ALL THINGS MADE NEW        PENDLETON       1904


NEW CHURCH LIFE.
VOL. XXIV.
JANUARY, 1904
No. I.
     It is often in the mouth of Newchurchmen that all things are now to be made new, and the great changes in the world for a century past are pointed to as proof of the fulfillment of prophecy. But as there is danger of taking the proof of a thing for the thing itself, it may be of use to consider this question in the light of the teachings of the Church, in order that we may see the spiritual meaning involved, when it is said in the Apocalypse (xxi. 5), "Behold, I make all things new."

     It will be noted that the word new is already used in the chapter; the first verse opens with the words, "And I saw a new heaven and new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea." The idea involved, therefore, in verse 5, in the words, Behold, I make all things new," is already contained in the opening words of the chapter, where it is said that there is to be a making of a new heaven and a new earth, after the passing away of the first heaven and the first earth, and the removal of the sea; which is followed by the descent of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, out of heaven from God. And then in the fifth verse it is said in a sum that all things are to be made new.

     Since the Word has a spiritual sense throughout, which treats only of spiritual things, then there is a spiritual thing done, as represented in the words quoted, and not a natural thing; except so far as natural effects may be expected to follow spiritual causes, but which all follow as something far off and remote from what is spiritual, and of little consequence when compared to the spiritual thing itself.

     This spiritual thing is the spiritual Coming of the Lord, which is called His Second Coming. This Coming of the Lord, which is spiritual, is effected by means of the Last Judgment and a universal Redemption in the Spiritual World, and by a Revelation of Divine Truth, in the spiritual world and also in the natural; and at the same time by the formation of a new heaven of angels, and a New Church among men on the earth.

     The Last Judgment and universal Redemption is signified by the passing away of the former heaven and former earth, and the disappearing of the sea; the Revelation of Divine Truth is signified by the descent of the Holy City, New Jerusalem, from God out of heaven; the formation of the new angelic heaven and a New Church on the earth, is signified by the new heaven and the new earth, which were seen representatively by John. Now these same things are meant by all things mentioned in the fifth verse, that are to be made new, signifying in general the presence of the Lord anew in heaven, in the world of spirits, and in the natural world, removing the obstacles to His reception; and then His reception by those with whom the obstacles have been removed. The presence of the Lord is spiritual, the obstacles to be removed are spiritual, and the reception of Him is spiritual, and when this takes place, there is formed a new heaven and a New Church. This is the sum of what is meant by the words, "And He that sat upon the throne, said, Behold, I make all things new."

     The use of the word "throne" shows that the idea of judgment is the leading idea in this passage; and judgment is the removal by the Lord of those things which oppose His Coming and reception. The removal of evil and falsity is, therefore, the first thing that takes place in malting all things new; and without this there is nothing new, the old still remains. The old must be removed before the new can be received and established. Hence, we read in the Brief Exposition no. 95:

     "That the opening and rejection of the tenets of the faith of the present Church, and the revelation, and reception of the tenets of the faith of the New Church, is meant by these words in the Apocalypse, "He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new: and He said unto me, Write, for these words are true and faithful," chap. xxi. 5.

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     It is the spiritual descending out of heaven from God, and presence in the interior natural, that is new; it is new because it was not in the natural before, was not in the former Church. The Lord in His Glorified Human, as He appears to the angels in heaven, was not there; the Lord as He appears in His Word, spiritually seen and understood, was not there; the life of heaven, as revealed in the spiritual Word of God, was not there; a spiritual Church, established by the Divine Truth of the spiritual Word of God, was not there; the conjugial, such as it was in the ancient ages, and such as it is in heaven, was not there. These things are new in the world, and are to be in the New Church; and this is the reason why it is called the New Church, the New Jerusalem.

     The renewal is first in the spiritual world, and afterward in the natural world; and nothing can be made new in the natural world until all things are made new in the spiritual world. Hence we read:

     "That before the Last Judgment was effected, much of the communication between heaven and the world, thus between the Lord and the Church, was intercepted. All the illustration which man has is from the Lord through heaven, and enters by an internal way. So long as there were congregations of such spirits between heaven and the world, or between the Lord and the Church, man could not receive illustration. It was as when a sunbeam is cut off by a black interposing cloud, or as when the sun is eclipsed, and its light intercepted, by the interjacent moon. Wherefore, if anything had been then revealed by the Lord, it would not have been understood, or if understood, still it would not have been received, or if received, still it would afterwards have been suffocated. Now since all these interposing congregations were dissipated by the Last Judgment, it is manifest that the communication between heaven and the world, or between the Lord and the Church, has been restored. Hence, it is, that after the Last Judgment, and not before, Revelations were made for the New Church. For since communication has been restored by the Last Judgment, man can receive illustration and be reformed; that is, he is able to understand the Divine Truth of the Word, to receive it when understood, and to retain it when received, for the interposing obstacles have been removed. Wherefore, John, after the former heaven and the former earth passed away, says, that he "saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the Holy City Jerusalem, descending from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and heard Him that sat upon the throne say, Behold, I made all things new." (Cont. L. J. 11, 12.)

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     It will be seen from this teaching, that it is essential for man to be introduced as to his spirit into societies of good spirits in the World of Spirits, before he can receive the doctrines of the New Church interiorly, or in heart and life; and this could not be done before the Last Judgment, for no such societies were then in existence; the place which belonged to them was occupied by congregations of the evil. "Wherefore, if anything had been then revealed by the Lord, it would not have been understood, or if understood, still it would not have been received, or if received, still it would afterwards have been suffocated;" that is, it would have been profaned. "Hence it is, that after the Last Judgment and not before, Revelations were made for the New Church."

     After the renewal has been effected in the Spiritual World, then the renewal begins in the natural world, by means of the Revelations which have been made for the New Church. And the renewal in both worlds is a spiritual renewal, consisting in the removal of the falsities and evils of the Old Church, and the reception of the truths and goods of the New.

     The renewal in both worlds is a spiritual renewal, and the renewal is by the truth; for it is the truth revealed and present in both worlds that removes falsity and evil; and when falsity and evil, which make the old, are removed, all things are made new; for the new truth from heaven builds up the waste places, renews the face of the ground, and the desert rejoices and blossoms as the rose.

     The process by which the new truth makes all things new, in the spiritual world is called judgment, in the natural world temptation; but the essential principle in both is one and the same, and this one essential principle is combat, or resistance to the falsity of evil,--the combat that ends in victory. Indeed, the combat of temptation is judgment in man's spirit, and is a judgment on the spirits who are in his environment in the world of spirits.

     Whenever there is anything new, there is always something that opposes, whether in the kingdom of nature. or in the activities of man,--something that assails and endeavors to destroy. For the old is satisfied with itself, and wishes to preserve its dominion.

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This is especially true when the Lord makes Himself present in new revelation. The combat is greater according to the newness of the truth revealed; and there is, therefore, no combat, and never has been any combat, like that which is to take place in the establishment of the New Church; the combat of Michael and the dragon.

     As was said, this combat in the spiritual world is judgment, and in the natural world is felt as temptation. The judgment is separation, and temptation is also separation,--separation in either case from the falsities of evil which oppose, separation from those who are in such falsities of evil.

     This combat of temptation in the natural world takes the man of the New Church out of the environment of the old, separates him from a false worship, and establishes new organizations for the sake of a true worship, the wet-ship of the one only true God, our Lord Jesus Christ; and in the new organizations, there is to be a constant renewal by temptations, until the Church reaches her appointed station, and the Word is fulfilled that all things are to be made new. The continual process of making new, let us repeat, is the opening and rejection of the falsities of the former Church, and the reception of the truths of the New Church,--the rejection of the falsities of the old which continually pursue the new, even as Pharaoh pursued the sons of Israel, with whom a new worship was to be established, and which could not possibly be established in Egypt.

     The separation from the old is not one act but a continual process, and will go on for many generations, even after the new has established itself in a separate and distinct organization. The combat of Michael and the dragon takes place at first openly with the old, and afterwards more interiorly in the new itself,--even as the soils of Israel had grievous combats with the nations around and in the land of Canaan, after they had a fixed habitation in that land. Not until the time of Solomon did the land have peace. Solomon is the Glorified Human of the Lord, whose reign becomes complete in the New Church after a long period of temptation.

     If there is no temptation in the Church, both general and particular, in the Church as a general body, and in the individual, then there is stagnation; and stagnation is surrender to the old, and
     death.

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     This then is the danger to the New Church as a distinct organization and body of men,-stagnation; a danger that will become an existent reality, if the main effort be to suppress temptation rather than evil.

     If we look about into the world, and into own natural man, we will see, that the universal tendency of the natural is to suppress temptation rather than evil itself. Reflect upon this, and you will see more and more the truth of it; and in seeing this truth you will see more and more the present danger to the New Church.

     It is right to discourage personalities and all combat over things that are external and unimportant. It is the spiritual and its presence in the natural that is essential. The things of the natural are temporary and changeable, even the natural things of the Church. They are not the same in one generation as in another. They are merely instrumentalities, that may be varied according to needs and conditions, that may be used or not according to the indications of Providence. But the things of the spiritual are fundamental and eternal,--the spiritual truth of doctrine and the spiritual good of life. These are to last forever. Man receives them from the spiritual world, takes them with him to the spiritual world, and then enters more fully into them. The man of the Church can afford to bend or yield in the external to things that are merely external. They are not worth fighting over. There is always more than one way of doing the same thing; and in a battle that is won in things that are merely external not much is gained, and something may be lost; charity may be lost or its activity. The thing that is worth fighting for, that man may die for, is the spiritual in the natural, the spiritual truth of the Word, the spiritual good that is in the truth of the Word.

     In not contending over things that are merely natural, freedom is allowed, and with freedom breadth of view, and true liberality. There must be freedom in the natural, freedom of speech, and freedom of action; for freedom is of spiritual origin and is the priceless jewel of human life: in freedom the spiritual lives and moves and has its being. To assail freedom is to assail the spiritual itself, and it must be defended. That which takes away freedom is that which destroys spiritual truth, is that which prevents the renewal of the Church; it is falsity of evil from hell, and this must be met and resisted.

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This is the thing that is to be suppressed and exterminated,--not freedom, not temptation, which always is where freedom is, and this until the war for freedom is over, until the victory for the spiritual is gained. To suppress temptation, is to suppress freedom, for they are inseparable.

     To show what temptation is, does not come within the purpose of this address. It is taken for granted that Newchurchmen know what spiritual temptation is. If they do not know, they ought to know; and perhaps if it were better known, there would be no effort to suppress it; no hindrances would be placed in the way of the Lord's operation in making all things new.

     The point we wish to impress is, that all things are to be made new by the combat of temptation, by the war of Michael and the dragon, for it is by this that the spiritual descends into the natural and occupies it. We wish to show that the renewal of the Church is by this,--by the combat of the sword of truth, and trot by an enforced natural peace, nor by the mere renewal of natural effects in the world.

     Things natural are indeed made new, as a general effect of the universal renewal which takes place in the spiritual world, by means of the Last Judgment. This renewal of natural things, is evidenced in the increased order and prosperity of the world. But it is a natural renewal without a spiritual renewal. Hell itself was renewed by the Last Judgment, because hell was brought into order, an order that was new; but there is no spiritual renewal in hell, nor ever will be. There is natural renewal in the world, it is seen everywhere; but no spiritual renewal except with a few, except with those who see the Lord in His Coming and bow before Him with humility of heart. No others can be renewed. With some there is a state of preparation for renewal; but the renewal itself takes place only with those who see and know the Lord in His Second Coming. With these a New Church is to be formed and established, in which the words, "Behold. I make all things new," will be ever fulfilled in the degree that spiritual combat is allowed, and spiritual freedom prospers.

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SIMEON-OBEDIENCE 1904

SIMEON-OBEDIENCE       Rev. C. TH. ODHNER       1904

     Leah conceived again, and bare a son, and said, For Jehovah hath heard that I was hated, and hath given me this also. And she called his name, Simeon." Genesis 29:33.

     Reuben, the first-born of Jacob and Leah, represents the first means of regeneration vis., the reception of the Divine Truth by the understanding.* Simeon, his next brother, represents the second universal means, the obedience to Truth in actual life.
* See the sermon on REUBEN, in New Church Life for June, 1903.

     Man, as an organ of life, possesses not only the faculty of understanding, but also the faculty of willing, and the will is the life itself of the man, consisting of nothing but love, desire, affection, appetite, energy and activity. The will must be constantly doing that which it loves; it must ultimate and satisfy its desires, or it will cease to live, but in itself it is blind, and must therefore confide itself to the guidance of the understanding. If falsity occupies the understanding, man's native will follows its guide lovingly and rejoicingly into the pit of Hell which is its congenial home, but if the understanding is filled with the light of truth, the native will can be compelled to follow the light; protesting, angrily, desperately resisting still it must follow, in order to act and thus to live, for it has no other guide than the understanding.

     SIMEON.

     It is this state of forced submission of the will in obedience to the command of Divine Truth that is most generally represented by Simeon, whose name, as indicated in the text, is derived from the sense of hearing (in Hebrew "Shimeon" from "Shanza," to hear. ) For Leah said "Jehovah hath heard that I was hated;" the affection of truth, or Leah, is hated and despised by the natural man, until the birth of Simeon,--the conception of a new will, the will of truth, through the habit of obedience,--prepares the way for Levi and Judah, for genuine charity and love of the Lord.will of truth, through the habit of obedience,--prepares the way for Levi and Judah, for genuine charity and love of the Lord.

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     Simeon represents the new will, but only in its first rudimentary and embryonic stage,--an external willingness from an external faith,--a willingness largely induced from without and distinguished from charity and faith by the name of obedience, a word which is derived from the Latin ob-audire,--to hear or harken to anyone, the particle ob implying an attitude of attention and submission on the part of the hearer before the voice that is heard.

     The affection of obedience is in itself a lowly, introductory affection, merely a servant and door-keeper in the household of the mind, and therefore we read but little of Simeon in the Sacred History, his place being occupied, afterwards, by the more important tribe of Manasseh who bears a similar representation but on a higher plane, and hr the tribe of Judah, with which Simeon gradually merged. But because obedience is so external an affection, it is a fundamental one, upon which all spiritual life depends. Like the Letter of the Word it can be turned into wrong uses, but when rightly used it is the very axis of Heaven and the Church, and about it turn the wheels of all spiritual progress.

     It is as the representative of obedience in its evil and perverted sense that Simeon figures in 'the tragic story of Dinah and Shechem, where we read of Simeon and Levi treacherously falling upon a defenceless and confiding city, slaying all the males and carrying away all goods and all living things within it. Confessedly this was done in order to avenge the honor of their sister, Dinah, but actually it was only in order to satisfy their lust of cruelty and plunder.

     Shechem was a city inhabited by Hittites, who were good but simple remains of the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches. Their destruction by Simeon and Levi represented the destruction of innocent charity and faith in the Israelitish Church, which was effected by the evil obedience of that Church,--an obedience which on the surface was implicit, literal and servile, but hypocritical, cruel and recalcitrant within. It was always in the name of Jehovah that the Israelites oppressed their gentile neighbors, but as soon as there was no longer any hope of gain or gratification of lust, there was no obedience whatever to the Word of the Lord.

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     On this account Simeon and Levi were cursed by their dying father, when the other sons received his blessings:

     "Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of violence are their daggers....     Cursed be their anger, for it was vehement, and their wrath, for it was hard. I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel." Genesis 49:5-7.

     Genuine obedience and charity were not thus cursed, but Jewish obedience and charity, which were inwardly disobedience and hatred. As Reuben represents faith, but in the opposite sense faith alone, so Simeon represents obedience, but in the opposite sense obedience alone, which, when blind and obedient to falsity instead of truth, becomes an "instrument of violence." The cruelty of such obedience is abundantly illustrated in the bloody history of the Roman Catholic Church, where blind obedience to popes and councils was made the primary duty of the Church, resulting in the unspeakable horrors of religious wars, persecutions and Inquisitions throughout the history of the Christian world. These crimes were all committed in the name of the Lord, and it was all done by blind obedience lending itself as a willing tool to the love of dominion which was ruling by means of truths adulterated and profaned.

     Even within the nominal New Church there have been religious persecutions; blind obedience to settled standards and fashions of thought and life has often risen in vehement anger against new and more internal developments of faith and charity. And here the cruelty of Simeon has been most refined: not by racks and human holocausts, nor by anathemas and excommunications, but by whispered insinuations against the personal character and purity of unpopular brethren.

     There are perverted Simeonites in the heart of each one of us, intolerant affections of blind obedience to conventional opinions and modes of life. Whenever anything new or is presented, anything which is not in conformity with that which has hardened and crystallized into established forms,-our forms,--unthinking obedience in at once ready to suspect and reject without further examination, and to persecute by gossip and criticism, if not by fire and sword. This man has certain ideas or habits of life not quite their own.

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This family does not bring up its children just as we do, or in other ways does not conform to public opinion as it exists among us. This minister has introduced some modification of old conceptions which does not at first blush seem quite sound according to the old lines of thought. And so the tongues of Simeonites in our hearts do their cruel work, until, if not checked by the voice of conscience and charity, they would break up every society in the Church and destroy the Church itself within each one of us.

     For the whole tendency of mere obedience is to settle down, to rest content with the status quo, to harden and grow old in what is established and what does not require any exertion of thought and examination. It hates changes and disturbances of the mind, and loves the old truths and the old goods chiefly because they are old. But good and truth, if permitted to grow old and hard, are good and truth no longer, but become the opposite evil and falsity. In themselves they cannot grow old, because they are infinite and eternal. It is only we that grow old if we settle down into mere obedience, if we do not keep our minds open and hospitable to new truths and new goods.

     This is what the New Church must especially guard itself against: becoming old, allowing itself to settle down into a persuasive and stereotyped faith and life, a mere unthinking obedience to the standards once established by our fathers, no matter how interior and advanced these may have been once upon a time. The New Church within us must never be allowed to grow old, for then it becomes Old Church, even as it is now becoming Old Church in the older organizations of the New Church. But it must "renew its youth like the eagles" by drinking deeply and daily from the fountain of youth, the ever flowing river of the water of life which in the form of Heavenly Doctrine, flows in the midst of the New Jerusalem. This Doctrine is what makes the Church the New Church, the ever and eternally New, but in order to receive new influx from this river the members of the Church must keep their minds open, plastic and receptive, and the chief means for keeping themselves in this condition is by cultivating the spiritual sense of hearing, that is, the habit of spiritual obedience to the voice of the Lord in His Revelation.

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For as Simeon, or Obedience, in all evil sense is an instrument of violence and spiritual stagnation and death, so in its good and proper sense and use, obedience or hearing is the primary means of spiritual life and progress.

     THE PHYSIOLOGY OF HEARING.

     The importance of obedience as an essential factor in the life of regeneration can be properly illustrated and understood only by a study of the wonderful physiology of the ear and of the psychology of the sense of hearing, on which subject so many unknown secrets of science have been unfolded in Swedenborg's philosophical works, and so many glorious arcana of wisdom
have been revealed in the Heavenly Doctrines.

     The whole configuration of the organ of hearing is most wonderfully adapted for the collecting, the concentrating, and the communicating of sound. The external ear itself, with its lobes and winding, shell-like forms, is so extended and spirally intorted as to be able to catch and collect every different wave of sound, and to convey its concentrated volume into the auditory passage. And here it is taken up by the drum of the ear, which intensifies the reverberations and conveys them along further labyrinthine passages and wonderful little bones, known as the hammer, the anvil, etc., over turbinated membranes, oval windows, semi-circular canals and spiral shells, until the reverberations, echoed and re-echoed, concentrated and intensified in force, finally strike the auditory nerves and are communicated directly to the two brains, every least form and organism corresponding exactly to the natural form and flux of the air and its waves of sound.

     The sound itself is nothing but an undulatory motion in the outer air, produced in the case of speech, by the vibrations of the vocal cords. These cords, again, vibrate in exact correspondence with the affections which set them in motion, and each different affection produces its own distinct and corresponding undulations in the air. And these various undulations, being caught by the receptive ear, cause a corresponding vibration and trembling in the membranes and bones of the head, a tremulation which sets into a quaking motion all the bones of the cranium and all the softer substances and fluids of the brain within.

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     Every wave of sound, therefore, induces a marked change of state in the form and disposition of the substances of the brain and thence in the whole bodily system, and its vibratory force is intensified by having become concentrated over and over again.

     The sense of hearing has therefore the effect of shaking up the whole head and the whole body, causing a general commotion which breaks up the existing conditions, which, without this disturbance, would become settled and permanently fixed, would harden, grow old, and finally collapse and cause death.

     We may thus form a conception of the wonderfully rectifying and life-giving force which is communicated by the sense of hearing. For life is motion, activity, and change of state, whereas settlement, hardening, and stagnation, are the same as death. By the vibrations of the sound, new states and dispositions of the head and the body are introduced; the brain is clarified, purged and restored to new order; the pores and fissures of the cranium are opened to the influx of the higher atmospheres, which communicate new animal spirits to the cortical substance and the blood; and the whole body is thus rendered receptive of new life. Hearing may therefore be described as the chief compelling influence of the external life of man.

     Beside this external influence of the sense of hearing by means of the tremulations of the bones and membranes, there is an internal communication with the two brains by means of the auditory nerves which are double, the one being hard and firm, the other softer. The harder nerve communicates immediately with the medulla of the cerebellum or smaller brain, which is the seat of the will and the affections, and this centre of physical life is thus touched, shaken, castigated, influenced and modified by the influx of the sound itself. But the softer nerve communicates immediately with the cerebrum or larger brain, which is the seat of the intellectual faculties, and to these the softer auditory nerve conveys the meaning of the sound through its various articulations. In the cerebrum, therefore, the sense of hearing conjoins itself with the sense of vision, so that we can by visual images represent to ourselves the things that are heard through a species of internal sight. Hence hearing corresponds not only to the obedience of the will but also to the apperception of faith.

     Nevertheless, it is chiefly the cerebellum and the will that are affected by the waves of sound or the vibrations of hearing, for the sound receives its internal quality from the affections of the one who is speaking, and this affection enters through the ear and is communicated to the cerebellum.

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Thus as the eyes are the windows through which light enters into the mind, so the ears are the doors through which living affections enter in and communicate with the resident will, which is the man himself.

     Love and hatred, joy and grief, hope and fear,--all the affections of the will clothe themselves in corresponding tones, exciting in the hearer similar affections. The tone of anger excites anger, even though the words be smooth, for it produces harsh vibrations in the bones of the cranium and in the harder part of the auditory nerve; and so also the tone of love produces love, because it clothes itself in soft, harmonious vibrations which soothe and caress the bones and the nerves. In either case, the hearing compels and persuades the affections, not so much by convincing evidences, such as those of sight, but by an external influence which produces that submission of the will which is known as obedience.

     THE PSYCHOLOGY OF OBEDIENCE.

     As hearing is caused by the concentration of sound in the ear, so obedience is first produced by the concentration of will-power in the effort to produce submission in the will of another. The truth of this phenomenon is known to all parents and teachers, who stand in constant need of concentrating all their energies and all their affections in order to create the habit of obedience in their young charges. And in the child itself there must be a corresponding concentration of will-power, in order that it may force itself into the act of obedience. The first excuse of a disobedient child is that he "didn't remember" the command of the parent, but it is not the memory that is really at fault, so much as the lack of concentration of energy. This habit of concentration must, therefore, by all means be created and cultivated with the young, and it is cultivated by means of continuous insistence, that is, by firmness and constancy in the concentration of will-power and by repeated commands, corresponding to the repeated reverberations in the long-continued passages of the internal ear.

     The second element in the production of hearing is the reverberation of sound which effects a trembling in the bones of the cranium, and this trembling corresponds to the affection of fear, without which there can never be any obedience.

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For the whole proprium of fallen man is an organism of self-will and of opposition to all things of genuine order, and nothing but external force, compulsion, and chastisement can break up this native state of man. But as the tremulations of hearing are constantly counteracting the hardening tendencies of body, so the mental forms, which are disposed to harden into a permanent state of disobedience and opposition to order, are shaken, disturbed, commoved and broken up, when fear is induced and the self-will is made to tremble from the sufferings of punishment or from the memory and prospects thereof. "Before I was affected, I went astray, but now do I keep Thy Word," (Ps. 119:67). Only by the concentration of will-power, by insistence, and by afflictions, at first external, and afterwards more and more internal,--can the will be forced to submission and obedience.

     This, however, is merely the beginning. Blind obedience, unquestioning, absolute and instant obedience must be established as the ultimate plane for the creation of a new will in man. But it must not remain as such only, for then, as has been seen, obedience may become "an instrument of cruelty," as in the case of Simeon. In order that man may regenerate there must be intelligent obedience and finally loving obedience, and here we come to the third element in the production of hearing, which is the influence of the auditory nerves.

     The spirit of man, no less than his body, possesses a seventh or auditory pair of nerves, which, in the spiritual body as in the natural, is twofold. These two spiritual nerves are called the perception of truth and the perception of good. The perception of truth,-corresponding to the softer nerve,--communicates immediately with the rational understanding, where it produces an interior kind of sight which is called wisdom and which conjoins itself with the exterior vision of the spirit, which is known as intelligence. This interior sight, the sight of hearing, is that which prevails among the angels of the celestial heaven, who are perfected in wisdom not so much through the sight of the eye as through the hearing of the ears. "The things which they hear from preaching do not enter into their memory, but immediately into their perception and will, and become of the life.

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But the things which these angels see with their eyes enter into their memory, and they reason and speak about them. Hence it is evident that the way of hearing Is with them the way of wisdom." (H. H. 271)

     In order, therefore, to elevate external obedience into internal obedience, the faculty of the perception of truth must be cultivated, no less than the memory and the intellectual understanding. And this perception is cultivated by appealing to the affection of truth, for the sake of life, and not merely for the sake of scientific knowledge and brightness of intelligence; it is cultivated by teaching the child what to do with his knowledges and truths, and what uses and delights and blessings will result in this life and in the other by obeying the truth. As fear is the beginning of wisdom, so the perception of truth is its upbuilding, and the perception of good its crowning perfection.

     The perception of good is the final element in the spiritual sense of hearing which is called obedience, just as that part of the auditory nerve, which communicates immediately with the cerebellum, is the final, inmost, and essential medium of natural hearing.

     This perception, the perception of good, is of the will much more than of the understanding and is a thing to be felt and experienced, rather than to be described in words. In general, however, it may be termed "the sensitiveness of love" or the sense of harmony and disharmony of affections. For as it is the cerebellum that catches the sound itself, that is, its tone of agreeableness or disagreeableness, so the ruling love of man immediately sensates that which is in harmony or in disharmony with itself. The sensation of harmony causes the love to expand and go forth in the effort to embrace that which it feels to be good, whereas disharmony causes it to shrink back in aversion and fear. The perception of good, therefore, is that inmost sense by means of which the love makes its immediate discrimination between good and evil. It is that which causes in us those "first impressions" of men and things, which we cannot explain, which often seem unreasonable and are most difficult to overcome, but which not seldom are correct in their swift, woman-like judgments. As long as the self-love of the old proprium is dominant, this perception, however, is not to be trusted, for the old will perceives all genuine good as evil.

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Nevertheless, it can be reduced into obedience first by compulsion and punishment, and afterwards by self-compulsion and self-affliction, and then, within the habit of obedience, as a matrix, a new will, a new love, the love of good can be created by the Lord. And then the spiritual auditory nerve will perceive good as good and evil as evil, and will become the chief guide of the regenerated man.

     In summing up the preceding outlines of the psychology of obedience, we find, therefore, that this fundamental virtue can be established, 1st, by the concentration of will-power by the one who is to be obeyed and by the one who is to obey; 2d, by the persistence of this concentration of will-power; 3d, by the production of fear, by means of punishments, causing a trembling in the opposing will, and thereby a change of state and a new receptivity of influx; 4th, by the influx of instruction, through the perception of truth; and 5th, by the influence of a superior and stronger affection upon the old will. by means of the perception of good;--the whole of this spiritual process, in each of its steps, corresponding exactly to the production of hearing by means of the natural ear.

     The importance of spiritual hearing or obedience is evident from the fact that it is the very first act in the life of regeneration, the first act of ultimating the truth of the understanding that is, of conjoining truth with good. As such it is the first beginning of the conjugial in man, the internal marriage of will and understanding. And since all heavenly loves rest upon conjugial love as upon their one foundation, and since conjugial love rests upon obedience, we may perceive the meaning of the Divine teaching that "the province of the ear is the axis of Heaven," (A. E. 14; S. D. 5569), and that the whole of Heaven and the whole of the Lord's Love and Mercy inflow into the ear in order to effect obedience and thereby to set in motion the doing of the Lord's will. And since obedience is the axis of heaven, it is also the axis of all heavenly life among men on earth, all orderly, civilized and truly human life.

     It is the axis of all true marriage, because unity in marriage depends in the chief instance upon both the husband and the wife obeying one central will, the Lord's will, instead of their own self-will and love of domineering over each other.

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     It is the axis of all family life in a larger sense, since there can be no order, peace, or happiness in a house where children and servants do not obey the central authority of father and mother, master and mistress.

     It is the axis in the whole use of education, that is, of preparation for human life in this world and in the world to come. In the home or in the school, obedience is the one thing that must be first established, the sine-qua-non which must be secured, insisted upon, and enforced at all costs, lest anarchy, chaos and general destruction supervene. The whole of education, in fact, means the leading of the native self-will, the potential devil, out of his opposition and disobedience, into a state of order and of obedience to the will of God. To establish such obedience is the first duty of parents and teachers, their duty to the Lord and their duty to the child, for disobedience is the worst of all his enemies, destroying not only all his opportunities to learn what is true, but also all his innocence, contentment and happiness during his earthly life and afterwards to all eternity.

     Obedience must be established, and it can be established, but only if teachers and parents themselves obey the laws which the Lord has revealed in the Word concerning spiritual hearing, the same laws which the Creator has impressed upon nature itself in the ear, in the sound and in the sense of hearing. It can never be established if we follow our own notions, our sentimental sympathies with the evils of our children, whose obstinacy is secretly admired by the proprium in us, as showing "a spirit of independence," "Young America," etc. Moral suasions are important in their own place, but they cannot he brought in at first. The way for them can he prepared only by royal battles, in which the opposing will is broken down; there can be no love without obedience, and no obedience without fear, and no fear without punishment, and no effective punishment without physical punishment as the ultimate basis of experience.

     These laws of obedience, which the Lord has revealed to the New Church, are misunderstood and internally rejected by the whole Christian world, which is everywhere filled with the sphere

     of disobedience,--disobedience of children against their parents and teachers,--disobedience of servants and the laboring classes against masters and employers,--and disobedience of both against the laws of charity and justice.

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Disobedience is the watch-word of the day, on the spiritual plane as well as on the natural,--disobedience, rebellion, the pride of self-will and human reason, the rejection of the Word of the Lord, and of all Divine Authority. And in consequence the axis of human society is creaking and groaning and threatening to break down. Everywhere there is unrest, discontent, unhappiness and growing tendency to anarchy and towards dissolution of the existing civilization.

     It is not from the blind and deaf leaders of this crumbling civilization that the New Church is to learn the laws of obedience and education, but from the ever new and inexhaustible fountains of Truth revealed in the Heavenly Doctrines. Knowledges of scientific facts and of external methods of education, such as may be learned from the world, are useful in their own plane, but are of secondary importance; the chief duty of the Church is to come to the feet of the LORD, and to listen to His voice, rather than to the voice of the world .

     As in His Light alone we can see light, so by His Voice alone can our ears be opened. Therefore, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of the prophecy, and keep the things which are written therein." Blessed are they that "want to know the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and who attend to the things which are in it, and do and live according to it." (A. R. 8.)

     "And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Comte. And let him that thirsteth come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life, freely." Which signifies that "he who hears and thence knows anything concerning the Advent of the Lord, the New Heaven and the New Church, and thus concerning the Kingdom of the Lord, should pray that it may come." (A. R. 956.)

     And to him who thus prays, that is, turns to the Lord in His Divine Revelation, "He that testifieth these things saith: Surely I Come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

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INTEMPERANCE 1904

INTEMPERANCE       J. B. S. KING       1904

     The enthusiastic labors of the so-called temperance advocates against the use of alcohol are responsible for the misuse of two English words. They have restricted the word "Intemperance" to denote excess in drinking, and they have perverted the word "Temperance" to mean total abstinence from alcohol.

     Both of these words are general in their significance, and refer, the one to the use, and the other to the abuse, of all gratifications whatsoever. An individual may be grossly intemperate in the indulgence of many pleasures, and yet be a shining advocate of that peculiar form of temperance which refers alone to abstinence from alcohol. The extreme and irrational position of these people, combined with their great activity, has had a strong effect upon the world at large. Not all, even of the members of the New Church, have succeeded in freeing themselves from the bondage of these false ideas. Some, forgetting that externals are neither good nor evil in themselves, but derive their quality from use, share in common with the Blue Ribbon Societies, an unreasoning and fanatical hatred of the material liquid itself. Such a feeling is on a par with the resentment of the savage, who with his fist strikes the rock upon which he has stubbed his toe.

     Our branch of the New Church has been severely criticized because we tolerate and countenance the use of alcohol, both in private life and at our public feasts. Harsh criticism of recent date, that has come to the attention of the writer, is the cause of the present paper. To the extent that that criticism is based upon Old Church and Temperance Society principles, to the extent that it is founded upon the idea that every drop of every kind of spirituous drink is devilish and infernal in its nature and essence, it may be disregarded; but it is a proper and may be a useful field of inquiry to try to determine the true limits of temperance and intemperance and thus give useful data for coming to a rational conclusion.

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     From the Arcana Coelestia, n 994, 995, I derive the following principles:--Pleasures are the ultimate effects of delight; there is no pleasure existing in the body, which does not exist and subsist from some interior affection; all pleasures have a duality agreeing with the co-ordinate interior delights from which they arise. Pleasure without delight is no pleasure, but something dead and inanimate, for it is in consequence of the delight that it becomes a pleasure. The quality of delight depends upon the state of the interior life. That delight alone is living, wherein there is good from the Lord. In another work the statement is made that "pleasure follows use but ought not to precede it."

     To recapitulate: There are two things, pleasure, which lives in the senses, and delight, which lives in the mind; the quality of the pleasure depends upon the delight which animates it and the quality of both depend upon use.

     From these statements, it is evident that indulgence in pleasure, without regard to its use or to such an extent as to injure the interior delight, which belongs to its use, is the mother of Intemperance. When in any gratification of the senses the mind is directed towards the pleasure as an end, without regard to the use which should have its home in the affections, the door is opened to Intemperance, for there is then no limit to indulgence, except satiety.

     To illustrate; if one eat only for the pleasure of eating, the mind is immersed in the gratification of the palate and the act will be continued until repletion puts an end to the feast; for there is no other reason for ceasing. What is this but gluttony? Such pleasure dwells upon the tip of the tongue, its utmost boundaries are the cheeks and palate and its means lie in the delicacy and savor of food.

     On the other hand, if there is an affection in the mind for maintaining the body in a sound state, in order to live a life of use, then the interior affection of use is excited to activity and its delight descends and animates the pleasure of eating; at the same time it exalts and purifies it, and to a certain degree frees it from bondage to the quality of food. It guards against overindulgence, because that would be inimical to its end, the health of the body. No one with a love of health in the mind will eat to excess. Such a one would prefer food wholesome, rather than dainty, in such quantity as experience and science have proved to be the best sustainers of the bodily health.

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     The different planes upon which pleasure and delight dwell may again be illustrated by supposing as elocutionist and a philosopher listening to an eloquent oration. The mind of the former is directed towards the gestures, attitudes, phrases, inflections and tones of the speaker, and only secondarily to the sense of his words. The attention of the latter, without being dulled to external graces, is turned rather toward the truth and beauty of the speaker's thoughts. The elocutionist regards the clothing only and takes pleasure in it. The philosopher looks rather to the thing clothed and is delighted thereby.

     The same is true of all gratifications of the senses. They are vile just in proportion as they are merely external, and happy in the degree that they are internal, or as elsewhere expressed, "as externals are evolved and unswathed, so much the more of amenity and happiness do their delights possess."

     It would he idler in regard to eating or drinking, to state any definite qualities as the limits of temperance. That is a question to be settled by each person for him or herself; but it may be useful to state some general principles to serve as guides in coming to a rational conclusion. First: In regard to eating; more food is required in proportion to the weight and size, during the years of active growth than afterwards. Growth is continuous, but at a constantly diminishing rate from birth up to full adult life; its last process takes place during the thirty-third year.

     Second: From the beginning of adult life up to about the fiftieth year there is nearly a state of equilibrium, and the amount of food required depends upon the amount of work done.

     Third: From about the fiftieth year to the end of life, there is a continuous, but constantly accelerating impairment in the powers of absorption and elimination.

     The practical points to be deduced from these facts may be thus stated: plenty of appropriate food during the years of growth, enough, but not too much, during adult life, and progressively less as age comes on. The errors most likely to be made are the underfeeding of the young and the overfeeding of the old. It is a common mistake to continue habits of diet formed during adult life into old age, and a very cogent sign of that mistake is an increase of bodily weight, without any change in habits, occurring from the fortieth to the fiftieth year.

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     Those who have watched the filtrations of organic fluids in the laboratory will remember how rapidly the fluid runs through the filter; then as the minute interstices of the filtering fabric become clothed with debris, how it runs slower and slower, until it finally comes drop by drop. The human body may be regarded as a delicately organized filter, and the food as the material that must be strained through it.

     The clean, new filter that filters rapidly, represents the flexible, active tissues of youth, while the clogged filter that permits the fluid to pass only drop by drop represents the stiff, firm, obstructed tissue of age. As the years pass, the hard, insoluble residues of food obstruct the infinitesimal organic tubes and clog the delicate reticulations of which the human body is composed, so that it can absorb less and discharge less than when young and clear and free. "Discerne," says Lord Bacon, "of the coming on of years and think not to do the same thing still, for Age will not be defied."

     As a further help, I will give the results, determined by a vast amount of experimentation, as to the quantities of food required during the adult life and old age of an average man.

     A man of average weight, performing moderate labor, requires 310 grains of Nitrogen and 4,963 grains of Carbon in 24 hours. Reducing this to terms of common articles of food, it would be 9 ounces of lean meat, 2 ounces of butter, 6 ounces of potatoes, and 2 ounces of bread, distributed through the meals of 24 hours.

     An old man of average weight requires a little less than 2/3 of this amount, i. e., 6 ounces of lean meat, 3 ounces of fat, 4 ounces of potatoes, and 10 ounces of bread. It should be remembered that these figures are not absolute for any individual, but simply given as averages to make the subject intelligible; also, that the necessary amounts of Nitrogen and Carbon may be supplied by quite other articles of food than those mentioned.

     The treatise, entitled "The Sure and Certain Method of Attaining a Long and Healthful Life," by Louis Cornaro, although written over four hundred years ago, is still one of the most convincing and eloquent arguments ever written in favor of temperance, and it is well worth consulting. What, then, are the uses of Alcohol, if any?

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Its characteristic effect upon the body is to expand the capillaries, to increase the pace of the blood-current, and to augment the force and frequency of the pulse. It draws the blood from its hidden retreat, and sends it to the periphery; it makes the animal heat, stored in the central organs, available and effective in the extremities and upon the surface.

     The common idea of the circulatory system is that it is like a pyramid, the heart and the large vessels representing the base, and the capillaries the apex. The truth is just the reverse. The heart is the narrow apex, and the capillaries the broad base of the pyramid. The total capacity of the peripheral capillaries is something like 400 times greater than that of the heart and large vessels, and in some such large degree are the properties of the blood exalted and extended by a free capillary circulation, the most potent thing to induce which is alcohol.

     It may be remarked that noble and generous emotions have an effect very similar to alcohol upon the circulation. Patriotism, Zeal, self-sacrifice, all these quicken the blood-current and flush the capillaries. On the other hand, sordid and depressing emotions contract the capillaries, slacken the blood-current produce pallor and coldness of the periphery and relaxation of the muscular fibres. Fear, avarice, hate, secrecy and irresolution all agree in producing these effects upon the body.

     The characteristic effect of alcohol upon the mind is so analogous to that which it produces upon the body that it may be described in almost the same terms; it expands the feelings, it increases the flow of the thoughts, it augments the force of the affections, it draws our hidden and restrained emotions from their secret recesses and gives them frank and open expression, and thus promotes geniality, good fellowship and mutual love.

     So long as the use of alcohol is remembered there is little danger of excess. It is only when the mind, leaving the delights of its use, descends into its corporeal pleasures that the door is opened to Intemperance. Shakespeare says:

     "Good wine is a good familiar creature, when well used, but every inordinate cup is unblessed and cometh of the devil."

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     The higher the use of anything, the more carefully should guard against its abuse. Alcohol acts first and chiefly upon the most delicate and complex cells and the most highly organized tissue of the body. Impairment of the highest functions is the first effect of its abuse. It robs a man of his self-possession, it early impairs accuracy of observation, it obscures the logical faculty, it blunts the sense of propriety; and it does all this from such slight excess as to be far removed from what is commonly called intoxication. A little more, and it produces co-ordination of the muscles, cell-degeneration, and cell-paralysis.

     No one should be more careful to avoid the abuse of this noble nutriment than a Newchurchman, for no one has better grounds for determining- the proper limits of use.

     Certain ascertained facts, the result of careful experimentation, may be useful in acquiring a proper comprehension of the subject. It has been found that the average individual can digest and absorb one and one-half ounces and no more of absolute alcohol in twenty-four hours. Every drop more than the system can digest begins to exert its paralyzing and narcotic influence upon the tissues and to appear unchanged in the excreta. This excess may be compared to a troublesome guest at an inn, who abuses the landlord, beats the servants, wastes the food, and then departs without paying his bill.

     In order to make the above facts more intelligible, I will translate it into terms of popular beverages. One and one-half ounces of absolute alcohol, the limit of the average man's capacity of digestion, is contained in about five tablespoonfuls (2 1/2 oz.) of Brandy, Irish or Scotch Whisky, in seven tablespoonfuls (3 1/2 oz.) of Bourbon or Rye Whisky, in one quart of beer, in eight to twelve ounces of ordinary wine. These quantities are not absolute, because various samples of the same product differ from time to time in alcoholic strength. In some analyses made by the writer for a brewing company, beer from the same brewery variety from 3.5 to 5.2 percent of alcohol. The above quantities are based upon averages, and in the case of wine would vary considerably.

     The members of the New Church are the only people having rational grounds upon which to base the use and abuse of all pleasures whatsoever. To set ourselves right, we have only to refer to the Writings of the Church for principles, and then, with the aid of common sense and reason, to adjust our conduct to those principles.

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The signing of pledges and the wearing of blue ribbons may be regarded as meretricious, pusillanimous, extraneous and unworthy the attention of a rational man.
THIRD CHURCH DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1904

THIRD CHURCH DISTRICT ASSEMBLY       DAVID H. KLEIN       1904

     The Third Chicago District Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was held at the Sharon church, Chicago, on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 30th, 31st and November 1st, the proceedings closing with a banquet at the Albion Cafe, Pullman Building, Chicago, on Monday, November 2d.

     The first session, which began at eight o'clock Friday evening, was opened by singing, prayer and reading from the Word. The Bishop then delivered an address to the Assembly, taking as his subject the words from Apocalypse, "Behold I make all things new.

     Having read the address, the Bishop called for nominations for a new secretary of the Assembly to succeed the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, who had moved to Pittsburg. The Rev. W. B. Caldwell nominated the Rev. David H. Klein, who was then chosen Secretary of the Assembly by unanimous vote.

     The Secretary read a report in which he stated that he had written letters to a number of members of the General Church in Illinois and neighboring States, extending friendly greetings, and inviting their presence. Although none had been able to come, he thought the letters together with the printed invitations sent out by the Sharon Church had been of use to isolated receivers, as an earnest of the good will and interest of the Chicago and Glenview friends.

     Letters from seven or eight friends were then read, which brought a very pleasant sphere of their presence into the meeting.

     The Rev. J. S. Saul by unanimous vote was invited to take part in the deliberations of the Assembly.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson told of his recent enjoyable visit to Pittsburg, which, because of its central location, is better able to command visitors from abroad at its assemblies.

     It was pointed out that the membership of the Chicago District Assembly was scattered over a wide territory, and that we could not as yet expect many visitors.

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Yet we should be continually in the attitude of looking for them, and time would no doubt bring to us the reward of their presence.

     THE NEW LITURGICAL SERVICE was then taken up for consideration.

     The discussion was opened by Mr. John Forrest, who spoke in substance as follows: A Liturgy, ritual or other form of service is always accommodated to the age or epoch in which it is in use. It is not a matter of instant creation, but one of slow growth, arising from the perception of needs in the carrying on of the uses of worship in their application to states of life. Its excellence is based on literary style and good taste, governed by interior wisdom. True Liturgy represents the active on the part of the priest with the co-operation of the society, which, when entered into together with a sincere heart, constitutes true worship, and an uplifting to higher states.

     It has been the history of dissenting beliefs to disregard all previous forms of worship, even to the entire abandoning of all forms which state is one of democracy and leads to the annihilation of all belief in the true significance of the priesthood, consequently of a true idea of the Lord.

     The time will come when the New Church will have a Liturgy far superior to any we know about or can imagine, a Liturgy whose excellence will be based on a true idea of what constitutes the meaning of forms and ceremony. In the meantime let us be thankful for and content with the Liturgy already provided for us, acknowledging its excellence, and realizing the vast difficulties in its accomplishment.

     Mr. Klein said that he was delighted with the whole service, but had been especially impressed with the first part. A liturgical form should be of such a character as to embody the qualities of internal worship. An essential of all true worship is humiliation. Unless man come before the Lord with a humble and contrite heart, acknowledging the evils, he is not prepared to receive the influx which shall uplift his spirit and conjoin him more closely with the Lord in worship. The new service in its first pages, especially, makes a most beautiful and adequate provision for this state of the worshiper. No other liturgy that he had ever seen did this so fully or so well; indeed, in the past, the importance of this phase of worship had been somewhat overlooked. Even if one came to service in a somewhat worldly state, the reading of the confession with attention to its import would scarcely fail to be of use in bringing about a worshipful state.

     The objection usually made to a fixed form was that there was danger of its becoming mechanical. Examples were to be found in the Old Church as well as in the new where the responses were hurried through with very little reverence. We can avoid this by continually seeking to have in mind the sacred character of the truth expressed.

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     Mr. Wm. Junge recognized the deep spirit of humiliation in the service, but stated that a friend had remarked that he missed a certain note of triumph in the service or an element of hope. "Should there be a feeling of humiliation all through the service?"

     The Bishop:-"This is met by the songs and hymns. It is not necessary to have the 'note of triumph' in all the fixed forms of the service and sometimes it may be out of place. The liturgical service is by no means the whole of the worship. The minister in his sermon can help to suggest the element of hope and glorification." The Bishop went on to say that the Puritan, in breaking away from the Established Church, was not even willing to bow in prayer. The Quakers desired to have no forms, and in avoiding them they became one of the most formal of all the sects.

     The Episcopal Church forms were several times sanctioned in the Writings, notably in the case where the call to the Holy Supper and repentance is quoted. These forms were made up largely from the Letter of the Word. The Puritan in his reaction against the Episcopal Church sought to cast aside all forms. We, perhaps, need a new arrangement of the old forms in part, to suit our needs. We have to take natural truths from the Old Church, which has them in great abundance. These were revealed long ago. The Writings are not a new revelation of natural truth. The spiritual truth is new. The Writings are not a new revelation of new externals of worship, and the Lord leaves us free to choose these. There is an immense literature in the world on this subject, and it is our place to find out what has been done, and get the benefit of that which is adapted to our needs. It is a case of "spoiling the Egyptians." We must use judgment in selecting things according to good taste in harmony with the spirit of true worship.

     The present attempt is a tentative one and it may be three or four years before a satisfactory service is ready. The objection had been made that the present service reminded one of the Episcopal Church. This was not a valid objection if the thing itself was good. The New Church had been influenced more by Puritan forms in the past than by Episcopal. The more was the pity. Puritan forms were cold and lacked the elements of devotion and humiliation.

     Mr. Forrest called attention to the Apostles' Creed which he had recently read. Viewed interiorly there is nothing to object in it. All objection is from the association.

     Mr. Caldwell:-"There are three general states or attitudes of man in his worship of the Lord, which may be called Humiliation, Praise and Instruction, and these have been very well embodied in their order in the Liturgical Service. The 'note of triumph,' suggested by Mr. Junge, might well come in the song or Psalm of Praise. We must look forward to the day when we will have such grand music in our service.

     "Although external worship belongs to the plane of the sensual and not to the rational we must at the present time consult the rational in composing our forms of worship.

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No otherwise can we get away from our old feelings and prejudices, which it is not safe to follow.

     "The early Christians prayed, sang hymns and listened to the Gospel in the open fields, and the early Protestants did likewise, and in this simple worship was involved all that is contained in an extensive ritual, but this simplicity was an extreme on the one hand, while the Jewish and Roman Catholic rituals were extremes on the other, and we must seek for a medium. Avoiding that multiplication of externals which ceases to have life within it, we must also avoid the severe simplicity of the Quaker, which, as the Bishop has pointed out, is also devoid of life. The moderate Episcopalians make the choice, and that is why our ritual resembles theirs. We do not adopt it from them, but the rational course has led up to a similar result."

     The Bishop said it was the part of the rational man to balance between extremes. The natural man when he gives up one thing, swings at once to the other extreme. In answer to a question as to whether provision would be made for variety in the service, the Bishop said that in order that variety may exist, there must be certain fixed ultimates. There must be minerals in the earth and bones in the body to act as a basis. The service, while leaving some things fixed, can be varied indefinitely. In time there would be different services for special occasions. A shorter service would also be prepared to be used by smaller societies, or whenever desired.

     Mr. Swain Nelson stated that he enjoyed the service but that he found it somewhat distracting to have to refer to a different book for the musical selection.

     The Bishop said it would be difficult to provide variety without referring at times to other places. Familiarity through habitual use would contribute much to the ease of the worshiper.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson said he was interested in the idea of having something of a fixed form and thought it would help to bring about the feeling of comfort and rest that should prevail in the mind of the worshiper. At first he had not liked the service so much. He liked it better now and thought that greater familiarity would add much to the use and enjoyment of it.

     Dr. E. A. Farrington spoke of the use of the printer's art in guiding the eye in such a service, and suggested one or two improvements.

     SECOND SESSION.

     The Secretary read an abstract of the minutes of the previous session. The minister of the Sharon Church, Rev. W. B. Caldwell, read a report setting forth the prospects of that newly formed society.

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     REPORT OF THE SHARON CHURCH TO THE CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY.

     Since the last annual meeting of the Assembly, the members of the Immanuel Church, residing in the city of Chicago, have formed themselves into a new society of the General Church, choosing the name "Sharon Church," and selecting the undersigned as their minister. This took place on March 1st, 1903, during a visit of Bishop Pendleton, and since then the uses have gone forward, and we believe benefits will result from the formation of this distinct organization in the city, to which the members of the General Church residing here may look as a center. There are 46 members of the General Church in Chicago, most of whom are members of Sharon Church, and a number of Newchurchmen and women who are not members of our body attend our meetings and manifest an interest in the life and uses of the Society.

     We hope to secure a more favorable location in the city for our Church when Providence opens the way, but in the meantime we are content to make the best of an apparent disadvantage. If we were situated in a better district, we might, among other things, obtain a larger regular attendance at meetings, but realizing. that this is not the first thing to which we should bend our energies, we will strive, in common with other societies of the General Church, to advance together in an internal improvement and growth. Difficulties are really opportunities, and the obstacles which are placed in the path of men who are endeavoring to attain spiritual life, present opportunities for spiritual effort, and the very effort strengthens them in the love of spiritual truth and good. If our natural or external conditions were perfect we would not have these obstacles and difficulties, neither would we ever reap the benefit arising from the effort to overcome them, or ever realize that the true perfection to seek is spiritual perfection from which all natural perfection comes. Feeling thus, we are content to wait for improved externals, believing that they will be given when it is good for us to have them.

     The Assembly this year will afford an opportunity for the first reunion of the Sharon and Immanuel Churches since the division, and we rejoice at this opportunity. We are distinct, and yet conjoined by the unseverable bond of a common purpose and love.

     As a society of the General Church it is our wish to give our spiritual and natural support to the uses of the whole from which we as a part receive so many advantages. The child must first learn to stand alone, but as he grows he becomes more and more self-sustaining, and is finally able to contribute his share to the general welfare of others. Individually and collectively we keenly appreciate the great value of the General Church to its members and societies.
                     Respectfully submitted, W. B. CALDWELL.

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     On motion, the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, and other visitors present, were invited by unanimous vote to take part in the deliberations of the Assembly.

     The subject of the new liturgical service was taken up for further consideration.

     Mr. Klein said that in reference to the "triumphant note," which had been mentioned, he thought it very important for the minister to have the element of hope in his discourse. Evils should be pointed out that they might be seen and shunned. But the continual contemplation of states of evil in oneself, with nothing else, gives rise, sometimes, to a morbidness, which is as bad as a placid state of self-righteousness or self-sufficiency. The general sphere of the service should be uplifting.

     A communication from Mr. C. Anderfuren was read, in which he expressed his sentiments with reference to the subject of liturgical services as follows:

     "I think it is a sort of error to follow or imitate in any way any liturgical precedent set by those defunct churches to which we owe no allegiance whatever. Their liturgical forms need not be followed as a matter of historical secluence, nor because our own genius is too poverty stricken to establish new and original forms of our own. Why should our splendid New Church imitate the fashions of dress prevailing in those old and wrinkled churches? Why, indeed, should our infant Church be squeezed into the strait jacket of any fixed liturgical form or forms? If it needs a dress of that sort we should never dream of allowing the old churches to give the pattern to our dressmakers. I want to see the day come when every fixed liturgical form will be thrown aside; when the priest will trust to his inspirations on the spot, and so will speak straight from the heart, when we will feel that he himself believes what he teaches. Then he will fire the heart of his audience, and he will instantly create the proper liturgical form, because he will dominate the situation, and then we will all feel the fire of heaven, we the placid people in the pews. And when the last note of the service is ended, we will say, 'This was an event! This was informal, but a vital and a holy service! We have been in the presence of the Lord,-we saw Him shine in the face and gestures of the minister, and in our own hearts! Here the Holy Spirit became vitally manifest, and our knee; were bent in holy adoration!'"

     Mr. Caldwell:--"In the New Church all things are to be made new, and although we have apparently adopted old forms of ritual from the sects of Christendom, still in the New Church they will be new because there will be new life within them. The Old Church is 'Christian in name only,' but the New Church will be Christian in both quality and name.

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We cannot give up the name 'New Jerusalem' because we are sometimes asked whether we are Jews. So with forms of worship. To some extent we will be known by these, just as n man is known by his dress and his name, but we cannot give up forms that fittingly represent the internal worship of the New Church just because the Episcopalian. Presbyterian or Catholic happens to have a similar form."

     Rev. Reginald Brown said that many external things are in themselves neither good nor evil but take their character from the spirit which is put into them. He was struck by Mr. Forrest's remark that the ritual of a church represents the state of worship at the time. The state of devotion is representative of holy fear, which must grow and develop in the church. The Catholic ritual represented not a holy fear but rather one of terrorism inspired by the priest. That is the way they were led. The first state of the Church is apt to be intellectual. Our forms in the past seem to have represented this state. There is more of an element in our new service of a state in which the truths are coming down to life.

     The Bishop thought that the present need of the Church is greater devotion and greater humiliation in worship. Man needs this in his life and therefore he needs it in the worship. If that is so then the question is one of selecting forms which are best adapted to that need:

     A paper by Mr. W. F. Junge was then called for and read:

     THE RELATION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH TO INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS.

     It is not the purpose of this paper to evolve doctrine, nor to set up an argument; but rather to follow such lines as may confirm the teachings with which we are familiar.

     The uses of the General Church are acknowledged by all its members; yet at such times as the present it is well to bring ourselves face to face with the well known teachings.

     In considering the relation of a whole to its parts, we naturally, as Newchurchmen, picture to ourselves the whole in a human form. The whole receives its delights from the delights enjoyed by the parts, and the well being of the parts constitutes the well being of the whole. Disturbance in any constituent part imposes extra duties on kindred parts of the system; and the ultimate restriction of the whole to health and strength depends on the ability of these kindred parts to assume for the time being such excessive duties. There is no end to the interesting analogies that may be formulated in this connection, but there is one particular analogy which seems to stand out in bold relief. In the human body the most important processes are carried on without the conscious co-operation of the body. It is even so in the Church. The infinite mercy of the Lord is carrying on a work so stupendous and far reaching that even the imagination may not form a picture of it.

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     Our week efforts bring us into the stream of Providence and our feeble attempts at order and subordination are the mean; of bringing to Its spiritual blessings. Knowing this we need not think lightly of our imperfect efforts, but rather hail each small improvement with joy. The Lord gives us a thousand fold more than we can see, but even ii we were unaware through revelation that this is so, yet still the palpable safety and security afforded our work thro' the General Church, would warrant loyalty and pride.

     Recently here in Chicago and Glenview, at the time the new Sharon Church was organized, we experienced to the full the benefits of membership in the General Church.

     Opinions may vary as to just what rocks were avoided, but we all know none were struck.

     None of us call determine just what particular organ of the whole body may claim us as a part, nor is it necessary that we should greatly concern ourselves as to this. Our function as individuals is to do that which comes to our hand and do it well. Let us cheerfully do those things which others do not seem ready to take up. Let us realize that it is a privilege to work for the Church and so teach our children.

     I take this opportunity to suggest that the members of the General Church should try to contribute more regularly and particularly be not ashamed to contribute small sums if they cannot afford greater.

     The Church operates in this world and is dependent on worldly means, and these means must be supplied by the wage earners of the body. The appearance is that large numbers of members carelessly overlook the fact that the General Church is hampered by the need of their small contributions.

     It may be asserted that the contributions that are not made amount to more than those that are made. In other words, that the Church has a full right to expect a great deal that is not done. I would suggest that it be made fashionable for members to have their names one and all appear in the published list of contributors.

     I realize, of course, that the Church is growing and thriving, but it is our duty to ourselves to provide that the Church may grow and thrive within ourselves, and we do not foster love of the Church by a grudging or insufficient support.

     Individual effort makes it possible to receive from the whole that care and guidance which we all need constantly.

     The relation of the General Church to the individual is in accord with the attitude of the individual to the whole. This we have long known, but who among us can be satisfied that he has done his full part?

     May we increasingly recognize and fulfill our duty that the General Church may be able to fulfill its mission to us.

     Mr. Burnham:-The difficulty is that we do not fully realize what the General Church is.

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We are apt to consider it merely as an organization created by us, while the fact is that it came into existence as an external body because of the prior existence of a soul in the other world. This body has existed with us under a variety of names and forms, but the soul has remained the same.

     Some persons appear to feel that we have too high an opinion of our body. If our pride is in it as our creation and our work, then we are certainly among, but if we contemplate the General Church as a whole we cannot give it too high a place. Looking at it in this way, it will be easy to see how it is our Mother, and how it was by means of the work carried on in the spiritual world more than by the work carried on here that it was possible for us, individually and collectively, to receive the truths maintained by our Church.

     If we look at the General Church as our creation, then we cannot know how the life of each of us, and of each particular church, is dependent upon the existence of the General Church. But if we realize that the General Church as we know it on earth is but the external of a General Church existing in the other world, then we can see that we are absolutely dependent upon it, and we will no longer think of the form as an arbitrary one with us, and in some particulars the result of a momentary whim; and we will recognize it as a body created in the Providence of the Lord as an external to that glorious society in the other world which is carrying on the same fight that we are trying to carry on here.

     How much there is in the external form of our church to love and be thankful for can easily be appreciated if we give our attention to a few instances. Think of it, for example, during the past year in which a relation with our beloved pastor, which had existed for over fourteen years, was severed with suddenness, and our little church divided at the same time into two distinct societies, together with the church property. Under the order and government of our beloved General Church all this was accomplished with very little friction, and everyone and everything was soon completely adjusted to the new conditions. In this and many other cases we can see the great use of our general body, and if we once see this, natural support must surely follow.

     Mr. Klein stated that a most important use of the General Church to its members was performed through the office of the Bishop. We all felt the value of his yearly visits to us. The new Liturgical Service was a tangible evidence of his work for us in another field. There was also another part of his work which all perhaps were not aware of. This was his work of counsel and instruction to the priests of the General Church, especially at the yearly meetings of ministers. The strength of our movement in the past was largely owing to the fact that the priesthood of the Church was a united and compact body. The first cause of this was the common recognition of the Writings as of Divine authority. Another cause was the wise leading and counsel of the founder of our first organization,-Bishop Benade. Similar conditions prevailed now, and no doubt all members of the General Church were indirectly benefited through the aid which the Bishop extended to the ministers as a body.

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     Mr. Seymour Nelson spoke of the importance of supporting the uses of the General Church. The important Uses of the Bishop's office had been spoken of. Yet as a practical thing the Bishop received a salary and we had engaged to pay it. It was our manifest duty. This was the only organization in the New Church, and perhaps in the world, which sought to recognize the use of its head in this way. Other uses also demanded and ought to receive the support of every member of the Church.

     Dr. J. B. S. King then read a paper on the subject of

     INTEMPERANCE

     The reading of this paper was followed with manifest interest, and the writer was rewarded with applause at its conclusion. As he had another paper at hand, however, there was little discussion on this one.

     Dr. Harvey Farrington said it was interesting to have not only principles brought forth but also practical things. If anyone really recognized the uses spoken of by Dr. King, there would be little danger of intemperance. Some people seeing only the abuse of alcohol as manifested in drunkenness, regard the least quantity of it as poison. A man can become sick by the overeating of bread.

     4. E. Nelson:--The tirade against alcohol is just another form of mistaking temptation for evil, as pointed out in the Bishop's opening address. We must shun the evil, not the temptation.

     The following paper was then read by Dr. J. R. S. King:

     A CRITICISM OF THE "NEW CHURCH LIFE,"

     The immense value of the New Church Life is acknowledged by all. Its fearless tone, its unswerving devotion to the truth, the high character of its contributors, the ability of its editors, and the extreme interest of its articles, all combine to make it welcome in every family of the General Church. It frequently brings up important doctrines that otherwise would be overlooked, and thus contributes to our intimate acquaintance with the Writings. It keeps alive the general interest in the affairs of the Church.

     Some of our own members, however, are disturbed by the harsh lone of some of the criticism that is dealt out to those who have different views from the editors.

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Those of us who have an opportunity of associating with members of the Convention, are able to say that a feeling of resentment against the General Church has been engendered by these criticisms, among some who were very much inclined to be friendly.

     As a balance, it should be remembered that the truth of itself, simply and impersonally stated, has always a disturbing influence upon those not in agreement with it: also that the readers of the Life often see a criticism, without reading the article or statement that has given rise to it. Again, those in the performance of a use, are generally the best judges of the conduct of it. Still, after all due allowances are made, it is claimed that some of the criticisms have been of an unnecessarily harsh and irritating character.

     It is easier to state a general feeling than to point out the exact words that offend, but as a general charge without particulars is of little use, I will endeavor to point out some specific instances. In the August-September number of 1903 occurs an editorial entitled "The Objections of S. M. W." The gentleman referred to, was one of the original founders of the Academy, and has always commanded the greatest respect and good-will of those who have known him. Such being the known character of the gentleman, it seems that such phrases as "What rhetoric, what inconsistency, what ignorance!" are harsh and unnecessary. The phrases, "His memory fails him," "Is it not childish?" might be considered as peculiarly cutting and personal.

     The request in the October number for references to the place in the Writings where the Pauline Epistles are spoken of as "The Apostolic Word" impresses me as more contemptuous than interrogatory. A letter to the gentleman who made the statement, would no doubt have received a courteous reply. I may be wrong on this point, but that is the way it impresses me, and these three lines have occasioned considerable feeling among people who have no personal acquaintance with the gentleman thus criticized.

     In the May number of 1903, there is an article entitled "The Inconsistency of Mr. King and Others," which appears to be based upon information obtained from newspaper clippings. But wherever obtained the information is inaccurate and the contumely and scorn based upon it, does great injustice to "others," i. e., the Church Committee of the Englewood Parish.

     On page 332 of this year are two brief exclamatory parentheses, that add absolutely nothing to the argument, but detract greatly from the dignity of the journal.

     In the very interesting and profitable discussion that occurred some time ago, concerning "The Temptations of the Lord" between Mr. Mercer, Mr. Gladish and the Life, Mr. Gladish was justly aggrieved, as it seems to me, by the information as to the particular hell from which he derived his ideas.

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     I hope that these remarks will not be interpreted as showing any disapproval on my part of the general policy of the Life. On the contrary, I glory in it, receive every number with eagerness, and read it with delight and benefit.

     The bold surgeon, with a keen knife and a firm hand, can excise an offending part, with the approbation of all, but one might justly find fault with him, if from excess of animal spirits or other cause, he made unnecessary flourishes with the knife and extended the incision into sound tissue. It is an admirable thing to be able to kill falsities and errors, by penetrating their vital organs with the sharp sword of argument, but it is not necessary to thump the corpse with a blunderbuss.

     The Life is like a brave knight, valiant in combat, stately in appearance, and all T complain of are some small blemishes, only blemishes, which like moles or warts upon the face, produce a disfigurement disproportionate to their size.

     Mr. Paul Carpenter said that he approved of the sentiments expressed in Dr. King's paper.

     Mr. Burnham remarked that all who came in contact with people outside the General Church who read the Life had no doubt heard the objections which Dr. King had indicated in his paper. Yet he felt that in large part many people misunderstood the spirit of the editor. He thought that the illustration of the surgeon with his knife, while interesting and brilliant, hardly expressed a true condition of things as regards the conduct of the Life. Some had been offended at the manner in which the Life had criticized the Church Committee of the Englewood Parish, yet the Life had based its statements on what appeared to be reliable authority. Some of the criticisms made against the Life had appeared to assume that its editors were inspired by malice, which was not at all the case.

     Mr. Alvin Nelson stated that the Life's information in regard to the Englewood Parish case, came, in part at least, from the columns of the Messenger.

     Mr. Caldwell:--"Those who are personally acquainted with the editors of the Life know what an affection they have for all who love the Church, and find it hard to believe that there is animus behind their sometimes severe criticisms in the editorials. In justice to them our members in the west should read the articles that they criticize, and become more familiar with the states in other parts of the Church. Failure to do these two things sometimes makes the criticism appear like word-quibbling and hairsplitting. On the other hand there might be some modification in the severity of the Life, without giving up that firm stand on principles and vigorous spirit in defending them, which we would all be sorry to see abandoned."

     Mr. Swain Nelson hoped we would not be too hard on our friends who conduct the Life just because of a few blemishes, which have been compared to "warts."

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     EVENING SESSION.

     The discussion of Dr. King's paper on the subject of "New Church Life" was continued.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson related a conversation he had had with the editor recently. The latter had stated that the policy of the Life was an aggressive policy, which consisted in attacking falsity and evil in the Church, with the effort, however, to commend what was true and worthy. If any criticism was to be made of the manner in which this policy was carried out, the editors would be glad to hear it at any time. Such criticisms would be of use to the editors. Mere general criticism, however, without giving particular instances, was of little value.

     Dr. Harvey Farrington suggested that ridicule was sometimes a most potent weapon against falsity.

     Mr. Headsten, a visitor to the Assembly, said that he had been a reader of the Life for the past ten years. He asked whether a policy of attack or one of defence was best. From his reading of the Writings he had rather gathered the impression that the angels never attacked, but only defended.

     The Bishop answered that in order to defend it was sometimes necessary to attack. It might be well in judging the question of criticism to ask what it is that is hurt,-the natural or the spiritual man? It was important also not to ignore the matter of freedom in relation to a man who is performing a function. More harm than good is usually done by suppression.

     Mr. Forrest said that we should be indifferent to the opinion of others if we feel certain that our course is just and right. Personally, he could not help feeling at times that the Life showed a want of breadth and magnanimity. Some things in it seemed to suggest only the delight felt in the exercise of a brilliant intellect. It would be better to have more of a recognition of the good we found in others. Some things in the Life were not impersonal enough. He had at other times expressed his keen appreciation of what delighted him in the Life.

     Mr. Burnham said that nothing ought to go forth from this meeting to the editors of the Life, which would lead them to think that the paper as a whole was not appreciated. It was undoubtedly very much appreciated. Its arrival was looked forward to with eagerness. No paper holding decided views could get along without giving offence, and in the present case the offences were not flagrant. They had been grossly exaggerated by some.

     Mr. Klein stated that some of the statements which had given offence would not have done so, if the readers had been better acquainted with the editor's temperamental genius, and his genuine spirit of charity for all. The editor had once stated, in a conversation with him, that it always gave him great delight to speak in praise of good work whenever done for the Church.

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     Dr. King arose to say that he wished to be most emphatic in praise of the Life. No abler editors than the present could be found in the Church. There were only some slight imperfections in the paper. He compared the Life to a noble steed. No one would like to mar the steed nor curb its brave and daring spirit, but simply to improve its appearance by trimming its mane.

     Dr. Ernest Farrington then read a paper on the subject of

     "NATURAL SCIENCE AS A BASIS OF TRUE WISDOM."

     The reading of the paper was followed with great interest, and like the other papers was warmly applauded.

     Dr. King stated that we little realize the importance of a study of scientifics. It presents a broad plane for influx. Every man who is a genius has such a broad and adequate plane. We are too apt, however, to divide the study of scientifics into separate branches, as is the case with anatomy and physiology. All sciences should be studied together, or in relation to each other.

     Dr. Harvey Farrington remarked that it was very useful and necessary to have a proper knowledge of the organs of the human body, for instance, in reading the Spiritual Diary.

     Mr. Caldwell:--"Truths first learned by man as scientifics must be elevated out of the memory into the internal man if they are to be appropriated. All truth call be reduced to scientifics. Truth concerning the natural universe, the kingdoms of nature, civil and moral life, spiritual life, even Divine Truth, can be reduced to scientifics adapted to man's external memory. As intimated in the papers, there are planes of natural truth above mere scientifics, which it is important to cultivate. Within the facts of natural science, for example. is that interior truth and philosophy which corresponds to the interior spiritual philosophy now revealed to the New Church, for natural truths are vessels for spiritual truths, and as such serve us to eternity. Science itself is of great value as a means to practical and physical wisdom. The New Church cannot find a home in disorderly living.

     Mr. Burnham spoke of the manner in which man is made spiritual and wise by means of scientifics and knowledges, as is taught in the Writings. (H. H. 356.)

     Dr. King:--"As stated by Mr. Caldwell, scientific truth must be elevated. To illustrate this in concrete form it may he useful to take the analogy of the ruminating animal. The affection of science is like the animal grazing, and swallowing rapidly the grass, which passes through the oesophagus into its first stomach or paunch.

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This may be compared to the first impression of scientifics on the external memory of a man. When it has eaten and swallowed all it wants, the animal will then lie down under a tree, bring up portions of the mass hi that first stomach, chew the cud, and swallow it again into another stomach, which operation may be compared to reflection; for when the food finally reaches the last stomach, the omasum, its essences may then be drawn upon to make blood, like scientifics in man's memory when they are understood, perceived and become of the life.

     Dr. E. A. Farrington called attention to the teaching that those scientifics we receive with affection are those that remain with us. There is no use in learning without affection, or without a point of view of use. The science of the day is being reconstructed, and perhaps we do not realize the importance of this reconstruction to us. Without doubt it can he made use of, and be adapted to the needs of the Church, which is to "make all things new.

     The Bishop:-Scientifics without affection make a man insane; with affection they make him wise.

     The Bishop then spoke of the great use it had been to have papers prepared and expressed the great pleasure it had given him to listen to them. They had contributed much to the manifest success of the Assembly.

     Although the hour was growing late, the subject of the "Next General Assembly" was taken up for discussion. Messrs. Burnham, Caldwell, Klein, Seymour Nelson and Alvin Nelson spoke in favor of having a meeting nest spring if possible, and the general spirit of the Assembly was strongly in favor of it.

     One speaker thought it might he possible to have it at the time of the Fair in St. Louis.

     Mr. Alvin Nelson thought it would be a good plan to meet at some resort in the mountains, perhaps, and before the regular season for summer visitors set in. With the present plan the demands made upon those who entertained was very great. When a guest sees a host and hostess tired out, he cannot help feeling worried. Our district assemblies were very useful, but we need not restrict our associations to this, and the General Assembly, when all in the Church meet together, must not be overlooked.

     On Sunday, November 1st, the Bishop preached in Sharon Church to a congregation of one hundred people, nearly all adults. The sermon was an exposition of the text. "And it came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine. For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." Matt. vii., 28, 29.

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It would be hard to give an adequate impression of the strong sphere of worship which prevailed on this occasion. In the afternoon the Holy Supper was administered to fifty-one communicants.

     The meetings of the Assembly were brought to a close by a banquet held at the Albion Caf?. Some eighty guests were assembled in the banqueting hall at this feast of charity, among them a number of visitors and friends from the Convention, including the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck. The toasts of the evening were: "The Church," responded to by Rev. D. H. Klein; "The Glittering Ancient Ages," by Mr. John Forrest; "The Glorious Future Ages," by Bishop Pendleton; "The Dazzling Present Age," by Rev. R. W. Brown; "The 'Love of Loves' in All the Ages," by Mr. Hugh Burnham. "Our District Assembly," by Mr. Alvin Nelson. Rev. W. E. Caldwell, representing the hosts, acted as Toastmaster, receiving in this capacity the entertaining assistance of Dr. J. B. S. King. Of the speeches made, the following on "The Glittering Ancient Ages," by Mr. John Forrest; is the only one that was preserved:

     Would I had the gift of a stirring eloquence and the resources of a graceful mind, that I might do justice to the subject that is assigned to me this evening, "The Glittering Ancient Ages," for it is my desire to add my quota to the good fellowship and enjoyment of the occasion we have met together to celebrate.

     It is not my intention to go back further in the time than the beginnings of our Immanuel Church, and in referring to those delightful periods I mean to use the term Golden in contra-distinction to the term Glittering, for to me the later description gives the impression somewhat of coldness, sharpness and distance such as the light from the stars, whereas the state I would describe is one glowing, beneficent, all pervading, such as the light from the sun.

     On this evening when we, as two Societies, are met together to celebrate, and as it were enter upon a new state, and joined with us are friends who are in accord with our principles, it becomes me to dilate somewhat on what have been some phases of the past that have been delightful to us and to our benefit.

     The beginnings of the Immanuel Church were laid in foundations broad and deep by our beloved Bishop Pendleton, now with us this evening. From the start his instruction was founded on the Academy doctrine of the Authority of the Writings as revealed by the Lord to man through Emanuel Swedenborg, and all that is implied in the spirit and letter of man and the preservation of his these Writings, for the regeneration of freedom in a life of regeneration.

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     Our first Pastor's lovableness of character, his unswerving devotion to the truth, together with his interior perception and exposition of those truths, founded a high standard which has been faithfully up borne and carried on by his immediate successors in office, as well as those who are our present efficient and beloved pastors. These first states, I hope, are with us this evening, and when memory reverts to the past, as it will at times, one of the most attractive scenes it discloses is the way we celebrated our festivals of the Church, in other words, our feasts of charity, for there is no doubt that these occasions were something different from what the world knows about, or is capable of appreciating, and that they were accompanied by interior states of happiness that will be hard, if not impossible to describe.

     Something seen may be described in set terms, but not states of happiness, which are felt; and when the latter states are those of love to the Lord and of good will to the neighbor, and when the mind is elevated at the same time to the interior things of wisdom, then are we rewarded by a state of joy that can only be described as heavenly, that can only be appreciated when actually experienced.

     It is not proper that these states of exaltation should continue constantly, or be carried to satiety, but they are useful, eminently so, and in the past have strengthened the members of our Society in carrying on the work that has been done, and this, too, at times when but for these rewards, life would have been dreary because of cares that obtruded and oppressed us.

     It is the recollection of past: states of delight that has helped to carry us through the last few years of endurance, as individuals and as a society.

     In the world-

     "Pleasures are like poppies spread:
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow-fall in the river,
A moment white, then melt forever;
Or like the borealis race
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form;
Evanishing amid the storm."

     Not so with the delight and happiness we have experienced in the Church. They are enduring as long as we have memory, and when the mind reverts to them, as it may do on this happy occasion, it but serves to refresh and stimulate within us the desire for these things, and encourages the hope of their continuance.

     It is with this brief introduction that I present the subject of the glorious past to you, members of the New Church, well convinced that merely the memory of deeds and events, achievements of the New Church in what is to us the long ago, will arouse more enthusiasm for the things of the Church, and be a more eloquent plea than any I am capable of making.

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     In conclusion, permit me to present these words from the Writings:

     "The feasts in the Ancient Churches were feasts of charity, in like manner as in the Primitive Christian Church, in which they strengthened one another to abide in the worship of the Lord from a sincere heart." T. C. R. 727.

     There were also a number of impromptu toasts, that to "Our Visitors" being responded to by Mr. Schreck. The new songs, especially composed for the occasion, added a sparkling zest to the gathering. Some of these are of local interest, but two by Mr. W. F. Junge will no doubt be of permanent value to the Church.

     The fact that this was the first time that the members of the Immanuel and the Sharon Churches had met at a feast, since their separation into two societies, made the occasion a very happy one. And, indeed, throughout the meetings the delight which all felt at coming together again showed how strong were the ties of affection which bind the two societies together.

     By its cordiality and hospitality the Sharon Church endeared itself to its appreciative visitors, and much of the success of the Assembly was due to the careful and kindly foresight of its members, manifested in many ways. DAVID H. KLEIN, Secretary.

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Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

     FREEDOM OF SPEECH.

     We publish in this issue a paper read at the Chicago District Assembly of the General Church, entitled "A Criticism of New Church Life," which, together with the discussion that was called forth by it at that meeting, we commend to the attention of our readers.

     Though we believe that most of the strictures made by Dr. King are based on appearances rather than realities, we rejoice in the paper as a whole, as being an encouraging sign of the freedom of speech that exists in the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     The suppression of such freedom we conceive to be the greatest danger that could possibly threaten our Church. The movement which the Life represents is a movement for reform within the New Church. Our principles are clear and definite. Our opponents are powerful and determined. Our own body is small, compact, and unanimous. There is within it a homogeneity, a solidarity, an enthusiasm such as the world has not seen since the days of early Christianity. But on account of these very blessings there could easily grow up in our midst a very real impatience of criticism, when directed against our own body or its official organ.

     Neither our body nor our organ is in any sense infallible, and we know from past experience the dangers as well as the blessings of enthusiasm and unanimity. It requires a greater courage to lift a protesting voice in such a sphere, than in a larger and more heterogeneous body. And it requires a greater courage to criticize that which we love, than to condemn that for which we have but small affection.

     The suppression of freedom of speech has always betokened the decay and death of a nation, or of a Church, or of a general state within a Church. In the beginning of a Church freedom of speech must necessarily flourish. The mere fact of its newness involves a breaking away from the old; it means criticism and condemnation of the falsities and evils of the Old Church, and this leads to an assertion of freedom of speech at any cost, even though life itself be at stake. Gradually, in the midst of combats and persecutions, the new cause gains adherents who loyally and enthusiastically follow its banner, but as the movement grows, varieties and diversities of view inevitably increase, and then, unless genuine charity prevail, there grows up a desire to preserve external unity by external means. Internal dissent may, indeed, be tolerated, but not the public expression of such dissent.

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The appearance of unity must be preserved, even though freedom of speech be stifled, and thus the late martyrs, as soon as they have gained sufficient power, become the persecutors of their own brethren.

     We have seen this tragic story exemplified in the history of the early Christian Church, and in the history of the Reformation. We have seen it exemplified, alas, even in the New Church, as in the American Convention and the English Conference, where genuine freedom of speech is nowadays as dead as in any of the bodies of the vastated Church. Let us take warning, therefore, and guard the freedom of speech in our own midst as jealously as we would guard life itself.

     The Life, throughout the twenty-three years of its existence, has claimed for itself full freedom of speech, full freedom to compare principles and methods in the Church with the standard of truth and of life which the Lord has revealed in the Heavenly Doctrines. On this account the Life has been criticized as freely as it has criticized, and it has no complaint to make on this score, for it would surely be an excess of generosity to give continually, without being willing to receive. The criticism, however, until now has come from those who have been hostile to the universal principles which the Life represents, and the strictures have been directed against the truth rather than against the method of its presentation.

     But now friends rise to criticize their own organ, and their criticisms may be more worthy of consideration.

     There has not been enough of such criticism in the past; there has not been enough of critical attention in the General Church to the utterances of the Life, nor a sufficient sense of responsibility among our friends and members as to the general concerns of the Church. Ministers and laymen have been equally at fault in this respect, by leaving the editors in the dark as to how their labors are received. Since we cannot attribute this circumstance to a state of indifference, there remains the impression that there does not exist among our members a sufficient realization of the freedom of speech that actually exists in the General Church. This impression is augmented by the somewhat apologetic tone noticeable in Dr. King's paper and in the subsequent discussion, as if there were any necessity to step gingerly and handle tenderly, when criticizing New Church Life. Without freedom to criticize, fully and fearlessly, there can be no freedom of speech; criticism is a necessary and wholesome thing, and there is no criticism, even though it be more or less mistaken, but what produces some impression and some modification of the things that are criticized.

     We must, however, remind our critics of the fact that various readers are differently impressed by the comments in the Life, according to their various mental states. It is clear that we cannot be held responsible for these states. In upholding the authority and integrity of the Heavenly Doctrines against negative and subvertive principles, it is these principles that we have to deal with, not the persons who happen to give expression to them. But since persons have to be named, in order to identify these principles, some of our readers receive the impression that we are attacking the persons instead of the principles.

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This is unavoidable, though none the less deplorable. But may it not be that the reader himself, in such cases, does not sufficiently distinguish principles from personalities! May it not be that the reader himself reads personal allusions and applications into utterances that intend to deal exclusively with principles?

     Among the friendly criticisms made by Dr. King, there is but one of a really serious nature, i. e., the charge that in a certain editorial the Life has "done great injustice" to the Church Committee of the Englewood Parish of the Chicago Society. If injustice has been done, it should by all means be undone, and we trust that Dr. King will supply our readers with such facts as will place the case in a better light than did those which were published by the Church Committee itself in the columns of the Messenger.

     Monthly Review.

     The Christmas number of The New Church League Journal is a very handsome publication, but, beyond the name, there is little in its contents to indicate that it is a journal of the New Church.

     The N. C. Board of Publication announces the publication of a new edition of The Economy of the Animal Kingdom. The work is reprinted "at the urgent request of the Swedenborg Scientific Association." The price of the two volumes is $3.

     The Art of Being Healthy. A pretty booklet of some eighty pages, by Rev. Charles A. Hall. The author is a minister of the New Church, though one would not suppose so, judging from the general character of the work, which is of the "Don't-worry-Try-Sunshine" class of literature.

     In one of a series of articles directed against Christianity, which have been appearing in The Clarion, and which are now published in book form, the writer objects to the doctrine of the Fall by "How could a perfect man be able to fall?" To which. as we learn from Morning Light, a critic wittily responds by "one trifling question: How could a Perfect man be unable to fall?" This is a bright illustration of the ease with which the shallow argument of the atheist may be met.

     The Being with the Upturned Face, by the Rev. Clarence Lathbury, of Philadelphia, is being widely advertised just now in the New Church journals by the "Nunc Licet" Press. A reviewer in Morning Light, though trying his best to find something to commend in the book, balks at statements such as these: "We are essentially divine and everlasting." "It is fitting for us to unloose our shoes and bare our heads before the majesty of ourselves." "We are divinities in disguise."

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Every person is a new incarnation of Deity." We have a "native and latent omnipotence." "The illusion of the depravity of man is the superlative profanation and disgrace." "Fundamentally all are divine," etc., etc. And all this comes from the pen of a "New Church" minister, a minister of the General Convention, and is published by a "New Church" publishing house, in the sacred name of "Nunc Licet!" The reviewer, however, believes that the author may, by some sort of hidden reasoning, justify to himself such expressions, but does not think that there is any justification for using them in addressing himself to the outside world, without qualification or explanation of some kind." In other words, you may think you are a God, but you must not say so! It would be interesting to know by what kind of a qualification or explanation such monstrous blasphemies could be justified either in private or in public. It was on account of such self-deification that the antediluvians were cast into that most horrible of all hells which is graphically described in the Coronis. "They said they had persuaded themselves that men are gods; thus that they themselves were gods; and that they had confirmed themselves in this by their dreams." (A. C. 1268.) We are also told that there are "modern antediluvians" (A. C. 2754)

     We have seen Swedenborg's name used in an advertisement of canned lobster, and now, in the December number of The Philistine, it is used as a name "to conjure with" in advertising a special make of piano. While, on the whole, it is unpleasant to see this venerable name used for merely commercial purposes, this last advertisement certainly is well meant, though a little over-done: "SWEDENBORG is usually spoken of as a religious mystic, but the fact is, he was one of the most practical, scientific men who ever lived. In 1720 Swedenborg wrote to his brother: 'I am inventing a boat that will sail under water and destroy the enemy: a harp that can be played by pounding keys; a gun that will shoot a thousand bullets a minute; a chariot that will run twenty miles an hour without horses, and a plan of mathematics to quickly compute and express fractions.' Our decimal system dates to Swedenborg. And he really aided the world in evolving the piano. If he lived now, he would play a 'Starr' as he used to improvise at twilight on the clavichord."

     The facts thus advertised are in the main correct, but he did not write these things "in 1720," or "to his brother," but he wrote them, in 1714-1715, in various letters to his brother-in-law, Eric Benzelius. His plan of computation was to be an improvement upon the decimal system, which existed long before his time. And there is no evidence that his invention played any part in the evolution of the piano. He never worked out any of his youthful inventions, but quickly left mechanica for higher fields. The advertisement does not mention one-half of Swedenborg's inventions, which anticipated Ericson, Nordenfelt, Stephenson and others by a century and more. If he had devoted his life to such things, what wealth and glory would have been his!

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But in that case he would never have become the medium of that crowning Revelation which is to fill the world with light for all ages to come.

     It was with some surprise we found in The Philistine for December a little essay comparing Shakespeare and Swedenborg with one another. "Fra Elbertus," in his usual jaunty style, says that "the one stands for intellect, the other for spirituality. We need both but we tire of too much goodness: virtue palls upon us, and if we hear only psalms sung, we will long for the clink of glasses and the brave choruses of unrestrained good-fellowship."... "Shakespeare hasn't much regard for concrete truth: Swedenborg is devoted to nothing else. Shakespeare moves jauntily, airily, easily, with careless indifference; Swedenborg lives earnestly, seriously, awfully. Shakespeare thinks that truth is only a point of view, a local issue, a matter of geography; Swedenborg considers it an exact science, with boundaries fixed and corner-stones immovable, and the business of his life was to map them out." Mr. Hubbard thinks, however, that "the earnest and minute arguments of Swedenborg need not give us headache in efforts to comprehend them. They were written for himself, as a scaffolding for his imagination," and that we need not take him "too seriously."

     Nevertheless "the bracketing of the names of Shakespeare and Swedenborg is eminently meet. They are Titans both. In the presence of such giants, small men seem to wither and blow away. Swedenborg was cast in heroic mold, and no man since history began ever compassed in himself so much physical science, and with it all on his back, made such daring voyages into the clouds. The men who soar highest and know most about another world, usually know little about this. No man of his time was so competent a scientist as Swedenborg, and no man before or since has mapped so minutely the Heavenly Kingdom. Swedenborg anticipated Darwin in a dozen ways; he knew the classic languages and most of the modern [?]; he travelled everywhere; he was a practical economist, and the best civil engineer of his day. Shakespeare knew the human heart--where the wild storms arise and there the passions die--the Delectable Isles where Ali counts not the days, and the swamps where love turns to hate and hell knocks on the gates of heaven. Shakespeare knew humanity, but little else; Swedenborg knew everything else, but here he balked, for woman's love never unlocked for him the secrets of the human heart." All of which observations are interesting and curious, but rather superficial.

     To the New Churchman there can be no doubt that, with the establishment of the New Church bringing among men a new and spiritual element hitherto unknown, there will arise a new duality not only in the lives of men, but also in the various manifestations of human activities in the fields of art, science and literature. Pictures, music and poetry have already been produced for the use of the New Church in which the effort has been made to express the sentiments and thoughts of the new life; and, at the present day, an earnest endeavor is being made to develop a New Church science.

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There have also been the beginnings of a new literature deriving its inspiration from ideas revealed in the Writings; we refer particularly to fictional literature. The stories that have appeared in the Life and Morning Light, etc., and the productions of Louis Pendleton, James Spilling and others are sufficient evidences of this.

     But it is not often that one meets with sound New Church fiction - if we may so term it - in the magazines of journals of the world. Such, however, is the case in the July number of The Era, where a short, but exceedingly interesting story by the well-known New Church author, Louis Pendleton, is to be found. Mr. Pendleton has drawn upon the Writings for his leading ideas and everything in "Demba," the name of the hero of the story, is sure to interest every lover of pure, healthy and suggestive fiction. But if this be true as to the general reader outside the New Church, it is much more so to the Newchurchman. Mr. Pendleton has once more shown us what can be done in the way of making literature new. It will be remembered that Swedenborg, in describing the inhabitants of the planet Venus, tells us that one that planet the good live on one side of their world and the evil on the other. This is the fundamental idea in Mr. Pendleton's "Dema," and he has succeeded in drawing a picture of what the life on that planet might be, so vividly, that it cannot fail to elicit the admiration of at least every New Church reader.

     The London Missionary and Tract Society announce the publication in cheap form of the Commentaries of the late Rev. William Bruce, as a memorial to the author, the plates having been acquired by popular subscriptions. The commentaries are published in four volumes entitled respectively "Commentary on St. [!] Matthew," "St. John," "The Revelation," and "The First Three Kings of Israel." So far as we can judge from the first named of these volumes. Mr. Bruce's works are greatly lacking in that distinctive and spiritual element which should be predominant characteristic of all New Church works, and especially of commentaries on the Word. It is true that the spiritual sense is brought out to some extent, but it does not sound the dominant note in the work. The attention of the reader is mainly directed to the natural sense of the words commented on, - a sense which is often plainly obvious without much commentary, and in any case can be and has been ably expounded by ministers in the Old Church. Of far greater value to the New Church minister and student are the able commentaries on the four gospels by Rev. John Clowes - commentaries which are devoted solely to the exposition of the spiritual sense, and which, in marked contrast to Mr. Bruce's work, consist largely of extracts from the Writings.

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FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS 1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS       Various       1904

     Bryn Athyn. The Rev. W. L. Gladish preached on November 22d, and on the following Sunday the Rev. W. A. Brickman. Services were held on Thanksgiving morning, the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt delivering the address.

     On the 25th of November, Miss Bellinger and Miss Ashby, who assist Miss Grant, gave a party for the two youngest classes of the local school, to which all the children came dressed in the costumes of the early pilgrims, and enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner, the exact reproduction of the first one partaken of in this country. Governor Winthrop, Captain Miles Standish, John Alden, Priscilla, Mrs. White and Massasoit and his followers were among the prominent personages present.

     On the evening of the 27th of November, the annual Fair was opened in the gymnasium. Most of the people came in old time country costume, which added much to the jollification. Short plays and local songs were given at intervals throughout the evening, and also acrobatic feats which have rarely been equaled. There was no difficulty in spending money, as fair maidens occupied booths at which various articles were sold. The evening ended with country dances. The Fair was given under the auspices of the Bryn Athyn Social Club, and the committee in charge is to be congratulated on its success. The proceeds were given to the Building Fund.

     On the 12th of December a school social was given in the gymnasium, at which a school paper was read in sections between the dances. The paper was excellent in every respect and indicated that, in our midst, there are literary geniuses, who may some day rival Shakespeare and Ben Jonson.

     The Rev. Alfred Acton has been South for a few weeks to recuperate from his recent illness. We are glad to be able to report him much stronger and able to continue his work in the New Year. On Wednesday evening, December 16th, the society joined in a donation party for Miss Grant, who has lately moved into a new cottage opposite the Girls' dormitory.

     The social life here is very similar to that of other societies, and, yet, a few words about how it is carried on may prove interesting to the young people elsewhere. The society has its own social life distinct from that of the schools, though on special occasions they unite.

     The Bryn Athyn Social Club was organized to promote and take charge of the social life of the society, especially among the young folks. They have meetings once a month, at which, after the transaction of regular business, they dance, play games and enjoy refreshments.

     The college and seminary have a social once a month, which is managed by a mixed committee, under one of the teachers. There is, however, considerable social life outside of these formal occasions. On Saturday evenings and Sunday afternoons, the young ladies of the dormitory receive visitors, and, frequently, Saturday evening is pleasantly passed with dancing and games. If the weather is fair, on Sunday afternoon all go for a long walk, or when there is ice they go skating. On Sunday evenings the students visit the families, and this year, all have together called at one house each Sunday; and so we go the rounds. These evenings are much enjoyed.

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     The children of the local school also have their social life, the older ones separate from the two youngest classes. On Saturday morning, from eleven until one o'clock, Miss Nellie Smith teaches the little ones dancing, and in the afternoon, from three until five o'clock, she instructs the older ones. They also have regular school socials and sometimes a party at the home of one of the children to celebrate special occasions.

     The Bryn Athyn Debating Club is an organization of the College. Its object is to practice parliamentary law and debating, and for that purpose it meets one evening each week. Only those interested in such things are admitted to membership and then only by a unanimous vote.

     The Academy Athletic Club is devoted entirely to the promotion of Athletics, and every student may become a member of it, and all alumni associate members, on application.

     These organizations serve to more closely unite the students in the bonds of friendship, which will hold them together in after life when they enter upon the duties of the Church.
F. E. G.

     Glenview, Ill. A special committee has been appointed to take charge of our social life, this season, and its work has thus far resulted in three pleasant gatherings. On Thanksgiving's eve we had a very successful harvest festival at the club house, the room being decorated with a pyramid of fruits and vegetables. The children, also, have had several socials, as well as splendid skating on the famous "lake" in our park. L. E. G.

     Pittsburg. A very delightful sociable was given by Mr. and Mrs. Lechner at their home on December 1st. Progressive euchre was the order of the evening, and everybody seemed to be out for a good time; nor were there any disappointments, judging from the prevailing jollity. This was heightened by the host's announcement, later in the evening, of the engagement of his son, Mr. Hermann Lechner, to Miss Lutie Tenley, of Bellevue, Ky. The guests promptly recovered from their surprise and poured out their good wishes to the couple in songs and toasts.

     Thanksgiving was not celebrated at the Church, as it was thought to be more of a day for home celebration. At the Doctrinal Class on the evening preceding, however, our pastor gave a very interesting account of the various feasts in the Jewish and Christian Churches, and their significance. C. H. E.

     The Missionary Field: From Sept. 25-27, I visited Mr. and Mrs. John D. Fogle, at Bourbon, Ind., where a sermon was read. Mr. and Mrs. Fogle are appreciative readers of the Life. On the 28th I stopped at Marion, where the time was pleasantly spent in doctrinal conversation with Mrs. Mary Wade and her granddaughter. The following three days were spent with Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Defenbaugh, at Kokomo, where I also called on Mr. Isaac M. Martz. A useful evening meeting was held at this place. From Kokomo, I went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Beath, Bonnie View Farm, Madison Co., O., where services were held on Sunday, Oct. 4th. The next two days were spent with Mr. William Dill at Bainbridge, O. Here also I met Mr. and Mrs. D. O. Beath, who became subscribers to the Life. On October 7th I visited Judge Lewis G. Dill at Waverly. Mrs. Dill has not yet wholly accepted the Doctrines, but their three children are all baptized in the New Church.

     After a short stay with friends in Parkersburg, W. Va., I passed a day at McConnalsville, O., where I visited Mrs. Sarah S. Hanna--a lady, who, altho' far advanced in years, is still a diligent reader of the Writings and the Life, from which she derives great comfort and delight. A couple of days were passed in Zanesville, where I had expected to meet Mr. John H. Guyton, but found that he had passed into the spiritual world.

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On Oct. 12th I was at St. Clairsville visiting with Mr. Jos. T. Mellor and his two sisters. They are the only remains of a small New Church Society formed in the place about half a century ago. At Welcome, W. Va., where I spent the following day, I met Mr. Gee. T. Peters and family, who, altho' not members of the New Church, are yet friendly to it. Here I also called on Miss Mary Campbell, a niece of Rev. David Powell.

     From Oct. 14-16 I was with Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Wichterman, at their home near Clarington, O. Here I met Mr. Fred Waelchli, an uncle of Rev. F. E. Waelchli, who spent a part of the day with us. I had hoped to visit Mr. John N. Fisher, whose name had been given me by Rev. W. L. Gladish, but was unable to reach him. There was no answer to my letter. The next two days were spent with Mr. and Mrs. Mortimer Pollock, at Wheeling, W. Va., where Sunday services were held, and the Holy Supper administered to nine communicants. Here I called on Mrs. Elizabeth A. Pollock and her two sons. They said that Miss Clio, who is attending the school at Bryn Athyn, wishes them to make that New Church centre their home.

     After a day in Bellaire, O., Oct. 20th, found me at the home of Mr. and Mrs D. Le Roy Ashton, near Short Creek, W. Va., where I baptized their infant daughter. The next day was spent at East Liverpool, O., with Mr. and Mrs. Samson Turnbull. They had intended being at the late Pittsburg Assembly but were prevented by the illness of Mrs. Turnbull. From East Liverpool I went to Pittsburg, where I had the pleasure of attending the meetings of the District Assembly. After these meetings were over I went to Leechburg, Pa., where Dr. U. O. Heilman and family were visited. The doctor and his wife were desirous of becoming members of the visible body of the Church, and were, therefore, with a son and a daughter, baptized. They have applied for membership in the General Church.

     Several days, Oct. 29-Nov. 7, mere spent in Columbiana, O., and neighborhood, after which, on Sunday, Nov. 8, services were held in the chapel at Greenford. There was an attendance of 22 persons, one of whom, Mr. John W. Peacher, came a distance of thirty miles, and was baptized. 'The Holy Supper was administered to 16 communicants. Several days were spent in Greenford visiting various families. On Nov. 11th, I went to West Farmington, to the home of Mr. J. W. Peacher, where I spent two days. Three years ago Mr. Peacher was presented with some books that had belonged to the late Aaron B. Powell, a cousin of David Powell. Among these books were De Charms' Sermons, two volumes of The New Church Messenger, 1853-'55, and three volumes of The New Churchman, 1842-'44. These works contain most excellent articles and sermons, which are in perfect accord with the spirit of the Divinely inspired Writings. Mr. Peacher diligently read them, and was profoundly impressed; he was soon convinced of the absolute truth of the teaching. He remarked to me on the great contrast between the tone of those early writers and the contents of the Messenger of the present day. He decided, of his own free-will, to withdraw from the body in which he had been accepted as a member without having been baptized into the New Church, and applied for membership in the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     A drive of 16 miles brought me to the home of Mr. J. Perry Nye, near Hart's Grove, Ashtabula Co., who made me welcome as they have always done on many former visits. JOHN E. BOWERS.

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     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The Rev. Louis G. Hoeck was installed pastor of the Brockton Society, on Nov. 15, by Rev. James Reed, who was assisted by Rev. John Goddard and Rev. H. C. Hay, the latter Mr. Hoeck's immediate predecessor in Brockton.

     The churches in East Bridgewater, Mass., held a united service in the Unitarian Church on Thanksgiving day. The sermon was preached by Rev. J. S. David, the New Church minister at Elmwood.

     Union services were also arranged on the same day, at Newtonville, Mass., but here, while the New Church received the compliment(?) of having its place of worship chosen for the services, the sermon was preached by an Old Church minister. What a mixture! A New Church minister preaching in an Old Church building and an Old Church minister in a New Church building!

     A union Thanksgiving service of a very different kind was held in New York, where the New York, Brooklyn, and Orange Societies united in worship. Addresses were delivered by the pastors of the three Societies.

     The sum of $1,000 has been donated to the New York Association to be invested; the income is to be divided equally between the missionary work of the Association and the Messenger, for the purpose of sending the paper to those who cannot afford to subscribe.

     It appears as if there were a promise of some numerical growth in the New Church in Buffalo, N. Y. Since Mr. Broomell has taken up the work there, several strangers have been attending the services, and four of them have signified their desire to join the Society. Mr. Broomell has had invitations to speak at a large number of outside meetings.

     The 43d annual meeting of the Maryland Association was held in Washington, from Oct. 16th-18. Five ministers and twenty-nine delegates attended, besides many visitors. The most important event of the meeting was the admission into the Association, (and thus into the General Convention), of the Baltimore English Society. This society is the oldest New Church Society for public worship in North America, having been formed in 1792 with Rev. Mr. Wilmer, a convert from the Episcopal Church, as pastor, who was succeeded in 1798 by Rev. John Hargrove, the first ordained minister of the New Church in America. The Society was received by the Association "with evident joy and gladness." The accession of this Society increases the membership of the Association to 425, with about 250 isolated receivers.

     After some discussion as to the propriety of imposing a per capita tax on the members of the Association a resolution was adopted "fixing a sum to be collected" for the publication of Journal and Directory, the latter to include the names and addresses of New Church people in N. Carolina and Tennessee.

     The annual address was delivered by Rev. L. H. Tafel, of Baltimore, on the subject, "The Internal Growth of the Church." Missionary reports were read by Rev. J. E. Smith for Eastern Maryland, and Rev. J. B. Spiers for Virginia.

     The Rev. Junius B. Spiers, late of Contoocook, N. H., has been appointed Missionary Pastor of Virginia. His opening services were held in Richmond on Dec. 13th. The appointment has been made by the Maryland Association, who were assisted by the Convention Mission Board on the condition that $300 be raised from outside sources. At the present time there is not a single New Church Society in either Virginia or West Virginia, though in the early part of the century there was a promising Society at Abingdon and small circles at Wheeling and Lynchburg. All these seem to have died oar after a few years, and the present effort to form a New Church Society in Richmond is the first definite movement for the establishment of the organized New Church in Virginia which has been made for many years.

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     The Illinois Association held its 64th annual meeting in the Church of the Divine Humanity, Chicago, Nov. 13-15. At the recommendation of the Council of Ministers Rev. J. S. Saul was temporarily invested with the powers of General Pastor. Rev. E. J. E. Schreck opposed the investiture on doctrinal grounds, but his motion to refer back was defeated. The meeting also granted the request of the Kenwood Parish for the ordination of Mr. J. R. Stockwell; and received into membership the Society at Union City, Tenn. An application was received from the
"Afro-American New Church people of Chicago" for admission into membership of the Association, but on the recommendation of the Council of Ministers, the application was trot granted, a resolution being adopted expressing sympathetic interest with the applicants, but "deeming it premature to admit them as an organization into the Association," and referring them to the care of the Presiding Minister. The colored people were represented by their preacher, Rev. A. Simons, who, at the request of the chair, addressed the meeting. He confirmed what the Writings say as to the colored people having a genius to receive the doctrines, and thought that if New Church men would welcome them into the Church they would learn willingly. They were of a child-like nature and must be so treated. Mr. Simons concluded by expressing his great delight in preaching the "beautiful truths of the New Church."

     On Dec. 1st Mr. John W. Stockwell was ordained by Rev. I. P. Mercer, in the Kenwood Church, Chicago. The candidate was presented by Rev. J. S. Saul, presiding minister of the Illinois Association, and Rev. E. J. E. Schreck and Mr. Stockwell assisted in the services which followed the ordination. Mr. Stockwell has accepted the pastorate of the Kenwood Church.

     The Ohio Association held its 50th annual meeting in Cincinnati, Oct. 28th-Nov. 1st. Among the members of the Council of Ministers was Rev. Wm. Codville, "a Baptist minister of Columbus, O., who has been a student of Swedenborg for thirty years." The General Pastor, Rev. L. P. Mercer, reported to the Association, among other things, that "Thomas A. King returned to the New Church after a period of rest and recuperation in soul and body, is now preaching in Cleveland and Lakewood under authorization."

     On Sunday, Nov. 1st, the services were in dedication of the new house of worship of the Cincinnati Society. This new building, which has been recently completed, is in the style common to manly English village parish churches, the plan being cruciform. The church has already several fine stained glass windows, some of them the gift of the New Church Society of Glendale. The dedicatory service was opened with a processional hymn sung by the vested choir of young ladies.

     A reading circle has been recently formed in Indianapolis, under the leadership of Mr. H. C. Vrooman, an authorized candidate who has been placed in Indianapolis by the President of the Ohio Association to fill the field formerly occupied by Rev. W. L. Gladish.

     The German Synod held its annual meeting at Pawnee Rock, Kansas, Oct. 16th-18th, with an attendance varying from 45 to over 300. The Synod appointed a committee to co-operate with its publication committee in the distribution of New Church literature in Germany and Austria, including the republication of Dr. Neuberger's recent articles on Swedenborg's scientific attainments. The committee is also charged with the "creation of new centres" in Germany "to be affiliated with the Synod."

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     The Los Angeles Society, on Dec. 13th, tendered a reception to their new pastor, Rev. Joseph E. Collom, late pastor of the Denver Society. Mr. Collom began his new pastorate all Nov. 15th.

     GREAT BRITAIN. At the 22d annual meeting of the N. C. Orphanage, held in London on Oct. 27th, it was reported that four new wards had been adopted during the past year. This makes a total of twenty-one orphans who are now supported by the institution at an annual cost of $2,310. With one exception, all these children have been placed under the charge of a parent or near relative. Owing to this fact, the matter of building a central home, which was brought up in the Chairman's address, did not receive much attention in the discussion, which was directed mainly to enlisting the increased support of the Church.

     On Oct. 21st a meeting was held at the church of the Bristol Society, for the purpose of forming a new body of the church--the "West of England District Union." This Union is to include the Societies at Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Ynysmeudwy, and other places in Wales and the West of England; representatives from some of these societies mere present at the meeting. The object of the Union is to assist and encourage groups of isolated receivers, and to bring about more intimate relations between the component societies.

     A meeting was held by the Bath Society, on Oct. 22d, to formally welcome the new pastor, Rev. S. J. S. Goldsack, who entered upon his duties last July. The chairman dwelt upon the "difficulties" under which the Society labored, chief of which was that they were excluded from the Bristol "Council of Free Churches."

     Unusually large audiences attended the course of eight lectures delivered by Rev. Thomas Child at Glasgow, Nov. 13-24, in answer to the issues raised by "Umquam" in his letters to The Clarion, and by Haeckel in his Riddle of the Universe. Both these authors have been widely read, and their objections to Christianity have excited an unusual amount of discussion. Judging from the enthusiasm of his audiences Mr. Child appears to have answered these objections in a most satisfactory manner. The audiences ranged from 500 to 1,000, and at one of the lectures the hall was so crowded that many persons had to be turned away. This is somewhat remarkable for a large city at the present day, though it was not uncommon in the early days of the Church even to within twenty-five or thirty years ago. But the trouble has so often been that while many persons were interested by the lecturer, they were not afterwards cared for by the pastor, or were not led to any further advance in their knowledge of the doctrines.

     A large meeting, representative of the London Societies, was held at Argyle Square Church on Oct. 20th, to welcome the new "Missionary Minister," Rev. J. T. Freeth recently appointed by Conference at the request of the Missionary and Tract Society. Mr. Freeth dwelt upon missionary work as the chief glory of the New Church.

     During recent years it is not often that we have heard of public debates between representatives of the New Church and its opponents; it seems now that there may be, in England, a revival of this kind of missionary work. In London Rev. G. W. Wall met a Christadelphian on Dec. 10th and 11th in public debate on the questions: Whether the Bible teaches the literal coming of Christ; and, whether Christians after death go to Christ in heaven; while in Paisley, Rev. C. A. Hall is engaged to join in public debate with some noted agnostic. The circumstances from which this engagement arose are somewhat interesting. At the close of one of his popular lectures in answer to "Nunquam," a newspaper correspondent whose letters have been widely read, Mr. Hall was requested by some of his hearers to attend a meeting on the following evening to oppose a "secularist" lecturer, an ex-Presbyterian minister.

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Supported by some New Church friends Mr. Hall, in due course, attended the meeting, and at the close of the lecture at once rose to his feet to reply to the blasphemous attacks which had been made on Christianity. The discussion was, however, soon cut short by the announcement that the lecturer had to catch a train. Mr. Hall promptly challenged him to a public debate on the following week. The challenge was not accepted but, as a result, the Glasgow secular society decided to send one of its "most formidable champions" to meet Mr. Hall in the beginning of the new year. It goes without saying, that the debates will be attended; the love of witnessing an intellectual tussle is the birthright of every Scotchman.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1904

GENERAL ASSEMBLY              1904


     Announcements.



     Special Notice.

     The Fifth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., in June, 1904. Further announcement will be made in the next issue of the Life. C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary.

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THREE NEW MANUSCRIPTS BY SWEDENBORG 1904

THREE NEW MANUSCRIPTS BY SWEDENBORG       ALFRED H. STROH       1904


NEW CHURCH LIFE.

VOL. XXIV. FEBRUARY, 1904.

No. 2.
     Some months ago, while occupied with the reproduction of Swedenborg's manuscripts preserved in Stockholm and in searching for material concerning them, three manuscripts in Swedenborg's handwriting, which, it appears, have hitherto remained unnoticed by New Church scholars and not called to the attention of the New Church public, came to the notice of the writer. Notice of the finding of these manuscripts and short descriptions of their contents have appeared in the Swedish New Church papers;* the present article is in part a compilation of the material there published. The manuscripts will be described in the order they were found.
     * See Nya Kyrkans Tidning, 1903, pages 105-108, 139-140; Nya Krykans Harold, 1903, page 115.

     In a contribution to the Proceedings of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for 1889, entitled Emanuel Swedenborg as a Mathematician, by Gustaf Enestrom,* mention is made of a manuscript on mathematics by Swedenborg, preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm.

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On making inquiries for it at the Royal Library I was told that there was no such manuscript there, but on producing Enestrom's reference to it, the superintendent of the manuscript department, Dr. Karl Henrik Karlsson, made a search for it and succeeded in finding it. It may be here added that while most of the "Swedenborgiana" at the Royal Library are collected in one place, the manuscripts are distributed in various places according to subjects, and are, therefore, not so easily found, as experience has shown.
     * See Bihang till K. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handlingar, Band 15. Afd. I. No 12. Emanuel Swedenborg sasom Matematiker. Af Gustaf Enestrom. Meddeladt den g Oktober 1859 geaom D. G. Lindhagen. Stockholm, 1890. Kongl. Boktryckeriet. P. A. Norstedt & Soner. 29 pages, octave.
     The writer presents an interesting critical analysis of Swedenborg's contributions to mathematics. His statements regarding the new manuscript on mathematics by Swedenborg are contained on pages 24-26.

     The manuscript is entitled in the original Swedish:

     en ny Rakenkonst / som / Omwexlas wid 8 / i stelle then wahnliga wid Thalet 10 / Hwarigenom / All ting angaende mynt, wicht, mal och matt, / monga resor lettare an effter wahnlighe / ten vtraknas / af / Em: Swedberg.

     This title may be translated:
     A new method of counting, in which the number 8 is used instead of the usual 10, by which all things relating to money, weights, and measures are computed many times more easily than by the usual system. By Em: Swedberg.
     The manuscript is 23.5 centimeters in length and 16 centimeters in width, that is, it is a large octavo. It fills 28 pages, including the title-page, and is written in a beautiful hand on an unusually fine quality of paper. (On this point sec the remarks on the third manuscript.) There are two leaves of a heavy paper at the front and back of the manuscript which serve as covers and were evidently added some time after Swedenborg's writing of the manuscript. The pages are adorned by two lines drawn near each other along the edges of the page and crossing each other at the corners; the writing is within the rectangle. On the outside of the top of the first cover is written in an unknown handwriting: "Assessor Swedenborg's Een Nyy Raknekonst," that is. "Assessor Swedenborg's A New Art of Reckoning." In the left corner is written the number "290.," and somewhat below to the right the number "10." Under "En Nyy Rakenkonst" is written "1718," and in the right hand corner "14 blad," that is, "14 leaves," in the handwriting of former librarian Klemming. At the bottom of the page in the left-hand corner is the yellow label of the Library on which the word "Matem." is written, showing that the manuscript belongs to the collection of mathematical manuscripts.

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At the top of the page which faces the title-page, there is written in the handwriting of former librarian Klemming: "Gafva af John Ericsson Maj 1886 / Ur Mohlmans-Djurclous samling," that is, "A gift of John Ericsson, May, 1886, from the Mohlman-Djurclous collection." The sides (not the ends) of the leaves of this manuscript were cut smaller after Swedenborg's time, probably when the cover was added. This manuscript is noted in the Accession catalogue of the library (manuscript, folio) under the date of May 31, 1886. The order of the contents is as follows: First come the two pages of heavy paper which serve as a cover; then on page 1 of the manuscript proper is the title page; on page 2 is a dedication to the King, Charles XII.; pages 3 to 5 contain an introduction (Forrtal); the remaining 23 pages contain the body of the little work which is divided into 17 short chapters, the twelfth and thirteenth chapters both being numbered "12."
     Below is given a translation into English of the dedication to the King, which, like the title and the remainder of the manuscript, is written in old Swedish, a language which, by the way, is strong and expressive, although it seems quaint to the modern eye:

     "Most mighty and gracious King.
     "That I come before your Majesty's eyes with a system of reckoning which has its base with 8 instead of the usual 10, I should not have presumed to do on my own responsibility, were it not that the favor which was shown for a similar method of reckoning with 61, as a base, has assured me that it will be graciously received. The turning is placed at 8, in order that letters may be used, since new numbers are not so easily invented. I need not describe to your Majesty the usefulness of this octonary computation, since you yourself better understand even the most difficult part therein than another can describe it; and I do not hand this over to a king but as to one who is a profound mathematician, fearing that something will be found which I have not yet sufficiently considered. I remain,
     Your Majesty's;
     My most gracious lord's,
     Most humble servant,
Carlsgraf: 1718. EMAN. SWEDBERG."

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     Students of Swedenborg's biography will remember that Swedenborg was much favored by that "lion of the North," King Charles XII. The king was much pleased with the Dadalus Hypcrboreus, a scientific magazine which Swedenborg published in six numbers from 1716-1718. In a letter to his brother-in-law, Eric Benzelius, written at Carlscrona, towards the close of December, 1716, Swedenborg says:

     Since His Majesty graciously looked at my Daedalus and its plan, he has advanced me to the post of an extraordinary assessor in the College of Mines; yet in such a way, that I should for some time attend the Councillor of Commerce, Polheimer. (See Dr. R. L. Tafel's Documents, I, pp. 273-274)

     Other letters written at this period of Swedenborg's career refer to various plans which he endeavored to carry out by obtaining the favor and support of the king, and some progress was indeed made, although it was not of a permanent nature. The plans in question were, the building of an astronomical observatory, the construction of canals for inland navigation, and the establishment of salt-boileries. These plans are referred to in a letter which Swedenborg wrote to Eric Benzelius, dated Lund, June 26, 1717, and he also mentions in this same letter that he is working on a new system of computation. He says:

     I have besides been busy with a new method of counting which His Majesty has hit upon, viz., to let the numeration reach 64, before it turns, in the same way as the ordinary method of counting turns at 10. He has himself devised new characters, new names, etc., for this purpose; and has written and changed a number of points with his own hand. This paper, which I have in my possession, will in time deserve a distinguished place in a library. This method of counting is difficult in multiplication, etc.; but it is useful and speedy in division, in the extraction of the cube, and biquadratic roots, all of which terminate in 64; as well as in the solution of smaller numbers. His Majesty has great penetration. (See Documents, I., p. 285.)

     In a letter to Eric Benzelius, dated Brunsbo, December, 1717, Swedenborg says:

     I myself have not spoken to His Majesty more than twice, and then it was only some nonsense about mathematics, riddles in algebra, etc. (See Documents, I., p. 287.)

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     In a letter to Eric Benzelius, dated Brunsbo, January 7, 1718, Swedenborg again refers to the new method of computation:

     Enclosed I send you something which I found time to write at Brunsbo; it is a new method of calculation, of which I received a hint while I was at Lund. His Majesty is much interested in this kind of calculation, and has himself prepared characters, names and rules for a method; but in it there was no turn until 64. I have two sheets which he himself wrote on this subject, which shall belong to the Library. The present method goes to 8 before it turns; and could it be introduced into use, it would be of great practical advantage. The example proves this. It is to be left with Prof. Valerius for inspection first; and then to be printed in octave. I have also another work in octave, which may be joined to it. (See Documents, I., p. 288.)

     From the above quotations it is established that Swedenborg wrote a manuscript towards the close of 1717, or in the early days of January, 1718, on a new system of calculation with 8 as a base instead of 10, and that he sent the manuscript to Eric Benzelius with the intention of publishing it. The manuscript here referred to and the one which has been found in the Royal Library at Stockholm are possibly identical, or perhaps there were two copies of the same treatise, since the manuscript which has been found has the date "Carlsgraf: 1718," and Swedenborg says he has "found time to write" it "at Brunsbo:" or, again, the manuscript in the Royal Library may be an entirely fresh production, based on Swedenborg's earlier efforts. The manuscript which Swedenborg sent to Eric Eenzelius also had a preface, for in the same letter which was quoted just above he adds in a postscript:

     If anything has to be corrected in the preface, I wish you would undertake the trouble, and help me, in honour, as you have done before.

     In Swedenborg's next letter to Eric Benzelius, dated Brunsbo, January 14, 1718, he mentions his work on Algebra and incidentally refers to the manuscript on the new method of calculation as follows:

     I should like very much that it [i. e., the Algebra] might, with your usual care, be sent to press, in octave like the last work which I sent over to you, so as to form a volume. (See Documents, I., p. 290)

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     In his next letter to Eric Benzelius, dated Brunsbo, January 21, 1718, Swedenborg says:

     As to your having thought it advisable to delay for a while the publication of the new method of reckoning, for the reasons you have named, I did not at first comprehend your meaning, and it was certainly some discouragement to me in a matter I had in hand, to find that my mathematical discoveries were considered as novelties which the country could not stand. I wish I had some more of these novelties, aye, a novelty in literary matters for every day in the year, so that the world might find pleasure in them. There are enough in one century who plod on in the old beaten track, while there are scarcely six or ten in a whole century, who are able to generate novelties which are based upon argument and reason. But I afterwards perceived that you meant those matters concerning the revolution in coinage and currency. That is a different thing. Still, I know that I have not proposed anything that can occasion the slightest inconvenience to the country. * * *
     As the King has already approved of the calculation based on number eight, you must be so good as not to create any difficulties, that may prevent its publication. (See Documents, I., pp. 294-295.)

     In Swedenborg's next letter to Eric Benzelius, dated Starbo, January 30, 1718, he again refers to the new method of calculation:

     The new method of calculation I intend for the learned; and I hope you will order it to be printed. I take all responsibility upon myself, and assure you that nothing of this kind will be prohibited. The King has full power in everything that concerns law, war, and taxes, but none whatever in what concerns words, language, and calculation. We have great cause to be wearied with all the "innovations" that happen. Would to God that no innovations had taken place with our currency, but only with the method of reckoning it--then our country would have been better off. (See Documents, I., p. 297.)

     In his next letter to Eric Benzelius, dated Starbo, February, 1718, Swedenborg says:

     Let nothing interfere with my new method of calculation; it may be very useful for those who desire to use it; I take the whole responsibility upon myself. (See Documents, I., p. 299.)

     In Enestrom's article reference is made to some of the material which has been quoted and it is pointed out that Swedenborg evidently changed his mind about the feasibility of the new method of calculation, for in 1719 he published eight pages in quarto at Stockholm in which he bases his proposals on the decimal system.

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The title of this publication is, Proposal for regulating our coinage and measures, by which computation is facilitated, and fractions are abolished. (Forslag til wart Mynts och Mals Indelning, sa at rekningen kan lettas och alt Brak afskaffas.)
     This little treatise was published not long after the death of Charles XII., who was shot at Frederickshall in November, 1718.
     A number of years later Swedenborg wrote a long letter to Doctor Nordberg, who was engaged upon a history of Charles XII, which was published in two volumes at Stockholm in 1740. (Carl XII.'s Historia.) In this letter Swedenborg describes in great detail how the ideas of using the numbers 8 and 64 as a base instead of to were advanced by Charles XII. in conversations on mathematical subjects. The letter makes very interesting reading but is too long for quotation here. The reader will find an English translation of it in the Documents, I., pp 558-565 The gist of the matter has been given in the quotations made above but many more particulars are added. Swedenborg also refers to the plan which he worked out by using the number 8 as a base. The king was indeed pleased with it but wished to have something more complete and extended. He therefore worked out a system of computation based on the number 64. Swedenborg expresses great admiration of the skill and genius of the king, whose manuscript he said was still in his possession.
     Swedenborg also treated of "A new Sexagenary Calculus, invented by Charles XII., of glorious memory, late King of Sweden," in the beginning of Part IV. of his Miscellaneous Observations, published in 1722 at Schiffbeck near Hamburg.
     After examining the manuscript, which has been described above, the writer requested the superintendent of the manuscript department, Dr. Karlsson, to kindly search every possible corner in the library to see whether there might not he some other manuscript which was not known to New Church scholars. Dr. Karlsson promised to do so, and some days later, when the writer visited the library, he was shown another new manuscript which is of great interest.

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In an interleaved pocket almanack for the year 1752, Swedenborg made annotations on twenty pages about the manuscript of the Arcana Coelestia which he was sending to London to his printers, John Hart and John Lewis. There are also annotations about seeds, flowers and vegetables, etc., which Swedenborg had in his garden. The annotations contained in this almanack were transcribed by the writer while in Stockholm, and will soon be published by the Sisters Lundberg, the indefatigable agents of the New Church Publishing Association in Stockholm, Sergelgatan 4. For the sake of easy reference the description of this interesting piece of evidence will therefore be postponed to a future number of the Life.
     For some time nothing new was found at the Royal Library, although vigorous searches were made. One day it occurred to the writer to examine the manuscript section himself, and a beginning was made with the section of mathematical manuscripts. Noticing Polhem's name I asked the assistant, Dr. Linder, about the manuscripts of Polhem and was told that there were a great many manuscripts by him in the library. There were a number in the mathematical section, and I at once began to open the packages and examine the contents. In one of the bundles, near the beginning, was a manuscript in Swedenborg's handwriting. It is a most valuable piece of evidence in regard to the development of Swedenborg"s physical and chemical theories.
     This manuscript is entitled "Discours emellan Mechaniquen och Chymien / om Naturens wasende," that is, A discourse between Mechanica and Chymia on the Constitution of Nature. The manuscript is in quarto. It measures 237 centimeters in length and 18 centimeters in width. It consists of sixteen leaves of paper, the writing being contained on the first twenty-five pages, the remaining pages being blank. Together with this manuscript there is one in the handwriting of Polhem which is certainly the first drat of the latter portion of the manuscript in Swedenborg's handwriting. It is known that Swedenborg for a time acted as Polhem's amanuensis, at least this appears very probable. (See Documents, II., p. 877.) Now the question arises, Who is responsible for the new manuscript, Swedenborg or Polhem? If we say that Swedenborg is, then we are confronted by the first draft of the latter portion of the manuscript in Polhem's handwriting.

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     If, on the other hand, we ascribe the manuscript to Polhem, we will be obliged to give up the idea that Swedenborg was the real author of some of the scientific theories advanced in the Miscellaneous Observations and the Principles of Chemistry. It may be supposed that Swedenborg was the author of the first portion of the manuscript and Polhem of the latter portion only. Or, it may be supposed that Swedenborg and Polhem wrote the dialogue together, since they no doubt frequently conversed about the subjects which it treats of; but it should be talien into account that Swedenborg was not in the habit of writing dialogues, although Polhem wrote a great many of them.
     Some of the remarks of Mechanica and Chymia are very humorous and finally Mechanica prevails in the argument, although Chymia says many things which carry weight.
     There is a remarkable similarity of some of the ideas and phrases occurring in this manuscript to those which are to be found in the little paper by Swedenborg On the Causes of Things. (See The New Philosophy for January, 1903)
     There are more than thirty-four quarto and folio packages of manuscripts by Polhem in the Royal Library. Of these I made an examination after finding the manuscript described above, but found nothing more except some official documents containing the signature of Swedenborg and other officials of the College of Mines. These documents are contained in a folio volume entitled "Till Christopher Polhammar-Polhems Biografi. 1694-1730." The documents are nos. 127, 129, 131, 182, 184, 187 The whole subject of Polhem"s relation to Swedenborg should be fully investigated. Possibly other evidence might be found and our knowledge of Swedenborg's biography still further extended.
     The manuscript dialogue of Mechanica and Chymia is contained in a package (quarto) of manuscripts by Polhem. The manuscripts are not bound but are wrapped up and tied with a piece of string. On the back of the wrapper is written: "Polhem, Naturvetenskapliga Afhandlingar I." On the outside there is also written: "Uppsatser i Allmant Naturvetenkapliga Amnen af Chr. Polhem (Egenhandigt). Gafva of Frih. C. A. Manderstrom d. 26 Aug. 1878."From the last statement it appears that the manuscripts were presented to the library by Friherre C. A. Manderstrom in 1875 and this is true of most of the manuscripts by Polhem in the Royal Library.

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The manuscripts so presented are listed in the Accession Catalogue under the year 1878, among them the package containing the manuscript in Swedenborg's handwriting, although no mention is made of Swedenborg.
     The paper size, color of ink, style of handwriting, etc., of this manuscript are like those of the manuscript on mathematics described above; this may help to determine the date. Polhem used a different size and quality of paper. The manuscript is indeed a little wider than the one described in the beginning of this article, but it is to be observed that that one was cut as stated. The sheets of paper on which the dialogue is written follow each other in the manner now to be described. First come two leaves, forming one section I then follow eight leaves, forming the second section; the third section, which is the last, contains six leaves. The two leaves before the last, containing no writing, were still uncut at the top when the writer examined the manuscript.
CARE FOR THE MORROW 1904

CARE FOR THE MORROW        PENDLETON       1904

     The Sermon on the Mount treats of charity or love to the neighbor, or that spiritual good which is the product of temptation and self-compulsion, of combat against hereditary and acquired evil, by which the natural state of man is changed, and from being natural he becomes a spiritual or a celestial man, and so remains forever.

     The first chapter of the three which constitute the Sermon on the Mount, teaches in general that charity is the means by which the external man is conjoined with the internal. This conjunction is effected when there is a correspondence of the one with the other, which is especially meant by the injunction which closes the series, that all the disciples of the Lord are to become perfect even as their Father in heaven is perfect.

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     This subject is continued in the sixth chapter, which is the second of the discourse on the Mountain; that is, charity continues to be the subject of the series; but the internal sense now looks to the form of charity which is called faith, by which, when it is established, there is a more complete separation from the things of the world, and conjunction with heaven.

     In the literal sense the chapter treats, first, of alms; second, of prayer; third, of forgiveness; fourth, of fasting; fifth, of treasure in heaven; sixth, of the light of the body, which is the eye; seventh, of the two masters, and, eighth, of thought for the morrow.

     The chapter opens with the subject of the doing of alms, in which the idea is continued from the previous chapter that the natural man is to be brought into correspondence with the spiritual man; but now there comes more clearly into view a general truth that runs through these chapters, namely, that the natural man must be disjoined from the world, its loves, and its delights, before it can be conjoined with heaven.

     Perfection, which is correspondence with heaven, does not come about in a moment, but is a progressive thing, the work of a lifetime; and it is necessary that the imperfection, arising from the love of the world, should be removed, before man can come into an image of the Divine perfection. The chapter therefore begins with the teaching that alms are not to be done to be seen of men, but to be seen of the Lord, not to be done from the world, but from heaven.

     It is the same with prayer, which is the prayer of faith, and which is faith; it is not to be like that of hypocrites, who love to pray standing in the synagogues, and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men; but it must be in the closet, where no one seeth but our Father in heaven, which is the only prayer that brings the heavenly reward.

     Charity is first established; but without its own form, which is faith, it is not complete; therefore, faith, or the life of piety, must not exist for the sake of the world: for if it does, charity will not be in it, and it is merely a dead worship.

     Then follows the Divine Prayer, the wonders of which can never he exhausted by men or angels; in which as in the ten commandments, two universals reign,--love to the Lord and love to the neighbor,--teaching that these two things must be in all faith, in all piety, and in all worship, of faith, piety, and worship are meaningless and dead, because conjoined with the love of self and the love of the world.

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We are not to bow down before self and the world; we are to worship only our Father in heaven, we are to hallow His name alone, we are to pray that His kingdom may come, that the kingdom and rule of this world may cease; and in order that this may be, His will is to be done on earth as it is done in heaven; and this is done, when the earthly part of man, his
natural, is separated from the world and conjoined with heaven; and then he looks not to the world for his daily bread, but to the Lord alone. Still all this is of none effect unless we forgive our neighbor the injuries which he does unto us; for without this the Lord cannot forgive the injuries which we do unto Him. And so we are to pray, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; and so immediately after the prayer the Lord saps, "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespass."

     The delight of revenge, like the delight of adultery, closes heaven and opens hell. And hence so much is said in the Word about the necessity of forgiveness: for without the spirit of forgiveness, hell cannot be closed and heaven opened, or the natural man cannot be conjoined with the spiritual; without the spirit of forgiveness the mind continually meditates revenge.

     To forgive signifies to remove evil. The evil which another has done to us is to be removed from the thought and forgotten, so that we may no longer think about it, brood over it, and cherish resentment on account of it. Then is the prayer fulfilled, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors;" for the Lord is then able to remove evil from the natural, and conjoin the natural with the spiritual.

     There is perhaps nothing more difficult in regeneration than to remove the spirit of resentment and revenge, for the natural excuses and justifies it; the evil which the neighbor has done to him is his constant excuse and justification for his resentment; he is not satisfied to feel that evil reacts upon itself, bringing its own punishment, but he wishes to take part in the punishment, or he rejoices if evil comes upon the neighbor.

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This state is to be removed, we are to forgive our neighbor, and wish him good. This is effected with difficulty, only through prayer and fasting, only through supplication to the Lord, and the combat of temptation.

     But as it is with prayer, so with fasting, it is not to be done to be seen of men; a loud profession of forgiveness, without the spirit of forgiveness in the heart, is of no avail. We are not to appear unto men to fast, but to our Father who seeth in secret, who will then, and can only then, give the open reward, by opening heaven and closing hell. For it is only then that treasures are laid up in heaven, and not on the earth, only then that we begin to love the things of heaven and not the things of the world. "For where your treasure is there will your heart be also."

     The idea of the conjunction of the external with the internal still continues. Treasure is laid up in heaven and not in the world; that is, the things of heaven are loved, and the things of the world made to serve. Then the eye is said to be single and not double; the eye is the understanding, or faith, which must not only be a confession before the world, but a confession in the interior thought in the presence of the Lord and His angels. Then the light of heaven will shine, and enlighten the things of the world. "If therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body will be full of light."

     The conflict between heaven and the world continues. Two masters present themselves to be served, and choice is to be made between them; for both cannot be served by one and the same mind. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." The god of the world, who is called Mammon, must be put down from his seat, that the God of heaven may reign supreme.

     And now the chapter closes with the subject of care for the morrow, which is treated of in the last nine verses; in which the conflict is still further described between Mammon, the god of the world, and the God of heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ; and the arena of the conflict is the human mind; the conflict indicating its presence by care and anxiety about the things of this life, and fear lest they be lost. And they must be lost, that is, the absorbing and supreme love of them must give way to love of them merely as instrumentalities and things of service, to be temporarily used for the establishment of the kingdom of heaven, that treasure may be laid up in heaven, and not in the world.

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It is not only a conflict between two loves, but between two faiths, not only a conflict between the love of heaven and the love of the world, but between a faith in the things of heaven and faith in the things of the world. The contest is whether man is to trust supremely in the Lord and His Providence, or in the world and its prudence. This conflict is perpetual,--until one succumbs and the other reigns supreme. That the conflict is one of faith or trust, or whether faith or trust in the Lord is to be established or not, is evident from the word thought, throughout these last verses; and the word faith also occurs. "Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment. Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit to his stature. Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, shall he not much more clothe you, O we of little faith' Therefore take no thought saying, What shall we eat? or what shall we drink' or, wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek; for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

     In these words the root of human ills in the civilized world,--in the Christian world,--is laid bare, a state of anxious thought for the morrow, or anxiety about the things of this life, from a fear that they will not be obtained, or, if obtained, that they will be lost. This state of anxiety is not only the root of doubt about the Lord's Providence, or denial of its operation, but also the source and origin of the increase and spread of nervous diseases in our day. A mind torn with doubts and anxieties about the things of the world, flows in and infests the body, poisons the animal spirit and the blood, preventing a proper nutrition of the interior organism of the body; the purer essences of nature, which are health giving and curative in their operation, are not appropriated.

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     In such states of withering doubt and anxious care, man be comes a prey to evil spirits, who enter and attach themselves to his vital parts, and draw to themselves the health giving currents, as the vampire sucks the life blood of its victim.

     It is not without a Divine purpose that so much is said here of care for the morrow, that it occupies so many verses in the Sermon on the Mount. For in a vastated Church Mammon, or the love of the world, reigns supreme, and on account of the waste and ruin effected by his cruel sway, his blasting tyranny, there is need of deliverance. "Your heavenly Father knoweth we have need of all these things." He knows infinitely better than we, our miserable condition, that we are a miserable prey to evil spirits, that in a state of anxious care for the morrow we are in the midst of the torments of hell. He knoweth these things, and knoweth what we have need of; He knoweth that we have need of release from this infernal bondage, and in His Divine Mercy looking upon our misery, He comes to us, and from the mountain of His love and peace, discourses with us, pointing out our misery, and the cause of it, and provides the means of rescue and release. The power is ample and the means are simple; for the power is Omnipotence, and the means are truths of faith, truths of trust in Him, truths of confidence in the unerring and infallible operations of His Providence,--to bind and to heal, to rescue and deliver, if we will but trust and place ourselves under His guidance and protection, place ourselves under His dominion as the God of heaven and earth, casting off our allegiance to Mammon, the god of this world, who can give to his abject subjects only the portion of misery and death.

     The words translated "take no thought for the morrow" rendered literally mean "take no anxious thought." We are indeed to take thought for the morrow, and make reasonable provision for the future: but the element of anxiety about the result is to be removed, the element of trust in human prudence, of trust in Mammon; we are to cease bowing down to the god of this world; we are to take ourselves out from among his worshipers; we are to trust no longer in the vain promises of a worldly kingdom, and of eternal happiness from the things of time. Mammon indeed has his reward to give, but it is temporal and illusive, as the false fire of the marshes, or the fabled apples of the Dead Sea, which turn to ashes on the lips.

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His promises are lies, and his reward is misery and death; and the Lord in His mercy would bring us rescue from his thralldom, and bring us up to Himself in His holy mountain, where alone is happiness and peace. The only need is faith, trust, confidence in Him, and the entering into the conflict with cheer and hope, and courage. For indeed He says, "Be of good courage, I have overcome;" the world," and because "I have overcome, ye also may overcome;" and "to him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in His throne."

     The final words of this series on care for the morrow, as well as the last words of the chapter, are those chosen for the text, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In order to understand this, let us remember that the subject of the chapter as a whole is faith in the Lord, called the faith of charity, or the faith which exists where there is love to the neighbor, and love to the Lord. Where such faith is there will be no anxiety about our future in this life, or in the life to come; for there is full trust and confidence that the Lord doeth all things well, since He has Infinite Knowledge, Infinite Wisdom and Infinite Power, all of which are present in the provision made for our needs, every moment of existence. The series therefore closes with the Divine assurance--the truth that is in view throughout the whole chapter--that the Lord provides for every one all that he needs every moment, from his birth to all eternity; for this is what is meant by the words, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof," or more literally "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof;" in other words, The Lord will provide.

     The truth contained in the text is given negatively, or in the opposite sense, because the opposite, which is care for the morrow, is the subject of the series of verses which closes the chapter.

     The falsity that reigns in care for the morrow is the idea that human prudence is the all and the Divine Providence not anything; and human prudence is trust in oneself and not in the Lord. Therefore it is not said, "Sufficient for the day is the good thereof," although this is the affirmative side of the truth, and really what is meant; but instead it is said, "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof."

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     Remembering that by day is signified eternity, we are able to see that the teaching really is, that the Lord provides to eternity the good which a man needs, whether this good be natural or spiritual, and that there is therefore no occasion whatever for anxiety about it on his part.

     The same truth, as was said, reigns throughout the chapter, and appears previously in manifest terms in the words of the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread;" which signify that the Lord gives bread, or natural and spiritual food,--a sufficiency of it for our needs, every day, every hour, and every minute, to eternity. And as this is the ruling idea of the series, it appears in the closing words; but, as was said, it is there put negatively, because the negative or the opposite is the subject of the closing verses of the chapter: and also for the additional reason that even when evil which happens to us is overruled for our good, and we are to trust the Lord and His Providence, even when evil comes, knowing that it is for our good whenever it comes, and in whatever form; whether it appears as natural calamity, or as spiritual temptation.

     It is for this reason that the words receive even a more literal rendering in the Writings, "Sufficient for the day is the affliction thereof."

     In the natural sense affliction is any natural misfortune or calamity, but in the spiritual sense it is temptation I both of which are for our good whenever they occur, and bring a good to us that could not come in any other way; and therefore the words teach that the Lord provides good every moment, even if the instrumentality be evil, which is often necessary on account of the evil in which we are; and we are not to be anxious, and therefore try to provide for ourselves, since one who is Omnipotent is making constant provision for us every moment of our existence, by means that are infinite from a wisdom that is Infinite.

     The same truth appears in the provision of the Manna for the sons of Israel in the desert. They were fell miraculously every day from heaven. The food was called Manna ("what now"), because they did not know what it was.

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They had never seen anything like it before. They had nothing to do with its growth or cultivation. It fell upon the ground, and they gathered and ate, each man to his full, and a sufficiency was provided for each day. Every day it rained down from heaven, and they were to gather each one according to his need,-a sufficiency for the day,--no more and no less. They were commanded not to leave any of it over till the next morning. But the sons of Israel disobeyed the command; and lo, the manna bred worms and stank. They distrusted the Lord, and feared they would have no food for the morrow, and in their anxious provision for themselves, and dependence on their own prudence, this was the result; the manna bred worms and stank.

     In this was represented the spiritual effect of anxious care for the morrow, when man distrusts the Lord and His Providence, and does not believe in His daily provision for our wants, does not believe that He gives us daily bread, even as He gave the sufficiency of manna daily to the sons of Israel in the desert. To us the miracle is not so manifest. We must have faith without seeing the daily miracle. We must trust the Lord without demanding proof from Him of His ability to supply our wants; and while we are permitted to make provision of food for the morrow, we are not to be anxious over the result. We are to trust Him when He provides, and when He withholds His merciful provision. If not, the spiritual effect will correspond to the condition of the manna when it bred worms and stank. The mind will become a prey to evil spirits, and the corroding and rotting care which surcharges them, will enter; and we shall be unhappy and miserable from the spiritual disease which then takes possession of the soul; and the body itself will become infected by the poison.

     We are to learn to look not to the world and depend upon it, for life, and meat, and drink, but to heaven and the Lord. "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you." We are to be divorced from the world and joined to heaven, believing that the Lord will provide, whatever may Ire the appearance of the means. "Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself."

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     We are to cut loose from the things of the world, and with the head in heaven turn round and lace the world, and use it for its service. but not depend upon it. The Apostles did cut loose from the world in this manner, and depended upon the Lord solely for their daily bread, and the result was the founding of a spiritual Church, the Primitive Christian Church. So will it be now, when the Church severs its connection with the world and reliance upon it; for the Lord can then enter and lead and make the Church His own. No spiritual Church can be founded without this, for there is no opening of heaven without it; no gentle rain will descend to water the ground, to cause the earth to bud and spring forth with provision for our needs; there will be a famine in the land, and a cry for bread, and no bread to be found; for man cannot provide for himself, notwithstanding the phantasy of human imaginings, or the vain illusion of human prudence.

     It was not without significance to the Apostles, the mention of the god Mammon, the Syrian god of wealth, the god of avarice, the god worshiped by the Jews then and now, and by Christians in like manner. "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." The Apostles understood by these words that they were to serve the Lord, and depend upon Him alone, casting off allegiance to the god of the world; and they did faithfully fulfill the injunction of their Lord and Master; they did cut themselves loose from the god of the world, and walked forth with courage, even to a martyr's grave; and the martyr's spirit rose and gave birth to the Christian Church. And the New Church must have its martyrdom, not a martyrdom of the flesh, but a martyrdom of the spirit, or there will be no New Church on the earth. It is a continuous martyrdom, the body and the flesh must die daily, the delight of the love of the world and the worship of the god Mammon; even though Mammon and his crew will punish and torment, kill and destroy, cause to wither and perish all we value of this world's life, still the combat is to continue, until his kingdom is overturned, and his reign brought to an end. There cannot be a divided allegiance; there cannot he two Gods. "No man can serve two lords; for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other."

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"Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. For after all these things do the gentiles seek; and your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His justice; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient for the day is the affliction thereof." Amen.
I SHALL MEET HER 1904

I SHALL MEET HER       W. H. JUNGE       1904

A SONG

(Tune-Juanita.)

Oft in youth's dreaming, visions of my future wife
True to all seeming came to cheer my life.
Well do I remember while I longed for her each day,
I would fan love's ember with this simple lay,
     Meet her---I shall meet her.
     I shall linger at her side,
     Greet her--I shall greet her.
     She will be my bride.
Now love has found me, love that brightens all my life,
Sweet joys surround me. I have found my wife.
As life's duties daily call me from her side away
In my heart full gaily I still sing this lay
     Meet her--I shall meet her.
     Standing at our fireside.
     Greet her--I shall greet her.
     My dear wife, my pride.
Dark shadows falling on our life must come some day,
Soft voices calling one of us away.
But we shall grow fonder through the parting and its pain,
I shall here or vender sing the old refrain,
     Meet her--I shall meet her,
     Meet her then no more to part.
     Greet her--I shall greet her,
     Clasp her to my heart.

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TRANSLATION OF THE WORD 1904

TRANSLATION OF THE WORD       Rev. E. S. PRICE       1904

A REVIEW

     New Translation of Psalms I. to XI., with notes; submitted to the General Convention's Committee on the translation of the Word, by the Sub-committee on the translation of the Psalms.

     The General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States of America, 1903.

     The above is the title page of a pamphlet of twenty-four pages containing, as said, a new translation of Psalms I. to XI. The work, as regards paper, printing, and mechanical execution generally, is artistic, even beautiful, and as a study, looking towards a New Church translation of the Word, ought to be welcomed by all. While we feel that we cannot accept the work as a translation of the Psalms for use in worship, still we admit that it is probably as good a, any thus far made by the New Church, certainly not worse than some; for it must be admitted that nothing in this line thus far done, reaches a high state of excellence. As a study it will no doubt be of use to some future translator, who shall be so happy as to unite 1st, doctrinal knowledge, 2d, linguistic skill, and, 3d, a keen appreciation of the idiom of the English language.

     In this review we shall not have so much to do with the translation as with the declared principles of the sub-committee. The principles adopted by them for the conduct of the work, as they appear in the Preface, seem to us to be fatal to a good translation, either as presenting an equivalent of the literal sense of the Hebrew, or as furnishing an ultimate containant of the internal sense, and they certainly do not produce beautiful English.

     The especial error that seems to us to be contained in the preface, is the old one of synonyms, that is, the theory that for each word in Hebrew there is one equivalent word in English, which should always be used. The words of the preface to which we refer are as follows:

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     "Wherever Infinite Wisdom has, in the original, distinguished ideas by using different Hebrew words, this distinction should, wherever possible, be indicated in the translation; and wherever it presents the same idea, as indicated by the use of the same word in the original, this identity should appear in the translation."

     In another place in the preface it says: A New Church version must not only present correctly the general literal meaning of the original but should translate every word of the original, since every word of the Hebrew is necessary for the development of the internal sense and also to keep unbroken that connection with the Lord and with heaven, which the Word is intended to effect." The Italics are ours.

     The expression, "should translate every word of the original," seems to mean that the Hebrew is to be, in every particular, represented in the English language, but this is a manifest impossibility, No language can be represented in translation, in the particulars of its idiom. This every one, who has studied any language besides his mother tongue, knows to be indisputable. True, ideas in general can be transferred from one language to another, but not the manner of expressing them. It is on account of this that literature suffers, and ever must suffer, in translation. It is the idiom,--those modes of expression peculiar to one language as over against another,--that constitutes the deepest difference between one language and another. While this difference of idiom does not affect secular literature so seriously but that fairly representative translations may be made, still it is just herein that lie those delicate shadings and beauties of language that escape the translator's skill; but when it comes to rendering the letter of the Word into a vernacular, in such a way as to furnish an ultimate containant for the internal sense, this matter of idiom presents an insurmountable obstacle. True, a translation, such as can form as approximate ultimate for the internal sense, can be made, but by no means a complete ultimate; for every particular of the original Hebrew, even to the letters themselves, corresponds to the internal sense and supports and contains it. In the Hebrew the internal sense is contained in the general idea of the literal sense; in each word of the literal sense; in the order of words in the sentence; in the root meaning of each word: in the prefixes, suffixes, and infixes; in each consonant as to the root meaning of its name; in each vowel according to the affection accompanying it; and, in this world to some extent, but in the heavens, fully, in the very forms of the letters.

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What other language is adequate to this, unless it be a nearly related Semitic language? Even in a closely related Semitic tongue, the idiom would vary, as well as the order of the words, and the forms of the letters. It would seem, therefore, that no such thing as a translation of the Word, of such a character as to form a complete ultimate for the internal sense, is possible. An approximation and accommodation can be made, such as will still keep a conjunction with the Lord and with heaven, by forming, in the ideas expressed, a general ultimate and containant for the internal sense; and to some extent in the significant words, but the order of the original cannot be preserved, nor can words, that in their root meanings are fully equivalent to the Hebrew words for which they stand, he found to any great extent. One might suppose that this could be done with all names of ultimate objects, that is, with all concrete words; but such is not the case. Take a single example of a word in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and English.

     The word chittah, in Hebrew, signifies wheat, and is so rendered by all English translators. There is not much doubt but that in its root meaning it, signifies what is red, or yellow, or reddish yellow, from the color of the grain.

     In Greek this word is slta, which signifies wheat, but especially food, victuals, that is, the food of foods.

     In Latin the word is triticum, from tritum what is rubbed or ground, since this is the grain we (usually) grind.

     The word wheat, in English, as in all Indo-European languages, is directly connected with the root white, since this is the grain that produces white meal or flour.

     Now there never need be any question about translating chittahh, wheat; but is it not evident after all that wheat does not exactly translate it? Swedenborg in the Writings invariably says triticum, which also does not exactly translate the Hebrew word.

     But if concrete words,--names of common things,--cannot be exactly rendered, so that, all the way down into their root meanings, they shall represent the originals, what shall we say of abstract words?

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These, as every linguist knows, are derived from ultimate ideas in almost all cases; but the ultimate ideas from which an abstract word in one language is derived, is frequently, nay, usually, different from the ultimate idea from which the corresponding abstract word in another language is derived. Furthermore, the words of the Hebrew language are far wider in their significance than those of other languages, even their literal sense, and one word in that language must, in many cases, perform the office of a long list of words in any Indo-European vernacular.

     If these things are true, and we doubt not that anyone who will be at the trouble to investigate, will find them true, what shall we think of the evident anxiety of the Sub-committee to translate a given Hebrew word always by the same English word?

     That the Sub-committee is anxious to represent the Hebrew word always, or so far as possible, by the same English word, so that the Hebrew scholar could tell from the English word in each case what the Hebrew word would be, seems to be shown by their foot-notes. Take a single example:--In Psalm IV., 2, "Answer me when I call," a number on "call" refers to a foot-note, which says, "call, Heb. kah-rah, Sw. voco; to distinguish from cry, Heb. tsa-ak, Sw. clamo, and from to cry out, shah-va."

     Now it seems to us quite immaterial that we should translate kah-rah call, to distinguish it from tsah-ak or from shah-va; but there would be great reason to translate it call if Swedenborg had translated it voco in this passage, and still greater reason if he had always so translated it; but he has done neither. He translates the word kah-rah with clamavero in this very passage, in at least four places in the Writings, and seems never to have translated the word, in this passage, in any other way, (See Psalmi, New York, A. S. P. and P. Sec.)

     The true and proper end, for which a translator should strive in any secular work, is to represent the ideas of the author whom he is rendering, in the best possible manner in the language into which he is translating; to represent that style of the author from whom he is translating so far as may be, which will, for the most part, be as to his mental attitude towards his subject; as to his turns of expression it can never be done; for one language says a thing in one way and another in another.

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As to the words of his author, our translator's anxiety should be, in case of a given word, not to find a word which shall always represent it, but to determine the meaning of the word in the position and setting in which he now finds it.

     In translating the Divine Word, the first thing to be done, is to find out what the Lord teaches in the Writings about any given passage; this being done the passage should be translated in the light of the internal sense, and in harmony with the series in which it occurs.

     This does not mean to translate Swedenborg's Latin in the sense of simply translating it word for word into English, always rendering the same Latin word by the same English word; this would he as servile as to attempt to render Hebrew in such a way that the Hebrew word is always represented by what might be called its English synonym.

     The letter of the Word is the basis, firmament and containant of the internal sense; but in its completeness it is in the Hebrew language and must always remain so. This is one of the reasons for a regularly prepared clergy, which shall be learned in the sacred tongues, and which can interpret the Word to the people. No clergyman who does not understand the Hebrew language can interpret the internal sense in its particulars. It cannot be done without reference to the Hebrew of the text.

     Let one on account of this statement cry "Popery," and charge us with wishing to take the Word away from the people. It is forever the duty of the priesthood to give the Word to the people in as adequate form as they are able; but they are circumscribed by the fact that the Lord has chosen the Hebrew for the ultimate of His Word on the earth. Further, every layman is free to learn Hebrew, and to study the internal sense of the Word for himself, just to the extent that he has ability, time, and inclination. It is to be hoped that, as time goes on, a larger and larger number of laymen will study the sacred languages of the Word in the two Testaments and in the Writings.

     The letter of the Word is for the simple and children, and for the angels, thus for the lowest and the highest forms of human intelligence. Since it is for the simple and children it ought to be expressed so far as possible in language which they can understand, therefore in the idiom of their vernacular, so far as may be, without peculiarities carried over from a foreign tongue. This is especially so of the Psalms, which are prayers and songs, particularly intended for use in worship.

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This brings us to another criticism of the work of the Sub-committee which it seems to us just to make, namely, the transfer of the Hebrew word Yehowah to the English Jehovah.

     In the True Christian Religion, number 81, we read: "In the preceding chapter God the Creator is treated of, and at the same time Creation; but in this chapter the Lord the Redeemer, and at the same time Redemption, is to be treated of. *** By the Lord the Redeemer we mean Jehovah in the Human; for, that Jehovah Himself descended and assumed the Human, to the end that He might perform Redemption, will be demonstrated in what follows. That He is called the Lord and not Jehovah, is because Jehovah in the Old Testament is called Lord in the New as may appear from these passages:--In Moses it is said, 'Hear, O Israel Jehovah your God is one Jehovah: thou shalt love Jehovah thy God from thy whole heart and from thy whole soul, Deut. vi, 4, 5; but in

     Mark it is said, 'The Lord your God is one Lord: thou shalt love the Lord thy God from thy whole heart and from thy whole soul, Mark xii, 29, 30. Then further it is said in Isaiah, 'Prepare ye a way for Jehovah, make plane in the solitude a pathway for our God,' Chap. xl. 3; but it is said in Luke, 'Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare a way for Him,' Chap. i. 76, besides other places. And also the Lord commanded His disciples to call Him Lord, and therefore He was so called by the Apostles in their epistles, and afterwards in the Apostolic Church, as is evident from its creed. The reason was because the Jews dared not name Jehovah on account of its holiness, and also by Jehovah is meant the Divine Esse, which was from eternity, and the Human which He assumed in time was not that Esse. * * * * On account of this, here and in the following chapters, by the Lord we mean Jehovah in His Human."

     Here, it seems to us, we strike the key note to the whole question: "By the Lord we mean Jehovah in His Human." Whom do we, or ought we, to worship in the New Church, Jehovah, the Divine Esse, or Jehovah in His Human, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ?

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Does not the whole doctrine of the New Church teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is the only God of heaven and earth, and that He alone is to be approached and worshiped? Nay, more, does not the doctrine teach that only those who acknowledge the Lord as the only God can be saved? This is the essential doctrine taught those entering the world of spirits, who have not known the Lord in this world and their salvation then depends on their ability to receive and accept this teaching.

     It is to be admitted that a translation of the Old Testament, for the student and for intellectual use, may contain the Word Jehovah,--the Writings themselves do this; but this is aside from the question of a version to be used in worship, in prayers and in songs. Prayers and songs of praise are in direct address, and to use the name Jehovah in this way is something like using the name of a person in high office without his titles of respect and honor. We speak of kings and emperors, and historians write of them, by their names; but who would think of coming into the presence and addressing a king or an emperor by name, without the proper accompanying words in indication of the kingly or imperial office? If, then, such deference is to be paid to an earthly potentate, surely, nothing less should be paid to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When we enter the Divine presence in prayer and glorification, let us acknowledge Jehovah God's eternal royalty by addressing Him as Lord.
LEGENDS OF THE GOLDEN AGE 1904

LEGENDS OF THE GOLDEN AGE       C. TH. ODHNER       1904

     As with each of the nations descended from the Ancient Church there was a legend of the Creation of the world and of man, so also there were with them traditions of a Golden Age, of a primeval state of perfect innocence, wisdom and blessedness, in which, as in a garden of delights, ("Eden" signifies "delight"), the first ancestors of the human race dwelt in tranquility and peace, nurtured by the Tree of Life.

     For a sketch of the history of the Golden Age, the reader is referred to a series of articles in New Church Life for 1892, 1893, and 1894, where are brought together the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrines respecting the most Ancient Church.

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It is our purpose, here, to collect a few of the ancient traditions which confirm these teachings and establish them on a firm scientific basis, showing also, by the self-evident proof of internal harmony, their common origin from that part of the Ancient Word which was first written down by "the society of men called Enoch," in the waning days of the Most Ancient Church, and still preserved in the opening chapters of Genesis.

     That these traditions have their common origin in the first chapters of the Bible, is admitted by all sane savants. "The Bible narrative," says Lenormant, "is not one isolated tale, unconnected with the traditions of other nations, and proceeding only from the pen of Moses. It is on the contrary the most complete and authentic form of a grand primitive tradition, which can be traced back to the earliest ages of humanity, and has originally been common to all races and all peoples, and been carried all over the world, by the dispersion of these races on the surface of the earth. In his narrative of this history the Hebrew legislator has faithfully reproduced the ancient memories preserved from age to age among the Patriarchs, and, by a special dispensation of Providence, favored by the isolated and nomadic life led by the family of Abraham, less corrupted among them than among the surrounding nations. He has, assisted by the light of inspiration, restored their true character to facts elsewhere frequently obscured by polytheism and idolatry.... We shall find in one place or another all its essential features, even those parts of the tradition that are difficult to understand literally, and where we may be allowed to suppose allegorical and figurative expressions." (Ancient History of the East, Vol. I, p. 9.)

     All this is eminently satisfactory to a Newchurchman, and one cannot but wonder that with such teaching before them the most modern critics and students of comparative mythology should have gone so far astray as to seek to invert the true relations between Scripture and tradition. It is astonishing, also, that with all their minute labors, the scientists have not produced any work in which all these traditions are actually brought together in the form of original documents.

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But most marvellous of all is the fact that the revelations concerning the Ancient Churches and concerning the Ancient Word have been published broadcast to the world for a century and a half, and yet, outside the small circle of the New Church, the world, the learned world as well as the common people, remains as profoundly ignorant of the existence of this inexhaustible fountain of information and interpretation, as if it has never been opened up. It is evident that few are able to discover it or approach it, for the internal sense of the Word and of History, like the Garden of Delights of the Golden Age, remains guarded by the angel with the flaming sword.

     THE EGYPTIAN LEGEND.

     "Among the Egyptians," says Lenormant, "the terrestrial reign of the God Ra, who inaugurated the existence of the world and of human life, was a Golden Age, to which they continually looked back with regret and envy; to assert the superiority of anything above all that imagination would set forth it was sufficient to affirm that its like had neper been seen since the days of the God Ra."

     "The same idea is found again in the Egyptian account of the succession of the terrestrial reign of the gods, the demigods, heroes, and men, as collected from the fragments of Manetho." (Beginnings of History, pp. 67, 73.)

     THIS ASSYRO-CHALDEAN LEGEND.

     No tablet has been found, as yet, describing Paradise or the Golden Age, but that the Sumero-Akkadians, that is, the earliest Hamitic inhabitants of Chaldea, possessed documents or traditions similar to the account in the second and third chapters of Genesis, is evident from a cylinder found by George Smith and now preserved in the British Museum. It pictures a man and a woman, seated on opposite sides of a tree from which hang two fruits. Their hands are reaching for the fruits, and behind the woman is seen an enormous serpent, standing erect on his tail, and whispering in her ear. The cylinder is supposed to date from between four to five thousand years B. C., and is the most ancient sample of "Scriptural illustrations" that has yet been found.

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     In Assyrian art and literature, the Tree of Life plays a most prominent part. Assyria, as we know, corresponds to the Rational, and is represented in the Word by the Cedar Tree, erect, strong, enduring, and furnished with needle-like leaves, as the rational is furnished with pointed arguments.

     It is not surprising, therefore, to find that the sacred tree of the Assyrians is always depicted as a cone-bearing tree, probably the Cedar, but highly elaborated and conventionalized in form. It is known as the "Asherah," or tree of blessings, and is the same as the carved "groves," which were set up on "high places" and worshiped by the Canaanites and the idolatrous Jews.

     The Assyrian Tree of Life is described in a tablet which has been deciphered and translated in The Records of the Past, (Vol. IX., p. 146).

In Eridu a dark pine grew.
In a holy place it was planted.
Its crown was white crystal which spread towards the deep.
The abyss of Ea was its pasturage in Eridu, a canal full of waters.
Its seat was the central place of the earth.
Its shrine was the couch of the primeval mother.
The roof of its holy house like a forest spread its shade;
There was none who entered not within.

     With this may be compared the "world-ash," Yggdrasil, of Scandinavian Mythology.

     IRANIAN AND PEKSIAN LEGENDS.

     Among the ancient Iranians the knowledge of the Four Ages and of Paradise was very complete, and has been preserved in the Zend-Avesta, the original document of the religion taught by Zoroaster which is still used by the Parsees of India as their sacred book. The duration of the universe is here represented as filling four world-periods of three thousand years each. During the first period all was pure and sinless, but at its close the evil one declared war against Ahura-Mazda, the holy God, and this war was destined to fill the last three ages.

     During the first of these three ages, evil was still unsuccessful; during the second, good and evil were exactly balanced but during the last, evil obtained and will maintain the supremacy until the destined overthrow, at the very end.

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     As to the Paradise we read on the first page of the Zend-Avesta:

     Ahura Mazda said to the holy Zarathustra: "I created, O Zarathustra, a place, a creation of Delights, whither was created no possibility of approach. For, O holy Zarathustra, had I not created a place, a creation of Delight, whither was created no possibility of approach, then would the whole world have gone to Airyana-vaejo. A first and best of all places have I created, I who am Ahura-Mazda."

     In this Place of Delight Ahura Mazda planted "many useful and healthful trees, in the midst of which was the tree of Life, called Garokerena, the fruit of which gives immortality to those eating thereof."

     In this blessed spot the primitive men lived free from cares or sicknesses or death, yea, they did not even have any need of natural food.

     The first of men was called Yima, to whom Ahura Mazda first revealed himself and his law. He became the king of the golden age, and under his rule abundance and fruitfulness never decreased, and mankind then lived in continual youth, in mutual love and in immediate intercourse with God and his heavenly spirits.

     In the reign of Yima men and cattle were immortal; waters and trees never dried up; the edible food was inexhaustible. In his wide kingdom there was neither cold nor heat, nor age, nor death, nor want--which the Daevas created--Father and Son walked side by side--both of the same youthful countenance, as of fifteen years of age.

     But the evil power, Agramainyus, tempted Yima to doubt and pride. Ahura-Mazda then left him, and he was killed. With him earthly immortality came to an end. (Zenda-Avesta, iii, 105.)

     THE GREEK LEGEND.

     Hesiod, in his Works and Days, ascribes the Fall of Mankind to the accursed curiosity of Pandora, and states that before the jealous gods had sent her as a gift to Epimetheus, (after-thought), "the races of men were wont to live on earth free from ills, and without harsh labor and painful diseases, which have brought death on mortals.

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But, the woman having with her hands moved the great lid from the box [of which more anon], dispersed these blessings and contributed baneful cares for men. The poet continues:

     But another tale will I briefly tell you, well and skillfully, and do you ponder it in your mind: that gods and mortal men are sprung from the same origin. First of all the immortals holding the mansions of Olympus made a golden race of speaking men. (They, indeed, were under Chronos, at the time he ruled in heaven.) And as gods men were then wont to live, with a life void of care, apart from. and without labors and trouble: nor was wretched old age at all impending, but, ever the same in hands and feet, did they delight themselves in festivals out of the reach of all ills: and they died as if overcome with sleep

     All blessings were theirs; of its own will the fruitful field would bear them fruit, much and ample; and they gladly used to reap the labors of their hands in quietness along with many good things, being rich in flocks and dear to the blessed gods.

     But after the earth had covered this generation, they, indeed, became kindly spirits, hovering near the earth, guardians of mortal men, and they watch both the decisions of justice and also harsh deeds, going to and fro everywhere over the earth, having wrapped themselves in mists, the givers of riches; and this is the kingly function which they have.

     Then follows the description of the silver, brazen, and iron ages, which will be presented in a future article. The age of the celestial Church is also briefly referred to in Hesiod's Theogony under the name of Uranos, or the "starry Heaven," the primeval deity who is described as the son of Gaea, the earth. He afterwards married his mother, and from this unlawful union was born the race of Titans who, under the leadership of Chronos, or Saturn, deposed and mutilated their father and instituted a reign of terror in heaven and on earth.

     The identification of Uranos with the celestial and golden age of the Most Ancient Church, and of Chronos and the Titans with the gigantic race of Nephilin? or antediluvians, furnishes, we believe, the key to the interpretation of the whole Mythology of the Greeks and Romans. But to this subject we will return when, in our next article, we come to the legends of the Fall and of the Flood.

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     THE LATIN LEGEND.

     The "aura prima sata est aetas" of Ovid in his Metamorphoses awakens tender, or it may be, painful memories with every one who, as a boy, was set to parse those immortal lines. But for those who are not familiar with the original, we reproduce here the whole of this most important document of comparative Mythology.

     The golden age was firs sworn, when without any avenger, of their own accord, without laws, men practiced both faith and righteousness. Punishment, and the fear of it, did not exist, and threatening degrees were not read upon the brazen tables, fixed up to view, not yet did the suppliant multitude dread the countenance of its judge; but all were in safety, without any avenger The pine-tree, cut from its native mountains, had not yet descended to the flowing waves, that it might visit a foreign region; and mortals were acquainted with no shores beyond their own.

     Not as yet did deep ditches surround the towns, no trumpets of straight, or clarions of crooked brass; no helmets, no swords existed. Without occasion for soldiers, the minds of men, free from care, enjoyed an easy tranquility.

