CONTRIBUTERS 1913

ACTON, A.,
ALDEN, W. H.,
BOWERS, J. E.,
CALDWELL, W. B.,
CRONLUND, E. R.,
CZERNY, A.,
DE CHARMS, RICH., SR.,
GILL, W. R.,
GLADISH, W. L.,
HEADSTEN, J.,
HOWARD, W.,
IUNGERISH, E. E.,
KARL, V.,
KING, J. B. S., (K.),
ODHNER, C. L., (C.),
ODHNER, H. L.,
PENDLETON, N. D.,
PENDLETON, W. F.,
PRICE, E. S.,
SYNNESTVEDT, HOMER, (H. S.),
SYNNESTVEDT, HUBERT,
WAELCHLI, F. E. (W.).

CORRESPONDENTS.

BLAIR, E., (B. P. O. E.),
CHILDS, R. W.,
COOPER, F. R.,
CRANCH, E. R.,
ELPHICK, F. W.,
GYLLENHAAL, F. E.,
LEACH, MISS G. M.,
LUCAS, LOUIS,
NORDENSKJOLD, MISS O., (B. P. O. E.),
RIDGEWAY, J. H., (R.),
ROSE, D. F.,
SOMERVILLE, MISS B.,
TRIMBLE, R.,
WALLENBERG, MISS E. V.

See also Communications to N. C. Life, in Index.

[Photo: The First New Church Gathering in India.]
NON-APPROPRIATION OF EVIL 1913

NON-APPROPRIATION OF EVIL Rev. N. D. PENDLETON 1913

NEW CHURCH LIFE

Vol. XXXIII JANUARY, 1913     No. 1
     "It is an eternal truth that the Lord rules heaven and earth,-that no one besides the Lord lives of himself,-that every thing of life inflows,-the good of life from the Lord, and the evil of life from hell. This is the faith of the heavens. When man is in, this faith, then evil cannot be fastened and appropriated to him, because he knows that it is not from himself, but from hell. When man is in this state, he can then be gifted with peace, for he will then trust solely in the Lord. Nor can peace be given to others than those who are in this faith from charity; for others continually cast themselves into anxieties and cupidities, whence come disquietudes." (A. C. 6325)

     Much is said in the Writings concerning the presence of spirits with man, of the importance of the knowledge and realization of this fact to the regenerating man, of the aid that is thereby given him in shunning his evils. Great stress is also laid upon the related fact that man is a mere vessel having no inherent life, that he is only a receptacle of life from the Lord, and that the Lord inflows with His life-giving presence into man by two ways His first influx with man is immediate, through the soul. By virtue of this influx life is communicated to the whole organic man from his first conception, and thereby also is ever after maintained The second influx of the Lord is mediate by means of spirits and angels. This influx never passes through the soul from above, but passes from without round about on the plane of the mind itself. It comes by way of the heavens, the world of spirits, or the hells. We in the world speak of this influx as being from within; this is true only with regard to the natural body in the world of nature in which the mind dwells. From the standpoint of the soul the mediate influx by spirits and angels is below and from without. It enters the mind, as it were, from the side, passing to it from other minds or spirits who are in like state and near situation. From the standpoint of the mind, mediate influx, therefore is always external. But it is to be noted that this influx is more or less external according to the plane within the mind which is affected and the quality of the spirits which inflow. Thus angelic influx is far more internal man that which comes by way of spirits in the world of spirits. But this is merely a matter of degree on the general mind plane. Angelic influx affects and moves the interiors of the mind, while spirit influx touches only the exteriors. Both influences are, however, external to the mind as a whole, or as an intermediate structure between the soul and the body. The highest and most celestial angels cannot affect a man or another mind from any other ground than that of the interior rational to which they are proximate in state and over against which they are situated as near neighbors. Thus the human mind as an intermediate structure comprehends all the heavens, the world of spirits and the hells. That is to say, all these spiritual planes are composed of human minds of one formation or another, and consequently their action upon any mind, even upon the mind of a man in the world, is external, that is, external to that part: of the mind which is primarily affected. Thus, as said, angelic influx affects the interiors of the mind, spirit influx affects the exteriors. Angelic influx is far more internal than that of spirits, and yet in both cases the influx, the influence, arises from sources extraneous to, or outside of, the mind itself. Only the Lord, and the Lord through the soul, inflows into the human mind from within or above. This latter is immediate influx. That which comes from without by means of spirits and angers is mediate influx, is the Lord operating from without and around by means of other related minds. It is, therefore, always the influence of mind upon mind, of the Lord acting upon one mind through another.

     Both of these modes of influx are necessary. The first is given in order that the man may be and live.

The second is given as something additional for the sake of the instruction and development of the mind and especially for the sake of regeneration of the fallen man. For this reason so much is said in the Writings concerning the presence of spirits with man, of the importance to the regenerating man of a knowledge of this fact, of the aid that is thereby given him in shunning his evils, and especially this, that man has in himself no inherent life, but is a mere receiving vessel. The point being that not only life and its goods but also the perversion of life and its evil inflow into man. The goods of life by angels who are present with him, the evils of life by infernals.

     Now the advantage to man of a knowledge of the fact stated above is clearly shown in the following quotation: "If man believed, as is really the case [concerning the presence of spirits and angels with him], then evil would not be appropriated to him . . . for the moment the evil flowed in he would reflect that it was from the evil spirits with him and as soon as he thought this the angels would avert and reject the evil. For the influx of the angels is into what man knows and believes, but not into what man does not know or believe." (A. C. 6106.)

     This statement is clear and emphatic. But the question arises as to why the reflection upon the presence of evil spirits in a given case enables a man to reject the evil offering? Or why such reflection brings about an influx of angels with enabling power? What after all is the difference whether man shuns evils as something pertaining to himself or as something which inflows from evil spirits? Would not the effect be the same if man shunned the evil as something pertaining to himself? In this case would not the evil spirits, if they are present, depart? And why is so much stress laid upon the need of the knowledge of the presence of spirits in this matter of shunning evils?

     In the first place it is always well to know the truth. All power with man resides in the knowledge of truth, never in his ignorance. In ignorance there is not only darkness but also weakness. In truth there is light and strength. The truth is that there are spirits with every man, evil spirits and good spirits, the former inflowing with evil lusts and persuasions, the latter with good affections and truths; the former bringing to man every evil which he experiences, the other every good which he enjoys.

This is the truth. Spirits are the medium of all mediate or extraneous influx, and without this influx man would neither have nor know any good or any evil. This is true of man ever since the fall,-ever since he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. After the fall this mediate influx by spirits was given as the only means by which the fallen man could be saved. The teaching, then, is that the moment evil inflows, if the man will only reflect that it is from evil spirits, then the angels will avert the evil. Note that this has special reference to evils inflowing. There is a difference after such evil has once been appropriated, made the man's own. Then, indeed, the evil is as something pertaining to the man. But prior to this, when the evil first inflows, when it comes as a mental suggestion, then it is that if the man will only reflect that it is from evil spirits, the angels will come to his rescue and avert the evil.

Spirits thus inflowing are very near the man, so near that they think themselves to be the man, and the man also is disposed to think that the spirits are himself, consequently that what comes from these spirits is his own, arises from himself. He therefore readily appropriates the evil thus suggested. He takes it for granted as his own. And even when instructed in the truth, when he knows the facts of the case, he does the same, unless he is given at the time to reflect, and thus to realize. Reflection at the time brings realization, and herein lies the power. For in this case the evil is not claimed, not appropriated. The man in effect repudiates it. By virtue of such reflection and realization he says to himself and to the spirits with him: "This thing is not mine."

Two remarkable effects follow immediately from a reflective realization of the presence of evil spirits with man. The first effect is that the evil spirits are thereby disturbed and repelled. The second effect is that the angels, who are more interiorly with the man, perceive something congenial and are attracted. As to the first, when man thus reflects, then the evil spirits are disturbed, because when the man realizes-mentally visualizes-their presence, then they also know and realize that they are not the man. Thus a mutual recognition of the difference is brought about, and a consequent separation followed by a readjustment of relations, which we call a change of state.

Spirits who are so near as to think themselves the man, are those who have put on the memory of the man as their own. The consequence is that whatever they think comes to the man as if it were purely a thought of his own. Now if in this case a man reflects in the way above described, if he realizes, visualizes, the true situation, then those spirits are divested of this man's memory which they had put on and then they know that they are not the man. They are disturbed and retire, for they perceive what is uncongenial in the man. They perceive his reflective realization of themselves and their quality. And this they cannot endure. It is a general truth that all evil spirits suffer when they are looked upon with some perceptive knowledge of their quality. They suffer because they are exposed. The light of truth falls upon them and they flee to hide in darkness. They can be with man as long as he is ignorant of their presence, for the man's ignorance is the darkness which they desire, in which they can work mischief. On the other hand man's knowledge of the truth is their undoing.

The second, the more interior effect of man's reflection upon the presence of evil spirits with him, is that the angels are thereby attracted. They perceive his reflective realization as an invitation to them, and they draw near, and with and through them, the Lord. The presence of the Lord thus mediately brought is that which the evil spirits can not abide.

