EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886


NEW CHURCH LIFE

Vol. VI.
PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY, 1886=116
No. 1
     THERE have been inquiries as to whether "The True Story of One Girl's Life" is founded on fact, just as it stands. The author wishes to state that it is not. Leading features of the story are true, but the dress in which they are clothed and given to the public is borrowed.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     It is evident from the last communication from Mr. Drysdale that be does not at all realize what is contained in "living the LORD'S Truth;" for that life-act comprehends in its scope a man's actively and lovingly doing his duty to his God, his Church, his country, his neighbor, and himself. Such a man does what he can toward having just laws enacted and putting fit men in office to enforce them; if he is an employer be treats his men well and pays them what is just; or, if a workman, he does his work truly and from a principle of use. Such a man was the Good Samaritan; he acted, and left the talking to the Priest and Levite.
     Until men act from the LORD; that is, let His Truth guide their lives, they are acting from self or evil, and in this case the police force alone is efficacious. When men act from the LORD there will be no "labor question" as, the term is now understood.
     The implication that Mr. Drysdale claims to find in our August number we have looked for in vain.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IN the year 1877 the editor of the Messenger wrote: "The Writings do not contain infinite Truth." (Messenger, October 31st.) "Swedenborg's Writings are not elation in any such sense [as the Word]. . . . are not the Word, not the living Divine Truth clothed and adopted. No, infinitely far from it. This would make them Sacred Scripture, would make them God's writings, which they are not. . . . No further Revelation seems necessary." (Ibid. March 4th.)
     Since then eight years have passed; years in which great changes have taken place in the Church, owing to the firm stand taken against the heresy of which the above was but one expression. And now, as we turn to the files of the Messenger, we read in an editorial entitled "Preaching Truth from the LORD," the following clean-cut sentences:
     "The New Church Doctrines are the Doctrines of the Church really and truly only to the degree that the LORD is recognized as behind them. The New Church descending from the LORD out of heaven is the New Jerusalem. No system of doctrine, though it seems verily the same as the Heavenly Doctrines, can be regarded as the same without this essential qualification-that it comes from the LORD. . . . They [the Doctrines of the New Church] are Divine Truth expressed in a form that reason can accept. . . . He who ac knowledges the fact of revelation in the Word or in the Doctrines of the Church must accept the additional fact that Truth cannot be self-derived and that the LORD must always be acknowledged in it as its Author and Revealer."

     More to the same purport might be quoted. This is a hopeful sign in the Messenger, and as this principle underlies all other questions agitated in the Church, we may look forward to other changes for the better.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     WE clip the following from a letter to Unity, (Unitarian and prohibition). The writer, a temperance man, has evidently had his eyes opened to the fact that prohibition, instead of being a benefit to a community, is a hindrance, and fosters drunkenness and contempt for the laws. We commend it to those who are striving to bring this evil into the New Church:
     "I came into Maine prepossessed in favor of the law (prohibition) but I found in Portland more drunkenness than I had ever seen anywhere before. A well-known clergyman went recently about the city with the officers on their raid, and then reported in the, papers that there was     no liquor of consequence to be found-that the so-called open bars contained only show bottles of colored water, etc. On such testimony Neal Dow and his admirers proclaim the success of prohibition. 'In vain does the fowler spread the net in the sight of any bird.' If that clergyman had disguised himself as a stranger and gone with any well-known opponent of the prohibitory law he might have found fifty places, and more, where he could have bought and drank all he wanted. I hear continually that Bangor and Rockland are worse, and a dozen other places as bad as Portland.
     "Rev. Grindall Reynolds, secretary of the A. U. A., who has lived in Concord, Mass., many years, says that the only time in which liquor has been sold in that town was during the time when they had a prohibitory law.
     "There seems to me among the educated young men of the city a feeling of contempt for the law, on account of its inequality and injustice. A very prominent railroad man said to me one day, 'The prohibitory law everywhere in Maine is a political engine-it is enforced against the Democratic sellers, not against Republicans.' However, that is not strictly true. When the constitutional amendment was voted upon a few weeks ago, in this city, the rum-drinking and rum-selling men largely, voted for it as a joke."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     WE notice briefly in this issue of the Life the removal to the other world of two prominent and beloved members of the Church-Dr. B. A. Farrington and Charles P. Stuart. Dr. Farrington passed away early on the morning of the 11th of this mouth and Mr. Stuart on the 18th. Both had been ill for a considerable time.
     Dr. Farrington was an eminent and distinguished physician of the homeopathic school and a man to whose mind and character the members of the Church who knew him best gladly accorded the leading and prominent position which his humble disposition ever declined. Dr. Farrington was a close and profound student of the things proper to his profession, as of the Truths of the Church.
     As he comes into the clearer light and use in life of these things in the other world, his love of work will bring him greater joy and add to the ability of the heavens to serve the LORD in the establishment of His kingdom on the earth. By his friends here he will ever be remembered with glad thoughts and warm love.
     We hope to give a more extended account of our friend and brother in a future number of this journal.
     Mr. Stuart's life on earth was comparatively short. He was born at Oxford, O., August 24th, 1861. His grandparents, the Rev. J. P. Stuart and Mrs. Stuart, were well known throughout the Church, and, educated by them, Mr. Stuart early developed into that form of usefulness for which his grandfather was justly esteemed in the Church. He attended school in St. Louis, Mo., Wyoming, O., and Vineland, N. J., and received his collegiate education at the Academy of the New Church. He manifested a rare knowledge of literature and a remarkable soundness of judgment for one of his age. While student, he entered, with several others; on the publication of New Church Life, gradually coming into the leadership, which he retained up to the winter of the year 1884, and, with his exalted ideas of New Church journalism, he constantly strove to perfect this journal, to which were devoted his best affections and thoughts.
     Of rare promise and ability, and with an intense love and reverence for things Divine, he has been well prepared for the eminent use he doubtless will perform in the New Heaven, with which the New Church is one.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     MR. PRESLAND demurs to our statement that we are always to use "vinum" at the Holy Supper, and instances the fact that in the account of the institution of the Most Holy Sacrament in the letter of the Word, the term "wine" does not occur, but "fruit of the vine" or "cup." This, even when backed by quotations to show that in the Writings similar terms are employed, cannot be considered sufficient grounds for a demurrer to our position which is that "nowhere in the Doctrines on the Holy Supper are we taught to use 'mustum,' or the 'blood of grapes,' or 'grape-juice,' but 'vinum'-'wine.'"
Our correspondent writes much more to the purpose further along in his letter. "The whole force of your argument must rest, however, upon the interpretation, you put upon vinum being correct." But he then adds: "If it can be shown that in one instance the Writings unmistakably designate something else but fermented liquor as vinum, we shall be at perfect liberty-the context not forbidding-to attach that meaning to the word, vinum throughout the Doctrine on the Most Holy Sacrament."
     Surely our correspondent holds a mistaken position.
     Words are used either in a strict sense or in a derivative and broader sense. For instance, "bread" in its strict sense signifies food prepared from flour or meal, but in its broad or general sense it is used to include all kinds of food. This usage is common in Scripture, as: "That He may bring forth bread [Hebrew] out of the earth." (Ps. civ, 14.) Still the existence of this derivative meaning does not take away the fact that "bread" generally signifies food prepared from flour or meal, and that it is so to be understood whenever the context does not clearly show that it is not used in its strict sense. Any one can see how illogical it would be to say: "If it can be shown that in one instance people unmistakably designate something else but food prepared from flour or meal, by 'bread,' we shall be at perfect liberty-the context not forbidding-to attach that meaning to the word, 'bread' in any particular instance where it may occur."
     Any one may see that such a course would be destructive of all definiteness of language. We are always "at liberty" to take a word us its strict sense, except where the context plainly shows that it is used in a derivative sense, but not vice versa. If the desirableness of using terms general enough to include the spiritual and celestial Churches made it best to use the terms "cup" and "product [not fruit] of the vine," in the institution of the Holy Supper, there is no reason why we should refuse to receive the meaning of these terms as given in the Writings of the Church, or to substitute for the usual and strict signification of vinum an unusual and derivative one.
CONJUGIAL LOVE AND ITS OPPOSITE 1886

CONJUGIAL LOVE AND ITS OPPOSITE       Rev. L. H. TAFEL       1886

     "Ye have heard that it said to them of old: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, That every one looking on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart."-Matthew v, 27-28.

     CONJUGIAL LOVE is the fundamental of all heavenly loves; all other loves, celestial, spiritual, and natural proceed from it, and their quality with man is ever according to the quality of conjugial love with him. If Conjugial Love with man is celestial and spiritual, then all the other loves proceeding thence with him are celestial and spiritual; for conjugial love is as the parent, and the other loves as the offspring, that draw their character from the character of the parent. The offspring of marriages in heaven are also these very celestial and spiritual loves and the wisdom conjoined therewith, thus all things of good and truth. These are also the internal offsprings of true marriages on earth, while their external offspring are human souls filled with life from LORD, and embodying the internal loves of the pal clothed with the external affections in which the s are principled.
     Conjugial Love springs from the love of the LORD toward Heaven and the Church and from their conjunction, and from this love it has within, the love of the LORD for the human race in Heaven and on earth, and for its continual preservation and increase through successive generations. The presence of the LORD in Conjugial Love, as in every good, is in the use which springs from that love, and which that love has in view. A marriage which springs from Conjugial Love and in which the Divine end of marriage as the seminary of Heaven is ever held sacred and inviolate, is a heavenly external from a heavenly internal, it is a tabernacle of God with men, in which He dwells with them and in which He establishes with them His New Church as a Heaven on earth. A marriage which has not as its inmost the Divine end of the preservation and increase of the Church and of Heaven, is an external without an internal, which, as the Doctrines teach us, is hell with man. In such a marriage, whatever semblance of Conjugial Love there may have seemed to be at first, soon fades away, and impure and adulterous love takes its place.
     Conjugial Love is essentially a love of souls, and a conjunction of minds, the wife loving the intelligence and wisdom in the husband, and the husband loving the reception and ultimation of this intelligence and wisdom in the love and life of the wife. The ultimate form of this reception of the husband's wisdom on the part of the wife is in the conception and birth of offspring, in which use, as in others, the LORD'S presence forms the life-giving inmost, which is to animate and govern the whole to the exclusion of man's self-will and self-intelligence.

3


Whatever in marriage takes its origin from the presence of the LORD and from the conjugial union of souls and minds, is holy and pure, and heavenly, but whatsoever opposes itself thereto, whatever external acts in separation from the internal, is impure and unchaste, and has within it what is infernal.
     In our text the LORD in His infinite Wisdom tells us that in order to keep the commandment, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," not only the external ultimate act is meant, but also every internal thought and cupidity looking in that direction: "Every one looking at a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart." The LORD, in extending the scope of His commandment, does not do so in order to extend man's guilt. The impurity and guilt is with the man who sins, whether the command be explained in its further extent or not; the command of the LORD is given not to extend guilt to what was before innocent, but to show man the nature of evil, and thus to guard him from the dangers threatening him from the contagion of evil, from the infection of the hell of adultery, and at the same time to show how alone men can escape from it and be saved, be cleansed and purified. It is only by removing impurity from the affection and the thought as well as from the body that man can become clean and pure; only thus can the way to the interior heavens, where conjugial love dwells in its purity, be opened to man, and it may flow in thence without danger of its defilement and profanation.
     The establishment of Conjugial Love upon the earth is at this time extremely difficult; first, on account of the corrupt heredity of all men, and secondly from the prevalence of a general unclean, adulterous sphere upon the earth. As with other evils, so with the evil of impurity cannot be removed unless it is seen and acknowledged and confessed before the LORD and unless man implores the help of the LORD JESUS CHRIST in His Divine Human and turns to Him in every trial and temptation. There are some, indeed, who think that the best way to become pure is not to say or think anything about the impurity within and around us. Such men also usually suppose that as soon as a man of the Church enters marriage he is safe and need not think any more about these evils. But man is not saved from danger by shutting his eyes to it, nor does he become a celestial angel by becoming married, and the central evil of his heredity and of the human race is not overcome and put away by acting as if it were not. The evils that fill the sphere of this world will continue to assault Conjugial Love, and if the direful persuasions and practices in vogue upon the earth are not known and considered and the Church put upon its guard against them, they will permeate everywhere, and unmentioned and unawares will defile and destroy all Conjugial Love, and thus the central love of the Church. We are taught that the so-called Christendom is more than heathen nations in the persuasion that adulteries are not sins against God, and that therefore the whole sphere in Christendom has become unclean and adulterous and that there are few who abstain from adulteries from religion, but only from external fear and bonds. And yet all who do not shun adultery-not only in act, but also in thought and will-as sins against God, are internally adulterers, and after death they show themselves to be such also externally and they are receptive while here of the unclean life of hell; for while Heaven is in the Word called a marriage-and, in fact, is the marriage of good and truth-Hell is adultery, or the conjunction of the evil and the false. It is supposed by many in the New Church that those in Christendom who are married and who are not in act unfaithful to their vows are in Conjugial Love. But this is the case with comparatively few. If it were the case with the many, the Christian Church would not be at its end, for Conjugial Love is Heaven upon earth. Only those who from conscience shun adultery in act and in thought as sin against God are in some degree of Conjugial Love, and these are saved, for from conscience they shun also other evils; for Conjugial Love is the fundamental of all loves. These are the few who are the remains in the Old Church. But the great number in the Old Church do not look to the LORD in marriage, nor do they have as an end the preservation and the increase of Heaven and the Church, but they have in marriage, as in all their other acts, merely selfish and worldly ends; therefore the honeymoon in marriage with them is soon followed by coldness and indifference, and instead of desiring the increase of their family, they very generally use their ingenuity to thwart the laws of Divine Order and make the will of the LORD of none effect. This is internal rebellion and hatred of the LORD and of His Kingdom, and with many it is con3oined with the murder of their unborn offspring, and in this murder of-innocents a great part of modern Christendom is at this day actively engaged. Some so-called Christian nations are so deeply steeped in this murderous spirit that they have checked their natural increase and are, in consequence, retrograding from their positions of power and influence. This is the case in parts of Europe and also in this country; but even where this most insidious evil has not yet reached this height, almost through the whole of Christendom this subtle poison is permeating, and, in one way or other, daily gaining new proselytes to this new religion of selfishness, this revival of Thuggism. With this spirit of murder lurking within; the very endearments of marriage-love are but an external separated from its internal-an infernal mockery of love and of marriage. It is no more holy and heavenly Conjugial Love, but beastly and infernal lust, that sits enshrined at the marriage-altar. Need we seek for any other reason than this why it is heinous for the members of the New Church of the LORD to be conjoined in an unholy and murderous union with those who are confirmed members of the Old?
     But even where such disorderly unions do not obtain in the Church, the murderous and adulterous sphere of the Old Church is seeking to insinuate itself, with its worldly cunning and deadly persuasions, even into those centres where the LORD is building up his New Church as the home of Conjugial Love upon the earth. The infectious and contagious sphere of evil breathes its venom wherever ignorance and thoughtlessness leave an open door. Forgetting the fact that the preservation and increase of the Church and of Heaven is a Divine work, in which man of himself can do nothing, unless the LORD gives His Spirit of Life, there are those who would steady the ark of the LORD in its progress with unhallowed hands. Men are too apt to forget that the Divine Providence extends to the most minute of all events, much more to the creation and preservation of human souls, an one of which may become an invaluable vessel of use in the hands of the LORD. Man in co-operating with the LORD in the upbuilding of His Church on earth may, indeed, use his reason, but this should be only so far as to learn the laws of the Divine Order and then to carry them out. These laws never sanction the separation of the internal from the external, though they may at times sanction abstention from acts in themselves heavenly and orderly.

4


Though it is orderly to eat when man is hungry, we are frequently in the New Testament enjoined to fast, and the LORD set His disciples an example in this, as in all His other precepts. So it may be useful at times also to abstain from other enjoyments to secure the control over our desires and for other orderly reasons; but it is never right to separate an enjoyment from the use it is intended to accompany, for this is a separation from Heaven and from the LORD, and is therefore evil, and changes it from a heavenly delight to an infernal one. Thence even such enjoyments, as are in themselves heavenly, become disorderly and evil.
     In a wider sense, indeed, all sin is included under the term "adultery," for every sin is a breach of the covenant, and of the conjunction, with the LORD, and this is the case not only with every sin ultimated in act, but also with every evil that is allowed to enter from the thought into the will, to become there a fixed purpose and determination; for every fixed purpose and determination becomes an act as soon as external obstacles are removed; therefore they are imputed to man and remain a part of his character.
     When man, therefore, explores himself, he must not only explore his acts, but also his thoughts and desires, for whatever man desires and thinks allowable is part of his character, and he brings it out into acts in the other world when freed from external restraints. It is only those evils which man would not commit, even though he had every chance to commit them, when freed from 'all external restraints, which he has really overcome; and where evils are thus overcome, rejected, and abominated, the LORD can give to man the opposite good, and thereby forever elevate him from that evil by His Presence in the good with him.
     If we are at a loss to account for a lack or diminution of Conjugial Love, and thus of the life of heaven with us, we may be assured that it is owing to our not having overcome and put away the life of concupiscences. The angels are so utterly averse to every thought opposed to Conjugial Love that they shun ever y such thought and affection as the perdition of hell itself. As the man of the Church shuns every such desire and thought, and rejects the sphere of sexual love, except as it flows from his consort, Conjugial Love, and thence happiness and peace-yea, heaven on earth, will be in the Church of the LORD, the conjunction of souls and of minds between consorts will grow more interior and delightful with every day, and from Conjugial Love, as its fountain, love to the LORD and love to the neighbor, mutual love and the love of children, with all the wisdom and intelligence pertaining thereto, will daily increase in the Church of the LORD, making it forevermore His habitation and tabernacle upon the earth.
     It is on this account that the LORD in our text warns us against the thought and will of evil, as well as against its perpetration. Between good and evil with man there ought to be a great gulf fixed, as there is between Heaven and Hell, so that man will not pass from the one to the other. The more the distinction between good and evil with man is clearly marked, and the two separated from one another, the more will good be preserved pure and uncontaminated by evil, and can then be continually purified and elevated by the LORD. As our thoughts and affections in marriage are cleansed from the infectious cupidities and dire persuasions that flow in from the evil spirits of hell, and from wicked men and women around us, Conjugial Love and Marriage will shine in their true heavenly splendor and loveliness. It will then appear ever more clearly that its states are states of innocence and peace, tranquillity and inmost friendship, full confidence and the mutual desire of the heart of doing all manner of good to the other, and from these states spring beatitude and happiness, delight and pleasure, and thence lasting felicity in this life, and eternal felicity in the life to come. Amen.
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     [THESE CONVERSATIONS WERE BEGUN IN THEISSUE FOR FEBRUARY, 1885.]

     TURNING again to the extreme right of our Plan (see Supplement to New Church Life for November, page 177), you find "Number" followed by "Form." Form, like lumber, has a very wide range of meaning and application. As Number is employed to express order and arrangement and their constituents, so Form is employed to express the products of the arrangement and order of substances, material, natural, spiritual, and Divine, by means of which products the uses which are the ends of creation are carried into their fullness or effect. Therefore, as there are menus of uses in the three kingdoms of nature, so there are forms of uses in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, and in man, and these forms appear externally in the lowest plane of existence, in shapes, figures, molds, fashions, and organisms. Such appearances of Form are intended to be expressed by "Form" in our Plan. (D. L. W. 307, 313, 316, 388, etc.) In the middle plane, Form, in our use of the term, expresses the constitution of internal organisms, such as those of the natural mind; of substances, spiritual and natural, as continents of uses and thus I of life; their arrangement according to degrees, and their disposition, together with the products of the
operations of the natural mind, which become means of use, such as sciences, theories, and methods, etc. It is evident that this definition of Form is intended to include all things that enter into the science of ultimate forms or figures, usually denominated Geometry, Mathematics, etc., even as Number or arrangement necessarily involves the science of numbering, counting, or Arithmetic. And, if you will proceed a step farther you will see that Form allies itself to all art, and becomes the means of the use of all art, thus the means of the use to be performed by the imagination, which is the interior sensual of the human mind. (A. C. 3020.) For forms are continents of uses (D. L. W. 46), which vary according to the excellence of the uses (D. L. W. 80), that is, according as they have respect to things internal or external, spiritual or natural. On the higher plane, forms are truths which are the laws of Order, the laws governing and determining the arrangement and disposition of parts of all spiritually organized beings, as men and angels; thus they are the means or causes of all heavenly and Divine uses, and involve not only the constitution of the spirit of every man, but also of the organized structure of aggregations of men, in Heaven, in the World of Spirits, in Hell, and lastly in the natural world (D. L. W. 273), i. e., of Society, the State, of Races, Nations, and Peoples-and thus of Mankind or the Human Race.
     These remarks are not to be understood as conveying the suggestion that such things should be taught to the child by the Teacher when presenting the idea of One God, One Man, and One Earth; but that they ought to be actively and consciously in the thoughts of the Teacher, so that the sphere of this active thought may inflow into the sphere of the forming mind of the child, and by unconscious operation cause the primary impressions made on that mind to assume an order and arrangement in correspondence with the inmost thought of the One,
from which the outermost form of the Unit has proceeded.

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In addition, the remarks above made are intended to suggest to Teachers that their own truer conception of One, i. e., of number as Order, ought to be allowed freely to permeate their instructions on the subject, and by successive developments and applications to the objects of instruction, to their nature and form and quality, to remove the fallacies derived from the first impressions of the Unit. All the first impressions of infancy and childhood are mere fallacies, which have to be gradually informed by truer ideas and thereby corrected, to the end that mere appearances may be removed, and the mind advance slowly into the conception of more and more real appearances; in other words, in order that it may be drawn away from fallacies toward truths.
     Looking once more at the Plan, you will see that as we advance from the first idea of the LORD, the Divine Man, the One-to His Divine Work of Creation, Redemption, etc., and from this to some general results of Creation and Redemption, and thus begin to develop the idea of the Infinite One from whom are all things, so do we also advance with nature and with man. The Earth, as representing Natural and Material Substance, is brought before the mind of the child in her larger parts or kingdoms, and carried up to man, for whom all natural and material substance was created, and the idea of whom is, therefore, in all that substance, being manifested in its re-agency, as a passive form, receptive of influx and capable of entertaining active forces, which tend toward what is higher, and which emulate what is in man from the LORD. So, also, through the idea of man, the child is introduced to the idea mankind, of the complex varieties of the human form, its appearances, etc., until it reaches a concept of human living, activity, and operation, in the "Story of Man."
     "Color" is introduced after Form, because Color is an appearance of Number and Form, when these are presented in Light. Colors are reflections of light from substances, and they are varied according to the number, i. e. the Order and the Form or Quality of the substances upon which the rays of light fall. In the Arcana we have this teaching:

     In order that color may exist, there must be a something dark and snowy, or black and white; when the rays of light from the sun fall upon this, according to the various tempering of the dark and snowy, or of the black and white, there exist colors, from a modification of the inflowing rays of light, of which [colors] some take more or less from the dark and black, some more or less from the snowy or white, thence is their diversity.-A. C. 1042.

     According to this Doctrine, color is light modified by the substances, and the forms or qualities of the substances upon which it falls, and presented again or reflected in such modified form. Together with number and Form, Color is a quality predicable of substances and forms in all the degrees of the Natural and Material World, but coming to the cognizance of the mind of man chiefly through the sense of Sight. Like Number and Form, viewed in their higher meanings and aspects, Color is also predicable of Spiritual substances and forms, and, when rightly regarded, will be seen to express qualities of mind and heart, or of understanding and will, thus varieties of thought and affection, and varying states of thought and affection. Human thought, as the form of human affection, is but the reflection of the Divine Light or Wisdom, inflowing by the heavens and the Spiritual World in general, and modified by the spiritual and natural substances composing its receptacles in man. The color of human thought is derived, therefore, from the Order (Number) and the Quality (Form) of the scientifics and knowledges entering into and constituting the structure of the mind, and from the nature of the affection present in the living force of the thinking. The knowledges give the color to the thought-the affection infuses life, which is the essence of the color, commonly denominated the warmth or the cold of the color. Such color of thought, in all varieties and diversities, appears really or manifestly in the Spiritual World, where internal states are re-presented in corresponding externals. This is true of individual as of aggregate thought; of angel, spirit, and devil, as of the whole Heaven, the World of Spirits, and of Hell. It is infinitely true of the appearance of the Divine Truth of the Divine Good in the radiant belts of flame-colored and white Light proceeding from the LORD, and constituting the Sun of the Spiritual World, in the midst of which is the Divine Man. It may not be inappropriate in this place to continue the extract commenced above. We read:

     The case is the same in the Spiritual [World as in the natural]; there the dark [substance) is the intellectual proprium or the false; and the black is the voluntary proprium of man or evil, which absorbs and extinguishes the rays of light; but the snowy and the white is the truth and good which man thinks that he does from himself, which reflects and rejects from itself the rays of light. The rays of light which fall upon them, and which they, as it were, modify, are from the LORD, as from the Sun of Wisdom and intelligence, for rays of spiritual light are none other, nor from any other source; because natural things correspond to spiritual, it is that when in the other life this is presented to the sight around the regenerate spiritual man there is what appears similar to a bow in the clouds, which bow is the representation of spiritual in his natural things. With the regenerate spiritual man it is the intellectual proprium into which the LORD insinuates innocence, charity, and mercy; according to the reception of these gifts by man, his iris [or bow] appears when presented to the sight; more beautiful the more the voluntary proprium of man is removed, subdued, and reduced to obedience.-A. C. 1042.

     Proceeding upward along the line on the extreme right     Plan, you will find the terms "Force," "Motion," and "Power" following upon "Color," "Form," "Number." Like the latter, the former terms are employed to cover ideas of conditions, states, and qualities ranging from matter, through man, spirit, and angel to the Divine. In order not to detain you too long, let me condense the teachings of our Doctrines concerning Force, Motion, and Power, so that you may obtain a distinct idea of their application to our subject, as well as of the extent of their bearing.

     In all things created from the LORD there is from Him an influx, causing in them a perpetual conatus or endeavor, or striving to produce forms of uses. This quality exists in all the substances and matters of the earths, as it is in all the higher forms of existence from the same Divine origin.-D. L. W. 310.
     Conatus or endeavor is from the influx of the Divine; from conatus is force, and from force is effect. . . . Every effect without the continual influx of the cause would instantly perish.- A. C. 5116.
     This conatus or endeavor of itself does nothing but by forces corresponding to itself, and by them it produces motion. Hence it is that the endeavor is the all in the forces, and by the forces in the motion; and because motion is the ultimate degree of endeavor, by this it has its power. . . . Endeavor is not force nor is force motion, but force is produced by endeavor, for force is endeavor excited, and motion is produced by force; wherefore, there is no power in endeavor alone, nor in force alone, but in motion, which is their product.-D. L. W. 218.
     There     is living endeavor, living force, living motion. Living endeavor in man, who is a living subject, is his will united with his understanding; living forces in man are those things which constitute his body within, in all which are motor fibres variously interwoven; and living motion in man is action, which is produced by those fibres from the will united to the understanding.-D. L. W. 219.

6



     Atmospheres, waters, and earths are . . . three generals by which and from which all and single things exist with infinite variety. Atmospheres are the active forces, waters are the mediate forces, and earths are the passive forces from which all effects exist. Those three are such forces, solely from the Life, which proceeds from the LORD as a Sun, and which causes them to be active.-D. L. W. 178.
     In everything spiritual there is an endeavor to clothe itself with a body . . . the spiritual furnishes a soul, and the material furnishes a body.-D. L. W. 343.
     All uses; both good and evil, are from a spiritual origin, thus from the Sun, where the LORD is.-D. L. W. 348.
     The uses of all created things ascend by degrees of altitude to man, and by man to God the Creator, from whom they are, (n. 66-68) and in the last things exists the end of creation which is that all things may return to the Creator (n. 167-172), and that conjunction may be effected.-D. L. W. 316..

     These teachings will serve to present some idea of the meaning and application to our subject of the terms "Force," "Motion," and "Power."
     In their progressions into ultimates, and in their appearances in nature, Force, Motion, and Power are as Vital, Physical, and. Mechanical Force, Motion, and Power.
     The repetition of the term "Use" in the Plan is for the purpose of suggesting to the Teacher that the use of the objects of instruction as means of forming human rationality and liberty, and thus of attaining the end of education is never to be lost sight of, but to be carefully noted in the successive planes from which those objects are drawn.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
MESSENGER ON THE IDEA OF GOD 1886

MESSENGER ON THE IDEA OF GOD              1886

     THE New Church Messenger of December 2d furnishes an excellent example of the practice frequently indulged in by itself and others of reading New Church ideas into writings which do not contain them, and thus bolstering the delusive hope that, the teachings of the Writings to the contrary, the Christian world is influxially turning to the New Church. Over two columns are devoted to an imagined discovery of a New Church conception of God, in Professor John Fiske's articles in The Atlantic.
     Professor Fiske makes such statements as these: "The utter demolition of anthropomorphism would be the demolition of theism. . . . To every form of theism . . . an anthropomorphic element is indispensable. . . . The total elimination of anthropomorphism from the idea of God abolishes the idea itself."
     On these statements the Messenger makes the following comments: "That God is man is a central feature of our New Church conception of the Deity; and that an enlightened writer should advance to this idea from a rational unfolding of the subject is, to our mind, the most significant fact we have ever met with in the contributions of the scientific mind to this, province of thought."
     Contra-doctrinal persuasions inevitably blind their votaries, and it is therefore not strange, perhaps, that we should witness in the case before us such an entire blindness to even the natural fact that Christians have always claimed to believe in a personal God. But more. In the realms of the "scientific mind" "the most significant fact's has been discovered than an "enlightened writer" evolves an anthropomorphic idea from the depths of his inner consciousness; of course, without the agency of the Revelation made to the New Church.
     There is a certain solemn warning given in these Revelations against such evolutions and also against the fancied discovery of them by New Churchmen:
     "It is believed in the world that man from the lumen of nature-thus without revelation-can know many things which are of religion, as that there is a God, etc.
     But I have been instructed by much experience that man of himself, without revelation, knows altogether nothing of Divine things and of those which are of celestial and spiritual life. . . . It has also been shown that many who wrote Natural Theology and from the lumen of their nature confirmed the things which were of the doctrine of their Church, in the other life at heart deny the same more than others, and also the Word itself, which they endeavor to destroy altogether." (A. C. 8944.)
     Evidently the Messenger was not aware how it nullified its own interpretation of Professor Fiske, and, consequently, how excellent a confirmation of the Doctrine just quoted it furnished when it said in the same article:
     "The only feature of these essays that struck us as unfair is Mr. Fiske's allusion to the Hebrew Scripture. He does not give the Word its proper position in the history of the idea of God, nor is he just in the interpretation he gives to its statements."
     "The only feature"! What obscurity of conception of the central Doctrine of the New Church stands confessed in these words! The LORD is the Word, and one who rejects the Word cannot possibly have "a just idea of God," no matter what appearances may indicate.
STATE OF THE CHURCH IN ILLINOIS 1886

STATE OF THE CHURCH IN ILLINOIS              1886

     THE New Church Messenger of December 9th, under the head of Church News from Chicago, publishes the following:

     After mature deliberation the Executive Committee of the Illinois Association decided that, whereas, those members of the New Church who met for worship in the North and West Divisions of Chicago had united into one society, under the leadership of the Rev. E. C. Bostock, and had joined the General Church of Pennsylvania, they could hardly expect to use temples of worship owned by a Society which was a member of the Illinois Association; therefore, they would be required to cease using the said Chapels in the North and West Divisions, the former immediately, and the latter upon the 1st of January, 1886.

     The italics in the above extract are our own, and they are introduced for the purpose of calling the reader's attention to the extraordinary attitude which the Illinois Association assumes toward another and co-ordinate part of the General Convention. Because a body of New Churchmen in Chicago have joined the General Church of Pennsylvania, "they can hardly expect" any longer to worship the LORD and to teach the Doctrines of the New Church in "temples owned by a Society which is a member of the Illinois Association." Is this statement intended to convey the idea that the quality of the Illinois Association is such as to exclude from its temples all worship of the LORD according to the form adopted by the Church of Pennsylvania, no matter how true that worship may be, no matter how faithfully the Doctrines of the Church may be taught, no matter how "earnest and loyal and studious" these New Churchmen may be who desire to worship in the way referred to? Or does the Illinois Association propose to introduce and to enforce on all other general bodies of the Church in this country, except itself, a rigid rule of geographical exclusiveness, in the face of the eminently wise order made on this very point by the General Convention which is the superior body? As a matter of "Church news," it may be stated here that the Convention has decided the question in this matter, and that the Immanuel Church of Chicago has acted under and with an avowed reference to the rule of the Convention.

7


This fact was well known to the President, and ought to have been wall known to the Executive Committee, of the Illinois Association. The rule referred to will be found in No. 49 of the Journal of the Sixty-Third Annual Session of the General Convention held in Boston in 1883, and appears as a Preamble and Resolution recommended by the Committee on Ecclesiastical Affairs and adopted by the Convention in the following form:

     Whereas, The New Church claims to be a Spiritual Church, and ought to regard all questions relating to the organization of the Church from a spiritual point of view, and all the relations of individuals to Societies, and of Societies to Associations as essentially spiritual; and,
     Whereas, The Spiritual relations are prior to and more important to the Spiritual welfare, and conduce more effectually to the use of the larger bodies; and,
     Whereas, The laws of charity also demand that Societies of the New Church should be left in entire freedom to choose their immediate social and spiritual relationships as may be most congenial to themselves: therefore,
     Resolved, That, while for convenience, or other external reasons, it is expedient, and perhaps necessary, that an Association of the Church should have certain geographical metes and bounds, which ought in general to be observed, yet the rule of geographical boundary should not be so rigidly applied as to interfere with the freedom of any Society to choose, from doctrinal or other internal considerations, to affiliate itself with any Association with which it can conveniently act.

     The law of charity, which is the law of freedom, so clearly expressed and formulated in this rule for application to the action of Societies and Associations by the Supreme Body of the Church, has, "after mature deliberation," been violated by "the Executive Committee of the Illinois Association." And, although not a voice has been heard through the Messenger, nor through "any other publication of the Church, calling attention to violation the law of charity and freedom, expressed in the rule of the Convention, and very common sense of right and decorum, yet will Executive Committee have to purge itself before Church of the charge of petty persecution for opinions' sake, of causing a schism on what it claims be a merely external and non-essential point, and of perpetuating dissentions which the Convention, by its counsels, has strenuously sought to heal. We are disposed to congratulate the members of the Immanuel Church most heartily on their release from apparent
connection with a body which denies to them the brotherhood of the New Church, which does not offer even the rentage of buildings, held in trust for the use of the New Church, although at one time willing to rent them to Old Church congregations; which is unwilling that men, characterized by the President of the Illinois Association as "earnest and loyal and studious New Churchmen," should continue to use chapels for the worship of the LORD, "owned by a Society which is a member of the Illinois Association,"-chapels in which most faithful and zealous work was done-chapels which the Society that claims ownership would not have thought of occupying had the new Society yielded to the persuasive efforts made to cause it to give up its freedom1 and rationality, by entering into the fold of the Illinois Association. We have much more to say on this subject, but shall reserve it for future use, in case of need. In the meantime we think it would be well for the Messenger, for the sake of fairness and justice, to correct its "Church News," and for "the Executive Committee of the Illinois Association" not to imagine that we are finding fault with any thing that they may have done conscientiously, but with the consciences that could permit such things to be done, and leave the real facts in the case to be made known by others. We commend to the Executive Committee of the Illinois Association the earnest and loyal and studious consideration of the laws of Divine Order, to the end that they may recommend to the Association a true and righteous ecclesiastical organization of that body.
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     MR. SPIERS has reprinted as a tasteful tract T. S. Arthur's story, Lily, the Fireside Angel.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Wat de Niewe Kerk is, en wat Zij niet is the title of a Dutch translation of a lecture by the Rev. Chauncey Giles, recently published by the Philadelphia Tract Society.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. T. M. Gorman is said to be editing a fac simile reprint of the original edition of Swedenborg's philosophical work, Prodromus Philosophiae ratiocinantis de Infinito et causa finali Creationis.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE American New Church Printing and Publishing Society has issued a new translation of the Divine Love and Wisdom. This is the third new translation of the work that has appeared within the last two or three years.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     The Swedenborg Calendar, for the year 1886, published by the Massachusetts New Church Union, has a portrait of Swedenborg, a likeness of his garden study, and one of the Swedish Church in London in which Swedenborg was buried.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Academy of the New Church will shortly issue a Prospectus of the Rev. N. C. Burnham's work on Degrees, which is to be published by subscription. A copy of the Prospectus will be mailed to any address on application to "Book Room of the Academy of the New Church," 1700 Summer St., Philadelphia.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Intoxicants, Prohibition, and our New Church Periodicals in 1884-5, is the title of a new pamphlet on the Wine Question, by Dr. John Ellis. It contains one hundred and twenty pages, and sixty of these are taken up in controversy with New Church Life. Any one desiring this work will receive it free on application to the author, 1700 Chambers Street, New York City, N. Y.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     AT the last meeting of the "German New Church Society," of Germany, Dr. Hahn moved that the Society publish its "own organ." A periodical edited by this gentleman, and published by C. Fr. Palm, of Reutlingen, has since appeared under the name, Reformationsblatter, but there is nothing in it to indicate to the uninitiated that it is New Church or even Swedenborgian.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     In the New Church Almanac and Year Book, 1886, compiled by James Speirs, and published by him at the low price of one penny (two cents), there is an apothegm from the Writings for each day excepting Sundays, for which readings from the Word are indicated. Selections from New Church writers, poems, lists of places of worship and of New Church institutions and societies in Great Britain, and other useful matters fill up the almanac.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Minutes of the Seventy-eighth Session of the General Conference of the New Church have been published, and together with reports, etc make a book of ninety-two pages. There are a number of interesting statistical tables, but among them one misses the list of all the ministers of Conference. Sixty-five societies are reported in connection with Conference having a total of five thousand seven hundred and forty-one members. Four hundred and fourteen infants ware baptized during the year, and fifty-seven adults. Seven thousand and ten scholars attended the Sunday-schools.

8


Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Calendar; Plan for Reading the Word and the Writings, as published by the Academy of the New Church for 1886, gives also the date of the ecclesiastical year-116-117. The great use of such a Plan, which has now been published for eight years or more, is indicated in a quotation from Apocalypse Explained (n. 803), printed on the first page of the Calendar, where occur these words: "Faith from love is an essential means of salvation . . . To learn the truths which must be of faith . . . let man read the Word every day, either one or two chapters, and learn the dogmas of his religion." Copies of the Calendar will be mailed to any address on receipt of price five cents, including postage. Address, "Book Room of the Academy of the Church, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia."
DR. WILKINSON'S NEW BOOK 1886

DR. WILKINSON'S NEW BOOK              1886

THE GREATER ORIGINS AND ISSUES OF LIFE AND DEATH.
     By James John Garth Wilkinson, author of "The Human Body and Its Connection with Man." 8vo, cloth, pp. 496. London: James Speirs.
     IN this work, Dr. J. J. G. Wilkinson deals with many practical questions for the benefit of the people and for the correction of "modern scientists." The subject is a wide one, allowing many digressions, in which the book abounds, though the main argument is exceedingly well handled, with abundant vitality of ideas, manfully credited, not to self-inspiration, but to the LORD, by means of an intelligent study of His Word and the Writings of His commissioned servant, Emanuel Swedenborg. The principal theme is a plea for individual repentance and a protest against many cruel customs too easily submitted to by ignorant humanity.
     Another leading theme the author delights to handle is the interdependence of the Spiritual and Material worlds in every relation of life.
     On page 51, he says: "It is the aim of these pages throughout to bring the spiritual world into the arena and to show it as a constant Father-force operant upon earth."
     On page 4 occurs the following comprehensive statement: "If you could cancel the vices and evils, the wickedness of mankind, a new era in the health of the body would be at once inaugurated . . . . Temperance in eating and drinking, temperance in desires; the refusal of cares which are too much and too heavy for the mind; single-heartedness; removing complications and entanglements which are the bane of lives; simple love, simple honor, simple good conduct; cheerful days and fortunate nights;-if these things were universal, and if they proceeded not only from prudence and the necessity of reputation, but from a true religious principle-that is, from the acknowledgment of the LORD through all life-then universal health would be a question of only a few generations and Physic would be an attendant on a Race that was getting better all round by itself."
     Farther on the author enters vigorous protests against the accepted Evolution theory; against Vaccination; against Pasteur's theories, that look for the causes, of diseases in their squirming products and forget to study the remedies therefor; against Hospitals, as vortices and centres of disease; against reckless and public surgery; against the discrimination in treatment of rich and poor; against the common materialistic views of physiological chemistry, of vital force and heat, and especially against a perverted Church, showing the only path to health lying through the New Church, which will be over all the earth in the LORD'S own time.
     Use is insisted on as the only motive for research; and reckless curiosity is censured. The author's views on medical subjects are sound, though not accepted by the majority. Some of his statements are vague, so that it is hard to know whether he wants to say that animal and human forms came forth to Nature in full-grown perfection or whether, as the Writings teach, that the germs were first, and grew by an orderly accretion of material particles.
     He alludes to the "materialized" hands and forms of the seance as evidence that such full-grown genesis is possible. But the example is not good; for when did any one succeed in keeping a "materialized" hand or form for future observation and to show to the curious? The miracle of the loaves and fishes and that of the manna and fowls would have been better arguments, but not conclusive-for they were manifestly out of the usual order.
     The whole style of the book reminds one strongly of Carlyle; but the spirit of reverence for revealed Truth is a priceless gem that Carlyle lacks. It adorns almost every chapter of Wilkinson's work and makes amends for much that seems incoherent and obscured in verbosity. The student who reads the book carefully will be well repaid and rise from its perusal with enlarged I ideas on the mutual relations of the natural and spiritual worlds.
HEAVEN REVEALED 1886

HEAVEN REVEALED              1886

HEXVEN REVEALED. Being a Popular Presentation of Swedenborg's Disclosures about Heaven, with the Concurrent Testimony of a Few Competent and Reliable Witnesses. By B. F. Barrett. Philadelphia: Porter & Coates, 1885. 882 pp., l2mo.

     THE same may be said of this as of many other works by Mr. Barrett, which may properly be termed Collateral works of the New Church. As usual, his positions are well taken and are sustained by arguments that are sound-being supported by competent witnesses. As usual, his style is perspicuous, his treatment of the varied subjects philosophical, and, on the whole, the book will prove to be very satisfactory to the general New Church reader. Many other pleasant and complimentary things might be said of the book-indeed have been said.
     As we lay it down, we are not disappointed; but we are not sanguine of the results of its publication in making converts to the New Church. We strongly suspect that it will find its largest class of renders among the general New Church readers. Many of these have a quasi acknowledgment of the fundamental Doctrines of the New Church-that God is one (not three); that there is a Heaven and a Hell; that man lives after death and in a spiritual body, and that, in some way, the LORD has made His Second Coming. With this knowledge they are quite well satisfied, and are anxious that others may come into the same inheritance. This and similar collateral works will be read by such New Churchmen, and with a satisfaction to be measured by the amount of confirmation of their slender stock of knowledge, which the books may contain, or by their success in silencing unbelievers. The average New Church preacher understands this, and his hearers are content if he occasionally win one to be partaker of their frugal board.
     The author is evidently sanguine that he will find a large and attentive audience among Old Churchmen-the "wish is father to the thought." We suspect he greatly overestimates the proportion of outsiders who have the least appetite for spiritual things of any kind. In this he heeds neither the teaching of the Writings nor of observation.

9



     A few years ago there appeared a little book entitled Gates Ajar. (We think the book before us might be called "The Cranny of the Gates Enlarged," and a volume written one hundred and twenty-three years ago "The Gates Wide Open.") It became very popular-being read by thousands. Why? Because the cranny in the Gates was so small, and the peep through it so illusory.
     We are a little curious to know how the class of readers for whom the work under notice is intended will be impressed by the emphatic manner in which the author presents the teaching-that Heaven is not a place. Will they be able to understand that they are, to have anywhere to live? As the subject is left, the teaching, although abstractly true, is misleading, and I Heaven is made by no means attractive. We know, however, that there are lands, houses, and all such objects in Heaven as are in this world.
     We had thought to close this notice here, but there is one feature of the book which seems to call for consideration, because it is typical of many other collateral works, and of much of the "missionary" literature of the Church. This feature constitutes a fatal error running through all this class of writings used in presenting the Doctrines of the Church to those in ignorance of them. It is the failure on the part of these writers and teachers to proclaim distinctly, truthfully, and emphatically, that the LORD Himself has made a DIVINE REVELATION, and that that REVELATION is His SECOND COMING. In the absence of a clear proclamation of this central truth, we do not believe that any presentation of subordinate truths will ever avail to make genuine converts to the New Church.
     In the book before us, we think the author not only fails to state this fundamental truth, but he strongly impresses upon the mind of the reader that it is Swedenborg's revelation, and studiously avoids giving the idea that it is a Divine Revelation, and thus the LORD'S.
     That he teaches, virtually, that it is Swedenborg's revelation, see page 16:-"It is quite true that Swedenborg's disclosures come to us professedly as a new and Divinely authorized revelation [italics ours]; a revelation, however, not contrary nor supplementary to the Sacred Scriptures." This would be offensively superfluous if he believed the Revelation to be the LORD'S. Again-"He [Swedenborg] claims to have enjoyed long and open intercourse with the spiritual world, and to have made a truthful revelation, etc." (page 37.) Clearly he claims to have made the revelation.
     No wonder the author almost deifies the man! Calling him the "gifted Seer," "the Great Swede," the "divinely authorized revelator."
     To what extent his false views may carry the author, we cite an instance in the book before us. On the first he begins a quotation of nineteen lines from the first number of Heaven and Hell. The last four lines read thus:-"So that I can never describe them from what I have myself seen and head-which I do in the hope that ignorance may thus be enlightened and in- credulity dissipated." Can there be a clearer statement than this, that Swedenborg himself did-or says he did-all these things? And yet, Swedenborg does not say so in that number; but declares again and again elsewhere that he did not do them. Properly translated with some of the previous context, it reads thus: "It was given me to be together with angels, and to talk with them as man with man, and also to see the things which are in the heavens, as well as in the hells; so now to describe them from things heard and seen, hoping thus ignorance may be illustrated and incredulity dissipated." After causing Swedenborg to make a flourish of the great "Ego" is it surprising that he stopped short in quoting, or writing only two more lines-and the last of the number? "That such an IMMEDIATE revelation exists at this day is because that is what is meant by The Coming of the LORD."
     Of course this teaching is fatal to the character with which the author has clothed Swedenborg as the writer of that immediate revelation. Thus he was not "divinely authorized" to make the revelation, but it is the LORD'S "immediate revelation" through him, as he elsewhere emphatically declares. And any statement concerning the LORD'S Second Coming which militates in the least against this teaching-that this immediate revelation: the Doctrines revealed for the New Church, is "The Coming of the LORD"-must be false.
     Let him who would win to the LORD'S New Church the few who are in "simple good," truthfully and persistently proclaim His Second Coming, and continual Presence in His Revelation to His New Church, and he will need very few "witnesses" in confirmation of the Divinity of that Revelation. And without this no number of witnesses will avail much.
TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE 1886

TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE              1886



Fiction.

     CHAPTER VIII.

     Indications.

     VENITA STERLING was aware that her father had been very favorably impressed with Dr. Stanhope, but she was hardly prepared for the intimate degree of cordiality with which he met him when he entered the drawing-room in company with Mr. Glenn some few days later. What charm did this stranger possess to thus influence her usually reserved father? -
     Yet was she amused and not a little puzzled that their short association on the mountain should have rendered his presence so strangely familiar to herself. Consequently, her courtesy, graceful as usual, was equally demure, as Roger passed her on his way to be presented to Mrs. Sterling; yet she could, with a perception essentially feminine, note exactly how he performed his part. But Roger Stanhope, highly satisfactory as his deferential bow had been to his critical little vis-a-vis, seemed by no means inclined to stand on any lofty pedestal. In his genial way, though very decidedly, he led the conversation away from the subject of his heroism into more general channels.
     "There is one strong objection, Mr. Sterling," said Roger, presently, "that I have never been able to overcome, to the New Church, although I am now a member of some five years' standing."
     "Indeed, only one? That sounds promising; what is your complaint?"
     "Well, too much violent exercise is required of one. The number of mental summersaults I have had to make within these last few years would do credit to a professional acrobat."
     During the laugh that followed this remark, Roger Stanhope's eyes rested on Venita, from whose merry, intelligent look he turned with reluctance as her father began speaking.
     "Yes; one by one our pet 'hobbies' have to go; but what seems to be the trouble now, Doctor?"
     "Well, the latest hobby of mine that has been assaulted is vaccination.

10


Mr. Glenn here has been making a most violent attack upon that good old system."
     "Doctor," laughingly interposed Mr. Sterling, "you may take my word or it, you will find Mr. Glenn a most formidable opponent. You have my sincere sympathy. We all, at times, take a most valiant stand against him, but it is seldom that we are able to hold out long. What, charge have you to make against vaccination, Mr. Glenn?"
     "I have been trying to convince Dr. Stanhope that to introduce into one's system a poison that we desire to remain there in a sub-active state, and hence in a state to furnish a continual and permanent basis for the influx of evil spirits, is to expose the system to any harm such spirits can induce."
     The Doctor here interposed: "I agree fully with you, Mr. Glenn, that it is an evil; but I had looked upon it as one of the permissions,-the introducing of a lesser evil to prevent a greater."
     "It does not always prevent; it is not infallible in its protection."
     "Very true; but have we not the advantage all on our side? As I think, we can claim that it comes under the well-known law, that two affections or diseases can- 'not act in the system at one time. Similar evil spirits never can agree; so, when near each other, they contend."
     "Yes; but, Doctor, according to that, one ought to be inoculated to prevent all contagious diseases."
     Roger arose and walked the full length of the room. On his return he seated himself, looking intently into the fire as he spoke: "I see you must be right, Mr. Glenn, and even then it would have to be a continual inoculation, because, as the impression would wear off, the patient would become every day more susceptible to disease."
     "Certainly; consequently, as New Church people, we can have none of it, and I am delighted that you are beginning to see the light so clearly.'
     "Our conversation of last week, Mr. Glenn, has been continually in my mind, and I begin to see the truth of your statement, 'that it is better to run the risk of contracting small-pox rather than chronic poisoning.' Vaccine virus we introduce voluntarily and try to keep it somewhat active. Small-pox may or may not be contracted, but, if it is, we strive not to keep it semi-active, but to drive it from the system."
     "Exactly, and therein lies the difference in the immunity which follows the former and that which follows the latter, which is immeasurable. For the vaccine immunity depends upon keeping a poison in the system, while the small-pox immunity depends upon the resistance to renewed attacks which a cured body always has. Hence, the one comes from hell; the other, being in order, comes from heaven. What I say of the power of resistance of a cured body, I deduce from the Doctrine, that in man's spiritual life a victory after a temptation-combat inevitably leaves the man stronger to resist the next temptation; and the conditions of the body are all anti-types of states of the soul."
     Roger turned to Mr. Glenn with one of his warm, genial smiles: "When I took my degree, I little thought that I would have to come to a minister of the Gospel to teach me the true principles underlying the art of healing; but so it is, the New Church is all comprehensive, settles all questions for us. But I am afraid we owe an apology to the ladies for wandering off into such an uninteresting subject."
     "Indeed, no, Dr. Stanhope. You should know by this time that the women of the New Church are always interested in such discussions," replied Mrs. Sterling.
     "How could it be otherwise when, whatever subject we converse upon, some point of Doctrine will illustrate and make clearer." As Venita spoke, she lifted such an interested, glowing countenance to Roger's gaze that he mentally remarked: "Such a face as that would be inspiration enough for a man to make the most abstruse subject plain."
     Exactly, Venita, very well put," said Mr. Sterling, with a quizzical look. "Now, let me illustrate your point. Instead of asking you to sing for us, I can convey my meaning fully to your comprehension by politely saying, 'Now, we have had an intellectual treat suppose you give us one of an affectional nature.'"
     Venita arose immediately to comply with her father's request, merely pausing on her way to the piano, to give his ear an affectionate little tweak for turning her remark so directly back upon herself.
     As her beautiful voice filled the room, a feeling so sudden, so solemn, overpowered Roger, that for the time he was completely swayed by its influence. The music seemed literally to fill his whole being; each nerve vibrated as in response to a most delicate touch, and, as Venita turned from the piano, he arose and held out his hand to thank her, as though every note had been sung for him alone.
     On their way home, Dr. Stanhope was so apparently inattentive to Mr. Glenn's conversation, that that gentleman, after several ineffectual attempts at interesting him, could no longer ignore his preoccupation, so left him in peace to his own thoughts.
     For a time they walked in silence, when Roger turned to the Pastor with the somewhat irrelevant question- "Mr. Glenn, to use an old and trite expression, do you believe there is such a thing as love at first sight?"
     Mr. Glenn, without exhibiting any evidence of surprise, answered promptly: "Sometimes, yes; generally, no. People are too apt to be deceived by the fallacies of the senses nowadays, to warrant one in relying much upon such indications. In the New Church one must enter marriages rationally, weighing each step."
     "What puzzles me is how a man is to proceed rationally. It seems a comparatively easy matter for a woman to decide what it is she can love in the man, but the other side of the question is rather more difficult and uncertain."
     "Not at all; what a man loves in a woman is her affection for the kind of wisdom he loves to acquire, and talking with her he can ascertain, by her reception of what he gives forth, whether her mind is the complement of his. Her delight in his wisdom will manifest itself in the sphere of her love going forth to meet him, and he will talk better and see more interiorly and clearly, even if she has no previous knowledge of the subject, than he would in giving forth the same ideas to others, no matter how wise they might be on the subject."
     Roger made no response; so they walked on in silence for some minutes further, when he suddenly paused, held out his hand to Mr. Glenn, saying, "Thank you, I believe that is just what I need, but I must think over what you say."

     CHAPTER IX.

     Misgivings.

     BUSILY occupied with his studies and profession, it had never occurred to Roger that his home was lonesome and his life incomplete until he saw Venita Sterling; then the idea dawned upon him with such suddenness that it seemed like a revelation; and with every recurring visit the feeling strengthened upon him, that this sunny-haired girl with the earnest eyes and merry, mobile mouth was the wife he wanted.

11


Being fully impressed with the sacred unity necessary to a truly conjugial life, and fearful of making a mistake, he mentally produced all the objections that might by any possibility exist, and for a time, with an instinctive delicacy, refrained from making her the object of open attentions.
     At Venita treated him with the warmest cordiality; but, mindful of the great injustice into which she had allowed herself to drift before, she was on her guard, and gradually there appeared an almost imperceptible change in her manner, though it was really more in the sphere with which she surrounded herself than in any open change of action. But Roger felt it keenly, and in his desire to ascertain the cause, their intercourse naturally assumed a more personal character, until it became impossible for him to entirely feign an indifference he was so far from feeling. Venita herself was so completely occupied in regulating her own actions according to rules of discretion that she utterly failed to perceive Roger's state of mind.
     Entering the drawing-room one day, much to his satisfaction he found Venita ensconced within the bay-window, busily engaged, as he supposed, over the intricacies of some fancy work.
     As he approached her she arose to greet him, saying, as she held out her hand, "Father is in the library, if you wish to see him."
     "Not particularly," replied Roger, with easy grace; "with your kind permission I think I will remain here."
     Venita somewhat doubtfully resumed her seat, merely motioning to a chair on the opposite side of the table as she reached for her work. But Roger, not content to remain at that distance, wheeled the chair around to her side of the table in close proximity to her work-basket, to the contents of which he immediately devoted his attention.
     "This is pretty," said Roger, as he daintily raised the end of some ribbon that lay curled on the top of the basket. "What is it for?-may I ask?"
     "Certainly, that is part of my costume for to-morrow's' garden party."
     "Indeed, what do you call it?" asked Roger, with interest.
     "Illusion," mischievously returned Venita, thoroughly won to graciousness by Roger's genial sphere.
     "Not a bad name, considering the effect, when worn, it will have upon us poor deluded mortals; but," continued Roger, as he critically examined it, "it looks uncommonly like what I would call ribbon, were it not for this stuff on the edge of it."
     "So it is, Doctor; I will not further 'delude' you, it is ribbon; but that 'stuff on the edge' makes it what we call feather-edged ribbon."
     "Well, ribbon or illusion, I have no doubt it will make a most charming and becoming dress," replied Roger, gallantly.
     "Oh!" said Venita, laughing with that thorough enjoyment that masculine ignorance on the subject of feminine apparel always affords the feminine mind, "it is not the dress, but the ornamentation; the dress itself is a perfect bewilderment of lace, as you will see, and these bows are merely to give it a finishing touch here and there."
     "Miss Sterling," replied Roger, rather inconsequently, as he laid the ribbon carefully back in place, "how many dances are you going to allow me to-morrow? More than the single quadrille you gave me last week at Mrs. Turner's, I hope."
     "And you did not deserve that one for being so late in asking for it," responded Venita, as she held a completed bow off at arm's length to gain the effect.
     "Well, you cannot urge that against me this time, Miss Venita, so I shall certainly expect five or six at least."
     "Indeed, no; I will not dance more than that number altogether, as I shall be principally occupied in helping mother receive and entertain."
     "Now, Miss Venita, I protest. Am I to be the single exception, or am I supposed not to need entertainment?"
     "Of course, Doctor, you will receive your proper allowance, but I am afraid you want too much,' answered Venita, brightly.
     And Roger himself was very much afraid that he did. The temptation at times was sore, indeed, to break through the invisible barriers with which this fragile girl surrounded herself, and tell her nothing would content him less than all-herself-given freely, gladly. But he must not permit his better judgment to be overruled by a state of excited feeling; he must be sure of himself first.
     One long, delightful walk Venita did allow herself to be persuaded into the next day. As she stepped onto the porch, Roger hastened to her side, proffering his request, admiring the while the lovely picture she made' in her large, white hat and soft, dainty dress against the open doorway. Venita glanced at the company. Some were standing in groups, talking; others were already straying off in couples; surely, none would miss her. "Yes, I will go," she said, looking up with one of her brightest smiles. So descending the road steps of the terrace, walking under the grateful shade of the fine old trees on either side, they passed on to the cool, shadowy woods.
     The stroll was a long one; but it came to an end before conversation or interest flagged. Similarity of tastes drew them very near together, and it was at such times as this that Venita, with a feeling of half-defined recklessness, gave herself up to the full enjoyment of Roger's superior powers and cultivation of intellect. His keen insight into subjects, and clear, concise way of stating his point, met with ready appreciation in Venita's naturally inquiring mind.
     On their return to the house, however, Venita's conscience asserted itself to such purpose that Roger was unable to secure his single quadrille even. She managed on one occasion to be already engaged; on another, deep pre-occupation with a friend prevented her seeing Roger's approach; again, she dexterously evaded him; but when she pleaded extreme fatigue, it at last became evident to even Roger's masculine comprehension that he was to be received into no further favor that evening.
     Venita gave a sigh of relief when she saw him approach a small group of gentlemen already deeply engaged in conversation. Her sigh was quickly followed, though, by a glow of satisfaction as she noted the evident appreciation with which he was greeted. With like natural inconsistency, later in the evening, was she sensible of a decided touch of feeling that, on having occasion to pass in close proximity to where Roger stood, he should be so utterly oblivious of her presence.
     But Roger had seen.
     The October leaves were already beginning to softly fall before Dr. Stanhope realized that the summer had flown. Having comparatively little to occupy his time, much of it was passed with the Sterlings. Occasionally he had accompanied Venita on her rides. For these rides, with early astuteness, he learned Venita's compliance was the more readily gained when he sued under the plea that she was needed to complete a pre-arranged party.

12


Occasionally he enjoyed the agreeable variety of a drive in the pony phaeton, with nothing to do but make himself agreeable, as Venita always insisted upon keeping the reins herself.
     In spite of Venita's discretion and Roger's prudence, constantly were they thrown together. Never had Springvale witnessed so gay a summer; fete, party, and some had followed each other in rapid succession. But now, Roger's re-established health, as well as the demands of duty, allowed him no excuse for lingering, even if he had so desired, but this was far from his purpose, as he was becoming impatient to be in harness again. His farewell visit, although he promised himself the farewell was but a temporary one, was a severe tax upon his strength of mind. Mr. and Mrs. Sterling united in insisting upon a speedy return, and when he did come that he would consider their house his home. Venita said but little, yet Roger thought-or was it only imagination?-that her lovely face wore a subdued expression; and when she gave him her hand in parting and her beautiful true eyes met his, an almost over- powering desire came over him to gather her up in his arms, close to his heart, never to let her go again. But he must still endure the test of absence. He must be sure beyond doubt that he was right. And how did he know that she cared for him, any way? No. He must go without a word, hard though it was.

     * * * * * *

     After Roger's departure, Venita missed him much. Yes, undoubtedly she did; but the realities of life soon resumed their usual routine. And it was only when she thought of the coming Christmas that she was conscious of a pleasant rush of feeling which, when analyzed, was found to be closely allied to the fact of Dr. Stanhope's expected return upon that day. Not for one moment did she dream that he was acquiring unusual interest for her. All thoughts of love or marriage were laid aside for a long time, probably forever in this world. Nor was this mere assertion, though likely to deceive no one but Venita herself-to her it was reality itself. If at times she had chanced to meet Roger's eyes resting upon her with an expression that made her heart beat uncomfortably, his next remark would entirely dissipate what she was wont to term her "conceited fancy;" and she nursed with much satisfaction the mistaken idea that the New Church makes such near and intimate friendships possible and safe.
     Christmas day dawned crisp and clear, bringing with its sunshine a flood of the old-time sphere of "Peace on earth-good-will to men."
     Life seemed well worth living to Venita as she joined her parents in the breakfast-room, returning with more than her usual loving brightness their affectionate greetings. The breakfast-room looked unusually cheerful and attractive this morning, with its decorations of Christmas greens. Beside each plate was a most interesting number of packages. Among Venita's was one that had evidently come through the mail; it was directed in a clear, bold hand. Her curiosity, excited by this fact, prompted her to open this one first, disclosing to view a beautifully bound copy of the Word, which, the accompanying note informed her, was a token of respect from her 'sincere friend, Roger Stanhope.'
     "O mother! how could he? I told him last summer that I had long wished for a copy which contained only the books of' the Word,' and see he has sent it."
     "It was indeed kind and thoughtful of him, Venita; it is really a most beautiful gift," returned her mother, who, though apparently, examining the present, was in reality more interested in watching Venita's unconscious manner of accepting it.
     "I am glad he is coming to-day," was Venita's satisfied reply, as she turned to the rest of her presents.
     The next half hour was spent in examining and admiring the numerous and handsome presents each had received. Breakfast seemed well-nigh forgotten, until Mr. Sterling reminded them that time was flying and the church hour rapidly approaching.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
MYTHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION 1886

MYTHOLOGY AND EVOLUTION              1886

     THE Gray Goose and the Fat Goose stood beside the pond that lay just outside the farm-yard. There were tadpoles in the pond and the sight of them moved the Gray Goose to say:
     "Our ancestors believed that geese were sometimes turned into tadpoles."
     "So they did," replied the Fat Goose. "Those mythological tales are very foolish."
     "Foolish? yes, very foolish," mused the Gray Goose, "especially when compared with our belief that from the tadpole was evolved the Perfect Goose."
STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM 1886

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM              1886

     A STORY FOR CHILDREN.

     CHAPTER I.

     IT is quite likely that Tom had another name, that is, a last name, as the rest of us have, but what it was, no one knows. His home, or birthplace, was in a queer country; the people who lived there very often complained of it, or rather of their "lot," as they termed it, but slot many of them wished to leave it; in fact, leaving was regarded by most of them as the hardest lot of all. The world-we mean this country-had (and has) the best Book that ever was or will be; it was in the highest and truest sense a Guide Book for men, women, and children, and those who study it and obey it travel in safety, and do not tumble into ditches, or get mired in swamps. But there were some people who said this Book was not" up with the times," and these were continually floundering in swamps, which in their jargon they called "problems of existence," but the "problems" were swamps for all that.
     It was on a spring morning when Tom went whistling along over the green fields; the sky was blue, the sunshine bright and warm, and there was life and youth in everything, at least so it seemed to Tom, and very likely he wasn't far from right in this, for he felt young and happy, and the world about us is pretty much what we I make it. If we groan and are dismal, the world is dismal, too; if we smile, the world smiles.
'Near an Oak-tree Tom saw a blue-eyed Violet looking up at him, and she appeared so fresh and clean that he stopped and said, "Good-morning."
     "Good-morning," she replied.
     Just here some people may say, "The idea of a Violet talking is ridiculous!" Perhaps it is-to them; but what have they to say when Shakespeare tells them that there are "sermons in stones"?
     After the Violet had answered him, Tom continued, You look as though your face had just been washed." "Yes; the Rain washed us all last night; it was the nicest rain I ever saw-much nicer than the one we had a few nights before."
     "Why was it?"

13



     After nodding to a small Breeze of her acquaintance, that at this moment came swaying past, the Violet answered, "Why, the Rain last night came down so softly that I could hold up my face all the time. It was fine!"
     "What did the other Rain do?" asked Tom, sitting down.
     "Oh! dear me! I don't believe it was a Rain at all; neither does neighbor Oak over there; he says it was a Storm." Tom glanced at the Oak, who nodded assent, and the Violet continued: "He rather liked it, though, because it gave him enough water to drink; he takes more than I do, you know."
     "Of course he docs; he's bigger. Did the Storm hurt you?"
     "No; not exactly, but it shook me about so, and splashed so much mud, that, really, I was a perfect sight the next day. I don't like a dirty face."
     "Don't you?" asked Tom, in a rather doubtful voice. "No; I like to be clean and fresh, for then I am admired."
     "I say," exclaimed Tom, "it isn't right to be proud." She was silent a moment, and then said, "I think my duty is to help to make the world beautiful, and I can't do it unless I'm clean."
     "I guess you're right," said Tom, arising. "Well, good-bye; I'll come some day again and have another talk with you."
     "You must come again soon, for I am going away before long."
     "Are you? Where?"
     But she merely replied," I'll come again next spring."
     As he walked away, Tom said to himself, "What I like about the Violet is that she does her duty without any fuss; and doesn't mind whether people see her doing it or not; that seems like a pretty good thing for me to remember, for I guess that often I don't care so much for my duty as for people knowing that I do it." While musing on this subject, he put his hands into his pockets and rattled his marbles. At the sound his face grew thoughtful, and he walked with his eyes cast down until he found himself entangled in a Brier or Thornbush, that scratched him vigorously. "What did you do that for?" he asked, angrily, breaking away from the bush.
     "What did you walk into me for?" retorted the Thorn. "Marbles, bah!"
     "What do you mean?" asked Tom.
     "Don't you wish you knew? Marbles, bah! Come here and I'll scratch you again."
     "You sha'n't."
     "I shall; come and see if I don't."
     "I won't."
     "You're afraid. Marbles, bah!"
     Tom wasn't a quarrelsome boy; though, as he said, he could "take his own part" when necessary; he knew that it was his own fault that he had been scratched, for if he had kept his eyes open he could have avoided the savage thorn. He looked at it now a moment, and then asked, "What is your duty?"
     "Duty? Duty?" was the snarling answer. "I haven't any; don't want any; wouldn't do it if I had. But I'll tell you what I like to do-come closer." But Tom shook his head. "Well, then, I like to scratch and tear boys. I like to get into fields, only the farmers won't let me-bad luck to them-and I hate everybody and everything, all but the Weeds, for they are pretty good fellows, and I like them because "they give the farmers trouble. Now, then, what do you think of me?"
     "I think you're ugly tempered," answered Tom, turning away.
     "All right, boy, I'll catch you again!" called the Thorn after him. Tom wondered what it meant by its cry of "marbles," and at last he looked into his Guide Book to see what was said about thorns, and this is what he saw:
     "And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up and choked them."
     And a little further on he read:
     "But that sown among the thorns is he that heareth the Word; and the care of this age, and the deceit of riches, choke the Word, and he becometh unfruitful."-Matthew xiii, 7 and 22.
     "Let me see," he mused, after reading this, "I used to play marbles for fun, and I had lots of fun, too; then I got to playing for keeps, and the more I won, the more I wanted; and when I lost, as I did yesterday-and a good many, too, for that boy was a good player-I felt so bad and worried that-that-I walked right into the Thorns without seeing where I was going. After all," and here he looked up, "what are marbles? Suppose I had a barrel full? I wouldn't know what to do with them. I don't believe I care for them, after all." He felt rather proud at this discovery, but the Thorn, seeing him hold up his head, called out across the field:
     "You needn't be proud; I'll catch you again." Tom didn't reply, but hastened on.
     Pretty soon he met a boy, who asked, "Play marbles?"
     "All right."
     "For keeps?"
     "No; let's play for fun."
     "It isn't any fun to play for fun."
     Tom thought a moment, and said: "I'll give you my marbles, all but my shooter, and then you can have the fun without the trouble of playing."
     "That's no fun, either," answered the boy, as he went his way. Tom puzzled over this a good while; he couldn't see why it was that when winning marbles was all the fun in the game, it wouldn't be just as much fun to get them without the trouble of playing. At last he gave it up, and taking one of his now valueless marbles from his pocket, he threw it at a thick bush that grew in a fence corner; the marble cut through the leaves, and a bird flew out and began scolding him at a great rate.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
OX AND THE BANTAM 1886

OX AND THE BANTAM              1886

     ON a summer evening, when his work was done, the Ox stood contentedly chewing his cud and calmly contemplating the slanting rays of the sun that seemed, like fairy roads of gold, leading straight away to the yellow western sea, in which the sun was declining. His disposition was somewhat similar to his body-slow and massive-and he loved a peaceful and tranquil time like the present.
     A finical Bantam came daintily picking his way across the farm-yard, stopping ever and anon to crow in a squeaky voice, and so proudly 'did he carry his head and tail that atwixt them was but little space.
     He stopped before the Ox, and looking up at him said, condescendingly, "Ah, old fellow, done work, eh?"
     "Yes," was the reply, after a deliberate silence.
     "It astonishes me," continued the Bantam, swelling his small breast still further, "that you should be content to plod the same old round, day after day. Why don't you brace up? Show a little spirit-put on some style. I'd rather die than live the life you do.

14


Show a little energy and push. Look at me! where should I be without vim? Take my advice, old fellow, rouse up: shake the hay-seed out of your hair and be up with the times."
     Then the Bantam flew up on the wagon-tongue and crowed till bedtime, and the Ox stood as unmoved as though the silence had been unbroken.
CORRECTION NOTES 1886

CORRECTION NOTES       GEO. NELSON SMITH       1886

     Communicated

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles on which New Church Life is conducted, or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]


     AFTER a long struggle with sickness and other troubles, I resume, and hope to be able to continue, my Notes.
     Before proceeding, I wish to correct an impression. These notes are not or the purpose of finding fault, but to stimulate to greater carefulness to teach the Doctrines correctly. It will be noticed that I make them entirely impersonal, as, I hardly need add, the Doctrines often declare all truth should be kept.
     A FORMULA of New Church Baptism has fallen into my hands, which has the Old Church translation, "In the name of the Father, etc." On the other hand, the original Greek, the Latin Vulgate, and the Doctrines, have, without exception, I believe, "Into the name." That this is the sense, see True Christian Religion,
877-81.
     ANOTHER instance of changing the Doctrine to suit the Old Church ideas, is found in a recent edition of The True Christian Religion (n. 278). "In this case the teaching is exactly reversed. What the translation makes it say is: "That certain Hebrew letters have a little dot in the centre when they are [hard, and are without this dot when] soft." What it does say is "That certain Hebrew letters are pointed within, as a sign that they are uttered softly." The context shows that this is exactly what is meant, and that the sound indicated by the dot is the one used in the Celestial heaven, and is intentionally and truly called soft (e. g., koph k, tau t, daleth d, beth b, etc.), as distinguished from the rougher sound used in the spiritual heaven (e. g., kh, th, dh, bh, etc.); compare Sacred Scripture (n. 90), and, especially, Arcana (n. 1759), as showing that the Doctrine can mean only and exactly what it says, and that the translator's avowed effort to accommodate it simply destroys it.
     IN view of the idea held by many New Churchmen that a Sacrament cannot be so profaned by falsities as to be destroyed, I would call attention to Apocalypse Revealed (n. 641), which shows that under the falsifications of Solifidianism, "The Word becomes no longer the Holy Book, but a profane book." As the whole involves all its parts, what then becomes of the Sacraments, etc., that are a part of the Word and depend entirely upon the Word for their existence, quality, and efficacy?"
     IN view of the effort lately made to revive an old error, that the good and truth of the LORD can be given to us to be our own, I would call attention to Apocalypse Revealed (n. 854), which says that "the Divine Good and Divine Truth cannot be appropriated to any angel or man so as to be his, only so as to appear as his." (Compare D. L. W. 116, et al.)
     GEO. NELSON SMITH.
WINE AT THE HOLY SUPPER 1886

WINE AT THE HOLY SUPPER       WILLIAM A. PRESLAND       1886

TO THE EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     GENTLEMEN:-I have read with considerable interest your paragraph in current number respecting the correspondence of "mustum," in which you say that whatever may be the definition any one may assign to that word, its good signification, as taught in certain passages quoted by your correspondent, does not affect the question of its use at the Holy Supper, since we are never taught to use "mustum," "blood of grapes," or "grape juice," but always "vinum"-wine.
     Granting that we are never taught to use "mustum" in so many words, I yet demur to your statement that we are always taught to use "vinum." The Divine Word, in it's account of the inauguration of the Holy Supper, never once uses any word meaning tome, as you understand that word, but always employs "fruit of the vine," or "cup." And the Writings very frequently, indeed, employ similar terms:

     Quod per genimen vitis non mustum nec vinum intelligatur, sed coeleste quid quod est Regni Domini, manifeste patet.- A. C. 6113.

     In face of this it is idle to argue that "genimen vitis" means the fermented produce of the vine only, for had it been so "mustum nec" would have been quite meaningless
     Further: An important reason is given why "cup" and not wine" is there used:

     Poculum dicitur, non vinum, quia vinum praedicatur da ecclesia spirituali, et sanguis de ecclesia caelesti, tametsi utrumque significat sanctum varum procedens a Domino, sed in ecclesia spirituali sanctum fidei ex charitate erga proximum, ac in ecclesia coelesti sanctum charitatis ex amore in Dominum.-A. C.
6120.

     The first inference from the above would be that the elements may include both what is called "sanguis," and "vinum," the latter, however, being the proper element for use in the spiritual Church.
     The whole force of your argument must rest, however, upon the interpretation you put upon "vinum" being correct. If it can be shown that in one instance the Writings unmistakably designate something else but fermented liquor as "vinum," we shall be at perfect liberty-the context not forbidding-to attach that meaning to the word "vinum" throughout the Doctrine on the most Holy Sacrament. I therefore beg to call your attention to the following extract, and respectfully request the favor of a similar paragraph to that referred to, reconciling your interpretation of "vinum" with their plain teaching:

     "Ablata est laetitia et exsultatio de Carmel, et in vineis non cantatur, non jubilatur, vinum [ ] in torculariibus non calcat calcans, hedad cessare feci (Esaiah xvi, 10)," pro quod vastata est ecclesia spiritualis, quae est Carmal, "vinum in torculanibus non calcans" pro quod non amplius sint qui in fide.- A. C. 1071.
     "Et accepi uvas at expressi illas in scyphum Pharonis."- A. C. 5119.
     "Et dedi scyphum super volam Pharaonis," quod significat appropriationem ab interiori naturali, constant ax significatione "dare scyphum," ita vinum ad bibendnm.- A. C. 5120.

     I need not point out that appropriation by the natural does not qualify the philology of "vinum," although, of course, it may qualify its correspondence.
     Wishing your journal all success in its efforts to stimulate inquiry into the Writings, and to increase the spirit of Christian charity and forbearance within the Church,          I am, gentlemen, yours sincerely,
          WILLIAM A. PRESLAND.
     ACCRINGTON, ENGLAND, October 21st, 1885.

15


LABOR QUESTION 1886

LABOR QUESTION       T. M       1886

     MESSRS. EDITORS:-Permit one, who has carefully studied the "Labor Question," to offer a few words in reply to Alexander Drysdale's communication in the November number of the Life. That oppressions of the" laboring class by manufacturers and capitalists have existed and do yet exist is undoubtedly true. But the converse is also true that the laborers oppress the manufacturers and capitalists whenever and wherever they have the power. The employer does not regard the good of the employee nor does the employee regard the good of his employer. What then do we find in this conflict? Simply one evil fighting another for the sake of supremacy, and the ultimate result will be that both must fall together, for it is written that the "evil shall slay the wicked." No legislation, therefore, is necessary, except in so far as it is needful to secure the right of the laborer to claim and enjoy his own, for two reasons: first, no great principle of national polity is underlying their claims; and second, it is unwise to encourage class' legislation. What then is necessary? Simply that both classes shall acknowledge the LORD, enter into the regenerative life, and perform their use for the common good-for man individually, man collectively, the Church, and the LORD. When charity rules, the wrongs of both classes will right themselves without the intervention of any legislative or political power.
     T. M.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       ALEX DRYSDALE       1886

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-The Priest and the Levite, who passed by on the other side, may have held just such sentiments and language as you repeat in your remarks on my communication in the November Life: "We can but keep the Divine Truth pure for those who will to receive, apply that Truth to our own lives, and leave our neighbor "-robbed, wounded, and half dead though he be-" to the LORD'S care." The LORD did care for that unfortunate, and sent a compassionate Samaritan, a heretic, to bind up his wounds, pour oil and wine, set him on his beast, and carry him to an inn to be cared for.
     Priests, Levites, and ecclesiastical people generally have faithfully followed the traditions of their above-mentioned types, and the LORD has found heretics and infidels to do His humane work, for the liberation of the enslaved, and uplifting of the down-fallen, down-trodden, and oppressed. After the work is done, the ecclesiastical people make the discovery that it is written "Nunc licet." So it was in the case of African slavery. So-called heretics and infidels plead for mercy for the slave, ecclesiastical people, even of the New Church, did not discover "Nunc licet" until after the chains of slavery were broken, and 'the slave had been made free. I would remind you just here of a pregnant sentence to be found in your last issue: "Everywhere the ways of truth are opened wide to him [the New Churchman] and with their 'Nuns licet' invite him to the investigation of all things in the Word and the World ;" thus, as I understand, not only to the investigation of such things as relate to ecclesiasticism, ritual worship, teaching of Doctrine, printing and publishing of books, etc., whereby there shall be what is Divine among men, but also such things as relate to, and provide for justice, morality, industry, 'knowledge, uprightness, the necessaries of life, the things necessary to occupations, things necessary for protection, and a sufficiency of wealth. Thus, moral, industrial, economical, social, and civil questions claim our attention, and ought to get it, too; yea, will get it, too, if toe really do apply the truth to our lives. Can life be merely spiritual and not at the same time moral, social, and civil? "The real case is, that no idea can be entertained concerning spiritual life, except from those things that are in civil life wherefore, when this latter is removed, the former falls, insomuch that it is no longer believed." (A. C. 4366.)
     Those, therefore, who separate themselves from society and take no interest in questions that concern its welfare, while they may become Antitypes of the famous St. Simeon Stylites, cannot be expected to attain to "the measure of a man that is of an angel."
     I am amazed that a New Churchman does not see that in applying the truth to our own lives we must necessarily be interested in the "so-called labor question," and in "all other questions" that concern the welfare and continued existence of society. That some New Churchmen see it I am glad to know, and I here make grateful mention that I received a letter from an active New Church minister a few days ago, in which he says: "I see nothing in your article that I cannot heartily indorse," and, after having referred to several needed reforms, he adds: "But we are to see much bloodshed, I fear, before this is realized, a thing to be deprecated." You say, "both he (I) and the correspondent of John Swinton's Paper fail to offer any remedy at all." Begging your pardon, I think we both have done so; we offer this, that we all exercise charity toward the neighbor, "the fellow-citizen, society less and greater, one's native country, and the human race." There are many specific ways of doing so. One way pat to this occasion is to labor to secure the abolition of all such existing laws as affect society injuriously. Another, to find the "men in the realm skilled in the law, who are at the same time full of wisdom and the fear of God," to enact and administer our laws for us. I wish Swedenborg had told us how to find such men. And let us all try to secure the enactment and execution of such laws as will keep in bonds such as "will to command others and possess the foods of others," so that the human race may not perish, cannot suppose you to be ignorant of what is written, so extensively, on the Doctrines of use and charity to the neighbor, so I spare myself the labor of making copy. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." And happy will it be for our fellow-citizens, for society, and for the human race, when all who know these things do them. One point more before I have done. In your editorial remarks in the August number of the Life, there is an implication that only those who are acquainted with the "Revelation of the Spiritual Sense of the Word" can be saved. I have not so learned from Swedenborg, neither have you. He has written, "It is very common for those who have conceived an opinion respecting any truth of faith, to think that others cannot be saved except by believing as they do; which, nevertheless, the LORD forbids. (Matt. vii, 1, 2.) Accordingly, it has been made known to me by much experience that persons of every religion are saved, if so be, by a life of charity, they have received remains of good and of apparent truth." (A. C. 2284.)
     I hope that the New Church will not continue to deserve the reproach that it deliberately empties itself of all interest in the hallowed struggle, which society is everywhere making for her very existence against established injustice and sanctified imposture.
     Respectfully yours,     ALEX. DRYSDALE.
EAST SAGINAW, Nov. 11th, 1885.
New Church ministers 1886

New Church ministers              1886

     New Church ministers of this and foreign countries will confer a favor by keeping the Life informed of their post-office addresses.

16


NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886

     AT HOME.

     The East.-Mains.-A RECEPTION was given at Portland, Me., to the newly-elected Pastor of the Society, the Rev. H. C. Dunham, of Topeka, Kan. Nearly two hundred persons were present.
     Massachusetts.-THE Young People's Association of the Boston Society has ninety-nine active members.
     SEVERAL families recently joined the Society at Boston Highlands. On October 4th a window to the memory of the Rev. Abiel Silver was placed in the Temple.
     New York.-THE Rev. W. H. Schliffer is preaching acceptably to Old Church congregations at Hempstead, L. I. On Sunday mornings he preaches to the New York German Society.
     MR. Marston Niles, for many years Treasurer of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, has resigned this position. Mr. M. Bodine, who is also Treasurer of the New Church Board of Publication, will fill the vacancy.
     Pennsylvania.-THE Swedenborg Publishing Association held its annual meeting in Philadelphia December 7th.
     THE Sunday-school of the Advent Society held its Christmas festival on December 29th. A pleasing feature was the chanting of Psalm xxiii in Hebrew by the boys and girls that attend the schools of the Academy of the New Church.
     ON the 13th of December Mr. William Worcester was ordained into the pastoral office by the Rev. Mr. Giles in the Temple of the First Society, Philadelphia. The Rev. John Worcester, father of the candidate, preached in the morning and in the evening.

     The South.-The Rev. A. O. Brickman is still confined by severe illness to his home in Baltimore.
     The Rev. E. A. Beaman recently lectured "with marked success" at Wingo, Ky.

     The West.-Missouri.-THE St. Louis Society is endeavoring to lift a debt of fifteen hundred dollars, and co-operation from New Churchmen in general is invited.
     Illinois.-The New Church Society in Henry, Ill., took part in a Union Thanksgiving service held by some congregations of the Old Church, the Rev. S. H. Spencer preaching the sermon.
     THE Philadelphia Liturgy has been in use at the North and West Side Chapels, Chicago, since the year 1877.
     OF the forty-nine members belonging to the Immanuel Church in Chicago, of which the Rev. E. C. Bostock is Pastor, about twelve persons were formerly members of the Chicago Society of the New Jerusalem.
     THE Immanuel Church in Chicago, having joined the General Church of Pennsylvania, has been requested by "the Executive Committee of the Illinois Association" to cease using the chapels on the North and West Side, the former immediately and the latter upon the 1st of January, 1886. What jurisdiction the Illinois Association has over Society property does not appear.
     THE Rev. L. P. Mercer has of late been holding a series of meetings in Englewood, a southern suburb of Chicago. On the 2d of December he also preached in the Lincoln Park Chapel, on the North Side, to some fifty persons, "the most of whom were New Churchmen not regularly attending any services, as they lived too far from the Van Buren Street Church and were not in harmony with the Academy forms of worship."

     California.-THE Rev. N. T. Ravlin, pastor of the First Baptist Church, in San Jose, Cal., on account of his "Swedenborgian" views, has, together with his congregation, been excluded from the fellowship of the Central Baptist Association. The congregation has decided to retain its minister.

     ABROAD.

     Great Britain.-England.-A GORAND bazaar will, within a short time, be held in London in order to relieve the Anerley Society of its heavy church debt.
     THE eleventh annual meeting of the New Church Evidence Society took place at the Argyle Square Church November 23d.
     ON November 15th over thirty young men and women, who had previously been instructed in the Doctrines, were received as members of the Society in Kearsley.
     THE Swedenborg Reading Society, which has now existed for seventeen years, commenced a fresh session on October 18th, In the hall of the Camden Road Church.
     THE Rev. W. C. Barlow has resigned from the Camberwell Society. The Rev. T. Child has severed his connection with the Society in Bath, and is co-pastor of the Society at Kensington. The Rev. W. O'Mant has left Islington, there being no more students at the New Church College. The Rev. Henry Cameron, lately of Blackburn, has been elected minister of the New Church Society in Salford.
     Wales.-THE Rev. W. Rees is doing very successful missionary work in different parts of Wales.
     THE treasurer of Yr Oes Newydd (the New Age) and six others have been expelled from a chapel in the Swansea valley, and have been followed by about sixty women and children. These persons have agreed to conduct a Sunday-school, and have already begun to hold services of their own. There are also other congregations in the neighborhood which are in a volcanic condition.

     Sweden.-A New Church Sunday-school, the first of its kind in Sweden has been established in connection with Pastor Boyesen's Society in Stockholm.

     Poland.-THE Rev. A. Schiwek, who now is seventy-two years of age, though laboring under difficulties, continues his work in Eastern Prussia and Poland. At Monethen, his place of residence, there are at present forty-eight Communicants, of whom seventeen are Poles.

     Australia.-THE New Church Society in Melbourne consists at present of eighty-four members. Their Pastor, the Rev. J. J. Thornton, makes monthly visits to Rodborough, near Melbourne, where he has an attendance of about forty. A Sunday-school has been established in this Society.

     Switzerland.-Consequent on the Rev. F. Gorwitz's address to the Swiss New Church Union, seven adults were baptized into the New Church at Zurich, on October 28th, among them being Miss Phil. Von Struve, and the widow of the late preacher, Solomon Baumann. Three adults and three children were baptized at Berne, on November 1st.
     FOR the present, Mr. Gorwitz's appointments are as follows: On the first Sunday in every month, services at Berne; on the third Sunday, at Windegg in the morning and at St. Gall in the afternoon; on the other Sundays in every month, at Zurich.

     China.-Mr. J. G. Mittuacht arrived at Hong Kong in good health, and expects to reach Frankfurt-on-the-Main in the spring.
EDITORIAL NOTES. 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES.       Editor       1886




     MARRIAGES AND DEATHS.




     NEW CHURCH LIFE.
     A MONTHLY JOURNAL

TERMS:-One Dollar per annum, payable In advance.

     Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.
     Foreign subscriptions sent through the agent in England, James Speirs, 38 Bloomsbury Street, London, W. C., four shillings per annum, post free.

     All communications must be addressed to Publisher, New Church Life, No. 1502 Mt. Vernon St., Philadelphia, Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, JANUARY, 1588-116.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, p. 1.-Conjugial Love and Its Opposite (a Sermon), p. 2.-Conversations on Education p. 4.-The Messenger on the Idea of God, p. 5.-State of the Church in Illinois, p. 6.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS.-Notes, p. 7.-Dr. Wilkinson's New Book, p. 8.-Heaven Revealed, p. 8.
     FICTION.-The True Story of One Girl's Life, Chapters viii, ix, p. 9.-Mythology and Evolution, p. 12.-The Strange Adventures of Tom: a Story for Children, Chapter 1, p. 12.-The Ox and the Bantam, p. 14.
     COMMUNICATED.-Correction Notes, p. 14.-Wine at the Holy Supper, p. 14-The Labor Question, p. 14.
     NEWS GLEANINGS. p. 16.
     MARRIAGES AND DEATHS, p. 16.


17



NEW CHURCH LIFE     
Vol. VI. PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY. 1886=116. No. 116.
     IN the death of the Rev. A. O. Brickmann, the New Church on earth loses one of its most active and successful evangelists. The converts to the New Church made through his efforts are to be found almost in every part of the country. Mr. Brickmann came to the New Church together with the Rev. F. W. Tuerk, in the year 1861, through the lecturing, in Pittsburgh, of a German, Mr. Adolph Kirchner, an uncle of the Rev. Mr. Schreck. For thirty years Mr. Brickmann edited and published the German New Church Journal of America, Bote der Neuen Kirche.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THE Rev. B. F. Barrett, in an article entitled "Looking Back," deprecates the retrospection contained in our review on the early Conference Minutes, and renews the hostilities against representatives. We wait with our reply until the promised conclusion of his article makes its appearance in the January number of New Church Independent. In the meanwhile we may pertinently ask, why does our opponent himself" look back" and rehearse arguments and repeat mistranslations which have been fully exposed in the past? We offer more particularly to the "Report on the Priesthood, and on Grades in the Priesthood," submitted by the Committee on Ecclesiastical Affairs, and published in the Journal of the General Convention for the year 1875.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     A TOTAL abstinence society in the New Church is, we think, only possible where the teachings of the Writings on drunkenness are not read or comprehended. Drunkenness is a sin; and sins are to be shunned because they are of the devil and from the devil. The sin of drunkenness; like all sins, lies in the individual and not in the "poison," the "manufacturer," or the "rum-seller." When this truth-and it is certainly plain enough-is recognized, then will New Church total abstinence societies be abandoned, and men will no more think of wearing a blue ribbon, as a token to the world that they have resolved to abstain from the sin of drunkenness, than they now think of wearing a red ribbon to signify that they have determined not to lie or steal.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     A LEADING English periodical thinks that "the Western mind, for good or evil, is releasing itself by some change in its very structure from dependence on authority." That there is an organic change going on is, perhaps, true, but that it is an involuntary change, as might he inferred from the foregoing, is not true. Christendom has voluntarily turned away from the LORD, hence the Word is no longer an authority, and there is no other. The world professes to admit the authority of truth, but then truth has come to mean what each individual chooses to "accept." From this apparently springs what is known as (and misnamed) Liberality. A's truth does not agree with B's or C's, having no authority above themselves, they agree not to insist too strongly that any particular thing is true, and this passiveness is called liberality and hailed as progress. If the world acknowledged the LORD as Supreme Authority, then His revealed Truth would govern in Church, State, and every day life, and men would be free. As it is, men turn to self as the only authority or God. The effect of this is shown, we think, in the trend of the world toward democracy: "The Voice of the People is Supreme." "The Voice of the People is the Voice of God." To turn from the LORD is to turn from freedom to slavery. History tells of no democracy that did not end in tyranny: the cause must produce the effect. Under no form of government can people be free when they reject the Divine Authority.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     As in America, England, Sweden, and France, so in Germany there have arisen two marked tendencies in the Church. But the difference between the two is nowhere so pronounced as in Germany, where they may justly be called antagonistic. On the one side stands the Rev. Fedor Gorwirtz, the only priest in Germany-ordained under the rules of the General Convention in America-as leader of a movement toward building up the New Church on the corner-stone of the acknowledgment that the LORD JESUS CHRIST in His Divine Human has made His Second Coming by revealing the spiritual sense of the Word in the Writings of the Divinely inspired Swedenborg. On the other side stands to Hahn, as leader of a movement to "reform" the Christian Church, on an Arian or Unitarian basis, denying the tri-personality of God, but also denying the Divinity of the LORD'S Human.
     Mr. Gorwitz's teachings appear in his paper Monatblatter. Dr. Hahn's teachings appear in his paper Reformationsblatter and strange to say-strange, as all our readers will presently admit-the "German New Church Society," the only New Church organization at present in Germany, supports this private enterprise with money and sympathy.
     It seems incredible that in the New Church, where the fundamental teaching concerning the Humanity of God and the Divinity of His Human is impressively and repeatedly given (see D. L. W 18, 11; T. C. R. 688 et al.), statements like these from Reformationsblatter should ever find expression: "In truth, then, theologian as well as layman will, in prayer, call upon God-God and the one praying will not represent to himself what God, or the being whom he calls upon, is like, and this he is not to do, for man is to make to himself no image or likeness of God, be it of metal, stone, wood, or only a picture of the imagination, for this is also an: image or a likeness." "The kingdom of heaven is within-you: No one, then, is to look for it in a place, with a person-not even with Jesus as Man, but only in Jesus' spirit, Word, and prayer." "He himself only fulfilled the will of the Father in Himself and this is His Divinity, His merit, and this state every one can and should attain." Can profanity go further? It need not be a matter of surprise to read the rejection of Arcana Caelestia in these words of Reformationsblatter. "No high Heavenly Secret, JESUS would say: how would we understand them!"

18


GENEALOGY OF THE LORD 1886

GENEALOGY OF THE LORD       Editor       1886

     Miss ELLA F. MOSBY asks:-"Could you, or some of your contributors, kindly give some clue to the two genealogies of CHRIST in Matthew and Luke: their variations, and their spiritual ii significance? In Matthew, Joseph is said to be the son of Jacob; in Luke, 'the son of Heli.' The one in Matthew is divided into three periods, which I suppose has a special meaning."
     The only direct reference in the Writings to either genealogy is in the answer to one of the Nine Questions proposed by the Rev. Thomas Hartley to Swedenborg, in which the latter says: "In the genealogy in Luke it is said that 'Adam was of God,' that is, created by God; and not 'the Son of God.'"
     The following quotations and observations may serve as further clues:

     The first reigns universally in all and single things which follow.. . . The things which are said first, reign in those which follow and involve them, and thus successively those which are in the series. . . . That which is first, is the inmost, and what follows in order is added to the inmost, and thus increases. That which is inmost reigns universally in those things which are round about, that is in all and single things them, for thence is the essential of the existence of all.- A. C. 8864.

     The first in the genealogy in Matthew is the sentence, "The Book of the nativity of JESUS CHRIST." "Nativity," or "generation," signifies regeneration, and, in the case of the LORD, the glorification of the Human. Hence the names in the genealogy signify the various degrees of His glorification, and the goods and truths involved in each degree. "David" is the spiritual, "Abraham," the celestial. (A. E. 340.) These are the universals. Next follow the three degrees in general, and for that reason Abraham's name is repeated. As to the signification of "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" when mentioned together, see Arcana (n. 6276 et pluries alibi.)
     The first in the genealogy in Luke is what is contained in verse 23: "And JESUS was about beginning to be thirty years old, as was thought, the son of Joseph." "'Thirty years' signifies a state full as to remains. . . . The Remains which the LORD had, He Himself acquired to Himself and were Divine, by which He united the Human Essence to the Divine, and made it Divine." (A. C. 6336.) "Joseph" is the Divine Human spiritual. (A. C. 4669 et at.)
     In the genealogy in Matthew (which begins with Abraham) there are distinctly indicated three sets of fourteen nativities each, because "three" signifies the fullness of the glorification from beginning to end; and "fourteen" signifies holiness, the same as "seven."
     The genealogy in Luke, treating more particularly of remains goes back further than that in Matthew, to "Adam, who was of God," thus presenting all the particular remains of good and truth from the first conception of the Human in the womb of Mary from the Holy Spirit.
     What all the various names signify, may be ascertained from explanations of these names when they occur in the Writings, for a name signifies the same thing throughout the Word, though predicated of different persons. In regard to those names that are not directly explained in the Writings, it will be necessary first to ascertain their literal meaning, a thing of great difficulty. Old Church scholars are all at sea in regard to them. After the particular signification of each is known, it must be modified according to a law frequently announced in the Writings, as in the following quotation, which treats of the tribes of Israel. It is known that the names of the twelve tribes, although recounted in a number of places in the Word, are always given in a different order.

     The representation of Heaven and the Church is determined according to the order in which the tribe is named, and the first name, or the first tribe, is the index from which are determined all the things which follow, hence of Heaven and of the Church with variety; but this arcanum can hardly come into the understanding of any one unless he be in the spiritual idea, still it shall be told in a few words. For example, suppose the tribe of Judah to be the first Tribe which is named; since by that tribe is signified the good of love, the significations of the rest of the tribes which follow are determined from the good of love as a beginning, and this with a variety according to the order in which they are named; for every tribe signifies some universal of the Church, and the universal admits into itself specific varieties, thus that one from the first from which it descends, wherefore all things there in a series derive from the good of love, which is signified by the tribe of Judah, its spiritual sense in particular. If the tribe of Reuben is named in the first place, by which is signified Truth in light and the understanding of truth the rest of the tribes which follow derive thence their significations concordant and coincident with the universal which each one signifies. This may be compared to colors, which appear tinted from the first color, which diffuses itself into the rest and variegates the faces.-A. E. 43.

     Whatever variations may be found to occur in the two genealogies, they will have to be explained according to this law. Such changes as the one from "Jacob" in Matthew, to "Heli" in Luke, may be more clearly understood by a study of the teaching in the Arcana on the change of the name "Jacob" to "Israel."
TOTAL ABSTINENCE 1886

TOTAL ABSTINENCE       Editor       1886

     AT the end of his well-directed critique on Dr. Ellis' latest work, the Rev. Mr. Gould introduces a feature rather novel in the wine controversy. He believes that fermented or intoxicating wine is the good wine so often referred to in the Word and in the Writings; yet he favors the "avoidance" of its use by all. Our esteemed correspondent surely will admit that the adulteration of good is worse than the perversion of truth. Does he, then, in his warfare against intemperance in drinking, overlook intemperance in eating? If not, does he adopt the same mode of attack? And if not, why not? Perhaps an application of his argument to the one will show him the fallacy in its application to the other: "We heartily deplore the dreadful prevalence of gluttony in our time, but we think it is only the natural outcome of the spiritual gluttony which prevails in the churches around us. And while we believe that neither the spiritual nor the natural kind is so common in the New Church, we yet think that the fact ought not to be lost sight of that we, as well as others, have by inheritance from those who have gone before us, as well as by practice, a tendency to this vice, and that therefore the avoidance of 'The food that sensualizes' and every form of 'delicacy,' is advisable for us all, and especially the young [who frequently overload their stomachs], and, in the case of many, total abstinence from everything of the kind is perhaps the only safe course."
     Is there not a danger in the advocacy of total abstinence to overlook one of the great laws of the Divine Providence-that concerning the permission of evil? The LORD permits evils and does not suppress them entirely, and this for His own Divinely good and Divinely wise reasons. Without the permission of evil man could not be reformed and regenerated, and the reformers of the world, in, advocating total abstinence and the entire suppression of vice, display either - an ignorance or an obliviousness of truths which lie at the foundation of
the LORD'S work of reformation, and actually contravene the LORD'S operations according to Divine Order.

19


Why did the LORD ever suffer the hells to come into existence? And why are there places of vastation?
     If the Second Part of the work on Conjugial Love, etc. were studied more seriously in the Church, and not tabooed as of evil and as unfit to have an abiding-place in a New Church home, much greater clearness of thought in regard to the putting away of evil, and much more righteous methods in the doing of this, would obtain in the Church. For "conjugial love is the fundamental of all loves" (C. L. 65), and, treating of the laws of conjugial love and its perversion, it gives the laws governing all other loves which men pervert; as, for example, "the love of nourishing one's self with goods and truths, the sense of which is taste, and its enjoyments are delicacies." (C. L. 210.)
     Temporary abstinence is useful, as the Rev. L. H. Tafel indicates in his recent sermon, but total abstinence from a good thing-by a man who endeavors to lead a truly Christian life-because it may be perverted, will defeat his object; and, it must he said, indicates a rather defective trust in the Omnipotence of the LORD.
     Much more might be said on the subject, but for the present we content ourselves with quoting one law from the treatise referred to:
     "No one can be led away from his evil unless he first has been led into it; otherwise evil would conceal itself and pollute the interiors of the mind, and, like a plague, diffuse itself, and then break through restraints and destroy the externals which are of the body." (C. L. 510.)
SWEDENBOEG'S INSANITY 1886

SWEDENBOEG'S INSANITY       Editor       1886

     MR. CHANEY has accepted the challenge contained in our September number, and appears in the Religio-Philosophioal Journal with an array of what he considers proofs of Swedenborg's insanity. These "proofs" are of two kinds. The one consists of extracts from the Drommer, and the other of a rehearsal of the charges which originally appeared in the Arminian Magazine. In regard to the former, Mr. Chaney may consider his position proven to those of his way of thinking. We are not of those who believe that it can be proved to an owl that the sun shines. Those believing with us in a God, and in His Scriptures, can understand with us that the manifestation of God to His creatures, and the occurrence of representative visions and dreams, should, to skeptics, appear to be the hallucinations of a madman.
     But when Mr. Chaney assumes to bolster up his conclusions with alleged facts of Swedenborg's personality, and, while getting his partial knowledge at third hand, writes as though he were at the source of information, and asks for a copy of all this in New Church Life, we are prepared to inform him that the readers of New Church Life are thoughtful men, who take care to acquire all the knowledge possible concerning the apostle of their faith-what is said against him as well as in his favor, and that they know, without our telling, all and more than Mr. Chancy has adduced from Dr. Maudsley. They are acquainted with the fact that Dr Maudsley, at second-hand, copied from a detractor of Swedenborg, Mr. Matthesius' account, and that Dr. Maudsley's action has led to an exhaustive examination of the whole subject by R. L. Tafel, A. M., Ph. D., in the Documents Concerning Swedenborg (3 vols. royal 8vo, London, 1877). But for Mr. Chaney's information we will say that after Matthesius' story concerning Brockmer was published in the Arminian Magazine for 1783, four gentlemen, Mr. Robert Beatson, of Rotherham in Yorkshire, Mr. Robert Hindmarsh, of London, and two other friends, called on Mr. Brockmer in order to interrogate him with respect to the truth of the statements attributed to him. The result of their interview with Mr. Brockmer was published in the Magazine of Knowledge for 1791 (Vol. II, pp. 92 to 96), and as Mr. Chaney instances some particulars, we quote from the interview concerning them:
     "Mr. Brockmer . . . . . denied the truth of the following points which had been raised against Swedenborg by Matthesius: . . . That he ever broke from him in a delirious state, and ran into the street, proclaiming himself the Messiah. That Swedenborg ever looked frightful or wild. That he ever foamed at the mouth. He acknowledged that he had heard a report that Baron Swedenborg had rolled himself in the mire; but he did not see it himself, and was only told so."
     And now, upon presenting this, and after referring Mr. Chaney for full particulars to the Document mentioned above, we will remind him of his promise: "If the editor who charged that I gave no proofs will publish this communication in New Church Life, and either he or some one else will overcome the evidence which I have adduced, or explain it away, fairly and logically, I will apologize for my mistake and thank him in addition."
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     (THESE CONVERSATIONS WERE BEGUN IN THE ISSUE FOR FEEBUARY, 1885.)

     BEFORE resuming our study of man, the subject of education and instruction, it may be well to restate in a summary form some of the leading points of Doctrine heretofore considered.
     Man is born an animal, and becomes a man by instruction. Being a mere organ, or form of receiving life, nothing is connate with him except the faculty of acquiring knowledge, intelligence, and wisdom, and an inclination to love. Life from the LORD flows into these faculties as receptacles or forms organized of the finest substances, and by this influx man is enabled to understand and do what is true and good; in other words, to have rationality and liberty from the LORD, and to be held in equilibrium between Heaven and Hell, thus, to be reformed and regenerated.
     The will is the very esse of the life of man, and the receptacle of the good of love, and the understanding is the existere of life thence, and the receptacle of the truth and good of faith, and when the good of love and truth of faith are received, then is man conjoined with the LORD, and this conjunction is the esse or the "to be" of man. (See A. C. 6002, 686, 9282.) To bring into effect this end, or esse, the LORD by His inflowing love disposes man's will in favor of the Truth, which inflows mediately into the understanding. When the Truth is followed, then is brought about an ad-unition or conjunction of the will and understanding, or their marriage, in which there is prepared a habitation for the LORD, or man's conjunction with the Divine. This marriage is spiritual, and is Heaven and the Church, and the LORD with man. From the internal marriage proceeds the external marriage, which constitutes the very centre and basis of human society, with its order, and laws of order. On the Home rests the State, on the State, the Church, on the Church, Heaven. It is of the province and function of Education to prepare the planes in the human mind that shall receive the Divine influx and become the instrumental means for the fulfillment of this end of creation according to the Will of Infinite Love.

20


And in order that there may be in the thought and work of the Educator a conjunction and right coherence of ideas, he ought to be in some affection flowing from a love of teaching, or from a love of the sciences and knowledges to be taught, or from a love of being useful to children and youth; which is the love of the neighbor from love to the LORD. According to the activity of one or other of these loves, or, what would be the best, of these three loves co-acting, will be the clearness of ideas as means to the end, as well as the fullness of the knowledges attained and to be applied in the work that is to be done. For it must ever be borne in mind that "the understanding does not lead the will, or that wisdom does not produce love, but that it only teaches and shows the way; it teaches how man ought to live, and it shows him what way to follow . . . . The will leads the understanding, and causes it to act as one with itself; and the love which is of the will calls that wisdom in the understanding which concords." (D. L. W. 244. Sec A. C. 7342. A teacher therefore ought "to place the heart to the truths of his work, so that they may be made effective in the work, and that he, together with his work, may be preserved from evil influences, and kept in the sphere of those helping angels who are sent by the LORD to have a charge of the little ones that are the subjects of his work.
     It is evident that the one thing of greatest importance in all living instruction, for Teacher as for Scholar, is that of doing; in other words, that both must learn to do, must do to learn, must learn by doing, and must do in learning. The hand must complete and supplement the mouth of the Teacher and the eye and ear of the Scholar. For in doing, the will and understanding are conjoined; in doing, they are married and in their very life-"He that hath my Commandments and keepeth [or doeth] them, he it is that loveth me," are the words of the LORD in John xiv, 21. (See A. C. 9282.)
     Doing is not only the completion of a former state, but also the beginning of a new state (A. C. 4979), and thus is it a very means of continuity, leading pleasantly, and with the delight always experienced in ultimating what has been learnt,-by presenting it objectively in new and varied forms-to further instructions and further openings of the mind. And, lastly, doing impresses the done and whatever is connected therewith most deep y on the memory, imbeds it in the substances of the memory, and by affording added means of recollection, helps to hold it more constantly in the thought and ready for use.
     These states of doing what has been learned ought to be kept up until they have resulted in the formation of a habit of doing. In this habit lie the possibilities of the greatest good to the child and the future man; the good of eternal living according to Divine Order; the good of a genuine moral life and a true citizenship; for present needs an ever-available source of occupation as a relief from the weariness of-study; a means of restraint for frivolous and mischievous moods; and, on the other hand, an opening of the way for the exercise of the inventive faculty and an excitation of the love of discovery.
      Doing is use, and use is life. The child that finds delight in doing, unconsciously regards this delight as something provided and not altogether of its own acquisition. In this plane of feeling there may be implanted by the angels gratitude, with love and reverence for those who have prepared the way for the coming of things so pleasant, and in these there will be some force, more or less strong, to counteract the tendency to the development of the pride of self-intelligence-that potent foe to all true intelligence and wisdom.
     Man, as a form recipient of life from the LORD, is created of things finite as to the body and as to the spirit, which are so organized as to receive both the life of the mind and the life of the body. In the True Christian Religion we have this teaching:

     That man is not life, but a receptacle of life from God, appears from these evident proofs that all things which are created are finite in themselves, and that man, because he is finite cannot but be created out of finite things; wherefore it is said, in the Book of Creation, that Adam was made from the earth and its dust, from which he was also named, for "Adam" signifies the soil of the earth, and every man actually consists of such things only as are in the earth, and from the earth in the atmospheres; those which are in the atmospheres from the earth, man takes in by the lungs, and by the pores of the whole body and the crasser things by foods made of earthy particles. But with respect to the spirit of man this also is created of finite things; what is the spirit of man but a receptacle of the life of the mind? The finite things for which it [is created] are spiritual substances, which are in the Spiritual -World, and which are also collated into our earth, and therein hidden; unless these were within, together with material things, not any seed could be impregnated from its inmosts, and grow forth thence in a wonderful manner without any deviation, from the first stamen even to the fruit and to new seeds, nor could any worms be procreated from effluvia out of the earth, and from the expiration of the exhalations from vegetables with which the atmospheres are impregnated.-T. C. R. 470.

     But this life which inflows with man is also Divine, for the LORD gives all His own. Man takes much or little according to his receptibility-i. e., according to the quality and state of his rationality and liberty, from which he has thought and affection. And since these, namely, thought and affection, are subjects of reformation and regeneration, they are also subjects of instruction and education. Therefore are instruction and education prime factors in the work of preparing man to receive the Divine life, to be thereby reformed and regenerated, and to become a man in the order of human life in which appears the image and likeness of the Life of the Divine Man. (See T. C. R. 471-473,also D. P. 79, and T. C. .R. 364 and 366.)
     What, then, is the order of human life?

     Man was created a form of Divine Order, because he was created an image and similitude of God and because God is Order Itself, he was created in image and similitude of Order. There are two things from which order exists, and by which it subsists, the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, and man was created a receptacle of these, wherefore also he was created into the order according to which those two things act in the Universe, and chiefly according to which they act in the Angelic Heaven; whence that Heaven is in the greatest effigy a form of Divine Order, that Heaven in the sight of God is as one Man; and there is also a plenary correspondence between that Heaven and Man. For there is not in Heaven a Society which does not correspond to some member, viscus, or organ in Man; wherefore it is said, in Heaven that this Society is in the province of the liver, or of the pancreas, or of the spleen, or of the stomach, or of the eye, or the ear, or the tongue, etc.; the angels themselves also know in what district of any part of Man they dwell. That it is so, has been given me to know to the life; I have seen a Society consisting of some thousands of Angels as one Man; from which it was evident that Heaven in the complex is an image of God, and that an image of God is a form of Divine Order.-T. C. R. 65. (See also H. D. 279.)
     Truth and Good are the Principles of all things in both worlds, in the Spiritual and Natural and they are those things by which the Universe was created, and by which the Universe is conserved, and also by which man was made, wherefore those two are the all in all.-T. C. R. 224.
     The Word is the LORD as to Divine Truth; by that Truth are ordinated all things in heaven and in hell; thence also is all order in the earth.- A. C. 8200; A. C. 5114, 4523; cf. H. D. 278.

21



     From these teachings we can see that the Order of human life is the Order of the Divine Truth, which is the Divine substantial form of the Divine Good or Love, in other words, the Divine Man, the LORD. From the LORD, therefore, by creation, there is given to man such an arrangement, "disposition, determination, and activity of the parts, substances, and entities" which compose his form, that "he can receive the Divine into his inmosts and thence in their derivatives in order, and by this reception be elevated to the Divine and conjoined with the Divine." (H. D. 278.)
     And since the Divine is Infinite Love of all others out of Itself, and Infinite Wisdom operating from this Love for the eternal good of all others out of Itself, it is perfectly clear that the true order of human life consists in his living in love to the LORD and in charity toward the neighbor, according to every word, that is, every Truth that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD.
     But it is equally clear that man is not in this order of his life, but in the very opposite, for, whilst the order of the human race ought to be that the one love the other as himself, now every one loves himself above others, thus hates all others. (A. C. 637, also n. 6850, 3623.) Hence is the human race in a life contrary to the order of its creation, contrary to its own liberty and its own rationality, contrary to its own human principle, and in the very hatred and active destruction of whatever makes it human and distinguishes it from the life of evil and ferocious beasts. (See A. C. 2219 and 4219.)
     Therefore is it of "the Divine Order [which is immutable] that man dispose himself to the reception of God, and prepare himself to be a receptacle and habitation into which the LORD can enter, and in which He can dwell as in His Temple." (T. C. R. 105.) In other words, it is of Divine Order that man dispose himself to receive wisdom and love, and thus the LORD at His Coming. To this end he has been gifted with the faculties of rationality and liberty; to this end, also, is he instructed in the truth, by which he can he led away from evil and to good and Heaven. When man suffers himself to be thus led, he is in the order of human life, and all his determinations and activities, being from the love and wisdom that inflow from the LORD, he is in form a man, internally an angelic man, and externally a spiritual-natural man-a man of the Church conjoined with the LORD. (See A. C. 4839; also H. H. 30, 304; T. C. R. 67.)
     It is a primary principle of the order of the heavenly man that he is formed from the LORD by the interior degrees of affection and thought, and influx thence into the external degrees and the adaptation of the latter to the former. This is also a primary principle of instruction. The Teacher does not impart knowledge and intelligence to the mind of the child, but he presents to its faculties, through the senses, objects of nature and things of science, which, when received, constitute vessels or forms prepared to receive that which flows in from the LORD according to the order of human life. Thus the truth enters from within into the mind, when forms, corresponding and adequate-, are introduced from without. The teaching of the Church on this subject is as follows:

     It is of order that the celestial inflow into the spiritual, and adapt this to itself; that the spiritual inflow into the rational, and adapt this to itself; that the rational inflow into the scientific, and adapt this to itself. But when man is instructed during his first childhood the order is indeed the same, but it appears otherwise-namely, that he advances from scientifics to rationals, from these to spirituals, and thus at length to celestials. This appears so, because in this manner is to be opened the way to things celestial, which things are inmost. All instruction is only the opening of a way; and as the way is opened, or, what is the same thing, as vessels are opened, they thus inflow in order from things celestial-spiritual, rationals; into these, celestial-spiritual things, and into these, celestial things. These continually present themselves and also prepare for themselves 'and form vessels, which are opened.
     That It is so may also appear from this-that the scientific and the rational in themselves are dead, and that they appear to live is from the interior life which inflows. This may be manifest to every one from thought and the faculty of judging, in which lie concealed all the arcana of the art and science of analysis, which are so many that they can never be explored, even as to one-ten-thousandth part. [These exist] not only with the adult man, but also with children, all whose thought, and all whose speech thence is full of them, although man, even the most learned, knows it not-which would be impossible, unless the celestial and spiritual things, which are within, presented themselves, inflowed, and produced all those things.- A. C. 1495 (cf. n. 3151).

     And thus do we again meet the vital question, What are the true and orderly objects of instruction?
     It is evident that objects of instruction may be good and also evil, true and also false. It is the duty of the Teacher to know and discriminate them-to reject the evil and the false and to retain the good and the true.
     It is certain that objects of instruction will make fallacious impressions; for they are appearances, and appearances are fallacies. But fallacies are also of two ends. There are fallacies that can be bent to truths and fallacies that cannot be so bent. And these, also, it is the duty of the Teacher to know and to discriminate. Fallacies that cannot be bent to truth close the mind to the influx from the higher planes and open it to influx from the lower. Fallacies that can be bent to truth, on the other hand, open the mind to higher or interior influx, and thus they become the means of its operation. For it must be remembered that whatever is introduced into the natural mind from without comes into the service of whatever inflows into that mind from within. If fallacies and falsities which are incapable of modification are introduced, they serve the influx of evil, while fallacies and falsities capable of modification serve the influx of good from the LORD. For "it is a law of order that exteriors are subject to interiors, or, what is the same, inferiors to superiors, and that they serve like domestics; for exteriors and inferiors are nothing but things of service, while interiors or superiors are respectively things of rule." (A. C. 6127; see also n. 5013, 5306, 6704.)
     It is asked, How shall the Teacher learn to know and discriminate things good and evil, things true and false, and fallacies capable of modification and fallacies incapable of modification? We know of but one answer to the question: By going to the LORD in His Divine revealings of the Truth; by humbly learning of Him from a sincere and honest desire to do his duty and perform his use of charity, that those whom he instructs may be prepared to receive the love and wisdom of the LORD, come into the order of their human life, be conjoined with the Divine, and the LORD'S will be done on Earth as in Heaven. -
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
Growth 1886

Growth              1886

     THE Journal of the General Church of Pennsylvania for the year 1885 is larger than for a number of years past, and is of great interest as showing the internal development and outward growth of this body. In 1883 it reported to Convention 359 members in 1884, 404 members; in 1885, 439 members; in 1886 it will probably report not far from 500 members, an increase in three years of 150 members, or 33 1/3 per cent.

22


Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     THE Massachusetts New-Church Union will publish in a few days a volume of six lectures delivered at Newtonville this winter by the Rev. John Worcester.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Bote der Neuen Kirche, the only German New Church Journal in America, is advertised for sale by the heirs of the former editor, the Rev. A. O. Brickmann.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE prospectus just published of Dr. Burnham's work on Discrete Degrees contains highly complimentary letters from the Rev. Messrs. Sewall, Mercer, and Daniels.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     No covenant with the Nations, the sermon by the Rev. J. R. Hibbard, which was published in the Life, has been translated into the Swedish and published in H4rolden, and has also been published in the German Monatblatter.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE publication of Fremtiden, the Danish New Church monthly, of which Mr. W. Winslow has been the editor, closed its existence with the November number for 1885. Mr. Winslow gives his failing health as the reason for the suspense of the periodical.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Monatblatter contains a department devoted to instructions in religion for children. The matter thus appearing has been translated into the Danish by Mr. Winslow, the preacher of the New Church Society in Copenhagen. The translation is published in the form of a series of tracts.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE journal of the thirty-second annual meeting of the Ohio Association of the New Church has been printed by the Massachusetts New Church Union. It comprises fifty-four pages from which we learn that there are within the limits of the Association (in which are included adjacent parts of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Indiana) twelve societies, with a total membership of six hundred and seventeen persons, to which six ministers are administering.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Our Reading Circles is the title of a four-page paper recently published by the Illinois Association in the interest of the Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan Reading Circles. It is edited by the Rev. L. P. Mercer, and contains excellent articles bearing on the subject indicated by the title. A calendar for daily readings from the Word accompanies Our Reading Circles as a supplement, and is evidently the work of the Rev. Frank Sewall, who writes a very instructive address on "Daily Reading of the Word," in the paper.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     "Missionsvannen," a Swedish paper published in Chicago, and the organ of the party of Mr. Waldenstrom, a well-known "reformer" of the revivalist type in Sweden, in its New Year's number has reached the goal of "Christian" Charity. It wishes a "happy new year," not only to children with unbelieving parents, to parents with unbelieving children, to husbands with unbelieving wives, and to wives with unbelieving husbands, but also to all the holy Angels in heaven, and even, in full earnest, to each of the three particular persons in their Godhead.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE bound volume of New Juvenile Magazine, 1885, published in England by the New Church Sunday-school Union, gives a very interesting insight into the Sunday-school work in England. New Juvenile Magazine is evidently intended for the use of teachers as well as of scholars. It is to be regretted that so many of the stories and instructive articles do not contain more allusions to teachings in the Writings. Thus the articles on the olive, the vine, etc., would have been rendered more interesting and instructive if what is said of these trees in the Memorable Relations had been adduced, as, for instance, in Conjugial Love (n. 18, 75, 270 et al.).
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     ACCORDING to the Chicago Inter-Ocean, the license law in Illinois has reduced the number of liquor saloons in that State from thirteen thousand to nine thousand. It has also increased the revenues largely; Chicago now receives one million five hundred thousand dollars, against two hundred thousand dollars received previously to the passage of the law. In Iowa, since prohibition has been in force, the number of saloons has slightly increased, and it is said there     are over four hundred secret places where liquor is sold. In the face of such facts, it is but a question of time when prohibition shall have run its course.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE second edition of J. J. G. Wilkinson's Emanuel Swedenborg: A Biographical Sketch, comes to us from the publishing house of James Speirs, in the same neat and handy form as the same author's latest translation of The Divine Love and Wisdom, but we are sorry that its tastefulness should be marred, as it is, by the profile which first made its appearance on the covers of The Brain, and which, "with upturned eye and simpering smile, looks more like a caricature than it does like the genial face of Swedenborg." Dr. Wilkinson, as appears from his late publication, has by further thought and study been led away from his former questionable positions, and in his preface to this new edition, published thirty-six years after the first one, he gives utterance to his present conviction concerning the Writings in these words: "As a final duty I owe here, I desire to record, in contravention of anything to the contrary in these imperfect early pages, that I recognize to the full that Swedenborg's prepared mind, guided by the LORD, has given us imperishable doctrines of heaven and hell founded upon real experience; that God's creation from the top to the bottom hails and attests them, and that they will stand forever, even as His Word and His world stand."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IN a review in New Spectator (London, January 9th) occurs the following: "The victim of a fixed idea is as deaf to argument as he is blind to fact." This is found in a review of Dr. W. B. Ireland's book, The Blot upon the Brain, and is probably but a reflex of what is to be found in that work, and if this be true our remarks will apply equally to the reviewer and to the Doctor. Mohammed, Luther, Swedenborg, and others are cited as "historic instances of hallucination," or as people having "blots" on their brains; they were victims of fixed ideas, deaf to argument and blind to fact. It is not denied that men of this stamp have often changed the world's history for good or evil; it is not denied that many of them have been intellectual giants and frequently pure and good men, but they had a blot on their brain;, in other words, these men1 who admittedly were not like the average man, had certain peculiar traits or powers or something which the average man has not, and hence, notwithstanding their unusual works for good or evil, the average man holds that they had a streak of in- sanity in them. It is somewhat amusing to see how neatly Dr. Ireland or the Spectator's reviewer or both have been caught in the trap of their own logic. They have put themselves on record as having the "fixed idea" that Mohammed, Swedenborg, and others were more or less crazy; hence we must conclude, from their own premises that they themselves, holding, as they do a fixed idea, and so being "deaf to argument" and "blind to fact," have at least an infinitesimal blot on their own brains.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IN Monatblatter for December the Rev. F. Gorwitz writes on the distinctive Baptism of the New Church, and gives an outline of his own history so far as it relates to the subject. In former years he had strongly objected to distinctive New Church Baptism. "Objections against distinctive baptism are always conjoined with objections against external Church organization. The articles written by me ten years ago also testify of this. At that time I considered the comparatively small organization of the New Church as a help; as one of the helps, toward building up the New Jerusalem, but by no means considered them essential. I expected salvation from a reformation of the Protestant Church. This characterizes my position at that time; which, however, and I acknowledge it gladly, was not founded upon the Writings of the Church, but upon my own wishes and hopes. Since then I have learned, and hope to learn it more and more, to suffer myself to be entirely led by the Writings of the Church . . . else I could not be a conscientious representative of the clerical office."

23



     Mr. Gorwitz then goes on to say how the study of the Writings convinced him more and more of the importance and necessity of distinctively New Church Baptism until the last objection was entirely removed by the words in True Christian Religion (n. 869): "Those sacraments may be compared to a double tem le, one of which is below, and the other above; and in the power of which the gospel concerning The New Advent of the LORD is preached, and also concerning regeneration and thence salvation by Him."
     After quoting freely from the Writings, and finally from A. C. 1176, he closes his article with these words: "The External must serve the Internal. The External must support the Internal. Without the support of the External, the Internal has no power and no subsistence. Therefore the External is to be cultivated, treasured, and honored. What, think you, is the reason that the New Church, after a century, has no subsistence in Germany, while in England and America there exist numerous societies, churches, institutions of learning, printing societies, etc.? The Writings of the Church were within the reach of Protestant Germany as much as within that of Protestant England and America. German translations of several wor7ks of Swedenborg, especially of the True Christian Religion, have been in existence as early as last century. Nor have men been wanting who defended the Doctrines. Our Immanuel Tafel began his work more than sixty years ago. There have also been New Church believers, probably as many, if not more, than had come together forty years previous in England. Why, then, have the beginnings of New Church organizations in Germany gone back or died out time and again, despite the sedulity and sacrificing activity of their founders, while in England and America they have developed and flourish? Simply because New Church believers in England and America have pursued the only true course. They recognized that the New Church is a new Church, having its own sacraments. They immediately proceeded to Church-organization and recognized distinctive baptism into the New Church to be the introduction into it. By this means Church-organization obtained a firm foothold and became capable of development.
     "It is my firm conviction, founded upon the Writings of the Church, that all endeavors looking to the establishment of the Church can have lasting results only then when the Church, as such, is organized, and the Baptism of the New Church is acknowledged to be the introduction into it. For this reason, I, in the full consciousness of my official responsibility, recommend this in the last meeting of the Swiss New Church Union."
REV. JOHN WORCESTER'S NOTES 1886

REV. JOHN WORCESTER'S NOTES              1886

NOTES TO HEAVEN AND HELL, THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Prepared for the New Church Correspondence School. Boston: Massachusetts New-Church Union Press, 169 Tremont Street.

     THESE Notes, prepared by the President of the Convention's Theological School, the Rev. John Worcester, for the use of the Correspondence School, are offered to the New Church public in general, in the original form in which they were printed-in separate sheets, stitched, not bound together, but loose. They are accompanied by questions designed to enable every student to catechise himself.
     This work manifests elaborate research in the Writings, as the Notes to each Book, while containing numerous comments by the Compiler, consist mainly of references to, or actual quotations from, kindred other Books of the Writings. The time necessarily cost must have been considerable, and the devotion and faithfulness with which the Compiler has in many cases rendered points of Doctrine clearer deserve due recognition and respect.
     Unfortunately, the painstaking researches have not succeeded in throwing the light of the Divine Truth on a number of Doctrines among which are certain fundamentals, which in these Notes remain obscure in fallacies and falsities. In regard to the Second Coming of the LORD, for instance, there is wanting the recognition that it is an accomplished fact, and that in Coming, the LORD executed a Second Redemption, and revealed through an inspired medium the Heavenly Doctrines which are one with the Spiritual Sense of the Word, and which Doctrines treat not only of abstract goods and truths, but also of the Spiritual World.
     To illustrate, we call the reader's attention to the teaching in True Christian Religion (n. 779), that the LORD made His Second Coming "by means of a man who is able not only to receive the Doctrines of the New Church with his understanding, but also to publish them by the press." In the Note to this paragraph the teaching is presented, peculiar to our friends in New England, that the Doctrines were gradually developed during the period that they were written:

     That it attained this complete development by slow degrees was true of necessity, for it is a whole new system of Doctrine given by the LORD through a man who knew nothing of it, but who must receive it with his understanding and publish it by the press; and this was possible only solar as he received good in the will, and obtained this by shunning evils as sins. That there will be an immense and ever-increasing unfolding of truths and love from the LORD in the interiors of the Word is to be devoutly believed and desired. But-it is the faith of the New Church that this will be upon the foundation laid down through Swedenborg, never reversing nor changing the lines of that foundation.

     If this be true, why does Swedenborg-who is so careful to state Doctrines in plain and unmistakable language-lay such stress on the fact that he could receive the Doctrines by his understanding? He himself answers the question in many passages, one of which, from the work on Intercourse Between Soul and Body, we adduce:

     The understanding in man can be elevated into the light, that is, into the wisdom in which are the angels of Heaven, according to the cultivation of the reason, and His will into the heat of heaven, that is, into love likewise according to the deeds of life; but the love of the will is not elevated, except insofar as man wills and does the things which the wisdom of the understanding teaches. . . Unless the understanding could be perfected separately and the will through it, man would not be man.- Infl. 14

     This heresy, that Swedenborg's enlightenment depended on the regenerated state of his will, is all the more harmful because it is applied in other writings of the Commentator to New Church ministers, to the effect that they should teach only what they have already lived. How contrary to the Doctrine just quoted! The understanding must always show the way and the will must follow. "Man is man by this, that his will is under obedience to the understanding, but a beast is a beast by this, that its understanding is under obedience to its will." (Infl. 15.) And on this principle "priests must teach the people, and lead by truths to the good of life." (A. C. 10,798, H. D. 318.) And hence we are taught that the Word remains holy and efficacious even if priest who teaches is an evil man. (A. C. 3670.) We content ourselves with calling attention to this one point. It suffices to show that our friends of the Academy, aside from' any subordinate considerations, have cause for the continuance of the work they have been doing. For these Notes, being prepared under the auspices of the Convention's Theological School and, indeed, in the work of one of its special departments, is an official exponent of, the Convention's theology. We call the attention of our friends of the Academy to this, and hope that its Serial, in rousing from its two years' slumber, will take up what we gladly leave to its superior ability, a searching review of these Notes.

24


TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE 1886

TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE              1886

     CHAPTER X.

     The Conflict.

     IT had long been a custom with the Sterlings to invite a few of their most intimate friends to dine with them on Christmas Day, on which occasion the dinner was one of great length and festivity.
     When Dr. Stanhope arrived at six o'clock, Mr. Sterling met him in the hall with the admonition that he should hasten his toilet, as the guests were already assembled and only awaited his arrival to proceed to the dining-room.
     With a short apology for his detention; on the plea of business, Roger hurried off to his room; but it must be confessed his mind was more occupied with Venita than with any thought of his personal appearance. The latter was not wholly neglected, however, as, when he entered the drawing-room, some fifteen minutes later, Mr. Glenn turned to his wife with the remark, "What a handsome fellow Stanhope is."
     Was it only chance that led Roger's eyes almost immediately to where Venita was sitting? As she arose and walked quietly across the room to meet him, his mind was impressed anew with every delightful detail of her appearance-the long, soft dress of pale blue; the lovely head, crowned with the sunny coils of hair, whose only ornament was one creamy rose hanging low on the left side; the faint tinge of color rising in her cheeks as she extended her hand in cordial greeting were all alike familiar, yet new. Roger immediately appropriated her to escort her to the dining-room. This' arrangement suited her equally well, as it afforded the desired early opportunity of thanking him for his thoughtful remembrance of her wish.
     Although there was little opportunity for conversation of a private nature, Roger was continually conscious of the fact that Venita was beside him. For the first time he now felt at liberty to give full expression to his love, and this thought seemed to give him the right of possession already. He assumed authority over her in the matter of dainties and wines in a way that pleased though it bewildered her. Intuitively she felt what was coming, but the feeling was so vague and uncertain that it did not even assume distinct form.
     And so the dinner went on, and these two for the time were very happy.
     After their return to the drawing-room Mrs. Sterling motioned Venita to her side and gave her some whispered directions, in response to which she quietly left the room.
     The temptation to follow her was greater than Roger could resist, and he was at her side before she reached the library door.
     "Can I assist you, Miss Venita?"
     "Assist me in what?" asked Venita, scarcely con1scious of what she said. So engrossed had she been in her own thoughts, which were concerning Roger, that; his sudden appearance startled her out of her self-possession.
     "Well, I hardly know in what, but seeing you, bent upon some errand I thought I might offer my services-"
     "Oh! yes, certainly," hurriedly interposed Venita, recovering herself. "I am going to select some music, and you can reach it for me from the shelves."
     She turned to enter the room talking the while very rapidly to show herself thoroughly at ease and self-possessed. Roger saw her embarrassment, but cruelly offered her no assistance in overcoming it, so thorough was his enjoyment in the very sound of her voice, as she chattered on in her sweet, girlish way.
     In the interest of searching for some old Christmas Anthems, Venita's manner became more natural; but as they stood by the table; turning over the leaves of the old music, she noticed presently that Roger did not seem to be following what she said; and, glancing up to learn the cause, she met a look of such love and longing that involuntarily she raised her hand to ward it off.
     "Oh! don't!" her voice was scarcely more than a breath.
     Roger had not intended speaking that evening, but as he had already betrayed himself; all considerations were cast to the wind and his heart gave one exultant throb as he reached forward eagerly: "Why not, Venita? I love you, dearest; I had not intended to startle you so, but it is more than I can endure to be near you and make no sign. O my darling! if you will but add the sweet accession of your love to my life I will try to be worthy of it." The deep tremor in Roger's voice made it impossible for Venita to reply calmly and decidedly, try as she would.
     "Oh! it is not that. I do not love you, I am sure; love is very different from the feeling I have for you."
     "How different, Venita?" As Roger spoke his voice sounded almost cold, so intense was his fear now lest he should lose her.
     "I do not know, I cannot tell; please do not say any more, I am so tired."
     Then Roger noticed for the first time how her hand trembled, as it rested upon the table for support.
     "How selfish I have been. I might have known you were tired, dear. Here, take my arm, we will return to the drawing-room."
     "But-the music?" faintly suggested Venita.
     Hurriedly selecting one or two pieces, Roger drew her hand within his arm and led her back to the company, exerting himself afterward, with such success, despite the ache in his heart, that no one noticed Venita's unusual quietness. No one except Mrs. Sterling. But mothers' eyes are quick to note such changes. Therefore she was not surprised, after the departure of the last guest, that Venita, in bidding her good-night, whispered: "Mother, I want you." As Mr. Sterling had already signified his intention of carrying Roger off to the library for a smoke -before retiring, Mrs. Sterling accompanied Venita to her room.
     So like that other time of trouble, that it recalled it with startling vividness to Mrs. Sterling's mind.
     "Mother, what would I do without you in whom to confide all my troubles?"
     "Not always troubles, dear, I hope."
     "It seems so though, mother. To-night Dr. Stanhope told me he loved me and asked me to be his wife."
     "Do you call that trouble, daughter? Father and I have known the state of his feelings for some time. What answer did you give him, dear?"
     "I am not very sure what I said, only I told him I did not love him."
     "Then, Venita, that settles the question; if you do not love him, of course it is impossible to think of marriage."
     "But," continued Venita, in a tone of distress, "when I afterward thought of his going away, and the probability of his marrying some one else, I found I could not endure that, either. I should like to retain him near me always as a dear and intimate friend."
     Mrs. Sterling smiled significantly as she stroked the bent head.