     The earth itself, too, in freedom, untouched by the harrow, and wounded by no plowshares, of its own accord produced everything, and men, contented with food created under no compulsion, gathered the fruit of the arbute-tree and the straw-berries of the mountain, and cornels and black-berries adhering to the prickly bramble-bushes, and acorns which had fallen from the wide-spreading tree of Jove.

     Then it was an eternal spring, and the gentle zephyrs with their soothing breezes cherished the flower produced without any seed. Soon, too, the earth unplowed yielded crops of grain, and the land without being renewed, was whitened with the heavy ears of corn. Then rivers of milk, then rivers of nectar were flowing, and yellow honey was distilled from the green helm-oak.

     "The wide-spreading tree of Jove" we conceive to be the same as the Tree of Life, which, however, does not otherwise figure in the Latin traditions.

     THE SCANDINAVIAN LEGEND.

     The Elder Edda, in the "Song of the Vala," thus describes the golden age of the Asa-gods. that is. the most ancient ones in Asia who afterwards were worshiped as gods:

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The Asa-gods met
on the plains of Ida.
High they builded
their courts and altars.
Their strength they tried,
all things attempting.
Smithies they builded, with gold working,
hammering tongs and tools hardening.

     "The plains of Ida," where Asgard stood in the beginning of time, was the original Asiatic home of primeval mankind. The name signifies "knowledge" or "wisdom," and the root-meaning is found in the Hebrew Yadha, the Greek oida, the Latin video and fides, and the English idea and wit. The most ancients, therefore, dwelt on the plains of knowledge and wisdom, and there, again, they assembled for the final conflict with the powers of darkness on the day of Ragnarok, "the twilight of the gods," the Last Judgment.

     Here, in the beginning of time,

With golden tablets,
in joy they gamboled.
Of gold they had,
more than they needed;
until from Jotunheim
there came to the high
three great and mighty
giant-maidens.

     These giant-maidens, by whom are signified powerful affections of falsity and lust, brought evil and conflict into the golden age. Jotunheim means "the home of giants." The whole legend is a dim recollection of the marriage of the sons of god with the daughters of men, the profane conjunction of celestial truths with sensual lusts.

     The "golden tablets." which seem to signify the long-lost celestial perceptions which constituted the primeval revelation, figure again at the close of the "Song of the Vala," when, after the old heavens and the old earth had perished in the universal conflagration of Ragnarok, a new heaven and a new earth had been created:

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Then will the wonderful,
golden tablets,--
which in the beginning
the Asa-gods owned,--
be found in the grass.

     This beautiful legend may be regarded as a prophecy describing the final restoration of celestial perception, and, perhaps, also of the Ancient Word, in the crowning age of the New Church.

     The legend is described at greater length in the Younger Edda:

     In the beginning Allfather appointed rulers and bade them judge with him over the fate of men and regulate the government of the celestial city. They met for this purpose in a place called Idavold [the plains of Ida], which is the center of the Divine Abode, [Asgard], the abode of the Asas.

     Their first work was to erect a court or hall, where there are twelve seats for themselves, besides the throne which is occupied by Allfather. This hall is the largest and most magnificent in the universe, being resplendent on all sides both within and without with the finest gold. Its name is Gladshein, [the home of gladness]. They also erected another Hall for the sanctuary of the goddesses. It is a fair structure, and is called Vangold [Friends' flood]. Thereupon they built a smithy and furnished it with hammers, tongs, and anvils, and with these made all other requisite instruments with which they worked in metals, stone and wood, and composed so large a quantity of the metal called gold, that they made all their house furniture of it. Hence that age was called the golden age. This was the age that lasted until the arrival of the women out of Jotunheim, who corrupted it.

     The Tree of Life "Yggdrasil," is represented as an Ash-Tree which supported the whole world. It has its roots deep down in the kingdom of Hela (Hell, and Death); its trunk reaches up to heaven, and its branches spread over the universe. At the foot of the tree is the well of Uvd, or wisdom, where sit the three Normas, or fates, who over-rule the gods themselves. Its name means "the bearer of the Deep Thinker," and stands as a noble symbol of Divine Wisdom itself.

     The legends of the Golden Age are, however, far more scanty in the ancient Mythologies than those describing the Fall, the Antediluvians and the Flood.

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FIRST AURA AND THE PLANE OF THE LIMBUS 1904

FIRST AURA AND THE PLANE OF THE LIMBUS       Rev. L. P. MERCER       1904

     (Reprinted from The New Church Review, for October, 1903.)

     The revival of interest in Swedenborg's Philosophical Works has led to studies which promise to throw some light on the doctrine of creation and influx, and other related subjects.

     Is the First Aura of the Principia, identical with that realm of "the purest substances of nature," affirmed in the Writings as that in which the Limbus is formed and subsists, and by which the Spiritual World is enveloped and conserved?

     If so, would it not in the natural universe correspond to the atmosphere from the Spiritual Sun above the heavens, as the three atmospheres from the sun of the world answer to the three angelic heavens?

     As the first in nature would it not be produced immediately from the Spiritual Sun, as is the first atmosphere of the spiritual world?

     Is it not, therefore, that by which the Divine is in the ultimates of nature "without successive formations," as affirmed in Arcana Coelestia 7270?

     If affirmative answers to these questions be found, does it throw any light upon the creation of first forms? or help to elucidate the law that the Lord operates from Himself in firsts and in lasts, simultaneously, to form and order intermediates?

     I raised these questions at the meeting of the Council of Ministers in Cincinnati, in 1900, and while I have not much to add to the argument then verbally presented, I have written out a statement of the matter as it has presented itself to my mind, that it may possibly stimulate the studies of others better able to throw light upon the questions involved.

     I. As to the question of the identity of the First Aura of the Principia with "the purer substances of nature" in which the Limbus is formed and subsists, it is necessary to summarize what is said of the first or universal Aura, and to compare what is said of the human "spirituous fluid" derived from the first Aura, with the teaching concerning the Limbus. What is the first Aura?

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What is the Limbus?

     I. The first Aura is called the "Supreme"--"that by which the universe is ruled." It is the inter-siderial atmosphere of the universe; a homogeneous medium of first elementaries, supremely elastic, supremely in motion in its leasts and compounded leasts, but with all its motions held in the bonds of a perfect equilibrium. It is universal in its extense, and in each elementary particle of it the pre-existent natural point and the antecedent finites are included and involved. Its formation is prior to the formation of solar vortices; and it is superior in order and degree to the magnetic aura, ether, and air of the Solar systems. (See Corpuscular Philos. Brief; An. King., Part IV.; An. King., Part II., Sec. 312; ib. Sec. 166; Princip., Part I., Chap. VI., 50, 51, etc.)

     As to the origin of the first or inter-stellar Aura, we may summarize the argument of the Principia. How does the Infinite produce from Himself the finite universe? This problem that confronted Swedenborg is not dismissed by extending the boundaries of the known to include the spiritual world. We may think we solve the problem when we quoted the doctrine that the Lord produces from Himself successive atmospheres; but there results only words standing for two distinct ideas, and a word standing for no idea until you find it. It is enough for simple faith to say, there is God, and here are atmospheres in successive order; and God produces these from Himself. But the rational mind sees that "produced from Himself" means something. It means the finite produced from the Infinite, between which and itself there is no ratio. Swedenborg applied his doctrine of intermediates, with which we are now familiar, that is, that in the production of discrete degrees from prior to posterior there must be a medium which partakes of the nature of both. It was this necessity of thought which Swedenborg met in the Principia in the postulation of the natural point or first ens. The argument is that, as in geometry we begin from a point lying outside of the field of geometry, so by eminent analogy we must conceive of the finite universe from the Infinite by postulating a point of motion from the Infinite in effort to divest itself of infinite motion and clothe itself with a motion not itself.

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In attempting to expound this first ens, Swedenborg guards himself in an argument that while we may not know what it is, we can see that it is, for there must be a medium that looks both to the Infinite and the finite and partakes of the nature of both. And even as we know that it is we can know philosophically so much as to affirm that in its essence it is pure and total motion, and as to its relation it is both Infinite and finite; as to production it is immediate and always immediate, and the Infinite is always in it, producing it, and creating by it. As the first simple it is and will be universal in all things produced through it. It will be in them, in the elementary particles, and between them, in derivatives and in the auras in which they are formed; thus the presence of the Infinite in the universe producing all things and holding all things in being.

     From the points in their multitude, by means of motion among themselves, there is produced the simple finite or first substantial. When the natural points are in sufficient series and abundance, there follows a mutual conditionment of motion among their free verticals, and they are compelled to coalesce their motion into a common motion. This is the first finite. When these are in sufficient series, and in abundance sufficient for mutual contact and pressure, thus for mutual conditionment of motion, a second finite results, similar in situation, figure, and centre of gravity; but less perfect and of less celerity. The actives of the first finites and the second finites, as co-existents, together form the first elementary. The actives of the first finites occupy its centre; and the second finites its circumference. With the production of the first elementaries, the creative series, comes the rest of an attained equilibrium. The natural point, the finites, the resultant elementary-this is the trine; and the trine complete, the series ends for the beginning of a new series. The elementaries in their multitude and fluid expanse are the first or universal Aura, the supreme of the natural universe, in which all solar vortices are set up and held in relation, the substances and forces of which are the purest in the natural world. (See Swedenborg's "Summary of the Principia," Chap. II. to VII., in New, Philosophy, for January and April, for the argument on this creative series.)

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     What concerns us most at this time is that the first elementary, and thus the first Aura which is the sum of the first elementaries, is formed from the Infinite by the natural point, and the first and second finites; that in its units, the first finites are the active centre and the second finites the passive circumference; that the natural points are not only within and among the finites that compose the elementaries, but that the natural points and the finites are in the interstices between the elementaries, and thus that while the Aura exists as a fluid, elastic medium throughout the universe, the finites are also free among its units, and the Infinite by the natural point in immediate touch and active power in all its parts. (See Lesser Principia, Nos. 62-65.)

     This is important to be noted because some have thought that the first Aura is not prior to the formation of Solar vortices, because, for instance, it is said in Principia, Part I.. VII.. 20, that "the Solar ocean seems to consist of actives of the first and second finites." But this, and all succeeding compositions by means of first and second finites, is by finites set free from the poles and interstices of the first elementary units. This also is meant when it is taught in Principia, Chap. V., that "the active of the first finite constitutes the sun, besides forming the first elementary particle." The elementary is first formed and has latent in it all that has pre-existed, such as the point, the first finite, the second finite, and the active of the first finite. (New Philosophy, Vol. VI., No. 2, p. 40.)

     The vortical motion which is the origin of the solar systems is set up in the first Aura; not before its creation. If the interstices between the elementaries be increased in size as great as, say, several elementary particles, the finites of the neighboring interstices, conflowing and occupying that larger space, will begin to impel the surrounding volume of the first Aura particles into a certain gyre, and the suns have their origin and initiament thus (see Lesser Principia, 62-65). With vortical motion new composites, by the compression of the first elementaries and the influence of the free finites, begin to be formed; but that is another chapter. The first Aura from the natural point, by the first and second finite, is the first formation, the prior and superior substance, and universal medium of the dominant and directing forces of the universe which build and sustain it.

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It is the veriest: form of the forces of the universe and the qualities of the lower auras can be ascribed to it only by eminence (An. King., Part II., 166). From it moreover is generated by determination the human spirituous fluid. (Corpuse. Philos. Brief.)

     2. If now we inquire what is the Limbus, formed of the "purest substances of nature" (True Christian Religion, 103), we shall find the answer worked out for us in a series of articles by C. Th. Odhner in New Church Life for April, May, and June, 1903, in which it is shown from the writings that the Limbus is that part of the human organism distinct from and immediately encompassing the spiritual body; formed of the purest things of nature, but distinct from the gross matters of the body; that it constitutes the lower substances of the natural mind, and as such is fixed, established, and retained after death, in the form of the spiritual body which it clothes; and that it constitutes the fixed boundary or terminating lirtzen of spiritual beings and holds their interiors in connection and permanence. It is also shown, in a most interesting and instructive series of passages, that the Limbus is identical with the exterior or natural memory. It is also shown by an exhaustive comparison of passages that the Limbus is identical with that inmost fluid substance of the body, which is called the "spirituous fluid," "which is not generated from either the inert corpuscles of the earth, or from the essential juices of vegetables....but only from the first Aura of the world, which has no inertia, no materiality so far as materiality involves inertia and gravity." (Economy of the Animal Kingdom, II., 166; Animal Kingdom, II., 426.)

     Work so well and thoroughly done as is this study of Mr. Odhner's does not need to be repeated,* and needs only to be carefully studied to lead to the conviction that the Limbus is identical with the "spirituous fluid" derived from the first Aura, and that it inhabits that Aura which is intermediate between the spiritual and the natural world, as the Limbus is intermediate between the soul and the body.

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"With respect to the Aura," says Swedenborg, "according to the account we have given of it (Economy of the Animal Kingdom, Part II., 272, 312, and in my Principia, Part I., Chap. VI.), it is formed on the model of the forces of nature in her most perfect state, and comprises all possibilities of applying itself to every conceivable minutia of variety and of concurring with every assignable determination; and it thereby merits the name of essential force, essential elasticity, and primitive nature." (Economy of the Animal Kingdom, 352.)
* Mr. Odhner seems to be in some confusion as to the meaning of some of the passages quoted, and to consider the "spirituous fluid" and the "animal spirit" as identical. The term "spirituous fluid" is always applied to the highest and first in the body; but the term "animal spirit" is used more often of the middle blood considered from its origin and source. This, however, is a subject by itself, and does not affect the conclusion contended for here, that the limbus and spirituous fluid are identical.-[L. P. M.]
     [Others have made the same objection. We would be thankful for references to passages proving the distinction between the "animal spirit" and the "spirituous fluid."-C. Th. O.]

     We conclude, therefore, that the first Aura is identical with the plane of the Limbus, is the envelope of the spiritual world, and is the first of all things in the natural world, by which it is formed and ordered and reacts to the influx from the spiritual world. It might be added that such passages as that in the Diary, 222, "There are four natural spheres which originate from the sun," are not to be too literally construed, but understood in agreement with other teaching, just as we are obliged to interpret the use of the terms natural and material in accordance with the general doctrine, as when it is said man retains "material ideas" and it is elsewhere said they "appear as if material but still are not material" (Arcana Coelestia, 10236; Apocalypse Explained, 654). So in like manner when it is said, there are two suns and all things of the spiritual world are from the spiritual sun and all things of the natural world from the sun of nature, the general truth is not in conflict with the doctrine that the first Aura is prior to the natural suns, and is the atmosphere in which the motion of dead suns is set up, and by which their actives are kept in motion from the Infinite.

     II. Assuming then as conclusive that the first Aura of the Principia and of the Animal Kingdom is identical with that realm of the "purer substances of nature" in which the Limbus is formed and subsists, and by which the spiritual world is enveloped and conserved, we may assume that it corresponds in the natural universe with that atmosphere from the spiritual sun which is above the heavens, as the three atmospheres from the sun of the world correspond to the three atmospheres of the angelic heavens. When in general three degrees of the spiritual world are spoken of, and there are said to be three corresponding planes in natural world, the three heavens and corresponding planes in nature ruled by the magnetic aura, the ether, and the atmosphere are

     Meant.     In like manner when it is said the atmospheres are three in both worlds, the spiritual and the natural (Divine Love and Wisdom, 302), the celestial, spiritual, and natural atmospheres of the three heavens, and the magnetic aura, ether, and air of the natural world are respectively meant. In all such statements both the first aura of the spiritual world and the first Aura of the natural universe are without mention as being out of angelic and human experience, and as belonging rather to the prime from which and by which all things are produced in successive order. Nevertheless the first Aura of the spiritual world is affirmed, and it is moreover a trine, and it is declared to be above the heavens (Arcana Coelestia, 7270), and to be the plane in which the human inmost is formed and subsists (Heaven and Hell, 39), and is also called the heaven of "human internals," but above the consciousness of any angel (Arcana Coelestia, 1999). We may conclude, therefore, that the first Aura which is the supreme of the natural universe, from which is derived the human spirituous fluid as the first embodiment of the soul, corresponds to this first Aura of the spiritual world, above the angelic heavens.

     III. Coming now to my third question, as to the origin of the first Aura, Swedenborg unquestionably derived it immediately from the Infinite. He knew of a spiritual world, but did not know what it is, till after his intromission and experience of it. Some, therefore, have concluded that his derivation of the first Aura immediately from the Infinite by the natural pints is an error to be corrected by the doctrines of creation by "successive mediations" from the spiritual sun. But this conclusion seems to ignore the doctrine of immediate influx. The production of degrees, in successive order from the first, is fundamental to a rational idea of creation, but so is the immediate presence of the Infinite in the successive mediations.

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This is shown in a characteristic argument in Arcana Coelestia, 7270. It is shown how the Lord produces continual successions from the first, that is, from the Lord, even to the lasts which pertain to man, yea, to the lasts which are in nature, and that by these successions there is a continual connection of all things with the first Esse; and that influx is according to those successions. Then it is added:--

     But it is well to be noted that the truth divine, which flows in into the third heaven nearest to the Lord, also without successive formations flows in even to the ultimates of order, and there from the first immediately rule and provides all and singular things. That this is the case may also in some measure be manifest from a maxim not unknown to the learned in the world, that there is only one substance that is substance, and that all other things are formations thence; and that in the formations that only one substance rules, not only as form, but also as not form, as in its origin.

     The idea as I conceive it is this:--

     From the Lord, the Spiritual Sun, is the first Aura of the spiritual world, which is trinal, and by which are the successive formations of the spiritual world, and in which the Lord is immediately present as well as mediately. In the spiritual world, therefore, the Lord is present and operative by successive mediations; and also by the first or universal Aura, or the Divine Proceeding, immediately present, ruling and providing, and holding all things in order, within and without. From the Spiritual Sun, immediately also, the points, finites and elementaries, and thus the first Aura of the natural world, which is at once an ultimate and boundary to the Spiritual world and the universal medium in which and from which all Solar vortices are formed and sustained in motion and in power of successive formations in the natural world.

     IV. The first Aura of the natural universe is, therefore, that by which the Infinite is in all mediations even to the ultimates of nature, "without successive formations," or immediately. As the ultimate and boundary of the spiritual world also, it is that by which the spiritual atmospheres are around the natural atmospheres as well as in them. (Divine Love and Wisdom, 175)

     V. As to the light which this conception may throw upon the creation of first living forms. I can only suggest it as a most interesting and probably enlightening field of inquiry. In two studies, one on "The Creation of the First Men" (New Jerusalem Magazine, New Series, Vol. XVI., D. 396) and one on the "Doctrine of Ultimates" (New Church Review, Vol. VI., p. 443), I have endeavored to show that in the production of the first living forms, a spiritual seed and a natural egg must conspire.

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The spiritual seed is prior, determining, building; the protoplasmic egg is recipient, reactive, maternal. When the angels said of the living things, "they are in our world created by God instantaneously," and "in your world they were created in like manner at the beginning" (True Christian Religion, 78), the word "instantaneous" does not dispense with the idea of successive and simultaneous processes. Birth from "created seed'' is meant. "Nothing is born there from seed sown, but from created seed" (Apocalypse Explained, 1211!. And in all life the essential seed is spiritual and must be enclosed in a suitable medium to be transferred to and received in a living reactive cell, that it may develop as a form of life or as a living form.

     This is now "by generation one from another." but at the beginning without such generation, though by the same necessity of soul and body, seed and egg, through the creative act, simultaneously in the spiritual world and in the natural world. If this be true, when we consider the continual reference of all beginnings and dominant movements of life, by Swedenborg in his "Animal Kingdom," to the universal Aura as the dominant and moulding force and substance, we may expect to find in a comparative study of the Writings and his philosophical physiology true and rational conceptions of the simultaneous movements of the two worlds under the Divine Father in the origin of living forms and differentiations of successive generations in existing species. Without the first Aura and its movements present in all successive formations, with the Infinite in it by the universal natural point or first ens, the doctrine and solutions of the work on the Animal Kingdom fall to the ground. It is by this that he explains the problem of problems, how dead substance becomes living substance, by manipulations and modifications of motions, rendering them subservient and reactive to spiritual influx. When we consider it as that by which the Lord is universally in the natural world, as by the first Aura from the Spiritual Sun He is universally in the Spiritual World, we shall begin to see in new light many of the problems of influx, creation, embryology, and the origin of species; as well as to conceive a truer idea of the significance of the doctrine of Ultimates.

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Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

"THE APOSTOLIC WORD."

     A correspondent in the present issue of the Life takes exception to our editorial on this subject in the December number. While we entirely agree with him that the Acts and the Epistles "contain much truth preached by the Apostles and represented by them and in their history," and that this truth "is the Truth of the Lord's New Covenant," and therefore the Word of God in the sense that all Divine Truth is the Word of God, whether revealed or quoted, the essential fact remains that those books "are not the Word of God in the full sense," or in any sense justifying the claim that they are a kind of Divine Revelation. A preacher presents Divine Truth in his sermon, and he is therefore "preaching the Word," but this fact does not make the sermon itself, regarded as a composition, a kind of Divine Revelation, or the Word of the Lord itself.

     While it is to be admitted that Swedenborg, when quoting from the Acts or the Epistles, in connection with quotations from the Gospels, classes these quotations under the general heading of the "Apostolic Word," still it is evident that he does so merely as a convenient way of referring to the volume which is otherwise known as "the New Testament." But he nowhere teaches, as a doctrine, that they are "the Apostolic Word," but, as is well known, teaches that they are not the Word of God.
"CATECHISM OR DECALOGUE." 1904

"CATECHISM OR DECALOGUE."              1904

     Another correspondent asks for an explanation of the fact that in the Writings of the New Church the term "Catechism" is so often used as synonymous with "the Decalogue," as, for instance, in the heading of the fifth chapter of the True Christian Religion: "The Catechism or Decalogue explained as to its external and internal sense." (T. C. R. 282.)

     In all the catechisms used in the State Churches of European countries, the Decalogue takes the first and chiefest part. Thus in Sweden, and throughout the Lutheran Church, the first religious work placed in the hands of children, is Luther's Minor Catechism, (originally published in 1520), which contains little more than the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer, briefly presented and explained in questions and answers. The Catechism of the Church of England, published in 1r549 along with the "Forty-two Articles," is still used and contains only the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and an explanation of the Sacraments. The Reformed Church uses the Heidelberg Catechism, composed by Calvin and published in 1536; and the Presbyterian Church has its "Shorter" and "Larger Catechism," adopted by the Westminster Assembly in 1647 The Roman Catholic Church uses the Catechism published by the Council of Trent, in 1566, and the Creek Catholic Church has its own Catechism.

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In all of them the Decalogue is in the forefront, as the primary essential of religious instruction. It would be an excellent thing if the General Church, also, could adopt a brief Catechism, containing, perhaps, an adaptation of the fifth chapter in the True Christian Religion, in the form of questions and answers for the little ones. Numerous Catechisms have been produced in the New Church; these might be compared with one another, and a new Catechism, suitable for the parish schools of the General Church, be submitted to the Council of the Clergy.
TABLES OF THE DECALOGUE 1904

TABLES OF THE DECALOGUE              1904

     There is a passage in the Arcana Coelestia which corrects the commonly prevailing opinion as to how the Ten Commandments were written on the two Tables of stone: "These tables were divided from one another, but were joined together by application, and the writing was continued from the one table upon the other, as though it was on one Table; and there were not, according to the common opinion, some of the precepts upon the one table and some upon the other" (n. 9416).

     This teaching is based upon a correct rendering of the original text in Exodus 32:15, where it is said that "the tables were written by passing over both of them, from this and from this they were written," or, even more literally, "from their two passing-overs." The Authorized Version renders this verse, "the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other side they were written,"--a version which is by no means justified by the Hebrew text. (Luchoth kethubhim mishney ebhreyhem, mizzeh umizzeh hem ketchubhim.)

     It is to this passage in the Arcana a correspondent refers as being in apparent conflict with other passages, such as the teaching that "in the hand of Moses they were one table, on the right side of which was the writing concerning God, and on the left that concerning men; and that when so presented to the eyes of men, the writing on both parts was seen together." (T. C. R. 456.) Or the following: "Upon one table were written the precepts of love to the Lord, and upon the other table were written the precepts of love towards the neighbor. The first three are those of love to the Lord, and the last six are those of love to the neighbor; while the fourth precept,-which is 'Honor thy father and thy mother,'--is the mediating precept." (A. E. 1026; see also D. Life, 56, et al.)

     Between these passages, on the one hand, and A. C. 9416, on the other, there is certainly an "apparent discrepancy," as our correspondent observes, but we believe it is only an appearance. In a thousand places in the Writings Swedenborg speaks according to appearances, or according to ideas commonly prevailing, as every man does when, for instance, he speaks of the sun rising or setting.

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So also, when speaking of certain of the precepts as being on one table, and the other precepts on the other table, Swedenborg evidently speaks according to the appearance which has caused the commonly prevailing idea, an appearance, however, which is the basis of a true correspondence. For the right side corresponds to what is celestial,-what is of the love of the Lord,--and the left side corresponds to what it; spiritual,--what is of the love of the neighbor. The right table, therefore, corresponds to the first three precepts which were actually written at the top and across the two tables, and the left table corresponds to the rest of the tables which were actually written below the first three, and similarly across the two tables. And therefore, correspondentially, representatively, and thus according to the appearance, it is said in some of the passages that certain of the precepts were written on the one table, and certain ones on the other.


Monthly Review.

     The translation of Swedenborg's posthumous work on The Last Judgment will be resumed in our next issue, the translator, the Rev. Alfred Acton, having now recovered from his long and serious illness.

     Our readers will be pleased to learn that the prize of one hundred dollars, offered by the New Church Board of Publication for the best essay an the "Doctrine of Degrees," has been awarded by the judges, (Messrs. Job Barnard, S. C. Eby, and Warren Goddard) to "Jeremiah Lindsey," which is the nom de plume of the Rev. Willis L. Gladish.

     As announced in our last, the coming June will see another General Assembly of the General Church. After an interval of four years, it will be a great privilege for the members of the Church to see each other again in a general meeting. Earnest efforts are being made to make the Assembly as useful and enjoyable as possible, and to this end the friends in Bryn Athyn will be glad to receive suggestions from the ministers and members of the General Church.

     By permission we reprint from the New Church Review for October, 1903, a paper on "The First Aura and the Limbus" by the Rev. L. P. Mercer. This paper is in direct line with the studies on the "Limbus," published in the last volume of the Life, and presents valuable results of deep study in a field as get but little cultivated. It brings up, also, the interesting question as to which was prior, the Sun or the First Aura. On this subject the opinions are divided among students of New Church science, and we should be pleased to see both sides represented in our pages.

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     A correspondent, who is a member of the General Convention, writes: "There were many things in the last Life which pleased me very much. I was glad to see the spirit in which you take Dr. King's critical article. I was also interested in his other article, on the subject of "Intemperance," and in the opening article by Bishop Pendleton, particularly his reference to the relative non-importance of external things. It will be a curious situation if it should Drove itself true that the General Church offers greater freedom than the Convention. I am not prepared to say now that this may not be so, but it is such a reversal of old traditions as to take my breath away for a bit."

     The Committee of the General Convention, which is charged with the duty of preparing for some "New Church feature" at the St. Louis Fair, reports, in the Messenger for January 6th, a plan to reproduce, in as nearly exact form as possible, Swedenborg's old house on Hornsgatan in Stockholm. The house was torn down long ago, but a fine picture of it, in water color, is preserved in the library of the Academy. It is proposed to make this house a cozy centre for New Church people visiting the Exposition, and to have it furnished with a good bust as well as portraits of Swedenborg; a suitable exhibition of his Writings, with samples of the phototyped manuscripts, etc. The main idea, this time, seems to be the "very effective educative influence upon the minds of the youth and children of the Church," and as such it deserves the encouragement and support of the whole Church. The sum needed for the enterprise, is however, quite a large one.

     A writer in the New Christianity for December describes his experiences as a Newchurchman remaining in connection with the Old Church: "I remained in the Old Church, and did such work as was acceptable, but owing to continued conflict within me, and also in my family, the relations became too inharmonious in both cases. . . . The church to which I belonged was so cold that I stopped trying to work in it, and remained away. My wife became more violent against me, even running when I was near, never speaking to me at home except in the presence of strangers, but then in the most kind and affectionate manner, as if angelic bliss was hers and hers alone; yet manifesting the same spirit of hate as soon as we were alone." After years of this agony the poor man concluded to put his light under a bushel, to "keep the spiritual in abeyance, and from others, until such times as the others are ready for spiritual things," and he finds now that he is being sought for as a teacher in his own church, etc. The editor of our contemporary strongly approves of this course.

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TABLES OF THE DECALOGUE 1904

TABLES OF THE DECALOGUE       GEORGE G. STARKEY       1904

Editors New Church Life:

     Can you give or refer me to any explanation of the apparent discrepancy of teaching in the Writings about the arrangement of the Tables of the Decalogue? Most of the passages speak of one table for God and one for man, that is, three commandments on the first table, six on the second, and the fourth on both; but in A. C. 9416 it is said that they were not written some on one table and some on the other, but the writing continuous from one on to the other, placed side by side. GEORGE G. STARKEY. Denver, Dec. 31, 1903
"THE APOSTOLIC WORD." 1904

"THE APOSTOLIC WORD."       E. J. E. SCHRECK       1904

EDITORS New Church Life:

     I thank you for bringing the ancient legends together as you do in the December issue of the Life. I hope that you may find it possible to go on with this work, which is indeed most opportune and important.

     As to the "Apostolic Word," your explanation of T. C. R. 137, if correct, leads to the conclusion that if an angel may apply the term the "holy Word" to the Epistles in accommodation to certain states, so may Newchurchmen on earth. But I think that the law of adaptation is not in question, for the angel could just as well have used the term "Bible." Your explanation of Coronis I and 59 likewise fails to convince. Turn to T. C. R. 158, and you will have a passage that admits of no two explanations: ". . . in Verbo Novi Testament, tam apud Evangelistas, quam in Actis Apostolorum et in horum Epistolis." The Acts and the Epistles may appropriately he called the "Apostolic Word" because they contain much truth preached by Apostles and represented by them and in their history. It is the Truth of the Lord's New Covenant, even tho the books are net the Word of God in the full sense. Very truly yours, E. J. E. SCHRECK. Chicago, Dec. 18, 1903.
FROM AUSTRALIA 1904

FROM AUSTRALIA       CHARLES W. MORSE       1904

Editors New Church Life:

     I am in receipt of your issue of New Church Life of August-September.

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     It somewhat surprised me to find my own name mentioned in your paper [p. 477], and I was pleased to find that you upheld my remarks on "Loyalty to the Truth."

     When I read that adverse article from The New Christianity I could hardly believe my own eyes. That a New Church paper should not know the true nature of the letter of the Word seemed most perplexing to me. If any one should know that the WORD is a substance, per se, I take it it is the New Churchman. The first few verses of the 1st chapter of John makes this very clear; but most people seem to consider the WORD a mere figure of speech, to point moral lessons. It is much more than this: By the Word of God were the heavens created, and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth.

     It would be well if we more forcibly kept before the mind that thoughts and words are positive tangible substances, and God's words the origin of all things good. When we begin to talk about a "fluid," to take the place of the Word, we are dangerously near mistaking the shadow for the substance, the shell for the kernel. With very good wishes, Yours fraternally, CHARLES W. MORSE, North Waratah, near Newcastle, N. S. W. Oct. 15, 1903
"NEUKIRCHENBLATT" INCONSISTENT 1904

"NEUKIRCHENBLATT" INCONSISTENT       E. F       1904

Editors New Church Life:

     Among the attacks which have been made upon the teaching that the Writings, equally with the Old and New Testaments, are the Word of the Lord, none have been more determined than those which have appeared in the Neukirhenblatt. It is therefore all the more surprising that in this periodical, far more than in any other which attacks this doctrine, are to be found, from time to time, expressions which most manifestly involve the acknowledgment that the Writings are the Word,--so manifestly, that it is impossible to comprehend why that acknowledgment is not openly made.

     In the December number appears the following: "We today again publish the Book Catalogue, because Christmas is near, and, as we firmly believe, no other gift can be more useful or more precious to a true New Churchman than these Books, in which the Lord, through His chosen servant, reveals Himself to the world and to every one of His children. To a true father and a loving mother what can be more important than the external welfare of their children? If one therefore give them a book to be their own, and show them by appropriate words that this is a revelation of the Lord to them, which will lead them to eternal life, one may be certain, that the children will affectionately read and prize it."

     We would ask: How can "Books, in which the Lord reveals Himself," be other than His Word?

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How can the Lord reveal Himself in books which are not His Word? Is not the doctrine clearly given that the Lord reveals Himself only in and as the Word?

     Also, we would ask: How can books "which lead to eternal life" be other than the Word of the Lord? Is it not clearly taught that the Word, and it alone, is "the Revelation of the Lord, which leads to eternal life?"

     The editor of the Neukirchenblatt has asserted that the controversy in regard to the Writings being the Word is a "mere strife in regard to terms." While we by no means admit that such is in general the case, yet it does certainly seem to be so, in so far as he himself is concerned. Why, then, does he not cease the strife, and acknowledge openly what is so clearly involved in much of his teaching? E. F.
TARTARS AND OTHER QUESTIONS 1904

TARTARS AND OTHER QUESTIONS       F. E. WAELCHLI       1904

EDITORS New Church Life:

     In your December number, page 667, Spiritual Diary 6077, is quoted as being of interest in connection with the "Manchurian question." It is there said of certain people inhabiting Tartary, near China, that "they knew nothing of war . . . and that if the Russians mereto come, they would at once give themselves up, but still all would go away with their goods, unknown to them."

     It may be that you are correct in concluding that these people are the Manchus, yet several considerations make this conclusion seem doubtful to me.

     The heading of the number quoted reads: "On the inhabitants of Tartary near China--Lesser Tartary." Swedenborg speaks of Great Tartary and of Lesser Tartary, and in the Apocalypse Revealed, 11, includes Manchuria in Great Tartary. He there says: "The Ancient Word is still preserved among the people in Great Tartary. I have spoken with spirits and angels who were from that country, who said that . . . they do not suffer strangers to come among them, except the Chinese, with whom they cultivate peace, because the emperor of China is from their country; and also that they are so populous, that they do not believe that any region in the whole world is more so; which is also credible from the wall which the Chinese constructed as a safeguard against invasion from them."--Manchuria is here evidently meant, for the emperor of China is from that country. That the Manchus are not a people "who knew nothing of mar" is indicated by the fear of invasion from them. Moreover "ever since the Manchus conquered China (1644) and founded the present imperial dynasty, Manchuria has been the favorite recruiting ground for the Chinese army; there are stated to be 80,000 drilled men in the country" (Chamber's Encyclopedia).

     Possibly a people inhabiting some region of Mongolia may be meant in the above number from the Diary, as there are some peaceable tribes there.

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     The question would be solved if it could be learned what was meant by geographers of Swedenborg's time by Great Tartary and by Lesser Tartary. Such works of reference as I have been able to consult, throw no light on this point. Perhaps you or some reader of the Lift can give the necessary information..

     Allow me a question on another subject. Can you tell me why Swedenborg in a number of places uses the expression "The Decalogue or Catechism?" A knowledge of the books of instruction in use in the established Church of Sweden, and also of customs in that Church, is no doubt necessary in order to understand this use of the word "catechism." Something of an answer to my question seems to be indicated in D. P. 258 (4), but not as fully as I would like to have it. Can you tell me anything further about the custom to which Swedenborg alludes in this passage?
Your sincerely, F. E. WAELCHLI. Berlin, Ont., Dec. 15, 1903.
Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Bryn Athyn. The Christmas celebration was, as usual, very successful. On Thursday afternoon, December 24th, at 4:30, services were held for the children, followed by six tableaux illustrating the Christmas story. After the tableaux, fruit and candy were given to the children, and they gave each other gifts. On Christmas day the Holy Supper was administered.

     On Saturday evening, the 26th of December, the children of the local school, under the direction of Miss Lucy Potts, gave a series of tableaux illustrating the travels of Marco Polo. The representations were well staged and costumed, and the whole effect was most pleasing.

     On Monday evening, the 28th, a social was given at Cairnwood. On Wednesday evening. the 30th, the young folks were invited to Glenhurst, where a most pleasant evening was passed. The young men competed in a hat-trimming contest. which revealed their artistic temperaments.

     Instead of the usual sunrise service on New Year's morning a watch meeting was held on New Year's evening. The early part of the evening quickly passed with dancing and games. At midnight a short service was held, after which there was more dancing.

     The Academy schools, which had closed for the holidays on the 18th of December, opened again on January 4th.

     Among the late visitors to Bryn Athyn have been Mrs. R. B. Caldwell, of Pittsburg and Mr. Noah Waelchli, of Allentown.

     Philadelphia, Pa. On December 2d a very enjoyable social was held in the hall of worship. The young folks of the Advent Church had the entertaining part in hand, and the adult members of the Society had charge of the refreshments. The first part of the social was given up to the installation service, conducted by Bishop Pendleton. when the pastor of the Advent Church, the Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist, was formally introduced into the pastorate. The service was short and simple, but impressive.

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     Singing, recitations, music on the piano, violin and guitar; dancing, speech-making (in response to the numerous toasts) and conversation filled the program of the entertainment, which did honor to both young and old, as the entertaining part was well planned and the refreshment toothsome and plentiful, and it was well-nigh unto midnight when the last participants made their way to their respective homes through the first snow storm of the season.

     New York. It has been arranged to have services twice a month hereafter, and we are all looking forward to greater activity in Church life here. Mr. Parker has invited us to meet at his house weekly for the study of the Writings, and we are now reading Divine Love and Wisdom. The hard questions are reserved for the Doctrinal Class, conducted by Pastor Acton during his visits.

     The attendance at our services promises to be larger than ever before. The last time we met twenty adults and two children were present. R. G. C.

     Pittsburg. The sweet spirit of hospitality is always warmly felt in the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Schoenberger, and another very delightful social was given by them on December 30th, with dancing as a chief feature. Enjoyable instrumental music and songs followed (and refreshments no less enjoyable), and the guests departed feeling still more closely drawn together in mutual good-will and esteem.

     At "Lechner's" the New Year was welcomed by a party of gentlemen, the guests of Mr. Arthur Lechner. As the old year died away the conversation tended to reminiscences, and many highly interesting experiences and stories were told. On the stroke of midnight good wishes for the New Year were exchanged, and then rousing songs were sung:--the last of which was in honor of the ladies, and was accompanied by a guitar touched by the artistic fingers of Mr. Edward Boericke.

     On Wednesday, January 6th, was held our annual meeting. After supper the regular business was taken up and discussed. Mr. Lindsay, as acting Treasurer, reported as to the financial condition of our affairs, and in a pleasant way reminded us of our duties in this regard. On this occasion we were favored with the presence of Mr. John Pitcairn, who gave us an interesting account of his recent visit among our English brethren. The news of the coming Assembly in Bryn Athyn was hailed with much joy.

     The Sunday services and Wednesday doctrinal classes have been largely attended, and all indications tend to insure a progressive happy state of the Lord's church here for the coming year, and for all time, we hope. H. L.

     Berlin, Ont. On November 27th an enjoyable social of the Carmel Church was held In the school room, Mr. and Mrs. T. S. Kuhl entertaining. The feature of the occasion was the presentation of several excellent charades.

     On December 11th the Quarterly Meeting of the Society was held. The chief subject of discussion was the question whether it is orderly to sell chances for articles at a church bazaar. It was held by some that this could be done as a harmless amusement, and that it would at the same time be a source of considerable revenue for Church uses; but in the end there was a unanimous sentiment that such a thing is not orderly and that it is harmful.

     On Sunday, December 13th, the Society had the pleasure of listening to a sermon by the Rev. J. E. Bowers.

     The school celebration of Christmas was held on Christmas Eve. The Hall of Worship was beautifully decorated with evergreens, and for the first time in many years a Christmas tree formed a part of the decoration. The celebration consisted of the reading of several lessons from the Word, the singing of a number of selections by the children, an address by the pastor and the bringing of the offerings. Afterwards some time was spent socially, during which fruit was distributed to all present.

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The school also presented a gift to each of the teachers.

     The Christmas service of the congregation look place on Sunday, December 27th.

     About twenty-five of our members attended the Fourth Ontario Assembly held in Parkdale, December 31st and January 1st, and all say that this Assembly was the most successful we have yet had.

     Toronto. After a very successful session the school closed on Friday, December 18, for the Xmas vacation. In the afternoon the kindergarten held its closing exercises, a cordial invitation having been extended to all taking an interest in this branch of the school.

     On Wednesday evening, December 23d, a special service and festival was held for the children. The representation of the Christmas story rendered the scene very realistic, and added greatly to the interest of the little ones. The offering to which every one present, old and young, contributed was a substantial one.

     A service was conducted Christmas morning, and as it has not been our custom to have such a service it was an innovation, enjoyed and appreciated by all.

     The fourth annual meeting of the Ontario Assembly, held in Toronto on New Year's, was a most successful one. As the Executive Committee of the General Church met here at the same time we were afforded the pleasure of entertaining several prominent friend from abroad. The names of our Canadian visitors are too numerous for publication here. In addition to Bishop Pendleton those from the United States were the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, Mr. John Pitcairn and Mrs. Stroh, all from Bryn Athyn, Pa.; Mr. Hugh Burnham and Mr. Seymor G. Nelson, from Glenview. Ill., and Mr. Paul Carpenter, from Chicago.

     At the first session, held on the afternoon of December 31st, a most impressive and instructive address was delivered by the bishop on the subject of "Duty." In the evening there was a banquet, followed by a social and dance, during which the usual watch night service was held to usher in the New Year, nineteen hundred and four.

     At the meeting on New Year's day a paper was read by our pastor, Rev. E. Cronlund, on the Use of the Sciences in the New Church: also, one by Mr. Waelchli on the Necessity for Family Worship. Both papers were interesting and instructive, and provided material for useful discussion.

     On New Year's evening the ladies and gentlemen held separate meetings, the former at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. K. Roy; the latter in the Church building.

          On Sunday, January 3d. Bishop Pendleton preached and officiated at the baptism of Miss Lois Graham, a young member who has come to us within the past year. In honor of this event the young ladies of the Society were invited to spend the evening at the home of Mrs. Hyatt, and a delightful time was spent.

     During the Christmas festivities Mr. Norman G. Bellinger, a popular member of our Young Peoples Club, paid us a flying visit. Mr. Bellinger, some months ago, left to take up his residence in Montreal, where he had accepted a position. M. G. S.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The New Church Club of New York City at its meeting on Dec. 8th discussed the subjects of telepathy, clairvoyance, hypnotism and kindred psychic phenomena. The New Christianity for December reports that "the discussion among the members of the Club was very interesting, and, no doubt, very profitable. On one side were presented the dangers of having anything to do with spiritism, hypnotism and astrology; and, on the other side, our duty, as men and women claiming interior enlightenment, to endeavor to explain the phenomena in accordance with the true spiritual philosophy.

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The majority of the fifty persons present seemed to be on the latter side. The minority would, if they dared to give any attention to these phenomena, be guided by Swedenborg's teachings as authority; the majority, while aware of the danger of subjecting themselves to spirits of hypnotists or fortune-tellers, would freely and rationally study the phenomena in the light of the teaching of Swedenborg." Our contemporary concludes, "To New Church people there is a special and urgent call to scientific study of all kinds,--a call not to offer Swedenborg's scientific theories to the scientific world, not to establish a sectarian university, but to raise up and send forth sons who, with a free and rational conception of the new philosophy, will think and study without restraint of any human or verbal authority, and will make their influence felt and recognized as scientific leaders."

     GREAT BRITAIN. The Rev. Henry W. Freeman, pastor of the New Church society in Willesden Green, died on Dec. 5th, 1903.

     Sir John Spurgin, a prominent member of the Argyle Square Society, London, passed into the spiritual world on Nov. 27th, 1903. He was the son of the well known Dr. John Spurgia, who, for half a century, was associated with the work of the Swedenborg Society, and who wrote a number of valuable treatises in defense of the New Church, under the pseudonym of Medicus Cantabrigiensis. Sir John Spurgin served with great distinction throughout the Indian Mutiny, was present at the relief of Lucknow, and retired with the rank of lieutenant-general in 1883.

     We learn from the Morning Light that the Rev. R. R. Rodgers, for many years pastor of the New Church in Birmingham, has so broken down in health as to find it necessary to leave his post, in order to proceed to Biskrah, a place situated about 250 miles south of Algiers, away in the Sahara, where he hopes for beneficial effects from the warmth and wonderful dryness of the air in that region. The Rev. A. J. Wright will serve the Birmingham Society during Mr. Rodgers' absence.

     AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. The Rev. Fedor Goerwitz on Nov. 1st visited the little society in Vienna, which he found in a prosperous condition and making continual progress in the understanding and love of the Heavenly Doctrine. Here he administered the Holy Supper to twenty-nine communicants, and then visited the society in Budapest, where, after preaching, baptizing and confirming, he administered the Holy Supper to twenty-five communicants. This society has received a number of new and very zealous members during the past year. Mr. Goerwitz also preached to a circle of twenty-five persons in Neupest, a suburb of Budapest.

     Mr. Goerwitz, in the December issue of Monatblatter, takes occasion to correct a number of hostile representations of himself and of the society in Vienna which have appeared in a recent number of the American Bote der Neuen Kirche. The latter, which is the organ of Mr. Roeder and the German Synod, has for some twenty years past kept up an exceedingly hostile attitude towards Mr. Goerwitz and the circles to which he is administering with so much faithfulness to the Doctrine of the New Church. Mr. F. X. Lux, at present studying for the ministry of the New Church in the Convention's Theological School in Cambridge, but previously for some time under the direction of Rev. Adolph Roeder, gives a descriptive account in the Bote of the New Church circles in Germany and Austria-Hungary, belittling and misrepresenting the work of Mr. Goerwitz. He charges here that Mr. Goerwitz' Society in Vienna is a secret society.

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It is a curious coincidence that during the recent visit of Mr. Goerwitz in Vienna, the society was denounced to the police authorities as a secret society, and as such to be prohibited by Austrian law. The charge, which had been made in an anonymous letter, led to an official investigation; a magistrate visited the congregation, but was quickly convinced of the malicious injustice of the charge, and announced his intention to institute criminal proceedings against the anonymous accuser, as soon as the police could find him. Mr. Goerwitz, adds this trite observation: "The untrue representations made by Mr. Lux, (at present in Cambridge), have caused us much grief, for we reward the love of truthfulness as the first thing to be demanded of a loyal pupil in a New Church school."
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1904

GENERAL ASSEMBLY       C. TH. ODHNER       1904


Announcements.



Special Notice.

     The Fifth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on June 17th to 21st, inclusive. C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary.

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DUTIES OF MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH 1904

DUTIES OF MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH        PENDLETON       1904

     
MARCH, 1904.

No 3.
     THE duties of the members of the Church is ever a useful topic for consideration, and it therefore should from time to time be discussed, in order that the rational mind from added insight into principle may receive increased stimulus to action, in the performance of the uses of the Church. For where there are uses there are duties; and that we are met here together is evidence that we have uses to perform; and if we have uses to perform, it is our duty to perform them with all our might, and to so instruct ourselves that the mind may be ever more enlightened to pursue the path where duty leads, and where use follows the faithful performance of duty.

     The word duty is defined to be "that which one is bound, by any natural, legal or moral obligation, to do;" and it is derived from a Latin word, which signifies to owe, or to pay what one owes; that is, to carry out in action what one ought to do, or what one knows he ought to do.

     The first principle of duty, then, is knowledge, and from knowledge a rational understanding and appreciation of the uses, which call for the faithful performance of duty.

     The definition of the word duty reminds us of our natural obligations, our legal obligations, and our moral obligations, all of which it is incumbent upon us to do faithfully and well, that we may take our proper place as members of society and citizens of the State. Without the faithful performance of these duties, at least by some, there could be no society and no civil state, and thus no natural freedom and happiness of life.

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If some men did not perform their duty, their whole duty, as members of society, and citizens of the State, there could be no civil life, society would fall to pieces, and mankind would relapse into barbarism.

     But in addition to the obligations, which the linguistic authorities tell us are incumbent upon the citizen and member of society, which duty calls upon him to perform, there are spiritual obligations, or the duties which the member of the Church owes, or ought to do, in order that the spiritual uses of the Church may be successfully performed, and the Church be placed in a position to fulfill its mission to men in the world, the mission of preparing men, while they live in the world, for the life after death, a life which is to endure for ever. It is hardly necessary to say that this use is the most important of all the uses of the world, and that every other use sinks into insignificance in comparison with it, and that the obligation to faithfully perform this use is more binding than any other obligation whatsoever. And how much does this idea expand and enlarge in our minds, when we think of the New Church, the New Jerusalem of prophecy, which has now appeared in the world, of the Lord's own founding, by the revelation of the internal sense of His Word,--of the New Church, which is to be forever the kingdom of the Lord among men, the last, the final, the greatest, the most tremendous instrumentality, ever put in operation by Divine Power to save the souls of men, and build up a heaven from the human race. Verily, brethren, there sounds in our ears now a trumpet call to duty, such as never sounded in the ears of men before, and it remains to be seen whether we shall be faithful to the call, whether we shall realize the obligation that is upon us, and respond with heart and mind, and head and hand, with all our faculties and powers, to the mighty trumpet sound, to the heavenly call to duty, to do our part in the mighty upbuilding of that temple which is to endure forever.

     One general truth forces itself upon our attention in the consideration of this question, or rather a fact which involves a truth, which is, that comparatively few men do their whole duty in any given work, whether that work be natural, moral, or spiritual in its nature.

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And along with this is another fact or truth of tremendous import, namely, that success follows according to the increase of the number of those who do their whole duty in any given undertaking.

     The fact that few do their whole duty in any general use, in which a number of men are engaged, is one that is apparent to the student of history, and a close observer of the trend of human affairs. All, or the majority, may unite with more or less energy, to accomplish what is proposed, and thus success may be achieved, through long and painful effort. But it is the minority, and sometimes a very small minority, that engage in the work heart and soul, employing all their powers to accomplish the end in view.

     The truth of this I think will appeal to any reflecting mind, and it is not necessary to pause and seek for illustrations in order to confirm it. Any one who investigates will find it so in all natural affairs. Let us then seek at once the cause; for every natural condition has its origin in a spiritual cause, or in a state in the spiritual world, or, what is the same, in the interiors of the minds of men; for these interiors are what make the spiritual world, and in that world the interiors of men come forth and produce a corresponding environment. The same law is in operation here, though it is not so manifest, or is more slow in its manifestation, but none the less sure. Any condition that prevails inwardly and outwardly in the World of Spirits, will appear and make itself felt in this world, will become an actual condition of the natural world, by the inevitable law of cause and effect.

     The spiritual cause of natural conditions of human activity is found in the state of the Church in the world of spirits: this state being the most interior of all the states of men and spirits, it is the causative and qualifying power in all the effects and conditions which appear and are active in human life. And we are informed by revelation that the prevailing state of the Church now in both worlds is a state of consummation, when there are but few left who are in any spiritual good; which means, as applied to our subject, that there are but few men at this day, whether in the world of spirits or on earth, who do their whole duty as spiritual men, or in the things of spiritual life. It follows that this state is causative, and affects and qualifies all conditions in both worlds; and it cannot be otherwise so long as the cause exists.

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For, let us repeat, the state of the World of Spirits, or the state of the Church in the World of Spirits, ultimates itself in the natural world, as sure as the active cause must produce its own effect, an effect that represents its own producing cause.

     We find in this, then, the cause and origin of the state that prevails in the world, to which we have alluded, namely, that comparatively few men do their whole duty in any given condition of human work. For duty is spiritual good, or it represents spiritual good, or the good which results from self-compulsion, or self-denial in any given work; the good which arises when man sacrifices himself and his own natural delight for the sake of a given end, regardless of the results which may come upon himself in his devotion to the cause of duty. There are a few men who do this, and these few are the salt of the earth. Without them the salt would lose its savor, and would thenceforth be fit for nothing but to be cast out and be trodden under foot of men; and there would be universal corruption and death.

     The state of the Church affects and gives guidance to the state of the world, and the latter necessarily corresponds to the former. In a consummated Church there are but few who are in good, but few who are saved, and hence but few who compose the Societies of the good in the World of Spirits who are preparing for heaven. And it follows that there are but few who constitute or compose the New Church in its beginning on the earth, and from this flows the general condition of which we have spoken.

     The word few is of course a relative term, and is spoken of in relation to the many. Five or six an few in relation to a hundred, and the same proportion in many millions would make a considerable number, but still relatively few. And another important fact must be noted in this connection, which is, that the many are carried along temporarily and externally by the force and character of the few. A few genuine and sterling patriots in time of war, by their zeal and devotion, their character and influence, will carry their country along, when it is in great straits, to a successful termination of its struggle. A few brave soldiers in battle will inspire the many and lead on to victory, and prevent inglorious defeat.

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     It is so in the consummated state of the Church, If a few just men had been found in Sodom and Gomorrah, those cities would have been spared their awful destruction. We see the Old Church still spared because of the few good who are in it, which is evidenced by the general prevalence of external worship in the Christian world; but how little heart worship in it all! And yet because there is still such worship with some, the institution and observance of external worship is still general,--because of the few and for their sake, because of the few just men who are still left in Sodom and Gomorrah, and for whose sake these cities are still spared. There are but few left, but the many are led, in the Providence of the Lord, by various external motives, to co-operate with the few; and so the salt is not yet saltless, and the time of the inevitable judgment is prolonged.

     The point to which we are coming in these remarks is that the New Church is not yet exempt from this general law, which prevails in the World of Spirits, and in the natural world; which is, that comparatively few, at this day in any given work, do their whole duty. Our numbers are very few indeed in relation to the millions of the Christians, but these few may be taken as representative of those who do their whole duty in the things of spiritual life. Still the few who at present compose the Church constitute a complete form, and the same law applies to them, or the same condition exists with them; there are but few who do their whole duty to the Church, or there are some who perform their whole duty to the Church, and there are some who fall short of it in greater or less degree; and there may be some who do not perform their duty at all, but are carried along by the sphere and influence of those who do

     Let us pause for a moment and define in some measure the duties of the Church. There are as many duties as there are uses, but in general the duties are two-fold, or may be divided into two general classes, namely, internal duties and external duties. That the internal duties are by far the most important, without the performance of which there is no Church, every one knows without the saying of it. Every member of the Church knows that the internal duties of the Church are one with the duties of regeneration, the living of a life of repentance, self-compulsion in shunning evils as sins against God, the cultivation of all the spiritual graces, especially that one fundamental of all the graces of the Church, the affection of truth,--the cultivation of this grace by reading and instruction, and the acts of piety and worship, after evils have been resisted and shunned because they are sins against God.

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Every member of the Church knows that unless these fundamental things are done, at least by some, by a few, the Church has no internal, and no longer any internal reason for existence. Nor is there any lack of knowledge of the external duties of the Church, the things which make the foundation upon which the house rests, the natural instrumentalities, without which the Church has no foothold upon the earth, without which no internal uses call be performed, and which would ultimately perish, without which the Church is transferred elsewhere, or is like the dove returning to the ark, because no place was found to rest the sole of her foot.

     All things--each thing is essential in its place, even the most external; for each thing contributes its portion to the common stream of use, gives of its own to the progress of the Church, is an offering of the giver to the Lord's work of building His kingdom among men.

     The offering which is given in the form of a money contribution to the uses of the Church, is not the only external by which the Church is assisted in its work; but we well know how essential this is, as an instrumentality in the work of the Church. It is only one of the forms of giving, and I would that I had time to enlarge here on the other modes by which the members of the Church may contribute to its life and work, in order to show that one may give much, even though he has but little to give as the world measures giving; but I must content myself with a few general facts and principles, and one is this, that the Church needs that its members should give to its work primarily because the members need the giving, and the need that is supplied in the giving, the use that comes to the individual in the giving, is the best of all contributions to the life of the Church. The willing and hearty giver, who gives to the extent of his ability, gives much even though the actual amount be little that is given. This is not mere theory, a mere glittering abstraction, but a real fact. The life of the Church is internal, it is spiritual, and he who gives to this, in doing his whole duty, gives much.

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It is not the external amount or measure of what is given that is the essential need of the Church, but the element of active co-operation that is involved in the giving; it is the spiritual contribution of love, affection, thought, which is thus added to the store of the life of the Church--this is the essential thing of which the natural contribution is the representative, that is the need of the Church. Therefore, let us repeat, that the real need of the Church is, that the individual member should do his whole duty, which is another way of saying that the Church needs that each member should give it his whole life and soul; and the Church needs it because the member needs to do it, and the Church is but the aggregate of those who give to it, not a part, but all that is their own.

     We have been setting forth the fact, that at this day but few in the world do their whole duty in any given work, and that the Church as yet shares this common state; that is, in the consummated state of the Church and the world, but few are capable of a complete self-abnegation, a complete self-immolation upon the altar of duty, and therefore all genuine spiritual use drags, and the progress of the Church is slow. And we would add here that the Church will grow and increase just in the degree and proportion of the increase in the number of those, who are capable of a complete self-denial, a complete self-immolation in its work, in proportion to the increase of the number of those in it who do their whole duty, and in doing this give their whole life to its cause. If we may suppose an army of a hundred thousand men, each soldier doing his whole duty, such an army would be invincible, it could conquer the world. If we may suppose a body of the New Church of one thousand men, each man of which is doing his whole duty, it would be invincible, it would conquer the world. Such an instrumentality in the hands of the Lord would prevail over all obstacles. And in this we see the reason why we are told that the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers are few, and why we are to pray to the Lord of the harvest that He send forth laborers into His harvest.

     And now we close with this sentiment, that the supreme need of the Church is the increase in the number of those who do their whole duty; for the Church is in supreme need of the added life which comes to it, in the individual performance of one's whole duty.

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RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE 1904

RIVER OF WATER OF LIFE       Rev. JOHN WHITEHEAD       1904

     "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. In the midst of the street of it, and of the river, on this side and on that was the tree of life bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month, and the leases of the tree were for the healing of the nations."--Rev. xxii, 1, 2.

     The various things seen by the apostle John in vision, and described in the book of Revelation, constitute a series of representative pictures descriptive of heavenly and divine things, embodying principles of vital importance to the spiritual welfare of the human race. These pictures have been seen by the Christian World for nearly nineteen centuries; but the inner meaning has not been known. The outward form, the letter, is patent to the senses; the inner form, the spirit, is hidden from view. This book has been a puzzle to all. In the early Christian Church there was much discussion about it. Many would have excluded it from the canon of the Sacred Scriptures; but the name of the revered apostle of the Lord, and the warning words of the close of the book, saved it from oblivion, and it was bound between the covers of "The Bible;" but it has ever been a sealed book to the understandings of the men of the Christian Church.

     In this book one of the sacred pictures portrayed by the Divine Artist is thus described: "I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. . .And no man in heaven, nor in earth, nor under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. But the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, prevailed to open the book."--Rev. v.

     Many men, learned in the lore of the Church, have labored to discover the meaning of the Apocalypse, but still it has remained a sealed book to them. Many would reject it from the canon of Scripture.

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Many have called it a rhapsody, which is to say, that it is a series of sentences without natural dependence and connection, composed under excitement, characterized by extravagance or over-enthusiasm--a wild and irregular composition. (See Standard Dictionary.) Such is the opinion of many learned men concerning a book that opens with the claim, that it is the "Revelation of Jesus Christ," "Who is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,... Who is, and Who was, and Who is to come, the Almighty."

     The men of the first Christian Church have failed to open the book or to loose the seven seals. But now is the time of the Second Coming of the Lord, and He has opened the book and loosed the seven seals thereof. In the preface to The Apocalypse Revealed, Swedenborg says:

     "The Apocalypse can by no means be explained, but by the Lord Alone.... On which account it has pleased the Lord to open the sight of my spirit and to teach me. Do not believe, therefore, that I have taken anything from any angel, but from the Lord alone. The Lord said to John,--Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book, by which is meant that they are to be made manifest."

     The seals are unloosed, and the inner contents are made manifest in the work, entitled "The Apocalypse Revealed," printed and published by Emanuel Swedenborg.

     Another Divine picture in this book, found in the last chapter, describes:

     "A river of water of life clear as crystal proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb."

     "And he showed me a pure river of water of life clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb, this signifies THE APOCALYPSE, NOW OPENED AND EXPLAINED AS TO ITS SPIRITUAL SENSE, where divine truths in abundance are revealed by the lord for those who will be in His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. By the pure river of water of life clear as crystal, is signified Divine Truth of the Word in abundance, translucent from its spiritual sense, which is in the light of heaven..... The river was seen to go forth from the throne of God and the Lamb, this signifies that it is out of heaven from the Lord....

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That by this river of water of life, in particular, are meant Divine Truths in abundance, here now retreated by the Lord in the Apocalypse is manifest from verses 6, 7, 9, 10, 14, 16-19 of this chapter, where the book of this prophecy is treated of, and it is said the things which are there written should be kept which could not be kept before the things which are contained therein were revealed by means of the spiritual sense, because they were not before understood; and the Apocalypse is also the Word, like the prophetic Word of the Old Testament; and the evils and falsities of the Church which are to be shunned and held in aversion, and the goods and truths of the Church which are to be done, are now disclosed in the Apocalypse, especially those concerning the Lord and concerning eternal life from Him." A. R. 932.

     John, the beloved Apostle of the Lord, was introduced as to his spirit into the spiritual world. The seer, with the eyes of his spirit opened, saw a series of prophetic representations produced by God Himself, that they might be described and published, and thus embodied in His Word as the last and closing book of its letter or literal sense. This is the crowning book of the Word, the scenes of which, magnificent and grand beyond anything ever before seen by human eyes, were taken from the spiritual world, the substantial abode of men, after they pass through the portals of death, and are introduced into eternal life.

     John saw the picture. He gave us the letter of the parable, but he was important of its spiritual import and meaning. Passing over a period of seventeen centuries, the Lord introduced another man into the spiritual world as to the sight and hearing of his spirit, and then He unfolded the meaning of the things seen by John in Vision. Again the things seen and heard, but now understood the light of heaven, were brought down from heaven. They were printed and published in a book, that they might become known to the world. Not another book of the letter of the Word, but the unfolding of its spirit and life. John saw the pictorial side of the Revelation of Jesus Christ and embodied it in a book. Swedenborg saw the spiritual side and embodied that in a book. Both men were human instruments in the hands of the Lord, penmen and publishers, to give the Lord's messages to the world, the one the literal side, and the other the spiritual side; the one revealing the pictures, the ultimate, the correspondences; the other revealing the meaning, the internal, in doctrinal forms accommodated to reception by the human understanding.

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From A. R. 932, just quoted, we may see that the book entitled "Apocalypse Revealed," containing the spiritual contents of the book of Revelation, "Divine Truths in abundance," is itself the "River of Water of Life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb."

     What are these "streams of living waters flowing thence our thirst t'assuage?" What is this crystal river watering the tree of life; but the contents of a book such as was never written in the world before? A book containing the precious truths of spiritual life; truths concerning God, the spiritual world, the Church and life; opening to our understanding the mysteries that have been hidden within the book of Revelation, from the very foundation of the Christian Church. These truths are not human conjectures, guesses at the meaning of the Scriptures, no fallible interpretation of pope or priest; but the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the contents now opened, of that book sealed with seven seals, now streaming forth "Divine Truths in abundance for those who will be of His "New Church." These truths are spiritual waters; because water as a cleanser and purifier of natural things, a quencher of thirst, and a conveyor of nourishment, is a perfect correspondent of Divine Truth, which serves similar uses to the soul of man.

     Many men have traversed sea and land to find the fountain of the elixir of life. Many have conjectured or speculated as to the location of the Garden of Eden with its tree of life. But who ever supposed that the living water of life, flowing from the throne of God, was in a book? If natural men, pursuing the phantasmagoria of a perverted theology, will labor assiduously, will travel sea and land, to obtain eternal life for the body; if they will consume innumerable forms of nauseating physic to prolong their life for a few years; should not we, much more, pursue after and learn the truths of spiritual life; especially when they are at hand in a God-given book, revealed to give delight and pleasure in their study and application to life?

     I call attention to still another picture of "The Tree of Life, bearing twelve fruits, yielding its fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

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The living waters nourished that tree. These living waters revealed in a book (A. R.) were never intended to remain unused and unread on the shelves of our libraries. They were intended for human minds. It is only when they are in human minds that they can reach the roots of the "Tree of Life in the Paradise of God." For the regenerating man who drinks at the fountain of living truths revealed from heaven:-Is like a free planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." Ps. i.

     "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is, For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth forth her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh; but his leaf shall be green, and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." Jer. xviii. 7, 8.

     As water is necessary to the growth of vegetable life, so Divine Truth from the Word is necessary to the growth of spiritual life. The tree of life grows and develops in the spiritual mind and heart of the man of the Church who loves and cherishes the Divine Truth and appropriates it to himself and to his life. By the Tree of Life is meant "The Lord as to His Divine Love," "Who is in the midst of the truths of doctrine and of life in the New Church," and "from Whom flow forth all the goods which man does apparently as from himself. This is the case with those who immediately approach the Lord, and shun evils as sins, thus who will be in the Lord's New Church, which is the New Jerusalem; for they who do not immediately approach the Lord cannot be conjoined with Him." A. R. 933.

     The Lord his not revealed these truths merely to satisfy an intellectual curiosity. Everything the Lord does is replete with wise, noble and good ends. As He created water to render the earth fruitful that it might give "seed to the sower and bread to the eater;" so He reveals the Doctrine of Divine Truth from His Word, that it may produce in man the deeds of a righteous life for the nourishment and salvation of his soul.

     Therefore the Lord in His Second Coming has revealed "truths in abundance" concerning Himself, concerning Heaven, and concerning man as a spiritual being, in order that by them he may become an inhabitant of His heavenly Kingdom, through living, loving and cherishing the precious truths of the "river of water of life flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb."

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     Is it of any consequence, is it worth while, to give the time and exertion of spending a few minutes each day of the year to the work of bathing the soul in a "river of living water," to drinking that water which will "remain in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life?"

     New Church doctrine does not consist of a series of paradoxes, riddles that cannot be understood, things to be received by a blind faith. They are truths of light, living waters from God, winged messages bearing his gifts of eternal life, love and joy, given to lift up and ennoble the minds of men. They are the means of introducing them, not into the old Garden of Eden with its serpent and tree of knowledge beside the tree of life; but into the Holy City, the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven from God, where now is to be found the "Tree of Life. The Lord has promised "to him that overcometh He will give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."--Amen.
LEGENDS OF THE FALL AND THE FLOOD 1904

LEGENDS OF THE FALL AND THE FLOOD              1904

THE ASSYRO-CHALDEAN LEGENDS.

     AMONG the hundreds of thousands of clay-tablets found in the ruined temple-libraries along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, no documents have been discovered describing the Fall of Mankind in a manner closely resembling the story in Genesis. But we have already described the ancient cylinder depicting Adam and Eve sitting about the Tree of Life, with the serpent raising its head behind the woman. And the following document, translated in the Records of the Past (Vol. vii, p. 127, 128), certainly refers to the fall of the Most Ancient Church.

     ...The Divine Being spoke three times, the commencement of a psalm.

     The God of holy songs, the Lord of religion and worship, seated a thousand singers and musicians, and established a choral band, who to his hymn were to respond in multitudes.

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...............................................................................
...............................................................................

     With a loud cry of contempt they broke up his holy song,--spoiling, confusing, confounding his hymn of praise.

     The God of the bright crown, with a wish to summon his adherents, sounded a trumpet-blast which would wake the dead,-which to those rebel-angels prohibited return.

     He stopped their service, and sent them to the gods who were his enemies. In their room he created mankind.

     The first who received life dwelt along with him. May he give them strength never to neglect his Word,--by following the voice of the serpent whom his hands had made!

     And may the God of Divine speech expel from his five-thousand that wicked one-thousand, who in the midst of his heavenly song had shouted evil blasphemies!

     The god Asshur, who had seen the malice of those gods who deserted their allegiance, refused to go forth with them.

     This noble composition, which in its general style resembles certain portions of the book of Job, and undoubtedly was part of the sacred literature of the Ancient Church, describes the primeval establishment of the holy, internal worship of the Most Ancient Church, which afterwards was "spoiled, confused, and confounded," in other words, profaned, by disobedience or "by following the voice of the serpent." The narrative has been called "the Rebellion in heaven," and is supposed to refer to the fall of the angels, but all the stories of the fallen angels simply describe the fall of the celestial men. The reference to "the voice of the serpent" shows the Scriptural origin of this story. The sentence "in their room he created mankind" refers, we think, to the establishment of the race of spiritual men who constituted the subsequent Ancient Church. The god Asshur, "who refused to go forth" with the rebels, may refer to Noah, who by virtue of rational integrity, separated himself from the Antediluvians. "Asshur" signifies the rational.

     The profane and horrible state of the Antediluvians, or the Nephilim, is vividly described in the following correspondential song of the ancient Chaldeans:

     Seven are they; seven are they.

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     In the channel of the deep, seven are they.

     In the radiance of heaven, seven are they.

     In the channel of the deep, in a palace they grew up.

     Male they are not, female they are not.

     In the midst of the deep are their paths.

     Wife they have not, sons they have not.

     Order and kindness they know not.

     Prayer and supplication they hear not.

     The caverns of the mountains they enter.

     Unto Ea they are hostile; the throne-bearers of the gods are they.

     Disturbing, in the torrent are they set.

     Baleful are they; baleful are they.

     Seven are they; seven are they.

     Seven twice again are they.

     May the spirits of heaven remember; may the spirits of earth remember. (Records of the Past.)

     This thrilling description of the most fearful of demons is in thorough harmony with the account of the Antediluvians and of other profaners, as revealed in the Writings of the New Church. "Seven" signifies what is holy, but in the opposite sense what is profane. "In a palace they grew up," "in the channel of the deep:" they had been gifted originally with profound perceptions of interior wisdom. But afterwards their "channels of the deep" became the deepest of all hells, "the caverns of the mountains." There is with them nothing of the conjugial: "male they are not, female they are not." In the light of heaven they appear "like charred skeletons and are therefore spoken of in the neuter gender," and as they do not appear in the human form "they are called it, that is, non-man" (S. D. 5950; A. E. 375). They are called "throne-bearers of the gods," because this was the regular Chaldean synonym for black storm-clouds, and by these are signified doubt, denial and spiritual destruction. "Unto Ea they are hostile." Ea, or Hea, was the supreme and most ancient of the Babylonian gods, and his name is identical with the name Jehovah.

     We come now to the Assyro-Chaldean account of the Flood, a document which is the most important of all that have hitherto been discovered in the Tigris-Euphrates valleys. It is written in Cuneiform characters, and in the Assyrian language, a tongue closely related to the Hebrew, but it is known to be a translation, made at the command of Assurhanipal, from a far more ancient Babylonian text, written in a kind of hieroglyphic characters, and in the Hamitic tongue of the Sumero-Akkadians.

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The Assyrian text is fragmentary, the clay-tablets on which it was written having been broken into hundreds of pieces which have been fitted together with infinite care by the scholars of the British Museum. The translation is one made by the present writer under the supervision of Prof. Hilprecht.

     The Assyrian story of the Flood is found in the eleventh tablet of the "Izdubar" series. The name of the hero of the story has been deciphered as "Izdubar," but it is not at all certain that this is his real name. He is introduced as wandering about in the spiritual world, where, to his great surprise, he meets in perfect human form his old friend, "Shamas-napishtim," a name which is also conjectural, not yet having been satisfactorily deciphered. The following conversation now takes place between them:

     [FIRST COLUMN.]

     Izdubar to him spoke, to Shamashnapishtim, afar off: "I see thee, O Shamashnapishtim.

     Thy figure has not changed; as I art thou. And as thou thyself hast not changed, as I art thou.

     How didst thou betake thyself, and in the assembly of the gods, how didst thou find life?"

     Shamashnapishtim to him spoke, to Izdubar:

     "I will reveal to thee, O Izdubar, the story of my salvation,

     And the Oracle of the gods, to thee I will tell it.

     The city Shurippak, the city which thou knowest oft on the banks of the Euphrates it is situated.

     This city was ancient, when the gods within it,

     To the sending of a Flood moved their hearts. The gods, the great,

     All of them; their father, Anu; their councillor, Bel;

     Their throne-bearer, Adar; their leader, Ennugi.

     The god of unfathomable wisdom, Ea, was speaking with them.

     Their counsel he made known to the land: 'Land, land; Field, field!

     Land, hearken! Field, listen!

     O Surippakite, son of Ubaratutu [?]

     Destroy the house, build a ship, leave your habitation, look out for your life!

     The seed of life will be destroyed, but thou, cause thou to live!

     Cause to go up the seed of life, all of it, to the midst of the ship.

     The ship which thou shalt build, . . . cubits shall be the length of her measure;....cubits shall be the proportion of her width and her height.

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     Against the ocean thou shalt cover it with a deck.

     I knew, and spoke to Ea, my Lord: 'That which thou, my Lord, commandest, thus, when I shall make it, the people and the elders shall laugh at me.'

     Ea his mouth opened and said, speaking to me, his servant:

     'Thus shalt thou speak to them: Against me, Bel, ye have revolted.

     ....On the ocean, with La, my Lord, I shall be sitting.

     Upon you he will cause to rain evil, and will make you the food of fishes. . . . In the night he will cause misfortune to rain from the face of heaven.

     Enter through the door of the ship and bring

     Into its midst thy store of grain, thy goods and possessions,

     Thy family, thy servants, and maids, and relations;

     The beast of the field, the wild beast of the field, all I will gather,

     And send to thee, and they shall be enclosed within thy door.' "

     Compare with this document of hoary antiquity the still more ancient words of the Sacred Text: "I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the faces of the earth.... And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms thou shalt make in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And thus thou shalt make it: the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window thou shalt make to the ark, and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die. But with thee I will establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every kind shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep alive with thee. . . . And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them." (Genesis vi:7-21.)

     We will now resume the Assyro-Chaldean narrative.

     [SECOND COLUMN.]

     ".... my needed things I brought.

     In the fifth day I laid the keel.

     Fourteen cubits high were its walls.

     Fourteen cubits broad was its roof.

     I placed its walls; I enclosed it.

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     I rode in it on the sixth day; I examined its exterior on the seventh day.

     Its midst I divided into nine; vessels for water within it I cut.

     I looked out for rents, and the needed parts I added.

     Three measures of Pitch I poured out upon the outside; three measures of Pitch I poured upon the inside.

     Three men carrying vessels which contained oil, . . . oil which they ate and used for libation;

     Two measures of oil I distributed to the boatmen.

     To the great gods I sacrificed oxen and lambs daily;

     Honey, must, oil, and wine I poured out without measure, as the measure of a flood, as the dust of the earth.

     ....Shamash, the great, was pleased that the ship was completed.

     ....the oars of the ship I caused to bring above and below.

     ....two-thirds of it, whatever I had gathered, whatever I had of silver I gathered it, whatever I had of gold,

     Whatever I had, the strength of it, the seed of life, all of it,

     I caused to go up into the ship, all my family and property,

     The cattle of the field, the animals of the field, the sons of the people, all of them, I brought up.

     A stated time Shamash had fixed.

     A voice spake: 'In the night I will cause the heavens to rain misfortune.

     Enter into the midst of the ship, and close thy door.'

     The fixed time drew near; the fixed command grew stronger.

     ....'In the night I will cause the heavens to rain calamity.'

     I looked out upon the faces of the day. In that day I had fear to go to sea.

     I entered into the midst of the ship and closed my door, in order to close the ship.

     To Buxursadirabu, the pilot, the great building I delivered.

     The raging of a storm in the morning arose, from the horizon of the sky, black clouds.

     Rammanu thundered in the midst of it. Nebo and Sheru broke forth against one another.

     The throne-bearers went forth over mountains and plains.

     The mighty god of the pestilence let loose the whirlwinds.

     Adar continually made the canals to overflow.

     The Annunaki brought destruction.

     They made the earth tremble at their power.

     Rammanu's mild flood roared up against heaven.

     All light was drowned in darkness."

     For a just appreciation of the above, as well as of what is yet to follow, we must ask our readers to persue the whole story of the Flood as given in the seventh and eighth chapters of Genesis.

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     [THE REVERSE.]

     "The face of the earth like a devastation it swept.

     It destroyed all life from the face of the earth.

     The strong deluge over the people reached to heaven.

     Brother looked no more for brother, men care no more for one another. In Heaven

     the gods feared the tempest and sought refuge. They ascended to the heaven of Anu.

     As a dog in his kennel, so the gods crouched at the gate of heaven.

     Ishtar cried as one in labor; the bright goddess cried with a loud voice.

     ..............................................................................
Six days and seven nights the wind, the flood and the storm continued in power.

     At the beginning of the seventh day the storm abated, the flood which had fought a battle like a mighty army became peaceful.

     The sea fell, and the storm and the flood ceased.

     I sailed through the sea lamenting that the dwellings of mankind had been turned into slime.

     Like tree-trunks the bodies floated about.

     I opened the window, and as the day-light fell upon my face,

     I trembled and sat down weeping. Tears flowed over my face.

     I sailed through the landscape, now a terrible sea.

     Then appeared a land, twelve measures high.

     To the land Nizir [Armenia] the ship I steered.

     The mountain of the land Nizir held the ship fast, and let it not loose.

     Six days the mount Nizir held the ship fast. At the break of the seventh day

     I took a dove and let her fly out.

     The dove flew hither and thither, but when there was no resting place for her, she flew back to me.

     Then I let loose a swallow and let her fly.

     The swallow flew hither and thither, but when there was no resting place for her she returned to me.

     Then I put forth a raven and let him fly.

     The raven flew hither and thither, and when he saw that the waters were fallen . . . he did not return.

     Then I sent all the beasts in the ship to the four winds. I offered a libation.

     I erected an altar on the top of the mountain."

     The story of the Flood, in its internal sense, describes the vastation of the Most Ancient Church, and also the temptations of the Ancient Church at its beginning. Hence in the Biblical account it is said that the Flood lasted "forty days," the number forty always signifying temptations.

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In the Assyrian narrative the Flood lasted six days, and by "six" is signified combat. In the internal sense the two stories present a greater agreement than appears in the letter, though here also the harmony is most remarkable. In the Word we read that "the ark rested in the seventh month." In the Assyrian story the flood abated at "the beginning of the seventh day."

     But there are also many features of dissimilitude. In the Assyrian account, for instance, we are told that Shamashnapishtim, or Noah, expressed the fear that the people would laugh at him, when building the vessel,--a statement which is absent from the Biblical story. It is remarkable, however, to find the same feature in the Arabic legend of Noah, as told in the Koran, where, in the chapter entitled "Hud," we read that, "Whilst Noah was building his ark, all those who passed by mocked him; but he said to them: Though you rail at me now, the time will come when I shall rail at you; for you will learn to your cost who it is that punishes the wicked in this world and reserves for them a further punishment in the world to come."

     Another remarkable difference between the two stories is in the account of the birds that were sent out of the Ark. In the Word it is the raven that is sent out first, by which is signified, in the internal sense, "that falsities still occasioned disturbance" (A. C. 864), as they naturally would at the beginning of the Church. In the Assyrian story the raven flies out last, which shows that this text is a later and corrupted version, because in this particular not in harmony with the internal sense. Thus it is by the internal sense, which is also the rational sense, that we are able to judge the relative antiquity and authenticity of these ancient documents, in their relation to the original and inspired Word of the Ancient Church. The "higher critics" do not possess this, the only infallible touch-stone of criticism, and so, in their blindly negative spirit, they at once jump at the conclusion that the Hebrew documents are corrupted versions of the Assyro-Chaldean texts.

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LAST JUDGMENT 1904

LAST JUDGMENT              1904

     [MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG.] THE QUAKERS.

     58. When other spirits wish to search out what they think, they conceal their thoughts in a certain manner, saying that it is enough that they do no evil to anyone, nor openly speak ill of him. But it was said to them, that not to speak evil of anyone is a good in earthly society, but to think ill of others does harm to societies of the other life, because, there, ideas of thought are communicated. They do not want to be instructed in doctrinals; they answer, I do not understand this; what is it? They confirmed themselves by the statement that they have been, and are now, taught by the Holy Spirit. They offer the most stubborn resistance to the promulgation of any of their mysteries. Spirits who are with Quakers, who think them to be the holy spirit, are they who had been of that sect in the world. After death, Quakers at first flock to these spirits, who inspire into them this, that they should make nothing known; wherefore they live separated; they are filthy spirits. There are Quaker spirits who, from the worship offered them by Quakers in the world, believe themselves to be the holy spirit, and to have existed from eternity; but in process of time they come among the profane who are called stercoraceous spirits and....abominable excrement.* A detestable communion of certain wives was disclosed; at such times they look for an influx from the holy spirit, with a perception of leave,--that it is allowable. Their holy secret worship consists of such things, by which also there is a communication of holiness.

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At this day they do not have the trembling and the utter quaking they formerly had** but only a quaking at the left side of the body and of the face. When they say, It is commanded by the holy spirit, no one makes any objection to adulteries and whoredoms. I have spoken with their founder*** who said that he had never done such things, nor thought of them. It was seen that Quaker spirits live in thick woods like wild swine,**** phantasies. There were also seen those who believed that they were born holy, although they were born from the adultery of Quakers. Of one, who was such, the others said that he alone drinks the red wine in heaven, which they call the heavenly wine; but he appeared like an abominable man, and he became black, and appeared to the angels like the mucous of the nose. Such spirits, dissociated from others, sit in their places for ages like the bark of trees and the dregs of oil. After these ages they retain little of life, and they serve societies for a vile connection.***** I have spoken with Penn, who protested that he had not been of such a character, and that, for himself, he claims no part in such things. It was said that the first of them were enthusiastic spirits, who are of such a character that they wish to obsess man. They who, from the dullness of their understanding, wish to be called the holy spirit, are more corporeal as it were than the others. They say, that not only do they speak from the holy spirit, but they also eat with the holy spirit, and that, with some, the spirit is poured into their choice foods.
* In the manuscript, this passage, beginning "There are Quaker spirits," is written in the margin and was not printed in Dr. Tafel's edition of De Ultimo Judicio. The Latin is as follows: "Sunt spiritus quaqueriani qui ex cultu a quaqueriis in mundo se credunt spiritunl sanctum esse, et ah aeterno fuisse, sed successu temporis veniunt inter prophanos, clui vocantur spiritus stercorei et excrementum abominabile." The blank space indicates a word which the present: translator is unable to decipher. He would welcome any suggestions as to the correct reading. See Photo. MSS. Vol. VIII, p. 49.--TR.
** It is probable that this "trembling and quaking" gave rise to the popular name by which the followers of Fox are generally known. The effect which the preaching of Fox and his co-workers had on the bodies of their hearers was remarkable; whole multitudes would be seized with trembling and shaking, and sometimes men and women would fall down and lie grovelling on the ground, writhing and struggling as if for life itself.--TR.
*** The founder of the sect of Quakers was George Fox (1624-1690), the son of a weaver. From his early years he manifested a religious disposition, and at the age of 21 he had his first "opening," i. e., oral revelation. This led him to leave home, and for four years he wandered about from place to place in England. 'Towards the close of the year 1647, inspired by further revelations, he commenced the work of itinerant preaching and soon had many followers. He also made converts in Holland, Germany and America.--TR.
**** The Latin is sues terrestres, probably a slip for sues sylvestres.--Tr.
**** This is more fully explained in S. D., 3811-3812, Where it is said that, after these spirits have sat in this way for a long time, their externals become dead and they then act very little from themselves. "They can indeed he among societies but can scarcely be aware of the fact. They are, as to their propria, as it were inanimate subjects inserving societies for connections, or for insertions for the sake of connections; as is the case with certain words in speech which serve merely for the sake of connection while they add little to the subject matter.... Whether these spirits can also inserve as subjects through which others speak, while they at the time do not know that they are themselves, but think that they are the others,.... I do not yet know for certain. But it would appear so, for they know almost nothing about themselves."--TR.

     
     THE SAINTS OF THE PAPISTS.

     59. Papists, especially monks, when they come into the other life, seek the saints, each one the saint of his own order; the Jesuits do likewise. They also find them, but, when they speak with them, they do not find more of holiness with them than with others. On being questioned they say that they have no more power than others, and that they who have not worshiped the Lord but only the Father, are powerless to do anything; and that they are among the vile whom their associates despise. Some of them know that they have been made saints, and when, because of this, they become haughty, they are derided by their fellows; some do not know it. Most of them are in the lower earth; and in the hells are those who aspired after holiness while in the world, because they did this from the insane love, that they wished to be invoked and worshiped as gods, and this love profanes every holy thing of heaven. But, still, monks, and especially Jesuits, conceal the fate of these saints, and, for the sake of a bond and obedience, feign before the common people that they are saints, although in their own hearts they laugh at them.

     60. I heard the pope who lived in the year 1738,* adoring the Lord,--for he had receded from the Babylonish error, and had renounced all power over souls and over heaven, and become a Christian.

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He told me that he had spoken with almost all, of both sexes, who had been made saints, and that, with the exception of two, he had seen none of them in heaven; and that those two abhorred invocation; and that many of them are not conscious of their own identity; and that some talk foolishly.
* This was Clement XII., who was pope from 1730-1740. During his last years he was afflicted with blindness. He exercised the office of pope for some time in the world of spirits, but after the Last Judgment he renounced it and betook himself among Christians. See 102; C. J., 59; S. D. 5272.--TR.

     61. St. Genevieve.* She sometimes appears to the Parisians in a middle altitude, in a splendid garment; and she then appears with a face as it were holy, and presents herself to be seen by many. But when some begin to adore her, her face is instantly changed, and also her garment, and she becomes like any other woman. And she chides them, and rebukes their folly in wishing to worship a woman whose lot is no different than the lot of ordinary women, and [says] that, among her companions, she is held in no higher estimation than other women. And she chides them until they are ashamed, she wondering that men in the world are captivated by such vanities, and adding that she had appeared such to them in the beginning, for the reason that they might know what these delirious notions were. I have heard angels saying that she sometimes so appears for the sake of the separation of worshipers of men from worshipers of God. She also teaches them that she knows not a whit more than others, and that, of invocation, she knows nothing whatever.
* Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, was born near that city in 422 and died in 512. Removing to Paris at an early age she took the vows of chastity and was held in high repute on account of her benevolence and austere sanctity. When Paris feared invasion from Attila she is said to have assembled the consecrated virgins of the city and to have predicted that the invader would turn aside. The truth of this prediction added much to her reputation;-TR.

     62. She also says that she is not among the better sort, and that whoever wishes to become greater than others becomes meaner than others; and that being canonized is an injury to most men, because when they hear of it, then, from their hereditary evil, they begin to be puffed up in heart; and they are removed, in order that they may be wholly ignorant as to who they were in the world.*
* In the manuscript, this paragraph is written in the margin.--TR

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     63. Agnes* dwells in a room with her virgin companions, and whenever she is called forth by any worshiper, she goes out and asks what they want with a shepherd girl who, in herself, is of low estate, and is together with others in their work. And then her companions come out, and she chides her worshipers even to shame; and they become ashamed and desist from such practices. She is also guarded, lest pride should enter into her. But now she has been led elsewhere, nor is she any longer found at the right among upright women, in whose society she is not tolerated unless she answers** that she is filthy.
* St. Agnes was born of wealthy parents in Rome about 291 A. D. At the age of twelve, she refused the hand of a son of one of the praetors, and, becoming a Christian, took the vow of chastity. For this she was condemned to a fate worse than death. But after successfully resisting the men who approached her,--whom she is said to have struck with blindness,--she was finally put to death in A. D. 303 or 304-TR.
** I. E., answers those who would worship her. See S. D. Min. 4572.--TR.

     64. The saints adored in the world are of three kinds. Some hold the worship in aversion; these are guarded by angels. Some repudiate it with their lips, but still in their heart they cherish the desire to be worshiped. Some accept the worship; but these are profane, miserable, and foolish.

     65. Anthony of Padua* appeared to me in front, a little below, at the plane of the foot. He appeared in a dark garment; and I spoke with him as to whether he thought himself a saint. At first he answered that he was anything but a saint, but still it was perceived that he retained the haughty spirit, that he wished to be one; on which account I spoke more harshly with him. When anyone comes to him, he is led to say that he can introduce no one into heaven, and that he knows nothing at all about invocation; that this is false. When they ask him what heaven is, whether it is the Lord, and whether it is love from Him and to Him, and mutual love, he does not know. Therefore other spirits make sport of him, from whom he wishes to betake himself but cannot. Interior cunning was noticed in him.

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By secret means he aims to be worshiped, but he is afraid, for he is then thrust down into lower regions where he suffers grievous things, He can, by art, bind the ideas of thought of other spirits. He has conjunction with the Jesuits who appear in white.**
* Anthony, the patron saint of Padua, was born in Lisbon, A. D. 1195. At the age of 25 he became a Franciscan monk and the leader against a movement looking to the mitigation of the rigorous severity of the Order. Many miracles are attributed to him. He died in 1231, and was canonized in the following year. It is stated that before his death he left proofs of his holiness with friends, whom he promised to aid, if they should procure his canonization. See S. D. Min. 4565--TR
** The "Jesuits in white" are Jesuits who, in the world, had wished to obtain everything by means of prayer, in order that they might thus command others. They were seen by Swedenborg standing in a line with books in their hands from which they were reading. See S. D. in. 4573-TR.

     66. Francis Xavier* dwells deep down under the buttocks. He was a subtle magician operating by means of conjugial love and innocence, thus clandestinely.
* Francis Xavier, a noble of Navarre, was born in 1506. He studied at the university of Paris, and, while there, In 1528, he became intimately acquainted with Loyola, under whose influence he formed one of that little band of seven who, in 1534, took the first Jesuit vows. He is therefore called "the second father of the Jesuits" (S. D. Min. 4570). In 1 541 he was selected as the first missionary to the Portuguese possessions in India, receiving at the same time an appointment as papal nuncio. Burdened by ill health, and often amidst the vilest surroundings, he labored assiduously for many years in the East Indies, Ceylon and Japan, dying in 1552 while on a voyage to convert the Chinese. He was an eminently successful missionary and during his ten years in the east he established no fewer than 140 congregations.-TR.

     67. Ignatius* was in front above. He was a good spirit. He said that he held in aversion his being made a saint, making himself out to be filthy. He detested the making of saints. He knew about the Jesuits, calling them atheists, and saying that he shunned them.
* Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), the celebrated founder of the Society of Jesus, was a Spanish nobleman whose early years were passed in court and military life. At the age of 29, while recovering from a wound, his attention was turned to religion, to which he thenceforth devoted his whole life. His leading thought was to make an army in the church, and this he succeeded in initiating in 1534 when he formed his Society of Jesus.--TR.

     68. The Virgin Mary. Mary the mother of the Lord was seen. She appeared at one side, in a snow white garment, as though she would merely pass by, and, then, stopping for a little while, she said that she had been the mother of the Lord; that He was indeed born of her, but that He became God and put off all the maternal human; and that she therefore now adores Him as her God; and that she is unwilling that anyone should acknowledge Him as her son, because in Him all is divine.

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AFFIRMATION 1904

AFFIRMATION              1904

     "A truth limply or doubtfully held has no power. Even the glorious truth of the New Church, revealed out of heaven as it is, based firmly in the Divine Word of God as it is, opening the spiritual sense of that Word as it does, lacks power if held uncertainly, as something which may be true, as something which one would fain believe yet refrains from giving it practical place in the ordering of his life, because of some doubt, or because of some fearfulness lest he should be mistaken.

     "How different the state of him who makes distinct affirmation of his belief in the truths of the New Church. He affirms that there is one God and the Lord Jesus Christ is He. He affirms that as the Lord came the first time to redeem men, so He has come the second time to set the minds of men free by judgment accomplished in the spiritual world, and to reveal to them means for rational thought as regards things spiritual and Divine, and from these upon all things of the natural life. He affirms that such a revelation is comprised in the theological writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, and in the Word understood in the light of those doctrines." (W. H. Alden, in New Church Messenger, Feb. 24.)

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Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

     THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING WHO THE LORD IS.

     PRESIDENT PATTON, of the Theological School at Princeton, says in a recent speech, "It is a great deal more important to know who Christ is, than what He says, because the value of the sayings depends on who He is." This was said in protest against the main principle of the so-called "New Theology," which contends that it does not matter what we believe in respect to Christ, so long as we accept "Christ's ethics." But President Patton points oat that "Christianity has to be more than ethical, in order to be even ethical," or, as a New Churchman would put it, Christianity must be Divine and spiritual, in order to be even moral.

     There is a similar contention in the New Church as to the character of the Writings, and there are many who deprecate the discussion as to whether or not they are the Word of God. It is a mere war of words, they say; it does not matter what the Writings are, so long as their general principles are accepted. But it is clear that the Lord cannot he accepted either in His First or His Second Coming, unless He is accepted such as He is, as God and not as a mere man. He is God, therefore His Doctrine is Divine.

     Nevertheless, President Patton's statement leaves much to be desired, for it is manifestly impossible to know "who Christ is" except by "what He says." The Old Church cannot realize that the teaching of Christ is Christ Himself, even as the New Church in general does not realize that the Doctrine of the Lord in His Second Coming is the Lord Himself.
QUESTIONS AS TO THE WRITINGS 1904

QUESTIONS AS TO THE WRITINGS              1904

     A correspondent in Mauritius writes: "It appears to me that inasmuch as the Writings reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, it is not contrary to the truth to say that they are the Word as to its internal sense. All the power of the New Church Doctrines arises from the fact that they are Divine, coming from the Lord." But still our correspondent holds that "if the Life and the leaders of the General Church of the New Jerusalem maintain that Swedenborg wrote a new Bible, they are in error. Besides. I cannot explain how it can be that Writings which Swedenborg never published, and as to which there is no proof that they were meant to be published, can have the same authority as those which he did publish."

     The Life has never maintained that the Writings are "a new Bible." To do so would be to introduce confusion, inasmuch as the name "Bible" is applicable only to the Old and New Testaments.

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Swedenborg did not write a new "Old and New Testament," but was called by the Lord to reveal the real meaning of both. What we maintain is, that the Writings of the New Church stand in the same relation to the Bible as the New Testament stands in relation to the Old: each successive revelation being the unfolding and fulfillment of the one preceding. And in that sense the Writings may well be called the Third and last Testament, or Testimony, of the one eternal Truth which is the Word. In each Testament the veil of the Letter is less heavy,--in each the inspiration resides less and less in the mere external expressions; in each the Divine Truth shines out more clearly, more convincingly, to the rational mind.

     As to the posthumous Writings, there is but one test of their authority. Is the Doctrine of the works which Swedenborg wrote but did not publish the same as the Doctrine of the works which he did publish? Every reader knows that the Doctrine is one and the same. Why not then of the same Divine authority?
NEED OF A NEW SONG BOOK 1904

NEED OF A NEW SONG BOOK              1904

     Our enterprising and warm-hearted friends in Glenview and Chicago have issued a circular announcing their intention to publish a "Secular Song Book" for use in the social life of the General Church, and they make an appeal to all interested friends to assist in this undertaking by writing out any suitable songs known to them, giving the music or stating the air usually sung to the words,--or, better still, by composing new songs, and communicating these to Mr. W. H. Junge, of Glenview, or to the Rev. W. B. Caldwell, of Chicago.

     The undertaking deserves hearty and general co-operation. The Academy movement, from its first beginning, has been distinguished by the development of a new social life in the Church, in which the love of the cause, and the love for those who love the cause, found expression in new songs. In the beginning some of these songs were of a more or less private character, not intended for general publication. (But some years ago, while visiting Boston. we were rather surprised when a New England minister showed us photographic copies of some of the old Academy songs; they had been reproduced and circulated as damning evidence of the "utter utterness" of the Academy.)

     As the Church increased the songs assumed a more distinctly religious and public character, without, however, losing the glow and sparkle of the early days. These songs were collected by Mr. Alfred Stroh, and were published without music, by the Academy Book Room; the little volume has seen two editions, both of which are now exhausted. The songs of the General Church are now being sung at festive gatherings in societies beyond the borders of our own Church, and there seems to be a demand for a Song Book of a more general and inclusive character, with musical notes. We need a new Song Book for the coming General Assembly, but we need also new songs.

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GREAT AND LESSER TARTARY 1904

GREAT AND LESSER TARTARY              1904

     A CORRESPONDENT in the January issue of the Life calls in question the identity of Manchuria with the "Tartaria Minor" spoken of in the Spiritual Diary. Acting upon his suggestion, we have examined several old maps of Asia, published during Swedenborg's life-time. One of these we found in the library of the Academy of the New Church, in an old volume, entitled Histoire Genealogique des Tartars, published at Leyden by Abram Kallervier in the year 1726. Here we find "Magna Tartaria" printed across the whole region of Central Asia, including Russian Turkestan, Chinese Turkestan, the Desert of Gobi, Mongolia and Manchuria. There is no trace of any "Tartaria Minor," but to our surprise we found the legend "Petite Tartarie" printed across the whole southern coast of Russia, from the Dniester to the Don, including also Crimea. This continued as the current geographical designation during the greater part of the eighteenth century, as is evident from the following entry in Diderot's and D'Alembert's Encyclopedie on Dictionaire Raissonne de Science (Geneva, 1779): "La Petite Tartarie est une province tributaire de la Turquie, et qui est situee au Nord du Pont-Euxin; elle est habituee par divers Tartares. On I'a nommee Petite Tartarie pour la distinguer de la Gorand Tartarie en Asie."

     It is evident that this "Petite Tartarie" is not the "Tartaria Minor" to which Swedenborg refers in S. D. 6077, for the region which is there described is said to be "near China," and in the parallel passage in the posthumous work On the Last Judgment we are told that the same region is "outside the Chinese wall,"--that is, a distance of some seven thousand miles from the Crimea and Southern Russia.

     There is, however, a second map in the Histoire Genealogique, showing Northern Asia as it was at the time of "Zingis-Chan," where we find the word "Tatars" printed across Mongolia and Manchuria, this region being the original ancestral home of all the Tartars, and thus it may be called "Tartary" in an especial and restricted sense. In another map, published at Leyden in 1739, we find Turkestan called "Tartarie Independent," while Mongolia and Manchuria are called "Tartarie Chinois." It is undoubtedly this Chinese Tartary which Swedenborg designates as "Tartaria Minor" in the passages in question.

     For the sake of further identification we will present here, in full, all the passages in the Writings, referring to both Great and Lesser Tartary.

     Taking first the briefer references, we learn that the Ancient Church was propagated "through all Asia . . . and in the course of time came into Great Tartary, and thence back again even to the Black Sea," and that the Ancient Word "by the Divine Providence of the Lord is still preserved in Great Tartary, and that their Divine worship is even to this day from it." (Coronis 33.) And the "angel conductor" who guided Swedenborg while visiting the heaven of the Brazen Age, told him that the Ancient Word "is at this day lost in the kingdoms of Asia, and is preserved only in Great Tartary" (C. L. 77): "it is still with the nations (Gentes), in Great Tartary" (T. C. R. 266).

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Swedenborg speaks also of "spirits from the regions of the Northern part of Asia," as able to receive the Heavenly Doctrines. (S. D. 4779.)

     We come now to the more extended references:

     "Respecting this Ancient Word, which was in Asia before the Israelitish Word, this news is worthy of being told,--that it is still preserved there among the peoples who dwell in Great Tartary. I have spoken with spirits and angels in the spiritual world, who were thence, and they said that they possessed a Word, and had possessed it from ancient times, and that they conduct their Divine worship according to that Word, and that it consists of nothing but correspondences. They said that there is in it the Book of Jashar, which is mentioned in Joshua and in the Second Book of Samuel; they said that they have also the Books called The Wars of Jehovah and the Prophetical [Enunciations], which are mentioned by Moses. And when I read in their presence the words which Moses took thence, they investigated whether these things were extant there, and they found them. From these things it was evident to me that the Ancient Word is still amongst them. While I was speaking with them they said that they worship Jehovah, some as an invisible God, some as a visible. They related further that foreigners are trot allowed to enter amongst them, except the Chinese, with whom they cultivate peace, because the Chinese Emperor is from thence. They said also that they are so populous that they do not believe there is any region in the whole world more populous,--a thing which, indeed, is credible on account of the wall of so many miles, which the Chinese in olden times erected in order to protect themselves against invasion from them. Seek for it [the Ancient Word], and perchance ye will find it there amongst the Tartars." (A. R. 11.)

     This passage is repeated, word for word, in the True Christian Religion, 279, with the added information that "the angels and spirits from Great Tartary appear in the southern region at the side of the East, and are separate from the others by this that they dwell in a more eminent expanse, and that they do not admit amongst them any one from the Christian world, and that ii any ascend, they guard them lest they go out. The reason of that separation is, that they possess another Word."

     As to "the inhabitants of Tartary near China--Tartaria Minor," me are told that "There were some thence with me; they came while I was sleeping. . . .They spoke about the country where they were, that it is populous, and that they do not know anything about war. They know about China and Siberia, and they said that amongst them he governs who is able to govern, and if he is not able, he is dismissed with fines; they do not offer him any honor except as a wise man who is able to tell them whether this or that is just. They said that all are occupied with their work at home, making garments, cultivating the earth, and similar things. They wondered, when they came, that they were asked by Christians whether God is man, because they believed that all knew this without any question whether it is so.

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In like manner in respect to the precepts of the Decalogue, as in respect to one only wife, whether they live thus, as if they did not know that every one lives thus, because the Lord thus wills, and so on. They said that they have houses where they are taught concerning life, and concerning the commandments of God.

     They said that they have a book, concerning which it is not known elsewhere that they have it; they called it a Divine Book, and they read it, and are instructed by it, and understand it. Inquiry was made, and it was [found to be] the Psalms of David. They said that strangers are indeed admitted, but they do not give them leave to go away; they give them the necessary food; ii one is willing to work, he is accepted. They also have the Decalogue. They call the Chinese their friends, because they are of their nation; they do not think about wars amongst them. They somewhat fear Siberia, but say that they have nothing, and that they would at once give themselves up to them if they were to come, but still all would go away with their goods, unknown to them." (S. D. 6077).

     The substance of this passage is repeated in the posthumous work On the Last Judgment, 133, where we are further told that these spirits were "from Tartary, where they dwell outside the Chinese wall," and that "they are of a tranquil mind."

     From a comparison of the passages respecting "Tartaria Minor" with those concerning "Great Tartary," it seems evident to us that both treat of the same region, viz., Manchuria, although in a very wide sense, and in different ways, they apply also to Tibet, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. The Manchus, however, seem to be the people which most closely answer to the description given in the two sets of passages, for they are the only "populous" nation living near China, "outside the Chinese wall," and at the same time cultivating friendly relations with the Chinese, "the Chinese Emperor being thence," and the whole governing class of China being of Manchu origin. We hope, in our next issue, to be able to substantiate this conclusion at greater length, and at the same time to show how fully the revelations of Swedenborg respecting this people have been confirmed by the observations of travelers in these regions, upon which the attention of the civilized world is now focused as never before.
CHRISTIAN WORLD AND THE GENTILES 1904

CHRISTIAN WORLD AND THE GENTILES              1904

     When a river is cut off from its source, what becomes of the river? Faith in the Lord and His Word produced Christianity, and Christianity is the mother of Modern Civilization. When the Lord is denied and His Word rejected, what must become of our modern Civilization?

     The effeteness, the decadence, the approaching disintegration of the Christian world are each year becoming more and more apparent to political economists and to students of the Philosophy of History. When we review the present state of the religious world, we see the bulwarks of the old orthodoxies crumbling before the assaults of two victorious forces: the "new Christianity" and the "higher Criticism."

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The one means the denial of the Divinity of Christ, cloaking itself under the sentimental and hypocritical admiration of the man Jesus. The other means the utter destruction of the Word of God in the Christian world. For many years we have been watching the triumphant progress of these two gigantic Satans, but we did not realize how complete was their victory until we read the following editorial utterances in the most recent number of the Bibliotheca Sacra, the most conservative magazine of Protestant orthodoxy in America:

     "In Christ we have the greatest religious genius," (January, 1904, p.186.)

     "Though the reality of God's revelation must be maintained with all force, the old theory of verbal inspiration cannot be held any more." (Ibid. p. 133)

     We may well regard these utterances as signifying that the old "Orthodoxy" has breathed its last in the Old Church. The long tragedy seems to have come to an end.

     Turning our eyes from inmosts to ultimates, we see there also the unmistakable signs of a vastated church, a dying civilization.

     Ever since we made an appeal to our readers, some time ago, for newspaper clippings on the subject of "Race Suicide," kind friends have supplied us with statistics and press-comments in such quantities as to fill a volume. The evidence thus collected from all parts of the world is simply appalling. The Christian world has finally waked up to the fact that it is doomed to extinction unless a speedy remedy be found. Appeals are made to patriotism; statesmen and writers are denouncing the overwhelming flood of selfishness which is destroying the white race, but all in vain. The love of infants cannot be restored without the restoration of love truly conjugial, and this, again, cannot he restored without a universal repentance and reception of the Lord in His Second Coming.

     Will the Christian world receive the Gospel of the New Church in time to prevent a general devastation? From all around we hear that the Doctrines of the New Church are "not wanted," that the New Church evangelist can find no hearers, the New Church books no purchasers in the world at large. Theologically and morally the Christian world is receding further away from the New Church, instead of approaching nearer towards it. A remnant will be saved, no doubt, but only a remnant, and only by means of New Church Education, distinct and thorough, beginning from infancy. Only thus can the evils and falses of the Old Church be torn up by the roots.

     But when we look beyond the borders of the Christian world, what do we see? New nations springing up as if by magic from fresh, gentile soil! The "yellow peril" has been worrying political economists for some years, and is now suddenly assuming most alarming proportions. We learn that the "Asiatic League," under the wise direction of "the elder statesmen" of Japan, has raised the cry of "Asia for the Asiatica."

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     This looks towards the fulfillment of the prophecy given through Swedenborg a hundred and fifty years ago. It means the awakening of the Gentiles out of their millennia of sleep, in preparation for greater things to come. The "little men" of the Yellow race are now busy in "spoiling the Egyptians;" they are appropriating the externals of Christian civilization with all its wonderful scientific development, while at the same time they firmly decline to receive the internal things of so-called Christianity,--its tritheism, its hypocritical missionary cant, its salvation by faith alone, its looting greediness and international as well as individual dishonesty and crookedness.

     For some three or four hundred years the Gentiles have been learning the painful lesson of contact with the Christians, who have come with the Bible in one hand and the murderous gun in the other. In this time they have learned that the Christians do not believe in their own Christ or in their own Bible, or even in the Decalogue which they are teaching in their mission schools, but which in diplomatic negotiations as well as in commercial and individual life they are daily and shamelessly disobeying. They have learned that the Christians as a general rule are liars, thieves, adulterers and murderers, seeking nothing but loot, concessions and "hinterland." But they have learned, also, the use of the "Christian" gun,--that acme of our gentle civilization, and they are now turning it against their preceptors with a suddenness and accuracy which may well strike terror into the hearts of the Christian nations.

     The hour of retribution seems to have come more swiftly than could have been foreseen,--"like a thief in the night." The fifty millions of Japanese stand ready to face Russia or any other nation. The four hundred millions of Chinese are beginning to arouse themselves, are beginning to accept the Japanese as their mentors rather than the "foreign devils" of Europe. The two hundred millions of Hindoos are also beginning to turn their eyes to the northeast. What if these teeming myriads some day join hand and make a united stand against the disunited and decrepit Christian world? This danger is now looming large upon the horizon.

     The members of the New Church are to some extent permitted to "peep behind the curtains" of future events as well as of past History. They know that the future belongs to the Gentiles. They know that in every past Dispensation the new church has been rejected by the nations among whom the old flourished and decayed, and that it has been received only by nations which before were in a gentile and barbarous state. What reason is there for supposing that now also History will not repeat itself in its universal features?

     To us the victorious Japanese Suns fired at Port Arthur sound like the first thunders of Judgment not only upon lying Russia, but also upon the more internally false and corrupt nations of Western Europe and America. Even if Japan were to be robbed of its victories by a "concert of the Powers," what is there to stop the internal decay of those very Powers? What is there to check the growing indifference to all things spiritual, the increasing inability of Christians to think rationally and intellectually?

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And what is there to prevent the white race from committing suicide?

     The Lord has held out His saving hand through the Doctrine of the New Church, but the hand is rejected, as it was rejected in the days of the Flood, in the days of Nineveh and Babylon, in the days of Herod and Caiaphas, in the days of imperial Rome. The victory of the Gentiles may be delayed, but can it ultimately be prevented?
Monthly Review. 1904

Monthly Review.              1904

     The German translation of Swedenborg's Adversaria, which has appeared for a number of years in small installments in the Neukirchenblatt, has now reached n. 3811. Would that some one of our English or American contemporaries would in a similar manner provide for the publication of an English version of this much-needed work!

     Professor Retzius' address on Emanuel Swedenborg as art Anatomist and Physiologist has been reprinted from New Church Life for November, 1903, and has been published in pamphlet form "under the auspices of the Swedenborg Scientific Association." It may be obtained at the price of ten cents from the Academy Book Room, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     Our Brazilian contemporary, A Nova Jerusalem, makes the following observation in its November issue: "A Nova Jerusalem no Brazil e muito amado pella Academia da Nova Egreja da America do Norte, guarda fiel da Doutrina genuina da Egreja do Senhor, e cujo ensino a Egreja no Brazil procura sempre seguir." We heartily endorse and reciprocate these sentiments.

     It is interesting to notice the following in the December number of the Brazilian New Church monthly, of which Senhor L. C. de La Fayette is the faithful and efficient editor: "'The New Jerusalem celebrates the 25th day of December as the first coming of the Lord, or the coming in the flesh; and it celebrates on the 19th day of June the second coming of the Lord, or the coming in the spirit, which is the establishment of His New Church by the revelation of the internal sense of the Word."

     According to Mr. A. L. Kip, in his new work entitled Animal and Plant Correspondences, the Banana tree corresponds to "the wisdom of generosity," and the Tulip tree to "the wisdom of oratory." There is something quite Oriental in the exuberant imaginativeness of this author, but of what possible use can such speculations be, in building up either the science of nature or a true knowledge of spiritual things?

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     Dr. Sewall, in a recent review of the new edition of the Economy of the Animal Kingdom, argues in favor of the "Soul Kingdom" as a more suitable rendering of "Regnum Animale." We doubt the advisability of such a change. Swedenborg, in his phssiological works, treats chiefly of the body, the animal part of man, in which the soul reigns as in her own subject-kingdom. The "Soul Kingdom" would be far more misleading than the old title, as it would suggest Psychology instead of Physiology.

     The New Church Messenger for January 27th is distinctly a "Swedenborg number." It is introduced by a sonnet on "Dante and Swedenborg" by Dr. Sewall. Then follows an editorial on the "Lesson of Swedenborg's House," a review of "Swedenborg's Resurrection in the scientific world abroad" by Dr. Sewall, with several other articles on Swedenborg, the whole closing with a reprint of a part of the "Visit to Swedenborg" from Odhner's brief biography of Swedenborg for the young.

     An emphatic friend in Renovo, Pa., writes: "I have carefully read the criticisms on the Life made at the Chicago Assembly, and I must say that the editors have my loyal support. They are making the Life just what it should be, just what the Doctrines demand, and if what is said touches any one's sentimentality, so much the worse for the sentiment. Sentiment never fought any battle, never did anything but whine when the real truth came in its way."

     The Rev. Frank Sewall, writing about the Urbana University in the Messenger for Feb. 10th, seeks to dispel "the fear of denominational narrowness and exclusiveness, and the consequent insufficiency of instruction and lack of broad culture." No such fear should be entertained in regard to Urbana, for "it should be understood clearly that the purpose of the New Church school as conceived at Urbana is not like that which seems to have animated the earlier church schools and the reports on religious education made from year to year in societies and conventions. The purpose is not to educate the youth of the Church apart from other youth, or to dissever its faculties of education from contact with others or even co-operate with them."

     We had supposed that this purpose of the Urbana University was quite well understood. The difficulty has been rather to discover any evidence of the New Church part of its education.

     Twelve Letters to my Son, by G. J. F., is the title of a volume issued last year by the Nunc Licet Press. The author is the Rev. G. J. Fercken, D. D., Ph. D., a missionary of the German Baptist Church, at present residing at Ain, France; he has been a receiver of the Heavenly Doctrines for many years, but writes that he has finally, through the reading of New Church Life, become convinced of the necessity of separating from the Old Church.

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In his Twelve Letters he addresses himself to those unacquainted with the teachings of the New Church concerning the Word, and he sets forth that teaching in a plain and straightforward manner, nor does he omit to mention the fact that the doctrine which he expounds is from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg A valuable feature of the book is the number of quotations from Jewish and Christian writers, especially from the Church Fathers, brought in to confirm the New Church teachings.

     We quote the following from au excellent editorial in a recent number of The Helper: "The coming of Jehovah to humanity is foretold in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New. In the revelation to the New Church, the Old and the New Testaments, which are the Word, are opened and explained. The essential of the revelation to the New Church is, that it is the opening of the spiritual sense of the foregoing revelations.

     "Thus the revelations to Israel, to the Christian, and to the New Church, stand together. The earlier revelations depend, for our understanding of them, upon the latter. The latter derives its doctrine from the earlier, and confirms it by them. In all of them is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ written. 'And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.'"

     The Federation of Religions by the Rev. Hiram Vrooman, (Nunc Licet Press, 75 cents), is a neat volume of 138 pages. Its publishers say of it: "Its initial object is to determine correct methods of thinking in spiritual matters. It is therefore largely a spiritual philosophy and will interest the vast thinking English world. One point it reaches heretofore untouched by any other writer which amounts to a discovery. He actually proves the existence of spiritual substance. . . . He brings chemistry into play with such fascinating and telling effect that it clears up the entire subject."

     We have room for but two short extracts from the book, but these will be enough to give an idea of its method.

     The chemical method of exploring heaven is this (p. 90): "By first knowing of chemical action in matter and then learning of the exact analogy that exists between matter and spirit, it will be possible to duplicate in the realm of mind all that is accomplished by chemistry in the world." How is one to learn of this exact analogy between matter and spirit? By revelation of the phenomena of the spiritual world? Nothing is said of this method. No! but having the facts of chemistry, one is to postulate certain analogies of the mental or spiritual realm and thus learn de novo all he desires to know. By the same method one who wishes to know about the moon should learn facts about the earth and then postulate "exact analogies" concerning the moon.

     The author "proves the existence of spiritual substance" by taking, "at random," hope as a spiritual substance. He finds that certain things can be predicated of hope as positively as of a stone, and he therefore concludes that hope is a spiritual substance.

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Now any intelligent person knows that hope is no more substance than light and heat are substances. Light and heat are activities of natural substance, hope is an activity of spiritual substance, or of the mind. But no thoughtful reader can be harmed by Mr. Vrooman's "philosophy." W. L. G.

     The Neukirchenblatt for January contains a lengthy and vigorous exposure of the doctrinal position of the Rev. Adolph Roeder, that wandering star among the galaxy of New Church writers. Though a minister of the General Convention, Mr. Roeder has done all in his power to hinder and destroy the work of the Rev. Fedor Goerwitz, the accredited missionary and general pastor of the General Convention in Central Europe. As editor of the Bote he continually opposed Mr. Goerwitz, and devoted his by no means small abilities to the dissemination of the spiritistic and anti-Christian abominations of Albert Artope, thus assisting in the devastation of the New Church in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. When, finally, Mr. Roeder was forced to abandon the cause of Artope,--(the atheist free-lover. and suicide),--he did so unwillingly, declaring, editorially, "not that I believe that it makes any difference whether we believe that the Lord was born on this earth or not." but because the cause of Artope "no longer appeals to our subscribers."

     And now the same writer is again making mischief among our sorely tried German brethren, by aiding and abetting the spiritistic insanities and blasphemies of Adalbert Jantschowitsch and the "Christian New Theosophists," whom we have described in the November issue of the Life. He writes as follows in a letter published in an appendix to the abusive pamphlet of Mr. Jantschowitsch:

     "I believe, of course, that Jantschowitsch is in the right, and that Goerwitz represents a tendency in the New Church which gives great pain to all of us.... I shall see to it that every one in America, who knows anything about this case, shall receive a copy of your tract, No. 52. I really am not sorry that Jantschowitsch has answered Goerwitz; on the contrary, it gives me pleasure that people will have the chance to see that there are other views than these doll-like, pompous, ecclesiastical ones,"-with more to the same effect.

     When it is known that Mr. Roeder is president of the "German Synod," controls the Rote der Neuen Kircke and the "New Church Educational Association," of Newark, N. J., is assistant editor of The New Christianity, and by his wordy and superficial articles in nearly all the New Church journals in England and America spreads his notions far and wide among the more light-minded in the Church,--it will be seen that the Neukirchenblatt has performed a real service, long delayed, by speaking out in no uncertain tones.

     Mr. Roeder is now making direct appeals for financial contributions to his widespread missionary propaganda, in which he sows the good seed with one hand and tares with the other.

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We have recently received one of his circulars, requesting contributions, and many of our readers may also hare been approached. To aid his enterprise is to aid that which is destructive to the New Church.
NEW PUBLICATION 1904

NEW PUBLICATION              1904

     The Academy of the New Church has just published a work entitled Laws of Order for the Preservation of the Conjugial, by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner, with an Introduction by Bishop Pendleton. The book is in the nature of an extended review of the Resolution and Report adopted by the Ministers of the General Convention at their meeting in Chicago, in June, 1903, on the subject of "Fornication and Concubinage," and it presents at length what has been termed "the Academy doctrine" on this subject, but which is simply the plain Doctrine of the New Church, and nothing else.

     The book is prefaced by a literal translation of the three chapters in the work on Conjugial Love which treat concerning the Opposition of Conjugial Love and Scortatory Love, concerning Fornication, and concerning Concubinage. Then follows the work itself, which is divided into eight chapters. The first of these presents an historical sketch of the controversy in the New Church on the subject of the above-mentioned three chapters in Conjugial Love, from the time of Robert Hindmarsh down to the meeting of the Ministers of the General Convention in 1903. The second chapter consists of the "Resolution and Report" which were adopted at that meeting, the "Inconsistencies" of which are exhibited in the third chapter. Then, in the fourth and fifth chapters it is shown that the laws revealed in Conjugial Love respecting Fornication and Concubinage are "Laws of Order," and that they are meant for such members of the New Church as come under these laws. The sixth chapter deals with the "evil" of Fornication and Concubinage. The seventh shows the "Inefficiency of Faith alone" as a substitute for the teachings of the Heavenly Doctrine, and the eighth chapter treats of "Purity in the New Church."

     The work, which is well printed and bound, may be obtained from the Academy Book Room or its agents at the price of sixty cents, postage included.

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FOURTH ONTARIO ASSEMBLY 1904

FOURTH ONTARIO ASSEMBLY       F. E. WAELCHLI       1904

     The Fourth Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was held in Parkdale (Toronto), on Thursday, December 31, 1903, and Friday, January 1, 1904.

     There were present sixty-nine members of the General Church, of whom thirty-three were from Toronto, twenty-one from Berlin, four from Randolph, two from Cross Hill, one from West Montrose, five from Bryn Athyn, and four from Chicago. There were also present thirty-two visitors and young people, of whom twenty-seven were from Toronto, three from Berlin, one from Randolph, and one from St. Thomas. Total attendance, one hundred and one.

     Among those present from Bryn Athyn and Chicago were several members of the Executive Committee of the General Church, which held its quarterly meeting during the mornings of the two days of the Assembly.

     The first session, on Thursday afternoon, held in Mrs. Hyatt's parlor, was opened by Bishop Pendleton with religious services and an address on "The Duties of the Members of the Church."

     The Minutes of the last Assembly were read and approved.

     DISCUSSION OF THE BISHOP'S ADDRESS.

     On motion, the Bishop's Address was taken up for consideration.

     Mr. Hugh Burnham: Each of us will probably admit in regard to himself that he does not do his whole duty. We must seek to do it more fully and also initiate the young into doing it. In every Society there are duties which young people can perform; and it is noticeable that those who are willing to do them, even though they be menial duties, become in time the active workers. Work for the Church awakens affection for the Church. In seeking to do our duty in the matter of financial support, we need to realize the value of small contributions

     Mr. Rudolf Roschman: It is not so much the amount of a contribution, as the spirit in which it is given, that is of value. We should feel more fully the benefit we derive from giving to the Church. If we give from affection, the external act will be a delight and will strengthen the affection.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson: Where duty and inclination point the same way, the doing of one's duty is easy. But the test comes when the duty is presented, and the inclination is opposed to it. Then arises the question whether we shall go forward or back. We cannot do our whole duty without self-denial.

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli: The most essential duties are those spoken of in the paper as internal. Unless these are performed the Church cannot endure, however well the external may be done.

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A Church, and the individual member of the Church, must guard against turning the thought chiefly to external duties. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you." In performing our duties, our endeavor should be to perform them aright before the Lord, and we should put aside the thought as to whether others think that we are doing all we should.

     Mr. R. Caldwell: If we do not live a truth, we forget it. If we do not endeavor to do our duty, we lose sight of it. What a man does for the Church is a measure of his affection. No one can dictate or suggest to another what he should do or give. Man's conscience and affection must be exercised. The Sons of Israel gave a tenth to the Church, and it seems it would be well if each one of us would determine to give a certain proportion of his income. The natural man needs some such rule by which to compel himself.

     Mr. Burnham: Why do we not all do our duty? It is because of that skeleton in each one's closet: trust in ourselves instead of in the Lord.

     Rev. E. Cronlund: The question is often asked: Why does the Nev. Church grow so slowly? One answer is: Because there are so few who do their whole duty to the Church. The internal duties are the essential, and these are the ones most apt to be neglected. We must have them first in mind, and yet not forget those which are external. "These things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone." If the internal duties are attended to, the external will follow in their own course.

     Mr. A. K. Roy: The internal must ultimate itself in the external, the internal which most enter into all things of duty, and point the way to duty, is the principle of use. This principle indicates whether certain habits and customs are duties. If they are duties, they are to be done; if they are not duties, as for example in the case of the use of tobacco, they are not to be done.

     Rev. H. Synnestvedt: A regenerating man has an up-hill time, and has many miseries to endure, which the man who lives comfortably on the merely worldly plane does not. Nevertheless, he has a happiness of which the other knows nothing. All is not dark and gloomy; there is also the bright side. So it is in regard to our doing our duty to the Church. The dark side has been dwelt on, but there is also a bright side. The General Church has a reputation as a Church in which the members are generally interested, and work for the Church, and deny themselves for it. There is much of this in the General Church. It is true that duties are not done as they should be done; but it might be much worse.

     Mr. R. Carswell: Happiness comes in doing one's duty, and especially in doing one's duty towards the Church. In this we must co-operate with one another. We must on all planes bring to the Lord the first-fruits of our work.

     Rev. J. E. Bowers: We need to be reminded from time to time of our duties to the Church. When we do our duty we strengthen the Church with ourselves, and also with the Society with which we are connected; and not only do we strengthen that Society, but the entire body of the Church.

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Thus our doing our duty has a most extensive influence for good. It extends even to the heavens, for that which promotes the good of the Church promotes the good of the heavens.

     On motion of Messrs. Brown and Cronlund, the Assembly passed a vote of thanks to Mrs. Hyatt for her kindness in giving the use of her parlor for this meeting.

     On motion, the meeting adjourned.

     BANQUET, SOCIAL, AND MIDNIGHT SERVICE.

     In the evening, at 7 o'clock, a banquet was held in the hall of the church building of the Parkdale Society. The pastor of the Society, the Rev. Emil Cronlund, acted as toast-master.

     The first toast was to "The Church."

     The second toast, to "Love Truly Conjugial," was responded to by the Rev. H. Synnestvedt, who spoke of the indestructibility of conjugial love, because of its being a union of souls and minds, which cannot be dissolved.

     The third toast was to "New Church Education." Mr. R. Caldwell, in response, laid stress on the necessity of external innocence being preserved with children, in order that they may he prepared for a state of true marriage in the Church and for a life of Heaven. He also emphasized the fact that New Church education prepares children for true marriage in the Church, and as true marriage is Heaven, therefore by being prepared for marriage they are prepared for Heaven.

     The fourth toast, to "The Church in the Home," was responded to by Mr. Rudolf Roschman. He dwelt especially on the teaching in Conjugial Love, 63, that "the Church is formed by the Lord with the man, and through the man with the wife; and after it has been formed with both, the Church is a full Church." This teaching, he said, shows how great a responsibility rests with the father of the house. He must be the leader of the Church in the home, as the priest is in the larger Church. This involves not only that he study the Doctrines and communicate them to his wife and children, but that he see to the cultivation of the life of the Church. This life is chiefly that of love truly conjugial. Where there is this love there will also be the spiritual love of offspring, and thence true education of the children.

     The fifth toast was to "The Holding of Assemblies." Mr. Pitcairn, in responding, mentioned, as an instance of the use of Assemblies, the good results which followed the last Assembly of the General Church in England, held at Colchester. The members from London, who were present, realized at that meeting, more fully than before, the value of being organized as a Society of the General Church, and have since effected such an organization. This step has been most useful. Mr. Pitcairn then related many things concerning the General Church in England, which were followed by all present with great interest and pleasure.

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He also spoke of the state of the Church in France, which is at present very discouraging.

     After more than two hours spent most enjoyably at this feast of good things, on both the external and the internal plane, the tables were cleared away, and other pleasures followed. Then, as the hour of midnight approached, the chairs were arranged for worship. After an interval of silence, during which the mind could be composed, the pastor of the Parkdale Society conducted a beautiful and impressive New Year service, consisting of lessons from the Word, singing, an address, and a prayer. The service ended, all remained for a time in silence, reflecting upon the important truths which had been so strongly brought home at this hour of entrance upon a new year. When, finally, all had risen, there followed the mutual wishes for a Happy New Year, all joining in singing "Happy New Year to all." A delightful sphere of mutual love and good-will prevailed.

     After another hour spent socially, the festival came to its close,--but the memory of it will long be retained by all who were present.

     The second session, on Friday afternoon, was held in the hall of the Parkdale church building, and was opened with services conducted by Bishop Pendleton.

     The Secretary read a communication from Chicago, conveying New Year's greetings from the Sharon Church to the Ontario Assembly, which were received with hearty applause.

     Bishop Pendleton said that receiving this message from Chicago causes us to think of the terrible disaster which took place there two days ago [the Iroquois Theatre fire], in which a daughter of Mr. Harry Blackman, a member of the Immanuel Church, perished. We know, said the Bishop, that internally regarded there is no such thing as a calamity, for the Divine Providence is operative in all things; but in externals there is the appearance of calamity, and we call so speak of it. I am sure that the sympathies of all here go out to Mr. and Mrs. Blackman, and would suggest that this Assembly authorize Mr. Burnham to express the same to them. The desire that this be done was signified by all rising.

     THE USE OF THE SCIENCES IN THE NEW CHURCH.

     Rev. Emil Cronlund now read a paper on "The Use of the Sciences in the New Church." which will be published in a future issue of New Church Life.

     Bishop Pendleton, commenting on the subject of the paper said: The spiritual understanding is opened and formed by the instrumentality of natural truth. This is done, as the paper indicated, when there is the love of use, which is the love of the good of mankind, and, more interiorly, the love of the Lord's kingdom. But where there is not this love, the sciences are the means for rendering man insane, because they then lead to the denial of the life after death and eternal life, and thus to denial of the Lord.

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The formation of a spiritual understanding by means of instruction in natural sciences in our schools, is one of the important uses of this body and of the Academy. It is therefore well that this subject came before us, so that we may appreciate this use more fully. There must be in the mind of every man something of natural science, and some understanding formed by natural truth; otherwise he could not perform any use, or be in any occupation, but would be foolish and an idiot. No one, therefore, is without something of natural science, and by means of it a man is able to understand spiritual truth; and the more this plane is developed, the more fully can he enter into spiritual truth.

     Mr. Bowers: The subject is one so vast that it is difficult to know what phase of it to speak of. Swedenborg has given the world an all-comprehensive science, which is for the New Church. He wrote about one hundred and fifty works, mostly on scientific subjects. New things are constantly coming to light, and there is much matter that we have as yet no idea of. The Academy is doing a great work in the cause of this science, and a result of the same is the fruitful labor of one of its graduates, who went to Sweden in the interests of the Swedenborg Scientific Association.

     Mr. Waelchi read nos. 249 and 250 of the Spiritual Diary, teaching that "natural sciences at this day pervert truths into falsities, and are not capable of serving as a plane for spiritual truths; wherefore this false plane must be shaken entirely to pieces and perish, and he changed into a plane of natural truths." This indicates that we need a re-constructed science in the New Church, and the fundamental principles of this new science are given us in Swedenborg's Scientific Works.

     Mr. Burnham: We all no doubt feel that we are exceeding ignorant as to true New Church science; nevertheless we all possess some of the wonderful things of that science, namely, the truths of the science of a true life. The sciences are merely the particulars of those great general truths. We realize that our children will be better informed in the re-constructed sciences than we are, yet we also should apply ourselves to them as far as possible. Some of us can perhaps contribute something to the work of reconstruction, by studying the application of New Church principles to our particular uses, and giving the Church the benefit of our work.

     Mr. C. Frankish: The science of this day looks to nature, and not to the Divine. New Church science, however, will look to the Lord in all things.

     Mr. Roy spoke of his long interest in this subject, and how it was first awakened; also of an article on Radium in a recent magazine, where the New Church doctrine, that all substances have spheres, is fully confirmed.

     FAMILY WORSHIP.

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli read a paper on "Family Worship."

The paper spoke of the general custom of holding daily family worship which existed in our body some years ago, and of the growing neglect of this custom which has crept in. There are two causes for this: first, that formerly he who did not regularly observe family worship came into disrepute, and the fear of this caused a state of compulsion; but this compelling state, with its cause, was recognized to be not good, and has passed away; second, that the first love has grown cold.

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     The lack of regular family worship is a deplorable thing, and the Church needs to rouse itself to realize the danger which lies in its neglect. If the present condition continues and grows, it means the decline and passing away of this Church.

     What is needed is, perhaps, a fuller realization of the uses of family worship. These uses are, in general, those of all external worship, namely, that by it a plane is provided in which internal worship, which is the life of charity, may ultimate itself and be strengthened, and also that by it the internal may be excited or awakened into activity. In particular, the most prominent use of family worship is its use to conjugial love. We are taught that "none others come into this love than those who look to the Lord, and love the truths of the Church, and do its goods." There must be with husband and wife a common looking to the Lord, and for the sake of this they should together daily go to the Lord and worship Him. Conjugial love will languish in a home in which there is no worship. Another particular use of family worship is its use to the children. By means of it there are implanted in them from early childhood the remains of veneration for what is holy, and as they grow up they are initiated more and more into the habit of thinking of the Church as being first and above all other things. A home in which there is regular worship will be very likely to see its children grow up true and loyal to the Church.

     Difficulties may present themselves as to the holding of family worship daily. Nevertheless, daily worship was once general in our body, there being scarcely a family which did not have it; and if it was general formerly, why cannot it be general now?

     Mr. Rud. Roschman: The difficulty probably is that there is not sufficient self-compulsion. We do not neglect our meals; why not compel ourselves to take our spiritual meals?

     Mr. Carswell: There are in many cases difficulties in the way of having regular family worship. Still, as a rule, we and time for the things we like; and other things, among them worship, are crowded out.

     Mr. Burnham: It is but too true that there has been a great falling-off as to regular family worship, and it is important that something be done to revive it. A renewal of interest in the calendar might be a means of bringing about a better state. Emphasis was formerly laid on the importance of reading as a choir, and there is a beautiful idea involved in this.

     Bishop Pendleton: A parent teaches more by what he does than by what he says. For the child to see the parent pray teaches more than a long discourse on the existence of God. If you cannot have family worship twice a day, have it once; if you cannot have it once a day, have it once a week; but have it. If you cannot read both lessons, read one; and if you cannot read one, simply say the Lord's Prayer before the open Word; and if you are too tired for that, go to bed.

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Often people are very tired, or there are conditions which interfere, and nevertheless there is a desire for it. Do it, therefore, as often as possible, even if only once a week, and even if you then say only the Lord's Prayer. Even this will have an influence of immense value upon the children. It is best to have it twice a day; this is the ideal; but we may not be able to live up to it. The essential of worship is internal worship, which is of life, and where this exists there will be the desire for external worship. The cultivation of internal worship must be our prime end, yet we must not neglect the cultivation of the external. This is taught in the passage of the Word quoted here yesterday: "These things ought ye to have done, and not to leave the others undone." When a man comes to the New Church from the Old, he learns that external worship does not save; consequently, reacting from his former state, he is apt to undervalue it; but in time he comes to see its important use. In the calendar, we shall soon reach the True Christian Religion, which will be the end of the series of the Writings published by Swedenborg. The posthumous books would follow in order, but it is a question whether we shall continue or not. The calendar does not meet all the conditions of family worship.

     Mr. Carswell: We should certainly all feel thankful to the Bishop for the great measure of freedom which he has indicated.

     Mr. Charles Brown: The Bishop's remarks are most gratifying and comforting, and show that there need not be such self-condemnation, when we cannot have family worship regularly, as Mr. Waelchli's paper would cause us to feel.

     On motion, it was resolved that the business session of the Assembly be held this evening by the men, before the Men's Meeting.

     Mr. Rudolf Roshman spoke of the great delight he found in attending this Assembly, and said he was sure he expressed the sentiment of all in saying that it is one of the best we have ever had,--perhaps the best. Without doubt, the success of the meeting was in large measure due to the hearty hospitality of the Parkdale Society, and he therefore took great pleasure in moving a vote of thanks to them for all they had done to make this Fourth Ontario Assembly so delightful to all those coming from other localities. The motion was seconded by Mr. Burnham, and carried by a vote of the visitors.

     On motion, adjourned.

     In the evening a business meeting was held by the men.

     The Secretary read his Report, telling of the work he had done at Clinton and at Milverton, and of the work of Mr. Bowers at Randolph.

     The Treasurer's Report was read, showing a balance on hand.

     Mr. Bowers, by request, gave an account of his visits to Randolph and to Hamilton.

     On motion, the meeting adjourned.

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     THE MEN'S MEETING AND THE LADIES' MEETING.

     After the business meeting, a social Men's Meeting was held. After some time spent in pleasantries, the thought turned to more serious matters, and the subject of the Eternity of Marriage became the topic for consideration. Many excellent and useful things were brought forth.

     At the same time a Ladies' Meeting was held at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Roy, which was much enjoyed by all present. F. E. WAELCHLI, Secretary.
ENGLEWOOD PARISH COMMITTEE 1904

ENGLEWOOD PARISH COMMITTEE       J. B. S. KING       1904

Editors New Church Life:-

     The injustice done to the Englewood Parish Committee on page 265 of the May, 1903, issue of the Life, consists in the charge that the members of the Committee indulged in their complimentary assurances "all the while knowing that Mr. King, in going, had turned his back, not only upon the external organization, but also upon the very Doctrine of the New Church." The truth is that when those "final words of parting" were made, the Committee did not at all know that Mr. King had repudiated the New Church. On the contrary he had spoken or given out the impression that he was going to do editorial or journalistic work on a New Church journal.

     This information makes the charge of "inconsistency," and the scorn with which it is made, fall to the ground. In the writer's opinion, both the charge and the scorn would be highly appropriate, if the Committee had known of Mr. King's plans, but as it did not know them, but on the contrary had received quite different information, injustice was certainly done to them.

     In the same way it is unjust to say that "the congregation * * * knew of his having renounced the Heavenly Doctrines, knew of his having betrayed both the New and the Old Church, and yet implored him to remain." The congregation were in absolute ignorance of Mr. King's leanings toward or dealings with the Old Church, until he called them to a meeting of "great importance" and then made a public, written confession of his lapse and expressed sincere repentance for it.

     Repentance is always in order, and the fact of public confession and repentance makes it proper, and not "inconsistent" for a congregation to give a man another trial if its members think best.

     The errors which appeared in the Messenger, and upon which, no doubt, the Life based its trenchant criticism, were corrected in a subsequent number, and it grieved some friends of the Life that the errors were made the subject of animadversion, but that the subsequent correction was not noticed. J. B. S. KING.

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[REPLY. The reason the Life took no notice of the second statement of the Englewood Parish Committee, (in the Messenger of April 15, 1903), was that it did not contain one word of information as to any repentance on the part of the Rev. Thos. King. The Committee simply announced at the time when the complimentary resolution was adopted,-a statement which we could not at the time reconcile with the fact that Bishop John Hazen White, more than a year before Mr. King's final withdrawal, had publicly announced that the latter had "in the most emphatic manner possible, and in writing, expressed his disapproval of his present faith as untenable, and accepted con amore the doctrinal position of the Church, [the Episcopal Church], "of which I have the honor to be a bishop." (See Chicago Tribune, Feb. 7, 1902.) This letter, which caused a public sensation in Chicago, and which was not contradicted by Mr. King, should have apprised the Englewood Parish of the doctrinal defection of their pastor,--so it seemed to us. In the Chicago Tribune for February 4, 1902, as also in the Messenger, it was given out that Mr. King had consented to remain at Englewood on condition of being allowed to wear a surplice at the services, but nothing, at all was said about Mr. King's return to the faith of the New Church. Hence our misunderstanding, which was manifestly unavoidable under the circumstances. It still seems strange to us that the Englewood Parish should have put such great faith in Mr. King's repentance, when, a few days before, he had presented to Bishop White a deliberate and written renunciation of belief in the Doctrines of the New Church.--EDITORS.]

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Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Bryn Athyn. Swedenborg's birthday this year coming on Friday, the regular supper was turned into a banquet, and the whole evening devoted to the celebration of the day. The Rev. W. L. Gladish acted as toastmaster, and the following papers, treating concerning the period of Swedenborg's life, were read, interspersed with toasts and songs: The Political and Social Condition of Europe, by Raymond Pitcairn; Religion and Morality, by F. E. Gyllenhaal; Literature and Philosophy, by R. W. Childs; Sweden, by Harvey Lechner; The Effects of Heredity, Nationality and Environment on Emanuel Swedenborg, by A. P. Lindsay; Illustrious Contemporaries, by C. R. Pendleton, Jr.; Swedenborg's Friends, by W. A. Cranch. The papers were well written and showed thought and careful preparation. As the evening progressed the sphere became very strong, giving the young folks a taste of the old Academy spirit.

     On the 8th of February Prof. Odhner lectured to all the departments of the school on the situation in the Far East. He reviewed briefly the history of Russia and Japan, dwelling especially on the last decade, and the present political complications. The lecture was most instructive and timely. By request he delivered the same lecture before the society on Friday evening. February 12th, and also brought out many interesting details concerning the Ancient Word in Great Tartary.

     On February 10th the local school had a social, and on the 13th the College and Seminary.

     A series of Sunday evening lectures has been inaugurated, and we hare, thus far, had the pleasure of hearing from Prof. Odhner on "Legends of the Fall and the Flood;" from Mr. Alfred Stroh on "Creation," and from Bishop Pendleton on "imagination." These lectures have proved intensely interesting and useful, and the series will be continued by other ministers until Easter, and possibly longer. F. E. G.


     The Girls' Seminary at present is passing through a most useful and progressive year. About thirty pupils are in attendance, ten or twelve of whom hope to graduate in June. Should the hopes of all be realized this will be the largest number ever graduated at any one time. In connection with the Seminary three young women are taking special courses. Two of these are taking the normal course and assisting in the work of the local school.

     This post-graduate class is studying Paedagogy under Mr. Synnestvedt, Anatomy from the Animal Kingdom with Miss Beekman, the Letter of the Word and Divine Love and Wisdom with the Bishop, Mythology with Mr. Odhner, English literature with Miss Ashley, and two or three elective classes from the regular course.

     Mr. Odhner is giving the whole Seminary valuable instruction on the Science of Correspondences,--its existence, history, and laws; the importance and use of knowledge of correspondences; and this science as applied to the created universe, and the Word of God. Mr. Odhner also teaches Hebrew. Bishop Pendleton has invited the girls to attend his Tuesday class in Conjugial Love. The mothers and teachers are also invited.

     Miss Hobart gives the fourth year class lessons in Anatomy from the Animal Kingdom twice a week.

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     Special attention is always given to literature and history. The third year class is studying English literature, and the fourth year American, both with Miss Ashley. Textbooks are in use from which the life of the author is studied; then as much time as possible is spent on his works, the endeavor being to acquaint the pupil with the best literature, and awaken an affection for it.

     Miss Sherman is giving interesting lessons in ancient, modern and American history to the various classes. Here, too, the regular textbook is not regarded as the only authority; but, having the school library to resort to, each incident or character is enlarged upon and rounded out by other historians.

     Relative to the nature work, Miss Sherman gives the second year class Comparative Zoology, which they find very enjoyable.

     A unique and valuable feature of the work is the Shakespeare class. A play is first read through by the pupils, after which it is studied as to its historical basis and dramatic construction. Then each girl is given a character in the play, of which she makes a thorough study, and which part she takes in the second reading. Some of the gestures and positions are also brought into this second reading to give dramatic force.

     In the study of Latin the custom is to make the pupil a good scholar of Swedenborg's Latin. Although the old classics are not entirely disregarded the effort is always to enable a pupil to intelligently read the Writings in their original language, for much is often lost in the translations.

     In addition to the above, Algebra, French, Physics, Drawing, Civics and Rhetoric are all to be found on the roster. F. M. B.

     Philadelphia. The Advent Church celebrated the Festival of the Incarnation with a regular Christmas service on Christmas day.

     Services were also held on the following Sunday, at the close of which the pastor of the society was the recipient of a substantial Christmas present in the form of a free-will offering. This custom has been observed for a number of years in the Advent Church.

     The members of the Young Folks' Doctrinal Class surprised the pastor by presenting him with a beautiful study lamp on Christmas Eve.

     At 3 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. December 27th, the Christmas celebration of the Sunday School took place in the beautifully decorated parlor of Mr. and Mrs. Knudsen, to which both children and adults were invited. A very fine and appropriate representation of the Lord's First Advent had been prepared, which added much to the success of this feast for the little ones. Mrs. Herbert Walker, who leads the singing, had drilled the children to sing several pretty songs. At the close of the celebration each child was presented with a neat little bag full of such things as delight the child's heart. Games followed and the celebration ended early enough for the little ones to get home before the sand man came around.

     On Sunday, January 3d, the Holy Supper was administered. The custom has been adopted to partake of the Lord's Supper every second month.

     The annual meeting of the Advent Church was held after services on Sunday, January 10th. A slight increase in membership of the society was reported, and the treasurer announced the pleasant news that there was a substantial balance on hand.

     Swedenborg's birthday was celebrated with a supper in the hall of worship, on Sunday. January 31st, at which some forty persons were present. The ladies of the society had taken much trouble to decorate the hall and to arrange the table tastefully, and the unanimous verdict was that they had succeeded well.

     Several toasts were proposed and responded to by members of the society.

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A speech by the Rev. Alfred Acton, in response to the toast "Swedenborg the Scientist," was especially enjoyed.

     The celebration was considered the most enjoyable social event the Advent Church has had for a long time. J. E. R.

     Allentown. On Sunday, January 31st, regular monthly services were held at the house of Mr. John Kessler. After services all present sat down to a delightful dinner prepared and served by the ladies of the society in honor of Swedenborg's birthday. Appropriate toasts were responded to, and Swedenborg's scientific preparation as a basis for his later spiritual labors, and the acknowledgment by the present day scientists of his wonderful discoveries, was generally discussed.

     This being also Mr Acton's farewell visit as pastor of this Society, a position which, owing to the press of other duties, he has now resigned, many regrets were expressed at his being obliged to relinquish the work here, which he has conducted for the past six years He was asked, however, not to consider all connections severed, but that he would find the "latch-string always out."

     We then considered the question of a successor to Mr. Acton, and it was finally decided to invite Mr. Price. We were pleased to learn, subsequently, that Mr. Price has accepted the invitation. C. D. W.

     Pittsburgh. The celebration of Swedenborg's birthday was, of course, the event of chief interest here the past month, and a very enjoyable time we had together, gathered around tables laden with all manner of good things (all thanks to the ladies), listening to interesting and instructive speeches, notably the response to "The Church," by Rev. N. D. Pendleton, and "Swedenborg as a Metallurgist," by Mr. Benjamin Fuller, who showed a very comprehensive knowledge of his subject, as did Mr. Charles Ebert on "Swedenborg as Author, Writer and How His Works Were Appreciated." Mr. Walter Faulkner interspersed his talk on "Swedenborg as Statesman" with humorous remarks in his characteristic way. Here a list of Swedenborg's valuables, material and spiritual, was read, after which Mr. Macbeth spoke interestingly on "Swedenborg as Relative to the Science of Today," and Dr. Boggess stated well, but briefly, facts concerning Swedenborg as Physiologist and Anatomist, and the evening closed, it seemed, all too soon.

     On February 2d a delightful party was given by Mrs. Alexander Pitcairn and Mrs. S. S. Lindsay, at the home of the latter, and novel games were arranged, and dancing, as usual, was indulged in by the young folks. Considerable amusement occurred during a hat trimming contest, honors being won by Miss Barbara Rhodes and Mr. Marlin Heilman; very amusing also was a "drawing" contest, a large blackboard being placed in a conspicuous position, on which the folks drew "animals" named on slips of paper previously distributed, and many a weird looking thing was represented as an animal, to recognize which called for imagination of a high order.

     I am glad to report good attendance at Sunday services and Wednesday doctrinal classes, although many, unfortunately, are kept away on account of illness. H. L.

     Glenview, III. Our Christmas service was especially impressive and delightful, because of the part that the children took in the celebration. After singing and repeating in unison passages from the Word they brought up their gifts. The mysterious box on the chancel, which was decorated with greens and candles, was then opened, and with beaming face each child received his or her annual Christmas present from the Heavenly Father.

     Ethel Blackman, a member of the oldest class in our school, was among the six hundred who perished in the Iroquois Theatre disaster in Chicago.

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At the memorial service, held January 2d, our pastor gave a vivid picture of the life into which Ethel was entering, dwelling particularly on the eagerness and delight with which she would learn to perform her use in heaven. Were it not for the beautiful and clear conceptions of the other world, that our children have been given, the loss of their companion would be far harder to bear, for Ethel was the leading spirit among them, and took an active and intelligent interest in all things of the Church.

     Swedenborg's birthday was commemorated as usual by a banquet. The speeches, which came from every gentleman present, consisted of a very interesting collection of letters and anecdotes about Swedenborg, which very strikingly brought home to us the universality of his genius, as well as the simplicity and sincerity of his character.

     The following evening Mr. Heath, the noted actor of Bryn Athyn, entertained us with a number of readings and songs at an informal reception given in his honor by Mr. and Mrs. S. G. Nelson. On the first Thursday of February Mr. Heath very kindly gave some readings from Shakespeare for the school children.

     On February 1st Mr. and Mrs. Klein celebrated their wooden wedding with a very enjoyable social at the Manse. The society took advantage of the occasion to present them with a handsome wooden chair for each member of the family.

     The announcement of the General Assembly was enthusiastically received here; and people are at least talking about saving up money for the occasion. L. E. G.

     Berlin, Ont. On the 19th of January the pastor of the Carmel Church opened a special school, which will continue until the Easter holidays, for the religious instruction of young people from families of isolated receivers. Five pupils, four young men and one young lady, are in attendance. The school is held on four days of the week, three hours each day. The course of study consists of the Letter of the Word, General Doctrine, Heaven and Hell and the chapter on the Decalogue in the True Christian Religion.

     The Parish School celebrated Swedenborg's birthday on the day preceding the 29th with a social and a supper. The programme for the social and the preparation of the supper were in the hands of the six oldest girls of the school, and they proved themselves fully equal to the undertaking. Besides the teachers and pupils there were present the pupils of the special school and those who left the school last year; in all, about sixty persons. The 29th was a school holiday.

     The Society celebrated Swedenborg's birthday with a banquet and a social, at which seventy-five persons were present. The banquet, under the management of the young ladies of the society, was most successful. When the time for toasts arrived the pastor read Intercourse of Soul and Body, No. 20, where Swedenborg tells that "from early youth he was a spiritual fisherman, or one who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterwards spiritual truths rationally." Two toasts followed: One to Swedenborg, the investigator and teacher of natural truths." and the other to "Swedenborg, the investigator and teacher of spiritual truths." Mr. Rudolf Roschman responded to the former, and Mr. T. S. Kuhl to the latter. The social which followed opened with several representations; namely, the Most Ancient Church, represented by four infants, decorated with garlands, and holding one another by the hand; the Ancient Church, by a maiden presenting to a child a bunch of grapes with leaves of silver; the Israelitish Church, by a Jewish priest, and also by the scene of Eleazar and Rebecca at the well; the Christian Church, by a Christian martyr; and the New Church, by a husband and wife, holding each other by the hand.

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Much labor had been bestowed by the young people and others upon the preparation of these representatives, and they were much appreciated and enjoyed. Dancing occupied the remainder of the evening. W.

     Colchester. I find that it is about six months since I sent news of our society. During that time many events have happened indicating the steady growth of Church life here; but of these I can give but a brief account. On September 20th we had a social to welcome our pastor on his return from his visit to America. Mr. Czerny related many interesting incidents of his visit, and conveyed to us hearty greetings from our American cousins, which were as heartily received. Towards the close of the meeting it was decided, at the pastor's suggestion to take up for reading at our fortnightly socials articles from the Life, and selections from the Writings concerning the character of the various nations.

     On September 22d the Children's Tonic Solfa Class opened its winter course under the able direction of Mr. Potter. We have several new pupils this year, and it has been therefore necessary to form two classes. Mr. Potter's work is already bearing fruit in the improved rendering of the music in our services, and our appreciation of this was marked at the first meeting of the class, when, at the suggestion of one of the children, the leader was presented with a baton suitably mounted and inscribed.

     A memorial meeting to our friend Mr. John Morris, the secretary of the London Society, was held on November 29th, when a hearty tribute was paid to the good work which Mr. Morris has done in helping to bring about the present satisfactory position of the London Society.

     Early in the following month it was our great pleasure to receive a visit from Mr. John Pitcairn, of Bryn Athyn, who was accompanied by Mr. Czerny and Mr. McQueen. A social was held in the evening at Mr. Gill's studio in honor of our visitors. Toasts, speeches and songs--to one of which Mr. Pitcairn gave us the tune--were the order of the evening, and Mr. Pitcairn recounted to us many interesting things in connection with the General Church and the Academy. We were sorry to part with our visitor, but he had to leave for London that same evening.

     During the Christmas holidays' Mr. Czerny spent several days in Colchester. On Christmas day he officiated at a children's service, and on the following Sunday the Holy Supper was administered to 15 communicants.

     Our New Year gathering, which for many years, by the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Gill, has come to be a gathering in "The Studio," was held this year on December 29th. On the last day of the year we held our Children's Social, at which 45 persons, including children, sat down to tea. The program consisted of songs in character, and recitations, followed by a comic sketch by five of the older boys, entitled "Dr. Dosem," which was much appreciated. The children having sung "Send Forth the Tidings." Mr. Czerny gave a short but impressive address on the necessity of obedience and of gratitude. Three cheers for our pastor, who had then to leave for London, were heartily given. The children were regaled with mince pies and oranges, the gift of a friend.

     The annual meeting of the society was held on January 14th, and I will conclude my budget of news by quoting from the secretary's report as to the average attendance at our various meetings during the past year. Sunday services, 43. The Holy Supper, 17. Children's Sunday Class, conducted by Mr. Czerny, 27. Doctrinal Class, which has finished Divine Providence, 16. Sunday reading meeting, conducted by Mr. Gill, 37.

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Socials (26 in number, including our fortnightly meetings), 20. Singing practice, 19. F. R. C.

     The Missionary Field. On November 16th last I arrived in Cleveland, O., and in the evening baptized the infant son of Mr. and Mrs. Roscoe B. Kendig. The following day Mr. and Mrs. Otto Pfister were visited. They are very earnest believers in the Doctrines, and we had much conversation concerning the essential things of the Church. The Rev. Thomas A. King was preaching for the Cleveland Lakewood Societies, but as he was at the time at Lakewood we did not meet.

     On Sunday, November 22d, we held services at the home of Mr. J. A Fankhauser and family, at Mansfield. After that useful visits were made with New Church people at Galion, Eucyrus and Vermillion. On my way eastward a day was spent with friends at Lakewood.

     At Erie, Pa., all the members of the New Church Circle were called on, including one family eight miles in the country, and also one family in the city, not professedly of the New Church. On Sunday, December 6th, we held services at the residence of Dr. Edward Cranch. A sermon was delivered; two children were baptized; and the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered to fourteen persons.

     Two days were spent with New Church friends in Buffalo, N. Y., and one day in the city of Hamilton, Ont.

     On Sunday, December 13th, I preached for the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, pastor of the Carmel Church, at Berlin, Ont. Here I also called on the Rev. James Taylor, who continued to preach for the Convention Society,--and learned that those of the society who are willing to hear the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrines are well pleased with his services. This was evident from remarks made by some of the members.

     On my tour from August 28 till December 15th, 1903, fifty places were visited; and ten persons were baptized, three of whom are adults, and these became members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. JOHN E. BOWERS.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. At the meeting of the "Rhode Island New Church Woman's Alliance" on February 16th, Captain Ethel Lancaster, of the Salvation Army, gave an account of the work being done by that organization in Providence.

     The German New Church Society in Brooklyn, to which the Rev. Wm. Diehl is ministering, reports that its Sunday School is in a declining state, owing partly to the removal of many New Church families from the immediate neighborhood and partly because the Church is everywhere surrounded by a Jewish population. The neighborhood is so teeming with Israelites that it is popularly known as "Little Jerusalem" and there, Mr. Diehl observes, "the New Jerusalem can effect nothing more." The congregation is consequently about to remove to more favorable surroundings.

     The "Prayer to the Christ-Child," by Miss G. E. Brown, which was published in the December number of the League Journal, was sung at the Christmas services of the societies in Cleveland and Lakewood, O. What is the New Church coming to, when prayers and songs are addressed to "the Christ-Child," instead of the Lord in His Divine Human?

     Our attention has been called to an error in the Life for December, 1903, where it is stated that the recent meeting of the Illinois Association was held at Chicago. It was held at St Louis.

     At the annual meeting of the Chicago Society, on January 18th, a movement was set on foot for the formation of a New Church Club in Chicago.

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A committee of representative persons from the different parishes was appointed to formulate a plan for the organization.

     At a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the Illinois Association, held at Chicago January 12th, a paper on "the Significance of the Cities given to the Levites" was read by the Rev. W. B. Caldwell, of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     The new temple of the Kenwood Parish, Chicago, was formally dedicated on January 10th. The congregation celebrated the 216th anniversary of Swedenborg's birthday by a dinner in the Parish house. A number of toasts were proposed, and addresses were delivered by Prof. Riborg Mann, Rev. L. P. Mercer, Mr. Hugh L. Burnham and Mr. E. A. Munger.

     Swedenborg's birthday was celebrated by the Englewood Parish, of Chicago, by a dinner at the Hotel Julien. A number of the members of the North Side Parish were also present. Addresses were made by Mr. Robert Matheson. Mr. Oscar Scalbom, Mr. F. S. Layton, Dr. J. B. S. King, Rev. Louis Rich and Rev. E. J. E. Schreck. A new feature, on this occasion, was the singing of Miss Plummer's ode, "Thou prophet and seer," Prof. Odhner's song, "Our glorious Church," and Mr. W. H. Junge's song, "Our Church is from the Lord."

     GREAT BRITAIN. Following in the lines of a Resolution passed by Conference at its last meeting, the President has issued a circular, urging all Conference Societies to celebrate the centenary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, on Sunday, March 6th; and to contribute the collections of that day to the funds of the Society.

     The Preston correspondent of Morning Light writes that several strangers have expressed the hope that another course of lectures will be held in Preston this year. He continues, "The singular thing is, however, that while these strangers appreciate the lectures, and also many of the views taught by the New Church, they will not abandon their own denominations and join us. Hence we have to be satisfied with the mere fact that, by means of this special work, we are gradually, but surely, breaking down the old prejudices against the New Church!" The evidences of "appreciation" and the causes for "satisfaction" seem to equal each other in obscurity.

     In a paper read to the Young People's Society of the Birmingham (Southwick) Mission, or Congregation, occurs the following significant passage: "One of the noticeable features in present day Sunday Schools and Churches is their failure to retain the young people after school age. We, as a Mission, are no exception to this rule. We have been in existence as a Sunday School for nine years and should have dozens of youths and maidens amongst us. What is our position? With a few exceptions we have nothing to show for these years of work." The essayist would remedy this state of affairs by more social life, the provision of counter attractions to the world, imparting truth and fostering spiritual life. He says nothing of teaching the doctrines and creating an affection for them; still less of teaching concerning the Old Church, and of marriage outside the Church. And yet without these teachings, be the work of the Sunday Schools pushed as you will, the same dismal story of results will always remain to be told.

     GERMANY. Besides the New Church Society in Berlin, which is under the direction of the Rev. Fedor Goerwitz, there exists in the German capital another association, known as the "Neukirchenbund," directed by Herr A. Brecht, who is delivering a series of public lectures on the Doctrines of the New Church.

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At the meeting of this body, on November 22d, the secretary read an "ordination-license," issued by the Rev. Adolph Roeder, introducing Herr Brecht into the preaching office. (Bote, Feb. 1st.)

     MAURITIUS. The members of the Port Louis Society witnessed last December what to them has been for many years a rare spectacle--a New Church marriage. Most of the marriages of members of the society have, of late years, been to Roman Catholics, when the ceremony took place according to the rites of that Church. But in this case both bride and groom were of the New Church, and desirous of being married in the Church. The ceremony was performed by Mr. Ackroyd, the vice president, who at the very outset stated that he officiated only because there was no New Church minister who could be called upon. Lessons were read from the Word and also from the Writings, respecting the nature of conjugial love. In his address Mr. Ackroyd dwelt on this subject and endeavoured to make it clear to his hearers that the doctrines contained in the lessons from the Writings were from the Lord, and of Divine authority.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1904

GENERAL ASSEMBLY              1904


     Announcements.


     Special Notice.

     The Fifth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 17th to 21st, 1904. The Council of the Clergy will meet June 23d to 25th, and the Teachers Institute June 27th and 28th.

     All members and friends of the General Church are invited, and intending visitors are requested to communicate as early as possible with the undersigned, in order that arrangements may be made for their accommodation.

     Lodging will be provided free for all visitors. A first-class caterer has been engaged, who will furnish dinner at fifty cents, and breakfast and supper at twenty-five cents each.

     For further information address, CHARLES E. DOERING, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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"WHO IS MY MOTHER?" 1904

"WHO IS MY MOTHER?"       Rev. W. F. PENDLETON       1904

     
NEW CHURCH LIFE.
VOL. XXIV. APRIL, 1904.           No. 4.
I. THE LORD NO LONGER THE SON OF MARY.

     God Himself came into the world to save man, and the mystery of His Coming is the greatest of all mysteries. Who can measure the mystery of the Incarnation? Who can compass the height and depth, the length and breadth of it? And yet, now in the Lord's Second Coming all mysteries are revealed, and the only limitation is the limitation of our finite understanding and reception. The mystery of the Incarnation is laid open to view in the internal truth of the Word, for the Word treats of nothing else in its inmost bosom. In the celestial sense the Lord alone appears, and the Divine Arcana of His Coming in the flesh are there in their fulness. They are now pointed out to him whose mind is open to receive; they will be made known to every man who has eyes to see and ears to hear; and they are given to him according to the measure of his ability to comprehend and appropriate. There is no limit in the giving, but there is a limit in the reception of that which is given.

     The Lord came into the world according to the laws of His own Divine Order. He had no human father, but He was born of a woman, the Virgin Mary. In the course of His life on earth He put off even that which He had from Mary, so that He was no longer her son, but was the Son of God alone, God of God, God Himself; for that which is from God is God; and God made flesh, the Son of God, is the only God of Heaven and earth, one with the Father.

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     He put off that which He inherited from Mary; and it was necessary that He should make known that, although He was her son in the beginning and according to the flesh, still in the process of union with the Father, He ceased to be her son; and we find that He never calls her mother in the Gospels. She is sometimes called His mother, but not by His own mouth.

     We read in Matthew xii. 46-50, as follows: "While He yet talked to the people, His mother and His brethren stood without, desiring to speak with Him. Then one said unto Him, Behold, Thy mother and Thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. But He answered and said unto him that told Him, Who is my mother? and who are my brethren? And He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother."

     On two occasions He calls Mary, Woman, but not Mother. At the marriage in Cana of Galilee, He said, "Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come" (John ii. 4); and on the cross He said, "Woman, behold thy son." He was speaking of John, the disciple whom He loved, who was standing by, and to whom He also said, "Behold thy mother," (John xix. 26, 27); which shows that He did not regard her as His mother. But since she was His mother according to the flesh, being born of her as to the infirm Human, she is spoken of by others in the inspired record, as His mother. On one occasion, "A woman of the company lifted up her voice and said unto Him, Blessed is the womb that here Thee, and the paps which Thou hast sucked." What did He say? An affirmative response would have looked in the direction of the Catholic assumption in regard to Mary; but this was not given. "He said, Yea, rather, blessed are they which hear the Word of God, and keep it," (Luke xi. 27, 28). In which passage He points out that the Church and not Mary is the mother.

     Neither did He acknowledge David as His father, or that He was descended from David; for once, while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What think ye of Christ? whose son is He? They say unto Him, The Son of David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?

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If David then call Him Lord, how is He his son? And no man was able to answer Him a word; neither durst any man, from that day forth, ask Him any more questions." (Matthew xxii. 41-46.)

     Instead of calling Himself, or admitting that He was the son of Mary, or the son of David, He calls Himself throughout, the Son of Man and the Son of God; and declares Himself to be one with God, or the Father, one with Jehovah the Creator of the universe. He speaks of Himself as being glorified, and of returning to the Father from whom He came. He also exhibited Himself in His glorified Human to Peter, James, and John, on the Mount of transfiguration, where "His face did shine as the sun, and His raiment was white as the light," (Matthew xvii. 2); and to John on the Isle of Patmos He appeared in His glory walking in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; and John fell at His feet as dead, and He laid His right hand on him, saying, "Fear not; I am the First and the Last; I am He that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death." (Rev. i. 12-18.) This was not the son of Mary, nor a descendant of David, who thus appeared, and thus spoke.

     The Doctrine, which the Lord in His Second Coming has now given us concerning Himself, is this: "The Lord successively put off the Human taken from the mother, and put on a Human from the Divine in Himself, which is the Divine Human, and the Son of God." (L. 35.) And also this, "Now because the Lord from the beginning had a Human from the mother, and successively put off this Human, therefore while He was in the world, He had two states, which are called the state of humiliation or exaninition, and the state of glorification or union with the Divine, which is called the Father. The state of humiliation was at the time, and in the degree that He was in the Human from the mother; and the state of glorification at the time and in the degree that He was in the Human from the Father. In the state of humiliation [when He was in and spoke from the Human from the mother], He prayed to the Father, as to one different from Himself; but in the state of glorification He spoke with the Father as with Himself. In the state [of glorification] He said that the Father was in Him? and He in the Father, and that the Father and He are one; but in the state of humiliation He underwent temptations and suffered the cross, and prayed that the Father might not forsake Him; for the Divine could not be tempted, and still less suffer the cross." (L. 35.)

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And we are taught further that it was by these temptations, and finally by the passion of the cross, that He fully put off the Human which He had from the mother, even until He was no longer her Son, but as to His Human became the Son of God, God of God, God Himself manifest to men, one with the Father, one with the infinite Divine from which He came forth. It is therefore this Human from the Divine, and which is called the Son of God, by which God sent Himself into the world. He did not send another, but He sent Himself, that He might ever be with men, their visible God, the only object of their love, adoration and worship,--God with us, God over all blessed forever.*
*It will be noted here that the glorification of the Lord is His real coming.

