very interesting, and seems to me a valuable contribution towards the right understanding, and so towards the right translation, of the Latin words which these terms are intended to represent. And responding frankly to the open spirit of inquiry in which the paper is written, I am prompted to make some comments and some further suggestions on the subject. Your definition of the scope and the meaning of the several terms scientia, scientiae, scientificum, and scientifica, as they are used in the Writings, appears to me entirely correct. The terms ought never to be confused in translating; nor should the distinction of singular and plural in either of them ever be lost. They never mean, I think, exactly the same--as you have pointed out. But I would like to see all these terms translated, and I think they can be, into good understandable English, into English which will as exactly convey the sense, and express it far more certainly and clearly to the reader, than does the usual Anglicized form of the Latin words. My objection to a continuance of the effort to Anglicize these original terms is, that the word science has, in the progress of our language, come to mean so almost exclusively systematized knowledge that the derivatives of scientia, as words, point the reader only in that direction--towards science, or systematized knowledge, and thus tend to confuse and to mislead.
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There wants no better proof of this than the confusion and diversity of opinion that has always existed in the New Church as to what is really meant in the Writings by what are called "scientifics." The fact that the word itself is all the time pointing in the wrong direction, away from the real meaning, sufficiently explains why so little actual progress has been made towards Anglicizing the term. If it ever should essay to get into the Dictionary "with the Swedenborgian definition." who shall authoritatively define it for the Dictionary? This confusion of tongues on the subject will hardly cease so long as we hold on to the confusing term. Nevertheless, if it were necessary it should at all events be retained; but, as I said, I think it is not necessary. I like your definition or rather explanation of the term well translated from Anglicized Latin into vernacular English; and thus interpreted I think it would be generally acceptable. Of course, whether the term scientifica in any particular instance is to be taken in one of its specific senses, or in its general sense, as embracing all matters of knowledge, is always to be determined by the context.
Now, as to the proper rendering of these Latin terms; I think all will agree that as scire signifies to "know," so scientia signifies "knowledge," in the most comprehensive sense. By a little literary art I think we can use derivative terms and expressions which will bear the same manifest relation to "know" and "knowledge" that scientificum and scientifica have to scire and scientia,--and then the terms we use, instead of confusing, will be in a measure self- explanatory. In translating others of Swedenborg's abstract nouns, such as coelestia, spiritualia, and even Divina, we employ the very convenient and useful neutral word "things" (though we have sometimes used it too much, and unnecessarily), and occasionally the word "matters," where this term better suits the rhythm and flow, or the idiom of the language. Thus we say "celestial things," "spiritual things" and "things Divine;" why not then, for scientifica say "things" or "matters of knowledge?" By way of illustration let me offer a translation after this manner, of the passages which you quote from the Writings as examples. The first, from A. C. 5934, is perhaps as trying as any passage that could be selected.
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I have extended the quotation a little, to make the illustration more complete. With so much necessary circumlocution it will not make an elegant paragraph, from the literary point of view; neither does it however translated. But that is not our chief concern. It would make the passage read thus:--
"In the natural mind there are matters of knowledge (sciencifica) of various kinds; there are matters of knowledge respecting earthly, corporal, and worldly things, which are the lowest-for these are immediately from things external-sensual, or of the body; there are matters of knowledge concerning the civil state, its government, statutes, and laws,--which are a little more internal; there are matters of knowledge concerning the things that pertain to moral life, which are still more internal. But those that are of spiritual life are the most internal of all; these are truths of the church, which in so far as they are only from doctrine with a man are nothing but matters of knowledge; but when they art from the good of love, then they go above matters of knowledge, for then they are in spiritual light, from which they see the things of knowledge below them in their order. Through such degrees of the things of knowledge man rises to intelligence; for by these degrees things of knowledge open the mind, so that light from the spiritual world can flow in."
I think this form of expression, if not elegant, has a clear meaning, and really translates the author's language. It preserves the obvious and very significant relationship in meaning between scientifica and the parent word scientia, from which it comes; and it preserves the important distinction of plurality in the original word scientifica,--the integral elements of the concrete entities called "knowledges" (scientiae), as ideas are the elements of thoughts.
Again, in A. C. 6386:--
"Doctrinals art things which are from the Word; cognitions are things which are from those doctrinals on the one hand, and from matters of knowledge on the other; and matters of knowledge are things that are of experience, by one's self and by others."
In A. C. 10272:--
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"By ministering goods and truths are meant the goods and truths that are in the natural or external man, which are called cognitions, and matters of knowledge; for it is into these that the internal man looks and from which he selects things that confirm, which are in agreement with the life of his affections, or of his love; and because they are thus subordinate they are called ministering. There are also goods and truths that minister to these again, which are called matters of sensual knowledge (scientifica sensualia)."
In A. C. 99:--
"Fishes, in the Word, signify the matters of knowledge which arise from sensual things. For matters of knowledge are of three kinds, intellectual, rational, and sensual; all these are inseminated into the memory, or rather into the memories."
In A. C. 4360:--
"Matters of sensual knowledge. . .are matters of knowledge of outward things that are of the world, and hence are the most general of all, and are those that enter immediately through the outer senses, and are perceived by the sense itself. All infants are in them, and they serve as planes for cognitions of spiritual things; for spiritual things are founded upon natural and are represented in them."
In A. C. 4964:--
Joseph was made to go down into Egypt.--That this signifies,--to the matters of knowledge which are of the church, appears from the signification of Egypt, which is knowledge (scientia) or what is known, in general (seu scientificum in communi). But what kind of knowledge it was that is properly signified by Egypt has not yet been explained: In the Ancient Church there were matters of doctrine, and there were matters of knowledge. The matters of doctrine ware concerning love to God, and concerning charity towards the neighbor: and the matters of knowledge were concerning the correspondences of the natural world with the spiritual world, and concerning the representatives of spiritual and celestial things in natural and terrestial. These were the matters of knowledge of those who were in the Ancient Church; and Egypt was among the countries and the kingdoms where the Ancient Church was. But as there, especially, matters of knowledge were taught, Egypt signifies what is known, in general (scientificum in genere)."
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In A. C. 4966:--
"It should be known that the matters of knowledge of the ancients were entirely different matters of knowledge at the present day. The matters of knowledge of the ancients. . .were drawn from the correspondences of things in the natural world with things in the spiritual world (The matters of knowledge which at this day are called Philosophy, such as the Artistotelian and the like, were unknown to them); and this is evident from the books of the more ancient writers--very many of which were composed in such terms as signified and represented interior things, and corresponded to them. . . . Who at this day is acquainted with these things? And where are the particulars of knowledge (scientifica) which teach them? Knowing nothing at all about correspondence and representation, they are called emblematic. From these facts it may be seen of what kind the matters of knowledge of the ancients were; and that they led them into acquaintance (Cognitionem) with things spiritual and celestial,--even the existence of which is at this day scarcely known. The matters of knowledge which followed in place of these, and are specially called Philosophy, rather draw the mind away from knowing such things, since they can be applied also to confirm falsities; and they bring the mind into obscurity when truths are confirmed by them,--because very many of the things by which the confirmations are made are naked terms which are apprehended by few, and about which even these few are not agreed. It is very evident then how far the human race has departed from the learning of the Ancients, which led to wisdom. The Gentiles had these things from the Ancient Church, whose external worship consisted in things representative and significative, and their internal worship in the things which were represented and signified. These were the matters of knowledge (scientifica) which, in the genuine sense, are signified by Egypt."
I have tried to select some of the more difficult passages, in order to show the practicability of this way of consistent rendering of these closely related words.
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But it is hardly possible that these examples meet every difficulty of the case. Indeed, an instance now occurs to me, requiring still another slight variation in the form of expression. It is in A. C. 130, where it is said of the man whose Eden is perverted, that "his river Euphrates is omne ejus scientificum, quod damnatum,"--literally, "his every matter of knowledge;" but in more idiomatic form the idea of the original would be clearly and pretty exactly expressed thus:--"his river Euphrates is all that he knows, which is condemned." In some places it may be best to render scientificum with "what is known," or "a thing known," and scientifica with "things known." I am well satisfied that with sufficient care and literary skill these related terms can always be well rendered by some derivative of the word "know," which will preserve the distinct and important relationship, which should always be evident, with the parent word,--corresponding exactly with that which always exists in the Latin between scire and scientia and their derivatives.
As regards the word COGNITION, it is doubtful whether there is any other acceptable term in English that will so well express the sense of the original, wherever it is used in distinction from scientia and its derivatives. In both its singular and its plural form it represents the Latin cognitio-cognitiones in all such cases, almost exactly; and it has the unusual advantage of being a cognate word which has not departed from or lost anything of its original signification. For which reason there seems hardly an excuse for not using it. It is Swedenborg's own term. That it is a philosophical and not a popular word should, as you well say, at least be no objection, because the Writings throughout are written in a philosophical style. In fact, far more than their style is philosophical; they are themselves a vast system and body of Divine and spiritual philosophy,-and everywhere treat the almost innumerable variety and aspects of its subjects in the most exalted degree philosophically-even where the style itself is less obviously so.
There is, however, as you also point out, a certain limitation to the use of the word in the Writings, which is peculiar to them. Swedenborg does not apply the term cognitiones to all matters of cognition, but, for the purpose of an important distinction, restricts the use of it almost exclusively if not entirely, to cognitions of spiritual things.
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In other respects I do not think he departs from the common usage of the term; cognitiones are, though spiritual, things cognized. Cognitions, like all other things known, are stored in the memory and become (scientifica) matters of knowledge; but I do not understand that the only difference between cognitiones and scientifica in the memory is that the former are memories of spiritual things, and the latter memories of things in general. In other words, I do not think that in Swedenborg's usage the term cognitiones loses all, or anything, of its grammatical signification in application to the subjects to which he applies the term. The verb cognoscere, from which cognition comes, signifies, to know by becoming acquainted with a thing; and so the noun cognitio signifies--"A learning to know; knowledge as a consequence of perception, or by the exercise of our mental powers; acquaintance; cognition." (Andrew's Freund's Lex.) I have found no passage in the Writings which is inconsistent with this definition.
Matters of knowledge in general (scientifica) are things of any kind memorized, in whatever manner; cognitions (cognitiones) in the Writings are matters of spiritual knowledge, memorized by some degree of cognition of them.
I will here cite a few passages which appear to me to illustrate and confirm this view:
In A. E. 506 Swedenborg speaks of the loss of all perception and "consequently of all cognition" of truth and good; and goes on to say that--"When perception of spiritual truth and good perishes cognition of them perishes also,--for though the man knows (scit) them, and talks about them, either from the Word or from doctrine, yet he does not know (scit) them, since he does not perceive them. Perception of a thing causes the cognition of it."
To the same effect is the passage above cited from A. C. 3386--that "Cognitions are things which are from doctrinals on the one hand and from matters of knowledge on the other;" for how can doctrinals unite with matters of knowledge to produce cognitions except by some doctrinal light from them, causing a measure of perception, or apprehension?
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Again in A. E. 587 we read,--"that there is no life of intelligence and of perception of truth and good, is signified by "They do not cognize (cognoscent), neither do they understand" (Is. xliv. 19).
Quite to the same effect, I think, is the real meaning of the definition in A. E. 5451 that-
"By matters of knowledge (scientifica) from the Word, are meant all things of the sense of the letter there wherein nothing doctrinal appears; and by cognitions of truth and good are meant, all things of the sense of the letter of the Word in which and from which there is something doctrinal."
When we look for the reason or the understanding of this, we see how close is its purport to that of the citation from A. C. 3386 Things from the letter of the Word in which nothing doctrinal appears, cannot be more than merely known (scientifica),--for the light within them does not appear; but things from the letter of the Word in and from which there is doctrinal light are cognized by that light; they are cognitions. . The degree of cognition or of apprehension may be small and feeble,--as in the earliest doctrinal apprehensions of childhood,--for we are taught that cognitions are received from a very early age, even ab infantia (A. E. 403, 406, etc.). The measure of cognition at first indeed is small, and is only of the most general truth. Still it is somewhat more than merely memorized, though it is in the memory, and becomes a scientificum, a matter of knowledge, there; yet it is not just the same kind of scientificum as the things memorized from the letter of the Word in which nothing doctrinal appears,--as these also are distinct from and above matters of mere outward knowledge acquired through the senses (scientifica sensualia). These earliest cognitions--taking the term in its strict and active sense--are of essential importance to man.
We read in A. C. 1802 that:--
"One cannot be gifted with the faculty of perceiving good of love and truth of faith except by cognitions, so that he gets to know (novit) what and of what nature they are.
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It is so with all, even with infants,--who are all instructed in the Lord's Kingdom, and they easily because they are imbued with no principles of falsity; but they are instructed only in general truths,--when they receive which, there are then things indefinite that they perceive. It is so with one who has been persuaded of any truth in general; the particulars of the general truth, and the singulars of the particulars, which are confirmatory, he apprehends easily, and as it were of himself or spontaneously; for he is affected by the truth in general, and thence by the particulars and singulars of the same truth which confirm it."
I warmly appreciate and sympathize with all that you say about the great good that would result "if by study and discussion the Church could come into some degree of common thought and common understanding" in respect to the meaning and the true rendering into English of these leading and very significant terms so constantly used by Swedenborg. You most truly add that-- "If the Writings could be permitted to be their own interpreter, the past confusion would be done away with." Whoever can contribute anything substantial towards this longed-for and beneficent harmony of thought and action on so essential a subject will have cause to feel profoundly thankful. S. M. W.
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. Our regular correspondent having deserted her post, the reader must be content with a most brief chronicle.
On Saturday, June 10th, Mr. Emil Stroh and Miss Evelyn Frankish were married at the chapel. The service was followed by a reception held in the Art room of the Academy building. The bride and bridegroom are spending their honeymoon in California. On June 13, three plays were presented by the pupils of the local school: "Old Pipes," by the youngest class; "Scenes from King Arthur," by the third class, and "The Lady of the Lake," by the oldest class. The little actors entered in with a will, and their acting reflected great credit on their teachers.
The meeting of the Alumni Association was held on June 15th. Five new members were "initiated," and a pleasant evening was spent in considering means for strengthening the sphere of the Association. There was also much jollity. The meeting of the Alumnae Association occupied two sessions,--June 14th and 15th,--at which, we understand, considerable business was transacted.
The celebration of June 19th can receive nothing but a bare mention. Despite the excessive heat, the occasion was a successful one. During the dinner Mr. Odhner read portions of a sketch of Bishop Benade's life, which he is now engaged in writing.
Among our recent visitors, have been Miss Elise Junge. Miss Luelle Pendleton, the Rev. J. E. Bowers. Mr. Alex. Lindsay, and Mrs. Jacob Ebert. R. W. C.
ACADEMY SCHOOLS. The universal spirit of activity attending the preparation for Commencement pervaded the social life of the School. The Seniors themselves enjoyed a long series of suppers at which the thought was directed to the significance of the work already done, and the prospect of the work yet to be done.
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At these times the general truth embodied in the class motto, "Be Faithful," has been enlightened by many applications to school life and to life in the world.
The Juniors drank their "stirrup cup" with the graduates at the ball given in honor of the latter. After the customary dancing the company were invited into the Cairnwood dining room where various toasts were drunk. The Juniors then proceeded to eulogize the members of the Senior classes, setting forth their "dignity," and suggesting more appropriate names for those worthies. Nor did they fail to employ the power of verse in their tribute to the Seniors. The program now took a serious turn and several inspiring addresses were made by Mr. Acton, Mr. Odhner, Mr. Price, and Bishop Pendleton. The trend of all was the promise for the future as assured in the affection of the graduates for the principles of the Academy.
The Senior Class Ball was a success from the very start. The room was elaborately decorated with streamers and class emblems. After a few dances the curtains in a certain part of the room were drawn back disclosing to view the members of the class grouped in the outline of a shield. The song, "Our Alma Mater," was now sung by the class, at the close of which they marched up to the front of the room, bearing the class banner. In a few words the President of the combined College and Seminary class presented the banner to the Academy, Bishop Pendleton accepting it for the school. The remaining of the evening were mostly humorous. The class prophecies were unsparing in their severity, according to the time-honored way of class prophecies: the Juniors were ordered home to bed after being fed from nursing-bottles, though in the case of the girls, dolls were substituted for bottles. The young ladies' class poem sounded a true note, while the boys used the opportunity to "eulogize" the Juniors. The boys next presented in pantomime "what we were when we first came to Bryn Athyn," and this proved one of the most amusing features of the evening. Mr. Lechner, president of the boys' class, presented the teachers with appropriate presents, ranging from a tiny lamp for Mr. Price, to a toy carpet-sweeper for Mr. Van Horn. Class photographs were presented by the graduates to their teachers.
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Last of all, by the light of a bonfire the class-wills were read, and the Juniors and undergraduates were willed the virtues of the Seniors.
The account of the Commencement Day itself can be but a mere sketch. The large audience, the strong sphere of love for the Alma Mater, the mingled feeling of sorrow in departing from school-life and of eagerness in entering upon real life, the parting from old friends, made the occasion a remarkable one. The singing of several Hebrew songs elevated the mind, and the service was such as to inspire humility, and thankfulness to the Giver of all good. The presentation of medals and diplomas was effective, and was an encouragement both to those who had already graduated and to those who were yet to do so. The degree of Bachelor of Arts was granted to Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, Mr. Doering Bellinger, Mr. Walter A. Cranch, and Mr. Harvey Lechner; Mr. E. C. Bostock received the degree of Bachelor of Science. Medals were given Miss Gwladys Hicks, Miss Constance Pendleton, Miss Esther Marelius, and Miss Vivien King. Miss Alice Grant was awarded the degree of Bachelor of the Science of Education. Miss Elizabeth Ashby received a Certificate of Efficiency as teacher in New Church Schools. A book was presented to the school by the girls, the boys giving a sun-dial. The papers read this day will appear in the "Mercury," so we shall not attempt to review them. The valedictory delivered by Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, which appears on another page, was an honor to the class, and is itself one of those effects of New Church education which establish in our hearts the confidence in the strength and permanence of the Academy.
Miss Carrie Hobart has been temporarily obliged by ill health to discontinue her work in the Seminary. She has been given one year's leave of absence. The good wishes of all her pupils are with her. R W. C.
BERLIN, ONT. Our young people spent two pleasant social evenings during the month of May, being entertained on the 17th by Mr. and Mrs. Rudolf Roschman, and on the 28th by Mr. and Mrs. George Scott.
The 24th of May, or Victoria Day, is a holiday in Canada, and the Carmel church celebrated it by holding a picnic on its school grounds during the afternoon.
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All manner of sports were provided: base ball, basket ball, foot ball, tennis, tug-of-war, etc., etc., and prizes were awarded to the successful competitors. In the evening fireworks were sent off, the gathering ill the meantime singing patriotic and other songs. A dance in the school room concluded the day's pleasure.
On Friday evening, May 28th, a memorial meeting for Bishop Benade was held. The meeting was opened with worship, and then the pastor gave a history of Mr. Benade's life, and dwelt on the great work which he, as an instrument in the Lord's hands, had hall done for the establishment of a more interior faith and a truer life in the Church. He spoke also of his remarkable ability as a theologian and as a man of learning generally, of his determination and courage in carrying out what he believed to be good and right, and of his affectionate and tender interest in all that concerned the welfare of others. These qualities and the work which he did drew to him the affections of those who looked to him as their teacher, and in all times to come those of the Church who receive the true principles of the Church which he taught, will honor his memory.
Mr. Charles Brown (of Toronto) said that the strong quality in Bishop Benade's character was his constant endeavor to have the Church not merely acknowledge the Truth in a passive way, but to actively ultimate it in its life. By his teaching the Church came to know what may be termed the distinctive doctrines of the Church. We should be thankful to the Lord that such a man had been given to lead and guide the Church. Mr. Rudolf Roschman said that Bishop Benade's work was the beginning of a new life in the Church. In the early days of the Church there were men who received the doctrines affirmatively; but afterwards there came a decline, and men began to teach anything that struck their fancy as being the doctrine of the Church. What would have become of the Church but for the founding of the Academy? The Academy was indeed a wonderful organization. Filled with the spirit of its great leader, it breathed the life of loyalty to the Truth. The work of Father Benade was none other than awakening in the Church a genuine loyalty to the Truth.
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But for that work we would not be enjoying the blessings of the Church which we have to-day. May we preserve that loyalty. We love him for what he accomplished. He will live in the history of the Church as one of her greatest sons. Mr. Jacob Stroh spoke of Mr. Benade as one of those men whom the Lord raises up from time to time to do some great work for the Church. When the time for such a man is at hand, the Lord provides him. It is remarkable that generally the Church at large looks on such a man as its greatest enemy. But lately, Hindmarsh was maligned. It is no easy thing to lead the Church into what is new and good. Mr. Benade possessed many fine dualities. One of these was his great love of children, and this love was not merely a thing of natural good, but undoubtedly had its origin in his seeing in them the hope of the Church of the future. When he visited us here for the last time, he spoke to the children of the school and told them of the angels who are present and who love the New Church and watch over it. He, too, will now be one of those who from the other world will strengthen the Church on earth. There will be important work for him to do there, just as there was on earth. Mr. Richard Roschman spoke of Mr. Benade's social qualities. His company was always enlovable and instructive. He was also very sympathetic, and old and young felt free to go to him with their troubles. He was wonderfully gifted as a teacher for all ages and classes, yet it seems that he was at his best when teaching in the Seminary, for the young ladies, who were privileged to be instructed by him, retain a most affectionate regard for his teaching. Mrs. Bellinger, who saw him recently in London, tells that he manifested a deep interest in his old friends, but especially in the young people, inquiring particularly after many of them. He told her he was busy writing a work on Egypt. The meeting closed with singing and the benediction. A social then followed, during which toasts were drunk and the old-time Academy songs sung. W.
LONDON, ENGLAND. On Monday, May 29th, the friends of the General Church met at 99 Holland Road to commemorate the departure into the spiritual world of Bishop Benade.
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The Rev. Andrew Czerny presided and gave an address in which he referred to the various uses performed for the Church by the late Bishop,--uses greater than had ever been achieved by earlier Newchurchmen. After a number of the friends had spoken on similar lines, it was unanimously resolved to send a message of sympathy to Mrs. Benade in her temporary separation from her husband, at the same time expressing to her the appreciation by all present of the great services he had rendered to the New Church.
It was then mentioned that a day or two previously Mrs. Denney had passed into the spiritual world. A feeling of satisfaction was expressed that she had been called to a state of peace after her prolonged and painful illness. A wreath was sent from the meeting with a message to Mr. Denney, expressing he heartfelt sympathy of the friends with him in his bereavement.
The friends here are now looking forward with the greatest pleasure to the coming Assembly of the General Church, which will be held at Colchester on August 5th. It is generally hoped that some of our American friends will be able to time their visits to the Old Country so as to be present at the meetings. G. A. M.
(When the above was written, our correspondent was not aware that Bishop Pendleton had decided to pay a visit to England during the summer, and would therefore be present at the Assembly in Colchester. Mr. Pendleton, who will be accompanied by his wife, sails on July 5th by S. S. Oceanic. Mr. John Pitcairn, with son and daughter, sail on the same steamer.--ED.)
FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES. The SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION held its annual meeting in New York on June 5th. Among the resolutions passed was one calling attention to the decrease in the roll of the Association, and inviting members to co-operate with the work of extending its membership.
A special offering at the Easter services of the NEW YORK Society resulted in the contribution of over $5.500; more than sufficient to pay off the indebtedness of the Society.
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The American Swedenborg Society has donated a set of all its publications to the University Library at Upsala, Sweden, which is endeavoring to make a complete collection of editions of Swedenborg's works.
The Rev. Albinus Frost, missionary of the MASSACHUSETTS Association, departed this life at Cambridge, Mass., April 25, 1905. Mr. Frost has been in the New Church ministry for over thirty years, during which he served as pastor, theological professor, and finally as missionary.
The Rev. Paul Sperry has accepted a call from the BATH, Me., Society. He will enter upon his duties immediately after his graduation from the theological school next July.
In the course of his missionary tour, the Rev. J. A. Spiers, at JACKSONVILLE, Fla., met an old lady. Miss Ruth Gledhill, who had been baptized by Mr. Hindmarsh eighty years ago. During Mr. Spier's visit the little circle at Jacksonville preferred to have a reading class for the members of the Church, rather than that the minister should deliver a missionary lecture. They realize that "without the doctrines there can be no good life," and that "the doctrines are found nowhere else than in the Word as it is opened in the Writings."
AUSTRALIA. In the April number of the New Age appear letters from two members of the Adelaide Society, taking exception to the statement that the doctrinal position of the ADELAIDE RESOLUTIONS has always been the position of the Society and was inculcated by the former pastor, the Rev. E. G. Day. Extracts from Mr. Day's sermons are offered in confirmation, but they fail to show anything more than that Mr. Day was extremely loyal to the Writings and a firm believer in the organized New Church as being the only true church on earth. One of the correspondents also protests against the report that the Adelaide Resolutions were passed unanimously; but this only goes to show how unsatisfactory and obscuring it is to pass on doctrinal questions by vote at a meeting.
This is still further shown by a letter in the New Age for May, wherein a member of the Adelaide Society writes that he voted for the Resolutions "in error" not having had "sufficient time to grasp their meaning."
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It might be added that at a meeting of the Society, held on April 5th, when the Resolutions were reaffirmed, there were 5 or 6 dissentients in an attendance of 35.
Melbourne is the third of the Australian Societies to place itself on record in regard to these Resolutions. At a meeting on April 6th, after a lengthy consideration, the Society voted that they were "unable to endorse" them.
With regard to the discussion of the Resolutions by the Australian Conference, no report of the meeting of that body has yet appeared, but we understand that the motion asking Conference to affirm the Authority of the Writings was side-tracked on purely technical grounds. If the Conference expects to suppress the supreme issue of the Church in this way, it is very much like the ostrich who thinks to escape observation by hiding its head in the sand.
Thus far none of the New Church journals, except the Life and the New Age, have taken the slightest notice of the present conflict in Australia.
An investigation into the statistics of the SYDNEY Society for the past three years shows a net decrease in membership of 26. The additions from the Sunday School were only two.
Title Unspecified 1905
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
[Front piece: Photograph of W. H. Benade.]
NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XXV. AUGUST--SEPTEMBER, 1905. NOS. 8-9.
WILLIAM HENRY BENADE C. TH. ODHNER 1905
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
I. HIS ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE.
William Henry Benade was born at Lititz, Lancaster county, Pa., on October 3rd, 1816, and came, on both sides of his house, from talented and distinguished ancestors. His mother, Maria Henry, was the grand-daughter of William Henry, of Lancaster, who was a member of the Continental Congress, Armorer of the State of Pennsylvania, and Commissary General under Washington. Information recently received from Bethlehem, Pa., states that Anne Wood, the wife of this William Henry, traced her lineage through the Somersets and Beauforts back to John of Gaunt and Edward III, of England, and that she was also connected with the family of William Penn and with Patrick Henry, the fiery patriot-orator of the Revolution.
William Henry Benade was named after his maternal grandfather, but came, on his father's side, from a Moravian family, long connected with the "Uunitas Fratrum" or "Church of Moravian Brethren," which traces its origin to the persecuted remnant of the Hussites of the fifteenth century, and which was re-organized by Count Zinzendori, at Herrnhut, Germany, in 1727. In this Church the Benade family, (originally pronounced "Benaade"), occupied a prominent position, not only in Germany, but also in America and England. We remember Bishop W. H. Benade relating that, while in London. a number of years ago, he heard of a Bishop "Benade" of the Moravian Church in that city.
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Bishop Andrew Benade, the father of the subject of this sketch, was born at Kleinwelke, Germany, in the year 1769, was educated in the Moravian Church, and entered its ministry in 1790. In the year 1795 he was sent to America to fill the place of teacher in the Moravian school at Nazareth, Pa., which is still known as "Nazareth Hall," and in 1799 he was appointed principal of the Moravian Seminary for girls at Bethlehem, Pa. The Moravians, ever since the days of old Bishop Comenius, (1592-1671), had been particularly devoted to the science and work of Education, and Bishop "Benade proved himself a worthy successor of Comenius who has been termed by some "the founder of modern Education." His administration of the schools at Nazareth and Bethlehem was eminently successful and contributed greatly to their subsequent and present efficiency and reputation.
In the year 1813 he was appointed "general pastor" at Lititz, and remained there until 1822, When he was consecrated Bishop and removed to Salem, N. C., where there was a flourishing Moravian settlement. In 1822, he returned to Lititz, and in 1836 to Bethlehem, where he was called to preside over the governing body of the Church, continuing in that office until the year 1849, when he retired from his ministerial labors, at the same time virtually separating himself from the Moravian connection.
After his elevation to the Episcopacy he had become a leader of the liberalizing and reforming elements of the sect, gradually bringing about a change in many of the fanatical manners and customs of this "peculiar" people, especially their infamous method of marrying off the young people "by lot," which was finally abolished. What is of special interest to us is the fact that he received the Doctrines of the New Church in his old age, through an independent study of the Writings. His son, William H. Benade, in a letter written in 1846, speaks of him thus: "I myself know an old clergyman, now in his seventy-eighth year, who has been an active preacher in the Old Church for more than fifty years, and for the last twelve years a Bishop,--who has read, and is now reading, the Writings most diligently, with the greatest delight, and fully receiving all their teachings."
In M. S. Henry's History of the Lehigh Valley, (1860, p. 192), Bishop Andrew Benade is described as "a true and honest Christian," and "the oldest yet living Bishop of the Moravians," and in the same volume there is quoted a long letter from him, addressed to the Provincial Synod, in 1856, in which he stated that since his retirement from the episcopal office he has devoted himself chiefly to the study of the Sacred Scriptures, which study, he says, had been of immense value to him.
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"Many, many portions of the Holy Writ, which had remained dark and inexplicable, have become clear and open in the unfolding of their true sense. New views and convictions concerning the true nature of Christianity have been given me, and I have learned to know better and to perceive more clearly what the true but invisible Church of Jesus Christ is, and what the so-called Christian Churches are, as recognized try different names in visible Christendom, thus, also, have I obtained a different view of the Brethren's Church."
He then proceeds to arraign the spiritual pride of the Moravian Brethren, and especially their arrogance in terming the Lord Jesus Christ their "elder Brother." This secret doctrine of the "Eldership of Jesus," which is nothing but Arianism in disguise, he condemns as being "both erroneous and injurious," and the whole letter clearly shows the direct influence of the teachings of the New Church.
It should be added that Bishop Andrew Benade died on September 30th, 1859, at the age of nearly ninety-one years. His grave-stone may still be seen in the interesting old grave-yard of the Moravian Church in Bethlehem. Of his energy, eloquence, ability, and prominence all records bear evidence. According to a letter written by his son on Oct. 3rd, 1859, he remained to the last "a firm and avowed receiver of the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem."
William H. Benade received his first education at Salem, N. C., continued it at Lititz, and in the year 1828 entered the college for boys at Nazareth, Pa. Having finished his preparatory studies, he received a very thorough classical and theological training in the Theological Seminary of the Moravian Church, from which he graduated in 1835, was ordained into the Ministry of the "United Brethren" in the year 1840, and, from 1835 to 1841, was a teacher at Nazareth Hall. But he was not destined to remain long in the service of the Old Church.
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This thoughtful and penetrating mind soon began to feel dissatisfaction not only with the peculiar tenets of the Moravians in particular, but with the fundamental dogmas of the Old Christianity in general. He was especially troubled about the Athanasian doctrine of three persons in the God head, and for a time was much attracted by the ancient doctrine of Sabellius, who taught the absolute one-ness of the Divine personality, regarding Father, Son and Holy Spirit as so many different names and manifestations of the one Divine person. While this is but a limited view of the true doctrine of the Trinity, yet it was sufficient to prepare Mr. Benade for the reception of the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, which, when once presented to him, was quickly received in its fulness. This reception, the greatest event of his whole life, took place in the year 1843, while he was preaching to the Moravian congregation in Lancaster, Pa.
While conversing, one day, with Mr. Joseph Ehrenfried and Mr. T. I. Kramph, two members of the New Church in that city, the Doctrine of the Trinity was discussed, and one of the gentlemen presented to Mr. Benade a tract by the Rev. John Clowes on that most important subject. Mr. Benade read it with the greatest interest and delight and quickly procured the loan of one after another of the Writings of Swedenborg. He often mentioned, afterwards, with great emphasis, that there came to him, almost at once, the perception that these Writings are the Second Coming of the Lord Himself. Having thus received the one "pearl of great price," he visited his father in Bethlehem, and confided to him the fact that he had rejected forever the falsities of the old religion. "Well, William," his father asked, "what are you going to do?" William answered, "Well, I am going to study Swedenborg." To his astonishment and delight he received the prompt reply: "Go ahead! I am doing the same," and brought out a copy of the True Christian Religion which he then was reading.
The first mention of William H. Benade in the literature of the New Church, occurs at the close of the second and last volume of The Newchurchman, a magazine published by the Central Convention in Philadelphia from 1843 to 1845. We learn from an interesting notice there that Mr. Benade, "on becoming convinced that the Lord had made His Second Advent through Swedenborg, felt it his duty to proclaim the truth of that Advent to his Moravian brethren.
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This he did during the last year, [1844] while preaching to the Moravian congregation here in Philadelphia. His sermons were well relished, until he openly declared his convictions respecting the Lord's Second Advent. But as soon as he mentioned the name of Swedenborg, his congregation took great offense,--closed their place of worship against him on the very next Lord's Day, and, politely asking the keys of their parsonage, turned him adrift, with naught but 'The world before him, and Providence his guide.' We need only add," Mr. De Charms observes, "that Mr. Benade is expected to pursue his studies for our ministry in Lancaster, while leading the worship and preaching for the New Church Society there. We will also say,--and it gives us great pleasure to be able to say,--there is the dearest indication that he is destined to become a very efficient minister of our Church."
Having received the Baptism of the New Church by the hands of Mr. De Charms, while on a visit to Baltimore, and being strongly recommended by the Baltimore Society, he was licensed by Mr. De Charms, on March 17th, 1845, to preach and proclaim "the everlasting gospel of the New Jerusalem, as it is taught from the Lord Jesus Christ by his chosen servant, Emanuel Swedenborg." The notice in The Newchurchman also contains Mr. Benade's declaration of faith in "the Doctrines taught in the Theological Writings of the agent of His second advent, Emanuel Swedenborg," closing with these words: "And I do solemnly promise, to the best of my knowledge and ability, and by the Lord's aid, to preach those Doctrines, as so taught, and no other."
From the annual report of the Lancaster Society for 1845 we learn that Mr. Benade at this time was "preaching regular sermons every Sabbath, which have awakened the attention and warm approbation of several new hearers, who appear to take a lively interest in the Doctrines of the New Church. His proficiency in these Doctrines, in our opinion, fully entitles him to the favorable consideration of being ordained a minister of the New Church, and we cheerfully recommend him for that purpose." (Central Convention Report, 1845, p. 33.)
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II. HIS FIRST YEARS IN THE MINISTRY.
In May, 1845, Mr. Benade vas called In preach to the First New Jerusalem Society of Philadelphia, in succession to Mr. De Charms, who now removed to Baltimore, and on June 5th we find him present for the first time at the annual meeting of the Central Convention, then assembled in New York. Here he was at once appointed a member on the Committee for a New Translation of the Word, and also on the Committee on "Sunday Schools, Sunday School books and education generally." A resolution was at the same time adopted recommending his ordination.
It is a significant fact that from the very beginning of his work in the New Church his mind turned to the subject of education. As early as November, 1845, he began to publish a small magazine for very young children, called The Little Truth-Teller, which was issued monthly until the year 1852. In the opening number of this magazine he declared that "it is of the utmost importance for the spread of the New Church, and the lasting welfare of future generations, that the seeds of truth should be early sown in the minds of the young, to the stirring up of remains for use in after life." The Little Truth-Teller, though very juvenile index, containing mostly little poems and simple stories for children under twelve years of age, was nevertheless distinctively and outspokenly of the New Church, introducing among the other matter many little anecdotes of Swedenborg's life, descriptions of the spiritual world, and principles of "the True Church," clear-cut, yet adapted to the tender minds of its readers. The magazine enjoyed a well-deserved popularity throughout the New Church and completed its seventh volume, when it was succeeded by the more advanced journal, edited by Mr. Benade, under the name of The Dew-Drop.
The superior talents, education and zeal of Mr. Benade were quickly recognized by his New Church friends, and he was almost at once thrust into the midst of the most important affairs of the Central Convention, with which body he became connected not only by force of circumstances, but also because of his aversion to the domineering spirit then reigning in the General or "Eastern" Convention.
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His many admirers quickly pushed him to the front. Thus, in 1846, he was elected Corresponding Secretary of the Central Convention, and at the same time was appointed secretary of its Acting Committee and a chairman of the Committee on the Liturgy. The Philadelphia First Society at this time imperatively demanded that he be at once ordained not only into the first but at the same time into the second degree of the New Church Ministry, but this the Committee of Ordaining Ministers, (consisting of Richard De Charms and David Powell) "could not in conscience recommend." In a long and well-argued report on the subject, the ordaining ministers presented the Doctrine of the Church on the trine in the Priesthood, and urged the necessity of allowing a period of preparation and work between the introduction into the successive degrees. The report was accepted by the general meeting, but the Philadelphia First Society henceforth adopted a sullen attitude towards the Central Convention and before long disassociated itself from that body. Mr. Benade himself at first rather sympathized with the demands of his Society, but nevertheless submitted at the time to the council of his elders, and was ordained by Mr. De Charms into the first degree of the ministry on June 7th, 1846. In June, 1847, he was ordained into the second degree by Mr. De Charms, and in October, the same year, he attended the seventh annual meeting of the Central Convention, Philadelphia, at this time urging, but in vain, that the Convention "take into special consideration the subject of New Church Education."
During the few remaining years of the existence of the Central Convention, Mr. Benade was the leading spirit at the annual meetings, moving most of the resolutions and writing most of the reports,-Mr. De Charms at this time being much aggrieved and disappointed at the growing democratic tendencies of the body. The organization was beginning to show signs of decay, externally as well as internally. The last general meeting was held in the year 1849. The following letter from Mr. Benade to the Rev. J. P. Stuart, dated June 5th, 1850, gives the reasons, thitherto unknown), for the discontinuance of the annual meetings, and incidentally portrays the "liberal" and self-satisfied wisdom of the neophyte who, not many years afterwards, bitterly repented of his former attitude.
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Mr. Stuart, as representing the New Church in the West, had approached Mr. Benade on the subject of forming a new General Convention, to be truly general instead of representing mainly the Eastern States as did the old body of that name. To this Mr. Benade responds:
. . .You ask, Would the Central Convention go for a general move to establish a General Convention? My reply is, that the Central Convention, as such, is now in its last dying gasp,-or, rather, that probably it has already ceased to exist. The next meeting, as you may be aware, was appointed for Baltimore, where the Acting Committee was appointed for the last year. The majority of that Committee lately addressed a paper to our readers, setting forth that it would be injudicious to hold the meeting in Baltimore, on account of the state of things there, and advising the postponement of the meeting to some other time and place. After consultation with some of the members here, the President concluded to publish a circular, making known this postponement, and stating that due notice would be given hereafter concerning the time and place of the next meeting, when determined upon. We have agreed to this, under the view that it amounts to an indefinite postponement, and because it is a quiet way of doing what many of us have desired for some time. We can only say of the Central Convention, "Requiescat in pace," for it never lived "in pace." I think that this body has performed great uses; that it has been the means of overthrowing a great heresy, and freeing the Church from a destructive dominion. But these dangers have passed away, and for the performance of other uses it would appear much too small and inefficient. Indeed, the spirit which has ruled in our body and galvanized it into life. We have not regarded as the right one. We were not going to be bound by it, nor be forced into measures which we did not see to be right. Besides, every meeting was a conflict. There were constant bickerings and disputes about mere forms, with great plans and schemes never executed, because not predicated upon the ability of the body, but upon the imagination of one leader. If Mr. De Charms had been willing to be a neighbor of the Central Convention, instead of desiring to be its ruler, it might have continued to exist, but as this was not the case, it had to perish.
People are sick of the talk about order,--they are asking for the thing itself, in the doing of real good to the neighbor. Since we have ceased to talk about order in our Society, we have harmony, good feelings, and, what is better, we have work. In regard to instruction they ask, not What do the Doctrines teach! but, What do they teach us to do? This seems to be the present state of feeling, and certainly, in view of the former state of disputing and quarreling about a mere external form, it is an advance.
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The "great heresy," referred to in this letter, was the Bostonian notion of a "conjugial relation" between a pastor and his society, --a heresy which, by the way, was "overthrown" by Mr. De Charms and not by the Central Convention. That body came to an untimely end by the majority deserting the sound and orderly principles upon which it had been founded by Mr. De Charms, and the opposition which started the disputes and quarrels came chiefly from members of the Society over which Mr. Benade at this time presided. He was for a period "sphered" by this opposition, but, as we shall see, soon became emancipated by means of a more profound study of "what the Doctrines teach."
An "extra" meeting of the Central Convention was held under the presidency of Mr. Benade, in October, 1852, at which the few members present concluded to dissolve that body and to wind up its affairs. A committee was appointed at this meeting to hold in trust the original oil-portrait of Swedenborg, which had belonged to the Convention, to be handed over to a future "university or institution of general New Church learning, that may be established in the States, now geographically designated the Middle States." And thus it came about that the Academy of the New Church, in the year 1886, as legitimate heir, became the possessor of the sole remaining property of the Central Convention.
Feeling the need of contact with some general body of the Church, Mr. Benade, in 1850, began to attend the semi-annual meetings of the Pennsylvania Association, which was connected with the General Convention, and in June, 1851, he was present for the first time at the annual session of the General Convention then meeting in Boston. His opinion of that body, and his views of Church government at this time are curiously portrayed in a letter to Mr. Stuart, dated August 16th, 1851.
. . .I like your activity. Would that we had more of that, and less talkativity. The farther East you go, the more of this you have. I attended the General Convention this summer, in order to see and hear. And although I have seen and heard that which has caused me to change my opinion concerning certain of the leading men there, yet nothing was presented which gave me any idea of the usefulness of that body, as it is now constituted. Nothing was actually done. And I am more fully convinced than ever that its days are numbered.
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It is not a General Convention either in spirit or form; and what is more, the ruling spirit, the soul which pervades the whole body, (although the members may be unconscious of it), is in essential opposition to our republican institutions and destructive of our political freedom. The leading men of that Convention are hierarchists in the Church and monarchists in the State, and avowedly so. If I have read anything of the Doctrines of the Church archial tendencies to be directly opposed to those higher forms of Church and State which I conceive it to be the mission of the New Church to establish. From your letter to the Convention I became fully aware, and I may add, gladly aware, that the West and East could never unite upon the platform which the Bostonians have attempted to establish.
To readers unfamiliar with the inner history of the New Church, sentiments such as those expressed in this letter will seem strange indeed when coming from the pen of W. H. Benade! But it is to be observed that the order to which the writer objects was not the truly episcopal and primitive Christian order of government by a council of Bishops, (with a primus inter pares), but the papal order of government of one single Bishop for the whole American Church, such as was then advocated by the Church in New England.
Nevertheless, Mr. Benade was again present at the meeting of the General Convention held, the next year, in Philadelphia, and, though only a visitor, he was elected a member of the Committee on the Book of Worship. By his own request, however, his name was withdrawn from the committee, but it was voted that "the committee be directed to consult with him on the subject committed to them for consideration."
In the meantime, beside his regular pastoral work, he was busy also in a literary way, continuing The Little Truth-Teller, and publishing, in 1851, a work on Animals and their Correspondences, copiously illustrated with wood-cuts. (New Church Book Store, No. 7 South 6th St., Philadelphia, 253, pp.) Of this work I have seen but a single copy, in the Library of the Cincinnati Society, where I had not- the time to examine it very closely, but it was so highly appreciated in England that a new edition was published at London by Mr. J. S. Hodson, in 1852.
In November, 1852, he issued the first numbers of his second journalistic venture, "The Dew-Drop, A periodical for children and their parents," edited by W. H. Benade, and published twice a month by the newly established firm of Boericke and Tafel.
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It is in this magazine that Mr. Benade first shows the real caliber of his mind. Though still intended mainly for the young people of the Church, The Dew-Drop is far more advanced and of finer quality than The Little Truth-Teller. It is in every way distinctively, of the New Church, contains many delightful little stories and articles that deserve to be republished, beside valuable editorials, of practical as well as doctrinal import. But of special interest, at this day, are his many utterances on the subject of New Church Education.
The initial number of the journal opens with the following introduction:
Every parent and Sabbath School teacher has felt the want of a distinctive New-Church literature for children; a literature that would present to young and inquiring minds the holy truths of the New Jerusalem in forms sufficiently interesting to make them as good seed in good ground. From the children of this generation must come the real strength of the Church in the generation that succeeds; and, just in the degree that we educate them in the Doctrines of the Church, will be their degree of intelligence, spiritual life, and real power. Adult receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines have usually so much of Old-Church theology to unlearn: are so much biased in their reception of the Doctrines by preconceived opinions and confirmations, that, instead of adding to the strength of the New Church, they seem often really to weaken it by the introduction of fruitless controversies. It is plain, then, that the best ground in which to son: the seeds of truth is in the minds of children; here it will take root, and growl and produce a sure harvest in after years.
We wish we had space, here, to introduce the series of articles from Mr. Benade's pen, in The Dew-Drop, on the subject of "What are we to teach our Children?" and "How are we to teach our Children?" in which, from the Heavenly Doctrine itself, he actually lays the basis of genuine New Church Education. A brief extract will show the quality of the articles:
In order to excite a man's affection, we must suffer him to be in freedom. If, then, it depends upon the state of man's affections, whether a subject be introduced into the memory and remain fixed there, we have arrived at the following axiom, upon which the whole of instruction depends: In the same degree in which you suffer your scholar to be in freedom, in the same degree will he learn what you teach him, and receive your instruction.
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But how can a teacher keep his scholar in a state of freedom during instruction? It can be done, if the teacher does not transmit and pour into the mind knowledges, as he understands them, but ii he by questions enters into the thoughts, and inquires in what form the scholar is best capable of receiving certain truths. The affections of a child are closed, if his teacher places himself above him and from his exalted position tries to filter his knowledge into the young mind. A child is not a dead vessel, destined to be filled by his teacher with his knowledge, but he is an individual, living receiver of light and life from the Lord, capable of being so trained, that as of himself he can acquire all that knowledge which is possessed by his teacher. The office of the teacher is not to fill, but to unfold. If the teacher is not the lord and master of his scholars, but their friend and helper, yea, their servant, then he can get, so to say, underneath them, and, as from a deep center, obtain an inmost view of their energies and qualities. These energies and qualities he can so inflame and enkindle, by questions and admonitions, and by a few judicious remarks can place the subject which he wishes to teach in such a light, that in a very short time his scholars not only see it clearly as of themselves, but it is also indelibly engraven upon their memories. (The Dew-Drop, p. 63.)
It will be noted that the writer here strikes the very keynote which has pervaded the whole educational system established by him, and which still pervades it in all the schools of the Academy and of the General Church, viz., the calling forth of affection by means of rational freedom.
The following extract from an editorial address to his reader shows what Mr. Benade even then had in view; the picture which he upholds of a New Church educational institution certainly seems like a prophetic vision of what we now have in our midst as a small beginning, and of what is yet to come in immeasurably greater fulness:
To the readers of The Dew-Drop it will be clear from articles which have appeared in it during the past year, that we regard the matter of education as one of the most important which can engage the attention of the members of the New Church. . . . For this reason we advocate New Church schools, in which truths and not falsities shall be taught; New Church books of scientific instruction and entertainment, and New Church periodicals, to remove all necessity, if possible, for the use of those in which any false principle or doctrine may be inculcated. . . .
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Let us unite in the work of educating our children, according to the light which has been vouchsafed to us in the Divine Mercy of the Lord, and we shall find that our means of performing the work will rapidly multiply and difficulties will disappear. Men will arise, of learning and ability, who will devote themselves to the arduous and responsible and noble work of instruction; books will be written to aid the parents in their home efforts; to attract the young beginner, and to lead him gradually on to the acquisition of ever more knowledge, true knowledge, because based upon the Divine truths of the Holy Word, as revealed to the New Church; and institutions of learning will be founded, capable of giving a liberal education to all, even to those who, poorest in worldly goods, are yet seeking after the higher riches of science, intelligence, and wisdom.
The Dew-Drop unfortunately went out of existence in November, 1854, but the seeds sown remained and gradually bore fruit in a few minds, and Mr. Benade himself, before long, found an opportunity to ultimate his desires and principles in the establishment of a New Church school,--the first New Church school in the world in any thorough sense of the word.
(To be Continued.)
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"HAVE FAITH IN GOD." Rev. EMIL CRONLUND 1905
A SERMON
"And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."-Mark 11:22-24.
Faith is an internal acknowledgment of truth. To believe in the Lord is therefore to acknowledge Him from the heart, and thus to confess that He is the Creator, Redeemer, and Savior of the world. They only can be in this acknowledgment of the Lord who live according to the precepts of His Word, for there is no other faith than that which is of charity. The faith which will remove mountains, and through which man will receive whatsoever he may ask for in prayer, is none other than the faith of charity. One who is ignorant of the arcana of Heaven and of the spiritual sense of the Word might believe that the words of the text apply not to saving faith, but to another faith that is called historical and miraculous; but the Lord said this of saving faith, which faith makes one with charity and is wholly from the Lord, therefore the Lord calls this faith "the faith of God;" and because it is by this faith, which is the faith of charity from Him, that the Lord removes all evils flowing from the loves of self and of the world and casts them into hell from whence they are, so He says "Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea," what he says shall be done, for "mountain" signifies the evils of those loves, and "sea" signifies hell; therefore to say to a mountain, "Be thou removed," signifies the removal of those evils, and to be cast into the sea, signifies to be cast down into hell from whence they are.
It is only when man lives the life of charity that his evils can be removed from him.
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The mere intellectual acknowledgment of the truth is of no effect. It is when man lives according to the truth that the door is opened to the Lord so that He can enter in and cleanse man of all his spiritual impurities. It is when the truth is lived that man receives power against evils and falsities, for all power resides in ultimates, and therefore before the truth is lived man's mind is like a house in the air without a foundation upon which to rest and the truths that he may then have in his mind are perishable and easily lost, but when they are lived they become established and permanent, and by means of them man is purified from all his evils. Consequently it is only through the faith of charity that man truly acknowledges the Lord and becomes a true worshiper of Him.
It was after the Lord had cursed the barren fig tree that He pronounced the words of our text. The disciples marveled when they saw that the fig tree had withered away, and then the Lord said to them that if they had faith and did not doubt they should not only be able to do that which was done to the fig tree, but they should also be able to remove mountains and to cast them into the sea. By the fig tree on which was found no fruit but leaves only, is represented a state of faith alone, thus a state in which man does indeed know the truth, but does not live it. When the truth is divorced from a life of good it immediately becomes falsity, which is signified by this that the fig tree when it was found to be devoid of fruit, immediately withered away at the word of the Lord and became lifeless. When He performed this miracle the Lord therefore taught that through genuine faith in Him. He leads man out of a state of faith alone, and so removes falsities from him. But he who really believes in the Lord will not only he delivered from falsities by Him but will also he cleansed from his evils, which is signified by this that he will also be able to remove mountains.
But the Lord's promise to man respecting the removal of evils and falsities can be fulfilled only on one condition, and that condition is this, that man shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass, then he shall have whatsoever he saith, find the Lord also added this: "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them."
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Here the Lord lays special emphasis and stress upon the necessity of not doubting and teaches that man's faith must be firm and unshaken, that he must not entertain in his heart the least doubt as to the certain fulfillment of the Lord's promises. Man's faith must be immovably founded upon the eternal Rock of the Lord's Divine truth. He must not admit the Divine truths of the Word into doubt, but feel certain and absolutely sure that they are true.
Wisdom consists in seeing the truth in its own light, but no one can do this who is in a state of doubt. It is therefore taught in the Heavenly Doctrines that no one call come into wisdom until he is void of doubt. (A. C. 2718) and it is also said that "they who think, inquire and debate whether a thing be true or not true, whether it he so or not so, stop at the very threshold, and are incapable of being admitted into wisdom, until they are void of doubt." (A. C. 2718) It is otherwise with those who are in the affection of good, for from the good in which they are, they know and perceive that it is so, and thus they do not abide in the threshold, but are in the inner chamber, being admitted into wisdom. For they who are in the affection of good do not thus debate, nor entertain doubts, but say that it is so, and therefore they are let in. They who continually question whether a thing be so or not so are like one who stands in one spot beating the ground with his feet, making no progress. They who do not advance further, shut the gate to wisdom against themselves, cut they who are in the affection of good say that it is so, and therefore they do not shut the gate to wisdom against themselves, but enter in and know, acknowledge and perceive. In the Arcana Coelestia it is said that they who remain in a state of doubt cannot view wisdom even from a distance, whereas they who are in the affection of good, from perception know that it is so, and immediately see an open field of wisdom leading even to the Lord.
Every truth has its own blessedness, happiness and delight stored up in it, but it is impossible for any one to come into this blessedness, happiness and delight until he is void of doubt. As long as man is in doubt he can have no idea or perception of the blessings which are stored up in the truth, even though he may be in an intellectual knowledge of the truth.
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It is when man unquestionably accepts the Lord's truth as Divine and infallible authority that the Lord can remove the shadows, the uncertainties and the falsities and evils with him and implant in their place the delights of truth and of good.
It is difficult, and sometimes impossible, to convince the doubting mind that there is such a thing as truth and that it is possible for us in this natural world to know it. That he who is in such a state cannot feel delight in truth, although it may be presented to him, is evident.
There are many who doubt the truth because it may be contrary to appearances and because they fail to see confirmations of it in nature and in the world around them. But in the Spiritual Diary it is said that "we are not to doubt concerning the things of faith because we do not apprehend the causes, and because they are not according to the appearance; when yet they are truths, because the Lord, the Truth itself, has said it." (2546.) It is indeed not forbidden to seek for confirmations of the truth wherever such confirmations may be found, but no one should make his acknowledgment of the truth dependent on outside confirmations, for the truth is its own confirmation, it testifies concerning itself, and we know that its testimony is true. That man is not in the least to allow himself to be guided by appearances is taught in the Doctrines, where it is said that "no attention should be paid to a thousand objections and reasonings from fallacies." (A. C. 6469.) The senses are ever deceptive, and therefore by no means a sure guide. The Word of the Lord is the one only unerring guide, for "the opening of Thy Words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." (Psalm 119:130.) He who consults the senses falls into error after error, doubt upon doubt, and at length he falls into complete denial. They who are in the faith of charity do indeed confirm themselves in the truths of faith, as much as they are able, by the things of sense, of science, and of analytical reasoning, but as soon as anything obscure intervenes, which they do not clearly comprehend, this they lay aside, nor ever suffer such a thing to lead them into doubt, declaring that there are very few things which they can comprehend, and therefore that to think a thing not to be true because they do not comprehend it, is insane: these are they who are in charity.
466
But they on the other hand who are not in the faith of charity, are disposed only to reason whether a thing be true, and to know how the case is with it, urging, that unless they know how it is so, they cannot possibly believe that it is so; by this circumstance alone they are instantly discovered in the other life to be in no faith, and the proof thereof is, that they not only doubt all things, but also in their hearts deny them; and when they are instructed how the case is, still they continue obstinate and raise fresh scruples and objections, and would do so if possible to all eternity, and they who thus remain doubtful heap errors upon errors.
That man may not be led into doubt concerning the things of faith through externals, heavenly things must have dominion over worldly things with him. And as man accepts the truth interiorly, he is kept by the Lord in a state of acknowledgment, and spirits who are in worldly things are removed from him, for unless they are removed truths are dissipated. Worldly and heavenly things are in concord in man when heavenly things have dominion over worldly, but they are in discord when worldly things have dominion over heavenly. When they are in concord then truths are multiplied in man's natural; but when they are in discord, then truths are diminished, yea, consumed because worldly things then overshadow heavenly things and place them in doubt; whereas when heavenly things have dominion, they illustrate worldly things, and place them in clearness, and take away doubts. Those which are most loved have dominion.
Doubt precedes denial, and if it is persisted in leads to denial. He who forms conclusions about spiritual things from appearances at first doubts and finally denies, for the more the senses are consulted by him who is in a state of doubt the more things he finds that apparently invalidate the truth. For example, he who doubts the holiness of the Word because that holiness does not appear in the letter and because there are many things in the letter that apparently contradict the teaching of the Church concerning the holiness and divinity of the Word, he who once doubts the holiness of the Word on this account, afterwards confirms himself by many things therein.
467
It was said that doubt precedes denial and in most cases leads to it, and this the history of the Churches confirms. It is especially evident in the case of the Most Ancient Church. That Church, as well as the others, did not fall suddenly, but gradually. The men of the Most Ancient Church first began to doubt and to call the truth in question, for the serpent said to them, "Yea hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree?" By the serpent is signified the sensual of man, and by the serpent saying this to them is signified that they consulted their sensual, and so began to doubt the commandment of the Lord and His truth. They began not to believe what was revealed unless they saw and had sensual evidence that it was true, and as they continued to doubt and to reason about the truth whether it was so or not so, the Church finally fell.
The infancy of every man corresponds to the infancy of the human race as a whole, for there is a similarity between them. The first Church on this earth was in a state of innocence and so is every man in his childhood. Therefore it is that in his childhood man believes what he is taught by parents and teachers. He does not even doubt their word. He then eagerly seizes upon the truths that he imbues by instruction and accepts them. But when man advances in age, and begins to think, not as heretofore from Parents and matters, but from himself, he then resumes and as it were ruminates upon those things which he had before learned and believed, and either confirms them, or doubts them, or denies them; if he confirms them, it is a token that he is in good; but if he denies, it is a token that he is in evil; but if he doubts about them, it is a token that in succeeding age he will accede either to the affirmative or to the negative. (A. C. 5135) If man chooses a life of good, he will accept the truths of the Church that he has been taught in his childhood, but if he chooses a life of evil he will deny them.
The regenerating man may indeed fall into states of doubt, but he does not long entertain them, but dismisses them. The temptation combats, through which the regenerating man passes, are ever attended with doubt concerning the Lord's presence and mercy, and also concerning salvation, for the evil spirits who are then with him and cause temptation, strongly inspire what is negative, but good spirits and angels from the Lord dispel this doubt in every way, and continually hold man in a state of hope, and at length confirm him in the affirmative; hence the man who is in temptation, remains for the time suspended between the negative and the affirmative; he who yields remains in doubt, and falls into the negative; whereas he who conquers, is indeed in doubt, but still if he suffers himself to be raised up by hope, he persists in the affirmative.
468
Truth does not become genuine and spiritual with man until he is void of doubt. As long as he is in a state of doubt truth remains natural with him. The reason is that as long as man doubts he is not a spiritual man, but a natural man. Doubts are of the natural man, not of the spiritual. The man who is truly spiritual never doubts the truth. When man accepts the truth and is free from all doubt about it, then truth with him is elevated and becomes spiritual.
And when truth becomes spiritual with man then he also lives it, and so it is conjoined to good, and when truth is conjoined to good then there is no longer any doubt concerning it, for then it becomes founded on the natural and becomes permanent, and man is in the faith of charity. Then also good flows in from the Lord which continually illustrates and confirms the truth, and so man is led to wisdom. From this it is evident that man first begins to be wise when he lives the truth and when he begins to be averse to reasonings against truths, and to reject doubts.
The Lord's promise is that whatsoever man asks for and believes in his heart that he will receive it, his prayer will be granted. This applies to those who have the faith of charity. Whatsoever they ask of the Lord will be granted, for they do not ask for natural things, but for spiritual things. Thus they ask from the Lord, and whatsoever man asks from the Lord and not from himself will be granted. He who is in faith from the Lord asks for nothing but what contributes to the Lord's Kingdom and to himself for salvation; other thins he does not ask for, saying in his heart, why should I ask for what does not contribute to this use? Therefore if he were to ask for anything except what it is granted him from the Lord to ask, he would have no faith of God, that is, faith from the Lord.
469
It is impossible for the angels of Heaven to wish and so to ask for anything else, and if they were to do so they could have no faith that they would receive it.
Such power do the angels in Heaven have, that if they only desire a thing, they obtain it. But still they do not desire anything but what is for use; and this they desire as of themselves, but still from the Lord. Thus it is possible for man to come into a state in which he will have all that he desires, when all his wants will be satisfied. And this is the happiness of Heaven. But they only can be brought into this state by the Lord who are in the faith of charity, who obey His precepts implicitly and who never doubt His Word of truth, "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." Amen.
470
DOCUMENTS OF NEW CHURCH HISTORY. 1905
(From the Archives of the Academy of the New Church.)
LETTER OF FRANCIS BAILEY1 TO HON. JOHN YOUNG.2
Philada., April 10, 1792.
My dear Friend.
I sit down to thank you for your kind agency in favour of Mr. Lang; by our making common cause, we succeeded as printers this year; but without your kind offices, we neither could or would have been appointed Printers to the House of Representatives.
I know it will give you pleasure, when I tell you that on Sunday was a week,3 the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Church was publicly preached in Baltimore courthouse, by Mr. Wilmer,4 formerly an Episcopal clergyman, of Hartford County. Mr. Bayard writes "there were 25 of the Brethren there, and that the house was much crowded." Farewell says your very humble servant,
FRANCIS BAILEY.
471
LETTER OF THE REV. WILLIAM HILL5 TO THE HON. JOHN YOUNG.
Haverford, Feb. 8th, 1809.
My dear Sir!
My disappointment was great in your not coming to Philadelphia, and had I known of your remaining so long at Baltimore, it would have been a strong inducement to make our friends there a visit, which I have contemplated several times this winter, also to pass thro' Washington and Lancaster, believing it would be of service to me, but have been withheld by the difficulty of leaving home. My attempt at farming proves every day more futile, after a great expense of property, of health, and of charity, which I am afraid I shall never recover, nor am I anxious but for the last; I am however making such arrangements for the present year as I hope thro' Divine Mercy will lessen thro' they cannot repair the mischief.
Your account of your satisfaction with Mr. Hargrove6 gave me peculiar pleasure, not having been heard any testimony respecting his valuable labours from so good an authority. I had always formed an idea of our friend, as a character of perfect sincerity and of a good understanding, but I was doubtful of his Discretion, as well as of his ability, for want of a sufficient knowledge of the Writings, to go through all that he had undertaken. But influx is proportioned to efflux, the Lord gives freely to those who ask, and the Love of Use includes in itself all the means of its accomplishment.
On the public testimony you have given of your faith in the Lord I sincerely congratulate you, believing, you must have done it from a state of internal affection and liberty, rather than from any enthusiastic and external persuasion of its necessity.
472
I was myself baptized in the East Cheap Society7 in London, tho' I could see no absolute necessity for it, having received the sign in infancy under the use of the Lord's own Words, and before the Last Judgment passed8 or the former Church was consummated. My views seemed to be the same as you have described; seeing the ceremony about to be performed, and the initials arranged, I could not resist the desire of adding my testimony and showing my gratitude by a public offering of myself to the Lord. Accordingly I hastened to present myself at the table, to which I was immediately followed by Mr. J. W. Salmon,9 who had been preaching from the pulpit, and Mr. Barthelemon10 from the Organ, both also under similar impressions, and without any previous intention. The scene was truly solemn and affecting, and I believe we all enjoyed inward evidence of the Acceptance of the Oblation.
If you had come you should certainly have had the first vols. of my Arcana Coelestia to read if you greatly wished it, tho' I would rather recommend your being content with the English translation as far as you could get it, and this on account of the risque of cargo so far. As to M. F.11 I do not think he would be very willing to lend his sett, and the Apocalypsis Explicata you have already.
473
About 2 years ago, in consequence of your wants and some others, I wrote to London for 6 setts of the Arcana, if they could be had complete as far as translated, and they sent me what they could find, only 3, 5, 6, and 7th vols, which have lain upon my hands. The close of my subject and my paper both remind me to conclude, which I beg leave to do with affectionate regards to Mrs. Young, and most fervent wishes for your happiness, in which Mrs. Hill joins me. Please to direct to me in future to the care of J. W. Condy12. . . .Chestnut Street, and believe me, my dear friend,
Very truly yours,
WILLIAM HILL.
P. S. I suppose you have read the Apocalysis Explicata through; some in England, and among them Mr. Clowes, think it the most luminous of the Author's works. In translating, it has appeared the same to me, tho' not so deep as the Arcana. I now occupy a little time most days in revising it for publication, and expect the Manchester Society will take it up when the A. C. is completed. I have just been reading an account of the Exegetic Society13 at Stockholm, consisting of more than 200 members, many of them of the first distinction, whose object is without noise or parade to translate, print, and dispense as widely as possible the Doctrines of the New Church.
1. FRANCIS BAILEY, a Philadelphia Printer, editor of The Freeman's Journal,--the first known receiver of the Heavenly Doctrines in America. With John Young and Myers Fisher, he attended the lecture of James Glen, in Philadelphia. June, 1784, and afterwards bought a number of the Writings which were sold at auction after Mr. Glen's departure. He published the True Christian Religion, 1789-1790, Conjugial Love, 1796, and many other volumes, and died Nov. 1st, 1817 (Biography in New Church Life, 1896, p. 85.)
2. JOHN YOUNG, the founder of the New Church in Pittsburgh and vicinity, Judge of Western Pennsylvania,--one of the forerunners of the Academy movement. He died in 1837.
3. April 1st, 1792. (Hindmarsh's Rise and Progress, p. 152.)
4. REV. JAMES WILMER. Discouraged at the slow progress of the New Church, he returned to the Episcopal Church in 1795.
5. WILLIAM HILL, a clergyman of the Church of England. He received the Doctrines of the New Church through the Rev. Jacob Duche, in London, 1786; introduced the New Church in Boston 1794, where he published a great number he completed his translation of the Apocalypis Explicata, and died, of consumption, June 2d, 1804. (Biography in New Church Life, 1896, p. 103.)
6. REV. JOHN HARGROVE, the first ordained minister of the New Church in America, pastor of the New Church in Baltimore, and for many years president of the General Convention.
7. THE GREAT EAST CHEAP SOCIETY, the first distinctive New Church Society in England, and in the world,-established at Great East Cheap Street, in London, 1788.
8. According to a notice in Hill's Devout Prayers, the author was born in 1762, thus five years after the Last Judgment!
9. JOSEPH W. SALMON, an early and enthusiastic Newchurchman. With Ralph Mather he preached the Doctrines in the open air in many cities in England, 1786-1789, and was the means of founding many New Church societies. He died in 1826.
10. F. H. BARTHELEMON, a celebrated violinist and composer, and the first to attempt the composition of distinctive music for the New Church. A brilliant but eccentric genius. He died in 1808. (Biography in New Church Life, 1895, pp. 102, 153.)
11. "M. F.,"--MYERS FISHER, a prominent Philadelphia lawyer. He "bought several Latin works" at the auction of Mr. Glen's books, but remained a member of the Quaker sect. (New Church Life, 1896, p. 85.)
12. JONATWAN W. CONDY, another prominent lawyer of Philadelphia, and the leading mind of the New Church in that city. He edited the New Jerusalem Church Repository, in 1818, was the preceptor of the Rev. Richard De Charms, and a pioneer of the Academy movement.
13. The Exegetic-Philanthropic Society was dissolved in 1791!
474
MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG. 1905
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
HE-GOATS; THAT THEY ARE THOSE WHO ARE IN FAITH SEPARATE FROM CHARITY.
(Continued.)
180. Speech was held with certain spirits in regard to the he-goat mentioned in Daniel and to its combat with the ram; and also in regard to the judgment on the goats and sheep mentioned in Matthew. And beneath me there then appeared a he-goat with great horns who was seen to infest some others who were sheep and to badly rend them with its horns, and also to toss them hither and hither. And enquiry was made as to what this was, and it was said that this was the appearance of those who are in faith separate from charity, and of their combat with those who have been in the life of charity. And it was said that before their own eyes they do not look like this but like men sharply disputing with each other; and that he who seemed like a he-goat was one who was in faith separate, while they who seemed like sheep were those who were in the life of charity. For sometimes, and especially at a distance, spirits appear according to their affections, inclinations, and their principles therefrom. For example, when any one is thinking from the understanding, he appears as though sitting on a horse, and some appear in other ways. Hence it was made evident that by the horned he-goat in Daniel, and by the he-goats in Matthew, none others are meant [than those who are in faith separate from charity]. It is supposed that all evil men are meant by the he-goats, yet no others of them are meant than those who have lived wickedly and have nevertheless confessed faith alone.
181. In like manner afterwards, those who were in faith separate, appeared as he-goats, and those who were in the life of charity as sheep and their argumentations and wranglings, as combats.
475
182. After the Last Judgment was accomplished many were seen who had been scattered among others at the back in the west; at a distance they looked like he-goats, and some of them like dragons; and because they wished to seduce the upright they were removed thence and driven into deserts where there was scarcely a shrub.
THE DRAGON.
183. By the dragon, (Apoc., chap. xii), and by his two beasts, (chap. xiii), no others are meant than those who are in faith separated from charity both in doctrine and in life,--by the dragon, all who have confirmed themselves in that faith, and by the beast from the sea, they who have confirmed those principles by means of reasonings from the natural man, and by the beast from the earth, who is afterwards meant by the false prophet, are meant confirmations from the Word in favor of that faith. That such are meant by the dragon and his two beasts, may be clearly seen from the single particulars there written about them, understood in the spiritual sense; which can be seen to the life if the things written by me in the Apocalypse Explained should be given to the public, for they are all confirmed by heaven; also that by the tail of the dragon is meant the confirmation of that faith by means of the degrees of justification which are treated of in [S. D.] n. [6014].
184. The Apocalypse treats of the two systems of religion in the Christian world,--that among the Reformed and that among the Papists,--for the whole of Christianity is from these two, since they are the ruling systems. The religious system among the Reformed is a system of faith alone, which has devastated the church; and that among the Papists deals with the Lord's vicarious authority over the church, thus over the souls of men, and also over heaven, that resides with the popes and the primates and subordinate officials of the church. It is these two ruling systems of religion, which [have been rejected] by the Last Judgment, that are treated of later on [in the Apocalypse].
185. That they who are in faith separate are meant by the dragon and his beasts.
476
186. That by the dragon are meant those who are in faith separate was made evident from the following circumstances: It is mentioned that the dragon stood by the woman about to bring forth, that he might devour her; and, that by the child, which the woman was about to bring forth, is meant the doctrine concerning the Lord and concerning the life of charity, was made evident from the fact, that when that doctrine was being written many of those who are in faith alone were present, and in such fury, that I could scarcely have written had I not been guarded by the Lord by means of angels; and it appeared as though they wished to rend it and tear it to pieces. By the woman there, is meant the New Church which is the New Jerusalem, and by her child, the doctrine concerning the Lord and concerning the life of charity; and by the dragon, are meant those who are in faith separate, because such then was their nature, and because they were about to do what is described afterwards, [namely] that [the dragon] persecuted the woman, that [by] casting forth water like a flood, he might swallow her up; by water like a flood are signified falses.
187. There was a certain preacher who was in faith alone; he appeared to others exactly like a dragon, and he also seemed to hover around a woman about to bring forth, eager to devour her child; and yet, seen near at hand, he was standing near those who defended the life of charity and the Lord. He was a preacher at The Hague.
188. Of those who are in faith separate there are some who correspond to the head of the dragon, some who correspond to his body, and some who correspond to his tail. The latter are they who are in the conceit of those principles, for the tail is the continuation of the spinal column, and this again of the brain. There are some who correspond to the poison.