25



     "No, Venita; that is impossible. It would be extremely harmful, both to Roger and yourself. No, dear! you must decide one way or the other."
     "Mother, I used to think that I would recognize my conjugial consort immediately on meeting him; but now I find everything so different! I make mistakes and continually become involved in trouble, simply because I cannot distinguish right from wrong."
     "We all meet with the same difficulty there, Venita, in deciding questions of either greater or less importance through life. But the woman who has a true husband on whom she can rely for guidance is infinitely blessed."
     "I know all that, mother; but I do not wish to marry before I can beyond all doubt be perfectly assured that I am making no mistake."
     "That will be impossible, dear! Only the LORD knows that. What you have to decide now is, whether Roger's peculiar form of mind is such that you can sympathize fully with him in his use, and whether you would be willing to live with him to all eternity."
     "How terrible it would be though, mother, to realize at some future day that I had made a mistake!"
     "Such a discovery would never be terrible to one who relied implicitly on the LORD'S Providence. You could rest assured that, hard as it might seem, it was for the best, and under no other circumstances would have conduced to so great a happiness."
     "But, mother, such is not the kind of marriage I desire. All my life I have been looking forward to a true and beautiful union, where love for each other would reign supreme, making us absolutely one."
     "Such a marriage we desire for you, also; but that internal union only comes with time. It has to grow to I be such, as each lovingly helps the other to put away evils. At first it may seem beyond us to accomplish this, as evils, even when condemned, continually present themselves anew. But if we remember that it is only by 'line upon line, precept upon precept,' that it is gradually done, hope will carry us through."
     Venita sat silently stroking her mother's hand for a time, then, raising her earnest, tearful eyes, from which the drops fell unheeded over her cheeks, she resumed:
     "I do not apprehend that my trouble would arise from a want of trust in Roger's wisdom. I know he is just and prudent, honorable in all things-a thorough New Churchman; but I lack that enthusiastic love for him that would blind me to his faults. On the contrary, what faults he has at times appear very pronounced. I only have a contented, restful feeling when I am with him."
     Mrs. Sterling made no response, but remained engrossed in thought for a time. Then, reaching down to kiss the fair, troubled face, said, quietly:
     "Venita, I shall leave you, dear, to come to a decision by yourself. Only let me suggest that you follow out the 'contented, restful feeling' of which you speak, and I think you will find that it arises from a more 'genuine affection than would a state of enthusiastic passion."
     But Venita's perplexities were more deeply seated than her mother imagined. Despite her utmost efforts to bring only the clear light of reason to bear upon her decision, Roger's words in the library had touched her deeply; and persistently would they recur to her mind; and they continued to haunt and distract her through a restless, half sleepless night, mingling even with her dreams in new and distorted forms.
     In the early morning light, Venita found her mind much more amenable to what she termed "reason" than she did through her troubled night, and by the time the breakfast bell sounded its warning note she had reached a conclusion, though one that she feared would tax her powers to the utmost to sustain through the ordeal still before her. Her apprehensions were not lessened any by Roger's quiet, unobtrusive attentions at table, which left her to the full freedom of her thoughts, as he addressed all his conversation to her parents. Still she was conscious that her slightest movement did not escape his observation.
     Much as Venita longed to escape to her room, there to remain invisible for the rest of the morning, she admitted to herself that such a course would be weak and culpable cowardice, so she turned into the cheerful drawing-room. Here the morning sunlight flooded the room, and the perfume of the flowers, arranged in the Sevres vases, was brought out by the warm fire burning in the brightly burnished grate. But Venita, unmindful of anything but Roger's approaching footstep, seated herself at the piano, trying, nervously, to ward off what she knew most assuredly would come.
     Roger began restlessly to pace up and down the room. Once or twice Venita essayed to make an indifferent remark, but not a word, not a sound could she give utterance to, while her companion still paced silently to and fro, his arms crossed, his head bowed forward upon his breast.
     For a time Venita succeeded bravely. Then her usually ready fingers refused to do her bidding. After a few discordant attempts, her hands fell helplessly into her lap; she was utterly powerless for further resistance.
     Roger paused, lifted his head, then came and stood by her side, without speaking for a minute, until, reaching down, he took one of her little trembling hands in his own, saying: "Venita, forgive me if I trouble you, but this state of suspense is greater than I can bear. It will be better for us both if we decide upon some definite course of action-anything is better than this uncertainty. I cannot believe your answer last night to be final." Venita's heart beat fast as she gently withdrew her hand from Roger's grasp, clasping her fingers nervously as she gathered courage to reply:
     "If I must decide one way or the other, it will have to be that we must part. Hard as it will be, it will be best, as lam sure I do not love you well enough to become your wife."
     As Venita pronounced the decisive words, in spite of the firmness of her voice there flashed across her mind the desperate temptation to say the word-the irrevocable-"yes," and marry Roger, trusting to love following where duty led. To lose him entirely would leave an aching void in her life; his love was very alluring to her. But this thought was quickly followed by the opposite picture of a long and loveless wedded life, and the irremediable wrong she would be doing both to Roger and herself by thus violating all the laws of conjugial life by entering upon its sacred duties feeling as she did. Therefore it was with renewed strength she looked up to meet Roger's gaze as he said, with forced calmness, "Are you sure, Venita?"
     "Yes, sure. It would only be from the selfish desire to keep you near me that would prompt me to deceive you with false hopes. I am sure I do not love you."
     Venita's evident distress showed Roger that it was no light decision she was making. Her face betrayed an agony that could not all be called forth by friendly sympathy for his dire disappointment. And though her words sounded a death-knell through his heart, Hope persistently refused to take flight.
     Loving, as Roger did, completely, entirely, it was impossible for him to -realize that her present decision might be final.

26


He must have her for his wife-his "Only-one." Still he acknowledged that his only honorable course lay in allowing the question to rest until he could win his, wife through love, not persuade her to come to him against her will, as he instinctively perceived would be the only way he could influence her to reverse her present judgment.
     "Venita!" exclaimed Roger, passionately, "I cannot, cannot give you up entirely. A future apart from you seems impossible. I shall love you always-you alone-and as long as there is no one to come between us, I shall still cherish the hope of winning you for my wife."
     Venita's endurance was well-nigh exhausted with the long-continued effort at self-command. She began to feel so faint that it was necessary for her to lean heavily upon the piano for support.
     As Roger spoke she turned appealingly toward him: "Oh! do not say that, or I shall feel that I have not expressed myself clearly enough. It is hard to lose your friendship, but, forgive me, I cannot, indeed I cannot, take your love!"
     "Pray do not say another word," said Roger, in a low, hurried voice, taking both her hands in his impetuously and holding them in a firm grasp. "Why should I forgive you, when you are but following the impulse of your true, noble heart? You honor me beyond all the world in desiring my friendship. And," he continued, straightening himself and altering his tone, out of tender consideration for her weariness, "I have no intention that you shall lose it. I expect to be in Springvale quite frequently this spring and summer."
     Her pale, sad face moved him deeply, but unable to resist one last appeal, he said, hesitatingly, "In the meantime, Miss Venita, if I should write, will you answer my letters?"
     "I should like to hear from you, but mother thinks that it would not be just to you for me to allow our intimacy to continue, and I see she must be right."
     "That part of the question I will take into my care, and if I feel it getting beyond me, I shall pack- up and travel off to Europe or some other continent to recover my senses and regain strength of mind."
     Roger's apparent cheerfulness did not deceive Venita; she saw it was merely assumed, to give her time to compose herself. But great as was her relief at the prospect of still continuing their friendship, she was completely exhausted, both physically and -mentally, and was glad when her father came to her relief and she could escape to the solitude of her room. Nor did she again see Roger, as, after a long conversation with Mr. sterling, he declined remaining to luncheon, pleading business as his excuse for leaving thus hastily.
     Mr. Sterling was much disappointed at what he learned from Roger, but his wife urged-patience, assuring him that Venita only needed time to overcome the scruples suggested by her over-sensitive conscience.
     With the pleasant prospect before her that Dr. Stanhope still desired the continuance of their former friendly s relations, Venita promised herself a speedy return to a peaceful state of mind. But she found that the question of their marriage was not so easily disposed of-it was continually presenting itself in some new and surprising form.
     Dr. Stanhope's' letters' were eloquent pleaders of his cause; not that they touched directly upon subjects of a very personal character, but Roger wrote well-exceptionally well-and Venita appreciated that fully. He sent her scraps of his studies, told in such a spicy, interesting style that Venita found herself continually tempted to read and re-read them, suite delighted with the interest they awakened in her mind for the writer delighted, because dearly would she have loved to return in like degree all the affection that Roger so lavishly bestowed upon her.
     The few visits that the doctor was enabled to make in the spring and early summer were anything but satisfactory to either of them. Roger found it almost beyond his strength to reason and wait when near Venita, realizing how dear she was to him. And Venita was in constant apprehension that she might betray by some slight look or word the doubts that were still troubling her. Consequently her manner was cool and distant, until Roger would win her into more cordiality by sheer persistence, interesting her in spite of herself. Then some chance look or word of his would suddenly suggest to her the hope he still cherished, when all the old doubts would flood over her, carrying her miles away from him with their force. At such times his whole appearance seemed to change to her: there was nothing about him that she could bring herself even to admire, and she wondered how she could have ever been so infatuated as to imagine it possible to love him. No, it could never be.
     Mrs. Sterling said nothing to Venita to influence her in any way against her first decision in regard to Roger, although, as the summer advanced, both father and mother noticed her declining health and spirits. Venita fondly imagined that they knew nothing of the many and severe conflicts she had been enduring, and when they proposed a trip through the great lakes and down the St. Lawrence, with a long rest among the mountains afterward, she merely supposed that her father found it possible to take a longer rest than usual from his business; she did not dream that the whole tour was planned solely for her benefit, in hopes that absence would help her come to a wiser decision, and the mountain air bring some of the rose-tints back to her cheeks again.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.].
MOVEMENT 1886

MOVEMENT              1886

     THE farmyard Reformer had a good following, for he talked fluently and for the elevation of others; and though the flippant Bantam openly said he must think himself a peg higher than the other farm-yarders, this only served to increase the faith of the Reformer's followers, and they said the Bantam was a worldling; but this flattered him.
     The elevation of the Pigs was the Reformer's greatest work. These slept in the mud down by the watering- trough. They must be elevated. So the Reformer called a public meeting near the wagon shed. The talk was copious; resolutions were passed with unanimous enthusiasm, and in their joy at the good work, many of the Geese flapped their wings and elevated their voices and necks.
     The Pigs opened their eyes, lazily wondered what ailed the Geese, and went to sleep again.
     The Gray Goose attended the meeting, but hung silently on its outskirts. He was troubled with doubts, and after the adjournment, he turned to the Horse, who had listened to the proceedings from under the shed, and asked:
     "What do you think of this movement?"
     The Horse glanced at the lazily-sleeping Pigs and then at the Gray Goose. Perhaps his glance was eloquent, for the Gray Goose, without another word, walked away.

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HONEST DOUBTS 1886

HONEST DOUBTS              1886

     THE weather was hot at the farm-yard. Day followed day, and still the sun flamed from cloudless and brassy skies; tremulous and wavy lines of heat shimmered from field and road, the wheat rapidly ripened, and the glossy green of the plumy-leaved corn shone with a faintish, silvery sheen. The Ox pantingly vowed that things were out of kelter; the Donkey frequently asked, "Is it hot enough?" the policeman of the yard, the Dog, was fain to sleep, but the flies annoyed him. The water in the pond ran low, and looked as though the verdure of the fields had sought refuge therein. A panic prevailed among the Geese at the scarcity of water, for they feared it would never rain any more.
     The grave demeanor of the Gray Goose at this time prompted the Horse to ask if he shared this panic, and he responded:
     "I do not. I am old, and have seen such seasons before, but I respect the honest doubts of my brethren."
     "What is the distinction between an honest and a dishonest doubt?" asked the Horse.
     The Gray Goose stood meditatively on one leg for some time before he answered, "I don't know."
STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM 1886

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM              1886

     A STORY FOR CHILDEEN.

     CHAPTER II.

     WHEN Tom's marble snipped through the leaves of the bush that stood in the fence-corner-it was one of those zigzag rail fences-a Redbird flew out, ruffling its feathers and crying:
     "You bad, wicked boy!"
     As he had thrown the marble merely for fun, he warmly shouted back:
     "I am not!"     
     "You are!" screamed the bird, in as loud a voice as she could.
     Tom did not want to bandy words; so he started forward to climb the fence and cross the field beyond. But as he drew near, the Redbird made such a fuss that he stopped and asked:
     "What ails you, anyhow?"
     "O my!-O dear! My children!-my nest! You wicked boy!" was all the bird answered.
     "Your nest is in that bush, is it?" said Tom, opening his eyes to the bird's conduct and going up to the bush, while the bird nearly took a fit. He parted the leaves, and after looking at the nest of young birds for a little while, he climbed to the top of the fence and sat down there, while the bird gladly returned to her nest.
     "Your children aren't very pretty," said he.
     "I think they are," replied the bird from the bush, where he could just see the glint of her red feathers through the green leaves. Tom whistled a little and than asked: "Why did you make such a fuss? I didn't intend to hurt you. I didn't know you lived in there." If I had known you understood birds I shouldn't have been so very much scared."
     "Why?"
     "People that understand birds don't break up their nests."'
     "Why don't they?"
     "Because birds eat the worms that spoil the crops and fruit."
     "That's so," said Tom, after he had thought the matter over; "for I've seen them at it. But a worm is a nasty thing to eat."
     "Worms are better than pigs, and you cat pigs."
     "But only when they are cooked," said Tom, nodding his head at the bird.
     "That is a matter of taste. I don't like things cooked."
     "How do you know? You never tried them."
     "Because I don't."
     "But how do you know you don't?"
     "I know-and that's enough for any bird."
     "It is not enough for me, though."
     "Well, you're not a bird."
     "No; but I'm a boy, and can give reasons-which is more than you can do."
     "Did you ever eat a worm?" asked the bird.
     Tom made a wry face as he answered:
     "No, indeed!"
     "Then how do you know you don't like them?"
     Tom looked at the bird and the bird looked at him; then he whistled, and at last said "Good-bye" and got down from the fence and started across the level green field, beyond the further fence of which was a low hill on which were trees and bushes. He had not gone far when a deep voice bellowed:
     "Get out of my field, you boy! Get out, or I'll bo-o-o-st you over the fence!"
     Tom looked behind him, and, seeing a Bull pawing the ground, did not wait for further orders, but took to his heels and the Bull after him with his head down and his tail flying in the air. Tom reached the fence and climbed it quicker than he had ever done before, and was quite out of breath when he turned around and looked at the Bull, who stood on the other side of the fence bellowing:
     "Just let me catch you in my field again!"
     "It isn't your field," said Tom, who felt that he had time to talk now."
     "It isn't, isn't it? You come over the fence and see."
     "That wouldn't prove it," answered Tom. "Might does not make right." (He had heard some one say that once.)
     "Then what does make right?" roared the Bull, shaking his horns. "Go on, you boy!-go on, and answer me!" he bellowed, as Tom looked puzzled.
     "I don't just exactly know, but might doesn't, anyhow. Somehow or other when you do right or wrong you know it inside of you, but I can't say what makes right, except that it is to do what the LORD tells you to do, and so I guess He is the Right."
     The Bull listened but did not answer, but became quiet and stood thinking. Under a low bush a little ways off and on Tom's side of the fence sat a Rabbit on his haunches, who had watched Tom's scamper across the field. He now tapped each side of his nose with - his paws, and worked his upper lip as though he was laughing, as he said:
     "It was fun to see you skip across that field with the Bull after you."
     "It wasn't fun for me," answered honest Tom.
     "People brag that they are masters of the animals," laughed the Rabbit, who was something of a joker; "if to run is to rule, they are rulers surely; you would run from an animal not half your size."
     "I would not," shouted the indignant Tom.
     "Oh! yes, you would. Now I fear no man or animal, big or little, I can outwit them all; brains are better than muscle any day."
     As the Rabbit said this, a Dog came running down the hill;-he wasn't very big,     but was quite noisy and seemed to be in a very bad humor.

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So Tom got up into a beech-tree under which he was standing, and the Rabbit crouched trembling in the grass under the bush. The Dog ran forward, and, standing on his hind legs with his fore-paws against the tree, he barked: "Come down out of that tree. Come down this minute!"
     But Tom only shook his head, which excited the Dog so that he tore around, under the tree at a great rate. Pretty soon he saw the Bull, who was quietly watching, and running up, he put his head between the lower rails of the fence and barked: "Get out! Get out! Get out!"
     "You impudent fellow," said the Bull, coming forward with a run; but the Dog quickly withdrew his head and capered up and down on his side of the fence,
defying the Bull, who followed heavily on the other side.
     How long these quarrelsome fellows would have continued this, it is hard to tell, had not the Dog suddenly stopped short and put his nose to the ground, and then yelped:
     "Ah, ha! A Rabbit-I smell him!"
     "O dear!" said the Rabbit, as he gave one long jump, and, laying back his ears, started across the country a good deal faster than Tom had gone in his scamper from the Bull.
     The Dog took after him helter-skelter and the Bull lumbered along on his side, probably from curiosity. Tom felt like taking part in the chase, but was afraid the mightn't like it, so he climbed a little higher up in the tree and watched. At each jump the Rabbit made, his fore-legs stuck out so straight in front and his hind-legs behind, and his ears were laid so flat, that he looked like a line of fur shooting through the air; but the Dog was the fastest runner and soon overtook him; but just as Tom thought he had him-and felt rather sorry for the little boaster-the Rabbit stopped and started again in another direction, and the Dog tumbled on his nose before he could stop himself. The Rabbit gained by this and was going up the hill faster than ever, but the Dog soon overtook him; but just as Tom felt that he had him sure; the Rabbit took a perpendicular position; in other words, he dived head foremost into his hole and was saved, and the last seen of him was the twinkle of his hind feet. The Dog was making the soil fly behind him like mad, as he scratched it with his fore and hindfeet, and the Bull was looking at him very much interested, when the Beech-tree softly whispered: "Tom, you had better go now." So he thanked the gentle tree for its aid, and, slipping down, skurried off through the bushes and did not stop until he felt safe from the Dog; then he sat down to get his breath.
     Near by was a bunch of red clover, and on it was a big Bee busily at work climbing over the blossoms, and as soon as he had finished one he gave a-buzz and lit on another without stopping a moment. Tom had often had bees held up to him as models to be patterned after, so he watched this one closely and at last spoke to him. Said he to the Bee: "Say!" But the Bee did not pay any attention. Then he called again:
     "Say, Bee; I want to ask you a question."
     Still the Bee did not respond, but went on with his work.
     "He is the most industrious fellow-I ever met in my life" thought Tom, watching admiringly; then he spoke again:
     "Hello! Bee! Stop a minute. I want to ask you something," but the Bee buzzed to another clover blossom.
     "Perhaps he's deaf" thought Tom, and by way of trial poked his finger at the Bee and called a little louder-"Say!"
     "You let me alone," said the Bee, and he made a quick dash at Tom's hand and stung it and then began, buzzing around his head. Tom jumped up, and snatching a bunch of weeds, flopped it about to keep the Bee away. "You idle boy, why don't you go to work?" buzzed the angry Bee.
     Still keeping his bunch of weeds going, Tom said:
     "I only wanted to ask you if you ever played or had any fun."
     "Play? Fun?" said the Bee. "Of course not." Then he flew away to the clover-blossoms again, while Tom clapped a handful of moist earth to his stung hand and went his way, thinking that those who believed in nothing but work and hated play were rather disagreeable.
          [TO BE CONTINUED.]
CORRECTION NOTES 1886

CORRECTION NOTES       GEORGE NELSON SMITH       1886

     Communicated.

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles on which New Church Life is conducted, or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]


     THE Presbyterian, noticing the remarks of the Rev. Mr. Mercer advising more careful study of the Bible, pronounces them "eminently judicious in view of the great ignorance of the Book existing among those people," an animadversion which, if designed to apply to New Church people, is very much more applicable to those of the Old Church, even in matters of careful, accurate knowledge of the literal sense. Careful, loyal students of the Doctrines of the New Church have the means of literal accuracy in the study of the Word that others never attain. I have had this truth many times verified in comparing the best of the Old Church scholarship with that of average New Churchmen. Take for example Old Church studies of the Tabernacle, any and all of them, and compare them with our T. O. Paine's work. Any one can see innumerable things in the latter work not at all noticed or carelessly and wrongly rendered by the others.* Which, however, brings me to say that a little more careful abiding by the teachings of the Doctrines of the internal sense would make the new edition of that work a more true exponent of the facts of the literal sense. As an instance: Mr. Paine's old work (p. 16 and elsewhere) represents the covering of the tent as of goats' hair, whereas the Doctrine represents the "curtains as of goats" hair (A. C. 8519), but the "covering of the tent should be skins of red rams, and over these the skins of badgers." (n. 3540.) This the internal sense gives, showing that a true understanding of the letter must be gained by careful study and loyal abiding by the Doctrine as revealed to the New Church. To whom then are we to look for true literal rendering, to Old Churchmen? New Churchmen following their own or Old Church leadings? or to New Churchmen loyally and carefully following the Doctrines?
     * I have seen cuts representing the plank of the Tabernacle as lying horizontally.

     I NOTICE in Spiritual Diary (n. 1783,- Edition of 1871) a curious addition by the translator of the phrase: "In their lifetime," which, if it means in their natural lifetime, gives a wrong sense to the whole passage, as will be seen from Arcana (n. 7879), which shows that the destruction of armies referred to was wrought by them as spirits, not as men in the body.

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     ON the question of how far we can depart from the strict renderings of our Doctrines to avoid, as it is often expressed, shocking Old Church prejudice, we have a good illustration in an old translation of Apocalypse Revealed and in most of the New Church Liturgies, which for the purpose just named profess to follow the authorized version of Habakkuk ii, 20, as found in Apocalypse Revealed (n. 191) and in the opening sentence of said Liturgies, although to do so not only the original has to be changed, but the rendering of it given in the Doctrine of the above paragraph, and the Doctrine based thereon has to be stultified. The changed version predicates holiness of the Temple: "The LORD is in His Holy temple." The true rendering predicates it of the LORD alone: "The LORD is in the temple of His holiness." So does the Doctrine, which distinctly says that it is the LORD and not the temple that is holy. It is claimed that the Hebrew "Temple of Holiness," "Spirit of Holiness," meant the same as the English expression: - "Holy Temple;" "Holy Spirit," etc. That this is not true see corollary to article, "Holy Spirit"- (T. C. R. 158), where the assumption that the two expressions mean the same destroys the Doctrine that "in the Word of the Old Testament the Holy Spirit is nowhere named, but only The Spirit of Holiness, in three places." This is the danger we run of destroying the Doctrines by our accommodations. Let us beware of them.

     I NOTICE a recent revival of an old falsity that drunkenness is "taking too much truth." On the contrary, drunkenness is distinctly defined to be, believing nothing but what one can understand." (A. C. 1072.) And from Divine Providence (n. 233, Fourth Head) we learn that "it is incumbent on every one to learn truths from the Word or from preachings, and to deposit them in the memory and to think of them;" also, "that many truths may be introduced into the understanding," etc. This does away with the above notion pretty thoroughly.
     GEORGE NELSON SMITH.
NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE ON THE IMMANUEL CHURCH 1886

NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE ON THE IMMANUEL CHURCH       W. H. B       1886

To THE EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE: The publication in the Life of the following communication is asked in the interest of true order in the Church:
     True order cannot be preserved without a careful observance of mutual comity and respect by the various bodies constituting the General Church. These bodies are organized under "The General Convention" in this country, and in the management of their separate concerns they are to be left to their own freedom and reason, I and they are to treat each other with the same courtesy and respect that are required of individuals in their intercourse with their neighbors.
     There ought not to be any need of making so self-evident a statement. That there is such need, and that this need requires the use of some plain words, is apparent from the course of the New-Jerusalem Magazine, a journal published by the Massachusetts New-Church Union. This journal, whilst manifesting an extreme amiability in its notices of the doings of the other parts of the Church, appears to reserve whatever of an opposite feeling it is capable of showing for the acts of the General Church of Pennsylvania. Thus, in the last issue of this Magazine, under the head of "The New Church," we find in a friendly notice of the late meeting of the Illinois Association a paragraph containing reflections on the action of a body belonging to the General Church of Pennsylvania, which are as replete with misstatements of fact as they are impertinent in tone. This paragraph reads as follows:

     One little disappointment arose from notice received from Immanuel Church, a branch of the Chicago Society, that it had united with the General Church of Pennsylvania. This ceasing to assist the Association in its own State and joining one which meets hundreds of miles away seems an anomaly, and does not seem to proceed from considerations of use, but it is not a matter to be judged beforehand, and in the absence of such a statement of reasons as may be expected.

     An anomaly is a deviation from rule. The action of the Immanuel Church is in accordance with the rule laid down by the Convention and published in No. 49 of its Journal for 1883. The Magazine might have seen this had it been willing to see. The Magazine might also have known, had it been desirous of knowing, that what it styles an "anomaly," has existed for years in other Associations constituting the General Convention. The Massachusetts Association has four Societies in its connection which are without the geographical bounds of "its own State;" the New York Association has five Societies similarly situated; the General Church of Pennsylvania has three Societies out of "its own State;" the Ohio Association has two, and the Illinois Association, for whose "one little disappointment" the New Jerusalem Magazine manifests so much sympathy, reports at least five "foreign bodies" in its membership, having admitted one from Missouri at the very meeting noticed by the Magazine. This obliviousness of facts is not altogether "anomalous" on the part of the Magazine under the circumstances of the case, seeing that they afforded an apparent opportunity of placing the     General Church of Pennsylvania in the wrong before the readers of that journal. But it is somewhat singular and hardly creditable that the Magazine should not be better up in the history of the Convention's proceedings. Besides passing the rule before noted, the Convention has on several occasions acted against the notion advocated by the Magazine, by admitting Societies into its own membership, although they were within the territory of an Association that was already a constituent part of the General Body, and, more than this, that the Convention has for some years honored with the office of President a gentleman who is the Pastor of a Society not in communion with the body over which he presides, but existing within the supposed territorial limits of a, larger associated body of the General Convention. Perhaps the Magazine will make a point of the fact that the Immanuel Church is a few hundred miles farther removed in space from Pennsylvania than the Contoocook Society, or the Providence Society is from Massachusetts; or of the other fact that there is no Association in New Hampshire, and none in Rhode Island, and that therefore territorial limitation may rightfully be disregarded. In either case the Magazine will have to avoid principle and take refuge in expediency, and into this place of refuge we shall not follow. We hold to principle and to freedom of action according to principle. Moreover, the members of the Immanuel Church are entirely capable of judging for themselves, and without the aid of the New Jerusalem Magazine, whether a few hundred miles of space shall be allowed to affect this choice of their nearer Social and Spiritual relationship.

30



     Now as to matters of fact, the Magazine might have learnt, had it been so minded, that it is not true, that the Immanuel Church was "a branch of the Chicago Society;" and that it is not true, that the Immanuel Church "ceased to assist the Association in its own State?" This Church had no connection with the Illinois Association; its Pastor had never been recognized and received as a Minister of that Association, and therefore, never having begun, it could not "cease to assist the Association in its own State." Further, the Immanuel Church did not in any just sense "join an Association which meets hundreds of miles away." From its first beginning the Immanuel Church had grown up in full sympathy and accord with the principles and order of the Church in Pennsylvania, and when prepared to take the step, it assumed its own place according to order, in the family to which it spiritually belonged. And here it may be added, for the information of the Magazine, that the General Church of Pennsylvania does not "meet hundreds of miles away" from its members, but that it is, exists, and meets wherever its members are, exist, and meet. This General Church is not a meeting, but an organized body of New Church-men, a spiritual body of a Spiritual Church, the constituent parts of which are joined together by a common purpose, a common faith, and a common acceptance of well-defined views of Doctrine and Order.
     In the strain into which the Magazine seems to fall when treating of this larger body of the New Church, it remarks concerning the action of the Immanuel Church, that it does not seem to proceed from considerations of use" Why not? On what knowledge of this Church and its real quality does the Magazine base the opinion that an act involving the present and future relations of' the body to another body of the Church, that the act of defining its ends, aims, and position in the General Church, "does not seem to proceed from considerations of use"? Perhaps the Magazine does not realize that such language implies the insinuation that the Immanuel Church acted from considerations of an unworthy nature. To bring this journal to a consideration of the absence of propriety and humility, manifested by the remark just noticed-it is in order to state that in the opinion of the President of the Association concerned in this question, that of Illinois, the act so unworthily, criticised was the act of "thoughtful, earnest, and studious men;" and this opinion will be heartily indorsed by all who know them and who are capable of judging. This new body of the Church has been eminently regardful of use from the beginning of its existence, and will, no doubt, be gifted by the LORD with sufficient intelligence to adjust its private affairs, according to reason and right, without calling in the aid of men who differ from them in their ideas of use and the means of performing use.
     It will not be out of place to remind the Magazine that the General Convention, in a wise and just for thought, has carefully guarded the Societies of the Church from just such unwarranted interferences with their private concerns as the one we have felt called upon to notice:'- This action of the Convention ought to be respected;-and it will be respected, by those who will suffer grace to prevail, and who will give attentive study to the rules passed by the Convention for the government of its members.
     We do not object to criticisms of views of Doctrine and its Truths, whether put forth by individuals or by bodies in the Church. We make such criticisms freely, and we accept them freely from others. But when corporate acts, done-within the chartered rights of bodies of the Church, are treated in the manner in which the New Jerusalem Magazine seems disposed to treat the proceedings of the General Church of Pennsylvania, we are quite prepared to inform that respectable journal that there are impertinences, which can be excused on the ground of ignorance, but that wilful ignorance is but a thin cloak for animosity. The organizations of the various bodies composing the Convention differ to a greater or less extent. The Massachusetts Association differs in some respects from the other Associations in its Constitution, as the General Church of Pennsylvania differs from them. These organizations exist by deliberate act of the members of the various bodies, and so long as they do not interfere with the freedom and usefulness of each other, interference with them and their orderly movement can only be characterized as we have characterized the course of the Magazine. The New Jerusalem Magazine is published by the Massachusetts New-Church Union, a constituent part of the Massachusetts Association. We hold that body responsible for the "seeming" efforts of its Magazine to keep alive and aggravate the antagonisms in the Church, which it is the avowed policy of the Convention to remove by all the rightful means in its power. W. H. B.
WINE THAT INEBRIATES 1886

WINE THAT INEBRIATES              1886

     DR. ELLIS has been kind enough to send me copies of his new pamphlet entitled Intoxicants, Prohibition, etc., in which he manifests all of his old zeal and vigor in maintain in what he believes to be the true view on this question. While I honor his industry and self-denying zeal in this matter, however, I am still unconvinced as to the main conclusion, and there are one or two of his arguments that I should like to examine in this article.
     In the present pamphlet, and I think in all the recent productions from his pen on this subject, much stress is laid upon a passage of Swedenborg occurring in Apocalypse Explained (n. 1035) and appearing to teach that Swedenborg recognizes two kinds of wine, the one intoxicating or inebriating and the other not, and that the former has an evil and only an evil correspondence, and the latter a good and only a good correspondence and signification. The quotation as given by Dr. Ellis is:

     Falses not from evil may be compared to waters not pure, which being drunk, do not induce drunkenness, but falses from evil may be compared to wine and strong drink, that induce drunkenness.

     Now, passing by the fact that the point of the passage would seem to lie in the contrast between the impure waters, which, however unwholesome, do not induce drunkenness, and the things that do induce it, and their spiritual correspondence respectively, rather than between two different kinds of wine, for all kinds of it would seem to be here intended and classed with strong drink to indicate the things that are intoxicating-passing by this fact, does not the passage prove too much for Dr. Ellis' aide of the question, since, if it demonstrates that there are two kinds of wine, it also demonstrates equally the existence of two kinds of strong drink (sicera) or spirituous liquor, the one inebriating and the other not, a supposition which the very etymology of the word itself precludes?
     But if it is still maintained that this is the distinction intended, then we have, as I think, in another place in the same work, a very clear statement as to what this distinction consists in or what is meant by the wine that induces drunkenness:

     By "wine mixed pure in the cup of the anger of God" is signified conjunction with falsified truths of the literal sense the Word . . . .

31


The reason why being mixed pure signifies to be conjoined with falsified truths of the Word, is because by pure" (or undiluted wine) is meant wine which is inebriating, and thence also inebriation, consequently, in the spiritual sense, delirium in truths by falses, for delirium in truths by falses is spiritual inebriation; the word also by which undiluted wine [merum] is expressed in the original tongue is derived from a word which signifies "to be inebriated."-A. E. 587.

     The Greek word here referred to, and which is here rendered "pure" or "undiluted" and in our English Bible, "without mixture," and in the Revised Version unmixed," is akratos, which, as an adjective, means "unmixed, pure, unadulterate," also "unrestrained, intemperate, excessive," and, as a substantive, "wine without water, unmixed wine." (See Liddell and Scott's Gr. Dict.) This then is the wine which inebriates or intoxicates, when taken in excess, or when spoken of, as in the passage before us, as "the wine of the wrath of God, mixed pure in the cup of His anger," and as such has the evil signification here given to it. But in the other two places in the Word in which it occurs it has the very opposite or good meaning, as is shown in the same number. These are Isaiah i, 1, and Hosea iv, 18. In the first: "Thy silver is become dross, and thy wine [merum] mixed with water;" "wine [merum] mixed with water" signifies, we are told, "truth made vile and destroyed by falsification thereof;" in the second: "Their drink [merum] is sour," or has failed, signifies "the truth of the Word having perished."
     And this brings me to another point: Dr. Ellis in his last pamphlet asserts that "fermented wine always has a bad signification" (p. 23), and quotes among other passages in support of his assertion, Arcana Coelestia 9960), where it is said that "The wine with which Noah was made drunken signifies what is false." Now we have already seen that pure, undiluted, intoxicating wine, specially so distinguished by the use of a derivate term to designate it alike in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin, has in two places out of the three in the Word a good and not an evil correspondence. And in the case of the wine by which Noah was made drunken, if Dr. Ellis not been so blinded by his theory he might have been willing to see and to let us see that the same thing is true, and that the falsity which was signified lay in Noah himself and in the use he made of the wine, or the truth, and not in either in itself. This comes out very clearly in the explanation of the incident in Arcana:

     "His drinking of the wine" denotes his desire to search into the doctrines of faith, as is proved by the signification of "wine." A "vineyard" or a "vine" represents the Spiritual Church or the man of that Church, and a "grape" and "bunches" and "clusters of grapes" are the fruits thereof and signify charity and what appertains to it. But "wine" denotes the faith thence derived and all that belongs to it, and thus the "grape" is the celestial principle of that Church and "wine" its spiritual principle. . . . That "his drinking of the wine" signifies his desire to search into the tenets of faith, and this by reasonings is evident from the fact of his "being drunken," that is, falling into errors.- A. C. 1071.

     This parent Church, or the man of this Church, did not act thus from any evil intention, but out of simplicity, as is proved from what follows, where it is said that "Noah awoke from his wine," that is, was better instructed.- A. C. 1088.
From which; it would appear that the falsity was not of a very serious or dangerous character.
     But Dr. Ellis contends not only that fermented wine always has a bad correspondence but also that new or unfermented wine (mustum) always has a good one. What, then of that saying of the prophet: "Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart"? "Wine" here we are told, "signifies the false," "new wine (mustum)" "the evil thence derived" (A. C. 2466), so that mustum seems really to have a worse signification than vinum. And that the mustum or new wine of the Jews was really more intoxicating than the old appears plainly from the charge of the people against the Apostles on the day of Pentecost in Acts ii, 13:
"They are filled with new wine." (Vulg. musto).
     As respects the use of unfermented wine at the Holy Supper, we think that, if it had been the true and orderly practice, the Doctrines of the Church would have so stated in unmistakable language. There can be no question that the Latin word vinum in Swedenborg's day was applied to fermented wine, and if he had intended to say unfermented wine he would certainly have employed a less equivocal term to express his meaning.
     With Dr. Ellis, we heartily deplore the dreadful prevalence of drunkenness in our time, but we think it is only the natural outcome of the spiritual drunken- ness which prevails in the Churches around us. And while we believe that neither the spiritual nor the natural kind is so common in the New Church, we yet think that the fact ought-not to be lost sight of that we, as well as others, have by inheritance from those who have gone before us, as well as by practice, a tendency to this vice, and that therefore the avoidance of "The wine that inebriates," as well as of "strong drink" in all its forms, is advisable for us all, and especially the young; and, in the case of many, total abstinence from everything of the kind is perhaps the only safe course.
CORRECTION NOTE CORRECTED 1886

CORRECTION NOTE CORRECTED       W. D       1886

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-I desire to correct a note by the Rev. Geo. N. Smith, in the January issue of New Church Life, wherein he imputes an idea to "many New Churchmen" which, as assumed, no one ever held. What the "many New Churchmen" alluded to really hold, is-
     1. The Word (including sacraments) can be destroyed by "falsities from evil" with every one, and in any organization.
     2. The Word considered in itself can never be destroyed. That is, its use to those who go worthily to it, even if such persons be in error, and their religious observances be in another organization than ours.
     The Divinely inspired writings of Swedenborg tell us that "ignorance excuses," and that falsities from evil do injury, but not falsities, not from evil. (A. E. 867.) There are many who subscribe to false doctrines unwittingly, and whose lives, therefore, give the lie to what they externally assent. (D. P. 101.) When the LORD "left the Old Church and passed over to the New," did He turn His back upon those who, although in falsities, still clung to Him, and deny them the use of His Word (including sacraments)? or did He say that "His Church, which is called the New Jerusalem," would tarry amongst them whilst advancing to maturity"? (See A. E. 764.) The question I want to see decided is:-Does our New Church visible Organization constitute the whole natural embodiment of the New Jerusalem-the use of the Word, and all religious observances being wholly destroyed with the "Elect," and remaining so until they join our Organization? If this question be answered in the affirmative by "the LORD'S Books," as Swedenborg truly calls them, then the issue is closed in favor of the view that the Doctrines externally assented to by the general body in which the sacraments are administered are the internals of those sacraments with every individual member, and not the spirit, be it reverential or profane; with which he goes forward in obedience to the Divine command according to the light given him. W. D.

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NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


     NEW CHURCH LIFE.
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     PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1886=116.
     AT HOME.


     The East.-Pennsylvania.-THE address of New Church Life has been changed from 1802 Mount Vernon Street to 759 Corinthian Avenue.
     THE General Church of Pennsylvania will probably meet in Philadelphia on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 19th to 21st.
     Mr. W. H. Alden has been called by the American New Church Tract and Publication Society to fill the place of the late I. N. Gregory as manager of its Book Room.
     BISHOP Benade has resumed his Conversations on Education. The class meets every Wednesday evening in the main room of the Boys' School of the Academy of the New Church, and numbers about fifty.
     AFTER an interesting discussion on the woman's suffrage question, at a recent meeting of the Kensington Society, twenty-two supported the resolution demanding woman's suffrage, while twenty-five voted against it.
     DR. Edward Cranch of Erie, delivered a lecture before the Erie Natural History Society on the "Origin of Animal Forms," treating the "subject from the New Church point of view and giving a "sketch of the plan of creation, as revealed in the last century through the specially inspired Swedenborg.
     THE Rev. Richard de Charms, Head Master of the Boys' School of the Academy, has greatly improved the appearance of the school rooms by decorating the walls in various ways with Hebrew inscriptions, portraits of eminent men, ethnological curiosities, etc.
     This Rev. J. B. Hibbard visited Allentown on the 3d of January and conducted services morning and evening. In the morning one person was baptized into the Church four young ladies were confirmed, and the Holy Supper was administered. Services will be conducted by a minister of the General Church of Pennsylvania twice a month instead of once, as heretofore.
     SINCE its institution, the Orphanage Department of the Academy of the New Church has paid out $1,674.43 in aid of its charges. Contributions have been received from sixteen States in the Union and from Canada; Sunday-schools are particularly active in this work. The object of the Orphanage being to educate the fatherless to become truly-Christian men and women, they are all placed in New Church Schools.
     Massachusetts.-MR. George S. Wheeler will conduct services at Dorchester; he is a student at the Convention's Theological School.
     New York.- THE New York Association will meet in the Church of the New York Society on February 22d.
     THE Brooklyn (English) Society has engaged Messrs. Ager, Giles, Reed, Smyth, Seward, and Mann as lecturers in a renewed attempt at evangelization in the City of Churches.
     New Jersey.-THE Rev. B. D. Palmer will continue his labors in Paterson for another month, as they are meeting with "promising results."
     The South.-THE Maryland Association will meet on February 22d.
     The West.-Illinois.-THE Immanuel Church, of Chicago, at present holds its meetings at the house of Mr. O. Blackman, 620 Fulton Street, West Side; in the afternoon at Mrs. Falk's residence, 307 Mohawk Street, North Side. The Doctrinal classes also meet at private houses.
     SINCE beginning his ministrations in Chicago the Rev. E. C. Bostock baptized two adults and six children.
     THE Rev. L. P. Mercer holds services in the three churches belonging to the Chicago Society, in the morning on the South Side, in the afternoon on the North Side, and in the evening on the West Side.
     Ohio.-In connection with the Sunday-school of the Cincinnati Society are three doctrinal classes under the leadership of Mr. S. S. Carpenter, Professor Thomas French, Jr. and Mr. C. B. Chase.
     Kansas.-THE Rev. F. L. Higgins, evidently a convert from the Old Church, has been preaching for the Topeka, Kansas, Society during the absence of Mr. Dunham.
     California.-The Riverside Society, which organized last June with twenty-two adult and five junior members, has purchased a property with a school-house upon it. The building will be altered into a house of warship for the Society.

     Canada.-THE Rev. Joseph S. David has been called to work at Hamilton and Parkdale. The Rev. Mr. Daniels has been thus relieved of a part of his work, a step which was very necessary, as his health has been greatly taxed by his many duties.
     A SUNDAY-school has been begun in Parkdale.
     THE Missionary Board of the Canada Association has opened a large and commodious Book Room at No. 20 Adelaide Street, East Toronto.

     ABROAD

     Great Britain.-England.-THE recent report of the North of England New Church Missionnary and Colportage Society announces that during the month of December upward of seventy books were sold, of which eight were works of Swedenborg.
     A MISSION conducted during past year at Ilford, in Essex, has resulted in the establishment of a Society. The building of a church is in prospect.
     AMONG the members that, by the recent election, have returned to the House of Commons, is Mr. William Mather, one of the trustees of the New Church Conference.
     PENDING the appointment of a successor to the Rev. W. C. Barlow at the Camberwell Society, services are conducted by well-known preachers. Thus far the Rev. Messrs. R. L. Tafel, R. J. Tilson, and Peter Ramage, and Mr. T. F. Robinson have filled the pulpit.
     AT Brightlingsea, during the first quarter of the winter session, the different meetings in connection with the systematic study of the Writings and church work, have been well attended. The Wednesday evening meeting, at which the True Christian Religion is studied, has more than once reached fifty-five.
     Wales.-THE Rev. W. C. Barlow has attached himself to the Congregational Church, and from time to time preaches New Church doctrines in the chapels throughout the country.
ERRATA 1886

ERRATA              1886




     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.




     In the first edition of the January number:
     Page 7, line 25 from bottom, for "Keutlingen" read "Reutlingen."
     Page 9, line 14 from bottom, for "never" read "now."
     Page 9, line 15 from bottom, for "head" read "heard."
     Page 10, line 12 from bottom, for "antitypes" read "correspondents."     
     Page 14, line 15 from bottom, for "quid" read "qui."
     Page 14, line 15 from bottom, for "constant" read "constat."
     Page 16, line 27 from top, for "is" read "will probably become."

     [These have been corrected in the electronic text.]
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886


     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes. p. 17.-The Genealogy of the LORD, p. 18.-Total Abstinence. p. 18.-Swedenborg's Insanity. p. 19.-Conversation on Education, pp.19-21.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS.-Notes, pp. 21-23.-The Rev. John Worcester's Notes, p. 23.
     FICTION.-The True Story of One Girl's Life, pp. 24-26-A Movement, p. 26.-Honest Doubts, p. 27.-The Strange Adventures of Tom, pp. 27-28.
     COMMUNICATED.-Correction Notes, p. 28.-The New Jerusalem Magazine on the Immanuel Church, pp. 29-30.-The Wine that Inebriates, pp. 30-31.-A Correction Note Corrected. p. 31.
     NEWS GLEANINGS p. 22.
     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, p. 32.


33



NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, MARCH, 1886=116.     No. 3.
     IN an editorial on the work of Sam Jones, the well-known revivalist, The Independent of New York says: "And it is a work which is sure to affect not simply the spiritual man but one's practical life. Sam Jones preaches morals as well as piety. His converts are pledged to give up drunkenness and lying and stealing and all filthiness of naughtiness." This is a practical admission that the giving up of all the vileness named is not deemed necessary to salvation in the Old Church, and that a revivalist who demands pledges of abstinence from such evils from his converts is so rare a creature as to be deemed worthy of especial mention.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     DR. HOLCOMBE'S letter in the January number of the Independent contains the following in its opening: "I expect to prove, in the face of Swedenborg's repeated declaration of the fixity of the infernal life, that the salvation or redemption of all devils and satans, according to universal truths revealed through Swedenborg himself, is possible, feasible, and in the highest degree probable. The power has been given me to make this so clear, that those who are seeking the genuine truth for its own sake, and no others can ever find it or see it when found, will be deeply impressed by what I am about to utter." If the power has been given Dr. Holcombe to make clear the falsity of the Writings, it unquestionably follows that he is a greater revelator than was Swedenborg, and to be consistent with his own statements he should openly assert the same. But in reality he does make this assertion, for what other meaning is to be found in the following from the same letter: "Swedenborg from his spiritual standpoint saw it all [the state of the hells], and could see no further. So he left them to despair. The hour of the LORD had not yet come." The italics are ours.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IN the January New-Church Independent, Mr. Henry Miller makes an attack on those who do not favor Dr. Holcombe's views, which savors more of bad feeling than reason. As this contributor is the type of several who write for the Independent, it may be well to examine briefly some of his arguments. The first one we notice may be summed up thus: The First and Second Comings of the LORD were "New Movements," and were opposed by the corrupt clergy and laity of the time; from this it is concluded that those who oppose the present "New Movement" are of a like nature. To shift the meaning of a term in a chain of reasoning is an indication of sophistry or ignorance: this Mr. Miller has done, unless he maintains that Dr. Holcombe's "New Movement" is a Third Coming of the LORD; but to do this is to deny his own words anent the Second Coming, for Dr. Holcombe distinctly contradicts one of the leading Doctrines of the Writings, which are that Second Coming; which is a denial of the divinity of the body in which it is found.
     The second argument is as follows: "But when some of the New Church scribes make brief extracts from the Writings of such a differently experienced, because differently functional brother, just for the sake of derision and to cause suspicion, as some of our New Church periodicals of late have done . . . such treatment is antichristian and infernal." We shall let this pass as a mere slip of the pen, for Mr. Miller can only maintain what we have italicized by affirming that he has the power, possessed by the LORD alone, of seeing men's interior states.
     Mr. Miller also indulges in a little allegory. He compares the opposers of the "New Movement" to the teeth in a body, which should deny that the nose had the faculty of smelling, because they, the teeth, had never experienced that sensation. This style of argument is powerful only when there is a striking analogy between the figures or their attributes, and the subject to which they are applied; and as no one has been silly enough to argue against the "New Movement" that it is not true because he has not experienced it, Mr. Miller's allegory is pointless.
     It is to be hoped that the day is not far off when our people will learn that assaulting a proposition, advanced by any one as a truth, is quite distinct from assaulting persons.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IT is a fundamental principle in the art of criticism that particular expressions be not disconnected from the general tenor of thought in which they are used. This principle Mr. Very fails to observe when he endeavors to harmonize the two contrasted statements, or else he could not say that "the question seems to turn largely upon the sense in which the words 'Revelation' and 'Infinite Truth' are used." In the year 1877 the Messenger openly denied the Doctrine that the Writings were written by the LORD through an inspired medium, and of this the quotation in our January issue, that the Writings are "not God's writings," gives evidence. At the present time it acknowledges the truth that the Writings were written, to use Swedenborg's declaration "by the LORD through me." In the year 1877 the Messenger did not acknowledge that the Writings were of Divine authority. Now it does. Hence, granting that in the year 1877 that journal may have admitted that the Writings were some sort of a Revelation, it did not admit that the Writings were a Divine Revelation. Now it does.
     Taking the phrases out of their connection with the leading sentiment, our correspondent may do anything with them that he chooses, but taken in connection with the whole spirit of the Messenger at the respective periods, the "subsequent acknowledgment" may be most legitimately construed into a denial of the former position."
     As to the relation of the Writings to the Word, and whether they are the Internal Sense of the Word, we refer our correspondent to the fill, title of the Arcana Coelestia, of its particular chapters, of the Apocalypse Revealed, and of the Apocalypse Explained, or more especially to the opening sentence of the Arcana: "The Arcana Coelestia which are disclosed in the Sacred Scripture or Word of the LORD are contained in the Explication which is the Internal Sense of the Word."

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The whole subject of the relation of the Writings to the
Word is very ably presented in the monograph entitled The New Heresy, published by the Academy of the New Church, and if our correspondent will apply to their Book Room for the same; he will, we believe, have his     scruples effectually removed.
     It may be that he will refuse to send for the monograph because of the "uncharitable" sound of its title, but the consideration may commend it to his favor that the Academy in publishing that monograph, and that New Church Life in using the word "heresy," last January, was each mindful of the proviso contained in the Arcana (n. 1834). What has been stigmatized as a heresy in each case denied a "fundamental principle of the Church," that is, the Internal Sense of the Word, revealed by the LORD through Swedenborg. Nor is it with the view of causing division and discord that heresies have thus been denominated and uncovered, but with the view of furthering the cause of charity by exposing to the rational sight of fellow New Churchmen falsities which would sap the very foundation of the New Church-so that these falsities may be put away, and real harmony and true charity may be established in the Church.
CO-OPERATION IN EDUCATION 1886

CO-OPERATION IN EDUCATION       Rev. EUGENE J. E. SCHRECK       1886

     "The Angel of the LORD appeared in a dream to Joseph, saying: 'Having arisen, take the Boy, and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be there until I shall say.' He, having arisen, took the Boy and His mother by night, and departed into Egypt and was there until the death of Herod: That it might be fulfilled what was said by the Prophet, saying, 'Out of Egypt have I called my Son.'"-Matthew ii, 18-15.

     THE LORD in the world fulfilled all things of the Word, and thereby became the Word, that is, the Divine Truth, even in ultimates, as is taught in the Gospel: "And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, the glory as oft he Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."- (John 1, 14.) To "become flesh" is to become the Word in ultimates. (T. C. R. 261.) By this is not meant merely that He fulfllled the prophecies apparent from the letter, and such a one as is referred to in the literal sense of our text, but also that He embodied in ultimate form all the Infinite arcana of the Divine Wisdom contained in the highest sense of Sacred Scripture. The words of Doctrine on this subject are that the LORD "fulfilled all the Divine Truth and the Divine Good which are in the Word, as well those which are in its natural sense as those which are in its spiritual sense," and that thus "He-became Good Itself and Truth Itself consequently the Word." (T. C. R. 263.)
     Of this our text offers an illustration. While it may appear as if Joseph's flight into Egypt with the Infant LORD was in fulfillment of the prophecy from Hosea xi, 1 only, it was in reality a fulfillment of numberless passages in the Word which treat of the sojourning in Egypt of the Sons of Israel and of their forefathers, and, indeed, of all kindred passages. This - is evident from the prophecy in Hosea. In act; this prophecy, in its merely literal sense, does not appear to treat of the LORD at all, for it reads: "When Israel 'was a boy, then I loved him, and out of Egypt have I called my son."
     By "Israel," in the spiritual sense, is signified the Church, and in the highest sense, the LORD, who, as He is all of Heaven, is also all of the Church: And because the sons of Israel were to represent the Church, and it was according to Divine Order that they should first be instructed in such things as were to serve the rational, and by means of this the spiritual, therefore they first sojourned in Egypt, and then they were driven into the desert, that they might undergo temptations, and by means of them the natural man might be subdued; for man does not become rational unless empty and false scientifics be removed and thus the natural man be purged, which is effected principally by temptations. (A. E. 654.) In the history of the Israelites this was represented by the journeying in the desert, but man's instruction in scientifics, which might serve the rational, was represented by their sojourning in Egypt. "Egypt" signifies the science of cognitions in respect to the LORD, but science or knowledge in general in respect to all other men. For in Egypt, as also in other countries, was the Ancient Church, and when the Church was there, sciences flourished there above other things, hence by "Egypt" is signified science. (A. C. 1462.)
     Inasmuch as by "Israel" in the highest sense is meant the LORD, therefore also He, when an Infant, was carried down into Egypt in the manner described in the words of our text: By these words is also signified the first instruction of the LORD, for the LORD was instructed like another man, but from His Divine He imbibed all things more intelligently and wisely than all others. But this withdrawal into Egypt only represented the instruction, for as all representatives of the Israelitish and Jewish Church regarded Him, therefore also He represented and perfected them in Himself, for thus He fulfilled all things of the Law. Indeed, representatives were the ultimates of Heaven and of the Church, and all prior things which are rationals, spirituals, and celestials enter into ultimates and are in them, wherefore the LORD was by them in ultimates. And because in ultimates is all strength, therefore from firsts by ultimates He subjugated all the hells and reduced into order all things in the heavens. Hence the whole life of the LORD in the world was representative, even unto all the things which are recounted in the Gospels concerning His Passion. (A. E. 654.)
     That the LORD, as is represented by His sojourn in Egypt, was instructed in boyhood like another man, appears from what is said of him in Luke ii, 40: "The Boy grew and was strengthened in spirit, and was filled with wisdom, and grace was upon Him." And when He was twelve years old, "Joseph and the mother of JESUS, after three days, found Him in the Temple, sitting in the midst of the learned, both hearing them and asking them questions; all that heard Him were amazed at His understanding and answers. Seeing Him, they wondered, but He said to them, What is it that ye seek me? Know ye not that it behooves me to be in those things which are my Father's?" (Luke ii, 46-49.) And further on it is written: "Then Jesus increased in wisdom and in age, and in grace with God and men." (Luke ii, 52.) (A. C. 1457.)
     That the LORD was instructed in boyhood, like other men, appears also from the fact that the External man cannot be reduced to correspondence and concordance with the Internal man except by cognitions. The External man is corporeal and sensual, nor does it receive anything celestial and spiritual unless cognitions be implanted in it, as in soil. Celestial things can have in these cognitions their recipient vessels. But cognitions must be from the Word. Cognitions from the Word are such that they are open from the LORD Himself; for the Word itself is from the LORD through Heaven, and in its each and every part, is the life of the LORD, although it does, not so appear in external form.

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Hence it may appear that the LORD in boyhood willed not to be imbued with other cognitions than those of the Word, which, as was said, was open to Him from JEHOVAH Himself, His Father, with whom He might be united and become one. And all the more because there is nothing in the Word which does not regard Him in inmosts, and which does not first come from Him. The Human Essence was only an addition to His Divine Essence, which was from eternity. (A. C. 1461.)
     Our text-treating thus of the manner of conjunction of the LORD'S Human Essence with His Divine Essence, or, what is the same, of the manner in which the LORD as to His Human Essence also became JEHOVAH, and that this was inaugurated from boyhood, which inauguration is specifically treated of-involves more arcana than man can ever believe; but those which can be told are so few as to be hardly, anything. Beside the most arcane things concerning the LORD, it also involves arcana concerning the instruction and regeneration of man, that he may become spiritual; and not only that of man in particular, but also that of the Church in general: Then also it involves arcana concerning the instruction of infants in heaven-in a word, concerning that of all who become images and likenesses of the LORD: These arcana never appear in the sense of the letter, because historicals spread over and overshadow them, but they do appear in the internal sense. (A. C. 1502.)
     When the sun illumines the clouds, what warmth and brightness of color they reflect on to the earth! So with the cloudy literal sense of our text, when illumined by the Doctrine of the Internal Sense that we have just considered, what wonderful Light, stimulating to our affections and instructing to our understanding, is reflected on to our minds!
     It is in its application to the instruction and education of children that we are to turn to our text, thus illumined, on this occasion. Regeneration, while specifically it begins when man acts from his own proper freedom according to his own reason, that is, when man enters adult age, has its real beginning at the birth, nay, at the conception of the child. For his reason will be in great part formed by and based upon the knowledges which he has acquired through instruction during childhood and youth; and his freedom will be largely influenced by what this instruction has taught him to be right and proper. He is responsible as a free agent merely for that which in this capacity he does freely and thinks to be rational. But his parents are responsible for the basic principles and knowledges that he has imbibed during childhood and youth. It is a most grave responsibility, and one that should be seriously considered and never lightly overlooked. For while it is true that the LORD alone regenerates man, man must co-operate as of himself, and during his minority this co-operation devolved upon the parents. This co-operation on the part of the parents is described in the internal sense of our text, for Joseph while not the generative father of the LORD, bore truly the same relation to the infant LORD which every father bears to his child after birth: he was the means in the hands of the LORD for the care and preservation of the tender body in which the
      God of the Universe had mercifully deigned to clothe Himself. What a most solemn obligation! Yet did it represent the obligation under which every parent stands to the LORD. To every parent is committed the responsibility of caring for and preserving from evil influences a human being which is to be a tabernacle of the living God an image and likeness of the LORD. The parent is to co-operate with the LORD in the work of instruction and education.
     This co-operation of parents in the external life of the child with the LORD, who is operating in its internal life, is an essential in the progress of the child. On all creation this law is inscribed: that externals have such a connection with internals, that in every operation they make one. In illustration, let us take some of the things of the human body, as this corresponds to every human operation. In the whole and in every part of the human body are externals and internals: the externals there are called skins, membranes, and sheaths; the internals are forms variously composed and woven together of nerve-fibres and blood-vessels. The sheath which surrounds, by extensions from itself, enters into all the interiors, even to the inmosts. Thus the external, which is the sheath, conjoins itself with all the internals, which are organic forms of fibres and vessels. From which it follows that as the external acts or is acted upon, so also the internals act or are acted upon, for there is a perpetual bundling together of all. Take only some general covering in the body, as, for example, the pleura, which is the common covering of the Chest, or of the Heart and Lungs. If you examine it closely you 'will find that this common covering, by various circumvolutions, and then by extensions from itself, finer and finer, enters into the inmosts of the lungs, even into the least bronchial branches, and into the very follicles which are the beginnings of the lungs; not to mention its subsequent progress through the trachea, into the larynx, toward the tongue. From this it appears that there is a perpetual connection of the outmost with in masts, where-fore as the external acts or is acted upon, thus also interiors from inmosts act or are acted upon. This is the reason that when that outmost sheath, which is the Pleura, is congested or inflamed or ulcerated, the lungs labor from their inmosts; and if the disease grows worse, all action of the lungs ceases, and the man dies. So it is with every other part of the human body. And the same law that obtains in natural forms and their operations, which relate to motions and actions, obtains also in spiritual forms and in their changes and variations of state, which relate to the operations of will and understanding. And as man in some external operations is together with the LORD, and the liberty of acting according to reason is not taken away, so the LORD cannot act otherwise in internals than as together with man in externals. (D. P. 180.)
     The child not having liberty and rationality, the parents act in its stead. It is evident that for the purposes of co-operation with the LORD it is the duty of parents sincerely, faithfully, and well to apply themselves to the task of learning from the LORD His mode of operation. And this duty is indicated in our text: "The Angel of the LORD appeared unto Joseph in a dream saying, 'Having arisen, take the Boy and His mother, and flee - into Egypt, and be there until I shall say.'" Every act, the descent into Egypt and the return, was executed by Joseph in faithful obedience to express commands of the LORD through His appointed means. So should it be with every parent: so must it be, if he would truly fulfill his obligations to the LORD, who has given him so solemn a responsibility.
     This responsibility is, of course, shared by the teachers that engage in the education of his children, but this share does not lessen his responsibility how careful must he be in the selection of teachers to whom to intrust the training of his children! And does he exercise this care when he selects teachers who, on their; part, do not learn of the LORD through His "Angel," which is the Divine Truth revealed in the Writings of the New Church?

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If co-operation between the internal and the external is essential, it is just as essential between the component parts of the external. There must therefore be a full, free, and hearty co-operation between teachers and parents. This co-operation is mainly established by and based upon the recognition of a common Source of Life and Light. But recognition alone is not sufficient. Parents and teachers must zealously learn together the principles and laws by which the LORD instructs and regenerates man.
     If both parents and teachers will keep uppermost in their thoughts the one grand law that in the instruction and education of children their spiritual prosperity is to be primarily considered, and their natural prosperity in the world only secondarily; if they will earnestly and duly weigh the Doctrine, so clearly enunciated, that the scientifics acquired in childhood are not primarily for use in future callings and occupations, but for use as vessels recipient of things celestial and spiritual and both, will work on that basis, then much, very much, is already effected toward a harmonious co-operation in the work of education, and success, so far as it depends on human agency, may be considered assured. Unfortunately, this law is not fully recognized.
     As parents and teachers, and all who are in any way interested in the work of education, progress in learning the LORD'S laws of order that govern man's life, and everyone according to his respective individuality, his bent at mind and inclination, strives to carry out these laws within his sphere of co-operation, and forms his own methods and modes of action, it may often happen that these methods will differ, and this will naturally give rise to criticism. Criticism is a useful art, but, like all the arts, it should be practiced only from a love of the beautiful, that is, of what is order an rue, not from a blind love for one's own productions or from a fault-finding spirit. If it arises from a love of the Truth, it will promote harmonious co-operation; if from a selfish or a captious spirit, it will produce discord and disunion. In the Old Church it is habitual with parents to criticise freely the methods and personality of teachers, and to do this in the presence of the children, and on the basis of the accounts which children bring home of their teachers' actions. This should not be in the New Church. Even where, from personal knowledge of the teachers, a parent has just cause for criticism, it should not be spread before the children; for not having attained the age of rationality, they are wanting in that judgment which distinguishes between the official and his faults or delinquencies. What would the parents say if the teachers were to particularize the parents' faults and shortcomings, as parents, before their children? Yet is it any juster for parents thus to act toward the teachers? This is an evil which it requires some force of character to combat, inasmuch as there is a powerful
sphere in the world at large opposed to heavenly criticism. It is a statute of the New Church concerning governors that they must he treated with dignity and honor and not be injured by word or deed. This, a law of heavenly origin, is continually and most flagrantly violated in, this country above all others. Teachers, being the maintainers of order in schools, are governors over them, and children must learn to treat them with honor and dignity; and never to injure them by word or deed.
     They never will learn this, with the powerful sphere to the contrary existing in the world; unless there be as powerful a home sphere to offset the world's sphere and to keep them in proper relation to parents and teachers. So, on the other hand, must teachers co-operate with the parents to keep the children in the due filial respect and love to their parents-a love and a respect continually suffering violence in this unnatural age.
     Teachers and parents should consider that they are members of one family, whose Head is the Father, who is in the heavens. And as true members of a family will interchange views and opinions, giving freely, and freely receiving, so should parents and teachers stand to each other and treat each other with the affectionate love of charity, not blind, but conjoined with the clearly discerning wisdom of a true faith. When their charges are to be taken down to Egypt, the voice of the Angel of the LORD must be listened to and faithfully obeyed in every particular. Then, as these charges are instructed in the scientifics necessary as vessels recipient of spiritual and celestial things, and they are gradually brought to the age where they will act from their own freedom, and a good one; according to their own reason, and that one true-the parents and teachers will acknowledge the finger of God in it all; and with humility they will hear that commendation of their work, which is the true reward that they may look forward to Our Infinite, Omniscient, and All-powerful LORD saying of these charges and of every one of them: "Out of Egypt have I called My Son." Amen.
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     [THESE CONVERSATIONS WERE BEGUN IN THE ISSUE FOR FEBRUARY, 1885.]

     A COVENANT is not formed with man otherwise than by the reception of influx of the Truth from the Divine, and then by correspondence; for superior things when they inflow into inferior things are not otherwise received. . . . Correspondence is not given unless inferiors be subjected to superiors by subordination, and when they are subjected, the superiors act in the inferiors altogether like a cause in its effects."- A. C. 8778.

     A Covenant is Conjunction. Conjunction with the LORD 15 the end of man's regeneration, and therefore, also, the end of education. The means of regeneration are Truths from the Divine, and these are likewise the means of education. In their lower and lowest forms, truths are all teachings, all knowledge, and scientifics, having correspondence with things rational and spiritual from the Divine. When scientifics corresponding to Divine Truths, presented in rational and spiritual forms of Doctrine, are introduced into a mind, they constitute vessels receptive of influx from the Divine, which, being subordinated to the Divine, are actuated by it as by a cause to bring forth corresponding effects; thus to give to the Divine power in and over the mind and the life. This is the ordering of human life in accordance with its end in the order of creation. And in this ordering, Instruction and Education take their place as natural means in subordination to the spiritual means of Divine- Revelation, for the successive influx and reception of the Divine Truths whereby the Covenant or conjunction of the LORD with man is established.
     It is a law of spiritual and natural life that things superior or interior tend constantly to things inferior and exterior, and by these to their terminations in corresponding ultimates, in which they can he fixed. They are causes seeking to produce effects, or they are like souls striving to clothe themselves with bodies in which they can be in the rest of fulfilling every love or end of their existence. The whole Spiritual World is such a cause, or like such a soul, tending with a constant and most powerful tendency to embody itself in the substances and matters of the natural world. In the light of this teaching, it is plainly to be seen that every good from the LORD tends to live in a truth, every truth in a rational cognition and every cognition in a scientific, every scientific in a sensitive of the sensual mind, and every sensitive in an object of the world of matter.

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The actual fulfillment of this tendency, however, does not depend on the effort itself, but on the inmost principle and on the quality of the soul from which it proceeds. For, as we are taught:

     Interior truths may indeed be inseminated with scientifics, but the truths within them do not have life before there is good in them. Life is in good, and from good in truths, and thus from good by truths in scientifics; then good is like a soul to truths, and by truths to scientifics, which last named are like a body.- A. C. 6077.

     Good from the Divine Good of the LORD is Use, and this is of the will with man. It is what man loves, desires, and does when opportunity offers. And use is nothing but charity toward the neighbor. Truths, therefore, are really living causes, productive of effects in man only so far as they are made alive by charity toward the neighbor. The same is true of scientifics and of things sensual, as inferior forms of truth. When the end of use is in them, they become so many forms of charity, by which the love of the neighbor comes into fullness and power, and in which it exists as a soul in its body.
     From these things it is evident that the true order of human loving, thinking, and doing is that truths are to be received from the LORD by Revelation, and to be taken into the understanding from and by an affection which is of the love of the will. This affection is in man a good which desires and seeks its consort. It goes without explanation that the form of the consort taken into the house will be according to the quality of the suing affection. The man acquires knowledges and scientifics adapted to the performance of the use which he has in end. If the use be genuine charity toward the neighbor, the truth which he receives from Revelation will take on in him the form of natural intelligence, that is to say, will be formed in and according to the light of the world, i. e., according to what is of common sense and adequate to the doing of things in the natural world. In such a case the light of Heaven, which is Truth revealed, shines into the light of the world which is natural intelligence; and the warmth of Heaven, which is love toward the neighbor, makes both alive, conjoins them by a common affection, and produces this conjunction, a charity in act, or a Use.
     In the Arcana we are taught as follows:

     It is good from which truths are, and truths from good from which scientifics are; thus the latter are derived and produced from the former; but still good is the all in all in the products and derivatives, because they are from good. The case is similar with end, cause, and effect; the end is the all of the cause, and the cause is the all of the effect, whence it follows that the end is the all of the effect; insomuch that if the end or final cause be taken away, there will be neither efficient cause nor effect. In like manner do the celestial, spiritual, and natural succeed each other; from the celestial is all the Spiritual, and from the Spiritual is all the natural, that is to say, from the celestial by the Spiritual; that is called celestial with man which is of the good of love, spiritual which is of the truth of faith thence, and natural which is of the scientific; the scientific is natural, because the scientific is truth appearing in the light of the world, but the truth of faith, so far as it is of faith with man [is truth appearing] in the light of Heaven. From these things it may be evident how the one is produced and derived from the other, and that the first is the all in the products and derivatives, insomuch that if the first be taken away, the things thence surrounding will perish. That the Divine is the first of all every one may know who enjoys any faculty of perception; wherefore this is the all in all of the order of things, thus in all the things of good and truth, which make heaven and which make the life of heaven with man.- A. C. 9568.

     This Divine teaching makes it evident, on the one hand, that unless there be an affection of good or of use in the heart, there can be no genuine truths in the internal mind, and no genuine scientific in the external mind, and, on the other hand, that the presence of such an affection will impart to truths and scientifics a certain softness and pliancy, in consequence of which they can easily be disposed in order for application to the end designed, and thus come into a heavenly form. Truth in the heavenly form, as it is in the mind of an angel, has this characteristic, that it is always at the disposal of good affections, and even serves them freely in their coming into act. The angel thinks as he loves, and acts as he thinks, from love. This understanding does not resist his will, but, like a married partner, receives the life of the will into itself, and provides that it be continued as a life in its degree and plane, and thence in lower degrees and planes, until it appears embodied in the full form and power of an existing word 6r deed. And this last is the corresponding external of that affection in which it appears and is represented. Hence it is that the outward form and existence of an angel, with all their surroundings, are altogether representative of his internal life of love and thought. (See A. C. 7068 and 5423.) The order of human life, therefore, effected by means of the faculty of receiving the truth of good, begins in charity from the LORD, by which alone faith in the understanding can be vivified and made to minister and serve, and by faith the scientifics of the natural mind. In the way of this order, charity produces use and terminates in use, in which is the ultimate existence of its heavenly form for every angel is a form of use, and every man of the church is a form of use.

     The faculty of receiving the truth of good and the good of truth is spoken of, because none others are in that faculty except those who live the life of charity; this life lives that faculty. They greatly err who believe that faith without charity can give this quality, for faith without charity is hard and resisting, and rejects all influx from the LORD; but charity with faith is yielding and soft, and receives the Influx; thence it is that charity gives that faculty, but not faith without charity; and because charity gives that faculty, it is also- that which saves; for they who are saved are not saved by charity from themselves, but by charity from the LORD, consequently by the faculty of receiving it [i. e., charity].- A. C. 8321.

     Therefore, inasmuch as the kingdom of the LORD is a kingdom of uses which are ends of loves, the order of human life which begins in love and charity terminates in the kingdom of the LORD, for which man was created. It is written:

     The kingdom of the LORD, which is the Spiritual World, is a kingdom of uses, and uses there are ends; thus it is a kingdom of ends; but ends there succeed each other in various order, and are likewise so consociated. The ends which succeed are called mediate ends, but the ends which are consociated are called consociate ends; all these ends are mutually and subordinately so conjoined that they respect one end, which is the universal of all; this end is the LORD, and in heaven with its recipients, it is love and faith in Him; love there is the end of all wills, and faith is the end of all thoughts, which are of the understanding. When all and single things have respect to one end they are held in an inseparable connection and make a one; for they are under the aspect, government, and Providence of One, who bends all to Himself according to the laws of subordination and consociation, and thus conjoins them to Himself, and at the same time mutually to their consociates, and thus in turn conjoins them to one another. Hence it is that the faces of all in heaven are ever turned to the LORD who is the Sun there, and for that reason the Centre of all aspects, and, what is wonderful, however the angels may turn themselves. (n. 3638.) And because the LORD is in the good of mutual love, and in the good of charity toward the neighbor, for He loves all and by love conjoins all, therefore they are also turned to the LORD by regarding their consociate from that love.- A. C. 9828.

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See also n. 454 and n. 997, in the latter of which we have the following teaching:     

     As regards use, the case is this: those who are in charity, that is, in love toward the neighbor, for which love the delight of pleasures has life, do not regard the fruition of pleasures except for the sake of use; because charity is not anything but the works of charity; charity consists in exercise or in use; he who loves the neighbor as himself never perceives the delight of charity except in exercise or use; therefore, the life of charity is the life of uses. Such is the life of the whole heaven for the kingdom of the LORD, because it is the kingdom of mutual love, is a kingdom of uses; therefore all enjoyment which is from charity has its joy from use; the more exalted the use, the greater the joy; thence it is that, according to the essence and quality of use, the angels have felicity from the LORD. Such is the case with all enjoyment, the more exalted its use, the greater is its joy; as, for example, the delight of conjugial love, because from it is the seminary of human society, and from this the kingdom of the LORD in the heavens, which use is the greatest of all, therefore there is in it so much of delight, as said, that it is heavenly delight. The case with other enjoyments is similar, but with a difference according to the excellence of uses1 which uses are so numerous that they can hardly be arranged into genera and species; the one of them respects more nearly and directly, and the other more remotely and indirectly, the kingdom of the LORD, or the LORD. From these things it may also appear that all enjoyments are conceded to man, but for the sake of use, which [enjoyments] therefore, from the use in which they are, partake of heavenly felicity and live from it, with a difference.

     It is thus, then, that the LORD vivifies faith in man and by faith the scientifics in the natural mind, by the delights and pleasures which he receives from them, and by the same means He leads man to save himself by the truths of faith and science in doing uses. In the beginning, and with many persons through their entire life, this delight is only natural and of the quality of lust, for it is felt in the act of acquiring and in the fact of possessing scientifics and knowledges, without respect to their application to uses. They have no thought that they are only means which are to be employed for the attainment of other and better things, such as rational thought and judgment concerning what is right and wrong, concerning duty toward the neighbor and the LORD, etc. If this state be continued and confirmed, man will be turned away from the LORD, and will also divert his acquisitions from the service of the LORD, and therefore from the very beginning and end of the order of human life. And when scientifics and knowledges are thus debased to what is merely natural and earthly, they cease to subserve any truly human use, and are closed to all light from heaven, and finally to all life from heaven, become cold, hard, resisting, and then die.
     The opposite result follows upon the acquisition of scientifics and knowledges for the sake of having the life of man by means of them formed into a kingdom of heaven. This end causes them to grow, to expand, and to become soft and flexible by frequent service and application, being thereby opened to the influx of light and life from the LORD. They are sought and acquired not from any mere pleasure in possessing them, but from the delight of possessing increased by means of use to the neighbor. From this end, and for this end, they are loved;: and thus they are really loved according to the excellence of the uses which they subserve, or according as the LORD appears and is seen in them. (See A. C. 1472, also A. R. 200.)
     The first use for which scientifics are to be acquired is that man by means of them may learn to think. To this end every man is gifted with a love of knowing and' with a delight flowing from the activity of that love. When he has learned to think, he receives other gifts, with their delights, in the exercise of the love of thinking, and making use of scientifics, followed by the love of reasoning from them and preparing them for use; which is a love of discovering their various applications; which is finally succeeded by the love and delight of making actual applications of them and producing uses. By means of this actual doing of scientifics, the natural man, who acts and does, is conjoined with the internal man, who loves and thinks from knowledge, and in this conjunction use and the love of use rules, and the scientifics by means of which the state has been attained can be laid aside to make way for others of a more interior and excellent quality. (See A. C. 1487,)
     Scientifics and knowledges are of true and real value to man only so far as they are made subservient to a life of love to the LORD and charity toward the neighbor; for these loves alone as ends constitute man a rational being. We are taught that

     The rational can never be conceived and born or formed without scientifics and cognitions; but scientifics and cognitions have use as an end, and if use, then also have they life as an end, for all life is of uses because of ends. Unless they be learnt for the sake of the life of uses, they are of no moment, because of no use; from them alone, that is from scientifics and cognitions without the life of use, the rational becomes, as described, like a wild ass, morose, pugnacious, leading a parched and dry life, from a certain favor for truth, defiled by self-love; but when they have use as an end, they draw life from uses, but a life of such a quality-as are the uses. They who acquire cognitions in order that they may be perfected in the faith of love, because the true and very faith is love to the LORD and to the neighbor, are in the use of all uses and receive spiritual and celestial life from the LORD; and when they are in that life, they are in the faculty of perceiving all things which are of the LORD'S kingdom; in this life are all the angels, and because they are in this life, they are in very intelligence and wisdom.- A. C. 1964.
          [TO BE CONTINUED.]
WINE AT THE HOLY SUPPER 1886

WINE AT THE HOLY SUPPER              1886

     WE publish another letter from Mr. Presland, in which he endeavors to show that it is admissible to use must at the Holy Supper. We do not find in it any new argument, nor, in fact, anything that does not seem to have been sufficiently answered in our strictures on his former letter in the January number.
     Mr. Presland is mistaken when he supposes that we have "tacitly admitted that 'vinum' is used in the Writings for both fermented and unfermented." We have never thought that this was true, and, therefore, could neither admit it tacitly or in any other way. On the contrary, Mr. Presland will, on a careful re-reading of our remarks, find that we put the one or two cases in the Word where [yah' yin] is used for grape-juice soon after it is expressed from the grapes, on a similar footing with the passages where bread has not its common meaning, but is used for wheat, because bread is eventually made from it, and the making of bread is the chief orderly use of wheat. In the same way, because the chief orderly use of the expressed juice of the grape is that it may be changed into wine, therefore this juice is prospectively called wine. To show this, we quoted a parallel passage with respect to bread, the other element in the Holy Sapper. Of this it is said: "That He may bring forth bread out of the earth," and even further: "Bread [ lachem] is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart nor bruise it with his horsemen." (Isaiah xxviii, 28) Nobody supposes that loaves of bread were made to grow out of the ground, or that the Israelites bruised and threshed bread. Every one sees that by "bread" is here meant the grain out of which bread is made.

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Even so before the total abstinence movement, no one thought that wine was trodden out in its perfect state from the grapes; or that the fact that it is stated that "treaders tread out wine in the presses" proved that "wine" is not the fermented and purified result of that process, but the crude, impure, and imperfect juice as it runs out.
     That Swedenborg, in defending the general term, "genimem vitis" (the product of the Vine), includes both must and vine, is most natural. From the etymology of the term he would have been obliged to include the grapes as well, for they also are the product of the vine, but with the given context this was not necessary, because drinking is spoken of. But to make this fact a proof that must is permissible at the Holy Supper requires a great stretch of logic, especially in consideration of that other fact, that the Writings never speak of must, but always of wine, at the Holy Supper.
     Mr. Presland in his former article made a point of the fact that the butler of Pharaoh in his dream gave to the King the expressed juice of the grape, and this is called "wine," from which Mr. Presland concludes that "wine" is the grape-juice as soon as expressed. The absurdity of this conclusion will appear when we draw similar conclusions from other parts of the dream. We might say that the dream proves that in Egypt vines bud and blossom and bring forth ripe clusters, all in one night. Mr. Presland seems to overlook the fact that time does not enter as a factor into dreams, and just as the time necessary to grow grapes is contracted into a few minutes, so with the time and process of making wine.
     Mr. Presland seems to take it for granted that mustum is always unfermented, but this is by no means the case. The Hebrew     (tirosh), the Greek gleukos (gleukos), and the Latin "mustum," which is used to translate those terms, are simply wine of the first year, not yet matured therefore, but when, as usual, partly fermented, extremely intoxicating. On account of its lack of ripeness and perfection must signifies natural truth, but tome the spiritual, thus truth from good. (A. C. 3580, 5117.) From this we see that for the Holy Supper not the unfermented juice, nor partly fermented must, but good, old, fermented wine should be used.
     We have no hesitation in giving it as our opinion that where for the wine commanded by the LORD the unfermented grape-juice is used in the Communion, the Holy Supper is no more that holiest act of worship which the LORD has enjoined, and where by appropriate correspondences Heaven and the Church are conjoined, but that through the representative intrusion of man's self-intelligence in place of the Divine Truth, this conjunction is perverted and destroyed and the Holy Sacrament profaned.
     When Mr. Presland states that "it would be easy to multiply instances, where the Writings refer to unfermented must as 'wine,' so largely, indeed, as to make it a question which the Writings regard as the primary, and which the secondary or derivative use of the word," we are tempted to lose our confidence in the accuracy of his statements. We have carefully scanned the passages both in the Word and in the Writings where "wine" is mentioned, and we believe that the very few passages out of which it has been possible for teetotalers to make an argument have been carefully picked out already.
English New Church Magazine for February 1886

English New Church Magazine for February              1886

     THE English New Church Magazine for February, 1886, appears An a new and greatly improved external dress. Instead of the former blue covers, the Magazine is now bound in a tasteful cover of olive color, with a background made up of outlines of the Olive, the Vine, and the Fig-tree.
DAWN 1886

DAWN              1886

     IN The Dawn's review of Dr. Holcombe's last books Letters on Spiritual Subjects, we find the following applied to the New Church: "They [many of its members] see but a whitiness in the lustre of her splendor; her sphere is unsympathetic and cold; her robes are stained with many vices, etc." The Dawn probably does not mean here precisely what it says: loose writing is very prevalent, especially among those who often mistake their emotions for truths; for we think that a New Church periodical could hardly maintain that the robes of the Bride, the Lamb's wife, "are stained with many vices." Probably what is meant by the assertion is that there are many vices clinging to the unregenerated members of the external New Church; and who among us can boast himself regenerated? If this be The Dawn's meaning no one will dispute it; in fact, we need look no further than to the columns of that paper to see evidences, we will not say of vice, but of error, both in truth and courtesy.
     For instance, in the period immediately succeeding the one quoted, we find the assertion that Dr. Holcombe's book "is received by a 'conspiracy of silence.' Oh! this silence, and the endeavor to suppress the book, are a justification of his views, for the Woman clothed with the Sun, even in the wilderness, would surely have welcomed him to her bosom as a beloved Son,"
     In this quotation we have a statement of fact, an argument, and a display of emotion that to a clearheaded man of almost any school of thought must be meaningless, and to a New Churchman foolishness, to use a mild term. Going back a step, we come to the argument that this attempted suppression is a justification of Dr. Holcombe's views. The puerility of this argument is apparent when it is seen that to be valid we must first admit the absurdity that every attempted suppression or conspiracy of silence is a justification of the thing attempted to be suppressed. But on the ground of its own argument the Dawn stands convicted before the world. It has been absolutely silent, save for a covert and abusive attack, about the Life and the cause which it espouses. It has even carried its policy of "suppression" and its "conspiracy" to the length of refusing the Life the common courtesy of an exchange of papers. "Oh! this silence and the endeavor to suppress New Church Life are a justification of its views," etc.
     We now come to a question of easily verified fact Has there been a conspiracy of silence against Dr. Holcombe? The New Jerusalem Magazine published three long papers on his book, besides replies and shorter notices. How much space the Messenger devoted to the book we cannot state without going over its files, but it was not "silent." The Bole also noticed the book. The Life gave it a review and has noticed the movement from time to time. And lastly, the entire book is but a reprint of articles that were originally published in the New Church Independent. So much for the conspiracy. As for any attempt to suppress the book, any one can prove the entire groundlessness of this charge, by consulting the advertising columns of the official journals in England or America, or by sending the price of a copy to any New Church book centre in either country.
     The same issue of The Dawn contains an extract from Dr. Ellis' last pamphlet, eulogizing that journal, and in turn it has this to say: "The work is most valuable; because it is brimful of facts; luminous in its expositions . . . and his productions display great logical power and dialectical skill;" also that it "clearly and forcibly expounds the true doctrine respecting the wines of Scripture."

40



     As regards Dr. Ellis' "logical power," any one can satisfy himself by sending for his pamphlet and reading it. He will find therein a logic that whatever else it is, is certainly far from the logic of Aristotle, Whatley, or Mill. Let those who care to take the trouble, look on pages 38 and 39 of the book in question; they will find there a remarkable structure of argument built on the word "given"-and a forgetfulness that in the other life everything is "given" to angels as well as to others. Dr. Ellis' "powerful logic" enables us to take such an assertion as "John entered the house," and prove that John was a burglar. For instance, burglars enter houses, therefore John was a burglar.
     As regards the statement that Dr. Ellis has proved his theory regarding the wines of the Scriptures, we need only mention the fact that the National Temperance Society has been forced to abandon the position held by Dr. Ellis as untenable, and was forced to that abandonment by the learned and scholarly among the total abstinence men themselves.
REPRESENTATIVES 1886

REPRESENTATIVES              1886

     I.

     WHATSOEVER appears in the universe is a representative of the Kingdom of the LORD, even so, that there is nothing whatever in the atmospheric and starry universe, in the earth and its three kingdoms, which does not in its manner represent; for all and single things in nature are ultimate images." (A. C. 3483.)
     In view of this doctrine, often repeated in the Writings; it is a matter of amazement that there should be New Churchmen who practically deny it. Such a denial has of late been again made in one of the journals, by Mr. Barrett, in a criticism of our review of the Early English Conference Minutes. The criticism is in the main a protest against the Doctrine of Representatives as applied to Church Order. Mr. Barrett thinks that the acknowledgment that this Doctrine has this application "seems like looking back or going back to the old representative Jewish Church, is contrary to the explicit teaching of the Writings, and will tend to bring the New Church into disrepute if not into contempt among sensible people. Representatives in external and formal worship ceased when the LORD came into the world and the Jewish Church was consummated. This is plainly and repeatedly taught in the Writings."
     So thinks Mr. Barrett; and his thinking appears to be due to a temporary disregard of the doctrine that "all natural forms, both those which are animate and those which are inanimate are representative of the spiritual and celestial things which are in the Kingdom of the LORD; that is, all and single things in nature represent in the degree and in the manner that they correspond." A. C. 8002.) In fact, by virtue of his denial of representatives, he seems voluntarily to place himself in the category of those described in another place: "Representations are nothing else than images of spiritual things in natural things, and 'when the former are rightly represented in the latter, then they correspond. But he who does not know what the Spiritual is, but only what the natural is, may think that such representations and hence correspondences cannot be given, for he would say-within himself, How can the spiritual act upon the material? but if he will reflect upon what happens every moment in himself, he can get some idea of these things, namely, how the will can act upon the muscles of the body and produce real actions, and also how thought can act upon the organs of speech, by moving the lungs, the trachea, the throat, the tongue, the lips, and produce speech; then how affections can act upon the face and there produce images of themselves, s& that another thence often knows what one thinks and wills. These things may give some idea of representations and of correspondences. Now, because such things are presented in man, and because there is nothing which can subsist from itself, but from another, and this again from another, and finally from the First, and this by the bond of correspondences, therefore they who enjoy some extension of judgment can conclude that between man and heaven there is correspondence, and further between heaven and the LORD, who is the First." (A. C. 4044.)
     What then is clearer than that in worship the external posture of the body and the external speech should be in correspondence with the things of heaven and thus with the LORD, and if they correspond to the things of heaven, they are representative of it. "Correspondence is the appearance of the internal in the external, and its representation therein." (A. C. 5423.)
     The teaching concerning the abolition of representatives which Mr. Barrett claims to find in the Writings can therefore not exist, or if it appear as if it existed the appearance is due to a misunderstanding, for it would contradict the plain and fundamental Doctrine of Correspondences. As some have, misunderstood the teaching on the subject it may be useful to present it somewhat fully:
     "There is nothing in universal nature which does not in some manner represent the Kingdom of the LORD in general, for the Natural derives its origin from the Spiritual Kingdom; that which is without an origin prior to itself, is nothing. There is not anything disconnected from a cause, thus from an end; that which is disconnected falls to pieces in a moment and becomes nothing. Hence then are the representations of the Kingdom of the LORD in the kingdom of nature." (A. C. 2758.)
     "What Representations and what Correspondences are, few know, nor can any one know, what they are unless he know that there is a Spiritual World, and this distinct from the Natural World, for between Spiritual and Natural things there are Correspondences, and the things which exist from spiritual in natural things are Representations. They are called Correspondences because they correspond, and Representations because they represent. . . . The Spiritual World in universal is where spirits and angels are, and the Natural World where men are. In particular, there is a Spiritual and a Natural World with every man, his Internal man is his Spiritual World, but the External is his Natural World. The things which inflow from the Spiritual World, and are produced in the Natural, are in general Representations; and in so far as they agree they are Correspondences." (A. C. 2990.)
     It was for this reason that "the Most Ancient Church, which was celestial, regarded all earthly and worldly, as also bodily things, whichever were the objects of their senses, not otherwise than as things dead. But because all and single things which are in the world present [sistunt] some idea of the Kingdom of the LORD, hence of things celestial and spiritual, when they saw them or conceived of them with any sense, they did not think of them, but of celestial and spiritual things, and, indeed, not from them but by them; thus things dead lived with them. This thing which they signified, their posterity collected from their mouth, and hence made doctrinals, which were the Word of the Ancient Church after the flood; these with the Ancient Church were significative, for by them the learned internal things, and from them they thought of spiritual and celestial things.

41


But after that cognition began to perish, so that they did not know what such things signified, and began to make holy and to worship those earthly and worldly things, without thinking about their signification, then they were made representative. Hence the Representative Church which begins in Abram and was afterward instituted with Jacob's posterity. Hence it may be known that the rise of representatives is from the significatives of the Ancient Church, and the significatives of the Ancient Church from the celestial ideas of the Most Ancient Church." (A. C. 1409.)
     It is evident from this that the word "Representatives" is used in at least two senses. In one it is used to denote external things, or earthly, worldly, and bodily things which agree with things celestial and spiritual and therefore correspond with them,-this correspondence being in the mind of the one using the word "Representatives." In the other sense the term is used to denote external things which only represent things internal but do not correspond to them. In other words, that there are Representatives from Correspondence, and Representatives from Adoption. That, for instance, the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches were Representative Churches where all action and all speech was correspondential, while the Israelitish and Jewish Church was a Representative Church, in which all action and all was not necessarily correspondential. In general they are called Representative Churches, but when a particular distinction is to be made, the one is called a "Representative Church" and the other the "Representative of a Church." "The Church which was instituted with them [the posterity of Jacob] was not a Church, but only the representative of a Church, wherefore that Church is called - a Representative Church." (A. C. 4281.) Our next quotation clearly defines this.
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     THE Bote der Neuen Kirche has been bought by the Rev. Adolph Roeder.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Massachusetts New Church Union has published a series of missionary lectures by the Rev. James Reed, of Boston.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Swedenborg Society has published a translation of the work on the Last Judgment in the Welsh language, and intends to have it widely circulated in Wales.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     ON the list of special contributors to Mind in Nature, a journal for Psychical Researches published in Chicago, we notice the name of the Rev. L. P. Mercer, with an article on "Swedenborg's Doctrines."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Italian translation of the Earths in the Universe, prepared by Signor Scacia, has been published under the title "Le Terre nel Cielo Stellato, I Loro Abitanti, I Loro Spiriti e Angeli, ex auditis et visis. Per Emanuele Swedenborg. Firenze, 1886."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE report for 1885 of the National Missionary Institution of the New Church in England has been published. One-hundred and forty-three pounds seven shillings and five pence have, been collected by the Institution for its purposes during the last year.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Journal of the Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the American Conference of New Church Ministers held in Cincinnati last June, has just been published, and its value over the journals of former meetings is greatly enhanced abstracts of speeches and summaries of discussions, which are incorporated in the minutes.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE New Jerusalem Magazine for February contains an excellent review of the Rev. T. 0. Paine's new work on "The Holy Houses Restored," by the Rev. T. F. Wright, where Mr. Paine justly and in plain language is taken to task for his faithlessness to the letter of the Word and to the Writings of the New Church in preparing a publication of this kind.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     "AN English correspondent of a New York paper communicates the following astonishing and to us incomprehensible item of news," says the Messenger: "Dr. McDonald, the member of Parliament for the University of Edinburgh, is an 'angel' in the Swedenborgian Church, and some of his simple-minded co-religionists fear that he may become a fallen angel in the wicked London."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Lectures upon the Doctrines of the New Church, by the, Rev. John Worcester, delivered in Newtonville,1885, are written in a quiet, self-possessed spirit. As might be expected, the lecture on the Second Coming of the LORD does not present the Doctrine as taught in the Tue Christian Religion (n. 779), but is another attempt to persuade the Old Church that the LORD in His Second Coming is descending upon their preachers, who everywhere are beginning to preach the Truth (though unconscious of the fact), and that the Writings of Swedenborg are only a sort of forerunner of the glorious new Dispensation that now dawns upon the world.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Words for the New Church, XIII, has just been published. The monograph of the Conflict of the Ages is continued through the Reformation in German Switzerland, in England under Henry VIII, and in Germany to the Council of Trent; touching also upon Scotland and Scandinavia. In the "Notes and Reviews" is a review of the Holcombe Movement, entitled "Pseudo-Celestialism," and a critique of an address delivered Mar 7th, 1885, to the graduating class of the Convention Theological School, by the President of that School. We notice that the imprint of the former publishers of the Academy, J. B. Lippincott & Co., has disappeared, and in place thereof we read that Word for the New Church is "A serial published by the Academy of the New Church at the Academy Book Room, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia." We notice with pleasure that the uses which the Academy is performing have largely increased since the publication of No. XII of the Word. The price of the Word is 50 cents a number.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     HERR Professor W. Pfirsch contributes to Monatblatter for January, 1886, an excellent article on the present state of the Christian World, in which he clearly disproves from the Writings of the New Church, from Ecclesiastical History, and from observations on the signs of the times, the fallacious notions held by so many New Churchmen (and, if were not mistaken, formerly also by the Professor himself), that the Second Advent of the LORD is a certain general, undefined influx of truth into all the dead Churches, which thereby-without aid of immediate Divine Revelation-will gradually become the New Christianity signified by the New Jerusalem. Herr Pfirsch now takes the firm, and rational position that this "New Dispensation" is to descend as a true, organic, internal Church into a defined separate, external Church, which will in time grow and fill the world with its light and blessings.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Religio-Philosophical Journal for February 18th contains a communication from a Mr. J. G. Jackson, in which this gentleman attacks an article in the Mental Science Magazine by Dr. W. F. Evans: "Let us just remind Dr. Evans that in quoting from Arcana Coelestia the laws upon which his theories are built, he assumes as authority the deductions of one who was by no means infallible. Swedenborg was a Seer, and to some extent a Philosopher but so weighed down by the atmosphere of the age in which he wrote as to call the Jewish Scriptures 'The Word of God,' so-excited or unbalanced by his own fancied importance as communer with the world of spirits, that he was sometimes led into folly, if not seriously demented.

42


The science of this age demands more reliable authority than that of the Swedish Seer."
     How many of so-called New Churchmen will not with respect to the authority of the Writings, given through Swedenborg, gladly join hands with this spiritist and denier of the LORD!
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE American New Church Tract and Publication Society has issued its annual report for 1885. During the past year the Society lost three of its officers by their removal to the Spiritual World-Messrs. T. S. Arthur, I. N. Gregory, and E. W. Matthews. The report presents a review of its work since 1877, from which we gather the following statistics: Twenty-three thousand eight hundred and forty-two copies of Heaven and Hell, and eight thousand seven hundred and forty-three copies of White's Life of Swedenborg have been distributed. The annual average of the distribution of tracts published by the Society has been over one hundred and sixty thousand. The whole umber printed, sold, or given away amounts to one million two hundred and fifty thousand copies. Thirty-nine thousand copies of the pocket-editions of Swedenborg's minor works have been disposed of. A report from "The Scandinavian New Church Missionary Society in America" gives evidence of regress in the knowledge of the Doctrines of the New Church among the Swedes in America. The financial condition of the Tract Society does not seem to be as good as in former years. Circulars requesting their aid in its work have been sent to all the New Church Societies in the country.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Swedenborg Publishing Association, in its thirteenth annual Report, is highly satisfied with its work during the past year. According to its own statements it must in this period have been a powerful agent in the descent of the "New Dispensation" among the Old Christianity. This it proves by the irresistible arguments of statistics adjoined, and by letters from seventeen Old Church ministers.
     The Association holds that the LORD in revealing His Divine Truth by Emanuel Swedenborg, and not sufficiently accommodate Himself to the understanding of the average people. The Swedenborg Publishing Association has consequently taken upon itself the task of supplementing the LORD'S own work in this respect. "To make this revelation intelligible to the ordinary intellect, something more than translation is usually needed, some explanations, illustrations, and elucidations." These are to be found in the works published by the Association-in the unbiased writings, for example, of Dr. Holcombe and Mr. Barrett. That this is necessary is again proved by statistics. By communications from 6ne hundred and forty-two persons having become more or less interested In the Doctrines, it is evident that the collateral works have been seven (and one-half) times as successful in converting people as the Writings themselves. Only one person of e one hundred and forty-two thinks that Swedenborg's own works are to be preferred to all others. The first professed purposes of the Association is by its publications to prove to the sceptic world Swedenborg's claim to have been intromitted into the Spiritual World; this is to be done perforce by statistics and by the testimonies of other seers. The entire tendency of the Association may be seen in the following extract from the Report: The teaching of their, publications "does not grate harshly upon certain Old Church prejudices by running counter to some of their cherished and fundamental doctrines, or exposing their fallacy-for there was no occasion for that. Consequently they will not offend or repel even the most orthodox." Strange that Swedenborg never learned this principle, see, for instance, the Brief Exposition of the Doctrines of the New Church from beginning to end.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

DEN HELIGA SKRIPT ELLER HERRENS ORD ENLIGT NYA KYRKANS KANON. (The Sacred Scripture or the Word of the LORD according to the Canon of the New Church.)
     In literal translation from the Original Languages, by C. J. N. Manby. The Old Testament. Part I. (Gen. i-xvi.) Orebo: The Swedish New Church Bible Society, 1884.

     THE conviction of the necessity for the Church to possess a translation of the Word, based absolutely on the Divine Rendering revealed in the inspired Writings seems to be steadily gaining ground everywhere in the Church. The literal sense being the basis, continent, and firmament of the spiritual and celestial senses of the Word, the ultimate Divine Presence of the LORD in His Church, and the pole means of the conjunction of Heaven with the Church on earth, it is of utmost necessity for the Church to be in possession of the letter of the Word accommodated in a literally exact rendering to the languages of the various nations with whom the Church is established. It is, therefore, with extreme pleasure that we greet the little work before us, the beginning of a translation of the Word into the Swedish language according to New Church principles.
     Mr. Manby, the minister of the New Church Society in Gottenburg and the translator of the present work, announces that the translation will be completed in a series of twenty parts, issued from time to time during about six years. As yet, however, only the first part has been published, containing a translation of Genesis i-xvi. It is printed in clear type, and furnished with references to the quotations of the passages in the Writings. At the end of each chapter is given a summary of the internal sense taken bodily from the Arcana. The translator has largely made use of The Interlinear Translation of the Sacred Scriptures by the Rev. Messrs. Tafel, at the same time closely following the rendering into the Latin," which has been authorized in the Writings of the New Church, as well with regard to the criticism of the text itself as t& the translation." Being thus based on the only true principles, the rendering is both closely literal and scrupulously faithful to Swedenborg's translation. Where in the latter the grammatical forms are not exactly equivalent to those of the Hebrew, Mr. Manby has indicated the difference by foot-notes.
     We cannot say that the rendering into the Swedish has hereby been made more intelligible to the average reader, but it has been presented in a form into which the spiritual sense can inflow without the interruption caused by words and, sentences interpolated by human conceit. The Letter thus can far better perform its Divine function as a bearer of Divine Truth to the spiritual rational mind than if it had been accommodated to the understanding of the natural man by closing the avenues to the spiritual sense.
     The work, as a whole, does indeed do credit to Mr. Manby as a New Churchman and a linguist, and we cannot but most sincerely hope that he will be able to carry to a successful termination his great undertaking. With our knowledge of the present state of the New Church in Sweden, we fear, however, that the publication will prove to have been somewhat premature. The Church ought first, by study of the Divine Truth revealed to it in the Writings, come to a rational conviction of the use and necessity of possessing the letter of the Word in an, ungarbled form. The brethren in Sweden, as a general rule, do not seem to have as yet recognized the necessity of having the Writings themselves in their own language the efforts of a few have not met with sufficient sympathy Would it not be more profitable for the Church in Sweden to support the translations of the Arcana and Conjugial Love, which Mr. Manby, with great ability and faithfulness, has undertaken and begun to publish but which for some years have been interrupted? If the internal be developed first the external will -follow when the Church will recognize and acknowledge the Divinity, the Holiness, and Beauty of the Internal Sense revealed in the Inspired Writings, they will so much more zealously strive to prepare for it a fitting external-a New Church rendering of the Word in the letter, to which Mr. Manby's present translation always will be of great use.

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TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE 1886

TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE              1886




     Fiction.
     [THIS STORY WAS BEGUN IN THE ISSUE FOR OCTOBER, 1885.]

     CHAPTER XI.

     The Clouds Rifted.

     WARREN'S BLUFF was a fashionable, though somewhat exclusive, summer resort, nestled deep in among the Adirondacks; on one side of the house (there was only one house, formerly a stage inn, now enlarged and improved into a fashionable hotel) the mountains, or rather bluffs, as they were called by preference, extended fully half a mile; throwing up their dark, rugged edges in sharp contrast against the blue sky; on the other the valley extended still lower, following the course of the river in a series of irregular terraces formed in the course of time by the mountain freshets, which also frequently obliterated all traces of the carriage road which followed the windings of the river here; but as the road still as frequently and persistently reappeared as the freshets, Warren's Bluff continued accessible, though with just enough uncertainty about ways and means to make it a very desirable resort.
     Here our travelers had been settled just long enough to begin to feel comfortably at home when they were agreeably surprised by the arrival of Dr. Stanhope, bringing with him Dallas Clay.
     Constant change of scene, and the- diversion and interest consequent upon travel; had done much for Venita; Roger, much to his delight, found her greatly improved in appearance. He also had noted, with no little anxiety, her decline both in health and spirits in the early summer.
     This addition to the party naturally infused a new life, and excitement into their sight-seeing. Roger they were delighted to see, beyond all question; and Dallas almost immediately ingratiated himself and became a general favorite his versatility of mind and unlimited resources, in the way of timely and amusing anecdotes made him an invaluable accession to their party. Imperceptibly he became the acknowledged leader and general manager of all their excursions, which position of honor they were all willing to accord him, had it not been that in his unconsciousness of the existing state of affairs his appropriation of Venita was somewhat exclusive.
     At first Venita welcomed Dallas' companionship as a safe guard against what would otherwise have been unavoidable-long and frequent solitary association with Roger-which, intuitively, she felt, she was scarcely prepared to endure. But as the days went by, and Roger made no effort to secure her society, even when opportunity offered, but as a matter of course attached himself to Mrs. Sterling, Venita began to realize that such an arrangement was hardly so satisfactory as it had promised to be. Although Dallas was a most entertaining and interesting companion, there were times when the longing for one of the old confidential talks with Roger kept her in a state of suppressed expectation, hoping that some unforeseen circumstance would favor her desire: Why did Roger stand aside so passively? Had he ceased to love her? The bare Thought, revealing as it did how insensibly she had grown to consider Roger's love entirely at her own disposal, either to accept or refuse as she felt inclined, filled her with consternation and dismay; then, tired and heartsore with her long and seemingly endless conflict; almost impatiently would she crowd these thoughts aside and try to share in the general merriment, entering with feverish brilliancy into the interchange of lively badinage with Dallas.
     Roger was hardly so indifferent, though, as Venita supposed; but, seeing her apparent acceptance of Dallas' overtures, he quietly bided his time, refraining with delicate consideration from placing her in the uncomfortable position of receiving attentions from contesting though friendly suitors. If occasionally he spent the long hours of the night walking over the mountains, trying to conquer himself and gain self-control, no one was the wiser. Dallas, entirely engrossed with his own new impressions, merely thought Roger must have some professional trouble weighing upon his mind, he was so unusually taciturn; until one evening, when, after the others had retired, the two friends were seated on the porch, enjoying the solemn, still beauty of the night. Dallas had given over trying to draw Roger into conversation upon the one subject that completely engrossed both their minds, had Dallas only known it. Suddenly the idea occurred to him with distressing vividness that it might possibly be that he had been making an egregious fool of himself. Starting up, he said, with impetuous earnestness:
     "I say, Stanhope, I am not encroaching upon any of your rights, am I? It did not occur to me before that you might have any special claims upon Miss Sterling."
     "Not at all," was Roger's quick reply. "I have no claims upon Miss Sterling but those of friendship."
     Dallas, reassured, settled himself in his chair with a sigh of relief, and the subject was dropped.
     With the first of September the party were to turn their steps homeward; but three days remained-three short days. Would nothing intervene to stay the tide that seemed drifting Roger and Venita farther and farther apart? Roger had settled into a state of almost hopeless despair, yet trying vainly to quell his passion- ate longing and realize that should he be called upon to resign Venita to Dallas, all was for the best. After a night of entire sleeplessness, feeling completely unfitted to endure the mental effort of appearing to participate in the general amusements, he pleaded the excuse of wishing to visit a farm upon the other side of the mountain, in order to absent himself for the greater part of the day without being subjected to any uncomfortable questions.
     The sun was already upon the westward decline when he reached the valley below the Bluff House on his return. Not wishing to encounter the idle curiosity of the guests usually assembled upon the porch at that hour; he turned into a side-path, which led through many curious windings to the back approach, to the, house. Thinking deeply, with his head bent forward upon his, breast, he was entirely unconscious of the beauty through which he was passing, until, reaching a little glen where the mountain stream fell splashing full upon a huge boulder, which sent it rebounding again with gathered force on down, over its rocky bed, Roger paused a moment to watch the dancing water, so full of, bright promise it seemed, that, like the lifting of a cloud, his trouble imperceptibly seemed to lighten, and he felt wonderfully cheered and comforted.

44



     This glen was entirely secluded from observation either from above or below, and was accessible only by this one path. V Roger had spent many hours here, but he was unaware that any of the other guests had found its solitude attractive, or, indeed, knew of its existence. But as he turned to resume his climb, passing an angle of rock, he suddenly came upon Venita, seated upon a large, flat stone, her hands, filled with a profusion of flowers, resting listlessly in her lap. The sound of the dashing water had prevented her hearing his approach, and it was only at the sound of her name, uttered in glad tones of surprise, that she started and turned toward Roger. Her smile was unmistakably one of welcome, though there were traces of tears still upon her cheeks, which she endeavored hastily, but ineffectually, to conceal.
     Roger was at her side instantly, his past misery and Dallas Clay alike forgotten at the sight of her evident distress.
     "Venita, what has grieved you?"
     "Nothing has grieved me," returned Venita, beginning nervously to arrange her flowers; then, seeing the utter absurdity of her reply in the face of such conflicting evidence, she resumed, with a deprecating smile, "I guess I am becoming homesick; we have been away so long.
     The quiver about the sensitive mouth touched Roger deeply. From the first he had been resolved that only from Venita herself would he receive her ultimate decision, and having no confidence in her plea of homesickness, he determined that the time had now arrived for them to come to a thorough understanding. His very heart seemed to cease its beating, awaiting her reply, as, in tones of deep, but controlled emotion, he said: "Venita, almost a year has elapsed since you told me that you could never be my wife. Have not all these months helped in any way to change your decision?".
     The first sound of his voice filled Venita with vague alarm. Was she prepared to accept all Roger offered? Heartsore and despairing as she had been over the apparent withdrawal of Roger's love, had she the strength to reach forth her hand to grasp it, now that it was within her reach? Apprehensively she recoiled before the doubts that still overshadowed her.
     "I do not know-how can-I ever know? How can you be so sure that you are right?"
     "How can I be so sure that I am right? O Venita!, dearest, I have thought and studied long and deeply, and the only conclusion I meet is that I love you, and want you for my wife. If my persistence pain you, Venita, tell me now, and if you feel that you cannot unite your life with mine I must leave you. I am not so strong as I thought to be."
     The passionate tenderness of Roger's voice and words for the time lifted Venita out of herself, and raising her eyes to meet his gaze, with a questioning, even wistful look, she said: "I do not know what answer to give; yet I think I must love you a little, else why would I care if you should leave me?"
     A wave of intense joy swept over Roger's heart. "Would you care, Venita? Then why do you hesitate?"
     "It is all so different from what I had imagined. I make so many mistakes. Indeed, I am so uncertain of myself," she continued, holding out her hands to him, in her sweet, impulsive way. "You will have to help me decide after have shown you all my heart; I know no other way."
     As she opened her whole heart to him, telling of all her weaknesses, mistakes, of that one sad; winter, and last of all, her doubts and fears concerning himself; Roger's soul was filled with holy awe-that she should thus give him her entire confidence and trust! She never faltered. It did not occur to her that she could keep anything back-all must be told-and then-after she had finished she sat perfectly still, as though awaiting down at her drooping face with tender, yearning eyes. Here was something sacred about to be given into his charge. Venita loved him. Of that he now felt assured. How could he ever be equal to the trust of tenderly and reverently guarding such a precious gift. So intense and penetrating was his look that involuntarily Venita raised her eyes to meet it, and seeing his eyes filled with manly tears, her sweet, womanly heart went out to him in sympathy. Involuntarily she leaned toward him as though to comfort. Immediately recovering herself, though, she moved back, covered with confusion.
     It was enough. Roger had seen and understood her impulse; so, without a word, he gathered her into his arms.
     "Forgive me, dearest," said Roger, presently, with redoubled tenderness, "but I think you magnify your responsibility; it is impossible for us to be assured beyond all question that any step we take is the correct and only one; we must form our judgment upon the LORD'S Truth, and by thus doing the best that lies within our power we place ourselves within the stream of Providence, which will certainly lead us to good. And, Venita, while you allow yourself to remain in this state between decision and doubt, Providence cannot lead you to that higher good. Such a condition is like that of a piece of wood that is carried by the surf-now near to the shore, now nearer, but always, just as it would seem - to be gaining a safe harborage, the angry waves carry it further away than ever. In such a state of mind it is impossible to advance. Now, Venita, you have asked me to help you decide; are you willing to trust to my judgment?"
     "I think I am-yes-by myself I feel perfectly helpless:"
     "Then, beloved, we will be married-and married immediately."
     "Married? Oh! no, not yet-not so soon!" Venita's look of consternation made Roger smile as she straightened herself up as far away from him as the limited size of the rock would permit.
     "Why not, dearest? Until we are married and our life fully one, these states of doubt will be continually recurring."
     "But it is too sudden; I must have time to think it over first; I hardly dare realize that it is in any degree settled yet." But, in spite of her protest, Venita was conscious of a feeling of intense relief in giving all responsibility over to Roger.
     "Very well then, Venita, I will not hurry you, but be thankful for the great happiness you have already given me."
     Roger saw that it was wisest not to urge the matter further at present, but to let the question of their early marriage rest until they had returned home.
     With the thought of home came the accompanying one of Dallas. How, would he stand the blow which he, his best friend, was about to deal him?
     "What is it?" asked Venita, timidly, noticing his changed expression.
     Dallas Clay! how shall we break to him the news of our engagement?"
     "Do you, think he will care?" asked Venita, in a frightened tone, but after a moment's reflection, reassured, she continued:

45


"No, I do not think he will. Our acquaintance is of too recent a date for his interest to have acquired any depth-and - besides-you may not know it, but I have been very careful to keep him at a distance," she added, with a merry look.
     And Venita was correct in her surmises in regard to Dallas. At first he was surprised and a little hurt-the latter at being kept in the dark, as he expressed it-but a few hours of solitude were sufficient for his native good sense and warm friendship for Roger to again acquire the ascendancy.
     [TO BE CONCLUDED.]
STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM 1886

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM              1886

     A STORY FOR CHILDREN.

     CHAPTER III.

     BY and by the sting quit smarting, and Tom threw away the handful of moist earth and began to whistle. He journeyed on for a good while without anything in particular happening. At last, seeing an Apple-tree with a tempting bit of green grass beneath, he went and sat down to rest. As the apples were still small and green, he did not heed them, but sat thinking of nothing specially, until he felt a tickling on his hand: he raised it and saw an Ant.
     "What do you want?" he asked, but the Ant merely rushed around on the back of his hand as though it were running to a fire. "What are you in such a hurry for?" again asked Tom.
     "Oh! don't bother me. I haven't time to waste talking to you." Then it ran out to the end of one of his fingers, and, stopping there, looked about and waved what looked like tiny arms. Suddenly it shouted, as loud as I an Ant can shout "I see it!" at the same time dropping to the ground, which, considering its size, was as though Tom had jumped from a balloon.
     "Why didn't you tell me you wanted to get down?" asked Tom.
     "Hadn't time," called back the Ant, as it dashed ahead over sticks and stones and other obstacles. Tom, greatly interested, saw it rush up to a dead bug about ten times bigger than itself. It picked up the bug, and without stopping a moment to get its breath started off as fast as it could go. Such was its hurry that it did not take time to go around a pebble that lay in its road, but carried the bug right up its side, and then bug and Ant tumbled down the other side head over heels. In the fall the Ant lost its hold of the bug, but as soon as it got on its feet again it began to fly around, crying, "Where's that bug? Where's that bug?" and catching sight of it again, took hold, and this time went backward, pulling the bug. It hadn't gone far before another Ant, also in a tremendous hurry, came along, and, seeing what its companion was doing, it took hold of the other end of the bug and began pulling in the opposite direction, and being a little fresher, it dragged both the first Ant and the bug along. At this the first Ant called out in an excited manner, "That's right! pull away, pull as hard as you can!" So it pulled one way and its companion the other, and both kept shouting to each other, "Pull! Pull!"
     Then a third Ant came running up, and without stopping climbed on top of the bug and called out, "That a right! keep her a-moving, boys I keep up with the times!"
     Tom caught the infectious spirit, and taking a small straw he stuck the end of it under one of the bug's crooked legs and said, "Let me help you." He lifted the bug, the Ants still holding on, and laid it down beside the Ants' hole.' But as soon as they found themselves on the ground again they all started off in different directions, crying, "Hurry up! hurry up! there's no time to lose."
     Somewhat surprised at this, Tom placed his straw before his friend, and when he climbed on it Tom raised it and asked, "Why did you work so hard and make such a fuss, and do nothing after all?"
     "I haven't any time for talking-time is bugs," and with this the Ant dropped to the ground, about a thousand times his own height, And rushed off at the top of his speed.
     Tom laughed, and throwing himself on his back, gazed up at the Apple-tree, which smiled down on him in its fresh green leaves.
     "They seem very busy," said the Tree, referring to the Ants.
     "Yes, very," answered Tom, "they don't have time to do anything," and then he laughed at his paradox.
     "There is some truth in that," replied the Apple-tree, "contradictory as it sounds, and yet they have as much time as the rest of us;" it was silent a moment, after which it went on sententiously: "Every one has as much time in a day as any other one, but some waste their time in fuss."
     Tom was thoughtful for a little while before he replied: "Time goes right on just as the clock ticks, whether we fuss or not, so how can we waste it?"
     "That is so," said the Tree, "time doesn't seem to care what we do; it goes right on; still, if we don't fuss we can do more than if we do fuss."
     "You don't like fuss."
     "No, I don't; I like everything to be quiet and regular and orderly."
     "That's all right for an Apple-tree that doesn't have an thing to do, but if you had to hunt around for some, thing to eat and to store up for winter perhaps you would fuss, too, just as the Ants do."
     "I have work to do and do it," replied the Tree, quietly.
     "You?"
     "Yes; don't I bear good fruit?"
     "Why, so you do!" exclaimed Tom, opening his eyes wider, as though he had never known the fact before. "But you make so little noise, about it that I had forgotten or never thought of it."
     "My work has to be done quietly and orderly," replied the Apple-tree, "and though it is a small one in this big world, I have noticed that even the greatest works are done silently; look at the sun that travels around the world every day."
     "Hold on!" exclaimed Tom. "The sun stands still; it is the world that travels: it turns over once every day."
     "You don't say so!" replied the Apple-tree. "I never knew that before. I stand here, and every day, when it is not cloudy, I see the sun come up in one place and descend in another, and so I thought it went around the earth. But, at any rate, the earth doesn't make any noise or fuss, does it?"
     "I never heard it make any."
     "Of course you didn't; so I contend that the greatest works are done quietly and in an orderly manner, and without any excitement."
     Tom couldn't dispute this; so, after resting a little longer he got up and continued his journey. While engaged in chaffing and laughing at the Grasshoppers that 'hopped up as he walked, a Thing-we call it that for want of a better name passed him.

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It looked like a bundle of words, and these words were contemptuously hurled at him, and they were: "Children should be, seen and not heard." That was all, and then the thing vanished. There are certain words which, when hurled at one, hurt as badly or even worse than stones, and--these hurt Tom keenly, and he trudged along silently until he heard a hoarse voice from a neighboring field: "Caw! caw! Caw! You be quiet, boy, and let your betters talk."
     Somewhat angrily, he looked through the fence-rails (he wasn't tall enough to look over them), and saw a sight that made him laugh: a seedy old Scare-crow stood on one leg in a field; it was tilted to one side, and had its arms stretched out and its hat set forward. On top of this hat sat a Crow that didn't seem a bit scared. Tom's laugh caused the Scare-crow to ask, in a wheezy voice: "What are you laughing at, you ill-mannered cub?"
     "Didn't you hear that children should be seen and not heard?" put in the Crow.
     "Who taught you manners?" again said the Scarecrow.
     "Children are pests," chimed in the Crow. "They are nuisances and torments, and ought to be cooped up until they are grown," came from the Scarecrow; and so these two continued until Tom, feeling very much abashed, went his way. It grew dark an he felt very wretched, the more so as an Owl began to hoot all sorts of dismal advice at him, and a bat to flap past him every now and then, wishing to frighten him. While in this depressed state, he bethought himself of his Book, and opening it read:
     "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God."
     Then, with this charm against bats and crows and owls, the tired child laid down and slept, and none of those noxious things could come near him or harm him, for such charms, 'stored warm' in the heart, have all power over evil.
     [TO BE CONTINUED]
HARMONY 1886

HARMONY              1886

     ONE afternoon the Horse noticed all the feathered inhabitants of the farmyard gathered near the barn. They remained there a good while and made considerable noise. As the Gray Goose went marching past after the meeting had broken up, the Horse asked what it all meant.
     "We were endeavoring to establish harmony."
     "Well?"
     "Well, you see we all agree that harmony is a good thing; so, to establish it, we held a grand mass meeting. The most of us, when called upon to speak, were a little diffident at first, being unused to addressing such imposing audiences. We would begin by stating that we were unaccustomed to public speaking, and hoping that the honorable assembly would overlook any of our errors and shortcomings. Then we would go on and state that we did not know that we had anything to add to the views so ably presented by the preceding speaker, but, that while listening to his interesting remarks a thought had struck us; and then we would plunge in. This was said so often that at last the Bantam made a motion that, to save time, each speaker's unfitness be taken for granted, and- that he go on without apology. This made some of us huffy. After we were warmed up, I noticed; that all who had once spoken were eager to speak again.,
     I suppose, though, that they all felt as I did." How did-you feel?" inquired the Horse.
     "I felt that if the assembly would listen to me and do as I told them; there would be no trouble."
     After saying this, the Gray Goose stood absorbed in thought until the Horse asked him how the matter ended. Then he resumed:
     "What with hearing compliments and vows of cordial good feeling and expressions of hearty fraternity, I got to feeling so good that I moved that the assembly adjourn to the pond and have a grand fraternal and harmonious swim. At this the Bantam gave a derisive little crow, which made me mad; the Shanghai shook his head, and the Turkey-that important old fellow with the red face asked me if I meant to insult him. A hot debate followed my motion, and an unknown Chicken moved to amend by having us all roost together that night. Of course, we geese would not consent to roost like a set of scrawny-clawed chickens, and so we wrangled about harmony until the meeting broke up."
CORRECTION NOTES 1886

CORRECTION NOTES       G. N. SMITH       1886

     Communicated.

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles on which New Church Life is conducted or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]

     I HAVE received a pamphlet from a prominent New Church clergyman and writer, in which I find some things that quite astonish me. One of them is a lavish praise of Professor Swing's preaching as being so strongly New Church. As it had never been my good fortune to see a single word from him in favor of the essentials of the New Church, the Divinity of the LORD and of the Word, but rather a catering to the popular denial of these essentials, I could only be surprised at such praise. When we are tempted to link the New Church with these popular leaders, who call God the "nature of things," and the Word "the evolution of the devotional states of men," as one of them did a short time ago, it is well for us to remember the statement of the Doctrines: "The negation of God, and in the Christian world the negation of the LORD'S Divinity, constitutes hell" (D. L. W. 13); and not let the pretty things they say deceive us as to the real nature of their teachings.

     ANOTHER thing that astonished me was the claim that our attempts to institute distinctive New Church worship, etc., differ from that of the Old Church chiefly in being inferior to theirs. As Doctrine makes the Church in every sense and pre-eminently in this, the claim amounts to the assertion that our New Church preaching of the Divinity of the LORD and the Word is inferior to such as is referred to in the above (D. L. W. 13), which is now the popular thing in the Old Church. Comment is unnecessary.
     G. N. SMITH.
IN WHAT SENSE ARE THE WRITINGS A DIVINE REVELATION? 1886

IN WHAT SENSE ARE THE WRITINGS A DIVINE REVELATION?       FRANK W. VERY       1886

     EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:-Certain passages are quoted by you from back numbers of the Messenger and labeled heresy. Among them are the following:
"The Writings do not contain infinite Truth," "Swedenborg's Writings are not a Revelation in any such sense [as the Word]." At the same, time other more recent editorial utterances from the same source are quoted approvingly and taken to indicate a great change for the better in the Church.

47



     Would it not be possible to put a more lenient interpretation on the former passages? For one, I fail to see the necessity of assuming such a sweeping change from heresy to orthodoxy in a New Church periodical, or even that there is any real discrepancy between the statements which you contrast.
     The question seems to turn largely upon the sense in which the words "Revelation" and "infinite Truth" are used. The statement that "Swedenborg's Writings are not a Revelation in any such sense [as the Word]" contains, by direct implication, the avowal that there is a sense in which they are a Revelation. Can any subsequent acknowledgment of "the fact of revelation in the Word or in the Doctrines of the Church" (Messenger, November 4th, 1885) be legitimately construed into a denial of the former proposition? If you maintain that there is no distinction between Revelation as exhibited in the Doctrines of the New Church and Revelation as it is in the Word, please tell us why "Doctrine is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word; and to be confirmed by it." (S. S. 53, etc.)
     If the Doctrines of the New Church contained in the Writings of Swedenborg are to be considered new books of the Word, being then of equal authority with the rest, why must they derive their support from the other books of the Word? The extraordinary reverence everywhere shown for the Word of God in the Writings may not be conclusive proof of the distinction of the two, but it certainly creates that Impression. It cannot be supposed that the Writings of the New Church form one of the "three interior senses, which are for the three heavens" (A. E. 1066), or that they are the Word as it is in heaven, because "it is not according to Divine Order to be instructed by writings from heaven (H. H. 258), and Swedenborg expressly declares that, though he was permitted to see and read some of these writings from heaven, "it was not allowed to get from them more than -a little of the sense." (Ibid.) How, then, can the Writings of the New Church be a Revelation in the same sense that this name is given to the Word? In what way does the statement that "they [the Doctrines of the New Church] are Divine truth expressed in a form that reason can accept" (Messenger, November 4th, 1885) conflict with the former one, "the Writings do not contain infinite Truth"? (Ibid., October 31st, 1877.)
     The qualification that they are "expressed in a form that reason can accept" prevents them from being regarded as infinite; for no human reason can compass what is infinite. Moreover, we are taught that human language can express only a part of the ineffable things which are concealed in the inner senses of the Word. If the Writings were to contain infinite Truth in the same sense that the Word does, they should have inner senses whereby each word would be divinely inspired. Surely no one would wish to defend such a proposition! How, then, do the Writings contain "infinite Truth," or in what way are they "Divine," except as they borrow lustre from the, Divine Word, by means of which they were given by the LORD to His servant? Are there not, hidden in the treasuries of the Word, all the truths contained in the Sacred Writings of the New Church, and infinitely more besides?
     But if you cannot agree with me or with the former editor of the Messenger as to the meaning which should be given to a word, is it essential to the welfare of the Church that you should accuse us of heresy? Does this conduce to the practice of the only real religion, that of charity, or does it lead to division and discord? If charity had continued to live and rule [among the members of the primitive Christian Church] they would not have called schism by the name of schism, nor heresy by the name of heresy, but they would have called them doctrinals agreeable to each person's particular opinion or way of thinking, which they would have left to every one's conscience, not judging or condemning any for their opinions, provided they did not deny fundamental principles, that is, the LORD, eternal life, and the Word, and maintained nothing contrary to Divine order, that is, contrary to the commandments of the Decalogue." (A. C. 1834.)
     Yours truly,     FRANK W. VERY.

OBSRRYATORY, ALLEGHENY, PA., January 19th, 1886.
WINE AT THE HOLY SUPPER 1886

WINE AT THE HOLY SUPPER       WM. A. PRESLAND       1886

To THE EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE: GENTLEMEN:-I was a little disappointed by your notice of my former letter, since it disregarded my request that you would harmonize your teaching that "vinum" always means fermented wine with the plain extracts I gave from the Writings. Your journal has hitherto refused the name "wine" to unfermented produce. Thus in your issue for December, 1884, page 192, it stated, "The Rev. E. M. Pulsford was, so pleased with the unfermented must partaken of at Conference that on his recommendation the Alloa Society will hereafter use it for Communion instead of wine." You have not attempted to harmonize, but have tacitly admitted that "vinum" is used in the Writings for both fermented and unfermented. Hence you should now admit that this minister recommended one kind of wine instead of another.
     I am glad to have secured even this tacit admission. A few years ago an apparently learned review of "The Wine Question" was published, which accused the author of ignorance of his mother tongue because he used "wine" as a generic term. It was not a little amusing to see the defenders of Swedenborg's accurate use of term thereby convicting him of equal ignorance of the Latin tongue. But was it quite the thing, gentlemen, to pass over the question I raised and to take up a side issue? Is all fair in love and war-even a paper one? The quotations given were sufficient to show that the Writings more than once distinctly refer to "unfermented must" as "wine," and it would be easy to multiply instances, so largely, indeed, as to make it a question which the Writings regard as the primary, and the secondary or derivative use, of the word. That question, however, we need not discuss. The Writings call unfermented grape-juice "wine." They assign to it a correspondence equal to that of "wine" (vide your note in October issue). They refer to it in connection with the Holy Supper in such a way as to intimate that it is admissible there e. g. "Quod per genimen vitis non mustum nec vinum intelligatur." (A. C. 5113.) I uphold, with you; the authority of the Writings, but I hold they do not speak with authority upon this question, and I therefore resist efforts to make it appear as if they do so.
     Thanking you by anticipation for your insertion of this note, believe me, gentlemen,
     Yours very sincerely,
     WM. A. PRESLAND.

ACCRINGTON, ENGLAND, February 3d, 1886.

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NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL
TERMS:-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.
Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

     All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 755 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, MARCH 1886=116.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, p. 33.-Co-operaiion in Education (a Sermon), p. 34.-Conversations on Education, p. 36.-Wine at the Holy Supper, p. 38.-The Dawn, p. 39, Representatives, I, p. 40.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS.-Notes, pp. 41, 42.-Swedish Translation of the Word, p. 42.
     FICTION.-The True Story of One Girl's Life, Chap. xi, p. 43.-The Strange Adventures of Tom, Chap. Ill. p. 45.-Harmony, p. 46.
     COMMUNICATED.-Correction Notes, p. 46.-In what Sense are the Writings a Divine Revelation? p.44.-Wine at the Holy Supper, p. 47.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, p. 48.
     BIRTHS AND DEATHS, p. 48.
     AT HOME.

     The South.-Florida.-THE Rev. J. B. Hibbard has been invited by the New Churchmen in Jacksonville, Fla., to organize them into a Society of the New Church.
     Texas.-CONSIDERABLE activity is manifested by some New Churchmen in Bennet, Red River County, Texas. One of them, Mr. J. W. Moore, formerly a Baptist minister, has for some time been openly preaching the Doctrines of the New Church.
     Canada.-THERE are three ministers at work in Toronto the Rev E. D. Daniels, the Rev. J. E. Bowers, and the Rev. J. S. David. Mr. David preaches at Parkdale in the morning, takes the train at 12.30 P. M., and preaches in Hamilton, forty miles west, in the evening. The purchase of a lot in Parkdale is contemplated, and the plan is for each interested person to put in a day's work, or the proceeds of a day's work, every month until a small church building is erected.
     The West.-Illinois.-THE Rev. F. T. Houts of Olney, Ill., formerly a minister of the M. E. Church, in a lecture on February 4th to an audience of six hundred persons, openly renounced the falsities of his former denomination and announced that he had joined the New Jerusalem Church.
     THE General Congress of New Churchmen in the Northwestern States, which was discussed at the recent meeting of the Illinois Association, will be held on March 4th to 7th, at the Van Buren Street Temple in Chicago. An elaborate programme has been prepared, addresses will be delivered by the Rev. Messrs. Mercer, Eby, John Goddard, Mitchell, Houts, Frost, Sewall, and Cabell.
     Kansas.-THE Rev. H. C. Dunham has tendered his resignation to the Topeka, Kansas, Society, having accepted the call of the Portland, Maine, Society. Mr. F. L. Higgins has been invited to continue his services to the Topeka Society for three months longer.
     Colorado.-MR. Washburn resigned his position as Pastor of the Denver Society after a brief stay there. It will be remembered that he was ordained a few months ago under authority of the New York Association. He has never received New Church baptism.
     Michigan.-A YOUNG people's Society, with a membership of thirty, has been formed in connection with the Detroit New Church Society.
     Ohio.-A CIRCULAR was recently sent out by the superintendent of the Cincinnati Sunday school announcing that a collection would be taken up on February 21st for the use of the Orphanage. On the same Sunday a collection for this use was raised in the church.
     The East.-New Jersey.-THE Rev. J. R. Hibbard visited Ellwood on February 28th.
     Massachusetts.-Mr. G. I. Ward, a graduate of the Boston Theological School, was ordained at Springfield, Mass., on February 8th. Mr. Ward will take charge as Pastor of the Society in Springfield, which is in a prosperous condition, lately having cleared the debt on its church-building.
     New York.-MR. W. H. Schliffer has accepted a call as "Pastor" of the German New Church Society in New York city.
     MR. William Diehl was baptized into the New Church and then ordained into the ministry by the Rev. C. Gilles in the House of Worship of the New York Society.
     Pennsylvania.-IT is officially announced by the Secretaries of the General Church of Pennsylvania that this body will meet in the House of Worship of the Advent Society, Cherry Street, corner Claymont, Philadelphia, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 19th, 20th, and 21st. All interested in this Church are cordially invited to attend. The Advent Society will make provision to entertain visitors from a distance. Address the Pastor, the Rev. L. H. Tafel, 832 Windsor Square, Philadelphia.
     MISSIONARY work is being done in the neighborhood of Philadelphia by the Philadelphia First Society. On the afternoon of December 8th, 1885, a service was held in Clifton, attended by forty-five persons. It is the intention to hold services there regularly once a month.
     THE Rev. J. B. Hibbard conducted services in Lancaster, on February 21st.

     ARROAD.