     Because the Lord was actually born of Mary, that He might come into the world among men; because of the frequent appearance in the Gospels of His state of humiliation before the Father; the Christian world has believed from this appearance that He was actually and still is the son of Mary; that He not only had but still has an infirm human like the human of another man, and therefore that He was and still is a separate and distinct person from the Father; notwithstanding His declaration that He was one with the Father, that he who saw Him saw the Father; notwithstanding His appearance in His Divine glory on the transfiguration mount, and to John on the Isle of Patmos, to whom He declared that He was Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the Almighty; notwithstanding His declaration to His Apostles, after His resurrection, that He had all power in heaven and on earth; for they do not see or acknowledge that all power is Divine Power, Omnipotence, which Divine Attribute could only be claimed by Him who was God Himself,--not the Son of God as another and distinct person, but God Himself manifest in the flesh, with Divine Power to save all who believe in Him and keep His commandments.

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     From this fundamental fallacy that the Lord not only was but still is the son of Mary, that He not only had an infirm human while in the world, but that His Human is still like that of another man; from this fundamental fallacy have arisen the enormous falsities which have devastated the Christian Church, and made it necessary that the Lord should reveal Himself anew,--without which new revelation of Himself no flesh could be saved.

     They do not see a Divine Human, they do not see that, while the Human of the Lord was at first infirm on account of the evil inheritance from Mary, this human was entirely put away, a Divine Human from the Father taking its place. Not seeing this, the idea of the Divinity of the Lord is lost; Arianism entered the Church, and ruled and still rules the theological and religious thought of Christendom. The Lord Jesus Christ is a man like other men, He is the son of Mary and even of Joseph; and when this is the thought, atheism, naturalism, materialism, reign supreme.

     The Council of Nice indeed preserved some idea of His Divinity, but it was the Divinity of a second person of the Trinity, with His Human still infirm, still unglorified, and the worship of Him as the Son of God was removed from the Church, and the worship of an invisible God which they called the Father, was substituted in its stead. What was left of Divine Power, if we map so speak, was taken away from Him and transferred to the Pope. The idea of the true God, God in His Human, remained in the Church as an image of wax, impotent to redeem and save, Divine Power alone can save men; and in order that it may save men it must be present with them, and it cannot be present, but in a most general presence, except it be acknowledged, loved, and worshiped. God must come to man, God must accommodate Himself to man's comprehension and ability to receive, ability to see and know and love; and when a false Church takes this away, renders God invisible, God is no longer present in the Church with power to save.

     The Apostolic Christian Church worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as the Son of God. The members of that Church had no idea of, and therefore did not worship an invisible Father as separate and distinct from the Lord. And from the worship of the Lord Himself as the Son of God, the Church might have advanced gradually to a truer idea of Him as the only God of heaven and earth, in whom is the Father as the soul in the body, if the love of dominion had not entered and perverted the true beginnings of the worship of God.

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For the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as the Son of God had in it the beginnings of a true idea of God in His Human, and of a true worship of Him. In the worship of Him as the Son Of God, the idea of Him as the son of Mary is removed, and a general idea of a Divine Human established and preserved, preparatory to a full knowledge of Him in His Divine Human as the only God and Lord of the universe, But this additional step was not taken, the steps were backward and not forward; the worship of the Son of God was abolished, and the worship of an imaginary God, who is invisible and incomprehensible, was submitted in its place; and then by slow and successive steps the consummation followed, and the Church was at an end; for without a true idea of God, the Church is no Church. The worship of an imaginary God, brings into existence an imaginary Church, and an imaginary heaven, which must be judged and removed, before the idea of the true God can be restored, and a true Church formed, and a true angelic heaven.

     The true idea of God has now been restored by the Lord in His Second Coming, and we are able to know and see God as He is in His Human, present in the Church with Divine Power to redeem and save, to form heaven and establish the Church, the pillars of which may not be torn down any more forever.

     We now know, or we are able to know, that the Father is nothing else than the Divine Love within the Lord Jesus Christ, as the soul is within the body of man, or the internal in its own external. This Divine Love, called in the letter of the Word the Father, was in the Lord from conception and birth, and it was this Divine Love, which was His Inmost, that descended into the Human from Mary, and removed everything of that Human, until He was no longer in any sense, or in any degree her son, but the Son of God,--the Divine External or the Divine Form of the Divine Internal, by which the Divine Love is made visible and comprehensible to man.

     The understanding of this great mystery is open to us, when me learn that the regeneration of man is an image of the glorification of the Lord; that in the regeneration of man we are able to see, as in a representative image, the mode and the manner by which the Lord made His Human Divine, and how from being the son of Mary He became the Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, God made Man and Man God.

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     The regeneration of man begins from love; love is his inmost, love to God and love to the neighbor; which two loves are in their essence one love. This love is at first as a spark in him in the inmost of his natural, in what is called remains, or in the things that remain from the innocence of infancy and childhood. This spark increases and is kindled; it begins in adult life to burn and glow as a flame; it comes forth into the natural and removes all the things that obstruct and oppose, all the lusts of self love and the love of the world, all false ideas and false thoughts; and this work continues until the external is brought into agreement with the Internal, or with the love which is the internal, and man becomes a harmonious form or an angel of heaven.

     Every man is, or must become, such as his love is; for his love is his soul, which gradually molds all things of his form into agreement with itself. This law is inevitable and without exception; for it is so even with the evil. Every evil man has a ruling love, which makes his inmost or soul, and this lope is constantly operating in him to form everything in agreement with itself; and when the formative work is complete, and all opposing factors removed--which in this case are goods and truths--he becomes a devil of hell; for even a devil must become as it were a harmonious form, that is, his external must agree altogether and throughout with his internal, or with his ruling love. In this, as in a perverted and hostile image, as in an opposite form, we see illustrated the very work of regeneration itself in the man who is preparing for heaven; in whom there is a ruling love of good, which by degrees asserts itself and brings the natural into a form correspondent with itself.

     It is from this that the angels of heaven are all forms of love, each the form of his own love: the very love which began as a spark or little flame in him, while he was a man in the world, but which now comes forth and shines and glows in every feature of his face, and in every act of his body, which goes forth as a sphere enveloping and surrounding him, which at times appears luminous, as if he were clothed with fire, imaging in a finite measure the Lord clothed with the fire of the Sun of heaven.

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     An angel is nothing but love, he is nothing but his own love; and each thing in him is nothing but a form recipient of love. The love therefore and the recipient forms are in full agreement. From which it is manifest, that every man, who is regenerated, is made altogether new by regeneration. The things inherited from his father and his mother, and the acquired life therefrom, are put aside, and life or love from the Lord, by means of the ruling love of good, takes the place of what was there before, takes the place of all the evil tendencies and lusts, of all the evil purposes and thoughts, that are foreign and extraneous, hostile or opposed, to his ruling love, and his natural form is made recipient of love such as it is in heaven.

     In the regeneration of man, as we have said, we see pictured as in an image the glorification of the Lord; as the Lord glorified His Human and made it Divine, so He regenerates man and makes him an angel of heaven.

     We have seen that in man the ruling love, which is his soul, gradually shapes and forms all things of his life into agreement with itself, expelling everything that is not in such agreement. And it follows that this ruling love in man is and becomes the source, spring, origin, and as it were the father of all things of his life; and it is from this that father in the Word is used in the sense of origin; and by father is therefore signified the ruling love. The father and mother we are to leave in order to follow the Lord is the love of self and the love of the world, from which we have hitherto derived all things of life; but which must be put away and left behind that we may have a new Father. The ruling love in the Lord, or in His Human when He was in the world, and which He called His Father, was Divine Love, Infinite Love. The Lord from this Divine Love, which reigned in Him, in the inmost of His Human, being the Infinite Soul in Him, was a love of all things He hall created, especially of man, who is to live with Him in heaven, conjoined with Him forever. Love creates, and Love preserves. Love creates; and Love must preserve that which it has created.

     Now as it is with man, namely, that everything in him must come into agreement with his ruling love, so with the Lord when He was in the world and in the infirm Human, each and everything in that Human from Mary must come into absolute agreement with His Divine and Infinite Love.

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The Human must agree altogether and throughout with the Divine which was in Him, the Divine Love, the Divine Infinite Soul, which was called the Father. As it is with the angels of heaven, who are all forms of love, forms of their ruling love, so the Human of the Lord must become Divinely a Form of Love, or the Divine Form of Love. As it is with man in his regeneration, so it was with the Lord, all things hostile, all things opposite in Him, all things hereditary from the mother, must be removed and altogether cast out from Him, that the Human might become the form of the Divine, the Divine Form with men and among men. For as it is with the angels, who are nothing but forms of their own love, so with the Lord it was necessary that His Human from Mary should become nothing but the Form of His own Love. All the recipient forms in Him must become recipient forms of Infinite Love, and therefore the forms in His Human must cease to be finite forms, the forms themselves must become Infinite, for only the Infinite can receive the Infinite, only Divine Forms can receive the Divine; that is to say, only the Divine Truth, which is form itself, can receive the Divine Love which is substance itself. Hence we read that the Lord, when He was in the world, first made His Divine Human Divine Truth, that it might become a Divine Form recipient of the Divine Love which was His, and in Him from conception.

     Man in his regeneration must fight against his hereditary and acquired evil, and overcome it, that his external may come into correspondence with his internal. So it was necessary that the Lord should fight against and overcome hereditary and acquired evil, in order that His external might come into a Divine Correspondence with His Internal, which was Love itself; that there might be an Infinite Union of the Human with the Divine. But let us hasten to remark that the Lord had no acquired evil of His own; He did no evil; He never committed sin. He had indeed hereditary evil from the mother. And there was thus in His maternal human the tendency to all evil, but He never by will, thought, or deed added to this store of acquired evil as man does from himself.

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But the Lord admitted into His Human the acquired evil of the human race, in order that He might fight against it, overcome it, and expel it from Himself along with the hereditary evil from the mother. It was by means of the hereditary evil in His maternal Human that He permitted the acquired evil of the whole human race to enter and assault,--the acquired evil of the whole natural world, of the whole world of spirits, of the whole of hell, and the very evils of the angels themselves--all these He permitted to enter and assault, in order that He might from His Divine Love, resist, overcome, expel, wholly cast out, and in so doing make His Human Divine, a Divine Form of the Divine Love itself.

     There is, however, an important distinction to be noted and observed. All the prior forms in man, the forms existing prior to regeneration, which are evil, are simply put away, and cannot be wholly removed and destroyed to all eternity. But with the Lord all the prior forms, which were forms of hereditary evil from the mother, were wholly removed and destroyed, so that not the faintest vestige of them remained with Him in any sense or in any degree whatsoever. Therefore, His Form or His Human, was made wholly and altogether, completely and absolutely, Divine, and thus united Infinitely to the Divine Love, the Infinite Love, which was called the Father.

     It is thus that the Lord, when He left the world, and disappeared from the natural sight of men, was no longer the son of Mary, but the Son of God; and it is thus that the question answered, and is answered for all time, and all eternity, Who is my mother?

     (To be Continued.)

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SPIRITUAL GARMENTS 1904

SPIRITUAL GARMENTS       Jr. Rev. RICHARD DE CHARMS       1904

     "Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy." Rev. iii, 4.

     Before proceeding to consider the words of the text, I would like to call your attention, very briefly and in a very general way, to some things contained in the verse immediately preceding the text, and having an important bearing upon the words before us. These things point to and involve the important relation of truths from the Lord, to the dead religiosity and dead morality in which the people represented by the church of Sardis are. As to worship they need to know, and realize, that, although natural at first, it becomes afterwards spiritual only by truths from the Word and a life according to such truths. These people, and all men, must come, likewise, sooner or later to know and acknowledge, that a man has faith, charity, and all things of the church by means of truths.

     To impress this valuable and necessary relation of truths to the spiritual life and the things of the church, the New Church now declares to such people and to the world, and especially to all in receptive states, that divine truths from the Lord from the Word, are needed and necessary to produce vitally and really the following spiritual results: love to the lord, intelligence and wisdom among men, regeneration or rebirth, purification from evils and falsities, the existence of the church, the existence of heaven, the innocence of wisdom, conscience, order, power against evils and falsities, and thus against hell. In a word, the doctrine is to be proclaimed that by truths a man is a man. By this, of course, is meant truths which are from genuine good from the Lord, and which lead men to such good and the life of it; and not truths without such good. These are needed and absolutely necessary for the true reformation of men and their salvation, and they are competent to effect the above enumerated results when applied aright to the lives of men.

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     This surely is most important teaching in view of the widespread indifference to and neglect of divine truths from the Word at the present day. Men are saying, Lo! here, and lo! there; they are asking, with Pilate, What is truth? But how many are looking for it from some real spiritual love, for the good of life? How many are searching the Word with the end of learning and living the truth revealed there? How many? What is the reason so many men who might be in a spiritually living state are in this dead worship? this dead morality? It is from lack of truth, in the light of which they may see, first, that their worship is spiritually dead, that their external life is spiritually dead, and may then set to work to make these things alive! What enables anyone to see clearly that the old church dispensation is spiritually dead, and a new and living church is needed to save the world? Again, we say, nothing short of divine truth now revealed out of the Word can enable anyone to see this. The whole tendency of the teaching of the church should be to convince us and confirm us in the belief, that the most pressing need of the world and the church today is divinely revealed truths from the Lord, from His Word, in order that men may see what to do, and how to live, that in living according to truth, and conducting all church and state affairs in harmony with the divine order, the power of the hells may be overcome, and peace and true prosperity begin upon earth. There can be no doubt that this is what is needed for a radical cure of the ills now afflicting men, and all other applied remedies are, at best, only temporary and palliative.

     Now we are to see that these men of Sardis are to take heed of these things, just as the world will finally be compelled to take heed of them, either to be saved or vastated by them. The men of Sardis, must not only come to the point of seeing these things to be true, but must also try and make their dead worship and dead morality alive by means of these divine truths. If they do not do this by trying to learn and live these truths, the Lord says to them: "If, therefore, thou shalt not watch, I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee," which means, that all things of worship, and of true spiritual life, will be taken from them, and they will not know when or how. It is a process in which, and by which, the invisible evils and falsities in such people will spiritually steal and take away all things of a really living worship and true spiritual life.

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This is what we are to understand by a spiritual thief, for this is what spiritual thieving is.

     We now proceed with the exposition of the spiritual meaning of the words of the text which will open up to our minds the interesting fact, that not all these men of Sardis are in this dead religiosity; a few have some life. This certainly ought to excite our interest and sympathy, for are not all such good material for the Lord's church? Are not all such our brothers? and to be sought for and loved as members of that great, but invisible church of the Lord, scattered over this habitable globe and yet one in His sight, which is known to us as the "communion of saints," and is composed of every one in good, and in a life of charity? But we turn now to the text. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, means that even among them there are those who have life in their worship. By "a few names" are meant some who are of the quality now to be described; for a name signifies the duality of anyone. The principal reason for this is, because everyone in the spiritual world is named according to his quality. The quality of those now treated of is, that they have life in their worship. When we speak, then, of the old church being spiritually (lead and its worship dead, we always mean and wish to be understood to mean, that church and its worship aside from and exclusive of these few good; we speak of the old church, with the good people in it thought of as being separate from it, and as not belonging to it. In other words it is a thought of the old church as a church with all good and truth taken out of it and a prey to the consummating and vastating powers of evil and falsity. These "few names even in Sardis," are specifically the remnant of good people, who, in spite of the dead worship which surrounds them, have something of a living principle in their worship; with whom there is as it were a ray of divine light, piercing the spiritual darkness and death which environs them, and bringing light and warmth to their souls. And a greater light and more fervent heat is awaiting them as they sit in darkness, looking and longing for the coming of the Lord; for of them it is further said, Who have not defiled their garments, that is to say, spiritually, who are in truths, and have not defiled their worship by evils of life and falsities thence.

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     Garments in the Word mean truths which clothe good, and in the opposite sense, falsities which clothe evil; for a man is either his good or his evil; hence truths or falsities are his garments. This is a useful way to look at: a man; he is the evil which he loves, or he is the good which he loves,--then he clothes and envelops himself in the congenial falsities which favor that evil, or the congenial truths which favor that good. We are thinking, of course, of a man's spirit. If you could see a man's spirit such as it is in the other world, you would find this to be true in every way, even to his outward garments. Hence, we are taught, that all angels and spirits appear clothed according to the truths of their good, or according to the falsities of their evils, as may more fully appear from reading the work on Heaven and Hell, n. 177-182. This will make manifest to us, why it is that "not defiling their garments" comes to mean, to be in truths, and so not to defile worship by evils of life and the falsities thence. It shows, too, just what it is that defiles a man's worship, that is, evils of life, and the falsities flowing from these. And his worship defiles the man himself, as such evils and falsities flow down into his external conduct and render it spiritually filthy and impure in the sight of heaven, and the Lord. We might quote many passages from the Letter of the Word to prove this to be the spiritual and real meaning of garments. Here is one, which, it seems to me, is very striking: The Lord says in Luke v., 36, 37: No one putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old garment; otherwise the new rendeth the old, and the piece from the new agreeth not with the old. Is it not plain here, that a garment means truth, and that the Lord is here referring to an old dispensation of truth as compared to a dispensation of truth, or a New Church; and, specifically, to the Jewish church, as compared with the first Christian church? He, therefore, compares the truths of the former church, which were external and representative of spiritual things, to a piece of an old garment, and the truths of the New Church, which are internal and spiritual, to a piece of a new garment; and He inculcates the lesson, that the one can not be put upon the other, without serious consequences to both. Consider, further, the spiritual or correspondential origin of the Oriental custom of tearing or rending the garments when anyone spoke against and so tore and defaced the divine truth of the Word; why those people washed their garments that they themselves might be purified.

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Is not a man purified by truths? Consider, why, on account of transgressions against divine truths, they put off their garments, and put on sackcloth. Does not a man, when he sees that he has offended against the divine truth, feel sorry, and strive to repent and is not his sorrow the result of the consciousness of the fact, that he has put off a truth he might have followed and done, and put on some falsity from evil he should have shunned as a sin against the Lord? If we know what garments mean in general and particular, we will be able to understand what is really to be understood by the garments of Aaron and his sons,---the ephod, the robe, the checkered undercoat, the belt, the breeches, the mitre, and we will find they all have reference to something of truth from good.

     Garments, then, are to be thought of spiritually as truth clothing and protecting a man's spirit, as natural garments do his body; beautiful, useful, and magnificent garments as corresponding to truths from good from the Lord, and ugly, ragged, and filthy garments as corresponding to falsities from evil from hell. A man's body may be arrayed in costly and magnificent apparel, and yet, notwithstanding this, his spirit may and will be clothed in rags and tatters and filth, if he daily manifests and ultimates evil and falsities in his life.

     A man's garments here do not always, for many external reasons, represent his internal character. They are often the sign of poverty and mis-fortune; but in the other world they will most exactly and wonderfully show his real character, and he the correspondent things he loves to put on and wear. Occasionally in this world this spiritual law of garments ultimates itself and becomes literally true, as for instance in the case of the miser, who unconsciously express in his outward appearances and dress the filthiness of the evil love of avarice which has invaded and taken possession of his spirit. I do not doubt in the least that if we were wise enough to trace many of the peculiarities of dress even as they exist around us today to their spiritual source and cause we should find strong and startling confirmations of this spiritual law of dress.

     What is it that enables these men of Sardis, or a few of them, to keep their garments clean, or enables them to wear garments not defiled by the filthy things they come in contact with?

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What preserves their worship from being contaminated by the dead worship in which they participate? What gives a spiritual quality to their moral life? What enables them to live in the midst of the spiritual death surrounding them? The same thing in kind that enables a Newchurchman to maintain some spiritual life surrounded as he is with spiritual death on every hand. There is something from a spiritual origin in their worship, their life, their morality, there is some truth from the Lord with them, which they believe in and live up to as best they can. Their knowledges of truths are few and very obscure, but they cling to them, and order their lives in accordance with them. They are under and are living under the law of spiritual life, and are thus and so far alive, although the graveclothes of a dead church are still clinging to them. They are alive but have not yet arisen from the grave. They are alive because they have applied the few knowledges of truth from the Word to the uses of life, even though this has been done in the valley of the shadow of death. They live morally not for the sake of self and the world, that is, for the sake of the body only and its life, but for the sake of the Lord, and of heaven, that is, for the sake of the soul and its life. They are of such a quality that they live morally, from something of a spiritual origin, because they live for the sake of the Lord and heaven, and it is precisely this that gives a spiritual quality to their otherwise natural walls of thinking and doing; and especially because they apply the few knowledges of truth and good, derived from the Word, which they have, to their own lives. Is it not plain and clear that the conditions of spiritual life are here, though not yet in distinctive spiritual form? How do they get these truths when the church they worship in and with is wholly immersed in falsities? From the Lord through the Letter of the Word. How do they keep their spiritual garments pure in worship? By looking to and worshiping the Lord, from what He teaches them in the Word, and by living according to that, day by day. These men of Sardis appear to me as holding up their spiritual garments, as it were, that they trail not in the spiritual filth surrounding them, while they are looking to the Lord to lead them out to cleaner ground. They do this at first unconsciously, until the Lord opens their eyes to see their real spiritual surroundings, when they hasten their steps to escape from this whitened sepulchre, and with joy go up to the New Jerusalem, whose gates stand wide open to receive them.

     Now it is because these people have kept their garments clean, have kept their worship clean, have kept their moral life clean, in the midst of such spiritual death, decay, and uncleanliness, that they appeal to our sympathies and aid. I see them passing through this valley of the shadow of death, groping their way in spiritual darkness, and surrounded by spiritual dangers, with pitfalls at every turn, with false lights shining on each hand, with byways leading to evil and falsity, as they advanced and still with courage, and simple faith, which never fails them, in the Lord and in what He teaches them from His Word; they struggle on and on, in the faithful doing of the things they receive from Him, to the light which shines dimly before them, never doubting that they will finally reach the mountain tops of the Lord's fuller love and brighter shining. And who can doubt, that as they emerge from this scene of death and desolation, they will find the Lord, transfigured before them, His divine face shining as the sun and His garments white as the light? For is it not said of them, And they shall walk with me in white, for they are worthy, which means that they shall live with the Lord in His spiritual kingdom, because they are in truths from Him? "To walk" means, spiritually, to live. "To walk with God," means to live from Him. "In white" means in truths, white in the Word being predicated of truths because it derives its origin from the sun's light; red is dedicated of goods, because it derives its origin from the sun's fire; black is predicated of falsities, because it draws its origin from the darkness of hell; all of which is instructive in regard to the origin and correspondence of color, especially of white. Those who are in truth from the Lord, since they are conjoined to Him, are called worthy, because all worthiness in the spiritual world is from conjunction with the Lord.

     It is clear then why it is promised to the men of Sardis who have not defiled their garments, that they shall walk with the Lord in white, and why they are said to be worthy. They have been in truths from the Lord and have walked in them, have lived according to them. They have fulfilled the conditions of spiritual life. They have procured to themselves spiritual life by means of knowledges of truth and good from the Word.

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They have become worthy because they have spiritual life from the Lord. For we are taught, that in proportion as anyone receives from the Lord in the same proportion he is worthy, but in proportion as he receives from himself, that is, from his own, or from his proprium, in the same proportion he is not worthy. Nothing else constitutes spiritual life with man but the knowledges of truth and good, derived from the Word and applied to life; and they are applied to life when man makes them the laws of his life, for thus he looks to the Lord in everything, and the Lord is present with him, and gives him intelligence and wisdom, with the affection and delight thereof. For the Lord is in His own truths with man, inasmuch as every truth proceeds from the Lord, and what proceeds from the Lord is of the Lord, so that it is Himself, wherefore the Lord says, I am the truth and the life.

     Of course these men of Sardis do not walk in the clear light of spiritual truths now revealed from the Lord out of heaven; but their life is the same in kind, though not in degree, as the life of the earnest and faithful Newchurchman. For what more can a man do, or the Lord require of him, than to live daily according to what he sees and believes to be the Lord's will, and in accord with His divine truth, His divine law, His divine order? These men of Sardis do this and are so conjoined to the Lord, and hence are worthy. We should respect them, we should sympathize and love them for this, as we should do all this for everything good and true in the world.

     This lesson of keeping the garments clean and undefiled, is surely one we New Church people need to learn and diligently heed, as well as these men of Sardis. It is true we are not in the old church, and not so directly affected, perhaps, by its uncleanness, but we are, or may be, called to come in contact daily with its spheres, and with those who breathe and exhale those spheres. Are we always careful enough to keep our truths free from any contaminating effects of such spheres? Do we seek to remove any effect falsities may have upon us, as we would some spot or mark upon our natural garments? Are we as solicitous to keep our spiritual garments clear and presentable, as we are, or should be, to keep our bodily garments so?

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I fear we do not think of these things as we should, or observe the same spiritual care we should. Let these men of Sardis, then, who have not defiled their garments, even though surrounded more completely than we with spiritual defilements, and without our light to see the uncleanness, be a means of stimulating us to greater efforts to keep our garments clean, and free from the falsities and evils which surround us, and threaten to defile them day by day. For if we are to be accounted worthy, and if we are to walk in white, we must see to it that our spiritual garments are kept clean by putting into our external lives, only the pure truths the Lord has given us, and by refusing to put there ought else, which can only render our spiritual garments unclean before the Lord. If we do not do, and, in the clearer light we have, do more spiritually, what these men of Sardis do in their obscure and natural way, and do it as faithfully, earnestly and trustingly as they, we are not as worthy as they, and we will be so adjudged by the divine truth. We have a clearer light to walk in, if we walk not in it, we are not as good as they. We have the truth but have not the life. If we have whiter garments, will we not be required to keep them cleaner? Should we not be more sensitive about the soiling effects of evil and falsity, because of our finer spiritual apparel, as we would be, and usually are, of the soiling effects of natural dirt, on fine and much prized natural material or fabric?

     It seems to me that the whole tendency of this teaching is to make us more solicitous and careful about what we put into our external lives, to avoid as much as possible putting anything there we see, or may see, to be not in accord with the truths from the Lord we have or may have; and this will certainly be something false and evil, if it is really not in harmony with such truths. If our daily lives could be so ordered as to be in accordance with the principles and truths now revealed to us in divine doctrine from the Lord out of heaven, we may not doubt, that this would enable us to keep our garments undefiled as nothing else could or would. Let us then try to do this in all humility before the Lord, looking to Him and the divinely revealed truths from Him as our rule, and as the means of knowing how to keep our garments clean, how to walk with the Lord in white, how to be worthy. If we are ever to become worthy, we must do, as Newchurchmen and women, on a higher plane, just what these few in Sardis are described as doing, and it must come to be said of us, and truly said, because of similar earnestness, faithfulness, trust and faith in the Lord, loyalty and devotion to what we believe to be true and good from Him, and consistent and persistent application of such truth to life and its uses, that we have not defiled our garments.

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Then we may have some reason to believe, that we shall walk with the Lord in white, and so be conjoined with Him here and hereafter in clearer light and more interior affection. This, in the fullest and best and truest sense is to be and to remain worthy. Amen.
NATURAL SUN AND ITS THREE ATMOSPHERES 1904

NATURAL SUN AND ITS THREE ATMOSPHERES       ALFRED H. STROH       1904

     In the scientific works of Swedenborg, and especially in the Principia, a philosophy of the creation of the natural universe is presented, which examination shows to be in substantial agreement with what the Writings of the New Church reveal concerning creation. Every student of the Divine Love and Wisdom, who takes the pains to compare what is there taught concerning the degrees of natural substances, the natural atmospheres and their derivation from the natural sun, with the presentation of the same subject in the Principia, will find that there is a remarkable agreement in the general plan and scope and even as to many particulars, although there are some exceptions to this.

     The Writings constantly teach that first the spiritual sun was created and from it the natural sun; that from the natural sun there came into existence three natural atmospheres, usually called the aura, the ether and the air. To the writer's knowledge there are no passages in the Writings which teach that there are more than three natural atmospheres as defined above, except two in the early portion of the Spiritual Diary written in 1747, which will be considered presently. Now the Principia and the other scientific works teach that there are four natural atmospheres, namely, the highest, the aura, or the first element of the Principia, in which is gravity and which is universal and inter-stellar; the second, or the magnetic element of the Principia, in which the phenomena of magnetism take their rise; the third element, or the ether of the Principia, which presents the phenomena of light, heat and electricity; and the fourth, or the aerial element of the Principia, in which is sound, which we breathe, etc.

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There is no doubt that the Principia teaches that there are four atmospheres, neither is there any doubt that the Writings constantly teach that there are three, forming a trine, just as the three spiritual atmospheres form a trine. I have studied the passages for several years and have come to the conclusion that the true explanation of this discrepancy, which is a real and not only an apparent one, is to be found in the consideration that Swedenborg sought to explain the phenomena of the magnet in the Principia, and supposed that a special element was necessary. Afterwards, in the Writings, when his spiritual eyes had been open for many years, after the Last Judgment in 1757, he knew that magnetism and light were not in two distinct ethers, but in one. This is taught in the work on the Last Judgment (posthumous), 312, as follows:

     There are three natural atmospheres originating from the sun of the world, and three spiritual atmospheres originating from the Sun of Heaven, which is the Lord. The three natural atmospheres originating from the sun of the world, are the purer ether, which is universal, and from which is all gravity; the middle ether, which makes a vortex about the planets, in which also is light, in which are the satellites, and from which comes magnetism; and the ultimate ether which is the air. By means of these three atmospheres, all corporeal and material things of the earth are held together, all of which are compounded in adaptation to these three degrees.

     The student of the Principia will see at once that the various properties of the atmospheres of the Principia are represented here, but they are attributed to three atmospheres, whereas the Principia attributes them to four. The properties which in the Principia are attributed to the second and third atmospheres are in the passage just quoted attributed to the second atmosphere, there being only three mentioned. It is very noteworthy that the passage is strongly supported by modern science, which places magnetism and electricity, light, heat and other similar activities in the ether, a postulated medium which is in many respects similar to Swedenborg s'luminiferous ether. In modern science we have the air, the ether and the unexplained phenomena of gravity, which can only be explained by postulating an aura or atmosphere above the ether, with an indefinite rapidity of action and pressure, because only that would present any reasonable mechanical explanation of gravity, the ether having a well-known resistance and a comparative slowness of action quite incompatible in connection with the explanation of gravity.

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     Under the date October 27, 1747, Swedenborg wrote number 222 of the Spiritual Diary, and in it mentions four atmospheres, placing magnetism and light in the second and third atmospheres, respectively, as does the Principia. Two months later, on December 29, he mentions the natural atmospheres again, saying that they are "threefold or fourfold." (D. 418.) Beginning with the Arcana Caelestia the uniform teaching of the Writings is that there are three natural atmospheres, and it is clear that all the properties attributed to the four atmospheres of the Principia and of the works written before the Spiritual Diary, including number 222 of that work, may be rightfully attributed to the three atmospheres of the Writings, where, as in the Last Judgment (posthumous), 312, which was quoted above, the two middle atmospheres are combined into one.

     A very valuable contribution to the study of the doctrine of creation has recently been made by the Rev. L. P. Mercer in an article published in the New Church Review, October, 1903, entitled "The First Aura and the Plane of the Limbus;" it has also been reprinted in New Church Life, February, 1904. Everything that the writer says concerning the relation of the limbus to the first natural atmosphere or the aura or first element of the Principia is quite clear, but exception will be taken by a number of students of the doctrine of creation to the position given the aura in the order of creation. The writer places it prior to the sun and holds that suns are formed in the first aura after its creation,--that they are "set up" in it. This position, however, is not in agreement with the Principia or the Writings, as will now be shown.

     In the first place the Principia clearly teaches that the order of creation is as follows: First, the natural point second, the first finite; third, the solar centre; fourth, the second finites; fifth, the first aura or element; sixth, the solar vortex; and then follow the third finites, second element, fourth finites, etc. It is indeed true that Swedenborg, in Part I., chapter V., section 23 of he Principia, views the second finite as being coeval with the first active, which is the first finite in local motion, but in the same connection (section 26) he immediately presents another view, namely, that the first active was capable of existing before the second finites and of being the cause of the contingent that second finites arose.

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This is a very important modification because the Principia teaches that the first aura or element is composed of least forms called elementaries which are composed of an envelope of second finites within which are enclosed first actives. It is plain, therefore, that the first element could not have come into existence before the second finites were formed. Now from Part I., chapter X., it is quite clear that the first actives did come into existence before the second finites, because that chapter teaches that the large active solar space, which consists of first actives, could primitively have consisted only of the actives of the first finites (section I). It is also taught that the solar centre was at first surrounded by first finites (section 1). On account of the great activity of the solar centre and the resulting pressure on the first finites they were able to finite themselves and so produce the second finites (section 3). Then it is taught (sections 4-5) that the newly-created second finites may now enter the solar space and themselves become active, forming second actives, and also, the first elementaries may take their rise around the sun, their pre-requisite components, first actives and second finites, being present there; second elementaries may likewise arise around the sun. And now, since there is a medium which may be actuated into a vortex, the solar vortex is set up by the sun in the surrounding element. This is taught in section 5 et seqq. To sum up, the Principia not only does not teach that the first aura is formed before the sun and that the solar vortex was then set up inn it, but it emphatically teaches that the solar centre was formed before the first aura was created, and that in fact it was the contingent which caused its creation. It is important to properly distinguish between the solar space or centre and the solar vortex as Chapter X. does, because while the solar centre was created before the first aura, the solar vortex, or the great whirlpool of solar activity, was formed after the first aura was created, that is, it then came into its fell power, actuating the aura and using it in the completion of the solar system.

     There are several other considerations, which prove the position taken, namely, the order of the chapters of Part I., an examination of which shows that the solar centre is mentioned in Chapter V. before the first element is treated of in Chapter VI., that Chapter VI. says that the first element constitutes the solar and stellar vortices, that the point, first active and second active make a trine, besides many other considerations. But the general position has been proved and it will also be found that the passages adduced by Mr. Mercer in support of his position do not support it.* The scientific works of Swedenborg and the Writings of the New Church do not teach that any atmosphere is created prior to the natural or to the spiritual sun; this would involve the creation of the centre from the circumference, a hypothesis so strongly condemned in Conjugial Love, 380. Arcana Coelestia, 7270, does not support the position of Mr. Mercer. It does not teach that there is one "atmosphere" above the heavens but that there are two "radiant belts" around the sun. (Sunt quasi cingula radiosa ex flammeo, quae circumdant solem, qui est Dominus.) That the "radiant belts" are two in number is stated just before the quotation. The position that the first natural aura is above the natural sun and that it corresponds to an atmosphere below the spiritual sun is also contrary to the universal correspondence of the suns and atmospheres of both worlds to each other. Possibly the chromosphere and photosphere of the natural sun correspond to the two radiant belts of the spiritual sun.
* Some of the references evidently should be to the Economy of the Animal Kingdom instead of to the Animal Kingdom.

     All students of the doctrine of creation will agree that there are many things which are not yet properly understood, but no doubt a persevering study and analysis of passages together with a correlation of the facts of modern science will finally make everything clear.

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NATURAL SCIENCE AS A BASIS OF TRUE WISDOM 1904

NATURAL SCIENCE AS A BASIS OF TRUE WISDOM       E. A. FARRINGTON       1904

     We are taught in the Writings that natural truth is the foundation of spiritual truth; that it is the external vessel or containant of this truth, and that it is as it were a cloak or garment for the internal to which it corresponds.

     In Arcana Coelestia (1435) we read that "without acquired scientifics man, as man, cannot have any idea of thought. The ideas of thought are founded upon those things which have been impressed upon the memory from sensual things, and therefore scientifics are the vessels of spiritual things."

     By scientifics or scientific truth we are to understand no other than natural truth, for it is taught that "scientifics are of the natural insomuch that natural truths and scientific truths are the same. (A. C. 3368.)

     There are of course degrees of natural truth, of a higher and lower order (A. C. 5930), and it is the purpose of this paper to refer to only one of those degrees, namely, the lowest or sensual degree, which is the plane of the truths of Nature.

     It is well known that there is great power in ultimates. The Letter of the Word is powerful because it is the ultimate of the Divine Truth which is within. The spiritual world has for its basis and foundation the ultimate or natural world, and this gives to the former its stability and strength.

     Man is placed in this ultimate world in order that he may regenerate and thus be prepared for Heaven, and it would seem from this that ultimates are connected in some intimate way with his regeneration. Otherwise he would not need to be placed in them.

     We are taught in the Arcana Coelestia (5489) that the scientific is the receptacle of good. This "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, but slip away.... 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 love, consequently of some good, for everything that is of love is called good, whether it be good, or be only believed to be good.

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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, and likewise on the other hand, when, when the scientific is recalled, the good with which it is conjoined comes forth....     From these things it may be evident how the case is with scientifics...that they are receptacles of good."

     Again (A. C. 5373) "Scientifics, which are of the natural mind, are ultimates of order....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."

     Scientifics, then, are receptacles of good, and hence the greater the number of receptacles possessed by man, the more full and complete will be his reception of good. And moreover unless spiritual things be presented in the natural, man cannot understand them. He understands them according to the development of his natural or scientific.

     We read further (A. C. 1600) that "all scientifics are for the end that man may become rational and thus wise." The rational is therefore founded upon the scientific, and in proportion as the latter is perfected, the former may be perfected also.

     From becoming rational a man finally becomes wise, hence wisdom also is founded upon scientifics.

     In Heaven and Hell, 356, we are taught that "... man by knowledges and sciences is made spiritual, and that these are the means of becoming wise, but only with those who in faith and life have acknowledged the Divine. They are also accepted in Heaven above others and are there among those who are in the midst, because they are in light more than the rest. These are the intelligent and wise in Heaven, who shine as with the splendor of the firmament, and who shine as the stars."

     And further (H. H. 356) "The simple are those who have acknowledged the Divine, loved the Word and lived a spiritual and moral life, while their interiors, which are of the rational mind, they have not thus cultivated by knowledges and sciences."

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     Scientifics may of course be applied to a good or an evil purpose. It is said in Arcana Coelestia (6917) that "Scientifics in themselves are not truths nor are they falses, but that they become truths with those who are in truths, and falses with those who are in falses. Their application and use effects this."

     They are useful and true only in so far as they are made to confirm Divine Truth, and he who can add to his knowledge of Divine Truth many confirmations from Nature is wiser than he who cannot do so.

     It is very clear from the above-quoted passages of what use the ultimate or sensual plane of natural truth may be to man.

     The man who aspires to true wisdom must fill his mind with sensual scientifics. They are the foundations of wisdom, and it is a general principle that the broader the foundation, the higher and more perfect may he the superstructure.

     The Writings tell us what these scientifics are which form the basis of rationality and wisdom. Upon the lowest plane they are in general the experimental sciences, such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, mechanics, geometry, anatomy and the like. (H. and H. 353)

     Every Newchurchman should be instructed in these sciences. It is not enough to have a vague general knowledge of them; a more accurate and detailed acquaintance with them is necessary to the proper development of that external plane from which confirmations of truth are to be drawn, and in which "receptacles of good" reside--in other words, of that basic plane upon which the
broadest spiritual growth is founded.

     Swedenborg himself was one of the most eminent scientists of his day. The breadth of his knowledge and the depth of his insight were marvelous, and this was of the Divine Providence, because it was necessary to the work which Swedenborg was called upon to perform. We was exceptionally well versed in the sciences of astronomy, or more properly, of cosmogony and of anatomy, and these are especially important.

     Man was created in the image of God, and the human form is therefore the most perfect of all natural forms.

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In the lower kingdoms of Nature there is a constant endeavor toward this form. The perfect correspondence of every minute detail of the human body, the microcosm--and the macrocosm also--with all things of the Gorand Man of Heaven, makes an understanding of the former essential to an adequate appreciation of the latter.

     The man who is not versed in the particular things of science cannot read the Writings with a full grasp of their meaning. Everywhere they abound with confirmations of the truths of doctrine drawn from natural science, and if these confirmations are not understood, a valuable part of the doctrine itself is lacking in the mind.

     It behooves us, then to "borrow of the Egyptians jewels of silver and gold" (Exodus iii., 22), that we may apply them to the holy things of life and of the Church.
REFLECTIONS 1904

REFLECTIONS              1904

Down the echoing ages, from the dawn
Of earth's creation and its glorious Source,
Comes forth in fragments grand a mighty strain,
By Correspondence blent with things that be
Forever true to truth, throughout eternity.

In all the tongues from Babel's chaos drawn,
Are legends strange that trace a common source,
Where starlike from the dark mists of the past
The selfsame truths shine forth in varied hue,
And light cloud-curtained ages to our longing view.

Those first born sons of men, whose primal soul
No thought of evil knew, nor knowledge yet
Of that great passion which the human held,
Of scorning off allegiance that it owes
To Him, from whom alone all life and blessing flows.

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When heavenly light first kissed their sleeping souls,
In radiance dawned the glorious Golden Age;
On earth's fair face vast heaven's foundation lay,
And Love conjugial held its glorious reign
Mid beings fair and pure, unknown to grief or pain.

To them no books nor laws, nor scrit, nor creed;
In wisdom's innocence, unquestioning still,
They walked in humble joy before their God;
As yet no darkening cloud to hide His face
From them, the unlearned fathers of the human race.

And nature's voice, in melody sublime,
Lent chords to swell their mighty song of praise,--
Borne heavenward on wings of grateful love
To Him, who beauty gave, and power to be,--
And mirrored forth His might in earth and sky and sea.

As when at fading day the cloud-hung west
Absorbs and sheds again in changing ray
The sunlight that for us has ceased to shine,
So strange traditions and the myths they hold
In ling'ring twilight-gleams reflect the truths of old.

In varied tale, oft carved on ancient stone
Long buried neath the dust of ages dead,
We learn, anew, the story of the fall;
Of man, by serpent stung with venomed doubt,
From Eden's sacred garden cast forever out.

How self awoke and sought in stealth to pluck
Forbidden fruits, then turned in shame to hide
Its face from God,-and earth from heaven withdrew:
And innocence and love and wisdom died,
Because that wisdom's Source, vainglorious self denied.

Was then God's mighty universe to fall;
Fair heaven born, so soon to fade and die
In all the promise of its early youth?
No! Glorious ends infill creation's plan
And God created man for heaven and heaven for man.

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Can we that Wisdom doubt, whose procreant will
Forthgoing formed us images of Him,
That we in freedom held might freely choose
The beauty of His likeness from above:
Gave liberty to hate, that we might learn to love?

Nay, He whose searching eye foresaw each change,
In wisdom did provide, when first the world
Blushed forth in virgin spring at His command:
And truth sublime still stems the mighty flood
To bend each adverse current to the stream of good.

So from that Golden Age of wisdom's youth
Ere men perverted knowledge to misuse;
When, in each grand perfection of the earth,
Unclouded eyes celestial wisdom sought,
And kindred good and truth united deed and thought,

Alloyed through human contact, e'en disguised
Oftimes in hideous garments wrought of ill,
The Truth lives on, unchanging and unchanged,
Unaltered by the self-born sins of men,
The same that is, that shall be, and has been.

Let us, to whom the knowledge has been given
Of Truth Immortal's crowning gift from heaven,
In humble joy toward highest wisdom strive:
Unite in grand concordance heaven and earth;
Fulfill creation's ends in God, Who called them forth.

                         R. EVELYN FRANKISH.

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LAST JUDGMENT 1904

LAST JUDGMENT              1904

     MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG.

MOHAMMED AND THE MOHAMMEDANS.

     69. Something concerning the judgment on the Mohammedans, may be seen in the little work on the Last Judgment, n. 50; also that there are two Mohammeds under the heaven of Christians.

     70. As to what a Choir is, and that by choirs inauguration into unanimity is effected,--which takes place when many speak and act at the same time and unanimously--and that in their speech there is an harmonious blending of sounds, see Arcana Coelestia, nos. 1648, 1649, 2595, 2596, 3350, 5182, 8115.

     MOHAMMED.

     71. I have spoken with the Mohammed who is in his stead, who hall his seat under the Christian heaven. It was seen that the glory of the Lord was shewn to the Mohammedans, and that they then threw themselves on their faces; their Mohammed did likewise.

     72. I have heard Mohammedans speaking so skillfully and discretely, that they affected certain Christian spirits with shame; the Mohammedans acknowledging Mohammed, but adoring the one only Lord of the universe. And Mohammed then testified that he himself has no power, then he also adored the Lord.

     73. I have sometimes seen Mohammed driving a crowd of his worshipers away from him, saying that they should go to the Lord who rules the universe.

     74. Spirits were sent to me by Mohammed, who by a form of fluxion could induce a delightful appearance of a laver.

     75. Both Mohammeds confessed that the Lord is the source of all goodness and truth.

     76. The spirits who are about Mohammed are inaugurated into unanimity and agreement by means of Angelic Choirs, to the end that they may suffer themselves to be acted on, and to think, will, and speak from the Lord by means of angels; respecting Choirs see above.

200


I have both seen and heard them presenting, by means of these choirs, beautiful representations concerning the Lord the Saviour of the world. The work of choirs is performed by Mohammedans with great merit. Mohammedan choirs became more familiar to me than others. Because I was with Mohammed throughout a long period of time, I was also with him when I was in Amsterdam and in the palace there, which he saw through my eyes, and he praised it, being delighted with its marbles,* for marbles correspond to the affections of Mohammedans, who are, in some little degree spiritual; for all things are correspondences; things of gold correspond to the affections of the angels of the third heaven, of silver to those of the angels of the second heaven, of copper to those of the angels of the first heaven, and of Indian porcelain to ultimate [affections] in heaven; things of marble correspond to Mohammedan [affections].
* The great hall of the palace of Amsterdam, which in Swedenborg's time was the Stadthuis, is a magnificent room measuring 120 by 57 feet, and go feet high, with walls incrusted with white Italian marbles. The event described in the text took place probably at the end of the year 1747. See S. D., 339-TR

     77. The two Mohammeds, because they desired it, were once elevated into heaven; and then, speaking with me therefrom, they said that from heaven they saw in a single idea of thought innumerable things which, below heaven, they had believed to be one simple thing. This was done, that they might know how the Lord leads man, namely, by innumerable things, which, in the natural state, appear to the man like one, when yet within each such one there are things ineffable. This may be compared with a tiny animalcule; to the naked eye it appears like a single obscure speck, but with a powerful microscope, it is nevertheless an animal furnished with members and also with organs, and, interiorly, with muscles, fibres, heart, brain, and a great many other things. So it is with one idea of man's thought. Therefore no one but the Lord alone knows the quality of a man's thought and affection, and how much of what is living, that is, of heaven, there is within him; for in the degree that heaven is within him, in the same degree is the human from the Lord within him.

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These things did the two Mohammeds learn by their elevation into heaven.

     78. There were Mohammedans in the western quarter, dwelling upon rocks, who had been rejected by Mohammed in the Christian world,* because they had worshiped Mohammed instead of God, and had adored him, which was forbidden them; and it was ascertained that they had then thought nothing about the Lord, nor about Him as the greatest Prophet and the Son of God. And when examination was made as to the quality of their idea respecting God the Father, it was found that they did not have the idea of a man but no idea,--and without an idea concerning God there is no conjunction with any heaven. It was told them that, respecting the Lord, they might the rather have had an idea of God, since He is the greater Prophet and the Son of God; but they said that they could not,--for it was a wandering race. Because they worshiped Mohammed, therefore Mohammed himself, who wrote the Koran and was buried in Mecca, was taken out of his place (which was at the right, deep down, a little behind the right foot), and raised upwards to the earth, and shown to them. He appeared gross, and in black, exactly like corporeal spirits, who have little of life. He spoke with them, confessing that it was he, and that he was of such a character. And after he had been shown to them, he was carried away into his own place; but those worshipers of Mohammed were scattered.
* The Christian world" (Christianus orbs), here means the Christian region in the World of Spirits; see S. D., 5663a-5667a, where further particulars are given respecting the Mohammedans referred to.--TR.

     79. It was afterward disclosed whence the two Mohammeds were, who had obtained a seat under the Christian heaven. One of them was born in Saxony, and, being captured by the Algerians, had there adopted the Mohammedan religion; then, becoming a ship-captain, he was captured by the Genoese, among whom he received the Christian religion. Being thus devoted to both religions, therefore, because he acknowledged the Lord, and was actuated by the love of ruling, he was adopted in place of Mohammed there; and he injected among the Mohammedans the belief that he was Mohammed himself. He was a man of talent.

     80. As to the second Mohammed, it was disclosed that he was a Christian from Greece. He also was acknowledged by those who, in the world, had thought of many Mohammeds.

202




     81. With the first Mohammed there appears something luminous as if from a little torch; and the Mohammedans look thither, and he thence flows into them through the medium of spirits; for in the spiritual world distances* are only appearances, and when anyone is thought of distance disappears and there is presence. Mohammed is skillful in instructing those who question him. It was granted to perceive the sphere of their life; it was exteriorly delightful, interiorly storing up the lasciviousness which they have in the world from matrimony with many wives and concubines; it was an unclean warmth, but a warmth which to Mohammedans is delightful.
* The MS. has distinctiae.-TR.

     82. The reason why Mohammeds are continually substituted in place of the other, is because everyone, after death, is led into the religion which he had in the world: it is a continuation of his life. But afterwards he is successively led away either to the good or to the evil, according to his life: according to which also he receives either truths or falses.

     83. I have heard that Mohammed saying that he acknowledges the Lord as the one only God, in whom is the Father who is one with Him, and that the Holy Proceeding from Him is the Divine infilling the Heavens and making them.*
* In the MS. this paragraph is written any indication as to its exact place in the text. Practically the same words occur in S. D. 5243.--TR.

     (To be Continued.)

203


Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

     IN response to the inquiry on p. 133 of our last issue, as to a certain word in the manuscript of The Last Judgment, the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck has written suggesting the reading, "cadaverosi" (cadaverous). This is undoubtedly correct, and should therefore be supplied in the blank spaces on p. 133.

     Under the title "Who is my Mother?" we print, this month, the first of a series of four discourses by Bishop Pendleton, on the Glorification of the Lord; the remaining articles, which throw considerable light on this supreme doctrine of the Church, will follow in order.
DISSEMINATION OF THE BIBLE 1904

DISSEMINATION OF THE BIBLE              1904

     March 7, 1904, marked the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the first organized effort ever made to give the Bible to all people of the earth in their own language. The day was celebrated both in England and America as "Universal Bible Sunday." special services being held in nearly all the churches. Since its establishment, the English Bible Society has circulated over 180,000,000 copies of the Scriptures, and the American Society, which was instituted in 1816, over 72,000,000. This has involved a very great number of translations into different languages and dialects, and even, in many cases, the invention of an alphabet. It may be safely asserted that there is hardly a language on earth in which there is not at least some portion of the Sacred Scriptures.

     New Churchmen cannot but rejoice at this successful activity in spreading broadcast the letter of the Word. And their joy will not be diminished by the fact, that though the Word may be read and accepted, the heathen are, as a rule, extremely loathe to accept the doctrines of the Old Church. The more intelligent among them are especially alive to the absurdity and inconsistency of those doctrines - as was made plainly evident to any careful observer of events in the Chicago Parliament of Religions. Many missionaries being forced to recognize this state of things, are therefore careful to keep their doctrines in the background, and to dwell as much as possible on the plain teachings of the Bible, and especially of the New Testament.

     The Letter of the Word must precede, before the spiritual sense can be revealed and accepted. Therefore the art of printing was invented for the sake of the diffusion of the Word which should prepare for the New Church. (A. C. 9353.) And therefore, also, Luther was raised up less than a century after printing was invented, that through him men might be freed from the bondage of the Catholic Church, and that the Word might be open to them.

204


These two events gave an immense impetus to the reading and study of the Word, and when the Writings were finally revealed, men, made familiar with the teachings of the Scriptures, were free to see for themselves that the new Revelation made one with former revelations; they were free to do what the Writings so often bid them do: to search the Word and see whether the doctrines agree with it.

     It is so with the gentiles. We are told that the Church will spread among the gentiles; but this cannot take place, until their minds have been prepared by the teachings of the Letter of the Word, and especially by the knowledge that the Lord was actually a Man. All gentiles of any intelligence think of God as a Man. The Bible will not only confirm them in this thought, but will also prepare and lead them, little by little, to see that God appeared on earth as a Man, and that the Lord is He, and finally to see the glory of His Divine Human.

     At the present day, most of the gentiles will receive the truth itself, only when they come into the other world, and this is the immediate end for which they are being prepared; for some knowledge of the Lord, on earth, will afford them a fuller, and therefore more powerful ultimate plane for the reception of instruction and enlightenment from the angels. But as these spirits, thus more and more fully instructed, grow in number and enlightenment in the other world, their sphere and presence with gentiles on earth will, in turn, still further prepare these to see and receive the truths of the Letter, and, in the Lord's own time, the truths of the spiritual sense. It is this great work, the preparation of the soil for the future New Church, that the Lord is now doing, by means of spirits in the other world, and, in this world, by means of inspired to give and to labour for the universal distribution of the Bible,--a distribution, be it noted, which was not inaugurated, except in a very small way, until several years after the establishment of the New Church. In this connection, it is interesting to note that Swedenborg gave express orders his publishers "that all the money that should arise in the sale of Arcana Coelestia should be given towards the charge of the propagation of the gospel." (Documents II. p. 495.)

     The preparation for the New Church among the gentiles by means of the obscure truths of the Letter of the Word is the general subject of the first eight verses of the sixth chapter of Zechariah, where the four chariots and four horses "which Came out from between two mountains" are treated of. By the four horses, which are "the four spirits of heaven," are represented "all the Divine proceeding from which the Church is inaugurated and established." (A. E. 418.) In the sixth verse it is said, "And the black horses go forth into the north country, and the white go forth after them." The north country, signifies those who are in ignorance of good and truth, and yet in the good of life, as are the upright among the gentiles.

205


The horses represent the understanding and reception of the truths of the Word, the black horses being obscure truths, such as are those of the Letter of the Word, and the white horses, the clear truths of the spiritual sense. "And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True." (Apoc. xix, 11.) It is in the north county, thus among the few simple in Christendom and the many simple in heathen lands, that the revelation of spiritual truth now made, will be received and loved; but that revelation cannot be received until the plane for reception has been formed and preparation thus made, by a knowledge of the simple and obscure truths of the Letter of the Word. The black horses must first go forth into the north country, before the white can go forth after them; and then both will be received. Therefore, many years before the Second Coming, printing was invented and the Letter of the Word was brought forth from its hiding place, that, when the Lord came, the simple among Christians might he prepared to receive His spiritual presence. And so, now, the Scriptures are being scattered far and wide by the Bible Societies, to gentiles of every race, that the simple among them may also be prepared to receive.

     As events prove, the work of disseminating the Bible in heathen lands, is not a work that the New Church has been called upon to do; it has been entrusted to the Old Church through the agency of its great Bible societies. And it is a remarkable fact that this work has been performed almost wholly by the English-speaking races, the distribution by all the foreign societies put together being comparatively insignificant. The reason for the predominance of the English in this work becomes evident, when we reflect upon the central position of that nation in the World of Spirits because of their rationality and freedom of thought. It is these qualities that have led them to see the need of distributing the Word, and above all, that lead them to introduce, with the Word, freedom of religion, whereby the heathen are free to reject the false Christian doctrine.

     The work of the Bible Societies has been attended with success, because the Divine Providence has guided the work, even by permitting things of injustice and disorder. The heathen have been unjustly treated and plundered by the white man; but at the same time, the Word has been introduced among them. Wars have been permitted in which justice was on the side of the gentiles, but force and victory on that of devastated Christendom; and yet the result has been the spreading of the Word. "It seems sometimes as if victory were not on the side of justice, because man judges from the appearance and does not know that the spiritual justice of a cause is in heaven, and the natural justice in the world, and that they are conjoined by a connection of things past and at the same time future, which are known to the Lord alone." (D. P. 252.) "The spiritual justice of a cause" is the End which the Lord sees.

206


There is no doubt that the present war between Russia and Japan, whichever way it turns, will also result in giving an impetus to the work of the Bible Societies in distributing the Word. The result of war has always been to open up a country to fuller and freer communication with the rest of the world; and the ultimate result of this war will undoubtedly be to spread still further the knowledge of the Word among the Japanese, the Koreans, and the Chinese.

     It is true that with the Christian Bible goes the Christian gun, and spiritual evils, hatred, murder, adultery, theft and lying, which are far more destructive than the mightiest gun. But even here we can see the hand of Divine Providence; for it is this very Christian gun, and all the evils which it represents, that prevents the acceptance of the Christian doctrine, that makes the heathen hate and abhor the Christian and hence his teachings, and this even while the Bible is being spread broadcast in the land. The New Churchman can see with a sight elevated above the sphere of appearances, and can see, even in natural injustice, the "justice of the cause" as it is seen from the light of heaven revealed in the Writings.

     "The black horses go forth into the north country, and the white go forth after them. Then cried he upon me, Behold these that go toward the north country have quieted my spirit."
REJECTION OF REVELATION 1904

REJECTION OF REVELATION              1904

     Contemporaneous with the movement in the New Church to deny all real Divinity to the Writings while apparently acknowledging them as a Divine Revelation, is a similar movement in the Old Church with respect to the Letter of the Word,--a movement which has been made especially prominent during the past few years. In answering the strictures of "higher criticism" more and more of the clergy of the Old Church are coming to the position that the Word is a Divine Revelation in general, but not in particular; that it is "inspired" as to its general teaching, but that its particular statements are open to criticism; that while, in general, it presents the doctrine of God, it is left to human reason to decide what portion of it is to be accepted or rejected. The inconsistency and absurdity of such a position as this is well known to the New Churchman, and has been often dwelt upon in the literature of the Church. Thus The New Church Magazine, commenting editorially on a pamphlet by an Anglican clergyman, who, while affirming that the Bible is God's Word, states at the same time "We do not believe the Bible to be the Words of God" says "We cannot help feeling that, when the opponents of Scripture as the Word of God read these statements they will say, 'This concedes the matter for which we have been contending.' For how, in any real sense, can the Bible be the Word of God when the words are denied to be His? How can a man's message be his unless the terms by which the message is conveyed are also his?... This answer [in the pamphlet] reduces the Bible to the level of ordinary literature."

207




     In this the editor of the Magazine is keen enough to see the falsity and inconsistency of the position on which he comments, but, like most New Church ministers, he is not equally keen in seeing that the same inconsistency and absurdity characterize the position of Conference and Convention with respect to the Writings. With very little alteration the questions which he asks about the Letter of the Word, could with equal force be asked about the Writings. "How, in any real sense, can the Writings be the Revelation of God, when the words are denied to be His? How can the Lord's message be His, unless the terms by which the message is conveyed are also His?" Of course the answer would be made that the Writings are not literally inspired as to the words and letters, so that they cannot be called the Word of God. But neither can the words of the Old Testament be called the words of God except in the sense that they were taken from the minds of men and used to convey the Divine Message. If the Message is Divine then the language in which it is given, although in itself human and imperfect because taken from men, must also be Divine because Divinely adapted as the clothing or vehicle of the Message,-and this, whether it be the language of correspondences, or the language of rational thought. How can the Lord's Message be His, unless the terms by which the Message is conveyed be also His? To deny that the Bible is the Word of God, because it comes to us clothed in images and words taken from the minds of Moses and the prophets, is no more irrational than to deny that the Writings are the Word of God because they come to us clothed in rational forms and rational language taken from the mind of Swedenborg. Equally in both cases the denial reduces Divine Revelation "to the level of ordinary literature."

     The position of the Old Church is not to be wondered at; it is the logical outcome of the utter loss of all perception of the Divine in the Word. In the early days of the Christian Church there was such a perception, which, though more or less obscure, was yet sufficient to inspire the Church to boldly maintain the inspiration of Scripture as to every jot and tittle. As the Church declined so the perception of the Lord's presence in His Word declined; but the doctrine as to the holiness of Scripture was still stoutly maintained. This state of things continued until the Last Judgment, when the Church was utterly devastated and all perception of the intrinsic holiness of the Word was lost. Then the New Church was established, which should see the Lord in His Word and should guard and defend that Word. Since then, and especially during the last fifty years, open denial of the Word has made rapid strides in the Christian world. And what of the Christian Church? Forced into a position of defence, the answers which that Church makes to hostile critics of the Word clearly reveal the hitherto concealed fact that, in the Church itself, there is absolutely no sight or perception of anything Divine in the Word.

208


Various are the arguments, the makeshifts, the subterfuges adopted to maintain the tradition of inspiration handed down from the Christian Fathers, but the fact remains that nothing but a tradition is left,--that men are fighting not for what they themselves see to be true, but for what has been handed down to them, as to the real nature of which they themselves are blind! It is not surprising that even the Church is giving way; it is granting here a little and there a little to the encroachments of "Higher Criticism." A verse here, a chapter there, even whole sections and books, are called into question, doubted and denied. How long will it be before the Old Church openly and wholly gives up even the tradition of inspiration? before the universal covert denial of the Word, which now reigns in the Church, becomes universally open? Signs of this are not wanting, for, as we have pointed out at various times in the Life, every now and then some prominent minister of the Old Church comes out in open and total denial of the literal inspiration of Scripture.

     The case is not essentially different with the New Church, wherever there is no perception of the Divinity of the Writings. By such perception, we mean, the seeing in the Writings themselves, that what is there revealed is Divine Truth, infinitely above anything that can come from human thought or human reason. Without this it really matters little whether or not a man believes the Writings to be a Divine Revelation, or even the Word of God; his faith is merely a faith of tradition. But with this perception how can we avoid the conclusion that the Writings are truly the Word of God? From the early days of the Church there has always been a general belief that the Writings are a Divine Revelation; and, as the Church grew in knowledge of those Writings, many were led to the clearer perception that they were the Word of God,--the Lord speaking to His Church in Divine Rational language. And yet from the day that this doctrine was first promulgated, to the present time, it has met with nothing but the most bitter and hostile opposition from the majority of New Churchmen. They still continue to call the Revelation Divine, but how much perception of that Divinity is there? The phrase "Divine Revelation" is retained, but how much of a true idea is there within the phrase?

     The Old Church, which has lost all perception of the Divinity of the Word though externally assuming to maintain some authority for, Scripture, is growing less and less able to defend it against the attacks of the hells working through "higher critics." and is giving up its position more and more. So it will be in the New Church. Unless there is a growth in the perception of the essential Divinity of the Writings, the Church will not be able to maintain that Divinity, in any sense whatever, against the attacks of the hells working through the fallacies and appearances of the natural man. Signs are not wanting which point to a weakening in the belief of the Writings even as a "Divine Revelation." Eminent ministers, representing a large body of the Church, have solemnly asserted that the Writings contain only a small portion of Divine Truth as it is seen in the natural heaven; and that nothing more was revealed than Swedenborg was capable of understanding and transmitting. Other ministers have unnaturally separated all relations concerning the spiritual world from the rest of the Writings and have openly denied them all Divine authority. Others again have granted no higher inspiration to Swedenborg than was enjoyed by Confucius, by Dante, by Darwin, by Shakespeare. A church cannot live on tradition or on traditionary faith, for such a faith cannot endure unless there he a growth in the perception of its truth. It must either become living, or it will die utterly. And so with those bodies of the New Church which while still teaching that the Writings are a Divine Revelation, more or less deny them essential Divinity. If they do not begin to have some clear perception of the Divine, or of the Lord, in the Writings, how long will it be before they cease even to call them a "Divine Revelation?"
MS. OF "THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE." 1904

MS. OF "THE CONSUMMATION OF THE AGE."       A. H. S       1904

     IN the New Church Magazine for May, 1903, pp. 233-235, the Rev. James Hyde, in an article entitled "The Consummation of the Age," writes as follows:

     "Readers of Dr. R. L. Tafel's Documents concerning the Life and Character of Emanuel Swedenborg know that in volume III., at page 773, the English of what is there described as the 'last work projected by Swedenborg,' is given. It will also be noticed that the editor intimates that 'the original of this document has lately been transferred from the library of Count Engestrom to the Royal Library in Stockholm, where it now is.' This in the year 1877 repeated searches at the said Library have at present left the manuscript undiscovered. But to assist in the possible recovery of the autograph, as well as to put the Latin beyond the possibility of oblivion, we print it here. This we do from a copy made by Dr. Tafel while in Stockholm, and now in the possession of the undersigned, who will gladly receive any information concerning the original MS. from whomsoever may be possessed of it."

     Then follow the Latin text and an English translation by Mr. Hyde.

     This article was noticed in Morning Light, May 23 and June 6, 1903, in New Church Life, July, 1903, and in New Church Review January, 1904, in all which journals Mr. Hyde's translation came in for some criticism.

     The present writer, while in Stockholm, made an investigation at the Royal Library in regard to the manuscript of "De Consummatione," etc., and. although he was at first told that that manuscript and some others had disappeared, yet, on the same day (July 1, 1903), before the search was concluded, the manuscript was found by Dr. Karlsson, superintendent of the manuscript department. It is a quarto leaf containing writing on one side only; and is preserved as number 11 in a collection of documents and printed matter concerning Swedenborg, bound together in a quarto volume entitled on the back "Svedenborg."

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This volume contains several valuable manuscripts, among which may be mentioned manuscript on Hieroglyphics, Hartley's two letters to Swedenborg, and the dismissal from the College of Mines Signed by Frederick I. But further description of this volume must be postponed for the present. A. H. S.
SWEDENBORGIANA IN HOLLAND 1904

SWEDENBORGIANA IN HOLLAND       A. H. S       1904

     IN the December issue of New Church Life for 1890 there are a number of articles by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck in which documentary evidence, preserved in Holland, concerning Swedenborg and the early history of the New Church is recorded and discussed. The most interesting documents mentioned are the first draft of Swedenborg's hand-bill against Emesti with the annotations of Cuno and Tydeman, preserved in a copy of the Vera Christian Religio in the Thysius Library at Leyden, and certain documents in the Royal Library at the Hague relating to Swedenborg's whereabouts in 1771 and the causes which led to Shearsmith's deposition.

     An earnest Dutch New Churchman residing at the Hague, Mr. Gerrit Barger, was of great assistance to Mr. Schreck in his investigations, and was also very helpful to the present writer when he visited Holland in October, 1902, for the purpose of searching for documents concerning Swedenborg in that country. Mr. Barger is the only man in Holland known to be a New Churchman and has made earnest and preserving efforts to spread a knowledge of the Doctrines. He translated the work on Heaven and Hell into the Dutch language and it has been published in Holland by the Swedenborg Society of London. Facing the title page of this publication is an engraving of Swedenborg, at the age of eighty years, and on the preceding leaf is given the original Latin title of the work. Mr. Barger's introduction, the title pages, etc., occupy 39 pages, and the work itself fills 463 pages, octavo. The introduction presents a general sketch of Swedenborg's life and enumerates his publications. On page xviii., in note 1. Mr. Barger notices the fact that Van 'T Hoff has acknowledged Swedenborg's work on chemistry to be the first contribution on stereochemistry. (Cf. The New Philosophy, October, 1901, p. 131.) On page xxxv, the copy of the Brief Exposition on which Swedenborg wrote "This book is the Advent of the Lord, written by command," is mentioned, and after various remarks concerning the True Christian Religion and concerning Cuno, Mr. Barger mentions the annotation by Arnout Vosmaer in a document preserved in the Royal Library at the Hague, in which he says that Swedenborg dined with him at the Hague on the 29th of August. 1771, and honored his album with his autograph (pages xxxvii.-xxxviii.). Mr. Barger goes to say that the "Album Amicorum" of Amout Vosmaer is still preserved in the family, and then follow the words contained in the Album.

     In a recent letter to the Academy Book Room, Mr. Barger gives a number of interesting details concerning this Album, on which the following statement is based.

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It should be added that the letter is accompanied by three photographs of the material contained in the Album, first, a photograph of the open Album, showing Swedenborg's autograph and some annotations by Vosmaer on the right side, and an engraving of Swedenborg, pasted in by Vosmaer, on the left side (the photograph being reduced in size); second, a full size photograph of the right side; and, third, a full size photograph of the left side. The engraving of Swedenborg was evidently cut out of one of Swedenborg's works. The writing on the page will now be reproduced in its relative position on the page:

Vera Christiana Religio

Em: Swedenborg

Domini Jesu Christi

S'Hage 29. Aug.
1771.

Servus.
Ob. 29 Maart 1772

     Zie over dit zonderling Mensch The Monthly Review, Vol. 59. van't Jaar 1778. P. 365. etc.*
* Translated into English, this sentence reads: Concerning this singular man see The Monthly Review, Vol. v, of the year 1778, p. 365, etc.

     The annotations at the side and beneath Swedenborg's autograph are in the handwriting of Vosmaer.

     This material is in an "Album Amicorum / Amout Vosmaer / 1748 1 ? Deel." The album is 27 centimeters long, 21 centimeters broad, and 3 centimeters thick, with red brown leather binding and gilt title. There is another volume of similar shape and several additional volumes of other sizes, full of the inscriptions of leading men of that age.

     It will be noticed that the date August 29, 1771, has a bearing on the Shearsmith deposition, which states that Swedenborg was in London in July or August. 1771. Now according to the annotation by Vosmaer he could not have been there in July or August.

     The Album was found in the possession of a Mr. Vosmaer, Dr. of Zoologrie in Utrecht and recently appointed Professor at the University of Leyden.

     While visiting the Hague Mr. Barger introduced the writer to the officials at the Royal Library and did everything in his power to help in the investigations which were made. After returning to Sweden the manuscripts preserved at the Royal Library were transferred from the Hague to Stockholm to the Library of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, where a thorough examination of them was made.

     The writer also examined the Swedenborgiana preserved in the Thysius Library in Leyden; and he noticed one new item concerning Swedenborg himself not mentioned by Mr. Schreck, namely, that Swedenborg wrote at the bottom of the title page of De Domino in a volume containing the Four Leading Doctrines the words "done datur," showing that the copy was presented to some one, but to whom is not said.

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     The Library of the University of Leyden contains a considerable number of Swedenborg's works. There is a copy of the Regnum Animale, 1744, Part I., containing on the outside of the fly-leaf the following annotation: "Ex done Amplissimi Eruditissimique Auctoris, A. D. x. Kal. April A. MDCCXLIV." This annotation establishes Swedenborg's whereabouts on the 23d of March, 1744. The hand writing is that of Abraham Gronovius, librarian of the university in 1734 (see Biographisch Woordenboek, Vol. VIII., p. 446), as is evident from a comparison with his letters in the Library. Swedenborg no doubt used the library while at work on the Regnum Animale, but his name does not occur in the printed list of the students of the University of Leyden. Some statements concerning Swedenborg were found in volumes preserved at the Library of the University of Leyden, but they are too lengthy for presentation here and their description will therefore follow in a later issue of the Life.

     In passing it may be recorded that in the Library are preserved the original drawings made by Swammerdam for his great work Biblia Nature, so much used by Swedenborg. Their preservation is due to Boerhaave. A. H. S.
Monthly Review 1904

Monthly Review              1904

     THE recent debate between the Rev. G. W. Wall and a Christadelphian, reported verbatim, has been published in book form.

     Mr. James Speirs has issued a "Swedenborg Postcard," on which is printed a portrait of Swedenborg, and the words, "All religion has relation to life."

     Beginning with the February issue the Rev. J. T. Freeth, recently appointed missionary minister for London and vicinity, has accepted the position of literary editor of adorning Light, a post hitherto filled by the publisher, Mr. Speirs.

     Conspicuously placed at the head of the advertising pages of a recent number of The Helper is the following plain and open statement with regard to the doctrines of the New Church: "The Lord has made his Second Coming. In that coming He has made a new revelation of Divine Truth in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg." The statement is followed by advertisements of the Writings.

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     The thirty-eighth annual report of the American Tract and Publication Society, while showing a deficit of $200, indicates continued activity in the distribution of the "gift books" and collateral literature. Among the new tracts issued by the society during the past year are several leaflets, each containing the table of contents of one of the Writings. These leaflets, some of which have already seen a second edition, should be of considerable use in enabling those interested to decide for themselves the question, What shall I read?

     In a competition inaugurated last year by Reynold's Newspaper, a London daily, for the list of "Thirty best books for women" and "Twenty best books for children," the prize has been adjudicated between two ladies, one of whom is Mrs. Elphick, a member of the General Church in London. At the head of her list of books for women, Mrs. Elphick placed "Love and Wisdom, by Swedenborg," taking it for granted "that every woman possesses a Bible."

     Under the caption "Was Swedenborg a 'Mystic,'" The Literary Digest of March 12th gives several extracts from an article on the subject, by Prof. Werren, of the Cambridge Theological School, which appeared in The New Church Review for January. The extracts are introduced by a reference to "indication of growing scientific interest in the work of Swedenborg," and to the fact that "the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden has ordered a reissue of his scientific writings." The article is accompanied by a picture of Swedenborg.

     "O Life, beautiful Life!" Thus begins the opening poem of a little pamphlet, joyously entitled The Song of Life; and what follows, though prose in form, still claims inspiration from the poetic muse. "Life! Life! Life! The song of Eternity," etc., etc. The reader clasps his hands, and thinks unutterable things about peace and joy and life, but he is hardly prepared to find that The Song of Life is nothing more than the annual "song" or report of The Nunc Licet Press. The new assistant manager, the buoyant author of The Code of Joy, is surely making his presence felt.

     The policy of The Nunc Licet Press, as given in its report, is to present Swedenborg's thought without Swedenborg's name. "It is a pity to limit the circulation of true thought by attaching to it any name that can act as an obstruction." Just such language would the Unitarian use with respect to the Lord's teachings; or the Atheist, with respect to the teachings of the Word. The logical effect of this policy is to conceal all that is essentially of the New Church. It is not therefore surprising that the recent publications of The Nunc Licet Press find more favor with the Old Church than with the New. One of these is praised by a host of secular papers, but the only review from a New Church journal says "The book is not without the element of New Church teaching;" while of another, a daily paper says "The author does not in any sense make an attack upon the Bible."

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     An amusing illustration of the absurdity of the rendering, in the English translation of Arcana Celestia, of "Historica facta" (made-up historicals) by "historical facts," is given in an article by the Rev. Charles Griffith in the February number of The New Church Magazine. Mr. Griffith is showing that the historicals of the Ancient Word were not historical facts, but were made up in order to set forth the internal sense: and to clinch his argument he quotes from A. C. 2897: "Their historicals were written in the prophetic style, and for the most part were historical facts" / No wonder that he adds the explanation "[that is, things reduced to an historical form; that is, they were made histories]."

     The fact is brought out by the Rev. W. T. Stonestreet, in The New Church Magazine for March, that in 1751 Mr. William Cookworthy made a translation of a little French work, entitled "The Divine Instinct," which he published for "the welfare of mankind." Although this work elaborates the Quaker doctrine of inward light, it seems to indicate some perception of the spiritual nature of the Word. Thus the author says: "His Book, the Scriptures, which have hitherto been in obscurity, is about to come out of it, and appear in that splendor which befits it, but which does not agree with the eyes of men clouded with darkness; that wisdom which has dictated it will take off the mean dress that has covered it, and hid its secrets from profane eyes." Nine years after publishing his translation Mr. Cookworthy received the doctrines of the New Church, becoming, in fact, the first active promoter of those doctrines in the world. The little work, the Divine Instinct, is, therefore, interesting as giving some indication of the earlier trend of the translator's thought.

     The new editor of Morning Light takes issue with an agnostic Statement, that the doctrine of the atonement is the centre of the Christian religion,--a statement which, by the way, agrees with the Writings. The New Church, he says, has led the van in proclaiming the falsity of this doctrine, and is now followed by "most religious schools of thought." To which a correspondent, Mr. Andrew Eadie, somewhat sarcastically replies: If this doctrine "has been rejected from the faith of the Old Church, the change is important; but I have not heard of it. Can you give place and date?" Needless to say, the editor can not.

     Practically the same view as that expressed in Morning Light is contained in an article in the Messenger of March ad by the Rev. T. F. Wright. He expresses satisfaction with the thought "that some of the ideas for which we once stood alone are now being so openly held on all sides that we have no longer exclusive possession of them." This he attributes to "influences from the other world that have had vastly greater power than any which we of this life can exert;" and from these influences he anticipates the time when "the churches will come to give our message from more eloquent pulpits under more historic names."

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This loose and superficial view of the state of the Christian world is very common not only in the New Church, but also in the Old, where it is quite the fashion for ministers to glow over the growth of a loving spirit and a Christian life, and yet even they have to pause at times to dolefully count up the increase in the number of empty pews. Our New Church ministers are but following their brethren in the Old Church in thus looking at the world from its appearance; they certainly do not view it from its spiritual side as shown in the Writings. And then this shallow talk about influences from the spiritual world! There are many influences from that world; there is the influx from the New Church there, and there is the influx from the hells. It is true that the greater order produced by the Last Judgment has produced a greater external order on earth. But what makes for the elevation or depression of mankind is not the external reception of influx, but its internal reception. We often hear men using the phrase, as Dr. Wright uses it, "All religion has relation to life," to make Swedenborg confirm their roseate view of the Old Church, but they never add the qualification implied in the Writings, that all religion has relation to spiritual life. Nor do we hear them quote the equally emphatic doctrine that the first thing of religion on which all else depends is the idea of God, and, with a Christian, the idea of the Lord in His Divine Human, and thence, necessarily, of the Word. Judged by this standard what becomes of the "improvement" in the Christian Church? and what influences are most operative there?

     The latest work by the Rev. Adolph Roeder, Symbol-Psychology, published simultaneously by The Nunc Licet Press and Harper Brothers, affords confirmation of what was briefly noticed in our last issue (p. 150) respecting the author's false and mischievous idea as to the Divinity of the Lord. We there quoted from him, to the effect that it makes no difference "whether we believe that the Lord was born on this earth or not." In Symbol-Psychology. he shows more plainly, what his real thought is; and he also reveals, what is, at best, the loosest acknowledgment of the Lord's presence in the Word. We quote from a review of the work, by Mr. George Trobridge, which appeared in Morning Light, for January 30: "Mr. Roeder writes for the outside public rather than for New Churchmen, so that distinctively New Church doctrine is not conspicuous in his essays. . . . Some of his statements and inferences are quite at variance with New Church ideas, and come to us with a shock. He mixes up things sacred and profane together, sometimes, in a way that jars upon one, as, for instance, when he groups together 'the giant figures of the Christ, the Buddha, Ulysses, AEneas,' etc. His views of inspiration are loose and unsatisfactory: the Word of God, he says, was slowly built up 'by evolutional processes;' and he suggests that the Bible stories are developments of earlier and cruder myths. . . .

216


He never mentions the Ancient Word, which had so much to do with the wide-scattering of Biblical ideas; nor does he allow that the crude myths may be corruptions of earlier ones." No wonder that an Old Church reviewer apologetically says "The author does not, in any sense, make an attack upon the Bible!"

     In a plea for the endowment of Urbana University, which appeared in the Messenger for February 17th, Dr. Sewall rightly, though somewhat ambiguously, observes that a small college "with the principles that develop the rational faculty to see truth in the light of its unity in God and its beauty and use in the Divine Human" can do more real university work than a great city made up of technical and commercial schools with no central truth to inspire and guide them." But this seems wholly opposed to the spirit of his earlier remarks in the same paper, that "to place the distinctive New Church education on a basis with the petty sectarian differences and jealousies which have produced the denominational schools and colleges, is to misconceive entirely the New Church and its mission in the new age." Does Dr. Sewall mean that the revealed truths concerning the Divine Human, the Second Coming, the state of the Old Church, and the establishment of the New Church are "petty sectarian differences?" or that the insistence on these as the centre and soul of all New Church education is an evidence of "petty sectarian jealousies?" The experiment has been tried of establishing New Church institutions of education with the purpose of teaching the "principles" of the New Church without requiring the acceptance of her doctrines; but the result has always been, as it always will be, to do away with the "distinctiveness" of "New Church Education," and to assimilate it more and more, except in the matter of dogmatic theology, with the education of the world. There is only one New Church college which requires its students to be of the New Church and which brings the Writings to bear in all its departments; and while this college may, in Dr. Sewall's opinion, be thus giving evidence of "petty sectarian differences and jealousies," it has, at any rate, been eminently successful in teaching those central principles, with which "a small college can be doing more real university work" than a host of schools with no central truths "to guide and inspire them;" and, what is even more important, it has succeeded in implanting and fostering an affection for these principles.

     In an "Historical Sketch of the New Church in Virginia," which appeared in the Messenger of February 17th, the Rev. P. R. Cabell devotes considerable space to the discussion of the question whether that most eminent of all Virginians. George Washington, was a receiver of the doctrines. It is known that when Washington passed through Baltimore in 1793, he was presented by the Baltimore Society with an "Address" and a copy of Hindmarsh's Compendium. "There is said to be a tradition in the Washington family" that, for five years before his death, from 1794-1799, Washington ceased attendance at the Episcopal Church, of which he was a member, and gave much time to the study of religious literature.

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"It is also stated as a historic fact" that the Writings, so far as then translated, were in his library at the time of his death, and that, before that event, they were frequently seen upon his library table. Mr. Cabell, in 1853 when he was quite a youth, was in the company of a New Church lady who was connected by marriage with the Washington family, and he heard her say, "that the suppositions above outlined, were not only probabilities, but facts." From these facts it would seem not improbable--though, as Mr. Cabell adds, there is no direct evidence--that the cause of Washington's ceasing to attend church in the latter years of his life, was his having read the Writings. Judging from a comparison of dates, it is quite possible that his attention was first called to them by Hindmarsh's Compendium presented to him in Baltimore; though the Writings themselves were, not improbably, received from his intimate friend, Thomas Lord Fairfax, who was an avowed receiver of the doctrines.

     The "Historical Sketch of the New Church in Virginia," though necessarily incomplete in several respects, is an interesting and useful contribution to the history of the New Church in America.

     The first organized effort for the establishment of the Church in Virginia was in Abingdon, a small town in the extreme southwest corner of the State. It is said that during the Revolutionary War, a Virginian, Arthur Campbell, being captured, as a boy, by Indians and delivered to the British in Detroit, gained a knowledge of the doctrines from some British officers. After the war he removed with his family to Abingdon, where he seems to have been active in spreading the doctrines, for as early as 1792, when the first New Church sermon was preached in America at Baltimore, there were many readers in Abingdon and vicinity. In 1821 the town was visited by the Rev. Holland Weeks, and between 50 and 60 persons were baptized; and, we might add, three years before this, the American New Church Repository stated that "in the southwestern part of Virginia there is a very large increase of members of the New Church of the most respectable standing in society." In 1822 Mr. Nathaniel Holly was licensed to preach the doctrines, but by 1826 he had left Abingdon for Cincinnati, to edit a New Church paper there. Before leaving he ordained, in 1824, the Rev. S. H. Wills, who was to preach in Abingdon and neighboring towns. Beyond this point, the history of the society is a blank. It seems to have suddenly disappeared from the ken of the General Convention, and how long it continued its existence after Mr. Holly's departure is not known; at any rate, it has been quite extinct for many years.

     Contemporaneous with Arthur Campbell, who was, perhaps, "the first native American to receive the Doctrines," was another Virginian in the eastern part of the State, who was equally active in the cause of the Church.

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This was Robert Carter, known as "Councillor Carter," from having been a member, before the Revolution, of the Governor's Council. Mr. Carter's activities were, however, confined to the establishment of the Society in Baltimore, whither he removed in 1794.

     The second society established in Virginia was in Lynchburg. It is said to have owed its origin to the activity of Dr. J. J. Cabell, a prominent citizen of the town, who, passing an auction shop, hurriedly made a bid for a small table with a book on it. When he got home he was quite surprised to find both table and book had preceded him. The book was Heaven and Hell. Dr. Cabell read it that same night, sitting up until daylight, and at once became an ardent receiver of the doctrines. This was about 1819, and four or five years later the society at Lynchburg, composed of five families, was established. In 1825 a licentiate, Mr. H. G. Linberg, commenced preaching, but in a few months he removed from Lynchburg and returned to the West Indies. This is the last that is heard of the New Church in Lynchburg, where it is known as "the Cabell religion," though many of Dr. Cabell's descendants, in other parts of the country, are still members of the Church.

     The third organized effort to establish the Church in Virginia was made in Nelson county, in 1866, when five or six New Church families united in forming the Warminster Society, which built a small chapel in the village of Norwood. But in a few years, the members becoming poor and scattered, the building was sold and the society came to an end.

     Finally, comes the movement in Richmond. In 1891 there were five or six New Church families in the city; and several years later they were organized into a society. It is of this society, which numbers fifteen members--nearly all heads of families--that Mr. Spiers has lately become pastor.

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Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Bryn Athyn. The Academy Schools had a holiday on Washington's Birthday. In the morning the Parish School held its celebration, the interesting feature of which was the reading of compositions about Washington by the children of the second year class. Others also read compositions, but the older ones related anecdotes from memory or spoke from notes.

     In the evening the College and Seminary had a social, to which the society was also invited. The gymnasium was very prettily decorated and the soft light of Japanese lanterns added to the effectiveness of the fancy costumes. The first part of the evening was devoted to the hearing of papers. Rev. H. Synnestvedt presided, and the following papers were read: Eulogy of Washington, by Philips, read by Gerald Glenn; Washington, the General, Raymond Pitcairn; Washington, the Statesman, Alex Lindsay; Washington, the Man, Randolph Childs; Washington, the Instrument of Divine Providence, C. R. Pendleton, Jr.; Patriotism, F. E. Gyllenhaal. The rest of the evening was given to dancing.

     On the 29th of February the Bryn Athyn Social Club gave a leap year party, to which the young ladies escorted the young men and waited on them attentively throughout the evening. Miss Nellie Smith was mistress of ceremony and announced that no one was asked to do anything against his or her conscience. Of course, it was hard for the young men to sit still while the young ladies waited upon them, and they would frequently forget their part. Miss Alice and Miss Nora Potts gave a dialogue, which was very much enjoyed. Mr. Emil Stroh took the prize for being the belie of the evening, and Mr. Edward C. Bostock for being the best conversationalist. The evening was a very merry one, indeed, and will be long remembered.

     Last month the notes from Bryn Athyn included a short account of the work being done in the Seminary. This month we shall say something about the work of the College.

     Professor Odhner has been lecturing on Monday morning to both the College and Seminary on the Christian Church, and has completed the period of the Crusades He is also giving classes two, three and four a course in the history of Creek and Roman Literature; the class has finished the consideration of the Greek Philosophers.

     Prof. Price gives the third and fourth year classes English Literature and Latin. Class three is studying Ramsey's English Language and English Grammar. Class four is reading Taine's History of English Literature. It devotes one lesson a week to discussion on what is read in Taine; one lesson to the studs of Shakespeare's plays, and a third to the criticism of essays and to oratory. Both classes write weekly essays.

     Prof. Acton instructs classes three and foul in Religion, Hebrew and Greek. Class three is reading in Religion extracts from Apocalypse Explained, and class four Conjugial Love. Much of the reading is done at home and questions are brought to class, where also Mr. Acton presents special teachings explaining them more fully than given in the work under consideration. In Hebrew Genesis and Exodus are being read and the noun and Verb learned.

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In Greek class three is studying Xenophon's Anabasis and class four Homer's Iliad.

     Dr. Cooper lectures every Tuesday evening to classes three and four on Anatomy.

     The first volume of the Animal Kingdom has been thoroughly considered and the second volume started. This is a most interesting and invaluable study.

     Years one and two have Religion with Rev. H. Synnestvedt and are reading Heaven and Hell. On Thursday evenings they have Anatomy with Mr. Alfred Stroh. They are now studying the organs of respiration, having completed the study of the bones.

     Classes one and two also study history, Latin, English and mathematics. F. E. G.

     Denver. Owing to the long siege of sickness in our pastor's family services were suspended from December 20th to February 21st, but now that the siege is over we are beginning to again show signs of life. On February 14th Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Tyler celebrated their fourteenth wedding anniversary by giving a social to the society, including children. Prominent among the toasts was that to our pastor, Mr. Starkey, and his wife, and the hope was expressed that from this time on "the sun might shine on both sides of the fence for them." Mr. Starkey brought out the teachings as to the use of external trials and hardships.

     After the speeches an old accordion was produced, and Mr. Bergstrom began to play old-time Swedish music. The little ones then began to dance around the room, inviting the older children to join in. One little six-year-old held back with an "Aw! I'm too big;" but as the musician continued his merry strains the bigness began to vanish from all of us, and we all joined in, the "big" six-year-old being one of the last to stop.

     We were sorry to lose our visitors, Mr. and Mrs. Marelius, who, now that Mr. Marelius is recovered from his serious illness, have returned to their home in Chicago. The all too short visit of this happy couple has been a useful one to us. The farewell social was given by Mr. and Mrs. Starkey. After a little dancing, and some very successful shadow pictures of "Mother Goose" rhymes, the rest of the evening was devoted to toasts and speeches. In his response Mr. Marelius hoped he would meet at least some of us at the Assembly in June,--a hope we all heartily reciprocated. G. W. T.

     Glenview. Washington's Birthday was celebrated with a very successful social, over which Mr. and Mrs. Harry Blackman presided. One wall of the church room where we met realistically represented the front of a log cabin, and led into a small chamber filled with documents and relies interesting in connection with Abraham Lincoln, who was there to greet us; the opposite wall showed a fine canvas reproduction of Mount Vernon, opening into a room devoted to George Washington, who kindly explained various objects recalling the country in his time. Features of the evening's entertainment were the forty-two extracts from Washington's rules of conduct distributed among the guests to give to whom they thought their special regulation best applied; the patriotic speeches of the gentlemen, and a very interesting letter appropriate to the occasion from Bishop Pendleton.

     Saturday evening. March 5th, Mrs. Colley, a member of the Englewood parish of the Chicago Convention Society, delivered a lecture at the home of Mr. and Mrs. S. G. Nelson on modern methods of musical education, especially as applied to the teaching of children. Mrs. Colley showed how from infancy the child's ear and affection for music can be cultivated, and demonstrated by means of two of her pupils how the little fingers can be trained to perform on the piano while playing singing games.

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     It is needless to say that the lecture met with warm appreciation and delight.

     The children seem to be enjoying themselves this month, since they have had three dance socials and a banquet at the manse, besides several birthday parties. L. E. G.

     THE MISSIONARY FIELD. Services were held in Hamilton, Ontario, at the house of Mrs. Brierly, on Sunday, February 7th, when the Holy Supper was administered to 13 communicants. The weather was quite unfavorable, and, owing to this and to the illness of several members, the attendance (14) was smaller than usual. In the evening I baptized the infant of Mr. and Mrs. J. Lennie at their home. My stopping place was with Mr. and Mrs. Barker on the mountains. Mrs. Barker came into the Church five years ago, when, together with Mr. Wm. Addison and Mr. Robert Corner, she was baptized by the writer.

     During a stay of two days in London four families were visited, but circumstances were not favorable for holding services. The next three days were spent with Mr. Thomas Woofenden, at Mull, Kent county, at whose home services were held on February 14th. Mr. Woofenden, who was brought up in England under the influences of socialism and scepticism, received the doctrines some forty years ago. During most of these years it has been well known to his neighbors that he and his family are believers in the teachings given by Swedenborg; public lectures and meetings at the house have been held from time to time, and efforts have been made to give the people an opportunity to receive the truth. And yet, I was told, there has never been a single individual in the community who has shown any decided interest in the subject. There are isolated receivers in other places who have had similar experiences. The state seems to be one of utter deadness as to spiritual things. JOHN E. BOWERS.

     Mauritius. The Society at Port Louis has had, with one exception, an uneventful year in 1903. As far as statistics are concerned twelve baptismal services were performed, at two of which more than one person was baptized, so the total number of baptisms would be 17 or 18. There have been two funerals and one marriage; this latter an unusual occurrence.

     A subject which has occupied the attention of the society a good deal has been how to procure the services of a minister, the necessity for which is now generally felt by all the members. No suitable candidate has yet come forward, so all the society has to do at present is to collect funds, which will no doubt be useful hereafter. Over Rs. 6,000 are in hand, equivalent to about $2,000, but some of the members consider it is hardly enough to justify the engaging of a minister at present. Others think that the experiment might at least be tried to have one for a short time. Meanwhile, owing to the continued and serious illness of the President, Mr. Auguste de Chazal, such ministerial work as can be done has been principally performed by Mr. Ackroyd, the Vice President.

     There are two services at Vacoas, one in English and the other in French, every Sunday, except the first of the month; and a service in town on the first Sunday of every month, except January, because the service at Christmas is considered as replacing that of the first Sunday of the year.

     At the Vacoas services about 15 or 16 persons attend the French service, and 9 or 10 the English service, though sometimes the French service goes beyond 20, and once reached 30. In town, except at Christmas and Easter, the attendance varies from 9 to 23 at the two festivals above-mentioned it goes over 80, and there are from 40 to 60 communicants.

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     The plan of instruction adopted by Mr. Ackroyd is to comment on the portions of the Word read, but always at the French Vacoas service to read or have read an extract from the Writings at the beginning and end of the instruction. In Port Louis one is read only at the beginning of the service. He endeavors to show that the Writings contain Divine Revelation, which we should accept in will and understanding; that our safety must depend upon striving to avoid evil as sin against God and accepting from the Lord goodness and truth, which He is ever willing to bestow on us, but never forces us to accept

     A class for catechism is also held nearly every Saturday, but few children can attend it, the majority not living near enough. In December the exception occurred as to the uneventful nature of the year. A Fancy Fair was held, which was very successful, and the members were helped by friends of other denominations, and, it is hoped, learnt a lesson in the advantage of working together. J. A. ACKROYD.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. To the surprise of his congregation Rev. S. H. Dole, who has been pastor of the Bath, Me., Society for the past twelve years, tendered his resignation on February 14th.

     We are pleased to note that Rev. A. F. Frost, the missionary of the Massachusetts Association, is almost recovered from his long illness, and will soon be ready to resume his duties.

     The Sunday School statistics of the Roxbury Society show a growth during the past year of 17 pupils and 3 teachers. There was an almost equal increase during the previous two years.

     At the last meeting of the New Church Club of New York Mr. Howard Pyle, as a guest of the club, gave an address on the aims of his recent book, Rejected of Men. Other guests were Prof. J. H. Canfield, of Columbia College, and Mr. Julian Hawthorne, both of whom addressed the meeting.

     On the evening of February 9th Mr. Alfred Stroh, of Bryn Athyn, lectured to members and friends of the American Swedenborg Society in the Sunday School of the New York Society on the subject of Swedenborg's Manuscripts. The Messenger reports "Mr. Stroh held the attention of his audience for over an hour and a half. The subject matter was exceedingly interesting, and much of it new. He showed some excellent photographs of recently discovered portraits of Swedenborg." Mr. Stroh laid great stress upon the importance of securing a photolithograph of the first draft of Arcana Coelestia, which, as he showed, must be consulted before a really correct Latin text of the work can be published.

     Several of the men of the Philadelphia Society united on February 15th in the formation of an organization for the discussion of political, social, moral and religious subjects of current or political interest and for the promotion of better acquaintance. The questions for discussion are to be selected by a committee of three, called the year men, and two leaders will be appointed to open each discussion. The organization, which now numbers 27, is open to any New Church man.

     The Baltimore Mission celebrated Swedenborg's birthday on Sunday evening. January 31st. Services were conducted by the pastor, Rev. G. L. Albutt, and Rev. L. H. Tafel read from the Documents and commented on the account of the Lord's appearance to Swedenborg, at Delft, Holland, in 1744.

     In pursuance of a resolution of the Ohio Association granting the application of the Cleveland and Lakewood Societies for the installation of Rev. Thomas A. King, the ceremony of installation was performed by Rev. L. P. Mercer at Cleveland in the morning, and at Lakewood in the afternoon of January 31st.

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At both services Mr. King affirmed his faith in the Word and in the Writings, and declared his allegiance to the Convention, and the Ohio Association, and his purpose to teach and lead according to the doctrines. Mr. Mercer reports a marked unanimity and activity in both Cleveland and Lakewood. In the latter place the little church was filled to the door, the congregation including not only strangers, but also old members and their descendants, who had not been in the church for years. Arrangements have been completed for the building of a parsonage and the purchase of a small pipe organ.

     The Chicago Society has decided to move its quarters on May 1st from Steinway Hall to the Masonic Temple, which is a more central location. The new quarters will include the Book Room and a large parlor, which it is hoped will be made a meeting place for members of the Church.

     The Louisville Society is reported as being so small that it has been compelled to give up the place of worship formerly rented. Services are now conducted at the house of the pastor. Rev. A. Knobel.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The month of January has witnessed an unusual number of cases of affiliation between ministers of the New Church and those of the Old. At Brightlingsea the President of Conference gave an address to the society, with a Congregational minister in the chair. At Preston the Rev. W. T. Lardge lectured to a Christian Endeavor Class: a few days later he preached to a Church of England Bible Class, the service being conducted by the local curate; and still later he repeated this performance in a Methodist Chapel; Mr. Lardge has also been engaged to preach to the Wesleyans. At Paisley, at the annual social meeting of the Society, the pastor, Rev. C. A. Hall, was supported by a Presbyterian and a Methodist minister. And at Ynysmeudwy Rev. T. Child lectured to a meeting of the society, with a Unitarian minister as chairman. To what has the New Church in England come?

     The Swedenborg Society has extended its examination work by inaugurating an honors class, which will he examined in T. C. R. 1-391.

     It has been a custom of the Kearsley Junior Members' Society for some years back to celebrate Swedenborg's birthday by a social meeting. This year the celebration. which was on January 30, was attended by nearly 700 people, representing thirteen New Church societies. Addresses were delivered by four visiting ministers on Swedenborg as a Man, as a Scientist, as a Theologian and Swedenborg's Mission. The addresses on Swedenborg as a Man and as a Scientist were of considerable interest, though in the latter Mr. Ashly makes the erroneous statement that Swedenborg was associated with Sir Isaac Newton; and that he came to England to see him and said: "I write Newton daily." There is no evidence to show that Swedenborg ever met Newton: and what he said was, not "I write," but "I read Newton daily." On the other hand, Swedenborg several times makes mention of having met the astronomer Flamsteed. Mr. Newall also perpetuates an old error, when he says that Swedenborg graduated from his university with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. So far as is known Swedenborg never received any degree.

     On January 16th a theological class was established at Manchester for the benefit of lay preachers and male Sunday Schoolworkers. The class, which meets weekly, is studying the T. C. R., and there are also lessons in elocution. The theological teachers are Rev. W. T. Stonestreet, Rev. A. E. Beilby and Mr. Jonathan Robinson.

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     The expected debate between Rev. C. A. Hall, of the Paisley Society, and one of the "most" formidable champions of the agnostics, noticed on p. 55 of the January Life, has been called off, the agnostic pleading hard work and illness. Mr. Hall then insisted upon his original challenge to the agnostic ex-Presbyterian minister. He, however, declined on the ground that he was "unprepared to take up the position of orthodox Christianity."

     S. AFRICA. The Rev. J. F. Buss has recently delivered a lecture in the Town Hall at Durban in reply to the Bishop of Wakefield's endorsement of the conclusions of "Higher Criticism." The meeting was attended by between 300 and 400 people, and was presided over by Sir David Hunter, who, though not a New Churchman, is keenly alive to the destructive nature of the Higher Criticism. Considerable interest has been aroused in the town; and this was not lessened by attacks on the lecturer's position by two of the local newspapers to both of which Mr. Buss replied.
ACADEMY SCHOOL CLOSING 1904

ACADEMY SCHOOL CLOSING       Enoch S. Price       1904


     Announcements.


     Notices.

     The attention of all friends of the Academy who are interested in the closing of the schools is called to a change of date. The graduating exercises of the Theological School, College and Girls' Seminary will take place on the afternoon and evening of Thursday, June 16, instead of June 17, as announced in Journal of Education for 1903. The granting of degrees and decorations will take place in the evening. Enoch S. Price, Dean.
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 1904

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION       Enoch S. Price       1904

     The editor hereby wishes to announce that all matter intended for publication in the Journal of Education for 1904, must be in the hands of the editor not later than July 1st. Let those who have statistical reports to make be sure to consider this, as the pages will be closed on the above date. The reports of scholars enrolled in schools affiliated with the Academy are of great interest, and it in very desirable to have them. Headmasters please be on time. ENOCH S. PRICE, Editor.

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PRIESTHOOD A WARFARE 1904

PRIESTHOOD A WARFARE       Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH       1904

     
NEW CHURCH LIFE.
VOL. XXIV.     MAY, 1904.     No. 5.
     IN the Apocalypse Explained (734:14) it is said: "The Priesthood is a warfare;" or, to give the sentence in full. "This shows that the Priesthood is a warfare, but against evils and falsities." In the Arcana (1664) we read: "As the Priests in the Israelitish Church represented the Lord. Who alone fights for man, their service is called their warfare."

     This is so different from the common idea of what a priest or minister ought to be, as to cause astonishment that such statements should be made. The minister is called a man of peace. He is supposed to abhor war and all kinds of disturbance. "War is hell" is a saying in which all ministers are expected to concur. They must so teach and lead their people as to avoid all disturbance and unpleasantness; they must shun force and violence. They are to lead on1y in green pastures and beside still waters. The times of warfare in the Church are thought to be past.

     Yet we are taught by the Lord in His second coming that the Priesthood is a warfare. There is nothing to indicate that the Priesthood is to be any less a warfare in the establishment of the New Church than it was in the establishment of the Christian Church. It is put in the present tense. The Priesthood is a warfare, and the reason given why the service of the Israelitish priests was called warfare, namely, that they represented the Lord in His work of redemption and salvation, would indicate that the Priesthood is to be a warfare as long as there are men to be saved.

     That the service of the Israelitish Priesthood was called warfare does not appear in the common version; but it is given in the margin: "Heb., to war the warfare."

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Six times does this occur in one chapter, namely in Numbers iv: 23, 30, 35, 39, 43, 47; and also in Numbers viii: 24, 25.

     The subject is the work of the Levites about the tabernacle. To the different families are assigned the care and carrying of different parts of the tabernacle and its furniture when they journeyed in the wilderness. "From thirty years old and upward until fifty years old shalt thou number them; all that enter in to war the warfare, to do the work in the tabernacle of the congregation. (Numb. iv: 23.)

     This most peaceful service was called a warfare solely for the sake of the internal sense. Their work represented the work of the Lord in His Human, the work of Redemption and Salvation, and since His work was a continual warfare from earliest infancy till His death on the cross, their work, which represented His, was called warfare.

     Their service was also representative of the work of a true Priesthood in an internal church, and it was called warfare because the work of the priest in an internal church is continual warfare--"but against evils and falsities."

     This is clearly taught in the Arcana Coelestia:

     The priesthood which is represented by Aaron is the work of the salvation of those who are in the Lord's celestial kingdom. . . . but the priesthood which is represented by the sons of Aaron is the work of the salvation of those who are in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, proximately proceeding from His celestial kingdom. But the priesthood which is represented by the Levites, denotes the Lord's work of salvation again proceeding from the former. The work of the salvation of those who are in celestial good is represented by the priesthood of Aaron; but the work of the salvation of those who are in spiritual good is represented by the priesthood of the sons of Aaron; and the work of the salvation of those who are thence in natural good is represented by the priesthood of the Levites. A. C. 10017.

     Here we are taught (1) that the Israelitish priesthood represented a true priesthood; that is the priesthood in a true or internal church; and (2) that the work of the Levites represented the work of the salvation of those in the natural, thus of the church on earth. And now we can see why the service of the Levites was called warfare, while that of Aaron and his sons was not. It is in the natural that fighting must be done.

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Therefore the work of the priesthood in the natural, the work of enabling the man of the church to see the evils of his natural man and to shun them as sins against God, is meant by this warfare The work of establishing the Lord's Church in the world, defending her from her enemies, uniting her members to act together for her defense from all attacks of falsity and evil, this is what is meant by the warfare of the Levites. The Church on earth is the Church militant. Who will lead her armies to glorious victory but her ministers or priests? Who but they are responsible if the church does not fight her fight, but ingloriously compromises or capitulates in the day of battle?

     THE HOPE OF THE WORLD.

     Here is the New Church, a body so small that the world in general does not know of its existence We are clearly taught by the Lord that this little body is the only hope of the world. The possibility of spiritual life to all earth's millions depends upon there being such body where the Word is read and understood in the light of its internal sense. The whole great world sunken in sin and sensuality is to be conquered by the New Church. Are we full of the military spirit, ready at once to attack every infesting falsity and evil? Are we willing to have the lines drawn clearly between those who are acknowledging and obeying Him in His second coming, and those who do not so follow Him? Are we willing to make ourselves unpopular by rebuking those who claim to follow the Lord and yet do not accept His commands as having authority over them? Are we valiant to fight against love of the world and love of rule from self-love whenever and wherever they show themselves in the Church; willing to wholly lose sight of self, of personal friendships, of a living for ourselves and our families, for the sake of the integrity of the Lord's church and the spiritual welfare of mankind?

     There is no least hope of success of the New Church unless she has such a priesthood; men wholly consecrated to their service or warfare, whose first love is the truth which the Lord has revealed and who are willing to suffer all things for the sake of that truth. Besides this body of valiant ministers as leaders of the Church's armies there must be a laity filled with the same spirit, equally valiant, and full of the spirit of warfare against all that threatens the welfare of the Church.

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     Looking about upon the New Church in general do we find it full of this military spirit? Alas no! Has the Church been willing to be known as a peculiar people, having new Divine Revelation, new religious and social life, new principles of action? In her early days she was willing to follow the Lord and defy the world and she was a power. The New Church had more influence in Christendom fifty years ago than she has now. And that was solely because she did not then court the world so much as now, but rebuked it and fought it.

     The world is continually invading and carrying off the little ones of the Church, even as the lion and bear seized the lamb out of David's flock. Have the ministers of the Church continually taught their people that marriage of one who is of the Church with one who is not of the Church is "heinous in the sight of heaven" (A. C. 8998)? and why not? It is revealed to the Church that this is so. It is revealed of the Lord's mercy and for the salvation of men. What minister who loves his office--the salvation of souls--would dare to suppress this teaching?

     Has the state of the Old Church as dead and deserted by the Lord who has passed to the New Church, has this been constantly taught, together with the state of the Christian world as now revealed? So far is this from being the case that many of the ministers of the New Church do not themselves accept this teaching, but deny it. Yet it is revealed by the Lord of His mercy. There is no other way in which the remnant can be separated and rescued from hell and a Church be built upon the ruins of the old.

     TRUE CHARITY.

     Those within the Church who do not accept what the Lord has revealed for her salvation make common cause with her enemies without the Church, and it is true charity to tell them so and exhort them to repentance and to make it so plain that only those are of the Church who are loyal to all of the Lord's commands that they will either repent or cast themselves out.

     What a work could be done if every minister professedly of the New Church had the spirit of Luther and would be willing to take his stand squarely on the Divine Truth and teach it in its integrity and say "Here I stand, I can no other."

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If the whole Church in this country and in England would do that she would shake the Old Church to her foundations. She would conquer the world. But no. Our ministers take the position that they must be careful not to hurt any one's feelings. Lacking the courage of their convictions, they have thought to build the Church by soft and honeyed messages. Lacking the cunning of the merely sensual and the prudence of those who are taught by the Lord--for either cunning or prudence would dictate a different course--they have hoped to attract the members of the Old Church by being as little different from that Church as possible. And above all things they are careful to avoid conflict.

     FEAR OF COMBAT IS FROM HELL

     Whence this fear of combat? I do not hesitate to say that it is from hell. Nothing pleases that old serpent the Devil and Satan more than to have the Church cry peace and refuse to fight. When the leaders of the Church are unwilling to take their stand upon the Doctrines lest they be misunderstood and attacked by the world or by the Old Church, whence comes that fear? Not from heaven. When a minister can say of an answer framed in council to petitioners within the Church, "This may not be good doctrine, but it is good ecclesiastical policy," whence comes that fear to confess the Doctrine and abide the consequences? Not from heaven.

     "Give to him that asketh of thee," said the Lord. And we are taught that this means that we are to confess the whole of our faith and not keep anything back. (A. C. 9048.) There are those in the ministry who think they do God service by finding a common ground between the two wings of the Church, finding the good in each position, justifying both, seeing both positions as but different views of the same truth, so seeking to avoid the clash of battle. The appearance is that this is a service to the Church. It avoids conflict, which is always disagreeable. It sometimes prevents division and breaking up into separate bodies. But how can error be corrected if it is not discussed and rebuked? The Church is not a social organization for good fellowship.

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It is the Lord's means of saving men who are in sore danger of being lost. He who is in the love that makes the life of the Church cannot but teach the truth whenever he sees it disregarded and the life of the Church threatened. As one who has solemnly consecrated himself to the Lord's service he cannot keep silence when he sees the enemy stealthily approaching To do so is to be a coward and a traitor. He must sound the trumpet or lose his own soul. (Ezek. xxxiii:7, 8.)

     THE NEW CHURCH AND THE OLD.

     All about us it is taught with increasing openness that the Bible is not the Word of God. Many say that it contains the Word of God yet admit that it is, as we have it, full of errors and additions to what was given from heaven. This is really a denial of the power of God to give any revelation, and to preserve it when given. It is taught more openly every day that the divinity of the Lord differed from our divinity "only in quantity, not in quality," which is at the same time a complete denial of the Lord's Divinity and an exaltation of man to be divine--a heresy so dire that in the spiritual world "it stinks like carion" (D. L. W. 130).

     And yet the ministers of the Old Church and her people come to us and say, "Is it peace?" Do we have the courage to answer as did John, "what peace so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?"

     On the contrary many of our ministers are willing to exchange pulpits with the priests of the Dragon. They think that charity demands that they shall do this. Can we imagine Paul and Peter or even the loving John exchanging pulpits with the Jewish rabbis and the heathen priests? What should have been the use of establishing a Christian Church if it differed so little from the religions it came to conquer that the priests of the opposing faiths could exchange such courtesies? It would have been, on the face of it, a confession that the different bodies were not in opposition, engaged in a death struggle, but that Christianity was only one phase of truth. The Christians of that day believed that the religions about them were wholly false and corrupt and must be opposed and condemned. They believed that there is "None other Name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved," but the Name of the Lord.

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As long as they believed and taught this the Church was invincible.

     The New Churchman who does not see that the religions about him are false and corrupt, that they are not on the Lord's side, but in opposition to Him, that the very Dragon which threatens the life of the infant Church and is filled with rage against it is the Old Church, and that it is to be fought both within us and without us day and night, the man who does not see this is an element of weakness in the New Church. He is one within the walls who co-operates with the enemy without and is ten-fold more dangerous than an open enemy in the enemy's camp.

     TRAITORS.

     In time of war is it every considered charity to call an enemy within the lines a friend and treat him with gentle courtesy? He is a fellow man and perhaps thinks he is doing right. He may be nearer heaven than those who apprehend and punish him. Why not treat him gently? Because too much is at stake. He is a menace to the life of the country and hence to the welfare of many thousands. It is criminal to overlook his being a traitor to the cause he professes to follow. In the Church's warfare more is at stake than in wars between countries. The spiritual and eternal welfare of men is involved. And not only are those concerned who are of the Church, but also those who are not of it, and not only those who live now, but those who are to come hereafter. Yea, the very happiness and usefulness of the angels of heaven are involved for heaven rests upon the Church on earth and is in the fullness of her life or not as the Church is in her integrity or not.

     But who is to decide who is the friend and who the enemy of the New Church? Those who cultivate fraternal relations with the Old Church are sincere in thinking themselves the most enlightened of New Churchmen and her best friends. Shall not each one he allowed to work in his own way according to his own conscience? What is the good of hurling anathemas at each other when each is doing what to him seems best?

     It would be proper enough to take that position in a church that has no Divine Revelation and thus no authority for her Doctrines.

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If her Doctrines are but human interpretations of the Word one man's opinion is as good as another's. No good man would be willing to denounce the opinion of another lest he himself should be wrong. But a true Church can be built only on Divine authority. The apostles and early church fathers had Divine authority for all the Doctrines they taught. Enough was revealed by the Lord's own words and by the Evangelists to establish every true doctrine of the Church. It was not a matter of personal opinion, but of acceptance or rejection of what the Lord Himself had taught either with His own mouth or by His Holy Spirit.

     So it is in the New Church or else we are not a church and have no right to call ourselves one.

     Those who believed that God had revealed Himself in Jesus Christ, who was therefore the Divine Son of God, and who obeyed Him, were Christians. Similarly at this day those who believe that the Lord has revealed Himself anew and that the Body in which He has revealed Himself, the theological writings of Swedenborg, are a divine Body; those who believe this and live according to both the letter and spirit of His commandments are New Churchmen. No others can rightly claim to be so. And those who thus accept and follow the Lord need not judge one another. They have one that judges them, even the Word that He has given. And those who accept this Word will be willing to be corrected by it. He who criticizes will not do so from himself or his own opinion, but from and by the Heavenly Doctrine. And he who is corrected will ask only that he be shown that he is opposing himself to the Lord's own teaching. It may sometimes require courage to thus rebuke others, but it never requires undue confidence in one's own opinion, but just the opposite. It requires the humility to accept and proclaim the Lords' teaching. It requires love of others, and indeed of their salvation, that is greater than one's love of self. For it is done, if really done from the Doctrines, for the sake of saving the Church from errors and the men of the Church from evils. And we are taught that "The good are in their veriest life when defending others from evils. (A. C. 1683)

     It is true that correction of error in the Church is not always done in this spirit of love. But whether it is so done or not is not to be determined by the graciousness or lack of it with which it is done.

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We cannot know that unless we know motives. But he who opposes falsity and evil with the Heavenly Doctrines is not really himself opposing them. It is the Lord who opposes them.

     NON-RESISTANCE.

     The doctrine of non-resistance to evil is not that man shall not resist, but that he shall not resist from self, but from the Lord. We are taught the duty of resistance to evil. The man who resists from the Lord strikes as hard as he who resists from self. The difference is internal, not external. He who resists by means of the Lord's truth and with the desire to do good and not harm, to save life and not destroy it, resists from the Lord. And what is said in the Diary may apply to war in the Church as well as to war between nations:

     "In war the end is victory and thus the common good...there is no mercy towards those who fall because there is mercy in the end of saving many." (S. D. 1346.)

     'Those who are really of the Church, those who acknowledge the Writings as the second coming of the Lord will seldom need to be dealt with unmercifully. All who accept this standard are brethren who can reason together. But the case is often different with those who profess to be of the Church and yet deny the vital doctrines of the Church. True charity to them (to prevent their becoming profaners), and to others, may require that they be denounced and condemned.

     We are told of certain persons who entered heaven that they were stripped naked and cast down headlong and their clothes after them. (C. L. 102.) Many of our "good" people of the present day who have never shunned one evil as sin against God could not believe that angels would do such things. John, the disciple whom Jesus loved and whose repeated message was "Little children, love one another," wrote "If there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God-speed. For he that biddeth him God-speed is partaker of his evil deeds." (2 John 10, 11, vv.)

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     There is nothing more necessary than that the New Church should get over this sentimental notion, so prevalent in the dead Church about us, that the Church must sacrifice everything for peace and an appearance of harmony. On the contrary the Church must sacrifice nothing for peace. He is unworthy the name of New Churchman who fears to fight the Church's battles and is willing to compound a peace when he should fight that truth may prevail. The Lord did not promise peace to the Church on earth. He said: "I came not to bring peace on the earth, but a sword." (Matth. x: 34) There is peace in the spiritual mind and the end in view is peace. But there must be constant warfare in the natural as long as man lives in the world.

     WARS IN THE WORD.

     Must it not be of profound significance that the burden of the Old Testament is largely war? From the fourteenth chapter of Genesis to the history of the Jews in Babylon, at the end of the second book of Kings, battle follows battle and war follows war. The Psalms are full of war. The Prophets have much about wars and captivities. We are told that the historicals of the Word are especially for children and by them remains are stored for their future regeneration. How foolish to tell them and read them stories of wars during their childhood as the means of cultivating a love for the life of truth and then teach them that all strife is evil. Why should the Heavenly Father have given His Word this outward form and why should he have given children such delight in these stories unless the emotions awakened were designed to be useful later in their spiritual life, is it not evident that the Christian is to learn from these stories to love to fight the fight of faith, the fight against evil and falsity?

     The Lord was a man of war. His life on earth was a continual combat against the hells. Shall we expect to be regenerated without fighting? There is a common feeling in the Church that a warlike spirit may be tolerated in the young for a time during the "wild-ass" state, but that it is merely natural, and when one attains anything of spiritual and especially of celestial life all conflict and all combativeness will disappear.

     Yet the Lord was born celestial and continually advanced to more celestial life; and this solely by means of continual conflict. (A. C. 1545.)

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And that the celestial man engages in combat is evident from this: "Moreover celestial men are such that before they put off that state (the old state before purification) they are in so strong a natural principle as to truth that they can engage in combat with the infernals." (A. C. 3301)

     The same is also evident from the description of what celestial temptations are. (A. C. 847)

     Those who are opposed to all combat, who are unwilling for anything discordant or controversial to appear, cannot but suppress temptations. Those who will not contend against others for the truth will not contend with themselves. They are not willing to so greatly disturb themselves. And yet there is no regeneration without the combats of temptation. And he who is unwilling to fight the fight of temptation even to the extremity of despair ceases to advance and begins to retrograde. And what is true of the individual, or the Church in its smallest form, is true of the larger Church. Repeatedly in the larger bodies of the Church there have been opportunities to contest points of doctrine where certain ones charged that the Church was not loyal to her Lord, as He has revealed His will for this Church. And repeatedly instead of fighting it out and determining clearly who is right and who is wrong, discussion and controversy have been refused. And those who refuse to debate seem to think themselves more in charity than those who defend the truth as they understand it. Such charity is not spiritual, but only natural. It arises from fear of being convinced. It is suppression of temptation and refusal to stand for the truth when attacked. The state of a body of the Church after such a choice is always worse than before. There is in it a willingness to deny the Lord when put to the test. Only by sincere repentance and reformation can such a body he saved from final death and dissolution.

     The Writings are full of the necessity of temptation and its uses.

     Fructification or multiplication of truth from good is principally effected by temptations...because temptations remove self-love and the love of the world, thus they remove evils and on their removal the affection of good and truth flows in from the Lord. . . . Temptations also give the quality of the apperception of good and truth by the opposites which evil spirits on such occasions infuse: from the apperception of opposites are procured relatives, from which all quality is derived: for no one knows what good is unless he knows what is not good nor what truth is unless he knows what it; not true.

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Temptations also confirm goods and truths; for on such occasions a man fights against evils and falses, and by conquering he comes into a stronger affirmation. Moreover also by temptations evils and falses are subdued so that they no longer attempt to rise up; thus evils with falses are rejected to the sides and there hang loosely downwards, while goods and truths are in the midst and according to the zeal of affection are elevated upward, thus to heaven towards the Lord, from whom the elevation comes. A. C. 5356. The good of innocence cannot be appropriated to any one except through temptations. A. C. 7854.

     To endure the combat of temptation man's mind must be furnished with many spiritual truths, there must be an affection for those truths; truths must be arranged in order mutually supporting each other. Then when there is assault by evil spirits man must fight with all his power, ordering and using his truths as a general does his men. It is indeed true that the real battle is between the angels and the evil spirits who are attendant on the man, yet the issue depends on him. It is also true that in temptations the Lord alone fights for man and gives the victory and man can gain no victory himself. But the Lord gains the victory only through the man's efforts, as his reaction to the Divine influx. Man can fight only by the Divine Truth and this is to fight from the Lord. But man must fight as if all depended upon himself. "Prayers do not effect anything; combat must be waged." (A. C. 8174) "Jehovah of hosts numbereth the host for war (Isa. xiii: 4) signifies "to arrange truths from good against falsities from evil." (A. E. 734:15)

     THOSE WHO NEED NOT FIGHT.

     There are those in the Church who are not expected to engage in her warfare. This is evident from Deut. xx:5-8.

     Afterwards "the officers shall speak unto the people, saying. What man is there that hath built a new house and hath not dedicated it, let him go and return unto his house lest he die in the war and another man dedicate it. Or what man is he that hath betrothed a vineyard and hath not complete and gather the fruits of it. Or what man is there that hath betrothed a wife and hath not taken her, let him go and return to his house lest he die in the war and another man take her. . . . What man is timid and faint in heart let him go and return unto his house, lest his brethren's heart melt as his heart."

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     These words signify, "That all who were in truths of doctrine and thus had become men of the Church, and not those who had not so become, were to fight. . . . Men of the Church, that is men in whom the Church is, who are signified by the sons of Israel going out to war, are the ones to fight against enemies, which are the hells, and not those who have not yet become men of the Church or men in whom the Church is;. . . and it is said that such should go and return to their house lest they should die in the war, which means that such will not prevail over their enemies, but their enemies over them, since those only prevail over spiritual enemies who are in truths from good; that is, in whom truth is conjoined to good. . . . That the timid and faint in heart should also return home signified such as were not yet in the goods and truths of the Church and thereby in confidence in the Lord, for such fear the evil and also cause others to fear them, which is signified by 'lest his brethren's heart melt.'" A. E. 714:12.

     The man who is confirmed in the truth of the Church, the man in whom truth and good are conjoined, is to be a man of war. He must fight. He must fight the enemy within himself. But he will not stop with that. He will fight for truth whenever it is attacked. Especially will he fight when the welfare of the Church is threatened by those within her; for here is her greatest danger. He will not be content to say that the Lord will protect His own. The Lord act by means and only by means. The Lord protects His own by giving men courage to fight against the powers of hell in His strength by His truth. If those who should fight fail to do so He will raise up others to defend and build His Church. But that means that the Church itself passes from those who would not enter into combat to those who will do so.

     He who is of the Church, that is, he who has the Church established within himself, must fight or surrender. Hell is filled with hatred of the Lord and of all who are His. Evil men on earth are filled with the same hatred. The evil proprium of every man, the man of the Church as well as the man not of the Church, is filled with the same hatred. As soon as there is anything of the Church established in the individual heart or in the world hell cannot but attack it. And the Church must then fight or die.

     The man who is not confirmed in the Church is not required to fight because he cannot but he overcome. Therefore he is allowed to dodge the issue and avoid a conflict. He has not yet dedicated his house, not yet eaten of his vineyard he has betrothed a wife, but has not let taken her; he is faint-hearted and in the battle would not only yield himself, but also cause others to yield.

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     Such men cannot but seek to suppress all conflict in the Church; and to such it is allowable to do so. And on what other ground can we explain the repeated refusal of the larger bodies of the Church to contend over points of doctrine until the truth is clearly established? It is solely by conflict that truth is seen and falsity is known and rejected. But a church not yet established cannot be allowed to see truth except in a most general way, for she would refuse to do it and would thus profane it. Such a church is allowed to refuse the combat. But it follows that she must fight when more fully established or she trust pass away and give place to a body that will fight against evils and falsities, a body that is not afraid to learn what the truth is and to stand for it and do it.

     THE PRIEST A WARRIOR.

     We have seen that the Old Testament is a book of wars. The book of Revelation has much to sag of wars in the spiritual world. It is in fact from beginning to end the history of the great conflict between the Old Church and the New.

     The Writings, which open the Word, show that in every chapter of both Testaments it presents the warfare between good and evil, truth and falsity, so that in the internal sense it is in every part a book of wars. The Lord's life was a constant combat and victory from earliest infancy to the end of life in the world. He fulfilled the whole world. He fought against each one of the hells till He conquered it and finally He fought with the angels of heaven. (A. C. 4295:2.)

     We have seen that the man of the Church must he a man of war. He must not be timid or faint-hearted, but from the time he begins to be confirmed in the Church he must enter on a warfare that lasts until death, growing more intense as his strength increases.

     The Priesthood, which represents the Lord and the Word on one hand, and the Church itself on the other, must therefore be essentially a warfare. The attack will be principally against the Priesthood, as the first of the Church, that is, its inmost, and it devolves principally upon the priests to resist the attack and defend the Church. The common soldier needs to fight only while the battle is in progress, but the general must fight for months before the battle, and as soon as one battle is over must begin preparation to resist or attack again. So in the Church. The Priesthood must be trained for her warfare; must be thoroughly furnished and prepared. The priest must guard against the enemy day and night. He must not only repel open assaults, but must also attack when attack is the best defense and is necessary for the welfare of the Church (Charity, 164). He must contend with foes outside and with foes within the Church. And he must at times contend even with those in the Church who are most loyal and earnest. He must waken them from merely natural understanding of the truths of faith and spur them to more spiritual states. He must rouse them from self-satisfaction or from despair: must rebuke them, reprove and correct them. This is a work analogous to that of the Lord when He fought with the whole angelic heaven. (A. C. 4295) The work of the Priest in a living church is therefore a warfare in all of its aspects. Whether he is seeking to separate the New Church from the Old as a body in the world, or to separate the members of his church from the spirits of the Old in the spiritual world, or to lead the men of his fare, and only by bold, uncompromising and continual warfare can he perform the work of the Priesthood on earth. "This shows,'' as we are taught in the Apocalypse Explained, "that the Priesthood is a warfare, but against evils and falsities."

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"WHO IS MY MOTHER?" 1904

"WHO IS MY MOTHER?"       Rev. W. F. PENDLETON       1904

II.

     WHAT WAS IN THE LORD AT BIRTH.

     The Lord, when He was in the world, by the process of glorification put off completely and wholly the Human from the mother which He had assumed, and took on a Divine Human from the Father, or from the Infinite Divine that was in Him; so that His Human was no longer a Human from an, but from God Himself. He was no longer in any sense or degree the son of Mary, and hence He did not acknowledge her as His mother. But since in the Gospels she is occasionally called His mother, it will be well for us to examine what is meant by this, and in what sense she is called His mother. We propose to take this subject up for consideration, and shall endeavor to show that where Mary is called His mother it is to be understood in a representative sense; but before we enter into this it will be necessary to consider the state of heaven and the Church before the Advent of the Lord.

     The Lord has always been present with men in both worlds, from the beginning of creation to his Coming into the world. But as soon as the Celestial Church ceased to exist there could be no longer that mediation of His presence such as existed before; and it became necessary that He should come into the world, to establish a Divine Meditation between God and man, which was to endure forever. Mediation before His Coming was by the Celestial Heaven, the Mediation now is the Divine Human.

     The Lord was present with the first man He created upon the earth, and He taught and led this first man Himself, or without the mediation of angels and spirits; for there were then no angels and spirits through whom there could be mediation. The Lord taught the first man even natural truth; for he was like an infant, or an animal; he was in dense ignorance of all things.

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     In process of time a Church arose, called the Most Ancient Church, the members of which were Celestial men, and out of them was formed in the other world the celestial heaven, through which the Lord was mediately present with the human race,-mediately present in the Churches which followed, even down to the time of His Coming.

     The Lord was present with the angels of heaven and with the men of every Church, and He appeared to them as a Man; this Man was called Jehovah; and this Divine Man, or Jehovah, is the Man who appeared in the world under the name of Jesus Christ.

     In the Most Ancient Church the Lord was present in the interiors of men; He inflowed into them by the internal way from heaven. By this internal way He taught them immediately from heaven; hence they had perception of heavenly things; they were gift with wisdom like that of the angels while still on earth, and were celestial men.

     In the course of time the glory of this Church departed; and in its decline and fall it would have been necessary for the Lord to come into the world,-even at the time of the Flood,-to save the human race, had not the necessity been averted by a Divine Miracle, and the actual Advent thus postponed until the fulness of time. The Divine Miracle was the giving of the written Word, by which the Lord could be present with men through representatives of Himself. He could no longer be actually present by the internal way from heaven, or by the celestial and spiritual truths of His Divine Wisdom, but those truths could be clothed, and were clothed, in the representatives of the world which was written, and in the worship by representatives in the Cracks which followed. Since He could no longer be actually present, He caused Himself to be present representatively, or by the correspondences and representatives of the written Word, with the men of the Church. His presence was veiled and accommodated by these representatives; and such a presence was all that the men at that time were able to bear. This presence in the written Word, and in the representative worship of the Church, was the Coming of the Lord at that time; and His actual coming in the flesh was but the unveiling of Himself, the removal of the representative covering of Himself, and the revealing of Himself as He really is,-as He really was in heaven.

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     For the Lord in His Divine Human was interiorly present in the Word, which is called the Ancient Word, and in the representatives of the Ancient Church; or, as we are accustomed now to say, there was in the Word an internal sense, which treated of the Lord alone, which described His whole life in the world, His Divine Work or Redemption and Glorification, which He actually accomplished when He came into the world. Glorification and Redemption are the Coming of the Lord, and this coming was thus actually a present reality to the angels of heaven, who were associated with the men of the Ancient Church in their representative worship.

     To the angels of the celestial heaven, when there is no idea of time, the Lord was already come; for they saw Him as actually present with them in their heaven, and as representatively present in the Church on earth. But to the men of the Church, who were in the idea of time, He was yet to come; and indeed He was yet to take away the veil that concealed from their view the Lord in the Holy of Holies. There was no such veil to the angels of the heaven of the Most Ancient Church. The Lord who came into the world was already with them in their heaven. This is what is meant by His words to His disciples, "Before Abraham was, I am."

     Still the idea of the Divine Human was not completely hidden by representatives from the men of the Ancient Churches. He appeared to them from time to time,-or to some of their prophets and wise men,-as a Divine Man in the form of an angel. Nor was the idea of His Advent into the world, to redeem and save men, wholly concealed from them; for early in the decline of the Most Ancient Church this was revealed in the form of a prophecy. "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise His heel." (Gen. iii, 15.) Other prophecies of His Coming were made in later times. This, in the third chapter of Genesis, was the first.

     Concerning this first promise of the Lord's Coming, we read in Arcana Coelestia, n. 2034, as follows:

     After all the celestial in man was lost, that is, all love to God so that there remained no longer any will of good, the human race was separated from the Divine, for nothing conjoins but love, and when there was no love, disjunction took place, the consequence of which is destruction and extirpation.

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A promise was therefore then made concerning the Lord's Coming into the world, who should unite the Human to the Divine, and by this union should conjoin the human race to Himself by the faith of love and charity. From the time of this first promise, concerning which see Genesis iii: 15, the faith of love to the Lord, who was to come, effected conjunction. But when there was no longer any such faith remaining throughout the earth, then the Lord came, and united the Human Essence to the Divine, so that they were altogether one, as He Himself expressly declares. He at the same time taught the way of truth, that every one who should believe in Him, that is, who should love Him and the things which are of Him, and who should be in His love, which is towards the whole human race, should be conjoined with Him, and be saved.

     The idea contained in this first prophecy and promise to the human race of the Lord's Coming into the world was a Divine idea with men, a Divine truth, in which the Lord Himself was present with them, and which was the Lord with them. In it the Lord was present, and the whole of heaven, the whole of the Divine in heaven. By it the Lord was with them, even in their natural thought, in the letter of their Word, in all their worship; and in everything of their worship they looked to Him by this promise of His coming. It was thus that "the faith of love to the Lord, who was to come, effected conjunction," and was the means of salvation to all who looked forward to his coming,-who looked from their heart and the thought of their heart.

     The promise of His Coming was His Coming in a potential sense; and by this potential coming He conjoined Himself with mankind, even in the fall of the Most Ancient Church. For, was not the whole Word as it is in heaven, the entire internal sense of the Word in heaven, contained, involved, and enclosed, in this promise of His Coming? And in this internal sense, was there not described, even in this most ancient time, the whole Divine work of Redemption and Glorification, which He actually accomplished when He came into the world? There is nothing of time in the Divine Idea, and what the Lord says is already done, done from eternity to eternity, done in heaven and done on earth; and man must be brought to see that which is already done, and brought into order according to it,-man, the world, and hell, and even heaven itself.

     Time is on the part of man, not on the part of the Lord; and the time came in the history of man, when it was necessary that the Lord should reveal Himself, in order that men might see Him, and be saved. When there was no faith remaining, the bond was about to be broken; and so He came, and found no faith on earth, even as He, the Son of man, said. He knew this before; He knew that there was no faith on the earth. He knew that the bond was about to be broken; He knew it from eternity; but it was necessary that He should come, in order that He should bring man to see, acknowledge, and be saved. No love was left, and no faith of love; the total disjunction of man from God- threatened, and was at the doors. The Divine, which had been present with the human race from the beginning, was about to depart forever. In this great emergency, in this most imminent danger,--the danger of the destruction of the human race,--the Lord made manifest His Power, revealed His Presence, came to rescue, restore, and save.

     The Divine was present, it had been present from the beginning; but men in the natural world, and in the world of spirits, were well nigh removed from that presence, as hell is removed from heaven. The Divine was present in heaven with the angels, actually present in their love and faith, and actually present with men in their love and faith by the promise of His Coming. But when the time came that there was no love and faith with men, how could the Lord be present with them? When the time came that the Divine was present only in heaven with the angels, and not with men on earth except in bare representatives of Him; and when the representatives themselves were perverted and profaned, nothing could restore and save except the actual and manifest presence of the Lord Himself in the flesh; therefore, this was done, and the means Divinely provided by which the perpetual and eternal presence of the Lord was established with the human race; and neither men nor devils could again jeopardize the existence of the Church, or permanently break the bond of communication with heaven.

     It is now appropriate for us to inquire, what it is that was about to break the bond, and separate man from heaven and the Lord, and bring about universal damnation. It is easy to say, and common to say, that evil did this and the falsity of evil; and this is true.

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But the human mind needs the concrete as well as the abstract view of all spiritual conditions,--specially the concrete view of spiritual conditions as they exist in the spiritual world, where all men are collected after the death of the body. It is necessary to know the actual condition of heaven and the Church in the spiritual world, or in heaven and the world of spirits, before the Advent of the Lord.

     We read in the True Christian Religion, n. 121, that "at the time of the first coming of the Lord, the hells had grown up to such a height, that they had filled all the World of Spirits, which is the middle, between heaven and hell, and thus not only confused the heaven which is called the last or ultimate, but also assaulted the middle heaven, which they infested in a thousand ways, and which would have gone to destruction, unless the Lord had protected it. *** The reason that the hells had grown up to such a height, was, that at the time when the Lord came into the world, the whole world had alienated itself from God, by idolatries and magic; and the Church which had been amongst the sons of Israel, and at length amongst the Jews, by falsification and adulteration of the Word, was utterly destroyed and both the former and the latter (idolaters, magicians, Israelites and Jews) flocked into the World of Spirits, where at length they so increased and multiplied, that they could not be expelled, but by the descent of God Himself, and by the strength of His Divine Arm. *** This was accomplished by the Lord when He was in the world;" namely, the expulsion of the great horde of idolaters, magicians, Israelites, and Jews, who had been gathering in the world of spirits for over a thousand years.

     We read again, that "Jehovah God descended and assumed the Human, to the end that He might reduce into order all things which were in heaven, and all things which were in the Church; since, at that time, the power of hell prevailed over the power of heaven, and on earth the power of evil over the power of good, and thence a total damnation stood before the door and threatened. This impending damnation Jehovah God removed by means of His Human, and thus redeemed men and angels; from which it is manifest, that without the Coming of the Lord, no one could have been saved." Ibid.

     While this condition existed in the Church on earth, also in the world of spirits, and in the lower heavens,--evil rampant everywhere,--the Lord was still present in the interior heavens; but influx from Him and communication with men on earth was rendered inoperative and ineffective, because of the interposing obstacles placed between by this innumerable horde of evil spirits, who had built up false and imaginary heavens for themselves, and who from their seat ruled men on earth with uninterrupted sway from century to century. But the interruption came.

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This state could not last, for the end in creation would have been defeated, followed by the destruction of all the Lord's created work. He must come down into the midst of this mixture and confusion, and set to rights the great and universal wrong; in order that He Himself might rule in His universe, and no other. This He actually accomplished in a Divinely perfect work.

     Who was it that came, what did He bring with Him when He came, and what did He take on in order to make Himself appear? The answer to these questions involves all the arcana of heaven, all the mysteries of God, all the eternal verities of His Word; and we shall not know to all eternity their compass and breadth; the angels of heaven are forever entering more and more interiorly into these wonders of infinite wisdom. But we may dare, even while here on earth, to draw near and prostrate ourselves before the veil of the temple in which is the Holy of Holies, and rising learn what we are able to receive, and as much as it is good for us to know.

     It was God Himself who came, the Creator of the universe, Jehovah, the God of the Ancient Churches; and He came with all His Divine Love, and all His Divine Wisdom, and all His Divine Power. He came with the whole of heaven, He came and all His holy angels with him; the whole of heaven was with him and in Him, when He was born into the world. He left nothing behind. Jehovah, the Father of eternity, the Infinite itself, was His Inmost: Jehovah in heaven, the Divine with the angels, the Divine which had been descending into heaven ever since the first man was created upon the earth, this Divine Man, this Divine Human in heaven, was the internal of the Lord when He was born in the flesh.

     And what was His external? What did He take on and clothe Himself with in order to make Himself appear among men God, such as He is in Himself, is invisible, and in order to be seen by men He must veil or clothe Himself; or otherwise He would be as nothing to the human eye and the human mind.

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In order to be seen He must clothe Himself and appear by means of that which is with man, and in no other way call He appear. This accounts for the things most unworthy of God which appear in the letter of the Old Testament. God, in order to appear to the Israelites, took on things from their own state, and thus He allowed Himself to appear in many things like unto them,--angry, revengeful, vindictive, tyrannical, and selfish. In order to appear to them, He took on the state of the Church with them; and so this their state is depicted in the letter of the Old Testament, which was the appearance of God to the Israelitish nation. In no other manner could He have come down to them.

     This answers the question as to what it was the Lord God assumed and inherited when He was born into the world; what the External was with which He clothed Himself when He came among men. His coverings or clothings were successive. His Inmost was the Infinite God. His covering was first the state of the Church as it was in the heavens; this was His Internal; and He superinduced upon this Internal an external, which He had been clothing Himself with from the beginning. From the decline and fall of the Most Ancient Church He had been taking upon Himself an External from the Ancient and Jewish Churches. Finally, He superinduced upon all this a covering and veil of flesh, with all its inherited tendencies to evil from the mother

     Thus Jehovah God appeared among men. He had in Him the state of the Church in the higher heavens, in the lower heavens, in the world of spirits, and on earth. The state of the Church in the higher heavens was good and truth from the Divine; the state of the Church in the lower heavens was evil and falsity from hell, covered over with the appearance of good; the state of the Church in the world of spirits was similar, and it was similar also upon the earth. In addition to this was the state of the simple good in the lower heavens, in the world of spirits, and on earth. Mary herself was in this state of simple good. This state of simple good--in the midst of a mighty torrent of evil--formed as it were a remnant or remains in the External of the Lord which He assumed.

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From this remnant of simple good, and by means of it, He made His first combats against the hells which encompassed Him; and He made the External or Natural which He assumed Divine, thus establishing His eternal presence with men. The Divine was present in this simple good, and had been present in it, by the prophecies concerning Himself from the time of the Most Ancient Church; and thus the simple in both worlds looked for the Coming of the Messiah, and received Him with faith of heart when He came; and by them He built up a new heaven and a new Church.

     We are therefore now able to see in a general manner, what the External was with which the Lord clothed Himself in order to be among men, that it included in it the entire state of the Church at that time, and what it had been from the beginning. We see what the maternal human was that had to be put away.

     Mother, under a spiritual idea, is the Church: and His mother was at first the Church in its then existing state. Physically, and according to the flesh, Mary was His mother: but she merely represented that which was His mother, when seen under a spiritual idea,--the state of the Church in both worlds, in which evil and falsity from hell was predominant. This is the mother which He no longer owned and acknowledged, when "one said unto Him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee;" and to whom He answered and said, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren." And in order to show that the Old Church, the state of which We had first assumed in order to come into the world, because He could come in no other way,--in order to show that the Old Church was rejected, and that the new was being established which was to be the mother, "He stretched forth His hand towards His disciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister and mother."

     The question, "Who is my mother'" was not only asked by the Lord of those who stood around Him on this momentous occasion, but it is asked of every man. It is addressed to you and to me. And it is a question that every man must answer, now or when the judgment comes, in this world or after death. And the place of each one in the spiritual world will be allotted according to his decision.

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For in it is involved the true idea of God, the true idea of God in His Human. And happy shall he be to whom the angelic word shall come, "Let your idea of God be like ours, and we shall dwell together."

     (To be Continued.)
OFFERINGS FOR SUPPORT OF CHURCH USES 1904

OFFERINGS FOR SUPPORT OF CHURCH USES       Rev. J. E. BOWERS       1904

     It is a matter of necessity that means be provided for the furtherance of the uses of the Church. Those who are faithfully performing the various uses should be supposed for the sake of the uses. To contribute with this idea in view, is a practical form of the acknowledgment of the Lord. It is right that every member of the Church should aid the work. But in doing so everyone is to be in freedom to use his own judgment.

     They who know the doctrines of the New Church, clearly understand their relation to the Lord as mere recipients of all things from Him. They know that all things are the Lord's; and that, in an absolute sense, it is only an appearance that anyone has even earthly or material possessions. To the natural man, or to one who has not yet received into his understanding genuine truth, and therefore has not yet learned to think spiritually and rationally, this looks like a paradox. But it is, nevertheless, a truth seen in its own clear light, by one whose mind has been opened by the reception of truths of doctrine, from an affection for them. And there is an affection for truths of doctrine, from an affection for them. And there is an affection for truths of doctrine, inasmuch as the spiritual and heavenly uses to which they lead, and which they promote, are perceived and appreciated.

     The spiritually rational man,-the man of the Church,-acknowledges most devoutly, that all things are the Lord's. He has acquired that degree of wisdom which withholds him from arrogating anything, either earthly or heavenly, to himself. He regards himself as a mere recipient of all things of his life, both things temporal and spiritual. In his thought he beholds the wonders of Creation, and according to the enlightenment he has received, he sees that the whole earth is filled with means, which are innumerable forms of uses, by which may be accomplished, and attained the very end for which man is born into this material world.

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     The Church is the Lord's presence and heaven with men; the kingdom of God on the earth. The whole work of the Church has the end in view of educating and training people for heaven, and for heavenly uses, by the performance of which they may have the happiness of everlasting life.

     The Church, therefore, is everything to those who are of the Church, and in whom the Church is. For the sake of the welfare and prosperity of their spiritual mother, the Church, they have a most tender and affectionate regard; and would be willing, if it were at any time required, to endure privation or persecution. All the things of this world, in the best conditions that are possible, are of little account, as compared with the things of the Church and of heaven; and are only means to the end of man's preparation for the life of heaven.

     In the Church; in the knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines; in the delightful sphere of association with those who are active in performing and promoting the uses of the Church, we have all that makes life in this world worth living. The more we are in the sphere of the Church, the better we call do our uses and duties in the world. The doing of them on account of the bad state of the world, is sometimes difficult; but we have principles to guide us aright in all circumstances.

     If we are truly of the Church, all our hopes, all our aspirations for better things than this world has to give, all our brightest anticipations of a more perfect and a more blessed state of existence in store for us in the future, are centered in the Church. Thus our "treasure" is in heaven, and our "heart" is there also. The thought of the important uses of our beloved Church; the contemplation of the fully formed, more glorious Church in the spiritual world, with which the Church on earth is in conjunction, the Church here being the very foundation of the Heavens: this cannot fail to fill our minds with heavenly fire, the warmth of affection, and with gratitude to the Lord for the privilege we enjoy of doing our humble part in the upbuilding of the Church among men.

     It is evident, then, that for us to make offerings for the support of the uses of the Church, and even to make sacrifices in order to accomplish our purpose in doing so, is one of the greatest privileges we have granted to us in this world.

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For it is a practical way of showing our faith by our deeds; and of co-operating with the Lord in the work of our own regeneration, and in the Lord's holy office of the Priesthood, or ministry, which He has instituted, and which is to be maintained in the Church through all generations, for the sake of the salvation of the souls of men.

     Our relation, as finite recipients, to the Lord, the infinite Giver of all good, is a reciprocal one. We must be disposed to give to Him, in order to be in a state to receive from Him, those things of heavenly blessedness, which He ever wills to impart to us, according to our needs and in the greatest measure possible. We must be willing to give up our own life, to be able to receive of the influences of His life; to reject our falses and evils, to receive truth and good from Him. And according to the same law, we must be disposed to make offerings for the support of the uses of the Church, as in the Divine Providence ability is given us, that we may receive the spiritual benefits and blessings of the ministrations of the Church. That the mind of every member of the
Church who is in the endeavor to do his duty, in regard to the matter briefly considered above, and in other respects, will be filled to the full capacity of the reception of the things of heaven, is meant by the Lord's words: "Give, and it shall be given to you, good measure, passed, shaken, and overflowing, shall they give into your bosom." (Luke vi: 38.)

     "The Church is the neighbor more than our country; for he who consults the welfare of the Church, provides for the souls, and for the eternal life, of those who dwell in his country. He therefore, who, from love, provides for the Church, loves the neighbor in a superior degree; for he wishes, and earnestly desires, that heaven and the happiness of eternal life may be the portion of others." (N. J. H. D. 94)

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LEGENDS OF ENOCH AND THE PATRIARCHS 1904

LEGENDS OF ENOCH AND THE PATRIARCHS       Rev. C. TH. ODHNER       1904

     IN the number given by the Bible for the antediluvian patriarchs," says Lenormant, "we have the first instance of a striking agreement with traditions of various nations. Ten are mentioned in the Book of Genesis, and a remarkable coincidence gives the same number, ten, in the legends of a great number of people, for those primitive ancestors whose history is lost in a mist of fable. To whatever epoch they carry back these ancestors, whether before or after the deluge, whether the mythical or historical character prevails in the picture, they are constant to this sacred number, ten.

     "In Chaldea, Berosus enumerates ten antediluvian kings, whose fabulous reign extended to thousands of ordinary years, forming ten cosmic days. The legends of the Iranian race commence with the reign of ten Peisdadien kings, 'men of ancient law,' who lived on 'pure Homa (water of life), and who preserved their sanctity.' In India we meet with the nine Bradmadikas, who, with Brahma, their founder, make ten, and who are called the Ten Petris or Fathers. The Chinese count ten emperors, partakers of the Divine nature, before the dawn of historical times. And finally, not to multiply instances, the Germans and Scandinavians believed in the ten ancestors of Odhin, and the Arabs in the ten mythical kings of the Adites, the primordial people of their peninsula. Such an agreement cannot be accidental, and must lead us back to a common origin for all these traditions." (Ancient History of the East, I, p. 12.)

     The tell patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, represent the complete history of the Most Ancient Church, from its beginning even to its vastation and the establishment of a new Church.

     There are in the ancient legends numerous allusions to various ones of these patriarchs, but especially to Enoch, whose name signifies "instruction," and who represents a generation which undertook the important task of collecting and writing down the celestial doctrinals and correspondential traditions handed down by the men of the Most Ancient Church to their degenerating posterity. (A. C. 401.)

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This work had been first undertaken by the posterity which is known by the name of Cain, when the art of writing was first invented (A. C. 609, 736, 920), but it was completed by Enoch, of whom it is said that "Enoch walked with God," on account of the pleasure which this posterity took in collecting and preserving the vanishing truths of their celestial ancestors. But since they had no thought of reforming their own lives according to these truths (A. C. 464), and as the succeeding generations of antediluvians would have destroyed the
sacred writings thus collected, it is said that "Enoch was no more, for God took him." By which is signified that the Book written by Enoch was removed and hidden away for the use of a future race, the men of the Ancient Church, to whom it constituted the nucleus or beginning of the Ancient Word. (A. C. 609, 3432)

     It is of interest to note that a knowledge of the true significance of Enoch, though utterly unknown to the Christian Church, still remains in legendary form among various oriental nations descended from the Ancient Church. Thus the Jewish Rabbis still maintain that the passage in Genesis v: I, "This is the book of the generations of Adam," means that Moses here quoted from a book written by our first parent, which Adam afterwards gave to Enoch. (Fabricius, 1, p. 11.)

     Josephus, on the other hand, tells us that the patriarch Seth, unwilling that the wisdom and astronomical discoveries of the ancients should perish in the double destruction of the world, by fire and by water, which Adam had predicted. set up two pillars, on which were engraved the records of this wisdom, and which, he says, still remain in the land of Siriad," by which, perhaps, he means Sinear, or Chaldea. (Jewish Antiquities, 1, 2, 3.)

     The Arabic tradition of Enoch is very circumstantial and interesting:

     Enoch, or Edris, as he is called by the Arabs, was born in Hindostan, but he lived in Yemen. He was a prophet. In his days men worshiped fire, being deceived by Eblis. When God sent Enoch to his brethren to turn them from their false worship, they would not believe him.

     Idolatry began in the times of Jared, son of Mahalaleel, and it spread to such an extent that, when Noah was born, there were not eighty persons who worshipped the true and living and only God.

     Enoch knew how to sew, and was an accomplished tailor. He was the first to put pen to paper; he wrote many books.

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He had in his possession the books of Adam, and for ten years, instead of sleeping, he spent the night in reading them. He also read these books to the people, and endeavored thereby to bring them back to the knowledge of the true God. (Related in the Chronicle of Abou-djafar Tabari, published in French at Paris, 1867.)

     Judging from internal evidence, it is quite clear that the "Book of Enoch," from which the apostle Jude quotes, and which was re-discovered in Abyssinia in the beginning of the nineteenth century, is not the actual book of Enoch which was a part of the Ancient Word itself. Nevertheless, it is stated in the Apocalypse Explained, n. 735, that "these words of Jude (v. 9), the apostle quoted from ancient books which were written by correspondences," and it is quite possible that it contains at least some fragments from the genuine, most ancient book. At any rate, we quote from the Abyssinian volume the following charge from God to Enoch: "Hear, and fear not, Enoch, thou righteous man and writer of righteousness, come hither and hear my words: Go, speak unto the Watchers of Heaven, and say unto them, we shall pray for men, and not men for you. Why have ye forsaken the high and holy and eternal heaven, and have joined yourselves to women, and polluted yourselves with the daughters of men, and have taken to you wives, and have become the fathers of a giant race? Ye who were spiritual, holy, and enjoying eternal life, have corrupted yourselves with women.... And now the giants, who are born of flesh and blood, shall become evil spirits, and their dwelling shall be on the earth. Bad beings shall proceed from them. Because they have been generated from above, from the holy Watchers have they received their origin; therefore shall they be evil spirits on the earth, and evil spirits shall they be called. And the spirits of the giants, which mount upon the clouds, shall fail and be cast down, and do violence and cause ruin on the earth. and injury." (Das Buch Henoch, Leipzig, 1853, xv., p. 9.)

     References to Enoch, though under other names, are frequent in the ancient traditions. Thus in Manetho, the native historian of ancient Egypt, we find the statement that Thoth. the god of writing, known to the Greeks as Hermes Trismegistus, "had inscribed on tablets, before the deluge, in hieroglyphics and in the sacred tongue, the elements of all knowledge. After the deluge, the second Thoth translated the contents of these tablets into the vulgar tongue." (Lenormant, Anc. Hist. of the East, 1, p. 14.)

     To this may be added the Phrygian story related by Suidas in his Lexicon, of the ancient king Annachus or Nennakos, who reigned at Iconium long before Deukalion (Noah); he reached an age of more than three hundred years, foretold the deluge, wept and prayed for his people, and called all his subjects together to warn them against the impending destruction.

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     Our comparative analysis next leads us to the account of the Flood which has been related by the Chaldean priest, Berosus, in the time of Alexander. It is evident that Eerosus drew upon the Assyrian document which has been quoted above, but it is probable also that he had other, and perhaps still more ancient, sources of information.

     In his second book Berosus states that ten kings reigned in Chaldea after the world was first created, and that they reigned 432,000 years. The ninth king was named Ardates.

     After the death of Ardates, his son Xisuthros reigned eighteen years. In his time there happened a great Deluge, the history of which is thus described: The Deity, Chronos, appeared to him in a vision, and warned him that upon the fifteenth day of the month Daesius? there would be a flood, by which mankind would be destroyed. He therefore enjoined him to write a history of the beginning, procedure, and conclusion of all things; and to bury it in the city of the Sun, Sippora; and to build a vessel, and take with him into it his friends and relations, and to convey on board everything necessary to sustain life, together with all the different animals, both birds and quadrupeds, and trust himself fearlessly to the deep. Having asked the Deity whither he was to sail, he was answered: "To the Gods," upon which he offered up a prayer for the good of mankind. He then obeyed the Divine admonition, and built a vessel five stadia in length, and two in breadth. Into this he put everything which he had prepared, and embarked in it with his wife, his children and his personal friends. After the flood had been upon the earth, and was in time abated, Xisuthrus sent out some birds from the vessel, which, not finding any food, nor any place where they could rest, returned to the vessel. After an interval of some days Xisuthrus sent out the birds a second time, and now they returned to the ship with mud on their feet. A third time he repeated the experiment, and then they returned no more: whence Xisuthrus judged that the earth was visible above the waters; and accordingly he made an opening in the vessel, and seeing that it was stranded upon the site of a certain mountain, he quitted it with his wife and daughter, and the pilot.

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Having then paid his adoration to the earth, and having built an altar and offered sacrifices to the gods, he, together with those who had left the vessel with him, disappeared. Those who had remained behind, when they found that Xisuthrus and his companions did not return in their turn left the vessel and began to look for him, calling him by his name. Him they saw no more, but a voice came to them from heaven, lead pious lives, and so join him who was gone gods; and he further informed them that his wife, his daughter and the pilot had shared the same honor. It was told them, moreover, that they should return to Babylon, and how it was ordained that they should take up the writings that had been buried in Sippora, and impart them to mankind, and that the country, where they then were, was the land of Armenia. The rest having heard these words, offered sacrifices to the gods, and, taking a circuit, journeyed to Babylon The vessel being thus stranded in Armenia, some part of it still remains in the mountain of the Corcyraens (the Kurds), in Armenia, and the people scrape off the Bitumen from the vessel and make use of it by way of charms. Now, when those of whom we have spoken, returned to Babylon, they dug up the writings which had been buried at Sippora; they also founded many cities, and built temples, and thus the country of Babylon became inhabited again." (Cory, Ancient Fragments, pp. 26-29.)

     This story, which, indeed, refers mostly to the Flood, is quite remarkable also in its references to the prediluvian writings which were collected by Enoch, hidden away, and preserved for the use of the Ancient Church. It is noteworthy, also, that "the city of the Sun, Sippora," signifies "the city of books," the Biblical Separvaim, which, moreover, is probably the same as the city of "Suripak," mentioned in the Sumero-Akkadian account of the Flood.

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LAST JUDGMENT 1904

LAST JUDGMENT              1904


MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG.

     THE MOHAMMEDANS.

     84. I was conducted to the region where the Mohammedans are; this region was towards the right in the plane of the sole of the right foot. And while there, I was held in thought concerning the Lord, that the Father was in Him and He in the Father, and that the Holy Spirit proceeds; thus in the thought that there is one God in whom is a trine. Then, all who were there were in the same idea, and in complete acknowledgment, and this throughout the whole of that tract. From this it was granted to know, that, of the Mohammedans, there are many who receive the faith concerning the Lord that He is one with the Father.

     85. When I was conducted by the Lord through various places that I might know the quality of the various nations there, I came also to two mountains upon which were Mohammedans on the one were those who had lived a good moral life: they said that it was well with them there because they obey their governors. On the other were those who were quite perceptive of spiritual things. They first related how no others can come to them except those who are of a similar genius; and how Christians cannot come to them, and if they do come, it appears to them as though they were being swallowed up by wolves; and when, in spite of this, any draw near, they cast them into prison, and treat them harshly and afterwards dismiss them; they are monks, who can get themselves in by means of arts, but they are discovered. I spoke with them about a plurality of wives, and they listened to the reasons why it is according to Christian doctrine that a man must marry only one wife. They perceived justice in these reasons, but they answered that, as yet, they cannot give up matrimony with many wives, because it had been granted them in the world by their religion, and this for the reason that they are Orientals, who without many wives would have been inflamed to adulteries and would thus have perished.

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     86. I have also spoken with the first born of the Christians who are the military guards of their sultan; they are called Janissaries* and they became Mohammedans. They said that they were still Christians at heart, and that some of them were intermediates, while others were Mohammedans.
* The Janissaries, who up to the time of their destruction in the beginning of the nineteenth century, constituted the formidable standing army of Turkey, were originally a bodyguard to the Sultan, formed in 1360, from the sons of Christians in Armenia and Circassia, who were torn from their parents, circumcised, and brought up in the Mohammedan faith.-TR.

     87. When I spoke with those who were upon the other mountain, mentioning something from the Word, I noticed what was holy proceeding from them; as, when I said that the Lord was conceived of Jehovah, and that He therefore called Him Father; and that it is from this that He is the Son of God, and from this that the Divine is in Him; and that therefore He was able to glorify His whole body, so that that part of the body which is rejected by those born of human parents and rots away, with Him was glorified and made Divine from the Divine in Itself, and with this He rose again leaving nothing in the sepulchre, thus in a way different from what is the case with every man. They listened attentively, and said that they wondered that they had never heard such things.

     88. I saw, in a certain city, an infestation of Mohammedans by Christians, from which they could hardly be rescued. It was effected by means of arts,--of which there are many in the spiritual world. It was then seen that their city sank down towards the middle and there was a wall round about; but the sinking was very slight, in order that they might he able to go up and down. And thus they were protected and delivered from their infesters, who departed.

     89. I was led to the Mohammedans who were in the eastern quarter, and it was granted me to speak with them. They said that some Christians of the Roman Catholic religion come to them, and that they had noticed that they did this merely for the sake of gain and dominion; and, further, that they desire to own everything in the world, and also to rule over all who are there.

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There was discourse with them about God; they said that they could not comprehend how men can perceive one God when they mention three and call them persons, when yet there is but one God; and that, nevertheless, they had heard from Christians, that they also say one God. Because this is a contradiction, they asked me what I knew about God. I said that in the Christian heaven there is no such belief nor any such saying; but that the Trine is in one Person, and that that Trine is called Father. Son, and Holy Spirit; that this Trine is in the Lord, in whom the inmost, which is the esse of life, is called Father, the second, which is the existere of life therefrom, is the Son, and the third is the proceeding, and is what is called the Holy Spirit; also that such a union was effected by God the Father by His advent in the world; and that Christians also can be enlightened in this matter, since the Lord openly teaches that the Father is in Him, and that the Father and He are one, and, that the Holy Spirit speaks not from itself but from Him; but that they who are of the Roman Catholic religion do not admit this, for the reason that they themselves may be the Lord on earth: nor do the Reformed who are in the religion of faith alone. The Mohamedans comprehended this. They said that they had thought about the matter, desiring illustration; this was afterwards given them, because, without instruction from the Word, this subject cannot be comprehended.

     90. I spoke with Mohammedans about resurrection, to the effect that Christians believe that the resurrection will not take place until the destruction of the world, and that bodies will then be united to their souls. and will be collected from every quarter whither they have been scattered: and that, in the meantime, they are spirits, of whom they have an idea as of wind, especially respiratory wind; and that thus they fly about, either in the ether or in the starry heaven, Without hearing, sight, or any other sense; and that they are in expectation of the judgment; in such expectation are also those who have died since the first dawn of this earth, who have thus flown about in the universe now for 6000 years; and that some think that they are all together in a certain place, which is not a place but a ubi or pu,* and that the angels also are such; and that Christians scarcely grasp the fact that, after death a man lives a man as in the world, for they cannot have an idea of a spiritual body; but that yet, when they do not think from doctrine, as when they are near death, they think of themselves after death, as being living men; and that, therefore, those who officiate at their obsequies, write openly that they are among the angels, are speaking with them, are in white garments, and in paradises; but, as soon as they come to their ideas from doctrine, then, as was said, they think of man after death, and of an angel, as of wind.

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These things mere told to the Mohammedans, and among Christians who call themselves enlightened above others, saying that for their own part, they know they will live after death, will live in happy marriage, and will drink wine, and this after they have rejected the exuviae which had served them as an ultimate clothing or body in the gross sphere.
*Pu--a Greek word meaning, where? Somewhere; ubi has the same meaning in Latin.--TR.

     91. There are many Mohammedans who become Christians, acknowledging the Lord as the only God, because the Father is in Him. When they are led into heaven, they are led first to the east and thence to the north; from there they ascend higher and higher to the west, where they are in a higher place; but still by a circuit or circuitous course, according to their situation below. Some appeared to ascend towards the south, who were they who had confirmed themselves in the Divinity of the Lord.

     92. Many Mohammedans, from natural lumen, have a better grasp of spiritual things than Christians, because they think much, and desire truths. They had a good understanding of the fact that all things in heaven and in the world refer themselves to good and truth: and that truth, when it is believed, is of faith, and good, when man is affected by it, is of love; and that therefore two faculties are given to man, understanding and understanding for the reception of truth, thus of faith, and will for the reception of good, thus of love; and that good and truth, thus the understanding and the will, must be one, that man may be truly a man; so also faith and love. Thence they clearly perceived that they who are in the good of life, are in the perception of truth, for the reason that good hungers after truth and wishes of truth, for the reason that good hungers after truth and wishes to be conjoined to it, and as it were to be nourished; and that truth is, as it were, spiritual food to good; and, reversely, that truth desires good in order that it may be something, for without good there is no life in truth; thus that there is a reciprocal desire of the one for the other, and that from this man is a man.

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     93. At the judgment, I saw that the Mohammedans were led away from the west and round about in their compass about the Papists, to the east by a way leading towards the north, apparently in a circular way, and that on the way where there was a space of great extension, the evil were cast outside that sphere, some into deserts there, some into marshes and pools, some into dense woods; these were at the back of their mountains. At the side of that space, and in the north, was an enormous and extended gulf into which also many were cast who had led an evil life. The rest continued in the circuit toward the east and there they spread themselves out in a great space extending more to the back. Those were carried thither who acknowledged God the Father, and the Son as the Greatest Prophet who is with the Father. That space was extensive, divided up into mountains, hills and valleys, upon which they were placed according to order, and there it is well with them. They who were still better, enjoying intellectual lumen above the others, were also led away thither where there was communication with the Christian heaven, though a space intervened which separated. These were they who, being instructed, received the Lord, and they who received Him well were carried on to the south where they obtained their heaven behind the Christians there.

     94. There were some who feigned themselves Christians in respect to faith in the Lord's Divinity; these insinuated themselves amongst them by wiles, but being instantly detected, they were separated and cast into the desert and the adjoining chasm, and some of them were driven back and scattered.

     95. There were, of the Mohammedans, those who acknowledged only God the Father, like the rest, and the Lord as the greatest Prophet, saying that they cannot understand the Divine being distinguished into three persons, thus into three gods. They said that the Holy Spirit was God speaking through spirits and angels. A certain one of the Christians, who was known to me,* went up to them inquiring why they did not acknowledge the Son of God as God. They said that there is one God; but thus there would be two; wherefore they asked him how many Gods he worshiped.

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He answered, One, because there is one God; but they searched out the ideas of his thoughts, which is easily done in the other life, [and found] that he thought not of one God but of three. They said they saw, that with the mouth he says one God, but in heart and faith he believes in three; and yet it behooves a Christian to speak as he thinks, and not to divorce the mind from the speech, as so flatterers and those who deceive. And as he could not deny this, they said that Christians ought to be ashamed of thinking of three Gods, since there is not a gentile race of any intelligence, which so thinks; the gentiles not having three in their idea when they name one. He wanted to say that the three were one by unanimity; but neither could this unanimity be granted, without all idea of three talking and agreeing among each other; and besides, there cannot be three essences which make a one, unless they be one also in person, one and the same essence in three things is not possible, still less is it possible in God who is not divisible; and, moreover, who can be thought of from essence, such as it is in metaphysics, by ordinary people, when he cannot be [so] thought of by a learned man? Wherefore he was smitten with shame, saying that he would never return to them, and that he would question someone about the Triune God. Angels afterwards spoke with the Mohammedans, instructing them that God is one both in person and in essence, in whom is a Trine; and that the Son of God, who, to them, is the greatest Prophet sent by the Father, cannot but be God, because He was conceived of God the Father Himself: thus the Divine Itself was in Him from conception, and the Divine is Indivisible.
* This was Peter Aulaevill (see S. D., 3600) a magistrate (Borgmaestare), of Stockholm, who was much esteemed for his legal skill and learning. He was knighted in 1751, and in the same year his sons were ennobled. In other world, he was among those who had lived a life of piety, but who had no love for the performance of use, and, at the judgment, he was cast down with them. (S. D. 5948.) -TR.