The process here described is often characterized is a combat between good and evil spirits for the possession of man. But this combat, so far as the angels are concerned, is rarely if ever open, for while both angels and infernal's have mental relations with man, they are not on the same plane. Evil spirits are present with man on the lowest of his mind-planes-that of the internal sensuous, the light of which is said to be nearest to the light of the world, i. e., the ultimate imaginative and its light. But angels are present with man on the plane of the rational in which is the interior light of heaven. Evil spirits with man do not see, nor do they realize the presence of angels more interiorly with him. Ordinarily they know not of the man as a separate individual, much less are they aware of any interior angelic presence.

It is different with the angels. When they reflect they know about the man, and moreover they perceive his state with greatest particularity. They accordingly draw near or remove themselves from the man according to the alternations of his state. Especially do they perceive when the man reflects upon the presence of evil spirits with him and they truly regard such reflections as an invitation to them, for such it is in effect; wherefore they draw near and avert the evil.

Angels perceive the state of man with great particularity because their entrance with man is upon the plane of the rational mind. The light of this mind is one with heavenly light, and it flows down into the interiors of the rational, when these are in correspondence. And the law is: that from above the things that are below can be seen, but not vice versa.

No such introspection is or can be granted to evil spirits, for they dwell upon that mind-plane called the internal sensuous or ultimate imaginative, the mind-plane nearest to the body, the light of which is most gross and nearest like unto the light of the world. It is in this light and on this plane that falses and evils present themselves. Were all scandals arise. It is here that the imaginations of the heart of fallen man are wicked continually, wherefore this, as the Writings say, is the light that rules in the hells; and mainly by it the hells inflow with man. When man as to his mind is immersed in this light, his thought is nearly the same as, or closely allied to, his bodily sight. Thought from this light largely prevails at this day. It goes but very little beyond that which is visible and perceivable by the bodily senses. All the evil ones in the other life are in this light, and also some who are said to be not so evil, but who have not cultivated rational thought. Swedenborg records that it was once given him to see many of this latter class of spirits, i. e, those who had not cultivated rational thought. He saw them in a kind of twilight, in crowds, in a public place, carrying bags containing crude materials, which they weighed and carried away. Certain sirens, not far off, also saw this group of non-rational spirits and desired to be with them. For it is given to sirens to see all spirits who dwell in this gross sensuous light. Wherefore it is said that unless man is elevated out of this light he must needs perish.

All men, in the natural development of their minds, come into this interior sensuous light; and it is only by becoming spiritual that they can be lifted above it or be removed from the range of its dominating influence. Those who are regenerating, alternate between it and the higher spiritual light. All such are in the sphere of the lower light when in worldly cares, or when in company "where external things flourish"; and this is the reason why, at such times, they are averse to speaking or even thinking about God and the things of faith, and if one should so think and speak at such times, he would be disposed to make light of them. It is a fact that the things-the truths-of spiritual faith appear unreal in this sensuous light, unless the mind, at the moment, be elevated by the Lord into the light of heaven, which is one with the light of the inner rational mind. By such elevations the Lord guards the regenerating man. Moreover we are told that such elevations are instantaneous. They need to be. For even the regenerating man, when immersed in sensuous light, opens himself to the promptings of evil spirits, and forthwith begins to think evilly, and therefore he must be elevated on the instant. This can readily be brought about if he can only be induced to reflect upon and realize the presence of the suggesting spirits with him. This reflective realization is the fulcrum of his elevation, for thereby he causes the spirits to depart and the angels to draw near.

Such is the great power which is imparted to man when he knows and makes use of the knowledge that he is a mere vessel, that the all of life inflows, the good of life from the Lord, and the evil of life from hell. There is power in this knowledge because it is true and a part of the faith of heaven. And according to the testimony of Revelation, when man is in this faith he does not appropriate the evils which inflow because he knows that they are not his own but from hell. Moreover when man is in this faith he can be gifted with peace from the Lord in whom alone he trusts. This is the Sabbath peace that comes to the regenerate. It arises from a sense of everlasting security in the Lord, from a realizing knowledge that the soul of the regenerating man is bound up in the life of the Lord God. Amen.

MAN'S MEMORIES, BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH 1913

MAN'S MEMORIES, BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH W. REY GILL 1913

     ON MEMORY GENERALLY.

     For any clear understanding of the subject of the memory, or indeed of any psychological study, it is necessary to have at least a fairly clear general idea of the various planes that go to the make-up of a man. In all the world there are only two sources open to us that will give us the required information. These sources are the Writings of the New Church and the Philosophical Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, the latter supplying the necessary foundation, the as-it-were anatomical and physiological foundation, for the more interior truths of the former to rest upon. And it will be found that these two fountains of truths, each on its own plane, agree with each other in all essential particulars, and are indeed complementary each to each.

     As has been so clearly brought out by Miss Beekman, in her wonderful correlative work, both the Writings and Swedenborg's Philosophical Works teach that man is a fourfold being. His inmost is the Soul, or Human Internal, which is the Lord's Life in man; then follows his Mens or Rational or Interior Man, which is an intermediate plane between the Soul and the plane below-the Animus, the external or natural man. Lastly comes the plane of the Sense Organs and the Body, this last plane being, of course, left behind at death. These four planes of man include within themselves all the sub-divisions of the degrees in man given in the Writings of the Church.

     This much by way of preface.

     Now comes the question-What is the memory? What more simple yet satisfactory and comprehensive answer could be given than this:-"Memory is the permanent state of the changes and variations of the organic substances of the mind." (D. P. 279) The organic substances of the mind are "the substances which are the beginnings of the fibres," in other words, the cortical glands or the grey cell nuclei of the brain. These cells are the vessels of the memory.

"The changes of their state are affections, the variations of their form are thoughts, the existence and permanence of the former and the latter is memory, while their reproduction is reminiscence." (D. WIS. v. 3.)

     Memory images are formed from knowledges gained by means of objects of the senses-chiefly those of sight and hearing-reaching the cortical glands, or the common sensory, by their respective nerve paths; and when they arrive there at the home of the mind, the soul causes the glands to take on a form which is in agreement with the inflowing image,-is in fact a replica of it on a higher plane,-and thus the mind is able to take touch and sense of the inflowing impression. Through whatever sense organ the sensation may come, it is perceived in the memory under a visual appearance. And we are taught that even interior ideas are so perceived. (A. C. 4408) "Imagination is the reproduced memory of things seen and heard, and a simultaneous intuition of them without any further progression into those things which have not yet been grasped by the sense." (R. P. 141.)

     Whenever any acting cause, either external or internal, causes the cortical glands to take on a similar form to one they have before experienced, the memory of the things or events which previously caused them to assume that particular form comes into the mind's view; and this, too, under a visual appearance. In other words, it is then recollected or called to mind. "No one, we presume, supposes that the images of things perceived by sense are laid up within the brain in little cells or boxes, and there remain as pictures and deliberations. . . . To overlay and cram the brain with all these pictures, one upon another, one beside another, and one under another, would be to drive all its rays of light into a general shadow, or to compel its universe into one undigested chaos; and at the same time to deprive the soul of the power to evoke again the several forms in order according to the disposition of present things." (E. A. K. Part II. 297.)

     Nothing that has once been experienced by the memory can ever be lost, even though man may not be able to recall it, or, what is the same, may not be able to induce his sensory to assume the same form and state which it took on from the impression or event that he desires to recollect.

"The reason why everything is not reproduced, and why same things should he apparently erased depends upon . . . the same cause as the loss of memory in lesions or obstructions of the brain; or at least upon a similar cause: but more particularly upon any continued inordinate excitement, through the senses, of general cupidities and ideas. Whenever the mind is free from these, and devotes itself to the regard of causes in an orderly manner, and increases by desire or zeal of any kind, and either deprives the senses of their penetrating sharpness and microscopic intensity, or lulls them entirely, as in sleep,-then long buried things return without confusion from their profound abiding places." (E. A. K. Part II, 359.)

The things which a man most loves to think about and to dwell upon, consequently the forms which a man most habitually induces upon the vessels of his memory, and thus most easily remembers, are said in the Writings to be under his direct view, and thing a related thereto arrange themselves around this as a center, gradually as it were tailing off to things unrelated and at last opposite. "Forgetting is the removal of the thing from the man's direct view." (A. C. 5278) It is only objects which have been introduced into the memory with love and affection that have any firm foothold there, their power to abide and to be reproduced at will being commensurate with the strength of the affection accompanying their implantation, those things that enter the memory without any accompanying delights being said to adhere there "as lightly as a feather on a wall." (A. C. 4018)

It is indeed man's loves that arrange the knowledges in his memory into cohering sequences of reproduction or recollection, like little bundles, and bundles within bundles, in which form they cohere in his memory, almost in the same way as muscles are made up-or ropes-of strands intertwined to make larger ones. And the forms thus composed are either heavenly or informal, as the man's loves are heavenly or infernal. And over all the Lord presides with His inflowing Life, disposing everything in the memory into order, so far as man does not frustrate this end by perverting the order by the loves of self and the world. With those who are in true faith the vessels of their memories are disposed by the Lord more immediately and directly than with those who are not.