     Austria.-Public services and a Christmas festival for the children were held by the Society in Vienna. The annual meeting of the Society was held on January 10th.
     Syria.-LADY Lawrence Oliphant, well known to the New Church in this country as one of the members of T. L. Harris' "New Life" Community, died lately in Haife, Syria.
     Switzerland.-THE Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered by the Rev.
F. Gorwitz during the Christmas holidays in five places in Switzerland. The Zurich Sunday-school had a Christmas festival.
     Denmark.-TWO young sculptors, Messrs. J. Christensen and Niels Nielsen, both zealous members of the New Church in Copenhagen, received each a gold medal from the King of Denmark as the first prizes in a recent contest among Danish sculptors.
     France.-THE services in the New Church Chapel in Paris continue regularly under the leadership of Mr. Humann. The librarian has sent circulars to all the Protestant pastors, offering them gratis La Vrai Religion Chretienne, La Nouvelle Jerusalem at sa Doctrine Celeste, and a new Biography of Swedenborg. A great number of applications have been received.
     Australia.-THE New Church Society in Sidney is suffering from the loss of several of its most prominent members, among whom are the well-known Dr. J. La Gay Brereton and Dr. Jackson, who have removed from the city on account of ill healths.
     SOUTH Australia also sends bad reports. The country is in a low condition from depression in business, and the New Church Society in Adelaide partakes of the universal suffering.

     Great Britain.-Wales.-THE Mr. Barlow whose actions in Wales were noted in our February issue is not the minister but a son of his. The title "Rev." should have been omitted.
     England.-CLASSES for the systematic study of the Doctrines of the New Church have been formed by the Peter Street, Manchester, Society.
     ON the meeting of the Kensington Society on January 19th it was resolved to employ the Rev. T. C. Child as the assistant of the Rev. Dr. Bayley. Dr. Bayley was at the same time unanimously desired to remain the minister of the Society during the continuance of his natural life.
     THE Society at Leeds has had during the past year an increase of twenty-two new members.

     Sweden.-MORE than one thousand crowns were realized from the bazaar held in December last by the ladies connected with Pastor Boyesen's Society in Stockholm. The membership of this Society is now about two hundred.
     THE newly instituted Sunday-school in Stockholm held a very pleasant Christmas festival-the first in that country. The former Superintendent, Mr. Joseph Boyesen, has recently removed to this country to reside in Philadelphia.
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886




     BIRTHS AND DEATHS.



NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, APRIL, 1886=116.     No. 4.
     A GREAT part of our space is devoted to the reports the meetings of two bodies of the New Church differing greatly in character. The one was attended, by most of the more prominent ministers residing west of Pennsylvania; the other was the general meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania. The one meeting declared itself opposed to "the spirit of ecclesiasticism," while favorable to its "form;" the other manifested by deed and word its adherence to the spirit and the form of a true ecclesiasticism, beautifully expounded in the paper by the Rev. W. F. Pendleton.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THE two reports present an interesting study. From that of the Western Congress, it appears that the one object which brought the members together was to show the New Church world what "The West" can do. For any profound principle which could not find expression in other bodies of the Church, and which perforce needed ultimation in this Congress, we look in vain, unless it be the negative one of "anti-ecclesiasticism,"-but even that was not unanimously subscribed to. The General Church of Pennsylvania, rising above merely geographical considerations, is composed of men who are drawn together from a profound conviction of an intense love for, the Second Coming of the LORD which is effected by the revelation of the Writings of, the New Church, and which results in the establishment of a New Church, internal and external.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THAT the Congress, and the subsequent Union, despite avowed repudiation of Church Order, have performed and will perform certain uses, we believe-were there none others, the papers by Messrs. Frost and Mitchell alone would justify our belief-but then these gentlemen seem to have some convictions concerning order in the Church.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THE New Church is the heart and lungs of Christendom (H. H. 308 et at), and "waves" of true thought spread from it over the world, and not vice versa. "Waves of thought," such as were spoken of in the Congress, which arise in the world and strike the New Church, infestations rather than blessings to the Church.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     ALLIED to the wave theory was another, namely, that the world's rejection of the truths of the Second Coming as being revelation, is attributable to "awe." According to these truths themselves, it is attributable to love of self and of the world, and to hatred of the LORD.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     FEET are ultimates. The ultimate of a Church body is the material edifice in which it worships. As the "Chicago Society" has taken away from the Immanuel Church the building in which it formerly worshiped, attention may be called to a remark made at the Western Congress, "Any body that sets up ex cathedra to cut off the feet of all who do not agree with them, is not only absurd but wicked."
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     WHAT man learns from the Word and its Spiritual Doctrine, in order to be of use in his life, is to be insinuated into what he learns from the world. Spiritual science, from which he takes and forms his faith, is to be introduced into the natural science, according to which he regulates his actions; and this is done when man's spiritual science is illustrated and confirmed by the things of nature and of sense and the scientific ideas thence obtained.
     If there be with man an affection of use, which is always from a spiritual origin, this will enter into the mind with whatever spiritual sciences may be learnt, and determine them into the plane of practical thought, in which interior things are presented in objective forms. Hence will spiritual perceptions and thoughts appear to man as rational conclusions and orderly principles and rules of action. By this conjunction of what is internal and external, effected by a love of use, the rational mind comes into form, and under the same impelling force the new rational, which is to man a reason for action, collects new scientifics as means and instrumentalities of action, and with them inflows into the active and moving forces of the body and comes forth embodied in word and act. A full state of life ensues and man grows in strength and stature.
     The process by which this end is reached is compared to that by which the digestive organs of ruminant animals prepare the herbs or grasses introduced into them for nourishment and assimilation.
     In Arcana Coelestia we have this Divine teaching:

     Man, from infancy even to childhood, and sometimes up to his early adolescence, imbues goods and truths by instruction from parents and teachers; for at that time he seizes upon and believes those things in simplicity. The state of innocence pro- motes them and fits them into the memory, but places them in. its first threshold; for infantile and puerile innocence is not the internal innocence which affects the rational, but it is external innocence which affects only the exterior natural. . . But when man advances in age and begins to think, not as, before-from parents and teachers-but from himself, then he resumes, and, as it were, ruminates [or chews again) the things which he had before learned and believed, and either confirms them or doubts and denies them. If he confirms them, it is an indication that he is in good; and if he denies them, it is an indication that he is in evil; but if he has doubts concerning them, it is an indication that in a succeeding age he will accede either to the affirmative or the negative. The things which a man seizes upon and believes as an infant in his first age, and which afterward he either confirms or doubts or denies, are especially the following: That God is; that He is One; that He has created all things; that He stewards those who do well and punishes those who do ill; that there is a life after death and that the evil come into hell and the good into heaven; thus, that there is a hell and a heaven; that the life after death is eternal; also, that man ought to pray daily-and this humbly; that the day of the Sabbath is to be kept holy; that parents are to be honored; that adultery is not to be committed, neither murder nor theft, with many similar things. These things-man takes in and imbues from infancy; but when he begins to think from himself and to lead himself, if he confirms them in himself and adds to them many other things that are more interior still and lives according to them, then is it well with him; but if he begins to infringe upon them and finally denies them-although he lives according to them in externals for the sake of the civil laws and for the sake of society-he is in evil.- A. C. 5135.

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     All Doctrine is thus prepared for use in life; "and hence it may be evident how important it is that the natural mind and memory should be filled with true scientifics and knowledges, by means of which a true rational may be formed.
     The point is illustrated by many things in the Word and its representative histories: as by the history of Abraham and Hagar; the birth of Ishmael (the natural rational); and afterward the birth of Isaac from Sarah (i.e., the formation of the Divine Rational of the LORD'S Human, and respectively the Spiritual Rational with man); the going down into Egypt of the Sons of Jacob; their preparation there for the wandering in the wilderness; their liberation and exodus, and their final introduction into the land of Canaan; the LORD'S being carried into Egypt when an infant; His being again brought up out of Egypt, and His further preparation for the work to be accomplished by the Divine in the Human, etc., etc. (See A. E. 654.) Let it be well noted, therefore, that the-Rational of man, from which he thinks in the natural man and in the natural life, can be formed and grow in strength and power only by a continual gathering and taking in of the means of growth, namely, sciences and cognitions. These are its ultimate food.
     Perception, as such, does not flow into act with man, not even into the understanding, in any sense of its being there his thought. In other words, man does not think his perceptions, but he thinks from them; they are a light in which he sees things more or less clearly, and from this sight or understanding thinks them. The celestial angels are in perception-but they think from this perception, and by means of sciences make for themselves, as it were, spontaneously or instantaneously, a celestial rational from which they act; Word and deed, with them, appear as one with affection and thought. With them, as with the spiritual angels, there must be an external plane on which the internal can act, the difference between them being in the mode of action. Man cannot rely on his perceptions alone or the thoughts from them for guidance in life; he needs to add to them knowledges of particulars relating to them, and to these the single things of science, in order that the love of use may have a way of advancing to its perfect issue and effect, and be supplied with means of action in the way, and in the ultimate in which it terminates. (See A. C. 5293, 6073, 454, 7038.)
     All things external or natural are created and formed for the service of things internal or spiritual, so that the latter may by them come into existence. When they cease to perform this service, or when the internal is removed, external things perish. This is illustrated by facts commonly known concerning the body of man in relation to his spirit, and the same may be seen to be true of scientifics in relation to truths, and of truths in relation to goods. Scientifics are like bodies to truths, and truths are as bodies to goods. And both, truths and goods, act according to the formation of their instrumental bodies. Bodies are not essential things regarded in themselves, but they are nevertheless essential to the existence and the operation of their indwelling spirits and souls, and therefore indispensable means to ends. Hence the importance to be attached to the right formation of scientifics in the external mind and to a like right formation of truths in the internal mind. Thus, whilst we are cautioned not to confound ends with means, and things instrumental with things respectively essential, we may also observe caution, lest we be led into error concerning things called essential and make more of them than belongs to them. "In the created universe there is not any essential in itself. In the LORD alone is the essential in itself. All things created by Him are only instrumentals;" they are means provided for the attainment of His ends. Such means, and no more, are men; such means, and no more, are the Angels. And yet created things, respectively to each other, may be as essential and instrumental, because the one may act by means of the other, and thus successively to the last effect. All goods are means to the Divine ends, but ends to the truths by which they act, as these again are ends to the scientifics by which they are carried on to their ultimation. (A. C. 5948.)
     [TO BE CONTINUED]
ESSENCE OF TRUE FREEDOM 1886

ESSENCE OF TRUE FREEDOM       G. C. OTTLEY       1886

     WHAT IS IT?

     THE subject which we propose to discuss is "The Essence of True Freedom, and the importance of Freedom for the spread of the New Church.
     If we take a retrospective glance at the state and growth of the Church during the last hundred years, we shall see that only in those parts of the world where freedom in a political and general sense has been enjoyed has there been anything like an establishment of the Church. For instance, it will be seen that only in England and America, and in some parts of Continental Europe, viz.: France and Germany, has the Church had any existence. This significant fact is sufficient, we should say, to convince any reasonable mind that, however much the arts and sciences may flourish (in appearance, at all events) under an imperfect form of government or rule, religion in its true-that is, in the New Church acceptation of the Word-can never become a tangible reality until man is in the enjoyment of that external political freedom which in our estimation is no less than the birthright of every member of the human family. We have said that only in America and England, France and Germany has the Church had any existence up to the present time; and yet with regard to France and Germany how little can it be said to have developed there during the last hundred years! If we wipe out of mind some illustrious and honored names-those of Immanuel Tafel, Le Boys des Guays, and others-how truly insignificant will the status of the Church appear in our eyes! True, in France within a few years some efforts have been made to give the New Church a better, not to say a more respectable position in the eyes of the world; and in furtherance of this wish steps were even taken to build a New Church place of worship in the environs of the "Quartier Latin," in Paris. But brick and mortar do not constitute a Church; if that were so, the First and Consummated Christian Church would still have an existence in the sight of Heaven. A Temple, however appropriately, it may be gorgeously, fitted up, is less than nothing in the eyes of the LORD unless the principles and doctrines therein set forth are absolutely in harmony with what has been Divinely revealed. And how can we say with any regard to the Truth, that this is the case with reference to the New Church place of worship in Paris? Where is its "teaching minister," that is, one who has entered the ministry by the only gate recognized in the Doctrines of the Church, viz.: that of Ordination? For, as we read: "Good may be instilled into another by any one in the country, but not truth, except by those who are teaching ministers.

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If others do so, heresies spring up, and the Church is disturbed and torn to pieces." (A. C. 6822.)
     In what sense could it be said that this Divine teaching has been conformed to in France in the establishment of the Church? Politically speaking, therefore, while the conditions in France may be at present more favorable to the establishment and development of the New Church than they were during what the world considers the palmy-"the golden"-days of the Empire, it may safely he said to have little or no existence either there or in Germany, where political freedom, in the English sense of the word, has a very doubtful existence. We see then, that if we take the facts as they stand, we shall be obliged to narrow or limit our view of the growth of the Church to England and America. There, thank God I men can proclaim their opinions fearlessly; they can band themselves together with the full sanction of the law to disseminate whatever Truths Heaven in its mercy may have communicated to them. Had we been debarred from these privileges, our position could not have been one iota more attractive or hopeful than that of our brethren in the countries we have refereed to. Freedom, then, in a general, political sense, is absolutely necessary for the establishment of the Church. For, in order that the Church may progress, ifs members must be able to exercise to the full their faculties of freedom and rationality; and in order to do so, they must have freedom of thought; but freedom of thought is interfered with wherever the freedom of the press does not exist. For, as we read in True Christian Religion (n. 814): "Wherever the freedom of speaking and writing is restrained, there also the freedom of thought, that is, the freedom of taking an enlarged view of matters and things, is under restraint. . . . In a word, influx accommodates itself to efflux, and in a like manner the understanding in its higher region is exactly in proportion to the freedom it has of giving utterance to its thoughts."
     But political freedom is only a means toward an end. It is that natural condition which is favorable to, and indeed which is absolutely necessary for, the development of the New Church. But this is all. Natural freedom cannot lead us to spiritual freedom. It must not, therefore, be supposed that because we Englishmen are "par excellence" lovers of political freedom that because we have during so many centuries sown broadcast in whatever quarter of the world the Divine Providence has permitted us to exercise power and control-the elements of a true, because orderly, freedom, that therefore we are necessarily in favor of those higher, because more interior, forms of liberty-viz.: rational and spiritual liberty. To suppose this, were only to deceive ourselves egregiously, to close our eves against the most deadly foes we can possibly have. We may love political freedom for purely selfish purposes and ends. We may love it, because we feel the great inconvenience of not being able to ultimate our natural desires. In this love of political freedom, therefore-as legitimate one so far as it goes-there may be nothing of Heaven, and thus nothing really good in the sight of the LORD. Indeed in the very nature of things there cannot be And why? Because what is man at the outset of his career we mean during his merely natural states but a complex of evils and falsities? "Man," we read in the Heavenly Doctrines, "is by birth like a little Hell (D. P. 251) Yea, we are further informed that "from his hereditary evil he always pants toward the deepest Hell" (D P. 183.) If this be his real character at first and of course it is, because the All Wise Omniscient Being so declares it in His Final Revelation-how can it be inferred, that because he loves political liberty or freedom, that he therefore loves that higher and more heavenly form of freedom which in the Doctrines is termed "spiritual liberty"? Does not the mere fact of his natural mind being a "form and image of Hell" (D. L. W. 273) negative the supposition? But when, then, does he begin to love spiritual liberty if he does not love it at the outset of his life? Doctrine from Heaven says, "When man becomes regenerate, then he first enters upon a state of liberty, being previously in slavery. For he is a slave whilst under the dominion of lusts and falsities . . . . whilst he continues a slave, that is, so long as cupidities and falsities have dominion, he supposes himself . . . . to be in a state of liberty. But it is a gross falsity, since he is then carried away by the delight of his cupidities and of the pleasures thence derived, that is, by the delight of his loves, and because by delight he appears to himself to be free . . . . But man never comes into a state of liberty [that is, spiritual liberty] prior to regeneration." (A. C. 892.)
     From this passage, accordingly, it follows, that however much man may love "natural liberty" during the first and early phases of his life, he knows nothing, and can know nothing, of "spiritual liberty" until he is regenerated. It is, therefore, only when his nature has, to a large extent, been transformed from the image of the earthly into the image of the heavenly that he begins to realize the grand, unmistakable distinction there is between merely "natural liberty," under the influence of which, as Doctrine from Heaven declares, "he loves nothing but himself and the world" (D. P. 73), and "spiritual liberty," which is essential liberty. But in order to reach this state man needs such "truths" as will teach him wherein the distinction lies. For as we read, "Man has not [that is, naturally] the truths which teach it [that is, the distinction there is between natural and spiritual liberty] and without these [truths] spiritual servitude is believed to be liberty and spiritual liberty to be servitude." (D. P. 149.) Only "truths," accordingly, can enlighten him on this subject. Or as we read elsewhere, "In order that man may be reborn," in other words, not only know the difference between merely natural liberty and spiritual liberty, but love the latter more-yea, infinitely more-than the former, "he must first learn truths." (A. C. 10,367.) Exactly so. Without them he must remain forever the slave, the tool of his passions, and thus ever fail to attain to that good to which all truth is intended to lead. But where can be obtain the "truths which teach" the difference there is between spiritual liberty and spiritual servitude? The Word is the source whence these truths are to be derived," every New Churchman will exclaim. Quite so! the Word is the source of those truths. But what do we mean by the "Word?" Do we mean, the Word only as to its letter or literal sense? If we do, then Doctrine from Heaven tells us we are wrong in our inference, for we read: "Without a living principle, the Word as to the letter is dead," and again, "the Word as to the letter alone is like a body without a soul." (A. C. 3.) Now with this emphatic and infallible teaching before us, we are bound to admit that by the "Word" we can never mean only the letter, but something else involved in the letter, folded away, as it were, in it, and which imparts to it power, yea, life. But what is this "something" which is as the essence of the letter, if it be not its internal-spiritual sense? Just so. It is the internal sense which imparts to any and every part of the letter its power, just as the mind of man imparts life and energy to every nook and corner of his physical organization.

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But the internal sense is not only a part of the Word-that is, its "living principle" (A. C. 3)-but it is the Word itself. For we read: "The internal sense is the most essential Word in which is the Divine most immediately." (A. C. 3432.) Again, "The internal sense is the LORD'S Word in the heavens; those in the heavens perceive it in that sense." (A. C. 2094.) When, therefore, we say that only "truths" can teach wherein lies the difference between merely natural liberty and spiritual liberty, we can never mean-if we pretend to be anything like consistent, logical reasoners-only such "truths" as the unaided, external mind can draw from the letter, but also such "truths" as can be found in the" most essential Word," that is, in the internal sense, which is "The LORD'S Word in the Heavens."
     But have we such a Word? Has Heaven, in its mercy, dispensed to us in these latter days that internal sense which is the "Sanctuary of the Word"? (A. C. 5398.) Certainly, it has conferred this unspeakable boon on us. For we read in True Christian Religion (n. 200): "It has pleased the LORD, at this time, to reveal the spiritual sense of the Word," which we are informed elsewhere it is the same with the Doctrine that is in Heaven." (H. D. 7.) When, therefore, we read in the number of the Divine Providence already quoted, that only "truths can teach" the difference there is between merely natural liberty and spiritual liberty, we are to bear in mind that the truths referred to are never those of the letter only where, indeed," truths" are in the shade-but also the truths of the spiritual sense, in which the LORD is present in all His Divinity. (T. C. R. 780.) Once this is an accepted principle with us, then, and not before, do we begin to see the unmistakable lines of demarcation there are between the liberty enjoyed by the merely natural man and that spiritual liberty which undoubtedly falls to the lot of every man who suffers himself to be regenerated. But it may be asked at this stage of our inquiry, "Do you mean to say that the man of the New Church can know nothing of this higher kind of liberty until he brings himself to bow not only before the teachings of the Word in its letter-which, of course, we all unhesitatingly grant-but before all the teachings of the internal sense of the Word which are contained in the Writings of the New Jerusalem Church?" Yes, this is exactly what we do mean. The man, priest or layman, who has not brought himself into this tractable state, Heaven leads us to infer, can never know anything of that spiritual liberty which is essential liberty. But in the very nature of things it cannot be otherwise, and why? Because how can a man attain to that spiritual state which is identical with spiritual liberty unless he bows before the supremacy of those Spiritual and Divine Laws which have, once for all, been revealed in the Writings of the New Church? How can he make the slightest progress in that direction so long as his mind rebels against those Laws according to which alone the Church can be established? And we would ask here whether, in this very rebellious spirit, which, alas! is so abroad in the New Church, we have not a clue to its semi-paralyzed condition? Are there half a dozen societies in the New Church that can be said to present that aspect- which would satisfy us-an aspect that we could unhesitatingly pronounce worthy of that Church for which all things have been preparing from the days of eternity? Where do you see the priest or minister exercising that salutary authority which Heaven, in its Doctrine, declares to be part and parcel of this function? (H. D. 314.) Where do you see the laity ready to bow with but a murmur to the teachings of the internal sense in their length and breadth. Where in the Statute Book of Conference do you see any signs of this spirit of obedience to the Laws of Heaven, which are the Laws of Divine Order? Alas I are we not confronted with the very opposite of this obedient spirit among the clergy as well as the laity of the New Church? Among the clergy, when one of them actually brands a Doctrine revealed from Heaven-we mean the Doctrine of a Trine in the Priesthood-as a "stupid" Doctrine, although it is elaborately set forth in one of those Divine Books on which is written in the Spiritual World-"Second Coming of the LORD." Among the laity, when one of them declares that while this Doctrine-of a Trine in the ministry-may indeed be adapted to the wants of angels, it is utterly unadapted to the wants of" imperfect men," although that Doctrine was not unfolded for the edification of angels, but for the instruction of the men of the New Jerusalem Church as it exists here, on earth; We ask our readers how it is possible for the Church to grow and develop as long as this negative and rebellious spirit reigns in our midst-how, in fact, the Holy City-New Jerusalem-that is, the Divine Doctrinal system represented by the Holy City (A. R. 879) can ever do its hallowed work on earth when those who profess to be members-yea, its teachers, set their faces against keeping those Laws which have been framed by the Divine Wisdom for the establishment of the Church and the salvation of its members?
     It may, however, be urged here that this enthronement of Law in our hearts is no easy matter-that it involves a large amount of self-sacrifice-yea, of self-compulsion, at first. While we grant this, are we not told in Doctrine from Heaven that it is only by exercising such self-control such self-compulsion that we can expect to attain to that spiritual freedom or liberty to which we have been drawing attention?
     Let us once more peruse the solemn words written in Divine Providence (n. 145) for our instruction and eternal good-"When the internal conquers, which comes to pass when the internal has reduced the external to consent and obedience, then liberty itself and rationality itself are given to man by the LORD, for then man is delivered from infernal liberty, which in itself is slavery, and is introduced into heavenly liberty, which in itself is essential liberty, and it is granted him to associate with angels." Nothing short, therefore, of this self-compulsion can ever make it possible for us to attain to true; spiritual liberty. When, as a Church in conference or convention assembled, or as individual members of it, we recognize the supremacy of those Laws that have been Divinely dispensed from Heaven and which are, for that very reason, the precious stones and pearls of the Holy City-when, in all matters of Doctrine, of worship, of Church Government-yea of Science and Philosophy too-we are willing whether as Priest or Layman, to abide by the teachings of those Laws-then, and not till then, can peace and order reign within our borders-yea more, not till then can the voice of harmony and melody be heard within the gates of the Holy City-New Jerusalem.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A FORCIBLE and incisive review of the Holcombe and Christy movement, entitled Pseudo-Celestialism, and covering twenty-six octavo pages, has been reprinted from Words for the New Church, number XIII, and will be sent free to any address on application to the Academy Book Room, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia. It is the most able presentation of the subject that has appeared, and we heartily recommend it to all who are suffering from the malady of Pseudo-Celestialism, or who are in danger of being affected by it.

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Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     THE latest tract published by the New Church Tract and Publication Society is a lecture by the Rev. Chauncey Giles on "Popular Misconceptions of the Principles and Doctrines of the New Church."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     The New Church Board of Publication has recently issued a cheap edition in paper covers, of the English novel by Mr. James Spilling entitled Amid the Corn. The front cover has a tasteful vignette suggestive of the title. Prices, 10 cents each; twelve copies, $1.00; $6.00 per hundred.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE first publication of the posthumous Indexes to the "missing treatise" of the work on Marriage will be gladly welcomed by all students of the Writings. We have not space to describe the publication in detail, but, as the work is still in preparation-forty-six of the seventy-four pages which it will embrace having been kindly sent us by the -editor and translator, the Rev. Samuel H. Worcester-we take this first opportunity of suggesting the advisability of stating in the preface that the reason for assigning to the work the title Angelic Wisdom Concerning Marriage is to be found in the reference to such a work in Apocalypse Revealed (n. 434).
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Board of Publication has issued a Prospectus of an English translation, by the Rev. Frank Sewall, of the work of Swedenborg On the Soul (De Anima). This treatise was never published by Swedenborg himself nor ever before translated into English, but was published in Latin by Immanuel Tafel from the MS. in Stockholm as Part VII of Regnum Animate. The quotations from the work that have appeared in the Life give but a faint idea of the value of the work. If a sufficient number of subscribers can be secured, the work will be issued in an octavo volume of about three hundred and fifty pages. Price, to subscribers, $2.00; when published, $3.00.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     New Church Reading Circle is the name of the organ of the newly formed Western New Church Union. It is a four-page monthly, published at 17 Van Buren street, Chicago, at twenty-five cents per annum. Its editor as the Rev. S. C. Eby, of St. Louis; Mo. The first number opens with an "Appeal to the Church," in which the President and Secretary of the Union states the organization and aims of the Union, and solicits contributions and applications for membership. Other contents of the number are: "Constitution of the Western New Church Union;" reports of the recent Congress; and articles treating of the Congress, of the Union, and of the Western reading circles.
TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE 1886

TRUE STORY OF ONE GIRL'S LIFE              1886

     [THIS STORY WAS BEGUN IN THE ISSUE FOR OCTOBER, 1886.]

     CHAPTER XII.

     Husband and Wife.

     IN compliance with the demands of professional duty, Dr. Stanhope was unable to remain any length of time in Springvale; so he and Mr. Clay went on together, merely stopping over a few hours-long enough to make the necessary railroad connections.
     After Roger had left Venita and she had leisure to review the situation, she began to be a little frightened at the step she had taken. The few walks and talks they had taken before leaving the mountains had given her glimpses of the happiness in store for her; but now that she no longer had Roger's presence to sustain her, these became shadowy and unreal, and all her former doubts gradually returned in full force, threatening to overwhelm her completely.
     Another doubt was added to her scruples when she reflected upon the externals with which she would be surrounded as Roger's wife. They seemed altogether too attractive. His very virtues arrayed themselves in reproach before her.
     Venita had frequently observed that many of the young gentlemen of the Church, from decided but mistaken notions of personal freedom, had been inclined to slight in themselves, and rather scorn in others, the observance of the little niceties of etiquette, and now she was fearful that she had allowed her thorough appreciation of Dr. Stanhope's intuitive gallantry and strict observance of these forms to unduly influence her.
      Mrs. Sterling saw that her daughter was again under-going a conflict, but avoided approaching the subject, thinking it best that Venita should now rely upon Roger alone for help in what related to themselves, as this dependence would draw them closer together. Her mother-heart ached when she saw the old, settled look of trouble in the brown eyes, but Mr. Sterling confirmed her in her first wise resolution to leave Venita to herself until Roger came.
     Thus was the announcement of Roger's next visit received with much satisfaction by both her parents, although Venita herself was in doubt whether it was with more dread or longing that she awaited the arrival of the morning train. Scarcely was she conscious of anything transpiring around her, so constantly were her ears straining at every step or sound, and although she knew that the train was not due for hours, still she caught herself looking perpetually at the clock, though there were hours to spare.
     When at last Roger's hasty step sounded across the porch, followed by an impatient ring of the bell, her nervousness became so intense as to render it utterly impossible for her to advance one step to meet him.
     In his first eager delight at having her once more in his embrace, Roger did not notice her unusual pallor until, tenderly taking her fair flower face between his hands that he might have one long look, he saw that her lips were tremulous with emotion and her eyes filled with unshed tears.
     "Why, my darling! what is the matter?-what has distressed you?"
     His loving, sympathetic words unnerved her completely, and she lay in his arms sobbing like the tired unhappy child that she was. The sphere of Roger's quiet words, and tender, reverent kisses soon comforted and soothed her beyond measure.
     Raising her head presently, she impulsively threw her arms around his neck, clinging to him in a way that made his heart bound with delight, and the broken, impulsive words that followed revealed to' him the true cause of her distress.
     "Do not leave me again! It is dreadful when you are not here. Stay with me always."
     "O my darling! I was afraid it would be so. How you have suffered," said Roger, with redoubled tenderness, pressing her close to his heart.
     "I have no courage or strength of my own you must help me."
     Roger soothed her with tender, comforting expressions of love, but it was some time before she was sufficiently collected to comprehend that he was speaking of their speedy marriage as a settled fact. And although even yet she was hardly prepared for that alternative she offered no remonstrance; that last dreadful month had taught her that if she were to become Roger's wife, she needed his ever present sphere to protect her from states of infestation; and the delightful sense of comfort and reliance she experienced in his presence unmistakably revealed to her that she did love him.

54



     Although Roger's stay was necessarily short, their speedily approaching betrothal and marriage gave Venita so much to occupy her attention that she had little time to relapse into states of depression. At intervals he would catch a glimpse of what overwhelming forces were arrayed against her, if she offered them the slightest encouragement in any display of weakness. But when Roger placed the betrothal ring upon her finger, she realized a sense of security in thus holding a talisman that would protect her.
     Mrs. Sterling and Venita, at Roger's request, made one or two hurried visits to Kingswell to give what suggestions they might deem advisable in the way of preparing the old place for the reception of young Mrs. Stanhope.
     As Venita passed from one room to another, she noticed with some amusement the total lack of all the little feminine adornments that so greatly relieve the solemn grandeur of such a house; and many were the plans for her beautifying and softening its now almost sombre appearance that she promised herself when installed as mistress. Some of these improvements she advanced for Roger's approval. He fully acquiesced in all she proposed; but the half comprehension of her ideas he evinced, and the persistency with which he returned to the one all-absorbing topic of the house's mistress, showed conclusively that he considered it would all be complete when he brought his wife home.
     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *
     And so they were married.
     The day, bright and beautiful with sunlight, gave place to a night of dazzling splendor. The atmosphere was so transparently clear that the earth seemed literally flooded with moonlight, and the stars themselves each to have acquired an unwonted splendor to grace that nuptial night.
     As Venita gave her solemn promise to love, honor, and comfort Roger to all eternity, such a flood of happy, contented delight swept over her whole being that all doubt seemed dissipated forever.
     *     *      *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

     "Welcome home, sweet wife!"
     "Yes-home-Roger."
     As they crossed the threshold, Venita was almost dazzled by the brilliant illumination within-"O Roger!" she exclaimed, with sudden tenderness, "how kind and thoughtful of you to make our home-coming so cheerful."
     "Kind? Why, darling, how can you speak so? This is but a faint expression of my 'love' and 'welcome.' O my own love! how shall I render due thanks to the LORD for so much-so inexpressibly much-that He has given me in you? My constant endeavor must be to so conform my life by His teachings that we may grow in wisdom, and thus be prepared to become more and more fully one, even to all eternity. Look up, Venita!-wife!-and let me kiss those tears away, and tell me, dearest, do you think you can be happy in this your new home?"
     "It is too much happiness, Roger. I do not deserve it all. Teach me, dear, to become a true and helpful wife to you."
     "With the LORD'S blessing I will, my own!"
     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

     One more glimpse of the life in this home we must take before drawing the curtain.
     On one of the days in early June, some eighteen months after their marriage, the rich light of evening sunset casts its warm, ruddy glow through the long library at Kingswell. The room, though vacant, does not have that cheerless, uninhabited look an unused room so soon assumes. On the table is Venita's work-basket, on the top of which is lightly laid some dainty work, and Venita's special chair stands in close proximity to Roger's own. To all this, though, the master of the house pays small heed as he hastily passes through the room. The elaborate care with which he closes the door and quietly, though still with eager haste, crosses the wide hallway portends some unusual and important event. The proud, happy smile on his face as he mounts the stairway gives place to one of deep and tender love as he enters the quiet bedchamber.
     Venita's sweet, expectant face is turned toward the door, awaiting his entrance.
     His first look and words are for her alone. As he seats himself at the bedside he, for the first time, perceives the little details of her toilet.
     "Why, dear wife, how well you are looking! What elixir have you been inhaling to-day?"
     "Appreciation of my husband's love, in consequence of which I have been performing a little extra toilet preparatory to his return."
     "Take care, darling!-use the utmost caution. But, indeed, you look lovely!-quite like your old self."
     "Not quite my old self, Roger. I never can be that. But I hope to be something truer and better-now that I have baby also to help me."
     As the young mother reached out her arms to her husband her face was sincere and beautiful with internal peace and happiness. She drew his head down onto the pillow beside her, and for a few moments both were silent, each busy with their own thoughts. Then Venita, giving a long sigh of relief, turned her face toward her husband.
     "Roger, to-day I received a letter from Aunt Clara, and it brought back all those old times of trouble. How long ago they seem now! I can scarcely realize that only a year and a half have elapsed since I became your wife. I feel as though I had always belonged just here in your home by your side. I cannot understand why I allowed myself to remain in a state of indecision so long."
     "Venita, do not forget that it is only as we ascend the mountain that it is possible for us to see the valley spread out below us. Now you can lock back upon those old temptations with confidence, but they were very real at the time, dear, and it was very difficult for us to find our way out at times."
     "I cannot conceive, though, how it was that Hugh Conway ever held the slightest sway over my imagination. Aunt Clara says that he returned home in the fall and that he and Helen are to be married on toward Christmas. It seems he traveled with them abroad. Why, Roger, his wife will have no soul to her life. Poor Helen! she does not know what she as losing.
     "With the LORD'S help we will not lose it, dear. Every day of our life are we becoming more and more closely united, and we will continue to become so as we concentrate our utmost endeavors on educating this little one intrusted to our care, that she may become a true woman and a good man's wife."'
     "Yes, dear; we will."
     Roger's arms were around her and his tender, brave face was bent to hers. Raising her eyes, bright with     their new born joy and steadfast with their love and trust, to his the covenant was sealed.
     [THE END.]

55


STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM 1886

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM              1886

     A STORY FOR CHILDREN.

     CHAPTER IV.

     WHEN Tom awoke, a blaze of light was flaming in the east; from every tree the birds were singing and dew-drops were sparkling on plants, trees, and flowers.
     Tom thought the latter looked something like a baby dogs that has just awakened from a sweet sleep. The air was so pure, and he felt so happy, that he lay perfectly quiet until a little Blue-Bell, all decked out in dew-diamonds, looked at him and said, "You had a fine sleep."
     "Yes, indeed," he replied, "I was very tired."
     "There is nothing like a good, sound sleep to freshen one up," said the Blue-Bell sagely.
     "Do flowers sleep?"
     "Of course," she answered. "Just look about you and see how fresh and bright every one looks this morning."
      "That's a fact," said Tom, sitting up and glancing around.
      "Well, that is because we have just awakened from our sleep, as you have from yours. Look at those Morning-Glories over there, and see how wide awake and bright they are this morning; by night they will be tired and wilted, ready for a sleep to freshen them up again."
     "You get up pretty early, don't you?" asked Tom.
     "Get up?"
     "Yes; wake up, you know."
     "Oh! I understand you now. Yes; we wake up as soon as the rosy light shines over the hills. Indeed, no one could sleep after that, for the birds do set up such a singing!"
     "Don't you sometimes feel that you would like to sleep a little longer? I know I do."
     "Not a minute longer," replied the Blue-Bell; "for early in the morning our complexion is at its best, and then our diamonds look so fine."
     "You are like the Violet, you want to look pretty."
     "Certainly."
     The memory of the previous night now coming to Tom, he asked: "Do you think that children should be seen and not heard?"
     "Surely not, for children are about the only people that can talk to flowers. Why did you ask?"
     Tom explained, and then the Blue-Bell said: "Wasn't that too ridiculous! It reminds me that yesterday something calling itself Botany happened along here, peering at us flowers and measuring our leaves and counting our petals in a most absurd manner, and what do you think it called me?"
     "I don't know. What was it?"
     "The most stupid thing you ever heard! Campanula rotundifiora. The idea!"
     "Well, you know, that's your scientific name."
     "I don't care if it is. I won't own it; and if you were to call me that, I wouldn't speak to you."
     "There is no danger," replied Tom, "for I don't know Latin very well."
     "It's Latin, is it? Then I'm glad that I don't know Latin," replied the Blue-Bell, nodding her head.
     "Latin is a good thing to know," said Tom.
     "I may be for you, but not for me; don't you ever talk Latin to me." Tom promised he wouldn't, and then he rose and went his way.
     He traveled for a good while, and was rather warm and tired, when he came to a Brook. On each side of it arose great hills covered with large trees, except where ledges of rock stood out steep and high. A growth of trees and tender green grass or feathery ferns grew along the margin of the Brook and looked so cool and quiet that he sat down and rested his back against a big walnut tree and listened to the Brook singing. It was a song that cannot be put into words; its meaning can only be felt by tired people who sit beside it and listen. While this silvery music, which was accompanied by the low sound of the wind floating amid the tree-tops, was in his ears, Tom dreamed; he was not asleep, though he Bat with his head leaned back against the tree, for his eyes were open, gazing straight before him. His dreams were as shifting and as many-hued as summer clouds, very difficult, perhaps impossible, to bring down into words. At last he aroused himself; and then his habitual desire for talking came upon him, and he asked the Brook:
     "Where did you come from?"
     "From a Spring up among the hills," it answered.
     "Where are you going?"
     "To the River."
     "And then where?"
     "To the Ocean."
     "And then what becomes of you?"
     "I don't know."
     "Aren't you afraid?"
     "No; why should I be?"
     "I don't know exactly; I thought that you might feel a little fear at the thought of what awaited you in the Ocean, which, you know, is so very vast."
     "I have never felt afraid. Have you?"
     "Well, yes, sometimes; a Bull chased me once and I was pretty badly scared."
     "That is a little different," murmured the Brook. "Do you never feel afraid when you think about where you are going and what is to become of you?"
     "I never thought about it," he replied. Then he began to think about the future, and the more he thought, the more troubled and fearful he grew. At last he opened his Book and read aloud:
     "In the day that I am afraid I will trust in Thee. In God have I put my trust; I will not be afraid what flesh will do unto me."
     "You see I have no cause for fear, after all," he said to the Brook.
     "No; God will take care of us all," it replied.
     "Did you ever hear anything from this Book before?"
     "I did not; but as soon as I heard, I knew it was true and very beautiful. Does it say anything about Brooks? I hope it does."
     Tom looked a moment, and then read:
     "He shall drink of the brook in the way; therefore shall he lift up his head."
     Then Tom knelt and drank of the pure waters, and arose and pursued his way.
     After a while he came to Romance Land. A wonderful land! A land of excitement, where the eyes sparkle and ofttimes the breath comes quick, so intense is life there. And yet, though intense, there is something unreal, or rather immaterial, in this Land-this Land and Sea.
     Tom embarked in a Gallant Ship; he sailed over strange and tropical seas. One day a long, low, rakish looking craft was sighted. She crowded on all sail-so did the Gallant Ship. The stranger was overhauled. She ran up a black flag, and Tom's captain said: "Ho! I thought so!" The pirate, for pirate the stranger was, came about and sent a broadside at Tom. Tom responded The fight grew furious. The black flag fell.

56


"She surrenders!" "Never!" roared the pirate captain. Then all hands were summoned for     boarding the pirate; but as the Gallant Ship bore down on her, there was a tremendous burst of fire and flame, and the pirate ship was no more.
     This is a meagre outline of what happens in Romance Land-a peculiar Land. The Bull had given Tom a bad fright, but the terrible Black Pirate only     aroused his courage.
     He lingered here a long time, storming castles, slaying dragons, fighting Indians, and going through many wonderful adventures. But, at last, with a few fond glances backward, he left this Land and entered the Land of the Practical.
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
Communicated 1886

Communicated              1886

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles on which New Church Life is conducted, or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]
REPORT OF THE WESTERN NEW CHURCH CONGRESS 1886

REPORT OF THE WESTERN NEW CHURCH CONGRESS       B. K       1886

     HELD IN THE VAN BUBEN STREET TEMPLE, CHICAGO, MARCH 4TH, 5TH, 6TH.

     ON Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, March 4th, 5th, and 6th, representatives of the New Church in the Western States (west of the Pennsylvania State line) met in Chicago to consider the needs of the Church in the West. As a result of this meeting, a "Western New Church Union" has been formed for the purpose of doing missionary and educational work, publishing books, tracts, etc., and establishing a book room, permanent library, etc., and at the same time for the purpose of publishing an organ devoted to the interests of the New Church in the West.
     The attendance during the day sessions of the Congress was from thirty-five to forty. The following ministers and laymen were among the number: The Rev. Messrs. Goddard, Sewall, and Cabell, of Ohio; Frost, of Michigan; Mercer, Bartels, and Bostock, of Illinois; Eby and Busmann, of Missouri; Higgins, of Kansas, and Wood, of Iowa; and also Mr. Grant, of Indiana, Authorized Preacher. Laymen: Messrs. Scammon, Officer, Keyes, Cutler, Bonney, of Illinois; Browne, of Ohio, and also representatives from Minnesota and Michigan.



     Thursday, March 4th.

     AFTER opening with religious exercises, the Rev. L. P. Mercer gave an address of hearty welcome to the Congress. Your correspondent heard but the end of this address.
     The speaker thought there were signs of suspense in the world-a state of expectancy-so that the world is remarked that great waves of thought spread over the becoming more ready to receive the New Doctrines He world, and that the New Church, like the rest, responded to these waves. First there was the doctrinal wave in the world, and then the doctrinal wave in the New Church.     Then there was the ethical wave, the speculative wave the theistical wave; and now, these having passed away the world was looking for something else. The world demanded a spiritual gospel-a gospel that recognized the nearness of the Spiritual World. And this wave was being felt by the New Church, and it was preparing to satisfy the demand. Besides satisfying this demand, it is also the duty of the Church to care for and feed its own flock, especially its isolated receivers. As an instance of the need, he referred to the state of many societies in Ohio resulting from lack of care.
     After these remarks the Congress organized by the appointment of a President and a Secretary.
     The Rev. John Goddard, General Pastor of the Ohio Association, nominated Mr. Mercer, but a layman suggested that the orderly way would be to elect the General Pastor, and he was accordingly elected. Mr. H. H. Grant was elected Secretary.
     The Congress then having nothing especial before it, the Rev. Mr. Sewall made some remarks on the President's address. He remarked on the strangeness of the state of the leading minds in the world. They seemed to come so near to the New Church that they were just ready to step into the promised land, and some river intervenes and they fall back. He illustrated his point by the article of Professor Drummond in the Nineteenth Century, and gave it as his opinion that if these same truths were declared to be of revelation, of Divine Authority, their seeming wide reception would be swept away in an instant. He wished to know why. Why the existence of this awe at the idea of this truth coming from God-this fear to take them as authority?
     The speaker thought the New Church had better look after and bring together New Church men-the isolated receivers.
     Mr. Browne said that he had been studying statistics, and had ascertained that the New Church gave more in proportion to its numbers, and had a larger proportional representation at its general meetings, than the "other" churches.
      Mr. Bartels thought poor organization one cause of the lack of progress; another, that the converts to the New Church were mostly cultivated and wealthy, and with them had brought in a spirit of criticism and worldliness.
     Mr. H. H. Grant made some remarks, in which he referred to two letters of Swedenborg to Dr. Beyer, in one of which he was in doubt as to the reception of the Doctrines, while in the other, written about a year later, he notes that in Stockholm they do not talk so much of faith alone, but more of charity. In this Swedenborg saw cause for rejoicing; so he (Mr. Grant) rejoiced to see any progress toward the New Church. He instanced the sermons of Sam Jones. Sam Jones says that hell is concentrated selfishness: if that is not the doctrine of the New Church, what is? True, there were evidences that he clung to the old theology, but he (Mr. Grant) rejoiced in so much.
     Mr. Mercer told an anecdote from Sam Jones's preaching, and Mr. Pratt made some remarks, and then the Congress adjourned to reassemble at 2.30 P. M.

          Afternoon.

     IN the afternoon the Rev. S. C. Eby, of St. Louis, read a paper in answer to the question, "Do we need a Northwestern New-Church Union for publishing and other uses?" His final answer to the question was, We do. He reviewed the facts in regard to the publications in the East and in Canada. He said there is a distinction between the East and the West. The West is of a peculiar nature, and has a distinctly Western complexion, etc. He referred in the course of his paper to civilization and the relation of the Church to it. Civilization, he said, is the outgrowth of selfishness; all its progress is made from selfish motives. Improvements, inventions etc., are made because they pay.

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Its whole morality is on the Benjamin Franklin plan: "Be virtuous and you will be happy." The Old Church is swallowed up in civilization. The New Church is above civilization. It surmounts it and sits upon it, like a monarch on his throne, etc. In referring to the prevailing belief, he said that he believed that if the truth were known the Unitarians would have a sweeping majority. All the Old Church, from the most cultivated to Sam Jones with his police-court eloquence, had an arbitrary god. In his opinion, both Babylon and the Dragon had entered into the New Church. There had been men in the Church with all the ideas of Papists, and there were others who became glib Swedenborgians. The New Church differs totally from Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, and Unitarianism. If we would enter into the New Church, we must be de-Romanized, de-Calvinized, and de-Unitarianized. He believed there should be a Union in Chicago, well equipped with books and all other means of work, and that this Union should establish a paper which should be a true exponent of the Doctrines of the Church, sweet and lucid; that it should be an exponent of the Church in the West.
      Mr. Eby's paper was then placed before the Congress for discussion. The Rev. Mr. Goddard asked the writer what he meant by saying there should be no ecclesiasticism in the New Church such as in the Old. Did he refer to the visible or to the invisible-to the spirit or to the form?
     Mr. Eby answered that he referred to the spirit.
     Mr. Bartels said he thought we needed a centre in the Northwest with a little paper. We must be content with feeble efforts at first. We needed no ecclesiastical organization, but should just go ahead with the work.
      Mr. Mercer thought we ought to have a Northwestern New Church Union. He indorsed the whole paper.
     He believed that "competition is the life of trade," and that the proposed paper would only help the Messenger.
     He said the least ecclesiastical influence in this Union would be the best. If ecclesiasticism enters, then we begin to build a tower that will reach to heaven-we desire to get a name.
     Mr. Browne thought we wanted to find something for isolated receivers to do.
     Mr. Sewall said Cooper Union was too far: we need a centre that can be reached more easily. He has been astonished and abashed by the mature interest taken in the reading of the Writings by the young people in Urbana. He had not expected it.
     Mr. Mercer said there were about three hundred and seventy readers in Ohio and about two hundred and fifty in Illinois with whom they were in communication. In Chicago the reading circle consisted mostly of young people, the older ones having dropped out. The edition of Our Reading Circles was about two thousand.
     Mr. Browne suggested that a committee be appointed to draft a simple constitution.
     A gentleman from Minneapolis made some remarks. He thought too much was said about Swedenborg: that we ought to bring the people to CHRIST and to the Word. Swedenborg was a key-which he compared to a pony in the study of language-to rationalize the Word, etc. He was glad the movement was to lack ecclesiasticism.
     Mr. Frost said that it was the use of the New Church not to bring men to Swedenborg but to the LORD; but the best and only way they could be brought to the LORD, was by bringing them to the Truth as revealed in the Writings of Swedenborg.
     Mr. Goddard made some report concerning the reading circle in Ohio.
     A motion to appoint a committee of five was carried. Mr. Sewall arose and said he hoped he was not going to throw a firebrand or something of that kind into their midst, but he did not wish the report to get abroad that the sentiment of this meeting is against ecclesiasticism; that the Congress proposed to dispense with and altogether do away with ecclesiasticism. They were opposed to the spirit, not the form. There are other uses besides ecclesiastical uses and other kinds of societies in the New Church. What is the relation of this body to Associations? The members of it come together as individuals to perform uses. They are not hostile to ecclesiastical societies. (By ecclesiastical societies the speaker appeared to mean general conventions, associations, and societies for worship, etc.)
     Mr. Mercer said that all he meant by "the least ecclesiasticism being the best," was that they organize independently of the various Associations.
     After remarks by Messrs. Frost, Browne, Higgins, Eby, and others, the Congress adjourned to meet in the evening.

     Evening.

     YOUR correspondent was unable to attend the evening session, but was informed that a difference of opinion existed on a paper by the Rev. John Goddard, on the question, "What are the conditions of power from on high, and how to fulfill them?" Mr. Goddard holding that to "remain in Jerusalem until ye receive power from on high" means to abide in the letter of the Word, the Ten Commandments, the Old Jerusalem; while Mr. Cabell held that it meant to abide in a life according to the Doctrines of the Church until we receive an affection for good and truth from the LORD, thus "power from on high."
     I suppose the paper was discussed by others, but have no account of it.



     Friday, March 5th.

     THE order for Friday morning was the reading of two papers, one from the Rev. E. C. Mitchell, of St. Paul, Minn.; the other by the Rev. T. F. Houts, of Menard, Ill., both in answer to the question, "What are the needs of our isolated New Churchmen, and how to meet them?"
     Neither of the two was present, but each sent his paper, and they were read by others.
     The Rev. E. C. Mitchell said there were two relations between New Churchmen: one he called "Consociation," the other "Association." "Consociation" is the spiritual conjunction which results from charity and faith. It exists between all who are in similar faith and life. "Association" is the external relation existing between New Churchmen associated in societies, etc. It is not orderly for a man to be externally a member of one Church, and spiritually a member of another; for "consociation" and "association" ought to make one. Isolated members of the New Church ought to be members of the external New Church. The duty of the General Church toward the isolated members is to introduce them into the external Church by Baptism and by instruction, and to make for them a home there by administering the Holy Supper and performing the duties of the pastoral relation. The General Church ought also to cultivate a central life. It is the duty of isolated members to look to the General Church as their home, and to try to come into closer association with them.
     In connection with the Rev. Mr. Houts's paper, a letter from him to Mr. Mercer was read. He intends to establish a New Church society at Olney, Illinois.

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A hall has been hired and fitted up, and they desire Mr. Mercer to come to baptize some of their members and to lecture, etc.
     In his paper, among other things, Mr. Houts related a story of an Old Church minister who declared that Swedenborg denied the Divinity of the LORD. When asked if he had ever read his works, he said, "No." Again, when asked if he would read enough to be convinced of his error, he refused. Mr. Houts is profoundly convinced that it is not best to put the Writings of the Church into the hands of new receivers-"Milk for babes and meat for men." He instanced his own case; at first he could not become interested in Swedenborg, but now the collateral works are too weak for him. He also told an incident of a saloon-keeper who began to read a work of Swedenborg out of curiosity, but became so affected by it that he closed out his business and became a receiver.     
     When the reading of the papers was concluded, the President, Mr. Goddard, announced that the great question for which the Congress had come together was the establishment of a Northwest New Church Union, and that the Committee appointed to draft a Constitution was ready to report.
     Then a somewhat confused discussion took place, partly of the papers and partly of the Union.
     A layman protested against passing such good papers over in silence.
     Mr. Sewall thought the paper a good one, and that it gave the needs of the isolated New Churchmen better than could be given by most of them.
     It was moved that the Secretary be directed to write letters both to Mr. Mitchell and to Mr. Houts, regretting their absence and thanking them for the papers.
     Mr. Scammon thought the Methodist Church was a sort of John the Baptist, etc. He thinks the wave of Unitarianism brought in to the New Church from the Northeast has brought in so much coldness that it takes all the Methodism or other isms to warm up.
     The motion to have the Secretary write letters to Messrs. Houts and Mitchell was passed.
     The Committee then reported a draft of a Constitution drawn up by the Rev. S. C. Eby.
     As this was referred, slightly altered, and brought back, I will leave its provisions until later on.
     Mr. Scammon suggested that there ought to be provision for a permanent library for the collection and preservation of original editions of the Writings and all other works relating to the New Church.
     Mr. Eby remarked that he was sorry that Mr. Scammon was not present the day before, so that he could have been on the Committee.
     Mr. Scammon was glad that he was absent, for now it appeared that it was not true, as he had heard reported, that "Scammon was the only one who cared anything about this Union." Others cared for it, and it appeared that Scammon was not "the dictator of the Church in the West," as has been said.
     Mr. C. C. Bonney moved "That this Congress approve the purpose of forming a New Church Union and recommit the draft of a Constitution to the Committee to report a detailed Constitution for adoption." He then made some remarks on the great progress of the "other" denominations, and instanced the fact that a professor of the Congregational Theological Seminary had posted up in the ante-room of the Seminary a notice of Mr. Mercer's West Side lectures. He also stated that Mrs. Bonney had been invited to represent the New Church in a ladies' society representative of the evangelical churches in the city. He thought the statement that this body intended to act in harmony with the General Convention ought to be inserted.
     Mr. Scammon said he had something to do with the establishment of the Messenger. He thought New Churchmen ought to unite on the three essentials of the Church, and introduce only such other things as they could agree upon. Any body that sets up ex cathedra to cut off the feet of all who do not agree with them is not only absurd but wicked. He also thinks that any movement that tends to divide us comes from below and not from above.
     An isolated receiver from Michigan thought they ought not to cripple the Messenger. He also referred to the number of societies in Michigan that had been flourishing at one time but had all passed away. He thought the Congress had passed over the needs of isolated receivers.
     The question was called for. Mr. Bonney and Mr. Leonard were added to the Committee, and the motion was carried.
     It was moved that at the first available opportunity the papers of Messrs. Mitchell and Houts and the remarks of the isolated receiver be taken up and discussed. This motion was carried, and as some time was left, the Congress proceeded to discuss them.

     Afternoon.

     THE order for the afternoon meeting of Friday was a paper by the Rev. A. F. Frost, of Detroit, in answer to the question, "What shall we do for our children to fit them for regeneration and usefulness?" The paper was an excellent one.
     The writer divided the influences on the child into Ante-Natal and Post-Natal Influences. Under the former head he emphasized the necessity of a proper preparation for marriage, and especially the necessity of shunning evils as sins, that thereby, hereditary inclination to evil being broken, parents may transmit to their off-spring an inclination, if they are sons, to imbibe the things of wisdom; if girls, to love what wisdom teaches. (C. L. 202.) He also laid great stress on the necessity of marriage within the Church, in order that parents may be in true conjugial love. In Post-Natal Influences he said parents were liable to overestimate the externals and underestimate internals, i. e., to lay too much stress on dress and also on education in the things of the world and for the world, and too little on the education in the doctrine and life of the Church. He said a child growing up with almost no advantages but a thorough grounding in the doctrine and life of the New Church was indefinitely better educated than one who received the best university education the world afforded without this.
     As the Committee on Constitution was ready to report, the paper was but little discussed.
     The provisions of the Constitution in general are:
     That the body be called "The Western New Church Union."
     That it be organized for the purpose of performing missionary, educational, publishing, and other New Church uses in the West.
     That it have its centre in Chicago, Illinois. That its membership consist of all who desire to unite with it, and who pay the annual fee of one dollar.
     That the officers be a President, permanent Secretary, and a Treasurer, and an Executive Committee of twelve members.
     That the Executive Committee be elected by vote, and that said Committee elect its own president, secretary, and treasurer, who shall be ex officio members of the Committee.

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     That its immediate uses be to obtain the use of a room in which to establish headquarters, a book-room, and a depository of information; to keep a supply of books, to publish sermons, books, etc. This room to be in charge of the permanent Secretary. Also to publish an organ of the New Church in the West, etc.
     It was then moved that this Congress approve of the report of the Committee, and do now take a recess, subject to the call of the Chair, for the purpose of forming such an organization.
     The recess was then taken.
     During the recess about twenty or twenty-five persons signed the Constitution and paid their dollar, thus becoming members of the Union.
     During the recess Mr. Scammon and Mr. Mercer busied themselves drawing up some additional by-laws for the Union.



     FIRST MEETING OF THE WESTERN NEW CHURCH UNION.

     MR. MERCER called the members to order, and moved that for the purposes of organization Mr. Scammon take the chair.
     Mr. Scammon then presented the by-laws which he had prepared. They provided that the annual meeting be held after this year on the first Monday in April in the city of Chicago; that the Executive Committee now elected hold until April 1st, 1887; that at that time the Executive Committee be elected in three classes, to hold three, two, and one year each; that vacancies be filled by the Executive Committee at any regular meeting; that five constitute a quorum. These by-laws were adopted unanimously.
     The Chair then appointed Messrs. Browne and Officer a Nominating Committee. This Committee reported the following nominations:
     Dr. Leonard, of Minneapolis; the Rev. Messrs. Busmann and Eby, of St. Louis; the Rev. Mr. Frost, of Detroit; Messrs. Cutler, Bonney, and Scammon, of Chicago; the Rev. Mr. Goddard, of Cincinnati; the Rev. Mr. Cabell, of Cleveland; the Rev. Mr. Sewall, of Urbana; Mr. Browne, of Cleveland, and Mr. Keyes, of Chicago.
     Mr. Keyes declined to serve, and Mr. Officer, of Chicago, was elected in his place.
     It was suggested that Mr. Mercer's name was not on the Committee.
     Mr. Scammon replied that he might be elected President, and then he would be a member by virtue of his office.
     The Union then adjourned.



     YOUR correspondent was unable to be present at the other meetings of the Congress, and so can give you no particular report of them.
     On Saturday morning Mr. C. C. Bonney read a paper the question, "What is the practical solution of the problem of Church finance?" in which he advocated the establishment of an endowment fund to cover all necessary expenses of a church.
     On Saturday afternoon the Rev. L. P. Mercer read a paper on the question, "What can Urbana University do for the Church?" and Mr. M. G. Browne read a paper on the question, "What can we do for Urbana University?" from which it appears that this University has an endowment, but needs more students.
     The papers both in the morning and in the afternoon were freely discussed.
     On Saturday evening the Rev. P. B. Cabell read a paper on "The Gospel of the New Church-the Doctrine of Salvation, in its Appeal to the Present States of Men."



     P. S.-I AM informed that the Executive Committee of "The Western New Church Union" elected the Rev. L. P. Mercer President and Secretary; Alexander Officer, Treasurer, thus making the Executive Committee consist of thirteen members. Also that the New Church Reading Circle will be published monthly, by the Rev. S. C. Eby, of St. Louis.
     The addresses delivered at the Congress are to be published in pamphlet form, with the imprint of the "Union," as soon as practicable.     B. K.
SIXTIETH MEETING OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA 1886

SIXTIETH MEETING OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA       S. C. C       1886

     HELD IN PHILADELPHIA ON MARCH 19th, 20th, AND 21st.

     AT its sixtieth meeting, held on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 19th, 20th, and 2lst, the General Church of Pennsylvania was represented by seven members of the Council of the Clergy, five members of the Council of the Laity, thirteen delegates from various societies and particular churches, and a number of other members. The Allentown and Brooklyn German Churches sent full delegations. The meeting was characterized by a unanimity which arose from perfect harmony of sentiment and singleness of aim.



     Friday, March 19th.

     THE meeting opened with Divine worship conducted by the Bishop.
     After the calling of the roll, the Bishop spoke a few words of cordial welcome to the members before proceeding to read his address. Upon motion of the Rev. L. H. Tafel, the Bishop was requested to defer reading his address until a later hour, when more members should have assembled.
     The reports of particular churches were read, among them being those of two new churches, the Immanuel Church of the New. Jerusalem of Chicago, with forty-nine members, and the Florida Church of the New Jerusalem, with fourteen members. The total membership of the General Church is now five hundred and one.
     Then followed the reports of ministers.
      From all the reports read thus far it appeared that the work of the Church is proceeding on the even tenor of its way, enjoying a healthful growth in the main. New Church schools have been established in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Concordia (Kansas), and in Allentown and Chicago they exist germinally.
     It is also worthy of remark that in various places there is a systematic endeavor on the part of members of the General Church to acquire a knowledge of the languages in which the Word was written.
     The report of the Council of the Clergy showed that the General Church is beginning to nurture the weak churches as far as possible, and that it is also beginning to develop the work of evangelization. It set forth that Minister Bostock had been installed by the Bishop into the pastoral office of the priesthood. Also that the Monroe County (Ohio) Society had applied for occasional services of Minister Czerny, who labors at Greenford, Ohio. Also that it was decided to install Ministers Czerny and Schreck into the pastoral office of the priesthood.          
     The report of the Council of the Laity was very interesting, bearing evidence that this Council is developing its organization and its usefulness.

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Since the last meeting of the General Church, in May, 1885, the receipts have been one thousand four hundred and fifty-five dollars and ninety-two cents, and the expenditures one thousand one hundred and eighty-three dollars and three cents. The report says that these are "the largest receipts by the General Church for a similar period of time, and it is to be hoped that the income may continue to grow, thus enabling the Church to increase its uses."
     The Coadjutor Bishop in his reports gave an interesting account of the formation of a church in Florida, the first one instituted in that State.
     The Bishop's address was for the most part a history of the General Church, beginning with its organization in the year 1845, by two ministers and nine delegates from the Delaware County, Frankford, and Philadelphia Second Societies, and coming down to the present day. Until the year 1862 the meetings were held semi-annually from that year annually. The historical sketch showed that the recent reorganization of the Church was no more than a development of things initiated long ago, and that "there is quite a close hereditary resemblance between these first forms and those now in existence among us."
     Thus at the Fourth Session, held in 1846, a Constitution and Rules of Order were adopted, which, "while retaining the form of an annual election of officers, common to the bodies of the Church at that time, provided that the chief officeholder of the body should be a minister also, that there should be a Committee of Ministers for the consideration of the ecclesiastical business of the Association, and a Committee of Laymen, on whom shall devolve such of the business of the Association as may not be otherwise provided for, and shall act as a Board of Counsel and Advice to the Presiding Minister upon all subjects requiring their co-operation; and also this, that the Missionary Board was to be appointed by the Presiding Minister."
     IN the Journal of the Fifth Session, held in Philadelphia April 5th, 1847, there is mention of the receipt of Journals of the Maine and Massachusetts Associations, which is repeated in succeeding Journals. "It would be in the interest of the-archives of our Church to inquire diligently as- to where these Journals are, and whether they cannot be returned to the custody of this body." The first ordination in this Association was that of Dr Edwin A. Atlee, into the second degree of the ministry 1847.
      The subjects of Baptism and the proper preparation of bread and wine at the Holy Supper were early discussed in the Association, as also was the subject of orphan homes. Indeed, the Rev. Mr. Seddon adopted and educated a number of orphan children.
      It is interesting to note some of the ministers who were ordained or authorized to preach in this Association In 1851, during the Fourteenth Session, Mr. Samuel H. Worcester, of Framingham, Mass., was ordained into the first grade of the ministry by the Rev. James Seddon. This is the same Mr. Worcester who has rendered such signal service by editing from the photo-lithographic MSS. the Latin edition of the Writings. In 1853 the Presiding Minister of this Association granted a license to Mr. S. M. Warren, afterward compiler of Warren's Compendium.
     The Rev. A. O. Brickman was first licensed by this Association, and at the Twenty-second Session he was ordained into the ministry. At the session in 1858 the Rev. E. A. Beaman was ordained by the Rev. James Seddon. In 1859 Mr. Willard H. Hinkley, of Baltimore, Md. applied for a license to preach. At the next meeting the President reported that he had granted a license to Mr. A. J. Bartels, of Shippensburg, Pa., and at the meeting of 1862 he reported that he had ordained Mr. Bartels. In 1860 Mr. C. Louis Carriere was granted a license to preach, and in 1862 he was ordained by the Presiding Minister. Under authority of the Pennsylvania Association, also, Professor R. L. Tafel, of St. Louis, Mo., was ordained by the Rev. J. P. Stuart.
     The Rev. James Reed, the Rev. E. C. Mitchell, the Rev. S. Hough, the Rev. J. A. Lamb, and others have also been in some sort of connection with this body.
     Other evidences that the principles which the body now carries out were acknowledged in former times are to be found in the meetings of 1860 to 1862. In 1860 a resolution was passed inviting the union (for the performance of the general uses of the Church) of societies and receivers in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia-with the Pennsylvania Association.
     In the year 1861 the Association placed on record its full acceptance of the Writings of the New Church as being the LORD'S, and an immediate revelation from Him which is His Second Advent.
     In 1862 a new Constitution was adopted, which defines the three orders of the ministry according to the Book of Principles, No. 1, and designates them by the titles of "Bishop," "Pastor," and "Minister;" makes the Bishop, President; a Pastor, the Vice-President, and a Pastor or Minister, Secretary of the Association; and provides for a General Council.
     In 1867 the subject of homes for friendless children was again broached.
     In 1871 troubles arose with the President of the Association, who had given himself up to spiritistic influences, and as he declined to resign his office, it became necessary to abrogate the Constitution. In 1872 a new Constitution was adopted, with the understanding that, while it expressed the views of order held by the meeting, it was not quite such an instrument as the members desired and hoped to frame at some future day. That day came in 1883, when the Pennsylvania Association, changing its name to that of" General Church of Pennsylvania," adopted the Instrument of Organization now in force.
     Speaking of the reception of the Immanuel Church into the General Church of Pennsylvania, the address says:

     The reception of this new church into our general body has caused some comment among those who are as yet unacquainted with the changed conditions brought about by the New Constitution of the General Convention, and. has excited a good deal of feeling in some quarters, which may possibly lead to further discussions. It is to be regretted that members of the Church should have allowed natural feelings to lead them to acts contrary to spiritual charity, and to the arousing of antagonism and separation, in the face of the effort of the General Convention to remove such states, and in opposition to the standing recommendations of the Convention, having respect to just such cases as this one of the Immanuel Church of Chicago.
     The onward movement of the New Church in this country toward emancipation from old and narrow ideas of order and organization and the active reception of ideas of spiritual order and spiritual nearness, cannot be arrested by resolutions of Societies and Associations, not even by the withholding of material courtesies, and the exhibition of methods common to the consummated states of the past Church, but as yet happily uncommon in the New Church.
     The General Church of Pennsylvania is an order and an organization expressing certain principles and views of the Divine Doctrine of the Church, which it deeply desires to see prevail more and more, and whilst employing the means of publishing and maintaining these principles, which are common and open to all, it seeks to uphold the freedom of all, and its own freedom as involved in that of all. Whatever bodies of the Church, near in affiliation of principles and order, whether near or afar off in space, desire to take part with our general body, in it.

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Order and uses, are heartily welcomed and gladly received. And their freedom must be respected, even as our freedom shall be respected.
     This is no longer an open question. The principle involved has been settled and organically embodied in the Constitution of the General Church of Pennsylvania. You have had a slight sketch of the beginning and slow growth of this body. This sketch will have been prepared in vain if it has failed to impress you with the fact that there is a heavenly vitality in an order of the New Church, which begins in the acknowledgment of the LORD'S office of the Priesthood as the ruling office, and which steadfastly maintains this acknowledgment, through varying states of great feebleness, infesting discouragements, and threatened disaster. You may depend with a most confident certainty upon the defending power and upholding hand of the LORD'S Providence, held out to those who acknowledge Him in the fullness of His Divine Coming and Presence, and who believe with thorough conviction and practical duty that the Priesthood is His Office in the Church, by which He saves souls and rules and governs those who are of His Kingdom in the heavens and on the earths.

     The Bishop's report will be published in full in the journal.

     Afternoon.

     UPON the recommendation of both Councils, it was agreed to hold the meetings hereafter in November, it being held useful to remove the meeting of the General Church from that of the General Convention, as both could then be better attended to. Both are important.
     In regard to the meetings of the General Church, the Bishop remarked that we should not confine ourselves to mere business matters, which are of very little interest, except simply to keep the body in some degree of moving order, but that we should extend them to questions which involve principle, which involve the application of Doctrine, and that we should discuss these things freely and take time to discuss them, and if we cannot finish at one meeting, carry them over to the next, in order to get our minds prepared by study, by communication of ideas among each other, for that which we see done in the Church around us.
     The Rev. Mr. Schreck read Arcana Coelestia (n. 6338) as teaching the use of general meetings to bring the Church into order more and more perfect, and commented on the teaching.
     During the discussion, which was quite free, and involved the general subject of Church organization and order, it appeared that one of the principles of the General Church is, not to carry anything by majority only, but to strive for unanimity. If at any time there is no prospect of unanimity, the subject is to be dropped until further study and thought brings all together of principle brought out was that the ordering the Church must begin "at home," first in the individual, then in the Particular Church of which he is a member, then of the General Church, and then of the Most General Body.
     Several resolutions looking to the more systematic working of the General Church were passed, among them being the following:

     Resolved, That Particular Churches and Societies be recommended to meet upon the return from the general meetings of this body of their respective Pastors or Ministers and Delegates, to hear from them an account of the proceedings, and to receive of the quickening influences of the meetings.

     Evening.

     A SOCIABLE was held in the Sunday-school rooms of the Advent Society.



     Saturday, March 20th.

     ONE of the first acts on Saturday morning was the passing of a recommendation from the Council of the this effect:
     It is extremely important that all Societies belonging to the General Church should be represented at the general meetings of this body, and it is recommended to Societies that are able to do so, to pay the expenses, first, of the ministers, and, secondly, of the delegates, in whole or in part.

     The Secretaries stated that when they came into their office they found few, if any, printed journals of years preceding the reorganization of the Church. It was therefore

     Resolved, That all members of the body be requested to send all the documents they can spare relating to its history, such as circulars, reports, journals, of the latter especially those of the eleventh to nineteenth, twentieth to twenty-first, twenty-sixth and twenty-fifth meetings, held in the years 1850 and 1853, 1855, and L856, 1857 and 1863, and that they forward such documents to the Secretaries of this body.
     It was thought that such documents might be in the hands of persons not at present members of the body, who, if they heard that an inquiry was made, would be willing to assist in completing the archives of the body.
     The term of office of most members of the Council of the Laity having expired, new appointments were-made, and the constitution of this Council is now as follows: - Chairman, Mr. John Pitcairn; Treasurer, Dr. G. R. Starkey; Secretary; Mr. R. M. Glenn-all of Philadelphia. Board of Finance, Dr. F. E. Boericke, of Philadelphia, and Messrs. G. A. Macbeth and Albert H. Childs, of Pittsburgh. Additional members, Mr. George H. Gerhardt, of Allentown; Dr. D. Cowley, of Pittsburgh; Mr. E. S. Campbell, of Philadelphia; Mr. Hugh L. Burnham, of Chicago, and Mr. John Czerny, of Brooklyn.
     The meeting next entered upon a prolonged discussion of the question, "Shall all Church property be vested in the general body?"
     The Chairman of the Council of the Laity arose and read from the Constitution of the General Church:

     To the Laity of this Church belong the provision and administration of all things needful for the external existence of things Divine among the members of the same, and for the external administration of the things of the Divine Law and Worship. . . .
     The Council of the Laity shall have charge and control of the civil and business affairs, and of the property of the body of the Church, and shall be the representative of the same in all matters relating to the civil law and government of the country.

     "The Council of the Laity," said the Chairman, "consider it advisable that the title of all property belonging to particular churches or societies within the Genera Church of Pennsylvania, be vested in the said General Church, or in its Lay Council as trustees of the Church. I therefore move that the Council of the Laity be authorized to take measures toward obtaining a charter for the better carrying out of the provisions of our Constitution."
     The legal aspects of the subject of incorporation Were fully discussed, especially by two legal gentlemen conversant with them.
     Mr. Macbeth said:

     What I am solicitous to come up before the General Church, and be well understood by the people throughout the Church who are members of it is, that it is better, from a mere business standpoint, to vest all the church property in a committee, or in the Council of the Laity, for the specific purposes of carrying out the trust committed to it in the Constitution that this is better in many ways than for the different societies to own a little piece of property here, and a little piece of property there, which always makes trouble when there is a division When a society grows large enough to divide into two, there comes the inevitable contention, "How shall we divide it?"

62



     The proposition under discussion will prevent the dissipation of church property. A little society may have half a dozen, or eight, or ten members. They meet together. They buy a few books, and a few things, which belong to that little society. Their children grow up and move West, or go off somewhere else. The old folks die off, and there are only two men left. Whom does the property belong to? According to the way we have been going, it has not belonged to anybody and has generally been lost.
     Members should be perfectly willing to place their church property, whatever it is-if it amount to only four books-in the charge of the General Church; and if they see fit to keep on teaching the truth in their particular place let them do it, but do not let what they have be dissipated. It is important that one machinery should be devised to prevent that.
     It seems to me that the devising of this machinery should be left to the Council of the Laity; but I should like first to see the people taught thoroughly to understand the purport of it and the necessity of it. I think that from a just, and from merely business standpoint, an argument can be made to satisfy every one coming within the scope of the General Church of Pennsylvania, to put church property over into the hands of trustees who are not all from one locality. From our legal advisers here we learn that property can be left specifically, without the fear of its being afterward diverted from the use for which it was intended; that if a man wants to give apiece of property for a certain thing he can die in peace, knowing that his object will be carried out.
     Mr. Glenn stated that great troubles have arisen from improper appointment of trustees.
     The Rev. Mr. Whitehead thought that we ought first discuss the principle, before we discuss the subject of incorporation.

     Is it a true principle, and a thing that ought to be recommended to the Church, that the General Body ought to hold the property that belongs to the particular churches, that are part of the General Church? I think that is a principle which ought be very carefully discussed first, so that it can be presented before the different parts of the Church for their consideration; or that it should be forced upon them, but for them to consider. It may take ten, twenty, or thirty years for some of the societies to see it; but give them time, and when they do see it they can carry it out and act. Perhaps new societies organizing to build may place themselves in the hands of the General Church at once; perhaps the General Church may build churches when it has the principle established. Let us establish the principle first. I therefore move that it be
     "Resolved, That it is the conviction of the General Church of Pennsylvania that the General Body, by its authorized representatives, should hold the property belonging to the Particular Societies."

     Mr. Pitcairn's motion being laid on the table, Mr. Whitehead's motion was seconded.
     Mr. Whitehead being requested to state the general principle involved, so that it may be formulated and be incorporated in the minutes and thus come before the people, said:

     The general principle in regard to this subject gradually formed in my mind when I began to study the subject of church government. It seemed to me that in the division of uses certain ones belonged to the laity of the Church, and that they ought to be organized in proper order, just as the clergy are. That a central body should take charge of these uses, which should send its influence out through all the different parts of the Church, just as the heart sends out the blood to all the parts that support it.     This comparison of the money with the blood which supports the body is made in the Writings. (T. C. R. 403.) The work of the Church cannot go on unless the ultimate basis is ranged in proper order. It seems to me the way that we are organized at present is as if each part had its own independent heart, as if a leg had a heart and was afraid it would not get enough unless it had a heart to itself; so with the arm, the brain, fact with every particular organ and member, for fear something would happen to stop up the passageway so that it could not have the proper support. In this way it loses a great deal, from not having all the constituents derived from a proper organization of the blood. Discussions of the uses, like the action of the heart, purifies the blood. The central body will be more thorough in systematizing the uses. The money that is conveyed to the different parts will be of a very different quality when it flows from intelligence, than when it is subjected to a mere question of money. The local bodies in each society should be connected organically with the central body, so that the whole system of the finance of the General Church and all parts of it should be systematically administered as one whole thing, and not as independent parts separate from each other.

     The principle was further discussed, the Bishop remarking that it was plainly incorporated in the organization of the General Church, which is organized in the human form. Mr. Whitehead's motion was then carried unanimously.
     Mr. Pitcairn's motion was taken from the table. Leave to amend having been given, he offered it in this form, in which it was carried unanimously:

     Resolved, That this subject be referred back to the Council of the Laity, with the suggestion that said Council, together with the Council of the Clergy, take such measures as in their judgment they may deem proper for the carrying out of the matter involved, in accordance with the sentiments expressed at this meeting.

     Afternoon.

     SEVERAL alterations in the "Canons" (as the By-Laws of the General Church are termed) were made. Some discussion ensued which resulted partly in the adoption of a resolution that the Council of the Clergy be requested to expound the principles involved in certain canons which treat of representation at the general meetings, and of voting.
     The subject next discussed was: "The organization of the General Church of Pennsylvania, irrespective of geographical limitation within the United States."
     The ruling of the General Convention as embodied in minute No. 49 of the Journal for 1883, quoted on page seven of New Church Life, was read.
     The Rev. Mr. Pendleton gave a historical sketch of the body now called the Immanuel Church, of which be was formerly Pastor, and showed that this Church, in joining die General Church of Pennsylvania, acted distinctly under that ruling of Convention. The members of the Immanuel Church long wanted to be members of the General Church of Pennsylvania under whose fostering care it had really grown up, but they considered it more orderly to wait until the General Convention itself recognized the principle that Societies or Particular Churches should affiliate themselves with Associations or General Churches, with whom they felt the greatest spiritual kinship.
     The further discussion that ensued was of a very interesting character, principle and history being its main subjects. But as all the discussions of the meetings were taken down by a stenographer and will be fully published in the Journal, those who are interested in the matter can refer to that. But as at the meeting, the General Church of Pennsylvania kindly granted the stenographer's notes for use in New Church Life, I wish to quote therefrom a part of The Rev. Mr. Tafel's speech, who in this expressed the sentiments of the meeting:

     The General Church of Pennsylvania does not desire territorial aggrandizement. We do not desire to receive any Society into our body which does not organically belong to it, that is, which does not hold with us in the acknowledgment oh the Second Coming of the LORD in the Writings which are thus of Divine authority,-in the use of the external organization of the Church,-of the sacraments-and of the priesthood. As far as I understand the policy of this body, we do not desire to have any Societies form a part of it who do not hold with us in these respects. But we do desire, if I understand it, and are ready to receive, any societies in the United States, or even Canada, who are in thorough sympathy with us. I am glad to say that the Canada Association is itself very much akin to us, and so long as it remains so it will probably not be found necessary for any societies in Canada to join us.

63



     There was so much business before the meeting that the extension of the time, so as to include Monday, was several times spoken of, but' as none of the delegates from outside the city could be present on that day, it was decided to adjourn after services on Sunday.
     The Rev. W. F. Pendleton had begun the preparation of a paper on "Evangelization, Old and New Methods," but was led to the consideration of the subject underlying it, that of "The Function of an External Church," and read a "study" of some of the teachings on this subject, of which the following is a summary:

     The Doctrines teach that there are two Churches, an Internal Church and an External Church, also what their respective functions and use are, that they are distinct from each other, as the Internal and External Man are distinct, and yet that the uses of the one are necessary to the uses of the other, and in their related use they make one . . . . The function or office of the Internal Church is the same as that of the Internal Man, the office of the Rational, and its own proper ultimate is found in the operation of the Rational itself, namely in a life of uses. The External Church has the function of clearing the way, removing obstructions, establishing external order, teaching men the general truths of the Word, thus preparing for the Internal Church that it may come forth and assume its own proper ultimate or external, which is to do the spiritual uses of charity.
     The author quoted T. C. R. 784; A. C. 1083; A. E. 403; A. C. 6587, 2165, 1175, 7038, 7884, 10,143, 3270; Charity 115; A. C. 8299, 1618, 1795, 9925.

     The Bishop made some remarks on the paper, among which were these:

     The rational man ought to have a tolerably clear conception of the nature and purpose of his life, as well as of the laws and principles which ought to govern it. If the principles laid down in the paper are the principles that are given to us regard to the External and Internal Church, we have to ask ourselves the question' next, as we must ask ourselves the question in respect to any principles that are taught us: "Where do we stand in respect to these laws of Divine Order?" "What is the status of the General Church of Pennsylvania?"

     It was held by various speakers that as the General Church performed the duties of piety, of external worship, it was an External Church.
     Mr. Pendleton, in answer to a question whether it is probable now, or at any future time, that the two Churches will ultimate themselves in distinct bodies of men, said: "A Church, to be a Church, no matter whether it is Internal or External, must be in organic form, it must be organized."
     An instructive ventilation of the full meaning of "evangelization" closed the discussion of Mr. Pendleton's paper.
     The members of the Council of the Laity were elected delegates to the General Convention.
     A resolution of thanks to the Society of the Advent for the use of its House of Worship, and to the ladies for their generous entertainment, was followed by a resolution of thanks to those who had come from a distance to attend the meeting, which was supplemented by a few remarks by the Bishop.



     Sunday, March 21st.

     On Sunday morning Bishop Benade, assisted by Pastors Tafel and Pendleton, conducted Divine worship. He preached a sermon on the text, "In this, is the saying true, that one soweth and another reapeth." (John iv. 37.)
     In the afternoon the ordination of Ministers Czerny and Schreck into the second degree of the Priesthood took place. It was a most solemn act, the solemnity being enhanced by the robes of office with which the officiating clergymen and the candidates were clothed
     Bishop Benade in his robe of purple (red) silk and Pastor Tafel and Pendleton in their robes of hyacinthine blue, or with stole of that color; the candidates in their simple linen tunics girded with silken girdles of a gold color ;the altar of dark mahogany, with the open Word on the rest upon it; the ark in the background, out of which the Word had been taken; the reading-desks on both sides-one with crimson velvet cover, the other with blue velvet cover-formed altogether a solemnly beautiful picture, which carried with it sensible demonstration that a due observance of heavenly correspondences conjoins man with heaven. (H. H. 114.) A description of the ceremony will fail to present an adequate idea of its impressiveness or of the responsibility which was conveyed to the candidates by their investiture of their new office. This was even literally an "investiture," for after the consecration of the candidates, they were each clothed by the Bishop and the assisting Pastors in the linen outer robe and the hyacinthine blue silk stole, the latter the proper badge of the Pastoral Office in the General Church of Pennsylvania.
     After the ordination, Bishop Benade, assisted by the novitiate Pastors, administered the Most Holy Sacrament of the LORD'S Supper to over one hundred communicants. S. C. C.
REPORT OF THE ORPHANAGE 1886

REPORT OF THE ORPHANAGE       J. R. HIBBARD       1886

     As the Orphanage is entirely supported by voluntary contributions, it has been deemed proper by the Managers to publish a report of the work for the information of contributors.
     Bearing in mind the Doctrine that man was created for the end that he may be conjoined with the LORD, and that the insemination of the principles of the New Church and instruction in her Doctrines are the Divine means for the attainment of this end, the Managers of the Orphanage entered upon the work with the sole object of providing these means for the fatherless and the orphan whom the LORD may intrust to their care.
     These spiritual means require natural means in the ultimate-the provision of shelter, food, and raiment.
     Where children have lost both parents, they are provided with homes in New Church families. The orphan asylum, as in vogue in the world, cannot afford the home sphere so necessary for the education of children. In cases where the father only is removed, the family is kept together in the care of the mother, who is aided, or supported entirely, according to circumstances.
     Thus are ten children aided in their natural life by the Orphanage.
     For the promotion of their spiritual life, they have been placed where they can attend New Church schools and receive distinctly New Church instruction in religion and in the scientifics of the world. The schools in Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh, respectively, have presented the requisite number of scholarships.
     The use is not a local one. The contributions during the past two and a half years have come from all parts of the United States and Canada, and the Managers are prepared to take charge of children without regard to the locality where they have been residing.
     The receipts from October 14th, 1883, to date, were $2,304.37; expenditures from October, 1883, to January 1st, 1885, $757.78, and from January 1st, 1885, to date (March 26th), 8996.08, or, together, $1,753.86.
     By request we add for the information of those who desire to contribute to this important use that money may be sent by check, money-order, or registered letter to the Treasurer, Mr. A. J. Tafel, 1011 Arch Street Philadelphia. By order of J. R. HIBBARD Director.
     PHILADELPHIA, March 26th, 1886.

64


NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL


TERMS:-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.

     Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

     All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia. Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, APRIL, 1886=116.


     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, p. 49-Converstations on Education, p. 49,-The Essence of Freedom, p. 50.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS-Notes pp. 52, SS.
     FICTION-The True Story of One Girls Life, Chap. XII, p. 53.-The Strange Adventures of Tom, Chap. IV, p. 55.
     COMUNICATED-Report of the Western New Church Congress, p. 56.-Sixtieth Meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania, p. 59.-Report of the New Church Orphanage, p. 63.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, p. 64.
     BIRHTS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, p. 64.
     AT HOME.

     The East.-Pennsylvania.-THE General Church of Pennsylvania met in Philadelphia on March 19th, 20th, and 21st. For report of proceedings see Communicated.
     AT the tea-meeting of the Society of the Advent in Philadelphia, on February 28th a very pleasing exhibition in military and gymnastical exercises was given by the boys of the Academy Boys School, under the leadership of their instructor, Mr. Homer Synnestvedt.
     Massachusetts.-THE nineteenth annual meeting of the Massachusetts Sabbath School Association was held in Boston on February 22nd.
     The Rev. H. C. Hay, assistant minister to the New Church Society in Fall River, lectured last month on "The Doctrine of the "LORD", to the-Fall River Association of Ministers of which he is a member, and which embraces all sorts except the Romanists."
     Connecticut.-THE Connecticut Association of isolated New Churchmen held its annual meeting in Hartford on February 22d. Fifty-five members attended the meeting.
     New York.-THE New York Association held its twenty-second annual meeting at the Temple of the New York Society. More than two hundred persons were present at the meeting. The present membership of the Association numbers now over seven hundred. A resolution was Introduced at the meeting to apply to the General Convention for the consecration of the Rev. J. C. Ager as General Pastor of the Association. "But," says the report in the Messenger, "as the rules of the General Convention do not admit of the conferment of the functions of the General Pastor upon a minister, in accordance with ideas of order as held by the New York Association, it was decided to postpone the subject another year, in the hopes that the General Convention might be induced to modify its rules in a way that would permit this Association to have a General Pastor in accordance with the convictions of its members; and the Board of Directors was instructed to petition the General Convention, at its next meeting, to accede to their desires in this regard."
     The South,-Florida.-THE first church or society in this State professing the faith of the New Church was organized during the month of March in Jacksonville, under the name of "The Florida Church of the New Jerusalem." It has joined the General Church of Pennsylvania" as a particular church.
     Maryland.-THE Rev. J. E. Smith, formerly Methodist minister in Greensborough, Md., who separated from his former denomination and joined the New Church last spring, is now employed as missionary of the Maryland Association. It does not appear that he has been ordained into the ministry of the New Church.
     THE annual meeting of the Maryland Association was held on the 22d of February at the house of worship of the Washington Society. About fifty persons from outside the city attended the meeting. Among other things accomplished at the time was the revival of the Maryland New Church Sunday-school Union.     
     THE Rev. P. J. Faber, formerly minister of the German New Church Society of New York, has again accepted a call as pastor of the German New Church Society of Baltimore.

     The West.-Ohio.-THE Ohio Reading Circle consists at present of two hundred and fifty-seven members.
     THE Rev. A. J. Bartels has resigned from the Monroe County Society, and has removed to Chicago.
     Illinois.-THE Congress of New Churchmen in the Western States was held in Chicago on March 4th to 7th. For report of proceedings see Communicated.

     ABROAD.

     Great Britain.-THE Board of Management of the New Church Orphanage reports eighteen children provided for during the past year. The expenses for 188.5 have been three hundred and seventeen pounds. Eleven New Church Societies have contributed to this use by collections.
     Rev. R. J. Tilson has left his position as pastor of the New Church Society in Liverpool, and accepted a call to the Society in Camberwell. It will be remembered that Mr. Tilson was for several years a member of this Society before entering the ministry.
     THE Rev. P. Child has for some time been lecturing with great success on the doctrines of the New Church in Smethwick.

     Germany.-THE conviction that New Church Baptism is necessary in the orderly establishment of the Church seems to be spreading.

     THE New Churchmen in Gorlitz meet regularly for worship and study. Though few In number they possess a very large library of New Church literature.

     Austria.-AT the annual meeting of the a New Church Society, the constitutions of the General Church of Pennsylvania and of the German New Church Society were read and discussed.

     Italy.-This prospects of the New Church in Italy seem to be brightening. A professor in Bari, manager of an educational establishment, has received the Doctrines of the New Church. He has lately adopted, for the religious instruction of his pupils, the catechism published by Professor Scocia.
     THE Rev. Dean M. Tamburino, of Minco, in Sicily, has separated from the Roman Catholic Church after a conflict with his Bishop. He now openly proclaims his faith in the Doctrines of the New Church, and it is believed that he will engage in missionary work for the New Church in Italy.

     Africa.-FROM Durban, Natal, In South Africa, comes more interesting news of a New Church Society which has existed there for the past six years. From the beginning of one earnest New Churchman who instructed his children in the Heavenly Doctrines, it has now developed into a society of nineteen members, who meet regularly for worship and reading. They have not, as yet, been able to secure the much wished-for services of a New Church minister. The leader, Mr. Cockerill, reads the sermons of English and American New Church ministers, but does not consider himself qualified to preach. A Sunday-school consisting of ten children, has been established in connection with the Society.

     Sweden.-SUNDAY evening services have been begun by the Rev. A. T. Boyesen, and have already proved to be of great usefulness. The Society is steadily increasing in numbers, as also is the newly instituted Sunday-school.
     THE name of the former superintendent of the Sunday School in Stockholm is not Joseph Boyesen, but Joseph Rosenqvist.
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886




     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.





65



NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, MAY, 1886=116.     No. 5.
     SHAKESPEARE'S often quoted lines, which he lays in Portia's mouth, "In the course of justice none of us would see salvation: we do pray for mercy," etc., express the prevailing interpretation given to the term justice; it seems to have somewhat of truth alone in it. This is one of the many instances in which the New Church makes even language new, by giving us true ideas to put into words. Justice is an attribute of the LORD'S Love in distinction to His Wisdom (D. L. W. 38). And far from our salvation being due to the non-enforcement of justice-an Old Church idea-it is due to Justice itself. The LORD made Himself Justice by the acts which wrought our redemption: by the execution of the last judgment and the restoration of order in heaven and in hell. Justice is to do all things according to Divine Order. Yea, Justice is Divine Order
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     In the Christian Union of April 8th, the editor, the Rev. Lyman Abbott, D. D., has published a lengthy article, entitled "Christ and the Temperance Cause," which has attracted considerable attention.
     He cites the Rechabites, the Essenes, and the Nazarites as total abstainers, and stating that reformers "then as now existed, who preferred to redeem society from the, as undeveloped curse of drunkenness by the short and easy method of forbidding all drinking," says: "Now this was not the method of Jesus. He lived in an age of total abstinence societies and did not join them. He emphasized the distinction between His method and that of John the Baptist, by saying that John came neither eating nor drinking: the Son of Man came eating and drinking. He condemned drunkenness, but never in a single instance lifted up His voice in condemnation of drinking."
     Dr. Abbott proves in his article that the "notion of two wines, one fermented the other unfermented, must be dismissed as a pure invention, unsupported by any facts, unsanctioned by any scholarship. There was but one wine known to the ancients-fermented grape juice. This was the wine Christ made, drank, blessed. There was no other used in His, time or known to His day."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     CONFLICTING as have been the views advocated in our various New Church periodicals, a certain decorum-we may say, a certain dignity-which has recognized the propriety of words and actions has, as a rule, characterized their conduct. It remained for the "progress of modern times," with its "waves of thought," to bring on one of their crests a compound of slang and pious sentiments, which, apart from all literary taste is so contrary to, the principles of the New Church, that we confess to not a little surprise at its being passed unnoticed in other New Church periodicals.
     In an address delivered at the Western Congress and recently quoted in the Messenger, occur these words "The New-Church, first and last, is a new and a spiritual dispensation, and the organization that stands for it must, above all things, represent and emphasize its newness and spirituality."
     Yet in the very first issue of New Church Reading Circle, the organ of the Western New Church Union, in an editorial evidently by the same writer who penned the words just given, are such sentences as these: "The wise observer at the Congress must have been struck with the entire absence of spirits who had resorted thither to grind their own particular axes." This expression is inserted between two others, one of which speaks of the Divine Providence, and the other of a "deep feeling" among certain New Churchmen. Further along, and after reading of "the fountain of confession and penitence"-which leads a reflective mind to think of the Supreme Being-we find this: "They, practically brought their usefulness to an end because their cut-and-dried schemes could not win acceptance. If they 'couldn't have pudden, they wouldn't have poy.'"
     Is this an emphasizing of the "newness and spirituality" of the "organization" calling itself The Western New Church Union? That it is new to mix the slang of the world's politicians with the devout aspirations of New Church ministers we grant, but is it spiritual?
     Again we read: "It is one thing to have a vast ambition to build up a prosperous hierarchical institution and dub it the New Jerusalem. It is another to be on the qui vive for the voice of the LORD," etc. "The Congress convened . . . not to hatch schemes for propagating either an ecclesiastical or anti-ecclesiastical windbagism."
     Beside these expressions, there are others which may be referred to a certain literary slang, which we suppose is intended to give the proper savor to this extraordinary Western production.
     How gentlemen, members of the Western New Church Union, whose known and respected desire for the elevation of New Church literature and learning and piety can tolerate such dross, which borders on vulgarity, as the official utterance of their organization, may justly occasion wonderment.
     In the many controversies that have existed in the New Church, opponents have freely used strong arguments. They have employed sarcasm, they have even
indulged in raillery, but never in the history of the Church has its journalism descended to the low level to which it has been degraded by the Reading Circle.
     While reading the proof of this article we received the second number of the periodical mentioned. We quote its first editorial:

     The Life's jaundiced eye was quite successful in reading its own interpretation into the recent movement in the West. We believe in frank and generous criticism, and think there is not enough of it in the Church. But such weazen-souled animadversions as those huckstered by the Life can serve none but infernal uses.
     It was a notorious fact down almost to the present decade that the religious newspaper was the narrowest and most disingenuous sheet the printers' devil inked. We are sorry to see the Life walking in these "good old ways." A gall bladder is extremely poor thing to furnish either milk for babes or meat for strong men.

66


FUNCTION OF AN EXTERNAL CHURCH 1886

FUNCTION OF AN EXTERNAL CHURCH       Rev. W. F. PENDLETON       1886

     THE Doctrines teach that there are two Churches-an Internal Church, and an External Church-also what their respective functions and uses are; that they are distinct from each other, as the internal and external man are distinct, and yet that the uses of the one are necessary to the uses of the other, and in their related uses they make one. It will be useful to examine the teachings on this subject.
     We learn, first, that the External Church derives its origin and life from the Internal-exists and subsists from it-and so, in order that a true External Church may exist, there must first be a true Internal Church, even as we read:

     I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth, because the former Heaven and the former Earth had passed away. And I, John, saw the Holy City, New Jerusalem, descending from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband.-Apoc. xxi, 1, 2.

     In explanation of these words, we have the following:

     It is according to Divine Order that the New Heaven should be formed before the New Church in the earths; for the Church is Internal and External, and the Internal Church makes one with the Church in Heaven-thus with Heaven-and the Internal is formed before the External, and afterward the External by the Internal. That it is so is known among the clergy in the world.-T. C. R. 784.

     We read, further:

     Wherever there is a Church it must necessarily be Internal and External; for man, who is a Church, is internal and external. Before he becomes a Church-that is, before he is regenerated-he is in externals, and while he is regenerating he is led by externals-yea, through externals to internals, as was said and shown above and afterward, when he is regenerated, then all things which are of the internal man are terminated in externals. Thus, every Church must necessarily be Internal and External.- A. C. 1083.

     An external exists in time even before the Internal is formed, as it is also taught that "the New Church in the beginning will be external"(A. E. 403); but it is an unregenerate external-not the true External Church that is formed from the Internal, and in which the Internal terminates and rests.
     The distinction of the Church into Internal and External is a necessity arising out of the states of men; for we read:

     In order that the Church may be, it must be Internal and External; for there are those who are in the Internal of the Church, and there are those who are in the External of the Church. The former are few, the latter very many.- A. C. 6587.

     The necessity of an External Church is plainly taught in the following:

     A Church cannot be given, unless it be Internal and External. An internal without an external would be something indeterminate, unless it were terminated in some external; for the greatest part of men are such that they do not know what the internal man is and what is of the internal man; wherefore, unless there were external worship they would know nothing whatever of what is holy.- A. C. 1083.

     Again, treating of bread in the Holy Supper:

     This external symbolical was commanded, because the greatest part of the human race are in external worship; therefore, without some external there would be scarcely anything holy with them.- A. C. 2185.

     Having thus seen that the Church, in order to fulfill its use among men, must be twofold-that there must be an Internal Church and that there must be an External Church, which, though two, yet make one-let us now proceed to see what these two Churches are in their constitution and functions.
     First, what is it that constitutes the Internal Church? In Arcana Coelestia we are taught

     That the very internal itself of the Church is "love to the LORD and charity toward the neighbor."- A. C. 2165.
     That "the externals of the Church are rituals; the internals are doctrinals, when these are not of science but of life."- A. C. 3270.
     That "the Internal of the Church consists in willing good from the heart and being affected with good . . . The Internal of the Church is the good of charity in the will."- A. C. 6587.
     That the Internal of the Church is Internal Worship. (A.C. 1175.)
     That internal worship consists in uses, and that "uses, are the things by which the LORD is principally worshiped. Hence it is that John lay upon the breast of the LORD at the table and that the LORD loved him above the rest, but this not for the sake of himself; but because he represented the exercise of charity-that is, uses."- A. C. 7038.
     That "the worship of God consists essentially in a life of uses"-that is, "every exercise of good according to the precepts of the LORD," which is "worship according to the order of heaven."- A. C. 7884.
     That internal worship "is purification from evils and falses, and then implantation of good and truth, and the conjunction of both-thus, regeneration. The man who is in these is in genuine worship; for purification from evils and falses is to desist from them and to flee and be averse to them, and the implantation of good and truth is to think and will good and truth and to speak and do them, and the conjunction of both is to live from them; for when good and truth are conjoined with man, then he has a new will and a new understanding-consequently a new life. When man is such, then in every work which he does there is Divine worship; for then he looks to the Divine in everything, venerates it, and loves it-consequently worships it; . . . which also the LORD teaches in John: 'He that hath My precepts and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me.'" (John xiv, 21.) Hence, to love the Divine Truth and do it is internal worship and constitutes the essential quality of the Internal Church.- A. C. 10,148.

     Second, what is it that constitutes the External Church?

     "The internals of the Christian Church are altogether similar to the internals of the Ancient Church, but other externals succeeded, namely, in the place of sacrifices and such things, Symbolicals, from which, in like manner, the LORD is regarded; thus also internals and externals make one."- A. C. 1083.
     In No. 1176 of the Arcana certain things are enumerated which constitute external worship or the External Church, namely, "frequenting churches, performing the sacraments, hearing preachings, praying, observing the festivals, and many more things which are external and ceremonial," also "talking about faith," "all which things are the formal things of worship," and that such externals are living when the internal is in them.
     Again, "the Externals of the Church are rituals."- A. C. 3270.
     "The External of the Church is to perform holily the rituals, and do the works of charity according to the precepts of the Church."- A. C. 8687.
     In the Doctrine concerning Charity (n. 116) the things pertaining to the External Church are called "the signs of charity," and are thus enumerated: "Going to church, listening to sermons, Devoutly singing and praying on the knees, Partaking the Sacraments of the Supper. And at home: Prayer morning and evening, and at meals; Conversing with others about charity and Faith, and about God, heaven, eternal life, and salvation; and in the case of priests, preaching, and also private instruction; and with every one, the instruction of children and servants in such things; Reading the Word, and books of instruction and piety."-Char. 115.

     Now the functions of the two Churches, Internal and External, lie in the very nature and constitution of those Churches, as revealed in the numbers just quoted. But we shall not pause here to consider the function of the Internal Church, except to remark that its function or office is the same as that of the internal man-the office of the Rational-and its own proper ultimate is found in the operation of the Rational itself, namely, in a life of uses.

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     The function of the External Church has been indicated in the foregoing quotations, but it is still more clearly brought out elsewhere in the Writings. In general, the office of the External Church is shown to be that of preparation for the Internal, that the Internal may inflow and obtain a foothold upon the earth; without such preparation by the External the Internal would never find a permanent resting-place among men.

     That the Internal may be the Internal of the Church it must necessarily be in its External, for the External is in the place of a foundation, on which the Internal may stand, and it is a receptacle into which the Internal may inflow; hence it is that the natural, which is the External, must necessarily be regenerated, for, unless it is regenerated, the Internal has no foundation nor receptacle, and if it has no foundation nor receptacle, it altogether perished.- A. C. 8299.
     And in No. 1618 the teaching is that there ought to be external worship, "for by external worship internals are excited, and by means of external worship externals are held in sanctity that internals may inflow; besides, that man is thus imbued with cognition, and prepared to receive celestial things."- A. C. 1618.

     The function of the External Church is still more plainly shown, where it is called the "procurator [or steward] of the house:"
     "And the procurator of my house," that it signifies the External Church, appears from the signification of "procurator of the house" in the internal sense, that is in respect to the Church; the External Church is called the "Procurator of the house" when the Internal Church itself is in the House, and the LORD is the Father of the family. The case is not otherwise with the External Church; for all procuration [or stewardship] pertains to the External Church, as the administration of rituals, and of many things which are of the temple and of the Church itself; that is, of the House of JEHOVAH or of the LORD. Externals of the Church without internals are nothing, but they have from internals that they are, and they are such as the internals are. The case herein is like that of man, his external or c6rporeal is in itself nothing, unless the internal animates and vivifies it. Such, therefore as is the internal, such is the external, or such as is the mind [animus] and mind [mensl, such is the estimation of all the things which exist by the external or corporeal; the things which are of the heart make the man, not the things of the month and gestures; thus also it is with the Internals of the Church. But still the Externals of the Church are as the externals of a man, they procure and administer, or, what is the same the external or corporeal man may, in like manner, be called the procurator or administrator of the house, when the house is of the interiors.- A. C. 1795.

     The means by which the External Church acts as the Procurator of the House are all the things which pertain to worship, such as have been already mentioned in the numbers quoted. But not by wore hip alone, considered merely as worship, does the External Church procure, or provide, an a minister to the Internal. There is in the External Church the function of Evangelization, the office of announcing the Evangel, or glad tidings of the Second Advent of the LORD. This is clearly taught in the exposition of the twenty-eighth chapter of Exodus, given in the Arcana Coelestia. The subject is the garments of Aaron and of his sons, which they were to put on when they ministered. By the Priesthood which they performed is represented the Internal Church, and by their garments the External Church. The voice of the bells of gold which were in the fringe of the robe of Aaron was to be heard by the people when he ministered, entering into the holy place before the LORD, and coming out; by the voice of the bells is signified Evangelization, and by the ministration of Aaron, where the voice of the bells was heard, is signified worship and Evangelization." And we read further that:

     By worship is signified every representative of worship from the good of love and the truths of faith, for worship which is from these is truly worship, but worship without these is as a shell without a kernel, or as a body without a soul . . . . That it is also Evangelization is because by Evangelization are understood all things which in the Word treat of the LORD, and all things which in worship represented Him; for Evangelization is announcement concerning the LORD, concerning His Advent and concerning those things which are from Him, which are of salvation and eternal life. And since all things of the Word in its inmost sense treat of the LORD alone, and also all things of worship represented Him, therefore the whole Word is the Evangel, in like manner all worship, which is done according to those things which are commanded in the Word; and since priests presided over worship, and also taught, therefore by their ministry worship and evangelization was signified.- A. C. 9925.

     The External Church, therefore, is in its function and use truly a Church when its worship is according to the laws of order as revealed from Heaven and seen and understood in the light of the Internal Church, and when it is performing the work of genuine Evangelization among men. It is in worship and Evangelization that the External Church is the Procurator of the House, providing and administering to the uses of the Internal Church. But it is to be remembered that worship and Evangelization are one and cannot be separated, and the establishing of a true external worship of the LORD must ever accompany the announcement of His Coming, and this in order that the way be prepared for the Internal Church. For we have just read that worship itself is Evangel, and Evangelizing when it is done "according to those things which are commanded in the Word;" and this makes a plane for the influx of internal things.
     A true External Church, as has been shown, cannot be formed until there is an Internal Church, for it is formed from and by the Internal Church to act as steward and minister, to provide and prepare the way for the Internal to come into greater fullness and power, because into a more complete ultimation of its own work in the world, the life of uses. This brings into view a phase of the subject that it is important to consider in respect to the related functions of the two Churches. The Church is composed of men, and of these some are men of the External Church and some are men of the Internal Church, and with each of these classes of men, or in each Church, there is an internal and an external, even as we read:

     That the Church may be, it must be Internal and External for there are those who are in the Internal of the Church, and there are those who are in the External of the Church; the former are few, but the latter very many: but still the Internal Church must also be external with those with which it is, for the in Internal of the Church cannot be separated from its external; and also the External Church must be internal with those with whom it is, but the internal with these is in obscurity. The Internal of their Church consists in willing good from the heart and in being affected with good, but its External is to do that good, and this according to the truth of faith which it knows from good.

     This, let us note, is the external of the Internal Church, which

is to do that good, and this according to the truth of faith which it knows from good. But the External of the Church is to perform holily the rituals and do the works of charity, according to the precepts of the Church.-A. C 6587.

     Two externals of the Church are distinctly mentioned here, as also elsewhere in the Writings: 1. The holy performance of the rituals; the doing of external works of charity according to the precepts of the Church, associated and conjoined with the function of Evangelization; these are of the External Church. 2. The doing of the good which the heart wills and with which it is affected, and this according to the truth of faith which the Inter Church knows fr6m good; this is of the Internal Church.

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The Internal Church then finds its own proper ultimate or external in a life of active uses.
     Two internals are also mentioned, but the internal with the men of the External Church "is in obscurity," while the internal which is with the men of the Internal Church is in the light of Heaven. - In short, the ultimates of the-External Church are rituals, and the ultimates of the Internal Church are uses; to the one is external worship, to the other the unction of internal worship, but neither lives without the other.
     External Church, therefore, has the function of clearing the way, removing obstructions, establishing external order, teaching men the general truths of the Word, thus preparing for the Internal Church, that it may come forth and assume its own proper ultimate or external, which is to do the spiritual uses of charity.
     The subject of the related functions of the two Churches, seen in the light of the passages that have been quoted, presents a very wide field for thought and reflection, as well as for action; but the purpose of the present paper is not to offer any conclusions, but simply to introduce the subject for consideration.
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     Now, in the Providence of the LORD, the effect of man's looking upon ends as all important, and upon means as a secondary consequence, will ever be that the latter are supplied in superabundance, according to the words of the LORD: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these shall be added unto you." - (Matth. vi, 33; see also A. E. 1193.) For they who attribute all to the LORD and nothing to themselves have "the faculty of growing wise, that is, of perceiving what is true and good, of choosing what is suitable, and of applying it to the uses of life." - (A. C. 10,227, 10,336.) That such is the order of the Divine Providence may be evident from this fact of Heavenly Life, that "when any spirit who is in good, and thereby in the faculty, comes into an angelic society, he at the same time comes into all the intelligence and science of that society in which he had not previously been, and he then knows no otherwise than that he had known and understood them before from himself, but when he reflects he knows that they are given him gratis by the LORD through that angelic society." (A. C. 5649, 5664, 5949.) When the things of instruction and education are intelligently arranged and applied in accordance with their relations, and with due respect to the order in which they proceed from the LORD, they will hold the mind of the Teacher in this order and also impress the same order on the mind of the child. The ladder of ascent to Heaven and of descent from Heaven is planted firmly on the ground of the young mind, and provision is made for a slow but sure advancement from degree to degree of thinking and willing to the successive conjunctions of willing and thinking, for which it was created.
     From this view of the case it becomes clear that the principle stated is quite as applicable to the order and arrangement of the various sciences and knowledges to be imparted, as to the methods of instruction. All sciences and knowledges are instrumentals, and not essentials. They are not ends, but means to ends; and yet they differ greatly in relative value, according to the use and the degree of the use which they are to subserve. This relative value of sciences and knowledges needs, therefore, to be determined before they can be placed in the order and subordination which they ought to occupy in the work of instruction. To effect this determination, it is requisite that uses and their degrees be well considered and understood, and no less the human mind itself and its degrees, which, as the subjects of instruction, need to be put into a true relation to means of uses, and thereby to uses themselves. Uses, however, because they proceed as ends from the LORD, will necessarily constitute the head of all the knowledges and sciences that serve as means for opening the human to the light inflowing from Heaven. And for this reason is it of order that all sciences and knowledges be classified and arranged according to the eminence of the uses which they are to serve, and that the quality of these uses determine both the place of each form of knowledge in the general scheme of knowledges, and also the mode of introducing it into the mind of the child.
     This conclusion brings us face to face with an obligation that can by no means be avoided or put aside-the obligation, namely, to attempt a rearrangement of human sciences and knowledges which shall bring them into conformity with the teachings of the Divine Truth, as this is now revealed by the LORD to His New Church.

     ARRANGEMENT OF SCIENTIFICS.

     INSTRUCTIOIN by Teachers and in schools is given in the form of scientifics, or of things learnt an known from what belongs to the world, or of truths presented in external, worldly forms. We are taught that

     Man has a Natural Mind and a Rational Mind. The Natural Mind is in his External Man, the Rational Mind in the Internal. Scientifics are truths of the Natural Mind, which are said to be then "in their own house" when they are conjoined with good; for good and truth constitute together one house, as husband and wife.- A. C. 4973.

     In a house there are husband and wife, with children and servants. The children are of various ages and the servants of various ranks. There are also uses and functions in a household, both general and particular, and, in addition, the household, as a whole and in respect to its parts, has certain relations to society, to the State, and to the Church. In such a house, as we are further instructed, good is really the first-born, while the appearance is that truth is the first-born, and that from this is the succession in the mind, as a family, and not from good, or, that the order of the mental household is determined from Truth. The error of such a conclusion from this appearance is placed in clear light by the teaching:

     That good is really the first-born, but truth apparently, may further be illustrated by the uses and members in the human body. It appears as if the members and organs were the prior and that their uses follow after them; for they are first presented before the eye, and they are also known before uses. But still uses are before the members and organs, for these are from uses and are thus formed according to uses; yea, use itself forms them and adapts them to itself. If this were not so, all and single things in man would never conspire into one with such unanimity. The case is similar with good and truth. It appears as if troth were prior, but good is, and good forms truths and adapts them to itself; wherefore truths, regarded in themselves, are nothing else than goods formed or forms of good. Truths, also, respectively to good, are like the viscera and the fibres in the body, respectively to use Good likewise, regarded in itself is nothing but use.- A. C. 4926.

     And thus, again it is evident that use when it appears takes on the human form and that the order of uses and of the scientifics of uses is the order of the Natural Mind of man.

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Further from the order of life, according to which uses precede forms, being themselves the ends of the existence of the organs and members of mind and body, it may be seen that the inflowing Divine Life does not apply itself to the forms but to the uses of life, and by these to the forms in a series.
     Again, since uses, regarded in themselves, are spiritual, and the forms of uses are natural, we conclude that the arrangement of scientifics as means of use must proceed primarily from a conception of their spiritual application, and, secondarily, from an understanding of their natural application. Only in this way can they be set in order to receive truly the life and light proceeding from the LORD, only in this way can the house be made ready and furnished for the reception of the soul and for the conjoint life of the will and understanding in all the uses of heavenly good. On this subject we have the following instruction:

     The form of the Divine Love, which is Life, is the form of Uses in their whole complex, because the form of love is a form of use, for the aspects of love are uses; love wills to do goods, and goods are nothing else than uses, and because the Divine Love infinitely transcends, therefore is its form the form of use in its whole complex. That it is actually the LORD Himself who with the Angels in the Heavens and with men on the Earths, and in those with whom He is conjoined by love; likewise that He is in them, although He is infinite and uncreate, while angel and man are created and finite, cannot be comprehended by the natural man so long as he cannot be withdrawn by illustration from the LORD from a natural idea concerning space, and thus be led into light in respect to spiritual essence, which, regarded in itself, is the Divine Itself proceeding, and accommodated to every angel, as well to the angel of the supreme heaven, as to the angel of the lowest heaven, and also to every man, as well the wise as the simple. For the Divine which proceeds from the LORD is Divine from firsts even to ultimates. Ultimates are what are called flesh and bone, and that these were also made Divine, by the LORD, He taught His disciples, in Luke xxiv, 39, "A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have." . . . . But how the Divine proceeding, which is the very and only Life, can be in things created and finite, shall now be said. Life does not apply itself to man, but only to uses in him. Uses regarded in themselves are spiritual, and the forms of uses which are members, organs, and viscera are natural, but nevertheless they are series of uses, so that there is not in any member; organ, and viscus a particle, or the least of a particle, which is not a use in farm. The Divine Life applies itself to sea themselves in each series and thereby gives life to each form-thence man has the life, which is called his soul. This truth appears indeed transcendant with man but not with the angels; nevertheless, it does not so transcend die human understanding, but that it can be seen, as it were, through a window by those who are willing; it does not transcend my understanding, which is rationally illustrated.-D. L. in A. E. IV.
     Works with man are not full before God unless the LORD is conjoined with the truths from good, which are from Him with man.-A. R. 160.
     Life, when it is in its full, is said to "stand on its feet," and it is in its full when the natural lives from the spiritual, for the ultimate of the life of man is in his natural; this ultimate is like a basis to its interior and superior things, for these terminate in the ultimate and there subsist; wherefore, unless life be in the ultimate it is not full,-thus not perfect; and besides all interiors or superiors co-exist in the ultimate, as in their own simultaneous form]; thence, also, such as is the ultimate, such are the interiors or superiors, for these accommodate themselves to the ultimate which-receive them.-A. E. 666.

     [To BE CONTINUED.]
REPRESENTATIVES 1886

REPRESENTATIVES              1886

     II.

     THE posterity of Jacob were of such a nature that "there was no internal worship with them, but only an external one. Thus the heavenly marriage was separated from them, and therefore no Church could be instituted with them, but only the Representative of a Church. But it is to be known what a Representative Church is, and what the Representative of a Church.
     "A Representative Church is when there is internal worship in the external; but the Representative of a Church is when there is no internal worship, but still an external one. In both there are almost-similar external rituals-namely, similar statutes, similar laws, and similar precepts. But in a Representative Church the externals correspond with the internals, so that they make one, while in the Representative of a Church there is not a correspondence, because the externals are either without internals, or disagree.
     "In a Representative Church, celestial and spiritual love is the principal, but in the Representative of a Church bodily and worldly love is the principal; celestial and spiritual love is the internal itself; but where there is no celestial and spiritual love, but only bodily and worldly, there is an external without an internal. The Ancient Church, which was after the flood, was a Representative Church, but the one instituted with the posterity of Jacob was only the Representative of a Church. But that the difference may appear, it shall be illustrated by examples.
     "In the Representative Church there was Divine worship upon mountains, because mountains signify heavenly love and, in the highest sense, the LORD; and when they had worship upon mountains they were in their holy, because then at the same time in heavenly love. In the Representative Church they also had Divine worship in groves, because groves signified spiritual love and, in the highest sense, the LORD as to that love; and when they had worship in groves they were in their holy, because then at the same time in spiritual love. In the Representative Church when they had Divine worship they turned their faces to the rising of the sun, because by the rising sun heavenly love was also signified; and when they looked at the moon the were likewise filled with a certain holy veneration, because the moon signifies spiritual love; likewise when they looked at the starry heaven, because this signified the angelic heaven or the Kingdom of the LORD. In the Representative Church they had tents or tabernacles, and in them Divine worship and this holy, because tents or tabernacles signi6ed the holy of love and of worship. Thus in innumerable other things.
     "In the Representative of a Church there was, indeed, in the beginning likewise Divine worship upon mountains and also in groves; then, also, there was a looking toward the rising of the sun, as also at the moon and to the stars; moreover, worship in tents or tabernacles. But because they were in external worship without the internal, or in bodily and worldly love but not in celestial and spiritual love, and thus worshiped the mountains and hills themselves, then also the sun, the moon, and the stars, as also their tents or tabernacles, and hence made those rituals idolatrous which in the Ancient Church had been holy, therefore they were restricted to general, namely, to the mountain where Jerusalem was, and at last where Zion was, and to the rising of the sun thence and from the Temple, then also to a common tent, which was called the tent of the congregation, and finally to the ark in the temple-and all this in order that the Representative of a Church might exist when they were in a holy external, otherwise they would have profaned holy things.
     "Hence it may appear what difference there is between a Representative Church and the Representative of a Church-in general that they who were of the Representative Church communicated with the three heavens as to the interiors, to which external things served as a plane; but that hey who were in the Representative of a Church did not communicate with the heavens as to the interiors, but still the externals in which they were held, could serve as a plane-and this miraculously from the Providence of the LORD-for the reason that something of a communication might exist between heaven and man by means of something like a Church; for without the communication of heaven with man by means of something of the Church, the human race would perish. What the correspondence of internals is cannot be told in a few words.

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By the Divine Mercy of the LORD it shall be told in the following."-(A. C. 4288.)
     From this full and clear explanation it is plain that there were, and can be, two kinds of Representatives, such as appertain to a truly "Representative Church," and such as appertain to a "Representative of a Church," in other words, such as correspond to an internal, and such as do not. This becomes still clearer in the light of the following Doctrine:
     "The Church raised up with Jacob's posterity, called the Jewish Church, was no other Church than a Church Representative of charity and faith. In that Church, or with the posterity of Jacob, there was no charity and faith, wherefore neither was there any Church, but only the Representative of a Church, because there could not be given immediate communication of the Kingdom of the LORD in the Heavens with any true Church on the earths, wherefore a mediate communication by Representatives was effected. The last time or the last judgment of this so-called Church was when the LORD came into the world, for then Representatives ceased, namely sacrifices and similar rites, and in order that these might cease, they were cast out of the land of Canaan." (A. C. 1850.)
     All passages therefore that treat of the abolition of Representatives must be viewed in the light of this and like statements. The mere Representatives which were in use in the Representative of a Church were abolished by the LORD, but not true Representatives which were, and are, and will be, used in truly Representative Churches. To abolish all Representatives would in the face of Arcana (n. 2758), quoted last month, mean the abolition, the destruction, of the universe. The kind of Representatives that were abolished are instanced in the next quotation: "The things contained in the internal sense of Exodus xxxiv, 12-27 are eternal verities, but these contained in the external are ii6t eternal verities, but they are what was to be observed by the Israelitish nation on account of the internals, for they signify them, and thus involve them. They were also to be kept by that nation, before the internals of the Word were opened by the LORD, and when they were opened then those externals were abrogated, for when man worships the LORD from faith and from love to Him, which are internals, he has no need of externals that signify them, for he then is in them, and not in their types: as that the feast of unleavened bread should be kept in the month Abib, and that then unleavened bread was to be eaten for seven days: that every opening of the womb should be given to God: that the opening of an ass should be redeemed or have its neck broken: that the first-born of their sons should be redeemed: that the feast of weeks should be observed, as also the feast of ingathering: that three times a year every male should be seen before JEHOVAH: that they should not sacrifice upon what is leavened: that a kid was not to be seethed in its mother's milk. But although these are abrogated, yet they are the holy Divine things of the Word, since there is a holy internal in them." (A. C. 10687)
     From all the quotations adduced so far it is evident that when Mr. Barrett and others say, that "Representatives in external and formal worship ceased when the LORD came into the world and the Jewish Church was consummated-this is plainly and repeatedly taught in the Writings," they labor under a misapprehension of the Divine teaching. Mr. Barrett quotes extracts from two passages on the abolition of Representatives. Let us quote them more fully, especially as the first one when fully quoted particularizes the kind of Representatives that were abolished:
     "That washings were enjoined upon the sons of Israel is known from the statutes made by Moses, as that Aaron should wash himself before he put on the garments of ministry( Leviticus xvi, 4-24), and before he came to the altar to minister (Exodus xxx, 18-21; xl, 30, 31); in like manner the Levites (Numbers viii, 6, 7), and also others who became unclean by sins; and that they are said to be sanctified by washings (Exodus xix, 14; xl, 12; Leviticus viii, 6), wherefore, that they might wash themselves, a brazen sea and many layers were placed near the temple (1 Kings vii, 23-39); yea, that they washed vessels and utensils, as tables, benches, beds, dishes, and cups (Leviticus xi, 32; xiv, 8, 9; xv, 6-12; xvii, 15, 16; Mark vii, 4.) But many like things were enjoined and commanded the sons of Israel, because with them there was instituted a Representative Church, and this was such as to figure the coming Christian Church, wherefore, when the LORD came into the world, He abrogated the Representatives which alt were external and instituted a Church, all the things of which were to be internal, thus the LORD shattered the figures and revealed the effigies themselves, as when one removes a veil or opens a door and causes the interiors not only to be seen, but also to be approached. Of all those things the LORD retained only two, which should contain all things of the Internal Church in one complex; these, are Baptism in the place of washings, and the Holy Supper in place of the Lamb which was sacrificed every evening, and fully at the feast of the passover." (T. C. R. 670.)
     What can be plainer, then, than that "the Representatives, which all were external," and which were abrogated the LORD, were such as are enumerated in the beginning of the quotation; that is, Representatives from adoption, and not truly correspondential Representatives, such as are in use in the New Church at the present day. The further consideration of this quotation and of the other one adduced by Mr. Barrett, is reserved for next month.
VARIATION VERSUS AUTHORITY 1886

VARIATION VERSUS AUTHORITY              1886

     SOME New Churchmen object strongly to the claim of the Writings to be considered as authoritative. We say advisedly, the claim of the Writings themselves to such consideration, and not any demand on the part of those who recognize this authority; for if anything can be declared in terms not to be mistaken, it is that which the Writings say of themselves in this regard. The main argument of such men, (apart from their fears of priest-craft and clerical domination, which in some way they would connect with the idea that the LORD has made His Second Coming in this unfolding of the Internal Sense of the Word) is based on what they call the variations to be found in citations of Scripture; here hold they recognize merely human agency, and hence themselves at liberty to doubt whether one can always rely upon them. They find a text of the Word rendered in one way in the Arcana, and in another in the Apocalypse Explained, it is impossible, they say, that both can be correct translations, yet to be of authority a translation must be exact, and exactness does not comport with, discrepancy; hence one of the renderings must be in error, and if one, perhaps both-and then, why there can be many such errors, and there can be no dependence upon any of them; hence, etc. - Q. E. D.

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All of which is very logical and convincing to those who have a mind to be thus convinced. But let us look at this question, and see how this argument applies to kindred subjects. As grave a principle as this must be of general as well as special import; the underlying theorem of modern geometry, that in similar triangles the corresponding sides of each are proportional the one to the other, has as much bearing on the study of the geography of the heavens as in the construction of a common flight of steps; if we can use it with safety in laying out a ten-acre lot, we can depend upon it in the coast survey charts. It is so here if these discrepancies affect the authority of the Writings of the New Church, will they not go further? Will the Word, of which those Writings are the exponent, fare any better? If the Writings are to be held as of no authority through these variations, will not variations far greater, as found in the text of the Word, destroy all its power and sanction?
     That such variations exist there can be no doubt; they are the basis of the standard objection of the infidel philosophy of the present day. The lights of the New Science speak in just this way of the Word, and one would I think that our very independent friends had gone to Professor This or Dr. That for their syllogisms. Let us take one of the instances adduced, and see how the principle applies to it.
     In the narrative of the crucifixion of the LORD we are told that Pilate wrote a title or superscription and put it on the cross, and that this was written in Latin and Hebrew. Each of the Evangelists bears witness to this fact, and states what the writing was. As it was in Greek, as well as in Latin and Hebrew, it might have been supposed that each writer, using the Greek for his Gospel, would have given the exact words in the case. But how they vary!

     Thus Matthew has "Outos estin 'Insous o Basileus ton 'Ioudaiun." "This is Jesus, the King of the Jews." "[Hic est] Jesus Rex Judoeorum- (A. E. 684.)
     Mark reads simply, "O Basileus ton 'Ioudation'." "The King of the Jews." "Rex Judoeorum." (Shmid.)
     Luke has, "Outos estin Basileus ton 'Iovraiwnv." "This is the King of the Jews." "Hic est Rex Judoeorum." (A. E. 684.)
     We are not informed that either of these Evangelists was present at the crucifixion, but John was a spectator of the whole of the LORD'S passion, and his narrative in regard to the inscription on the cross has a particularity of detail (vide John, xix, 19-22) which would lead us to think that he has given us the very words used. In his Gospel we find it, "'Insous o Nazoraios o Basileus ton Ioudaiwn," which indicates the supreme contempt held by the Jews toward the One whom he had sent to the cross, saying, as it does, "Jesus, the Nazarene, the King of the Jews." No wonder that the Jews objected to Pilate's coupling these two titles.
     No two of these inscriptions agree. And what then? Are we to say here, as "liberal" New Churchmen say in regard to Swedenborg, There is some mistake here? But the cases are parallel. Suppose we are, told that the Evangelists did not mean to give us the exact words of this inscription, but only the general purpose-its general sense, so to speak. But what indication have we that the Divine Wisdom, causing the Evangelists to write what the LORD said, and guiding their pens by an infallible precision, had any such plan? Had we had but one of these gospels, we should naturally assume that the words were those we are told were "written." As we have four distinct accounts, are we to admit of a discrepancy? If we are to adopt the "general sense" theory, how shall we limit its application? If we explain away the variation in the title on the cross, why not employ it in cases where there is no variation? For instance, why not say that the words of the LORD to Mary at the marriage in Cana were, after all, not so "un in "as they seem to be-that when the LORD said to His mother as to the Human, "ti 'Emoi kai soi gunai," "What [is that] to me and to thee, O woman!" He only meant to convey the general impression (if, indeed, these were the words He used) that the matter in question was one appertaining to His Purposes and His Wisdom only? Thus Scripture, instead of being the Word of the LORD, would be simply our notion of the impression He would give, and all inspiration would vanish. Thus the Church would fall to ruin, for the walls of the New Jerusalem cannot be built of the un-tempered mortar of the Divine Truth and man's interpretation.
     Yet is not this exactly what some in the New Church would do to the Writings? If they came from the LORD they are true, and if true then there can be no discrepancy. A man may wear glasses so imperfectly made that the level ground before him seems a succession of hills and hollows, but there is no variation in the surface; the fault is in the medium through which he views it. True, there may be, and are, textual variations in the Writings, which we cannot reconcile with our present knowledge-there is no need of any denial of such a plain fact-but be this as it may, there can be no mistake in the revelation; all that we can say is, that we do not understand it as yet. And if this be an infallible test of inaccuracy, we shall find our field of vision very much limited and our light but darkness. And the same may be said of every other kind of apparent error in the Writings.
     There is a way of accounting in part, at least, for these seeming variations; but on this we cannot enter; every careful reader of the Writings can from them obtain the answer he needs to assure him that he may rest securely on the grand fact that they are the Truth. What we may think error would prove itself to be the right, could we but see all the bearings of the case. Let us then wait till we can thus see, and sold on to our faith with a firm grip. Above all, let us free ourselves from the power of that proprium which would make itself the arbiter in doubt, and feel and know that there is but one Wisdom which knows all things. Our faith needs exercise; if all things were plain and clear, we should have no use for our rationality; let us then wait till that rationality shall be enlightened by Him in whom is Light. And as He is One, and His Name One, so in the truth He has revealed to us in His Second Coming let in know that, even though ice see not, there is the unity of Love and Wisdom and Life, since all is from Him who is the Truth itself.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Journal of the General Church of Pennsylvania, which will soon be published, will comprise about seventy-five pages octave, and will prove interesting reading. As usual, it will be sent to all the members of that Church. It will, we believe, be kept on sale for others who may be interested in the principles discussed at the late meeting.

72


Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     THE Notes of the Correspondence School on the Apocalypse Revealed are in preparation and will probably be issued in June.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE "Western New Church Union" has published a six-teen-pate tract by the Rev. S. C. Eby on "The Western New Church Union," being an address delivered before that body in Chicago on March 4th.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A TRANSLATION of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine into the Swedish language is now in press, and will shortly be published in Philadelphia. Orders may be sent to the Academy Book-room. The price will be 15 cents, postage included.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Missionary and Tract Society of the New Church in England has issued a tract consisting of selections from the Writings, translated into the Spanish language. This is, we believe, the first time any New Church doctrinals have been published in that language.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     The History of Swedenborgianism in Sweden during the Last Century is a new work of two hundred and ninety pages, by Robert Sundelin, Professor of Theology at the university of Upsala, in Sweden. The work will doubtless prove of great interest and historical value, though the author is no friend of the New Church.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Swedenborg Society has undertaken the publication of the Concordance to the Writings of the New Church, upon which the Rev. J. F. Potts, of Glasgow, has been laboring for the past fourteen years. The work will be issued monthly, and will be completed in about five years. A prospectus, with specimen pages of the work, is being prepared, and will shortly be issued.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Rothuggaren-The Radical-is the name of a periodical that has strayed to our office. It is printed in Lichtfield Minn., in Swedish and English, and is edited by T. Wielstrand. It is an organ of communism, free-love doctrines, and total abstinence, all rendered the more repellant by the presence of a few greatly perverted New Church truths. The editor advertises the New Church Messenger-a questionable compliment, coming from such a source.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Academy Book Room announces the following works of especial value, on sale: The Animal Kingdom, by Swedenborg, 2 vols., cloth, $10.00; The Economy of the Animal Kingdom, by Swedenborg, American edition, 2 vols., cloth, $5.00; The Trine in the Priesthood, by R. de Charms (very scarce), in paper $5.00; Words for the New Church, No. XIII, 50cts.; A Liturgy for the New Church, morocco, flexible, reduced from $3.00 to $1.50. First Edition, morocco (not flexible), reduced from $3.00 to $1.50. Address F. E. Waelchly, agent, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE address on Moral Instruction and Influence of the Sabbath School, delivered at the last meeting of the Massachusetts New Church Sabbath School Conference by the Rev. Henry Clinton Hay, has just been published by the Massachusetts New Church Union. It is an able and useful discourse, based upon the Doctrines of the New Church. The writer states from these Doctrines that the Truth is to be administered to the child's love of knowing, adding to this the cultivation of the love of doing what the Truth teaches. But the title is misleading. The address treats rather of Instruction and Education in general, and touches but lightly on the Sunday School.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     WE have received a circular from the Book Room of the Academy of the New Church, which, in the interest of process in the understanding of the Writings, we feel impelled to copy.
     "INVITAITON TO SUBSCRIPTION.-It is proposed by the Academy Book Room to publish the following work if sufficient subscribers can be obtained to cover the cost of publication: Discrete Degrees in Successive and in Simultaneous Order. By the Rev. N. C. Burnham.
     "This Work is in two Parts. The First Part presents an outline of- the Doctrine of the New Church concerning Discrete Degrees in their successive and in their simultaneous order, in both worlds-the spiritual and the natural, and of their development in the growth, reformation, and regeneration of man. Seventeen chapters are devoted to the nature and relations of Discrete Degrees. The next seven treat of the opening and development of these Degrees from birth, through infancy, childhood, youth, and the regenerate life of adult age. The closing chapter gives a view of the condition of these Degrees in the wicked.
     "The Second Part, in ten chapters, treats of the Incarnation and Glorification of the LORD; and first, of the Human of the LORD before the Incarnation; secondly, of the Degrees of the human and whence they were taken; thirdly, of the state of the Human at birth; and then, in order sequence, of the Glorification during infancy, childhood, youth and the four periods of adult life.
     "All the thirty-five chapters are fully illustrated, each by a carefully prepared Diagram, in which every Degree is colored according to correspondence. These Diagrams are of themselves of as great value as the text.
     "The Work, abounding, as it does, with references to the Writings, will be of great value and assistance to the New Church student. The author has devoted many years of mature life to it, and has achieved a reputation for his extensive knowledge on the subject. In its manuscript form it has been used as text-book in the Theological School of the Academy of the New Church, whose graduates testify their indebtedness to the Author; and, as may be seen from the letters published herewith, it has been studied by other ministers also. But although so useful to ministers, the Work has been written with a view to the needs of all readers of the Writings of the New Church, and the Author has endeavored to adapt his language to the comprehension even of the unlearned; and there are these of this class who have expressed their obligations for the light they have derived from studying the manuscript.
     "Indexes of the references to the Word and to the Writings are appended to the volume, and make it a convenient hand-book for the student.
     "The work will be printed and issued in a handsome style worthy of its subject, this circular giving size of pa e and types to be used. The type for quotations from the Writings will be in Long Primer. It is proposed to make two issues of the book:
     "1st. One with plates, on which the colors for the Diagrams of the Degrees are only indicated by their names printed in letter-press. Subscription price, bound, Three Dollars.
     "2d. The other with plates colored by hand under the supervision of an artist. Subscription price, bound, Four Dollars.
     "Subscriptions should be addressed to F. B. Waelchly, Agent of the Academy Book Room, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia, Pa.