189. Concerning the back and hinder part seen like the tail of a dragon, see above n. [134-179]. On the Reformed, towards the end of the chapter.19
19. The Latin editor here reads videatur supra, n:. . .versus finem ibi, and he supplies as the reference, S. D. 5748. But the more complete reading seems to be videatur supra. n:. . .de R. [i. e., Reformatis] versus, etc.--TR.
477
190. Moreover at the left was seen an acclivity20 upon which ascended many of those who were in faith alone; and on the summit there, they have some bearded old man who had been bearded in the world, and sometimes of lowly condition. This man persuades them that he is God the Father. It is a rock and rocky places are around about it. And when they do not wish to be seen they betake themselves behind the mountain. These are they who have laid snares for all who do not believe like themselves, believing that such a course is allowable. The life of charity they make of no account; by their interiors they make one with the hells. They who are round about the bottom of the mountain were seen like an immense dragon stretching itself towards the places below; and its tail was seen elevated and extended from the mountain to the lowest parts thereof.
20. This is called a mountain in S. D. 4880; and in S. D. 4883, it is conjectured to be the "mountain of assembly in the sides of the north" mentioned in Isaiah xiv. 13.--TR.
(To be Continued.)
478
Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
Our Australian contemporary, Divine Authority, contains in its June issue a portrait group of the members of the recent Australian Conference. There is also a humorous editorial article descriptive of the group.
The Corporation of the city of Huddersfield, England, has entered upon a crusade against race-suicide. It has adopted a scheme whereby a small premium is to be paid on every birth recorded, instruction to mothers is to be given by paid women visitors, and a free day nursery is to be established.
The Biblical Commission appointed by the pope some two years ago to consider questions arising from the Higher Criticism, has issued an interim report recommending that Catholic exegetists be permitted to distinguish between what, in their opinion, are inspired and uninspired portions of the Bible.
A New Church minister sends us the following encouraging words: "Ever since my first acquaintance with the Life I have been a subscriber and also a continuous reader. I have always thought your contentions worthy of attention and respect, and frequently I find in the Life the best things in our periodical literature. I now write to say that the last number (July) commends itself to me as bearing the richest fruit of the movement for which the Life stands. I refer especially to the Valedictory Address by Raymond Pitcairn. I think this address is the best missionary tract that you can send out, and hence the names and addresses of the following persons who are little acquainted with the Life, who might become its warm friends if they were to have a fair acquaintance with it."
479
A correspondent writes: "There is much talk these days about 'tainted money,' and I find Newchurchmen who take a radical stand against any acceptance of such money by the Church. But what would they make of such a statement as the following from the Arcana?
"'Riches and wealth with those who are in evil are pernicious, because they apply them to evil uses; but riches and wealth with those who are in good, are useful, because they apply them to good uses; wherefore, if the riches and wealth which are with the evil are transferred to the good, they become good.'. . . . This, treating of the 'spoiling of the Egyptians." A. C. 6917.
This shows that it is not the money itself that is "tainted," but he who receives stolen money, knowing it is stolen, is himself tainted, being particeps criminis.
The Mercury for June-July will be particularly interesting to those who follow the educational work of the Academy, as it contains the valedictory of the graduating class of the Seminary, and papers read by two of the college graduates. The valedictory, by Miss Gwladys Hicks, is a delightful piece of imaginative writing picturing in the form of allegory the beginnings of the Academy in 1874; it is replete with the spirit of affection for the Alma Mater. The essay on Remains, by Mr. Walter A. Cranch, A. B., is a plain and direct setting forth of the doctrine with some thoughts on its application, while the third of the papers, by Mr. Harvey Lechner, A. B deals with the Iliad and the Odyssey, and endeavors by means of correspondences to trace in those classical stories, a portrayal of the destruction of a vastated church and the rise of a new.
Beginning with the issue of July 5th, the editorship of the New Church Messenger passed from the hands of the Rev. S. C. Eby to those of the Rev. John S. Sault the office of publication being now located at Chicago. In his "valedictory," Mr. Eby dwells somewhat lovingly on the great usefulness of the Messenger under his own management: "The Church has been held to a high spiritual ideal and been influenced towards progress and expansion in a very real sense." His remarks will be seconded or not, according to the point of view.
480
Mr. Saul is not new to the work of journalism, having worked in the secular field some thirty years ago as editor of the Strathroy Age. The most conspicuous new feature of the Messenger, under the new editorship, is the introduction of a department, "Echoes from the Pulpit," containing short extracts from contemporary New Church sermons.
The Journal of Education for 1905 contains the usual information in regard to the Academy schools, together with reports of the past year's work. There is also the Valedictory Address read by Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, A. B., and printed in the July Life, and, as a frontispiece, the Journal contains a fine portrait of Bishop Benade as Chancellor of the Academy.
According to the new curriculum a fifth year has been added to the course in the college and seminary. The change, however, is somewhat tentative, especially in the seminary; in any event it will not apply to last year's juniors.
The report of the year's work shows the number of pupils in all departments as 54,-21 in the college, 25 in the seminary, and the rest in the theological and normal schools. The work has been uniformly steady and prosperous, and particular mention is made of "the increasing spirit of loyalty to Academy principles."
From the report of the English Conference we learn that the society at Heywood was assisted in the entertainment of delegates by members of the Church of England, Wesleyans, Methodists, Baptists, Congregationalists, Unitarians, etc., and that two of the prominent officials of the Conference were the guests of "genial Father Pool of St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church." We can imagine the reflections that might have arisen in certain quarters had members of the "Academy Priesthood" made such an approach to Rome; but seeing that it was members of the Conference, the entertainment by Father Pool is viewed by the English Church, as voiced by its President, as indicating "a growth of true Christian spirit." From the impassioned criticisms of former years we had supposed that one of the peculiarly inexcusable crimes of the Academy was its supposed "leanings" in the direction of papal hierarchy; it seems, however, that there is more patience, or shall we say sympathy, with the papal hierarchy itself.
481
The theological savant of Germany has hitherto addressed himself principally to the learned, but a movement has recently been inaugurated by which his "advanced theology"--a theology with the Lord dethroned and the Word destroyed,--is to be spread among the masses. The first step in this movement is the publication in cheap and enormous editions of a series of pamphlets entitled Religionsgeschichtliche Volksbucher. Quotations made by the Literary Digest from the two or three which have already appeared, show that their main effort is to prove the mere humanity of the Lord, and to show that the early belief in His Divinity arose from the disciples' posthumous idealization of a man. When they have finished their work of thus utterly destroying the very centre of Christianity, future numbers will doubtless proceed to attack and demolish the outworks,-and this until the Lord's prophecy is ultimately realized that in the last days "not one stone shall remain upon another."
In the April number of the New Church Magazine Mr. Jonathan Robinson concludes a series of three studious and valuable articles on the Lord's Heredity and Temptations. He particularly addresses himself to the oft repeated question as to how the Lord, receiving an evil heredity from the mother alone, could be tempted like man, who is born with an evil heredity from the father also. The explanation that, in place of such an heredity, the Lord in His descent took on an evil heredity from the world of spirits, is examined by Mr. Robinson and rejected as opposed to the teaching of the Writings, that heredity evil was assumed by the Lord solely through the mother (A. C. 1573) Through this heredity the whole of the hells made their assaults which the Lord felt in Himself as the combats of temptations; and it is pointed out that the grievousness of temptations depends on the nature of the love assailed, which in the Lord's case was Divine Love to the whole human race. The articles deserve to be read by every student of the theology of the Church.
482
The Monatblatter for June, commenting on the death of the Rev. W. H. Benade, states that "Mr. Benade was unquestionably one of the deepest thinkers and best preachers in the New Church. He distinguished himself especially through his defense of the Divinity of the Heavenly Doctrine, and was the founder and first 'chancellor' of the Academy of the New Church. He was a thorough student of the Writings of the New Jerusalem, and was also prominent as an Egyptologist. On account of his extreme ideas of Episcopal power he estranged himself from most of his brethren in the Academy and in the Church in general, and at the end he stood comparatively alone. He is now where, in the clear light of heaven, all spiritual questions can more easily receive their complete solution."
Our contemporary then quotes the death notice, published in the June Life, and adds: "This important and celebrated man went out of this world rather quietly. For a number of years he has not been clothed with office and dignities, and this may in some measure explain the silence;--one had become accustomed no longer to hear his voice." It is a significant fact that, with the exception of the Life and the Monatblatter, not a single journal of the Church has taken any notice of the passing of one who, whether he be regarded as friend or foe, was admittedly a most prominent leader in the New Church.
The Rev. Lewis F. Hite in The New Church Review for July presents a paper on "The Doctrine of Permission," which he brings to a close with the following remarkable statement:
"Another still more serious perversion of the doctrine of permission is that of deliberately choosing an evil on the plea that it is permitted in order that a worse evil may not be committed.
In such a case it is not the evil but the perversion of the doctrine that is permitted. It is permission in the second degree and it is evil in the second degree. This is exemplified in those who deliberately choose the evils of fornication and concubinage on the plea that these evils are permitted to prevent falling into worse evils or as a means of leading to good. Here the thing permitted is not the evil itself, but the perversion of the doctrine which is an evil of a deeper grade.
483
The evil itself is permitted to those who have not the doctrine, but those who make use of the doctrine to justify the evil are permitted to do so; and so the permission applies to the perversion of the doctrine and not simply to the evil. All permission applies to evil, but all evil is forbidden--the evil of perversion even more than the evil of mere self will."
The writers presentation of the subject seemed puzzling, at first, until it was seen that the "Concubinage" to which he refers must be the Jewish Concubinage, which "is not allowable for Christians as it was for the Jews,--to adjoin any concubine to themselves besides the wife, because this is adultery." (A. C. 3246) This being the only passage on the subject adduced by Mr. Hite, and as he does not at all refer to the teachings in Conjugial Love, it is evident that the writer is attacking a man of straw, for how could anyone "who has the Doctrine" deliberately choose such adulterous concubinage in order to save himself from worse evils? This would surely be a "perversion of the doctrine," but where does Mr. Hite find such a perversion "exemplified?"
"ACADEMY" IN AUSTRALIA. 1905
If the New Age for June may be called an Australian Conference number, that for July can equally well be styled an Academy number,--though not in a sense favorable to the Academy. Mr. J. H. Ball's article on The Crisis, deals with the "subtle methods" adopted at the Conference by the Adelaide delegation, "to get the delegates to subscribe to a principle whereby they would be bound to conclusions that are an outrage on the very name of religion!" He is unutterably shocked at the Academy teaching that the Writings are infallible; and as for the teaching in Conjugial Love, so far from considering it infallible, he calls it a "deadly pestilence," and asks whether "this monstrous thing shall come amongst us unchallenged." The thought of "the possible consequences of such teaching to our children" fills him with "horror and disgust." In fact, he cannot discuss this question of morality, and would as soon think "of discussing permission to murder and steal."
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Mr. Ball is clever enough to see that acceptance of the Academy teaching as to the Writings, involves the acceptance of the latter part of Conjugial Love; and he is shrewd enough to put all the responsibility for this work upon the Academy, so that, to the casual observer, it might appear as if the work were written by that body. And it may be that his hatred of the Academy has blinded himself to the fact that his heated article is directed, not against that institution, nor against the Adelaide delegates, but against one of the words which, to use the words of his own Confession of Faith, constitute "the revelation (made by the Lord) through Swedenborg." Mr. Ball closes by calling upon the Church in Australia to follow the example of the Conference and Convention who "refuse to recognize the existence of the Academy!"
Another "Academy article" is the letter from the Rev. A. E. Beilby, a former minister of the Adelaide Society, now serving in England. He writes for the purpose of wholly disconnecting himself from "all associations with the American institution claiming to represent the one only true and original New Church in the world" by totally denying that the doctrines of the Academy were ever taught in Adelaide.--during his time, at any rate,--a denial which we can readily accept.
Mr. Beilby's imagination is something to be wondered at. It may be described as being of the "fanciful" kind, that sees things that are not. For though at a distance from Australia of half the circuit of the globe, it has yet become "evident" to him and to "many of us" that "the Academy is setting itself to capture the Church in Australia; and poor Adelaide has fallen the first victim."
At thought of this dreadful Academy even Mr. Beilby himself pales, for "what with the Academy on the one hand, and Christian Science and other fads on the other" he hardly knows what to do, except to "exclaim with Mercutio, 'A plague o' both your houses.'"
Mr. Beilby is the recognized "funny man" of the English Conference.
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DANGEROUS ANALOGY. 1905
Writing on the subject of Swedenborg's Scientific Works and their relation to the Writings of the New Church, Mr. F. W. Hellberg, in Divine Authority for June, puts forth a theory which, though well intentioned, is based on a false foundation and leads to startlingly mischievous results. Reasoning from the false premise that the Second Coming was a duplication on a higher plane of the First, the writer arrives at the conclusion that "the Lord assumed a body of human knowledge in the mind of Swedenborg in the same manner that He assumed, at the Incarnation, a body of flesh and blood in the womb of Mary;" that "the body of human knowledge, assumed at the Second Coming, was as distorted, falsified, corrupt and damned as the human assumed at the Incarnation;" and that this body of human knowledge, therefore, "passed through states of exinanition and glorification similar to the assumed human at the Incarnation; and that, similarly, the assumed body of human knowledge was fully glorified, even to the very ultimates, by union with the Divine-Human knowledge the evidence of which is seen in the Writings."
Mr. Hellberg's evident intention is to inculcate a greater regard for the Scientific Works. This intention is a laudable one, but we must protest against the line of reasoning by which it is sought to carry it into effect. Such reasoning indeed fails to effect the writer's object, and, moreover, it throws the whole theology of the Church into utter confusion. For if there is an analogy between the infirm human of the Lord and the scientific works of Swedenborg, then the latter, like the former, should be condemned and rejected instead of being recommended for acceptation by the Church. But the whole analogy disappears when it is seen that at His First Coming the Lord wholly subjugated the hells and wholly glorified His human. The work was Divine and Perfect and to suppose the necessity of a further subjugation and another glorification would be--but we hesitate to dwell upon the impious conclusion, which certainly could not have been present in the mind of our Australian friend when drawing up his ill-advised analogies.
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The Second Coming of the Lord was not a new Glorification but a revelation of that which had been glorified, and which, before that time, had been seen only "as through a glass darkly," and finally had become lost to the sight of the Church.
At the Second Coming as at the First the Lord used human instrumentalities whom He had raised up and prepared; but Swedenborg cannot be compared in this respect with Mary. For at the First Coming the Lord assumed from Mary the whole of His merely human nature, whereas at the Second Coming He assumed from Swedenborg--nothing whatever. "It has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit and teach me. Do not believe, therefore, that I have taken anything herein from myself, or from any angel, but from the Lord alone." (A. R. Pref.). Swedenborg's office is rather comparable with that of the writers of the Gospels who were inspired by the Lord for the revelation of His Word to the Christian Church.
The authority of the scientific works rests on sure and rational foundations without any appeal to false analogies. For, not to mention the intrinsic authority of the truths which they contain, in them we see the Lord's preparation of Swedenborg for his exalted use. And, while those scientific works, of themselves, contain only natural truths wherein is no spiritual light or help for man, in the light of the Writings and illumined by the revelation there given, there is seen in them a system of rational and philosophical truth which derives its greatest authority from the fact that it confirms and illustrates what has been Divinely revealed.
KNOWLEDGE AND COGNITION. 1905
We have received from the Rev. W. B. Caldwell a communication respecting the editorial in a former Life, on Knowledge, Scientifics, and Cognitions. Mr. Caldwell expresses entire agreement with the position there taken, and contributes some interesting suggestions looking to a fuller understanding of the word Cognition. He writes: "In studying the passages treating of the spirits of Mercury I noticed that the term Cognition was used altogether in regard to them.
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In only one passage is Scientia used (A. C. 6931), where it states that "the spirits of Mercury grow continually in the science of things, but not thence in wisdom, because they love cognitions which are means, but not uses which are ends.
"In the Spiritual Diary, 1558a, we are told that 'the spirits of Mercury are cognitions. And throughout the Diary there are many striking statements in regard to this their leading characteristic. It is said 'they are the internal sense;' 'the memory of things real;' that 'they belong to the memory of things abstracted from things material,' and have an aversion to thinking of merely material objects. They do not care to think of places but of what was done in places, nor of the external appearance of cities but of the laws, governments," etc.
From these and other statements, our correspondent concludes that, in the accounts of Mercury, we have a case "where the term Cognition is not confined to spiritual things, but also refers to abstract natural things. 'S. M. W.,' in his letter in the July Life, suggests that the term is confined in the Writings, to spiritual things. This may be true in general, but not universally."
In further illustration of the exact meaning of "cognition" as applied to the spirits of Mercury, Mr. Caldwell gives an exhaustive resume of the passages bearing on the subject. The most striking of these passages are: That these spirits "are the memory of things separate from the memory of images of corporeal and terrestrial things, from which memory is speculation, which is, as it were, interior speculation, or, rather, the imagination of things" S. D. 3265, 1445. They care, not for things that correspond, but "only for things that adhere or are adjoined to externals, as, for example, what a man has done when in a place." S. D. 1434 They refer to "the memory of particulars but of things which are not images. For the memory of particulars contains visual images which are of the imagination. It also contains such matters as laws and the cognitions of laws, also of faith. It ministers to the thought subjects for thinking deeply. Thus it passes to and constitutes speculation." S. D. 3258
Our correspondent sums up: "Cognitions are of the memory of abstract qualities and immaterial ideas; while Scientifics are concrete images of material objects,--thus material ideas.
488
There is an imagination from material ideas, and a purer imagination from immaterial ideas."
This definition is undoubtedly a correct one. "Cognition" is generally predicated, in the Writings, of spiritual or doctrinal matters, but not exclusively so, for we read that "the natural mind is opened by cognitions of things which are in the world, but the spiritual mind is opened by cognitions of things which are in heaven, which cognitions the Word teaches, and from the Word the Church," A. E. 126, and, further, a distinction is made between the "cognition of worldly things" and "the cognition of spiritual things," A. C. 1453, 1555 The term "cognition" defines, not the nature of the thing known, e. g. whether it be doctrinal or philosophical, but the way in which it is known. Cognitions are knowledges of the thing itself abstracted from visual images, or mere forms of speech; sciences are knowledges of things concrete, or of things in and with images of the senses. Thus we read, "Cognitions refer themselves to the rational, but scientifics to the natural." A. C. 2850. Both, however, are merely of the memory, and remain, essentially, nothing but mere scientifics until they are vivified by use.
PITTSBURG COUNCIL MEETINGS. 1905
The annual sessions of the Council of Ministers and of the Executive Committee which were held last June in Pittsburg, though quiet, and unmarked by any unusual enthusiasm, were interesting meetings at which important steps were taken in the further development of the Church. But they would undoubtedly have been more interesting had the ministers had more time for preparation. There was but one paper specially prepared for the meetings,-Mr. Waelchli's paper on the Illustration of the Third Degree,--and it was the reading and discussion of this paper that made the most interesting of the public sessions of the Council of Ministers.
The reasons why other papers had not been prepared,--including even the annual address--were brought out at one of the sessions, where the time of meetings came under discussion.
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It was shown that, especially for those who are engaged in Academical and school work, June is by no means the best time, coming, as it does, immediately after the fullest stress and strain of school work, to say nothing of the nineteenth of June. As a result of very complete discussion it was therefore decided to try, for next year, a change in the time of the meetings, from June to September; this, of course, will not apply to years when there is a General Assembly, for, as was explained by the Bishop, the time of the General Assembly, is thus far fixed so as to include June the nineteenth.
The most important ultimate action taken in Pittsburg was the formation of a chartered body of the General Church. For the first time in the history of the General Church it has now a corporate existence before the law. The step taken is an important and far-reaching one, and the congratulations and thanks of our body are clue to the Executive Committee who have been at such pains in bringing about the incorporation, and especially to its legal sub-committee, consisting of Messrs. Hugh L. Burnham, Paul Synnestvedt, and Paul Carpenter, who have so successfully devoted their time and professional skill to drawing up a charter, which, as our readers will observe, so well meets our needs. Now that the matter of the charter is out of the way, the next step will perhaps be the adoption of an Instrument of Organization, or Declaration of Principles.
Another important action, which, though not taken by the meeting, was indirectly due to the discussions there, is the appointment by Bishop Pendleton of an ecclesiastical consistory. The subject was referred to when the question of ordaining another priest into the third degree was considered, and it seemed to be the general opinion that the appointment of such a consistory would be a useful development in the fuller organization of the Church. The consistory was formed soon after the adjournment of the meetings, its members, being the Revs. Messrs. N. D. Pendleton, Odhner, Synnestvedt, and Acton.
In addition to the meetings of the Council and the Executive Committee there was a meeting of the Alumni Association, at which a constitution was adopted and new officers elected,--though the occasion was mainly a very successful social reunion of graduates, new and old, of our Alma Mater.
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There were also the meetings of the Teachers' Institute which extended over two days. The discussions at the private sessions included, besides matters of purely technical interest, a consideration of the uses of the Normal School, when in answer to enquiries, Mr. Synnestvedt set forth at some length, and to the evident satisfaction of the meeting, the aims and present working of that department of our educational use. The important question of the financial situation of societies in respect to the local school also received some attention, and it was suggested that in cases where it seemed necessary to relieve the financial burden, or to prevent it from unduly encroaching on the support of the purely church uses, a suitable method would be for local schools to temporarily give up the higher classes, devoting themselves in the meantime to the primary grades. In this connection one of the teachers drew some pleasing pictures of the time when our school would be under the financial control of some central authority enriched by an endowment of several hundred thousand dollars,--which, as he was careful to explain, would relieve many of our difficulties,--and no one gainsaid him.
At the only public meeting of the Institute the question of the evening was, What do the Parents expect of our Schools? Letters in answer to the question were read from representative laymen in Bryn Athyn, Chicago, Toronto, and Berlin, and two of the Pittsburg members gave their answers in the form of papers which were read before the meeting. The answers were, on the whole, more in the nature of commendations of the work now being done, than of suggestions of what further might be done. It was very pleasant to hear from so many centres, and this addition to and extension of our sphere, together with the thoughts which were presented, served to render the meeting a very pleasant and enjoyable close to the series of Pittsburg meetings.
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AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE 1905
On another page we give an account of the action taken by the Australian Conference on the motion offered by the Rev. Percy Billings. That action was ostensibly based on the arguments advanced by Mr. Spencer, the leader of the Sydney society, which may be stated as follows: 1. Every member of the Church in Australia in signing the Confession of Faith expresses his belief in the whole of the Writings, and therefore to adopt a statement of belief in particular passages from those Writings is tantamount to a confession of faithlessness as to the rest of them. 2. Such extracts, being separated from their context, even though adopted would be believed by each one only in the light of all the other passages as he understands them. 3. That such adoption would be detrimental to freedom, for no society should be asked to adopt "fresh statements of belief" without the fullest consideration and discussion.
It is not fair to imply that there had been no opportunity for considering the question underlying Mr. Billings's motion, for even though the extracts included in that motion may have been "written on the previous evening," yet the question itself has been a matter of discussion from the early, days of the Church, and is at present a very active one in the Australian papers. That it was not "considered and discussed" in the Conference itself was due solely to Mr. Spencer.
Still it must be admitted that the reasons given for neither accepting nor rejecting the motion are, in the main, sound ones. The position of the Life with regard to the passage of doctrinal resolutions by vote is well known, and is based on the warning of the doctrines "Trust not in any councils but in the Lord's Word which is above councils." (T. C. R. 489.) Even though a doctrine be true it can be accepted only by rational acknowledgment of its truth, and with this, majority or unanimity have nothing to do. The Christian Church was destroyed by means of unanimous votes. (T. C. R. 634)
But though the procedure of those who were endeavoring to establish in the Conference some acknowledgment of the absolute Divinity of the Writings took the form of a motion, yet it was hoped that their action would lead to a thorough and open discussion of the question, by which the members of the Church might be enlightened, misrepresentations and misconceptions cleared up, and the line of separation between the two positions be sharply drawn.
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Reports led us to expect that the motion to be offered would be in the nature of a simple affirmation, or declaration of faith in the Writings as the Lord's Word to His Church. We must confess, however, to some disappointment in the motion as made. It offered certain extracts, from the Writings, to the number of about fifty, to be acknowledged by the Conference as "doctrines of the New Church," "doctrines of the Lord, and "true." Such a motion might be accepted by any member of the Church, whatever his position in regard to the Writings, for isolated doctrinal statements must and will be accepted by every intelligent man, only in the light of and interpreted by his general ideas of doctrine. That the logical outcome of certain passages may seem to one person to lead to a certain position should not bind another to accept that position because he accepts the passage. The statements of the Writings, like those of the Letter of the Word, are to be interpreted in the light of doctrine, and the doctrine is to be gathered from the whole of the Revelation. The real conflict in the Church with regard to the Writings, as with regard to every other vital subject, is a conflict on doctrine and not on the acceptance of this or that passage; it is a conflict on the interpretation of the passage. The majority of Newchurchmen will readily accept the statement Hic liber est Adventus Domini, but how different the interpretations!
But whatever technical justice there may be in the arguments raised by Mr. Spencer, those arguments assume a very different aspect when examined in connection with the body which supported them. The main argument was that, instead of accepting extracts from the Writings, the "logical course would be to express our faith in the whole of the Writings," and that the Church in Australia has already done this in its Confession of Faith signed by every member. All this would be very fine,--if true. But also, if it were true, there would be no conflict such as is now going on, and Mr. Billings's motion would not have been offered. For all the extracts which are included in that motion were directed to this one point, that the whole of the Writings are to be accepted as Divinely true.
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But the argument does not represent the true facts of the case. The only statement bearing on the matter, in the Confession of Faith, is the following: "The second coming of the Lord is not in Person but in the opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, and the establishment of a New Church on earth. It was affected by a general judgment which took place in the spiritual world, A. D. 1757, and by the revelation of the doctrines of that church through Swedenborg, a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." This statement should certainly involve the acknowledgment of he Writings as the Lord's Word to His New Church, but, nevertheless, in itself it is indefinite on this point, and is therefore to be understood according to the interpretation given it by the leaders of the body which puts it forth for acceptance. And their interpretation is, that the Writings are not Divine, nor even altogether true!
Mr. Bates, the president of the Conference, openly declared that he does not "agree with the Academy are the Doctrines as the Lord's doctrines," and he and his society have voted that the Writings are inferior to the Word. As editor of the New Age, Mr. Bates has given sanction to an article in which the writer, also a signer of the Australian Confession, emphatically denies that the Writings "are infallible," or that "all that these books contain is doctrine for the Church," declaring such statements to be "false in each and every particular." And Mr. Spencer himself, who, at the Conference, appeared as the champion of "the whole of the Writings," in the New Age for June accepts as "peculiarly Divine instruction" only those portions which can be confirmed by the Letter of the Word, resting the others merely on the authority of the "better informed" Swedenborg supported by his own private "observations" and "beliefs;" and in a later article he places the authority of the whole of the doctrines on a par with that of the Epistles. In view of all this what becomes of the argument, that signers of the Confession of Faith have thereby accepted "the Whole of the Writings?" Either the argument is false, or the signers faithless.
The objection to passing doctrinal resolutions by vote is a novel one in Australia. A few months ago, Mr. Bates and his Brisbane society had no hesitation in deciding by vote that "the Writings are not the Word of God."
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But even the objection to voting should not prevent consideration and discussion. The questions involved in the motion concern the very fundamentals of the Church; they are questions that have been agitating the members in Australia, and many attended the Conference with the special purpose of taking part in or listening to the "consideration and discussion" of them, but judging from the haste with which they were dismissed by the Conference, it is evident that there was no disposition to discuss; and Dislike Authority seems justified in characterizing the action of Conference as evidencing a "willingness to prevent the discussion of a question that was considered vital" by almost half the members. Had here been a real disposition to enter into the subject, ways could easily have been found without involving the passage of the resolution.
What is the cause of this unwilling-ness to discuss what would seem to invite the utmost interest and attention? Is it a fear to face the logic of the opponent? or does it arise from the Jesuitic policy of keeping the simple in ignorance lest they be enlightened? The fact is evident that the Conference was determined not to discuss, or, what amounts to the sane thing, was determined not to go a single step in the direction of acknowledging the Divine authority of the Writings. For the action of the Conference was, in effect, a declaration to Mr. Billings and his supporters: "We have made up our minds, and are utterly and irrevocably opposed to you." This is the real spirit which seems to have been underlying the unwillingness to entertain the subject of the motion,--the spirit of intense hostility to the Divinity of the Writings, a spirit which is not confined to Australia, but has also animated the English Conference and the American Convention, and has caused that bitter and relentless animosity to the Academy, and to all who champion the Writings, which has received so many illustrations in the way of slander and misrepresentation,--the spirit which shuts out light from the Writings, and which, if allowed to prevail in the Church, will destroy it by removing from it its Centre, the Lord present in His revelation. This animating spirit has become more manifest since the adjournment of the Conference, and is well reflected in the "Academy" number of the New Age, noticed on another page.
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We may feel assured that the conflict in Australia will not end with this meeting of the Conference. The eternal issue involving the fundamentals of our faith cannot be set aside by the action of any body of men. Despite all efforts to exclude it from the meetings of the Church it will continue to agitate men's minds, and will never cease to be a living issue so long as there are those in the Church who deny the real presence of the Lord in His Divine Revelation.
REASONS FOR ACCEPTING THE ACADEMY'S POSITION. ELDRED E. JUNGERICH 1905
Communications.
EDITOR New Church Life:
It has been suggested to me to make a brief statement of the reasons why it has been my happiness to become an adherent of the Academy branch of the New Church after having been identified till now with the General Convention.
This statement will not be a defense of the Academy's position all along the line, though I hope to make clear how naturally this follows as a consequence of conclusions arrived at in one point. Most battles, spiritual as well as natural, are won by a massing of forces at one point, even though the line of battle may have been very much extended. This took place in me, and I will try to give you the details faithfully.
The point of attack was the definition of "What is the Word?"
According to a primitive idea, the Word was just a collection of books. A certain number of the older ones of these formed the Old Testament. The remaining books formed the New Testament. These were the four Gospels, the Acts, various Epistles, and a book of Revelation, all of which were directly the result of the first coming of the Lord.
It was only lately, as a result of private reading and of attending several services in the Episcopal church where I heard sermons whose texts were almost exclusively taken from the Epistles, that I came to see how many of the so-called holy writings had in reality nothing to warrant their being called the Word.
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This conviction grew with the interchanging of several controversial letters with members of the Episcopal Church. With each letter it became more apparent that the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles, worthy as they might be for moral reading, had no right to a place in the Sacred Scriptures.
There seem to me to be two distinct reasons for this view.
A. Their total externality as writings. In general, they give nothing more profound than moral, external precepts of law to lead a life in this world; and these precepts were applicable chiefly to the time in which they were written. They have no spiritual side beyond this outward form. They do not give a revelation of the nature of the Lord.
B. Under no possible circumstances can it be advanced that the writers of these Epistles were in a state of spiritual awakening in which they received a direct revelation from the Lord.
For some time after this distinction had become well defined, every time the idea was presented to me that the Writings of Swedenborg are the Word, I succeeded in dispelling it by asking myself, "If I regard them as anything but a key, am I not doing precisely what my Episcopal friends are doing when they uphold the Epistles as the Word."
But two distinct sets of reasons soon showed me that there is a decided and unmistakable difference here, and that this analogy is altogether unsound.
A. The first of these is that the Writings of Swedenborg mark an epoch about which many predictions abound in the New Testament, in the same way that predictions of the Lord's coming are found in the Old Testament. There is a prediction of this new epoch even in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel, where it is foretold that a rock will destroy all previous churches and then grow to be a mountain.
This made me ask myself:
"If this second coming of the Lord is by the Writings of Swedenborg, is it not also in them? Can they be anything but full of the Divine presence, just as are, though perhaps in a different way, all other writings that are called Divine?"
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B. The second set of reasons to dispel the false analogy came from considering the Writings themselves and the claims put forward by Swedenborg. Swedenborg says he was in an influx that was constantly operating from the Lord Himself. He was in a state of the Spirit fully as much as John was in the Isle of Patmos. No one questions the Divine authority of the book of Revelations. Who then can dispel the logical conclusion that thrusts itself irresistibly upon you that the same Divinity must reside in the Writings of Swedenborg?
Only one point of doubt now remained. The Writings themselves, how can they be regarded as Divine writings if they have not, as the Old and New Testaments have, an internal and an external sense, whose relations to each other are made clear by the science of correspondences?
To answer this will require a slight review of history. There as an Ancient Word, now lost, but parts of which were transcribed into our Old Testament. Its distinguishing mark was that its internal sense was protected and hidden by a much more remote and obscure style of symbolisms than is current in other Divine Writings. The internal sense of the Old Testament is also hard to get at, though less so than was the case with this Ancient Word. In the New Testament, the internal sense is more easily perceived, and in some places it is almost without any covering at all.
History shows then with each successive Revelation of truth a marked tendency in the direction of a lessening' and decrease of the literal wrappings that enfolds and protects the internal sense.
If this is so, who can be logical and say that the Writings of Swedenborg are not Divine on the ground that they have not, as is the case with the New and Old Testaments, an external related to an internal by the science of correspondences? For the testimony of Scripture points to a time when the internal sense would be given unveiled and in its power, when the arm of the Lord would be made bare. When was this to happen, if not at the second coming of the Lord?
I know there are some persons who by "internal sense," understand the internal sense in the Old and New Testaments alone. Consequently they admit and can think of no internal sense beside these.
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I would ask these persons if they do not recognize the principle that the interiors of the mind are only successively opened?
That exactly expresses my thought of to-day concerning the Word.
Those who read and meditate on the Writings of Swedenborg have the first degree of the internal sense opened in their minds, with the promise that the successive degrees will also be opened. Conversely, those who would leap at once to the inner degrees without having an opening of the first degree, that is, with but a meagre acquaintance with the Writings of Swedenborg, are in danger of becoming "robbers" and "thieves," and of unjustly getting things which afterwards they will be forced to give up, either they or the offspring of their interdenominational marriages.
My ideas had been shaping themselves to this conception of the three degrees residing in the internal sense of the Word, but curiously enough it was left to an extract from the Sunday School lesson in a recent May number, the Helper, to culminate, complete, and thoroughly round out this conception. This extract was an explanation of why the inscription on the cross, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," was written in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin. The article said this meant that the Lord Jesus Christ was the centre or origin of activities proceeding along celestial or voluntary, spiritual or intellectual, and natural or ultimate planes; these three languages typifying in order these three planes.
To me the conclusion was inevitable. The Writings of Swedenborg, which were written in Latin, are the ultimate or lowest degree of the internal sense of the Word.
At this point I realized I had come to the Academy point of view. It was then but a question of simple honesty to acknowledge it, and try to put this acknowledgment into effect.
For a Newchurchman who regards the Writings of Swedenborg as the work of the Lord, performed in Swedenborg who was in the spirit by a direct influx from the Lord, I can see but one conclusion. To be honest, straight, and square, he must say that the Writings of Swedenborg are the Divine Word. A Newchurchman who cannot say this is no more a Newchurchman than a Unitarian is a Christian.
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I know there are persons in whom conviction cannot be developed by an overwhelming assault on the basal point of their position. They cannot harbor a seed and give fruition. Such persons, though convinced of the main issue, will yet find insuperable objections in subordinate issues. In this case, for example, they might say that the Academy holds certain views about marriage which they cannot accept.
I have not entered into a discussion on that subject, and I shall not do so now. But I said I would give an illustration of how a victory will he gained at the key of the adversary's position which will lead to a victory all along the line.
I would ask such persons, from what I have seen happening in my own case, to remember that if the attack on the key of the adversary's position has been successful, and the adversary is now in complete rout before them, the only way to get the fruits of the victory is to pursue the flying forces with unrelenting vim and without compromise. If this is not done, the state of mind in which these scattered guerrilla bands are allowed to pillage and ravage at will, will be far worse than the former state of utter and orderly subordination to a wrong principle.
So if any detail or derivation of the now conquering principle seems repugnant and intolerable, they must most carefully weigh the reasons that engender this feeling lest they allow themselves to be swayed by reasons which obtain in the Old Churches and which they know should have no weight. A covenant such as Joshua made with the Gibeonites should have no place in the New Church.
ELDRED E. JUNGERICH.
500
GENERAL CONVENTION. 1905
Reports.
THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS.
The annual meeting of the Council of Ministers was opened in Newtonville, Mass., on June 6th, with a large representation of ministers. Among the reports read was one from the General Pastors recommending the restoration of the name of the Rev. Thomas A. King to the roll of ministers; the addition of three names, including that of William de Ronden Pos, of San Francisco, to the list of authorized candidates; and the omission of the names of three licentiates, including Mr. T. M. Martin, by expiration of license. The report also recommended the ordination of Mr. de Ronden Pos, who was present at the meetings, after a suitable time of preparation under the supervision of the president of the theological school. All the recommendations were accepted at the meeting of the Convention.
The Rev. E. J. E. Schreck addressed the Council on the subject of a calendar of daily readings from the Word and the Writings, which he strongly favored. Two sets of readers should be recognized, old and young, each with their own different requirements. The League reading plan already serves the young people, and he suggested that Convention prepare a plan to run through a course of years, for the older members of the Church. The suggestion was warmly supported by the Rev. Messrs. Seward, Warren, Mercer, Whitehead and others. Mr. Whitehead advocated that the plan should observe the chronological order of the Writings, which were "a logical series taken from the Word in logical order." The Rev. H. C. Small referred to the calendar issued by the Young People's League, and suggested that an additional calendar would produce division. He was supported by the Rev. J. C. Ager, who spoke of the success of the League reading in Brooklyn. The Rev. Dr. Wright hoped that old and young would read together, and that the proposed plan would be made after consultation with the League committee.
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The Rev. H. C. Dunham thought the plan should be mainly for the isolated, and should contain long passages with a few notes. After some further discussion as to combining the proposed calendar with the League calendar, the whole matter was referred to a committee, consisting of Messrs. Schreck, Mercer, and Small. At the recommendation of this committee, the convention subsequently appointed a committee of three to draw up, after friendly consultation with the Young People's League, a comprehensive plan for the daily reading of the Word and Writings, and to report next year.
Mr. Mercer read a paper on Missionary work in City Churches, in which, after emphasizing the point that work in his own society was the central interest of the pastor, he maintained that, nevertheless, the missionary work demanded the thought and attention of all. He referred to the notorious failure of lectures to draw popular attention, and suggested that more modern methods of work should be adopted, especially in the way of informal talks on subjects of practical everyday interest, in which appeal should be made not to the "authority of religion," but to the "authority of the spirit," that is, of the truth itself. Dr. Wright thought the paper "too much in the air," and advocated as something definite, that we combine with other churches for the purpose of reaching the ignorant. The Rev. W. H. Hinkley thought all missionary work should be openly based on authority. Few would be repelled by the open statement that "this truth was a Divine revelation." The Rev. J. W. McPhersoll spoke of his discouragement while doing the old time missionary work in Frankford, Pa., twenty-four years ago; but now his singers, including himself, had adopted the plan of going to other churches as a choir when opportunity offered. Now they were invited there, and he was often asked to read the Word and address the meeting, and he found no difficulty in having people receive. (He made no mention of the fact that the New Church was not increased by this means.) Mr. Seward thought the missionary method of the Writings much simpler than that of the paper. That method was, to teach men to repent. "Men are willing to go to heaven in their own way, but they must take the Lord's way."
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He added that, with all our attempts to meet Christian Science that heresy has got more hold of our people than we have of it. Several speakers endorsed the position of the paper, the Rev. E. D. Daniels adding an emphatic objection to Mr. Hinkley's criticism as to the "authority of the spirit." It was not necessary, he said, for the missionary to declare that the truth is the coming down of the New Jerusalem: such a course would he like that adopted by the painter who labeled his picture, "This is a cow." If the internal sense of the Word is preached that is the second coming, and there is no need to say so. The Rev. I. K. Smythe suggested that, in New York at any rate, Sunday evening services as outlined in the paper would attract mostly tramps and cranks. He thought that a live morning service was the best missionary work. The Rev. Edwin Gould advocated a division of labors, missionary work being a distinct use and requiring a special training and experience Mr. Whitehead, supporting the paper, deprecated the presentation of truth to an outsider on the basis of authority; it was beginning at: the wrong end. Even in the Writings there is first the unfolding of the spiritual sense, before the more systematic and. dogmatic treatises. (The speaker must have forgotten that in the very first chapter of the Arcana is the announcement that what follows is a revelation from the Lord.) The Rev. Dr. Sewall referred to the Sunday Evening lectures at Washington and Baltimore, one-fourth of the audience at the latter place having been strangers; and Mr. Mercer concluded the discussion by repudiating the remotest intention of slighting "the Divine origin of the truths."
He insisted, however, that they should not be presented to strangers on the basis of authority.
In the afternoon session there was an animated discussion of the subject of extemporaneous versus written prayers, the general consensus being in favor of the latter, though the former were also recognized as being useful, especially after the sermon.
In the evening the Rev. W. H. Alden read the report of the Committee on the Translation of the Word, announcing the completion of the Swedenborg Vocabulary, "a great work consisting of twenty bound volumes in manuscript (2215 pp.), showing Swedenborg's translation of every Hebrew, Chaldee, and Greek word as used in his Writings. The Council recommended that the Convention appropriate $500 to the Rev. L. H. Tafel, the compiler of the Vocabulary, to enable him to make typewritten summaries of the work, "showing the number of times each word is translated in a certain way in the Writings, and giving one example in each case; one of these summaries to be used by the English Conference, and another by the Academy, in the work of translating the Word."
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It was explained that the summary would occupy about 400 pages, and could be completed within a year. It was also recommended that $500 be appropriated to publish an edition of the new translation of the Psalms now completed. In the discussion, some of the ministers objected to the publication of "so incomplete a work as the translation of the Psalms by only three men" (The Rev. Messrs. Cabell, Tafel, and Alden); while others urged immediate publication, pointing out that they had already waited sixty years for a new translation, that any human work must be imperfect, and that the translation would serve as the basis for more perfect work in the future. At the close of the discussion it was recommended that the Convention appropriate $100 for the expenses of the committee, which was continued. All three recommendations were subsequently adopted by the Convention.
During the discussion of this subject much was said about enlisting the aid of graduates of the theological school in the work of translation. "They are good scholars when they graduate, but grow rusty because they are not able to purchase the necessary lexicons and Hebrew and Greek Testaments." Subsequently a resolution was offered to the Convention, that such books he supplied to all graduates. The resolution was referred to the Council of Ministers.
At the morning session of June 8th, the discussion was on two proposed amendments to the constitution of the Convention; one, by Mr. Hinkley, constituting licentiates and authorized candidates the first or lowest grade of the ministry, thus restoring the former practice of having three grades; and the other by Mr. Schreck, authorizing the minister to consecrate betrothals in addition to his other specified duties. Both proposals were referred to the General Pastors.
The former officers of the council were re-elected, the Rev. J. F. Potts was elected to preach the annual sermon next year, and the committee on the Eternity of the Hells was discharged.
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The Council concluded its sessions by the reading of a number of papers on various subjects, but there was no discussion of them.
CONVENTION.
The meetings of the General Convention were opened in Boston on June 10th, with 136 ministers and delegates and a large number of visitors. The delegates included 14 women, mainly from the Illinois, New York, and Connecticut Associations.
The Committee on Phototyping reported the completion of the Spiritual Diary, including the Diarium Minus. Eleven of the sets have been sold, and of the forty-nine remaining in hand, some will be presented to public libraries and the rest will be for sale.
The Maryland Association reported the resignation of the Rev. J. E. Thomas as pastor of the African Mission at Washington, and the sale of the property of the Mission, the proceeds being held in trust for future work among the colored people. In the discussion of this report it was stated that Mr. Thomas "was not succeeding with the adults," and that his work "was hampered by the mistakes of his predecessors." Dr. Wright then offered a preamble and resolution, which was accepted, to the effect that since the property of the African Mission had been held in trust for the Convention and had been sold without any consultation with that body, therefore the whole subject should be referred to the General Council with instructions to protect the rights of Convention, that "the gifts and memorials may not be placed without protest at the service of a body of Second Adventists," and that bequests not yet paid might not be lost by negligence.
In accordance with the recommendation of the committee for improving the meetings of the Convention, certain by-laws were changed so as to provide for a permanent business committee and to require notice of all motions.
The report of the Ohio Association, which asked for a small appropriation for Urbana University, was supplemented by the Rev. L. H. Hite, who referred to the University as "the only institution of higher education the Church now had," [!] and made the usual appeal for endowments. Soon afterwards the Convention confirmed the action taken by Mr. Eby in presenting to the University the bronze bust of Swedenborg made for the St. Louis Fair.
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At the session on June 12th there was considerable stir over a motion made by Mr. Barren, a representative from Boston, to reject the report of the Rotch Trustees and to appoint a committee of three to investigate the work of the trustees. The object of the mover was to ascertain what prospect there was of having the Botch edition of the Writings completed. The trustees had begun well, but ever since then "everything possible had been done to destroy their edition." Mr. Warren Goddard, one of the trustees, referred to the decisions of the Supreme Court as placing the Botch Fund beyond the control of the Convention, though to be used for its benefit. He gave a list of the appropriations made from the fund in aid of various publications, his list including the truly remarkable item, "$600 for Mr. Dockering for the translation of the work on Salt." (It should be $400 for Mr. Doering for the transcription and publication of Swedenborg's unpublished scientific writings.) Mr. Goddard added that the trustees had thought it best not to multiply editions of the Writings; duplication of work should be avoided. After this "confession" that the trustees had abandoned their original plan, Mr. Barren consented to withdraw the first part of his motion, and the second part calling for a committee of investigation was adopted and the committee appointed. At a later session of the meeting this committee reported that the publication of the Rotch Edition of the Writings had been delayed by changes in contracts, the death of translators, and the apparent lack of demand for the books; but that in view of the present apparent desire the trustees are ready to go on with the work, and hope to complete it in two or three years. As this would require the guarantee of sufficient subscribers for the work, 32 volumes in all at $1.25 and $2.50 a volume, at the recommendation of the report, the Convention appointed a committee to secure such subscribers. The report was concurred in by the Rotch Trustees.
The Messenger refers to this discussion as one of the indications of "a reaction from too much conservatism." The discussion itself has led to the manifestation of some keen competition in the New Church publishing world.
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It has induced the President of the American Swedenborg Society to write to the Messenger pointing out that the 32 volumes of the Rotch edition will not constitute a complete edition of the Writings since it will omit the Apocalypse Explained. With this work included, the Rotch Edition would require at least 40 volumes at a cost of over $50 a set. Mr. Seward then draws attention to the edition now being Published by his Society, which is to contain "all the theological writings of Swedenborg" (no mention is made of the Spiritual Diary, or of the numerous posthumous works, without which no edition call be called "complete"). This edition will be in 28 volumes at a cost of about $34 a set, as compared with $40 for the incomplete Rotch Edition. The whole letter is an interesting and significant comment on the deplorable duplication of work to which our publishing houses seem so firmly wedded.
But to return to the Convention meeting. The discussion of the report of the Theological School resulted in the inauguration of a fund to purchase the land adjoining the rear of the school.
The General Council reported adversely on the proposal, made last year by the Rev. James Reed, that the constitution be changed to provide that the Council shall be a lay body, its only ministerial members being the President and Secretary ex-officio, instead of a mixed body as at present. Mr. Reed's purpose had been to make the Council of Ministers the body in charge of ecclesiastical affairs, and the General Council the body in charge of business affairs. The proposition was rejected on the ground that the General Council represents the whole of the Convention and is not a special body for special uses. At the recommendation of the Council a pension fund for the benefit of needy ministers was authorized, but not without considerable objection from several of the ministers who objected to "pauperizing" the ministers, and thought that cases should be taken up as they arise.
The subject of the Messenger up during the latter part of the meetings. The editor, the Rev. S. C. Eby, complained of the lack of support. The main problem was to supply the loss of subscribers, as it was constantly a net loss. The literary support, he thought, was the best the Messenger had ever known, though he added, somewhat paradoxically, "there are more writers in the Church, and if the funds could be obtained the Church could command them: but little has been done in this direction."
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The financial support had fallen off, necessitating a loan from the Convention of $1200. There are about 1700 paying subscribers, and their contributions, together with the income of invested funds, leaves an annual deficit of about $800 to be made up by donations. The editor concluded by offering his resignation, which was unanimously accepted. An effort was then made to refer the matter of the Messenger to the General Council with powers, but it was vigorously opposed by several speakers, including Mr. Eby. Finally the matter was deferred till the following day, a committee being in the meantime appointed to draw up resolutions on Mr. Eby's retirement.
On the following day these resolutions, expressing in the highest appreciation of Mr. Eby's services" as editor and publisher, were adopted. Then followed a lively debate on the Messenger, "all sorts of projects being proposed," but, after all, the matter was referred to the General Council with powers.
LONDON SWEDENBORG SOCIETY. 1905
The London Swedenborg Society held its ninety-fifth annual meeting on June 20th. In his opening remarks the chairman reported the receipt of the munificent bequest of over $86,000 made by the late Miss Hagart. This, we may add, is the largest single bequest ever received by the Society, and, with the $80,000 received in 1902 from three legacies, makes a magnificent addition to the Society's funds.
The report of the secretary showed, as usual, great activity in the printing and distribution of the Writings and collateral literature, over 25,500 volumes having been delivered as compared with 19,000 in 1904. A large number of these deliveries comprise the sixpenny editions of Heaven and Hell and God, Creation, Man, Published through the house of Frederick Warne & Co., and noticed on pages 225 and 304 of the Life for 1905. The arrangement with the publishers was, that "while we got the two books up in our own style, they were to find the market if they could." The change of the title Divine Love and Wisdom to God, Creation, Man was made with the object of "better attracting the modern reader, and at the same time conveying more completely to the purchaser an idea of the contents of the volume."
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The Latin title, however, is retained in the Introduction.
The sale of these popular editions has been truly phenomenal. Of Heaven and Hell a total of 12,500 copies have been delivered, and of God, Creation, Man a total of 10,000. Of the former work 10,000 copies were exhausted in two months, and of the latter 9,000 in a single month. The magnitude of these sales is illustrated by the fact that in four months the sales of this edition of Heaven and Hell equal the sales and gifts of the same work from 1810 to 1890; and the sales of God, Creation, Man equals the entire output of Divine Love and Wisdom since the establishment of the Society. These publications have led to several enquiries, from purchasers, for other works in similar editions, one lady having written for "a sixpenny edition of the Arcana Coelestia and Conjugial Love;" the Society has therefore decided to follow up the work by the publication in similar form of Divine Providence and True Christian Religion.
Among the libraries to which volumes of the Writings have been presented are the Library at Pretoria, the Khedival Library of Cairo, and the Anglo-Chinese School at Brams, Upper Burmah. The Society has also paid considerable to the distribution of its various translations. The Dutch Heaven and Hell has been sent to various places in South Africa; the Icelandic Divine Love and Wisdom has been circulated in Iceland; Indian and Arabic translations have been sent to Lahore, India; Italian, to Triste, and Norwegian, to Christiania and Narvik.
The report notes that the Russian translation of the Heavenly Doctrine, the manuscript of which has been in the possession of the Society for some years, has been revised by a Russian literary man resident in London, and an edition of 1000 copies was printed in the autumn of 1904. Half the edition was forwarded to the Rev. A. Roeder for use among the Dukhobors in Canada, and another part was sent to Japan to be used among the Russian prisoners there.
Among the publications to be issued by the Society in the immediate future is a translation, by the Rev. J. R. Rendell, of the Dicta Probantia (Confirming Passages). This work has never before been translated into any language, and is but little known even among those who read the Latin.
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It was written by Swedenborg between 1766 and 1769, probably in the latter year, and is therefore to be included in the Writings of the Church.
Over one-half of the Rev. James Hyde's Bibliography of the Writings has been printed; a new translation of True Christian Religion is being made by the Rev. I. Tansley; and the revision of the Principia has at last been completed and proofs of the work will be forwarded to America for final revision.
The phototyping of the Index Biblicus, which was begun last autumn by the Rev. C. J. N. Manby, has proceeded under his supervision, aided by Mr. M. Wenman. But as Mr. Manby prefers to devote himself to the Swedish translation of Arcana Coelestia, Mr. Wenman will have entire charge of the work in the future. Under "the restrictions imposed by the Academy of Sciences" the production is "necessarily a slow work, but the printing of this reproduction is now completed as to 256 pages."
There was nothing of especial interest in the discussions of the meeting.
THE AUSTRALIAN CONFERENCE. 1905
The eighth triennial meeting of the General Conference or the New Church in Australia was held in Melbourne during Easter week, with a membership of thirteen,--two ministers and eleven representatives from Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Sydney. The attendance at the meetings was sometimes as high as 75. The Rev. W. A. Bates was elected president, and the Rev. Percy Billings vice-president.
The principal business of general interest to come before the meeting was the motion to be made by Mr. Billings in pursuance of the "Adelaide Resolutions." This business was reached on the second day of the Conference, when Mr. Billings moved to the effect that, as the Conference represents "the New Church in Australia," and as all knowledge respecting the New Church "has been gained from the doctrines of the New Jerusalem contained in the theological writings of Swedenborg? servant of the Lord Jesus Christ," therefore "the following statements contained in the theological Writings of Swedenborg are held to be doctrines of the New Jerusalem, are held to be doctrines of the Lord Jesus Christ, and are therefore acknowledged by this Conference to be true."
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Then followed a series of about fifty short extracts from the Writings arranged under the headings, 1. The advent of the Lord. 2. The Lord the Divine truth, the Word, Doctrine. 3. The Letter of the Word and the Internal Sense. The resolution was introduced by the mover in "an impressive and excellent speech," but his remarks are not recorded.
The discussion was opened by Mr. Spencer, leader of the Sydney Society, who strenuously objected to the passage of the resolution. "Where would it end?" he asked. "If one member could secure the formal assent of Conference to one set of extracts, any other member must be equally entitled to bring forward another set to be similarly adopted. Such extracts were necessarily sundered from their context, and though we believed them, we believed them not separately but in the light of all the other passages in the Heavenly Doctrines. The only logical course would be to express our faith in the whole of the Writings." But, he continued, this had already been hone in signing the Confession of Faith, and the adoption of the extracts would therefore involve a confession of faithlessness on our part which was not called for. He also added the argument that the freedom of the societies composing the Conference should be respected, and that they should not be asked to accept "any fresh statement of belief" except after ample notice and the fullest consideration and discussion. The extracts, he understood, had been written on the previous evening, and the societies were in the dark concerning them. Finally, he concluded, Conference should neither accept nor reject the motion. He therefore moved the "previous question." The motion was carried by a vote of 7 to 5. The representative from Adelaide, Mr. W. Strawbridge, considering this action an effort to stifle discussion, thereupon offered his resignation as a member of the Conference. He was followed by Mr. Billings, who also resigned as vice-president. Divine Authority refers to these resignations as "the finest action in connection with the meeting," showing a splendid appreciation of the heritage of liberty of speech and action everywhere associated with the English speaking people, and "not quite extinct in the Australian Conference." The resignations themselves, which do not necessarily involve resignation from "The New Church in Australia," were formally presented and were accepted on the following day.
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At the opening of the afternoon session following the action on Mr. Billings's motion, Mr. Morse moved that Mr. Spencer's resolution calling for the previous question be rescinded. Mr. Morse was supported by two of the members who had voted with Mr. Spencer in the morning, both gentlemen giving as the reason for their change of view, that, on reflection, they felt the action of the Conference might be open to the charge of having been taken with the object of stifling discussion. The vote on this question resulted in a tie, but the president giving his casting vote against the motion, it was declared lost. Thus ended the first stage in the Australian fight for the Divine Authority of the Writings.
Commenting on the casting vote, Divine Authority, in an editorial article entitled "The Gag in Conference," says, "Justice would dictate to the president 'See, there are five independent men, your brothers, who voted for recission, and there are present two, one of whom is your only brother minister in Australia, who have resigned in protest against a gross insult to their society and its representatives, making really seven for recission and five against. Cast your vote on the side of the seven.' Mr. Bates cast it on the side of the five against the seven, against liberty of speech, in opposition to parliamentary practice." In the same article the action of the Conference is characterized as "arbitrary, unjust, and tyrannical," an action showing a willingness on the part of a small majority to prevent the discussion of a question that was considered vital by five-twelfths of the whole Conference, to say nothing of the affront offered to those visitors who had come to hear the discussion,--men "who had traveled 500 miles, not to help in merely routine work, but to further the real kingdom of heaven among men."
The question of the passage of doctrinal resolutions was again brought up in a later session of the Conference, when a motion was offered to the effect that, since all things are to be made new, therefore the Doctrines "are to be applied to all planes and departments of human life, economic and civil as well as moral and spiritual." It was opposed by Mr. Spencer, who thought it should be treated in the same sense as Mr. Billings's motion, and for similar reasons.
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In addition, he strongly depreciated the attempt to identify Conference with socialism, which is the greatest danger now threatening the country. "We do not need creeds, and the effect of passing the resolution would simply be to add a few lines to our creeds, everyone's opinion remaining the same as before, except so far as his convictions might have been changed." The proper relations of rich and poor are amply set forth in a chapter in Heaven and Hell, and the statement that the doctrines contain laws of life on every plane could not be better set forth than in the Doctrine of Life, to which every member had already subscribed. To pass the resolution would therefore be entirely superfluous, and would be an unwarranted interference with freedom. The motion was then withdrawn, but it appears in the New Age together with the introductory speech by the mover.
During one of the social meetings of the Conference, Mr. Morse gave an account of his recent visit to New Church societies in various parts of the world, "dwelling more particularly upon his visit to Bryn Athyn where he attended the assembly of that branch known as the Academy."
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. Bryn Athyn has spent just about half its summer days, in the usual placid, summer time way,--picnics in the cool woods by the Pennypack, now and then an auto party to the shore, and other informal, pleasant events, with no responsibilities attached. The first was on "the Fourth," when all were invited to bring supper and feast on Mr. and Mrs. Smith's lawn
It was on the afternoon of the fourth that Mr. Pitcairn, his eldest son and daughter, and Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton, sailed away to Europe; principally to the British Isles, where they will attend the Colchester Assembly. Rumor has it, that while in Ireland, two of this party kissed the "Blarney," and we are looking to the Nestorian effects.
The much anticipated camping trip, consisting of twenty-five lads with Mr. Synnestvedt in command and old "Uncle" Whitist (who, by the way, is a shade or two darker than his name) as cook, left in due time, for Camp Round Pond, a wild spot some miles from the Delaware Water Gap. The absolute freedom of outdoor life filled them brimful of health and good spirits, and so charmed them that they quite rebelled at coming back to civilization.
The Cairnwood young ladies are having a successful season at Wildwood, N. J. where they have taken a very comfortable and attractive cottage. Several parties of Bryn Athynians have enjoyed their hospitality as well as the sea breezes and mosquitoes.
It was with much regret that we said good bye to Mr. and Mrs. Brickman, who left for Berlin, Canada. Mr. Brickman is to assume charge of the Convention Society in Berlin, Canada. But it won't be long before the little Brickmans will come back as students to the college which was the Alma Mater of both their parents.
Among those passing the summer months at "The Inn" are Professor Brickenstein, of Bethlehem, Pa.; Mr. Jungerich, of Philadelphia, and for a few days, Mrs. Jungerich, Miss Jungerich, and Miss Townsend. R. H.
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PITTSBURGH, PA. The summer season in Pittsburgh finds a number of our people away on vacations or outings, and the attendance at Sunday services is proportionately diminished. The church will be closed shortly for several weeks while the work of enlarging the building is going on. When it is completed we shall have a larger assembly room with more space to accommodate our growing congregation, and more facilities to look after the larger gatherings at our district assemblies and similar occasions. Since our last correspondence we have held several informal social gatherings, among them a dance at the Bellefield Club and a linen shower for Miss Esther Boggess at the home of Mrs. Uptegraff. At the closing of the local school Miss Boggess, as their teacher after two very prosperous and progressive years in the work, bade farewell to her pupils. Miss Evelyn Gilmore succeeds Miss Boggess in the school. The 19th of June was commemorated bit a very impressive communion service on Sunday the 18th.
The season culminated in the meetings of the Executive Committee, the Ministers' Council, and the Teachers' Institute, during the latter part of June. On the evening of June 21st, after closed sessions of the Executive Committee and the Council of the Clergy, there was an open meeting of the latter at the Church.
On the following evening a banquet, prepared by some of our ladies, was given at the Church, which event was devoted to the memory of Father Benade. Mr. Pendleton in a few remarks of welcome to our guests said, innocently, "We hope that after these meetings are over you will leave us with the mutual satisfaction, happiness, and contentment with which we shall see you go." 'Nuf ced! Following up the toast of the evening to the memory of Father Benade Mr. Pendleton read an address which dealt with impressions he had formed of the Bishop while a pupil and minister under him. He referred particularly to his uncompromising attitude in regard to the Divine authority of the Writings.
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Bishop Pendleton followed with some earnest remarks in which he stated that Bishop Benade was the most wonderful man he had ever met, and further, that "he, more, than any other man, perceived the presence of the Lord in the Writings. His memory will not only be with us, but will be a permanent memory in the Church of a man who gave the Church a true theology." Mr. Bowers recalled that he had been present at the Convention meeting in Cincinnati in 1873, when Bishop Benade read his famous address on the "Authority;" and he expressed his gratitude that he had been permitted to hear this great truth brought forward so early in his career as a minister. Mr. Odhner mentioned occasions previous to the bringing forward of the Bishop's address when the subject was considered by earlier Newchurchmen, but they had only a perception of the truth and not an understanding of it. Bishop Benade recognized the necessity for New Church education, for in that lies the future of the Church. Later, Mr. Odhner read extracts from a letter from Mr. Tilson describing the last hours of the Bishop on earth and the funeral, and memorial services. Mr. Homer Synnestvedt spoke of Father Benade as one of the world's greatest educators. He came of Moravian stock, and these people have been the greatest of educators of modern times. Bishop Benade studied under his father, who had a broad reputation as an educator, and he succeeded him as an instructor in Nazareth Hall, the Moravian Seminary After receiving the Doctrines he brought all his knowledge of education to bear in the service of the Church. Mr. Acton in speaking of the Bishop said that he was the man who was raised up as the means of making a judgment in the Church, by showing that the Writings are a real manifestation and presence of the Lord. Previous to Mr. Benade's time there had been no separations in the church except on more or less external grounds. He further spoke of the Academy having been started in Pittsburgh, and gave a brief account of an essay by Miss Gwladys Hicks of the graduating class at Bryn Athyn in which this beginning of the Academy was allegorically treated, particularly referring to the Bishop's acceptance of leadership in the great work. Mr. Price referred to the Bishop's association with the young Newchurchmen, especially the students.
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The Bishop always showed the utmost patience with them, and never aroused any enmity, for when the discipline for a misconduct was over the incident was closed. The relationship was ideal. Mr. Waelchli in his remarks said that now Bishop Benade's influence for the good of the Church is greater, and will be greater, than ever before, for, from the other world, he can do more than ever for its welfare on earth. To-day we love him as the great teacher of the true principles of the Church.
The whole evening was an exceedingly interesting and instructive one, particularly to the young people and those who had been only slightly acquainted with Bishop Benade, it was especially interesting, since the speeches came from those who had been pupils and ministers under him, and for all, the occasion renewed the affection we have for the great Academy leader and for the principles which he formulated.
On the following evening we listened to another open session of the ministers at which a paper by Mr. Waelchli on what constituted the illustration of the episcopal degree was considered. Various views were expressed, some maintaining that the highest office of the bishop is that of a teacher, and others that his chief function is that of a governor. The evening closed with no definite conclusion on the subject.
At the open session of the educational meeting on Monday evening, the 26th, a number of letters and addresses were read from parents and teachers on the question "What do New Church parents expect of the teachers." Many views on the question were expressed, but, as Mr. Homer Synnestvedt, who presided, remarked, it was a pleasure to find that the chief plea by all was for a distinctive New Church training first of all.
The busy week closed with an informal meeting of the local Philosophers at the home of Mr. Louis Schoenberger, at which nearly all of the male visitors were present. Mr. Alfred Stroh read an interesting paper on Swedenborg's scientific works, and later was initiated as an honorary member of the club.
The end of the week found all our guests departed. It has been indeed delightful to see and meet so many of the old friends and Church people from the other centres who were present during the sessions. K. W.
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MIDDLEPORT, O. The Middleport Society celebrated June 19th with a banquet at the home of Dr. W. A. Hanlin. More than forty were present, among them Mr. S. A. Powell, of Givens; Mr. and Mrs. A. H. Eblin and daughter, of Rutland, and Miss Boice, of Kyger. The significance of June nineteenth was considered, and the fact that the New Church was first established in the spiritual world. It is a spiritual Church, and is to see all things in the sight of Heaven and not in the sight of the natural man. The following toasts were offered and responded to: The Love of Truth, as forming the Church; Charity, as establishing the Church; Social Life in the Church; Father Benade and his great work for the Church, and, finally, to the various centres of the General Church. The night was hot but our hearts, too, were warm, and we had a good time. W. L. G.
ERIE, PA. On Sunday morning, June 18th, services were held at the home of Dr. Edward Cranch and family. The attendance was twenty-two persons. After the sermon, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered, in which fourteen persons took part. There was a peaceful and reverent sphere.
In the evening, at the same place, we had, for the first time in the history of the Erie New Church Circle, a celebration of the Nineteenth of June. When the people had gathered, there was the baptism of an infant. Then all sat down to the banquet for which Mrs. Cranch and others had provided. The number present was thirty-two, and it proved to be an enjoyable and instructive occasion for all. Dr. Cranch had charge of the exercises, and introduced the subject with appropriate remarks. The writer read a paper on Fishermen being chosen as Disciples, and their mission, in the natural world and afterwards in the spiritual world. Mr. Walter A. Cranch read his excellent graduation thesis on "Remains." Mr. Robert G. Burns also read a paper. Mr. Raymond Cranch played for us on the clarinet; and Miss Grace Burns gave us a piano solo. Wine was served, and there were several toasts. The Erie Circle is well united; and the sphere of the Church is increased and strengthened by such celebrations. J. E. BOWERS.
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TORONTO, CAN. The closing exercises of the local school were held on June 16th, at 7:30 P. M., when an interesting and varied program was rendered by the little ones. Papers by the senior class evinced a lucid understanding of fundamental doctrines, and decided ability was shown in a series of compositions by the tots in the junior class, on the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt, and their final liberation by Moses. Scenes from "King John" and "The Rivals," rendered in a wonderfully intelligent and dramatic manner by the small boys of the senior class, are deserving of special mention. At the close of the program, a presentation of books from the ladies of the society was made to the children, followed by exhibition of drawing, writing and sewing, the work of the little ones through the year. It is most encouraging to note the excellence of the work done in our schools, which augurs well for the future, both of the school and of the Church.
The weekly suppers and doctrinal classes have all been discontinued during the hot months.
To celebrate the commencement of our New Year, a social was held in the church building, Mr. and Mrs. Peter Bellinger acting as charming hosts. The usual program of toasts was followed by music, and a jolly dance completed a delightful and profitable evening.
On Sunday, June 25th, the usual morning service was omitted, as our pastor was absent attending the meeting in Pittsburgh. At a strawberry festival, held on July 7th, in aid of our Piano Fund, we enjoyed exceedingly an account of these meetings given by our pastor and Mr. Carswell.
The marriage of Mr. F. Carson and Miss Nellie McLaughlin, which took place Wednesday evening, July 12th, was a happy event. The church was redolent of the sweetness of syringia blossoms, with which it was profusely decorated. After the ceremony, a reception was tendered the newly wedded pair, previous to their departure for their future home in Niagara Falls, Ontario. A pleasing feature of the occasion was the unexpected presence of the grandfather of the bride, who arrived in time to give her away. Mr. McLaughlin has been for some years a resident of Los Angeles, Cal., but was formerly one of the pioneer Newchurchmen of Canada, his connection with the Church, as he stated in a reminiscent little speech, dating sixty years back. M. S. C.
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BERLIN, CAN. The closing exercises of the Carmel Church School were held on Friday evening, June 16th, in the presence of the assembled parents and friends. The program consisted of recitations and songs, and an address by the pastor. Copies of Conjugial Love were presented to the four pupils who left the school a year ago.
The Nineteenth of June was celebrated with a banquet held in the evening of that day. The theme of the toasts was the making of all things new in the New Church. Mr. Rudolf Roschman responded to "The new Worship of God;" Mr. Jacob Stroh to "The new Life of Charity;" Mr. T. S. Kuhl to "The new Conjugial Love," and Mr. Richard Roschman to "The new Education." In spite of the very warm weather, a delightful evening was spent.
On the 9th of July the annual picnic of the Society was held in a grove on the banks of the Gorand River. Rain interfered with the enjoyment of the day; still, the children seemed to have the usual good time. W.
HAMILTON, CAN. On invitation I preached for the New Church Circle in this city, on Sunday. July 2d. Twenty persons were present at the service, and all partook of the Holy Communion. Among those present were our friends, the Rev. J. J. Morton and his wife. Mr., Morton is an ex-Episcopalian clergyman, or one who is without a charge, because his Bishop would not tolerate a "Swedenborgian" among the clergy of his diocese. Mr. Morton has been a diligent reader of the Writings, but has not joined the New Church. It is, however, always interesting to converse with him, because he seems to grow gradually more affirmative to the entire newness and distinctiveness of the New Church. J. E. BOWERS.
CALGARY, N. W. T., CANADA. Members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in this place, and others who through them are interested in the doctrines, are holding regular meetings on Sunday afternoon in a rented hall. The first meeting was held July 23d, and five persons were present.
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A sermon was read, and this was followed by reading from the Writings and conversation. The subject of conversation on this occasion was the need of baptism into the New Church on entering it from the Old Church. Notice of these meetings is to be inserted in one of the daily papers. The circle is in communication with the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, secretary of the Ontario Assembly of the General Church.
COLCHESTER, ENGLAND. On Easter Monday the children's social was held in Priory St., when there was an attendance of 43. Tea was provided, after which a pleasant time was spent in songs, games and dances.
Having heard of the developments in the Church in Australia, the society sent, through its secretary, a letter of sympathy, and expressed the hope that the outcome of the present struggle might prove satisfactory to them and to ourselves.
On May 28th, the entrance of Bishop Benade into the spiritual world was commemorated. In his address our pastor dwelt on the pre-eminent uses performed for the Church by the late Bishop, adding that probably the greatness of his work could not be rightly estimated for many years to come. Many phases of his character and work were referred to by Messrs. Gill, Appleton, Cooper and Potter, whose remarks manifested the strength of affection for the instrument who in the Divine Providence has been permitted to perform such interior uses. The meeting desired Mr. Czerny to convey to Mrs. Benade its united sympathy.
Our annual June 19th Children's Outing was held at Stanway Green, the party numbering 39; tea was provided and a very pleasant time was spent. New Church Day was celebrated by the Society itself on June 25th, with an attendance of 16. After a toast to the Church, Mr. Czerny emphasized the importance of the sending out of the Apostles into the spiritual world to establish a new heaven and a New Church on the earth; and he made special reference to the three accounts of the event given in the Writings. The address was followed by speeches by several members upon topics related to the coming of the Lord.
On July 9th the society had the great pleasure of a visit from Mr. Alfred Stroh, who is passing through England on his way to Sweden. Several of the friends met him at "Maldune," the hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. Gill, in the afternoon, and heard a very interesting account of his work.