In the latter case the disposition is effected in a more general way through the medium of angels. (S. D. 4043-4.) In infancy it is the state of innocence that favors and adapts in the memory the goods and truths then learnt, but it places them only in the first threshold. If a man becomes evil "the Lord, as far as possible, then removes from that abode (the memory) the goods and truths of early childhood, and withdrawing them towards the interiors, stores them up in the interior natural for use. These goods and truths stored up in the interior natural are signified in the Word by remains-or remnant." (A. C. 5135.) Again, at the age when the understanding begins to become rational, the mind then "arranges into a new order the things seated in the memory, and in agreement with this order begins its own life." (C. L. 446)

     As illustrating how states of affection bring to mind the truths which they have been the means of introducing into the memory, and with which they ever afterwards remain conjoined, the following quotation is now given: "When a man is in good, that is, in affection for doing good, then he comes into the remembrance of all the truths which have entered into good, but when he turns away from good, then the truths disappear, for it is falsity of evil which takes them away as by theft. But the truths which have disappeared come again into remembrance when man returns into affection for good or for truth by his life." (A. C. 9154)

     In man's unregenerate state the vessels of the memory are in a contrary position to the Lord's inflowing Life and so cannot receive it; and before the vessels can be disposed or reversed to receive the Divine influx they must be softened, else they would break in the process. We are taught that temptations are the means used for this necessary softening of the vessels. (A. C. 3318)

     The memory of man is often likened to the stomachs of ruminating animal's, for what is only in the memory vessels is really outside the man, or at least only in the entrance to him, and is not inbuilt into the structure of his mind until appropriated and made of the life. Knowledges, internal or external, are what these "recipient vessels" are built to contain, in which vessels "ideas are varied and received representatively according to variations of their form and the changes of state." (A. C. 1980.)

For the vessels are merely natural, but contain within themselves things of a discretely higher degree, that is, spiritual and celestial things. (A. C. 1408) The vessels also have to be first prepared to receive these things of a higher degree, and upon this preparation depends their capacity as to what quality of truth they can receive.

     THE INTERIOR AND EXTERIOR MEMORIES.

     Before proceeding to treat of the higher and lower memories, concerning which such a mine of information is open to us in the Philosophical Works and in the Writings, it is to be noted that even the memory that man is conscious of in the world,-the memory of his animius or natural man, his corporeal memory,-is two-fold. There are also two entrances to it: one from above, that is, from the mens or rational mind, and one from below, or from the sensual's of the body. The objects which enter from above take the more interior place in that memory, and those entering from the world or the senses go more to the circumference. (A. C. 5094)

     The things that we have so far adduced concerning the memory apply chiefly to man's exterior corporeal memory, which is "simply something organic formed from the objects of the senses. . . . The interior memory is in like manner organic, but purer and more perfect, formed from the objects of interior sight, which objects are disposed into regular series, in an incomprehensible order." (A. C. 2487.) This latter memory is on the plane of the rational mind, the plane of the Second Aura, the plane of the Second or Spiritual Heaven; whilst the corporeal memory is on the plane of the Third Aura or the Ether, and on that of the ultimate heaven. (A. C. 978, 2187. E. A. K. Part II., 258-9.) Just in the same way as the vessels of the corporeal memory are formed by knowledges, so the vessels of the interior memory are formed by rational things. The seat of the superior memory is also in the cortical glands of the brain, but more interiorly therein.

The things of this memory are inrooted in the corporeal memory, just as man's spirit is inrooted in his body, for the external memory belongs to the body, but the interior memory to his spirit. (A. C. 2469.) The interior memory "is, as it were, the interior faculty of taking forth and viewing the particulars of the corporeal memory." (S. D. 2989.)

     The knowledges of the outer memory include even philosophical, spiritual and celestial truths, but the understanding of them belongs to the interior memory. While these knowledges are only in the lower memory they are in the light of the world, but when they are understood they are called truths and ate then in the interior memory and in the light of heaven. In comparison to the inner memory the things in the outer one are said to be dark, disordered and entangled.

     In the New Church we are so accustomed to hearing of man's memories that we hardly realize that in the world at large only man's comparatively gross corporeal and sensual memory is known, or even imagined, to exist. But the reason for this general ignorance is obvious when we consider that we only come consciously into the inner memory after death. "Man while living in the body can hardly know that he has an interior memory, because it then acts almost as one with his exterior memory; for the ideas of thought of the interior memory now into the things in the exterior memory, as into their vessels, and are there conjoined." (A. C. 2470)

     All the words of languages, besides all the objects of the outer senses, appertain to the exterior memory, but to the interior memory belong the ideas more or less imperfectly expressed by the words. Thus man speaks from his corporeal memory, but when he leaves his material body he speaks from the ideas of the inner memory, which latter speech is the spiritual language the universal tongue of all spirits and angels. This language is a communication of ideas, not of words. (S. D. 3050.)

     There is one particularly striking faculty of the inner memory, namely, that it takes note of the most trivial and particular things perceived by the interior or by the exterior senses, and permanently infixes them in its substance, whether the man has reflected upon them or not!

This is not the case with the exterior memory, only those things being implanted there that man, to some extent at least, reflects upon or notices. Because of this more than wonderful faculty of the inner memory it is often called man's Book of Life. From this book-in which is written the "very least particulars which the man has ever thought, spoken or done, even what appeared to him as but a shadow, with the minutest particulars, from earliest infancy to the last of old age," (A. C. 2474)-man is judged after death.

     Two illustrations are given in the Revelation to the New Church, which give a clearer idea of the difference in quality and degree between the two memories, than could sheets of description of the properties of each and the distinctions between them. One of these illustrations is furnished by the phenomena of dreams, and it is pointed out that when a man is seen in a dream he appears "as the very same, with all his lineaments, together with every condition of his body, his speech, his gait, and many ether particulars." (S. D. 889.) Whereas if the dreamer had been awake he could only with a supreme effort have called to mind the most general idea of what the man dreamt of really looked like. His external memory would have forgotten most of the particulars, which, in his dream, would be furnished from his interior memory with such wonderful fullness.

     The second illustration referred to is the case of a man who wishes to recall to his mind's eye some one whom he had previously known for a long period. As said just above, his imagination would only be able to present a very obscure image of the man thought of; but after death when the man is consciously in his inner memory, the one thought of is presented in appearance before his spiritual sight according to every least idea which he had ever formed concerning him! "And so it is with everything; the thing itself, of which one has known many things, presents itself as to all the particulars of which he has ever gained for himself an idea respecting that thing." (A. C. 2173.)

     The exterior memory serves the internal one as a servant supplying his master with just those things from the servant's store-rooms as appeal to the love of his master,-the mind. Such things as this master does not love, he does not even wish brought before his sight.

Moreover, whatever the interior memory loves in the exterior memory, it loves because it is in accordance with its state and confirmatory thereof; this it not only calls up into its own plane, but stores there in its own memory. This is also the case with those things which through much repetition become natural and spontaneous, for they too are elevated from the corporeal memory, from whence they then disappear, and remain forever fixed in the interior memory. When this has taken place these knowledges appear innate. In a word, directly a truth is loved, or what is the same, is conjoined with good, it is elevated into, and becomes a part of, this higher memory, and affects the actual quality of the mind. The case is of course the same in regard to falsities when lived, that is, conjoined with evil.

But there is a memory higher yet than the interior memory or, as it is sometimes called, the spiritual-natural memory. This still higher memory is called "the more interior memory" or, in another place, "the spiritual memory." And inmostly there is "the celestial which is produced by the Lord alone." (S. D. 1079) The spiritual memory, strictly so-called, though it is called a memory, is said to be more in the nature of a disposition, and it is this which enables a man to understand what is true and good; and also is that by which the interior, or spiritual-natural, memory is excited. (S. D. 1077, 2154)

We here append a chart, adapted from those by Miss Beekman on "The Fourfold Man" and the "Seven Heavens," which shows our tentative placing of the various memories referred to in this paper. (See next page.)

Auras          Degrees in Man     Faculties               Heavens
1st Aura     Soul {Essence     The Life in Man          Heaven or Human Internals
               {Form          which is the Lord's

2d Aura     The Mens, or
          Rational Mind
          {Interior          The Celestial               Celestial Heaven
                         Produced by the Lord
                         Alone

          {Middle          The spiritual Memory          Spiritual Heaven
                         Or Disposition

          {Exterior          Interior Memory, or          Celestial Natural                          Natural-Spiritual                Heaven
                         Memory

3d Aura     The Animus, or     Corporeal Memory          Spiritual Natural
The ether     Natural Mind                              Heaven

     THE MEMORIES AFTER DEATH.

     The corporeal or natural memory cannot grow after death; the knowledges that man has acquired in this memory are the only planes on which to all eternity his future evolution can be given, although, even if his corporeal memory contain very few truths, those few will be developed, perfected and infilled more and more forever. The reason for this law is that after death only interior and internal things can be given to the spirit; not external things, for he has not then the sensuals of the body by which only can they be brought to him. It is necessary, too, that among the knowledges taken by man in his natural memory into the other world, there be at least some genuine truths, however external they may be, for otherwise he cannot be gifted with spiritual and celestial things, which must of necessity find something congruous in his corporeal memory in order that they may find an abode in that spirit, and be made as it were his own. Hence the more genuine truths man has in his exterior memory, the more planes are there provided for the influx of life from the Lord, and consequently the more perfect can his state become after death. (A. C. 1900, 3539, 4558. S. D. minor, 4655-6)

     Soon after man comes into the other life his natural memory becomes quiescent, and he is no longer permitted to use it.