     "WITNESSES TO THE IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF THE WORK.- 'The Science of Degrees is as the key to open the causes of things, and to enter into them. Without this Science hardly anything of cause can be known.' (D. L. W. 184.)
     "The Rev. Frank Sewall, A. M., President of Urbana University, writes to the Editor:
     "'I am glad to hear that there is a prospect of the publication of the Rev. Dr. Burnham's Work on Degrees. I have been waiting for it for years, as I doubt not many others have, as the first elaborate effort to present, from the
Writings, a comprehensive and systematic statement of that science which, as the Writings teach us, is fundamental to all true science and all true philosophy. That Dr. Burnham's conclusions in all particulars will be regarded as final or without error no one could reasonably expect: but this will not in the least detract from the high estimate to be placed upon any work, which is the result of the life-long study of a man of the thoroughness, the sincerity, the scholarly ability, and the single-hearted devotion to the Truth which characterize our venerable and beloved brother.

73


Hoping that nothing will hinder the speedy publishing of the book, I remain, very sincerely yours, Frank Sewall.'

     "The Rev. L. P. Mercer, President and Superintendent of the Illinois Association of the New Jerusalem, in a letter to the Editor, brings the following testimony:
     "'I have known of Dr. Burnham's Diagrams since the beginning of my studies for the ministry, and owe more to his instruction than to all other means for what understanding of the Writings I have been able to attain. This sense of indebtedness has been refreshed and increased the past year in going over the completed manuscript of the Work on Degrees, and it seems impossible-that any one can read it carefully without seeing things human and Divine in new and clearer light. The work of a lifetime, it will prove the teacher of an age; and, as it becomes known, ministers and laymen will find it a guide and inspiration in the study of the Writings of the Church. I am sure no minister can afford to be without it, and I believe every New Churchman will find it intelligible. Treating of profound subjects, it is written-with the simplicity of truth, and has something, therefore, to reveal to all degrees of intelligence. Very sincerely yours, L. P. Mercer.'

     "The Rev. E. D. Daniels, Editor of New Jerusalem Tidings, says:
     "'In the summer of 1878, after reading the Doctrines of the New Church nearly two years, being on a visit to Chicago, I met with a manuscript copy of Dr. Burnham's charts on Discrete Degrees, which a student had brought there. I had vainly been endeavoring to come to a clear knowledge of this subject by making charts of my own, and, therefore, eagerly borrowed Dr. Buraham's charts, took them to my home in Michigan, and made a faithful copy of them in colors, with all their references to the Writings. Dr. Burnham's charts have been my greatest help to a clear understanding of the Doctrines of the Church, and the touchstone which has enabled me to test and discover the falsity of the plausible heresies which, in the Divine Providence, I have met since, and I regard his forthcoming book as one of the most useful, if not the most useful ever issued by the Church. Very sincerely yours, E. D. Daniels.'"
AGAIN, A WORK BY DR. ELLIS 1886

AGAIN, A WORK BY DR. ELLIS              1886

THE NEW CHURCH: ITS MINISTRY, LAITY, AND ORDNANCES. WITH AN APPENDIX ON INTOXICANTS AND OUR NEW CHURCH PERIODICALS. By John Ellis, M. D. New York: Published by the author, 1886.

     THIS is the ponderous title of the indefatigable Dr. Ellis' last pamphlet. Any one wishing a copy can, doubtless, obtain one free by sending his address to the author.
     About the only thing new worthy of note found in this pamphlet is the Doctor's idea of the trine in the ministry. He believes in a trifle, but not in the one at present existing. He would reform it by making doctors (M. D.'s) ministers of the first degree; lawyers, ministers of the second, and bunch all the present ministers and their successors into the third degree. What
a "priest-ridden" lot we should be if the pamphlet-writing Doctor's ideas-were adopted! When our digestion was impaired, or the baby had the colic, we should have to apply to the Rev. A B for pills, potions, and advice. When we wished to put the law on a recalcitrant debtor, or, it may be, fight off a pressing creditor, we should fly to the Rev. C D. We see one little difficulty in Dr. Ellis' scheme; perhaps, though, in his next pamphlet, which we await with interest-for all his works are delightfully amusing, if nothing more-he will explain it away, as he does so many other things, fry a process "well known to the ancients." The little difficulty we see is this: as things are at present- ordered, we go to our minister to be married, or baptized, or for advice, or for burial (he comes to us for the latter, by the way), and when the ceremony, or whatever it is, is finished, we pay him what we please, if we think of it; if not, we serenely go our way; and if, perchance, at some future day we are asked to contribute for the "support of the Church;" we grumble about "always begging," or we mumble something about "hard times" as we hand over fifty cents or so, and say: "Put it down as cash." We are used to this order of things; we find it very convenient; we have the benefit of the ministrations of learned men, and rest easy, knowing that no little bill" will be presented. Will our doctors consent to forego that little formality? and our lawyers? This view of the case we commend to Dr. Ellis' "careful attention."
     On page 114 the Doctor tells us that "the New Church, when it appears in its glory on the earth, will be one vast Total Abstinence Society." O thrilling thought! Aroint thee, baleful doubt of the certitude of the Doctor's information! He himself has said it-'tis enough. Avaunt! and let us dream blissfully of the golden day when connoisseurs will sip their glasses of soaked-raisin water; or, about vintage-time, call on the Rev. A B for pills to alleviate their stomachs from infestations. But, alack and alas! like Juliet, we have an ill divining soul; doubts will not down at our bidding: doubts that in that halcyon time some stern pamphleteer will arise and condemn those soaked-raisin-water bibbers, and scoff to scorn our good Dr. Ellis and his "pernicious teachings;" and one too-O woeful thought!-who will drop into mathematics to show how many "wholesome" plum-puddings might be compacted from the raisins thus wasted. A groundless fear, you say? Nay, friend, did not good old Luigi Cornaro in the Dark Ages brag of living on twelve ounces of solid food and fourteen ounces of wine ("poison," vide Dr. Ellis) as his daily diet, and was he not a temperance man?-one who wrote loving, kindly books that are extant to-day, pleading for temperance? And yet those who to-day advocate the temperance of that genial old man-he lived to be ninety-are burnt as unfit for family reading (see page 80). And again, how that "vast Total Abstinence Society" will sorrowfully shake its head over the evil practices of Swedenborg in accepting a glass or two of wine ("poison," vide Dr. Ellis) at dinner occasionally. But in the dark cloud of this doubt we see a brilliant rift; some pamphleteer of that day will clearly prove that Swedenborg was a conjurer, or boldly assert that "it is well known" that he always emptied his glass over his shoulder.
     Rambling through the pages of this pamphlet-i. e., Dr. Ellis', not that of him of the future-is like revisiting some old familiar scene. Nothing is changed; the same old assertions are here found propped upon the same old argumentative pedestals that time and again have been tumbled into the dust by the learned of all faiths or of no faith. Let them stand; no one, we fancy, will care to tip the poor old things over again; indeed, it would be labor wasted, for the Doctor would hoist them up at once again and declare them adamantine. But, before closing, we wish to call his attention to one assertion contained in this pamphlet from under which he has knocked the pedestal himself. He declares, on page 88, that among other papers the Life has refused the total abstinence men a hearing, and soon after he quotes from our pages (March, 1886) a letter from a strong total abstinence man. We might also call his attention to the many pages in our journal that from time to time have been given up to prohibitionists and among them Dr. Ellis himself; but, cui bono?

74


EXPERIENCE 1886

EXPERIENCE              1886

     BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELEANOR."

     CHAPTER I.

     SAMUEL GRAY, his sister Kate, and brother Richard were left orphans while still very young by the quickly following deaths of their father and mother. The girl was sent to live with an aunt in the adjacent city, and there in due time she grew up and made what was called a brilliant match and took a high place in that somewhat vaguely defined body, Society. The two boys were given a home by their grandmother Stephens, a rather cynical old lady, whose forefathers had served under Washington and who still retained a traditional objection to Tories. She was intensely patriotic, firmly believed in the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Fourth of July, and yet, withal, was an arrant old aristocrat. Though the two boys were given homes with her, it was not because of poverty, as they had inherited comfortable fortunes from their parents Mrs. Stephens employed a private tutor for her grandsons, a learned old gentleman and clergyman, who, men said, had failed in life because he had not kept up with the times, though there were a few who had a notion that the trouble was that he was ahead of his times. Be that as it may, he was an excellent instructor and educator; he gained the love and respect of his two pupils, and, among many other things, they received from him that priceless boon-the LORD'S Truth. Their reception of it was unquestioning, for in this manner they were taught it, the old man's final appeal being, "It is true, because the LORD says so in the Writings. When Gorandmother Stephens heard that her boys had become enthusiastic New Churchmen she laughed:
     "Religion is mostly nonsense," said she; "but if you must have it that particular kind is no worse than the rest. - Besides, yow will outgrow it."
     "I do not think so, grand mother," replied Sam.
     "Well, Sam, we shall not quarrel. Religion is a good thing to pretend to, at any rate. It keeps the lower classes in order."
     "That is not a good view to take," said Sam.
     "It is the practical one, at any rate. Your grandfather, a shrewd man, supported the churches because he maintained if ever the people become thoroughly ir-religious revolution and anarchy will surely follow, and that, you know, would be very unpleasant."
     At another time Sam offered to explain to her the Truth which he and Dick had embraced, but with a little shrug-she had spent much of her youth in Paris
-she replied: "I will take it all on faith, boy; leave me in peace. I am too old now to change."
     She was rather proud of the two boys, especially of the younger, who showed a liking for dress and was not very fond of study. But Sam was too serious, too much given to books, to fulfill her ideal of a gentleman of leisure, which was her highest type. So he was in time sent to college, and after graduation spent a year or two in travel. Then came the question of his future. She advocated the law, but he objected.
     "I do not think that I would make a good lawyer," said he.
     "Why not?"
     "Because," he answered, "lawyers, especially young ones, cannot choose their clients, and I should not care to plead a case I knew to be a bad one."
     "Pshaw, boy, do not become a Joseph Surface!"
     "I shall try not to," he replied; "and please understand that I am not condemning lawyers who take bad cases. But even had I the selection of my clients, I feel that I could not do them justice-I could never make a speech."
     The old lady laughed: "I am not so sure of that; but, at any rate, I shall urge you no further, for, with all your mild ways, when your head is set you are very stubborn."
     "I think," he continued, "that I shall go to the city and go into business. I was recently looking at a store---"
     "Turn shopkeeper, eh?" wrathfully interrupted grandmother Stephens. "Spend your life, yard-stick in hand, smirking at a lot of gabbling women over a counter!"
     "No," he replied, in his matter-of-fact way, "I gave the retail business some thought, but came to the conclusion that there is not so good a chance for success in it in an old city as there is in the wholesale trade. You see, grandmother, a good retail business is a thing of slow growth, while-
"My dear boy, I do not see it nor know anything about it; but since you are not going to sell ribbons and pins over a counter I'm satisfied, for commerce is not beneath a gentleman."
     "I cannot see any essential difference between a wholesaler and a retailer," replied Sam, "save in the size of the sales; and then the retailer, if a man of capital, is the more independent of the two. In fact, the wholesaler is de en on the retailer for his commercial existence."
     "Just as I am on my cook for my dinner," answered the old lady; "but I do not want to become a cook."
     "Of course not, and there is no reason why one in your position should. Yet a good cook is an admirable personage."
     "Sam, you are incorrigible-or a zany, said Mrs. Stephens, laughing "There, there, go away and do not bother me any more; you will do as you like, anyhow."
     He embarked in the business he had alluded to in this conversation, and was fairly successful. When his brother's schooling was finished he was taken into partnership, much to the disgust of sister Kate and grand-mother Stephens.
     The first two weeks of Samuel Gray's life in the city was passed at his sister's; her house was large, and a modest fortune had been spent in furnishing it, anal what would seem a fortune to some was expended each year in main- taming it and its mistress' position in society. Gorandmother Stephens, when viewing the house and manner of living, had said: "Kate, it smacks too much of new riches; good family doesn't require a lavish style; go slower, girl, or you will have a fall." The only advice she gave to Sam when he left her was, "Keep away from Kate's set; they are too fast for you."
     "You had better stay with me," said Kate, on his arrival, "until you can look about for suitable apartments and furnish them properly, and in the meantime I will introduce you to the proper circle." Very frankly she said to him: "You are not brilliant or witty, but you have a rather distinguished air, and when you learn - to avoid a certain way of speaking-you know to what I refer-I can see no reason why you should not be a social success. At any rate, your birth entitles you to a position in society, and brilliancy is not essential, though desirable. You must look about for a rich wife; that is a much surer and quicker way of acquiring wealth than business is.

75


I know a number of girls suitable in that respect; one of them will be at our dinner party to-night, and you are to take her out. She is worth half a million in her own right and will inherit more when her mother dies. You need have no doubts about the correctness of this, for I had my lawyer look into the matter; she has that amount, and it is safely invested."
     "What is her name?" asked Sam.
     "Her name is Merlyn." Mrs. Davis thoughtfully paused a moment, and then continued. "As this is a matter of importance to you, I will tell you frankly that her family is none of the best. Her father was once named Murphy, and was connected with liquor in the retail way, but that was many years ago, and he is dead now. He went into polities, changed or modified his name, and died wealthy. He was never very prominently before the public, as he held but few offices and
those early in his career. He was one of the rulers of his party, and amassed great wealth, which his daughter will inherit, and that, of course, is the main consideration for you. You need do nothing hastily, as there are a number of other young ladies eligible, though none so wealthy nor indeed so handsome as Miss Merlyn. You will remember all this to-night."
     He found the young lady in question to be undoubtedly handsome, and entertaining too. She did most of the talking, while he, having an honest appetite, listened to her and ate his dinner.
     "Mr. Gray, have you completed your plans for the summer?" she asked.
     "They are nearly completed."
     "How I envy you?. I am just distracted about mine. Mamma says we shall not go to Europe, and I am so tired of our American resorts." She was young enough to make this assertion frankly.
     "Why not stay at home then?"
     "Now, Mr. Gray! please do not joke at my troubles."
     "I assure you I was not joking,' he replied, soberly.
     "Tell me,' said she, "do your plans include Europe?"
     "I fear that you mistook my meaning. Mine are business plans, not summer ones. I expect to remain in the city all summer, as I am a beginner in business."
     "Are you going into trade?"
     This use of the word "trade" had been imported from England and was quite popular in her circle.
     "Yes; into the wool trade," replied Sam.
     "The wool trade! How very interesting! I often buy wools, and when you open your shop" (another imported use of a word) "I shall certainly patronize you, though I warn you" (this with a little frown) "that you must not overcharge me, for I am a very good woman of business." Then she went on, telling him what she would do toward helping him in the way of recommending his shop. She very frankly warned him of certain, women whom he must not trust, as they always bought where money was not demanded and did not like to pay. "For my part, I believe in 'cash down.'" This was said with gravity, and then its effect was heightened by a charming laugh.
     He became so interested that he forgot to correct her as to the nature of his business, or at may be that he saw her drift. This last is most likely, for he was not an unsophisticated young man
     Miss Merlyn caught a glance from Mrs. Davis and at once exclaimed:
     "I am giving your brother good, sound advice as to the way he should conduct his shop when he opens it."
     Probably she knew that this use of the obnoxious word "shop" would hurt Mrs. Davis, and probably that was why she used it. These ladies frequently indulged in the amusement of administering bitter words to each other disguised in sweet smiles.
     "I have promised to buy all my zephyrs from him and to recommend his shop to my friends, provided he does not sell too dear."
     Mrs. Davis was too skillful to put her right or to show the least chagrin. She merely smiled and replied:
     "I am sure that he ought to be grateful to you. The custom of the Oldacres and that set must be valuable to a young merchant; and we all know your influence -there.
     In this sweetly spoken speech was hidden an ugly claw. The Oldacres' set was composed of the descendants of the early inhabitants of the great city, who had shrewdly or stolidly held on to their farms until the rising city lifted them into vast wealth and a social position that was the envy of all the more modern rich.
     Miss Merlyn had tried to gain admittance to that select circle, but had wet with a rebuff, and all those present knew it excepting Sam, and his sister took care to tell him after the dinner was over.
     The young lady took the cut very smilingly. They were used to that sort of amiable warfare.
     Opposite to Sam sat a young man who had been to England. He now put up his eye-glass, and, addressing Sam, said that "Plumly, you know,' was going to Paris; that Plumly had a fine suite of rooms which he wished some one to take; that he had heard that Mr. Gray was looking for rooms, and so he mentioned it to him. "Thank you," replied Mr. Gray, "but I have engaged boarding already."
     "Have you? Where?" spoke up Miss Merlyn, eagerly, at the word "boarding," which in her circles was but in the same category with "shop."
     "On Barton Street," he replied.
     "Barton Street?-Barton Street?" queried Miss Merlyn, prettily knitting her brows.
     Sam told her where it was situated, and then she exclaimed:
     "I know now about where it is! How brave in you to venture among the bourgeoisie! I positively feel an ambition to explore that remote region some day. Do not you, Mrs. Davis?"
     "No," replied that lady, indifferently. "I know where it is. A very pleasant neighborhood, though in going there from this quarter of the city, unfortunately, you have to pass some unpleasant saloons."
     "How dreadful!" replied Miss Merlyn, and then changed the subject.
     After her guests had departed Mrs. Davis had a quiet talk with her brother. Very dispassionately she compared Miss Merlyn's failings with her advantages, and concluded that the last, outweighed the first. She advised him to give up the notion of going to Barton Street, and to take Mr. Plumly's apartments on West Brownstone Avenue. To be sure, the cost of living would be much greater, but he could easily, afford it, and the chance of securing a fortune by marriage was not to be lightly thrown aside, he could not expect much if he exiled himself from society. To all which Sam listened attentively.
     On the ensuing Sunday she asked him to accompany her and her husband to church. But he excused himself and said that he wished to go to his own church. At this she exclaimed, pathetically:
     "My dear brother I whatever you do, do not go to that church. These people are utterly unknown; they are nobodies.

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You can never hope to get on in society with that faith attached to your name. It would be far better foil you to take up with agnosticism, or even infidelity, for they at least are not unfashionable."
     "Thank you, Kate," he replied. "But you know that I am not a fashionable man."
     "But you could be; you have better manners, education, and birth than nine-tenths of the men in society, so why throw away these advantages? You are a young man, and when you once take your position in this city you will find it very hard to change. Think of this calmly before it is too late."
     "I have thought of it, Kate."
     "But not as you should. I once knew some people of that sect, and they were very nice people, too, but their faith was against them. To be known as a Swedenborgian will almost surely kill any one socially."
     "I am one already," he replied. "You know that I was baptized, and I am a member and have been for several years of the Society in this city. I have not found my friends to be social outcasts."
     "I do not say but that they are very good and inoffensive people. And as for your being a member of their 'Society,' as you call it, that is not generally known. Real society stands ready to receive you and will ignore this folly. This is a serious matter for a young man just beginning his career. Do not be hasty, brother; consider the matter well before you take the final step."
     "Thank you for your interest in my welfare," he replied, looking at his watch. But please excuse me, for it is near church time and I must go." Saying this, he departed.
     Mrs. Davis shook her head and said to her husband, "It is very sad to see a young man throwing away all his advantages."
     Mr. Davis rubbed his nose and said "Yes" rather doubtingly, as though he thought that the chief advantage Sam had was in his freedom to stay away from church altogether.
     Sam boarded a horse-car and was carried out of society's domain to another part of the city where the New Church Temple was situated. He had joined this Society several years before on the advice of his old preceptor, who held for various reasons that every isolated member of the Church should join some Society.
     He walked home after the services this day with one of the members of the Society. She was a tall girl, and her hair, resembling threads of gold, seemed determined to get into her eyes or do anything rather than lie smooth. She lived on Barton Street, not far from the Bantleys, where he had engaged boarding. He told her of this, and she replied-a little indifferently, he thought-"Indeed?"
     "Yes; I wished to be near my friends."
     "I thought that you would be nearer to them on the other side of the city," referring to Brownstone Avenue. Her manner toward him was friendly, but it lacked the warmth the other members of the Society had shown when they heard that he had come to make his home among them. He shook his head, and then asked:
     "I may call on you sometimes?"
     "Certainly." Then, "The welcome that you received this morning must have flattered your vanity, if you have any."
     "It was very agreeable to me," was his answer to this rather prickly speech, "but whether it was my vanity that was excited I hardly know; conceit is very subtle." After musing a moment: "I do not think, however, that mine had much, if any, to do with the pleasure I experienced this morning. Mine was, I think, rather the happiness of a home-coming."
     She slightly laughed. I see that you have not changed since I saw you last."
     "Not in some respects, at least."
     After a pause she said: "I should think that Barton Street would seem rather tame after West Brownstone Avenue."
     "There is a great difference between them," he replied, "but I shall prefer Barton Street."
     "You long for sweet simplicity, do you?" and the handsome girl half glanced at him to see the effect of her irony.
     People were often puzzled at Mr. Gray's replies-puzzled whether to take him seriously or not-and this was now the state of his companion, Miss Caroline Armand, when he said in answer to her question, "Yes; very much." A knowing smile or look would have changed the meaning of this simple answer, but they were not forthcoming, and so Miss Armand, after a second quick and slightly suspicious glance, said:
     "I cannot vouch for our 'sweet' simplicity, but I can for our quiet and general pokyness should prefer a little-more of the other life, I think."
     "You would not like it."
     "Perhaps not, but I should at least like the experience."
     "It might be of some value to you in showing the real worth of your present life."
     "I do not complain of my lot, only I should like to see more of the world and of people. Very likely, after I had seen them I should long for quietness, as you do."
     "Pardon the correction, but it was 'simplicity' that I desired."
     "So it was; but could you find it nowhere but on Barton Street?"
     "Taking that street as a synonym for New Church society, I think not. The people of the world, even those who are honest and well-meaning, have no real truth to sustain them, and, having none, they are at the mercy of each new whim that arises, save when they take, refuge in scoffing or polite infidelity, and even then they have no rest. They need a divinely infallible standard by which to measure and judge all things."
     "Oh! yes; all that is true enough, but I hear it so often that sometimes I grow tired of it, and have a wicked desire to go forth and join hands with the sinful world."
     He smiled at this, as he replied: "I think that you would find that world to be very hollow."
     "How dreadfully trite and copy-bookish that sounds," she exclaimed.
     "I believe it does," he answered, "and yet a great many things that are very trite are also very true."
     [TO BE CONTINUED]
EAGLE AND THE OTHER BIRD AGAIN 1886

EAGLE AND THE OTHER BIRD AGAIN              1886

     THE Eagle and the Other Bird had not seen each other for some time, but one day they met, and after exchanging greetings, the Eagle asked, "What is the meaning of the rumors of trouble in your tree that I have been hearing?"
     The Other Bird smoothed his neat plumage a moment and then replied, "A very sad case, I assure you. Perhaps you are aware that I own the two nests that are in that tree, and that my brother and his family have occupied the smaller one-a rather cheap and flimsy structure-for some time. He is a dear, honest, straightforward bird, and I love him tenderly.

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Well; he took it into his head to affiliate with some of our kinsmen in an adjoining field. - I felt very much grieved when I heard of this proceeding, so I went to my brother, and, with sadness and sorrow in my heart, bundled him and his out of the nest."
     "Where are they-now?" asked the Eagle.
     "They still remain about the tree, but are suffering great inconvenience and hardship; though, for that matter, they are not much worse off than myself."
     "How so?"
     "Why you see my own nest, which is quite a fine one, considerably larger than I require, and now, having two to attend to, it adds greatly to my work. I divide my time between them. But it is a great burden to me; it taxes my strength, I assure you."
     "And the result will be two nests of addled eggs," said the grim old Eagle.
     "Yes, I fear that is possible," replied the Other Bird, with a gentle sigh. "I can see no way out of the difficulty, no way to lighten my labors, than to induce some of the Bats or Owls to take the nest in their charge."
     "And in the meantime your brother suffers for want of a home," said the Eagle.
     "Alas! yes," replied the Other Bird, as a tear dropped from his eye and glance4 off his well-feathered breast; "poor fellow; my heart bleeds for him in his great affliction." Then he returned to his tree and divided his time between the two nests, and the old Eagle sat and pondered on the mild and gentle ways of the Other Bird.
GOOSOCRACY 1886

GOOSOCRACY              1886

     IT was a warm afternoon, and the Gray Goose stood reflectively on one leg, and the old Horse dotingly switched the flies away. At last he impatiently-stamped his fore legs to rid himself of these pests, and this movement awakening him; he asked his friend, "What are you meditating on?"
     "The state of the flock."
     "What's wrong?"
     "Nothing." The questioner looked mildly reproachful, and the Gray Goose, after a deliberate pause, went on: "When I was a gosling, the flock was led by one, the strongest, and we followed him? But ere long the grand idea that all geese are equals dawned upon us, and the old order of government fell shattered."
     "All being equal, of course, none had the right to rule."
     "It is necessary for the sake of order to have rulers, but our head geese are now the creatures of the sovereign flock-our body is above our head." After saying this the Gray Goose stood silent a moment, and then stole a side-glance at the Horse, perhaps to detect signs of a laugh, but he saw none, for the horse was old and had heard many strange things in his life, and now he gravely asked, "Suppose your body is not agreed in its choice of a head?"
     "It is not a question of agreement, but of majority."
     "Suppose the majority should be wrong?"
     "It cannot be; for with us the supreme authority in questions of right or wrong is the majority."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     According to the Calendar published by the Academy Book-Room the lessons in the Word at present are on the subject of leprosy. Leprosy signifies prophanation. The laws concerning the cleansing of lepers in the internal sense give the means of healing this spiritual evil. (See A. C 6963, 3301, 7524, 9468 et al.)
STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM 1886

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM              1886

     A STORY FOR CHILDREN.

     CHAPTER V.

     TOM had not gone far in this new land before he saw a plant with pink flowers and velvety leaves. It had a I cool, easy look, and sociable Tom nodded and said, "How do you do?"     -
     "Ah! young lad just from Romance Land, I see," replied the plant.
     "Yes," responded Tom, and somehow he blushed. "Well, how are the pirates and the Indians and all the rest of them getting on?" Though this was easily spoken and with no seeming banter in it, Tom grew still redder as he mumbled,
     "Oh! they are all right."
     " Yes, I suppose they are; nothing ever goes wrong there; remarkable place, isn't it?"
     "Yes," replied Tom meekly, and then, wishing to change the subject, "Please, what is your name; I never met you before?"
     "I can see that," was the uncomfortable reply. "My name is Nettle; I am a plant of the world."
     Tom put out his hand, and though he barely touched the velvety plant, he quickly drew it in again and put it in his pocket; his hand wasn't torn as it had been by the Thorn; the skin wasn't even scratched, but he had been stung and the smart was keen. Without the least show of ill-feeling, and speaking as though nothing had happened, the Nettle continued: "I stay around here to welcome boys coming from Romance Land."
     At this moment a Donkey walked up and the Nettle said, "Here is another!" Somehow Tom did not feel sorry when he saw the Donkey begin to nibble, the Nettle without seeming to feel its delicate stings. Still he wanted to do it a good turn, so he said, "I don't believe the Donkey understands you; shall I drive him away?"
     "No Donkey understands me," coolly replied the Nettle, "but I flourish on the visits of Donkeys; they tone me up. Call again, please. Good-bye."
     "Never mind what the Nettle says," remarked the gray old Rock, as Tom walked away, feeling uncomfortable- "never mind him, for, after all, he is only food for Donkeys-for real ones, I mean," added the old Rock, dryly. "Romance Land isn't a bad place for boys go and even men, to visit, occasionally. I should like to there myself sometimes, but I'm too fixed in the earth.
     This made Tom feel considerably better, but before replying he looked up and saw something that drove everything else out of his mind. Away off, half veiled in a silvery mist, he saw wonderful palaces, with roofs and minarets shining like burnished gold, towering mountains, superb cities, and brilliant armies, with waving banners and flashing steel; all this and more-all awaiting for him to come. Away he dashed with a ringing shout, leaving the gray old Rock to say, "The old, old story, the dream of youth; it's a fine thing-while it lasts."
     "Yes, old fossil," answered the Nettle, "a fine thing. You are half buried in your gorgeous palace, and I have a Donkey in mine taking his lunch."
     In the meantime Tom dashed forward at the top of his speed; he could not get over the ground fast enough; something hindered him, he thought, and reaching in his pocket he took out his Book and tossed it away, without once taking his eyes off those wonderful things in the misty distance Onward he flew, heedless of his surroundings he fancied himself already heading that splendid army the ruler of that magnificent city-the ruler of the whole country the world, hurrah! but at this point of his all-embracing dominion he stumbled head over heels into a ditch.

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It was a deep ditch, with stagnant water and mud and steep sides. For a moment he lay half bewildered, and then springing to his feet he shouted, "I haven't any time to waste!" (just what the Ant said to him once). "Some one will get there before me and take my army and city." Then he dashed up the side of the ditch, but it was high, steep, and slimy, and he again fell back.
     "This loss of time is too bad!" he exclaimed, again going up the slimy bank, only to fall again into the green, stagnant water at the bottom. After several more attempts he concluded to look about and make a more calculated effort. Wading a few yards through the deep mud, he at last saw a strong looking bush growing about half way up the side of the ditch. He calculated the distance, and then with a desperate rush he seized the bush with both hands. "Bah!" sneered the Thorn, for that it was, and with bleeding hands Tom again fell back. He lay dazed for a few minutes, and then, painfully arising to his feet, waded through the filth, feeling very miserable. He no longer wanted to rule, but only to get out of this horrible ditch. He cautiously tried several places, but only to slip back. Suddenly his face brightened." My Book!" he exclaimed; "why didn't I think of it sooner?" He felt in his pocket, but it wasn't there; then he eagerly retraced his steps to the place he had fallen in, but could not find it. At last he recollected that he had thrown the book away in his mad rush to rule. Heartsick and despairing, he sat down in the slime; he could see no hope; he must perish in that horrible place. When in this lowest state he heard a calm voice say, "Come here!"
     He looked around and saw a Vine, and one tendril of it hung over the side. He quickly arose, and with one last, despairing rush seize d the Vine and soon was in the pure air and sunlight once more. But such a sight! dirt from head to foot.
     "I thank you indeed," he said to the helpful Vine, and then slowly walked away. As he approached a fringe of green bushes he heard a familiar and musical voice exclaimed: "Why, Tom! what has happened to you?"
     "I started out to rule the world, and fell into a dirty ditch," he humbly replied.
     "Come to me," said the Brook; and going a few steps where the waters were clear and deep, he plunged in, and was washed clean. Oh! how delightful those clean, sweet waters were after the green, slimy ooze of the ditch! After he came out he sat in the sunlight and was soon warmed. Then he told the Brook what he had done with his Book, and it urged him to go at once and seek it.
     "I don't know where to look," replied he, dejectedly.
     "If you want it again you can find it," said the Brook.
     "I do want it," he replied; and then he arose and walked straight to where it lay, open, and the first thing that caught his eyes was
     "Seek and ye shalt find."
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE discussions at the meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania, which we gave in outline in our April issue, and some of which we did not touch upon at all, will be published in full in the Journal of that body. Among other things, a discussion of the relation of the General Church to the General Convention and the history of     the Immanuel Church will be found in the Journal.
CORRECTION NOTES 1886

CORRECTION NOTES       G. N. SMITH       1886

     Communicated.

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles on which New Church Life is conducted, or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]


     IN a recently published New Church sermon I find the statement that the regenerating man is not only not to will and intend evils, but not even to think them. How the author intended this to be understood I do not know, but that the average reader would get a sense which is contrary to the teachings concerning the means of regeneration I very much fear, for the teachings clearly are that not only the regenerating man cannot prevent the thought of evil being injected into his understanding, but that without it he cannot know his evils, and so cannot shun and reform them. "Man cannot desist from thinking evil, but from doing it." (A. C. 8910.) "Man cannot be purified from evils, and thence from falsities, unless the unclean things which are in him emerge even into the thought and are there seen, acknowledged, discerned, and rejected." (A. E. 580.) "But yet when it is permitted man to think the evils of his life's love even to intention, they are cured by spiritual means as diseases are cured by natural means." (D. P. 281.) Compare the whole notable treatment of this subject in the context, beginning at No. 275, every word of which is weighted with vast consequences- to every man who is in the endeavor to lead a regenerate life.

     A BROTHER with whom, from his usual carefulness, I am loath to differ, says that the New Church is broader than the New Jerusalem. As he here surely differs from the Doctrines, I have no alternative. "The New Jerusalem signifies the New Church in the heavens and on earth." (A. E. 288.) Neither the New Church nor any other can be broader than that. Another point, the overlooking of which so often leads to obscurity on this subject, is that the New Jerusalem signifies the New Church, because it signifies the Heavenly Doctrine, which alone makes - the New Church. (See A. R. 879, 902, 194, 196, Doct. LORD 65.) The Church surely cannot be broader than that which alone makes it to be a Church. That there are simple g6od by the hundred millions without the Church thus formed in the great "Communion" so often mentioned, and that these may by collection, inauguration, and instruction (A. R. 813) come into the New Church, if only into its external (A. R. 362-3, A. E. 450), is plainly taught.
     And as the New Church is in the heavens as well as on earth, in which world this takes place does not affect the case. Carefully stand by the above plain teachings, and the whole question of what and where the New Church is becomes simple and plain. Lose sight of them and nothing is plain, and we may find ourselves groping around after the New Church in dark places (A. R. 110) where no ray of the Doctrines from "which alone the Church is a Church" ever came, simply because the dark and dusky forms there found are called by Christian names. (See A. C. 3379, A. R. 955.)

     It is commonly supposed that the work referred to in Last Judgment (n. 42), Conjugial Love (n. 522) was Apocalypse Revealed. But as Apocalypse Explained was written nearest the time referred to, viz.: 1760, and Apocalypse Revealed in 1766, Apocalypse Explained seems to be referred to.

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     I SAW not long since an effort on the part of a New Church scientist to accommodate the New Church Doctrine of creation from a sun, to the nebular theory of La Place, on the ground that the nebula, condensing to a centre, could be considered as a sun. The Doctrines give an account of a similar attempt, whereupon its perpetrator was indignantly pronounced "insane." (T. C. R. 35.)
     This effort to accommodate the truths of the New Church to the falsities of the Old can never be very sane nor very safe. (See T. C. R. 647-9.) But do we realize what a temptation is perpetually before us to do this? We are hereditarily, all of us, of the Old Church; we are in its sphere, daily pressing upon us like the ocean upon the defenses of a dyke. What wonder that it requires uncompromising and vigilant loyalty to the Teachings of the LORD not to give way to it sometimes!

     AN instance of this occurs in a passage that recently passed under my eye concerning the teaching that "marriages on earth between those of a different religion are accounted in heaven as heinous" (A. C. 8998), in which the writer took the ground that the Old Church and the New, as they now stand correlated, are not different religions, alleging that the numbers referred to in the context (see 2049, 2115, 7996) speak of Gentile religions. Nos. 2049 and 2115 undoubtedly do mention Gentile religions, and, of course, these are included. But No. 7996 goes further and plainly refers to corrupted forms of the Church in which all truth and good are destroyed, and which are "further out of the Church than the Gentiles." (N. 6637, comp. 3379.) If we have any doubt about applying this to the present corruption, let us study* the contrasts found in Doct. Faith (n. 34 and following) between "Christian Faith," which is given, plain and simple, as New Church Faith, and the "faith of the present day," which is, plain and simple, that of the Old Church, only it is not quite so far from the essentials of the Church, "the LORD and the Word," as that faith is now, when the "nature of things," and every man as a part thereof, is so popularly set forth as God and the inner light in every man is the Word. My observation goes very far to confirm the statement by one of our ministers at the recent Congress of the Western New Church that the Old Church world is becoming rapidly Unitarianized.
     * Also A. C. 4145, and see if the union there described is possible between one of the Old and one of the New Church. Comp. No. 10,189.

     I HAVE heretofore called attention to our accommodation to the Old Church translations of the Word. Here is a case in which I believe we are all of us alike involved. I do not remember to have seen a single collateral quotation of Matthew v, 17-19 in which the old rendering of "destroy and break" is not retained instead of the true one of the Doctrines, "dissolve." (See A. C. 7933, A. E. 774.) Read the passage with the doctrinal rendering and its application to the doctrines that dissolve the obligation of the law and the prophets and thus of the least of the commandments, and you will see a new and true and very important meaning in it.

     HERE is a case that goes farther than accommodation-verges toward adoption. It is a small matter, but "straws show which way the wind blows." It is in Divine Providence (n. 265.) In the translation of the most popular edition, the Doctrine is made to say, " They never thought of the seventh commandment when they committed adultery, or of the eighth when they committed theft." In a later translation it is made to say, "The sixth (our seventh), the seventh (our eighth)," etc. The Doctrine says "sixth" and "seventh:" which is "ours," the Protestant Old Church innovation and change of the Word and the primitive Christian doctrine, or the New Church Doctrine that is true to both?
     G. N. SMITH.
WORD FROM MR. BARRETT 1886

WORD FROM MR. BARRETT              1886

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-It is by no means pleasant to see a paper that bears on its front the name yours does departing so often and so widely from the truth as you do whenever you touch upon the teachings or beliefs of those who happen to differ from yourselves. Several misstatements of my own beliefs and teachings appear in the last issue of your paper. I will not ask permission to correct them in your columns, for I have good reason to believe that such request, if made, would not be granted. But I do hope you will allow me to say, that, if any of your readers care to know whether what I here affirm of your paper be really true, or to see how far or in just what way you have strayed from truth and fairness in your notice of the last Annual Report of the S. P. Association, I shall be happy to send them a copy of said report, that they may compare it with your criticisms and quotations and then judge each one for himself. And if they will send for the New Church Independent for last December and January and read my two articles on "Looking Back" they will see how strangely you have wandered again from the truth in your comments upon those articles, and that I have not, as represented by you, expressed, directly or by implication, any disregard for or disbelief of a single one of the passages you quote from the Writings.     B.F. BARRETT.
     GERMANTOWN, PA., March 6th, 1886.
OBLIVION 1886

OBLIVION       L. B. P       1886

     To those interested in the question of the establishment of the Church among the simple, there is food for reflection in Oblivion, an episode, by M. G. MeClelland, Henry Holt & Co. (Leisure Hour Series.)
     The simple, kindly mountain folk of Western North Carolina described in this story constitute, it would seem, a more promising field than the people of a corresponding class in the Tennessee mountains, which appear in the very remarkable stories of Chas. Eghert Craddock (Miss Murfree). For instance, in "The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains," the prophet himself is a renowned "professor" (of religion) and leader of a congregation, while secretly writhing in the throes of infidelity. On the other hand, in Oblivion a good deal is put into the mouths of the mountain people which is interesting, as possibly indicating the existence of simple receptive states, though whether any of this is really to be traced farther than the writer of the book is perhaps a question Taken as it stands, however, there are things in this book which are certainly suggestive in connection with those passages from the Writings bearing on this question.
     PHILADELPHIA, PA.     L. B. P.

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NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886



NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL

     TERMS:-One Dollar per annum payable in advance.
     Six months on final for twenty-five cents.


     All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, MAY, 1886=116.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, p. 65-The Functions of an External Church, p. 66.-Conversatlons on Education, p. 68.-Representatives, II, p. 69.-Variation us. Authority, p. 70.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS-Notes, p. 72.-Again, a work by Dr. Ellis, p. 73.
     FICTION-An Experience, Chap. I, p. 74.- The Eagle and the Other Bird Again, p. 78.-Gogsocracy, p. 77.-The Strange Adventures of Tom. Chap. v, p. 77.
-     COMMUNICATED.-Correction Notes, p. 78.-A word from Mr. Barrett, p. 79.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, p. 80.
     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, p. 80.
     AT HOME.

     The East.-Pennsylvania.-THE services In Allentown are rendered more impressive and beautiful, and the sphere of worship made more affecting for the children and the simple, by the Pastor's now wearing a robe made according to the laws of correspondence revealed in the Writings.
     AT the last tea-party held by the Advent Society in Philadelphia, the treat after tea consisted in a musicale, at which the piano, the cithern, the violin were heard, interspersed with vocal music. Visitors were present from Pittsburgh, Allentown, and Brooklyn.
     IN Erie the Writings are kept on sale at one of the bookstores, and about forty-five works have been sold, including one whole set to one person not yet in the Church.
     New Jersey.-THE Rev. Dr. Hibbard visited and preached in Elwood on the 18th and 26th of April. This Society has few members but has a Sunday-school of twenty five scholars.
     THE New Church Society in Orange, New Jersey, is actively engaged in raising funds for a much-needed house of worship of their own.
     New York.-THE General Convention of the New Church of the United States and Canada will hold its sixty-sixth annual meeting in the house of worship of the New York Society on Tuesday, May 27th. The Ministers' Conference will hold its meeting in the house of worship of the Brooklyn Society on Tuesday, June 1st.
     IN the Brooklyn, E. D., German Society the minister now wears his official robe, consisting of linen tunic, girded with a girdle of entire silk, of a golden color, a linen surplice, and a hyacinthine silk stole.
     Massachusetts.-THE Massachusetts Association held its annual meeting in Boston on April 8th. The reports of the various societies were interesting and encouraging, showing an increase in membership everywhere. The Missionary Board had not been so successful or active in its work as during preceding years. The Massachusetts New Church Union, which held its session at the same time; reported that its building on Tremont Street is now free of debt. It has cost the Union the sum of fifty thousand dollars. An interesting paper was presented by the Rev. W. H. Mayhew on the need of establishing an agency for the care of orphan children of New Church parents. A committee of five was appointed to prepare a plan for such an agency, to be submitted in October next.
     AT the annual meeting of the Boston New Church Society, on April 2d, the Rev. James Reed was presented with a new official robe by the ladies of the Society.
     THE Waltham School has sixty-five pupils, of which nineteen are girls, and all but one or two of New Church connection.
     THE Convention Theological School has four students. There is a movement on foot to form an Alumni Association.
     Hew Hampshire.-THE German New Church Society of Manchester New Hampshire, the only Society in that state, was visited on February 28th by the Missionary of the Massachusetts Association. This Society consists of about thirty members.

     The South.-Arkansas-THE Rev. J. W. McSlarrow preached at Polk Bayou, in Arkansas, on March 14th, to a very large audience. "A very pleasant sphere prevailed," a Methodist minister, on special invitation, leading the meeting in prayer.
     Maryland.-MANY of the former members of the Rev. J. E. Smith's Methodist Episcopal Church, in Caroline County Maryland, are reported as intending to follow their Pastor by forming themselves into a distinct New Church organization.

     The West.-Ohio.-THE New Church Society in Cincinnati has been invited to join the so-called Evangelical Churches in that city in taking a "religious census."
     Illinois.-THE Rev. J. J. Lehnen preached and administered the Holy Supper to the German New Church Society in Quincy, Illinois, on February 25th.
     THE young ladies connected with Rev. Mr. Mercer's Church, in Chicago, have formed a "Young Ladies' Auxiliary Society," the purpose of which is to "cultivate a spirit of charity" and to "promote among its members an active interest in the work of the Church."
     THE Young Folks' Club of the Immanuel Church, in Chicago, is conducting a manuscript paper of its own, entitled The Genius, of a character analogous to that of The Budget of the Young Folks' Club of the Advent Society in Philadelphia.
     IN Henry, Illinois a Young People's Association has lately been formed in connection with the New Church for "mental, moral, and religions improvement."
     Michigan.-IN connection with the Michigan Association, an organization has been formed and incorporated under the laws of the State as "The Corporation of the Michigan Association of the New Jerusalem."
     Wisconsin.-THE Rev. S. H. Spencer preached to an audience of about sixty on his quarterly visit to the New Church Society in Jefferson, Wisconsin, on the first Sunday of April.

     ABROAD.

     Great Britain.-A FUNENAL sermon, bearing on the loss of the New Church Society in Bettes, near Whitefield, by the removal into the spiritual world-of its Pastor, the Rev. James Boys, was preached on March 7th in the temple of that Society.
     AN interesting meeting was held by the New Church Society in Kensington for the purpose of welcoming the Rev. Mr. Childs as the Assistant Pastor of the Rev. Dr. Bayley, the aged Pastor of the Society.
     THE Rev. J. B. Boyle has been delivering a series of lectures in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, defending the New Church against the slanders and misrepresentations that have lately been publicly set forth by an Episcopal minister of that city.
     AT a meeting on March 24th of the South London Alliance of New Church Society, Mr. Anderson Hanson the Secretary of the English New Church Temperance Society, urged on the members the necessity of adopting total abstinence and vegetarian principles in order successfully to carry on the work of the Church.

     Sweden.-THE "liberal" party of the New Church in Sweden is making strenuous efforts to procure preachers of its own. For this purpose the members have advertised in the secular press of Sweden for candidates for the New Church Ministry. So far, however, without results. The party is decidedly opposed to the idea of sending young men "across the ocean" in order to obtain the education necessary for New Church ministers. Mr. Manby offers, through his paper, to give any one as good and thorough theological training as can be obtained anywhere abroad, having himself had experience as a New Church preacher for the period of one year.
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886




     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.





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NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI     PHILADELPHIA, JUNE, 1886=116-117.     No. 6.
     IN accordance with the movement which we inaugurated last year, we publish a sermon in commemoration of the event which took place on the 19th day of June in the year 1770. Small Churches and Reading Circles that are without a minister, and also isolated New Churchmen, will thus have an opportunity to join in the celebration of the event. (T. C. R. 791.) The one hundred and seventeenth year of the distinct establishment of the kingdom of the LORD begins with the 19th day of the current month.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THE Western Unitarian Conference, held at Cincinnati after a protracted struggle in which "faces grew tired and tense with the strain," "Resolved, That the Western Unitarian Conference conditions its fellowship on no dogmatic tests, but welcomes all who wish to join it to help establish truth and righteousness and love in the world." This is broad, very broad, and long too. (Why should not a man who is broad, be long as well?) No doubt the Anarchist who threw the bomb in Chicago not long since would affirm that his motive was to "help establish truth and righteousness and love in the world;" so without "dogmatic tests" he would be eligible for membership in the Western Conference by its own resolution. Indeed, it, would be difficult to find many men who were not eligible; but, when it came to defining terms! ! !
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THERE are certain good people calling themselves Liberals, who benignantly regard pretty much everything (not openly evil) in this world save those two venerable words "creed" and "dogma." These words have somewhat the same effect on them that a red flag has on the honest bull-we hold that the bull is honest, though somewhat dogmatic when the red rag is flaunted; he can see nothing but cause for anger in the rag. So it is with the Liberals; they rage against these two words. When all else fails, a Liberal speaker can always secure a round of applause by hurling his invective against "creeds and dogmas," and a Liberal writer seems to feel it his duty to wax ireful at them. Why? We do not know. The dictionary says that the word "creed" means A definite summary of what is believed; a brief exposition of important paints, as in religion, science, politics, etc.," and is derived from the Latin Credo-"I believe." From this it appears that those who denounce creeds put themselves in a rather ridiculous position. "I believe that all believing is wrong:" hence as they "believe," they are wrong: and hence believing is right. Thus the Liberals run in the old logical circle: Epimenides says all Cretans are liars; but Epimenides is a Cretan; therefore and so on. A dogma, in brief, is "a tenet; a doctrine is not the condemning of dogmas a liberal dogma? It seems to us that the outcry against these two words is rather palpably foolish.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     SPEAKING of religious bodies, the Christian Register asks: "What is the chief purpose for which they exist?" and italicizes its answer, "It is for the perfection of character." It goes on to say that Unitarians must organize "not upon creeds, dogmas, traditions, or rituals, but simply upon the practical recognition of this supreme object." "Let Unitarians heed the lesson of the times." Individualism is a failure in religion as in socialism. Organic union is necessary . . . for the development of character." Now let us query a bit: Suppose a man from outer darkness knocks at the temple of Unitarianism, and asks, "What must I do to be perfected in character?" As an individual he is a failure, so he has come to the "organic" body, that eschews creeds, dogmas, and all such remnants of the Dark Ages, to be perfected. How is that body to do this work? If it lays down fixed rules for this poor individual, the spectre of Dogma at once starts up, at which all good Unitarians boggle: if not, how is his character to be perfected? Has the bright Register discovered a species of spiritual calisthenics by which the work can Be done without troubling the mind? Rome claims to do such work; and can it be possible that the circle is completed, and that the "advance guard" of liberality is entering the back door of Romanism?
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THERE is a trace of humor in the attitude of some of our brethren when in fancy they see a gruesome Ecclesiasticism looming in the future of the New Church. When well-to-do nineteenth century gentlemen, who believe that the Church is a something that is not an organization, fall to trembling at the thoughts of a hierarchy, one is tempted to think they are "making believe," as children do sometimes; for what power can priestcraft have over a Church that is made up of influx? It is to be hoped that this logical suggestion, cold though logic be in itself, will prove a nepenthe for our friends' fears. But are not those fears a sly make-believe, after all? Else whence comes the valor that nerves some of those fearful ones to face a whole Convention of Clergy? The smile this laic fear raises evolves into something much more pronounced at the sight of an ecclesiastic trembling at the thoughts of ecclesiasticism. Passing by several obvious reasons which show the groundlessness of this fear, let the revealed Truth that the slavery in which the world has heretofore been immersed is now removed, let that Truth put those idle fears to rest. If, however, those fears are not personal, but are purely rhetorical, is it not-in view of the truth just cited-a little unjust, not to say unchristianlike, for any one to endeavor to create an antagonism against any body of men who may be spending their time and money man effort to unite into one harmonious body those who rationally and thus freely hold the same faith?-the faith that the LORD alone is Master, and man in himself is nothing? May not this last, the most unpopular doctrine ever taught have something to do with the case? And can any teacher of this doctrine exalt himself, a mere man like his fellows? No; that doctrine is the death of self laudation and exaltation.

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AFTER THE SENDING OUT OF THE APOSTLES 1886

AFTER THE SENDING OUT OF THE APOSTLES       Rev. EUGENE J. E. SCERECK       1886

     "The LORD indeed, then, after having spoken unto them, was taken up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God."-Mark xvi, 19.

     THE HUMAN which the LORD assumed in the world, He by temptation-combats successively put off, and put on a Human from the Divine in Him, which is the Divine Human, until by the passion of the cross He fully united this Divine Human to the Essential Divine, and rose on the third day with His whole bed1, differently fr6m all men. In and with this substantial Divine body He sits enthroned in the Sun of the Spiritual World, and with omnipotent arm rules the Universe.
     In the words of the literal sense of our text: "He was taken up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God."
     The "hand" signifies power, for by it the body exercises its power. The forces of the body are also transferred to the hands and arms. (A. C. 9836) As the "hand" thus signifies power, the "right hand" signifies the greatest power. Predicated of the LORD, as in our text, it signifies His Omnipotence from Divine Good by Divine Truth. To "sit" signifies to remain in a state. To "sit on the right hand of God," therefore, signifies the Divine Omnipotence of the LORD to endure to eternity The LORD has omnipotence by the Human which He assumed in the world. By this He is in ultimates as in firsts, and by this He entered, destroyed, and subjugated the hells, and by this He redeemed both men and angels, and redeems them to eternity. (T. C. R. 186.)
     The LORD'S Divine Human is the Word, and it is by the Divine Truth from the Divine Good of the Word that the LORD redeems men. It was the LORD as the Word who came into the world to redeem men, and after having ultimated the Divine Truth in word and deed, returned into the glory which He had with the Father before the world was. And when in the fullness of time the faithlessness of the Church He had thus established rendered a second redemption necessary, He again came into the world, and after having fulfilled all things, and after having spoken all things, He again was taken into heaven and sat at the right hand of God.
     It is in its especial application to the Second Redemption, to the LORD'S Second Coming, that the words of our text are brought to our attention this month. In order that we may the better understand it thus, we must first revert to the Doctrine, even though much of it may seem unnecessary repetition.
     There is successive order and simultaneous order. In successive order the pure and perfect things appear above, and the less pure and perfect appear beneath. The three heavens are in successive order, one above the other, and in the higher heavens all things are pure and perfect, but in the lower ones all things are less pure and less perfect. Simultaneous order exists in the lower things, and fully in the lowest; for higher things let themselves down and repose in the order, which is called simultaneous, in which the pure and perfect things, which were higher, are in the midst or centre, and the less pure and perfect, which were lower, are in the peripheries. Hence it is that in ultimates all things are in their order which had existed in successive order.
     Now because all higher things repose themselves in the lowest in simultaneous order, it follows that in the ultimates of the Word, which are the sense of its letter, are all things of Divine Truth and Divine Good from their firsts. And since all things of Divine Truth and of Divine Good are together in their ultimate, which is the sense of the letter of the Word, it is plain that there is the power of Divine Truth, yea, the omnipotence of the LORD in saving man. For the LORD, when He operates, does not operate from firsts by mediates into ultimates, but from firsts by ultimates into mediates. Hence it is that the LORD in the Word is called the First and the Ultimate; and hence it is that the LORD assumed the Human, which in the world was Divine Truth or the Word, and that He glorified it even to the ultimates which are bones and flesh, for the end that He might operate from firsts by ultimates out of Himself, and not as before out of man.
     The power of the Word in the sense of the letter is the power of opening heaven, from which is effected communication and conjunction; and it is the power of combating against falses and evils, thus against the hells. The man who is in genuine truths from the sense of the letter of the Word in a moment, by intuition only and by an effort of the will, can cast down and dissipate all the diabolical crew, and their arts, in which they place their power, which are innumerable.
     Now because in the ultimate sense of the Word, which is called the sense of the letter, are all interiors, namely, the spiritual and celestial things which are in the Words of the three heavens together (for the things which are in the Word with the angels of the third heaven are in its inmosts, and the things which are in the Words of the angels of the lower heavens are in the midsts, and they are girded about by and inclosed in such things as exist in the nature of our world), the sense of the letter of our Word is from the former and the latter. Hence it may appear that the Divine Truth in the sense of the letter of our Word is in its fullness. That is called full which contains in itself all prior things even from the firsts, or all higher things even from the highest; the ultimate is what concludes them.
     The fullness of the Word is like a common vessel of marble, in which are innumerable smaller vessels of crystal, and in these innumerable ones of precious stones, in which and around which are the most delicious things of heaven; which are for those who from the Word perform noble uses. That the Word is such does not appear to man while he is in the world, but it appears to him while he becomes an angel.
     Since the Word in ultimates is such, it follows that it is not the Word before it is in this ultimate, thus before it is in the sense of the letter. Were it not in this sense of the letter, the Word would be like a temple in the air, and not on the earth, or like a man in flesh and not at the same time in bones.
     Because the Divine Truth in its ultimate is in its fullness and also in its power, for when it is in this, it is at the same time in all, therefore the LORD never operates except from firsts by ultimates, consequently in fullness; for He does not reform and regenerate man except by Truths in ultimates, which are natural. Since the LORD operates all things from firsts by ultimates, and in ultimates is in His power and in His fullness, therefore it pleased the LORD to assume the Human and to become Divine Truth, that is, the Word, and thus from Himself reduce to order all things of heaven and all things of hell, that is, perform the Last Judgment.
     This the LORD could do thoroughly from the Divine in Him, which was in Firsts by is Human, which was in ultimates and not from His presence or abiding-place in men of the Church as formerly for they had altogether fallen away from the truths and goods of the Word, in which the habitation of the LORD formerly was with men.

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This was the primary cause of the Advent of the LORD into the world, as also that He might make His Human Divine; for by this He put Himself into the power that He could keep all things of heaven and all things of hell in order to eternity. This is the meaning of the words of our text: "He sat on the right hand-of God." The "right hand of God" is Divine Omnipotence, and to "sit on the right hand" is to be in it through the Human.
     Divine Truth is what is called holy, but it is not holy before it is in its ultimate. Its ultimate is the Word in the sense of the letter, wherefore the Divine Truth there is called holy, and can be called the sanctuary. The reason is, that this sense contains and concludes all the holy things of heaven and the Church. It appears as if Divine Truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, were holy above the Divine Truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, which are natural, but the Divine Truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, are comparatively as in man the heart and longs. Were these not covered round about by ribs, and inclosed in the pleura and diaphragm, they would not make the breast, for without these integuments they could not perform their vital functions; nay, unless they were - connected with them by bonds. The spiritual things of the Word are like the breath of the lungs, its celestial things are like the systole and diastole of the heart, and its natural things are like the pleura, diaphragm, and ribs, with the moving fibres annexed, whereby motions are reciprocated.
     Moreover, the spiritual and celestial things of the Word are comparatively like the holy things of the Tabernacle, which were the table on which were the showbreads, the golden altar on which were incense, perfumes, and censer, then the lampstand with the lights, and still, more interiorly the cherubs; the propitiatory, and the, ark. All these were the holy things or the Jewish and Israelitish Church; but still, they could not be called holy and the sanctuary before they were covered about with curtains and veil or without those coverings they would have stood forth to the naked sky, exposed to showers and storms, to the birds of heaven and the wild beasts of the earth, and also to robbers, who would have violated, torn asunder, and dispersed them.
     So likewise would it be with the Divine Truths in the heavens, which are called spiritual and celestial, unless they were inclosed in the natural truths, such as are the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word.
     Natural truths, which are the truths of the sense of the letter of the Word, are not the very truths of heaven, but are their appearances, and appearances of truth cover about, inclose, and contain the truths of heaven, which are genuine truths, and cause them to be in connection and in order and cohere, like the cardiac and pulmonary things with their coverings and ribs; and when they are in connection and in order, then first they are holy and not before. This, the sense of the letter of our Word, causes by the appearances of truth, of which its ultimate consists, hence it is that this is the Divine Truth itself and the sanctuary.
     But he who separates the appearances of Truth from genuine truths, and calls them holy by and of themselves and not by and from the genuine truths, and together with this the sense of the letter, is greatly deceived. He separates them who sees only the sense of the letter and does not explore their understanding, as do those do not read the Word from Doctrine. (A. E. 1086-1088.)
     With this Doctrine clearly in mind, let us consider the subject of the LORD'S Second Coming. But first let us recall the Doctrine that man is the medium connecting heaven and earth. The sense of the letter of the Word can exist nowhere but in the hand of man, consequently the Truths of that sense can exist only there. When, therefore, we are taught that the Word is not the Word before it is in the ultimate, thus in the sense of the letter, we-are to understand that this must be in the mind of man. When charity had fully departed from the first Christian Church, the celestial an d spiritual things of the Word were altogether separated from the sense of its letter. The breast of the Gorand Man of the Church had been violently emptied of its contents, the heart and lungs. The Tabernacle was despoiled of its holy table and altar and candlestick and ark, and had become the unhallowed temple of the woman clothed in scarlet, the resort of satyrs and priapi. The Divine Truth was thus shorn of its power, as Samson had been shorn of his locks, and the LORD was no longer omnipotent to save man. For this reason it was necessary that He should again assume the Human and come into the world. For this purpose he prepared Swedenborg from his earliest infancy, manifested Himself before Him in Person, and spoke to him the words of Divine Truth. Thus Sweden org received in his understanding and published by the press the Doctrines of the New Church, which are the celestial and spiritual things of the Internal Sense of the Ward as far as adaptable to the human mind. In discharging the functions of his sacred office, Swedenborg, in the LORD'S hands, showed the intimate connection of the Internal Sense with the Sense of the Letter,-and thus was provided the means of giving to the Wards of the heavens their basis, continent, and firmament in the Word of earth. -
     This process was accompanied by similar manifestations as when the LORD came in Person the First Time to be the First and Ultimate: a judgment was executed during the Coming, and a Church established after it: was completed. The words of our text were fulfilled: "After He had spoken unto them, He was taken up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God." After the LORD had revealed the Divine Truth, had glorified the Word, the power of the Divine Truth on earth and in the heavens was re-established, for the LORD operates from Firsts by Ultimates into Mediates; the LORD'S Omnipotence in saving man was re-established, for salvation is effected solely by the Word; the holiness of the Word in the heavens and on earth was re-established by the re-establishment of the order and connection of the two.
     The words which the LORD had "spoken" unto the disciples, and which are referred to in our text, were: "Going into all the world, preach ye the Gospel-to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In My name they shall cast out demons; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." This is a general summary of all the LORD'S teachings and a brief exposition of the work He had Himself accomplished during His earth life, and contains in it in a summary the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem and of the life which its citizens are to lead.
     "After the LORD had spoken unto them, He was taken up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God, and they going forth preached everywhere the LORD co-operating and confirming the Word through subsequent signs.

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     Thus at his First Coming. Likewise it His Second Coming, when the LORn4iad done communing with the world through Swedenborg; when the crowning work of the Second Advent, the True Christian Religion, containing the Universal Theology of the New Church, had been finished, the LORD called together His twelve disciples who had followed Him in the world, and the day following He sent them into the universal Spiritual World to preach the Gospel that the LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST reigneth, whose kingdom will be for ages of ages. This was done in the month of June, on the 19th day, in the year 1770. Well may we, for whom the LORD in His Divine Mercy accomplished this Second Redemption, and for a second time glorified His Human of the Word, join with the chorus of the angels, and by daily reading His Word in the light of Hi? Doctrine, and conforming thereto in will and deed, express our hearty cooperation with them when they sing: "The Kingdoms of this world are become of our LORD and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever." Then shall we truly experience that "Happy are they who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb." Amen.
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     RE-ARRANGEMENT OF SCIENTIFICS.

     [CONTINUED.]

     IN the Treatise on the Divine Love ix, appended to the Apocalypse Explained, we read as follows:
     That the Divine Love is life itself, and that hence love with man is his life, many things testify, but the most distinguished of those testimonies is that the spirit of man is nothing but affection, and that hence man after death comes an affection; if he be an angel of heaven, an affection of good use, and if a spirit of hell, an affection of evil use. Hence it is that the whole heaven is distinguished into societies according to the genera and species of affections and in like manner hell according to opposites; therefore, whether we speak of affections or of societies in the Spiritual World, it is the same thing. By affections are meant the continuations and derivations of love. Love may be likened to a fountain, and affections to the streams flowing from it; or it may be compared to the heart, and the affections to the vessels thence derived and continued; and it is known that the vessels which convey the blood from the heart in every point resemble their heart, so as to be, as it were, its extensions; hence the circulations of the blood from the heart by the arteries, and from the arteries into the veins, and again into the heart. Such also are affections, for the are derived and continued from the love, and produce uses in form, and in them progress from the first of uses to their ultimates, and from these again they return to the love from which they are.
     From these things it is evident that affection in its essence is love, and that ass is love in its own form. Hence it results that the objects or ends of affections are uses, and that thence their subjects are uses, and that the forms themselves in which they exist are effects, which are their effigies in which they advance from the first end to the last, and from the last end to the first, and by which they perform their works, offices, and exercises. Who cannot see from these things that affection alone is not anything, and that it becomes something by being in a use; and that neither is the affection of use anything but an idea, unless it be in a form; and that the affection of use in a farm is nothing else than a potency; but that affection then first becomes something when it is in act? This [act] is the use itself which is meant, which in its essence is affection. Now, since affections are the essences of uses, and uses are their subjects, it follows that there ire as many affections as there are uses.-D. L. in A. E. ix.

     From this teaching it is evident that we can form no distinct and permanent idea of Divine Love and Wisdom, apart from Divine Use, which is Divine Act inasmuch as Love cannot rest nor Wisdom exist except in doing and acting. And inasmuch as Love, Wisdom and Use are the essentials of the Divine Man, the Creator Former; and Maker of all things, it is further evident that love, wisdom, and use make man into the image and according to the likeness of the Divine Man, and that these three together propagate man. Fructification, therefore, propagation, and prolification are from the influx of the Love, Wisdom, and Use of the LORD immediately into the souls of men, mediately into the souls of animals, and still more mediately into the inmost of vegetables; but they are effected in ultimates from the first, that is, from the Love of the LORD, which is one with the Use of the LORD. Wherefore, all things in the created universe are 2,rocreated and formed from Use as a first end, in use as a middle end or means, and for use as a last end or effect. (See C. L. 183; also n. 77.)
     And, further, since all things of the created universe exist for the sake of man, who is a recipient of spiritual life from the LORD, therefore is man a form of all uses, and all the uses of the created universe correspond to the uses of which man is a form. (See D. L. W. 298.)
     Proceeding on the basis of these fundamental truths, we remark-
     1st. That Life from the LORD comes into ultimate form only when it terminates in and is clothed with substances and matters corresponding to itself. When so clothed, Life is a use in ultimate fullness and completeness of form and actuality, from which it can again return into Itself. Men, animals, and vegetables are such forms of uses clothed in substances and matters, which, in their respective degrees, can receive the life proceeding from the LORD, look to their Creator and Preserver, and conjoin Him with His great works-that is to say, they are forms which He can cause to do these things. The sun, the atmospheres, and the earths are not forms of use in the same sense as those just mentioned. The ends of their existence are that they may be means to the ends or uses for which men, animals, and vegetables were created. They are forms of mediate use by which the other forms, of use are produced and continually effect the object of their creation. For uses, and, therefore, also, the forms of uses, ascend by degrees from the most ultimate to man, and by man to God the Creator, from Whom they are. Hence are uses in degrees, according to their more or less proximate relation to man, by whom they ascend to God the Creator. (See D. L. W. 65 to 68, 307, 308; H. H. 96; T. C. R. 694.)
     2d. That, from use as the very life of all things produced in form, there will be within them a something - corresponding to itself. Life is activity from the Divine, which is activity itself, and this cannot rest until it has fulfilled itself. Wherefore, along the whole line of its proceeding, life imparts from its activity to the Sun and atmospheres and substances of the whole Spiritual World and to the Natural Sun and atmospheres and substances and matters of the earth, a perpetual effort to do what life is doing-to produce uses in forms. From this conatus or effort so derived spiritual substances and natural substances and matters, in their several degrees, have within them a quality and ability to receive influx from the Divine and to produce uses, and by means of this effort, thus proper to the substances and matters of the Earth, it is that uses, which in the highest sense are ends of life from Love, take to themselves ultimate forms, in which they are like a soul in its body, and to all parts of which body they again impart the likeness of the whole, in this that they also are uses in forms.
     3d. The first effect resulting from this activity imparted to natural substances and matters as an effort or conatus is, as we are instructed, the production of vegetables from seeds; a second result is the germination of plants for the nutrition of animals; a third is the production of fruits, seeds, and plants for the nutrition of man.

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These, successive forms of use, proceeding from successively more interior efforts in the substances and matters of the earth, are all from life, which, inflowing into the property of substance called conatus or effort, produces in them changes and modifications, from which result forces which are called living forces, because they produce effects which are uses themselves in last forms. (A. C. 8603.) It is clear that the forces operative in such results are not in themselves living forces anymore than the effort from which they proceed is in itself a living, effort, inasmuch as they are proximately from the atmospheres of the natural sun, which are actuated by influx from the Sun of the Spiritual World. The living effort is in the use itself, in which is an end of the Divine Life, and the living force is in the atmospheres of the Spiritual Sun, which passes over by means of the natural sun and its atmospheres in the substances and matters of the earth that are actuated into ultimate forms and contain all prior principles in their order. (See D. L. W. 310, 313).
     If we rightly consider these teachings we shall discover how they gradually offer to us the principles and facts necessary to a re-arrangement of natural Scientifics. We observe that in all the forms, produced as above stated, there is an image of the Creation of the Universe. This may be seen by an examination of them in the three general divisions of Nature, representing the trinal order of all forms of use, and called the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms. In the Mineral Kingdom there are, first, substances and matters in least parts, second, substances and matters in their aggregations or masses, and, third, vegetable and animal dust, added to continual exhalations and evaporations from vegetables and animals. When actuated by the heat and light of the Sun, by means of the atmospheres of the earth, these substances and matters become productive, or there are created from and by them, by the; efforts and forces in them, uses in forms, or ends in effects. (See D. L. W. 313.)
     The very first production from these earths, or substances an matters, were seeds, or the beginnings of the forms of use of the next higher natural Kingdom. This production lay in the very nature of the effort proceeding from the Divine Influent Life, which necessarily effects an ascent from the lower to the higher. All the forces of life tend upward to their Source. For life is Love, and Love draws to itself all forms that can be actuated by its ends and fulfill its designs.
     And thus are we further instructed concerning the image of Creation that appears in the forms of uses in the Vegetable Kingdom, that as their first are seeds, so their ultimates are stems covered with bark, and that by the bark, which is the last of the stem, they tend again to seeds, which are their firsts. In the stems covered with hark there is an image of the globe covered with earths, from which uses are created and formed. Vegetations are effected by means of the barks or coverings of the roots, or by an upward tendency through them continued around the stems and branches toward the initiaments of fruits, and afterward by the fruits to the; sheds. There is thus a progressive formation from firsts to ultimates, and from ultimates again to firsts, and in all this progression is the end of producing fruits and seeds which are uses The heat, light, and atmospheres of the earth conduce nothing to this image of creation, but only the heat light and atmospheres of the Sun of the Spiritual World these bear that image in them, and clothe it with the forms of uses of the Vegetable Kingdom. The heat and light and atmospheres of the Natural World, as we are taught, only the seeds, keep their productions in a state of expansion, and induce upon them matters which fix them; but this they do not effect by means of forces from their sun, but by means of forces from the Spiritual Sun, by which they are perpetually impelled. The image of creation is spiritual, in order that it may appear and perform use in the Natural World, and stand fixed and endure, it must be materialized, that is to say, filled up with matters from that world. (See D. L. W. 314 and 315.)
     A similar image of Creation is seen in the forms of uses of the Animal Kingdom, as that the body is formed from seed in the ovum and womb, which is its ultimate, and that this when it grows up produces new seeds . . . . The seeds are the beginnings, the womb is like the earth, the state before birth is like the state of the seed in the earth when it puts forth a root; the state after birth until prolification is like the growth of the tree to the state of its fructification. Thus there is in the forms of animals also, a progression from firsts to ultimates, and from ultimates to firsts.
     In man there is a similar progression of love by wisdom to uses, and of the will by the understanding to acts, and of charity by faith, to works. The will and under- standing and charity and faith are the firsts, the acts and works are the ultimates, from which by means of the delights of uses there is effected a return to their firsts . . . . The delights of acts and words are what are called delights of use. A like progression exists in the most purely organical forms of man's affections and thoughts; in his brains are those stellar forms, which are called cineritious substances, from which go forth fibres by the medullary substance through the neck into the body, proceeding to the last things there, and from there returning to their firsts, by means of the blood- vessels. Similar to this is the progression of all affections and thoughts, which are changes and variations of the state of these forms and substances; for the fibres going forth from these forms or substances are comparatively like the atmospheres from the Spiritual Sun, which are the continents of heat and light; and acts from the body are like the things produced by the atmospheres from the earths, the delights of the uses of which return to the source from which they originate. (See D. L. W. 316, also T. C. R. 746.)
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
REPRESENTATIVES 1886

REPRESENTATIVES              1886

     III.

     IN the last quotation from the Doctrines, where occurs the teaching that "when the LORD came into the world He abrogated the Representatives, which all were external, and instituted a Church, all the things of which were to be internal," we are told, "thus the LORD shattered the figures and revealed the effigies themselves, as when one removes a veil or opens a door and causes the interiors not only to be seen, but also to be approached."
     The comparison with the removal of a veil is evidently taken from the literal sense of the Word. On turning to this, as explained in the Writings, a flood of light is thrown on the subject before us. The verse in Scripture reads: "And behold, the veil of the Temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom; and the earth did shake; and the rocks were rent (Matthew xxvii, 51; Mark xv, 38; Luke xxiii, 45.)

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     "That the veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, signifies that His Human became Divine, for within the veil was the Ark in which was the Testimony, and by the Testimony was signified the LORD as to the Divine Human. The veil signified the External of the Church, which was with the Jews and Israelites, which covered their eyes, that they might not see the LORD, and the Divine Truth or the Word in its light." (A. E. 400.)
     "That the veil of the Temple was rent signifies that the LORD entered into the Divine Itself, all appearances having been rent asunder, and that at the same time He opened the approach to the Divine Itself, by His Human made Divine." (A. C. 2576.)
     "By Jacob here [Gen. xxxvii, 32] is represented not only the Ancient Church, but also the Primitive; that is, the Christian in its beginning, because they are altogether the same as to internals, but they only differ as to externals. The Externals of the Ancient Church were all representative of the LORD and of the celestial and spiritual things of His Kingdom; that is, of love and charity, and hence of faith; hence of such things as are of the Christian Church; hence it is, when the externals which were of the Ancient Church and also of the Jewish, are evolved, and as it were unswathed, the Christian Church appears. This was also signified by that the veil in the Temple was rent in twain." (A. C. 4772.)
     It is very clear that the abolition of Representatives refers only to these used in the Church before the LORD'S Coming-which partly because the LORD had not been glorified, and partly because the Church was in mere appearances and in falsities-obscured the knowledge of the LORD instead of emphasizing it. All representatives were not abolished because, as proven in previous numbers, there is nothing in the Natural World which does not in its way represent. "The Representatives, which all were external," were abolished, but not those which have an internal. By the Representatives in use in the Representative Churches men were led, as children are, by appearances, to think of things higher, and necessarily their thought thus formed was obscure. Now, in the True Christian Church, the Representatives are not to lead men to things higher, but they are to confirm and give body to them. They are to reflect the brilliancy and splendor of the wonderful Light that shines forth from the Divine Human of the LORD. They are to "excite internals," and to hold the externals of the minds of men "in sanctity that internals may inflow; beside that, man is thus imbued with cognitions and prepared to receive celestial things." (A. C. 1618.) Thus they are to embody, to confirm, and strengthen the good formed in the Church by the LORD'S work of salvation.
     These truly correspondential Representatives, which take the place of the Significatives or Representatives of the Ancient and Jewish Churches, are elsewhere in the Writings called Symbolicals. "The internals of the Christian Church are altogether similar to the internals of the Ancient Church, but other, externals succeeded, namely, in the place of sacrifices and such things, Symbolicals, from which, in like manner, the LORD is regarded, thus also internals and externals make one." (A. C. 1083.)
     In passing, take, as an illustration of such Symbolicals, one in use in all or most of our Churches. At the very beginning of the services the Word is taken from the ark, is placed upon the altar and opened. It is a simple act of external worship an effect corresponding to and therefore representing the internal sense of the officiating clergyman and of the Church. The Word is
To come before their minds and hearts, and is to be opened-that is, expounded as to its spiritual sense. This, then, is not a Representative which is merely external, but one which has a living internal It does not "cover our eyes that we might not see the LORD and the. Divine Truth or the Word in its light" (A. E. 400); but, on the contrary, by it "internals are excited," and by means of it "externals are held in sanctity that internals may inflow; besides, man is thus imbued with cognition, and is prepared to receive heavenly things." (A. C. 1618.) It "is in place of a foundation, on which the Internal may stand, and it is a receptacle into which the Internal may inflow." (A. C. 6299.)
     Of a like nature are all the Symbolicals or true Representatives of the True Christian Church. The two sacraments, however, still partake somewhat of the nature of the old Representatives or Significatives. They are types, not externals necessarily corresponding to the internal states of those to whom they are administered. The Doctrine concerning Baptism is unequivocal on this point: "Baptism is a sign and a memorial. . . . It does not confer faith nor salvation, but it testifies that they may receive faith, and that they may be saved if they are regenerated." (H. D. 206, 207.)
     The general Doctrine we have been considering is also taught in that other passage, from which Mr. Barrett quotes: "It is known that the LORD opened the interior of His Kingdom and of the Church, but still these internals were known to the Ancients; as, that man must be reborn in order to be able to enter into life; that then he must put off the old man; that is, the love of self and of the world, with their concupiscences, and put on the new one, that is, love to the neighbor and to God; then that heaven is in the regenerated one, and many other things which are internal. These things did they know who were of the Ancient Church, but they were led to them by externals, which were representative; but because such things were altogether lost with the Jewish nation, therefore the LORD taught them, but he abolished the Representatives themselves because the greatest part of them had respect to Himself, for the image vanishes when the effigy itself appears. Thus he established a new Church, which should not be led by Representatives to the internals, like the former, but which should know them without Representatives; and in place of them he enjoined only some externals, namely, Baptism and the Holy Supper-Baptism, in order that by they might keep regeneration in remembrance, and the Holy Supper, that by it they might keep in remembrance the LORD and His Love toward the whole human race, and the reciprocal of man toward Him. These things are said in order that it may be known that the internals of the Church, which the LORD taught, were known to the Ancients, but that with the Jewish Nation they were altogether lost, even to such an extent that they did not regard them otherwise than as falses." (A. C. 4904.)
     The real cause of the difference between the Church before the LORD'S Coming and after it, which enables us to understand the nature of the Representatives which were abolished, and of those which make up the Symbolicals of the Christian Church, was concisely stated in this passage as in the explanation of the rending of the veil.
     The Human had become Divine. Before this the Churches worshiped an invisible God; and could, therefore, not be conjoined with Him. Now that the Human was made Divine, the conditions of the Church were essentially changed. This is made very plain in the corollary to the chapter on, Redemption. (T. C. R. 109.)

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SPIRITUAL SIDE OF THE MATHEMATICS 1886

SPIRITUAL SIDE OF THE MATHEMATICS              1886

     "UBI tres medici, duo athei." This has been for a long time, perhaps even from the days of Galen and Hippocrates, an accusation brought against the medical profession, though now with less justice than before. Yet it is still urged against scientists in general, if not against those especially in the medical profession, and more particularly against those pursuing the exact sciences. Men would say now, "In any assemblage of mathematicians the vast majority will prove atheists." This being held as a fact, the aspersion is transferred from the men to the subject, and the exact sciences are traduced as vehicles of infidelity and of direct denial of the LORD. Unjust as this may be, it is but natural that the evil, be it greater or less, should be supposed to lurk in the profession rather than in the professor. This is no new notion. In bygone days it was thought that any one studying Hebrew would become a Jew. For the Jews were the Hebrew scholars per se, and by a reversion of the premises; a Hebrew scholar must be, or become, a Jew. We would endeavor here to show that whatever may be the possibilities, nay, even the probabilities, in the case of the study of the exact sciences, there exists no necessity for such a result, but that, on the contrary, such studies, properly undertaken and prosecuted, will lead to views of the LORD and His government that no other line of thought can ever give.
     Yet it must be admitted that there is danger here-danger not so much from the nature of the higher mathematics and their applied deductions, as from the end and method, of their study. This danger appears in two forms, each equally fatal to all true scientific investigations, and, above all, fatal to all true knowledge of the LORD, whom to know aright is the beginning and the end of all Wisdom.
     First, then, mathematical reasoning is precise and definite. It runs in regular sequence; each proposition depends upon a preceding, and is itself the antecedent of another consequent. No analysis so well represents a "chain" of reasoning as does the mathematical. Starting from an axiom, or some simple proposition or theorem, each link is not only joined to its neighbor links, but is the generatrix of the one following and the generated of the, one preceding. Thus the most intricate equation of the calculus is but a deduction from the simple truth or axiom that quantities, equal in their origin, remain equal after subsequent equal increase or decrease. So "Kepler's three laws, the formula expressive of the law (so called) of the motions of the heavenly bodies naturally follows from the demonstrated proposition that similar triangles have similar ratios between their component Parts.* Thus all the truths of mathematics follow in direct sequence, and are proved by the most rigid logic. A hypothesis may he used in such a demonstration, but only to show that it is not a guess but a fact; that it must be true, because every contrary supposition us necessarily false. In the method called "reductio ad absurdum," the logic may be said to go further than this. Not content with proving the essential truth of a theorem, it shows that anything except this has no foundation whatever. Hence from the usual standpoint, a mathematical proposition, if established at all, is a fact fixed, immutable, irrefragible.
     * That which is here said in regard to axioms and demonstrations must be taken in a restrictive sense, or rather in the mathematical sense of all such expressions, and when such terms are used, they must be strictly confined in their application to the especial subject in question. Before giving them an absolute interpretation, we must fully comprehend their meaning, as we may see presently.
     It is this absolute certainty which is the base of the old saying, "figures cannot lie." The disciples of Pythagoras, in the old times, were in the habit of referring every disputed point to the opinion of their master. "Ipse dixit," "he said it," was the ground of their syllogisms, the major and minor premise by which their conclusion was reached, and a reference to "figures"
nowadays seems to have this same power of an absolute determination. Hence the term, "a mathematical demonstration," has become a synonym for certainty. This is but natural, but it is a most dangerous principle. This is indeed a form of stark atheism, and also a system of false logic. For however true this may be in its application to matters within the scope of arithmetic and algebra, these axioms and demonstrations of mathematics have no application to things out of the region of these sciences. We are told that "the whole is equal to the sum of its parts." Very true in reference to measures of quantity and distance and mechanical energy, but what bearing has this on morals? Are two half-truths equal to one whole truth? Are any number of partial beliefs the same as the firm faith of the man who can say "I know"? Action and reaction are equal. True again in the case of elastic bodies, but does a man's love always prove the counterpart of his hate? How can a man "love Caesar, but Rome more," without a violation of this proposition so thoroughly demonstrated? Yet so dominant is the claim of the mathematical logic to be the logic of all genuine determination, that men often will believe nothing which is not susceptible of just this absolute form of demonstration. "Prove it," say they, meaning, "Show me the truth by arguments as unanswerable as the x and y of algebra, or the differentials and integrals of calculus-then we can believe; then we shall be sure, but not otherwise." How miserably this cramps all honest thought. What equation can teach us the soul's immortality? what series can resolve itself into a moral truth? We speak here from a purely material standpoint, looking only at the surface of things at the dead external, and not the living internal. Thus limiting our idea of what the exact sciences really are, and what their scope, science is far from star-eyed And the effect of such limitation, the exalting above all things else this method of proof, seems to close the spiritual eye and make the man incapable of seeing any other than a cold, naked, so-called fact. The habit it induces leads man to the natural, and to it only-and the earnest searcher for the truth, seeking the light from the use of such methods of investigation, will never get beyond it. A painter might as well seek his life models in the ghastliness of the morgue, for dead bodies and dead truths are akin, and while we know the diamond to be pure carbon, it is folly to seek it in a charcoal pit. But more than this remains. We have called this putting mathematical reasoning above all other forms atheism. Is this too harsh a term? Atheism means simply "without God," and this is the tendency of all unspiritualized mathematics. Noting this invariable sequence, of consequent from antecedent, men begin to think that - this has a self-creating power. They confuse cause and effect; they say, "This must be because it is." They use the "it" here, for the study of the sciences, as at present pursued, knows nothing beyond this neuter pronoun. Accustomed to see conclusion inevitably result from proposition, they attribute to the facts of mathematics a quiddity, as the old scholiasts called it, pertaining to themselves. State any proposition, say the common formula, that "the product of the sum and difference of two numbers is equal to the difference of their squares;" whether consciously or not, the mere mathematician accepts this generally without any reference to any antecedent cause.

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He would say it is so because so it is, in creative power in a form of words. Or he may go further, "It results from this or that problem of Euclid." But how then? Why is this causative problem true? A distinguished realist of our day has said that he sees in all matter the form and potency of life. And men such as we have mentioned go further, and attribute a most real potency to mere formula. The final cause of such facts they do not reach, and their catena is based upon the chaos of nothingness on which rests the Brahminical pyramid on which the world rests. In the beginning was voidness and emptiness and darkness; and such is there in the ending of any system of knowledge which puts anything in the place of Him who is the All.
     That there is such danger in the study of the exact sciences cannot be denied; the natural tendency of their pursuit is to the exaltation of the proprium, hence to the denial of the LORD. We say the tendency is in that direction, but not that the consequences are thus of necessity. The LORD forbid. On the contrary, we hold that there is no line of study which so prominently brings the LORD before us as the Wisdom of all things as do the maligned mathematics. We all know that good and evil are in equipoise; the better a thing may be if rightly used, the more evil it can be made if that good be perverted. Science, in itself so inert, nay, so dead, may burst into life by the Spirit of the LORD. To one who will only look behind the symbol at the thing symbolized, and in the effect see the cause, those exact sciences tell of an Infinite Wisdom, an Infinite Love, and Infinite Life. The glimpses we have here of the internal of science are but dim. Looking out on the far-off mountain tops in early day, we see nothing but mist; but the sun arises, and the pale gray becomes rosy, then lustrous with reflected light. Then the clouds lift, and the hill-tops stand out bold and clear, and sharply defined in an atmosphere made self-luminous. All we need is to have the sun arise; all we want in any study is to see the LORD behind the words and phrases and signs and formula by which and in which we study. Tyre is indeed desolate; as a singing harlot she is consigned to oblivion in spite of her seeming exaltation; set, in the seventy years of the fullness of time, the LORD will visit her. Tyre, the Church as to knowledge of good and truth, has lost both the good and the true, because she has not sought the latter for the former's sake; even now she receives gladly the meretricious wages of the king of the earth, those falses of evil of the hells in rebellion against the LORD (A. C. 9954), and rejoicing in an intelligence from man, and not from the LORD. But the LORD, whose Name is the Merciful One, will return to her. Truth, however perverted, is, in its esse, Truth from the LORD. Knowledges of the true and the good are in themselves still knowledges of the true and the good in spite of their harlot-like attire of the evil and the false; thus in themselves they are Divine (A. C. 10570), and so will they appear when the Divine Light comes to them. Then mathematical, as all other truths, will be seen to be holiness to the LORD then science, looking up to the LORD as its only Wisdom, will be the means by which Egypt and Assyria and Israel meet as one in Him who is the One of all things; then all knowledge shall be, instead of the hire of pollution, a vehicle of Divine adoration; the filth of self-derived intelligence shall become the food of the tree of life, of whose fruit we may eat to satiety; the rags of self-righteousness shall be taken away, and     in the presence of the Only Wise LORD we shall wear the white robes of His kingdom, the garments which in Him were of old, and shall be to eternity.
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     Doctrina Celestial Extractada de Los Escritos de Manuel Swedenborg is the title of the first New Church publication in the Spanish language, issued some months ago by James Speirs, London.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Monatblatter of April, this year, contains an excellent article on "Authority in the New Church," from the pen of the Rev. F. Gorwitz. It is the first of a series of articles on the same subject.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE lectures by the Rev. Chauncey Giles on The Nature of Spirit and of Man as a Spiritual Being has been issued by the New Church Board of Publication in a sixth edition, the price of which has been reduced to 20 cents per copy from the former price of 60 cents.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     MR. George Leach a spiritist in Riverside, Cal., who also claims to be a New Churchman, has published An Open Letter to Mr. B. F. Barrett, expressing his sympathies with the latter in his warfare against "New Church Ecclesiasticism." He also communicates some interesting news from would-be spirits of defunct New Churchmen, among others from one assuming the name of Robert Hindmarsh, representing this venerable father of the Church as now being active in undoing what he established while on earth.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     The True Catholicism: Revealing the Breadth and Comprehensiveness of the New Christian Church is the title of a new work by Mr. B. F. Barrett, constituting No. 11 of the "New Church Popular Series," published by the Swedenborg Publishing Association in Philadelphia. The sentiments of the book are very well expressed by the title: they are mere repetitions of Mr. Barrett's old opinions on the relation of the New Church to the Old, comprising the usual apologies for Trinitarians and Unitarians as being virtually of the New Church, in spite of their belief in three Gods or no God; the usual attacks on the New
Church in its external form as being the LORD'S only Church upon earth. We find nothing new in the book worthy of mention, except, perhaps, a newly adopted expression of Mr. Barrett's in speaking of the Doctrines of the New Church as being "divinely authorized."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Det Nya Jerusalem och dess Himruelska Lara [The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, as revealed from Heaven through Emanuel Swedenborg]. American New Church Tract Publication Society, Philadelphia, 1886.
     This is the first of the Writings published in the Swedish language in this country, and is intended for distribution as well here as in Sweden. The translation is made by one of the students of the Academy of the New Church, Mr. C. T. Odhner, and the expenses have been, for the greatest part, defrayed from the interests of the Chillicothe fund. The book us in the pocket-edition, printed on good paper and handsomely bound. The edition being intended mainly for evangelizati6n work, the references to the Arcana Coelestia at the end of the chapters have been left out. At the end of the book is printed a complete list in chronological order of the inspired Writings of the New Church. The price per copy is 15 cents. Orders may be sent to the
     Scandinavian New Church Missionary Society," 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     "THE American New Church Printing and Publishing Society" presents a very interesting annual report in the Messenger for May 19th, from which we gather the following items:

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     The total expenditures of the Society during the past year amounted to seven thousand six hundred and thirty-four dollars, and thirty-six cents, the net income, three thousand eight, hundred and seventy dollars and ninety-
eight cents.
     The amount spent during the year on the republication of the Latin works was four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars and forty-five cents. These works are now completed and offered for sale. They are: Apocalypsia Revelata, 2 vols; Apocalypsis Explicata, 6 vols.; De Charitate, Coronis, Canones, De Nova Hierosolyma, and Indices to the missing work on Marriage. (These five smaller treaties bound in one volume, or separately.)
     The next works the Society contemplates for republication in the Latin are: The Four Leading Doctrines and Conjugial Love. Even dollar received from the sales of the works already published will go toward the publication of the other works. The sale of forty sets will insure the reprinting of the Four Leading Doctrines.
     During the coming year the Society expects to publish a cheap edition of the new translation of Divine Love and Wisdom, a translation of the smaller work appended to Apocalypse Explained, viz.: On Divine Love, On Divine Wisdom and on The Athanasian Creed, and on the Lord, besides translations of some smaller works in the Icelandic, Dutch, and Spanish languages. It has also in preparation a translation by Dr. S. H. Worcester of his great Index to the Apocalypsis Explicata.
APOCALYPSIS EXPLICATA 1886

APOCALYPSIS EXPLICATA              1886

APOCALYSIS EXPLICATA SECUNDUM SENSUM SPIRITUALEM ubi revelantur Arcana, quae ibi praerdicta et hactenus recondita fuerunt. Opus Posthumum EMANUELIS SWEDENBORGII. New York: American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing society, MDCCCLXXXV.
     THE Latin republication of this important work has at length been completed, and presented to the Church in the form of six elegant volumes in royal 8vo. A noble undertaking, carefully prepared and becomingly executed, it does well-deserved credit both to the editor, the Rev. Dr. S. H. Worcester, and to the publishers, The American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society.     The publication of the present edition of the Apocalypse Explained, was begun more than a year ago, but, after two volumes had been issued, it was delayed on account of some serious mistakes in the plates, which have now been corrected. The Swedenborg Society expresses its desire to have all copies of the two volumes first issued returned to it, to be exchanged for corrected ones.
     Swedenborg drafted two manuscript copies of, this work. The first was presented by his heirs to the Academy of Science in Stockholm. The second, which bears the inscription Londini, 1759, on the title-page, and was, as it seems, prepared by Swedenborg for publication, was brought by August Nordenskold to London, and after an adventurous existence it came into the possession of the Swedenborg Society, which body ultimately returned it to the Swedish Academy of Science, where it legally belonged. This MS. was published in four quarto volumes, by Robert Hindmarsh, in London, 1785-1789, republished, in part, by Dr. J. F. Im. Tafel, in Tübingen, 1861-1862, and photolithographed by Dr. Rudolph L. Tafel, in Stockholm, 1870. It is from this photo-lithograph copy that Dr. Worcester prepared the present republication of Apocalypsis Explicata, adding to it Nos. 1230 1231, 1232, together with the Contents of the single verses of Chapters xix and. xx," found as fragments at the end of the first MS. copy, and never before published the second MS. copy ending at No. 1229.
      Although a critical examination of this edition would not be out of place, Dr. Worcester's linguistic scholarship, minute, painstaking exactness, and reverential spirit, inspires confidence that the work is as perfect as human means can make it. A very convenient improvement on the former editions consists in the divisions of the longer numbers into shorter articles, which are indicated by letters adjoined to the numbers. Reference to the work is thus rendered far more easy. Slips of the pen, etc., have been carefully corrected and noted, but a mistake has, we believe, been committed by the editor, when doing this, by substituting the word "Patmos" for "Parmos" as Swedenborg everywhere writes it in the exposition, and this, it seems, intentionally. Slips of the pen, no doubt, occur in the manuscript, but we believe that the utmost conservatism should be followed in correcting these, in order that we may not mistake as mechanical errors expressions embodying internal principles.
     The fifth volume contains the Continuatio DE DIVINO AMORE ET DE DIVINA SAPIENTIA and Continuatio DE ATHANASII SYMBOLO tumquoque DE DOMINO, the former furnished with an Index Rerum. The sixth volume consists of INDEX RERUM in Apocalypsis Explicata tum INDEX LOCORUM SCRIPTURAE SACRAE, noticed from time to time in the Life. The Index Rerum, in this new form, opens, as it were, a new, immeasurably rich field to the student of the Divine Writings, and is unparalleled by any work of the same kind hitherto published in the Church.
     As a whole, the republication of the Apocalypsis Explicata is the most important literary work performed in the Church for a number of years. On account of the scarcity of the original Latin edition and of the English translation, this work has for a long time been almost unknown to the Church in general and out of the reach of many of her clergy and teachers. To the growing interest in the study of the Writings of the Church this publication will furnish fresh material and a new stimulus, as it will add largely to the resources of students, pastors, and instructors in the preparation for the faithful performance of their respective duties.
     As yet, comparatively few in the Church appear to appreciate the use and necessity of this work of the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society. Very few copies of the Latin Reprints, hitherto published, have as yet been sold, and we fear the Apocalypsis Explicata will meet with the same cold reception by the Church. The use, how ever, is not a temporary one, but will be appreciated more and more as the New Church grows into the conviction that the Writings are the Internal Sense of the Word, revealed by the LORD to His Church, that all Divine Truth and the only Divine Truth among men is in them and from them, and that this can be acquired by the men of the Church only by their faithful, untiring application and study of these Writings, which can be done more thoroughly in the language in which they were written. The work of republishing the Writings in the original Latin is, there fore, worthy of the greatest encouragement from those who acknowledge this principle.
     The price of the six volumes of the Apocalypsis Explicata, bound in half leather, is fifteen dollars; the same, in paper covers, twelve dollars, postpaid. Orders may be sent to the Academy Book-room, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Journal of the General Church of Pennsylvania contains the Instrument of Organization of that body. The Minutes with the speeches cover thirty one pages, and the Addresses and Reports thirty-five pages.

90


EXPERIENCE 1886

EXPERIENCE              1886




     Fiction
     BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELEANOR."

     CHAPTER II.

     JUST here the writer begs of the courteous reader permission to step forth and say a few words for himself. Perhaps what he wishes to say more properly belongs to a preface, but then he is of that class that know what they wanted to say a good deal clearer after they have said it than before, of the class whose best things come to them as they wend their way homeward. The writer neglected to put in a word for himself in the beginning, and so he does it now.
     This little story, or tale, or whatever it is, is not a sermon. Now that that assertion is committed to paper, It looks about as sensible as though it were: this story is not an encyclopaedia; but let it go. Again, and perhaps this is as ridiculous a negative as the former, it is not an attempt to picture an ideal New Church Society; neither is it a satire on any existing Society. Furthermore-and here, gentle reader, pay close attention, please-the writer positively and truthfully affirms there has been no attempt to draw characters from real life;, every one of them is absolutely impersonal. Does he catch a sly twinkle in your eye as you read this? Does he hear: "Good sir, your characters have such an abundant lack of life-likeness that your weighty denial is needless"?
     If, on the contrary, he has succeeded in his attempt to make his people live, their life is not a local one, but is the life of us all, as common in the New Church of one place as of another. The greater part of fiction is take up, and rightly, too, perhaps, with lofty virtues or soul-swaying vices; but why should petty weaknesses and little every-day virtues be passed unnoticed? Indeed, our life for good or evil is mostly commonplace, so let our little gatherings of friends in these papers squabble and make up without reproach; and if we can catch a fleeting lesson or two from them perhaps it will not be the less valued for not coming at us didactically.
     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

     THE trees and plants that grew so profusely on Barton Street were donning their green bravery; turning branches lately stiff and bare into emerald plumes; the flowers were sending broadcast their delicate perfumes and lighting the scene with prismatic colors; the air, on this brilliant spring morning, seemed charted with a warm, new life, and an apathist indeed must have been the man who could not feel it. Samuel Gray was not of that nature, and he felt an unusual elasticity and fullness of life as he walked, though his steps were loitering, as though loth to leave the quiet street, where now he lived, for the noisy ways of traffic. He was overtaken in his slow walk by the brisk Mr. Hammertin.
     "Taking it easy, I see," called out that gentleman. "Good-morning; delightful weather, isn't it?"
     Mr. Gray assented to this, and between them they agreed that the spring was a remarkable one, as perhaps all men have done since first they began to speak about the seasons. This being settled, Mr. Hammertin, who was something of a wag, remarked: "This sort of a morning reminds me of Tennyson's line, that 'In the spring a young man s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.' What is your opinion?"
     Mr. Hammertin was an observant man, and, as he expressed it, "knew how the land lay" with the various young people in the Society. To his question Sam replied: "As a rule, Tennyson is very accurate in his observance of nature and humanity, but it seems to me that young men are as apt to fall in love in one season as another; I really cannot see that the time of rear has much, if any, influence on them in this matter.
     Mr. Gray's tone was so thoughtful that the sly look faded from Mr. Hammertin's face, and he said slowly,
     "And yet," continued Sam, reflectively, "there seems to be some foundation for the sentiment. We know that spring is the season of active life in nature, and love is life. But then, again, it is always spring-time in heaven, so that may account for the fact that man, in this respect, is not governed by the seasons."
     Mr. Hammertin cast a side glance at his companion, as though he searched for a covert meaning; then he made another attempt at badinage.
     "You hold, then, that the seasons cannot affect you in that respect, eh?"
     "No more than other men," was the reply. "Excuse the question: Is not Mrs. Hammertin as dear to you in the winter or autumn as in the spring?"
     "Oh! ah! yes, to be sure. Well, my way lies out this street. Good-morning. Call around and see us soon."
     Mr. Hammertin pursued his way With an undefined, feeling of failure, mingled with some curiosity as to Mr. Gray's character. His good-natured banter of young men when in certain states usually brought a responsive flush or some token of stirred feeling. Sam, he had fancied, would be a particularly good subject for his banter, because he seemed so unusually quiet and mild; but somehow his attempt had failed, and he was curious, because he fancied he had felt in that trivial interchange-the presence of a strong man where he had looked for a weak one. He had gone but a short distance when he met Will Sensity, a young man about Sam's age.
     "Good-morning, Billy, he said, shaking hands. "I just met our new member a minute ago: fine young man."
     "He is that 1" replied Will, heartily.
     a welcome addition to our circle. We were discussing Tennyson's well-known line about young men turning their thoughts to love in the spring-time, and he maintained that they are in as much danger of losing their hearts in one season as another. What is your opinion?"
     The young man felt himself growing red in the face, and the more desperately he struggled to look calm the redder he grew, and he lamely answered: "I haven't thought of it."
     "No? You surprise me! Well, think it over. Goodbye. Miss Mattie is well, I hope?"
     Then he went his way smiling, as a successful man, while Mr. Sensity went his frowning, and feeling that he had failed in protecting something that was very dear to him. He was angry at himself and at the man from whom he had just parted. He walked rapidly, and, turning down Barton Street, soon overtook the leisurely Mr. Gray. The two greeted each other, and, after a moody silence, Will said "I met that old Hammertin just around the corner."
"He just parted from me. We walked a short distance together." replied Sam.
     "What do you think of him?"
     "Really, I have never given him any special thought He is a good New Churchman, so I think well of him for that, at any rate."

91



     Will viciously kicked a bit of orange-peel from the pavement.
     "Oh! yes, he is sound enough, but he is a- I think that there is room for improvement in him."
     "He would be more than mortal if there were not."
     "Always trying to talk smart," grumbled Will, "and getting off some Tennyson stuff. You know how I feel toward Mattie; well, he is always hinting about that."
     "The subject is a pleasant one for you, at any rate."
     "Of course it is, but I do not want him to talk about it."
     "Why not tell him of your objections, then; I am sure that he would refrain if you did." Will turned and looked at the speaker half angrily. It is said that a diplomat once mystified all the courts of Christendom by speaking the truth, and though the story is probably a fiction, there is a certain subtle point to it, for oft the putting into words of a self-evident fact has a tendency to mystify us and sometimes to offend; but perhaps there is a dash of: sophistry in it, too, as in the present instance. Will knew that to follow Sam's suggestion would certainly result in causing Mr. Hammertin to desist from- further remarks; but, perhaps, he did not see that that simple course would be a virtual defeat and confession of weakness, which no man cares to admit. He finally said:
     "I wish our people would learn to mind their own business, and quit meddling with others."
     "Does their meddling cause trouble between you and Miss Stanard?"
     "No, it doesn't make any trouble," he replied, slowly, "but," briskly, "a young gentleman can't look at a young lady in our society without some one reporting that he is in love with her."
     Sam smiled at this hyperbole, and said: "At any rate, none of them are prompted by malice; and I'm sure all wish each young couple happiness."
     "Well, let them wait until people are engaged then."
     "Yes; that would be the better way.     There is no use in losing one's temper at a pleasant remark now and then."
     "I didn't lose my temper," exclaimed the other, hotly. I only want men like old Hammertin to let me alone in such matters. It isn't good breeding to be always trying to poke fun at people."
     Here the two were joined by a lad who carried his school-books under his arm. After a bit Will Sensity said to the lad, in a knowing tone: "I say, Arthur, I heard something about you the other day."
     What did you hear?" asked the boy, looking up quickly.
     "Never mind; I've got a good one on you."
     "No, you haven't! What is it? Tell me, Will," said the boy, anxiously.
     But Mr. Sensity merely laughed in a knowing manner, and then, his road lying in a different direction, parted from his companions.
     "What did he mean, Mr. Gray?" asked the boy.
     "I do not know," replied Sam. "Cannot you imagine to what he refers?
     "No; I have not done anything."
     "Then, if I were you, I should think no more about it."
     "He is always saying hateful things I wish he would learn to mind his own affairs and let me alone. Sam did not condole the boy nor talk down if the term be allowable to him he merely changed the subject, and talked to him as to an equal. When they parted the boy somewhat eagerly shook hands with him
     As Mr. Gray walked home that evening he glanced at the windows of the house where Miss Armand lived, but the lace curtains were down and he saw no one, though-
     After supper-it was "supper," not dinner yet, on Barton Street-he sat for a. time with Mr. and Mrs. Bantley in their parlor; the converse was about the members of the society. Said Mrs. Bantley:
     "Now, there is Carris Armand; she is a very showy girl, and many think that she is pretty. Do you think that she is pretty, Mr. Gray?"
     "Yes, very," replied that mild spoken young man.
     "Do you? Well, it is natural for tastes to differ. For my part, I do not think she is half so pretty as Mattie Stanard, or even Sarah Graham. Carrie is too-I hardly know what-not haughty, but sort of uppishlike; kind of airish. And the way she wears her hair! Why, it is a perfect brush heap." (Mr. Gray admired that hair very much, but from his nature, or was it training? he listened in silence.) "I don't mean to say a word against her, for she is a nice girl; but still think it is a mistake to bring up girls the way she has been. In my young days girls were taught to work and fitted to become good wives. I believe if Carrie were put into a kitchen she wouldn't know what to do any more than a baby. When I called there the other day we got to talking about housework, and she said she would never do kitchen work until she had to, and between us, I don't believe she ever did a stroke in her life. Now, that is all wrong, for we are taught that we should love our work."
     Perhaps that isn't Carrie's work, and if so, she has no call to love it," suggested Mr. Bantley.
     "Nonsense!" was her reply; "it's every woman's work."
     A minute or so of silence elapsed after this last remark, which was broken by Sam asking, in his habitual, mild way:
     "Mrs. Bantley, do you love to do kitchen work?"
     Something that sounded like the nipping of an incipient laugh came from the darkness where Mr. Bantley sat, and his wife, in the light that came in through the open window, shot a quick and suspicious glance in the direction of the- speaker before she replied.
     "Well, I can't say that I especially dote in it, but I can do it; can't I, Ephraim?" this to her husband.
     "Yes, indeed;" was his dutiful reply. "I remember the neat kitchen you and I used to sit in when we were a young couple, and build castles of the time when we would have a nice parlor of our own, gained by our united labors. Those were good old times."
     "Yes, indeed, they were," said his wife, "and they don't bring up girls that way now. Could you"-this to Sam-"fancy Carrie Armand slaving in a hot kitchen?"
     "I might do so, but I do not wish to," he replied. "But do you really regard such work as slavery, Mrs. Bantley?"
     "Of course not," she replied; a little tartly, for she did not relish the logic concealed in the young man's questions. "I merely used the word 'slaving' because that is, well, it is slavery to some women."
     "Come, wife," said Mr. Bantley, "you mustn't be too hard on the girls. Carrie will be a famous housekeeper, I'll warrant, when her time comes."
     "I am not hard on her but I do believe that girls ought to be taught to keep house properly"
     "More of the wash tub and less of the piano eh?" said her husband, laughing and his wife replied good humoredly:
     "That's just the way with you men, you are all taken by a pretty face."

92



     "That's what I was once taken with, and I was right then," replied her husband, and, under cover of this good sentiment, Sam arose and, remarking that he would "take a little stroll," he left the house.
     "I knew it! I told you so!" exclaimed Mrs. Bantley, as she peeped out of the window. "Yes, there he goes; across the street, and down the other side. I knew it!"
     "Mrs. B., what on earth are you talking about?" asked her husband.
     "Mr. Gray. He is going down to see Carrie."
     "Shows his good taste."
     "Men are such simpletons," said she, sitting down again. "There are a dozen girls in the Society who would make better wives than she."
     "As it concerns him only, I don't see why we should get excited."-
     "Ephraim, I am not excited, but I do dislike to see a young man throw himself away."
     "Wife, that is rather strong language."
     "It isn't a bit stronger than it ought to be. All that girl ever does is to lounge around and eat candy. You don't know her; men never do know what girls are."
     "Perhaps not, but, as I said before, our young aristocrat is the one to be suited, not us."
     "Aristocrat! he isn't a bit aristocratic. When he first applied I was almost afraid to take him, for those West Brownstone Avenue people put on such airs. But he doesn't act or talk as though he considered himself a bit better than any one else."
     "It may be that your definition of aristocracy is a little-wrong," answered her husband.
     She did not heed this comment, but, after a musing pause, said: "I hope that he will get the right sort of wife." He was her only boarder, and as there were no children about the house, she took a decided interest in his welfare.
     As Mrs. Bantley had said, Sam was strolling in the direction of Miss Armand's residence. As he passed the house he noticed one curtain looped back, and in the dim light he saw the outline of one whom he knew. He half stopped, and then resumed his walk, as that one did not move; but when a little past the house he returned and rang the bell. The door was opened by Miss Armand, and her greeting was very pleasant to him, and be retained her white hand the smallest moment longer than was absolutely necessary. She was very pretty; her apparel was dainty, and conveyed the idea of an absence of angularity or any harshness. She led the way into the parlor, and again took her place by the window, a little back, while he sat opposite.
     "Why did you hesitate about stopping?" she asked.
     "I do not know," he replied, after a slight pause.
     "I believe I should have cherished malice had you not I had been, sitting here for half an hour, and was dying of loneliness. You see, I do not like my own society His reply was an affirmative silence, and then she said: "You are hot a bit complimentary."
     "You mean that I should have said that I could not see how any one could be lonely in your society?"
     "Yes, something like that-something neat and epigrammatic. Do you never pay compliments?"
     "Compliments? I don't know: no I think not."
     "Never say those nice, sweet things that girls do so love? He remained silent. "Excuse the question," she resumed, "why do you not?
     "I have not thought much about it," he replied.
     "How remiss you have been!" The faint touch of irony or mockery which this young lady at times was guilty of however reprehensible it may be under stern analysis was rather agreeable to Sam. He saw, or at least fancied he saw, that it was but a veil that thinly concealed a true woman; of one rather too scornful, perhaps, of all shams and little affectations.
     "If one is remiss," he answered, "when neglecting to tell a lady that she is pretty and agreeable when she is blessed with those qualities, is he not equally so when he fails to tell her of opposites?"
     "How severely proper! How many opportunities you miss for making girls happy by your lack of discrimination."
     "Quite a number of young ladies have told me that they 'detested' compliments."
     "And, of course, you knew better?"
     "No; I was rather uncertain."
     "Have a care, sir!" said she, in a warning tone; and then: "What is your rule with disagreeable people?"
     "To avoid them as much as possible."
     "Would it not be better to frankly tell them of their faults?" She was playing with the tassel of the curtain, and as he did not at once reply she went on: "You must know that I have many bad habits, and several friends have come to me lately and frankly told me of them; they said they were prompted solely by a desire for my good. Is not, then, your policy of avoidance wrong? Should you not warn others?"
     "That depends a little on circumstances; but in general I think we serve our friends better by subduing our own bad habits."
     Then he added: "I could not help the triteness in my reply."
     "No, I suppose not." She laughed a little after making this remark. "That sounded rather sarcastic, didn't it? but I did not mean it to be so. You think we ought to be examples?"
     "That, from you, sounds more like sarcasm than the others"
     "Well, why shouldn't we strive to be examples? Many good, people and great writers and poets tell us that we ought."
     "Are you quite sure you are asking that for information?"
     "Don't, Mr. Gray, fall into the habit of asking counter questions."
     "Briefly, then," he replied, "we shouldn't try to be an example, because to do so we must believe ourselves to be better than our friends. There are times, of course, when it is one's duty to warn and counsel. I often lecture my young brother Dick."
     "Do you? How I should like to hear you lecturing some one. Give me a round lecture now." He merely looked at her in silence, where she reclined in her easy chair idly swinging the tassel. "I need one; I do indeed. We are housecleaning now and I have been kitchen girl all day. Mother generally helps me at such times, but she had a bad headache, so I have been cooking and dishwashing until I am rather tired, and you know when one is weary she sees her evils more readily than at other times."
     "Does she?"
     "Certainly; therefore, I am in a good state for a frank lecture."
     "I do not think you need one."
     "That is perilously near a compliment."
     "Perhaps you did not catch my meaning Your assertion that you need a 'lecture,' as you term it shows that you see wherein you need improvement, and what more is wanted?"
     "Alas! how mistaken I was; instead of verbal sugar pills you tender me the bitter draught; 'you see your evils, now conquer them.'"

93



     "Do you really love compliments, Miss Arinand?" he asked, casting a curious glance at her.
     "How can you ask such a question! Do not young men know that girls live on them?"
     His reply was prevented by a ring at the door-bell. Miss Armand went to the door and soon returned with a number of young people, members of the Society. There was a great deal of laughing and talking, and then she wished her visitors to be seated. Miss Dorothy Wood, a small and rather pretty young girl, took the chair by the window, and Mr. Foster, pushing an ottoman near her, sat down and said, "Dolly, behold me humbly at your feet!"
     Miss Sarah Graham sat on a sofa with one arm around Miss Armand's waist, and ever and anon kissed her.
     "What a waste of sweets!" said Mr. Foster, seeing this.
     Mr. Doty sat near Sam, and Mr. Minden, after looking about the room, came and, dropping into the corner of the sofa on which Miss Armand sat, said, as he crossed his legs, "May I sit here?"
     "Certainly," she replied; "but," glancing at him, "the question seems rather superfluous."
     "You wouldn't be so cruel as to banish me, would you?" he lazily replied, and she cast a sidelong glance at Sam, but he did not seem to be aware of it or its cause. After awhile Mr. Minden asked Miss Armand to sing, and she replied:
     "Please excuse me this evening, for really I do not feel like singing."
     "But you must, dear, I'm just dying to hear you," said Miss Graham, giving her another kiss.
     "You must not disappoint us," said Mr. Minden. "I'll go and get out your music."
     "No," she replied, "please excuse me tonight." But several of her visitors insisted and coaxed her, and Miss Graham said to Sam:
     "Won't you help us?" Sam shook his head. "Why won't you?" she asked.
     "Because Miss Armand asked to be excused."
     The matter was pressed no further, and soon Mr. Doty arose and, sauntering to the piano, sat down and began to pick out a tune with one finger. After ten minutes of this discord Mr. Foster called out, "I say, Doty, your music is very fine, but we have had enough of it for one night." Then Mr. Doty, drawing one finger the length of the keys, arose with a laugh an resumed his seat, and said to Miss Graham: "Didn't you enjoy my music?"
     "Was it music?" she replied. "How mistaken I was!"
     "Sarah, you weren't mistaken," spoke up Mr. Minden, who had been contemplating his foot as he slightly tossed it up and down.
     "I say I was," replied that young lady.
     "No, you misused the word, for to be 'mistaken' means to be misunderstood."
     "Sarah!" said Mr. Foster, holding up one finger, how often must you be corrected!"
     At this Mr. Minden spoke again: "Foster, 'often' isn't pronounced of-ten, but of'n.'
     "It isn't," said Miss Graham, tartly, but she wasn't heard.
     "Why don't some one stop that horrid critic," exclaimed little Miss Dolly, from the depths of her big chair.
     Mr. Minden smiled, and promptly replied: "Dolly, 'don't' is a contraction of 'do not,' therefore you have just said 'why do not some one stop that horrid critic.'"
     At this Dolly pretended to faint, and Miss Armand stole another glance at Sam; she was a little sensitive on the subject of "manners," and he was the latest comer in the set; she often lamented the lack of "polish" in her companions, yet had she been able to detect a superior smirk on his face at this moment she would have been offended, but she saw nothing of the sort; he was watching Dolly playing the fainting lady, and even suggested "burnt feathers," whereat she came to. Mr. Doty now held up one hand, and said:
     "Please, Mr. Schoolmaster, isn't it time for recess?" All laughed at this except Mr. Minden, who gravely replied: "Aint it right to correct one another's little inelegancies when there is no one present but ourselves? I think it is the duty of New Churchmen to preserve our language in its purity. Isn't that your opinion, Mr. Gray?"
     "Excuse me?" replied Sam, who, when spoken to, had been engaged in giving Dolly some advice regarding remedies for fainting fits. Mr. Minden repeated his question, and Sam replied: "Yes, pure language is a very desirable thing."
     "By the way, Mr. Minden," said Mr. Foster, innocently, "what is aint a contraction of?"
     At this Miss Graham laughed, and Mr. Minden, flushing slightly, replied: "Well, I'm willing to acknowledge that I was mistaken in that, and am glad you called my attention to it."
     Miss Graham's laugh was again heard, as she said: "Mr. Minden, surely you were not mistaken; indeed, I think we understood you perfectly."
     "Better give it up, Minden," said Mr. Foster; "this crowd is incorrigible." Miss Armand faintly shrugged her shoulders at this word; the others laughed, and soon the conversation was changed.
     About ten o'clock the visitors arose, and, after much leave-taking and talking, departed in a body, all but Sam, who stood for a few minutes on the door step as the others walked up the street.
     "What do you think of our 'crowd'?" asked Miss Armand, with a down-drooping mouth at this word.
     "I think very well of it, indeed."
     "How does it compare with the 'hollow' world-West Brownstone Avenue, for instance?"
     "The comparison, on the whole, is decidedly in favor of our friends who have just left us."
     "Indeed! Do our elegant manners and language prevail there?"
     "It is rather difficult to set a fixed standard for elegance."
     "Yes?"
     "My cousin, David Brown, says that every one has a lurking conceit that one's self is the true standard."
     "Rather cynical in Mr. Brown."
     "It does sound a little that way. In language it is, of course, easier to have a standard."
     "Especially when one is blessed with a Mr. Minden."
     "He has evidently been reading Alfred Ayre's Verbalist lately."
     "But why is the comparison with the world in our favor?-are we more refined?"
     "We have the Divine Truth."
     "Well?"
     "That Truth alone can refine. Without it there may be a high degree of polish, but no refinement in the real sense of the word."
     "Yes, I suppose that is true," she replied, with a little sigh, and then bid him good-night.
      [TO BE CONTINUED]
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Index of the missing work on Marriage, translated the Rev. S. H. Worcester, will be ready for sale soon.

94


PROGRESSIVE GOOSOCRACY 1886

PROGRESSIVE GOOSOCRACY              1886

     AS they stood under the wagon-shed on which a steadily falling summer rain was pattering, the Horse asked the Gray Goose how the new order of government was getting on. "You know," began the Gray Goose, "that our government is from the geese, by the geese, for the geese."
     "Yes?"
     "Now I think it is a pretty good form of government; but this is an age of unrest; old landmarks are being swept away, and new ideas are boiling up continually in our progressive flock. The latest of these is that the government must provide a comfortable living for every good. This is called 'goosmunism,' and is very popular. Now what puzzles me, an old goose, is this: The government is from, and therefore must be supported by, the geese, so how can it support the geese?"
      The Horse stood in silence, and the Gray Goose, after ducking his head a great many times, resumed: "I have given the Goosmunism Problem a great deal of thought; it has been much discussed in the flock, and it still remains a Burning Question and a Problem that must be solved. It looks to me like a lot of geese trying to lift themselves over a fence by taking hold of their own, feet."
     "It looks very much like it," replied the Horse; "still, if the majority so decide it must be right."
     "True, true, true," mused the Gray Goose, as he relapsed into silence, and stood with his friend watching the rain.
STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM 1886

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM              1886

     A STORY FOR CHILDREH.

     CHAPTER VI.

     AFTER recovering his Book, Tom resumed his journey much more soberly than before. Pretty soon he came to the ditch again; he looked down into it, and now he saw a number of snakes crawling along its bottom, and he shuddered as he noticed, not far below where he had fallen in, that the ditch was much deeper, and in place of mud had black, jagged rocks for its bed; had he fallen in there he would have lost his life. He looked into his Book to see if he could learn the cause of his fall, and he read:
     "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee."
     "Yes," said he to himself; "that was the trouble. I wanted to rule everything."
     Pretty soon he came, to a Stone-bridge on which he could safely cross the terrible Ditch of Pride. He stopped in the middle of the Bridge, and- leaning on the heavy coping looked down. Then he shook his head, as men often do when they think about some things through which they have come.
     "I fell into that place," said he to the Bridge, and he half expected it to show some surprise at this announcement; but it merely replied:
     "Nearly every one does."
      "They do!"
     "Yes; nearly all tumble in and soil themselves, and sometimes get killed."
     Tom passed on, uncertain whether he felt relieved to find that he was no worse than most people or disappointed that he was not so much of a hero after all; but the longer he dwelt on the subject the plainer it seemed to him that he had-done a great thing. He had been foolish, he had fallen and suffered; he had come out and washed himself clean again could any one have done more? could every one have done so much? No; most people falling as he had would have perished. Blissful revelation unfolding from his interiors! "I must be better than others!" Just here his interior self-glorying, received a check in a sight that met his downcast eyes. In his first wild rush his eyes and thoughts had been eagerly fixed on distant things, while now they were absorbed in a contemplation of his own neat merits. That which aroused him was this: a black, bottomless pit yawned at his feet; he was standing on its very brink, and the slightest touch would topple him over and send him whirling down, down into that awful blackness. Uttering a frightened shriek, he threw himself backward in the dust and groveled, all shaking and white, away from that pit. When far enough away to feel safe he took his Book, and opening it with trembling fingers he read:
     "Thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption."
     This time, when he arose and resumed his journey, there was no feeling of pride in his heart, for every time the thought of standing on the very edge of that unfathomed blackness came to him, he shook with terror. But in time this shuddering fear gave place to a humble trustfulness in the Power the Book told him of, which watched his footsteps.
     With this feeling he entered the most beautiful region he had ever seen; it was golden with sunshine-and aglow with flowers of every color, and the air was fragrant with their perfume. In such surroundings he met Lucy. In such surroundings, that seemed daily to burst into greater splendor, he and Lucy vowed to journey hence to ether. For many days their path was among the flowers, but in time these disappeared; but Tom did not miss them, for he fancied their spirit shone forth from. Lucy herself more truly beautiful than ever as their path grew rougher. There came a time when Lucy grew footsore and sick because of the rough road; then Tom carried her, and she was no burthen to him. When she grew well again he began to seek for gold, which was found in this rough land. So persistent was his search that his form seemed to grow bent and his face to wear an anxious look, so that Lucy at last told him that he was wearing himself out, and that he should not be so anxious.
     "Lucy "he replied, a little sadly, "I am hunting the gold for you."
     And when she told him that she would rather do with less and have him again his old self; he said:
     "Wait until I fill this hag. I know now where I can fill it at once."
     So he left her and went alone up a dark, crooked, and tangled ravine. He did not "waste time" now in talking with the flowers and other things he met. To reach his destination he had to climb a steep place where the rocks were wild and savage, and had pitfalls among them; but he was used to such places now and was very cautious. At last, hanging on to the cliff he found the coveted gold. He filled his hag, filled everything he had with him, and still there was more, and he wanted it all; at last, so burdened did he become, that he fell. His bag burst opened, and its contents went jingling into the gloomy pitfalls, and he felt himself scratched and torn by the savage Thorn-bush in which he had fallen. As he painfully extricated himself, the Thorn said:
     "Bah! I've caught you again."
     Bruised and bleeding, poor Tom sat down and buried his face in his hands, he felt like throwing himself into one of those black holes and "ending it all." But then he thought of Lucy, and as he did so he looked up and saw her coming toward him.

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Not a word did she say that was not tender, and Tom wept-not for his gold, but for some other reason. She bound up his hurts, and then she took him by the hand, and he arose, and they resumed their journey. Their way lay through a very desolate country, and often they were tired and near to fainting; but they held each other's hand, and neither complained, though their steps were very slow. Dry and arid their path stretched fore them, until one day they saw something afar off. Then they opened their true Book, and read:
     "Behold, a king shall reign in justice, and princes shall rule in judgment.
     "And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land."
     Joyfully they made their way and fell at the foot of that Great Rock, on the tender grass and beside the clear waters. Here, too, they sojourned in pence for a long time.
     One day Lucy said: "How strange it seems, Tom that your hair should be white as snow;, it was brown once."
     He replied: "We have come a long way, dear, since then."
     At last the time arrived for them to go. Their path led across the border of the land in which they had so long wandered-it led to their home. Hand in hand they arose, and in a low tone Tom repeated:
     "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Twill fear no evil; for Thou art with me."
STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM 1886

STRANGE ADVENTURES OF TOM              1886

     We can follow these two children no further. But we know when they entered that Valley, instead of gloom, a sevenfold light flooded around them; Lucy's beauty returned to her tenfold, and Tom's head was no longer bowed and white or his body bent.
     [THE END.]
EXPLANATION BY MR. BEAMAN 1886

EXPLANATION BY MR. BEAMAN       E. A. BEAMAN       1886

     Communicated.

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles which New Church Life is conducted or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]


     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-Some one has sent me the January number of your paper, containing the following under "Editorial Notes:"

     In the year 1877 the editor of the Messenger wrote: "The Writings do not contain infinite Truth." (Messenger, Oct. 31st.) "Swedenborg's Writings are not a revelation in any such sense [as the Word] . . . . They are not the Word, not the living Divine Truth thus clothed and adapted. No, infinitely far from it. This would make them Sacred Scriptures, would make them God's Writings, which they are not. . . . No further revelation seems necessary." (Ibid., March 14th.)
     Since then eight years have passed, years in which great changes have taken place in the Church, owing to the firm stand taken against the heresy [italics mine] of which the above was but one expression

     As the quotation stands, all receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines would probably say that it contains a heresy. But it is right that the readers of New Church Life should see how far the author [myself] of the article from which the words of the quotation were taken, and how far the editor of New Church Life, are each responsible for the "heresy." It is very easy to make a heresy out of good sound doctrine by a little change in the collocation of the words of the author, if this is ever justifiable, and whether it is justifiable let the reader judge.
     The reader will notice the sign of an ellipsis between the last sentence of the quotation and the main part of it. That ellipsis is the omission, not of a word or phrase, but of more than two paragraphs; and the sentence so separated is but a clause taken from its connection of qualifying clauses in the original article. Now this clause, namely, "No further revelation seems necessary," is substituted by the editor of New Church Life for the following sentence, namely, "There has been no need of any further 'revelation,'" a sentence in immediate context with the rest of the quotation. Now, if this sentence had been quoted, instead of the garbled substitute, the last two sentences of the quotation would have been:
     "This would make them [the Writings] Sacred Scriptures, would make them God's Writings, which they are not. There has been no need of any further 'revelation.'"
     This may seem to the hasty reader but an insignificant change. Why so much pains, then, taken by the editor to make it? Notice the word "revelation" in the sentence properly belonging to the context, in quotation marks. This means to the intelligent reader of the original article that there has been no need of any more Sacred Scripture; and none but the Academy would regard this as a heresy. But, by the substituted clause, the editor makes the author of -the article say, unqualiedly, no need of further revelation, which the author never said; for, with all other New Church people, he would regard this as, indeed, a heresy. It is perfectly plain from the context of each word in the original article that "revelation" means one thing, and revelation another and very different thing.
     Thus the editor of New Church Life has taken special pains to so arrange say words as to make them utter what all would call a heresy, and then himself has so called it, and told his readers that it is "but one expression," etc., implying other heresies, or other expressions of the same heresy.
     I have been made guilty of heresies in a similar way before, and it seems to me time for an explanation why some of my brethren have taken so much pains to make me appear in this role. Is it in accordance with genuine New Church life that a brother's language should be so manipulated by others as to misrepresent him?
     E. A. BEAMAN.
CINNCINNATI, O.


     UNLESS Mr. Beaman desires Newchurchmen to understand that he professes faith in the Writings as an immediate revelation of Divine Truth, written "by the LORD through Swedenborg,"-that they are the Word as to the Internal Sense,-and that they constitute the Second Coming of the LORD, we cannot see the object or the force of his "explanation."-EDITORS.
fashion of women wearing dead birds in their bonnets 1886

fashion of women wearing dead birds in their bonnets              1886

     THE periodicals of this country, both secular and religious, are unanimous in condemning the fashion of women wearing dead birds in their bonnets. It is estimated that thirty million birds are killed every year to supply the demand, and those killed are our rarest and most beautiful birds, too. Is the corpse of a bird on a woman's bonnet a thing of beauty? Can a dead bird retain its good correspondence?

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NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


     NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     A MONTHLY JOURNAL


TERMS:-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.
     Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

All communications must he addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia. Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, JUNE 1886=116-117.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, p. 81.-After the Sending Out of the Apostles (Sermon), p. 82.-Conversations on Education; p. 84.-Representatives, III, p. 85.-The Spiritual Side of the Mathematics, p. 87.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS.-Notes, p. 88.-Apocalpsis Explicata, p. 89.
     FICTION.-An Experience, Chap. II, p. 90.-Progressive Goosocracy, p. 95.-The Strange Adventures of Tom, chap. vi, p. 94.
     CONMUNICATED.-An Explanation by Mr. Beaman, p. 95.
     NEWS GLEANINGS. p. 96.
     BAPTISMS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, p. 96.
     AT HOME.

     The East.-Pennsylvania.-THE schools of the Academy of the New Church will close on Friday, June 11th.
     Mrs. S. De Charms Hibbard has resigned her position as teacher in the Academy Girls' School. She intends to go to France, on June 19th, to reside there for some time.
     THE Rev. Dr. J. R. Hibbard has resigned his office as Director of the Orphanage.
     THE German Missionary Union will meet in the House of Worship of the Advent Society of Philadelphia on Monday, June 21st.
     THE Rev. J. R. Hibbard has resigned his position as Coadjutor Bishop of the General Church.
     Rev. Richard de Charms has resigned his position as Head-master of the
Academy Boys' School. The Rev. Mr. Schreck has been appointed as his successor.
     THE pupils in the Academy Boys' School take a great interest in the Hebrew of the Word, and especially delight to sing it. By the desire of the Pastor of the Advent Society they sang Psalm cxviii, 21-24, in church en Easter Sunday.
     New York.-THE General Convention held A very useful and withal rather harmonious meeting. The sphere that prevailed was very pleasant, and to this the kindness, courtesy, and justice of the Vice President, who occupied the chair by far the greater part of the time, contributed not a little. Details will follow in the July issue.
     Massachusetts.-A GENERAL meeting was held in Boston on May 10th to consider the question of establishing a "New Church Mission" in that city.
     THE Reading Circle" in Massachusetts, under the supervision of the General Missionary, the Rev. G. F. Stearns, is studying the work on Heaven and Hell. The undertaking has so far met with encouraging interest among the isolated members
     The South.-Maryland.-AT the Easter services of the English New Church Society, in Baltimore, seventeen young persons, male and female.
     A NOVEL feature of the Washington Society "is the enrollment of children of isolated receivers within a certain radius of the city, as full members of the Sunday-school, They are assigned to certain teachers who either visit them or correspond with them.
     The West.-Ohio.-THE American Church Congress held its second annual meeting at Cleveland. The Rev. John Goddard and the Rev. L. P. Mercer are among its Vice-Presidents, and the Rev. Chauncey Giles is one of the Council.
     THE next meeting of the Ohio Association will be held in Toledo and will also be made a missionary occasion, as there are as yet but few receivers of the Doctrines in Toledo.
     BY unanimous request of the Monroe County Society, the Rev. A. Czerny will preach to them on Whitsunday (June 18th).
     Illinois.-THE Rev. A. J. Bartels, formerly pastor of the New Church Society in Monroe County, O. is now engaged in a similar capacity to the German New Church Society in Chicago, Ill., and is also doing general missionary work in Illinois.
     Colorado.-THE Rev. Richard de Charms has accepted a call to the Denver Society, to which he formerly ministered.
     California.-The New Church House of Worship at Riverside, San Bernardino County, Cal., was dedicated on Sunday, April 18th. This Society now numbers about thirty members.
     Canada.-THE Parkdale Society of the New Jerusalem Church organized on March 28th, with a membership of eighteen, under the ministerial care of the Rev. Mr. David. On May 26th the members and friends of the Parkdale Society gave a formal reception to their new minister and his wife. A bountiful repast was served at half-past seven p. m., followed by addresses, music, readings, and general conversation. Many of the Toronto friends were present. The meeting was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
     THE Rev. J. E. Bowers lectured recently at Lucknow, Ont., to an audience of eighty persons.
     Rev. B. D. Daniels has resigned the pastorate of the Toronto Society, as the climate affects his health seriously. The Society, which had resolved to engage him for two years further, will experience difficulty in obtaining as active a Pastor.

     ABROAD.

     Great Britain.-THE Rev. Isaiah Tansley, formerly pastor of the New Church Society in Besses-o'-the-Barn, has accepted a call by the Liverpool Society to fill the place formerly occupied by the Rev. J. R. Tilson.
     THE Rev. W. T. Stonestreet has been elected to fill the pastoral office in the Radcliffe New Church Society, left vacant by the removal of the Rev. J. Boys into the spiritual world.
     ANOTHER Society of the New Church in London has come into existence by the joining together of the Peckham Road and Bermondsey Societies into one body, entitled "The South London Alliance of New Church Societies," with the Rev. W. C. Barlow as pastor.
     THE Rev. Dr. Jonathan Bayley died on May 12th, in his seventy-sixth year.
     Sweden.-A New Church Reading Circle, after them model of the American ones, has seen formed also in Sweden. The first work to be studied is The Doctrine of the Sacred Scriptures.
     Austria.-SOME of the Vienna friends have issued a circular in which they invite a careful consideration of the Instrument of Organization of the General Church of Pennsylvania in comparison with the Constitution of the German Society of Germany. They are in fear of a hierarchy.
     Germany.-AN interesting New Church movement, in the capital of Germany, has lately been inaugurated by a Mr. Albert Artope, formerly of the military service, and for seven years a diligent student of the Writings. In 1886 this gentleman accepted a position as local missionary in Berlin, under the supervision of the Lutheran Church, hoping thereby to be enabled to spread the Doctrines of the New Church among the populace. In the beginning of this year, however, Mr. Artope began to be persecuted by the Lutheran authorities on account of his open opposition to their false doctrines, and this brought him publicly to announce his faith in the Second Coming of the LORD, in the Doctrines of the New Church, to resign from his former position, and to begin distinctively New Church preaching and evangelization work. A small New Church Society has consequently been formed, and a hall procured, in which Mr. Artop4 now preaches and lectures. It is to be hoped that the movement will be as successful and permanent as it has been zealously begun.
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886




     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.