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In the evening a social was held, also at "Maldune," when, Mr. Stroh read a paper on Swedenborg's Science, some very interesting points were raised in the subsequent conversation, and a most enjoyable and profitable time was spent. There were 23 present on this occasion.
LONDON, ENGLAND. Our readers will be interested in hearing the following particulars respecting the passing away of Bishop Benade; they are taken from a letter received from the Rev. R. J. Tilson, slightly supplemented from a private letter from another source.
For many months before his death Bishop Benade had been gradually losing physical strength, but so gradually that one was scarcely conscious of it. He was always bright and cheerful and "up to the very end his mind was quite clear, and his intellect as quick as ever, for he took the keenest interest in everything of the Church, and was also actively interested in the political problems of the day. On the 1st of May he showed greater weakness with a sort of low fever of a rheumatic tendency. He failed in strength very rapidly during the last week, but even up to three days before he died, his physician gave hope of a rally.
At about noon on Sunday, May 21st, there was an almost imperceptible change. Taking his wife's hand the Bishop said. "This is death." He then quietly awaited the end. "Soon afterwards he went off into a quiet peaceful sleep, which continued till Monday morning, May 22d, when, at 11:45, with two gentle sighs, he passed away. His bed was in his library--a fine, large room--and at the foot of it was a small table upon which lay the opened Word. His wife sat hour after hour holding his hand, the noble head lay so naturally upon the pillow; the lace was calm and radiant: and the whole room was filled with a holy sphere of peace and restfulness," which was felt by all who entered.
On the following Tuesday morning, May 25th, Mr. Tilson, assisted by the Rev. Mi. H. Acton, conducted a short service at the house, after which the body was taken to Highgate cemetery and placed in the grave of his wife's parents.
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A large quantity of wreaths and flowers was sent by numerous friends, including one from the pastor and friends of the Burton Road Society.
The memorial meeting, which was well attended, was held on Friday evening at the Burton Road church. The chancel and pulpit were tastefully decorated with quantities of flowers, and on an easel stood a large portrait of Bishop Benade draped with red and white, and surrounded with a wreath of laurels. After a short preliminary service, Mr. Tilson, who was assisted by the Revs. Messrs. T. F. Robinson and W. H. Acton, read a short speech made by Chancellor Benade at a memorial meeting many years ago. Mr. Tilson followed the reading by some remarks as to Mr. Benade's life work having been the setting free of the office of the priesthood. A duet, ("O Lovely Peace"), was sung by two sisters of Mrs. Benade, and was followed by addresses by Messrs. Robinson and Acton. Miss Gibbs then sang Mendelssohn's "O Rest in the Lord," and Mr. Poulton gave an affectionate tribute to the memory of Bishop Benade. The service, which was a most impressive one, was concluded with the singing of the hymn "Patience."
On the following Sunday morning Bishop Benade's sermon "The Lord our Father," (printed in New Church Life for 1887, p. 35), was read from the pulpit by Mr. Tilson, and in the evening the memorial service was continued, so that all the members might have an opportunity of expressing their affection for the departed Bishop.
FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES. Among the students at the THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL Of the General Convention is a Mr. Diephuis, a Boer who took part in the late war in South Africa. At the closing exercises of the School, which were held in Boston on June 9th, there was one graduate. Mr. Paul Sperry, who has completed a three years' course of study.
Reports from URBANA UNIVERSITY show a total enrollment during the past year, in all departments, of 63 pupils, of whom 12 are students in the College. At the closing exercises of this institution one student was graduated. On the same occasion announcement was made of the election of the Rev. L. P. Mercer as president of the University.
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Mr. Mercer will continue his residence in Cincinnati, where he remains pastor of the society there, but will make frequent and regular visits to Urbana, and has assumed entire charge of the details of his new office. He advertises, in a recent Messenger, for a New Church teacher capable of primary and grammar school work. Announcement was also made of the completion of the Browne Memorial Fund for the Girls' Dormitory. The building will be begun at once. On June 21st, the Rev. Russel Eaten was married to Miss H. L. James, a granddaughter of Col. James, one of the principal founders of the university and the donor to it of its first grant of land.
In a letter to the Messenger, Mr. Benjamin Worcester, principal of the WALTHAM SCHOOL, writes that the school has secured the services of Mr. George B. Beaman, Ph. D. (Leipsic), son of the Rev. E. A. Beaman, as teacher of languages, so that the school can now be commended "for good boys of all ages" with more confidence than ever. While Waltham has not the prestige and polish of a high class finishing school, he continues, in place of this "it cultivates a love for the New Church and a sense of moral and spiritual responsibility that cannot be too highly valued." In confirmation of which he quotes a letter lately received from a freshman pupil who writes, that, in Waltham, she "has gotten to love the New Church and the way they believe. . . . All other churches are good but there is something in the New Church that is above them all." In the course of his letter Mr. Worcester takes the graceful but, for the schools of the Convention, somewhat unusual course of recognizing the existence of a school at Bryn Athyn. For those New Church children who must needs be sent to some good boarding school, he says, "our New Church schools at Urbana, Bryn Athyn and Waltham should be the best."
The GERMAN MISSIONARY UNION held its annual meeting at Manchester, N. H.1 on June 10th, the Rev. William Diehl presiding. Reports showed continued activity in the work of translating the Spiritual Diary and the Adversaria into German; the German translation of the Word, which has been going on for several years, is now near completion, and the Union hopes soon to publish it; it will also publish a shorter catechism for the younger children.
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The annual meeting of the YOUNG PEOPLE'S LEAGUE was convened in Boston on June 8th. One of the principal matters of discussion was on a proposal made by Mr. Hamilton, of Almont, Mich., to discontinue the Evidence Committee because of the uselessness of the work. "The newspapers do indeed notice Swedenborg, but usually in a facetious way," and of what use is that, he asked, "as evidence that the New Church is spreading. He did not object to the collection of evidence, but to the collection of useless evidence. The motion was vigorously opposed by the Rev. J. R. Hunter, who disagreed with Mr. Hamilton as to the newspapers, and thought that we must be a part of the world and care for what others may be saying about us. The committee was continued. In the course of this discussion the Rev. L. G. Landenberger volunteered the "interesting," but we may add questionable "information," that Mr. Joseph Jefferson was a Swedenborgian. Mr. Jefferson indeed knew of the Writings and doubtless read them, but he had decided spiritualistic tendencies.)
At the SUNDAY SCHOOL ASSOCIATION, which met in Boston on June 9th, the secretary reported a net decrease in the number of scholars of 222; 33 out of 57 schools contributed to the decrease. The meeting was occupied largely with the discussion of Sunday School libraries and the preparation of text-books and other aids, Mr. Schreck read a paper on Training Children in the Tithing spirit, in which he maintained that the practice of giving tithes, while not obligatory, was yet a great help. Every child should be encouraged to give a certain proportion of his income to the Lord. The Rev. T. S. Harris read a paper advocating the merging of the Sunday School and the morning service into one. Children need the influence and association of the adults in worship, and adults need that of the children. At present the Sunday School is educating the children away from the Church instead of into it. In the discussion Mr. Whitehead observed that when children get beyond the Sunday School they leave the Church, while if instruction and worship were combined they would stick to the Church. Mr. Schreck also supported the paper and maintained that the Church should he made the children's school. They should come to Church and their offerings should be made there and not elsewhere. "The present Sunday School is only a makeshift adaptation to present conditions.
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Think of it--a half hour to learn the Word! a half hour to learn of our Heavenly Father! the world all the week and only a half hour for the eternal things which most concern us! And yet we speak of the children 'enduring' this half hour."
Mr. Paul Sperry, a graduate of the Convention Theological School, has accepted a call to become the minister of the BATH, ME., Society.
The Rev. James Taylor, late of the Berlin, Ont., Society, has become pastor of the Society at PORTLAND, ME.
Owing to inability to withstand the strain of responsibilities and labors devolving on him as manager of the Nunc Licet Press, the Rev. Clarence Lathbury has resumed pastoral charge of his old society at ELMWOOD, MASS.
The Rev. J. E. Thomas has resigned from pastoral charge of the African Mission in WASHINGTON, and the mission is now discontinued, the property having been sold, as noted in our report of the General Convention. Speaking before the Convention, Mr. Thomas stated his intention of devoting himself to missionary work among the colored people in the South, his idea being to take up institutional work, such as the training of girls in domestic science; a female graduate of Booker T. Washington's Institute had volunteered to assist him. Mr. Thomas is now in BESSEMER, ALA., Where he appears to have already commenced his institutional work. "He has begun work with the prospect of being useful to the community. The preachers themselves need to be instructed. A number of them can neither read nor write."
New Church Day was celebrated at the BALTIMORE Mission on Sunday, June 25th. An appropriate sermon was preached by the Rev. G. L. Allbutt, and the Rev. L. H. Tafel gave an account of the Convention meetings.
The little Society at RICHMOND, VA., is continuing in active existence, and, what is of vital importance, seems to receive from its pastor, the Rev. J. B. Spiers, good sound teaching on the fundamental doctrine of the Church. Mr. Spiers seems to be especially devoting himself to the work of instructing the children.
On June 18th, Children's Day exercises were held in celebration of New Church Day.
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Mr. Spiers read from True Christian Religion 791, and spoke of the sending forth of the apostles into the spiritual world. He said in part. "I want to make it plain to the children, and impress by constant repetition, that the beautiful buildings, the large congregations, the fine music, etc., of the so-called churches about us do not make them churches. This little room with these books on the shelves containing the everlasting Gospel which the twelve disciples were sent throughout the spiritual world to preach, is more of a church because of the Lord's presence here in the truths these books contain, than any of the fine churches in the city. What really makes the church is not the building in any case, but the truth in the heart and life. The Lord shows us in these Writings that the doctrines of all the denominations, Protestant and Catholic, are based on false interpretations of the truths of the Word. The New Church is the only real church and is one with the new Christian heavens. We become members of the New Church on earth and of the new Christian heaven in spirit, by learning the truths of the New Jerusalem and living accordingly. When we read these Writings we should have in mind that they are a revelation from the Lord, and therefore they are the Lord present with us and talking to us? even though He used Swedenborg as His agent in writing them."
All the readings and recitations by the children on this occasion were chosen with reference to the reality of the spiritual world and the heavenly homes.
Mr. Spiers's work among the children includes drilling them at the close of the Sunday School, in the general doctrines of the Church. "He also visits them and has them call at the Mission during the week, when he talks with them as to the Church. Many of the children of the vicinity often gather of an evening in the library and beg for a story, and they are told stories which are generally adaptations of the Memorable Relations, which the children of Old Church parents seem to enjoy as much as the New Church children."
It is Mr. Spiers's belief that the first thing to teach children coming to us from without, is that we have a new revelation given by the Lord through Swedenborg; then about the reality of the spiritual world: using adaptations of the Memorable Relations.
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Their vivid pictures leave a "powerful impression and are a great means of dispersing foggy ideas of the other world."
In the beginning of August Mr. Spiers left Richmond for a missionary tour through North Carolina and Tennessee.
The property of the ALLEGHENY Society has been sold for $60,000. The site is regarded as one of the best warehouse sites in Allegheny.
The Society at BUFFALO, which has been without a minister for some time, has now engaged the services of Professor Thomas French, Jr., who will enter upon the work in September.
The Nineteenth of June was celebrated by a special meeting of the Detroit Society, at which accounts of the Convention meetings were given. Mr. Whitehead spoke of the sending forth of the apostles to preach the everlasting Gospel, as indicating the functions of the Convention.
Mrs. M. A. Robertson, of ALMONT, MICH., has presented two acres of land opposite the Almont Summer School for the use of the school.
The Rev. Dr. Gustafson continues to preach in English to the small society at ROCKFORD, ILL., which was formally organized by the Rev. J. N. Manby last year. Until Dr. Gustafson's arrival the services were conducted in Swedish by Dr. C. V. Urbom. There is not a member, with the exception of Dr. Gustafson and his family, who does not speak Swedish, and "at least 75 per cent, would derive more benefit from services conducted in their mother tongue."
Following the custom inaugurated last year, the four parishes of the CHICAGO Society united in the celebration of "Apostles' Day" (June 19th). The celebration was held on June 25th, and consisted of an excursion to Glen Ellyn, where luncheon was partaken of, and was followed by speeches on the sending forth of the Apostles, by the Revs. Messrs. Bartels, Stockwell, and Schreck.
The Rev. C. A. Nussbaum has been invited to the pastorate of the ST. LOUIS Society for one year. Mr. Nussbaum will continue to minister to the First German Society, holding services there at g A. M., and at the English church at 11 A. M.
The Rev. John H. Sudbrack, who was for many years an earnest member of the German Synod, passed away on July 14th at his home near BURLINGTON, IA., at the advanced age of eighty-four years.
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Mr. Sudbrack was never in charge of any New Church Society, but he ministered more or less regularly to small groups of receivers in Missouri and Iowa, and to his own descendants in Burlington. He was ordained in 1887.
CANADA. The Society in BERLIN has extended a call to the Rev. Walter E. Brickman to become its pastor. Mr. Brickman and his family left Bryn Athyn for Berlin in the beginning of August.
GREAT BRITAIN. The GENERAL CONFERENCE Opened its ninety-eighth annual meeting at Heywood, on July 3d, with a membership of 33 ministers and 80 representatives The Rev. R. R. Rogers was elected president, and the Rev. W. T. Stonestreet was nominated to succeed him in 1906. As president-elect, Mr. Stonestreet was requested to visit the small societies on the Continent. The report of the outgoing president, the Rev. I. Tansley, enumerated some answers to a question, asked of all the ministers, as to the cause of the "present unsatisfactory state of the Church." One answer was, "Disloyalty to Swedenborg." This was indignantly denied by the president, who seemed to favor the answer "We sorely need a revival." The report, and also the discussion on it, brought out "the importance of legislating as to the best methods of retaining our young people," but, it was added, "that it was quite as important that we should consider how to retain the rich who too often drift away from the Church."
Reports showed a net increase of 68 in the membership of Conference societies; and a decrease in the monthly sales of the New Church Magazine from 595, last year, to 565. Enquiries sent to societies as to whether Mr. Spiers's offer of Morning Light should be accepted by the Conference, resulted in a large majority against acceptance, there being a general desire to have an unofficial publication. The Index to the Intellectual Repository, which was completed last year, has not yet been published owing to the lack of subscribers. This work will be a valuable one for the student of the Church, and it is to be hoped that a sufficient response will be made to the appeal for subscriptions which, we believe, is to be sent out.
In his address at the annual meeting of the NEW CHURCH COLLEGE, the Rev. R. R. Rodgers, president, advocated making the college a "Public New School to educate young members of the Church in the various branches of literature and science, and especially in the doctrine and life of the New Jerusalem."
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"Next to the college," he said, "a high class New Church Public School would be the most vital institution amongst us. This institution is one of the crying' needs of the Church. Our young people are now sent to good schools for the lack of one under our own control; they are trained in the old theology they come home soaked through with a worn out faith. They are seldom if ever the same after, and in many cases it has been their ruin as New Church men." No reference was made to the address in the subsequent discussion, and the portion we have quoted remains as an isolated advocacy of something of New Church education which seems to have fallen on unresponsive ears and is little likely to bear fruit.
The college opened its past year with four students and three "out students." A few months ago two of the students changed their theological opinions and resigned from the college. A committee has been appointed to enquire into the resignation. One of the out students has also resigned owing to pressure of business. One student, Mr. Pulsford, was graduated and will occupy the pulpit of the BESSES O' TH. BARN Society.
At a meeting of the WIGAN DISTRICT SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION, Mr. James Caldwell, of Liverpool, questioned the results of present missionary methods, though at the same time, he disclaimed any intention to criticize "existing arrangements" When a missionary lecture is over, he said, "it is customary to congratulate the lecturer on the thrashing some agnostic has had. But is not the agnostic an agnostic still? And the listeners? have they been impressed with the truth? or have they only been enjoying an intellectual combat? Of course, some may be impressed in the right way, but on the whole results are difficult to trace. As a matter of fact neither congregations nor Conference returns show signs of having reaped much advantage from these efforts." The remarks seem to have made little impression on the missionary enthusiasm of the meeting.
New Church Day was celebrated by the Camberwell (LONDON) Society on the preceding Sunday, June 18th.
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The church was decorated, and in the afternoon a children's service was held, which was specially adapted for the day. Afterwards came a tea party with informal conversation led by the minister, the Rev. C. W. Wall.
The anniversary of the HORNCASTLE Society was celebrated by a service at which a Primitive Methodist minister preached in the morning and a New Church minister in the evening. Somewhat similar was the celebration of the anniversary of the RAMS-BOTTOM Society, which was held in a Presbyterian church, when the Rev. W. T. Lardge preached morning and evening, and a Primitive Methodist minister gave an afternoon address. The services in both societies bear the marks of being preliminaries to the dispersion of the Church rather than celebrations of its foundation. What would the founders who fought and separated have thought, could they have looked into the future?
SWEDEN. The committee on Foreign and Colonial Missions of the English Conference reports its opinion that the initiation of the, work of building the New Church Temple at STOCKHOLM should be left to the members there; but it warmly commends the work to the Church in England. The Conference now holds the sum of L50 in trust for this work, and as a means of increasing this trust fund the committee have requested the Rev. James Hyde to prepare a lecture illustrated by lantern slide views of the site of the proposed temple and of various places of interest in the city; this lecture, which is now completed, is placed at the disposal of all the Conference Societies. The Rev. C. J. N. Manby reports that the "Temple Fund" is now nearly $18,000, not counting the value (over $42,000) of the present property of this society. The General Convention also has a fund in trust for the building of a temple in Stockholm, which amounts to $6,000.
The work at GOTHENBURG is being maintained by Mr. Bromberg, with occasional visits by Mr. Manby, who preaches, lectures, and administers the Holy Supper. The attendance has sometimes been as high as 80.
FRANCE. In a letter to the General Convention the Rev. Joseph Decembre, of PARIS, refers to "the still unsettled condition of the laws of France, in consequence of which free churches like our own were compelled to suspend public worship."
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The members, however, hope to again institute public worship "when the national laws fix the status of churches."
Mr. J. H. Ackroyd, the former secretary of the Port Louis, Mauritius, Society, is now resident in Paris, where, although the outlook is very gloomy at present, he is hopeful that the way may open for the formation of a circle of readers among the English-speaking residents.
RUSSIA. In our May issue we noted the despatch by the American Swedenborg Society of 50 copies of the Heavenly Doctrines in Russian, for use among the Russian prisoners in Japan, of whom there are about 60,000; other copies of the work have been sent by the London Swedenborg Society for the same purpose. The presence of these prisoners in Japan afford an opportunity for work among the Russians which is impossible in Russia itself. For, according to the secretary of the London Swedenborg Society, during the last thirty years every book sent to Russia bearing the name of Swedenborg has always been returned marked "forbidden." There are now, however, signs of a change in this policy in the near future, for quite recently, amidst all the storm and turmoil going on in that troubled country, a Russian translation of one of Swedenborg's Writings has been issued at St. Petersburg, and it is said to be meeting with a good demand. The work in question is The Doctrine of Uses, being extracts from the latter part of Apocalypse Explained,--the title, imposed in England, being retained by the Russian translator. We understand that other books of the Writings will be issued shortly. In view of this publication in Russia itself, it is hardly probable that the government will long continue to prohibit the importation of Swedenborg's works from abroad. The opening up of new territory for the spreading of the Writings may thus be regarded as one of the more immediate effects of the war as bearing on the growth of the New Church.
INDIA. News has been received from Mr. S. R. McGowan, of ALLAHABAD, son of the late "Bishop" McGowan, who instituted and edited the Indian New Church Messenger, to the effect that he has a library of 173 volumes of New Church books which he offers for loan, and of which he has issued a catalogue.
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AUSTRALIA. In a series of resolutions passed by the ADELAIDE Society last April, the society reaffirmed the "Adelaide Resolutions;" expressing "its strong disapproval of the action of the president (Rev. W. A. Bates) in visiting various members of the Church and endeavoring to prejudice them against our minister;" and declined "to continue its financial support of the New Age, unless that publication shall be conducted on the basis of an acknowledgment of the Divine Authority of the Doctrines."
At a meeting of the SYDNEY Society on June 8th, Messrs. Spencer and Morse gave an account of the recent Australian Conference, each gentleman placing his own views before the meeting. A motion censuring Conference for its action with respect to the Adelaide Resolutions was submitted but was negatived by a vote of 13 to 9. Some members abstained from voting.
Notice. DAVID H. KLEIN 1905
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
CHICAGO ASSEMBLY.
The Fifth Chicago District Assembly of the General Church will be held at the Sharon church, Chicago, October 5th to 8th. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. The Sharon church will provide for the entertainment of visitors, who are requested to send notice of their coming to Mr. L. V. Riefstahl, 73 Seeley Ave., Chicago, Ills.
DAVID H. KLEIN.
Secretary.
OPENING OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS ENOCH S. PRICE 1905
To the Patrons of the Academy Schools.
QUESTIONS have bees asked by several patrons of the schools as to the time of opening this year, probably owing to the fact that this year the Fifteenth of September falls on Friday. The regular opening day of the schools is the Fifteenth of September unless that day falls on Saturday or Sunday, in which case the schools open on the following Monday. This is expressly stated in a footnote to the school calendar on page 41 of the Journal of Education for 1905. It may also be said that Friday is a good day for opening as it gives opportunity for organizing the schools, preparing rosters, obtaining books, etc., and getting ready for regular school work on Monday.
We take this opportunity to announce a reception to be given to patrons and pupils of the schools on Friday evening September 15th.
ENOCH S. PRICE,
Dean.
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JOURNALOF THENinth Annual Meeting of the Council of the ClergyOF THEGeneral Church of the New Jerusalem, C. TH. ODHNER 1905
HELD AT
PITTSBURG, PA., FROM WED., JUNE 2IST, TO SAT., JUNE 24TH, 1905.
Wednesday morning, June 21st, 1905.
1. The meeting was held in the house of worship of the Pittsburg Society, and was opened with worship conducted by Bishop Pendleton.
2. The members present were: Bishop Pendleton, Pastors Bowers, Price, Odhner, Waelchli, Pendleton, Synnestvedt, Acton, Gladish, Doering, Cronlund, and Caldwell, Ministers Stebbing and Brown, and Candidate Stroh.
3. Portions of the minutes of the last Annual Meeting were read.
4. The Secretary of the Council read his report. In accordance with a resolution passed at the last annual meeting, he had written to the minister who has failed to report for a number of years, but had received no reply. He reported further, that the title of the Journal of the last Annual Meeting, as given in New Church. Life for October, 1904, is "Journal of the Seventh Annual Meeting" instead of "Journal of the Eighth Annual Meeting," and suggested that those having bound volumes of the Life correct the error therein.
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5. The Reports of the Ministers were read, which were, in substance, as follows:
The Rev. J. E. Bowers, Missionary, officiated at three baptisms of adults and five baptisms of children, and at one marriage; administered the Holy Supper nine times; visited sixty-three places, and thirty-one of them twice. Traveled 10,970 miles. Amount of contributions received, $640.70; traveling expenses, $162.75; received from the Treasurer of the General Church, $200.00, and also from the same $50.00 for a missionary tour to the Canadian Northwest.
The Rev. Richard De Charms, secretary to the Bishop of the General Church, officiated at one baptism of a child. Preached occasionally for the Bryn Athyn Society. Also taught History and English in the College of the Academy to the first and second year classes.
The Rev. Andrew Czerny, pastor of the London and Colchester Societies, officiated at one baptism of a child and at one funeral. Five new members were received in London, and three in Colchester. The Assembly held in London last August was the most successful meeting of the kind had so far. Memorial meetings for Bishop Benade were held in both Societies, and the speeches made indicated a full appreciation of the great work done by the late Bishop.
The Rev. E. S. Price, pastor of the New Church Circle at Allentown, Pa., officiated at one confirmation. Preached for the Circle on the last Sunday of each month, except during July and August; also once in New York City, and once in Bryn Athyn. Administered the Holy Supper four times in Allentown and once in New York.
The Rev. C. T. Odhner officiated at one marriage. Fulfilled his usual duties as professor of History and Theology in the Schools of the Academy, and as Editor of New Church Life. Preached once in Philadelphia and twice in Bryn Athyn. Delivered a course of lectures on the Correspondences of Greek and Roman Mythology to the Bryn Athyn Society.
The Rev. F. E. Waelchli, pastor of the Carmel Church, Berlin, Ont., officiated at four baptisms of children, one betrothal, one marriage and two funerals.
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Twice conducted services for the circle of New Church people at Clinton, Ont.
The Rev. N. D. Pendleton, pastor of the Pittsburg Society, officiated at six baptisms of children; one confirmation, and eight funerals.
The Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, assistant to the Bishop in the Society work at Bryn Athyn, preached occasionally, conducted the Friday classes during the Bishop's absence, taught the Mothers' Class on Wednesdays, and managed the local School. As secretary of the Philadelphia District Assembly, he made one trip to Baltimore. Also gave religious instruction to classes in the College and had charge of the Normal Department. Resided in the Boys' Dormitory and looked after the students' home life.
The Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist, pastor of the Advent Church of Philadelphia, officiated at one baptism of an adult, five confirmations, and one funeral. Also acted as visiting pastor for the Baltimore Society since last fall.
The Rev. Alfred Acton, pastor of the Congregation at New York, officiated at one baptism of a child. Visited New York twice a month. Preached twice at Bryn Athyn, and once in Philadelphia. Has continued to serve as secretary of the General Council and as assistant editor of New Church Life. During the summer of 1904, attended the British Assembly as the Bishop's representative. While in England, preached three times in London and once in Colchester. The state of the Church in England gives much promise for the future. In New York the spiritual interest has been well maintained. The services, and also one or two of the doctrinal classes, have been attended by a few strangers, including several students of Columbia University.
The Rev. George Starkey, pastor of the Denver Society of the Lord's Advent, owing to physical disability on his part, has been obliged to entirely suspend his work, with no prospect of resumption in the fall.
The Rev. Willis L. Gladish, minister of the Pomeroy and Middleport Society, officiated at twelve baptisms of adults, twelve baptisms of children, four confirmations, and two funerals. The Society was re-organized on January 1st, under the laws of the General Church, and was recognized by the Bishop as a local Church.
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The Rev. Charles E. Doering has not done any ministerial work, but has been employed by the Academy as professor of Mathematics and as treasurer and business manager. Also acted as treasurer of the General Church.
The Rev. Richard H. Keep, pastor of the Society at Atlanta, reported the situation there greatly improved. The Society has gained the interest and co-operation of four persons not before identified with it, two of these being members of the fragment left of the Church in New Orleans. Two others, in Atlanta, are not yet baptized. A fifth is a member of the General Church, now living in New Orleans. So far Mr. Keep has reached six persons in New Orleans, whom he is instructing regularly through correspondence or as often as openings or occasions are given. Recently he gained the lively interest of a converted Jew. This man and one of his children are reading, and a person in his employ is also doing so. The father of the latter has read the Writings for several years, but lives isolated on Lookout Mountain in Alabama. Mr. Keep intends to write to him.
The Rev. David H. Klein, pastor of the Immanuel Church at Glenview, Ill., officiated at one baptism of a child, one confirmation, and one funeral. Several families have lately moved to Glenview, Ill., the members of which have taken great interest in the work of the Church. The attendance at the Friday Suppers and Classes has been unusually good.
The Rev. Emil Cronlund, pastor of the Olivet Church of the New Jerusalem, Toronto, officiated at five baptisms of adults, three baptisms of children, one betrothal, and one funeral. There has been both internal and external growth of the Society. Besides the general doctrinal class and the young folks' class, a class has been conducted for the children who do not attend the parish school. This class has taken the place of the Sunday School, which has been discontinued.
The Rev. William B. Caldwell, pastor of the Sharon Church of Chicago, officiated at two baptisms of children. The uses of the Sharon Church have been conducted without much change in general conditions During the past winter, besides the Sunday School, the children have had a dancing and singing class and several socials.
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These have proven useful aids towards distinctive life for the young. During the District Assembly in Glenview last October, Mr. Caldwell was introduced by Bishop Pendleton into the second degree of the priesthood, and afterwards installed by him as pastor of Sharon Church, in accordance with the wishes of the Society.
The Rev. E. J. Stebbing, head-master of the Carmel Church School, Berlin, Ont., officiated at one baptism of a child. Also preached three times in Berlin and once in Pittsburg.
The Rev. Reginald A. Brown devoted his whole time to preparing himself for educational work, at the University of Chicago.
Mr. Alfred Stroh preached a number of times at various places. Continued to teach in the College of the Academy, and also continued in the Post-Graduate Department of the University of Pennsylvania.
6. No reports were received from the Rev. Messrs. Jordan, Brickman, and Boyesen.
7. The subject of THE CELEBRATION OF THE NINETEENTH OF JUNE was taken up for consideration.
Mr. Gladish, who introduced the subject, said that in the Jewish Church there were three festivals, the Paschal Supper, the Feast of First Fruits, and the Feast of Ingathering. In the Christian Church there were likewise three, Christmas, Easter, and Ascension. He did not think that the New Church needs to celebrate Ascension Day as it was instituted as a festival in accommodation to the state of the disciples. But the Nineteenth of June comes near Ascension Day, and is a day having particular reference to the establishment of the New Church. It is the birthday of the New Church. It would therefore be proper that the three feasts of the New Church should be Christmas, Easter, and the Nineteenth of June. The Nineteenth should be celebrated as a religious festival, similarly to Christmas and Easter. The Holy Supper should be administered on that day or on the nearest Sunday. It does not seem sufficient to celebrate it merely in a social way, though it would be useful to have a feast of charity in the evening.
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In the discussion which followed it was pointed out that what Mr. Gladish advocated is being done in several of our Societies. Also that besides having the Holy Supper on these three festivals, it is generally held a fourth time at the opening of the new season in the fall. Mr. Odhner said that there is a festival which the Church could usefully celebrate in the fall, namely, the First of September, on which day, in the year 1748, Swedenborg brought the manuscript of the first volume of the Arcana Coelestia to a close, and then witnessed "a general glorification throughout the spiritual world on account of the Advent of the Lord. (S. D. 3029.)
Bishop Pendleton said that in order that the festival of the Nineteenth might be complete, there should be two days for it, the Nineteenth and the Twentieth. In fact, there should be three days if possible. Every festival to be complete should occupy three days. It cannot really be completed in less time. It should revive the spirit of the Church, or, what is the same, it should be a revival. The New Church needs revivals. In the Old Church they are seen to be useful, and, in their true form, they will perform a great use in the New Church. Into a festival of the Church three elements should enter: worship, instruction and social life. It may be of interest to know that when the Academy was founded, on the Nineteenth of June, 1876, the Help Supper was celebrated in the evening.
Wednesday Afternoon.
8. "WHAT CAN BE DONE TO MAKE THE ANNUAL COUNCIL MEETINGS MORE INTERESTING AND USEFUL" was the subject taken up for consideration.
Mr. Odhner, in introducing the subject, proposed that the time of the annual meeting be changed to the fall. Our meetings are not as interesting as they might be. Few papers are prepared, and we do not get the best results of the ministers' study. We all have our time well filled with our regular work, and at this season of the year we are all much exhausted. This year, from stress of other work, the Bishop and Mr. Price have been unable to prepare the annual addresses. If we were to hold the annual meetings in the beginning of September, after the summer's rest, there would be promise of much better work.
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New thoughts occur, and new studies are undertaken during the vacation. The ministers, refreshed in body and mind, would then bring to the meeting the results of their studies, and from the common fund of thought and affection all would enter upon the year's work with a new zeal and inspiration.
It was suggested by others that the meeting be held in connection with one of the District Assemblies in the fall, but the objection was raised that this would break into the school work. Mr. Odhner's suggestion was generally favored, though some doubted whether it would lead to the hoped-for preparation of more papers, as the holidays are needed for rest. It was concluded to bring up the subject at the meeting of the Joint Councils.
9. On motion, Mr. Odhner read the following paper:
THE NEED FOR A MORE COMPLETE REPRESENTATION OF THE THIRD DEGREE OF THE PRIESTHOOD IN THE GENERAL CHURCH.
When we discussed this subject a year or two ago, the discussion was suddenly brought to a close by the suggestion that there did not seem to be any need for hurry in providing for the episcopal succession. I, for one, much regretted that we were thus side-tracked, for there are more general and vital questions than that of episcopal succession involved in this subject.
It has been suggested that, in case of a vacancy in the episcopal office, a new bishop could be inaugurated into the third degree either by some friendly minister of the third degree outside of our body, or else by several of our own pastors, delegated for this purpose. Neither of these courses seem necessary, when it is within our power at this very meeting to provide for the self-perpetuation of the third degree within our own priesthood. To go to one of the ordaining ministers of another body, asking him to convey ordaining powers to a pastor of our General Church, seems to me to be not only humiliating to our own priesthood, but also asking too much from the other party.
The other alternative,--that of consecrating a Bishop by our own pastors,--seems to me to be a step backwards from the established order of our Church, for which our men have fought for more than half a century. It is a step looking forward to a beginning de novo, when there is no need of so doing. It is like providing, when we are in order, for a condition of less perfect order. It ought to be self-evident that the self-perpetuation of the priesthood rests in the first instance upon the faculty of self-perpetuation of the third degree In other words, it is by means of the third degree that the priesthood possesses the faculty of self-perpetuation.
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The power of ordination does not rest with the second degree. How, then, can that degree possess the power of consecrating bishops except by a reversion to primitive conditions which no longer are our condition?
While we do not believe in the necessity for "Apostolic succession" from the priesthood of the Old Church, still we have never denied the desirability of preserving the priestly succession which has been established and thus far has been preserved in the New Church from the founders of that Church. We believe, most devoutly, in the power of ordination by the laying on of hands. We have had a glorious succession in our Church--from Hargrove, Hurdus, De Charms, Benade, and Pendleton. Let us not, by negligence, forfeit this inheritance from our priestly forefathers.
I believe that we are all, theoretically at least, in harmony as to the doctrine of the Trine in the priesthood, but I understand that there are divided views amongst us as to the constitution of the third degree. Some are inclined to identify the third degree with actual and active episcopacy, while others believe that the third degree means a certain faculty rather than an executive office. Those who hold the former view believe that the third degree of the ministry should consist only of such men as have been called to preside over a diocese,--actual superintendents or Bishops,-while I, for one, believe that the third degree should consist not only of such Bishops but also of other priests,--the wisest and strongest amongst us,--who should possess the power of ordination, and from whom Bishops may be chosen.
At the present time,--and it may be for some time to come,--our small Church will not need more than one actual Bishop or executive head. It is out of question for us to divide up into dioceses, but this, nevertheless, is what we are looking forward to in the more or less distant future. We are unanimous, I believe, in rejecting the papal form of government; we have been set free iron; the idea of a High-priest,--a summus episcopus or pontifex maximus, such as Mr. Benade insisted upon in his latter years, for we are distinctly taught that the Lord alone can be the Pontifex Maximus of the entire Church. The sooner that we can get away from even the appearance of such a papal form of government, the better for our Church. And the sooner we can have a Council of Ministers of the third degree-with the acting Bishop as their primus inter pares,--the sooner, then, shall we have that order in our government which the leaders of the Academy movement have labored and fought for during so many years. Such a Council will not only provide for the self-perpetuation of the priesthood? but it will also provide for a Consistory to the Bishop, such as by all means we ought to have, in order that there may be a supreme court of appeal in the Church.
I believe that a beginning could be made at this meeting in the way of providing for the perpetuation of the third degree, by selecting at least one pastor for consecration into that degree.
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In the discussion which followed upon Mr. Odhner's paper all the ministers agreed that it would be unfortunate if we should be obliged to have the ordination into the third degree performed either by a General Pastor of another body, or by the pastors of our own body. Nevertheless, a number were unwilling that a man should be introduced into this degree simply in order to provide for the perpetuation of the priesthood within our own body. There should be two indications for the step, namely, the fitness of some man for this office and the existence of uses for him to perform therein. It was apparently the opinion of all that a man fitted for the office could be selected, and also that there would be uses for him to perform, such as consulting with the Bishop and assisting him in various ways. The fact was emphasized that the man selected would not necessarily be the one who would succeed to the office of Bishop of the General Church; and in order that this might be made more evident, some favored the introduction of more than one man into the third degree. It was argued that if more than one were introduced, a Bishop's Consistory could then be formed. But it was shown that there could be such a Consistory consisting of men in the second degree; and that one of the uses of having it would be the preparation of men therein for the third degree. Bishop Pendleton said that just as a man, when first introduced into the priesthood, is introduced into the priesthood of the New Church, and afterwards is recognized by a body of the Church, so also a man when introduced into the third degree, is introduced into that degree in the priesthood of the New Church, and afterwards can be recognized as a priest of that degree by a body of the Church.
On motion, it was resolved to continue the consideration of this subject on Saturday morning.
Wednesday Evening.
10. A public session was held, and was opened with worship conducted by Bishop Pendleton.
11. The Bishop announced that the subject selected for consideration this evening was: "Is THE PROGRESS OF THE NEW CHURCH KEEPING PACE, IN INVERSE RATIO, WITH THE DEVASTATION OF THE CHRISTIAN WORLD?"
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He called on Mr. Odhner to introduce the subject.
Mr. Odhner: We know nothing of the future of the Church except what the Writings reveal. This we ought to confirm. The Old Church must disintegrate as the devastation continues. Is the organic New Church advancing, at such a rate that it can take the place of the Old in preserving the center of civilization with the white race? In the history of the past Churches, the Old Church has always declined faster than the New, formed from the remnant, has advanced. The New Church, in every case, was established, as a whole, among the Gentiles. What is the prospect as to the New Church? Will the analogy of history be changed? Or are we only a connecting link with the Church that is to be established in its glory among the Gentiles? This question is interesting in connection with the Russo-Japanese war. The speaker was inclined to think that history will in general repeat itself, but not without modification. The Church will abide with the remnant and will slowly increase, especially by means of New Church Education. Nevertheless, let us not be overly sanguine. When we see the dreadful increase of crime, immorality, and race-suicide, and the universal loss of faith in the Lord and in the Word, a doubt sometimes arises whether the general devastation will not, in time, result in a transfer of the centre of civilization from the white to the gentile races.
Mr. Synnestvedt: In the condition of the Christian world there are many disquieting signs. The Word is openly and almost universally rejected by the learned. The faith of the simple is also in danger of disappearing. In the first number of Heaven and Hell, Swedenborg says, that, lest the negative state, which rules with the learned, "should also infect and corrupt the simple in heart and faith," it was granted him to describe the things of the other world, "in the hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and incredulity dissipated." Thus far the hope here expressed has not been generally fulfilled. The negative state of the learned is becoming that of the simple also. The aggressively secular spirit of the public schools is filling the young with emptiness. They receive nothing spiritual whatever. There is a cry in the world that there is a falling off in the standards of morality.
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We can see the cause, namely, in the unwillingness of people to take on the duties of parenthood. All this we see because of the light of Revelation. External appearances deceive the world, and would also deceive us, if it were not for Revelation. High ideals are in danger of breaking down, because of the prevalence of selfishness. This is evident in the business world, especially in the actions of trusts and combines. Nevertheless, there is a remnant who are in good. The Lord does not permit a civilization to rush to destruction without seeking to check it. He holds it back constantly from destruction; and therefore we see repeated revivals, bringing about a better state in externals. When selfish men in the other world combine and become too powerful in influence, they are caused to fall apart, and thus their power is broken. The same takes place also in this world. And the Lord, in effecting this, makes use of men having a strong sense of honesty and justice, who are willing to follow their conscience even though they themselves suffer. The New Church should provide such men. It is by them that the Church will do its part in preserving the civilization of the race. It is remarkable what strength one man of high ideals can have. The Church must educate such men. It must fill the young with the idea of honesty for its own sake.
Mr. Carswell: I would like to ask what is the effect of the teaching of the Word in the many Sunday Schools of the Old Church? In these schools there is apparently great respect shown to the Word.
Mr. Price: The Sunday Schools throughout the world study the same lesson at the same time. These lessons are prepared by an International Board. On examining them it will be found that the treatment of the subject is trivial. It is ethical, not religious. There is not even Trinitarianism in it, but instead materialism. They are lessons in morals, history, and geography, and only in a very small degree in religion and piety. There is not much to be hoped for from such work. Still there is some good in it, for something of a knowledge of the Word is spread, and some reverence for it is implanted. Thus a remnant is preserved, from which the New Church can grow. In regard to the attitude of the world towards religion, I would say that the community in which I was brought up was one intensely religious. I visited it lately, after an absence of a number of years, and found that the old state had almost entirely disappeared.
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Instead of it there was everywhere indifference to religion and worldliness.
Mr. Synnestvedt: Not as many children are reached by Sunday School work as may be supposed. Statistics show that in the eastern part of the United States the number of pupils in Sunday Schools compared with those in public schools is fifty per cent.; the percentage becomes steadily less as one goes westward; and on the Pacific coast it is only five per cent. In Germany there was formerly very much religious instruction in the public schools; but I learn that thee is far less now; in fact, but little of it. Rationalism has taken its place.
Mr. Price: According to the last United States census, out of a population of eighty-eight millions only twenty-seven millions professed and religion.
Mr. Pitcairn: How are we to explain the fact that in spite of the conditions which have been described, there is an enormous increase in the number of Bibles printed and distributed?
Mr. Odhner: Yet notwithstanding this increase, the knowledge of the Bible is remarkably decreasing. Many college graduates do not know even the simplest things of the Bible.
Mr. A. Lindsey: Still, why do they spread the Bible, if there is such indifference towards it?
Mr. A. McQueen: The reason why so many Bibles are printed is because there are people who believe that they can earn their way into heaven by leaving legacies for good purposes. Therefore they will money to the Bible Societies, and these, having the money, must make use of it in publishing Bibles and in getting them distributed in some way.
Mr. Stroh: The state of the Church can be seen in the doctrines it teaches, and the doctrines of the Old Church are becoming more false than ever. Though the letter of the Word is spread, yet falsity is spreading even more rapidly. The spirit of the world is one of not caring for spiritual truth. People are unwilling to listen to the doctrines of the New Church. We are told that the New Church will at first be among a few and will afterwards spread to many. The many are, no doubt, principally the Gentiles; but they must also include the descendants of New Church people.
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As the New Church grows in Christian lands it will take the place of the Old Church. We need not concern ourselves as to what is the ratio of increase of the New compared with the decline of the Old. We can and should believe that finally the descendants of New Church people will take the place of the Old Church for the preservation of civilization and order.
Mr. Carswell: But is the New Church progressing? The membership of Convention is decreasing; and the same, I understand, is the case in the English Conference.
Mr. L. Schoenberger: There are more Newchurchmen now than ever who acknowledge the Divinity of the Writings, and their number is growing. These constitute the true New Church. Therefore the New Church is not going backwards, but is progressing.
Mr. Waelchli: We read in the Last Judgment that the angels told Swedenborg, when he inquired as to the state of the Church hereafter, that they do not know things to come, as these are known to the Lord alone; that, however, they have slender hope of the men of the Christian Church, but much of the Gentiles. Though the angels have but slender hope of the men of the Christian Church, yet they apparently have some hope. Whether that hope will be fulfilled depends on us and those who come after us. It will be fulfilled if the men of the Church do their duty, and are true to the Church. Whether they will do so, we cannot know. Even the angels do not know it. And if the angels do not know it, we may speculate ever so much about the matter, and will know no more than before. It is not well for us to know the future of the Church in Christian lands. If it were, the Lord would have revealed it. What we should chiefly consider is how we can do our full duty as Newchurchmen, and then fulfill it, trusting that the Lord will provide for the future.
Mr. N. D. Pendleton: The Lord constantly endeavors to preserve mankind from destruction. He endeavors to keep men back from rushing into hell. It seems as if the Old Church were totally falling away from everything of religion; and yet, to hold it back from so doing, the Lord provides that there should be a reaction from time to time. We see, even in Germany, a reaction of this kind today. Those who believe in the divinity of the Lord are holding meetings, which are largely attended and most enthusiastic.
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Such a reaction will, of course, not be permanent, and the next wave of falsity will rush further towards hell than the last. We see this moving as of a wave forward and backward in all things, and each time the forward move goes a little further. It is the same in regard to the progress of the New Church. There is constant action and reaction: the move forward into a better state, and then something of retrogression; but each time we go forward we make further progress. Nothing reveals the state of the Christian world so fully as that selfishness which refuses to propagate its own kind. If those of the New Church shun this evil, the New Church must necessarily in time take the place of the Old. I believe that the progress of the New Church is keeping pace, in inverse ratio, with the devastation of the Christian world.
Mr. Jacob Schoenberger: The growth of the New Church depends on itself. The Old Church is dead because there is no charity in it. If the civil law were taken away, we would soon have a true picture showing what is the state of the Christian world in its nakedness.
Bishop Pendleton: The tendency of what has been said it towards an affirmative answer to the question before us, and this is also the true answer. The activities of the heavens are balanced to those of the hells. Thus equilibrium is preserved, and in it there is growth. We see a picture of this in the individual man. What is spiritual in him grows as evil subsides, and yet in the growth it seems as if evils were becoming greater, because of temptations. Appearances in the world would indicate a negative answer to the question. Yet we must not be discouraged, just as we must not be discouraged in our regeneration. The Lord alone sees the real growth. It may seem as if the Old Church had the entire field; but this is only an appearance. We need to answer the question affirmatively, and this answer should be a part of our faith. To the subject we are considering we should apply the words of the Lord: "Little by little I will drive them out before thee, lest the wild beast occupy the land." The Old Church will decrease gradually as the New Church is prepared to take its place. The Lord will preserve an equilibrium.
Mr. Pitcairn: We are taught that the New Church is established first in the heavens, then in the world of spirits, and then on earth.
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As it grows in the other world it will grow here. As it grows there from those coming from Christian lands, it will grow on earth in Christian lands. We should not concern ourselves so much as to growth in numbers, but rather as to growth in quality. The Lord says: "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name, there I am in the midst of them." To the end that the New Church may take root and grow, there has, in the Divine Providence, been brought about in the world a wonderful order in externals. There is at this day civil freedom such as has not been for ages. Newchurchmen are deceived by these externals, thinking that they are something of the New Church. Because they look only at what appears on the surface, and do not heed what the Doctrines teach concerning what is hidden beneath, they cannot see that the Old Church is growing steadily worse. The New Church will grow very slowly. It will take ages to see much of progress. A hundred years makes very little difference.
Mr. Gladish: It is true that there is equilibrium, and it is also undoubtedly true that the growth of the New Church must keep pace with the devastation of the Old. But it does not necessarily follow that it is by means of the New Church among Christians that this equilibrium is preserved. It may be also by means of the New Church among the Gentiles, which, we are told, is even now being established among the Africans.
Mr. N. D. Pendleton: It may be; but we don't have to believe it. Take away the hope of good and abiding consequences of what we are doing, and spiritual energy will be paralyzed. Let us live and work as if the New Church were sure to continue with those that follow us. The New Church is established in the Christian world, and it is the most vital living thing in it. Take the New Church as a whole, and we find in it a better understanding of the Doctrines than ever. We must work as if the General Church covered the whole world.
Mr. Pitcairn: We are often accused of being pessimists. But we are misunderstood. We are optimists. There is in our Church a hopeful spirit such as is not to be found elsewhere in the world.
Bishop Pendleton: Let us beware of falling into a state of doubt whether the New Church will be established in the Christian world. Should we do so, our work would be vain and our faith vain.
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It would have an effect on us like the doctrine of predestination. The fact is, that the Writings plainly teach that it will be established in the Christian world. It will be first with the few and thence, through their descendants, among the many; even though, in a wider sense, the Gentiles are meant by the many. It has been revealed to our perception that the New Church will be established by means of the work done with our children. Let us faithfully and hopefully work in the light which has thus been given us.
Thursday Morning, June 22nd.
JOINT SESSION WITH THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
12. The meeting was opened with worship conducted by Bishop Pendleton.
13. The members of the Executive Committee present were, Mr. John Pitcairn, Mr. Hugh L. Burnham, Mr. Robert Carswell, Mr. Richard Roschman, Mr. S. H. Wicks, Mr. Paul Synnestvedt, Mr. Seymour Nelson, Mr. Jacob Schoenberger, Dr. Felix A. Boericke, and Mr. Paul Carpenter.
14. The Bishop announced that he had been unable to prepare a report for this meeting.
15. The Secretary of the General Church read his report, which was as follows:
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.
As Secretary of the General Church I have to report that the General Church of the New Jerusalem numbers at present 751 members, showing a net increase of 53 members over the membership reported in June, 1904. Altogether 57 persons have been received as members since the last report, while, on the other hand, 4 members have passed into the spiritual world.
The following members have died since June, 1904:
Mr. Frederick Lechner, Pittsburgh, November 15, 1904.
Mrs. Margaret Pitcairn Starkey, Bryn Athyn, November 28, 1904.
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Mr. Bertram Renkenberger, Columbiana, O., December 8, 1904
Mr. Joseph R. Kendig, Renovo, Pa., January 7, I905.
The following new members have been received since the last report:
In Philadelphia, Pa.
Mr. N. Christopher Hansen.
Mr. Martin W. Heilman.
Miss Emma Roehner.
Mr. William E. Zeppenfeld.
Miss Stella M. Zeppenfeld.
In Allentown, Pa
Miss Fanny Waelchli.
In Pittsburgh, Pa
Mr. Alex. P. Lindsay
Mrs. Margaret J. Kallip.
Mr. Louis Schoenberger.
Mrs. L. Schoenberger
In Charleroi, Pa.
Mr. F. L. Kendig.
In Woodbury, N. J.
Mr. George B. Heaton.
In Meviden, Conn.
Mrs. W. Therese Schwenk.
In Middleport, O.
Mr. Lewis J. Alien.
Mrs. Leonora Barrows.
Mrs. Evaline Davis.
Mr. William A. Hanlin.
Mrs. Katherine M. McQuigg
Mr. Harvey P. Skinner.
Mrs. H. P. Skinner.
Mr. Leo C. Williams.
In Rutland, O.
Mr. Austin H. Eblin.
Mrs. A. H. Eblin.
Mrs. Ada L. Stevens.
In Athens, O.
Mrs. Elizabeth Lewis.
551
In Givens, O.
Mrs. Mary Powell.
In Hebbardsville, O.
Mrs. Lona Grant Armstrong.
In Glenview, Ill.
Miss Dorothy Burnham.
Mr. Charles S. Cole.
Mrs. C. S. Cole.
Mr. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal.
Miss Vida L. Gyllenhaal.
Miss Elise Junge.
Mr. H. S. Maynard, Jr.
Miss Helen Maynard.
In Chicago, Ill.
Miss Helen Macbeth.
In Ellinwood, Kansas.
Mrs. Ella J. Grant.
In Berlin, Ont., Canada
Mrs. H. Hasenflug.
Miss Lorena Stroh.
In Toronto, Ont.
Mr. Frank R. Longstaff.
Mr. William G. Lynn.
Miss Nellie G. McLaughlin.
Miss Ella G. Roy.
Mr. W. C. Swayze.
In Niagara Falls, Ont.
Mr. Fred. W. Carson.
In Calgary, N. W. Territory, Canada.
Mr. William Ferdinand.
Mr. Tom Hillas.
Mr. Henry Scott.
In Colchester, England.
Miss Ethel Laura Cooper.
In London, England.
Mr. Frederick W. Elphick.
Mr. W. Ray Gill.
Mr. Douglas W. Hart.
552
Miss Clarice Howard.
Miss Jessie Riviere.
In Wivenhoe, England.
Mr. Herbert A. Ashley.
Mrs. H. A. Ashley.
In Glasgow, England.
Mr. Archibald Bowie.
The Clergy of the General Church numbers at present twenty-four ministers and three candidates. Authorization to preach was issued on June 4th to Mr. Chas. R. Pendleton and Mr. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal.
Respectfully submitted,
C. TH. ODHNER,
Secretary. Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 17, 1905.
16. The Secretary of the Council of the Clergy stated that the Council wished to bring before this meeting the question of the advisability of changing the time of the annual Council meetings to the fall.
17. The Chairman of the Executive Committee stated that the committee was ready to report on the subject of the Incorporation of the General Church. The sub-committee had incorporated under the laws of the State of Illinois, and the Executive Committee had unanimously approved of what had been done.
18. Mr. Paul Synnestvedt, chairman of the sub-committee read the report of that committee to the Executive Committee, which was as follows:
To THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
Gentlemen:-
Your sub-committee, to whom was referred the question of obtaining a Charter incorporating The General Church of the New Jerusalem, under the laws of the State of Illinois, with power to act, beg leave to report as follows:--
Your sub-committee met and carefully considered the laws of the State of Illinois governing corporations of the class proposed, and became unanimously of the opinion that a Charter obtained under those laws would be admirably adapted to the needs of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
553
Your committee, however, found that it would be extremely difficult to keep within the requirements of the State of Illinois, and at the same time to obey literally the four Resolutions concerning incorporation, passed at the General Assembly of The General Church of the New Jerusalem, held in Bryn Athyn, in June, 1904, inasmuch as one of the Resolutions directed the Bishop, and not to exceed eleven associates, to apply for a charter, while another Resolution contemplated an Executive Committee of eighteen members; to accomplish all of which would require considerable circuitry of action, whereas by ignoring the letter of the Resolutions, their spirit could be very easily and directly accomplished.
Your sub-committee, therefore, decided to adopt the direct method, and in order to relieve the Bishop and the Executive Committee from any embarrassment in the premises, proceeded on their own responsibility, leaving the Executive Committee, the Bishop and the members of The General Church of the New Jerusalem free, at its nest Assembly, either to ratify and approve or disaffirm the action taken by your sub-committee. Your sub-committee, therefore, applied for and obtained a Charter under the laws of the State of Illinois, naming therein as Directors for the first year, the eighteen men whom the Bishop had designated to be members of the Executive Committee.
If your Committee approve of the action of its sub-committee, a meeting of those eighteen men now constituting the corporation can be called and officers can be elected and By-Laws adopted, and a report can then be made to the next General Assembly of the action of your Committee, through its sub-committee, in procuring this Charter and completing the organization of the corporation thereunder; and this corporation. so formed, can then tender its machinery to The General Church of the New Jerusalem, and if the same be approved and accepted at the General Assembly, the corporation can then proceed to the performance of its uses. Until that time it can remain dormant.
We submit, herewith, the Charter which was obtained, and also a draft of By-Laws which your sub-committee recommends for adoption by the members of the corporation, at the meeting above proposed to be held.
As the membership of your Committee and the membership of the corporation is one and the same, all these questions can be informally considered and decided at a meeting of your Committee, and it will then be necessary for a few only of the members of the corporation to meet and take formal action for all, in the formal completion of the incorporation.
Respectfully submitted,
PAUL SYNNESTVEDT,
PAUL CARPENTER,
HUGH L. BURNHAM.
554
CHARTER OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
State of Illinois, Department of State.
JAMES A. ROSE, SECRETARY OF STATE
To ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING:
WHEREAS, a Certificate, duly signed and acknowledged, having been filed in the Office of the Secretary of State, on the 6th day of June, A. D. 1905) for the organization of "THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM," under and in accordance with the provisions of "AN ACT CONCERNING CORPORATIONS," approved April 18, 1872, and in force July 1, 1872, and all acts amendatory thereof, a copy of which certificate is hereto attached.
Now, THEREFORE, I, JAMES A. ROSE, Secretary of State of the State of Illinois, by virtue of the powers and duties vested in me by law, do hereby certify that the said "THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM" is a legally organized Corporation under the laws of this State.
IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF, I hereto set my hand and cause to be affixed the Great Seal of State.
Done at the City of Springfield this Sixth day of June, A. D. 1905, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twenty-ninth. JAMES A. ROSE, SECRETARY OF STATE.
[SEAL]
STATE OF ILLINOIS, COOK COUNTY.
To JAMES A. ROSE, SECRETARY OF STATE:
We, the undersigned, Paul Synnestvedt, Paul Carpenter, and Hugh L. Burnham, Citizens of the United States, propose to form a Corporation under an act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, entitled "An Act Concerning Corporations," approved April 18, 1872, and all acts amendatory thereof, and that for the purposes of such organization we hereby state as follows, to wit:
1. The name of such Corporation is "The General Church of the New Jerusalem."
2. The object for which it is formed is, to present, teach and maintain throughout the world the doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church as contained in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
3. The management of the aforesaid Corporation shall be vested in a Board of eighteen Directors.
4. The following persons are hereby selected as the Directors to control and manage said Corporation for the first pear of its corporate existence, viz.: John Pitcairn, Samuel H. Hicks, George M. Cooper, Charles E. Doering, Felix A. Boericke, Jacob Schoenberger, Paul Synnestvedt, George A. Macbeth, Samuel S. Lindsay, Edward Cranch, Hugh L. Burnham, Seymour G. Nelson, Paul Carpenter, Walter C. Childs, Robert Carswell, Robert B. Caldwell, Richard Roschmann, and Rudolph Roschmann.
555
5. The location is in Chicago in the County of Cook, State of Illinois. The Post Office address of the business office of said Corporation is at Room 518, 98 Jackson Boulevard, in the City of Chicago, County of Cook, and State of Illinois.
PAUL SYNNESTVEDT,
PAUL CARPENTER,
HUGH L. BURNHAM.
STATE OF ILLINOIS, COOK COUNTY, ss.
I, John B. Synnestvedt, a Notary Public in and for the County in the State aforesaid, do hereby certify that on this 27th day of March, A. D. 1905, personally appeared before me Paul Synnestvedt, Paul Carpenter and Hugh L. Burnham, to me personally known to be the same persons who executed the foregoing statement, and severally acknowledged that they had executed the same for the purposes therein set forth.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and seal the day and year above written.
[SEAL] JOHN B. SYNNESTVEDT, Notary Public.
Mr. Synnestvedt stated that the charter gives the broadest powers. He then read the following section of the Statutes of Illinois:
EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER 32 OF THE REVISED STATUTES OF ILLINOIS.
Corporations not for Pecuniary Profit.
29. Societies, corporations and associations (not for pecuniary profit) may be formed as hereinafter provided. And three or more persons, citizens of the United States, who shall desire to associate themselves for any lawful purpose, other than for pecuniary profit, may make, sign and acknowledge, before any officer authorized to take acknowledgments of deeds in this State, and file in the office of the Secretary of State, a certificate in writing, in which shall be stated the name or title by which such corporation, society or association shall be known in law, the particular business and objects for which it is formed, the number of its trustees, directors or managers, and the names of the trustees, directors or managers selected for the first year of its existence.
30. Upon filing a certificate as aforesaid, the Secretary of State shall thereupon issue a certificate of the organization of the corporation, society or association, making a part thereof a copy of all papers filed in this office in and about the organization thereof, and duly authenticated under his hand and seal of State; and the same shall be recorded in a book for that purpose, in the office of the recorder of deeds of the county in which the principal place of business of such corporation, society or association is located.
556
Upon complying with the foregoing conditions, the corporation, society or association shall be deemed fully organized, and may proceed to business; PROVIDED, the Secretary of State shall not issue a certificate of organization to any corporation, society or association under the name of any then existing.
31. Corporations, associations and societies, not for pecuniary profit, formed under this Act shall be bodies corporate and politic, by the name stated in such certificate; and by that name they and their successors shall and may have succession, and shall be persons in law capable of suing and being sued; may have power to make and enforce contracts in relation to the legitimate business of their corporation, society or association; may have and use a common seal, and may change and alter the same at pleasure, and they and their successors, by their corporate name, shall, in law, be capable of taking, purchasing, holding and disposing of REAL and personal estate for purposes of their organization; may by their trustees, directors or managers, make By-Laws not inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the State, or of the United States, which By-Laws, among other things, shall prescribe the duties of all officers of the corporation, society or association, and the qualification of members of the corporation, and shall provide for annual meetings of such members, and for the calling of special meetings, when necessary, and for the number of members that shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business at any such annual or special meetings. At any such meeting members of the corporation may take part and vote in person or by PROXY. The By-Laws of the corporation, made by the trustees, directors or managers, may be modified, altered or amended at any such annual meeting, or at an adjourned session thereof. Associations and societies which are intended to benefit the widows, orphans, heirs and devisees of deceased members thereof, and members who have received a permanent disability, and where no annual dues or premiums are required, and where the members shall receive no money as profit or otherwise, except for permanent disability, shall not be deemed insurance companies.
32. Corporations, associations and societies, not for pecuniary profit, formed under the provisions of this Act, may elect trustees, directors and managers from the members thereof, in such manner, at such times and places, and for such periods as may be provided by the certificate of incorporation, or in case such certificate does not contain such provisions, then, as may be provided BY THE BY-LAWS, which trustees, directors or managers shall have the control and management of the affairs and funds of the corporation, society or association. Said trustees, managers or directors may, upon consent of the corporation, society or association, expressed by the vote of a majority of the members thereof, borrow money, to be used solely for the purposes of their organization, and may pledge their property therefor.
557
Whenever trustees, managers or directors shall be elected, a certificate under the seal of the corporation, giving the names of those elected and the term of their office, shall be recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds where the certificate of organization is recorded. Vacancies in the board of trustees, directors or managers, shall be filled in the manner Provided by their By-Laws, and upon, filling any vacancy a like certificate shall be recorded.
33. No dividend or distribution of the property of such corporation, society or association shall be made until all debts are fully paid, and then only upon its final dissolution and surrender of organization and name; nor shall any distribution be made except by a vote of a majority of the members. When a distribution of their property is contemplated, the trustees, directors or managers shall file a statement, under oath, in the office of recorder of deeds in the county where the business office is located, that all debts of the corporation, society or association are paid. And in case a distribution shall be made before filing such statements under oath, or if such statement shall be wilfully false, said trustees, directors or managers shall be, jointly and severally, liable for the debts of such corporation, society or association. When a final dissolution of any corporation, society or association, organized by virtue of this Act, has been agreed upon, the trustees, directors or managers shall file, in the office of the Secretary of State, a certificate thereof, under seal of the corporation; and upon the filing of said certificate, such organization shall cease to exist.
34. Any such corporation, society or association may change ifs articles of association, in the manner prescribed by their own rules; but no such change shall be of legal effect, until a certificate thereof, under seal of such corporation, society or association, shall be filed in the office of the
Secretary of State, and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds in which the original certificate was recorded.
19. Mr. Burnham read the By-Laws proposed for adoption by the corporation, as follows:
558
BY-LAWS
THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
ARTICLE. I.
Name and Address.
SECTION. I. This corporation shall be known as "The General Church of the New Jerusalem."
SEC. II. The principal place of business of this corporation shall be in the City of Chicago, County of Cook, and State of Illinois.
ARTICLE II.
Membership.
SECTION I. Any male member of the Church known as The General Church of the New Jerusalem, who is above the age of twenty-one years, and who has attained at least two General Assemblies of the Church know as The General Church of the New Jerusalem, is and shall be eligible to become a member of this corporation, and shall become such member upon attending an annual meeting of the corporation and signing his name to the roll of membership, which shall be preceded by a copy of these By-Laws and the amendments thereto.
SEC. II. Any member of the corporation may be dropped from membership by the affirmative vote of three-fourths of all the members of the corporation.
ARTICLE III.
Object.
The object for which this corporation is formed is to present, teach and maintain, throughout the world, the doctrines of the New Jerusalem Church, as contained in the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.
ARTICLE IV.
Meetings.
SECTION I. The annual meeting of the members of this corporation shall be held at the hour of ten o'clock A. M., on the first Wednesday in June of each year, in Cook County, Illinois. At least ten days' previous notice of said meeting shall be given by the Secretary depositing in the post office a written or printed notice of the time and place of such meeting, addressed to each member whose name appears on the records of the corporation, provided, however, that each year in which a General Assembly of The General Church of the New Jerusalem is to be held the Executive Committee may change the time and place of the annual meeting for that year, in which event they shall cause thirty days' previous notice to be given by depositing, in the post office a written or printed notice, signed by the Secretary, giving the time and place of such meeting, addressed to each member whose name appears on the records of the corporation.
559
SEC. II. The President or any five members of the Executive Committee may call a special meeting of the members of the corporation, which special meeting shall be held in the City of Chicago, at such time and place as shall be designated in the call, and in such case said President or said members of the Executive Committee calling such special meeting shall, at least ten days before the time fixed for holding said meeting, mail to each member whose name appears on the records of the corporation a written or printed notice specifying the time, place (and object) of such meeting.
ARTICLE V.
Quorum.
Twenty members of the corporation shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but any less number may adjourn the meeting from time to time until a quorum be obtained, or may adjourn the meeting sine die; provided, that until the membership is forty, ten members shall constitute a quorum.
ARTICLE VI.
Executive Committee.
SECTION I. The number of Directors of this corporation shall be eighteen and shall be styled the Executive Committee, and shall be elected at each annual meeting to serve for a term of one year and until their successors are elected. Provided, however, that any Director may be removed from his office by a majority vote of the entire membership of the Executive Committee at any special meeting of the Directors called for that purpose (or by a majority vote of the members present at any meeting of the corporation called for that purpose).
SEC. II. In case a vacancy shall occur in the Executive Committee, by reason of the resignation, death or removal of any member, the Executive Committee may elect a member to fill such vacancy for the unexpired portion of the term left vacant and until a successor is elected.
ARTICLE VII.
Officers.
The officers of the corporation shall be a President, a Vice-President, a Secretary and a Treasurer, who shall each be elected annually by the Executive Committee from its own membership, or from the membership of the corporation, and shall hold their respective offices from the time of their election for and during the term of one year and until their successors are elected; provided, however, that any officer may be removed by a majority vote of the entire membership of the Executive Committee at any meeting of the Committee called for that purpose.
560
ARTICLE VIII.
Vacancies.
Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of President, Vice-President, Secretary or Treasurer, it shall be filled by the Executive Committee, and such officer so elected shall hold his office until the next annual meeting of the corporation and until his successor is elected, unless otherwise provided by the Executive Committee.
ARTICLE IX.
Regular Meetings of the Executive Committee.
SECTION I. Regular meetings of the Executive Committee shall be held on the first Wednesday of March, June, September and December in each year, and it shall be the duty of the Secretary, at least five days before the time fixed for holding said meeting, to mail to each Director a notice specifying the time and place of such meeting.
SEC. II. The President shall have power to call special meetings of the Executive Committee whenever he deems it expedient so to do, and it shall be his duty so to do, within five days, whenever so requested in writing by any three members of the Executive Committee. The Secretary shall mail to the address of each Director, at least five days before the time of holding such special meeting, a notice of the time, place and object of such meeting.
ARTICLE X.
Quorum of Directors.
Five members of the Executive Committee shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of all business, and in case there be no quorum the Directors present may adjourn the meeting from time to time until a quorum be obtained, or may adjourn such meeting sine die.
ARTICLE XI.
President and Vice-President.
SECTION I. The President, and in his absence the Vice-President, shall preside over all meetings of the Executive Committee, preserve order and regulate the discussions according to Parliamentary law.
SEC. II. It shall be the duty of the President, and in his absence, of the Vice-President, to exercise a general supervision over the business affairs of the corporation, and all the property of the corporation shall be under his control. The several officers of the corporation shall be responsible to him for the proper and faithful discharge of their several duties, and shall make such report to him touching the business of the corporation under their charge as he shall from time to time require. He shall, with the Secretary, execute all bonds, contracts, leases or other instruments required to be made and executed for and on behalf of the corporation.
561
In the absence or inability to act of the Treasurer, the President may sign checks.
ARTICLE XII.
Secretary.
The duties of the Secretary are to attend all meetings of the members of the corporation and of the Executive Committee, both general and special. He shall keep in a book prepared for that purpose a complete and accurate record of the proceedings of all such meetings, and shall have charge of all books, documents and papers which properly belong to his office. He shall have the custody of the corporate seal and shall affix the same to all leases, notes, deeds and other written instruments which require sealing, and have been executed by the President.
ARTICLE XIII.
Treasurer.
The Treasurer shall act as financial agent of the corporation for the receipt and disbursement of its funds. He shall keep the money of the corporation with such Bank or Banks as may be prescribed by the Executive Committee, and shall cause proper books of account to be kept, and the money so deposited shall be in the name of the corporation. He shall sign all checks drawn on such Bank or Banks, for the account of the corporation. He shall keep proper receipts or vouchers for all disbursements. The Treasurer shall at each annual meeting of the corporation and at any other meeting thereof, when requested so to do, pursuant to the By-Laws and rules of the corporation, or by special direction of the Executive Committee, prepare and submit a written statement of his account accompanied with the proper vouchers. His books of account shall at all times be open to the inspection of the officers and members of the Executive Committee. In the absence of the Secretary the Treasurer shall act as assistant Secretary. The fiscal year shall end the 31st day of May of each year.
ARTICLE XIV.
Register.
A suitable and properly appointed book shall be kept by the Secretary as a register, in which register the By-Laws shall be spread on record. All members shall be required to sign the register beneath appropriate words referring to and recognizing the By-Laws, and obligating the subscribers to recognize the same so long as they shall be members of the corporation. The register shall be wide enough to enable to be set down in appropriate columns, opposite the name of each person who registers, the date of his admittance into the corporation, and the date of his leaving the corporation, and a column in which shall be stated the manner of his leaving the corporation, as by death, resignation or otherwise.
562
ARTICLE XV.
Amendments.
These By-Laws, or any of them, may be altered, amended or repealed by a majority vote at any annual meeting of the members of the corporation, or at any special meeting called for that purpose, provided at least twenty votes are cast in favor of such alteration, amendment or repeal.
20. The following resolution adopted by the Executive Committee was read:
Resolved, That the report of the Legal Committee and of the action of the Executive Committee thereon be presented by the Secretary to the Joint Council of the General Church to be held June 22, 1905, and in the event that the Joint Council and the Bishop approve of such action that the Legal Committee be requested to convene a meeting of the members of the Corporation for the purpose of electing officers and adopting By-Laws.
21. The Treasurer of the General Church read his report:
TREASURER'S REPORT.
FINANCIAL STATEMENT, GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM AND "NEW CHURCH LIFE"
May 31st, 1905.
Balance on hand June 10th, 1904 $63.60
Interest on bank account 3.18
Contributions, as per list 3,089.08
$3155.86
EXPENDITURES.
As per list $2,447.51
Amount contributed to support of Life 516.96
$2,964.47
Balance $191.39
"New Church Life" Account.
RECEIPTS.
Received from subscribers $877.11
Special contributions 90.50
Received from advertisements in Life 2.25
Amount drawn from General Fund 516.96
$1,486.82
EXPENDITURES.
As per list $1,486.82
563
RECEIPTS.
Contributions to the General Church
Assembly Fund 50.00
Colorado, Denver 84.00
Georgia 60.00
Illinois--General 14.00
Chicago 21.67
Glenview 99.67
Indiana 6.00
Louisiana 51.25
Maryland, Baltimore 25.50
Michigan 1.00
Nebraska 2.00
New York 22.00
Ohio--General 86.30
Middleport 24.20
Pennsylvania-General 59.00
Bryn Athyn 1725.91
Philadelphia 114.00
Pittsburg 367.08
Canada--General 17.25
Berlin and Waterloo 119.70
Toronto 107.55
Great Britain 31.00 3089.08
EXPENDITURES.
General
Bishop's Salary 2,000.00
Bishop's Traveling Expenses 56.75
J. E. Bowers, Missionary Services, 11 mos. 183.33
J. E. Bowers, Traveling Expenses to Calgary 50.00
W. L. Gladish, Traveling Expenses 50.00
Reporting for General Assembly 40.00
Books for Missionary Purposes 3.64
Printing and Mailing Quarterly Reports 24.00
Statistical Reports and Receipt Books 13.84
Stationery 6.25
Postage 6.16
Sundry Expenses 13.54 2447.51
New Church Life.