Necessarily so; for in the world in, which he then is, the merely natural and material things, existing in this corporeal memory, cannot be reproduced. True, he still has this memory with him, for after death he loses nothing of what had been in either memory: it is now his ultimate plane, his periphery, his skin; and to all eternity it serves him "as a foundation plane into which interior truths and goods fall." (A. C. 4585.) Yet, when the Lord sees that the recollection of the things in the corporeal memory can be of use to the spirit, or to other spirits, the reproduction of the things therein is permitted. This reproduction is effected by the appearance of the spiritual things which were adjoined to the natural things in this memory, for, as just said, the material things themselves are not reproducible in the spiritual world.

There is a very striking passage in the Writings that it may be in place to quote here:-"All, though they are angels, can be remitted into the same or a similar state to those which they possessed in the body, so that if the human race failed, spirits could have been remitted into a similar state so as to serve as vessels, and thus order be perfected." (S. D. 2755)

But why is it necessary for the external memory to become quiescent after death? Does it not seem that thereby man loses something, and so becomes less perfect? No,-its loss increases indefinitely the perfection of his state. A certain spirit who was indignant because he could not remember things which he knew while in the natural world was told that he had lost nothing, but was not now allowed to recall such things: "that it was sufficient he could now think and speak much better and more perfectly, without immersing his rational, as he used to do, in gross, obscure, material and corporeal things, which are of no use in the kingdom into which he had now come; that he now possessed everything to provide the uses of eternal life, and that only in this way could he become blessed and happy: that therefore it was the part of ignorance to believe that, in this kingdom, intelligence perishes with the removal and with the quiescence of material things in the memory, when the truth is, that in proportion as the mind can be withdrawn from the sensual things of the external man, or the body, it is elevated to spiritual and celestial things." (H. H. 465)

Swedenborg saw this truth even before his conscious illumination, as can be seen by referring to The Economy of THE ANIMAL KINGDOM, Part II., 3601 which lack of space prevents us quoting here.

     Moreover, it is a great blessing to spirits that they even forget who they have been in the world, and so-except when the Lord in His wisdom permits the external memory to be aroused-are not liable to the inconveniences they would otherwise be subject to in the other life on meeting and knowing the identity of their old enemies; and also friends to whom they had been conjoined by merely external ties. Then too in the case of their having been great and important personages in the former life, they are thus prevented from ascribing merit to themselves. (See S. D. 4259.) Not only this, but if spirits were in their own exterior memory, they would flow with this into the man to whom they were adjoined; thus the man would be obsessed through thinking from the spirit's memory instead of his own, and the human race would be in danger of extermination. (A. C. 2477)

     It further appears that with angelic spirits and angels, not only does the corporeal memory become quiescent, but the interior memory also in its turn comes into a similar condition, and they then come into the "angelic memory," which we take to be the "spiritual memory" referred to earlier in this paper. When this state is reached, those who while they lived in the world had been in love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor, come into the angelic wisdom and intelligence which had been stored up unconsciously in the inmosts of their interior or spiritual-natural memory, even in the life of the body. The losing of the interior memory sometimes appears to the spirit as if he were again undergoing a death, and he may have the same dread of losing something by this apparent death that many men do in the loss of their material bodies. The reason for the necessity of the interior memory of angelic spirits also becoming quiescent is, that this memory, being born from the corporeal one below, is full of fallacies, and disturbs, obscures, and even perverts truths. (S. D. 353, 4015. A. C. 2491)

     (To be continued.)

PARENTAL LOVE 1913

PARENTAL LOVE Dr. J. B. S. KING 1913

     A PAPER

     It is a great truth that should never be forgotten that there are two universal spheres proceeding from the Lord through the spiritual world to the ultimates of nature. One of these is the sphere of creating, the other the sphere of protecting and preserving the things created. The first makes one with the sphere of conjugial love, the second with the love of offspring. These spheres are universal, and they flow into all things of the earth down to the ultimate mineral kingdom. Even the ultimate substances of nature, in their far-off remoteness and inertia, feel the warm, compelling activity of those spheres, the first being exhibited, for example, in the chemical affinities that bind elemental substances into forms of use, the second in the care with which the more precious things of the mineral kingdom are guarded and protected, as in geodes, wherein the lifeless, inert particles of earthy matters arrange themselves into an ovoid casket, to protect the precious and semi-precious crystals which they enclose. These rough, egg-like aggregations of disclose material when broken open disclose beautiful, sparkling crystals of silicic or aluminous oxides, stained to magnificent tints by metallic compounds. Thus jealously guarded we find amethysts, garnets, agates, and other precious stones.

     The sphere of protecting created forms is seen in the vegetable kingdom in the strong protective husks, shells, and coverings in which seeds are enclosed. In the animal kingdom it may be seen in the case of many insects that lay their eggs in hidden places, sticking them together with a glutinous secretion, and in the case of worms and caterpillars that secretly weave for themselves a casket of tough, finely-spun fibres, and thus go to seeming death, only to rise the following spring in the glorified form of a butterfly. It is also plainly apparent in animals, the wildest of which exhibit a strong affection for their young, undergoing privations and even death that their litter may be preserved.

     In man parental love has a two-fold origin, and a two-fold form.

The essential cause of that love is the sphere from on high, without which he would no more love his children than a statue. The second origin and the rational cause of that love is in the understanding, into which that sphere flows, and enables him to realize the helplessness, ignorance, and innocence of his children. Thence arises a desire to protect those who cannot protect themselves. This love with the human being has a two-fold form, as we have said. Man, in common with the brute creation, has a natural or animal love of offspring, which affects the evil as well as the good; and he also is capable of a spiritual love of offspring, which affects only those who have religion and a knowledge of eternal life.

The excitant of both of these is the sphere of innocence that flows into infants and children from the heaven of innocence and peace. Innocence is seen in their features, in their charming infantile gestures and motions, and is heard in the soft, cooing sounds that proceed from baby mouths. These characteristics awaken a strong and tender love in the hearts of parents, a love, however, which has one or other of two qualities, either an animal affection, fierce and personal with those who are without religion, or a spiritual and heavenly affection with those who have a know-ledge and love for the things of religion. The two forms of this love are among the most powerful forces in the world. Wise parental love may be the source of infinite good to the child, but unwise parental love may be the source of incalculable harm.

Infants and little children have no internal thought; they do not know good from evil or the true from the false; they attribute nothing to themselves, and all things that they receive they refer to their father or mother. Thus parents are to them the source of all good, in the place of the Lord to them. Children, therefore, must learn to love, honor, and obey father and mother, to the end that it may be possible for them in after years to love, honor, and obey their Father in the heavens. Thus a heavy responsibility rests upon parents. If respect and honor is not awakened in their child, if love is not enkindled, if obedience is not insisted on, then the parents are putting difficulties and hindrances in the path which those little feet must tread, making it harder for them to live the life that is in agreement with the life of heaven.

Instead they are cultivating self-love, perverseness, obstinacy, and insubordination, all of which the child when grown must overcome by hard fights in the battlefield of life, long after the parents have done their unwise work and departed.

     The destructive effect of unwise parental love, and the importance of forming the groundwork of character in early years, has attracted the attention of scientists. In a recent work, entitled "Das Einzige Kind," ("The Only Child"), the life history of 417 "favorite or only" children is traced and analyzed. Of this number only two per cent. were at all adequately equipped for the battle of life; 18 per cent. became insane; over 60 per cent. exhibited moral perversion in some form, (mostly sexual), and all showed traits of an unusual degree of selfishness. This is a fearful record, and should engage the careful attention and consideration of parents.

     A parent who is undignified or capricious, who laughs at an act when he is in a good humor, but condemns and punishes the same when he is not in the mood for it; who gives repeated ineffectual commands instead of one that is all-sufficient; who under some mistaken notion, leads his children to expect pay for services which they should be taught to render cheerfully, freely, and willingly;-such a one is heaping up trouble for the little one in after years.

     Only by love, respect, and honor for his earthly father can the child receive the remains by which later he will be able to look to his Heavenly Father with holy awe and love. Only by instant and unquestioning obedience to earthly parents are remains stored up for submission to the commands of our Father in the heavens. Only by rendering service to the parents freely and cheerfully can the foundation be laid for the sincere acknowledgment that "every good gift and every perfect gift cometh from above, from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning."

     The animal love of infants, called storge, though it be melting with tenderness, is capricious, inconstant, confusing, and saturated with folly. It is more cruel than a whip of thorns, which hurts only the body, physical and temporary.

But the invisible scourge of unwise parental love engenders obstinacy, perverseness, and disobedience, makes hot the fires of selfishness, and builds real mountains of difficulty in the path of regeneration.
AGE OF THE PATRIARCHS 1913

AGE OF THE PATRIARCHS Rev. C. TH. ODHNER 1913

     CAIN AND ABEL.