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NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, JULY, 1886=116-117.     No. 7.
     IN his last "Letter" on spiritual subjects, the writer of them, at the solicitation of "friends who care more for the Academy's opinions than I do," returns again to the article on "Pseudo-Celestialism" contained in No. XIII of Words for the New Church. Upon the whole, he thinks the natural man is not altogether to blame. "The natural man can never be really better or wiser than he is until the celestial and spiritual forces of the Church have been brought to bear upon him in a living, orderly manner. The celestial man cannot evolve until the natural man is purified. The natural man cannot be purified until the celestial is really ready to evolve." Down topples another old dogma, and, alas! a loved one-freedom. We must wait until the "celestial" is ready to evolute. Perhaps this is not what the writer meant-that he teaches the contrary elsewhere could, perhaps (we have not gone into it), be easily proved. One trouble with those who instruct the world from the aspiring heights of latter-day celestialism is, that no one knows what they mean but themselves; and whether they understand themselves is one of those problems that no person can find out.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IF the writer of "Letters on Spiritual Subjects" is calm, it is otherwise with one of his followers-or, rather, defenders. In the same issue of the journal in which the "Letter" just mentioned appears, that gentleman be     comes excited. In order that the reproach of ill-chosen words may not be brought against us, we shall cull a few sentences that he hurls against ecclesiasticism in particular and the Academy in general. Many good people are inclined to regard this body as the peculiar heresiarch of the New Church, getting their notions from such communications as this gentleman writes, and forgetting that adjectives, while very good to relieve a writer's feelings, are not necessarily truths, nor arguments even.
     "It is a proud, arrogant, conceited, domineering, bitter, contemptuous spirit-a spirit altogether unlovely, exhaling none of the fragrant perfume of heaven, but realms below." It is "the same when it pours itself some of the worst and most offensive stenches of the printed sheet in false representations, dishonest criticism, and ironical sneers, as when it lighted the fires of Smithfield, murdered Michael Servetus, and gloated over the horrors of the Inquisition." "It was conspicuous in that 'select meeting' in London in 1787, of which Mr. Hindmarsh has told us;" "and, while this spirit is gradually . . . losing its malevolence and assuming a milder form, yet not a little of it still lingers in certain quarters, full of its original virus, and shedding its baleful influence on the tender shoots of the new and higher life." And he goes on to say that it is most conspicuous in the Academy, and later on asks:
      "Do these criticisms of the 'Academy' seem harsh or too severe?"
      Why, no, we cannot say, that they do. The paper, viewed as a whole, reminds us somewhat of the gentleman who stumbled over a stone, and then proceeded to remonstrate; though, indeed, that gentleman did not call his forcible declamation "criticism."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THIS critic-let the word stand-speaks of Dr. Holcombe as "a man of exceptional purity, honesty, integrity, frankness, sincerity, insight, and true nobleness of character." Omitting "insight," which is open to question, we hazard the assertion that no one will contradict this statement. The critic goes on: "Such is the man and such the writing against whom and against which the 'Academy of the New Church' vents its scorn and hate after the manner above quoted. And for what? Because Dr. Holcombe plainly repudiates the four distinguishing and self-originated planks in the Academy's platform."
     Really, we shall have to recall the word "critic," after all, and substitute our "excited brother," provided the gentleman will admit of brotherhood with those who "gloat over the horrors of the Inquisition" and sundry other unpleasant things. And now that we are digressing, let us go a little further. We boldly assert that should it so be that Dr. Holcombe were chained in the deepest dungeon neath the castle's moat, there is not a member of or sympathizer with the Academy that would not hasten down and strike off his chains; not to put him on the rack and "gloat," but to escort him to the banquet hall; and we will even go so far as to say that should he prefer cold water to something warmer after his damp dungeon no one would object; and in fancy we see him given a seat by the fireside and afterward shown to a bed as comfortable as the grim castle afforded. Now to our theme again.
     The Academy vents its scorn and hate on the Doctor because he repudiates the "planks" of its "platform"! Now, seriously, good sir, do not you think this is the result of an overheated fancy? Is this not a sheer "assumption," to use one of your favorite words? The Academy in Pseudo-Celestialism attacked Dr. Holcombe's teachings from the truth revealed in the Writings, and proved them to be false from that point of view. Dr. Holcombe cannot answer from the Writings, and "assumes" a higher revelation. You should practice a little of your lauded toleration and at least give the Academy credit for honesty of belief, even for your own sake, or when you publish that its motives, instead of being a conviction that Dr. Holcombe's teachings are harmful and that it is necessary for the welfare of the New Church that they be exposed, are mere "scorn and hate" because he refuses to accept its "planks," you are indulging in mere puerility.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     WHEN will men learn that flaming rhetoric is not argument nor an evidence of right and reason? The specimens quoted from the defender of Letters on Spiritual Subjects" prove nothing unless it be the state of the defender's mind while writing, and this has nothing to do with the question. Furthermore it would be we or certain writers to scan their own compositions before being so free in charging "assumption."

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The writer just alluded to frequently makes this charge, and yet he speaks of the Academy "shedding its baleful influence on the tender shoots of the new and higher life." As it happens that the nature of those "tender shoots," to use his own figure, is the very point under discussion, we think that we are justified in saying that this is about as plain an "assumption" as could well be cited.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IN a Chicago newspaper occurs the following: "The Lincoln Park Chapel, erected some years ago by the Swedenborgians, has been refitted for this parish, which will hereafter be known as All Saints' Church. The Bishop has granted all requisite authority," etc. This is the place where the flourishing Society built up by the Rev. W. F. Pendleton worshiped for so many years, and were at last turned out by the owners of the property-at is, by the other New Churchmen of Chicago-to give place for the Episcopalians. Perhaps the term "other New Churchmen" is too sweeping, for we believe a considerable majority of the Chicago Society were and are heartily ashamed of the action of their rulers-not "priest rulers" in this instance. The next time these ruling spirits wax mellifluent on the subject of brotherly love and sweet charity and toleration and Christian kindliness and kindred topics, we fancy there will be a smile on the faces of their readers. But, after all, we have no doubt but that there gentlemen thought they were doing right, thought that they were forwarding the establishment of the LORD'S New Church, by attempting to break up a Society where His Truth as revealed at His Second Coming was taught as He gave it, and giving the little temple into the bands of the Old Church. That they are sadly in error cannot be denied; but we prefer this view of their action to the alternative, which is, that the horrent adjectives they so continuously hurl at "priestly love of rule" really belong at home.
SERMON 1886

SERMON       REY. L. H. TAPEL       1886

     "Therefore, behold I will allure her and make her go into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart." Hosea ii, 14.

     OUR text speaks of the formation of a new Church at the end of the former Church, and of the conjunction of this new Church with the LORD, and of the happiness and peace thence resulting.
     The former state and thus the former Church is described by the simile of the faithless mother, the adulterous wife, even as in the Apocalypse the corrupt Church is called: "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and abominations upon the earth." This comparison is made because by those expressions is signified the falsification of truth and the adulteration of good. But the comparison, being a correspondence, is true in either sense; for the whole sphere of the Old Church, as of the unregenerate natural man, is one of scortation and of adultery, for these prevail in the so-called Christendom more than they ever before prevailed upon earth, and more than they prevail even at this day outside of Christendom and this is the direct result of the internal state of the perversion of good and truth This is meant by the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place and by the great affliction, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no, nor ever shall be. Concerning this we are taught of the LORD in the Writings that "the abomination of desolation signifies the falsification and deprivation of all truth, affliction signifies the state of the Church infested by evils and falses; and the Consummation of the Age concerning which these are said signifies the last time or the end of the Church. The end of the Church is now, because no truth is left, which has not been falsified, and the falsification of the truth is spiritual scortation, which acts as one with natural scortation, because they cohere." In these few words there is revealed to us from the LORD the cause of the universally reigning impurity at the present time, which is consuming all the remains of good and truth, and which even where external, bonds keep is from outward infernal acts is consuming and devouring the interiors, till nothing but a hollow shell of seeming outward morality and purity is left, while the hell of impurity rules within; even like the fruits which seem sound without, but are full of corruption and rottenness within.
     As to their minds all men are in the World of Spirits, between Heaven and Hell, surrounded by spirits who agree with them in internal character; from these spirits flow in the affections and thoughts of men by which they are impelled and guided in their actions and words. In the consummation of the Church, the spirits nearest to men are mostly evil, while good spirits are more distant. The state of the World of Spirits is on the whole very much like the state of this world, for it is continually recruited from the world and the spirits from hell who are there are such as agree with the internal character of men. Without this men could not live, for they could not act, yea, not even think or will, in agreement with their desires. Into the World of Spirits which surrounds us, there continually flows in from the LORD through Heaven a sphere of Conjugial Love which conjoins what is good and true in the minds of angels and of men; but on the other hand there rises from Hell the sphere of scortatory love; this arises from the unclean things of hell into which the delights of adulterous love are turned with the evil spirits of hell. These two opposite spheres meet in the World of Spirits and in this world, but being opposite they do not conjoin themselves, but repel each other. In the natural world these two spheres meet in the natural rational mind of man, which is midway with him between Heaven and hell. From within, from Heaven, there flows into it the marriage of good and truth, but from without, from the world, there flows in the marriage of the evil and the false. The rational man can therefore in all freedom turn himself either to the one love or the other, either to Heaven or to hell. If man turns himself to conjugial love, his rational man is formed more and more into the image and for the reception of Heaven, but if he turns to scortatory love his rational mind is formed more and more for the reception of hell. But at the end of the Church, the great majority of men are in the perversion of good and truth, and thus in the sphere of hell with all its impurity, and this sphere continually meets and assaults the Conjugial Sphere which flows from Heaven, and which is received in those few cases where the LORD is received at His Second Coming. True conjugial love flows from conjunction with the LORD JESUS CHRIST, and this conjunction can only take place in Christendom, in so far as He is acknowledged and obeyed from love and since this state at the end of the Church is so extremely rare, we are taught in the Writings that, when they were given, Love truly conjugial was so rare at that day that it was not known what it is and hardly that it is. There is no reason to think that that love is more frequent now, except with the few who are of the New Church; for we are taught, that "no others come into this love, but those who approach the LORD JESUS CHRIST, love the truths of the Church and do its goods;" and again, that "no others will appropriate to themselves that love, but they who will be received by the LORD into His Church, which is the New Jerusalem."

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     The continual assaults to which conjugial love in the New Church is exposed from the impure and infernal sphere prevailing in this world and in the World of Spirits, is seen from the description of the Draconic spheres in the other world. Concerning one of these spheres, we are taught that "it concerns the conjunction of faith and of charity, and is so strong that it cannot be resisted, but at this day it is execrable, and, like the plague, infects every one whom it breathes upon and tears apart every bond established from the creation of the World between these two media of salvation, which were restored by the LORD. This sphere invades also men in the natural world, and distinguishes the nuptial torches between goods and truths." And Swedenborg adds: "I have felt the sphere, and when I then thought of the conjunction of faith and charity, it interposed itself between them, and violently endeavored to separate them. Concerning these spheres the Angels complain to the LORD, but they receive for answer that they cannot be dissipated as long as the Dragon is upon the earth, for it comes from the Dragonists there." This powerful sphere which destroys the conjunction of good and truth is the same sphere that continually assaults the bonds of Conjugial Love upon earth, for internally considered Conjugial Love is the desire for conjunction of good and truth. Conjugial Love with the man of the New Church will continue to be assaulted and infested so long as the Dragon of faith alone remains upon the earth. Thence come the subtle falsities, whereby evil spirits are causing the destruction of unborn millions, and tear apart the holy bonds of wedlock, and degrade what ought to be a pure and holy union of souls to the mere gratification of selfish and sensual lusts Only a clear understanding of the infernal origin of all the means whereby selfish ease checks and destroys the increase of the Church and of Heaven, and a sincere willingness to be guided of the LORD, can enable the man of the Church to withstand the many temptations and infestations whereby hell seeks to destroy Conjugial Love and the increase of offspring. But these evils carry with them their own punishment: the more men ultimate these evils, the more quickly are they and their families cutoff from the earth. To such the LORD says: "The LORD has given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown." "And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she went after her lovers and forgot me, saith the LORD," the Baalim and lovers being the cupidities and falsities of the natural man.
     But of those who receive Him at His Second Coming, the LORD says: "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and speak unto her heart." The root of the word here translated, "allure" originally has the meaning of opening, and thence it signifies to flow in, influence, persuade, allure. The first thing needful is that the mind be opened to receive, the influx of the LORD, so that man may be persuaded and drawn to do what is right. This state is attained by giving ear to the LORD, and fighting against evil as being a sin against the LORD. By this means the mind is opened so that the LORD can flow in, persuade, and guide man. The first result is not, however; at once the attainment of the7 land of Canaan; the first state reached is the wilderness, a state of obscurity, the acknowledgment of the impotence of self, and that all good and truth, everything necessary to sustain man, comes from the LORD alone. This state is attained only by continued trials and temptations; for man at first is strongly persuaded that he is wise of himself and good of himself, and it is only through continued afflictions and trials that self-will and self-intelligence, and thus the whole proprium, are gradually subdued and broken so that the proprium submits itself to be taught and directed by the LORD. When the LOD opens man and draws him to himself, He first leads him to the wilderness, He allows him to be tempted and afflicted and tried, but He is ever with man in his trials and afflictions: "He speaks to the heart," He consoles man after his every trial, He gives him hope when he is downcast, and peaceful happy states follows after the storms of temptations. To speak to the heart signifies presence and influx in the will, and thence confidence and peace.
     This is also the course of the Church of the LORD with respect to Conjugial Love-the fundamental love of the Church. The man of the Church is not at once introduced into a full state of it; for it forms one of the peculiar characteristics of the heavenly state of Canaan and cannot therefore be attained until Canaan is conquered. The loves that oppose it, self-will, and self- intelligence must be first crushed and subdued, the natural man must learn to submit to the spiritual, before man can receive with any fullness this heavenly gift. Conjugial Love with man is always proportioned to man's wisdom, i. e., according to the state of the Church with him, and as this cannot be formed at once with man, but is formed gradually, so it is with his Conjugial Love. From being natural it gradually becomes spiritual and celestial, self-will and self-intelligence an a self-gratification being continually moved more and more to the circumference, and love to the LORD, mutual love, and heavenly Conjugial Love taking their place. The LORD leads man into the wilderness, and speaks to his heart: through temptations He delivers man from the rule of selfish and worldly loves, and as his internals are thereby opened, the LORD flows into the heart and gives man consolation.
     As it is with conjugial love so it is with love to the LORD with man; or the one sinks and rises, diminishes and increases, in exact proportion to the other. When love to the LORD and willingness to be led of Him abound, then conjugial love also is at its flood-tide. As self-love and love of the world cloud and obscure man's love to the LORD, so also conjugial love grows cold, for the presence of the LORD gives conjugial love. At the end of the Church man in general is in self-love, desirous of carrying out his own will, and an admirer of his own intelligence and wisdom, and in proportion as self is exalted, the LORD and the neighbor are little thought of and lightly esteemed. It is impossible to pass from this state to its opposite without passing through severe trials and temptations, for self will not be abased but through being disappointed and wearied and crushed. The misfortunes and diseases and calamities which cause men to doubt that there is a Divine Providence are the very means by which those that can be saved are saved, while others are thereby restrained from falling into worse evils. They are the wilderness into which the LORD causes man to go; but after his trials the LORD "speaketh to his heart." He flows in with His saving love, "and the wind ceaseth and there is a great calm." As man learns that he himself is nothing and the Divine is all in all, as he in humble self-abasement acknowledges his own unworthiness, "the LORD alone is exalted in that day." While man is in self-reliance and self-intelligence, he attributes all his success to his energy and intelligence; but when he sees that the LORD has all the world in His hand, and continually directs and permits everything for the eternal good of all, he ceases to exalt and worship self and exalts and worships the LORD alone.

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He then humbly acknowledges that it is the LORD who draws him out of hell, that it is the LORD who leads him in the wilderness, and that He it is who speaks to his heart, who comforts him with the joy and peace of His presence, now and evermore. Amen.
EGYPT, ASSYRIA, AND ISRAEL 1886

EGYPT, ASSYRIA, AND ISRAEL              1886

     THE three countries, Egypt, Assyria, and Israel or Canaan, represent respectively the knowledge of religious truth, the rational understanding of it, and the practice of it in a good life. At first we incorporate into our memory the doctrines of life, afterward we reason and philosophize concerning these doctrines, and at last we apply these doctrines to the regulation of our life.
     The commandments say, Thou shalt not covet; Thou shalt not steal; Thou shalt not commit adultery; Honor thy father and mother; and these rules of life are to be stored up in the memory as the first things of religious training. But when the precepts are thus lodged in the memory, it becomes an every-day duty to apply them as rules of life.
     In order to this we must reflect upon our conduct, and see in what particulars we break the commandments. Hence, we must examine our thoughts and explore our affections. Then we must come to the LORD, praying with the Psalmist-"Search me, O God! and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." (Ps. cxxxix, 28, 24.)
     He who is earnest to enter into life will be earnest and thorough in the examination of himself. His highest powers of thought, the most searching analysis of his understanding, will be brought into requisition. Day unto day the actions of his own life will thus be called to pass the ordeal of the Judgment-seat of his own mind. If the command be Thou shalt not covet, or, Thou shalt not commit adultery, the wrong emotion will be scrutinized as it comes forward in the mind, and it will be condemned as a sin against God before it is suffered to come out into any external act.
     The province of the mind, in the transactions and motives of life are brought into juxtaposition with the Divine law, is the Rational part, and it is represented in the Word by Assyria. But suppose that the reasoning powers of the mind are called into action for the purpose of setting aside the claims of duty, and effacing the compunctions of conscience, for the purpose of finding some apology for the evil deed which we have committed, or which we mean to commit, and in order to this, suppose that the Law is brought before the     mind, and when its force is felt, an effort is made to reason it down, and thus to silence the voice of conscience, then still, the province of the mind where these things-are done is the same, for it is done by the Reason; and, as before, it is represented by Assyria; and the work proposed is to falsify and profane the truth, and to depart from the source of life.
      The great life problem with all men is this: How to return to God?, How to know The will, and do it, and become consciously conjoined with Him in the blissful activities of His Life?
      Ways of escaping from Him are easily found. Arguments against His law, His Church, His Heaven, are easily found. With our back turned on the light, we can easily make headway in the dark. We can depart from God and die. But how to return to Him? How to find the LORD-how to live in His life, and become one with Him?
     To this problem we have the answer in the first duties of religion; these are so plain that he that runs may read. Religion is a thing of life; it is the life of God in the soul. All Religion has relation to the duties of life: and the life of religion is to do good. But in order to do good, the evil that obstructs the good in us must be removed. And in order to this, we must know what is evil and what is good; and all this we learn in the LORD'S Word. The commandments show us what evils we are to shun; and the LORD'S Sermon on the Mount shows us the spirit that must actuate our lives, in order that the kingdom of heaven may be established within us.
     As we dwell in rapture on the glories of the Word in sense, we must needs resort to the Word in the letter. We must read this great old Book in childlike simplicity.
     We must read the Word in the letter if we would feel it in its spiritual power. For in the letter it is in its fullness, its sanctity, and its power. We must come to these first forms of heavenly wisdom day unto day. We must bathe our souls in this ocean of Divine Truth. And if we are learned in the internal sense, the usefulness of the letter is only so much the greater. Consequently it is our duty to resort importunately to the Word; it is our duty to read it day by day, as the opportunity is given, that by it we may be consociated with heaven and conjoined with the LORD.
OLD OLD STORY 1886

OLD OLD STORY              1886

     No doubt all of our readers have heard of the Trojan War, and very likely the greater part of them know as much about that most famous of conflicts as we do. Yet it may not prove altogether uninteresting, even to those familiar with the subject, to skim it over again, for it is of perennial freshness. We shall draw no moral from the story, nor attempt any criticism, nor assume the guise of a profound learning which we do not possess. Our "Tale of Troy" shall be all borrowed, condensed, and as little prosy as we can make it. Our reason for writing of it is, first, that the Writings often mention mythology, and this tale of Troy is, so to speak, the keystone of the whole structure; all the heroes of mythology, or of what is perhaps pretty much the same thing, of the "heroic age," or their descendants, gather from the four quarters of the ancient world on the plains of Troy and from there scatter over Europe, Asia, and Africa. It seems to be the bridge between mythology and classical, and thence of modern literature: and this brings us to our second reason, which is to briefly outline this tale for the benefit of those of our readers who may never have had the opportunity of reading it for themselves. Now to the story.
     Peleus and Thetis     were to be married. Who these two were it is needless now to state, though should our present effort prove acceptable to our readers we may go into this and kindred matters further at some other time. All the gods were invited to be present at the nuptials save Erie, the goddess of Discord; she in revenge sent a golden apple-that famous "apple of discord"-labeled "For the fairest." Juno, Venus, and Minerva each claimed it. Jupiter was the judge, but his courage seems to have failed him, and he got out of his disagreeable position by referring the matter to Paris, a son of Priam, the king of Troy.

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Just here follows an opening for a moral, but we shall refrain. These three fair goddesses all tried to bribe Paris. Juno offered power and riches, Minerva glory and renown, and Venus the fairest woman for his wife. Paris yielded to the last bribe and awarded the apple to Venus, and thus made Juno and Minerva his enemies, and ultimately brought on the destruction of Troy.
     Helen, the wife of Menelaus, king of Sparta, was the fairest of women (in her day, of course), and, aided by Venus, Paris persuaded her to elope with him to Troy. Before her marriage she had been sought by numerous suitors, and they all took an oath at the suggestion of Ulysses, who was one of them, to abide by her decision, to defend her from all injury, and to avenge her if necessary. She chose Menelaus, and was living very happily with him when Paris, who came as a guest, persuaded her to elope.
     As Helen went of her own free will, one would think that the suitors w6re absolved from their oath, but it seems they were not; perhaps the ancients thought that women had no will of their own; though, indeed, their traditions and literature prove that if they did hold such a notion, they were very short-sighted.
     Be that as it may, Menelaus called upon the Greek chieftains to come forward, as they had sworn they would. Most of them came at once. But Ulysses, who, failing to get the fair Helen, had married a better woman, Penelope, did not wish to leave his wife and young son, Telemachus: so he played the madman, was detected, and then, like all those ancient worthies, went and did his duty among the bravest. Another reluctant one was Achilles, the bravest of the brave, the hero of heroes. He, when he heard the call, dressed himself as a woman, but the crafty Ulysses, who had just been detected in a little game of make-believe himself, soon detected the youth, and then he, too, went and performed wonders.
     This old tale has a fine contempt for the unities, for the "sort of dove-tailedness," as the dramatic critic in Nicholas Nickleby said. This is shown by the fact that Achilles was the son of Peleus and Thetis, at whose nuptials all the trouble originated, and we of this matter-of-fact age can hardly see how he could have been a suitor for the hand of a woman who was probably married before he was born. And again, it was Pyrrhus, a son of this very young Achilles, who a few years later, when the Greeks were sacking Troy, killed Priam, the old kin. Another analogous matter we might mention here. Helen was first married to Menelaus; for how long we do not know; then she was in Troy during the ten years war, and also during the years that the Greeks were getting together their famous expedition: another lapse of years and Ulysses in his famous wanderings sees her, still as fair as ever, living with her true husband again in Sparta. It may be that the wise ancients were loyal to their beauties even after they had gone far beyond their teens, or perhaps some of the immortal it of her brothers, Castor and Pullox, was shed on Helen.     
     Agamemnon, brother of the wronged Menelaus, and king of Mycene (by the way we moderns have recently been digging among the ruins of Mycenae, and have proved that such a place existed-and also, as usual, that it did not-our exploits rival those of the heroic age and will be regarded as mythological, perhaps, in three thousand years hence), was chosen leader of the Greeks. Among his chieftains were Achilles and Diomed, two fiery young heroes, Ajax, the greater and lesser, two mighty and brawny warriors; (it was the lesser Ajax, who after Troy defied the lightning or at least the lightning got the better of him), and Nestor and Ulysses, the wise and the crafty. These were the leading actors in the great war on the Grecian side. Opposed to them were Hector, Aeneas, Deiphobus, Glaucus, Sarpedon, Memnon, and other great heroes. In the fated city were Andromache, the wife of Hector; Cassandra the prophetess, Laocoon the priest, and others whose names have passed into literature or art.
     After two years' preparation the Greek forces and fleet assembled at a port in Boeotia. Here Agamemnon while out hunting killed a stag and by this act aroused the wrath of the goddess Diana, who brought a pestilence on the Greeks and a calm that prevented them from leaving the port. In order to appease her it was necessary that a virgin be sacrificed on her altar, and none other would do save the young daughter of Agamemnon himself. Her name was Iphigenia, and of her fate we are left in doubt; one story goes that at the last moment she was snatched away in a cloud by Diana, who made her a priestess in her temple at Tauris. Tennyson, in'his "Dream of Fair Women," gives the other story. It is Iphigenia speaking as she lies on the altar:

          Dimly I could descry
     The stern black-bearded kings with wolfish eyes
          Waiting to see me die.


     The tall masts quivered as they lay afloat,
          The temples and the people and the shore;
     One drew a sharp-

     It is a shuddery line: will not finish it. After Iphigenia was sacrificed-or saved-the fleet set sail. On arriving at their destination, the Trojans came out to meet the avengers, and the first to fall was Protesilaus, a Greek, killed by Hector. The war or siege continued for nine years, and then Achilles and Agamemnon had their quarrel, with which the great Iliad of Homer begins. But this, the greatest of poems, 'the "Greek Bible,' as it was sometimes called, is too long and too important to be sketched in this place.
     The burden of these nine years of fighting was borne chiefly by Achilles and his myrmidons, as they were called. From them we get our word "myrmidon," though we seem to have given it a rather evil turn. Their origin was in this manner: when AEncus was king of the island of Egina, Juno sent a horrible plague on the land-she was always making trouble somewhere. A deadly hot south wind prevailed, thick clouds settled down; thousands of snakes appeared, poisoning the water, and, in fine, everything perished-man and beast-save the luckless king and his family. Then King AEacus exclaimed, "O Jupiter! if thou art indeed my father, and art not ashamed of thy offspring, give me back my people, or take me also away!" He saw a swarming troop of busy ants, and added, "Give me, O father! citizens as numerous as these, and replenish my empty city." Then the King slept and dreamed that his petition had been granted, and when he awoke, "I went forth," he says. "I saw a multitude of men such as I had seen in my dream, and they were passing in procession in the same manner. While I gazed with wonder and delight they approached, and, kneeling, hailed me as their king. I called them Myrmidons from the ant (myrmex), from which they sprang."
     This, then, was the origin of the best of the Greek soldiers at Troy, and of one of our words.

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SOME QUESTIONS 1886

SOME QUESTIONS              1886

     WE should like to ask the gentlemen of the Missionary and Tract Society, and also of the Evidence Society of England, whether that change in the sentiment of the Churches around them is of such a character as to lead men nearer to the acknowledgment that our LORD JESUS CHRIST in His Divine Humanity is the Creator, Sustainer, and Preserver of the universe-Jehovah? Whether the admission that Swedenborg's influence has been widespread and beneficial, or that there is much in his doctrines with which "I am in sympathy" brings the one making the admission any nearer to the central doctrine of the New Church, without which all else is naught? May not this change, and there is undoubted one going on, be merely one that makes it easier (in one sense) for us to be New Churchmen; that is, that the Churches are coming to believe less in what they profess, and hence more tolerant toward us, and less prone to be fierce and bitter? That this supposition is true, is proved in a manner by the fact that in none of the favorable letters published on either side of the Atlantic is the supreme Doctrine of the New Church declared.
     It would be very pleasant to believe that the Churches were rising toward the truth-very. But our belief or disbelief in this matter does not in the least affect the truth of the matter; neither does the affirmative make us broad-minded men, nor the negative, bigots. It is, after all, a mere question of fact, and we think our optimistic brethren are led to erroneous conclusions by the habit of viewing men as a whole; the habit acquired from the world's literature of speaking of "the broad river of thought," "the march of civilization," "the movement of thought," "the resistless sweep," of this, that, or the other thing-any reader will recognize the style to which we are referring. This sort of thing sounds very well, but, after all, what does it mean? Does not the man who writes or steaks in this manner unknowingly view men as brothers do stocks or shares, which advance or decline in a body? And yet one man may be advancing and nine declining, or the reverse, but who the one or the nine are, the LORD alone knows.
     What does that term, "the movement of thought," mean? We all know that we can send a telegraph message to almost any part of the world; this is in one sense a movement of thought, but who of us, aside from the telegraph operators, know any more of the little machine than does an African savage? We are fond of vaguely pointing to the accumulated "masses of learning"-as though it were merchandise-yet when we honestly look at our own mass we see that it isn't a very large pile after all; and, small as it is, the greater part of it is mere hearsay. And this brings us back to those letters and the question: What facts can be unquestionably drawn from them? None, save the negative fact that not one of them acknowledges the central Doctrine of the New Church. Is it honest, then, from such premises to delude ourselves and others into the belief that the Churches are rising toward the New Church?
     It may be asked then: Should we abandon all work? Not at all, but we should abandon the habit of deceiving ourselves, for it does no good. And furthermore; to revert to a subject that some may think is worn thread-bare, but is not, we should look more to our, children, and less to the world, for our increase.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     BOUND copies of New. Church Life, for 1885, $1.25, free of postage.
HIDDEN WATERS 1886

HIDDEN WATERS              1886

     NOT long since we had occasion to go some distance from civilization, as one might say, over wide, treeless plains into the mountains. It was a long journey and a peculiar one. Our way lay over a rolling prairie, with the mountains as our goal, so clear and distinct in the translucent air, but the road itself considered as a landscape was dreary enough. It was the height of the dry season; there had been no rain for many months, and the fields showed how much they needed water in their parched appearance, while the wheels of our vehicle and the hoofs of our horses raised such clouds of choking dust that we could hardly see anything about us. Vegetation seemed at an end: we could see where it had been in the dry and withered stalks of sage bushes and the universal tar-weed, but as a general thing there was no fresh verdure whatever. This, too, on ground at times covered with vegetation. The contrast to what it was when we first saw it, after the copious rains of February, and the parching aridity of September, was striking and suggestive, as we thought that water was all that was needed to make this dried-up and withered mesa a second Carmel in the luxuriance of semi-tropical foliage and flowers.
     Such was the general aspect of the country, yet it was not without exceptions. Once in a while the eye would catch something like an emerald ribbon waving over the plain. The dry stalks of the sage would be hidden by the dark green of the live oak, and the contorted, impish-looking stems of the cholla cactus, with its buds of thorns and flowers of spikes, would be put out of sight by the graceful boughs of the sumach. Driving across these ribbons of verdure, we could see a sparse growth of grasses and wild flowers, and the monotonous quiet of the desert-like, dusty plains would be changed for the voice of birds without number making their home in these oaks. But why this change? The barrenness had been cursed by drought-where was the water to develop the plant life? None was to be seen. We had come many miles without any water for ourselves or our horses, and we knew that the trees we saw could not live without it. We had crossed dry-footed what some few months since we had forded as a swift, rushing stream-almost a river-yet now it was only a sand bank covered with loose granite boulders. Again we wondered whence came the water, and we found it was just there, underground, held in the soil as in a sponge ready for use when needed. The surface was dry, to be sure, but below this was the moisture, kept from evaporation by the soil above it. Thus the streams were subterranean. The river had become an "arroyo," that is, a dry water bed, to all appearance, but it had only sunken into the ground, and the sand and the clay retained it there. This would explain why the eucalyptus and the dwarf willow gr6w healthily on the banks of this river of rock and dust. The waters were there, though hidden.
     How vividly this suggested certain phases of our spiritual life! Our souls near the water of truth: they cannot live without it, they must have it or die.' But when we seek it, it would seem to us that we fail to find it.     We, as it were, see nothing, know nothing, feel nothing. Evil spirits, who live in the false, ask of us, "What is Truth?" And our tempted and tried souls almost say that we know of none. Certainly, we see none. We had been living in the Garden of the LORD, but our Eden has become a desert. We feel that the water has vanished from the sea; that the river is dried up and has disappeared; that the reeds and the tender grass is parched; that all growth at the source, or the course, or the mouth of the river is dead.

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Yet in some way we are sustained, the waters of the Divine Truth reach the thirsty ground, though we see not its channels, and spiritual life is still within us. Perhaps, for aught we know, we never so truly live as when we seen ready to die.
     We are so apt to keep looking in, and not out. We would determine our spiritual status by our feelings. We busy ourselves- with our seeing, not with what we see; with a consciousness that we know instead of what we know. This is but an exaltation of the proprium, just the putting ourselves, our thoughts, our fancies, in the place of Him who is the object of all thought. The waters of truth may be often hidden. Down in our hearts is a well-spring of life from the LORD. It is covered up, lest the heat of self-love should evaporate it. We would fain see this water, but the LORD in His love keeps it from our sight, yet it - is none the less there. How true we find it in our own experience, that we say we see our sin remaineth; while we are blind to our own selfhood, then, in our clearer sight of Him, who is the Source of all good, we sin not.
     But that there may be growth by these hidden waters the roots must reach it. Those plants whose roots lie in the surface of the ground cannot draw nourishment from the deep spring. The grasses will wither because they do not reach the source of life, only the trees which send down their roots deeply will be nourished. This is the reason why the live oak will flourish while the tar- weed will perish. The water is then at the service of both, but the one can avail itself of it by its deep "taproot," the other, spreading out to fibrous roots as a mat on the surface, cannot. It is so with us. For spiritual building the wise man dug deep. For spiritual growth the wise man will seek those central truths which are the only nourishment of the soul. He will see that all true progress in life, in science, in Divine Wisdom, depends on his going to the source of all this. He need not trouble himself about feeling or thinking or hoping as criteria of growth, so long as he keeps his eye fixed on the LORD in his Divine Love and Wisdom and Outgoing. The surface may seem dry and withered and dead, but he knows that there are deeper sources of nourishment than that which is seen at first sight. His soul's races will be as trees by the river side bringing forth their fruit, not, perhaps, as he may expect them, but in their season; in those hidden waters he will see that river flowing from the throne of the Divine Human, on whose banks are the trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations, the stream of the City of the New Jerusalem, the river which will enliven his own soul, while it will make glad the City of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High.
THAT "BROAD RIVER." 1886

THAT "BROAD RIVER."              1886

     SMILES, metaphors, and other figures of a like nature are of great use in conveying a meaning. Often an apt illustration will enable us to see a thing clearer than a long and labored argument. But, on the other hand, the same means may convey a falsity in so subtle a manner as to deceive many, and to make it difficult even for those who are aware of the falsity to expose it. Let us take, by way of example of the latter class, the term, "The broad river of human thought," or, the "mighty river"-the form is often varied-not because it is any worse or as bad as many others, but because it is the first that comes to mind. Perhaps our readers who have heard or read this term may never have analyzed the meanings, or rather feelings, it conveyed to them; and had they attempted this analysis, they would, very likely, have found it difficult to put it into words. Yet the feelings conveyed were, we think, somewhat like the following. An expansion of the chest and a dilation of the eyes like that experienced when one views a noble river for the first time; this noble river, by metaphor, is turned into our side of the discussion, and its resistless sweep is our views carrying all before them, and our opponents-here we twist the metaphor back to the natural object again-are puny to stay us, for who can turn back the flow of a broad river? All this makes us feel very good, for we are a part of that noble river; yet if we happen to be on the wrong side, it results in making us broadly or mightily obstinate in upholding a fallacy, and if on the right side, it only gives us a confusedly lofty feeling that is of no benefit, for the term is faulty.
     There is no analogy between human thoughts taken collectively and a great river. A river flows in one channel, while men's thoughts take about as many directions as there are men. It is true that our thoughts flow into us, but they have no effect on the world until they are put into words or deeds; thus it would seem that "the mighty deluge of words" would be a truer figure. It seems to us that the popularity of this and kindred terms lies in the flattery they contain; few men dislike flattery. One man discovers a new scientific, or propagates a new fallacy, and other men chatter about it, misunderstand it, and then feel good when they are told that their talk is a part of a mighty river of thought. Whereas the truth is, that very few men think at all, unless scheming how to get money or pleasure may be called thought.
     What does the average man know, for instance, of the much talked "Darwin's theory"? Ask yourself first and your friends afterward, and you will find out. We all have heard of "The survival of the fittest," "The struggle for existence," "The missing link," and we sum up our knowledge in the assertion that Darwin's theory is, "that man has descended from the monkey," or something of the sort, which isn't Darwin's theory at all. Few men have clear thoughts on any subject, unless it be their daily work. Polities, perhaps, occasion more talk than any other one subject in this world, and ought to be the best understood in consequence, yet how many men who talk politics could give a clear definition of the principles of their own party or that of the opposition? - Make the trial and see.
     Nearly every noted man or "thinker" has had a greater or lesser number of followers, and is said to have "influenced thought," and so he has after a fashion. His followers take his ideas, which may be very clearly ex- pressed, and talk about them, and write about them, subtract from them, mingle them with their own and call their work a part of the "broad river of thought," yet the result is chaos in the "school of thought" which the great man is said to have founded. Aristotle was the founder of one of these "schools," and it was finally lost in a morass of words. One common idea involved in the term under consideration is that each man contributes something to the "river." So he does, but it is generally ignorance; and "The great river of human ignorance" would be another fit way of putting it. The world is keen in things pertaining to business. One man invents a machine of some sort; other men take it up and develop it to a surprising perfection. But this does not hold good in higher things, which, instead, are generally drowned or rendered so sodden in the "mighty river" as to be unrecognizable.

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     This is so to a considerable extent with the Divine Writings of the New Church. Men often take them as the production of the philosopher Swedenborg. They pick here and there things that delight them, rejecting or ignoring the remainder. They take the chosen truth and drown it in a weary waste of words, and flatter themselves that they are" abreast the current of thought."
So they are, but the "current" is foolishness mostly.
     "And He showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, signifies the Apocalypse now open and explained as to its spiritual sense, where divine truths are revealed in abundance from the LORD, for those who will be in His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. By a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, is signified the divine truth of the Word in abundance, translucent from its spiritual sense, which is the light of Heaven." A. R. 932.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     WE have received a circular dated June 17th, 1886, addressed "To the Members and Friends of the Washington Society of the New Jerusalem," and sent out by a Special Committee of that Society. It contains a letter by Mr. Job Barnard, addressed to the Committee, in which, after declining to discuss wherein the fault lies for the present existing "unsatisfied feeling," he says: "Whatever the cause, the fact remains that the fires of spiritual life do not glow as some think they should, and the interest in Sunday-school and Church work is not such as many think ii ought to be. Our children seem to grow away from the Church rather than toward it; our committee meetings are often felt to be dull and matter of course; and the prospects for the future are regarded by some as anything but encouraging.
     "It may be that we expected, when we commanded the entire services of a pastor (for which the Society has long felt the need), that much interest would be awakened, the congregation and membership be increased, and general prosperity follow; but if such were our expectations, we can hardly feel satisfied with the apparent results thus far."
     Accompanying the letter from which the foregoing is quoted is a series of Resolutions, in effect: That a committee be appointed to endeavor to raise money to pay the salary of the Rev. E. D. Daniels for one year from September, 1886, and also assist in paying the present pastor, the Rev. Jabez Fox, as missionary and General Pastor in the limits of the Maryland Association.
     After full discussion at a well-attended meeting, Mr. Barnard's Resolutions were adopted unanimously. The circular also states that the Board of Missions has promised to aid in supporting Mr. Fox, provided the Society at Washington first raise five hundred dollars toward that purpose.
      The picture Barnard draws of the state of the Society is not a cheerful one, and is also not an unfamiliar one in the New Church, past and present. There is, though, one bright ray, and that is the circular itself; the bad state of things is seen and frankly acknowledged. This, we are taught in the Divine Writings, is the first step in reformation. This step has been taken by the Washington Society, and it has our sincere wishes that the others may soon follow; that the faces of the children-the almost or rather the sole hope, of the New Church-may be turned from the West to the East; that we may soon greet a strong Society, one that has no fear save the fear of the LORD.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     New Church Life six months on trial for seventy-five cents.     
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. Willard H. Hinkley's interesting papers on the periodical literature of the New Church in America that have been appearing in the New Jerusalem Magazine will conclude with one paper on the juvenile periodicals of the Church. The paper in the June number of the Magazine contains the following notice of the Life:

     "This paper appeared January 1st, 1881; subscription price, one dollar per annum. It was then only eight pages in size. In January, 1882, it was enlarged to sixteen pages, with no increase in price. It was edited and published by young men connected with the Academy Schools, and is still published in Philadelphia under the same auspices. It is quite a lively journal, is well printed, and contains many items of news. This little periodical would become a much more useful and acceptable publication if there were less of mere dogmatism and personal allusion. At times there is an app4arance of assumed superiority and contempt for those who are regarded as opponents."
NOTES AND REVIEWS 1886

NOTES AND REVIEWS              1886

     THE American New Church Tract and Publication Society send out each week to all quarters one thousand five hundred and fifty envelopes containing one or more tracts. The distribution will cease during the summer, to be resumed again in the fall.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society has put over ten thousand dollars into the Latin reprints. Nine large octavo volumes have been published. The Convention was unanimously in favor of Dr. Worcester proceeding with his useful and important work. -
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE June number of the New Jerusalem Tidings contains the valedictory of its retiring editor, the Rev. E.D. Daniels. In addition to his regular duties as pastor he had the entire work of the paper even to directing wrappers and folding the papers, to do himself. The Rev. J. S. David has been appointed editor, and Mr. B. Carswell, with the assistance of the young people, will attend to the mailing work.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE June number of The Century Magazine contains several hitherto unpublished letters of Benjamin Franklin. In one of them he says: "I received the letter you did me the honor of writing to me, respecting what was supposed a new invention; the blowing of furnaces by a fall of water." He goes on to state that the same contrivance is described in several books in his possession, and among them he mentions Swedenborg's Latin Treatise of Iron Works.
EXPERIENCE 1886

EXPERIENCE              1886




     Fiction
     BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELEANOR."

     CHAPTER III

     ONE evening, remembering Mr. Hammertin's invitation to call, Mr. Gray concluded to avail himself of it. The season was well on in May, when it - is a delight to stroll about in the balmy air, when there is no chill necessitating wraps, and when the oven-like heat of summer, that causes people to remark" It's hot," as they wipe their faces, has not yet begun. The Hammertins lived one block above the Bantleys, and as Sam turned his steps in that direction, Mrs. Bantley said to her husband, "I wonder what is the matter?"
     "Matter with who?" asked that gentleman.
     "With Mr. Gray, of course; the Armands live in the other direction."
     "Lovers' quarrel, perhaps," he replied, not being greatly interested.

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     Half an hour later Miss Armand and Dolly, without their hats on, came sauntering by, and stopped for a few minutes to converse with Mrs. Bantley. Their talk was chiefly about the delightful weather and "the picnic," and yet Miss Wood remarked, after they had passed on,
     "I don't believe she likes us."
     "I don't care," responded Miss Caroline, with refreshing candor, whatever may be said of her sentiment.
     "Aren't we a funny set?" said Dolly. "We never have downright quarrels, yet some of us are always in little spats." Dolly's talk was sometimes seasoned with what the dictionary dubs Local U. S. "I wonder what Mr. Gray thinks of us by this time?"
     "I do not see as that young gentleman's opinion is a matter of very great importance," replied Miss Armand, loftily. "If he doesn't like our ways, he is free to leave us." To which highly unjust pin-stick at the unoffending Sam her companion made no reply other than a smile.
     The Barton Street people were fond of sitting on their doorsteps in warm weather-that is, the most of them were, for some said "It is very unfashionable," and they sat by the windows and looked out.
     Sam found Mr. Hammertin sitting on his steps, on a bit of carpet, and smoking a cigar; his wife was seated on the door-sill near him. She reached in the vestibule, after greeting the young man, and handed out another bit of carpet, saying as she did so, "I thought you were going to slight us; but I suppose you find stronger attractions elsewhere than in old married folks."
     "Well, we're glad to see you whenever she will let you off," said Mr. Hammertin, and Mr. Gray replied,
     "Thank you."
     After some conversation Mrs. Hammertin asked, "Are you going to our Sunday-school picnic next week?" and, before he replied, "Have you bought a ticket yet?"
     "No, not yet."
     "Then you must buy one from me. I have sold hardly any. You'll take one of mine, won't you?"
     "Certainly, with pleasure."
     "Now remember, don't go away without it. I'll go up-stairs after a bit and get one; if I don't, some of the young ladies will make you take one of theirs."
     "Are all the expenses met from the sale of tickets?" he asked.
     "No, indeed; contributions will be thankfully received."
     "I should like to contribute a little. To whom must I give the money?"
     "I am on the committee, and will take, anything you have to give," she answered.
     He gave her his contribution, and Mr. Hammertin said:
     "I thought that Mr. Gray was down on Mrs. Graham's list?"
     "So he was; but- you see she hasn't attended to her duty." Mr. Hammertin slyly intimated that the money might be turned over to her, but his wife put it in her pocket in a sort of positive manner, and after a bit said:
     "I do hope the committee on ice-cream won't go to Bumble's, as they did last year; it wasn't fit to eat. But that was Mrs. Graham's doings. She has an idea that no-one can make ice-cream but Bumble. His make isn't to be compared to Keiser's, is it, Charles; you have eaten both?"
     "Bumble is nowhere when Keiser is around," replied that facetious gentleman, and his wife continued:
     "Mrs. Graham isn't on the committee this year, though. She is a very good woman, but she has some peculiarities. Do you know she got quite provoked the other day because I would not agree that the Singer machine is as good as the Wilcox & Gibbs. So foolish in her. I explained that the Wilcox & Gibbs was the best in the world, and she did not like it a bit. She has a Singer, you know."
     "We run a Wilcox & Gibbs," said Mr. Hammertin to Sam.
     "Yes," he replied. "I think that my sister is like Mrs. Graham, at least she has a Singer sewing-machine in her house."
     "That is a very popular machine, I know," said Mrs. Hammertin, "and some like it very much; but the other suits me best. Your sister is Mrs. Davis, isn't she?"
     Sam bowed assent, and after musing a moment, she asked him," How do you like Old Church society?"
     "I prefer that of my own faith," he replied.
     "Don't you find it-the Old Church society-very worldly?"
     "There is a good deal of worldliness in all society."
     "Yes, that is true, even in our own. But don't you think that we ought to shun Old Church society?"
     "Upon what grounds?"
     "Why, because the Old Church is evil."
     "I do not think that the Writings sanction shunning people upon those grounds."
     "You surprise me! Is not the Old Church consummated?"
     "Well, then, are not the people evil, and ought not we to shun evil?"
     "But it is not lawful to judge any one evil, and therefore shunning on such grounds, it seems to me, would be contrary to the teachings of the Writings."
     "You do not believe we should seek Old Church society?"
     "I cannot see the need of either seeking or avoiding it. I think that if we live as the Writings direct, the Truth will make all needful separations. And then we have no right to consider ourselves better than others, even than the worst; we are all on a level, in one sense."
     "Mustn't we think ourselves better than the low vagabonds of this city? I know that it is taught that we should not; yet it is hard to fully accept it."
     "Yes, I know it is. But suppose that a plant enjoying the sunlight were to feel pride over a plant in a dark cellar, and attribute its better state to something its own, would not it be a foolish plant? The illustration is a little faulty, but it aids one in seeing the truth on this matter."
     "So it does," said Mr. Hammertin. "We plants in the sun have no right to glory over those whom chance has put in the shade."
     "There is where the faultiness I spoke of comes in, replied Sam; "for plants cannot change at will, while men can."
     "I like to talk about such matters," said Mrs. Hammertin. "One can always see so much clearer when comparing views with others; at least that is the case with me."
     "That remark," replied Sam, with a slight smile, "illustrates the point about shunning people. Those who would be bored by such talks or scoff at them, there would be no need to avoid. The truth draws us into congenial groups."
     While talking he had been half facing Mrs. Hammertin, and his back was partly turned to the street. She now said to him, laughingly, "Don't turn around or you might see some one."

106



     Very naturally, he at once looked around, and saw Miss Caroline Armand and Dorothy Wood approaching. They were invited to join the party on the steps, which, after a little demur, they did. Mr. Hammertin joked with them about-having to walk alone, and Dolly replied, in a spirited manner, aided by a few gently ironical remarks from Miss Armand. Then the talk drifted to other-topics, but was chiefly borne by Mr. Hammertin and Dolly, She was an amusing girl, and Sam sat silently enjoying her humor, until the noise of a passing carriage suddenly ceased, and Miss Armand said, "Mr. Gray, I believe there is some one wishes to speak to you."
     He turned around and saw Miss Merlyn and her mother. The young-lady beckoned to him and he walked out to where the carriage stood. "So, I have at last found the exile among the aborigines of Barton Street. You do not look a bit home-sick."
     "I am at home here."
     "We were out driving, and I insisted on the coachman taking us home by way of Barton Street in hopes of seeing you. Are not you flattered?" He merely smiled at this question, and she continued. "You ought to feel flattered, but I see that you are not. You want to hide from your friends. The coachman, stupid fellow, did not know where the street was, but I made him find it. What a dear, quaint little street it is!"
     "It is about as large a street as Brownstone Avenue, in fact, it is a little longer, I believe, and I fail to see much quaintness in these plain modern houses."
     "Do you not? Well that is odd. What a number of people must live in these cute little houses. See! nearly every doorstep is inhabited, just as the papers say-people living on the sidewalks to get a breath of fresh air."
     "Yes, I for one spend a great many of my evenings that way lately."
     "Why, how charmingly unconventional! But I do not wonder when I see what pretty companions you have. The one with that delightful hair would positively make a sensation in society: and how well she can act!"
     "Act? I do not understand you."
     "I would not fear for her in any house on the Avenue; she has been utterly and indifferently Unawares of my presence since she told you I wished to speak to you."
     "Perhaps she feels indifferent toward you, and is not acting."
     "Now do not be rude," exclaimed Miss Merlyn, laughing. "She is acting, and splendidly, too. I should not be surprised if she were to treat you coolly for a day or two."
     "Why should she!" he exclaimed, off his guard and giving a little start.
     "Ah, ha! " said Miss Merlyn, holding up one finger.
     "Even Mr. Gray betrays himself sometimes. You did not mean for me to see that."
     "I do not think that I have anything to conceal or was thinking of you at the moment."
     "Of course you were not, and that is why you betrayed yourself. But it was not kind in you to tell me so in that blunt manner. What a dear old gentleman that is in slippers. I do not think, though, that I should like his wife." As this called for no reply, Sam kept quiet. Miss Merlyn during their interview had often glanced at the people on the steps; she had beautiful teeth, and she frequently smiled. Now after one of these she asked, "Have you opened your shop yet?"
     "Yes, some weeks ago."
     "Have you? Where is it? What is the price of wools?"
     "My warehouse is in Black Tom Alley. The prices vary according to the grade you wish."
     At this she again laughed: "So you will not deny being a shopkeeper. How dreadfully proud you are you scorn to even deny being one."
     "There is nothing to scorn, that I can see," he replied. "I think you knew from the first the nature of my business."
     "I fear you are too deep for me, Mr. Gray," she replied, shaking her head. "I never equaled you but once, and that was about the beauty with the lovely hair."
     Knowing from the first the drift of this laughing and somewhat insolent girl, he merely replied, "I think you mistake me."
     "Perhaps I do. Well, good-bye. I'll let you know about purchasing wool if conclude to 'go in;' that is the right term, is it not? If ever you determine to return to the world, I, for one, shall extend to you a welcome. Well, good-bye again, Sir Hermit," and, with a slight wave of her hand, the carriage drove on. He turned to his friends on the steps, but there was no one there save Mr. and Mrs. Hammertin.
     "They've gone," said Mr. Hammertin, laughing; "while you were after the fine-feathered bird the others escaped."
     Sam stood on the sidewalk, resting one foot on the steps and idly swinging his walking-stick. He -could see the two girls, a little way down the street, returning home, and he felt that he would like to accompany them.
     "What an elegant turnout that was," said Mrs. Hammertin to him.
     " Very likely," he absently replied, and then, recovering, "I beg your pardon. Yes, they have a very fine span and carriage.
     "The young lady was very stylish, and I never saw such brilliant white teeth."
     "She is considered very beautiful."
     "I suppose she lives on West Brownstone Avenue?"
     "Yes-that is, I suppose she does, I never inquired," he replied, and shortly afterward took his departure.
     "I do wonder who- she was," said Mrs. Hammertin, after he had gone. -
"Why didn't you ask ?" replied her husband.
     "I couldn't be guilty of such a thing! I think he might have told us. Did you see how she looked at us, and especially at Carrie? Carrie didn't like it a bit, as I could see." Mrs. Hammertin did not pretend to being a woman of fashion, though, indeed, she had stayed at home for two Sundays because she had not got her spring bonnet-and who shall blame, her? She had a healthy curiosity, a thing which, though sometimes decried, is better than a lofty indifference toward your neighbors.
     Shortly after Sam's departure, Mrs. Graham came along, and, upon invitation, took a seat on the steps for a few minutes. They talked about the picnic, and Mrs. Hammertin, after several times putting her hand in her pocket, at last took out the money Sam had given her and gave it to Mrs. Graham. That lady received it with a "Thank you. I had intended speaking to him next Sunday at church;" and at this Mrs. Hammertin felt a little hurt, though she had no special reason to feel so; but then one likes to have one s meritorious actions noticed; she might have kept the money for her own collection. They talked of Mr. Gray. Said Mrs. Graham, "He is an improvement on some of our young men at any rate; he does not smoke."

107


Mr. Hammertin surreptitiously stole a glance at the still faintly glowing cigar-end he had shortly before thrown into the street. "I think," continued Mrs. Graham, "that the most of our young men should be sent to a school of etiquette, if there were such a thing; their manners are very unrefined. I have spoken to several of them on the subject, but the reception I met with was of such a nature that I shall let them alone in the future."
     "At least you must admit that Mr. Gray has the manners of a gentleman," said Mrs. Hammertin.
     "Do you think so?" exclaimed Mrs. Graham, in a tone that somehow irritated Mrs. Hammertin.
     "Yes, I do."
     "I admit that he does not puff smoke in one's face, or eat with his knife. But still, he sometimes gives me the impression that butter would not melt in his mouth, and at other times he is guilty of positive rudeness."
     "I never heard him speak or act rudely to any one," exclaimed Mrs. Hammertin, "and Mrs. Bantley says that he is a perfect gentleman."
     "Mrs. Bentley says so, does she?" replied Mrs. Graham with the smile that causes helpless indignation in the breasts of hearers. "I was speaking to Mr. Gray not long ago about our young people, and he would not acknowledge that they were unrefined; of course, it is not right to blame one for what he cannot see; but I went on to show him wherein they were lacking, and in what manner they should be corrected, and he told me that I was worse than they were."
     "Did he say that!" exclaimed Mrs. Hammertin, aghast.
     "He did not say it in so many words, but that was the substance. He went on in what I call his diffusively impersonal style to tell me, what I knew as well as he, that we all have faults."
     "That certainly was not rudeness."
     "No, that was merely a platitude; but then he continued ma roundabout way, that as every one knows this no one likes to be corrected except by those who have a rightful authority, such as parents or teachers, and that those who set up to amend the ways of their friends assume a position they have no right to. Now I think it shows lack of refinement for any one to hurt another's feelings-even in the soft-spoken manner of Mr. Gray. I have never spoken to any of our young people, except from a sincere desire for their betterment. I shall keep silent in the future."
     "Well, well, we all have our little faults," said Mr. Hammertin, pacifically, dropping back on the platitude.
     "That is very true," replied Mrs. Graham, "and I harbor no ill feeling toward Mr. Gray or any of our people; but still, I think they might receive advice looking to their welfare in the same spirit in which it is given."
     "So they ought; so they ought," said Mr. Hammertin;" when one tries to help a friend they don't like to be rebuffed."
     At Mr. Hammertin's lapse from the rules of Murray, Mrs. Graham's pretty eyelids drooped, and she replied:
     "No, when one tries that, he or she does not like to be rebuffed. Another sad thing about some of our young men is their frequent use of slang. Oh! dear, how it does grate on one's nerves!"
     "So it does, so it does; it's a bad habit," replied honest Mr. Hammertin who once in a while sinned in that way himself. "But then society is a little mic-a little world-drawing away from the word-"and it takes all kinds of people to make it up; It is true that some of our youngsters go off into slang once in a while, but they will get over it. They are first-rate, boys, all of them."
     "I know they are," replied Mrs. Graham, "but I think that New Church men-and women too-should be polished gentlemen and ladies."
     "I am sure that our Society contains as many refined ladies and gentlemen as can be found among the same number of people anywheres in this country," said Mrs. Hammertin.
     "That is undoubtedly true," was the reply, "but I hold that all should be so."
     "That also is true," said Mr. Hammertin with a quizzical look; "but before we start our schools of etiquette, hadn't we better be quite sure that our standards are correct? I don't pretend to know much about the matter myself, but it seems to me that our present standards are those of the world, which is anything but New Church."
     Mr. Gray started for his office rather earlier than usual on the following morning, and overtook Miss Dorothy Wood in his walk down Barton Street. She "stood in a store." She did not like the compound, "shop-girl," but did not object to "saleslady," and, Mr. Minden to the contrary, she was right.
     He asked her if he might have the pleasure of walking with her, and she thought him a little formal, but rather liked the formality. After a while he said, "I was sorry that you and Miss Armand left so suddenly last night." He was afraid that they had heard the rather insolent remarks of Miss Merlyn. His first impulse was to take the simple way of asking, but second thoughts showed that this would be to indirectly reveal what he wished concealed. To his remark, Miss Doily replied:
     "We left you in very good company, at any rate."
     "Standing in the street for a few minutes can hardly be called 'in company,' can it?"
     "Yes it can. I thought she was very beautiful."
     "What did Miss Armand think?" he forced himself to ask, against his will.
     "Carrie? Why, I do not know; she did not mention her; we were so busy talking about what we should take for dinner to the picnic.
     He was somewhat relieved at hearing this. He did not see Miss Armand again until the following Sunday at church, and then he did not get a chance to speak to her, as she left much sooner than usual. Whether she was purposely avoiding him, or it so happened, he could not tell. He knew that there was no valid reason why she should avoid him, but he also knew that sometimes girls act without (to a man) valid reasons. Mr. Doty walked up the street with him from church. That young man's face was gloomy, and he said, "It is a shame the way our girls act sometimes."
     "I do not understand you."
     "Why, to-day, when I spoke to Sarah Graham, she merely faintly inclined her head, and then turned away."
     "What is the trouble?"
     "That's just what I don't know; she was pleasant enough the last time I saw her. I went to her a second time and plainly asked her what was the matter, and she coolly replied, 'Nothing,' and again turned away. And then there is Miss Lane; she acts lately toward Foster and me as though we were beneath notice. It isn't right; it isn't New Church. Do you think it is right?"
     "Perhaps there is some mistake; for the girls must surely think that they have good cause to act so.
     "Well, they haven't, anyhow. Neither Foster nor I have done anything to give them the right to act so. They might, at least, be polite enough to say 'Good morning,' if nothing more, and not deliberately insult a man."

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     "Is not that rather a severe term?"
     "No, it isn't."
     "I suppose all you can do is to wait. These little things soon pass."
     "They've got to speak first. I sha'n't notice them any more. They won't give a man a chance either to apologize or ex lain; so they can go. I don't care if I never speak to them again; girls have no right to act as they do." After this Mr. Doty strode a long in frowning silence, until his companion asked:
"Do you think that your position is in accord with the New Church Doctrines?"
     "The Doctrines don't say that a man has to put up with insults. I'm in the right in this matter."
     "Then, of course, they are in the wrong."
     "Well?" said Mr. Doty, glancing at his companion at this bit of logic.
     "Then I should keep in the right, and not act as they do.
     "You would have me play the goody-good boy?" said Mr. Doty, with attempted sneer, that was a failure on his honest, young face.
     "As by some means the term 'good boy' has been twisted into a reproach, I would not have you play that part, certainly. In fact, I would have you play no part. This matter, of course, is no concern of mine; but since you have brought it up, I would suggest the part of a sensible man would best become you."
     "Well, aint I acting sensible?' exclaimed Mr. Doty.
     "Anger is never sensible," replied Sam. Mr. Doty was at first inclined to direct his wrath in a new channel, but the words had been spoken so coolly, and the speaker looked so matter-of-fact, that, after a moment, he laughed instead.
     "You're a cool one!" he replied. "What would you do were you in my place?"
     "That I cannot tell," said Sam. "But, viewing this case philosophically, it seems to me to resolve itself in this manner: if those two girls are utterly worthless, there is no cause for anger, but rather for thankfulness that they are no longer your friends. If, on the other hand, they are admirable young ladies, as I know they are, then the cause of this trouble arises from a misunderstanding, or from some failing in you or them. So again there is no grounds for anger, but rather for amendment."
     "Sam, I'm too human to take such a view. When people act as they do, I get mad, and I can't help it."
     "I suppose not; but it is not the part of a sensible man to cherish 'madness.' When a man is 'mad' he is irrational."
     "Well," said Mr. Doty, as they stopped at a street-corner and shook hands previous to parting, "after this, when I want to talk about such troubles, I'll wait until I get over my 'mad,' or, if I cannot hold it in, I'll choose a confidant who won't cut me up as you have."
     As Mr. Gray turned into Barton Street he saw the two young ladies in question with Miss Armand standing at the door of Miss Graham's dwelling. He stopped, and Miss Armand asked:
     "Did you walk up from church alone?"
     "No; Mr. Doty accompanied me part of the way," he replied, gratified that he was not to undergo that gentleman's experience, and thus have his philosophy put to the test.
     "You had a very agreeable companion, not at all sulky!" said Miss Graham.
     "Yes, I like him very much," was Sam's reply. At this she laughed, and he asked, "Do not you?"
     "Oh I yes, certainly," she replied, "only he needs to be kept down a little, for sometimes he is entirely too smart."
     Miss Lane stayed to dinner with her friend, so Sam had the pleasure of a short walk with Miss Armand, and he could notice no change in her; she was still the same faulty and altogether delightful girl he loved so well.
     "I suppose, said she, "you gave the wronged and irate Mr. Doty some wholesome advice?"
     "Why do you suppose so?"
     Because-really, Mr. Gray, you must give up that habit of asking back questions."
     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
OUT OF THE DEPTHS 1886

OUT OF THE DEPTHS              1886

     THERE was once a man who lived in a pit. There was not much light at the bottom of this pit. It was cold there, and the air was not good, but instead was very foul and even deadly. After living in this place for some time, and liking it right well too, the man grew weary of it, and wished to go up into the sunlight that was far above him. It was so, that the only Power to lift any one out of this pit came from above, and that the only thing the one who wished to be taken up could do was to be willing to be taken up. This man of whom the story is told said that he was willing, and that he longed to leave the life he had been living in the cold and darkness for one in the warmth and light. So then this Power from above began to raise him from the deeps of his old life. At first he was very glad and proud; he could see so clearly, and the air was so good that he thought he was in the sunlight; but he was not. After a while he grew weary; he tried to dig his nails into the hard, cold rocks of the pit's side, so that he could cling to them; but the Power gently and patiently drew him away from the places he tried so hard to cling to. As one by one these slipped from his mad grasp, he would at first wail a little, and then he would give a gentle sigh and say, "Ah well, I am resigned!" those in the pit who watched him said to each other, and tears of pity stood in their eyes as they said it, and they thought that they showed sweet tenderness in saying it," What a noble nature is his!" But what must that loving Power have thought of these sighs and tears that greeted its efforts to draw this man from the darkness and cold of the pit up into the warmth and light?
     The story is told now, and it does not seem real; for what man is there who, if he were being drawn up out of a dark pit, would madly cling to the ragged sides of that pit, and cry out because he was not left there, with no power to ascend, but only the power to fall back headlong into the black abyss? No; it is a very unreal story to us.
CONTEST 1886

CONTEST              1886

     ONE morning the Horse noticed a number of geese in a state of wild excitement. Each was vociferating at the top of his voice, and every now and then combats occurred in which the feathers flew. The Gray Goose was in the midst of the tumult, and the Horse noticed that he always came out second best. When the uproar had subsided, he asked him what it all meant.
     "We were choosing a ruler," was the reply.
     Did it turn out satisfactorily?"
     "No, it did not, the party of fraud and corruption run in their goose again."

109



     Then he went on excitedly: "It is a burning shame and disgrace that so many of our geese neglect their duties and let this corrupt ring rule the flock. They are to blame that our rulers are so bad, for they refuse to take part in these contests."
     "I do not altogether blame them," said the Horse, glancing at the loose feathers of the Gray Goose.
     "Then they have no right to complain of corrupt rulers, for good or bad government is decided in these contests."
     "And the contests by the best fighters," said the Horse.
TEACHERCRAFT 1886

TEACHERCRAFT              1886

     A KNOT of boys at a certain University, needless to specify here, once took it into their heads to object to their teachers. "We do not," said they, "object to you as men, but to the principle of Teachercraft." They told the teacher of geometry that they had access to all the books that he could command; that they were free boys; that they did not propose to have "any man" set over them, and that they intended to choose their own teacher from among themselves, "for," said they, "in reality we are all teachers." The teacher of geometry told them they could do as they pleased elsewheres, but in that University they must either obey the laws and rules or leave. They left. They didn't study much geometry; they spent most of their time talking against "enslaving" Teachercraft. An amiable logician tried to convince them that the only attempt at enslaving had been their own when they tried to break down the laws - of the University and substitute their own ideas instead. Their reply to the logician's argument was: "Domineering! Cold! Arrogant! Superstitious! Unlovely! Effete!" and many other equally strong arguments.
CORRECTION NOTES 1886

CORRECTION NOTES       B. F. BARRETT       1886

     Communicated.

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles which New Church Life is conducted or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]

     IN this department of New Church Life for May, I notice the following from the Rev. G. N. Smith:

     "This effort to accommodate the truths of the New Church to the falsities of the Old can never be very sane nor very safe. (See T. C. R. 647-9.)     . . . . An instance of this occurs in a passage that recently passed under my eye, concerning the teaching that "marriages on earth between those of a different religion are accounted in heaven as heinous" (A. C. 8398), in which the writer took the ground that the Old Church and the New, as they now stand correlated, are not different religions, alleging that the numbers referred to in the context (see 2049, 2115, 7996) speak of Gentile religions. Nos. 2049 and 2115 undoubtedly do mention Gentile religions, and of course these are included. But No. 7996 goes further, and plainly refers to corrupted forms of the Church, in which all truth an good are destroyed, and which are "further out of the Church than the Gentiles." (N. 6637, comp. 3379.)

     Mr. Smith's observation and experience may have been very different from mine. But I-though pretty intimately acquainted with New Churchmen and their writings for nearly a half century-have never known or heard of a solitary instance of an "effort to accommodate the truths of the New Church to the falsities of the Old." Nor am I able to see, what Mr. Smith seek, that there is any "temptation perpetually before us to do' this," since the truths of the one and the falsities of the other are, as Swedenborg says," totally heterogeneous." Their mutual repugnance, and the impossibility of their dwelling together without perpetual conflict, is clearly shown in the very numbers in the True Christian Religion to which Mr. Smith refers. We read that "if they were to be together in a man's mind, such a collision and conflict would follow that everything pertaining to "the Church in him would perish, and in spiritual things the man would fall into a delirium," and would know nothing "of God, of faith, or of charity" (n. 648). Possibly he may think this has happened with the individual from whom he quotes his illustrative "instance."
     Mr. Smith is unfortunate again in his criticism of the writer he quotes on the subject of "marriages between those of different religions," and sets himself in direct opposition to Swedenborg, apparently without being aware of the fact. For not a single passage can be cited from his Writings in support of our friend's idea, that those who understand Christianity differently, and interpret the Word differently (as-do Methodists and Swedenborgians, for example) are therefore of "a different religion." All who profess the Christian religion, and who read and acknowledge the Divine authority of the Christian Scriptures, however they may misunderstand and misinterpret their meaning, are reckoned by our great authority as Christians, and therefore as of the same religion. "When I use the phrase, 'the Churches in the CHRISTIAN WORLD,'" says Swedenborg, "I mean Protestant Churches, and not the Popish or Roman Catholic Church, since that is not a Christian Church; for wherever the Church exists, the LORD is worshiped and the Word is read." Thus we have the positive assertion of our heaven-illumined scribe, that our Methodist, Presbyterian, Congregational, and other Protestant neighbors are to be counted as Christians, and therefore of the same religion as ourselves. But Mr. Smith holds that they are of a different religion, and therefore that the marriage of a member of our communion with one be- longing to any of the Protestant sects "is accounted in heaven as heinous." Between these two authorities the reader is, of course, at perfect liberty to choose.
     But our friend is again mistaken-and even more surprisingly than before-in his criticism concerning No. 7996, which he thinks teaches something additional to what is taught in Nos. 2049, 2115, and something justifying his own notion-" fees further," he says, "and plainly refers to corrupted forms of the Church," etc. More surprisingly mistaken, say; for had he read this number (n. 7996) with much care, he would have seen that it teaches nothing additional to the others on the subject under consideration. So far from it, he would have seen that, in the very sentence in which the author speaks of "a stranger, as denoting those out of the Church," etc., he refers to these very numbers (n. 2049, 2115) which Mr. Smith says, "undoubtedly do mention Gentile religions." What right, then, has he to say that Swedenborg here "goes further" and teaches something additional to what he had previously taught, when he virtually tells us that he is teaching precisely the same thing, by referring to the very numbers wherein he had previously explained his meaning?
     And not less widely from its mark does Mr. Smith's arrow seem to fly, when he asks his, readers to "compare Nos. 6637 and 3379;" for in neither of these numbers do we find the slightest allusion to the question before us, viz.: different religions.

110


In the first it is said:

     The Church is the LORD'S kingdom on earth [consisting of all the righteous, whatever their name or creed]. It is called the Church not from the circumstance of having the Word and Doctrinals thence derived; nor from the circumstance of the LORD being known there and the sacraments being there administered; but it is the Church from this, that life is formed according to the Word, or according to Doctrine derived from the Word, and that Doctrine is the rule of life. They who are not of this description are not of the Church, but are out of it; and they who live in evil, or live contrary to Doctrine, are further out of the Church than the Gentiles . . . . The Church in general is constituted of those who are Churches in particular.

     And substantially the same thing is taught in No. 3379. All of which is as applicable to those professing the Doctrines of the New Church as to any other Christians; and agrees with what is often taught in the Writings, that the very worst of the devils go from Christendom,-a logical inference from which is, that the New Christian Church may be expected to furnish the worst class of devils ever yet produced; for the better a thing is the more harmful it becomes through abuse. But because people who profess Christianity, whether of the Old or the New type, may be and are in widely different states-some natural and sensual, others spiritual and celestialthey are not therefore to be counted as of different religions. Yet Mr. Smith has plainly fallen into this strange mistake.
     And if the reader will turn to his two marginal references (A. C. 4145, 10,169), he cannot fail to be surprised at their utter irrelevancy to the question under consideration unless he has himself imbibed the notion that if two persons are joined in wedlock, who are not conjugially related, or one of whom is regenerate and the other unregenerate, the marriage is therefore to be regarded as one "between persons of different religions," and consequently "accounted in heaven as heinous." This may be Mr. Smith's idea, but it finds not one atom of support from the authorized teachings of the Church, but is directly opposed to them.
     I noticed in a previous number of the Life some criticisms of my teachings by Mr. Smith (though without mentioning my name), which it was my purpose to remark upon here. But I have already occupied more space than I intended to. I will only say, therefore, that those criticisms were as unsubstantial and groundless as these I have here noticed.     B. F. BARRETT.
     GERMANTOWN, PA., May 7th, 1886.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       G. N. SMITH       1886

     THIS time to correct myself for not making a stronger use of the strong doctrine at my command, in my notes in the Life for May, on the marriage of those of different religions. In testimony whereof I rise to a "unanimous vote of thanks" to Mr. Barrett in his criticism in the June number for doing it for me. I would fain have the illustration to show nearly as conclusively the heinousness of marriage between one in the true faith of the New Church and one in the false faith of the Old Church. As he most conclusively says: "Since the truths of the one and the falsities of the other are, as Swedenborg says, 'totally heterogeneous,' their mutual repugnance and the impossibility of their dwelling together,* without perpetual conflict [italics are mine], is clearly shown in the very numbers in the True Christian Religion, to which Mr. Smith refers, Nos. 647-9, etc." Exactly so: and I am very thankful that Mr. Barrett so clearly sees, and so conclusively puts, the "impossibility of their dwelling together without perpetual conflict," and that, too, on the authority of the Doctrines. This brings us nearer together than we have seemed to be since years ago, when, in his Swedenborgian, he held me up to execration as the specimen bigot of the New Church, for having incautiously (but with cautionai1y intent) referred to one of the most destructive inundations from the adulterous hells that ever touched the New Church, so far as I know. The chasm of divergence of years is now bridged over, for in the above utterance and that which immediately follows, Mr. Barrett has done the best of service, so much better than has ever been given me to do for the cause of the "Michaels" who are doing battle for "soundness and purity of doctrine which makes the Church." (T. C. R. 245.) Now that we have come together on this vital doctrine that concerns "heaven itself in man" (A. C. 2998), we ought to stand by each other, and not fancy ourselves driven apart, by all that follows in his criticism, which, all summed up, amounts to little more than a proof that the Old Church is in a sense called Christian, although in the very number (H. D. 8) which he quotes as so calling it, it is stated to be at its end, the on y difference being that the Papal was at its end long ago, leaving "both Churches devastated of all truth and good." (A. E. 928.) That the New Church is also called Christian, both having, in a sense, a religion called Christian; all of which is, of course, so, but, having no bearing thereon, never came into the question that was in my mind, which I will now state in the plain language of the doctrine (A. C. 8998), which further explains that different religions mean "dissimilar faiths," and that marriages of such are not only heinous but "destructive." "This appears still more evident from the origin of conjugial love, as being from the marriage of good and truth.... (2727, 2729.) When conjugial love descends thence it is a heaven itself with man: this [heaven] is destroyed when two conjugial partners are of dissimilar hearts, from dissimilar faith." Mr. Barrett's showing settles the case beyond farther question, that the truths of the New Church and the falsities of the Old are (more than dissimilar) totally "heterogeneous," and "cannot dwell together without perpetual conflict." This, then, is the plain truth of the case: that any one who is in the truths of the New Church marrying one who is in the falsities of the Old Church, is taking a partner that is in worse than a dissimilar, a totally heterogeneous, faith, and runs the fearful risk of the " destruction of the heaven of conjugial love," as above.
     * Comp B. E. 103, where almost these exact words are found.
     And in so vital a matter there is more than a mere name involved; there is a reality of an actual faith that will be in "agreement" and "conjoin," or "disagreement" and "disjoin." (A. C. 8996.) Things, though for other reasons called by the same name, are not the same if they do not agree in the "tenth part" (T. C. R. 647), or are "wholly different;" if they differ as widely as those contrasted in Doctrine of Faith, 34 et seq., the first of which, by the way, is alone there called "Christian Faith:" if one has become as the "Pagans, who have no religion" (A. R. 750), who are after death "mixed with Pagans" (T. C. R. 113), who are "hereafter not heard with acceptance," or is in the "doctrine of a false religion" (232, 8560), or "makes God three and the LORD two" (A. R. 263 et al.); or worse, is in the "denial of the Divinity of the LORD that in the Christian world makes hell" (D. L. W. 13), or is in that other great falsity of the Christian world, faith "alone upon which all its falsities depend" (A. R. 576), leaving "not one doctrinal truth" (541), and is "not drawn from the Word (is "contrary" to it, A. R. 885), but from one saying of Paul, falsely understood" (A. R. 511, 892), which "teaches evils" (582), which "to live in is to live in evils" (697, 698), which "destroys the Christian life" (A. E. 902), renders the "Word a profane book" (A. R. 541), "abolishes religion" (D. P. 339), "according to which all that are saved do not live" (A. E. 233, 250), and are "saved only if they live contrary to it" (885), which the "faith of the New Church abhors as a monster" (T. C. R. 486), all whose resulting "evils and falsities are to be wholly shunned and held in aversion" (A. R. 932), leaving no "longer in the Christian world any Church or any religion" (A. R. 675, T. C. R. 389), nor any knowledge thereof, nor Word, nor ministry, nor sacraments (Posth. MASS.), which have "destroyed in the Christian world the idea of one God, which is acknowledged in all the world besides" (A. E. 1097), from which it has come that the "Gentiles-think more of God than Christians" (D. P. 322)," receive the Doctrine of the LORD more readily" (A.C. 666), "enter heaven more, easily "(H. H. 324); on which account "all outside of the Church are averse to Christianity" (T. C. R. 183), "those that have judgment looking upon it as an empty vessel" (356), which renders "Christians worse than Gentiles" (A. C. 2284, 2591, 4190, 2122), "worse than Pharisees" (2554), "than Sadducees" (1885).

111



     But I desist from the impossible task of exhausting statements like these, when here are already more than enough to cause the thoughtful New Churchman to recoil from any alliance between such antagonistic principles of faith, and thence of religion and life, as not less, but more, fatal than with anything else in all the world. I cannot, however, leave the subject without calling attention to a discrimination that my critic and others do not seem to know (see my late articles on the Church in the Messenger), that of the Church of the past, in its simple and even darkened and ignorant states, which was still a Church, as its doctrines were (even though ever so crudely) drawn from the Word and lived by (A. C. 6637), and that Church as now consummated by doctrines that are not: drawn from, but are contrary to the Word, and that men must live contrary to if they would be saved, which is therefore not the Church nor the doctrine of (A.C. 6637), referred to by, my critic. With this in mind, please re-read my critic, and judge in which direction true doctrine lies, in "one statement falsely understood," or in all the LORD'S teachings thereon.
     As Mr. Barrett has not seen any attempt to "accommodate," in addition to those already given, I will try to give him in my next a real live specimen from the latest effort.
     G. N. SMITH.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       G. N. SMITH       1886

     A RECENT assertion that I notice denies that the doctrines teach that there was a fall. For this see Arcana Coelestia (n; 9960) and Divine Providence (n. 241), where the teaching is decisive.
     A NEW CHURCH minister is reported as saying that the New Church does not hold the Sabbath sacred. For this see Arcana Coelestia (n. 1798).
     A RECENT attempt to explain the celestial sense of "The Bride the Lamb's Wife," seems to lose sight of the fact that of two degrees of good, internal and external, the husband and father always represents the internal and primary, and the wife the external and secondary. (See A. C. 3128, 3236.) It is the failure to see and to make this clear that leads to the errors of "Divine Motherhood," and all the confusing of the Divine laws of order for the natural world, as given so clearly in Conjugial Love and elsewhere.
     A NEW CHURCH writer accedes to the popular notion that the heathen gods were the elements personified. In the True Christian Religion (n. 292) a very different origin is assigned to them.
     I WOULD remind my "corrector" in the February Life that the quotation from Apocalypse Resealed, which I made in the January issue, as to what causes the Word to become a Profane instead of a Divine book, looks less to evil of life in individuals than to falsification of doctrine in systems of teaching. I am glad if I have misunderstood the views "of many." But, if so, I have seen statements that were very misleading.
     ANOTHER does not "have any use for those that give rehashes of Swedenborg." The fact that those who profess to teach the Doctrines of the LORD'S Second Coming give out so many conceits of their own instead of those Doctrines, seems to give some of us a "use" for them whether he has or not.
     G. N. SMITH. -
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     EDITORS or NEW CHURCH LIFE:-It is not a year since the Chicago Society wrote to their New Church brethren of the Immanuel Church: "We are unable to accede to your request for the use of our houses of worship [of which the North Side Chapel was one]. A deep sense of our responsibility for the use of these churches, which Divine Providence has committed to our care, impels us to use them, so far as may be in our power, to promote concert of action in the Illinois Association, to which we belong; and we therefore propose to occupy them as speedily as possible for services to be conducted by our own ministers."
     "A deep sense of responsibility for the use of this church" induces the Chicago Society to take it away from New Church brethren, with whom they hold a common faith in the one LORD and in the Doctrines of the New Church, and to devote it to the use of those who believe in three Gods and the doctrines of the Dragon? From the avowed policy of the Chicago. Society and their subsequent action, it would seem as though "concert of action in the Illinois Association" is "promoted" by a Society's "using" chapels or temples for worship which is very adversely characterized in our Doctrines. (T. C. R. 108.) If the Chicago Society interprets truly the position of the Illinois Association, the step taken by the Immanuel Church need cause no further unfavorable comment.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A PRESS despatch says that in Clinton, Iowa, on June 21st, there was a fight between the Prohibitionists and their opponents, in which four of the latter were shot. The Prohibitionists must be dreadfully in earnest when they resort to shooting men who oppose them.
NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


     NEW CHURCH LIFE.

     A MONTHLY JOURNAL

TERMS:-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.
     Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

     All communications mint be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, JULY, 1886=115-117.


     CONTRNTS.-Editorial Notes, p. 97-Sermon. p. 95.-Egypt, Assyria, and Israel, p. 100.-An Old Old Story-p. 100.-Some Questions, p. 102.-Hidden Waters, p. 102.-That "Broad River" p. 103.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS.-Notes p. 104.
     FICTION.-An Experience, Chap, p. 104.-Out of the Depths, p. 105.-A Contest, p. 105.-Teachercraft, p. 109.
     COMMUNICATED.-Correction Notes-letters from Mr. Barrett, p. 109.
     DEATHS, p. 111.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, p. 112.
     AT HOME.

     New York.-THERE were forty-seven ministers and seventy delegates at the Sixty-sixth General Convention. It was the first meeting under the new Constitution, in which one delegate is allowed for every fifty members instead of every twenty, as in the past. The largest delegations were from the Massachusetts and the New York Associations and the General Church of Pennsylvania, ranking in size as named.
     The Illinois Association reported eleven societies, with four hundred and ninety-six members and five ministers.
     The Maryland Association reported four societies, three ministers, and two hundred and thirty-nine members.
     The Maine Association reported five societies, three ministers, and three hundred and eight members.
     The Massachusetts report said that efforts were being in made to establish an orphanage, and also a mission among the poor of Boston.
     The Corporation of the Michigan Association of the New Jerusalem reported five societies, two ministers, and one hundred and eighty-five, members.
     The Ohio Association reported twelve societies, six ministers, and six hundred and seventeen members. Mr. Barler's directory gives two hundred and twenty-two towns as containing New Churchmen.
     The Urbana Society received a legacy of two thousand dollars, and the University reports seventy-seven students.
     The General Church of Pennsylvania reported fourteen societies, seven ministers, and four hundred and ninety-seven members.
     The Board of Home and Foreign Missions reported total receipts of eighteen hundred and thirty-seven dollars and seventy cents, of which five hundred and sixty dollars and fifty cents were for the Italian Mission. The only missionary employed by the Board is he J. P. Smith, of Tennessee, but during the year one hundred dollars had been given to the Canada Association, and the same amount to the Rev. J. R. Hibbard; also seventy-five dollars had been sent to Rev. Mr. Boyesen, of Sweden, and the same amount to the Rev. Mr. Winslow, of Copenhagen, Denmark. The Board presented plans for work in the ensuing year, requiring thirty-five hundred dollars. Those resent were invited to subscribe, and the result was subscriptions and donations to the amount of fourteen hundred and
thirty-nine dollars and fifty-seven cents.
     The General Council reported that it had voted an assessment of five cents per capita on associations and societies.
     The address to the Conference of Great Britain was prepared by the Rev. T. F. Wright, and the Rev. J. B. Hibbard was appointed messenger to present it.
     The following gentlemen were elected officers of the Convention for the ensuing year Chauncey Giles, President; John Worcester, Vice-President; W. H. Hinkley and S. S. Seward, Secretaries, and F. A. Deweon, Treasurer.
     The only contest in the election of members for the General Council was in the case of the Rev. John Whitehead, who had been nominated to represent the General Church of Pennsylvania. An effort was made by some, not members of that body, to elect the Rev. J. B. Hibbard, who had resigned from that body, and who was about to depart for Europe on a visit of indefinite length. Mr. Whitehead was elected by a vote of thirty-eight to thirty-two.
     On recommendation of the Board of Missions, it was determined that the offer of the Southern Missionary Society to turn over its assets to the Board be accepted; also that steps be taken to form auxiliary missionary societies in all parts of the country.
     A collection was taken up resulting in three hundred and ninety-nine dollars and seventy-five cents, for sustaining the Messenger and one hundred and sixty dollars and fifty cents for the Convention Theological School.
     The Convention adjourned to meet in 1887, at such time and place as the General Council may determine.
     On Monday over five hundred delegates and visitors went on an excursion up the Hudson River. The reception was held on Friday evening in the rooms of the American Art Association.
     The Conference of New Church ministers met in Brooklyn, thirty-three ministers being present. The Rev. John Worcester read a paper on "The Nature and Development of the LORD'S Human Mind, and the Share the Heavens had in Forming it." The Rev. W. B. Hayden delivered the annual address. The Rev. B. F. Barrett read a paper entitled, "A Solution of the Problem involved In Ministerial Converts." The Committee on Hymns reported a collection of two hundred and forty-nine that are acceptable. On the second day, the Rev. W. B. Hayden was re-elected President and papers were read by Rev. Messrs. Worcester, Wright, and Frost.
     Massachusetts-THE Sunday School of the Boston Society closed on June 8th, and as is their custom, made this the "Flower Sunday." The room was finely decorated with towers, and at the close of the services a plant was presented to each one present.
     Pennsylvania.-THE Academy Schools closed on June 10th, to reopen on September 14th. Three of the senior theological students will do missionary work during the summer-Mr. E. S. Price in the South, Mr. F. E. Waelchley in Allentown, Pa., and Mr. C. T. Odhner among the Swedes in Illinois.
     THE Rev. E. J. E. Schreck will spend the summer visiting the Societies and isolated receivers in the interior of Pennsylvania.
     THE Rev. W. F. Pendleton will spend the summer at Holly Beach City, New Jersey, which is also his post-office address during that time.
     THE Society of the Advent closed on the 20th of June, to reopen on the first Sunday in September.
     THE Rev. W. F. Pendleton has been appointed Director of the Orphanage.
     Illinois.-THE Chicago New Church Society (the Rev. Mr. Mercer, pastor) has given possession of its Lincoln Park Chapel to St. James Episcopal Church. It will hereafter be known as All Saints' Church, and is to be "neither ritualistic nor reform."
     Florida.-ON the 29th of May. Mr. J. W. Leadenham, formerly of Maryland, preached the New Church Doctrines in the school house at Merrimac, Orange County, Fla. The community has engaged him to preach two Sundays each month for an indefinite period. Mr. Leadenham was once an Episcopalian minister but has done no preaching since receiving the New Church Doctrines.
     Georgia.-AN Atlanta correspondent of the Messenger mentions the discouragements and drawbacks met by those striving to spread the New Church, but, he thinks, "By far the most powerful work going on with us is the 'pressing down' of the truths of the new dispensation into the old pulpits. We are coming into more receptive states."

     ABROAD.

     England.-The Missionary and Tract Society of the New Church held its sixty-fifth anniversary at Camden Road, May 27th, Mr. T. H. Elliott presiding. Mr. Elliott in his address thought that the purpose of the Society's existence was shown "in the change of sentiment which prevailed among the churches." The Secretary reported that three thousand six hundred and ninety-nine books had been sold or given away, and sixty-four thousand three hundred and ninety-nine tracts, and that nine mission stations had been provided with preachers Sunday by Sunday. The report of the Evidence Society gave full details of work done, and many of the letters received were read expressing the writers' views on Swedenborg.
     THE New Church Orphanage in London is supporting twenty orphans.
THE New Churchmen of Colchester have organized a Sunday-school. It met first on May 23d, and thirty were present.
     Germany.-DR. R. L. TAFEL publishes in Morning Light a letter from Mr. Artope, giving further news of affairs in Berlin.
     A says: "The animosity of the established clergy has now become so intense here, that they are scarcely able to hide their rage." Mr. Artope also says that his meetings are "becoming more and more demonstrative In their condemnation of the old doctrines. . . . I endeavor to calm down the excited feelings, and counsel moderation and, I believe, successfully." The hall rented is already too small to hold the crowds that wish to hear him. The president of the police, at the instigation of the Old Church, "has again rescinded the permission he gave to me to preach on the canal boats." The New Church Society of Germany has granted aid, both of money and books.
     Another correspondent writes Dr. Tafel that two Sunday-school teachers in Dr. Stocker's congregation demanded that he recant the falsehoods he has circulated about the New Church and Mr. Artope. "The Doctor became enraged and declared that all who belonged to this injurious sect were preparing their souls for hell." The Doctor also declared that Mr. Artope and all other New Churchmen were insane. On a Wednesday Mr. Artofe preached at Rixdorf, a suburb of Berlin, with much success, and was asked to coma again.
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886



113




NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST, 1886=117.          No. 8.
     OUR supply of March numbers of the Life for this year, excepting those we reserve for binding, is exhausted. New subscriptions can date from April, or be made to include the serial story now running, or may begin with date of receipt. By a misprint last month our six month trial subscription terms was made to read "seventy-five," instead of twenty-five cents.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THERE are some New Churchmen who defend their concealment of the truth by saying that the world is not ready to receive all portions of it yet; that certain parts offend and drive men away from the Church. Those who claim this are, perhaps, not aware that they are acting deceitfully. They entice men into the New Church by means of certain beautiful truths that almost men's old religion and states, and exert a persuasive any one will accept. They conceal the truth concerning influence instead. They make no effort to show the world the nature of its cherished beliefs, but do what they can to introduce the new before driving out the old. They enthusiastically tell the men of the Old Church that the New Church is not a sect, but a New Revelation of Divine Truth, and that it is a "step in advance." This statement, so often made, is a mingling of falsehood and truth, and is baneful to those making it and those receiving it. It conveys the impression that the New Church is a step in Advance in the direction the Old Church is progressing. Suppose that a man of the Old Church, enticed by this fallacy and by certain beautiful truths, enters the New Church. Sooner or later he discovers that the Writings explicitly teach that his old belief is hell. Then the alternative is: "I have been deceived," or, "The New Church is merely a step further into hell." Had this man been told the truth in the beginning his state would probably have been better, even though he had been offended. If New Churchmen feel called upon to spread the truth, let them call to mind the old saw, that a half truth is worse than a lie, and that the last state of a man who receives truth and afterward rejects it is worse than the first.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THE second annual meeting of the American Congress of Churches was held in Cleveland, Ohio, in May. An official circular says that "the general management of the Congress is in the hands of a Council of twenty-five, in which the various Churches of America are unofficially represented." The three-days' session was held in the Music Hall, over the stage of which was a banner bearing the inscription "In essentials, unity; non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity." This is a very commendable motto, and under it was held a peaceable meeting. Every gentleman was allowed to expound his views, no was expected to believe them unless he chose to do so, as the Congress has, wisely, no intention of "establishing a society or putting forth a creed." Had some disturber of the peace propounded the question: What is the first essential of Christianity? very likely an explosion would have followed that would have blown the meeting into the twenty-three faiths represented in it. Imagine the Roman Catholic and the Unitarian delegates agreeing on the first essential; or the Presbyterian and the Universalist; or the New Church delegate and the remainder of the Congress! Fancy the New Churchman proclaiming the Doctrine of the LORD to his twenty-four colleagues, and following it by reading the LORD'S words concerning the nature of the other denominations represented in the Congress! The motto was a good one, but the meeting under it could have been little else than a decorous comedy. Apparently this was seen, for one gentleman said that the meeting had no right to the title it had assumed, being in reality a "Congress of heresies and schisms," which assertion was received with applause; very likely each applauding faith thought, "That hits the others exactly."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     A NEW CHURCHMAN of Brooklyn concludes his column-long letter to the Religio-Philosophical Journal as follows: "I am happy to call myself a Christian, a Swedenborgian, and a Spiritualist." While not denying that this gentleman believes himself to be what he claims, we are positive that be is nothing of the sort. Spiritism, or, as it is generally written, "Spiritualism," and the New Church are vitally antagonistic, and can never be united into none. They may, indeed, meet in one man, but a conflict must then inevitably ensue, in which one or the other shall perish. The writer of this letter is, we hope, a New Churchman; one, though, temporarily led astray by the mistaken notions concerning Charity that prevail so largely in the Church to-day. The Spiritualists, as well as the men of other sects in the Christian world, are, as a class, peaceable and law-abiding citizens. Being such, it is the duty of New Churchmen to meet them as fellow-citizens, and to be honest, just, sincere, and courteous in all dealings with them. But though, as a rule, the men of the New Church are all they should be in their worldly dealings with the men of the Old Church, yet, when it comes to spiritual things, many of them are the reverse. We are not called upon to go to our fellow-men and denounce their beliefs, no matter how false those beliefs may be. To do so would not only be contrary to the amenities of civil life, but also to the revealed truth. On the other hand, when the subject of religion is legitimately brought up, and we, as New Churchmen, cleric or laic, go into the discussion, or are required to state our belief, we act neither honestly, sincerely, nor justly when we willfully conceal any part of the truth the LORD has revealed for man's salvation. Yet this wrong against our fellow-men is often committed in the name of Charity. The man who does not shun his evils is lost. No man can shun an evil until he sees it. Therefore, the New Churchman who willfully conceals those parts of the Writings treating of evils is guilty of a great wrong toward his fellow men, for he does what he can to hide from them the truth the LORD has given for their salvation and for ours. Such conduct is not an evidence of broadness, much less of charity.

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Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     SOMEWHAT akin to the letter from the New Churchman in Brooklyn is one, in the same issue of the Religio-Philosophical Journal, from a lady in New Jersey; Among other things she writes: "I am happy that here and there a wise and true Spiritualist has the goodness, love, and reverence to sun the lonely pathway of our self-denying, fraternally devoted, and spiritual seer, Swedenborg, with the sweet blessing of confidence, cheering and beneficent thoughts which glow and dominate the noble heart." If this lady, who writes with so much emotion, is a Spiritualist, she has a very erroneous notion of Swedenborg and the New Church; if she is a New Churchwoman, she writes in a manner to deceive the Spiritualists. No good can come from deception. The Writings, given by the LORD through Swedenborg for the salvation of the world, say that open communication with spirits by men in this world is disorderly, evil, and very dangerous; that the only spirits who seek this intercourse are lying, treacherous, and insidious spirits. This is a very brief summary of what the Writings say of Spiritism, yet it utterly destroys the false sentimentality quoted above. It is right that all such sentimentality should be destroyed, not only toward the Spiritualists, but toward all sects of the Old Church. Give them the truth pure as it is revealed: If they receive it and shun their falses and evils, it is well with them. If they reject-we have done our duty; and having done it, we must bear no malice when they refuse to accept it. We must treat all men honestly and courteously, for this is of the external life of true charity, while the sentimentality that claims spiritual brotherhood with all beliefs is not only not charity, but is positively injurious to all. It is injurious because it has a tendency to mingle heaven and1 hell. The sentimentalists do not, we believe, realize this, but that does not alter the case. They seem to have an idea that the offering of certain truths, which offend no one, will drive out the falses and evils that lead men to hell; but they forget that they have concealed (sometimes denied) the truths whose office it is to drive out evils, and that, therefore, their efforts may but result in a mingling of heaven and hell. May not this be one of the causes why the Church does not grow?-that the LORD mercifully withholds from more than a passing interest those great crowds that at times gather about our popular speakers?
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     Is it not possible that much of the so-called charity, which leads us to shirk or conceal the truth, is, after all, nothing but fear-fear of Mrs. Grundy? It is a suggestive question,-and each must answer it for himself. If our concealment is the result of the fear of what men will say, or of their anger, or, worse still, their ridicule, is it not dishonesty to call that fear by the name of sweet charity? Every New Churchman knows that charity is inseparable from truth; how, then, is it possible for him to hide the truth and parade charity? It not this a rending asunder of that which the LORD has married? Is this an act of charity? There are some in the Church who go further than merely concealing unpalatable truths-they openly deny them. In order That man maybe saved, the LORD gifts him with freedom, and, therefore, we must assault no man because he does not believe as we do; we must not persuade, nor threaten, nor do anything that tends to hurt his Divine gift of freedom. But we can, and should, when necessary, state the truth and there let the matter rest; All power is in the truth and not in our personal feelings. We may, by passionate denunciation or persuasive emotional pleadings, produce powerful effects on men, but nothing remains with them except that which they accept in freedom according to their reason. What, then, is the position of those who deny certain portions of the Writings? The Writings are the Second Advent of the LORD. Those who so accept them cannot deny any portion of them, for that would be to deny the LORD Himself. Consequently, those who deny the Writings in whole or in part cannot accept them as the Second Advent. This being so, it follows that they must regard them as the works of Swedenborg. There can be no alternative to this. Being the works of Swedenborg, the truth contained in them is on the same plane as the truth contained in the works of other men. Every man has the right, from his freedom, to arrive at this conclusion. That those in the New Church who by denying certain things in the Writings, logically force themselves to this conclusion, contradict themselves when they offer the world a new revelation of Divine Truth in the works of Swedenborg. They also contradict Swedenborg, who distinctly says that the Writings are not his. The man of the New Church who denies parts of the Writings assumes a peculiar position. He tells the world: Here is a Divine revelation, and then takes upon himself the office of sifting out the false in t a revelation.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     ONE of our exchanges in a short notice of a poem says: "It is a poem that our Universalist friends should at once publish as a tract; and there is so much Universalism in the air, so much hope for those who 'die not, having received the promise,' that it ought to find a very general acceptance. It is a noble parable of a sinful soul that longed to look upon the estate of them who are in bliss; and, looking, found that there was room for her, and welcome, too." What is there in such limp sentiment as this that renders it so popular? It is a difficult question to answer. We are inclined to believe, though, that its popularity lies in the flattery it contains. Probably few men in their hearts believe themselves to be good, though there are many who act as though they thought they were. These are offensive to their fellow-men, who have a lurking feeling that in reality they are as good as the saintly one, or a great deal better, for they think the other is more or less of a humbug.
     By association the "sinner" classes the in habitants of heaven with these "good men." That this is so is proved in a manner by a poem published many years ago, which was very popular. We have not the poem at hand, and can but refer to it from memory. It described a rough, swearing, fighting steamboat engineer,- named Jim Bludsoe. His boat, the Prairie Belle, took fire; he stood to his post, "and the ghost of Jim Bludsoe went up in the smoke of the Prairie Belle." The poet intimates that Jim was a better man than the angels who spent their time "loafin' 'round the throne," yet he doesn't make an angel of him; he simply indulges in the same false sentiment contained in the notice just quoted. If the ruling loves of Jim Bludsoe, or of the "sinful soul," the loves of heaven, they would both go to heaven without any theatrical posing as sinners. On the other hand, if their ruling loves were of hell, they would not desire to go to heaven, and wouldn't stay there if admitted. The man who delights in obscene conversation and lasciviousness has no desire for chastity in this world, and he does not change in the next; for a man is his love, and to change that would be annihilation, the most horrible thought of all.

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It is the same with the other loves of hell. Selfishness, hate, murder, greed, cruelty, blasphemy, and the like are not loves to grow sentimental over, yet such as these are what keep men out of heaven, and nothing else. This being so, it is downright silly for any one to grow lachrymose over poor sinful souls, who humbly desire only to look at the abodes of the happy. If a soul can live a life where love to the LORD and love to the neighbor rule, it has no need, as we said before, to indulge in theatrical posings. If, on the other hand, its ruling love is, say selfishness, it, of course, would have no desire to lead a life of unselfishness, and would be very apt to look upon those who did as a lot of fools. Thus, in either case the sort of sentiment under consideration would be, and is, nonsense. All souls are sinful souls, and all may be saved if they will cease to do evil.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     AMONG other ways of putting disagreeable truths out of sight, there is none so popular as what we might for want of a more distinct term, call "the gentle, tender, loving, kindly way." Any skilled writer or able orator can move men to moist-eyed enthusiasm by treating evil from this point. Gentleness, tenderness, love, and kindness are heavenly; there can be no dispute about this.
     The question then is: Are these terms, as popularly used, correctly understood?     As the word "loving" really covers the entire ground let us examine it. The popular idea in the New Church, as indeed it is in the world, seems to be that in a comprehensive and indiscriminate sort of way a good man, or a Christian, or a New Churchman is to love all men. But the Writings say, and New Churchmen must acknowledge; that man of himself is nothing but evil-immersed in selfishness, adultery, greed, hate, revenge, and all that brood from the lower regions. Consequently this pleading for comprehensive love is a pleading for us to love evil. This, of course, is absurd: yet this absurdity abounds in our literature and oratory, and is received with applause or emotional letters. It tells us to be kindly, sympathetic, gentle, tender, compassionate, and loving to all men. So we should be in the true sense; no sane man doubts it. We are told to imitate the example of our LORD while He was in this world, and no sane man doubts that He was all that love implies, and infinitely above angels or men. And here comes in the point which, we think, proves that the love,-so lovingly pleaded for in the New Church, is not love in the heavenly sense, but is merely mistaken sentimentality. It is the concealment of truth in another form. When a New Churchman dares but to quote even the LORD'S own words concerning the evils of mankind, he is either bitterly denounced, or many of his brethren turn from him coldly. Let us go to the Word, though, and see what following the example of the LORD means. (We do not like the word "example" here.) In addition to those Divinely beautiful passages so loved and familiar to us all we find some of this nature:
     "Beware of false, prophets, which come to you in sheeps' clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves."-Matthew vii, 15.
     For from within out of the heart of man proceed evil thoughts adulteries, fornications, murders,
     "Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lascivious ness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness." Mark vii, 21-22.
     "And the LORD said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness."- Luke xi, 39.     
     "Ye are of your-father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar and the father of it."-John viii, 44.
     These are the words of the LORD, who is "love itself." Are we to follow this example, or are we to improve on it? Many New Churchmen, we fear, have woefully confused weak sentiment with heavenly love. But, after all, this sentiment is only directed to man in the aggregate, for generally, when it comes down to individuals, the sentimentalist can hate as strongly, or, as a rule, stronger, than any one. Real heavenly love hates no one. It is directed to what is of the LORD in man, and not to what is of hell. Love to the LORD really comprehends all, for all that should be loved is from Him, and there is nothing beside.
REPRESENTATIVES 1886

REPRESENTATIVES              1886

     IV.

     THE Internal Sense of the Word was not opened to any Church previous to the New Church. It is, therefore, pre-eminently for her use. In it provision is made for the institution of a truly representative Church-one in which the worship, that is, the various acts of genuine charity and piety, shall truly express the internals thereof.
     Thus we are taught in the Arcana, concerning the contents of Exodus xxxi: "Here, in the internal sense, the Representative Church, which is to be established with those who are in the good of love and in the good of faith in the LORD, is treated of. This is signified by the things which are briefly enumerated to be done by Bezaleel, of the tribe of Judah, and Aholiab, of the tribe of Dan. Afterward the conjunction of the LORD, with that Church by Representatives is treated of, which is signified by the Sabbath which was to be kept holy." (A. C. 10327).
     That by this Representative Church is not meant the Israelitish or Jewish Church, which is treated of in the letter, is put entirely out of the question by the statement that those with whom it is are in the good of love and in the good of faith in the LORD. The Writings are very emphatic in their teaching that the Israelites were far from being in this state.
     In this true Representative Church-the New Church now establishing on earth-the LORD'S work of salvation is represented by the human means or agencies by which He performs it: by His priests, who "teach men the way to heaven, and lead them who teach men according to the Doctrine of their Church, and lead them to live according to it." (A. C. 10794.) These priests by virtue of their function are Representatives of the LORD in His work of saving souls. (A. C. 9809, 10017, 3670, etc.)
     In determining whatever has relation to the outward ordering of the priesthood, due respect should be had to the teaching that the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem "is from heaven, because it is from the spiritual sense of the Word, and the spiritual sense of the Word is the same with the Doctrine which is in heaven; for in heaven equally as on earth there is a church, for there is the Word, there is Doctrine from the Word, there are Temples there, and in them preachings, for there are ecclesiastical and civil governments there,"-etc. (H. D. 7, A. R. 533)

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As the oneness of the Internal and the External of' the Church in Heaven and the Church on Earth is thus recognized in the Doctrines, so should it be in the Church which is formed by those Doctrines.
     The Doctrines plainly teach that the priesthood should be in the trinal order. (A. C. 10017, Cor. 17, et al.) This is also the order of the priesthood in the "New Christian Heaven; with which the Church of the LORD upon earth, which is the New Jerusalem, will be conjoined" (T. C. R. 188, A. R. 962, B. E. 120.) And as the New Church on earth adopts this order, that conjunction will become closer, for this trinal order is a Representative of the trine in the heavens, of the trine in man in general and in particular, and thus of the trine in Him who alone is really and truly Man. For let us not forget that everything in the created universe, including both the spiritual and the natural worlds, is representative of something higher, and thus, ultimately, of something in the LORD. As the heavens are conjoined one with the other by correspondence, they are full of representatives, each embodying its own correspondence. Hence the innumerable representative temples, images, groves, gardens, animals, birds, utensils, garments, etc., seen by Swedenborg and described by him.
     The priesthood as it exists in heaven and on earth is a representative of the work of salvation of the LORD, and as whatever the LORD performs as a Saviour is from the Divine Love, thus from the Divine Good, it is a representative of the Divine Good of the Divine Love of the LORD. (See A. C. 10348, 10017, 9809.) As good can effect nothing without truth (T. C. R. 86), so the work of salvation is effected by means of truths, which clothe the good animating this work. And these truths are represented in heaven by the garments worn by the priests there, and such as are described in Conjugial Love (n. 266); True Christian Religion (n. 188, 736, 661, 738).
     This representative was signified by the garments of Aaron and. his sons. (A. C. l0364,et al.) But it does not necessarily follow that the garments in the true Representative Church will be copies of used in Representative of Church instead of looking to this we are to look to the principles forth as they are manifested in appearances in Internal Church in heaven. And thus the garments of the angelic priests become the models for the priestly vestments of the New Church. "Man by his garments also has communication with the societies of heaven." (A. E. 951.). According to the material, the form, the color of the garments, is the communication. If these are of such a nature as not to correspond to things heavenly, they cannot represent the things of heaven, but represent those of hell, to which they correspond. Dead black is not a color to be chosen by a New Church priest for any part of-his garments, but it is a becoming color for an old Old Church priest, as it represents the lifelessness of the evils and falsities of which his Church consists. That the material of which a priests garments are to be made should be carefully chosen is plainly taught: "Amon the statutes of the sons of Israel was also this, that they should not put on a garment of wool and linen mixed. (Deutr. xxii, 11.) A reason was that wool signifies good and linen truth, and because man by his garments also has communication with societies of heaven and there are societies who are in good, and there are those who are for truth and man must not have communication with different societies at the same time, for then there would be confusion. No one has hitherto known that this is the reason for this statute, but it was given me to know it from the changing of my garments, for on laying aside a garment of linen, those in the spiritual world who were in truths complained that they could not be present, and the same became present upon my again taking the linen garment. It has hitherto been unknown that there is such a correspondence with the very garments of man." (A. E. 952; see also S. D. 817, 3609; A. R. 328.)
     The due observance of this and many other laws concerning the power of ultimates, which all come under the Doctrine concerning Correspondences and Representatives, will greatly aid man to elevate his thoughts and affections to heaven and to the LORD.
     The perturbed state of mind which worshipers would experience were a disorderly person, unkempt, unwashed, with clothes tattered and foul, introduced into the Church in the midst of service, would result simply from the correspondence of his disorder, his tatters and filth and general offensiveness, with the disgusting evils and falses of hell, which they represent. And where the peaceful sphere of heaven should reign, the sphere of hell is introduced by means of these Representatives.
     Man is in an earthly body, and in it his spiritual mind thinks naturally, for his spiritual thought then inflows into natural ideas corresponding to the spiritual idea, and is thus perceived there. (H. H. 314; L. J. 18; T. C. R. 787.) His material surroundings enter as it were through the sates of his five senses, and furnish the substance of which his natural ideas are formed to invest the spiritual ideas. Whatever in the natural world leads him more directly to conscious thought concerning heaven, as, for instance, the things in use in external worship, the temple, the furniture of the temple, the garments of the priests, the Word and the Writings, should be prepared in correspondence with the things they are intended to represent. Then will the internal states of the truly pious worshiper have powerful external aids to receive the tranquillity and happiness of heaven more becomingly, and communication with heaven and conjunction with the LORD will be more intimate.
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     SCIENTIFIC, SENSUAL, RATIONAL, SPIRITUAL-THEIR FORMATION AND ORDER.

     AS we have seen, an image of creation appears in all the forms of uses in the world. But creation bears the image of the Creator, who is the Divine Man. Therefore also is there an image of man in all the forms of uses in the world. Inasmuch as the infinity and eternity of the LORD are with man in the love and wisdom from which he has affection and thought, and comes into the image of the Divine, it is evident that this image is with man not only as a form of use, natural and spiritual, but also by impression from without, that is, from the natural world around him. Thus by influx from the LORD, and through the Spiritual World, acting on the organic forms of mind and their spiritual and natural substances, man is enabled to receive impressions from without and to conceive ideas. In other words, he thus comes into the exercise of the faculty of thinking; and in the process of the formation of this faculty, as well as in the exercise of the same, and its manifold uses, we may see not only an image of all creation, but also a representation of the order in which all uses are formed in creation. Thought and the products of thought such as sciences and knowledges, exhibit in general a beginning from first things; a proceeding by intermediates, and a termination in ultimates, in which the first things come with their fullness and power. As the first productions from the newly-created earths, whilst they were still recent and in their simplicity, were Seeds (D. L. and W. 312), so will the first impressions made on the human sensory by these earths and their products be a seed image impressed on the substances of the natural memory by influx of the Divine, into which, as a receptive plane, will be effected the production of an idea of thought, i. e., an image in plane above that of the first impression, and by means of this other images or ideas of thought in successively higher or more interior planes, until that seed image has grown up and returned to God from whom it has come forth, not as a simple seed, but as a whole spiritual tree from root to fruit, having new seeds capable of indefinite reproductions.

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Hence it is said that sensual things, or things that enter into the mind by means of the senses, and those from images, which are thoughts, are seeds from which grow up scientifics, and that these are seeds from which proceed rational ideas and thoughts, to become on their part other of a higher quality capable of receiving an influx of the light and heat of heaven for the prod action of spiritual ideas and thoughts from which, under the same influences, proceed celestial ideas and thoughts, as fruits containing new and more wonderful seeds. In this there is an image of the infinity and eternity of the Creator in man, to which corresponds the image of this infinity and eternity as seen in all the ultimate things of Creation. From this we can also see how the uses of all things created by the LORD are transferred into man, for whom they exist: first in time, into his body, and afterward, into his mind "in the order and degree and respect in which they refer themselves to man, and by man to the LORD, from whom they are." (D. L. and W. 327.) For the natural world, when in order, serves the spiritual world, and the spiritual world serves the LORD in the fulfillment of His ends of love, and in effecting "His conjunction of Himself with His great work." (Ib., see also D. L. and W. 318, 328, 829.)
     Thought, therefore, is formed in the thinking faculty of many means of the transference of the uses of created things; together with an image of Creation and the Creator, through the senses, first into the body and afterward into the mind. On thoughts, so formed, are impressed, in addition to uses and forms of created things, also their ends, means, and effects, in order. These impressions, as they are the beginnings of thought, necessarily flow into and give quality to all the products of human thought, which are scientifics and cognitions, and all the succeeding forms of intelligence and wisdom. And thus, it appears that, all unconscious as man may be of the fact, there are collated in the sensual things of his mind the beginning of all ideas concerning the RD as the Divine man, concerning man as His image in greater, less, and least forms on Earth and in Heaven; concerning Heaven, in which man is conjoined with the LORD, as the end of Creation; and concerning Creation itself, as the Divine means provided for the accomplishment of this one end. (D. L. and W. 328, 329.)
     From these things it is evident that whatever material, received from the world without, enters into the structure of human thought and knowledge, all the scientifics from which is made man's knowing will have respect to three things, namely: 1, man's body; 2, man's reason; 3, man's spirit. Man is to be conjoined with the LORD by becoming Spiritual, for "the LORD is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth." (John iv, 24.) But no one is spiritual who is not first rational, and no one is truly rational who has not a sound or whole body. These three, we are instructed, "are like a house, the body is like the foundation, the rational is like the house built upon it, the spiritual is like those things which are in the house, and conjunction with the LORD 15 like dwelling in it. Hence it appears in what order, degree, and respect the uses which are the mediate ends of creation refer themselves to man, namely, for sustaining his body, for perfecting his rational, and for receiving a spiritual from the LORD." (D. L. and W. 330, cf. C. L. 18; D. P. 220; T. C. R. 746, 394.)
     These teachings furnish an idea of the order in which scientifics exist from the uses which they subserve, as there are uses which are first in the order of time, and which relate to the substance of the body, uses 'which succeed and which are for the perfecting of the rational, and uses which follow, for receiving a spiritual from the LORD. So there are scientifics which have reference to the first uses, which are called sensual scientifics; scientifics relating to the second order of uses, which are called rational scientifics; and scientifics which refer to the third order of uses, and which are called spiritual-scientifics. So we carry forward our inquiries and ask what sensual scientifics are. We find an answer in the Divine teaching, confirmed by observation and experience, as to things in the created world that are of use to man for nutrition, clothing, habitation, recreation, delight, and protection of his body, and for the conservation of his body in the state of health, vigor, and soundness required for the right performance of the end of his creation. On this subject we read: "Uses created for the nutrition of the body are all things of the vegetable kingdom, which are for eating and drinking, as fruits, berries, seeds, pulse, and herbs; also all things of the animal kingdom which are eaten, as oxen, cows, calves, deer, sheep, kids, lambs, and from these milk; also birds and fishes of many kinds. Uses treated for the clothing of the body, are also many things from those two kingdoms; likewise uses for habitation, also for recreation, delight, protection, and conservation of state, which are not enumerated because they are known, and therefore to recount them would be only to fill our pages. There are, indeed, many things which do not yield any use to man; but superfluity does not take away use, but causes use to endure. There are also abuses of uses, but abuse does not take away use; even as the falsification of truth does not take away truth, except only with those who do this. (D. L. and W. 331.)
     The images, therefore, which man gathers and stores up in his memory, by means of the senses of the body from the three kingdoms of nature, as they form ideas     of thought and aid in the development of the faculty of thinking, gradually take form as scientifics, and are called sensual scientifics, being with man his first acquired means of knowing, "and following on to know" things of use and service. And such scientifics are given to every man, in a greater or less degree, during his life in the body. The uses for which they proceed as sensorial impressions are around him and with him; they cause in him sensations which, being internally perceptions, cause him to think, or, in other words, bring into exercise the faculty of thinking implanted in Creation; and as he sensates delight from this exercise the delight stimulates the exercise, and by frequent repetition forms the habit of thinking, accompanied by a growing affection from accumulation of delights.
     It is obvious that these scientifics in their primary forms are chiefly external and material, being sensual impressions of earthly objects forms and shapes, of worldly sights and sounds. Even the highest of these scientifics such as the things of the Divine Word and Law, are at first but words, as sounds and signs of interior things; and the ideas formed by means of them are imbibed much more from their sphere than from any conception of their meaning, or inner life and form.

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All these scientifics are inseminated in the memory, and imbedded in its purer natural substances, for future growth and use (See A. C. 991, 1489; A. E. 345)
     The sensations which enter thus into the memory, as they accumulate arrange themselves into some order, and come into some relation to each other under the stimulus of a delight of acquiring and possessing, and from the influx of the Divine Love and its leading into this' delight. Sensual images, by arrangement into some form of order, become ideas of thought; and by the combination of a number and series of such ideas there arises a scientific, from which man begins to know. With the knowledge of an object or thing there is always associated some conception of its use and some notion of a form. Let a number of such knowings, conceptions, and notions be combined together, and there will be produced a state of the faculty of thinking, or a state of thought, in which truth of the lowest order is perceived, and thus made present in the minds by virtue of the influx of light from above into that combination as an ultimate plane of reception.
     Inflowing light becomes an actual mental illuminant with man by reception into external corresponding forms, which are objects and the images of objects.
     In early childhood man thinks from the senses, that is, from objects presented in their images in his sensory, these images being his first ideas of them. As he grows in age, he gradually comes to think from the scientifics formed in his mind from the sensual images; and later,-as the rational comes in to form with him, he thinks from the truths which, as it were, arise out of his scientifics, from the influx of more intense light into the new planes formed in him. In A. C. 5580 we are taught that there are scientifics which first enter into the senses, and thus open the way to the interiors; for it is known that external sensuals are first opened with man, and afterward interior sensuals, and lastly intellectuals . . . ; intellectuals arise from sensuals by, a certain mode of extraction, for intellectuals are conclusions! For, as we are further instructed (A. C. 5774) "Sensuals are one thing, scientifics another, and truths another; they succeed each other mutually; for from sensuals exist scientifics, and from scientifics exist truths; for those things which enter by the, senses are deposited in the memory, and thence man concludes a scientific, or from them he perceives a scientific which he learns; from scientifics he then concludes truths, or from them perceives truth which he learns; thus also every man progresses from childhood as he grows up. When he is a boy he thinks from sensuals and understands things from them; advancing in age, he thinks and understands things from scientifics, and afterward from truths; this is the way to judgment, into which man grows with age. Thence it may be evident that sensuals, scientifics, and truths are distinct, yea, that they also remain distinct; so much so, that at times man is in sensuals, which takes place when he does not think anything but what touches the senses; at times he is in scientifics, which takes place when he elevates himself from sensuals and thinks interiorly, and at times he is in truths which have been concluded from scientifics; this takes place when he thinks still more interiorly." The way to judgment is, therefore, a way of distinct steps, or states of thinking and of being affected with delight. This way is not gully accomplished by all men, nor by any two or three men, in precisely the same time, manner, and degree.
Some men never rise above the first state of thought from sensuals; others are not elevated above scientifics, thinking from mere facts and theories derived from facts, and not, as others do, from truths and from laws which are truths. The former classes never, become truly rational, because they do not think interiorly. Their sensuals and scientifics are not opened to the light of heaven, and thus do not open the way to interior things, to things essential, belonging to the spirit and the life. Only those are rational who can reverse the order of the formation of intelligence; who can go back on "the way to judgments' and inform scientifics with truths from the Divine, and sensuals with scientifics and rationals; who can contemplate interior in exterior things, or, in other words, have exterior things illustrated by interior things.
WORD AND THE CHURCH 1886

WORD AND THE CHURCH              1886

     THE LORD is the Bridegroom, the Church the Bride. There is but one LORD and but one Church. The nearer the Church is to the LORD the more perfect its oneness. The celestial is more at one with the LORD than the spiritual; the spiritual more at one with Him than the natural. The three degrees-celestial, spiritual, and natural-exist by birth in every man, and they exist also in common in Heaven and the Church, which is the reason why there are three heavens-the supreme, the middle, and the ultimate is the lowest-altogether distinct from any other, according to their degrees. In like manner, the LORD'S Church upon earth contains these three degrees.
     In treating of the connection between the LORD and His Church, and between the LORD and man, we may liken the Church or the man to the Garden of Eden. In this garden are two trees-the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of life is the reception of love and wisdom from God. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the reception of them from self.
     As it was with the Most Ancient, so it was with the First Christian Church. Both lost their first estates, became corrupt and finally dead-because they would eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, That is, they would receive love and wisdom from themselves and not from the LORD.
     Take the Roman Catholic Church. That acknowledges a divinity in the decrees of Rome superior to the Divine in the Word. Thus they exclude all from the way to heaven, while acknowledgment of the LORD, faith in Him, and love to Him are secondary. They also place all worship in a devout external, apart from the internal, making the internal into vacuum, for they deprive it of the knowledges of good and truth. But Divine worship is external only so far as it is internal, since the external proceeds from the internal. The Divine Word also is external only so far as it has an internal and spiritual     sense. The Roman Catholics do not at all believe in the internal and spiritual sense of the Word. Consequently, they do not believe in the LORD'S Divinity, nor in the Divinity of His Humanity. Consequently, they are not a living but a dead Church. They represent on the earth the highest and most powerful form of the domination of hell over heaven! whereas the true Church represents the domination of heaven over hell!
     As to the Reformed Church, that proceeds not from the LORD but from the Roman Catholic Church-in fact, that "woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth."-Rev. xvii.

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The Protestant Churches in the main have received their doctrinals from her. They approach God the Father, and not the LORD; they do not acknowledge the LORD'S Humanity to be Divine; they believe His passion on the cross is expiation, propitiation, and satisfaction, with God the Father; they believe in the imputation of His merit. For these reasons the "scarlet woman," it is said, "reigneth over the kings of the earth;" that is, over Protestantism. The Catholic is the daughter of the Babylonian Harlot!
     Is there any, even the least, internal in either the Roman Catholic or the Reformed Church through which the LORD can communicate with the world? No, there is not. We must look elsewhere for it.
     And this brings me to the internal of the Word and of Heaven, which the LORD has revealed through His New Church, and the manner in which He revealed it.
     The internal through which the LORD has revealed Himself is "the internal sense of the Scriptures" which is celestial, spiritual, and natural-the all of the Scriptures, of the Word, of the LORD.

     Only they who understand the Word according to the internal sense know the real and true doctrine of the Church, inasmuch as it is contained in the internal sense.- A. C. 9025, 9430, 10401.

     In the spiritual world, they who allow and acknowledge only the literal sense of the Word are represented by a deformed old woman; but they who allow and acknowledge the internal sense, together with he literal sense, are represented by a virgin in beautiful clothing.- A. C. 1774.

     This is because the things, which are the literal sense, derive their sanctity from the internal contents.
     It is evident that the existence of this "beautiful virgin" could never have been perceived had not the LORD revealed the same through and by his servant, Swedenborg. Thus we are taught: -

     Hence it may appear that the things contained in the Apocalypse can never be explained by ANY ONE but him to whom a revelation has been made concerning the successive notes of the Church in the heavens; for there is a church in the heavens as well as on the earth.-Last Judgment 40. Now since the state of the Church as to Love and Faith is described in the spiritual sense of the Apocalypse, therefore no one can know what all the things in its series involve BUT HE TO WHOM IT HAS BEEN REVEALED FROM HEAVEN, AND TO WHOM, AT THE SAME TIME, HAS BEEN IMPARTED A KNOWLEDGE OF THE INTERNAL OR SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORD!

     Again, and what can be stranger than this?

     Since, in like manner, there is an internal, a spiritual sense in every word of the Apocalypse, and since that sense contains the arcana of the state of the Church in the heavens and on earth, AND SINCE THAT ARCANA CAN BE REVEALED TO NO ONE BUT TO HIM WHO KNOWS THAT SENSE, AND TO WHOM AT THE SAME TIME IT HAS BEEN GrantED TO HAVE CONCERT WITH THE ANGELS, AND TO SPEAK SPIRITUALLY WITH THEM, THEREFORE, LEST THE THINGS WHICH ARE THEREIN WRITTEN SHOULD BE HIDDEN TO VIEW AND SHOULD HEREAFTER BE DISREGARDED, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT UNDERSTOOD, ITS CONTENTS HAVE BEEN DISCLOSED TO ME!

     In other words, the salvation of man dependeth on the revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word through Swedenborg.
     Now, then, compare this with the statement:

     Only they who understand the Word according to the, internal sense know the real and true doctrine of the Church, inasmuch as it is contained in the internal sense. That is, they only know what genuine and true wisdom is.
     They who are in the literal sense of the Word without Doctrine [that is, the Doctrine of the true Church] do not attain to any understanding of Divine Truths.

     But what is true doctrine? The internal sense of the Word as it exists in the LORD and in His heaven, and as it is revealed through His servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, to His Church on earth.
     Read the White Horse. What is the White Horse? It is the pure doctrine of live Word and the Church, that is "it signifies the Understanding of the Word as to its interiors." (White Horse 1.) Perhaps some deformed old woman may say that it is the understanding of the Word in its literal sense.
     After Swedenborg describes the coming of the White Horse out of heaven, he says:

     From these particulars and from those which precede and follow in that chapter, it is evident that therein is predicted that about the last time of the Church the spiritual or internal sense of the Word would be opened . . . . He that sat upon that horse . . . . is the LORD as to the Word, Consequently the Word.

     He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood, to show that violence had been offered to the Word. How? By denying its internal sense. By proclaiming that it was not from God, but from the knowledge of man-of Popes, Prelates, and Presbyters, who by merely reading and expounding the letter could attain to its spiritual meaning!
     Could any man have ever ascertained without the revelations made through the LORD'S ordained servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, that the White Horse in the Revelations requires "the understanding of the Word as to its spiritual or internal sense," and thus to the true knowledge that it is the Word of God? I trow not.
     Let the Church beware of all who say that by their own intelligence they can extract true doctrine from the letter of the Word.
     A word as to the statement, perhaps honestly enough made, that doctrine is derived from the literal sense of the Word. It is not true that it is so derived without illustration from the spiritual sense or from true doctrine, which is the spiritual sense; certainly the Word is in its power and its value in the literal sense. But it is just as the, power of the LORD and of his Word are in His right arm. In that His power ultimates itself and is operative. One might as well say that the moving forces of the elephant are in his tusks, because "ivory signifies natural truth." It so signifies "because it is white, and capable of being polished, and because it is protruded from the mouth of the elephant, and also constitutes his strength!" (A. R. 774.) But what would a nice tusk of an elephant be deprived of the tip, which gives it power, and the intelligence or sagacity which gives it strength? It would be no more than the power of the literal sense of the Word, of its doctrines without the spiritual, which makes them living and breathing actualities. -
OLD STORY AGAIN 1886

OLD STORY AGAIN              1886

     THE ILIAD.

     THE Iliad opens with the tenth year of the siege, the Trojans cooped up in their walls, while Achilles spreads terror far and wide. Agamemnon has captured the daughter of Chryses, a priest of Apollo, and refuses to give her up, so Apollo sends his swift shafts of death among the Greeks.

     And fierce and deadly twanged the silver bow.
     First on moles and dogs, on man the last,
     Was poured the arrowy storm.

     The Greeks in terror ask their soothsayer the cause of the pestilence; he tells them the cause is in their King, Agamemnon's, refusal to give up the maiden.

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A council is convened and the King yields, but demands in return that he shall have the fair Briseis, whom Achilles had captured in a similar raid. That impetuous warrior leaps to his feet and half draws his sword, but hesitates, for the Greeks had great reverence for authority, and powerful as was Achilles, yet Agamemnon was his chief. Pallas Athene (Minerva), sent by Juno to check the quarrel among her favorites, suddenly appears to Achilles, though invisible to the others, and calms his wrath a little, and then disappears. He then swears a mighty oath that

          When bleeding Greece again
     'Shall call Achilles, she shall call in vain,

and dashes his sceptre to the ground. Agamemnon retorts, and the sage Nestor counsels peace. Achilles stalks off gloomily to his tent. Agamemnon sends the fair captive home under the escort of Ulysses, and two heralds to the tent of Achilles to demand Briseis. He receives them like a high-bred gentleman and delivers the maiden. When they have departed he wanders on the lonely sea-shore and calls on his mother, the silver-footed Thetis, a goddess and daughter of Jupiter. She rises from the waves, and he tells her in a child-like manner, this fierce warrior, his wrongs. She comforts him, and promises to intercede with Jupiter to grant the Trojans victory for awhile, that the Greeks may realize their loss. But the King of the Gods has gone to a twelve days' festival with the "blameless Ethiopinns," a race, it is worthy of, note, with whom the Immortals of Olympus have some mysterious connection in mythology. On the twelfth day Thetis pleads her cause. Jupiter hesitates through fear of his wife, Juno.

     She taunts me that I aid the Trojan cause.
     But thou return-that Jisno see thee not-
     And leave to me the furtherance of thy suit.

     The Thunderer evidently feared his wife. But he finally grants the request, and ratifies it with the famous, "nod" that makes Olympus tremble. Thetis departs. But Juno has her suspicions, and a very realistic matrimonial squabble follows. Jupiter at last plainly tells her to hold her tongue." All through the Iliad the mortals show better than the immortals, who display very petty traits indeed.
     Jupiter sends a lying dream to Agamemnon to storm Troy with all his forces on the morrow and he shall be successful. In the morning the King summons his chiefs and announces his intentions; but first, to try the temper of the army, he proposes that they give up the war and go home. This proposal is received with unexpected enthusiasm, and the soldiers rush for the ships, but the watchful Juno sends Minerva to Ulysses to stop the flight which he does with much trouble. Thersites, "the ugliest man was he who came to Troy," being particularly bitter; he seems to have been a sort of old-time anarchist, and was only subdued by being thumped on the back by Ulysses' heavy sceptre.
     When at last the battle is set in array, the beautiful Paris steps from the Trojan ranks and challenges the leaders of the Greeks to single combat. The husband of Helen, the fierce Menelaus, leaps full-armed from his chariot "like a hungry lion." Paris, seeing the man he has wronged, quails with fear and retreats to the Trojan ranks. There he meets his brother Hector, the most admirable character in the Iliad, a brave, honest, and, mortal soldier, who fights for his country. Achilles is pictured as the better man, but one thinks there is not much credit due to a man who is invulnerable save in his heel!-Achilles, having been dipped by his mother in the river Styx, all of his body save his heel by which she held him. Hector reproaches Paris for his cowardice, and Paris agrees to meet Menelaus, the victor to have Helen, and thus end the war. A truce is proclaimed. A messenger tells Helen of the impending duel, and she goes down to the "Scaen gate" to witness it. Her character and position are peculiar but we cannot dwell upon them further than to say that the beautiful Helen is received as a daughter by the old King, Priam, and sits by his side-and points out to him the leaders of the Greek army. Of Agamemnon she says:

     Wide-reigning, mighty monarch, ruler good,
     And valiant warrior; in my husband's name,
     Lost as I am, I called him brother once.

She also points out Ulysses, and tells of an assembly in her husband's court in which she heard him speak.

     But when the skilled Ulysses rose to speak,
     With down-cast visage would he stand, his eyes
     Bent on the ground;

and people who only saw him would say he was void of sense; but when he spoke,

     Then little recked we of his ontward show.

She looks in vain in the Greek ranks for

     My own two brethren, and my mother's sons,
     Castor and Pollux.

She fears that they may

          Shame to join
     The fight of warriors, fearful of the shame
     And deep disgrace that on my name attend. -

She did not know that her brothers were dead, and were set among the stars, the "Great Twin Brethren." She realized her fallen state, but neither the Greeks nor the Trojans, nor indeed herself, seem to have viewed the evil otherwise than as something apart from herself.
     In the duel Paris first cast his spear, but it was turned by his enemy's shield; Menelaus' spear goes through his opponent's shield, but he avoids it. Then the Greek deals a mighty blow with his sword, but the Trojan helmet is of good stuff and the sword is shivered. Maddened by his two failures the Greek seizes Paris by the horse-hair of his helmet and trys to drag him to the Greek ranks, but Venus comes, touches the straps of the helmet, and it is left in Menelaus' hands, and she conveys Paris to his chamber, veiled in a cloud from all eyes.
     The Greeks claim the victory, but the tricky immortals of Olympus interfere. Jupiter taunts Juno and Minerva that Venus has, after all, rescued her favorite Paris, but he awards the victory to the Greeks, and says the war should end. At this Juno rages, for she wants the detested Trojans exterminated, and Jupiter gives way-"anything for a quiet life." So Minerva goes down among the Trojans and incites Pandarus to shoot an arrow at the unsuspecting Menelaus. Minerva takes care that the arrow does not kill, though it wounds him.
     Then, to use a homely but strong simile, "the fat was in the fire." The poem here is a description of blood and carnage. It goes hard with the Trojans; but Apollo tells them to remember that "there is no Achilles in the field to-day." We have no space for the lone list of exploits of the several heroes on either side, deed's which men of this "degenerate age"-could not rival, says the old poet with a cynicism for the present, that sounds very familiar. Diomed, who is a sort of second Achilles, sweeps everything before him, and at least AEneas goes to oppose the fiery young Greek, but he is badly wounded, and would have been killed had not his mother, the goddess Venus, come to his rescue.

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Diomed very ungallantly attacks her, and his "sharp spear grazed her palm below the wrist." She shrieked, and dropping her son, fled to Olympus, and it would have gone hard with AEneas had not Apollo taken him up. When Venus reaches Olympus bewailing her scratched hand, Minerva sarcastically suggests that she has been trying to lead astray some other fair Greek like Helen.

     And as her hand the gentle dame caressed
     A golden clasp has scratched her slender arm.

     Jupiter smiles and recommends her to leaves battles to Mars and Minerva. In the meantime, the furious Diomed attacks even Apollo himself, and it was not until the fourth blow that

          The Far-destroyer spoke
     In terms of awful menace; be advised,
     Tydides, and retire; nor as a god
     Thyself esteem, since not alike the race
     Of gods immortal, and of earth-born men.