     96. The abodes of Mohammedans immediately after death, are, for the most part, in the western quarter. After the last judgment many came anew into that quarter who had thought little about the God of the universe, and nothing about the Lord, but had worshiped Mohammed as God; and as they did not find him, they chose another in a high mountain above Christendom, with whom they took counsel, and whom they obeyed; and then, by order of their new Mohammed, they poured themselves into the Christian world* and infested them in various ways.

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But after visitation, [showing] that it was a wandering race, and delighted with ease, and that they were not willing to do anything of use, they were cast into their hells. As long, as they consociated with the Babylonians, they were able to render themselves invisible. At last the earth on which they were, was rolled back over them, and they were cast into hell; in the hell appeared what was fiery.
* See note to N. 78 above.--TR.

     97.* The judgment upon them proceeded still further in the west, in a long tract, and also towards the north where they commingled with evil papists; and I saw them cast into hells there and into gulfs.
* In the MS. this paragraph follows after paragraph 98, but with instructions to insert it after paragraph 96. The amanuensis from whose copy Dr. Im. Tafel printed the Latin edition, did not follow these instructions; the present number is therefore paragraph 99 in that edition, and is so referred to in Potts' Concordance.-TR.

     98.* Many of the Mohammedans, when they had heard much about the Lord, wished to draw near to the heavenly Christian church. But it was said to them that they should, as yet, remain in their own religion, or in their doctrine from the Koran, that the Lord was the greatest Prophet, the San of God, the wisest of all, sent to inform the human race; and this, for the reason, that they could not acknowledge His Divine in heart but only with the mouth, since they had been imbued with these things from infancy, and spiritual good had already been formed, in part, of such things as were of their faith, which good cannot be thus suddenly extinguished by a new tenet of faith let them only live in what was sincere and just, and thus in their own good; for everything sincere and just is, in itself, the Divine proceeding from the Lord; and that thus they can still live faithful in their own way, and be gradually led on to the Lord. It was said to them that many Christians do not think of the Lord's Divine, but only of His Human, which they do not make Divine; like the Roman Catholics, and also the Reformed, who therefore approach the Father that He may have mercy for the sake of the Son, and rarely approach the Lord Himself I on account of which faith and prayer they continually retain the idea of the Lord as being a man like any other.
* In Potts' Concordance, this paragraph is referred to as No. 97.

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     99.*It was told me that among the Mohammedans there is a book which is common in their hands, in which some pages are written by correspondences, like the Word with us; from which pages there is some light in their heavens.
* In Potts' Concordance, No. 98.-TR.

     100. There were with me many from Greece who in the world had dwelt with Mohammedans, complaining, that then, now, Mohammedans cast it up to them, that they worship three gods; to whom they answer, that they worship one God, and that the three are one; and yet they persist that there are three whom they worship because they mention three, and they ask them which God of the three they worship most; and when they answer that they worship all at the same time, they say that thus there is one God and the two others are little gods, and that their being gods, is therefore merely a matter of speech;* but, when they hear it said that they are equal, they withdraw, and they despise Christians as being of little and almost of no judgment in spiritual things. They complain that they do not desist from the infestation until they say that they are three names of the one God; then they acquiesce. Afterwards Mohammedans asked about the three names of the one God; it was told them from heaven that Christians have got those names from the sense of the letter of the Word, where three names of the one God are mentioned; and that by the Father there is meant the Creator of the universe, by the Son, the Saviour of the human race, and by the Holy Spirit, illustration; and that these three are in the Lord alone; and that in Him the three are one; and that He teaches this in the Word, but that, on account of the papist nation, which does not wish the Lord's Human to be Divine, because they have arrogated all His authority to themselves, being unwilling that Divine authority should be mentioned, and thus [claiming] that they are gods on earth,-

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And when, from Matthew and Luke, it was read to them that He was conceived of God the Father, and thus the Divine was in Him and was that from which He was, they said that they had thought Him the son of Joseph And it was said to them that He came into the world, not to reconcile the human race to the Father, but to conquer the devil, that is, subjugate the hells, to reduce all things on earth and in the heavens into order, and, at the same time, to glorify His human, or, unite it to the Divine which was in Him, His very soul from conception; and that thus, and no otherwise, could the human race have been saved. On hearing these things, they were silent, and many acquiesced.
* In the account of this discussion given in S. D. 6021, the Mohammedans make this point, when, to the question as to which of the three they worship most, "some of the Christians, answer, God the Father, because He created the universe."--TR.

     101. They were told, that there are Mohammedans who have received the faith that the Lord is one with the Father; and that they have a heaven in which are all felicities, and that they live there from the Lord in the spiritual marriage of good and truth.

     [To be Continued.]

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EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT 1904

EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT       Editor       1904

THE GENERAL MEETINGS.

     The importance of coming together in general meetings is especially felt in a small and struggling body, such as the external organization of the new Church still is. After more than a century of existence, the new Church comprises but a few active societies, and all of these still small and weak, barely holding their own in the struggle against the overwhelming sphere of the world. And on introspection, each member of the Church finds within himself but small evidence of spiritual progress, or of the presence of the light and life of the New Jerusalem.

     When realizing these facts, we are apt to become discouraged at times; the hope grows faint, and the mind sluggish, like the blood in the veins when far away from the heart. It is then good and necessary for New Churchmen to come together, each brining with him to the common heart of a general assembly his own small treasure of faith and love, and it will then be found that all the little lights will merge into one great light, and all the weak affections into one strong love. And in this greater sphere of the Church each will find himself nearer to heaven and the Lord, near to a realization of what the New Church means and one day will become; and each one will go forth, strengthened and refreshed having received far more than that which he has contributed; the renewed blood of the Church will pulsate pure and vigorous throughout all the parts of the general body. The Church, therefore, cannot do without general assemblies, any more than the body can do without a heart.

     From the very beginning of the New Church the receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines have been characterized by the love of getting together in general meetings. This, also, might naturally be expected in a Church which makes charity, mutual love, the chief essential of a religious life. The heart warms when reading in the past records of the church concerning the joy of the early members of the Church in coming together at the first general conferences and conventions, as in 1789 in England, and in 1817 in America. Those were halcyon days of great but another as the primitive Christians did, as brethren of one spiritual family, drawn together from within by the same love of the marvelous new truths revealed to them, and held together, besides, by the outside pressure of the opposing sphere of the Old Church.

     But these early joys soon vanished, like the dew of the morning, like the first delights of the honeymoon. The life of work and temptations began for the Church. The members of the Church still came together in general meetings, drawn, undoubtedly, by the hope of tasting again the "Balm of Gilead," the spiritual pleasures of the first states; the uplifting sphere of the common worship; the inspiration of listening to new and more interior expositions of Word and Doctrine from the most advanced minds in the Church; the strength and encouragement to be derived from the common fund of New Church affection and New Church thought.

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These things the members of the Church hoped to find in the general meetings, but, alas, how often they have returned to their homes with the feeling that they have been given a stone when asking for the bread of life.

     The love of the world and the love of dominion invaded the Church. For nearly a century the general meetings of the Church have been too often the scenes of tragic battles instead of spiritual love-feasts. Conventions and conferences, "playing at parliament," instead of seeking the spiritual things of the Church, heaven filled with wranglings about unnecessary laws and bylaws; precious time has been wasted with tedious reports about details of routine work, which only need to appear in print, the administrative business of the Church has been thrown upon the mass-meetings, to be enacted in a few days by a bewildered multitude, instead of being entrusted to a central authority; there have been quarrels innumerable about the appropriation of funds, the regulation of the priesthood by the laity, the adoption of dogmatic "resolutions and reports," without free discussion; and, worse than all, there have been the ever recurring ventilations of personal differences, the struggles for supremacy of sections and parties, attended with the usual wire-pulling and detestable intrigues. Such, alas, with a few bright exceptions, has been the history of the general meetings in the New Church, as is well-known to those who have come out of the older bodies of the New Church, or who are acquainted with their history. Have we not had enough of this sort of things?

     In the General Church of the New Jerusalem the assemblies have been more similar to the earliest general meetings in the New Church, and there is every hope that their internal character shall not pass away, but increase more and more in spiritual intensity as the years roll on. If we remain firmly determined to look for internal development rather than external progress; if we keep clearly before us the warning errors of the past, not only the errors committed in the older bodies of the Church but also those which at various times have threatened our own younger movement, there will then be every reason to hope for genuine advance in the general associate life of the Church. Avoiding as a snare and a delusion business to permanent and adequately equipped authorities, the assemblies will find time and opportunity for "Mary's better part," time for the things of real and lasting, because eternal value. Sitting at the feet of the Lord in worship and instruction; heart and mind expanding in doctrinal discussion, and in social intercourse, the members of the Church will make every sacrifice to "go up to Jerusalem to the stated festival," to the great spiritual celebrations, the feasts of enlightened reason and natural love. How can we afford to miss them?

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RUSSIAN NATION 1904

RUSSIAN NATION              1904

     The revelations in the Spiritual Diary respecting the character of the Russian nation may seem somewhat bewildering at first, on account of their apparently contradictory nature. On the one hand me read that the Russian nation, together with the Italian, is "the worst in Europe," worse even than the Swedish, (S. D. 5043), and that "within, they are more wicked than the rest, and operate very strongly by phantasies, but are not skilled in magic, for those learn magic who are in cognitions." (5455) But on the other hand we are told that "The Russians are not so wicked as the rest in Christendom" and that "the evil from Christendom were warded off by them; they were in obedience, and modest, so that they were much better than those. The reason is that they can be kept in good affection, from the fact that they are in obedience and subordination, and do not aspire to high things, and thus can be withheld from the proprium of the will; but they are but little intellectual." (5963.)

     It is evident that two different classes of Russians are here spoken of, the wicked amongst them, (found chiefly in the corrupt governing classes), being worse, while the better sort of Russians, the great uneducated masses, are better than the rest in Christendom, because more generally in a state of simple, unsophisticated good. Nevertheless, both classes, the evil as well as the good, possess certain common national characteristics which appear contradictory in the description in the Writings, because contradictory in the nation itself, a nation full of paradoxes, a nation of European Asiatics, of civilized barbarians, generous thieves, frank prevaricators, Christian pagans, the worst and at the same time the best of modern peoples.

     Concerning the Russians in the other world we read that "they dwell in the south-eastern corner, quite in the corner, beneath the earth there, and are in greater obscurity than the rest. I was conveyed thither, and saw, first, an unclean place, where there were many who were consulting about the affairs of their kingdom, and, in fact, about freedom such as prevails elsewhere; but they did trot appear, being in complete concealment. I afterwards heard one saying that they feared the Czar, and that the Czar was everywhere." (5452.) This statement is of interest as shoving that even in Swedenborg's day the love of liberty was secretly working among many of the Russians, a love to which Swedenborg gave further impetus by direct teaching.

     "They believe that the Czar has power over their lives and possessions: that these things do not belong to them, but to him. This I contradicted, telling them that they should give sufficient for the protection of the kingdom, but no more; and that their life is from the Lord; and that they are under the Law, and so is the Czar." (5949) These were plain words, of a "revolutionary" tendency, which may have had far-reaching effects among the Russians both in the spiritual and in the natural world.

     "They are in great subordination, believing that all things they possess are not theirs but the Czar's, and therefore he takes from them whatever he pleases, and they confess what they have, and give; in the manner when the officials say that it is his command." (5963.)

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Hence it is not surprising to learn that "they are devoid of the love of self; but yet they are thieves; and, in order to acquire money, dare and do all things," (5949), a fact abundantly confirmed by universal observation. It is always thus in an autocracy, where the discrimination between mine and thine is obliterated together with the sense of individual ownership and responsibility. Nevertheless, it is well known that a Russian will give as freely with the one hand as he will steal with the other.

     As to the state of religion amongst them we are informed that "they do not care for religion, and there is scarcely anything more of it than that 'if God is, He is.' If they are asked where God is, they say that He is in heaven; if they are asked whether He created all things, they do not understand, because then they think that He would be walking about everywhere and establishing things. In a word, they are quite empty, nor do they care for truths, except for such [general] ones." (5454.) Nevertheless, though "the Word is read but little in Russia, still it is believed to be holy." (De Verbo, 16.) That the Russians have made little or no progress in matters of religion since Swedenborg's days, is evident from the gross image-worship still prevailing, "sacred ikons" being blessed with great ceremony and sent to the frontier to ensure victory to battleships and armies.

     In the other life the Russians still remain in the spirit of subordination, "but with this difference, that all they have is not then the Czar's, but God's, being given them in order that they may employ it rightly for uses; and therefore, if they are evil, part or all will be taken from them according to the abuse. They are sometimes told, when they set their hearts too much on money, that they should give something to the poor, which they do; and, after some time, they receive more, for they are blessed." (5903.)

     That the Russian mind is not constitutionally unreceptive of spiritual truth, is proved by several instances in the history of the New Church. There have been receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines in Russia from the earliest days of the New Church. Robsahm, in his Memoirs, tells of a Russian monk, by the name of Oronoskow, who, while acting as chaplain to the Russian legation in Stockholm, "read Swedenborg's books with the greatest delight," and he was moved to tears of joy on hearing from Swedenborg's own lips that the late Empress Elizabeth was in a very happy state in the spiritual world.

     Some years later, in 1783, we hear of a "society of readers of the Baron being formed by some zealous young men in Moscow," but it appears that this little band was soon suppressed by government persecution. In 1806 a Russian councillor of State, Dmitri Alexieff, of Ecaterinoslav, ordered from London all the procurable publications of the New Church, in Latin, and English, and in 1814, he made vain efforts to secure the services of an English New Church minister as his private chaplain. In the year 1839 we learn of the death of another imperial councillor, Stephen Djunkovsky, who had translated that Divine Love and Wisdom into Russian; the manuscript was published in Karlsruhe, in 1864, and constitutes the only volume of the Writings in the Russian tongue.

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But the most prominent of all Newchurchmen in Russia was the late General Alexander Mouravieff, who constantly employed two persons in the work of producing manuscript copies of the French translations of the Writings, for circulation among his aristocratic friends. He was the instructor of Emperor Alexander II, in his youth, and it is said that Mouravieff was the chief instrumentality in procuring the emancipation of the serfs. His sister-in-law, the princess Cleopatra Schakoffsky, who died in 1883, is described as a very zealous, intelligent, and well-read Newchurch woman. And every now and then we still hear of Newchurch people in Russia, and of the Writings being smuggled into the country by various devices.

     Though the Russian nation as a whole may be "entirely empty" of the truths of Religion, yet it is known that there is a powerful current of religious feeling among the common people. Be he Czar or mujik, a Russian takes his religion--such as it is--with him wherever he goes, and the idolatrous church dominates everything and everybody. Moreover, the country is honey-combed with all kinds of sects, secretly or openly heterodox, and some of these maintain opinions remarkably similar to certain doctrinals of the New Church though mixed at the same time with the crudest notions of superstition and fanaticism. Though cruelly persecuted by the dominant Church, these sectarians display a constancy and a patient spirit of martyrdom, which, indeed, are characteristic of the people as a whole.

     The Russian nation appears to be largely in the condition generally prevailing in the Christian world before the time of the Last Judgment: the common people are still kept in a "lower earth," captive in the bonds of ignorance, superstition, and spiritual and natural oppression, while the upper classes of Church and State maintain a kind of "imaginary heaven," inspired by the lust of universal dominion. No spiritual progress can be expected until this imaginary heaven is cast down,--by external vicissitudes or internal revolution,--and the love of dominion broken down, as it has been broken down in the rest of the Christian world, where now, instead, the love of the world prevails and, with it, greater external order and freedom.

     In the present crisis, when the sympathy of the English-speaking races is aroused so strongly in favor of the progressive Japanese nation, and when there is so much antipathy towards Russia, it will be well for Newchurchmen to discriminate between the Russian government and the Russian people. The former, indeed, merits our strongest condemnation, as being diametrically opposed to the progress of the New Church, but the latter as described in the Writings, deserves our pitying and at the same time hopeful sympathy, for their humility, their love of subordination, their very emptiness as to spiritual things, make them more hopeful material for the New Church than the more internally vastated and decadent nations of Western Christianity.

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Monthly Review 1904

Monthly Review              1904

     At Easter-tide there is apt to be a great deal of disquisition in the New Church journals about the Lord as "the Man of Sorrows," a literal and natural conception which seems out of place in the New Church. We are taught that "it is not allowable for any angel to think of the Lord's suffering, but of His glorification, and of the reception of the Divine from Him." (A. E. 476) In the New Church, therefore, if we would think of the Lord as the angels do, we should not think of Him as sorrowful and crucified, but as risen and glorified.

     The announcement is made that the publication of The Swedenborg Monthly, of Orange, N. J., has been discontinued.

     Intending visitors to the General Assembly will convey a favor to the Bryn Athyn friends by signifying their intention at an early date, in order to facilitate the arrangements for their lodging accommodations. A great concourse is expected, but there is plenty of room.

     The meetings of the Council of Ministers of the General Church will be held before the General Assembly, instead of afterwards, as previously announced. The ministers will meet on June 10-14; the graduation exercises of the Academy Schools will take place on June 16, and the General Assembly will open on June 17. The graduation exercises, to which all visitors to the Assembly are invited, promise to be of unusual interest, owing to the unprecedented number of graduates.

     The services of a competent caterer have been secured to provide the meals during the five days of the Assembly at the cost of twenty-five cents each for breakfast and supper, and fifty cents for dinner. The cost of living will thus come to one dollar per day, the lodging being provided free of cost. The meals will be served in a great tent on the Academy's campus. The dinner, each day, will be virtually a banquet, with toasts, songs, and responses from representative members of the various societies of the Church.

     The New Philosophy for January, now under the editorial management of Dr. Harvey Farrington, of Glenview, contains, besides the usual installment of Prof. Price's translation of De Sensibus, the recent Heidelberg address of Prof. Retzius, and a review of the course of Swedenborg's Science in Sweden, by Mr. Alfred H. Stroh.

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The editor also reviews at some length, and favorably, the papers on "the Limbus," by Prof. Odhner, and the article on "the First Aura," by the Rev. L. P. Mercer.

     According to the last annual budget of church statistics, compiled by Dr. H. K. Carrolls and published in The Christian Advocate, the Church of the New Jerusalem in the United States consists at present of 7,969 communicants, with 144 societies and 143 ministers, showing a net increase of 77 members during the year 1903, but on the other hand a net decrease of 13 societies and 6 ministers. We have no means of judging as to the exactness of these figures.

     The New Church League Journal for March is a superb publication, from a typographical point of view, its daintiness and elegance being quite in keeping with the fact that most of the contributors are young ladies. There is, however, more of New Church interest in the present number than in the last, and we notice a timely letter from Mr. J. Henry Smith, of Washington, D. C. earnestly protesting against the poem in the December number, entitled "Prayer to the Christ Child," bringing out very clearly the Doctrine that "the law for the New Church is to worship the Lord only as He is in His glorified Divine Humanity, and this Divine Humanity is in the very form God-man,--not a child."

     "We don't want children now, though it was said in the old times 'blessed is he who hath his quiverful.' But the day will come, when England will cry in vain for her children. We can bleach cotton, build steam engines, do everything but rear men, and this is the beginning of decay. The fertility of people living under modern civilization is everywhere on the decline. Our eyes are not opened to it yet, but it means the desolation of modern society. It may be that when the first shot was fired yonder in the East, it marked the beginning of a new epoch, that God will cast aside these nations which have made themselves effete, and accomplish His purpose by another race and a new people." (From a discourse by the Rev. J. Cartmel-Robinson in the London Daily Chronicle of March 24th.)

     The Rev. J. E. Werren, of the Convention's Theological School in Cambridge, Mass., on March 8th lectured to the Rhode Island New Church Club at Providence. The lecturer is reported as saying that "the discovery of the name of Jehovah and the code of Amraphel have abundantly confirmed scholars that Moses copied all that precedes his time from the Babylonian writings and incorporated their laws in a modified form in the writings which covered his own lifetime." We do not know if this fairly represents the lecturer's own views, but if so, we cannot but deplore that such teachings,-opposed alike to New Church Doctrine and true science,--should emanate from a New Church theological school. Moses did not copy "all that precedes his time from the Babylonian writings."

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He simply copied the first seven chapters of Genesis from the Ancient Word, as found by him probably in Egypt, since he had no connection whatever with Babylon. The rest of his books was given by direct Divine inspiration. It is absurd to say that the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, was copied from "Babylonian writings." And the laws which were given by the Lord in Sinai are Divine laws, not Babylonian laws " incorporated by Moses in a modified form." The Delitzsch "discovery" of the name "Jahu Ilu," and his theory of the literary peculations of Moses from Babylonian writings, have been pretty thoroughly exploded, as vide the article on "Gunkel versus Delitzsch" in the Open Court for April.

     Newchurchmen, when giving up the doctrine of the verbal and literal inspiration of the Word, give up not only the literal sense but also the internal sense of the Word; they give up the whole Word and the Heavenly Doctrine, in short, everything of the New Church, and Religion itself. What has the New Church to do with the "Higher Criticism" and its ever-changing theories and phantasies?

     Incidentally, we must ask what Prof. Werren means by his reported assertion that "the Semites remodeled the ancient Babylonian language?" What would the Assyriologists say to this! The ancient Babylonian language of the Sumero-Akkadians was as different from the Semitic, as the Chinese is from the English. It was not "remodeled" but simply superceded by the Semitic tongue.
NEW CHURCH EDUCATION AT URBANA 1904

NEW CHURCH EDUCATION AT URBANA       FRANK SEWALL       1904

Editor New Church Life:--

     An editorial note in the Life for March on the recent articles in the Messenger regarding the endowment and the purposes of Urbana University contains this remark: "The difficulty has been to discover any evidence of the New Church part of its [the University's] education."

     Without inquiring into the cause of the editor's difficulty in obtaining evidence, so easily accessible in the College's published curriculum of studies and of religious requirements, as to the "New Church part in the education" pursued at Urbana, I am happy to be able to place before your readers a very recent statement from the Rev. Russell Eaten, the pastor and doctrinal instructor in the College. Under date of March 10th he writes, referring to an expected visit to the College from the undersigned: "I especially wanted you to see our work in doctrine. At the College I have two classes, one in the Divine Providence and one, the beginning or first year class, in the Four Doctrines. . . . Then we have the League reading circle for which these young people prepare themselves, and I meet them again in Sunday School. There is a very distinct and
decided New Church sphere about our school. The chapel in the morning is attended in an earnest and devoted spirit. All of the doctrinal class are Church members except we, and of these five, four are members of this year's class preparing for confirmation.

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The attendance at the reading circle, which comes every other week alternating with the social and business meeting of the League, is larger than at the social meeting. There are other facts that I had hoped to show you on your visit here, as that one of our choirs is made up wholly of young people and that two members of the other are from the school."

     Besides these stated and formal requirements there are to be mentioned, also, the other features of the College life, which tend in no less important a way to the distinctly New Church influence of the sojourn there,--namely, the social enjoyment of the New Church Society of Urbana, and the regular worship in its beautiful church, features of a student's life which are of foremost importance wherever he is, and which go largely to turn the currents of his mental and affectional life toward or away from the Church. The testimony of the students of Urbana in past years would not be wanting in evidence of this "New Church part" is their education. Very sincerely,
FRANK SEWALL, Member of the Board of Directors.

     [REPLY.--While we heartily rejoice at the fact that some New Church teaching is being given to a portion of the scholars in the Urbana University, the fact remains that that school is a mixed school into which pupils are admitted who are not required to receive instruction in the Doctrines of the New Church. What is done for the New Church pupils by the pastor of the Urbana Society, is no more than what is being done, or should be done, by any society for the young people within its sphere. But as long as Urbana University remains a mixed school, with the sphere of the Old Church intermingled with the sphere of the New, the education there afforded, when regarded as a whole, cannot be said to be a New Church education. The Heavenly Doctrine may be taught to some, but not to all, and it does not, therefore, reign universally in the school. The eggs of the owl are still being hatched together with the eggs of the dove, in the same nest.

     Dr. Sewall himself, and the Rev. L. F. Hite, are responsible for the rather general impression that Urbana University is not, as a whole, a New Church school. In his recent articles in the Messenger Dr. Sewall seeks to defend his institution from any suspicion of "denominational narrowness and exclusiveness," which certainly is not complimentary to the "denomination" with which he himself is connected, and he intimates that the exclusively New Church school must suffer from "consequent insufficiency of instruction and broad culture," as if an admixture of Old Church influences would be necessary to insure against such insufficiency. And Mr. Hite, in his address of June, last year, boasts of the supremacy of Urbana University over the exclusively New Church school, because the former "recognizes the efficacy of all personal and sectarian life which is true to its religious conviction. Pupils of all sects, denominations and religions, would find a sympathetic and appreciative home in the spiritual atmosphere and common life of the school." It is, indeed, difficult to see how in such an atmosphere there can exist the "very distinct and decided New Church sphere" of which the Rev. Russell Eaten speaks.--ED.]

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Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

     Philadelphia. The Sunday School of the Advent Church, formerly held in a private house, is now conducted in the hall of worship, 555 N. 17th St., at 10 A. M.

     On March 25th the members of the Society enjoyed a very pleasant social time in the hospitable home of "the Doering family." A delightful feature of the occasion was the announcement of a new engagement in our midst.

     On Easter Day the Holy Supper was administered to twenty-five communicants. Flowers for the altar had been provided by the ladies, and Mr. Noah Waelchli delighted the audience with a very fine violin solo.

     Chicago, Ill. A very enjoyable social was held at the Sharon Church on the evening of Swedenborg's Birthday anniversary. Several toasts appropriate to the occasion were proposed, and in response to one of them Rev. W. P. Caldwell read a short paper pointing out the spirit of true humility in which Swedenborg regarded his work as a scientist, and commenting upon the great lack of this humility among the learned of the present day. Mr. Jno. Forrest also read an interesting paper upon the value of Swedenborg's method of reasoning as developed in his scientific work, showing that by this method he was led to penetrate deeper into the mysteries of nature than any other man.

     The pleasure of the occasion was enhanced by the presence of Mr. Geo Heath, of Bryn Athyn, who gave several entertaining recitations. Refreshments were served during the evening and the program was rounded out with music and dancing. E. F.

     Berlin, Ont. The school for the religious instruction of young people of isolated families, which began in January, came to its close on March 31st. On the following day (good Friday) a special service was held for the confirmation of the five pupils of the school. The sermon was on the text: "Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Thy Word." (Psalm 119:9.) The rite followed the sermon, and at its conclusion the pastor presented to each of these young people a copy of The Four Leading Doctrines as a gift from the Carmel Church. We believe that the service was of great use, not only to those confirmed, but also to all the young people of our Society.

     At Easter, services appropriate to the day were held in the morning. There was a large attendance, nearly one hundred persons being present, of whom twelve were members of the Church from other localities. In the afternoon the Holy Supper was celebrated.

     There has been, considerable social life during the past two months. On February 18th, the young people had a banquet, at which the young men responded to toasts. On February 26th at a General Social, the three young ladies who last year concluded our school course, provided the entertainment, which was highly enjoyed. Another general social was held March 25th.

     On April 4th, the Society held its annual bazaar. First there was a supper; then came a concert, and after this the booth was opened. While the sale was progressing, refreshments were served at tables set about the room; at the same time, also, there were at intervals readings and recitations. Dancing then followed and occupied the remainder of the evening. A neat sum was realized for our organ fund.

     Recently four more of our young people have left us to make their homes in other church centres. Berlin, like all towns, suffers from a constant exodus of its young people to the large cities, and our Society every year sees a number of its younger members, and sometimes also some of the older ones, taking their leave.

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A few days ago, while several of us were speaking of this matter, our statistician turned to his records, and after some calculation declared that since our Society was organized twelve years ago fifty-one persons, old and young included, have left us to live elsewhere; but, he added, all but nine of these are in other General Church centres; and although so many have left, still our own numbers have been steadily gaining. It is most gratifying to know that although our Society suffers as to numerical strength because of these removals, yet the membership of the General Church is in no wise affected.

     London. The work of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in this city continues to make progress, although it is still the day of small things with the members here. On November 18th, 1903, the friends meeting at Holland Road, Stockwell, were organized into a particular society, under the pastorate of the Rev. Andrew Czerny, who, for two and a half gears, has been active in pastoral work in London and Colchester, besides conducting a New Church day school in London.

     Several meetings of interest were held during Easter by the Society at Holland Road. On the evening of Good Friday the friends met at a supper party, when the pastor in a brief address introduced the subject of the Lord's Glorification, and several members read short papers. These were followed by an interesting conversation.

     On the Wednesday following, a new form was given to the usual fortnightly social. The friends were invited to bring photographs and pictures of New Church and general interest, and the result was a very fine display of photos of New Church people, among which our American friends were well represented. A large number of stereoscopic views were provided. During the evening Mr. Orme printed by gaslight some photographs of Swedenborg on postcards; these were on sale as mementoes of the occasion.

     Colchester. On Wednesday, February 17th, Mr. and Mrs. William Gill invited the members of the Church here to join in the celebration of their silver wedding. After a short introductory service, the pastor, Mr. Czerny, followed with an address on the Eternity of Marriage. At the subsequent feast, the members and friends of the General Church in Colchester, as a slight recognition of the many services so cheerfully rendered for many years by Mr. and Mrs. Gill, presented to them a silver rosebowl, mounted on ebony and bearing a suitable inscription, the whole enclosed in a red and white case made by Mr. Bedwell.

     A series of toasts and speeches on the subject of conjugial love now followed, Mr. Bedwell speaking of "the Origin of conjugial love," Mr. Appleton on "the Forms of conjugial love," Mr. Cooper on "the Conjunction of those forms." Mr. Gill on "Conjugial love and the Church, constant companions," Mr. Everett on "Conjugial love according to man's state," and Mr. Potter on "Conjugial love, the origin of all human and angelic beauty." Confirmatory passages from the work on Conjugial Love were read by Mr. Pryke and Mr. Locke. It was remarked by Mr. Gill that this was the first occasion, here, that a social evening had been wholly devoted to the subject of conjugial love, and it will certainly be remembered as one of the most delightful social occasions that have cheered our journey in the past. F. R. C.

     The Missionary Field. Since my last report, thirty places have been visited in parts of four States, namely, in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia. No opportunity occurred to deliver public lectures. But in fourteen places meetings were held at the homes of New Church friends.

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     And besides the more regular meetings of little circles, there have been many conversations on the Doctrines of the Church, with individuals and in families. In nearly all places there have been expressions of appreciation of the usefulness of these periodical visits of the missionary. Several interesting incidents have been experienced on this tour. But I regret that the limitations of both time and space at this time prevent the giving of particulars. JOHN E. BOWERS.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. As a result of the lecture of "Captain" Ethel Lancaster, of the Salvation Army, before the Rhode Island New Church Women's Alliance in Providence, on Feb. 16th, "a quickened interest was felt in the work of the Salvation Army,--a noble work which certainly deserves sincere respect, cheerful encouragement, and hearty support." (Messenger, March 16th.) And yet the whole work of the Salvation Army is nothing but the most external natural good, (attended with well-known natural evils), and based upon the grossest conceptions of instantaneous salvation by faith alone!

     The General Convention, "not having been invited by any body to hold its meeting this year at any given place, has invited itself to meet, at its own expense," in the "National Church" at Washington, on May 21st. The Council of Ministers will meet in Baltimore, on May 17th.

     At the meeting of the Ministers of the Maryland Association, in Baltimore, on March -th, papers were read by the Rev. Messrs. Tafel and Mercer on the question, "Are there different phases (or classes) of Revelation in the Writings?' representing "widely differing points of view in estimating the internal character of the Writings, what is of the Divine Revelation in them, and what is not, and their relation to the Word, or the Divine Truth itself." At the meeting the announcement was made of the death of the Rev. J. A. Speirs, of Talpa. Va., an authorized minister and missionary of the Association.

     The death of Mrs. Janet Gardiner Allan on January 20th, at Almont, Mich., removes from the Church on earth a most venerable "mother in Israel." Born in Scotland, 1816, she received the Doctrines of the New Church soon after her marriage, and in 1842 emigrated with her husband to America, where they settled at Berlin, Mich., and became instrumental in founding the present Almont Society. She was exceedingly interested in the New Church summer school there, and though in her eighty-eighth year kept her needle busy, the results of which were devoted to this beloved use. Besides her four children, she leaves thirty grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren. An interesting and touching biography and portrait of Mrs. Allan appeared in the Messenger for March 16th.

     The Cincinnati Society enjoys the services of a vested choir of young ladies, recently organized.

     The Young People's League of the Humboldt Park Parish, Chicago, on February 29th, prepared a Leap Year dinner, to which the New Church people in the city were generally invited. The dinner was largely attended, and was conducted entirely by the young ladies, one of them presiding as toast-mistress, and others delivering after-dinner speeches.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The temple of the Society in Cathedral street, Glasgow, has been sold for the sum of L3,300. The Society, in removing to a new home, will retain the organ, the window after Sir Noel Paton's design, and various other fittings of the Church.

     The Rev. J. J. Thornton of Liverpool, has accepted an invitation from the Scottish Association of the New Church to become missionary minister for Scotland, and to take practical oversight of the Glasgow (late Cathedral street) and Hillhead congregations.

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     Prof. G. W. Baynham, for ten years the lay minister of the Society in Islington, London, has accepted the call to the pastorate of the Bristol Society. At an enthusiastic reception, on February 20th, reference was made to the "happy marriage union that they were celebrating that evening between their new pastor and the Society." The only shadow on the prospect of this "conjugial" relation is the frequency of ecclesiastical divorces in the Conference Societies.

     The "Mass Meeting" of the Junior members and young people of the New Church societies in Lancashire, recently held in Accrington, was in some ways a disappointment, In the largest society in Great Britain, containing 541 members and having a Sunday School of 747 scholars, an attendance of only 150 could be mustered, and of these the Societies at Blackburn, Bumley, Haslingden and Kamsbottom were represented by relatively large contingents. In Accrington not one young person under twenty belongs to the local New Church guild. The pastor of the Society, the Rev. J. R. Rendell, remarked: "Suppose I were to ask you what New Church book you read last, I am afraid I should have to go a very long way to get a satisfactory answer.

     AUSTRALIA. The outlook for the year's work in Adelaide seems to be very encouraging. Besides the regular services, the Rev. Percy Billings conducts a young people's class, presides at the monthly socials and the young people's meetings every alternate Wednesday; the outside or "extension work" includes meetings in Port Adelaide, Hindmarsh, Norwood, Summertown and other districts each month.

     SWEDEN. The Rev. A. Th. Boyesen recently celebrated his eightieth birthday, and was on this occasion presented with a purse containing one thousand crowns, collected among the members of the New Church in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. The day also marked the fortieth year of Pastor Boyesen's work in the New Church, a work of the greatest importance to the Church in the Scandinavian countries. It is to be hoped that Pastor Boyesen will devote a portion of his remaining years to write out for the use of posterity his own biography and a sketch of the history of the New Church in Sweden and Denmark.

     HUNGARY. The society in Budapest has resolved to celebrate, annually, the birthday of Emanuel Swedenborg. The celebration, this year, was advertised in the public papers, and was very numerously attended. The leader, Herr Albrecht, in his opening speech, pointed out that the members of the New Church do not worship the man, Swedenborg, but give thanks to the Lord that in His love He enlightened this man to bring light to the earth on the life beyond the grave, and to communicate the spiritual sense of the Holy Word to all mankind. Herr Kovacs then addressed the meeting in the Hungarian tongue and won great applause The celebration closed with declamations and music from the young people's society. The Society in Budapest is rapidly increasing in numbers and activity.

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SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION 1904

SWEDENBORG SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION              1904



Announcements.



     Notices.

     The Seventh Annual Meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association will be held on Wednesday and Thursday, May 25th and 26th, 1904, at Washington, D. C., in the National Church, corner 16th and Corcoran Streets. The meeting will open on Wednesday, at 3:00 P. M. The President will deliver his address at 4:30 P. M. Suburban dinner and addresses at 7:00 P. M. (The cost to each individual member and guest to be determined later.)

     Thursday session at 10:00 A. M. Papers and Discussion. By order of the President, EUGENE J. E. SCHRECK, Secretary, 6949 Eggleston Ave., Chicago, Ills., April 4th, 1904.

     Those who expect to attend the meeting are requested to notify the Rev. Dr. Frank Sewall, 1618 Riggs Place.
COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY 1904

COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY              1904

Special Notice.

     The Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will meet at Bryn Athyn, Pa., from Friday, June 10th, to Tuesday, June 14th, 1904.

     The Ministers are requested to send their annual reports to the Bishop before June 1st. They are also invited to give notice as to subjects of papers intended to be read at the meetings, and as to subjects which they may desire to bring up for discussion. A list of such subjects will be published in the June issue of New Church Life.
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1904

GENERAL ASSEMBLY              1904

     The Fifth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Bryn Athyn, Pa., from Friday, June 17th, to Tuesday, June 21st, 1904. All members and friends of the General Church are invited to attend.

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     The pastors or secretaries of societies and circles connected with the General Church are invited to send in statistical reports to the Bishop before June 1st.

     The Executive Committee of the General Church will meet at Bryn Athyn, on Thursday, June 16th, at 10 A. M.

     The male graduates of the Academy Schools will meet on Wednesday, June 22d, at 8 P. M
TEACHERS' INSTITUTE 1904

TEACHERS' INSTITUTE       Rev. Horner Synnestvedt       1904

     The Teachers connected with the General Church and other friends professionally interested in the educational work of the Church will meet at Bryn Athyn on Thursday and Friday, June 23d and 24th Those intending to present papers or subjects for discussion are invited to communicate with the president, the Rev. Horner Synnestvedt.
SPECIAL RATES TO THE ASSEMBLY AT BRYN ATHYN, PA. 1904

SPECIAL RATES TO THE ASSEMBLY AT BRYN ATHYN, PA.       C. E. DOERING       1904

     A reduction of fare and one-third, on the certificate plan, has been secured for those attending the meeting of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 17th to June 21st.

     The following directions are submitted for the guidance of visitors:

     Tickets should he purchased to Philadelphia, Pa.

     Tickets at full fare for the going journey may be secured within three days (exclusive of Sunday) prior to and during the first two days of the meeting. The advertised dates of the meeting are from June 17th to June 21st, consequently you can obtain your tickets not earlier than June 14th nor later than June 17th, except from stations where it is possible to reach the place of meeting by noon of June 18th, tickets may be sold for morning trains of that date. Be sure that, when purchasing your going tickets, you request a certificate. Do not make the mistake of asking for a receipt.

     Present yourself at the railroad station for ticket and certificate at least 30 minutes before departure of train.

     Certificates are not kept at all stations. If you inquire at your station you will find out whether certificate and through tickets can be obtained to place of meeting. If not, agent will inform you at what station they can be obtained. You can purchase a local ticket thence, and there take up a certificate and through ticket.

     On your arrival at the meeting, present your certificate to Rev. C. E. Doering.

     It has been arranged that the special agent of the Trunk Line Association will be in attendance to validate certificates on June 28th. A fee of 25 cents will be collected for each certificate validated. If you arrive at the meeting and leave for home again prior to the special agent's arrival, or if you arrive at the meeting later than June 18th, after the special agent has left, you cannot have your certificates validated and consequently you will not get the benefit of the reduction on the home journey. No refund of fare will be made on account of failure to have certificate validated.

     So as to prevent disappointment, it must be understood that the reduction on the return journey, is not guaranteed but is contingent on an attendance of not less than 100 persons holding certificates obtained from ticket agents at starting points, showing payment of full first-class fare of not less than 75 cents on going journey, provided, however, that if the certificates presented fall short of the required minimum, and it shall appear that enough trip tickets are held in lieu of certificates, they shall be reckoned in arriving at the minimum.

     If the necessary minimum is in attendance, and your certificate is duly validated, you will be entitled up to June 24th to a continuous passage ticket to your destination by route over which you made the going journey, at one-third the limited fare. C. E. DOERING.

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LEGENDS OF THE FLOOD 1904

LEGENDS OF THE FLOOD       Rev. C. TH. ODHNER       1904

     
NEW CHURCH LIFE.
Vol. XXIV.          JUNE, 1904.           No. 6.
     HAVING reviewed the ancient legends concerning the Creation of the world and of man, concerning the Golden Age, the Fall of mankind, and concerning Enoch and the Patriarchs, we come next to the stories, myths and traditions concerning the Flood, of which there is so great a multitude that we call present here only a few of the most striking ones.

     THE EGYPTIAN LEGEND.

     In Egypt, contrary to our expectations, no documents have been discovered as yet, analogous to the remarkable Izdubar legend of Assyria, which was presented in the March number of the Life. Some day, it may be, the ancient temples will held up the very papyri from which Moses copied the introductory chapters of Genesis. In the meantime we will have to be content with the meagre reference to the Flood, which is found in an inscription from the time of Seti I, in which, according to M. Naville, it is said that Ra, the Sun-god and creator, being disgusted with mankind, resolved to exterminate them. The ensuing massacre caused human blood to flow over the land even to Hieropolis (On), whereupon Ra repented and swore with uplifted hands never again to bring such destruction upon mankind. In this legend we have a deluge of blood instead of water; this represents the destruction of the Antediluvians by their profanations of celestial truth.

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     THE GREEK TRADITIONS

     The Greeks had two different traditions as to the Deluge. With the first was connected the name of Ogyges, the first king of Attica, an entirely mythical personage who is lost in the mist of ages; his name, even, is derived from the Primitive designation of the "deluge" (sanscrit uugha). It was reported that in his time all the country was covered by the deluge, and that the waters reached even to the heavens, and that he escaped in a vessel with some companions. (Lenormant, Anc. Hist. of the East, ii., p. 19.)

     The more common tradition is that of Deukalion, of whom there are many and different accounts. Lucian, in his work, De Dea Syria, relates it thus:

     This is the story of Deukalion that I have heard in Greece. The present race of men is not the first, for that perished. This is the second race, and it sprang from Deukalion. The earlier generation was very evil, and violated the Divine law. They neither kept oaths nor showed hospitality; they received not the stranger, nor protected him when he sought protection; therefore, a terrible destruction fell upon them. Much water gushed out of the earth, great rains poured down, and the sea rose and overwhelmed the earth. Deukalion alone of all men was preserved for another generation on account of his wisdom and piety. He was saved thus; he went into a great ark which he had built, along with his wife and children. Then came to him, pair by pair, cows, horses, lions, serpents, and all kinds of animals which are nourished on earth, and he took them all in. They did not hurt him, for Zeus ordained a great friendship amongst them. So they all sailed in the ark as long as the flood lasted. This is the Greek story of Deukalion.

     But very wonderful is the confirmation of the history as related in Hieropolis. In the neighborhood of that city a great chasm opened, which engulfed all the waters of the Flood. Thereupon Deukalion erected altars, and dedicated a temple to Here (Atergatis) over the chasm. I have seen this.

     According to other versions, Deukalion was the grandson of Japetos and the son of Prometheus, of the race of the Titans, and the son of Deukalion was Hellen, the ancestors of the Hellenic race. Deukalion is simply another name for Noah, whose descendants were Japheth. Javan, Elishah, etc., by whom "the isles of the Gentiles were divided in their lands." (Gen. X:1-5.) It is clear that remnants of these Hebrew names are preserved in the Greek Japetos, Ion. Hellas, Eolus and Elis.

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Apollodorus tells us that

     Deukalion was married to Pyrrha, the daughter of Epimetheus and Pandora. When Jupiter designed to destroy the human race on account of their impiety, Deukalion, by the advice of his father, made himself an ark, (larnaka), and, putting provisions into it, entered it with his wife Pyrrha. Jupiter then poured rain from heaven, and inundated the greater part of Greece, so that all the people, except a few who escaped to the lofty mountains, perished in the waves. Deukalion was carried along the sea in his ark for nine days and nights, until he reached mount Parnassus. By this time the rain had ceased, and then, leaving his ark, he sacrificed to Jupiter, who sent Hermes, desiring him to ask what he would. His request was to have the earth replenished with men. By the direction of Jupiter, thereupon, he and his wife flung stones behind them, and those which Deukalion cast became men, those thrown by Pyrrha, women. And from this circumstance came the name for "people," (laos, from laas, "a stone").

     Plutarch adds that "the mythologists inform us that a done, being allowed to fly out of the ark, was to Deukalion a sign of bad weather, if it came again; but of good weather if it flew away."

     THE LATIN FABLES.

     The account in Ovid's Metamorphoses, though preserving the general outlines of the Greek relations, is more elaborate and poetical, and yet preserves many features closely resembling the Divine original. Having described the glorious things of the Golden and Silver Ages, the increasing wickedness of the Brazen Age, and the horrible degradation of the Iron Age, Ovid ends his fourth fable with the words "Piety lies vanquished, and the virgin Astraea [the goddess of Justice], is the last of the celestial beings to abandon the earth, now drenched in slaughter."

     In the fifth fable the poet describes how the Giants [the Nephilim], aspiring to the sovereignty of heaven itself, piled mountain upon mountain, even to the lofty stars." But the omnipotent Father, hurling his lightnings from Olympus, struck Pelion from Ossa, and destroyed the monstrous race. Nevertheless, from the blood of their carcasses, there sprang into life another ruthless race, despising the gods above, and full of violence and greed. Then, in the sixth fable, Jupiter, beholding the crimes of men, "groaned aloud" and called a council of all the gods, to whom, in the next fable, he recounts the horrible crime of Lycaon, the treacherous host who had set before the visiting god a meal of human flesh; Lycaon was changed into a ferocious wolf, but the rest of mankind was as bad as he.

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"Wherever the earth extends the Furies reign. You would suppose that men had conspired to be wicked." Compare the Divine words: "And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence." Hence Jupiter announced "Let all men speedily feel that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my decree."

     At first the thunderer was disposed to destroy the earth with his lightnings, but he laid aside his Cyclopean weapons when remembering that "it was in the decrees of Fate that a time should come, at which the sea, the earth, and the palace of heaven, seized by flames, should be burned with fire." This passage in Ovid is most remarkable, as indicating that the Romans possessed a prophecy of a Last Judgment, similar to the Scandinavian Ragnarock, "the twilight of the gods," when heaven and earth were to perish in a universal conflagration, to be succeeded by "a new heaven and a new earth." This passage has noticed by writers on Comparative Mythology, but is not isolated in classic literature. Lactantius informs us that the Sibyls predicted that the world should perish by fire. Seneca, also, mentions the same destined end of the present state of the universe, and it was a tenet of the Stoic philosophers that when the stars should cease to be nurtured with moisture, a conflagration of the universe would ensue.

     Not yet was the time for the final and fiery judgment, to which Aeschylus also alludes in Prometheus Bound, when Jupiter himself was to be dethroned and suffering mankind be redeemed by the coming Hercules. Another punishment was determined upon at this, the first general judgment. The south wind was let loose, "with soaking wings flying abroad, having his terrible face covered with pitchy darkness. As with his broad hand he squeezes the hanging clouds, a crash arises, and showers are poured in torrents from the sky." Neptune aids his brother with auxiliary waves and commands the streams to "open the mouths of their fountains." As stated in Genesis, "All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."

     A universal destruction followed, and no men were saved, with the exception of Deukalion and his wife who were carried to the top of Mount Parnassus in a little ship.

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"No man was more upright than he, nor a greater lover of justice; nor was any woman more regardful of the Deities than she." Or, as stated in the Word, "Noah was a lust man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." (Gen. vi:9.)

     Deukalion having landed and offered worship to the gods, Jupiter "disperses the clouds; and, the showers being removed by the north wind, he both lays open the earth to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth. Also, the rage of the sea does not continued," words which are substantially the same as those in the Bible: "God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters were assuaged. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped." (Gen. viii:1, 2.)

     Deukalion and Pyrrha, bemoaning their loneliness upon the desolated earth, were told by the goddess Themis to "throw behind your backs the bones of your great mother." They were at first greatly amazed greatly amazed at this seemingly impious command, but Deukalion finally concluded that by the bones of the great mother must be meant the stones of the earth. They acted upon this interpretation, and "by the interposition of the gods above, the stones thrown by the hands of the man took the shape of a man, and the female race was renewed by the throwing of the woman." (Metamorphoses, Fable x.)

     We would suggest, as a possible interpretation of this remarkable myth, that the "bones of the great mother" which Deukalion and Pyrrha were to cast behind their backs signify the falsifies of the former Church, which the men of the new Church. Noah, were to reject. Only by such action could a new Church be established, and only thus could the dead stones of false and natural thoughts and affections be replaced by spiritual and truly human truths and goods.

     THE SCANDINAVIAN STORY.

     In the Eddas there is but a single allusion to the Flood. When Odhin and his two brothers had slain the primitive world-giant Ymir (see New Church Life, Dec., 1903, p. 634), there ran so much blood out of his wounds that with it they drowned all the race of the "Frost-giants," save one who got away with his house-hold; him the giants call Bergelmer.

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He went on board his boat, and with him went his wife, and from them came a new race of frost-giants.

     This legend, though somewhat obscure, embodies the idea of the profanations of the Antediluvians, and also the fact that Noah and his descendants were of the stock of the Nephilim, that is, men of a fallen race.

     A WELSH LEGEND.

     The following has been preserved among the Welsh, who have tenaciously retained the traditions of their Celtic fathers:

     One of the most dreadful of events was the outbreak of Llyn Llion, the sea of seas, which overwhelmed the world and drowned all men except Dwyan and Dwyach, who escaped in a bare boat, and colonized Britain. This ship was one of the three masterpieces of Hu, and was built by the heavenly lord, Reivon; and it received into it a pair of every kind of beast, when the Llyn Llion burst forth.

     Reivon is the same as Hu Cadarn, the discoverer of the vine; and it is said of him that "he built the ark laden with fruit, and it was stayed up in the water, and carried forward by serpents." And of the rainbow it was said that the Woman of the silver wheel, Arianrhod, to control the wizards of the night and the evil spirits of the tempest, and out of love to the Britons, "wove the stream of the rainbow,--a stream which drives the storm from the earth, and makes its former destruction stay far from it, throughout the world's circle. (Davies, Mythology of the British Druids.)

     We have here a recollection of Noah as the planter of a vineyard, the founder of a spiritual, not a celectial church, and of the Bow in the clouds, the doctrine revealed to the Ancient Church. The "woman of the silver wheel" is a beautiful representative of the Church of the Silver Age, the dominant love of which was the affection of truth, the affection of spiritual-rational Doctrine.

     THE LITHUANIAN LEGEND.

     Among the Lithunians, who, of all Indo-European said to retain most faithfully the language and traditions of their Sanscrit-speaking ancestors, we find the following curious myth:

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     When Pramzimas, the most high God, looked out of his heavenly house upon the world through a window, he saw that it was filled with violence. Then he sent Wind and Water to devastate the earth, and this they did for twenty days and twenty nights. Pramzimas looked on, and as he looked on, he ate nuts at his window, and threw the shells down. One shell fell on the top of a mountain, and some men, women and beasts scrambled into it, and were saved alive, while all the rest of the inhabitants of the world were drowned.

     When the flood drained away, the pairs in the nutshell left it, and were scattered over the earth. Only one aged couple remained, and they complained. Then God sent them the rainbow to console them, and bade them jump over the bones of the earth. They jumped nine times, and nine pairs of living human beings started to life, and founded the nine races of Lithunian blood. (Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 545.)

     This story, from the coast of the Faltic Sea, is strikingly similar to that of the ancient Greeks on the shores of the Mediterranean. The nutshell-feature is amusing, but may it not, nevertheless, be representative? May not the nutshell, cast down from heaven, represent the Divine Revelation which was given to the Ancient Church in an external and literal form? This new revelation, the Ancient Word, was really that ark which saved Noah from the destruction of the Deluge.

     PERSIAN LEGENDS.

     The Zoroastrian Bundahish thus relates the story of the Fall:

     Man was, the father of the world was. Heaven was his destiny, on condition that he should be humble of heart, that he should do the work of the law, that he should be pure in his thoughts, pure in his words, pure in his actions, and that he should not invoke the Devs [evil spirits]. At first they said these words: "Ormuzd [the good God], has given us water, the earth, the trees, the animals, the stars, the moon, the sun, and all good things that come from a pure root and bear pure fruit."

     Then the Lie entered their thoughts, altered their dispositions, and said to them: "It is Ahriman Cthe evil power], who has given water, the earth, the trees, animals, and all that has been mentioned." Thus it was that in the beginning Ahriman deceived them with regard to the Devs, and to this end, only, the evil one has sought to seduce them. By believing this lie they both becatue Darvands, and their souls will be in the infernal regions until the resurrection. The Dev who told this lie became more bold, presented himself a second time, and brought them fruits, which they ate, and, in consequence, of all the innumerable advantages they enjoyed, there remained only one. (Bundahisch i, p. 10.)

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     After the Fall, the man and the woman "first covered themselves with the skins of dogs, and ate the flesh of these animals. Then they hunted and made themselves clothing of the skins of deer." Ahriman is represented as a poisonous serpent, and springs in this form from heaven to earth. (Kleuker's Zend Avesta, part 3, pp. 83. 85.)

     As to the Flood we find this tradition:

     Tascher (the spirit ruling the waters), found water for thirty days and thirty nights upon the earth. Every water-drop was as big as a howl. The earth was covered with water the height of a man. . All idolaters on earth died through the rain; it penetrated all openings. Afterwards a wind from heaven divided the water and carried it away on clouds, as souls hear bodies; then Ormuzd collected all the water together and placed it as a boundary to the earth, and thus was the great ocean formed. (Bundahisch, 7.)

     A HINDOO TRADITION.

     The ancient Hindoo tradition is, that in the reign of the sunborn monarch Satyavrata, the whole earth was drowned, and the whole human race was destroyed by a flood, except the pious prince himself, the seven Rishis, and their several wives. This general prelaya, or destruction, is the subject of the first Purana, or sacred poem; and the story is concisely told in the eighth book of the Bhagavata, from which the following is an abridged extract:

     The demon Hayagriva having purloined the Vedas [the sacred Sanscrit volumes] from Grahma while the latter was reposing, the whole race of man became corrupt, except the Rishis and Satyavrata. This prince was performing his ablutions in the river Critamala, when Vishnu appeared to him in the shape of a small fish, and thus addressed his amazed votary: "In seven dags all creatures who have offended me, shall be destroyed by a deluge; but thou shalt be secured in a capacious vessel miraculously formed. Take, therefore, all kinds of medicinal herbs and esculent grain for food, and, together with the seven holy men, your respective wives, and pairs of all animals, enter the ark without fear; then shalt thou know God face to face, and all thy questions shall be answered." Saying this, he disappeared; and, after seven days, the ocean began to overflow the coasts, and the earth to be flooded by constant showers, when Satyavrata, meditating on the Deity, saw a large vessel moving on the waters: he entered it, having in all respects conformed to the instructions of Vishnu, who, in the form of a large fish, suffered the vessel to be tied with a great sea-serpent, as with a cable, to his measureless horn.

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When the deluge had ceased, Vishnu slew the demon and recovered the Vedas, and instructed Satyavrata in Divine knowledge." (On the Chronology of the Hinus, by Sir W. Jones, in Asiastic Researches ii, p. 116.)

     The "Mahabharata" says that the boat containing Manu and his seven companions rested on Mount Nabhandanam, the highest peak of the Himalayas; and the name Naubhandanam signifies "ships stranding." (Bopp, Die Sundfluth, p. 9)

     CHINESE LEGENDS.

     In China the legends of the Fall and the Flood are so numerous and various that it is difficult to make a selection.

     According to Chinese philosophy, man is part spirit, part animal. The spirit follows the laws of Heaven, as a disciple his master; the animal, on the other hand, is the slave of sense. At his origin, man obeyed the heavens; his first state was one of innocence and happiness; he knew neither disease nor death; he was by instinct wholly good and spiritual. But the immoderate desire to be wise, or, according to Lao-tse, to eat, was the ruin of mankind. (Memoires Chnois I, p. 107.)

     The Jesuit M. Martinius says that the Chinese computed the Deluge to have taken place 4,000 years before the Christian era. Fah-he, the reputed author of Chinese civilization, is said to have escaped from the waters of the Deluge. He reappears as the first man at the production of a renovated world, attended by seven companions,-his wife, three sons and three daughters, by whose intermarriage the whole circle of the universe is finally completed. (Hardwick's Christ and Other Masters, iii, 16.)

     One extraordinary Antediluvian saved his life by climbing up a mountain, and there and then, in the manner of a bird planting a nest, he passed his days on a tree, whilst all the country below him was one sheet of water. He afterwards lived to a very old age, and could testify to his late posterity, that a whole race of human beings had been swept from the face of the earth. (The Chinese Repository, viii, p. 517.)

     In one of the writings of the disciples of Lao-tse, the tradition takes a fuller form.

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Kung-Kung, a bad spirit, enraged at having been overcome in war, gave such a blow against one of the pillars of the sky with his head that he broke it; and the vault of heaven fell in, and a tremendous flood overwhelmed the earth. But Niu-Noa overcame the water with wood, and made a boat to save himself, which could go far; and he polished a stone of five colors,-the rainbow-and therewith he fastened the heavens, and lifted them up on a tortoise shell. Then he killed the black dragon, Kung-Kung, and choked the holes in heaven with the ashes of a pumpkin. (Mem. Concernant les Chinoise, ix, p. 383.)

     Another account, published in the Philadelphia North American for August 30, 1903, states that:

     In the fifty-nine books of the original 100 volumes of the Historical Records of China, which are all that survived the carrying out of the edict of the Emperor Che Hwangti, in 221 B. C., ordering the destruction of all books not relating to astrology and divination of medicine, there may be found a story of the warning of Nuh that the world was to be destroyed by water. The wickedness of the world was the cause of the flood.

     In the same manner that the Noah of the Bible is said to have done, Nuh heeded the warning and built himself a huge junk and coated it upon the outside with pitch. Into the junk Nuh retreated with his wife and three sons. He took with him rice, millet, silkworms and a tortoise. None of the animals that Noah sheltered in the ark went into Nuh's junk.

     After many days a stork, bearing in its mouth a sprig of willow, flew to the junk and announced the subsidence of the flood. The story follows the narration of Noah's adventures particularly close in the matter of the landing of the junk. The junk grounded upon the mountain spelled in the Chinese record, "Ay-ahr-at." The peak, which is in the eastern part of Thibet, bears this name at the present day.

     AMERICAN TRADITIONS.

     George Catlin, the eminent authority on the Aborigines of America, says that among one hundred and twenty different tribes that he had visited in North, South and Central America, not a tribe existed that had not related to him traditions, vague or distinct, referring to the great Flood. (Okeepa, p. 2.)
Beginning at the extreme north we learn that the Kolosches, of Alaska, say that the first dweller on the earth was Kitkhughiasi, and that he resolved to destroy all his children who sinned against him.

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Thereupon he brought a flood over the land, and all perished save a few who escaped in boats to the tops of mountains, where, say they, the remains of the boats, and the ropes which fastened them, remained to be seen. (The same story precisely, is told by the closely allied race of the Chippewas (Atherne Jones, Traditions of the North American Indians, ii, p. 9 et seq.)

     Among the Dog-rib Indians Sir John Franklin found a very complete story of the Deluge; and as this tribe lives near the Polar Sea, far from any mission stations, it is scarcely possible that the story can have been derived from Christian teachers.

     They say that Tschapiwih, their great ancestor, lived on a track between two seas. He built a weir, and caught fish in such abundance that they choked the watercourse, and the water overflowed the earth. Tschapiwih with his family entered his canoe, and took with him all kinds of beasts and birds. The land was covered for many days; at last Tschapiwih could bear it no longer, so he sent out the beaver to look for the earth. But the beaver was drowned. Then he sent out the muskrat, which had some difficulty in returning, but it had mud on its paws. Tschapiwih was glad to see the earth, and moulded it between his fingers till it became an island on the surface of the waters, on which he could land. (Luke, Voyage autour du Monde, i, p. 19.)

     The ancient Mexicans have a myth of Xolotl, making out of a bone the primeval mother in the heavenly Paradise; she was the mother of twins, and is represented in a Mexican hieroglyph as speaking with a serpent, whilst behind her stand the twins, whose different characters are represented by different colors, and one of them is represented as slaying the other. Xolotl, who made her out of a bone, was cast out of heaven, and became the first man. (Humboldt, Pittorske Ansichten der Cordilleren, Plate XIII, and explanation, ii. pp. 41, 42.)

     The Flood was described by the Mexicans as follows:

     There was a great deluge which destroyed all men and beasts, save Cox-cox and his wife, Chichequetzal who escaped in a tree-trunk and landed on Mount Colhuacan, where they became parents of many children, who, however, were all dumb. Then appeared a dove, which seated itself on a high tree, and taught them language. But as none of them understood the speech of the other, they separated and dispersed over the world. (Muller, Geschichte des Amerikanischen Ur-religion, p. 515)

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     The inhabitants of Mechoacan in Mexico related that, on account of the iniquity of men, a flood was sent to sweep them all away; but a priest, named Tezbi, along with his wife and children, were saved in a box of wood into which they had entered along with all kinds of seeds and animals. After some time Tezbi, wearying of his confinement, sent forth the vulture, which, however, did not return to him. Then he sent forth other birds, but they did not come back. Finally he sent out the humming-bird, which returned with a branch in its beak. And of this event they had paintings in their temples, which they showed to the white men who arrived amongst them. (Herrera, Hist. General de los Hecos, Madrid, 1601.)

     The Caribs of South America relate that Luoguo, the first man and god, created the earth and the sea, and made the earth as fair as the beautiful garden in the heaven where dwell the gods. Luoguo dwelt for some time among the men he had made. He drew the man out of his navel and out of his thigh which he cut open. One of the first men was Racurnon, who was transformed into a great serpent with a human head, and he lived twined round a great Cabatas tree and ate of its fruit, and gave to those who passed by. At that time the Caribs lived to a great age, and never waxed old or died. Afterwards they found a garden planted with manioc, and on that they fed. But they became wicked, and a flood came and swept them away. (De la Borde, Reise zu den Caraiben, i, pp. 380-85.)

     "The belief in a deluge," says Humboldt, "s not found merely among the Tamanaks, but is a portion of a whole system of historical traditions of which the scattered accounts are to be gathered from the Maipures of the Great Cataract, the Indians of Rio Crevato, which pours into the Cauca, and almost from all the races in the Upper Orinoko. (Humboltlt, Reise in die Aequinoctial Gegenden, iii, p. 406.)

     This is the tradition of the Tamanaks, in Guiana:

     At the time of our ancestors the whole earth was overflowed. Then two persons alone were saved. a man and a woman, who remained on Mount Tamamaku, which is not far from the Cucivero river, where our ancestors formerly dwelt. They lamented sore over the loss of their friends and relations, and as they wandered sadly about the mountain they heard a voice which told them to cast the kernels of the nuts of a certain palm tree backwards over their shoulders.

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They did so, and out of the nuts cast by the woman there arose females, and out of those cast by the man sprang males. Nachrichten aus dem Lande Guiana, by Salvator Gill, Hamburg, 1785, p. 440.)

     The Peruvians related that Manco Capak, their first king, and founder of their nation, along with his wife, Mama Ocllo, after the great deluge, left their land, and came from the holy island in the lake Titicaca, on which the sun cast its first beam when the flood drained away. (G. de la Vega, Hist. des Yncas, Amst., i. pp. 73 and 326.)

     Legends such as these, of the Creation, the Fall and the Flood, exist throughout the earth and are self-evident and sufficient proofs of the common origin of all the religions, ancient and modern, of the universal human race. Throughout all of them we clearly see certain golden strands, which, when followed up, all point to and finally center in the opening chapters of Genesis, where alone we find all the essential features of all the primitive traditions of all the races and tribes of mankind in all the ages of its history.
"WHO IS MY MOTHER?" 1904

"WHO IS MY MOTHER?"       Rev. W. F. PENDLETON       1904

III. A NEW MOTHER.

     In our last discourse the subject considered was the state of Heaven and the Church before the Advent of the Lord. It was shown that whatsoever of the Divine there was in heaven, and on earth with the human race,--this was in the Lord at birth; that whatsoever there was of evil in the lower heavens, in the world of spirits, and with men in the world, this also was in His human; that His inmost was the Infinite Divine, called in the Word the Father, that His Internal was the Divine in the heavens, and that His External was the state of the Church in the world of spirits and on earth.

     The Lord had always been present with angels and men; He was Omnipresent as well as Omnipotent before His Coming and from the beginning. But His presence and power could no longer be mediated through the heavens to men as before, on account of evil; and the exercise of His omnipotence, without mediation, would have destroyed the human race in both worlds. Hence a Divine mediation was necessary.

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     It was also proposed to consider in a future discourse, the signification of the term "His mother," which is occasionally used in the Gospels I though the Lord Himself never acknowledged Mary as His mother, the spiritual reason for which was, that not only what He inherited from Mary was to be put away, but all that is signified and involved in the term mother.

     The Divine was in Heaven with the angels, and hell was in the Church with spirits and men. This entire state constituted the inheritance of the Human of the Lord, and this became active in Him, as He permitted it to become so, in order that He might by temptation combats put away the evil and make His whole human Divine, by conjunction with Infinite Love.

     By "mother" is signified that which is reactive in Heaven and the Church, reactive to the Divine, which is the Father. This for the most part had ceased to react with the Divine, but reacted against it; for hell was about to stir even the proprium of the angels against the Divine; and this reactive must be put away for the sake of the salvation of the human race. And although this was as it were the "mother" at first to the Human of the Lord, it was a mother that could not be acknowledged by Him; it must be removed, and another mother, a true and genuine Church established in its place, that would be a true spiritual mother to angels and men.

     In order to understand this subject, the idea of time and space must be removed. This is especially necessary in order to understand what the Lord was when He was born into the world: what was in Him, or what He assumed in order to be present with men in the world. The word assumed is used, but the inadequacy of human language to express what is spiritual and Divine is apparent in it. It suggests the idea of time; it suggests that the Lord took on something at birth which He did not have before. He assumed the state of heaven, but He had already taken this on, had already clothed Himself with it, and had been doing so from the beginning. He assumed the state of disorder, or evil, which was in both worlds. But this had already entered, and had been entering for thousands of years,--had already entered the Gorand Man, and the Gorand Man is the Lord; and He came that this state which had entered might be removed.

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It had entered, because the Lord had permitted it to enter, as He now permits it to enter the Gorand Man. He permitted it to enter because it could not be prevented according to order. Still, after a delay, it can be removed; the delay then was long, but it was removed by His Coming, and He always comes when it is necessary to remove evil from the Gorand Man. What it was that the Lord actually accomplished, and why it was necessary for Him to come into the world, or actually to appear among men, in order to accomplish it, we shall endeavor to show.

     We are told that the power of hell prevailed over the power of heaven, and the power of evil over the power of good. (T. C. R. 121.) This state was prevailing in the Gorand Man, yea in the Human of the Lord, for heaven and good are the Human of the Lord. This state He had permitted to enter, and it was about to prevail; and in order to meet and overcome this ever increasing tide of evil from hell, it was necessary for Him to exercise His Omnipotence, but to exercise it mediately, or by means of ultimates in the world.

     The Divine in the Human of the Lord at birth was good and truth from the Divine in heaven and in the Church. This Divine is called in the Writings the "Human Divine," in order to distinguish it from the Divine Human, which is the Divine in the heavens after His Coming, or after the Glorification of the Human which He took on in order to enter into the world.

     It may be well to make a remark here in regard to the signification of the term "world," in order that we may fully understand what is meant when it is said that the Lord came into the world. In our ordinary thought we are disposed to limit the idea of the Lord's coming into the world, to His appearing among men; but it is necessary to understand the term in a two-fold sense, namely, that by His coming into the world is meant not only His coming and presence in the natural world, but also His coming and presence in the world of spirits; and even heaven itself is not excluded in the use of the term, for He made Himself present in heaven by His Coming and Glorification, as He had not been present there before. Indeed, it is necessary to understand the term "world" in this two-fold sense whenever it is used in Scripture.

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The same thing is true, for the most part, of the term "Church," when it is used in the Writings; the Church in both worlds is meant. In a broad sense, therefore, the Coming of the Lord into the world is His presence in the Church in: both worlds.

     When the Lord came, His Divine was present in heaven, in the world of spirits, and on earth; and it never had been absent. But by the Incarnation, and the Divine Work of Redemption and Glorification,--which Divine Work was made complete in the Passion of the Cross,--His presence was more full and complete than before. His presence was immediate on all planes, when it had only been mediate previous to His Coming.

     His presence in the interior heavens was the presence of good and truth from Him, united as one with the angels of those heavens. His presence in the natural heaven, in the world of spirits, and in the natural world, was His presence by representatives of Himself, and by prophecies of His Coming, in the externals of spirits and men, who were evil internally. He was present on the outside of them, but not within them. He was present also in the natural, with a few in the Church in both worlds, and with the Gentiles in both, in the form of simple good and the truth of simple good. There was in the natural before His Coming no genuine truth and good, or no conjunction of Divine Truth and Divine Good with spirits and men. But this was changed by His Coming He then made Himself present with men in the conjunction of genuine truth and good, such as had not existed, and could not have existed, before. This is what is meant when it is said, that the Lord was present in the natural representatively but not actually, before His Coming. His actual presence was prevented by the presence and dominance of evil in the natural: and it was necessary for Him to come and cast down the evil from their seats of power and dominion, that He might establish His genuine presence with men and save them.

     The Lord's presence in Heaven before His Coming with the celestial is represented by Abraham; His presence with the spiritual of the celestial is represented by Isaac; His presence with the natural, and in the natural, in the form of simple or Gentile good was represented by Esau, and in the truth of simple good by Jacob.

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     This, then, was the presence of the Lord with angels and men before His Coming; namely, His presence as celestial good in the inmost heaven, as celestial truth in the spiritual of that heaven, and in simple good and simple truth with spirits and men. This was His presence before His Coming, and all this was in Him at birth, together with the state of evil in both worlds, which existed in Him as a hereditary tendency to evil.

     It is common to say in the Writings, that the hereditary evil in the Lord was from the mother Mary. We have already seen that, in order to have a full understanding of this, it is necessary to have a rational or spiritual idea of what is meant by mother; to which this consideration should be added, that in the evil actually inherited from Mary there was contained also all the evil of the human race, all the evil of the spiritual world, and thus all the evil of the natural world. The evil from Mary was evil in ultimates, and in ultimates are embraced all things that are interior and prior; for all evil in the spiritual world rests upon and is contained within evil that is in ultimates with men. This, however, is covered over and concealed with men, and it is undeveloped in them; neither could any man, nor could all men together, bear up against all the evils that are contained within their own evil; for this would be to bear up against all hell. But, what no man could do, what the whole human race could not do, the Lord was able to do. The Lord, therefore, permitted all the evil that was contained and involved in the hereditary evil from Mary, to be opened, and to become active in His Human, that He might meet, overcome, and subjugate it. He permitted all the hells to be opened successively in Him, and He successively met, resisted, and overcame them. And the assault was most grievous--something beyond the imagination of man to grasp--the assault was most grievous, because by the hereditary which He had from Mary, and by all the evils that were involved and contained in that hereditary, there was in the Human of the Lord the inclination to all evil, for no one is tempted except by that to which he inclines. This hereditary inclination to evil must be entirely overcome and put away, and together with it all the hells that were in it and were exciting it to activity.

     As we have shown, the hells were already in the Gorand Man, and thus in the Human of the Lord, before His birth into the world; and now the Lord by His birth in the world took on the ultimate containant of those evils, as it existed with men in the world: and a wonderful thing happened: the Lord, by taking on the ultimate containant of all evil, gave to the hells, or permitted them to assume temporarily, a power such as they never exercised before, and a power which they exercised with the utmost rage and ferocity, as directed against Him.

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For hell he well as heaven has power by ultimates, and the Lord permitted this to them, that He might meet them at their worst, and conquer them in their mightiest effort, and thus make His Divine Work of Redemption complete. With the coming of the Lord there was thus a coming of the hells also; when He came the hells rose up to meet Him, and made their last and greatest effort to maintain their power and dominion over spirits and men. In this we may faintly see the meaning of the Doctrine which says that Redemption was a work purely Divine; for even heaven itself could not prevail against the mighty ocean tide of evil, then brought into activity. But the Divine of the Lord was present to meet, resist and overcome, and the Divine of the Lord prevailed.

     This brings us back to the subject of the Coming of the Lord into the natural with men. Let us repeat: the Divine of the Lord was present in heaven and in the Church, but in the Church that presence was dim and obscure, and almost inoperative before the Advent. This was the state when the Lord came. The aggregate natural of man was evil in both worlds; but in the midst of this natural there was a faint and obscure remnant of good, called in the Writings simple good; and with this good there was also the truth of simple, most general truth, such as is found in all Gentile religions. This state was also in the Lord, making the inmost of the natural which He assumed, constituting in Him that which in man is called remains. When only this good was in the natural with Him, He was an infant or little child; still, even then He fought against the hells, fought from this simple good, in the midst of which He was. This is not the case with any man: combat with him does not begin until adult age: but with the Lord it began even in infancy. For an account of this, see the explanation in Arcana Coelestia, of the war between Abram and Chedorlaomer and the kings confederated with him.

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     As this simple good in the Lord became conjoined to genuine truth, He grew to be a man, began the regular work of His ministry among men, and by the combats then He became God: that is, the Human which He had assumed was made Divine.

     From the simple good with Him He began to obey the laws of the Divine Order, or to fulfill the Law. This no man was then able to do, that is, the Lord could not inspire any man with the power and will to do it. Simple good is not able to combat, and cannot be inspired to combat, because it is without genuine truth. Hence it was necessary for the Lord to come and Himself fulfill the Law in ultimates, and in fulfilling, to bring the Divine Power down into the natural, thus making simple good Divine Natural Good, and simple truth Divine Natural Truth.

     He was present in simple good before His Coming, but now in the flesh with men, in a natural Human, He becomes active in and from this good, by obedience to the laws of Order, by fulfilling the Law.

     It was necessary for the Divine to be in ultimates, and only in this way could He be present in the last and lowest things of His order. He Himself must be in these last and lowest things, and there keep the laws of order. He must now do this Himself, for there was no one else to do it. "And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold; therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto Me." (Isaiah 63, 5.)

     He alone could keep the law. He alone could cast out the evil from their seats in the lower heavens, and in the Church. Hell was dominant everywhere. The simple good were under their dominion. The entire natural of the human race was occupied by the evils of self-love, and the love of the world. The Lord alone could dislodge those evils, and cast them into hell. The state of the natural was the state of the Church, and this was the mother the Lord did not acknowledge. There must be another mother, a new Church, that would act as a genuine spiritual nourisher for all her children. In the place of the love of self and the love of the world, there must be in the natural, love to the Lord and love to the neighbor. The Lord, alone.--Himself in the natural.--could bring these laws down from heaven into the Church, and thus inspire men with the will and power to keep the law.

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     The Divine Love of the neighbor must be in the natural, in order that men may be inspired with a similar love. The Divine Love of the neighbor is the love of the neighbor more than self. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John xv, 12, 13.) Thus the Lord described His own love for the human race,--the Divine Example of the love men are to have, in order that they, like Him, may love the neighbor more than self.

     It is common and apparently easy to love the neighbor as oneself, to adjust the laws and principles of equity and justice to an even balance, so that one has the same rights as another. The business and work of the world is carried on this principle; though to a large extent it is a concession for the sake of self-interest, rather than from a real love of the neighbor. But the love of the neighbor more than self is exceeding rare, and men will tell you that such a thing is impossible; not knowing or believing that the Lord has said that it can be done. and that He has made it possible, because He Himself has done it,--has done it from eternity, and accomplished the same when He was in the flesh. "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you."

     It was this love, being no longer in the natural with men, that made it necessary for the Lord to come and restore it to the human race,-for it did exist in the Golden Age. And He did restore it, by casting out that which had destroyed it, and at the same time by bringing down this Divine Love into the natural, from which it had departed many thousand years before.

     If, therefore, you wish to know what is meant by the glorification of the Human of the Lord, find out the nature of love, the nature of this love; find out what it is to love the neighbor more than self, and you will obtain some idea of what the Human of the Lord is, now made Divine: that the making Divine consisted in the Human becoming this love Infinitely; and you will also find that it is this love and no other that is to build the Church; that without this love the Church may be preparing to begin, but has not yet actually begun.

     This is indeed a new thing in the world, but it is the new thing that is to build a new Church, and naught else will build it; and until it comes, there is no new Church with men.

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"A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." (John xiii, 34)

     (To be Continued.)
LORD WRITING IN THE EARTH 1904

LORD WRITING IN THE EARTH       R. D       1904

     In the Apocalypse Explained, n. 2226 we learn the reason why the Lord wrote with His finger in the earth, in the case of the woman taken in adultery, as recorded in John viii, 3-11. In Jeremiah xvii, 13, 14, we read, "O Jehovah, the hope of Israel, all that forsake me shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me, shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters." Concerning this passage we are taught, that to be written in the earth, is to be condemned on account of the state of life, inasmuch as by earth is meant what is condemned. By the Lord writing on the ground is meant the same as above in Jeremiah, where it is said, "they that depart from me shall be written in the earth," namely, that they, the accusers of the woman, were equally condemned on account of adulteries, wherefore Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her." The Lord's writing twice on the ground, means their condemnation for adulteries not only in the natural but also in the spiritual sense; for the Scribes and Pharisees were they who adulterated the goods and falsified the truths of the Word, consequently of the Church, and adulteries in the spiritual sense are adulterations of good and falsifications of truth; wherefore also He called that nation an adulterous and sinful generation. R. D.

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IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION AND ITS TRUE ORDER 1904

IMPORTANCE OF THE DOCTRINE OF CREATION AND ITS TRUE ORDER       ALFRED H. STROH       1904

     IT is the purpose of the present article to briefly consider the importance of the doctrine of creation and to present: in a very general way the teachings of the Writings of the Church and of Swedenborg's scientific works concerning its true order. Certain special features of the doctrine will be considered in the hope that an analysis of the passages will solve apparent difficulties and contribute towards a unanimity of interpretation of some phases of the question concerning which there is at present a considerable difference of view. All truth agrees with itself and all who seek for it at its proper sources will surely find it if the search be carried on in humility, in the love of the truth for its own sake, and with untiring perseverance.

     The great importance of the doctrine of creation is emphasized in the Writings as follows:

     "From the creation of the universe and finally on the earth and of all things in the former and the latter it may be seen better than in any other way that the Divine Love which is Life itself is in the form of forms of all uses, which form is man." (D. L. viii.)

     Elsewhere we are taught that the first Divine quality to be known is that God created the universe ane1 that the created universe subsists from Him. (A. C. 6879) Enlightened reason also sees that without an understanding of the ends and causes of creation, philosophy and science grope as it were in blindness. A further consideration is that Swedenborg was prepared for a great many years, indeed until his fifty-seventh year, by investigating the subjects of the creation and preservation of the natural universe and the human body, being guided by general truths from the Word and from the ancient philosophies which were in part derived from the Ancient Word, and, also, as he himself says in the Principia, by experience, geometry and reason. It has been supposed by some that Swedenborg's investigations indeed prepared him for his future mission, but chiefly in a negative way, namely, by convincing him of the futility of the methods he employed.

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This view, however, is clearly a mistaken one, for not only are the laws of creation as set forth by Swedenborg in his scientific and philosophical works in substantial agreement with the Divine Love and Wisdom and with the True Christian Religion and the other theological works which present the doctrine of creation, but the whole course of science since Swedenborg's day has gone in the direction of supporting and confirming what he taught concerning mechanics, geology, chemistry, physics, cosmology, anatomy and physiology. I do not mean that this is true of all his minor positions, which he himself for that matter often reconsidered and modified, but it is true of the fundamental positions without which his work would lack its distinctive quality. An unbiased examination will show that Swedenborg occupies a unique position in the history of science and philosophy which can never again be occupied by one man. He arrived at a period when it was still possible to master practically the whole of the onme scibile of general physics and physiology. Now in the twentieth century it is impossible to completely master more than a very restricted field; if we wish to be thorough we must control the particulars, as well as the generals, and no man can control even a tithe of them, so greatly extended and so diversified has the field become. When Swedenborg's true position comes to be seen it will be appreciated as being the central one in the history of science and philosophy. But granting all these things are true and that the true order of creation is rationally presented in Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical works and revealed in the Writings of the Church, what was that true order?

     That which has been created by the Divine increases in perfection towards its interiors (A. C. 10194), and consequently an infinitely perfect something must be the most interior of all things. It must also be the origin of all things which have been created, for the infinitely perfect must be identical with the Eternal, since the finite, non-eternal, and the create are the same. There are only two views possible, either all finite, created, non-eternal things originated from the Infinite, Uncreate and Eternal, or else the mind must fall into the insanities of materialism and pantheism, holding that everything, including man, is God, or that the infinite is coextensive with nature and nature eternal and uncreate.

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     The Writings teach that the Divine Love is such that it cannot but love others outside of itself, will to be one with them and make them happy from itself (T. C. R. 46), and thus it could not but create the universe. The Lord, who is a Divine Man, created the universe by means of His Divine Proceeding, which is the same as Life Itself, which is the Divine Love and Wisdom. That which was the active creative force in bringing the creation into existence was the Divine Love and Wisdom, Life itself, the Divine Proceeding. It does not follow from this that the created universe is a Divine Proceeding, that would be pantheism, but the creative force was the Divine Proceeding, which sustains the creation forever and preserves it from falling into chaos. To hold that the creation is a Divine Proceeding would be to hold that the finite proceeded from the Infinite, which is contrary to number 219 of the Divine Providence, where it is taught that the finite cannot proceed from the Infinite, although it can be produced by it, "but this is not to proceed, but to create." We must therefore clearly distinguish between proceeding and creating. In other places it is taught that what is created is also finite (D. L. W. 44, T. C. R. 33). What then is the first created thing? On this subject there has been some difference of opinion among theologians in the New Church, some holding that the Spiritual Sun is the first created substance, others that that sun is not created and finite, but Divine and Infinite. Both positions are true, it all depends upon the point of view, or upon how the Spiritual Sun is defined. There are very many passages which teach that the Lord appears as the Sun of Heaven, that He is the Sun of Heaven, and there are others which teach that the Lord is not a Sun, that He is a Man who dwells in the Sun. that the Sun is created, that it is produced, that there and thence is the first of finition, that it is the first of creation.

     Some of these passages will now be quoted:

     That Sun is not the Lord Himself, but is from Him. (D. L. W. 86.)
     
     That Sun is not God, but is the proceeding from the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom of God Man. (D. L. W. 93.)

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     Let everyone beware of thinking that the Sun of the Spiritual World is God Himself. God Himself is a Man. The first proceeding from His Love and Wisdom is that spiritual fieriness which appears before the angels as a Sun. And, therefore, when the Lord manifests Himself to the Angels in Person, He manifests Himself as a Man; and this sometimes in the Sun, and sometimes outside of the Sun. (D. L. W. 97)

     No one who can see effects from causes * * * can deny that the [spiritual] sun is the first of creation. (D. L. W. 152.)

     The Lord from eternity or Jehovah produced from Himself the Sun of the spiritual world, and from that created the universe and all things of it. (D. L. W. 290.)

     As the things which constitute the [spiritual] Sun * * * are from the Lord, but are not the Lord, it follows that they are not life in itself, but are deprived of life in itself. (D. L. W. 294)

     He Himself is not a Sun; but the Divine love and the Divine wisdom proximately proceeding from Him, and round about Him, appear before the angels as a Sun. He Himself in the Sun is a Man. (A. R. 961.)

     This Sun itself is not God, but is from God. It is the proximate sphere around Him, from Him. Through this Sun the universe has been created by Jehovah God. (I. 5.)

     God finited all things by means of His Sun, in the midst of which He is; and which consists of the Divine Essence which proceeds as a sphere from Him. There and thence is the first of finition; but the progressive [development] of it goes down to the ultimates in the nature of the world. (T. C. R. 29.)

     The reason every created thing is finite, is that all things were produced by Jehovah God by means of the Sun of the Spiritual World, which proximately encompasses Him; and that Sun is of the substance which has gone forth from Him. the essence of which is Love. From that Sun, through its heat and light, was created the universe, from its primes to its ultimates. *** Through these degrees it has been effected that all posterior things are receptacles of prior ones, and so, in order, of the primitives of which the Sun of the angelic Heaven consists **** (Thus) God first finited His infinity by means of substances emitted from Himself, from which there came into existence His proximate compass, which makes the Sun of the Spiritual World; and afterwards by means of that Sun He perfected all the other compasses down to the ultimate one, which consists of things at rest; and thus, by means of degrees, He finited the world more and more. (T. C. R. 33.)

     Multitudes of passages could he quoted which teach that the Sun of the spiritual world is the Lord, that it is His Proceeding, that it is Divine, that it is the Divine Substance, with other expressions to the same effect, and it is clear that in its inmosts the Sun is Divine Substance from which proceeds the Divine Heat and Light, the Divine Love and Wisdom.

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Inmostly, therefore, that Sun is Infinite, Divine; outmostly, however, considered as to substance, it is finite, created and not God, as taught in the passages quoted above. There has been an intermediate process, which to the human mind, a finite receptacle, is incomprehensible; as with several other essential truths, we can know that they are true, but not know they are true; we are only finite. Someone, on going over the passages quoted above, may be inclined to think that the spiritual sun is ever whit Divine, outmostly as well as inmostly, that the true explanation is that the numbers are distinguishing between the Divine itself and what proceeds from it, which is also Divine, and that while that sun is indeed the cause of finition, there is nothing finite there. But this view is not in reality warranted by the passages, and moreover there are two additional considerations which prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that considered as to its outmosts the spiritual sun is finite, the first of all finite things. The first consideration is that since all created things are finite, therefore the sun is also finite because it was created. The numbers which teach that all created things are finite were given above and the number which explicitly teaches that the sun of the spiritual world was created, is number 152 of the Divine Love and Wisdom which presents the whole truth of the matter in the most convincing way. Following is a somewhat literal translation of the number with the main portion italicized:

     That all things were created by the Divine Love and by the Divine Wisdom, was fully shown in Part the First (especially in nos. 52, 53); here now [it is to be shown] that [this was done] by means of the Sun, which is the first proceeding of the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom. No one who can see effects from causes, and afterwards from causes effects in their order in series, can deny that the sun is the first of creation, for all things that are in its world subsist from it: and because they subsist from it they have also existed from it: the one concludes and testifies [as to] the other; for all things are under its [that sun's] view, because it has determined (posuit) that they should be; and to hold them under itself is to continually determine that they be (ponere); wherefore also it is said that subsistence is perpetual existence. If also, anything were to be altogether deprived of the influx of the sun through the atmospheres, it would be immediately dissolved, for the atmospheres, which are purer and purer, and are actuated in power by the sun, hold all things in connection. Now, because the subsistence of the universe and of all things of it is from the sun, it is patent that the sun is the first of creation from which [everything else is].

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It is said from the sun, but it is understood from the Lord through the sun, for the sun was also created by the Lord. (Dicitur, a sole, sed intelligitur a Domino per solem, nam sol etiam a Domino est creatus.)

     Notice well, that the number teaches in the beginning that the spiritual sun is the proceeding of the Divine Love and Divine Wisdom, but that it closes with the specific teaching that "the sun was also created by the Lord."

     The second consideration is based on the doctrine of correspondence and the teaching given in the Principia concerning the first natural point, the first finite, and the creation of the natural sun. There are very numerous passages in the Writings which teach that there are two suns, the one living and the other dead, the one spiritual and the other natural, the one pure love and the other pure fire. It is furthermore taught that the natural sun was created from the spiritual one, that the whole spiritual world was created from the spiritual sun, while the whole natural world was created from the natural sun, the spiritual sun and spiritual world actuating and mediating. There are thus two complete series, the spiritual one being contained and resting in the natural one. The passages showing this will be quoted later, but for the present it is only necessary to advance the truth that all the degrees in the natural world correspond to their answering degrees in the spiritual world, the correspondence being absolute, that is, there are no gaps and the correspondence is complete, part for part, all along the line, from the suns in each world to the atmospheres in each world and even down to ultimates. "The origin of the correspondences," the Writings teach, "is from the two suns; the one in the Heavens which is pure love, and the other in the world which is pure fire." (A. R. 365) Now in the Principia Swedenborg, admitting that there is an Infinite, and acknowledging that the finite must have been derived from it,--and by the finite he meant the natural world exclusively,--held that there must be some process by which the Infinite became finite and the first substantial finite created. This process or nexus he called the first natural point, and while the student of the Principia may at first find himself confused when he reads the chapter on the Point in the Principia, he will see, if he progresses, that Swedenborg had laid hold of a most powerful and profound truth. Of course there is not only one point, but an indefinite number of them. The points might be called by another name, perhaps with advantage in the case of some students, but every unprejudiced mind must admit that natural, finite, substance came into existence somehow, that it was created, and if we say that it was created from the spiritual sun or rather that it was a substantial conatus to finite from that sun, we will be saying what is in entire agreement with the Writings and with the whole scheme of the Principia. It will occur to some that the Principia teaches that the point is "pure and total motion," that it is not geometrical, not extended or filling space, and some have therefore supposed that the point is not substantial in any sense, that it is nothing but motion. It should, however, be borne in mind as a constant principle, that there is no motion or activity which is not the motion or activity of a substance, and therefore according to the tenor of our whole reasoning, the point should be defined as the process by which the substance of the spiritual sun, that is, the created substance thereof, becomes finite in a new way, namely, by inducing upon itself motion, by limiting itself with one limit and becoming natural. It is therefore just what the Principia calls it, namely, the seed of natural things, and when compounded it is the first finite, an exceedingly small, round ball of substance, which is the first fully natural, substantial entity. This first finite may now be acted upon by the power of the spiritual sun, by the Divine Love in it, and when it is so actuated it goes off into a special local motion which constitutes the fire of the natural sun. That this is in full agreement with the Writings may be seen from number 472 of the True Christian Religion, where we are taught that "the sun of this world consists of created substances the activity of which produces fire." If we discriminate between the "created substances" and their "activity" we admit the teaching of the Principia concerning the first finite and the first active, which first active is nothing but the first finite in local or active motion. This admission involves the whole doctrine of actives and passives, one of the fundamental conceptions in the Principia. If now it be admitted that there is a correspondence all along the line as between the whole spiritual world and the whole natural world, does it not also follow that there must have been some process by which the finite substances of the spiritual sun were created, to which the process by which the "created substances" of the natural sun came into existence would correspond?

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There is no answer left but an affirmative one, and herein we may obtain an interior view why there is no ratio of the natural to the spiritual, nor of the spiritual to the Divine.

     By way of summing up and of introducing what is to follow a few passages will now be quoted:

     The sun of Heaven (then) appeared to the spirits of Mercury The sun of Heaven, which is the Lord, appears only to those who are in the Third Heaven: all others see Its light, and also the Moon. On seeing the sun they said that that was not the Lord God, because they did nor see a face. * * * But suddenly the sun appeared again, and in the midst of it the Lord encompassed with the solar circle, on seeing which they humbled themselves profoundly.*** Then, also, the Lord out of the sun, was seen by spirits of this earth, who, when they had been men, had seen Him in the world, (and they) confessed that it was the Lord Himself. **** Then, too, the Lord out of the sun was seen by the spirits of the planet Jupiter. (A. C. 7173.)

     One morning the sun of the spiritual world appeared to me in its effulgence; and under it I saw the heavens, distant from it as the earth is from its sun; and then there were heard from the heavens ineffable words, which being collected together, were articulated into this utterance, There is one God, who is a Man, whose habitation is in that sun. (T. C. R. 135.)

     It is most necessary that it be known that there are two suns, one spiritual, and the other natural. *** Unless this is known, nothing can be rightly understood about creation, and about man. (D. L. W. 107.)

     It may be remarked in passing that Swedenborg during his period as a natural philosopher knew very well that there were two suns, the one natural and the other spiritual, as may be seen from many places in his Economy of the Animal Kingdom and Worship and Love of God. He did not, however, know this because he had seen the spiritual sun, in fact he had not seen it when he wrote number 1531 Of the Arcana Coelestia, for he says in that number, "But it has not been given me to see the sun." In number 1529 he taught that the Lord appears in the third heaven as a sun; Swedenborg therefore knew about that sun, but had not yet seen it when he wrote number 1531 as a sun, although he had seen it as a moon.

     There are two suns through which all things have been created by the Lord: the sun of the spiritual world and the sun of the natural world.

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     All things have been created by the Lord through the sun of the spiritual world, and not through the sun of the natural world; for the latter sun is far below the former sun: it is in middle distance; above it is the spiritual world, and below it is the natural world. The sun of the world has been created in order to render subsidiary aid. (D. L. W. 153.) That the sun of the natural world has been created in order to render subsidiary or secondary aid, and is thus in "middle distance," is also taught in other numbers.

     The active creative force is in the spiritual sun and acts everywhere in the universe; in the first instance it created everything, and afterwards it preserves everything created. This active creative force is the Divine Love and Wisdom, which proceeds from the sun of the spiritual world as heat and light creating and animating. This heat and light is infinite, uncreate, indeed, even rational heat and light considered in themselves, or all activity considered in itself, are taught in the Writings to be uncreate; only the created substances and matters are finite in the last analysis. (See especially T. C. R. 472 and D. L. W. 44.) Thus we may conceive of the created universe of substances as being finite, all parts of it being recipients of life and activity which is infinite. All finite, created things are not life, but only recipients of life. The creative and living forces are heat, light, activity, affection, Love.

     The atmospheres of the spiritual world are created according to discrete degrees from the spiritual sun and are substantial, belonging to those entities which are spiritual, but nevertheless created and finite, consisting of least forms and finally of the primitives of which the spiritual sun consists, as taught in the True Christian Religion number 33. Recognizing that these atmospheres are so created and constituted, consisting of least forms which are substantial, we must nevertheless keep away the ideas of time and space, for times and spaces arose with the creation of the natural universe.

     The spiritual atmospheres are discrete substances, that is, least forms, which originate from the sun. (D. L. W. 174.)

     I have (also) perceived that by means of the light and heat from the sun of your world, spiritual atmospheres, which in themselves are substantial, have been created, one from another. * * * But as this spiritual universe cannot come into existence without a natural universe into which it may act its effects and uses, there was then simultaneously created the sun from which all natural things proceed; and through this, in like manner, by means of its heat and light, three atmospheres encompassing the former ones. (T. C. R. 76.)

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     From this number and from others it is clear that first the sun of the spiritual world was created, then its atmospheres and simultaneously the sun of the natural world and its atmospheres. The whole order is given in the Canons, God, iv, 7:

     Jehovah God, by means of the sun in the midst of which He is, created the spiritual world; and by means of this mediately the natural world.

     It is also taught that the sun of the natural world was created from the spiritual sun. "The sun of heaven is that from which is the sun of the world." (D. Wis. iii, 3. See also D. L. W. 164.)

     When the spiritual inorganic world, if it may be so called, and the natural inorganic world, that is, the suns and atmospheres of each world, had been created, a new period in the creation of things began. The earth, formed from the sun, was made the theatre of the organic world. When the ultimate matters of the mineral kingdom had been formed and nature rested in them, subsisting in quiet and terminating in matters inert and cold, seeds were formed in the soil; "the first production from those earths when they were still fresh and in their simplicity was the production of seeds; the first conatus in them could not be any other." (D. L. W. 312.) There followed after each other the creation of the vegetable and animal kingdoms and finally of man, through whom the uses of all things return to the Creator.

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USE OF THE SCIENCES IN THE NEW CHURCH 1904

USE OF THE SCIENCES IN THE NEW CHURCH       Rev. EMIL CRONLUND       1904

     In all things that we do and in all things that we learn we must regard our spiritual life in the first place. Preparation for the life to come must always be our thought and care. In other words, use must be our end, for to regard use as an end is to regard the kingdom of the Lord as an end, since the Lord's kingdom is a kingdom of uses. To live for use is therefore to live for eternity, for uses are eternal. While we are living here in the natural world we are preparing our eternal homes, the mansions in which we are to live forever. They who have lived for uses receive beautiful and magnificent dwellings in the life to come, whereas they who have not lived for uses must live in ugly and miserable huts there.

     Man's surroundings in the other world are in perfect agreement with, and are an exact representation of the state of his mind. The more interiorly one has loved uses, the more beautiful are his surroundings. Consequently, man's state in the other life will be determined by the measure and quality of the affection of good and of use that has been acquired in this world. His state of intelligence and wisdom in the other life will depend upon that measure. This is evident also from these words from the work on Heaven and Hell: "Whatever a man acquires in the world, this remains and is carried with him after death, when, also, it is increased and filled, but within the degree of his affection and desire of truth and good, not beyond it. They who have had but little affection and desire, receive but little, yet still as much as they are able to receive within that degree; but they who have had much affection and desire, receive much. The degree itself of affection and desire is as a measure, which is filled to the brim. To him, therefore, whose measure is large, much is added, and little to him whose measure is little. The reason of all this is, that the love to which belong affection and desire receives everything which is agreeable to itself; hence the greater is man's love, the more he receives.

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This is meant by the Lord's words:

     "'To everyone that hath shall be given, that he may have more abundantly;' and by these words in Luke: 'Give and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom (6:38)," H. H., 339.

     The measure, therefore, that man carries with him into the other life is the state and quality of affection that he has acquired in this world. Man is born into the world without any affection for spiritual things. The first affection that breathes upon him is the affection of knowledge, and this affection causes him to learn with delight the historicals of the Word, and, as he acquires these knowledges and stores them up in the memory, he is kept by the Lord at the same time in the affection which is in them; and, as these knowledges open up and are infilled in after life, he comes into the affection which is in them; and thus by means of truth he is led to good, and the affection of knowledge becomes the affection of truth. The affection of truth is an exalted affection of knowledge, and the affection of knowledge is exalted when the knowledges from the Word are opened up and infilled, which is done when their internal spirit and life are seen, and when they are lived, and when new truths are added to them so that they are strengthened and thus made more full and complete. Thus, so far as man acquires knowledges from the Word for the sake of use, so far his measure is increased, for so far his measure is made larger and his capacity for receiving spiritual joys and felicities more abundant.

     That man may be saved he must lead a life of spiritual usefulness here on earth, that is, he must perform uses from the love of them and from the love of the Lord and the neighbor. But in order that he may be enabled to do this it is a fundamental necessity that he be instructed and informed in the things which are of Heaven and the Church, for no one who is ignorant of spiritual things can ever love them. No one can love that which he knows nothing about. Therefore man must first of all gain knowledges and then he must advance from knowledge into intelligence and from intelligence into wisdom. But although the knowledge of spiritual things is fundamental and essential, for there can be absolutely no intelligence or wisdom without it, still, in order that man may reach the highest state of wisdom, he must acquire other knowledges as well.

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In the Heavenly Doctrines of the Church it is taught that in order that man may become intelligent and wise "he must learn many things, not only such as relate to Heaven, but such as relate to the world also. Those which relate to Heaven are to be learned from the Word and from the Church, and those which relate to the world, from the sciences. In proportion as man learns these things, and applies them to life, he becomes intelligent and wise, for in the same proportion the interior sight, which is that of his understanding, and the interior affection, which is that of his will, are perfected. The simple of this sort are they whose interiors are open, but not so much cultivated by spiritual, moral, civil, and natural truths; these perceive truths when they hear them, but they do not see them in themselves. But the wise of this class are they whose interiors are not only open, but cultivated, these also see truths in themselves, and perceive them. From these things it is evident what true intelligence and wisdom are," H. H. 351.

     From this it is evident that wisdom may indeed be attained without a knowledge and study of the sciences, but it is also evident that the: who do study them may reach higher and more interior states of wisdom than those who do not, for they who have cultivated their interiors by means of them are in the centre of the heavenly societies and are called "the wise" there; whereas, they who have not so cultivated their interiors are in the circumference and are called "the simple."

     Thus the sciences are stepping stones to wisdom; they are means of becoming wise. Science is the handmaid of religion, and when it is so regarded it serves to corroborate and confirm and thus to strengthen spiritual truths in the mind of man, and so far as spiritual truths are strengthened and confirmed with man so far he also increases in intelligence and wisdom. That the sciences are means of becoming wise, and that they who have cultivated their interiors by means of them also increase in wisdom is evident from the following passage from the Writings: "With those who have procured to themselves intelligence and wisdom by means of knowledges and sciences, as is the case with those who have applied all things to the uses of life, and at the same time have acknowledged a Divine, loved the Word, and lived a spiritual-moral life, the sciences have served as a means of becoming wise, and also of corroborating the things which appertain to faith.

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I have perceived and also seen the interiors of their minds, and they appeared as if transparent from light of a white, flamy or azure color, like that of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, which are pellucid, and this according to the confirmations in favor of a Divine and of Divine truths, which they had derived from the sciences. Such is the appearance of true intelligence and wisdom, when presented in the spiritual world in a visible form. This appearance they derive from the light of Heaven, which is the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord, which is the source of all intelligence and wisdom. The planes of that light, in which variegations like those of colors exist, are the interiors of the mind, and the confirmations of Divine truths by such things as are in nature, and therefore in the sciences, produce those variegations. For the interior mind of man looks into the stores of the natural memory, and, seizing upon those things therein which are confirmative, it sublimates them as it were by the fire of heavenly love, withdraws them, and purifies them even into spiritual ideas. That such a process takes place is unknown to man while he lives in the body, since therein he thinks both spiritually and naturally; but the things which he then thinks spiritually he does not perceive, but only those which he thinks naturally; but when he comes into the spiritual world, he then has no perception of what he thought naturally in the world, but of what he thought spiritually; thus his state is changed. From these considerations it is evident that man is made spiritual by knowledges and sciences, and that these are a means of becoming wise, but only to those who have acknowledged a Divine in faith and life. These also are accepted in Heaven before others, and are among those then who are in the midst, because they are in light more tan others. These are the intelligent and wise in Heaven, who shine as with the brightness of the firmament, and who shine as the stars. But the simple there, are those who have acknowledged a Divine, loved the Word, and lived a spiritual-moral life, but the interiors of whose minds were not so much cultivated by knowledges and sciences. The human mind is like ground, which is such as it is made by cultivation." H. H. 356.

     From this it is evident that knowledges from the Word are essential to man's becoming rational and spiritual and to his being saved, but nevertheless the sciences are of immense value to the regenerating man.

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"Sciences in themselves are spiritual riches, and they who possess them are like those who possess worldly riches, which in like manner are means whereby a man may do service to himself, his neighbor, and his country; moreover they are like dress which serves for use and ornament." A. C. 8628.

     That man may become spiritual he must first of all become rational, for "the rational is the medium between the spiritual and the natural, and because it is the medium it first receives influx from the spiritual world and transfers it into the natural. From this it follows that before the spiritual mind, which is called the spiritual man, can be opened, and through it influx into the natural mind be given, the rational must be perfected which is done by means of knowledges, which are natural and moral truths, and by means of knowledges of good and truth from the Word. Through these the rational mind is opened from below. But as soon as the spiritual mind has been opened and there is influx from that, the rational mind is opened from above; and thus the rational as a medium, furnishes a passage, and then through it the natural mind, which contains sciences and knowledges, is subordinated to the spiritual mind, and thus to Heaven and the Lord." A. E. 995

     The rational is opened by means of knowledges from Divine revelation and by an affection for them; but it is cultivated and perfected by means of knowledges of all kinds. All created things exist for the sake of use, and the use for which they exist is the salvation of man. This is the use that the Lord is continually performing in His creation and preservation of the universe, for the world exists for the sake of man and not man for the sake of the world. Consequently the things of the world exist in order that they may be of service to man, that they may aid him in his efforts to see and understand the Divine truth and consequently to enter more interiorly into the love of it.

     (To be Continued.)

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Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

     THE NINETEENTH OF JUNE.

     On the nineteenth day of June, one hundred and thirty-four years ago, Swedenborg, in his quiet study in Stockholm, penned the closing line of the "True Christian Religion which contains the Universal Theology of the New Church."

     The mission of the revelator was virtually completed. The Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem had been revealed as a whole, and there remained but to add a "Supplement" and an "Appendix" to the work, and to issue an "Invitation" to the whole Christian world to enter the Heavenly Temple now opened on earth.

     Resting his pen, the revelator again lifted his eyes to Heaven. What he then beheld, he wrote down in a memorandum to the work itself.

     "After this work was finished, the Lord called together His twelve disciples who had followed Him in the world; and the next day He sent them all forth into the universal spiritual world, to preach the Gospel that the LORD JESUS CHRIST reigneth, whose Kingdom shall be unto ages of ages, according to the prediction by Daniel, and the Apocalypse, and that 'blessed are they who come unto the marriage-supper of the Lamb.' This took place on the nineteenth day of June, in the year 1770, This is what is meant by these words of the LORD: 'He shall send His angels, and they shall gather together His elect from one end of the Heavens even unto the other.' Matth. xxiv:31. (T. C. R. 791)

     A Holy Convocation was this, of infinite and eternal consequences to the universal human race,--a second and more glorious Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit of Truth Divine was given anew to the twelve apostles, simple and ignorant fishermen no longer, but wise and holy angels, of all human beings the most fitted to announce the Second Advent of Him whom on earth they had known and loved in the flesh.

     Going forth into every quarter of the spiritual universe, they preached the Gospel of the new and everlasting Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, and thus by Divine command and ordination, inaugurated the work of the Priesthood of the New Jerusalem.

     Leaving his native land, where the Writings of the New Church had been written and condemned, Swedenborg took his precious manuscript with him to Holland, where he prepared a second draft of it, and saw it through the press. It was finally published towards the end of June, in the year 1771.

     Since the Convocation of the Apostles in 1770, the nineteenth of June has figured frequently and prominently in the history of the Lord's New Church on earth, and has been intimately associated with some of the most important movements and uses of the Church.

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     Thus it was on this date, in the year 1791, that the first temple ever erected in this world for the distinctive worship of the Lord in His Second Coming was consecrated in the city of Birmingham. The date was deliberately chosen, and it was Robert Hindmarsh who first called attention to its significance.

     Again, on this date, in the year 1810, there was formed an association of Newchurchmen in London who adopted for their distinctive use that of "Printing and Publishing the Theological Writings of the Hen. Emanuel Swedenborg." For many years they and their successors continued to meet annually on the nineteenth day of June, in order to transact their important business and to unite in a feast of charity in celebration of their uses. This body, now known as the "British and Foreign Swedenborg Society," still continues to meet on or near the nineteenth of June.

     From that time, for a number of years, we hear but little of the "New Church Day," until, in the year 1851, the Urbana University was incorporated on this date. This body was the fruit of a propaganda for higher education in the New Church, set on foot by the Rev. J. P. Stuart who afterwards became the first vice-chancellor of the Academy. The School of Urbana still holds its annual commencement on or near the nineteenth of June.

     Finally, in the gear 1876, on the nineteenth of June, twelve members of the New Church met in Philadelphia to organize the Academy of the New Church. The date was chosen accidentally, as it were, but the significance of the day was pointed out at the end of the meeting. The same happened at the second annual meeting, in 1877, when the name "Academy of the New Church" was formally adopted, and it was now decided to celebrate the Nineteenth of June each year "as an important and joyous day for the Academy as well as for the whole New Church."

     The nineteenth of June was afterwards celebrated annually by the Academy in private gatherings, until the year 1896, after which the day has been commemorated more generally, by all the societies and circles connected with the General Church of the New Jerusalem, as the great and distinctive festival of the New Church. The custom of observing the day is spreading also outside the borders of the General Church, among a number of Societies in America, England, and Sweden; it will, no doubt, become a custom universally and forever prevailing throughout the New Church, since the day is, par excellence, the birthday of that Divinely organized church in the Heavens from which the Church on earth is descending.

     In the history of the First Christian Church the nineteenth of June stands for the very opposite of that which it represents in the New Church, for it was on that day, in the year 325, that three hundred and eighteen Christian bishops, with thousands of other ecclesiastics, convened in the city of Nicea at that fatal convocation when God was divided into three persons and the Lord into two natures, in the faith of the Christian Church, whence resulted that spiritual devastation which reached its consummation at the time of the Last Judgment, fourteen hundred years later.

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To the New Church, therefore, the nineteenth of June stands as a day of warning as well as hope, warning to beware of the love of dominion over the souls of men, to beware of the tendency to place human intelligence above the Word of God. The New Church itself is to endure triumphant and for ever, but this does not mean that great organizations of the New Church may not decline and die from the evils and falsities,--the same in tendency if not in form,--which caused the downfall of the First Christian Church. Unceasing watchfulness, therefore, is the price of purity in the New Church. It is to the Church in Philadelphia,--to those who are in truths from good--that the Divine warning is directed: "Hold fast that which thou hast, that no one taketh thy crown."

     But to those who will "hold fast" the annual convocations and festivals on the nineteenth of June will remain for ever the "red-letter days" of the Church, and the day itself the fairest representative of all that is promised to those who receive the Lord in His Second Coming: the day of Midsummer, when light and heat are conjoined in equal degrees, when the earth is adorned like a bride, decked in verdure and blossoms and ripening harvests, all nature singing with gladness about the heavenly Marriage-feast to which the Lord has called His Church.

     May, therefore, each celebration of this day of days be to the members of the New Church a holy convocation of disciples of the Lord, in His immediate presence, a day of fresh inspiration and instruction, so that, "the next day," they may So forth as apostles with new power from on high to preach the Gospel of the Advent of the Lord,--to preach It whether as priest or as laymen, to their congregations, to their children, to all who have an ear to hear, but to preach it especially to themselves, to all the uncircumcised affections and thoughts which still reign in their own spiritual world. Thus, in time, will the Lord's New Church become established within them and about them, and they shall become His Kingdom in which He shall reign unto ages and ages.
CHINESE MONOTHEISM 1904

CHINESE MONOTHEISM              1904

     Among the many recent books on China and the Eastern Question, we have found none of such direct interest to the New Church as The Love of Cathay or Intellect of China, by W. A. P. Martin, the President of the Chinese Imperial University in Peking. (Chicago, 1901.)

     The author, who is one of the foremost if not the most eminent of modern writers on the literature and religion of the Chinese, here sets forth a great abundance of new and well-arranged facts about these subjects, which not only confirm the revelations made through Swedenborg respecting the Gentile nations in general, but also bring us a little nearer to a solution of the interesting question respecting, the Ancient Word which is still preserved in China among the Tartars there.

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     The special point of interest, however, in The Love of Cathay is the evidence which the author brings out to show that the Chinese are at bottom a Monotheistic nation and that in this respect they have been much misunderstood by the Western world.

     The author shows that the Shung Ti, or "Supreme Being" of the Chinese, though involved or worshiped only to a very limited extent, nevertheless is universally acknowledged, whether under this name, or as personified as Lao T'ien Yeh, (literally, "Old Father Heaven," or the Heavenly Father), or designated by a hundred other appellations. (p. 166.)

     "When taxed with ingratitude in neglecting to honor that Being on whom they depend for existence, the Chinese uniformly reply, 'It is not ingratitude, but reverence, that prevents our worship. None but the emperor is worthy to lay an offering on the altar of Heaven.' In conformity with this sentiment, the Emperor, as high priest and mediator of his people celebrates in Peking the worship of Heaven with imposing ceremonies."

     "The Temple of Heaven in Peking consists of a single tower. It contains no image, and the solemn rites are not performed within the tower; but, on a marble altar which stands before it, a bullock is offered once a year as a burnt sacrifice, while the master of the Empire prostrates himself in adoration of the Spirit of the Universe. This is the high-place of Chinese devotion; and the thoughtful visitor feels that he ought to tread its courts with unsandalled feet. For no vulgar idolatry has entered here: this mountain-top still stands above the waves of corruption, and on this solitary altar there still rests a faint ray of the primeval faith. The table which represents the invisible Deity is inscribed with the name of SHANG TI, the Supreme Ruler; and as we contemplate the Majesty of the Empire prostrate before it while the smoke ascends from his burning sacrifice, our thoughts are irresistibly carried back to the time when the King of Salem officiated as 'Priest of the Most High God.'" (pp. 167, 168.) To us this impressive scene brings to mind, also, the teaching that "by the Divine Providence of the Lord the Ancient Word is still preserved in Great Tartary, and that their Divine worship is even to this day conducted according to it." (Coronis 39, A. R. 11.)

     Dr. Martin shows further that "the idea of Shang Ti, when it first meets us in Chinese history, is not in the process of development, but already in the first stages of decay. The beginnings of that idolatry, by which it was subsequently almost obliterated, are distinctly traceable." (p. 169).

     The original Monotheism of China seems to be best preserved in Taoism, one of the three State-religions which exist amicably side by side, and of which the emperor is the common head. "In Taoism," says our author, "we see a process directly the reverse of that which certain writers of modern Europe assert to be the natural progress of the human mind. According to them, men set out with the belief of many gods, whom they at length reduce to unity, and finally supercede by recognizing the laws of nature as independent of a personal administration.

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The worship of one God is the oldest recorded form of Chinese religion, and idolatry is an innovation." (P. 190).

     The author is a firm believer in Monotheism as the most ancient and the most pure form of religion. In Taoism, he continues, "we find a connection between the degenerate philosophy of after-ages and the pure foundation of primeval truth. In fact, this very Shang Ti, though they have debased the name by bestowing it upon a whole class of their dii superiores, is still enthroned on the summit of the Taoist Olympus, with ascriptions more expressive of his absolute divinity than any to be met with in the canonical books of the Confucian school. At the head of their Theogony stands the triad of the San Ching, the "Three Pure" ones, the first of whom is styled "The mysterious sovereign who has no superior," "The self-existent source and beginning," "The honored one of Heaven." (p. 181).

     We are told in the Writings that the people in Great Tartary who possess the Ancient Word, "worship Jehovah, some as an invisible God, some as a visible." (A. R. 11). In confirmation of this teaching, and also in its references to remains of the name Jehovah among the Chinese, the following from The Lore of Cathay is significant:

     "Laotze, the 'old Master,' bequeathed his doctrines to posterity in 'five thousand words,' which compose the Tao Te Ching, the Rule of Reason and virtue, [from which 'Taoism' derives its name]. In expression, this work is extremely sententious..... Its inconsistencies, however, readily yield to that universal solvent,--the hypothesis of a mystical meaning underlying the letter of the text. The following passage appears to embody some obscure but lofty conception of the True God:

     'That which is invisible is called yi.

     'That which in inaudible is called hsi.

     'That which is impalpable is called wei.

     'These three are inscrutable and blended into one.

     "Some European scholars discover here a notion of the Trinity, and, combining the syllables yi, hsi, and wei,--they obtain yihsiwei, which they accept as a distorted representation of the name Jehovah.... It is an interesting fact that native commentators, though knowing nothing of these conjectures, recognize in the passage a description of Shang Ti, the God of the Chinese patriarchs; and the three syllables of which the acrostic is composed, are admitted to have no assignable meaning in the Chinese language." (p. 181).

     In this connection we cannot forbear quoting the following from Hue's Travels in Tartary, Thibet, and China, in which a Thibetan Lama tells the Jesuit Abbe that "there is but one sole sovereign of the universe, the Creator of all things, alike without beginning and without end. In India He bears the name of Buddha; in Thibet, that of Samtche Mitcheba, (the all-powerful Eternal); the Chinese call Him Fo; and the Tartars, Borhau. They are all equally Buddha." The visitor then asked, "Is Buddha visible?"

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"No, He is without body,-he is spiritual substance." "So Buddha is sole, and yet there exist innumerable Buddhas; the Tale-Laama, the Guison Tamba, and the rest, are visible, and have bodies like our own; how do you explain this?" "The doctrine, I tell you, is true," said the Lama, raising his arm, and assuming a remarkable accent of authority; "it is the doctrine of the West, but is of unfathomable profundity,-it cannot be sounded to the bottom." (vol. I, p. 127).

     It is stated in the Arcana, (n. 5256) that "those who have been Gentiles, and have been converted to Christianity, in the other life adore the Lord alone; and this because they have believed that it could not be but that the Supreme God should manifest Himself on earth as a Man, and that the Supreme God is a Divine Man." It is not surprising, therefore, to learn that "educated Chinese, on embracing Christianity, assert that the Shang Ti of their fathers is identical with the Tien Chu, the Lord of Heaven, whom they are taught to worship by the Christians. (Lore of Cathay, p. 169).

     The above are but a few samples of the rich things in Dr. Martin's book, which serve to confirm our faith and nourish our hopes for the future reception of the New Church among the Gentiles.
DARWINIAN EVOLUTION IN THE NEW CHURCH 1904

DARWINIAN EVOLUTION IN THE NEW CHURCH              1904

     THE April issue of The New Church Review contains a paper by the late Rev. Emanuel F. Goerwitz on "The Creation of Man." The writer here comes out as an open "evolutionist," by following to the logical conclusion the road indicated by his late teacher, the Rev. John Worcester. The theory of the latter, as given in one of his books, is that in the creation of man there was first "a developing human animal advancing along its own line, until, the animal part of man being complete, it was possible to add to it those human parts of the brain and of the mind by virtue of which man looks down upon the animal qualities in himself and rules over them." This "developing human animal" Mr. Worcester calls a "hominine animal," and, according to him, the time in the evolution of this animal when it became a man was "as soon as the human convolutions of the natural brain were developed."

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Mr. Goerwitz goes one step further than his teacher, by simply following Mr. Worcester's theories to their logical conclusion. After pointing out that the existence of the "hominine animal" is an "entire assumption," he adds, that it is also an "unnecessary assumption;" and then, in its place, he puts the assumptions of evolution (which are equally "entire" and "unnecessary"). "Why," he asks, "if Mr. Worcester's view be correct, should not the physical man have been developed, together with the whole of creation, up to the point where, for the purposes of man, his body needed to be differentiated from other animals'" And so he takes the position that the "hominine animal" of Mr. Worcester was in its turn an evolution from a mere animal; thus it was first a protist, then a fish, then a reptile, and so on. He supports this view by quoting from the Writings passages "which, while not directly stating" it, would seem to infer it. The passages in question are those in which the statement is made, that certain people, born on islands, who in the world knew nothing of God, appeared in the other world like apes. Mr. Goerwitz may well describe these passages as not "directly stating" his position, for, in fact, they are diametrically opposed to it. These men were seen in the other world, and therefore had human souls; moreover, after instruction by angels, they received truths concerning God. If these men, who appeared like apes because of their entire ignorance of God, had yet human souls, does it not follow that the first created men, who were also ignorant of God, and who are described as "living like wild animals," also had human souls? What need for recourse to a fantastic "hominine animal" or a senseless protist?

     The Writings directly and emphatically teach the impossibility of the evolution of one form of life into another, of one animal into another, and still more into a man. This follows from the universal doctrine that influx is according to reception, for man alone, having free will, has the power to variously adapt himself for the reception of influx. Then there is the teaching that heredity nature is changed solely by religion. Did protists or hominines have religion? Mr. Goerwitz himself quotes two passages which diametrically oppose his theory; one to the effect that all things are kept in the order into which they were created (D. P. 55); and the other that nothing can be produced from animals and plants but what is similar to itself and to its own (T. C. R. 145) These passages he meets by adducing the fact that the embryo, a "non-differentiated mass" (sic) develops to the full grown man. But, anticipating the objection that the human nature is already present in the embryo, he adds, that while changes may not take place in the egg, still they may and do take place in the individual and must be impressed by him on the egg, and by it transmitted to coming generations; that is, while the seed of an animal cannot be changed into the seed of a different animal, or of a man, yet the animal itself can do something in the way of such a change. And this is put forth as the explanation of the doctrine that all things are kept in the order into which they were created!

     One conversant with the spirit of the Writings cannot but wonder that many New Churchmen imagine that there is a necessity for evolution as a theory of creation. Mr. Worcester, and Mr. Goerwitz with him, see that necessity in the doctrine that all creation is by ultimates. As Mr. Worcester puts it, because the Lord flows in from firsts through ultimates, therefore no angelic forms could be created until from the earth rises the human organism, first merely animal, and then human: conclusion which is not only a non-sequitur, but which denies to the Lord the power of creating new forms in ultimates. The true reason for the sympathy with evolution on the part of many New Churchmen is that their ears and eyes are too much directed to the teachings and notions of the world, and the Writings when studied at all are read in the light of such notions and not in their own light.

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Evolution is necessary neither for the rational understanding of the Writings nor for the understanding of the many scientific facts which evolutionists have unearthed. On the contrary it is quite opposed to the rational understanding of either, for its spirit is the denial of a personal God and the attribution of all things to nature and its laws.

     The logical sequence of this denial is the affirmation that man is God. This does not come out in evolution itself, for evolutionists follow out their law of evolution only up to man, and there, by a curious suspension of law and reason, they leave it. But why should it stop there? Why may not a man "evolute" to a God? The spirit of evolution is that he does, but this spirit does not come out in the science itself, because a God has no recognized place in it. But it comes out in religion,--the "new thought" which is based on evolution. and which is permeating Christendom. "Man is divine, and he has but to follow out the instincts of his nobler nature and he will become more perfect, more Divine." Here is evolution in its nakedness.

     It is a curious sight to watch the modern religious world, some twenty years behind the times, struggling to fit to itself the worn-out vestiments of evolution which are now being abandoned by the most advanced science. And it is curious, also, but inexpressibly sad, as well, to see New Churchmen forsaking their garments of light for the tawdry rags of evolution, Higher Criticism, etc.

     Why is it that so much of this "modern thought," which has disorganized the rational perception of many promising young ministers of the New Church, has emanated from the Convention's Theological School in Cambridge? Why is this school a source of infestation to the whole Church instead of a centre of New Church light? Is it from a lack of serious study of the Heavenly Doctrine, or is it from an intimate association with the sphere of a great Unitarian university? or is it from both?

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Monthly Review 1904

Monthly Review              1904

     THE New Church League Journal has published as a supplement for March a handsome little pamphlet, The Restoration of Theology, containing an address on that subject by Dr. Sewall, and one by Rev. James Reed on the opportunities of the New Church ministry. Dr. Sewall eloquently emphasizes the supreme necessity of studying the Writings and also the scientific works of Swedenborg; but the burden of Mr. Reed's address is the old New England heresy, that a minister must "experience" the truth before he can teach it.

     The New Christianity for April gives additional evidence of the practical denial, by Rev. A. Roeder, of the Glorification of the Lord. Answering a question by a Tulkite on the idea of the "Spiritual Christ" as opposed to the "Historic Christ," he writes: "I would not venture the question. Is the Spiritual Christ right and the Historic Christ wrong? I should only contend that there are two ways of seeing the same things, and the mass require the actual tangible fact, while for the few the abstract reality . . . is the more vital and useful. . . . The masses should never he deprived of the tangible fact, no matter how well the individual mind may be able to get along without it[!]"

     Truth Eternal, by V. G. M. Rudder, an Australian New Churchman, is a tract of 40 pages, the chief teaching of which is that God is Love and that Divine Love cannot but reveal itself to be seen of men. The author shows by a multitude of Scripture passages, that from this Love the Lord made His First Coming, and that now that men can no longer understand His Word, He has made His Second Coming "by the revelation of the spiritual and celestial sense of Scripture" in the Writings of Swedenborg. He closes with a long appeal to the world to read and live those Writings. While the work is intended merely to show the necessity of the Second Coming. its great defect is that it gives hardly any indication of the nature of the truths now revealed. The reader is left to wonder who Swedenborg was, when he lived, and what he wrote.

     The April number of New Church Review opens with a biography of the Rev. Thomas Hartley, by Dr. T. F. Wright. Mr. Hartley, as is well-known, was one of the very first receivers of the Doctrines: he met Swedenborg several times, and also maintained a correspondence with him, the fruits of which are the Answer to a Letter from a Friend, and The Nine Questions. Very little is known of Hartley's personal life, but his work for the New Church, both as translator and writer, and his correspondence with Swedenborg, Cookworthy, Messiter and others, throw considerable light on his character.

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His complete biography, so far as known, was published in the Life for 1895, pp. 135 and 151. To what was there adduced Dr. Wright adds some interesting facts respecting Hartley's early life, but the most striking merit of the article is the account of the visit which Dr. Wright made in 1903 to Winwick, Northamptonshire, where Hartley was resident rector from 1744 to 1770, and East Malling, Kent, where he spent the last fourteen years of his life. Though Dr. Wright was unable to gather any new facts from these visits they enable him to give a delightful picture of the scenes amid which Hartley's life was spent.

     A friend has sent us a copy of rite Caazden Outlook for May 5th, in which a leading writer, Mr. William T. Retler, describes the negative and destructive work of the "higher critics." To the latter the writer directs the question, "What is your object? What have you to offer for the benefit of humanity,--mark you, the Benefit of humanity?" and points his question by a reference to Emanuel Swedenborg, who "long, long before Herbert Spencer's birth, wrote 'The perfection of man is the love of use.'" After some trenchant comments the writer concludes with this "plain" exhortation to the critics: "Better die in your doubts and be buried like a dog than unsettle the faith and destroy the conscience of confiding, peaceful and helpful men and women.

     The latest issue of the New, Philosophy (April) contains among other articles an Historical Notice of Swedenborg's Work on Chemistry, by Alfred H. Stroh; and an article by Dr. E. A. Farrington on "The Ductless Glands." Dr. Farrington's paper, which is somewhat technical, deals with the theory recently advanced by Dr. Sajous, respecting the functions of the ductless glands, and compares it with the teachings of Swedenborg, concluding with the now familiar statement that the germs of many recent scientific discoveries are to be found in Swedenborg. Mr. Stroh's article is very interesting, though somewhat marred by attention to very trifling details. It seems that Swedenborg presented his work on Chemistry to a friend, in 1760, thus many years after his spiritual eyes were opened. The inscription on this presentation copy is reproduced in the original in the Life for 1895, p. 188, and is very curious. The following is a translation: "These treatises, which are first efforts, are presented to my friend, the Chancellor A. Stiernmann [Starman], a nobleman, knight and councillor, by the author, Em. Swedenborg. Stockholm, 1760, March 12th. A knight, in the spiritual sense, which is called the mystical sense, signifies science and intelligence; likewise Starmann, for stars in that sense signify cognitions of good and truth; thus a starman signifies one knowing and intelligent."

     In a communication to the Messenger for April 20, the Rev. William Hyde Alden searchingly reviews the Rev. Clarence Lathbury's latest book, The Being With the Upturned Face.

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The keynote of the work, as he justly observed "is struck by the two words 'Evolution' and 'New Thought,'" and the quotations he makes prove the truth of his statement, shelving that the author mingles man with God, ascribes to man capacities beyond those of God, eliminates regeneration, makes religion self-derived, and in several other respects advances the insane delusions of the "New Thought" writers. If writers such as these "teach the doctrine of the New Church, then may this be called a New Church book." The publication of the book by the "Nunc Licet" Press forcibly suggests to our mind the thought that it is now permitted men not only to enter into the mysteries of faith, but also to abuse and profane them.

     Mr. Alden concludes his letter with a very appropriate little story: Mr. Sampson Reed was once induced by a friend to hear a famous Unitarian preacher. After the discourse the friend enthusiastically exclaimed, "Now was not that a grand sermon? I do not believe that Plate or Socrates could have done any better." To which Mr. Reed answered, "No, I do not know as they could have done any better, but," after a pause, "I think they could have done about as well." The story might be applied to the great majority of "New Church" sermons and "New Church" articles produced at the present time by Convention and Conference ministers,--that is, if we are to judge from what is being published,--but such a comparison would be odious to Socrates and Plate.

     Mr. Lathbury's book is also the subject of another communication to the Messenger of the same date, in which it is defended by Rev. Hiram Vrooman; but Mr. Vrooman is so enthusiastically apologetic that his defence amounts to condemnation.

     In our issue for April we noticed an article by Dr. Wright, in which he takes a somewhat roseate view of conditions in the Old Church, saying that "some of the ideas for which we once stood alone are now being held so openly on all sides that we no longer have exclusive possession of them." He now appears before the Church with quite opposite views. In an article in the Messenger for April 27th he says, "We [of the organized New Church] are tempted to weary of its struggle with a doubting world, and to think that we are not called upon to endure longer the strain of an unpopular movement." "All other bodies are giving up the early chapters of Luke and Matthew." "Nobody else believes in a primitive revelation." "So many regard the Bible as literature."
Which Dr. Wright is right? 1904

Which Dr. Wright is right?              1904

     This inconsistency in regard to the state of the Christian world is a remarkable characteristic of the permeationists in the New Church, as must be patent to every attentive reader of the journalistic literature of the Church. Sometimes it comes out even in a single article. This was the case with a Writer on The Church and the World, in a current number of Morning Light, where, speaking of the slow growth of the New Church, he consoles himself by the reflection "that hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions indirectly accept the leading features of our faith and agree with us in heart;" and yet almost in the next sentence be bewails "the indifference with which spiritual things are generally regarded by our fellowmen, and the paramount importance which they attach to the occupations and pleasures of the world," not only the New Church, "but all religions are alike unsuccessful in winning their hearty support.

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     The contradiction, however, is not commonly quite so open, but comes out at different times and in different states. It is a not unfamiliar sight to see men who have been more or less prominent in proclaiming the increased receptivity of spiritual light by the world, occasionally coming out with voice or pen to note that the world does not want the truth. What is the reason for this curious contradiction? It might be explained as being due to states of despondency. But whence the despondency? Does it not come from the hard unyielding fact, that, despite all the labor and love and money spent for the conversion of the Old Church, that Church still remains in its old falsities, though sometimes dressed in a new garb? that while men may receive a stray idea here and there, they still persist in rejecting every truth essentially characteristic of the New Church? Our permeationists speak from two states of thought, and two viewpoints. In the one case they speak according to notions derived from the idea that somehow or other a great invisible wave of truth is descending upon the world; in this state they are prepared to see some New Church aspect in almost everything that is not palpably opposed to the Doctrines. In the other case they think from their common sense observation; and then it is forced upon them that the world has no desire for anything purely spiritual either in thought or life. The case is suggestive of the man with the two bags, spoken of in T. C. R. 146.

     Apropos of the question of permeation, the Rev. W. H. Alden proposes, if possible, to find out just how much basis there is for the impression that the Doctrines are being generally accepted and are affecting the teaching of the Old Church. He asks readers of The Helper to assist him in this task by communicating to him their personal observations as to what is being actually taught respecting the Lord, the Word, Salvation, and the Future Life.
"ANNALS OF THE NEW CHURCH." 1904

"ANNALS OF THE NEW CHURCH."              1904

     Annals of the New Church. With a chronological account of the Life of Emanuel Swedenborg. Vol. I, 1688-1850. By Carl Theophilus Odhner. Academy of the New Church. 1904, Price, $4.25.

     This important work is now for sale, in a fine, substantial binding, with an index of 52 pages, the whole making a most handsome volume of 631 pages, with 12 full-page illustrations and 44 other portraits and pictures.

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     The scope and nature of the Annals being familiar to most of our readers, an extensive review of the work will not be necessary. Having compiled the volume in the midst of other duties, the author is conscious of the imperfections of the work, but believes that a basis has been laid for a future history of the New Church. He desires hereby to express his obligations to the many friends who have furnished portraits and data for the volume, to the Rev. Emil Cronlund, who compiled the index, and to the publishers, who, purely from a love of the use, have presented it to the public in so sumptuous a form.

     The material for the second volume, covering the latter half of the Nineteenth Century, has been collected and partly written out, and will be published when time and means are provided.
THOMAS LAWRENCE FORREST 1904

THOMAS LAWRENCE FORREST       J. F       1904

     Thomas Lawrence Forrest was born May 26th, 1819, in Cork, Ireland. He inherited from a long line of ancestry, both English and Irish, those agreeable traits of character--a warm heart and a clear intellect--which when combined distinguish the Celtic race. His mother's taste for literature had a most marked effect on the young lad, to which he often referred in after life. Her copy of the Word was with him to the last, and was his daily solace and inspiration for a life time. He seems to have broken away from the Church of England while yet in his 'teens, for he spoke often of a Presbyterian minister of that time, who thoroughly instructed him in the gospels, so that, as he says, he "could hold his own with any one in argument."

     At the age of thirteen the young man was placed at work in a ship broker's office; and in 1840 he came with his family to America, landing in Chicago, from which place he went to the Fox River, near Elgin, where his father bought a farm. Here he learned of the Writings from Vincent S. Lovel and John Blanchard, two young men who were able expounders of the Doctrines. At their suggestion young Forrest started far Chicago to make his way in the world, and in his twenty-first year we find him in the future metropolis where he passed so many years of active usefulness. After clerkships in the forties, his own bank in the fifties, and then as Librarian of the State Department at Washington, the latter years of his life were passed as an executive officer of some bank until his retirement in 1894 Soon after his arrival in Chicago, on July 10, 1848, he married Caroline J. Brown, the daughter of Judge Henry Brown, by whom he had ten children.

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     Among his first acquaintances in the city were Mr. and Mrs. J. Y. Scammon, at whose hospitable home he and his brother were always welcome. The New Church had scarcely made a beginning in Chicago at this time, but in order to obtain a grant of land it had been necessary to incorporate; this was done on September 7th, 1843, with Mr. and Mrs. Scammon and Vincent S. Level as officers of the incorporation. On March 25th, 1837, the Chicago Society of the New Jerusalem was organized as a church society and Thomas L. Forrest appears as the seventh member to sign his name to the roll. He was the first secretary of the society, a post which he held until 1849 or 1859, and continued to be a member until early in the seventies, when he withdrew to join the Immanuel Church.

     Up to this time Mr. Forrest's knowledge of the Writings had been obtained in a very desultory manner from collateral works. etc., and, although we find copies of his Arcana Coelestia with the date of September 8th, 1855, yet, from his own account, he made little use of them. It was only after the coming of the Rev. W. F. Pendleton that the study of the Writings really took hold upon him and became his delight. In some meagre notes he speaks of the wonderful guidance of Divine Providence as seen in the history of the society during the past years--the lack of true spiritual life just before the coming of Mr. Pendleton, and the manner in which Mr. Pendleton took hold of the work.

     In the Immanuel Church there came to him and to others the real dawn of the New Church, which is to know no end, and be entered into the work of the society with characteristic zeal and genuine delight. Only those acquainted with him can know how affectionate and intelligent were his sympathies for the advancement of the Church. Even in very old age his enthusiasm and unfaltering courage never abated, for in a 19th of June letter written not long ago, he says, "and to those who shall belong to this 'holy New Jerusalem' it is permitted to contemplate its progress, slowly it may be, but surely, towards that state so beautifully described by the Prophet, 'Let thy eyes see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle which shall not be taken down, its stakes shall never be removed, and its cords shall not be broken.' These are glorious states to look forward to, and, while we may not live to witness the fulfillment thereof in the state of the Church in general, we may have it confirmed, partially, at least, in our individual cases.

     On March 18th, this year, the devoted husband, kind father and affectionate and loyal New Churchman departed hence in calm dignity, his last conscious act being to clasp a volume of the Writings in his hands. J. F.

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Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Bryn Athyn. The Sunday evening lectures, mentioned in the March number of the Life, have been continued, and the following subjects have been considered: "Education, the need of the Church," by the Rev. H. Synnestvedt; "Temptations," by the Rev. Richard De Charms, Jr.; "Discrete Degrees," by the Rev. W. L. Gladish; "Numbers," by the Rev. C. E. Doering; "The Limbus," by Mr. Alfred Stroh; "Deliver us from evil," by the Rev. R. De Charms; "The New Christian Heaven," by the Rev. J. F. Potts; "Space and Time in the Spiritual World," by the Rev. Alfred Acton, and the three lectures by the Rev. E. S. Price on "Bible Criticism," namely, "Canonical Criticism," "Textual Criticism" and "Higher Criticism."

     On Friday evening, March 18th, instead of doctrinal class, an informal memorial meeting was held for Mr. S. L. Forrest, of Chicago, who had passed into the other world that morning. Bishop Pendleton grave an account of Mr. Forrest's life and character, dwelling particularly on his affection of truth, and his delight in reading the Writings.

     On the 19th of March the College and Seminary had a social, the special feature of which was a series of papers written by students, male and female, describing in poetry and prose, a time thirty years hence, when a philosopher, unseen, visits various of the young people now here, and observes their peculiarities. Each one has retained his or her prominent characteristics of today, and by these the real person described was to be guessed. The papers were much enjoyed and brought forth much laughter; and would be worthy of publication, if only we had a school paper.

     Miss Sherman, Miss Ashby and seven of the young ladies of the graduating class of the Seminary visited Washington, March 21st to the 26th. They met the President and several of the Senators, and spent considerable time attending Congress. They also visited many other points of interest in Washington, and the whole trip proved most instructive and enjoyable.

     On April 7th a vaudeville performance was given by some of the young people, and on April 8th some of the children in the parish school gave a play, entitled "The Captain's Daughter," dramatized by one of the boys.

     The dancing classes for the children of the local school ended on April 23d in two soirees given by the teacher, Miss Nellie Smith. In the afternoon the little ones went through some very pretty figures, and in the evening the older ones showed what they had learned. All parents and friends were invited, and they gave due praise to the splendid work that Miss Smith has done.

     On Thursday afternoon, April 26th, the graduating classes of the Seminary and College each planted a tree on the Academy grounds. The Seminary planted a birch, the College an oak. The people were assembled around the holes, and the two classes, bearing aloft the red and the white, and led by Bishop Pendleton, marched out from the College building. Bishop Pendleton, in an address, explained why it was that the most ancient and ancient peoples had planted trees and groves around their dwellings. The custom has come down from them, and he was glad to see it being preserved in the New Church. Miss Rita Buell, of the Seminary, read a class prophecy, which was buried, in a bottle, at the roots of the tree.

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During the bishop's address the thirteen girls of the class held the tree upright by thirteen red and white streamers, and each girl put a shovelful of earth in the hole. The boys of the College buried at the roots of their tree a history and prophecy of the class, and a class song, all written in Latin. The song, by the way, had been translated into Latin, for fear of loss of the English language, before the bottle should be dug up. During the exercises the school songs were sung several times.

     On May 7th the Seminary and College had a social, the special feature of which was a spelling bee. One of the young ladies of the graduating class won the prize.

     On May 11th, in the evening, the Bryn Athyn Social Club ended its year of entertainment with a grand banquet for its members and a few honored friends The gymnasium had been divided into two rooms, both very prettily decorated. About forty sat down at the tables and were waited on by the Junior class of the Seminary. There were toasts and speeches, and three original poems, one by Miss Frankish and two by Mr. Randolph W. Childs. Mr. Emil Stroh, the president of the club, was presented with a flag. After the banquet there was dancing, and also two recitations by Mr. Heath.

     Busy preparation is being made for the assembly and for the graduation exercises. We expect everybody and hope that everybody will come. Both occasions will be very useful to the young people, serving to bring them into closer bonds of friendship, and the common affection for the truths and uses of the Church.          F. E. G.

     Philadelphia. Beginning May 15th the services of the Advent Church will begin at 10:45 A. M. instead of 11 o'clock as hitherto. This change has been made to accommodate those who live at a distance from the hall of worship.

     The Sunday School will begin at 9:45 A. M.           R.          

     Berlin, Ont. On the first two Sundays of May services were conducted by Rev. E. J. Stebbing, the pastor being absent on visits to the circles at Milverton and Clinton. At the services at Milverton there was an attendance of eighteen persons, and at Clinton of thirty-eight.

     On Friday evening, May 6th, our society had an enjoyable social, the success of which was largely due to the presence of Mrs. Colley, a member of the Englewood Parish of the Chicago society, who delivered a lecture on musical education and entertained us with a number of selections on the piano.

     Toronto. The annual social in celebration of Swedenborg's birthday was held here on Wednesday evening, January 27th, taking the place of the weekly doctrinal class. Toasts were ably responded to by the gentlemen, and an interesting paper on "Swedenborg's Preparation" was read by our pastor, Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

     The evening, which closed with a short dance, was felt by all to have been one of the most profitable we have ever enjoyed.

     On February 14th a Valentine Party was given by the Young Folks' Club, and on Monday evening, February 29th, the Young Folks' Doctrinal Class was followed by a taffy pull and leap year dance. In spite of the fact that this was the stormiest night experienced here for years, a goodly number of young people braved the elements, the inclemency of the weather only seeming to add to the fun. Several birthday celebrations have helped to render the social season a very successful one.

     The Wednesday suppers continue to be largely attended. In the classes following these suppers we are at present enjoying a most instructive series of papers by our pastor on "The Fundamental Doctrines of the New Church."

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A marked increase is noted in the attendance at the Sunday morning services.

     On Wednesday, April 13th, a farewell social was given in honor of Mr. Peter Bellinger, one of our members, who has left us for a trip across the water. The prevailing sentiment was that of "friendship," and the speeches emphasized the contrast between the beauty and purity of friendship as defined in the doctrines and the selfish caricature of it prevalent in the world today. Many friends assembled at the depot to wish Mr. Bellinger bolt voyage.

     The approaching assembly in Bryn Athyn causes many pleasurable thrills of excitement and anticipation in our society, and the Toronto delegation at present bids fair to be a large and representative one.          M. G. S.

     Atlanta, Ga. Mr. and Mrs. L. H. Stowers with their five children were about to be received into the Church by baptism, when suddenly one Sabbath evening the wife and mother was borne away through the gates into the Heavenly Jerusalem.

     Although Mrs. Stowers had been acquainted with the doctrines only a short time, her acceptance of Academy principles as soon as presented was beautiful to see. She had been unusually religious as a girl, but as she grew to mature womanhood she failed to find any longer in the churches around her that heavenly life which, with more than ordinary intuition, she perceived to be taught in the Word.

     Of her five children, the oldest is twelve and the youngest a baby of three weeks. It will be our earnest endeavor to carry out the desire of their mother for the embracing of this little flock in the arms of the Church. R. H. K.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. After discussing the question of the best methods of organization for New Church bodies, which shall best enable them to prosecute the real work of the Church on earth, the New Church Club, of Boston, has adopted a resolution urging the officers of the Convention to consider the desirability of so arranging their programme as to give less time to mere business and more time to subjects of spiritual instruction and inspiration. The meeting at which this resolution was passed was attended by nearly all the Massachusetts ministers and by Revs, J. C. Ager, J. K. Smyth, Dr. Sewall and M. B. Stone.

     The Abington, Mass., society of the Young People's League celebrated its fourteenth anniversary on March 10th by a banquet and "toasts." Presumably the beverage in which these toasts were honored was quite "spiritless," as they were answered by (in addition to two New Church ministers) "the ministers of the Congregational and Universalist churches in Abington."

     The Rev. Philip B. Cabell, pastor of the society in Wilmington, Del., departed to the spiritual world on March 16th. Born at Warminster, Va., 1836, and son of Mr. N. F. Cabell, who was one of the precursors of the Academy movement in Mr. De Charms's times, Philip B. Cabell was brought up in the New Church from his childhood. Having finished his course at the University of Virginia, he took part in the Civil War, serving under his uncle, Gen. Philip Cocke, of the Confederate army. After the war he received a license to preach to the small New Church society at Warminster (now long since defunct), and in 1875 was engaged as professor of Creek and Latin at the Urbana University. While here he prepared himself further for the office of the ministry, was ordained in 1883 and served as pastor of the Cleveland society until 1890, when he was invited to take charge of the society in Wilmingrton. Mr. Cabell was a frequent contributor to the journals of the Church and was actively interested in the scientific and philosophical works of Swedenborg; he transcribed the whole of Swedenborg's work On the Brain from the photolithographed manuscripts, and also transcribed and translated into English the Ontology in its first edition.

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At the time of his death he was occupied in preparing a new translation of the Psalms, in cooperation with the Rev. L. H. Tafel and the Rev. W. H. Alden.

     "The intimate connection of the only allusion to children, in the Gospel story, with the Lord's entrance into Jerusalem, led to the celebration of 'Palm Sunday' as peculiarly a children's day" in the Englewood parish of the Chicago society. The chancel was decorated with palms, and the children entered the Church in pairs, the oldest leading, singing a processional and carrying palm branches in their hands; these they deposited in the aisle, which thus became a palm-bordered walk through which the smallest children marched with their palm branches. The pastor, Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, gave an address adapted to children.

     At two public meetings of the Men's Club of this parish Mr. Schreck gave informal talks on the ancient legends of Creation, the Fall and the Deluge. The lectures were illustrated by a wall map of the countries of the Ancient Church and an enlarged copy of the Sumero-Akkadian bas relief (6,000 years old), of the temptation in the garden of Eden, described in the February issue of the Life.

     The "Swedenborg house" at the World's Fair in St. Louis has been completed, the subscriptions received having exceeded the cost of the building. It was recently reported that the budding, with furnishing and appointments completed and custodian duly in charge, would be ready by the opening day, or very soon after. Subscriptions are still called for for the maintenance of the building.

     The pupils and instructors of Urbana University have organized a Swedenborg Scientific Club, which is to be auxiliary to the Swedenborg Scientific Association. At the first meeting a paper was read on the parentage and education of Swedenborg.
General Assembly 1904

General Assembly              1904


     Announcements.



     PROGRAM OF MEETINGS.

Bryn Athyn, Pa., June 10th-24th, 1904.

     FRIDAY, JUNE 10TH. The Council of the Clergy.

     10 A. M. and 4 P. M. Council in session.

     8 P. M. Public session. The annual address will be delivered by the Rev. J. E. Bowers.

     SATURDAY, JUNE 11TH. The Council of the Clergy.
10 A. M. and 4 P. M. Council in session.

     8 P. M. Public session.

     SUNDAY, JUNE 12TH.
11 A. M. Divine worship. Sermon by the Rev. Alfred Acton.

     MONDAY, JUNE 13TH. The Council of the Clergy.
10 A. M. and 4 P. M. Council in session.

     8 P. M. Public session.

     TUESDAY, JUNE 14TH. The Council of the Clergy.
10 A. M. and 4 P. M. Council in session.

     8 P. M. Public session.

     WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15TH.
10 A. M. Annual meeting of the corporation of the Academy of the New Church.

     THURSDAY, JUNE 16TH.
10 A. M. Meeting of the Executive Committee of the General Church.

     3:30 P. M. Commencement exercises of the Academy Schools. Essays by the graduates.
8 P. M. Commencement exercises continued. Valedictory essay. Theses by Theological graduates. Conferring of medals and degrees.

     FRIDAY, JUNE 17TH. The General Assembly.
10 A. M. Opening services, followed by the annual address of the bishop.

     12 M. A paper by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner on "The History of the General Church."

     1 P. M. Banquet. "Chicago Day."

     3:30 P. M. Assembly in session.

     8 P. M. Social reception.

     SATURDAY, JUNE 18TH. The General Assembly.

     10 A. M. Assembly in session.

     12 M. A paper by the Rev. N. D. Pendleton on "The Messianic Prophecies."

     1 P. M. Banquet. "Pittsburgh Day."

     3:30 P. M. Session.

     8 P. M. Musical and dramatic entertainment, conducted by Mr. and Mrs. George Heath.

     SUNDAY, JUNE 19TH.
11 A. M. Divine worship. Administration of the Holy Supper.

     1 P. M. Banquet. "General Church Day." Subject of addresses: "The Increase of the Church."

     8 P. M. Sacred Concert.

     MONDAY, JUNE 20TH. The General Assembly.

     10 A. M. Assembly in session.

     12 M. A paper by the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, "Does New Church Education require any important departure from established school practices?"

     1 P. M. Banquet. "Canada Day."

     3:30 P. M. Assembly in session.

     8 P. M. Social reception at Cairnwood.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 21ST. The General Assembly.

     10 A. M. Assembly in session.

     12 M. A paper by the Rev. Alfred Acton on "The Lord's Resurrection."

     1 P. M. Banquet. "Philadelphia Day."

     3:30 P. M. Assembly in session.

     8 P. M. Men's meeting. Subject for discussion, "Conjugial Heredity" (See Conjugial Love, n. 202).

     At the same hour will be held a meeting of the young men, not members of the General Church; and a social meeting of the ladies.

     WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22D.
     
     8 P. M. Meeting of the male graduates of the Academy Schools, the Rev. E. S. Price, chairman.

     The graduates of the Girls' Seminary will meet at the same hour, Miss Carrie Hobart presiding.

     THURSDAY, JUNE 23D. The Teachers' Institute.
     
     9:30 A. M. Institute in session.

     10 A. M. Subject: "Outlines of the Religious Instruction course, from Kindergarten through College."

     4 P. M. Round Table.

     8 P. M. Public session.

     FRIDAY, JUNE 24TH. The Teachers' Institute.

     9:30 A. M. Institute in session. Subject: "Nature Study." Visitors invited.

     4 P. M. Round Table of elementary teachers, if desired.

     DOCKET.
The following subjects have been suggested for discussion:

     For the Council of the Clergy: The New Liturgy. The Use of Prayer. The Relation of the Theological School to the General Church. The Nature of the Spiritual World before the Creation of Man. The Spiritual Diary and its Relation to the Adversaria. The Law of Forgiveness. What is the Order of true and vital growth in the New Church? For the General Assembly: The Incorporation of the General Church. The Executive Committee. Church Extension. The Scholarship fund. The Organ of the General Church: its policy and conduct.
CORRECTION 1904

CORRECTION              1904

     An error occurred in the announcement concerning "Special Rates to the Assembly" in the May issue of the Life, where it is stated that "it has been arranged that the special agent of the Trunk Line Association will be in attendance to validate certificates on June 28th." This should read "June 18th."
Alumni Meeting 1904

Alumni Meeting       ENOCH S. PRICE       1904

     Attention is hereby called to the item in the program for the General Assembly appointing the evening of June 22d for a meeting of the male graduates of the schools of the Academy. It is to be hoped that this meeting may be fully attended, in order to make a more complete and permanent organization of the Alumni Association than has heretofore existed, and possibly to take on some specific use. ENOCH S. PRICE, President.

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GENERAL INFLUX 1904

GENERAL INFLUX       W. F. PENDLETON       1904

     
NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XXIV. JULY, 1904               No. 7.
     INFLUX from God is immediate from Himself, and also mediate through the Spiritual World. By immediate influx is meant the inflowing life from God without media, or mediation of any kind, by which He is present with all things that He has made. By mediate influx is meant the inflowing life of God, through the heavens and the world of spirits, into all created things.

     It is of mediate influx that we would speak.

     Mediate influx is twofold, general and particular. We read that there is a general or common influx from the Lord into all the subjects of the natural world, and a particular influx into the same (A. C. 5850) General influx is into those things which are in order, and particular influx is into those things which are not in order. Particular influx is through the medium of spirits and angels; general influx is without such a medium, but is the general inflow of life through the whole heaven.

     Animals are not under particular, but under general influx, because they live in the order of their life. Man also would be under general influx, if he lived in the order of his life: since he does not so live, he must he governed by spirits and angels. If he were in the order of his life, the order implanted in him by creation, he would be led by the Lord, without the intermediation of particular angels and spirits; but the fall of man has necessitated this particular leading, this particular mediation, or particular influx.

     That animals are in the order of their life is seen by this, that they are born into all things which they are ever to have and possess, nor is it necessary for them to be introduced into them by teaching.

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They are led by Providence, as it were, following at once the indications afforded by their environment, without previous thought or reflection, without hesitation or doubt; guided by what is called instinct, which is instantaneous with them, and is their perception, and which is nothing else than general influx from the spiritual world. To repeat, instinct is animal perception, which is from general influx, by which they are led, without reasoning or debate, to do the things which contribute to their well-being and preservation.

     Animals may, however, be trained to act in obedience to the will of man; hence there is an appearance of particular influx with them as to those things. But it is from the sphere of the particular influx in which men are, and then lose the things learned, as soon as they are removed from the control of man,--a fact well known.

     Men are not in the order of their life, and, unlike animals, are born into complete ignorance; they must be instructed and governed through the medium of others. There is this to be said, however, of man, that ii he permits himself to be instructed, and led by instruction, there is no limit put upon what he may receive, or upon the advancement he may make, either in this world or the other; his progress in intelligence and wisdom will be unending forever. It is not so with animals; they are born into all their science or intelligence, and after reaching their full physical growth, they learn nothing more. What is added on, when they are under subjection to man, does not become a part of their real nature.

     The reason that man is in such complete ignorance at birth is that he is born into evils of every kind, inherited from his parents and forefathers; as to his interior life he is nothing but evil. In evil is an ignorance; the ignorance of those who are in hell is profound and complete; and the evil man in the world, in his interior thought, knows nothing of God or the life of heaven. Evil is therefore the cause of the dense ignorance of man at birth.

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     If man were in order, were not in evil, nor born in evil, he would, like animals, come at once into the exercise of his natural faculties at birth, and into the exercise of his spiritual faculties by the time he reached adult age; he would be governed by general influx through heaven from the Lord, and not by particular influx through special angels or spirits individually associated with him. But as he is not in order, such particular influx becomes necessary.

     There is general influx where there is order, or the life of order which is good. Activity of life is then instinctive and spontaneous. But where disorder is the condition of life, where the life is evil, there must be bonds, the government of restraint imposed by fear, effected by means of spirits. For the government of the Lord by general or common influx through heaven is not by fear, but by affection and perception.

     Government by particular influx is a permission, arising from the permission of evil itself; without it man in his fallen state would rush into evil, and there would he no hope of his salvation. Hence we read in Heaven and Hell, n. 296, that "man is governed of the Lord by spirits, because he is not in the order of heaven, for he is born into the evils which are of hell, thus into the opposite of Divine Order; he is therefore to be reduced into order, and he cannot be so reduced except mediately through spirits."

     The wholly regenerate man alone, or the celestial man, is under general influx; for he alone has been restored to the true order o human life. He has become the subject of an entire angelic society--for such is the celestial man--the subject of an entire angelic society. No subject spirits are appointed over him to govern him, to be the medium to him of particular influx.

     Animals live in the order of their life, and the celestial man lives in the order of his life, the lives of the two corresponding with each other. The animal life represents the life of the celestial man especially in this, that the instinct of the animal represents the perception of the celestial man. The animal is an animal by virtue of instinct, and the celestial man is a celestial man by virtue of perception. The animal is guided at once by instinct, without hesitation or delay, without reasoning or debate, to the things which contribute to its material and physical well-being.

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The celestial man is guided at once by perception, without hesitation, or doubt, or debate, to the things which contribute to his spiritual and eternal well-being, and also to the things which contribute to his material and physical good. The celestial man is doubly blessed, being led by the Divine Providence to all that is needed of the good of this world, and all that is needed of the good of the spiritual world, moving forward in the stream of Providence, through this world into heaven, and onward in heaven forever.

     The animal is in the order of his life, and so is the celestial man; the animal is under general influx, so is the celestial man; animals have instinct are content with their lot, so is the celestial man; the life of the animal is perfect within the sphere of its limitations; the life of the celestial man is the perfection of human life but the one lives and dreams in the most dense ignorance, the other is intelligent and wise with continual increase; the one dies with the death of the body, the other lives when the body dies, with everlasting growth in the perfection of his form, because he, unlike the animal, is conjoined with God.

     Men in general are not in the order of heaven, because evils have not been subdued; they are, therefore, under particular influx, or are ruled by means of subject spirits who are appointed to govern them. But this doctrine concerning general and particular influx cannot be fully understood unless it be known that man, while in the world, is not wholly under particular influx, not wholly governed by means of Spirits appointed for the purpose. He is under particular influx only as to the interiors of his thought and will, not as to his outward life. The outward or exterior life of all men is governed by general influx from heaven.

     The interior life is for the most part wholly evil, but the exterior life is largely in agreement with the laws of order. The insanity and disorder of human life is mostly covered and concealed in the interiors of the human mind. If these were to break forth and rule the whole man, he would become a maniac, a criminal, or an idiot,--to be kept under bolts and bars, a prisoner cut off from association with human kind. He is interiorly a maniac, a criminal, or an idiot; hence he is governed, imprisoned there under spirits.

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He can, like the criminal, think what he pleases, or, like the maniac, rage behind the bars, but he is not allowed to break forth, being restrained by fear or the hope of reward, and appears before the world as sane and moral.

     Men are therefore under particular influx as to their real essential life, but under general influx as to their life which appears before the world. The external life of men flows according to a natural order, and the spirits adjoined have nothing in common with it. This is one reason why spirits do not know that they are with men, nor men that they are with spirits. Having no open communication with each other, spirits are conscious only of the things of the spiritual world, and men of the things of the natural world. Still the spirits present, being in similar loves, dominate the interior life of men, without being aware of it, men being ignorant at the same time of the same thing; but the government by this particular and mediate influx is none the less complete.

     If there were particular influx into the exterior and common life of men, they would be under the complete domination of evil spirits, and there would be no hope of salvation, because there would be no freedom by which deliverance could be effected. Spirits would speak through man's tongue, and act through his actions; the state would exist which, in the Doctrines of the Church, is called obsession. Persons obsessed were in ancient times called witches; and since it brought the conscious presence of the spiritual world, and of the worst class of evil spirits, constituting a supreme danger to the human race, witches were put to death under the Jewish law, which law continued in force even down to comparatively modern times. For witches were put to death, or those who were supposed to be such, until about two hundred years ago. Witchcraft has risen again in our day, under the name of spiritism; but the witches are not now punished, because the very unbelief of men protects them; and the New Church is instructed in the light of heaven concerning the evils and dangers of such open communication.

     Still evil spirits who are with man in his interiors, do flow into his outward life, when there is consent and co-operation, and urge him to speak and do all manner of evil; man, however, may prevent this, acting from fear, or from a desire to appear honorable, upright, and moral, in which case he comes as to his exterior life under the general influx of heaven.

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And spirits, even though urging man to evil speech and evil deed, still are restrained, and are not aware of being with him in his outward life, for they believe that all things of the man are their own, while the man believes that all things which he has from spirits are his. Were it not for this unconsciousness of each other's presence, evil spirits would take possession of men in the world, and would destroy the human race.

     The use, then, of the powerful restraint under which men are, as to their speech and actions, is manifest,--the use of the bonds of fear and the hope of worldly reward; for by these bonds external order is preserved, and a plane made for general influx. In the state of balance or equilibrium, thus established, the understanding by means of truth entering from without may be elevated into heavenly light, and reformation made possible.

     General influx into the exterior human life of the world, into the speech and actions of men, is by virtue of correspondences with heaven. All things of order in the world, all things of use, the things which men do for the benefit of others, the natural truths which they speak, are all correspondences with the life and order of heaven; and influx is according to correspondence, or is always into those things which correspond.

     We see then the reason why there is order at this day in externals, but not in internals; why the Christian world is outwardly alive, but inwardly dead; why those who deny God, and in confirmed evil of heart, may yet have worldly prosperity and succeed in their undertakings; how a man may be filled with all evil lusts, and yet appear to be an upright and honorable citizen, and even a pious member of the Church.

     Since the Last Judgement and the formation of the New Heaven, there has been a more powerful influx than before into the forms that receive; and the forms that receive are the forms of order. For the most part there is no order in the interiors of men, and so the interior forms do not receive; but the exterior forms do receive, since these are mostly in order,--without this there could be no human society; and, as we have seen, there is external order now even in the hells The exterior forms receive general influx from the New Heaven, and are stimulated to increased activity, with the result that there has never been such a multiplication and increase of natural uses in the world, as within the last century, and the increase is greater year by year.

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     Those are in error who think that this is an indication of a general spiritual improvement, of increased spiritual life in the interiors of men. The Jews of old were prosperous when they observed the external laws of order, the commands of Jehovah God; but their interior life was at the same time evil in the extreme. As it was then, so it is now, the general influx of heaven produces a state of order and prosperity, a state of activity in natural uses, while yet the internals are governed by particular influx through spirits from hell. Yet it is possible for the internal state to be better than before with those who turn to the Lord in His Coming, and repent of their evil works.

     The fallen state of man is such, therefore, that general influx is no longer effective in preserving him in a state of internal order; and it became necessary to provide a special influx, that the integrity of man might be to some extent preserved, and salvation remain a possibility to the human race.
"WHO IS MY MOTHER?" 1904

"WHO IS MY MOTHER?"       Rev. W. F. PENDLETON       1904

IV. UNION WITH THE FATHER.

     UPON a true Theology depends the integrity of the Church, and a true Theology has as its central principle a true idea of God. It may be said, indeed, that a true idea of God is the whole of Theology; for Theology is nothing else than doctrine concerning God; and what is doctrine about God without a true idea of Him? If there is a false idea of God, of His attributes and dualities, Theology becomes naught but a bundle of heresies, the efficient instrument of the decay and ruin of the Church.

     The New Church is built upon a true Theology, or upon a true and just idea of God. If this idea he kept sound and entire, all else is but a matter of regeneration,--regeneration of the individual and of the Church,--and together with regeneration, development, increase, spiritual elevation, and conjunction with God.

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     A false theology, founded upon a false idea of God, as we have said, brings ruin upon the Church. It is the instrument of evil loves, especially of the love of dominion from the love of self, or the love of dominion from the love of the world. Every former Church has come to an end by this Instrument or sword of destruction. The first Christian Church is the nearest example, and the one most familiar to us. Early in its history heresies arose; and these increased and multiplied until the consummation came, in the midst of which that Church now is.

     The early Christians of the Apostolic or Primitive Church, had the germ or beginning of a true idea of God; for they worshiped the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, calling Him, and believing Him to be the Son of God. For the Son of God is God manifest, God made flesh. God in His Human. And that early church would have advanced to a true conception of God, to a true idea of the Lord Jesus Christ as Gull Himself, the Father in His Human, the only God of the universe, had not the love of dominion entered, giving birth to a brood of heresies, which brought desolation and ruin.

     The central heresy, the leading false conception of God, was, that He is three persons, and that the Lord Jesus Christ was but the second person of this divided Trinity; and the worship of Him ceased. They substituted the worship of an imaginary God, who was invisible and incomprehensible, whom they called the Father, the first person of this imaginary Trinity.

     Three false ideas of the Lord Jesus Christ arose. The first was, that as to His soul, He was the Son of God born from eternity, and that His Human which We assumed when He came into the world was then, is now, and still continues to be, like the human of another man. The second was that even His soul was human, and thus that both in soul and body He was like other men; except, as being a messenger sent of God. He was wiser and more perfect than others, He was a human or angelic being sent into the world as an example for men to imitate and follow, but not to be worshiped as God. The third idea was, that He was not only the son of Mary, but the son of Joseph as well, and there was thus no difference between Him and other great leaders among men.

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     Either of these ideas, or all of them together, causes Theology to be wholly unsound, and destroys the true idea of God in the human mind, brings the Church to its consummation, and makes a New Church necessary,-to which the true idea of God may be revealed, and in which the true God may be worshiped.

     The question naturally suggests itself, what is the origin of these false ideas of God, and of God in His Human? To this we would say in general, that they have had their birth in the evil loves of man, and at the same time in ignorance,--in the ignorance which is the product of evil. There is no such ignorance as that which is in a state of confirmed evil having in it deliberate malice and all willfulness. Such ignorance does not excuse.

     The man who is in evil, loves only the things of the world and the body, and all his thought is in time and space. From this source all falsity arise, especially the false idea of God and of the Divine things which are from Him. God is believed to be in space, and He is thought of from time; when the truth is, He is not in space, nor is He understood if He is regarded from time. The evil at heart cannot otherwise regard Him; for they are incapable of spiritual elevation of thought; and unless the thought be lifted up above the limitations of time and space, nothing Divine, nor anything spiritual, is understood. It is the affection of truth which elevates the thought, and if this affection be wanting, as it is with the evil, there is no spiritual idea in the mind, and God is brought down to the limitations of purely natural thought.