     To the man and the woman, after their expulsion from den, there were born two sons, whose successive births signify the separation of two essential Principles which heretofore had been one. The first-born was named CAIN, a name which in the Hebrew means "a smith," from the root qoun, "to make or beat into form by hammering," and he was so named because the generation or age which he represents loved to formulate,-to beat into the fixed shape of dogma,-the truths of religion which they had learned from their ancestors. "Before this time they had not known what faith is, because there had been with them a perception of all' the things of faith. But when they began to make a distinct doctrine of faith, they took the things of which they had a perception, and reduced them into doctrine, calling it: 'I have gotten a man, Jehovah,' as if they had found out something new; and thus what was formerly inscribed upon the heart now became a matter of the memory." (A. C. 340)

     Deplorable as was this descent from celestial perception to merely intellectual cognition, this Cain-doctrine was not so bad in the beginning, while there was still some simplicity in it. (A. C. 347, 384) For by means of the knowledge thus acquired there was born with those who acted on their knowledge a degree of charity to the neighbor which is represented by Abel, the younger "brother." His name, (Hebel), means "a light breath," which seems to indicate that from this charity there could still be with this generation a remnant of internal respiration and spiritual' perception.

     In the Most Ancient Church itself these two, faith and charity, had been regarded as one and indivisible, to be distinguished from one another only in thought, as one may distinguish between substance and form, neither of which is anything without the other.

But subsequently, when men allowed themselves to be deceived by mere appearances, they began not only to distinguish, but actually to separate, in their life, these two essentials of every existing thing. According to the appearance, truth or faith, is the first, or first-born, because a man must know the truth before he can live according to it. But this, after all, is only an appearance, for if there is not first an affection or hunger for the truth, there is not in the than any fruitful soil to receive it, but the seed falls upon stony ground. This affection, or this good of love, is therefore actually the first, even though it appears as if the works of charity-because according to the teachings of faith-were the fruits of that faith.

     Being misled by this appearance, the first decadent posterity of the Golden Age began to regard faith as the first-born or first in importance, and they therefore began to "till the ground;" to cultivate doctrinal matters as a separate field of study. They still regarded charity as an essential next in importance to faith, and still permitted the gentle Abel, or charity, to pursue his peaceful calling as a "shepherd of the flock."

     Nevertheless the lingering perception remained that the merely intellectual "offerings" of faith could not be as acceptable to the God of love as the living works of charity, and this consciousness produced a feeling of anger against charity with those who had confirmed themselves in the seductive persuasion of intellectualism. Thus they reasoned: Any simple person is able to work, but we are the thinkers, the advanced philosophers, the scientific minds, the emancipators of the human understanding from the shackles of an antiquated Divine paternalism! And thus they began to look down upon charity and good works, at first as being less essential and then as non-essential to salvation,-just as was done in the Protestant Church at the time of the Reformation.

     This is what is meant by Cain' "killing" his brother, Abel. To the question of Jehovah, "Where is Abel, thy brother?" he replied, "Am I my brother's keeper?" In other words: "What do I care what has become of Charity in my religion?"

     II.

     THE CURSE UPON CAIN.

     Cursed henceforth was the faith of the decadent Church. The doctrinal ground which it tilled no longer yielded any increase, and "a fugitive and a vagabond" it became in the earth. As in the Protestant Church, after the doctrine of Faith-alone had been firmly established, all theological progress ceased and the Reformation split up into contending heresies and sects, so after Faith-alone had slain Charity in the Most Ancient Church, the field of doctrinal study became barren and the faith itself a "fugitive and a vagabond," fleeing from the detecting eye of rational truth.

     Nevertheless Jehovah set a mark upon Cain, lest any one finding him should slay him." For since charity had been slain, faith was now the only thing left in the Church, and if faith also should be destroyed, the Church would be at an end. Faith alone, even though it has become a merely historical faith, of the memory only, is better than total irreligion, for by it at least the knowledges of truth are preserved for the use of future ages. By the "mark" set upon Cain lest anyone should slay him, is meant, therefore, that God caused the intellectual faith to be preserved "because there can be no saving faith unless historical faith precedes. Moreover, they who are only in historical faith,-that is, in the knowledge of the things of faith, who are Cain,-are preserved because they are able to teach truths from the Word to others, for they teach from the memory." (A. E. 4276.) And the means by which the knowledges of faith were thus "marked" and preserved was none other than the Art of Writing which was now invented. "By the Providence of the Lord the doctrinals of faith, together with some of the revelations of the Most Ancient Church, were preserved for the use of the later posterity represented by Noah. These doctrinal things were first collected by Cain and stored up so that they should not be lost, on which account it is said of Cain that a 'mark' was set upon him lest anyone should slay him." (A. C. 609.) This work of collecting and storing up the religious traditions of the Golden Age was afterwards continued by the generation known as Enoch, of whom more anon.

     As for Cain himself, he "went forth from the face of Jehovah and dwelt in the land of Nod," by which is signified that the faith of the Church, now separated from the good of love, in the course of time became more and more estranged from worship of the true God. In the land of Nod, ("flight," "exile"), i. e., in this exile from genuine religion, Cain became the father of a son named Enoch and built a city which he called after the name of his son. (Gen. 4:17.) The original heresy of Faith-alone in time produced another heresy which now was formulated into a definite system of doctrine. A city always signifies a doctrinal system, as Rome stands for the doctrines of the Catholic Church, Augsburg for the Lutheran doctrine, Geneva for the Reformed, and the New Jerusalem for the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Church.

     III.

     THE CAINITES AND THE SETHITES.

     There follows now in the Word a genealogical list of "patriarchs" descended from Cain, and immediately afterwards another patriarchal succession descended from Seth. In each list nine names appear, some of these identical in both, and some very similar, as may be seen from the following genealogical table:

                    Adam
Cain                                        Seth

Enoch                                        Enosh

Irad                                        Cainan

Mehujael                                   Mahalaleel

                                        Jared

                                        Enoch

Methusael                                   Methuselah

Lamech                                   Lamech

Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-cain                    Noah

     By the descendants of Cain, in this genealogy, are represented the successive steps in the decline of the Most Ancient Church as to intellectual things, while the descendants of Seth represent the corresponding decline as to voluntary things. The Cainites are so many successive heresies, born one from another, and each worse than the other, until the end of all truth was reached in Lamech, who lived just before the Flood. And the Sethites are so many successive evils, continually growing worse, until the end of all good was reached in the same Lamech-condition. The names and the order of succession are somewhat different in the two lines, on account of the different processes in the working of the two faculties of understanding and will; and yet they are similar and in some cases identical, because of the intimate relationships of the two faculties which can never be completely separated. In each line Lamech represents the end of the Most Ancient Church, and in each line the children of Lamech represent the beginning of a new Church,-the Church of the Silver Age.

     ENOCH, the son of Cain, is the heresy or doctrine springing immediately from the separation of charity from faith, just as Calvin's doctrine of Predestination was the immediate fruit of Luther's doctrine of salvation by Faith-alone. But of Enoch we shall speak more fully in connection with the descendants of Seth.

     IRAD, the son of Enoch, stands for a further development of heresy, "but as there is nothing extant respecting him and his descendants, except the names, it is unnecessary to say anything about them. Something might be gathered from the derivations of the names. The name Irad, for instance, means that he `descends from a city,' thus from the heresy called 'Enoch;' and thus with the other names." (A. C. 404.)

     MEHUJAEL, the son of Irad, carried a name which is said to signify "smitten by God."

     METHUSHEL, the son of 1Clehujael, is explained by the lexicographers as signifying "a man that is from God," but Swedenborg states that both Methusael and Methuselah "signify something that is about to die." (A. C. 527) The word "meth" means "dead," and the whole name probably means "dead as to God."

     LAMECH, the son of Methusael, had a name which the lexicographers have not been able to explain, there being no other word similar to it in the Hebrew tongue. The Writings of the New Church, however, state that Lamech signifies "vastation" and "something destroyed." (A. C. 527.) That by "Lamech" is signified the vastation and destruction both of faith and of charity, is evident from his own statement that he "slew a man to his wounding, and a little one to his hurt," for by "a man" is meant faith, and by "a little one" is meant innocence and charity. (A. C. 466.)

     Yet, though the Most Ancient Church had now come to its end, and as a whole had become thoroughly vastated as to everything good and true, there still remained a few, a bare remnant, who possessed some salvable elements, and out of whom a new Church could be formed. "There always remains some nucleus of a Church, whom those who are vastated as to faith do not recognize; and thus it was with the Most Ancient Church, of which a remnant continued until the time of the flood, and continued after that event. This remnant of a Church is called 'Noah.'" (A. C. 407.)

     This new Church, as to the remains of intellectual integrity, is described, in the line of Cain, by "Adah" and "Zillah," the two wives of Lamech. "They are called the wives of Lamech, although he himself possessed no faith, just as the internal and external Church of the Jews, (who also had no faith), are also called 'wives' in the Word, being represented by Leah and Rachel, the two wives of Jacob,-Leah representing the external Church, and Rachel the internal." (A. C. 409)

     That ADAH signifies the Church is self-evident, for her name is the regular Hebrew word for the "congregation" as a whole. Her name also means "ornament," and, as the mother of Jabal and Jubal, she signifies that interior affection of truth which produced the celestial and spiritual things in the new Church which now arose. JABAL, "the father of the dwellers in tents, and of cattle," stands for "the doctrine concerning the holy things of love and the goods thence derived, which are celestial," (A. C. 412): while his brother, JUBAL, "the father of every one that playeth upon the harp and the organ," signifies "the doctrine of the spiritual things of the same Church," (A. C. 417); for stringed instruments represent worship from the spiritual things of faith, while wind instruments, producing sounds from the interior of man, represent worship from the celestial things of love.