     Tydides, or Diomed, takes the hint and desists, and Apollo carries the sorely hurt AEneas to his sister Diana, who soon cures him. While absent, Apollo calls on the War-god Mars to help the Trojans. Mars, disguised as a Thracian chief (the gods always assumed some disguise), calls on Hector, and these two rush to the front and change the tide of the battle; then AEneas, duly restored to health, again appears, and on the other side the two Ajares, Ulysses, Menelaus, and Agamemnon confront them; but Diomed warns them to beware, for he sees the great War god with the Trojans. The Greek line slowly gives back. Juno cannot stand this and sends Minerva to the rescue. She calls shame on the Greeks for their cowardice, and (disguised) leaps on the chariot of Diomed and drives headlong at Mars, and the chariot groaned as though it "bore a hundred men." Mars is wounded in the thigh and thereat yells like "ten thousand men," so that both hosts pause in fear. Then Mars, like Venus, departs to Olympus and complains to Jupiter of Minerva. Jupiter rates him soundly and says he is like his mother, Juno, entirely too quarrelsome. The immortals now leave the field to the mortals. -The Trojans being very hard pressed, Hector, by the advice of his brother Helenus, a soothsayer, retires to the city and directs his mother Hecuba with her matrons to go to the temple of Pallas and implore that the terrible Diomed be withdrawn from the field. Hector, while on this errand, finds Paris idly lying in his chamber, and upbraids him sharply, and yet he gently declines Helen's invitation to rest awhile from the battle. He then goes to his wife's apartments to see her and his child a moment before returning to the field. This scene is the most admired in the Iliad. He does not find her there, but meets her and his child with its nurse at the Scaen gate. The father looks silently at the infant and smiles, while his wife, Andromache, with tears begs him to be careful of his life, for already she has lost her seven brothers and her father in the terrible war.

     But while my Hector still survives, I see
     My father; mother, brethren, all in thee.

     He soothes her, but says:

          I should blush
     To face the men and long-robed dames of Troy.
     If like a coward should shun the fight,

     After talking with his wife; he (this is Pope's translation),

     Stretched his fond arms to clasp the lovely boy;
     The babe clung crying to his nurse's breast,
     Scared at the dazzling helm and nodding crest.
     With secret pleasure each fond parent smiled
     And Hector hasted to relieve his child,
     The glittering terrors from his brows unbound
     And placed the beaming helmet on the ground,
     Then kissed the child.

     Then Hector tells Andromache to go home and attend to her household cares:

          And leave to men of Troy,
     And chief of all to me, the toils of war.

     The iron soldier was tender to his, wife and child, yet wanted them to remain in their proper place. He returns to the field accompanied by Paris, who has come forth clad in glittering armor.
     On the second day of the battle Hector challenges the Greeks to send one of their number to meet him. The great Ajax is chosen as the champion. The fight lasts till dusk, when the heralds interpose and they separate with mutual courtesies. The next day a truce is agreed upon, and both sides busy themselves in burning the dead, with which the plain is thickly strewed. Then the Greeks build a wall, fronted with a ditch, to protect their camp and ships.
     In Olympus Jupiter holds a council, and forbids any of the deities to interfere in the coming battle. Then he descends to Mount Ida to view it. The battle rages furiously, and, led by Hector, the Trojans drive the Greeks back to their ships, and night alone saves them from destruction. The Trojans camp outside the Greek walls and await the morning.
     The opening of the Ninth Book of the Iliad shows the Greeks utterly cast down, and Agamemnon, this time in sad earnest, proposes to return home. Diomed calls him a coward-they were free spoken, those old heroes-and tells him that his insult to Achilles was the cause of their troubles, and he, for one, will not go home. After a council, Ajax, Ulysses, and Phoenix are sent to entreat the aid of Achilles. They find him lying in his tent, playing on his lyre, while his friend Patroclus sits near. Achilles will hear no message until his guests have shared his hospitality, and he helps to prepare the food with his own hands. It was but two hours before that these three men had eaten with Agamemnon, but in eating and drinking wine these old heroes were as heroic as in fighting.
     Ulysses tells of Agamemnon's offer, which is, to restore Briseis, to give in marriage one of the King's own daughters, and many royal presents besides, if Achilles will come to their aid. But in vain does Ulysses and Phoenix plead. Ajax, the blunt soldier, speaks last, and says they may as well return, since words are lost. He has no patience with a quarrel about a girl.

     And for a single girl, we offer seven!

that being a part of Agamemnon's offer. The old soldier could not see why seven girls should not amply atone for one. The embassy returns, and the Greeks are in dismay, all but Diomed. He advises that they refresh themselves with food and wine, take a sleep, and then in the morning go forth fearlessly to battle.
     In the morning the battle begins again. Agamemnon is at first the herd, but is wounded. Then Ulysses and Diomed come to the front but the latter is wounded with an arrow from the bow of Paris, who seems to have been a brave dandy after all, though, indeed both sides regarded the bow as no fit weapon for a hero.

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The Greeks are pressed back to their entrenchments by the Trojan charioteers, led by Hector. Then these dismount, and forming in five columns, commanded by Hector, Helenus, Paris, AEneas and Asius, storm the walls. One gate is defended by two stalwart Greeks, one of them a descendant from Pirithous, a comrade of Hercules, and even Hector is stayed. An eagle, bitten by a reptile it had been carrying off, falls before him, and his friends warn him to desist, as it is a bad omen, but Hector makes his celebrated reply:

     The best of omens is our country's cause.

     Sarpedon, the Lycian, and Glaucus, commanding the Trojan auxiliaries, sweep forward "like a black storm," and succeed in making the first breach in the walls. Then Hector, lifting a huge stone, hurls it at the obstinate gate that confronts him.

     This way and that the severed portals flew
     Before the crashing missile; dark as night
     His low'ring brow, great Hector sprang within.

     Neptune, contrary to orders, comes to the rescue, incites the two Ajaxes, and they, shield to shield, stay the victorious Hector for a time, and the Locrian bowmen of Ajax the Lesser throw the Trojan ranks into some confusion. But still Hector presses on and Paris, too, while the two Ajaxes and Idomeneus, of Crete, fight desperately to save their ships, which Hector strives to burn. From this desperate plight Juno relieves the Greeks by tricking away the attention of Jupiter, while Neptune, who ranks but little less in power than the Thunderer himself, aids the Greeks. Ajax hurls a huge stone at Hector, and he falls, "Like an oak of the forest struck by lightning." Dismayed, the Trojans give back, bearing their brave leader. Jupiter awakes to see the Trojans in flight and Hector lying senseless. Neptune is ordered from the field, and Apollo is sent to restore Hector, and soon, to the consternation of the Greeks, he is seen advancing again; and this time Apollo is with him. The Sun-god plants his mighty foot on the wall and levels a wide space for the entrance of the chariots.

     Easy, as when a child upon the beach
     In wanton play, with hands and feet o'erthrows
     The mound of sand which late in sport he raised.

     Again the battle rages around the ships. Ajax defends his with a huge pike thirty feet long, with which he fells all who approach.
      And now Patroclus pleads with Achilles to be permitted to don his, Achilles', armor and lead the Myrmidons to the rescue. Achilles consents, but tells his friend he must stop with driving the Trojans out of the entrenchments. "Like a pack of ravening wolves, hungering for their prey," the Myrmidons sweep down on the Trojans, who, thinking that the terrible Achilles leads them, give way in terror, though Hector fights gallantly. Sarpedon falls; Jupiter hesitated, but his fated term of life had come. There is a mysterious Destiny in mythology, it seems, before whose decree even Jupiter is powerless. Patroclus, heedless of his chief's orders, drives the Trojans back to the walls of Troy, and there loses his lifer and the Greeks are driven back to their ships again, Hector wearing the armor of Achilles.
      Achilles now rises to avenge his friend and kill Hector. His mother, Thetis, warns him that Destiny decrees when Hector falls his own life is nearly spent. "Be it so" he replies. Without armor he shows himself to the Trojan host and it recoils. Night closes in. The Trojans hold a council, for it is evident that Achilles will lead the Greeks in the morning. The brave Hector carries his point and determines to hazard all by meeting him. Vulcan makes Achilles a new suit of armor, though, as he is invulnerable anyhow, we can hardly see the need of it.
     In the morning the battle begins, the Greeks led by Achilles. Jupiter grants permission to the gods to "go in" (it's modern, but fully covers the point) as they see fit. Juno, Neptune, Minerva, Mercury, and Vulcan assist the Greeks, while Mars, Venus, Apollo, Latona, and Diana take the other side. None of them do much, though, except to spirit away for a time some favorite hero when he is about to lose his life. Achilles makes terrible indiscriminate slaughter among the Trojans, who, having no hope of withstanding him, flee wildly. It does not seem like fair play to us of to-day to have such an antagonist let loose, but so it was, But even this doughty semi-immortal one came near losing his life, for he so choked the river Scamander with corpses that the river-god wrathfully rose and came near drowning him, but unfortunately he escaped. (Really we could not help that "unfortunately.") In the meantime, the gods get to fighting among themselves. That terrible Minerva knocks Mars over with a stone. Venus comes to his aid-poor little Venus-and Minerva fells her, too, with a feminine slap. Then Juno boxes Diana's ears (that's what it means in latter-day terms), who drops her bow and arrows and flies weeping to her father, Jupiter, who has- been watching things with amusement, for

     Jove as his sport the dreadful scene descries
     And views contending gods with careless eyes.

     The battle raged until Hector alone remained outside the walls within which those left of his people had taken refuge. He would face the terrible Achilles alone; for it was his counsel that had brought on the disastrous day.
But when Achilles appears he flies, for he knows the contest is hopeless. Thrice around the city walls they run. Jupiter longs to save him, but is bound to bow to that power that is above his. At last Hector turns to meet his fate and dies as a hero should. The Greeks crowd around and insult the dead body, and Achilles, tying it to his chariot, drags it over the plain to the camp.
     With this the story of the Iliad practically ends. There is more of it, but it is chiefly a description of funeral rites. The story of the famous "wooden horse" comes from other sources and must be treated in another paper.
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     Pearls for Truth Seekers: James Speirs, London, is the same as the New Church Birthday Book from the same publisher, excepting that the blank pages are omitted.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE New Jerusalem Tidings comes to hand promptly under the management of its new editor, the Rev. J. S. David; his address is 20 Equity Chambers, Toronto, Ontario. The paper is twenty-five cents a year, and American postage stamps will be taken for subscriptions.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Children's New Church Messenger prints a list of fifty-eight New Church Sunday Schools, with pupils numbering three thousand one hundred and ninety seven. None 'of the schools of the Societies of the General Church of Pennsylvania are given, nor that of the Philadelphia Society, at Twenty-second and Chestnut Streets.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. Mr. Frost's address, "Our Children's Spiritual Nurture," delivered before the New Church Congress, at Chicago last March has been printed as No. 2 of the "Congress Addresses."

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It makes a pamphlet of eighteen pages, with cover, and is sold for five cents. The New Church Reading Circle says that the edition of the first of the series is already exhausted.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     The 150th Psalm, in Hebrew, set to the music of a magnificent anthem, has been published by the Academy of the New Church. As the Hebrew words are printed in English characters, and a literal translation accompany them, this anthem is adapted for use by New Churchmen whether they have a knowledge of the Hebrew or not. The Hebrew text is also given. The price of the anthem is twenty-five cents.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. Samuel H. Worcester has published a study of the proposition, "Quod omnis religio sit vitae, et quod vita ejus sit facere bonum," in which he quotes freely other passages in the Writings in which the word "religio" occurs, and reaches the conclusion that the proposition should be translated, "Every religion has relation to life, and its life is to do good" This study was presented for consideration in the Conference of New Church Ministers held in Brooklyn last month.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     MRS. Mary. W. Early begins a serial story in the June number of the New Church Independent under the title The Orphans. In the same number Mr. Barrett runs another tilt at the Academy, this time in defense of the Rev John Worcester. Can it not be possible, after this, that this doughty knight may in time shiver a lance in defense of the Academy? He has been defending something or somebody in all the English New Church papers in this country recently and simultaneously.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     MR. John Page Hopps, editor of Truth Seeker, Leicester, England, says, "I know leading church wardens who more believe in the creeds of the Church than I do." This might be taken as evidence of the breaking and passing away of old creeds, and rightly, too. But that the New is not taking their place is shown by a sentence following:
      "The very best Unitarian book of our day, the one containing the most modern and most conclusive arguments against the deity of Jesus is one written in reply to Canon Liddon by a beneficed clergyman of the Established Church." The italics are ours, and they point out a sentence that is strongly confirmatory of what the Writings say concerning the state of the Christian World.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A SMALL and quaint-looking quarterly published at Glasgow, Scotland, and bearing the name The "Second-hand" Bookseller, and the appearance of being written with a pen, contains the following, appended to its list of second-hand books.
     "Ten Pounds Reward will be paid by Thomson & Co. (booksellers), Glasgow, to the first person who will reconcile teaching of JESUS CHRIST on Oaths with the universal every-day practice of Emperors, Kings, Queens Presidents, Privy Counselors, Cabinet Ministers, M. P.'s, Legal Functionaries, Detectives, Policemen, etc., etc.
-     "* * The above advertisement in our issue of August, 1885, has remained unanswered to the present hour. The only inferences that the writer can draw are that the two things are irreconcilable, and that the whole political world of Europe and America is in the hands of the Devil."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE new catalogue of the British Museum shows that there were added to the library from January, 1880, to August, 1885, new books to the number of sixty thousand, which includes neither novels nor poetry. The Times says of this catalogue (we quote Morning Light): "It will probably astonish most people to learn that the most energetic and active propagandists of modern religious sects are the Swedenborgians. Mr. Fortescue's catalogue shows that in the year 1880-85 there were four times more publications devoted to Swedenborgianism than to any other form of belief." The Manchester Examiner and Times comments on this, and says that it is "not so extraordinary as it seems to be. Though the Swedenborgians are not numerically a large sect, their tenets are viewed with intense interest by thoughtful Christians of all bodies, and the speculations of their founder have stimulated the thought of many preachers."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IN the July Century is a short paper by Leighton Parks, giving a conversation with a priest of the Monto, or Shin, sect, of Buddhism, in Japan, which occurred in a temple there. "Does that man worship the image?" asks the writer of the priest, pointing to an old man kneeling before an image of Buddha. "Most certainly not; he prays to what the image represents, which is God." Further on: You speak of God; do you believe there is but one God?" "Most certainly, I believe there is but one God." As the visitors depart, the priest says: "The Japanese are not a European nation; it is a mistake to try and make them dress and talk like Americans. Your religion is good for you, this for us. There is but one God; you call him Christ, we call him Buddha. I must go; I wish you good-bye, and I thank you for talking to me." This polite and learned priest knew how Christ ought to be regarded, but he was far astray as to how He is regarded among Christians. How that gentle Pagan would have opened his eyes at hearing the honeyed words of the many "new departures," which may be bunched under the name Unitarianism, speaking of Christ as "an example," or "our elder brother," and so on.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A Concordance to the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, upon which the Rev. John Faulkener Potts, B.A, has been engaged for the last fourteen years, and which the Swedenborg Society. British and Foreign, is about to publish, will be issued in monthly parts, containing forty-eight pages, in neat wrapper; price six pence each. The work is expected to be completed in about sixty numbers. As fast as the requisite number of parts is issued, the work will also be published in four volumes, bound in cloth. These volumes will be forwarded, as they are published, to subscribers for the entire work, carriage paid, at the price of six shillings per volume, prepaid.
     The compiler claims that this concordance is exhaustive and complete. It embraces in its scope all the Writings, even Swedenborg's Theological Documents published in Tafel's Documents Concerning Swedenborg. We trust that it will receive a generous support of the Church. Those who will obtain, we feel confident, will soon learn to regard it as indispensable. As the publishers say, the work is really much more than a concordance in the ordinary sense of that term. It is rather a cyclopaedia, with references, and is thus to a large extent a work for reading as well as for reference.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Society of "Believers of the New Church," in Sweden, has printed in English a twenty-page pamphlet, addressed to New Churchmen in England and America, containing its creed, church order, laws, and other matter, some of it being controversial. Any one, not belonging to another denomination, who has been baptized "in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," is eligible for membership. "Marriage is to be performed only by a duly ordained minister," but the ordinances of the Communion, Baptism, and Burial may be performed, if necessary, by laymen. "As a rule, ordination ought to be performed by a New Church pastor as spokesman," but it may be performed by four members of the Society, which by a two-thirds vote elects the candidate, who must be not less than twenty-three years old, and who "openly confesses the doctrines of the New Church." The pamphlet quotes Conjugial Love, No. 808, and says: "We see then that real marriages may be contracted, and that they are holy, without being consecrated by a priest," which consecration is not necessary but merely proper; however being pro per and expedient it is made a law of church order Among the statutes is one prohibiting "Every mention of politics, either in conversation within the Society at its meetings, or in publications of the Society." Members who do not pay their dues are not allowed to vote.

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Persons paying a certain sum may become members, without "being required to comply with the Society's conditions for membership." Voting must be open, "unless, upon particular occasions, a closed voting be demanded." The foregoing are a few noteworthy points in the laws of this Society-laws which are anything but models.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE New Church Birthday Book, arranged by J. Stuart Bogg and published by James Speirs, London, is very handsomely gotten up. Two dates are given on a page enclosed with red lines; after the dates follow a text from the Word and one from the Writings, and these by a verse of poetry from various authors. On the page following is the same dates with blank, ruled spaces, also margins with red lines. Some of the poetry is hardly in accord with the New Church; for instance, under May 5th, is-

     Old beliefs-old lies-are flying,
          From the light of Good and Truth;
     Spirits pure are mortals teaching,
          From the realms of endless youth.

     This would do for a Spiritists' Birthday Book very well, but it is not in harmony with the New Church, for all the teaching we get from the other world is what the LORD gives us in the Word and Writings. Among the poets we notice the names of a number of New Churchmen; J. Westall, D. H. Howard, T. W. Bogg, Mary C. Hume, E. H. Sears, J. Bragg, J. B. Keene, Dr. W. H. Holcombe, W. B. Hayden, and J. Doughty. It may be that all are New Churchmen, and if this be so the book is all the more valuable. As we have given one verse which is not in accord with the Writings, we shall close with one which is (as by far the greater part of them are) in accord. Under the date of July 3d is the following by J. B. Keene:

     Though in suffering and in sorrow,
          God appears to bring the night;
     We shall find that on the morrow,
          He will be our Dayspring bright.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     MR. GORMAN, who three years ago republished Dc Cultu Amore Dei, has now followed it up with a reprint of Prodromus Philosophiae Ratiocinantis de Infinito et Causa Finali Creationis; Deque Mechanismo Operationis Animae et Corporis. (270 pp., 12 mo.)
     This is the second attempt in the history of New Church literature at a fac simile reproduction of old books with the aid of the typographer's art-both following in the wake of the photolithographic reproduction of Swedenborg's Manuscripts, accomplished, a decade or two ago, under supervision of the Rev. R. L. Tafel.
     The Prodromus is a more nearly exact fac simile than the Early Conference Minutes, every line being reproduced to the letter, so that a reference to line and word in the original is an exact reference to the reprint, which cannot be said of the Conference Minutes. In this the reprint of the Prodromus is to be preferred also to that of De Cultu, which was neither a fac simile nor a properly edited reprint.
     The new Prodromus is of uniform size and binding with the new De Cultu, which, making a page an inch longer and an inch wider than the original, leaves a wide margin and greatly improves the appearance of the book.
     While we appreciate the use this publication will be to the New Church, and have a high estimate of Mr. Gorman's generosity in doing this work, we cannot but wonder at the groundless hope indicated in his preface, that by the republishing of this book in the Latin tongue-a language that has long ceased to be the vehicle of learned thought-he will accomplish what the several publication and tract societies of the New Church have vainly been attempting to do for years past: make New Church truths familiar household words in all the families of Christendom. And our wonder rises as we remember the curt reception which his Worship and Love of God received at the hand of the reviewers despite the fact that it was published in Latin and in English.
EXPERIENCE 1886

EXPERIENCE              1886




     Fiction
     BY THE AUTHOR ON "ELEANOR."

     CHAPTER IV.

     PERHAPS it is not straying very far from facts to say that picnics are pretty much the same over all the world-the world, that is; where the picnic is an established thing. And, furthermore, there can be little doubt but that the reader has attended picnics, and has met the young lady who has "been up since half-past four getting ready;" perhaps has been that very useful person. (What a disastrous picnic that would be where she was not!) Or it may be that the reader has been the gentleman, young or old, who carried the basket, or hammock, or croquet set, or some other necessary picnic property; or the one who, at the last moment, was sent after something forgotten, and as he started at his briskest pace heard the chorus, "Hurry as fast as you can!" If these suppositions be true, then he, or she, can picture the opening ceremonies of the picnic our Barton Street friends attended, and which has been hinted at already. The grounds were situated several miles from the city, and as numerous trains were available, a number of people came drifting out during, the day, and would usually tell the first one they met, "I came as soon as I could got off." Among these was Mr. Gray. He reached the grounds at dinner-time, and found the large party scattered about, in groups under the trees. As he approached he "glanced about as though in search of something," at least that was the remark of one young wag to a companion. He saw a white hand which, by the way, held a bit of a pickle-slightly beckon, and then the searching look left his face. As he was on his way to accept the mute invitation he passed one group, and the hospitable Mr. Hammertin called out, "Ah, Mr. Gray, got out, did you? sit down and join us."
     "Thank you, but I-" he paused, for, he had no other invitation, unless the slight motion of a white hand can be called one.
     "All right," replied Mr. Hammertin, as his right eye-lid faintly descended. Sam said as he passed on:
     "I am very much obliged to you for your kind invitation."
     "I hope that will be a match; they are just suited for each other," said Mrs. Hammertin to her husband. There were several ladies who had been observant of the little pantomime, and some of them exchanged glances which said, "Did you see that?"
     As he came up, Dolly, after moving to make room for him between herself and Miss Armand, said, after looking at him seriously a moment, "He doesn't look so very hungry-I guess we shall have enough," and then, aided by the others, set before him a bountiful picnic dinner.
     "I don't believe that even a very hungry man could eat all this," he said.
"You are a very generous provider."
     "I believe in having plenty of good things to eat on a picnic," was her reply. As soon as the conversation became general he took occasion to say to his other neighbor, "I must not forget to thank you for your invitation to join you here."
     "Yes," she replied with a little sigh, "You ought to thank me indeed, for no sooner had I motioned to you than I realized the enormity of my offense that is, I realized it as soon as I saw certain ones looking at each other. But then what would become of them if Carrie Armand did not occasionally give them something to talk about?"

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     "Are not you a little unjust? These are New Church people."
     "I know they are, and as far as gossip goes, not a bit better than any others; Of course you do not agree with me," she continued, "you think: this girl slanders her neighbors and then complains of them gossiping about herself. Am I not right?"
     Evading a direct reply, he asked: "How many of those here to-day have said disagreeable things about you? I do not wish their names, but merely their number."
     "You cannot inveigle me into statistics," she replied. "Figures kill sentiment, and mine just now are too luxuriously cross against a few people to part with easily. I rail at all in order to avoid being personal."
     "Do you object to telling me the nature of their offense?"
     "Of course I do; if put into cold words it would sound very trivial. Ought I not to be scolded for being so silly?"
     "I do not suppose that scolding would do any good-"
     "Not the slightest."
     "- as you admit the, ah!-silliness."
     "I have a great mind not to speak to you again in a month for that remark. What right have you to call my conduct 'silliness'?"
     "You gave it that name yourself, and, being ignorant of the circumstances, I was not in a position to dispute its fitness."
     "But you should have done so from mere politeness. I believe, though, that I shall let it pass for the present, merely storing it up against you for future use.
     "Is it not possible that all the little coolnesses between members of this Society have no more foundation than we should have had in what was just said?" he asked.
     "Foundation!" she exclaimed. "You do not realize, sir, the magnitude of your offense, or my magnanimity in overlooking it. I know of people, present to-day, who have been cool toward each other for months for far less cause. Why, the merits of Bumble's and Keiser's makes of ice-cream caused a dozen of us last year to be coolly formal toward each other for several weeks. I believe that I belonged to the Bumble faction, and we were quite sure that the Keiserites were women of no taste whatever. And at the last Christmas festival the Committee bought a box of sour oranges. There was no dispute as to the fact, but that did not prevent some of us from feeling quite sour ourselves."
     "How did that happen?"
     "It came about in this manner. There were three of us-I was one of them-who were deputed to buy the oranges and some other things. Wishing to do the best possible with the money, we went down to a wholesale dealer to make our purchases. It was a very disagreeable day and a disagreeable part of the city to which we went, but we were buoyed up by the virtuous feeling that we were sacrificing our own comfort for the good of others. We bought a nice looking box, and it was cheap, too, and the man assured us that the oranges were sweet as sugar. When they came out to the church, we, the Committee, tasted them, and weren't they sour! We felt very badly about it, but it was too late then to mend matters. In the evening, as soon as our oranges were passed around, every one made a wry face, and we heard all kinds of comments on the sourness of the fruit. The most of those present did not know who purchased it, but that did not soothe our lacerated feelings, and when some of the ladies, who did know, told us that we ought to have tasted the oranges before purchasing, and that these were unfit to eat, which was all very true, that was too much, and a
spiritual acidity ensued that lasted several weeks. Were not we foolish?"
     "After the warning of a few minutes ago I dare not assent."
     "It is the safest for you, perhaps," she answered, "for telling that story has aroused a pathetic pity for myself when it comes back to me how my good intentions for doing the best I could for the Sunday school were received."
     "It is quite a sad story," he replied, as he buttered a roll. After regarding him for a moment she said:
     "I do wish that you would have the kindness to smile, or do something to indicate when your comments are satirical or humorous."
     "I meant what I said, I assure you, though, perhaps, the word 'sad' was not the most appropriate."
     The corners of her mouth faintly drooped as she asked: "What is there about a box of sour oranges and three miffed women that is sad?"
     "Did you never tell a child, who offered you something that it valued, to go away and not bother you, and, as the little one silently obeyed, suddenly realized what you had done?"
     "Well?" said she, watching him with half-closed eyes from under her broad-brimmed hat.
     "It is somewhat the same, I think, when the 'little one' is the kindly intention of a friend that has failed to give us the pleasure intended, and at which we have laughed or frowned. You understand?"
     "Yes," she responded, almost inaudibly. "You, then, would not have said a word about the oranges had you been there, or gone about smacking your lips and making jokes or scolding about them?"
     "Probably I should have done as the others did. It is natural to make a wry face over a sour orange."
     "No; permit me to contradict. You would have laid our grange to one side, as you did those olives just now they are not fit to eat-and said nothing about it. I say this as a reward for your quick appreciation of the Committee's feelings. But leaving sentiment out, what lesson is involved in my 'sad' story?"
     "It seems to show that good intentions without good judgment are not very practical."
     "How unkind that sounds, after all the nice, things you have just been saying!"
     After dinner the ladies busied themselves re-arranging their baskets and hunting up sundry missing spoons, knives, or forks. The children played "bean-bag," or other games, and the boys, with supreme contempt for the laws of health laid down in books, started a game of base-ball. While loitering about somewhat aimlessly, Sam was hailed by Mr. Hammertin to complete sides for a game of croquet, the other players being Will Sensity and the elder Mr. Doty. Sam consented, and they repaired to the grounds, at one end of which the grass was long and at the other lumpy. Mr. Hammertin, who had Sani for a partner, led off, but failed to make the first wicket, or arch. Mr. Doty at once placed his ball,; and Mr. Hammertin knocked his own away from in front of the wicket where it had stopped. "Hold on! let that ball stay there," called out Mr. Doty.
"What for? A ball isn't in the game until it has made the first arch."
     "Yes it is; it's in the game after the first shot." A long discussion followed, but, as Mr. Doty was the stronger character, or the most obstinate, he carried his point; and Mr. Hammertin placed his ball again, when Mr. Doty at once put it in a more favorable position for himself, remarking, "There's where it laid."

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He made his shot with more vigor than he intended, and drove his opponent's ball through the wicket, and Mr. Hammertin set up a laugh. As Mr. Doty's ball was left in an excellent position to make the wicket, he said to his partner; "I guess I'll refuse his ball and make my arch first, and take him Qa the next shot."
     "No you won't!" exclaimed Mr. Hammertin, and another discussion about the "rules of the game" ensued, in which Mr. Doty was forced to give in and play from beside the ball he had just struck. The result was that he failed to make the wicket. Sam played next, making the first two wickets. Will, in his turn, made the first three, and left his ball close to his partner's. Mr. Hammertin, after discussing whether he had better "separate them" or "go for position," and being told to "make up your mind some time to-day," concluded to "go for position," remarking that "he," Mr. Doty, who played next, "can't do anything;" so he played and got a good position, which he casually made a little better by slightly touching his ball with his foot as he walked past it. Mr. Doty did not see this, but he suspicioned it and looked sharply at his opponent, who stood smilingly awaiting the next play. Mr. Doty struck his partner's ball, and, with the two plays to which he was entitled, hit Mr. Hammertin's ball. That gentleman now earnestly advised him to "use my ball" and make his first wicket, "and have it to play on again." But Mr. Doty, without saying a word to this sound advice, placed his ball behind Mr. Hammertin's, and then, taking his mallet in both hands, sent the two flying down to the long grass. The game now proceeded peacefully, Mr. Doty and Will leading, until they had an animated discussion as to whether Will, who was ahead, ought to "go on around" or keep with his partner. Again peace reigned. Mr. Hammertin played with intensity and passed both his opponents, but Sam dallied about the "cage," being a rather poor player. Misses Graham and Lane came along and stood watching the game, and as Sam was not kept busy he stood talking with them, and had to be reminded when it was his "turn." The second time this occurred Mr. Hammertin remarked, severely, "Mr. Gray, it is your play-if you can spare the time."
     "I beg your pardon," replied Sam, meekly, as he started for his ball. The two young ladies laughed and continued their walk.
     "If you could pay a little more attention," continued his partner, "and use a little more care, you would get along faster. I do all I can for you, but I can't do everything."
     But, notwithstanding this reproof, Sam had only "got through the cage" when the other side ran the game out. It had lasted over an hour, and toward the close he had been a little restless and cast glances about the grounds. At any other time Mr. Hammertin would have joked him at this, but he was too serious now for any light amusement, and when the game was finished he merely said, "We must do better this time. Who plays first?"
     "Would it not be well to excuse me and get a better partner?" asked Sam. Seeing one whom he knew to be a better player, Mr. Hammertin at once hailed him and Sam departed. He slowly sauntered about the grounds, stopping every now and then to chat with those he met, but excusing himself from joining in any more games. After wandering about for some time he stretched himself in a hammock, and remained there for half an hour, listening to the faint sound of voices that were borne from the croquet field, or to the children, as they played about under the trees. At last he heard light footsteps, and Miss Dolly asked," Who beat?"
     "Mr. Doty and Will won the game," he replied, getting out of the hammock.     "Have you been lying here ever since?"
     "Yes, nearly ever since. I thought that I should like to take a walk," looking at Miss Armand, "if you did not object, but I could not find you."
     "We are going on one now," she replied, "and you can accompany us if you wish."
     "Mayn't I go too?" asked-Mr. Foster, at this moment coming up.
     "Shall we let him go, Carrie?" asked Dolly, and, as Miss Armand nodded, she said, "Yes, you may go."
     Dolly and Mr. Foster went first, and Sam and his companion followed, and very naturally the distance soon widened between the two pairs. The path led up a hill, and on reaching the top Miss Armand declared that she was tired, and they sat down where they could command a very pretty view of the valley below. "Lovely view, isn't it?" said she. "I sometimes wish that we lived in the country, but I suppose I should not like it-too lonely."
     "Each life has its advantages," he replied. "I prefer the city."
     "You like excitement?"
     "No, not particularly; I prefer the city on account of the Church."
     "Do you really prefer New Church society to that found on Brownstone Avenue, for instance?"
     "Yes, though indeed I am not very familiar with the people on that avenue."
     "I thought that you were quite one of them."
     "No. I have visited my sister several times, and recently spent two weeks with her; but I do not claim to be one with them."
     "It looks as though they claimed you."
     "I do not quite catch your meaning."
     "I refer to the people who called you to their carriage the other evening. I suppose they live on that street?"
     "I think they do. The young lady is a friend of my sister's. I have only met her a few times."
     "How beautiful she was! so brilliant and dashing!"
     "Yes, she is a very beautiful woman," he assented, and Miss Armand took one of her sidelong glances at him. He was thinking about the fears that had assailed him after that interview, and in a moment he asked, "What did you think of her?"
     "Do you want a conventional reply, or a frank one?"
     "I should like a frank one, of course."
     "Well, then, I think she was beautiful, stylish, and elegantly dressed; but I did not like her, or, in the plain Anglo-Saxon that Mr. Minden advocates-I hated her."
     "Why?"
     "Because she made fun of us; I could see that."
     "But she said that you did not look at her once.
     "She told you that, did she!" exclaimed Miss Armand. "Then I was right. Have I not cause to dislike her?"
     "She-she spoke very highly of you," was his conscientious evasion, but Miss Caroline merely nodded her head in the manner that really expresses the strongest negation. "Were not you inclined to be a little offended at me on that night?" he continued, as though feeling that he was on unsafe ground.
     "Yes, I was," she replied, "very much inclined; but after thinking the matter over I concluded to let it pass."
     "I am very glad you did. And as for the young lady, do not you think that you ought to overlook her conduct?"

127



     "No." I cannot do that."
     "Granting that she did ridicule us-"
     "She did not include you."
     -"should she not be pitied rather than scorned? One looking with contempt on others occupies a very poor position in the other world."
     "We are not in the other world."
     "We are in one sense, at any rate; and one who goes through this life 'looking down' on others has very commonplace spiritual companions around him."
     "Of course, I know all that, but it is rather cold comfort for me. I suppose I am very unregenerate, but when one of those high-born ladies looks down on me I-I hate her, and that is the plain truth about it."
     "I do not think," he replied, "that the really 'high born,' since you use the term, are so much addicted to 'looking down' as young ladies like Miss Merlyn."
     "Is that her name?"
     "Yes, that is her name now; it used to be Murphy, so my sister told me; the family were originally quite poor, and lived in very humble circumstances."
     "Were they 'poor and proud'?"
     "They were poor, certainly, but I do not imagine that they were very proud. Mr. Murphy, I am told, kept some kind of a place where liquor was sold, but that was before the young lady whom you saw was born."
     "I do wish I had known this sooner."
     "What difference would it have made?"
     "All the difference in the world. I should have been amused and not offended. Now do not!" she exclaimed, holding up her hand-"I admit that I am wrong; I plead guilty to being as-bad as, or worse than, Miss Merlyn. I should have been amused, because I can look down on one who sprang from such parents. Not a word, let me enjoy my triumph."
     He merely laughed at this outburst, and after a moment she asked, "As I have been so frank with will not you tell me your opinion of Miss Merlyn?"
     "I hardly know her well enough to give an opinion."
     "I might have known that your circumspection would not have permitted you to answer. Sometimes you provoke me: you say to me the most cutting things about myself but never about any one else. Do you never realize how much more agreeable it is to say sharp little things about people than to them? To-day, instead of telling me that I was silly-which was mean of you-why not have protested that I was not silly, or, if you must say it, say it with a laugh, to show that you were joking, and waited until I was not present and then remarked to some one, 'Carrie Armand is a right nice girl, but-well, a little silly at times?' What would become of us if we were debarred from discussing the little weaknesses of our friends?"
     "I suppose there is a use," he replied, with gravity, "in pointing out the failings of our intimate friends. One may have a bad habit and not know it.
     "Oh dear!" she exclaimed. "You have one bad habit at least; that of always misunderstanding, or pretending to, which is worse, what one says. I did not speak of the use, but of the pleasure."
     "On the contrary, I think I understand you, at any rate."
     "Then I wonder that you do not at once arise and fly from such a bad girl." Seeing the gleam of a smile on his face, she said, "Speak out; I know it's something cutting."
     "On the contrary, I was merely surprised that one who objects to triteness should fall into the well-worn rut of proclaiming her, own badness." There was a faint tartness, not assumed, in her reply:
     "Shall I proclaim myself to be an angel?"
     "Why say anything either way?"
     "Very well," she answered, pursing up her lips and becoming freezing in her demeanor; but in a minute she laughed naturally and said, "What a goose I am! It is just as bad for one to be proclaiming her badness as to assume the angelic. I don't wonder that Miss Merlyn laughed at me."
     "But she didn't."
     "I never thought of it before, but I see now that I always felt rather good when I told people that I was bad. Oh! dear, what a queer world it is! I remember now that the publican stood afar off and cried, 'God be merciful to me a miserable sinner'-he didn't confidentially tell a friend, I'm awfully bad-poor fellow!"
     Her quick comprehension and her sympathy gave him a profound happiness; with her he felt that the deeper the subject the fewer words were necessary. He was very happy this afternoon as they sat on the brow of the hill overlooking the peaceful valley, from which were borne occasional faint sounds that but served to accent the serenity of the time and place. As the sun slowly descended to the horizon the vast piled up cloud-masses assumed that gorgeous coloring which puts to shame the art of man-living, glowing gold, silver, scarlet, crimson, "the coffers of the night thrown down and the treasures scattered golden on her silent floors."
     They talked of many things this happy afternoon, but it was when the silent magnificence o t e sunset glowed in all its heavenly beauty that their talk assumed a deeper meaning than ever before. She had told him that in a short time she would leave the city for the remainder of the summer.
     "I shall miss you," he began.
     When at last they descended the hill there was a new and indefinable tenderness in his bearing, and she was unusually quiet. Yet the only definite result of this conversation was a promise to write.

     [TO BE CONTINUED.]
PALLADIUM 1886

PALLADIUM              1886

     ONE day the Horse noticed a gathering of the entire flock near the pond, and, as usual, they made a great deal of noise. After the meeting had broken up, and the Gray Goose had had a swim in the pond and had come out again, the Horse asked him the object of the meeting.
     "We were settling a dispute between two of our geese," was the reply.
     "How is it done?"
     "Twelve chosen geese decide, after hearing from both parties."
     "That is not a bad notion," said the Horse, "to select twelve of your best geese."
     "You don't quite understand. We must choose twelve that have no opinions, and as nearly all geese have opinions on every subject, it follows that the twelve are from the most ignorant in the flock."
     "Well, how does it work?"
     "Oh! pretty well; though sometimes we have decisions that would disgrace even a chicken."
     "Seems to me the law itself is a foolish one. Don't you think so?"
     "No, for it is the Palladium of our liberty."
     "A Palladium resting on ignorance."
     "Well, yes, if you put it that way; still, for all that, it's our Palladium."

128


NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL


TERMS:-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.
     Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

     All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 750 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia. Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, AUGUST, 1886=117.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, pp. 115, 114, 116.-Representatives. p. 115.-Conversations on Education, p. 116.-The Word and the Church, p. 118.-The Old Story Again, p. 119.
     NOTES AND REVINWS, p. 122.
     FICTION.-An Experience, Chap. IV, p. 124.-The Palladium, p. 127.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, p. 128.
     AT HOME.

     Massachusetts.-THE Theological 5chool of the General Convention will open on Wednesday, October 6th, at 169 Tremont Street, Boston. The Rev. John Worcester, President of the School, is passing the summer at Intervale, N. H.
     Nets York.-THE last services before the pastor's summer vacation were held by the New York society, on June 27th. The church, however, will not be closed, but services will continue, some one of the Society officiating.
     New Jersey.-THE Orange and the Newark Societies are growing. At communion services on June 27th, there were forty-seven present at Orange and forty at Newark.
     On Sunday, July 4th, the Rev. J. R. Hibbard preached to the Society at Elwood.
     THERE is quite a colony of New Church people at Holly Beach, a little north of Cape May, this summer-between thirty and forty, including children.
     Pennsylvania.-A water-stained letter, minus stamp, and with the envelope all flying loose, which-was mailed in England on the 6th of last March, was received by the publishers of New Church Life on July 8th.
     Presumably it went down on the steamship Oregon. The writing is perfectly legible.
     THE Rev. Adolph Roeder recently visited Bethlehem, and also some of the members of the former Society in Allentown.
     Maryland.-THE Baltimore German Society, Rev. P. J. Faber, pastor, is building a parsonage, which will soon be completed.
     Florida.-Mr. Leadenham has organized a "reading club" at Merrimack. Parson's Deus Homo is one of the books chosen to begin with.
     Ohio.-THE Rev. A. Czerny spent several days in Monroe County, which borders the Ohio River about a hundred miles from Pittsburgh; he preached several times, administered the Sacrament of the Holy Supper to thirty-one persons, and baptized five infants.
     THE Ohio Reading Circle, Mr. Barler reports, contains nearly three hundred readers.
     THE Cincinnati Society held its Sunday-school picnic this year In the grounds of the Zoological Garden. The hours were also changed, being from two to ten o'clock P. M.
     THE Urbana University commencement was held on June 30th. The pupils for the term numbered, including the girls' and primary schools, seventy-seven. The Rev Frank B. Sewall has resigned his position of President in the University. To a reporter of the Urbana Citizen and Gazette he said: "Yes, I have resigned my position as President. Of course, as is natural, there are a number of reasons, but the principal one with me was, that after sixteen years of hard labor in college work I began to feel its wearing character, and desired to be freed from its exactions. . . . There is the utmost amity and good-will among all concerned in this step. I feel that I have done my work, and that the future of the College will be better left, probably, to younger men." Mr. Sewall also stated that for the present he would remain pastor of the Society in Urbana. The a-sets of the University amount to about one hundred thousand dollars. Of this, sixty thousand dollars is in the endowment fund, the remainder in college buildings, etc. The same reporter interviewed Dr. Moses, who said: "The recent movements were so unexpected that I am not prepared to say much about them. I had offered my resignation to the Board on Tuesday, but when Mr. Sewall resigned I was induced to reconsider mine. I shall remain as acting President for the first year, likely. In the meantime, the Trustees will endeavor to select someone for the place" The principal change will be "the opening of the School to both sexes, and co-education will be squarely inaugurated." "The present step [co-education] is but returning to the former policy." Dr. Moses also said that Urbana is the only college in the New Church, though "she has two preparatory schools, one at Waltham and one in Philadelphia," which statement is very misleading, as these two rank equal with Urbana.
     Iowa.-THE Rev. Stephen Wood has regular appointments with three Societies, i. e., Lost Nation, Nashville, and Lennox. The attendance at each place is from sixty to one hundred.
     Colorado.-THE New Church people of Denver celebrated the nineteenth of June with appropriate ceremonies at the country home of one of their number. There were twenty-five present. Their pastor, the Rev. Richard De Charms, conducted the services.
     Missouri.-THE St. Louis Society is making the experiment of holding services during the summer.
     West Va.-ON June 25th, the Rev. O. L. Barler preached in the parlors of Mr. J. Pollock, at Wheeling. On the following Sunday he preached at the town of Welcome and administered the Holy Supper, using unfermented grape juice instead of wine.
     Canada.-THE Rev. E. D. Daniels, in a letter to the Messenger, says that the Toronto Society has a fine property, consisting of audience-room, lecture-room, kitchen, and out-buildings, and extra ground enough for a large church; the whole is free from debt, and the minister's salary is paid promptly.
The Society has a large number of young people and children. The Society wishes to engage a pastor.

     ABROAD.

     England.-THE Manchester Printing and Tract Society held its fifteenth Annual Meeting on May 11th. The Rev. I. Tansley presided. He spoke on The present state of the Church and World, and thought the Church is not so active as formerly, and that it should make itself felt in the great changes
going on now in the political and social world. The Rev. R. J. Tilson spoke on How should the Doctrines be Presented? He thought there was no real good his pointing out evils around and condemning them we had better state the truth lovingly and leave it to the better nature of the people. The Rev. W. A. Presland, speaking of missionary work, said there was the need of higher motives among all classes-a wider recognition of the New Church doctrine of charity. Mr. J. S. Bogg thought that the royal road to higher motives was to acknowledge the LORD JESUS CHRIST to be the One God, and to shun evils as sins against Him. There were several other addresses. The Report shows a distribution of seventy-five thousand and fifty-seven tracts, and one thousand seven hundred and fifty-nine books, by gift and sale.
     THS Rev. John Presland succeeds the late Dr. Baily on the joint Committee on the New Church College.
     THE North of England Missionary Society held its seventeenth Annual Meeting at Manchester June 8th. The Committee's Report said: "That it is much more important to encourage and strengthen weak Societies already existing than to send lecturers to new ground." During the year a new Society had been established at Burnley, Lancashire, mainly through the efforts of the Rev. W. A. Presland. A resolution by the Rev. R. Storry, looking to the formation of reading circles for the study of the Writings, was adopted. Mr. Storry spoke of the young people being carried away by the literature of the day; he did not ask them to renounce it entirely, but to devote some time to the Writings, that they may "grow in intelligence and in the knowledge of the Doctrines of our Church."
     THE Society at Haywood is looking for an assistant minister to aid the Rev. R. Storry in his work. Mr. Storry has served the Society for fifty years, and is said to be the oldest minister in the Church.
     THE seventy-ninth annual session of this General Conference will be held on August 9th, at Heywood.
     THE sixty-seventh anniversary of the Swedenborg Society, British and Foreign, was held at the Society's House, London, on June 22d, the Rev. Dr. R. L. Tafel in the chair. Dr. Tafel, in his address, strongly urged the republication of the Writings in Latin. Mr. T. H. Eliot reported that great activity is being manifested in connection with the New Church doctrines in Wales. This works in foreign languages disposed of were, Latin, thirty; French, fourteen; Welsh, three hundred and eighty-one; German, four. The Society has determined to bring out A Concordance of the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, a work of about three thousand pages, upon which the Rev. J. F. Potts has been engaged for fourteen years. It is hoped to start with a thousand subscribers' in England, and a still larger number in America. "The Committee desire to acknowledge" (we quote Morning Light), "and they believe they do so, not only for themselves, but also for the Church at large, the generous liberality which has induced Mr. Potts to make this valuable gift to the Society The only reward which is looked for by Mr. Potts is one which is worthy of him-it is simply that he may have the delight of knowing that his long labors will receive their reward in time help he will supply to the members of the New Church in realizing the harmony and the beauty of the truths which distinguish the LORD'S Second Advent."
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886



129



NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPIA, SEPTEMBER, 1886=117.     No. 9.
     THE Orphanage doing good work. Its fixed expenses now amount to nine hundred and sixty dollars a year, and there are other applicants for assistance. All the money received goes to the orphans or to their mothers. There are no expenses in the way of management or officers. If any of the readers of the Life have a little money they wish to devote to the works of charity no better use could be made of it than to send it to the treasurer of the Orphanage, Mr. A. J. Tafel, No. 1011 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa.



     EVERY New Churchman should subscribe for the great work that the Rev. J. F. Potts has so generously given to the New Church, and which the Swedenborg Society of England has engaged to publish. Some idea of the work Mr. Potts has done and of its scope may be derived from the following, which we quote from the preface:

     "In this Concordance the student will find everything that is said in the Writings about every subject of which they treat, with references to the passages where the various statements are to be found. He will therefore be saved the immense, and to most men impossible, labor of bringing the various statements together, and will be able to direct his attention without loss of time to the consideration of their substance and teaching.
     "The Concordance to Swedenborg now offered to the Church is the result of between thirteen and fourteen years of labor, and claims to be exhaustive and complete. Every theological work of Swedenborg has been gone over twice, word by word. The works not published by Swedenborg himself such as the Apocalypse Explained, the Spiritual Diary, and the Adversaria, as well as the shorter treatises, have all included within the scope of the Concordance. So have the small treatises and fragments of a theological nature of which Swedenborg was the author and which have recently been published in the world entitled Documents Concerning Swedenborg, by Professor R. L. Tafel, M. A."

     This work will be issued in monthly parts of forty-eight pages each and is expected to be completed in about sixty numbers. It will be forwarded to subscribers free of postage at the rate of six shillings per. year, prepaid. Subscriptions must be sent to Mr. James Speirs, 36 Bloomsbury Street, London, England, and money orders made payable at Great Russel Street Post Office, W. C. No doubt some of our book-rooms or publishing societies will make arrangements to furnish this work to American subscribers. When this is done we will state terms fully.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     A CONTRIBUTOR to the August Magazine asks: "How shall we do it?" (i. e., the missionary work of the New Church). He answers the question as follows: "By appealing more to the affections, to the life, to the heart, and less to the intellect, we shall be more practical in our preaching. Better to see an audience going away in tears for their sins than to know they are puzzled over the rational understanding of abstract truths." It seems to us that this is how we should not do it. It savors, of the Methodist revival meetings. What the writer means by "abstract truths" is not clear, but we shall quote a Divine truth that completely refutes his plan. "But still he no more becomes spiritual than he is in truths; for every man is regenerated by truths and by a life according to them; for by truths he knows life, and by life he does them." (D. P. 84.)
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IN his last communication, or article, in the organ of the unappreciated, Mr. Barrett advances the usual arguments in favor of prohibition. And for the reason that the New Church will not sanction this he thinks it, and especially the Academy, is acting disgracefully. His arguments may be found in any prohibition paper, and we refer to the matter merely to note another form of the concealment of truth. It is a fact "well known to the Ancients" that alcoholic drinks cause men to throw off habitual restraint and show themselves in their true characters. The Writings state that the Christian world to-day is mostly evil, and hence when alcohol removes restraints the result is those crimes that the prohibitionists tell us of. They say the cause of those crimes is the alcohol, and their New Church kindred, unwilling to acknowledge the revealed truth on the point, tacitly conceal it by taking up the prohihitionists' cry. The New Churchmen who do this, and are angry because their Church will not follow them, show quite plainly that they are not fitted for instructors, but rather need instruction themselves.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THE notion that the New Church is anew, or further development of the Old, and that its members should be in the van of that Church has seemingly taken firm hold in the minds of many who should know better. The LORD has told us that the First Christian Church has turned away from Him, consequently to be in the lead of that Church is to be furthest from the LORD. Plain as this is, however, the opposite seems to be indirectly taught in some parts of a paper headed "A New Church Mission in Boston," printed in the Messenger and the Magazine, and written by a New Church minister. One passage in it runs as follows:
     "But as a religious body must we not own that Churches and organizations have been sweeping past us in this effort to elevate the lower classes? They, with less spiritual knowledge, but more zeal, are trying to rescue the boys and gins of our streets, trying to teach them how to live, preaching the Redeemer's name to men and women . . . . As compared with such energetic work, what are we doing?"
     Churches have been "sweeping past us;" here is the notion that the New Church is turned in the same direction as the Old. "They with less spiritual knowledge:" the Writings say that a Church is never consummated until every vestige of truth is perverted. Either the writer of the article is wrong or the Writings are. "Trying to teach them how to live, preaching the Redeemer's name:" the Writings tell us that from their doctrine concerning the Redeemer as from a fountain flows the evils that afflict the world. It certainly looks queer to see New Churchmen applauding such preaching to the "lower classes;" it looks like topsy-turveydom.

130


Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     WHO constitute these "lower classes" that are to be elevated to the higher classes? The question is not an easy one to answer. It will not do to make poverty the test, for that would put a good many of us New Churchmen into the ranks of the lower classes, and for some reason-vanity, perhaps-many of us would object. All hand or head workers would object to the category also. Who, then, is left? Criminals? Why the trouble is a good many of them would refuse the classification, for many are well educated, and have money and "tastes." This leaves the poor and ignorant criminals only to represent the "lower classes.'
     We have nothing to say against Mission Schools, but would hint that the "lower classes" are human beings and that their "elevation" must be brought about by the same means as that of the "higher classes." It may quibble, but it seems that it would be better for New Church Mission Schools to start with the idea of leading the "lower classes" to the LORD rather than of "elevating" them. And then there is a large proportion of the "higher classes" that need "elevating" quite as much as their poorer brethren. Somewheres we are told (what a pity Potts' Concordance isn't out yet) that all men are on a common level, and that the angels know that of themselves they are no better than the vilest. This isn't very flattering to the "higher classes" or "better classes" or "learned classes," but then they are not angels yet.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     ANOTHER passage in the paper on Missions runs as follows: "It is one thing to long for the salvation of some special soul or souls you are interested in your children, your kindred, your intimate acquaintance, aye, perhaps your own solitary self-and it is different and much higher thing to struggle for the good of all men?
     Is it?
     Salvation is a state in which the love of the neighbor, in all the varied senses of the word, reigns above the love of self. This being so, it looks as though the "higher thing were impossible until after the "solitary self" had conquered, to some extent, at least, its own selfishness. The passage we have just quoted is a virtual assertion (unintentional, no-doubt) that it is a higher thing to struggle to put away our neighbors' selfishness, than to put away our own. There is a vague idea abroad in the world that salvation is a thing that may be selfishly struggled for, as people struggle for the best seats at places in this world, and that the "noble soul" is that which aids others in this struggle. The whole idea is fallacious and contradictory, or in reality the man who struggles hardest for his own salvation is the one that is the most helpful to others and the least selfish.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THERE are New Churchmen who grow indignant when told that about all the rood they can do is to shun their own evils. "What," they seem to exclaim, are we to selfishly seek our own good and leave our neighbors a prey to evil?" Let us see what shunning evils means by a few illustrations.
     It is an evil to defraud our neighbor of his goods. To shun that evil is a benefit to our neighbor.
     It is an evil to do dishonest work; the shunning of that evil is a benefit to our neighbor.
     To tell lies is an evil, the shunning of which is good for the neighbor.
     To commit adultery is an evil, and the shunning of it is good for the welfare of the neighbor.
     There is, perhaps, in the minds of those who think it selfish to strive for one's own good a confusion of terms or of definitions. They seem to give the word "good" the meaning commonly attached to it by the world, as it is good to be rich, to have honors, and the like. But this is not the New Church meaning of "good." Truth is the form of good; the "golden rule" is a Divine truth, and it certainly is not selfish for one to strive for the good of which that truth is the form.
SERMON 1886

SERMON       Rev. L. H. TAFEL       1886

     "And I will give her her vineyards thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she went up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, saith the LORD, thou shalt call me Ishi, and shalt call me no more Baali."-Hoshea ii, 15, 18.

     THE LORD is the marriage, or union, of good and truth, therefore the Second Coming of the LORD on earth "in power and great glory" is the establishment of true marriage, i. e., of conjugial love upon the earth. Whatever opposes conjugial love opposes the LORD in His Second Coming; whatever furthers and protects conjugial love furthers the establishment of the kingdom of the LORD. Conjunction with the LORD is the source of conjugial love, and conjugial love will always increase or decrease with angels and men according as their conjunction with the LORD is more full and complete. True conjugial love can come only from the presence and conjunction of the LORD with man, and this conjunction with the LORD is possible only in the degree that man becomes the image and likeness of God, for the LORD cannot conjoin Himself with the evil and the false, but only with what is of the LORD with man. Spiritual love is the image, but celestial love is the likeness, of God. Man becomes the image and likeness of God by the conjunction of goad and truth of the various degrees with him. This conjunction in its fullness can, however, only take place in the union of two minds into one mind, s. e., in true marriage. Where there is a true marriage on earth the LORD and Heaven find a home and a centre from which to spread and develop upon the earth. The reason why a true marriage is the basis and ultimate of Heaven is because man externally considered is intellectual and thus truth, but woman is affectional and thus good, and this as to every part of their mental constitution. The unition of the male and the female regenerate mind is, therefore, the marriage of truth and its good, and therefore forms the external, correspondent ultimate of Heaven, of the Word, and of the LORD, for these are the marriage of good and truth.     
     Man as to his natural man is born into the love of the evil and the false, and this considered in itself is the love of adultery, and thus of hell. All men who are not regenerated by the Divine Truth remain in this love; and because the Divine Truth at this day is rejected by the great mass of men, therefore the love of the false and evil, which is spiritual adultery, fills the earth and on account of its correspondence it continually strives to ultimate itself in natural adultery, except so far as it is kept in check by external bonds.

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This love of the evil and the false, and thus of adultery, cannot be converted into the opposite love of true marriage except by the establishment of the marriage of good and truth from the LORD in the mind, nor, indeed, in its fullness except by the marriage of two minds and of two bodies. Only thus can the marriage of good and truth be established in its fullness with man, so that man can become the image and likeness of God. This establishment of the marriage of good and truth can take place only through a long-continued series of temptations and trials, such as was represented by the forty years' journey in the wilderness of the Israelites. This also is signified in our chapter by the words: "I will persuade her and cause her to go into the wilderness." There are many, even of those who externally are of the LORD'S New Church, who shrink back from the conflict and the trials, who are not ready to give up the evil delights and pleasures of the natural man. They grieve for the flesh-pots of Egypt, and call for flesh to eat, and they die in the wilderness without attaining to the promised land. But of those who renounce evil pleasures, steadfastly fight against them and reject them, the LORD saith: "I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land not sown." And in our text, after declaring that He would cause her to go into the wilderness, the LORD says: "And I will speak to her heart, and will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Achor for a door of hope, and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and as in the day she Went up from Egypt."
     Fidelity and loyalty to the LORD is shown by steadfastly renouncing and fighting against evil loves and their delights, thereby love to the LORD is shown, and thereby it is established and confirmed in the heart; and after faithfully following the LORD through the wilderness He gifts man with all spiritual and natural good. He says: "I will give her her vineyards thence and the valley of Achor for a door of hope." Vineyards signify the Church as to spiritual good or the good of charity. To those who have passed through temptations-through the wilderness-and proved themselves faithful, the LORD gives mutual love and charity, and thus the life of Heaven; for in proportion that love of self and contempt of others are crushed by temptations, love to the LORD and love to the neighbor are given by the LORD: "Vineyards are given from there," i. e., from the wilderness, for th8 wilderness then is changed, even as we read in the Word: "The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose." And as the desert is transformed and a vineyard is given man becomes an image of God and the dwelling-place of His love. As the internal is thus transformed, the external also is gradually changed by combats, so as to submit itself and to act from the internal; and the valley of Achor becomes a "door of hope." The valley as being a low place signifies the natural man. The valley of Achor was the place where Achor, who had troubled Israel and caused its defeat by the theft of the gold and the Babylonish garment, was stoned and burned. The name of Achor signifies in Hebrew trouble. The vale of Achor signifies the natural man with its evils and falses, which form a continual trouble to the spiritual man. But when the internal man has been regenerated the external also is gradually brought into order, and instead of being a continual trouble to man, he becomes gradually encouraged to hope for the final and full subjugation and subordination of external loves under the spiritual and internal. In so far as man obeys the divine commandments he receives through his open mind faith, and in strengthened for further conflicts; in his natural man, which seemed a valley of confusion and trouble, a door of hope is opened. Faith and confidence in the LORD are ever the result of obedience, and man is blessed with spiritual and with natural good: "I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Achor for a door of hope."
     The valley of Achor has also a more specific meaning as being the northern boundary of the lot of Judah. Thence it signifies the external of the celestial kingdom. This is especially conjugal love. In the consummated Church this external has perished except a trace with a very few. But even in this a door of hope is opened to us at the Coming of the LORD. In so far as man is confirmed in the life of Charity, the LORD makes His dwelling with man and is conjoined with him. When man then is tempted to do evil, he looks away from his own desires to the LORD in His Divine Human. His Presence gives him strength; he knows that of himself he cannot resist his cupidities, but as he reminds himself that he is not to do his own will, but that of the LORD, and as he looks to Him for help, the LORD'S presence becomes to him even in the valley of Achor "a door of hope." In looking to the LORD, he hears the words, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except abide in me." The presence of the LORD is the only power that can save in such temptations. As man becomes conscious that it is of the LORD'S mercy alone that he is restrained from evil and thus saved, and as in temptation he humbly turns to the LORD for help, and faith fully uses the strength that He gives him, the valley of trouble becomes to him a door of hope, and he thankfully trusts in the great and omnipotent mercy of the LORD.
     As man thus by the mercy of the LORD is cleansed from evil desires and concupiscences he becomes more closely conjoined with the LORD and humbly and thankfully, exults over his deliverance. This state is expressed in the words: "And she shall sing there as in the days of her youth, and as in the days when she went up from the land of Egypt."
     The Church of the LORD has from its beginning passed through many states in general and in particular, and these are represented in general as the golden, silver, brazen, and iron ages; these are also at times presented - in the Word and in the Writings as childhood, youth, manhood, and old ate. Youth in this sense refers to the Ancient Church, which was spiritual and full of all intelligence. That the Church should "sing as in the days of her youth" signifies that it will return into the state of intelligence and of mutual love that reigned in the Ancient Church, and that then it shall be filled with joy and delight from the influx of good from Heaven.
     The word here translated "sing" is not the usual word for singing, but signifies usually to "answer" or "respond," and thence to sing in answer to the influx from the LORD. It therefore describes the blessedness of conjunction with the LORD, and the glad response of the heart to the influx of love from the LORD. It describes the happy state expressed in the Word by "the wife of youth," the state when love is full and bright and joyous, breaking forth naturally in the exultation of singing. This state the Church reaches when she has passed through the wilderness of temptations and when the desert has been transformed into a vineyard and even the valley of Achor has become a door of hope. When love rules within and the natural cupidities and desires give way to a pure and heavenly conjugial love, then the Church shall respond "as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she went up from the land of Egypt," i. e. as in the days when she was delivered from the bondage of evil natural loves and became spiritual.

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     When the Church reaches this state, she no more regards the LORD as a Master, who is to be obeyed, she looks up to Him as the delight of her soul, whose every wish it becomes her highest delight to do. My Master in the Hebrew is "Baali," but my Husband is "Ishi." So long as man compels himself to obey the LORD, He is the Baal or LORD, but when He becomes the object of supreme love, He is the Husband or Ishi." These words therefore express in most succinct and expressive form the altered relation of the regenerated man to the LORD-just in so far as man is conjoined to the LORD by love.
     This conjunction of the LORD with the man of the Church is the conjunction of good with truth; for the LORD flows in with good from within and He is received in truth from Him which is in the understanding and in the life with man. This is the heavenly marriage and from it there arises love truly conjugial between two married partners who are in such conjunction with the LORD. Conjugal love is therefore from the LORD alone, and with those who are in the conjunction of good and truth from the LORD; these are in that reciprocal conjunction described by the LORD: "You me and I in you."
     The LORD at His Second Coming does not come primarily to communicate truth, but to communicate good, the good of love to the LORD, of mutual love, and their foundation with man, conjugial love. In so far as the LORD has really come on earth and has been received, these loves rule, and in them Heaven. But in order that these loves may rule there must be truth, and indeed an abundance of truth; for through truth man fights against evils and thus prepares the way for the reception of good; and truths in the understanding and in the heart and life are the very vessels in which Divine Good and thus the LORD can dwell with man. The affection of, Truth, an affection which is shown in the eager pursuit of it, and the faithful application of it to the life, is the very conjugial principle through which the Church is prepared for conjunction with the LORD. It is Truth with man that the LORD conjoins Himself with in the heavenly marriage of the LORD and the Church, but this Truth must be within a man and not without him, not merely on the threshold of his life, which is his memory, nor even in his understanding merely, but in his heart and in his life.
     Conjugial love, with its chastity, purity, and innocence, is the very fundamental love of Heaven, and in so far as man is in it, he is, as to his spirit, in Heaven. Adulterous love, with its impurity, its lusts, and concupiscences, is the fundamental love of hell and in proportion as man is in them, and prefers them to conjugial love, man is in hell. The radical distinction is that conjugial love comes from the fountain of innocence and purity, from the LORD, and with men it is received in the inmost, and causes first a union of souls and thence a conjunction of hearts and minds, with innocence, tranquillity, inmost friendship, full confidence, and the mutual desire of the heart to do good one to the other. The purity and innocence accompanies this loves from its source, the Prince of Peace, and this innocence and purity attends it in all its degrees, even where it reaches its ultimate fullness in the body. But adulterous love springs from hell, and from its source is full of all uncleanness and violence; it invades first the body and thence infects the imagination and the lower parts of the mind, but can never rise higher, because the internals of the mind and thence also the soul close themselves at its approach. It is therefore a heat of short duration, followed by disgust and contempt.
     There is between conjugial love and adulterous, love the same relation as between good and evil in general; conjugial love is an external in which there is a corresponding internal, ever more pure and heavenly until it rises at last to the source of all purity and innocence in the LORD; but adulterous love, as it descends by degrees into hell, becomes ever more foul and disgusting, and as its internals are opened there is seen in it the fire of intestine hatred, for it seeks not to bless, but to corrupt and to destroy.
     Thence we may see that the heavenly life of the Church consists in the total separation of all uncleanness and impurity, and in the cultivation of the purity, innocence, and loveliness of conjugial love. In so far as the Church comes into this love, she will look up to the LORD, with entire thankfulness, confidence, and love, finding her highest delight in learning and doing His will. From this conjunction with the LORD founded on a true conjugial union on earth there will spring an ever increasing innocence, peace, tranquillity, inmost friendship and full confidence, a delight in doing good, and thence blessedness, happiness, joy, and delight, and from their eternal enjoyment on earth and in heaven, celestial happiness.
     "And thou shalt no more call me my Master, but thou shalt call me my Husband.
     "And I will betroth thee unto me forever, yea, I will betroth thee unto me in justice and in judgment and in loving-kindness and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the LORD." Amen.
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     FROM what has been stated another conclusion may also be drawn, namely this, that scientifics will vary according to the objects without and within man from which they are derived; in other words, according to the uses and forms of uses of which, they constitute images in the various planes of the mind. Thus there are, 1, Scientifics of the earths, their substances and matters, and their productions; 2, Scientifics of objective forms on the earth, of animals of all kinds, and of men; 3, Scientifics of things relating to the earthly existence of men and animals; 4, Scientifics relating to the aggregation of men, their governments, laws, and communal life and doing; 5. Scientifics relating to their moral life; 6. Scientifics relating to their spiritual or religious life. These scientifics, as is apparent, are successively more interior, as they rise from the sensual to the rational and spiritual, and form in the mind correspondingly successive planes for the reception of the light inflowing from the Spiritual World, by which reception man is gifted with intelligence and wisdom. (A. C. 5934.)
     It may thus appear how the sensual things of childhood become the scientifics of adolescence, and of adult age, wherever the conditions of mental growth exist. A first and fundamental condition of this progress is that the child be introduced into true sensuals, by which alone rational scientifics can be formed and become the means of leading to spiritual scientifics. The mind of man grows truly only by correspondence of the steps of growth, because each state of the mind, like each state of the life, is an egg, from which is hatched a form corresponding to the quality of the seed contained within.

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Hence may he seen the exceeding importance for the right formation of rational, moral, and spiritual thought in man, that the first sensual scientifics be derived from objects in nature which are in true order, in the uses of which the LORD, who is Use itself and Order itself, is made manifest; and that the delights of the senses by the activity of which these scientifics are imbued should be planes opened for the reception of the Divine Love and of all angelic influences. "Scientifics are principally of two kinds, or of two degrees, namely, sensual and scientific, . . . by hunting here both are signified. Sensuals are which children are, scientifics are those in which the same (children) are when they grow up; for no one can be in true scientifics unless he have previously been in true sensuals, for the ideas of things scientific are obtained from the latter. From these (scientifics) truths still more interior can then be learnt and understood, which are called doctrinals, which are signified by a man of the field," etc. (A. C. 3309.)
     By sensual scientifics of the quality noted, there are provided the beginning and continual basis of true is rational scientifics, as also the means of illustration and confirmation in doctrinal truths, without which man cannot be regenerated. All the truths of faith, even the highest, have their basis in the human mind on natural and sensual ideas. Such is the order of the mind, because such is the order of the life of man. As intelligence and wisdom grow out of these natural and sensual ideas, so do they also terminate in them. Hence is their importance, as will further appear from the following teaching: "The first truths are sensual, the next are scientific, the interior, are doctrinal; these truths are founded on scientific truths, since man cannot have and cannot retain any idea, notion, or conception of them except from scientifics. But scientific truths are founded on sensual truths, for without sensual scientifics cannot be understood by man; wherefore, before man has reached adult age, and by truths sensual and scientific is in doctrinals, he cannot be regenerated, for he cannot be confirmed in the truths of doctrinals, excerpt by ideas from scientifics and sensuals; for nothing is with man in his thought, not even the greatest mystery of faith which has not with it a natural and sensual idea, although man for the most part knows not what it is; but in the other life, if he so desires, it is presented to him before his understanding; yea, if he wishes, before his sight; for in the other life, such things can be presented to the sight. This appears incredible, but yet it is so." (A. C. 3310, c. f. A. E. 559, A. C. 1434.).
     Again (A. C. 1435): "Every scientific from which a man thinks is called 'an acquisition.' Without acquired scientifics man can by no means have any idea of thought; ideas of thought are founded upon the things impressed on the memory from things sensual; wherefore, scientifics are vessels of spiritual things, and affections from the delights of the body are vessels of celestial things." And again (A. C. 1486): "And he (Abram) had flock and herd, and he-asses and men-servants, and maid-servants and she-asses, and camels; that these signify all things in general which are of scientifics is evident from the signification of all these in the Word, but what each in particular signifies it would be too prolix to show, as what in this place the flock and herd signify, what the he-asses and men-servants, the maid servants and she-asses, what the camels; each has its peculiar signification in general, all things which are of the science of cognitions and of scientifics. Scientifics regarded in themselves are he-asses and men servants their pleasures are maid-servants and she-asses, camels are general things of service; the flock and herd are possessions; thus throughout the Word. All things whatever with the external man are nothing but things of service, that is, that they may serve the internal man. Such are all scientifics which are only of the external man, for, they are procured from things terrestrial and mundane by the sensual faculties in order that they mar serve the interior or rational man; this the spiritual, and this celestial man, and this the LORD. Thus they are mutually subordinated to each other, as exteriors to interiors in order; and thus all and single things according to order, the LORD. Scientifics, therefore, are ultimate and outermost things in which interior things are terminated in order, which because they are ultimate and outermost must be things of service more than the rest. Every one may know to what scientifics can be of service if he reflects or asks himself, Of what use are they? When he thus reflects upon their use, he can also understand what then use is. Every scientific must be for some use, and this is its service."
     The uses which scientifics subserve are all of a nature to bring the external man and the external life into conjunction with the internal man and the internal life. By scientifics man learns to think-then scientifics are thought that they may be of use by thinking, and finally they are so arranged that their uses may be ultimated or done externally, and thus that the outward life in which they are done may become a use, and when this is brought about, then are the external and internal man conjoined. (See A. C. 1487, 1488, and 1489.)
     The sensual scientifics first acquired in childhood and then disposed in order by the LORD that they may be of use, because they are derived from earthly objects, perceived by the senses and affecting them immediately, are the most general of all, and necessarily contain all the other scientifics that rest upon them, and thus represent the spiritual things from which they proceed as effects. (A. C. 4360, cf. 5212, 10,272).
     As these scientifics enter the mind through the senses, they are necessarily full of the fallacies of the senses or of appearances, and being most general in form, they are for this cause as liable to be abused as they are capable of use. Straw was employed in the making of bricks; it was also used for provender for beasts. "Ye shall not add to give short straw to the people. That this signifies the lowest scientifics and the most general of all appears from the signification of short straw or litter; that this is scientific truth, see 3114, and, indeed, the lowest and most general scientifics of all, for the lowest food in the spiritual sense is litter or cut straw, which is for beasts. Those are called the lowest scientifics which are full of the fallacies of the senses, which the evil abuse to the perversion of goods and truths, and thus to the favoring of evils and falses; for those scientifics on account of fallacies can be turned in favor of the principles of the false and of the cupidities of evil. Such scientifics are also the most general of all, which, unless they are filled with truths less general and particular, can serve falses and evils, but which, as they are filled with truth, serve them less and less." (A. C. 7112.)
     From the teachings of the Church we have learnt that the nutrition, clothing, habitation, recreation, delight, and protection of the body, together with the conservation of it are material uses, or uses in the lowest plane. The scientifics relating to these uses, all ideas and thoughts concerning them, will therefore be of the lowest degree, and being thus most general will include all other scientifics. As, for example, nutrition of the body will include all that relates to the existence of the body, and also of the mind in the body.

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But nutrition as a use does not exist with man except together with the thought and science of nutrition, and this therefore will include all the thought and science of the natural life of the body and of the natural mind in the body.
The same is true of the other most general uses and their scientifics, as of the use of clothing, habitation, etc. Again, what is true of the quality and effect of nutrition on the existence of the body must be true also of the quality and effect of the science of nutrition in the mind and its thinking. These most general uses, together with their scientifics, must be filled with true and good particular uses and scientifics, if by their application to the External Man is to be brought into a true relation to the Internal Man, and if the Internal Man is to be conjoined with the LORD. The LORD has made all provision for the existence of sound minds in sound bodies. It is for man now to see to it that these provisions be not neglected to the contravention of the Divine ends. In Divine Love and Wisdom, 330, it is written "Because the end of Creation is an Angelic Heaven from the human race, thus a human race therefore all other created things are mediate ends, which, because they refer themselves to man, have respect to these three things of man, his Body, his Rational part, his Spiritual part, for the sake of conjunction with the LORD. For man cannot be conjoined with the LORD unless he be spiritual; nor can he be spiritual unless he be rational; nor can he be rational unless the body be in a sound state. These three things are like a house;' the body is like the foundation, the rational part is like the house built upon it, and the spiritual part is like those who are in the house, and conjunction with the LORD is like habitation. Hence it may appear in what order, degree, and respect the uses, which are the mediate ends of Creation, refer themselves to man, namely, for sustaining his body, for perfecting his rational, and for receiving a spiritual from the LORD."
     And lastly, inasmuch as uses created for the nutrition, clothing, habitation, etc., of the body, are of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, and many things of, these kingdoms do not yield any use to man, and many are also abused, it follows, as a matter of course, that true sensual scientifics, which are to be the general vessels receptive of more interior scientifics, are concerned, first with the uses and the degree of the uses to man of the various objects of those kingdoms; secondly, with their abuses and the degree of their abuses, and thirdly, with their uselessness to man. It would thus appear that the uses and the degrees of uses of created things, their abuses and the degrees of their abuses, and the entire absence of use to man, will afford a rule to govern us in making the classification of scientifics. This rule will necessarily apply as well to the most general as to the less general and most particular uses and their scientifics, and will give to them a human form and a living human interest that cannot fail to arouse and keep alive the pleasure and delight of learning, without the activity of which no remains of truth can well be stored up for the future use of the spiritual life.
     In Arcana Coelestia 4345 we are instructed that the "affections of sciences and cognitions are most external, for the sciences and cognitions themselves are the things from which and in which are truths. The affection of external truth follows thence and is more interior, and the affection of interior truth is still more interior; the more exterior they are, the more general are they, and the more interior the less general they are, and these are called respectively particular and singular. The case with things general is the following: they are called general from this, that they consist of particulars, and therefore that they contain particulars; generals without particulars are not generals, but they are so called for particulars. They are like the whole and its parts; a whole cannot be called a whole unless there be parts, for a whole consists of parts. There is not anything in nature which does not exist and subsist from others'; what exists and subsists from others is called a general, and the things from which it exists and subsists are called particular. Externals are those things which consist of internals, wherefore externals are respectively general. Such is the case with man and his faculties, that the more exterior they are the more general they are, for they consist of interiors, and these of inmosts in order The body itself, and the things which are of the body, as those which are called external senses and actions, are respectively most general; the natural mind, and the things which are of that mind, are less general, because more interior, and are called respectively particulars; but the rational mind, and the things which are of the rational mind, are still more interior, and are respectively singular. These things appear to the life when man puts off the body, and becomes a spirit; for it is then evident to him that his corporeal things were nothing but the most general of those which were of his spirit, and that things corporeal existed and subsisted from those which were of his spirit, thus that those which are of the spirit were respectively particular, and when the same spirit becomes an angel, that is, when he is elevated into heaven, he then sees and feels in a particular and clear manner the things which before he saw and felt in a general, that is, in an obscure manner, for he then (sees and feels) innumerable things, which before he saw and felt as one. This also is evident from man himself, when he lives in the world; the things which he sees and feels in infancy are the most general, but those which (he sees and feels) in childhood and youth are the particulars of those generals, and those which (he sees and feels) in adult age are the singulars of particulars; for as man advances in age he insinuates particulars into the generals of infancy, and then into these particulars he insinuates singulars; for he progresses successively toward interiors, and infills generals with particulars, and particulars with singulars," etc., etc.
EXPERIENCE 1886

EXPERIENCE              1886

     BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELEANOR."

     CHAPTER V.

     THE letters, or extracts from the letters, of our friends will best describe the early summer weeks following the picnic:

     Miss Caroline Armand to Mr. Samuel Gray.

          "CLOUD HOUSE, -- -- July 7th.
     "DEAR MR. GRAY:-I know it is not in harmony with the precepts of the dignified books on etiquette for me to write first, but I have a faint recollection that on bidding you good-bye I could not positively state my address, so what am I to do? In fancy I hear your reply, 'I think you should write and send it,' and upon this hint I act. So much by way of preface; and now nerve yourself for the regulation rhapsodies.
     "You may have noted that every one who leaves home for the summer writes the most glowing accounts of the place favored by her-or his-presence, be it the sea-shore, the humble five-dollar-a-week farm-house, or the palatial hotel-mountain hotel-such as I visit now for the first time.

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People here do not know but that I have been used to this life, and I take care not to correct them. It would hurt my vanity, of which you know I have a large share, to tell them that heretofore my holidays have been passed in farm-houses or pokey seaside boarding-houses, and that this is my first taste of this delightful life. We arrived here in the evening, and at once went to our rooms, all of us being a little headachy; but the next morning life began! The first time (about 10 A. M.) that I entered the vast, cool dining-hall of this splendid House-with a capital H-and saw its elegant, little tables all sparkling with cut-glass and silver and snowy with linen, with here and there an elegant lady and gentleman daintily eating breakfast-I ought to write dejeuner, but I left my French dictionary at home and am uncertain of its spelling-and where was I? Oh! yes-and saw the calm, noiseless, statuesque gentlemen, otherwise walters, each at his table the very quintessence of proper form, and when I was respectfully conducted by a white-gloved gentleman to the loveliest little table by a window commanding a sweeping view of the mountains-I felt meek.
     "(If you will forgive me this time I promise never to write a sentence of that length again.)
     "Yes, I felt meek and humble; and when the deferential statue who presided at that table handed me the dainty card and quietly awaited my order, I felt helpless. I felt like saying: 'Please, sir, bring me some; thing to eat.' The long list looked blank to me and I did not know what a good many of the things on it were. I finally gave a modest little order, but think the waiter, saw what a shameful pretender I was, for he; brought us a delicious breakfast. Of course, you must understand that mother and sister Lucy were with me, but I had to order for us all, as mother is even more diffident than I, and Lucy is young-but growing; I to feel quite aged sometimes when I look at her. I look back now from the height of three days' experience and smile at my meek innocence then. I am an epicure now. I select my repasts with critical care and have my particular sauces. And lastly, I am fast becoming what I have always longed to be-a brilliant society belle!
     "Just here I can fancy a certain gentleman smiling and murmuring sotto voce, 'What a goose to let three days at a good mountain hotel turn her head so!'
     "But I am though; Mrs. Chamberlain says so, and she ought to know, for she is the leader of 'our set.' And, indeed, at the hop last night, though gentlemen are by no means in the majority here, I had to refuse I don't know how many invitations to dance; not because I did not dance, but because the invitations were so numerous. And besides that, I have more invitations to delightful little excursions or drives about the mountains than I can possibly accept. Last night Mrs. Yates said that I must go with her party to some place to-morrow, but Mrs. Chamberlain at once said, 'No, Miss Armand is engaged to go with me.' I did not contradict her, though I knew nothing of the engagement. She has been delightfully kind to me, and then she has the most agreeable people in her train. They are so polite and refined and entertaining. And before I forget it, I want to tell you that your friend Miss Merlyn is here, and-would you believe it?-declares that she is in love with me!
     "There, I think this will do for a first letter. Please do not forget to tell me about all our folks.
     "Your friend     C. A."

     Mr. Gray to Miss Armand.

     "I should have answered our letter at once, but delayed in order to get all the news I could 'about our friends. I called on Miss Wood last evening, thinking that she could give me the most information. But she told me that she wished to save up all the news for her own letter, though indeed she gave it all to me during the very pleasant time I was with her. I shall not repeat it here, as I think she wishes the pleasure of telling it herself.
     "I thought that Miss Wood looked rather thinner and paler than when I last saw her, and was glad to learn that the people she works for have given her a three weeks' vacation. She is going out to a farm-house to spend it, for, as she pleasantly remarked, 'My means do not permit me to compete with the wealthy Miss Armand.'
     "Personally I am enjoying good health. "I do not find Barton Street at all uncomfortable, and Mrs. Bantley is very kind and gives me an agreeable home. But sometimes I feel very lonesome.
     "I think I have met the Mrs. Chamberlain you speak of; at least, the one I have in mind used to pass her summer at the Cloud House. She and the people she draws around her are certainly very entertaining and agreeable. That you should have become a belle in her set is not at all strange. I remember she once told me that she would have none but 'pretty and bright girls' about her, and she went on, 'when I see such a girl I like what's its name-" mark her for my own."' She was equally frank on the subject of men; she rather preferred plain men, or 'ugly men,' so long as they were interesting. She told me one day that it was a great misfortune for a man to be handsome, because do what he would people would 'think him conceited. She told me that my merit as a society man lay in the fact that I was a good listener, and she wanted me to pair off with brilliant young ladies who enjoyed talking.
     "I hope you will favor me soon with another letter, for I assure you, etc., etc., etc."

     Miss Dorothy Wood to Miss Armand.

     "Whom do you think called on me the other evening? But, of course, you will guess at once, for I have no doubt but that you have heard all about it. I was lying on the lounge enjoying the luxury of idleness, and I do enjoy being absolutely idle, when the door-bell rang. Perhaps, my dear, you have noticed the different ways in which different people perform upon that instrument. Some have a faint, timid touch, others a light but firm touch, and others, again, the fortissimo. I knew it was not John Foster, for when he rings the bell keeps it up for a long time, and the wire speaks, too. As this particular ring belonged to the second named-I sprang up and went to the glass, then I opened the door, and there stood Mr. Gray. He has a new summer suit, and it fits him beautifully, and has none of that horrible new look that so many men's clothes have when they first wear them. Well, I bestowed on him my sweetest simile, and asked him to 'step in,' which he did. After some conversation, he coolly informs me that he had received a letter from you, and that you wished to hear about all the folks, and that he had called to ask me to tell him what I knew so that he could gratify your laudable wish.
     "On hearing this I pretended to be very much offended. I was not of course but I wanted to see what he would say Carrie, I can never tell when that man is making fun of me, provided he ever does such a thing.

136


He began in his quiet and polite way to put the case in such an absurdly true light that I tragically exclaimed, 'Mr. Gray; have you no sense of humor!' and then he laughed, and I do not know, and I suppose never shall know, whether he saw I was joking from the first or not. After that we got along capitally, and I took care to give him all the news that I have given you in this letter. Wonder if he will write it to you? The evening was warm, or, rather, absolutely baking, and after awhile he asked me if I would like to take a little walk. I objected at first. You see, I did not have my white French muslin on, and in that truthful way for which lam noted I told him so. Well, he calmly surveyed me and then remarked: 'I think that dress will do; it looks very neat.' After this I humbly took his arm and said no more. But wish I had had the other on. We slowly walked out Barton Street, and had passed Bumbles' when he halted and 'asked me if I 'would like some cream.' I had been dying for some all evening, and before he came had made up my mind to go for Mary Lane and have one of our peculiar-you know what I mean-treats. I answered with fine indifference that I should not object. I ordered bisque and orange ice, and then he took the card, and after reading it ordered his cream and then cut peaches and a plate of assorted fruit and some cakes. I sat by with as calm and matter-of-course an air as I could put on. As good luck would have it, those girls who live across the street sat at the next table, and, had nothing but ice-cream. Oh! dear, but it was fun! I don't wonder that everybody wants money when it enables you to pick daintily from abundance, and then saunter away and not leave the dishes scraped dry. But of course the Writings say we all have as much as we need, so I am, as you know, contented. And now I have something to tell you."

     Miss Caroline Armand to Mr. Gray.

     "Since my last I have been too busy for anything. The days seem toot short to enjoy all that offers. The weather continues delightful and the people too. I have been wonderfully disappointed in them-agreeably disappointed. I came here expecting to pass a quiet summer with mother and Lucy, and to enjoy society as a wall-flower. I expected to find the people utterly uncongenial, as I had been taught to believe they were. But they are not." I could not, ask a kinder welcome than they have given me, or better treatment. They are bright and entertaining, and while not in the least 'goody-goody,' are amiable and courteous to me and to each other and seem to spare no pains or money to make each other happy. How you could have deliberately turned away from such people and gone to Barton Street is more than I can see. I think it just possible that we have been prejudiced in our views of the world-in fact, it seems to me that in many ways we could take lessons from its people to our great advantage. The manners, at least of those with whom I am associated, are delicately refined, and yet there is a total absence of stiffness. They are perfectly easy and familiar with each other, but with none of that odious familiarity which I detest. I will now close my little essay on the nature of the people here, and proceed to tell you what I have been doing."

     Mr. Gray to Miss Armand.

     "In regard to your astonishment that I should have turned away from the society that you enjoy so much, I all I can say is, that after considerable experience with it, I came to the conclusion that I should be happier where I am, and so far I have had no occasion to change my mind and have no particular desire to return to 'my former life, that is, to associate with none but such as those with whom you are at present. I fully realize the truth of what you say in regard to their polish, but I think there is something else needed than polish and kindly ways."

     Miss Armand to Mi. Gray.

     "But there, I'll tell you no more about our life here, as I know you must be tired after reading all the foregoing. I fear that you will think I am growing cynical. Perhaps I am. We are laughing philosophers here. We laugh at, or sneer at, or politely stare down, everything not of our own select circle. I sometimes wonder if there is anything that some of 'us' do not feel a contempt for, even for each other, though we hide that bravely. And now I want to turn to a pleasanter subject, and, low be it spoken, to hint a little. I received a letter from Dolly this morning. Oh! how I long to see her! I'll copy a little of it here. She writes:

     "'I am, in a dreadful state of agitation. Your suggestion that I spend the last few days of my vacation at Cloud House with you floats before me like a gorgeous Dream of Youth, with myself in the boat extending arms toward the airy castle. I do so want to go! I have my pennies counted with business exactness, and 'find that I have enough to go and return, though I cannot figure out but that I shall have to walk from the depot at home for want of car fare; I am sorely tempted, and. I would yield but for a gloomy spectre that bars my way. I have the reputation of, being brave, but between you and me I am the greatest coward that ever lived. Two changes of cars, with rushing men and women, screaming locomotives, shouting hackmen, and other horrors too numerous to mention, stand between you and me. I extend my arms to you, dear, but I fear to make the leap. I am equal to an unbroken railroad ride, but before one requiring numerous changes and dread possibilities of missed trains I shrink. I cannot come, much as I long to. I dare not take the journey.'
     "After reading this I fell to thinking. I thought that men are all the time going about in the cars on business, and if such a man should perchance have occasion to travel in this direction he might meet Dolly at her station and let her accompany him. The seven o'clock express stops at Farm Junction, where she could meet it, and the travelers could land at Cloud House about five in the afternoon, when I can assure them a welcome. If you know of any one contemplating such a trip-but there, I cannot make my hint any plainer without developing it into a regular invitation."

     Mr. Gray to Miss Dorothy Wood.


     "DEAR FRIEND:-Miss Armand has written me that you are thinking of spending a few days with her at Cloud house. I have concluded to make a flying visit there myself and shall leave here Thursday morning on the seven o'clock train, which reaches Farm Junction at nine-thirty. If you could take that train it would be a pleasure for me to be your traveling-companion. As you will not have the time to answer this, I shall watch for you when we reach the junction.
     "Your friend,
          "S. GRAY."

     The train slowed up and then stopped at Farm Junction, and Mr. Samuel Gray leaped to the ground and started at a brisk pace up to the platform.

137


It was a long train; thirteen-cars in all-baggage, express, a long, yellow U. S. Mail, one "smoker," two passenger, and then a line of Pullmans. Sam was in the last of these latter and had to make fast time to reach the spot where he saw a little lady standing, looking at the train in a dazed manner.
     "Step lively, miss," called out the conductor, who resembled an army officer in his showy uniform. "All aboard!" he shouted, as she did not move.
"Hold on one minute!" called out Sam, hurrying up; then to Dolly, "Is your trunk aboard?"
     "I don't know," she answered.
     "If it isn't I'll telegraph for it."
     He assisted her on the car and the conductor motioned to the engineer and the train moved off. "This way, please," said Sam, "I have reserved a seat for you." She followed him through one car after another until she thought there was no end to the train. But at last he stopped. "Here we are. There is your seat next the window. Luckily, we are on the shadyside and the best one to get a view of the mountains. And now that we are all comfortable, lint us shake hands. I am very glad to see you; I was afraid you might conclude not to go."
     "No indeed; I have not been able to sit still since I got your letter, I was so anxious for the day to come. When the train stopped and no one got off but a man with a yellow satchel, who stared at me, I did not know what to do, unless it might be to get sick right off." After looking about the car she said, "Isn't this a splendid car-and so comfortable! I wish we did not have to leave it."
     "We do not," he replied. "There is a great deal of travel to the mountains now, and the company has put on a through car."
     "That is good news," she exclaimed, but then a serious look came over her and she hesitatingly asked, "Mr. Grab, how much extra does it cost to go in this car?"
     "Not great deal. I have paid for two seats."
     "I should like to pay you for mine, please," she said, looking embarrassed and taking out her purse, which was not a heavy one.
     "If you insist," he answered, "of course I cannot refuse, though I shall be very much disappointed, for I looked on you as my guest for this one day. - Please say no more about it."
     "You are very kind," she replied, returning her purse; "I-I am poor and proud in my small way."
     "I am glad that your pride is true, and not of that distressing kind- that refuses to confer a favor on a friend," he replied, and she had to think it over a little before she saw his meaning. The people in the car, especially the ladies and those who came in at various stopping places, seemed quite interested in the two, and looked at them very good-humoredly. Sam noticed this and remarked, "Our companions seem to wear their holiday faces to-day."
     "Yes," Miss Dorothy replied, looking out the window to hide a blush, and thereby confirming the public suspicions.
     "It was too utterly ridiculous," she said to Miss Armand that night. "And the fun of it was that he did not suspicion the cause."
     "Very obtuse in him, wasn't it? But then men never can see anything. How did you like being taken for a bride in that way? You look sweet enough for one."
     "It wasn't realistic at all, luckily, for had it been, I should have been wildly jealous."
     "Why?"
     "Because the other one, while very kind, was absorbed in some one else."
     But to return to the travelers. After her first, blushing embarrassment, and after choking down a desire to laugh, she grew interested in the scenery, which was beginning to show wild, and soon forgot all about the suspicious little public of the car. On time to the minute they arrived at their destination. Dolly was at once carried off by her friend, while Sam looked after her baggage and then sought a room for himself, which he found on the top floor, but it had the advantage of commanding a far-stretching view of mountains and valleys that gradually were lost in the blue distance. After dressing he sat by the open window until twilight began to steal over the scene, for the pure fresh air was a wonderful elixir after that of the city. Thoughts, or perhaps they were nearer to dreams, of the tall, fair girl who had met him on his arrival, filled his mind, and he forgot the lapse of time. But the slowly fading light at last aroused the dreamer, and looking at his watch he hastily descended and found his friends waiting for him, and he had to submit to a little feminine raillery at his slowness in dressing. Whether Miss Armand had exercised unusual care in her toilet or not is an unsolvable question. Probably she had; she looked unusually handsome. In the dining-room she and Dolly sat side by side, where they could command a view of the other guests, and she was so busy telling who the different ones were and commenting on them that Sam would have been forced to remain quiet even had he desired to talk. There are certain times, and this was one of them, when young ladies refuse to be disturbed (another is when they are seriously intent on the fashion of a garment). But Sam was very contented in listening to her voice. Later in the evening the three took a walk about the surrounding grounds, and in a retired spot, finding some unoccupied chairs, sat down.
     "I want to have Dolly all to myself this evening," said Miss Caroline. "Of course, you may stay, too," she added, addressing Sam.
     "I do not think there is much danger of any of these fine people wanting me," replied Dolly.
     "You are better than all of them," said Miss Armand, taking her hand and drawing closer to her. After saying this she looked curiously, and a little defiantly, at the quiet Sam, who sat before them. "Now," she went on to him, "why don't you triumphantly exclaim, 'I told you so.'" He knew to what she was alluding and replied:
     "I do not remember telling you so."
     Her speech, as we know, was not always strictly conventional, she was too honest for that, perhaps, and to-night she seemed a little excited and her talk was at times somewhat enigmatic to Dolly, though Sam fully understood it, for he had seen the gradual change in the tone of her letters.
     "No," she replied, "I'll give you credit for not once raising the warning voice. But, sir, do you deserve any credit for neglecting your duty?"
     "Duty?"
     "Is it not the duty of the experienced to warn the inexperienced?"
     "Sometimes it is."
     "Wasn't this an instance?"
     "I think not. You have had the truth from infancy if it could not save you nothing could."
     "Did you not tremble for my safety at those glowing letters I wrote you at first? One of my correspondents did and earnestly warned me."
     "I had no fear."
     "Why?"
     "I thought you would soon discover your mistake and weary of your new friends."

138



     "Suppose I had not, and had gradually drifted away from the Church."
     "In that case it would have looked as though away from the Church was the best place for you."
     "Dolly, he is just as sternly truthful as he was in the old time before I became a worldly woman of fashion. What ages and ages ago that was!"
     "I don't exactly understand you," said Dolly. "You were never in any danger of being led away from the Church, were you?"
     "No, dear, I suppose I was not, since you both seem to think so; but I doubted one part of the truth for a little while, and I feel repentant for so doing."
     "Doubts serve to confirm the truth, you know," said Sam.
     "Yes, I realize that now from experience. I have had an experience this summer."
     "Carrie, have you grown tired of all the people you liked so well at first?" asked Dolly.
     "No, not exactly tired, but wren they leave light conversation for something deeper they are so commonplace, and so much in the dark! One cannot live on frivolities, and I was beginning to get homesick at times, and weary. You don't know what a luxury it is to meet some one again who-who understands."
     "Perhaps you can now see why I left this life, and went to live on Barton Street," said Sam.
     "Yes, I understand now," she replied.
      [TO BE CONTINUED.]
SOCRATIC METHOD 1886

SOCRATIC METHOD              1886

     WHILE discussing a question of farm-yard polity one day, the Gray Goose said to the Horse, "I believe in the principle of, The greatest good of the greatest number."
     "An enticing phrase!" replied the old Horse. "Enticing? It's the fundamental of all good government."
     In the musing way that was habitual with him the Horse asked. "Opposites cannot be one and the same, can they?"
     "No."
     "Evil cannot be good?"
     "No."
     "Nor can good be evil?"
     "Certainly not."
     "Than it seems to follow that the good of one farm-yarder cannot be the evil of another.
     "That seems to follow."
     "I suppose, then, 'the greatest number,' in your maxim, includes the entire farm-yard?"
     "By no means; it applies to the majority only." "Then the good of the majority may be the 'evil of the minority?'"
     "How's that?" asked the Gray Goose, giving his head a juke.
     "In other words, what is 'good' for one part of a body may be harm to another part."
     "What?"
     "Or, put in still another way, it is possible for good to be evil!"
     "You've got me all mixed up," said the Gray Goose, walking off.
TWO FORMS OF CYNICISM 1886

TWO FORMS OF CYNICISM              1886

     Young Cynic-"History is but a written lie."
     Old Cynic-"How do you know?"
     "Young Cynic-"Ah-er-"
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     THE Rev. J. S. David's lecture on "The LORD'S Second Advent" has been issued in pamphlet form.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Morning Light has begun the publication of a serial story under the title of Dream Amy, by John Le Gay Brereton, M.D.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     MR. J. R. Hoffer, of Mt. Joy, Pa., is printing a series of articles, under the heading "Swedenborgianism," in his weekly paper, the Mount Joy Herald.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Journal of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the American New Church Sabbath-School Association is to hand. It makes a neat pamphlet of 26 pages.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     NUMBER 3 of the Congress Addresses is in type. Its title is "The Word as God's Presence with Men." It may be obtained for five cents from the Western New Church Union, 17 Van Buren Street, Chicago, Ill.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE August number of the New Jerusalem Magazine contains the official Journal of the Sixty-sixth Annual Session of the General Convention. The Journal is 180 pages in numbers may be obtained for twenty cents. Address 169 Tremont Street, Boston Mass.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE importance of baptism by a New Church Minister as the gate of introduction into the New Church is being recognized more clearly by a number of Germans in Switzerland, Germany, and America. Attention was called in these columns to several articles on the subject published in Monatblatter, of Switzerland. The Rev. F. W. Tuerk appears in the Bote, of this country, for August 1st, with a convincing article on the same subject.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IN his list book, the Russian Storm Cloud, the author, Stepnisk, gives some information as to the religious condition of the people, which may be thus summarized: The educated classes are Atheists, the members of the Orthodox Church heathens. Faith is found only among the "sects"- "all the truly religious elements of Russia are comprised in them." They number about fifteen million and are increasing, and "they are the greatest moral force which moves the Russian peasantry." The Nihilists belong to the educated class and are unbelievers.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. L. P. Mercer's sermon on Mind Cure moves the Religio-Philosophical Journal to express itself as follows: "No Catholic holds more devoutly to Papal infallibility, no Protestant more firmly to Biblical infallibility, than do New Churchmen to the infallibility of Swedenborg. By so doing they narrow themselves and belittle a great spiritual seer. Swedenborgianism is the most quietly complacent bigotry in the world, and has some of the most excellent people among its followers." The Journal has confused the man Swedenborg with the Revelation made through him. This is sometimes done even in the Church itself.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE State of Rhode Island recently enacted stringent prohibitory liquor laws. According to The Sun of New York, the result has been to largely increase drunkenness, and to make every man who claims the right to regulate his own diet a law breaker. A further result of this law has been to drive away visitors from the summer resorts of the State and to bankrupt some hotel-keepers. In Mississippi, says the Atlanta Constitution, the Prohibitionists go to the length of breaking up the meetings of those who oppose their views. Not long ago about fifty of these self-styled temperance men armed themselves with shot-guns and routed a meeting of their opponents.

139


Prohibition, as New Churchmen know, is a form of spiritual drunkenness, so we need not be surprised at the evils and intemperance that accompany it.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE progress of this progressive age is about to receive another shove, this time from women. Mrs. Elizabeth Cady Stanton says that a number of English and American women are organizing a committee to "revise the Scriptures" and are in correspondence with other women distinguished "for their knowledge of Hebrew and Greek." They believe "that the source and centre of woman's degradation" is to be found in the Old Testament, and they propose to prove that it "rests simply on the authority of man, and that its teachings are unfit for this stage of evolution," etc. These poor women fail to see that even in this folly they are but following "tyrant man," who for some time has been trying to remodel the Word, and at the' same time talking an immense amount of stupidity about "evolution.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IT is a common opinion that the island or continent, Australia is a new land, geologically speaking, in comparison with the other parts of the world. But exactly the reverse of this is true, according to Dr. J. E. Taylor's testimony, given in his late book, Our Island Continent: "Europe has (in places, at least, if not altogether) been many times submerged, re-elevated; crumpled up in places with mountain chains, and all the time the greater part of the Australian continent has been undisturbed. . . . And so through the later zoological periods Australia has been a kind of zoological and botanical 'ark' in which the animals abundant in Europe and America during the Secondary epoch of geology, and the plants which were equally luxuriant there during the Tertiary period (all of which, however, have long been extinct), have been preserved."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE "German New Church Union," of New York City; which it is not known who are the leading spirits has issued a circular, in which this statement occurs: "in regard to the organization of a German Association little or nothing has been done thus far, but we should like to put it to the affections, and to the consideration of friends and Societies, whether such a step would not be timely and wise." One looks in vain to the circular for the reason for this amusing ignoring of the "German Missionary Union of the New Church in America" an organization which embraces nearly all the German-speaking ministers in America and a number of laymen and women in Canada and the States, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, which has existed for fourteen years assists ministers in America and in Germany, publishes New Church works, and, by virtue of its large importations from Germany, is the only source in America from which the members of the "German New Church Union" themselves derive the Writings in German.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE New Church Magazine (London) prints a letter from a lady in Switzerland, in which, after regretting the death of Mr. Bauman, she says: "His follower Mr. Gorwitz, was sent here by the Academical party in America, in order to perform Mr. Bauman's duties, but to the great affection of many of us. He preaches their distinctive baptism and authority, which direction does not at all agree with what I have heard from the old Professor," etc. This lady seems to labor under the same misapprehension that possesses so many well meaning New Churchmen, concerning the Academy. The Academy's "distinctive baptism" is nothing more than the New Church baptism in the name of one LORD, and is equally valid whether performed by an Academy minister or a New Church minister not of that body, though this lady seems to think it is otherwise. The much talked of "authority" in the Academy is nothing more nor less than the authority of the LORD in the Word, and its revealed internal sense, the Writings. How any New Churchman can consistently reject this authority is more than we can understand.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     ONE of the Christian Register's reviewers bids Mr. Barrett's True Catholicism "a cordial welcome," and concludes with "Come, blessed day, when the love of God and man, as Jesus taught and lived it, shall reign in the hearts of men!" These be good words, in sooth! But should the wretched "heresy hunter," that Mr. Barrett wots of, go on a hunt he might find things beneath that even Mr. Barrett would admit were not in consonance with the "true catholicism" of the New Church. It is very comfortable to glow and shake hands and talk nice over "love" and "goodness," and there is no trouble so long as mere expansive broadness is the plane on which men meet. But suppose they were to descend, or, rather, ascend a step? Then must the New Churchman say: My dear Register, all goodness is from the Creator, who is the LORD JESUS CHRIST. If you or I claim it as our own we break one of the Ten Commandments." Then might come the reply: "My dear, True Catholic brother, Jesus was but a man-a very good and moral one; you talk absurdly!" Ah, well! how easy is the work of the heresy hunter nowadays.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE New Church Herald is the title of the latest comer in the field of New Church journalism. The first number was published on August 1st, at Eldwick Gorange, England. In his address "to our readers," the editor says concerning his aim: "We wish to bring more prominently before the public the writing of Swedenborg." Also, "The future success of the Church will depend in a great measure on how we teach, train, and bring up the young minds now among us. It will be one of our aims to teach that the real business of life consists in the teaching, training, and bringing up of children." The Herald is an illustrated monthly and this first number contains a portrait of the late Dr. Bailey and a view of the Kensington New Church building. In the contents is a sermon by the Rev. John Presland on "The Use of Music in the Church," "Green Pastures for the Young of the Flock," by Isaac Sanctuary, "Church news," and other matter. Next month the Herald will be enlarged by the introduction of a "Science Column;" this we learn by letter from the publisher. As is the custom with so many English publishers, the subscription price by the year is not given, but we believe it is five shillings. Address J. B. Dawson, Eldwick Gorange, Bingley, Yorks, England.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     PROFESSOR Scocia has issued a seven-page pamphlet, giving an account of his work in Italy for 1885-86. He says that a Professor in the city of Bari has adopted "our Catechism published in Italian the past year;" that the Rev.
Dean M. Tamburino, of Mineo, Sicily, has left the Catholic Church, and "now professes more freely his faith in the doctrines of the New Church" and that a merchant of Leghorn has bought all the Writings and collaterals published in Italian, and "is studying them with the liveliest interest." The Earths in the Starry Heaven has been published in the present year. "The sale of all the Italian publications has risen in the course of the year to somewhat more than one hundred copies." Signor Cerqua, of New York has had translated and printed 10,000 copies "of a useful little work" for free distribution among "Physicians, Apothecaries, Professors, Consular Agents, etc," to be followed, if successful, by the same number to be sent to the Roman Catholic clergy. To stimulate interest Professor Scocia has determined to translate and circulate by post some of the tracts of the American New Church Tract and Publication Society of Philadelphia. He also says "if I had abundant means at my command I would never consent to make a twisy propaganda, such as would attract ambitious, enthusiastical; and, vain persons," because the Italians then "would confound us with the Protestants or Evangelists, who are quite discredited in Italy, and we should be involved in the same condemnation with them."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     The Wreath and the Ring is the title of a new story by Mr. James Spilling, and published by James Speirs, London. The leading character in the book, Fred. Freeling, very skillfully exposes a number of absurdities in the old theology, routs two spiritists, and argues ably with his sceptical brother-in-law. Yet we think that some of his assertions are open to criticism. In his Diary (page 3) he writes: "It is of no use for me to tell him that God permits one man to be necessitous that another man may be benevolent."

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Surely it would be of no use, for it would not be true. It would be a queer religion which teaches that troubles are permitted to come upon one man in order that another may have his benevolence excited. The chief fault with this book is, we think, that it makes no account of the evils in which the world is immersed. It seems to see the world in error, nothing more. That the world is in error or, more properly, falsity is true, but arises from evil, and the complaint we make is that this evil is never recognized by many of our writers. To show a man that the six days of creation, or the flood, is not literal history does not, so far as we can see, do any particular good unless we go on and show him the wicked state in which men are to-day, and the means of escaping from that wickedness. There are many New Church books, and we think The Wreath and the Ring will be one of them, that are affectionately received by the world, but the mere fact of such reception is pretty good evidence that they but soothe the surface and no probe into the evil of mankind.
POINT OF ORDER 1886

POINT OF ORDER       B. F. BARRETT       1886

     Communicated.

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles which New Church Life is conducted or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.]

     EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:-I rise to a point of order. I submit that the gentleman (Mr. Smith) now occupying the floor in your paper, has strayed from the questions in debate, and which he, himself, introduced in your May number, and I, therefore, respectfully ask that order, and insist that he either confine himself to the questions he introduced, or carry on an independent discussion of some other questions without any reference to me.
     There are just two questions before the house-brought here by Mr. Smith: and I submit that, according to well-established parliamentary rules, it is entirely out of order to undertake to discuss any others until these are disposed of. And as you are the Chairman of this meeting, I hope you will call to order the gentleman who now occupies the floor and insist that he confine himself strictly to the questions before us, and not attempt to confuse the audience by raising a false issue or introducing wholly irrelevant matter. Otherwise the proceedings will be irregular and unparliamentary and I must withdraw from the debate, or appeal from the decision of the Chair. The questions be ore the meeting are:
     1st. "This effort to accommodate the truths of the New Church to the falsities of the Old."
     2d. Does a different understanding of the Sacred Scriptures by parties who receive them as inspired, and profess faith in the Christian religion and its Founder, make such parties to be of a different religion-in the sense in which Swedenborg uses these terms?
     "Mr. Barrett," says the gentleman whom I call to order, "has not seen any attempt to 'accommodate,'" and he is going to give us "a real live specimen from the latest effort." Now the Chair, I think, must see that the speaker is here shirking the question, and proposing to discuss one that is altogether different; for it is plain that merely "accommodating" is a very different thing from accommodating the truths of the New Church to the falsities of the old! We all of us deem it legitimate and proper to do the former oftentimes; but the later is what I have never known or heard of any New Churchman attempting to do. And this latter, you will observe, is one of the questions before the house.
And as to the second question, our audience, I take it, cares but very little about Mr. Smith's opinion or my own on such a subject, but a good deal, probably, about the plain teaching of the Writings. I maintain that when Swedenborg speaks of different religions and dissimilar faiths (as in A. C. 8998-the very paragraph in which the heinousness of marriage between those of a different religion is spoken of) he means no such thing as Mr. Smith imagines. And I prove it by the very numbers that Swedenborg himself refers to in this same paragraph (2049, 2115, 7996); which our audience can consult, each one for himself. He means by "different religions" the several great religions of the world, as Christianism (or Christianity), Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Confucianism, etc., but never the different sects, or those of the same great religion, who understand and interpret their Scriptures differently.
     Now, will Mr. Smith be good enough to cite some passages from the Writings, which teach as plainly as those I refer to in support of my view, that Swedenborg ever means by persons of a "different religion" those of the same great religion, but who understand and interpret their Scriptures differently? This would seem to be in order and quite pertinent at this stage of the discussion. Mr. Smith's inferences from certain passages which he interprets in his own way ought not to be accepted as conclusive evidence in the case. And to say that some Old Church Christians are" worse than the Gentiles," and as bad as the "Pagans who have no religion," and to quote ever so many passages from the Writings to prove it, seems wholly irrelevant. Possibly there may be some who profess the faith of the New Church who are worse than either Gentiles or Pagans; and many professing the faith of the Old Church who are better and more truly Christians internally than some who profess the faith of the New. A true conjugial union can take place only between the regenerate. Now, if a couple (both of whom profess the faith of the New Church) are joined in marriage, one of whom is regenerate, and the other selfish, worldly minded, and unregenerate; would our brother say that their marriage was heinous in the sight of heaven? Certainly not, for they hold the same faith. Yet what avails this external union-this agreement of their heads-when they are internally, or at heart, so far apart?
     There is another point on which I think Brother Smith should be ruled out of order in this debate, and that is, for needlessly lugging in personalities; as where he says that I, in the Swedenborgian a quarter of a century or more agog "held him to execration as the specimen bigot of the New Church." I wish to correct our brother here. It has never been my habit to hold up to execration any individual, and I have no recollection of presenting this brother in the pages of the Swedenborgian as "a specimen New Church bigot." But if I did, and he will kindly refer me to the passage, I promise to wipe it all out, and make to him the amende honorable so soon as he shall furnish me with adequate evidence (which I shall be most happy to receive) that he is no such sort of specimen. B. F. BARRETT.


     ANSWER.

     My reply to question 1st above is not quite ready from lack of time to write it up. To question 2d it is very easy and needs but few words.
     The doctrine explains "different religions" to mean "dissimilar faiths" (A. C. 8998). It also contrasts as such (T. C. R. 647) the "New Church faith," which alone it calls "Christian faith (Doct. Faith 34-7; A. R. 67) and the Old Church faith, or faith of the present day (given D. F. 38-40), which it positively pronounces "not Christian faith" because at variance with the Word; (T. C. R. 627.)

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So that Mr. Barrett's otherwise good list of non-Christian faiths, as above, needs this to be added from the Doctrines to make it correct- as also his case. I would again remind your readers of what he seems to have forgotten, that what he appears to call a different understanding of the Word, the Doctrines call falsification of and contrary to it. These are quite opposite things, as I have shown.
     On his last point, I refer your readers to his Swedenborgian for 1859-60. But I am not particular about any "amende." It is all made up, as I said before, by his good services.
     In my former answer, "June" for "July" is an evident error of mine. G. N. SMITH.
SOME (MORE) QUESTIONS 1886

SOME (MORE) QUESTIONS       F. A. GARDINER       1886

     To THE EDITOR OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:-In your issue for July you ask some "questions" in reference to the work of the Missionary and     Tract Society and the New Church Evidence Society in this country. If I attempt to reply to your remarks in any way, it will not be for the purpose of effecting a change in the attitude of your editorial mind toward these Societies, because it would appear, from the manner in which you yourself answered these questions in the same column, that no argument, running otherwise than parallel with your own line of reasoning would be appreciated. I think, however, that the erroneous impression, which your self-imposed task of proving that "the gentlemen of these said Societies are deluding themselves and others," must necessarily inflict upon your readers, should be modified if not removed. You ask, "What facts can be unquestionably drawn from the letters which these Societies have received during the past year from people of various denominations?" And you answer, "None save the negative fact that not one of them acknowledges the central doctrine of the New Church. Is it honest, then, from these premises to delude ourselves and others into the belief that the Churches are rising toward the New Church?"
     This somewhat excites our sense of the ridiculous. Do you not perceive that if these people were in the acknowledgment of the central doctrine of the New Church, our occupation would be gone? It would then be unnecessary for us to communicate it. It is the very fact that they are not yet in this acknowledgment which necessitates our taking the step you so strongly deprecate.
     You also ask, "Are the changed sentiments of the people around us of such a character as to lead them nearer to the acknowledgment of our LORD JESUS CHRIST in His Divine Humanity?" I would answer, they are this much nearer the acknowledgment of the their becoming possessed of the volumes containing the truth. The change in their sentiments has resulted in truth, and which would not have been otherwise the case.
     Now permit me to ask one question. Why do you deprecate our plan of disseminating the truths of the New Church and not recommend a better? And further, are you not of the opinion that New Church works placed in the hands of those people who have already manifested a dissatisfaction with the effete dogmas of the Churches around, and have indicated a desire to break away from the trammels of falsity and receive higher light on all spiritual matters, will meet     with a readier reception, than at the hands of persistent adherents to a dead faith and irrational doctrines? This is the principle upon which the Societies in question carry on their operations, and if this can be a delusion to present the New Truths to those who are dissatisfied wit the Old, then there is some point in your remarks; if it be not a delusion, better had they not been penned; they can do no good, but possibly harm.
     I would respectfully suggest that you should have read the reports of these Societies with sufficient thoroughness to grasp the spirit and intent of their record. This you have not done, or you could not have written your concluding admonition: "Let us look more to our children and less to the world for our increase." Increase forsooth; this is not our primary object. Our endeavor is to be the humble instruments for dispensing an increase of higher truth to those who are eager to receive it. The increase yon refer to is no concern of ours, it is in other hands, The duty of the Church to its young must not be confused with and cannot be substituted for the duty of the Church toward those outside its gates. Supposing the earliest pioneers of the New Church had acted upon the principle of confining the truths of the new age to themselves and to their children, or shall we, in order to show its absurdity, carry this principle to the extreme and say that Swedenborg should have contented himself with communicating the Truths of the Second Advent to his children! Naturally we look to our children for the future of the Church. That is a matter quite foreign to the purposes for which these Societies exist, and having little in common, we cannot, as you advise, substitute one course for the other.
     You might with as much logical force have admonished "the gentlemen of these Societies" to desist from disseminating the Truth, and turn their attention to the work of embodying it in their own lives. I would say,
"These things ye should have done and not have left the other undone." Yours faithfully,
     F. A. GARDINER.
9 Langdon Park Road, London, N.

     ANSWER.

     OOU correspondent asks, "Do you not perceive that if these people were in the acknowledgment of the central doctrine of the New Church our occupation would be gone?" Certainly. But we got the impression, perhaps a wrong one, that our friends hold that the Churches were rising to that acknowledgment, and we thought the evidence offered was insufficient to over-come the statements of the Writings to the contrary. If this opinion is not held we gladly apologize.     Again, we are asked," Why do you deprecate our plan of disseminating the truth and not recommend a better?" If Mr. Gardiner will read what we wrote, a second time, he will notice that not a word is said against the plan. On the contrary, we believe the plan of the Evidence Society is a remarkably good one, and worthy of copy in this country.
     Though our correspondent seems to have the idea that we would not, yet in truth we would gladly see the Writings placed in the hands of every dissatisfied member of the Old Church-but we have not much faith in many of them becoming New Churchmen. We think this breaking away from the Old Church does hot, save in a very few instances, mean an approach toward the New Church, though we know that the contrary opinion is held by many New Churchmen. They say that the New Church truth is the cause of men rejecting their old creeds and dogmas, and they seem to think that the truth is taking the places vacated.

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This is unquestionably a mistake. The Last Judgment left men in a freer state, and they are using their freedom to reject their old beliefs and the Word also. The truth of this can be seen by any reader of the "advanced thought" of to-day. It seems to us that the trouble with many New Churchmen is that they close their eyes to what the Writings say concerning the state of consummated Churches, yet what is said on this point comes with every whit as much authority as what is said on any other point. Our New Church editors show us every month how easy it is to pick out passages from the works of men who have rejected the old faiths, that seem to be in harmony with the Writings, but should they print the book or article entire even a child could see that it was not in the least in harmony with the New Church. These editors could easily select from Paine's Age of Reason passages in harmony with the New Church, but no one would think that Paine was approaching that Church.
     Still, all this does not concern the work of the Evidence Society, but then we have not a word to say against its work, we merely questioned the inferences we supposed some of its members drew from that work. The work is a good one in two ways (and this applies to other societies of a similar nature). In the first place, a certain number of men are brought into the Church every year by it. In the second place, the scattering of the Writings so profusely effects a judgment.
     There is another point that bears somewhat on this subject which it might be well to mention here. We are frequently told that it is "prejudice" or "misunderstanding" that bars the way of the New Church. The Writings say it is evil. "As far as you will, you can understand; that is, as far as     you love to understand." (D. P. 96.)
     What we said anent the children was not intended as a criticism, but as a hint at the chief source of the future growth of the Church. That the hint is a needed one cannot be denied. Perhaps there is no one who reads these lines but could mention active workers in the Church whose children marry out of it and drift away. Active missionary work is something that should by no means be neglected, but the spiritual care of our children is primary.
     In conclusion; we wish to state that the Evidence Society has our best wishes for its success and prosperity.
WINE QUESTION 1886

WINE QUESTION       J. N. W       1886

     EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:-The Holy Sacrifice, as represented by bread and wine, is certainly one of the most solemn acts of worship that a religious people can engage in, and an act that should be as well understood as the means at hand will permit.
     By the aid of the science of correspondence we are enabled to get at the why unleavened bread and wine were used in the Word as emblems.
     Bread is very often spoken of in the Word, and unleavened bread in connection with the Offering or Holy Supper.
     We find from the Writings that bread represents the Divine in the LORD-in the heavens-in the Church upon earth, and in man. And, as bread is the "staff of life" (the natural life of man), it is used as an emblem of the spiritual life or to represent the Divine in the LORD, which is the spiritual life of both angels and men.
     Leaven-a foreign substance in bread-represents evil and its falsity-a quality or thing that the Divine of the LORD did not have, therefore "unleavened bread" was used in the Offering as a the representative.
     In the Word there is much said about the "vine," the "fruit of the vine," and wine; and in the Writings we find that the spiritual in the LORD-in the heavens-in the Church upon earth, and in man, is signified by the vine and its fruit
     And as everything spiritual in the LORD-in the heavens-in the Church upon earth; and in man comes by means of temptations and their combats, and without them the peace and tranquillity of Heaven could not be, therefore wine is used to represent that peace. The "generous wine" comes after the purifying process of fermentation, so the peace of the Glorification of the Humanity comes after that humanity had gone through the combats of redemption. And our peace comes after we have followed the LORD in the regeneration.
     From these correspondential points, we can see why unleavened bread and fermented wine should be used in the Holy Supper. It is humiliating to an intelligent New Churchman (to say the least) to see it stated in our papers, with an idea of boastful pride, that this or that number partook of the Holy Supper, using "unfermented wine." J. N. W.
     URBANA, O., July 18th 1886
NINETEENTH OF JUNE 1886

NINETEENTH OF JUNE              1886

THE world lay enwrapt in a dark night of sorrow,
     The clear light of truth turned to falses and gloom;
No hope in the Church of a brighter to-morrow,
     For the Word of the LORD had predicted its doom.

When lo! in the midst of the dread desolation,
     Through the clouds of the Word dawns the brightness of day,
Comes the LORD in His strength to the sad, waiting nations,
     Comes the morn of an age that shall ne'er pass away.

Hail to the day! singing glad hallelujahs,
     Hail to the day when the New Church was born,
The Bride of the Lamb, the beloved of our Saviour,
     Came down from our God on this fair summer morn.

The nineteenth of June! blaze the heavens with glory,
     The East to the West makes the glad tidings known,
The South to the North murmurs forth the glad story
     That the Church of our LORD to the earth cometh down.
LONDON LETTER 1886

LONDON LETTER              1886

     THE annual Sunday-school excursion in connection with the Camberwell (London) Society took place at Ashtead Woods on July 8th.
     The quarterly meeting of the Camberwell Society was held on Friday evening, July 9th. Four new members were elected. It was decided to publish a monthly Manual.
     The first anniversary of the Walworth Road (London) Society of the New Church was held on Monday evening, July 19th. Tea was provided at 6.30, and a public meeting was held afterward. Mr. Potter, who is called the minister, gave an account of the year's work. He believed the world was thirsting for the truths of the New Church, but yet only about thirty attended that place. He had examined the members in his own mind and the majority were really good. The Secretary, in a very amusing report, told all the things which had been done, and in eulogizing "the minister" said, with emphasis, that he was ordained of God in Heaven, and they desired for him no other ordination.

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     The Rev. T. Child urged the members to remain true to the man at their head and to work heartily together. The Revs. J. Presland, W. C. Barlow, and R. J. Tilson also addressed the meeting, the last-named gentleman earnestly urging the friends to cease being anxious for results, to leave those to the LORD, to devote all their energies to receive the truth as revealed to them by the LORD in the Word and the Writings, and to remember that the LORD alone can know the true state of any man. A layman was invited by the Chairman to close the meeting by pronouncing the benediction.
     At a representative meeting held in Bloomsbury Street, London, on Friday, July 30th, it was decided to print a memorial edition of The Divine Word Opened, by the late Rev. Dr. Bayley, with a biographical notice and portrait, the work to be sold at one shilling per copy. This was felt to be the best way of keeping green the memory of Dr. Bayley.
     A reception meeting was given to the Rev. I. Tansley, B. A., by the Liverpool Society on Thursday, July 29th. Mr. Craigie presided. A very hearty meeting was held and Mr. Tansley was warmly welcomed to his new field of labor.
     It is arranged that the Rev. John Presland, of London, should preach for four consecutive Sundays to the new Society in Glasgow formed of seceders from the Cathedral Street Society of that city.
     The Rev. J. J. Woodford has resigned his pastorate of the Church in Snodland, Kent.
     A Congregational minister has been preaching in the pulpit of the Bath Society, which is at present with out a minister.
     The Rev. Dr. Hibbard assisted in the services of the Church at Liverpool on Sunday, August 1st.
     The Rev. P. Ramage, Minister of the Anerley (London) New Church Society and editor of The Dawn, exchanged pulpits with a Congregational minister on Sunday, August 1st.
     In its impression of July 29th, the Dawn says of New Church Life: "New Church Life, received, is excellently printed, and on good paper. We think this periodical is increasing in sweetness. Its short articles are generally excellent."
     Mr. E. Hyatt, from the Academy Schools, was married to Miss Mary Leather, by the Rev. J. Presland, at the Camberwell (London) Church, on Tuesday, August 3d.
     The English Conference commenced its seventy-ninth session in the New Church, Heywood, Lancashire, on Monday evening, August 9th. The retiring President, the Rev. W. Westall, called the Conference to order. On Tuesday the Rev. R. R. Rodgers, of Birmingham, was elected President, the Rev. W. Westall, Vice-President, and the Rev. E. Whitehead, Secretary.
      Dr. Hibbard and Dr. G. F. Rooke were welcomed as representatives from America.
     The Rev. Dr. Tafel was nominated as President of the next session, and Argyle Square, London, was appointed as the place at which Conference shall meet next year.
      The Rev. W. C. Barlow, of London, preached the Conference sermon in the evening, after which the Sacrament was administered, in which wine and must were both used.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       M. W. C       1886

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-Thanks for the August number of the Life, which came promptly. In looking it over, an item struck me as inaccurate, when, as a general thing, you are extremely accurate.
     In the allusion to "Jim Bludso," you will see from a slip I inclose that there is nothing about angels nor "loafing 'round the throne." Jim "seen his duty a dead sure thing, and went for it thar and then," which, so far, was right, and under the circumstances heroic, and his bard says he would stand his chance at Judgment Day as readily as he would that of some pious gentleman who would not have shaken hands with Jim Bludso.
     The allusion to "loafing, etc.," is from another poem by the same author, I think, "Little Tobacker." I cannot produce the piece, but it is in most popular "collections " of the day.
     A father finds his little boy nestled safe and warm among a flock of sheep, instead of his frozen little corpse, which was all he had expected to find of him. To the imaginary question of "How did he come there?" he says angels put him there, and adds:

"That saving a little child
And taking him home to his own,
Is a durned sight better business
[For them, the angels]
Than loafing around the throne!"

     In both these pieces it is easy to discover a crude idea of use distinguished from faith alone, or from singing and playing upon harps. Though neither poem is very lofty in its aim, I cannot think any one would have a lower idea of right living from their perusal.
     Very respectfully yours,
          M. W. C.
     CHICAGO, Aug. 23d, 1886.
NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886




     Births, Deaths, and Marriages.





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NEW CHURCH LIFE
A MONTHLY JOURNAL

TERMS: One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.
Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

     All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

PHILADELPHIA, SEPTEMBER, 1886=117.

     CONTENTS

     Editorial Notes, pp. 129, 30.-Sermon, p. 130.-Conversations on Education, p. 132.
     FICTION.-An Experience, Chap. V, p. 134.-The Socratic Method, p. 138.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS. p. 138.
     COMMUNICATED. p. 140.
     NEWS GLEANINGS. p. 144.
     AT HOME.

     New York.-THE Rev. Chauncey Giles spent the vacation months at Lake George, and frequently conducted religious services in the Sagamore House.
     Massachusetts.-A CORRESPONDENT of the Messenger, writing from Patuisett Island, says it is owned by a New Churchman, who is desirous of making a New Church summer resort of it. He will divide it into lots, and if a sufficient number are sold will erect a chapel at his own expense. The place is said to be well adapted for the purpose. The idea is a good one.
     Pennsylvania.-THE Rev. S Beswick has been engaged permanently as editor of the Tyrone Herald.
     THE Rev. Eugene J. E. Schreck, during his recent trip in behalf of the General Church of Pennsylvania, visited Tyrone, Summit, McKean, Williamsport, and Buffalo, N. Y., preaching in school-houses and private houses in English and in German.
     A NEW Church school will be opened in Allegheny City in September. It is hoped to start with about twenty-five pupils.
     Maryland.-THE Rev. P. J. Faber and family have removed from Brooklyn to 102 E. Fayette Street, Baltimore.
     Georgia.-MR. Enoch S. Price, under authority of the Bishop of the General Church of Pennsylvania, preaches in Valdosta, Georgia, every Sunday, and conducts three doctrinal classes during the week.
     Wisconsin.-AT Jefferson, recently, the Methodist congregation, whose church is undergoing repairs, joined services with the New Church people; their minister assisted at introductory services and at the Communion, and afterward made some remarks on the "happy significance of the united Communion;" so says the Rev. S. H. Spencer in Messenger.
     AN isolated receiver at Necedah has written eleven lectures on the Doctrines, which he offers to deliver gratis if his expenses are paid.
     Iowa.-LOST NATION, Aug 6th, 1886. On the4th of August, at the residence Mr. Albert Higby, were baptized Mrs. Colonel Wm. Shaw and Mr. Allen Scroggs, who was formerly of the Disciple Church. Five joined in the solemn rite of the Holy Supper afterward. STEPHEN WOOD.
     Indiana.-THE Messenger's La Porte correspondent says: "The Annual Convention of the Sunday-schools of this county was held here last week. The Rev. Mr. Grant was on the programme to open one of the discussions, which he did. Mr. Mercer was invited to take part and made a couple of short speeches. The other denominations feel quite kindly disposed to our Church, and whenever our minister visits any other Church he is almost always invited into the pulpit and asked to take some part. This has happened in four different churches."
     Kansas.-THE Rev. Ellis I. Kirk announces that a New Church school will open in the Concordia College Buildings, of that city, on September 14th, and that pupils of both sexes and of any age will be received.
     Ohio.-THE various reading circles throughout the West have finished reading Divine Providence. The average attendance at the circle in Urbana was twenty-nine. The Rev. Frank Sewall in a letter to the New church Reading Circle says: "And by no means leave out of view the great object so intelligently urged by Rev. Mr. Mercer-the private daily study of the Writings as a religious act and in a devotional spirit."
     DR. Edward Cranch, of Erie, spent a portion of August visiting his sister, Mrs. Dr. Moses, of Urbana.
     THE wedding ceremony of Mr. Owen and Miss Gilchrist, at Urbana, was performed by the Rev. Frank Sewall. The bride is a sister of Mrs. Sewall. The church was beautifully decorated. Among the guests present were ex-Governor Cox and his wife and daughter, of Cincinnati; Mrs. Mursereau, of St. Louis; Mrs. Elizabeth Beamen, of Cincinnati, and Mrs. Patten, of Bath, Maine. Mr. Owen is connected with the Boston Post.
     Colorado.-THE New Churchmen of Denver seem to have considerable social life. The Tribune of that city gives a little account of a Japanese lawn party, given on the grounds of Mr. W. S. Howland, a member of the Church in that city, for the benefit of the Society. It passed off very pleasantly.
     THE editor of the Messenger, the Rev. C. H. Mann, spent his vacation this year in Colorado.
     Canada.-THE Evening Telegram, of Toronto, says: "Considerable interest has recently been manifested in Parkdale and vicinity on the question of the LORD'S Second Coming. The Re. J. S. David, pastor of the New Church Society in Parkdale, gave a discourse on the subject last week which commanded the closest attention of an intelligent audience. He will give another lecture on the same subject tomorrow evening."

     ABROAD.

     England.-THE Society at Colchester has a doctrinal class to which no one can become a member who does not "believe the Writings to be a revelation of Divine Truth from the LORD, given to the New Church at His Second Coming."
     MR. F. W. Richardson, F. C. S., F. S. A., preached for the Embsay Society on July 4th.
     MR. John Fletcher presented an organ, costing four hundred and fifty pounds, to the New Church Society at Southport, in memory of his wife. Other gentlemen presented the same Society with a Caen stone font and an illuminated set of the Commandments.
     MR. Petersen read a paper on "The State of the Christian World" at the Bible-class in connection with the Walworth Road, London, Society, on Friday evening, June 4th, showing that the Old Church was dead and that the so-called Christian world was full of its deadness.
     ON June 19th, the annual meeting of the new Church Educational Institute was held in the library of the church, Camden Road, London. Dr. Tafel presided and gave an address. From the report of the Board of Management it appeared that five applications for studentship had been received during the year. The thorough training of students was stated as one great aim, and a fair amount of useful work was reviewed. Dr. Tafel was re-elected President; the Rev. J. F. Potts, ice-President; Mr. Whittington, Secretary; Mr. Gibbs, Treasurer, and the following gentlemen members of the Board of Management, in addition to the above: Rev. R. J. Tilson, and Messrs. Keene, Ottley, Hodson, and H. Adcock. At the public meeting afterward addresses were delivered by the Revs. Dr. Tafel and J. F. Potts, and essays were read by three students, Mr. A. Faraday treating on the "The Value of a Knowledge of Degrees," Mr. Slight on "Degrees in the Human Mind and their Terminology," and Mr. Billings on "The Knowledges of Good and Truth."
     THE Annual Conference of the New Church Sunday-schools was held at Birmingham on Wednesday, June 23d. Mr. Bragg was elected President, and the Rev. Isaiah Tansley, B. A., Secretary. Mr. Johnson, or Wigan, read the address. The Conference was mainly occupied with the revision of its rules; no spiritual subject occupied its attention. An exhibition of Sunday-school books, maps, and articles of furniture was held. In the evening a social meeting was enjoyed.
     THE Rev. R. J. Tilson visited Liverpool on Wednesday, June 30th, to officiate at a marriage, and on the following evening about forty members of his old flock were very kindly invited by Mr. W. Plastow to meet their former pastor. The evening was devoted to a consideration of the subject of "Influx" and to social chat. Mr. W. H. Acton, from the Academy Schools, Philadelphia, was present at the meeting.
     THE Society at Bath has invited the Rev. J. J. Thornton, of Melbourne, Australia, to become its minister.
     THE Rev. J. Presland, of London, preached at Southport on Sunday, July 4th, on the occasion of the opening of a chancel to the church of a new organ.

     Scotland.-ANOTHER New Church Society has been formed in Glasgow and was inaugurated on June 28th. Forty-four names were signed. The new Society held its first worship in the rooms of the Young Men's Christian Association, attendance forty. It will apply for admission to Conference, on the grounds that its case is so exceptional that the Conference rule requiring a Society to have met for two years should be suspended.

     Switzerland.-ON Sunday, July 11th, the Rev. F. Gorwitz baptized five persons two of whom were married after the Sacrament.