Salaries to Editors 500.00
Printing 11 issues Life 790.47
Paper for Life 90.00
564
Envelopes for Mailing Life 14.40
Mail List Rental 11.00
Receipt Books and Stationery 21.01
Postage 17.32
Sundry Expenses 9.81
Advertisement in "Messenger" 25.00
Bound Life, 1904, to Subscribers,--cost
of Binding and Postage 7.81 1486.82
Recapitulation.
RECEIPTS.
Balance on hand June 30th 63.70
Interest on bank account 3.18
Contributions 3089.08
Life receipts 969.86 4062.12
4125.72
EXPENDITURES.
General Church, as per list 2447.51
New Church Life 1486.82 3934.33
Balance on hand 191.39
Audited and found correct.
(Signed) S. H. HICKS, GEORGE M. COOPER
ORPHANAGE FUND OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
RECEIPTS.
Balance, June 11, 1904 591.70
1904
June 13 Philip and Marion Pendleton, Pittsburg 1.00
July 22 Mrs. N. D. Pendleton, Pittsburg 2.00
Oct. 17 Mrs. N. D. Pendleton, Pittsburg 1.00
Oct. 17 Mrs. Margaret J. McKallip, Pittsburg 30.00
Nov. 7 St. Nicholas League of Bryn Athyn 5.25
Nov. 30 Parkdale Society, Toronto 6.00
Nov. 30 Mr. R. Carswell, Toronto 10.00
Dec. 15 Mr. S. H. Hicks and family, Bryn Athyn 25.00
Dec. 27 Parkdale Christmas offering 21.88
565
1905
Jan. 7 Baltimore Society, Christmas offering 4.00
" 26. Mrs. Janet Pitcairn, Pittsburg 10.00
26. Miss Agnes Pitcairn, Pittsburg 5.00
March 14. Mr. and Mrs. Chas. H. Ebert, Pittsburg 5.00
24 Mr. F. Stroh, Waterloo, Ont. .25
24 Mr. E. Stroh, Waterloo, Ont. .25
24 Mr. Richard Roschman, Waterloo, Ont. 5.00
24. Mr. Rudolph Roschman, Waterloo, Ont. 2.00
24 Christmas offering, Waterloo, Ont. 3.05
27 Mrs. Bernard Peter, Brooklyn, N. Y. 50.00
April 26. Parkdale Society, Toronto 4.00
26. Mr. R. Carswell, Toronto 5.00 787.38
May 7 Collections from June 1, 1904, to May 6, 1905, by Rev. Chas. E. Doering, Bryn Athyn, Pa.:
1904
June 6. Miss H. S. Ashley .25
" 6. Miss A. E. Grant .25
" 6. Miss A. Hachborn .25
" 6. Mrs. Mary J. Bostock 1.00
10. Mr. H. G. Stroh .50
20. Mrs. W. S. Howland 12.50
21. Mr. C. Brown, Toronto 5.00
22. Men's Meeting (Gen'l Assembly) 10.00
July 5 Mr. S. H. Hicks 15.00
11. Mrs. Mary T. Bostock 1.00
11. Miss H. S. Ashley .25
Aug. 1. Mrs. Glenn and family 5.00
8. Miss A. Hachborn .50
Sept. 5 Miss A. E. Grant .50
5 Miss A. Hachborn .25
Oct. 10. Miss H. S. Ashley .50
10. Miss A. E. Grant .25
10. Miss A. Hachborn .25
" 18. Mrs. S. M. Coffin .25
Nov. 7 Miss H. S. Ashley .50
7 Miss A. Hachborn .25
7 Miss A. E. Grant .25
15 Miss H. S. Ashley .50
16. Mrs. W. S. Howland 25.00
" 25. Mr. K. Knudson 2.00
Dec. 1. Rev. G. G. Starkey 1.00
5 Miss H. S. Ashley .50
566
5 Miss A. E. Grant .25
17 Miss Lydia Rhodes 1.00
21. Mrs. Glenn and family 5.00
" 26. Mrs. W. S. Howland 10.00
" 26. Bryn Athyn Society' (Christmas offering) 49.46
1905.
Jan. 9 Miss H. S. Ashley .50
9 Miss A. Hachborn .50
9 Miss A. E. Grant .25
17. Mrs. E. Norris 10.00
Feb. 1. Colchester Sec., Christmas offering 3.53
6. Miss A. E. Grant .25
" 7 Miss H. S. Ashley .50
9. Mrs. S. M. Coffin .50
14 Rev. W. F. Pendleton and family 5.16
17 Rev. G. G. Starkey 1.00
March 6. Miss A. E. Grant .25
8. Miss H. S. Ashley .50
13. Miss A. Hachborn .75
April 1. Mrs. Mary J. Bostock 5.00
10. Miss A. E. Grant .25
11. Miss H. S. Ashley .50
22. Mrs. F. O. Breitstein 5.00
" 26. Mrs. S. M. Coffin .25
May 5 Miss A. Hachborn .50
5 Miss A. E. Grant .25
5 Miss H. S. Ashley .50
5 Mrs. Mary J. Bostock 1.50
186.65
June 12. Mr. and Mrs. W. C. Childs and family 16.00
990.03
EXPENDITURES.
1904
June 20. Mrs. Mary Hyatt 48.00
21. Mimeographing Report 4.50
Oct. 19. Mrs. Mary Hyatt 60.00
Dec. 27. Mrs. Mary Hyatt 60.00
March 10. Mrs. Mary Hyatt 60.00
June 8. Mrs. Mary Hyatt 84.00
316.50
Balance June 12, 1905 673.53
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WALTER C. CHILDS, Treasurer.
22. On motion, it was resolved to take up for consideration the Report of the Executive Committee on Incorporation of the General Church.
The question was asked whether it would not be well to distinguish between the names of the Church and the Corporation. Both are called "The General Church of the New Jerusalem." In reply it was said that for years we have been endeavoring to incorporate The General Church of the New Jerusalem. Now that we have accomplished it, why should we proceed to undo the work by giving a different name to the Corporation! Furthermore, we do practically distinguish between the two in conversation, calling the one the General Church and the other the Corporation. In legal documents the distinction would also be clear, for the Corporation would be spoken of as "The General Church of the New Jerusalem, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Illinois."
It was shown that in carrying on our uses, the distinction would be clearly preserved. The Church and the Corporation will each have its own officers. The Corporation might meet on the last day of the Assembly and do business, carrying into effect things decided by the Assembly. As a rule, about all the business there will be for the Members of the Corporation to do at the annual meetings will be to elect an Executive Committee.
It was suggested that, ii we desire, we can now have the House of the Laity, proposed by Bishop Pendleton at the first General Assembly. All that would be necessary in order to accomplish this, would be that the ministers, of their own choice do not become members of the Corporation. There was decided opposition to this suggestion. Those objecting stated that we have not incorporated a House of the Laity, but the General Church, and the ministers are members of the General Church. The term "House of the Laity" has come to mean, in the minds of many of the members of the Church, something that the Bishop had not originally intended, namely, a division of the Church into two bodies, one the laity, and the other the clergy. The Church is one, and all are members of it. The Bishop said that when he wrote the paper in which the formation of two houses was proposed, one the House of the Clergy and the other the House of the Laity, it was not at that time contemplated that the ministers should be members of the House of the Laity.
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A state then existed which made it desirable that the laymen should feel themselves in perfect freedom as to agreeing or disagreeing with the clergy, and the proposition was made to meet that state. Now, however, the state has changed, and it is seen that tat freedom can exist without such a division into two houses. Nevertheless the principle which entered into the proposition, namely, the distinction between the distinctly ecclesiastical uses and the lay or civil uses in the Church, has entered into the formation of the Corporation. Essentially the Corporation is a house of the laity, for it consists of laymen. If a minister joins it he does so in his lay capacity; he leaves behind his priestly office and becomes a member in order to take part in the business affairs of the Church.
The question arose whether it is desirable that the ministers become members of the Corporation. One of the ministers said that he had no desire to become a member, as he thought that the business affairs should be left entirely to the laymen; but others said that they intended to become members, because they believed that a minister, as well as any other member of the Church, should have an interest in the business affairs of the Church. The latter view was supported by several members of the Executive Committee. It was pointed out that while all members of the Church should have an active interest in the business affairs, yet the membership of the Executive Committee should, as a general thing, be confined to laymen, that is, to men capable of managing business affairs. And while there are men having abilities in such affairs among the ministers as well as among the laymen, it would have to be left to the Corporation whether it would or would not elect such to membership in the Executive Committee. The more freedom there would be in this respect the better.
Thursday Afternoon.
23. The afternoon session of the joint Councils was held at the house of Mr. Jacob Schoenberger.
24. The consideration of the Report of the Executive Committee was continued.
The chairman of the Executive Committee urged that the ministers become members of the Corporation.
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While the freedom of all must be recognized, yet every member of the Church should take an interest in the business of the Corporation. When the Executive Committee is elected, the best judgment of all the members of the Church, including the ministers, should enter into the selection. To take no interest in the business affairs of the Church is similar to a citizen of the country taking no interest in politics. Every citizen should take an interest in what concerns the welfare of the nation. Other members of the Executive Committee expressed the wish that the ministers become members. Their presence would be useful in aiding the Corporation to act not merely according to the letter, but also according to the spirit of what the Assembly desires. One member thought that it would be useful, for this reason, to have at least one minister on the Executive Committee.
25. On motion of Messrs. Pendleton and Price it was resolved, that the report of the Executive Committee on Incorporation be received and approved.
26. On motion of Messrs. Acton and Price, it was resolved that this joint meeting heartily appreciate what the Legal Committee has done in the matter of Incorporation, and hereby expresses its thanks for the excellent Report which has been the result of its thorough and careful work and study.
27. It was asked whether it is desirable that the property of Societies belong to the Corporation. Mr. Burnham replied that the Corporation cannot hold property in trust. It would have to be given outright. It can also in some instances own property in foreign countries.
28. Greetings to this Joint Meeting from Dr. Cranch, of Erie, Pa., a member of the Executive Committee, were delivered by Mr. Bowers.
29. The question 61 changing the time of these annual meetings, referred to the Joint Council by the Council of the Clergy, was considered.
The reasons making a change desirable, brought forward in the Council of the Clergy, were presented.
The following objections were presented to holding the meetings in the fall before the opening of the Schools: 1. That some of the people living in the locality where the meeting is held, having not yet returned to their homes from their vacation, would not be able to take part in the entertainment of visitors.
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2. That it might be impossible for some of the ministers to attend these meetings, and then, soon after, a meeting of the District Assembly. 3. That one of the local schools opens on the first of September.
Another proposition was that the meetings be held together with one of the District Assemblies later in the fall. It was pointed out that not only would it be harmful to close the schools for a time after the work had been well begun, but also that it might be impossible for the Society entertaining the District Assembly to entertain the Councils at the same time.
Still another proposition was to hold the Meetings during the Christmas Holidays. But the objection to this plan was that by so doing a brief period set apart for rest would be fully occupied with work.
It was seen that the original proposition was the only feasible one, and that the only objection, of any weight, was that some persons, who might entertain, would not yet have returned from their holidays. It was found that only one of the ministers would have difficulty in attending two meetings near together; and it was thought that the local school, referred to, might be able to arrange to begin later in the fall and continue longer in the spring.
30. On motion, it was resolved that this Annual Council begin its next Meeting on the first Tuesday in September, 1906.
31. The Bishop said that it is understood that in the years in which a General Assembly is held, the meetings of the Clergy and of the Executive Committee will take place, as heretofore, in June; for it has been determined that the General Assembly be held at such a time as to include the Nineteenth of June.
32. Mr. Bowers reported on the state of the Church in Greenford.
33. Mr. Price inquired whether something could not be done to put to use the library and other Church property of the Allentown Society, which was nest at present in use. On motion, the Messrs. Price and Doering and the Bishop, were appointed a committee to look into the matter, with power to act.
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34. Mr. Waelchli stated that property of the defunct Milverton Society, belonging to the General Church, is stored in Berlin, and inquired whether it would not also be put to use. No action was taken.
35. On motion, the meeting adjourned.
Thursday Evening.
In the evening a Banquet was given by the Pittsburgh Society to the two Councils. The speakers on this occasion dwelt chiefly on the life and services of the late William H. Benade, the founder of the Academy of the New Church, and the first resident Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society.
Friday Morning, June 23d.
COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY.
36. The meeting was opened with worship.
37. A letter of greeting from the Rev. George Starkey was read.
38. The day having been set apart for the consideration of the new Liturgy, that subject was now taken up.
The Bishop said that he had completed his part of the work, and all that remained to be done was putting some of the responses to music. He had prepared eight General Offices and nineteen Offices of Praise. The Offices of Praise are similar to the offices in our old Liturgy, but do not constitute entire services. They are intended to be used in connection with the General Offices. Each Office of Praise is under a general doctrine.
The Bishop read the eight General Offices, and each was considered.
Friday Afternoon.
39. The new Liturgy was further considered.
The Bishop read some of the Offices of Praise.
The ministers expressed their great appreciation of the excellent work which the Bishop had done. All felt that the Church is deeply indebted to him for providing, as the result of his many years of study and labor, so beautiful and powerful a ritual.
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It was the wish of all that he also prepare new forms for the Sacraments and Rites to take the place of those we now have. To this he replied that he was anxious to turn to other work, but would consider the matter.
Friday Evening.
40. A public session was held.
41. The meeting was opened with worship conducted by Bishop Pendleton.
42. Mr. Alfred Stroh was appointed Secretary pro tem.
43. The following paper on The Illustration of the Third Degree of the Priesthood, was read by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli:
THE ILLUSTRATION OF THE THIRD DEGREE OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
The members of this Council agree in believing that the Doctrines of the Church teach that there should be three degrees of the priesthood, and that, where this order is established, there pertains to the successively higher degrees a successively higher illustration; consequently, that those inaugurated into the third degree have illustration which others of the priesthood do not have. But all are not agreed as to what is the quality of that higher illustration of the third degree, some believing that it is an illustration as to all things of priestly use, and others that it is "merely as to government."
The ideas prevailing in our body in regard to the priesthood and its order have been largely formed by Bishop Benade's "Report on the Priesthood, and on the Grades in the Priesthood," contained in the Journal of the General Convention for the year 1875. In that Report are given three sets of passages, the first showing that there pertains to the priesthood the function of government, the second, that there pertains to it the function of worship, and the third, that there pertains to it the function of instruction; and the conclusion is drawn that "these three distinct functions require for their performance three distinct forms or modes of administration, and this implies the existence of three distinct functionaries or administrators," (P 80). The third or highest office of the Priesthood, which is the Office of Government, is called the Episcopal Office, the office of overseeing and governing; and the High-Priest who ministers therein may be named Superintendent, or Presiding Minister, or Bishop The second or middle Office of the Priesthood, which is the office of Worship, is called the Pastoral Office, the office of feeding the flock, and the Priest who ministers therein is called Pastor.
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The first or lowest office of the Priesthood, which is the Office of Instruction, is called the Teaching Office, the office of teaching doctrine, which is serviceable for worship and government, and the Priest who ministers therein may be called Teaching Minister, or simply Minister, as expressing generally the; ministering character of the various degrees of the office, to which the first is the introduction," (p. 85).
Study of the passages contained in the report fails to convince us that they in any wise teach that the three functions call for three degrees of the priesthood, one to administer Government, another Worship, and another Teaching. Government is nowhere spoken of as being peculiarly the function of a third degree, but instead as being the function of all who are in the priesthood; so also worship and instruction. Every priest, whatever be the degree into which he has been inaugurated, is an administrator of these three functions; but to the successively higher degrees pertain successively higher administrations of the same; and, we may add, successively higher illustration in such administration.
There are those, however, who seem to adhere to the conclusion of the Report, and consequently believe that inauguration into the first degree brings illustration as to teaching; inauguration into the second degree, illustration as to worship in addition to that as to teaching received before; and inauguration into the third degree, illustration as to government in addition to that already received as to teaching and worship. Nevertheless, it cannot be otherwise than that it is also believed that there belongs to the second degree and even to the first something of illustration as to government, and that there belongs to the first degree, as well as to the third and second, something of illustration as to worship.
The expression that the illustration of the third degree is "merely as to government," carries with it an external and not an internal idea of what is meant by government by the priesthood; it conveys the idea that such government is something separate from the functions of worship and instruction; that it is nothing other than the management of the Church's affairs to the end that external order may be preserved; thus, that it is chiefly observation as to whether the subordinates properly behave themselves, and rewarding those who do behave, and punishing those who do not. Why should the exercise of such a function call for any special illustration, other than such as every man has in his calling? Why should a man be solemnly inaugurated by the laying on of hands into the exercise of such duties? Why could not a layman be called upon to do such work? In fact, in some of the established national churches, laymen or lay bodies do largely administer these things.
If instead of its being said that the illustration of the third degree is "merely as to government," it were said that it is "as to government," we could agree with the proposition. We take exception to the word "merely." The illustration of the third degree, and of all degrees, is as to government; for government by the priesthood, according to a more interior and the true idea, includes everything of priestly use.
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That we may see that such is the case, let us turn to the chapter on Ecclesiastical and Civil Government, in The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine. (311-325.)
"There are two things which ought to be in order, viz., the things which are of heaven, and the things which are of the world. The things which are of heaven are called ecclesiastical, and those which are of the world are called civil. Order cannot be maintained in the world without governors, who are to observe all things that are done according to order, and all things that are done contrary to order; and who are to reward those who live according to order, and to punish those who live contrary to order. . . . There must therefore be governors to keep the assemblages of men in order, who are skilled in the law, wise, and who fear God. Among the governors there must be order, lest any one, from caprice or ignorance, should permit evils which are contrary to order, and thereby destroy it; which is guarded against when there are superior and inferior governors, amongst whom there is subordination."
Now, what are the duties of government that priests must perform to the end that there may be order in the Church? The answer to this question is given in the Doctrine following:
"Governors over those things among men which are of heaven, or over ecclesiastical things, are called priests, and their office the priesthood. . . With respect to priests, they must teach men the way to heaven, and also lead them; they must teach them according to the doctrine of their Church from the Word, and lead them that they may live according to it."
Here we are clearly taught that priestly government consists in teaching and leading according to the doctrine of the Church. Such government, and it alone, can establish order "in the things among men which are of heaven," which things are none other than the reception of doctrine in its purity and the formation of the life in accordance therewith. Order in these heavenly things is that the priesthood must seek to establish by its government; and external order, unless it flow from that higher order, is of but little value in the Church. The successively higher degrees of the priesthood are successively higher degrees of work for the establishment of such order, thus successively higher degrees of government by teaching and leading according to the doctrine of the Church; and this involves successively higher illustration in the doctrine of the Church.
We read further in the Doctrine concerning Ecclesiastical Government:
"Priests must teach the people, and lead by truths to the good of life, but still they must not force anyone, since no one can be forced to believe contrary to what he thinks in his heart to be true."
Here again it is evident that priestly government has to do primarily not with external but with internal order.
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It is clearly stated what a priest must not force men to, namely, to believing what they cannot at heart believe. His teaching and leading, or his government, must be such as to leave men in freedom in the things of heaven. He must shun evil persuasive arts and methods. This law applies to all degrees of the priesthood, and in its application to one in the third degree it has reference not only to leaving in freedom the men of the Church in general, but also the priests who are subordinate to him. The Doctrine continues:
"He who believes otherwise than the priest must be left in peace; but he who makes disturbance must be separated, for this also is of order, for the sake of which the priesthood is."
Let us note well what the nature of the disturbance is, on account of which a man must be separated: it is disturbance made in consequence of believing otherwise than the priest, that is, disturbance made by going about and seeking to convince those of the Church that the priest is not teaching true doctrine. When anyone does this he must be separated, and this not because he is opposing the priest as a man, or because he is bringing external unpleasantness and strained relations into the Church body, but because he is opposing what is the internal of priestly government, namely, teaching and leading by the priest. The priest is the governor in the things of heaven among men; he is the one who, as a human instrument, must provide that what is Divine be among men; he is the one to teach the doctrine of the Church; consequently, he also is the one to decide what is the doctrine to be taught. The Lord gives him illustration to do this. Others may not agree with his teaching, but they must not make disturbance.
A priest of the third degree, being in a higher degree a governor over the things of heaven among men, or a teacher of the doctrine of the Church, is in a higher degree one to decide what is the doctrine to be taught. He must decide this for the diocese over which he has jurisdiction, and the governors or priests who are under him, while they may believe otherwise, must make no disturbance by opposition to his teaching. The duty of a high-priest to observe that his subordinates teach the true doctrine of the Church, is what is especially meant; in application to priestly government, by a superior governor seeing to it that an inferior one do not "from caprice or ignorance permit evils which are contrary to order and thereby destroy it." Because this responsibility rests upon a priest in the third degree, a higher illustration is given him in the doctrine of the Church.
At the conclusion of the Doctrine concerning Ecclesiastical Government, the following comprehensive statement is given as to the nature of priestly government:
"Priests are governors for administering those things which are of Divine Law and Worship."
The administration of Divine Law is the teaching of that law as given in doctrine, and leading by it to the good of life. How else can divine law be administered?
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Surely not in the same manner as civil law. The administration of Worship is providing that there be in the Church that worship which "is prescribed in doctrine, and performed according to it." (H. D. 6.) Hence again we can see that all priestly government centres in the administration of what is of doctrine. It is teaching and leading by doctrine, done in such a manner that men may acknowledge doctrine as their Divine Law, and see and feel it expressed in the worship of the Church.
A superior governor in the administration of Divine Law and Worship is one who observes that the inferior governors under him do the work of such administration in accordance with the doctrine of the Church. Can we suppose that the Lord would leave a man, having such a dirty to fulfil, without a higher illustration in the things of doctrine!
As we hold that priestly government is essentially teaching doctrine and leading thereby, the question may be asked whether we consider the administration of the affairs relating to the life of a church body as not belonging to the priestly office. Our views as to this were well expressed at our last meeting by one of the members of this body, when we were considering the subject of "The Scope of Pastoral Work," as follows: "In general, there are three things which a pastor must do: 1. Feed the people by teaching them. 2. Govern the affairs of the Society. For this he should have executive ability. 3. Fulfill his social duties, so that he mar get close to the people and know them. If he does not know them, he cannot do proper work for them. Still neither pastor nor people should lose sight of the fact that the chief pastoral work is that of feeding the flock." What is here said of a pastor is also true of a bishop. He must: 1. Feed the flock. 2. Govern the affairs of his diocese. 3. Fulfil his social duties, so that he may get close to the people, especially to his subordinate priests, and know them. Still neither bishop, nor subordinate priests, nor people must lose sight of the fact that the chief episcopal work is that of feeding the flock. A bishop is a priest, and priestly work is above all teaching the doctrines. And if a bishop is not a teacher of doctrine he is not in priestly work, however much he may attend to affairs and fulfill social duties.
In the Canons of the New Church, we read:
"The Divine which is called the Holy Spirit, proceeding from God by His Human, passes through the angelic heaven, and by this into the world, thus by angels to men. Hence by men to men, and in the Church especially by the clergy to the laity. The clergy, because they are to teach doctrine from the Word concerning the Lord, and concerning redemption and salvation by Him, are to be inaugurated by the solemn promise of the Holy Spirit, and by the representation of its translation; but it is received by the clergy according to the faith of their life. The Divine, which is understood by the Holy Spirit, proceeds from the Lord through the clergy to the laity by preaching, according to the reception of the doctrine of truth thence; and by the sacrament of the Holy Supper, according to repentance before it." (Holy Spirit iii, iv.)
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We are here taught that the Holy Spirit inflows by angels to men, and also by men to men, and especially by the clergy to the laity. Thus there is with men an immediate reception of the Holy Spirit descending from heaven, and also a mediate reception through men, especially through the clergy. Now, the question arises whether there is with the clergy also not only the immediate reception, but also an especial mediate one from the passing of the Holy Spirit by the higher degrees of the priesthood to the lower. The idea that the highest degree of the priesthood has higher illustration merely as to government, and not to the doctrine of the Church, involves a negative answer to the question; for according to this idea, a priest, when he is inaugurated into the first degree, comes into the same illustration as to doctrine as one who is in the third degree; and as the Holy Spirit passes from the clergy to the laity because the clergy are in illustration, therefore, there being no higher illustration with priests of a higher degree, there is no mediate passing of the Holy Spirit through higher degrees into lower, excepting in the sense in which it passes from man to man generally among the clergy; in other words, it is not a thing of as established order, that the Holy Spirit pass from the higher to the loner degrees of the clergy.
In order that we may know whether this be the true answer to the question, we need but reflect on what is the nature of the degrees of the priesthood. They are discrete degrees. This is acknowledged by all. And discrete degrees always involve communication through what is higher into what is lower. Where there is no such communication there are no discrete degrees. That there is such communication in the three degrees of the priesthood, is clearly evident from the following words of doctrine:
"It is known that in order to give perfection to any thing, there must be a trine in just order, one under another and communication between them. . . .[That such a trine may be] in the Church, there must be a mitred prelate, parish priests, and curates under them." (Cor. 17)
What is the communication of the three degrees of the office which has to do with the administration of the things of heaven among men by teaching the truth and leading by it? Can any one believe that it is a communication consisting merely in the higher degree managing affairs for the lower? We should think not. Must it not be a communication of truth, or, to use the words of the Cartons, a communication by "preaching," which term here means the teaching of the doctrine of truth; and being such, it is the passing of the Holy Spirit by the higher degrees to the longer. And since, therefore, the Holy Spirit descends mediately by the higher to the lower degrees of the priesthood, as well as immediately to everyone in that office, must there not be a higher illustration of the higher degrees? For how could there be communication by the teaching of doctrine without higher illustration on the part of those teaching?
In our body of the Church this principle has always been practically recognized by the manner in which men have been introduced into higher degrees of the priesthood.
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Such introduction has been inauguration by the solemn promise of the Holy Spirit and by the representation of its translation; in other words, men have been introduced into the higher degrees by successive ordination; for what are inaugurations performed in this manner other than ordinations. We are told in the doctrine read, that such inauguration should take place because the clergy are to teach doctrine from the Word. But if a priest by his inauguration into the first degree comes into all the illustration as to doctrine that pertains to the priestly office, what can be the object or possible use of the inaugurations into higher degrees taking place by the solemn promise of the Holy Spirit and by the representation of its translation? There can be no use in it whatever, and our practice has been a senseless thing; yea, worse than that, it has been the using of a holy rite of worship as a mere external, totally empty of anything internal. We are, in such case, in the wrong, and the Illinois Association is in the right. That Association introduces a man into the third degree simply by some minister addressing questions to him and receiving his answers, and then taking his hand and declaring him invested with his additional functions. And what more than this is needed for introducing a man into the head-managership of affairs? In fact, not even this much is necessary.
In the True Christian Religion, we read:
"The Divine Virtue and Operation, which is understood by the sending of the Holy Spirit, with the clergy in particular, is illustration and instruction. . . . That the clergy are in particular illustration and instruction, is because these things are of their office, and inauguration into the ministry brings them with it." (146.)
If inauguration brings with it illustration, then successive inaugurations into higher degrees must bring higher illustration. If such is not the case, why then have such inaugurations?
Concerning the especial influx of the Holy Spirit with the clergy we have the following further teaching in the same work:
"Above it was shown that the Divine Virtue, which is meant by the Holy Spirit, with the clergy in particular, is Illustration and Instruction; but to those two intermediates accede, which are perception and disposition; wherefore there are four things which with the clergy follow in order, Illustration, Perception, Disposition and Instruction, Illustration is from the lord. 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, and this 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.
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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 illustration, which is from the Lord, is turned into various lights and into various colors, with every one according to the state of his mind." (155.)
In our body we recognize the importance of the two intermediate graces here spoken of, and therefore a man is not ordained into the first degree unless he has a good knowledge of the doctrines, whence arises perception, and at the same time manifests a true love for the use of the priesthood, which is disposition; likewise a man is not inaugurated into the second degree unless he has progressed in his knowledge of the doctrines and has proved his genuine love for the use; and so also a man to be inaugurated into the third degree, must be one eminently learned in the doctrines and having a strong love and zeal for the priestly use.
Illustration is from the Lord alone. Perception is also from the Lord, but depends on the man's state of mind formed from doctrine. Perception is rendered clear by the light which illustrates, if the doctrine be true; but it is rendered obscure, if the doctrine be false, though at the same time the perverted light of illustration gives the power of cleverly confirming. It follows from this that when a man is advanced from one degree of the priesthood to another, he will, on account of his higher illustration, have a greater light inflowing into his perception, provided he have true doctrine; this greater light will enable him to have, more than before, an interior insight into the truths of doctrine. This is a divine gift, to the end that he may wisely fulfill his duties as a higher administrator of Divine Law and Worship. On the other hand, if his doctrine be false, he will be more obscure than before, and yet, because there is with him the perversion of a higher illustration, he will have a greater ability to cleverly confirm his ideas. Thus a man, by introduction into a higher degree, becomes a greater power for good, if his doctrine be true, and a greater power for evil, if his doctrine be false.
Because a priest of the third degree has higher illustration than other priests, it does not follow that whenever there is a difference between him and another priest as to the understanding of some teaching of doctrine, he is right and the other priest wrong. As we have seen, illustration must inflow into true doctrine, and a priest in the third degree may, like another, erroneously comprehend what the doctrines teach on certain points. Thus he may be wrong, and the other priest right. When a bishop and some other priest differ as to doctrine, the situation is similar to that existing when a pastor and a layman learned in doctrine differ. Another layman, hearing of the difference, will incline to the view of the pastor, because of his use and the illustration he has in it, yet he will nevertheless weigh the question for himself; and the layman who differs, if he be rightly disposed toward the priestly office, will for the same reason hesitate before he confirms his own view, believing that it is more probable that the pastor is right than he.
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So, when there is a difference between a bishop and another priest as to doctrine, a third priest, hearing of it, will incline to the bishop's view, because of his higher illustration, yet will carefully consider both sides and then form his conclusion; and the priest who differs, if he be in the proper attitude towards the episcopal office, will think it more likely that the bishop is right than he, and will go slowly as to the confirmation of his own view. What is essential is an affirmative attitude towards a bishop. In this there is much involved; but we shall here mention but one thing: that a bishop towards whom there is an affirmative attitude, will, on account of it, do better work for the Church.
Although a bishop is the head-teacher in his diocese, it is not necessary that he should have on all subjects of doctrine a wider range of knowledge than other priests in that diocese. There may be men under him who are more learned than he in certain doctrinals, because of special study therein. A priest who engages in special lines of study, places the conclusions of his work before the Church. Other priests, and also laymen, then consider whether they can accept those conclusions. The bishop of the diocese likewise gives them such consideration. If he accepts, then the doctrinal position of that priest is strengthened, for it has become also the position of the head-teacher of the Church body; and consequently the Church inclines the more affirmatively to it, and rightly so. But if he does not accept it, it does not become his position; and if he makes known his disagreement, men will hesitate in its acceptance, also rightly so. Here again we would say, that a bishop may err. He may endorse what is false and dissent from what is true. Yet the fact that he is liable to err should not destroy the affirmative attitude towards him as head-teacher, any more than the fact that a pastor is liable to err should destroy the affirmative attitude towards him as the teacher of his parish. An affirmative attitude towards the bishop as the head-teacher of the diocese is essential to the preservation of order in the things of heaven among men, for the sake of which the priesthood exists; and if it be lost, that order is threatened, and a change of some kind, affecting either the bishop or others, must take place.
Recapitulation:
1. Priests as governors are the administrators of the Divine Law and Worship.
2. The three degrees of the priesthood are three degrees of such administration.
3. To the successively higher degrees pertains successively higher illustration.
4. It is of order that the Holy Spirit be received by all in the priesthood immediately, and at the same time also mediately by its passing through the higher degrees to the lower. This involves a higher illustration in doctrine with the higher degrees.
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5. A bishop should possess in an eminent degree the intermediate virtues of Perception and Disposition.
6. A bishop is the chief-teacher in his diocese. He must observe that true doctrine be taught. He must force no one to believe otherwise than he thinks in his heart to be true. The priest who differs from the bishop must be left in peace so long as he does not disturb; but if he disturbs he must be separated.
7. An affirmative attitude towards the bishop of a diocese is most essential.
Mr. Acton: I think that the paper in dealing with the view which holds that the illustration of the third degree is merely as to government, laid too much stress on the word "merely," as though the government of the Church was merely a matter of the external management of men. A priest in the third degree does not necessarily have a greater or truer knowledge of a subject than some other priest who has given it special study; but he does have illustration in what concerns the general government or general good of the Church, and this includes a perception as to the men who from their special abilities are most fitted to carry on its uses. The case with a bishop is the same as with governors in other uses. The governor of a country, or the head of some corporation, may have men under him more capable than he in certain lines, but he should have the best general perception of what is for the good of the use as a whole.
Mr. Odhner: I agree with Mr. Acton. Exaggeration of the office of the third degree in regard to influx into and through it and its illustration should be avoided. The reception of the influx of the Holy Spirit is according to the vessels in the priest's heart and brain, and according to the faith of his life. As we look back over the history of the Christian Church, we find that the men who had the dearest illustration in the truth, such as Origen, Erigena, Abelard, and Luther, were not bishops. We must, of course, have confidence in the illustration of our Bishops, but it should be in regard to their special use, which is that of General Pastors who are to lead the Church as a whole to the good of life; it is in this use that this degree has higher illustration.
Mr. N. D. Pendleton: The paper presents the view of the subject that was held by Bishop Benade, and I find myself in harmony with it.
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It seemed to me that Mr. Acton in trying to show that the paper laid too much stress on the word "merely," himself laid that stress on the word which the paper contends against; for the trend of his remarks seemed to be that a bishop's use was chiefly that of overseeing the affairs of the Church. The fact that the men of dearest illustration in the Christian Church did not become bishops, is rather a support to the position of the paper. That Church, being a consummated Church, did not put the right men in the highest places, but relegated those who were spiritually minded to the circumferences. It will be different in the New Church.
Mr. Homer Synnestvedt: The paper presents what to my mind is the true doctrine on the subject. We must bear in mind the truth that the Lord is the only ruler of the Church, and He gives illustration to those in the priesthood according to the needs of the Church. We can imagine the case of a rather crude bishop having a remarkably clear illustration in his use. The Lord gives it to him for the sake of his use. The wisdom, which pertains to one who fills this office, is something over and above intellectual insight. It is wisdom in application to life, or to the practical ultimate needs of the Church.
Mr. Acton: My position is by no means that a bishop is to perform merely external uses. The men who are chosen to this office should and probably will be among the wisest in the Church, even as to doctrine. But they will not have that wisdom by virtue of their inauguration into the third degree; that is to say, such inauguration will not bring with it a greater illustration in abstract doctrines, as in regard to the spiritual sun, the limbus, and the like.
Mr. Odhner: In the Documents we read that Swedenborg said in regard to a certain charge of heresy, that it should not have been referred to the House of the Clergy, in the Diet, but to the theological faculties of the Universities. A bishop cannot be both judge and jury in a charge of heresy. He may or may not excel others in theology, or in illustration in theological questions, but he must possess executive ability. The pastoral use is that of leading to the good of life, and in this there is illustration; of such illustration that of the third degree is the highest.
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Mr. Gladish: I agree with the paper. I cannot understand how there can be illustration in leading to good of life without illustration in the doctrine by which such leading takes place. Whether or not a bishop has a clearer understanding than others as to certain doctrinal points, such as the spiritual sun and the limbus, does not seem to me to have anything to do with the question. What we need to see is that, in general, there is a higher illustration in doctrine. We can say, if we choose, that it is in the doctrine which leads to the good of life; and when we study the doctrines interiorly we will probably not find much in them that does not lead to that good.
Mr. Synnestvedt: Is there not perhaps in the minds of some the idea that we must guard against the illustration of the third degree being set up as an authority, depriving inferior priests and also laymen of their freedom?
Mr. Odhner: In answer to this question I must say that the paper brings back to my mind the exaggerated claims which were raised in the latter days of the Church of the Academy.
Mr. Pitcairn: I agree with Mr. Acton especially as to the point that higher governors are in illustration in regard to the general good and welfare. That is what a Bishop thinks about and there is illustration inflowing into his thought.
Mr. Paul Synnestvedt: Are we not taught that illustration is according to use? I would like to ask the Bishop whether ordination brings with it illustration when a man does not enter into the performance of priestly uses.
Mr. Pitcairn: There is a great responsibility connected with the office of bishop, namely, that of seeing that all goes well in the Church and that the Church is protected from harm. In the fulfilling of this a Bishop has illustration. It is not mere management of external affairs. A bishop's position is something like that of a man who is the head of a great corporation. Such a man has an illustration in his use, and knows who are the best men to put into certain positions, and yet some of the men under him may have more illustration than he as to certain things of the use.
Mr. Acton: The illustration of the third degree is illustration in those things which conduce to the growth of the Church as a larger body.
Mr. Waelchli: Those who have taken exception to the paper say that the illustration of the third degree is not a superior illustration as to doctrine, and also that it is not an illustration as to mere management of affairs, but something intermediary.
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But it seems to be that as they define this intermediary, it becomes evident that it is, after all, just what the paper holds, namely, a higher illustration as to doctrine. As one of them said: "It is illustration in the truth which leads to good." So far as I am aware, there is no other illustration of the priesthood spoken of in the Writings than illustration as to doctrine. Some of the speakers evidently did not remember that the paper said that there could be priests in a diocese more learned in certain doctrinals than the bishop, and also that it said that a bishop, although he is primarily the chief teacher of the diocese, needs also to have executive ability and certain social qualities. It does not seem that there is any great difference of opinion among us, if any, on the essentials of the subject we have been considering.
Saturday Morning, June 24th.
44. The meeting was opened with worship.
45. In accordance with the resolution passed at the close of the Tuesday afternoon session the consideration of "The Need of a more complete Representation of the Third Degree of the Priesthood in the General Church" was continued.
As in the former discussion of this subject, it was evident that some desired that another man should be introduced into the third degree chiefly for the reason that thus there might be provision for the perpetuation of the priesthood within our own body while others were not willing that such a step should be taken for this reason alone. It was, however, shown that there would be another important use served by taking this step, namely, that of providing a man who could relieve the Bishop and take his place when necessary. In all organizations there is not only the chief officer, but also a vice-officer, who is ready to temporarily take his place when necessary. Both reason and experience commend the wisdom of this order. If we had such an officer in our body, who could on occasions lake the Bishop's place, the Bishop could be relieved in many ways. It would no longer be necessary for him to attend all of the many meetings at which he must now be present; also, when he is out of the country, or in case of illness or disability, the episcopal work could go on continuously.
585
Stress was again laid on the importance of not falling into the idea that the man introduced into the third degree would succeed to the office of Bishop of the General Church.
Bishop Pendleton said that in his Address to the Assembly a year ago he spoke of the need of introducing another man into the third degree. But as he had not heard the matter spoken of since that time, he had not come to this meeting prepared to take steps in that direction. For several reasons it did not seem practicable to take action at this meeting. One of the indications he had been waiting for seemed now to be given, namely, unity of mind as to who is the man to be introduced. The first step to be taken is that of introducing a man into the third degree of the priesthood of the New Church, but not as yet recognizing him as a priest of that degree in this body. He invited the ministers to express to him individually their opinion as to the man, and he could then in the near future take the first step. The nest step would be the recognition of the man as a priest of the third degree by this Council, and afterwards by the Assembly. It is better to proceed in this manner than to have a nomination by this Council at the present meeting, for this would involve an immediate recognition of the man as a priest of the third degree in our body. Let us take the first step in the manner mentioned, and then go slowly. The fullest freedom will thus be assured.
46. The next subject taken up was that of Natural Charities.
Mr. Synnestvedt, introducing the subject, said that we teach a form of charity which varies from that of the world, a charity which is of rational, and not of merely natural good. The result is that our members have come to have a standard in dealing with the neighbor which seems unkind and often even cold-blooded, having in it nothing of natural good. This should not be. In the Doctrines we are told that friendships of love entered into, which do not have regard for the good which is in the neighbor, but is merely personal, is injurious. Have we not, perhaps, in following out this doctrine, gone to the opposite extreme, withholding external friendship and kindness where it should be given?
586
We know the teaching concerning the importance of external charity with children, and concerning the cultivation of the appearance of that charity on the part of adults for the sake of the children. In our school-work, if we give only the teaching concerning internal charity, and not concerning external, we will do harm to the children.
In the discussion which followed, some of the speakers urged more preaching of natural good and the cultivation of the moral virtues, for the benefit of the young people and children. If natural good is not cultivated, spiritual good cannot be. The former is the basis on which the latter must rest.
It was shown that in every society frequent opportunities arise for the exercise of natural charity. There are the poor, both those who are for some reason constantly so, and others who because of circumstances become poor and suffer want for a time. Then also there are in families, which have but little means, times of distress when sickness comes, and aid of various kinds is much needed. Besides, we have the Orphanage, a use on this plane which is always with us.
It was suggested that the care of natural charities be placed in the hands of the young people, and that they be organized to perform this use. Their compassion is more readily excited than ours, and it is well that it should be. Such work is charity on their plane, and it will do them good to do it. We have the burden of spiritual charities. Our young people are many of them not miners, but are in the beginning of adult life; thus their state is an intermediate one. While they still have much of childhood's compassion and the love for natural charity, still there is also the beginning of the rational state, which will cause them to exercise prudence and judgment in performing this use. Since there is the beginning of the rational, they will have a spiritual end. They will do the work for the sake of the Church. Thus their exercise of charity will not be natural, separate from what is spiritual. There are also adults who remain strongly in the love of the performance of natural charities, and these will take an interest in the work of the young people and co-operate with them, and give them the benefit of their counsel and advice.
While some favored the idea of organizing the whole of the young people of the General Church for the performance of these uses, others thought that this would not be well, and that it would be better if the work were done locally by the young people of each Society; and that even then the use should be one of the Society.
587
It might be well if each Society had a committee to care for such uses, and that the young people co-operate with the same.
Fear was expressed that the promotion of these uses would draw away financial support from the more interior uses already existing. The new members of the General Church, who are for the most part young people, contribute but little to the uses of the General Church, and if they turn to this work, they may do less. It is important to be careful not to take on new uses which will take away support from those already established. We have made this mistake in the past. We should, of course, not carry this principle too far. It should be our effort to provide for new uses, but still not expand if the central uses thereby become endangered. Nevertheless, it was thought that perhaps the organizing of the young people for the performance of natural charities might be just what is needed to initiate them into the practice of contributing to the Church. They would have a Church use to provide for which strongly appeals to them, and by contributing to it they would learn to give to the Church, and would continue to give. If they were organized for such uses they would feel the responsibility of caring for them, and thus would be initiated into a realization of the responsibility of supporting the uses of the Church.
In the course of the discussion the Orphanage was frequently mentioned, and it was thought by some that it would be useful if there were some kind of an alliance between the Orphanage and our young people.
Saturday Afternoon.
47. It was moved by Mr. N. D. Pendleton that a committee of three be appointed to co-operate with the Bishop in preparing the programme of our next meeting.
Mr. Pendleton said that this committee could also notify the members of the Council of the subjects that would be considered, so that previous thought could be given them.
588
It was suggested that the committee have charge of the banquet, and also provide that the ministers have a social evening for themselves alone, whereby the brotherhood which should exist might be cultivated. The Bishop thought it would be well if the committee could arrange for two days of joint meeting with the Executive Committee.
48. The motion was carried, and the Messrs. Odhner, Price and Synnestvedt were appointed as the Committee.
49. "Memorial Meetings" was the subject next considered.
It was the opinion of most of the ministers that public memorial meetings of the kind we have had in the past, are not always necessary, but should be reserved to commemorate persons more or less distinguished for their activity in the Church. No rule could be established on this subject, however, and should such a meeting be desired in other cases, it could be held either publicly or privately.
Instead of these meetings there could be a funeral service, with an address or a sermon. The Bishop suggested that the service on Eternal Life in the new Liturgy might be used, but that the same service should also be used not infrequently on other occasions; otherwise a sphere would attach itself to it, so that it could not be used except at funerals.
50. The subject next taken up was "The Priest and the Scholar in the New Church. Query: Can the priest be a priest without being a scholar, and can the scholar be a scholar without being a priest?"
Mr. N. D. Pendleton, introducing the subject, said that it stands to reason that a priest should have enough scholarship to make him a useful priest; but it is not necessary that he should be a learned man in order to be a useful priest. The question whether a scholar can be a scholar without being a priest certainly calls for an affirmative answer. As a Newchurchman he would study the principles of Doctrine which bear on his use. But it is not necessary that he should be ordained in order to have illustration in the truths bearing on his calling. Ordination needs to be followed by distinctly priestly work, which is that of salvation of souls, in order that there may be illustration. That work makes a man a priest, and unless a man is in it, ordination brings no illustration.
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There is therefore no need of ordination for the man who intends to devote himself to the field of learning. The learned man and the scientist must be free from certain bonds which are placed upon the priest, and the priesthood should not be under the domination of the methods of thought and work which pertain to the learned.
In the discussion which followed, it was said, in regard to the first part of the query, that a priest ought to be a man learned in many branches. He should be learned in languages, though not necessarily a linguist; learned in science, though not necessarily a scientist; and so on. The Academy is striving to build up a scholarly priesthood, and the more it succeeds in this, the better it will be for the Church. Still it was recognized that there are exceptions to all rules, and that we can conceive of a simple-minded man, having but the rudiments of an education, being quite an able priest. As to the second part of the query it was said that there have been and are now in the Church learned men, not in the priesthood, who have done most valuable work for the Church.
The question was asked whether it is well that laymen, who have made a study of certain subjects in the light of the doctrines, should write books and also otherwise teach the Church. In reply it was said that there is no reason why this should not be done, so long as the man does not set himself up as a public teacher of spiritual truth. We should take a broad view of the doctrine concerning laymen teaching in the Church. Every Newchurchman should be free to bring in the doctrines bearing on his use, when he is giving teaching on that subject, just as the priest is free to make use of worldly learning in his use of teaching spiritual truth. Every New Church scholar should make use of Theology, but should not regard himself as a theological teacher, such as a priest is.
Another question asked was, whether a man can be a New Church teacher, such as a head-master of a school, without being a priest. The answer given was that he could be, and that he could also give religious instruction to a certain extent; but that systematic instruction in Doctrine ought to be imparted by a priest. It is not necessary that a man should be ordained in order to perform the use of head-master in a New Church school.
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Still it is important that such a head-master should be under a pastor, for New Church education is a use of the Church.
51. The Calendar for Reading the Word and the Writings was next considered.
Mr. Doering stated that only from six to twelve calendars are sold in each Society. The most of those having family worship follow a different course of reading. The Bishop, said that another year would complete the reading of those of the Writings published by Swedenborg, and that it does not seem desirable to take up the posthumous works. We must therefore consider whether we shall take up the Writings again from the beginning. He favored a permanent calendar, and had thought it might be embodied in the new Liturgy, but found it would occupy too much space. It would therefore have to be a separate little book. He had arranged a list of thirty general doctrines, and there could be readings under each. The ministers favored this plan; but some thought that the book should not consist merely of references, but that the passages should be printed in it; for if the reading should require using an entire set of the Writings, with passages here and there, it would not be successful.
52. The docket was revised, and the following subjects were retained for the next annual meeting:
Membership in the General Church.
Society organization.
Extension of Parish School work.
Fishermen becoming disciples and the apostleship.
What is spiritual substance?
The reality of appearances in the spiritual world.
The two kingdoms and the three heavens.
The calendar.
Smoking in social meetings.
53. It was Resolved, that the Council desires the pastor of the Pittsburgh Society to express to that Society our thanks for and appreciation of their kind hospitality.
54. On motion, the meeting adjourned.
F. E. WAELCHLI,
Secretary.
591
THE SCHOLARSHIP FUND.
A neat circular has been received from the Academy of the New Church calling on the members of the Church to subscribe to the fund to be devoted to scholarships in the Academy Schools.
There is probably no better opportunity, for those who have the means, to advance the cause of the New Church than in just this matter of the scholarships. For the hope of the Church lies with the young, who can be kept in the fold in but one way, namely, by implanting in them the love of spiritual truth. This is the work of the Academy Schools. The circular points a way in which that work may be promoted. Don't throw it into the waste basket immediately, but consider its contents, and let no one hesitate because he cannot support a whole scholarship. Remember that small amounts sent by many people will aggregate large amounts. What person is there in the
General Church, who has received the inestimable blessing of the spiritual instruction given in the Academy Schools, either himself or his children, does not wish every young person in the Church to receive the same blessing? But there are many whose parents cannot afford to send them to schools away from home. If you help such you will be doing missionary work of a real and practical character.
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Statistics of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1905,
Societies and Circles. Members of Members of Members of Aver. Attend. Aver. Attend. Aver. Attend YP and Births Deaths Deaths Day School Day School SS SS
Local Church GC not members congreg. not at Public worship at Communion at Doct. Class Children Adults Children Teachers Pupils Teach Pupils
Of Local Church Members of GC Including children Year
In The United States.
New York City 17 3 10 8 8 1
Allentown, Pa 10 1 16 9 7
Bryn Athyn, Pa. 96 9 4 135 89 130 8 1 1 5 53
Philadelphia, Pa. 30 24 7 7 1 1 9
Pittsburg, Pa. 107 3 41 62 60 30 92 10 2 1 1 9 2 23
Erie, Pa. 12 10 25 18 8 16 1 1
Baltimore, Md. 18 14 10 7 23 4 4 15
Atlanta, Ga. 14 9 17 6 12
Middleport, O. 44 30 32 20 29 1 4 18
Glenview, Ill. 39 4 5 47 36 36 38 1 1 2 24
Chicago, Ill. 42 5 16 32 25 20 35 3 3 20
Denver, Col. 10
In Canada.
Berlin, Ont. 60 3 19 79 37 42 85 2 1 1 3 42
Toronto, Ont. 50 9 56 37 25 30 2 8
In Great Britain.
London 18 3 6 40 16 14 1 1 1 2 16
Colchester 14 2 45 16 15 2 20
Isolated
Total 551 200 123 638 417 230 512 31 7 6 15 152 16 105
593
NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XXV. OCTOBER, 1905. No. 10.
MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH,
BY C. TH. ODHNER.
HEPHAISTOS--VULCAN.
Hephaistos, the Latin Vulcan, was the god of brawny industry, but especially of the art of working metals by the hammer. Though few temples or altars were raised to him, he was worshiped by all smiths and artisans, and his miniature image stood among the Lares and Penates on the hearth of nearly every house in Greece and Italy.
Vulcan is commonly represented as a bearded, muscular man, with a serious, homely, and somewhat sullen countenance, his unkempt hair curling from beneath the pointed cap on his head; he is usually garbed in the short tunic of a workman, which leaves the brawny right arm bare and free to carry the traditional hammer. The whole figure is somewhat crooked, the left leg being slightly shorter than the right; in general, he presents a somewhat ludicrous appearance, lacking the proper dignity of a god, but in the most ancient representation that we have, on a cylix in the British Museum, he is depicted as a god-like youth, without any deformity whatever, the fitting companion of Minerva who is here assisting him in the creation of Pandora.
The name "Hephaistos," is, like "Vulcan." admittedly of unknown origin. The former, it has been asserted, means "the brightness of the flame," though we have been unable to discover any evidence for this etymology. It is certainly pre-Hellenic in formation, and has a decidedly Semitic appearance, (like Herakles, from Harokel, the Phenician god).
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Vulcan, on the other hand, has been compared to the Sanscrit ulka, a firebrand, but we would suggest, instead, a comparison with the Assyrian yul, the god of the thunderbolt, and also with the Hebrew Tubal-cain. The name Tubal, like his ancestors Jabal and Jubal (Gen. 4:20:22), is a form of the verb Jabhal, to sound, to make a loud noise, and, since b and v are radically one, we have here also the origin of Vul. The name "Cain" means simply "a smith," and we would be obdurate, indeed, were we to refuse recognizing a connection between Vul-can and Tubal-cain, "the instruct-or of every artificer of brass and iron."
The modern interpreters of the "physical" school will have it that Vulcan is simply a personification of fire, elementary and subterranean, and that the history of the god simply describes the production of fire. "Like Vulcan, the spark is small and weak at its birth; like him, it is cast down from heaven in the form of lightning," etc.,--the analogists forgetting that fire, unlike Vulcan, by itself produces nothing but only destroys. As the writer on "Hephaistos" in the Encyclopedia Britannica admits, "though the word Hephaistos is used by Homer in the sense of fire, yet in the Hellenic god no elemental idea is at all prominent. The Hellenic religion had raised itself far above such [merely physical] conceptions of the Divine power, and its gods were moral powers."
If, therefore, we turn from dead naturalism to the living Word of God, from which all religion was proceeded, we shall find the key to the spiritual significance of Vulcan in the same Tubalcain who was mentioned above, and who, as "the constructor of every artificer of brass and iron," signifies "the doctrine of natural good and truth" in the New Church which succeeded the Most Ancient dispensation. (A. C. 421).
By an "artificer" in the Word is signified one who is wise, intelligent and scientific, and here, by "every artificer in brass and iron," is signified those who are acquainted with natural good and truth. (A. C. 424)
A "smith" signifies the same as iron, namely, truth in ultimates, which is mighty and strong. (A. E. 316.)
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But in the opposite sense
"the work of the smith, the artificer and the workman" signifies what ever of doctrine, of religion, and of worship that is from man's self intelligence. (A. E. 585)
Those were represented in ancient times by artificers, who cast idols, or falses, which they adorn with gold, that is, with a semblance of good, and with silver, or an appearance of truth. (A. C. 424.)
According to Homer, Hephaistos was the younger son of Zeus and Hera, but according to Hesiod he was the son of Hera alone, the goddess having vowed that as Zeus produced a daughter, Athene, out of his own head, so could she, by her own power, beget and bring forth a son. This curious myth seems to mean that as the Divine doctrine of spiritual good and truth springs immediately from the Divine Wisdom itself, so the human doctrine of natural good and truth is the product of the Church, acting as of itself,--or, in the evil sense, it springs from the self intelligence of the perverted Church. Hephaistos, like all the other pagan gods, may thus be interpreted in an evil as well as a good sense; and we often find him associated with Athene, sometimes co-operating, sometimes contending with her: the doctrine of natural good and truth may be turned either into harmony with or opposition to the spiritual doctrine.
One story has it that he was born ugly and lame, and that Hera in disgust flung the poor little creature out of Olympus. Another legend states it was Zeus who thrust him out, because he had attempted to interfere in one of the numerous quarrels between the royal partners; he fell through space for a night and day, until he finally struck the earth on the island of Lemnos; on striking he slightly injured his left leg, leaving him permanently lame and halting. This, also, is in fitting correspondence to Hephaistos with the doctrine of natural good and truth, which, being merely natural, has no place among the celestial and spiritual truths and goods of Heaven. Being natural, moreover, Hephaistos also represent those who are in simple good, such as gentiles and the good but ignorant people within the Church, who in the Word are called "lame" and "halting."
The "lame" signify those who are in good, but not in genuine good, on account of their ignorance of truth. (A. C. 4302.)
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By "the lame" in the proper sense are signified those who are in natural good, into which spiritual truths cannot inflow, on account of natural appearances and the fallacies of the senses. (Ibid.)
As the right leg represents the will-faculty, and the left the faculty of the understanding, Hephaistos is represented as halting on the left leg, that is, his intelligence is shorter than his willingness to work and be of use to gods and man.
Usefulness is the chief characteristic of Vulcan, and use resides in and depends upon ultimates. In the Iliad, when Thetis comes to see him, she finds him "busy, covered with sweat, limping from anvil to anvil, for he is forging at once twenty tripods which are to decorate the outer walls of his firm-built palace" (18:372). His forge or iron-furnace signifies the good will in which burns the fire or love of performing uses. The hammer and anvil signify the reasonings and confirmations by means of which the brass and iron, or goods and truths of the natural, are made strong and coherent and are fashioned into useful and intelligible shape.
"Is not my Word like unto a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" (Jer. 23:29.) For fire signifies the good of love, and a hammer signifies the truth of faith; for a hammer has a like signification to iron, and iron signifies the truth in ultimates and the truth of faith. (A. E. 411.)
A "hammer" signifies coherence, made by means of confirmation, (A. E. 458); and, in the opposite sense, ingenious reasonings from falsities, so that they may appear to cohere. (A. E. 386.)
All the celestial and spiritual things of Heaven and of the whole spiritual world are formed in and by the ultimate natural. It is in the natural world that our mind and spiritual character are formed, and after death remain fixed in that form, and every thought or affection is similarly shaped and fashioned in and by the natural alone. And therefore it was Vulcan, and he alone, who built the palaces and manufactured the household furnishings of the gods; he it was that forged the thunderbolts of Jove, the darts of Cupid, the throne of Hellos, the crown of Ariadne, the girdle of Venus, the armor of Achilles and the shield of Hercules. And it was his sturdy arm and heavy ax which cleft open the head of Jove in order to let Minerva spring forth into the light of day, full grown and glistening with golden helmet, shield and spear.
597
Minerva is the spiritual doctrine of good and truth, but this doctrine is to be drawn from the fountain-head of Divine Wisdom,--by means of the genuine doctrine of the letter of the Word,--in other words, by the doctrine of natural good and truth. To illustrate: the whole Word is full of the spiritual doctrine of the New Church concerning the Lord. But this doctrine is hidden in the letter, until opened and revealed by means of a genuine natural understanding of such teachings as "I and the Father are one;" "he that seeth Me, seeth the Father." Hephaistos is variously reported as having married Eos, Aphrodite, or Aglaia, the youngest of the three Graces, but the most common tradition gives him Aphrodite for wife, even as Wieland, the German Vulcan, (who figures as "Wayland Smith" in Scott's Kenilworth), married the beautiful "Swan-maiden." Discarding the scandalous interpolation respecting the adultery of Venus and Mars, we find this union of Vulcan and Venus highly significant, representing, we think, the union of Conjugial Love with the Love of Use.
Each one has conjugial love, with its virtue, power, and deliciousness, according to his application to the genuine use in which he is. (C. L. 207.)
In proportion as anyone loves to be wise for the sake of genuine use, in the same proportion he is in the vein and potency of conjugial love. Use effects this. (C. L. 183.)
598
GREAT LOVE. PENDLETON 1905
A SERMON
"If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love." John xv. 10.
In order that heaven might be conjoined with the human race, it was necessary that the Lord should come into the world, perform the work of Redemption, glorify His Human, and establish a New Church. For a church is necessary in order that this conjunction may exist,--a church where the Word is read and understood, where the Lord is known and worshiped, and where there is a life of obedience to the commandments of the Decalogue.
Redemption, glorification, and the establishment of a church, are necessary that there may be conjunction, that heaven may be present, and angels and men dwell together as brethren; so that we the younger may dwell with our elder brothers, inspired by their love, and guided by their wisdom, which we may receive and make our own, and live as if from ourselves.
But disjunction had taken place; first, because men had become persuaded of the absence and remoteness of the spiritual world. It was far away in some distant point of space. Men lived by and from themselves, or so they thought. God was Omnipresent, but there was no presence of the spiritual world; and even the Omnipresence of God was seen but as a dim and distant vision.
Disjunction had taken place, secondly, because men had turned away from God and lived a life of evil; and then, indeed, the spiritual world, or heaven, was far away,--not in space but in state; for men dwelt with evil spirits, and were thus as far away from God as hell is from heaven. And although the internal state of man was evil, and distant from heaven, still there was conjunction with heaven by externals, and heaven was present in the external worship of the Jewish nation.
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By this there was still some internal conjunction of heaven with a few of mankind, mostly in gentile lands.
Love is the means by which the human race is conjoined with heaven, love is that conjunction itself, love to the Lord which is at the same time love to the neighbor. And baptism is the means by which the human race is disjoined from heaven; hatred is that disjunction itself,--hatred of the Lord which is at the same time hatred of the neighbor.
The decline of all celestial and spiritual love before the coming of the Lord, and the rise of the love of self, or hatred, was the cause of the disjunction of the human race from heaven, and was that which made it necessary for the Lord to come into the world.
The coming of the Lord was the coming of Love into the world, where love was not, or where love had nearly ceased to be,--a world frozen and dead, with only here and there an oasis in the icy desert of human life.
The Lord revealed Himself as Love; and revealed that which had become unknown,--that man himself is love, or must become love, must become like the: Lord, in order to be a man; that is, he must love the neighbor as himself; or, if he would rise to the full measure of a man, ii he would be like God, in His image and likeness, he must love the neighbor more than self. This was the Lord's love, and this love from Him is the love that reigns in heaven, especially in the inmost or third heaven. Therefore, He said to His disciples, "This is My commandment, that we love one another as I have loved you."
This is the Love that came into the world, the love of the neighbor more than self. This was new and this was the new commandment that was given,--to love the neighbor more than self.
The natural man can see and grasp to a certain extent the possibility of loving the neighbor as oneself; but he toes not know, nor understand, nor believe, that there is such a thing as loving the neighbor more than self; and so he does not know the Lord who came and revealed Himself to man as Love; does not comprehend that the Lord did not come into the world for the sake of Himself, or for His own glory,-does not understand that the Lord came solely that man might be saved and live in happiness forever.
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The love of the neighbor as oneself involves a consideration of the esteem one is to receive for a good done to another. This may be of evil; the evil do this with one another; or it may arise from a judgment of what is just and right between man and man. If this exists, then there is something of good in it, and it constitutes what is called the spiritual love of the neighbor, or the love of the neighbor with those who are spiritual--the love of the neighbor as oneself. But with the celestial there is more than this; they do not love the neighbor as themselves, for there is no thought with them of a return for the good that is done, but only of the good or the use that is done, a love that is spontaneous and full, a love that is unconscious of self. Hence the celestial are likenesses of the Lord.
This love in its infinite fulness, this Divine Love, is that which glorified the Human of the Lord, made it Divine, like unto itself; and then Love was in the world; a love that had been unknown for ages, a love that is hardly yet known to men. Still it exists, or may exist with some; and when the Human of the Lord was glorified, conjunction with the human race was re-established, and the love which existed in the Golden Age might again he with men,--the love which is to establish a church to endure forever.
A church must be established in which this love shall reign as its universal,--a love that is Divine present with men, a love that is celestial, the image of the Divine; a love that is spiritual, or accommodated to those who may not be celestial, and yet may be saved; a love that is spiritual-natural; a love accommodated to the simple and children, that they also may he saved; a love which universally reigns; a love of the neighbor more than self; a love that begins and ever progresses by the keeping of the commandments; a love that ever lives and grows upon this as its basis and foundation; love which upon this basic is to conjoin the human race to heaven; a love which is to conjoin heaven with the Lord; a love Divine which united the Human of the Lord with His Divine,--all upon the basis of the commandments kept and done. And hence the Lord said to His disciples, "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in His love."
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There was no love, no conjunction with heaven, but disjunction, because the commandments were not kept. Only by the keeping of the commandments there is love. For the law is supreme, as given by the Lord: "He that keepeth My commandments, he it is that loveth Me." And the ability to keep the commandments was well-nigh gone; for man cannot keep the commandments unless he be associated with good spirits, who have kept them in the world, and are still keeping them. . . At the time of the Lord's coming evil spirits held possession of the world of spirits and of the ultimate heaven, which exhibits to view the straits in which men were. To this extent the contention of the old theology is true, that man was unable to keep the commandments. He was unable then, and would have continued to be unable, until the extinction of the human race would have been the result, if the Lord had not come into the world, and by redemption and glorification of His Human, restored the power to keep the commandments, by making it possible for man to be associated with good spirits in his efforts to obey the Divine Laws. That he was unable is true, but that he is now unable to keep the commandments is not true. The power to keep them was restored by the Lord, because He kept them Himself, and in keeping them united His Human to the Divine, and thus brought both loves to the human race, and with love, conjunction with heaven for all who are both hearers and doers of the law. "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love."
Without the keeping of the commandments, there is disjunction; there was disjunction then, and there is disjunction now, to all who do not keep them. It was impossible then for the commandments to be kept by those who were disjoined from heaven, and nearly all were so disjoined: and it is impossible now for the commandments to be kept by those who are disjoined from heaven. The difference is, that it is possible now to be conjoined with heaven, to be conjoined with good spirits: but this was hardly possible then. Hence the Lord came and kept the law, and in keeping the law effected the work of Redemption, and glorified His Human, thus making it possible for us to live in Him and He in us, by the truth of His Word.
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Celestial love was restored, and thus love in all its degrees of accommodation,--celestial love the love of the neighbor more than self, being the universal of all, which the Lord indicated to His disciples when He said to them, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another as I have loved you." And also when He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John xv. 13.) And that such a love is possible to man. He also indicated in the words which He added: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." The fact that such a love is possible to man is indicated in the giving of the new commandment itself for a merciful God commands nothing to man that cannot be fulfilled by him. The fact of the commandment carries the power to keep it, every truth seen and acknowledged has within it the power of its own fruition in the life of man.
The celestial angels are in this love: and we read that their love is such that they are willing to endure the torments of hell to save a single soul. Not that they are willing to become hell in order to save a soul,-for there would be anything but saving efficacy in this,--but they are willing to suffer the torments of hell, if they could thereby save a single human being.
The Lord Himself suffered the torments of hell that He might save men; such torments as surpass all imagination or conception. We may not know the nature of such torments because we do not know the nature of such love; but we may know that there is such love, and therefore that there was such suffering, for so we are told. But the celestial angel has known in his life on earth the nature of the torments of hell to the full extent of merely human endurance, for he has known a love that no other man knows; and so he may have some faint knowledge, as from far, of what the Lord had to endure in his work of Mercy for the human race.
The utter and complete self-renunciation of the Lord in His Human, in His war with the hells, no human language can describe, because the human understanding cannot compass it.
Still we may know that there must be on the part of man a self-renunciation that is humanly complete, if we are to keep the new commandment, if we are to keep the commandments and abide in the Lord's love, even as he kept His Father's commandments, and abode in His love.
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And if there must be such self-renunciation on the part of man, what must it have been on the part of the Lord in His Human, whose inmost was the Divine Love itself?
We are told that the Lord during His life in the world, from early infancy to the passion of the Cross, waged a continual warfare with the hells, until He finally overcame them all, and none dared rise up against Him; but that in this continual combat His Human, not yet made Divine, suffered unspeakable torment, which only the man who suffers a little something of a similar torment in the combats of regeneration, can in any manner comprehend.
The Lord did not fight to become the ruler of the universe for the sake of His own glory, or from anything whatever of self-love; He did not fight to become the greatest in heaven, nor even that He might become the least, but only that every man might have some portion there and thus be saved. (A. C. 1812.) What was the glory and fame of the world to Him? What concern to Him was the applause of men? He might have received if He had so willed,--if we call possibly conceive the thought,--a greater triumph in the streets of Rome than and conqueror of the world, but what was this to Him? He rather preferred calumny, and abuse, buffeting and scourging, and the ignominious death of the cross, if thereby He could achieve the end of His coming, which was the salvation of men.
Man in his finite measure is to be like the Lord. He is not to regard the glory and fame of the world, the applause of men, the flattering opinion of others, but solely the end in view, which is use to his fellow man. To accomplish this he must be willing to endure the torments of hell, to suffer a total loss of the commendation and approval of the world, to enter into a self-denial, a self-abnegation, an utter self-renunciation in the cause of truth, of justice, and of use; to be willing to endure all and suffer all for the sake of the Lord and His Kingdom, to be willing never to be known in the result which is accomplished. In the other world doubtless we shall find that some of the world's greatest heroes have never been known to history, men that have accomplished the most for the good of the human race,--or if known have been known only to be misunderstood and maligned.
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But what of this to them? The end has been accomplished, and this is their reward. Internal or regenerating men, the truly great men of the world, must expect to be misunderstood, because the truth which they represent is misunderstood. Are they greater than the truth which they represent? "Is the disciple above his Master, or the servant above his Lord? It is enough for the disciple that he be as His Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more those of His household?" (Matthew x. 24, 25.) And the Master saith, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I spoke unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." (John 16 xv. 18-20.)
It is known that great themes and great men present paradoxes. Great themes and great men are therefore misunderstood. Great themes can stand being misunderstood, for their triumph in the end is sure. And a great man will not he concerned about being misunderstood, for he is not above his Master and Lord, who was misunderstood and hated by all the world; and yet He triumphed over death and hell, and saved the life of the world, though the world knew it not, and knows it not, and the world as the world will never know or applaud the doing. But of what concern is this, since the thing is done? And yet some may know, and all may know, and bow in humble acknowledgment, if they will. The angels know and all the truly great will know, and humble themselves in the dust of acknowledgment before the supreme work accomplished by Him who is Supreme and over all, and will themselves become great in the knowing and in the doing. The natural man knows nothing of the supreme joy of self-renunciation, of the great happiness and reward that comes to him who looks solely to the end to be accomplished, and not to self or the world; he does not know of that greatest of all delights which comes to him who works unknown, unhonored and unsung, with an eye single to the use which is his one and only end; and who with the use accomplished is willing to remain unknown, to have his personality effaced, eliminated, in the result.
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To accomplish the end he is willing to be the least in the kingdom of heaven, and hardly that, if he would be as his Master and his Lord.
The point of interest for us here is, that it is this complete self-abnegation that it to build the Church; and the real Church, the real New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, does not begin until this total self-renunciation is established as the centre of its life.
And it all begins in the keeping of the commandments,--the keeping of the commandments for the sake of the commandments, and from no other motive whatsoever. It is possible for every man to keep the commandments; yea, it is possible, and it is easy. The Lord has kept them. For this He came into the world, for this He suffered the torments of hell; for this He endured all things even to the passion of the cross. And what the Lord in His Human did, man can do in his finite measure. For has He not said, "If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love?" Amen.
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WILLIAM HENRY BENADE. C. TH. ODHNER 1905
A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH
III. THE CONFLICT IN THE PHILADELPHIA FIRST SOCIETY.
The pastoral work of Mr. Benade in connection with the Philadelphia First Society, from 1845 to 1854, had been very successful. The Sunday School was in a flourishing condition,* a great many converts had been gained from the Old Church, and most of the members of the Philadelphia.
* Mr. Benade at this time also conducted a private day school, concerning which, however, we possess but little information.
Second or "Southwark" Society,--formed by the Rev. Manning B. Roche in 1823 but abandoned by him in 1842,--had united with the Society which so greatly prospered under Mr. Benade's efficient ministrations. The room in which the Society had conducted its services ever since 1842, ("Simmon's Lecture Room," 802 Locust Street), was becoming inadequate for the uses of the Church, and the Society now began to take steps to erect a temple of its own. But at this time a change of state was taking place, both with the Society and with the pastor, leading to unlooked-for troubles.
As has been stated before, Mr. Benade, in the beginning of his pastorate, was in a certain degree of sympathy with the democratic or self-styled "liberal" elements,--the "Quaker elements," as he afterwards termed them,--and their worldly and leveling principles. He himself gives the story of his change of mind in the preface to his Resignation Sermon of 1854, from which we quote the following:
There was a time when we, in our ministerial capacity, gave countenance and support to these principles, and to their application to the government of the Church, even though we never held them, in the entire sense and extent to which they are carried by the radical leaders of the movement which has brought disunion and disruption into the First Society of this city.