The name of Jubal, (from jabal, to make music), is the origin of our English word "jubilee."

The name of the second wife of Lamech was ZILLAH, which means "a shade" and signifies the more eternal and natural affection of truth in the new Church that was to be established after the flood. She became the mother of TUBAL-CAIN, who as "the instructor of every artificer in brass and iron," stands for the doctrine of natural good and truth; the "instructor" means this doctrine; "brass" always means natural' good, and "iron" natural truth. (A. C; 421.) The name of Tubal-cain is said to mean "a loud-sounding smith," and naturally calls to mind old Vulcan, that noisy smith of Greek Mythology.

The fourth chapter of Genesis continues with the account of the birth of Seth and of his son Enosh, by whom are represented faith and charity in that new Church, the Ancient Church, which was introduced on the scene by Adah and Zillah. (A. C. 434, 435) The Seth and Enosh of this chapter, therefore, do not represent the same things as the patriarchs of the same names mentioned in the fifth chapter, who were of the Most Ancient Church, but they represent similar or analogous states. By the first Seth is signified a new faith, and by the first Enosh a new charity,-kindled by means of this faith,-among the remnant that constituted the nucleus of the Ancient Church. The name SETH comes from a root, meaning "to put," "to place," and he was so called because he was "appointed as another seed in the place of Abel, whom Cain slew." (Gen. 4:25) The new seed was this new faith, by means of which the charity, which was lost by the death of Abel, would be replaced or restored in the Ancient Church. And Enosh was this new charity, born not from but by means of faith. The name ENOSH means "man,"-not the celestial man who was called "Adam," but a new man, a spiritual man, whose chief love was not so much the love of God, as the love of fellow-man. (A. C. 439.)

This idea of neighborly love is involved in the very name "Enosh," which comes from an old Semitic root, anash, to join, to associate, to be a companion. Hence comes the regular Hebrew word for "man," aish, plural anashim, which essentially means a "companion."

     That this Enosh is an entirely new Church or dispensation is evident from the final statement that in his day "they began to call on the name of Jehovah," which means that the worship of Jehovah, the God of the Golden Age, was now restored among men. (A. C. 441.)

     IV.

     THE REMAINS OF THE MOST ANCIENT CHURCH.

     The fifth chapter of Genesis treats specifically of the lingering propagation of the Most Ancient Church through successive generations, posterities, or churches, almost to the time of the flood, the remains of good and truth constantly decreasing, until the last remains, represented by Noah, were separated from the corrupted Church and formed into a new Church. The years of life ascribed to these antediluvians are, like their names, purely representative. Men never lived to an age so fabulously great as that of Methuselah, but the number of the years describes in a brief compass the whole state of that generation or church. Each number signifies a different thing and can be unfolded with mathematical precision according to the law of correspondence, but it does not seem necessary to enter into this exegesis in the present little work.

     SETH, who was born "into the image and after the likeness" of Adam, represents the first posterity or church descended from the Most Ancient Church itself, and was "not very unlike" that Church, but it was different in this that "love was not now the principal thing, but faith, though this faith was still conjoined with love." (A. C. 485)

     ENOSH, the son of Seth, was a third church, still less perfect than Adam and Seth, yet a part of the Most Ancient Church regarded as a whole. (A. C. 502.) The people who constituted these two churches, Seth and Enosh, attained the spiritual degree of regeneration; they were consequently saved, and are now angels of heaven.

Swedenborg describes them as living in magnificent habitations, and surrounded with an aura of light glittering with a luster as of pearls and diamonds, but the light in which live those of the Church of Adam is still more intense.

     CAINAN, the son of Enosh, was a fourth church, which was not as perfect as the three preceding ones, because the perception which in former ages had been distinct and clear now began to become more obscure. (A. C. 507) The name of this church is almost the same as that of Cain, and probably signifies the same.

     MAHALALEEL, the son of Cainan, was a Church still further removed from perception and love. The life of this posterity was "such that they preferred the delight arising from truths to the delight arising from uses, as has been given me to know," says Swedenborg, "by experience among their like in the other life." (A. C. 511) This state is fitly expressed in their name, Mahalaleel, which means "praising God." The "Ma" is the sign of the participial form of "halal" which means to praise (as in Hallelujah praise Jehovah), and "El" or God always refers to the Divine Truth rather than to the Divine Good.

     JARED, the son of Mahalaleel, represents a church in which even natural good began to decline, (A. C. 283), as is expressed in the name Jared, which means "going down."

     ENOCH, the son of Jared, was a church which played an important role in the history of Divine Revelation. We will treat of this church at some length after concluding the rest of the genealogy.

     METBUSLAH, the son of Enoch, was a church of which nothing further is known except that now "integrity decreased, and with it intelligence and wisdom." (A. C. 524) The name Methuselah, (properly, Methushelach), is explained by the lexicographers as meaning "a man of the dart," but Swedenborg states that it means "something about to die," (A. C. 527) ; literally translated it seems to signify "death being sent forth."

     LAMECH, the son of Methuselah, signifies the same an the Lamech who descended from Cain, of whom we have treated above. It was the last, expiring state of the Most Ancient Church, in which "the perception of truth and of good was so obscure as to be almost none; it was thus a vastated Church." (A. C. 527)

     "The Churches which are called Methuselah and Lamech both expired immediately before the flood." (A. C. 533.) Lamech also "begat sons and daughters." One of these "sons" was Noah. The rest were the Nephilim or Antediluvians who perished in the flood.

     V.

     ENOCH.

     Returning to Enoch, the son of Jared, we learn in the New Revelation that "there were some at that time who framed doctrines from the things that had been matters of perception in the Most Ancient Church, in order that such doctrine might serve as a rule whereby to know what was good and true; such persons were called 'Enoch.' This is what is signified by the words 'and Enoch walked with God,' and thus they called that doctrine, which is likewise signified by the name ENOCH, which means to instruct. The same is evident also from the signification of 'walking,' and from the fact that he is said to have 'walked with God,' not with Jehovah. To 'walk with God' is to teach and live according to the doctrine of faith, but to 'walk with Jehovah' is to live the life of love." (A. C. 519)

     "'And Enoch was no more, for God took him.' (Gen. 5:24.) This signifies that this doctrine was preserved for the use of posterity." (A. C. 520.)

     This work of collecting and formulating the doctrinal traditions of the Golden Age was first undertaken by those who are known by the collective name of Cain, and was continued and completed by the subsequent generation or church called Enoch, whose Hebrew name is "Chanoch." These people were in possession of the book or documents written by the Cainites, and to this they added the results of their own investigations and recollections. Their own interest in this work seems to have been purely historic and antiquarian, for they themselves were of a decadent race hastening towards its doom. The codex which they compiled was of no practical use to them, and their terrible antediluvian descendants would have destroyed the book if it had not, in Providence, been removed and hidden from their fury, ("reposita," A. C. 609).

It was restored, however, to the little remnant of religious people known as Noah, and it was by means of this book that something of the celestial wisdom of the Golden Age, together with a knowledge of correspondences, passed over to the Church of the Silver Age. To them this book of Enoch was the Word of God. It was the first book of the Ancient written Word. In the beginning the Ancient Church had no other Word.

The remembrance of the Book of Enoch lingered long in the memory of mankind. The legends of the ancient mythologies have much to tell about it, and the resurrected clay tablets of Chaldea and Assyria confirm the tale and likewise confirm the statements of Swedenborg concerning it. The traditions of the Arabs describe quite minutely, not only the Book of Enoch, but also the Book of Cain, and they tell even of a Book of Adam. But this book of Enoch was lost with all the other books of the Ancient Word, and though we know it will be restored, in time, for the use of the New Church, it is quite certain that it has not yet been found. There was, indeed, a "Book of Enoch, the seventh from Adam," known to Jude the Apostle, and twice mentioned and quoted by him in his Epistle, and concerning these quotations Swedenborg states that "Jude, the Apostle, had these things from ancient books which were written by correspondences. (A. E. 735) This Book of Enoch was re-discovered by the English traveler, Bruce, in the year 1773, in a monastery in Abyssinia, and contains the sentences quoted by Jude. But it is quite evident that it is neither an inspired work, nor of any greater antiquity than, perhaps, the book of Job. Though it contains many references to antediluvian history, it also brings in many things from other and subsequent parts of the Old Testament, all clothed in the usual exuberance of oriental imagery.

But though the real Book of Enoch has not yet been discovered, it is carefully preserved in the other world, as was told to Swedenborg when visiting a great library in Heaven. He states that "there were a great number of books there. The persons who were there were not seen by me, but still they spoke with me.

They said that there were books there from the time of the Ancients, written by correspondences. Interiorly in other libraries there were books written by those who were of the Ancient Churches, and still more interiorly there were books for the Most Ancients, from whom the society called Enoch had collected correspondences that afterwards were for the use of those who were of the subsequent Churches, called the Ancient Churches." (S. D. 5999.)

     We must be permitted to adduce two more quotations from the many statements in the Writings concerning the Book of Enoch:

     "It was provided by the Lord that some of those who lived with the Most Ancients should collect the correspondences into one [codex], and connect them together in writing. These were they who are meant by 'Enoch,' and this writing is what is there signified. As this writing was to be of service to future churches for the knowledge of spiritual things in natural things, it was preserved by the Lord for their use, and also guarded lest the last posterity of the Most Ancient Church should do injury to it. This is what is signified in the spiritual sense by 'Enoch was no longer, for God took him.'" (A. E. 7282.)