     A remarkable illustration of this is seen in the doctrine of a divided Trinity, which makes three persons of God, three separate Divinities, three separate and distinct Gods; and which at the same time ascribes to the Lord Jesus Christ two natures, a human and a Divine.

     God Himself, the Father, is far away, in some distant part of the universe; and so, in order to save man, since He cannot be present Himself, He must send another to execute His decrees, and perform the work of Redemption. When this other or second person is through with His work, He leaves the world, and returns again to the rather to the place where He is: and, since the human of the second person is like the human of another man, when He goes away He delegates His work and power to pope and priest, since He is absent and cannot execute it Himself.

346


The Protestants, in order to escape the manifest absurdity of the Catholics, introduce the third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, who is present with men performing the work of saving grace; for the Father and Son are far away, in some remote point of space, and are therefore unable to perform this work.

     It is thus that the idea of time and space concerning God, makes some such doctrine as this divided Trinity unavoidable; and it is imagined that in no other way can God be brought down to the level of human thought. It is forgotten or ignored that God is Omnipresent from eternity and since He is everywhere present, it is not necessary that He should come through space in order to be present in the world; He is present already, and all that is needed is for Him to appear, cause Himself: to be seen, being present but unseen before. This He accomplished by assuming a Human of flesh and blood, veiling His Divinity, causing to be seen and known that which had been always present, but unseen and unknown by men.

     When men, therefore, think from time and space, the nature and essence of God is not understood; and hence the birth of all the heresies which have devastated the church.

     The conception of a Son of God born from eternity, therefore, arose in the Church,-- a person eternally distinct from the unable to accomplish without such aid or help. Or, according to others, it was only an angel, or angelic messenger who thus came into the world and we have the absurd anomaly of the incarnation of an angel to do a Divine work among men. Still others think that it was only a man, whose father was therefore, but one of the great reformers of the world, like Mahomet, Buddha, Zoroaster, Socrates, or Confucius.

     The fact is, the world is coming more rapidly every day, to the last of the three propositions. Since the idea of a Son of God born from eternity is a figment of the imagination, and the incarnation of an angel an absurdity,-both of which enlightened reasons rejects,--therefore, the historic Jesus Christ, is dissimilar to the other historic reformers, a mere man with human soul, and a human body, being gifted above ordinary men only as all great reformers were.

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There is no other alternative than this to the natural thought and reason of men, when such natural thought and reason is unenlightened and uninformed by revelation, and is thus not lifted up above the sphere of thought from time and space. The Lord our Saviour Jesus Christ, when He came into the world, was either a man with human soul and a human body, or He was God Himself clothed with a human body, God manifest in the flesh. The former view, the natural mind takes when it has divorced itself from faith in Revelation; the latter is the faith of the New Church, instructed by the spiritual Revelation which has been given to it. To the former view all theology tends, that regards the Lord Jesus Christ other than God Himself, the only object of faith and worship. To the latter view all must come, who have left with them any remains of spiritual faith and spiritual charity. For there is no other faith under heaven by which men can be saved, than faith in the Lord God the Savior Jesus Christ; and no other charity except that which is founded in a life of obedience to His commandments. Those who have in them some remains of these two principles of spiritual life, will see the Lord in His Coming, and acknowledge and worship Him: but no others.

     Let us now examine more fully what the faith of the New Church is, in respect to Him who came into the world under the name of Jesus Christ, and who declared Himself to be the Saviour of men.

     Jesus Christ is God Himself, the Father Himself, under a human form, who appeared in the world in a body of flesh and blood, but which by life in the world was glorified or made Divine, and thus united to the Divine itself, which was in Him as His soul at birth.

     When He was born, and while in the world, He had a soul as every man has a soul: but His soul was Divine and Infinite, the Supreme God the Creator of the universe. This was the Father in Him; and it is a monstrous profanation to say that He had a human father.

     The soul of every man is human and finite, from a human and finite father, born in the world by a human and finite mother. The soul of the Lord was the Divine itself, but which also clothed itself with a body in the world, from a human and finite mother. But since the soul gradually brings the body into an image of itself, this human body, which the Lord assumed in order to appear in the world, must become, and did become, and receptacle, this body assumed must also be made Divine; for only the Divine can receive the Divine, and enter into Infinite union with it.

348


The process by which the human body of the Lord was made Divine is called Glorification.

     In order to understand this subject more fully, it to know that the soul of a man is from his father, and that this soul is clothed with a body by his mother. This body taken on is a garment by the soul, for the sake of life in the world, is rejected at death, and the soul or spirit, which is man himself, continues to live a complete human life in a complete human form in the spiritual world forever. That the body of the Lord was not rejected as the body of man is, we shall see, later on.

     A point fundamental to the subject to note here is, that while the soul of a man is from his father, and while the soul is in the image of his father in the outset or beginning of his existence, still that soul is not his father himself, and it gradually recedes from the image of his father as he grows older; a human father and son are therefore two persons, and remain forever in two separate and distinct personalities. This would have been the case with the Lord, if his soul had been from a human father, if he had been the son of Joseph.

     This is the reason that the doctrine of a divided Trinity, or a Trinity of persons, necessarily and logically leads to the idea of a human soul in the Lord, that He is a man like other men, merely one of the great reformers of the world; that it so leads, confirmation is furnished in the whole trend of thought in the world at large, to the Unitarian conception, that Jesus Christ is one of the great reformers of the world, and possibly the greatest, but that there is nothing more Divine in Him than there is in other men.

     It is according to the Doctrine of the New Church that the Divine cannot be divided. Therefore, if the Lord had in Him a Divine soul, a soul from God, that soul is God, and He is other distinct person; and if Jesus Christ is a distinct person from God the Father, it follows that He has a human soul, from a human father.

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This latter is clearly involved, and is what is interiorly concealed in the doctrine of a Trinity of Persons; and now since the Last Judgment, that concealed or ruling principle is free to come forth, and manifest itself. The doctrine of Arius, which was buried at the Council of Nice, rose again, rules to the end, and manifests itself in the end.

     The New Church begins with the premise of faith in the letter of Scripture, in its prophecies of the Messiah, or Saviour of the world, who was to come, who was to be born of a virgin without a human father. In this teaching of Scripture, and its prophecy, is contained all the mystery of God, all the mystery of the Incarnation, all the mystery of the Glorification of the Human of the Lord; in it is involved, and from it is now unfolded, the eternal truth that Jesus Christ is no other than God Himself come into the world to redeem and save the human race. Without this promise of birth from a virgin, as the first and fundamental article of faith there is no faith, no Church, no religion.--all is materialism. This faith is to be cherished in the Church as the apple of the eye, or else Jesus or else Jesus Christ is not Divine, the worship of Him is vain, and the Christian dispensation is only one of the great so-called religious movements of the world, and its founder merely a remarkable man, like unto the great religious leaders of mankind.

     This is true,-the immaculate or Divine conception is true,-or the letter of Scripture is not true, for it is the central principle of its teaching. All prophecy looks to it, to the Divine Incarnation by a virgin and the Gospel is the fulfillment of it, in the birth of Him who was to come, by the virgin Mary without a human father; and the Apocalypse reveals to us this same Divine Being in His Glory, as the only--begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, to whom is given all power in heaven and on earth,--a predicate of Omnipotence alone, and Onmipotence is a predicate of God alone.

     The Doctrine of the New Church teaches that the Divine, or the internal which was the Lord at birth, cannot be divided and become another's as in the case of the internal from a human father. What is Divine is not capable of division like what is human. (A. C. 1999; T. C. R. 110.) The Divine Essence cannot be divided, like the soul of a human father. (A. C. 1921.) That is to say, the Divine Essence cannot be divided and become two distinct persons, as in the case of a human soul from a human father.

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Human offspring recedes more and more from the father's likeness, as there is advancement in age. But the Lord continually drew nearer to the Father or the Divine that was in Him, even to perfect union. (A. C. 1921.) The Human of the Lord, therefore, could not recede from the Divine Soul that was within, but must ever draw nearer, until the Father and the Son, the Divine and the Human, become one Divine Person. God over all blessed forever.

     We are told also that the seed is the primitive form of the ruling love in which the father is. (D. P. 277.) In the Lord this ruling love was Divine Love, which was in Him at birth, as His Soul. And we read that the soul which is from the father continually wills to make the external which is from the mother like unto itself, and an image of itself. (A. C. 6716.) In the case of a human father, the offspring continually recedes from his image and becomes a separate and distinct person; because the soul of a man, being human and finite, is not his father himself, but from his father. The soul of a man is not his father, nor is his body his mother, but his soul is from his father and his body from his mother, each becoming more distinct and separate. But in the case of the Lord, His soul was not from His Father, but was His Father; therefore, the Human could not recede and draw away, to become a separate and distinct person, but must draw nearer to an ever closer Union, until it becomes one with the Father, even as He Himself said, "I and the Father are one." (John x. 30.)

     The body of the Lord in the world was from His mother, as in the case of a man, and if His soul had been a human soul from a human father, He was, and would have become more and more a distinct person, a man like any other man in the world.

     The faith of the New Church is therefore founded upon the teaching of prophecy in the letter of Scripture, that the Saviour of the world was to be born of a virgin without a human father and upon the teaching of the Lord Himself that God was His Father, and whom He always calls His Father. Therefore, having no human father, His soul was from the Divine Father; and since the Divine cannot be divided, and what proceeds from God is God, that soul was not only from Jehovah the Father, but was Jehovah the Father Himself.

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And as the soul constantly strives, endeavors, and operates to make the body an image of itself, and thus to conjoin the body with itself, so the Divine soul in the Lord, or Jehovah, must continually operate to make the body, or Human from the mother, an image of itself; and in order to accomplish this, it must remove from that body or human everything that opposes a perfect union. This was done; the Human of the Lord was united to the Divine, became one with the Divine,-one Divine Person; and since the Divine cannot be divided it was not possible that they could become two persons, as in the case of a human son and father.

     As we have said, the real thought, the secret idea, reigning in the old Theology, is that the Human of the Lord was altogether like the human of another man, having a human soul and a human body. The Lord is, therefore, thought of, not as god, but as a man (D. P. 262); and they cannot possibly have any other thought, no matter what they may outwardly profess. Even the language ordinarily used concerning Him in evangelical literature, in hymns and in sermons, when analyzed, is found to have this idea lurking throughout. This is what has devastated the Christian Church, and rendered a new revelation of the Lord concerning Himself necessary, in order that what is Divine may be restored among men, and a New Christian Church established which will acknowledge and worship Him alone as god and Lord over all.

     The reason, therefore, appears why the Lord did not acknowledge Mary for His mother. Since God was His Father, all that was from Mary must be wholly expelled from His Human, in order that as to His Human He might enter into perfect union with the Infinite of the Father, the very Divine Love itself, which was His soul at birth, and which must make the body altogether and wholly an image of itself.

     The Lord, therefore, as to His Human, continually receded from the image of the mother Mary, until He was no longer in any sense whatever her son; and He continually drew nearer to the image of the Father in Him, even to perfect union.

     In order that this perfect union might take place, we are told that He was glorified even to the very flesh and bones; and that this might be effected, the material substances of the body were dissipated in the sepulcher.

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By all of which is meant that He made universal nature a receptacle of Himself. For the Divine must regenerate even to the ultimates of nature. (D. L. W. 233, 234), in order that the Lord might become the Lowest and Last as He was the Highest and First, if nature should become a receptacle of hell, rather than of the Divine, the universe would be destroyed. In order to prevent this universal catastrophe, the Lord glorified His Human even to the very flesh and bones, restoring thus the natural order of creation, making the entire natural universe a receptacle of the Divine, which Hell was about to prevent. For the natural body with Him was an epitome of the universe, and contained potentially all things of it; and when it is said that He was glorified even to the flesh and bones, it means just this, that He made Himself present in the ultimates of universal nature, and Hell could no longer enter into it to disrupt and destroy. And we but state the truth when we say, that in the Glorification of His Human, He recreated the universe, and placed Himself in a position to preserve it eternally in the order in which it was created. And let us remember also this truth, that by His Glorification. He also placed Himself in a position to exercise His Omnipotence, which He had from eternity--to exercise it without injury to the liberty of man.

     The Lord Jesus Christ is, therefore, not the son of Mary, but the one and only Omnipotent God of the universe, the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. Amen.

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USE OF THE SCIENCES IN THE NEW CHURCH 1904

USE OF THE SCIENCES IN THE NEW CHURCH       Rev. EMIL CRONLUND       1904

(Continued from our June issue.)

The Writings teach that "rationality is the capacity to understand things interiorly, and to decide what is just and right, and what is good and true; and by it man is distinguished from beasts." D. L. W. 413. Thus the more the rational faculty is cultivated, the more capable is man of viewing things interiorly, in other words, the more capable is he of seeing interior truths. "Interior truths are conclusions from exterior truths, or scientifics; for the scientifics of the natural man are means which serve for concluding about, and thus for viewing interior things, in like manner as any one views the mind of another in his countenance." A. C. 4748. To see a truth interiorly is to see it in all its phases and applications, it is to see the particulars that enter into a truth and that make it, and consequently it is to see a truth in the light of all the teachings concerning it. A heresy is an external and one-sided view of a truth, for he is in heresy who takes one application only of a truth and who accentuates and insists upon it only, and thus refuses to see it in all its applications and in the light of other doctrines. Every truth must be viewed in the light of all other truths, for all truths are connected and related to each other, and together they form one body. One truth cannot be taken out and removed from the general body of truth and viewed apart from other truths, for if that is done it is not seen in light, but in darkness and obscurity. This the Lord also taught when He said to His disciples: "I am the vine, ye are the branches. If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered; and men gather them and cast them into fire, and they are burned." Here the Lord compares Himself to a vine and His disciples to the branches, for by the disciples of the Lord are represented all the truths of the Church. As the branches proceed from the vine so all truths proceed from the Lord, and thus all truths are one in the Lord, and, therefore, if a truth be separated from other truths it is like a branch cut off from the vine which withers and dies; or it is like a limb that is cut off from the human body, which dies.

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The branch must abide in the vine in order that it may live and bear fruit, and so also a truth must abide in the general body of truths and derive its life and light from their common fountain-head.

     That man may see the truth interiorly or that he may see interior truths, therefore, it is first of all necessary that his mind be stored with knowledges from the letter of the Word and from the Writings of the Church; and, as science is the handmaid of religion, if he acquires scientific truth also, it follows that this will enable him to form a fuller, a wider and a larger view of the truth, for through scientific knowledge he will see applications of the truth that could be seen in no other way. There are truths in the Word and in the Writings that cannot be seen without a knowledge of certain sciences. it is therefore said in the work on Heaven and Hell that "Sciences are what serve the truly intelligent for the formation of their understanding." (353). It was said above that "the scientifics of the natural man are means which serve for concluding about, and thus for viewing interior things in like manner as anyone views the mind of another in his countenance," for as the sky is reflected in the waters of the sea so the truths of Heaven are reflected and represented in the truths of science. Nature is a theater representative of the kingdom of the Lord, that is, there is not anything in nature which is according to order which does not represent something of the Lord's kingdom. All the laws of order which govern nature are Divine truths in the ultimates of order; they are the heavenly laws of order brought down to the natural plane. There is not anything in the world of nature, which is according to order, which does not correspond to something in Heaven. Correspondence, the Writings teach, is "the appearing of the internal in the external and its representation there," that is, the internal things of Heaven appear in the external things of the world, and thus are represented in them. The spiritual world inflows into the natural, thus causing a correspondence of the natural world with the spiritual, for communication by correspondence is what is called influx.

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As, therefore, internal things may be seen in external ones, therefore it is that "scientifics, inasmuch as they are knowledges, are serviceable to the sight of the internal or rational man as a kind of mirror, for seeing such things as are serviceable to itself; for they fall under the aspect of the internal man as plains full of herbs, flowers, and every kind of shrub and tree, or as gardens adorned with various things for uses and for delights, presented to the view of the external man in the material world; but the interior sight, which is the understanding, sees nothing else in the plains or gardens of the things in its memory, but what are agreeable to the loves in which the man is, and also what favor the principles which he loves," A. C., 9393.

     The eye of the internal man, which is the understanding, does not see the external things of the world but the internal things represented by them, and, therefore, it is that the Lord has manifested the wonders of His wisdom in the world of nature so that they might suggest to the internal man the laws of spiritual life. The eye of the body is like a window through which the soul can look out into the world and see internal things appearing in external things. And it is because the spirit can see internal things that the body is able to see external things, for all eyesight of men and angels is from the understanding.

     That scientifics serve the internal sight as a kind of mirror in which internal things may be viewed, is abundantly shown throughout the Writings. Heavenly and Divine truths, there, are frequently illustrated and confirmed by means of scientific truths. That this is so is especially evident from the work on the Divine Love and Wisdom, where the science of anatomy is used for this purpose. In n. 385 of that work it is taught that the understanding corresponds to the lungs, and it is said that "by means of this correspondence many arcana relating to the will and understanding, as well as to love and wisdom, may be disclosed." And this statement is then proved, for it is said: "Now because it is scarcely known in the world what the will is, or what love is, but it is known what the heart and the lungs are,--for these are objects of sight and can be examined, and have been examined and described by anatomists, while the will and the understanding are not objects of sight, and cannot be so examined,--therefore when it is known that these correspond, and by correspondence act as one, many arcana relating to the will and the understanding may be disclosed that could not otherwise be disclosed; those, for instance, relating to the conjunction of the will with the understanding, and the reciprocal conjunction of the understanding with the will; those relating to the conjunction of love with wisdom, and the reciprocal conjunction of wisdom With love; also those relating to the drawing forth of love into affections, to the consociation of affections, to their influx into perceptions and thoughts, and, finally, their influx according to correspondence with the bodily acts and senses.

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These and many other arcana may be both disclosed and illustrated by the conjunction of the heart and lungs, and by the influx of the blood from the heart into the lungs, and reciprocally from the lungs into the heart, and therefrom through the arteries into all the members, organs and viscera of the body." And in n. 394, it is said, that "from the correspondence of the heart with the will and of the lungs with the understanding, everything may be known that can be known about the will and understanding, or about love and wisdom, therefore about the soul of man." This is further taught in n. 403, where it is said: "Beware of cherishing an idea of the will as something separate from the human form, for it is that same form." And in the same number, treating of the conjunction of the will and the understanding, it is said: "How each and everything of the body is prepared for conjunction with the understanding as well as with the will call be seen only in the body, as in a mirror or image, by the aid of anatomical knowledge."

     In n. 410, where it is taught that love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding, and causes wisdom or the understanding to be reciprocally conjoined to in this statement is also illustrated and confirmed by the science of anatomy, for it is said: "That love or the will conjoins itself to wisdom or the understanding is plain from their correspondence with the heart and lungs. Anatomical observation shows that the heart is in its life's motion when the lungs are not yet in motion; this it shows by cases of swooning and of suffocation, also by the fetus in the womb and the chick in the egg. Anatomical observation also shows that the heart, while acting alone, forms the lungs and so adjusts them that it may carry on respiration in them." The heart forms the lungs by means of blood-vessels sent out from itself and this makes it clear that love is the life of man and that the will draws the understanding to itself, and that therefore, such as the will is such is the understanding.

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The heart also may act independently of the lungs, bur the lungs cannot act independently of the heart, for when the beating of the heart stops, respiration also stops. This also confirms the teaching of the Writings that all thought is from love and that there can be no thought without it.

     This will, to some extent, show the use of the sciences in the New Church, and these teachings from the Writings also show that "all things of Heaven constantly have their foundation in the laws of order of nature, in the world and in man." S. D. 5709 "The scientifics which are of the natural man are the ultimates of order, and prior things must be in ultimates in order that they may come forth and appear in that sphere, and, moreover, all prior things tend to ultimates, as to their termini or ends, and come forth simultaneously therein, as causes do in their effects. The scientifics which are of the natural are such ultimates." A. C. 5373 Now, as there is power in ultimates, it follows that so far as man is acquainted with the laws which govern the natural world, so far he increases the power of his spiritual vision, for so far he is able to enter more interiorly into the knowledge of spiritual things. This is because the truths of science are vessels which receive rational and interior things. The Writings teach that rational things are not knowledges, but are in knowledges, and therefore knowledge alone will not rentier any one rational, for knowledge is not wisdom, but it is when man sees the interior things contained in knowledges and when he regards use as an end, that he gains true rationality and wisdom. Thus with him who is in the genuine affection of truth the sciences are the means of opening the intellectual sight, for with him light inflows from Heaven and illuminates his scientifics, so that they confirm, and, moreover, it disposes them into order, and into a heavenly form.

     But as the sciences may he the means of opening the intellectual sight, so also they may be the means of closing it. They are the means of opening that sight with him only who is in the interior holiness of the Word, but they are the means of closing the understanding more completely with him who does not acknowledge the Lord and His Word. He who does not acknowledge the Lord and His Word has no internal light to guide him, and therefore he judges from externals only, and thought from the eye closes the understanding, but thought from the understanding opens the eye.

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By thought from the eye is meant thought from the Word and its light, but by thought from the understanding is meant thought from Heaven and its light which is the Lord. When man thinks from the eye he uses the sciences as means of confirming himself against spiritual and Divine things, but when he thinks from the understanding they are means to him of confirming himself in their favor. The learned men of today have closed their interior sight entirely by means of the sciences, for they have allowed themselves to be entirely seduced by the fallacies of the senses, and so they have lost all spiritual light, all true rationality and all sound reason. In the Heavenly Doctrines of the Church it is also said that "by falsities the learned world is, at the present day, so opposed to truths, that scarcely any one knows what is true and good in natural and moral things, in consequence of which, communication with the interior and the inmost heaven is taken away." S. D. 241.

     As they who have made use of the sciences for confirming themselves in favor of the Divine in the other life are in light more than others, so they who have made use of them for confirming themselves against the Divine are, in the other life, more stupid than others, and are amongst the most insane in the hells.

     But "as the sciences have closed up the understanding, therefore the sciences also open it, and it is opened in proportion as men are in good." S. D., 5709. In the New Church the sciences will be the means of opening the intellectual sight, and by means of them the men of the New Church will be enabled to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith; and "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." The New Church is to be a rational church, for it is to see spiritual truths in a rational and natural manner, "For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His glory shall be seen upon thee. The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together, to beautify the place of My sanctuary; and I will make the place of My feet glorious."

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SWEDENBORG'S EARLIEST PUBLICATION 1904

SWEDENBORG'S EARLIEST PUBLICATION       A. H. S       1904

     SWEDENBORG'S earliest known publication is a poem written and printed in his twelfth year, in commemoration of the marriage of Johannes Kolmodinus, and Beata Hesselia.

     This poem by Swedenborg (then "Swedberg") was apparently discovered by Mr. Klemming, formerly librarian at the Royal Library in Stockholm, and from him Dr. R. L. Tafel received a (written) copy of it, as he says on page 52 of his work Swedenborg and the Doctrine of the New Church (1889). The Rev. James Hyde again called attention to this publication, perhaps the earliest of all Swedenborg's publications, by printing in Morning Light for 1902 an English translation, the original Swedish text and a historical and explanatory article. But he failed to state where a copy of the printed poem was preserved, and when requested by the Swedenborg Scientific Association to supply the information he replied that it world he given in his Bibliography, the publication of which has been announced.

     The present writer noticed an annotation by former librarian Klemming about this poem in one of Swedenborg's works preserved in the Royal Library at Stockholm, and soon after received word from the Secretary of the Scientific Association that Dr. Tafel had mentioned the poem in his work Swedenborg and the Doctrines of the New Church. An examination in the Royal Library resulted in the finding of a copy of the poem, and later, another one was found in the University Library (Carolina Rediviva) at Upsala. In Nya Kyrkans Harold for July-August, 1903, the writer printed the text of the poem in types resembling the original with considerable fidelity, and with descriptive information. The four pages of the poem (small quarto) were also photographed, and an excellent full sized reproduction of the copy preserved in the Royal Library was thus secured. Those who wish to secure copies of the photographs should apply to the Academy Book Room, Bryn Athyn, Pa., which is in possession of the plates and willing to furnish prints if ordered.

     On page 1 of this very rare publication it is stated that the author is Emanuel Swedberg, and the verses must have been composed in 1700 according to the date on the title page.

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The remaining three pages contain the ten verses of the poem, there being two interesting vignettes, one at the beginning and one at the end.

     Some learned authorities in Sweden doubt whether Swedenborg himself wrote the poem, supposing that his father is perhaps really responsible for it. There is, however, no direct or indirect evidence to substantiate this view. A. H. S.
ADVENTUS DOMINI INSCRIPTION 1904

ADVENTUS DOMINI INSCRIPTION              1904

     IN the course of two visits to London in the summer and autumn of 1902, the writer received permission from Mr. James Speirs to examine his library and especially the volume containing the famous "Adventus Domini" inscription, in order to collect reliable information regarding the MSS. and life of Swedenborg.

     The volume contains four separate works, namely, 1) Responsum ad Epistolam ab amico ad me scriptam (An answer to a letter written to me by a friend, published at London, 1769); 2) De Commercio Anima et Corporis, etc. (The Intercourse between the Soul and the Body, London, 1769); 3) Summaria Expositio Doctrine Novae Ecclesiae etc. (A Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church, Amsterdam, 1769); 4) Vera Christiana Religio (The True Christian Religion, Amsterdam, 1771).

     The volume is bound in leather, and on the back of it is stamped:

Commerc. Animae.
& Coporis
Summaria Expos.
Ver. Relig. Christ.

     The word "Corporis" is misspelled "Coporis."

     It would be an interesting thing to know who was the first owner of this volume, and since all the particulars concerning it may some day help to decide the question, a number of new particulars will be noted.

     De Commercio has been cut at the side and at the bottom, i. e., the pages are not of the same size as those of the other works in the volume. On the first printed page also there is red wax, possibly showing that this copy was sent through the mails; there is also red wax on the inside of the last page.

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Furthermore, the copy was folded from the top to the bottom in the middle.

     There are corrections throughout the four works. In the Responsum the date 1689 is changed to 1688. On page 2 of De Commercio "A. C. 6400" written in the margin opposite lines 16-17. For corrections see further in De Commercio, page 11, line 2; page 17, line 1; page 21, line 6 from the bottom; Summaria Expositio, page 46, line 1 ; Vera Christiana Religio, page 48, line 1.

     It is quite clear that the person who had the four works bound in one volume knew the value of the inscription on the copy of the Brief Exposition, "This Book is the Advent of the Lord, written by command," for the writing is not contained on the work itself, but on the inside of the grayish-blue front cover of it. The cover at end of the copy of the Summaria Expositio has been removed and in no other case have the covers been preserved. The corrections in the volume also indicate that the owner of it was a man who studied the works closely.

     The "Adventus Domini" inscription has been noticed by Dr. R. L. Tafel in a large quarto sheet printed by Mr. Speirs soon after the volume was received by Mr. Speirs from Mr. Wrightson, in Words for the New Church, vol. I., pages 3 and 59; in the Documents, Vol. II., page 757; in New Church Life, 1890, pages 53-54; 1891, pages 105-106.

     There has been some difference of opinion as to whether Swedenborg himself wrote the reference to the Apocalypse Revealed. Mr. Speirs told me that Dr. Tafel thought that the reference was not written by Swedenborg but that Mr. Benade thought it was, with which Mr. Speirs also agreed. Mr. Benade also told me that he thought the reference was written by Swedenborg. At present, I think that either position is tenable; possibly the number was written by Swedenborg at another time than that in which he wrote the references to the Arcana, or else the reference may have been entered by the corrector of the volume, whose handwriting sometimes resembles Swedenborg's very much. See especially the "d" on page 11, line 2, bottom of De Commercio, where "gorgium" is changed to "gordium."     A. H. S.

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TOBACCO QUESTION 1904

TOBACCO QUESTION       J. B. S. KING       1904

     Whether the tobacco habit is unqualifiedly bad, or whether it is useful, and if so, just what are its uses, are questions difficult of final adjudication. The literature upon the subject is very extensive. In Bragge's Bibliotheca Nicotiana, 248 quarto pages are necessary to print a mere list of works upon the subject. From such a mass of authorities support for any position pro or con may easily he derived, as might be supposed. To aid in forming a rational conclusion some data are herewith submitted.

     The Plant.--Tobacco has a number of peculiarities. Very remarkable is the absence of sodium, and it stands alone among vegetable productions, so far as is known, in containing none of this element in its composition. But notwithstanding the absence of sodium salts, it yields a heavier percentage of ash than any other leaf, owing to the large proportion of potassium, calcium and magnesium compounds which it contains. This fact also accounts for the rapid exhaustion of the soil, for which the tobacco plant is noted. It is hostile to life, for plants watered with an infusion of tobacco wither and die, and plants exposed to the fumes of the fermented leaf turn yellow and cease to grow. It is dreaded and avoided by all kinds of insects, with the exception of its own insectivorous enemies, of which it has a full share. It affects the largest and strongest animals, a moderate dose quickly reducing the force and frequency of the pulse in the horse, an effect from which the animal is slow in recovering.

     Its Chemistry.--Tobacco belongs to that small number of poisonous herbs, which, like Conium, Scoparius and Lobelia, owe their activity to a liquid alkaloid. Its active principle is nicotine, which, in common with all other liquid alkaloids, is destitute of oxygen. It ranks very high in the list of poisons, prussic acid and aconitine alone exceeding it in virulence. Nicotine is present in the dried leaf in a proportion of from 1-1/2 to 8 per cent., varying with the character of the specimen. However, very little, if any, nicotine enters into tobacco smoke.

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The combustion of the leaf results in a number of empyreumatic compounds, the most important of which, perhaps, is pyridine, a colorless liquid containing nitrogen, insoluble in water, but soluble in alcohol. Pyridine, though not so poisonous a principle as nicotine, has great physiological activity, and its solubility in alcohol may account for the fact observed by many smokers, that a combination of smoking and drinking is more provocative of headache than either indulgence alone.

     Tobacco has a combination of effects, therefore, arising from the active principles of the leaf, as in chewing, and from the cigar end, and from its empyreumatic products in smoke. It is obvious that the hotter the smoke when it enters the mouth, the stronger it must be in volatile constituents, and contrariwise, the cooler it is, the freer from them it must be.

     Its Effects.--Upon one not accustomed to its use, the immediate effects are marked and unpleasant. Ghastly pallor of the skin, cold perspiration, extreme nausea, deathly faintness, a feeble, rapid and irregular pulse, giddiness, muscular inco-ordination and general relaxation are the particular symptoms that go to make up a picture of complex misery, which nearly every neophyte presents before entering the circle of tobaccanalians.

     The symptoms produced by the first dose resemble very much the effects of depressing and debilitating emotions; they are almost an exact picture of the results of extreme fear, cowardice and anxiety. The blood flees from the surface, leaving a greenish pallor, the fibres are flabby and toneless, the sphincters relaxed, the muscles weak and trembling. These effects are almost the opposite of alcohol stimulation which resembles rather those of exalted and courageous states.

     How strong must be the fascination of this peculiar plant, which induces so many millions to overcome the first repugnance and death-like illness, and to become devotees to its use.

     Upon the brain and its voluntary functions it acts very slightly except in an indirect way. It has a strong influence upon the pneumogastric nerve, that slender mysterious filament, which exerts so peculiar and partial a control over the noble organs, the heart and lungs, as well as the stomach and throat. This is shown by the nausea, faintness and weakened pulse. It also exercises a profound depressing effect upon the voluntary muscles, as well as upon the great sympathetic system, which controls so many functions beyond the reach of the will power.

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     The prostrating effects of tobacco are very obvious in the case of cold-blooded animals, which, for their general tonicity, depend less upon a brain than upon the spinal cord. A small piece of plug or finecut placed in the mouth of a frog will speedily produce a profound and ludicrous prostration. The strong hind-legs, ordinarily so powerfully flexed, lie prone and stretched out like wet rags.

     Physiologically speaking, tobacco possesses the somewhat doubtful virtue of retarding waste of tissue. This property is more evident in chewers, than in smokers, and more evident in cigar smokers than in the devotees of the pipe. That is, a man will maintain nutritional equilibrium (i. e., body-weight) on less food when chewing tobacco and smoking cigars than when not doing so. This is spoken of as a doubtful virtue, because while it is beneficial to some constitutions, it is undoubtedly harmful to the young, and to some adults.

     The violent effects of the initial dose soon pass off, and upon repetition a number of times, the system becomes so habituated to its influence that naught but a gentle, almost imperceptible soothing effect remains, and, strange as it may appear, this change from misery to pleasure is not a change in the duality of its action but one of degree only.

     The violent effects have been cited only to show how, and upon what portions of the system tobacco acts. What more directly concerns the question under consideration is the effect in general upon those who are habituated to its use. Its virtues may be summed up in the word relaxation. It pleasantly relaxes the fibres, it diffuses an agreeable indolence, both of body and mind. It slightly obtunds the senses, making them less keenly affected by the irritating sights and sounds of life. In times of vexation, worry and anxiety, when fretfulness and irritability prevent the satisfactory performance of one's tasks, it allays useless excitement moderates the passions, favors equipoise, and thus helps one to work better. It seems, therefore, to be an antidote to the worry and anxiety of life.

     One effect of modern business life upon the body is a tense condition of the fibres.

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The hurry and excitement, the cares and responsibilities of life in the strenuous civilization of the present day wind a man up too tight. He is like a bow always bent, like a violin always strung above concert pitch, and, finally, he loses the power to relax. Fretfulness, irritability, lack of concentration, apprehensive states, sleeplessness, pallor, contraction of the sphincters, one and all are very frequent consequences of overwork and intense application. Under such conditions tobacco acts with a magical efficacy. It relieves the unnatural tension and effects an otherwise unattainable relaxation.

     This application, however, cannot be advanced as an entire explanation for the use of tobacco, for its most inveterate and excessive users are found among sailors, hunters, farmers and those who work out of doors with robust frames and vigorous nerves, who cannot give nervousness, irritability or unnatural tension as a reason for the habit. The fact is that most of those who use tobacco, without giving any thought to the question, smoke and chew because the sedative effect is agreeable, and having formed the habit, find its absence disagreeable. The result is that they are almost inevitably led to excessive indulgence.

     Among other virtues claimed for tobacco, it promotes sociability, favors conversation and free interchange of thought, gives a slight occupation to the hands, and thus allays self-consciousness. It is also associated with other comforts, the easy chair, the fireside, the luxury of indolence. By putting all of these trifling effects together, a pleasurable relaxation, the dulling of the mind to petty annoyances, sociability, the allaying of self-consciousness, the association of other ideas of comfort, the glamour of sentiment, together with the fragrent fumes of the burning leaf, and we have about all that can be advanced as an explanation of its almost universal spread among the nations of the earth.

     The great Bismark has spoken somewhat appreciatively of the use of tobacco in the delicate and difficult art of diplomacy. When the representatives of nations confer on momentous questions involving a large interests, the necessary intellectual sparring is greatly facilitated by smoking. Instead of answering a blunt question, the diplomat gains time by knocking the ashes off his cigar; or he avoids a direct glance of the eye by gazing into the cloud of smoke which he slowly blows from his mouth.

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Bismark was very successful, and perhaps the wonderful progress of the German Empire was due to a certain extent to the skillful use of tobacco.

     But even when we take the sum of all its pleasures, they seem quite inadequate to explain its universal use, and it only shows that the charm of tobacco is intangible and hard to analyze. It does not please the palate or stimulate the flow of blood, as is the case with alcoho1, nor excite the dreaming faculty and pervert the senses as does cannabis, nor increase the power and pleasures of imagination and revery as does opium, nor stimulate the intellectual faculties as does coffee. A halo of sentiment has undoubtedly been thrown about tobacco in poetry and song, which may add a slight degree of pleasure. But stripped of all this and considered merely as to what it does, who can define the reason for its immense hold upon the human race? Why is it that 800,000,000 people use it in one form or another? What has caused prohibitory laws, penalties, threats, taxes, tortures and even capital punishment itself?

     The Writings,-We may be certain of one thing, that as it is a poison and not a food to the body, it is either a curse upon a large part of the human race, of a remedy,-either an unmixed evil, or a permission of Divine Providence to prevent something worse.

     Poisons are classed among evil uses in D. L. W. 336, and they are said to "absorb malignities." In T. C. R. it is stated that the good done by an evil man is "like the fragrant smoke of a poisonous herb." And as a fact bearing some analogy to this, it may be mentioned that the fragrant aroma of wine is spoken of in A. C. 1517 as arising from "what is elegant in the forms of civility and politeness." This latter, therefore, corresponds to the courtesies of social intercourse, and the fragrant smoke of tobacco, in an analogous way, may correspond to the toleration of one another's external peculiarities, which is so essential not only to friendship based upon similarity of affection and thought, bet even to ordinary business relations.

     In a materialistic and sensual age, the evils of self-love superlatively active, and were they not suppressed by some external agency, might break forth and go beyond all bounds. Tobacco may be said to act as one of these agencies, because it has a soporific effect upon the sensual.

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As a result of the Last Judgment, a new civilization now demands an external order, civility and charity which men do not feel internally, and the suppression of the sensual is of necessity very great. Among the so-called uses of tobacco is its promotion of external cordiality and sociability. Both the unregenerate will and the one who is striking to regenerate, will assume the virtues of sociability and charity, and suppress that self-interest which lacks all consideration for the neighbor. One does it from an evil end, the other from an end of good. With one it is hypocrisy and deceit, with the other it is sincere. But in any case, it is necessary to the existence of civil society that evils be suppressed, that malignities be absorbed, and this is accomplished by lesser evils, just as poisons may act as remedies for bodily ills. In an evil age, it is always permitted the evil to assume a cloak of good, for otherwise the human race would be destroyed by the influx of the hells and by the barbarous ruin resulting therefrom. Hypocrisy and deceit are destructive poisons to the man himself after death, but on earth they operate as a preservative of society, for the evil assume a good life by deceit, and thus absorb their own malignities. The poison of the serpent corresponds to deceit, and the use of deceit, which in itself is a poison, must be to "absorb malignities," and preserve the race from open barbarism. We know from Revelation, and from experience and observation, that the barbarism of the middle ages is still present in the interiors of men, and that it would break out, and does break out, if external suppression be removed.

     From these considerations it seems clear that the widespread use of a weed like tobacco, which is a poisonous herb, and which operates as a soporific upon the senses is a permission of Providence, and as such, a means whereby the evils of men are restrained. Tobacco dulls the sensual degree, in which all self-love resides, together with its derivative evils, avarice, hatred, revenge, cruelty, self-conceit, and covetousness. It helps both good and evil men to forget self and to think of their uses and of good to others, which is a difficult task while the evils which excite the sensual are active. Men of the New Church, however, must recognize the fact that the most orderly, efficacious and fruitful method of restraining the sensual is self-compulsion.

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It is better to kill and reject the serpent of the sensual by active voluntary resistance than to stupefy it by narcotics.

     Objections.--The arguments against the habit of smoking make a long list, and first among them is "the ladies." If all the members of the fair sex who are opposed to the use of tobacco were asked to say "no," the sound of their gentle voices would make the roar of Niagara seem like a whisper. Ninety-five women in every hundred, when free to express their opinion unbiased by the proximity of husband or lover, exhibit an unqualified dislike for the habit. The kindliest feeling the ladies can muster toward it is toleration, a species of armed neutrality, as a concession to the desires of their gentlemen friends. Properly considered, this is a very strong argument, and mingles an uncomfortable atmosphere of selfish gratification with the fragrant fumes of the cigar.

     It is true that volatile empyreumatic principles of a very persistent disagreeable odor adhere to the clothing, the hair, the breath, the room, the hangings and the belongings of the smoker. It is repugnant to all women, and disagreeable even to the smoker himself when cold and stale. Contrast this atmosphere of stale, malodorous smoke with the delightful sphere of cleanliness and health exhaled from a beautiful, chaste woman, and the difference will be very striking, and even disconcerting to the lover of the "great plant."

     Another weighty argument on the negative side is the shadowy, indefinite character of the boundary line between use and abuse, and the ease with which one can run into excess. There is not, as in the case of alcoholic beverages, a certain amount which defines the limits of excess with tolerable exactness. There is nothing swallowed as in eating, to enter the stomach and indicate the approach of excess by a sense of repletion. Without such corporeal guards, there is danger that the sensation of pleasurable indolence produced by tobacco will be sought after as a constant state of existence. Such a condition of the nervous systems, maintained by frequent doses, making a continuous state of that which should be occasional, is fraught with insidious danger. An artificial nicotian elysium is thus unconsciously substituted for the natural tone of the healthy organism.

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In such cases the lack of the accustomed pipe or cigar, or any slight approach toward a tobacco-free state, is productive of an intolerable irritability and discomfort for which there is no remedy but a return to the old established habit.

     The bad effects upon the health, not infrequently cited in tracts and magazine articles, will be found, upon analysis, to be produced principally upon those of immature years. The dulling effect upon the senses, and upon mental activity, together with the retarding of bodily growth due to the impairment of the involuntary functions, are pernicious to the young. Impairment of memory, dullness of the mental faculties, and muscular debility have undoubtedly been traced to even moderate smoking in those of tender years. The entrance of the Tobacco Trust into England with its widespread advertisements and tempting premiums on wrappers is said to have had a disastrous effect upon the youth of England, as was proved by the difficulty in getting sound young men for the South African War.

     Consolatory Reflections.-The tobacco devote may truthfully maintain that no organic disease has ever been traced to its use, except in those of immature years. He may also point with a certain comfort to the long list of eminent authors and artists who were addicted to smoking. Even the stern, high-minded old dreamer and poet, John Milton, is said to have solaced his many afflictions with one small pipe before retiring. Eminent modern authorities, not disposes in its favor, like Peireira, Christison and E. A. Parkes, are unable to condemn it. The last says, "From moderate use I can see no harm, unless it be in youth." Richardson is compelled to admit that as to its effects it compares favorably with tea.

     And then there are the 800 millions! Surely the smoker may point to that vast multitude and claim the stupendous fact alone, to argue some immense, universal, human need for the nicotian herb, which may serve as some slight extenuation for his own modest liking for a single cigar. Unfortunately the answer immediately arises that mere numbers make no argument for the good of anything; the vast multitudes in the hells, for instance, do not indicate that they are desirable states of existence. It must be confessed that the more deeply one looks into the subject, the more difficult it becomes to give support to the habit from rational grounds.

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It is related of a certain prosperous lobbyist that in the very act of succeeding in his nefarious trade, he had the appearance of a particularly spruce and dapped Mephistopheles, but that when he met with a rebuff from an honest congressman, as occasionally happened, the failure had such a disconcerting effect upon him that he looked much less like Mephistopheles and more like a chagrined monkey. So, in taking up this subject with a certain complacency, sure of victory for tobacco, one's cigar seemed to have a fragrant aroma and to present rather a comely aspect but somehow it is now observed to be a very ordinary brown color, and seems to affect the olfactory nerve rather disagreeably.
NECESSITY AND USES OF TEMPTATION 1904

NECESSITY AND USES OF TEMPTATION       Rev. RICHARD DE CHARMS       1904

     WE wish to rest the superstructure of our remarks on this subject upon the foundation of the letter of the Word as we find it in the prayer, the Lord's own prayer, "Lead us not into Temptation." I need not dwell upon the fact that the literal form of this prayer is an apparent truth. It appears that the Lord leads us into temptation, because He permits, and does not prevent our being led into them. But the real truth is, that He leads no one into temptations, and permits them only for our good. He helps us out of them, after we have been led into them, by evil and false spirits of hell, sustains us while in them, protects us from any injurious effects, and of ourselves them for us, as we, as of ourselves, strive to overcome them.

     To see this and other things so that we may utter the prayer with useful spiritual effects and results it is necessary to know and understand something of the doctrine of the New Church concerning temptation. Let us then look to this teaching for light to help us 'to see how to pray this prayer aright. First, as to what temptation is.

     It is simply a combat between goods and truths on the one hand, and evils and falsities on the other; and accordingly between the angels and infernal spirits who accompany man.

     This combat the one in temptation sensates or feels or experiences as straitness or anxiety, by reason of its causing opposition to, threatening to injure, deprive him of, and destroy his love, which in this case is the love of spiritual things or his spiritual life.

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Thus it is a conflict which threatens to do this to what a man believes to be the truth and has begun to love as his new-found spiritual life, or what he believes to be good and loves as good.

     As temptation is a combat for mastery over the man between what is spiritual and thus good and true from the Lord, and what is merely natural, and thus evil and false from the man himself, it takes its rise in, and its various effects flow from, the evident disagreement between his internal and external man or nature, as to which shall have the dominion over him. This is really a combat and disagreement between the delights of each nature; for a man's delights are the ultimate and thus powerful satisfactions of his loves, and thus of his life.

     What is delightful to a man he calls good and it is his good, because it is the ultimate of his love which is himself. It is clear, then, that temptation is a combat concerning power, whether good or evil, the true or false, shall rule in a man. Temptations originate in the assaults by evil spirits upon whatsoever is of a man's love, and thus of his very life. This results in the excitation of evils and falses in the one tempted, and hence the evil spirits that assault and excite are the cause of the temptation.

     It will be here noticed in this view of temptation that there are two forces at work, namely, the force and power of falses injected by infernal spirits and the force and power of truths from the Lord, in the hands, as it were, of the angels present with a man. This view also makes it clear that temptations cannot exist without the previous affirmation, acknowledgment, and thus presence in the man of good and truth. Also that temptations do not take place, until knowledges have been imbued or have penetrated and impressed themselves upon a man, by which he defends himself and to which he recurs for solace; and because man is introduced into truths by knowledges.

     Now let us notice some of these states of temptation.

     In temptation there occur vastations and desolations; there are states of desperation and indignation. These states alternate and vary according to the state of evil and false in which the one tempted is.

     It is to be noted that the first experience of one regenerating, is one of a state of external peace or tranquility. To this succeeds the turbulence of temptations.

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Afterwards he returns into a state of tranquility; this being the end regarded in the combat of temptation.

     The state of temptation is unclean and squalid, because falses and evils are excited, and evils and falses are spiritually filthy and unclean. The state afterwards is serene and joyous. The state of deliverance after temptations, is at first obscure, because falses and evils are only gradually dissipated. A state of illustration from truth and of delight from the affection of good, follows after temptations. It is no temptation really when a certainty of victory is felt, but all temptation is accompanied with despair concerning the end. This was the case even with the Lord, as in Gethsemane, and on the Cross. The spiritual are reduced to a state of utter desperation of ever perceiving good and truth. In the state of utter despair, which is the ultimate state of temptation, man is in the very act of falling into hell but he is snatched, as it were, from the brink and delivered from despair by the Lord. In the state of despair, bitter things are spoken, which the angels do not attend to, because temptation then is at the very limit of man's power to endure. Temptations proceed thus far to the end that goods and truths may be confirmed and conjoined. Should a man yield or succumb, truths and goods are rejected, and evils and falsities confirmed, and this state is a state of damnation. Temptations are continual desperations, at first light, but becoming more and more grievous, until doubt almost resolves itself into a negation of the Divine. In this extreme, despair is dissipated by solace from the Lord, and there is, as it were, a new beginning of life.

     This state of doubt, even to despair, is susceptible of illustration, in the case of a certain Newchurchman. On first coming into the New Church, he experienced a joy and delight which enabled him to bask in the light of these newly found truths, and to prize them above all else, as they opened to him the hidden glories of the Word, explained its difficulties, made clear its apparent contradictions, showed the nature of its appearances of truth, and caused him to see the Word he loved as indeed holy and divine as the very appearing of the Lord Himself, and added to all this, to see clearly in the Doctrines of the New Church the things he had internally longed for and desired for many years.

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     After a time this state was succeeded by one of obscurity and distressful doubts as to these truths. His mind became clouded with falsities injected by evil and false spirits. The light of these heaven-descended truths seemed to grow dimmer and dimmer, as this cloud grew denser, until it appeared to fade away and be merged in the darkness and gloom that enveloped his spirit.

     One after another of his truths seemed to his despairing vision and state to be taken from him, until, a prey to the infernal spirits infesting him, an agonizing doubt concerning the Divinity of the Lord and His being indeed the only God of heaven and earth, was suggested and cruelly pressed upon his sorely tried spirit.

     At last he found himself saying aloud in a voice of desperation and anguish, over and over again, "nevertheless He is God! Nevertheless He is God! He is God! He is God! He is God!" and with repetition of this phrase, bringing his clenched hand with thundering force on the table before him, to emphasize his declaration, he finally came out of the temptation holding in his hand this pearl of great price, and able to take it to the bosom of a warmer love and clearer perception, with more deeply confirmed faith in this fundamental truth of all religion. And then in the succeeding state of comparative peace and tranquility, he was able to find again the truths which seemed to have been taken from him, only to find them as spiritual jewels shining with a brighter lustre, and to gather them into the casket of a stronger affection and deeper confirmation of them as given to him by the Lord Himself out of heaven, for his spiritual and eternal good. Never after this did a shadow of doubt cross the path of this man concerning the truth of the doctrines of the New Church.

     From all this it is clear, that temptations involve more or less spiritual suffering even to some form of desperation and despair. Nevertheless they are an essential and necessary means of a man's regeneration

     Why are temptations necessary?

     Because regeneration involves the implantation of faith and charity, and thus the formation of a new will and new understanding. Temptations are necessary, then, because this cannot be done until the false and evil which oppose are overcome, and temptations in some form, are the only means for overcoming and removing the obstructing evil and false.

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Not only is it necessary for man to undergo temptations, in order to be regenerated, but he must endure man- temptations, which follow each other in successive order.

     Now, if, as we have seen, temptations are essential to a man's regeneration, and are accompanied with more or less spiritual and perhaps also natural suffering, there must surely be some very important spiritual ends and uses involved in their permission by the Lord. I think, therefore, it would be useful, and I trust profitable, for a reason to be given later, to present, briefly, some of the spiritual uses of temptations. These uses are:

     The external or natural man is brought under the dominion of the internal or spiritual man, which involves and includes the subjugation of the cupidities, the lusts and evil affections and passions and falsities of the natural man.

     Evils and falsities are broken up.

     A conscience is given and strengthened.

     Infernal spirits are deprived of any further power of doing evil.

     A man is confirmed in truths.

     His truths are more strongly conjoined with his good.

     Those who overcome in temptations learn from them that they are nothing but evil, and that all they receive of good is from the mercy of the Lord.

     Vessels recipient of truth rational and natural, are softened and made receptive of good.

     The multiplication of truth from good is effected because love of self and the world are removed.

     Truth and good are more interiorly implanted and more strongly confirmed. Thus all the evil induced by temptations is turned into good according to laws of eternal order.

     It is an effect of temptations, also, to lead a man into more interior societies, and thus to confer upon him a more extensive and elevated faculty of perception.

     The internal man is opened by temptations.

     Surely these are most important uses and constitute most valuable results of temptations overcome. But there is one thing which must be carefully bourne in mind in this connection, namely, these results are fulfilled in those who overcome in temptation, who do not yield, but persevere in overcoming to the end.

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     For to yield, we repeat, in temptations, means and involves to come into a state of grievous damnation, since, as we are taught, temptations are for the sake of the end that truths and goods may be confirmed and conjoined, which end is obtained when man conquers in temptations: but when he yields, then truths and goods are rejected, and falses and evils are confirmed; hence the man comes into a state of damnation. We see then from this that it is a very serious thing indeed to yield in temptations.

     Considering this subject of the necessity of temptations as means for attaining spiritual life, for becoming regenerated, for our salvation and entrance into heaven and its uses, we have, on the one hand, the necessary sufferings connected with their presence and endurance even to some form of despair and desperation, and the grave effects of yielding in temptations, and on the other hand the ends and uses of their permission by the Lord.

     Now taking the whole teaching as here brought under review, what, in a word, does it involve and lead up to, if not to the expression of the desire and petition, that the Lord will help us to overcome in temptations, and that He will help us to the end, that we may not yield, whatever may he the nature of the temptations, doubts, desolations, indignations, desperations, bitterness and deep despairings we are called upon to encounter and endure.

     The prayer, then, "Lead us not into temptation," interiorly viewed, really means supplication to the Lord that we may overcome in temptation, and that He may strengthen, support and sustain us in temptation, to and for the end that we may endure and as of ourselves overcome even to the bitter and despairing termination of our sufferings and trials.

     The practical value of this teaching is that it furnishes the rational reasons and spiritual ground for our doing this.

     The Divine example of our Lord and Saviour, as recorded in the letter and spirit of His Holy Word, is also most helpful, as a stimulus and incentive, to fight the good fight until victory crowns our efforts, and our spiritual foes are vanquished and cast into the hells, nevermore to torment us or threaten our spiritual life. We know from the Word in letter and spirit, that the Lord endured and Divinely overcame temptations inconceivably direful and bitter, and that they were absolutely necessary for the glorification of His Human.

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Some conception of their nature may be obtained his reflecting upon the fact, that temptations are assaults upon the love, and are bitter and distressful in proportion to the intensity of the love. The Lord combated and overcame all the hells, and met and endured the malignity and cunning of all the hells, from a love infinitely Divine and intense, a love embracing and yearning for the salvation of the whole human race. Into what utter insignificance do the greatest possible sufferings of mortal man sink in view of all this!

     His glorification is the Divine type of our regeneration. For the same relative reasons that He endured temptations, we must endure them. As He overcame them Divinely we must as of ourselves overcome them finitely. As He was glorified by means of them we must be glorified or regenerated by means of them.

     By His temptation-combats the Lord secured the Divine power to overcome in every man who looks to Him, implores His aid, and fights, as of himself, in temptation even unto the end; and this power is competent to overcome and cast out into the hells, the evils and falsities which constitute the hells in us to be overcome. As the Lord accomplished by divine acts of redemption and salvation, the deliverance of all men in all time, from the destructive power of the hells, so He performs the same work in each individual who shuns evils as sins against Him, and by temptations is raised out of the hell in which he is, elevated to spiritual life, and has his face and feet turned to heaven, so that happily as he progresses in the regenerate life, he may finally enter upon that path which leads to his place and home in the Lord's Kingdom above.

     It is the Lord alone who does this work in us and for us, as every tried and tempted one will come finally to acknowledge with humble and thankful heart. But let it be ever remembered that He cannot do this work in us and for us, except so far as we freely co-operate, and, as of ourselves, using the means He has given us in Divine truths from His Word, work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

     Our fears will disappear and our tremblings will cease, however, if we steadfastly look to and unfalteringly trust in Him in our temptations, even when He seems most absent and the mouth of hell seems wide open to swallow us up; and especially if we do not yield, be our temptations ever so bitter, our despair ever so great and distressful, and though it may seem to us that the burden is too heavy to be borne; but, on the other hand, fight, resist, contend and wrestle with, and continue to struggle against our spiritual enemies until we have overcome and vanquished them, and they are at and under our feet.

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For our encouragement in so doing let us remember the Lord's words, "Be ye faithful even unto death, and I will give you a crown of life."

     Do we not then need to pray this prayer with all the intensity of our nature, and from our strongest love for spiritual life, because of the temptations we may now be enduring, and those which we may be called upon to pass through? How can we hope to overcome them in the least degree, without the Lord's constant presence and aid?

     Let the prayer, "Lead us not into temptation," he ever and at all times with us, a most humble and devout petition to the Lord, to help us to overcome in temptation, even to the end, and we may not doubt, that if we do our part in overcoming, the outcome will be a blessing found in the accomplishment in us and for us, of the Divinely merciful ends and spiritual and eternal uses and benefits for which alone temptations are ordained and permitted in the case of every man solely for the end of his salvation.

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Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

"THE TOBACCO QUESTION."

     THE article on "The Tobacco Question," by Dr. J. B. S. King, which appears on another page, is a companion to the article by the same author on "Temperance," which was printed in the January Life. Dr. King makes it emphatically clear that the use of tobacco by those of immature years, before the growth of the body has stopped, is absolutely and unqualifiedly injurious. He also clearly shows that, after all has been said, the use of tobacco by adults in normal conditions of health cannot be shown to have any deleterious effects on the human system, while, as he further points out, there are several good effects which undoubtedly result from its use in moderation.

     There is, of course, in this as in all other things, the danger of abuse and intemperance. But the fact that it is easier to fall into habits of intemperance in this particular than in most other cases, should not blind men to the fact that it is intemperance and not tobacco that is the evil. Intemperance is the crying evil of the age,--intemperance in eating and drinking, in clothing and luxury, in money-getting and pleasure, in the passions of the mind. It is the will,--which, with the unregenerate, is little more than the animal instinct,--and not reason and the understanding, that rules in the Christian world at this day; on the natural plane it rules with nearly all, and on the sensual plane with by far the majority; there can be no other result than the evil of intemperance. Unfortunately, the limitation which has been placed on this word by common usage or misuse, has tended to blind the eyes of men to the innumerable forms of intemperance which are in daily practice, in some one or other of which they themselves may be indulging.

     The question of the neighbor, and especially of the ladies, is in this, as in fact in all other matters, a most important one, and deserves serious consideration. Every one is naturally disposed to indulge in his own particular pleasures, and to feel any restraint upon them as an irksome and unjust burden. To consider the neighbor, is a matter of regeneration, and the work of regeneration is certainly accelerated by self-restraint in even innocent pleasures which are injurious or legitimately offensive to the neighbor. There are, of course, obligations on both sides, and, after all, the question resolves itself into an individual one which each man will have to decide for himself. Matters of food, drink and clothing are not matters of religion, nor even, in themselves, of principle, and to make them such tends to blind the eyes to what is really of religion and principle.

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All such matters must be decided, with certain limitations imposed by society, by the individual according to the spiritual charity within him. So much for the question of the neighbor. But when Dr. King touches upon the relations of man and wife in regard to the use of tobacco, he approaches a delicate subject. The external relations of married partners must he left to the partners themselves, the only point upon which the outsider can speak with certainty being the general one that charity and conjugial friendship should rule. The externals of these may be widely different in different cases.
AFFECTION OF GOOD AND OF TRUTH versus AFFECTION FOR GOOD AND FOR TRUTH 1904

AFFECTION OF GOOD AND OF TRUTH versus AFFECTION FOR GOOD AND FOR TRUTH              1904

     There is a widespread tendency among the modern translators of Swedenborg's Writings to render the terms affectio boni and affectio veri with "the affection for good" and "affection for truth" instead of the old expressions "affection of good" and "of truth."

     It is admitted by the translators that the new terms are not a literal rendering of the original, but are an interpretation which they consider necessary because the old forms in their opinion are not intelligible to the ordinary reader. But, on the other hand, it is the opinion of many serious students of the Writings, including all the ministers of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, that the new terms destroy the philosophical and, alone all, the theological value of the new versions, and we would therefore plead with our brethren to consider the following reasons for retaining the "affection of good" and the "affection of truth:"

     1. Foremost among these reasons stands the indisputable fact that the "affection of good and of truth" is the only literal rendering of affectio boni and affectio veri of the original. What the Church wants, what fidelity to the original demands, is a translation of the Writings, not the personal opinions of the translators.

     2. If Swedenborg had intended to speak of the affection for good and for truth, he would have made use of the expression affectio PRO bono and PRO vero. But the fact is that he never employs this form. A careful search in Dr. Beyer's Latin Index has failed to reveal any such expression, and in the long article on this subject in Mr. Potts's Concordance there is not to be found a single instance of the objective for. If pro had ever been used in the original, Mr. Potts, with his minute exactness, would have been sure to have noticed it and would have translated it literally with "for."

     3. We cannot admit that the "affection of good and of truth" is an unintelligible expression. The claim is simply astounding. The new translators, themselves, profess to understand it, since they claim that it means the affection for good and for truth. If they thus understand it, why not credit the renders with a similar degree of intelligence.

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The old term is perfectly good English, as good as the terms "affections of charity and of faith," "affections of will and understanding," "affections of love and of wisdom." These expressions are quite intelligible to all New Churchmen; why not, then, also, the "affections of good and of truth?"

     4. The latter term has been used in the English versions of the Writings since the very beginning of the New Church, and has become an integral part of the well established terminology of the Church. Our fathers in the Church, for more than a century, have used it, and have used it intelligently. Is the present generation more weak-minded?

     5. The modern tendency in the New Church, is, we know, to give up, as far as possible, the distinctive terminology of the New Church, because, forsooth, it is "not to be found in the Dictionaries." And yet we find that the Dictionaries themselves are gradually adopting and introducing these New Church terms (labelled and explained as a "Swedenborgian expression"), which the Church has had the courage to retain, as, for instance, "proprium," "correspondence," "conjugial," etc. Every new science, like every new dispensation of religious truth, has introduced a new terminology to express new ideas, and the world in each case has gradually become accustomed to the new terms. What would have become of Christian Theology, if the early Christianity had refused to adopt the new terms, such as "Father," "Son," "Holy Spirit." "new birth," etc., which were introduced by the Lord Himself when on earth! These expressions were unfamiliar to the Jewish and heathen world, but did not the language of the Church prevail over the language of the whole world?

     6. The new translation destroys the philosophical and theological and thus the vital and only value of the original, because it does not convey the full meaning of the original. It limits the meaning of the original to one single, subordinate, and relatively external idea which, indeed, is involved in the original expression but does not dominate in it. For the "affection of good and of truth" contains the primary, subjective, and intrinsic idea of the internal origin and essential nature of the affection itself, whereas the "affection for good and for truth" presents only a secondary, objective, and extrinsic idea of a derivative affection and its outward direction and activity. The difference between the two ideas and the two affections are well represented by "the affection of truth and its desire," (A. C. 4382), and by "the affection of truth and of good, which are of love from the Lord and thence of love to the Lord." (A. C. 9279.) In other words, the affection is primarily of good and truth, from the Lord, and thence, derivatively for good and truth, from the man.

     7. When a person says "the picture affected me profoundly" he means not only that he had a strong liking or affection for the picture, but primarily that the affection hidden in the picture was conveyed from the artist to the spectator. It was thus the affection of the picture, the picture's own affection, which was communicated. So also the "affection of truth" means not only the affection for truth, but primarily the affection inspired by the truth, the truth's own affection, communicated from the Lord to the man who before did not possess this affection.

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Thus we are taught that "good continually inflows and produces the affection of truth, for affection of truth is from no other source than from the continual effort of Divine good to flow in." (A. C. 429)

     8. Within the truth itself, therefore, from the Divine Love, there is actually the affection which, when received by man, is called the affection of the truth. It is, then, not merely the man's affection for truth, which may or may not be genuine, but the Lord's own affection, produced, kindled, awakened with the man who is affected with and by the truth. The affection of truth, therefore, is the good of the truth itself, (A. C. 2658), and only derivatively the good of the man; it is the love of the truth, the truth's own love, not merely the man's love for the truth; it is the "willing truth," the willingness to do that which the truth wills,--not merely the desire for more intellectual instruction. (N. J. 112; A. C. 7342.) It is the state of being affected with and by the truth, and nor merely the disposition for, towards, or in favor of truth. (A. C. 2526, 2455, 3913, 1904.)

     9. As the heart corresponds to the love or the will of man, so the blood-vessels correspond to the affections of good and truth, derived from the love. (D. L. W. 405.) The affections, therefore, are the affections of the love, not for the love, even as the arteries are of the heart, not for the heart. So, also, the nerves proceeding from the cerebellum correspond to the affections of the love, or of the will, in other words, the affections of good, and the nerves proceeding from the cerebrum correspond to the affections of the faith or of the understanding, being simply the derivations and determinations of these faculties, or, what is the same, these faculties themselves in their extensions. All this fundamental and important correspondence is lost sight of and is obliterated if we adopt the new expressions "affections for good and for truth" in place of "affections of good and of truth."

     10. The new terms, moreover, destroy the series of things and interfere with rational thought. We know, for instance, that there are the knowledges of truth, the thought of truth, the understanding of truth, the perception of truth, the love of truth; and so also there is the affection of truth. The affections are as much the intrinsic properties of the truth or of the good, as are their knowledges and understanding, for all come, in the first place, from the Lord's Omniscience, Wisdom, and Love

     11. The difference between the possessive and the objective cases becomes very clear when we remember that the affections of good and truth are signified by "daughters." A daughter is called a daughter not because she has affection for her father, but because she is the derivation of her father's love, just as affections of good and truth come from good and truth as their father and mother. Hence the affection of good is called the "daughter of Zion," and the affection of truth is called the "daughter of Jerusalem." (A. C. 2362.)

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We might as well speak of the daughter for Zion and the daughter for Jerusalem, as to speak of the affection for good and the affection for truth.

     12. The impossibility of applying the "objective" principle of translating, with any degree of consistency, will appear if we apply the principle to the terms which are essentially synonymous with the affections of good and of truth. We are taught that "there are two kinds of affections, those of truth and those of good, or those of the understanding and those of the Will." (S. D. 4399) Would the translators render this with "affections for the "affections of charity and of faith, that is, the affections of good and of truth." (A.C.5639.) How would it sound if we were to render this with "affections for charity and for faith;" Why not, also, speak of the affections for the love of self, for mutual love, for conjugial love, affections for the mind, for the heart, for joy, for anger, etc., etc.?

     We shall not contribute to a correct and internal understanding of the Divine Truth by yielding to the demands of proselytizing impulses, which have more regard for what the outside world may think and desire, than for what the Lord in His Divine Providence has caused to be revealed and written. We cannot be wiser than Providence; we cannot make the Divine Truth more true, or more intelligible than the Lord has made it. We cannot work for the increase of the affections for good and truth by eliminating the affections of good and of truth.
Monthly Reviews 1904

Monthly Reviews              1904

     The issues of New Church Life for August and September will he published together as a double number, and will contain, among other things, the Journal of the Fifth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Even Thine Altars, published by the Nunc Licet Press, is a new book by G. D. F., (the Rev. G. D. Fercken), wherein the author deals with the subject of prayer. The book contains many original prayers constructed almost entirely in the language of the Word

     The German translation of the Nine Questions, by the Rev. F. Goerwitz, which appeared in the Monatblatter for March, has been issued as a separate tract of eight pages. In a note at the end it is stated that the translation was made from an English version, as the Latin, which is exceedingly rare, was not at hand. This makes the fourth translation of the Nine Questions made during the last two years.

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     The New Church Messenger of June 1, contains an interesting and valuable article by Dr. T. F. Wright, on "The Historical Truth of Scriptures," in which he shows that archeological research tends more and more to establish the teaching, that, after Genesis xi, the historicals of the Word are true historicals. Dr. Wright. we note, retains the somewhat ludicrous translation of "Historica facta." as "historical facts;" thus he speaks of true history as not being of the character "called historical facts," but as being "true in fact and in the letter!"

     In an address on "Courtship and Marriage" delivered before the Junior Members of the Kearsley (England) Society, which appeared in Morning Light for May 28th, "W. H. C." refers to some teachings of the Writings which are rarely noticed in Conference or Convention literature. He quoted some strong passages on the heinousness of marriage between those of different religions, and sums up, "It cannot be difficult, think, to see that the souls of married partners must be drawn more closely together where they have similar ideas of God, of heaven, of salvation, and of life here as a preparation for the life hereafter." Following the passages quoted this conclusion is a decided anti-climax; still it looks in the right direction, which, unfortunately, is more than can be said in most cases.

     On the subject of Betrothal "W. H. C." says. "Engagement takes the place of betrothal with us today. Some of the Academy friends have adopted the form of betrothal, and it is probable me ought, as a Church, to strive to come nearer the teachings of the Writings than we have as yet done in this matter." It would seem so, in view of the direct teaching that "consent (which is the engagement) is to be strengthened by solemn betrothal" that there may be a "conjunction of minds" and a "marriage of the spirit." C. L. 301-303.

     For some years past New Church Magazine has been publishing a series of articles, headed "The History of the Church." Each of these articles, of which over sixty have appeared thus far, contains a sketch of the rise and progress of the New Church in some one locality. While the facts brought out will doubtless be of use to the future historians of the New Church, it is a matter of great regret that the writer [or writers] of the sketches has confined himself almost altogether to mere facts--dates, names, details of buildings, etc. In some cases, this was doubtless due to ignorance of anything further, but, apart from this, it appears to be the general policy of the series of articles to omit almost all that is of real interest in the history of the New Church. Where there have been great doctrinal discussions and conflicts, with consequent changes and separations, all this has been passed over with the brief statement that "the Society had some internal troubles," and sometimes even this is omitted. In the history of the Colchester Society, which appeared in a recent number of the Magazine, the separation, owing to serious doctrinal differences, of the majority of the Society, who then joined the General Church, is dismissed faith the notice that "In the year 1890, internal troubles occasioned a large number of the members to dissociate themselves from the Society, but Sunday worship has never been discontinued."

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And yet the members who separated in 1890 have formed the only active Society in Colchester, from that time to the present, having a regular pastor for several years, and for the rest of the time regular and frequent ministerial visits.

     The flesh and blood of the history of our Church is the history of the progress of her thought, effected through discussion, and conflict. Mere details as to membership, ministers, finance and buildings are but the dry bone, and make very dry reading. In confining its attention almost altogether to these bones, the Magazine has lost a great opportunity.

     Very different from the Magazine articles are the first installments of a series recently begun in the Messenger for May 11th. The first three of these articles are by Dr. Sewall, and consist of a sketch of the Bath, Me., Society, and biographies of two of the most prominent founders of that Society--Zina Hyde and William D. Sewall, the father of Dr. Sewall. The author has invested these sketches, particularly the second, with a life and vivacity that gives a peculiar charm and makes them most interesting reading. His figures stand out prominently; both imagination and affection are stirred, so that one almost sees those earnest men of the early days, stands beside them in their simple services, enters their home and joins in their thoughts for the advancement of the Church.

     We gladly welcome this series of historical articles, so well begun; we may add the hope that when occasion arises they will not fail to deal with those discussions and conflicts which have brought the New Church thus far on its way. This will make them of value and interest not only to present readers, but also to future students of New Church history.
GENERAL CONVENTION 1904

GENERAL CONVENTION              1904

     The General Convention of the New Church held its Eighty-fourth annual meeting in Washington, D. C., from May 21st to 24th, 1901, preceded by the meetings of the Ministers' Council, which were held in Baltimore. The meeting was well attended, and, as we gather from the Messenger and from individual accounts, was considered a very successful meeting by most of those who were present.

     The Rev. C. J. N. Manby, of Stockholm, Sweden, was a prominent visitor. The Rev. J. F. Potts applied for membership and was enrolled among the General Pastors. As reported in the Messenger he said that "his heart was in the Convention and always had been.

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But at the same time he was at one with all Newchurchmen Uniting with the General Convention was only an external separation, and not even that, for he had never joined any other body in America, though he was an ordaining minister of the English Conference. All Newchurchmen were his brothers, but he joined the Convention as a congregation; this was his flag and the body to which his loyalty was pledged."

     The Theological School reported four students enrolled. The Council of Ministers appointed a committee to consider the wearing of vestments by ministers and choirs. The Rev. James Reed read a paper before the ministers on the relation of the Word and the Writings, in which he is reported to have said: "The illumination of Swedenborg did not differ in kind from that of any other person.
     
     Two Associations reported decrease of membership, while one reported an increase. A great deal of time was given to consideration of the question, "How can the meetings of the Convention be made more interesting and useful?" There were many suggestions looking to this end; among them the following:

     "Our meetings should be such that a stranger could take them in and understand the drift of them and get a good idea of what we stand for." Another speaker suggested that the Convention should "get away from the discussion of philosophical subjects. Here, for instance, is the vital subject of divorce. Let the Convention consider such practical subjects, let laymen take part and prepare before hand." Others thought that there was too much business, and it was proposed to change the constitution so that the General Council could be composed entirely of laymen, with the idea that the council should transact all business. It was also proposed to lengthen the time of Convention by one day, and a committee was appointed to devise means to make the next meeting more interesting and useful. All the general officers of the Convention were re-elected with the exception of the Rev. Wm. H. Alden, the assistant secretary, who was succeeded by Rev. J. W. Stockwell, of Chicago.

     There was a little note of discouragement two or three times, as when the Evidence Society reported that "we meet the startling fact that the drift of religious opinion is away from the two fundamental doctrines of the New Church--the Divinity of the Lord and the holiness of the Word." But they immediately added: "Yet we must not be discouraged at this; it is largely reactionary, not a direct denial and rejection."

     The Messenger editorial urges that "Convention should see to it that somewhere in the program of each annual meeting there should be at least one able, scholarly and profound presentation of the deeper teachings of the Church in regard to fundamental and rational doctrine." The President's address read at the opening of Convention was an earnest and eloquent plea for faith and courage in the midst of natural discouragements. The Sunday morning sermon seemed devoted to showing that the loss of vital power in the Old Church is only on the "intellectual side."

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Sunday evening was wholly devoted to a missionary address on Swedenborg.

     It is evident that Convention is still giving its first zeal and strength to the conversion of strangers. Its members are not yet ready to learn wisdom from the startling report to the Round Table two years ago, that out of 1700 infants baptized, since 1870, but 300 are members of the Church, and only 500, can be accounted for in any way; 1200 were wholly lost to the Church.

     A church whose first concern is to make proselytes has no valid reason for being, has no vital life in itself. It reverses the Divine order, and instead of feeding the children and allowing "the dogs" to gather the crumbs that fall from the Master's table, it breaks all the bread into crumbs and throws it to dogs, requiring the children to scramble with them for what they may he able to get. As we understand it, the Church exists solely for the sake of life. Her first duty is to develop a wholly new rationality and then a wholly new life in those who have been convinced of the truth of the Gospel which site teaches, and in the children committed to her care. Till this is done what good can she do to converts? Unless they find a life in the Church that is more real, more vital and stimulating than is to be found in other churches, they gain nothing and will not be drawn to unite With such a body. And it must be apparent that such life cannot be developed by mere missionary propaganda. That Church which builds up a distinctive life in herself, and which looks to a centre within her own borders, will do more and better mission work even than a body that looks away from a centre to those outside of herself as her strength and her means of growth. The former body by the vortical flow of the currents that go out from her and return to her as to their centre, attracts those who are ready to make a part of herself; while the latter body has no cohesive power to hold even her own together. W. L. G.
COMMENCEMENT EXERC1SES OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS 1904

COMMENCEMENT EXERC1SES OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS       F. E. G       1904

     THE commencement exercises of the Academy Schools, held on Thursday afternoon and evening, June 16th, were most beautiful and impressive. Two theological students, four students from the College, and thirteen young ladies from the Seminary, the largest number in the history of the Academy, were graduated.

     The exercises were held in the chapel, Bishop Pendleton, President of the Academy, officiating, assisted by the Rev. E. A. Price, Dean of the College and Seminary. What added greatly to the sphere of the occasion was the very large attendance of parents, relatives and friends who had come on to the General assembly. The members of the junior class acted as ushers, and the chapel was filled to overflowing both afternoon and evening.

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A march was played at the opening of both services, and the schools, headed by the Board of Directors and the professors and teachers, marched up the isle to the seats in front, the members of the Board of Directors and the professors and teachers taking their places on the chancel.

     In the afternoon, after singing and the reading of the lessons, six essays by graduates of the College and Seminary, were read in the following order: "The Philosophy of History," by Mr. Alexander P. Lindsay; "The Beginnings of American Literature," by Miss Clio Pollock; "The Bloods," by Mr. Charles R. Pendleton; "The Triumphal Procession," an imaginative story, by Miss Elsie Junge; "The Animal and Vegetable Soul," by Mr. Frederick E. Gyllenhaal, and "The Horologue of the Poets," the valedictory of the Seminary, Miss Rita Buell.

     In the evening the Rev. Willis L. Gladish read a thesis on "The Rational," and the Rev. Walter A. Brickman one on "The Affection of Truth." Mr. Randolph W. Childs then delivered the valedictory for the College, which was received with loud and continued applause. It was a fine production, and full of affection for the School and the Church.

     After the valedictory medals were bestowed upon the graduates of the Seminary; the Bishop, in addressing them, said, that now they were prepared to enter upon the fourth state in their lives; the first and second states were infancy and childhood, and the third state that of final preparation for their uses, they were now to enter into those uses, which will be, for the most part, in the home. After the medals had been pinned on by Miss Sherman, the undergraduates placed on the head of each graduate a crown of roses.

     The Bishop then conferred upon the graduates of the College the degree of Bachelor of Arts. In his address he said, that while their uses will be principally forensic, yet they also have their places in the home. But he particularly emphasized the fact that the Church looks to its young men to take up and carry forward her uses with intelligence and zeal.

     The Rev. W. L. Gladish and the Rev. W. A. Brickman received the degree of Bachelor of Theology; at the same time there were recognized by the Bishop as being in the second degree of the ministry, and were received by him as members of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church. The degree of Bachelor of Science was granted to Dr. E. A. Farrington, of Chicago, a former student of the Academy.

     Following the granting of medals and degrees, the young ladies of the Seminary came forward, and, facing the audience, sang the beautiful trio from Mendelsshon's Elijah, "Lift thine eyes." They were followed later on by the graduating classes of the College and Seminary, who united in singing the selection from the Psalmody, "Whosoever drinketh."

     After the service the graduates all assembled in the Gymnasium, where they received the congratulations of parents and friends. The evening was ended with dancing.

     This account of the graduating exercises of our school would not be complete without mention of two other notable functions.

     The first was on June 3d, when the Junior classes of the College and Seminary gave a social, at Cairnwood, in honor of the graduates.

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Besides the dances, which were long and delightful, there were several toasts (without wine) and responses. Miss Sherman spoke of the work of the graduates from the Seminary; Mr. Price of that of the male graduates, and Mr. Acton on the young people as the future workers in the Church. Each graduate was then presented with flowers, and the young men were called upon for remarks. It was a most enjoyable evening and one which graduates will long remember.

     The second event was on Thursday evening, June 9th. On that evening the graduates of the College and Seminary gave a grand ball to all their friends. The program was long, but of such variety and excellence as to keep all interested and happy from beginning to end. It is much to be regretted that there is no school paper, as the literature written for this evening is well worthy of being preserved in print for the use and delight of future Academy students.

     "The History of the Seminary Class of 1904," by Miss Korene Pendleton, gave a clear and interesting account of the class from its beginning many years ago. "The History of the College Class of 1904," by Mr. F. E. Gyllenhaal, described some characteristics of its members. The class poems by Miss Clio Pollock and Mr. R. W. Childs, also dealt with the characteristics of the members, and were very much enjoyed. "The Philosophy of the College Class of 1904," presented by Mr. C. R. Pendleton, made known a new school of philosophy,--the "hot air" school. Mr. R. W. Childs, the College songster, sang several pretty songs, and Miss Goldie Heilman, the musician of the Seminary, tastefully rendered a beautiful solo on the piano. Miss Rita Buell and Mr. A. P. Lindsay were the prophets, and in the pictures they drew of the future could easily be recognized the graduates of this year.

     Then the class-wills furnished great enjoyment and laughter. They were read by lantern light over a feeble bonfire of wood alcohol and salt. It had been planned to have a large bonfire on the campus but rain forbade it.

     One of the special features of the evening was a class dance, at the end of which the class banners were presented to the Academy. Another feature was the presenting of class photographs to the members of the Board of Directors, the professors and teachers, and a few friends; the photographs were also interchanged between members of the classes.

     It was an evening never to be forgotten. All these gatherings have served to more closely unite students and teachers, and now when the graduates go forth, many and dear will be their recollections of those happy times, and earnest will be their endeavor to so serve each other and the uses of the Church, that they may be a credit and honor to their Alma Mater,--that dear mother whom they love with an ever increasing love and to whom they can never render sufficient thanks for the blessings which she has bestowed so bountifully upon them. Firm may her sons stand to guard her name, and may her daughters ever watch her sacred flame. F. E. G.

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Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS

     Bryn Athyn. The Sunday evening lectures have been discontinued for the summer. The last two were: "Prayer," by the Rev. W. A. Brickman, and "Some Phenomena of the Spiritual World," by the Rev. Alfred Acton.

     The summer vacation has come, and the Academy Schools have completed their year's work. It has been a most successful and enjoyable year, and one that will be long remembered. At the commencement exercises nineteen graduates were sent forth; two from the Theological School; four from the College, and thirteen young ladies from the Seminary. An account of these exercises is given on another page.

     The graduating classes have been treated royally this last quarter. On May 28th a lawn party was given in their honor at Glenhurst. On June 4th, Miss Potts, the teacher of drawing, invited them, together with a few favored friends, to a card party, at which the graduates carried off the honors. On the following afternoon the graduates were invited to Mr. and Mrs. Henry Doering's home.

     The parish school held its closing exercises on June 9th. Mr. Synnestvedt, the headmaster, told of the work done during the year, and the children read compositions, recited pieces, and sang songs. It has been a good year despite the fact that Miss Alice Grant, owing to illness, has been compelled to discontinue teaching since Christmas. Miss Olive Bostock was asked to teach some of Miss Grant's classes, and has done so to the great satisfaction of all.

     Four boys and nine girls have finished their course in the Parish School, and will probably enter the College and Seminary next fall.

     The College boys have not had the same success at base ball as they had in foot ball last fall. They played six games and lost every one, though several were closely contested.

     On May 16th we received a visit from the Rev. Mr. Manby, of Sweden, who stayed over night with Mr. Odhner. He met most of the ministers here, and gave them an account of the work going on in Sweden.

     The fifth General Assembly was a glorious one. On June 10th the ministers' meeting began, and the Assembly itself opened with a good attendance on June 17th. On the evening of that day was the grand reception and the Assembly Ball. The gymnasium had been beautifully decorated for the occasion. On the walls were pennants in red and white, each with the name of some society of the General Church; while on the wall over the platform, worked with white daisies on a field of red, was the single word "Welcome." This event will be long remembered, and the committee in charge is to be congratulated on its great success.

     The dinners during the Assembly were devoted to the district assemblies of the General Church. Friday was "Chicago day," and the delegation from Glenview and Chicago came well prepared to furnish entertainment. Mr. W. H. Junge was the toastmaster, and kept his audience laughing most of the time. The Rev. N. D. Pendleton was toastmaster for "Pittsburg day," while on Monday Mr. Charles Brown presided for "Canada day," giving us some very pretty new songs, and on Tuesday the Rev. Alfred Acton was toastmaster for "Philadelphia day." But we hope a full account of these delightful banquets will he given in the Life.

     On Saturday evening two performances were given: "The Flower Queen," under the direction of Mrs. Heath, and "Julius Caesar," under the direction of Mr. Heath.

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Both were splendidly staged and presented, and the wish was expressed that they be repeated some other evening.

     Sunday, June 19th, will be long remembered. In the morning Dr. A. H. Beam, of Williamsburg, O., was baptized, and nine young ladies and one young man made their confession of faith. After these ceremonies, two hundred and fifty people partook of the Holy Supper, over three hundred being present in the congregation. Bishop Pendleton conducted the service, assisted by the Rev. D. H. Klein and the Rev. E. Cronlund. The offertory at this service, which amounted to over $137 was devoted to the Scholarship Fund. Three hundred and twenty persons sat down to the afternoon banquet, held in celebration of the Nineteenth. Mr. Odhner acted as toastmaster, and speeches were delivered by the Rev. Messrs. Gladish, Waelchli, Price, N. D. Pendleton, Acton, and Synnestvedt; but space forbids our dwelling further on this delightful occasion. F. E. G.

     Glenview. On March 20th a memorial service was held for Thomas L. Forrest, the oldest member of the Immanuel church and one of the first Newchurchmen in the city of Chicago Many reminiscences were related showing "father Forrest's" strong love and steadfast support of the Church, his warm interest in the welfare of its individual members, and the great delight with which he locked forward every month to the arrival of the Life. Though father Forrest had not been with us in person for some time, he had repeatedly let us know by messages and letters that his spirit was with us; and his departure into the other world marks the beginning of a new epoch for our Society.

     During the first week of May we enjoyed a very pleasant day's visit from the Rev. C. J. N. Manby, of Stockholm, Sweden. In the afternoon all met in the Manse to hear the very interesting account of New Church work in Sweden which our visitor so kindly gave us.

     Our last Friday class of the season resolved itself into a sort of mass meeting, to express enthusiasm for the coming Assembly at Bryn Athyn; and much of the time was spent in practicing the music to be sung at the sacred concert. L. E. G.

     Toronto, Ont. On Sunday morning, June 5th, two of our young men, Dr. E. K. Richardson and Mr. Robert B. Somerville, were introduced into the church through the gate of baptism by our pastor, Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

     The weekly suppers and doctrinal classes have been discontinued for the summer, the season closing Wednesday, June 1st, with an informal social.

     The closing exercises of the Local School were held here on Tuesday morning, June 7th, and was a most interesting event. Essays on "The Unity of God" were read by the older children, and the "Story of Joseph" was read by the children of the second class, each child having written a part.

     The papers revealed on the part of the pupils an intimate acquaintance with the Letter of the Word, and an intelligent grasp of its Internal Sense, both to a remarkable degree. The reading of essays was pleasantly interspersed with recitations by the children and songs by the whole school.

     Another engaging feature of the closing was an exhibition of work done by the scholars during the year, consisting of maps, drawings, needlework, etc. A handkerchief beautifully hemmed and edged with lace is not uncommon, but when it is entirely a result of the efforts of a tot of six years, it is well worthy of mention.

     Altogether the work achieved this year was eminently satisfactory, and showed diligence on the part of teachers and pupils. M. G. S.

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     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES

     UNITED STATES. The annual report of the American Swedenborg Society shows: an expenditure of over $16,000, and a cash balance of $41,000. Of the English Writings the Society has sold 2,500 volumes and donated 2,500; and of the Latin it has sold 23 copies and donated 42. A new translation of The Four Doctrines, made by the Rev. J. F. Potts, is in course of publication. It is also announced that Mr. Potts has been engaged to revise the English translation of the Arcana Coelestia.

     Following the custom inaugurated two years ago, the Societies at Brookline, Cambridge, and Roxbury will unite with the Boston Society in public service during the summer months.

     The Detroit Society, under the pastorship of Rev. John Whitehead, reports a membership of 92, the largest in its history.

     As a result of the monthly visits of Rev. Harry C. Vrooman, of Indianapolis, twelve New Church men of Columbus, O., have organized themselves into a New Church Society.

     The Rev. Andrew Parsons, pastor of the San Francisco society, is suffering from paralysis of the lower half of his body, and will perhaps be permanently unable to resume his duties.

     GREAT BRITAIN. "Bible Sunday" was observed on March 6th by 58 of the 78 New Church societies in Great Britain and by a number of the Sunday Schools. The total collections, amounting to $856, were handed over to the British Bible Society.

     Mr. Edward Seddon, who for over thirty-five years has been a voluntary "lay preacher" in the New Church, recently accepted a regular appointment as Leader of the Blackpool Society. At the "recognition" meeting of the Society the chairman, Rev. Joseph Deans, was supported by two local Unitarian ministers.

     The Leeds Society at the recognition meeting for their new pastor, Rev. John Elstob, on April 27th, presented him with a surplice and stole. The speakers included two Congregational ministers.

     SWEDEN. The society in Stockholm, of which Rev. C. J. N. Manby is pastor, has sent Mr. Manby as its messenger to Convention and Conference. Mr. Manby has also accepted an invitation from the Swedish-American N. C. Society to visit Chicago. He arrived in this country on May 14th, and on his way to Convention, he spent the evening and night of May 16th at Bryn Athyn, where he met several of the General Church ministers.

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Baptisms 1904

Baptisms              1904



     Announcements.

     Baptisms.

     ARMSTRONG.-At Middleport, O., May 22d, Mary Valeria Armstrong, aged six months, Bishop Pendleton officiating.
Change of Address 1904

Change of Address              1904

     The Rev. R. J. Tilson, 14 Upstall street, Camberwell, London, S. E.

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ANNUAL ADDRESS 1904

ANNUAL ADDRESS       Various       1904

NEW CHURCH LIFE.

VOL. XXIV. AUGUST--SEPTEMBER, 1904.

Nos. 8-9.

DELIVERED BY BISHOP PENDLETON TO THE FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

     There is cause for thankfulness and congratulation, that we have been permitted to meet together in General Assembly, after an interval of four years. It was not forseen, when the Assembly last met, in the year 1900, that four years would elapse before another meeting; but shortly after the last meeting of the General Assembly, the movement for the establishment of District Assemblies began, and was afterwards successfully carried out. Assemblies began, and was afterward successfully carried out. The needs and uses of a General Assembly were thus in part provided for. This consideration, together with the greater expense attendant on general meetings, made it appear that we could dispense with an annual meeting of the General Assembly without injury to the uses of the Church. But this year, it seemed to the General Council that an interval of four years was sufficient, and in response to a general desire, a meeting was called, and we have assembled in response to the call, and are now to consider together in a state of common thought and common understanding, those things which look to the welfare of our body, and the general good of the Church. And let us pray the Lord that a state of spiritual intelligence may guide our deliberations, and that power from on high may inspire our thought to see, and our will to do, that which will minister to the upbuilding of the New Jerusalem upon earth.

     We have also reason for thankfulness, that in this meeting we shall be free to consider matters directly bearing on the spiritual life, and progress of the Church; since questions of government and organization are mostly settled, and what is not yet fully settled is in a position to become so in the gradual process of the Church's development, under the guidance and protecting care of the Lord's merciful Providence.

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     It may be well, however, to review some of the conditions of our existing form, in order that we may see more clearly what is necessary for us to do, in the direction of intelligent and humble co-operation with the Divine Providence, in the work which is given us to perform.

     Let us first take a look at the present status of the Priesthood in our body. Our Council of the Clergy exists in the General Church, as a separate and distinct body, not directly under the control of the General Assembly. It was organized prior to the Assembly and the organization of the Assembly, as well as that of the General Church itself, has proceeded directly from it. This condition of organization has come about in a natural order, under the leading of Providence; and it places the Priesthood in a state of freedom such as has not existed before in the New Church. But we must be careful to remember and acknowledge, that it has come about not from any superior merit or deserving, not from own original invention or device; but under the Providence of the Lord it is with us as a direct result of the labors of those who have gone before. Others have labored and we have entered into the fruit of their labors.

     The greatness of the work done by the Founders of the Academy will assume larger proportions in the estimation of the Church, as time goes on, and clearness of vision increases. Their hearts were moved to give a powerful impulse to a work which was already begun; and we are now enjoying some of the fruits which we fondly trust will increase with every coming generation.

     The work which has preceded us has established the freedom of the Priesthood, and the only limitation that is put upon our work as unregenerate condition, a limitation that places bounds upon our spiritual vision, and constraints us to acknowledge the imperfection of human judgment, and the immeasurable expansion of spiritual wisdom which we have not yet compassed. But a great step has been taken, a great point has been gained, when the priesthood is independent and free.

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And what does this independence and freedom mean? It means simply this, that the priest is free to see truth in the light of heaven and not in the light of the world, that he is free to be led from heaven and not from the world. If the priest does not now enter into this freedom, it is his own fault and not the fault of our organization, nor the fault of the body of the Church.

     We are taught that the Priesthood is the first of the Church. This, its position as the first of the Church, is now fully recognized by our organization. What more is needed? Loyalty to the truth first of all, that the priest may see truth from heaven and not from the world. From this will come loyalty to the use, faithful conscientious work, out of which arises mutual confidence. It will thus be seen that confidence is a spontaneous thing. It does not come into existence by a vote or the passing of a resolution, it does not rise by complaint or demand; but it is the spontaneous result of conscientious labor as applied to the needs of a given situation. Confidence is then inspired as a gift of heaven to the Church, and becomes the form of a mutual charity and good will.

     The priesthood is the active in the Church, and the body of the Church is the reactive; and when the action and reaction are equal or mutual, an equilibrium exists, and thus freedom in all the parts. The reactive must be a reactive, and not a mere passive. If there is established by demand or command a state of passive obedience in the Church, we shall have what the Catholic Church has, a lifeless state spiritually, no independence or freedom of thought, no spiritual intelligence, no spiritual life, but apathy and indifference to spiritual things.

     If action and reaction be equal and mutual, in a state of mutual spiritual intelligence, then the reactive reacts with and not against. When the body of the Church reacts against the clergy, and thus becomes the active rather than the reactive; when the active of the Church is transferred to the laity, and ceases to exist with the clergy, that which is in itself the first of the Church, ceases to be the first. Then disorder reigns, and the Church does not prosper; for there is then a mutual conflict, a mutual effort at domination, the one over the other, resulting perhaps in the subjugation of the one by the other; when such a lamentable result exists in any general body, the Church is then in a state of preparation to be transferred elsewhere.

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     This naturally brings forward the question of the government of the Church. The word "government," when viewed under a natural idea, suggests dictation or command; but when viewed under a spiritual idea it suggests leading and leadership, a leading in freedom according to reason, and at the same time resistance and defense against that which would interfere, disturb or destroy such true leadership. The Priesthood must be free to lead in freedom according to reason, and must protect itself against all assault upon this freedom; and the laity must protect itself, and be protected, that it may react in a state of free and intelligent consent to the leading of the Priesthood; and the form of the government must be that which is best adapted to minister to these ends, under the conditions of a given situation.

     The form of a government is not an absolute thing. The form may vary under varying needs and conditions. Freedom may exist and good uses may be done, under almost any form, provided there be wise administration, a conscientious performance of duty, a looking first and last to the good of the country or the of duty, a looking first and last to the good of the country or the Church, shunning all inclination to self-advancement, or elevation of self to power and glory, at the expense of the common good.

     This does not mean that there may not be a choice of forms; this does not mean that one form may not in itself be more perfect than another. In the light of revelation, reason, and experience, we must seek that which is best, and then adapt it to the needs of the given situation.

     This is essential, that there may be order and subordination. Revelation, reason, and experience, have taught us, and precedent has established with us, that a trinal order of the Priesthood is that which is best adapted to a wise administration of the needs of the Church. Nothing better has yet appeared, or is likely to appear. But it is far from us to say, that good uses may not be under other forms, whether the form be democratic or absolute, provided a true internal exists within the form, and the importance of order and subordination be recognized. But it is our belief, and we are in the practice of this belief, that a trinal form in the Priesthood is that which is best adapted to the ends spoken of; and to this form we must adhere, under the belief which we hold, and under the practice of many years.

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     It is important to see and acknowledge, however, that there is no salvation by form alone, any more than there is by faith alone. The very best form is valueless to spiritual growth, and perfection in spiritual life, if there be no spiritual internal present in it to move and actuate it to efficient service: and it may become an engine of destruction, rather than the useful servant of the Church. If salvation be form alone, then all that is necessary is to continually perfect the form, and all will be well; then we may labor night and day to make the form perfect, and when the form has been made perfect, we may go to sleep and rest, for the machinery will continue to work, like the prayer wheel of the Buddhist, and we may not be concerned about a life of charity and faith, since the form is all powerful to save without any effort of our own. We need not then be concerned about such things as shunning evil as sin, or the conscientious performance of our daily duty. But this is absurd. Form is the servant and not the master.

     No form will answer as a substitute for individual self-control; and self-control is possible under any form. There may be a spiritual internal in any form. But given a spiritual internal, given individual self-control and a conscientious regard for the spiritual good of the Church, the more perfect the form the better will be the working and the more efficient the performance of the uses. Let us hope that the internal exists, and let us therefore endeavor to perfect the form; but above all let us endeavor to perfect the state for the sake of which the form exists.

     Our organization is already such, that the time of the Assembly need not be taken up with the discussion of the business affairs of the Church, but we are free to devote ourselves to the consideration of those things which are vital to the Church's welfare, to the things which relate to spiritual life, and spiritual development and growth. Our form is such that the uses will go on even if the General Assembly does not meet. The meeting of the Assembly is useful and important, when considered as a festival of the Church, but it is not essential to the continued performance of the uses. For the General Church is one thing and the Assembly another; and while the Assembly is an important factor in the growth and development of the Church, it is not the Church itself.

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The General Church is fully organized for use, independent of the Assembly. The uses go on and are provided for in any case; and the General Church is not dependent on the meetings of the Assembly; the uses could go on for many years without it. And yet the meetings of the Assembly must not be neglected. Our movement began with the distinct enunciation of the importance of Council and Assembly; and these must always be classed among the important agencies for the efficient performance of the uses of the Church. All the agencies must be in operation, and we must neglect none of them; we must not neglect one at the expense of another; for all look to spiritual intelligence and spiritual elevation of thought, to spiritual increase and the establishment of a truly spiritual Church. The one need is greater spiritual enlightenment, and every agency must operate to this end; and we are far from what we ought to be in this respect. There is not enough of self-control, there is not enough of spiritual interest and of affection, there is not enough of the reading of the Writings, there is not enough of good will, of harmony and unanimity of thought, not enough of looking to the one end of the good of the Church, regardless of self and the world. If there is a gradual increase of these vital things, we may be thankful, and ever pray for their continual increase.

     Since the last meeting of the General Assembly, four years ago, an important step in our general organization has taken place. I allude to the formation of District Assemblies. Beginning at Berlin, Canada, on January 1, 1901, the movement soon extended itself, covering the whole field of our Church. After the organization of the Ontario Assembly, a second was formed, with its center at Philadelphia or Bryn Athyn, a third with its center at Pittsburg, a fourth with its centre at Chicago, and a fifth with its centre at London, England. These bodies have been meeting annually, and all the indications point to the usefulness of these meetings. They have in part fulfilled the needs and requirements of Council and Assembly, and have rendered it unnecessary for the General Assembly to meet every year. It would be useful indeed if the General Assembly could so meet, but the expense and general strain of such annual meetings put a restraint upon us, and we must look to the annual gatherings of the District Assemblies to largely supply the need of Council and Assembly.

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But when not considering the District Assemblies, we have not been without something in the way of Council and Assembly. The General Council itself meets nearly every month, the Council of the Clergy has been meeting every year, and has met annually in joint Assembly with the Executive Committee; and the Executive Committee itself has met more than once a year. The uses of the Church have thus had ample consideration in Council; and as has been already remarked, all the uses of the Church have continued to be performed, even though our body has not met annually in General Assembly.

     We may not now be able to see all that is involved in the formation of the District Assemblies. Doubtless we may look, in time, to the formation of these bodies and others like them, into distinct dioceses of the Church, each presided over by a Bishop; but for this we must wait on the Lord's Providence in the slow development and increase of the Church.

     The need of more than one Bishop for the efficient performance of the uses of the Church is a question that has been actively before the Council of the Clergy since the last meeting of the General Assembly; and the Rev. Edward C. Bostock was chosen and inducted into the third degree of the Ministry. But his removal to the spiritual world still leaves this office where it was, with only one incumbent in that degree. The subject is at rest for the present, and the way is not now clear for a forward move in the matter. But the question cannot long be allowed to rest, in the very nature of things, and I invite the ministers and members of the Church to an active consideration of the subject; for the time is not far away, when the necessity of some action will be forced upon us. It is important that an orderly succession be provided for at an early day, to say nothing of the importance of extending the sphere of the usefulness of this office.

     The passing away of valued and useful members of our body, since the last meeting of the General Assembly, is a remarkable feature of our recent history. We cannot think without emotion of the apparent loss of such men as Robert M. Glenn, Carl Hj. Asplundh, Edward C. Bostock, Thomas L. Forrest, and others in America and England; and our brother, the Rev. Edward S. Hyatt, has been removed by serious illness from the active service of the Church.

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These men were among our leading and active workers, and we miss them much from their accustomed places of use. But faith teaches us that their use to us has not ceased, and that it is greater even than before. They will help to prepare a place for us, and. we must soon follow them, to be with them where they are, in a place where it will be good for us to be.

     The improvement of our forms of worship is a subject that has been actively in thought for several years. We have been taught that there is a trine in the priestly function, namely, government, worship, and instruction. The first and the third have received much attention, and the result is, that we have a form of government and organization, and a sound theology, such as have not existed before in the New Church; but the same cannot be said of our worship, or the forms of worship. We have, indeed, a few things in our ritual that are not found elsewhere in the New Church, but on the whole we cannot claim any advancement in this respect. It is not held that we should begin now to multiply the forms of ritual. This should be a growth, and come as a result of internal state: but we should at least improve what we have, advancing with reserve, looking to what is conservative and the meeting of actual needs. There is always danger of exaggeration when we undertake new things: but that improvement is needed is manifest, not improvement in the forms alone, but in the quality of the forms, and this is done when confession of sin is made the central motive, looking to a continual preparation for the Holy Supper.

     The Church is a field, and without the cultivating element of worship the field of the Church would be like a garden overgrown with weeds. This figure or representative is a real one, and is expressed in the Latin word for worship, cultus, from colere to cultivate. A Church without a degree of perfection in the form and quality of its worship is like a wild forest, as compared to a fruitful and cultivated field. It might be remarked here, that the English term worship, is from the same root as word, indicating another essential of worship, that it is formed from the Word or Doctrine from the Word.

     I am happy to announce that the Book of Hymns is now in process of publication, and that the first installment will probably be with us before this Assembly is over.

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Our members will find not only an improved quality in the hymns themselves, but in the music as well; for which latter we are indebted to the intelligent labor of Professor George Blackman, of Chicago. Other departments of the Liturgy are nearly ready, and we hope to begin publication at an early day.

     This address would not be complete without a word concerning our great use of Education, our chief instrumentality of Church extension. The founders of the Academy saw with clear vision, instructed by Doctrine and confirmed by experience, that little was to be expected in the way of conversions from among the adult men and women of the Christian world; and, therefore, they turned their attention to the young; and the fruits gathering around us are proving the wisdom of their judgment.

     Very soon the entire work of our Church will be in the active charge of those who have been educated in our Schools; and our hearts are gladdened from day to day, when we see the growing interest and affection of the young in the things of the Church; and we are prone to give thanks for the enlightened wisdom of the founders of our movement, in that it was given them to see the true source and spring of the Church's growth and development. Let us ever be grateful and at the same time faithful to this great initiative, fraught with blessings to us and our children.

     All that seems to be necessary now is to be true and loyal to the charge that has been given into our hands; since the present state of our educational work seems full of promise for the future. We have in this building and in these grounds, the evidence of material advancement; there is provision for the future in the endowment that has been given us; we have a faithful corps of workers; the young are interested in our work; we have this year a larger class of graduates than ever before, and our understanding of the needs of our use has been expanding and growing; what more do we need but a continuation of faithful work, and loyalty to the trust placed upon us, and a growth of confidence of the members of the Church in the workers and the work!

     The Board of Directors has lately added another department to the Schools of the Academy, namely, a Normal or Training School for the preparation of teachers. This is needed for the perpetuation of our use. We have had a Theological School from the beginning; and now teachers are to be prepared, who are to be taught the essentials of New Church education, such teaching as they cannot receive elsewhere.

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     The Normal School will include the training of Sunday School teachers, and a post-graduate course for the higher education of the young, a fuller preparation of the future mothers and fathers of the Church, for the uses of the home life, and a fuller opening of the rational faculty for the civil uses of the world.

     A word should be said on behalf of the use of scholarships that was inaugurated two years ago. Our members have doubtless read the warm and eloquent appeal for aid to this fund that has been sent out by the Business Manager of the Academy; and it is hardly necessary for me to add to what has been said in that appeal, except to call attention to the subject, and invite your consideration of it some time during this meeting. You will then be able to receive the testimony of our teachers as to the use that is being performed by the Scholarship fund; a use, even though the sum at disposal has been limited, which has gone beyond our ardent expectations.

     The allied use of the Orphanage is also entitled to your affirmative and affectionate co-operation. This use has been in active operation about three years, and it is hoped that there will be an increased interest in it with every year that passes by; for it has in it a promise of future increase, which is second only to the increase from births within the Church.

     It remains now only for me to declare that the Fifth Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem is now in session, and ready for business.

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HISTORY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH 1904

HISTORY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH       Rev. C. TH. ODHNER       1904

     It will be manifestly impossible to present on this occasion a complete review of the various bodies and movement in the New Church, out of which has grown our present General Church of the New Jerusalem. Nevertheless, I believe it will be of use as well as of interest to give at least a brief glance back upon the past through which the Lord has led this His Church, in order that, at this great festival of worship and brotherly love, we may have the more clearly before us the merciful leading and protection of the Divine Providence.

     From the beginning there have been, in the New Church, as in every preceding Church, two distinct and differing tendencies and corresponding movements, resulting from two distinct and often opposing loves. The one tendency has been internal, the other external; the one has been looking upward and inward to the new things that have been revealed by the Lord in His Second Coming; the other has been looking downwards and backwards to the old, has been looking for the Second Coming of the Lord and for the descent of the New Jerusalem in the literal sense of the Word, and in worldly science and progress.

     These two tendencies have been in perpetual conflict throughout the history of the New Church. The one has been active, positive, affirmative, distinctive. The other has been passive, hesitating, negative, seeking to obliterate as far as possible all distinctions between the New and the Old, between the spiritual and the natural.

     Hence there have always been two parties, or two 'opposing "schools of thought" in the New Church. The negative party,--self-styled "liberal,"--has always been in numerical majority, but the affirmative party, though few in numbers, has included the most profound and earnest students of the Heavenly Doctrines, through the labors of whom a clear, distinctive and internal faith and love has gradually become crystallized by an accumulative process of study, discussion, conflict and temptation. This internal movement, during a period of some sixty years, has ultimated itself in a series of successive external bodies, each of which has represented a distinct stage of external development, corresponding to the advancing development of internal lore and faith and life. These stages hare been represented by the Central Convention, the Pennsylvania
Association, the General Church of Pennsylvania, the General Church of the Advent, the Church of the Academy, and, finally, by the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

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     THE CENTRAL CONVENTION.

     1840-1852.

     Of this body, the parent seed of our present General Church, it is unnecessary to say much oil this occasion, as it has been pretty thoroughly described in the Life of the Rev. Richard De Charms, published in New Church Life for 1903, (see esp. pp. 246-248). As was there shown, the Central Convention represented a movement in the New Church in this country, of which Mr. De Charms was the chief leader and exponent, and he, again, represented and further developed those principles of New Church thought and life which at the very beginning of the Church had been expounded by the Rev. Robert Hindmarsh, the founder of the New Church in England.

     The organization of the Central Convention, as a body independent of the General Convention, was necessitated by the state then prevailing in the older body, a state in which loyalty to the Heavenly Doctrine and freedom of action according to reason could not flourish. The Divine authority of the new Revelation had been denied by the powers then dominant in the General [or, more strictly speaking, Eastern] Convention, and instant conformity to their puritanical and heretical notions was demanded, under pains of immediate excommunication. This arbitrary spirit was resented not only by the most conservative elements in the Church, but also by some of the most radical, and thus it came about that the Central Convention was, from the beginning, a very heterogeneous body, though at first the influence of Mr. De Charms and his theological friends prevailed.

     We find, in the Constitution of the Central Convention, (adopted in 1840), not only the acknowledgment of the authority of the Writings, and of the trine in the Priesthood, but also the declaration that the new body was "to be regarded as a General Church, existing at all times," (instead of all annual meeting of delegates) It was, as such, composed of individual members received by personal application, and unrestricted by geographical limitations,--a Church in which all financial affairs were confided to the Laity, while the administration of all internal or spiritual things was left in the hands of the Clergy, at the head of which there was to be a Council of ordaining ministers, in which one was to act as "primus inter pares."

     The state of the Church was not, however, as yet ripe for the successful maintenance of a body such as this, and the Central Convention, after a few years of active usefulness, became a prey to internal dissensions; the unsound elements gradually gained the upper hand; the General Convention apparently became inspired by a more liberal and conciliatory spirit; the Central Convention became inactive, and the remnant, in 1852, declared the body dissolved.

     But though the organization died out, the original spirit survived. Seeds had been sown which were destined to bear rich fruit in the future. A generation of young ministers of the Church had been indoctrinated by Mr. De Charms, men such as David Powell, N. C. Burnham, J. R. Hibbard, J. P. Stuart, Thomas Wilks, and, chief of all, William H. Benade.

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THE PENNSYLVANIA ASSOCIATION.

1845-1882.

     If we may regard the Central Convention and its principles as the parent seed of our present General Church, we may well describe the Pennsylvania Association of the New Jerusalem as its mother Church.

     This body, which was organized in Philadelphia on August 4, 1845, was the outcome of a movement among those societies in Pennsylvania which were friendly to the General Convention and opposed to the Central Convention. The members of the New Church who on this date organized the Pennsylvania Association were the Rev. James Seddon, with Messrs. Robert Glenn, John Lever, and Zachariah Gram, representing the Frankford Society; the Rev. Isaac C. Worrell and Messrs. David Snyder, Dr. A. E. Small and Thomas Kent, representing the Delaware County (or Darby Society); and Messrs. William Roberts, B. W. Stratton, and F. H. Ferry, representing the Philadelphia Second Society. The Rev. James Seddon, being an ordaining minister of the General Convention, was elected President of the Association, and remained in this office until the year 1858. The Association itself continued to meet semi-annually until the year 1862, after which time it met once a year.

     The meetings of this body, for a number of years, present but little of historical interest. The ministers connected with the Association, though earnest and faithful, were not among the leading lights of the New Church, nor were the lay-members especially distinguished for intellectual activity, the strongly doctrinal laymen being at that time associated with Mr. De Charms and the Central Convention. Nevertheless, under the leading hand of the Divine Providence, prolific seeds for future developments were being sown in a simple-hearted way by the members of the Pennsylvania Association, Reeds which are now thriving plants in the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Thus at the second meeting, held on October 9, 1845, a resolution was adopted expressing affectionate interest in the "Swedenborg Association" of England and America, which had for its object the publication of Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical works. This interest is still one of the distinguishing affections of our present General Church.

     At the third meeting held on August 13, 1846, a simple constitution was adopted placing the government of ecclesiastical affairs in the hands of a "Committee of Ministers," and the administration of finances and external affairs in the hands of a "Committee of Laymen," thus laying the foundation of the general order which still prevails in our Church.

     In the year 1847 the Association evinced its interest in New Church education by appointing a standing committee on Moral and Religious Instruction, and in 1848 the body experienced the first doctrinal conflict within its border, the majority, after much discussion, adopting a "Report" favoring the distinctive Baptism of the New Church.

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It may be remarked, in passu, that the Rev. W. H. Benade was present for the first time, as a visitor, at this meeting. In 1849 a Committee was appointed to receive contributions for the care and New Church education of orphans, an object which is still being cherished in the General Church as in no other body of the New Church.

     During the next seven years the Pennsylvania Association seems to have had a rather stagnant existence, untroubled by the doctrinal conflicts and ecclesiastical disturbances round about it, in Philadelphia and elsewhere. In the Philadelphia First Society a disruption occurred in the year 1854, when those who sympathized with the teachings of the Rev. W. H. Benade organized "The Philadelphia Society" and erected a temple and school-building on Cherry St. (cor. of Clermont St.), where they established a New Church Day School, to be conducted entirely according to what is now known as "Academy principles," in the Frankford Society, also, there was a separation, owing chiefly to personal differences, and a new society was organized, known as the "Philadelphia Third Society."

     In the year 1858 the Pennsylvania Association entered upon the second general stage of its existence, when Mr. Benade and his society in Cherry street were received into the organization, a step which meant that the remnant of the former Central Convention now became organically connected with the Pennsylvania Association, bringing with it those spiritual and personal forces, in this and in the other world, from which the "Academy movement" was first conceived.

     Among the members now received we find, beside Mr. Benade, the names of B. F. Glenn, Dr. David Cowley, Prof. Rudolph L. Tafel, Dr. George R. Starkey, and the Rev. Thomas Wilks, who was the pastor of the Delaware County Society. Mr. Wilks, a fiery Welshman of pronounced convictions, was now elected President of the Association, but Mr. Benade was the "power behind the throne," the real theological and ecclesiastical leader.

     The influence of Mr. Benade was quickly felt. Thus, at the semi-annual meeting on August 26, 1858, the Association passed a resolution declaring its satisfaction at "the growing usefulness of the school connected with the Philadelphia Society" and that it is "fully impressed with the importance of a judicious and correct system of education for the young in the New Church, and commends this school to the patronage and sympathy of all receivers of the Heavenly Doctrines."

     Again, in 1860, an unsuccessful effort was made by the Association to reach out for the functions of a general Church an invitation being extended to the Societies and receivers in New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia, to unite with the Pennsylvania Association "for the more efficient performance of the general uses of the Church."

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     In the year 1861 a great forward step was taken when the Association placed on record its full acceptance of the Divine Authority of the Writings as the inspired and infallible Word of God. A committee had been appointed the preceding gear to "report on the nature of Swedenborg's illumination." This report, which was signed by Mr. Benade and Mr. Wilks, is a most important document, dealing at length with the whole subject, and closing with the declaration that

     "as the Lord has made His Second Advent through the instrumentality of Swedenborg, the truths which he has been the means of revealing to us, are Divine; that they are the Lord's spiritual Word, being the spiritual sense contained in the natural sense of the Sacred Scriptures, wherein the Divinity of the Word resides; that these truths have all Divine authority, as the Lord's Word to His New Church, as Himself in His spiritual coming for the establishment of His last and crowning dispensation to the world; and that, therefore, because this is the crown of all former dispensations, it is also, and must be, received and acknowledged as a finality."

     This, as far as we know, is the first, the very first, distinct announcement of the "Academy Doctrine" in its fulness, and this report was accepted by the Association and ordered printed in the Journal of the Association.

     At the meeting in 1862 another important step was taken in the right direction, given the Association adopted a constitution, in the "Preamble" of which we find the distinct acknowledgment of the "Divine Authority of the Heavenly Doctrines, as that dispensation of Divine spiritual truth by which the Lord is making His Second Advent in the world." In this constitution, also, the Trine in the priesthood was formally recognized, the three degrees being those of ordaining ministers, pastors, and ministers, with functions and duties virtually the same as in our present Church, in the first draft of the Constitution, the title of "Bishops" was used, but this was afterwards changed into that of "Ordaining Ministers," as the former title was declared inconsistent with the then prevailing Constitution of the General Convention.

     In 1864 the Pennsylvania Association held its first serious conflict with the General Convention. The Philadelphia Second Society," dissatisfied with the newly adopted Constitution; abruptly and without assigning any reasons, withdrew from the Association, laid its grievances before the Convention, and was received by it as an isolated Society, contrary to the Constitution of the Convention itself. The Pennsylvania Association, at its meeting in 1864, adopted a report of a special committee, in which, after reviewing the history of the whole case, it is shown that the Convention, "without making the least inquiry of the Association in regard to the matter, or even informing the Association of the accusation brought against it, justified the Philadelphia Second Society in the step it had taken, and, regarding it, or pretending to regard it, as having suffered injury, received it to its embrace and under its protection; and thus passed upon the Association its sentence of condemnation, without even informing the Association why it was condemned."

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The report, therefore, in plain language, declares that "the action of the General Convention in relation to this affair was altogether disorderly, was a direct violation of its own Constitution, and of the law of charity given by the Lord for the general government of His Church, and was both unjust and discourteous to the Pennsylvania Association."

     This declaration is very similar in tone to that adopted by the General Church of Pennsylvania in 1890, when, for reasons similar to the offense of 1861, this body severed its connection with the General Convention. In the meantime, during the intervening thirty years, the relations between the Association and the Convention became each year more strained, the larger body acting more and more as a stepmother towards the lesser one, discriminating against it on all occasions, with innumerable petty persecutions and oppressions, the complete tale of which would be tedious to relate, but the sum-total finally rendered the connection intolerable and the separation inevitable.

     During the next few years the activity of the Association seems to have been in a languishing condition, and the reports of its meetings are devoid of any special interest. In consequence of conditions resulting from the Civil War, Mr. Benade found it necessary to give up the pastoral charge of the Philadelphia (or Cherry street) Society, and he removed, in 1864, to Pittsburg, to take charge of the growing society there, which had been organized by Mr. De Charms in 1831 and had joined the Pennsylvania Association in 1859. In the meantime troubles were brewing in the Delaware County (or Darby) Society, between the Pastor, Mr. Wilks, and certain of his parishioners The differences were, at first, of a more or less personal nature, and Mr. Wilks was sustained by the Association, when it met, for the first time, in Pittsburg, in 1867. But after a while it became apparent that Mr. Wilks, in his old age, had become infested by spiritualism and pseudo-celestialism. His conduct and teaching became more and more erratic, and as he refused to resign from the presidency of the Association, the troubles increased, and finally culminated in open revolution at the second meeting held in Pittsburg, in the year 1871.

     In view of subsequent events, occurring twenty-eight years afterwards, it is of importance to note how this revolution was effected. We quote here the words of the Rev. W. H. Benade, in his review of the occurrence: As Mr. Wilks "declined to relieve the Association by resigning his office, it became necessary for the preservation of the body to adopt the radical measure of abrogating the Constitution with a view to an entire reconstruction of the organization.... The Constitution was suspended, a temporary organization adopted, and a resolution passed, inviting all members of the New Church in the State to unite in the formation of a new general body. The Rev. N. C. Burnham was chosen temporary President, and the whole subject of reorganization was placed in the hands of a committee." (Journal of the Gen. Church of Pa., March, 1886, p. 50.)

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     We must confess that this revolutionary procedure seems to us to have been quite unnecessary, in view of the provisions of the old Constitution that "the President and Vice-President of this body shall, after election, retain their respective offices during the continuance of mutual confidence between them and the members of the Association" (Art. V, par. 3), and that "the officers of this body shall be a President, . . . and such other boards, functionaries and agents, as may be appointed from time to time by the Association in general meeting assembled, or by its authority." (Art. V, par. I). The Association, therefore, could, in perfect order, have proceeded to the election of a new President, without abolishing the Constitution or breaking up the old organization.

     Strenuous efforts were now made to attract to the new Association Newchurchmen of all shades and schools of thought within the State, and there were several meetings of consultation with the "New Church Congregational Union," a "radical" body organized by the Rev. B. F. Barrett, but the negotiations were fruitless, and the Association reorganized, with its old membership, at a meeting on September 2, 1872, when a new Constitution was adopted, entirely void of the old distinctive features of the former Constitution. It was decidedly a step backwards, necessitated, perhaps, by the temporary majority of certain reactionary members.

     During the next ten years the Pennsylvania Association remained, apparently, very much like any other State association connected with the General Convention. The journals of the annual meetings present but little of spiritual interest, for the activities of the leading spirits were countered elsewhere, that is, in the "American Conference of New Church Ministers," in the General Convention itself, and, after 1876, in the Academy of the New Church.

     In the meantime important changes were made in the officers and constituency of the Association. The Frankford Society and the Philadelphia Second and Third Societies had dropped out of the membership in the early sixties, and of the original components of the Association there remained, in 1872, only the Darby Society, which became virtually defunct with the death of its last pastor, Mr. Wilks, in 1872. But the Philadelphia German Society, with the Rev. L. H. Tafel as its pastor, united with the Association in 1869; the Rev. W. H. Benade was elected President in 1873; the Allentown Society was received in 1875, the societies in Erie, Utahville, and Sanborn, (Clearfield Co.), in 1876, and the Greenford, O., Society in 1878, at the same time with the Advent Society in Philadelphia, which had been organized by an amalgamation of the old Cherry St. Society, with the German Society and a number of members from the Philadelphia First Society, who, under the teaching of the Rev. W. F. Pendleton, had embraced the principles of the Academy of the New Church.

     The Pennsylvania Association thus gradually became thoroughly imbued with the principles and influences of the Academy, but though it continued quite vigorously to perform the use of supporting evangelistic uses within the State. it became more and more the merely external connecting link between the Academy and the General Convention, on the floor of which the annual battles between the "right" and the "left" wings of the New Church in America were being fought.

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THE GENERAL CHURCH OF PENNSYLVANIA

1853-1890.

     This condition in the Pennsylvania Association continued until the year 1883, when the body found itself in freedom to organize itself actually into a General Church, with an Episcopal form of government. The way was opened for this development by the General Convention itself, which, in 1862, had adopted a new Order for the Ministry, at the same time recommending its various component Associations "to make such specific rules under the general rules for the regulation of the Ministry as they may consider necessary or desirable."

     At the annual meeting of the Pennsylvania Association, held in Philadelphia, March 17, 1883, this organization, therefore, changed its name to "The General Church of Pennsylvania," and adopted an "Instrument of Organization," distinctly recognizing the Divine Authority of the Heavenly Doctrines as the presence of the Lord in His Second Advent, the government of the Church by the Priesthood, the Trine in the Ministry, the Episcopacy of the third or highest degree, and the division of the administrative functions into a Council of the Clergy and a Council of the Laity.

     The General Church now entered upon an era of internal development and also of conflict, such as had never before been known in the history of the New Church. The annual meetings were henceforth more generally attended, more occupied with discussion of important and interesting subjects, fully reported in the annual journals. Having been set quite free from external restraints, the General Church each year witnessed new developments of principles and practice. It became an experimental field for the immediate application of new ideas, and also the scene of conflict between the new ideas and the old, within and without the borders of the organization.

     The first conflict occurred in connection with the Allentown Society, where trouble was fomented by the opponents of the Academy in Philadelphia. By a small majority vote the Allentown Society withdrew from the General Church early in 1853, and a separation, attended with much violence on the part of the "radicals," took place the new year, after which some thirty members of the disrupted Society became again connected with the General Church.

     At the annual meeting held in Philadelphia, March 24th, the circles in Erie County and in Renovo were received into the General Church, and the appointment of the Rev. J. R. Hibbard as "Co-adjutor Bishop" was confirmed. Dr. Hibbard was very active in the missionary field, and organized several little societies in various parts of the country which swelled the membership, but did not materially add to the strength of the General Church.

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     The next annual meeting, held in Pittsburg, May 23, 1885, is memorable on account of the reception of the small circle in Concordia, Kansas, and of the First German Society in Brooklyn, N. Y., this action signalizing, the fact that the General Church now considered itself no longer a State Association, but truly a general Church, ready to receive into its membership individuals and societies anywhere, irrespective of geographical limitations. This fact was further emphasized by the reception of the newly organized Immanuel Church of Chicago, on September 5, 1885, an action which gave great offense to the authorities of the Illinois Association and the Chicago Society of the General Convention, although the objection was invalid inasmuch as the Immanuel Church had never been connected with either of these bodies or in sympathy with their methods and policies.

     The "organization of the General Church, irrespective of geographical limitations," was one of the subjects discussed at the meeting in Philadelphia, March 19-21, 1886, when it was pointed out that the reception of the Immanuel Church, which had produced great irritation in the General Convention, was in entire harmony with the ruling of the Convention itself, in 1983, according to which "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." (Journal of 1883, Min. 49.)

     Among the other subjects discussed at the first meeting in 1886 was the question whether the property belonging to the Societies of the General Church should be vested in the General Church; a resolution was adopted favoring such procedure, but, in the Divine Providence, no further action was taken. At the same meeting, also, it was decided to change the time of the annual meetings from the spring to the autumn, and hence it came to place at Pittsburg, November 12th to 14th. At this latter meeting there was a great deal of discussion concerning the proposed Incorporation of the General Church and the best arrangement of its finances. It was decided, also, to proceed with the preparation of a new Liturgy, and an important resolution was adopted, requesting the General Convention to take steps to secure the speedy photolithographing of the manuscript of the Spiritual Diary. A committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions for this purpose, and circulars were issued inviting the co-operation of all interested. Thus was first set on foot the movement which now, after a period of eighteen years, has been brought to a successful termination.

     At the annual meeting in 1877, (Philadelphia, Nov. 10-13), the nomination of the Rev. L. H. Tafel as assistant Bishop was confirmed, (the Rev. J. R. Hibbard having resigned on May 28, 1886); it was decided to assist financially the Rev. J. F. Potts, in order to facilitate the preparation of the Concordance to the Writings; and a resolution was adopted recommending the Council of the Clergy to proceed at once with the preparation and publication of a new translation of the Word, based upon the Latin translations given in the Writings. This undertaking led to serious differences between Mr. Tafel and the rest of the Council as to the principles of translation, and this, again, added to the growing disaffection of the pastor of the Advent Society.

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     The troubles in the Advent Society culminated in the fall of 1888, but were not, to any great extent, referred to at the annual meeting of the General Church during that year, (held at Pittsburgh, Nov. 15-18), which was chiefly occupied with discussion of such subjects as the Calendar, the use of reading in choirs, the translation of the Word, and the financial support of the Ministry. It was at this meeting that Bishop Benade first proposed that the pastors of societies should be supported by free-will offerings given at the services, as an act of worship.

     The annual meetings in 1889, (Philadelphia, Nov. 21-24), following upon the scandalous Convention in Washington, was devoted to a review of the relations between the General Church of Pennsylvania to the General Convention. These relations, which had been sustaining a constant strain ever since the pear 1864, were now at the point of breaking. The Washington Convention, without an attempt at investigation, had censured the acts of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church within its own jurisdiction,--acts which had been taken entirely according to the constitutional provisions of the Convention itself. This, however, but a culminating incident of countless manifestations of hostility directed not so much against the ministers and members of the General Church, as against the spiritual principles or genuine truths of Doctrine, upon which the General Church and the Academy were founded. It is not within the scope of the present paper to review the persecution and the acts of injustice to which the General Church and the Academy were subjected by their brethren in the Church at large, not only in America, but also in England; these things are still fresh in the memory of "most of us, and the record of them may safely be left to a future historian. The present paper is only a brief outline of the General Church as represented by its annual meetings. We only need mention, therefore, that at the meeting of the General Church in 1889, the advisability of separating from the Convention was seriously considered, and a resolution was adopted, stating that "the acts of the General Convention, enumerated above, merit and receive our condemnation; and that we deplore the lack of charity, of common justice, and of equity, manifested by the majority in Convention."

     The reports of the General Church, incorporating this resolution, was rejected by the General Convention meeting in Chicago, 1890, at which time, moreover, the Convention took occasion to stigmatize as disloyal "to the spirit if not to the letter of the Constitution," the action of Bishop Benade in ordaining the Rev. W. F. Pendleton into the third degree of the priesthood, in a body, (the Academy), which was in no sense associated with the Convention or subject to its Constitution.

     Freedom of expression being thus denied to the General Church, and freedom of priestly action being refused to its priesthood, external separation from the General Convention now became a matter of necessity for the continued existence of the General Church. And, therefore, after most serious deliberation in joint councils and in general assembly, the annual meeting, held in Pittsburg, Nov. 13-16, 1890, adopted the following preamble and resolutions:

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     "WHEREAS. It has become evident that 'the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States of America' is not in internal accord with the General Church of Pennsylvania, and that the external bond existing under and by virtue of a compromise compact, has been rent asunder by the General Convention, both by the acts of its duly constituted officers and also by the acts of a majority of its members in solemn convention assembled; therefore, be it

     "Resolved, that the clause reading 'constituting a part of the most general Body of the New Church in America, styled The General Convention' [etc.] 'be hereby expunged from Paragraph 1, part 2, on 'organization' in the Instrument of Organization of the General Church of Pennsylvania, and,

     "Resolved, That the Councils of the General Church of Pennsylvania be requested to draft and transmit to the General Convention a Declaration setting forth in appropriate terms the position of the General Church of Pennsylvania and the circumstances of the severance of the external bond heretofore existing between it and the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States of America."

     Thus was severed the slender cord by which the younger body had been externally connected with the older one, and thus also was brought to its legitimate ultimation and fruition the movement which, since the first beginning of the New Church, had been working and gathering forces for the establishment of an external Church, in which the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem should find freedom of application to associate as veil as individual life.

     At the same meeting the name of the body, and the whole Instrument of Organization, were referred to the Council of the Clergy, in order to make both conformable with the new state into which the General Church had now entered. On the same occasion, also, it was made clear that the General Church, as such, does not consist of particular societies but is composed of individual members, individually accepted and received. In other words, a person does not become a member of the General Church by being received into a local society, but by personal application to the Bishop, after which he may or may not become associated with a particular society.

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE ADVENT OF THE LORD.

1891-1897.

     The General Church having cut loose from the General Convention, the scene of its external conflicts, and having gained complete liberty of speech and action, now entered into an era of internal conflict and temptation. The new wine, having been transferred from a closed to an open bottle, began to ferment more than ever before, a process which was absolutely necessary but not altogether pleasant to look back upon.

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Evils and falsities, hidden--not in the principles but in the leaders and members of our body,--now began to rise to the surface, for this was the only way in which they could come to our own notice and he rationally rejected. The temptations in the General Church, during this period, arose from a well-meant but impatient desire to ultimate at once our internal principles, to apply them strictly to external things, without due regard to actual circumstances and necessities.

     Thus the desire for order and correspondence in our external worship was for a while misapplied so as to lead us into an exaggerated ritualism. Reverence for the priesthood, and especially for the aged head of the Church, for a time tended towards man-worship and autocracy. The devotion of the Church to the uses of Education was exaggerated so as to place these far above the actual ecclesiastical and pastoral uses, the former being supposed to be internal and celestial. While the latter were more or less regarded as merely spiritual and external. Hence there arose a movement to divide our weak forces into two distinct Churches, the Church of the Academy and the General Church, each with its own distinct priesthood membership, and externals of worship. But, "men proposed, and God disposed," in this as in all other cases.

     By action of the Joint Councils, early in 1891, the name of the General Church of Pennsylvania was changed to "The General Church of the Advent of the Lord." No general meeting of the Church was held this year, but an important meeting of the Joint Councils, attended by many visitors, was held at Knight's Hill, (now Cairnwood), near Huntingdon Valley, on June 20-26, 1891. At this meeting the former Instrument of Organization was declared "abolished," and it was decided to do without any written constitution for the Church in the future, the following "Declaration of Purpose" being adopted in its stead:

     "The General Church of the Advent of the Lord declares its purpose to proclaim and teach the everlasting Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ reigneth, as that Gospel is set forth in the books written by Him through His servant, Emanuel Swedenborg."

     At the same meeting, also, there was much discussion about the relations between the Academy and the General Church, most of the speakers favoring, while some opposed, the idea of two churches. Bishop Benade, here, for the first time, manifested a disposition to limit, arbitrarily, the freedom of discussion, but his impatience of opposition was regarded, then as now, as the consequence of the serious illness which had overtaken him in the summer of 1889.

     The action of the Joint Councils was strongly opposed by the then pastor of the Pittsburg Society, who, without previous conference with his brethren in the Clergy, seceded from the General Church together with his followers. The steps taken by the Joint Councils in 1891 were, however, confirmed by the first annual meeting of the General Church of the Advent, held in Pittsburg, June 23-26, 1892, although a good deal of doubt was at the same time expressed as to the wisdom and desirability of the two-church idea.

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But despite growing internal differences, the General Church increased greatly in membership during the year, by the accession of societies in Berlin and Toronto, Canada, and London and Colchester, England.

     No annual meeting of the General Church was held during the year 1893, but a meeting of the Clergy was held at which Bishop Benade offered his resignation from the episcopate of the "external Church." The Rev. E. C. Bostock was then elected as the successor, but declined the office, not being convinced as to the necessity of maintaining two distinct churches. Bishop Benade then withdrew his resignation and resumed charge of the General Church, the functions of which were at this time to a great extent being transferred to the "sister Church," the Church of the Academy.

     During the year 1894 the General Church of the Advent remained in a comatose state, as the interest and work of all the leading ministers and members were centered in and absorbed by the Church of the Academy. An informal meeting of the Joint Councils was held at Huntingdon Valley, at which the mutual relations of the "two churches" were further discussed, but no general meeting was held. The Bishop, in June, 1893, had left for London where he remained for a year and a half, and where, on August 8-20, 1894, he presided over a meeting of "Priests of the Academy," eight of whom were visitors from America, while five were resident in England. The government of the Church was the principal subject of discussion, Bishop Benade now "stigmatizing as a contravention of the Divine teachings the tenets of government once advocated by him, viz., that there should be a governing body in which one should be 'primus inter pares.'" Instead of this he advocated the government of a single "High Priest," who was to be responsible to the Lord alone and against whose judgment there could be no appeal. Bishop Benade also declared that "the Church has no power in any way to reject or cast off a High Priest who utterly goes wrong;" but, he added, "let the members of the Church follow their own convictions and relieve themselves of their connection with the priest--that is depart from him" (New Church Life, 1893, p. 189).

     The ever increasing tendency towards autocracy, the confused and confusing relations between the two churches under their one head, the summary dismissal of the old and well established Council of the Academy, and other acts of impatience and misjudgment on the part of the aged and feeble Bishop,--all these things produced a distressing state of unrest, anxiety, distrust, and apathy, in the Academy as well as in the General Church. The impossibility of the situation became more and more evident, but so great was the desire to maintain the peace, order, and uses of the Church, and so intense was the spirit of loyalty and gratitude to the "grand old man" who had founded the Academy and crystallized its principles, that no steps of a revolutionary tendency were ever taken by any of the leaders or members of the Church. Indeed, so powerful was still the sphere of that masterful mind, that in his presence doubt and opposition were persuaded in spite of reason and common sense.

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It must be remembered also that most of the ministers and leading members were at that time very young men, instructed and educated by Bishop Benade, and proud to acknowledge as their intellectual "father" that most valiant champion of the Divine Truth. Let us, therefore, look with charity upon the fallacies and persuasions of our charity upon the state of our old Bishop, for the inmost spirit and purpose of both were that of loyalty to the Heavenly Doctrine.

     The second and last general meeting of the General Church of the Advent was held at Pittsburgh, October 15-16, 1895. It was very poorly attended, only eight members being present from outside of Pittsburgh. The Bishop distinctly prohibited any discussion on the subject of the "two churches," but he himself had much to say about the three churches,-the Academy, the General Church of the Advent, and the General Convention. The old Council of the Laity was curtly dismissed, and in its place a new treasurer was appointed, directly responsible to the Bishop alone.

     The "two churches" were now hastening towards their dissolution. Throughout the borders of our movement there was disturbance, discontent, and apathy. The unhappy treasurer and the equally unhappy, newly appointed secretary, made monthly and increasingly urgent appeals for financial support and hearty co-operation in the uses of the General Church, but met with but little response. No general meeting was held in the year 1896, but the ministers met in Philadelphia, June 24-34 for the last time under the presidency of Bishop Benade.

     At this meeting the Bishop took the position,--logical enough on the false premises which he laid down, but more extreme than the wildest claims of papacy,--that "the High Priest is the qualified to nominate his successor." To the rest of the priesthood, indeed, was granted "the right to accept the nomination," but "they have no veto power," for a case might arise in which he, in his illustration, would nominate the best man, yet not according to their preference." It was admitted that "a wise head would consult the preference of the priesthood as to their future head, would act freely according to his own judgment; and a wise priesthood, after freely expressing themselves, would accept their governor's nomination and yield the contest of the governed,"-all of which, of course, could mean but one thing, viz., that the High Priest must have the right to appoint his successor, and thus deprive the priesthood of the last vestige of its freedom.

     In looking back upon this meeting, after a lapse of eight years, it seems most remarkable that claims such as these, diametrically opposite to the plain teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine itself, (see A. R. 716), did not at once result in that general withdrawal from Bishop Benade's government, which actually took place eight months later. It may be that the Clergy did not immediately grasp the full significance of the Bishop's extraordinary claims; or it may be, that the report of the meeting, published in New Church Life for August and September, 1896, did not correctly represent the discussion on this subject.

417


It is certain that the Life misrepresented the subsequent discussion on the subject of the notion of "two churches," or, rather, "three churches," against which earnest protests were made not only in a written paper read to the meeting, but also by a number of speakers on the floor.

     Be this as it may, the members of the General Church and of the Academy had now become thoroughly prepared for a radical change of ecclesiastical policy and conduct, so that, when the Bishop, in January, 1897, added an act of violent injustice to his previous misrule, the forms of the two churches, phantastically separated from one another, came down like houses of cards, revealing, however, the solid unit of one real Church, composed of men and women who, from the beginning of the movement, and throughout its battles and vicissitudes, had been united and inspired by the same eternal principles of Divine Truth and the same changeless ends and purposes of working together for the salvation of human souls. Organizations and names, theories and exaggerations, suddenly floated away like the dreams of one awakened from sleep, but the personnel of the Church, almost without exception, remained united under the red-and-white banner of the first love and the first principles.

THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

1897-1904.

     Disdaining the political tricks by means of which the Pennsylvania Association was preserved in the revolution of 1871, and rigidly adhering to the pledges which, rightly or wrongly, had been given, no attempt was made to depose the Bishop of the General Church of the Advent, who was also the Bishop of the Church of the Academy,--but his own advice and instruction was literally followed: the members of the two Churches,--almost to a man, and without collective action or even consultation, individually sent in their resignations, and withdrew from the government of Bishop Benade.

     At the headquarters, in Huntingdon Valley, where the working force of the Academy now resided, five of the ministers who had withdrawn from the former government, on the sixth of February, 1897, requested the Rev. W. F. Pendleton to meet with them, and then and there, having gained his consent to become their leader, laid the foundation of the third, and, let us hope, the final form of the General Church, our present General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     Unlike any other nascent Church, this new movement was not born in the midst of external pressure and persecution, nor in the joy and enthusiasm of the prospect of victory, but in a state of anxiety, contrition, and internal conflict and worry, amounting almost to despair. We knew not, for certain, whether anyone in the Church would follow us in the new movement. We knew there was a general state of dissatisfaction with the old regime, but even among the dissidents there was a decided divergence of views.

418


It was with no light heart we withdrew from association with the one who had been, in the fullest sense of the term, our "guide, philosopher, and friend," and the prospects were dark, indeed, when the Academy found it necessary to suspend the work of the Schools.

     But, underlying the external state of grief, there was internally the germ of hope, based upon the promise of the motto: "Council and Assembly," "which the new body had inscribed upon its banner, and which is but the concrete expression of the Divine Law for human conduct: "In freedom according to reason."

     Having organized themselves as a Council of the Clergy, under the provisional name Of "The General Church of the New Jerusalem," the six ministers issued a circular setting forth the facts and reasons for their action, and inviting all interested to a General Assembly, to be held at Bryn Athyn, June 25-29, 1897.

     The First General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem met accordingly on the above date and place, and a most remarkable meeting it was, beginning with rumblings of thunder and disruption, continuing amidst clouds of doubt and distrust, and ending, most unexpectedly, in the sunshine of mutual love and confidence. In order to provide for the utmost freedom Of discussion, the newly formed Council of the Clergy withdrew from any collective relation with the General Assembly, and the Bishop at the same time placed his resignation in the hands of the Council. No less than eight different papers on Church government were read at the meeting, all Of them reviewing the immediate past with the greatest frankness. There was with some a disposition to look with suspicion upon the new movement, because no constitutional provisions had been adopted, establishing, a prescribed method for deposing an undesirable bishop, but conservative council prevailed, and the "members of the opposition" finally declared their confidence in the fundamental principles of the new body, being led to this attitude by the general spirit manifested at the meeting, which was as opposed to autocracy as to democracy. Bishop Pendleton's paper, entitled "Notes on the Government of the Church," was especially influential in restoring a state of harmony and confidence, and particularly the statement that the members of the Church "can withdraw or take away that which they have given," but no more. "Their internal consent to [a bishop's] government may recede, in the presence of incompetency or disorder, which may eventually lead to an open withdrawal of their invitation to exercise his functions over them." But it was shown that it would be unwise and unprofitable to legislate in advance for hypothetical contingencies of the future, or to "attempt a foresight which is the prerogative and attribute of Providence alone."

     As the tangible result of the discussion, the Assembly unanimously resolved to place the administration of the ecclesiastical affairs of the Church in the hands of the Council of the Clergy until the next Assembly an invitation which Was accepted by the Council. The Bishop also withdrew his offered resignation, with the distinct understanding, however, that this action should in no way "affect the freedom of the Church in making its final choice of a Bishop."

419


An Executive Committee, of a provisional nature, was also elected for the administration of the financial affairs of the Church, and steps were taken, for the first time in the history of the General Church or the Academy movement, to support the episcopal office and thus secure the regular services of a visiting and actually superintending Bishop.

     The General Church, long "tossed with tempests, not comforted," now entered upon an era of peaceful and blessed activity which has lasted now for seven years, a peace which to some of the old war-morn veterans seems almost uncanny In all this time we have had none of the internal disturbances which used to agitate our movement with almost annual regularity. There have been no occasions for ecclesiastical tribunals "de haeretico inquirendi," no disruptions of societies, no violent separations between life-long friends and brethren. Changes have taken place, and also progress,--a general lopping off of external excrescences and exaggerations, a return to the first loves and the first principles of "the old Academy," or, rather, of the New Church. The new wine, we believe, has to some extent mellowed and ripened, at least with those of the older generation, but let us not forget that a younger generation is coming on, men and women who will have to fight their own battles, perhaps more internal and more severe than those of their fathers in the Church.

     Seven good years have been given to the Church, and let us hope they may multiply to seven times seventy. At present we cannot discern any cloud upon the horizon of our associate existence as a General Church, but storms and temptations are bound to come, for this is a living Church. Under a rational and liberty-loving government these future trials need not take the form of external splits and upheavals, as in the past. We cannot foretell the form which they may assume, but in the future as in the past the peace and progress of our beloved Church will depend entirely Upon the measure in which the members of the Church will, as individual churches, love and study the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and, in its light, will shun the love of the world, and the love of self, and, most especially, the love of dominion over the souls of men.

420


JOURNAL OF THE FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE General Church of the New Jerusalem 1904

JOURNAL OF THE FIFTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE General Church of the New Jerusalem       Various       1904

     HELD AT BRYN ATHYN, PA., FROM FRIDAY, JUNE I7TH, TO TUESDAY, JUNE 17TH, 1904.

FIRST DAY--FRIDAY MORNING. JUNE 17TH.

     1. Members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem met in General Assembly at Bryn Athyn, Pa., on June 17, 1904, and on the four following days. The meetings were held in the gymnasium of the school building of the Academy of the New Church.

     2. The following members and visitors were present at the Assembly:

     MEMBERS.

Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Rev. Alfred Acton.
Mrs. A. Acton.
Mr. Peter Ahlberg.
Miss H. S. Ashley.
Mrs. E. S. Asplundh.
Miss Lillian Beekman.
Miss Centennia Bellinger.
Mrs. Mary E. Bostock.
Miss Olive Bostock.
Rev. Walter E. Brickman.
Mrs. W. E. Brickman.
Mrs. A. F. Carter.
Mrs. J. E. Clendennon.
Dr. George M. Cooper.
Mrs. G. M. Cooper.
Mrs. H. B. Cowley.

421



Rev. Richard De Charms.
Rev. Chas. E. Doering.
Mrs. C. E. Doering
Mr. Henry Doering.
Mrs. Henry Doering.
Mr. William A. Farrington.
Rev. Willis L. Gladish.
Mr. G. V. Glebe.
Mrs. G. V. Glebe.
Mrs. Cara S. Glenn.
Miss Mary Glenn.
Miss Mildred Glenn.
Miss Alice E. Grant.
Miss Anne Hachborn.
Mr. George Heath.
Mrs. G. Heath.
Miss Ruth Hicks.
Mr. Sam. H. Hicks.
Mrs. S. H. Hicks.
Miss Carrie A. Hobart.
Mrs. C. Hobart.
Mrs. M. M. Johnson.
Miss Anna M. Klein.
Miss Ida Klein.
Miss Eliza Mitchell.
Mr. Alex. J. Moir.
Mrs. A. J. Moir.
Mrs. Mary Moir.
Miss Hannah Nelson.
Rev. C. Th. Odhner.
Mrs. C. Th. Odhner.
Miss Amena Pendleton.
Miss Emma Pendleton.
Miss Freda Pendleton.
Miss Korene Pendleton.
Miss Venita Pendleton.
Rt. Rev. W. F. Pendleton.
Mrs. W. F. Pendleton.
Miss Zella Pendleton.
Mr. John Pitcairn.
Miss Alice Potts.
Miss Annie F. Potts.
Miss Edith W. Potts.
Miss Ellen Potts.
Miss Jane Potts.
Miss Lucy E. Potts.
Rev. Enoch S. Price.
Mrs. E. S. Price.
Miss Laura Schnarr.
Mr. O. B. Schwindt.
Mrs. O. B. Schwindt.
Mr. Charles S. Smith.
Mrs. C. S. Smith.
Miss Nellie Smith.
Mr. Sobiesky C. Smith.
Mrs. S. C. Smith.
Miss Mary Snyder.
Mrs. H. N. Stanton.
Miss Lillie Steen.
Mr. Alfred H. Stroh.
Mr. Emil F. Stroh.
Mr. Henry G. Stroh.
Mrs. H. G. Stroh.
Rev. Homer Synnestvedt.
Mrs. H. Synnestvedt.
Miss Laura H. Vickroy.
Mr. Camille Vinet.
Mrs. C. Vinet.
Mr. J. F. Van Horn.
Mrs. J. F. Van Horn.
Mr. Walter Van Horn.
Mr. William Van Horn.
Mr. John A. Wells.
Mrs. J. A. Wells
Miss Eliz. Xandry.
Mr. Bennet Yarnall.

     Philadelphia.

Dr. F. A. Boericke.
Mrs. F. a. Boericke.
Mr. C. Edro Cranch.
Mr. Raymond G. Cranch.
Mrs. Aretta Doering.
Miss Caroline Doering.
Miss Mary Doering.
Miss Wilhelmina Doering.
Miss Mary A. Fox.
Mrs. R. T. Henderson.
Mr. K. Knudsen.
Mrs. K. Knudsen.
Mrs. Anna Mueller.
Mr. Louis B. Pendleton.

422



Mr. Fred. R. Pfleuger.
Miss Emma Roehner.
Miss Mary Roehner.
Miss Sophie Roehner.
Mr. William Roehner.
Mrs. William Roehner.
Mr. Wm. F. Roehner.
Mr. W. J. Roehner.
Rev. Joseph E. Rosenquist.
Mrs. J. E. Rosenquist.
Dr. Adelaide Stankowitch.
Miss E. E. Schneider.
Mr. Arnold Steiger.
Mr. Herbert B. Walker.
Mrs. H. B. Walker.
Mr. Reuben Walker.
Mrs. R. Walker.
Miss Addie Zeppenfeld.
Mr. W. H. Zeppenfeld.
Mrs. W. H. Zeppenfeld.

     Paoli, Pa.

Mr. Fred. K. Hansen.
Mrs. F. K. Hansen.

     Primos, Pa.

Mr. Royal S. Davis.

     Southampton, Pa.

Rev. A. Jno. Cleare.

     Bethlehem, Pa.

Prof. Laurence Brickenstein.

     Allentown, Pa.

Mr. Jacob Ebert.
Mrs. J. Ebert.
Miss India Waelchli.
Mr. John Waelchli.
Mrs. J. Waelchli.
Miss Laura Waelchli.

     Pittsburg, Pa.

Miss Elizabeth Ashby.
Mr. Robert R. Caldwell, Jr.
Mrs. R. B. Caldwell.
Mr. Chas. H. Ebert.
Mrs. C. H. Ebert.
Mr. Walter H. Faulkner.
Mr. Curtis K. Hicks.
Mr. Ralph W. Hicks.
Miss Ida E. Hunter.
Mr. S. S. Lindsay.
Mrs. S.S. Lindsay.
Rev. N. D. Pendleton.
Mrs. N. D. Pendleton.
Miss Helena Schoenberger.
Mr. Jacob Schoenberger.
Mrs. J. Schoenberger
Mrs. A. C. V. Schott.
Mrs. Walter D. Uptegraff.

     Blairsville, Pa.

Miss Janet C. Richey.

     Baltimore, Md.

Mr. Peter Knapp.

     Atlanta, Ga.

Rev. Richard H. Keep.

     Macon, Ga.

Mr. Charles R. Pendleton, Jr.
Bliss Luella Pendleton.

     Valdosta, Ga.

Mr. Alexander S. Pendleton

     Wheeling, W. Va.

Miss Clio Pollock.
Mr. E. A. Pollock.
Mr. John D. Pollock.
Mrs. Ophelia Pollock.

     New York City.

Mr. Anton Sellner.

     Yonkers, N. Y.

Mr. Walter C. Childs.
Mrs. W. C. Childs.

423




     Rochester, N. Y.

Miss Augusta Herau.

     Middleport, O.

Mr. J. M. Cooper.
Mrs. J. M. Cooper.
Mrs. L. A. Sanner.

     Williamsburg, Ind.

Dr. Alfred H. Beam.
Mrs. A. H. Beam.

     Chicago, Ill.

Rev. William B. Caldwell.
Mr. Paul Carpenter.
Miss Emma Dahlman.
Dr. J. B. S. King.
Miss Nellie Larson.
Miss Ellen V. Wallenberg.

     Glenview, Ill.

Mr. H. E. Blackman.
Mrs. H. E. Blackman.
Miss Sophie Falk.
Mrs. Elizabeth Farrington.
Dr. Harvey Farrington.
Mrs. H. Farrington.
Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal.
Mr. William H. Junge.
Mrs. W. H. Junge.
Rev. David H. Klein.
Mr. Arthur T. Maynard.
Miss Emelia Nelson.
Mr. Seymour G. Nelson.
Mrs. S. G. Nelson.
Mr. Swain Nelson.

     Denver, Colo.

Miss Hilda M. Hagar.

     Ontario, Cal.

Miss R. Evelyn Frankish.

     Toronto, Ont., Canada.

Dr. Henry Becker.
Mrs. H. Becker.
Mrs. Ernest Bellinger.
Mr. Peter Bellinger.
Mrs. P. Bellinger.
Rev. J. E. Bowers.
Mr. Charles Brown.
Mrs. C. Brown.
Mr. Robert B. Caldwell.
Mrs. R. B. Caldwell.
Mr. Robert Carswell.
Mrs. R. Carswell.
Rev. Emil L. Cronlund.
Dr. E. K. Richardson.
Mr. John E. Rothaermel.
Mrs. J. E. Rothaermel.
Miss Blanche Somerville.
Mrs. Elizabeth J. Somerville.
Miss Ethel Somerville.
Miss Mary G. Somerville.
Mr. Robert B. Somerville.

     Berlin, Ont., Canada.

Mrs. Lizzie Bellinger.
Miss Irene Hachborn.
Miss Jessie Iler.
Mrs. Emma Kuhl.
Miss Annie C. Moir.
Miss Alena Roschman.
Miss Emma Roschman.
Mr. Rudolph Roschman.
Mrs. R. Roschman.
Mrs. S. H. Roschman.
Miss Minnie Rothaermel.
Mrs. E. Schierholtz.
Mr. George Schnarr.
Mrs. G. Schnarr.
Mrs. J. H. Schnarr.
Rev. Ernest J. Stebbing.
Mrs. J. B. Steen.
Miss Kathrine Steen.
Mr. Emanuel G. Stroh.
Rev. Fred. E. Waelchli.

424




     VISITORS.

Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Edwin Asplundh.
Mr. Edward C. Bostock.
Miss Margaret Bostock.
Miss Phoebe Bostock.
Miss Rita Buell.
Richard De Charms.
George De Charms.
Carina Glenn.
Mr. Gerald S. Glenn.
Miss Madeline Glenn.
Mrs. H. Gordon.
Miss Gladys Hicks.
Mr. Hubert Hicks.
Miss Cyriel Odhner.
Madefrey A. Odhner.
Miss Constance Pendleton.
Miss Eleora Pendleton.
Wertha Pendleton.
Mr. Raymond Pitcairn.
Miss Vera Pitcairn.
Rev. J. F. Potts.
Ethne Price.
Mrs. E. F. Robinson.
Anton Sellner.
Miriam Smith.
Reginald C. Smith.
Rowland S. Smith.
Roydon H. Smith.
Cornelia Stroh.
Ora Stroh.
Arthur B. Wells.
Leroy S. Wells.
Margery Wells.
Miss Elizabeth Worthington.

     Philadelphia, Pa.

Miss Gertrude W. Alden.
Mr. Julius Alden.
Rev. W. H. Alden.
Mr. Thos. J. Bewley.
Mrs. T. J. Bewley.
Mr. Harold Buell.
Mr. N. C. Hansen.
Dr. Wm. McKenzie.
Miss Elsa Muller.
Mr. Jacob Naschold.
Mrs. E. Parker.
Bernhard Rosenquist.
Miss Eliz. A. Simons.
Mr. Samuel Simons.
Mrs. T. H. Stevens.
Miss Mabel H. Stevens.
Miss Minnie Thomas.
Mr. W. T. Wiley.
Miss Stella Zeppenfeld.
Mr. Wm. Zeppenfeld.

     Camden, N. J.

Mrs. Carrie Robinson.

     Southampton, Pa.

Vernalou Cleare.

     Allentown, Pa.

Eric Ebert.
Ora Ebert.
Miss Alma Waelchli.
Miss Fanny Waelchli.

     Pittsburg, Pa.

Mr. Robert Faulkner.
Miss Elsa C. Lechner.
Mr. Harvey Lechner.
Mr. Alex. P. Lindsay.
Miss Eleonora E. Schoenberger
Homer Schoenberger.
Miss Stella Schoenberger.
Miss Margaret Uptegraff.

     Leechburg, Pa.

Mr. Otho W. Heilman.

     Blairsville, Pa.

Mrs. Mary W. Richey.

     Renovo, Pa.

Mr. J. R. Kendig, Jr.

425




     Erie, Pa.

Mr. A. Girard Cranch.
Eliot G. Cranch.
Mr. Walter E. Cranch.

     Baltimore, Md.

Mrs. P. Knapp.

     Macon, Ga.

Miss Philola Pendleton.
Miss Wilfred A. Pendleton.

     Valdosta, Ga.

Mr. Albert Pendleton.

     Yonkers, N. Y.

Mr. Randolph W. Childs.

     Waltham, Mass.
     
Mr. A. W. Parker.

     Middelport, O.

Miss Anna E. Davis.
Miss Dorothy Davis.
Miss Charlotte Grant.

     Pagetown, O.

Mrs. E. Cooper.

     Chicago, Ills.

Miss Vivian King.

     Glenview, Ills.

Geoffrey E. Blackman.
Gladys Blackman.
Miss Dorothy Burnham.
Mr. Fred. E. Gyllenhaal.
Miss Vida Gyllenhaal.
Miss Elsie Junge.
Mr. W. F. Junge.
Mr. H. S. Maynard, Jr.

     Ontario, Cal.

Mrs. P. Rothaermel.

     Toronto, Ont. Canada.

Mr. Charles Bellinger.
Mr. G. Percy Brown.
Miss Edina Carswell.

     Berlin, Ont., Canada.

Mr. Doering Bellinger.
Mr. Nelson H. Glebe.

     St. Petersburg, Russia.

Mr. Carl Sievert.

     Sydney, N. S. W., Australia

Mr. Richard Morse.
Mrs. R. Morse.

     Number of members present          240
Number of visitors               102
Total                         342

     3. The meeting was opened at 10 A. M. with worship conducted by Bishop Pendleton, who immediately afterwards delivered his annual address.

     4. Mr. John Pitcairn offered the following resolution, which was unanimously adopted:

     Resolved, That the Rev. J. F. Potts, of Bryn Athyn, and Mr. Richard Morse, of Sydney, Australia, be made welcome and invited to participate in the deliberations or this body.

     5. The Secretary read the following report:

     REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.

426




     1. As Secretary of the General Church I have to report that the General Church of the New Jerusalem numbers at present 698 members, showing a net increase of 48 members over the membership reported June 24, 1903. Altogether 58 persons have been received as members since the last report, while, on the other hand, 10 members have passed into the spiritual world.

     2. The following members have died during the year:
Mrs. Louisa Weikart, Greenford, O., June 6, 1993.
Mrs. Fanny Bogges Reuter, Middleport, O., July 26, 1903.
Mr. John Wunderlich, Philadelphia, July 14, 1903.
Mr. Leopold H. Fincke, Brooklyn, N. Y., December 8, 1903.
Mr. John B. Morris, London, England, November 28, 1903.
Mrs. Anna B. Kessler, Allentown, Pa., December 7, 1903.
Mrs. Maria J. Knapp, Baltimore, Md., February 1, 1904.
Mrs. Dallas E. Van Sickle, North Bend, Pa., March 25, 1904.
Mr. Thomas L. Forrest, Chicago, Ill., March 18, 1904.
Mr. Joseph Bedwell, Colchester, England, April 21, 1904.

     3. The following are the new members received since the last report:
Mr. and Mrs. Wm. E. Parker, New York City.
Mr. Gustaf S. Gustafson, Rockford, Ill.
The Rev. and Mrs. Joseph E. Rosenquist, Philadelphia, Pa.
The Rev. and Mrs. Willis L. Gladish, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Mrs. Charles E. Ebert, Pittsburg, Pa.
Mr. and Mrs. Wallace V. Frame, Pittsburg, Pa.
Miss Helen W. Macbeth, Pittsburg, Pa.
Mr. and Mrs. Dudley A. Catford, Philadelphia, Pa.
Mr. Darnley Catford, Philadelphia, Pa.
Mr. John W. Peacher, West Farmington, O.
Dr. and Mrs. Uriah O. Heilman, Leechburg, Pa.
Mr. Donald J. Howe, Macon, Ga.
Mrs. Emil Schmidt, Crafton, Pa.
Miss Esther Boggess, Pittsburg, Pa.
Mr. William O. Van Horn, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Mr. Emil F. Stroh, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Mr. James Coleman Pendleton, Atlanta, Ga.
Miss Lucy B. Tenley, Newport, Ky.
Mrs. Lutie Tenley, Newport, Ky.
Mr. Duncan McColl, Toronto, Ont.
Mr. and Mrs. James M. Somerville, Toronto.
Miss Blanche G. G. Somerville, Toronto.
Miss Ethel Murray Somerville, Toronto.
Miss Marie Guthrie Somerville, Toronto.
Mr. Robert B. Somerville, Toronto.
Miss Ethel Christina Craig, Toronto.
Miss Margaret A. McColl, Toronto.

427



Mrs. Mary J. Becker, Toronto.
Miss Lois Graham, Toronto.
Mrs. Emma Fehleisen Carter, Bryn Athyn.
Mr. Raymond G. Cranch, Philadelphia.
Miss Ruth Hicks, Bryn Athyn.
Mr. Robert B. Somerville, Toronto.
Miss Clio Pollock, Wheeling, W. Va.
Mrs. Ophelia C. Pollock, Wheeling.
Mrs. E. A. Pollock, Wheeling.
Mr. John D. Pollock, Padens Valley, W. Va.
Miss Mildred Glenn, Bryn Athyn.
Mr. Charles R. Pendleton, Jr., Macon, Ga.
Miss Korene Pendleton, Bryn Athyn.
Miss Alena Roschman, Berlin, Ont.
Miss Laura Schnarr, Bryn Athyn.
Miss Janet Ritchey, Blairsville, Pa.
Miss Luella Pendleton, Macon, Ga.
Dr. Alfred Beam, Williamsburg, Ind.
Miss Nora Potts, Bryn Athyn.
Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Arrington, Baltimore, Md.
Dr. Edwin K. Richardson. Toronto.
Miss Jessie L. Iler, Berlin, Ont.
Miss Rita Buell, Detroit, Mich.

     4. The clergy of the General Church numbers at present twenty-three ministers and one candidate. During the past year the Rev. Joseph E. Rosenquist, the Rev. W. L. Gladish, and the Rev. Walter E. Brickman, have been received into the Priesthood of the General Church.

     5. During the year, a new form of certificates of membership has been published with a symbolic design, representing the seven candlesticks and the seven stars of the Apocalypse, with the inscription Idou kaina panta poio, "Behold. I make all things new." This design was adopted as a suggestion for an official seal of the General Church. Respectfully submitted, C. TH. ODHNER.
Secretary.

     6. The Secretary read the following docket of subjects for this meeting:
The Incorporation of the General Church.
The Executive Committee.
Church Extension.
The Scholarship Fund.
The Organ of the General Church; its policy and conduct.
The Frequency of the General Assemblies.
The District Assemblies.
The Use of Hymns in Worship.

428



The present status of the Priesthood.
The present state of our public worship.
The Increase of the Episcopal Office.
The Calendar.

     "NEW CHURCH LIFE" DISCUSSED.

     7. The Bishop asked what subject the Assembly desired to take up for consideration. The Rev. C. Th. Odhner stated that, as editor, he would be pleased to have a discussion of the New Church Life. On motion of the Rev. H. Synnestvedt, it was Resolved, That we take up the subject of New Church Life.

     Mr. Odhner: "In proposing this subject I had in mind the fact that the policy of the Life was discussed at the Chicago District Assembly, and some criticism expressed. I thought it would be well to have the subject discussed in a larger sphere."

     Mr. Swain Nelson: "I wish to express my gratification with the way the Life is conducted. It is of great benefit to me, and I hope it is also to others."

     Mr. W. B. Caldwell: "I do not have words strong enough to express our appreciation of the Life in Chicago. It comes to us every month as a most welcome visitor. The criticism which was made at our District Assembly was not a general, but a particular one. We believe that the Life would be improved if certain things were remedied. I would mention an example: In the last number there appeared what I consider a somewhat undignified kind of criticism. In the review column there were given two quotations from Dr. Wright, which contradicted each other, and the comment of the editor was: 'Which Dr. Wright is right?' I think this would generally be regarded as a cheap joke. This may seem to us a little thing; nevertheless things of this kind catch the eye of those without our body and injure the use of the paper to them."

     Mr. Synnestvedt: "In the Bishop's Address we heard how important is the freedom of the priesthood; and that if the priesthood is in freedom to be led from heaven, the Church can be led in the same way. This principle we must recognize in regard to the Life, which does priestly work. We must recognize that those who have charge of this work must act according to their judgment, and that they will necessarily impress upon the work the form of their individual minds. In every use in the Church the one who performs it will impress his personality upon it. It rests with us to elevate our minds and view the essential ends, and not be disturbed by what does not agree with our own particular forms. Some of the criticism directed against the Life may have come from a lack of appreciation of the seriousness of the falsities and evils that have been attacked. It may also not have been recognized that the Life does not really attack, but defends.

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We have enemies of our principles, who by their teachings would destroy all that this body stands for; and it is by the Life, principally, that we are defending the Truth. It is necessary that hostile teaching be met, and its true character shown. The Life is fallible, as is every human work. But I rise against that state which is opposed to giving knocks where they are deserved. It is charity at times to knock a man down. Where vital things are concerned there must be vigorous defense of the Truth, even though it may have the appearance of attack; in fact, attack at times becomes a part of defense. Those whose duty it is to do this are often accused of being actuated by a mere love of fighting. We cannot be popular. The Divine Truth came not to send peace, but a sword; and if we are zealous for the Truth, we shall certainly be criticised. Let us, however, have self-control. Let our effort be to react from the Lord, and not from ourselves."

     Dr. J. B. S. King: "Behold in me the unhappy originator of this discussion! I desire to make an explanation of the attitude I was in when I wrote the criticism. But first I would say that I receive many journals, and the Life is always the first to which I turn; this has been the case especially during the last five months, for five months ago I sent an article to the Life, and I haven't seen it yet. I never found any serious fault with the Life, but my motive in writing the criticism was this: I heard much criticism from others, which I thought ought to be ventilated. A great part of it came from certain Convention people whose general attitude is favorable towards us. There was with them an unfriendly disposition towards the Life, and I wondered what could be the cause. Investigation convinced me that the state was due not to an opposition to the general tone of the paper, but to certain trivial things, or, we may say, to a trifling deformity, something like a wart at the end of a man's nose. So I wrote the criticism, hoping the matter might he ventilated. Perhaps it has been taken too seriously. It might have been better if I had written only about half as much as I did."

     Rev. D. H. Klein: "I do not think there is anyone in our body who objects to the strong position the Life takes in attacking falsity wherever it is found. The faults which were discussed at our District Assembly are trivial, and they have been made far more of than was intended. In Chicago we come in contact with people outside of the General Church, and hear their objections. We know the editors of the Life; but the people who do not know them misinterpret their sayings. We believe that there are things which somewhat lower the dignity of the paper, for example, if a minister chooses to accept a degree in theology from some Old Church college, it need not concern us. These things we considered at our meeting. Yet there is with us no criticism of the general character of the Life, but instead enthusiasm for it."

     Mr. Rudolf Roschman: "I am much pleased to see our friends from Chicago put themselves on the defensive. They seem to see that they have said too much, and that half as much would have been better. There seems to be an impression that people outside of our general body might take offense at our criticisms.