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In our connection with the Central Convention, as well as in the first period of our connection with the First Philadelphia Society, we acted with those who denied the trine in the ministry, and the representative nature of that office, and thus gave aid and support to those who were engaged in opposing and rendering vain the efforts of our elder and superior brethren in the ministry, to establish an orderly church government on true principles. Herein we did great wrong, to the Lord, to His Church, and to our brethren. And whilst we freely and cordially acknowledge our wrong and error, we also acknowledge our belief, that the Lord, who has enabled us to see this, has permitted the late events, which have taken place in the First Society, to occur, in order that others may learn to see this matter in the same light, and that we too might have an opportunity to do what little lies in our power to repair our wrong, by such acts of repentance as shall lead to the development of order and truer states in ourselves, and in those who may be led through our words to see and know what are "the doctrines of the Church, derived from the Word, and to live according to those doctrines."
Our change of view, in regard to the principles involved in the questions between the society and ourselves, has been gradual. Soon after our coming into reception of the doctrines of the Church, we were led into the midst of the discussion on the question of a trine in the ministry. For any truly rational consideration of this subject, we were not at all prepared. Our reading of the doctrines was but that of a mere tyro, though we imagined that we had taken large draughts at the very fountain head of spiritual intelligence. In this unfortunate delusion we were, for a while, strengthened by finding ourselves in agreement with men much older in the Church, and generally respected for their wisdom; whilst we were, at the same time, impelled towards the same point, by the promptings of our merely natural love of freedom, which rebelled against the earnest zeal for the welfare of the Church manifested by our elder and wiser brethren, in their efforts to establish a true and orderly ecclesiastical government. We resisted the pressure of the intellectual force brought to bear upon us, by depriving it of a fulcrum whereon to rest, and taking a middle ground in the questions under discussion. We were not willing or ready either to affirm or deny, and retired behind the position of inability to see the truth of the doctrines which were affirmatively maintained. To us, in the state in which we were at that time, it appeared as if there were an effort, on the other side, to compel acquiescence in, or acknowledgment of, the doctrines advocated, which it was our bounden duty to resist, whilst, at the same time, we observed a tendency on our part to confirm ourselves against those doctrines, before we had given them a thorough examination, in the light of the Word and the Church, which me were under no less obligation to resist. And thus it happened, that we came to the resolution, to suffer all examination of these questions to rest, until such time as, our natural feelings having been quieted, we should be able to come to it with an open and free mind, having a bias neither the one way, nor the other, but seeking truth only for the sake of truth.
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This resolution it was permitted us to adhere to; and it is in consequence of an examination made under these circumstances, that we have come to the convictions which we now hold, in regard to these questions of Church order, which have been the ground of our action, and which are the subject of this publication.
In other words, Mr. Benade at this time, (1854), had begun to crystalize in his mind those universal principles of New Church Doctrine, which later on became known as the "Academy principles." while a majority in the Philadelphia First Society had developed in the very opposite direction. When, therefore, the Society at length found itself in a condition to undertake the building of a temple, the pastor, in the exercise of what he regarded to be a function of his office, proposed certain plans for the building and its interior arrangements, which appeared to him to accord with the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines. His propositions appeared acceptable, at first, to the Society, but subsequently an opposition was raised to the design, "directed openly, on the part of some, against the erection of a school-house in connection with the temple, and quietly, on the part of others, against the interior arrangement of the building, as savoring of priest-craft and Romish observances. Though instruction was given from the Word and the Writings of the Church, by the minister, no heed was taken of that instruction: the opposition proved successful, and the plan was overthrown." (Resignation Sermon, p. 12). Another plan was adopted, and Mr. Benade was invited to lay the corner-stone, but refused on being informed that it was to be placed in the north-west angle of the building, his refusal being based not only on the significance of that angle, (corresponding to the ignorance and obscurity of truth), but also and especially upon the manifest unwillingness of the Building Committee to be guided by spiritual Principles. The Society, indeed, at a special meeting, ordered that the services of a New Church clergyman should be procured for the performance of the ceremony, and that the whole question of building with a reference to representatives, should be discussed at a meeting to be held a week subsequently.
At the ensuing meeting, however, the committee coolly and calmly reported that they had, that very morning, placed the corner-stone in the north-west angle of the building, (cor. of Broad and Brandywine Streets), and without the services of any clergyman whatever,--to show their independence of all ministers,--and this high-handed action was, strange to say, sanctioned by the meeting, by a vote of eleven to five.
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Mr. Benade then handed in his resignation of the pastorate, which was accepted, and, one Sunday in September, 1854, preached his famous Resignation Sermon, in which he went fully and frankly into the history of the case, and into the Doctrine and Order of the Church, which had been denied and violated,--ending with the striking quotation: "Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it; except the Lord guard the city, the watchman waketh in vain."
IV. THE CHURCH AND THE SCHOOL IN CHERRY STREET.
Being now open to other engagements, Mr. Benade was invited to become the "general agent" for the Urbana University, (established in 1850), but this invitation he declined on the ground that, even if he possessed the abilities and inclinations to enter into a semi-secular office, he could not, as he states in a letter to the Rev. J. P. Stuart, "conscientiously employ them for your institution, before it had assumed such a form of order, by the introduction of a distinctive and fully expressed New Church religious and theological element, and a proper arrangement of its government and course of studies, so as to develop this element,--which I could confidently and honestly recommend to the patronage of societies and members of the Church throughout the land." Moreover, as he states in the same letter, "circumstances have arisen in this city, which seem to indicate plainly that it is my duty to remain in Philadelphia, in order to give my humble aid in carrying out the principles of order to which I have become committed by an entire conviction of their Divine truth, and such as can alone promote the real welfare of the Lord's Church on earth."
For these principles of order, and Mr. Benade as their exponent, were by no means without some adherents in the Philadelphia First Society, and these adherents now resigned from membership in that society, and, on October 27, 1854, held their first meeting in order to organize "a New Association for Worship, in the city of Philadelphia.
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Among the participants of this new movement we notice the names of Richard De Charms, L. C. Iungerich, F. E. Boericke, Rudolph Tafel, Dr. David Cowley, N. C. Burnham, David Powell, and E. F. Glenn, who, on November 16th, formed themselves into a distinct society of the New Church, with Mr. Benade as minister. Other members, formerly connected with the Philadelphia First Society, gradually united with the new body, which, on April 16, 1856, adopted a constitution for "the Philadelphia Society of the New Jerusalem." The choice of this name was much criticized because apparently ignoring the existence of the other New Church societies in the same city, but Mr. Benade and his friends had no such idea in mind, the name being chosen because of its literal meaning and spiritual correspondence,--that of "Brotherly Love."
The new constitution was "based upon the principle, that all organizations of the Church should: have as their end and object, or as what is primary and essential to them, charity, and not piety, and not charity in general, but some specific use of charity, which is a good in act;. . .and inasmuch as, from the beginning, we elected the use of education to be our society's specific use of charity,--we felt it to be our duty at once to proceed to the selection and purchase of a lot for the erection of a school house wherein to carry out the chief end and object of our social union and organization." (From the Report of the Society in the Journal of the General Convention for 1858, p. 57) The lot purchased was the north-east corner of Cherry and Claymont Streets, (just above Friedlander Street), and the building, which was planned as far as feasible according to correspondences and representatives, was completed in December, 1856, and dedicated on September 20, 1857. (A lengthy and interesting account of the temple and the dedicatory services will be found in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin for September 21. 1857. We learn from it that the minister was supported entirely by voluntary contributions, collected at the Sunday services.)
Here, then, on January 12, 1857, Mr. Benade opened the New Church day school, which was the direct forerunner of the present schools of the Academy of the New Church.
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It is of interest to learn as much as possible about this pioneer of New Church education. We quote the following from the contemporary advertisement of the School in the New Jerusalem Messenger for 1857, p. 63:
This School, established by the Philadelphia Society of the New Jerusalem, is under the charge of the Pastor of that Society, assisted by Prof. Leonhard Tafel, late of Urbana University, O., and others. Whilst especial attention will be paid, in the conduct of this institution, to the cherishing and development of right and good affections in the scholars, it is designed to give to the instructions imparted a distinctly New Church character, to cultivate a thorough acquaintance with the Word and the Doctrines of the New Church, and to present all natural science and knowledge to the mind of the learner, in the light of these Doctrines. Preparations are being made for the erection of gymnastic apparatus, in connection with the school. Terms, for scholars over ten years of age, $50.00 per session of ten months; for those under that age, $25.00 per session. Scholars from a distance may obtain boarding, at a reasonable rate, in a New Church family, and will be under the especial supervision of the superintendent and teachers of the school.
We quote, further, from the Society's report to the General Convention in 1858:
At the commencement of the present session, in September last, the superintendent received most valuable aid in his labors by the removal of Dr. Leonhard Tafel to Philadelphia, and from the generously volunteered services of Miss Keller, of Baltimore; and the school is now approaching the close of the session, with thirty-seven scholars, who are instructed by four teachers; another young lady. [Miss A. Gosewisch], from Wilmington, Del., having been added to their numbers during the course of the year: besides which it has the benefit of the valuable and kindly volunteered services of Dr. Cowley in teaching vocal music, and of Mr. Herman Faber in drawing and designing.
It has been the endeavor of those who have had the charge of this institution to carry out as faithfully and fully as possible the purpose of the Society in its establishment by giving to it a distinctively New Church character and form. To this end the scholars receive daily instruction in the Word and in the Doctrines of the Church; and such of them as are sufficiently advanced are also instructed in the Hebrew language and required to commit to memory a portion of the Word in the original. In addition to this, the truths or the New Church are applied wherever a suitable opening occurs in the course of the scientific instruction which the scholars receive; and an effort is made to lead them to a perception of the great fact that these truths underlie the whole fabric of human knowledge, and are as necessary to the infilling of all forms of knowledge and science with genuine light, as they are to the imparting of vital power and energy to all the forms of human life.
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Very imperfect and entirely experimental as the mode of instruction in this important particular has necessarily been, it is yet believed that if carefully carried out, with a constant looking to the Lord for the needed wisdom and power, it will ultimately be productive of lasting good results, by thoroughly grounding the children of the Society and of other members of the Church in the Heavenly Doctrines, as well as by introducing them to the minds of those who have been intrusted to us by others, not members of the Church. And the Society cannot leave this subject without expressing the hope that the whole Church may speedily come to an active recognition of its vital importance; and by united efforts labor towards the accomplishment of that which can be but feebly and imperfectly done by the small number now engaged in the use.
From Mr. Benade's annual report to the Philadelphia Society in 1858, we learn that the School opened, on January 12, 1857, with fourteen scholars,--ten boys and four girls, which number, by June 1st, had increased to twenty-seven. The next term there were twenty-nine pupils, and on September 6, 1858, there were thirty-five in regular attendance. The superintendent continues as follows:
I am fully aware of the many imperfections of the course of instruction, as to systematic arrangement; as well as of the fact that it falls very far short of what a New Church course of instruction ought to be, and what it will undoubtedly become, when experience and the co-operation of many minds in the use, shall have prepared the means and appliances for the development of a higher system and better methods. We are now laboring under the disadvantages which all pioneers in a new undertaking must expect to encounter and which flow from the circumstance that they are pioneers, who labor under the necessity of opening the way and preparing the ground for those who are to follow. What we are doing partakes greatly of the character of experiment, in the course of which we find ourselves constantly under the necessity of falling back upon so much of the result of the labors of others in the department of teaching as we can make use of for our purpose. We call thus only slowly gather the materials, in our experience, for the construction of a new system, better adapted to the attainment of the end designed, but which it may require a long time to prepare for, develop, and bring into such a state as to make it usefully applicable. As an instance of the difficulty of harmonizing our means with our end, we notice the want of text-books by which to teach science as it appears to us it should be taught to the children of the New Church.
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We are under the necessity of taking the best of those which are now in common use, and of adapting them, as we go along, by explanations, and otherwise, to the wants of the children. Undoubtedly there is a wise permission of the Divine in this also, as in all other conditions which seem ill and unpleasant to us. We are probably not yet in a state to make a proper use of any other means of instruction, and need the discipline which this state of transition and preparation affords us. And, in this view of the matter, we cannot complain of our disadvantage, but should rather be thankful that it is permitted us to labor for the coming of a better time and state, and to make preparation for the further advancement and improvement of those who are to come after us. Indeed, we have reason to be thankful that the Lord has enabled us, so far, to conduct this experiment of the establishment of a New Church School, having for its end the instruction and education of children and youth in the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, and in all science and knowledge in the light of those Heavenly Doctrines.
Looking to the future, however, with the experience of the past, and endeavoring to take that wise forecast of our labors for the attainment of our end, which it becomes us as prudent men to take, the difficulties connected with the conduct of the instruction of the school are not those which would seem to darken the prospect of the success of our undertaking. They are of a different, and apparently more external nature.
The object of the establishment of our school, which is the provision of such a course of instruction for our children and youth as shall render it unnecessary for them to be sent to other schools, out of our connection, to receive their education, even in higher branches, requires the employment of means, which involve a very considerable outlay of money. Hitherto the school has not sustained itself, by the returns made in the form of tuition fees; and it was not to be expected that it should so sustain itself, especially as a considerable proportion of the scholars, being children of members of the Society, were by its constitution not liable for the amount of the tuition charges made to others not connected with the Society. But the conditions upon which the school could be carried on under these circumstances cannot be expected to continue. The teachers, who are engaged in the active performance of the chief use of the society, cannot be expected to perform this use without that remuneration, which will enable them so to provide for their necessary wants as to be in a condition to labor in their calling. They will, we doubt not, be found ready to contribute their full share of the sacrifice which an undertaking of this nature, under existing circumstances, necessarily calls for; but it would be disorderly and destructive of the end designed, to ask or even permit them to bear a large part or nearly the whole of the burden of the sacrifice.
In spite of the inadequate financial support, and with hardly any encouragement from the Church at large, the School in Cherry Street struggled along quite successfully for a few years, the attendance in February, 1859, being thirty-six pupils; and in February, 1861, twenty-seven.
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At the end of the spring term of 1861, however, the School was suspended "in consequence of the general depression under which the community is now suffering," [owing to the breaking out of the Civil War], "but a private school, of which Mr. Barnes is principal, is now established in our school room." (From the Society's Report to the Pennsylvania Association, in August, 1861.)
Brief as was the existence of this School, it nevertheless served some important uses. Not only did it serve to raise up some faithful and valued members of the Church, who in later years entered into the work of the Academy and of the General Church, but it implanted deeply in the conscience of a number of New Church people in Philadelphia and elsewhere the sense of the importance, the necessity, the duty, and also the possibility of New Church education. And, finally, as a first experimental effort, it served as an invaluable training-school for Mr. Benade himself, the results of which training we are enjoying at this day in the Academy Schools. I may mention, also, that the Academy inherited from it not only the building on Cherry Street, which became the Academy's first home and real property, but also the fixtures and furnitures of that early School,--its tables and benches, books, book-cases. etc. (We possess most of these things still, and they served the Academy well in its first years of infantile existence.) We may, therefore, look back with interest and gratitude upon that little School in Cherry Street as the very first altar upon which was kindled the "sacred flame" of love for New Church Education. It was the mother of our own beloved Academy Schools; it was,--if you please,--the venerable "Alma Avia"--of the sons and daughters of the Academy.
V. RAISING THE STANDARD OF THE DIVINE AUTHORITY.
We may now return to Mr. Benade's more general activity in the Church after his resignation from the Philadelphia First Society. On June 21, 1854, we find him: present, again as a visitor, at the General Convention held in Portland, Me., but he does not appear to have taken any part in the proceedings.
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In December, 1855, he and the Rev. N. C. Burnham sent out a circular to the Church at large, calling for a "General Assembly" of the New Church, to be held on June 19, 1856, in order to form a new General Body of the Church, based on the distinct recognition of the Divine Authority of the Writings as "the Lord's teachings and not man's," on the acknowledgment of the trinal order of the priesthood and of the complete distinctiveness of the New Church, and having in view "the establishment and, maintenance of a university for the literary, scientific, moral and religious instruction and education of young men for the ministry and for instructors of schools, and for the higher education of youth in general." It will thus be seen that the proposers were aiming at the formation of such a general body of the Church as our present General Church of the New Jerusalem, and at such an educational institution as the Academy.
This proposition, to organize the New Church de novo, in this country, received little encouragement, but plenty of criticism and ridicule, and Mr. Benade, therefore, came to the conclusion that it would be best to unite with the only general body of the Church then existing in America, that is, the General Convention. He attended the Convention held in Philadelphia in 1856, and the following year he, as a minister, and the Philadelphia Society, as a body, became organically connected with the Convention. On April 5, 1858 he became a member also of the Pennsylvania Association, and was at once elected Vice-President--the Rev. Thomas Willis being the President. His first motion, made at this meeting of the Association, was a significant one: "That the President of this Association be its General Missionary,"--an idea inherited from the Central Convention, and looking towards the General Pastorate, or an Episcopacy.
In June, 1858, he attended the General Convention held in Boston, and was there elected "member-at-large" of the Committee on Ecclesiastical Affairs. In the Committee itself, he was elected Secretary, and as such it became his duty, or fate, to present to the Convention, year after year, many resolutions adopted by that Committee, which looked towards greater order and recognition of the priestly office, but which were generally voted down or "laid on the table" by the Convention itself.
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Among these "shelved" resolutions was the proposition that ministers, in the performance of their priestly duties, should wear official robes, (tabled in 1859), and the motion that the President and Vice-President of the Convention should be priests qualified to fill those offices, (tabled in 1863).
In the course of a general missionary tour through the State of Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1859, Mr. Benade, on July 24th, paid a visit to the newly organized Society in Pittsburgh,* where he "thought he could perceive a very strong increase of interest, as manifested in a most pleasant and devout sphere during worship, and in an evident desire to take a more active share in the doing of the general uses of the Church. So important a point as Pittsburgh," he continues in his report of the visit, "ought to have the stated and regular services of a minister; but, since the Society appears to be as yet too weak to maintain one, some provision ought to be made by the Pennsylvania Association to afford them a more frequent supply of such services, and to enable the missionary visiting them to remain several weeks at a time, both for the purpose of lecturing, and becoming acquainted with the members and with others who are approaching the Church."
* His first visit to Pittsburgh took place in May, 1853, when he baptized fifteen persons.
Though the Association was too weak, financially, to assist in this proposed arrangement, the Pittsburgh Society, during the year 1860, managed to secure four visits from Mr. Benade. As the School of the Philadelphia Society was suspended in 1861, and as the affairs of that Society, became increasingly embarrassed, while the resources of the Pittsburgh Society were constantly growing, Mr. Benade for a couple of years divided his time equally between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, until, on October 10, 1864, he resigned his former charge, and accepted the pastorate of the promising New Church Society in the growing city of the West where grimy Vulcan had fixed his permanent abode.
We have, thus far, traced the story of Mr. Benade's earlier labors as a pastor and educator, but must now turn our attention to his work in the still higher field of New Church Theology.
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As we have seen, Divine Providence as well as his own inclinations had led him into association with men such as Richard De Charms, David Powell, Thomas Wilks, and N. C. Burnham, who at that period were, without question, the ablest, soundest, and most profound theologians in the New Church, and who became Mr. Benade's spiritual instructors. He did not, however, long remain a mere pupil, but, by his own immense and tireless study of the Writings, and by the priestly gift of illustration which he enjoyed in a supereminent degree, he soon became he leader of thought in the small band of earnest men who were upholding and advancing the standard of sound, interior theology in the Church. Foremost among the principles for which these men had stood, from the days of Robert Hindmarsh to those of Richard De Charms, was the doctrine of "The Authority of the Writings," to the development of which each one had contributed his share. The growth of this doctrine had been gradual. At the very beginning of the New Church a few had recognized that the Writings were a Divine Revelation and not the product of human genius. Little by little men began to realize what was involved in this claim that the Writings are a Divine Revelation, and battle after battle was fought--for a period of some fifty years--against those who would reduce the Heavenly Doctrine to the level of merely human doctrine.
The little troop of champions never gave way, but after each battle occupied more advanced ground. It was proved that the Writings, being a Divine Revelation, were also Divinely inspired. Being Divinely inspired, it was next proved that they were infallible as the Divine Truth itself, and therefore of Divine Authority to the men of the New Church, and after a time it was seen that they were, moreover, the very internal sense of the Word, revealed in the form of natural rational truth. But there most of them stopped in their onward march. There was another step yet to be taken,--a step inevitable on the premises previously occupied,--a step which even Mr. De Charms shrinked from taking,-as it would seem to claim too much or, at least, might lead to endless misunderstandings and controversies. It was here that Mr. Benade, stepping forward boldly, grasped the banner from the wavering hands of his former leaders and planted it securely on the very mountain-top of human recognition of the new Divine Revelation.
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In advancing he left behind him, for a time, most of his associates, but single-handed he held the fort for the coming generations who now occupy it and who, with the help of the Lord of hosts, shall never forsake it.
This spiritual victory, on which depends the entire future of the Lord's New Church, was gained in the year 1861, when, a: a meeting of the Pennsylvania Association of the New Jerusalem, Mr. Benade presented his never-to-be-forgotten "Report on the Nature of Swedenborg's Illumination,"--a document of forty pages in which he brings to bear the concentrated light of all the Writings in testimony of their own Divine character. In closing he sums up the whole discussion in the following pregnant statement.
"And finally, as we set aside the proposition that Swedenborg's illumination was preceded and only rendered possible by his spiritual regeneration, as contrary to his own teaching, and contrary to reason, and as opening the door to all kinds of heresies, to every form of infidelity, in the way; of modern spiritualism, or infernalism as it has been well styled, because it establishes the position that what took place in regard to Swedenborg may take place in regard to any other man,--so do we maintain, on the ground of our argument, that, as the Lord made His Second Advent through the instrumentality of Swedenborg, the truths which he has been the means of revealing to us, are Divine; that they are the Lord's spiritual Word, being the spiritual sense contained in the natural sense of the Sacred Scriptures, wherein the Divinity of the Word resides; that these truths have all Divine Authority, as the Lord's WORD to His New Church, as HIMSELF in His Spiritual coming for the establishment of His last and crowning dispensation to the world; and that therefore, because this is the crown of all former dispensations, it is also, and must be received and acknowledged as a finality."
(To be continued.)
619
FOURTH BRITISH ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM. 1905
The Assembly was opened at Mr. Gill's studio, Head St., Colchester, on Saturday evening, August 5th. Bishop Pendleton presided, and there was a total attendance of 70 persons, of whom 38 were members of the General Church. The Church in America was represented by Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton, Mr. John Pitcairn, Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, and Miss Vera Pitcairn, of Bryn Athyn, and Messrs. Doering and Homer Bellinger, of Berlin, Canada.
After a short opening service, and the reading of various reports, THE BISHOP conveyed to the Assembly affectionate greetings from the friends in America. He spoke of the essential unity which exists between the members of the General Church, arising from a common affection for the Doctrines of the Church as represented by the familiar phrase, "Academy Principles." He also spoke of the national divisions which exist on the civil plane, remarking that on the spiritual plane, or in heaven, there are no national lines.
The Bishop then read an address on The Externals of Worship, being an exposition and development of the teaching given in Arcana Coelestia, n. 1618.
The address pointed out that internal worship, consisting of conjunction with God, spiritual fraternity, and a life of use, is the essential thing which "ought to be done," while external worship is that which "ought not to be omitted." The uses of the latter were then taken up, and it was shown that by such worship the things received in internal worship are excited, involving an awakening of thought about and from the things of heaven. Thus the externals are held in a state of sanctity, so that internal things can flow in and be stored up, even though unknown to the man. In this state instruction is more fully received because truths then penetrate more interiorly; and, therefore, the Sabbath was instituted as a day of worship and of instruction in spiritual things. 'The address concluded by showing that while it is internal worship which really saves man, yet the fulness of salvation is in external worship in which is internal.
The REV. ANDREW CZERNY, opening the discussion, spoke of the importance of instruction being given during worship.
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He pointed out that where this has been omitted, as in the case of the Catholic Church, the internal idea in the worship was power and the rule over the souls of men. MR. WATERS spoke feelingly in appreciation of the Bishop's exposition. The longer he lived, the more he was convinced that the teaching there given was true. MR. APPLETON referred to the address as bringing the affections and thoughts to the ultimate act of worship. In this act is internally stored genuine affection for the Church, without which there would be no affection for the use of worship itself. This showed the necessity of the state of internal worship being within the individual, that he may truly humiliate himself in the external act and thus be infilled by the Lord with the spirit of heaven. The speaker concluded with a warm tribute to the work of Mr. Czerny. "He came amongst us in a time of mists and difficulty. As we learned to know more and more of our pastor we grew more and more to love him,--mostly for the sake of that worship in which he has instilled into our minds to love and adore the truth. I hope it will be his pleasure to continue amongst us that use and to implant remains in the minds of our children. The end will be heaven, and the harvest sure." (Great applause.)
MR. ELPHICK referred to the teaching that states of sanctity are stored up in external worship, and he asked whether any advantage is to be gained by those who are unable to enter New Church worship, if they attend the Old Church. THE BISHOP, answering, said that, because the worship in the Old Church continues, there must be some use in it. The use was to the children there, and the simple--those who have not had a spiritual understanding formed, and who, therefore, would not be infested by false ideas. Except: in these cases the worship of the Old Church is wholly profane. With the simple the state of simplicity is preserved by the Lord, and for this reason, it is of the Divine Providence, that they be kept in ignorance, for so long as they are in ignorance they are benefitted. But a Newchurchman would not be benefitted. He would be continually infested, for his understanding has been formed with the idea of the Lord as the One God, and when he heard something different he would be disturbed, there would be a conflict in his mind, and great injury might result.
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As to the point of distance, no man is really distant from the worship of the Church. As had been said by Mr. Waters, there is no one who may not be in external worship, either in his own house or in his own room. Something of such worship, in which the man is affected by a holy sphere coming from the Lord and not from himself, is necessary. Unless man is, at times, affected in the external, his reception is what is called scientific; and it remains so until he comes into the sphere of external worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. This sphere does not exist in the Old Church, except in a state of darkness and ignorance. It is better, therefore, for the isolated Newchurchman to become a priest unto himself, for it is not absolutely necessary that his worship be in a congregation of the Church. MR. COOPER could not understand how any Newchurchman could attend the worship of the Old Church with the slightest advantage. This was so self-evident that discussion was unnecessary. MR. MCQUEEN thought that the mere fact of having withdrawn from the Old Church was a sufficient reason for not entertaining the idea of attending its worship. Why had we obeyed the command to "Come out of her" unless it were that to remain would be injurious to our spiritual life? There must be no looking back.
MR. CZERNY Said it seemed to him the idea of worship in the Old Church could only enter the mind when there existed the idea that there is some spiritual good in that Church. Herein lies the great mistake. The simple minded are benefitted because they believe it; in ignorance, to be something holy. A Newchurchman, who has been instructed, cannot be benefitted. No one can worship except in a state of peace or quiet. Could we entertain the idea of peaceful worship where an argument was going on between two speakers? It is the same thing if it is taking place in one's own mind. MR. POTTER fully endorsed the remarks made by the two previous speakers. A man attending Old Church worship would be continually criticizing what he heard. It would lead to the greatest confusion in his mind and do no good to his spiritual state. He would do better to study the Writings and keep in touch with the various centres of the Church. MR. BALL thought it unnecessary to discuss the subject.
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If a Newchurchman found himself able to attend the Old Church it would only prove that the possibility of any injury being done to him was very small indeed. You can never injure anything without first having the thing itself. The fact that a Newchurchman enters the Old Church shows that he has received the Doctrines in a very superficial manner. MR. PITCAIRN spoke of the new meanings attached to words in the New Church, wherein "all things are made new." He illustrated by the word Sanctity. With us this word means genuine piety, but in the world it conveys the idea of sanctimoniousness. THE BISHOP remarked that unless there be a church somewhere on the earth no one could be saved. If this is true, the Second Coming of the Lord is not complete until there is an organized worship of Him, complete in the making of centres of worship from which spheres go forth. When this is done, even if only with a few, the sphere spreads throughout the whole earth. The isolated receiver is not removed from it, but yet he must do something to invite it to himself. The sphere of holiness comes to him when unholy things are removed from the mind and speech and actions as sins against God, and when there is an active life of uses in the world. MR. HART was interested in the teachings to the necessity of instruction being given in a state of sanctity. It was an important point. MR. WATERS asked the Bishop to accentuate what should be clone under the circumstances mentioned by Mr. Elphick. THE BISHOP replied that the idea would be more clear if we used the word Humility in place of Sanctity. Humbling oneself before Lord and actually kneeling is an act which any man can do no matter where he is. And this act brings the sphere of the Angelic Heavens who worship the Lord alone. 'The Lord enters man only when he is in a humble state. He does not enter the proud heart and the conceited understanding, for the door is not opened. It is only the repentant heart that receives, and such a man, in worship, can be introduced, in the other world, among those who are in the worship of the Lord. It is better in an organization, but it is not absolutely necessary to enter a congregation, to be united with those who worship the Lord. What is best for a man is never withheld from him. MR. CZERNY referred to the words "it is best for him" as throwing a great deal of light on the subject. Every Newchurchman would try to gel near a New Church centre, but if it is not possible, then the Lord takes care of him wherever he is.
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MR. REY GILL, asked what a man should do who had been brought up in a New Church centre. Should he allow business interests to take him away from it. MR. PITCAIRN thought use should determine where a man should go. In his own case he had been sometimes led in the performance of his use to places where there was no church, and, at times, in these places it had been possible for him to introduce the Doctrines to others, and this had resulted in the formation of New Church Societies where there had been none before. "We go where our use calls us but it does not take us away from the Church."
The Assembly then adjourned until the following evening.
On Sunday, August 6th, the adjourned session of the Assembly was held at the same time and place as on the previous day. At the conclusion of the opening services Mr. H. Howard read a paper entitled "How to foster the growth of the Church."
At the conclusion of the reading of the paper THE BISHOP stated its leading idea as being that for the Church to grow it must be in the individual.
MR. GILL felt indebted to Mr. Howard for his excellent paper. He had been specially interested in what had been said as to the way in which we should think and speak of our fellow church people. Harm had been done by too thoughtless reference to others and their peculiar ways and idiosyncrasies. We might try to do as suggested,--to look at others in the way the Lord Himself lays down. MR. CZERNY thought the paper had showed very clearly the necessity for the conjunction of good and truth. Merely to talk about truth does not advance man in the spiritual life. We could see this in the Old Church. There we find a good deal of talk about religious things, and external manifestations without any internal life. We do not know this from our own observation, but are taught in the Writings that it is so.
MR. APPLETON spoke of the importance of education in the sphere of the Church, and referred to the work of the Academy. MR. PITCAIRN drew attention to the fact that Mr. Howard had drawn the proper distinction between the Church Specific and the Church Universal.
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Several years ago a discussion on the subject was published in Morning Light in which many of the writers held the idea that the Church Specific existed among Christians in general--with all, in fact, who read the Word. The Rev. Mr. Buss had combatted this error very ably. MR. POTTER drew a lesson from the paper as to the necessity for a proper acquaintance with the sciences, especially anatomy and physiology. This was necessary for the proper understanding of the references in the Writings to the correspondence between natural and spiritual things, especially as regards the human body.
A paper had been written by Mr. Rose, of London, on Missionary Work of the New Church. As the writer was unable to be present Mr. McQueen read it. He also read one by himself entitled "Is the belief in the Second Coming of the Lord the Stepping Stone from the Old Church to the New."
In the former paper Mr. Rose, after referring to the value of numbers in increasing the efficacy of organized uses, spoke of the failure of missionary work, as at present conducted, to noticeably increase the membership of the Church. This was due largely to the weakness of the doctrinal position of the bodies engaged in the work. They did not acknowledge the Divine Authority of the Writings, and it was on this basis alone that the work should be conducted. While we ourselves may not be able to take the work up at this time, we could at any rate prepare for it by thought and by the consideration of methods. Turning to this question the writer then called attention to the differences between terms and phrases as used in the Old Church and in the New. Especially did this apply to the language of the Bible. In the Old Church the Bible had become so filled with false ideas that an appeal to it was, in effect, an appeal to the falsities so intimately associated with its passages. No such appeal could, therefore, be effective. There must first be felt a dissatisfaction with those falsities before the truth could be received, and, in the Old Church, this involved a dissatisfaction with the Bible itself. It was, therefore, concluded that the most promising subjects for missionary work were men who had become indifferent or even hostile to the Bible, with its associated false ideas. With such men, however, an appeal to the Bible would be manifestly useless; that book had been used against them by the Old Church and was too closely associated in their minds with ideas wholly opposed to their sense of justice and reason. Our missionary work should, therefore, be conducted on a ground wholly distinct from that of the Old Church. To deal with such questions--all important as they are--as the Lord and the Word,--would be to invite failure, for, with those whom we would address, these terms convey only the old falsities of which they have already had experience.
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The same would apply if our missionary efforts were announced as "New Church," for the lecture would be prejudged according to the hearer's understanding of the term. The conclusion was, that the missionary work of the New Church should take a form and be couched in terms which, by being wholly unsuggestive of the false theology of the Old Church, should not arouse the sleeping hostility to that Church and to the Bible on which it professes to stand. We must depart from traditional paths,--must appeal to man's reason, his intellectual, his naturalism. The truths must be presented faithfully, but in a way accommodated to the hearer and not suggestive of that to which he is indifferent or hostile.
In the second of the papers, Mr. McQueen sought for some indication in the Writings as to how we should meet strangers enquiring about the Doctrines. Experience showed that talks with enquirers were generally unsatisfactory, a number of important doctrines being touched on but none established. The writer then quoted Coronis. n. 59, to the effect that prophecies of the First Coming were given to the Jews that they might be prepared to acknowledge the Lord when He came; and that, for the same reason, prophecies of the Second Coming were given to the Christian Church. The conclusion from this teaching was, that, as belief in the First Coming was the stepping stone from the Jewish Church to the Christian, so belief in the Second Coming is the stepping stone from the Christian Church to the New. This would indicate that the doctrine of the Second Coming is the first to be explained to the enquirer. If he admits--as most Christians will--an expectancy of this Coming he can be told that it has already been accomplished, and in what way. Acceptance of this would involve acceptance of all the doctrines. We would thus avoid the danger of leading men to an acceptance of the doctrines, or some of them, while regarding them as merely the ideas of a man.
MR. BALL, opening the discussion, expressed disappointment in the first of the papers. He had hoped that some plan would have been outlined which would have been a considerable improvement on the methods of the past. The early missionary efforts of the Church had been directed, not to seeking external men who had no religious conceptions and who held themselves aloof from the Old Church, but by addressing those who had a profound respect for the Letter of the Word and for the things of religion. In his opinion, that was the best method. It was foolish to talk of accommodating the doctrine of truth to external men; it could not be done. Such men may accept the doctrines in a scientific way, but this would avail them nothing.
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MR. WATERS agreed with Mr. Ball, and added that we should not constitute ourselves a Providence to others. The Lord desired to save all and He was able to do so if they willed. This thought would not relieve us of the responsibility of co-operating, but it should impel us to do the duty that lies before us. MR. COOPER spoke to a similar effect, adding that of late he had been confirmed in the belief that no one who could be benefited by coming into the Church would be allowed to remain outside. He agreed with Mr. McQueen as to the usefulness of laymen having some general line of procedure when stating their doctrinal position before strangers. MR. APPLETON spoke of true doctrine being appreciated only in the New Church. MR. ELPHICK. While agreeing with most of the remarks made by Messrs. Ball and Waters, wished enlightenment on one point. We knew that the Lord was omnipotent, but did He not work by means of men? and should we neglect anything, which it is our duty to do, that would enable us to better place the truth before others, and to train our children to do likewise? He also asked to hear from the Bishop as to the negative and the affirmative state. Were these the result of education? MR. HOWARD was convinced from his own experience that the only true means of bringing men into the Church, were the means provided in the Writings. MR. PITCAIRN thought that methods of introducing the Doctrines would be as various as the men themselves. Yet, as had been shown by Mr. McQueen, there were certain fundamentals which should be brought forward in the beginning. Mr. Rose had questioned the advisability of bringing up the old truths, but truth was eternal whether old or new. MR. MCQUEEN asked whether it was reasonable to expect the learned to come into the Church by means of Swedenborg's scientific works. It seemed to him that these works would be of use only to the New Church. THE BISHOP replied that the chief use of the scientific works would be for the educational use of the New Church, though, incidentally, they may be of use in bringing men to the Church. He had known of one such case. Many in the Convention regarded the spread of the scientific writings as a kind of missionary work; but that was not the way in which we viewed the matter. With regard to the affirmative and negative principles, he adduced the teaching that those who are in the negative of truth are so because of evils of life, and those in the affirmative are so because of the good of life from the acknowledgment of the Divine; hence they are looking for truth.
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A man may be temporarily in the negative because infested by doubting spirits and yet desire to be in the affirmative. We cannot judge of any particular case; still the teaching is that the negative is from hell and the affirmative from heaven. MR. HART thought that the inscription "The Coming of the Lord." written by Swedenborg on certain of the books of the Writings, was an indication as to our line of conduct in introducing the Doctrines to strangers The Brief Exposition was one of those books, and it seemed to him to be an excellent work to hand to the inquirer. The reason for the difference between the results of the earlier missionary work in the New Church and that of the present day he thought might be explained by the fact of the advance in secular education. That education had become the means of stifling and destroying in the minds of children and youth any desire for knowledge of spiritual things. Indeed, it is only reasonable to expect such a result from the spirit and manner of the education now given. No man who opens his eves can: fail to see that the world is going down very, very fast, and that the rate of degeneration has been accelerated. One of the chief causes has been the increase of education as the world understands education--education given without any regard for spiritual things. As to those friends who felt an earnest desire for missionary effort, the speaker suggested that instead of wasting their time on the so-called scientific man seeking after truth, they would find a far more interesting, and certainly more profitable subject by taking the affirmative state of one little child, and devoting their missionary zeal to that child. THE BISHOP, speaking with reference to Mr. McQueen's paper, said the Doctrine of the Second Coming of the Lord was the very touch-stone of the New Church. There must be the idea of a Revelation. This is seen in the Memorabilia. Count von Hopken once advised Swedenborg to "leave out the Memorable Relations and you will sweep the world." His answer was, "I was commanded by the Lord to put them there." The idea of the Second Coming forms something of remains in the Old Church, for men have been looking for it.
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This idea is the touch-stone that judges every man in this world and in the other--the Lord Himself presented as the God of Heaven and Earth and received in the heart and life,--or rejected. MR. PITCAIRN thought there was a danger in our body of swaying too far to the other side in regard to evangelization. Our efforts have borne so little fruit that there is a tendency to stop. Now it was the Doctrine of the Second Coming that the disciples were sent to preach throughout the spiritual world, and he had no doubt that a similar thing should be done in this world. It is being done in the printing of the Writings. We should not feel that our duty ends with our children; yet the greatest increase of the Church will come from within. MR. DENNY noted that this subject of missionary work was one of perennial interest. He supposed this arose from the common conception that it was the duty of the Church to circulate its doctrine. Mr. Rose's paper had been written from that point of view. We are individually in the dark as to what form of operation would be of most use. Most have said that the Writings are the proper books to put into the hands of strangers. He himself thought that books would be the most useful to the class referred to by Mr. Rose. Noble's Appeal was the book which brought him into the Church because it broke up the old ideas. Noble's Appeal began in just the way suggested by Mr. McQueen. The real difficulty about that work was that it does not fully lead the reader to the consideration of the Writings themselves. MR. WATERS said that an argument to be of any weight must be put in the strongest form, and that is undoubtedly done best in the Writings.
The Assembly adjourned until August, 1906.
On Sunday morning, August 6th a very impressive service was held at the meeting room, Priory St., when Bishop Pendleton preached and administered the Holy Supper, assisted by Rev. Andrew Czerny. The rite of Confession of Faith was administered to three young ladies.
On Monday, August 7th, the friends were conveyed in brakes through East Bergholt to Flatford Bridge, where lunch was provided, returning in the afternoon to the grounds of the King's Head, Lexden. A pleasant hour was spent and tea was provided in a tent.
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There were about 95 present, and after tea they were photographed by Mr. W. Gill. Some of the children rendered part-songs for the entertainment of the guests. As a fitting climax to an exceptionally full day of sightseeing the friends were then convened in specially chartered tram-cars to the studio, Head St., the grounds of which were beautifully illuminated with fairy lamps and lanterns. Here on a natural terrace beneath the trees a number of the children performed an operetta. This was so much appreciated that it had to be repeated. Bishop Pendleton and Mr. Pitcairn, before leaving to catch a train, spoke of the enjoyment they had experienced during their visit. Cheers were given for the American visitors, and for our Canadian friends, and finally, the London members cheered the Colchester friends for the handsome way in which they had entertained the 1905 Assembly.
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Editorial Department 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
Readers of the Life will confer a favor by correcting a printer's error on p. 471 of the August-September issue, where a letter from the Rev. William Hill is dated "February 8, 1809." It should be, 1804.
The two articles on the Academy and the Adelaide Resolutions which appeared in The New Age for July and were noticed in our last issue, have caused some protest among the members of the Church in Australia, which appears in the form of three letters printed in the New Age for August. In one the Writings are strongly reaffirmed as being the Word; in the other it is said that "a denial of any part of the doctrines logically involves a denial of the whole;" while in a third, the writer calls on Mr. Ball to openly state "whether in his opinion the Academy puts a wrong interpretation on the latter part of C. L."
The following anecdote is related in James Cheetham's Life of Thomas Paine, (New York, 1809): "Passing through Baltimore, Mr. Paine was accosted by the Reverend Mr. Hargrove, minister of a new sect called the New Jerusalemites. 'You are Mr. Paine,' said Mr. Hargrove. 'Yes,' said Mr. Paine. 'My name is Hargrove, Sir. I am a minister of the New Jerusalem Church here. We, Sir, explain the Scripture in its true meaning. The Key has been lost above four thousand years, and we have found it.' 'Then,' said Paine, dryly, 'it must have been very rusty.'" History doth not relate Mr. Hargrove's reply, but, being an Irishman, we may be sure he was not at a loss for an answer.
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"We often hear it said nowadays that Doctrine is no longer taught in the churches. On enquiring as to what is taught we are told, a good life. . . . When we ask what is meant by a good life, we are told that everyone knows what a good life is; which reduces us to the absurd conclusion that the churches are engaged in teaching that which everyone knows already.---(The Helper.) Where the crude falsities of the old church are not openly presented, this "absurd conclusion" is not far removed from the facts.
A remarkable incident is reported by the scientific editor of the Journal des Debats,--an incident which, according to Morning Light, has converted him to entire belief in the story of Jonah and the whale. It concerns an English sailor, named Bartley, on the whaling vessel "Star of the East." Bartley was swallowed by a whale, and when, thirty-six hours later, the fish was opened, "to the great astonishment of his comrades they found him peacefully reclining as in a bath tub. He was unconscious but still living." After being taken out he was for a time bereft of reason: but when reason was restored "he described his sensations when inside the monster of the deep. Bartley could have used the words of Jonah." The truth of this extraordinary adventure is vouched for by the sailors and captain of the whaler.
The false and materialistic conceptions of the Old Church are by no means abolished, despite what our New Church permeationists would have us believe. It is true they are not so much in evidence as formerly, yet they are still taught in the seminaries. Occasionally, also, they come before the public in a form so gross and crude as to be appalling. Witness the following from a sermon by Dr. Torrey, the celebrated missionary who has set out to convert London. He is speaking of the end of the world when the "last trump" will sound: "Suppose that should happen this afternoon; I should not wonder if it happened while I was preaching. I should rather like it to be. We should find ourselves going up through the roof, and find the concourse of our loved ones coming from the cemeteries all around." And yet, at a funeral, Dr. Torrey himself would probably speak of these "loved ones" as being already among the saints.
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Writing on the "Jewish Question" in Russia, Count Tolstoi says in a recent letter to the Novostic "I think that the ethical teaching of the Sews and their actual daily practice are incomparably higher than the teaching and practice of our quasi-Christian society, which accepts from the body of Christian doctrine only the theories of repentance and expiation, and fancies that these things absolve them from all moral obligations; and because of this moral superiority of the Jews we see envy, hatred, and oppression." This oppression, he thinks, will continue, "in the future as now, until the quasi-Christians embrace the true Christian conceptions of life, which are far in advance of the archaic, antiquated Jewish principles of morality." (Literary Digest, Aug. 5th)
Tolstoi often strikes the nail on the head, even though more often he strikes beside it. His characterization of the quasi-Christian doctrine and practice of Faith-alone betrays a clear insight into the state of the Christian world, but his claim of "moral superiority" for the Jews is somewhat questionable,--unless he means that the Jews are less internally immoral, because less internally hypocritical than the quasi-Christian society. What he says of the superiority of the true Christian conception of life is certainly to the point.
"There will be divided Churches as before, and their doctrines will be taught as before. (L. J. 73) In spite of all the talk about "permeation," this prediction of the Writings certainly remains true thus far. We were impressed anew with this fact by a notable article in the Bibliotheca Sacra for July, on "Polytheism, Tritheism, and the Trinity," by the Rev. Joseph E. Walker, a prominent missionary to China, who in this paper frankly portrays all, defends the old tri-personal dogma in all its gross inwardness. To him there are "three distinct beings, three persons, in the common acceptance of the word, each of whom possesses this true Godhead," and he draws a glowing picture of the "infinitely deep, strong, pure, blessed fellowship" which must exist between these three distinct beings, "an absolute spiritual unity which as utterly transcends our thought as experience,"--"an ineffable fellowship of three infinite loving Divine Persons!"
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He then proceeds to explain this wonder by distinguishing between "personality" and "individuality." A diatom, for instance, "seems as plainly and completely a distinct individual as any other animal; but it will part in the middle and become two distinct individuals, either one of which might with equal right be called the original individual." If such miracles can take place at the bottom of the sea, why not above the heavens! Nevertheless, this illustration fails to completely satisfy the writer himself, and he has to content himself by concluding that "the enigma is solved by being transformed into a sublime mystery," [!!], just as science "has merely resolved a number of disconnected and grotesque enigmas into one sublime and most beautiful mystery Inertia, impenetrability, indestructability, constitute one mysterious triad; gravitation, cohesion, chemical affinity, constitute another; and light, heat, electricity, still another. It is mystery heaped on mystery." Truly, upon the forehead of the consummated church the inscription still remains, "MYSTERY, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth!"
LEAKAGE IN THE CHURCH. 1905
In an address on the Missionary Function in the Church, the Rev. J. T. Freeth sets himself to answer the oft suggested thought that "if all our time and energy and money were devoted to missionary propaganda, and none to conserving results and building up from within, we should eventually run to seed." While he grants that this is true, he adds that "to concentrate supereminent attention on societary interests is a great deal worse. (!) For there is seed and a promise of vitality in the one case, while to circumscribe the Church in the other way is to set it in the road of ultimate dissolution; and this is preceded by feeble struggles for maintenance and is marked by no spirit of broad, deep and rich inspiration." In the societies in England there is no lack of a "broad" spirit of inspiration, if by that extremely indefinite term is meant a broadening of the New Church to embrace the Old; and without doubt this "broadening" is one of the fruits of the policy which devotes the main interest of the general body to the external work of evangelization and but little to internal conservation.
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But unfortunately this broadening is too often accompanied by those very "feeble struggles for maintenance" which are said to result from giving "supereminent attention" to "building up the Church from within." In England there are a great number of small societies that were once well established but are now merely struggling along, or that have ceased even to struggle. And how can the case be different when the shepherds and guardians of the Church are constantly reminding their flock of the increased "liberality," "breadth of view" and "charity" of the Old Church denominations, and encouraging them by almost universal example and precept to fraternize with those denominations in church work and in the spirit of "Christian love?" The societies do indeed contain the "seed" of the Church, but seed must be planted and its fruit nourished or it will soon cease to be even a "promise of vitality."
The devotion to missionary work is a laudable one, but when it is pursued at the expense of the work of education in the Church itself it must result in an essential weakening of that Church. The old members may remain, but the children, with almost their whole education and training in a sphere opposed to the Church, and with no clear teaching as to the true quality of that sphere, but rather the reverse, too often drift away. Even with the utmost devotion to missionary work it is difficult for the Church in England, and elsewhere, to make up for the actual loss it suffers in its own children. The Conference ministers themselves say that the children are "ruined for the Church," are "lost to the Church." and yet they continue in that policy which speaks lightly of building up of the Church from within as compared with adding to it from without. They are trying in vain to fill a vessel from which is a great and constant leakage. They observe the leak; they deplore it? and then turn again to the task of the Danaides.
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HEATHEN TRADITIONS AND THE ANCIENT CHURCH. 1905
The fact of the wide-spread influence of the Ancient Word, fragments and traditions from which have been carried by migrations and otherwise to remote parts of the world, is being continually illustrated and confirmed by the researches of the archeologist and the relations of the traveler. The greater our knowledge of the traditions of heathen lands, the clearer does it become that they are derived more or less directly from the Ancient Word. Especially is this true as regards the stories of the Garden of Eden, the serpent and the flood, which were copied from the Ancient Word to form the first chapters of Genesis.
A confirmation of this comes to us from Siam, where is found a monotheistic religion which looks to the coming of God in human form, and features of which evidently owe their origin to the Ancient Word. According to a missionary in the Laos country, north of Siam, the natives "do not worship ghosts or spirits, as do many of the Siamese, but they believe in one God, the Creator, who inhabits the ethereal expanse." With these people there is a tradition that the primitive man and woman had three sons. The oldest was ancestor of the Asiatic people. The second took to wife a monkey, and was ancestor of the white race, which is consequently active and cunning. The youngest son was the ancestor of the black race." All three brothers originally worshiped God, and had a book from him. "But the white people, proving bad, were sent away and took the book with them. Other writings were revealed to those who remained, but most of these have been destroyed." To the people of Laos were given "two great pillars of stone, which they were instructed to protect and preserve until God appears in human form." This they expect to occur soon.
Similarly suggestive of the Ancient Church is the belief of the Karens, a tribe dwelling in the hinterland of Burmah. In a book, written by the British General, Macmahon, describing these interesting people, the statement is made, according to New Christianity, that they are distinguished from the surrounding peoples by their belief in the existence of a Supreme Being, God eternal, the Creator of heaven and earth and all things. Their tradition of creation describes the formation of woman from the rib of man, and the breathing of life into the nostrils.
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They also have the stories of the Temptation and the Fall.
Their traditions relate that in ancient times they had books of skin containing instructions to make them wise, [compare the Canons or books of wisdom handed down by the ancients to their descendants of the copper age, C. L. 75], and also palm leaf books written in circles drawn out in long coils that became winding paths, in which were ancient wonders." This strikingly suggests the ancient manner of writing by signs and hieroglyphics, and still more, it suggests the "gyres" of heavenly goods and truths which are seen portrayed in the paradises of heaven, and which were, without doubt, expressed representatively in the Ancient Church.
The tradition adds that, through carelessness, these ancient books were lost, and with them the Karens lost their knowledge of God and deteriorated in every way. Indeed they are described by Macmahon, as cruel, repulsive barbarians. Yet their traditions hold out a hope to them that, if they are not enticed away by false prophets who would arise and endeavor to deceive, "the Word of God" would again come to them.
But one of the most remarkable evidences of the influence of the Ancient Church--remarkable because it is rather doctrinal than traditional,--is reported of the Zuni Indians, a tribe of New Mexico which is separated by social institutions, and by a radical distinction of language, from all other tribes of New Mexico. According to the Philadelphia Evening Telegraph of May 31st, these Indians "will not eat bread that has not been crushed and ground up by stone implements. They say that the grain by itself denotes goodness, and the stone means truth, so that it is by a meeting of the two that the fullest benefit comes." This fact, and, from its very nature, we presume it has good foundation, is the more remarkable in that the Zuni Indians have a very vague religion mixed up with weird and ghostly ceremonies whose meanings even the Indians themselves seem to have lost. They believe, however, in the other world which is expressed in their language by a word meaning "the home of our others."
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"THE SUN SHALL BE DARKENED." 1905
Although many Newchurchmen refuse to see the utter vastation of the Christian world, except as being more or less a purely intellectual matter, although they dwell on the "universal descent" of :he New Church, inspiring men with a "kindly" spirit and giving them "yearnings" after better ideas and ideals, there are not wanting those in the Old Church, who without the evidence revealed in the Writings, and merely from common sense observation, have arrived at very different, though more just, conclusions. Such a man is Dr. William Barry, an English Roman Catholic priest, who writes in the English National Review, on the subject of Agnosticism and National Decay. To him, the signs of the times point to a growing decline in civilization. This decline, he thinks, has already begun in France, which "is utterly given over to Malthusian practices." The like phenomena, though in a less degree, are observed in "Great Britain and many of its dependencies; while in the United States a dissolution of marriage seems to be spreading far and wide. The Puritan families on which the greatness of America was founded are dying out of the land they refuse to occupy with their descendants;" divorce also is spreading. In all these respects, even Germany affords a prospect that is "assuredly disquieting."
With whole nations suffering from a common disease, Dr. Barry is led to seek a common cause. "A glacial period is setting in; but of the mind, not of the globe. And its name is Agnosticism. The intellectual sun is darkened; human life is moving away from the centre of light towards the depths of space. Men and women shape their conduct more and more as if there were no God."
He defines the agnostic, who is popularly supposed to be an "honest" doubter, as one who says he does not know, but who acts as if he did know. "Society has, to an amazing extent, translated the agnostic's views into a code of conduct. Religion for a very large number, and those in stations of influence, is no longer on its trial; it has ceased to exist. Doubt, positive and paralyzing, has taken hold of so many that a protest in the shape of revivals accompanied by intense excitement is spreading among the less educated, who feel that the clergy themselves have too often opened the gates which they were sworn to defend, and are letting the enemy in."
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To show the truth of this gloomy picture he points to the general increase, in all leading civilized countries, of degeneracy; of crime,--"though it changes its character from violence to cunning, and robs where it used to commit murder;" of "outrages due to the animal passions;" of low birth-rates, "bearing witness to the number of fraudulent marriages" never before "so frequent or so largely approved," and making our national history, "now comparable to that of declining Rome; of divorces, "grown familiar among the wealthy classes; of desertion and separation among the working people;" of speculation, betting, games of chance which "form the business of women no less than men, to a degree which would have struck a generation not so bent on gain, dumb with surprise;" of drunkenness; of cynicism and pessimism; and lastly, of suicide. "When we look at the ways of business, fashion, literature, and at social statistics, a new Decalogue appears in view. What are its commandments? I seem to read among them these: Thou shalt make money, have no children, commit adultery, plead in the divorce court, and, such duties done, commit suicide." All these things, he continues, could not have been "had the principles on which religion was once acknowledged not suffered severely at the hands of men who made it out to be a delusion, while the present world alone was real."
A similar view of the present state of the Christian world is taken by the pope, who in his latest encyclical opens his arraignment of modern materialism and indifference to religion, with the words of the prophet Hosea, "There is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth in it shall languish."
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"HERESY" AND ABSOLUTE TRUTH 1905
The New-Church Messenger for August 16th lifts its voice in vehement protest against "Heresy in the New Church,"--not against the substance of Heresy, but against the use of the term by members of the New Church. It has found that "heresy is a word very easily spoken" and equally easy to spell and write, and "hence any individual of inflated self-assurance can pronounce it upon anyone or anything he may choose to pass judgment upon." Anyone who "presumes to apply this word" is guilty of a "preposterous self-assumption of Divine Wisdom." "The word 'heresy' has no proper place in the vocabulary of the Newchurchman." "The expulsion of this word from the vocabulary of the Newchurchman is the necessary expression of the slightest degree of appreciation of the superficiality of our knowledge of the truths of the New Church."
Modesty is indeed the most becoming of all virtues, and the wisest man is he who knows that he knows nothing. Nevertheless, if he knows this, he knows something, and therefore, in the mere letter, the wisest saying of the wisest of all sages becomes a paradox. In the New Church we know what the ancient philosopher meant: that of himself man knows nothing, but that from God he may know all things which have been revealed in the Word and in nature. Thus, also, he has been gifted by God with the capacity to distinguish Light from Darkness, Day from Night, Truth from Falsity, and Genuine Doctrine from Heresy. To deny this Divine gift, is to deprive man of rationality, of intelligence, of humanity, of the means of eternal salvation.
And not only has he been granted this gift of discrimination, but he has also been granted freedom of speech, freedom and ability to give "names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field,--to give to every living creature the name thereof,"--to know and to tell the quality of all goods and truths, of all evils and falses.
The demand of the Messenger for the "expulsion" of the word "heresy" from the vocabulary of the Newchurchman seems rather strange in view of the fact that the term is frequently used both in the Bible and in the Writings of the New Church. The apostles certainly were not afraid of the term.
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Thus Paul writes to the Corinthians: "I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it. For there must also be heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." (I. Cor. 11:19.) And again, "A man that is a heretic, after the first and second admonition, reject. Knowing that he that is such is subverted and sinneth, being condemned of himself." (Titus 3:10-11.) And Peter says "But there were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be teachers among you, who privily shall bring damnable heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction." (2 Peter 2:1.)
And in the Writings of the New Church the term "heresy" is used with a frequency and emphasis that must be painful to the Messenger. "Wherever there is any Church, there arise heresies," (A. C. 362). "Faith alone is a heresy," (A. R. 461). The notion that God has infused Himself into men is termed "that execrable heresy," (D. L. W. 130). The claim of the pope to the power of opening and shutting heaven is called "that infernal heresy." (A. C. 9410). The denial of man's freedom in spiritual things is an "absurd and hurtful heresy," (T. C. R. 497) Predestination is "an insane and cruel heresy." (D. P. 330) What would the Messenger do with these statements? Expel and expunge them from the vocabulary of the New Church? Whence are the members of the Church to derive their terminology of spiritual things? From the Revelation given to them by God, or from the spurious charity of a dead Church, in which nothing is regarded as falsity, because nothing is regarded as truth?
The term "heresy" means to each one that which he puts into it. The Messenger evidently puts into it the meaning which the word had in the Old Church of some centuries ago, when a heretic was one who was to be delivered to the flames of the pyre in this world and to the everlasting fire of hell in the world to come. But if we put into the word the meaning which is given to it in the Writings of the New Church, we may use it safely without the idea of eternal damnation. For "it is provided that anyone, in any heresy as to the understanding, can be reformed and saved, provided he does not confirm the heretical falses," (D. P. 259). "Heresies themselves do not condemn men, but an evil life, and also the confirmations from the Word of the falsities in the heresy." (D. S. S. 92.)
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The proviso is serious, indeed, but we cannot tell in how far any heretic has internally and actually confirmed himself in his heresy. The final judgment is in the hand of God, but this fact does not destroy our liberty to use the term "heresy" in defending the Doctrine of the Church from perversion. The use of this term is not necessarily more uncharitable than the charge of "insanity" and "preposterous self-assumption of Divine Wisdom" of which the Messenger judges him guilty "who presumes to apply this word."
The secret of the Messenger's aversion to the word "heresy" will be found in a lack of genuine conviction of the truth of the Heavenly Doctrines,--a lack which seems a fixed heirloom of its editorial chair. "We are forbidden." exclaims the present editor, "to issue the pronouncement of heresy against those who do not see with us, because we are by all reasons bound to expect more interior interpretations of doctrine than have as yet come to us." "Even the conceptions we now hold, and which are to us so full of life and comfort, we should hold tentatively, ready to yield them in exchange for richer and better ones."
This, on the surface, may seem like very commendable modesty. Of course, we should always be ready to receive more interior interpretations of Doctrine and not imagine that our present conceptions are the ne plus ultra of human intelligence. But the effect of the whole editorial in the Messenger, judged in the light of its past and present policy and attitude, is to weaken the faith of the Church not only in human interpretations of Doctrine, but in the Doctrine itself. The editor cries out against the "insanity which presumes to establish a standard of orthodoxy" in the New Church, and brands as "presumptuous and hateful" the statement "Such a minister is not sound," which he once heard one clergyman pronounce against another. Why should he not thus pronounce, if the minister in question taught what was contrary to the plain Doctrine revealed from Heaven? Is there, then, no such thing as soundness and integrity of Doctrine in the New Church, and are we not permitted to judge between what is sound and what is unsound? The Writings answer: "Doctrine does not establish the Church, but the soundness and purity of the Doctrine." (T. C. R. 245.)
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The trouble with the whole Christian world is that men have no end of "conceptions" but hardly any convictions. The knowledge of truth has been lost,--the compass which points inflexibly to the magnetic pole has been thrown overboard, and the ship of faith steers wildly according to "tentative conceptions." Thus in spiritual things; but in natural things, in the science of Mathematics, for instance, what would the Messenger say of one who taught that it would be an "insane presumption" to claim that twice two invariably make four? The editor might not pronounce such a one a heretic, but most likely a lunatic! But are not spiritual verities even more real than natural truths? If a New Church minister should teach,--as with Charles Augustus Tulk some have taught,--that the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth was a mere illusion,--would the Messenger judge such a one "sound" or "unsound" in the Doctrine of the Church? Would it hold the Doctrine of the Lord "tentatively" or positively?
Tentative conceptions are a rope of sand which will never bind the ancient Dragon. Conviction of the Divine Truth is the sharp, two-edged sword which alone can gain the victory for the Lord's New Church. Whatever comes up against this sword will be cut in twain. Truth must be and will be distinguished from falsity. We cannot do this from ourselves, but the Lord has done it for us in His Divine Revelation. "God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night." What God has called "Night," we need not fear to call so.
THERE IS such a thing as Truth: fixed, genuine, absolute Truth, Truth certain and to be relied on. "Some spirits supposed that there was no fixed Truth, and so also Pilate asked of the Lord, 'What is Truth?' But it was given to tell them that all the Cognitions of Faith are Truths, and that now there are eternal Truths, and that whatever is of the Truth of faith is an eternal Truth; and that circumstances vary but do not take away the Truths." (S. D. 3537.)
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. The College and Seminary of the Academy were formally opened on Friday morning, September 15th, at 11 o'clock, with a religious service conducted by the Bishop assisted by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner. In his address the Bishop, after extending a welcome to old students and to newcomers, spoke of the end or purpose that was within them in attending the school. There was some purpose within them in this ad, whether they were conscious of it or not; the Academy also had a purpose or end in the conduct of its schools. If those two purposes were in unity with each other, and if they were in harmony with the Divine Purpose in the establishment of the New Church, their work would be blessed. It was for them to see that their purpose was not opposed to this. They were here to be prepared for a life of usefulness, first, a life of usefulness in the world, that they might there prepare themselves, as of themselves, for a life of usefulness in heaven. And as there could be no use without order, they should strive to shun all that opposed order, and they were invited to co-operate with the school in the maintenance of order in which alone the Lord can be present and uses be performed. If they did this their school year would be a happy one and would bring them rich fruit.
In the evening a reception was held for the pupils and their parents and friends. Dancing was a prominent feature of the evening, and the new pupils were initiated into the social sphere of the Academy Schools.
Two new teachers, the Rev. R. W. Brown and Mr. L. E. Gyllenhaal, have been added to the teaching force of the College. Mr. Brown will teach Chemistry, Botany and Nature, and Mr. Gyllenhaal English, Latin and Greek. We were very sorry to observe the absence of Miss Sherman, the principal of the Seminary, who has been detained at her home by the serious illness and death of her brother.
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Preceding the opening exercises of the College, the Local Schools held their opening exercises at 9 o'clock on the same morning, when Mr. Synnestvedt gave an address on the Foundation of our Educational Work.
And, lastly, still going backwards, on Thursday, September 7th, the Bishop and Mrs. Pendleton and Mr. Pitcairn and family returned from Europe. They were all looking much benefitted by their trip.
BERLIN, ONTARIO. On the 18th of August three of the young men of the Carmel Church, the Messrs. Samuel Roschman, Nelson Glebe and Carl Roschman, left for the Isle of Pines, Cuba. The first named intends making his home there, and his two companions go to help him settle, and perhaps to remain for some time. Mrs. Roschman will follow in a few weeks. On the 9th of August a farewell social was held at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman, and a set of the Spiritual Diary was presented to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Roschman by the Society, as a token of affection, and also as a recognition of Mr. Roschman's faithful services as organist. In accepting the gift, he said, amongst other things, that he hoped that he and his wife might be the means of the establishment of a new centre of the Church in their future home.
Our school opened on the 5th of September with thirty pupils. Circumstances make it necessary to dispense with the services of a lady teacher this year. The loss is to some extent made up by several of the young ladies of the Society each teaching two or more periods per week. Nine of our last year's oldest class tried the examination for entrance into the local High School, and all but one were granted certificates of admission. This result speaks well for the work of the school.
On September 8th the first Friday Supper and Doctrinal Class of the season was held. There was a large attendance. In the class the subject of study, continued from last year, is the correspondences of the human body with the Gorand Man, as given in the Arcana Coelestia.
At the annual meeting of the Society, held September 15th, a resolution was passed inviting the Ontario Assembly to hold its meeting next New Year in Berlin. W.
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COLCHESTER, ENGLAND. BY general consent the 1905 Assembly stands out prominently, both for the numbers attending and the interest and affection manifested. The news that our Bishop would be present, accompanied by his wife, Mr. John Pitcairn and his son and daughter, of Bryn Athyn, also Messrs. Homer and Doering Bellinger, of Canada, encouraged us to do our best to provide the necessary accommodation. But when, as the time drew near, we found our visitors would number nearly fifty instead of about twenty-five, our first thought was, that we were attempting the impossible. However, by getting used to the idea, and making the utmost of the space at our disposal, matters speedily shaped themselves, and we are encouraged to hope that everything passed off smoothly and satisfactorily.
On Thursday, August 24th, Bishop Pendleton again visited Colchester accompanied by Rev. A. Czerny. The meeting was called to discuss the question of New Church education. The matter was placed before the Bishop in a letter from the secretary stating our attitude towards the use, and the possibilities in the way of financial support. The Bishop in opening the meeting gave a brief review of New Church education from the earliest days of the Academy to the present time. He then made it very clear that, although Newchurchmen should strive to provide New Church Schools for their children, yet experience had shown that if such schools are started prematurely, they may prove a burden and thus a source of danger to a Society. It was also pointed out that the influences of the home combined with the social sphere of a united society, would probably prove an efficient means of keeping our children in the Church even where there is no school. An interesting discussion followed, and the conclusion was reached that we should not abate our affection for this use, but should await the indications of Providence for its ultimation.
Refreshments were then partaken of and various toasts were proposed and responded to, including toasts to our late Pastor and Friend, Mr. Bostock, to the Bishop and Priesthood, to Mr. Pitcairn, New Church Life, Mercury, etc.
During the evening the Bishop gave us a very interesting account of the progress towards completion of the New Liturgy, with the history of the present one, and the main points of difference between them. F. R. COOPER.
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FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES. The ALMONT (Mich.) Summer School opened on Sunday, August 6th, with an attendance of over a hundred persons at the morning service, which was conducted by the Rev. John Whitehead. At the close of the services eighty-eight persons sat down to dinner. The school sessions opened on the following morning with forty-two persons stopping on the ground. Lessons in Nature Study and Raffia Basket Work are new features of the course this year.
GREAT BRITAIN. A number of the Conference ministers have been spending their holidays in the island of Jersey where, for two weeks, they exemplified the "simple life" in an old fort in the neighborhood of ST. HELIERS. On Sunday, August 13th, all attended the New Church services at that city, and in the evening addresses were given by the Rev. Messrs. Claxton, Wilde, Stones and Goldsack. The annual meeting of the St. Heliers Society was held on the following Thursday, "being held later than usual in order that the Rev. Joseph Deans, who was present by special invitation, might preside. The business was of more than usual importance, and was carefully gone through." On the following Sunday, at the close of the evening services, "the congregation stayed behind for a short time at the special request of Mr. Deans. The minutes of the Thursday's meeting were read for the information of those present, and Mr. Deans gave a short address, in which he said he saw no solid reason why the Society, if it would act unitedly and do its duty, should not be prosperous and do well." We are not informed as to the nature of the business which required the "special" presence of a Conference official in the person of Mr. Deans. Is it a case of de Academico inquirendi?
AUSTRIA, HUNGARY. The Rev. Fedor Goerwitz on May 21st visited the Italian New Church Society in TRIESTE, Where he baptized two children and two adults, (a young married couple), and administered the Holy Supper to twelve communicants.
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The Society is now worshiping in a spacious hall of a house situated in a large garden on the heights above Trieste, where a magnificent view is obtained of the city and the harbor. Mr. Goerwitz gives an encouraging report of the progress and orderly development of this circle. They greatly desire a supply of good New Church sermons, translated into the Italian tongue,--their sole literature being at present Signor Scocia's translations of the Writings. The situation might be worse!
On May 24th, Mr. Goerwitz visited VIENNA, Where he administered the Holy Supper to twenty-six communicants, among whom were some members of the little circle in OBER ST. VEIT, recently founded there by Herr Franz Sedleczed. The Society in Vienna "stands firmly on the ground of the Writings of the Church and the ecclesiastical order therein prescribed. Even though hindered to some extent in external development, on account of the lack of freedom, the Society enjoys a peaceful state, and is happy and contented in the possession of the Heavenly Doctrines, which are highly treasured by the members."
At BUDAPEST, which Mr. Goerwitz visited on June 2d, two children and two adults were baptized, and the communion administered to forty-two persons. The Society here is very active and rapidly increasing in numbers, but is in great want of New Church literature, the only works thus far translated into the Hungarian language being the Doctrine of Life, Boys des Guay's Letters to a Man of the world, and Dr. Ellis's Skepticism and Divine Revelation. Mr. Goerwitz also visited the circle at GYORKONY and KIS HIGYA TENGELICZ in Comitat Tolna, where twelve members partook of the communion.
BRAZIL. Mr. L. Castro de La Fayette, who has been the active leader of the Society in RIO DE JANEIRO, is at present residing in Santiago de Chili, where he is endeavoring to introduce the Doctrines of the New Church. The Church in Brazil is, in the meantime, under the direction of Carlos Braga. The American Swedenborg Society has received an order from that country for ten copies of the Arcana Coelestia, vol. I. The order comes from a group of German emigrants of the better class. One of these, a clergyman in BLUMENAN, a correspondent of the American Swedenborg Society, reports that "there are several earnest readers and believers of the Doctrines in this place," and that he has recently begun missionary work there.
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Title Unspecified 1905
Communications.
Notice.
The Pittsburg District Assembly will be held on the 14th, 15th and 16th of October. The members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. Visitors are requested to notify either Mr. S. S. Lindsay, 359 Stratford Ave., or Rev. N. D. Pendleton, 5920 Ellwood St., Pittsburg, Pa.
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Title Unspecified 1905
NOVEMBER, 1905. No. 11.
MYTHOLOGY IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW CHURCH. Rev. C. TH. ODHNER 1905
HERMES--MERCURY.
The winged messenger of the gods is, according to all the mythologists, most difficult of explanation, owing to the variety of his offices and the complexity of his characteristics. The interpreters are all at sea about him, and also at loggerheads with one another. The physical school insists that he merely represents the Wind, the motion of the atmospheres, and they ingeniously force everything in his history into a plausible harmony with this notion. Others say that he was originally a sun-god, or a love-god, or a shepherd-god, or an importation of the Egyptian idea of the priesthood, etc., etc. But while there is a certain basis of truth for some of these ideas, none of them represents a just generalization of all the various characteristics and offices of Hermes. To generalize, to marshal into an orderly and systematic whole all the bewildering facts of any subject; is the exclusive prerogative of the men of the New Church, who not only possess the Science of Correspondences, but also enjoy the rational perspective afforded by the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, from the light of which alone universal views can be given.
If, then, from a careful study of Hermes, we seek to draw a general conclusion, we shall find that all the myths and symbols point to one central and universal idea, namely, the idea of Communication and of all the means of communication between God and men that exist in Heaven or on earth.