     The exact nature of the Book of Enoch is described in the following teaching:

     "As the Lord foresaw that the state of the celestial man would become changed and inverted, He provided for the preservation of the doctrinal things of faith, in order that man might know what is celestial and spiritual. These doctrinal' things were collected from the men of the Most Ancient Church by those called 'Cain,' and also by those called 'Enoch.' These doctrinals consisted altogether of significatives, and thus, as it were enigmatical things--i. e., what is signified by the things which are upon the earth, as that mountains signify celestial things and the Lord; that the morning and the east also signify these things; that the various kinds of trees and fruits signify man and the celestial things with him; and thus what all other things signify. Their doctrinals consisted in things such as these, which were collected from the significatives of the Most Ancient Church, and consequently their writings also were of the same nature." (A. C. 920.)

RACE SUICIDE IN GERMANY 1913

     "Social scientists in Germany are sounding a loud note of alarm at the decrease in the German birth-rate. Meetings for the discussion of the subject are announced to be held in Berlin and in other large cities of the empire. The evil which has afflicted France for so many decades, which has begun to be felt in England, is now a burning question in Germany. There are those who see in the present state of this question the beginnings of a decay of the race, the first symptoms of physical degeneration. Eminent publicists are discussing the question. Will this decrease, provided it cannot be removed, endanger the civilizing and political influence of Germany throughout the world? Dr. Borntraeger, an eminent scientist in the service of the German Government, has written a book on this subject giving facts and figures well worth the most serious consideration.

     "Notwithstanding the constant decrease of mortality and the fact that the population of the empire increases annually by nearly one million, the proportion of births steadily recedes, and has now reached a level lower than at any period since 1897. The decrease is most noticeable in the number of legitimate children; among illegitimate children there is a considerable increase.

     Further, the decrease is more noticeable in the towns than in the country districts, and Berlin especially is in the forefront with both these phenomena. In the German capital, incredible as it may seem, the number of births during the Past thirty-three years has decreased by one-half; and this notwithstanding the fact that Berlin is continually receiving accretions from the provinces.

     "Borntraeger's figures show that the decrease is more noticeable among what he calls highly civilized, congested and industrial communities Further, that it is more evident in districts where a large Liberal and Socialist population exists. In Conservative and Clerical regions the decrease, if it exists at all, is hardly perceptible, when we take the entire country; and in numerous areas where these political views are held, there is a healthy and sustained increase in keeping with the increase of earlier years." (MORNING LIGHT, Oct. 26.)

Editorial Department 1913

Editorial Department Editor 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     The Journal of the General Convention for 1912 reports a total membership of 6,336, with 99 societies and 75 ministers,-a decrease of 50 members and 7 ministers during the past year.

     Pastor Manby, in the November issue of his Swedish journal, prints letters from two of his friends who speak in terms of the grossest abuse of the communication from Miss Liden described in our December number. One of these, Mr. C. G. Laurell, characterizes her frank account as "villanous libel," (nidskrifveri), and states as "almost incomprehensible" the imaginary claim that "a person cannot successfully study Swedenborg without being rebaptized and having a boundary raised up between the Old Church and the New." A third correspondent under the heading "Woman against woman," is permitted to publish a letter evidently purporting to have been written by direction of spirits.

     The biographical sketch of "James Glen, New-Church Pioneer and Hermit," by Mr. Charles Higham, in the October issue of THE NEW CHURCH REVIEW, is a contribution to the early history of our Church of the greatest interest and value. A brief biography of this remarkable man, who was the first to introduce the Heavenly Doctrine on the American continent, was published in the LIFE for July an August, 1895, and additional materials were referred to in the ANNALS, of all of which Mr. Higham makes full acknowledgment. But Mr. Higham now brings out a great mass of collateral information, hitherto unknown, setting forth in strong relief the personal characteristics of this New Church apostle, so strong in the faith, so rich in his poverty, so blessed with the Writings and the interior sphere of heaven in the midst of his pathetic isolation in the South American wilderness. We must urge our readers to peruse Mr. Higham's fascinating paper.

     In the recent JOURNAL OF THE GENERAL CONVENTION we find the following observations in the Report of the Rev. Eli W. Shields, of Hot Springs, Ark.: "In regard to making any alteration or abridgment of Swedenborg's writings, it should only be done by a committee from the General Convention and the Academy, in such a manner that will be satisfactory to both and bring about a reunion into one body. If Swedenborg's treatise on Marriage Love was from the Lord, it is divine and should be handled very carefully. If from himself, it is unworthy of our consideration.

     "I have strenuously kept the knowledge of the trouble from the members of our society, also kept their names out of print, so they could receive no literature concerning it. I joined the New Jerusalem Church, not a part of it, and I was expounding it four years before I found that I had only joined a part of it. Since that time I have not felt entirely satisfied, neither will I be until it is only one body."

     How many of our readers are aware that the well-known saying "saved by the skin of my teeth" is really a quotation from the Old Testament? We were surprised, the other day, to find it in the book of Job, and that the spiritual meaning of it is given in the Writings. We read in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED: "'All men abhor me; my bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh; I have escaped with the skin of my teeth.' (Job 19:19, 20.) In the sense of the letter this means that he became thus lank and lean; but in the spiritual sense it signifies that temptations so suppressed the interiors of his mind that he became sensual, and thought only in things most external, and yet that he thought truths and not falsities; this is signified by 'I have escaped with the skin of my teeth,'-teeth without a skin signifying falsities, but with a skin signifying not falsities, since they are still in some degree clothed." (E. 556:11.)

     The Rev. Frank Sewall, in an "Historical Retrospect" of the General Convention, (MESSENGER, NOV. 13), makes the statement that "of all the Associations that have joined the Convention not a single one has withdrawn, [italics by Mr. Sewall]; although some of the feeble organizations have died out and in one of the oldest and largest of the Associations-that of Pennsylvania-a considerable section withdrew owing to alleged differences with the Convention on certain doctrines and principles."

The above inaccurate and partisan statement is unworthy of Mr. Sewall's usual fairness and wide knowledge of the history of the Church. The "considerable section" to which he refers was the Pennsylvania Association itself. It united with the General Convention in the year 1845, adopted the name "the General Church of Pennsylvania" in 1883, and withdrew as a whole from the Convention on November I4th, 1890. A second "Pennsylvania Association" was organized on April 4th, 1889, under the auspices of the Rev. Chauncey Giles and his Society at Twenty-second and Chestnut Sts., Philadelphia, but those who "withdrew" were never in any way connected with this new Pennsylvania Association.

Mr. Sewall totally misrepresents the causes of the withdrawal when he terms them "alleged differences . . . on certain doctrines and principles." The General Church would never have separated from the Convention on the ground of any purely intellectual differences-"alleged" or real,-if the larger body had respected the autonomous freedom of action guaranteed by the Constitution of the General Convention. The actual historic reason for the separation was "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." (See N. C. LIFE, 1890, p. 221.)

"SPIRITMONGERY" IN THE NEW CHURCH 1913

In an exceedingly frank and manly editorial on "Spiritmongery" the MESSENGER for Dec. 11th repudiates the mass of spiritistic literature recently issued by the "Open Door Publishing Co.," of Cleveland, O., which, in the name of Swedenborg and the New Church, seeks to induce members of the New Church to become seers and cast aside the Word and the Writings. The circular letter of the Cleveland coterie had found aid and comfort in an article published in the MESSENGER, from which it quotes as follows: "Unless man is conjoined to the Lord by faith and love, such communication (with familiar spirits) is most dangerous; but in future ages that communication will be re-established, and then we shall not have to depend upon truth that comes through a seer, for all will be seers themselves." Whereupon our contemporary remarks: "If this ever was published as the doctrine upheld by the MESSENGER, it ought not to have been, and this use of what is published in the MESSENGER demonstrates the injury that may be done by publishing impure doctrine," and the writer then proceeds to expose in vigorous words "the cunning and the arts of familiar spirits who will not hesitate to commit the most vile profanation, if only they can speak to man and get the dominion over his soul."

We congratulate the MESSENGER On its earnest protest and warning, but cannot but wonder at the short memory of the editor, who, on May 15th, last, pleaded editorially for a broader toleration for a mixture of New Church doctrine with spiritism. (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, July, 1912, P. 438.) The trouble seems to be that there is no supreme head, and no settled doctrine and policy in the MESSENGER'S editorial office. The editorial's are manifestly written by various persons, who often are of diametrically opposite views, and all sorts of things are admitted, without supervision and without memory of what has gone before. It would have been well if the MESSENGER had pointed its recent warning by publishing the names of those ministers of the General Convention, who have publicly and enthusiastically endorsed the new spiritistic movement in the New Church, for the influence of men such as these is far more dangerous to the simple in the Church than the silly twaddle of their girl-medium.