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But it must be considered that the Life is edited in the first place for the members of the General Church. We call understand what the editors mean and in what spirit they criticise, and we should not concern ourselves so much as to what others think of it. There are statements made in the Writings which hurt the ears of those outside the Church. We cannot sail smoothly in defending the Truth. I look forward to the Life and read it with pleasure. The editors deserve credit and encouragement to go on with the good work they are doing."

     Dr. Harvey Farrington: "One of the most powerful means of showing up falsity is to make it ridiculous. One of the most refreshing features of the Life is its keen wit. It would certainly be a detriment to its usefulness to have this part of it suppressed. I doubt whether it could be. Perhaps its wit becomes a little too personal at times, so as to detract from the dignity of the paper; nevertheless it is to me one of the most enjoyable features."

     Mr. William Junge: "I would say for Dr. King that he did not notice any blemishes in the Life until after he heard about them from others and decided to look them up."

     Mr. Odhner: "In regard to that 'cheap joke' I might say that no joke was intended. Nevertheless, one of the Convention ministers expressed great appreciation of it. Moreover, what might seem a thousand miles from here like 'a wart on the nose,' might nearer appear as the very nose itself! We hope our medical friends will not amputate this feature of the Life.' [Laughter.]

     Mr. Charles Brown: "I would like to endorse what previous speakers have said in appreciation of the Life. The power of a criticism often lies in its brevity; and I believe that a pointed 'joke' is sometimes more powerful than a whole page of criticism. When views are expressed which are injurious to the Church, their falsity must be exposed. This the Life does most ably."

     Rev. J. E. Bowers: "The Life is most useful to many of the people whom I visit. It is a real New Church education to them and prepares the way for the work of the missionary. There are those who say that they look forward to its coming and cannot do without it."

     Rev. J. E. Rosenquist: "During my sojourn in Sweden I was fortunate enough to interest several persons in the Life. A certain noble family, which had been opposed to the doctrine that the Writings are the Word, were led to see this doctrine by reading the Life. At first they thought the Life rather sharp in its criticisms, but they now consider it the best of all New Church journals. Besides this family, there are several others who enjoy the Life. The General Church is to be congratulated on having such an organ.

     Mr. R. Carswell: "I hope the editors will keep on in their wise, even course. A little spice is very desirable. We do not want our food too flat. We receive some pretty heavy teaching every week in the sermon and the classes, and to this the Life adds more. Something in a lighter vein, by way of variety, is very acceptable.

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No sensible person is offended at a good-natured joke at his expense; and I have no doubt that if Dr. Wright read the one which has been mentioned, he enjoyed it as much as did anyone else."

     Mr. Paul Carpenter: "The use of the Life is not only to teach the members of the General Church, but to spread genuine doctrine throughout the entire New Church. In Chicago there are a number outside our body who are in sympathy with us, and are disposed to draw near; but they are hurt by such things in the Life as have been mentioned. In fact, such things cause hard feelings, and tend to keep people away from us. The Life would be more useful if what is personal and flippant were left out."

     Rev. E. S. Price: "The opposition to New Church Life, which exists without our body, is not in actuality aroused by its sharp sayings, The source of the dislike is the aversion to seeing the false notions exposed, which are abroad in the Church. The sharp sayings do nothing more than add a little spice, which irritates the sore skin. Horace, in describing an epigram, says: 'It is little, and sweet, and has a sting in its tail.' If you remove the sting from the honey-bee, the bee dies. I hope the Life will never lose that which gives point and zest and spice to its articles. Else it will be as an epigram without a sting."

     Mr. Walter Childs: "These remarks have interested me very much, bearing as they do on the teaching of the Address concerning the need of observing the freedom of those engaged in a use. Now is the time to come out with what we have to say concerning the Life,--and afterwards the editors will go right on, any way!" [Laughter.]

     Mr. Carswell: "As Mr. Carpenter's remarks indicated, we do not like to have our friends touched. I remember that when I was first coming towards the Academy, the first offense was when I heard Mr. Hyatt make certain sharp criticisms of the teachings of Dr. Bayley and Mr. Giles. Nevertheless I can now see that those very remarks were beneficial to me. We will not bring people to us by saying soft things to them. A man does not change his bed until he becomes uneasy in it; he does not leave a path until it becomes thorny. The little things in the Life, to which exception has been taken, may he the very things necessary to help people to come to us. Those who take serious offense at such things are better off where they are, and we are better off without them. The Life should not change its course.

     Rev. A. Acton: "When a man speaks in public, or writes, he at once enters an intellectual arena. He expects that his words will be considered, discussed, and perhaps opposed. If he is a man, and loves the Truth, he will not be averse to discussion, but rather welcome it for the sake of the Truth. All that a man should expect is that his opponents will be fair and 'hit above the belt.' Personality should certainly be avoided But what is meant by personality? Does it not mean to attack the character of a person and to detract from what is justly due to him as a man? But to attack what a person says is not personality. It would be well for speakers to define what they mean when they make use of this word."

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     8. Twelve o'clock having arrived, and this being the hour set apart each day for the reading of a paper, the Rev. C. Th. Odhner was invited to read a paper on The History of the General Church.

     9. After the reading of Mr. Odhner's paper, the Assembly took a recess until the afternoon.


     THE BANQUET--"CHICAGO DAY."

     At 1 P. M. the members and friends partook of a banquet, the intellectual part of which had been entrusted to the brethren in Glenview and Chicago. A tastefully printed program, containing a number of new songs, was found at each plate, and Mr. William H. Junge, of Glenview, presided as Toastmaster in a manner overflowing with geniality and kindly wit.

     In response to the first toast, "TO THE CHURCH," all united in singing the following song, composed by one of the Chicago friends:

Led by the Lord's own hand,
From all parts of our land,
We come today;
Filled with a joy profound,
Awed as we gaze around,
Let us give joyful sound,
On this great day.

Our Church is from the Lord,
Founded upon His Word,
In truth sublime;
Guarding us day and night,
Leading from wrong to right,
Destined to rule with might,
In every clime.

Then let us ever be,
Firm in our loyalty,
To this our Church.
This be our battle cry,
Sounding to heaven high,
Drawing the angels nigh,
"Our Glorious Church."

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     In the second toast, "WAR, OR THE CHURCH MILITANT," all united in singing the following verses:

Concealed from wrath of Dragons,
The Church is born on earth;
But simple hearts are waiting
To greet its humble birth.
Unheralded by trumpets,
Her champions are but few;
Yet future ages welcome
Jerusalem the New.

St. Michael's voice hath spoken;
To battle sounds the call;
Keep hard pressed ranks unbroken,
Stand steadfast on the wall.
When enemies assail us
Our watchword e'er shall be:
Hold firm aloft the standard,
The Lord's Authority.

     The Rev. David H. Klein, of Glenview, then responded as follows:

     War is not the essential thing in national life, but without it, no nation can arrive at the full beauty and flower of its character. The nation which remains fixed in the indolent ease of a fancied security, is bound in the end to fall. The Church also has its warfare. It must guard itself against the forms of evil which threaten it. War is not the chief end of the Church's life, yet without it, it can never arrive at the things which are its destined ends. When the sons of Israel reached the promised land they had to engage in combat to secure little by little the possession of their precious heritage. Joshua was the man of war who led them.

     The forces of hell cannot prevail against heaven in the other world, but they are powerful in inciting the evil in this world against the Church on earth, from which the Church in heaven is to derive her increase. And these forces take advantage of whatever instrumentalities may come to their hands, and their attack is always in the form of falsity, which they hope may undermine and destroy the truth of the Church. And so there must be resistance or war against such, and hence arises the necessity of the Church militant.

     In war there is attack and defense. Foremost is the idea of defense, which must needs at times to take the form of aggression.

     In the early Christian Church there was warfare, for it had to struggle and fight for its life amidst all its foes. In defense of its truth it brought forth into sharp relief the falsities of its opponents.

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In declaring the belief in the One Only God, it exposed the mockery of the Pagan belief in many gods, possessing the evil and immoral attributes of depraved men. In its doctrine of brotherly love, it revealed the prevailing spirit of the cruel selfishness of a corrupt civilization. In its regard for the sanctity of marriage, it showed the immorality of the world about it. Did not the Lord, its Divine Leader, Himself lay bare the hypocrisy and deceit of the Jewish Church?

     The members of the primitive Church nobly fought many a battle in defense of their faith, and if in the struggle they sometimes suffered ignominy and death it was to awaken in the other world, with the crown of victory upon their brews. And the blood of its true martyrs did indeed become the seed of the Church.

     The New Church, also, has had her periods of war, for even from her cradle was she attacked. In exposing the falsities of the Old Church she early incurred the enmity of its followers. In her warfare she has had her leaders who have valiantly carried her ensign and borne the first shock of the conflict, suffering indeed thereby no martyrdom of the body, but the martyrdom of persecution in many forms; beginning with Beyer and Rosen, the speaker referred to some who had defended the truths of the Church in its early history, and, continuing, he showed how at times there must be warfare or conflict even within the borders of the Church itself, when through ignorance, fear of the world, or other causes, the truth is obscured or indirectly attacked,--warfare, in fact, to uphold the standard of the Lord's Divine Authority in His revelation to the New Church. For this doctrine the Academy and the General Church had always stood and had ever been prepared to defend it. The Words for the New Church had been an active medium for establishing this truth among men, and its pages bore record of the fact that the simple teachings of the Writings, had given rise to conflict and war within the Church itself. Robert Hindmarsh in years gone by firmly defended this doctrine. Richard De Charms fought for it and had suffered trials and troubles for it. William H. Benade had been a warrior in its cause and a leader in proclaiming it, and to these men posterity must ever owe a debt of gratitude.

     There are those, also, who, behind the peaceful exterior of our present Bishop, have seen the martial fire of him who does not fear a conflict in this cause. And, finally, the editors of the Life must be counted among those who are uncompromisingly defending the truth and attacking error.

     In drinking a toast to "War," however, we do not glorify war in itself, but only the thing for which we must fight. The real warfare, after all, is that which every individual man of the Church must wage against his own evils and falses. This, in the final analysis, is the basis on which all warfare must rest, if there is to be a real and enduring victory. Unless man first wages this conflict and conquers in it, all other warfare in which he engages will have in it only conceit, pride or selfishness. So there will be no real power to uphold his hand and make strong his spirit, and ultimate defeat is certain.

     Only in warfare, entered upon from a righteous zeal for the truth, can the Lord be with man.

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He, indeed, it is who fights the just man's battles. He is the true Hero; He is the Man of War, the God of Battles.

     The third toast was to "PEACE," which was celebrated by a Quartette of male voices from Chicago and Glenview, rendering the following beautiful song, the whole Assembly joining in the refrain:

Stars trembling o'er us
And darkness before us,
Mountains in shadow
And forests asleep.
While down the river
We float on forever,
Dreaming with rapture
Of heavenly peace.

We'll conquer sorrow,
May each new tomorrow
Find us more ready
Our murmurs to cease.
While down the river
We float on forever,
Dreaming with rapture
Of heavenly peace.

As the waves cover
The depths we glide over,
So let the past
And its pain have surcease.
While down the river
We float on forever,
Dreaming with rapture
Of heavenly peace.

Soon will be dawning
A bright happy morning,
Shades will depart
And our hope will increase.
While down the river
We float on forever,
Dreaming with rapture
Of heavenly peace.

     The Rev. W. E. Caldwell, of Chicago, said in response to this toast:

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     To say that a life of pence is a life of combat is apparently paradoxical, but it is nevertheless true of the regenerate life. The peace of a clear conscience is the only genuine peace, and this peace is only attained by combat.

     On such an occasion as the present our minds turn to the general states of the Church. Like our own great country, the Church has had to fight for its freedom. The General Church has fought for and obtained a large measure of freedom, freedom from the state of the Old Church, and freedom from certain regrettable states prevailing in the nominal New Church, and now enjoys the peace of its new freedom,--not the peace of complete rest and spiritual indolence, but the peace of that we believe to be spiritual advancement and progress.

     It is thus that such a peace is to be called a life of combat. It is only to be obtained and enjoyed by combat as often as evil shows itself within ourselves, within the Church, or on its borders ready to attack good and truth. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, the price of peace.

     It is often said by men that the dangers of peace are as great as those of war. The intoxication of victory and the security from an enemy brings with them the danger of internal corruption, through which a country will perish morally, intellectually. It will be so with the Church, and with every member who allows himself to slip into a fancied safety from the attacks of the infernal crew, or who suffers his conscience to go to sleep. The spiritual man can never afford to put away his armor. The moment he thinks he can, the spiritual foe slips in upon him unseen.

     There is nothing so dangerous as this false peace of fancied security from evil.--the state of ignoring our evils. And the state of universal confession of sin is just as dangerous, for it contains within it the acknowledgment of no sin. I am reminded of what Maculay says of John Bunyan. He was one of those who confessed himself the worst of sinners in the world, but like all such penitents, whenever anybody attacked any particular fault of his, he fired up!

     So it is with every man who fancies he can make peace with the enemy of his spiritual life by a universal confession of his sins, without girding himself for the fray, and beating him in battle.

     The best terms we can make with the devil and his cohorts is never more than an armed neutrality. But after every battle in which we have gained a victory with the Divine help, we will be blessed with a period of rest, peace and security under the Divine protection. Such a peace, however, has in it a readiness for future combat. So often as a man overcomes, the nearer he will come to the angelic state of protection. The Lord in every state of the angels prevents the approach of the evil, for they are in the Lord, and the Lord in them. "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

     I have not dwelt upon the comfort, the delight, and the blessedness of peace, for that is something rather to be felt and experienced than expressed. By avoiding the danger of a false peace, we will be brought to the genuine peace by the Lord,--the peace of heaven, which is inexpressible,--not the peace of rest and indolence, but the peace of a most intense activity in the life of use.

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     "UNITY" was the subject of the fourth toast, in response to which Mr. Paul Carpenter read the following paper by Mr. John Forrest, of Chicago, who was unavoidably absent:

     It is a trite saying, that "man is gregarious in his habits," and feels the need of association in unity for mutual aid and support.

     The history of the growth of towns and cities illustrates the state of the world in general regarding this trait of human nature, and the collecting together of individuals on matters concerning their welfare is too self-evident to need any extended challenging of the subject by its discussion. In many savings, however, the truths of which are plainly evident to the senses, it is easy to overlook the real significance attached, that gives life and meaning to the saying, so that what is involved in the subject matter of the toast assigned to me on this happy occasion, "The Communion of Saints," may appear as only half serious, because the expression is somewhat incongruous in its application to the state of the world at the present time.

     Much banter and persiflage might be exchanged in commenting after the fashion of the world on our traits of character and the individualities which !nark our relations, as members of the New Church, for we are by no means saints, and we each have periods when it seems hard to get along with our fellow member because of frailties, maybe, and he undoubtedly has many times over the same difficulty in accounting for our states, with forgiveness.

     It is not always necessary to draw a moral from one subject, neither is it appropriate, but this is an occasion and a subject worthy the expression of deepest feeling from genuine delight and pleasantness of thought in contemplation of what "the real communion of Saints" will mean to the members of the New Church, when really ultimated in our lives and actions, and how all manner of blessedness will surely follow.

     It will mean unity of purpose from devotion to one end, the Lord's New Church on earth, and from this singleness of end will follow charity to the neighbor in all our relations with him, in all his acts. It is said "In the heavens there is communion of all goods, the peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness of all are communicated to every one there, and those of each are communicated to all."

     This is what we pray may come to pass in the Lord's New Church in our midst, that we may perform uses from the affection of uses-uses in the Church, uses to the neighbor, and uses to the world, that good may flow in.

     In the human body when in a state of health all its members perform their functions in harmony with the whole. Each part does its share, contributing to the accomplishment of a purpose, willingly, some in a superior degree, others in an inferior capacity, but all in unity, unselfishly, and according to the genius of its part.

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So in the Church which is many times spoken of in the Writings as a Communion. It has an external in the human form with a head, a body and its component parts. We are members of this body of the Lord's New Church by the mercy of the Lord, not because we deserve it or are better than others, or can of ourselves carry forward the work of the Church to its accomplishment, but as a free gift to us and as an aid in our regeneration and salvation are we permitted to appear as free agents in the mighty work now going on in the establishment of the Church on earth, which is to last for ages and ages.

     As members of this body do we never stop to consider the providential means by which we came into the Church and into the light of the truths of the Writings as revealed to man, and how gradual was the opening of our sight to the reception of these truths? These Writings have been opened to all the world in many languages but how few avail themselves of its treasures! Do we realize what a small body the New Church is, as compared to the world? Do we realize that all our sermons, teachings, invitations to service, yea, even entreaty from affection, fall on deaf ears and fail to arouse even a passing interest in a world asleep as to Spiritual things? If we do realize these things in humility, we will confess our littleness and inability to contribute anything of ourselves, even in the smallest degree, to the advancement of the Church, but acknowledge that it is the Lord's work and that He will carry it forward to its fulfillment according to His own Divine order.

     Realizing some of these things we will come to view our fellow member in a different light and from another standpoint. He will take on a newer aspect from his quality and his use. We will learn to make allowances for what we know to be his struggle in overcoming his evils. From knowledge of our own infirmities and weaknesses, to which we ourselves are prone, and the apparent hopelessness of the fight going on within each of us, we will have the greatest tenderness for him who is doing battle. We will realize that in the Providence of the Lord our present state is the best for us that can be for our good, and that our fellow member in the Church is to be loved according to his quality, for there is in him that attribute from the Lord by which he is made the recipient of spheres which go to make up the state of the Church, and which, if internal, makes the Church on earth truly a "Communion of Saints."

     When we carry into outward performance these manifestations of good intentions as expressed in the consideration of our subject, then will be realized most fully that the goods and truths of the Church are matters of the heart and life, and are something actual, instead of merely intellectual figments to be dissipated at the first appearance of troubles, or fade away in the memory in the lapse of time, or lost in the cares of the world.

     And now on this memorable and glorious occasion, this stated festival of our Church, our hearts and minds elevated to Heaven in adoration and praise of the Lord, and thankfulness to Him for all His mercies bestowed upon us, let us pledge anew our feality and devotion to the Lord's New Church on earth, the New Jerusalem now descending from God out of Heaven,--"The Communion of Saints."

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The accomplishment of this state in all our lives bestows the most bountiful measure of reward that is possible for us to receive, a delight and happiness such as the world knows not of, and to which, it is the Divine promise, eternity itself shall not cease to add.

     The fifth toast, "TRADE," was introduced by the Toastmaster with an original poem of numerous verses, each verse bearing a tribute of affection, (pointed by "local hits"), to each and every Society of the General Church. The enthusiasm awakened by this song had scarcely subsided, when Mr. Seymour G. Nelson aroused it anew by his response to the toast.

     Trade is the mutual interchange of commodities or labor. In a most general sense all men trade, receiving something from others each day, likewise giving each day. There is in all trade an idea of profit, and rightly so, for as it is of order that man should strive to increase his store of knowledges of good and truth, so it is commendable that he should endeavor to increase his worldly possessions. He must not, however, enrich himself at the expense of others, but should render a just value for what he receives. Honest trading has in it the love of the good of the neighbor. In the Writings the Dutch are said to be in this state more than other nations, while the Jews are in the opposite, for by means of frauds and dishonest arts they attempt to secure the possessions of the neighbor. Ought we not in this "get rich quick" age to include many Christians also?

     The places where trading is carried on vary according to the inclination or convenience of the traders. The village shop, the vast emporium of the metropolis, or even the pack of the peripatetic peddler, offers its bargains with all the glamour the eager salesman is able to impart. And may we not with fitness compare our association with one another in the Church to trading,--though on a distinct and higher plane? Our local meetings, the village shop; the Assemblies, the large city stores; and the individual visitor, the peddler with his pack. In each case there are exchanges of thought and sympathy, of encouragement and comfort, and in such exchanges there is always a profit for both parties. Thus do they exemplify to a certain extent the busy marts of commerce, when each is doing his best for the good of all. And if this spirit continues, will not our different churches increase and grow like prosperous traders, who by useful arts accumulate large fortunes? Think what such an increase would mean in the course of the next twenty-five years.

     Let us take a glimpse of what we might reasonably [!] expect to find after that period of time in four of our General Church centres.

     Our first glimpse discloses the Pittsburg Church on Easter morn. A massive structure, simple in architecture, but pleasing and harmonious, containing an auditorium comfortable and ample for the large body of earnest worshipers. A magnificent organ is making the whole edifice tremble, thrilling the hearers with rich harmony.

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The music ceases and the pastor announces the rite of Declaration of Faith. Thirty bright-faced youths and maidens approach the chancel in response to his call.

     His voice so clear and earnest, his manner reverent and impressive, recalls with sudden distinctness the memory of another pastor who fifty years before, in the days of 1879, ministered to the Immanuel Church, then forming in Chicago. Our sight grows dim, and the scene fades swiftly away. That is all we are permitted to see of this place.

     With the passing of Eastertide and its vacation, our thoughts are directed to the Academy Schools at Bryn Athyn, where great preparations are on foot for the Assembly of 1929, and the Commencement Day an which is to be graduated the largest class ever sent out by a New Church School 'Tis here we take our second glimpse.

     On entering the Academy grounds we notice the figures "1929" formed in blue flowers upon a beautiful bed of white blossoms. Perhaps this has been done by the Graduating Class. Before us rises the stately Convocation Hall where the exercises are being held. Entering, we are delighted to behold an audience large enough to fill the place completely,--not less than 3,000 persons are here listening intently to the Class Valedictorian's Address to the 212 members of the Class of 1929,--gathered together here from all parts of the world, even from distant Tartary and Japan. The large stage is arranged as a semi-circular amphitheatre; on the lower row is seated the venerable Chancellor, together with the members of the Faculty, forty in number. Behind these appear 120 charming maidens arrayed in dazzling white and 92 young men, well-pleased to be placed in the background of such a pleasing foreground. But we are not permitted to linger,--a glimpse must suffice. But passing out through the spacious corridors to the main entrance we cannot help looking at the bulletin board containing the announcements for the General Assembly to convene on the morrow, and the arrangements for the entertainment of the 2,090 visitors expected.

     Our next glimpse is taken a few days later, when we witness the return of the special train chartered by the Ontario Assembly for the exclusive use of its delegation to the Assembly at Bryn Athyn. The local school, 250 strong, led by their school banner, form a guard of honor to escort the Berlin delegation of 300 members, the most numerous contingent from any church centre. To the inspiring strains of the "Maple Leaf Forever" the procession wends its was to the school grounds, there to listen to words of loving greeting transmitted from the General Assembly to those who had been detained at home, and to glowing accounts of the happy times enjoyed by those who attended.

     Our final glimpse is taken in the warm days of early July. The entire population of Glenview is assembled to meet and welcome the members of Sharon Church, who are to unite with them in a joint patriotic celebration of the day. Soon the children espy a cloud of dust down the road and shout. "Here they come!" And presently we discern ten 'buses loaded to the guards with our happy friends from Sharon.

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No horses are attached to the vehicles, which, nevertheless, move briskly forward. Then, at the word of command, the Glenview Cadets, from our boys' school, form ranks and prepare to salute the guests. The Cadet military band sounds a fanfare, our friends alight, and fall in behind the Cadets, who march to the Athletic Field. Keeping step to the "Glenview" March, they climb "the Hill," pausing a moment on its summit to rest and to admire the classic beauty of the Immanuel Church Temple. Continuing their course through the grove, they come upon extensive preparations for the entertainment of the visitors. Would that we might remain longer to describe the base ball game between the rival teams, the tub race, the ladies' walking match, and all the other athletic events. Words, however, would fail to do justice to the tempting repast presently to be served to the hungry and thirsty, or even the gorgeous pyrotechnic display in the evening by the side of the Lake.

     What pictures these views make of the possibilities of the future! And are they overdrawn or impossible? By no means. Even greater will be the growth and progress of our Church in that period. Which one of you here today would have ventured in the year 1879 to have predicted a General Assembly like that of 1879 or to picture a banquet such as the one we non enjoy together on "Chicago Day?"

     Dr. J. B. S. King responded to "Duty," the subject of the sixth toast:

     I observe that you are tired and I shall be brief. I shall take the advice of an excellent friend of mine who once sat next to me at a banquet where I had been asked to make a speech. I asked him what I had better talk about, and he replied that I had better talk about a minute. I took the advice of my excellent friend and I shall now take it again. But I must tell no more stories; before I left home my wife cautioned me on two points; one was not to tell any stories, and the other was to take good Care of my health. You must know that it is very embarrassing for me when I get sick, for I have no confidence in these other doctors, and I cannot afford to treat myself because my prices are too high.

     The subject of my toast is "Duty," an old subject and so often talked about as to be almost trite, but like all the old worn-out sentiments and moralities it is now to be revivified by the New Church into an ampler and more beautiful life. To us the word has graver significance, higher import, deeper meaning than ever before in the history of the world. Only consider the difference in the knowledge of a Newchurchman and that of an unbeliever and you will see this. The knowledge we have of the Spiritual World, of discrete degrees, of the true import of Charity, of the Life after Death, of the Holy Scriptures, makes a vast difference between us and the rest of the world. But the possession of vastly greater privileges involves vastly greater duties. As our minds are freighted and our memories stored with supernal knowledges, so do we thereby inevitably assume heavier responsibilities and more solemn duties.

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We alone of all the people upon this earth know that every act here is weighted with eternal consequences; we alone know that every concrete fact here rises by discrete degrees to the Infinite and the Eternal. The rest of the world may have a right to be trivial, to engage in frivolous pursuits, to occupy itself with the solemn stupidities of modern science, or to be absorbed in the fatuous inanities of "Christian Science," but the Newchurchman has no such right. "All religion is of Life." We have a pure and undefiled religion, and it is a tremendous duty to make that religion a part of our daily life; to so live that, as far as may be, our lives shall adequately show it forth and give it external expression.

     In response to the seventh toast, "MONEY," the Toastmaster himself responded briefly, but very much to the point.

     Money is a strange thing,--(to most of us,)-tho' we can all claim to know more or less about it.

     You have all heard the old saw about bachelors' wives and old maids' children; well, my views on money will take their place in the temple of fame with these honored and perfect institutions. Time will not permit, however, a leading up to and elaboration of the point which I had hoped to speak of on this occasion, but I will state it as briefly as may be. It is this:

     Nothing we can do will make financial tranquility in the Church more certain than the prompt fulfilling by each individual of such obligations as he or she may have undertaken. If any one within the sound of my voice has been in the habit of delaying or procrastinating payments to the many treasurers, let such a one consider and reform and forever he grateful to me for the suggestion.

     Dr. Harvey Farrington responded to the eighth toast, to "BRAIN AND BRAWN."

     Our program has been arranged in a descending series--we are now getting down to "rock bottom," to the most ultimate,--for the subject of Brain includes also the extension of Brain into the body, that is, brawn. But, though ultimate, it is none the less important in its place. What would the Church do without the natural rational, without thinking minds to understand her teaching, and wisely minister to the guarding of her temporal welfare? What success would attend her battles, collective or individual, without the potent intellectual weapons of the well trained brain? What would peace amount to if there was no faculty of its ultimate enjoyment? Unity could not exist if the means for attaining it and maintaining it on the natural plane were wanting. And so with the rest.

     There in our schools, the importance of brain has never been underrated, and it may be said that whatever may be the imperfections in the curriculum, the students turned out by the Academy have been trained to think. The physical side was also received attention in times past, but only in a more or less desultory way.

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It is, therefore, very gratifying to note the revival of interest in brawn as shown in the manly sports recently inaugurated and so successfully carried on by the Academy Foot Ball and Base Ball teams.

     The final toast of the program, "OUR HOSTS," was honored by the visitors singing the following song composed for the occasion by one of the western bards:

Our fair beloved Bryn Athyn,
Robed as a bride,
Stands in her beauty,
On the old hillside.
No hurt, no fear can reach her,
No ill befall,
Yet her bright beauty
Is not the all.

In fair beloved Bryn Athyn,
Newchurchmen true,
Labor in concert,
The Lord's work to do;
Their hearts will never falter,
At duty's call,
But their devotion
Is not the all.

In fair beloved Bryn Athyn,
Truth from the Lord,
Living and perfect,
Brings a sweet accord;
'The Word, a living fountain,
Flows there for all.
In fair Bryn Athyn
The Church is all.

     Prof. Odhner then, in proposing a toast to the Church in Glenview and Chicago, expressed the warm affections of the rest of the Assembly for the friends in the West who had prepared this rich feast of reason, poetry, and flow of soul. Other spontaneous toasts followed, with a number of songs, original, adapted, or selected. During the course of the program Mr. Richard Morse, of Sydney, Australia, was introduced, and the guests were favored by him with a most interesting account of the conditions of the New Church, in the Australian continent, after which all gathered again for the afternoon session of the Assembly.

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     FIRST DAY--FRIDAY AFTERNOON.

     10. The discussion of New Church Life was continued.

     Mr. Odhner: "I wish to express my appreciation of the affection for the Life which the members have expressed. It encourages us to go forward in the work with renewed vigor. We welcome criticism, not only for the Life's sake, but for the good of the Church. If there had been more freedom of thought and expression in the earlier days of our movement, we might have been saved many unfortunate experiences. Newchurchmen should not feel that they cannot speak out. Our Church stands for freedom and reason, and open criticism is necessary to preserve these. The Life is free to criticise and to be criticised. Praise is gratifying, but not as useful as honest expression of differences of opinion. Much has been said about the Life being personal. To be personal is to ascribe motives to a man, and to make a judgment of his individual character. This the Life does not do. But it must show up falsities whenever they appear, and it has a right to judge as to truth or falsity. A good man may be in falsity. When errors are exposed, names must, of course. be mentioned, but this is not being personal. Not only now, but at any time, everyone is invited to write to the Life and criticise it, and his communication will be become."

     Rev. W. Brickman: "It is evident that it is only certain little things that are criticised, as, for example, the exclamatory words in parenthesis, such as 'sic.' These things do not amount to much. I would like to see a column in which the laymen express themselves, and I am sure the editors would be pleased to provide it. I have been delighted with the original translations of the Writings which the Life has published. They are of a duality that cannot be found elsewhere. It seems to me that if there has been any personal criticism, it has been chiefly on the part of the critics of the Life. I believe that if the Life had been in the hands of anyone else than the present editors. I would not have had the honor of becoming a graduate of the Academy; for it was principally through the Life that I became interested in the subject of the authority of the Writings. Those who really love the truth will not be hurt by sharp sayings, but will be benefitted; for by them their eyes are opened, and the affections of the natural man are subdued."

     Mr. Bowers: "There is only one objection I have heard to the Life, namely, that much that is published is too deep, and cannot be followed."

     Mr. Acton: "The appearance of personality in the Life comes from a lack of realization by the readers of what is meant by the love of truth and the love of truth in the person. We are to love good and truth in a man, and be averse to evil and falsity in him; and it is difficult for some to see when evil and falsity are attacked, that this is separate from all idea of the person. Men will often be silent from fear of hurting the person; but this is really not charity.

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To speak openly of evil and falsity is to love the Church, and the good and truth of the Church, which are above persons. Let the man who is apparently attacked look to the thing which is really attacked. The whole spirit of the Life is to uphold what is faithful to the right; therefore, also, it holds it to be its duty to show how men pervert good and truth, and thus do evil to the Church. We are told in one of the Memorable Relations that Swedenborg, in speaking to persons in a simple state, once spake very sharply. We might think that he would have spoken more mildly. But he saw that this was necessary. The angels speak the truth straight out. And because, when they correct anyone, they are not in hatred of the person, they presume that one to whom they are speaking is also not in hatred, but has regard for the truth."

     Mr. Richard Morse: "I have listened with great pleasure to the remarks which have been made. I believe that the editors of the Life look above person to principle. A man is apt to be offended when his ideas are criticised, and to think that a personal attack has been made upon him; but if he is animated by a proper spirit, he will not be offended, for he can see that the attack is not aimed at him personally. I hope the day will never come when the editors will not be in freedom to carry on their use as they are now doing it. The Lord, when on earth, spoke hard words of the Jews; yet He loved them, and said He would that He could gather them under His wing, as a hen gathereth her young. The Life has been of great value to me."

     Mr. Odhner: "The Life of today is not any more caustic than It ever was. We are keeping up the same spirit as appeared in the beginning, when the paper was under the charge of Mr. E. P. Anschutz, Mr. Charles P. Stuart, Mr. Schreck, and Mr. Starkey. We are singing as we were brought up to sing, and we can't sing any other tune. As in the case of Mr. Brickman, so with me, it was the very sharpness of the Life that brought me to the Academy. It woke me up and taught me to see the difference between the genuine truth and those mere appearances of truth which prevail so largely in the Church. Mr. Mercer lent me a volume, and I sat up nearly all night reading it. It was a revelation to me. And it was just those caustic things and hard knocks which were of most use to me. The hard ground must be broken up with the sharp plow-share before the seed can be planted. So long as in teaching truth we seek only to please the natural man, the ground will not be broken up, but will remain hard as before."

     Mr. Seymour Nelson: "Our friend, Mr. Morse, made a remark that has often been in my thought. The Lord spoke hard things of the Jews, and they were offended; and every man who has the courage to speak the truth which the Lord has given, must expect it will offend."

     THE HISTORY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.

     11. On motion, Mr. Odhner's paper on the History of the General Church was taken up for consideration.

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     Mr. Acton: "The paper was not only valuable as gathering together the threads of our history, but also as a means of bringing us into a state of recognition of the Divine leading, and of the need of humility on our part. Man proposes and God disposes. How often our states have tended to weaken the power of the Church with us! Yet the Lord, in His Providence, has led the Church onward. If we will remain constant in the spiritual love of truth; if we will cherish that charity which causes us to think that the neighbor also is a man of the Church; if we are strengthened to carry the inspiration of the Doctrines into our daily life: whatever may be the dangers which we see threatening the Church, we call know that the Lord is leading on to the ever fuller establishment of His New Church on earth."

     Mr. Bowers: "The paper was interesting from beginning to end, and brought out many things of importance. I hope it will be published, not only that all may now read it, but also for the sake of coming generations."

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton: "I enjoyed the paper very much. But there is one point I wish had been accentuated, namely, that there was more opposition to certain developments in the days of the Church of the Academy than appears from the printed records The writer of the paper did indeed raise the question, but gave no definite answer. For the sake of record, and for the sake of future generations who will have no way of knowing except by what is recorded, this question should be clearly answered. I wish, therefore, to say, that the state which existed at the last meeting of the Council of the Clergy under Bishop Benade [in 1896] was most woefully misinterpreted as described in New Church Life. The account was most probably written under the influence of the idea, which then existed with some, that it is desirable that the Church should feel that the priesthood was united and in harmony with the Bishop. There was at that meeting decided opposition to Bishop Benade's idea that the Bishop had the right to name his successor. It was stated on the floor that while it was admitted that he could name his successor, it was also of the freedom of the ministers to agree or not agree with the nomination. The account as given in the Life presents us in a ludicrous light, and the time has come when the error should be corrected. The writer of the paper which was presented today was unwilling to go into his own memory of the facts, but preferred to abide by the printed records. Had he depended more upon his own recollections he would have had to record a long history of opposition and protest against the positions held by Bishop Benade. Had not such a state of opposition existed, the General Church of the New Jerusalem could not have been formed so quickly. It was, in reality, not formed suddenly. The Academy never stood for such a form of government as has been supposed. There was far greater freedom of thought and expression among the ministers than has been allowed to appear. The New Church can no more be enslaved by any man than can our country; nay, less, for in the country a dictator can for a time get control, but in the Church never. In the New Church there is absolute freedom. The man who approaches the Writings as the Word in its spiritual sense is a free man, and will permit no one to stand between him and his God."

447




     Mr. Synnestvedt: "I know that before going to that meeting, of which Mr. Pendleton spoke, some of us discussed the question as to whether the Bishop could appoint his successor, and we all answered 'no.' We admitted at the meeting that he might nominate, but it was clearly pointed out that there is a difference between a nomination and an appointment. With this in view, the meeting passed along very smoothly. We went to that meeting fully determined to oppose such a thing as the appointment of a successor.

     Mr. Odhner: "This whole discussion shows the necessity of keeping proper records of meetings of the Church. As to the meeting referred to, the secretary was given the power to make a general summary, and he made a report from his feelings at the time. The same applies to the London meeting preceding. No blame can be laid upon any one individual. I fully sympathize with Mr. N. D. Pendleton, but I had no other records to go by than what appeared in the Life, and personal recollections cannot be depended on. However, we were all, priests and laymen, more or less in 3 state of persuasion, and we can not deny it. We need to look beyond the things that were said and done, and regard the motives and the love that inspired the whole movement. We were for a time carried away by the apparent logic of the situation. We must be willing to take the blame for our faults. The Lord, in His mercy, has led us into greater freedom and rationality."

     Mr. Klein: "Mr. Odhner's paper was a masterly presentation of the subject. It brought to my mind the idea of the continuity of our movement. When the General Church of the New Jerusalem was first formed, we thought that perhaps the continuity might be broken off. The name was new. We thought that it could trot inspire us with the same affection as the old Academy. But a sphere has become associated with the new name, and it stands for much more than the Academy did in the beginning. We all know with what feelings we formed the General Church: how we were in a state of doubt; how it seemed as though the Church was to be taken from us. But we know that we shall never be wanting a home in the Church if we love the Truth. Even though our present organization should be broken up, that love would clothe itself in a new form and a new home would he provided."

     Mr. Roschman: "I listened to the paper with great pleasure. It is not only useful, but absolutely necessary that the history of the Church be recorded, and be impressed upon the minds of the young. We who are older have a record, never to be lost to us, of the feelings of joy and of fear which were called forth by the past events of the life of our Church. But our children have no such record, and, therefore, cannot in the same way see how wonderfully the Lord has led His Church, unless they are taught the history of the Church. What has been said about the state which existed with the clergy towards the end of Bishop Benade's government was very interesting. The appearance was that there was with the clergy a sudden change of mind at the time of the formation of the General Church.

448


But, as has been shown, there was a preparation which had been going on for some time. The case was similar with the laity; they, too, did not change suddenly, but were prepared for some time for the things which came; there was with them a state of unrest and dissatisfaction. If the priests made a mistake in not protesting sooner against the conditions which existed, the laity also were at fault in standing it as long as they did. However, it is perhaps more satisfactory to think that both priests and laymen were patient, and willing to go to the very limit of what could be endured."

     Mr. Acton: "I am very glad this subject has come up. It is necessary for us to look at the past and defend it, for in the past are the seeds of the present. Things have been said in regard to the manner in which the priests followed Bishop Benade, which practically amount to saying that they were little better than children. This implies that the laity were even more childish. But if we will look deeper into the history of the past, we can see that the governing spirit was loyalty to Divine Revelation. It was this which caused us to fall into such a state of loyalty to a man. If phantasies which arise in the Church are not protested against at once, it does not follow that there is a loss of that love of truth through which comes all truth. There was in those times, as has been shown, independence of thought among some of the priests as to certain teachings put forth by Bishop Benade. If they followed him further than they should without protest, it was due to the spirit of loyalty to the truth; for there was with them, as also with the laity, a fear that they might possibly do something which would lead away from that loyalty, and so injure the Church. But in time, under the leading of the Divine Providence, things were brought to such a head that we could see what was to be done. Through it all there has been continuity of state. The Church as it is with us today is the fruit of that love for the Writings and the profound study of them which has existed throughout the past of our movement; it is the fruit not only of the establishment of the Academy in 1876, but of every successive state since that time. Our Church could not be what it is today unless there had been continual growth of internal rationality with both the clergy and the laity, caused by that love of truth which, though obscured at times, has always been active."

     Mr. Swain Nelson: "As the laity have been referred to, I wish to state in my way what I can. We found in Bishop Benade a man of superior wisdom, and we loved him. There is no doubt we had a strong affection for him and his teachings; and it was hard for us to realize the fact when his judgment failed him."

     Dr. King: "Mr. Acton's remarks have been very useful to me. When I entered the General Church, although I thought it was a genuine Church, yet I felt a certain limitation of freedom. What Mr. Acton has said clears up the matter and helps me to understand the situation."

     12. On motion, the Assembly adjourned until Saturday, June 18th, at 10 A. M.

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     FRIDAY EVENING.

     The evening of this day was occupied by a general social reception of the visitors by the members of the Bryn Athyn Society.

     SECOND DAY--SATURDAY MORNING, JUNE 18TH.

     13. The meeting opened with worship, conducted by the Rev. J. E. Bowers.

     14. The Secretary read an abstract of the minutes of the session held on Friday.

     15. The Treasurer presented his annual report.

     THE TREASURER'S REPORT.

FINANCIAL STATEMENT, GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM AND "NEW CHURCH LIFE."
June 10th, 1904.

     Balance on hand June 19th, 1903               $     16 77
Interest on bank account                           6 25
Contributions as per list                           3230 48
                                             $3253 50

     EXPENDITURES.
As per list                                        $2500 47
Amount contributed to support of Life                     689 43
Balance                                        $     63 60

     "New Church Life" Account.
RECEIPTS.                                        $1035 99
Received from Subscribers                              689 43
Amount drawn from General Fund                          $1725 42

     EXPENDITURES.
As per list                                        $1725 42

RECEIPTS.
Contributions to the General Church.          
A Friend                                   $5 00

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A Member                                    8 00
Colorado, Denver                              63 00
Delaware                                    2 25
Georgia                                   99 00
Illinois--General                              19 00
Chicago                                   28 71
Glenview                                   76 50
Indiana                                    4 00
Louisiana                                   59 05
Maryland, Baltimore                              20 50
Michigan                                    1 00
Nebraska                                    1 00
New York                                   42 00
Ohio--General                              102 00
     Middleport                              45 05
Pennsylvania-General                         54 75
     Bryn Athyn                          1714 45
     Philadelphia                               239 38
Pittsburg                                        403 25
W. Virginia                                   10 00
Canada--General                              21 22
     Berlin and Waterloo                         82 20
     Toronto                              103 04
England, London and Colchester                    26 13
                                             $3230 48
EXPENDITURES.
General.
Salaries                              $2066 66
Bishop's Travelling Expenses                    113 56
Printing and addressing Quarterly Report                24 00
Stamped envelopes for Quarterly Report                34 20
Stamped envelopes for general purposes                21 40
Statistical reports, circulars, etc.                    10 50
Stationery                                    8 45
Postage                                    6 66
Sundry Expenses                              15 04
J. E. Bowers, missionary services                    200 00
                                             $2500 47

     New Church Life.
Salaries to Editors                         $ 500 00
Printing, June, 1903, to June, 1904, Life               914 87
Paper for Life                                   112 50
Cover Page for Life                              46 80
Envelopes for mailing Life                          9 10
Mail-list rental                              12 00
Stationery                                   11 96

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Stamped envelopes for Life bills, etc.               42 80
Postage                                    14 95
Advertisement in "Messenger"                     18 05
Bound Life, 1903, to subscribers,--cost of
     binding, and postage                     18 44
Sundry Expenses                               23 95
                                             $1725 42

     

      Recapitulation.                    
RECEIPTS.                                        
Balance on hand June 19th, 1903                         $     16 77
Interest on bank account                    $     6 25
Contributions                           3230 48
Life Subscriptions                           1035 99     $4272 72
                                                       $4289 49
EXPENDITURES.
General Church, as per list                    $2500 47
New Church Life, as per list                     1752 42
                                                       $4225 89

     Balance on hand                                             $     63 60
Audited and found correct June 21, 1904.
                Signed, Seymour G. Nelson, Rudolf Roschman, Auditors

     ADDENDUM.

     In presenting the above report the treasurer has the privilege of announcing that we close the fiscal year with a balance on hand of $63.60. This has been brought about by an increase in the General Contributions during the last year of $342.39, as well as by a reduction in the general expenses of $314.27 The total number of contributors that we have on the list is now 200. The New Church Life, too, has been better supported this year than ever before, the receipts being $92.74 more than during the previous year. This, however, does not altogether represent the subscriptions for 1903, but is made up by some old accounts which have been collected. Our total number of subscribers is 492 Fifty-six were dropped during the year, either because they refused to pay their subscription, or at their own request, but 57 new subscribers were added, so that there is a net increase of one. Of these 492 subscribers, eight are getting it at half rate, because of inability to pay more. But the Life is also sent free to 27 persons, and there are 22 exchanges.

     As was said, the collections have been better than formerly, but we have paid out more for New Church Life, and this has been because we were behind last year, and there was an old account of the year before which was left unsettled until this year.

     As may be seen the Life is only about two-thirds self-sustaining, the other third being advanced from the General Fund.

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If the Life were self-sustaining then the General Church might be in a position to do something in a small way towards putting men in the field to build up and strengthen weak societies, which now receive but little priestly ministrations, and which might be developed into strong centres of the Church, if we were able to place the right man in the field.

     There is one more use to which I desire to call the attention of the members of the Church. For some time the Bishop and others have been at work on a new Hymnal, and now have it in such shape that the printing of the first section is going on. The Executive Committee authorized the publishing of it, and fixed upon a price of 25 cents for each section of 32 pages. This is a use the Church has undertaken, and we hope that the subscriptions will be sufficient to warrant the continuance of the work, so that the Church may have the advantage of Hymns, which are not only beautiful, but also are free from the false sentiments which are to be found in so many of the Hymns of the old Liturgy. Respectfully submitted, C. E. DOERING. Treasurer.

     15a. In reply to the question as to whether the improved condition of the treasury was due to any uses being dropped, the treasurer stated that the support to the Rev. George Starkey, of $140.- per year, had been discontinued; that the Bishop's travellings expenses had been smaller; that there had been no liturgical services printed; and that a number of small accounts had been lessened.

     16. The following communication from the Academy of the New Church and from the Academy Book Room was read by Mr. Doering:

     COMMUNICATION FROM THE ACADEMY.

     Since the last General Assembly the progress of the work of the Academy has been very gratifying. The building which we are now occupying has been completed since then, and, besides, a new Dormitory which has been erected, occupied by students of the College. To enable us to carry out our uses and to better take care of our pupils, the same gentleman, who has been so generous in the past, is now donating another dormitory, a dining hall and a central heating plant, and, besides, has given a tract of land of nearly 68 acres, thus providing for future extensions of the Academy. With the completion of these buildings the Academy will be better prepared than ever before to look after the welfare of her pupils, and it is to be hoped that the interest of the Church in New Church Education will increase as the Academy's facilities for educating increase.


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     One way in which this interest has manifested itself has been by the starting of a Scholarship Fund.

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This Fund has enabled a number of young people to have the benefit of the schools, who otherwise would not have received it. And this has been of value to the Church, in that it has added materially to the intelligent understanding of the Doctrines and affection for the uses of the Church among the Laity, and it is to be hoped that this use will he continued and grow, for the more pupils the Academy is enabled to educate, the stronger may we expect our General Church to become.

     The schools, consisting of a Theological Department, under the direction of Bishop Pendleton; a College for Boys, and a Girls' Seminary, under the direction of the College Faculty, has had the following corps of teachers: Rev. W. F. Pendleton, Rev. E. S. Price, Rev. C. Th. Odhner, Rev. A. Acton, Rev. H. Synnestvedt, Mr. C. Vinet, Mr. A. H. Stroh, Rev. C. E. Doering, Miss Ellen Sherman, Miss H. Ashley, Miss Carrie Hobart, and Miss Jane Potts. Besides the above departments, there has been a special department for preparing young ladies for teachers, in which the work of the above mentioned teachers has been supplemented by Miss A. E. Grant and Miss Lillian Beekman.

     The scholars attending during the year have been 25 male and 28 female. At the close of the school term two theological students were graduated, receiving the title and degree of Th. B. Four students graduated from the College, receiving the degree of A. B., and 13 were graduated from the Girls' Seminary, receiving the customary medal. In addition to these a former pupil of the schools who has since taken up professional work and prepared himself in the sciences was granted the degree of B. S.

     The work of Phototyping the Spiritual Diary has continued, and all has been completed excepting the Lesser Diary, which will be phototyped shortly.

     In this work the Treasurer of the Academy has been Acting Manager for the joint Committee of the General Convention and the Academy.

     While the Spiritual Diary is practically completed, there are a number of documents of a miscellaneous nature which could very well form a fourth volume of the Diary. Part of this has been done, but no arrangements have been made so far for the continuance of it.

     The accessions to the library have been few in recent years, but the increase in the use of the Library has been very marked. It has been very gratifying to note the intelligent and systematic use of the Library by the pupils, and our regret has been that the facilities for reference have not been better, and the range of material at hand wider.

     The Academy Book Room has sold $628.26 worth of New Church Literature, not of our own Publications. Of the latter I may mention that the Index to the Annals has been published, and Vol. I. of that valuable work is now complete. A second edition of the Brief View was gotten out a little over a year ago. Of the entirely new publications, A Chronology of the Christian Church and the Laws of Order for the Preservation of the Conjugial are mentioned because of their importance.

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This is particularly true of the latter work, which presents in clear and concise language the position the Academy holds in regard to the doctrines contained in the work on Conjugial Love, and we take pleasure in recommending it to each member of the Church.

     The following is a list of the Academy's Publications which have been sold during the year:

     191 copies Brief View
     85 copies Calendar for Reading.
     83 copies Laws of Order.
     68 copies Song Book.
     65 copies Testimony of the Writings.
     43 copies Chronology.
     36 copies Book of Doctrine.
     29 copies Life of Emanuel Swedenborg.
     29 copies Bound volumes of the Life, (to subscribers).
     23 copies Bound volumes of the Life, (extra).
     18 copies De Verbo.
     17 copies Psalmody.
     7 copies Discrete Degrees.
     4 copies General Index N. C. Life.
     1 copies Life of Robert Hindmarsh.
     2 copies Conversations on Education.
     2 copies Lessons in Anatomy.
     2 copies Phototyped MS. of Prophets and Psalms.
     1 set Words for the N. C.

     THE CALENDAR.

     16a. The Bishop asked whether anyone wished to discuss these reports.

     Mr. Nelson said that he should not like to see the publication of the Calendar dropped, and inquired about the cost of printing it. He would be willing to pay more for it if necessary.

     Mr. Carswell regarded the report as an evidence that the Lord is taking care of His Church and building it up. In the New Church we should recognize that all gifts to the Church are from the Lord. We should recognize the work of the Lord in Mr. Pitcairn's donations to the Academy. All departments of our uses are flourishing, especially the school, as was evident at the Graduation Exercises the other day. It is true the sales by the Book Room seem insignificant, and yet they are great. It is to be hoped that it will be able to continue to publish the Calendar.

     Mr. Price stated the reason why the Calendar is not read as largely as formerly is because many have found that it is not adapted for use in family worship where there are a number of small children, and, therefore, follow another course of reading. There should he a Calendar adapted to family use. However, as there are still quite a number who follow the course begun, it is well that it should be continued; but a price should be charged for the Calendar which would cover the cost of publication.

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     Mr. Odhner believed that the fact that the Calendar is not self-sustaining is no reason for dropping it. There is a strong affection for it. Perhaps it could be made self-sustaining by enlarging it so that other matter of general interest and information could be included. The fact that we have a Calendar is a reminder that we should read. He had not found it impossible to use it in family worship.

     Rev. W. Gladish also thought that the Calendar should not he discontinued; but suggested that it might be more useful if the lessons from the Word were arranged according to the Church festivals of the Christian year; while the course in the Writings could usefully be one covering the general doctrines of the Church. A perpetual Calendar might be arranged, or one for a number of years.

     Mr. R. B. Caldwell, Sr., said that the Calendar had always been a friend in his house, and he would be sorry to see it discontinued. It forms us into a choir, which is most useful. He inquired what the price would need to be in order that it might be self-sustaining.

     Mr. Doering answered that fifteen cents apiece would more than cover the cost.

     Several other speakers expressed the desire that the publication of the Calendar be continued.

     Mr. Doering stated that he was pleased to have had this expression of opinion on the part of the members. The Book Room cannot carry on its use intelligently unless it knows the needs of the Church, and it is evident that the continuance of the Calendar is desired by many.

     THE SCHOLARSHIP FUND.

     17. On motion, the subject of The Support of the Scholarship Fund of the Academy was taken up for consideration.

     Mr. Price read the following circular letter from Mr. Doering, addressed to the members of the General Church:

     "The Academy is rapidly approaching the close of another school year, the most successful in its history, and it is a pleasure to us to be able to send forth into the world the largest class of Graduates we have ever had, all to be staunch and true New Church men and women. It may be well, therefore, to look forward to and make preparations for the opening term next fall.

     "With last year's 'Journal of Education,' a circular letter was sent out in regard to the new Scholarship inaugurated two years ago, and giving a brief report of the great use that had been performed, and the number of pupils who were enabled to attend the Academy Schools by their means. A further appeal to continue the good work was made at that time, and in response to it, sufficient funds were raised to support two pupils in the Schools during the past year.

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     "Our attention has been called to a number of young people who have expressed themselves as desirous of attending the Academy Schools,--some for the purpose of preparing themselves to be teachers,--but who are unable to do so for lack of financial assistance.

     "The Academy, therefore, again appeals to all the members of the New Church, who have the cause of New Church Education at heart, and who can do something towards the furtherance of this great use, to give the matter careful thought and consideration.

     "In order to present the matter more intelligently it may be well to give a few statistics.

     "It requires about two hundred dollars to support a scholar for one year. This covers all expenses, for Board and Laundry, but not for books and stationery, which should be supplied by the pupils themselves. There will be no charge for Tuition, as this is remitted in the case of Scholarship pupils. Therefore,

     First: Every endowment of $5,000, invested at 4 per cent., will be sufficient for the perpetual and complete maintenance of one scholarship.

     "Second: A contribution of $200 will be sufficient to support one scholar for one year.

     "Third: One hundred subscriptions of $2 will be sufficient for the same purpose, and in like manner, a proportionate number of larger or smaller subscriptions.

     "Fourth: A sum of $150, $100, or even less, will often be sufficient for the support of one scholar, since the plan also contemplates aiding pupils who can partially support themselves.

     "The vital necessity of New Church Education for the growth of the Church is well recognized by all members of the General Church, and we therefore believe that the plan here outlined will appeal strongly to them, and especially to such of them as have already enjoyed the benefits of an education in our schools. By contributing to this use you would do your share to aid some boy or girl to receive instruction in those things, which are so essential to a rich, intelligent, noble and useful life in this world and in the other." "C. E. DOERING, Treasurer."

     Mr. Price then continued: "The results of the appeals for the Scholarship Fund have thus far been nothing but gratifying. The pupils who have been sent on this basis have been very satisfactory, and the education they hare received will be of benefit to the Church in the future. They have received something of instruction in natural scientifics and in the things essential to the performance of uses in the world; but far more important was the knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines which they have received; and of still greater importance was the arousing of an affection for those Doctrines. Knowledge is useful; and a little knowledge goes a long may, if it conjoined with strong affection. In the Christian world there is a body of doctrine altogether false. Many who are in it are not of it; but they could not be saved if the Light had not come into the world.

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The Truth must be with some. There must be a centre, a heart and lungs, in order that life-giving heat and light may go forth. Man is a man according to his education. By birth he is worse than a wild beast. It is not altogether necessary that he go to school in order to be educated. He plays the first six years of his life, yet all the time the innate faculties are being educated. An educated man is one whose faculties have been led forth into their powers.

     "In every business in the world it is a recognized principle that capital must be accumulated for the successful carrying forward and increase of business. The capital of the New Church is rational intelligence. Without this there can be no spiritual increase. There are a number of people sending pupils to the Academy Schools, who can pay their way; but there are those who cannot do this, and who have children who should receive an advanced education, and for these scholarships are necessary. The more pupils there are educated in our schools, the better will it be for our Church; for if the Church is to increase and become powerful, there must be an intelligent laity. The priesthood is provided for, as the Academy is prepared to arrange for the education of any young man who manifests a fitness for that use. But there must also be provision that we may have a strong laity,--a strong reactive in the Church. This our education will give.

     "The scholarships have thus far been for one year, or from year to year. It would be most useful if there could be some for a two, three, or four years' course. There are young men whose talents are such that they should receive the full course, but their parents cannot provide for it. The Church would be greatly benefited by their obtaining it. While the yearly scholarships are most useful, it is to be hoped that perpetual scholarships will also be established."

     Mr. Seymour Nelson: "Funds for the support of a scholarship could be raised in each centre with little effort. Recently we concluded in Glenview to raise a social fund by contributions of one cent a day from each member, and in two or three months we had thirty dollars. If each centre would follow a plan of this kind for the Scholarship Fund, the result would be remarkable. We all recognize the great importance of the use."

     Mr. Price: "My appeal was principally for scholarships for young men. While it is also most useful that young women should be able to come to our school, it is the young men especially who should be aided."

     Mr. Klein: "In Glenview enough was accumulated in the Scholarship Fund to send a pupil to the Academy. The establishment of that fund greatly increased the affection for the work which is being done here. The pupils in our local school look forward to the time when they can come to the Academy. We cannot estimate how great is the value of an education in the Academy Schools. A wonderful work is being done here, and I hope that those who are carrying it on feel that those in other centres appreciate it."

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli: "Mr. Price spoke of the benefit of the scholarships to our Church as a whole.

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It may be added that not only is the Church as a whole benefitted, but also each Society; for the young people who come here bring home with them that affection for the Church which is so powerful in these Schools, and held to constitute in the Society that intelligent laity of which Mr. Price spoke. Today we know the value of New Church education from actual experience. Some years ago we believed that it would be valuable. It was then a matter of theory. But it is such no longer. For in every one of our societies we find that the children who have been educated in and by the Church have nearly all remained with us, and now, as adults, are active and zealous in the cause of the Church. We also find that those who, after leaving the local school, went to the Academy Schools, are able more than others to contribute to the strength of the Society. The support of scholarships is, therefore, a use which should appeal strongly to every Society. It is one of the most powerful means whereby we can provide for the future growth and prosperity of the Church."

     Mr. Odhner: "From every side cries for help come to us: from all parts of this country, from Canada, from England, and even from Australia. There are many who long to send their children to us, but do not have the means to do it. We should be able to help them. The Church should be able to provide an education not only for the children of parents who have money, but also for the children of those who have not. Think of what a year in this school means! If we all could realize the everlasting impression that a single year makes, we would do all in our power to provide that young men and young women may come here. Often we have seen how young people, coming here with but little interest in anything but worldly things, begin, after but a few months, to turn from without to within. The interest in spiritual things awakens, and an affection becomes enkindled. What a blessing is this to the Church! The Lord says: 'Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple shall in no wise lose his reward.' A cup of cold water signifies truth in natural form adapted to those in simple states. 'In the name of a disciple' signifies from spiritual truth. If, then, from a spiritual affection we give the Water of Life to our little ones our reward will be great, for the Church which we love will prosper."

     Mr. Brown. "For some years we have had a New Church School in Parkdale, and I have found, from experience, that boys who have passed through that school, though not so thoroughly drilled in certain external things, have been able to take their place in business and to compare favorably with those who hare attended other schools or who even have received a High School course. They seem better able than others to understand what is wanted of them and to take hold of their work properly. We had a delightful school-closing some days ago, and all were surprised to hear the excellent compositions written by the children. Then, on last Thursday, it was my privilege to be present at the Graduation Exercises here. We listened to the papers read by the young people with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, and I must confess to something of a feeling of envy that I had not similar advantages when I was of their age.

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Looking forward into the future, and taking into consideration what we saw and heard last Thursday, we have good reason to believe that the time is not far distant when we shall see a great increase in that knowledge of and love for the Doctrines, which is the strength of our Church."

     Mr. Roschman: "We all agree that the education of the young is of the greatest importance. We must look to them to carry on the work that has been begun, and it is without question that the more intelligent they are, the better they will do it. We recognize the importance of supporting scholarships. But it is not enough to recognize a need. It is necessary that we take action to provide for it. The Church in all its centres needs to have the matter of the scholarships kept constantly before it, and someone must do this. I would suggest that those who have had the privilege of attending the Academy Schools are the ones to take it in hand. These schools have been in existence for a number of years. In every society there are those who have been pupils. Let them do all they can to provide that others may enjoy the same privilege that they have had. Let them devise means by which funds may be raised. Thus they will not only perform an excellent use to the Church, but will also show their appreciation of the use which was performed to them. It was a great delight to be present at the Graduation Exercises the other day. They were to us all a powerful reminder of the great work which is being done here, and certainly should have awakened with us all the earnest desire that all the young of the Church could receive the benefit of it."

     18. The Bishop announced that the Offering at Worship on Sunday morning would go to the Scholarship Fund of the Academy.

     19. The Rev. N. D. Pendleton was now called on to read a paper on The Messianic Prophecies.

     20. The reading of this paper having been concluded, the Assembly took a recess until the afternoon.

     THE BANQUET--"PITTSBURGH DAY."

     The speeches at the banquet on Saturday were brief but earnest and much appreciated. The common purpose in them all was to give expression to the fact that the local bodies were dependent on the General Church and the Academy for certain most important work without which, as said by the toastmaster, "the light in the local churches would become dim, indeed."

     The Toastmaster, Mr. N. D. Pendleton, remembering the "eclat" of "Chicago Day," introduced the program by saying, "I stand before you as a representative of the somewhat embarrassed but none the less unterrified contingent from Pittsburgh."

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The sympathy of the assemblage was quickly won and all heartily joined in making Pittsburgh a success. When the formal speeches were ended attention was called to the fact that Mr. Walter Childs and Mr. John Pitcairn were at one time inhabitants of the city "where the Academy was born," whereupon they were invited to address the meeting. After a passage at arms between the two gentlemen, in which each rivalled the other in self-effacement, Mr. Childs ascended the platform, and during a very entertaining address gave his famous calculation as to how, in a very few centuries, the earth could he filled with inhabitants, simply by a normal increase from births within the Church.

     What followed is difficult to describe. Perhaps it was the same old songs, led by the same old guitar which smote the chords of memory and awoke the spirit of the early days. At any rate it was obvious to all that Pittsburg day was transferred into an old-fashioned Academy day.

     The speeches were as follows:

     Mr. S. S. Lindsay responded to the toast to "THE HIGHER EDUCATION OF OUR BOYS AND GIRLS."     

     The education of our children is a matter of the most vital concern, particularly to New Church parents, in that they feel that great responsibility and duty devolving upon them to have their children grow up and become staunch members of the Lord's New Church.

     The Divine Providence of the Lord has for its end a heaven from the human race. The New-churchman, therefore, is doubly anxious regarding the education and training or my children, from the fact that he not only desires them trained with a view to strengthening and fitting them for the uses, duties, and contests of this life, but also a thorough preparation for the real life that is to come. Therefore, by "The higher education of boys and girls" is meant the kind of work that is being done by the college and girls' seminary at Bryn Athyn.

     The local schools, being of a primary nature, can do only primary work, that is to say, sow the seeds, plant remains, and prepare the children for the higher course in education to be had here at Bryn Athyn. For the drawing forth of these remains, in the development of rational and loyal New Church men and women, we must look to the schools of Bryn Athyn. Before passing entirely without comment the sentence just above mentioned, namely, "rational and loyal New Church men and women," let us pause a moment, that we may get the full force of these words, and particularly a more perfect conception of the meaning of the term "a rational man."

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The word "loyal" is synonymous with faithful, faithful in allegiance, faithful in duty, service and love. This, therefore, needs no further explanation. But the word "rational" has a deeper and more interior meaning and refers to the mind, the understanding, the thinking faculties, the higher and purer thought, reasoning from knowledges, reasoning upon a basis founded on true principles of Good and Truth from the Lord.

     In the True Christian Religion, n. 564, we are told that "every man rightly educated is rational and moral." The number reads as follows: "As there are but few persons in the Reformed parts of the Christian world who do the work of repentance, it is expedient here to add this remark: He that never looks into and examines himself, comes at last not to know the nature of either damnatory evil or saving good; for such a one has no religion to lead him to that knowledge. The evil which a man does not see, know, and acknowledge, remains with him, and whatever remains, is rooted in him more and more deeply, until at length it closes up and obstructs the interiors of his mind, so that he is rendered first natural, then sensual, and lastly corporeal; in all which states he is utterly unconscious of any damnatory evil or saving good, and becomes like a tree planted on a hard rock, which shoots a few roots between the clefts, and at length withers away for want of moisture.

     "Every man rightly educated is rational and moral; but there are two ways which lead to rationality--one from the world, the other from heaven. He that is made rational and moral from the world, and not from heaven also, is only so as to his outward speech and behaviour, but within he is a beast, yea, a wild beast, acting in unity with the inhabitants of hell, who are all of such a quality; but whoever is made rational and moral from heaven also, is truly rational and moral because he is so in spirit, in speech and body at the same time; for within the two latter dwells a spiritual principle as their soul, which is the source of action to what is natural, sensual, and corporeal; he also acts in unity with the inhabitants of heaven.

     "There is, then, a spiritual-rational and moral man, and also a merely natural-rational and moral man, and in this world the latter is not distinguishable from the former, especially if he has acquired by practice the habit of hypocrisy; but the angels in heaven distinguish such as clearly as doves from owls, and as sheep from tigers. The merely natural man can see what is evil and good in others, and can also reprove them; but as he never looked into and examined himself, he does not see any evil in himself, and if any is pointed out to him by another, he masks it over by means of his rational faculty, as a serpent hides its head in the dust. This is occasioned by the delight of evil. This infernal delight can only be amended, reformed and inverted, by means of a spiritual-rational and moral principle." This, then, gives us a clear and comprehensive understanding of what is meant by a truly rational and consequently moral man.

     With these teachings in view, I feel fully warranted in asking the question, Where else can he found a college and seminary whose precepts and practice, whose aim and object, first and foremost, is the building of an education founded and based on the true principles and doctrines of the Lord's New Church?

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New Church Education! At the sound of these words every Newchurch father, every Newchurch mother,--every Newchurchman, is thrilled with a sense of joy and satisfaction, for today we behold the realization of the Newchurchman's dream, an institution for higher education of our boys and girls, modern in every respect as an up-to-date school for educational purposes, but what is far more important, equipped with a staff of earnest, faithful and devoted Newchurch workers: Ministers, Professors and Teachers all devoutly laboring in the noble work of education, training the intellects and morals of our children, moulding their characters, based upon that interior life which acknowledges God as the creator of all things. What service can be valuable, what greater responsibility assumed, than that of training the mind and heart of those on whom must rest the responsibility for the continued peace and prosperity of our Church and Country? We cannot estimate the value to the Church of the grand work being done by these schools. They are entirely worthy of our most enthusiastic support, and should receive our heartfelt gratitude, for we are convinced that by them as a chief instrumentality the distinctive thought, and life of the Church, will be gradually disseminated throughout the land.

     Mr. Jacob Schoenberger spoke to the toast, "THE RENEWAL OF LIFE THAT COMES TO US BY VIRTUE OF OUR INTIMATE CONTACT WITH THE GENERAL CHURCH."

     The Life of the parts depends upon the Life of the whole; the parts should, therefore, be so related to the whole as to continually receive of such inflowing life.

     The General Church provides three general mediums by which the Life and activity of the whole is regularly communicated to the parts.

     First, the monthly advent of the New Church Life, a vital organ of the whole body, declaring and upholding the infallibility of the Writings, that they are the internal sense of the Word, and the Second Coming of The Lord; that they are the Lord Himself. The Life is a flaming sword defending the Divine Doctrines in their purity, striking down falsities and perversions lest these holy truths should be injured and the life of the parts should suffer. As an evangelizing medium, being grounded in love of truth for its own sake, it gives pure substantial spiritual food to the hungry, and good tidings to every part of the body, creating a nobler, truer "New Church Life."

     Secondly, the annual visits of the Bishop of the General Church. By the annual visits of the Bishop to the district assemblies, the life of the Church is greatly renewed and stimulated by his superior teaching and guidance. He inspires the parts in the Love of the Church, that they may strive to formulate themselves into a more orderly whole. It is acknowledged fact that the head of our body devotes all his energy, all his life, and his love, to the welfare of the Church.

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The parts have an inspiring example before them, to follow him and partake of his guidance and teaching in their lives, thus to develop into a more perfect whole, and the renewal of the life of the Church in the general body will increase, will be ever more loyal, in word and deed, to its Divine Head.

     Thirdly, the General Assemblies of the General Church. General Assemblies perform a great use in the renewal of New Church life in all the parts of the Church. Every Society of the Church, every individual as a lesser Church, brings to the General Assembly a fund of the same Love and Faith from the Lord. Who can doubt the fact that there is a renewal of New Church Life, arising from the sphere of such an accumulated quantity of Love and Faith flowing together from overflowing hearts, such as we have been witnessing here yesterday and today?

     These meetings may be called "feast of mutual love." The feasts in the Ancient Church were feasts of Charity, in like manner as in the primitive Christian Church, at which they strengthened one another to abide in the worship of the Lord from sincere hearts. Should not these assemblies or feasts be held whenever possible in our Church for the continued renewal and inflowing of genuine New Church life?

     By these three general instrumentalities, each in its own distinctive and we may add indispensable way, the common life of our body is efficiently communicated to the various parts of the Church, whereby those parts are stimulated, renewed and conserved.

     Mr. Curtis K. Hicks responded to the final toast, "THE BOND THAT HOLDS US TRUE TO THE GENERAL BODY."

     I should say that we ought to value this general bond, and I really think we do not sufficiently realize its true worth. If we endeavor to grasp this more earnestly it will help us. As it is, we are not actively concerned about it. We are either much occupied with the external affairs of our local body or are so indifferent that we all but lose sight of the larger idea, fail to comprehend what it means, and have merely external impressions about it; as, that it is a larger organization whose influence extends out from Bryn Athyn; that it calls us to General Assembly occasionally, to district assembly once a year, and has a treasury which always shows a deficit,--all more or less natural conceptions. We should open our minds to that larger, more interior spirit which is the essence of the greater bond. Men are united when they have a common object in view and the nobler the object, the closer the bond. What concerns our spiritual welfare, what deals with the inmost principles of our lives, our highest ideals, and our belief in God, hinds closest. And that is what this general bond means. It unites us in carrying great responsibilities,--in preserving the Lord's truth among men, in maintaining the authority of the Writings, and in upholding all the other great Academy principles. It binds us in so far as we are willing and desirous to uphold those principles, which after a long struggle are to establish the New Church triumphantly on earth.

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Our pastors instruct us in its truths, and our effort to maintain them and keep them alive creates and adds strength to this bond. It should be our unceasing desire to comprehend them, for the more interior and spiritual the idea we have, the stronger and more enduring the bond. What it really is we can feel at an Assembly. The general and district assemblies serve primarily to renew and stimulate this spiritual fellowship, and bring again into active life these great principles. Our loyalty and hope for the general prosperity is aroused particularly now, and the thought of he difficulties we will have to contend with is banished for the time. Then let us carry this active loyal spirit back with us and infuse it into our local sphere, giving it a broader, higher purpose.

     SECOND DAY--SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

     21. The discussion of the support of the Scholarship Fund was continued.

     Mr. S. H. Hicks: "We have heard a great deal during the morning session on the subject of scholarship. Several tentative plans are in operation, and we have seen results as indicated in Mr. Price's remarks. Mr. Odhner has said that appeals coming from remote parts of the world. Mr. Roschman has suggested that the matter should take some practical form. The scholarship question or proposition is one dear to my heart. It is a practical question. All the talk has been earnest, friendly and affirmative. Now to crystallize or focus it into form and to get it before the Assembly, I offer the following resolution:

     22. "Resolved, That this Assembly earnestly recommends to the individual centres and particular societies of the General Church the promotion, encouragement and financial support of the Scholarship Fund, the remittances to be made to the Treasurer of the Academy of the New Church each month and the selection of beneficiaries to be recommended to the Faculty of the Academy Schools by the supporting local Society."

     This resolution was seconded by Mr. Seymour Nelson, and carried unanimously.

     23. On motion of Mr. Doering, the invitation extended yesterday to certain visitors then present to participate in the deliberations of the Assembly, was made general.

     THE ORPHANAGE.

     24. Mr. Walter C. Childs presented his report as Treasurer of the Orphanage.

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ORPHANAGE FUND

OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

Statement from June 19th, 1903, to June 11th, 1904.

RECEIPTS.

Balance, June 19th, 1903                                    $563.29

1903.

July 2d.      Edward, Clara, Dorothy and Louise Davis, Middleport, Ohio            .50
"     14th. W. A. Hamlin, Middleport, Ohio                1.00
"     18th. Mrs. H. H. Sharp, Salem, Ohio                5.00
Sept. 23d.      Toronto Society                                   11.00
Dec. 8th.      Children of Mr. and Mrs. P. Synnestvedt                1.80
           Margaretta Lechner                              1.00
" 9th.      Parkdale Society                               10.00
" 28th.      Edward, Clara, Dorothy and Louise Davis, Middleport, Ohio          1.60

1904.

Jan. 6th.      Baltimore Society                                   7.00
" 9th.           Miss Agnes Pitcairn, Pittsburg, Pa.          3.00
" 9th.           Mrs. Janet Pitcairn                    10.00
" 11th.      Children's Christmas Celebration, Pittsburg     3.00
" 13th.      Erie New Church Social                     5.00
" 14th.      Dr. and Mrs. Edward Cranch and children, Erie           20.00
" 21st.      Berlin and Waterloo Contributions:
               Christmas offering               $2.75
               Mr. Jacob Stroh                2.00
               Miss Minnie Rothaermel               .25
               Mr. Conrad Schweitzer               .25
               Mr. Richard Roschman                5.00
               Mr. Rudolph Roschman                3.00
               Girls' Own Society            3.00                    16.25
April 27th.      Mr. W. B. Caldwell                    1.00
May 11th.      Parkdale Society                          11.00
June 7th.      Glenview Offering, Christmas, 1903               1.00
                                                       $672.44

June 4th, 1904. The following for the Orphanage was received by Rev. C. E. Doering, Treasurer:

June, 1903.     Mr. S. A. Powell, Piketon, O.           $5.00          
July.          Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A                     .25
          Mr. Jos. R. Kendig, Renovo, Pa. 0           1.00

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August.     Mr. Herman Lechner, Pittsburg            1.00
          Miss Ida Hunter, Pittsburg                 1.00
Sept.          Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A                    .25
          Miss A. Hachborn, B. A                    .75
          Mr. John Morris, Tr., for London Society     12.18
          Mrs. R. T. Henderson, Phila.                5.00
October.     Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A.                    .25
          Miss A. Hachborn, B. A.                    .25
          Mrs. H. Synnestvedt, B. A.                    .25
          Mrs. M. E. Bostock, B. A.                    .50
          Glenn Family, B. A.                     5.00
          Miss Alice E. Grant, B. A.                1.00
          Miss Lydia Rhodes, Greenford, O.           2.00
November.     Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A                    .25
          Mrs. H. E. Cowley, B. A.                    .50
          Mr. A. S. Pendleton, Valdosta, Ga.               .25
          Mrs. W. S. Howland, Denver, Colo.          18.00
December.     Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A.                    .25
          Miss Alice E. Grant, B. A.                    .25
          Mrs. M. E. Bostock, B. A.                    .50
          Christmas Offering, B. A.               39.71
January, 1904. Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A.                    .25
          Miss A. Hachborn, B. A                    .50
          Mrs M. E. Bostock, B. A.                1.00
          Miss A. E. Grant, B. A.                    .25
          Offering (intended as Christmas Offering)          .80
          Bishop Pendleton, family offering            5.50
          Mrs. W. S. Howland, Denver, Colo.          13.50
February.     Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A.                    .25
          Mrs. M. E. Bostock, B. A.                1.00
          Miss A. Hachborn, B. A.                    .25
          Mr. Wm. Evans, Randolph, Ont.           1.00
          Glenn family, B. A.                     5.00

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March.     Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A.                    .25
          Mrs. M. E. Bostock, B. A.                1.00
          Miss Alice E. Grant, B. A.                    .25
          Mr. John A. Fraser, New Orleans, La.       1.00
          Mrs. W. S. Howland, Denver, Colo.          13.00
April.     Mr. H. O. Olson, Lindsburg, Kan.            1.01
          Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A.                     .25
          Mrs. M. E. Bostock, B. A.                1.00
          Benefit given by Local School pupils, B. A.     2.50
          Mr. F. R. Cooper, Colchester, England       1.08
May.          Miss H. S. Ashley, B. A.                    .25
          Miss A. Hachborn, B. A.                     .75
          Miss Alice E. Grant, B. A.                     .50
          Mrs. Susan M. Coffin, Baltimore, Md.           .25
          Mrs. M. E. Bostock, B. A.                1.00
          Mr. S. A. Powell, Piketon, O.            5.00
          Rev. Geo. G. Starkey, Denver, Colo.           1.00
June 11th, 1904 Mr. and Mrs. Walter C. Childs and Family     14.98
                                                  $860.45
Expenditures.

1903.

July 18th.     Check, Academy Book Room, Printing and
          Posting Orphanage Report                $10.75
July 21st.     Check, Mrs. Mary L. Hyatt                48.00
Sept. 16th.     Check, Mrs. Mary L. Hyatt                60.00
Nov. 16th.     Check, Mrs. Mary L. Hyatt                 60.00

1904.

Feb. 4th.     Check, Mrs. Mary L. Hyatt                 48.00
April 25th.     Check, Mrs. Mary L. Hyatt                42.00
                                                  $268.75
Balance, June 11th, 1904                                   $591.70

WALTER C. CHILDS, Treasurer.

     The Bishop said that the use of the Orphanage is allied to that of Scholarships. It is a most important use and of immense value in keeping children in the Church.

     Mr. Hicks considered the two uses to be so closely allied that they are essentially a unit.

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Much that had been said about scholarships might also be said about the orphanage. It is a great use and deserves support to the best of our ability.

     Mr. Childs called attention to the recommendation which had been made that the offerings at family worship be devoted to the Orphanage. The children delight in this use, and giving offerings towards it stimulates the delight.

     Mr. Brown stated that in Parkdale an offering is made at every Wednesday evening class, and that for the first Wednesday of each month is given to the Orphanage. A considerable sum has been raised in this way.

     The Bishop suggested that Christmas is a good time to make conditions to this use.

     Mr. P. Bellinger said that, as collector for the Orphanage in Parkdale, he found that whenever the people were reminded that the time had come for contributions to the Orphanage, the amount somewhat larger. This shows the value of keeping the needs of a use constantly before the people.

     Mr. Roschman inquired whether, in view of the fact that there is a considerable sum in the treasury, it would not be advisable to extend the benefits of the Orphanage to children not of General Church parents.

     Mr. Childs stated that the obligations of the Orphanage last year were $316.00, and the amount contributed was only $297.00. Thus there was not enough contributed to cover the obligations. We have, however, a considerable sum in bank.

     Mr. R. B. Caldwell, Sr., expressed the thanks of the Parkdale Society for what the Orphanage is doing towards the support of Mrs. Hyatt. Were it not for this, the Society would not be able to have the benefit of Mrs. Hyatt's services as teacher of the school. She is a born teacher, and the scholars derive the greatest benefit from her work. The Parkdale Society wishes that its gratitude could come before this Assembly in more tangible form than words, and hopes that in the future it may see its way clear to contribute more largely to the funds of the Orphanage.

     Rev. R. H. Keep said that he knew of a case in Atlanta most deserving of attention from the Orphanage,--the case of a mother and four children. The mother is devoted to the Church, accepts our views most heartily, and wishes she could send the children to the school here. As the needs increase and cry out to us, the means of the Orphanage will increase.

     The Bishop stated that an important condition of the Orphanage is that children who are to be beneficiaries should be able to attend a New Church school, and arrangements to that end would need to be made in each case.

     Mr. Brown desired to second what Mr. Caldwell had said in regard to the excellence of the teacher whom Parkdale is able to have because of the Support given her by the Orphanage.

     20. On motion, the Assembly adjourned until Monday, June 20th, at 10 A. M.

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SATURDAY EVENING.

     In the evening the Assembly enjoyed a great treat in a musical and dramatic entertainment, arranged and produced by Mr. and Mrs. George Heath.

     The first part of the program was occupied by a reproduction of "The Flower Queen," the beautiful cantata composed by the late George Root, (who, by the way. was a member of the New Church). This cantata had been rendered at the closing of the Academy Schools in June, 1903, and was then so highly appreciated that it was decided to reproduce it, this year, for the enjoyment of the General Assembly. The "argument" or motif of the cantata is as follows: The Flowers meet in a secluded dell in the forest, to choose their Queen. A studious Recluse, discontented with the world, seeks retirement from its cares and disappointments, and wanders into the dell, where he learns from the Flowers that happiness is to be found only in the faithful performance of duties and uses allotted to each one by Providence. As a result he resolves to return again to usefulness and contentment among his fellow creatures.

     The young ladies of the Seminary, assisted by the girls of the local school. took the part of the various flowers, from the lovely "Rose" and the proud "Sunflower" down to dear little "Heather bells," while the "Recluse" was acted by Mrs. Heath, who had trained the young singers with much ability and self-sacrificing zeal. It is difficult to say which was the most lovely,--the sight of the immense bouquet of the fair, young "Flowers," or the sound of their sweet and innocent voices, but the whole produced a scene seldom witnessed this side of Heaven.

     The second part of the entertainment was a rendering of the "Forum scenes" of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, by the young men of the College, carefully trained and directed by Mr. George Heath, who himself took the part of "Marc Antony." As grace and loveliness distinguished the performance of the girls, so strength,--of voice and action,--and an intelligent grasp of character and situation marked that of the boys. The whole seemed like a representative and most promising prophecy of the coming pears, when the young people, now "playing," shall occupy the scene of action in the Church.

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THIRD DAY--SUNDAY MORNING.

JUNE 19TH.

     The Institution of the New Church was celebrated by Divine Worship at 11 A. M., conducted by Bishop Pendleton, who was assisted by the Rev. David H. Klein and the Rev. Emil Cronlund.

     The sacrament of Baptism was administered to Dr. Alfred H. Beam, of Williamsburg, Ind., after which ten young persons were received as members of the visible Church through the rite of Confession of Faith.

     The Sacrament of the Holy Supper was then administered to two hundred and fifty communicants.

THE BANQUET.

     The speeches at the great banquet on the Nineteenth, the "New Church Day," were devoted to the consideration of the more general and internal uses of the General Church. The Toastmaster, Prof. Odhner, in introducing the program of the day, first read the following letters of greeting addressed to the General Assembly:

FROM DENVER.

     To the Members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in General Assembly at Bryn Athyn, June 17th to 21st, 1904, the Denver Society of the Advent sends fraternal greetings and the earnest wish and hope that the meeting may be rich in counsel and in charity; that upon its deliberations may be shed light from on high, and that from the consociation, counsel and action of those participating the Church may reap rich fruitage for her future usefulness and growth.

     It may be of interest to note that at the meeting of the Advent Society from which this message issues we have been listening with pleasure and appreciation to the reading of five of the essays delivered by students of the College at Bryn Athyn on the occasion of Swedenborg's Birthday, last January,-with pleasure in the essays and with appreciation of the work being done for the young by the schools of the Academy. Long live the Academy! Very sincerely yours, GEORGE G. STARKEY, Pastor. Denver, Colo., June 5th, 1903.

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FROM COLCHESTER.

     The members of the Colchester congregation of the General Church of the New Jerusalem desire to send hearty and fraternal greetings upon the occasion of the General Assembly at Bryn Athyn, and to assure you of our spiritual sympathy and co-operation. Yours sincerely, F. R. COOPER,     Secretary. Colchester, England, June 5th, 1904.

FROM LONDON.

The Rev. C. Th. Odhner:

     By the time this reaches you your General Assembly will be about to commence its gatherings.

     Through you I desire to send greetings to all the friends, and to express my hope that you will have a most delightful and useful time.

     Yours is the one organization of various societies which stands for an unequivocal recognition of the Lord in His Second Coming, and your journal the only press instrument making a full and honest declaration of the Divine Truths of the opened Word.

     We look forward each month to the appearance of the Life, and find much in it which causes us to rejoice in its continuance.

     But I would like especially to express to you my deep gratitude to you (and to the Church for publishing it) for your fearless, honest, and manly presentation of a delicate and deeply important subject in your "Laws of order for the Preservation of the Conjugal." It will prove to be an historical publication. No priest of the Church need hesitate to put it into the hand of even the most prudish opponent, and say "that is where I stand, for that book is founded on the rock of Divine Truth."

     I feel deeply thankful to the Lord that it has been written. We priests need it,--it is a priceless weapon. I mean, by God's help, to use it to the full. It will be ignored for a time, but its time will come most assuredly.

     The Bishop's introduction is a worthy preface to a grandly conceived and well executed work.

     Wishing you every blessing in your Assembly, I am, Yours in the Lord's New Church, ROBERT J. TILSON. Camberwell, London, June 11th, 1904, 134

FROM BRAZIL.

(Translated from the French by M. Camille Vinet.)

Dear Brethren:

     It is with the greatest respect and also with the greatest pleasure that I beg to assure you of the fraternal feelings of the Associacao Geral da Nova Jerusalem no Brazil for the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

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As chairman of the Brazilian Association of the New Church. I thank also very much Mr. Odhner for having so kindly invited me to spend some time among you. As I cannot go,-and I regret it very much indeed,--although I expected at first to be able to go, I beg you to believe, dear brethren, that I will be present at your meetings in mind, especially when you discuss the means to be used in order to spread the Kingdom of our Lord on the earth, a wish expressed in the prayer par excellence, the Lord's Prayer, which it is our work to fulfill.

     As to the New Church in Brazil, it makes real progress, in spite of obstacles put in its way by ignorance and superstition. The fight is very hard here. The country is, for the greater part, under the rule of Rome. The Protestants, who have been working here for about fifty years, number several thousand people, and the New Church, which came last of all, has made but a small opening in that huge body. Thus, as a city besieged by enemies, the Church after the New Jerusalem has to cope here with the Roman Catholics and the Protestants. The former, relying on their great numbers, do not give us much trouble; the latter attack us more violently because several of their people have joined our ranks; but our most serious opponent is Spiritualism, which has penetrated all the classes of the Society, and has made many adepts, although they belong still to the Roman Religiosity. The New Church here contends almost incessantly with Spiritualism, and we have lately published in our paper a series of articles directed against its organ, the "Reformador," exploding their ridiculous and dangerous doctrines.

     It seems to me that the Church would have made more progress, had I been able to give up all secular work, as the time I spend laboriously earning a living would be given to the service of the Church, and I would have been able to travel now and then, in order to organize societies in various places. In spite of this unfavorable circumstance, I have never stopped for a moment working for the good of the Church. I have purposed translating into Portuguese all the theological works of Swedenborg, as Tafel, Le Boys des Guays and others have done in other countries. Up to this day I have translated the True Christian Religion, the Divine Providence, The New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrine, Summaries of the Internal the Trinity, and l'Apocalypse Interpretee, by Le Boys des Guays, and I have written, besides, about twenty other works. All these works might have been published cheaply, had we had a small press. I have written, with this end in view, to our brother Rev. Alexander Henry, asking him to put the question before our brethren of the Convention.

     As our library has not the works of Swedenborg in the original, I beg of you to send us a complete set of the Latin edition, as I will be able then to translate from the original into Portuguese, instead of translating from another language. I believe that in five or six years I shall be able to translate the balance of Swedenborg's works.

473




     The Church of the New Jerusalem in Brazil relies always on the moral support of the General Church, and they hope that you will think of them by forwarding what they need in order to make moral and spiritual progress. And, through me, as their mouth-piece, they send you, on this solemn occasion, their wishes for the eternal happiness of all the members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. For 1'Associacao Geral, LEVINDO CASTRO DE LA FAYETTE.          Chairman. Rio de Janeiro, May, 1904.

FROM SOUTH AFRICA.

     On the occasion of the great celebration of the natal day of the Church, kindly convey the affectionate greetings of my family to all members.

     Our thoughts will be with you on that day. Very sincerely yours, J. HENRY RIDGEWAY.
Durban, Natal. May 21st, 1903.


FROM AUSTRALIA.

     The first purpose of this letter is to send earnest, loving greetings to the members and friends of the General Church of the New Jerusalem soon to assemble at Bryn Athyn. I wish you a truly and thoroughly successful and happy time together. We are glad to be able to look forward to your having our dear friends, Mr. and Mrs. Morse, with you. May their visit to Bryn Athyn help to bind together more closely those in America and in Australia who accept and use the Doctrines of the New Jerusalem as the Teaching and Word of the Lord Jesus Christ for His New Church.

     Our Adelaide Society would, I am sure, send you loving greetings if they knew more about you and the General Church of the New Jerusalem; they receive the Doctrines as the Lord's Word and Law, and their general position is, I think, close to that of the Bryn Athyn friends. You will all be pleased and thankful to know that at least one Society of the New Church in Australia is being taught and educated in the Doctrines of the New Church as the Word of the Divine Teacher and Savior, whereby He will reform and regenerate His children and prepare them for His New Christian Heaven. Our people seem to desire and enjoy the Lord's Doctrines in their clearness, directness and power,--the new people as well as the full members. It is interesting to note that most of our regular new people have for years been noon-church goers, and their stomachs seem not to turn against plain teaching concerning the spiritually dead condition of Christendom nod of the Old Church, and the necessity for new teaching and for a distinctive New Church from the Lord.

474




     You will be are gradually making changes in our Society here that will prove spiritually beneficial. Two Sundays ago I began the reading of a portion of the Writings during the morning service, as the Word of the Lord to the New Church: I have heard several cordial expression of appreciation of this change. Yours ever faithfully. PERCY BILLINGS. Adelaide, S. Australia, May 10th, 1904.

     The first toast, "THE MISSION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH TO THE WORLD," was responded to by the Rev. Willis L. Gladish, who said:

     "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations," said the Lord to His disciples. And on the nineteenth of June, 1770, He sent forth these same disciples to preach the Gospel of His supreme Divinity throughout the whole spiritual world. It is, therefore, evident that the Church which believes in Him as the one only God has a mission to all the world.

     This Church has not done much as yet in obedience to this command. And this was right, too, for the Lord Rave the further command, "Tarry ye in Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high." It was necessary to tarry until the Church was imbued with the spirit and power of the Heavenly Doctrine, until she knew the meaning of this new revelation and how, the Church was to be established. And, besides, there is this consideration: a man is not expected to care for the poor and needy of the whole world before he has provided the necessities of life for his own family. It is his religious duty to care first for those who are dependent on him. Paul says, "But if any provide not for his own, and especially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel."

     But after a man has provided the necessities of life for his own house, if he still has no care and no concern for the wants of the needy, if he cares only for his own, his very love of his own family becomes selfish. He loves them only because they are part of himself.

     It was the duty of the Church to provide first for her own children. That has non been done and our internal uses are pretty firmly established. And there are indications that our duty to the whole wide world is now to receive more attention than heretofore.

     Our responsibility in this matter is great, for there is no other body in all the world but our little body to do this work. It never has been properly done. What has been planted with one hand has been pulled up with the other. The truths of the Writings are proclaimed but it is denied that they are taught by the Lord Himself through Swedenborg.

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This is to take the Lord out of the truth and place a man at the heart of it. It ceases to be spiritual truth. It has no power to save. Thus there would be no Divine authority and no Divine power in the New Church but that of the letter of the Word. And as that was not sufficient to save the Christian Church, neither is it sufficient to save the man of the New Church. Hence few are allowed to come to us from such mission work.

     I have attended theological school at Cambridge one year, and have now been in the theological school of the Academy one year. I want to say to you that there is more New Church theology taught here in any two weeks of the term than is taught there in a whole year. I say this not in criticism, but to bring our great responsibility home to us. There is no other body but ours to evangelize the world; no other that call teach the truths given in the Writings as the Lord's own Word and as presenting Him in His glorified Human to mankind.

     But let us begin with what we have and work from centers already established. Let us place ministers in our small societies,--men who are glowing with zeal as well as filled with knowledge--let us aid in their support and let them go out into the wilderness all about them and seek for those who are of the remnant. Let our pastors in stronger centres not be content to do only the work which comes to their hands. Let each one think of his parish as extending its borders on all sides until they touch the bounds of the nearest New Church Societies, and let him do all in his power to minister to all in that territory who know the Lord in His second coming and to make the Gospel known to those who have not heard of it. It is true that our pastors are busy men, and often work to the limit of their strength. But this evangelistic work can be done as recreation. When the minister is worn-out and can do no more at home. let him take a vacation for a day or two and go into the country and visit some isolated New-church family or deliver a lecture or preach a missionary sermon. It will be rest and recreation for mind and body. And the work will be blessed and will greatly aid in establishing the Church in our own hearts and minds as well as in the world about us.

     The second toast to "THE MISSION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH TO THE NEW CHURCH AT LARGE BY MEANS OF LITERARY PROPAGANDA," was responded to by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli:

     As we look back over the history of the General Church we find that many eminent literary services have been performed, and if we follow the example of our illustrious historian and claim that our Church had its beginning with Hindmarsh, the number of those services becomes very great. But we shall content ourselves today with claiming the beginning of our Church as being the institution of the Academy of the New Church. The first great literary work of our body is, therefore, the Words for the New Church.

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We who are of a younger generation probably cannot realize how strong were the affections which centered on this publication on the part of the early members of the Academy. The "Words" came to them as a messenger bringing the genuine truths of doctrine and teaching the principles to which they gave their loyalty. It was also their champion going forth into the Church at large to fight against the falsities which then prevailed. The "Words" went forth into a state of the Church to which darkness and night were descending and spread abroad a new light which was received by many. The result is the General Church of the New Jerusalem. But for the Words for the New Church there would be no General Church, and we would not now be gathered together in this glorious Assembly.

     The next publication of our Church was Bishop Benade's work, the Conversations on Education, in which he placed before the Church the true principles of New Church Education, and showed how in the work of education are to be fulfilled the words of Scripture, "Behold, I make all things new." I have said that but for the "Words for the New Church" we would at this day, have no General Church, and I think it can also be said that but for the "Conversations on Education" our educational work would not be what it is. The principles laid down in that book are as it were an anchor, which holds us fast to the Doctrines. In the world around us new things are being brought forth in regard to education, many of which we can use. The New Church teacher needs to study and investigate them, but in so doing it will be well for him to view the things he finds in the light of the principles laid down in that book of Bishop Benade's. If he will do this, he will not be likely to go far astray; but if he does not do it, he will probably introduce into his work things which are not in harmony with the teachings of the Doctrines. It is also important that every member of the Church, who is not engaged in the work of teaching, should study this book, so that he may have an intelligent appreciation of what the Church is endeavoring to do in the education of the young, and an increased affection for the same. We owe to Bishop Benade the beginning of our educational work, and the influence of his teaching is with us in that work today, and will continue to be with us. He left to his Church no greater legacy than the Conversations on Education.

     The next publication to be mentioned is the work on Discrete Degrees, written by the Rev. N. C. Burnham. Up to the time of its publication there appeared nothing to equal it as an exposition of the doctrine of the Glorification of the Lord and of the regeneration of man, and most of what has been written on the same subject since, has been built upon it. We may perhaps, not agree with all the teachings there given, and yet the marvel is that there is so little to which exception can be taken. And why is it that we find such perfection in this work? It is because it was written by a man filled with the Academy spirit, that is, filled with the spirit of the full acknowledgment of the authority of the Doctrines of the New Church. Bishop Benade was the great leader and founder of our Church; but if we would place any man second to him in the days of the beginning of the Academy, that man is Dr. Burnham.

477


He was a most able theologian, and as a warrior he had no equal.

     We pass on to the next publication, the Brief View of the Heavenly Doctrines, the best missionary work that has ever appeared in the New Church,--the best, not only because of the clearness with which the teachings are presented, but also because it is the only missionary work ever published in the Church which is founded on the full acknowledgment that the Lord has actually and really made His Second Coming in the Writings of the New Church.

     Passing over several works which should he mentioned, we come to the last first publication of our Church, the Laws of Order for the Preservation of the Conjugial. Aside from the special subject of which it treats, the work is a presentation of the vital principles for which this Church stands. It shows clearly and plainly what the Church, if it would be true to the Doctrines, must believe in regard to the nature of the Writings, namely, that they are the Word of the Lord in His Second Advent. It shows that the Old Church is dead, and that the prosperity of the New depends upon its distinctiveness. And above all, it shows that if the New Church is to grow and prosper it must prize that most precious gift of heaven, love truly conjugial, and that this love cannot be preserved in the New Church unless there be marriages within it. The publication of this work has undoubtedly contributed in great measure to the success of this Assembly. Many of us read it just before coming here, and by it were made to realize more fully that there are principles to which we must be loyal and which it is our duty to defend against the assaults of the dragon.

     But now let us pass on to the greatest of all our literary champions,--a champion great in brain, strong in muscle, perfect in bodily form, and of a handsome countenance, (except for a "wart at the end of its nose."). Those who were present the other day know that I refer to New Church Life. That wart has given us considerable anxiety of late. It is a peculiar thing. It is even said to be enchanted; for some say that they can see it plainly; others, that they can see it with the aid of a microscope; and others declare that it does not exist at all. But whether it exists or not, we all agree that the Life is one of the most important uses of the General Church. As was said the other day, it comes to us every month like a honey-laden bee; and from the way it "hums" we can know that it is a "busy bee." But like all bees, it carries a sting. And why should it not? Who has ever heard a bee hum after it has lost its sting. The Life performs a great use, not only to those within own body, but also to many without. It is the greatest instrumentality we have for spreading the true principles of the Church throughout the New Church. We were told by the manager of the Book room that nearly one-half of the subscribers are not members of the General Church, which shows that while many may not like the sting of the bee, they cannot do without its honey.

     So far we have dwelt on the theological publications of the General Church. But of late there have also been produced some wonderful things in the realms of science,--so wonderful, that some of us ordinary mortals have not been able to grasp them.

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I believe there is at this time a great and fearful struggle in progress among some of our scientific intellectual giants regarding certain theories of creation, and the words which fall from their lips,--"points," "finites," "first actives," "auras," and the like,--are incomprehensible to the most of us. But, no doubt, they themselves thoroughly understand what they are speaking about no doubt the things which they write are perfectly intelligible to themselves; and I suppose we can say it is a slander when anyone insinuates that they write their sentences backwards in order to keep the uninitiated in obscurity. I am sure they do not do this; for an article appeared some time ago in the New Philosophy, which I tried to read backwards, and up and down the page, and I was convinced that it was not meant to be read in any such way, but, instead, like ordinary English. The inability to comprehend must be due to the reader's ignorance of the language of the highly learned. However, we must acknowledge that the work which those are doing who give thought and study to science in the light of the Doctrines of the New Church, will be of immense benefit to the Church in the future. It is nor necessary that they should now settle for all time every great and important question. In course of time light and harmony will come out of seeming controversy, and a science will be produced such as the world has never seen before. And, we may add, the Academy of the New Church will be the chief instrumentality in the development of this new science.

     Besides the theological and scientific literary uses of our Church, there have also been some noteworthy productions in fiction and poetry.

     Among the works of fiction we would mention but one, that splendid story, The Wedding Garment. An excellent missionary work, it is at the same time much more than this. We prize it chiefly as a means whereby there may be awakened with the young a desire to prepare for eternal life and the reception of its wondrous blessings.

     The literature of the General Church, so abundant and useful, is, like all things of our Church, but in its beginning. Greater things are yet to come,-greater things from the theologians, philosophers, scientists, novelists and poets of the future, who will look to our beloved Academy as their Alma Mater.

     The Rev. Enoch S. Price responded to the third toast, "THE MISSION OF GENERAL CHURCH TO ITS CHILDREN":

     I understand this toast to mean "What does the General Church owe to her children?" What is the debt? Or, rather, "What does the General Church owe for her children?" It owes first a debt of the profoundest gratitude to the Lord that it has been permitted to have them, and secondly, the English language is entirely inadequate to express what the men of the General Church owe to the mothers in the General Church for bearing and rearing those children. I am afraid that the mothers think that in our meetings they are sometimes left out, but I assure them it is because we have not the words with which to express ourselves.

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We owe this debt of gratitude because the children are our means of regeneration, and we have them committed to our care for two reasons,--for ourselves and for them. To the children we owe this: preparation for uses in both worlds. We owe to them preparation for uses in this world, because we must perform uses in this world,--it is one of the necessities of time and space that everyone must perform uses on the ultimate natural plane, but they are but secondary. They are for the did of the other world, and while we must prepare the children to the best of our abilities, to perform those uses in what the world recognizes as an efficient manner, still we must all the time recognize that behind and within it all is the purpose of preparation for the other world, for if it were not for the other world, and for the hope of a continued existence there in a plane and on a plane of better things, this world would be of but little use.

     The time is so short that it is not possible to enter into the discussion of how we are to perform these things and pay this debt which we owe to the children, but, in brief, it is done, first, by those mothers to whom I have referred, in the implantation of the remains of good affections,--remains of good and truth stored up by the Lord. Mothers are first instrumental in this use. Next we must educate, instruct and lead them in the right way. I had thought of going into something of a discussion of the various phases, plans and degrees of education, primary, secondary and higher education. We have done some discussion of that in connection with the question of the scholarships and probably more will come out hereafter, but we, of the General Church, are the only members of the Church as art organized body that recognize the formal debt owed to children. The Church at large believes, no doubt, that the children should be taught in a general way the Doctrines of the Church, but what have they done in the way of formulating that belief and putting it into actual practice, and insisting with themselves that every child shall have the benefit of distinct New Church education? This is the only body of the New Church that has done anything of the kind to any extent. There have been spasmodic attempts here and there, but baptism in the New Church was not required as an entrance requirement. Perhaps that is one reason why these spasmodic attempts have failed.

     We owe a debt to our children that we cannot evade, and we have brought them together and we protect them from the influence of outside spheres by accepting none but the children of the New Church. We have now made some feeble attempt al paying this debt to the older children in performing the mission to which we are called,--a school for educating children from the beginning.

     We have a school in Toronto; we have a school at Berlin; we have a school in Glenview; we have a school in Pittsburgh; we have a school in London, and we have schools, primary, secondary and higher, in Bryn Athyn. So you will perceive that there is a great beginning in the way of paying our debt, and performing our mission to the children in the Church. On the various days of the Assembly you have heard the hammers in the operations just behind us [the construction of the new dormitory and dining-hall].

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Here is further evidence that we intend to continue this use, and that it is going continually forward. There will be, when the buildings "off under process of erection are completed, five buildings devoted exclusively to education here in Bryn Athyn. In the University of Oxford there are twenty colleges. I doubt not that the day will come when on the fields of Bryn Athyn will stand more than twenty colleges. I believe we see the beginning of it now, here, this 19th day of June, 1904.

     "Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord, the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not he ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."

     The Rev. N. D. Pendleton responded to the fourth toast, "THE MISSION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH TO ITS OWN MEMBERS"

     Our brethren in the Church at large have accused us of a literal belief in the Divine authority of the Writings, and proudly do we stand convicted; for we recognize that the Church call be established on earth only by means of the truth in the power of its authority. It was the Academy's purpose and intention by propaganda to demonstrate this fundamental fact. That the Academy was successful is evidenced by this Assembly, which is the direct fruit of the labor.

     In the confused state of the Church in the day when the Academy first began, it was necessary to bring forth with power, not only the doctrine of Divine authority, but also the doctrine of ordination and subordination, for it was seen that only by such order and subordination could the Church be so organized as to become an ultimate receptacle of the truth as it descended from heaven.

     This, as I understand it, was the occasion for laying so much stress upon the matter of a right order.

     But the instrumentalities, powerful as they are, are insufficient. The authority of truth may be used merely as an instrument of dominion; the Church may be ordered from top to bottom with a perfect order, and yet be a lifeless thing. The one thing needful to give life to our power, and to spiritualize the authority of truth in our midst is that the members of the Church be gifted from heaven with the spirit of mutual love. The spread of this spirit should now be the mission of the General Church to its members.

     Some one has said that the Academy was the grandest brotherhood that the world has ever seen; I believe that the saying was true; I believe that the saying contained within itself a true prophecy of that which is to come in the fulness of time, of that which it to be the chiefest and richest blessing of our Church, i.e., a spiritual brotherhood. It is obvious that only as such a brotherhood can we go forward to the worthy performance of the uses and duties that lie before us. Particularly does this refer to our ministry, but in general it bears upon every member.

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Given such a brotherhood and there will be on earth a vessel prepared for the reception of celestial truth.

     Today there are some three hundred gathered in this place; we feel and we respond to the inspiration of the occasion. But the day is even now within the range of vision when many thousands will be assembled for the worship of the only true God. And when that day comes, one glorious shout will go us from earth to heaven, such as will draw down the lightning of Divine Truth, and enkindle within the souls of men that sacred flame which burns from the heart of heaven.

     The fifth toast was to "THE MISSION OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL," to which the Rev. Alfred Acton responded.

     It is theology which brings God to man, and therefore, it is theology which is the very inmost and first of the New Church; and consequently we find that the first one by whose means the New Church was brought to earth called himself a theologian,--Emanuel Swedenborg, the first spiritual-rational theologian the world has ever seen,--the first man that was ever used to bring the Divine Human of the Lord to the sight of men. The Lord Jesus Christ himself came on earth, but as He Himself said, men were not then ready to see Him. In the Writings Newchurchmen now see Him in a glory which was never seen by the First Christian Church by means of Emanuel Swedenborg; they see him in a glory which will ever increase as the New Church increases in the study and love of theology. Swedenborg calls himself a theologian because he gave to the New Church the inspired teachings respecting God. From those teachings spring all the teachings and all the affections that make the Church on earth, and that make life on earth worth living, for in the teachings respecting God are contained the teachings respecting heaven and the life of heaven.

     Around that theology which Swedenborg was inspired to present to the world has centered the whole of the New Church that is worthy of being called the New Church; and we find in the history of the New Church that the beginnings of every onward movement in the Church have been by of theologians. I have in mind Dr. Beyer, who was a great student of the Writings, and who produced an Index which even now is not entirely superseded. I have in mind John Clowes, who was a profound student of the Writings, and who read them in order to present what they taught. I have in mind Thomas Hartley, one of the first men in the New Church, one of the first to give to the English people the chance to study the theology of the New Church in their own language. But, above all, have in mind Robert Hindmarsh, the great champion of the New Church, a man whose name will ever be remembered by future generations of the New Church as a man who faithfully studied the doctrines of the New Church, who acknowledged them as the Lord's Second Coming to the world, and who presented to the Church the truth which springs from a true theology.

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     When the study of theology, the study of the Writings, the study of the Lord's own truth in the Writings began to decay, other men were raised up in the New Church; and we come to the great forerunner of the Academy, Richard De Charms, who also was a profound student of the Writings, and who showed to the Church the precious treasures contained in them. But it was not given to De Charms to carry out the new things that he saw. It was left to another man, whose name is on every lip when we think of the Academy; a man whom all respect,--a man whom we love, not only for his own sake, but because he has been more instrumental than any other man in bringing the New Church to us,--William H. Benade, the great theologian of the New Church. And by theologian I mean a man who opens the eyes of the New Church to really see God in the Writings.

     It is the theology of the New Church that has brought us to the point at which we now are, where we can see the real and actual presence of the Lord in the Writings given through Emanuel Swedenborg.

     By William H. Benade and those with him the Academy was started. It is well to note here that the Academy was started with this idea--that theology was to be studied. It was not started with any idea of arousing sentiments among the people. It was not started with any idea of making a great revival. It was not started with any idea of a large following--it was started with the idea of studying the Writings. Men who saw what the New Church was drifting to: who saw that it was looking to a false thing, and a thing which would bring it no life, turned themselves to the Writings, and in the Writings they saw the future of the New Church. The future growth and prosperity of the Academy was started on that idea, so that the Academy essentially represents the study of theology. It is not, therefore, surprising that the very first use which the Academy established was the theological school, and the men who established that school were not wrong in their ideas of the means by which the Church is to be built up. From that school have come all our ministers, and thus all the teaching which makes our Body what it is.

     The theological thought of the Church is the center of the Church, and from the theological school come all the ministers of the Church by whom the societies of the Church are taught and led. But it is the center of the Church in another way. What theology teaches is the center of the Church with every man. The affection of truth, the delight in hearing discussion--all these are absolutely nothing and worthless unless there exist in the interiors of the mind a love for the theology of the New Church. That is to say, a love of studying what the Lord teaches and of seeing therein the Lord Himself.

     The theological schoo1s of the Academy not only exist in this building in Bryn Athyn; in a wider sense they exist in the study of every pastor of the General Church, and they are the internal of his work, for unless he enters his study and opens those books in which the truth is revealed, and unless he sees the Lord in them, there is no light in that society.

     The theological school of the Academy is the study for the whole Church; it is the center from which all the theological activity of the Church comes; there men are in freedom from every care, and can devote their lives studying the Writings of the Church.

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It is that study which has brought to the Church the knowledge that we now have that the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg are the Lord himself in his Second Coming; a truth which was not known until theologians brought it to view and proclaimed it to the Church.

     The Academy of the New Church is carrying on the use of the theological school, and technically the General Church of the New Jerusalem does not support it. But this is merely an appearance; for money never yet carried on a use, and never will carry on a use. Money supplies the means, but what carries on the uses is the love and affection of the people to do the use; and we believe that there is in the General Church a love and an affection for studying the Writings of the New Church and thus for her theology. It is that love and affection in the body of the Church that will support the theological professors; it is that love and affection which will make the use of the theological schools of the Academy a living use. And so, really and internally, the theological uses of the General Church are supported by the General Church. If there is ever a decrease in the Church of love and affection for studying the Writings, that decrease will be at once felt in the theological school. If there is ever any decrease in the desire to read the Writings, in the desire to learn from them what the Lord himself teaches, in the desire to see the Lord himself in them, that decrease will at once be felt in the theological school; and, on the other hand, as there is an increase in the Church of affection for the truths of the Writings, there will be an increase in the theological school of illustration in the study of the Writings, of illustration from heaven to see the Lord revealed. Influx is according to use; and according as the Church demands, by its desires and affections, the real and genuine truths of the Writings, so far will those who are at work in the center--the theologians in the school and the pastors in their studies,--be illustrated to see these truths, and to give them to the Church.

     In one of the Relations in the Writings someone asked an angel what region of the mind theological things occupied, and the angel answered him: "Theological things, with those who are in the genuine love of truth occupy the highest place in the mind, but theological things with those who are not in the genuine love of truth occupy the lowest place in the mind." This reply may be altered to read, "theological things with the Church, and with the man of the Church, that is in the genuine love of truth for the sake of good, occupy the highest place in the Church, and are the spring and life of the Church; but theological things, howsoever beautiful, with the Church or the man of the Church, that is not in the genuine affection of spiritual truth, occupy the lowest place, and give no genuine light and delight to that Church."

     Let us hope that in the General Church of the New Jerusalem there is, and will continue to be, that genuine affection for the spiritual things of the Church that will inspire every member of the Church to learn and love the theology of the Church, and that will inspire those who are in the special study of that theology, and increase their illustration.

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If there is that, the Church will live.

     The sixth toast, to "THE EPISCOPAL OFFICE AND ITS USES," was introduced by Mr. John Pitcairn who, in a brief speech, ringing with fervor of conviction, spoke as follows

     Seven years ago, just before this General Church had been established, two essential principles had become somewhat obscured in our midst,--principles without which the Lord's New Church cannot grow, or continue, or even exist. These principles were liberty and rationality, or, what is the same, freedom of action according to reason. These principles had become obscured, because for some time there had been a tendency to do away with Council and Assembly in our Church. Without Council there cannot be any rationality in the administration of the affairs of the Church, and without the opportunity of assembling together there cannot be freedom of expression and reaction.

     Over the temple in Heaven, representing the New Church, there is written "NUNC LICET,"-"Now it is permitted to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith" It is the privilege of the laity as well as of the clergy to enter intellectually into the mysteries of our faith. When there are laymen who are willing to do this,-when there are members of the Church who are willing to go direct to the Writings,--then there will exist in the Church a reactive element, which will be actively helpful to the clergy, but this reactive cannot exist without liberty and rationality, Council and Assembly. All honor, therefore, to the man who has restored and who has maintained these principles in our Church. A toast to the Bishop of the General Church.

     The toast to Bishop Pendleton having been honored amidst great enthusiasm, the Toastmaster called upon the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, who spoke on the subject of Episcopal Office and its Uses.

     The use of the General Church in sustaining the office and receiving the ministries of a bishop is one of its most important uses, as you will all acknowledge. The theological school is the internal of the Church in the sense that the light comes from heaven through the priesthood. The seeing of God is first in time, because unless we see and acknowledge God we cannot be led to love Him and to be conjoined with Him. In an eminent sense the work of the priesthood is centered and summed up in its office of the third degree, which is the leadership of the priests, in which office are summed up and centered all those uses which the priests perform as leaders and teachers of the Church.

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     Now the bishop's office was at one time the subject of very much thought and study, and it was claimed that it was made too much of, and so far as other things were not brought to bear at the same time, that may have been true. Nevertheless, I do not think there is much that we have learned concerning that office, and its importance, excellence and dignity, that needs to be retracted. All that is necessary is that we see it in its true relation to all the other uses.

     When the prophet Balaam saw the camps of Israel he blessed them,--he could not curse them. He said, "There is the shout of a king among them," and that meant there was unity and the acknowledgment of the Lord as the King, and in its external organization it meant that there was acknowledged leadership there.

     In all governments the great problem is the same--the balancing of power between the governor and the governed, so that the former may be the active, and the latter reactive, and thus both together made one form. To secure the freedom of the leader, so that he may have the initiative, and the influence necessary for real responsibility and leadership, and at the same time balance against this a free and responsible reactive among the people, so that when they do give their co-operation, it may involve their whole manhood, is the problem.

     Now, in our organization, it seems to me that if we look history over we shall never find an organization better adapted to meet the needs of such a Church as we have. It seems to me the most admirable form which now exists in the world provided it is carried out in the spirit in which it was founded. We have recognized ordained priests as leaders of the Church, and our laymen are trained to look for truths from them out of the Word and the Writings, and not to follow blindly. Under this organization there is provided that most valuable of all assets of any body, namely, leadership. There must he someone to lead, and that someone must be in a position to receive the support, sympathy and help of all the people who are to be led in order that he may be in a position to go before the Lord and receive the light which is necessary for the spiritual welfare of that body. There are two things that make that office among men. The one is the wisdom, prudence, and even the personality of the man who fills the office. He must be at least passably satisfactory. He must have some of those qualities which are essential to all human leadership. But granted these, in any fair measure, what comes home to us most is the fact that we make that office possible. We make it effective among ourselves by our attitude toward it.

     Now if we want to put this office into power to lead, whether in a crisis or in time of peace, we must do so by preparing our minds by the acknowledgment of that office, by looking toward it for more light from heaven, and by overcoming the things in the natural man that incline us to be disloyal, or to be over-critical, by which clouds are brought between us and the Lord, and between us and that office through which the Lord leads the Church. We make that office effective just so far as we obey and love the divine truths concerning that office. So far as we do not do this, it can do nothing for us, but if we do recognize what that office is as coming from the Lord, then there is "the shout of a king among us."

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We have the Lord Himself looking down, able to lead us through the priesthood among men. The Lord is able then to give that leader illustration, and through him to lead us out of our straits and distresses,--to lead us into the land of promise. If that is our attitude,--if we look for something of the Lord in that office, then the Lord can give it to us, and until we do that He cannot. The Lord's life is unable to flow into empty minds. There must be vessels there, vessels of knowledge and affection.

     The Bishop himself, in his address to us, appealed to us to give active thought to the question of the continuity of the office. The time must inevitably come when our present beloved leader must be taken from us, or betake himself to counsel, leave the active warfare. And then will arise the question of finding a man to fill his place. It is only a question of ten or twenty years before we will have to look for another leader, and time flies with wonderful rapidity. Let us, therefore, accept the admonition of the Bishop. Let us begin by preparing our minds to recognize the value of this office, and that it comes from the Lord regardless of person. Let us shun those things which come into our natural man, which sometimes cause us to see the natural limitations of different men who are serving in the priesthood, and who may some of these days be called upon to carry forward the banner of the General Church. There is with all of us a tendency to look at these things from a personal and external sight. We must prepare our minds to think of that office as being impersonal, as being something of the Lord with us, which any God-fearing man, who has the needed illustration of that office, can fulfill, when the Lord, in His Providence, indicates that he is to do it. All preparation for anything new begins in the state of thought and affection. Let us, therefore, prepare our minds for providing for the permanence and continuity of this sacred and most important office.

     The speeches above reported were interspersed with impromptu remarks and toasts and songs of "the Old Academy" type, and the intense enthusiasm of the occasion reached a climax, when the Toastmaster displayed and explained the significance of a large banner, (deep red, with a wreath of twelve white stars), at the same time bringing out the time-honored toast, "To the Academy of the New Church,"-all joining in the following song, composed for the Fifth General Assembly, by Mr. Walter C. Childs:

ACADEMIA MARCH.

(Welch Air.--"The March of the Men of Harlech.")

Academia, queenly, peerless,
Onward moving calm and fearless,
Never shall our lives be cheerless
While thy splendor shines.

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We with love revere thee;
Keep us ever near thee;
Armed with sword of truth revealed
Thy foes shall never fear thee.
Onward moves thy banner glorious
Followed by thy sons victorious.
CHORUS.
May her bloom be never blighted,
May she hold our hearts united,
Faithful to the love now plighted,
Our Academy!

THE SACRED CONCERT.

     Sunday night was devoted to a sacred concert in the big tent. The first number was "Lift thine Eyes," from "Elijah," sung by the girls of the Seminary; then followed the Eighteenth Psalm sung by all present; there were solos by Miss India Waelchli, Mrs. Herbert R. Walker. Mrs. R. B. Caldwell and Mr. George Heath: a duet by Mrs. Caldwell and Mrs. Heath: a violin solo by Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, and a Hebrew anthem all the boys and girls of the College and Seminary; the Thirty-ninth and Forty-first Psalms were also sung by the whole congregation. It was a very enjoyable occasion. Although it was ten o'clock when the concert was over, many of the audience lingered in the tent, and those who did so were very fortunate, for Mrs. Caldwell entertained them most delightfully for half an hour with bird songs and ballads.

FOURTH DAY--MONDAY MORNING.

JUNE 20TH.

     27. The meeting opened with worship, conducted by the Rev. E. S. Price.

     28. The Secretary read an abstract of the Minutes of the session held on Saturday.

     29. Moved by Rev. N. D. Pendleton, that the fact he recorded that the Assembly has listened with pleasure to the communication from abroad read on the Nineteenth of June, and that the Rev. Messrs. Odhner and Acton be appointed a committee to make suitable replies.

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Seconded by Mr. Carswell, and carried unanimously.

     30. The Report of the Executive Committee was read by Mr. John Pitcairn, the chairman of that body.

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

     The Executive Committee has to report that at the Fourth General Assembly, on June 20th, 1900, the following resolution was unanimously adopted, viz.:

     "Resolved, That the General Assembly elect an Executive Committee to serve for a term of five years; that the minimum number of this Committee be twelve and the maximum eighteen; that the Assembly elect the minimum number at this meeting and at the beginning of every period of five years; that a nominating committee be chosen to act jointly with the Bishop in making the nominations to the Assembly; that other members of the Executive Committee be chosen by the Committee itself at any time during the period of five years until the maximum be reached. It is understood that the Executive Committee through it; Chairman will consult with the Bishop in the choice of additional members. The Executive Committee will elect its own Chairman and other officers and is empowered to fill vacancies."

     On the following day, June 21st, the Nominating Committee reported that nominations had been made for the twelve members of the Executive Committee, and the nominees were unanimously elected, as follows, viz.:

John Pitcairn,           Robert M. Glenn                Samuel H. Hicks,
Hugh L. Burnham,           George A. Macbeth,           Edward Cranch, M. D.,
Robert Carswell,           Richard Roschman,           Paul Synnestvedt,
Walter C. Childs,      Carl H. Asplundh.           John A. Wells.

     On the same day the Executive Committee met with eight members present, and elected the following officers, viz.:

John Pitcairn, Chairman,
Carl H, Asplundh, Treasurer, and
John H. Wells, Secretary.

     The minimum number was increased on June 27th, 1902, when five members were added to the Executive Committee, as follows, viz.:

Rudolph Roschman,
Seymour G. Nelson,
Jacob Schoenberger,
Robert B. Caldwell (Sr.),
Felix A. Boericke, M. D.

     On February 21st, 1903, Rev. Charles E. Doering was elected a member, and Treasurer of the Committee to succeed Mr. Asplundh.

489




     On June 23d, 1903, George M. Cooper, M. D., and Paul Carpenter were added to the Committee, thereby filling it to the maximum number.

     Since the last General Assembly, two of our members, Mr. Robert M. Glenn and Mr. Carl H. Asplundh, have passed into the other world. The Executive Committee have expressed in the journals of the Church their sense of the loss of the services of these active and valued members.

     The attention of the Assembly is referred to the report of the Treasurer as to the financial affairs of the Church. A large portion of the time of the Executive Committee has been devoted to the consideration of the financial needs of the Church, the results of which have been given from time to time to the members of the Church by the Treasurer.

     In the year 1901, only one meeting was held by the Executive Committee. In 1902 and 1903 fear meetings were held in each year. The plan of holding our meetings at the different centres of the Church was adopted in 1902, and has proved most useful. The time selected has been, as far as practicable, the time of the meetings of the District Assemblies. Meetings have been held in Berlin, Pittsburg, and Toronto, as well as Bryn Athyn. The interest in and attendance at our meetings has increased, in consequence, and has brought the Committee into closer touch with the different centres.

     On June 27th, 1902, at Berlin, the Bishop submitted to the Committee the following questions, viz.:

     1. Would it be well for societies, as societies, to contribute to the uses of the General Church, annually?

     2. Should the General body own the landed property and church buildings of the societies?

     3. Should the General Church assist weak societies?

     The first question was put before the meeting and after some discussion the following resolution was adopted:

     "Resolved. That the Executive Committee believes it will be useful for the particular Churches to acknowledge the uses performed by the General Church by making occasional financial contributions to the General Church, provided it does not interfere with the individual contributions from the members of the General Church, and, therefore, recommend that the particular Churches make such contributions at least once a year.

     The second question suggested for consideration: "Should the general body own the landed property and church buildings of the societies?"

     It was decided to refer to the next General Assembly.

     The third question was then considered and the following resolution adopted:

     "Resolved. That the Executive Committee favor the policy of financially aiding weak and deserving societies of the General Church when the funds of the Treasury warrant the same, but there are at present no funds available for that purpose."

490




     On October 25th, 1902, the Committee met with the Council of the Local Church in Pittsburg, and during some discussion of the matter of the local property there, a sentiment developed that it might be well for the General Church to incorporate in order that it might hold property, as well as for other reasons. A legal committee to investigate the subject and advise the Executive Committee respecting corporation and property matters was then appointed, such sub-committee consisting of Messrs. Paul Synnestvedt, Hugh L. Burnham, and John J. Kintner.

     On June 23d, 1903, at Bryn Athyn, the legal committee reported in favor of incorporating., and submitted a land-holding plan. The report was placed on file and made a special order of business for the next meeting of the Executive Committee, and was brought before the Joint Council on the following day. A full report of the last mentioned meeting has been given to the members of the Church through the journals of the Church.

     On October 23d, 1903, at Pittsburg, the legal committee reported that it had no further report to make at that time, and was discharged. The time of this meeting of the Committee was largely taken up with ventilation of the matters of incorporation and land-holding Among other things, a referendum vote of the members of the General Church was suggested, but it was finally decided that the matters should be brought before a General Assembly for well considered action.

     A new legal committee consisting of Messrs. Paul Synnestvedt, Hugh L. Burnham, and Paul Carpenter was thereupon appointed and requested to prepare definite plans and recommendations in the premises.

     On December 31, 1903, at Toronto, the new legal committee advised the meeting of the Executive Committee that it was not yet ready to present a definite report, and the time of this meeting of the Executive Committee was also largely spent in consideration of these questions.

     On the 16th of this month, at Bryn Athyn, the legal committee presented its report and the same was received and placed on file. By request of the legal committee, your Committee does not report formally either for or against the adoption of the recommendations of the special legal committee, but laps the report before the Assembly. The member of this committee also a member of the legal committee, here present, will read the report of that sub-committee.

Respectfully submitted, JOHN PITCAIRN, Chairman.

PAUL CARPENTER,
Secretary Pro tem. Bryn Athyn, June 19th, 1904.

     31. A report from a sub-committee (the Legal Committee) of the Executive Committee on the subject of Incorporation was read by Mr. Paul Carpenter.

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REPORT OF THE LEGAL COMMITTEE

     To the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

Gentlemen:

     Your Committee, to whom was referred the question of incorporating the General Church of the New Jerusalem, beg leave to report and recommend as follows:

     First, That the Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, together with not less than six nor more than eleven other persons, to be selected by him from the membership of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, shall forthwith for themselves and their associates apply for a Charter under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, under the 2d subdivision of Corporations of the first class, not for profit, and in case a satisfactory Charter cannot be obtained thereunder, to then incorporate under the laws of the State of Illinois, as a corporation not for pecuniary profit.

     Second, That said corporation shall then proceed to elect its officers for the first year and to adopt its Constitution and By-Laws, providing therein that every male member of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, who is above the age of twenty-one years, and who has attended at least two General Assemblies of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, shall be eligible to become a member of the corporation, and shall become such member upon attending an annual meeting of the corporation and signing his name to the roll of membership.

     Your Committee recommends that when the corporation has been organized, that the Directors, Trustees. Executive Committee, or whatever the managing board be termed, be elected for one year and until their successors are elected. The By-Laws to provide for an annual meeting of the corporation to be held each year at Bryn Athyn at a certain place, hour and day designated in the By-Laws; provided, however, that any year in which a General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem is held, that the Trustees, Directors or Executive Committee may change the time and place of the annual meeting for that year by thirty days' previous written notice mailed to each member of the corporation, designating therein a certain time and place, at the point where the General Assembly for that year is held, as the time and place for holding that annual meeting of the corporation. It is our possibly but a single hour, of one of the days of each General Assembly be devoted to the meeting of the corporation, at which time its business shall be conducted in the most methodical way and strictly according to Parliamentary law, and that a distinct and separate record thereof be kept by its Secretary as the record of the corporation. In other words, that the General Assembly be conducted much the same as hitherto, save only that for one session the members of the corporation convene for the transaction of the business of the corporation; the meeting to be public, but members only to have a vote.

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     It is also suggested that those years in which no General Assembly is held, that unless there is business of importance to be transacted, no attempt be made to hold a meeting of the corporation, but that a few of the resident members meet in Bryn Athyn at the proper time and place and adjourn the meeting sine die for want of a quorum, making a record thereof, and that the officers and directors then in power continue to act until the next year in which a General Assembly is held.
Respectfully submitted,
PAUL SYNNESVEDT, PAUL CARPENTER, HUGH L. BURNHAM,
Committee.

     INCORPORATION OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.

     32. Mr. Carpenter moved the first resolution:

     "First Resolved, Resolved, That we do incorporate."

     Seconded by Mr. Rudolf Roschman.

     32a. For the information of the Assembly, a portion of the Minutes of the Executive Committee, bearing on the subject of incorporation, was read.

     33. The First Resolution was put to vote and carried.

     34. Mr. Carpenter read the second resolution:

     "Second, Resolved, That the Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, together with not less than six nor more than eleven other persons, to be selected by him from the membership of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, shall forthwith for themselves and their associates apply for a Charter under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, under the 323 subdivision of Corporations of the first class, not for profit, and in case a satisfactory Charter cannot be obtained thereunder, to then incorporate under the laws of the State of Illinois, as a corporation not for pecuniary profit."

     35. The resolution was moved by Mr. S. S. Lindsey, seconded by Mr. John Pitcairn, and carried.

     36. Some general discussion of the resolutions followed.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton thought the passing of these two resolutions should be sufficient.

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Many of those present had but a vague idea that incorporation would be a good thing. The matter comes before the meeting with the unanimous approval of the Executive Committee, and this recommends it to us. It was, however, stated that the Committee was in doubt as to a certain point, and it might be useful to have this brought out and discussed.

     Mr. Pitcairn said the doubt was as to the need of incorporating, which existed with one of the members. The Assembly should be in entire freedom. The Committee desires that there shall be no appearance of their urging the matter, but that, if it is adopted, it shall be with the full and rational consent of the members.

     Mr. W. Caldwell asked whether the proposed corporation would be an arm of the General Church, something like the Academy, and was told by Mr. Carpenter that it would. He asked further, whether in such case it should not be provided that the Bishop be a permanent member of the corporation.

     Mr. Carpenter rose to a point of order. The discussion taking place is on the third resolution, and this is not yet before the meeting.

     37. Mr. Carpenter read the third resolution:

     "Third, Resolved, That the said corporation shall then proceed to elect its officers for the first year and to adopt its constitution and by--laws, providing therein that every male member of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, who is above the age of twenty-one years, and who has attended at least two General Assemblies of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, shall be eligible to become a member of the corporation, and shall become such member upon attending an annual meeting of the corporation and signing his name to the roll of membership."

     38. The resolution was moved by Mr. Seymour Nelson, and seconded by Mr. Robert Carswell.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton thought there should be a more simple plan for becoming members of the corporation. He could not see why it should be desirable or essential that a person shall have attended two General Assemblies. He would favor either that all the members of the General Church be members of the corporation, or that a small body, in whom we have confidence, be chosen.

     Mr. Price much preferred to see a small body constitute the corporation. Anything involving serious consideration would undoubtedly come before the Assembly. A small body will do the work better, as we know from experience. Everybody's business is nobody's business.

     Mr. Pitcairn said that the Executive Committee as a whole had not given much consideration to the details of the matter of incorporation, but the sub-committee had. He suggested that Mr. Carpenter read a letter from the sub-committee bearing on the subject of membership.

     Mr. Carpenter read the letter, which was as follows:

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REPORT OF THE LEGAL COMMITTEE ON PROPERTY HOLDING.

     To the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

Gentlemen:

     Your Committee to whom was referred the question of formulating a method by which the individual Societies of the General Church of the New Jerusalem desiring to do so may place their Church property under the control of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, beg leave to report as follows:

     First, That after the incorporation of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, those Societies and individuals desiring to make absolute conveyance of real or personal property may do so by Deed or by last Will and Testament to the corporation.

     Second. That an unincorporated Society desiring to convey its property to the General Church to hold as Trustee merely, will be unable to do so, but a few members of the General Church may form an auxiliary corporation, under the 14th section of Corporations of the first class, not for profit under the laws of the State of Pennsylvania, for the purpose of receiving and holding property of and for unincorporated religious Societies and executing trusts therefor.

     Third, That an incorporated Society desiring to convey its property to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, to hold in trust, cannot do so, but it may cause its property to be conveyed to one of the Trust Companies of one of the principal Cities in the State in which the Society's property is situated, which property so conveyed may be made the basis of a property syndicate, and the certificates of interest issued thereon may be assigned in blank and turned over to the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
Respectfully submitted.
PAUL SYNNESTVEDT, PAUL CARPENTER, HUGH L. BURNHAM,
Committee.

     Mr. Odhner: "I understand that the Bishop is to select from is to eleven members of the General Church, who are to constitute the corporation, no they become the governing body of the Church?"

     Mr. Carpenter: "No. They become for a time the corporation. They adopt by-laws and take steps to extend the membership of their body by selecting certain members of the General Church. This will then constitute the corporation until the next General Assembly, when all who have attended two Assemblies can add their names. The selection of the six to eleven original members is a merely formal thing."

     Mr. Odhner: "Then anyone can become a member of the corporation?"

     Mr. Carpenter: "Yes; provided he has attended two General Assemblies."

     Mr. Odhner: "Not by application, but merely by signing the roll of members?"

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     Mr. Acton could not see why, if the corporation is a merely formal thing, it should include all the active members of the General Church.

     Mr. Carpenter answered that it was not said that the corporation was a merely formal thing, but that the selection of the six to eleven original members is something formal. Nevertheless, they are for the time legally the corporation; but it is understood that they are to increase their number.

     Mr. R. B. Caldwell Sr., thought there should be no restrictions as to membership in the corporation, for all are interested in the business affairs of the Church. The corporation would meet during Assembly time and transact business. This would leave the Assembly itself free to discuss other subjects. It is a delightful feature of our Assemblies that they are not burdened with considerations of business affairs.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson said that the choosing of the original members being a merely formal matter could be understood in the sense that they are as it were messengers chosen to go to the legal authorities to obtain the rights in a formal manner. The real corporation will come into existence later.

     Mr. Carpenter said it should be clearly understood that the corporation will have nothing to do with the ecclesiastical affairs of the Church. It will have to do only with business affairs. As we are now constituted any one person can be made liable for the whole debt of the body. We cannot take over property or receive legacies. This will be remedied by incorporation. It is desired that every male member of the General Church be a member of the corporation. But, after careful consideration, it was found that some distinction must be made, and the plan was adopted of making attendance at two Assemblies necessary. This ought to be discussed. We have lost sight of it on account of so much stress being laid on the subject of the original incorporators.

     Mr. Odhner stated that he fully agreed with the proposed plan. According to it all, both priests and laymen, can, as members of the Church, become members of the corporation. 'The corporation will then elect an Executive Committee to manage its affairs.
     
     Mr. Carswell said the members of the corporation can be compared to the shareholders in a bank, and its Executive Committee to the directors elected by the shareholder. The fact that a person has attended two General Assemblies is as it were his stock certificate. At the Assemblies a record is kept of all who attend, and this record would indicate who are eligible to membership.

     Mr. Gladish asked whether he is right in understanding that the original body can transfer all its rights to the larger body; also, whether, in such case, the original body ceases to be.

     Mr. Pitcairn called attention to the distinction between members of the Church and members of the corporation. At Assembly time the meeting of the corporation would be distinct, and would he presided over by the president of the corporation. Such a meeting would not need to take up much time,--probably not more than an hour or two.

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     Mr. Carpenter, in answer to Mr. Gladish, said that there would simply be an extension of membership. The original members elect additional members, and the larger body has the same powers as the former.

     Mr. W. Caldwell desired to know whether there would be any means of providing against a "graft," since a majority would rule in meetings of the corporation.

     Mr. Carpenter replied that there is no way that this can be provided against. However, if a majority acts in too flagrant a manner, a remedy can be found by appeal to the courts.

     Dr. E. K. Richardson said that the committee on incorporation had presented a plan that is very clear. The seven or twelve members, immediately they have obtained the charter, elect additional members. This larger body is then the corporation until the next Assembly. At the meeting of the corporation, taking place during Assembly time, there will be a large number of new members, for all who have attended two Assemblies can then add their names to the roll of membership. The corporation will be a regularly organized body distinct from the Assembly. It will preserve the rights of the clergy and not meddle in ecclesiastical affairs. The Assembly will continue to be of the same character as it is now.

     Mr. Charles Ebert said that as soon as the original body has increased its number, a meeting of the larger body can be held, and an Executive Committee be elected. The Committee would have charge of affairs. At meetings of the corporation at Assembly time there would always be the election of an Executive Committee, but beyond this there would not be much business.

     Mr. Hicks thought that Mr. Nelson had given a clear idea of the relation of the original members to the larger body which is formed later. He would add that the corporation is a man,--the legal, civil man of the General Church. If you would have a man you must first have a baby, and the original incorporators are this baby. The baby grows as the membership of the corporation is extended.

     39. The Rev. Homer Synnestvedt was invited to read a paper on the subject. "Does New Church Education require any important departure from established school practices." [This paper has been published in the Journal of Education for 1904.]

     40. The Assembly then took a recess until the afternoon

THE BANQUET-"CANADA DAY."

     On this day the program for the banquet was in the hands of the friends from Berlin and Toronto, Mr. Chas. Brown, of Toronto, acting as Toastmaster.

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As on "Chicago Day," so again now, each guest found under his plate a neatly printed program of the toasts, containing, also, five new songs, or, rather, new words to old and beloved tunes. The "regular" toasts on this occasion included, 1. "THE GROWTH OF THE CHURCH," to which the Rev. F. E. Waelchli responded; 2. "NEW CHURCH EDUCATION," responded to by Mr. Rudolph Roschman; 3. "THE PRIESTHOOD," Mr. Chas. Brown responding; and, 4. "INTERNATIONAL, BROTHERHOOD," the Rev. Emil Cronlund responding. Of the speeches, unfortunately, we are able to present only that of Mr. Waelchli.

THE GROWTH OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.

     We are taught in the doctrines of the Church that every society of heaven increases in number daily; and as it does so, it also increases in perfection; for the greater the number, the greater is the variety; and variety, when all act as one, produces perfection. The angels, therefore, delight in the growth of their society.

     In the Church on earth there should also be increase in numbers; for here, too, increase brings perfection, provided there be unanimity. Therefore, like the angels, we should rejoice because of growth in numbers. The General Church of the New Jerusalem has cause for such rejoicing; for since the day of its institution it has steadily grown.

     In Canada, there were sixteen years ago less than twenty persons who held Academy principles. Three years later, when the separation from Convention took place, the number had increased to about seventy-five. Today there are one hundred and twenty-five members in Canada; and if we add those who have removed to the United States, we find that during the last thirteen years the Canadian membership has more than doubled. The chief source of this increase has been from the children who have grown up. Nor is there any indication that this progress will cease. Some of those who are associated with us, but are not yet members, will no doubt soon join the ranks; and we have, besides, about one hundred and twenty-five young people and children.

     The growth of the General Church in Canada in no wise differs from what has taken place elsewhere. Throughout our body there has been the same increase, and there is the same prospect for the future.

     In order that the Church may grow there must be evangelization. For this our children present the most fruitful field. Still, there are also other fields, namely, the Church at large and the Old Church; these we must not neglect.

     Yet all the growth resulting from evangelization will depend upon a growth within ourselves. In order that there may be external growth there must he internal growth, which is growth in the spiritual affection of truth. Since external growth depends on internal growth, we must never sacrifice principles for the sake of winning or retaining numbers.

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It is the clear teaching of the doctrines that perfection results from increase in numbers only where all act as one. If there be not unity in principles and in the recognition of that charity which must prevail in the work of the Church, a judgment or separation must take place. The loss in numbers resulting from such a judgment is but temporary; for after the judgment the growth will be more rapid than ever before. This we know to be true from experience.

     The General Church will grow; it must grow; for its principles are the true principles of the New Church, which will endure into all the ages, receiving the allegiance of an ever increasing number of such as love the truth. This body, as now organized, may indeed pass away; but that which is its soul, its very life, that which is really the General Church, can never pass away. And, therefore, we say, the General Church of the New Jerusalem will live and grow forever.

     During the course of the Banquet unexpected telegrams were received, addressed to Mr. R. B. Caldwell, Sr., from various distinguished personages abroad. There were numerous skirmishes, in the rivalry of wit and poetic ability, between Toronto and Chicago; and the Canadian muse held its own proudly with Chicago, Pittsburg, and Philadelphia.

     The following stirring song was sung as the toast to "The Priesthood" was brought out.

THE PRIESTHOOD A WARFARE.

Warriors ready for the battle
     New Church priests must ever be,
Fighting for a sacred purpose,
     From all harm the Church to free.

There are powers within, around her,
     Which would suffocate and kill
Every truth the Lord has given,
     Every mandate of His will.

All these hosts of hell and darkness
     Without ceasing they must fight;
Armed with truth revealed from heaven
     They must put her foes to flight.

But the warfare of the priesthood
     Is for every churchman true.
Priest or layman, he must battle
     For Jerusalem the New.

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Thus the universal priesthood
     Victory and peace shall win,
And the Church on earth, the crowning,
     Shall be glorious within.

     FOURTH DAY--MONDAY AFTERNOON.

     41. The discussion of the third resolution on Incorporation was continued.

     Mr. Carpenter read the resolution.

     Mr. W. Caldwell thought there was a weakness in the requirement that a person must attend two General Assemblies before he can become a member. If we have Assemblies only every four years there will meanwhile be many who would like to become members and cannot.

     Mr. Waelchli inquired whether it might not be well to add the words "or two District Assemblies of the General Church." The District Assemblies are Assemblies of the General Church, but local in character. Attendance at them might have the same value in qualifying for membership in the corporation as attendance at a General Assembly.

     Mr. John. Wells was of the opinion that there are few in the General Church who have not already attended two General Assemblies.

     Mr. Carpenter said that the committee had considered what Mr. Waelchli proposed, and found that it would not answer the requirements. Attendance at a District Assembly does not in the same full manner indicate interest in the General Church as does attendance at a General Assembly. Besides the records of attendance at District Assemblies might be questioned.

     Mr. Odhner strongly favored permitting only those to become members who attend General Assemblies. The corporation should consist of those who take an interest in the general affairs of the Church, and all such will make an effort to attend the General Assemblies.

     Mr. Pitcairn said that the Executive Committee was largely influenced by the report of the sub-committee, which had given the subject careful consideration. The sentiment of the Executive Committee was to have as simple a plan of incorporation as possible. His preference was for a smaller body, and he had favored the present Executive Committee becoming the corporation; but he would not stand against the present proposal. We have had experience with a large corporation in the case of the Academy. It was found to be unwieldly, and it became necessary to ask all but a few of the members to resign, in order that there might he a corporation consisting of a limited number, who could get together and do business. In the present case such a condition need not arise, as provision to meet it call he made in the by-laws. The suggestion to incorporate came from Pittsburg, where it was desired that the General Church become trustee of the church property there.

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The plan of incorporation before us will not meet the wishes of our Pittsburg friends, unless they desire to deed their property to us. We cannot act as trustees. The subcommittee, which consists of attorneys, have carefully examined into this matter.

     Mr. K. B. Caldwell, Jr., thought that the sub-committee had given the subject much study, and that we can safely adopt the plan which they recommend.

     Mr. Carpenter said that if difficulty should arise on account of too large a membership, this could he remedied at any time, as the provision concerning membership will be contained in the by-laws. The power to change will be stated there.

     Mr. Pendleton said that this is a question of considerable interest. An effort is made to limit the membership to the active members of the General Church; but he was not convinced that we have as yet the best method of limiting the membership. If the corporation, after it is formed, should proceed to limit the membership in a way we do not desire, what would come of it? Suppose the original incorporators should get together and in their first meeting disregard the resolution and decide that they shall constitute the corporation, what could we do?

     Mr. Carpenter answered that the General Church could refuse to recognize the original incorporators, and in a year from now new action could be taken by the Assembly.

     In reply to the question whether the corporation would be able to receive requests from Canada, Mr. Carpenter said that he was unable to say. In reply to another question, he stated that nothing would prevent citizens of another country from being members of the corporation. The Bishop added, that it had been shown by the experience of the Academy that bequests can he received from foreign countries.

     Mr. Pendleton stated that if it is in the power of the corporation to change the status of membership at any time, he is in favor of the resolution. We may now believe that attendance at two Assemblies is sufficient as a requirement for membership, but we may change our opinion as to this in the future. If we can then make a change, that is all that we need.

     Mr. Acton said that we have already had an experience with an unwieldly corporation. Drastic action had then to be taken. In the present case there is an endeavor to avoid a difficulty such as arose in the case of the Academy by limiting the membership of the corporation to the active members of the General Church, who have attended two Assemblies. This is a doubtful procedure. There is scarcely a single member of our larger societies who has not attended two Assemblies. In time every male member of the General Church will be a member of the corporation; and as the General Church grows, the corporation will become a very large body. The object of incorporation is to hold property, and to be in a position to sue and be sued. It is not intended that the corporation is to manage the whole of the affairs of the General Church. Could not the General Church continue to carry on its affairs by means of its Executive Committee, and have some small body that could serve the use of a corporation?

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If we see later that it is desirable to extend the membership, this can always be done. The resolutions already passed seem to be all that is necessary.

     Mr. W. H. Junge believed that the wisest course we can follow is to adopt the proposition before us. It is the best that our most experienced men in such matters have been able to devise. For a number of years they could not agree; but they have now come before us with a well-formulated plan, and any deviation from it will in all likelihood lead us away from the end we desire to accomplish.

     Mr. Acton, replying to Mr. Junge, stated that he had every confidence in the committee, but he doubted whether it was desirable to have so large a membership of the corporation. Could we not let the matter rest on the basis of the two resolutions already passed, or leave it in the hands of the Executive Committee? Last year it was not at all clear what plan to adopt. That which is now suggested was but recently formed. Will not such a large corporation contain many members who are nor active, that is, not active in an interest in the affairs of the corporation, and will not thus the very end sought be defeated?

     Mr. Carswell pointed out that there are large corporations at those meetings but a small part of the members are present. The corporation delegates its powers to the board of directors, which in our case would be the Executive Committee.

     Mr. Pendleton wished to know exactly what are to be the uses of the corporation. Would it confine itself to the holding of property, or would it enter into all the external uses of the Church and displace the Executive Committee?

     Mr. Carpenter replied that this would depend on what the Church gives the corporation to do.

     The Bishop stated that the Assembly could continue its present Executive Committee, if it desired.

     Mr. Pitcairn understood that the Executive Committee would go out of existence. It would resign, and the board of directors of the corporation would take its place.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton said that this changes the whole matter in his mind. He could see the use of a corporation for the holding of property; but he was not prepared to endorse a plan which contemplated placing the administration of the temporal affairs of the General Church in the hands of a body that is as it were separate from the General Church. The relations between the priestly and the lay uses are such that it is a question of importance to know how and by whom the lay uses are to be administered. There should be a full and free discussion of this subject both by the ministers and the laymen, with a view to a complete understanding. He favored laying over the matter for another year, so that the Council of the Clergy and the Executive Committee could meet together and discuss the whole subject.

     Mr. Acton explained that he had favored the corporation being limited to a small number with the understanding that its use was to be only to hold property and to represent the General Church before the law.

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But if it is to take over all external uses of the General Church, it should include every male member of the Church. It is no longer a question of active members, but of members. Every member of the General Church should have a voice in the election of those who conduct the business affairs. It is not necessary to let the matter go over to another year. Let the corporation for the present confine itself to legal uses, and let us wait with the extension of membership and the delegating of other uses.

     Mr. Carswell said that this third resolution might be passed, and that the question of the powers of the corporation could be left open to be considered at future meetings.

     Mr. Carpenter stated that if the resolution is passed, the corporation will have nothing to do but what is referred to it or arises within itself. We cannot by this action prejudice the interests of the General Church. If all business affairs are placed in the hands of the corporation, the change will undoubtedly be somewhat radical.

     Mr. Pitcairn agreed that the change would be radical. The corporation is to include ministers and laymen, and ministers could be elected to the board of directors. Thus, if the Executive Committee should go out of existence, the relations of the clergy and the laity might become somewhat mixed. As has already been stated, the Executive Committee has not given this matter very full consideration. The proposition before us is really the report of the sub-committee. He thought that the suggestion that the whole subject be considered in Joint Council was a good one.

     Our policy has been not to act hastily. Ii there is doubt in the mind of some, we should go slowly. There should he a thorough understanding of the whole matter.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson called attention to the fact that these resolutions had not come before the meeting with the recommendation of the Executive Committee. What is before us is the report of the sub-committee, which the Executive Committee has recommended for consideration. The Executive Committee has not O. K.'d the plan. This should be understood. We should move forward with intelligence, so that we need not take any backward steps.

     Mr. Odhner reminded the meeting that the Assembly is held only every four years, and that there is need of a corporation. We should not postpone action. We should have a body that can receive bequests, which we hope will come to us as they do to other Churches. Let us empower the Joint Council to see the matter through.

     Mr. Price thought that this matter had been hanging on long enough, and should he disposed of. The law in regard to the alteration of by-laws is so broad, that no difficulty can arise that cannot he remedied. Why delay action for another four years? Mr. Acton stated that if the corporation is to have charge of all business matters, it should include all members of the General Church. This is not necessary or desirable. The business affairs should be in the hands of those who are interested in them, and these are the ones who attend the Assemblies. What would be the use of having members of the corporation who never attended meetings? They would be only so much dead wood. It has also been objected that if the corporation take charge of the business affairs of the Church, the relations of the priestly and the lay uses would be affected. But it has not been pointed out in what way they could possibly be affected, except that ministers might be elected to the hoard of directors and the relations might become mixed. This danger is remote. Why should there be any likelihood that we will as members of the corporation forget the principles, which we have always held, that business men are the ones who can best administer business affairs? He could not see how the Executive Committee could continue alongside of the corporation nor any reason why it should. A legally constituted body is the very kind of body we need to conduct the business affairs of our Church. He favored the adoption of this third resolution before the assembly adjourns.

     Mr. Pendleton stated that he still favored adopting the resolution with the understanding that the corporation does not for the present take the place of the Executive Committee, but simply holds property.

     Mr. Schoenberger was certain that the corporation would elect a board of directors of business men, capable of attending to the affairs of our Church. There need be no fear as to this. It would be done in the same manner as we now elect the Executive Committee. What we want is a corporation distinct from the General Church, which can represent us before the law, consisting of members who have a heart-felt interest in the business affairs of our Church. Why should not these administer all business affairs? If we have a soundly established business organization, we should certainly expect to have the business uses administered better than ever before.

     Mr. R. B. Caldwell. Sr., inquired whether Mr. Pendleton's difficulty could not be met by increasing the number of the original incorporators and selecting the present Executive Committee to act in that capacity.

     Mr. Carpenter replied that the reason why the Executive Committee was not chosen for this purpose was because in that case the papers would need to be sent around to different localities. According to the present plan, all the original incorporators can reside in the same place.

     Mr. Roschman said that by the election of a board of directors by the corporation, to take the place of the Executive Committee, an important principle which had hitherto been observed in the election of the Executive Committee could no longer be carried out. In the past it was considered orderly that the Bishop approve the nominations made for membership in the Executive Committee. According to what is now proposed, there would be no supervision whatever on the part of the head of the Church in the matter of the choice of those who are to actively carry on the business affairs of the Church. Is it wise to make such a change? Would it not be better to have a corporation simply for the holding of property, and continue the Executive Committee for the performance of the uses in which it is now engaged?

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     Mr. Carswell said that the clergy will have a large share in the election of the board of directors. There are about fifteen priests In this Assembly, and their number will increase. So there can be no infringement of the rights of the clergy. They can even elect some of their own number to the board of directors, if they desire. But whatever plan is adopted, the clergy and the laity must trust in each other. That is what we now do. In the corporation there will be mutual confidence and mutual trust. If we cannot have confidence in the corporation which is to be elected, then we cannot even entrust our property to them. They might use it to pay their personal debts! But if we have confidence in it, why should we not place all our business affairs in its hands? The whole matter has been thoroughly discussed, and there seems to be no need for further delay.

     42. On motion, the Assembly adjourned to meet on Tuesday, June 21st, at 10 A. M.

     FRIDAY EVENING.

     In the evening of this day the members and visitors of the Assembly were received socially at Cairnwood by Mr. John Pitcairn and Miss Pitcairn.

     FIFTH DAY--TUESDAY MORNING. JUNE 21st.

     43. The meeting was opened with worship, conducted by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner.

     44. The Secretary read an abstract of the Minutes of the session held on Monday.

     45. The Secretary read a letter of greeting to the Assembly from Mrs. George R. Starkey, of Bryn Athyn, who was unable to attend on account of illness.

     The Bishop expressed the pleasure of the Assembly in hearing this message, bringing with it that warm affection for the Church which is in the heart of the sender.

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton moved that the love and affection of all this Assembly be conveyed to Mrs. Starkey. The motion was seconded and carried unanimously.

     46. The Secretary announced that a number of new members of the General Church had been received during the Assembly, and stated that new certificates of membership, with a representative design, had been prepared, and that all members desiring the same could obtain them on application.

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     47. The Bishop stated that the Third Resolution on Incorporation was still the subject before the meeting.

     Mr. Carpenter read the third resolution.

     Mr. Seymour Nelson said that at our meeting yesterday it was held by some that the placing of the administration of the business affairs of our Church in the hands of the board of directors of the corporation, instead of, as now, in the hands of an Executive Committee elected by the Assembly, was a radical departure from the established order; and at the close of the meeting a speaker had pointed out that hitherto the Bishop had approved of nominations for the Executive Committee before they were placed before the Assembly, and that this episcopal supervision would no longer exist if we should now have a board of directors elected by the corporation. He would, therefore, be pleased to hear whether the Bishop considered that the proposed new plan in any wise took away what belongs to the Bishop's office, or was contrary to our principles of order.

     The Bishop replied that he did not consider that it affected the Bishop's office in any way, nor that it affected our present order. If it did, perhaps it ought to. He entirely favored incorporation and the doing of all that the civil law required.

     Dr. Farrington thought that the men who would be chosen to attend to the business affairs would be the same, whether elected by the Assembly or by the corporation. Though the form of procedure would be different, the result would be virtually the same.

     Mr. Synnestvedt said that it should be our desire to recognize the illustration of every use in the Church, and to look to it for light in matters of that use. We have among us eminent legal talents, and they have given much thought to the subject before us. They are in the full acknowledgment of our principles of government, and believe in leadership by the priests in ecclesiastical matters. Let us look to them for instruction in this matter, and not put ourselves in an attitude of criticism. In our Church the attitude of the laity is to look to the clergy for instruction, and not to put themselves in an attitude of criticism, and this makes our work easy. Now we can put ourselves in a similar attitude towards those of the laity who have light as to particular uses. If the priests are not strong enough on the internal plane to be the leaders, nothing will be gained by putting a string to the laity. Some of the speakers yesterday seemed too ready to criticize, and to suggest other plans than those proposed. It soon became evident that their plans were not workable. All such things must be fully considered as has been done by the sub-committee. As was clearly shown, all difficulties that may arise can be remedied by the by-laws. He favored the passing of the third resolution.

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     Mr. Rosenqvist agreed with the last speaker, that we ought to have trust in the laymen who have brought this matter before us; and we should show our trust in them as they show their trust in us. Mr. N. D. Pendleton said he did not know whether he was classed with those who had entered into this discussion with a view of criticizing the proposition made. But in reply to Mr. Synnestvedt's remarks he would say that he was in favor of following the advice given by legal minds, when we reach the point of action. He was averse to anything that would cause distrust between the clergy and the laity, and even to the suggestion of such distrust. When any subject, be it doctrinal, financial or legal, is presented to us at this Assembly, the members may enter into a free discussion of it. Such discussion has never in the past and should not now be regarded as a sign of distrust, but rather as a sign that we want to understand one another, and can fully bring out our thoughts without hesitation. In doing so yesterday we did what the Executive Committee undoubtedly desired that we should do; in fact, they said that this is what they wished us do.

     Mr. Pitcairn said that the members of the New Church are supposed to be rational men, and hoped that the priests would not blindly follow whatever the laymen suggested, nor the laymen blindly follow any proposal by the priests. The Executive Committee wishes the subject to be understood; it wants the members of the Church to have an intelligent idea of what is being done. In order to throw light upon the subject, it might be of interest to hear from Mr. Morse as to the experiences of the Church in Australia in the matter of obtaining incorporation

     Mr. Morse referred to the inscription "Nunc Licet" written over the portals of a temple of the New Church in Heaven, signifying that in the New Church every one can enter intelligently into the mysteries of faith. He was pleased to hear Mr. Pendleton's remarks on the subject. As to incorporation he would say that the General Church is in a rather risky state in not being incorporated. The body of the New Church in Australia, to which he belongs, was incorporated some years ago A constitution was drawn up, and application for a charter was then made under the limited liability company act. There is in Australia, a wealthy and zealous Newchurchman, who has willed a large part of his property to the New Church for educational purposes. We needed to be incorporated in order to be able to receive this property. In view of the fact that this property is willed to us, it call be said that there is a future before any minister who is willing to risk coming to Australia to engage In the work there. The way might he difficult in the beginning, but in time the reward would come. Every member of our body is necessarily a member of the corporation, and cannot sever his connection with the body unless he gives six months' notice. If any crisis should come, he would be legally responsible up to a certain limited sum. A most important use of incorporation is that if a man wills property to an organization, he knows that the will can be carried out accordingly to the due course of the law.

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     Mr. Price desired information on one point: Mr. Morse stated that the members of the corporation in Australia are personally responsible for the liabilities of the body; but we are told that the advantage we shall gain by incorporation is that personal liability will be avoided, and that liability will rest on the assets of the corporation, and nothing else.

     Mr. Pitcairn answered that there are two kinds of corporations: one of limited liability, in which a member is liable up to a certain amount; another, in which there is no liability beyond the assets of the body.

     Mr. Acton thought that the subject had been sufficiently discussed and that we are pretty fully in agreement. The only question remaining unsettled is that of membership. He moved that the third resolution be referred to the Executive Committee and the Council of the Clergy in Joint Session, with full power to act.

     Mr. Gladish believed that action should be taken by the Assembly. If there is further delay it will be eight years before some of us can become members of the corporation.

     Mr. W. Caldwell thought that we are ready to vote on the resolution. He called for the question.

     48. The Third Resolution was put to vote and carried.

     49. Mr. Odhner offered the following resolution, which was carried unanimously:

     Resolved. That the thanks of this Assembly are due and are hereby given to the Sub-Committee of the Executive Committee, for its earnest and faithful labors in preparing the plan of incorporation.

     50. Mr. Carpenter offered a fourth resolution on Incorporation:

     "Fourth, Resolved, That in addition to the persons named in the preceding resolution, the said corporation may elect as members of the corporation the present members of the Executive Committee of the General Church of the New Jerusalem and such other persons eligible to membership under the said resolution as it may deem necessary or desirable to effect an organization ad interim until the next annual meeting of the corporation, making the necessary temporary by-law therefor providing."

     Seconded by Mr. Pitcairn, and carried.

     51. Mr. Carpenter said that there are several things in connection with incorporation which it might be well for the Assembly to consider. In preparing the papers of application we must state what is the purpose of the body, how many members shall constitute the board of directors, and also how many shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.

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The sub-committee had tentatively prepared the following statement in regard to the object of the body: "That the Chatter for the said corporation shall state that 'the object for which it is formed is to present, teach and maintain throughout the world the doctrines of the New Jerusalem or Swedenborgian Church.'"

     It was pointed out that the statement of purpose of the body is broad to include all the uses of the body, present and future.

     The question was asked whether, if the publication of the Life should ever become a source of profit, this might lead to the canceling of the charter. It was answered that this could not be the case, as there could be no distribution of profits among the members.

     It was suggested by Mr. Odhner that instead of "Swedenborgian Church," the expression be used "the teachings contained in the Theological Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg." The Bishop said that the suggestion was a good one, and recommended it to the consideration of the committee.

     In regard to the number of members of the Executive Committee, or board of directors, Mr. Carpenter stated that the law of Illinois requires that there shall not be more than twelve, and the law of Pennsylvania not less than three. Mr. Pitcairn said that it had been found advantageous to have a large Executive Committee. The question was left open. The question as to the number to constitute a quorum was also left open.

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLIES.

     52. On motion of Mr. Odhner, the subject of the General Assemblies and the intervals between meetings was taken up for consideration.

     Mr. Odhner said it is in the hands of the Bishop to call a meeting, but that it would be well to have an expression of opinion as to what should be the interval. He favored a triennial Assembly.

     Mr. Brown stated that the reason for not having the Assembly oftener is the work it entails. He inquired how far the arrangements made for this Assembly alleviated the trouble.

     Mr. Bowers doubted whether it was wise to fix a time. Conditions might arise not favorable to holding an Assembly at the time specified.

     Mr. Price agreed with Mr. Bowers. All that might be desirable would be to specify a maximum time. This would leave it open to have as many more as we should be able to hold. Experience teaches that we cannot have it oftener than every three or four years. If we express a sentiment that we wish an Assembly held not less than once in four years, it would be sufficient.

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     Mr. Schoenberger thought it would be well to have a stated time, and favored three years. We would then know when it will come and can make our preparations for it.

     Mr. Carswell said it is a fine thing to have an Assembly, but it involves much trouble and expense. Probably the Bryn Athyn Society has incurred an expense of well-nigh two thousand dollars. What other Society could undertake it? We certainly feel grateful to Bryn Athyn for what it has done. There has also been great expense on the part of those who have come from other places, no doubt about one thousand dollars in all. The matter of the frequency of the Assemblies had better be left in the hands of the Bishop. It would be delightful to meet every three years, yet it would not be well to make a fixed law that it shall do so.

     Mr. Odhner stated that there was no desire to make a fixed law, but merely to get the sentiment of the members.

     Mr. Doering said it would be difficult to say what the expenses of the Bryn Athyn Society had been. The amount of the general fund was six hundred dollars.

     Mr. Carswell thought this was doing well. But the expenses of the families entertaining must also be considered.

     Mr. Schoenberger believed that other centres could also have the Assembly, though conducted in simpler style. The expenses could probably be met in any of our centres. The railroad fares would be saved, and this would go a long way towards covering the expense.

     Mr. Junge said that so far as having the Assembly is concerned, they could have better afforded to have it at home in Glenview than to come here. But they would not have enjoyed it so much!

     Mr. Schoenberger was of the opinion that Pittsburg would be able to entertain the Assembly.

     Mr. Peter Bellinger said that there was a time when Parkdale thought it a great undertaking to have the Ontario Assembly; but by experience they had found that it was not difficult. We must consider not only the amount of expense, but also the amount of good to be derived.

     53. Mr. Bellinger stated that two weeks ago he had the pleasure of being present at the services of the London Society of the General Church. and the friends there had asked him to convey their hearty greetings to the General Assembly. They look forward to a visit from the Bishop. Mr. Czerny, the pastor, spoke highly of the state of the Church both in London and in Colchester.

     54. Mr. Pitcairn moved that when this meeting adjourns it be to meet at the call of the Bishop.

     55. The Rev. Alfred Acton was now called on to read a paper on "Certain Phenomena of the Spiritual World."

     56. On motion, it was decided that no afternoon session be held this day.

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     57. The Rev. D. H. Klein offered the following Resolution, which was seconded and unanimously adopted by a rising vote of the visitors:

     "Resolved, "That a vote of hearty thanks he herewith extended to the members of the Bryn Athyn Society for the cordial hospitality extended by them to the members and visitors of this General Assembly."

     58. On motion of Mr. Hicks, seconded by Mr. Junge, it was unanimously.

     "Resolved, That the thanks of this Assembly be herewith extended to the students of the Academy's College, and others, for their untiring labor and attention which have helped to make all the features of this Assembly so eminently successful."

     59. On motion, the meeting adjourned.

     60. The Bishop pronounced the Benediction, and the Fifth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was closed. C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary.

THE BANQUET--"PHILADELPHIA DAY."

     At the Banquet on Tuesday the Rev. Alfred Acton presided as Toastmaster. The program was quite informal, but the proceedings were marked by an enthusiasm which no showers could dampen. There were numerous toasts, songs and speeches, but of the latter no record was kept, with the exception of the following response by Mr. Reuben Walker to the toast to the "Church of the Advent" of Philadelphia.

     In responding to the toast to the Church of the Advent, in Philadelphia, I am forcibly reminded of my becoming associated with that body during the pastorate of the Rev. L. H. Tafel, in the year 1878, twenty-six years ago, and two years before the formation of the Academy. Coming from the Philadelphia First Society, then worshiping at Broad and Brandywine Sts., I was introduced to the earnest and active workers in the Church who composed the Academy, then in its infancy.

     Many were the happy hours we spent in spiritual and social intercourse in the house of worship in Cherry street.

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The influence of the strongly affirmative attitude of the Academy towards the Heavenly Doctrines led to a clear perception of the advance of that body beyond the position held by the General Convention, and indications of a separation from the latter soon began to manifest themselves.

     In the year 1888 the owners of the Cherry St. house of worship had an offer for the building and sold it. We then moved to Glenn's Hall, but this was merely regarded as a temporary step, for the Advent Society, anxious to have a place of worship of its own, had bought a lot at 21st and Fairmount Ave. and had started to erect on a part of this lot a school house, intending to use it as a house of worship until the time should when they could erect a church on the balance of the lot. Just at the time of the removal to Glenn's Hall came the Tafel disturbance which come practically cut the Society in two. This separation put a stop to the work of building, and the building afterwards altered to suit the wants of the U. S. Government as a Post Office; the lots were sold off and the indebtedness was reduced by that amount.