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Viewed from this central idea Hermes stands revealed as representing, in the supreme sense, the Divine means of communication. Viz., the Divine Proceeding, the Holy Spirit, or the Word; and, next, the human means of communication, viz., the ministry of the angels, the priesthood of the Church on earth, and, ultimately, social intercourse, travel, and trade.
The etymology of the name Hermes has thus far baffled the philologists, some of whom, in their determination to trace everything Greek to the Sanscrit, have derived it from the Iranian word Sarameias, which has been variously interpreted as meaning either "the morning breeze," or the name of the Hindoo hell-dogs, akin to Cerberus. We will let the savants fight out this question to their heart's content, but would suggest, as an alternative, the Greek root ER, whence comes erchomai, to come, or to go. The Latin name, "Mercury," seems more easy of explanation, being mainly connected with the words merx, hire, and mercator, merchant, but it is a question whether these words are derived from Mercury, the patron-god of merchants and merchandise, or Mercury from them.
Whatever be the derivation of his names, there is no doubt as to his history, character and functions. All accounts agree that he was the son of Zeus by Maia, the oldest and fairest of the Pleiades, the seven daughters of the giant Atlas. It was in her honor that the Romans named the month of May, and celebrated the great feast of Mercury on the Ides of May. Immediately after his birth he invented the first lyre, by stretching strings across a tortoise shell, and then set our to steal a herd of oxen from Apollo. The sun-god soon discovered the theft. but was appeased by the gift of the lyre, with which he was so pleased that he presented to Hermes a magic, winged wand, called the "caduceus," and moreover recommended him for the special service of the gods. In Olympus his nimble wit and wonderful agility and energy were quickly recognized, and he was therefore appointed the messenger and herald of Zeus in particular, and plenipotentiary ambassador of the gods in general. Henceforth he was constantly traveling, descending from heaven with messages and blessings from the gods, and returning from the earth laden with the prayers of men,--the chief means of communication and conjunction between heaven and earth.
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To send messengers signifies to communicate. (A. C. 4239.)
"The angels of God descending and ascending" signifies infinite and eternal communication and thence conjunction. (A. C. 3701.)
As the great god of communication, all travelers were placed under his special protection,* and also the natural means of communication, such as highways, streets, and doorways. Hence it was that statues of Hermes were placed at the principal street corners of Athens, where they were held so sacred that their removal or mutilation was a capital offense; and Alcibiades, the Atheanian general, was recalled from the ill-fated Sicilian expedition, because he was suspected of having mutilated these statues during a drunken revel by night, and this step ultimately brought about the downfall of Athens as a world-power.
* It is a curious coincidence that the spirits of the planet Mercury are the great travelers of the universe. (See A. C. 6925.)
Besides traveling as the Divine messenger, Hermes appears most frequently in the character of leader, conductor, and introducer. He it was who conducted Pandora to Epimetheus, and led the aged Priam to the tent of Achilles to beg for the body of Hector. When Psyche, after her long trials, finally won her way to Olympus, it was Hermes who gently led her by the hand to her long-lost Cupid, with whom she was now to be united in everlasting love. It was his regular function, also, to raise up the souls of the dead and guide them to the judgment-seat of Pluto, and one beautiful onyx engraving shows him in the act of grasping a soul by the arm and lifting him out of the grave. As conductor of the dead he was universally worshiped under the name of "Hermes Psychopompus," Hermes the soul-leader. It is obvious that the ancients in this manner represented to themselves the Divine leading by means of the ministry of the angels, who not only lead man invisibly throughout the earthly life, but also actually assist in the resuscitation of his spirit after death. As a leader Hermes also represents the office of the priesthood, for a leader signifies one who teaches and thereby leads to the good of life and to salvation. (A. C. 10794; A. E. 555.)
As the messenger of the gods, Hermes also stands for the message itself, that is, the Divine Revelation or the Word, and hence "Hermes Logios" was worshiped as the god of Divine speech and eloquence, of oratory and logical argumentation, and, finally, of the interpretation of dreams and hidden mysteries.
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Hence, in Greek hermeneuein signifies to explain or interpret, and "Hermeneutics" is to this day the name of the science of interpretation or Exegesis, the branch of Theology which defines the laws whereby the meaning of the Scriptures is to be ascertained. This, again, connects Hermes with the representation of the influx and communication of the Divine Proceeding, the Holy Spirit, the Word, and the priesthood.
Being the tutelary deity of travel, roads, traffic, and communication in general, Mercury naturally became the special patron of all merchants and of trade as a whole, that is, of the communication and interchange of material goods. His images were most common in the shopping district of the cities, and in Rome there was a spring dedicated to him, near his temple, where: on the celebration of Mercury, on the Ides of March, every shopman drew water and sprinkled it with a laurel twig over his head and over his goods, at the same time calling upon Mercury to remove the guilt of all his cheatings during the past year.
But there was a deeper reason than this for the connection of Mercury with trade. In most ancient times merchants were spiritual merchants, priests and missionaries who went forth to spread abroad the spiritual goods and truths of the Church; gradually natural trade followed in the steps of this spiritual traffic; even as in modern times, especially among the English, the trader has followed the missionary into heathen lands.
To "buy and sell" signifies to acquire and communicate; thus, in the spiritual sense, to learn and to teach; and by "merchandise" is signified the cognitions of good and truth from the Word. (A. E. 1104.)
It was by the perversion of this idea that Mercury became the patron-deity of thieves, that is, when in the decline of the Church the priesthood as spiritual thieves took away the truths of religion from the people, hiding them under esoteric mysteries for the sake of selfish power and gain. This took place in all the countries of the Ancient Church, just as it took place in the Roman Catholic Church, the priesthood of which is represented by the "merchants of Babylon" in the Apocalypse. (A. R. 759)
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But the story of Hermes as an infant stealing the oxen of Apollo is also capable of being explained in relatively good sense, even as the story of the thefts of Jacob and Rachel, concerning which we read that their stealing the teraphim
signifies to claim for one's self that which is the Lord's, namely, good and truth; and as all do this in the beginning of regeneration the expression is milder than it sounds in the letter. (A. C. 4002.)
Before regeneration man supposes that he procures truths for himself; and so long as he supposes this, he is in spiritual theft. (A. C. 5747)
The theft of Hermes, like the drunkenness of Noah, may therefore refer to the first state of the Ancient Church, which in the beginning was more or less in faith alone, and then would steal the oxen of Apollo, that is, ascribe to itself the good which is the Lord's alone. But Hermes was forgiven because he invented the first instrument of music;--the infant Church was condoned because it was nevertheless in the spiritual affection of truth, though this affection at first was of a very external quality, as indicated by the shell of the tortoise. As Vulcan has been compared to Tubal-cain, so Hermes may be compared to Jubal, who "was the father of such as play upon the harp and the organ." (Gen 4:21), by whom is signified the spiritual affection, or the affection of truth in the Ancient Church. (A. C. 418)
Though Hermes was said to possess the power of making himself invisible, and also to assume whatever shape he desired, the Greeks nevertheless invested him with a very definite individuality, of a type characteristically Hellenic; graceful, mobile, active, and energetic. In the earliest statues he is represented as a strongly formed man, with a pointed beard and a traveler's hat, but in the later and more artistic representations he is shown as a slender yet vigorous youth, beardless and with curly hair, flying through the air or resting for a moment during his journey. The famous statue by Praxiteles shows him leaning with his left arm on a rod; and supporting on it the infant Bacchus. The beautiful marble by Bologna, now in Florence, represents him naked and youthful, flying downwards but pointing upwards, and furnished with the full regalia of all his emblems and symbols.
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A bas-relief, recently discovered at Ephesus, presents him as "Psychopompus," conducting a newly-risen soul, who, under the figure of a beautifully draped woman, turns half toward her beckoning guide.
The distinguishing symbols of Hermes are the winged hat, known as the petasus, the winged sandals, called talaria, and the winged staff, the caduceus. The first was the regular broad-brimmed traveler's hat of the ancients, but here furnished with a small wing at each of the temples. By these and the little wings on his "immortal golden sandals" he was born like the wind over land and sea to whatever part of the universe he was pleased to go, and thus beautifully illustrates the description of God by the psalmist when he says that Jehovah "walketh upon the wings of the wind." (Ps. 103:3), by which "is signified the spiritual sense which is in the literal sense." (A. E. 2828). Wings always represent the power of the intelligence to elevate its thoughts and thus make spiritual progress, and the wings on the feet and at the head of Hermes beautifully typify the Divine Messenger, or the Word, which comes to us with a natural and at the same time a spiritual sense. The Writings of the New Church teach us that this idea of Hermes originated in the actual representatives of the spiritual world. Swedenborg states, for instance, that
there appeared to me a spirit with a little wing at the left side of the head, and it was said that sometimes those so appear who are sent from one to another with letters or messages. Hence it was evident whence the ancients derived the custom of fixing a wing at the head of Mercury, who was the messenger among their gods. (S. D. 5953.)
At another time an angel appeared to Swedenborg, "as it were flying from heaven, with two wings about his feet, and two about his temples," carrying in his hands prizes for a company of wise men who had been discussing spiritual subjects. (C. L. 136.)
The "caduceus" or "kerykeion," (herald's staff), in the hand of Hermes, bears at the upper end two little wings, and below it two serpents, entwined about the staff in opposite directions,--the one from right to left, and the other from left to right. This is supposed to be merely a symbol of peace, but to us this remarkable staff, like the two pairs of wings at his feet and head, represents the Word itself, which below, in its literal sense, is sensual, like the serpents, but above, in its internal sense, becomes spiritual by means of the power of correspondence.
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And there are two serpents, entwined in opposite directions, because in the literal sense there is everywhere the duality of good and truth, the gyre or turning of good being from right to left, while that of truth is from left to right. It was by this staff that Hermes led the souls to their final goal, and we may compare with it the staff on which Moses fixed a brazen serpent for the healing of all who looked upon it.
The brazen serpent signifies the Divine Sensual of the Lord which alone exercises circumspection and provides for all, and therefore those who looked to it were saved. (A. C. 197)
The butterfly and the cock were also among the emblems of Hermes, the former signifying the resurrection and the other the judgment after death.
In whatever aspect, therefore, we may view Hermes,--whether as god of the wind, or as the herald and messenger of Olympus, whether as leader of men or conductor of the dead, whether as patron of orators, or of travelers, or of merchants,--this interesting and sublime conception of the ancients consistently represents the central idea of Communication and Influx,--in the supreme sense the influx and communication of the Divine by means of its own going-forth or Proceeding, as the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit, or the Word: in the representative sense, the ministry of the angels, and in an ultimate sense, the ministry of the priesthood on earth.
The worship of Hermes seems to have been introduced into Greece from Egypt, where we find the god Thoth, who by the Greeks was called "HERMES TRISMEGISTUS," the "thrice greatest." The ancient legends concerning this deity is of special interest to Newchurchmen, because we find here a distinct reference to the Ancient Word.
Thoth, like the Greek Hermes, was the messenger of the gods, the conductor of the resurrected spirits, the patron of letters and learning, and the chief means of communication between gods and men. He was also the Scribe of the gods, the "Scribe of Truth," the "Lord of the Divine Words," and the priestly office stood under his special protection. His name, in fact, is often used as the collective appellation of the Egyptian priesthood as a whole.
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Herodotus, Manetho, Plutarch, and Clement of Alexandria testify that there were two, and some of them say three, successive individuals who bore the distinguished name of "Hermes Trismegistus." The first Hermes, known as the "celestial Hermes," was the god Thoth himself. who also was "identical with that Edris or Enoch who among the Chaldeans bore the surnames Uriai or Duwanai. i. e., 'great wise one;' he is said to have lived one thousand years after Adarn, thus in the second millennium of the world, and was the greatest sage of the earth." (Vollmer. Worterbuch der Mythologie, p. 850.)
According to Manetho this first Hermes lived before the Flood and inscribed on tablets, in sacred hieroglyphics, the secret or esoteric doctrines of the most ancient times, together with the elements of all human knowledge. The Egyptian priests declared that they owed to him all that wonderfully minute and exact knowledge of the state of men after death which is revealed in the "Book of Dead," or book of "Funeral Rites." But these tablets were afterwards buried in the earth, and thus lost from view, during a period of civil revolutions and natural catastrophes which once overtook the ancient world. (Compare the story of Enoch, in New Church Life for May, 1904.)
A second Hermes Trismegistus appeared after the deluge, at the beginning of the third millennium: in the tradition of the Arabs he is known as "the second Uriai" or "Hermes al Moth aleth." He is said to have unearthed the hidden tablets of the first Hermes, interpreted the sacred symbols inscribed upon them, and translated their contents to the comprehension of the common people: with these as a basis he wrote by the command of God a great number of inspired books, in which may be found everything that the human mind is capable of learning. These books, which treated of universal principles; of the nature and order of celestial beings, of astrology, medicine, etc., were deposited in the temples in the care of the priesthood, and to them is ascribed the restoration of the wisdom taught by the first Hermes, and the revival of theology, science, art, and culture among the ancient Egyptians.
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This second Hermes also taught that the lower world was created after the similitude of the upper world, and he "established a vast system of correspondencies between the three worlds, the physical or material, the rational or intermediary, and the psychical or spiritual." (Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. I, p. 463)
Then, according to Eusebius and other ancient writers, there arose a third Hermes Trismegistus, who lived a little after the time of Moses. He was a celebrated Egyptian priest and philosopher, who collected the maxims, commentaries, and interpretations of the second Hermes and wrote them down in forty-two books which are known as the 'hermetic books," treating in occult language of theology, astrology, science, art, etc., and also containing the recipe for the making of gold and for finding the "philosopher's stone," on which account they were much revered and studied by the alchemists and mystics of later ages.
It must be to this third Trismegistus that Swedenborg refers in the Spiritual Diary, when he speaks of
Trismegistus, in Egypt, at the time of Moses, who is supposed to have found out how to express the ideas of the mind by means of images of beasts, which are called hieroglyphics. (n. 6083.)
Fragments of the works of this last Hermes exist in Arabic or Latin translations, but they are so mixed with later additions of gnostic, cabalistic, and alchemistic character that it is difficult to judge as to their original value. They may have been commentaries on the books of the "second Hermes," but these latter were undoubtedly part of the Ancient Word which was given after the Flood, even as the tablets of the "first Hermes" clearly refer to the Book of Enoch which was written before the Flood.
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DECEIT. Rev. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT 1905
A SERMON
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. (Ps. xxxii., 2.)
The Blessing of the Lord; who does it not involve? In the first place, it means happiness, for that also is the meaning of the Hebrew word. But happiness involves many things;--first, a plentiful supply of all the necessaries of bodily life, food and drink, shelter, raiment, and all the things that delight the senses. Next the social needs-friends, family. Then comes the need of work and the blessings of the activity of use. This is the best that this world has to offer--and still there lacks something, for man doth not live by bread alone, and to make all his natural blessings satisfying and lasting there is still needed what the Lord alone can give out of heaven, namely, the influx of good and truth into the spirit.
When this is granted as it is to every one who properly disposes himself to receive it--it brings with it the crown of all his blessings--namely, contentment and peace--the sense of the Lord's presence, and the sphere of the heavenly marriage, wherein the Lord's own love of "making others happy from Himself, may come to its fulness and its rest."
This, then, is what is involved in being "blessed" or "happy." But there are several things which block the way, so that these heavenly goods and truths cannot inflow, and this heaven cannot enter our spirits, nor our spirits enter heaven. These are referred to in the words of our text as iniquity, which is imputed to man, and guile, or deceit which dwells in his spirit. To other words, evil and falsity. These are the things which alone hinder the influx of happiness or the Divine Blessing. "Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit."
The wording of the text, however, at once reminds us that there are two kinds of iniquity--namely, that which is imputed to man, and that which is not,--and two kinds of deceit--namely, that which dwells in the spirit, and that which does not.
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Here is a discrimination which must not be lost sight of, else should we despair of ever being former is only external, and does not permanently or completely close up the way of influx, while the latter does.
Iniquity is said to be imputed to man only when he unites in the doing of it both his will and his understanding. Evils which spring only from the inherited or acquired tendency to evil, without deliberation or consent of the understanding, are not confirmed, or imputed, but can easily be removed. Also those which proceed from falsities in the understanding, if from ignorance, or if the will is not active in them. It takes both the will and the understanding to make iniquities imputatory or damning.
So with deceit--it is of two kinds--natural and spiritual--external or internal; and it is only the latter, or deceit from premeditation, that dwells in the spirit, and cuts off a man's chances of heaven entirely. How this is effected, and how extremely dangerous deceit is to man's salvation, is the special subject of this discourse.
Deceit and profanation are very near of kin, since both involve hypocrisy. In fact, profanation is but deceit or hypocrisy, which makes use of holy and Divine things to attain its ends. And so it happens that there is something of deceit, as there is something profane, in all the bells, although the interiorly profane we are told are meant by the lukewarm, who are vomited out of hell and have to dwell apart, being, through their abominable commingling of goods with evils, equally abhorrent to angels and to devils. It is similar with deceit. There is something of deceit involved in all evil. Even a little child, if it falls into some evil, at once instinctively tries to hide it, and begins to lie about it. But there is a great difference between such deceit, which is unpremeditated, and indeed, induced by the sphere of evil spirits, and that which is deliberate and original. The one leads to the other if not detected and checked in time, but there is a distinct and important step between them-for it is right here between these two that the wall of conscience is to be set up and maintained, which at this day is our only protection from the inundation of the hells.
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In the Lord's own words, it is "not that which entereth into man which defileth him, but that which goeth forth. . . . For from within, out of the heart of man, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and defile the man." Mark vii. 20-23.
This distinction is carefully noted in the Divine teachings throughout--as where we are told that a lie means falsity, and guile means falsity deceiving from purpose. The same distinction appears where serpents and dragons are treated of for some of these are poisonous, and others are not. The latter are not nearly so dangerous as the former. The regular symbol for deceit and the deceitful in the Word is the Serpent, who is the same from the time of the Garden of Eden, until he was cast down at the last judgment. (Apoc. xx.) But even here there is a distinction between the deceitfulness arising from the persuasion of sensual appearances, and the malignant poison which lurks hidden beneath his teeth. As to the latter quality, the Serpent is usually denominated an asp, a viper, an adder, or a python. In fact, the deceitful in the other world are seen at a distance as serpents, variously squirming and threatening. When they try to deceive the good, it is only necessary for heaven to look at them, and this, their true quality, at once appears. Even their voices have a hissing tone.
As it is written in True Christian Religion, no. 324: "Those who speak falses from deceit or purpose, and pronounce them with a pretended sound of spiritual affection, and especially if they intermingle truths from the Word which they thus falsify, were called by the ancients enchanters (A. R. 462), and also pythons and serpents of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. These falsifiers, liars and deceivers may be likened to those who speak courteously and kindly with enemies, and while they are speaking, hold behind them a dagger, with which they kill them," etc. etc.
Of such a nature are sirens in the other world, and some of the Popes. They are so insidious, and so dangerous to spirits and to men, who are not as yet in heavenly light, that they have to be most carefully shut up and guarded, nor are they allowed to go forth like other spirits into the world of spirits.
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They are called Genii, and dwell under the back parts of hell--guarded in some cases by angels from the Most Ancient heaven.
This is because they inflow into the affections of the will, by acting against the good of love and charity so clandestinely, that they cannot be at all perceived and by that way they destroy the truth which is of faith. In their own hells they render themselves invisible before their companions, for they who have acted secretly in the world, consider themselves invisible in the other life; but when they appear, they appear amongst each other as men, yet when looked at by the angels, they appear as serpents, for they have the nature of serpents, and what comes forth from them is as poison, and also is spiritual poison. (See A. C. 9013.) Wherefore poison in the Word signifies deceit, and poisonous 6erpents, as asps, cockatrices and vipers, the deceitful: as in David: They think evils in the heart, they sharpen their tongue as a serpent, the poison of an asp is under their lips. (Ps. cxl, 2. 3.)
Such also were the Jews, to whom the Lord said, Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. O ye serpents, offspring of vipers, how shall ye escape the judgment of Gehenna. (Matt. xxiii, 29-33).
It is because they are so dangerous that they are so frequently and so horribly punished--but of this later. Some are described whose torments had recurred through hundreds or even thousands of years! Most devils and satans, on the other hand, soon learn to desist from their crimes, and are delivered from the torment of punishment--which shows how fearfully pertinacious the deceitful are.
Such are the deceitful in the other life, and such is their lamentable lot. But there is a still deeper reason why we should so greatly beware of deceit; and that is because it is a poison which is not only hard to detect when being practiced by others, but because it is of all evils the most sure to destroy our souls, and this because it penetrates more interiorly than ordinary evil, and corrupts the Rational itself, which is the sole palladium of man's freedom and responsibility. The case herein is this: The Rational is the Seat of man's conscience--it is the throne from which alone he is able to rule himself in obedience to the laws of Divine order. It is that by which alone he is a man--a responsible and free creature.
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If this is corrupted, he becomes a mere creature of his perverted instincts--he has no basis within him for the influx and operation of the heavens. Deceit corrupts this faculty so interiorly that it is destroyed as to every spark of spiritual life, and yet is able to control all his knowledge and mental abilities for its own deceptive purposes. The reason is, as it is said, because he who is in deceit mediates evils, and nourishes his understanding with them, and so its very delight becomes delight of evil. Thus he destroys everything which is truly human in it, namely, the remains of good and of truth. And yet it is these remains alone upon which the Rational depends for the influx of light from heaven, and thus for its human and saving quality. It is from these remains alone, implanted in every man by the Lord from his earliest infancy, that this wonderful faculty receives its ability to elevate itself, to judge impartially concerning truths and goods or their opposites, and to acknowledge what is right whether his lower nature inclines to it or not. Now by indulging the delight of deceit he allows these genii, spoken of above, to inflow and take possession of the very palladium or throne of his reason, and by means of a rear entrance directly into his delights, to usurp its god-like functions, and to corrupt the very seat of his power and his protection against hell. The worst of it is that it thus destroys the only thing in man by which he is able to repent, and hence we are told that those who are interiorly affected with spiritual deceit-"in whose spirit there is guile"-or hypocrisy, are they who are meant by those who speak against the Holy Spirit-for whom there is no forgiveness, either in this or in the world to come. (See Matthew xii, 31-33.) The reason why it will not be forgiven them is because hypocrisy or deceit respecting holy Divine things, infects the interiors of man, and destroys everything of spiritual life with him, as was said above, insomuch that at length there is no soundness in any part of him. (See A. C. 9013.)
He has commingled evil and good so profoundly that they cannot be disassociated--and yet the forgiveness of evil is nothing else but the separation of evil from good, and the rejection of evil to the sides--and this is impossible with one in whom the remains of good are destroyed.
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Such men ensnare their neighbor and destroy him from deliberate purpose, and they are meant by those who "slay by deceit" where it is enacted in the Mosaic law, From with mine altar shalt thou take him to slay him. (See A. C. 9013). This is because such a man has destroyed in himself the seeds of all mercy, the Remains stored up by the Lord in his interiors, "which being destroyed, nothing of spiritual life any longer survives. Wherefore, when such persons supplicate the Lord for forgiveness, and promise repentance, which things are signified by flying to an altar, they supplicate and promise nothing at all from the heart but only from the mouth; therefore they are not heard, for the Lord looks at the heart, not at the expressions of the voice abstracted and alienated from the heart. Hence they have no forgiveness, because no repentance can find place with them."
The worst deceivers of all are the religious frauds. Although they are the lowest in hell, they manage through subject spirits to appear to be high up above the head, especially above the vertex, where they are hardest to detect. Now this is the religion normally occupied by the things of religion, where the Lord and heaven inflow. Thus they interpose themselves, seizing upon and profaning man's highest and best thoughts and affections, yea, even the very ends of his life. These, having no conscience whatever, are the ones who endeavor to bind men by spurious conscience. They are also wont to insinuate into their subjects that they are the Holy Spirit, thus ultimating their blasphemy of the Spirit. Such spirits hated Swedenborg very much, and endeavored in every way to assault him and to destroy him with their craft, because he exposed them. Exposure they hate most of al, as they have no power except in secrecy. Much is said of them and of their efforts in the Diary, especially in the last two volumes. Exposure is their greatest enemy, and hence the statement that "in England there is no liberty to use deceit and cunning in order to deceive others. . .but the opposite is the case with the Italians at the present day." (L. J. post., 5.) Doubtless this is owing to the freedom of speech.
In the future, this detection of this class of spirits, and the full and explicit descriptions of their evils, will be of increasing importance of the New Church. For with the reopening importance to the Word and of the heavens, and the restoration of the science of correspondences, there will be an increase of danger from witchcraft, feigned angels, holy spirits, sirens and the whole brood of pythons and serpents.
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There is always protection, however, for those who are in humble faith in the Lord, for they have light from Him in which even the most cunning and deceitful appear as to their true quality.
That they are in safety from the Lord is meant by the Lord's words to the disciples: These signs shall follow them that believe; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them (Mark xvi. 18); and in Isaiah, The suckling shall play on the hole of the viper (xi. 8). The suckling signifies interior innocence.
In our educational work there is nothing that needs more carefully to be guarded against than the beginnings of deceit. Hence a lie is treated with double severity. Sincerity is one of the three most indispensable virtues for a Newchurchman, for it is written, "These three evils, (adultery, dominion, and deceit), will be especially shunned by those who will be of the New Jerusalem." (A. C. 6053) Without sincerity no one can be esteemed, whatever his abilities may be. In the business world, too, it is the foundation of confidence, upon which the whole economic fabric rests. It is only as our spiritual-rational truths come down to the moral and civil plane that the Church will become founded upon the earth. Spiritual moral truth is what makes the Church on earth, or moral good from a spiritual origin. Such moral good differs from that which prevails with men who have no spiritual illustration mainly in being more rational, more discriminating, and not so easily seduced.
The controlling reason for not employing duplicity of any kind or deception in business as well as out of it, is to avoid bringing yourself into the sphere and delight of deceitful spirits. And it is evident that it is better for a man to lose every dollar of his means, yea, even his credit, his health or life itself, rather than to lose his innocence or to violate his conscience. "For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul." But on the other hand, it must be remembered that men in the world are frequently in contact with unprincipled rascals, who, while maintaining the smoothest kind of an exterior, have no other end or intention than the wolfish one of devouring all your substance.
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And against such enemies it is sometimes necessary for the sheep to protect themselves by taking on an exterior of prudent dissimulation. This is not in such a case deceit, but lawful prudence, for the end is self-preservation, and not malice toward the enemy. If the end in it be really innocent, therefore, and the protection of innocence rather than evil intended or desired toward the enemy, it is evident that the man will have no inward delight in the deceit for its own sake, nor even for the discomforture of his enemy. Thus will his own soul be preserved.
The Old Church cannot comprehend such an application of a law of charity as this, where it is apparently turned into its opposite. Hence the outcry against warfare, because it involves killing, and yet some can see that to kill a murderer is not to break but to enforce the law, which says, Thou shalt do no murder. Some can even see that to so well to those that do evil to you may consist at times in punishing them. But as a rule, the man whose conscience is formed according to the mere appearances of the letter, will soon find himself compelled to choose between actual ruin and the breaking of his conscience. Not so the Newchurchman. He knows what the laws of Christian charity really mean, and is ready at any time to make a common sense application of them according to their true intent and spirit under the circumstances. Probably even Newchurchmen do not themselves realize what an immense advantage this is. It renders possible the restoration of Christianity to the realms of business and politics, spheres in which the principles of the Golden Rule are now able to appear only as shadows and not as substantial guiding realities, often as pretences. to deceive the unwary, or as cloaks, to be cast aside when the time for the killing arrives.
The principles of the Christian Religion, as far as the everyday affairs of men's uses are concerned, are become like cross-road-images of a mutilated Savior, to which some well meaning souls bow in momentary reverence, and pass on, while a greater number, if they interrupt their heedless rush at all, do so only "to be seen of men." But with the Newchurchmen these great and all powerful principles are to be like angels of God walking the earth among God's creatures, helping, protecting, counseling and thus really saving and blessing mankind, and their work, especially in the affairs of business, in the daily work, or even politics.
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No man ought ever to violate his conscience, or to persuade his neighbor to do so. The Lord does no violence, even to a spurious conscience but provides for the bending and bettering of the conscience through its proper channel, namely, the rational faculty. If a man finds himself persistently confronted with the alternative of violating his conscience or injuring some use, he should not go on until he can decide whether it is the conscience which is too narrow, from lack of insight into the spirit of the truth, or whether it is only an appearance that good or use is likely to suffer through applying his standard. It is the effort to apply the spirit of the law which opens the internal spiritual man and enlightens the Rational. There is no virtue so potent as sincerity and honesty in bringing to man the sphere of heaven, with all the blessings of love and confidence which that involves.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Amen.
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IS THE BELIEF IN THE SECOND COMING THE STEPPING STONE FROM THE OLD CHURCH TO THE NEW? GEORGE A. MCQUEEN 1905
It is a well established belief in the General Church that the office of teaching the things of the Church is an office of the priesthood.--and this, especially in respect to public teaching. But it will be readily admitted that the layman of the Church should be able to give a reason for his faith when invited to do so by men whom he may meet in the world, and this, of course, involves the element of teaching. The layman may, in this way, be of use as a medium of disseminating the Heavenly Doctrines in a private manner, and thus of extending the work of the Priesthood.
It is undoubtedly our duty to pass on to others the truths which we have been taught, and the object of the present paper is to enquire as to whether there is any indication in the Writings pointing to an orderly and systematic method of procedure in this respect, that is, when we are confronted with an outsider who appears to be genuinely desirous of learning about the Heavenly Doctrines.
We all know that there are many classes of enquirers. There is the man who asks merely for the sake of controversy. There is the intellectual enquirer who likes to know about any new thing, and there are numerous others who soon reveal the fact that we would probably do more harm than good by talking to them about spiritual things. Still there are those, who, while believing in the Lord and the Church established at His First Coming, are yet unable to receive the falsities which are proclaimed by their teachers. They are not comforted, and live in the expectation that their difficulties will be removed in the other world where all things will be made plain. Some of these may be prepared to see the truth in this world, and for aught we know, such an one may be making enquiries of us. We may as well acknowledge at once that, however we may approach the question, the results will not depend upon us but upon the only source of all Truth.
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Nevertheless is it not possible that there is a kind of test-question, or test-teaching, the use of which would help us to decide whether our efforts are likely to be of use or not?
The usual thing is for a person to ask, "What do you believe about the future life?" We try to explain the teaching on this subject. They reply, "But what do you make of the atonement?" We do our best with this question, and numerous others, which necessarily arise from it. Then our conversation ends, where it seems it might have begun, with the enquiry, "How do you know Swedenborg was taught from heaven?" Of course these conversations vary according to the differences in the individuals concerned, but we mostly finish with the feeling that we have accomplished little, if any good: that we have dealt with too many points of doctrine and established none. We hope some impression has been made, but we rarely see any result.
We now attempt a reply to the question raised in the title of this article.
We know from the Word in the Letter, that it contains many prophecies concerning the First Coming of the Lord. It is not necessary for us to quote them here. For many generations the Jewish Church looked forward to that great event. In Coronis, n. 59, we are given the reasons, so far as regards the Israelitish and Jewish people, why these prophecies were revealed.
"The first reason was that by His being named and recalled to mind, they might be kept in the interior worship of Jehovah, since without that there was no entrance of Jehovah to anyone of them, nor any approach of anyone of them to Jehovah. . . .
"The second reason regarding that people, was that the representative types of their Church, which all looked to our Lord, and to the Church to be established by Him after His Coming, might serve them as so many indicators and symbols of their worship; consequently that they might acknowledge Him when He came, and might suffer themselves to be introduced into the internals of the worship of Him, and, together with the nations that surrounded them, might become Christians.
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"The third reason was, that by bearing in mind His coming, something of a, notion or idea concerning resurrection and eternal life might enter into their thoughts.
"The fourth reason was, that, in the state of their vastation and oppression, when they were in temptations and afflictions, they might be raised up and healed.
And the passage concludes with the words: "It is for these reasons that the Coming of the Lord was so frequently foretold in the Old Prophetical Word. And if is joy the same reasons, that the Lord is proclaimed in the New Evangelical and Apostolic Word and His Second Coming foretold."
From this it seems to follow that the belief in the First Coming was the stepping stone from the Jewish to the First Christian Church. And the same would follow in relation to the First Christian Church and that of the New Jerusalem; that is to say, the belief in the Second Coming in the Christian Church is the stepping stone to the New Church. So long as there are those in the Christian Church who believe in the Second Advent, however erroneous may be their ideas as to its nature, there exists a state of mind which may be receptive of the doctrines of the New Church. Should this belief die out, there is no longer any hope for any in the former Church.
Assuming this conclusion to be correct, does it not suggest that the Doctrine of the Second Coming should be the first to be proclaimed to the world by the New Church missionary, and the first to be explained to the private enquirer?
Without the acceptance of this Doctrine, a knowledge of the numerous teachings on other subjects contained in the Writings is of no avail.
By pursuing the method here suggested, we would avoid the danger of leading men to profess acceptance of the Doctrines while they at the same look upon them as the productions of a man, and not as being the Lord in His Second Coming.
If this Doctrine is made the stepping stone and our enquirer takes this first step, then all else will follow as a matter of course.
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And if a less direct method be pursued, the matter is only deferred, for the question of the Second Advent will be reached sooner or later, and the step of acknowledgment of the Lord in His Coming must first be taken before there can be an entrance into the New Church.
Let us then first ask our enquirer, "Do you look to the fulfilment of the promises of the Lord concerning His coming again? If the answer is in the affirmative, we can immediately say, "We believe He has already come, and may be found, by those who look for Him, in the Spiritual Revelation given through Emanuel Swedenborg." We might then refer the enquirer to the Writings themselves.
In this way we may be able to see some indication as to whether our friend is ultimately prepared to take the step to the New Church, or not, but, whatever the result, we may be satisfied that we have referred him away from ourselves, to the source of all Truth, the Lord alone; if it is for his good that he see the Lord in the glory of His Spiritual Revelation, he will assuredly do so. On the other hand, it may not be good for him at present and he may have to wait until he enters the spiritual world,--as did many of the Jews of old, who, during the ages, looked continually for the coming of the Messiah.
MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG. 1905
THE LAST JUDGMENT.
ON FAITH ALONE.
(Continued.)
191. That the interior sphere of spirits was perceived to be completely filled with affections, which are ends, of becoming great, of growing rich and of having wise for the sake of glory, and little, if at all, on account of the common good.
192. When, from the Lord, I was in the faith of the knowledges of truth it was found that evil spirits were powerless to refute them or even to reason about them; as when I was in the knowledges that the Lord rules the universe, that the Lord alone is life, and that the proprium of man is nothing but evil, and other truths of a like kind.
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Evil spirits hearing these, although they did not believe them yet could not contradict, for truth stops up their mouth, because the intellectual does not admit any thinking against it. From this it was made clear that those who are in the simple faith of truth resist evils. I also saw some, who were in truths, who passed through many hells and all the infernals retreated, nor could they approach, still less do any evil. But he who believes in the faith set forth in the Church at this day, cannot do this; the infernals are in no way troubled at their approach, and this because truth from the Lord is not present in that faith.
193. Concerning certain spirits who have no spiritual life because they are in ignorance of faith; and that life is inspired into them by the Lord through angels. I once felt a somewhat intense cold from the soles of the feet up to the knee: it became evident that it was cold spirits [who caused this]. It was told me that they were those who in the world had lived in absolute ignorance of God.1 After they had been elevated I heard them talking, and I could perceive hardly any vitality in their speech. They spoke as though they were making inanimate statues speak, and I despaired of any life long remaining in them. They were like automatons or sounding sculptures. But presently I heard that they had been let into a species of activity appearing like a species of gyration. Angels were caring for them by infusing life into them, which they did with such solicitude and devotion, that it can scarcely be described, nor did they suffer themselves to be wearied. They waved them, as is said in the Word of the things sacrificed, that they were waved by the Levites,2 the reason being, that they might receive spiritual life. When this had been done for some little time, they began to be enlivened and to be no longer of such a nature as before; thus they began to use some speech in company, saying that they were in heaven.3
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The work was continued by the Lord through angels during the whole night, and after this they became such as to be capable of being insinuated or inserted into some companies in which they were afterwards perfected. For they were receptive of life because they had nothing repugnant thereto, as have those who confirm themselves in falses against truths. The manner in which life was successively insinuated into them was represented by colors--the first of life by a marble color increasing in whiteness, the second by a growing azure color in which was the white, and the third by patches of bright clouds rising up.4 Their quality was afterwards shown me by a breathing from them into my face, and also into the anterior region of the breast. It was somewhat cold but verging to heat. This was from the Lord alone by means of angels. They may be said to be resuscitated from no life into some life.5
1. These spirits should not be confounded with those mentioned in nos. 130-131 who were heathen. See note at end of this paragraph.--TR.
2. Sicut in Verbo dicitur de sacrificatis et Levitis quod agitarentur literally translated would be "As is said in the Word of the things sacrificed and of the Levites that they were waved."--TR.
3. The life insinuated into them was their heaven." S. D. 3553--TR.
4. The Latin is, per assurgentium nubium maculas assurgentes. The word assurgentium, however, appears to be a lapsus calami for candescentium, used in S. D. 3551, where, with this exception, the same words are found.-TR.
5. The events related in this paragraph were noted by Swedenborg on October 13, 1748 (S. D. 3556). A somewhat more detailed account of them is given in the Spiritual Diary 3550-3556, where, also, mention is made of two classes of these grossly ignorant spirits. The one class, which caused cold in the right foot, were such as had indulged "in drinking, whipping each other, etc., characters such as are found in the lowest of the populace, who live in woods, differing little from the wild beasts, and who would be beasts but from possessing the faculty of thought." The other class which caused cold in the left foot were "in like manner from the dregs of the people, who utterly denied a life after death, and believed they would die like the beasts." (S. D. 3550)--TR
194. There was one who held it as a principle that faith alone saves; it was said to him that faith is like science and knowledge which should be for the sake of use and of good, and that otherwise it is nothing but a science; also that he is insane who believes that science alone saves, when yet all science and knowledge has good as an end.
195. He who has fought against evils, and, from the Lord, has come into the love of good and truth, is in the knowledges of truth and good as it were from himself; he sees them in himself, and they are inscribed on his heart, as is said in Isaiah and Jeremiah.6
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The rational is then enlightened. But prior to this he does not know them, except from the memory alone, in which case he does not see them except externally,--and if they are not seen internally they are dry and transitory. This is the life in truths; for all the things of truth are inscribed on the love, just as, with every animal, all things which are for use are inscribed on the affection, as in the case of bees, birds and other animals; so also are they inscribed on man if he is in the genuine love of truth and good. It is from this that the angels have their wisdom.
6. The Latin is Esaiam et Joelem, but there is nothing in Joel that bears on the point in question. The passage invariably quoted in the Writings in this connection is Jev. xxxi. 33.--TR.
196. I was led through societies or mansions of heaven, and in many of them I spoke. And when I came to mansions of the third heaven, where are the celestial, I wished to speak with them about the knowledges which are called knowledges of faith and which in themselves are truths. I marveled that they did not wish to make any response to these things. They said that they see all things in themselves from the love in which they are,--which was love to the Lord and mutual love,--adding that the truths of their faith were inscribed on their life, and that therefore they see them from the light of truth which is from the Lord, and this because in good is contained all truth. They also said, What are knowledges except for the sake of uses? and uses are goods, and goods are of love. It was told me that they are of this nature because, in the world, they had applied all the truths they had heard to their life. All their love and all their faith consists in deeds.
197. Those who are in faith alone believe in instantaneous salvation and pure mercy; and therefore they implore mercy alone and believe that they are instantly saved the moment they receive faith, even though it be in the last hour of death. They also believe that the remission of all sins consists in the wiping away of all evils. They have no comprehension of remission by means of repentance of life, but only of remission by means of faith arising from thinking such things as they call of their faith; thus they are ignorant of all the means of salvation.
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It was shown them that such things are a phantasy; and this phantasy was represented as being interiorly full of poisonous serpents. The nature of the phantasy was shown in a ludicrous manner, namely, that they think to void those serpents through their posteriors, which also they wish to do.7
7. A fuller idea of the meaning of this passage may be had by comparing it with a parallel passage in the Spiritual Diary (n. 4542), where it is said of these solafidians that in the other world they imagine "they will be free of all sins, if only they can cast out, by means of phantasies, the filthy things which are with them. But it was shown them that this is a phantasy. A certain woman, interiorly and representatively full of poisonous serpents (a profane hell), supposed that if she could only void these serpents like ordinary stools, she would be freed [from her sins]; which was done two or three times."--TR.
198. When they think from their doctrine about faith alone, and are opposed by the statement, in the Epistle of James, that men should show their faith by works, there appears as it were a knife flying forth to slay those who perceive this to be the case. And from one side comes forth an idea of Luther, and from the other, whither the knife Aies, an idea of James,--although Luther and James themselves are not there. The reason is, because Luther excluded the Epistle of James.8
8. See n. 33, above.--TR.
199. Below, at the left, are those who from doctrine have confirmed themselves in regard to faith alone, but yet have lived a life of charity from the principle that faith produces the works of charity. These, because they have lived well, are accepted, despite their confirmation, and have conjunction with heaven. Still it is not a direct conjunction, and this for the reason that they hold it as a principle that it is faith that produces the works of charity, when yet faith is of the thought, and thought produces nothing; it only teaches what should be done, and if a man does what it teaches, it is not from any faith that he does it; for knowledges of truth do not become knowledges of faith until man has done them. [He who holds that faith produces the works of charity] is like one who believes that the sight operates into the hands to enable a man to work, or into the feet to enable him to walk and not stumble, when yet the sight does not operate in this way, but it teaches and brings things to view.
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That this is an inversion was shown by it being given to a certain spirit to walk on a road and to then believe that it was the understanding that was leading him. He then went from the east to the west or from the south to the north, thus from truths to falses, and in obscurity. But his state was changed [so that he believed] that the will or love was leading him; he then walked from the west to the east and from the north to the south, thus into good and into truth in light. It was told them that with those who have had this belief the state is successively inverted, and that then are they first being regenerated and may come into the angelic life.
200. They who, from doctrine, are in the principle that faith alone saves, and yet have led a good life, constitute certain societies in which they are in the middle, while at the circumferences are those who are not of such a quality, and lastly those who are evil, so that they are girt about by the evil. It was told them that they still dwell among the evil.
201. It was made known by living experience that those who have been in faith alone and have led a moral life, had made heavens for themselves, where they seemed to themselves to have been in light; but it was shown that it is a wintry light, for when angels looked thither, in place of light there appeared a thick darkness. Those who go there, and are at the same time in charity, feel a pain in the breast, the stomach and the knees.
202. Concerning those who are continually wrangling about truths. There are hells where they do nothing else but wrangle about truths. One of them was under the groins. In that hell were those who believe that they know everything and that nothing is hidden from them, when yet they do not know anything, except that their faith is the all of the Church with men. There are those there who, by reason of their belief that they know all things, think that they alone are entitled to talk; they despise the laity. They are continually saying that this is the truth itself, and that it cannot be contradicted. I have there heard perpetual contradictions and quarrels which went so far that they wished to attack their opponents with their fists, but they are held back by others. They appear in that place as if they were tearing garments; and from the place is heard as it were the gnashing of teeth.9
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Thus do they go forward and back,10 and thus do they wrangle,--not in the slightest degree for the sake of truth but for the sake of themselves from the pride of self-intelligence and from the lust of domineering. They are removed from others, because they disturb all tranquillity of mind and take away the freedom of thinking from the Word,--inducing their own opinions as though they were from the Divine and infesting all who do not receive. At this day there are many such consociations drawn from the Christian world, because there they have divided the Church on questions of opinion with respect to matters of faith, and the good of life they not only reject, but they also say that they know not what it is other than to give to the poor and to listen to preachings.
9. In the Apocalypse Revealed, n. 386; is given a detailed account of a wrangling discussion which took place in the Spiritual World in a "College" from which, at a distance, was heard the gnashing of teeth. See also T. C. R. 463.--TR.
10. Ita abeunt and redeunt. The meaning of these words is illustrated by a passage in the Arcana describing certain tumultuous noises, heard in the world of spirits, which represented the confliction of thoughts and the confusion of opinions respecting truths which there prevailed prior to the Last Judgment. One of these noises is described as a gnashing which was turned forwards and back. It was said that this was because truths were in conflict, and thus they were being turned forwards and back by reasonings." (2129. See also S. D. 1319.)--TR.
203. Those who claimed that they had had faith have been seen many times; and when they are exposed it is found that they had no other faith than that which was spoken of above. This they call the only saving faith, and also spiritual faith, and yet they have not lived any Christian life by shunning evils because they are sins. They were sent into places where faith was constituted of truths which had their essence from the good of life; and there communication was granted them [in order that they might know] as to whether they possessed faith. And, from the perception then given them, they themselves openly confessed that they had nothing of faith, that [with them] it was a scientific thing like any other scientific of the world, and that they had not known what faith was; also that faith was truth, and that, unless truths are from good, they are not truths, but are only articulated expressions of sound.
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204. A great number of those who are in faith alone and in no life of charity are sensual. For evils of life,--which they neither see in themselves nor have endeavored to see,--occupy their voluntary and make it; and, as a man is in respect to his voluntary such he is as to his interiors. Therefore these interiors are shut up, and all things which are of the Church and heaven are below or without, thus merely in the memory where they reside as an historical faith11 or a science. This is the reason why, when men hear something of the truths concerning the Lord, the Word, eternal life, heaven, the state of the angels and the state of men after death, the things their hear are received as matters of the memory; but as soon as they think about them, as to whether they are so, then the corporeal sensual judges and makes its own conclusion. The conclusion reached is that what has been heard cannot be true, and this because what is previously in the memory from doctrine must be believed; as, that there are three persons of the Divinity, that the Human of the Lord is not Divine, that angels, because they are spirits, are like winds, and so likewise man after death. The reason is because it is the sensual that makes the conclusion, and [in such case] light from heaven which enlightens cannot be received, the interiors being closed to the transflux of that light. Investigate for yourself as to whether this is not the case, whenever any such truth is laid under direct examination and enquiry is made as to whether it is so. The sensual man is such that he comprehends fallacies and believes in appearances and speaks truths, but the truths themselves, which are of the light of heaven, he rejects.
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This is the effect of faith alone, and therefore they cannot be led on into any understanding of truth.
11. The definitions of the term Historical Faith which are given in the Writings may be comprised in the following quotations: "To believe in God is the faith which saves, but to believe the things which are from God is historical faith, which, without the former, does not save." (A. E. 349, end.) "The faith of knowledges, before it becomes the faith of life, is historical faith." (A. E. 242:5.) "Historical faith is the faith of another in oneself, for the man believes it to be true, lot because he sees it in himself, but because another, in whom he has faith, says so. (A. E. 401:35.)--TR.
205. It was said by angels that there can be no such thing as faith alone. Spirits who, in the world, hall been in faith alone, indignant at this, came running up from every direction to where the angelic spirits were, and enquired, Is there no such a thing as faith alone? In this manner they rail to tell of fifteen places and everywhere received the answer, that there is no such thing, because faith without love is science, and their faith the science of falsity; and if they wish to call science faith, because they have persuaded themselves in it, although they do not understand whether it is so, [their belief] is nothing but a persuasion because it is so said, and is scarcely different from [the persuasion] that corpses and bones and men's graves are holy, when yet they are stercoraceous and signify damnation and hell. When they heard this they ran on and enquired what love was--whether it was not faith alone. Angelic spirits thought them insane, and still more when they said that works were of faith--a statement which, when heard, sounded as if they had said that thinking was doing. They ran on still further and said, Is not faith thus a nonentity? They received the answer that faith separate from charity is a nonentity, because faith is called faith from charity which is its soul; and faith separate from charity is just such an entity as is the body without the soul.
206. I have heard many of the learned reasoning about various matters of their faith--things which they had held from birth and which were therefore truths of their religion. Their reasoning was sharp and vehement and each one was refuting the other. There were angels who were listening and they said that with not a single one of them did they perceive any affection of truth, nor therefore any sight of truth, and thus no delight of mind arising from any truth. They wondered that these spirits were able to confirm falses; and they said that it was merely the delight of reasoning springing from pride [which inspired them], and that thus they cannot progress into any wisdom, for they are at a standstill. But those who are in the affection of truth are ever progressing from truth to truths, and this continually until at last they come to wisdom and thus to angelic happiness.
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They said, further, that as soon as they hear such reasoners they turn themselves away and have no wish to join company with them because they see nothing. Of such quality are very many of those who have confirmed themselves in faith separate, not only in doctrine but also in life; for they think to themselves, What need have I to know what evil is since this does not condemn? or what good is since this does not save? Only let me think, from that faith, that the Lord has fulfilled for me all things of the law and that His merit will be imputed to me.
207. It was disclosed by angels of heaven that those who are in faith alone have no conscience, yea, that they do not know what conscience is; and he who has no conscience has no religion. The reason is, because they make goods of life of no account, and they who make these of no account can by no means have conscience, and hence cannot know what it is; for conscience is a grief of the mind (animus) that one has done contrary to the Divine precepts and that one has thought against them. Grief of conscience arises from this, that they see themselves as it were in damnation.
208. They who believe that man is saved by charity and not by faith alone, if they do not live the life of charity, differ little from the others. For to say charity or to say faith, and not to do them, are both equally of the thought in which is nothing of life because nothing of the will. Such spirits inflict pain on the breast and on the right shoulder-blade.
209. How greatly principles derived from what is false injure the mind (animus) and turn it away from deeds, may appear from many examples. Thus he who believes that works contribute nothing to salvation turns his mind away from doing good. He who believes adulteries are lawful turns his mind away from chaste conjugial love, thus from chastity, yea from purity of faith: for purity of faith is wholly discordant with adulteries. He who believes that nature operates all things, and that God operates only in a universal way, trusts in his own prudence, and does nothing of good except from himself. Wherefore principles derived from what is false inflow into the life; for the will does not act contrary to the principles that have been received, but in accordance with them.
(To be continued.)
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Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
The sixteenth volume of the Rotch edition of the Arcana Coelestia has just been received. This brings the new translation up to no. 9442 of the whole work.
The American Swedenborg Society has issued a very handy and tasteful pocket edition of The Four Doctrines in the new translation made by the Rev. J. F. Potts.
Mr. A. L. Kip, the indefatigable "correspondentialist," has issued a new volume of "intuitive "correspondences, this time dealing with the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The Messenger, in an apologetic review of the book, observes that the author "here and there confirms his statements by citations from Swedenborg and by quotations from the Rev. John Worcester, whose authority in these matters stands second only to that of Swedenborg himself." When a reviewer can mention these two "authorities" in the same breath, it is not surprising to hear him ask "What matters it if we cannot agree with all of Mr. Kip's conclusions? No one of us possesses the absolute truth, especially in this least studied of all sciences, the science of correspondences." (Italics our own.)
Mr. John H. Ball, of Sydney, N. S. W., in a letter to The New Age for September, informs the Australian New Church public that "the Academy teaches that the Bible is not the Word without the Writings. That the Bible without the Writings is like a body without a soul. The error arises from substituting the Writings for the spiritual sense of the Word; which they are not, even in the least degree. The perversion of the teaching of Swedenborg is necessary to the ends of the Academy, which is to establish a priestcraft, which will fulfill all the conditions that are necessary to establish a modern Babylon.
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First by undermining all truly Divine authority, by rejecting the Word; and secondly, by the spiritual enslavement of its members; for they deny all laymen, not only the right, but the ability to think correctly on spiritual things, and they claim that this faculty is monopolized by the priesthood." The above is quoted-just as "a sample."
In an article on the Birth of Spiritualism, in Public Opinion for September 16th, Mr. H. Addington Bruce, as is usual, connects Swedenborg with Mesmer as the first "to establish as a popular concept the idea of intercourse between the living and the dead." The writer, however exhibits unusual accuracy of historical information when stating that "naturally the disciples of Swedenborg, mindful of the teachings, the trance manifestations, and 'inspirational' writings of their master, were to the fore in pressing this claim, and as early as 1787 drew up reports of experiments in which they had succeeded, by the aid of magnetized subjects, in entering into communication with departed 'spirits and in deriving very positive information concerning the life beyond the grave." The "reports" referred to were the publications of the Exegetic-Pilanthropic Society in Stockholm, which was founded by the Nordenskjold brothers, and which counted among its members Prince Charles of Hesse and the Duke of Sodermanland, (who afterwards, as Charles XIII, became king of Sweden), besides a great number of Counts, Barons, and distinguished men. But it was just because they were not "mindful of the teachings" of their professed master that they engaged in magical practices and drew upon the New Church the undeserved opprobrium of connection with spiritism.
Speaking of Robert Clive, who "inaugurated a new era of cosmic relations in 1757, by giving India to the English." Mr. Albert J. Edmunds in his Buddhist and Christian Gospels, makes the observation that "Swedenborg was a true prophet when he proclaimed that this remarkable year was the hinge of an aeon, [referring to the Last Judgment in 1757].
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"He could not have said this by mere political calculation, for the news of the battle of Plassey, in June, 1757, did not reach Europe until early in 1758. Before that time the seer of Stockholm had had the vision whereon he based his statement," (p. 23)
The writer of the above, a Philadelphia gentleman of phenomenal learning, was at one time connected with the New Church, or at least interested in its Doctrines, but has now come to the conclusion that "the Virginal Birth is no necessary part of Christian belief." His recently published work, presenting Parallels between the Christian Gospels and the sacred codes of the Buddhists, is of interest to the New Church on account of the manner in which the author has gathered and focused the scattered rays of the ancient Asiatic Word, in which were prophecies of the Coming of the Lord so accurate in the Letter, and so rich in detail, that modern orientalists have taken them as proofs positive, that Christianity itself is but a garbled and plagiarized version of Brahman and Buddhist legends. Mr. Edmunds himself seems to lean to this view, but the least knowledge of the internal sense of the Word is sufficient to show that the Christian Gospels are Divine in letter as in spirit, while the Buddhist texts are tedious monkish tales spun out at great length around an ancient kernel of genuine truth.
Under the heading "Keeping our Children in the Church," the Rev. T. K. Payton, writing in the New Church Magazine for September, inquires into the causes which lead to "many of the children of New Church parents, when they attain to the age of reason, manifesting so little zeal for the Church." The writer shows at some length and with commendable clearness that the organized New Church "does now present before men the Lord's own Church in a visible form, as the real repository and custodian of the Word," and that "there are no signs that the Lord is now establishing the Visible Church in any section of the Old Church." The non-acknowledgment of this truth on the part of the parents is given as "one of the causes, if not the principal cause, which prevents many of our children becoming members of the New Church." If the parents were convinced that the New Church is the only Visible Church "they would so impress it on the minds of their children that those children would come to have an affection for whatever belongs to the Church, and a desire to acquire a rational understanding of its interior truths;" and "would not teach them, as some parents now do, that it is a matter of very little importance whether they become members of the New Church or not."
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To the same cause Mr. Payton ascribes the "indifference" of "some members of the Church" concerning the interior truths of the Word,--an indifference which sometimes finds expression in remarks such as, "We do not come to Church to crack our brains." And yet, as he forcibly adds, the Church has no power to instruct or to lead except by the teaching of interior truths.
We can heartily sympathize with the objects Mr. Payton has in view, but it is to be feared that the absence from his paper of any reference to the state of the Old Church in respect to life, or to the question of New Church Education, or the still more important question of marriage within the Church, will have the effect of considerably detracting from the force and practical value of his arguments. The majority of Newchurchmen will readily assent to the proposition that the Writings should be more read, and while many of them will nor so readily accept the statement that the "Old Church is not drawing nearer to the New," yet they will tolerate a belief in it on the part of others, as a more or less academic position, and even the teaching of it, so long as this is not followed out to its logical conclusion, namely, the advocacy of an absolute separation from that church in worship, in education, in social life and in marriage.
At the close of his paper, Mr. Payton adds the statement--somewhat surprising in view of the general tone of his article--that it is "not contrary to order" for the isolated receiver "to attend an Old Church place of worship." How can this advice be reconciled with the preceding statement of the writer that "the tendency of the real leaders of thought in the Old Church is more towards the negation than it is to the affirmation of the two cardinal doctrines of the New Church," and that "the influences which are now at work in that Church are prejudicial to a proper understanding of the Word and of the true character of Him who is the Word?"
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GEORGE II. AND THE BISHOPS. 1905
In the Apocalypse Revealed, nos. 341 and 716, we read of an English monarch m one of the societies of the superior heaven," who was "the grandfather of the king now reigning." This was George II, who died in the year 1760 and was succeeded by his grandson, George III, who was reigning when the Apocalypse Revealed was published in the year 1766. This monarch, on one occasion, was seen by Swedenborg, engaged in conversation with some bishops of the Church of England to whom the king said, "Did I not tell you many times in the world that the Lord is to be approached, and also that charity is the chief thing?" On another occasion he is described as being both astonished and indignant at the contempt with which the English bishops had received presentation-copies of some of the Writings, and he sent some of these bishops away from him, with the words: "Depart! Alas, that anyone can grow so callous against hearing anything concerning Heaven and concerning Life eternal!"
"The King then inquired whence it was that the clergy paid so universal an obedience to the bishops, and it was said that it was from the power granted to every bishop in his diocese to nominate to the King only one candidate to the churches, and not three, as in other kingdoms; and that owing to that power they had authority to promote favorites to more eminent honors and larger incomes, each one according to the obedience which he offers. It was also disclosed how far that Hierarchy might go, even until Dominion would be the essential thing, and Religion the formal. Their ardor for dominating was also laid open and viewed by the angels, and it was seen to exceed the ardor for dominating with those who are in secular power." (n. 716).
That George II, even in the natural world, had his eyes open to the character of the Angelican hierarchy, is evident from the following anecdote related in Arthur B. Thompson's History of England: "The second Hanoverian Sovereign seems to have been especially fond of reviling the prelates of the Church of which he himself was the immaculate head. Thus, when Sherlock, Bishop of Salisbury, deemed it his duty to write against the Quaker's Relief Bill, the Defender of the Faith spoke of the Fathers of the Church as 'a parcel of black, canting, hypocritical rascals.'
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On his gentle Queen begging him to be more lenient in his remarks upon the bishops, he is reported to have said. 'I am sick to death of all this foolish stuff, and wish with all my heart that the devil may take all your bishops.'"
According to Barnes's General History, George II was "a dapper little choleric sovereign," who "possessed no kingly virtues except justice and bravery." Not much, to be sure, but enough to take him to Heaven.
MODERN PRE-ADAMITES. 1905
In a chapter of his work On the Human Understanding John Locke adduces the case of the "Hottentots of Soldania" (in India) to show that there is no innate idea of God. He gives the testimony of Sir Thomas Roe, and the English ambassador to the Great Mogul to the effect that "they of Soldania had no idea of God;" he also quotes an English divine who, in an account of a voyage to Surat, says that these "Hottentots" "are sunk even below idolatry, are destitute of both priest and temple, and saving a little show of rejoicing which is made at the full and new moon, have lost all kinds of religious devotion. Nature has so richly provided for their convenience in this life that they have drowned all sense of the God of it, and grown quite careless of the next."
These statements afford, confirmation of the fact, revealed from the other world, that there are peoples who are "entirely ignorant of God,"*--a fact which has been more or less obscured by a mistranslation in the heading of True Christian Religion, no. 8: "That there is a universal influx into the souls of men teaching that there is a God and that He is One," the word "teaching" being an addition by the translator.
* See D. P. 251; S. S. 116; T. C. R. 274; S. D. 5822, 5880, L. J. (post.)
More modern confirmation of this fact is offered in the case of the pygmies who inhabit the trackless forests about the Congo river and its tributaries. Stanley met some of these people and visited many or their villages.
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In his book In Darkest Africa, he speaks of them as being of an "extremely low, degraded, almost bestial type," but he is wholly silent as to their beliefs. This information, however, is now supplied by Col. Harrison, who recently returned to England from an expedition to the Congo forest. He describes the pygmies as a war-like little people, and so formidable with their poisoned arrows that the big natives on the borders of the forest do not dare to enter it. Their height is from 3 1/2 to 4 1/2 feet, the women being taller and better developed than the men. Col. Harrison managed to obtain their confidence and resided with them for three weeks. He found them quite friendly, "of an extremely low order of intelligence, and knowing absolutely nothing of what goes on around them. They seem to have no religious instincts, and possess no idea of a Supreme Being."
Such people as these pygmies of Africa are, without doubt, those referred to in the teaching that, at this day there are "very many" who are of the duality of the Pre-adamites. (S. D. 3390.) A minor confirmation of this is found in their "extraordinary silence," for, according to Col. Harrison, "they will sit for hours without uttering a word." Such silence must also have characterized the Pre-adamites who were not unlike animals, though with a human soul. However, the Pre-adamites were without hereditary evil which is by no means the case with the pygmies of Africa. Yet, as the New Church is established, these also will be raised up from their almost animal state, just as, ages ago, the Pre-adamites were elevated and formed into a celestial church.
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PROGRESS OF THE NIGHT 1905
Last Spring Canon Henson, one of the chief dignitaries of Westminster Abbey, roused the English religious world by an article in the Contemporary Review, wherein he impugns the inspiration of the Old Testament and refers to its "incredible, puerile, or demoralizing narratives" as being regarded by "untutored minds" (?) as a "pack of lies too gross for toleration." He resolutely denies any place to inspiration as authority for anything in the Bible "which cannot he substantiated at the bar of reason and evidence," and though, at present, he finds little to offend in the New Testament, yet here also whatever is incredible "must go the way of Old Testament prodigies." He adds, somewhat inconsistently, that the Bible will continue to be, for all time, "the best manual of fundamental morality," and "the most effectual check on the materialistic tendencies of modern life;" but he admits that its credit is seriously shaken in the popular mind, and that modern tendencies are "in the main hostile to Christian tradition,"--though how he will correct those tendencies by still further discrediting the Bible, he does not explain.
Partly as a result of these utterances a manifesto has been issued by nearly a hundred Anglican clergymen, asking for "authoritative encouragement to face the critical problems of the New Testament with entire candor." The object of this manifesto is "to secure recognition of the results of Biblical criticism, and greater tolerance for advanced ideas with regard to such debated questions as the Virgin birth and the Incarnation," that is, in plain words, to secure the Church's consent to the denial of the birth of the Lord, for it is on this one point in particular that the whole question centres. The signatories declare their conviction "that it is not without grave responsibility and peril that any of us should build the faith of souls primarily upon details (?) of New Testament narrative, the historical validity of which must ultimately be determined in the court of trained research."
One prominent clergyman who was asked to sign this remarkable document, couples his refusal with some searching criticisms.
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He goes to the very heart of the matter when, referring to the Virgin birth, he says "this dogma is of the essence of the Incarnation, and thus historic Christianity stands or falls with. it." On the last paragraph he comments, "What am I to understand by the 'final decision' pending which 'many of us may 'cling devotedly' to what 'the court of trained research' map decide to be a myth or superstition? And what security are we to have that the assumed 'final decision' is to remain final? Who is to guarantee that it shall not itself be discarded as a myth by a subsequent court of trained research? All this. . .makes of Christianity an inorganic mass of private opinions and fancies which leave the seeker after truth no sure ground of faith in the past or hope in the future. Is theology to be the only science without postulates, axioms, dogmas?" It would seem so.
"POLICY OF SILENCE." 1905
The Messenger for October 4th created a genuine surprise by a sudden suspension of its time-honored "policy of silence." Not only did we find there a fair-minded editorial notice of the late Bishop Benade,-who throughout his long life was regarded as an arch-enemy by the powers-that-were in the General Convention,--but our amazement was deepened on finding that the editor had admitted a most forcible "Plea for Controversy" from the Rev. William H. Alden, and a valuable critical review, by the Rev. Arthur Mercer, of a truly "Harmful Book" on Marriage, by Jane Dearborn Mills, which the editor himself had previously recommended.
We desire to emphasize especially the point made by Mr. Alden, that "unwillingness to permit controversy in the Church tends to produce parties and partisan feelings." We are taught that "if Charity had reigned and lived in the Church, then, indeed, they would not have called schism schism, nor heresy, but a doctrinal matter according to the opinion of each one, which they would have left to his conscience, provided only he did not deny the chief things, that is, the Lord, Eternal Life, and the Word, and provided it was not against Divine Order, that is, against the precepts of the Decalogue." (A. C. 1834).
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But Charity did not reign and survive in the Christian Church, because freedom of conscience was not respected, nor can it survive in any organization of the New Church where men are neither allowed to express differences of opinion nor permitted to hear what may be contrary to the views of the prevailing authorities. The policy of stifling discussion assaults that which a thinking man regards as dearer than life. It does not proceed from Charity but from the love of dominion over the souls of men, and it does not produce Charity but the indignation and contempt merited by unfairness and cowardice.
It is this lack of Charity, this assault upon the freedom of speech and of conscience, that has produced the present divided state in the New Church. It was not merely the intellectual differences of opinion as to the nature of Swedenborg's illumination, or as to the state of the Christian world, or as to the priesthood, or as to any of the mooted points of Doctrine,--it was not any or all of these questions that rent the visible New Church asunder, but it was the determination of leaders and editors and prejudiced majorities to stifle the voice of the minority in the organ and on the floor of the General Convention. Was there not also, perhaps, a lack of Charity on the part of the minority? If there was, it did not, at least, manifest itself in the way of suppressing the freedom of speech or conscience or, indeed, of action. The records of the Church show that the men of the General Church fought simply for the right to exist, for the right to think for themselves and to regulate their own uses according to their own conceptions, leaving to other parts of the Church the same autonomy which they asked for themselves. And the journals of the Academy and of the General Church show that here, at least, there remained an open forum for men of all schools of thought and opinion who chose to avail themselves of it. Here for more than a quarter of a century, have been recorded the uses of all bodies and institutions of the New Church throughout the earth. Criticism has been freely bestowed, but praise also, and nothing has been treated with that utter contempt which the organ of the General Convention, through its policy of silence, has shown towards the Academy and the General Church. Dare we hope that the "policy of silence" is now to be reversed?
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SURPRISING TRIBUTE. 1905
The following graceful tribute to the late Bishop Benade, in an editorial notice in the Messenger for October 4th, will be of interest to our readers:
"In the current number of New Church Life is the first installment of a biographical sketch of Bishop Benade, who passed to the spiritual world May 22d last at the age of eighty-nine years. With a naturally powerful mind, keen, analytic, logical, and a will utterly fearless in action where his judgment sanctioned any line of conduct. Bishop Benade was a conspicuous figure in all the conflicts of the Church from the beginning of his ministry in 1845. It was impossible to remain neutral in any issue in which his leadership was felt. His positions were so distinct, emphatic and fearless, and his advocacy of them was so masterly, and his intellectual dominance so marked, that men either came under the spell of his intellectual leadership, or maintained their freedom by outright partisan opposition. It is easy in the memory of such conflicts to lose sight of principles involved in such a ministry, in the memory of incidental agitations and partisan issues and personal prejudice. In the biographical sketch in New Church Life these are clearly outlined and emphasized; but the telling of the story, while not free from present partisanship, is likely to bring into clear relief the indebtedness of the Church to Bishop Benade for the emphasis he gave to two matters of transcendent importance. From the beginning of his ministry he stood for the authority of the Writings of the Church. Whatever may be thought of his interpretation of the doctrine that the Lord made His second coming by means of a man prepared, filled with His Spirit, and teaching from Him alone, it must be admitted that he contributed more than any other one man to emphasize the Divine character and authority of the heavenly doctrines contained in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and to advance the sentiment of reverence for their authority as the law of the Church.
"From the beginning also he was an advocate of New Church education, not only as a duty which the Church owes to the children committed to her, but as the logical and necessary means of the Church's growth.
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His study and, exposition of the doctrine revealed in the writings of the Church concerning the psychology of child growth, the importance of co-operation in education with the laws of the mind and Divine Providence in mediate and immediate influx, and the light they throw upon the ends and means of true educational methods, have not only borne fruit, but constitute a most important contribution to the work to be done, and an inspiration to the workers who have only begun to realize the opportunities and responsibilities in this important field of use.
"Then again, in the study of doctrine, in the summaries of the internal sense of the Word, in the inspiration of other minds to such original studies in loyal recognition of the Writings as the source of spiritual knowledge, intelligence and wisdom, the influence of this strong personality and intellectual mastery will be long and widely felt in the Church." (From the New Church Messenger for October 4th.)
PLEA FOR CONTROVERSY. 1905
"I desire to enter a plea on behalf of controversy respecting the truths of the New Church. That there are points of difference respecting important teachings of the New Church is well known. That these different views are honestly held is recognized. What I would urge is the frank expression of these differing views with whatever evidence or reasons may be brought in array to support them. I would have: controversy concerning them, that the reasons which induce one to hold a given view may be brought to the bar of judgment of other minds, to see if it will bear the test.
The Messenger would seem to be the appropriate forum for such discussion. It is the organ of the General Convention, the largest representative body of the New Church, embracing within its membership a wide variety of opinion under the broad fact of the acceptance of the doctrines revealed by the Lord in His Second Coming. How better can unity be brought out of and preserved amid all this variety, than by friendly discussion of points of difference.
There has been apparently, in recent years, in the Messenger a policy of silence as to all matters liable to controversy.
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This must, as it seems to me, tend to make the Messenger of indifferent interest. For only in one of two ways can controversy be kept out of a paper. Either it must confine itself to one point of view, one side of a mooted question, refusing admission to the other side, in which case it becomes sectarian and partisan; or it must limit itself to subjects so commonplace that difference of opinion concerning them is of no consequence.
Let us assume that I hold a certain view regarding a doctrine or the application of a doctrine which it seems to me very desirable should be brought to the attention of the Church. I would set it forth with all the evidence which may secure its acceptance by the open mind; but I am forbidden to do so for fear that some one who holds a different view, perhaps quite as strongly, would be tempted to reply, which would give rise to controversy in the Church. Or it may be that I am permitted to present my view, but my opponent is refused permission to reply. Therein are those to whom the paper goes doubly wronged. I am forbidden to demonstrate that my position is so far right that it is able to withstand the attack of an opponent; and of that wherein my argument is weak, the Church is not permitted to be apprized.
Unwillingness to permit controversy in the Church tends to produce parties and partisan feeling, in the political world we see how this tends to divide the voters of the land into hostile groups, each having its representative journal standing for some predetermined partisan position and doctrine. Each bends every endeavor to show its own position to be true and that of its opponents to be false. Each marshals facts and arguments after its own desire, carefully ignoring the arguments of its opponents which it cannot answer, or the facts which militate against its own position. Each has its own clientele of readers who seek only the success of their own party. The loyal reader of the partisan sheet would consider himself a traitor to his own principles to read the sheet which voices opposing sentiments. Not only this; if by any chance one is apprized of the arguments brought forward by an opponent, he immediately pronounces then unbelievable, and adduced only to support a position preconceived. Facts are invented, distorted, Suppressed, so that the partisan position may be supported and the party receive no damage.
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Because of this partisanship it becomes well-nigh impossible to believe what our modern journals say on any partisan question.
Not so should it be in the New Church. New Church fellowship should not be divided into hostile camps, each represented by its own organization, its own periodicals, its own following. The doctrines which the Lord has revealed out of heaven in His Second Coming exist for the purpose of establishing a New Church upon the earth. These doctrines are to be received rationally, not dogmatically, much less in partisan fashion. Therefore, where there is difference of opinion there should be the freest possible ventilation of the subject concerned, not that any man's opinion man be confirmed, but that everyone in the Church may have the opportunity for rational consideration for himself, that he may decide for himself before the Lord.