     Germany.-ON July 4th, five persons were baptized by the Rev. F. Gorwitz in Esslingen.
     THE Society organized by Mr. Artope in Berlin numbers forty-six members. None are admitted without first severing their connection with the Old Church. The Sunday-school counts over one hundred pupils. Mr. Artope is supported by the "German New Church Society," of Germany, and also by friends in England.
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886



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NEW CHURCH LIFE
     Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER, 1886=117. No. 10.
     THE New Church people of New England have had a "chief among them" psychometrizing, this last summer. Perhaps the readers of the Life do not know what psychometrizing means; neither do we. G. W. C. has been there-i. e., in New England-and the "self styled New Church set" of that region has "utterly ignored him, and yet-now mark these words of bale from Dr. Holcombe-"he is absorbing their atmospheres, psychometrizing their spiritual conditions, and could hold up a mirror to them in which the sight of themselves might be a most valuable lesson."
     This darksome threat is not left hanging over New England, for (so to speak) the rod is taken out of pickle and the mirror is held up in the same "letter" in which it is made. The psychometricized New England New Church clergyman shows in that doomful mirror with the "timidity of the hare," and his congregation "is a sepulchre of dry bones," and the entire New Church is a "little, ecclesiastical bantling set agoing by Mr. Hindmarsh and his friends."     O brethren of New England! though you do not, as a class, take kindly to the Life, yet in this, your hour of unveiling, it extends to you the hand of a companion in affliction. You must learn to patiently dree the doom the celestial G. W. C. assigns you. To your sterile coasts (as it has elsewhere) there may have come the idea from the Writings that the celestial man does not talk or write much. If so, it may comfort you a little.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IN a sermon the liberal James Freeman Clarke says: "The Broad Church will include all good men and Women of every religion. It will be broad enough to include Socrates and Plato, Confucius and Buddha, Garibaldi and Abraham Lincoln, though some of them never have heard of Jesus and others never claim to be His disciples." Nothing could be more circumambient than this, except a Church which included the evil as well as the good. There are several objections to the Broad Church, and one of them is that it is too despotic. It takes a good man into its fold will he, nill he. Despotism, Mr. Clarke and all Broad men must admit, is not in harmony with the spirit of the age. Another objection, and a really vital one, may be indicated by the question, Who are its members? Will Mr. Clarke say to the world, "I am a good man"? If he will not, he has no right to speak for that Church. And what man is there who will claim membership by making the same announcement of his goodness? There is an Universal Church, composed of the good of all religions, Christian or pagan; but its members are known to the LORD alone. It savors of presumption for any man to claim membership in this Church for himself-indeed, the very fact of any one making this claim might be pretty good evidence that his claim was fictitious It is a beautiful and a consoling thing for us to know that there is such a Church-to know that the good of all religions are saved-but any attempt to substitute that Church for the specific Church in which the LORD is acknowledged and the truth taught, and in which those who have gone astray in falsity and evil may have the opportunity of learning the truth and thereby attaining salvation, is folly or worse. It is an indirect assumption on man's part of that which belongs to the LORD alone.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     VIEWED from another point, there is something approaching the ludicrous in the position of these Broad Churchman. They claim that they have escaped the fetters of creeds, and are no longer bigots, and they plume themselves on this very openly. One of our best edited exchanges contains the following concerning one of these creed-less bodies: "While declining to be fettered by creeds, they have been zealous and indefatigable in declaring their grand beliefs." What we should like to know is, why the Latin word "creed" (credo, I believe) is more fettering than the Anglo-Saxon "I believe"?
     Another Broad Churchman tells the world that if the principles he advocates should prevail, "there would be no room for schism. The heresy-hunter's occupation would be at an end," which looks to us like a very self- evident proposition, and might be put in these words: "If all the world believed as I do, no one would believe otherwise."
     Not long ago a book (a Broad one) was published wherein the writer tells us, in his preface, that all narrow bigots will turn from it in disgust before reading many pages. The naivete of this is decidedly funny-"if you don't believe what I'm about to tell you, you are a bigot." What more could the patristical men of old have said? How much further could bigotry go? For their own sakes these clamant Broad Church writers and speakers should get themselves to a more logical and less ludicrous position.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     NOT long ago a little book was published in England under the title Obiter Dicta, and one chapter in it, The Via Media, we can recommend to Broad Churchmen, and to a good many New Churchmen, too. A few quotations from it may not be amiss here. "There can be no safety" says the author, "in an illogical position, and one's chances of snug quarters in eternity cannot surely be bettered by our believing, at one and the same moment of time, self-contradictory propositions." "If the too apparent absurdity of this is pressed home, the baffled illogician, persecuted in one position, flees to another, and may be heard assuring his tormenter that in a period like the present, which is so notoriously transitional, a logician is as much out of place as a bull in a china shop." But then, says the author, "the age has remained transitional so unconscionably long, that we cannot consent to forego the use of logic any longer." "It is eminently desirable that we should consider the logical termini of our opinions." "We have heard of grown-up Baptists asked to become, and actually becoming, god-fathers and god-mothers to Episcopalian babies! What terrible confusion is here!

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A point is thought to be of sufficient importance to justify separation on account of it from the whole Christian Church, and yet not to be of importance enough to debar the separatist from taking part in a ceremony whose sole significance in that it gives the lie direct to the point of separation."
     "In our London Letter, published last month, occurs the following: "A Congregational minister has been preaching in the pulpit of the Bath Society, which is at present without a minister." Also, "The Rev. P. Ramage, minister of the Anerly New Church Society and editor of the Dawn, exchanged pulpits with a Congregational minister on Sunday, August 1st." What is this, Mr. Ramage, but logically giving "the lie direct" to the Church whose doctrines you are ordained to preach? and do not you, members of the Bath Society, hold a similar position? Indeed, "it is eminently desirable that we should consider the logical termini of our opinions."     
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     IN a letter to the Messenger, the President of the Swedenborg Publishing Association says concerning the books which that Association offers at a reduced rate to free libraries: "The books offered have been selected with especial reference to the states of those hitherto unacquainted with the New Church Doctrines, and which have been found by actual experience to be among the very best introductory New Church work-far better suited to the state of the average inquirer than Swedenborg's own works, because more easily understood on account of their more familiar nomenclature."
     It may seem a little harsh, but the harshness is not ours, to say that this is a practical assertion that the writers of the Swedenborg Publishing Association know in what nomenclature Divine revelation should be couched, to reach the fallen, a good deal better than the chosen instruments of the LORD. The nomenclature of revelation is unsuited to you, O sinners! so this Association fixes it up-or down to you-and at the same time omits those things which a revelation ought not to contain. It ought to go a step further and give us a popular and abridged edition of the Word-its nomenclature is sadly behind the times and it contains so much that is calculated to "shock an earnest seeker after truth at first." And then, you know, the busy man of this age has not the time to wade through its voluminous pages; he wants the essence of it, and wants it in a popular nomenclature; that's what he wants. Well, this is the "age of hand-books"-if we may believe, and quote, Puck.
DEATH AND ETERNAL LIFE 1886

DEATH AND ETERNAL LIFE       Rev. L. H. TAFEL       1886

     "And I heard a voice from Heaven, saying unto me, Write, Happy are the dead that die in the LORD from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, they may rest from their labors; but their works do follow with them."-Revelation xiv, 13.

     To His New Church the LORD has given clear and consoling information about Death and Eternal Life. He has rent the veil which separated the visible from the unseen world, and shows to us clearly that there is, in truth, no such thing as death, but that all live unto Him-a part of His children in the natural world, but the greater number in the unseen spiritual world. He also shows to us that, whether here or there, all are enfolded by the unending care and love of their Heavenly; Father so that we may well receive the apocalyptic prophecy of the New Jerusalem, even in its literal sense when rationally understood, that "God will wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away." For that death and sorrow which stalk abroad with frightful mask An the darksome shadows of the Old Church are not known in the New Church, where the weary are seen to pass over at once to that eternal rest and to that glory pro pared for them by their Father in the Heavens. The natural grief of those parted from dear friends and beloved companions and guides is now soothed by the gladsome reflection that their friends and beloved have risen from their couches of sickness and pain to eternal vigor and the joyous exercise of all their best faculties, and by the consciousness that the beloved departed remain closely associated with those they have loved best, and especially, also, by the clear knowledge that the love of their SAVIOUR LORD is all-wise and unbounded; that He is abundantly able and willing to take care of all His children, both here and there, and to provide for them all that is necessary and useful. They know that as not a sparrow "falls to the ground without their Father," so He has also foreseen and provided for every circumstance and all the surroundings of their life, and though they may not be able at present to see the infinite love and wisdom in the LORD'S dealings with them, they may see it hereafter when looking back upon their life from a spiritual conception of what is good and useful for them, according to the words 9f the LORD to Peter when the LORD washed Peter's feet: "What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." Trusting in the unchanging love and wisdom of the LORD, and assured of the happy, joyous life of those that have departed, death and the grave are shorn of most of their terrors, and the heart is ready to receive the consoling promise of the LORD in our text: "Write, the dead that die in the LORD from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit; that they may rest from their labors. But their works do follow with them."
     In the Word the LORD commanded at various times that particular things should be written down, by which is signified that they were certain and sure, and that they should be perpetually preserved for posterity. In fact; the whole written Word is the result of the commandment to write. To write also 'signifies to impress on the life. We know, therefore, that the consolation of the LORD in our text is to be received as the LORD'S word, firm and unalterable, to be forever cherished and impressed upon the life.
     The "dead," in the internal sense, signify not those who are departed from this life, but those who are dead to evil and to the false, and who therefore live in the LORD; they are, therefore, said in our text to "die in the LORD." Those who have cast aside evil affections and false persuasions, and who live in the LORD, are happy wherever they may be, for wherever they are they can do the will of the LORD, and perform uses for the neighbor, and in this the happiness of those who cease from evil and who have learned to do well consists. He who looks to the LORD to guide and direct him according to His will, will not be solicitous whether he be in this world or the other, knowing that the' LORD will place him wherever it is best for himself and for others. The LORD foresees the life of every one, how long and of what nature it will be. His Providence begins with man's birth, and thence onward the LORD directs man's life, even to eternity. There are four causes given in the Writings as determining the duration of man's life on earth: 1. Man's use to other men while living upon the earth; 2. Man's use while living upon earth to spirits and angels; for as to his interiors man is consociated with spirits, and the World of Spirits and the Heavens terminate in man and rest upon him; and this is true of the spiritual world in general, as well as with its societies in particulars; they all finally rest upon men as their subjects or bearers;

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3. The use to man himself that he may either be regenerated or that he may be let into his evils, that they may not be hidden and burst out afterward to his eternal destruction; and, 4. His use to eternity in the other world after death. The LORD alone can tell how these various uses may best be subserved, and His children must be satisfied to be guided by the LORD in this as in all matters, knowing that He alone knoweth all things, open and hidden, external and internal, and, therefore, He alone can direct all things aright to the eternal welfare of all on earth and in Heaven. The great matter is not whether we live here or in Heaven, nor even so much whether the friends we love are here or in Heaven; but that whether here or there they may be dead to sin, and may live in the LORD: "Happy are the dead that die in the LORD from henceforth." To be "happy" in the Word signifies to have eternal life and felicity, and those attain this who have afflicted their soul and crucified the flesh, i.e., who have resisted the desires of evil, and have overcome in temptations; for with them together with the concupiscences of evil, evil spirits are driven away, and they are conjoined with the angels of Heaven. It, is said that they shall be happy from henceforth because they can now enter at once on this happiness when they pass to the other world. Those who before the Last Judgment, executed in the year 1757, had believed in the LORD JESUS CHRIST and shunned evils as sin against Him, had nevertheless, in many cases, to wait in the lower earth until the hordes of evil spirits were dissipated and cast down; but those who now enter into the other world, having lived in faith and charity, can, if prepared, enter at once on the felicity and happiness of Heaven: "Yea, saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labors." Those who have fought the good fight: here, will no more have to endure combats against evils and falses nor infestations thence, which are signified by labors; they will, therefore, be it rest, i. e., in Heaven, in the presence of the LORD, and thus in eternal peace; for the presence of the LORD with those who are guided by Him is heavenly felicity and peace; for living, as they do, in the LORD, they receive of His Spirit, i. e., unending happiness and tranquillity, with the heavenly delight of performing with all their strength uses from the LORD and thus partaking of His love and life.
     "But their works do follow with them." The works of man are that which constitutes his spiritual life. There are indeed three things which constitute man; there is thought, and will, and action thence derived. What is merely in man's thought and not yet in his will is not yet in him; what is in his thought and in his will and not in act, enters man, indeed, and constitutes a beginning of life with him, but if it goes no further when occasion is given, it goes out again and is dissipated, because it has not become ultimated and terminated. But that which is in the thought and will of men and thence in act-his works-this makes his life, and remains, whether it be evil or good. That thought alone does not make man's life may be evident from this, that a man may think many things which he does not will, because he does not love them. That thought and will without act do not make man's life, is because it is not a certain and confirmed will, and an uncertain will is like water that evaporates, for it is easily changed by any opposing and resisting love. Spiritual life, therefore, is only acquired by a life according to the commandments of the LORD in the Word. These commandments are expressed in a summary in the few words: Thou "shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not bear false Witness, Thou shalt not covet. These are the commandments that man is to observe, and so far as he keeps them, so far his works are good and his life becomes spiritual, for in so far as man shuns and hates evils, so far he wills and loves the good. For there are two opposing spheres which encompass man, the one from hell and the other from Heaven; from hell proceeds the sphere of the evil and the false, but from Heaven the sphere of the good and the true. These spheres affect the mind of man, and as far as man accedes to the one, he removes from the other; so far as man shuns and hates evil, he will will and do the good. "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other."
     But in order that man by keeping the commandments may acquire spiritual life, he must keep them from a religious principle, i. e., because they are commanded by the LORD. If man keeps the commandments from any other cause, as when he keeps them merely from fear or out of regard for his good name and fame, thus merely because of the civil or the moral law, man remains natural as before, and becomes in no way spiritual. Keeping the commandments from a religious principle has in it the acknowledgment of God, of heaven and hell, and of the life after death. But if man obeys the commandments merely on account of the civil or moral law while rejecting the Divine Law, there is in such acts still a denial of God, of Heaven and hell, and of the life after death. A man shunning evils from such reasons only shuns them as to their appearance before men, and not in his internals. Such a man, therefore, though externally as to the life of the body similar to the Christian, is yet, nevertheless, internally as to his spirit like a devil. Man can therefore not receive spiritual life and be conjoined with Heaven and the LORD, but through a life according to religion from the LORD. Those who shun evil as sin against the LORD will be in chastity, in sincerity and justice, in love of the neighbor, and in love of the truth, for these goods are given by the LORD as man shuns the opposite evils; and they will acknowledge that this good is given from the LORD and that it is His Life, even while from His infinite, selfless love, the LORD grants to man to feel it altogether as his own; and men then will be in these goods not only as to their external life appearing before men, but also as to their internal, which is seen only by the LORD. These will be "works which follow with them." It is said in the original not "that their works do follow them," but "that their works follow with them," because their works constitute, as we have seen, their very spiritual life, and this does not follow after them, but it goes with them, for it is in them. Those who are in such a state are indeed happy and in peace, for they are in the LORD and the LORD in them.
     The death of the body and the resurrection to glory is at once the image and the completion of that dying to the proprium, to the merely natural loves and fallacies of the senses which constitutes regeneration, and as the Church advances with men, they will learn to joy with those who have entered into rest, and glory, and, like some more of the enlightened ancients, they will learn by feasts of charity to celebrate the entrance of their friends to eternal happiness and heavenly glory, and this even while through the strong sphere of friendship and mutual love then prevailing, they will comfort and console one another for the losses they have endured in the temporary separation.

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The main factor in such a state of the Church must be the firm and unshaken belief in the truth of our text, and the looking, not downward, but upward, whither we all shall go sooner or later to join those who have before us entered into glory. This will serve to bring us into interior states of thoughts and of affections, in which we can realize that the one great central idea of all is the LORD JESUS ORRIST in His infinite Love, Wisdom, and Power, the Heavenly Father, having before His eyes all His children; here and in Heaven, and most tenderly caring incessantly for all and supplying all their needs. As this becomes the central thought, we realize more fully than ever the truth that it is well for those who are called up to glory, and we will be more ready to do our duty to those who are thereby for awhile left behind, by doing for them all that friendship and mutual love direct. As this spirit comes to prevail in the Church, the words of our text will shine out more, fully in their Divine Love and Wisdom:
     "Write, Happy are the dead that die in the LORD from henceforth. Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors; but their works do follow with them." AMEN.
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     IT is evident from the teachings of the Church adduced in our preceding Conversations, that the ordination and classification of sensual scientifics have their rational determination in their relation to the uses which have respect to the nutrition, clothing, habitation, recreation, delight, and protection of the body of man, and to the conservation of its state, and also this, that the entire body of these scientifics stands to all rational and spiritual scientifics in a relation similar to that of the life of the natural body to the life of his mind. The spirit of man has its terminations in his external body, and exists there in its own ultimates and effects. As his whole spiritual world terminates and is represented in his natural world, so do all his rational and spiritual scientifics have their termination and representations in his sensual scientifics. Hence does it follow that the Divine law regulating the natural life of man in the body is also the law regulating the scientifics proper to that life. The natural life is for the sake of the rational and spiritual life, and for the sake of conjunction with the LORD by means of it; and all sensual scientifics are for the end that man may become rational and wise, in the image and according to the likeness of the LORD. Hence it is that all scientifics take on the human form; which is not solely from the fact of their production by means of the human intellect, but also from this, that they perform to man the use of serving as receptacles of good from the LORD. In Arcana Coelestia (n. 5373), we are taught that, Scientifics, which are of the natural mind, are ultimates of order; prior things must be in ultimates that they may exist and appear in that sphere; and besides, all prior things tend to ultimates as to their own boundaries or ends, and therein they exist together, like causes in their effects, or like things superior in things inferior as in their own vessels. Scientifics, which are of the natural mind, are such ultimates; thence it is that the spiritual world terminates in the natural of man, in which the things that are of the spiritual world are presented representatively Spiritual things, unless they are presented representatively in the natural, thus by such things as are in the world can by no means be understood. From these things it may be evident; that when the natural is regenerated, all the interior goods and truths, which are from the spiritual world, are brought together into scientifics in order that they may appear." (Cf. A. C. 3310; Sp. D. 5709.) Again (in A. C. 5489:) "That the scientific is the receptacle of good few know, because few reflect on such things; nevertheless, it may be known from these things: the scientifics which enter the memory are always introduced by some affection; those which are not introduced by some affection do not remain there, but pass away. The reason of this is that life is in affection; but not in scientifics except by affection; thence it is evident that scientifics have always conjoined with them such things as are of affection, or, what is the same, which are of some love, consequently of some good, for every thing that is of love is called a good, whether it be good, or be only believed to be good. Scientifics, therefore, form with those goods, as it were, a marriage; thence it is, that when that good is excited, immediately the scientific with which it is conjoined is also excited; as likewise, on the other hand, when the scientific is recalled, the good with which it is conjoined comes forth; this every one may experience with himself, if he will. Hence now it is that with the non-regenerate, who have rejected the good of charity, the scientifics, which are truths of the Church, have adjoined to them such things as are of the love of self and the world, thus evils, which on account of the delight that is in them they call goods, and also make goods by sinister interpretations. These scientifics come forth elegantly to appearance, when those loves reign universally, and according to the degree in which they reign. But with the regenerate, the scientifics which are truths of the Church have adjoined to them such things as are of love of the neighbor and love of the LORD, thus genuine goods; these are reposited by the LORD in the truths of the Church with all who are regenerated; wherefore, when the LORD insinuates into them zeal for good, that good is present, and inflames him. From these things it may be evident how the case is with scientifics, and with truths, that they are receptacles of good."

     The Use of Sensual Scientifics

     Sensual Scientifics have a good use and also an evil use. They perform a good use when they serve man as means of becoming rational; they perform an evil use when they serve man as means of becoming irrational and insane. These uses are performed according as scientifics are applied to good or evil ends of life; and as man is rational or the opposite, according as he seeks g6od or evil ends, it is evident that the quality of scientifics depends on the same conditions.
     Thus, a sensual scientific becomes a rational scientific when man from it and others of a like kind concludes a truth, such as has respect to natural life, and from this truth determines his activity in relation to the kingdoms of nature. As, for example, when he from such truth determines what is useful for the nutrition, the clothing, the habitation, etc., of his body. Such a truth is denominated a natural rational scientific, and the whole body of such scientifics, when arranged and disposed in order in the mind and applied to uses, constitute in man his natural common sense, which is then a general or common "receptacle of good "-i. e., of the good or use of natural existence.
     Again: Conclusions from such truths or natural rational scientifics, having respect to civil and moral life, constitute with man interior rational scientifics, which are receptacles of good-civil and moral.

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     That man is truly rational in the natural, civil, moral, and spiritual planes of life whose scientifics have enabled him to conclude an evil to be an evil, a false to be a false, and, on the other hand, a good to be a good and a truth to be a truth; This constitutes rationality-that there is in him a plane formed by scientifics receptive of the influx of light from heaven-that is to say, of truth from revelation-by which he is enlightened and enabled to see reasons for what is right and to confirm them as true reasons from the things of the world and the natural life. These things, which are sensual scientifics, in such a case take their proper place in the mind-that is, they serve the rational-and the affection or good which is in them is disposed into order. It becomes yielding, subservient, humble-not elevating its partner above reason, but acknowledging the reason and the light inflowing into the reason to be the Teacher and Master of the sensual. This is a sane condition of the mind, in which the fatuous light of self-conceit is gradually dimmed until it dies out and the truly illuminating light of truth from heaven enters. This light corrects the gross ideas of sense and then perfects them and extends them, so that they become continually more suitable and far-reaching terminations for the influent light in which is the true rational or the reason of man.
     Inasmuch as a man is rational only in so far as he is able to see that an evil is an evil, a false a false, or, on the other hand, that a good is a good, and a truth is a truth, and because he can have no knowledge of evil and falsity, or good and truth, except through the medium of his senses, that is to say, except by means of sensual scientifics, it is very evident that the rational can neither be born nor perfected in man without such scientifics. The formation of man's intellectual part therefore begins with such scientifics which at first are general and by degrees particular and ever more particular. To state the proposition in other words, the formation of the intellect and its perfection depends altogether upon the quality and quantity of information imparted (A. C. 3048, cf. 4156), and, as before seen, on the application 'which is made of such information to good or evil ends or uses.
     Advancing another step, I remark that on that information the LORD bases His divine work of man's reformation, which is effected in correspondence with the formation of his intellectual part. For reformation begins when man's general ideas concerning the LORD, the world, natural and spiritual life, etc:, which have been gained by instruction, are disposed into correspondence with heavenly or angelic ideas. When so disposed corresponding particular and singular ideas of truth are successively insinuated into them by means of rational scientifics, which are doctrinal, also by means of spiritual scientifics, which are knowledges of truth. When man becomes rational and thinks from reasons, the sensual scientifics, or things of mere science, recede in the mind. So also when man becomes spiritual and thinks from truth, rational scientifics recede, being no longer needed. The order in which this change takes place is the following: Man first thinks the scientifics, or things of sensual science, and afterward he thinks from them or from the conclusions drawn from them and from the laws which he has formulated for himself by means of such conclusions. After this he thinks from doctrinals, and then from doctrinals or from the truths which they reveal. Finally he comes to think truths and to perceive truths from good, or from the affection of truth for its own sake.
     It is to be noted that in the man who is reforming by degrees the rational is not a reasoning that such and such a thing is true, but it is like a dictate of truth, or that such a thing is true because it concords with certain general truths that are known and accepted, as also with certain particulars that go to make up those general truths. (A. C. 3057, cf. 3068, etc.) This process of reformation is effected by affection, and thus in freedom,. for without freedom truth cannot be produced or brought into existence in the natural man. Nor can any truth be called forth from the natural into the rational and there be conjoined with good, except when man is in a free state. As we are taught in Arcana Coelestia (n. 3145), "It is the affection of truth from good which makes freedom. Unless truths be learnt from affection thus in freedom, they are not implanted; still less are they exalted toward the interiors and there made faith. All reformation is effected in freedom, and all freedom is of affection, and the LORD keeps man in freedom in order that he may of himself and of proprium be affected by truth and good, and thus be regenerated."
     The sensual scientifics, therefore, which are to become the receptacles of the affection of truth, as their good, are opened to the light of heaven by being applied to the performance of good uses. When so applied, the affection active in them ceases to be an affection of truth, and becomes an affection of good or use; in other words, it is no longer an affection of the means by which a use is performed, but an affection of that use itself.
     It is thus that scientifics, which at first are but things known and thought by man, became things connected together in a series, as of ends, causes, and effects, whereby they are elevated into reasons and causes of action. They are not taken out of the natural mind, but remain there, forming therein another plane of thinking, corresponding with a discretely interior plane of causes, into which there is influx through this interior plane.
     In this manner do all the sciences of the three kingdoms of nature, mineral, vegetable, and animal, and all the lower sciences relating to man, all of which have primary respect to the uses of sustaining the body become means subservient to the formation of the rational plane of the human mind, which is, as it were; born from them, and educated by them. Their general good use, therefore, including, of course, all their particular good uses, have respect to this one end, that man may be made rational, by seeing evil to be evil, false to be false, good to be good, and truth to be truth, and also that this, state in him may be confirmed in a permanent form of truly rational life-or good life.
     The rational scientifics, which, as before shown; are formed from sensual scientifics, first by the affection of truth, and then by the affection of good, concern themselves with the life of man in the family, in society, in the State; they have respect to his occupations and industries, to the governments, laws, and administrations of communities, and also to man's moral conditions. These scientifics, or, as they are usually denominated, sciences and studies, are necessarily of a more abstract character than the sensual sciences and studies from which they are derived, although they continue to rest upon them. Their use and application are to the mind, its faculties and operations, and not to the body; its properties and conditions. And because man is a rational being, and what is rational is superior to what is corporeal, therefore these uses and their sciences are necessarily of a superior degree and good in quality, provided they are applied to the elevation and perfection of the life of man. (See D. L. W. 332.)
     The superiority of rational scientifics appears still further from this, that they are provided as means to enable man to acquire knowledge of the things of the LORD and eternal life.

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Their uses have a direct bearing on the reception of spiritual life by man, and being thus fitted to live in heaven and in conjunction with the LORD, these scientifics, or sciences and studies, have relation to the Word and Doctrines of the Church, to their exposition and understanding. By means of them the spirit of man is nourished, clothed, housed, recreated and delighted, protected from evils and falses, and its state preserved to eternity. Their uses are for the receiving of a spiritual from the LORD; of them it is said in Divine Love and Wisdom (n. 333), that they "are all these things which are of Religion, and thence of worship, thus which teach the acknowledgment and cognition of God, and the cognition and acknowledgment of good and truth, and, therefore, of life eternal; which in like manner as the various branches of learning are imbibed from parents, masters, preaching and books, and especially by the efforts of life, in accordance with them; in the Christian World by Doctrines,, and by preaching from the Word, and by the Word from the LORD. These uses in their extension may be described by things similar to those by which uses to the body are described, as by nutrition, clothing, habitation, recreation, and delight, protection of state, if only the application be made to the soul; nutrition to the goods of love; clothing to the truths of wisdom; habitation to heaven; recreation and delight to felicity of life and heavenly joy; protection to infesting evils; preservation of state to eternal life. All these are given by the LORD according to the acknowledgment that all the things which are of the body are also from the LORD, and that man is only like a servant and steward of the house appointed over the goods of his LORD."
WORD 1886

WORD              1886

     MAN without instruction would remain an animal-yea, lower than any animal; for he does not know even the necessary food on which to subsist, nor how to protect himself against the inclemencies of the weather and the attacks of ferocious animals, all which knowledge is possessed by other animals from birth. Whence; then, is the knowledge of truth and science which man possesses at the present day? Children learn them from their parents and teachers, and these, again, from others; and so we are led to the conclusion that, in the first place, all must have been derived from a Being who was Omniscient, who was the Truth Itself.
     The essential difference between man and animals is that he possesses the faculty of understanding, which beasts have not. This faculty gives him the ability to think as of himself, and also to act from that thought. It is not any actual thing at birth, but is formed by thought from the knowledges which man learns from others by instruction.
     These knowledges are in general of two kinds, viz.: Natural relating to things of the natural world and the life of the body; and Spiritual, relating to things of the spiritual world and life of man's spirit.
     Concerning this we read:
     "The truly human understanding is formed and perfected by truths-natural, civil, moral, and spiritual-the interior understanding by spiritual truths, but the exterior understanding by moral and civil truths. Hence, according to the quality of the truth, such is the understanding thence derived."-A. E. 715.
     "By sciences and cognitions which are implanted in the natural man the intellectual is formed, in order that man may become rational."-A. E. 654 [k.]
     "True intelligence is from the LORD through the Word, but false intelligence is from the proprium of man."-A. E. 281 [b.]
     From the first passage we see that there are two different kinds of instruction, which are imparted by two different means, though both in the first place must have proceeded from the same source of Infinite Wisdom, and therefore must agree with and confirm each other.
     These means are the Natural Universe and the Spiritual Universe. From the former man learns natural truths, for use in this life; from the latter, spiritual truth, for use in the future life and, thus, for eternity.
     It is a growing belief among the so-called philosophers of the present day that our ideas of a future life, a Supreme Being, and the soul, are evolutions from myths. Yet the fact that we have an idea of something spiritual, and can, moreover, conceive of its existence as being entirely different from anything material-that we can think of a future life, of Heaven, of Hell, of God, and that we do think of them, although there is nothing in the world of Nature to suggest the idea-these facts, when rightly considered, confirm beyond all doubt that such things do actually exist; for we cannot form an idea, however absurd and false; which is not derived from and composed of particular truths or facts which do really exist. And, going a step further, we see that, since we can no more learn the existence and nature of Spiritual things from Natural things than we can learn the nature and existence of light from a lump of glass, or of air from water, of gas from liquids, or liquids from solids, unless we had been taught by some means or other, it follows as a necessary conclusion that since we have a knowledge of things above the sphere of matter, we must have been taught concerning them. This instruction concerning things impossible for us to discover by means of our senses or unaided mental powers we call revelation.
     "All that is sent from heaven is revelation; for that which is there is revealed, which is the spiritual, concerning the Church and its state."-A. E. 8.
     Now, because man will live to eternity as a spiritual being, the things that he learns concerning his future life must of necessity be Infinite and Eternal. (See A. C. 6078.) Infinite and Eternal Truth is all Truth, and since there can be only One Infinite and Eternal, that Truth must be God Himself.
     Man., however, being finite, cannot receive the Infinite in its Infinity. For the Finite admits of no comparison with the Infinite. But when the Infinite is clothed by finite appearances, then in some degree does it become comprehensible to the finite human mind:
     "For Truths Divine themselves are such that they cannot in any sort be comprehended by any angel, still less by any man, inasmuch as they exceed every faculty of the understanding both of men and angels. In order, therefore, that they may have conjunction with the LORD, truths Divine flow in with them in appearances; and when truths Divine are in such appearances they can both be received and acknowledged. This is effected in a manner adequate to the comprehension of every one."- A. C. 8362.
     "But inasmuch as what is from the LORD is Divine and what is Divine cannot be comprehended by any created being, therefore things doctrinal, which are from the LORD, so far as they appear before created beings, are not Truths purely Divine, but appearances of truths; nevertheless, in such appearances are contained Truths Divine, and this being the case, the appearances also have the name of truths."- A. C. 3364.

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     We may therefore define revelation as the successive clothing and accommodating of Divine and Spiritual Truth in corresponding, representative, and significative forms adapted to the finite nature of the human mind in its every aspect, and therefore expressed in human language and in ideas derived from the sphere of human thought in the natural and spiritual worlds.
     Man does not receive anything unless he can form some idea thereof from his rational mind . . . . There always adheres thereto some idea of worldly things, or of things analogous to what is worldly, by which idea they are retained in the memory, and reproduced into thought, otherwise he would be incapable of thinking at all, wherefore if naked truths from the Divine were proposed to him they would in nowise be received, but would exceed all his comprehension, consequently his belief also. . . . Inasmuch as the rational human is such, therefore the Word is written according to man's conception, yea, even according to his genius and temper." - A. C. 2520.
     "Although the doctrine of faith [i.e., Divine Truth (A. C. 2531)] is in itself Divine and thus above the comprehension of angels, nevertheless, in the Word it is dictated according to the comprehension of man in a rational manner. The case in this respect is like that of a parent who in the instruction of his infant children explains all and each of his instructions according to their genius and capacity, although he himself thinks from an interior or deeper ground."- A. C. 2533 (which see).
     "The Word was written by such things which are in the world and in it is spiritual sense in which are such things which are in heaven. (A. E. 475 [b.]) Very many things in the Word are taken from appearances in the Spiritual World."-A. E. 594.
     Hence in every Divine Revelation there will be the Infinite altogether incomprehensible by created beings; "a Divine Spiritual in which the incomprehensible Infinite Truth is clothed with appearances drawn from and existing in the Spiritual World (see A. E. 369-8; 289) and thus rendered intelligible to the angels and spirits there; and also a Divine Natural clothed in forms derived from the material, sensual and corporeal planes of the natural mind, each lower degree containing the prior degrees within it; and thus the Infinite is presented to the finite mind in forms accommodated even to men in the world. And finally, in order to effect this, and render the Divine Truth permanent in a visible form with men, this natural degree must be still further ultimated in material forms composed of vocal sounds, with their visible signs as words, syllables, and letters, which in their very forms must have been Divine as to their every and minutest particular-thus as to the sequence of the words, their sounds, and in their primitive forms the letters themselves. (T. C. R. 241.)
     Such a Revelation, even as to its very ultimates, is the Divine Truth; It is the LORD Himself rendered visible in our midst; Thus we read in John i, 14: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the God was the Word. And the Word became flesh, and tabernacled amongst us." The question at once arises, Where, granting such Revelation to exist, is it to be found, and how shall we know it to be from God and not a human production? And the importance of this question is seen from the fact that many books have been put forth, claiming to be Divinely inspired. How shall we distinguish the true from the false? especially since it is impossible to prove from merely external appearance that this or that book is or is not Divine, since, as we have already seen, the ultimate form in which God has revealed Himself is always clothed by human expression and ideas; and hence it is impossible for those who, cannot go beyond the mere external form to do more than receive such revelation, or professed revelation, upon tradition. And when this is the only ground for belief such belief is merely external and not rational, i. e., reasonable, or capable of being reasoned about. Hence those who attempt to prove the Bible inspired from its external, invariably end in a practical rejection and implied denial of its Divinity.
     Others again have rejected the Word because of the contradictions, of the harsh, cruel, immoral, and filthy relations, apparent in the letter. They do not know that such passages occur in the letter of the Word, because they exist in the human mind. If the human race were not perverse, immoral, and debased, such expressions would not be found; and yet as the race is in such a vile condition, if these so-called objectionable and obsolete portions of the Word were not there, it would not apply to all men, and thus it would not be Infinite. In order to rationally understand the Divine nature of the Word, and to see the human, and hence the infernal origin of all other books put forth as being Divinely inspired, there must be a further revelation from the LORD. (See T. C. R. 271, Pref. A. R. (end) A. C. 1-5, etc.) For only the Divine can explain the Divine. Only in the light of Truth can we see truth.
     In all the progressive developments of the human rational faculty (for this faculty was not created complete and perfect) the LORD variously accommodated His presence, and thus His Truth, to the various needs of His People. Hence the various styles in the Word-the made or fictitious historical, the true historical, the prophetical, and the poetical. Yet in nowhere in the letter do we find any appeal to the exercise of reason as being a ground of belief and acceptance in its Divine origin. "Thus saith the LORD" was enough for the youthful if disobedient race. But now, when the rational faculty is being formed, a further revelation has been necessary, by which the reception of Divine Truth may be effected in the rational mind, and that the Word may rationally he seen to be the LORD Himself.'
     This last and final revelation enables us to see the meaning of the LORD when He said, "My words are spirit and they are life," "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." The spirit of the Divine Truth is the Word, as it is in the Spiritual World, with the angels and spirits there, and even with men in this world, when they have been instructed in the things of the Spiritual World, and think rationally concerning them. Thus we read:
     "The nature of the Word in the heavens can only be known from the internal sense; for the internal sense is the Word of the LORD in the Heavens." (A. C. 1887; see A. E. 594, 635.) "In this sense resides the sanctity of the Word."-C. L. 532.
     And "in this internal sense is the soul and life of the Word."- A. C. 1406-64.
     Herein lies the confirmation of inspiration and the test or touchstone to be applied, not only to the Word and the Writings of the New Church, but to all other professing revelations. Do they contain or do they expound the Infinite Spiritual Sense? And en applying this test we find only the Word and the Writings of the New Church will stand the trial. Therefore they must be of Divine origin, and are the Divine Truth.
     Some might object to our classing the Writings of the New Church with the Word, even those who believe in their having been inspired by the LORD.

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That they are from the LORD, no one can doubt who believes in the LORD'S Second Coming. For we read:
     "The Advent of the LORD is the revelation of Himself, and of the Divine Truth, which is from Him, in the Word by the internal sense. Nowhere else does the LORD reveal Himself than in the Word, nor otherwise does He reveal Himself there, than in the internal sense." (A. E. 36, H. H. 1.) "And to this end He has now opened the internal or spiritual sense of the Word, which everywhere treats of Heaven."-A. E. 870. (See also A. E. 594, 635.)
     Where is this spiritual sense of the Word to be found thus revealed, save in the Theological Works of Emanuel Swedenborg? To whom that "sense was dictated." (A. C. 65, 97.) Hence we read in the preface to Apocalypse Revealed:
     "Every one can see that the Apocalypse can by no means be explained but by the LORD alone . . . Do not believe therefore that I have taken anything herein from myself nor from any angel, but from the LORD alone."
     And further:
     "It was not allowed me to take anything from the dictate of any spirit, or the dictate of any angel, but from the LORD alone."-Post. Tract, De Verbo 4.
     "It has been given me to perceive distinctly what comes from the LORD, and what from the angels; what has come from the LORD has been written, and what from the angels has not been written." (A. E. 1183.) And in a conversation with a friend Swedenborg said, "that when he thought of what he would write, and whilst he was writing, he was gifted' with perfect inspiration; that formerly what he wrote would have been his own, but now he knew for certain that what he wrote was the living truth of God." (See Tafel's Doc.)
     Acknowledging the Writings to be from the LORD, we must also acknowledge them to be Divine. For:
     "The Divine Truth proceeding from the LORD is the Divine Itself in the heaven and in the Church."-A. E. 228.
     And, "what proceeds from the LORD is also Himself."-A. E. 392.
     Since the Divine is not divisible, and therefore cannot admit of comparison, the Writings must be all Divine, or in no respects Divine. Hence,
     "The Word, inasmuch as it is a revelation from the Divine, is Divine in all and singular things; for what is from the Divine cannot be otherwise." (A. C. 1032.) "What the Divine has revealed, with us is the Word."- A. C. 10,320.) Thus, then, the Writings, since they are revelation from the LORD, are "the Word with us," and also, as being the Spiritual Sense of the Word, they constitute its essential life. (A. C. 64.)
     That the Word and the Writings appear very different in form counts for nothing against, the Divinity of the latter. For this difference lies only in their ultimate forms, the one being written according to "mere correspondences," and the other according to the rational, logical form of the rational man. But let it be observed that the fact that the Word is written by correspondences does not make it holy; for such correspondential writing was as common in the Ancient Church as the logical scientific style is at the present day. The sanctity of the Word lies in its Spiritual Sense, which sense is revealed in the Writings and nowhere else. The relation existing between them is the same therefore, as that which exists between the soul and body of man, or the Divine and the Human. For we read:
     "The Spiritual Sense is the very sanctuary of the Word. The LORD Himself is in that sense with His Divinity, and in the Natural Sense with His Humanity."
-Invit. N. C. L. 44.
     As we have seen, all ultimate forms in which the LORD appears are nothing but appearances of Truth variously accommodated. In the Ancient Churches they were accommodations with the sensual plane; in the first Christian Church they were for the natural rational; in the New Church they are for the rational plane; and this being the highest degree of the natural mind, and corresponding to the highest degree of the Spiritual mind, which is opened in the angels of the third or Celestial Heaven, it follows that this, last accommodation of Divine Truth is the completion of all revelations, and that the New Church, to which it comes, is the "Crown of all the Churches."-Invit. 53; T. C. R. 786.
     "To the men of the New Church has been given to view Divine Truths which are in the Word, not sensually, i. e., according to appearances, but according to essentials. Therefore the internal sense of the Word, which is spiritual, has been disclosed, and only for those who will be of that Church. From that sense, the Divine Truth appears, such as it is, in its own spiritual light, and from this light the Divine Truth in its own natural light. Divine Truth is the Word, and from it those of that Church are illustrated by spiritual light from the Word."-A. E. 719.
     In no wise, therefore, can the Writings of the Church conflict with the Word, nor do they abrogate or set aside the preceding revelations. The Gospels did not set aside the Old Testament, nor this the ancient Word, now lost; but each successive revelation was a confirmation of the other. Hence, in regard to the Writings we read: "He who does not know how the case is may conjecture that the Word as to the literal sense is annihilated by reason that that sense is not attended to in heaven. It is, however, to be noted that the literal sense of the Word is in no way annihilated, but rather confirmed, and that singular, the words derive weight, and are wholly from the spiritual sense which is in them."- A. C. 9349.
     Each Church which has existed has had its own peculiar, and distinct revelation. Immediate individual revelation with the men of the Most Ancient Church (A. C 3432, 2896), the Ancient Word with the Ancient Church; the "Law and the Prophets" with the Israelitish Church; the Gospels and Apocalypse to the First Christian Church, and now, last and most glorious revelation of all, the LORD Himself, in the Clouds of the Letter, to the, men of the New Church. The Divine Truth itself is unchangeable-the change is always in the man who
receives it. For as it enters his understanding it clothes itself in the things and appearances which always belong to human thought. These appearances are gradually put off, become less gross and sensual, though always remaining appearances-as the mind is raised into rational and spiritual light, which is the light of heaven. So that, whereas the Word, as first revealed for the' unformed rational of man, was then written entirely from sensual appearances, the Word, that same Divine Truth now revealed in the Writings given to the New Church, clothed in rational appearances such as exist in the light of heaven, is the LORD Himself, in His Second Coming. Hence we read:
     "On the books [written by the LORD through me] was written, The Advent of the LORD; on all in the Spiritual World By command I also wrote the same on two copies in Holland." Phot-l. MSS., Vol. VIII p. 1.
     One of these books has been found bearing the inscription:

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     "This book is the Advent of the LORD. Written by command."
     In conclusion, I will just add one more remark, which is this: We of the New Church believe in a Visible God and we each, have an idea of Him as a man. Of His existence we should know nothing did He not continually present Himself before us as the Truth, and in no other form. Let us remember when we approach that Divine Truth, whether in the Word or the Writings that we are drawing nigh to the LORD, and put our shoes from off our feet, for we are then in the Divine presence and on Holy Ground. This we do when we learn what the LORD teaches, for the sake of living a life of usefulness in the humble and teachable disposition of little children. And let us remember that "the horse is a vain thing for safety" and not make our self-deemed intelligence the standard whereby to measure Divine Truth. "The highest use of our understanding is not to discover truth, but to see and acknowledge and believe that what the LORD has revealed is true. When such a state prevails in the Church, and not before, will there "be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, a blessing in the land. Whom the LORD of Hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed is Egypt, my people, and Assyria; the work of my hands, and Israel, mine inheritance."
LETTERS 1886

LETTERS              1886

     ONE of those charming little essays which sometimes appear in the Spectator bears the heading we have just written. Its text-if an essay can be said to have a text-is what Dr. Jessop writes, in the Nineteenth Century for August concerning letter-writing. The Doctor is especially severe on those who, attempt to describe scenery, having had to read letters peppered over with such epithets as "lovely," "exquisite," "beautiful"-all equally descriptive of a woman, a gown, a poem, a sermon (some sermons), and many other things, and he evidently means to prevent anybody from trying to describe. But to this the Spectator says: "Now, this is the worst of your clever men; they never believe in improvement. When they find a thing done badly they say it ought not to be done at all."
     A bit from Plato shows what description really is:

     My guide proved an excellent one. He conducted me to a shady nook under a plane-tree. Soft turf made our seat, clustering blossoms of agnus-castus shut us in and perfumed the cool air, and the brook sparkled at our feet. The place seemed sacred to a river god and to the nymphs, for statues of them were placed at various spots in the shade---.

     Instead of crying down descriptions of what is seen, it is better to teach people what description is. This is our essayist's opinion; but he fails to teach us, and, indeed, we think he cannot, nor can any one, though an approach can be made toward it by teaching what is not description.
     It is not description to tell us that you had a "charming drive," that the mountains were "looking lovely," or that the lake was "simply exquisite," for this is merely to say that the scenery is worth visiting
     "Why do not people oftener see anything? Only because this vague tautology is so easy that they weave a sort of spider a web before their eyes with it."
     All this seems to us to be true. How many of us are there who when asked about a place we have seen do not reply in effect that it was "Very fine, and if pressed for a description beyond this, utterly break down?
     But there are other and worse faults in the art of letter-writing (if it is an art) than faulty description. We commit one of these when we fail to re-read our friend's letter before answering it. If we do this, we shall almost surely find things in it we did not see before. Better, still, this re-reading putt us, in a manner, in communication with the personality of our friend. The direct benefit of this course to ourselves and the pleasure it gives our friends can best be illustrated by its opposite. Did you never write a letter in which, so to speak, you had put a good deal of yourself and felt a vague sense of disappointment when the reply made no reply beyond an ackn6wledgment of receipt-a "glad to hear from you"-and then passed on to other matters? Is not such a reply akin to a. conversation in which you should speak on a certain subject to your friend, and he, or she, after a pause, should ignore what you had said and open up an entirely new topic? We think it is. The cure for this is in rereading the letter you intend to answer and replying to it as though your friend had spoken instead of written, replying to the written hopes or fears or pleasantries and not turning your back on them.
     Madame de Sevigne once said, on this point: "One takes so much pains with a letter; one does not like to feel it has gone for nothing." Is there any selfhood, any proprium, in this feeling? Ah! brethren, there is in all we do; but is there not more when, instead of replying to our friends, we write exclusively of ourselves and what at the time happens to be most prominent in our minds?
     We have strayed away, somewhat, from the Spectator's essay, and cannot do better than return and conclude with its conclusion:
     "A letter is never inopportune or intrusive; its mere aspect gives a keener pleasure when youth is past, than perhaps any other material object; and its perusal may, more effectively than almost any viva voce communication, open for one spirit the vista into the life of another. If any one knows the value of such a vista, he will not give it a small place among those little, unremembered, daily acts by which we may mutually brighten and soothe the life of our kind."
EXPERIENCE 1886

EXPERIENCE              1886




     Fiction.

     BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELEANOR."

     CHAPTER VI.

     AT the Breakfast table, on the morning following the arrival of Dolly and Sam, the question of how to spend the day was discussed, and it was decided to visit what places they could afoot and reserve longer journeys for the future. As they stood on the hotel piazza previous to their departure, a tall, handsome young fellow came lounging out, and seeing Sam came forward and shook hands with him. He was a college mate of Sam's and the two had not met for several years. His name was Harry Hale, and he was a careless, good-natured young man of the world, with more money and time than he always knew how to dispose of. After the usual "old fellow"-"chappie" wasn't in, vogue then-style of greeting was over the new-comer turned to Mils Armand and asked: "Don't you want to employ a professional guide this morning? you know I can give the best of references."
     "No, I am guide this morning and will brook no interference."

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     "Let me go as a tourist, then. Don't be hard-hearted, Miss Armand; don't leave me stranded here, this superb morning."
     After some further light talk she consented, and the young man was introduced to Dolly, and the four started on their walk.
     "Remember," said Miss Armand," I expect you to exhibit the proper enthusiasm when we come to 'show scenes.' Dolly, I notice in you a tendency to waste yours over minor points; be careful, or you will have none left for the right places."
     "I'll go security for Miss Wood," replied her companion, Mr. Hale. Turning to her he said, confidentially, "I have this thing reduced to a system, having made a careful study of the correct terms, and when and where to use them. Call on me when you feel yourself weakening."
     "I'm never at a loss for words," she replied, laughing. "Carrie knows that. It is the enthusiasm she fears will fail-but I don't."
     "I hope not; but, at any rate, remember my offer."
     "You might supply words, but you couldn't enthusiasm, you know."
     "Oh! yes, I can; since the hard-hearted Miss Armand relented, I feel that I have enough to carry the entire party through with brilliant success. But still, I'll let you into a secret which you will find useful when under the care of exacting guides: When all else fails, just stand speechless and catch your breath; or murmur, 'Don't speak to me now'-it brings down the house every time." Addressing Miss Armand a little later he said, "I'm glad we escaped before Miss Merlyn swooped down on us." At this she merely smiled, and Dolly asked:
     "Why?"
     "She would have insisted on going with us."
     "Why shouldn't she? Why shouldn't everybody enjoy this lovely morning?"
     "Miss Wood," he replied, "I speak from sad experience-avoid the Merlyn and her kind! They would make the Himalayas small, and stare a Western cyclone down. Even my young enthusiasm withers before their worldliness like a tender flower under a desert sun."
     "Are you quite sure that you are not going to make fun of all the grand scenes to-day?" she asked.
     "How can you ask such a question? You don't know me."
     "That is very true."
     "When you do, I hope-but no matter. 'Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,' you know. It isn't the flower's fault, either." So he rattled walked on as they or sat enjoying the scenery.
     Dolly was in high spirits, and once or twice Mr. Hale led up to a neat little squabble and then told her he did so that it might act as ballast, for there was danger of her floating away and leaving them all disconsolate.
     "Though, of course," said he, "our loss would be your gain.
     "What nonsense you do talk!"
     "Not at all, I assure you. Isn't that what we always say when one gets wings and sails away from us earthly mortals to a happier place?"
      "But people in the other world don't have wings."
     "People or ghosts don't, I know-imagine a batlike ghost!-but angels do, for I've seen them."
     "You?"
     "Yes; lots of them, in pictures, flying about in-ah! the air."
     "That is all a mistake!" she exclaimed-and seeing him shake his head: "Indeed it is. If you will read the Writings you will see that neither spirits nor angels have wings"
     "I always thought they had. By the Writings you mean?-"
     "The New Church Writings."
     "Oh! yes. I remember now. Gray used to talk to me about them. Well, I'm willing to believe-in fact, I know-that New Church angels are not troubled with wings. Wings must be very awkward at times."
     This little talk occurred while they were resting in the shade of some overhanging cliffs and was overheard by Sam and Miss Armand, who sat a little apart. Mr. Hale had indulged in a number of rather pretty speeches during the walk, and she now said:
     "Is it not wrong for us to let him turn her head with     his flattery?"
     "I don't know. It is merely the conventional thing. Did it turn your head at any time during the past few weeks?"
     "Of course, it did not!" she exclaimed, disdainfully.
     "I have noticed that, as a rule, in such matters every one feels competent to take care of himself-and others, too."
     "You have the knack of saying the most exasperatingly true things. Do you realize how they hurt?"
     "Did I hurt you then?" he asked, a little anxiously, and she shook her head.
     "Indeed, when you spoke I was thinking of the matter and was undecided what was the right thing to do, and when you asked your question my reply was a casting about-"
     "For the truth," she said, concluding for him. "And now what is the truth?"
     "I suppose one truth is that 'men should not say anything they do not mean. But, then, men often mean the compliment they speak, yet do not mean anything further. I am tempted sometimes to believe that this habit of making pretty speeches is not so harmful as it is thought to be."
     "Why?"
     "Because I am inclined to believe that in the long run young ladies see through the pretty speech and the speaker a good deal clearer than-well; than-they are willing to admit always."
     "How the bitter and the sweet is mingled in that speech!"
     "Is it true?" he asked.
     "I'll not turn informer on my sisters. At any rate, it does not concern you, for you never say those pretty things. I suppose you think girl-kind is not worthy of them."
     "I think they are worthy of the truth."
     "Thank you for that!" said she, impulsively extending her hand.
     "There is a model for you, Miss Wood," said Mr. Hale as they arose. "She not only forgives, but shakes hands upon it-which is more than you have done,
alas!"
          "Of course, she is a model," said Dolly, clasping her waist, "but she had not you to try her."
     "Christian forgiveness is a noble virtue," said he. "I forgive you."
     The little party returned to the hotel about two o'clock in the afternoon, and at supper time Mr. Hale begged for a seat' at their table, which was granted. Afterward, in spite of his protests, the young ladies retired to their rooms to write letters. "You will surely appear sometime during the evening, won't you?" he asked.
     "Perhaps."

155



     "I'll live on that perhaps," was his reply.
     Left to themselves, the two young men loitered into the billiard-room, played a few games, and afterward went out on the long veranda. On one favored part of it sat Mrs. Chamberlain and her attendants, and they stopped to pay her their respects. In a short time she said to her other attendants, "I want to have a motherly talk with Mr. Gray-and you too, Harry Hale." Her attendants, after protesting at their banishment, left her, and the two young men sat down. She was a handsome woman of about forty, and indulged in the free speech of a queen. After looking at Sam a moment she said:
     "I hear strange stories about you, Mr. Gray; that you have left society and gone into voluntary exile. It is true you are here now, but we have scarcely seen you since your arrival, and I hear you intend to go away again very soon."
     "I do not see any ground for 'strange stories,'" he replied. "I have engaged in business and live in the society of my friends. If that is what you mean by an 'exile,' then I am one."
     "You know what I mean. Why did you do it?"
     "To have an occupation by which I could make a living, for one thing."
     "Very laudable; but why turn your back on society?"
     "I do not think I have. Indeed, I enjoy the most excellent society."
     "Yes? Who is that delicately pretty girl that came with you yesterday?"
     "A very esteemed friend of mine."
     "Well?"
     "Her name is Dorothy Wood. She is, as I said, a friend of mine, and also of Miss Armand. I met her at Farm Junction and escorted her here. She has come, as others have, for the benefit of the mountain air, and a few days' pleasure."
     "Very prettily answered. Now tell me who she is."
     "I can but repeat what I said, and add the additional information that she lives on the same street I do."
     "Very satisfactory indeed. She is very pretty-unusually so. You think so, Harry, I know by your actions."
      "My allegiance to your Highness forbids a contradiction, even had I the desire. Miss Wood is a newly risen star, and, if I might humbly advise, I would suggest that she shine in our-I beg pardon-in your firmament."
     "That is your advice, is it? Mr. Gray, as you have told me who 'she is,' would you object to telling me what she is?"
     "A lady."
     "Epigrammatic, and a little spicy," she replied, with an amused look. "I do not deny that she is a 'lady,' but I should like to know what kind of a lady."
     "A young and very charming one," spoke up Mr. Hale, somewhat warmly.
     "I do not want your regulation replies, Harry, I want Mr. Gray to answer."
     "I suppose," said Sam, "that you wish to know her occupation?"
     She merely looked at him and smiled.
     "She is employed by one of our large retail dry-goods stores; her duty is to wait upon its customers. What particular kind of goods she sells I do not know, for I never asked her."
     "She is a shop-girl then?"
     She looked at him a moment and laughed a little. He calmly returned the look, betraying no more feeling than though they had been discussing the last novel. "My dear Don Quixote," said she at last, "so you have sallied forth to run a tilt with society, have you?"
     "No; your wind-mill may go on in its favorite 'whirl' in peace, so far as I am concerned," said he, and she faintly winced as she replied:
     "Is not trying to introduce a 'saleslady,' however attractive, into society, a rather quixotic proceeding?"
     "By 'society' I suppose you mean yourself and friends?"
     "Do not be so formal, pray! You are not an uncivilized being; you know my meaning without defining terms."
     "It is well to be sure of terms; and that reminds me that in a manner you have begged the question."
     "How very improper in me! but tell me what begging the question means?"
     "I believe that my friend, Miss Wood, has no intention nor desire to seek 'society'" (he put a delicate intonation on the word that stung like a nettle), "and I assure you that I have no intention of disturbing its repose by seeking to introduce her."
     "Please do not be so cutting," said she, arranging her fleecy wrap. "I should much rather listen to a homily on the text that 'one person is just as good as another,' especially if the 'other' happens to be a wicked woman of fashion. Nothing is needed now to crush me utterly but the information that your pretty friend is the sole support of a widowed mother, and a dear little golden curled sister." Ignoring her sarcasm, he asked:
     "Mrs. Chamberlain, will you tell me the real meaning of all this?"
     "The meaning?"
     "Yes. Why have you singled out this quiet and unassuming child-for she is little else-for your attack? You know, I fancy, that she is in all respects as refined as the most of your friends, and is a world above many of the obtrusively vulgar in this house."
     "My dear boy," she replied, candidly, "that is just the point; if she were a bold creature, flaunting about in impossible costumes and seeking to attract notice, I should have nothing to say, and you would have nothing to do with her."
     "I fail to see, then, the force of your objections."
     "Society requires more than the very desirable qualities that adorn Miss Wood.".
     "Will you tell me what?"
     "Why are you so provoking? you know my meaning-know it better than most people; why insist on disagreeable explanations?"
     "My observation," he replied, "has shown me that all that the average 'society' requires is money or credit, and enough grammar to distinguish between 'them' and 'those;' though, as I know by experience, even this is not absolutely necessary, provided the purse be heavy enough."
     "How delightfully cynical you are," said she, laughing. "You have developed in to a sort of what's-his-name-that dear old creature with the tub and lantern, who hunted for honest people."
     "I assure you I have no more wish to play the part of a Diogenes than that of a Don Quixote."
     "What part are you playing, then? or have you become one of those dreadful men who make speeches to the masses and want to level all social distinctions?"
     "On the contrary, I aim at being an aristocrat, heart and soul."
     "Indeed! A sort of King Cophetua to pretty little shop-girls?"
     "No; you are mistaken again. The aristocracy I seek, and to which I believe my two young friends belong, is older than the House of Bourbon itself."

156



     He spoke so calmly and in such, a matter-of-fact tone that Mrs. Chamberlain asked, with genuine curiosity:
     "What do you mean?"
     "The aristocracy of Spiritual Truth."
     "She stared at him, and he went on:
     "The aristocrat of that order, whether of high or low degree in the world, requires no artificiality to preserve his dignity-in fact, the bluer his blood the less he thinks of his self-importance."
     "John Knox preaching to Queen Mary!" exclaimed Miss Merlyn, who had come up to the little group and overheard Sam's last speech. "Do go on! I am one of her wicked maids of honor, and need your rugged words as much as she does."
     "Yes; do proceed!" said Mrs. Chamberlain. "It is such a refreshing change from our poor chatter!"
     "And we are so dreadfully worldly here-so very wicked!" chimed in Miss Merlyn, her bright eyes rivaling the sparkle of her diamonds.
     "If you see your own wickedness, all I can say is, Shun it in the future," was Sam's reply to this attempt to "roast" him, to use Mr. Hale's expression when describing the scene afterward.
     "I really must 'board' on Barton Street! I would give anything to be able to say such deliciously cutting things!" said Miss Merlyn. "Did I ever tell you"-turning to Mrs. Chamberlain-"of the evening I saw Mr. Gray sitting on the front steps of a cute little house on that street? With him were a charming old pair. The man wore carpet slippers and a linen coat. And also those sweet girls, Carrie and Dolly. It was the very picture of the pastoral age, and I did so long to join, them! Mr. Gray, why don't you introduce that dear little Dolly to me? I am actually in love with her!"
     "I am willing, with her permission, to introduce you to her at any time."
     "What a keen fencer you are!" said she, laughing.
     "Well, I would not!" exclaimed Mr. Hale, somewhat indignantly. "She only wants to make game of her. It isn't fair, is it, Mrs. Chamberlain?"
     He was somewhat afraid of Miss Merlyn.
     "How unkind of you! Haven't I as much right to know Mr. Gray's friend as you?-or are you jealous already?-Oh! there she is now!"-catching sight of Dolly and Miss Armand at the other end of the veranda. "Please, some one, escort them here, that Mr. Gray may present me to Miss Wood!"
     "One moment, Hale!" said Sam, as that young man quickly arose to his feet.
     "You surely are not going to refuse!" said Miss Merlyn."
     "No. But you must go to them, as I do not wish to disturb Mrs. Chamberlain, who does not wish to meet my friend."
     The quick-witted girl took in the situation at a glance, and her eyes gave an unusual flash as she arose and said:
     "Certainly not! Take me down to them, and we can afterward call on Mrs. Yates, who, I know, would be delighted."
     This was a golden opportunity to attack Mrs. Chamberlain, and Miss Merlyn delighted in mischief. Should she and Miss Armand, with Dolly, go over to Mrs. Yates', there would be a wholesale desertion of Mrs. Chamberlain's retainers-perhaps an utter rout.
     But that lady was too good a general to permit this. She said with quiet dignity:
     "Sit down, dear, and do not trouble yourself." Then, to Sam: "I regret that you should have made a personal application of what was a mere abstract social question. You, of all others, should have known that any friend of yours would be welcome to me Please escort the two young ladies here. I want Carrie, and I want to become acquainted with her friend and yours."
     Sam suppressed a smile as he bowed and turned away to obey her, and Mr. Hale said, as they walked down the veranda, "The Merlyn came near scoring one on her then! Wouldn't there have been a battle royal if she had? That young woman is dangerous, and if her mother were up to the mark she would strike for independence at once." When they reached the two girls, who stood looking out over the illuminated grounds, he said to Miss Dorothy: "Your conduct in leaving us alone this evening has been very heartless."
     "You were not alone," replied Dolly, glancing down the veranda.
     "One can be alone even in the maddening crowd," he replied, "and that reminds me of our mission. The maddening is very sanely pining to become acquainted with Miss Wood, and Mrs. Chamberlain has sent an invitation for you to come and scrape acquaintance."
     "O dear! Carrie, what shall I do?"
     "Do!" said Mr. Hale. "Why, go and let her, and the rest of them, go wild over you. The elements are so mixed up there, at the other end of this porch, that you will become the rage."
     Dolly looked excitedly at Miss Armand, who in turn looked questioningly at Sam, and he said: "I think we should go."
     "Does Mrs. Chamberlain know"-began Miss Armand, as they walked up the veranda, and then paused, leaving the question unfinished.
     "Yes, she knows all about it, and is, I think, really eager that Dolly should come." He said no more, reserving a fuller explanation for the future if he ever saw occasion to make it.
     Miss Merlyn "gushed," as Mr.     Hale afterward put it, over Dolly; and Mrs. Chamberlain, taking her hand, said, kindly, after gazing at her a moment, "My dear, I am glad to know you, not only for your friend's sake, but for your own. Yours is a sweet face." Then she kissed the young girl and made her take the place of honor by her side. It was by these conflicting means that Miss Dorothy Wood was received into the "best set" at Cloud house. It made a pet of her, and she was delighted with' everything and everybody. She fell in love with Mrs. Chamberlain, and thought that Miss Merlyn was "perfectly charming." she afterward told Miss Armand. "I know now why women are so fond of society. Isn't it delightful! And are not the gentlemen agreeable-so refined and entertaining! I never met so many agreeable people before in my life."
     After Mrs. Chamberlain's court had adjourned Mr. Hale said to Dolly, as they promenaded the almost deserted veranda, "What a lion-or shall I add 'ess' to the word?-you have suddenly become! I, a poor prowler of the outskirts, feel humble in your presence."
     "Please don't begin to make fun," said she.
     "All right, I won't. But speaking of lions remind me that there is a lion, or at least people say there iss - in these parts that few have the courage to face."
     "What is it?" she asked.
     "I cannot tell you except from tradition, for, between you and me. I doubt if any living tenant, of Cloud House ever did face it. This is a degenerate race."
     "What are you talking about?"
     "I am talking about the sunrise.

157


It is said there is a place not far from here where you can see the sun rise in all his glory over limitless billows of mountains, and I thought that you, being what you are, could furnish the courage for. the enterprise, as I supplied the enthusiasm on our walk this morning."
     "O my!" she exclaimed, with sparkling eyes.
     "I knew it!" he replied, purposely misunderstanding her. "Even your courage is not equal to turning out in the cold morning and taking a shivering ride to see the light dawning in the east."
     "That sounds like the New Church," said she. "I'd do anything for it."
     "I've not the slightest objection to being a New Churchman if you will agree to go-you and Miss Armand."
     "That will be splendid! I do hope Carrie will consent. I love these mountains."
     "Fortunate old fellows! But this is a dangerous thing for me. You have a little friendship for me, have you not?"
     "Y-e-s-a little."
     "Where will that little be when the bell-boy raps on, your door and inexorably calls, 'Time to get up for the sunrise,' and you shiveringly look forth in the dark, arise, and sleepily array yourself for the dark drive. Can, you do all this and not hate me?"
     "Ill try it," said she, eagerly. "I do hope Carrie will go."
     "Then let us be enterprising and ask her right away." They caught up with Sam and Miss Armand, and after much consultation together and with Mrs. Armand, the excursion was agreed upon, provided the weather was clear in the morning.
     There was no sign of daylight when Sam and Mr. Hale, in buttoned-up overcoats, assisted the two young ladies into the open barouche that stood waiting for them, and looking ghostly in the dark. After a bit Mr. Hale asked, "Miss Wood, do you harbor vengeful feelings toward me for this?"
     "On the contrary," she replied, looking out from the shawl she had thrown over her head, "this atones for your numerous failings. It is grand! I feel that I can not get enough of this glorious air."
     "Don't be at all diffident," he replied, generously, "Help yourself to all you want; there's plenty of it." But she was too much exhilarated with the morning air to respond, and after a little he said: "I feel like a burglar stealing along here in the dark, don't you?"
     "Oh! look there!" she exclaimed, throwing off the shawl and pointing to the east.
     "Goodness me! what is it? a rival burglar?"
     "The light!"
     "Ah, I see:

     Night's candles are burnt out
     And jocund day stands tip-toe on the
     Misty mountain tops."

     It was the first flash of crimson light that so suddenly flames in the east, and heralds the day, which Dolly had seen, Very rapidly it grew lighter, the stars faded out of sight, and when they arrived at their destination the fairly broke. They got out of the barouche and ascended to a rocky promontory, from which the view was seen at its best,-and which commanded, as Mr. Hale had said, "limitless billows of mountains." Dolly and her companion viewed the wonderful scene in silence, for its marvelous beauty 'affected even the careless Mr. Hale.'
     Sam and Carrie stood at some distance from them, but, unlike them, were not silent, for he was talking to her in a subdued tone. The light in the east grew brighter and brighter, until suddenly they were enveloped in the flashing rays of the risen sun. Then she gave him her hand, and a corresponding brightness flooded his soul and hers.
     [THE END.]
THAT FIERCE LIGHT 1886

THAT FIERCE LIGHT              1886

     APRIL'S sunshine and glistening showers alternately flooded the farm-yard, and with each recurrence of the latter a rainbow spanned the sky and appeared to rest one point of its perfect arc in the cloud of misty green that hovered amidst the branches of the adjacent orchard. The citizens of the farmyard felt the new life, and great activity prevailed among them. The Horse in speaking of this to his friend said that it was caused by the increasing heat of the sun. At hearing this the Gray Goose turned his head to one side and looked up at the Horse in a knowing manner. "Your views," said he, "smack of antiquity. Don't you know that the fierce light of modern farmyard science has been turned full upon this question and has utterly scattered your " superannuated and moldy old notion?"
     "Indeed?"
     "Aye!. The iconoclast is abroad; he overthrows, he sifts, he shatters, he turns the full glare of a noonday science into old dark corners, and the bats of superstition flee from their hoary perches. He has deeply investigated the old notion that it is the heat of the sun that causes vegetation to flourish, and he has proved beyond cavil that exactly the reverse is true. He has observed that in winter the sun shines just as brightly as in summer, but then there is no vegetation, and there- fore, no heat. On this incontrovertable truth he builds his grand theory that heat is evolved from the vegetative principle of the vegetable. From this working hypothesis he deduces that the primordial caloric inhering in the elementary monad of the radish, radiates into the supermundane ether-"
     "Stop a bit!" said the Horse. "Who told you all this?"
     "The Scientific Goose told it to me forneast the barn a little while ago."
     "I suppose you understand what you rattle off so glibly?"
     "Can't say that I do," replied the admirably honest Gray Goose. "I give it to you as he gave it to me, and I thought he ought to know, because he is a Scientific Goose." -
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     MR. Robert K. Kerninghan, a member of the Hamilton, Ontario, Society, has been appointed editor of the Palladium of Labor, published at that place.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. J. S. David, and a writer under the initials C. D., have been measuring controversial swords on the subject of Faith in the Parkdale Times, Ontario.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A. E. SMALL, A. M., M. D., contributes a paper to the September number of Mind in Nature, under the title "The Nourishment and Growth of the Soul." The paper is a good one, and evidently from the pen of a New-Churchman.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE sale of the New Church Magazine, London, for the closing year was nine thousand three hundred and fifty copies against nine thousand eight hundred the preceding year. Mr. Storry has resigned his position of editor and the Rev.
John Presland has been appointed in his place. Mr. Storry was editor of the Magazine during nineteen years.

158


Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     DR. HOLCOMBE writes to his organ as follows "I am going soon, dear Weller, away up into the mountains and dropping Tulkism Buddhism, and other weighty things which have under consideration, I shall devote a few weeks to a much needed physical repose and to the quiet contemplation of the Celestial Life, which may eventuate in a little book on that subject.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     "AT the hazard of violating confidence, Mr. Editor, I send you the above extract from our Spiritual Diary," writes a Brooklyn, E. D., Spiritualist to his paper. From the "above extract" we extract the following latest news via Spiritism: "The Alderman's ancient familiarity of manner encouraged me to ask, 'How about Swedenborg, Chauncy? Have you seen the old seer yet?' We all remember that Swedenborg was the Alderman's favorite author: 'You bet I have,' quickly replied the Alderman, with smiling alacrity. That is all the Alderman had to say on the subject. Oh! how wise.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society has in hand a cheap edition of the Divine Love and Wisdom, which is about one-fourth stereotyped, the reprint of the Four Doctrines of which about thirty pages have been stereotyped, and a series of eight-page envelope tracts, made up of extracts from the Writings, of which three are completed. The MS. of the new English Index to Apocalypse Explained has just been received, and work on it will go forward rapidly as so on as the type and style shall be agreed upon. About one-half of Mr. Sewell's translation of De Animae is stereotyped. The plates will probably be completed within six weeks. A new Sunday-school Manual Is in hand and will soon be published.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Index publishes a letter from a Southern physician concerning the state of the negro race in the South, from which we quote: "With few exceptions this post-slavery race forms a class of unredeemable criminals, ready to perpetrate any kind of outrage. Their frequent religious meetings afford them emotional amusement, but have no influence whatever on their morals. They are utterly devoid of anything that can be called a conscience . . . . If colored youngsters were not afraid of being burned or hung on the spot no white girl or woman would be safe. . . . . All this is not getting better but worse. And as it is here, so it seems to be over the entire South." How true this is we do not know, but it agrees with the testimony from other parts of the world concerning the state of negroes brought under the influence of Christianity.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     WE all know this is a wonderful new age, but few realize he full scope of its wonders. Listen to this, from The Index:

     "We have advanced to a period of the world when an idea without a people is as powerless as a general without an army." The marvel of this is only surpassed by conceiving a time when an idea could stalk about without "a people." The same writer also says: "I have pointed, to the pillars of cloud and fire which shine along the astonished sands of our imported dogmas;" this is new, in sooth, and we regret that Mr. Conway does not tell us why the sands of our imported deserts are in a state of astonishment. Probably it is the tariff.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Saturday Review begins a notice of Mr. Gorman's edition of Prodromuw with the following ponderous period: "It is not in connection with such works as his Prodromus de Infinito, et causa Finali Creationis: deque Operationis, Animae et corporis that most people are accustomed to think of Swedenborg, for the profound genius of that wonderful explorer into physics and natural philosophy is too often forgotten, and the crazy dreams of his later years, when among other matters it was revealed, to him that no one was so highly thought of in the world of spirits as Elizabeth of Russia, are alone remembered,"-and closes it as follows: "But all things connected with Swedenborg, his wisdom and his madness-'his celestial madness,' Coleridge called it-are alike strange."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE following quotation from Through Spain, by Mr. S. P. Scott, refutes the central doctrine of the Prohibitionists-that liquor is the cause of drunkenness. "The Spaniard looks upon a drunkard with the most undisguised horror and contempt. Yet everybody consumes more or less liquor; wine is as common as water, brandy is sold at every railway station, and anise-seed whisky is abundant at only two cents per drink . . . . There are few mortals more abstemious and less given to excesses of any kind than the people of the Peninsula." Another book of travels just published, Spain and the Spaniards, tells the same story. If the Prohibitionists' theory were true, Spain would be a nation of drunkards; but it seems that Spain in not a nation of drunkards, even though "everybody" uses liquor and nobody decorates himself with ribbon as a sign to his fellow-men that he does not intend to commit the sin of drunkenness.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE editor of the New Church Magazine, London, must have had a reason for publishing Mr. Henry McLagan, Junior's, paper, headed "Have Animals the Power of Reasoning?" else he would not have published it: but the reason is hard to determine. Mr. McLagan says that he has never been able to thoroughly get at the grounds for the opinion held by New Churchmen on this subject, or to believe them legitimate. The Evidence Society ought to forward him a list of references to the subject in the Writings. He also says, with a delightfully wise air, that we must first "have, a clear and scientific idea of the meaning of the two terms, involved-Reason and Instinct." His notion of a clear and scientific definition of Instinct is "habit," and of Reason "Firstly, the power of seeing likeness, or unlikeness, and estimating its quantity; and secondly, memory." He dwells on these definitions a little, and then says: "We now know, what instinct and reason are, and that man possesses both." Well! Well! He then goes on to show that animals possess both-shows us by means of two not very remarkable anecdotes. One of these is of a dog who follows his master, who had gone before, until he came to three roads. The dog smelt two of these carefully and then trotted along the third and right one without putting his nose to the ground, and Mr. McLagan says: "Since his master had not gone along the first and second, therefore [writer's italics] he must have gone along the third, there being no other alternative." But, O most wise canine! why might not your master have climbed over the fence? or did you read on one side "Beware of the Dog" and on the other "Beware of the Bull," and from these deduce your wise therefore? After the second anecdote Mr. MeLagan triumphantly says: "These two cases alone, I contend, show as distinctly the power of logical thought as the solution of any problem in Euclid."
     We express the Christian hope that Mr. McLagan, Junior, is a vegetarian, for, if his conclusion be true, logic would assign all other men to the category of cannibals, for they eat the flesh of creatures endowed with reason. It is needless to add of this paper that it is flatly opposed to the revealed truth in the Writings. See T. C. R. 385,692, et at.
CORRECTION NOTES 1886

CORRECTION NOTES       G. N. SMITH       1886




     Communicated.
     Now I will do better than I promised. I will give two specimens of attempted accommodation of the truths of the New Church to the evils and falses of the Old.
     The first one I take from a book written by a Methodist-preacher-non-separatist New-Churchman.

159


The book was so plainly heretical to the Methodist discipline that its author was arraigned with the purpose of deposing him from the Methodist pulpit, but by a due amount of accommodation and profession of loyalty he escaped and still continues a professed Methodist preacher with "progressive" New Church principles.
     One of his progressive principles is shown in his attempt to accommodate the New Church doctrine of the Word to the prevailing denial of it in the Old Church.
     Speaking of the account of the pool of Bethesda (John v), he calls it an error of tradition, and so accounts for not only that, but all other portions of the letter of the Word that are objected to by the prevailing naturalism of the day. He, however, condescendingly says that these errors are not, any of them, sufficiently serious to affect any vital point of doctrine. In which he agrees with all the "progressives," but not with the doctrine. "Errors of tradition" are not "dictated" by the LORD viva voce to the prophets.
     Since promising the above I was in conversation with another Methodist-preacher-non-separatist-New-Church-man whom I have known well, as such, for more than twenty years.
     I asked him how he had succeeded in reaching so prominent a place as to become Presiding Elder, etc., and yet retain and preach his New Church principles.
     "Oh !" he says, "I accommodate them so that they are not offensive."
     "Well, for example, how do you accommodate the doctrine of the Trinity in One Person so that it is not offensive to believers in Three Persons?"
     "Oh! I use their term, Three Persons, as I understand it, in its primitive sense of masks or manifestations. Their wrong understanding of it is no concern of mine."
     "Well, how do you accommodate the doctrine of Redemption so that it is not offensive to believers in the vicarious atonement?"
     "Oh! I use their term, vicarious, as I understand it can be true.' It was, in a sense, a vicarious suffering that Christ endured."     ' -
     I had enough, and dropped the subject. The moral of both these cases is plain and very admonitory.

     I NOTICE an editorial foot-note in my Arcana which says that "righteousness" and "justice" are words of the same import. That there is a doctrinal distinction between them that ought to be preserved in the translation of the Word; see A. C. 2235. Accommodation here also means loss.

     I SEE in an article from a prominent total abstinence advocate, in a recent number of one of our papers, a repetition of an old blunder of translating Swedenborg's "nee" by "or," making him say "must or wine," and so seem to favor his case, when the true translation of "nor" would make against him. If the writer is a Latin scholar, he knows better than to do this. If he is not, he ought to let it alone for the sake of his cause, which, if right, is more hurt than helped by an argument that is not right. G. N. SMITH.
WHOLLY UNSATISFACTORY 1886

WHOLLY UNSATISFACTORY       B. F. BARRETT       1886

     IN his "answer" to my request that he would "kindly" refer me to the passage in The Swedenborgian in which I once "held him up to execration as the specimen New-Church bigot," Mr. G. N. Smith says (in New Church Life for September): "I refer your readers to his Swedenborgian for 1859-60." This is very indefinite, and therefore very unsatisfactory. I have exhausted my patience in searching these thousand, or more pages; and find no such passage as he has charged me with penning. And until Mr. Smith will refer us to the particular volume and page, your readers, I am confident, will believe that there is no such passage to be found in the Swedenborgian, and that he has, therefore, done a great wrong by publishing an utterly false accusation.
     Scarcely less unsatisfactory is his answer to my second question. For he has adduced no evidence whatever from the Writings to prove that persons who understand and interpret the Sacred Scripture as differently as do those of the Old and those of the New Christian Church, are therefore of "different religions," or of "dissimilar faiths" in the sense in which Swedenborg uses these expressions. Indeed, the three very numbers which Swedenborg himself refers to in the paragraph in question (A. C. 8938), as showing whom he means by those "not grounded in the faith of the Church," furnish conclusive evidence to the contrary. Again, I ask for proof from the Writings that those who have the Word and profess the Christian religion, and are, therefore (according to Swedenborg), of "the Christian Church" (N. J. D. n. 8), are to be regarded as of "different religions" because of their different understanding and interpretation of the Scripture-some understanding it only in its literal sense, while others hold that it has also a spiritual and celestial sense. And if Mr. Smith still persist in his assertion, but without adducing the proof, and with the proof already adduced so clearly against him, it will be useless, I think, to continue the debate; but I would respectfully refer him to Chapters i and viii of my recent work on The True Catholicism; not, however, for anything particularly valuable which I have said in those chapters, but for the passages therein collated from the Writings. Or, if he has not that little work at hand, he may find some of the extracts in the works and numbers following. A. C. 1798, 1408, 3436, 3451, 3464, 3735, 5247, 6789, 3480, 3857, 3690, 1295, 10,648, 6784, 7887, 4736, and 10,109; A. E. 375, 778, and 625. And if the careful perusal of these numbers should fail to convince him of is mistake (though they bear only indirectly upon the question), I shall have to give him up for a --- well, no matter what.
     B. F. BARRETT.
GERMANTOWN, September 7th, 1886.

     ANSWER.

     To the first above, I have only to say that if I had access to the requisite files, which I have not now by me, I could find what I refer to very quickly, and will do so at the first opportunity.
     To the second, I have only to say that since, as your readers will see, I can satisfy him only by proving what I never said concerning different understandings of the Scriptures, in the True Church, which may "be different, not only in different societies, but in different individuals of society." While he pays no attention to what I have said about certain consummated faiths, that are "not from the Word" and "not Christian," it is not useful to him or any one else to continue the discussion. I therefore decline any further words with him.
     G.N. SMITH.
MR. OTIS CLAPP 1886

MR. OTIS CLAPP              1886

     MR. OTIS CLAPP died at his home in Brookline, Mass., on September 21st, in the eighty-first year of his age. From 1832 to 1858 he was publisher of the New Jerusalem Magazine.

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NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL.

TERMS:-One Dollar per annum, payable in advance.
     Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

     All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, OCTOBER, 1886=117.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, pp. 145, 146.-Death and Eternal Life (a Sermon) p. 146.-Conversations on Education, p. 148.-The Word, p. 150.-Letters, p. 153.
     FICTION.-An Experience, Chap. VI, p. 153.-That Fierce Light, p. 157.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS, pp. 157, 158.
     COMMUNICATED.-Correction Notes, p. 158.-Wholly Unsatisfactory, p. 159.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, p. 160.-Marriages and Death, p. 160.
     AT HOME.

     Massachusetts.-THE Theological School of the General Convention will open on October 6th.
     THE New Church School at Waltham opened on the 22d of September.
     THE Massachusetts Association meets at Boston Highlands on October 7th.

     Pennsylvania.-SERVICES were resumed by the society of the Advent on the first Sunday in September, the Rev. L. H. Tafel preaching. The congregation during the first two Sundays was quite small, owing to so many of the members being absent at summer homes still, but the month closed with the certainty of a larger attendance the coming year than at any time since the Society was formed.
     THE Schools of the Academy of the New Church in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Chicago were formally opened for the year on Wednesday morning, September 15th. Those In Philadelphia comprise a Theological School, a College, a Boys' School, a Girls' School, and a Kindergarten department. Of the students twelve are studying for the ministry, four are from the United States; four from England, and four from Sweden.
     THE General Church of Pennsylvania will meet in Pittsburgh, November 12th, 13th, and 14th.
     Kentucky.-"LOUISVILLE, September 12th, 1886. This morning I saw among the 'Religions Notices' that the Rev. E. A. Beaman would discourse on the subject of 'Truth-what it is and how it will make you free.' I went to the Masonic Temple parlor at half-past three, and found that fourteen others had assembled. After the benediction I met a lady, and in the course of our talk asked her if she was a member of the Church; she replied that she was not, but had' been very much interested in the Spiritalist Convention held here several months ago, and in that way had her attention attracted to the Swedenborgians, and she liked to hear Mr. Beaman preach. She seemed to think that the New Church is a branch of the spiritistic body. A gentleman, a member of the Old Church who was present, told me he had been coming to hear Mr. Beaman for a long time; he said there ere many readers of the Doctrines in the city, and he lamented that they never attended services. A few of the people, who help make up the handful that attend, are attracted to each meeting by the advertisements, but they rarely attend a second time, and this has been going on for twenty years-fifteen people, and part of them interested in spiritism or members of other Churches, as the result of all those years! Could the most 'offensive' preaching have produced a more barren result?"
     Washington, D. C.-THE Rev. E. D. Daniels a preached his first sermon to the Washington Society on Sunday, September 6th. He will continue to minister to the Society until January 1st, when he will go as missionary to Texas for three months, the Rev. Jabez Fox taking his place in Washington during that time. In the meantime Mr. Fox will be engaged in Virginia and Tennessee.
     Ohio.-THE Ohio Association will meet this year at Toledo, in Memorial Hall Annex, on Friday, October 8th.
     Michigan.-THE Michigan Association will meet in Detroit on October 2d and 3d.
     Canada.-THE Sunday-School of the Toronto Society tried the plan of offering prizes to its scholars from January to June of this year for punctual attendance and attention to lessons. The plan did not prove to be very successful.
     A GOOD many New Church people from Hamilton, Parkdale, and Toronto attended the International Saengerfest held at Berlin In August. "Mrs. R. B. Caldwell was the soprano at the Saengerfest.
     THE Canada Association will meet at Toronto on October 13th to 17th.

     ABROAD

     Australia.-IN a letter to the Messenger from Sidney, written in July, Mr. Daniel Ashby gives some items regarding the young Society in that place. The letter was written because the members there are "desirous of creating and maintaining a mutual feeling of interest" between themselves and their brethren In other parts of the world. Last March Dr. Brereton was compelled to give up his position of leader on account of broken-down health, and, with one exception, all the officers had been obliged to retire. Things were in a very unsettled state when the Rev. J. J. Thornton, of Melbourne, came, and a new Committee was appointed, with Dr. Jackson as Leader. The new Committee at once went to work, and services are held every Sunday in a public hall. Dr. Jackson is licensed by the Australian New Church Conference to preach and administer the sacraments, "and is also empowered by the Colonial Government to celebrate marriages." The Sunday-School meets every Sunday, and a reading-class has been organized which meets every Thursday evening. An attempt is being made to organize a temperance society. A supply of New Church books has been brought from London and placed on sale at a bookstore. A building fund has been started, and considerable money is already collected. The number of members on March 18th was fifty-seven; it is now eighty-six.

     Denmark.-THE Society at Copenhagen continues poor and hampered with debt; nevertheless, some small progress has made. It numbers sixty adults and twenty-four children. The Rev. W. Winslow continues pastor.

     Great Britain.-THE seventy-ninth session of the General Conference met at Heywood on August 9th, the President, the Rev. William Westall in the chair.
     On Tuesday the Rev. R. R. Rodgers was appointed President for the ensuing year. The Rev. Messrs. J. F. Buss and W. T. Stonestreet having been ordained by authority of Conference, were celled and given Certificates of Ordination and received as Conference ministers. The Rev. Dr. J. R. Hibbard, messenger of the General Convention, and Dr. Root, of Chicago Ill., were welcomed, and Dr. Hibbard read the Convention's Address.
     The President's Report was largely obituary in character.
     The Secretary reported, as connected with Conference, fifty-six Societies, with a total membership of five thousand seven hundred and thirty, a decrease of eleven.
     The Treasurer reported a considerable increase in funds from legacies.
     The Joint Committee reported that there being no students in the College, they had terminated the engagement of the Principal of the College. Should any students appear the Committee recommended that they be sent to some of the "educational institutions of the metropolis." "The disciplinary control" and theological education the Committee thinks might be given to some New Church minister, or "a suitable layman could no doubt be found," who, for a small salary, would supervise the students' daily life.
     Dr. R. L. Tafel was elected next year's President without a dissentient vote.
     Next year's sessions will be held in London at Argyle Square Church.
     Morning Light speaks of the address read by Dr. Hibbard as "a paternal address from the Convention."
     Mr. William Heald was elected student of the College, and his education intrusted to the College Council.

     ANNIVEESARY services were held at Bury and Burnley, in Lancashire, on Sunday, August 15th. Mr. Griffith, of Briglitlingsea, and Rev. W. C. Barlow, of London, were, respectively, the preachers for the day. The Sunday previous a very pleasant flower-service was held at Sonthport.
     THE Liverpool Society had the pleasure of listening to a very vigorous and sound paper on "THE WORD," by Mr. W. H. Acton, one of the Academy students on Sunday, August 8th. The weekly reading meetings in connection with that Society commenced on Thursday evening, September 2d, the text-book chosen being the treatise on Heaven and Hell.
     ANNOUNCEMENTS are being widely made of much work in the Church during the coming months, so that we expect to send a fuller report next month.
EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886




     MARRIAGES AND DEATHS.




161



NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER, 1886=117.           No. 11.
     THE beauty of woman in one of the chiefest of the Divine gifts to mankind. To exalt her beauty is not only her prerogative, but it is her duty to the LOBD, even as the cultivation of every gift of the LORD'S is a duty of him to whom it in given. But it must be done from love to the LORD. When it is done from vanity or for selfish purposes, the evil internal makes of her beauty a whited sepulchre, beautiful without, but full of uncleanness within.
     Beauty does not primarily consist in regular features and a well-shaped form. The affection of wisdom and the life of wisdom in beauty itself; and from this the form of love and manners constitutes beauty. It being of the LORD'S munificence to present, in woman, the embodiment of the life of wisdom, man should ever approach her with respect and with reverence.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     AT the late Conference held in Heywood, England, a radically wrong principle was expressed, which lies at the root of much confused teaching and misdirected action. In the Conference sermon it was, according to report, couched in the words: "We must bring the truth under control of the heart." The preacher may not have meant what this expresses, as he had previously said that "our affection should always be guided by truth and all our truth should lead to good;" nevertheless, the words as published, being of a character similar to much that in said in the Church, inculcate a teaching opposite to that of Revelation: "Truth teaches man in what, and what, he should believe, and also what he should do, and thus what he should will . . . . The will itself of man is evil from nativity . . . . man in to be reformed by the understanding." (T. C. R. 587.)
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       Editor       1886

     THE "New Church Temperance Society," which held its meeting at Heywood during the meeting of Conference, prudently placed itself out of the reach of this Doctrine. The Chairman, in speaking of the spread of teetotalism, and of the conversion of drunkards, said: "This in the work we have to do. I do not quibble whether it is doctrinal or not."
     To refer our actions to the LORD'S Divine Teaching, in order to know His Will and to be governed by it, is not a quibble. To stigmatize-it as such is indefensible presumption. Fear that his actions may not be warranted by Doctrine, would, to a humble Christian of the New Church, be an incentive to "search the Scriptures" for the rule which, by his conforming thereto, will enable him to "have eternal life."
Doctrine from the Word 1886

Doctrine from the Word              1886

     IT seems as if some persons had never learned that "no one can fight against evils and falses, and dissipate them, without Doctrine from the Word. Without Doctrine from the Word, no one, within the Church, where the Word is, can become spiritual." (A. E. 356.)
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     WHERE there is such repugnance to Doctrine it is no wonder that a Unitarian minister (whose religion denies the Divinity of the LORD) and a Methodist minister (whose Church acknowledges three Gods, but not the LORD) should be invited to take part in the proceedings. One of these ministers, who was "loudly" and "greatly" applauded, said: "What a blessing it is to be a teetotaler, and to know that whatever other vices we may be addicted to, we are trying to do what we can to abolish drink!" Thus does this teetotal phantasy prefer the vices of injustice, iniquity, insincerity, fraud, and lasciviousness to drunkenness!
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IT is a law of Divine Providence that the LORD permits one evil to prevent a greater. Lasciviousness is a greater vice than intemperance, enormous as this is; and, taking the well-known physiological fact that drunkenness tends to emasculation, into consideration with the revealed Doctrine concerning the adulterous state of the Christian world, we have an explanation of the widespread permission of drunkenness, which, for this reason, prevails in Christian countries to a far greater extent than among Gentile nations.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     ANOTHER wrong principle in the Conference sermon is that "we are charged to not only change ourselves but to change our neighbor." This charge is not to be found in the text of the sermon (Mal. iv, 6). On the contrary, the teaching therein contained is, that the Word of the LORD performs the change.
     Nowhere in the Word is the charge made tons to attend to our neighbor's affairs. Every one is to be regenerated in freedom according to his own reason. We can at most but offer to show him the way wherein we believe he ought to walk, but we are bound to respect his freedom, even though it be used for evil purposes, and we dare not make him see it, and least of all force him to walk therein.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IT might seem gratuitous to write this reminder of the fundamental principle of the Church were it not that brethren continually ignore it; conspicuously those who are engaged in the spread of the total abstinence and prohibition movement, as was illustrated at the meeting of the "New Church Temperance Society." But in other directions the same may be noticed.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A NEW CHURCH minister said recently at a public meeting: "The writer of a novel, which is being printed in a periodical, puts these words into the mouth of one of his characters, 'In prayer, would it not be well if we were to take our own luck and pray more for our neighbor.' This is quite true." Nay this is not true, it is a profane sentiment. Prayer is not prayer without its essential: humility-self-abasement (A. C. 739173967496), yet how much of humility is there in "taking one's own luck, in prayer, and praying more for our neighbor"?

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CALL OF THE LORD'S DISCIPLES 1886

CALL OF THE LORD'S DISCIPLES       Rev. W. F. PENDLETON       1886

     "And having called unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave unto them power over unclean spirits to cast them out."-Matthew x, 1.

     THE law of preparation is a law of the Divine Order. The LORD operates, according to this law in all things, which is particularly manifest in His work of saving souls. In His coming into the world to save men, He sent John the Baptist before Him to prepare the way for that coming, who became, an He declared, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of JEHOVAH, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Is. xl, 3.) And am: "Behold! I will send My messenger, and he prepare the way before Me. "(Mal. iii, 1.) The Jews had to be prepared for the manifestation of JEHOVAH among them; they were in such an evil state that the LORD could not Coming involved, until they had undergone a particular establish such a special presence with them, as His preparation. This particular preparation was effected by the work of John the Baptist, the preaching of repentance, and remission of sins, and baptism in the Jordan. Those who confessed their sins, and were baptized, did it under the expectation and promise of a coming Saviour, known to them as the Messiah. By this act of confession and baptism their surroundings were changed in the spiritual world, and they were adjoined to simple good spirits who were themselves in the expectation of the Coming of the LORD. Corresponding to this special preparation in the natural world there was, therefore, also a special preparation in the Spiritual World. And we are distinctly taught that had not such a special preparation been made in both worlds, thus providing a sphere from the LORD in the ultimate plane, which could receive Him, the human race, especially the Jewish nation, would have perished. That only which is from the LORD receives the LORD; and if the LORD should suddenly manifest His presence among the wicked, without the previous preparation of a mediating sphere, they would be annihilated. Such would have been the case when the LORD came into the world. This is what in meant in the last two verses of Malachi, where the LORD is speaking of John the Baptist and the work of preparation to be effected by him: "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse."
     There was also a preparation for the Second Coming of the LORD and for the Last Judgment effected then. This preparation took place in both worlds. The preparation in the natural world we see in the work of the Reformation, which unsealed the letter of the WORD placing it in the hands of the people, thus giving a degree of greater spiritual freedom than had before existed in the Church. In this freedom of thinking on religious subjects was the work of preparation for the Second Corning of the LORD.
     Then after the LORD comes, there is a still further preparation of those who receive Him, for a more full reception of Him. This preparation is effected by the Church entering into conjunction with the Divine Love of saving souls so that the members of the Church become affected by that love in themselves, manifesting itself in the clergy by a love of teaching the genuine truths of the WORD, in order that souls maybe saved; and in the laity by the love of sustaining the clergy in the work of a genuine teaching, and also in the desire of themselves being instructed in the way of salvation; the work of preparation involving still further a preparation of the understanding, by the study of the Doctrines of the Church and the WORD through them, and meditation thereon. With the clergy this is a preparation to instruct, with the laity a preparation to be instructed. Without such a preparation the clergy will never be able to instruct, and without such a preparation the laity can never be in a state to receive instruction. For the clergy, by virtue of their office, and special illustration in that office, enter into the particulars of Doctrine, that is, if they are truly prepared; this the laity are not able to do of themselves; they therefore need the labors of the priesthood. But they cannot enter into the benefits of such labors unless they prepare themselves by reading, study, and meditation. It is just an if a scholar should not study his lesson, but expect the teacher to do all the work for him when he comes to recite. If the layman does nothing at home in the way of the study of the Doctrines, but expects the minister to do all his work for him when he comes to church, he will not be in a. state to receive any genuine instruction, simply because he has not prepared himself to receive it. This work of preparing the Church for instruction, the clergy to teach, and the laity to be taught, is what is signified by the words, "And He called unto Him His twelve disciples."
     In this state of preparation, certain powers and virtues are imparted, signified in the remaining words of the first verse, "He gave unto them power over unclean spirits to cast them out."
     When they are prepared there is power given unto them. All power is the LORD'S. As He Himself said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth." We notice that He says all power. In what sense is the LORD omnipotent, unless all the power that exists is His power? "All power is given unto Me." The power is in and from the Divine Human. Hence, He says, that it is given unto Him, that is, given unto Him when He was glorified, the Human made Divine. Hence, he also says, "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into His hand."
     But He gives of His power unto man, so far as man is able to receive it; still, it remains the LORD'S power, and is man's only in appearance. This appearance he must acknowledge, but as an appearance that it is merely as his own, and to be used freely as his own, but that the power is all the LORD'S. "All power is given unto ME in heaven and in earth."
     Since the LORD has all power, those who enter into conjunction with Him, so an to dwell in Him, and He in them, are in all power-they dwell in it. Those who are in conjunction with the LORD, as to all things of their life, being in all power, have all that they wish-such especially are the angels of heaven-they have all the power requisite to obtain all that they wish. As the LORD says, "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing. If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you." (John xv, 5, 7.)     There are in general two kinds of tower which the, LORD imparts to man.
     1. The power of which we are first conscious, viz.: natural power. The power we see in ourselves to move our bodies at will; the power in nature around us the power the mind exercises over matter: through the body and its operations. All this is the LORD'S power.
     2. Spiritual power. Of this we become conscious through and in the work of regeneration.

163


Power in the spiritual world to subdue the hells and keep them under subjection, and to save The good in heaven, saving them to eternity. Individual rower over evils and falsity; the same over evil spirits. Collectively, the power of the Church. All this is the LORD'S power. As the WORD treats essentially of spiritual things, the impartation of spiritual power is meant in the words, "He gave unto them power over unclean spirits to cast them out."
     This spiritual power, or power from the Spiritual World, or from the LORD through the Spiritual World, descends into the Church, when the Church prepares herself to receive it.
     In order to bring before the mind more clearly what is to be done that the Church may be prepared to receive spiritual power, let us consider a passage in the sixth chapter of the Apocalypse, "And His wife hath made herself ready." "Wife" there signifies the Church of the New Jerusalem.
     How does she make herself ready? We learn that by these words are signified "that they who are to be this Church, which is the New Jerusalem, are to be selected, inaugurated, and instructed." (A. R. 813.)
     This is the work of the harvest, concerning which the Church in commanded, "Pray ye the LORD of the harvest that He will send forth the laborers into His harvest."
     The laborers in their work are to collect, to inaugurate, and to instruct those who are to form the LORD'S New Church, who are collected and inaugurated by the teaching of the general truths of the Church, involving also the formation of bodies of the Church and baptism. Then they are instructed in the particular truths of the Internal Sense of the WORD. Hence it is said in the next verse, "And to her it was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and shining," by which is signified that "they who are to be of the LORD'S New Church are to be instructed in genuine and pure truths, through the LORD, from the LORD." (A. R. 814.) Truths are only pure and genuine when particulars are given.
     When this state is reached, when the members of the New Church have been collected, inaugurated, and instructed, when the pure and genuine truths of the WORD are taught and received as from the LORD, then is the Church ready for the descent of spiritual power, therefore the rest of the verse says, "for fine linen is the justice of the saints." By these words are signified "that by truths from the WORD they who are of the Church of the LORD acquire the goods of life." (A. R. 815).
     All power is from and by good from the LORD. There in no descent of power until there is descent of good from the LORD.
     It is good that regenerates and saves. Truth prepares the way. Good first descends into the interiors of the natural mind, then into the exteriors; the presence of good in the interior gives the power and courage to combat against evils and falsities in the exteriors.
     The preparation of the Church by truths to receive, and the descent of good into the interiors imparting spiritual power, in what is taught in the words. "And having called' unto Him His twelve disciples, He gave unto them power over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all disease and all sickness."
     The unclean spirits are:
     (1) Falsities from evil. Falsities which proceed forth from, and are the form of some active evil in the life. The falsity itself is a falsity of the life, or in the life. They are distinguished from falsities leading to evil, namely falsities received in the understanding, but which will lead to evi1 if they are cherished and confirmed. These falsities of evil are cast out by the power of truth from good. They cannot be cast out till good has descended into the interiors, the way having been prepared for its descent by truths.
     (2) Evil spirits, who are in falsities from evil. They are present with us in the falsities, and hold us under their dominion by the falsities. When good has descended into the interiors of the natural mind, so that the truth which we have proceeds from that good-the good being the power in. the truth which we possess-then the angels who are in truth from good are with us. They combat from the LORD against the evil spirits and cast them out, i. e, when we co-operate.
     In the state of preparation, the unclean spirits cannot be cast out. Spiritual power is lacking. The men of the Church are then called disciples, that is, "learners." Disciples signify in an abstract sense truth leading to good. This expresses the quality of truths in us in the state of preparation. They are leading to good. Afterward the state is changed and they become "apostles"-truth from good. In this state truths have power to cast out falsities from evil, the change of state described in the words, "He gave unto them power over unclean spirits to cast them out, and to heal all diseases and all sickness."
     In the next verse they are called "Apostles," because now the Church hath made herself ready, spiritual power has descended, truth proceeds from good, and the Church is prepared to go forth and begin the work of genuine spiritual uses.
     Though spiritual power has descended, it is still in the interiors of the natural mind, and the work yet to be done is long and arduous. For now the work of the Church really begins, and spiritual combats take place for the first time. In the stage of preparation man could not endure spiritual combats or temptations. They now begin, and it is a long time before spiritual power can descend also into the exteriors of the natural mind and subdue all things in man, even as to the very ultimate of his life. This work is described in the chapter before us.
     As to the application to the priesthood. It is not meant that any personal power is given unto them, as vainly imagined by the Roman Catholic denomination in particular. What is meant is that power is imparted to the truths which they represent, and which they teach. In the stage of preparation, the truth is without power; afterward power is imparted to it by the descent of good into the interiors. The priests as persons have no power over evil spirits, nor are they able as persons to heal either natural or spiritual diseases. They are merely the instruments which are used by the LORD in imparting spiritual power and in healing, spiritual disease. That is to say, the truths which the teach are the instruments of power and healing. The LORD gives the truth by the teacher. To that truth He imparts power according to its reception, altogether independent of the personality of the teacher. If the priest attributes any power to himself, he is in the sight of God a spiritual robber, appropriating to himself that which belongs to the LORD alone.
     "God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. Also unto Thee, O LORD! belongeth mercy; for thou renderest to every man according to his work." (Ps. lxii, 11, 12.)
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     FOR the first time an almost complete catalogue and price-list of the Writings is published by the Board of Publication in the Messenger.

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CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     FROM what has been said it is sufficiently evident that sensual scientifics, when rightly used, are means of opening the understanding of man to the light of heaven. The spiritual truths seen in that light constitute true riches; which are expended or employed in performing good uses to the neighbor, and when so employed they procure for man heavenly wisdom (E. in U. 62) in an ever-increasing measure. In Heaven and Hell (n. 356) we read as follows:

     They who have obtained for themselves intelligence and wisdom by means of cognitions and sciences-who are such as apply all things to the uses of life and at the same time acknowledge The Divine, love the Word, and live a spiritual-moral life to these sciences serve as means of growing wise, and at the same time of corroborating the things of faith. Their interiors which are of the mind, have been perceived and also seen as transparent from light, of a bright color; flamy or cerulean, such as that of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, which are pellucid, and this according to confirmations from sciences in favor of the Divine and of Divine truths. True intelligence and wisdom have this appearance when presented to the sight in the spiritual world. They derive this appearance from the light of heaven, which is Divine Truth proceeding from the LORD, from whom is all intelligence and wisdom. (n. 126 to 133.) The planes of that light, in which exist variegations as of colors, are the interiors of the mind, and confirmations of Divine truths by such things as are in nature, thus in science's, produce those variegations; for the interior mind of man looks into the things in the natural memory and into those therein which confirm, and by the fire of heavenly love it, as it were, sublimates them, withdraws and purifies them, into spiritual ideas. Man, as long as he lives in the body, does not know that this takes place, although he then thinks both spiritually and naturally, but the things which he then thinks spiritually he does not apperceive, but only those which he thinks naturally. When, however, he comes into the Spiritual World he does not apperceive what he thought naturally in the world, but only what he thought spiritually-so changed is the state. From these things it is evident that man becomes spiritual by cognitions and sciences, and that these are the means of growing wise, but only to those who in faith and life acknowledge the Divine. These are also accepted in heaven above others and are there among those who are in the midst (n. 43) because they are in light above the rest. These are the intelligent and wise in heaven, who are resplendent, with the brightness of the expanse and who shine as the stars; but the simple there are those who have acknowledged the Divine, have loved the Word, and have lived a spiritual-moral life; but their interiors, which are of the mind, are not so cultivated by cognitions and sciences. The human mind is like ground, which has a quality from cultivation.

     If, therefore, it be true that man becomes insane by the abuse of sciences, as in the case of one who desires to become wise in spiritual and celestial things by means of them, without learning of the LORD, it is no less true that this is no reason why they should be rejected, inasmuch as their real use is that they may serve man in the attainment of genuine intelligence and wisdom. "Just as enjoyments, which are of the mind and the body, are not to be rejected because they destroy man and blind him, but he is free to enjoy them for use, as before. In this way only can they be applied to uses, for enjoyments" are the life of the body, to which they are also gives for uses." (S. D. 2523.)
     Because man becomes spiritual by truths from the LORD, and also by the confirmation of these truths by sciences, it is said that there are two foundations of truth, viz.: the Word and Nature-the former for those who are in Heaven and the latter for those who are in the World. So far as these two foundations concord they exist with a man in other words, so far as they concord, the mind is opened by the one to the other. In such a case heaven rests on all of nature with man. It is in all the laws of his natural man and world, and it is fixed in all the things of his life (S. D. 5709.)
     All Divine Truth is in the Word. Hence is the Word a foundation for truth to those who live well, and acknowledge the Word to be holy and divine. The truths of nature can be brought into concord with Divine Truth, not from science, but by means of science, when science itself is infirmed from the Word, and is founded on the Word. Hence arises the necessity of first teaching the Word, and thus of laying in the mind the universal foundation of Divine Truth concerning the LORD, the One God, the Creator and Preserver, concerning Life, concerning a Spiritual World, a Heaven and a Hell, and a Natural World, and concerning an Internal and an External Man. When natural scientifics are introduced into the presence of these Divine Scientifics, then do the latter enter into the former and conjoin them with the Word, all unconscious though man be of what is taking place in his mind. In this way truth can be seen and also confirmed; in other words, it can be founded on a First and on a Last, and the man in whom Truth is so founded is a spiritual natural man. (S. D. 5710.)
     From this conjunction of what is Divine with Nature, and not from himself or from nature alone, does man become truly intelligent and wise. Sciences are to be learnt, and by means of them a natural rational is to be formed, but this is to be done with a belief in the Word of the LORD, and the natural knowledges acquired are to serve man as confirmations of the spiritual things of the Word. This is the course of order which leads to the formation of true rationality and genuine intelligence.
     In Arcana Coelestia (n. 129) we have the following plain teaching on this subject:

     It may be known to every one that the principles assumed by a man, even the falsest, rule him, and that all his knowledge and reasoning favor these principles; for innumerable assenting ideas flow together, so that he is confirmed in falses. Therefore, he who holds the principle that he will believe nothing before he sees and understands It, cam never believe, for he does not see spiritual and celestial things with his eyes, nor does phantasy conceive them. But the true order is that he grow wise from the LORD, that is, from His Word; in this case all things succeed, and he is also illustrated in things rational and scientific. For he [man] is by no means forbidden to learn sciences, because they are useful to life and delightful; and to him who is in faith it is by no means forbidden to think and speak as do the learned of the world, but from this principle that he believes in the Word of the LORD, and confirms spiritual and celestial truths by natural truths, as far as lies in his power, in terms familiar to the learned world. Wherefore his principles must be from the LORD and not from himself. The former is life, the latter is death.

     And this orderly formation of his mind prepares man enter fully into the enjoyment of the faculty of perceiving representatives when he enters into the other life, as described in the following teaching:

     Among the eminent faculties which man possesses in himself; although he Is ignorant of it, and which he takes with him into the other life when he passes over thither after the death of the body, is that he perceives what the representatives signify which appear in the other life; as also that he is able by the sense of his mind to express fully in a moment of time what he could not express in hours in the body, and this by means of ideas from the things which are of the light of heaven, assisted and made, as it were, winged, by suitable appearances representative of the thing which is the subject of discourse, which are such as cannot be described. And because man, after death, comes into these faculties and does not need to be instructed concerning them in the other life, it may appear that man is in them that is to say, that they are in him, whilst he lives in the body although he is ignorant of it. That this is so is because there is with man a continual influx from the LORD by heaven; this is an influx of things spiritual and celestial which fall into his natural things, and which are there presented representatively.

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     In heaven with the angels nothing is thought of but what relates to the things celestial and spiritual which are of the LORD'S kingdom; but in the world with man, scarcely any but things corporeal and natural, which are of the kingdom in which he lives, and of the necessities of life there. And because the spiritual and celestial things of heaven which inflow are presented representatively with man in his natural things, therefore do they remain inserted, and the man is in them when he puts off what is corporeal and relinquishes what is worldly.- A. C. 3226 (see also n. 3223).

     By proceeding in the order described, scientifics become truths with man; by taking the opposite course they become falses. Their application and use effect these results. As servants, they take on the quality of the master to whom they are made subservient. Even the Divine Scientifics in the letter of the Word may be thus turned into falsities and cause death when applied to evil uses under the rule of the love of self or the love of the world. And on the other hand, the scientifics acquired by the natural mind for natural ends may be turned away from such ends, and applied to the confirmation of truths from the LORD, and thereby become means of man's receiving true spiritual rationality and intelligence. This was represented by the command to the sons of Israel to borrow from the Egyptians their "vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and garments, and to place them on their sons and their daughters," Exodus iii, 21-22, concerning which we are taught as follows:

     It is to be known that scientifics in themselves are net truths, nor are they falses, but they become truths with those who are in truths, and falses with those who are in falses; their application and use effects this. Scientifics with man are like riches and wealth with him; riches and wealth with those who are in evils 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 be transferred to the good, they become goods; thus also the scientifics. As, for example, with the Egyptians there remained many things from the representatives of the Ancient Church, as may appear from their hieroglyphics; but bemuse they applied them to magic, and thus made an evil use of them, there ore they were not to them true scientifics, but false scientifics. But the same things had been true scientifics in the Ancient Church, because they applied them rightly to Divine Worship. Such, for example, were the altars and sacrifices; these with the Hebrew nation, and afterward with the Jewish and Israelitish nations, were true rituals, because they applied them to the worship of JEHOVAH; but with the nations in the land of Canaan they were false rituals, because they applied them to the worship of their idols; wherefore also it was commanded that they should everywhere destroy the altars of the nations. The case is similar with very many other things. Many scientifics, therefore, may be obtained from those who are in evils and falses, which can be applied to good uses, and thus be made good. Such things are also meant by the spoiling of the nations in the land of Canaan, by the wealth, the flocks, the herds, the houses, the vineyards, of which the sons of Israel despoiled them. This is still more evident from the circumstance that the gold and silver taken from the nations was applied to a holy use, as appear from Samuel viii, 10, 11, 12, and from Isaiah xxiii, 18. Those things likewise which the women, of the sons of Israel, borrowed from the Egyptians, and thus took for spoil, were then applied to the use of constructing he ark, and to many holy things which were of their worship.- A. C. 6917. (See also 6913 to 6916, 1551, 2571, 2688; A. E. 141, 242, 430.)
     They who are principled in spiritual truths are commanded, i.e., it is in order for them, to occupy the entire field of natural science and knowledge. With them the higher truth will illustrate the lower, and in this light they can apply the lower to the performance of spiritual uses, and thus to the strengthening of Divine Truths in their minds. But they cannot remain in Egypt to perform such uses;, they must go forth out of the land of Egypt to worship the LORD. If they remain, they will do what is abomination in the sight of the Egyptians, who will stone them; in other words, deprive them of truths.
"DOMINE, QUO VADISI" 1886

"DOMINE, QUO VADISI"              1886

     A SHORT distance outside of the old walls of Rome stands a small church designated as above. Connected with this church is one of the most striking legends of the Roman martyrology. So suggestive is the lesson it would teach that it bears repeating, even though it may not record an actual fact. The story runs thus: during one of the severe persecutions to which the early Christians were subjected, Peter, the Bishop of the city, sought escape from the imminent danger threatening him as the head of the Church by flight. He had gone but a small distance in the Appian Way when he met his risen LORD, bearing in His Person the stigmata of His death, and seemingly purposing to enter the city, where His followers were exposed to the fury of their cruel oppressors. Peter, much wondering that the LORD should expose Himself to that diabolical rage under which He had been put to death years before, cried out in astonished solicitude: "Domine, quo vadis?" "LORD whither goest Thou?" And the LORD, looking at him with that same deeply grieving eye which had been turned to him in the hall of the High Priest, replied: "Venio iterum crucifigi," "I come to be crucified the second time." The lesson went home to the heart of the Apostle. Here was he, the head of the Church, flying away from the danger threatening it, and deserting his high command in a selfish care for himself. And here again was his LORD and Master, leaving His glory in the heavens, and coming again to earth to face the trials which his servant was so cowardly shunning. Could he deny Him again after so many years of faithful service? Could he resist that look which he saw on the LORD as He the second time turned to gaze on him? No; he would retrace his steps. His LORD had said He was going to Rome to be again crucified, and his servant would save him this, for he, the timorous yet loving Peter, would himself be the victim; for he, and not his LORD, would go to be crucified. He met his LORD'S look with one of humbled, penitential love; he turned himself to the city of the amphitheatre, of the wild beasts, of the tortures of the stake; he went back to duty, to his LORD, and glorified Him in a death similar to His.
     Such is the legend. Puerile though it may seem, it can teach us a lesson, and one much needed. For how often we shrink from duty because it is onerous, and try to compromise with the uncompromisable! Still more, we turn away from the temptations we must meet and overcome, if we would wear the crown or the white robe of the victor. Satans perplex us, devils fill the soul with horrors; our evils are brought up to the surface and frighten us. We would play off and be at rest. This we cannot do; we therefore would put these trials out of sight and avoid them. We would fall back on some fancied goodness of our own; some wisdom we have ourselves (?) originated. We will not face the enemy and endure the shock of the hells in the might of Him who overcome that we too might overcome. And now we meet the LORD just here. Shall we let Him be again crucified? Shall we forget His own last temptation combat by which His Human was glorified, and shun those by which we may have our own humanity approximate in any faint measure the Divine Human of Him, our LORD Janus CHRIST? It is a troublesome thing, this constant resistance; those who are experienced in it know how weary it is; yet shall we shrink from it? If we asked Peter's question: LORD, whither goest Thou? would His answer not be that He ever goes right onward? And this is our line of march; not running away from duty, and the temptation and trial it involves, but going on, to overcome even as He overcame.

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     In view of the evils threatening the Church in this her hour of trial, we need to hear those guiding words of the LORD. True, she does not fear the fire or the cross, yet the danger is not less threatening because unseen. We need not fear the rack or the scourge or the lions or the sword of the gladiator; yet there, is a fearful danger to the Church in the spirit of compromise, which, while saying "Peace, peace," is sapping all power of resistance. Truths we find are often offensive. Let us then not obtrude them. Distinctiveness looks like exclusiveness. Therefore, even though we may not obliterate the landmarks, let us cover them up wit flowers or vines, anything, to show that there is no real difference. An insistance on peculiar doctrines looks like bigotry. Therefore we shall not insist, but be all things to all men. Paul would have been this that he might gain some; but are we not in danger of gaining no one and losing ourselves? For the New Church does have something positive about her. The foundations of the New Jerusalem are not of clay or stubble. They are stones, precious stones, tried stones. They are firm and enduring, and not to be hidden by any flowers of charity or palm-leaves of brotherly kindness. We believe that our LORD has come,-that the New Jerusalem has come down from the heavens to men, that it id, and is a reality; that it has a spiritual and hence a natural existence, a body here, as a body above. Certain types of ministers have been designated as the Reverend Doctor This To-Day, who has for his colleague the no less Reverend Doctor That To-Morrow. The New Church has no need of such servants. The LORD has given her in charge to proclaim the truth and nothing but this. And woe to them who do the work of the LORD unfaithfully. In trying to unwind the misconstruction which inevitably comes from a rigid adherence, to the grand basis of all truth, Thus saith the LORD, men are simply cowards. This is what the Church's Master never did. He never used honeyed words to the Pharisees. He never told the doubting Sadducees that perhaps, after all, they might not be absolutely out of the way. He who was one in the Truth itself seeks no compromise, nor has He ever wished the concord between Christ and Belial. Following the Truth, we are one with Him, we can see His smile, we can hear His loving voice, we can rest on His mighty arm. And meeting Him in our walks through life, we have no fear in asking Him, "LORD, whither goest Thou?" for we, seeking the Truth only, need have no fear. This little church near Rome is a memento of this meeting of Peter with the LORD; it is built, they tell us, on the spot where the vision was seen. And so with us there is a glorification of the LORD whenever we meet Him in the line of faithful duty. But avoiding duty from any seeking of comfort and avoidance of trouble to ourselves, above all, in the hiding of the truth from any fear of the cry of "uncharitableness" or "bigotry," or any other Laodicean refuge of lies, shall we not see the LORD'S look of sorrow? Shall we not hear Him say, in pointed allusion to our own self-love, "venio iterum crucifigi"?
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     SOCIETIES and Schools desiring a set of the Writings in Latin, should apply to the Rev. J. C. Ager 295 Carlton Avenue, Brooklyn, N. Y. State how far these books are likely to be of use.
MAN 1886

MAN              1886

     (A lecture delivered April 23d, 1880, by the late E. A. Farrington, A. M., M. D., Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at the Schools of the Academy of the New Church.)

     MAN'S soul is formed according to influx from the LORD, through the spiritual sun and atmospheres, out of substances from the spiritual world, from highest to lowest. And man's physical body is formed in correspondence with this soul; thus from emanations from the natural sun and atmospheres with the materials of the earth, from highest to lowest. Hence man is a microuranos and a micro-cosmos. By means of his soul he forms an organic part of the Gorand Man of Heaven, and by means of his body, of the Gorand Man of Earth.
     Life is not his, but is given to him as his own. Life itself is the LORD'S alone, who has created the universe to receive the blessings of existence from His unlimited bounty.
     In studying the human form, then, we are to remember that it is the image of its Creator; for He is form itself; He contains within Himself all forms in infinite variety. He is Human itself and what proceeds from Him must be in the human form. There emanates from Him a sphere, which is His Divine Proceeding or the impress of His Divine Essence on created media above the highest heaven. As this descends into lower grades it is received according to the form of the vessel-thus in one way by man, in another by animals, in a third by plants, in a fourth by minerals. But each reception essays the human form and displays attributes which are easily translated into similar but more exalted qualities in man.
     What the LORD has revealed to us concerning the form and order of Heaven applies correspondingly to man on earth, and a complete and comprehensive investigation into the structure and functions of our physical bodies implies a thorough comparison with the structure and functions of our souls. And so, if we would determine our relations with the natural world, we must know our relations with the spiritual world.
     A full carrying out of this plan would tax not only our limited time, but my sadly defective knowledge. Still, an attempt has been made, and I now purpose reviewing our steps that we may take a synthetic view of truths hitherto disconnectedly considered.
     There flows from the LORD through the Heavens into man an influx of Divine Love and Wisdom. This is received in man's inmost and is the LORD'S abode with him. Thence it descends into two chambers constructed, the one for the will, the other for the understanding. Corresponding to these mental departments are the heart and the lungs, the heart being formed by the will and the lungs by means of the understanding; or, the will formed a chamber for its understanding in which it might exist in thought and ideation and by correspondence. The heart formed the lungs.
     Hence the heart must pulsate in obedience to the mandates of the will-must throb violently if the emotions are intense and must beat softly and timidly if the emotions are sad and depressing. The heart must, like a faithful vicegerent of the soul, send out its blood to give power to every part of the body. And the lungs, moving synchronously with the brains, must respire rapidly or slowly, deeply or superficially, or all but stay all action, in submission to the states of thought and mental activity. And as the body receives animation, its ability to exist and move, from the brains, so must the lungs, by their expansions and contractions, contribute motion to every fibre of the body, opening the finest tubules for the reception of life from the nerves.

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     There can be no thought until there flows, like streams from their fountain, affections from the will into the understanding, there taking form as thoughts, which may be sent forth into acts So there can be no active, conscious life until the blood flows like a stream from its cardial fountain into the lungs, becomes purified and nourished there, and then returns arterial, florid blood to the left ventricle, that it may go forth into the body and nourish it.
     Will and thought come forth into ideas and acts, which are their uses. The will constitutes their power or force; the thought their activity. So, when heart and lungs are united in the extremes of the body, which extremes are composed of blood-vessels and motive fibres, the blood brings warmth and attendant vital force, the lungs send animation to the motive fibres, and their union is function or use.
     Each organ of the body is a derivative from the parent brains, and is connected with the cerebrum by nerve fibres and membranes, and each organ has its own cerebral or cerebellar centre. Thus, the pendant spine is formed of connecting fibres and is wrapped in membranes one with the coverings of the brain. The blood-vessels are lined with a coat, which stretches from the cortex cerebri through arteries, heart, capillaries, veins, and penetrates the lungs and returns to the heart again. The viscera of the chest, associate with the brains through nerves, through the sheaths of nerves, and through the nasal lining up through the cribriform to the cerebral meninges and the abdominal viscera, intimately connected with those of the chest, show a similar relation to the brains. By means of nerve fibres, each organ receives its appropriate animal spirit, bearing messages from its respective cerebral origin. And by means of its membranous connections with brains and lungs, it receives the ability to move in strict harmony with the vibrations of its animal spirit. Take, by way of illustration, the muscles of the arm and hand. The will desires that an offending object be removed. The animal spirit with lightning speed conveys the impression through derivative nerves to the muscles of the arm. This force is felt by the blood-vessels, there, and by reaction they constrict, and so, driving the blood from the muscles, the latter contract. One set of muscles closes the fist and flexes the arm, another extends the arm with a force proportionate to the will power present in the exciting nerve-fluid, and the blow is struck. This is a wonderful co-ordination, by which the whole acts in harmony with apart and conspires to the successful fruition of its effort, just as all heaven lends its aid to the deeds of any one of its members. So here the eye aids in aiming the blow, the lungs swell and stay their motions that they may draw no power from the seat of action, and the brains swell to lend all, their vim as well.
     Again, suppose an excretory function, as defecation or urination. Now excretion is the elimination of effete, used up, dead, and hence foreign and poisonous substances from the body. Picture to yourself an intruder into heaven. Think you only the offended society expels him? No, all heaven aids with might and main. And Just so here the abdominal muscles push down on the, rectum, their direction being deter mined by their attachments to the linea alba, and with them, of course, the abdominal viscera, which lend their individual aid. The lungs remain fixed in semi-inspiration and so aid the pelvic direction of the pressure. Within, acting in harmony with these forces from without, are the nerves, which bear down unrelentingly, urged by the impulses from the straining brains-and thus the whole man pushes with eagerness to void the poisonous faeces and urine. And in this combined effort, there must be a universal shaking off of debris, from highest to lowest.
     This eliminative effort is an exact correspondent and representative of heavenly activity and of power in ultimates. Within is the celestial, next is the spiritual, and outermost the natural. And this principle is present in every complete function. Within is the animal spirit, next is the pure blood, and outermost is the red blood. Within is animal spirit, next is a secretion, as the gastric juice, and without is a mucous envelope. So with the semen, bile, saliva, intestinal juices, etc. In all these illustrations the inmost corresponds to the will, celestial; the middle to the understanding, spiritual, and the outermost to their union in the natural.
     We have, then, three sources of power to consider in the body, and these are represented by the brains, the heart, and the lungs. The brains give us the animal spirit and the purer blood; the heart and lungs, as brains in the second degree, give us the red blood, made from food and air, and in which reside the animal spirit and the purer blood. These, united in the capillaries, develop there all physical power.
     Every function consists of four parts-appropriation of aliment, digestion of the same, utilization of the good, and removal of the offal.
     The mind receives goods and truths as its food. These it digests and arranges in order-assimilates. What is not desired it rejects; what is retained enters into the formation of the man's rationality. The brains act in a corresponding manner. Now, whence comes the food? Mental food comes from Divine Revelation and is appropriated according to the life's love of the individual. Thus he is placed in some society of the other world with which he is in harmony. The brains receive their food from the auras, derived through the lungs and in countless streams through the skin. The red blood receives food through the lungs from the air, and from the stomach-digestion. But just as the soul appropriates those goods and truths which agree with its ruling love, so do the brains and the body below select from their respective foods those things which are in correspondence with the affections. Two partaking of the same meat, for instance, assimilate different portions, according as their wills are diverse, and two breathing the same fragrant, invigorating air choose, each, such elements as vivify his own affections and reject all the rest.
     Digestion, as mentioned above, is the separation of the useful from the useless. But in the economy of the human form that which is useless in one degree becomes effective in a lower degree. The viscid phlegm which the brains reject serves to moisten and lubricate the outer layers of nerve-tissue; the rejected serum from the lungs and intestines bathe the great organs in these cavities and then serve as a protecting menstruum for the returning lymph, with its animal spirit, and so on. But this applies only to' those substances which retain any, even if the smallest, amount of good in them. Once entirely divested of usefulness, they are removed from the domain of the body and ejected as useless and harmful, just as in the Gorand Man of Heaven no one is removed into hell if he have within him even that small amount of good which is compared to a mustard-seed, the smallest of seeds."
     Utilization of the good is that part of a function which represents its use-indeed, is the function proper. In this respect each part of the body is supreme in its own degree, and all the rest of the body lends its kindliest aid, but does not interfere.

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So in Heaven: each angel is, in a sense, the centre to which all tend with preferred help. But still power and action come from the highest to the lowest, from the celestial to the natural heavens, from the brains to the extremities, and each part receives this life to use as its own-precisely as in the whole universe life flows in from the Divine to be used in freedom, as if it were the property of the recipient.
     The body is in health when every part performs its functions fully and lends its use to the commonweal-and, spiritually, the world is the theatre of true charitable life when each man does, to the least minutiae, the duties attending his office, his work, which is his function in the Gorand Man of Heaven and, correspondingly, in the Gorand Man of Earth.
     But use presupposes action, and action necessitates motion; so if the body lives it moves. It moves through space, as when from exercise of muscle we walk or run. It moves within its own domain in the most complicated way in the performance of its thousand and one functions. If we could picture the gyrations of each part of the body we would see a figure presenting a bewildering maze of lines, twisting and turning in every conceivable direction. And yet there is method in this whirl. What is this method? Why, it begins with the dual force of the brain, which is the effect of the will operating in the understanding. Thence it descends in spiral motions to heart and lungs. In the heart it causes the pulse, in the lungs the respiratory movements. Now, as these two grand movements vary with the states of the mind, with the changes in affection and thought, so must every motion in the body change also. And thus this complex of gyrations shifts and fluctuates in endless variety, the only constancy being the steady promptings of the cerebellum, which urges into systematic activity the involuntary operations of the internal organs and restores their wonted regularity after they have been disturbed by the checkered demands of the cerebrum.
     Each lower function is subordinate to its immediate superior, from which it receives these motions, until finally we reach the various exits of the body in its skin. But motion does not cease here. For although the skin acts as a containant of the internal parts, it is porous, and sol must permit of the escape of material from within. And this is recognized in the volume of insensible perspiration emanating from the whole integument. Besides these escapes, there are the mucous secretions from nose, mouth, etc., the voided feces, and urine. Now all of these, from coarsest to finest, quit the body in a spiral, because driven forth by this form of motion. Dwelling particularly on the insensible perspiration, we find it the embodiment of man's peculiar sphere-a sphere which he emits like all creation, animate and inanimate. This s here begins in his soul and is the impress of his life's love on the atmosphere around him. It results from the marriage union of the will and the understanding, and in the body from a similar relation between heart and lungs, and between the parts of every organ of the body. Hence every organ is double, the one corresponding to the will and the other to the understanding. Nutrition, which consists of the propriation of needed aliment from the blood and the removal of used-up tissue, is the result of the union of the power derived from the blood with the motor impulse derived from the lungs, and be resulting emanation is the particular sphere of that part. So, from the conjugial relations of the parts of the body in agreement with the conjugial efflux from the will and understanding proceeds a general sphere. Its movements are directed by the nervous fluid, which bears it to the surface of the body, and it is furthered by the motions of the lungs, which are synchronous with those of the brain. Hence, as motion is determined toward the breast, the emanating sphere is more dense there than on any other part of the body.
     When the cuticular pores are reached the pure blood discharges its used up portion through these channels into the outer world-discharges it as no longer needed in the body, but as still bearing the imprint of the man and moving with his animation-discharges it to go forth into the great ocean of ethers and auras, to undulate on, on, as it meets with kindred emanations from other bodies, which together constitute one society of the grand man of earth. Space is laughed at by this quintessence of motion, and so similar minds, though removed by miles and miles of space, are joined together by their spheres. It is here, though less perfectly, as it is in Heaven, similar thoughts unite. How else can you explain affinities and dislikes? How else can you understand how the vulture is guided to the carrion through miles and miles of country? How else does the dog follow the trail, and scent out his master's from among a hundred footprints? How else can you comprehend the fact that discoveries are duplicated? Sir Humphrey Davy discovered the safety lamp conjointly with some one else, neither knowing aught of the other's movements.
     Each blood contains its own odor, and this may be proved. Pour upon the blood of a rat some sulphuric acid and the rat-odor is perceived. And a practiced nose can by this test distinguish a white man's blood from a negro's. Hence you observe that there are two kinds of excreta; the one-heavy, dead, poisonous, which is thrown out and drawn hellward, as it were; the other, a sort of functional fruit, a messenger, which goes forth into the atmospheric world, bearing the activity of its parent organ. Thus we may comprehend how man is a kind of creator after the image of his Maker, and how he causes the many vicissitudes and changes in the weather and season's, etc., in the world about him. And thus we may understand that the aerial world essays the human and has its own functions of breathing and Purification; for, does not the air throw down its impurities like excrement? Is not the carbonic acid gas, which is fatal to animal life, driven down for absorption by plants and earth, which exchange for it pure oxygen and organic effluvia? The air, too, has its seasons: its spring, when rains and dews purify it; its summer, when the vegetable world loads it with fragrance; its winter, when frosts come and when the crystal snow envelopes its impurities and spreads them, a bed of fertilizing manure, on the earth's surface. There are times when its circulation, which is the diffusion of gases, is sluggish and incompetent. Then come storms and hurricanes. Mayhaps they uproot trees, despoil gardens, and level whole towns; but they purify the air that millions may live and the earth be perpetual. Then, again, the air becomes too heated and feverish. Heavy clouds gather and shoot forth from their bosoms forks of lightning which consume the impurities and release the imprisoned oxygen-oh! how sweet and invigorating is the regenerated air after its stormy chastisement.
     Spheres are affected by the universal sense of touch. When two impinge, which are discordant, they mutually repel each other. Some five years ago I recommended a lady patient to employ a magnetic physician. After one visit, his sphere was so unpleasant to her that she could not tolerate his presence.