     The Tafel disturbance occurred in the summer and fall; but in November, of the next year, a greater separation occurred, the separation from the Convention. As I said, the interior truths, taught by the clergy and accepted by the laymen, clearly proved that there was no affinity between our body and the Convention, and after a deliberate and free discussion of the position the resolution to leave the Convention was adopted. Next year followed the institution of the General Church of the Advent.

     After Mr. Tafel left us the services were conducted for some time by resident ministers and some of the theological students of the Academy. Towards the end of the year the Rev. L. G. Jordan was elected as pastor of the Society, an office which he filled until the fall of 1891, when the old Advent Society fell into desuetude. This was effected by the establishment of the "Church of the Academy" to whose services all who desired were invited. There was an idea, at the time, that the Academy was an "Internal Church," while the General Church represented the "External Church." But on the Sunday which witnessed the opening of the Academy services, so unanimous was the acceptance of the Academy's invitation that when Mr. Jordan appeared at Glenn's Hall to conduct the services of the Advent Society, he found an audience consisting of only one man. It is not surprising that both Mr. Jordan and his audience quickly betook themselves to the Academy services. Thus lapsed, from sheer neglect, the Society of the Advent, the Society which had witnessed so much of the early activity and social life of the Academy. but though the Society practically ceased to exist it is still continued on paper and I still retain the office of Treasurer. This was done because a property-right existed that needed a representative.

     In the year 1900 the Rev. E. Cronlund was elected as Pastor of the remnant of the Society, which was then formally recognized as a Society of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. On June 8th of the same year the Society adopted the name "Advent Church."

     In 1903 Mr. Cronlund resigned and for a year services were conducted by the Rev. Richard De Charms, and on Nov. 15th, 1903, the Rev. J. E. Rosenqvist was elected pastor and still remains. Such in brief is the history of the Advent Church.

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     Let us look for a moment upon the men that have partaken of its privileges of spiritual and social life. While doing so it is impossible to separate the Academy from our thought; for each and every one of the prominent members of the Academy allied themselves with and enjoyed the privileges and communion of the Society of the Advent.

     Among these we may mention the Reverends Messrs. Benade, Pendleton, Burnham, Hibbard, Stuart, and Bostock, and Messrs. Pitcairn, Glenn, Childs, Boericke, Adolf Tafel and Starkey, all names of whom the Church is proud; and coming to those who have since become prominent in the work of the Church we have the Reverends Messrs, Price, N. D. Pendleton, Odhner, Acton, Synnestvedt, Doering, and others, not to mention the host of laymen whom I see around me at this time, and who have found their home with us. Pardon me, then, if, as a representative of the Advent Church, I voice my feelings and say, Look upon them! These are our children, even as this Church in Bryn Athyn, the very centre of the General Church, is also our child.

     Have we not, then, something to be thankful for, something to be proud of?

     After hearty toasts to an astonishingly great number of newly engaged or married couples, who were mentioned, the Banquet was concluded with a "grand march" in the tent, all following the red-and-white banner, while singing the "Academia March."

TUESDAY EVENING.

     The closing social event of the Assembly was a "Men's Meeting," held in the evening in the Gymnasium room, (on the ground floor of the Academy Building), while a "Ladies Meeting" was being held in the highest region of same house. A most pleasing feature of the Men's Meeting was the reception of a message from the Ladies in the front of an enormous bouquet of choice red and white roses. The response of the gentlemen, sent through a senior messenger, consisted of an engrossed copy of no. 202 of Conjugial Love, dealing with the subject of "Conjugial Heredity," which was the subject under consideration at the Men's Meeting, viz.: "That children born of two who are in love truly conjugial, derive from their parents the conjugial of good and truth, from which they possess an inclination and faculty, if sons, to perceive those things which are of wisdom, and if daughters, to love those things which wisdom teaches."

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     This teaching, it was felt, embodies as in epitome the whole faith, the whole work, and the whole hope of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.
DIRECTORY 1904

DIRECTORY              1904

     OF THE SOCIETIES AND USES OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.
GENERAL OFFICERS.

Rt. Rev. W. F. Pendleton, Bishop.
Rev. C. Th. Odhner, Secretary.
Rev. Chas. E. Doering, Treasurer.
John Pitcairn, Esq., Chairman of the Executive Committee.
Walter C. Childs, Esq., Treasurer of the Orphanage, 25 Broad St., New York City.

PLACES OF WORSHIP.

Atlanta, Ga.

Place of Worship, 108 East Georgia Avenue.
Sunday services at 10:30 A. M.
Doctrinal class, Sunday mornings at 9:30
The Rev. RICHARD H. KEEP, pastor; 136 Gordon St.

Baltimore, Md.

Place of worship, Wurtzburger's Hall, Exeter St., near Gay.
Sunday services, conducted the first Sunday of each month, at 11 A. M., by the Rev. W. E. BRICKMAN, Of Bryn Athyn, Pa.
H. W. GUNTHER, Secretary, 292 Henrietta St.

Berlin, Ont., Canada.

The Carmel Church of the New Jerusalem.
Place of worship, King St., West, opposite High School.
Sunday services at 11 A. M. Weekly supper and Doctrinal class, Friday evenings at 7 o'clock.
The Rev. F. E. WAELCHLI, pastor.

Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Sunday services at 11 A. M. Weekly supper and Doctrinal class, every Friday at 8 P. M.
The Rt. Rev. WILLIAM F. PENDLETON, pastor. The Rev. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT, assistant pastor.

Chicago, Ill.

Sharon Church of the New Jerusalem.
Place of worship: 434 Carroll Ave.
Services every Sunday at 11 A. M. Sunday School at 10 A. M. Supper and Doctrinal class on Friday evenings at 7 o'clock.
The Rev. WILLIAM B. CALDWELL, minister; 750 Warren Ave.

Colchester, England.

Place of worship, 115 Priory St.
Sunday services at 11 A. M. Doctrinal class Sunday at 7:30 P. M. Sunday School 3 P. M.
The Rev. A. CZERNEY, pastor.
Secretary, F. R. COOPER, 7 Salisbury Ave.

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Denver, Colo.

Denver Society of the Lord's Advent.
Place of worship, 543 South 13th St.
Sunday services at 11 A. M. Doctrinal class, Thursdays at 8 P. M.
The Rev. GEORGE G. STARKEY, pastor; 543 South 13th St.

Erie, Pa.

For information respecting services address Dr. Edward Cranch, 109 West Ninth St.

Glenview, Ill.

The Immanuel Church of the New Jerusalem.
Sunday services at 10:30 A. M. Weekly supper and Doctrinal class every Friday evening at 8 o'clock.
The Rev. DAVID H. KLEIN, pastor.

London, England.

Place of worship, 99 Holland Road, Brixton.
Sunday Services at 11 A. M. Doctrinal class Friday at 8:15 P. M.
The Rev. A. CZERNY, pastor; 99 Holland Road.
Secretary, W. H. STEBBING, 128 Narbonne Ave., Clapham Park, S. W. London.

Middleport, O.

The Rev. W. L. GLADISH, pastor

New York City.

Place of worship: 11 West 21st St.
Sunday services, the 1st and 3d Sunday of each month, at 11 A. M., except during July, August, and September.
The Rev. ALFRED ACTON, pastor; Bryn Athyn, Pa.

Philadelphia, Pa.

The Advent Church of the New Jerusalem.
Place of worship: 555 North 17th St.
Sunday services at 11 A. M. Sunday School at 3 P. M. Doctrinal classes Sunday and Wednesday evenings at 8 o'clock.
The Rev. JOSEPH E. ROSENQVIST, pastor.

Pittsburg, Pa.

Place of worship: Wallingford near Norwood Ave., East End.
Sunday services, at 11 A. M. Doctrinal class Wednesdays at 8 P. M. Monthly supper, third Wednesday of each month.
The Rev. N. D. PENDLETON, pastor; address, 632 S. Negley Ave.

Toronto, Ont., Canada.

Place of worship: Corner of Elm Grove Ave. and Milburn Ave., Parkdale.
Sunday services at 11 A. M. Sunday School at 10 A. M. Supper and Doctrinal class every Wednesday evening at 6:30 Doctrinal class for Ladies every other Wednesday at 5:30 P. M.
Young Folks' Doctrinal class Monday evenings at 8 o'clock.
The Rev. EMIL CRONLUND, pastor; 47 Elm Grove Ave., Parkdale.

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THE CLERGY.

General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1904.

BISHOP.
Rt. Rev. WILLIAM F. PENDLETON, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Ordained, first and second degree, Sept. 3, 1873; third degree, May 9, 1888.

PASTORS.                                              ORDAINED.
                                                  1st Degree.      2d Degree.
Rev. L. G. JORDAN, Oakland, Cal.          June 6, 1869      June 6, 1869.
Rev. JOHN E. BOWERS, Toronto, Ont.          May 11, 1873      May 11, 1873
Rev. RICHARD DE CHARMS, Bryn Athyn, Pa.                    Jan. 21, 1877
Rev. ANDREW CZERNY, London, England.     June 10, 1883      June 19, 1886
Rev. ENOCH S. PRICE, Bryn Athyn, Pa.     June 10, 1888     June 19, 1891
Rev. CARL THEOPHILUS ODHNER. Bryn Athyn, Pa.     June 10, 1888      June 19, 1891
Rev. FRED. E. WAELCHLI, Berlin, Ont.     June 10, 1888     June 19, 1891
Rev. EDWARD S. HYATT, Toronto, Ont.          June 10, 1888     June 30, 1889
Rev. N. DANDRIDGE PENDLETON, Pittsburg, Pa.     June 16,1889      March 2, 1891
Rev. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT, Bryn Athyn, Pa.     June 19, 1891     Jan. 13, 1895
Rev. JOSEPH ROSENQUIST. Bryn Athyn, Pa.      June 19, 1891      June 23, 1895
Rev. ALFRED ACTON, Bryn Athyn, Pa.           June 4, 1893      Jan. 10, 1897
Rev. GEORGE G. STARKEY, Denver, Colo.      June 3, 1894      Oct. 19, 1902
Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH, Middleport O.      June 3, 1894     June 3, 1894
Rev. CHARLES E. DOERING, Bryn Athyn, Pa.      June 7, 1896     Jan. 29, 1899
Rev. RICHARD H. KEEP, Atlanta, Ga.          June 27, 1897      May 22, 1898
Rev. DAVID H. KLEIN, Glenview, Ill.          June 26, 1898      Oct. 27, 1902
Rev. EMIL CRONLUND. Toronto, Ont.          Dec. 31, 1899      May 18, 1902
Rev. WALTER E. BRICKMAN, Bryn Athyn, Pa.     Jan. 7, 1900     Jan. 7, 1900

MINISTERS.

Rev. JOSEPH E. BOYESEN, Stockholm, Sweden          April 28, 1895
Rev. ERNEST J. STEBBING, Berlin, Ont.           June 26, 1898
Rev. REGINALD W. BROWN, Chicago, Ills.           Oct. 21, 1901
Rev. WILLIAM B. CALDWELL, Chicago, Ills.           Oct. 19, 1901

CANDIDATE.          
                    Authorized.
Mr. ALFRED H. STROH                         June 7, 1900

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OPENING OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS 1904

OPENING OF THE ACADEMY SCHOOLS       ENOCH S. PRICE       1904


ANNOUNCEMENTS.




Special Notices.

     Owing to delay in the completion of the new dormitory and dining-hall, the opening of the fall term of the Schools of the Academy has been postponed until Monday, October 3, 1904. ENOCH S. PRICE, Dean.
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION 1904

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION       ENOCH S. PRICE       1904

     The Journal of Education of the Academy of the New Church for 1904 has been published, and will be sent, free, on application to E. S. PRICE. Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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MESSIANIC PROPHECIES 1904

MESSIANIC PROPHECIES       Rev. N. D. PENDLETON       1904

     
NEW CHURCH LIFE.
VOL. XXIV. OCTOBER, 1904.          No. 10.
I.

     Scattered throughout the Old Testament we find what are called Messianic prophecies; that is to say, distinct enunciations having an obvious reference to the coming of the Lord into the world.

     Viewed from the standpoint of the internal sense, the whole of the Old Testament is a Messianic prophecy, inasmuch as "in its bosom" it has sole reference to the Lord and to His Kingdom. But that which the internal sense reveals to be the supreme subject of every verse of Scripture, is by no means apparent from the sense of the letter; it only comes to the surface here and there in the form of historical prophecies, which may be, and are known to those who acknowledge no light superior to that which the letter of Scripture affords.

     THE SEED OF THE WOMAN.

     The first of these prophecies is that contained in Genesis iii., 15, concerning the "seed of the woman" who should "bruise the head of the serpent." This prophecy was given immediately after the fall of the Most Ancient Church, and it was indeed given in consequence of that fail. For it was foreseen at that time that the restitution of man with God could only be brought about by an assumption of the Human by the Divine, or by a coming of the Lord into the world. This supreme act of redemption was necessary because, by the first fall, the alienation of man from God was well-nigh complete.

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The powerful sensual with this most ancient people, signified by the serpent, underwent a gradual perversion, whereby it at length became dominant over celestial things.

     The state resulting was so depraved that it became obvious that only by the Divine in the flesh could this sensual be subdued, whereby salvation would again become possible. The appearance was that the Lord must come immediately, if the race was to be saved. His actual coming was, however, delayed for ages, and this for an arcane reason, i. e., it was necessary that He should come in the Scripture, before He came in the flesh, and His coming in the Scripture was first accomplished at the time of which we are writing, and specifically by means of this prophecy.

     It was necessary that He should come in the Scripture before He came in the flesh, and this for two reasons of vast import. The first was that the angels of heaven, by means of a written Scripture, might behold, as in an image, the full process of the assumption and glorification of the Human. This was necessary to the integrity of the heavens, or to the life and faith of the angels of heaven, The second reason was that a written Word was necessary to the Lord's actual glorification, in this that that Scripture should be impressed as to every part and portion upon the natural mind of the Lord, and there serve as so many Divine Remains whereby His glorification was to be ultimately accomplished. Thus were the Scriptures fulfilled in Him, and by their fulfilling He was glorified.

     For these reasons His actual coming was delayed for ages, or until the Scripture was finished. In the meantime there were given verbal and inspired announcements concerning His Advent. These served the purpose of salvation, for we are told that prior to His advent, saving faith with men consisted in the belief that He would come, and that after His advent, saving faith consisted in the belief that He had come.

     PROGRESSIVE REVELATION.

     A study of the several historical prophecies concerning the advent of the Lord, from the book of Genesis to that of Daniel, reveals the very interesting fact that there is an apparent progression of development of the Messianic idea,--that from a first obscure beginning the idea grows and expands until a picture of the Messiah is presented of marvelous beauty and grandeur.

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This appearance has given rise to the modern doctrine of progressive revelation, which, like all false doctrines, is based on a truth or a fact. For in one sense of the word, revelation is progressive. From Genesis to the Coronis there is a continued, and even more exalted, unfolding of Divine Truth. The fatal error in the commonly accepted doctrine of progressive revelation, is, that in the several stages of its apparent development there is a more or less of what is Divine. This is not the case. The same Divine Truth is revealed in the most profound teaching concerning the glorification of the Human, but concealed in what is said in Genesis iii., 15, concerning the "seed of the woman." Thus a more or less of what is Divine may not be predicated by Divine revelation save in appearance.

THE NECESSITY OF SUCH PROGRESSION.

     If we inquire concerning the cause of this apparent development in the prophetic announcements of the coming of the Lord, we shall find that such progression was a necessity of continued salvation. For the prime need was that the Messianic hope should be kept alive in the minds of men, inasmuch as saving faith was dependent thereon. As men became more and more external, it was needful that prophecy should become more open and explicit. As men became further removed from the Perceptive state of their ancestors, the "dark sayings of old" no longer afforded an adequate basis for distinct belief. The most ancient man and his immediate descendants were in no doubt as to the meaning of the "seed of woman" who should "bruise the head of the serpent." But there came a time when internal perception ceased. New prophecy adapted to the new conditions was given, and this not only for the purpose of answering to present needs, but also for the purpose of reinforcing the old prophecies. Had this not been the case the meaning of the "seed of woman" would soon have been lost. The Jews of later days hall no perceptive understanding of this most ancient prophecy, and yet that they interpreted its meaning aright in the light of more recent prophetic announcement would seem to be the natural conclusion from Arcana Coelestia, n. 250.

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But so far as we know from historical sources, St. Paul was the first to place a Messianic interpretation on Genesis iii. 15. And this fact has caused many of the learned to conclude that this prophecy is only Messianic by interpretation or by reflected light from Christian days. However, this view of the matter concerns us not. Every sincere student of Christian bias must go back to the time of the fall for the original announcement concerning the advent of the Lord. It was given at that time as a counterpoise to the fall, and was held out as the one hope of redemption. Admittedly, as a prophecy conveying an external idea of the Messiah, it is both obscure and general. However, two facts of vital importance are there clearly indicated, i. e., that the Lord was to be born of a woman, and that He would overcome evil. For the perceptive man of that day and for the angels this general idea in the natural was sufficient. For them and for the angels the whole process of the assumption and glorification was involved and expressed. The indications are, however, clear that there were other, and possibly, more explicit prophecies contained in the Ancient Word; for we are told in the Writings that

     It was known from most ancient times that the Lord was to come into the world, and that He was to suffer death, as may appear from the fact that a custom prevailed amongst the Gentiles of sacrificing their children, believing thus to expiate themselves and make God propitious; which abominable custom they could never have practiced as of most religious obligation, unless they had received from the ancients a tradition that the Son of God should come into the world, who, as they believed, was to be made a sacrifice. (A. C. 2818.)

     It is true that the conclusion that the Lord was to suffer death might be deduced from the statement that the serpent would bruise the heel of the seed of woman. But that there were other prophetic announcements would seem clear from the statement in A. C. 3419, that "The ancients possessed doctrinals from which they knew that the Lord would come into the world and that Jehovah was in Him." However, Genesis iii., 15, is all that we have from the Ancient Word touching the matter in hand. A vast leap as to time must be taken before we come to the Second Messianic prophecy contained in our present Word.

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     "UNTIL SHILOH COMES."

     Jacob when blessing his sons said of Judah: "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and unto Him shall be the obedience of His people." This prophecy belongs to the patriarchal age, and the Messianic idea naturally falls into the patriarchal conception of a governor or ruler, as a lawgiver, and it is in marked contrast with Genesis iii., 15, which presents the idea in the pure symbolism of most ancient times. The historic period is now reached, on account of which this prophecy may be regarded as the first of the strictly historical prophecies, that is, as having an external historical significance as well as a Divine celestial and spiritual import. Here the Lord is given the name of Shiloh, which signifies the "tranquility of peace," the idea being that tranquility of peace would flow from Him as the Divine lawgiver. In keeping with this idea, we have in the succeeding age the great work done by Moses the lawgiver, as a representative of the Lord in a superior degree. As we shall see, the patriarchal and Mosaic conception of the Messiah was essentially the same in this that He was regarded as the Divine lawgiver.

     The natural or historical meaning of this prophecy of Jacob was that the tribe of Judah and its derivative, the Jewish kingdom, should endure until the time of the Lord's coming, and in its natural meaning, also, the prophecy was fulfilled, for it was not until after His coming that the power of the Jews as a nation was forever broken by Rome.

     But if we look for the deeper significance of the continuation of Judah's power, we shall find that that tribe and people represented the celestial kingdom of the Lord, through which the Divine power was exercised Drier to the advent in the flesh. At that time there was an influx from the Divine to men and spirits through the celestial kingdom, that is, through the angels of that kingdom; therefore, these angels are said to have "had power." In a word, the celestial kingdom was the medium of salvation. But inasmuch as heaven itself is not pure, and the world was become corrupt, and the world of spirits disturbed; it was necessary that the Lord Himself should come and clothe Himself with this power formerly and inadequately exercised by the angels.

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It was necessary that the Lord Himself should come, and as the Divine lawgiver, restore tranquility: hence He is called Shiloh.

     THE STAR OF JACOB.

     However, this restoration of tranquility which was absolutely necessary to the salvation of men, involved not only the idea of giving the Law, but also combat with the hells. This latter idea is brought forth by the third Messianic prophecy, i. e., that of Balaam, given during the Mosaic period. Balaam, standing on Mount Peer and overlooking the camp of Israel, said: "I see Him, and not now, I behold Him, and not nigh. A star shall come forth from Jacob, and a sceptre shall arise out of Israel, and shall break the corners of Moab, and destroy the sons of Seth." (Numbers xxiv., 17).

     While this prophecy was given concerning the coming of the Lord, in and through Israel, yet it fell not from the mouth of an Israelite, but from one of the sons of the East, which we may regard as a Sign of the prevalence of the knowledge that the Lord would come into the world. And, moreover, it is certain that this knowledge persisted with some even down to the time of the Lord's coming, as may appear from the story of the three wise men who beheld the star and followed it to the place where the Young Child lay. It is also evident that in the days of Herod the "Star" overhung Bethlehem in confirmation of this prophecy of Balaam.

     The Lord's Human essence is signified by the "Star which should arise out of Jacob." His victory over the hells is meant by the breaking of the corners of Moab, and destroying the sons of Seth.

     In this prophecy the Lord is not characterized as a lawgiver in so many words, yet when compared, it will be found to be in perfect general accord with the former prophecy concerning Shiloh. Here, however, the distinct idea of combat with, and victory over the hells, is added.

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     A PROPHET "LIKE UNTO ME."

     Only one other Messianic prophecy pertains to the Mosaic period, and its general accordance with the foregoing will at once be manifest. Moses said: "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the richest of thy brethren like unto me; unto Him shall ye hearken." Many have been the surmises as to which one of the prophets is here referred to. Since it is said that this Prophet should be like unto Moses, it is thought that the Lord Himself could not have been meant. Yet we find this passage listed by Swedenborg in the Coronis, n. 70, and in other places under the head of prophetic announcements concerning the coming of the Lord. Besides, it is certain that the Jews in the Lord's day regarded it as a prophecy not yet fulfilled, for on beholding certain of the miracles which the Lord did they said: "This is of a truth that prophet which should come into the world." (John vi., 14) Moreover, Peter in his first address, after the crucifixion, delivered from the porch of the temple, said: "For Moses said truly unto the fathers, a Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; Him shall ye hear in all things . . . and it shall come to pass that every soul which shall not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed from among the people." (Acts iii., 22-23.) Peter here, and in the following part of his address, identifies the Prophet proclaimed by Moses with the Lord Jesus Christ.

     Now, if we would seek for the true reason why Moses should liken the Messiah unto himself, we find from the Writings that it was so done because Jehovah spake with Moses face to face, or mouth to mouth, and not as to the other prophets by visions, dreams and dark sayings. (A. C., 624.) Thus, this close communication of Moses with Jehovah represented the intimate union of the Human with the Divine in the Lord. It is for this arcane reason that the Lord is thus called a Prophet like unto Moses.

     But if we fall back from this exalted truth to the natural idea, we discover that the Messianic conception, as it existed in the patriarchal and Mosaic ages, was that of a law giver, and, therefore, when it is said that the Coming One should be like unto Moses, it only describes and accentuates the Messianic conception as it then existed, for Moses was the grand type and example of all lawgivers.

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     We have now reviewed the first four prophecies concerning the coming of the Lord into the world. The first in Genesis iii., 15, stands by itself as belonging to the prehistoric age, as being an excerpt from the Word of the Ancient Church, which in turn was derived from the perception of the men of the Most Ancient Church. This prophecy, therefore, carries us back to the sunset after the first dawn, or to the first fall of man, and as we should expect, we find it couched in the most antique symbolism. From it, therefore, as it stands in the letter, only most general ideas may be drawn i. e., the conflict between good and evil, between the Lord and the devil, as imaged in the enmity between the seed of woman and the serpent. But when we come to the opening of the historic period we find that that which was before characterized as the "seed of woman" with no other external attribute, has now become Shiloh, the sceptre, the star of Jacob, and one like unto Moses; in a word, the Divine Lawgiver. As in the patriarchal days the leading thought of a ruler or leader was that of a lawgiver, it follows that this idea alone would give adequate expression to the Messianic conception. For in every age this idea clothed itself with that which was most expressive of power for good with the people. The essential thought being that the Lord would come with power to save, that is, with power to remove evil and establish justice. With this in view the Coming One is first called the "Seed of Woman," then a lawgiver, a prophet, an anointed one, and finally a King: each of these terms when employed simply represented the prevailing conception of that special power which it was necessary for the Lord to assume, in order that He might overcome the evil and injustice of the world. And, in truth, all these functions were assumed by Him, and became so many instruments in His hands for the accomplishment of the Divine work of redeeming mankind from death and hell.

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     II.

THE PERIOD OF THE JUDGES.

     During the period of the judges no open Messianic prophecy was given. Of course, all the judges, like the patriarchs, prophets and kings, represented the Lord. But this fact, to be known and appreciated, requires a knowledge of the internal sense, and it is therefore a different matter from the historical announcements of the coming of the Lord with which we are dealing.

     Why open revelation concerning the advent was not given during this period we are unable to say. But the period itself is nonetheless one of the most interesting with which historians have to deal, by virtue of its remarkable, and we may almost say, unexpected contrast with the preceding period of Joshua and Moses.

     The grand and complex ecclesiastical establishment founded through the instrumentality of Moses seems to have suddenly vanished. By the book of Judges we are introduced into another and different world from that of Moses. There appears to be with the people of Israel an almost complete reversion to the original tribal or patriarchal condition. If the Israelites in the days of the Judges were acquainted with the body of the Mosaic law, they show but little evidence of it. The fact seems to be that the Mosaic establishment was largely ideal; that is to say, the efficient working was of necessity long delayed. At any rate it is certain that during no period was it less in evidence than in the time of the Judges. This map, no doubt, be largely accounted for by the distress of the times. For after the brilliant conquest under Joshua, Israel was in turn all but displaced by counter conquests on the part of the former inhabitants of the land. Woefully divided among themselves, the Sons of Israel were forced to wage an age-long warfare for their very existence. So after all we may not be surprised to find so little of the grand ritual of Moses in practical working at this time. Thus even Samuel the "faithful priest," who should do according to the Lord's own "heart," and who under the hand of the Lord was the founder of the Israelitish monarchy, was accustomed to go from place to place, sacrificing upon the high places in apparent contravention of the command of Moses.

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These were the same high places which were afterwards so much condemned by the prophets as altogether heathen and worthy of destruction, but which, nevertheless, held their own with remarkable tenacity during all the kings down to the time of the great priestly revolution under Josiah, when they were finally destroyed, and all sacrificial worship was concentrated at Jerusalem, the place where, according to Moses, the Lord "would choose to place His name there."

     "THE MESSIAH."

     It was not until the establishment of the kingdom, and then not until the kings began to fail of all that was hoped and expected of them, that we again encounter Messianic prophecy in a decisive and vigorous form. Now, however, in place of a lawgiver we hear of an ideal King who is to come and cause justice to rule throughout the world. This king is called the "Anointed," which is the literal meaning of the Hebrew word Messiah.

     It is true that a portion of the prayer of Hannah is accounted as Messianic, because of a reference to the "Lord's Anointed," but it is also true that Israel's ambition to have a king was then beginning to stir. It may be noted that the trend of modern thought is to regard the true beginning of the Messianic hope as coincident with the establishment of the kingdom, but this is true only as regards the use of the term Messiah.

     The establishment of the kingdom did prepare the way for this conception of the coming one as a king. To their king the people looked for justice and deliverance. His power alone was equal to the task. What more natural then, than that the Messianic conception should now fall into the kingly mould, thus that the vision of the Messiah should now be that of an ideal king ruling with judgment and justice, the one great apparent need of the time. From the human standpoint Saul was a failure. Even David, the great national hero, was smirched, especially in the case of the wife of Uriah. Solomon debauched Israel with the manners and customs of Egypt, and the kings following in both Judah and Israel were but pale reflections of these. In consequence the feeling grew that if Israel was to be saved and accomplish its mission, it was needful that the promised one should come as a king.

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     The first forms of this prophecy are found in the Psalms. Thus the priest-king is presented to view in Psalm cx. The all-concerning king, in Psalm ii. The revelating king, in Psalm xlv. His universal dominion in Psalm lxxxii., and the king of glory, in Psalm xxiv.

     However, the Messianic features are as yet very general compared with those which were given by the great prophets of the eighth century. The most distinct, perhaps, is that of the Second Psalm, where it is said: "I have anointed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain.... The Lord said unto me, My son art Thou; I this day have begotten Thee." Here a king conceived of Jehovah and born in time is plainly taught.

     Another notable prophecy of these times is that contained in Psalm cx.: "The Lord said unto my Lord, sit on my right hand until I make thy foes thy footstool." The Lord Himself, quoting these words, said: "How then doth David in spirit call Him Lord.... If David called Him Lord, how is He his Son." This was in answer to the Pharisees, who contended that Christ would be David's son.

     The obvious teaching both of Psalms ii. and cx. is that the Messiah was to be conceived and born of Jehovah. And this is the first occasion when the literal sense distinctly yields this all important truth.

     THE EARLIER PROPHETS.

     The earlier prophets, such as Hosea, give expression to the Messianic conception, but now in a very specific way. The general trend with these prophets has reference to the redemption of the world through Israel. With this idea in view, Israel as a nation is often personified, and what is said concerning such a collective Israel has a decided Messianic tone, as may be seen from the following beautiful quotation from Hosea: "I will be as the dew unto Israel; he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall be spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon. They that dwell under his shadow shall return." This passage is regarded by many as Messianic, at least in a general way, and yet the obvious reference is to a collective Israel, and in keeping with this we find that the Writings interpret it as having direct relation to the spiritual church.

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However, the Newchurchman will encounter no difficulty here for he regards the whole of the Old Testament as inmostly a prophecy concerning the advent of the Lord, and, therefore, that a personification of Israel should approximate a distinct Messianic utterance, is to be expected. Moreover, a slight elevation of the idea will convert all such passages into genuine Messianic prophecies. Besides, all that has reference to the Israelitish or Jewish nation, also refers to the Human of the Lord, which assumed from, and was in the ultimate, a type of that nation. When, therefore, the expressions concerning that people became individualized, the thought naturally turns to the One who came into the world through Israel and took upon Himself and fulfilled the mission of the chosen people, in the highest significance. That is to say, the Sons of Jacob failed, and the Lord look upon Himself their appointed mission and gave it Divine accomplishment.

     A COLLECTIVE ISRAEL WILL NO LONGER ANSWER.

     A little later, however, Messianic prophecy becomes so distinct and emphatic, that the theory of a collective Israel, now so much advocated as an explanation of all prophecy concerning the coming of the Lord, will no longer answer. Thus, Isaiah who may appropriately be called the great prophet of the Advent, exclaims: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good." And then, soon after in the ninth chapter, he breaks forth into that wonderful song of glorious meaning: "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of Eternity, the Prince of Peace."

     After this explicit announcement of the birth of the Savior into the world by means of a virgin, there follows a flood of Messianic prophecy referring to the coming One and to the glory of His everlasting kingdom. So precise do these prophecies now become that Micah foretells the very place of His birth, i. e., Bethlehem. (Micah v., 2-5.) And Malachi even announces the John the Baptist, under the name of Elijah, as the Divinely appointed forerunner of the Lord.

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     "The Man of Sorrows."

     While the kingly idea of the Messiah prevails throughout the period of the kingdom, yet we find a notable exception in the latter part of Isaiah, where the view of a "suffering servant" or "man of sorrows" is presented. This view is externally in such contrast with that of a royal or kingly Messiah, that many have attributed this latter portion of the book of Isaiah to the depressed period of the captivity. But as this necessitates a second Isaiah, or another and later prophet who wrote under the name of Isaiah, we may well hesitate before accepting such an explanation.

     However, it is certain that the contrast is such as to call for some interpretation, for outwardly there is but little in common between the two conceptions. Observe how little the following quotation calls to mind the King of Glory:

     "He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant and as a root out of dry ground: He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him there is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes are we healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way; and Jehovah hath laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so He opened not His mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment.... He was cut off out of the land of the living, and for the transgression of my people was He stricken, and He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. Yet it pleased Jehovah to bruise Him. He hath made Him infirm. When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed. He shall prolong His days. And the pleasure of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand.....Therefore will I divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He hath poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sins of many, and made intercession for transgressors." (Isaiah liii.)

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     One can hardly fail to recognize in this description, written many centuries before the Lord came into the world, an accurate account of all those things which the Lord underwent on earth. Indeed, those who do not believe in the Lord frankly confess that they hardly know what to make of it. They have termed the words we have quoted as the "strangest ever penned by mortal hand."

     So wonderful is this picture, so true is its likeness to Him who came for our salvation, that it stands unique among the many Messianic prophecies, as an actual and true description of the person of our Lord. We, of course, know what to make of concerning the everlasting reign of the Glorious King. However, this vision of the Messiah, who was to come into the world and give Himself up unto death as a ransom for many, laid in history the ground for the actual event, and prepared the way for the anticipation of His Second Coming.

     THE SON OF MAN IN THE CLOUDS.

     Only one other prophetic announcement from the Old Testament claims our attention, and that, also, for its unique character stands alone among Old Testament prophecies, i.e., the Apocalyptic vision of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, given in Daniel as follows: "I saw in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the ancient of days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations and languages, should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom which shall not be destroyed." (Daniel vii., 13-14)

     It is interesting to note that the scene of this vision is laid during the exile, and in the land of the captivity. The kingdom of Judah was now destroyed, its temple was razed to the ground, and historians tell us that at the time the book was written the hope of the Jews was transferred from earth to heaven, that in the imagination of the people all the sacred vessels of the temple were lifted up to heaven and there preserved, and that this state of mind afforded a fitting ground for this prophecy concerning the celestial Messiah, to whom now for the first time the exalted title of "Son of Man" is given.

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However, this may be, it is certain that nowhere else in the Old Testament do we find the Messiah thus described as appearing in the heavens. And it is also evident that this heavenly appearing marks the height of Messianic prophecy, and in a general way the close of the prophetic period of preparation for the actual coming. The plane was now fully formed, the vessels were all given. The "Seed of Woman," Shiloh, The Divine Lawgiver, The Son of God, born in time of a virgin, The King of Glory, The Man of Sorrows, and, finally, the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven:--nothing was wanting save the slow course of events which would lead to the fulness of time, when by an actual appearing of the Divine in the flesh, all these things would be fulfilled.

     III.

THE BIRTH.

     When at length the Babe was born, in Bethlehem, all time was divided into two halves, and this fact was significant of a great spiritual division as to state. Not only was the restitution of man with God accomplished by this actual fulfillment of the first, and also of all subsequent Messianic prophecy, but the very relation of man to God altered, in that the Divine Human now became the medium of salvation, in place of the celestial heaven. Now that Shiloh was come, the kingdom departed from Judah. And this involved the stupendous fact that men should no longer worship the Divine under representative types and images, but that they should approach the Divine solely by way of the Human assumed and glorified. For this reason direct revelation, or revelation unveiled by natural correspondences, became possible. However, the full fruit of this possibility was borne only at the time of the Second Coming, when an immediate revelation was given.

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     JESUS CHRIST THE MESSIAH.

     That this Babe of Bethlehem, this Jesus called the Christ, was the One concerning whom the prophets prophesied from the time of the first fall, is the supreme claim of the Christian religion. Of this Divine fact the whole New Testament is given in evidence, every page of which bears more or less directly on the subject of the Lord's Divinity. On several occasions He Himself refers to these ancient prophecies concerning His advent, as, for instance, when He was standing in the synagogue of Nazareth, soon after His Baptism, and was reading before the People from the book of Isaiah, the words: "The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor," and then having sat down He said, 'This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.'" (Luke iv., 10-21)

     Again of the Scripture He said: "They are they which testify of me." (John v., 39)

     And then after His crucifixion He appeared unto two of His disciples, and "Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them, in all the Scripture, the things concerning Himself." (Luke xxiv.)

     Besides, He frequently calls Himself the "Son of Man," and this in a way that no Jew of His day could possibly mistake His meaning. In a word, He openly claimed to be the One whom Daniel in the clouds of heaven, i. e., the celestial Messiah. By no other words could His Divine origin be more forcibly and comprehensively put. But not by His mouth alone was He thus identified. John, the Divinely appointed Messenger, on first seeing Him walking on the banks of the Jordan, said: "Behold, the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." And soon after the disciple John said of Him: "We have found the Messiah." Repeatedly He asked His disciples: "Whom do men say that I am?" or "Whom think ye that I am?" and when they would answer that He was the Christ, which meant the anointed or the Messiah, He approved. Examples such as these might by multiplied to prove that which for us hardly needs proving, save as a step in the progress of our discourse.

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     SECOND MESSIANIC PROPHET.

     With the coming of the Lord into the world the Scripture was fulfilled, and the Messianic prophecy accomplished. And we might suppose that the subject of our discourse was ended. But such is not the case; for with His death on the Messianic hope and Messianic prophecy burst forth anew and with renewed vigor. That He should suffer death was known from His own words, and it might also have been known from Isaiah's prophecy concerning the Man of Sorrows. And yet the only satisfactory and adequate answer to His death was that He should come again. And, indeed, He promised His disciples that He would come again on the last day, in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, according to the strict prophecy of Daniel. Now, around this hope and expectation of a second coming the life of the first Christian Church centered. With the early Christians this hope was most real. Their lived in the daily expectation of its fulfillment. Few, if any, of them expected to die before its accomplishment. And when the first deaths occurred amongst them they were not a little puzzled. So important an element was this hope of a second coming in the life and faith of the Christian Church that we may measure the state and trace the fall of the Church, by the subsidence of this its vital and life-giving hope.

     THE APOCALYPSE OF JOHN.

     With the death of the Lord Messianic prophecy was renewed; hence the apocalypse of John, which, taken as a whole, is a Messianic prophecy concerning the Second Advent of the Lord and also a prediction concerning His Glorious Kingdom or Church to be established at that time.

     It is not without reason that a remarkable likeness is traced between the Book of Revelations and the Apocalyptic visions of Daniel, for the Messianic portions of these visions, unlike the other prophecies from the Old Testament, overleap the first and apply directly to the Second Coming, for their literal correspondential fulfillment, i. e., the coming of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, when interpreted, has special reference to the Second Coming, as is well known.

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And it is also well known that the Lord referred to His Second Coming in the words of the prophet Daniel. Wherefore, in the first chapter of the book of "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" we find the words, "Behold, He cometh with the clouds," and in the first vision seen by John, which is the subject of that chapter, "One life unto the Son of Man" is seen in the "midst of the seven golden candlesticks." And this is the key to the Apocalypse, and the leading idea of this Second Messianic prophecy, i. e., The Lord Jesus Christ is to come again, but strictly as the Son of Man, and in the clouds of heaven according to the original prophecy of Daniel. That is to say, the Lord was to come again into the world, not as formerly, in the flesh, but as the Word glorified. For such is the significance of the Son of Man in the clouds.

     Two Ideas.

     We have now traced the course of Messianic prophecy in a general way, through its many phases, from the seed of woman to Jesus Christ the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven. And throughout this long time of prophecy, we find two ideas running parallel. The one is that the Messiah was a man, and, therefore, human, the other, that He was Divine, and, therefore, God. At every stage these two ideas are not equally prominent, but in the New Testament especially, their may be observed with equal distinctness, and the same may be said of the prophecies of Isaiah where the birth of a child is foretold whose name was to be called "God."

     However, it was not clearly known who this Messiah was. To us it may seem as if anyone might learn the truth from the literal Scripture alone. And let there was no one daring enough to draw the only true conclusion, and this because there was not one found in heaven or on earth worthy to open the book. There was a veil still before the eyes of men, a doubt existed, and the history of the Christian Church is the history of this doubt. It could not be otherwise, for while Christians recognized the Lord as the Messiah and the Savior of men, still, as we are told in the Writings, the final truth concerning Him was not openly revealed to that Church.

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So the question remained, the doubt continued, until after three centuries of debate a compromising answer was forged, which, on the one part, was so far from the truth that it wrought destruction, and on the other, so near the truth that it imparted to the Christian Church a vital element which enabled that Church to live many centuries, and in some sort, to serve as a medium of salvation. We refer to the famous doctrine of the Trinity, whereby the Lord Jesus Christ was made a coequal partner with God the Father, and the Holy Spirit. No possible phraseology could leave the question in a more unsatisfactory and doubtful state than that adopted by the Council of Nice. Of necessity the doubt continued and the question remained until heaven should he opened, and the true answer given. And we note with more than passing interest that when at the end of time, this opening of heaven actually occurred, that it was God-Messiah who revealed Himself.

     GOD-MESSIAH.

     It is true that in the progressive unfolding of that Divine Revelation which constitutes the Second Advent of the Lord that this significant title of God-Messiah was dropped and the all-comprehensive term "Lord" was adopted in its place. It is also true that the second coming of the Lord was not a coming in Person, but in the Spirit--the Spirit of Truth. Yet the important fact remains that this second coming was inaugurated by a Personal appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-Messiah. And we observe that by His Personal appearing under this title the climax of the long line of Messianic prophecy, from the time of the Most Ancient Church, is reached. At last there is given from heaven a complete and positive identification of the long promised Messiah with the Supreme and only God. And this is the crowning doctrine of the age. This is the most vital and saving truth that ever came into the world. Its giving constitutes the Second Advent, and marks the summit of Divine Revelation. In the light of this supreme truth every former Messianic prophecy becomes luminous, and all of them are raised to one and the same plane. The consequence is that the apparent difference between these prophecies, with which we have been dealing, vanishes. There is but one meaning in them all.

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     Here the question may be raised: Since we live under this new dispensation, in the light of which all such external distinctions have disappeared, why point to them? Are they anything but shadows which obscure the vision? I answer that it is useful to mark these distinctions, to observe these shadows of the Letter, if only to see them vanish when the light of internal truth shines upon them.

     MESSIANIC TRUTH.

     After we reach the period of that revelation of Divine Truth, by means of which the Second Coming of the Lord was accomplished, we, of course, no longer meet with Messianic prophecy, but instead we encounter a mighty stream of Messianic Truth. Upon this stream we may steer a course, but to compass it is impossible. We may now trace the process, and, indeed, the progress of the glorification of the Human, as it occurred both in the body of flesh, and in the body of Scripture, but to do this is beyond the limit and the purpose of this paper. It will suffice if we have shown that on the surface of revelation there is evidence of a gradual expansion of the Messianic idea from a first obscure beginning up to a complete rational conception of the Human Divine and Divine Human God, in which apparent development, through the successive pages of Scripture, a progression is visible which may be regarded as a type and image, on the grand historic scale of the actual glorification of our Lord as a man.

     THE FOUR CYCLES.

     In this historic development of the Messianic idea, four general cycles are already marked. The first, and most ancient, is embraced in the single prophecy contained in Genesis iii., 15, concerning the "Seed of woman." The second is coequal with the Jewish Church. This cycle, leaving out of consideration the many minor phases and modifications, appears to have undergone four general stages, or, at least, the Messianic conception appears under four distinct characteristics. 1st. The Lawgiver of the patriarchal and Mosaic ages; 2d. The Anointed King, of the Period of the kingdom; 3d. The suffering servant, or Man of Sorrows, which was brought forth under the shadow of impending calamity to the kingdom, and during which period alone we find the death of the Messiah prophesied;

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and 4th. The "Son of Man in the clouds," or the celestial Messiah, which was given after the kingdom was swept away by the power of Babylon.

     The third cycle is coincident with the Christian Church. It embraces the actual coming of the Lord and a second form of Messianic prophecy announcing a Second Advent in the clouds of heaven.

     The fourth cycle parallels the New Church and refers to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ as God-Messiah, who, indeed, on the occasion of His coming, appeared in Person unto His servant, and commissioned him to write the things which should pertain to the everlasting Kingdom of God.

     If, I say, this succession of prophetic enunciations be seen and interpreted aright, it will serve to strengthen the historic basis of our faith; and also to accentuate this most important truth that the New Church, or rather its revelation, has completed the historic Messianic idea, by giving the world the crowning truth concerning the Messiah as God. Whence arises the indisputable right of this Church to be called the crown of all the Churches, even as a matter of history.

     In conclusion, it may not be amiss to suggest that the several apparent stages of the development of Messianic prophecy in the Old Testament have a general reference to so many states of the Lord's life on earth, i. e., that the first stage, or that embraced in the prophecy concerning the "Seed of woman," is parallel to the infantile period of His life; The second, or that of the lawgiver, has general reference to the youthful stage of His development; The third, or the royal King, is significant of His entrance into power during the period of His first manhood; The fourth, or that of the "Man of Sorrows," obviously refers to His more profound temptations which followed His appearing before the world as the Messiah. While the fifth stage, or that of the Son of Man in the clouds of heaven, has in a general way relation to His uplifting or glorification

     But whatever may be thought of these suggestions the fact remains that there is a Divine series in this succession of prophetic announcements, having sole reference to the progressive glorification of the Lord, from its beginning to its final culmination.

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In a word, when the Lord came into the world He found at hand the Divine History of His Life inwritten in the human annals of the Jewish race. It was this inwrought History which He; in His Person, fulfilled, and in the fulfilling effected His glorification, by which event the body of flesh was laid aside in death. And by this event also after the lapse of seventeen centuries, the body of Scripture was also laid aside, by an unveiling of the Divine Soul within. This Divine Soul is presented to us in the celestial story of the Man who became God.
SPIRITUAL TREASURES 1904

SPIRITUAL TREASURES       Rev. ALFRED ACTON       1904

     Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also. Matt. vi., 19-21.

     In the Sermon on the Mount, of which these words are a part, the Lord taught the multitudes who were gathered about Him, concerning the things of the heavenly life; and in the internal sense He teaches those who can be of the New Church, concerning the establishment and quality of the Church. "And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain; and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him; and He opened His mouth and taught them." (Matt. v., 1-2.) By the Lord sitting on a maintain is signified that He taught from Divine Love, which is love towards the whole human race. And because the Lord taught from this love, therefore, the whole of what He taught contains within it nothing else than love,--in the supreme sense the Lord's love for the salvation of men, and in the internal sense love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor which man receives when the Lord is present with him.

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The doctrine of love and charity is evident in all the Lord's teachings, but it is especially evident in the Sermon on the Mount, where it is openly manifest that nothing else is taught than love to the Lord and the good works of charity, their quality, and the heavenly blessedness that is contained within them and is derived from them.

     The Sermon opens with the teaching as to who they are with whom the Church can be established, or, as to what it is in man that can receive the Church, that it is solely the acknowledgment that oneself is nothing but evil and that the Lord is the Fountain of all good and truth. From this acknowledgment come that hunger and thirst after righteousness, or that affection of truth which alone receives the Lord and in which alone the Church can be established. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." (Matt. vi., 3-6.) In the degree that a man is poor or humble in spirit, the church can be established in him; and in the degree that humility is lacking, the church is absent, and the Lord is absent, howsoever they may appear to be present. Humility, which is thus the first thing in the establishment of the Church, is not only the acknowledgment that one is nothing but evil, but it is also the acknowledgment and perception that evils cause one to be in nothing but falses; evils, indeed, are not really seen unless their falses are also seen. From this perception comes the attitude of genuine humility to Divine revelation. Many men are willing to acknowledge that they are in evils, but few acknowledge this at heart, for few acknowledge that their evils lead them into all manner of false notions and blind their eves to truth, and that truth comes solely from revelation; and even with those who do seem to acknowledge this, few approach revelation with the sincere desire to learn what it teaches rather than their own notions.

     After showing who they are who can receive the goods and truths of heaven, the Lord then teaches that the church can be established with such men only by shunning the evils of the spirit and not only the evils of the body as is done in the state before regeneration, and that the quality of evils of the spirit can he seen only in the light of the truth proceeding from the Divine Human.

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Therefore, in this part of the Sermon, come those several commands which are introduced by the words "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time . . . but I say unto you."

     The Lord then teaches, in the second chapter of the Sermon, concerning the life and worship of the church, that it proceeds from heaven and not from man. Man must not do alms before the world, nor pray that he may be seen of men; but alms must be done in secret, that is, in the internal man; and prayer must be the prayer and worship of the internal man, and for internal and spiritual things. In other words, the church must be a spiritual church having within it the Lord and heaven. It is this teaching which is summed up in the words of the text, that treasures are to be layed up in heaven and not on earth. For by earth, is meant the natural or external man, or man as to his life in the world; and by heaven, the spiritual or internal man, or man as an inhabitant of heaven.

     The treasures of a church are the knowledges which are derived from the Word. All knowledges of truth are riches, for it is by means of them that men have intelligence and wisdom. From the perception of this comes the common saying concerning the mind, that it is rich or poor. Every man is rich according to the knowledges which he has, and on the plane of those knowledges; and the church is rich in the degree that it has the knowledges of spiritual good and truth taught by the Lord. The Church is, therefore, described in the Word as a woman clothed in rich and magnificent garments. But these treasures which enrich a man or a church, will be corrupted and stolen away if they are laid up on earth where are moth and rust and thieves; therefore, they must be laid up in heaven, or in the spiritual man, where there are neither moth nor rust nor thieves, and where they will remain to render the man and the church rich with eternal treasures. By this is not meant that the knowledges of good and truth which are given by the Lord in His Word are not to be knowledges in the natural man and in the memory of that man; for unless they are stored up there, there would be no plane into which the light of heaven could inflow, no external light in which internal light may be received; but only the darkness springing from the heredity evils of man. Knowledges from revelation are to be stored up in the natural or external of man in order that he may learn, and that the church may be established with him by the opening of his spiritual mind.

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And it is in order that he may acquire knowledges, that every man is born with the delight of learning,-a delight which increases, so far as evils do not destroy it. But mere knowledges, even the knowledges of spiritual truths, are not in themselves or of themselves treasures, that is, precious to a man; they are valued by him, and become treasures to him only according to the good that is received within them, or according as they serve and make one with his affection. In this they may be compared with material treasures, which are prized by men only so far as they are of use in gratifying their ends and desires. The real treasure is the use and not the thing used.

     The command, then, with regard to the laying up of treasures, refers primarily to the affections which are within the knowledges of good and truth, for where the affections are, there will the knowledges be as so many precious means by which the affections put themselves forth and appear to view; or, as it is expressed in the Word, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." This is also involved in the very words by which the command is expressed in the original Greek. There we read, not, "Lay not up for yourselves," but "Treasure not for yourselves treasures on which the knowledges of good and truth are seen and prized as desirable, are to be in and come from the societies of heaven, or, what is the same thing, to be the affections of the spiritual or internal man which is in heaven.

     The Lord had already shown, in the preceding part of His discourse, who they are with whom the internal man can be opened, namely, that they are those who are in something of humility, and who from humility approach Him, shunning evils of thought and intention as sins against Him. It is with these that the church is to be established, and, it is, therefore, to them that the treasures of the church are given, but with the exhortation and command to treasure them as treasures of heaven and not of earth.

     The Lord and heaven are continually with every man,-present with peace and happiness, and with wisdom and intelligence; and they are constantly in the effort to enter into the man that peace and happiness, and wisdom and intelligence may be his also. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man open the door, I will enter into him and will sup with him, and he with me." (Ap. iii., 18)

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The door at which the Lord thus stands is the entrance from the external man into the internal. So long as evils are not shunned as sins against God, this door or entrance is blocked up, and no light from heaven can enter; a wall of falsity is, as it were, built before it,-falsity, the existence of which the man himself may not be conscious of, and which may be the very opposite of what the man thinks himself to believe. It is not given man to see this interior falsity which makes one with his evil loves, unless he comes into a state of reflection as to his interior quality; then he can see that every one of his evil delights brings with it as its inseparably companion, thought against God, against heaven and the church, against the neighbor; in a word, against everything that is spiritual and in favor of everything that is material. Every man who is in the least degree concerned as to his spiritual state, or as to his spiritual life, will acknowledge this, for it is a matter of his experience. The thoughts which thus appear when evils are excited, are from the falsities which make one with the evils of the heart, and these are the falsities which shut out the light of heaven, and obstruct the door at which the Lord knocks. They are sometimes ocularly manifested in the spiritual world, where they are seen as black clouds around the evil which absorb the rays of the Sun of heaven, and swallow up their light in their own darkness. These falses are with all men so far as they are in evils, in whatsoever knowledges of the church they may be, or howsoever they may appear to themselves to be wise. Every man who looks at himself in the light of heaven, may know that from himself, that is, from the loves of his proprium, he is in falses and not in truth, that he is a materialist, a denier of God, a denier of the spiritual world, that he rejects the truth respecting charity towards the neighbor, that he has no regard for the church and her spiritual uses but places his life and delight in the world and its sensual pleasures, its emoluments and its honors. And he may further see that it is the presence of these falsities within him that prevent him from seeing the truth; not that they hinder him as a student or as a member of the church, from receiving knowledges, but that they absorb those knowledges in their own obscurity, and that their presence prevents the heavenly truths within from affecting the heart, and withholds the eyes from seeing them as the priceless treasures of eternal life.

     The acknowledgment by man that this is his state when he acts from the proprium is a sign that the church can be established with him, for such acknowledgment leads him into humility, and it is the humble heart alone that can receive God. He goes to Divine revelation as the only source of truth; he approaches it with reverence, fearful lest the conceits of his own intelligence obscure its light; distrusting the notions of his own heart, he cultivates the reading and study of the books of revelation, and takes the truths there given as the only rule and guide of his thought and life; there is with him the effort to see the evils which by human notions and imaginings obstruct the entrance to heaven. With such a man, and with a church consisting of such men, the wall between the natural and the spiritual, between heaven and earth, is in course of being weakened and broken down, and the church is being established as heaven on earth.

     But with the man who does not shun evils as sins, the interiors become hardened, and the obstructive wall between heaven and earth becomes more impenetrable to the rays of the Sun of heaven, so that he is more and more removed from the presence of truth.

     The evil man also builds another wall for himself different from that which has been described. This wall has its place not in the interiors, but in the externals; and though like the other, it is built by the proprium, it is built, not of the falses which spring from the proprium, but of truths that come from heaven. This wall is between man's thought from the spirit and his thought from the body; and it is set up in order that the thought from the spirit may not appear in the body, or before the world. On its out face which is turned to the world, it is bright and gleaming from heavenly truths, but oil its inner face it is covered with the filth of evil.

     Between these two walls, the one obstructing the light of heaven from within, and the other hiding the darkness of hell, the evil man dwells from within, and the other hiding the darkness of hell, the evil man dwells like a wild beast caged up, delighting in the darkness of his inner wall, and exulting in the protection, even while chafing at the restraint of his outer wall. Beyond this latter he rarely goes forth except when alone or in the company of those like himself with whom he is intimate, or except when the wall has been so weakened by attacks from within that it is no longer able to restrain the wild beast behind it.

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At such times the real nature of this wild beast can be seen, both by the man himself and by those with whom he is.

     The spiritual truths by which the evil man builds for himself this wall of protection, are in themselves treasures of heaven, for they convey in their bosom the heat and light of heaven which bring intelligence, rationality and wisdom; but the evil man does not enter into their interiors, and they are not treasures to him. Or, rather, they are held as precious by him, only as they serve to protect the evils within himself which are his real treasures. Wherever the goods and truth of heaven are, there is protection from hell which would deprive everyone, even the evil, of all delight; if they are present in the internal man, they protect him from the internal assaults of hell, and if they are in the external man they protect him from hell attacking from without. The evil man does not fear the presence of hell within, but he does fear its attacks from without; for when this takes place, he loses power, honor and gain, and thus the delights in which he has placed his heart. Therefore, he takes to himself the treasures of heaven and lays them up as a bulwark in the earth of his external man, in the belief that they will guard him from the thief that would steal them away not knowing that moth and rust are corrupting them from within, and making them easy for assault from without.

     The shunning of evils constitutes the breaking down of the interior wall erected against the entrance of heaven. For this wall is really nothing more than the infernal society in which the evils of man keep him. In the other world these societies appear surrounded with walls of dense clouds. As to his spirit, every man is in that society, either of heaven or of hell, which makes one with his level or where his heart is. If in all infernal society he shelters himself behind the walls of that society, and the more deeply he lets himself into its interiors the denser becomes the wall that separates from heaven. Behind that wall his treasures are guarded from within, while, so long as he is in this world, they are guarded from without by the wall of heaven.

     To break down this inner wall, is to withdraw the heart and life from infernal associates and their society, and to be introduced by the Lord into a heavenly society. A permanent withdrawal is not an easy work, nor one to be accomplished in a moment. Man's very love is in the old society, and he must, as it were, tear himself from his life, and fight against his home and family.

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It is this combat that makes the temptations which the man of the church must enter into; their bitterness and pain, and the peace that follows victory, none can know except those who have experienced them.

     It is as man is withdrawn from evil that the obstacles which have prevented the entrance of the Lord are removed, and the door to the spiritual man is opened. There is then a perception of the Lord's presence, and a way is made for the descent of heaven to earth. The heat and light of the Sun of heaven becomes manifest to the man as a new and spiritual affection of the things of heaven and the church, with a perception of spiritual truth previously unknown. For as evil affections have within themselves falses, so good affections have truths, and these are within all the thoughts and knowledges of the man who is in such affections. Those knowledges are, then, as it were, implanted in the spiritual man, or in the affections of the spiritual man, that is to say, their roots are the truths themselves which make one with the good of heaven then become present with man. Thus truths are elevated from the natural mind to the spiritual mind, and knowledges become goods and truths themselves carrying with them their perceptions and delights. They are treasured as treasures of the spirit and not of the body, of heaven and not of earth; and what is of the spirit and heaven is eternal.

     The knowledges still remain stored in the external man, but they are no longer there to conceal and guard the imaginary treasures of hell; they are prized and cherished as the outworks and bulwarks of heaven guarding from the attacks of hell the spiritual treasures, or the goods and truths themselves that are laid up in the spiritual man, or in heaven itself. If the spiritual man, even while he is on earth, be seen in the light of heaven, he will be seen to be in some angelic society, clad in garments of light, with magnificent surroundings, and with treasures of gold and silver and precious stones, the appearances of the goods and truths which he loves. So that in a very real sense he lays up his treasures in heaven, and when the body is cast off, he does not lose them, but enters into them more fully and daily sees their increase.

     It is said that if the treasures of the church, or of the man of the church, be laid up or treasured on earth, they win be corrupted by moth and rust, and stolen by thieves.

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A moth is an insect that devours garments, which are the clothing that a man puts on to be seen by the world; and it is, therefore, an ultimate form in the animal kingdom, of those falses, springing from man's proprium, which interiorly destroy the truths of the church so long as these are laid up where the moth is. Rust, on the other hand, signifies the evil itself from which the falses come forth.* In the original language this word comes from a root meaning to eat, and also gnaw and consume; and the word itself is used in other passages of the New Testament to mean food; as where the Lord says, "My flesh is food indeed." (John vi., 55) The food of heaven is good from the Lord; this food vivifies the angels of heaven and preserves in them a rational mind and a sound body. But the food of hell in which the evil delight and by which they are nourished, is the evil that springs from the love of self. The two foods may be expressed by the same word, as in the present case; but that word in an evil sense, when understood in the light of heaven, means not food but the rust and blight that corrupts and destroys food. For wherever evil loves are, the food of heaven becomes corrupt from within because it is separated from its life-giving Source; even as the manna became putrid when the children of Israel took it of their own wilfulness and not by command of the Lord.
     * It is interesting to note that in the translations of this verse, the Writings uniformly reverse the order of the words "moth" and "rust," making the verse read "where rust and moth doth corrupt."

     Evils and falses are within every man by birth. They are the food by which he lives, and they are also the rust and the moth that are ever ready to attack, gnaw at and consume away the heavenly things that are given by the Lord to His church. So long as man is a member of an infernal society, his treasures are not the goods and truths of the church, but are the moth and rust that corrupt and destroy.

     We have said that he lays up the treasures of the church in his external thought and life; what is meant by this is that they are laid up in some society of good spirits in the world of spirits with which he has associated himself as to his external thought.

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For in like manner as the sphere of infernal societies makes the wall that shuts the evil man from heaven, so the sphere of some society in the world of spirits and the truths of such society, make the outer well which the man sets up to screen himself from the world. But this wall, howsoever beautiful and strong it may seem, is only in the external, and the evils and falses within are continually gnawing at it and making it easy prey for the thief that will in time break through and steal. Every man may see this in himself if he will attend; he may see that his proprium is ever weakening, denying, destroying the heavenly knowledges that are given him, and he may see the never ceasing necessity of elevating those knowledges from earth to heaven, of removing his treasures from the attack of moth and rust. To do this he must shun evils and thus remove himself from his infernal society and become a member of an angelic society. Then, while evil spirits may still claim their old companion, and insinuate their evils and falses into his natural mind, they cannot touch his treasure, and after death they will not be able even to approach him.

     No man may hone to retain the truths of the church unless he is in some illustration from heaven, unless he sees them in the light of heaven within himself, and is affected by the truth itself, which is good. He may see them in the light of other men, he may even be in some illustration from the sphere of some spiritual society in which his heart is not, but the moth and rust of hell will surely consume them.

     Viewed interiorly the treasures of heaven do not exist with such a man at all. But they are the treasures of angelic men which he only seems to have. This is evidently expressed in the text, where the word translated corrupt, signifies to make to disappear. In the corresponding passage in Luke another word is used which means to utterly corrupt, ruin and destroy. Both ideas are necessary for a full understanding of the spiritual meaning. In the light of heaven the knowledges of an evil man, and of a church of such men, actually disappear; but while the man is in the world they still remain, though utterly corrupted and rotten from within. It is the thief that steals them away from without, and makes the man's real destitution manifest. By a thief is meant the evils and falses in the external man, or in the deeds and actions; for when the evils and falses of the heart become also evils and falses of the act, then all perception of heavenly things, even the most external, is taken away and the man openly blasphemes and lives the life of hell.

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This rarely takes place with the evil in the church while they are on earth. The interior evils and falses which reside with such men manifest themselves as the conceit of learning, the love of dominion, contempt for the neighbor, and an interior endeavor against spiritual things which conceals contempt for God; they make the heart chilled and contracted at the presence of the things of heaven, and warmed and opened by the things of the world. But, as a rule, they do not allow these evils to appear before the world, or, rather,--for they do appear at times,--they do not allow them to take complete possession of their external man. Thus they hold the thief at a distance, and still appear to retain the treasures of heaven. But in the other world, if they have not repented, the scene is changed; the thief breaks through and deprives them of all that on which they count for the continuance of their honor and gain, and their dominion over men. When a man of the church who is in evil first enters the spiritual world he appears, in the external sphere of the world of spirits, as a member of a good society, a society of the church; and there he appears clad in becoming apparel, in more or less beautiful surroundings, and with a sound mind and a sound body. But when, in a short time, he enters into the sphere of his own love, all these thins are taken from him and he is seen as one insane, in filthy and squalid surroundings, and clothed in tattered garments, old worn and moth-eaten, in which he departs to his own place. So will it be with every man whose treasures are on earth.

     The establishment of the church with a man, or with men, is the opening of the spiritual mind in which the Lord can be present and give enlightenment. A church is not a church according to the knowledges in the natural mind but according to those in the spiritual mind. If her treasures are not laid up there they will sooner or later be corrupted and stolen away, and the church will come to its end. It was so in the Jewish church to which was confided the Hebrew Word. The treasure was laid upon earth, and despite threats and punishments was corrupted and destroyed. It was so in the Christian Church which began with some spiritual illustration: but evils were not shunned, the communion with heaven was not maintained, the truths of revelation ceased to be matters of spiritual life, to be seen in the light of heaven; and again the treasures of heaven were laid up on earth where moth and rust corrupted.

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And not alone this, but thieves also broke through and stole; for it is not for long that the internal corruptness of a church can be withheld from the external of her thought and life. For many centuries the work of corruption within and theft without has been going on, and reformations have but checked the entire loss of those treasures which were given to the disciples, but those treasures are disappearing more and more as the materialism and conceit ruling in the Christian world come to the surface. And so we have the spectacle of a church which has received priceless riches from her Lord, but in which is a growing external denial of Him and His Word. And this because she has laid up her treasures on earth.

     The Lord has now made a new revelation of spiritual truth that a New Church may be established, and of this church it is Divinely foretold that it is to be a spiritual church, an internal church, a church that shall endure for ever. The New Church is to be spiritual and eternal not from the external understanding and reception of the revelation that is given it, but according to its internal understanding and reception, according to the spiritual illustration from which the revelation is seen, or according as the Lord Himself is seen. Without this the doctrines of the New Church afford but a palliative cure to the ills that assail every man of the church; they may make the church appear sound and rational, they may enlighten her external thought, and enrich her with heavenly treasures laid up on the earth, but there is no real cure, no genuine enlightentnent, no lasting enrichment. The doctrines must be acknowledged and seen as spiritual truth, or as truth in the spiritual man manifesting the secret evils of the natural, before there can be any genuine church on earth, or the descent of genuine truth which alone makes the church. It is as evils are shunned and the man of the church becomes a man of heaven that there is an entrance into the interiors of truth by which he is then affected and from which he has spiritual illustration. And such a man, even while yet on earth, swells the number of those spiritual societies, according to the increase and perfection of which is the increase and perfection of the church.

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It is the truth itself that must be seen and loved, or, what is the same thing, the good within the truth: and this can be done only by those who as to their spirits are in heaven and its light.

     Therefore, we are taught that the existence of the Faith or Truth of the New Church is Spiritual Sight; and that the sign of the existence of the church is illustration. As this Sight and Illustration are with us, so is the New Church with us; and if we have not these, we have nothing of the New Church; with us it is natural and external, and not spiritual and internal. Though it may be rich in the treasures of Divine revelation, heaven is not within, and those riches are possessed only in imagination. Of such a church the Lord says, "Because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked; I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." 17-18)

     The supreme necessity for the establishment in our midst of the New Church as a spiritual church, is the breaking of the bonds which bind to hell and the establishment and maintenance by the Lord of conjunction with Himself and communion with heaven, that spiritual and eternal treasures may be received from Him and be laid up in heaven. The internal acknowledgment and perception and love of this truth constitutes, in the men of the church, the genuine love of the New Church, which interiorly is the love of heaven; and in her priests the genuine love of saving souls. For the love of saving souls is not a love of forcing men or of leading them into heaven by external means, but it is a love of deeply studying and being enlightened in the divine truths of revelation; of presenting those truths to the church as spiritual truths; a love of arousing and cherishing in the church the spiritual affection of truth that the truth itself, and thus the Lord, may save men and lead them to heaven.

     If there is not in the church the spiritual love of truth, that church cannot endure. Howsoever it may appear before men, it is an external church, and an external church is a dying church. Corruption is within, and as time goes on even the external goods and truths will become adulterated and falsified, and thus stolen away.

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And in this stealing the priests of such a church are the prime instruments of the dragon. For if they do not study the Word with the end of gathering spiritual riches; if they have no care of arousing spiritual affections, but seek rather to stir up whatever may bring them gain, glory and honor, in the sight of heaven they are spiritual thieves taking from the Lord His glory, and from the church her spiritual treasures. The Divine prophecy concerning the New Church will indeed be fulfilled, but not with such a people or under such leaders. The church will be transferred to others who will more worthily treasure the gifts the Lord has bestowed.

     It is for every true lover of the New Church, for every one of her faithful priests, to prize and guard her spiritual riches, to treasure them up in his own heart and to delight in seeing them treasured up in the hearts of his brethren; to be in themselves mediums by which the spiritual life of the church is increased and heaven is made more fully present on earth.

     It is the lover of the New Church and her faithful priests who will heed the Divine exhortation, "Treasure not up for yourselves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is there will your heart be also." Amen.

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JOURNAL OF THE Seventh Annual Meeting of the Council of the Clergy 1904

JOURNAL OF THE Seventh Annual Meeting of the Council of the Clergy       F. E. WAELCHLI       1904

OF THE
General Church of the New Jerusalem

HELD AT BRYN ATHYN, PA., FROM FRIDAY, JUNE 10TH, TO TUESDAY, JUNE 13TH, 1904.
Friday Morning, June 10th, 1904.

     1. The meeting was opened with reading of the Word and Prayer, conducted by Bishop Pendleton.

     2. The members present were: Bishop Pendleton, Pastors Bowers, De Charms, Price, Odhner, Waelchli, Pendleton, Rosenquist, Synnestvedt, Acton, Doering, Keep, Klein, and Cronlund.
Minister Caldwell;
Candidate Stroh.
The Rev. Messrs. Brickman and Gladish were present by invitation.

     3. A list of subjects was proposed for the docket.

     4. The first subject taken up was "The Affection of Good and of Truth versus the Affection for Good and for Truth," on which a paper was read by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner.*

     The discussion which followed was entirely affirmative to the position of the paper.

     * Published in the July number of New Church Life.

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     5. "The Proper Translation of the words Scientia and Scientificum" was the subject next considered.

     It was concluded that as Swedenborg makes a distinction, so we should make a distinction in translation. In general, scientia should be translated "science," and scientificum "scientific." There are, however, cases in which scientia should, more properly, be translated "knowledge." We must translate according to the perception of what is meant in each case, and only the able theologian can make a good translation. The discussion drifted to the subject of translation of the Writings in general. It was pointed out that in time we must have two kinds of translations: one for the simple and beginners, and another for those more learned in Church. In both, however, theological terms should be accurately rendered, but in the former Anglo-Saxon words should be employed as far as possible. There will also be editions with notes and comments, such as appear in the translation of the Last Judgment (Post.), published in New Church Life.

     6. Greetings to this meeting from the Rev. A. B. Dolly, of Lancaster, Pa., were delivered by the Rev. J. E. Bowers.

     Friday Afternoon.

     7. The minutes of the last Annual Meeting were read and approved.

     8. Provisions were made for completing the records of the Council.

     9. The Reports of the Ministers were read, which were, in substance, as follows:

     THE Rev. J. E. Bowers, during the past year, made two missionary tours, and visited about fifty places on each tour. He baptized eleven persons, and administered the Holy Supper eleven times. Contributions for support of the work from all sources, $412.25; traveling expenses, $121.50; received from the treasurer of the General Church, $200.00.

     7. The Rev. Richard de Charms has continued to perform the duties of Secretary to the Bishop. Also assisted the Bishop in Liturgical Work, and in the pastoral work of the Bryn Athyn Society, in the way of preaching. Preached four times and lectured twice at Bryn Athyn.

     The Rev. Andrew Crenzy reported that the work in the two Societies in England has progressed steadily during the past year. The most important event was the formation of a Society of the General Church in London, under the name "The London Society of the General Church of the New Jerusalem." The attendance at worship both in London and at Colchester was very satisfactory. Doctrinal classes were held in both places.

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At the Bishop's direction, Mr. Czerny presided at the Second Annual Assembly of the General Church in Great Britain, and at the meeting held to organize the London Society. Two earnest members of the London Society, Mr. John Morris and Mr. Joseph Bedwell have passed into the other world.

     The Rev. C. Th. Odhner has continued as professor of Theology and History in the Schools of the Academy, and as editor of New Church Life. Preached a few times at Bryn Athyn, and once in New York. Also wrote the work "The Laws of Order for the Preservation of the Conjugial," published this year by the Academy.

     The Rev. F. E. Waelchli, besides the regular duties of pastor of the Carmel church, conducted a special school from New Year to Easter for the religious instruction of young people of isolated families. Five pupils, averaging seventeen years of age, were in attendance, and were confirmed at the close of the school. Services were held twice at Clinton and twice at Milverton, and during the pastor's absence on these occasions, services were conducted in Gerlin by the Rev. E. J. Stebbing. The Rev. J. E. Bowers also preached twice.

     The Rev. N. D. Pendleton is much encouraged by the results of his first year's labor in Pittsburgh. The congregation has increased in number, and although the seating capacity of the audience hall has been enlarged, the prospect is that more room will soon he needed. The evidence of interest in the sermons has been gratifying, and the same may be said of the Wednesday evening doctrinal class, which has been largely attended. The local school, under the charge of Miss Esther Roggess, has enjoyed a prosperous year. A Sunday School has been established. The Ladies' Society has taken charge of the social life of the church. The temporal affairs of the Society have been placed in the hands of a committee; but the matter of council has net yet received full development.

     The Rev. J. E. Rosenquist has attended to the duties of the office of pastor of the Advent church in Philadelphia since his appointment last fall. Has preached twice in Bryn Athyn.

     The Rev. Homer Synnestvedt has continued to serve as the Bishop's assistant in the pastoral work of the Bryn Athyn Society including the supervision of the Local School. Also preached twice in Philadelphia and once in New York. During the summer he preached once in Middleport, O., twice in Glenview, Ill., and twice in Chicago. At the latter place also administered the Holy Supper. His chief study has been directed towards the subject of education in the light of the New Church.

     The Rev. George Starkey has ministered to the Denver Society of the Advent. Since Christmas time he has been prevented by sickness from attending to his duties regularly, but hopes by fall at least to see Church activities resumed with vigor. He recently began to hold a class for young folks, on Tuesday evenings, in Scientifics of the Word.

     The Rev. R. H. Keep reports that the circle in Atlanta has been increased numerically by two families of five and seven, respectively.

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A Sunday School has been established. Doctrinal classes are held twice a week. There are several interested readers not yet members of the Church. A steady increase of zeal and interest is manifested. The work is not yet self-sustaining, and is largely supported by two members of the General Church living elsewhere in the State. Mr. Keep has recently written two articles, aggregating about six thousand words, on "Swedenborg" and "The New Church," which have been accepted and are to be printed in the forthcoming "Encyclopedia Americana," published by the "Scientific American," of New York.

     The Rev. David Klein reports that the past year was been a memorable one for the Immanuel Church as marking the first period in the Society's life since the members residing in Chicago left it to form a separate society. Although the loss in membership was about one-half, the society has been enabled to maintain all the uses previously established. Services have been held every Sunday. The Rev. Reginald Brown preached once or twice. When the pastor administered the sacrament of the Holy Supper for the Sharon church in Chicago, the Rev. W. B. Caldwell conducted services in Glenview. Friday Suppers and Doctrinal Classes have been held regularly. The school uses have been maintained, and there are now six pupils in regular attendance besides those who live in Glenview. It would seem that it needs only wider facilities in the way of a dormitory to justify an extension in the work, so that those members of the Church living: in the Middle West who have children to educate for the Church may look to Glenview as a congenial home for all such

     The Rev. Emil Cronlund reports that the average attendance at the Sunday services in Parkdale has increased and several new members have been added to the Society. Progress has been made, and the affection for spiritual things has steadily increased. The Wednesday evening Doctrinal Class, the Young Folks' Class, and the Sunday School have all been held regularly. The Society entertained the Ontario Assembly at its last meeting.

     The Rev. E. J. Stebbing has been occupied with his duties as headmaster of the Carmel Church School. Preached four times for the pastor, and once in Bryn Athyn.

     The Rev. W. B. Caldwell has continued to serve the Sharon church as minister. The society recently entered upon its second year, confident that it will be able to maintain its identity as a distinctive church. Services have been held regularly, with the exception of five Sundays of last August. Friday Suppers and Classes have been held throughout the winter months. In the Sunday School there are twelve children. Mr. Caldwell preached in Glenview several times, exchanging with the Rev. Mr. Kline. The Society also enjoyed visits from the Rev. Messrs, Synnestvedt, Brown, and Gladish, and was favored with an episcopal visit during the District Assembly last October.

     Mr. Alfred Stroh has done further work on Swedenborg's scientific and theological manuscripts at Stockholm, and has served as a teacher in the College of the Academy of the New Church.

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Has preached but once. In order to prepare himself for work in Swedenborg's science and philosophy, he has entered upon post-graduate work at the University of Pennsylvania.

     The Rev. Walter Brickman has made regular monthly visits to the Baltimore congregation. The Holy Supper has been administered there twice. A Doctrinal Class has been formed, and also a Sunday School. Two members have recently joined the congregation. Has preached twice and lectured once for the Bryn Athyn Society.

     10. No reports were received from the Rev. Messrs. Jordan, Price, Acton, Boyesen, and Brown.

     11. Additions were made to the docket of the meeting.

     12. The Publication Committee of the Academy reported that nothing had been done towards obtaining copies of Bishop Pendleton's "Notes on Exposition" for the use of the clergy of the General Church.

     13. The Committee to prepare forms for Statistical Reports made its report. The Committee was continued until Monday, in order to make certain revisions.

     14. On motion, the Secretary was requested to communicate with one of the ministers of the General Church, who has not reported for several years, to learn whether he desires to continue as a minister in this body.

     15. The Bishop inquired what the ministers thought of devoting the offering on Assembly Sunday this year to the Scholarship Fund of the Academy. The plan was generally favored; but some thought that it would be better to select some use of the General Church instead of a use of the Academy.

     16. Greetings from the Parkdale Society to this meeting were delivered by the Rev. Emil Cronlund.

     Friday Evening,

     17. A public session was held, at which the Annual Address of the Clergy was delivered by the Rev. J. E. Rowers. The subject was "The Last Judgment."

     Saturday Morning, June 11th.

     18. The meeting was opened with worship.

     19. The subject of "The Use of Borrowed Expressions in Sermons" was taken from the docket.

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     The member who proposed the subject stated that he had been criticised for using an expression which another minister had used with effect, without giving credit to that minister. It was the general opinion of the meeting that it is neither necessary nor desirable that such credit be given. The mention of persons in sermons draws the mind down to a lower plane. The discussion drifted to the use of quotations from the Writings in sermons. Formerly there was much of such quotation, but in recent years there has been little. This is because it is recognized that the truth within the statements of doctrine is what must be preserved. It is the duty of the minister to study rather than to quote. By large and varied study he can see the whole range of the doctrine bearing on his subject and give it in full light. Nevertheless, quotations from the Writings can at times be so used that they carry with them a great power, similar to that of passages from the Letter of the Word. One of the ministers thought that we should be careful not to be too positive in our statements in sermons, and that it would be well for the preacher to say occasionally: "Such is my understanding of the doctrine;" but the other ministers held that it is harmful to introduce an element of doubt into the sermon. The priest represents the Lord, and must not detract from this representation by the forms of his speech. He may not always be absolutely correct, but he should not be anxious in regard to, this, when he is earnestly seeking to be correct. He must not draw the attention of the congregation to himself,

     20. The Publication of the work on The Laws of Order for the Preservation of the Conjugial, was next considered.

     The ministers stated that they considered the book an able and correct presentation of the position of our body in regard to the subject of which it treats; that its publication was necessary; and that a great use will be performed by it.

     Saturday Afternoon.

     The subject of "The Relation of the Spiritual Diary to the Adversaria" was taken up for consideration.

     This subject was suggested by the question whether the numbers in the beginning of the Diary should be considered as being on the same plane as the Adversaria, or as being of the Writings which constitute the Second Coming. The discussion dealt for the most part with the difference between the Writings themselves and the intermediate works written by Swedenborg before the Writings, but after his spiritual eyes were opened.

     No summary of the discussion can be made as representing the views of the Council as a whole or of any number of its members. The views expressed by the ministers were substantially as follows:

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     Rev. C. Th. Odhner: "So far it has been understood among us that the Diary is of Divine authority. Call its doctrine be called in question, when compared with the rest of the Writings, or when compared with the Adversaria? We do not consider the Adversaria as being inspired, though full of valuable suggestions, and we believe that it must be viewed in the full light of the Writings. I believe the Diary to be of Divine authority and therefore infallibly true."

     Rev. W. B. Caldwell: "I have found the Adversaria to be full of valuable teaching. There are no doubt a number of mistakes in it, but none in regard to the pure doctrine of the Church. The mistakes are such as a commentator might make; for example, where the location of the tribes around the tabernacle is described, and the order of their march. Reuben is put in the lead instead of Judah. Swedenborg did not then understand representatives as he did afterwards. The Adversaria must be judged in the light of the Writings. It is full of revelations and contains teachings not elsewhere given. I have come to no definite conclusion as to whether or not it can be placed on the same plane as the Writings. We must consider Swedenborg's own attitude towards his works. His spiritual eyes were opened in 1743, and he began the Adversaria in 1745. Dr. Tafel in his Documents shows that Swedenborg, places the opening of his spiritual sight first in 1745, then in 1744, then in 1743, and says that from that time on he received nothing that is of the Doctrine of the Church from anyone but the Lord alone. The Adversaria contains much that is Doctrine of the Church."

     Mr. Alfred Stroh: "From the work on Influx we learn that Swedenborg was prepared for his mission from early youth. His preparation is divisible into various stages or degrees, in which there is a sequence. In 1743, his spiritual eyes were opened, and then there came a special preparation. We cannot say that everything he wrote after his eyes were opened belongs to the Writings, for after that time he wrote the latter part of the Animal Kingdom and several treatises on scientific subjects, the Dream Book, the Worship and Love of God, the Index Biblicus, and the Adversaria, besides the early numbers of the Spiritual Diary. No one would say that the latter part of the Animal Kingdom is an inspired work. But I believe that not only the Adversaria and the early members of the Diary have authority, but also the Worship and Love of God, the Index Biblicus, and the Dream Book; but not the Divine authority which belongs to the Writings. The Writings began with the Arcana, which was begun in 1748. The Diary began in 1747."

     Mr. Caldwell: "Swedenborg made the Index to the Diary after he began the Arcana, and included a large number of passages from the Adversaria in it. There are in the Adversaria two classes of passages; one which speaks as if the work were of Divine authority, and another which speaks as if there were doubt as to the things there written. To the former class belong such passages as Vol. II, 181, 1529-1654; and to the latter such as Vol. III, 866. (See Pott's Concordance under Swedenborg)."

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     Mr. Odhner: "February 9, 1747, is the closing entry in the Adversaria Swedenborg tells us that at this time he was undergoing fearful assaults from evil spirits, but new light is given him on the doctrine concerning the Lord. July 26, 1747, is the first date occurring in the preserved portion of the Diary. Under date of August 7, 1737, Swedenborg writes: 'There was a change of state in me, into the celestial kingdom, in an image.' In January, 1748 he was in Amsterdam, working on the Arcana, and on September 1st of the same year he finished the first volume. Does not the statement that a change of state took place on August 7, 1747, involve something that is of great weight? It was written for a purpose. Does it not mark the time when immediate revelation began? A line must be drawn somewhere. Whatever was written during the time of preparation, both the scientific works and the theological, was mediate revelation. But there came a time when immediate revelation began. The works which are of mediate revelation must be judged rationally; not negatively; but in the light of the Writings."

     Mr. Caldwell: "In no. 1647 of the Diary, under date of March 22, 1718, Swedenborg says: 'I have been instructed by no spirit, nor by any angel, but by the Lord alone.' Can we say that such instruction pertains only to what was written after August 7, 1747? Why cannot we believe that he had such instruction before that date? I do not think that so much weight can be laid on that date. Why not lay similar weight on the teaching in no. 1531 of the Arcana, where Swedenborg says that he has not yet seen the sun of the spiritual world, which the celestial angels see?"

     Mr. Odhner: "The fact that he had not yet externally seen the sun of the spiritual world presents no difficulty. His mind had nevertheless been opened to the celestial degree."

     Mr. Stroh: "It is said in the same number that he saw the sun as a moon. In the Economy of the Animal Kingdom and in the Worship and Love of God the spiritual sun is spoken of, and wonderful things are told about it."

     Rev. N. D. Pendleton: "I have no doubt whatever but that complete immediate revelation began with the work on the Arcana. There was in Swedenborg's life a special preparation, which was progressive, rising higher and higher. There were three degrees of preparation on the spiritual plane; first, vision and dreams; second, hearing voices, third, the opening of the spiritual sight. Truths were communicated to him on each of these three planes. Are we going to say that there was first a little inspiration, then more and more; or, that he was prepared gradually and then commissioned to be the instrument for giving the Revelation. I do think that we should insist on a sharp line dividing the state of preparation from that which followed."

     Rev. H. Synnestvedt: Swedenborg was prepared by the Lord; and this preparation was continuous, even up to the True Christian Religion. All the preparation was the Lord's doing. If we do not hold fast to this, we will fall into the higher criticism.

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The question is: Is there anything in the Adversaria that is not of the Lord's own doing on that plane?"

     Mr. N. D. Pendleton: "It is true that it was all the Lord's own doing. But it is also true that Divine Revelation was given, and that there was a time when the giving of it began."

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli: "The work on the Arcana began when Swedenborg began to think of writing it and to plan it. We are told that in January, 1848, he was working on the Arcana; but we are not told when he began that work. It may have been, and probably was, before the first numbers of the Diary were written. The mere reading of the early numbers of the Diary should be sufficient to convince anyone that they are doctrine of the Church."

     Saturday Evening.

     A public session was held, at which the Rev. J. E. Rosenquist read a paper on "Prayer."

     Sunday, June 12th.

     The Council worshiped with the Bryn Athyn congregation, the Rev. Alfred Acton preaching on the subject of "Spiritual Treasures." (Matth. vi: 19-21.)

     Monday Morning, June 13th.

     23. The meeting was opened with worship,

     24. The subject of "The Formation of a Ministers' Mutual Aid Association" was taken from the docket.

     The minister who proposed the subject explained that the use of such an association should be mutual encouragement, sympathy, instruction, and assistance. After discussion it found, however, that such an association would be impracticable at the present time.

     25. The Committee on Forms for Statistical Reports made its final report, which was accepted.

     26. The subject next taken up was the question: "Should Hazing and Fagging be Permitted or Encouraged in a New Church College?"

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     One of the ministers stated that he had been informed that these practices were countenanced in the College of the Academy, and desired to know whether this was true. The Dean of the Faculty answered that it was not true. There was really no hazing such as takes place in many colleges; and no fagging, except in the way of good-natured fun.

     27. The subject of "The Scope of Pastoral Work" was next considered.

     It was concluded that, in general, there are three things which a pastor. must do: I. Feed the people by teaching them. In order to do this, he must be a student. II. Govern the affairs of the Society. For this he should have executive ability. III. Fulfill his social duties. This includes pastoral visiting. The last named duty is that which pastors in the General Church are most inclined to neglect. This should not be the case; for a pastor must get close to the people, and know them. If he does not know them, he cannot do proper work for them. Still, neither pastor nor people should lose sight of the fact that the chief pastoral work is that of feeding the flock. The pastor who is nor a student will not succeed in his work; neither will he succeed who is only a student.

     Monday Afternoon.

     28. A paper on "The Levitical Cities" was read by the Rev. W. R. Caldwell.

     The paper treated of the order in which the twelve tribes are mentioned in the assignment of cities for the Levites among them. (Joshua 21:1-8.) It was shown how the internal sense varies where the tribes are enumerated, according to the order in which they are named. A discussion of the paper followed.

     "The Extension of the Benefits of Special Work" was the subject next considered.

     Most of the ministers have devoted time and labor to the study of special subjects, and all should be able to benefit by the work of each. It was suggested that if a minister would put the result of his work in the form of notes, type-written copies of the same might be made at no great expense. It was decided that a beginning be made with Bishop Pendleton's "Notes on Exposition," read at the last annual meeting.

     30. It was Resolved, That Mr. Price be requested to obtain information in regard to obtaining type-written copies of the "Notes on Exposition" and report to the Board of Publication, and together with the Board take such further action as may be considered advisable.

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     Monday Evening.

     31. A public session was held, at which the Rev. Richard de Charms read a paper on "The Law of Forgiveness."

     Tuesday Morning, June 14th.

     32. The meeting was opened with worship.

     33. The subject of the Liturgy was taken from the docket.

     The Bishop informed the ministers of the services which he had prepared, and a number of points in the same were considered.

     Tuesday Afternoon.

     34. The subject of the Liturgy was further considered.

     35. The Rev. E. S. Price was appointed to deliver the Annual Address to the Council at the next meeting.

     36. It was Resolved, That the minutes of these meetings be published in New Church Life.

     37. The docket was revised.

     38. The Rev. H. Synnestvedt was appointed to write letters of greeting to the Rev. Messrs. Czerny and Starkey.

     39. It was suggested that someone study the subject of the "New Thought Movement" and prepare a paper on it.

     40. The Rev. J. E. Bowers informed the meeting that he intended during the summer to visit the Canadian Northwest.

     41. On motion, the meeting adjourned.

     Tuesday Evening.

     42. A public meeting was held, at which the Rev. Alfred Acton read a paper on "The Quarters of the Spiritual World." F. E. WAELCHLI, Secretary.

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Monthly Review 1904

Monthly Review              1904

     A deplorable printer's error occurred in the August-September issue of the Life, (p. 487, 1. 4), where it is stated: "Thy foes shall never fear thee;" this should read: "Thy foes shall ever fear thee." This, and some other typographical errors, are attributable in part to the linotype machine, over which, in the last instance, the editor can have no control.

     For a year and more our editorial drawer has been in a crowded and congested condition. More contributions,--most of them of a weighty and lengthy nature,--have been flowing in, than our small craft is able to carry, freighted as it has been this year with a double issue entirely devoted to the proceedings of the General Assembly. We must therefore plead for patience on the part of such contributors as have been or will be "held over" for several months.

     Once more we would suggest to our esteemed contributors, that they will confer a real favor and greatly assist in our labors, if they will write on only one side of the paper, and in a legible hand, when possible,--type-written copy preferred. There should be plenty of space between the lines, and a generous margin, to allow room for editorial emendations. And it would be well to remember that our space is limited, and that brevity still remains the soul of wit.

     The Monatblatter for August extensively and severely reviews a newly published volume of "select readings" from Swedenborg, translated by L. Brieger-Wasservogel and printed at Jena. The publisher in his advertisement of the work speaks of Swedenborg as "the Pantheist," and sums up the doctrinal system of the New Church in the words: "We are God, God is we." (! !)

     Under the heading "Fidelity," Mr. C. W. Morse contributes to the New Age, for June, a short but spirited plea for the distinctiveness of the New Church,--a distinctiveness which, as he says, "is meeting with much hostility and determined opposition by its own members," so that "nought but fierceness of determination to urge this point is going to save the Church from further decimation." He points out that it is the consummation of the distinct existence of the New Church, "which is, at present, frustrated by spirits of the expiring churches, and by the stupid vacillation of our own members;" and. yet, it is the mere handful of men and women in the New Church "who alone hold the true light today."

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     Who was Swedenborg and what are his Writings? is the title of a new edition of the American Swedenborg Society's catalogue. It opens with a brief but excellent preface, remarkable for its clear statement respecting the Writings as Divine Revelation. "As to the exact scope of Swedenborg's mission," says the writer, "and the attitude of mind which should exist with regard to his teachings, we cannot do better than to quote the following from The True Christian Religion." The quotation consists of the whole of n. 779, to the effect that the Lord has come again, not in person, but by means of a man; and that Swedenborg had received nothing of the doctrine from any angel, but from the Lord alone. The writer continues by referring to the Writings as being therefore "a revelation from the Lord, and in fact constituting His Second Coming." The Swedenborg Society is to be congratulated on this straightforward presentation of the books of the Church before the public.

     In the downright, impudent lying we have never seen anything to equal Elbert Hubbard's recent "essay" on Swedenborg in his Little Journeys to the homes of Great Philosophers. It is evident that the author not only has never read any of Swedenborg's works, but that he has not even consulted an ordinary cyclopedia. Astounding inventions, colossal prevarications, insolent perversions of truth are to be found on every page and, in spots, on every line. Here is a sample: "At twenty-one Swedenborg graduated at the University of Upsala. He took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, and was sent on a tour of the European capitals to complete his education. He visited Hamburg, Paris, Vienna, and then went to London, where he remained a year. He bore letters from the King of Sweden." In these lines no less than five lies are crowded together. Another sample: "The Swedish Protestant Church in London chose him, [Swedenborg], as their bishop without advising him. Gradually other scattering churches did the same, and after his death a well-defined cult, calling themselves Swedenborgians, arose."

     Children a Blessing. This is the "startling" title of a timely and handsome tract by the Rev. W. H. Alden, reprinted from The New Church Review. The writer raises his voice in earnest warning against the modern tendency towards "race suicide," treats of the blessing of large families from the standpoint of New Church Doctrine and of sound political economy and offers a new solution of the problem raised by Malthus as to the danger of the world becoming over-populated, viz., "that when the mother earth has reached her utmost bound in number of those whom she can hear upon her fertile bosom, it may reasonably be expected that in this also the time for preparation for heaven, for which life on earth is ordained, will be shortened, that there may not be more on earth than can be supported."

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In illustration of this suggestion the author points to the planet Jupiter where "the age to which the inhabitants live is on an average about thirty years. It is by the Providence of the Lord that they die at so early an age, lest their numbers should increase beyond what that earth is capable of supporting." (E. U. 48-84.)

     From the Old Church to the New is the title of a little work published by The Scottish New Church Evidence Society, wherein the author, William Smith--an isolated receiver--records the various states of thought through which he passed in his twenty years' progress from the sect of Auld Lichts to the New Church.

     The ''experiences" of people coming into the Church are always interesting; and a valuable addition to the literature of the Church would be made by the publication of a volume containing a number of such experiences--such as are to be found scattered throughout the New Church journals.

     One interesting "experience" was recorded recently, in the New Age for May, in a funeral sermon on Mr. F. B. Gibbes, the late leader of the Melbourne Society. Mr. Gibbes mother, who had become a receiver of the Doctrines, was constantly bringing them to his notice. "But he ridiculed them and said they were worthless and could be easily refuted. 'Well,' she said, 'I wish you would refute them.'" He answered that he would, and she gave him True Christian Religion to commence with. "He took it to his room, expecting soon to show that it was full of errors; he sat down, and commenced to read, but the more he read the less confidence had he that it could be refuted, until at last he came to the conclusion that it could not, because it was true."

     After reading the paper on "The Letter and the Spirit," by the Rev. Louis G. Hoeck in the July issue of The New Church Review, one cannot but wonder why the spiritual sense of the Word was revealed, or what is its special value and importance. According to him "the spiritual sense of the Word for us on this earth is clearly an abstraction. It is in a good sense theoretical as opposed to practical." "We live in and from the natural, not in and from the spiritual and celestial." "We ought to value, and not despise, the good work of the critics of the Word, because in the first place, they help to establish the fixed form of the letter; and, in the second place, they contribute greatly toward a better understanding of the literal sense. On the other hand we ought not to exalt too much the study the pure spiritual sense of the Word." "The doctrine of life is to be found in the literal sense of the Word." "We cannot live the spiritual sense of the Word, for that is abstract. We can only live according to the spirit of the letter, which is the natural, sense." And therefore we must "place the whole emphasis upon the living truth of the Word, which is in its natural sense," etc. (Italics our own.) Back, therefore, to Egypt! Back to the fleshpots and the darkness of the mere letter!

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     The Rev. W. H. Alden, writing in the Messenger for August 24th, examines the common notion that it makes little difference what one believes, so long as he does well; that all the several faiths,-Swedenborgian, Buddhist, Romanist, Baptist, etc.,-are so many roads leading to the palace of the king; and that therefore, while we of the New Church may be satisfied that our faith is best for us, we may not say that it is the only true faith, or that the faith of others is not just as good for them.

     But Mr. Alden pricks this little glittering bubble by pointing out that it "omits to take into account where these several paths have their origin, which is quite as important as to know the point to which they are supposed to aim." "In all these cases it is not what characterizes the several fallen churches and idolatries which enables any who are nominally of them to be saved; rather in opposition to those specific doctrines are those enrolled among them led towards heaven. Faith alone saves no one; belief in three persons in one God saves no one; belief in many Gods, in Buddha, in idols, in Mohammed, saves no one; faith in pope or priest saves no one, natural morality alone saves no one, polygamy saves no one; emotionalism, ritual and sacrament, apart from good life, save not. All these things, which characterize the several faiths, if you should represent them by ways, would lead from, not to, the Holy City."

     A paper on "The Mental Vices of Ministers" was read by the Rev. S. C. Eby at the recent meeting of the Council of Ministers of the General Convention, and is published in the Messenger for July 27th. In this paper a generous measure of criticism was devoted to those who venture to exercise their critical faculty in the Church. The reading of the paper was followed by impromptu addresses from various ministers, whose remarks are published in the same issue. From among these we quote the following noteworthy remarks by the Rev. W. H. Alden:

     "Mr. Alden felt that that portion of the paper which referred to the vice of criticism of others came home to himself, as he had been charged with this fault. He believed that there was a duty of criticism. He believed that it was possible to see the truth and to know that it was the truth, and that it was possible in the light of the truth to see what was false and so opposed to the truth; And he believed that a duty rested upon every man, and especially upon the ministers of the Church, to point out the falsities which found their way into the periodicals of the Church and into the preaching of the Church. This was necessary for the protection of those who looked to those periodicals or to that preaching for instruction as to the things of the Church. The duty was especially incumbent upon us in the New Church who have received the revelation of Divine truth, which the Lord has given to the world in His second coming, in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg. By this revelation we are enabled to enter with the understanding into the mysteries of faith.

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We are able to see rationally what is true in the light of revelation, and seeing what is true, we should be able to perceive the false, and seeing the false, should condemn it. This was a very different thing from hatred of the individuals teaching the falsity. There should be no feeling of hatred toward any man. But toward falsities opposing the truth of Divine revelation our attitude should be that expressed in the psalm, 'Do not I hate them, O Jehovah, that hate Thee, and am I not grieved with those that rise up against Thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.'"

     It is not often that the Messenger under its present management calls attention to the existence, principles or work of the General Church, and we were therefore surprised to read the following editorial utterance in the issue for August 17th: "Repeatedly during the last few years the charge has been made by honest men that the General Convention was devoting its thought and energy for the most part to an external work of impressing the outside world with the doctrines of the New Church, the gist of the criticism being that the Church should be devoted primarily to the work of learning more interiorly the things of doctrine and training the children of the Church into a more exact and thorough-going apprehension of and obedience to the writings of the new dispensation." The editor does not sympathize with this charge, and observes that "More than once in recent years we have seen young men who hare started out with academic and narrow visions of a very exclusive New Church, characterized also by considerable contempt for all that did not belong to the strictest sect of the Pharisees, entirely change their feelings and attitude, not as a result of theory, but of practical work in behalf of minds they desired to enlighten and souls they wished to save." And he closes with an appeal for the cultivation of "brotherliness and unity among the members who have already been organized into our composite bodies." It seems to us that the Messenger does not set the best example in its methods of cultivating these desirable graces. "Honest men,"--"the strictest sect of the Pharisees," "brotherliness and unity." Alas!

     At the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the General Convention, held in Baltimore, May 17, 1904, the Rev. James Reed presented a paper on the Nature of Swedenborg's Illumination, in which he contended that this 'did not differ in kind from the illumination of other men," and that "the Doctrines are not Sacred Scripture." These expressions were criticized on the floor by the Rev. J. F. Potts, who deplored any attempt "to force the Council to assume a negative position, by declaring that the Writings are not this and not that." Nevertheless, as for himself, he declared that the quite agreed with Mr. Reed as to the difference between the Writings and the Word of God. 'To call the Writings of Swedenborg the Word of God, and to insist upon this, is a practical disloyalty to the Heavenly Doctrines, for these everywhere plainly discriminate between the Word of God and the Heavenly Doctrines, and these Doctrines never call themselves the Word of God."

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But while they are not "the Sacred Scripture, that is, the Word of God, still there call be no doubt but that the Heavenly Doctrines are Sacred Writings, since they contain a new Revelation of Divine Truth from the Lord to mankind."

     We are not sure that Mr. Potts has been correctly represented in the report of his remarks, rendered into German in the Baltimore Neukirchenblatt and reproduced in the Monatblatter of Zurich. If he has been misrepresented, then these journals have not only placed our respected friend in a position of considerable inconsistency, but have also made an unwarrantable use of his influential name in order to further confirm the Church at large in the negative attitude which Mr. Potts, himself deplores,-the attitude that the Writings are not the Word of the Lord, or the Sacred Scriptures of the Second Coming.

     The Child's First Book of Religious Instruction, Erie, Pa., 16 pp., is an enlarged edition of a little pamphlet published anonymously in 1843, by Otis Clapp, of Boston. The work is divided into thirteen lessons, and takes up the subject of the Word, God, Man, the Spiritual World, the Fall, Redemption, the Second Coming, and the Heavenly Life. The treatment throughout is simple and affectionate, and, at the same time, the book is wholly free from the vague sentimentality, or the dreary abstractions which so often characterize religious books for children. Witness the following from the lesson on the Second Coming: "In course of time, the men of the First Christian Church lost their love for the Lord's teaching, and so lost all true knowledge of the Lord, of the Word, and of the life after death, so that they mere as far from the truth as the Jews were before the Lord's first coming. Then the Lord came a second time, but this time not in His Body...but by revealing to his servant Emanuel Swedenborg the truth about Himself, and about the Word, and about the Spiritual World. Through Swedenborg the Lord wrote several books, and when they were finished He called together His twelve apostles who had followed Him in the world, and the next day, on the nineteenth of June, in the year 1770, He sent them forth into the whole Spiritual World to preach the Gospel that the LORD GOD JESUS CHRIST reigns." Our friends in Erie are to be thanked for producing a second and improved edition of this little book. Presumably it is not intended,--at any rate primarily,-for the private reading of children. For such a purpose, religious instruction should be insinuated in stories and imaginative writings, rather than in professedly doctrinal or religious works, however simple they may be. But, as a text book for the guidance of Sunday School teachers and others concerned with the religious instruction of the young, The Child's First Book will prove of considerable value, and we commend it to the notice of the Church.

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Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa. It was with melancholy feelings that we witnessed the departure of the hundreds of visitors who had attended the great General Assembly. If they could only have stayed and settled among us for ever! But we will have to wait for "the beyond" for that happy time.

     It is also trying, each summer, to have so many of the young people depart from us for their homes, "Fair Bryn Athyn" seems dull and empty without the cheery voices and enthusiastic spirits of the young folks attending the schools. We have, of course, quite a number of our own permanently with us, but, then, they are home-bodies. The visiting pupils bring the sphere of the whole General Church with them, and Bryn Athyn needs that sphere as much as the sphere needs Bryn Athyn.

     The opening of the schools has been delayed two weeks this year owing principally to a strike among the workmen who are putting on the red tile roofs of the new buildings. The large College building is now circled in the rear by four structures of noble proportions:--the Old Dormitory, (which will be occupied by the girls), the Dining Hall, the New Dormitory for the boys, and the Heating Plant, which will supply heat for all the buildings. Visitors to the Bryn Athyn of four months ago would hardly recognize the present perspective and those who knew our institution in Friedlander street, Philadelphia, will rub their eyes and wonder if this is, indeed, the same old "Academy." And the internal arrangements,--but we must not anticipate the description which will come better in connection with the account of the "Dedication."

     Now, as to personal gossip. The Bishop, with Mrs. Pendleton and some of their daughters, in company with Miss Beekman and Miss Vera Pitcairn, spent some happy weeks in the Pocono Mountains, near Delaware Water Gap. Mr. Pitcairn and Raymond Pitcairn enjoyed excellent salmon fishing in New Brunswick. Mr. Acton left for a visit to England at the end of July. His absence made us feel the more for Mrs. Acton on account of the removal of their little baby. Miss Sophie Falk, of Chicago, has remained during the summer in company with Miss Maria Hogan. Mr. Ralph Hicks is now settled with us, working in his father's new office in Philadelphia. The Rev. J. E. Rosenqvist and family have moved out to Bryn Athyn and are keeping house for Mr. Yarnall, but Mr. Rosenqvist continues in charge of the society in Philadelphia. The Rev. W. L. Gladish and family have removed to Middleport, and their house has been occupied by Mrs. Aretta Doering and her two little boys. Many of the very little ones have been severely tried this summer by a very malignant form of whooping-cough, and it has been an anxious season both for the parents and for our faithful physician, Dr. Cooper. But many are now "on the mend" and brighter days are coming. E. L.

     Philadelphia. The regular Sunday services of the Advent church were resumed on the first Sunday of September, with an attendance of 36 persons. During the summer months instruction has been given by the pastor to the children of the Society every Thursday, and the younger folks have had their Doctrinal Class every Wednesday evening. The Doctrinal Class for adult members has now started, and is held, as before, on Wednesday evenings, but at 7:30 instead of at 8 o'clock.

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     The young folks' class meets as usual, at 8 o'clock every Sunday evening. The pastor of the Advent church, Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist, has removed to Bryn Athyn, but continues to attend to his regular pastoral duties as before.

     Baltimore, Md. Affairs in Baltimore are progressing slowly but surely. Rev. Walter E. Brickman continues to preach for us on the first Sunday of each month, the service beginning at ten-thirty A. M. instead of eleven.

     A doctrinal class is held at the home of some member of the congregation on the Friday night preceding the first Sunday of each month, and is conducted by the minister. Sunday School is suspended until the second Sunday in September. The Ladies' Aid Society continues to meet on the afternoon of the first Sunday of each month, and, although a small body is quite active.

     Their latest aid consists in a beautiful silver communion service of three pieces, which was used for the first time on Sunday morning, July 3d. The congregation is purchasing a large reed organ with pedals, which is now in use, and contributes greatly to the worshipful sphere of the service. The Ladies' Aid, the Sunday School, and the Circle have made substantial contributions to the Organ Fund.

     A lively interest is still maintained in the Circle meetings, which are held generally on the first and third Thursdays of each month We are still reading from Conjugial Love, and have progressed as far as No. 350.

     The Circle is forming a Library for the use of the congregation, and the latest acquisition consists in a complete set of the Boston edition of Arcana Coelestia. BENJ. REYNOLDS.

     Middleport, O. After an interval of over a year, regular services were resumed on July 24th, to the great joy of the members of the Church here and in the vicinity. On Sunday we have Sunday School, morning worship, and an evening doctrinal class followed by music practice. The Divine Love and Wisdom is the text-book for the doctrinal class. On Tuesday evenings there are two classes with the minister for religious instruction. The first class begins with six members ranging from six to ten years old. The second class will have four or five members from fourteen to sixteen years of age. We have twelve or thirteen children and young people in the country who are in the sphere of the Society, part of whom get to Sunday School or church, but cannot get in for a mid-week class. Arrangements have already been made to visit and teach five of these children, who live eight miles away, every two weeks while good weather lasts; and it is hoped that means may be found to meet and instruct the others.

     A building fund has been started for an addition to the church for classes and social purposes. The Sunday evening offering is devoted to that use. At present all classes and social gatherings must he held in the homes.

     There has been much sickness; but all the sick are now getting better.

     Mr. Ralph Hicks and Mr. Edgar Lindsey, of Pittsburg, and Miss Emily Wallenberg, of Chicago, have been recent visitors.

     Toronto, Ont. During the two weeks occupied by the meeting at Bryn Athyn, no services were held were, owing to the absence of our pastor. On Sunday. June 26th, we enjoyed a sermon from the Rev. W. K. Caldwell, of Chicago, who was here visiting his parents, Mr. and Mrs. R. B. Caldwell. The pulpit was also filled on one occasion by the Rev. Mr. Bowers.

     A social was held on Thursday, June 30th, for the purpose of giving to those of our members who were unable to attend the Assembly at Bryn Athyn a knowledge of the proceedings there.

     On July 1st, which is Dominion Day, and a holiday with us, a picnic was held by the young people, up the Lumber River.

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A sudden and terrific rain storm made every effort to extinguish the torch of enthusiasm, but though it succeeded in dampening everything else available the spirits of the party proved invincible. The sandwiches and other good things had been reduced almost to the consistency of poultices, but, notwithstanding, supper was cheerfully eaten beneath the leaky roof of a very diminutive pavilion, which afforded but questionable shelter from the elements. The picnickers returned home wet, but feeling philosophically, that after all variety is the spice of life.

     A very enjoyable social was given by the ladies of the society on the evening of July 8th, in the church building. Ice cream and strawberries were sold, and a small sum realized in aid of the Ladies' Fund. This was our initial effort in this direction, and we hope to improve upon our first experience, that these occasions may be rendered both enjoyable and useful. M. G. S.

     Berlin, Ont. On Sunday, July 3d, a meeting of the congregation of the Carmel church was held to hear a report of the General Assembly.

     One of the young people of our Society, Miss Isabella Roschman, passed into the spiritual world on the 26th of July. She was one of the first pupils when a New Church school was established in Berlin, and later attended the Girls' Seminary of the Academy, from which she graduated in June, 1900. Her affection for the Church was strong and earnest, and her lovely disposition endeared her to all who knew her. For several years she had been an invalid, enduring great suffering but the happy release has come, and she has entered into the full enjoyment of that life for which she so much longed.

     The annual picnic of our Society was held on Saturday, July 30th, at a charming spot on the Gorand River, where several of our families are camping for the summer. A very enjoyable day was spent by old and young.

     The Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, with wife and daughter, arrived in Berlin on the 27th of July to spend some time among us as the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman, Mr. Schreck, after being with us for ten days, left for Almont, Mich., to take part in the Summer School there. He preached here on Sunday, July 31st.

     Another visitor, whom we have the pleasure of having among us, is Mrs. Colley, a member of Schreck's Society, who has had two children in our school during the past year. Mrs. Colley, besides giving instruction in music to a number of our young people and children, is giving instruction in dancing to a class of young people on Wednesday evenings, and to a class of children on Saturday afternoons.

     The ladies' meeting for August was held on the 5th of the month at the farm of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Peppler, twelve miles from Berlin. Several of the gentlemen were also present. The entire day was spent there, and the outing was much enjoyed by all. W.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The nineteenth of June was celebrated by the German New Church Society of New York. The sermon by the pastor, the Rev. W. H. Schliffer, was followed by short addresses by three of the young people who were confirmed last year. One of these treated of the Sending out of the twelve Apostles in the spiritual world; the next dealt with Love truly Conjugial, and the third with Swedenborg as servant of the Lord.

     At its meeting in Washington on May 24th, the "Round Table" adopted a constitution and was thus formally organized. The use regarded, is the consideration,--under feminine auspices,--of the bearing of spiritual laws upon secular affairs. It is proposed to secure recognition from Convention.

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     At the meeting of the "Theological School Alumni," held in Baltimore, May 18th, Rev. L. P. Mercer delivered an address on "The Ministry of the Holy Spirit," in which he dwelt on the power of the Letter of the Word, showing that it is only in connection with the Letter that the internal sense can become effective. The Rev. J. F. Potts supported this position, and 'intimated that the work of many ministers had failed because they fed the people with the technicalities of doctrine, and not with the Bread of Life that dwells in the Word alone." Baltimore, Md. Mr. Frederick Leist, for many years the president of the German New Church Society in Baltimore, died on July 27th, at the age of sixty-seven years. The panegyrist in the obituary column of the Messenger states that "it was largely to his munificence and influence that the Society is indebted for the possession of its fine building on Aisquith street. It was also largely due to his influence that the Society remained in the General Convention and was not transferred to the General Church."

     The Rev. J. B. Spiers recently visited Abingdon, Va., where the New Church was planted nearly a hundred years ago, and where at one time a prosperous society existed, with a church building of its own. Now, however, the missionary "could not find even one with the remotest interest in the New Church." The old church building still stands, but is for sale, the sum of $125.00 having been offered for it. Mr. Spiers, however, found a more encouraging field in a little mountain town called Domino, where more than a hundred of the primitive mountaineers listened to him with intense interest. The desire was expressed that Mr. Spiers should come quarterly, and even larger audiences were promised. He was pressingly invited to come and take dinner with us," "come and star a week; we want to have some long talks with you about these Doctrines."

     "New Church Day" was celebrated in Detroit on June 20th, by an evening banquet, at which toasts were proposed and responded to. There was an attendance of about 70, and the meeting is reported as the best ever held in Detroit.

     The Almont Summer School will open its fifth annual session on Aug. 8th, closing on Aug. 21st. A well is being drilled, tents erected and other improvements made for the accommodation of visitors. Applications for admission show a decided increase over former years. Systematic instruction is given in the Word and Doctrine and related subjects, and past years have shown that a remarkable sphere of affection for the Church is developed among the pupils.

     By way of celebrating "New Church Day." the Chicago parishes held a joint picnic at Glen Ellyn in which over 100 took part. Speeches were made by Rev. Messrs. Saul, Schreck, Stockwell, and Bartels.

     During his visit to Chicago, Rev C. G. N. Manby preached three times to the Swedish-American Society and administered the Holy Supper to 17 communicants. At Rockford, Ill., on June 5th, he conducted morning and evening services in Swedish to audiences of 250 and 100, respectively.

     A Swedish New Church Society,--the first in this country,-was recently organized at Rockford, III., under the leadership of Dr. C. V. Urbom. The Swedish-American New Church Association" held its first annual conference here on July 3d, when it was decided that this association should he composed of societies as well as individual members. The Society in Rockford thereupon unanimously joined the association.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The General Conference was held at Birmingham, June 20-24, with an attendance of 53 ministers and 74 delegates. Among the visitors was the Rev. C. G. N. Manby, who attended for the purpose of enlisting the help of Conference in the erection of a Memorial Temple in Stockholm.

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The Rev. I. Tansley was elected President, and the Rev. R. R. Rodgers was nominated for 1905. Mr. Charles Care, of Bath, was elected treasurer, to succeed the late Mr. Francis Heath, in this connection, it was stated that the funds administered by Conference amount to nearly $500,000. The ordination of Rev. A. Stones was granted on application of the Salford and Rhodes Societies; two lay preachers were "recognized;" and it was reported that the Rev. Arthur Ryland, formerly a Unitarian minister, who has been studying the Doctrines for several years, had been examined and was declared qualified to accept a New Church pastorate.

     Eight of the English Societies are seeking ministers,--one of them being the Society at Bolton, which was defunct two years ago but has been brought to life again by the work of Rev. J. Deans. Besides these there are quite a number of small societies which are ministered to by 6 "honorary pastors" and 58 "lay preachers." Of the latter, 5 have studied with a view to preaching; 34 have undergone some examination: and 19 have simply preached. It was recommended that some general plan be adopted under which young men could study with a view to lay preaching; but no action was taken.

     The question of discontinuing the New Church Magazine was a subject of animated discussion. The subscriptions hare decreased during the past year, from 652 to 594; while the deficit has increased from $163 to $218. It was first proposed to discontinue the magazine and to accept Morning Light as the organ of Conference. An amendment was then offered, that steps be taken looking to an English edition of New Church Review. A second amendment proposed that the Magazine be continued as a quarterly; but the whole question was finally referred to the Council, with power to act.

     Two bequests by the late Miss Agnes Hook were reported, of $2,500 each, for the Pension fund and the Augmentation fund. The latter bequest was accompanied with the distinct proviso that its benefits should not be enjoyed by any society using The Revised Book of Common Prayer,--which is in use in more than one Conference Society.

     A proposal that societies should adopt the uniform name "New Church (Swedenborgian)" was carried by a small majority. The idea in this proposition was that the "New Jerusalem Church" was liable to be misconstrued as that of some Jewish sect; one society having recently felt compelled to change its name on this account.

     Among the last acts of Conference was its expression of pleasure at the action taken by the Swedish Royal Academy in connection with Swedenborg's scientific works.

     "New Church Day' was celebrated by the Camberwell, (London) Society, by a tea, after which an informal meeting was held on the church lawn, and "conversation ensued on the subject of the day." Special sermons were preached both morning and evening.

     The Islington Society observed the nineteenth of June by the celebration of the Holy Supper. Since the departure of Prof. Baynham, this society has been put on the London "Missionary Plan."

     The N. C. College held its 40th annual meeting on May 31st. The address by the President, Rev. J. R. Rendell, was directed mainly to emphasizing the importance to theological students of the study of modern science and discovery; no mention was made of Swedenborg's science, though Mr. Rendell is a well known student of the Principia. The principal action of the meeting was the adoption of resolutions looking to closer union between the College and Conference. Four theological students were reported, as at the last annual meeting, no new students having been adopted this year. The "policy," of the College includes that the students take mathematics and English in an outside institution, and prepare in Hebrew, Greek and Logic, for the degree of B. D., in London University.

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Among other matters reported, was a bequest of $2,500 by the late Miss Agnes Hook.

     SWEDEN. Pastor C. J. N. Manby, gives in "Nya Kyrkans Tidning" for July and August a very interesting account of his recent visit to America. Of special interest to us is what Mr. Manby says of his visit to Bryn Athyn, which place he describes as "one of the most beautiful places he ever saw." From what we gather from his account, his visit to America in behalf of the Building Fund for the election of a New Church 'Temple in Stockholm, seems to have been rather successful. His visit to the Swedish New Church friends in Chicago and Rockford, Ill., was much appreciated by the friends of the Church there and enjoyed by himself.

     From the Rev. Joseph E. Boyesen's paper, "Nya Kyrkans Harold," for June-July, we learn the news that Mr. Bjorck has discontinued his activity as a minister in the New Church, and has presented to Rev. A. Th. Boyesen's Society the organ, hymn books and sacramental vessels before used at the services held by Mr. Bjorck and his party.

     On September 4th, the regular Sunday services of Mr. Boyesen's Society were resumed, not in the hall formerly occupied, but in that in which Mr. Bjorck has been conducting his services.

     The newly formed "New Church Young Folk's Society" celebrated the 19th of June with a pleasant and instructive gathering at "Finnboda," a short distance from Stockholm, at which 42 persons were present. Speeches were made by the president of the Society, Mr. Edw. Sandstrom, and Messrs. A. Th. and Joseph E. Boyesen.

     A special sign of the interest and activity in the Church in Sweden is the growth of the "Providentia Fund" for the future establishment of a New Church activity similar to that of the "Academy."

     The "Fund" was started in the year 1901 by Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist, then of Gottenburg.

     The "Providentia Society" has since then been duly incorporated, and its "Fund," which on March 27, 1901, was started with 10 ore (less than 4 cents), has now grown to 1327:21 kronor, or more than $350.00.

     Those friends who take an interest in the growth of this Swedish "Academy Baby" are cordially invited to send contributions to its fund to the treasurer of "Providentia," Mr. Edward Sandstrom, Bergsgatan 34, Stockholm, Sweden, or to Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     AUSTRIA. The Rev. F. E. Goerwitz visited the New Church people in Trieste, on May 7th, staying until the 13th. Services were conducted on Sunday, the 8th, at the residence of Mr. Mitis. Before his visit, Mr. Goerwitz had written to the friends in Trieste, proposing the celebration of the Holy Supper on Ascension day, May 12th. "They replied," reports Goerwitz, "that they could gladly embrace this opportunity; and about a week later they wrote again, that they had been reading the chapter on the Holy Supper in T. C. R., and had become convinced that it would he proper and orderly for them to be baptized into the New Church before partaking of the Holy Supper, and that nine adults of their number had resolved to take this important step which would separate them completely from the Roman Catholic Church. On Thursday afternoon, May 12th, these nine were baptized by me into the faith of the New Church, together with five children; after which the Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered to the nine adults. Only two of them spoke a little German, so I used the Italian liturgy, being the translation made by Professor Scocia from the English, both for the baptism and for the Holy Supper; while some introductory remarks were translated, sentence by sentence, by an interpreter, an agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

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After the service, on invitation of Mr. Mitis, some more friends came, who are interested in the Doctrines but not yet members of the circle, and the whole company (about twenty persons) were given a bounteous supper by Mr. Mitis. It was a delightful evening; religious hymns were sung from Protestant hymn books to an accompaniment of stringed instruments." Mr. Goerwitz formed a very favorable impression of the people as being earnest Newchurchmen "who draw their spiritual food from the Writings translated by Professor Scocia, and also by his periodical, the Nuova Epocha." From a letter to Dr. Wright, we learn that during the evening meeting referred to above, the friends organized themselves as "'The New Church Circle of Trieste." The letter is signed by Mr. and Mrs. Goerwitz, Vittorio Risegari, (one of the two on whom Signor Scocia devolved his work), Elvira Risegari, Brutlo Risegari, Ol. Risegari, Glovanni Mitis, Guglieb, Mitis, Georg Mitis, Gloria Mitis, Paolo Mitis, Paolo Cuppo, Giovanna Cuppo, Vitorio Stopper, Eduardo Gregoriel, and Marcello Risegari.

     SOUTH AFRICA. The Rev. J. F. Buss, who, last year, went to Durban for his health, has finally settled down there, having accepted a call to serve as pastor of the Durban Society. The Society is to be congratulated on securing the services or a minister who has shown himself to be a faithful and conscientious student of the Writings.

     BRAZIL. The New Church Society in Rio de Janeiro celebrated the nineteenth of June as the 134th anniversary of the inauguration of the New Church in the spiritual world, and the sixth from the beginning of the Church in Brazil. The hall of worship in rua Maria Jose presented a festive and beautiful aspect, thanks to the assistance of the ladies of the church ("das senhoras novo-jerusalemita"). After the celebration the sacrament of Baptism was administered to a number of new members.

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ASSEMBLY PHOTOGRAPHS 1904

       RANDOLPH W. CHILDS       1904



     ANNOUNCEMENTS.




     Special Notices.

     The delivery of the Assembly pictures is completed. A large number of pictures was sold, and it is hoped all have satisfaction to the purchasers.

     Further orders for these photographs (price, postpaid, $1.00) should be addressed to RANDOLPH W. CHILDS, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
PITTSBURG ASSEMBLY 1904

PITTSBURG ASSEMBLY              1904

     The Fourth Pittsburgh District Assembly will be held on October 13th-17th, 1904.

     Thursday, October 13th, 8 P. M., reception at Belfield Club, N. Craig street.

     Friday, October 14th, 2 P. M., assembly meeting at the church building. Bishop's address.

     Saturday, October 15th, 8 P. M., assembly meeting.

     Sunday, October 16th, 11 A. M., worship; sermon by the Rev. W. L. Gladish.

     In the afternoon. 4 P. M., administration of the Holy Supper.

     Monday, October 17th, 8 P. M., men's meeting.

     Intending visitors will please address, REV. N. D. PENDLETON, 632 S. Negley, Ave., Pittsburg, Pa.
CHICAGO ASSEMBLY 1904

CHICAGO ASSEMBLY       DAVID H. KLEIN       1904

     The Chicago District Assembly of the General Church will he held at Glenview. Ills., October 23th to 23d. All members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. The Immanuel Church will provide for the entertainment of visitors, who are requested to send notice of their coming to Mr. W. H. Junge, Glenview, Ills. DAVID H. KLEIN

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PREPARATION FOR THE EXTENSION OF THE CHURCH 1904

PREPARATION FOR THE EXTENSION OF THE CHURCH       Rev. ANDREW CZERNY       1904

     
NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Vol. XXIV.     NOVEMBER, 1904.     No. 11.
(An address delivered at the London Assembly, August 27, 1904.)

It is a teaching, familiar to every reader of the Writings, that there is no salvation for Christians, without a knowledge and acknowledgment of the Lord in His Divine Human. This knowledge of the genuine truths of the Word has been lost. The Lord is no longer known in that Church. All its worship is directed to a divided Trinity. Nor can those who have confirmed themselves in the falses of that church be instructed; hence, these falses cannot be removed from their minds so as to prepare the way for the reception of true knowledges concerning the Lord, and the Divine Trinity in Him. There are a few, however, we are taught, who have not confirmed themselves in these falses. These are known to the Lord, and are kept by Him in a salvable state. They are all those who worship God in simplicity, and shun evils as sins from conscience. They are called the remains; and they are so called because with them there still remains something of the Church. With the rest everything of the Church, except the form, has perished.

     Ever since the institution of the New Church, efforts have been made to spread a knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines, in order to reach these remains, or at least such of them, as may be prepared to reject the doctrines of the Old Church, and to receive the doctrines of the New Church.

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In the early days of the Church such efforts were successful, but they became less and less productive of results as time went on.

     There is, of course, a reason for this. The New Church has now been in existence for over one hundred and thirty years; so that by this time the number of these remains may be very small. Such, at least, is the appearance.

     Still we may be deceived by the appearance. For there is the teaching, that the New Church will be first among a few, until preparation is made for it among many. (A. R. 547; A. E. 730.) Thus, although there may not really have been any increase in their number since the Last Judgment, their present number may far exceed the number of those who have come into the New Church. And yet they would be "the few" spoken of in the Writings, when compared with the great mass of so-called Christians.

     Now supposing this to be the case, and that there is still a considerable number of the simple-minded among the various religious bodies in the Christian World, what is the reason that we cannot reach them? or that they are not led to seek the New Church? For by the simple minded are meant those who are to come to the New Church. They are those who are in the god of life, although in falses as to doctrine. They are those who look to the Lord; for they know from the Word, that the Lord is God. And the teaching is, that those who are in the good of life, desire truth. Hence, if there are any of this description, however few they may be, we should expect that they would be led to inquire after the truth, and would never cease until they had found it.

     And yet, as is well known, there is no inquiry after spiritual truth; and efforts to reach such as might be seeking the truth end in failure. What is the reason of this seeming indifference on the part of those who are still in simple good?

     Various reasons suggest themselves, but the one most likely to be the true one, is, that there state does not as yet permit it; in other words, that the preparation spoken of in the Writings is not yet completed; for it is distinctly stated that the Church will be first among the few, until preparation is made for it to be among many.

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Besides there is still some natural good in the Old Church, which, by many, is mistaken for spiritual good; so that to the simple, that Church may not seem to be so wholly consummated, as the Writings teach it to be. It is not unknown that even in the New Church there are men who are deceived by the appearance of good in the vastated church.

     There are clearly obstacles in the way, which have to be removed, before the Divine Truth, or the Lord in His Second Coming can appear to those who are reserved for the New Church. And until these are removed, all efforts to reach them will be fruitless.

     But although efforts to bring the Divine Truth to them fail, for reasons unknown to us, there is a way in which we can be of service to them. The Writings themselves point it out, and by following it, we shall never fail of success.

     It is a teaching, familiar to every reader of the Writings, that the Church, where the Word is read and received, is in spiritual light above others; and that those outside the Church derive all their light and life from the Church. In order that this may result, there must be a spiritual affection of good and truth with the members of the Church. The mere possession of the word does not enlighten the Church. This is clearly evident from the fact that the Jews have had the Word for many ages, and yet have never been in any spiritual light. The Christian Church, too, has the Word, and yet there is no light there. The Church is in the light of the Word, only when truths are received with some spiritual affection, that is, for the sake of life as the end. Light is received according to the life; it is received in the degree that self and the world are not regarded as ends. In other words, the more spiritual a Church becomes, the greater the light which it receives,-the greater the light which emanates from it to others. There is much teaching on this subject, of which presently. But first a few remarks by way of introduction.

     The uses of the Church are, of all uses, the most necessary to mankind. Upon the faithful performance of the same, depends the existence of the human race. Indeed, so necessary are they to its preservation, that, when man had become so external that he was no longer capable of receiving spiritual good and truth, the Lord established the mere semblance of a church,-a church which was merely representative, and whose members were compelled by external means to perform its uses.

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Not only those of the Church are benefitted by these uses, but, as the Writings teach, those also who are not of the Church. For this reason the Lord provides, that there be a Church on earth at all times.

     A Church to be a Church of the Lord must acknowledge the Lord in faith and in life; it must have an external organization; it must have a priesthood; the Word must be taught, and the Sacraments must be administered. It is not sufficient that the internal principles of love and of faith are known and believed; the Church must have a form and order based upon these principles, and must perform uses corresponding to them. In brief, there must be a visible Church on earth.

     We repeat there must be a visible Church on earth, for there is also an invisible Church on earth at all times; a Church not known to those of the visible Church, except by revelation. And this Church is far larger, at the present day, than the visible Church. It consists of all those, in the various religious bodies on earth, outside the Church who worship a Divine Being under a human form, and shun the evils which their religion forbids; thus of all those, who have a species of faith and charity. It thus includes both those who have not the Word and hence do not know that the Lord is the Only God of heaven and earth, and those who, although they have the word, do not understand its teachings because they are not in possess of genuine doctrine, without which the Lord cannot be understood. All these are in obscurity as to all things of religion, but, as they regard the two essentials of religion, namely, the worship of a Divine Being and obedience to His will, as essentials to salvation, they are conjoined with heaven, though remotely, and are accepted by the Lord. They belong to the Church of the Lord, because the two essentials of religion just named, constitute the Church with man. But as some of them have not the Word, and those that have it do not understand its teachings, and so cannot know the Lord nor direct their worship to Him, therefore, the Lord cannot conjoin Himself as fully with them, as with those of the Church. Thus, although the Lord accepts their worship, they are not of His Church in the same sense as those who approach Him directly.

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They constitute the Church Universal,--the Church which is not visible on earth, because not organized into a body based upon a common faith.

     But let us hear what the Writings teach on this subject. We read:

     The Lord, whenever this can be clone, conjoins societies, [so as to present a man]; for the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord introduces that order, wheresoever it is received. Hence that order is in heaven. It is also in the earths. But the societies which constitute it are scattered through the whole orb of earths, and are principled in love to Him, and in charity toward the neighbor. But those scattered societies, are collected by the Lord, that they may represent one man, as do the societies in heaven. These societies are not only within the Church, but also out of it, and taken together are called the Church, scattered and collected from the good in the universal orb of earths, which is also called a Communion. This communion, or this Church, is the Lord's Kingdom on the earth, conjoined with the Lord's Kingdom in the heavens, and thus conjoined with the Lord. (A. C. 7396.)

     Thus we can see that the Lord's Church is not only with those who have the Word, but with all those who believe in the two essentials of religion, and live according to them, and that its members are conjoined by the Lord with each other, and form the Gorand Man on earth, from which the Gorand Man in heaven constantly receives new additions. The manner in which this conjunction is effected is described in the following words:

     In what manner the presence and conjunction of the Lord and of heaven is effected in all countries by means of the Word, shall now be shown. The universal heaven is in the Lord's sight as a single man, and so also is the Church. . . . in this man, the Church where the Word is read and by this the Lord known, is as the heart and the lungs. Now as from these two fountains of life in the human body all the other members and viscera subsist and live, so also do all those in every Dart of the earth, who have any religion, who worship God, lead a good life, and thus make a part of this man, subsist and live, from the conjunction of the Lord and heaven with the Church, by means of the word; resembling in this respect the members and viscera of the thorax, wherein the heart and lungs are contained. For the word in the Church, although it is with relatively few, is life to all the rest from the Lord through heaven; just as the life of the members and viscera of the whole body is from the heart and lungs; there is also a similar communication.

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This is the reason, why those Christians, among whom the Word is read, constitute the breast of the fore-mentioned mass. They are also in the center; next to them are the Roman Catholics; beyond these are the Mohammedans, who acknowledge the Lord as a very great prophet, and the Son of God; after these come the Africans; and the last circumference is occupied by the peoples and nations of Asia and the Indies.

     In the center, where Christians are situated, who have the Word, is the greatest light; for light in the heavens is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord as a Sun there; and inasmuch as the Word is the Divine Truth, the greatest light is with those who have the Word. Light thence, as from a centre, spreads itself around through all the circumferences, even to the extremities. Hence is the illumination of the nations and peoples without the Church through the Word. (S. S. 105-106. See also A. C. 4292, 9256, 9276; H. H. 328; S. D. 4438, etc.)

     From the passages just quoted, and from a number of others, we learn that all those who worship God and lead a good life constitute the Church of the Lord in the widest sense of the term; but that this term is generally applied to those only who have the Word, and acknowledge the Lord. We further learn that the Word is the only source of life and light, and that all who are principled in good, derive life and light from that source. Those in the Church derive them immediately from the Word; those outside the Church receive them through the Church. But it is evident that this communication does not take place in the natural world. The Church has not reached all those throughout the world who are in good. It is plain, therefore, that this communication is effected by an internal was the manner of which, as far as we are aware, has not been revealed to us. It is clearly sufficient for us to know that it takes place.

     Thus it is evident, that a living thing performs uses, not only to its own members, but also to the whole human race. Its uses are, of all uses in the world, the most important. We do not always realize how much depends upon the faithful performance of the same,--how much upon our own individual preparation for the reception of the Lord's influx. Since the Lord made His Second Advent, the function of communicating the Divine Light to others has been one of the uses of the New Church. But the power of the Church to communicate, is determined by its power to receive, and this again depends in great measure upon its preparation.

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The more interior, the more spiritual a Church becomes, the greater the power to receive the Divine Light, the brighter also the light which emanates from the Church. The passages above quoted describe the arrangement of spirits in the World of Spirits, before the New Church was instituted. But in that world the center is always occupied by those who have the most interior form of Divine Truth, because there is the greatest light. And as the most interior truths known on earth are those revealed by the Lord at His Second Coming, it follows that those who acknowledge the same in faith and in life now occupy the center, from which light emanates to all the rest.

     Let the man of the New Church, therefore, prepare himself more fully for the reception of the Divine Light. Let him strive to reach more interior states, by shunning the things that oppose, so that his ability to receive the Divine Truth may increase. This light will then flow more fully from the church to those who are in good throughout the world, and will prepare them the sooner to receive the Divine Truth as the Lord has revealed it at His Second Coming.

     How true this is, is illustrated by the teaching concerning the Gentiles; which is to the effect, that those in ancient times greatly surpassed in wisdom those of later times. (H. H. 323, 324.) The reason is no other than this, that the Ancient Church was an interior Church, whereas the Christian Church never attained a very interior state. Apply this to the New Church, and the conclusion is obvious.

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LOOKING TO THE LORD 1904

LOOKING TO THE LORD       Rev. J. E. BOWERS       1904

     "I will lift up mine eyes to the mountains, whence cometh my help. My help is from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth." (Psa. cxxi: 1, 2).

     IN its application to the states of finite men, the spiritual idea involved in these words, is the elevation of the human understanding, from an internal affection of truth, to the Lord and to things heavenly and Divine which are from Him with the angels and with men. The idea may be expressed clearly, as being that of looking to the Lord, our Father in the heavens, in a state of enlightenment from revealed truth. And as in this state the Lord is known as to His Divine Attributes of Love and Wisdom; since He is known as to His Omnipotence and Providence, and according to these as a Being of infinite perfection; there is a looking to the Lord continually, in the spirit of humility, in entire submission to His leading, and thus with unreserved trust and confidence.

     The mountains, as all natural objects of the material world, are mentioned in the Word as correspondences. We are told that correspondences is the appearing of what is internal in what is external, and its representation there. It is repeatedly stated, in the Writings, that the Word is not understood without doctrine. And it is also a truth that the Word is not understood without a knowledge of correspondences; because no one can enter into an understanding of its spiritual sense without this knowledge. But in order for anyone to enter into the spiritual sense of the Word, and thus to enter intellectually into the mysteries of faith, which it is now permitted the man of the Church to do, it is necessary to be first instructed in genuine truths from doctrine. If a man is in such a state, from an internal affection of truth, that he can receive genuine truths from doctrine, he will be able to enter, through a knowledge of correspondences, into a rational understanding of the Word. He will in this case be able to receive illustration, so as to understand more and more interiorly, the spiritual sense of the Word, and will study it with an ever-increasing delight.

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He will then see clearly, as in the light of heaven. He will find hidden treasures of heavenly wisdom ever new; and by applying them to the uses of life, he will be laying up treasures in heaven, as the Lord admonishes.

     But if a man is in such a state that he can not receive genuine truths from doctrine; if he reads the Writings merely from a sort of curiosity, and acquires a knowledge of correspondences for the sake of the intellectual exercise of his mind; he will never be able to enter interiorly into an understanding of the Word as to its spiritual sense, and will, therefore, never become a rational Newchurchman. And in such a state, through some correspondences known to him in a general way, a man will naturally falsify the Word in his own mind; and if he undertakes to instruct others, as he will be much inclined to attempt to do, he will teach heresies, even concerning the essentials of the Church. And they who are so credulous as to follow his teaching, will be led into a maze of fallacies, from which they can afterwards be extricated only with great difficulty, and through severe mental suffering.

     Anyone who can receive the Heavenly Doctrines as they are revealed for the New Church; anyone who is a devout believer in the Lord, according to these doctrines, will at once be deeply impressed, and interiorly moved, by the spirit that breathes forth from the simple and yet sublime words of the text. There is that spiritual power in the Divine Truth, as expressed in die ultimate form in the language of correspondence, conveyed to the human mind by these words, which is an inspiration. I will lift up mine eyes to the mountains, whence cometh my help. My help is from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth.

     The imposing objects of nature, which are of striking appearance to the beholder, as high hills and mountains, are mentioned in the Word as correspondences, and for important reasons. Thus, by viewing the stupendous works of the Lord, the Creator, even in the material universe, and by the contemplation of their spiritual significance, there is effected an exercise of the faculties of the human mind which is in the highest degree enjoyable. There is an elevation of the thoughts, and the interior affections of the mind become intensely active.

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The whole soul is raised up as it were out of the valley of an external state, into a higher sphere of life, in which the angels can be more intimately present, to be the means of imparting those heavenly influences which the Lord communicates to man through them.

     In Isaiah, it is written: "Ascend into the high mountain, O Zion, that bringest good tidings." This is said concerning the New Church, which indeed brings good tidings to the world, even the new and eternal gospel which is to be preached to those who dwell upon the earth, and which is for the salvation of the human race. It also applies to every individual member of the Church. All who have even a general knowledge of the new gospel, namely, the Heavenly Doctrines, are exhorted to ascend into the high mountain, to arise, as to state, to a clear understanding of their relations to the Lord, as members of His Church; and to arise, also, to a more full and whole-souled appreciation of the privileges they enjoy. The natural tendency is to remain down in the low valley; and it is only by looking to the Lord as the ever-present Helper, that we call rise above those external conditions which are of the loves of self and of the world.

     As we go up into a high mountain in nature, the atmosphere becomes clearer and more pure. The view obtained continues to grow more extensive, and more beautiful and impressive. The valley is seen stretching out far and wide, and a river or stream generally flows through the valley. Fields and meadows, orchards and vineyards, sheep and cattle feeding in the pastures and on hillsides, are presented to view. Beyond, in the distance, the mountains rise up to meet the sky, and their summits extend as far as the eye can reach, and then blend with the sky into a haze. The scene is indeed awe-inspiring to the devout mind, because in such a picture we behold the works of the Hands of God, the infinite Builder of the universe.

     Now, all these things are correspondences, and are mentioned in the Divine language of the sacred Scripture which is the Word. The foundation of the mountains are the everlasting rocks, in the crust of the earth. In the spiritual sense, the earth itself, in general, signifies the Church. The rocks are the fundamental truths of the Word, which, when they are received by men as from the Lord, constitute with them the ultimate bases, upon which all the interior principles of the Church which they receive, are to rest forever.

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Thus the men of the Church will be strong in the faith, and they will have firm convictions of the truth. The grim spectre of doubt will vanish; and the hideous spirit of perplexity as to the distinction between truth and falsity, will trouble them no more.

     When we go up into the mountain of an elevated spiritual state, which we do by receiving the doctrine revealed for us into our understanding, and by applying it to life, then our mental atmosphere becomes clearer. Our affections and thoughts are purified of evils and falses. In the course of time changes of disposition, in various respects, are effected in our minds. We have a more comprehensive view of spiritual things, and a more mature and rational judgment, than in the earlier periods of our life. For these indications, that in the Divine mercy of the Lord we are making at least some progress in our spiritual journey heaven-ward, we have great reason to be thankful. We are assured that although on account of our still imperfect state, difficulties will have to be overcome in the future, the same hardships through which we have gone in the past, will never although the road in our journey may at times be rugged,--not so smooth and easy as we might wish it to be,--yet we do not for one moment permit ourselves to think of turning back. No: we occur again. And knowing that the Lord will certainly enable us to overcome every obstacle in the way of our progress, even to the end of the journey of life.

     Going up a steep mountain-road on foot is arduous. It requires physical strength, to ascend to the top of a high mountain. A rest on the way, occasionally, is necessary. These facts also have a correspondence to things in our spiritual experience. Thus, to walk in the way of the Christian life; that is, to live according to the doctrine of Divine truth; is at times laborious. It is so on account of the inclinations of the natural man with us, who always desires to have as easy a time as possible, because he cannot see any reason why he should he subjected to hardships. It is so because of the insidious influences, which are continually in the endeavor to keep us in an external state: to obscure our perceptions and prevent our seeing in the light of truth, what is for our ultimate good.

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It, therefore, requires the strength of a stead-fast purpose, to keep right on in the way in which the Lord leads; to look to Him in all things concerning the internal needs of our souls; to accept, in humility and gratitude, not only the blessings He provides for us in the present, but also the afflictions He permits as discipline, for the sake of our well-being and happiness in the future. To wait patiently, is one of the most important lessons we are to learn, in this rudimentary stage of our existence. In the process of our regeneration, we have to labor, according to the spiritual idea, in order to ascend into the mountain of an elevated and purified state. And this idea is, that internal conflicts of the mind, which are spiritual temptation-combats, must be endured, for the end that certain separations, which are absolutely necessary for our amendment, may be effected. But what are these separations?

     The human mind that has begun to learn the genuine truths of the Word, according to the doctrine of the Church, but that has not as yet made much progress in the regenerate life, is in an external state corresponding to a low valley. In this state the mind is occupied by things heterogeneous, or of opposite nature. There are affections clean and unclean; thoughts pure and impure; motives sinister and unselfish. At times there are low desires, and at other times high aspirations. The faculties of understanding and will are not in harmony, because they have not yet been united by the heavenly marriage. In the intellect there are truths for which there is not as yet an ardent affection, and hence something of discord is present, although it may but seldom be perceived. The good and the true are mingled more or less with evil and false principles. In this condition a person cannot enjoy perfect internal peace and tranquillity, or felicity of life.

     Now these opposite things, which are together in the mind, must be separated. The separation takes place as regeneration proceeds. This proceeds according to Divine order, which is by a very slow and gradual growth; for it is impossible for the human mind to undergo an entire change of state in a short time. This is as impossible as it would be to change a wolf into a sheep, or an owl, into a dove.

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It is in the nature of things an absolute necessity for man to be regenerated by the slow process of spiritual development. The sudden transition of state from an imperfect man, in whose mind things are mixed as described, to a state of perfection, could not be effected, because such a change would be to destroy him.

     The reason of this is, because the Lord has ordained that man's relation to Himself shall be such that, as a free agent, man shall at every step of his regeneration, co-operate with the Lord. Thus the Lord gives to every man the privilege and the power, to act as of himself, and to do good or to do evil as of himself; and, what is wonderful, the Divine Omnipotence itself is exerted on behalf of every man, to so keep him in equilibrium and to guard his freedom, that it is possible for him to do so. But, though man has this freedom to act as of himself, if he becomes intelligent and wise, he ascribes the inclination and the ability to do so, to the Lord alone.

     If a man, being in freedom as just said, is in the affection of truth, and there is with him an inclination to good; if he begins to have an aversion to falsity and evil; when he thus, in the light of what he has received of doctrine, begins to see his own imperfections and the need of leading a new life; and when he, moreover, in some degree realizes that of himself he can do nothing except what the Lord enables him to do; then he is ready to exclaim, from his whole heart and soul, in the words of our text: I will lift up mine eyes to the mountains, whence cometh my help. My help is from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth.

     The Lord, by His Divine Providence, in infinite ways unknowable to us, and by means of the ministry of myriads of angels, is continually in the endeavor to lead men into such states, in order as there is, on man's part, an acknowledgment of the Lord, and a denial of self and a renunciation of all things of man's own life. Thus, when a man begins to see himself as he really is, as to his spiritual state,--poor, weak, helpless, in ignorance, and in need of all things which the Lord alone can give,--then he makes a start in the heavenward journey of regeneration. Then he is delighted to learn the truths of doctrine, which lead to the good of life. The false notions he had formerly cherished are renounced, as he receives instruction from the Word, as now revealed for the Church.

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Spiritual truth enters into the understanding and enlightens it; a new will is formed; and hence there is a new life, both of thought and affection. The mind is purified of evils and falses, as little by little all manner of lusts and things unclean are removed and extirpated. If a man remains faithful, ever looking to the Lord whence alone cometh help, the process of renewal will go on until the spiritual and rational principles will rule in all things. And so, in the course of time, although it may take years to accomplish it,--during which many severe mental conflicts may be experienced,--there will be given power from the Divine, to completely subjugate the natural and sensual man, so that instead of bearing rule he shall serve. For regeneration proceeds from within, and finally brings all things into order, even down to the very ultimates of man's life. And then there will be felicity of life.

     Regeneration continues throughout the whole period of man's life in the world, and afterwards in the other life, to eternity. This is because men and angels are finite beings: and, therefore, recipients of life from the Lord, the infinite Fountain of all life. The angels are only pure and perfect in the finite degree, but they advance in purity and perfection, in intelligence and wisdom, in peace and ineffable joy, forever. And this is of the mercy of the Lord, who has so created man that he may receive from the infinite fulness of His Love, for evermore,--if only he is willing to give up his own life, and all its evil loves.

     The progressions in the life of the good of love to the Lord, and in mutual love, according to the truth of faith, by which one comes into the delightful sphere of harmony with those who are in these heavenly loves, are described in many passages in the Word, where the mountains and the hills are mentioned. This is treated of, for instance, where we read: "Ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing: and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands." (Isaiah lv: 12.)

     The spiritual union of the affection of good in the will, and of the intelligence of truth in the understanding, which is the heavenly marriage, from which are brought forth the precious fruits of the uses of truly human life; or, the union of two who are of the Church, in conjugial love, and the angelic influences that affect with such tenderness and gentleness, the consorts toward each other, causing them mutually to seek and to serve the true ends of their sacred relation,--these things are involved, besides myriads of similar states of beatitude which the Lord provides, in the words: "As the dew of Hermon, which descends upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord ordained the blessing of life, even to an age." (Psalm. cxxxiii:3.)

591




     The age here spoken of, is that period in the history of the Church, when all things are made new by the Lord; when there is, and is to be, evermore, a new heaven and a new earth,--both a new internal and a new external, as to all things of the Church; and, therefore, that increase and growth from small beginnings from within, according to the laws of Divine order, by which, in every particular, the internal produces and forms the external.

     It must be confessed that hitherto, even in the professed New Church, on account of the comparatively little advancement yet made in genuine spirituality, natural ideas have largely prevailed. Hence, the endeavor has been too common to build up the Church from the out-side, instead of from within, or from the circumference instead of from the centre. To build the Church from the outside, or from the circumference, is to attempt to extend its boundaries and its influence in the world, by the increase of its membership, according to mere human prudence and the dictates of expediency. But to establish the Church from within, or from the centre, is to conform in all things of its organization, in all things of its rites and Sacraments, in all of its rules of life and forms of worship, both internal and external, to the spirit of the Divine doctrines and principles which the Lord has so plainly revealed, in the Writings of the Church.

     The Lord bids us as finite men, to look to Him as the infinite, Divine Man, from Whom alone is salvation; because, except as we do so, we are nothing, and can neither will to do good, nor have the ability to think rationally according to truth. To look to the Lord, in His New Revelation, for guidance in all our undertakings, is to lift up our eyes to the mountain, whence alone cometh our help. As men of the New Church, our help is from the Lord, the Maker and Former of the new heavens and the new earth.

592


The Lord, the Holy One and the Highest, the Supreme Being, is the Divine Centre of the universe. He is in all time and in all space, without being in the least limited by the conditions of time and space. He is exalted in Divine Majesty and Glory, inhabiting Eternity, and infilling all things with life and activity, as the effects of the omnipresent Spirit proceeding from Him.

     In everything of the Word, in the supreme sense, the Lord is treated of, because the Lord is the Word. To the Divine of the Lord, which forms the Sun of the spiritual world, and thus the Centre there, all things of the heavens have reference. The angels of the heavens, and the men of the Church on the earths, who are recipients of life from the Lord, are each and everyone a centre to all others. In this is revealed to us, and we may behold, in our interior thought, an idea of how wonderfully the heavens and the Church are constituted; in the idea, namely, that such is the nature of the heavenly form, that those who are recipients from the Lord, who is the Divine Centre, are all finite centers of the communication to each, of the good which the Lord freely and in fulness gives to all; and whence is the origin and source of heavenly joy and eternal happiness.

     The Lord provides that in each individual member of the Church, and hence in the Church universal, there may be advancement, and thus an elevation of spiritual state. There may be one now and then who, having begun to receive, intellectually, a knowledge of the new doctrines, from the lack of a real affection for the truth, will be influenced to turn back, by refusing to walk in the way in which the truth leads. But those who, from an internal principle, have a desire for things spiritual and heavenly, when once they have begun to read the Writings of the Church; when the light of intelligence has dawned in their minds, and has begun to disperse the darkness of error in which they had found themselves; when a new world of thought,--a world of wondrous beauty, in which are made possible the exertions of the more interior affections,--has opened before their delighted mental vision: then they can by no means be induced to turn back, but they will go forward, ever confidently looking to the Lord, according to the import of the words which have engaged our attention: I will lift up mine eyes to the mountain, hence cometh my help. My help is from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth. Amen.

593


WORD OF THE LORD IN HIS SECOND COMING 1904

WORD OF THE LORD IN HIS SECOND COMING       EDWARD CRANCH       1904

     Divine Truth in its entirety, or the whole of the Divine Truth, is the Word of the Lord.

     The inspired writings of Swedenborg are a new revelation of Divine Truth from the Lord. Therefore, it follows in strict logic that they are the Word of the Lord, just as much so as the Old and New Testaments already known to men, or as the Ancient Word, which is now lost.

     Further, the writings of Swedenborg, given by the Lord for the use of His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, while they reveal the internal or spiritual sense as it has never been revealed before, are yet part of the literal sense, for they are in the world, in the natural degree of Divine Truth, which is for men.

     From the Lord proceed the celestial, the spiritual and the natural, one after another,...the angels of the Lord's celestial kingdom, of whom is the third or highest heaven, are in the Divine that proceeds from the Lord which is called celestial,...the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, of whom is the second or middle heaven, are in the Divine that proceeds from the Lord which is called spiritual, but then of the church in the world are in the natural Divine, which also is from the Lord. (S. S. 6.)

     Thus the Writings correspond to the Word in the heavens, just as the Word in each heaven corresponds to the Word in the next higher heaven, and all to the Lord, who in the supreme sense is the Word.

     Hence again, in the Writings, Divine Truth is present in its fulness, its holiness and its power; from them doctrine for the Church is to be drawn, and by them it is to be confirmed: moreover, by means of these inspired volumes there is conjunction with the Lord and consociation with the angels; also, they are, because in ultimates, a basis, container and support of the highest spiritual and celestial senses, which are now revealed to men through them, as in the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.

594




     By this new revelation are men commanded to live, and without its truths received into the good of life, there is hereafter no entrance into heaven.

     By its doctrine are all novitiates instructed, who come into heaven through the world of spirits, where all are first gathered after their decease, and receive these doctrines, if they are in the love of a good life begun in the world.

     As the New Testament is based upon and confirmed by the Old Testament, so the Word of the Second Coming, or THIRD TESTAMENT, is based upon and confirmed by the Word of both the Old and the New Testaments, the Hebrew and the Greek. The Hebrew is the most external, for even the forms of the letters are directly correspondential, the Greek is more interior, for in it the Lord presents much of the spiritual sense of the Old Testament, and of many of His own parables, while the Latin of Swedenborg is the most vivid and interior revelation ever yet given to men for their salvation.

     Although it is declared that the internal or spiritual, together with much of the celestial sense is now revealed and published, it is internal only in relation to the more literal and external forms of the Word in the Old and New Testaments.

     The internal sense of the Word is principally intended for the use of angels and it is also intended for the use of men, . . . thought and speech in heaven are different from thought and speech in the world; for in heaven they are spiritual, but in the world natural . . . nevertheless these who senses make a one by correspondence. (W. H. 10.)

     Hence we see that in the Books of the New Church we cannot have an absolute internal sense, but only a literal form of it, suited to men, and malting a one, by correspondence, with the actual angelic Word. In Hebrew, and in Greek, and in Latin, was the inscription over the crucified Lord. "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews," by which was signified that Divine Truth or the Word was so looked at and so treated by the Jews." (A. C. 9144.)

     In Hebrew, and in Greek, and in Latin, has the Lord given Himself in His Word, to men; and Swedenborg, while he wrote in the Arcana Coelestia an enumeration of "The Books of the Word in the Old Testament, and in the New Testament" afterwards wrote in the beginning of an "Ecclesiastical History," as follows:

595




     The Books which were written by the Lord through me, from the beginning to the present day, must be enumerated.

     The writing therein is such that it gives light before those who believe in the Lord and in the then revelation, but is obscure and of no moment to those who deny these things, and who for various external reasons are not in favor of them. . . . On the Books was written "The Advent of the Lord;" on all in the spiritual world. By command I wrote the same on two copies in Holland.

     One of these copies has been found; it bears the following inscription: "Hic Liber est Adventus Domini, scriptum ex mandate." (This Book is the Advent of the Lord, written by command.)

     Attention is now invited to a few extracts that support the first proposition in this paper, and show that "Word of the Lord," "Divine Truth," and "all Divine Truth," are, in the Writings, freely interchangeable terms.

     The Lord is the Word, because He is the Divine Truth. (Dominus est Verbum, quia est Divinum Verum.) (L. J. 28.)

     That the Lord was the Word, is manifest in John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word; and the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us, and we saw His glory;" the Word is Divine Truth. (A. C. 9144.)

     Divine Doctrine is Divine Truth, and Divine Truth is all the Word of the Lord, . . . that the Lord is the Word, that is, all Divine Truth, is known. (Divinum Verum est omne Verburn Domini, . . . quod Dominus sit Verbum, hoc est, omne Divinum Verum, notum est. (A. C. 3712.)

     This number is one of those referred to in the Last Judgment, 28, quoted above, as showing that "the Lord is the Word because He is the Divine Truth."

     Unless the Lord come again into the world in Divine Truth, which is the Word, no one can be saved. (T. C. R. 3.)

     Now, to demonstrate the second proposition of the paper, namely, that the inspired writings of Swedenborg are Divine Truth from the Lord, let the following extracts be read:

     By the Word, is meant every truth which is concerning Him, and is from Him, in His kingdom in the heavens, and in His church in the earths,...and, because Truth, by the Word, is meant all revelation. (A. C. 2894.)

596




     It is here only hinted, how the Lord thought concerning the appearances which captivated the first rational with Him, namely, that He ought not to trust to them, but to essential Divine Truths, however incredible they might appear to that rational. This is the case with all Divine Truths; in the rational is consulted concerning them, they can never he believed, inasmuch as they surpass all its apprehension; as for example, that no man, spirit or angel lives of himself, but the Lord alone, and that the life of a man, of a spirit, and of an angel, is an appearance of life abiding with them.... It is a Divine truth, that there are indefinite things contained in each vocal expression of the Word.... It is a Divine truth, that no one is ever rewarded in the other life for his good actions, if he has placed merit in them, (etc.). . . It Is a Divine truth, that whoever in his own idea allots to himself the least joy in the other life, receives from the Lord the greatest, (etc.). Again, it is a Divine truth, that every one is wiser in proportion as he believes that nothing of wisdom is from himself, (etc.). (A. C. 1936.)

     Every one call 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. (A. R. Preface.)

     "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 opened and explained as to its spiritual sense, where Divine truths in abundance are revealed by the Lord for those who will be in His New Church, which is the New Jerusalem. (A. R. 932.)

     "The cloud of heaven" in the Word, is the sense of the letter, "power and glory" is the internal sense, thus the Divine Truth which shall then appear; the "coming of the Lord" denotes the acknowledgment of Truth Divine by those who are of the New Church, and denial by those who are of the Old Church. (A. C. 8427.)

     The Writings being, as thus declared, a new revelation of Divine Truth from the Lord, and, as shown above, "all Divine Truth" and "all revelation" being "The Word," the conclusion follows of itself that the Writings of Swedenborg, inscribed by one whom the Lord "filled with His Spirit" (T. C. R. 779), are the inspired Word of God, the THIRD TESTAMENT.

     The various Books of the new revelation are so inseparably connected that what is true of one, is true of all.

     That by the truths and precepts in the Writings men are commanded to live, shall now be shown:

     To live according to the precepts of the Lord, is to live according to the doctrine of charity and of faith, which you may see prefixed to each chapter of the book of Exodus.

597


That this is the case, the Lord also teaches in John, "He that hath My precepts and doeth them, he it is that loveth Me." (A. C. 10578.)

     "Behold, I come quickly; blessed is he that keepeth the words of this prophecy," signifies that the Lord will certainly come, and will give eternal life to those who keep and do the truths or precepts of doctrine of this Book, now opened by the Lord. He who considers can see that keeping the words of the prophecy of this Book is not meant, but that it signifies to observe, that is, keep and do the truths and precepts of doctrine which are opened in this Book now explained; for in the Apocalypse without explanation there are few things which can be kept; for the things prophesied have not hitherto been understood. For example, the things which are related in Chap. vi. concerning the horses which went out of the Book cannot be kept, nor the things in Chap. vii. concerning the twelve tribes, nor those in Chap. viii. and ix. concerning the seven angels which sounded,... nor those in Chap. xx. on the last judgment, nor those in Chap. xxi, on the New Jerusalem as a city, from which it is manifest that it is not meant that those are blessed who keep the words of this prophecy) for they are closed up, but that those are blessed who observe, that is, keep and do the truths and precepts of doctrine which are contained in them, and are now opened, and that these are from the Lord, may be seen in the Preface. (A. R. 944.)

     That the words of the new revelation are not "Swedenborg's own," although he had a perfect understanding of them, and was able to alter any errors due to physical conditions, to which all finite forces are liable, may be inferred from the following:

     When Angelic ideas, which are spiritual, inflow with man, they are turned instantly and of themselves (memento et ex se) into the natural ideas proper to man, corresponding exactly to the spiritual ideas; such also is all the influx of heaven with man. (H. H. 68.)

     Concerning conjunction with the Lord by means of the new revelation, see the following:

     His presence in the Word comes only by means of the spiritual sense. (T. C. R. 280.)

     The Word communicates with heaven by its spiritual sense. (S. S. 5.)

     The New Church is conjoined with heaven through the Divine truths of the Word, which are in its spiritual sense. (A. E. 950)

     For those who are in doubt respecting it, the Word, such as it is in its internal sense, or its interiors, must be laid open even by natural truths. (S. D. 5710.)

     Concerning entrance to heaven:

598




     The Lord, at this day, is forming a new angelic heaven, and it is forming from those who believe in the Lord God the Savior, and go immediately to Him; others are rejected. (T. C. R. 108.)

     All instruction is given there (in the places of instruction for heaven, in the world of spirits, in man's third state after death) from doctrine derived from the Word, . . . Christians are instructed from the Heavenly Doctrines, which is in entire agreement with the internal sense of the Word. (H. H. 516.)

     A very plain and comprehensive statement of the Doctrine of the Second Coming is to be found in the work on the Last Judgment (n. 28), as follows:

     By the Lord's Advent in the clouds of heaven, is not to be understood that He will thus appear, but that He will appear in the Word; for the Lord is the Word because He is the Divine Truth; the clouds of heaven in which He is to come, are the sense of the letter of the church is, the Lord glory is its spiritual sense. . . . When the end of the church is, the Lord will reveal the spiritual sense of the Word, thus the Divine Truth, such as It is in Itself. . . . That there is a spiritual sense within each thing and expression in the Word, and meant it is, may be seen in the Arcana Coelestia, in which all the contents of Genesis and Exodus are explained according to that sense.


     SWEDENBORG'S INSPIRATION.

     All this I see and know without becoming the subject of any visions, and without being a fanatic, but when I am alone, my soul is, as it were, out of the body and in the other world; in all respects I am in a visible manner there, as I am here. But when I think of what I am about to write, and while I am in the act of writing, I enjoy a perfect inspiration (sa ager jag en full komlig Inspiration) I for otherwise it would be my own; but now I know for certain, that what I write is the living truth of God. (Swedenborg's words as quoted by Librarian Gjorwell, Doc. II., p. 404.)

599


SWEDENBORG'S ANNOTATIONS IN A SET OF THE ARCANA COELESTIA 1904

SWEDENBORG'S ANNOTATIONS IN A SET OF THE ARCANA COELESTIA       ALFRED HENRY STROH       1904

     IN the Harvard College Library are preserved a number of the original editions of the Writings, scientific works, translations, and New Church collateral works, which were presented to the Library by the Rev. William Hill in 1794* Some of the books have the autograph of William Hill; others are designated on the Library's book-plates in the books as having been presented by him. Among these books presented by William Hill is a set of the Arcana Coelestia which contains a great number of annotations m Swedenborg's handwriting. This set is also of special interest to Newchurchmen because it was used by the early leaders of the Church in Boston, Thomas Worcester, Sampson Reed and others.**

600


In the early days of last July the writer examined this set of the Arcana Coelestia, and on finding the annotations by Swedenborg prepared the present article.
     * The Rev. William Hill, who had received the Doctrines in London through the instrumentality of the Rev. Jacob Duche, of Philadelphia, studied the Theology of the New Church under the guidance of the Rev. John Clowes, of Manchester. In 1794 Mr. Hill visited America and was indefatigable in spreading the Doctrines in this country by the press and from the pulpit. In 1796 he returned to England, but did not remain there, for in 1797 we find him back in America. In 1798 he married Esther Duche, the daughter of his friend, the Rev. Jacob Duche, who had died shortly before. This was the first New Church marriage in America. After performing many useful services for the Church, among them the translating of the Apocalypsis Explicata, Mr. Hill was carried off by consumption in 1804 at Philadelphia. Many of his letters have been printed and the story of his life is one of singular charm and interest. See especially a biography in the Life for 1896, pages 103-105, on William Hill, by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner. Numerous references to sources of information are given. See also the entries under "Hill" in the Index to the Annals of the New Church.
     In a letter by William Hill to Robert Carter, Esq., of Baltimore, dated Cambridge, July 11, 1794, and published in the New Church Review, 1898, pages 58-65, there is the following reference to the presentation of the Writings to the Harvard College Library:
     "I have also procured the Writings admission into the College Library here, having already two or three converts among the students."
     ** See A Sketch of the History of the Boston Society of the New Jerusalem, with a list of its members: Boston: Printed by John C. Regan, 19 Spring Lane, 1873, 116 pages, 8vo. On page 6 there is the following reference to the Writings in the Harvard College Library:
     "Mr. Thomas Worcester, then an undergraduate in Harvard University, had commenced reading the works of Swedenborg in the summer of 1816. He was led to seek for the books in the College Library; and they were discovered, not in the great library, but in a room well known at that time as the College Museum, in the company of stuffed monsters, and other natural curiosities; and had probably been regarded with similar feelings."

     The set of the Arcana Coelestia is incomplete because the last volume is missing, but in the place of it there is a manuscript in small quarto in the handwriting of William Hill which contains most of the numbers of the eighth volume. In all of the volumes except the fourth one, William Hill wrote on the fly-leaves, "Ex Dono W. Hill 1794," and on the book-plates there is written,
"The Gift of Mr. William Hill of Boston. Recorded 26 Aug. 1794."

     Besides containing marginal notes by Swedenborg the volumes contain numerous perpendicular and horizontal strokes in the margins: often, too, words are underlined. The color of the ink and the fact that these lines are most profuse where the annotations by Swedenborg are found, together with the further consideration that Swedenborg has made similar lines in other works used by him, point to the conclusion that these lines: were made by Swedenborg himself. There are other lines and marks in the volumes which were not made by Swedenborg.

     In Vol. III., page 6, n. 2760, in the margin, opposite lines 11-14, Swedenborg wrote:

nam Ipse Dominus est justitia
oculi ejus flamma
significat Divinum
Verum ex Divino
Bone amoris

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     By a sign Swedenborg shows that the marginal note should be entered in line 12, after the words "justitia pugnans ex vero." In line 11 "ex" is crossed out and "in" written above it; the same is true of the second "ex" in line It. In line 19 the words "amore et inde fide" are crossed out and the words "vero ex bone" written above them.

     In the following number, 2761, opposite lines 5-9, from the bottom of the page, Swedenborg has written the following words, indicating by a sin that they should be entered in line 9, after the reference to Genesis:

quid per haec verba
in sensu interno signi-
ficatur, videatur in
Arcanis Cocelestibus,
6398, 6399, 6400
6401.

     In the left hand lower corner of the page someone wrote, evidently long ago, in lead pencil:

               Written by E S.