But I am reminded of the bitter passions which marked the controversies of the Reformation, and it is urged that the spirit of controversy is a spirit of hatred; that our duty is to cultivate the spirit of charity for one another. I am reminded of the sharp antagonisms of an earlier day in the New Church, when controversy was common, when giants of intellectual grasp joined issue in the periodicals of the church and on the floor of the Convention, and we are congratulated that those days of controversy are no more. Nevertheless, let it be observed, First, that in those days of controversy, the church was very much alive and had active growth; and, Secondly, that our charity is of but little worth, if it cannot bear the frank expression of differences of opinion; and, Thirdly, let it be remembered that there is another dogmatism than that of controversy, and that uncharitableness is quite as possible in forbidding controversy as in it. I have no desire to stir up the fires of unbrotherly enmity. In my plea for controversy, I would at the same time urge that it be the controversy of brotherly love, which on either hand desires, not personal victory, but victory for the truth; which rejoices not less that itself is personally overcome, than that it overcome its adversary, if only thereby the cause of truth received from the Lord oat of heaven be advanced.
The New Church has to face hard problems, not only in the interpretation, but in the application of doctrine.
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We need to permit, nay to invite, free consideration of these from all points of view, to have brought into the discussion all possible considerations. The truth need not fear the fire of criticism or of argument. Error will so be discovered and its weakness made known, as it ought to be; but the truth will emerge, strengthened from the crucible, potent to do the will of Him who sent it." (William Hyde Alden in the New Church Messenger for October 4.)
ISSUE IN SYDNEY. 1905
Mr. Richard Morse, in Divine Authority for September, publishes an open letter to the members of the Sydney Society on the subject of "The Issue in Sydney," which has finally resulted in the withdrawal of twelve members from the older body and the institution of a new society, based distinctly on the recognition of the Divine Authority of the Heavenly Doctrines as the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming.
In his letter Mr. Morse states the issue definitely and succinctly by quoting as follows from the Words for the New Church:
"The Second Coming of the Lord is either an accomplished fact, or it still remains a Prophecy. The Lord has either made His Second Advent, or He has not. Swedenborg was either the divinely appointed means to this end, or he was not. Consequently Swedenborg was either a Revelator, or he was not: and the Theological works of Swedenborg, known as 'THE WRITINGS' of the New Church, are either Divine Revelations or they are not. Such is the issue."
Mr. Morse continues:
"But this paramount issue is clouded with side issues. As an instance of this, some of you will remember Mr. Ball's extravagant and violent speech at the Quarterly meeting, June 8th, when he tried to cloud the real issue by voicing common slanders that have been hurled against the Academy, just as, in the early days, they were hurled against the New Church generally; and, also, just as they were hurled by the Jews, or the then Old Church, against the Lord Himself. Among many extravagant statements was one in which he vehemently styled the teachings of the Academy as 'vile,' and 'as black as hell.'
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This abominable and unsupported statement, I regret to say, went unchallenged by the Leader, but I would here and now challenge Mr. Ball to name a single case of a member of the Academy living a life contrary to the Lord's commandments."
When, at a subsequent committee meeting, Mr. Morse requested Mr. Ball to substantiate or withdraw the charge which he had made at the Quarterly meeting. the basis on which he had founded his accusations was found to be nothing more "than that the Academy believes Conjugial Love to be one of the books of the Second Advent, and consequently a book for the Church of that Advent. When this explanation was made Mr. Ball found himself immediately at issue with several members of the committee, and his hysterical charge collapsed like a house of cards. That Mr. Ball doesn't care two straws about the teaching which he attributes to the Academy, but that he is under spiritual influences entirely antagonistic to the Heavenly Doctrines which the Academy, more than any other organization, so clearly stands for, is evident from his proposal that Mr. Keen be Secretary, knowing well that he is in entire sympathy with the Academy on the question of Conjugial Love. There is this difference, however: The Academy holds consistently to the Writings in their entirety, believing them to be the Lord in His Second Coming, while Mr. Keen does not, but is a warm admirer of T. L. Harris and J. H. Ball."
The disruption of the society is traced to the persistent refusal of the leader, Mr. W. J. Spencer, to recognize the Divine Authority of the Revelation given to the New Church, and his equally persistent determination to force upon the society the services of two lay preachers, Mr. J. H. Ball and Mr. E. Newton, both of whom have been mixing up the Doctrines of the New Church with the pseudo-celestialism of Thomas Lake Harris, and the Christian Science of Mary Baker Eddy. "Neither of them takes the Holy Supper, Mr. Newton holding the opinion that every meal with him is the Lord's Supper."
Among the "crude and erratic teachings" to which Mr. Ball has been treating the long-suffering society, Mr. Morse enumerates the following: "The absorption of the sexes into one identity;" "Swedenborg says that conscience retards regeneration;" "doctrine is revealed to us within, and does not come from without;" "we have not got to look into a book to know God's will; it comes through experience;" "Let every man be a law unto himself;" "Experience alone is the true infallible guide to regeneration."
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And when the same preacher in one of his discourses happened to quote from the Arcana Coelestia, "he hastened to inform the congregation that: he would not accept what he had quoted only that it happened to agree with his experience!"
In reply to his printed protest against teachings and teachers such as these, Mr. Morse received from Mr. Spencer,--himself a layman,--a solemn reminder of the teaching that "if a member differs with the minister he is to beware lest he disturb the peace of the Church." The situation is truly ludicrous. Had an ordained minister of the Church, (especially an "Academy" minister), ventured to quote this teaching, then what a hue and cry would have been raised about "priestcraft" and a modern Babylon!" But here we have a "liberal," self-appointed lay preacher, who openly rejects the Divine Authority of the Doctrine, quoting that very same Doctrine in support of his personal authority versus another layman who wants to uphold order and Divine Authority in the Church! Was confusion ever worse confounded? Mr. Morse quite correctly points out that it is Mr. Spencer himself who has disturbed "the peace of the Church" by countenancing the distribution of Christian Science literature among the members of the society, and by allowing a member to regularly preach "whose preaching would not be tolerated in any New Church Society in America or even England." ("Even England!")
The friends of sound Doctrine and order in Sydney are to be sincerely congratulated upon "coming out of her,"--coming out of a body which has been thoroughly diseased; ever since William White, the agent of the Swedenborg Society, more than half a century ago, began to send spiritistic literature together with the packages of the Writings consigned to Sydney. From the seeds then sown tares have sprung up by the side of the good grain, but now the judgment has come in Australia as it has come in America and in England. As Mr. Morse observes:
"Separation, in itself, is an orderly concomitant of the upward life. The life of the regenerating man or woman comprises a constant series of separations as the Divine Potter fashions His obedient child into His own image and likeness; fashions him out of spiritual deadness, ugliness and formlessness into a living beautiful form of use for His Kingdom.
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The Lord, as the Divine Truth, said, 'Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household." (Matt. x. 34-6.)
NEW TRANSLATION OF ARCANA COELESTIA. 1905
ARCANA COELESTIA. Translation thoroughly revised and edited by the Rev. John Faulkner Potts. R. A., Lend. Vols. I. and II. New York, 1905.
The Arcana is the second of the works which are to form the "Library Edition" of the Writings published by the American Swedenborg Society. The first volume appeared some weeks ago, and has been recently followed by volume two, while volume three is now in the hands of the printer.
A valuable feature of the work is the bibliography of previous English translations of the Arcana which is contained in the "Prefatory Notes by the Reviser." It omits, however, to mention the work of Mr. Searle, who revised some volumes of the last English edition. The work includes an "Author's Table of Contents," wherein Swedenborg indexes in numerical order the memorabilia concerning the Spiritual World. This Table, which is omitted in many editions of the Arcana, opens with an important definition of the work, as "The internal sense of the Word." "The Heavenly Arcana which have been unfolded in the Holy Scripture or Word of the Lord, are contained in the explication, which is THE INTERNAL SENSE of the Word." This definition, it appears, is to be printed in each volume of the Library Edition of this work.
The memorabilia inserted between the chapters, which in former editions of the Arcana, including that published by Swedenborg himself, are printed in a distinctive type, are, in the present edition, put in the same type as the rest of the work.
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The change is one of doubtful utility as the difference in type has served as a ready means of distinguishing between very different subject matters. Another minor point of criticism is as to the manner of printing the numbers indicating the subdivisions of the Concordance, which are put in heavy type in the body of the text. The English practice of printing them in the margin renders them less obstrusive on the notice of the general reader, and more easily discerned by the eye of the student. We note that these subdivision- numbers are omitted in some of the shorter paragraphs (e. g., nos. 978. 981).
A pleasing feature in the volume before us is the inclusion in the text itself of such quotations from the Word as make one with the context. This is a great improvement on the practice inaugurated in the American Swedenborg Society's Latin editions, and followed, in some cases, in The Four Doctrines, of printing such references in distinctive type and in a separate paragraph.
The work of the editor includes the insertion of a number of footnotes. Some of these are of a bibliographical nature. A few supply references to other parts of the Writings,--since such notes are made at all, we wonder that they are so few. A number of the footnotes are in the nature of textual criticisms, pointing out evident slips or misprints in the Latin,--especially in the quotations from the Word. In the former edition of the Arcana, wherever Swedenborg appears to have made any error in his quotations, the error: supposed or real, was simply "corrected' without a word of explanation. The practice of the present translator in noting all such changes is a commendable one, giving evidence of a desire to avoid any needless correction of the author's text. Nevertheless some of the corrections seem to be unnecessary, as where Swedenborg changes the tense of a verb (Vol. II., pp. 422, 464),--a practice which is in entire agreement with the teaching that, in the Word, considered spiritually, there are no tenses. In such cases it would at any rate, be better to translate the text literally, even though a note be added; this has been done in a few places, (Vol. II., p. 386), but generally the opposite course has been pursued. The same also applies in cases where Swedenborg's translation differs materially from the original text, or even from his own translations in other passages.
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The editor does not seem consistent in his treatment of these cases. Thus in one place. (Vol. II., p. 320), the text is a literal translation of the Latin. Swedenborg's variation in rendition being added in a footnote, while in another, (Vol. II., 510), the note contains the literal translation and the text exhibits a somewhat radical change from the original Latin.
But while we can testify to the value of the bibliographical and textual notes the same cannot be said of the many notes wherein the reviser offers some explanation of his author's text. Some of these explanations are erroneous and misleading, as in n. 1299 where the word Sulphurous is said to be used by Swedenborg "in the sense of combustible;' and ill n. 1125 where the note reads: "Swedenborg often uses the term 'friendship' in the sense of mere personal and selfish regard," when yet the text shows that "friendship" is there used in a good sense. A conspicuous example is the note to n. 947 where, to the sentence "I was told that some have remained there (i. e., in the Infernal Tun) for twenty ages," the editor remarks, "An age (saeculum) in the Word is ten years (see n. 433). From this it would be naturally concluded that an "age" in the Writings, and in this passage in particular, meant ten years. But that this is not correct is evident from the fact that the Writings use the word Saeculum, according to classical usage, to denote either some long period of time, or a century. That the latter is the meaning in the present case may be evident from the parallel passage, Spiritual Diary, n. 286. Another footnote that on page 44, seems to have crept in by inadvertence, as it refers to the "Prefatory Notes" on a subject about which those notes are entirely silent. Of questionable taste is the note to n. 1999 in explanation of the statement, Abram fell upon his faces. The editor observes "man has really as many faces as affections, and it is the same with the Lord, and with a country, and the sea and sky. All these have many faces. Even in English we speak of a person having two faces, or being double-faced, and of 'making faces.'" [!]
The volume under review "claims to be no more than vision compiled from the best previous translations and revisions." The claim is a modest one, as the work of revision has been so radical as to amount, in the main, to an entirely new translation.
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In this work the reviser has been governed by the same principles as those that obtained in the translation of The Four Doctrines. This is especially noticeable in the failure to consistently observe that exactitude of phraseology which characterizes the Writings. Thus Fides is rendered "religious belief" (n. 1), "principle of faith" (n. 81), and "faith;" Cogitare, generally rendered "to think," is sometimes "to be intent on" (n. 362), and "to regulate the thought" (n. 128). To the same lack of exactitude must be ascribed the frequent introduction of the personal forms of the verb (particularly objectionable when this brings in the personality of Swedenborg), in place of the impersonal forms so characteristic of the style adopted by the "Servant of the Lord."
The word proprium has been entirely discarded, "Own" or "one's Own" being consistently used in its place. The result is not always either happy or even clear, as where we read "he is led into a state of his Own" (n. 134), "he inclines to his Own," where a capital letter is essential to the conveyance of the true meaning, and where the hearer, if not also the reader, will most certainly be at a complete loss to understand what can be meant. As a result of the general and long continued use of the word Proprium by New Church translators, the leading lexicographists of the country are beginning to recognize that word as a part of the English language (see The Century Dictionary); and this makes it the more a matter of the deepest regret that in the translation of so important a work as the Arcana--a work which on account of its many volumes call necessarily see but few editions, this distinctive word should be thus cast aside. But even the well recognized learning and eminence of the present translator will not serve in any appreciable degree, if at all, to do away with a term which has been so firmly established among students and readers of the Writings, and the substitution of a new and hitherto unheard-of rendition can remain only as a blot on this edition of the Arcana Coelestia.
Cognitiones is rendered "knowledges." but no distinction is observed between scientiae and scientifica, both of which are generally translated "memory knowledges," and sometimes "things of memory."
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The reviser admits that these three words have definite and distinct meanings, which "it is imperative' "should be conveyed to the English reader." But since he refuses the words "cognition" and "scientific" as being "by no means the equivalents of the cognate Latin words," he adopts the expedient of adding the Latin in all cases where there might be a question of doubt. And as this addition is made, in the main, with great consistency, the distinctions in terms are satisfactorily preserved, so far as the learned reader is concerned. But the unlearned reader is still left without those "definite and distinct meanings" which it is "imperative" should be conveyed to him. And this applies not only to the distinction between scientiae and scientifica, but also between these and cognitiones; for wherever scientifica (or scientiae) and cognitiones occur together, they are translated by the single word knowledges, the Latin being added. The frequent occurrence in the Arcana of these terms, results in the appearance in the translation of a great many Latin parenthetical clauses which are neither an ornament to the eye nor a help to smooth reading. And while we cannot but heartily recognize the earnest candor of the translator in inserting them, we also cannot avoid the reflection that a direct translation would have rendered their use unnecessary.
Other theological terms which might be mentioned are: Voluntarium rendered "the will part;" and, in the plural, "things of man's will." Sensuale, "the sensuous," "the sensuous part," "what is sensual," "the principle of mere sense," in one case (n. 1935), "the sensual;" and, in the plural, "sensuous things," "things of sense" and "things of the senses." Rationale, "the rational," "rationality," "reasoning;" and, in the plural, "things of the rational mind," "matters of reason," "rational things." Scientificum, "knowledge," "memory knowledge," "the faculty of knowing," "the faculty of memory knowledge." Fides scientifica, "faith of memory knowledge." Ritualia scientifica, "rituals of memory knowledges." Verum scientificum, "truth in the form of memory knowledge."
It seems evident that in several of these translations the translator has had mainly in mind readers unfamiliar with the doctrines and the terminology of the Writings, though it is difficult to see how such persons will be benefitted by the substitution of another terminology, almost equally strange and unfamiliar to the ordinary English ear.
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But, leaving aside the question of the number of strangers who will read the work, compared with the number of New Church readers, we may remark that we have yet to hear of a "library Edition" of any work being issued except primarily for those who are enthusiastic readers and admirers of the author in question. A "Library Edition" is not usually a missionary undertaking.
A word should he said as to the translation of the Scripture quotations. Speaking generally, these are exceedingly good, being far superior to the translations given in the former American edition, which are extremely loose and inexact. Yet the translator does not hesitate, in a very few cases, to unnecessarily fill up the quotations by adding words omitted by Swedenborg (e. g. Ps. viii, 6-8 in no. 991) and his general faithfulness to the Latin rendition make an occasional inexactitude the more remarkable. Thus in the first verse of the Word he translates caelum "the heavens (caelum)," and yet in no. 30, where Swedenborg uses the plural in expanso caelorum, the translator uses the singular "in the expanse of heaven (caelorum)." In both cases the Hebrew word is in the plural. But if Swedenborg translates it in the singular why should not the translator follow him in this? Swedenborg gives the singular for a very distinct reason, because, as he says, "heaven signifies the internal man," thus presenting at the outset a general and comprehensive idea instead of an idea of many particular things. So Caligo (in Gen. 1, 2) is rendered "darkness," and yet a little later on it is translated "thick darkness" with no apparent reason for the variation. Other similar instances could be given, but it would be unfair not to add that the translations from the Word are, as a rule, commendably exact.
The present work makes what, in effect, is the fifth new translation of the Arcana. The first was by Mr. Clowes. It has been frequently revised, and is the basis of the last London edition, and of the former edition published by the American Swedenborg Society. The latter of these is a very slight revision of Clowes's work, and is improved on in the London publication, (so far as the first volume is concerned) which omits the word "principle" so often added to Swedenborg's adjectives, and also introduces, in many places, somewhat more direct translations.
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It is impossible, however, to speak of the London edition as a whole, for its volumes are the product of several translators and revisers, who, apparently, have worked in entire independence of each other. The volumes by Mr. Searle and Dr. R. L. Tafel are very good, but this cannot by any means lie said of other volumes.
The third translation of the Arcana--a complete revision of Mr. Clowes, work--was published in 1837, and is familiarly known as the "Boston translation." It is the best which has thus far been produced, but, unfortunately, it is now out of print. There was also an "Anglo-Saxon" version by Mr. Harrison (London, 1857), but, on account of its peculiarities, this need not be considered.
Following this came the new translation published by the Rotch Trustees, which was begun in 1892, and is not yet completed. In this translation there is an evident effort to produce a literal rendition of the original. And it is literal,--except in the most essential particulars. The translators were imbued with the idea of interpreting the terminology of the Writings, and in doing this, each according to his own idea, have succeeded in producing, the greatest variety together with no small degree of inconsistency.
In the work under review there is also an endeavor to interpret rather than translate many New Church terms; but, whatever may be said as to the necessity of such interpretation, the work is, at any rate, done with more or less consistency. The loss of familiar terms is also partly compensated for by the frequent addition of the Latin. The work may, therefore, be regarded, despite the serious faults noted above, as being, on the whole, an improvement on other available translations of the Arcana, especially for those who have some acquaintance with Latin, and can understand the numerous parenthetical clauses. It avoids, on the one hand, the circumlocutory and periphrastic renderings of the former American edition, and also its mistakes of omission and addition, and, on the other, the inconsistencies and patchwork effects of the Rotch and London editions.
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Yet it is impossible for us to commend the work with any great degree of enthusiasm. For while page after page may occur in which the translation is delightfully simple and accurate, yet every now and again we come across sudden aberrations. And, in the case of words which particularly concern the doctrines of the Church, it is only the parenthetical addition of the Latin that gives us that feeling of security which is so necessary to the reader of a translation. The most, therefore, that can be said is that the work is the best now available to the English reader.
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Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. With a score of youths in the college, two in the theological department, and the seminary thoroughly alive with the energy and enthusiasm of over thirty young ladies, Academia is now ill full swing, making headway in all its branches of learning.
The annual meeting of the Bryn Athyn church took place on the evening of September 28th, after the first Friday supper of the season. Everyone felt cheerful and ready to hear of the work accomplished during the past year, of the aims of those active in the uses of the Society, and of the education of our fifty school children.
The following Sunday the Holy Supper was administered by Bishop Pendleton.
On the sixth of October a memorial meeting was held for Mrs. Walter C. Childs, who left this world very suddenly and peacefully on October 4th, at her home in Yonkers. There was a short, impressive service in the chapel, conducted by Rev. Messrs. Acton and Odhner, at which Mr. Childs and all his children were present: and afterwards at "Inglehame," Miss Hogan's home, a number of the "pioneers" gathered, with several of a younger generation, to drink a toast to the happiness of Mrs. Childs, with "the loved ones gone before," and to revive memories of the early days.
It was the first of the month that Messrs. Raymond Pitcairn and Randolph Childs took up their abode at the dormitories of the University of Pennsylvania, where they will lead the life of college students and study law. There Mr. Marlin Heilman, of Leechburg, is in the medical department, and still another, Mr. Alfred Stroh, is taking advantage of his Fellowship in Philosophy at the same institution. Mr. Stroh has passed the summer in Europe, principally Sweden, carrying on the work he began two years ago.
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Father Potts left for England in the early fall, where he will visit some of his old friends. It is his intention to remain abroad for about two months. R. H.
PHILADELPHIA, PA. During the months of July and August the regular services of the Advent Church were as usual suspended as were also the Doctrinal Class, the Young Folks' Class and the Sunday School. A Sunday picnic in Fairmount Park was much enjoyed by young and old. Since September 3d, when the services in Glenn Hall, 555 N. 17th street, were resumed, the attendance at worship has been very encouraging, several new Newchurch members having been among the worshipers.
On Wednesday, September 20th, the Social Club of the Advent Church was formed. This club has rented Glenn Hall and has invited the Advent Church to hold their Doctrinal Class there every Wednesday evening. This class was formerly held in a private home. The attendance at the class since it is held in the new place has so far been three times greater than before. After the class, which is held from 8 to 9 o'clock, the club conducts singing practice, under the leadership of Fraulein Emilie Schneider. The New Hymnal has been taken up for special practice and will be used in worship as soon as some of the new hymns are known. After the singing practice the Young Folks are at liberty to have "a good time," if they so desire.
The Young Folks' Doctrinal Class was resumed on Sunday, September 17th, and will be, as before, conducted in private houses.
The Sunday School started again on Sunday morning, September 10th, and is held from 9:30 to 10:30.
On Sunday, October 1st, the Holy Supper was administered to thirty communicants.
On Sunday October 8th, a new receiver of the Heavenly Doctrine, Miss Marie Hunt, was baptized at the regular morning services.
On the whole the outlook for the present year is very encouraging. R.
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PITTSBURGH, PA. After a vacation of five weeks, services were resumed on September 24th. The Pittsburgh church building has been considerably enlarged and very much improved in appearance and arrangement. We are now provided with a separate school room, which permits of the large assembly room being devoted exclusively to Church uses.
The local school opened Monday, September 25th, with Miss Evelyn Gilmore as teacher, and eleven pupils.
Pittsburgh has been suffering from an exodus. Mr. John Campbell and Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Campbell and family have removed to Long Island. Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Caldwell have gone to Coshocton, Ohio, to live. Mr. Alex P. Lindsay has availed himself of Horace Greeley's advice and betaken himself westward to Chicago, and Mr. Edgar Lindsay will be situated in Ford City, Pa. We wish them all a safe and speedy return.
Miss Nellie Smith, of Bryn Athyn, and Miss Luelle Pendleton, of Macon, Ga., were our principal guests this summer, and there was considerable informal entertaining in their honor, which brightened our otherwise rather dull summer months. K. W.
TORONTO, ONT., CANADA. During the summer vacation we were pleased to receive visits from several of our New Church friends in Chicago, Bryn Athyn and Berlin. Our annual picnic, held at High Park, on July 27th, was a great success and the presence of our visitors added materially to the interest rind enjoyment.
The wedding of Miss Ella Roy and Mr. C. R. Brown, on the evening of August 16th, was a delightful event. The church was beautiful with its tasteful decorations of cedar and golden rod, the ceremony being performed beneath an arch composed of the effective combination of these two. After receiving the hearty congratulations of all present, the happy couple left for an extended tour through Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces.
Upon the close of a summer of rest and recreation, the church uses have been resumed with renewed vigor, and more than ever do we realize what an enormous factor in our sum of happiness are the frequent meetings together, and how largely they conduce to the growth of affection for the Church in each individual.
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On Tuesday morning, September 12th, the school was reopened, with a maximum attendance of eight children. The young peoples' and children's classes for the study of the Doctrines were recommenced on Monday, September 18th, and the regular society doctrinal classes on Wednesday, September 20th.
To celebrate the resumption of our weekly suppers, a jolly social, which took the form of a progressive euchre party and dance, was substituted for the usual class on the evening of October 4th. It is especially upon occasions of this nature that we miss the presence of the five young folks who are this year attending the school at Bryn Athyn. However, we are amply compensated for our loss by our intense appreciation of their privileges and the benefits to be reaped by them.
On Sunday, September 14th, the Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered. On the same day Mr. Norman Carter entered the Church through the gate of baptism, and has since become a member of the General Church. M. S. C.
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
UNITED STATES. During the meeting of the Maine Association, Mr. Paul Sperry, a recent graduate of the Theological School of the General Convention, was ordained into the ministry by the Rev. Frank Sewall, D. D. Mr. Sperry recently accepted the pastorate of the Bath, Me., Society.
The Rev. Julian K. Smythe has been very ill at his home in NEW YORK, having narrowly escaped typhoid fever. He is slowly recovering.
Prof. Thomas French. Jr., Ph. D., was ordained into the ministry of the New Church and installed as pastor of the Buffalo Society, by the Rev. S. S. Seward, at Buffalo, on September 17th. Prof. French has been preaching as an authorized candidate for the ministry for the past two years. The prospects of the Buffalo Society, which has been without a pastor for several years past, are now reported to be very bright, the attendance at the ordination services, and also on the preceding Sunday, having been over eighty.
The Ohio Association held its annual meeting at Lakewood, O., September 1st-3d The Rev. S. S. Seward, president of the General Convention, and the Rev. John Whitehead, of Detroit, Mich., were present as guests of the Lakewood Society, and the attendance was "thoroughly representative" of the Association.
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One of the sessions, which are reported to have been of great interest, was devoted to a "conference on New Church Education," and in the discussion of this subject, the "importance of the principles of the Church in the education of our children from the start, and specifically the use of Urbana University Schools, was emphasized."
The LAKEWOOD, O., Society reports a great increase in membership and interest due to the work of the Rev. Thomas A. King, and the Society is now looking forward to the erection of a larger house of worship. The latest additions to the membership are Prof. and Mrs. Eben Fish, who were baptized by Mr. King, during the meeting of the Ohio Association. Prof. Fish was for many years prominent in educational matters.
The Society recently formed at Columbus, O., was formally received into the Ohio Association at its recent meeting in Lakewood, O.
In a recent number of the Messenger the Rev. L. P. Mercer makes an appeal for contributions to a "five-year sustaining fund" for URBANA UNIVERSITY. The fund has been established as a temporary means of extending the work of the University, until it shall be more largely endowed. Mr. Mercer writes, "We hope to build up in the faculty and infuse into the school work a free and rational understanding of Swedenborg's science and philosophy and the application of it to the problems opened in modern science."
The CHICAGO Society has entered upon what may prove to be an extensive missionary work by the inauguration of a series of meetings to be held at its parish churches with the object of introducing the doctrines to strangers. The meetings are well advertised in the daily papers, and also by circulars and posters, and, if successful, will be extended to sections of the city remote from the parish churches. The lecturers are the Rev. Messrs. Schreck, Stockwell, Mann, and Landenberger.
Mr. John Headsten, of Chicago, Ill, has begun a systematic distribution of tracts to Swedes resident in every part of North America. Addresses are procured from newspapers and other sources.
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The tracts are extracts from the Writings, translated by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner, on "The Divine Trinity," "The Spiritual Sense of the Word" and "Redemption."
CANADA. The pastor of the BERLIN, Ont., Society, the Rev. W. A. Brickman, is engaged in delivering a series of Sunday evening lectures on the distinctive teachings of the New Church. The lectures have proven extremely interesting and have attracted good audiences. "Mr. Brickman is on the lookout for all who are in any way affirmative to the New Church in Ontario, and is reviving interest among many who Were content to stay at home, and whose presence now adds to the happy state resulting from brethren again dwelling together in unity."
SWITZERLAND. The thirty-first annual assembly of the Swiss NEW CHURCH UNION was held at Zurich, on August 27th, and was opened by the Rev. Fedor Goerwitz, who has now partly recovered from a very severe illness. He was assisted by his son, Mr. Adolph Goerwitz, who is at present pursuing his studies for the ministry at the New Church Theological School in Cambridge, Mass. The General Pastor reported that he has administered the Holy Supper to 92 communicants in Switzerland, 22 in Berlin, Germany, and 95 in Austria-Hungary.
A resolution was offered by Mr. Otto Erb, binding the Union not to chose any minister who had not been approved by the American General Convention and ordained under the rules of that body. The purpose of the resolution was to preserve the Union from the introduction of disorder through lay-preaching or through some preacher irregularly ordained. The provision appears timely, in view of the advancing age and failing health of Mr. Goerwitz, but the resolution met with considerable opposition at the meeting, objection being made to the American limitation. It was finally adopted by a majority of one vote.
AUSTRALIA. Twelve members of the Society in SYDNEY, (six ladies and six gentlemen), on August 1st, sent in their resignations, giving as their reason "the Leader's persistent refusal to recognize the Divinity of the Writings and thereby the Lord's Authority in His Second Coming; also his sanctioning teaching from the pulpit that is distinctly opposed to the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Church, and, consequently, to the objects for which the Society was established."
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The same persons, on "the first Sunday in Spring, August 6th," organized themselves into a new Society, and "the services have since been regularly held and have been spiritually uplifting. The Lord in His Second Coming is worshiped free from the rude intrusion of dissent, doubt, and atheism." Regular meetings for reading commenced on August 8th, the book chosen being the first volume of Words for the New Church. "The social sphere is a marked feature in the gatherings. The time is looked forward to when an ordained minister will be able to take charge and conduct all affairs of the Society according to order."
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Special Notice. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT 1905
Communications.
THE PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY.
The Philadelphia District Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held this year at Bryn Athyn during the Thanksgiving holidays, Thursday to Sunday, inclusive, November 30th to December 3d.
(1) Thursday evening, eight o'clock, address by the Bishop, "The Need of Public Worship."
(2) Friday evening, at 6:30 o'clock, Supper, and paper by the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, on "The Son of Man and the Son of God."
(3) Saturday evening, 8 o'clock, paper by Rev. H. Synnestvedt, "The Most Difficult Side of Education."
(4) Sunday morning, at 11 o'clock, Public Worship.
(5) Sunday evening, at 7:45 o'clock, paper by Rev. C. Th. Odhner, "Attendant Spirits."
It is hoped that the time of the meeting will lend itself to a fuller attendance than usual, and also insure a sphere such as we are wont to enjoy at the stated festivals of our Church.
All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. The Bryn Athyn ladies will provide for the entertainment of visitors, who are kindly requested to send notice of their coming to the undersigned.
HOMER SYNNESTVEDT.
Secretary.
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Title Unspecified 1905
NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XXV. DECEMBER, 1905. NO. 12
DIVINE MAN. Rev. N. D. PENDLETON 1905
A SERMON
"And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that Holy Thing which is born of thee shall be called the son of God. . . . And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word." Luke i. 35, 38. It is further recorded that, when the "days were accomplished," "She brought forth her first-born son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger.
In these simple, but sublime words, the birth of our Lord into the world is recorded. There is here no labored explanation, no undue effort to convince the mind of the importance of the event. The story is told with that directness and simplicity which we endeavor to employ when speaking to children. It is told with an infinite assurance of its truth. No one line in the whole account implies the possibility of a doubt in the minds of those to whom it is addressed. There is nowhere suggested the need of meeting and inviting any such doubt. In a word, the story is told as if to children; indeed, it is designedly told to children, and to all those men who have something of the child left in them, that is, something of the innocence of childhood, which alone affords a basis for saving faith. We who are adult have reasons for believing in our Lord, but they one and all refer back, and rest upon the sacred faith bred in us in our childhood; the faith which came to us out of the mercy of God before we had learned to doubt, and which, like the angel of God, guides us in our after journeys in the wilderness.
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This faith is not always before our eyes; it is generally deeply hidden, overveiled by later impressions, and sometimes all but forgotten. Nevertheless it is present at the base of all our thoughts and affections which refer to things Divine; and at times it comes to the surface; it wells up from the deep and overflows into our conscious thought, bringing with it a perception of the everlasting quality of our early childish loves, and of their secret dominion over us. At such times we recognize the importance, and also the power of early sacred impressions. And we dwell upon their surpassing sweetness, which is the source of their power. We become as a child again, with all the ability to believe which a child possesses. And our rational faith, which has been more or less shattered or torn by the conflict with doubt, is restored and made whole again, by this sweet and innocent sphere of belief which encompasses the faith of the child in us. No time is so favorable to the excitement of such celestial remains as the approach of Christmas, with all its sacred associations extending back year by year to the very dawn of our life, to the first time when we felt that joy which is peculiar to Christmas,--the Christmas of childhood; to the time when first we heard the Divine story of the birth of the Lord, and our imaginations were impressed with the picture of the infant Christ lying in the manger, surrounded by a halo of glory. This and like sacred memories come over us and bid us be a child again, with a child's faith and a child's joy.
Thus do we call up those early memories in order that we may bring to mind that first love of the Lord which was instilled into us before we were aware either of its need or importance. From this first love we think of Him as a glorious man on earth, the Jesus of Nazareth who was born in Bethlehem of Judah, and who on coming to man's estate did many miracles of love and mercy, and who finally suffered death on the cross. From the after love and its truth given to the regenerate man thinks of Him as the God of the universe in His Glorified Human, reigning supreme above the heavens, and at the same time within the hearts of the angels and of all good men. The Jesus pictured to us by the Evangelists is but the outward form and external manifestation of this supreme and overruling God, a shadow earth reflecting the image of the God in and above heaven; and which, like a shadow, vanishes when the Divine face of the God is seen; and yet not merely a shadow, for Jesus was in all points a man in and of the world. He was born.
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He lived, He died. Here, however, a careful and profound distinction must be made. That which was born into the world of the Virgin Mary was the maternal Human. It was like another man in all save that it was conceived from the Most High, while the supreme God, the Divine Human revealed to us in the Writings, was also, as it were, born into the world; but in no sense or degree was this Human the offspring of Mary. It was both conceived and born from the essential Divine; this birth was progressive, or little by little as Jesus was glorified. The Divine Human came into the world gradually through the medium of the investing maternal human. And as it came, as it descended from on High, the maternal human was put off, first as to the interior parts and finally as to the outward or bodily part, by death on the cross.
Now this glorified and fully Divine Human, which was both conceived and born of the essential Divine, is the true object of our adoration and worship. For this is none other than the everlasting God, the creator of the world and the Savior of man. The maternal human, the historic man, Jesus of Nazareth, whom in imagination we see first lying a babe in the manger, then walking upon the shore of Galilee, and finally hanging in mortal agony on the cross,--this man, if we except the Divine Soul, was altogether mortal, even as every other man is mortal, and meet for the grave. This is the distinction which must be observed; that which was of Mary must be parted from that which was, and was from God.
Every man born of woman is gifted from above with an immortal but finite soul, which in the first instance is impressed upon the seed from the father. There was but one exception to this; Jesus born of Mary of the house of David had no mortal father, but was conceived in the womb of Mary by the condescension of Jehovah God, wherefore the Life within Him was unrestricted by any of the finite bounds which circumscribe the human soul. And this life was therefore inseparably one with Jehovah.
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It was altogether Divine, and yet in the beginning so tempered as to be contained within a frail mortal frame. Yet even from the beginning it manifested its presence by an efflux of glory which surrounded the babe even in the manger; and in after times, as on the occasion of the transfiguration, this efflux of love from the Divine Soul within so overpowered the disciples that they fell upon their faces. These two records bear witness of what must have occurred many times during the process of Glorification. For it is evident that the Divine Life within ever more and more impressed itself upon and shone through the outward form assumed from the world of nature, and this in increasing proportion to the end. Such manifestations, however, were periodic, as during the states of exaltation. The normal or ordinary appearance was altogether as another man. This man comes before us in the Work of the Evangelists with a natural character and characteristic which we are able to apprehend even as we apprehend the characters of other men.
As such we see Him there. We even recognize in Him a marked personality, or individuality, the compelling sweetness of which no words can describe, and with which the life of no other man affords a comparison. His every act reveals a tenderness of compassion which we recognize as peculiar to Him alone, and which moves us profoundly as nothing else may, His innocence, His humility, His wisdom, and, more than all, His love, have from the beginning impressed men with a strange wonder so that they have been led to opine his Divinity in the face of all doubt. These characteristics are all human, and yet the only adequate explanation of them is that back of them lay the Divinity. It is perceived that they are human and more than human. Historically speaking, the wonder of it all is that by His so great love He inspired men with a love in return which was so powerful that it changed the face of the whole world and altered the course of the ages. This can hardly be understood by those who persist in regarding Him merely as a man.
The story of His Life, with which we are familiar, is calculated in a most eminent degree to inspire the minds of men with love for Him, and particularly is this so with children, who are trained by believing men. Take the account of His birth as an illustration. The mother who bore Him, while she was in labor, was forced to take shelter in a stall for animals.
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And while the babe was being born in this lowly place, the angels of heaven were glorifying His Advent and the wise men were journeying from the far east to behold His face. Again, as a child His life was in danger from the evil minded, and His parents were forced to flee for safety to Egypt. During the accomplishment of His mission He was surrounded by enemies who were plotting His death, which they finally compassed in a most atrocious manner. It is perceived that He was slain because of His tender mercies.
It would seem as if no one could read the story of His life without being profoundly affected with love for Him. I speak of that first love such as is excited in the minds of children, and which is the basis of all that follows after. Were men not thus first drawn to Him by the love of Him as a man, they could not worship the Divine Human which became manifest through the man. Thus while we conceive of the Divine Human apart from the maternal Human, yet the eye must first be fixed upon the latter in order that the former may be seen. It is as if we looked upon a man, and even as we gaze, the man is transformed into the God,--the God remaining visible by virtue of the outlines fixed by the man. Destroy the image of the man, the God becomes invisible. Thus our most exalted vision of the Glorified Human must forever rest upon our impression of the man Jesus as He was upon earth.
We can not otherwise interpret the statement, in True Christian Religion, that we are not to think of Him as a person, than that we must lose sight of the person, or the man, in our thoughts of Him as God. It is impossible but that we should think of Him as a person, for He is ever before us as such in the Word of the Evangelists. Our natural thoughts can not conceive of Him otherwise. It is different with the angels. They can think in a purely spiritual manner. The difference here indicated is clearly shown in the teaching that the man of the internal Church thinks of the Divine or Glorified Human, while the man of the external Church thinks of the person, that is, of the man as He appears in the writings of the Evangelists. This is the same as to say that with our internal thought we behold the God, and with the external thought the man. But as internal thought is nothing unless it rests upon external thought, so the God becomes invisible save as seen in the man.
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Thus every Divine Truth contained in the Writings is worthless and without meaning unless the Scripture be first known and believed. Every truth thus given concerning the glorification falls, unless Jesus Christ, the man, born of Mary, be regarded as the Savior. It is then allowed us to think of Him as a man on earth according to every word that is spoken concerning Him. And we are safe in so doing, because every such word was spoken either by His own mouth or by the Spirit of His mouth, and is therefore consistent with and confirmatory of our thought concerning Him as the Supreme God. It is otherwise with those fictitious words concerning Him which are so much in vogue at this day, and which proceed simply from the imaginations of men gifted with the art of writing. These words are all spurious, if not needless and harmful; and to a great extent they are written with a view to exalt Him as a man while breaking down the Idea of His Divinity. The Holy and Inspired Scriptures alone can tell us of Him who is at once both God and man. They alone can present Him before us as a man and yet do no violence to our thought concerning Him as God. Thousands of pages are written in portrayal of imaginary scenes from His childhood; and in recounting the various influences (climatic and otherwise) which were brought to bear upon Him in the moulding of His wonderful character. The Scriptures give us but one inclusive sentence, "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." There was no moulding of His character by outside influences. Every step in His development was by an unfolding of His Divine Soul. To this unfolding every outside influence was made to yield.
It would appear therefore that it is allowable to think of Him as a person only according to the Scripture. Of course, this prohibition does not refer to the things related in the Writings. Yet it is to be noted that these things all have reference to His mental development or, more properly speaking, to the unfolding of His Soul. There is recorded in the Writings no external event of
His life not found in Scripture. For instance, where it is said that He suffered temptations in childhood, that He learned only from the Word, that as a boy He was eminent above others in the power of learning, that He acquired knowledge from without, but truth from within; that in boyhood He was captivated by the delight of perceiving truth in science, etc., we are better able to understand His mental development, wherein it was like, and wherein it was unlike that of other boys, but we have no added knowledge of the outward events of His life.
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All that was needed of this was given before in the Evangelists.
The events in the life history of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob record in a representative way the process of the Lord's internal development. This process is revealed to us in the Writings, but we are unable to predict therefrom a single outward or historical event in the Lord's earthly life. Such, for instance, as His journey to Jerusalem with His parents when twelve years old, their missing Him on their return, their going back and finding Him in the temple in the midst of the doctors hearing and asking questions. These things are explained, but nothing is added to them.
In the case mentioned we have His first recorded words, and they are profoundly significant, revealing the fact that at this early period He was becoming aware of His Divine mission. On being rebuked by His parents for leaving them He replied: "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business." Divine intelligence is evinced by these His first words given to the world. Only thus are we permitted to see Him. The man is before us, but the God is revealed in His every word and act to those who have any perception of the fact. This is the purpose of every recorded passage of Scripture touching Him. It is possible that we can not bear to know more of the details of His life in infancy and childhood. So much would He appear like another man that our faith in His Divinity would be sorely tried; for men are so constituted that their idea of Divinity, aye, even of what is holy, must be removed from the familiar and common-place. Hence perhaps this period in our Lord's life is covered by the phrase. "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man," or by the like statement, "The child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him."
Often some question is asked concerning His relations with His parents during childhood, with reference to the mode and nature of their authority over Him. But we know nothing save the statement that He was "subject unto them."
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It may be harmless to fancy the tender and loving care of the mother, to think of her as holding the strangely wonderful child in awe, especially at those times when the inward Spirit moved Him. But on the whole it appears to us best to leave untouched the veil that is drawn over these periods of His life, and to confine the thought to that which is revealed. Enough is said to give us a perfect picture--a complete mental impression of Him as a man--a man becoming God. Beginning with His marvelous conception we are carried forward step by step to His crucifixion and final ascension with a body purely Divine. The end of the story is manifest from the beginning. The beginning is the dissension or the overshadowing of Mary by the Holy Spirit, the ending is the ascension, or the perfect Glorification. With such a beginning there could be no other ending, and both the beginning and the ending are involved in every intervening event. There was no time when He was not about His Father's business. The story is Divine History from first to last, both in fact and in the inspired account of the fact. It is the history of the Divine work of redemption and salvation as told in the life of a man who became God because in Him God was become man.
Now we do believe that this Jesus is our God. He is our hope and strength in life and in death. Remove Him from our thought, and only cold materialism is left--the warmth, the color, and all joy is taken out of life along with the hope of immortality.
This then is the significance of the birth of the Babe in Bethlehem, the yearly memorial of which event is near. Let us enter along with our children, into the true spirit of this celebration, and while fostering their delights in all that makes for a happy and joyful Christmas, not forget to impress upon them that Divine Story of the earth-born yet heaven-sent Babe, who came into the world to relieve men of their too great burdens of sin and evil, to bring redemption to the race and salvation to all who are willing to be saved. Amen.
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WILLIAM HENRY BENADE Rev. C. TH. ODHNER 1905
(Continued from New Church Life for October, 1905, p. 618.)
A BIOGRAPHY
VI. HIS MINISTRY IN PITTSBURG.
With his removal to Pittsburg, in the year 1864, a new era opened in Mr. Benade's life,--a period of greater external peace, rendering possible a more direct external preparation for the important uses to which Divine Providence was calling him. His domestic conditions, during his life in Philadelphia, had been exceedingly and increasingly unhappy. Like Socrates of old, he had been mated with a veritable Xantippa,--a woman whose overbearing disposition and almost insane temper had for years made his home a place of continual and infernal torment. She not only made impossible the opportunities for quiet study, but also poisoned the minds of his children against their father, circulated malignant scandals among his enemies in the Church, (scandals which to this very day are being noised about as "arguments" against the Academy!), and even invaded the classrooms of his school with scolding and violence.
His life became insufferable, and he began to doubt his fitness for the sacred office. At the outbreak of the Civil War he made active efforts to secure an appointment in the Federal army. "I would have succeeded had I been willing to use such political influence as was at my service. This I could not do, and so I dropped it. There is enough military duty to perform in the Church, without seeking it in civil life." (From a letter to the Rev. J. P. Stuart, dated May 5th, 1862.)
We quote again, from the same correspondence: "Here I am in a horrible sphere. My domestic conditions being hell so palpably near, heaven seems very far off. I can only ask for the Lord's help. Whichever way I think of turning, injury to my use appears to impend." (July 14th, 1863) "My own future is very uncertain, but its present shapings seem to open a new life.
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A dire domestic necessity has driven me to a change, which will inevitably bring many things in its train. Besides, I am laboring under an internal and growing pressure to do certain things which cannot be accomplished in my present situation. I must have leisure and quiet, and so I am looking to the country." (May 5th, 1864.)
When, in 1864, his wife inherited a considerable fortune from her father, and sought to use her wealth as a means for further intimidation and tyranny, Mr. Benade finally broke with her forever, accepted the call to Pittsburg, (whither she refused to follow him), and henceforth lived in a state of separation, until, in 1877, a legal divorce was effected. His patience under this fearful cross, his constant and loving efforts to secure the temporal and eternal welfare of his children, his upright and honorable life,--to these things his many friends have given abundant testimony. But the best testimonies are his own character and subsequent career, as known alike by loving friend and honest foe.
Peace having been secured at last,--at the cost of sundering all his family ties,-Mr. Benade now entered into a life of quiet pastoral work and of intense study of the Doctrines of the New Church, a study more systematic, more thorough and profound, than had ever before been undertaken by any receiver of the new Divine Revelation.
We may unhesitatingly proclaim Mr. Benade as the first scientific theologian in the New Church. Endowed by nature not only with talents but with genius; furnished, besides, with actual learning, as deep as it was wide? in all the branches of the humane sciences; and possessed, finally, of the heritage of genuine truth of Doctrine, accumulated and handed down by his theological predecessors in the Church,--men such as Hindmarsh, Noble, and De Charms,--Mr. Benade entered upon this period of study, gifted with preliminary qualifications such as no man before him had enjoyed. Not content with the mere general reading of the Writings, book by book, or with the occasional minute study of special subjects, he undertook the analytical study of the Doctrines as a systematic whole. And thus, by comparing innumerable particular teachings with one another, and allowing these to marshal themselves under their own self-evident general heads, and then by comparing these generals with one another, he came, after years of tireless labor, into a perception of those universals of genuine truth which rendered his mind so marvelously clear and rational,--keen and sure as the eye of an eagle soaring on high in detecting fallacy and falsity opposed to universal Truth, and in recognizing that which would lead to the genuine and lasting good of the Lord's Church on earth.
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Thus he grew, in his solitary eyrie in Pittsburg, feared and disliked more and more by contemporary leaders in the Church, who saw in him only a judge and a critic, unmerciful to popular fallacies and notions, but honored more and more by a few kindred minds who recognized in him the coming leader of a movement which would save the New Church out of the ruts of ignorance, dulness and worldliness into which it had fallen, (or, rather, out of which it had not yet emerged). The tangible results of his studies did not, however, appear very remarkable,--only a big pile of notebooks to which he was continually adding during the rest of his life,--but these were the text-books of Doctrine, which later on became the mainspring of instruction and inspiration for a new Priesthood of the New Church.
Chief among the Doctrines thus studied, analyzed, and constructed from the inexhaustible store-house of the Writings, was the Doctrine of the Word, which ever remained Mr. Benade's theological specialty. Connected with this most general subject mere the Doctrine of the Glorification, the Science of Correspondences, and the subjects of Education, Order, the Priesthood, and the Church,--with all things therein involved! On all these subjects he prepared text-books which, unfortunately, are now lost, having been burned in the fire which destroyed the storehouse in which he had deposited all his remaining books and manuscripts when departing for England in the year 1900, but, which, nevertheless, are preserved, as to all essentials, in the notebooks of his numerous students. And on the broad basis of these text-books, the work of Doctrinal Construction is still being carried on in the Theological School of the Academy, where it is recognized that the Writings of the New Church, being the Word of the Lord in its natural-rational sense, is similar to the Word in the Letter in this that the Doctrine of the Church must ever more be drawn therefrom and confirmed thereby.
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In the midst of these intense studies Mr. Benade by no means neglected either his pastoral work in Pittsburg, or his interest in the general uses of the Church. The New Jerusalem Magazine at one time referred to Mr. Benade as "an unsuccessful pastor,"--but what are the facts? At the time of his arrival in Pittsburg, the Society there numbered less than forty members, worshiping in an obscure hall. When terminating his pastorate, fourteen years afterwards, the Society counted one hundred regular members, worshipping in a commodious temple of their own. During this period he baptized, in Pittsburg alone, fifty-four adults--most of these being recent converts from the Old Church. If these figures be the signs of failure as a pastor, then let his detractors in New England tell the tales of their own more brilliant success!
Genuine pastoral success is not, however, to be measured by the number of converts, but by the spiritual growth of the Society in faith and life. With the exception of occasional courses of Sunday evening lectures, Mr. Benade paid but little attention to external evangelization. His chief work was in the pulpit and in the doctrinal class. His sermons were carefully studied expositions of the internal sense of the Word, finished in form as well as in substance, void of oratorical and sensational affectation, and aimed to instruct the most advanced intelligence in the congregation. He was a most powerful preacher, but his power was not his own, but that of the Word itself in the Letter, when translucent from the internal sense.
But it was especially in the doctrinal class that his work was most effective, and it was by this agency, more than any other, that he prepared the way for the Academy movement in Pittsburg. Writing to his fidus Achates, the Rev. J. P. Stuart, on November 29th, 1864, he says: "I like the fresh, earnest sphere of the people here. They are anxious to learn, and that does a body good. Instead of lectures, I have started a Sunday afternoon 'conversazione,' where I read Doctrine, answer questions, hear remarks, objections, difficulties, etc.
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I like this better than lecturing, as it affords a better opportunity to know and understand the minds of the people and their wants, and also to give Doctrine in a form adapted to those minds and wants. They enter into the plan heartily and freely, and I look forward to a good time."
Between the years 1864 and 1874 the Pittsburg Society worshiped in a hall at Sixth and Wood streets, and enjoyed here a slow but steady growth, which assumed greater proportions about the year 1868, when, to quote from the Society's report to the Pennsylvania Association, there began to appear "unmistakable evidences of an awakening attention to the New Church in the community around us, calling forth opposition on the part of some, and inquiry on the part of others." In response to this spirit of inquiry. a stock of New Church books was purchased by the Society and exposed for sale in a leading book store. Among those who at this time had their attention called to Swedenborg's Writings were some intelligent young men of prominent families, who before long came boldly forward, and by their intense enthusiasm, intellectual activity and brilliant social qualities gave a great impetus to the distinctive New Church life in the Society.
The work was interrupted for some months during the winter of 1872-'73, when Mr. Benade was incapacitated by a serious illness. When sufficiently recovered he undertook a voyage of recuperation, down the Mississippi to New Orleans and the West Indies, being accompanied by Mr. John Pitcairn, who, about this time, began to take an active and prominent part in the work of the Church. After the return of the Pastor, the Society purchased a lot in Allegheny City, at Isabella and Sandusky streets, at the cost of $14,000, (the gift of Mr. Pitcairn), and a neat wooden temple was erected at an additional cost of $4,000,* and was dedicated on October 19th, 1873. A fine organ was presented by Mr. Andrew Carnegie, whose father was an earnest member of the New Church. Mr. Carnegie himself, as a boy, had attended the Sunday School of the Pittsburg Society, and though he afterwards fell into agnosticism and materialism, there are, in his various literary productions, many unmistakable traces of New Church influence.**
* The property was sold in 1905, for the sum of $60,000.
** The Rev. J. E. Rosenquist, of Bryn Athyn, recently received a letter from a gentleman in Pittsburg, asking for information concerning the New Church. He writes: "I would like to know something about Swedenborg, as I have heard that Andrew Carnegie became so successful in life by applying Swedenborg's principles to his business."(!)
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The numerous German Newchurchmen in Pittsburg, in 1875, organized themselves as a branch of the Pittsburg Society, and Mr. Benade, in addition to his other work, now preached to them in the German tongue, of which he was a finished speaker. Meetings for reading and conversation were at the same time instituted in the East End of Pittsburg, at "Oaknest," the hospitable bachelor home of Mr. Walter Childs, which is for ever memorable as the earliest cradle of the Academy. It will thus be seen that Mr. Benade had his hands very full with the local work, and to this was added the daily instruction of two students preparing for the Ministry, besides the enormous work connected with his uses in the Pennsylvania Association, the Conference of New Church Ministers, the General Convention, and the Academy of the New Church, (then newly founded). A rest was needed and well deserved, and when, in 1877, he was invited to accompany Mr. Pitcairn upon an extended journey through Europe and the Orient, he gladly availed himself of this opportunity. During his two years of absence, the pulpit of the Pittsburg Society was occupied by the Rev. C. H. Vetterling, who, with the Rev. Richard De Charms, Jr., had studied Theology under Mr. Benade's direction.
Before following him on his interesting foreign journeys, we must now review his activities in the more general uses of the Church during the period of his Pittsburg pastorate.
VII. HIS WORK IN THE GENERAL CONVENTION.
We have already described Mr. Benade's earliest activity in the uses of the General Convention, after having united with that body in the year 1857. For twenty years he never missed one of the annual meetings, and during almost the whole of this period he was recognized as the "leader of the Opposition," the small but determined minority of those who would now be regarded as "Academy men," but who, then, for want of a better name, facetiously termed themselves "the Pre-established Harmony," inasmuch as, year after year, without previous consultation, they found themselves in harmony on all the vital issues coming up before the Convention or the Conference of Ministers.
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The latter, the "American Conference of New Church Ministers," was a body affiliated with, yet independent of the Convention, and it was organized, in June, 1862, mainly through the efforts of Mr. Benade, who hoped by this means to emancipate the priesthood of the New Church from the dominion of lay-rule.
In this Conference, which was continued as an independent body until the year 1880, and of which Mr. Benade was the Secretary until 1876, subjects involving principle could be discussed in freedom in the light of the Doctrines, and its sessions were highly educational to a portion of the Clergy. Here questions of distinctly New Church life, worship, and doctrine were propounded and answered, and the Journals of the Conference fairly teem with problems proposed and still awaiting their solution. The Journals contain also a number of valuable and interesting papers read before the Conference, but none was of more far-reaching importance than the one presented by Mr. Benade, at the Conference held in Cincinnati, 1873, entitled "The Standard of Authority," which was republished in New Church Life for July, 1902.
On the floor of the Convention itself, Mr. Benade figured, year after year, as the leader in grand battles for Doctrine, Order, and New Church distinctiveness versus the worldly notions, expediencies, compromises, and disorderly measures which continually were being introduced and urged by the majority leaders. Of the earlier of these annual conflicts we cannot here give a detailed account, as we must reserve our space for the later and more important ones, which took place after the year, 1874. He figured not only as a combatant, however, but also as a promoter of positive and most important uses of the Church, and chief of these was the work of reproducing Swedenborg's remaining manuscripts. This great undertaking was first proposed at the Convention in Boston, 1866, when a Committee of three, (Samuel M. Warren, William H. Benade, and L. S Burnham), was appointed to confer with the London Swedenborg Society in order to provide for the completion of the work of publishing the manuscripts, and republishing the Latin editions of Swedenborg's works,--this undertaking having been begun by Prof. Immanuel Tafel, but interrupted at his death in 1863.
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This Committee, in the following year, was increased to five, by the addition of the Rev. Thomas Worcester and Mr. J. Y. Scammon, and the scope of the work was extended so as to include "the thorough examination of all that are accessible of Swedenborg's unpublished manuscripts, and the publication, or duplication of such as are found worthy of preservation." Into this undertaking Mr. Benade now threw himself, heart and soul, but met with many and apparently insuperable difficulties. The Church in general did not then, and does not yet, recognize the importance of this work, as did Mr. Benade and his friends. The London Swedenborg Society at first declined to co-operate, because, according to information obtained from the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Bayley, (who had spent two days in examining the Stockholm MSS.), there were "none of the manuscripts worthy of preservation, with the exception of the Index Biblicus, now nearly printed." In America there was not, at first, much more sympathy or intelligent appreciation; there was but small response to the appeals for financial contributions, and the editor o the Messenger was so indifferent to the undertaking that he removed the Committee's appeal from the Journal, after it had appeared in three issues.
At the Convention, held in Portland, 1868, Mr. Benade finally succeeded in persuading the meeting to place the sum of $1,000 at the disposal of the Committee: the Trustees of the Rotch Legacy Fund came to the rescue with a sum of $2,500, individual subscribers came forward more freely in response to the Committee's circulars, and the English brethren began to wake up. A sufficient sum having been subscribed, the Committee engaged the services of Prof. Rudolph L. Tafel, who, in July, 1868, traveled to Stockholm and began the herculean labors which finally resulted in the ten magnificent volumes of Photolithographs and the three volumes of Documents concerning Swedenborg, which have proved a truly invaluable mine of information for the whole Church.
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The undertaking was completed,--as far as the means allowed,--in 1870, and at the Convention held in Chicago, 1871, the following resolution was adopted: "Resolved, that the thanks of the Convention be rendered to the Rev. William H. Benade, the chief promoter in America of the measures taken to secure copies of the unpublished manuscripts of Swedenborg, for the indefatigable zeal and fidelity which he has exhibited in the discharge of his duties as Chairman of the Committee on the Manuscripts of Swedenborg, and that said Committee be continued."
The Rev. Thomas Worcester, in urging the adoption of this vote of thanks, states in a letter to Mr. Scammon, which is printed in the Journal of the Convention:
There is one thing that I should like to join with you in doing, if you are willing. Some years ago a Committee was appointed on Swedenborg's Manuscripts, consisting of Mr. Benade, and others. He proposed that you and I should also be on it. This was done, and our names were placed at the head of it. But Mr. Benade has done all the work, and we have done nothing worth speaking of. The work has, I suppose, been very well done, and I think it no more than right that you and I should come forward and state these facts, and move a vote of thanks to Mr. Benade for his services. Will you do it, and say that I join with you? It is an act of justice.
Employed as he was in the uses described above, he did not, during the period now before us, produce much in a literary way. In 1865 he published in pamphlet form a sermon on The Death of Abraham Lincoln, in which breathes a spirit of sublime and ardent patriotism. In 1867 there appeared at Boston a volume of juvenile stories from his pen, under the title of Truths for Children, collected from the pages of The Little Truth-teller, and in 1868, he translated from the German, Prof. Im Tafel's Life of Jesus from the Gospel Record, vindicated and defended against the attacks of Dr. Strauss and of Infidelity in general. (Chicago; Myers and Chandler, pp. 287!) And in 1871 he contributed to The New Jerusalem Magazine a carefully studied and powerful article on "The Priesthood" in answer to attacks on that office and on the Divine Authority of the Writings, which had been made by Prof. Theophilus Parsons. (See New Jerusalem Magazine, vol. 43, pp. 553 and 602.)
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In the Pennsylvania Association he had been the life and soul of the Body ever since he united with it in 1856, and he was the leader in the reorganization which took place in the years 1871 and 1872. (See New Church Life, 1904, p. 408) Being elected President of the Association, in 1873, he was recommended to the General Convention for consecration as an ordaining minister, and was inducted into that degree by the Rev. Thomas Worcester at the meeting of the Convention in Cincinnati, on June 6th, 1873. The first ordination performed by him was that of Mr. William F. Pendleton, then pastor of Mr. Benade's old Society in Cherry street, Philadelphia, the ceremony taking place on September 7th, 1873.
At the Convention held in Boston, 1872, "the whole subject of the ministry,--particularly the expediency of recognizing a personal trine therein,"--had, at the motion of the Rev. B. F. Barrett, been referred to the Committee on Ecclesiastical Affairs, with the request that said Committee present a report on the subject at the next meeting of the Convention. The chairman of the Committee,--the Rev. Thomas Worcester,--essayed to write this report, which was read at the meeting in Cincinnati, 1873, and which is remarkable not only for the frankness with which the writer confesses his general ignorance of the subject, but also and especially on account of the pleasing and manly way in which he knows and repents of life-long prejudices. We cannot forbear quoting from this confession of one whom it has often been our painful duty to mention as something of an heresiarch in the New Church, but who here, near the end of his earthly life, presents an inspiring illustration of the truth that "it is never too late to repent"-
In relation to the particular subject that has been committed to us, we must overcome and get rid of our prejudices against the use of the words "priesthood" and "priests," and against the principle of distinct, personal grades in the priesthood. We say we and our intentionally, for we are not speaking of these who are not connected with us in the General Convention to whom this language will apply. And to come nearer home, there are some on this very Committee who have not got rid of their prejudices on this subject. And to come still nearer home, the person who is writing these words has not got rid of his prejudices.
731
He has never liked, and does not now very well like, to use the words "priesthood" and "priest." He never liked to be called a priest, or to call anyone else a priest; and he has all his life been in the habit of shirking his duty of using those words, by using the words "ministry" and "minister" instead of them. Even in drawing up this Report, he has been fighting against his own prejudices all the time; for he sees that his former way is a very poor man of getting along; and it is in a greater or less degree an evil way; for when we avoid using the words "priesthood" and "priest," there is a reason for it, and the reason is that we give those words a bad significance; and thus we are continually falsifying and injuring the Scripture and the Doctrine of the Church. (From the Journal of the General Convention for 1873, p. 42.)
There is much more in the Report to the same effect, which clearly exhibits the sincerity of the writer, but which, nevertheless, does not throw any additional light upon the subject itself. The Convention of 1873 evidently found the Report unsatisfactory, for the subject of the Ministry: was again referred to the Ecclesiastical Committee "for fuller Report, with explanation, illustration, and comment," and Mr. Benade,--the one man in the Church who had really studied the subject of the Priesthood,--was now appointed by the Committee to draw up the Report.
No meeting of the Convention was held in the year 1874; (the Executive Committee had "made every effort to provide a place for such meeting, but did not receive any invitation from any Society"). But when the Convention met at New York in 1875, Mr. Benade was ready with an exhaustive Report, which was "accepted" without reading, and was ordered to be printed with the Journal,--and that was the end of it so far as the Convention was concerned. We will not attempt, here, to present any review of this masterpiece of Doctrinal analysis, inasmuch as it will probably be soon issued anew, in pamphlet form. It remains to this day the only text-book extant on the Doctrine of the Priesthood. The firm and broad basis upon which the present order of the General Church of the New Jerusalem is founded,--elevated alike above democracy and autocracy, and appealing for authority solely to the self-evidencing reasonableness of the Divine and Heavenly Doctrine.
(To be continued.)
732
RESULTS OF TWO MISSIONS TO SWEDEN. ALFRED HENRY STROH 1905
After the early investigations of Swedenborg's manuscripts, which were undertaken by the General Convention, under the leadership of the Rev. W. H. Benade, resulting in the mission of Dr. R. L. Tafel to Sweden, and the publication of the Photolithographs and the Documents concerning Swedenborg, a number of representatives of the Academy of the New Church have visited Europe and conducted further investigations. The results of the labors of the Rev. W. H. Benade, the Rev. E. S. Price, the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, and the Rev. C. Th. Odhner, have been printed from time to time in the Life. The latest investigations by a representative of the Academy were made by the writer during two missions to Sweden, from June, 1902, to August, 1903, and from July to September, 1905. In the present article a resume will be given of the results of these two missions. It may be added that financial support for the work came from the Academy and from private sources, and also, during the first mission, from the General Convention, in connection with the phototyping of the Spiritual Diary.
On my arriving in Sweden in 1902, Vol I. of the Spiritual Diary had been completed, and before leaving in 1903 Vols. II. and III, were nearly completed; since then the Lesser Diary has been added to Vol. II., and the whole work will be published in the near future. Most of the proofs of the three volumes were read by the Rev. J. E. Boyesen of Stockholm, and the concluding ones were printed under the supervision of Miss Greta Ekelof, now Amanuensis Extraordinary in the Library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. During 1902-1903 work was also begun on a phototyped volume of Miscellaneous Theological Works by the photoyping of De Conjugio, annotata de Calvino, and Additiones ad Veram Christianam Religionem. When the Rev. Theodore F. Wright and the Rev. James Hyde visited Sweden in the summer of 1902, a plan was laid before them for the phototyping of the Index Biblicus, and in October a journey to England was made for the purpose of advocating the plan to members of the Committee of the Swedenborg Society.
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While the plan met with favor in England and America, nothing was done until the Swedenborg Society undertook the phototyping in 1903. Since that tune reasons have been given in print, and also in a lecture delivered under the auspices of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, of New York city, why the first drafts of the Arcana Coelestia and the Apocalypse Explained should be phototyped, but thus far no work has been undertaken. There are also a number of additional theological and scientific manuscripts and documents which should be phototyped in order that their contents may be accurately preserved in the original form.
As the result of a plan submitted to the Swedenborg Scientific Association by Mr. C. H. Asplundh, that body has caused to be copied a great many of Swedenborg's unpublished scientific manuscripts and has begun the publication of them. On my arriving at Stockholm this work was continued and many of the copies have been carefully compared with the originals. Particulars concerning this important work may be found in reports printed in The New Philosophy. When the Swedenborg Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was formed in 1903, still more copying was undertaken, and the printing of a series of Swedenborg's scientific works,--not only the unpublished manuscripts, but also works out of print,--was begun. At the present time three volumes are well advanced, including, 1) Swedenborg's contributions to Geology, including the Miscellaneous Observations and many smaller works, together with the scientific correspondence of Swedenborg, Eric Benzelius, Polhem, and others; 2) the work on Chemistry, etc.; 3) the Lesser Principia, Part III. of the Larger Principia, and smaller works. The printing of the scientific correspondence, the work on Chemistry and Part III, was begun last summer, and a number of sheets were seen through the press. Provision has also been made for the printing of indices, and of critical and bibliographical materials, at the close of the volumes, which will be very helpful to the student. When the whole series of volumes contemplated by the Academy of Sciences and the Swedenborg Scientific Association shall have been completed, a thorough examination of Swedenborg's contributions to science and philosophy will be possible, for thus far many important works have been inaccessible except in Stockholm.
734
Professor Gustaf Retzius, the President of the Swedenborg Committee, has most liberally supported the preparation of materials and their printing. Miss Greta Ekelof, who has copied most of the works for the Swedenborg Committee and the Scientific Association, is now assisting in the work at Stockholm, while Mr. Otto Helm is continuing his careful work on the proof sheets. The final editing of most of the materials is done in America.
Besides the copying and printing of materials already known to the Church, and the critical examination of them, investigations for new materials have been made not only in Sweden, but also in Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, England and America. In 1902-1903 three new manuscripts were found in the Royal Library, as reported in the Life last year. In Upsala a number of new historical facts concerning Swedenborg's student life and his later connection with the Scientific Society were found. In Holland, at the University of Leyden, some additional data concerning Swedenborg were secured, and in England a general examination was begun. The whole ground was gone over more thoroughly last summer and much new information secured, which will now be briefly reviewed.
Mr. James Speirs, the Secretary of the Swedenborg Society, informed me that many valuable documents in the Society's possession were under seal and could not be inspected during the summer, but I was given permission to examine the Library, with the result that some interesting data were secured in addition to those concerning the Coronis, shown me in 1902 by the Rev. James Hyde, and described below. In a presentation copy of the Apocalypsis Revelata Swedenborg wrote at the bottom of the title page, right corner: "dono mittit/Autor, "and on page 533, opposite lines 22-23, in the right margin, he wrote: "Vos Ox:ICh." In this same volume, on a fly-leaf at the end of the volume, a small hand-bill advertising the work is preserved. The advertisement begins: "This year in published. Price, 15S.;" then follows the title of the Apocalypsis Revelata, with notice of E. Hart and M. Lewis, and with special reference at the end to the Memorabilia.
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A similar hand-bill was seen at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, and will be noticed below. Swedenborg not only published the second volume of the Arcana in English, also the Brief Exposition and the Reply to a Letter from a Friend, but it is of interest to know that the works were advertised in this manner and that especial attention was called to the Memorabilia.
In a copy of the Coronis, at the bottom of the title page, is the inscription: "Precor, vocate Theologiam Novae Ecclesiae cujus haec est Appendix, non alio Nomine, quam Veram Christianam Religionem. Sic scripsit Swedenborg, in Manuscripto, paenes me reservato. W. Spence." ("Please call the Theology of the New Church, of which this is the Appendix, by no other Name, than True Christian Religion. Thus wrote Swedenborg, in the Manuscript, which is preserved in my possession.") At the end of this same copy of the Coronis, in which there are numerous corrections by Spence, with references to the manuscript, there is the inscription: "Reliqua in Manuscripto Authoris supersunt in Suecia. Deus in tempore suo faxit ut imprimantur! 1786. W. S." ("The remaining things in the Manuscript of the Author exist in Sweden. May God in His time effect that they be printed!")
The notes by Spence are also contained in another copy of the Coronis.
Quite a number of the Writings from the library of Mr. Peckitt are in the Society's Library. In a copy of the Apocalypsis Revelata, at the bottom of the title page, he wrote: "This Book belonged to Dr. Messiter a Physician who was intimate with Mr. Swedenborg; when the Dr. died 1875 I Henry Peckitt had at his Sale all the Latin Theological works of our Divine Author, Emanuel Swedenborg."
The Responsumis signed by Swedenborg's hand: "Londini 1769." Below to the left is red wax, also in other places, confirming the supposition that Swedenborg sent the Responsum through the mails, as noted in the copy which is bound with the Summaria Expositio containing the "Adventus Domini" inscription. (New Church Life, July, 1904.) At the bottom of the title-page of Quaestiones Novem. Mr. Peckitt writes: Mr. Hindmarsh had by him the Baron Swedenborg's own Manuscript when he printed this, I Henry Peckitt had the sight of it.
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Other interesting materials in the Library are the copy of the Regnum Animale used by Wilkinson in making his translation, the text being corrected; Wilkinson's manuscript translation of the Dream Book; a copy of the Coronis made from the original manuscript; an interesting collection of letters to Dr. Immanuel Tafel, by Clissold, Benade, Wilkinson, White, Hindmarsh, and others, of great interest to the New Church historian.
At the Bodleian Library, Oxford, was seen the Admission Register for foreigners for 1683-1833, small quarto, containing in the year 1711, Swedenborg's autograph:
"Emanuel Swedberg. Svecus id; Februa. 17 11/12"
From one of Swedenborg's early letters and also from verses written at Oxford we know that Swedenborg visited the old university town while on his first journey. Later on, in Stockholm, Chief Librarian E. W. Dahlgren, of the Royal Library, presented me with a type-written copy of two stray leaves from a Diary of Anders Hesselius, who was also in London in 1712, and was afterwards a resident of Pennsylvania. These two leaves were found pasted on the inside covers of an old book in Stockholm, and after being carefully soaked off were presented to the Royal Library by Dr. Keuben Berg, of Stockholm. Now in this fragment Hesselius says, under date of January 16, 1712, that Emanuel Swedberg left for Oxford on that date. The Diary also mentions Bishop Swedberg, and Governor Penn, and refers to several persons and matters mentioned by Swedenborg in his early letters from England.
In the Bodleian Register C, in 1759, is the inscription:
"Arcana Coelestia, 8 volumes in 4 degree. bound & letter'd / sent to ye Library by ye Author, unknown."
And in 1766, there is the inscription:
"Apocalysis and c. Amst. 1766. From ye Author unknown [Baron Swedenborg]."