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On one occasion he was in a house into which my patient and I entered. She was not informed of his presence. This I know, for I was with her all the time. As she took her seat in the drawing-room, she exclaimed, "O Doctor! I feel just as though that horrid man was here." He was at that very time in a distant part of the house, magnetizing a patient. Now, what effect had his sphere on her? It was repulsive, and every minute tubule of her body-tubules which extend from pores in the skin through the lining of the arteries to the cortices of the brain-shrank and constricted themselves, to keep off the disgusting sphere. Just so does the body reject, by actual shrinking, all that is nauseous and heterogeneous. And, on the contrary, it opens wide its tiny canals to drink in all that is inviting and wholesome and homogeneous.
     But spheres are appreciated by the other senses as well as by touch proper. Thus the sight may be serviceable in reading our neighbor's souls. The angels were able to perceive at once whether Swedenborg's thoughts concerning conjugial love were pure, by the sphere from his eyes. In fact, they may read the mind by the breath man draws, by the sound of his voice, and by his very attitude in listening.
     We may approximate to this even here; for does not man exhibit in his breathing many of his emotions? Do not the set lips betoken firmness, and the full, round, rosy lips the softness of loving affection? And, further, the face is a wonderful mirror of the soul, and sends forth telling spheres by the play of its muscles. The time was when this mirror was a perfect reflection of the mind, but now it continually belies the soul within: Still, despite this deception, there are times when it is truthful, and there are certain life lines which even hypocrisy cannot efface. For the facial muscles are divided into three groups. The first extend down to the eyes and express the doings of the brains; the second reaches thence to the mouth, and shows the vicissitudes of the heart and lungs; the third finishes the face from nose to chin, and portrays the condition of the abdominal viscera. This is no fancy sketch. It was acknowledged by Swedenborg, and it is admitted to-day.
     Often in disease, when man can no longer disguise his states, these regions speak out unmistakably. Thus, when the brain is affected, the forehead is wrinkled and the eyes are wild and staring; when the lungs or heart are diseased, the cheeks are hectic, the wings of the nose dilate hurriedly and widely; when the stomach, liver, or, bowels are sick, then the mouth portrays nausea, and the lines from, the nose deepen. So spheres are seen, heard, and felt.
     Does it not-behoove us then, even physically, to conduct ourselves decorously? Are we not the architects of the active world in which we dwell? Do not our thoughts and acts indelibly impress themselves on the very air itself and excite forces which are to work for our weal or our woe and which will gather power as man multiplies on the face of the earth? Then let us all behave ourselves.
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     THE Swedenborg Publishing Association has placed Dr. Ellis's works on the list of its publications.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     The New Church Herald has begun a series of articles from unpublished manuscripts of Charles Augustus Tulk.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Swedenborg and the Brownings, an article in Morning Light; by Mr. James Spilling, has been published in tract form for presentation to the Browning Society.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. I. Tansley, of Liverpool, has been appointed editor of the Juvenile Magazine, which periodical, under the new editorship, is to be remodeled and furnished with illustrations.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Swedenborg Publishing Association has also recently published in tract form the paper by the Rev. B. F. Barrett on The Bible or the Creed which was read before the Ministers' Conference last June.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     Progressive Thoughts on Great Subjects, the pamphlet by the Rev. N. F. Ravlin, of San Jose, Cal., has now been published by the Swedenborg Publishing Association as No. 12 of "New Church Popular Series."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Trustees of the Rotch Fund intend to publish shortly a revised edition of the Arcana Coelestia, the translation to be based principally upon that of the. Boston edition, which is noted for its literal adherence to the original. It is to be hoped that nothing will delay this work.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     "THE New Church Bee-Hive is the organ of the New Church in Australia, and is published at Melbourne fort-nightly. It consists of three sheets of note paper (twelve pages), and is written; being reproduced apparently by some chromograph process."-New Church Messenger.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     AN appeal to the Church at large has appeared in the Messenger of September 22d from the Board of Home and Foreign Missions, inviting the formation of Auxiliary Missionary Societies in all parts of the country in agreement with the resolutions passed at the meeting of the General Convention this year. The draft of a Constitution for such societies is also submitted.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     SIGNOR SCOCIA'S Nuova Epoca ("New Age"), a magazine published in Italy for nine years and then discontinued, has now, after four years of suspension, been resumed under the title, "Library of the New Age." Intending to discuss in its pages social and scientific questions in the light of the New Church, the Professor hopes there by to reach the intelligent and cultured class of Italians.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     GEORGE EBERS, the famous Egyptologist, unwittingly gives the modern "two wine" theory a blow in his Serapis. "In obedience to the time-honored tradition in Alexandria, after intoxicating himself with new wine in honor of the god, he had rushed out into the street to join the procession" (p. 24). This hardly agrees with the notion promulgated so industriously by certain New Churchmen that new wine and "unfermented wine" are the same.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Manual of the Camberwell Society, of which the Rev. R. J. Tilson is Pastor, and that of the Birmingham Society, of which the Rev. R. R. Rodgers is Pastor, each contains a Calendar of Daily Readings in the Word and in the Writings. The Camberwell Manual, which made its first appearance in October, contain a few concise and effective paragraphs on the usefulness and necessity of daily reading, and quotes from the Writings (A. E. 803; T. C. R. 226, 228; A. C. 10,276).
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A VERY interesting and clearly written series of articles on "Studies in Swedenborg" has for some years been appearing in The Theosophist, a monthly periodical published in Madras, India, and the organ of the Theosophical Society, with which Madame Blavateky has been conspicuously connected. The articles in question seem to have for an end the endeavor to reconcile the Doctrines of the New Church with the mystical and magical theories of Ancient Buddhism and Modern Theosophy. The author is the Rev. C. H. Vetterling, M. D.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     DR. J. J. GARTH WILKINSON urges the Swedenborg Society of England to have the Diarium Spirituale photolithographed, and refers to the report that the books and manuscripts in France, of which the National Library and other institutions only possess one or two copies, are to be photographed as a precaution against loss by theft or fire.

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It is to be hoped that Dr. Wilkinson is thus initiating a movement which will complete the work done by Dr. R. L. Tafel several years ago. All manuscripts written by Swedenborg after his call, whether they have been published or not, should be photolithographed.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Manual of the External Organization of the New Church in Great Britain, published by direction of the General Conference, contains an interesting account of the New Church in Great Britain, including principally the Conference itself and the uses performed by it or its committees; also other organizations independent of Conference, as the Manchester Printing and Tract Society; the Swedenborg Society, British and Foreign; the Missionary and Tract Society of the New Church; the New Church Sunday-School Union; the New Church College; the New Church Evidence Society; the New Church Orphanage; the New Church Educational Institute, and other Societies.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE mind of the writer of "Spiritual Crystallization" (Morning Light, Sept. 18th) must have been in what old-time folk might call a "drumlie" state. "By spiritual crystallization," he says, "we mean the state of those who fall into fixed or unchangeable ideas." "Putting truth into formal statements, and teaching them from authority, will produce the same effect." "The injury that spiritual crystallization produces on the soul is terrible." The cure for this disease is that "We should resist the idea of the absoluteness of our views in truth with all the energies of our natures." In other words, we are to believe nothing positively, not even the Word of God. The whole article is about as ridiculous a bit of nonsense as has been put forth lately, and not the least nonsensical thing about it is that the writer shows that he is suffering from an aggravated attack of "spiritual crystallization" himself; he writes with the utmost positiveness and what is this but doing or being the very thing he condemns?
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     AN article, headed The Swedenborgians in America, has recently appeared in Svenska Amerikanaren a Swedish weekly paper published in Chicago, Ill. Alter speaking for some length about the New Church propaganda among the Swedes in the West, the editor gives some information concerning the Doctrines and conditions of the New Church in America, also refers to the "liberal" and the "orthodox" schools of thought in the New Church, and concludes with the following interesting sentence: "A certain dogmatic judgment seems to reign in this (the 'orthodox') faction, but although the other party entertains broader views, and looks out with more hope and confidence upon humanity, still also these 'liberals' can, in their actions, be illiberal enough, as they have shown here in Chicago, by taking a temple from those of a stricter doctrinal adherence and renting it out to Protestants for no other reason than the aforesaid difference in the understanding of Swedenborg's Doctrines."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE "Journal of the Sixty-sixth Annual Session of the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States of America" and the "Minutes of the Seventy-ninth Session of the General Conference of the New Church," both of this year, present us with interesting statistics concerning the status of the Church in America and in Great Britain. The Associations and Societies of Convention report five thousand one hundred and forty-eight members, to which must be added the membership of the Toronto and two or three smaller societies. The Societies of Conference report five thousand seven- hundred- and thirty members. Eighty-nine societies or churches report to Convention, sixty-six to Conference. In the Convention there are eight General Pastors, ninety-eight Pastors and Ministers, and nine Authorized Candidates and Preachers. In the Conference there are six Ordaining Ministers, twenty-eight Ordained Ministers, and eleven Licentiates. The name of the Rev. R. L. Tafel, Ph. D., appears on the list of both Convention and Conference, he having been ordained under authority of Convention and consecrated under authority of Conference. Among the Convention's Pastors is the Rev. F. G8rwitz, now laboring in Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. The Rev. A. T. Boyesen, who officiates in Sweden, was ordained under authority of Conference.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     MR. JAMES SPILLING, the author of Amid the Corn, and several other New Church novels, was not long ago criticised by Mr. Ottley in the columns of Morning Light. Mr. Spilling's brief reply in the same columns concludes thus:
"I consider all Great Men, unbelievers as well as believers-those who recede from the old faith am well as those who advance toward the, new faith-scientists, philosophers, poets, preachers, politicians-as products of the New Forces operating on the earth, while I regard new laws, new movements, new invention, Free Trade, and extended franchises, Blue Ribbon and Salvation Armies, International Exhibitions, steamships, railroads, telegraphs, telephones as developments of the New Age. Yours faithfully." After reading this several times we are impelled to ask: What in the name of all that is Broad does Mr. Spilling mean? Is the conglomeration of learning, humbug, rhymes, isms, trickery, merchandising, quackery, and machinery, that the "New Forces" working in the "New Age" have produced, to be understood as fruits of the New Church?
     A good deal of fogginess would be cleared away if some of the gentlemen who so frequently dilate about the New Age and the New Forces would tell the world, in plain, understandable words, just what this New Age and these New Forces are, and wherein, if at all, they are distinct from the New Church. In some quarters we hear of the "New Age," of the "New Forces," and of "New Movements" with most industrious frequency, but of the New Church rarely. Are they one and the same thing or not? Come, gentlemen, define your terms, please. When you write "New Age" do you mean New Church? If not, what do you mean? Tell us, so that we may no longer boggle along in the dark.
MR. POTTS'S CONCORDANCE 1886

MR. POTTS'S CONCORDANCE              1886

CONCORDANCE TO THE THEOLOGICAL WRITINGS OF EMANUEL SWEDENBORG. By the Rev. John Faulkner Potts, B. A. Swedenborg Society, British and Foreign, 86 Bloomsbury Street, London. Part I.

     PART I of this magnificent work has made its appearance, and gives an adequate idea of the stupendous labor which the compiler has expended upon it. The page, 9 3/4 in. by 7 in., contains as much matter as two and two-thirds pages of the A. S. P. & P.S. edition of the Writings; yet the forty-eight pages of Part I comprise words only from "A" to "Adultery," but they number 152.     The longest articles are "Aaron," "Abraham," "Acknowledgment," "Action" and "Adultery," covering respectively two and half, five and half, six, five, and eight pages; and what this means, may be realized from the fact that the references to "Abraham," which cover nearly five and half pages, number three hundred. The references to "Action," covering five pages, number two hundred and seventeen, and are to no less than sixteen distinct Works. The article "Adultery" covers eight pages in Part I, and will probably cover from one to three pages more in Part II.
     Some entries are very short, other very full. For instance, the whole of Arcana (n. 6998) is quoted under "Aaron," and so is the whole of Arcana (n. 827) under "Adultery." Each of these occupies almost a third of a page in the A. S. P. and P.S. edition of the Arcana. Some of the short entries are so worded as to stimulate research in the Writings. They seem almost to have been penned with the well-known principle in mind that concealment always arouses curiosity. Under "Abode" is a small bunch of them. Where one reads, "An abode is given them he at once refers to the passage cited (T. C. R. 138) to ascertain to whom an abode is given, and where; and his search is rewarded.

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"Stairs from story to story;" "The rooms of that house that are underground," are entries that belong to the same category. It would seem as though Mr. Potts, besides conveying a wealth of information to the readers of his encyclopedic Concordance, would by such methods lead them to be students of the Writings. A true New Church priest is he who succeeds in this Collocations of passages from various works; in which they are reproduced almost verbatim, is a characteristic feature of the Concordance. We learn, for instance, from the Diary (n. 4405) that the General described in the Arcana (n. 2733) Heaven and Hell (n. 385) and Conjugial Love (n. 481) was Prince Eugene.
     We might go on with other, features, but the subject is so seductive that we would transgress the limits of our space. The Concordance is simply invaluable, eclipsing everything of the kind produced hitherto. Such an achievement, one should think, is sufficient, without having recourse to the extravagant claim set up and italicized in the Prospectus, as reproduced from the Preface: "In this Concordance the student will find everything that is said in the Writings about every subject of which they treat, with reference to the passages where the various statements are to be found." To compile a work of reference to the Writings in which everything on all subjects will be found is beyond the attainment of any one man. And this is proved-if proof be needed-in this Concordance. We intend in our next issue to give instances in which references have been passed by, instituting at the same time a comparison with Dr. Worcester's recent Index to the Apocalypse Explained.
     We are told in the prospectus that the compiler had subdivided all the longer sections of the Writings, and that to make the subdivisions available a complete list is to be given with the Concordance, "so that those who wish to do so can copy them into their own volumes." It would be desirable to have this list published at once, so that it may be used with the successive parts as they are issued.
     The incalculable use of the Concordance and the very low price at which it is published (which is due in great measure to the disinterested love for the New Jerusalem of the compiler, who gives the work and the labor of fourteen years to the church without receiving a penny of remuneration) ought to place it in the hands of every New Churchman. The Academy Book Room, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia, receives subscriptions at twelve cents a part; by mail, fifteen cents.
     The increasing affection for regular reading and study of the Writings, evidenced by the publication of calendars and the establishment of reading-circles in various places in England and America, will, we have reason to hope, be fed and strengthened by the publication of this work. Stimulating the laity of the Church in the study of the Doctrine and providing the clergy with more extended means for the interior scrutation of the Divine Word, the Concordance will be an important factor in the building up of the New Jerusalem.
DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM 1886

DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM              1886

ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING THE DIVINE LOVE AND THE DIVINE WISDOM. Emanuel Swedenborg. Originally published in Latin at Amsterdam, 1763. New York American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society, 20 Cooper Union, MDCCCLXXXV.

     IN the Divine work before us we are taught that love shines forth from the interior of the face of an angel, and wisdom in his beauty, and that beauty is the form of his love. It is, therefore, most fitting that the work on the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom should be set forth in all the beauty of the typographers' art. This has been done in the edition be ore us.
     Beauty has, moreover, been striven for in the three translations of this work which have appeared within the last three years, for faithfulness to the literal expressions in which the LORD has clothed His Divine produces real beauty of language, if the original proposition with which we started is true.
     In the recent New York edition, before us, much of the needless redundancy of the former New York edition is done away with. We have, for instance, "He knows from common speech," for "He is aware from the use of the word in common speech;" "thought is interior, more interior,"- etc., for "thought is of different degrees, interior and more interior," etc.
     While in this and other ways a greater adherence to the Latin text is manifested in this edition, it falls short of the standard reached in Dr. Wilkinson's translation. Though, on the other hand, literal translations are noticed in this edition, where paraphrases occur in Dr. Wilkinson's. And, again, translations are found which are not literal in either case. It seems a most difficult thing for translators to be literal throughout. It ought to be most easy. For instance, "the affection which is of love," a simple expression which New Churchmen soon learn to understand and appreciate, is rendered "the affection belonging to the love" in Dr. Wilkinson's edition, and "the affection which is from love" in the New York edition, neither of which renderings express exactly the same as the literal one.
     The opening sentence of the work seems to have puzzled the translators sorely. The old translation had it: "Man is aware of the existence, but not of the nature of love." In Dr. Wilkinson it reads: "Man knows that love is something, but he does not know what love is." And in this new edition it is: "Man knows that there is such a thing as love, but he does not know what love is." A literal translation is the simplest, it is comprehensible, and is more pregnant with meaning than any of the other translations: "Man knows that love is, but he does not know what love is.
     In the edition under notice there are a number of innovations, some useful, others harmless, and certain ones of questionable utility. "Transparent" appears for "diaphanous," "height" and "breadth" take the place of "altitude" and "latitude," and "a man of discernment" supplants "a wise man." "Misuse" makes its appearance as a translation of "abusus"-not exactly as the translation for it, seeing that "abuse" is also retained; for the distinction we look in vain. There have been attempts to translate ex with "out of," and "a" with "from," but in some cases this works havoc with the sense of the Latin.
     It is a pleasure to see adjective forms used substantively, as in the Latin, without the misleading "principle" superadded to them, as in the former translation. But why, when in n. 114 "ipsum angelicum" is translated "the very angelic itself;" must it be encumbered in n. 102 with the word "state," which is not in the original "The very angelic state" is something different from "the angelic itself."
     Paragraph n. 114 leads us to the consideration of another peculiarity of this edition. The work is "Sapientia Angelica de Divino Amore et de Divina
Sapientia, and this is correctly translated "Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom." But here in n. 114 for some mysterious reason Divine Amor et Divina Sapientia" is rendered "Love Divine and Wisdom Divine."

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It would seem, from this and other instances, that as the humor seized him, the translator followed a certain rule, or didn't; and in this particular class of expressions he placed the adjective either before or after the substantive without reference to the Latin. In regard to one particular expression, it must be admitted, he observed his self-set rule throughout, but to this particular translation of his we decidedly object, for it has led to the complete denial of the "Divine Human" in this edition. "Divinum Humanum" is everywhere rendered "Human Divine." The reason for this serious freak is not given. We are taught this arcanum in n. 221, that "the LORD came into the world, and took upon Him a Human. . . . This Human He superinduced over His prior Human. The Human which He superinduced in the world was like the Human of a man in the world, but both are Divine." A Human which is Divine, is a Divine Human. The Human Divine is something totally different:

     Before the Coming of the LORD into the world the influx of life with men and with spirits from JEHOVAH or the LORD was through the celestial kingdom, that is, through angels who were in that kingdom; thence they had power [potestas]. But when the LORD came into the world, by this, that He made the Human Divine, He put on that itself which was with the angels of the celestial kingdom, thus that power, for the transflux through that Heaven was formerly the Human Divine; it was also the Divine Man who was presented when JEHOVAH thus appeared; but this Human Divine ceased when the LORD made the Human Itself in Itself Divine.- A. C. 6372.
     It is lawful to call the Truth with the LORD, which could be tempted, and which underwent temptations, Truth Divine in the Human Duane of the LORD, but to call the Truth which could not be tempted or under go any temptation, because it was glorified, Divine Truth in the Divine Human of the LORD, as has also been everywhere observed in what has gone before.- A. C. 2814.

     The Italics in the last quotation are reproduced from the Arcana. Where distinctions in the use of terms are so carefully drawn for us by the LORD Himself, it behooves us not to confound them, lest we thus obscure the Light. It is to be hoped that the stereotype plates will in this particular be corrected.
     The remark about distinctions applies to other expressions. We are carefully taught the distinction between particulars and singulars (A. C. 865, 5531, 4325, and C. L. 261 et. at.), yet in this edition particulars completely usurp the place of singulars.
     While, therefore, we recognize a certain striving toward the beauty of a literal translation of the angelic wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom, we have yet to look for its final attainment.
STOCK POETRY 1886

STOCK POETRY              1886




     Fiction.
     IT was in the month of November that the Poetic Goose thus delivered his soul to the Gray Goose while standing on the edge of the Pond:
     "The year is dying; summer has passed; the roses have faded; the leaves are swept before the melancholy winds and the trees stand bare and naked, sighing and complaining in the biting blast. Death and decay are everywhere visible beneath the dull and gloomy skies. Death and decay, the end of all things! Soon we, too, shall have passed from the scene of our trials and troubles. Life is hardly worth living: a poor, empty bauble, a fleeting breath-"
     At this point the evening meal of the denizens of the farm-yard was tossed in and the Gray Goose end the Poetic Goose both started at the top of their speed, flapping their wings to aid it, toward the supper.
     When the Poetic Goose held up his head and nervously jerked it about to aid a huge mouthful that was slowly traveling down his neck, the Gray Goose said:
     "The bauble isn't so empty as it was-is it?"
     But the Poetic Goose turned his back and again vigorously fell to on the food.
FOUNDATION STONE 1886

FOUNDATION STONE              1886

     THE workmen had stopped for their nooning, and one of them had left his Chisel lying on a huge Foundation Stone that was intended for the first layer in the masonry of a large building.
     "This will be a fine structure when finished," said the Chisel.
     "Yes," replied the Stone.
     "Rather hard luck for you to be buried out of sight."
     "Why?"
     "No one will see you or give you any credit for the use on perform."
     "But the use will be performed."
OPENING OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS 1886

OPENING OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS       H. M       1886




     Communicated.
     As noticed in the October issue of the Life, the schools of the Academy in Philadelphia were opened on Wednesday morning, September 15th. The opening exercise consisted, as usual, of appropriate Divine services, followed by an address by the Chancellor. The lesson from the Word was, 1 Samuel iii, giving the story of the call of Samuel. The Chancellor's address, as far as can be gathered from notes taken during its delivery, was as follows:
     "We have assembled to perform the duties which the LORD has set us to do, as teachers and scholars. It is our duty, as teachers, to communicate to you what we have received from the LORD, and it is your duty, as scholars, to receive this as from the LORD. In this do we comply with the lesson which has been read from the Word: To teacher and scholar the duty is alike. The teacher communicates, the scholar receives. The one cannot do without the other. The scholar cannot receive if the teacher does not communicate, and, on the other hand, the teacher cannot communicate if the scholar does not receive. The scholar must feel the need of being taught, or he will not receive the teaching truly. What the LORD commanded the priesthood of Israel, the priests of the New Church have to do. What He gave to them, He gives to all. Eli was the High Priest of Israel, and, according to the Israelitish law, his sons were to have succeeded him, but on account of their wickedness the LORD cut them off. In place of them, the LORD gave Samuel, whom Eli was to teach and prepare to take the place of priest and teacher and leader.
     "In the changes which a Church undergoes the priesthood ceases, because those who are to come after teach from themselves instead of from the LORD. Then the LORD raises up a new priesthood, He calls a Samuel, one who hears the LORD and obeys Him, for this is what the name 'Samuel' signifies. So is it at the present day.

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The priesthood is no longer in the old family, in the Old Church. The LORD has left the Old Church, and has established the New Church, and, in her, a new priesthood. The Old Church can no longer perform the duty given to it years ago. New things are to take its place-new things of the Church, new things in science, new things in all that relates to the training of human minds. Hence, we have a New Church school. The LORD has established it, and He has sent new teachers, to whom He has given a new work; even to teach the sciences, not from self-conceit and from pride, but from Divine Revelation. The LORD has taught all things of heaven and of the world, in Books which He has written. These are a new prophet, a new teacher, for a prophet is a teacher. In them He calls to us as He called to Samuel. And as the LORD calls we must hear. Samuel did not know that it was the LORD who called. So you, when you receive your teaching from your teachers, do not know at first that the truths you thus learn come from the LORD. But after the LORD had called three times, Samuel knew and answered, and promised to do what Eli told him to do, and then he heard the LORD. So with you; after you have gained the requisite knowledge, you will begin to see and acknowledge that all the truth comes from the LORD, who teaches us as He teaches the angels.
     "The schools we have here, the Theological School, the College, the Boys' School, the Girls' School, and the School for the little boys and girls, are not here alone, they are here because they are also in heaven. They are first established in the heavens. There children and young men are instructed in schools, over which the' LORD appoints masters and teachers. These are appointed and do their work, because they have the love1 of teaching and are delighted with it. When children come together there what do you suppose they think? They do like little Samuel, they turn and hear the voice that speaks. They think at first that what they learn comes from their masters, but after awhile they know that their masters stand in the place of the LORD, and that it is the LORD that teaches, that He is actually present and inflows into them. This knowledge is not in their conscious Thought, perhaps, nevertheless when they reflect it comes to them, for it is in the sphere of thought that reigns in heaven. All the angels love to think this. They receive their instruction from wise priests and masters; these, on their part, are instructed by the wiser ones, and these by the still wiser, and so on until the wisest receive their instruction from the LORD. And all these know that there exists such a chain of teaching, that the Lord comes down to them by means of the truth which He gives them. This is a lesson for us: What was done in the representative Israelitish Church on earth, was so done because of what is done in heaven. In heaven men are prepared for uses as they are here, and the work they do there is a real work. Schools will exist there forever, and, therefore, will they exist here on earth forever. In these schools the new things which the LORD has revealed to us, will be taught that the LORD'S end may be accomplished. Have we not every reason to love our schools with the greatest affection, and to do our duty in them?
     "In the other world children are taught to look to the LORD as their Father, and they are taught the truth in order that they may know their Father's will and do it. Nothing is told them that they are not to do and as they do what they are taught the LORD makes angels of them. To make angels of men is the one purpose for which the LORD created the universe. In establishing our schools He had the same end in view, for He has but one end in all things: to have men to love Him and be happy from Him. Thus He gives us the truths which are contained in the Word and the Writings for this end, and He builds up the New Church from those who obey that Truth for the same end. Let us, therefore, hear Him when He calls, listen to His voice and obey.
     "We are trying to do on earth what the LORD instructs the angels to do in the heavens. Our working is very imperfect; that of the angels is far more perfect; but the LORD'S working is all-perfect. But imperfect as our work is, and necessarily will be, if we will to do the LORD'S will, then our will agrees with His, and He helps us and sends the angels to assist us, and thus gives us ability to do better.
     "Children, you know that when you will to do anything, it is easy for you to learn how to do it. The difficulty lies not in learning, but in willing to learn, and not in doing, but in willing to do. It is easy to do right when you wish to do right, because the LORD also wills it, and he is All-Powerful, and gives you the ability, the mind, and the bodily powers to do it. This is the reason why the angels have such power. We are taught, in Heaven and Hell, that one angel, from the power attending him, can disperse a thousand devils. This power is not the angel's but the LORD'S. The LORD disperses the devils by the angels, who are his ministers. So is it with you. If you will to do His will, and learn from Him, you will acquire knowledge, and become intelligent and useful, and serve the LORD. But if you learn only to gratify selfish wishes, your learning, your knowledges, will not continue, and you will not be useful from the LORD. Although they may remain in the memory for a time, they will disappear by degrees, for selfishness itself brings no real or as in e. Knowledge is given as a means of doing some good things; if it does not serve that end it is not good for anything. A wicked man's knowledge is not real knowledge, because it is not true, for it leads to evil, and whatever leads to evil is false. A wicked man, though in the world he may have acquired much learning, when he comes into the other life loses it all, because he does not truly love it, and he is then stupid and foolish. But he who makes a proper use of knowledge, in obedience to his parents, his masters, and teachers, and, when he grows older, in obedience to the LORD, when he comes into the other world has a thousand times more knowledge than he had on earth, for the simple reason that he loves the truth, and what an angel loves he has; the LORD gives him what he loves to have. One truth learned and done here becomes a thousand in heaven, because the LORD is in it, and He is Infinite.
     "The reason for the establishment of schools on earth and in heaven is, that men may learn and do from the LORD what is just, equitable, and upright to each other, and thus may love each other. When you honor and obey your parents and your teachers, and are kind to each other, thoughtful, forbearing, and forgiving, you love your neighbor, and do as the angels do, and the LORD then forms in you a good character. This is what we desire most, because it is of far more importance than that you should know much. If you so love the neighbor you will be of real use to your country and to your Church; and then as you come into the state of loving what is right, your delight in learning will increase; and will be one with that of the children in the schools in the other world. And your delight in learning will add to the delight of your teachers in instructing you, which also inflows from the delight of the angel teachers in the other world. And from this oneness and harmony there will flow into the heavens, also from the LORD, a ten-fold increase of joy and delight.

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     "Do not then study merely for the sake of learning, nor merely to gratify your teachers, but work hard, because it will be well-pleasing to the LORD. This is the duty of all. If your studies seem hard, it is because some selfishness interferes and holds you back. Do your duty whether you like it or not. Try the harder if you do not like it; little by little it will become easy and delightful.
     "As I have said, the end of learning is not that knowledge may be gained, but that we may know how to live and do the LORD'S will. And when we do His will, He gives us more knowledge that we may do better still. The angels do, and by doing learn more and more easily. This takes place in the heavens, and it will come to pass here if the teachers and scholars do the LORD'S will as it is done in the heavens. If you love to learn, and will to do what we love to teach, then shall we be drawn closer together, and heaven will come nearer to us, and what takes place here will become more and more like what is done in heaven. We were created on earth to become angels in heaven. If we do what we are taught from the LORD, by His Word and Doctrine, and by the teachers whom He sends; if we allow ourselves to be led by Him, to have our eyes opened by Him, and thus to be brought nearer to that end for which we were created, when our work is finished we may hope to be transferred to heaven, and, as angels, to praise and thank the LORD by continuing to do His will, by continuing to be useful, by continually receiving from Him more truth and more good, more love of the true neighbor, and more love of Him. That you may reach this end-is the object of all the instruction in science and in natural knowledge, as well as in the Word and Doctrine, which you will receive in this school." H. M.
LETTER FROM ENGLAND 1886

LETTER FROM ENGLAND              1886

     THE various Societies are settling down after the summer vacations to earnest work. The London Missionary and Tract Society has planned out a lot of useful work, requiring the services not only of the National Missionary, but of every minister in the metropolis.
     Sunday, September 26th, was very generally made the Harvest Thanksgiving Sunday in the various Societies in England. Reports have been published of celebrations on that day at Anerley, Brightlingsea, Camberwell, Derby, Salford, and others. Anerley was unique in that its minister exchanged pulpits with a Congregational minister for the evening services. The congregations seemed to appreciate the change, inasmuch as each church was crowded. The services of each minister have been printed in The Dawn, and New Church quality appears in the same amount in each.
     We are glad to hear frequent protests against this lack of principle, this blind sentiment. How can they who have not a common gospel nor the same God mingle with profit in their worship. But the crowded church makes up for all. And yet we know what popularity did for the first Christian Church. -
     The Rev. J. Martin, of Preston, has accepted the pastorate of the Society at Bath. The Rev. L. Allbutt has resigned the pastorate of the Paisley Society.
     From reports which reach us it appears that the new Society at Glasgow, formed of seceders from Cathedral Street, are looking to America for their first pastor.
     The Church is in a state of general unrest at the present time, and this is not surprising when we study the nature of the programme of its labors. Diligent study of the Doctrines is at a discount. Outside matters are not studied in the light of the New Church. The Old Church is regarded as a pattern very largely, and there is a general fear of running contrary to that which already obtains.
     The very organization of the Societies is almost in every detail opposed to the plans laid down in the Writings. As we sow, so shall we reap, and we may yet look for unrest.
     New Church College has commenced its session with one student. The Rev. J. Presland has been appointed theological professor, and the Rev. W. C. Barlow, M. A., takes charge of the secular studies.
     The half-yearly tea and public meeting in connection with the Peckham and Bermondsey Societies was held on Tuesday evening, September 28th. Addresses were delivered by the Rev. T. Child, the Rev. J. Presland, the Rev. W. C. Barlow (Pastor), and the Rev. R. J. Tilson.
     Courses of Sunday evening lectures have been arranged by the Camden Road and Camberwell Societies. Dr. Tafel is to deal with the subject of Emanuel Swedenborg and his Writings. The Rev. R. J. Tilson takes seven of the general doctrines of the Church, among others being one on the Second Advent, in the syllabus of which we notice the plain, honest statement,-"A human instrument needed by the LORD-The Virgin for First Advent; Swedenborg for Second Advent."
     A visit to a "Band of Hope" meeting in connection with a New Church Society was rewarded by unexpected and painful results.
     One of the leading officials of the New Church Temperance Societies was addressing the meeting, which was composed of many children and several adults. After repeatedly boasting that he had never been "drunk," this educator of the young said he was once very near drunkenness, for he once carried home a "drunken parson," and requiring some money to pay the toll, he "rifled the parson's pocket and never made square with him afterward, though." Twenty minutes of this indecent oration, delivered as flippantly as possible, amid much laughter from the children, made us sick at heart, and we wondered how that could be labeled "New Church." The Church's foes may be they of the house-hold of its outward organization
     In the Liverpool Society a weekly Doctrinal Class has given place to a Literary and Scientific Society. Particular study of the Divine Doctrines of the Church does not seem to be a prominent desire with the majority of the ministers of this age. Science and general literature belong to the natural man.
     The Church needs more than a knowledge of the most generals of doctrine. "O Lord! how long?"
REPORT CORRECTED 1886

REPORT CORRECTED       ROBERT J TILSON       1886

TO THE EDITORS OF NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     DEAR SIRS:-IN the August number of your valuable Journal, I have but recently noticed that in a report of a meeting held at Manchester, on May 11th, your reporter makes me to say, "He the thought there was no real good in pointing out evils around and condemning them" In this your reporter has greatly erred, as I could not give utterance to such nonsense in face of the Divine teaching that evils must be seen before they can be renounced, and that it is the duty of the Minister to teach the truth, which tells what evil is and what is evil.
     Yours very sincerely,
          ROBERT J TILSON

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NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886

     AT HOME.


     The East.-Maine.-THE Fifty-first Annual Session of the Maine Association was held in Bath on September 4th and 5th. The Revs. Messrs. Dike, Hayden, Stone, Dunham, and Sewall were present. Among the resolutions passed was one establishing a New Church Reading Circle in Maine, and another one engaging a colporteur to work for the spreading of New Church literature within the limits of the Association.
     Massachusetts.-ON Sunday, October 3d, two hundred and fifty-three communicants partook of the Holy Supper at the services of the Boston New Church Society. Five new members joined the Society at the same time. Mr. Francis Phelps has retired from the office of Superintendent of the Sunday-school.
     THE New Church Mission of Boston has established a reading-room for boys and young men, and a sewing school for girls, at No. 1441 Tremont Street, and intends to establish Divine worship on Sundays in a room or a hall in the neighborhood of the reading-room.
     THE Massachusetts Association held their semi-annual meeting on October 10th. Six-teen Societies were represented by delegates and sixteen ministers were in attendance. The German Society, of Manchester, N. H. organized by Mr. Brickmann in 1881, and which now has twenty-nine members, was received into the Association The Association aims at building up "the small companies of the New Church within its borders," and is raising a fund of five hundred dollars for the purpose. The Association has a relief fund for aged or disabled ministers amounting to twelve thousand five hundred and sixty-six dollars and ninety cents, and desires, if possible, to extend the fund to the families of deceased ministers. A board has been organized for the providing for homeless children. Suitable resolutions on the death of the Rev. J. P. Perry were passed. Several papers and speeches closed the meeting.
     New York.-THE Rev. Wm. F. Pendleton preaches the second Sunday of every month to the First German New Church Society of Brooklyn. This Society is in a prosperous condition and since beginning monthly services in English the number of worshipers at its services is increasing. Candidate F. E. Waelchly preaches in German once a month.
     THE Rev. Win. Diehl of Brooklyn, reports as the result of his visit to isolated receivers in Allentown, Pa., on August 1st, that "after some time of stillness the New Church in Allentown again, shows signs of life."
     THE Mission School of the New York Society opened on September 12th with sixty scholars. The Industrial School of the same Society counts seventy-nine scholars.
     THE German New Church Society of New York City is establishing a mission in the German district on the east side or the city. Mr. Schliffer, the minister of the Society, is engaged in missionary work in Garden City, and is to visit isolated receivers Allentown, Pa., once in three months.
     Pennsylvania.-THE sixty-first meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania will be held in the House of Worship of the Pittsburg Society, corner of Isabella and Sandusky Streets, Pittsburgh on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, November 12th, 18th, and 14th. Isolated receivers are cordially invited to attend. The Pittsburgh Society hospitably offers to provide entertainment for all who come from a distance. Address the Pastor, the Rev. John Whitehead, 6419 Aurelia Street, Pittsburgh E. E.; Pa.
     THE Rev. W. F. Pendleton ministers to the Allentown Church on the first Sunday of every month.
     THE Lancaster Society enjoys ministrations by a minister four times a year. The Rev. J. B. Hibbard, the Rev. W. F. Pendleton, the Rev. Wm. L. Worcester, and the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck have preached there in Succession.
     THE intimate relation existing between Homeopathy and the New Church was illustrated at the recent dedication of the Hahnemann College In Philadelphia. Several New Churchmen are trustees of this Institution. Before the dedication the Pennsylvania State Society held its meeting, with a New Church physician in the chair. The meeting was opened with prayer by a New Church minister. This was the first prayer offered in the building. The first bureau that reported was under the chairmanship of another New Church physician. On the walls of the room where the meeting was held hung the portraits of three deceased physicians, two of whom were New Churchmen, and the third a reader for a number of years. The building was dedicated by the Vice-President of the College, a New Churchman, and during the exercises another New Church physician presented a portrait of Hahnemann to the College.
     THE Advent Society held its first tea-meeting for the season. A collection was taken up for the General Church of Pennsylvania. Several of the ministers and candidates of this Church made addresses, detailing evangelistic work done by them during the summer.

     The South. THE Board of Directors of the Southern Missionary Society has authorized its Chairman to turn over the property and funds of the Society to the Convention Board of Missions.
     Tennessee-DR. T. W. Wood, of Gravestone, Tenn., is active in doing evangelization work in the South. His circulating library of New Church literature amounts to two thousand volumes.
     Florida.-THE New Church people in Merrimack, Fla., have preaching and social readings, with Mr. Leadenham as leader. Arrangements are also made to have a reading circle for the study of the Writings.
     The West.-Ohio.-THE Swedenborg Reading Circle of Ohio has begun the reading of Apocalypse Revealed.
     THE Ohio Ministers' Conference met in Toledo, O., on October 7th.
     THE annual meeting of the Ohio Association was held this year at Toledo-a city in which there was neither a place of worship nor any active organization of the New Church. The sessions were held in the finest edifice in the city, the "Soldiers' Memorial" Building. Public services were held noon and evening during the three days of the Association meeting and the day of the Conference which preceded it. Tracts and the cheap editions of the Writings were distributed and sold. Altogether the venture was a success as a distinctively Association meeting, as a missionary effort, and also as an occasion to arouse interest for the Western Union; for beside the Ohio ministers, the Rev. Messrs. John Goddard, Sewall, Cabell, and Barler, there were present the Rev. Chauncey Giles, of Philadelphia, the Rev. L. P. Mercer of Chicago, and the Rev. A. F. Frost, of Detroit, and through Mr. Mercer's endeavors the Association was "waked up" as to the merits of the Western Union and its organ, the Reading-Circle. Mr. Goddard and others feared that the Western Union and the Reading-Circle were "an entering wedge" to split in two the support of the Messenger and the Magazine published in the East. Their fears, it seems, were allayed, for the Association pledged itself to the support of the Reading-Circle. During the past year the Mission Board expended two thousand seven hundred dollars. The Rev. O. L. Barler will continue as missionary until February, when he will go to Nebraska. The Association has requested its General Pastor, the Rev. John Goddard, to give up his work of Pastor of the Cincinnati Society and to devote all his energy to the General Pastorate, and expresses its willingness to raise whatever salary he may wish. On Association Sunday two adults and four children were baptized and fifty-one partook of the Holy Supper. Over two hundred persons attended the Sunday services. As a result of the meeting, it was found that thirty-six adults in Toledo and vicinity could be enrolled in a reading-circle, and steps toward organizing one were immediately taken.
     Illinois.-THE Young Folks' Club of the Immanuel Church, of Chicago, began its regular Friday evening meetings on October 2d, with which are also combined Sunday-school teachers' meeting and singing class. The Rev. E. C. Bostock also conducts a class in Swedenborg's Principia.
     THE Rev. S. H. Spencer delivered a series of lectures on the Doctrines of the New Church in Pontiac, Ill., the same place where the late Rev. A. O. Brickman caused a great agitation two years ago. Five persons were received into the Church by baptism.
     THE Illinois Association met in Peoria, Ill., on October 15th to 17th.
     CANDIDATE C. T. Odhner, of the General Church of Pennsylvania, labored during the summer among the Swedes at Chicago, Elgin, and Rockford.
     Iowa.-THE Rev. Stephen Wood preached in Anamosa, Iowa, on August 4th, the first time New Church preaching was held in that place.
     Kansas.-A New CHURCH Sunday-school has been established in Castleton, Reno Co., Kansas.
     Minnesota.-The Minnesota Association met in Minneapolis on October 20th.
     Canada.-THE Rev. D. V. Bowen, of Salem, Mass., preached to the Toronto Society on the 5th and 12th of September, and the Rev. W. H. Mayhew, of Yarmouth Port; Mass., on the 19th and 26th of September.
     THE Rev. F. W. Tuerk held German services in Hamilton on September 19th.
     New Brunswick.-DURING the months of July and August the Rev. S. F. Dike made an extensive missionary tour through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, meeting with many isolated New Churchmen, and causing considerable interest in several places.

     ABROAD.

     Great Britain.-THE Rev. J. Martin has resigned the pastorate of the Preston Society to take ministerial charge of the Bath Society. The peculiar relation existing between Pastor and people in England was expressed at the farewell meeting of the Preston Society, where, according to report in The Dawn, the Chairman said that the Society "had been educating" Mr. Preston, who had been their Pastor for nine years, and that "they were turning out a good scholar."

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On this side of the water it am generally believed to be the Pastor's function to educate the people.
     THE reports at the Annual Meeting of the New Church Temperance Society were of a rather discouraging character. The executive meetings had not been attended. The New Church Societies had declined to let their temples be used for a proposed temperance soiree. The exchequer was low and little progress had been made during the year. The Society is divided into two branches consisting of moderate drinkers and total abstainers. The attitude of the latter toward the former seemed antagonistic at the meeting.
     SPECIAL services were held in Hull in connection with the ordination of Mr. J. T. Treeth. Thanksgiving festivals were celebrated by the New Church Societies at Detford, Blackburn, Kersley, and Camberwell.
     THE South London Alliance of New Church Societies held its quarterly meeting on September 27th. There were present the Rev. Messrs. Barlow, Tilson, John Presland and Child, besides a large number of laymen.
     AT the Waldgrave New Church, a congregational minister conducted the evening harvest thanksgiving service.
      MRS. Sarah Goyder, relict of the late Rev. D. G. Goyder, died in London, on September 9th, in her ninety-third year.
     THE quarterly meeting of the Accrington District Sunday-school Union was held at Oswald twistle on October 2d.
     THE fifth annual meeting of the New Church Orphanage was advertised to meet on October 25th. The Orphanage has adopted twenty-five children and maintained twenty-two.
     Sweden.-THE evangelization work was pursued this summer with unusual activity by the two New Church ministers in Sweden-the Rev. A. T. Boyesen working in the Northern part of Sweden, and Mr. C. J. N. Manby in the Middle and Southern Provinces.
     THE New Church Reading Circle in Sweden has been joined by the New Church Society in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Four Leading Doctrines is the work studied, and encouraging interest ha manifested.
     Germany.-THE German New Church Association held its annual meeting on the 12th of September in Leonberg, in Wurtemberg. Among those present were Mr. Artope, from Berlin, and the Rev. Dr. R. L. Tafel, of London, who made a visit to Germany this summer for the purpose of-meeting Mr. Artop4. Dr. Tafel reports in the Monatblatter that the newly formed society in Berlin is in a very flourishing condition, having a young people's society, a good choir, and a Sunday-school of one hundred scholars. The Writings are not, however, studied much as yet, and the organization is on a somewhat unsound basis. A hope had been entertained that Dr. Tafel's visit might result in Mr. Artope's becoming ordained into the ministry of the New Church. Mr. Artope did not, however, avail himself of the opportunity, not yet appreciating the necessity of taking this important step. Neither did he avail himself of the opportunity of having an ordained minister administer the Holy Supper, but administered it himself.
     France.-THE widow of Mons. Le Boys des Guays died recently at the age of eighty-one. For over forty years and up to her death, worship has been held in a room of her house dedicated for that purpose, where the small knot of New Churchmen of St. Amand (Cher) met regularly.
     Australia.-THE Brisbane, Queensland, Society whose minister is the Rev. W. A. Bates, has opened a mission house at Rocklea. "The mission house is situated in the middle of a large district, and is designed to serve as a convenient communal place of worship for all religious bodies when not in use by the founders of the mission. The church is a neat wooden structure, and is capable of holding about one hundred and twenty persons. The land on which the chapel is built was the gift of the Rev. W. A. Bates, and provides for extension." According to the report in the Brisbane Telegraph, Mr. Bates, in his opening service, taught that the Christian Church would become united on the acknowledgment of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, but that the Brisbane members of the New Church do not believe that the whole of the views of the New Church must be received by the world before the words, "There shall be one fold and one Shepherd," are fulfilled. The points of unity are not the acknowledgment of Old Church doctrines, neither are they an entire reception of the doctrines of the New Church given to the world through Emanuel Swedenborg.
ANNOUNCEMENTS 1886

ANNOUNCEMENTS              1886




     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS.




     THE WORD, containing only such books as are of the inspired Word. Full Turkey morocco, gilt edge, five dollars; sheepskin, marble edge, three dollars and fifty cents.
     THE WRITINGS, in Latin, original editions; also reprints, published in Germany, England, and America.
     ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE WRITINGS. All editions that can be obtained constantly on hand.
     INDEXES TO ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING MARRIAGE (the missing treatise).
Latin, paper, thirty-five cents; English, paper, twenty-five cents.
     POTTS' CONCORDANCE, in monthly parts, each twelve cents, postpaid fifteen cents. First part now ready.
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ACADEMY BOOK ROOM,
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EDITORIAL NOTES 1886

EDITORIAL NOTES       Editor       1886


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

A MONTHLY JOURNAL

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Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

     All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, NOVEMBER, 1886=117.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, p. 161.-The call of the LORD'S Disciples (a Sermon), p. 162.-Conversations on Education, p. 164.-Doinine, quo vadis, p. 165.-Man, p. 166.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS, p. 169.-Mr. Potts's Concordance, p. 170;-Divine Love and Wisdom, p. 171.
     FICTION.-Stock Poetry, p. 172.-The Foundation Stone, p. 172.
     COMMUNICATED.-Opening of the Academy schools, p. 172.-letter from England, p. 174.-A Report corrected, p. 174.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, pp. 175, 175.
     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, p. 176.


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NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. VI.     PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER, 1886=117.     No. 12.
     THE men and women in the New Church who object to Doctrine and want what they term "life," ought to ponder on the following extract from Coronis (n. 18): "The Doctrine descended [New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven] because the Church is a Church from Doctrine and according to it; without Doctrine a Church is no more a Church than a man is a man without members, viscera, and organs, or from the mere covering of the skin, whish only defines his external shape or form."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE line of argument pursued by the New Church Independent in criticism of our remarks on the total abstinence movement is essentially, if not in so many words, as follows:

     We must love our neighbors as ourselves;
     We must force ourselves to do what we consider right;
     Therefore, we must force our neighbors to do what we consider right.

     Admirable logic! and admirable conclusion!
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IN England more than in America there is a strong affection on the part of New Church Societies to have their ministers exchange pulpits with those of the Old Church, though in our country this affection also asserts itself. One of our ministers has examined the sermon preached by an Old Church minister in a New Church pulpit, and comes to the conclusion that as a rule it is better for people to have their own ministers. The LORD teaches us that an official of the Old Church can never preach acceptably in the New Church, nor the reverse. "The Faith of the New Church can never be together-' with the Faith of the former Church, and if they be together such a collision and conflict will ensue that all of the Church, with man, will perish." (B. E. 102.) What, a danger do those avowed New Churchmen run who find delight in sitting under the ministration of an Old Church clergyman!
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     AT the late meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania it was remarked that the tendency was growing in this Church' to waste as little time as possible over the external disposition of business matters, but to refer this to the proper officials and to devote the general meetings to the consideration of the interior principles involved in and governing the various matters that present themselves. From thorough discussion-in which the Writings are frequently appealed to and extracts bearing on the subjects in hand read-the officials receive illustration for the right performance of "duties committed to them." At its general meetings this Church thus becomes in the true sense of the word a deliberative assembly Having confidence in its officials, it appeals to their consciences, and thus in its general meetings it can lift itself above petty methods and means of carrying out ends, which are the frequent cause of differences of opinion and of wearisome and annoying disputes.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IT is a custom, the propriety of which aught to remain unquestioned, that a man's private faults are "interred with his bones." To give publicity after his death to private documents which lay bare his weaknesses and foibles, and even more grievous faults, subserves no good purpose. To do this in print makes the matter more serious. To do it in a religious paper gives rise to amazement. To do it in a New Church religious paper turns amazement into abhorrence.
     We have had occasion once before to speak of the honor and decorum of the New Church press. Again has this been violated, and, indeed, in the manner just indicated. In Bote der Neuen Kirche the editor has seen fit to publish a private letter of one of our recently deceased ministers, so expressive of the latter's characteristic and well-known faults that one might imagine that he had the writer before him in person in one of his most unenviable moods. Thus to obtrude a man's evils on the Church, evils which should have been buried out of her sight with his mortal remains, is a disgrace to her journalism which ought not to be passed by without a protest.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     "CONRAD" in Morning Light discourses on "empty pews." He thinks it is the fault of the people that the attendance in many of our Societies is so slim. He wants them to arouse and take a lively interest, and "if good music contributes-as it undoubtedly does-to good attendance, then in the name of common sense let there be good music." All wrong, friend Conrad. Forcing a lively interest and good music will not cure the disease, you must go deeper. You must acknowledge the LORD in his Second Coming; you must acknowledge that the Writings are that Second Coming; you must acknowledge when you read or hear them read that they are the LORD'S Truth direct, and not Swedenborg's statement concerning that Truth. You must acknowledge that by this Truth the New Church is formed, and that this Church must be kept distinct from the Old. To do this would produce an earthquake in the moribund Societies, and probably kill some of them, but the remainder would be living and would grow, and there can be no growth until this is done. The tracts and advertising and forcing of factitious excitements will not add life to the Church, but a living acknowledgment of the LORD in His Second Coming will. All else is but sounding brass.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Synod of Old Catholics met at Vienna, Austria on the 7th of September. The meeting aroused but a faint interest. The Old Catholics are those who reject the dogma of Papal infallibility and believe in the in fallibility of the Church alone. Once they had high hopes, but Rome calmly pursued her way and they have dwindled to a mere handful of dissenters.

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The logical terminus of the Catholic doctrines is Papal infallibility, and Rome inexorably went on to that terminus, and its shell of a religion (for it is nothing else) is stronger than other "Christian" sects. To go back would mean disruption and extinction.
     The New Church, too, has a logical terminus to which she must come if she would live-the infallibility of the Divine Truth; and by that we mean the Revelation in which the LORD alone addresses us. There is no escape from this, and until that terminus is reached the organized Church will be tossed and troubled on a sea of crankyisms. It will be like a drunken man tripping over is own feet-preaching a "new revelation of Divine Truth" with one breath, and with the next denying to Divine Truth the attribute of infallibility, without which it is not Divine. Of course, this doctrine is not "popular," but the man who prefers popularity to truth shows by his preference that he is not a New Churchman.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     DR. DAVID COWLEY, for many years a member of the Pittsburgh Society and of the General Church of Pennsylvania, of the Council of the Laity of which latter body he was, at the time, a member, passed into the Spiritual World on the 80th day of October.
     His was a life of active and steadfast usefulness in the Church and in the world. From early youth he was always ready to give himself, his time and talents, to the uses of the Church. In his profession he also stood in high regard, and one of his last official acts as President of the Pennsylvania State Medical Society was to deliver an address on Swedenborg's work on The Brain.
     As during his life on earth he ever desired to have the principles of the New Church applied on every plane of human activity, so in his death he still called the attention of his brethren thereto. Conforming to his expressed desire, his body was not obtruded on the presence of those who gathered around the family, to let the occasion serve them for an uplifting of heart an4 soul to the LORD, whose providence extends to each and every affair of life and death. "Memorial services" would be a better name than "funeral services" for such a worship, where the absence of death and decay and the presence of the LORD'S comforting Word points to life, even the Life which is in the Word, and which is the Light of men.
     While, as head of a family, thus lovingly mindful of the feelings of those he left behind, and sparing them the painful accessories of our usual funeral customs, Dr. Cowley desired also, as physician and as citizen, to provide for the good of the community in which he lived, and, favoring the rapid and inoffensive disintegration of his body us a crematory, provided for its incineration.
     It would be useful to consider whether we of the New Church should not make it a custom to have the dead body out of the building in which the services are held, and to have it conveyed to its last resting-place under the supervision of some trusted friends. This has been done once or twice, from principle, and many reasons, both spiritual and natural, in favor thereof, present themselves to the mind enlightened by the Doctrines of the New Church. Decomposition begins on the third day, if not earlier, and affords a plane for the influx of evil spirits, and their presence destroys worship. Much better to carry with us the remembrance of the living person: the corpse is not an image of the friend and whom we loved. The money wasted for lavish caskets can be put to better uses.
SAVING FAITH 1886

SAVING FAITH       Rev. RENADE       1886

     "And the Apostles said to the LORD: 'Add unto [increase] our faith.'"-Luke xvii, 5.

     THE Apostles represent all the good and all the truth of the Church. When we read of them in the Word, and when we hear them named, we are to pass beyond them in thought to those heavenly and Divine things for which they stand in the literal form by which the LORD has accommodated His Divine Truth to the natural and sensual states of the human mind. Every human being presents to the neighbor who looks upon him with his mind's eye, an image or an idea of a certain form of intelligent and active life; he is affected by him and he thinks of him according to the quality of the affection and intelligence manifested by his life. These qualities are what men are known by and thought of when they are seen and named even here on earth; but in the other world in which the Spirit dwells these qualities are the persons themselves, they are also their names. No other names are known there. And such is the case also with the true spiritual sense of the holy Word. In that sense persons and names of persons do not appear, but the Divine truths and goods, which when received by man give quality to his life, being reflected in his affections and thoughts, and manifested in his words and acts, and these form his true name which is recorded in the Book of Life. Thus it is that the name of each Apostle mentioned in the Word signifies what the Apostle, as a person taught by the LORD and appointed to teach others, represented in the Church, or in the Divine dispensation of Good and Truth made by the LORD when He was in the world for the salvation of mankind. And all the Apostles taken together, when mentioned in the Word, signify what that body of twelve men represented in the same Church as a spiritual body constituted of the Divine principles proceeding from the Infinite Love and Wisdom of the JORD for the building up of the Kingdom of Heaven on the earth. Let us then pass through this outer door of the letter of the Word into the court that opens to the mind within, and let us think what we there see and hear; this, namely, that every genuine affection of good and every real and earnest thought of truth turns constantly to the LORD, and opens itself to the good of His love, inflowing by the truth of His wisdom to the end that by the growth of intelligence and wisdom thus effected, such affection and such thought may be purified and elevated, and the Divine may build up for itself a more perfect habitation, and lay. for the life of Heaven a firm foundation on the earth.
     This is the meaning of the words of the Text: "And the Apostles said to the LORD: 'Increase our faith.'"
     "Saving Faith"-such is the doctrine of our Church-"is to believe in the LORD JESUS CHRIST as the Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour."
     It is called a "saving" faith because no belief but one, that will save a man from sin-that is, from evil-doing and evil-living-is to be at all considered in the Church, and because no belief can save a man from evil-doing and evil-living but a belief in the Divine Human of the LORD, according as it is written in John iii, 14-16: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life; for God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life."

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     The true Church ever prays to the LORD that He will increase in her such a Faith in His Divine Human, that He will so exalt and perfect her conception and her acknowledgment of His Divine Human Love and Wisdom, to the end that she may receive more power to "cease from evil and to do good," and, by salvation from sin, may enter more fully into the life. This increase of Faith can come only from Him who is the Object of Faith. A man's faith or belief, or whatsoever takes the place of belief in his mind, forms his religious life and constantly embodies itself in that life. The central idea of any and every belief is the idea of God. And God to man is what man regards as the best and highest, what he worships, what gives to him the law of his living, and what he obeys in his doing. This object of man's faith imparts quality to his thought and form to his speech and action, and from the same source proceeds the increase of his faith, which consists in a multiplication of ideas of thought flowing from the central idea, by means of which the essential substance of that idea or its very principle is expanded and comes into extended power and fuller life. Man calls the object of his faith good, and of "good, when this is in the first place and has dominion," it is said "that it produces truths continually, multiplies them around itself and also around each truth, and makes each truth as a little star, in the midst of which is a luminous point [luminosum]. Good not only multiplies truths around itself, but also produces truths from truths successively by derivations," which derivations are spoken of in the Word as "sons of sons, or grandsons," etc. (A. C. 5912.) The same is taught by the LORD in the Gospel of John vii, 17: "If any one will do His will he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or I speak of Myself." And again, in Hosea vi, 3: "Then we shall know and shall follow on to know the LORD. His going forth is prepared as the dawn; He shall come to us as the rain-as the latter rain watereth the earth."
     It is an error of judgment, grave in itself and serious its consequences, to hold that a man's belief, his conception, thought, and adoption for himself and for the government of his actions, of what is true, right, and good, or of what is false, wrong, and evil, proceed from any other source than from his objective idea of their origin. This idea is embodied in the whole of his belief, and in every phase and form of it, and constitutes its very end and moving-force. If man's idea of God be from himself alone, he himself will be the centre of that faith, and he will look to himself for the increase of that faith. If his idea of God be from God as He has revealed Himself, the centre of his faith will be God, and according to his perception and thought of Him will be the increase of his faith. No man can think better or will better than his ideal best, which is his God-that is, his Divine Truth-nor can he live better than is his conception of the will and the action of his God-that is, his Divine Good. He is absolutely limited to the form and body of his own belief of what is true and good, because a thought is really thinkable only so far as it can be determined to an object, and a mental conception can be formed and retained only so far as it rests on an ultimate fact. A mere abstraction, like a mystery, can no more form an article of human belief than emptiness can serve as a receptacle for substance or than nothing can present something. From nothing, nothing can be made; of emptiness only emptiness can be predicated; a mystery is but a mystery and an abstraction but an abstraction. The human mind, like the human eye, must rest on an objective something if an image is to be formed on its perceptive sensory, and according to the form and quality of that objective something will be the image or the idea of thought. According to the same, also, will be his faith and the, increase of his faith. "The God of the merely external idolater, for example, embodied in wood, stone, or metal, is his conception of the best and highest-in other words, of the Divine Truth and Good represented in dead matter, with all the limitations of dead matter. His faith is materialized and fixed in the earth, from which he cannot raise his thought so as to effect an elevation of his love. Even if possessed of all keenness of sense, and with these he attempt to search out the essences and qualities, the order and organization of such embodiment of his idea, he can but add to his limitations, increase his ignorance, and sink his material life into a more sordid death.
     The God of the internal idolater, who is some form of selfish and worldly love, is not conceivable out of his own way of acting and living, as this appears in bodily form in his life in the world. He is his own God, and his life is a worship of himself. What he loves is the best, what he thinks is the wisest. He cannot love better than himself. He cannot think more wisely than himself. Mind and body he is bound to this object of his faith, and any addition to his belief from this source can but darken his understanding and strengthen' his idol's power to shut up his heart altogether to every influence of the Divine Love.
     Man is capable of seeing, understanding, and believing Truth, and he is also capable of being affected by and of loving Good. This capability is given to him in the form in which he is created, which form is in the image and after the likeness of the LORD, the Creator. The LORD is Truth itself, and Good itself, and the LORD as Truth itself and Good itself has revealed Himself from the beginning of time in creation in the Human form, and in time also and in space, He has manifested Himself to the senses of men in the Human Form, in the form of the Man JESUS CHRIST, conceived of the Essential Divine and born into the world through a human mother. In this form and garb were embodied the Divine Love and Wisdom. They appeared as a man among men, and in the living and doing of this man was presented a Divine type of what man shall believe, and believing shall do. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word . . . . In Him was Life, and the Life was the light of men. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, as of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." (John i, 1, 4, 14.) In the Human thus assumed, the LORD by His own power overcame the world and cast out the Prince of this world, subjugated the hells, and restored to order the heavens; and by these same acts, which liberated mankind from the overwhelming power of the hells, He made His Human Divine, i. e., He united His Human Essence with His Divine Essence. The Creator thus made Himself the Redeemer in order that He might be the Saviour of men.
     He spoke with men on earth as a man, He acted among men as a man, but His words were Divine words and H is acts were Divine acts. They were the words and acts of the Divine Man, which He gave for the life of the world. He so loved the world that He thus gave. His Wisdom, infinitely filled with His Love, in a Divine human way to men on earth, to the end that He might establish that wisdom eternally for men in Heaven, and thus be for ever their Creator, Redeemer, and Saviour. This Divine Man is the object of the Church's Faith, and from His Life that Faith derives its living quality; and becomes a faith to save men from sin and from evil, and thus from the death caused by a separation from God.

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     The faith of the Church directed to this object and derived from this object can have no other than a human form. Coming from Him who is Wisdom, it is adapted to man's understanding in all its degrees by the words and doctrines of eternal Wisdom; coming from Him who is Love, it is adjusted to man's affections in all their planes by the life of infinite Love in all the words and doctrines of eternal Wisdom. His words which are spirit address themselves to human reason, and His words which are life move and affect and dispose the human will, newly pressing in the understanding to hear, to believe, and to do. A faith in the Divine Human of the LORD is a rational undoubting belief, an inmost conviction of the mind, that the way and order of life revealed in the Word and in the world by the LORD JESUS CHRIST is the very way and order for man's life, and that to follow the LORD is to live well and to believe aright.
     But this faith can only be formed by man's opening his understanding to the teachings of Him who is the Divine Truth, and "who has the words of eternal life." (John vi, 68.) He is present at this time of His Second Coming, in words of Divine reason addressed to human rationality, to the end that man by instruction may know himself, may know that his "connate evils are infernal loves, which cannot be removed without Truth" (A. R. 675), and that he must receive and believe Truths from the LORD, if they are to do their work of leading him to shun evils as sins against God, and to live in charity toward the neighbor and in love to the LORD.
     The object of faith set before man in these instructions has the human form-of a Life, which is an infinite Love of all others out of itself, and an eternal Wisdom providing for the salvation of all others out of itself. In this form there is presented an idea of God which is infinitely objective in the Divine Man, the LORD JESUS CHRIST, who by His Word creates all men, and by His Word made flesh redeems all men, and by His Word fulfilled and glorified saves all men who come to Him. His "Word is Truth," and Truth believed from the heart and with all the understanding constitutes in man that "saving Faith" which is "the Faith of God," and to which JESUS answers and says': "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."
     The Faith of the New Church, therefore, being formed by the spiritual light now revealed by the LORD out of the letter of His Word, takes its essence from Him who is Life Itself and Light Itself. He is its object and He is its end. This Faith has life with man from the Divine Human Life within, the life of a love for the Truth that gives it form in the understanding. And from this life of love, as the receptacle of the Divine influx. Faith can grow and increase in quantity and in quality, in elevation and in excellence. As it lives in mercy, so does it grow in grace; as it lives in charity, so does it grow in intelligence; as it lives in love to the LORD, so does it grow in wisdom; even until Truth becomes Good with man and Faith is made Charity. The growth or increase of a saving Faith appears in man's spiritual sight, in his spiritual understanding of what makes the true life of heaven and the Church, and from this sight there is formed the conviction that what he now understands is the very truth of God, that it is true for the highest reason that can be given, the reason expressed in the simple words: "Thus saith the LORD." For the understanding of man in which Faith is to be formed there is no higher use than that it be prepared by the LORD to receive Him at His Coming. For, indeed, Truth is Truth with man only so far as he can. see and acknowledge that it comes from God, only so far as his spiritual sight is opened to behold the LORD standing in the midst of its radiant light and warming glow.
     In this conception of man's relation to the Divine Truth Itself all Truth with him is his "perception, thought, and enunciation" of what God has communicated to him by His own appointed ways of revelation. And since Faith begins and is formed by this communication, we may know that the increase of Faith is effected in the man of the Church by the formation of spiritual sight which enables him to "see eye to eye when the LORD brings again Zion." (Is. lii, 8.)
     The Truths, which make faith are from the Divine Life, and this Life, inflowing into them, gives to the mind the light to see that their end and the object of their revelation is the attainment of a life in the order of heaven. Such a life is the image of the Divine Human life of the LORD, which makes the life of Heaven. And as Truths are added and loved, such a life grows continually into a more perfect image of Him who "has everlasting life" until it becomes altogether love to the LORD and charity toward the neighbor. These are the internal of the Word, which is Divine Truth, and since Divine Truth makes saving Faith, love to the LORD and charity toward the neighbor are the living internal, the real essence of a Faith that saves man from evil-living and evil-doing. A Faith that has not this internal and does not go forth from this essence into good works has no likeness to the Divine Human of the LORD which came to give itself for the life of the world, not doing its own will but the Will of Infinite Love that "none shall perish, and that all may have eternal life." Saving Faith, therefore, grows from charity in act, as the tree grows from the warmth of the sun in its sap. The first step of its growth is from truth acknowledged to obedience; the next, from truths understood and obeyed to conscience; the next, from truths made reasons of life to love of the neighbor, causing first a shunning of evils as sins against God, and leading thence to willing well and doing well to the neighbor in all degrees, and this from a love of good. When by these steps truth in the rational mind has become good in the affections and the life, Faith is no longer alone, even in seeming, but is married to charity. The LORD, who is in their midst, has joined together these twain so that Faith no more appears as belief, not even as perception and thought of Truth, but as Truth, which is the very form of Good. And then is the letter of the Word like the spirit and life of the Word fulfilled, for Faith and Truth in the spirit are one idea, and in the letter of ancient Scripture they are one word.
     From this oneness of Truth and Faith, when the faithful man thinks from the LORD he thinks from the Truth, and Truth grows into confidence, confidence into Trust, because all things are possible which are according to order, the laws of which are truths; and this again grows into the humble, confiding assurance that whatever the LORD provides for man and whatever comes to man of His permission is provided and permitted of an Infinite Love whose Wisdom is eternal; the Wisdom of our Father who is in the Heavens. Such perfect trust and assurance is the result of the perfect growth of Faith into its very fruit, whose seed of eternal love is in itself.
     Thus we see that the Alpha and Omega of a saving Faith is the LORD JESUS CHRIST, the Creator Redeemer, and Saviour, the Divine Man. As all else falls away from our belief: all of our conceit of knowledge, of intelligence, and of wisdom, all our self-ascription of charity and goodness-and "Jesus is found alone," our Faith begins to show the image of the Divine Man, and, however imperfect, however weak, however undefined this image, it is accepted of the LORD, for He is Good. He knows what is in the heart of man, and He "has said "All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out."

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      "The Apostles said to the LORD: 'Increase our faith.'" The Church, taught of the LORD by His new revelation of Himself prays to Him for an ever clearer spiritual sight of the ways of life, of the way to be shunned, and of the way to be followed; for more interior truth to supply it with a firmer reason of right in holding to the way on which He goes before, for more love to take into itself all right and all truth, and to make it all good in the sight of the LORD. When the Church in man so prays it seeks conjunction with the LORD, and conjunction with the LORD is eternal life, which they shall have who believe in the Divine Human of the LORD. In this prayer and seeking it is made manifest that in the New Church of the LORD the thought of the separation of Faith from Charity and its life of good works is as inadmissible as the act of such a separation is impossible. "In the LORD, belief in whom constitutes a saving Faith, Wisdom and Love are one, their separation is unthinkable, and from Wisdom is Truth, and from Love is Charity with man. As the increase of Faith comes from the LORD in the gradual doing of what is believed, and not in any mere learning and knowing of mere truths, so does the LORD, who is the object of man's faith through the interior idea of Himself formed in the mind of the believer, also give to it a more manifest human form in this, that the truth believed and the good done are ever more at one; in other words, that a new will is formed in the understanding re-formed by the truth, and this new will is no longer man's but the LORD'S with man, and appears in a more perfectly human life. And thus does it come to pass that as the prayer of the Church is heard and fulfilled, a prayer that rises up from every good affection and true thought-"LORD, increase our faith," man, with his self-conceit, self-love, and love of the world recedes, and the LORD, with His Wisdom eternal and Love infinite, appears, until at length He stands alone, and Faith in the supreme sense is seen to be the Divine Truth which makes Faith: "the Word that was in the beginning, the Word that was with God, the Word that God was, the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." May the LORD in His mercy thus increase the Faith of the Church with us, and prepare the way for an ever fuller descent of His Love into its life, to the end that "He may see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied." (Is. liii, 11.)
CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION 1886

CONVERSATIONS ON EDUCATION              1886

     TRUTH, as has been said, has two foundations in the mind-namely, the Word and Nature, or Revelation from the LORD and confirming Science. To the end that these may be lasting foundations, the mind needs to be "in a clear and strong affirmation concerning the Doctrines of the Word that are truths continuous from the LORD, and, therefore, of Divine authorship and authority. With this affirmation in possession of the field; the truth's of Doctrine will be illustrated and confirmed, not only by the letter of the Word and its scientifics, but also by all natural scientifics relating to man and the three kingdoms of nature. Such a conjunction of the truths of Doctrine from the Word with natural scientifics serves to elevate the human mind into higher intelligence and to lead it in what is denominated "the way from faith."
     This is "the way pursued by the spiritual man. The other way, entered by man's following scientifics, and called the way from scientifics, fixes the mind in the things of nature and closes it to the light inflowing from the LORD by Heaven.
     On this subject we are thus instructed:

     It is to be known how the Truths of the Church are to be conjoined with their Scientifics. The beginning is not from scientifics, nor is entrance to be made by them into the truths of faith, because scientifics with man are from sensuals, thus from the world, whence there are innumerable fallacies. But the beginning is from the truths of faith-viz.: in the following way: The doctrinals of the Church are first to be learned and then to be examined from the Word, whether they be true; for they are not true because men of authority in the Church have so said and their adherents affirm the same . . . . It is manifest that the Word is to be examined, in order that it may be there seen whether they be true. When this is done' from an affection of truth, then man is illustrated by the LORD so as to perceive, without knowing whence, what is true, and he is confirmed therein according to the good in which he is. . . . . Afterward, when he is confirmed, and is thus in an affirmative from the Word that they are the truths of faith, then it is permitted him to confirm these things by all the scientifics he possesses, of whatsoever name and nature, for then, because an affirmative reigns universally, he accepts the scientifics which are in concordance and rejects the scientifics which are not in concordance, because of the fallacies that they contain. Faith is corroborated by scientifics; wherefore no one is to be forbidden to search the Scriptures from an affection of knowing whether the doctrinals of the Church within which he was born are true; for otherwise he can never be illustrated, nor is he to be forbidden afterward to strengthen himself by scientifics; but this is not allowed him before." This is the way, and there is none other, in which the truths of faith are tore conjoined with scientifics; not only with the scientifics of the Church, but also with scientifics of every kind. . . . Scientifics are in no wise to be rejected from the truths of faith, but they are to be conjoined-yet by the prior way-that is, by the way from faith, and not by the posterior way-that is, by the way from scientifics.- A. C. 6047.


     SCIENTIFIOS OF USE IN THE FORMATION OF INTELLIGENCE.

     IT now remains to enumerate from the teachings of the Church the scientifics which may be of use to man in the formation and perfection of his intelligence, and to note the places of such scientifics in the scale of this use, and to discriminate those that are useless and injurious.
     In Arcana Coelestia (n. 5934) there is given the following general summary of the various kinds of Scientifics:

1.     Scientifics of things terrestrial, corporeal, and mundane; these are the lowest.
2.     Scientifics of the civil state, its government, statutes, and laws; these are higher or more interior.
3.     Scientifics of moral life; these are still more interior.
4.     Scientifics of spiritual life; these are more interior than all the others. Such are the truths of the Church.

     Under the first head would fall the following experimental sciences:

Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Mechanics, Geometry, Anatomy, Language. (H. H. 353; see C. L. 163.) Horticulture and the like. (S. D. 792.)

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Optics, Pharmaceutics, Mathematics, Architecture, Botany, Metallurgy, Algebra (S. D. 4578), Arithmetic (S. D. 769).
Medicine (S. D. 4657).
     To these are to be added Geology, Geography, Zoology, Mineralogy, Physiology, and the various other sciences that treat of things in the natural world.

     "Under the second head are to be classed the follow-

      History (H. H. 353), Government (S. D. 4578), Civil Law (S. D. 4657), Jurisprudence, Politics (C. L. 163), Political Economy, Political Geography, Ethnology, Sociology, and various other sciences treating of man in his social relations.

     Under the third head are to be classed:

Psychology, Philosophy (H. H. 353 and S. D. 4578), Ethics (C. L. 163), Moral Law, and the like.

     Under the fourth head:

The letter of the Word and the Scientifics of Doctrine, Ecclesiastical Order and Government, and all the doctrines of the Church which have reference to the law of love, to the LORD, and charity toward the neighbor.

Of the usefulness of various sciences and of the manner in which they occupy and qualify the human mind, we have the following teaching in the Spiritual Diary:

     As to Philosophy [metaphysics] its every part has hitherto done nothing else than darken minds and thus close the way to the intuition of interior things, also of universals, for it consists only of terms and disputes concerning terms; besides, rational philosophy so confines some that the mind cleaves to nothing but particulars, and thus to dust; moreover, it not only obstructs the ways to the interiors, but also blinds and altogether takes away faith, so that in the other life a philosopher who has indulged much in such studies is stupid and unlearned above others.-S. D. 767 (cf. S. D. 4655, 1602, 1604, 1605, 1606, l6O7).
     As to Mechanics, when one indulges too much in mechanical praxis he then so forms his mind that he believes not only all nature, but also all celestial and spiritual things to be nothing more than mechanical; if he cannot reduce them to mechanical principles he believes them to be nothing; thus he becomes corporeal and terrestrial.-S. D. 768.
     As to Geometry and similar sciences, these also, as it were, concentrate the mind and impede it from advancing into universals besides, they suppose nothing to exist but what is geometrical or mechanical, when, nevertheless, the extension of Geometry does not go beyond terrestrial and corporeal forms.-S. D. 769.
     As to Historical studies, these are such as not to do injury, provided they be not only things of the memory.-S. D. 770 (cf. n. 771).
     Natural experience, such as Horticulture and the like, does not interfere with spiritual cognitions, because such persons, in like manner as those who are not learned, can be perfected, as I have observed in the case of a certain person.-S. D. 772 (cf. n. 778).
     Sciences in themselves are not things to be rejected, for spiritual things can be confirmed by them; wherefore the angels understand indefinitely more in all sciences than can ever be believed, and, indeed, the most hidden things; but they who are learned in any science scarcely cease, each one, from reasoning from his own science, either openly or by himself concerning spiritual things; thus he blinds himself; for many, in order that they may appear learned, ratiocinate from their sciences, as philosophers from theirs, logicians from theirs, metaphysicians from theirs anatomists from theirs, politicians from theirs; and so they heap up phantasies, like the Jews, from their trifles, etc. Wherefore, with the learned, ideas are closed, thus spiritual and celestial things, also heaven; but with the unlearned they are open.-S. D. 3460.
     Useful sciences are Physics, Optics, Chemistry, Pharmaceutics, Anatomy; Mathematics, Astronomy, Architecture, Botany, Metallurgy, History, the Government of kingdoms, and the like; from all of which, as means, every one can become rational.
     But there are some which entirely destroy the faculty of thinking, and ruin the rational; like Scholastics when, namely, they describe "a thing that is clear and intelligible to almost every one, by many scholastic terms, till no one understands it; Philosophy, when it is determined from a series of conclusions, from the definitions of terms, and by conclusions thence, which series when arranged together present things that can be understood by no one, nor what the connection is; they remove all reason when, nevertheless, they involve nothing that cannot be explained so simply that every one may understand them. Logic, which concentrates and determines truths to doubts, and this still more when one thing has been evolved by means of many, which then is involved; the conclusion itself is often' such as to be intelligible without any syllogism. These things are also like geometrical and algebraic processes, when simple truths are demonstrated by them, and when they are so intricately expressed by angular, circular, and curved figures, and explained according to them, that they are not intelligible to any one. Such sciences and the applications of such sciences cause man to lose common sense and to become insane.-Lesser Diary, 4578 (cf. n. 4579).

     Scientifics may be classified as above, under four heads, as relating to things terrestrial, things civil, things moral, and things spiritual, or they may be arranged in the order of their uses, as having relation, 1, to the uses of nourishing, of clothing, of housing man, of man's recreation and delight, of his protection, and of the preservation of his state; 2, to the uses of perfecting the rational, as having relation to natural, economic, civil, and moral things; 3, to the uses of receiving what is spiritual from the LORD, relating to religion and thence to worship, or to the Word and Doctrines of the Church. A third order of arrangement of scientifics will arise from their application to the teacher's work, This order will necessarily vary in details according to the systems and methods pursued by various teachers. The arrangement we shall propose will be such a one as appears to offer to the teacher a useful way in which to proceed in forming the mind of the child, so that it may advance from the first sensual to the highest rational state.
Notes and Reviews 1886

Notes and Reviews              1886

     The New Church Herald for November contains a pleasing picture of the Southport New Church.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Philadelphia Tract Society has resumed the work of mailing their weekly tracts to any address.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society publishes the Apocalypse Revealed at the very low price of ninety cents, postage twenty-four cents.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. Frank Sewall's translation of De Anima, which is to appear under the title, On the Soul; or, Rational Psychology, is in press, and will be published soon.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Rev. Julian K. Smyth, Pastor of the Boston Highlands Society, has written a work entitled, Footprints of the Saviour: Devotional Studies in the Life and Nature of our LORD.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     "AN informal teacher of New Church truths (ordained)" advertises himself in the New Church Independent. "Deliberately and of set purpose the advertiser will strive to be wisely 'enthusiastic' and 'emotional,' etc., etc."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Massachusetts New Church Union is about to publish a new edition of the Young New Churchman's Guide to the Holy City: a Manual of Doctrines, with Prayers." The devotional part of this work will also be republished in white and gilt binding, under the title Vox Amoris.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     MR. Isaac Pitman still continues what he considers the Spelling Reform, and occasionally the New Church gets the benefit of it, as, for instance, in the "Rules and Regulations of the Society of the New Church, meeting at Henry Street, Bath.

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Printed by Eizak Pitman & Sons, 1886." We have had such a spelling reformer in this country, but he has passed away. Whether his spelling reform had anything to do with his death is unknown. His name was Josh Billings.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     IN The New Jerusalem Magazine for November, Mr. Francis Phelps has an interesting paper on "Swedenborg's Spiritual Home." The author speaks of the gifts which Swedenborg carried with him as mementos from the people of the golden, silver, and copper ages, and asks the question what Swedenborg did with them? We suggest that he Probably kept them in the "handsome red cheat with five compartments and five drawers in each compartment," which is mentioned first in the list that Sweden or wrote on the cover of his Vera Christiana Religio.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Journal of the Tenth Annual Meeting of the Michigan Association of the New Jerusalem for 1886 contains a list of the officers of the Association, the minutes of the October meeting, reports, a list of localities and of New Church persons residing there, the Constitution, and the Articles of Incorporation of the Association. The report of the Presiding Minister, the Rev. A. F. Frost, is the most interesting document, and testifies to his earnestness,     energy, and zeal.
     Several circulars are mailed with the Journal. One of them contains blanks for contributions to various funds, and bears a quotation from the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine (n. 94): "He who from love provides for the Church provides for the souls and eternal life of men, and loves his neighbor in a superior degree."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     A NEW CHURCH translation of the Sacred Scriptures is a desideratum long felt, and while the way does not appear clear for the work to be begun in the near future, preparations are making in certain quarters by the study of the; original tongues in which the Scriptures were written As bearer of the Internal Sense, the Letter of the Word needs to be translated with especial reference to this Internal Sense. The quotations from the Letter of the Word which occur in New Church Life are largely new translations made direct from the Hebrew and the Greek, with the aid of the Latin translation in the Writings and under the light of the Doctrines." The texts of sermons are all translated after this manner. The citations, in our Index, of all texts quoted in the Life are therefore published partly in the hope of contributing to the preparations which are making of this important and holy work.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     WHERE there are so many attempts at compiling a short statement of the faith of the New Church, many of which are failures, it is refreshing to read in the Manual of the Bradford, England, Society, of which the Rev. J. K. Kendell is Minister, the following "Declaration of Faith of the New Church," drawn directly from the Writings:
     "I.-That there is one God, in whom there is a Divine "Trinity'; and that Helm the LORD JESUS CHRIST
     "II.-That a saving faith is to believe on Him:
     "III.-That evil actions are to be shunned, because they are of the devil and from the devil.
     "IV.-That good actions ought to be done, because they are of God and from God.
     "V.-That these are to be done by man as from himself but that it ought to be believed that they are done from the LORD, with him, and by him."
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified              1886

     THE Minutes of the Third Annual Meeting of the Canada Association of the New Jerusalem have been published in the usual form and make a pamphlet of thirty-nine pages, five and a half by four and five-eighths inches. They bear evidence of the activity and progressiveness of the Association. The two notable papers of this journal are the address of the President, the Rt. Rev. W. E. Tuerk, and the remarks of the Treasurer, Mr. Robert Carswell. The latter is a ringing appeal to the members of the Association to contribute to its uses, and states ably the obligations which members bear to the Church. It has been published in the organ of the Association, New Jerusalem Tidings. The address of the President partakes of his well-known fatherly and considerate character and gives such sound and wholesome teaching on the subject of the uses and duties of an Association that it deserves a circulation among members of all Associations and like bodies. We are glad to learn that it will be published in the December number of the Tidings. Address the Rev. J. S. David, 20 Equity Chambers, Toronto, Canada.
     A list of fourteen questions that were asked and answered at the meeting are published under "Memoranda." It would seem that if these questions were worth answering in full meeting, a summary of the answers might profitably have been introduced into the Journal.

     THE second part of Potts's Concordance to the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg has come to hand, and a perusal of its pages fills the student more and more with awe at the rich treasures of the Infinite Storehouse of Divine Truths in the Writings on any given subject. Here, for instance, is one subject, "Affection," the references under which fill thirty-four quarto pages of fine print! Admiration at the patient and painstaking labor of the compiler grows in proportion to wonderment that such fullness of Divine Truth has been accommodated to the human understanding. Besides the subject mentioned, two others, a study of which is of paramount importance in the present state of the Church, are to be found in Part 2, namely, "Advent" and "Affirmative." In the present confusion of ideas respecting the LORD'S Advent, which leads to such false and preposterous definitions, these rich collections of Divinely simple definitions of what constitutes the LORD'S Second Coming are doubly welcome. So also, where a negative disposition of the mind toward receiving the Truth concerning the LORD'S Advent reigns even among men of the Church, the copious collection of extracts on the subject of the "Affirmative" will prove of great value. Under the heads of "Adversary," "Adverse," "Adytum," and others are references intensely interesting and instructive.
     Mr. Potts intends to include in an Appendix all omissions which may come to his notice in the course of publication of the work. He requests that all errors or omissions be carefully noted and forwarded to him. Address the Rev. J. F. Potts, 6 Eildon Villas, Mount Florida, Glasgow, Scotland.
MISSING TREATISE ON MARRIAGE 1886

MISSING TREATISE ON MARRIAGE              1886

INDEXES TO "THE MISSING TREATISE" ANGELIC WISDOM CONCERNING MARRIAGE. Posthumous works by Emanuel Swedenborg, now first translated from the Latin. "New York: American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society. MDCCCLXXXVI.

     WE read in one of the Memorabilia (C. L. 183) that because Conjugial Love was the subject of discourse "the attention was eager and the reception full." The special attractiveness of this subject is one of the appointments of the Divine Providence, in the stream of which the Priest of the New Church should always seek to direct his work. Yet who, listening to much of the preaching presented in the Church, would gather from it that Conjugial Love is inseparably connected with all true Religion; that there can be absolutely no true Religion with any person in advance of his state with regard to that love. But if the Church is culpably silent on such subjects the World is not, and false teaching thereon, in the form of novels and otherwise, is rampant among us, daily exerting a most pernicious influence upon the young of both sexes which nothing but Divine Revelation can effectually correct. That the Indexes before us will be received with interest by every well-wisher of the Church goes; therefore, without saying. Over and above this interest there is, to many people, a special charm connected with whatever is mysterious-to whom a "missing" treatise forms an attractive field for speculative conjectures.

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     Such a conjecture is sot forth by the Translator in his preface to these, indexes-namely, the conjecture that there is no treatise missing, after all, only the first draught of the work on Conjugial Love.
     Under the influence of this conjecture, the Translator appeals to the references to Conjugial Love which he has added and which give to the Index the appearance of being substantially an Index to that work. But not-withstanding this appearance on the surface, we think that the verdict from any disinterested examination must be a decided "not proven;" that the Translator himself would have arrived at the same conclusion had not his conjecture clouded his judicial faculty. For even he recognizes that "a few" (of these added references to Conjugial Love) "will doubtless be found of little value." Still, many of these references may also prove useful, if only in stimulating and aiding research, and not a few will serve well to explode such theories as the Translator puts forth.
     We will not enter into a detailed examination of them here, for their quality will be evident to any one who will compare the references to the indicated passages in Conjugial Love. Such an examination will give rise to disappointment after disappointment if it be made with any expectation of finding all the promises of the Index fulfilled in Conjugial Love.
     An example or two will be sufficient to indicate this. Under the heading of Marriage we read that

     Conjugial love is chiefly dependent on husbands . . . . n. 753-757.

     To this is appended a reference to Conjugial Love (n. 216) which treats upon regarding what is eternal in Marriage, and is absolutely without anything even resembling the above statement.
     Under the heading Sex:

     Wise women are not loved.-n. 2028.

     To this is added a reference to conjugial Love, n. 175, where the proper duties of man and woman are distinguished and wise women are spoken of, but nothing whatever said about wise women not being loved. While such is the character of many of these added references, there are still quite a number more to which the ingenuity of the Translator and his coadjutors has not been able to supply even such an appearance of connection, Of these let the following be specimens:

     The duties of the man refer to wisdom; the duties of the woman refer to bringing into deed the man's delights of wisdom, and thus refer to the man.-n. 2032.
     Spiritual marriage is violated when appearances of truth (in the Word) are taken for genuine truths and are confirmed. N 1977-1979.
     Spiritual marriage is violated by those who give their study to the sense of the letter alone, apart from doctrine. n. 1988-1991.
     As woman is beautiful, so she is tender; and as she is tender, so she has ability to perceive the delights of conjugial love; and as she is able to perceive these delights, so she is a faithful custodian of the common good; and as she is a custodian of the common good and the man is wise, so she looks alter the prosperity and happiness of the home.-n. 2010.

     How one longs to read articles such as the references like the latter promise!
     That some references should fit exactly with the subject-matter of Conjugial Love, and that there should be a general harmony of treatment between the arrangement of that work and that indicated by the Index, is only the natural and necessary result of the essential harmony which belongs to all Divine Revelation and which could hardly fail to be specially conspicuous in works treating of the same general subject. It, for example, an Index to the Apocalypse Explained were all that we had at present found of that work, the Editor might, doubtless, as easily have filled it with references to the Apocalypse Revealed, and then have tried to persuade us that the missing Apocalypse Explained was only a rough draught of the Apocalypse Revealed-and with as much ground for plausibility as there is in the case before us.
     Indeed, if we reason from the analogy afforded us by the study of the methods of the Divine procedure in giving Revelation, the probability seems all to be in the direction of regarding the work on Marriage, to which this Index belongs, as bearing a similar relation to Conjugial Lobe as Apocalypse Explained does to the Apocalypse Revealed, and as containing a fullness of treatment concerning the subject of Marriage by which we are not yet prepared to benefit and which, therefore, like the work of Enoch (see A. C. 2896, 521, 1241; T. C. R. 202; S. S. 21; A. E. 670, 728), has been taken by the LORD'S Providence out of our reach for the present.
     We know, at least, that traces of a manuscript were found by Dr. Rudolph L. Tafel when in Sweden that have never been followed up, and which may possibly, therefore, belong to the missing manuscript.
     Though it is the Index only that is, as yet, placed within our reach, we trust that its publication may lead to such renewed study of the general subject of which it treats as may prepare the Church to receive this work which we regard the Index as promising.
LATIN REPRINTS 1886

LATIN REPRINTS              1886

OPERA MINORA. Swedenborg. Edited by Samuel H. Worcester, A. S. P. and P. S. New York.

     FOLLOWING the publication of Apocalysis Explicata and Apocalysis Revelata, which together fill eight volumes, we have before us a ninth volume of a series of Latin reprints, the typography of which not only pleases the eye by its beauty but much facilitates the work of reference, and on the whole promises to form one of the most satisfactory editions we have. We hope, therefore, that the whole of the Writings may soon be included, in it. The publication of the remaining volumes, however, depends, we are told, upon the sale, of those already issued, and as this, so far, is lamentably slow, much slower than it would be if the Latin editions were anything like as much used by New Churchmen as they ought to be, we fear that considerable time will have to elapse before the edition is complete." In the present volumes is included the Latin edition of the Index to the Missing Treatise on Marriage, besides which it contains De Nova Hierosolyma, De Charitate, Canones, and Coronis, each of which is also published separately.
     It is a pity, especially as this edition otherwise aims at making the work of reference as easy as possible, that there is no numbering given to the paragraphs of De Charitate.
     This work is here given with several details from the manuscript of which the first editions took no note.
     It is interesting to note that the following statement is prefixed to the work, entitled Canones Novae Ecclesiae: "In this work is contained the universal theology of the New Church, which is understood by 'the New Jerusalem' in the Apocalypse." This, too, was not printed in the first edition.
     In the Coronis, with the Invitatio ad Novam Ecclesiam, which is included in it, we have the last works given by the LORD through Swedenborg and the New Church, a general summing up, as it were, of His Revelation, reviewing the Four Previous Churches, mostly strongly characterizing the absolutely hopeless state of the consummated Church and calling upon the New to take its place.

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"If this little work be not first added," we read in n. 25 of the Invitatio, "the Church cannot be healed; there would only be, as it were, a palliative cure, a wound in which the venom remained and corroded the surrounding; orthodoxy is that very venom, and the Doctrine of the New, Church brings, indeed, a remedy, but only externally."
     As an example of the care with which this edition is prepared, and as also showing that Swedenborg particularly read over the Writings as published, we note that two whole lines are inserted here in De Nova Hierosolymae (n. 125) which were omitted in the printing of the original quarto edition, and which are authorized by a letter from Swedenborg to his publisher directing that the omission should be printed and inserted in the volumes, which direction, however, does not appear to have been, in this case, complied with. A copy of part of this letter is given by the Editor in his preface. This also shows what importance Swedenborg attached to the omission of words which we might have regarded as unnecessary repetition.
     Though there are one or two alterations, the propriety of which may be questioned, such, for instance, as "festinabit" for "tardabit" in a quotation from the letter of the Word given in Coronis (n. 2), yet such alterations are always clearly distinguished when made, and the original given, and so need mislead no one, but may serve, by the examination they provoke, to develop a rational reception, a probable end for which typographical and apparent errors have been permitted. There is a special tendency on the part of editors to correct Swedenborg's quotations from the Letter of the Word in favor of some more generally accepted rendering, a tendency which we regard as entirely unjustifiable. But as such alterations are indicated in this edition, they do not prevent its being a trustworthy one.
     As the recognition of the Writings as the Internal Sense of the Word, constituting the Advent of the LORD to the New Church, spreads, there will necessarily grow a desire in the Church to consult the original Latin and not to remain at the mercy of translations, many of which sadly mutilate the original, and even the best of them fall short of expressing its full power and simplicity. More would learn to use the Latin editions if they realized how comparatively easy the task would be in proportion to the advantages gained. The Latin of the Writings is the easiest of all Latin, and presents none of those difficulties of construction which are found in classical Latin, while the advantages of being able to feel that what we read is authoritative Revelation of the LORD is incalculable; but this we cannot altogether feel in reading translations, except so far as we can trust the translator, or until after we have compared them with the original. Such comparisons cannot fail to prove to the reader "that not a few of the difficulties he may have experienced in understanding the Writings have been thrown in his way by translators unable to leave the simplicity of the original without elaborations from their own intelligence. These remarks are made in the assurance that a knowledge of the unadulterated Word together, of course with an endeavor to govern the life in accordance therewith are the sum of all the needs of the Church They are also made from a desire thence to stimulate a more healthy demand for the Water of Life in its purity."
FAITH OF NATHAN SALLOWAY 1886

FAITH OF NATHAN SALLOWAY              1886




     Fiction.

     A BIT OF AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

     I WAS born a Calvinist, and, until of age, looked upon cards, novels, theatres, dancing, and such things as the lures of the devil. When I went into the world to seek my fortune 1 began to doubt my old faith. I saw that it was old and effete-utterly unsuited for the full life of this glorious age; that it was cramped, narrow, and bigoted. "I flung off its shackles and was a free man. This occurred at Bushfield, where I had determined to make my home. Though I had cast off my old faith, I had none to replace it with. I did not want to be an infidel, and I felt certain that somewhere there must be a religion that is true and real. As I had not found it in orthodoxy, I began a calm investigation of the religions outside its pale. My search was rewarded, as is that of every seeker after truth. In poor outcast Spiritualism I found much that was strange, which I could not accept, yet also much that was beautiful, and this I could accept.
     The Unitarian belief! how much that is lovely and ennobling, how much warmth and light I found in it! Such a glorious freedom from bigotry! I would have enlisted under its bright banners but I wanted to be free to sip the honey of goodness from all faiths. Universalism I found to be a grand, soul-resting thins; so broad and catholic! no narrowness there; its wide pinions cover the whole human race; it swept the last taint of Calvinism, with its gloomy and awful hell, from my soul forever.
     The Methodists, too, attracted me with their warm love and enthusiasm. Thus I found good in them all, and oh! joyful day! that true religion is the grand religion of humanity; that the true Christian is he who gathers the good from all and rejects the evil.
     My vision broadened; I could look down on all faiths, could see and pity their errors, yet love their good. From the vantage of my position I could view the world, and my heart exulted to see the spirit of the religion of humanity broadening and deepening among men every day. My heart went out in warm sympathy toward the heroic and self-sacrificing band of women who, regardless of creed, were grandly struggling for the rights of their down-trodden sex. I viewed the magnificent efforts of noble men and women, who had sunk creeds, and, shoulder to shoulder, were waging a desperate warfare against vice, against devastating drink, against the Sabbath newspaper-ah! it was an epic-the conflict of the Angel of Light, the Angel of the Nineteenth Century, against the Demon of Darkness.
     I have said that I viewed all these from the vantage of my new religion, but in justice to myself I must add that I, too, was in the thickness of the fray, though I shall not dwell on my good deeds.
     There was one little cloud on my brilliant horizon and it pained me. While my heroic friends and fellow-warriors were united in putting down the evils of the sinful world about them, they differed in their views of the Bible; some laughed at it, others partly accepted it-portions like the Sermon on the Mount-while yet others blindly accepted it all. This troubled me, for the early reverence for the Bible, instilled into me in childhood, still clung to me.
     One Sabbath, while in this state of uncertainty I strayed into the little Swedenborgian church I had never been there before, not because of prejudice, for I had none, but because I found so much good elsewhere.

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The minister's discourse was on "the Word," and I was spell-bound from the first. My doubts vanished. My horizon was cloudless. At last I had found the bridge between the good of the world and the Bible; between the March of Science and the Bible. The six days of creation was not history, but a beautiful allegory of regeneration to the Sabbath of goodness. The Bible and Science went hand in hand. The sun represented Love, the moon Faith, the stars Sciences. The Flood was representative of a flood of evil that once swept the world, such as again swept it in the Dark Ages not a century ago; "and whose waters were even now receding, leaving the dry land waving with the olive branches of goodness on all sides. Darkness was fleeing, the vapors of night were rising and floating away. The clouds were dispersing and the glorious day was breaking. I fairly glowed with enthusiasm. This was what I had been looking for.
     In conclusion, the minister told us of the New Church. It was not a sect, but a new and mighty influx of truth into the minds of all men. It was a grand step in advance in the Eternal March of the Ages; it was a Universal Church composed of the good of all races.
     At last I had found my kindred. I became a New Churchman. I had no feeling of restraint in becoming one, for the New Church was nothing but the good of all the world. I had been a New Churchman ever since I left the Calvinistic prison.
     There was one thing, though, that I did not like, and that was signing my name to the church book of membership. I remonstrated with Mr. Broke, the minister. I told him that it was not in harmony with the spirit of that Gorand Universal Union of Good Men, of which the Church was composed, to require them to sign any creed. He told me that in this transitional age it was to do good works, so I reluctantly signed. On the necessary to have some sort of external form in which question of rebaptism, however, I was firm, and I talked to him and the other members in very plain terms, and I think they felt a little ashamed of their bigotry, for they said no more on the subject.
     When I became a member of the Bushfield Society it was not recognized by the other Christian Churches. I was a member of the Young Men's Christian Association, the Society for Suppressing Vice, the Society for Righting Women, the Law and Order Society, the Society for Preserving the Sanctity of the Sabbath, the Missionary Society, the Total Abstinence Union, and several other bodies of a similar nature. I brought my influence, which was considerable, to bear on these societies, and soon had the proud satisfaction of seeing them extend the right hand of fellowship to their New Church brethren.
     And yet-it pained me deeply-my good work was not wholly satisfactory to all of the Society. I talked to these discontented ones in a Christian spirit, kindly yet firmly, and if they did not wholly acquiesce they became silent.
     I had, too, I am sorry to say, considerable trouble with. Mr. Broke. Every now and then he showed a taint of bigotry that was conspicuous by its absence in that glorious sermon I first heard him preach. When he suffered from these relapses into a bigotry that has no part in the Church of the New Age, I would go to him privately and point out his error in a kindly, Christian spirit. At first he appealed to "the Writings," but I showed him that as this was the morning dawn of a Glorious New Day, it was folly and bigotry to be tied down by books written more than a century ago.
     "Do these constitute all our light?" I asked.
     "Well, you know, Mr. Salloway," he replied; "they are a revelation."
     "Granted," I retorted. "But are you so narrow- minded as to seek to bind this Age down to them? Are they the only revelation we can look to? If so, what has become of that other revelation-that new and more powerful influx and operation of Divine Truth with men-the signs and' effects of which are everywhere visible? Has it not later and better claims than books written in the last century? The New Church is composed of the good of all denominations, and can you demand that these good men shall sacrifice their consciences at the shrine of Swedenborg and his Writings?"
     In somewhat this manner I was frequently forced to put him to rights. Sometimes I was forced to resort to threats, though it always pained me deeply to do so. I had been the means of inducing many good men and women to join the Society, and these, with a number of other good people (who were already in it), formed a majority, and in the cause of goodness and peace we would threaten to secede, and thus we kept Mr. Broke in the right path.
     On becoming a member of the Church I had subscribed to several of the so-called New Church papers. One of them, after rending the first page, I crushed in my hand and flung away, and I wrote to the editor, so deeply was I moved, and told him that his pager was the very incarnation of gall, bitterness, hatred, and hellishness, and that there was contamination in its very touch to the hands of a good man. The other papers were not bad, but oh! how dry and wearisomely doctrinal! Nothing but doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, and futile words, with but little of the emotionally fresh sweetness of love, life, and charity. I told these papers of their faults and how they might be corrected. The editors would generally publish my communications and, sometimes, say a few kind, Christian words about them, but oftener say nothing. As the papers did not improve, I stopped them all and turned my back on dry doctrine and my face to goodness of life.
     I had been a member of the Society two years when I awoke to the fact that its members had decreased and that the few who remained seemed listless and lifeless. They displayed none of that warm, glowing love and life that is characteristic of the Methodists and which should be stronger in the New Church than elsewhere.
     When I had realized this I directed Mr. Broke to call a meeting of the Society to consider the case. On the night of the meeting I made an earnest appeal. I told them that we must have less of the dry bones of doctrines and more life, more warm, glowing life, more love, more active good; that we had settled down into a self-satisfied state which was anything but in harmony with the new and noble Christianity of the living age. I put my whole warm soul into my address and spoke for over an hour, but the dull assembly was a heavy burden for me to carry.
     After I had concluded I at first thought that no one in the assembly would have anything to say, they sat so dull and stupid. But at last a common-looking man arose and stumbled through a speech-a lame, halting speech, on a par with his looks and thoughts.
     He began by saying that he "guessed" that there wasn't much difference any more between the New Church, the Old Church, or the no-church; there used to be, but there didn't seem to be any more now. We talked about the New Age and so did they; we said that darkness, and vapors, and clouds, and mists, and such things were fleeing away, and so did they; we talked about the spread of education, and so did they; we were proud of the march of science, and so were they; we talked about the telegraph, and the printing press, and the steam engine, and so did they.

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"I know," said he, in his lame and blundering conclusion, "we are lifeless, notwithstanding all our talk, but I guess I don't know how to go to work to put life, into our Church. I don't even know where to go to do good. Somehow or other it seems to me that there is as much competition nowadays in doing good as there is in business. In our little city we have societies for doing all sorts of good and for putting down all sorts of badness. But I guess, so far as I can see, the evil is about as lively as ever, and a good deal worse than it used to be in old times when we had no societies for fixing up good and putting down bad things. I don't want to say anything against the good men and women who are working so hard to make the world around them better, but it seems to me-well, I don't know-sometimes I feel tired of it all. I guess I've nothing more to say."
     I have given this abstract as a sample of the deplorable stupidity-the word may seem unchristianlike, but I must write the truth-of many of the older members of the Bushfield Society. I made a perhaps too caustic and brilliant reply to this man's talk, but he said no more. I then proposed, as a definite attempt toward mending matters, that our ministers exchange pulpits with other Christian ministers, as by so doing we should get fresh, new thoughts and enlarge our minds. No one replied and it came to naught, and soon after the meeting adjourned without doing anything. I had done what I could, but even I could not infuse life into this listless Society.
     But I was not disheartened. When good is to be done, I always rise to the occasion. I gave the matter my profoundest and most prayerful consideration. "The New Church is composed of the good of all denominations." Thus I mused, when, like a lightning flash, the truth came to me. No wonder we were lifeless! What right had we, a pitiable handful, to say this, and then set up the claim we did, when we called our miserable little party the New Church? It was a judgment on our presumption. How plain it seemed now. We must give up our wretched little sect, and go among men, not as sectarians, but as real New Churchmen-as good men.
     Full of this new revelation, I went to Mr. Broke. He objected. I logically silenced him from his own sermons. Still he would not give in, so strong is the hateful spirit of ecclesiasticism. I agitated the subject in the Society. My agitation seemed to infuse life into it, but alas, it was not the warm life of good. It divided into two parties, the one breathing a broad, catholic, all-embracing spirit of love for all men, and the other fired by a narrow, little, pinched, bitter, bigoted, scornful, venomous; hellish spirit of sectarianism, back of which glared the baleful fires of ecclesiasticism. This conflict terminated in a memorable meeting in which I passionately pleaded for brotherly love and charity. But it was of no avail-the Society was broken up. The minister went off to other fields, and the little and erring party of sectarianism rented a place and held meetings of their own. I sorrowfully left them to their blindness.
     Some time after this occurred a change in my worldly pursuits, rendering it necessary that I should do a good deal of traveling. I felt glad at this, for it would enable me to spread the truth. I procured a number of well-selected tracts and departed. I was soon convinced that the so-called New Church missionaries could achieve great results if they would work in the right way. Few who heard me converse disputed what I said-I talked good of life exclusively-and none refused to take the tracts I gave gratuitously. But I shall not dwell on this part of my work, for it might seem like boasting, something a good man should never do.
     One evening I stayed at a little country hotel, and after supper "I looked about for some one to talk to-I always improve each hour. I saw an intelligent-looking man, of about my own age, sitting under a tree in front of the hotel, smoking a cigar. I was sorry to see him smoking, but as I believe in the loving way of working I did not at once denounce the bad habit. After some indifferent conversation I led up to the subject dear to my heart, and told him I was a New Churchman, intending to follow with a recital of what that Church was. But when I told him what I was he took my hand very warmly and said he was one, too, and asked me from what Society I hailed. I told him, and he said:
     "You have been doing some good work up there."
     "To what particular good work do you allude, sir?" I asked him, running my various works over in my mind.
     "Why, getting rid of your cranks; that Salloway, I mean."
     For an instant I realized how the evil-minded feel. I was tempted to strike him with something, but I did not. I replied, trembling with proper indignation, "My name is Nathan Salloway!"
     He gave a sort of low whistle, flushed slightly, and then laughed a little. Then he said:
     "Mr. Salloway, I have been guilty of a very rude speech. I am sorry that I called you a-what I did. We both have a right to our opinions, but we ought not to speak out. Oh! bother it all! we ought not to be humbugs, either. I am really sorry if I hurt you by my speech. Let us not quarrel about it."
     "I never quarrel," I replied.
     "You are right; it isn't of any use, though I indulge in it sometimes, as I do in a good many other bad things. Our evils, like weeds, are continually cropping out."
     My feelings were deeply moved-more deeply than they had ever been before in all my life-and I sat for a long time in silence, while that man after his last speech smoked his cigar, before I could trust my voice to ask:
     "Why did you apply that epithet to me?"
     "Crank?"
     I nodded.
     "My dear fellow," he replied, "I was in hopes you would let that pass, but since you corner me, I'll confess truthfully. I did so because from what I had heard of you I thought you were one."
     "Am I one because I am in an earnest and Christian spirit striving to do good?" I spoke rather sarcastically, for I was deeply moved out of my usual serenely joyous state. He thought a moment and then replied:
     "Yes."
     This unexpected reply amazed me so that it drove my anger-I sadly confess I was angry-away, and, amazedly, I exclaimed:
     "Sir!"
     "As I said before," he replied, very coolly, "you have driven me, or, rather, I have got myself, into a corner. I'll tell you the opinion I formed of you from what I have heard, and add that I hope my opinion is a wrong one, and shall gladly change it if I can. Is that fair enough?"

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     "Yes," I answered, concisely.
     "My opinion you, as we know, ultimated itself in the word 'crank.'"
     I grew angry again at the repetition of this odious word.
     My opinion, or, rather, opinions, of you-subject, of course, to amendment-are these: Under the name of doing good you are simply exalting yourself over your fellow-sinners. You say that the New Church is composed of the good of all denominations, and you assume a high place in that Church, and thus put yourself forward as an exceedingly good man. Do you admit that man, of himself, is nothing but evil, and that what good he has is the LORD'S?"
     "No!" I exclaimed, so suddenly that the words seemed driven from me.
     "Then," he replied, rather grimly, "according to the Bible of the Church of which you claim to be a member you are 'a thief and a robber.'"
     "'Tis false!" I shouted, springing to my feet and leaving him. I shook with anger-yes, let me confess, with fury-as I walked away rapidly.
     The memory of that scene has haunted me ever since painfully haunted me. My heart bleeds to think that the world contains a man so uncharitable, so brutal, so evil as that man was. I have never been able to regain my former joyous and delightful state of mind, for his words, "thief and robber," haunt me like a restless ghost.'
SCIENTIFIC METHOD 1886

SCIENTIFIC METHOD              1886

     "I HAVE heard that from the points of goose quills flow ideas that revolutionize the world," said the Portly Goose to the Scientific Goose.
     "A very pretty conceit, but"-and here the Scientific One shook his short tail-"it isn't science. The Goose of Science believes nothing that he cannot rigidly demonstrate."
     "Demonstrate your favorite tadpole theory," replied the other, his blue eyes shooting indignation at the superior tone and exasperating shake of the tail of his companion.
     "Certainly. The larger tadpoles ate the smaller, small frogs ate large tadpoles, and large frogs ate small frogs; and so by a process of eating, digesting, assimilating, and evoluting, we arrive at the goose."
     "Do we stop there?"
     "I think we do."
ONE PHASE OF EXPERIENCE 1886

ONE PHASE OF EXPERIENCE              1886

     SOME one had left the garden gate open, and the Gray Goose, seeing this, went and looked in on the forbidden ground, and, seeing no danger, pushed on and fell to regaling himself with unlawful dainties. A woman armed with a broom soon appeared, and he was precipitately and ignominiously driven back into the farmyard with many a vigorous rap. When he had recovered his breath, he said to the Horse, who had placidly watched his hurried exit from the garden, "We learn by experience, and are made better through suffering."
     You knew as well as any one you entered the garden that you were going against the law, and were, liable to be batted out; what further did you learn?"
     The Gray Goose hesitated before he replied:
     "Since you put it that way, I cannot say that I learnt anything new from my late sufferings."
     In what way are you a better goose? you said the suffering made you better"
     "I shall not violate that law again-or if I do, I'll stay near the gate and keep my eyes open."
     "Your honesty-of confession-is refreshing," said the Horse, looking down at the Gray Goose.
SIXTY-FIRST MEETING OP THE GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA 1886

SIXTY-FIRST MEETING OP THE GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA              1886

     Communicated.

     [Inasmuch as in this Department Correspondents have an opportunity to express their individual opinions, be they in favor of the principles on which New Church Life is conducted or adverse to them, the Editors do not hold themselves responsible for any of the views whatever that are published therein.].


     HELD IN PITTSBURGH, NOVEMBER 12TH, 13TH, AND 14TH.

     THE importance of the sixty-first meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania is chiefly to be found in the fact that this Church is coming to a more practical recognition of its uses and duties, to which the paper on "The Functions of an External Church;" read at the previous meeting and published in the Life for May, contributed not a little.
     It was remarked at this meeting that more and more weight is laid on the considerations of the ends and objects of the body and of the principles that should govern its actions, and less upon the discussion of mere ways and means and methods of action, which ordinarily leads to much waste of time.
     The body proposes to do certain things, and in its general meetings are discussed the principles underlying them; the disposition of these things is then left to the proper office-bearers, whose judgment has been enlightened by the deliberation in the general meeting.
     In the Memorable Relations we read that in heaven, after a discussion, a conclusion is made, embodying in one sentence what has been ventilated.
     Insensibly the General Church has been coming into this order-to some extent. Hitherto it has been usual to bring a subject up for discussion by a motion which sets forth the doing of a particular thing, and this is then discussed. But now the custom is gradually being adopted of having a subject laid before the assembly for consideration, and, after it has been thoroughly canvassed and the doctrine relating to the subject been brought to bear upon it, either indirectly or directly, from the Writings, a motion is formulated in the spirit of the principles thus elaborated.
     A happy and harmonious sphere pervaded the meeting, and the interest taken in its proceedings was so great, and the necessity of thorough deliberation was seen to be so urgent, that it was resolved to devote four days to the next meeting, though for years previous to last spring the meetings have occupied only two days.

     Friday, November 12th, 1886.

     THE meeting opened with worship of the LORD, conducted by Bishop Benade.
     From the reading of the Roll it appeared that the General Church was represented by six members of the Council of the Clergy, six members of the Council of the Laity, twelve delegates from various Particular Churches, and a number of isolated and other members. There were representatives from Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Allentown, Brooklyn (N. Y.), Greenford (O.), and Chicago (Ill.).

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     In his address the Bishop reviewed the work of the General Church since the last meeting, mentioning the resignation of Assistant Bishop Hibbard. This office has not been filled,-not for want of suitable men, but because these were not available. The need of making more perfect provision for the maintenance of an Assistant Bishop was emphasized in the address. An account was given of the evangelistic work done by one of the clergymen; also by three candidates whom the Bishop had accepted since the last meeting. Besides dwelling upon the more immediate work of the General Church, the Bishop took occasion to embody the following in his address:

     The real prosperity of the external Church depends on the state of the internal Church, on the life of love to the LORD, and charity toward the neighbor, ultimated in the performance of spiritual uses. But the life of love and charity, as we are instructed, is ever according to the understanding of the Divine Truths of the Holy Work. These Truths are revealed to the Church in the Writings, which contain the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. In view of these things it is evidently a first duty of the ministers of the Church in their several Societies and spheres of priestly activity to promote by all possible means a regular, diligent, and thoughtful study of the Doctrines of the Church, as the LORD'S divine teachings in which He opens the Word and reveals Himself. When this study is pursued in companies and in classes under the lead and direction of the ministers, as has been done in some of our Societies for a number of years, there cannot fail to result from it a growth of interest in all the things of the Church, and of the Church's life an increase of life and intelligence, and no less an increase of delight in the manifested will of the LORD. And when to this is added the daily, consecutive reading of the Doctrines and the Word in families and by individuals according to a calendar, as has been the case in our midst since the year 1879, there is good round for the hope and belief that there are means provided of the LORD for the promotion of the genuine life of charity in the really intelligent performance of all good uses.
     I may be permitted to refer here to an important literary event in the history of the New Church, which has a bearing on the subject just adverted to. The first number of a Concordance to the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, compiled by the Rev. J. F. Potts and published by the Swedenborg Society, British and Foreign has been received. it is unnecessary to dwell in words on the inestimable value of the work. Every student of the Writings, every thoughtful inquirer into the subjects of Divine Revelation, has felt the need' of just such a work, and from the first announcement that Mr. Potts had undertaken its preparation has accompanied him in his devoted labors with cheering thoughts an d warm good wishes for the Divine help and support. And now that he has accomplished the chief part of his work and the Swedenborg Society has seconded his generous gift to the Church of the result of his labors by publishing it in good style and exceedingly cheap in price, the members of the Church in all lands can do no less than join their warm thanks to an exceedingly liberal purchase of the work. The Concordance ought to be in the possession of every New Churchman, and I have brought this publication to your notice because I think that the largest bodies of the Church, when assembled in general meetings, ought to give special thought to the appearance of a book of such importance to the Church, and ought to make special efforts to promote its general distribution.

     In accordance with these suggestions, in the course of the meeting the following resolutions were drafted and passed unanimously:

     WHEREAS, The General Church of Pennsylvania recognizes the great invaluable use in the study of the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem to be performed by the Concordance of the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, made by the Reverend John Faulkner Potts, and now being published in monthly parts by the Swedenborg Society, British and Foreign; and
     WHEREAS, There is a pressing necessity for the publication of this work within a much shorter period than that contemplated by the publishers, in order that the members of the Church may have the wonderful storehouse of spiritual truths given by the LORD to His Church opened to them more fully, and especially that the ministers of the Church may have the use of the work in the performance of the duties of their office; therefore
     Resolved, That we urge every member of the General Church of Pennsylvania to subscribe for this work through the Book-Room of the Academy of the New Church, and as far as possible to signify his willingness to pay the whole or the greater part of his subscription in advance upon condition that the work be published within one year from January 1st, 1887; and
     Resolved, That we urge upon the whole Church the great present need of this work, and suggest to the various bodies of the Church to take similar means to promote the same end.
     Resolved, That the Secretaries of the General Church of Pennsylvania be requested to send a copy of these resolutions to the publishers of the Concordance, to the various bodies of the Church, and to the New Church periodicals.

     The Council of the Laity was also requested to subscribe for a number of copies of the Concordance for the use of the General Church of Pennsylvania.
     The Bishop's address continues

     Following the line of thought induced by the reference to the publication of the Concordance, it seems to me in order, to recommend to the General Church of Pennsylvania, its Societies and members, to consider the action of the General Convention at its late meeting in New York, with respect to the new Latin edition of the Writings of Swedenborg, put forth in so attractive a form by S. P. and P. S., of New York, with the view of aiding the Society in its good work, and of effecting a wider distribution of the publications named. The Convention has voted a certain sum of money for the purchase of sets of the Latin edition, and their distribution to the libraries of schools and societies. Cannot the General Church begin the formation of a fund to be expended In the purchase of sets of these works for distribution to the libraries of ministers and students for the ministry whose incomes do not warrant their purchasing them themselves?
     This new Latin edition of the Writings is a necessity. The edition published by Dr. Im. Tafel years ago is fast disappearing from the market, and as the number of students who are required to read the works of the Church in the Latin and of others who are learning to read them in that language is increasing day by day, the growing demand cannot be supplied except by a new edition. Translations from the original languages in which the Divine Revelations have been clothed by the LORD can never, to the student and teacher of Divine Truth, supply the place of the letter of the Word in the Hebrew and Greek, and of the Spiritual Doctrine of the Word in the Latin. These publications are of universal need now, and of a need which will be recognized more and more fully in its universality as time goes on. The Church of the future will value this work indefinitely beyond any conception of its value existing with the Church of the present.

     In the course of the meeting this matter was duly considered, and a resolution passed, authorizing the Council of the Laity to purchase as many of the reprints published, as the finances will permit.
     The address continues:

     And now I am led to take a last step in the way of the precious provision made by our LORD for the bringing to all men the knowledge of His revelations of Himself, the most excellent that have ever been made to His human creatures. The Writings of the Church were printed from the manuscripts prepared by Swedenborg. Many of these manuscripts are still in existence. Some of them have been reproduced in fac simile by lithographic process. Others, such as the Arcana Coelestia, have, not been so reproduced. These reproductions have been made the basis of the new Latin editions, in the production of which they have been of inestimable value. A well-known and justly respected physician and author, in England, has lately been moved to address the Committee of the Swedenborg Society, and urgently to call their attention to the subject and condition of Swedenborg's manuscript of the Diarium, in the Stockholm library, and to remark of it that "it is perishable by fire and other causes and also is the worse for time." From Morning Light, of the 2d of October, in which his letter is printed, I quote what Dr. Wilkinson says in respect to the preservation of the manuscript: "I read in to-day's Standard that a 'prudent precaution is about to be taken in France with the books and manuscripts of which the National Library and other institutions only possess one or two copies. They are to be photographed, so that if the originals are lost, stolen or destroyed their exact reproduction will still remain.

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By this means provincial and even foreign libraries will be able to procure true copies of valuable documents and books.' This is a hint for your Society and for the American Society which, through the Rev. Samuel H. Worcester, is supplying the Church with editions of Swedenborg, accurate and exact, and which, in the case of Posthuma, are mainly attainable through the photographs superintended by Professor Tafel. Professor Tafel is still able to extend his supervision to a photo-lithograph of the Diarium, and the operation can be more easily effected than when he before undertook it. Doubtless the Stockholm Library will again lend the manuscript. Besides your trade in books, you owe a duty to the world around you, and also to posterity, to preserve this priceless treasure."
     Dr. Willinson will pardon me, I am sure, for changing his appeal from the Swedenborg Society to an appeal to the whole Church in Europe and America for the preservation of the priceless treasures still existing in manuscript in Stockholm and, probably, elsewhere. The work of photo-lithographing the manuscripts of Swedenborg was begun by the Church in America and in England. Why should it not be completed by the united New Church of the World?
     The Committee on the Manuscripts of Swedenborg, created by the General Convention in 1867, and intrusted with the duty of obtaining correct copies of the MSS. of Swedenborg still in existence in Sweden, having performed its task to the extent of its financial ability, was not discharged. This Committee still exists, and its existence testifies to t e expectation resting in the minds of not a few that there would be a revival of interest in this important work which would lead to its full accomplishment. The words of our venerable friend from across the waters seem like a promise of the coming of this revival. Members of the Church in Pennsylvania have from the beginning taken an active part in the work of preserving for the future use of the whole Church these "priceless treasures." I submit to this meeting the question, in all earnestness, whether the General Church of Pennsylvania ought not to respond at once to the word that has come from abroad by taking into consideration the best mode of bringing before the Convention and the Church "in general the subject of renewing, with the view of completing, the work of photo-lithographing the manuscripts of Swedenborg"
     The use to be performed is universal and for all time, and in an eminent degree it bespeaks the cordial co-operation of the members of the Church in all places and countries. If we recognize these considerations to be just and true, we cannot begin too soon to move seriously in the matter of accomplishing the end proposed.

     This recommendation of the Bishop" was also acted upon during the meeting by suitable resolutions inviting the various Associations of the Church in this country to unite with this Church in a request to the General Convention to consider the subject of completing the work already begun, and urging on all members to contribute to this work by subscribing to the manuscripts as they are published or by other means.
     A committee was appointed to solicit such "contributions and subscriptions to this work. The committee consists of Mr. Felix A. Boericke, 277 E. Superior Street, Chicago, Ill.; Mr. Ralph Means, 35 Race Street, Allegheny City, Pa., and Mr. Homer Synnestvedt, 1700 Summer Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
     The report of the Council of the Clergy was a longer document than usual, as it embodied answers on several topics referred to this Council at the last meeting, among them being that of "Junior" membership in a Church. On this subject the Council says:

     It is held to be not orderly, and, consequently, not useful, to have Junior Members. The custom of having them has arisen in the Old Church and is bred of its persuasive sphere, as it inculcates in the so-called Junior Members the idea that they hold a certain position, which they do not and cannot hold. Children and young persons before the age of reason are not and cannot be members of particular societies of the Church, and it is a mistaken idea to think that they can be held to the Church by calling them by the misleading title of "Junior Members." They occupy the position in the Church which heaven-bred young persons hold in heaven who are in heaven, but not of heaven until they are fully grown. To call them members or to permit them to partake of the LORD'S Supper before they have become sui juris in spiritual matters is to do children an injury. It is on a par with the principle observed in the pernicious "Bands of Hope."
     Children are like food which is in the body, but which, not having been digested or assimilated, is not as yet part of the body. When digested, it is taken up into the body as a constituent part of it. So with children in the body of the Church after their childhood has passed away and they have become rational. Before that it is injurious to admit them to the rights and privileges of a rational member. Even the signing of a roll, where such a thing may be deemed expedient, ought not to be left to them; their parents or guardians should do it for them. This principle Is recognized in civil law, and, doubtless, obtains there from the universal influx from the order of heaven. The Pastor has the right to make use of the young people in his church or society, and thus initiate them into the general sphere of Church uses without enrolling them as "Junior Members." It is, indeed useful to have a roll of the children and young people in a society; but the record of baptism of each child is an enrollment, and, besides, it Is a universal custom to keep a roll of all who attend the Sunday-school.

     The report is full of interesting details of the work of the Council.
     The report of the particular Churches, and of the individual clergymen manifest that the work of the General Church is moving on quietly and orderly.

     THOSE in attendance on the meeting dined together at a restaurant not very far from the church.

     [TO BE CONCLUDED.]
LETTER FROM ENGLAND 1886

LETTER FROM ENGLAND              1886

     THE first event of importance which has occurred here since we last wrote to the Life was the Bazaar in connection with the Church at Anerley. This was held on October 12th, 13th and 14th, and has resulted in a sum of three hundred pounds toward the large debt of fifteen hundred pounds, which has been a pressing burden on the Society. The friends from several of the Societies in London worked very earnestly to make the Bazaar a success. The room in which it was held was very tastefully decorated, and proved too small for the numerous things sent to the Bazaar.
     We were very sorry to find that those responsible for the arrangements of the Bazaar were so forgetful of the principles of the Church, of the law of the land, and also of the recommendation of the Conference of last year, in their holding of lotteries and raffles. This form of gambling was abundant, and made the whole sphere of the place unpleasant to those who desire consistency.
Indeed, our visit to this Bazaar confirmed us in the opinion that such means of raising money are very questionable, and certainly are not good schools for the training of our daughters, even though it be for three afternoons and evenings at a time.
     The Annual Meeting of the New Church Orphanage was held at Bloomsbury Street on Monday evening, October 25th. Dr. Tafel presided, and gave a very interesting address on "The Place of the Orphanage in the New Church." A letter was read from the Rev. O'Mant, in which he expressed the original idea that we were all orphans since Dr. Bayley has passed from earth.
     The report of the Secretary stated that twenty-three orphans are now being supported by the Orphanage, requiring a sum of three hundred and seventy-two pounds. The Treasurer reported that the amount received was from subscriptions, one hundred and fifty-six pounds donations, four hundred and forty-four pounds; collecting boxes, forty-seven pounds; and from interest, one hundred and twenty-seven pounds.

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The adoption of the report was moved by the Rev. T. Child, who rejoiced in the cause of the Orphanage, because it brought out practical charity and brought us into connection with the outside world. The New Church had plenty of doctrine, but very little practical charity. Compared, with the great works of other sects, the New Church was, doing comparatively nothing. The Orphanage eased our consciences in this respect. As a Church, we should join more widely with other Churches. Mr. Speirs seconded the resolution. The Rev. R. J. Tilson proposed, "That this meeting learns with great satisfaction the extent of the work which the New Church Orphanage has accomplished, in the adoption of twenty-four children, and in the present maintenance of twenty-two, and urges its claims to greater and more general support, upon the members of the Church." In moving this resolution, the speaker said that he rejoiced in the work of the Orphanage because of the distinctiveness of its use. The Church would do well to look more to its children, for it was his firm opinion that it was to the sound training of our families that we must look for those who would worthily form the true Church of the LORD. We had looked for one hundred years to the outside world as the field in which true New Churchmen could be found." The error of this was apparent in the composition of the various Societies of the Church at present. He did not believe in the desirability of allying ourselves in any effort with any sect of a false and perverted Church. The New Church was a distinct Church, and all its uses must be distinct, and any endeavor to work with sects of the Old Church would only result in the subjection of the New to the Old in proportion to their amalgamation.
     The Rev. W. C. Barlow seconded the resolution.
     A resolution of sympathy with the family of the late Dr. Bayley was passed unanimously.
     Dr. Tafel was appointed President for the ensuing year and the Board of Management was re-elected.
     The Rev. W. O'Mant has been elected "Leader" of the Dalston Society. This is a new departure, for an ordained minister to be styled a "Leader," as that term is generally applied to a layman who thinks himself capable of performing the use belonging to the office of the Priesthood.
     Truly we need more order, and thus more doctrine, in spite of Mr. Child's statement.
     The service in the Church in Camberwell must have been very impressive on Sunday morning, October 24th, when the Sacrament of Baptism was administered to nineteen adults and three infants. This was a free response to the teaching laid down for a time previous to the event by the minister.
     Three of the churches in London are very much alive at the present time.
     At Camden Road the Rev. Dr. Tafel is giving a course on "Emanuel Swedenborg, His Life and Character." On Sunday evening, November 7th, he commenced with a splendid lecture on "Swedenborg's Place in the Christian Church," holding his audience spellbound for sixty-five minutes.
     At Camberwell the Rev. R. J. Tilson is delivering a course of seven lectures on the leading doctrines of the Church, and at Brighton the same gentleman is lecturing every Wednesday on similar themes. Much earnest inquiry is being thus stimulated.
     At Kensington the Rev. T. Child is lecturing on "The Key to Life: Its Facts and Difficulties." Three lectures have already been given on "The Evil Factor," "The Doubt Period," and "Sex and Marriage." The church is crowded each evening and the lectures are most eloquent. The hard reasoning and telling arguments might, we would suggest, be profitably accompanied by an acknowledgment as to the source from whence the truth comes.
     We are to have an accession' to our roll of ministers in the person of the Rev. F. Sewall, who has obtained the pulpit of the Glasgow South Side Church.
     Desiring a little relaxation the other day, your correspondent made his first visit to an old and respected New Churchman living in a country village. The fresh air and tinted foliage was much enjoyed, but the heart was saddened in receiving so plain an answer to the oft-asked question, "Why does not the New Church grow more rapidly?" Our friend had been taught in the Bible Class of the Rev. in America and enjoyed the intimate friendship of another New Church minister of your country; but, alas! so little did he realize the worth of the Church or the force of her Doctrines that, after telling us that the clergyman of the Established Church which he attended was a constant scandal to the surrounding district, void of principle and of honesty-in fact, a "beast"-he informed us that he was principal churchwarden and took an active part in the work of this Church. Doubtless, he is but a sample of a multitude as deceived as himself. Truly, in the face of such false sentiment may we not say, "O LORD, how long?"
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       C. S       1886

     EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:-In Morning Light for October 30th appears the following report of the New Church Orphanage in England, which I have thought useful to insert in the Life, if you think proper.

(The report referred to by our correspondent gives the same, facts as published in our Letter from England, and we therefore omit the former.)

     [Here follows the report.)

     This account shows how the great use of the Orphanage is carried on in England. I have quoted it in the hope that it might excite a stronger interest in this country. The Church, as a family in a larger form, is bound to provide New Church nurture and education for its children when the parents are removed from them-and in New Church homes. The Academy of the New Church has set an example of doing this, and doing it in the best and least expensive way. Yet, from what I hear, there is danger of its uses in this direction being curtailed, as at the present rate of contribution the surplus will be exhausted in three months, and unless more is done for the, support of the use some of the children will have to suffer.     C. S.
Title Unspecified 1886

Title Unspecified       FRED. E. WAELCHLY       1886

EDITORS NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     GENTLEMEN:-Will you please permit me, in answer to frequent inquiries, to make a statement in your columns concerning the publication of the work on Discrete Degrees, by the Rev. N. C. Burnham. The Prospectus, published six months ago by the Academy Book Room, announced that the book would be published if enough subscriptions could be obtained. Four-fifths of the required number have thus far been received. Those who wish to subscribe, but have not yet done so, are requested to send their names as soon as possible.
     "Yours respectfully,
1700 Summer St., PHILA., PA., FRED. E. WAELCHLY,
     October 22d, 1886.          Agent.

192


NEWS GLEANINGS 1886

NEWS GLEANINGS       Various       1886


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
A MONTHLY JOURNAL

TERMS:-one Dollar per annum, payable in advance.
Six months on trial for twenty-five cents.

All communications must be addressed to Publishers New Church Life, No. 759 Corinthian Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa.

     PHILADELPHIA, DECEMBER, 1886=117.

     CONTENTS.

     Editorial Notes, pp. 177, 178.-Saving Faith (a Sermon), p. 178.-conversations on Education, p. 181.
     NOTES AND REVIEWS.-Notes, p. 182.-The Missing Treatise on Marriage, p. 183.-Latin Reprints, p. 184.
     FICTION-The Faith of Nathan Salloway, p. 185.-The Scientific Method, p. 188.-One Phase of Experience, p. 188.
     COMMUNICATED.-Sixty-first Meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania, p. 188.-Letter from England, p. 190.
     NEWS GLEANINGS, p. 192.
     BIRTHS, MARRIAGES, AND DEATHS, p.     192.
     AT HOME.

     New York.-THE Riverhead, L. I., Society, of which the late Rev. Charles A. Dunham was Pastor, is in an unsettled state. Mr. Fox, Mr. Hugh, and Mr. Howard Dunham have preached there of late.
     INTEREST in the Doctrines is growing at Grahamsville, N. Y.
     Massachusetts.-THE Rev. S. S. Seward delivered a course of five lectures at Martha's Vineyard during the summer.
     THE Boston Society is instituting a Reading Circle in connection with its weekly doctrinal class, conducted by the Rev. S. M. Warren.
     New Jersey.-THE sixteenth annual meeting of the New York Sabbath School Conference met at Paterson on November 6th.
     THE house of worship of the Orange Society is in process, of construction. It as to be a wooden structure capable of seating two hundred people, and is to be completed by spring.
     Illinois.-THE Illinois Association held its forty-seventh annual meeting in Peoria on October 15th, at which the Olney Society (thirty-five members) was received into the Association, and a Missionary Board was formed, whose first work is to open a correspondence with some receiver of the Doctrines at every Illinois post-office possible.
     Seven sermons were preached during the three days of the meeting. Five ministers of the Association and one from Kansas attended the meeting.
     THE Van Buren Street Society continues active on the South sod West Sides of Chicago.
     Ohio.-THE Cincinnati Society is considering the practicability of establishing a mission in one of the suburbs.
     THE Rev. O. L. Barler evangelized in Ohio and West Virginia, during the month of October.
     THE New Church believers in Toledo have organized a Society, a Sunday-school, and a Reading Circle.
     THE Rev. Frank Sewall sailed for Europe on November 20th. The resolutions passed by the Trustees of Urbana University, and by the Urbana Society, on the occasion of Mr. Sewall's retirement from his official relations have been printed in full in the Messenger for November 17th.
     Pennsylvania.-FOR report of the meeting of the General Church of Pennsylvania, see Communicated.
     AT the tea meeting of the Advent Society, held on November 26th, several ministers and delegates gave interesting accounts of the General Church meeting.
     THE "First Society" of Philadelphia has established a Reading Circle in its connection. This Society also provides for a monthly service in Clifton.
     Connecticut.-THE Connecticut Society held its quarterly meeting in Hartford on November 11th. About sixty persons were present, among them the Rev. C. Giles and several ministers of different denominations. Forty persons partook of the Holy Supper.
     Minnesota.-THE Minneapolis Association met at Minneapolis on October 11th. There are in Minnesota about seventy-five receivers, most of whom are connected with the two Societies of this Association. At the request of the Minneapolis Society, the Association sanctioned the ordination of Mr. W. H. Butterfield, the leader of the Society named. The Rev. John Goddard, General Pastor of the Ohio Association, performed the ordination during the meeting.

     Virginia.-FULL reports of the Rev. Jabez Fox's evangelistic labors in Virginia appear from time to time in the Messenger.
     Canada.-THE Canada Association held a four days' meeting, October 14th to 17th, at which a resolution was passed instructing the missionaries to organize Reading Circles. The Ecclesiastical Committee recommends the book to be read and the lessons are to be published in the Tidings in the form of a calendar. The importance of daily readings is urged upon all members of the Association. The question drawer was again put to good use.
     THE Toronto Society is still without a Pastor.

     ABROAD.

     Great Britain.-THE establishment of Reading Circles is spreading. The North of England Missionary Society has issued a circular recommending the establishment of one in Lancashire, to read Matthew and Heaven and Hell.
     THE Scottish New Church Association held its annual meeting at Edinburgh, on October 28th.
     UNDER the pastoral care of the Rev. John Presland, the Argyle Square (London) Society is giving more attention to study of the Writings.
     THE Rev. I. Tansley, of Liverpool, complains of his small audiences. He announces that if the people will not come into the church to worship, he will go outside and preach from the steps.
     AT Kensington, the Rev. Thomas Child follows up his Sunday evening lectures by a week-day meeting, where leading particulars of the lecture are recapitulated, and strangers and friends are invited to ask questions.
     THE Rev. Mark Rowse was recognized as the minister of the Blackburn Society on October 16th. Eight New Church and Old Church ministers were present on the occasion. Mr. Rowse succeeds the Rev. H. Cameron in the Pastorate. His name does not occur in the list of ministers of the English New Church Conference. The Rev. W. A. Presland presided at the meeting.
     Switzerland.-THE Herisau Society has monthly services, conducted by a layman. Eight new members have joined the Society during the past year.
     THE inevitable conflict has begun in Switzerland. Five members of the Council of the Swiss Union have issued manifestoes practically excommunicating the Rev. P. Gorwitz and all who hold with him in recognizing distinctively New Church baptism and a church organization separate from the Established Church. The five members named have also taken it upon themselves to transfer the property of the Swiss Union to the Herisau Society. Professor Pfirsch declares himself opposed to the whole proceeding.
     Austria.-Mr. Artope, of Berlin, Germany, visited the Vienna Society and preached to them, and apparently made a very favorable impression on them, as he has been accepted by them as their spiritual leader.