     It is clear that the volumes were bound and cut down in binding after Swedenborg had made his annotations, for a small portion of the writing on the page described above has been cut away.*
     * In Vol. IV., between pages 260-261 and 270-271, are two small slips of the kind of blotting-paper used by Swedenborg.

     On page 49, Vol. V., in the margin opposite lines 8-9, Swedenborg wrote "mens sana in / corpore sano," part of the writing being cut away.

     On a comparison of the material in Vol. VI. with the original edition of the Enrths in the Universe, London, 1758, it becomes quite clear that Swedenborg's method in preparing the little work was to revise the portions of Vol. VI. of the Arcana Coelestia which are printed in italics and inserted between the chapters. Some of the changes and memoranda are entered in Vol. VI., and it would appear that with this volume before him Swedenborg prepared the copy of De Telluribus for the press.

     In Vol. VI., on page 29, in the margin opposite n. 6699, there is a sign, 91 which appears to have been used by Swedenborg to show that the number was to be omitted, for it does not occur in De Telluribus, a short number being inserted in place of it.

602




     On page 66, at the close of n. 6807, Swedenborg indicated the insertion of note of De Telluribus by inserting the letter (f); subsequently he placed the letter in De Telluribus, not at the end of the number, but in the middle. The letter (i) was placed after "novit" in line 3 of n. 6809. In line 6 of n. 6809 Swedenborg wrote the words "videre" over "scire" and "novi" over "audivit" retaining the correction of "audivi" in De Telluribus. In the following line Swedenborg wrote "erant" over "essent," the change being made in De Telluribus. Later on in the third line from the end of n. 6809, Swedenborg wrote the words "confirmatum est" over "primum potuit," the change being made in De Telluribus. On page 67, at the end of n. 6810, Swedenborg first wrote and afterwards crossed out the memorandum "inseruntur hic quae in 7175." In n. 6811, the letter (k) is placed in the same place as printed in De Telluribus; a short horizontal line is also drawn in the margin. On page 68, in line 3, of n. 6813, the words "imprimis inter angeles," are written above "ut, cum in societate," an addition included in De Telluribus. In line 4 of n. 6813, the words "& hoc non" are crossed out and "tam" written above them; the word "aliquam" is crossed out; in the following line the word "sed" is crossed out and "quam" written above it; after "influxum" Swedenborg first inserted the letter (k), then changed it to l, then crossed it out and wrote (1) plainly just before what he wrote first. In De Telluribus the corrections are not included, the number ending with the word "norunt (1)." The original number 6813 of the Arcana Coelestia is divided into two separate numbers 15-16 in De Telluribus, which is also indicated in n. 6813 by the sign [ placed before "Ex cognitionibus." In n. 6815, in the third line from the end, Swedenborg wrote the word "administrae" over "instrumentales," and included the change in De Telluribus. At the end of n. 6816 Swedenborg wrote, "7175," evidently a memorandum to insert the material from the latter part of n. 715, which is given in n. 19 of De Telluribus.

     (To be Continued.)

603


LAST JUDGMENT 1904

LAST JUDGMENT              1904

[MINOR WORKS BY SWEDENBORG.]

SOMETHING CONCERNING THE PAPISTS.

     102. Whilst the Last Judgment was going on, he who was pope in the year 1783 and in his latter age was blind,* dwelt on high near the city in the northern quarter;** and I then saw him led forth, carried sitting upon a litter, and sent to a secure place. And as everyone after death is first led to his own religion, and is afterwards led away from it as far as possible, therefore also they seek the pope: on which account someone is always set over them who takes the name and office of pope. He was in that office for a long time after this; but when he noticed that he had no power at all to remit sins, or to open heaven, and that such power was Divine and hence of the Lord alone, he began to turn away from that doctrine, and afterwards to abhor it. And he renounced the office, and betook himself among Christians who worship only the Lord; and he is with them in heaven. He has often spoken with me,*** and he called himself blessed in that he had embraced those truths and removed himself from an idolatrous religiosity. He said that he had revolved similar things in his mind in the world, and that at heart he had acknowledged that the Word was, holy, and that the Lord was to be worshiped; but that, at that time, he had not been able to recede, and this for reasons which he also mentioned.
* This was Clement XII.; see No. 60, and note.-TR.
** As to this city, see L. J. 58, S. D., 5269 seq.-TR.
*** Or. "I have often spoken with him." The Latin is, Saepius cum illo loquutus est.-TR.

     103. But it happened otherwise with Benedict XIV., his successor. He declared that he had confirmed in his own mind, that since the Lord had transferred all power over the heavens to Peter, He had no power at all left, and no longer any holiness. I saw him speaking with Sixtus V., who was called forth from the lower regions and sank down again after the conversation.

604


I heard him saving many things about the Bull Unigenitus,* but this is not the place to make them public. He was cunning: at first civil, then shrewd. He loved the Jesuits above others, and descended to them into their hell; nor have I as yet seen him ascending therefrom, and I hardly suppose he will ascend. He said that he had confirmed and established the Bull Unigenitus, because, he said, to his mind the Sacred Scripture was not equal to the papal dictate, but inferior. When it was shown him that the Word was holy in its single words, and that these were perpetual correspondences; and that it was therefore for the universal heaven; all this he made of no account, saying, that the papal dictate was of the same degree of holiness. But it was said that the pope, in everything which he pronounces in consistory, draws from the infernal love of ruling over heaven and over earth, and of arrogating to himself Divine power, and thus of being worshipped as God; and that in such a dictate is hell and not heaven. And it was shown from what spirits it is dictated, and who then insufflate and move the bosom,--that they are infernal spirits who at heart wish to be saluted as the Holy Spirit. But he argued against these things.
* In the Ms. the Latin here, as deciphered by Dr. Im. Tafel, is "Audivi illum de Verbo opud aliquem plura loquentem de Bulla Unigenitus," but the words in italics, which are omitted in the translation, are of doubtful reading. They were written by Swedenborg above the line as an addition to the text.-TR.

     104. Louis XIV., king of France, is at this day among the happy. He was made by the Lord director over the best society of the French nation,--over those who arrive in the spiritual world from this earth. He acts uprightly and justly, and is sedulous in watching out for things useful to his subjects there. He acknowledges the Lord and that He has power over the heaven and the earth, he reads the Word and shuns; cunning and craftiness. He said that he had been of such a character in the world. Once when I was speaking with him, he suddenly descended, seemingly as though by steps, to a place beneath me, a little in front; and it was perceived that then, in vision, he was as though at Versailles. It was then perceived that he came as it were into a kind of sleep; and straightway there was silence around him, and also with me, which lasted two hours. Afterwards he ascended and spoke to those who stead about him, to the effect that he had spoken to his great-grandson, the reigning king of France, and had exhorted him to desist from confirming the Bull Unigenitus,* saying that otherwise misfortune world come upon him. He said that he did not know whether he had perceived this in clear vision, or in an obscure vision, which takes place in the thought with some emotion of the mind. This occurred in the year 1759, on the thirteenth day of December, somewhere about seven or eight o'clock.
* The Bull Unigenitus, issued by pope Clement XI. in 1713, was instigated, nominally by Louis XIV., but really by his confessor Le Tellier, it was directed against the Jansenists whose doctrines of sin, grace and justification it condemned as heretical; these doctrines included the inculcation of purity of motives, the necessity of the general use of the Bible, and of the correction of the morals of the clergy. The Jansenist movement, whose centre was in France, was directed mainly to the purification of the Catholic Church as against the innovations and abuses of the Jesuits. In this effort the leaders found themselves in opposition to the ecclesiastical despotism of the Roman hierarchy,--an opposition, which, after many years of controversy, finally led to the Bull Unigenitus. The Bull was registered by Louis XV. in 1730.--TR.

     105. After the Last Judgment, the Babylonians were for a long time gathered together upon the mountains in the west as before. The reason is, because, after death, a spirit can go nowhere else than where the place of his life is: thus they go upon mountains, where a part of them have made for themselves, as it were, new heavens. But as soon as they have been gathered there to the number of about two hundred, they are cast down into hells as before. This goes on until all things have been reduced into such order that no one after death can go elsewhere than to his own hell, nor can a part remain upon the earth, and this is effected when these places are occupied by societies where they are in acknowledgment and adoration of the Lord.

     106. The southern quarter, where the richest were living, and where was the great city of the Jesuits,*--which quarter was wholly overturned, as may he seen from the description of the Last Judgment,--is still a desert land. And I have sometimes seen monks there, who, hearing that treasures had been hidden there, still flock thither for the purpose of searching them out; but in vain.
** Concerning this city, see L. J. 58; S. D. 5280 seq.--TR.

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     107. Nor do they desist in sending out emissaries to the Reformed Christian world, for the purpose of seducing, as in the world. These emissaries are monks who thirst solely for riches, and aspire to supreme, yea, Divine power. They are so barren that they know nothing at all of Divine truth, yet, by cunning, they prevail over others; nevertheless, they are examined, and those who have been examined are miserably punished.

     108. It was shown me to the life, why Babel or Babylon was called Lucifer son of the dawn, Is. xiv. [12], Gen. [xi., 1-9]; that Babel is there meant by Lucifer, is evident from the passages which precede and those which follow, on which matter the things contained therein may be adduced; and that, in the beginning, Babel adores the Lord and observes the commandments above others, bearing domination in its mind; but that in process of time domination becomes the head, so that at last it thrusts the Lord Himself from His throne and sets itself thereon.

     109. That the women and virgins who lived in the monasteries* and had thought lasciviously, and still more those who had acted lasciviously, are cast into a hell where are direful things. But those who have cultivated piety alone, and have not done any work, are divided among the adherents of their own religion, that they may act as domestic servants, learning that bare piety in idleness does not conduce to salvation. Those, however, who have been industrious and have loved to work, are allotted places among those women in the churches with whom it is well. Those who have been diligent in the monasteries, serving others there in various ways in the matter of food, clothing, and of other offices, and who did these things from charity and affection, were led away outside that tract into the confines between the south and the west, and they form a society which is safe from infestations by the men; and men are sent to them who teach them the truths of faith; for they are teachable above others.
* This refers to monasteries in the spiritual world in the eastern quarter of Babylon, before the Last Judgment. See S. D. 5341-5343.-TR.

     110. There was a vast multitude of papists dwelling at the east occupying that whole tract from the eastern quarter even to the southern.

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This multitude extended itself to the gentiles on the mountains and plains there. The whole multitude was transferred by a straight road even into the west, where residences were given them upon hills and plains throughout a space of great extension. They were those who had lived in good, although not in truths. They had practiced good works according to their religiosity, and are of such a genius that they do no harm to others, nor devise schemes against them. That they were desirous of truths was made evident from the fact, that while they were on the way they appeared as though borrowing silver and garments, as the sons of Israel did from the Egyptians; by which was signified that they were desirous of truths, and that they received them from those who do no good.*
* These were Protestants "who were not in good, although in truths." S. D. 5406.-TR.

     111. The vast multitude was explored as to the quality of its affection of truth from good, and at the same time [as to whether] they had lived in the good of charity. The exploration was seen as a sudden and instantaneous translation to various quarters. They who were in the middle remained there, because they were in the affection of truth, and willed to be imbued with the truths of faith. The rest were sent back that they might first be instructed by their own people, who were monks,--upright and at the same time in some doctrine of truth from the Word. And they were afterwards borne away to those of the Reformed who, by reason of a life according to the truths of the Word, were angelic spirits.

     112. I also saw a vast multitude of the Catholic nation who for a long time had been hidden away and reserved by the Lord and kept from the idolatrous infection of the others, because they had lived well and had acknowledged the Lord. And they were borne away, some to the south, some to the east, some to the west, and some to the north, that they might form some heavenly society and be further instructed. For this end angels were sent to them who not only instructed them, but also guarded them from the cunning and deceitful of their own nation and from influx out of their hells.

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In a word, many and great societies are instituted of Catholics, and they are partly inserted into societies where the Word is read freely and the Lord adored. Hence, when they have been instructed, and have received the truths of faith in the good of love, they are elevated into heaven; for it is [not] their fault that they were born there. All their infants are in heaven; but these are ignorant of the falses of their parents, not knowing that they are of such a character. They are educated by angels under the auspices of the Lord.

     113. The most malicious of the Roman Catholics become the most stupid, for the reason that when malice penetrates all the interiors of the mind and destroys every spiritual truth, they become, first insane, and afterwards stupid. They are sent under the earth between the west and the north. When anyone arrives at that place, great stupor occupies his thought and torpor his body. Many of them were worshipers of the devil and had books containing the doctrine of their worship. One or two of their books were taken away from them and read before others. The doctrinal there was this: That they asked God the Father to excuse them for betaking themselves to the devil, because they had asked help of God the Father and had not obtained it, wherefore, knowing that they get help from the devil, they betake themselves to him, calling him their patron. Another book was opened which was written in mere characters and flexures, and being deciphered, it taught that they have nothing from the Divine but all from the devil. When the reason for this was asked, they said that by prayer they had not obtained from God their request that they should rule, as in the world, over the souls of men and over the goods of their land. It was told them that no one obtains such a request by prayer. Being detected, they became, at first, insane, and were straightway cast out of the mountain in which they were, from the southern side of the mountain, into a direful hell where are worshippers of the devil: and their houses fell into heaps. One of them ran up to me, and he was dusky like a devil.

     114. Those of them who are upright by nature cannot dwell with those who have attained spiritual uprightness from the affection of truth; for those who are upright from natural uprightness are everywhere easily seduced; they believe all things, even things of cunning, and they adore idols; wherefore they also are among those who serve others as handmaids and servants, and are guarded by them, lest they be approached by monks.

     (To be Continued.)

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THIRD BRITISH ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1904

THIRD BRITISH ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM       G. A. MCQUEEN       1904

     The sessions of the Assembly were held in the house of Worship of the London Society from August 27th to August 28th. The Rev. Andrew Czerny presided, and there were present 19 members, and 30 visitors. The Rev. Alfred Acton was also present, as the messenger from the General Church in America.

     The first session, on Saturday evening, was opened by the Rev. A. Czerny, with a short service. At Mr. Czerny's request the Chair was then taken by the Rev. A. Acton. After conveying greetings from the church in America. Mr. Acton read a message to the Assembly from Bishop Pendleton, in which Mr. Czerny was nominated as permanent chairman and presiding officer of the British Assembly. In placing the nomination formally before the meeting, he explained that it was expressive of the policy of the General Church, which was, that in all matters of the government of the Church there should be not only action on the part of the governor but also reaction on the part of the members; they were to be free to accept or reject.

     MR. ELPHICK expressed himself as pleased with the nomination. He had been impressed with the remarks as to the manner of making it so as to allow for recognition on the part of the members. It was the question of reciprocity between the laity and the presiding priesthood, and that was the root question that caused the withdrawal from Burton Road.

     MR. GILL was glad of the opportunity of formally asking Mr. Czerny to preside; not only was he in the Divine Providence, the only one who could take the chair at our meetings, but he was undoubtedly the right man for the office.

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     MR. APPLETON spoke or the nominee as an able and patient teacher, who was extremely jealous in preserving the freedom of every member.

     MR. COOPER and MR. WATERS also supported the nomination. The latter speaker, referring to Mr. Elphick's remarks, emphasized the importance of reciprocation between the priesthood and the laity; without this, very little can be done in the Church.

     MR. ACTON explained that while Mr. Czerny had hitherto acted as Chairman of the Assembly in the absence of the Bishop, the nomination contemplated his becoming permanent Chairman, and representing the Bishop as presiding officer over the Church in England.

     The nomination being put to the meeting, Mr. Czerny was unanimously elected by a rising vote. On assuming the Chair, he thanked the members for their expressions of confidence in him.

     On nomination by the Chair, MR. G. A. McQueen was unanimously elected recording secretary of the Assembly.

     The President then read his Annual Address, the subject of which was Preparation for the Extension of the New Church.*
* The Address is printed on p. 577 of the current Life.

     Reports were read from the Colchester and London Societies, and from the collector in Great Eritain for the General Church.

     The subject of the Annual Address was then discussed.

     MR. GILL highly recommended the Address as ably setting forth the responsibilities which rest upon us as members of the New Church. We are accustomed to think that the lower depends on the higher; but we should remember that there is also a reciprocal dependence of the higher upon the lower. The united Church in the heavens depends on our reading the Word and faithfully observing the uses of prayer and worship. These are ultimates that cannot be neglected without harm; on these ultimates in the Church Specific, depends the preservation of the Church Universal.

     MR. APPLETON spoke of the Lord's having undertaken the great work of conquering the hells in order that a church might be established on earth as a basis for the church in heaven. When that church became corrupt the Lord made His second coming in order to establish a New Church with new doctrine. It is our privilege to do all we can that this work of establishing the Church may so forward; on our co-operation in the work depends our regeneration. 1LIeetings like the present should be a stimulus to us in this work, strengthening us in the affection of truth, and associating us with friends in the other world who love to talk about the truth and to support it.

     MR. MCQUEEN referred to the closing words of the Address. "The application is obvious."

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When the Ancient Churches were in a state of integrity the Gentiles on earth were also in a high state; and, as the Church declined, so did the condition of the Gentiles. The "obvious application" was, that if the New Church would only grow internally by being faithful to its doctrines, we may expect that those not of the church would benefit in the same proportion. We need, therefore, have no anxiety about those outside, knowing that by simply doing our duty a sure means is provided of benefitting the world.

     MR. GILL explained that the question of missionary work had come to the front in Colchester. The society there, desiring that no one in Colchester should be ignorant of what the New Church is, had invited Mr. Czerny to deliver a series of missionary sermons. They were given for five Sundays, being advertised in the local papers, and the only result was the presence of two outsiders. Nevertheless, he believed that they had taken the right course. We have a double duty; we must ourselves become true members of the Church, but at the same time, we have to deal with the Gentiles.

     MR. ELPHICK agreed with the last speaker. He could see that the main way by which the Church Universal would be benefitted was by our becoming true members of the Church Specific; but it is also our duty to bring the truth to the external knowledge of others

     MR. BALL was opposed to making any special missionary efforts. The Lord was not dependent on us, and He would lead men to the Church whenever they were ready. Moreover, we lack the means for outside work, for our own uses are languishing. When the walls of our church are bursting because of our growth, then would be the time to talk about outside efforts. Our greatest obstacle to growth lay in our lack of sympathy one with another, and this is what we should care for. The speaker continued to the effect that in workshops in different parts of the world, he had talked with thousands of men, and had found but two who were interested in spiritual things. If we waste our time hunting for, as it were, peas in haystacks, we will have little energy left to build up the interior church; it will not become interior by getting in external men.

     MR. COOPER thought that it had been increasingly shown that the true principle of missionary work was, that it would be best accomplished by our uniting together in the affection of truth and thus preparing a plane for the presence of the Divine. This principle had entered into and formed the state of our church, and the bringing in of external missionary efforts had a disturbing effect on that state, and resulted in a certain loss in spiritual growth by breaking the continuity of thought and purpose which is so essential to true progress.

     MR. ACTON called attention to the fact that while there are comparatively few in the Christian world who are in good, yet those few amount in the aggregate to many millions. The Lord alone can lead these men to the ultimate reception of the New Church.

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But in this work He uses men as means,-men in the natural world and men in the spiritual world. By means of the great Bible societies He is operating among the Gentiles; and by means of the Old Church and the reading of the Word there, He is operating among the simple in Christendom. We need not, therefore, be anxious as to these, for we can rationally see that the Lord will provide for them. The only question for us to consider is, In what way are we to co-operate with the Divine work? The Address presents the truth which answers this question. In the spiritual world truths are so many ways along which spirits and angels walk; and so on earth, the truths which the Lord gives men to see are the ways along which they must go if they would be led by the Lord. The truth given us is, that the New Church is to be established among a few that preparation may be made for its spread among many. This preparation is being made interiorly by the formation of New Church societies in the world of spirits, according to the increase of which is the increase of the church on earth. Those societies are being increased by the accession of men who have been faithful to the New Church on earth. But they may also be strengthened by members of the Church even while on earth, for we are associated with them as to our spirits, and be strengthen or weaken them according as we are faithful to the truths of the Writings. This indicates our first duty in co-operating with the Lord for the establishment and extension of the New Church. Our second duty is indicated by the fact that the societies of the Church in the other world can have little or no effect among men unless there are on earth corresponding societies to act as bases for the reception and radiation of the light from heaven.

     These, then, are the ways, opened to us by the truth, in which we are to go, that we may co-operate with the Lord for the extension of the Church, and its preparation for the many. As spiritual men we are to become one with the church in the other world, and we are to strengthen the hands of men on earth who are earnest in the study and love of the truths of the Church. The day will come when indications will be given us that, as a general body of the Church, we are to do more than this. But at present, we have neither the time nor the money for external missionary work, nor, as experience has shown, does it seem possible for us to get the ear of the simple; it seems evident that they are being preserved while the interior upbuilding of the church is going on. But in the meantime we should cherish in our hearts a love of this work of propagating the truth, that when the indications are given we may be ready. Even now there are minor ways in which something of the work can be done,--such for instance as conversation with acquaintances, the presentation of books, a suitable notice-board in front of our churches, etc. But we must set our eyes on the essential thing, and not be led away by sentiment, from following the truths by which the Lord indicates to us our part in the Divine work of establishing the New Church.

     MR. WATERS expressed his appreciation of the thoughts uttered by the last speaker.

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With regard to notice-boards, he thought that the notice-board which was most necessary was the life of the individual. If we have the truth we should ourselves become notice-boards.

     MR. HOWARD Stated that he could now see that the best way to work for the church was to do its truths. Our personal influence would have its effect on those around us and so promote the growth of the Church.

     MR. MCQUEEN spoke of the danger of living the doctrines with a view to influencing the world externally. He understood the teaching to be that our internal growth strengthened the states of those societies in the world of spirits which are associated with us, and that from them is a reaction upon the internal states of the simple on earth. He asked as to how this was effected.

     MR. ACTON Cited the case of certain Abysinnian spirits who being permitted to hear a Psalm sung in some temple on earth, were thereby affected with very great delight. This delight became still greater and was accompanied by some enlightenment when their ears were closed, the reason being that they then came into communication with a Christian society in the other world which was associated with the singers on earth. The spirits stated that they had felt such delight and illustration ac previous times but had never before known whence it came.* This relation illustrates how the formation of Christian societies as the heart and lungs of the church gives illustration also to the Gentiles. For the delight and illustration which came to these spirits would be communicated to some extent to the good among the Gentiles on earth with whom they were associated. The same principle applies in the case of the simple in the Old Church. Every one is associated with societies in the other world of his own religion, and the upright of these societies are more or less affected by the New Church societies there, and bring something of that affection to the simple on earth with whom they are.
* See S. S. 108 and S. D. 5947.

     MR. CZERNY noted that our efforts to bring the simple to the Church have failed for some years past: but the discussion showed that there was a way by which we could really help them. The New Church, he believed, would finally spread more rapidly in this way than it has ever done in the past.

     The proceedings were then adjourned to the following day

     On Sunday morning, August 28th, the sacrament of the Holy Supper was celebrated. The Rev. Andrew Czerny officiated, assisted by the Rev. Alfred Acton. The number of communicants was 28, while the total attendance, including children, was 55.

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     In the evening, the Assembly resumed its deliberations. The opening service was conducted by the Rev. Alfred Acton.

     On vote by the Assembly, Mr. Czerny then read a paper on The Holy Supper.

     The writer showed the nature of the doctrine of transubstantiation as held by the Papists, and that the Protestants held "very nearly the same view." He then gave the New Church doctrine, concluding with a quotation from the Writings, (Inv. 59), on the "mighty force" that lies in correspondences.

     There was some discussion as to whether the Protestants could be justly said to hold substantially the same doctrine as the Papists with regard to transubstantiation, since, in terms they utterly repudiated it. But it was agreed that they were in complete darkness as to the nature and use of the Holy Supper, and that their repudiation consisted of little more than a bare negation, which, of itself, is of little effect.

     MR. CZERNY made the point that the whole Christian church has a material idea respecting the Holy Supper, namely, that it is the natural body of the Lord as He hung on the Cross, which is administered.

     In answer to a question he stated that there could be no doubt that the simple in the Old Church who partook of the Communion in the belief that the Lord was in it in some form, were benefited, although they knew nothing about correspondences.

     MR. ELPHICK asked whether communicants were benefitted in societies of the New Church where the elements used were not truly correspondential.

     MR. CZERNY thought there was some benefit to those who in simplicity believed they were doing the Lord's will. The communicant's own state would produce the benefit; but it could not be so complete.

     MR. ELPHICK also asked whether the Holy Supper should be celebrated in the evening.

     MR. CZERNY replied that it was instituted in the evening because at the end of the old church and the beginning of the new He was not prepared to say whether any great difference would result if the celebration be in the evening instead of the morning. At one time it had been held in Pittsburg, that it was proper to celebrate it in the evening.

     MR. ACTON added that at Bryn Athyn and Chicago, it had been sometimes celebrated in the afternoon. He had heard of no particular reason for this, except that the children could be more easily left at home.

     MR. GILL noted that in the Old Church it was usually held in the early morning. He thought the time would be a matter of little moment in an internal church.

     MR. MCQUEEN thought that the fact that the Supper was instituted in the evening as representing the end of an old state and the beginning of a new, seemed to indicate the close of the Sabbath, when we had passed through various states of worship, as the most fitting time.

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Of course, the bread and wine were the only essential elements needed to the full celebration, still there was probably something in the element of the time.

     MR. ACTON thought that there was a difference between the correspondence of the elements and the correspondence of the earthly time. The evening which really represents the state in which the Holy Supper is to be received is a spiritual evening,--humility, confession, and repentance. As to his spirit, man is entirely independent of earthly time; seen in the spiritual world he may he partaking of the Supper in the time of evening, even when, as to his body, he is acting in the morning. Thus the time of evening on earth is by no means correspondential to the state of evening with the communicant. But with the Bread and Wine, it is different, for they are actually the Divine Good and Truth in correspondential ultimate form. We should rather consider the spiritual time in which to partake, and in that sense partake in the evening, that is, in a state of repentance that we may be led to a state of dawn.

     MR. WATERS thought that the explanations given, tended rather to confirm the idea that there is a power in ultimates even as to the very time of the day. The idea of convenience should, of course, enter into the question, but it seemed to him that there are states existing with man by virtue of the different times of the day. We feel a different power in the morning than in the evening, and there is some reason for this. He thought that it was towards the close of a period of time that states of humility seem to be more in evidence.

     MR. CZERNY answered that, so far as essentials are concerned, we have direct teaching, but not as to things non-essential; so that, if the time of taking the Holy Supper were an essential matter, we would have direct teaching on that point. We should not make too much of externals.

     MR. ACTON added that he would not like to deny that there might not be a use in celebrating in the evening; yet, if we were going to carry out the literal correspondence, we would have to do without artificial light which turns our evening into day. This would involve a celebration in the afternoon towards twilight. But the most essential consideration was the question of the use to us, and this should enter into the question of the time.

     MR. ROSE thought that the state of humility was the state in which we are oftenest in the evening, but that in the New Church, we endeavor to preserve the same state in the morning.

     MR. WATERS explained that his remarks were made with the intention of recognizing the truth that there was power in ultimates.

     MR. CZERNY said that, if with the members of the society generally, the state was more suitable in the evening, there was no reason why they should not celebrate the Holy Supper at that time.

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     MR. BALL thought that the morning was much the best time. He felt more receptive of truth when his eyes were open, than when he was half asleep. He did not think states of bodily weakness at the close of a day's work should be mixed up with states of humility. There may be power in ultimates if carried to such extremes, but at present there was no evidence of it.

     MR. HART echoed Mr. Ball's sentiments, adding that we should distinguish between the so-called humility which is produced by external states as to time or light or weather, and the humility which can be produced only by a man's examining himself and discovering clearly some evil for which he seeks forgiveness. It is the latter state of humility which it is incumbent upon Newchurchmen to cultivate, and he would not call the effects of mere time or external conditions forces for producing it.

     MR. MCQUEEN explained that he had not suggested that the time of evening produced the state, but that the state might be reached after the earlier exercises of the day's worship, thus preparing for a peaceful participation of the Communion.

     At the close of the discussion on the Holy Supper. Mr. Acton read a paper on The Quarters in the Spiritual World.

     A number of speeches were made in appreciation of the paper, and of the fact that the study of the spiritual world is receiving attention in the Academy schools. Emphasis was also laid on the idea that thought as to the quarters would lead to a deeper reflection on one's true position in that world. MR. ACTON concluded the discussion by some remarks on the importance of thinking concerning the spiritual world, which was in reality thinking concerning our spiritual life. He also spoke of the importance of teaching children concerning scenes and actions in the spiritual world, and thus initiating them early into thought about that world.

     The concluding paper was read by Mr. F. R. Cooper, on The Uses of Organization. After treating of the necessity of organizations in the Church, the writer referred to the establishment of the Academy as marking the first great dividing line in such organizations. Conference and Convention had served the use of "collecting" those who were to be of the New Church, but the Academy had perceived and carried on the use of "initiating and instructing" them. The establishment of this use an the basis of an acknowledgment of the Writings not recognized by other bodies of the Church, involved that the use of those bodies would become more general, and would decrease as time went on, and would finally disappear.

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Reference was then made to the General Church, and the usefulness of all who are in full sympathy with it becoming members and thereby strengthening it as a spiritual centre.

     MR. ACTON, after referring to the formation of societies in the spiritual world, spoke of the doctrine that the perfection of heaven increases according to number. This was a truth, not because the angels contributed anything from themselves, but because increased numbers means an increase of minds receptive of the Lord, and hence the fuller presence of the Lord, and an increased usefulness. So with the Church; with the increase of her membership by those whose love and affection are with her, there is provided a fuller and more powerful plane for the reception of influx from the Church in Heaven, and by the accession of new minds the church becomes more complete, more perfectly human. One who is in sympathy with the General Church, and yet not a member, may also he a recipient of influx from the society in the other world with which it is conjoined, but not in so full a degree, nor does he so fully strengthened the centre for that influx on earth. It is important to consider our duty in this respect. By strengthening the Church on earth, we are looking to an increase of the presence and power of influx from the church in heaven.

     MR. MCQUEEN spoke of the responsibilities of membership. Having once freely decided to become a member of a body of the Church we thereby undertake to support its uses, and are not free to support or neglect as we see fit. The same also applies to individual societies.

     MR. BALL emphasized the importance of leaving men in full freedom to join or not as they saw best. The loss their absence see1775 to bring is merely an appearance. He could not agree with the last speaker as regards a man giving up his liberty when he joins a body of the church. There should always be the utmost freedom.

     MR. CZERNY explained that the bonds of the church are internal bonds, and that while a man in entering them does assume certain responsibilities, no one can compel him to carry them out.

     MR. WATERS added that the natural man sought a freedom from bonds which was really slavery; to escape from this state there must be self-compulsion.

     MR. ACTON expressed his pleasure at being privileged to attend the Assembly. The meetings had been truly feasts of charity in which the thought had been elevated to the contemplation of spiritual things. He spoke of the conviction which the members of our church feel, that they have the truth. This conviction was necessary to the growth of the church, but it must be accompanied by the perception that it is nothing of our own undertaking that builds up the church, but wholly the truth and thus the Lord. If there is this acknowledgment, we need not mind, if our conviction appears to others like conceit, for there is genuine humility within it.

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     It was voted that the Assembly meet next year in Colchester on the last Saturday in July, 1905. The proceedings were then closed by singing "Grace be unto you and peace."

     On Monday, August 29th, a most enjoyable Garden Party was held at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. F. Elphick, where about fifty members and friends assembled and took tea on the spacious lawn. After tea toasts were drunk, and Mr. Acton gave an interesting account of the General Assembly in Bryn Athyn. The meeting broke up at about 7 P. M., but the young people remained some time longer to indulge in dancing on the lawn. It may be added that during the afternoon several stereoscopic photographs were taken by Mr. Hart, including one of the whole Assembly.
     G. A. MCQUEEN, Secretary.

619


Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

THE CANONIZATION OF PAUL.

     THE teaching of the Writings respecting the character of Paul is evidently a sore trial to our missionary friends with half their gaze constantly fixed on the Old Church; they appear to be keenly sensitive to the effect which will be produced by this rude handling of the great idol of Christendom. The thought is suggested by two recent reviews of a dictionary article on Swedenborg,--the one by the Rev. J. R. Rendell in New Church Magazine, and the other by the Rev. J. T. Freeth in Morning Light, reprinted in the Messenger. Both writers concur in denying the "charge" that Swedenborg located Paul in the hells, by the assertion that the statements about him describe his temporary state in the world of spirits; that they were never published by Swedenborg; and that they are contradicted by what was published. Mr. Freeth goes further; for in a remarkable argument, whose flimsiness can be compared only to the courage of the writer, he sets out to prove that Paul is actually in heaven. For this he adduces passages from the True Christian Religion, (337-338), where the Acts and the Epistles of Paul are quoted, inter alia, as the teachings of the Apostles; these passages he connects with a later passage (339) where the twelve Apostles are referred to as being with Swedenborg, and with an earlier passage (4) referring to the sending forth in the spiritual world of the twelve Disciples; from all of which he concludes that Paul was saved. (Q. E. D.) He takes no notice, however, of the fact that the Disciples who were sent forth were the ones "who had followed Him in the world," (T.C.R. 791), which Paul never did.

     But even more astonishing is Mr. Freeth's argument from the Memorable Relation concerning heavenly joys. (T. R. C. 731; C. L. 1.) In one paragraph of this Relation, mention is made of an imaginary heaven, the delights of which consist in feasting with the patriarchs and apostles, (including Paul), "who were personated by old men, many of them rustics;" from which we are to understand that "Paul is mentioned with Peter as an apostle, and reference made to his heavenly abode" ! ! ! And these are the arguments which "are amply sufficient to show that Swedenborg in his riper fullness of years and spiritual illumination did not relegate Paul to the hells." There is nothing more to be said;--ipse dixit! And the numerous teachings of the Writings as to Paul,--that he was the worst of the apostles, rejected by all the others, a hypocrite, and ruled by the love of self--all these must now be laid aside and replaced by the superior illumination of Mr. Freeth. "If all I know about Paul were described," writes Swedenborg, speaking of Paul's diabolical character, "it would fill sheets." But our new guide in this matter has been able to show all he knows in a single column.

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     Why this effort and desire to explain away the revelation concerning the character of Paul? a desire which is not confined to only a few in the New Church. The cause cannot be in the Writings, for while it is true that, in the case of Calvin, for instance, later statements show that former statements refer to his external state in the world of spirits, there is nor a shred of evidence to justify the same conclusion with respect to Paul. It cannot be in the teachings of Paul himself, for, even if these were unimpeachable, the Writings expressly meet this objection by saying, "Paul's having written the Epistles does not testify that he is of such a duality, for even the impious can preach well." Nor can it be in Paul's own character as it is historically known to us, for seen in the light of revelation his life offers much confirmation of what is said about him. The real underlying reason is the attitude of the New Church to the Writings. They are, indeed, called a Divine Revelation, but their Divinity is so limited by Swedenborg's "experiences," "judgment," and progress in illumination," as to leave plenty of room for human doubt and denial. With such an attitude, and with the common idea respecting Paul in mind, it is easy to read what the Diary says about him, as Swedenborg's observations before he was 'in his ripe fullness of years and spiritual illumination,"--and this, even though those observations are never corrected later. And the argument is not rendered more difficult by the soothing thought that a teaching most unpalatable to the Christian world is thus satisfactorily disposed of.

     There is a general disposition in the Church to draw an artificial dividing line between Swedenborg's spiritual observations, and the Doctrines themselves; and to confine the Divine revelation to the latter. Mr. Freeth seems to have some such idea in mind when he refers to Swedenborg as stating "that all he has written an doctrine and exposition was made known to him by the Lord," omitting any reference to his many statements as to the relations concerning the other world. But this distinction as to Divinity is merely an apparent one. The fact is that real Divinity is denied to the whole revelation, the doctrines as well as the spiritual observations. Neither are accepted if they violently oppose preconceived ideas. Does the Church at large accept the doctrines contained in the latter part of Conjugial Love as having been "made known to Swedenborg by the Lord?" or the doctrine respecting the state of the Christian world? or that respecting the nature of the Writings themselves? In face of this, the question of Paul's lot becomes a minor one. The larger question is as to the nature of the Divine Revelation itself,--the idea we are to have of the Lord's appearance in His second coming. Until there is agreement on this point there will inevitably be innumerable points on which we shall wholly and radically differ from our brethren in the Church at large, and with little common ground of understanding. For the idea of God is the first thing of the Church and enters into, distinguishes, and characterizes its whole thought and life.

621


Monthly Review 1904

Monthly Review              1904

     The Ohio Association has commenced the publication of a monthly bulletin.

     The Hon. John Bigelow's Mystery of Sleep has been published in German under the title, Das Geheimniss des Schlafes.

     Two new missionary periodicals, published by New Church Societies, have been started in Great Britain,--the New Church Advocate, published at Horncastle, and the Journal for the New Church in Paisley.

     Under the heading, "Song Sung at Almont," the Messenger for September 21st prints the poem "I Shall Meet Her," by W: H. Junge, which appeared in the April Life, page 76.

     Morning Light for August 6th contains an article by Mr. H. H. Gosset, wherein it is maintained that gravity and magnetism are one and the same force and are produced by motion. Copious references are made to the Principia, though it is admitted that the theory is not directly advanced in that work.

     Swedenborg's Summary of the Principia, translated from the photolithogrraphed manuscript by Mr. Alfred H. Stroh, and published at Bryn Athyn, Pa., by the Swedenborg Scientific Association, is the first appearance of this little work in print. Its brief propositions present in concise form the gist of the teachings contained in the larger work. The Latin text will be printed in the edition of Swedenborg's scientific works, now being published by the Royal Academy of Sciences in Stockholm.

     In a paper on The First Grade of the Ministry, read before the Convention Council of Ministers, and which appears in the Messenger for September 14th, the Rev. W. H. Hinkley applies for a committee to consider the advisability of altering that part of the constitution of Convention which concerns the ministry, so as to limit "authorization to preach" to actual candidates for the ministry,--men directly looking to ordination. This is an advanced--in a comparatively small matter; but, as though to make up for it, Mr. Hinkley proposes a decided retrogression, in a really important matter. Recognizing ordination as the only entrance into the Priesthood, he would, nevertheless, make the first degree of the Priesthood consist of unordained candidates and would give to them the priestly office of baptizing.

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     A religious journal in England recently published an article on The Swedenborgians, in which the statement is made, that Swedenborg claimed "to be an inspired interpreter of the Divine Will." Such an assertion could not, of course, be let pass by our friends in England, and we accordingly find a Newchurchman, Mr. J. S. Cottam, writing to the journal in question, requesting the author of the article to inform him "where you find in Swedenborg's writings any such claim made or insinuated?" The reply, that Swedenborg himself was convinced that he was divinely prepared for his mission, and that such preparation means inspiration, is characterized by Morning Light, as a response "of the feeblest kind," and is quoted with pointed exclamation marks of indignant dissent.

     An anonymous writer in Morning Light for August 20th offers a novel and interesting suggestion as to the pronunciation of the name, Jehovah. Objection has been made to the use of this name, on the ground that its vowels were not originally its own, but were taken from the Hebrew word Adonai, which signifies Lord, and that therefore the true pronunciation of Jehovah is not known. To this the writer answers that, aside from the purely conjectural nature of the objection, to the Newchurchman who believes that Christ is the only Lord, and who is told in the Word and the Writings, to call Him Lord, it seems peculiarly appropriate that "His most sacred name" should be pronounced with the vowels of the Hebrew word meaning Lord. From the teaching of the Writings respecting the Hebrew vowels, "we cannot doubt that the vowels of the word Adonai contain and express the very affections with which we ought to utter the name Jehovah," thinking of Him as our one Lord.

     During his missionary tour in the South, the Rev. J. B. Spiers had a unique illustration of the not uncommon notion that Swedenborgianism is a variety of spiritualism. It was at Blowing Rock, N. C., where he preached one Sunday morning in July. As it was impracticable to hold an evening service, the time was being spent with the mayor,--the only New-churchman in the town. During the evening two lady artists called with the request that Mr. Spiers would give them a s?ance. In vain Mr. Clark, the mayor, insisted that Swedenborgians were not spiritists. "Why." said one of the ladies, "I have a friend who is a Swedenborgian, and he talks with spirits most any time!!" Finally, as an effectual way of settling the discussion, Mr. Spiers offered to lecture on the subject. The ladies quickly prepared their studio, and the lecture was given there that same evening to an audience of fifteen. The lecture, with questions, lasted far into the night, and effectually disposed of any lingering doubts as to the lecturer's attitude towards spiritism.

623




     Since the institution of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, in 1898, as pointed out by the secretary in his annual report, there has been considerable activity in the transcription, translation, and publication of Swedenborg's scientific and philosophical works. Four English editions have been reprinted: three are under revision; eleven works have been transcribed from the original MS.; nine new translations have been published, all of them for the first time in English; and several new translations, including The Senses, and The Lesser Principia, are under way. In addition to this, the Swedish Academy of Sciences has published, in Latin, four works, two of which have been accessible only in the photolithograph; and is now printing two more,-The Miscellaneous Observations, and the Lesser Principia.

     The Swedenborg Scientific Association is to be congratulated; for while it is true that only a comparatively small portion of the work has been done by the Association itself, yet the other agencies which have so effectually contributed to the work have been greatly stimulated by the interest and energy of its members.

     In a review of the Journal of Education, which appeared in the Messenger for September 7th, Mr. Benj. Worcester disputes a statement by the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, that Convention, under the leadership of the Rev. Thomas Worcester, had declared "that the Church has no right to engage in the maintenance of day schools either for secular or even moral education." This view, Mr. Worcester, thinks, is "strained," yet he himself, in effect, repeats it when he explains that it was rightly decided that a body like Convention, "devoted to maintaining purity of doctrine and an orderly ministry," could not properly undertake "the education of children for the life and labor of this world." In these last words he, in fact, admits the very point made by Mr. Synnestvedt, that an essential distinction is drawn by Convention, between secular education and church work so that the carrying on of the one is incompatible with the performance of the other.

     The reviewer, attempting to show that, despite his adverse report to Convention in 1856, the Rev. Thomas Worcester did not reject the idea of New Church education, adduces the fact that in 1857 Mr. Worcester brought about the incorporation of The New Church Institute of Education, for "the promotion (under private management) of education under the auspices of the Church." But herein the reviewer fails to grasp the real point at issue. It is not a question of having schools with New Church teachers, but of having a distinctive New Church education. It was this that Mr. Worcester opposed; and there was no change in his views when he established the "Institute of Education." That Institution was inaugurated and carried on with the fundamental and ruling idea that the Church has nothing to do with "the education of children for the life and labor of this world."

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What, then, call it expect or desire to be, more than an ordinary secular school conducted by Newchurchmen, and which differs from other schools only according to the personnel of its teaching force? A scholastic institution does not become a New Church school because it is taught by New Church teachers who do not believe in--New Church education. The course of the Waltham school, which was transferred to the "Institute of Education," only confirms this view. Of that school, the reviewer says not "the majority" as "stated by Mr. Synnestvedt, but only "about one-third" of the pupils "have been, not of the New Church!" In a school which truly reflects the distinctive life and thought of the New Church, not two-thirds, but all the pupils will be of the New Church.

     In an article in Morning Light (July 16th) on Swedenborg's View of how Medicines effect Cures, Dr. Goyder deals with a question, which, though rarely discussed in public, is one of interest and importance,--the question as to how far the Writings support the principle of Homoeopathy. Only two passages are adduced, but they are amply sufficient to bring the M-hole question into discussion. The first, (D. L. W. 336), is familiar to every New Church defender of Homeopathy: "Things that do hurt to man...conduce to absorbing malignities, and thus to cures. " (See also III. Ad. 7484-7485, 7567; IV. Ad. p. 68 (13); and S. D. 2874). In this passage, the doctor notes, "a certain degree of truth is established in the principle of Homoeopathy," but, he adds, to accept this principle as universal would be the greatest mistake, and it would he "a profound fallacy to assert that all medicines act according to this principle, the fact being that by far the greater number of medicines are of an opposite nature to the diseases they are given to counteract." This latter principle of cure, he calls "the law of opposites," by which diseases are not absorbed, but driven out of the system. The second passage. (A. E. 1214), is adduced to confirm this law. Here it is shown that minds are refreshed, or the reverse, by the odors or flavors of vegetables, and the body refreshed by the vegetables themselves or medicines, etc., prepared from them, and, on the other hand deprived of life by the poisons extracted from them. Commenting, the doctor says, "The very salutary character of good vegetables places them in direct opposition to disease, not by a process of absorption but of expulsion;" and this principle of cure he further confirms by referring to the Lord's miraculous cures.

     His general conclusion is that there is no "universal system of cure that all methods, or all "isms" and "pathies," are of more or less limited application, and that, as a matter of fact the principle of Allopathy is "of far more general application" than that of Allopathy.

     The writer's treatment of his subject is a superficial one. He has contented himself with adducing two apparently opposite principles without any effort to reconcile them, or any perception that there must be some universal principle which makes them one.

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However, he has opened up the subject, and it would be useful if others of our New Church doctors would take up and discuss it in a more thorough fashion.

     For one brief week in September, the Messenger was stirred up to depart from the peaceful and slumberous course of mild generalities which it has pursued for so long. It has produced a spirited editorial. And, more than this, it has indulged in criticism; though, after the manner of the Messenger, it is not clear against whom the criticism is directed. The subject is New Church Educational Ideals, and the keynote, a vast contempt for "the vice of parochalism," and a solemn warning against the election of boy schoolmasters. But first comes a plea for the "broadening" influence of the world. "To organize a series of classes into a school equipped with teachers who are Newchurchmen, and to introduce into the curriculum a certain amount of New Church instruction, will not make a New Church School in any but a very superficial way." If the organizers of New Church schools "merely put New Church knowledges of charity and faith into the course of study, and impart the information of the books of the Church to the children in the same way that they gather the facts of arithmetic; and send them out into the world with the supposition that they have a peculiar and exclusive right to call themselves Newchurch men and women because they have a slick acquaintance with the external draperies of doctrine, the so-called New Church school will confess itself as worse than a mere failure." Leaving these trifling matters of "New Church knowledges of faith and charity," and a "slick" acquaintance with doctrine, the Messenger then vents its righteous indignation against "that idea of the Church, or of heaven, which turns the Kingdom of God into a parish, or into a parochial school." "Unfortunate is the child whose education is limited to his experience in any school that is dominated by a narrow, sectarian, exclusive, critical, overbearing, and conceited pedagogical clique which seeks to imbue him with all the limiting and warping pride and prejudice of the straightest sect of the Pharisees." "The New Church school director should not be a boy whose knowledge of life is confined to his studies in and graduation from a New Church parish school, but one who has broad sympathies with the world," etc., etc. To what is the Messenger coming? "Narrow!" "sectarian!!" "EXCLUSIVE!!!" "CRITICAL! ! ! !" Shades of Barrett! type fails us. We have heard members of the General Convention criticize their schools in Urbana, Waltham, and Cambridge, and we have even made a few mild criticisms ourselves, but never, oh I never, would we go so far as to call them narrow, or exclusive, or critical. And the Boy-graduate- director,--this is quite a revelation. 'Tis pity the Messenger could not have been a little more explicit, for it would have been highly interesting to learn of the location of this New Church school presided over by such a youthful prodigy as the centre of its pedagogica clique.

626


Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Philadelphia. On Sunday, September 18th,the Advent church had the privilege of listening to a very interesting and instructive sermon by the Rev. C Th. Odhner, of Bryn Athyn, who conducted the services on that day in the absence of the pastor, who preached in Baltimore, Md. On the following Wednesday the young folks gave a very successful social in the hall of worship, which was much enjoyed by the young and old.

     On Sunday, October 2d, the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt filled the pulpit instead of the pastor, who officiated at Bryn Athyn. The pastor of the Advent church, the Rev Joseph E. Rosenqvist, is to make a trip to the World's Fair, where he will be the guest of Gimbel Brothers, Philadelphia, who send the twenty ministers of the different denominations in Philadelphia and Camden to St. Louis, who have received most votes in a recent contest. The trip extends from October 17th to 29th.

     Glenview. Our season opened Friday, September 30th, with the annual meeting of the Society and the first weekly supper. The pastor's address showed that all church uses had been successfully carried on throughout the year, and that the prospects for the future are encouraging.

     In regard to the school the engagement of Miss Evelyn Gilmore as teacher for the ensuing year was reported, as well as the fact that three of the recent girl graduates of the Academy have consented to assist in the school work. Our pastor also will give considerable time to the teaching of the higher classes, so that the school scents well supplied with workers.

     During September our settlement lost two families by the removal to Chicago of Dr. Harrey Farrington and Mr. D. E. Leonard. In their place, however, we have received a very welcome addition in Messrs. Charles and Louis Coles with their families, who have settled in the house formerly occupied by Dr. Farrington.

     Another sign of Glenview's progress is the fact that Mr. Alvin E. Nelson is building a very fine house, which he will doubtless be occupying before our next report. L. E. G.

     Chicago. You have received no report of the doings in Sharon church for some time, and have laid it, no doubt, to the excessive modesty characteristic of these parts,--which in the correct explanation our social life differs from that in other centres, circumstances leading to a large number of small affairs which make a good total of social activity, but leave little of a general character to report.

     At our church socials we combine instruction and pleasure by providing a lecture for a "curtain-raiser," and a dance for a finale. The "old folks'' look upon the lecture as the main feature, while the young view the dance as the chief attraction, and both go home pleased and satisfied. Several of these affairs have been given since my last report, and on each occasion the lecture has been furnished by Dr. King, whose versatility in this direction has been equal to every emergency, with the result that we have all been greatly enlightened on the subjects of Japan, tobacco and digestion.

     In the Doctrinal Class, Mr. Caldwell has treated of a variety of subjects, including a series on the Tribes of Israel and the Land of Canaan.

627


The curriculum for the coming season includes a range of interesting subjects.

     On one occasion Dr. E. A. Farrington lectured to the Society on the subject of Food and its Constitution, and recently we had the pleasure of listening to an account from Mr. Alfred Stroh of his work in Sweden, which he illustrated by photographs and other mementoes.

     During the summer bliss Esther Boggess and Miss Gwladys Hicks visited Chicago, and charmed us with their singing. E. A. F.

     Berlin. The school of the Carmel church opened on the 6th of September, with forty-three pupils. The headmaster's address was on the subject of Order. A change has taken place in the teaching staff of the school, due to the resignation of Miss Annie Moir. Miss Moir began her work as a teacher in Berlin in the school of the First New Jerusalem Society, and afterwards continued it in the Berlin Academy School and then in the Carmel Church School,-in all a period of nearly fifteen years. At our annual meeting on September 23d, a resolution was passed, appreciative of Miss Moir's long and faithful services as a teacher in our school. The position of lady teacher is being filled temporarily by Miss Edna Stroh.

     For the past two months we have had the pleasure of having with us Mr. and Mrs. Peter Rothaermel, of Ontario, California, who left Berlin twenty-five years ago. All regret that they must soon again leave us for their far-away home. Another former Berlinite, who visited us for a few days in September, was Mr. Alfred Stroh, of Bryn Athyn, who had not been here for ten years. On Friday evening, the 9th, he delivered a lecture on Swedenborg's Manuscripts; on the following Sunday morning filled the pulpit, and in the afternoon addressed the children on Swedenborg and Sweden.

     On the 13th of September, about twenty of the young people of the Society met and organized a Young People's Club, for the cultivation of social life and such other uses as they may be able to perform.

     In the evening of September 27th the married members of the Society met at the house of Mr. and Mrs. John Schnarr to join with them in the celebration of the tenth anniversary of their wedding. After a game of cards the company were invited to the wedding supper in the dining-room. Toasts, appropriate to the occasion, were proposed, and responded to in words which strongly called forth the affections of love for the Church and of conjugial love, and caused a delightful sphere to prevail. The loving-cup, filled with wine that the host had put aside for such occasions during the first year of married life, was passed around; so also was some of the wedding cake of ten years ago. It was well on into the next day when the guests reluctantly departed.

     On Friday evening, September 29th, the first monthly general social of the season was held. The evening's entertainment was provided by the young people, and consisted of charades, songs and dancing. W.

     London. (England.) In addition to the enjoyable times experienced during the recent Assembly meetings, the Society here has received great benefit from the visit of the Rev. A. Acton, of Bryn Athyn. He has preached on three occasions, besides visiting the friends at their homes.

     On Sunday evening, September 11th, a social was held to enable the friends to bid farewell to our visitor. It was a most profitable as well as enjoyable, meeting. By request, Mr. Acton read a paper on Entrance into Heaven. Questions and speeches followed, and numerous toasts to New Church Life, which was the occasion for a very useful discussion. The singing of songs and ditties of the kind so well known at Bryn Athyn greatly added to the social sphere.

628




     On the following evening another "farewell" social was given to Mr. Acton, by Mr. and Mrs. Waters. On this occasion we had the pleasure of having with us Mr. R. Morse, of Australia, who had been present at the Bryn Athyn Assembly. During the first part of the evening some time was given to remarks about the Church in Australia, and other distant centres; following which there were many toasts and responses,--notably to Social life and Conjugial Love.

     On Monday evening, September 19th, several of the ladies arranged a surprise visit by the society to Rev. A. Czerny, who has been the pastor here for the past three years. The occasion was used for presenting him with a number of gifts. After the "surprise" was over, the friends adjourned to the meeting room below, and Mr. Waters, on behalf of the society, explained to Mr. Czerny that the friends had adopted this method of expressing to him their hearty appreciation of the work he had performed in their midst. He enlarged upon the quality of that work and the benefits that had resulted; Mr. Czerny briefly replied. Several toasts followed, and the rest of the evening was spent in a social manner. G. A. McQ.

     Colchester. It has been several months since Colchester has been heard from in the columns of the Life, and during that time many interesting meetings have been held which must now be passed by in silence. Mention should, however, be made of an enjoyable occasion on May 29th, when Mr. and Mrs. Appleton invited the society to their silver wedding celebration. The meeting was opened with a brief service and address by Mr. Czerny on the subject of Conjugial love. The friends then sat down to supper, and in response to toasts several prepared speeches were made on various phases of conjugial love. In the course of the evening, Mr. and Mrs. Appleton were presented by the society with a pair of silver candlesticks.

     On June 12th Mr. Czerny delivered the first of a course of five missionary sermons. They were advertised regularly, but as far as we can judge, with no apparent result.

     During the first week in September, we had the pleasure of a visit from Rev. A. Acton. On Sunday, September 4th, he preached for us, and in the afternoon he made an address to the children. In the evening a social was held at which Mr. Czerny presided; there were eighteen present. The meeting opened with a paper by Mr. Acton on Entrance into Heaven. The paper was much enjoyed, and was a practical demonstration of the use of specializing is the study of the doctrines. An interesting conversation followed, after which came toasts and speeches. Mr. Acton giving us many new "pointers" in the way of response and song.

     During his stay here there were several impromptu socials at the private houses, which were taken advantage of to discuss matters of spiritual import in connection with the Church.

     On September 8th, we met at the rooms to hear the annual "concert" of the Tonic-sol-fa class, which numbers fourteen children. The program included secular songs, selections from the Psalmody, and some hymns, and the singing was excellent. Mr. Acton addressed the children on singing in heaven, and pointed out some spiritual uses of singing. He also presented to the teacher, Mr. Potter, on behalf of the society, a copy of the Psalmody as a token of appreciation of his earnest and successful work. As this was Mr. Acton's last evening with us, the meeting concluded with a number of British cheers, including three cheers by the children for the children at Bryn Athyn.

     Our thanks are due to the Bishop who has sent Mr. Acton as the bearer of a message to us from the heart of our organization.

629


The message has been most stimulating and encouraging, and has more fully shown to us the church as a living and uniting force. F. R. C.

     A MISSIONARY VISIT TO A DISTANT FIELD.

     In compliance with the urgent request of Mr. Henry Scott, of Calgary, it was arranged for me to make a missionary tour to the Canadian Northwest. Starting from Toronto on July 19th, after a journey of 1,283 miles, I reached Winnipeg, Man., on the 21st, and called on Mr. William Hill. He received me most cordially, saying he was delighted to see a Newchurchman once more, as he had not seen one since he came from Montreal twelve years ago. Mr. Hill is a man who reads the Writings, and therefore, although isolated, he has kept the faith through all those years.

     Leaving Winnipeg, on July 22d after a trip of 840 miles westward across the vast prairie, I arrived at Calgary, on the 23d. There Mr. Henry Scott and Mr. Tom Hillas greeted me. Mr. Scott went to the Northwest from Ontario nearly twenty-five years ago, and Mr. Hillas has been there about half that time. Both have had the same experience, in that no one in their families has taken any interest in the New Church; but they have had opposition from them.

     Mr. Scott had been lending books to several persons, but no one had shown any evidence of being in a receptive state. He invited a number of his friends to attend a meeting in a hall, on Sunday afternoon July 24th. Only two of them came Mr. Hillas was not able to attend on account of illness in his family. But the two young men, by their questions, kept me busy for two hours, explaining the difference between the new doctrine and the old beliefs. They seemed to be favorably impressed, and they were quite friendly and respectful.

     Notice for a meeting in the hall on Tuesday evening, July 26th, was given in a local paper. Those who came were Messrs. Edward and William Ferdinand, formerly of Waterloo, Ont., who have two brothers, members of our Church, at Berlin. They were the most hopeful, to become believers in the Doctrines, of any of the people met with, and both of them bought New Church books.

     On Sunday, July 31st, we held a meeting in the room occupied by me,--it being the most available place. Mr. Tom Hillas was baptized; the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was administered to Mr. Scott and Mr. Hillas; and both of them were pleased to have the opportunity to apply for membership in the General Church. Several days before I had written to a Newchurchman living twelve miles from the city, but he did not come.

     On Monday, August 1st, I went seventy miles north of Calgary to visit Mr. Alex. Davidson and family. Mrs. Davidson is a sister of Mr. Henry Scott, and I knew her at her home in Ontario, when she was a little girl. As they did not expect a New Church minister to come so far west as to reach them, they had had their six children baptized by a Presbyterian minister. But they got some books, which will give them instruction as to distinctions of Doctrines.

     I returned to Calgary on August 3d. I did not see much of Mr. Hillas after that, but my visits with Mr. Scott were mutually enjoyed as his whole heart is in the things of the Church. The experiences of life have evidently done much to cultivate the affection of truth and good in him. And that he earnestly desired the visit from a minister--it may be added here--is shown by the fact that he was willing to advance the amount to cover my traveling expenses in making the tour. The General Church also made an appropriation for this use, which is another proof that our body desires to promote missionary work, in so far as this is practicable.

630




     I started on my return journey eastward, on August 9th. On the 2d I had written to two persons whose names had been given me as interested in the, Doctrines, at Brandon, Man. But there being no reply from either of them. I passed through Brandon on the 10th, reaching Winnipeg in the evening. Mr. William Hill was at the station to meet me; and I remained with him till the night of the 11th.

     My desire to visit the little New Church Society of Russian Germans, at Rosthern, Saskatchewan Ter., could not be ultimated, on account of the great distance from the main line of the railway, and for other reasons.

     I reached Toronto on August 13th, having traveled by rail on this tour 1,550 miles.

     On August 15th, a letter was received which was forwarded to me from Calgary. It was from our Icelandic brother, Mr. Ari Egilson, dated Brandon, Man., August 7th. He says: "I received yours of the 2d inst. just now, at 12 o'clock, and I write at once. Please do come and see me. Our little church will be open for you. I have read your missionary reports for many years in the New Church Life."

     He does not give a reason why my letter did not reach him sooner. The circumstance was a hard blow to life, because I had hoped to hear from Brandon and to stop off there, and find some one interested in the New Church. But it seems that for some reason, in the providence of the Lord, this was not to be. JOHN E. BOWERS.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The fifth session of the Almont, Mich., Summer School, (August 7-21), has proved to be the most successful since the institution of the school. The session opened with an attendance of forty, and the total enrollment for the two weeks was seventy-four, being an increase over last year of over twenty per cent. The school has also prospered financially, having cleared off all debts and having over $100 to contribute to the Michigan Association.

     The studies are, for children the letter of the Word, doctrine from the Word, singing, Hebrew and nature studies; for adults: Doctrine, the spiritual world, singing, correspondences, and Hebrew. The Instructors are the Rev. Messrs. Schreck and Whitehead, Misses Edith and Helen Whitehead and Miss Jennie Buell, of Ann Arbor, who gave two talks on nature studies. The school has also a matron, Mrs. Whitehead, and a housekeeper. All the household work is done by the pupils.

     A remarkable feature of the school has been the attendance and interest in the Sunday services. On the opening day, when the "Janet Gardiner" well was dedicated, exactly 100 were present. On the following Sunday the attendance was even larger.

     After the services the whole congregation was invited to stay to dinner. Here toasts were responded to, among them being one to the seven members of the school who had been married during the past year. A similar program was followed on the closing Sunday when speeches were made on the subject of spiritual and natural pioneers.

     Full particulars of the working of the school are given in the Messenger for September 21, which also prints some views of the buildings.

     There seems to have been a warm and affectionate New Church sphere throughout the sessions. We heartily congratulate the founders of this work on the fruits of their enterprise.

     As the fruit of a month's work by Rev. C. H. Mann, a New Church Society, consisting of about a dozen families, has been formed in Elkhart, Ind. Mr. Mann will minister to the society for a year.

     In the afternoons of September 26 and 27, Mr. Alfred H. Stroh delivered two lectures at the Swedenborg house, St. Louis, on the subject of Swedenborg as Scientist and Philosopher, and The Reproduction of his Manuscripts.

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     The Rev. J. E. Thomas, during his recent missionary trip to the colored people in Alabama, secured the names of twenty persons in Bessemer, who have pledged themselves to do what they can to support a New Church mission, should one be planted there. Mr. Thomas's experiences among his people are similar to the experiences of missionaries among the whites; for these twenty persons are all drawn not from the lowest class, or from the first class "who desire to be valued only for what they appear to be." but from the middle class.

     GREAT BRITAIN. An interesting and significant discussion at the last Conference, which was unavoidably omitted from our notice of the meeting, was that of membership with Free Church Councils. The Rev. W. T. Lardge, who had been refused membership in the Free Church Council of Preston moved that Conference make formal application to the National Free Church Council for the inclusion of Newchurchmen in the organization. The motion was supported by Rev. J. R. Rendell, who had been president of the Accrington Council, and had been welcomed to the National Council where the question of admitting. Newchurchmen was under advisement; and it was opposed by Rev. J. T. French, who, though associated with the local Council, thought the National Council quasi political body, whose interpretation of "evangelical" was that it meant belief in a tri-personal godhead. The matter was referred to Conference Council, to enquire into the "actual constitution" of the Free Church Council. What will the next step be?

     Mr. W. R. Horner, theological candidate, late of the Blackburn Society, has become the minister in Liverpool.

     A sub-committee of the District Union of the London churches appointed to arrange meetings for the discussion of New Church topics, has formed a "Theological and Philosophical Society" which is to meet monthly at Bloomsbury street. The fees are 5 shillings per year. Among the subjects to be discussed, we notice a paper by Rev. W. A. Presland on 'The Limbus.'

     The New Church Young Men's Association has arranged to hold a series of open-air services in connection with the London missionary work.

     Mr. Thomas Moss, B. A., a lay preacher of long standing, has become the "leader" of the Newcastle Society.

     The Rev. Arthur Ryland's who recently left the Unitarian Church and was ordained by authorization of Conference, has become pastor of the Nottingham Society, to which Rev. T. F. Robinson, a Conference minister who subsequently graduated at the Academy Theological School, has administered monthly for some time past.

     SWITZERLAND. The annual meeting of the Swiss Union was held in Zurich on August 21st; the attendance was fifty-four. During the past year, the membership of the Union has increased by three persons; the Union has also been prosperous financially. The report of Rev. F. E. Goerwitz gives a view of the large field of work that has been covered and shows that a great deal has been done during the past twelve months.

     AUSTRIA. The New Church circle in Trieste will have nothing to do with the New Theosophy. Although there are followers of Lorber, who claim to write "Father Letters" by dictation,-signed by Jesus Christ-the members of the circle at once recognized that these "revelations" are not in harmony with the Doctrines.

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     MAURITIUS. Mr. J. H. Ackroyd, who has served for many pears as Vice-President, and virtual leader of the Port Louis Society, sailed for Europe last August. We understand that his departure is a permanent one. Mr. St. Pern, the secretary of the Society, was elected in his place.
LOVE OF TRUTH 1904

LOVE OF TRUTH       Rev. WALTER E. BRICKMAN       1904



Announcements.



     
NEW CHURCH LIFE.
VOL. XXIV. DECEMBER, 1904 No. 12.
     THE love of truth is a spiritual love, for truth itself is spiritual. By the love of truth we are to understand love as the soul of truth. Love is truth's internal and truth is the body in which love, its soul or spirit, resides. The love of truth is love within truth, or truth's own love. The love of truth manifests itself as the spirit of truth and is felt as the sphere exhaling from and surrounding truth.

     By the love of truth we do not mean an affection on the part of man far truth as something separate and distinct from love, an affection which reaches out towards truth for the sake of ornamenting the mind by it. This is not the love of truth but love for truth, an external love, natural but not spiritual. Love of truth is interior love, because love is the interior of truth, that is, truth's own love, communicated to the will of man and going forth from his will to its own truth again, bringing the man into conjunction with it.

     Since truth and its indwelling love are spiritual, the love of truth is man's spiritual level for he loves truth as what is of the soul within himself, as that which is a receptacle of the Divine, that by which he has life eternal, a love which lives after his natural affections and sensations are dead and dissipated.

     Love for truth may be merely natural. It is the desire to possess truth for the end that the natural may have agreeable and pleasant sensation, that good-standing before men, dignity, honor and influence may be enjoyed. Love for truth may be the love that makes truth serve the natural, because the love is natural; love of truth is the internal love making the natural obey and serve truth. The love of truth is the love within truth, entering the spiritual will and elevating man to receive the spirit of Divine Truth.

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Love for truth may be love for oneself made possible by the knowledge of truth.

     The love of truth is the Lord's love formed in the Word. Unless the Divine Love could exist in form there would be no creation, because no accommodation of Itself by its highest form into lower forms. Hence, Divine Truth is the form of Divine Love and the receptacle of it, that by which love is ordinated, systematized, and accommodated, thus made human, which descends into and at the same time elevates to itself that which contains it. By Divine Love ascends by Divine Truth Divine Love descends. The Lord enters man by means of the Divine Truth, and draws him, by his love of it, to Himself. But it is the Divine Love within Divine Truth which draws the man's love to Itself. And it draws his love to Itself mediately or by the Divine Truth, which is the Word. And, moreover, since Divine Truth is also that by which the Divine Love can proceed and reform itself in others,--since Divine Truth is Divine Love's own form,--therefore, the Lord alone is the Divine Love while man is a form of Divine Truth. a limited form, but capable, by its reception of influent love from the Divine, of illimitable impletion and extension; so that although born in time, he may and does continue as to his spirit, to live and grow, or be renewed, forever. It is the Divine Spirit of truths own love, which, by his reciprocal love of it as the love of truth, renews his life to eternity. Without the love of truth man cannot have eternal life.

     The Divine Truth is the Divine Law by which Love is brought into form, by which it can accommodate itself to others outside of itself. The Word is the Divine Law, that by which the heavens were made, (Psalm 33:6) for the Divine of the Lord makes heaven. Unless the Lord were not only Divine Love but also Divine Truth, men would be mere animals if anything, with no plane of reacting as of themselves with the Divine. But since Divine Love is within Divine Truth and man is a form of Divine Truth, he is capable of receiving truth and the love of truth as the ability felt to be proper to himself but recognized by the truth as from the Divine in him.

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Hence man cannot be a reactive agent of the Divine and be in reciprocal love except by his love of truth as the love of the Lord.

     The Divine Law or the Word is the Divine method of bringing all things into order from itself. For order is the arrangement and organization of the end and purpose of love by law. The Divine Love orders and arranges its creative ends by means of the Divine Law, which is essentially the Word. It is called the Word because it is law in the human form, because it is not Divine alone but Divine Human. The Divine Love is, therefore, communicated by means of the Divine Human, the Lord, who is the Divine Human, the Divine Truth and the Word. Truth is therefore in the human form, and they who receive Divine Truth from the love of it as the Word, come nearer to the Lord, and at the same time come more nearly into the human form. Hence man is not man until he has the love of truth.

     Unless man be affected by the spirit of truth he cannot be In the love of it. For the spirit of truth is the Divine Love inflowing into angels, and, by them endeavoring to come into the spiritual will of man. For love is the internal active which causes man to compel himself to love truth, to become interested in it, thus to learn and understand and be affected by it. "When man is in the affection of truth, ... then also good continually flows in, but it does not as yet have vessels, that is, truths,... but then good, because it continually flows in, produces the affection of truth; for the affection of truth is from no other source than from the continual endeavor of the Divine Good to flow in." (A. C. 4247) When man is affected by a ruling love of truth as good, that is, in its first form or as the proper instrumentality of ultimating his end into act, then he can be and is affected by the spirit of truth, and feels the truth in his will. This is an interior affection of truth which is perception, and this is immediate influx, the influx of the spirit of truth into the truth man already understands, for perception is in truth and is not independent of it. When truth is felt in the will there is perception, then or afterward it may enter into the sight of the understanding and, as mediate influx, cause illustration.

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The immediate influx of the heavenly love within truth opens the spiritual will and produces continually newer and more interior loves of truth; the mediate influx of heavenly truth opens the spiritual understanding and provides more interior views of truth; when there is present both immediate and mediate influx, the conflux of these causes both perception and illustration; such is the wisdom of angels and such will yet become the wisdom of the heavenly church among men.

     When man is in the state that he perceives the affection of Divine Love emanating from the Word, then the truth received becomes good, and is loved as good in its first or interior form. For love is good in end or endeavor; truth is good in its first or causative form, and use is good in its ultimate form or in act. He who loves truth has the endeavor to fulfil the end of the Divine Love, which is, to bring all whom it creates into everlasting conjunction and blessedness with Itself. It can only do this by presenting before men the laws of His love, by teaching these laws as His love in orderly form, as His Divine Law or Word,--that which is fixed and unchangeable, thus the absolute or Divine Truth,--and thus, by the love enfolded within and promoted by truth, causing men to love His Word or Truth as Good. When truth is loved as good, then its life or spirit goes forth, or proceeds into the functional activities of his life. Hence he longs for and endeavors to come into such internal and external consociations as will promote an active life in the sphere of truth, and in such uses as will ultimate his love of truth into act. Thus, the love of truth establishes at once both heaven and the church among men.

     Truth is in the human form; it is personal, but more than personal. The love of truth must be more than a personal love. Truth is to be loved for its own sake, as that which is of the Lord alone with man, and the Lord must be loved in the neighbor according to our perception and judgment of his manifestation of the love of truth as his love of the Lord. No matter what his personal character as to certain qualities agreeable or disagreeable to our own inclinations, the ruling and animating love which we bear him must be according to what we see and feel to be of the Lord with him.

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What is adjoined to the person may not be of avail in his regeneration nor may it preclude it. His hereditary disposition adjoined to his person may be either merely natural good or external evil, that which in itself will neither condemn nor save him. We are to love and judge in man primarily his attitude towards the Lord and the Church, or his interest and intelligence in what is Divine and spiritual.

     When we love another's love of truth as his love of the Lord, then we really love the Lord in his love. We do nor: think of the truth as being the man but as being the Lord with him. In this view the person recedes from thought or consideration, and we love truth as we find it,--in whatsoever place and by whomsoever expressed. And until we can so impersonally love truth as to love it for its own sake, we do not have real love of the Lord, of heaven or of the church among men. Until this love manifests itself as love higher than that of time, place and person, it is not love of what is spiritual and manly or what is of the Divine. No matter what the intellectual development, or how tender and kindly may seem the affection displayed in our intercourse among men, no matter how few or how many may be banded together in this love and intelligence, thus, no matter what its mere quantity,--the Church will not be a church and in a Divine Human form,--the form of the Gorand Man,--until there be established the love of truth for its own inherent sake or good. But, once possessing this interior love, then the person will and should be loved from the confidence he inspires by his heavenly love and his regenerating life in accordance with it. Then the love of truth descends into the natural and makes the person become a man, and we love him as a true man, a man of God and a man of the heavenly Church among men.

     The Church is a spiritual institution because it is the embodiment of the love of truth as the love of the Lord, This love is a distinctive love and places the Church above tall institutions established by man. As this love becomes more interior the Church will become more distinctive. As it becomes more distinctive it will come more nearly into the heavenly form, the measure of the true man which is of the angel. And, inasmuch as the Divine of the Lord makes heaven, the church will come more and more into the image and likeness of the Divine Human,--the Lord.

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     The Church, then, to come into her stature of true manhood, must begin and continue to grow into a distinctive and more interior love of the truth; she must love it as the Lord revealing Himself as Divine Truth in His final appearance to men.

     The more interior the love of truth the more interior will be the understanding of the truth loved; the more interior will be the perception of the ends and purposes of the Divine in communicating truth and the love of truth; the greater will then become the degree of reformation and regeneration of the Church. Then greater progress will be made in arriving at newer and more original forms of truth, and in willing and thinking in the truths discovered. The Church will then possess a perceptive priesthood and an enlightened and illustrated laity. These will work together to make the name of the Lord in His Church glorious among men. By truth and the love of truth the Church will then realize its orderly and necessary progress, a progress interior and eternal, a progress which leads ever nearer to Him who is in Himself the Divine Love and the Divine Truth.
HOW TO PRAY 1904

HOW TO PRAY       Rev. J. E. ROSENQUIST       1904

     "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." (Matt. vi. 6.)

     In the verse preceding that of our text we are taught that before man can receive instruction on how to pray, he must shun hypocrisy as a sin against the Lord. This is, in brief, the lesson to be drawn from these words of the Lord: "And when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may he seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward."

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     We are often taught by means of opposites; that is the case here. By teaching what we should not be, by telling us how we should not pray, the Lord tells us what we should be and gives us the key to the knowledge of how to pray. This is significatively expressed by the very first word of our text, the word "But," which is here used as a mark of opposition between what goes before and what now follows, wherein the Lord continues His teaching on the subject: how to pray.

     "But thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

     The spiritual sense of these words is, in brief, this: that if we pray from love and affection, thus from the Lord, we shall be kept in good and truth from love and affection: thus we shall be rewarded manifestly by being in the Lord who is Good and Truth itself, and this is the greatest reward, inasmuch as heaven is therein and all the blessings and satisfactions of heaven. (A. E. 695.)

     Prayer presupposes in general two things on the part of him who prays. He must feel that he is in want of something, and he must a desire to obtain the thing in question. The things which should he pre-eminently the objects of prayer are spiritual and celestial things; for if these are first sought and desired, all the things of a lower order are sure to follow, according to the Lord's own words: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. 6:33).

     But who but a regenerating man feels the need of anything spiritual or celestial? Can the self-sufficient man feel any such want? Can the self-important, natural man feel a want of good and truth? He feels no such want, and has who desire for any thing of the kind, because he is sufficient to himself; he himself is the centre of his thoughts, and he looks down upon others as of no consequence except as stepping stones to be made use of or his own selfish purposes. If such a man prays from his own selfish motives, he prays as the hypocrites, being himself a hypocrite.

     We must have internal wants, and we must wish for internal things in order to be internal men.

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A man who has no wants for internal things is a man spiritually dead, but when he begins to feel a want of spiritual things, when the desire for spiritual and celestial things begins to make itself felt, then he is awakened to life, for charity and faith are spiritual life, and the man who feels in want of them, who wishes and prays for them, is raised up from death to life.

     Such a man is not at a loss as to what to pray for. Charity and faith are the universal things for which he prays, and then he prays, or may pray, for the innumerable particulars which are of charity and faith. Such particulars are, for instance, a kind and forgiving disposition: a greater desire to be of use to the Church, to the community and to his fellowmen; these are of charity. He will also pray for a better understanding of the Doctrine of the Church, for greater wisdom, clearer thought, and for an increase of his knowledges for the better performance of his use; all of which are of faith.

     In such a state man is enabled to pray aright, because he prays to the Lord not from himself but from the Lord; because his prayers are prompted by desires which are from the Lord. Deeply concerned as he may be for the obtaining of these things, he does not display his state of want before the world; he does not wear a mournful countenance; he lives outwardly as others live; he does not differ much from those who live and love only the natural life and its pleasures. But the great difference exists within him; he is an internal man, because he has internal wants, internal desires, internal treasures, which are neither seen, nor desired, and are therefore not obtainable by the merely natural man. He has shunned hypocrisy as a sin against the Lord, he has prayed, not as the hypocrites, but as the Lord teaches in our text, when He says: "Rut thou when thou prayest enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

     This teaching, that man, when praying, should enter into his closet and that he should shut his door, signifies in the spiritual sense that the state of the internal man should not be displayed before the world, should not be primarily a state of external sanctity, but that it should not be apparent before the world and should not be influenced by the external things of our nature, but should be a state wholly internal.

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     The word translated closet, in our text, may also be rendered chamber or bedchamber. That closet, chamber and bedchamber have reference to the internal state of man is very evident from many places in the Word where these expressions are used. It was a customary form of speech among the ancients to talk of entering into the bedchamber, and also of shutting the door on that occasion, when they meant to do anything which should not appear before others. This form of speech was derived from significatives in the Ancient Church for by house, in the spiritual sense, they understood the mind of man, and by closet or bedchamber they understood the interiors of his mind; hence, to enter into the closet signified to enter into the interiors of the mind.

     Thus, for instance, we read in the Prophet Isaiah: "Depart my people, enter into the bedchamber and shut thy door after thee; hide thyself a little moment, until the anger pass away, (xxvi: 20), which signifies that the man of the Church when pursued by evil, should enter into himself and cut off all communication with evil, which is signified by the anger, which should pass away.

     If the man of the Church would make spiritual progress it is necessary for him to enter into himself, that is, to examine his interior motives and thoughts, and when he has shut his door, that is, when he has shut out all the things of self-love and the love of the world, then he is able to perform this often difficult and distressing task of self-examination which leads him to approach the Lord in sincere, interior prayer, the reward of which will be greater and more blessed than he ever anticipated. His prayers are sure to be heard and answered, for their objects are then of an internal, spiritual character, and the things which oppose the Divine influx with all its powerful helpfulness, have been removed. Such prayers rise like sweet incense to the throne of the Almighty, because the Divine teaching of the Lord has been followed: "When thou prayest enter into thy closet and shut thy door."

     Did you ever think of the privilege of having a chamber or a closet to enter into, when in spiritual distress or anxiety? I do not mean a private room in your natural house, but a room in your spiritual house, in your interior mind, where you could feel as it were alone with the Lord.

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But as a private room in a natural house would not answer its purpose if there were not a door that could be shut, which you yourself could open and shut at pleasure, so it would be also with the spiritual chamber; it would not be a place of refuge, if it had not a door which you could shut at will.

     I am sure that we all have entered into this chamber, and that we all have shut the door in an unconscious manner many a time I but it would be far better if we did both consciously, that is, if we did it knowing perfectly well what we were doing and why we did it. But we cannot do this until we understand what that closet is, and what is meant by the door, that we should shut. And it is quite evident that if we knew these things we would be able to enter the closet with more confidence and hope, would be able to shut the door the quicker.

     It has been said that the closet signifies the interiors of man, but this is a general truth; the particular of this truth to which I would call your attention is, that the closet is that state in us where truth is conjoined with good, love with wisdom, charity with faith.

     That this particular truth enables us better to understand how we should pray is evident from this, that we can now see that our prayers must spring from states of truth and good, of love and wisdom, of faith and charity conjoined. For when man is in such a state he has entered into his closet, as the Lord in our text tells him to do.

     That this is the teaching of the Doctrine of the New Church is evident from the following in the Arcana Coelestia, where we read: "Man may be compared to a house in which there are many chambers, one of which leads into another. They who are in truths solely as to the understanding are not in any chamber of the house, but are only in the courtyard: but in proportion as truth enters through the understanding into the will it enters into the chamber and dwells in the house. In the Word also man is compared to a house, and the truth which is solely of the understanding is compared to a court; but the truth which has been made of the will also, and there becomes good, is compared to the chamber where the people live, and to the bedchamber itself." (10110.)

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     Let us now also learn what the door is, that we may be able to shut it more quickly; for the Lord commands us not only to enter into our closet but also to shut the door. We shut a natural door to cut off communication with the outside world; the door is a means of communication and at the same time a means of isolation. So it is also with the door of our spiritual chamber. The truths of the Word in letter and spirit are the means of communication with the Lord, heaven, and the angels, and they are also the means of isolation from the devil, hell and the wicked spirits in the other world,--that is, if we use them for the protection of our interior states of good and truth,--if we shut the door. "The Lord is Doctrine itself, wherefore He is called 'the Door.'" (A. C. 2516.) We shut the door when we remove falsities by truths. In other parts of the Word we are admonished to open the door that the Lord may enter. The fact is that as we shut the door on our sensual and merely natural man to keep the devil out, we open it for the Lord to enter, and thus we are saved from the deceitful cunning of the external man, and are protected by the Lord; we are with Him and He with us; we are in the company of His holy angels. From this state we may come the stronger, the healthier, the more courageous, the happier and better in the sight of the Lord, if spiritual things have been the objects of our prayer in that interior state of mind.

     Having taught us in what state we should be in order to pray aright, the Lord teaches us to whom we should address our prayers. He says: "Pray to thy Father, which is in secret."

     The Father to whom we should pray is none else than our Father, God and Savior Jesus Christ, the One only Lord of heaven and earth. He is called Father with reference to His Divine Love, and it is on account of this His Love that He is willing to hear our prayers and to grant the things for which we pray, if they can be of any service to our eternal happiness. He is said to be in secret because He dwells with man in What is His own in him,--in man's interior, in his chamber, in the internal thoughts from truth conjoined with internal affections of good; all these interior things are not from man himself but are the Lord's in him. From the Lord such thoughts and affections proceed, and by Him alone they are maintained, increased and perfected.

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To our Father which is in secret we must pray; to Him who dwelleth hidden from the eyes of the merely sensual and natural man, to Him who so well discerneth every motive of our will, every thought of our understanding; to Him who judgeth us, not according to appearances, but according to our endeavor; to Him who is full of compassion and infinite mercy, strong to help and mighty to save; to Him we must pray, who dwelleth in that infinitely pure light, which to the world is darkness, and who is therefore said to be in secret. What a secret place full of impenetrable darkness is not the Doctrine of the New Church to the unregenerated man! The whole Word of the Lord is a secret place, a dark place, a place of mysteries and confusion to the natural and sensual man. And yet it is in this place of darkness, in this secret abode, that our Heavenly Father dwelleth clothed with light as with a garment; in which He reveals Himself to His children, whose eyes have been opened to receive the resplendent light of all the world, a light which is the Light of lights. Where is the man who has seen interiorly the light of the Lord's Second Coming, who can acknowledge any other light in the world? And still this light is darkness to the world. The Lord has come in glory and power in the illumined clouds of heaven, and still this His Coming is a secret to the world. Can we not see what it means that we should pray to our Father who is in secret? We must not pray to the Father as He appears before the world, for to the world He appears as a God by Himself, separated from the Lord Jesus Christ; to the world He appears as an angry and revengeful God, who judges men, not according to their real character developed through a life according to His precepts, but according to their faith in His Son. To such a Father we must not pray, but to our Father which is in Secret.

     Why is it that the Lord's Coming is to some a secret, why is it that the Light of the world is to them darkness? Because those to whom the former is a secret and the latter thick darkness are in evils, because they love darkness more than the light, and this again because their deeds are evil. This is a general truth. It does not mean that all who do not now see the light of the Lord's Second Coming are in evil in the sense of not being salvable; for we know that there are those who are in spiritual darkness not from evil but from ignorance, and, who, if they live a life of religion, will be instructed and will receive and see and acknowledge and love the true light either in this life or in the life to come.

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     And now, if we do enter into our closet and shut the door spiritually, and pray to our Father, which is in secret, what does the Lord say will be the effect? That our prayers will be heard: "And thy Father, which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." By the reward which the Father of mercies will give to every one who thus prays to Him is meant, in a universal sense, salvation from evils and falsities, consequently heaven with all its happiness here and blessedness there. Nothing less is given--nothing more can be imagined. But, in a more general and particular sense, by reward is here signified the delight, satisfaction and blessedness which is contained in the love or affection of good and truth, for that love or that affection has in itself all the joy of heart which is called heavenly joy. The richest promises, honors and rewards which man receives for the performance of uses are not rewards spiritually speaking, but the delights and joys which may proceed from them; for instance, the delight we may feel in being able to perform more eminent uses in the Church; the satisfaction we may feel in being enabled to assist others who are in need of our help; these are heavenly rewards, if our actions spring from love to the Lord and charity towards our neighbor.

     If a man grows rich in the goods of this world, and if these riches have been acquired by honest means in the performance of good uses, he does not, if he is spiritual, rejoice in the mere possession of such riches, but because of the uses he has performed and may still perform by means of the same. His highest reward is the love of uses from which spring all the happiness and blessedness of heaven.

     Our text says that our Father will reward us openly, and still we know that the general rule is trot that faithful followers of the Lord are rewarded with such things as are rewards in the eyes of the world.

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The world does not recognize spiritual growth, increased affection for good and truth, true intelligence and genuine wisdom as rewards, if external success does not accompany them. The reward is therefore not given openly in the sense of being made manifest before the eyes of the world. No, not even the recipient himself, while in this life, is fully conscious of these heavenly rewards, but in the other life they become manifest not only to himself but also to others. We find the teaching in the work on Heaven and Hell (401) that the man who is in love to God and in charity towards the neighbor, so long as he lives in the body, does not manifestly feel the delight proceeding from them, but only a sense of beatitude that is almost imperceptible because it lies hidden and stored up in his interiors and is veiled over by the exteriors that belong to his body; it is also deadened by the cares of the world. But the state is completely changed after death. Then the obscure delight and the almost imperceptible sense of beatitude with those who have loved God and the neighbor are turned into the delight of heaven, which is rendered perceptible and sensible in every way. For that beatitude which lay hidden and stored up in their interiors while they lived in the world is then revealed, and is brought forth to manifest sensation.

     Thus our heavenly Father rewards every one openly or manifestly, who in humility prays for spiritual and celestial things in accordance with the Lord's teaching in our text:

     "But thou when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

     May we all be enabled to pray thus in secret, having shut our door, that the Divine reward, not of merit, but of grace, which the Lord is willing to bestow upon us may be ours. Amen.

647


SECRET CHAMBER 1904

SECRET CHAMBER       J. E. R       1904

When all is dark, the tempter near
And anguished heart is bent in fear:
When hope deserts us and we know
Not what to think, nor where to go;
When overhead and underneath
The tempests roar, the billows beat,
The tumult deepens, and the air
Breathes death and hell, and we despair.

What would we do, where should we go
For refuge in such times of woe,
If not a closet we could find,
A secret chamber in the mind,
Where all is quiet and at rest
And with our Fathers presence blest,
Where we call enter in and stay,
And shut the door, and rest, and pray!

Then let us seek this upper room,
Above the tempest and the gloom,
Where with our Heavenly Father we
Shall dwell secure and glad and free,
If in humility we pray
For love and wisdom that we may
Receive His life, behold His light,
And shun our evils through His might.                J. E. R.

648


RATIONAL 1904

RATIONAL       Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH       1904

     THE word "Rational" is from the Latin ratio, meaning reason, and this is from reor, to speak, think, reckon.

     This brings to mind the teaching of the Writings that the power of speech is from rationality and that man alone can speak because he alone has a mind that exists in discrete degrees. (D. L. W. 255) From this is the possibility of speech and from this is rationality.

     The common meaning of ratio in English is: "The relation of one thing to another of the same kind; proportion; rate." Thus the dominant idea in the root and its derivatives is the relationship of one thing to another or to many others. And this it is that constitutes rationality, namely, the power to see relations and contrasts.

     For this there must be judgment. There must be a certain established rate or standard in the light of which comparisons are made and judgment is formed. If this standard is the Divine standard, that is, Revealed Truth, then is man rational. The faculty by means of which comparisons are made and conclusions are formed is called the Rational faculty, or, most often in the Writings, simply the Rational.

     Rationality is almost synonymous with humanity. Man is man from rationality and according to it. Rationality is one of the two essentials to manhood; the other is free will.

     There is a true rationality and a false one. True rationality consists in the ability to see truth and to confirm it by scientifics and by rational considerations. False rationality consists in the ability to confirm as truth what one wishes to be true. True and false rationality may outwardly appear alike. Those who are merely sensual often reason more clearly than others and bring forward many proofs from science and from the letter of the Word. But to reason from appearances against truths is not to reason but to ratiocinate. It is not from rationality but from insanity.

649


The soul of rationality is the love of truth, the love of seeing through appearances to realities. This cannot be done from nature or in the light of nature, but only from a light that is above nature, thus from revelation. The essence of rationality is therefore the love of Divine Truth. And man is rational in proportion as he sees at the same title in the internal man and in the external, or both by perception and by reason, that what the Lord has spoken is true.

     In man's development two Rationals are successively formed or may be formed. They are called the First Rational and the Second Rational. In the first Rational truth predominates; in the second good has first place. These two Rationals are represented in the Word by Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael was named from "hearing." but he was a wild-ass man, his hand against every man and every man's hand against him. The first Rational harkens to the Word of God but condemns and denounces all who do not accept its own dictates as truth.

     Isaac was named from "laughter," and was the true heir of the land of promise. The second Rational rejoices in the truth and to it and through it is given the happiness of eternal life.

     The formation of the Rational with fallen man is a miraculous thing. With us it must be built up from without, instead of descending from within as it did with the man of the Most Ancient Church. If man were born without hereditary evil he would have the Rational and scientific at birth. (A. C. 1902.) So far as the natural man would awaken, it would develop according to order and would instinctively discriminate between appearances and realities. The internal man would let itself down into the external man, giving to the natural to see in the light of the spiritual. But because of hereditary evil man is born with the natural turned away from the spiritual; and before the internal can be present in the external a connecting way must be formed. This way is built up from without to meet the spiritual man, that he may let himself down by it and come into his kingdom and rule over it. The building up of this way of connection between the natural and the spiritual is what was spoken of as miraculous. It is effected in the following manner:

650




     "Through the love of knowing, the mind is stored with scientifics, and by this means a new plane of the mind is formed which is lifted somewhat above the senses. The soul of this, the first Rational, is from the internal man, but its body is from the affection of scientifics and its duality is according to the quantity and duality of that affection.

     "This Rational can receive something of the form of the internal but not much of its quality; something of its truth but little of its spirit. But it forms, as it were, the matrix in which a true Rational can be developed."

     The second or true Rational "is formed by the Lord through the affections of spiritual truth and good, which affections are implanted by the Lord in a wonderful manner in the truths of the former Rational: and those things in it which are in agreement are thus vivified; but the rest are separated from it as of no use; until at last spiritual truths are collected together, as it were, into fascicles, the incongruous things which cannot be vivified being rejected to the circumference." (A. C. 2657)

     Now the highway is formed by which the internal man can descend into the natural reform and regenerate it. The state of the man in whom a true Rational has been formed is similar to what his state would be at birth had he no hereditary evil; what is, it is similar in this that the internal man can be present in the external. But there is the difference that the external man with us fights against the internal and must be subjugated.

     It is evident that the beginnings of rationality are in infancy. Preparation is made; remains both of affection and of truth are stored during the whole of childhood for the formation of rationality. But the Rational is not really formed until the time of youth; and the second Rational is developed in maturity according to affection for the good of truth. Man may be rational in civil affairs and in mural things, and yet not be rational in spiritual things. Rationality in civil and moral things is cultivated by a knowledge of the laws pertaining to civil and moral life, and yet not by knowledge alone but by life according to knowledge of spiritual rationality is cultivated by knowledge of spiritual truths together with life according to them, and the man who is rational in spiritual things is also rational in moral and civil things.

651


The Rational is intermediate between the spiritual and the natural

     The Rational, while being formed, corresponds to the world of spirits, above it is heaven, below it is hell. (W. H. 430.)

     Moreover

     Man's Rational is, in appearance, of three degrees; a Rational from the celestial, a rational from the spiritual and a Rational from the natural. (D. L. w. 258.)

     The Rational is in the natural man and forms the highest degree of the natural and is able to respond to anyone of the three heavens. So long as man lives in the body he thinks from the Rational in the natural (A. C. 3679), but after death he thinks from the celestial, spiritual or natural Rational according as by his life in the world his Rational has been opened to one or the other of those degrees.

     The human begins in the Rational and even the highest angels always think from a rational truth. And yet the Rational alone can never be trusted as a criterion of truth because it Is in appearances and not in absolute truth.

     What the Lord teaches He gives man to see by reason, and this in two ways; one, that he sees in himself that it is so as soon as he hears it; the other that he understands it by means of reasons. (D. P. 150.)

     Thus there is to the rational man a double sight and a double confirmation of every revealed truth.

     The man who looks to the Lord and shuns evils as sins has his internal opened and perceives truths from others when he hears them; but if his Rational has not been cultivated he is not able to confirm truths by reasons and so see in himself that they are true. (H. H. 357.) Those who lack this rational confirmation dwell on the outskirts of the angelic societies. To consider the truth and confirm it by reasons gives the spiritual sight extension as regards that truth even to its opposites (A. C. 7298), and so enriches intelligence and gives power to refute falsity. "Nothing of faith is comprehended by man without a natural idea and also a rational one." (A. C. 3394)

652


The internal of the Rational is perception, its external is confirmation by scientifics, its intermediate is confirmation by reasons. There are two things that destroy the possibility of rationality, namely, profanation and deceit. "Deceit enters the interiors even to the Rational and thus closes tightly the spiritual mind." (S. D. 6053.)

     The Rational is the only medium by which the spiritual can come into the natural and reform and regenerate it. The spiritual puts forth the Rational from itself in Its own image and likeness; and the work of regeneration is to bring the natural into correspondence with the Rational and so into correspondence with the spiritual. We are told in the Arcana (6311) of spirits who were lost merely because they had not cultivated the Rational; not being rational they remained sensual and corporeal and could not receive the life of heaven.

     The naturalism which has inundated the Church can be shaken off only by rational things whereby men can see that a thing is so. (A. E. 2220.) Wherefore it is evident that the paramount duty of the Church is to cultivate a new Rational by means of the Writings and doctrine from them confirmed by the letter of the Word and by a true science. Preparation for this must be begun in early infancy and must be faithfully continued till minority is past. Then the youth must make the work of forming the Rational his own care, to be pursued with untiring vigilance.

     In no other way can the constantly encroaching sands of naturalism be resisted, and that fair city, the New Jerusalem, be built. And in every step of this work the end in view must be rationality, not for its own sake, but for the sake of use and for the sake of eternal good to the neighbor.

653


INNOCENCE OF INFANCY AND THE INNOCENCE OF AGE 1904

INNOCENCE OF INFANCY AND THE INNOCENCE OF AGE       J. B. S. KING       1904

     IT is very clearly taught in Arcana Coelestia, 3183, and in Heaven and Hell, in the section of the Innocence of the Angels of Heaven, that the very young and the very old come into a similar state: both are in innocence: the one is born into the innocence of ignorance, the other has acquired the innocence of wisdom. "The innocence of infancy, or of little children, is not genuine innocence, for it is only in external form and not in internal;" "the innocence of wisdom is genuine, because it is internal." The state of an old man signifies the state of wisdom, in which is the innocence of infancy, thus the first and the last state are united, and the man when old is introduced into the Lord's Kingdom, once more an infant, but a wise one.

     If the reader will study Heaven and Hell, n. 277 and 278, he will see the charming characteristics of infantile innocence, compared in very similar terms, with the corresponding spiritual graces which characterize the regenerated old man. Number 278 concludes with the following words, "therefore, man was so created, that when he is an infant he is in external innocence, but when he Is an old man he is in internal innocence, that by the former he may proceed to the latter and from the latter may return to the former. Wherefore when man becomes old he decreases in body and becomes, as it were an infant anew, but now a wise infant, thus an angel."

     The spiritual similitude between the first and the second childhood receives many interesting confirmations in the anatomical similarities of the two states. For instance, the infant is born generally in a state of baldness, and the old man usually acquires that state. The infant is born without teeth, and the alveolar processes of the jaw bones exist only in rudiment; then the teeth and the alveolar processes gradually grow to their full development in adult life.

654


But when old age comes on, the teeth are gradually lost, and the processes are entirely absorbed.

     The body and ramus of the lower jaw of the infant present an obtuse angle where the two parts join; during middle life when man is in full vigor, the angle of the body and the ramus is a strong, firm, right angle, but in old age the angle becomes more obtuse and rounded like that of an infant.

     The eye of the new-born is hypermetropic, or far-sighted, owing to the short antero-posterior diameter of the eye-ball. This is corrected by the natural process of growth, but when old age comes on, the eye again becomes farsighted, but now it is due to a stiffening of the accommodative apparatus, and is called presbyopia. This is a defect very similar to the hypermetropia of infancy, but due to a different cause.

     The infantile cornea is comparatively soft and hazy in appearance; with increasing years it becomes hard and clear as crystal; then comes old age and the cornea again becomes hazy, from the infiltration of a slight amount of fatty or calcareous matter. When the vigor of middle age is waning, the whole body, as is said in the latter part of H. H., 278, diminishes in size and shrinks away. This is also true of the internal organs with the exception of the heart. The heart is the only organ that grows in size as long as life and health continue. This is due to the ever increasing friction that the blood meets as it rushes through the gradually stiffening tubes and aging tissues, necessitating greater effort on the part of the heart muscle to push it; along. There is probably an interesting and noble correspondence here, if we had sufficient knowledge to recognize it. Part of the loss in height comes from the flattening of the vertebral disks, but the greater part of the diminution is due to the remarkable return of the femur to the infantile shape. The femur consists of a shaft and a neck; in infants the axis of the shaft and that of the neck make nearly or quite a right angle. During middle adult life the angle is an obtuse one, but as the flying years pass by, the angle once more sinks to the right angle of the infantile state.

     The superfluity of nutriment, above that which is necessary to maintain the body in equilibrium, is taken up in youth by the necessities of growth. When full growth is attained the superfluity that is still ingested, is absorbed in the formation of seed for the procreation of the race, but in old age there should be no superfluity of nutriment as there is then no use for it.

655


See Swedenborg's Gen. Org., n. 50.

     There are doubtless many other points in the anatomical structure of the old and the young which would confirm the statement of their spiritual similitude, and by studying the qualities and attributes of the mind, of the infant and the aged, other and even more striking similarities might be observed upon the plane of Psychology. To rehearse the points that have been mentioned in this essay we have:

     The condition of baldness is similar in both.

     The absence of teeth, from lack of development in the one case and from decay in the other.

     The absence of the alveolar processes, from lack of development in the one case and from absorption in the other.

     The obtuse angle formed by the axes of the ramus and body of the lower jaw-bone make these bones in the infant and the ages indistinguishable from each other.

     The far-sightedness of the infant (hypermetropia) and the far-sightedness of the aged (presbyopia) coincide.

     The haziness of the infantile cornea from flexibility and the presence of opalescent nutrient juices, and the haziness of the cornea of the old from the infiltration of fatty matter coincide.

     The general diminution and shrinking of the whole body in the aged is an approach toward the infantile state.

     The right angle of the shaft of the femur and of its neck are the same in the very old and the very young, and quite different from the angle of middle life.

     A great critic and writer has come upon the same truth from another standpoint, and his remarks are so much to the point that I will close this brief article by quoting them. John Ruskin says in the preface to the second edition of Modern Painters:

     There is a singular sense in which the child may peculiarly be said to be the father of the man. In many arts and attainments, the first and the last stages of progress, the infancy and the consummation have many features in common; while the intermediate stages are wholly unlike either and are farthest from the right.

656


Thus it is in the progress of a painter's handling.

     We see the perfect child, the absolute beginner, using of necessity a broken, imperfect, inadequate line, which, as he advances, becomes gradually firm, severe and decided. Yet before he becomes a perfect artist, this severity and decision will again be exchanged for a light and careless stroke, which in many points will far more resemble that of his childhood than of his middle age, differing from it only by the consummate effect brought out by the apparently inadequate means. So is it in many matters of opinion. Our first and last coincide, though on different grounds; it is the middle stage that is farthest from the truth. Childhood often holds a truth with its feeble fingers, which the grasp of manhood cannot retain, but which it is the pride of utmost age to recover.

     What Newchurchman can read this without marveling at the clear light in which a deep truth is exhibited, or without honoring the name of John Ruskin for doing it?
SWEDENBORG'S ANNOTATIONS IN A SET OF THE ARCANA COELESTIA 1904

SWEDENBORG'S ANNOTATIONS IN A SET OF THE ARCANA COELESTIA       A. H. STROH       1904

(Concluded.)

     On page 160, n. 7069, line 4 from the bottom of the page, the letter (n) is inserted after "ejus" and a small horizontal line drawn in the margin, the letter being included in De Telluribus.* On page 161, line 1. "n: 6808" is underlined, and omitted in De Telluribus.** In n. 7072, page 161, line 13, the word "si" has been crossed out; the words "ipsa * * * plena est," lines 14-15, have been underlined; the letter (o) inserted after "influebat," line 18, a horizontal stroke being made in the margin; and the letter (p) inserted after "bone," line 22.

657


In n. 7073, line 11 from the bottom of the page, the words "nec" and "ut Agni" are underlined; in line to the words "appareant * * * percipiatur" are underlined: "significet" is written above the line after "percipiatur;" "Innocentia" is changed to the accusative by the addition of "m;" the letter (q) is inserted after "Innocentian" and accompanied by a horizontal line in the margin; and, lines 6-7, the words" n. 6815 * * * finibus" are underlined. On Page 162, n. 7077, near the beginning, "n: 6813" is underlined. On page 163, line 2, a perpendicular stroke is drawn after the word "id," a similar stroke also being made in the margm. In the margin opposite the first two lines of n. 7078 Swedenborg wrote "haec post 7177.," evidently intending that the material in n. 7078 should be included after n. 7177 where the annotation "hic 7078" is made; however, when Swedenborg came to that place in De Telluribus he did not enter n. 7078 according to the memoranda. In n. 7078, p. 163, line 15, the letter (b) is inserted after the word "illam;" in lines 15-16 the words "sed ***separati" are underlined; in line 21 the word "angeli" is written above the line after "cum;" in line 24 the letter (r) is inserted and a horizontal line drawn in the margin: and in line 26 "n: 4410" is underlined.
* From this point in the present article it will be understood that when not otherwise stated the changes made in the Arcana Coelestia have been included in De Telluribus.
** From this point in the present article it will be understood that when not stated to the contrary words underlined in the Arcana have been omitted in De Telluribus.

     On page 191, at the beginning of n. 7170, the word "Iterum" (?) is written after 7170, but is not included in De Telluribus, where the word "quondam" is inserted after "Apparebant." In the same line the word "sed" is written above the line after "Mercurii," but is not included in De Telluribus. In line 3 of the number a perpendicular stroke is drawn after "alio," a similar one being also made in the margin. In the last line on page 191, the words "qua spectat solem" are underlined. On page 192, near the end of n. 7170, the word "referunt" is written over "constituunt." In n. 7171, near the end, the word "sed" is crossed out. See De Telluribus, n. 42. On page 193, n. 7773, line 5, "i possit" is written over the word "haberent," the change to "haberi possit" being made in De Telluribus. In the same place "ba" is written over "loquerentur." In line 6 Swedenborg has inserted a comma after the second "coeli." In lines 7-8 the words and numbers "& * * * 4060" are underlined. In line 15 Swedenborg changed the word "falsi" to "fassi." At the end of the number the letter (s) is inserted.

658


In n. 71 3 the word "prius" is written above the line after "uscluam," and the letter "t" is inserted at the end of the number. In n. 7175, beginning with the word "Ast," near the middle of the number, i. e., in the portion which Swedenborg incorporated in n. 19 of De Telluribus, a number of changes have been made; the sign is placed before "Ast" and all the material up to the first "spiritus" in line 6 from the bottom of the page is underlined; in line 6, above the line, after "tune," Swedenborg wrote "quidam eorum etiam," and over "velint" in the same line the letters "o" and "u;" in lines 4-5 the words "est * * * materiales" are underlined, and in line 4 "est quia" is written above quoque." On page 194, at the end of n. 7177, the words "ad finem" * * * Veneris" are underlined, and just below the number, near the left margin, Swedenborg wrote "hic 7078," which was referred to above. A comparison of the numbers in this portion of the Arcana Coelestia with the corresponding portion in De Telluribus shows that Swedenborg rearranged the material to some extent and also added the long number 38 in De Telluribus.

     In nos. 7246-7254 of the Arcana, pages 217-270, Swedenborg has made a number of horizontal strokes, and also some crosses, in the margins. On page 2191 n. 7253, line 5, from the bottom, Swedenborg wrote "concordantem" over "correspondentem." See De Telluriburs, n. 107. In this case there has also been a rearrangement of the material.

     In nos. 7358-7365 of the Arcana, pages 253-256, Swedenborg made a number of horizontal and perpendicular strokes, and crosses, in the margins. On page 254, n. 7361, line 20, Swedenborg wrote above the line, after "ex illis," "in altera vita." See De Telluribus, n. 87. Here also there has been rearrangement of the material.

     In nos. 7476-7487 there are marks in the margins as in the previous places. On page 290, in n. 7479, line 12, from the bottom of the page, the word "tot" was underlined by Swedenborg, but it was not omitted in De Telluribus, see n. 92. There has been a rearrangement of the material as before. On page 291 above the first line of n. 7483, after "illius," Swedenborg wrote, "non clued incola esset, sed quod similis ei;" see De Telluribus, n. 93.

659


Just before this annotation there is an asterisk in lead-pencil, and at the bottom of the page some one wrote there following words long ago, as is evident from the faded quality of the writing, which is written in lead-pencil, and from the old fashioned hand:

     The handwriting is not that of William Hill. Whoever may have made this annotation, the information it gives shows that the set of the Arcana Coelestia was most probably used by Swedenborg at his printer's in London, for Mrs. Lewis was no doubt the wife of the John Lewis who was one of the printers of the Arcana Coelestia.*
* Written by Mr. Swedenborg himself, these Books having been his own. They were bought of Mrs. Lewis --"

     On pages 332-333, nos. 7620-7622, Swedenborg made marks m the margin as before. This is also true of pages 367-370, nos. 7743-7751. On page 368, n. 7745, line 20, after "affectione," Swedenborg wrote above the line "et quasi in illa." See De Telluribus, n. 95. On page 369, over the first line of n. 7750, Swedenborg wrote after "lapideam," "etiam." See De Telluribus, n. 95.

     On pages 386-3901 nos. 7799-7813, Swedenborg made marks in the margins as before. On page 387. n. 7803, at the end of line 2 from the bottom of the page, Swedenborg inserted the letter (i). See De Telluibzls, n. 72. On page 388, n. 7803, line 16, the words "qui etiam aderant" are underlined. See De Telluribus, n. 72. The same is true of the words on page 389, n. 7810, lines 22-23, "ab angelis eorum, qui etiam tune aderant." See De Telluribus, n. 72 At the end of n. 78I2 Swedenborg wrote, "n: 8737." evidently a memorandum to incorporate the contents of the number in De Telluribus: see n. 78.

     On page 436. n. 7970, line 4, the reference "6614" is changed to "6914," the number 9 being also written in the margin.

     On pages 454-457 there are the usual marks in the margins. At the bottom of page 455, at the end of n. 8027, Swedenborg wrote, "in general 8733. 8734-8385." On page 457, n. 8037, line 3, above the words "quibus etiam," Swedenborg wrote "nostris dicunt." See De Telluribus, n. 61.

     On pages 481-483, nos. 8111-8119, there are the usual marks in the margins. On page 482, n. 8115, line 14, over the word "spiritus." Swedenborg wrote "homines."

660


At the bottom of the page, over the last line, n. 8118. Swedenborg wrote after the word "omnes" the word "tune." On page 483, n. 8118, Swedenborg wrote over line 8 after "voluntario" the words "cum intellectuali;" over "habitaret," line 16, Swedenborg wrote "ve;" over line 6 from the bottom of the page Swedenborg wrote after "imo" the words "ab aliquibus."

     On pages 524-527, nos. 8242-8251, there are the usual marks in the margins. On page 525, n. 8244, line 20, Swedenborg wrote over "calor" the word "vitale," and, line 22, Underlined "ex igne." Over the word "conservant," n. 8245, line 26, Swedenborg wrote, tribantur, (?) tulantur.

     On page 526, n. 8249, lines 3-4 from the bottom of the page. Swedenborg underlined the phrase "ac est * * * in alterius;" in the second line from the bottom of the page he inserted the letter (z) after "fuerint." On page 527, n. 8250, lines 10-11, Swedenborg underlined the words "& interius pro piano est."

     In. Nos. 8371-8386 there are the usual marks in the margins. On page 577, no. 8373, over the last word in the number, "simulato." Swedenborg wrote "coacto."

     There are no annotations by Swedenborg in Vol. VII. William Hill made a number of corrections, and it may also be noted in passing that some of the marks in the volumes which were not made by Swedenborg were made by the same hand which wrote the lead-pencil annotation in Vol. VI., page 291.

661


LAST JUDGMENT 1904

LAST JUDGMENT              1904

[MINOR WORKS OF SWEDENBORG.]

THE AFRICANS.

     115. Among the blackest of the Africans there are those who love to be punished and treated harshly in order that they may come into heaven;* saying afterwards, that they detest blackness, because they know that their souls are white, and their bodies black.
* Some particulars concerning the punishments of these spirits may be seen in A. C. 2603, and S. D. 453. In the latter number one of the punishments is described in some detail.-TR.

     116. I have heard it announced that at this day a church is being instituted with many in Africa; and that revelations are being made I and that the Africans are capable of receiving the heavenly doctrine, especially the doctrine of the Lord.

     117. I was conducted through some regions in front towards the left. Afterwards I saw a great palace,* and a spacious court there. A certain one spoke with me there, saying that a revelation had been promised and that he was expecting it. And then something luminous appeared in an obscure ground which was a sign that now was the revelation. And as I was directing my attention to this I heard that they were expecting a revelation concerning Christ, whom they call the one only man from whom every man is a man. And one of the angels then spoke with them and instructed them concerning the Lord, that He is the one only God. And they said that they perceived this, but not as yet that He was born a man. But when they had been instructed by angels they understood this also, saying that it was done for the salvation of the human race. Moreover they knew many things respecting heaven and hell of which Christians are ignorant. It was said that they were Africans. I was afterwards conducted thence towards the right, where I heard some spirits saying that they had expected a revelation, and that now angels from the Lord speak with them and instruct them concerning the Lord, with the promise that they should receive the heavenly doctrine.**

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These said that it could not be otherwise than that God the Creator of the universe should appear in the world, for He created men and loves them; and that the appearance must needs have been made in human form even to the sight of the eye.
* In S. D. 1771 this palace in compared to the royal palace in Stockholm.--TR.
** As related in S. D. 4775, the promise was that should receive "the entire doctrine of the Church from heaven," and also "new books (biblia) from the Lord." This promise was given to those who were "in the entrance to Africa."-TR.
     
     118. Afterwards in an obscure vision, it was shown how the heavenly doctrine would proceed in Africa, namely, rewards its interior parts, even to the middle; and that it would then progress towards those who are at the coasts on the Mediterranean Sea, but not to the coasts themselves: and then, after a time, would turn back towards Egypt.* Hence the angels were rejoiced that the Lord's advent anew was now at hand, and that a new Church would now be established among those with whom they could be conjoined. The doctrine does not reach to the Africans dwelling by the coasts, because thither come Christians who bring in scandals, and who have a human and not a Divine idea of the Lord. The Africans are capable of receiving the heavenly doctrine more than others on this earth, because they freely receive the doctrine concerning the Lord;** they have it, as it were, implanted in them that God will positively appear as a Man: they are in the faculty of receiving the truths of faith, and especially its goods, because they are of a celestial disposition. It was told them that prediction had been made by the Lord concerning His advent and concerning a new church after the old; and that His appearance is effected by means of angels who teach.
* For further particulars concerning the course of the revelation in Africa, see C. J. 76, S. D. 4777, and also no. 124 below.-TR.
* In the parallel passage in the Dairy (4783), we read: "The Africans are capable of receiving the heavenly doctrine more than others...as has been granted to know from the spirits who come thence, in that they freely receive the doctrine concerning the Lord," etc.-TR.

     119. I was again conducted to Africans by a road running first to the north, and then to the west.

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I there saw, as it were, a palace"* wherein were some spirits. And I was afterwards led further on, where I stopped. And I heard a great number being sent forth from the Christian heaven to those who were Africans; and those were there who, in the world, had lived according to their religion and had acknowledged one God under a human form. It was told them that they who live in good, according to their religion, are also in the affection of truth, for the good of life desires nothing more than truth since it desires to know in what way one is to live well; hence they rejoice when they are informed; and that all who are of such a character receive truths from the Lord and are enlightened according to the quality and quantity of their good of life. This they acknowledged and rejoiced at. The African race can be in enlightenment above other races on this earth because they are of such a character that they think interiorly, and thus receive truths and acknowledge them. Others, as the Europeans, think only exteriorly and receive truths in their memory, nor do they see them interiorly from any intellectual light,--which, indeed, they do not recognize in matters of faith. I told them that few Christians live according to their religion, but that they live according to civil laws and observe a good moral life for the sake of fame, honor and gain; and that they rarely think of living according to their doctrinal teachings, believing also that they are saved by the faith of doctrine and not by its life, on which account they have no doctrinals of life. The Africans were greatly astonished at this, not being willing to believe that it was so believing that there is no man who does now live according to his religion; and that if he does not so live he cannot become other than Stupid and wicked, because he then receives nothing from heaven.
* In S. D. 5516 this palace is described as being "like a palace of stone in the earth."-TR.

     120. All are explored after death as to the quality of their idea concerning God. That idea is the chief of all, because conjunction with the Lord and conjunction with heaven is according to being willing to it, and hence everything of the love and faith of the Church is according to it: for everything of the Church is Divine, yea, is God; hence man has everything of the Church from his idea of God; such as that idea is, such is each one's heaven.

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The Africans also differ from each other according to their idea of God. Some worship God invisible and visible; some make two gods of them, others one and the same God. Some are instructed by Christians that God was born a man, and accept this; and when they hear that they distinguish the Divine into three persons, they go away, believing, however, that the Christians, though they say three, yet think of one;* for they do not comprehend what a son born from eternity is. Some, who are the best of them, believe that God is altogether a man; they say that in times past those who had believed that God was born a man saw a bright star in the sky.** The wiser of them believe that God was born a man in the world, and so manifested Himself.
* In a similar passage in the Diary (5809) we learn that many of this class of Africans, themselves "make one God from three, believing that the Christians, although they say three." etc.--TR.
** These were men who lived "some centuries ago." They believed "that God was certainly born a man, but they knew not where, they enquired and heard that it was in Jericho; and being thus content, they retained that word and held it as holy." They saw the bright star, spoken of in the text, whenever they thought of God born a man. (S. D. 5809.)--TR.

     121. It was said that in a certain region of Africa there is a Book, from ancient times, which they regard as holy; it is written by correspondences in a similar manner as the Word with us.*
* In the only other passage of the Writings where this Book is mentioned we learn that it was written by enlightened men in Africa. (S. D. 5809.)--TR.

     122. A certain priest,* who had supposed that no one could have an idea of the Divine Human, was translated to societies of Africans, and it was discovered that they had no other idea than that of the Divine Human.

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     ** In Abyssinia, in Africa, they have some psalms written in a style similar to that of our Word, and [it was said] that they are sung in their temples, and that spirits are sensible of a communication therefrom. They treat, in the spiritual sense, of One God, the Redeemer of the human race; but these things have been treated of before, where the subject was the Word, no. [5947.]***
* This was Dahlborg (1675-1723), a celebrated preacher in the court of Charles XII., and in his latter years a pastor in Dalecarlia. He was noted for his pietism. See S. D. 5811 1/2, and also 5031.--TR.
** In the MS. this is the commencement of a new paragraph, but as it was printed by Dr. Tafel as a part of the preceding paragraph and is so referred to in Pott's Concordance, it is here left unnumbered.-TR.
*** The reference is to S. D. 5947, "Concerning the influx of the Word into Heaven, and communication with the Gentiles." There we learn that these Abysinnian psalms "were composed by a pious man;" and an interesting description is given of the effect which the singing of them on earth produces upon Abysinnian spirits in the other world. See also S. S. 108.--TR.

     123. It was granted to speak with African spirits on various subjects;* and they take in all the truths of the church with clear perception. And when the Word was presented to them they understood it as to the internal spiritual sense; and they gave it to their elders who said that they have the Word** in their own possession, and that it is most holy.
* An account of this conversation may be seen in S. D. 5936. See also T. C. R. 837-839, which gives, at some length, the substance of conversations with Africans.--TR.
** The Latin text does not indicate whether Verbum here should be translated "the Word" or "A Word." In adopting the former expression the translator has been guided by a parallel passage in the Diary (5946) where it is said: "They then gave the Word [presented to them] to their instructors who said that they had it, but had not divulged the fact. They said that they dictated it to men in Africa."--TR.

     124. Afterwards they showed me what kinds of men there are in Africa, which they know from the societies of that race in the spiritual world: namely, that interiorly in Africa are the best, and the wise, those who are not good are near the Mediterranean Sea, also near Egypt, and at the Cape of Good Hope. The tract where the good are lies from Ethiopia towards the middle, to which part strangers from Europe are not admitted; and in case they enter, if they are not willing to become servants they sell them to the Africans; and they said that at this day some speak with Africans in the world and instruct them; that speech with them falls especially unto their interior perception; that they perceive the influx and thus receive revelation with enlightenment; and such speech is with their instructors in whom they have confidence.*
* Further particulars respecting the things related in this number are given in S. D. 5946, which also includes a sketch of Africa in the world of spirits, whereon are denoted the positions of the inhabitants according to their quality.-TR.

     (To be Continued.)

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HEAVENLY DOCTRINE 1904

HEAVENLY DOCTRINE              1904

REVEALED BY THE LORD.

     "I have not been taught by any spirit, nor by any angel, but by the Lord alone, from whom is all truth and good; nay, when they desired to instruct respecting various things, there was hardly anything but what was false, on account of which I was forbidden to believe anything that they said; nor was it allowed to bring in anything that was of their own." (S. D. 1647.)

WHY IT IS NOT RECEIVED.

     "When I wondered why the Christian world does receive these interior things of the Word, there appeared spirits from the Christian world, and they were compelled to listen to the interior things of the Word; they were seized with such nausea that they said they felt with themselves as it were an inclination to vomit. And it was said that such is the Christian world at this day nearly everywhere." (A. C. 5702.)

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FOURTH CHICAGO ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM 1904

FOURTH CHICAGO ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM       Various       1904

     The Chicago District Assembly was held in Glenview from Thursday, October 20th, to Sunday, October 23d. Besides the Bishop's Address, four prepared papers were read at the regular sessions, but as the time was short, the discussion of these papers, though interesting, was somewhat curtailed.

     The meeting was opened on Thursday evening with appropriate religious exercises. The minutes of the preceding Assembly were then read, and also the report of the Rev. D. H. Klein, Secretary, and that of the Rev. W. B. Caldwell, pastor of the Sharon church. After this followed Bishop Pendleton's address,

     "THE TRUE SOURCE OF GROWTH IN THE CHURCH."

     The Bishop showed the value of heredity in the development of the Church, taking as his theme No. 202 of the work on Conjugial Love: "Children born of parents who are in love truly conjugial derive from them the conjugial of good and truth whence they have an inclination and faculty, if sons, to perceive the things which are of wisdom and if daughters, to love the things which wisdom teaches." He pointed out how the work of education in the New Church if rationally conducted would tend to develop the good inclinations derived from a conjugial heredity, and he indicated how this work was of such vital import to the growth of the Church.

     MR. CALDWELL dwelt upon the doctrine that the Church must grow primarily from within,--a doctrine which has been the soul of the Academy movement. Other bodies of the Church look first to increase from without, placing the education of children in the background and missionary work in front. Neither have they adhered to the doctrine of marriage within the Church which must be the beginning of all efforts to bring up the young so that they will love the Church and remain in it. At present there seems to be a cessation of growth from without. On all hands there is a confession that it is difficult to get anyone interested. No doubt Providence permits this condition partly as a means of bringing Newchurchmen to see that they have neglected the most important source of increase. Another reason may be that the Church has not grown strong enough in the other world to sustain more men in spiritual temptation than those now in the Church; for we know that growth here is according to growth there, and that the Church is to be formed by those who can undergo spiritual temptations.

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Few in the Christian Church have been admitted into spiritual temptation since the early times when imaginary heavens began to form and to intercept the influx from the Lord through heaven, by which alone they could be supported in temptation.

     MR. KLEIN spoke of the wide field for thought and study opened by the Bishop's treatment of the subject of heredity. Practically all Newchurchmen recognize the teaching that as the Church progressed the children would derive a better inheritance, and that Newchurchmen might properly cherish the hope that each generation would be in advance of the preceding. The teaching was also given that the growth of the Church depended its development in conjugial love. The Bishop had happily united these ideas in his paper and shown their relationship and dependence one upon the other. The Jews were a remarkable example of the transmission of hereditary inclinations. The race today was similar to that which dwelt in Egypt, possessing many of the same mental and moral traits, and even the same physiognomy. From this, by contrast, it is possible to draw some idea of the power for good which came through the inheritance of good inclinations. The idyllic picture of family life among the most ancients in the heavens were delightful to contemplate. Here "children inherited inclinations to the conjugial of good and truth, and were easily initiated into it more and more interiorly by education." The thought of heredity transmission of inclinations was an added reason for man's shunning all evils as sins.

     Much thought was given by men in the world to the material inheritance of their children; but the inclination and faculty perceive the things of wisdom, and to have these things which wisdom teaches, infinitely surpasses all possible worldly inheritance.

     DR. J. B. S. KING after commending the address, which he compared to a searchlight, spoke on the subject of heredity from a medical point of view. He told the story of the man who at the age of forty-five had a wart at the joint of the little finger; at exactly the same age his son had a similar development.

     MR. A. E. NELSON asked if the Most Ancient Church grew entirely from within, and whether it was small in numbers.

     THE BISHOP stated that every church begins with a few.

     REV. R. W. BROWN stated that with every child, even with those not born from parents in conjugial love, there was a period when the good remains and inclinations could be fostered instead of the bad ones. Hence the importance of wise leading in the work of education.

     MR. A. E. NELSON asked if there were not visible signs among the children of the Church to indicate a growth.

     THE BISHOP stated that the Lord alone knows the state of internals, and so we could not answer the question positively in the affirmative.

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This much, however, could be stated, that it was the general experience of all teachers in our New Church schools, that children of New Church parents were more susceptible to the good influence of the schools than those coming from without, where one or both of the parents were not in the Church.

     MR. W. H. JUNGE pointed out that the address emphasized the fundamental doctrine of life, that the first thing to be done was to shun evils.

     MR. BROWN spoke of the value of good habits with children, which led the Bishop to remark that if the good inclination inherited is developed into a habit, a great step forward has been taken.

     MR. JUNGE asked the Bishop to name some of the things which were impediments to the development of love truly conjugial.

     THE BISHOP answered that a false idea of God and a false idea of life in the world were among the most prominent. The idea of God, which involved the idea of the Lord in His Second Coming, was the centre of all spiritual thought. If this was false it had the effect of vitiating all else. In regard to life in the world, it was most important for us to realize that the Old Church was consummated, and that its standards of life were false.

     If one consort was in the true idea of these things and the other in a false idea, there could be no interior conjunction. Hence the importance of marriage within the Church. In regard to married life, there were three things to consider: Conjugial Love, the Love of Offspring and Social Love. These three general loves all flow from the love of God, and they involve many particulars.

     A paper by Dr. J. E. S. King on the subject of "VEGETABLE SEEDS AND THEIR COVERINGS" was then read.

     Various speakers expressed their appreciation of the paper.

     MR. CALDWELL spoke of it as an interesting study in science with the object of illustrating spiritual truths. Such studies should be multiplied and developed in the Church in order that the numerous illustrations in the Writings may be seen more clearly to contain the truths set forth.

     THE BISHOP showed how coverings existed everywhere, not only in nature, but also in spiritual things. The law is universal. Coverings represent general truths such as are in the Letter of the Word, and the Word in the Letter is therefore like a skin containing the seed of the spiritual sense. It is important that man first come into generals before entering into particulars. The science of the day has a tendency to disregard this law. As Dr. Wilkinson said, "Modern science is last in a sea of particulars." If man enters into particulars without generals, tedium results; with the opposite process he becomes more and more interested. The power to generalize does not exist with children. The minister in his work must first know generals and his first preparation for his use consists in learning these.

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     DR. KING told a story of a precocious little girl who spent a great deal of time in studying physical geography and who, after learning many things, was surprised to discover one day, that the back of the yard was part of the earth.

     The meeting on Friday evening was opened with religious exercises, after which Mr. Klein read a report of the work of the Immanuel Church. Mr. Paul Carpenter then read a communication from the Executive Committee of the General Church, indicating ways in which the work of the Church could be better sustained.

     A paper by the Rev. W. B. Caldwell on the subject of "LAUGHTER AND WEEPING" was then read.

     MR. JOHN FORREST spoke of the paper as illustrating the fact that in the Writings all questions are answered. He referred to a recent conversation he had had with a man, who had spoken irreverently of the Lord and had stated that whilst on earth He had laughed in the same way that other men did. This idea had struck him as repulsive, and the paper had answered the questionings in his mind on the subject.

     MR. ALVIN NELSON Said he was much interested in the description of the various kinds of laughter given in the paper. The laughter of children, in which there is innocence without anything of malice or contempt, was a most delightful thing to hear.

     DR. HARVEY FARRINGTON spoke of the effect of laughter on the state of the physical body. A perception of it is given in the familiar phrase "Laugh and grow fat." There was no doubt that the whole system was favored and helped by laughter. The pure spirits came down from the brain more readily and there was a general increase in the flow of the blood. It seemed certain, however, that laughter must have a different effect in this matter according to the state of the mind. Laughter that had contempt in it could have no such good effect.

     A paper by Mr. Hugh L. Burnham on "READING THE WRITINGS AND FAMILY WORSHIP" was then read.

     MR. SWAIN NELSON" Stated that he had often noted how reading the Writings enabled one to get more out of the minister's instruction. He thought this was one of the most important of its uses.

     MR. CALDWELL Said that he had been asked recently what connection there was between the printing press and the priesthood. He thought there was an interior connection. The printing press had been provided principally for the sake of preserving the Word, and the priesthood exists for the sake of teaching the Word. They are both for the sake of bringing the Word of God to men.

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The Word is impressed upon ultimate material forms on this earth alone, for the inhabitants of this earth are of such a genius that they need it in this form. This is a strong indication that men should read the books of Revelation and not expect other forms, such as oral teaching, to be all-sufficient.

     MR. FORREST said that at times one may have an inclination to read and yet something else obtrudes. A certain resolution is therefore necessary at times. It was a truth that the reading of the Word and the Writings in this world strengthened the societies in heaven.

     THE BISHOP said that every book that is printed leads directly or indirectly to the understanding of the Word, for this was the Divine end and purpose in the art of printing. The real end of the art of reading was the same, for there is a spiritual and a natural purpose in everything. Reading the Word and the Writings is preparing us for the other world, since it brings that world near to us. The spiritual world exists in the mind as well as in reality. This subject has been considered by us before, yet it is very important to repeat fundamentals from time to time. We will know how often things are repeated in the Writings and how this in the world is charged against them as a defect. Yet there is a Divine reason for it.

     There is no doubt of the important part the reading of the Writings has in the establishment of the Church. Without it the Church would die out, and the same fate threatens the individual member who does not read at all. The life of repentance makes man look upwards, and so he will be inclined to look to the Writings. 'The man of the Church must not depend upon the minister alone for his instruction; moreover the rending of the Writings aids not only the members of the Church but also the minister. It inspires him in his work and enables him to go on and progress. If the members do not read at all the minister is obliged to remain more in the generals of doctrine.

     MR. JUNGE was most impressed with the point in the paper, that if a man does not read the Writings it is simply because he does not want to.

     MR. KLEIN called attention to the fact that reading the Writings and family worship had for many years commanded the affectionate consideration of the General Church. The journals of the Church showed what an important place it has had in the life of the Church. Not a little of the activity and interest in spiritual things in the General Church was due to this. He recalled an extended trip he had made among the Church centres in 1893, one of the most delightful features of which was the joining in the family worship of every home which he had visited. The practice of reading in this way seemed almost universal. There seemed to have been something of a falling off in this respect during recent years; but the duty of each member seemed clear. Whenever possible it was of great value to have reading or worship in the morning, as well as in the evening.

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Reading of the Writings, if done with affection, induces an elevation of the thought and a removal from the things of the world, and this state is apt to enter into the succeeding states of the day and to prove a protection against worldly influences

     MR. CALDWELL mentioned another important practice which ought to be cultivated by the layman, namely, the habit of going to the Writings whenever instruction is desired upon a special subject. The mind would be more open and receptive at such times than at others. But regular reading was also important because man never can tell when the mind is going to be receptive, and often when he least expects it he will find delight in reading..

     A paper by Mr. S. G. Nelson on "RESPONSE AND ACTIVITY IN CHURCH WORK" was then read.

     THE BISHOP stated that unless there is reaction there is no conjunction and thus no activity. Co-operation on the part of the members of the Church may at times be merely passive co-operation. If this becomes reactive, the Church is made alive. The general spirit of this subject is similar to that of the previous one. It all looks to reaction to that which comes from the Divine.

     MR. CALDWELL was glad to hear from a layman an appeal for active lay co-operation, an appeal which it is often necessary for the minister to make. We would rather have a little opposition now and then, if it is a sign of a desire to co-operate, than a passive attitude or a willingness to sit back and take anything that comes. In social life, too, we may be inclined at times to sit back and expect others to entertain us; it is much better for all to enter in, with the end of making it delightful for others.

     After some discussion concerning the support of New Church Life and the time and place of the next meeting of the Assembly, the meeting adjourned.

     On Saturday evening about eighty guests sat down to a banquet at the Immanuel Church Club House. The beauty and brightness of the table seemed a reflection of the happy spirit of sociability and comradeship that prevailed, and in excellence and variety the feast, by analogy, was not unlike the feast of active thought and affection which was furnished by the responses to the toasts of the evening.

     The Sunday of the Assembly was a memorable day for those who were fortunate enough to be present. Before an audience of more than a hundred persons, and with a most impressive service, Bishop Pendleton ordained the Rev. William E. Caldwell into the second degree of the priesthood.

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After the ordination came the Bishop's sermon, which served to strengthen and increase the strong sphere that prevailed.

     In the afternoon the Holy Supper was administered to seventy-five communicants, the administration being preceded by the rite of Confession of Faith, which the Bishop performed for Misses Helen Maynard, Elise Junge, Vidia Gyllenhaal, and Dorothy Burnham, and Mr. Henry Maynard, Jr., all of Glenview.

     The men's meeting held at the Sharon church on Monday evening was well attended, and proved useful and enjoyable. The subject of discussion was as to the manner in which the love of the sex is transformed into conjugial love. DAVID H. KLEIN, Secretary

     REPORTS READ AT THE CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY.

REPORT OF THE IMMANUEL CHURCH.

     During the past year the Immanuel Church has been carrying on those uses which for many years have been of its life and policy. The position of its members, as parts of a community, forms a basis for unity and compactness in the performance of those uses, and all members have shared in the effort to promote the common good. The uses of worship and the uses of conducting a New Church school, now, as in the past, have demanded attention. Without the first no society can exist permanently since it is the centre around which the lives of the individual members are grouped. In regard to the second it may be said that the Immanuel Church is peculiarly committed to this use since largely for the sake of it its members settled in Glenview, in order to provide a proper environment and setting, in which the work of a distinctive New Church education might be carried on.

     The work of external evangelization does not present itself as an immediate need and the society therefore does not look to this for any increase in its numerical strength, relying for the latter rather upon the slow but, we trust, certain increase which is to come and has come as its children reach adult age.

     It is gratifying to report that the school is in better condition to carry on its work than for some time in the past, as its teaching force has been augmented and the promise is therefore given of an increase in efficiency.

     All the uses of a society depend for their success on the cultivation of brotherly love and charity among its members, and social life forms a most proper and enjoyable ultimate for this love, in this respect we have been peculiarly fortunate during the past year, for besides the regular festivals nod celebrations of the Church, there has been a good measure of social life at the homes of individual members which has been especially enjoyable.

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     There have been two births in the society during the year, and one child has been taken to the other world. Five members who have moved to Chicago have resigned from the society, and have joined in the uses of our brethren of the Sharon Church.

     No new members have been added, but three new families have lately come among us to share in the life and worship of the society, DAVID H. KLEIN.

     REPORT OF THE SHARON CHURCH.

     Since the last Chicago District Assembly the uses of Sharon Church have gone forward in their usual course, and have become more firmly established. We realize that there are Immense possibilities before us for both internal and external development, as in the case of every society of the New Church; and though at times we seem to make slow progress toward ideal conditions, at others we are grateful for the feeling that we have many gifts and blessings for which we should give thanks to the Lord. The New Church is still very, very small when regarded numerically, but it is immense from a spiritual point of view, and if the consciousness of our weakness is allowed to act as an incentive to greater effort, it will be the precursor of spiritual strength, which does not depend upon numbers. Still, numbers are not to be despised, for they help to perfect quality.

     During the past year our ranks have been increased by four birth among our members, and by the accession of five adults and seven children, formerly connected with Immanuel Church in Glenview. From this addition of sixteen we must deduct two, as one member moved away from the city, and another, Father Forrest, has departed to the spiritual world, where, we doubt not, he is very active in the performance of heavenly uses, and present in spirit with the Church he loved so well.

     There are fifty members of the General Church in Chicago, of which number forty-four belong to Sharon Church; and besides these there are twenty-three persons more or less interested, who attend our meetings. These, together with about forty-five children, make a total of 112. The attendance at meetings, however, is not as large proportionately as it ought to be. In a large city unavoidable circumstances interfere to some extent with regularity of attendance, but for the most part, we fear, a certain indifference to spiritual interests and duties must account for the fact that some have not entered into full and hearty co-operation with those who are bending all their energies to promote the uses of the society.

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     We have not yet seen our way clear to establish a Day School, but the Sunday School is attended by eighteen pupils. Some of the children attend the Sunday School of the Chicago Society in Englewood. Out of a total of forty-five, two are in attendance at the Academy Schools in Bryn Athyn, five go to the school in Glenview, eighteen attend the public schools, and twenty have not yet been sent to a school of any kind. It is these last which we would like to take care of in a school of our own if we could. The great desirability of a parish school will become more and more apparent as time goes on, and we hope the opportunity will open to begin in a small way before long. A school is a heavy burden for a small society to shoulder, but its uses are very great. Not the least, perhaps, is that it serves to unite the members more closely in a common endeavor and purpose. It also provides for the future growth of the Church as no other evangelical use can, while it continually supports the hope of the members of the Church that the day will soon draw near when the New Church, from being with few, will come to be among many. These are some of the uses performed by a parish school to a society.

     We have had many happy gatherings of the Church during the past year, notably the celebration of the 19th of June held in Glenview, which took place during the absence of many who went to the General Assembly, and proved the wisdom of giving the ministers an occasional vacation.
     W. B. CALDWELL.

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Editorial Department 1904

Editorial Department       Editor       1904

A TRIUMVIRATE OF NEGATION.

     THE flood of denial is rising ever higher and faster in the nominal Church of the New Jerusalem; on all sides it is beating fierce and loud against the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming, but the Rock of all future ages is still standing. The most recent assault upon it is made through the pages of The New Church Review for October, where three prominent ministers of the New Church join hands in belittling and denying the Divine Revelation upon which their Church is founded, the Revelation which "surpasses all the Revelations that have been hitherto since the creation of the world." (Inv. 44.)

     The Rev. James Hyde, of London, opens the attack with a paper on "The Limitations of Revelation," a peculiar but popular title which, being translated, means the Limitations of the Infinite. That this is what he means is evident from his teaching that "the letter of the Word expresses the limit by which the Divine is bounded on the natural plane." The human reception of the Divine may be bounded, but imagine the limit by which the Divine itself is bounded!

     His reasoning starts from the notion that all revelation in its natural expression is limited, as to the scope of truth disclosed, by the natural intelligence of the instrument by whom it is revealed; and that if the instrument cannot see beyond these limitations, still less can others to whom the revelation is addressed by means of that instrument. From this he deduces the corollary that, in order that there may be progress, the instrument of revelation must necessarily be "a man in advance of the surrounding people," through whose higher caliber of natural intelligence the advance may be made. According to this profound discovery, the intelligence to be derived from the prophecy given through Amos is forever limited to the range of intelligence possessed by Amos the cowherd, and the possibilities of spiritual progress by means of the Writings,--the last of all revelations,--are to all eternity limited to the range of the personal intelligence of Swedenborg.

     The absurdity of this reasoning is equaled only by the dullness which Mr. Hyde ascribes to human intelligence even when enlightened by Divine Truth. He denies to man all ability to see spiritual truths: men can learn about them but cannot see them. "We have no vision through the natural into the spiritual." "We have learned the correspondence [of the things in the Word]; we hare not seen it." "Of spiritual ideas we have no conception."

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This confession seems almost unnecessary, in view of the nature of the writer's paper, but it is to be hoped that this condition does not involve all members of the New Church,--that there may still be some who are able to think spiritually of Divine things, and that these will direct their attention to the Infinity rather than to the "Limitations" of Divine Revelation.

     Having accomplished, to his own satisfaction, the stupendous task of limiting the Infinite and circumscribing the Divine Word by the intellectual range of the prophets, it is somewhat surprising to find Mr. Hyde so strenuous in subordinating the Writings of Swedenborg to the books of the Jewish writers which he is pleased to term "the Word." The Writings of the New Church, he asserts, "make no claim that their construction differs from that of other human compositions, though the doctrine of them was received from the Lord while the writer read the Word. They set forth in intelligible phrases the teaching of the Word; they are about the Word, explaining its contents, and describing its subjects so far as natural phraseology will do it; but they are no more the Word itself than a treatise or, anatomy is a human body. They have no interior sense; they are not expressed in terms of symbolic correspondents; and if the reader can exhaust their natural meaning he will reach all there is in them." (Italics our own.)

     Can the spirit of denial, which is the spirit of dullness, go any further? He denies that the Writings have any interior sense, or any spiritual content, when yet he must know that everything natural has its spiritual equivalent, that every natural word or expression has a sense within it,--deeper and deeper senses,--unless, as in some cases that we know of, it be nonsense. But even then, the nonsense does not mean a vacuum but a very actual substance called falsity. He denies, further, that these Writings, which were "scripta a Domino per me," differ from human compositions, and this in the face of the overwhelming testimony to the contrary which has been collected in the tract entitled Swedenborg's Testimony concerning his Writings. Does he know more about these Writings than they themselves teach? And he caps his reasoning by the argument that because the Writings are "about the Word" they are "no more the Word itself than a treatise on anatomy is a human body."

     Justly did the writer claim that he has no conception of spiritual ideas he might have included intellectual ideas in his general disavowal. Regarded intellectually a treatise on Anatomy is the human body. The human body is the internal of every work on Anatomy; there is nothing but the human body in it. The Writings of the New Church are the Word of God because they are not only about the Word but from the Word, even as the Word itself is the Lord because it is from the Lord and about the Lord. The denial of the former proposition involves the denial of the latter.

     The second paper in the Review, is by the Rev. James Reed on "The Nature of the Revelation made to the New Church."

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It is mostly a restatement of old issues and arguments long since exploded, but here again splintered together, and mustered for parade. The Writings of the New Church "have no internal sense," consequently are empty within. "They do not say one thing to angels and another to men,"--as if the natural expressions in the Writings are not understood spiritually by the spiritual angels, and celestially by the celestial. "They are not written in the Divine style,"--why not, since they were "written by the Lord?" Again, he says, "they were not dictated from heaven as was the letter of the Word." Thus Mr. Reed, but Swedenborg says that these Writings are "from the mouth of the Lord alone" and that "the internal sense was dictated to me out of heaven." Swedenborg, according to the President of the Convention's Theological School, received the Heavenly Doctrines "in order that as a student he himself might teach them." As a student,--what, then, becomes of the revelation? And "he himself,"--where, then, is the Lord in the teaching? And, finally, Swedenborg's experience "was unique in its extent and the degree of his enlightenment, but not different in kind from that of others who read the Word in a humble and devout spirit." And yet Mr. Reed admits that "Divine Authority can be claimed for Swedenborg" as for no other writer. It is evident that Mr. Reed is in conflict with himself. But why does he persist in adding his own doubts to the general confusion in the Church?

     The Rev. C. H. Mann, as the third in the negative triumvirate of the Review, adds his quota by a paper on "Rational Revelation." He, indeed, admits that the Writings are the Word of God, when viewed from the "God side," but he immediately stultifies this admission by the declaration that Swedenborg alone was able to see this "God side." As "seen by Swedenborg in his rational mind" the truths of the New Jerusalem "constitute the Lord's revelation to the New Church. They are the internal sense of the Word." But when it comes to the expression of these truths then "the Writings are Swedenborg's and are not the Lord's in an unqualified sense."

     Mr. Mann, like the other two writers, has so fixed his attention upon the form of the new revelation, and the apparent limitations of this form, when viewed from the merely external point of view that he forgets that the "soul is form, and doth the body make." If the human soul weaves the human body in correspondence with itself, why, then, cannot the Divine Soul weave a Divine Body or Divine Expression,--Divine in form as well as in substance,--in correspondence with Itself? Mr. Mann's writing probably expresses Mr. Mann's meaning. Why, then, deny to Divine Omnipotence the power which every finite being enjoys? Why all this persistent denial, belittling, derogatory subtraction and absurd effort to place human limitations about the infinite Means by which Infinite Love extends its Salvation to the human race?

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RACE SUICIDE 1904

RACE SUICIDE              1904

     THE question of "race suicide," which, since President Roosevelt's now famous letter, has been forcing itself more and more upon the unwilling attention and prudish ears of the "Christian" world, receives able and very thorough treatment in an address delivered by the President of the British Gynacological Society, and published under the title, The Diminishing Birth-Rate, (London, 1904, 27 pp.) From his long and special professional experience, Dr. John W. Taylor is eminently qualified to speak on the subject, and to this he adds the courage of a patriot who sees the foulness of the stream that is engulfing his country, and who would stem its progress. "The subject is so great," he says, "that if the nation could only see it in its true proportion, it would be found to dwarf all other questions of the day."

     Dr. Taylor commences with the presentation of statistics drawn from works receiving the sanction of the Royal Statistical Society, and from Government reports, in the following table he shows the steady and appalling decrease, in Europe, of the number of births per thousand of the population:

                    Austria.      Germany.      Italy.           United Kingdom.      France.
1874-1878     39.4          40.1          37.0          34.3               25.8
1879-1883     38.4          37.5          36.8          32.6               24.8
1884-1888     38.1          36.9          38.2          31.2               23.9
1889-1893     37.1          36.3          36.9          29.8               22.5
1894-1898     37.3          36.1          34.9          29.4               22.3

     It will be seen that the lowest birth-rate is in France; but that the greatest decrease is in the United Kingdom. Leaving Europe, however, we find an even greater decrease in one of the colonies of the Kingdom--Australia; there the birth-rate has fallen from 41.9 in 1861-1865 to 27.35 in 1896-1899. No one can plead the Malthusian fear of over-population in Australia, for increased population is that country's greatest need.

     Of other great Powers, Dr. Taylor says, no certain statistics are available, but he has reason to believe that the birth-rate is seriously falling in the United States, "where 'prevention' is exceedingly common," but notably rising in Russia and Japan.

     Turning again to the United Kingdom, statistics show that the decrease in births is not due to a decrease in marriages, for the marriage-rate has been slowly increasing, being 14.2 per hundred of population in 1876-1888, and 15.02 in 1896-1900.

     Far from resulting in a morally or physically better class of men and women, as so often loudly claimed by the advocates of prevention, the decrease of the birth-rate has had an exactly opposite effect. Criminal statistics reveal the significant fact, that while the general criminal population of the United Kingdom is decreasing, juvenile crime is on the increase, the percentage of criminals under twenty being greater than in any other European country.

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The same is the case in France, where, from 1876-1880, while adult criminality has trebled, the criminality of youths has quadrupled, that of maidens nearly trebled, and that of children doubled. And in the period from 1880-1893, the figures are still more damning; while "today child-criminality is nearly double that of adults," and this notwithstanding the fact that minors constitute only one-third of the population.

     In both countries the lunacy statistics also bear a somewhat similar testimony, lunacy having increased, in England, from 27.54 people in 1879 to 34.14 in 1903.

     Of course, all this cannot be saddled upon the growing prevalence of the crime of prevention; but, as Dr. Taylor strongly hints when he refers to the selfishness of the "solitary child" and his inability to cope with the battles of life; and when he speaks of the "debased ideal of married life which is secretly and insidiously working for ruin;" prevention has been a potent factor in the growth of crime and lunacy. Not only the birth-rate but the value of the population has decreased.

     Coming to the question of the cause of the decreased birth-rate, Dr. Taylor boldly states, "the main cause, and we who are in gynecological practice must know it, is the deliberate prevention of conception," which has spread like a "blight over the middle class population of the land." He answers those who talk of the troubles and diseases incident to child-birth, by dwelling at some length on the "certain danger and chronic disease" which result from self-induced sterility. "There is no method of prevention," he says, "that can be regarded as innocuous."

     But more novel are his remarks on the affirmative side of this question. "It appears as if the seminal fluid must have some function beyond and in addition to its power in the reproduction of species;" and this power, he suggests, is the power of strengthening health and allaying exhaustion. He also suggests, as the result of his observation, that the rest and comparative inactivity of the ovaries during pregnancy and after, have in themselves an important value in the life of the married woman. "Widely as the practice of prevention has spread, you will still have to go to the mothers of large families, if you want to point to the finest and healthiest examples of advanced British matronhood."

     The address concludes with an appeal to the Church to teach that prevention is a sin; and to the medical profession to study and explain to patients its evils. And here he injects the unqualified opinion that no artificial prevention is advisable "save what is produced by an imperative operation. He urges his hearers to ponder well the whole subject, "for with us lies a great responsibility, and ours will be to a very large extent the blame if, in after years, the lamp of the Anglo-Saxon is found to be burning dimly."

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Monthly Review 1904

Monthly Review              1904

     The Neukirchenblatt for November contains the first installment of a. translation of the Rev. Wm. H. Alden's excellent paper. "Children a Blessing."

     The Swedenborg Society has published a Russian translation of The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine. The work is intended for distribution among the Russian emigrants to America. To emigrants from an enslaved kingdom of the world this will be a guide to the free Kingdom of Heaven.

     A letter from the Rev. J. B. Spiers in the Messenger for November 2d, gives some dismal comfort to those who put the great hope of the New Church in its missionary work. Over fifteen thousand tracts have been distributed in the region of Talpa, Va., and they have found but five responsive readers Of these, however, Mr. Spiers himself is one. He came into the Church by the reading of a tract that had lain in his house unread for fifteen years.

     The Rev. J. K. Smyth seems also to be impressed with the utter indifference of the Christian world to spiritual truth. In an address, given at a reception to him at St. Louis, he points out the "significant fact that although so many thousands of Swedenborg's works have been distributed among the clergy, yet the tendency in Christendom seems away from the belief in the Divinity of the Lord and the Sacred Scriptures."

     The Art of Being Successful, published by Alexander Gardner, of Paisley, Scotland, is a tasteful little booklet of about seventy pages, wherein the author, the Rev. C. A. Hall, of the Paisley New Church Society, presents in a number of brief but vigorous chapters the several moral virtues that are so essential to true success, which, as the author defines it, is not the mere gaining of ends sought after, but the development of a true manhood.

     "The Census Bureau at Washington, in its recent volume on occupations, furnishes some startling figures on the increase of divorces during the decade ending with 1900. It is computed that twenty-five per cent more divorced men were found among those engaged in gainful occupations in 1900 than 1890....

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Five out of every 1,000 married men, gainfully employed, mere living in a state of divorce on the census day of 1900, compared with four out of every 1,000 in 1890." (Week's Progress, September 17th.)

     The New Philosophy for October contains the first installment of all article by Miss Lilian Reeknlan, on "Radium in connection with Swedenborg's Doctrine of Architectonic Units and their Spheres." In this installment Miss Beekman confines herself to the introduction of her subject, giving a general presentation of the wonderful properties of radium, and showing the great effect which its discovery has already had in the learned world on the consideration of the basic problems of cosmogony. The hints which she gives as to the remarkable confirmation which the phenomena of radio-activity afford to the teachings of Swedenborg and to the universal principles laid down in the Writings lead us to look forward to the next installment of her valuable and interesting article.

     Every student of the Writings will be gratified to learn that the American Swedenborg Society has just published a new edition of the Quaestiones Novem de Trinitate. This little treatise, which is invaluable in the study of the Doctrine of the Lord, has been translated several times, and is accessible to the English render. But until now the Latin text has seen no new edition since the day, nearly a hundred and twenty years ago, when Robert Hindmarsh first printed it in London in 1795. Only a small edition was printed, and for many, many years it has been almost entirely inaccessible to the Latin student and quite out of his reach to possess it. In fact, so far as we can ascertain, there is but one copy in America, the one in the library of the Academy of the New Church.

     The editor of the new edition is the Rev. J. F. Potts, and the name of the publisher is sufficient to show that type, paper and general appearance are of the best.

     The paper on the "Innocence of Ignorance and the Innocence of Wisdom" in the present issue of the Life, describes some striking points of similarity between these two forms of innocence. These external similitudes, however, are but the natural images of a still more instructive spiritual analogy. Baldness signifies the absence of truth: the infant possesses no truth, and the wise man claims no truth as his own. The teeth signify the power of reasoning: the infant is not able to reason, and the wise man is not willing to do so from his self-intelligence. The infant is small and helpless, and the wise man knows himself to be so. Both rest completely and unresistinfily in the arms of their Heavenly Father, and therefore both are gifted with the "far-sightedness" of perception; but with the infant the perception is merely natural and animal instinct, while with the regenerated man it is the human and celestial perception of wisdom.

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SWEDENBORG'S ALMANAC FOR 1752 1904

SWEDENBORG'S ALMANAC FOR 1752              1904

     During his visit in Sweden, in 1903, Mr. Alfred H. Stroh discovered among a mass of old almanacs in the Royal Library an almanac for the year 1752, which was interleaved and contained a great number of notes and memoranda in Swedenborg's handwriting. These notes have now been published by Mr. Stroh in a little book of thirty-two pages, resembling in size the almanac itself; it is for sale at the Academy Book Room, at the price of 40 cents.

     The notes are of interest chiefly as illustrating Swedenborg's careful method of keeping record of the manuscript of the Arcana Caelestia, which was sent by him in small installments from Stockholm to his printer in London. Thus, under Jan. 3d we find this memorandum: "Til John Lewis, p. 205, 206, 207, 208, Uti n. (40) 4700 Ecclesia, non autem apud illos (qui),"--which means that the author on that day sent to the printer pages 205-208 of his manuscript, the last line of p. 208 closing with the words just quoted. The data show that Swedenborg worked incessantly during the year, without taking any vacation in the summer months.

     Besides these memoranda there are numerous notes respecting a variety of fewer-seeds sown in boxes during the winter months, and of plans for planting flowers and vegetables in the different beds of his garden. Among these we notice "blue roses," "velvet roses," "sun-roses," and "American seeds" such as "Cornus Americana," (dog-wood?), "American melons," and "a pea-pod tree from America," (perhaps the Locust?).

     The almanac suggests a pleasing picture of the revelator, working day by day in his inspired mission, taking recreation only among the beloved flowers of his beautiful garden.
"LIFE" REVIEWED IN SCOTLAND 1904

"LIFE" REVIEWED IN SCOTLAND              1904

     In the annual address delivered before the last meeting of the Scottish Evidence Society, which is printed in the official organ of the Society, Friends in Council, Mr. William Smith gives some attention to the New Church Life. He says: "When I read some of these bitter, hard and critical remarks which habitually appear in a certain New Church journal, a journal which, in these matters, surely does not echo the convictions of many in that section of the Church it represents, I am astonished at the blindness and the narrowness of spirit which it reveals. This journal persistently maintains that only one spirit animates the entire mass of modern Christendom,--the spirit of disintegration and death--and that the regenerating spirit of life is active only in those who fully accept the doctrines of the New Church, as these are literally stated in the Writings of Swedenborg. It attempts to establish a clean line of cleavage between the Old Church and the New, and insinuates that on one side of this line all are dead and on the other all are alive!!"

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     Readers of the Life will be surprised to learn of this "line of cleavage." Indeed, so far as we are aware it will be news to the whole Church. We fully appreciate Mr. Smith's statement that he speaks "without wilful or conscious error," but we also fully agree with him that he has stated the position of the Life "crudely." Yes, so crudely that it is difficult to detect in his words anything of the essential spirit of truth. And strange as it may seem to our critic, we also agree with him when he says that "no such line of cleavage can ever be drawn."

     The Lord alone knows the internals of this man or of that, and the question is beyond our province. But this the Lord has revealed to us, that the Christian world, despite the simple good who are in it but not of it, is in an utterly consummated state as regards spiritual affection and spiritual life. It is in maintaining this revelation that the Life has incurred the strictures of its critic, and also in its bringing forth and pointing out abundant confirmations of the Revelation in the growing denial of God and the Word, and in the increase of selfishness and worldliness, and especially of those evils which attack and destroy marriage.

     That there may be evil men in the New Church is to be expected; that there are good men in the Old Church is a matter of revelation; as to this no more need be said. But we imagine, that the real objection to the Life is, that it acknowledges no other power capable of spiritually elevating the Christian world than the power which comes from the acknowledgment of the Lord in His Second Coming.

     We must not close, however, without a notice of the more friendly remarks made by our Scotch critic. He continues: "While saying so much by way of criticism of the critical methods and spirit of New Church Life, I should like, in all fairness to that otherwise excellent monthly, to add that nowhere have I seen more valuable studies of New Church truth, nor have I ever read more excellent, powerful and searching sermons than those which now and again appear in its pages."
"ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR BOOKS OF THE DAY." 1904

"ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR BOOKS OF THE DAY."       J. W       1904

     "The Being with the Upturned Face." by Clarence Lathbury. Nunc Licet Press. The author conceals his connection with the New Church, that prejudice may not be aroused and prevent the reception of his ideas. By this act he has saved the New Church from great misrepresentation of its doctrinal teaching; for the book could scarcely be further away from the New Church, even if ifs author deliberately tried to invert its teachings.

     No one would dream that the author believed that Jesus Christ was the God of Heaven and Earth, since he indicates that man will become as He, p. 144, that "he will do greater things." p. 168, and that both "He and they are eternal," p. 182. But nowhere does he indicate that Jesus Christ is the sole object of divine worship, toward whom every creature should turn in worship and adoration.

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     The author has much to say of God and His dualities of infinity, eternity, omnipotence, etc.; but nowhere does he indicate that they are in Jesus Christ alone. as Paul says: "In Jesus Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." These qualities, which belong solely to the Lord, he boldly ascribes to man, using such expressions as the following: "We are essentially divine and everlasting," p. 14; "The transmutation of matter into divinity," p. 15; "Divinities in disguise," p. 15; "An incarnation of deity," p. 15. He ascribes to man "omnipotence," p. 16; "deity," p. 16; "Eternity," p. 17; "Infinity," p. 18. He says: "We are co-adjutors of the First Cause," p. to. "We are not so very far behind Him," p. 21. We can run out to the infinite in any direction," p. 21. We "appropriate the nature of the Almighty," p. 68. "The incarnation of God," p. 81. "His nature and our is identical," p. 52. "The divine is simply the hereditary," p. 87.

     After claiming the divine attributes. he plainly shows toward whom the Being turns his face in worship. He says: "We will not be patronized but revered," p. 84. He "unlooses his shoes and bares his head before the majesty of himself," p. 14. "He can even bring down the Almighty from
the heaven of heavens," p. 99.

     After subjecting the Almighty to his sway, the author proceeds to repudiate the ten commandments, and gives forth a set of new ones, announcing that "Live according to nature is the first commandment by which all valid life is guided and expressed," p. 81. He repudiates the Fall. "Sins are shortcomings," "depravities are wholesome and orderly," p. 16,23. Hell disappears. "All roads lead to God." p. 73. Free will is repudiated, for "We are pushed at the bayonet's point, driven, not out but into Eden," p. 71. The passions are "benign sensations," "Ineffable and righteous ardors," "the candle of the Lord," "regenerating," "pinions" which can "bring down even the Almighty from the heaven of heavens," pp. 97-99. From all which it must follow, that if man gives reign to his lusts he will at length reach God; as he says: "Every road leads to God, and we shall meet Him if we walk straight onward." In his philosophy there is no "broad way that leadeth to destruction." He says: "The most devious way arrives finally at the same blessed gate," p. 118.

     He is also a Universalist, see pp. 117, 121-122, 142, 168, 176, 180, 181, 16, 23. An Evolutionist, pp. 111, 112. There is no such thing as verbal revelation. "Evolution is actually revelation."

     These blasphemous utterances in absolute opposition to the Heavenly Doctrines are put forward in circulars as teachings of the New Church. This being with the self-ward turned face, not upturned, is in absolute opposition to the heavenly attitude. The Heavenly Doctrine teaches that "Mutual love, which alone is heavenly, consists in a man's not only saying of himself, but acknowledging and believing, that he is most unworthy; and that he is something vile and filthy, which the Lord out of pure mercy continually withdraws and holds back from hell; into which the man continually strives, yea longs to precipitate himself.

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His acknowledging and believing this, is because it is true. Not that the Lord, or any angel, wishes him to acknowledge and believe it for the sake of his submission; but that he may not exalt himself, when he still is such, as if excrement should call itself pure gold, or a fly on a dunghill should say that it is a bird of paradise." A. C. 1594. J. W.
Church News 1904

Church News       Various       1904

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa. Monday, October 6th, the old college building was all alive with eager footsteps and merry voices. The gap made in our ranks by last June's graduation is already filled. A few of the pluperfects still linger in the Theological and Normal School, but the majority have quitted their familiar posts and are digging holes for new ones-we trust that they will dig deep.

     The new dormitory, like the fall of Port Arthur, is coming. It has been coming for several weeks. Now in despair our house-master, Mr. Synnestvedt, has dared workmen's muddy feet and sawdust, and has taken possession. The boys still continue the siege, but at the time of this writing a permanent occupation seems imminent. The new dormitory is an imposing edifice of light-grey stone topped by a handsome red slate roof. The dining-hall is a smaller edition of the dormitory. Temporarily the dormitory pupils have their meals at the girls' dormitory.

     "The Inn," once the girls' dormitory, boasts a goodly number of guests, Mr. and Mrs. James Cooper have charge of "The Inn," and under their able management there will be no scarcity of applicants. During the month Mr. Acton gave us a very interesting and living account of his visit to England.

     On Thursday, November 17th, a memorial meeting was held for Mr. Henry Schill, of Philadelphia, and Mr. F. Lechner, of Pittsburg. The speakers dwelt upon the loyalty and frankness that characterized both Mr. Schill and Mr. Lechner, and the universal belief was entertained that they would meet and associate in the world of spirits.

     Prof. Odhner has begun a course of ten lectures on Greek and roman mythology. The first lecture sufficiently exhibited the new field of thought that Prof. Odhner has opened up to us. The funds secured from the admission fee to the lecture will be devoted to the purchase of a magic lantern with patent reflecting attachment that does away with the necessity for slides. The lantern is already used in the lectures.

     The Sunday evening lectures have begun, the first of the series being a paper by Bishop Pendleton on the real source of the growth of the Church.

     The football team has completed a successful season. Out of five games three were won, and one tied. The boys are in splendid condition, and area ready at all times to argue for the beneficial results of the game.

     On the eve of the final game of the season, a banquet was given to the members of the victorious team and the faculty at Cairnwood.

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Twenty-four persons attended. Toasts were many, and invariably the speakers, while enthusiastic in their praise of the game, led the thought to the Alma Mater and the Church as the centres from which all school activity radiates. A plea was made for good fellowship and school spirit. During a response to the toast, "The Girls," the dining-room doors were thrown open and there in living image, were the fair subjects of the toast, and at the same moment the song. "What Name Resounds," was started. The presence of the young ladies urged the banqueters to greater efforts; but it would be useless to endeavor to describe in detail the love and enthusiasm for the Church that prevailed. As was pointed out by Mr. Acton, enthusiasm is not peculiar to our school, but the duality of that enthusiasm and its source is what is unique. The general inspiration was to put the determination displayed in foot ball into the higher planes of study and the uses of the Church. R. W. C.

     Baltimore. On the resignation of our pastor, Rev. W. E. Brickman, the Bishop appointed Rev. J E. Rosenquist to take charge of the society here. He paid us the first of his monthly visits on November 6th, when services were held on Sunday afternoon. This change from morning to afternoon is rendered necessary by Mr. Rosenquist's duties as pastor of the Philadelphia Society.

     Toronto. On Wednesday, September 28th, the weekly Doctrinal classes and suppers were resumed, after an interval of several months. The uses and benefits of such meetings were pointed out in speeches at the table.

     On Sunday, October 2d, the Holy Supper was administered to forty-eight communicants.

     The reopening of the day school took place Monday morning, September 12th, the total number of pupils enrolled being eight.

     An instructive address was delivered to the children by the pastor, Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

     The Young Folks' Doctrinal classes, held Monday evening, have lately been resumed, and a special class commenced by the pastor for the instruction of those children who have graduated from the school, but are not yet sufficiently advanced to join the young folks.

     For some time the subject of a name for this Society has been under discussion, but at a general meeting on Wednesday evening, October 5th, a decision was reached, and the Society will henceforth be known as "The Olivet Church of the New Jerusalem." At the same meeting the Rev. E. R. Cronlund, who has for the past eighteen months acted as our temporary pastor, was elected by the Society as regular pastor. M. G. S.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The American Swedenborg Society is making an original experiment in advertising. The Divine Providence is offered to small country newspapers in return for six insertions of the Society's advertisement of Heaven and Hell. About 125 papers accepted the offer, and the result so far has been the sale of 600 copies of Heaven and Hell; of these, 200 were ordered by readers of a small Finnish newspaper in Michigan.

     The Rev. John F. Potts has been recognized as a General Pastor of the Convention, his degree dating from the time of his recognition by the English Conference as an ordaining minister.

     At the annual meeting of the Michigan Association held in Detroit, October 1-2, Rev. S. S. Seward, president of the Convention expressed his surprise and pleasure at the active participation of the laymen in the discussions.

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A feature of the meeting was a banquet served by the young people of the Detroit Society at which eighty were present, and where toasts were given to various bodies of the Church, and also to individuals. The speeches are reported as being of a most elevating character.

     A woman's class "for the reading of Swedenborg's work on 'Conjugial Love'" has been organized in Chicago under the leadership of Mrs. Alice Thatcher Post.

     The Swedenborg House at St. Louis has witnessed the distribution of a vast amount of New Church literature, including 15,000 copies of Who was Swedenborg and What are His Writings (by Mr. Edmond Congar Brown, a member of the General Church) 5,000 copies of Emanuel Swedenborg, by Rev. John Hyde, and the same number of copies of The Sacred Scriptures, of which 10,000 more copies have been since received for distribution.
Wanted 1904

Wanted              1904



     ANNOUNCEMENTS.



     A New Church girl or woman for general housework. For particulars respecting privileges of religious instruction and social life, address Miss Carrie Hobart, Bryn Athyn, Pa.