In the Arcana referred to above, there is contained a printed hand-bill on the outside of first fly-leaf with the heading:
"Sold by
M. Lewis in Paternoster-Row, near Cheapside."
Then follows a list of De Coelo etc., De Ultimo Judicio, De Nova Hierosolyma etc., De Equo Albo, De Telluribus, Arcana Coelestia. The titles are printed in full, with the prices. The dates of publication are not given.
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Having received an invitation from Mr. Charles Bailey Bragg to visit his library, I spent a very pleasant time at his home, Hamstead Mount, Handsworth, near Birmingham, where is preserved one of the finest New Church libraries in existence. Besides many rare editions, there are some letters by Swedenborg, and his Greek-Latin Lexicon.
In Holland a visit was made to Leyden and exact size photographs secured of the first draft of the hand-bill against Ernesti and Cuno's remarks concerning it, preserved in a copy of the Vera Christiana Religio in the Thysius Library, and of the inscription by Swedenborg in the Album Amicorum of Arnout Vosmaer, now in the possession of his descendant, Professor Vosmaer, of Leyden. (See an article in the Life for 1904, Swedenborgiana in Holland.)
In Paris, in the library of Madame Louise Holmes Human, Rue Thouin 12, near the Pantheon, are many valuable manuscripts by Le Boys des Guays. Here is a volume containing the Summaria Expositio and De Amore Conjugiali, once the property of Le Boys des Guays, and with many annotations in his hand. In the Summaria Expositio are a number of annotations by Swedenborg, which will be noted here:
Page 23, line 3, after "Fides," a mark +, and in the margin, "+ Reformatorum."
Page 24, line 1, "sola" is written over "Quod fides."
Page 25, line 1, "sola" is written over "ex fide."
Page 25, line 4, bottom "Reformatorum" is written over "confasciata."
Page 27, line 17, "Reformatorum" is written over "non possint."
Page 28, line 14, bottom, "Reformatorum" is written over "addicet."
Page 30, line 1, "sola" is written over "ex Fide."
Page 38, line 17, "sola" is written over "hodierna Fide."
Page 40, line I, "sola" is written over "hodierna Fide."
In this library there is also a copy of the Apocalypsis Revelata, with the inscription on inside of fly-leaf, facing the title-page:
"Dono transmitti curavi ipse Autor / Schwedenburg / A. D. MDCCLXX."
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On the cover is a book plate "Ex Bibliotheca Warclanensi ex comit: De Borch Lubeschitz, etc. etc."
In the Bibliotheque National I saw a number of the scientific works and Writings, many of them stamped "Bibliotheque Royale." In the manuscript department is all almost exact duplicate, with additional materials, of Norling's manuscript biographical materials concerning Swedenborg, which is preserved in the Royal Library at the Hague.
In the Royal Library at Brussels I inspected the original page which Swedenborg once handed to Cuno, preserved in his Autobiography. (See Dr. R. L. Tafel's Documents, Vol. II., Part 1, pp. 476-7.)
At Hamburg and Schiffbeck I found some biographical information concerning Hermann Heinrich Holle, who published Part IV. of the Miscellanea Observata, and some other materials by Swedenborg; at Lubeck, a copy of Jacobus a Melle's treatise, De Lapidibus Figuaratis, Lubecae, MDCCXX, referred to by Swedenborg in the Letter to Jacobus a Melle. In the work by A Melle Swedenborg's argument of the primeval ocean is briefly referred to in a note on p. 4. and a reference is made to the work on the Height of Water, etc., which, it would appear, Jacobus a Melle had consulted as reviewed in the Acta Literaria Sveciae.
After visiting Bostock, where there is an edition de lure of the Opera Philosophica et Mineralia in the University Library, and Straslund, famous in Swedish history, I arrived in Greifswald, where Swedenborg published some works in 1714-1715. In the University Library I found two copies of a work by Swedenborg not generally known to be in existence. It was written by Swedenborg in 1714, as a welcome to Charles XII. of Sweden, then returned from Turkey, and is entitled: "Festivus Applausus in Caroli XII. Phoenicis Gentis Veteris Gothicae & Septentrionis nostri Monarchae. In Porneraniam suam adventum 1714. 22 Novembr. Gryphiswaldiae, Litteris Danielis Benjaminis Starckii, Reg. Acad. Typog." This very rare publication, of which not a single copy is contained in the large Swedish libraries, fills 28 pages, small quarto, and besides being an address of welcome to Charles XII., contains Swedenborg's account of the history of the Swedish race and a forecast of its future under the leadership of the great Charles, Phoenix of the ancient Gothic nation and monarch of the North.
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There are also certain historicophilosophical ideas in this little work which are of much value in explaining other passages of Swedenborg's works and which illustrate his mental development.
At the Library of the University of Lund I was glad to meet once more the genial librarian Dr. Carl af Petersens, who is an ideal librarian, and most helpful to an investigator; and former vice-librarian Palm, a very old gentleman, who became interested in the question of possible verses by Swedenborg in old dissertations of the University of Upsala, when I visited the University in 1903, and who has since then actually found three poems by Swedenborg in such old dissertations. These are contained in dissertations for the years 1700, 1707, and 1710, and are addressed by Swedenborg to Christernus Georgius Nofman, Benedictus Bredberg, and Andreas Unge. All these new compositions by Swedenborg, as well as two others found later on in Stockholm, the one on the death of Eric Benzelius, the elder, in 1709, and the other a few lines on Christ, will be described in a special article.
Some new letters by Swedenborg were also found in Stockholm, one of some importance being Swedenborg's letter of acceptance of membership in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Just before leaving Stockholm I found some annotations by Swedenborg on the subject of conjugial love, in a manuscript reported by Dr. R. L. Tafel to be missing. (See the Documents, Vol. II., Part II., page 875) This was so near the time of leaving that I could not search thoroughly into it, but the Codex is numbered "114," while Dr. Tafel's last entry is Codex 113. The two volumes which constitute the Index to the Arcana Coelestia are in the Library of the Academy of Sciences, and the annotations are at the end of Vol. II. The index to the Arcana was published at London in 1815 from a copy. If, after further investigation, it is found that these notes have not been anywhere published, they will be printed and translated in the Life.
740
FIFTH CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY. DAVID H. KLEIN 1905
THURSDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 5TH.
The Fifth Chicago District Assembly was held at the Sharon Church, Chicago, on October 5th-8th, 1905. The meetings were very well attended, nearly all of the members from the Immanuel Church in Glenview coming into town to attend the sessions. Besides these visitors, the Assembly enjoyed the presence of the Rev. G. G. Starkey, who had come from Denver to place two of his children in the School at Glenview. Six or seven members of the Executive Committee of the General Church, from distant points, were also present at some of the sessions, being assembled in Chicago to complete the organization of the Corporation of the General Church.
The meetings were marked by the greatest activity and interest, not to say enthusiasm. Added to the lively sphere of interest aroused by the papers and discussions was a most joyous social sphere, due in no small part to the warm hospitality of the members of the Sharon Church in the entertainment of their guests.
The first session, on Thursday evening, was opened with Divine worship. Bishop Pendleton then read his address, which was on the subject of "Ceremony." The Bishop explained the origin of ceremonies and spoke of their use on the religious, civil and social plane.
The Rev. W. B. Caldwell expressed his delight at the teaching concerning the heavenly internal that existed in an orderly ceremony. People, in general, were prone to ascribe a natural origin to all outward forms. Our present custom of saluting by the firing of guns springs from an old custom which was meant to show good will, the emptying of the guns being a token that no harm was intended. Our much abused expression "Please" had its origin in a law of brotherly love. Shaking hands, likewise, expressed the strength of genuine charity to the neighbor, the hand being the ultimate symbol of power. Ceremonials in things of religion, as we know, had been much abused and had in some cases become the chief things of worship. In the effort to avoid abuse the Church had perhaps grown out of a full or proper exercise of an important use.
The Rev. G. G. Starkey spoke of the use of the address in bringing home to us the necessity for a rational understanding of the nature and uses of ceremonies.
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The United States represents an effort to get out of worn out forms. The extreme of democracy was perhaps reached in Jefferson, who, riding almost unattended to the scene of his inauguration, hitched his horse to a post and then went through the important ceremony. Such a simplicity has, perhaps, a certain charm, but yet, also, has a touch of what is inappropriate. The American character, in general, has an impatience of forms. We need to grow out of the state of exaggerated simplicity, and to learn the value of an appropriate ceremony at the proper time.
Mr. H. L. Burnham spoke of the Value of ceremony in the social and business intercourse of men. In some quarters, ceremonials of social life were much cultivated, but with merely external people they are but empty forms. Some people will ask about the health of a man's family with such an artificial insincerity as to fill one with disgust. A distaste for such empty mockery has perhaps led us to an opposite extreme.
Mr. Jacob Schoenberger recalled that ceremonies and outward forms are to be but representations of internal states, so that with the New Church gentleman or lady outward courtesies would be genuine. He thought, also, as regards externals of worship, that the place of worship should have an appearance and sphere suited to its high use. In Europe, great attention was paid to the altars and chancel, and children were taught to reward them with reverence. "This is the Lord's house," they were told, and the saving had made a profound impression on him as a child
Mr. Paul Synnestvedt expressed interest in the teaching that people in the ancient times had their eyes opened to see the things of the other world, and reproduced them in external forms on earth, even as Moses reproduced the image of the Tabernacle which the Lord showed him in the other world. If we keep this in mind, it will increase our respect for the ancient forms and ceremonies which have come down to us from past ages. Some of them, no doubt, had this origin.
The Rev. David H. Klein referred to the scope of ceremonials as affecting things religious, civil and social. One phase of their use in social intercourse had especially impressed him,--that they served as a restraint to keep the passions of the natural man from breaking forth into violent speech and act. The natural man, as indicated in the Writings, may be compared to a wild beast in a cage. If his hatred and aversion to the neighbor were at all times manifested, society would become anarchy and chaos. Even the regenerating man at times needs the restraint of the ceremonies and forms of society, until, in more calm and rational states, he can better control the feelings of the natural man, and properly subordinate them to the spiritual. We may well prize the virtue of sincerity, but sincerity does not require that man should at all times express or show his feelings.
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At the close of this session all present repaired to the cosy and cheerful room of the Sharon Church, where the time was passed in greetings and social intercourse, together with singing and dancing.
FRIDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 6TH.
After the opening religious exercises, the Secretary of the District Assembly read his report. Following this, the Rev. W. B. Caldwell read a report from the Sharon Church, the greater part of which was devoted to the consideration of the subject of "Unanimity," the writer suggesting various means by which a society of the Church might grow in this respect.
Mr. Klein, in commenting on the paper, spoke of the value of New Church Life in bringing about a harmony of thought throughout the Church. There was another point quite important in the life of a society, where unanimity was desirable,--that of punctuality in attending services. Preparation for worship was most necessary to a state of full reception, and tardy attendance was destructive of this. By coming late, people lose the effect of the Confession of Sin in the service, which, as the ultimate of a state of humiliation, is of powerful service in worship. Besides this, a great injury is done to others in distracting thought from the service, and, in general, in interfering with the sphere. Often there appeared to be a lack of conscience in this matter, and the failure to realize the importance of a law of common charity to others.
Mr. Starkey stated that the first step in coming into a state of harmony was for man to be humble and learn to subordinate himself. He must learn those things which make him a creature of service, and not of appetite. He must find the means to make his internal interest operative.
Dr. Harvey Farrington said that the Church society is like the individual man. It has to progress, and from time to time it needs to be reminded of its duties. As it is, we are inclined simply to come to Church, sing, pray, listen to the sermon, and, perhaps, talk after the services are over. There is little conscious attempt to bring our minds into unanimity, so that often we have only an external coming together and not an internal.
Bishop Pendleton: In the experience of the New Church, this has happened. A man in the Old Church receives the Doctrines. He finds himself in the midst of those whose thoughts are not in harmony with his own, and so he enters a New Church society. Something occurs to hurt his feelings. He departs, and is never heard of again. What is wrong? He says that New Church people have no charity. This is not true. Still there is some degree of truth in it, but it is not true as stated.
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Of course there are evils in all men. He has allowed evils in others, to excite evils in himself. It was necessary for him to fight a battle against his natural man, and he gave way. This suggests the fundamental question which lies at the root of all unanimity in the life of a society-the shunning of evils as sins, by the individual. When some evil in me or you has been excited, it must be shunned. The practical suggestions for unanimity are very good, but back of it all is the putting down of the natural man. If we love the doctrines, we can come into internal harmony with no others but those in a similar faith. How careful we ought to be then, not to cut loose from such association on account of some matter that hurts our natural man.
Mr. Burnham: The difficulty is, that we do not have a strong enough affection for real things, but for appearances. Unconsciously, we measure things by a false standard, which is that of external self-interest. We know of the society of the world, with its external polish and pleasantness, and are needlessly offended at certain crudities which may appear in a brother in the Church. We would love our brother better, if we kept our minds fixed on his spiritual good.
Mr. S. G. Nelson spoke of the value of punctuality, but made a plea, also, for regularity of attendance at class and at worship. This would bring about unanimity of thought and affection.
Mr. Junge said that a man should not think that he was conferring a favor on the society by compelling himself to attend worship, but ought to realize that this is to his own interest.
Mr. Caldwell pointed out that in all these matters man is to be left free to act as he shall desire. The object, in presenting the paper, was not to force people, but merely to present rational considerations.
Mr. S. G. Nelson said that conversation about the sermon brought about harmony of thought. Meditation on spiritual subjects we know to be useful, and conversation is meditation expressed aloud.
Mr. Starkey was struck with the fact that the subject discussed, in its primary aspect, was one of regeneration. All things seemed to point clearly to the worship, of the Church. The command to the Israelites when they were to appear before the holy mountain of Sinai, was "Sanctify yourselves." So man, in coming to Church, must not allow the current of the world to absorb and distract him. He should have all his faculties alert and should enter into all things, and this, not with a divided mind or wandering attention. It is not enough to say to the neighbor that the discourse was "a fine sermon," but he should be ready to speak of the matters which have affected him.
Bishop Pendleton stated that one could imagine a state of external worship on earth, that was well-nigh perfect as to its form or ritual. But it could not be genuine worship unless there was an elevation of affection as well as of thought. Even the evil, at worship, may have the thought alone elevated. There was a practical suggestion he would like to offer,---not to come to Church tired, but in a state of physical rest, if possible.
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This might appear as a trifling thing, but supposing all other conditions for genuine worship to exist, it was of importance. It is a difficult thing to rise out of the natural, when the body is weary. If worship were what it ought to be, man would not want to miss it. People do not often miss an engagement at the theater. Many of us go to the theater with pleasure, and to Church as a duty. The time will come when going to Church will he the greatest pleasure of all.
Mr. Richard Roschman spoke of the importance of the mind being prepared for worship. He found it a great help in his own case to read the Writings before going to Church while the reading of the Sunday newspaper before worship had quite a different effect. In regard to the question of unanimity, he recalled a teaching that it was difficult for Christians to be drilled into choirs in the ether life.
Mr. Caldwell pointed out that the statement referred to taught that gentiles are brought into choirs much more quickly than Christians.
A paper by Dr. J. B. S. King on "The Organization of Society" was then called for and read. The Doctor, by many graphic illustrations found in the human body, showed how the law of unanimity obtained therein, his paper proving an interesting amplification of the preceding discussion.
Mr. Caldwell stated that man is not conscious of the life that goes on within the body. All moves smoothly, unless some part is failing. So it is in Church societies. Wherever there is someone failing in his duty there is a sore spot or a dead center. The disease concentrates attention.
Mr. Burnham said that the cells of the body, mentioned by Dr. King, performed their uses so well that each one, as it were, knew that it was in its right place. Some men forget that Providence places them in a situation where they can be of use, and often think that they could do something else better. In this there is a lack of contentment with one's lot, and a lack of the acknowledgment that Providence places man in the situation which is the best for his eternal welfare.
Bishop Pendleton spoke of the restless desire for change which exists to such a great extent in our country, so that one writer has spoken of us as a "set of agricultural nomads." Man ought to work with all earnestness at all times, as though he were in a certain place to perform uses there for life. If the Lord sees a change to be necessary, the indications will be forthcoming. Certain spirits were described in the Writings as lusting for heaven. They were told that heaven would never be given as long as they lusted for it. This is a universal law. If we were introduced into heaven, because lusting for its delights, heaven would soon become undesirable. Heaven rests in a state of contentment with one's lot. The angels are content in God. So man, in his life, should not unnaturally force things, but "wait on the Lord."
Mr. Schoenberger stated that there were some who were legitimately dissatisfied with their calling.
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Bishop Pendleton said that the best preparation for the next step is always to do well, that which we have to do now. Spirits prepare for heaven in the world of spirits, and when the time if up, all at once, they see a road to heaven, which indicates the way that they shall go. The desire for better things is legitimate, and without it there is no progress. But man must beware of a state of discontent with God and His Providence.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, OCTOBER 7TH.
At this session of the Assembly four papers were read and discussed, somewhat briefly, it is true, because of the limited time at disposal. The first, by the Rev. David H. Klein, was in the form of a report from the Immanuel Church. Mr. Klein spoke of the work of the Immanuel Church, especially in the educational field. He gave a brief history of New Church Education and spoke of the work which was before the Church in the Middle West in this use.
Bishop Pendleton stated that in considering the subject of education it is well to recall the all-important part which Providence plays, or the work which the Lord does without the assistance of man. The Lord implants remains. Children are oftimes alone, apart from their parents, at play, perhaps, and then attendant angels are with them in a work of education of which we are not conscious. Man but co-operates with the Lord's work. It is well to observe this and to note, therefore, three factors in the education of the child: first, the work of Providence; second, the work of the parent at home; third, the work of the School. When children get away from the sphere of their parents the work of the School is necessary, but the work of Providence is continual. Yet we all have an important part to play.
Mr. Caldwell spoke of the importance of the work of education in connection with our Church life.
Mr. Louis Cole told how several years ago he had taken up a copy of the New Church Life upholding the cause of New Church education, and stating that the future of the New Church was in her children. This had made a deep impression at the time, and was largely instrumental in bringing him into the General Church.
Mr. Burnham in commenting on the possibility of having a New Church College in the West at some future time, stated that he did not look forward too eagerly to that time. In sending our children to a Local School in the West, we, as it were, take them out of the world and limit their associations. In sending them to Bryn Athyn we give them a most desirable and a wider association with young people of their own age and condition.
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At home, children sometimes do not know that they are grown up, and sometimes their parents do not know it, and it was of great use to them to enter upon a wider freedom abroad, in a New Church College, in preparation for the freedom of adult years. If we had colleges at all the Church centres, the children would lose something of this. Mr. Burnham spoke glowingly of the sphere of the college life at Bryn Athyn, and said that in permitting our children to share in this we give them a most precious possession.
An interesting discussion, touching upon local matters of education, then followed, alter which Dr. King read a brief paper on the subject of "Baptism,--At Home or in the Church."
The Doctor spoke of the interior uses of baptism, and of the solemnity attached to the external rite. Since baptism was the gate of entrance into the Church, he favored having the rite performed at the Church, with all the formal surroundings of worship, in a place dedicated to the use of worship. Still there were certain risks encountered in taking infants out of doors at an early age, and it would sometimes involve the postponement of the rite for some time. In view of varying conditions it would not seem well to prescribe a too rigid adherence to either form.
Bishop Pendleton stated that the state of infants and children was like that of simple gentiles, with whom they were associated in the spiritual world. It is not well for them to remain too much in this association, and the act of baptism on earth holds in them a central place, which draws them back from a too intimate or long-continued association with such spirits. Bishop Benade had inaugurated a custom of baptizing children on the third day after birth, but experience had shown that this was too early, in that it involved too great a strain on the mother. A rigid custom of baptizing children in the home had sprung up among us, and it would be well not to let this become a matter of conscience. There were certain features of use to be mentioned in regard to baptism in Church. 'The sphere of this holy act was of great use to the members of the Church. Owing to our past custom, there were those among us who had never witnessed the baptism of an infant. There should be freedom of choice as to the time and place.
A paper by Mr. Alvin E. Nelson on the subject of "Our Children in Church Worship" was then called for and read.
After the reading of the paper Bishop Pendleton stated that things of religion should not be made a burden to children. Some little compulsion perhaps is necessary, but we must take care not to create a distaste, for children ought to feel delight in the holy things of the Church.
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In our schools it is well to impose no tasks on the child in regard to the things of the Word. If you are successful in arousing a spontaneous affection, everything is gained, even if all things are not retained in the memory. The impression is recorded upon the internal memory. In all our relations with children it is well to cultivate spontaneity of affection. Often, nothing remains of things induced by compulsion, for in this state the internal will rebels.
Dr. Farrington said that some children are naturally restive, and even under good training cannot remain still at worship. Others are docile. Some require something to play with, and this can often be given, and the children still remain in the sphere of the service. The disposition of children varies much in regard to religious things, and some take to them naturally at an early age.
Mr. Forrest remarked that he had been amazed at the good order observed even by our very young children while at Church. Perhaps this was from their New Church training at home. They seemed unusually quiet and to be interested in something in the service, even though they did not understand it. In his past experience in the Old Church he had very often found children unruly at service.
Bishop Pendleton spoke of the statement in the Writings quoted in the paper, that the angels have a fuller understanding of the internal sense of the Word when read by children, than when it is read by adults who are not in, the faith of charity. He said that the qualification of the last few words should be noted. Read by a regenerate man, the angels see more in the Word than when it is read by a child.
Mr. Burnham said that many mothers feel a delicacy in bringing their young children to Church through fear of disturbing the services. All members needed to be tolerant for the sake of the great good to be gained for the children. Some mothers would be deprived of attending services altogether, ii they did not bring their children. He suggested that those who were more free might sometimes offer to help the mothers, who were thus detained at home, by offering to take care of the children.
Mr. Caldwell Children are susceptible to spheres, and if an orderly sphere prevails among other children, they soon come into line. It is a mistake to keep them away just because they manifest some restlessness for the first time or so.
Mr. Starkey stated that we might ourselves take lessons and not permit ourselves to be too easily disturbed. If we were more alive to the state of innocence in children we would not be so easily disturbed.
Mr. John Forrest then read a paper on the subject of "Class Suppers."
The reading of the paper was followed with an affectionate sphere of interest, and it was much appreciated.
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Bishop Pendleton spoke of the humble beginnings of this feature of our Church life which had now become an established element of use in nearly all the societies of the General Church. Those who had a part in the small beginnings, little realized all that was involved.
Interesting reminiscences and talks as to the origin of the suppers followed until the time for adjournment arrived.
The following resolution, presented by the Rev. W. B. Caldwell, was then enthusiastically carried:
"Resolved, That this Assembly do express its gratitude for the important act of the Executive Committee in completing, to-day, the organization of the Corporation of the General Church, and that this Assembly congratulates the Church and the members of the Committee on this provision for the stability of our body."
A resolution thanking the members of the Sharon Church for their warm-hearted hospitality was passed with like enthusiasm.
The session was followed by a supper at which songs and speeches brought out the active interest and enthusiasm of all. At the request of the ladies each gentleman present was called upon to state two points which had impressed him during the progress of the discussion at the Assembly. This feature was a most decided success, for no one failed when the critical moment for him arrived, even though some doubts had existed as to those who would come last on the list. The sessions of the Assembly were followed by the usual Sunday services with their uplifting sphere, and on Monday night an animated and enjoyable men's meeting was held at Glenview, where the discussion turned upon the subject presented by the Bishop: "What is it that opens heaven to man?"
DAVID H. KLEIN,
Secretary.
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Editorial Department. 1905
NOTES AND REVIEWS.
It is reported that the final corrections in the plates of the Latin reprint of True Christian Religion are now being made, and that the book will be issued as soon as possible after they are completed.
It is suggested in Morning Light that, "as in West Africa there exist many secret societies, it is probable that--in the interior--there may be some such societies receiving revelation, yet keeping the fact an absolute secret lest truths esteemed holy should be perverted."
Commencing with the October issue, which is marked "Vol. I., No. 1," our esteemed Australian contemporary, Divine Authority, changes its name to True Christian Life. The opening editorial points out that the change in name indicates no change in attitude, the new name having been chosen because the "True Christian life" can exist only where the Divine Authority of the Writings is recognized.
The leading article of this issue is a reprint of a chapter of Dr. R. L. Tafel's Authority in the New Church, entitled, "Doctrine, two-fold--of God and of Man."
The Rev. J. B. Spiers writes to the Messenger urging the institution of New Church Orphanages as one of the duties of the Church. He cites several cases that have come to his knowledge, where, in the absence of New Church institutions, it has been necessary to put New Church children in some Old Church orphanage, where they are "lost to the Church." A New Church Orphanage was recently established in San Francisco, but, it may be remarked, that, outside the General Church, there is no such institution in the East.
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Yet an orphanage should be one of the greatest of the external means for the increase of the New Church, and one of the most fruitful in results.
The Rev. William H. Alden communicates to the Messenger for October 11th, a note respecting a bust of Swedenborg now in the possession of the Philadelphia First Society, to whom it was presented by the late L. C. Jungerich. Mr. Jungerich obtained it in 1850, and prior to that date it was the property of Mr. William Schlatter, one of the original members of the Philadelphia Society at its formation in 1815. Its further history is not known. The bust is the work of an Italian sculptor, Guisseppe Ceracchi; and since Ceracchi died in 1800, it must have been made not many years after the death of Swedenborg. But under what circumstances it was made, is not known. It differs materially from other portraits of Swedenborg. Can any of our readers supply any information about this bust?
The accumulated results of archeological research seem to be having the effect of introducing a temporary reaction against the radical and destructive position of the "advanced" theologian. As expressed in an address by Prof. H. H. Kuyper, of Amsterdam, the recent finds in Bible lands undermine the whole subjective reconstruction of the Old Testament religion advocated by the Critics; it is a conflict between fact and hypothesis, and, naturally, fact comes out victorious.
Signs of this reaction are pointed out in The Literary Digest of October 31st, where Dr. Rade, the leading exponent of advanced theology, is quoted as saying. "Modern theology is becoming very tired in its researches," and "We are beginning to see before us certain limitations and checks to our future progress." Again, Prof. Harnack, the most brilliant of the advanced theologians, has suddenly discarded the cause of theology to become Royal Librarian in Berlin,--"a clear indication that he has found no joy or contentment in the theology he has taught."
We are reminded of the words of an Anglican clergyman respecting the assertive confidence of Modern Research. "Who shall say that the 'final decision' of the Court of Trained Research will remain 'final?'"
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For some weeks past an animated discussion has been going on in Morning Light on the subject of "Individual Cups' in the Communion. Both sides of the controversy have shown, generally, somewhat of a stickling for form, and a losing sight of the essence. If order demanded that only one cup be used, then a large majority, if not practically all the Societies of the New Church are greatly at fault: for the use of at least two cups is common. The New Church, however, is not to rest in mere forms, but is to regard forms from the uses which they subserve. Forms are like garments which may be changed or varied, without necessitating injury to the use. The use of the Holy Supper is that man may be conjoined with the Lord, and, from this conjunction, may come into communion with his fellowman. This communion is represented by the eating and drinking together, that is, by the common approach to the Lord's Table. It may be represented by the use of one cup from which all drink. But It may equally well be represented where more than one is used, providing the animating cause for the form be the better administration of the Sacrament itself, according to circumstances and necessities; for the use of two or more cups does not take away the eating and drinking together. Indeed, there can he no intrinsic objection to the use of the individual cup and platter,--as, where there is a desire to express the communion of brotherhood by an actual eating and drinking together, that is, at the same time. So in social meetings, communion may be represented by the loving-cup or by the individual glasses. But where the animating cause for the use by the individual cup in the Holy Supper, is distrust of the neighbor's health or cleanliness, or a desire to protect oneself from the neighbor by a kind of separation, then there enters into the mind of the communicant a sphere which is not in harmony with the spirit of communion, and which is detrimental to the reception of that spirit of fraternity, expressed in the words: Behold how good and how lovely it is for brethren, to dwell together in unity.
In the Messenger of November 8th, the Rev. Dr. T. F. Wright gives a brief notice of a work by an Old Church minister, wherein the author, after speaking in terms of high praise about the New Church, and the Writings of Swedenborg, deals with the Creed of the Church in a less favorable spirit.
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In the terms "Essential Divinity, Divine Humanity, and Divine Proceeding" he sees "not only inexplicable mystery, but scholastic mystification of a most objectionable nature." On the words, "He united in His Humanity Divine Truth to Divine Good, and so returned into His Divinity in which He was from eternity, together with and in His Glorified Humanity," the comment is, "What a perplexing, incomprehensible, needless puzzle is this;" its phrases are "carefully studied enigmas, obscuring the mental vision, and beclouding the subject to which they relate." Dr. Wright adds, "I have given enough to show that we are to be blamed for this intelligent man's perplexity. Would this have occurred if we had been less ambitious to use large words, and more willing to take the simple terms of Scripture? How many people have been led to think that our faith requires for its expression more intricate terms than those of the Athanasian Creed, when yet it is so simple that the Words of Scripture will express it in a few lines." We are at a loss to understand what the Doctor means. Surely, it must have escaped his notice that the portions of the Creed characterized as inexplicable" and "objectionable mystification," and as "carefully studied enigmas," etc., are nothing less than extracts from the faith of the New Church as set forth in the True Christian Religion; and that the terms which he chooses to call "more intricate than those of the Athanasian Creed," are the terms which the Writings themselves use, and, indeed, coin, for the proper expression of our Faith! Would Dr. Wright wish to attempt a "Scriptural" version of the Writings?
Far from making us desire a "simplification" of the theological terms of the Church, the objections to the words of the Creed suggest rather the criticism of a spirit in the other world, who, on reading the Writings, saw in them "nothing but vain, novel, and fantastical things."
A correspondent writes to the Messenger urging the adoption of Vegetarianism as a distinctive sign of the New Church, and citing the Rev. William Cowherd, "a Swedenborgian minister in England, who from 1807 held that meat-eating was at the base of the crime of the world." The reference to Mr. Cowherd is an unfortunate one, so far as the New Church is concerned.
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For that gentleman, who was at one time curate to Mr. Clowes in Man that gentleman, who was at one a curate to Mr. Clowes in Manchester, is shown by Mr. Hindmarsh to have had the most grossly material ideas respecting the Lord, and to have openly denied that He is the One God, besides holding other foolish and insane notions. Mr. Hindmarsh, indeed, judges him to have been of "unsound mind." Moreover, with his advocacy of vegetarianism and total abstinence, which he made essential to membership in his Society and to participation in the Holy Supper, came his severance of all such connection with the New Church as he had hitherto maintained.
To the vegetarian society which he then established, he gave the name "Bible Christians," and the society soon lost sight of the New Church. After Mr. Cowherd's death, some of the members emigrated to America: and, in Philadelphia, their descendants still worship under the name of "Bible Christians." But they have lost all trace of any past connection with the New Church, and probably few if any of them know even of the existence of that Church. All has been swallowed up by their two cardinal "virtues"--Vegetarianism and Total Abstinence. Truly, the prophetic words of Mr. Hindmarsh have come true, who said to the founder of the "Bible Christians," that "in the course of a very few years, both he and his system, or rather his succession of ever varying systems, would be altogether forgotten, or no otherwise recollected than as beacons to warn the future members of the Church against the indulgence of vain and delusive speculations," See Hindmarsh's Rise and Progress, p. 190 seq.
The Balanced Life, the latest book by the author of A Little Lower than the Angels, is reviewed by the Rev. A. E. Beilby in the November issue of the New Church Magazine. The following extracts from Mr. Beilby's article are a good example of the effective style of the reviewer, and fairly describe the character of the book reviewed:
"The Rev. Clarence Lathbury, whose latest work we are supposed to be reviewing. . .would fain be a little higher than the angels, and summons us to be joyful as insistently as the Musselman's muezzin calls the faithful to prayer. Before obeying, I must really press for a reason why. 'Let us be merry,' said Mr. Pecksniff, supporting his appeal by personal example, and regaling himself on a biscuit, Your radiant optimists rather remind me of Tom Pinch's sainted master; they importunately implore us to be happy, but often on no better basis than a dry biscuit.
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Their faces do not square with their fervors, and the latter are apt to leave us a little exhausted.
"On the whole, I am undecided whether the new optimism or the old pessimism be the greater scourge. This is my state of mind after reading-and enjoying-Mr. Lathbury's remarkable book. It is only the other day since the Simple Life was pressed on us as the summum bonum of our existence, and with much pain and labor we honestly tried to be 'simple. For my part, I felt sanguine that, with an assured income of a thousand a year, and if no one crossed me, I could live the Simple Life to perfection. Be that as it may, it was not sufficient. We are now exhorted to aim at the Balanced Life. Simplicity was good, but balance is better. It is our duty, we learn, to be well and strong; health is an obligation as well as a privilege. Like Mrs. Dombey on her death bed, we must really 'make an, effort.' We are urged to 'unfold our natures, open our lives like the flowers under the dawn of heaven.' Quite so. It is beautiful,-but a little vague. However, by acting on the counsel we shall 'regain that lost balance which is the sole avenue to happiness and strength.' How a 'balance' comes to be converted into an 'avenue' is not perfectly clear; but no matter--a balance is a blessing, whatever form it takes."
Mr. Lathbury's teaching respecting human nature, that "we are incurably divine," is characterized as indicating that "humanity does not appear to have much to do with its own advancement; it has got to move on whether it will or no; the evolutionary policeman will permit no obstruction of the footway. . . . . Theologically it is nonsense" and savours rather of "Theosophy and Christian Science." "Mr. Lathbury's light estimate of sin is an opiate rather than a tonic and can work nothing but mischief. Here is one instance of his lullaby gospel--one out of many: 'Sin is an intruding sickness and no proper quality of man.' If sin be a mere passing sickness which nature herself without a doctor is certain to remedy ere long, then we shall have to recast our whole theology from start to finish."
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In the New Church Magazine for November the Rev. James Hyde reviews the "Library Edition" of The Four Doctrines; with the nine Questions, translated by the Rev. J. F. Potts. The review is written in that delightfully caustic style that has become so marked a characteristic of Mr. Hyde's criticisms, and it may be summed up as a series of questions: Why didn't you do this? Why didn't you do that? In any other writer such a style would suggest somewhat of arrogance, but with Mr. Hyde it is only that gentle assurance that is born of positive and more or less exclusive knowledge the sources of which are known to himself alone.
The translation is briefly criticized as having been "unequally done." But more lengthy objection is made to several minor and external features of the volume; while a whole paragraph is devoted to an indignant protest against the translator's having gratefully recorded the "indifferent fact" that the version of The Nine Questions was made "from a copy of the original 'preserved' in the Library of the Academy. It may be noted that this copy was the only copy which Mr. Potts was able to find in America.
The review also includes a notice of Novem Quaestiones, which is the only critical notice of this reprint that has appeared in the journals of the Church. It is minutely compared with the original edition of 1785, and a number of variations are pointed out, in addition to those noted in the Notae criticae editoris.
The comparison is an accurate work, but the reviewer does not maintain the same accuracy when he comes to notice the translator's bibliographical preface to The Nine Questions. In undertaking to correct two minor errors he has, by a free use of "positive" conjecture, fallen into more serious errors himself. Thus he says that The Nine Questions themselves "fully indicate" that they were "not proposed at one and the same time;" and yet the fact is that the internal evidence points to an exactly opposite conclusion, For in the answer to Question II Swedenborg refers to "the things which will be said below in answer to the sixth question." And, moreover, Mr. Hartley's remarks at the end of the ninth question obviously suggest the closing words of a single series of questions.
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With equal lack of tangible evidence Mr. Hyde proceeds from one conjecture to another, even more bold, and the tendency of which would be to throw doubt on the accuracy of the Novem Quaestiones as we now have them. "We must not suppose," he says, "that we have in the printed book the precise words of Hartley and Swedenborg as contained in their correspondence. There can he no question but that the matter has been edited and most likely thrown into question and answer form by Hindmarsh." And why, pray, "must we not suppose" that we have Swedenborg's "precise words?" or why "can there be no question" but that Mr. Hindmarsh has "edited" and presumably more or less altered them? Mr. Hindmarsh himself, who is the best of evidence, states that he printed "from a copy received from Mr. Hartley," and Mr. Hyde offers no other evidence in any way to weaken the obvious meaning of these words,--except his own Ipse dixit. His supposition is a purely gratuitous assumption.
Hindmarsh's own statement as to the source of the copy from which he printed, is supported by a note written by Mr. Henry Peckitt in a copy of Novem Quaestiones, now in the possession of the London Swedenborg Society, stating that "Mr. Hindmarsh had by him the Baron Swedenborg's own manuscript when he printed this, I Henry Peckitt had the sight of it." This clearly leads to but one conclusion, namely, that the manuscript from which Hindmarsh printed was the manuscript originally sent by Swedenborg to Hartley, and by him transmitted to Hindmarsh. (How, otherwise, would the latter gentleman come to be the possessor of Swedenborg's autograph answers?) That this manuscript contained all the questions and answers is sufficiently indicated by Mr. Peckitt's note, for had they been "edited" and "arranged" from a number of letters, these would never have been described as "the Baron Swedenborg's own manuscript," or the work printed from them, as being printed "from a copy received from Mr. Hartley."
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IN MEMORIAM. 1905
ANDERS LEONARD GYLLENHAAL.
The passing of Mr. Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal, one of the founders and pillars of the Immanuel Church of Chicago and Glenview, brings to the mind the connection of the present with the very earliest times of the New Church.
Mr. Gyllenhaal was the head of a family which, in direct descent and in each generation, has been connected with the New Church ever since Swedenborg's own days.* The previous history of the family is also interesting, as it descended from one of the soldiers of Gustavus Adolphus, who, in the Thirty Years' War, rose to distinction, and later on was ennobled and assumed the name of Gyllenhaal, (Golden Hall). One of his descendants married a sister of Professor Wahlfeldt, of Skara, who was an intimate friend of Dr. Gabriel A. Beyer, of Gottenburg, and who received the Doctrines of the New Church from him. It was this Professor Wahlfeldt who introduced the Doctrines among the Lutheran clergy in Skara, where they spread so rapidly that at one time,--about 1780,--it seemed that the whole diocese would come over in a body to the New Church. Among his converts were the Rev. Anders Knoes, Sven Schmidt, J. P. Odhner, and others, who figure prominently in the earliest annals of the New Church in Sweden.
* The family may, by marriage, connected with the Swedenborg family.
Through Professor Wahlfeldt the Doctrines were communicated also to his young nephew, Leonard Gyllenhaal, who rose to the rank of major in the Swedish army, and later on became the foremost entomologist of Europe. He was one of the most zealous and self-sacrificing members of the "Exegetic and Philanthropic Society," and of the subsequent society "Pro Fide et Charitate," and not only labored incessantly to spread the Heavenly Doctrines among his friends, but, what was more unusual in those days, contributed liberally and continually from his fortune for the publication of the Writings and the collateral literature of the Church. He died on May 13th, 1840 (See Annals of the New Church, p. 456)
His oldest son, Leonard Gyllenhaal, was also a receiver of the Doctrines, and was the father of Anders Leonard Gyllenhaal, who was born in Vestmanland, July 1st, 1842.
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Having finished the collegiate course at Upsala University in 1860, Mr. Gyllenhaal served for two years on one of his father's merchant vessels. On returning to Sweden, he re-entered Upsala University for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy; but financial reverses in the family obliged him to discontinue his studies a year before completing his course.
He then came to America, and after trying his fortune in the South, he finally settled in Chicago, where he was, for thirty years, the leading Swedish editor in America.
In 1880 he married Miss Selma A. Nelson, a daughter of Mr. Swain Nelson, the venerable patriarch of the Immanuel Church. Soon after his marriage he was chosen a member of the Academy of the New Church, and served for a number of years as secretary of the Immanuel Church, and his hospitable home at Glenview was ever one of the social centers of the Church. All his children received their early education in the local New Church School at Glenview, and six of them have attended the College and Seminary at Bryn Athyn, where his eldest son. Mr. Leonard Gyllenhaal, is at present a teacher, while the next son, Mr. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal, is here pursuing his studies for the Ministry of the Church. He has thus contributed,--what is more than silver and gold,--living intelligences and affections for the future upbuilding of the Lord's New Church.
As to his mind and character we may quote here from the glowing but well-deserved eulogy which appeared in the Svenska Tribunen: "Editor Gyllenhaal was in every sense of the word a man of honor. Modest and unassuming, he was never heard to speak of his noble birth, but in his whole demeanor there appeared nobility of character. He possessed one of the best brains that has ever been in the service of the Swedish-American press, and he put the whole of his splendid energy into his work. . . . He worked as regularly as a clock, and died literally 'in the saddle.' Having finished the day's work in the office, he left for the railway station, to return to his home in Glenview, when, at the Depot, he suddenly, lost consciousness, and within a few minutes passed away. . . .What this upright, firm, and conscientious man has effected by his pen to lead, public opinion into right paths, cannot be measured in a eulogy.
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While he did not cultivate any authorship outside of the journals, his indefatigable diligence has anonymously and unnoticed sown the seed of noble thoughts in the minds of hundreds of thousands of readers."
Bishop Pendleton, at a memorial meeting, held in Bryn Athyn, well characterized Mr. Gyllenhaal as one of the truest gentlemen he had ever met. Sincerely sympathetic, deep though not demonstrative in his affections, slow to change, but steadfast in what he once saw to be true and good, his quiet, gentle, unobtrusive demeanor concealed from the general view an old-world noble man, a man of culture and learning, a man of intellectual power and influence,--but could not conceal a true and loving New Church heart.
JOHN WAELCHLI. 1905
Mr. John Waelchli, who died at Allentown, Pa., on September 17th, 1905 at the age of seventy-four years, was born in Switzerland, (Canton Berne), on January 6th, 1831. The family was originally of Italian descent. He received a classical education at the College of Interlaken, but did not complete the course, as the College was closed and the faculty dismissed by the government on account of some political disturbances.
Mr. Waelchli for some time taught school in Switzerland, but in the year 1851 he emigrated to America and settled in Hannibal, Monroe Co., Ohio, where he again took up the profession of teaching. While here he married Miss Mary A. Schaffroth, a Swiss lady, on September 13th, 1864. In 1869, with Rife and two children, he removed to Allentown where he took up newspaper work, and, before long became editor of the Welt Bote, a widely circulated German weekly. On the staff of this paper he worked almost to the day of his death, and during the whole thirty-six years of his editorial life he but once had a vacation.
While yet in Ohio, Mr. Waelchli received the Doctrines of the New Church through the missionary lectures of the Rev. Arthur O. Brickman, and after settling in Allentown he immediately identified himself with the New Church Society in that city, from the first to the last remaining a zealous, intelligent and practical supporter of all the local uses of the Church.
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He became especially active after receiving the principles of the Academy, about 1881, and was the leader of the friends of the Academy during the vicissitudes of the years 1883-1885, which resulted in the dissolution of the former society and the organization of a new society which connected itself with the General Church of Pennsylvania. During this period Mr. Waelchli suffered actual persecution on account of his faith, but remained loyal to his principles in spite of threatening disaster to all his worldly prospects.
In the new society, of which he was the leading member, he labored indefatigably until death overtook him, and though the circle in Allentown is now reduced to a very few members, there are in nearly every society of the General Church those who, as children, received the bread of life from the kindly hands of "Father Waelchli." In storm and sunshine, he was always present at the services and class-meetings, acted as leader or janitor with equal zeal, always encouraging and inspiring his brethren to continued efforts, and at the same time, though supporting a large family on an extremely limited income, he was himself the chief financial contributor to the work of the Church. He also took a keen interest in the affairs and movements of the Church at large, was a frequent and active attendant at the general meetings and assemblies of the General Church, and from the first appearance of New Church Life, in 1881, until the present year, he was a constant and appreciative reader of this journal.
A typical Newchurchman of the "Academy" kind, his home was a typical New Church home, where in peace, simplicity, and hospitality, he and his faithful wife raised up their nine children for the kingdom of God. His eldest son is an honored minister of the New Church, and his eldest daughter is the wife of a New Church minister. All the children, three sons and six daughters, have received their education at the schools of the Academy of the New Church.
While simple and unassuming Mr. Waelchli was a man of considerable learning, not only in literature,--especially that of Germany and France,--but also in the natural sciences. Botany was his special delight, and, like Swedenborg, (and old "Father Schill"), he was a passionate lover of flowers and plants. His house and his garden were full of them, and they seemed to love him in return by thriving well.
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It is probable that he knew every wild plant in Lehigh County, and on every bright summer afternoon he would be sure to take a long ramble over the fields and mountains around Allentown, talking Botany and Doctrine to a small company of children and friends.
In his journalistic work he was a prolific writer of editorials on all kinds of subjects, and for many years he was in the habit of keeping up long theological controversies, as an anonymous correspondent, with ministers and members of the Old Church.
In a word, his was the busy, useful, New Church life of a wise, innocent and lovable man, "a true Israelite in whom there was no guile."
Church News. 1905
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.
BRYN ATHYN, PA. Probably the most interesting event in Bryn Athyn during the past month was the Annual Fair, which took place on Hallowe'en,--and it was a pie in which the whole of Bryn Athyn had a finger. A committee, consisting of members of the Bryn Athyn Social Club, had it directly in charge, however, and made it socially and financially a complete success. A booth representing the inside of a comfortable log cabin contained all kinds of attractive fancy work and things useful as well as ornamental. In another, a phrenologist held sway, and did a flourishing business. Peanuts, fresh roasted; home-made taffy, and ice cream went like hot-cakes. Nearly every one wore roses, which the flower girls sold in rich abundance. A room near the gymnasium, where the fair occurred, was transformed into a restaurant, where appetizing sandwiches and coffee were served.
But the "feature" of the evening was the vaudeville, second only to Keith's "continuous." "The Roger Brothers in Bryn Athyn" were among the most prominent performers, and a burlesque on grand opera--a potpourri of Wagner and Verdi, with a few local "motifs" proved it a marked success.
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The amount taken in during the evening was something over ninety-six dollars, most of which will be donated to the building fund.
Mr. Synnestvedt holds a class every Wednesday evening for the young men not in the College. Two other evenings they devote to basketball, which has been taken up since the failure to have foot ball. There will be several games-the B. A. S. C. team against the College.
On October 21st Mrs. S. C. Smith passed into the other world. She had spent the past few months in Bryn Athyn and at the end was surrounded by most of her children and grandchildren. The Reverend William Worcester, of Philadelphia, conducted a funeral service at the home, and officiated at the burial in the little cemetery near Bryn Athyn. R.
The Academy Library has received during the past year quite a large number of new and valuable additions, including almost the entire library of the late Dr. and Mrs. George R. Starkey, consisting of very nearly 300 volumes.
Mr. Bennett Yarnall has also befriended the library in a very systematic and substantial way. Since January, 1904, he has given nearly 290 volumes, including fiction, history, literature and scientific works. Many of the volumes are beautifully bound, and a number of the sets are Editions de Lure. Some of the most valuable works he has given are the Historians' History, 25 v.; The Nature Library, 10 v., and the Heroes of History, 25 v. He has also given complete sets of Lytton, Irving, Dickens, Bronte, Muhlbach and Roosevelt's works.
The collection from Dr. and Mrs. Starkey contains many valuable histories, anatomical works, quite a large collection of fiction, and a number of very valuable books containing excellent reproductions of many of the masterpieces of art. Mr. Yarnall has also given a very fine set of pictures in photo mezzotint illustrating the works of the great masters, with full and complete descriptions of the same. E. F. S.
PITTSBURGH, PA. The Fifth Pittsburgh District Assembly met on Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, October 12 to 14th, inclusive. The first session was preceded by a supper served in the Hall of Worship.
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After the customary opening by the Bishop, the minutes of the last Assembly and the reports of Messrs. Pendleton and Gladish were read and received. The business of the meeting disposed of, the Bishop delivered his annual address, on the Uses of External Worship. The paper was both interesting and instructive and a number of points were further elucidated in the discussion which followed by Messrs. Gladish, Jacob Schoenberger, N. D. Pendleton and the Bishop.
On Friday evening the Rev. John E. Bowers made a report of his missionary work during the past year. The Rev. Mr. Gladish followed with an able paper on "Perception," which was discussed at some length.
The Bishop's paper on "Ceremonies" was the leading feature on Saturday night.
It seems rather unfortunate that, owing to sickness, absence from the city, and causes unknown, the meetings were not very fully attended, particularly as there had been ample preparation on the part of the speakers and inspiration abounded for interesting spiritual discussion.
On Sunday Bishop Pendleton preached and in the afternoon administered the Sacrament to over sixty persons.
The Philosophy Club has resumed its bi-weekly sessions with its usual enthusiasm. We are looking forward to a particularly instructive series of meetings during the coming year, and rejoice in the acquisition of Mr. Edward C. Bostock, formerly of Pittsburgh, late of Bryn Athyn, who has been duly initiated.
The Doctrinal Classes are in full swing, being a series of conversations on Creation, which are closely followed by those who attend and are of absorbing interest.
Mr. and Mrs. Heath, who are traveling with the "Shepherd King" Company, spent two weeks with us as the guests of Mrs. Frederick Lechner. Miss Clio Pollock has also been among our visitors.
A jolly party of ten repaired to Middleport last week to witness the marriage of Miss Esther Boggess and Mr. Arthur Lechner. As the wedding took place beyond our news district I am compelled to leave its description to the proper authority, but it does not seem amiss to state right here that the Middleport people--"certainly were good to us." K. W.
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CHICAGO, ILL. The Sharon Church feels grateful and happy to have had the privilege of entertaining the local Assembly, which was held in Chicago from October 5th to 8th, inclusive.
We had the unusual pleasure of entertaining guests from afar, whose cheerful presence and enlivening remarks added zest to each meeting. They were Messrs. Pitcairn, Lindsay, Richard Roschman, (and Mrs. Roschman), Paul Synnestvedt, Jacob Schoenberger, Dr. Boericke, and the Rev. G. G. Starkey. The latter gentleman was especially enjoyed, and his supplementary remarks on the different papers were a veritable "Trumpet Note," as one friend expressed it.
Thursday, the opening night, was made memorable by the Bishop's Address, which was full of original and inspiring thought, and to salient points of which the members of the Assembly were constantly referring. Later we adjourned to the school-room for an informal reception, where Mrs. Brewer and Mrs. Colley entertained us skillfully upon the violin and piano, and Mr. Junge recited a most amusing and pithy little poem with an ingenious and delicately placed moral. Dancing filled out the evening's entertainment.
Friday evening and Saturday afternoon were devoted to the reading and discussion of a number of helpful and well-digested papers. The discussions which followed were the "best yet," as some friend expressed it. To all of us they seemed full of elevating thought and earnest, affectionate Newchurchmanship.
Our banquet, on Saturday night, was unique in several respects,--firstly, we had no wine; not because the shafts of the W. C. T. U. women had been successfully hurled at us, but because we, like Mr. Autobiography, are "poor but honest." Secondly, our "toastmaster," Mr. Burnham, introduced a new form of speech-making, which proved enjoyable and enlivening. As he put it, the ladies had requested that each gentleman give the two points which had impressed him most favorably during the meetings of the Assembly. All spoke, young, very young, middle-aged and old--humorously or earnestly, but all with appreciation of the joy and blessing and benefit of this, our Assembly. The speeches were interspersed with clever songs and rhymes, by Messrs. Caldwell and Junge, in which the pet peculiarities of Glenview and Chicago friends were held up to ridicule.
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Indeed, so sharp were some of the thrusts that Mr. Caldwell's "apology" in the form of a song with the chorus: "We were only teasing you!" did not come amiss.
Sunday, with its well attended morning service, its beautiful music, prepared by Mr. Blackman, and its memorable sermon, ending with the Holy Supper in the afternoon, was a fitting close to a most useful week.
The average attendance at the several meetings was seventy-five.
Our Doctrinal classes and suppers on Wednesdays are well attended. Mr. Caldwell is giving some interesting lessons upon "The Earths in the Universe," which are appreciated by all of us. E. V. W.
GLENVIEW, ILL. Spring and summer have come and gone, and no word in the Life from this region of fairy sun lights and grateful shades. It is rather late to speak of the June 19th celebration which, beginning with worship in which the Sharon Church joined with the Immanuel Church, was followed by a banquet and then, on the next day, by a round of outdoor and social festivities. Our Sharon friends lilted it so well that they came out in full force again on the Fourth of July, and indeed, throughout the whole of the summer, visitors have been coming and going.
The paradise of a park has never seemed so beautiful before. The base ball games have made it more than ever a place for common meeting, and a pleasing sight it is to see our great family together on such occasions. The base ball diamond is in a fine seclusion in the midst of the park, where no one can see the errors made except our home friends, who are usually kind and sympathetic.
Our harvest home meeting in September brought out the fierce rivalry that exists among our scientific agriculturalists, and the judges displayed a rare discretion in their distribution of blue and white ribbon prizes.
School opened in September; and after the Assembly, Friday classes were again resumed. A fine new organ, the gift of Mr. S. G. Nelson, adds much to the Sunday worship.
On October 17th Mr. A. Leonard Gyllenhaal, a universally beloved member of the Immanuel Church, was called into the spiritual world. For many years he has been a devoted and loyal member of the Church, and all were affected at his going.
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There was no one but could give full assent to the tribute paid to his character in the address read at the memorial exercises. As said in that address, "Steadfastness in all things of life was a marked trait of his character; and fidelity to his family and fidelity to his Church was, with him, we may well believe, founded on fidelity to the Lord."
Mr. Gyllenhaal was editor of one of our most important Swedish papers, and many of his professional associates came to Glenview to attend the memorial exercises.
MIDDLEPORT, O. With the coming of cool weather the several regular classes which had been discontinued during the summer were all resumed
Our Sunday evening Doctrinal Class has been meeting every week since the first Of September, and the study of Divine Love and Wisdom taken up with much interest where it was left off in June.
The teachers' class on Thursday afternoon and the young people's class on Thursday evening have also been resumed.
The ladies have been meeting every Monday afternoon this fall, and spending several hours most enjoyably plying their needles and hearing Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter" read.
On the evening of October sixth the Society enjoyed the hospitality of our pastor and his wife, the occasion being the dedication of their cozy new home below town, into which they had recently moved.
The ceremony of dedication, conducted by Mr. Gladish, was most beautiful and impressive. He brought to our minds most clearly what the ideal New Church home should be, and to what a very great extent the future growth of the Church depends upon it. After the dedication was over refreshments were served, and we drank toasts to the Church, our host and hostess, and to Miss Frances McOuigg, who has long been a most useful member of our Society, and who was about to leave us to spend the winter in Bryn Athyn. The remainder of the evening was spent in conversation, and was especially enjoyable, as it was the first gathering of a social nature we have had for several months.
A more recent and most interesting event was the wedding of Miss Esther Boggess and Mr. Arthur Lechner, which took place on the evening of November first.
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The marriage ceremony was most impressively performed by the Rev. N. D. Pendleton at the church, which had been beautifully decorated for the occasion. Immediately afterward we repaired to the Boggess home to offer our best wishes and congratulations to the bride and groom, and to partake of a delicious wedding breakfast. The same afternoon Mr. and Mrs. Lechner left for Pittsburg, where they will make their future home.
On the evening previous the bridal party and their friends were entertained at the home of Mr. E. Davis, where the time was spent principally in dancing with occasional bursts of song from some of the more musically inclined.
Quite a number of our Pittsburg friends came down for the wedding, and we were all delighted to have them with us if only for so short a time. Among those who came were Miss Elsa Lechner, who spent several days with us; Mrs. Lechner, Miss Margeretta and Mr. Harvey Lechner, Rev. and Mrs. N. D. Pendleton, Mr. Curtis Hicks, Mr. Tom Grant, Mr. and Mrs. Schoenberger and daughter, Miss Helena, who stayed over for a little visit with Mrs. Esther Grant and her daughters. E. D.
BERLIN, ONT. The young people of the Carmel Church this year have a calendar of their own for the daily reading of the Writings. The work being read is Heaven and Hell. Each week a meeting is held to discuss the portion, read and to ask questions. Two or three members of the class are appointed for each time to prepare papers, and these introduce the discussion. The meetings have thus far been successful and well attended.
On the 27th of September the married couples of the Society were invited to the house of Mr. and Mrs. John Schnarr to join with them in the celebration of the eleventh anniversary of their wedding. A delightful evening was spent.
As was stated in our last communication, our Friday evening doctrinal class is studying the correspondences of the human body. When another part of the body is taken up, a lecture on its anatomy is given by Dr. Robert Schnarr. Recently he gave us a most interesting lecture on the brain.
It has been decided that this year the members of the congregation will meet occasionally on Sunday evening at the homes of the members for conversation on the doctrines or on the life of the Church.
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The first of these meetings was held on the 22d of October at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman. Mr. Roschman gave an account of the Chicago Assembly, which he and his wife had attended. The conversation following was chiefly concerning Assemblies and their use, and many things were said which will help to make our coming Ontario Assembly successful.
On our Canadian Thanksgiving Day, October 26th, services were held in the morning. In the evening the young people treated the Society to a supper and a social, at which eighty persons were present. The room was decorated with the products of field, orchard and garden. In the course of the evening several addresses were made on the things we should be thankful for. The occasion was much enjoyed by all.
On the 1st of November a religious census of the towns of Berlin and Waterloo (which adjoin each other) was taken. In this undertaking the various denominations united. The towns were canvassed, and at each house it was ascertained to what Church the occupants, old and young, belong, or which Church they prefer. The result, so far as concerns ourselves, showed that out of a population of 15,470, there are 322 Swedenborgians; of this number 188 are over eighteen years of age, and 134 under. Thus, in this community, two per cent, of the population are of the New Church, or at least consider the New Church as their Church. There are probably few places in which there is so large a percentage. To illustrate what it means, we might say that at the same rate there would be in a city like Philadelphia, 25,000 New Church people. We might add, that of the 322 New Church people, 120 belong to the Carmel Church; there are, however, 43 more belonging to our Society, who either live in the country outside of the two towns, or are temporarily making their home elsewhere. W.
THE MISSIONARY FIELD. On my fall missionary tour, since August 29th, New Church people have been visited in or near forty-four cities, towns and villages in Ontario, Can., and in parts of five of the States,--Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania.
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On account of the limits of space, it is therefore possible to report only in a general way.
Meetings have been held in homes at many of the places. Sermons have been read on several occasions, and doctrinal talks have been given on a great variety of subjects. Those who can receive the Heavenly Doctrines, because they are in the affection of truth, and therefore read the Writings, are always delighted to have opportunities to learn to understand things in clearer lights. And he that teaches the truth from the love of the spiritual good of others, thus for the sake of their salvation, is himself obtaining ever clearer views, and is at the same time learning to perform his use more thoroughly.
On this tour I have met two persons, Mr. Franklin P. Burkhardt, Springfield, O., and Mr. Franklin P. Burger, Gallon, O., who received their first intimations concerning Swedenborg and the Writings, from a work entitled: "Moore's Universal Assistant." The author appears to have been a Newchurchman. Under a picture of a lamp of ancient form, and the words Fiat Lux," eleven pages of the volume are devoted to giving an excellent and a correct description of Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical works, and of the theological Writings.
A coincidence is the similarity of the names of the two men mentioned above. Both of them were unsettled in their religious beliefs. They were led of the Divine Providence to obtain the Writings, as said above, some years ago, and now rejoice in the knowledge of the things of heaven and the Church. My first visit with Mr. Burkhardt and family was from September 22d to 25th; and it was much enjoyed.
I have been with Mr. John P. Nye and family at Hartsgrove, Ashtabula Co., O., for three days, and am going from here to Erie, Pa., where we are to have services on Sunday, November 19th.
JOHN E. BOWERS.
FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.
UNITED STATES At a meeting of the BOARD OF MISSIONS of the General Convention, held in Boston, on October 9th, it was suggested to abrogate the office of superintendent, partly on the ground of expense and partly because the office was held to be unnecessary.
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The plea of gratitude for past services ultimately so far prevailed, however, as to result in the retention of the office; but unless the current year shows a decided increase in contributions, the salary will be considerably reduced.
The Society at SPRINGFIELD, Mass., has invited the Rev. Howard C. Dunham to become its pastor for one year.
To increase a knowledge of the Writings a small committee in BROOKLYN, N. Y. have adopted an excellent plan, whereby every book store in the city is to be visited and supplied with a number of complete sets of Brief Readings from Swedenborg; together with an attractive poster. The tracts are to be sold at one cent each, and the bookseller retains 75 percent, of the proceeds. As many as forty sets have been recently sold by a single store.
At the Annual Conference of the MARYLAND ASSOCIATION, held at Baltimore, Md., October 20th, and which was attended by the Rev. Messrs. Sewall, Spiers, Dole, Tafel, Allbutt and Arthur Mercer. Messrs. Tafel and Dole were formally recorded, on their own motion, as holding that the statements of the Writings regarding the Letter of the Word are to be regarded as infallible. The motion was made in view of the fact that the opposite opinion had been publicly maintained by Mr. Mercer.
Mr. Mercer also found himself in opposition to other members of the Conference, later on in the session, when the subject of revivals came up for discussion. He held that the restricted growth of the Church was due to the ministers lacking "the baptism of fire" and therefore being incompetent to "reach the multitudes" who needed to be "saved" rather than "indoctrinated." (Just how men are to be saved without doctrine was not made clear.) The other ministers, however, were unanimous in the opinion that "the ineffectiveness of the Church was mainly due to the sensualism of the world around us."
The sixty-fifth meeting of the ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION was held in La Porte, Ind., October 6-8. The Osage County, Kansas, Society, was received as a member of the Association, being represented by the missionary pastor, the Rev. L. G. Landenberger; this Society was formed in May, 1904, and numbers twenty-three persons.
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In the course of the meeting the subject of women delegates came up for consideration and a committee, with the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck as chairman, was appointed to report on the matter next year; this committee includes the Rev. J. W. Stockwell, Mr. Robert Matheson and three women.
The MICHIGAN ASSOCIATION held its annual meeting at Detroit, Mich., October 6-8. The reports showed an increase in the membership of the Detroit Society from 96 to 97, and a satisfactory decrease in its indebtedness; an increase in the membership of the Almont Society from 45 to 50, and an attendance at the classes of the Almont Summer School of about 80; an endowment fund for the Association now amounting to nearly $2,000; and a fund of $500 held by the Gorand Rapids Society, the interest of which is paid to the Association.
The Rev. J. W. McSharrow reports that in a missionary visit to HIGHLAND, Ark., after lecturing in a private house to an audience of fifteen, he preached "at the Church to the largest audience I have ever addressed at that place. My expenses were $1.90 and the contributions amounted to 45 cents!"
The First Society of SAN FRANCISCO has decided to establish a New Church Orphanage, and has purchased a tract of forty acres of good land well adapted for fruit culture. It is intended that the whole management shall be in the hands of a Fraternity to be formed from and include all the working force of the institution, all of whom are to be of the New Church. The expectation is that by fruit culture, etc., the work will be self-supporting. The orphans will be carefully selected and will remain in the home until they are of age.
The presiding minister of the ILLINOIS ASSOCIATION reported to the Association that in November, 1904, he baptized the Rev. William de Ronden-Pos into the New Church. Later, Mr. Saul have Mr. de Ronden-Pos authorization as a candidate for the ministry; and at the recent meeting of the General Convention he was recommended for ordination after a suitable time of preparation. He is now preaching in San Francisco to encouraging audiences.
CANADA. The forty-second annual meeting of the CANADA ASSOCIATION was held in Berlin, Ont., September 29, to October 1. The president of the General Convention, the Rev. S. S. Seward, made a special journey from New York to attend the meeting.
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At the memorial service, held at BERLIN, for one of the young men of the Society, the Church was filled to overflowing, among the attendants being the Mayor and the City Council. "A lucid, fervent and eloquent sermon was preached by the pastor," the Rev. W. E. Brickman.
GREAT BRITAIN. The Rev. Peter Ramage has intimated his intention of retiring from the pastorate of the BARNSLEY Society, on account of the state of his health. Mr. Ramage was formerly editor of The Dawn, a New Church Temperance paper, which was published for some years during the eighties, and which showed the most bitter hostility to the Academy.
The Rev. John Haworth has left the Society at Failsworth to become pastor of the BOLTON Society.
The LANCASHIRE AND CHESHIRE NEW CHURCH UNION, at its meeting in Manchester on October 7th, was discussing the usual question of missionary work and methods, and listening to various suggestions, when a new and unusual note was struck by the Rev. W. T. Lardge, who considered that the children were "THE MISSIONARY FIELD" of the New Church, and asked, How were they to be educated so as to receive no suggestion of false doctrine? But the only response he got was that "sermons nowadays were too dry," and should be "enlivened" with anecdotes for the children, and that there should be lantern lectures, etc. The Rev. J. F. Potts, who was present at the meeting, spoke of the duty of casting the net on the right side of the ship. He advised the missionary to go to the ministers of other denominations in the towns he visited, and tell them that he came, not as an enemy but as a helper,--not to proselytize, but to give something helpful in the way of regeneration. The Rev. Joseph Deans thought it was quite right to throw the net on the right side of the ship, but we must take care that it is the NET-the Definite Doctrines of the New Church. Very often it was not the net that was thrown, but a substitute for it in the form of loose and indefinite teaching. As to sermons being "too dry," he thought the term could not apply to the sermons of ministers, though it might apply to some given by lay-preachers. Other speakers dwelt on the "large leakage" in the Church, owing to apathy on the part of members.
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Commenting on this meeting, the Rev. W. T. Lardge writes to Morning Light, "This is the day of novelty in places of worship, as well as in secular places. 'Bright, Brief, Brotherly,' are the magic watchwords to-day, and if we of the New Church are not careful, we shall be tarred with the same brush. We were in the New Church no entertainments, in lieu of worship. We do not need to have our ears tickled with maudling and 'sniveling' anecdotes from the pulpit. What we do need, is, to daily read, even against our inclinations, those Writings, which, together with the Word, are our only stay, out only strength, and our only hope of the future of the Church.
"If we are to be influenced by things that take place in some one or two of the sects of the Old Church, then our children will realize no difference whatsoever between the Old Church and the New; and we shall lose them, as we are losing them, and shall continue to lose them, and through this very cause."
Mr. Lardge then quotes from a speech by the Rev. R. R. Rodgers advocating the institution of a New Church Public School for the education of the children of the Church.
Recently, a whole Society came bodily into the New Church, and under circumstances which suggest rather the enthusiasm of the early days of the Church, then the present slow growth. The Rev. Albert C. White, a minister of an unattached Church at SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, conducted on Anglican lines, in the early part of the year, had his attention called to the Doctrines of the New Church. He seems to have accepted them very readily, as, some three or four months ago, he commenced, to use his own words, to "considerably change" the character of his sermons. Towards the end of September Mr. White felt that the time had arrived for an open declaration of the change in his opinions. This declaration was made at a special meeting of his congregation, when, after hearing Mr. White, the following resolutions were agreed to: (1) That a Society of the New Church be formed at Southend, and (2) That the services be brought into accordance with New Church doctrine. A committee was then appointed to take steps to procure land for a church building, the present (rented) place of worship being unsuitable.
At the inaugural service of the new Society, held on October 20th, Mr. White outlined, in his sermon, the liturgical changes which he proposes to introduce.
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The Book of Common Prayer will be retained but all such expressions as "For Jesus Christ's sake," etc., which imply a trinity of gods, will be removed, together with the Gloria; the Apostles' Creed is to be taken out, the last paragraph of True Christian Religion, n. 3 (the Singulars of Faith on the part of Man) being substituted in its place. There is also in preparation a new Communion service, to be compiled from the Book of Common Prayer and the New Church Liturgy.
Mr. White was baptized into the New Church in the latter part of October, the Rev. Messrs. J. T. Freeth and L. A. Slight officiating at the ceremony.
The GLASGOW (North) Society held a social meeting on October 13th, in welcome to the Rev. J. F. Potts, who was then in Glasgow on a visit. The meeting was well attended by members of the three Glasgow Societies and of the Society at Paisley, and many friendly addresses were made. In his response, Mr. Potts spoke of some features of New Church work in the United States.
SWEDEN. A general assembly of the New Church people in the Southern part of Sweden was held at Christianstad on August 12th and 13th, 1905, the Rev. C. J. N. Manby presiding. Members of the Church,---eighty in number,-were present from fifteen different localities in Sweden and Denmark, among others the Rev. S. C. Broenniche, of Copenhagen. The proceedings included worship, with Communion, discourses from the two ministers present, excursions in the beautiful neighborhood, and discussions on the best method of promoting the growth of the Church in the Southern provides. The meeting, which is the first of its kind in Sweden, was voted a great success, and may eventually to the formation of a general association.
ITALY. The dispute with the executors of Signor Scocia's estate, respecting the disposal of the books entrusted to him by New Church bodies for the use of the Church in Italy, which has been going on for some years, now bids fair to reach an early settlement. In his will Signor Scocia directed that these books be delivered to two Italian Newchurchmen in continuance of his work. Acting on the instructions of the widow, the executors, however, refused delivery, and held the books at a high price. Many incontestable evidences were collected by Mr. Wright, during his visit to Italy in 1902, proving that the books belonged to the Italian mission and not to Signor Scocia's personal estate; but this was of no effect.
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For while two of the executors admitted the force of the documentary evidence, the widow's lawyer still held out, declaring the papers to have been forged. The lawyer engaged by Mr. Wright, wishing to avoid the expense of court proceedings, including the cost of official translations of the documentary evidence (Signor Scocia's reports to Conference and Convention), then endeavored for three years to effect a private settlement. But finding that his endeavors bore no result, he recently took the matter to the courts "wisely presenting only his best bit of evidence." Scocia's receipt, in Italian, for 1,178 volumes to be held as the property of the London Swedenborg Society. The Court at once ordered that these books be turned over, and the lawyer now reports that he expects to get the remaining books without further difficulty.
AUSTRALIA. At the quarterly meeting of the ADELAIDE SOCIETY, held on July 24th. a resolution was passed requesting one of the members present to resign. Upon his refusal to do so, a further resolution was passed by a majority vote, striking his name from the roll. The ground of this action is stated in a letter sent by the committee of the Society some weeks before, calling the attention of the member in question to his "attitude of opposition to the fundamental views, the aim and work of a large majority of the Society." and to his expressed lack of "sympathy with the methods and work of the minister;" and suggesting that, while similarity of views on all subjects was neither asked for nor expected, yet members "who are in a state of opposition" and who "cannot loyally support the Society and its minister" should recognize "that they are in a false position, and should seek to connect themselves with those with whom they could work more cordially."
At a meeting of the AUCKLAND, (New Zealand), Society, held on August 30th, a resolution was passed authorizing the Council of the Society to take action looking to securing "the services of a suitable minister." The meaning of the word "suitable," in the resolution was brought out in the discussion, when it was developed that every member of the Society was a teetotaler and a non-smoker, and that these qualifications were therefore a sine qua non in the prospective minister.
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The Auckland Society was established some twenty years ago, during all of which period the services have been conducted by various members. It is now thought that the time has come to make a change. So far about ?100 a year has been promised for three years.
At the same meeting, inspired, doubtless, by the example of many institutions who have gently, but profitably, stimulated the magnificent almsgiving proclivities of "the Scotch Laird," the Society passed a resolution directing its Council "to write to Mr. Andrew Carnegie . . . asking for ?100 to build a New Church."
Special Notice. F. E. WAELCHLI 1905
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
THE ONTARIO ASSEMBLY.
The Fifth Ontario Assembly will be held in Berlin from Saturday afternoon, December 30th, 1905, to Monday evening, January 1st, 1906. All members and friends of the General Church are invited to attend.
Visitors will be entertained by members of the Carmel Church. Address committee through Mr. T. S Kuhl, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
F. E. WAELCHLI,
Sec. Ont. Assembly.