ACTUALITY OF EVIL AND OF HELL 1913

     It is refreshing to read in the MESSENGER for Dec. 11th the following vigorous protest, from Mr. J. Henry Smith, of Washington, D. C., against the misleading and dangerous reasonings of Clarence W. Barren, of Boston, in his paper on "Hell," which is published as the leading article of THE NEW CHURCH REVIEW for October:

     "EDITOR OF THE MESSENGER:-I have been reading the article, Hell, in the NEW CHURCH REVIEW for October, commended in your editorial in the MESSENGER of NOV. 27, and am exceedingly amazed that as a paper it should have been received by the New Church Club of Massachusetts, before which it was read, with unanimous expressions of appreciation and approval. While it expresses truths, they are used in such a way as to lead to most unfortunate conclusions, and I, for one, desire to raise my voice in energetic opposition to the doctrine enunciated.

     "We do not need to be told that hell `has no power outside of itself;' we all know that; but to draw the conclusion from that that we are to go through life pretending to be unaware of any hell, evil, sin or disease, absolutely ignore it all, and feel thereby that we are safe, is to indulge in a vain conceit of momentous consequences when overborne by stern fact.

     "'Every preachment concerning hell, or evil, is iniquitous,' says our writer who meets with such universal acceptance of his views in the church. That is a very severe indictment of our ministry. I wonder, after all, how many of our preachers will agree to it? Is it iniquity for the voice in the pulpit to be heard in solemn or emphatic exposure and denunciation of evil and of hell? Is it to come to pass that hell is to be a tabooed subject among us, never mentioned by shepherd or flock? I can well see in vision the effect of such a course-a complacent laity, a patronizing clergy, a community putting on the garb of sanctity with rottenness within. The church has not been called into being to ignore evil and hell, but to be militant, to fight, and to fight vacantly. 'Fight against the evils which are from hell', and you will will and do, not from yourself but from the Lord.' (Swedenborg.)

     "Our writer argues that the Lord rules the hells, that man has no power against them, consequently as a churchman he should consider that he has absolutely no relation to or connection with them, and so ignore them completely, as though they were not. The Lord, it is true, rules the hells, but He does not do it up in the air. They are controlled through us. The individual churchman, and consequently the church as a body, is taught in the Writings to learn to know what sin and evil are, then to diligently examine one's self for the evils hidden in the selfhood, and with the help of the Lord to extirpate them, which can only be done by combat, sometimes very grievous. Our Lord's command is to take up our cross and follow Him. How? By knowing nothing of evil and of hell? By ignoring it, as though it were not? No; but by recognizing it as a stern reality with which we have to wrestle for our lives. Ignore hell and more than one-half of our church literature will have to be cut out from publication. Ignore hell and the church becomes nothing more than a mutual admiration society. The fact that the Lord has redeemed the world from the power of hell does not give us a certificate of admission into heaven on His labors; it has only given us the power to fight more advantageously.

     "'The heavens have no part in subduing the hells,' says our writer. But when I read 'there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,' what am I to believe? Again I read of the white horse and of Him that sat upon it and of the armies Of heaven following Him on white horses, the most beautiful vision of cavalry ever seen. We have no power of ourselves, but we do have power from Divine truths, and exercise it; and so do the angels.

     "'In every hell there is order, and this order is preserved by the Lord, both immediately and mediately, by means of celestial angels.' (A. C. 6370.) 'The hells are governed by angels, to whom is assigned the office of inspecting the hells and keeping down the insanities and disturbances which prevail in them. Sometimes also angels are sent thither and regulate them when actually present.' (H. and H. 543.)

     "So the hells after all' are policed by heaven and the church.

     "In the REVIEW article I am objecting, to it is said, " I believe every discussion of evil, or degree of evil, in the church to be only hellish confusion.' I do not think anything is gained by the church blinking its eyes to the doctrine of degrees. It is one of our fundamental tenets, and Swedenborg cannot be well understood without it. We can reduce neither good nor evil to the dead level of sameness. It would be folly to attempt it. That there are manifold degrees of evil is well known in the church. Far from its being hellish confusion to discuss degrees of evil, it is hellish to deny and attempt to explain away and render nugatory well-expressed statements of doctrine in the Writings.

     . . . "As to the 'shining silver truths' of 'the church of the valley,' by which in the article under consideration is evidently meant Christian Science, I must in conclusion say that where our Lord's Divinity is denied and He made the son of Joseph, a woman set up as His equal, and His holy sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Supper done away with by human edict, there is to me no church, however much it may be regarded as one by some of my brethren in New-Church faith.-J. HENRY SMITH."
SURE TRIUMPH OF THE NEW CHURCH IN CHRISTENDOM 1913

SURE TRIUMPH OF THE NEW CHURCH IN CHRISTENDOM 1913

In the work on the LAST JUDGMENT Swedenborg states that the angels told him that they had but a slight hope of the men of the Christian Church, but a great hope of a certain nation distant from the Christian world and removed from infesters thence." (L. J. 74.) A limited view of this prophesy is apt to create at times a state of discouragement and despondency, a pessimism which grows deeper as we study the accounts of the fearful stale of the Christian world as revealed throughout the Writings and day by day in the journals of the world. Nor is the hopefulness increased by the exceedingly slow growth of the New Church about us and within us. It is, indeed, a miracle that the New Jerusalem has found and retains any foothold whatever in the Christian world.

     Nevertheless, it is of the utmost importance to observe that the prophecy, though it does not extend any great hope, still indicates "a slight hope" for the growth of the New Church in Christendom, and this hope assumes a brighter hue when we take into consideration another distinct prophecy. In a letter to Dr. Beyer, written while the "Universal Theology" was still in the press, Swedenborg uttered these memorable words:

     "Of this I am certain that after the appearance of the `Universal Theology' the Lord our Savior will operate both mediately and immediately for the establishment, throughout the whole of Christendom, of the New Church based on this 'Theology.'" (Doc. ii:383).

     Let us mark well the absolute promise contained in these words, that the Lord's New Church will be established throughout the whole of Christendom. These words, indeed, have frequently been quoted as proof that the permeating influx of the New Heaven will establish the New Church "immediately" within the various churches and sects of the old Christianity, independently of the Writings and of the work of any distinct New Church organization. Such a notion, however, is not supported by this statement, for it says distinctly that the New Church, about to be established, will be "based on this 'Theology,"'-on the beak which was then making its appearance. Moreover, the "influx" of the New Heaven is in itself a mediate influx, through the world of spirits, and our permeationists will therefore have to look for another explanation of the term "immediately."

     The true meaning of the prophecy will be seen when it is realized that the Revelation given to the New Church is in itself an "immediate Revelation," (H. 1),-being nothing less than the promised "Comforter," the Holy Spirit of Divine Truth proceeding immediately from the mouth of the Lord Himself in His own glorified Human, now for the first time revealed to men and speaking immediately to their rational faculty. This is what is meant by the Lord's immediate operation for the establishment of the New Church throughout the whole of Christendom. It is the operation of the Writings themselves upon the minds and hearts of all who read them,-whether they be members of the New Church or not. And by the "mediate" operation is meant the work of the Lord's New Heaven,-a distinctly New Church Heaven,-and the work of His equally distinct New Church on the earth.

These things having been made clear, and false hopes dissipated,-hopes that are bound to meet with disappointment,-we may now turn to the genuine, because rational, hope and certitude that are held out in the prophecy quoted above. For though on introspection and circumspection, the prospects of the New Church certainly appear "slight," still there must be hope,-the hope for our own salvation, the salvation of the children the Lord has entrusted to our care, the salvation of the entire "remnant" in Christendom. The "woman" is indeed in the wilderness, and the poison of the Dragon is well-nigh overwhelming, but we know that the Church is protected, not only by the "earth" beneath her but especially by the Man-child within her, who cannot be destroyed.

What consolation, comfort, and strength there are in these words of our Divine Protector through the pen of His inspired servant: "Of this I am certain." Who is certain? Who is it that is speaking? Is it Swedenborg alone? No, but the Lord Himself, who alone knows future things. He is certain, and therefore Swedenborg was certain, and hence we also may be certain. Certain of what? Certain that the Lord will operate, as He has operated and is operating, both mediately and immediately, for the establishment of His New Church, not only among the Gentiles, but also in Christendom, and throughout the whole of Christendom. It may take centuries, it may take thousands of years, but time does not matter, since the victory is sure.

MILL STONE 1913

     (An address delivered at the Opening of the Schools of the Academy of the New Church. September 16th, 1912.)

     The subject of this address is the internal sense of these words of the Lord: "Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a mill stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matth. 18:6.)

     Any one who stops to consider for but a minute is bound to realize that these words mean something deeper than what appears in the letter. It is clear that the "offense" spoken of here means a spiritual offense, an offense against those who believe, an offense against the belief itself. And it is clear also that the "little ones" here mentioned mean not only children and young people but all those who believe in the Lord from a simple and innocent heart.

     Thus far it is easy to perceive the meaning of the text, but no human being could of his own intelligence guess what is involved in the rest of the sentence: "it were better for him that a mill stone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea." In the original Greek it is said "the mill stone of an ass," but the words "of an ass" have been left out of the common English translation.

     The commentators in the Old Christian Church have never been able to explain these words except by saying that it would be better for a man to be drowned, or killed in any other manner, than to disturb the faith of one who believes, because to do so involves the crime of spiritual murder and the punishment of eternal damnation. But while this is true, it does not explain the reason why the Lord used these particular words: "the mill stone of an ass hanged about the neck." The inquisitors of the Dark Ages, indeed, used these words to justify their infernal practice of torturing and killing people who were accused of any heresy. The true meaning of the text was never explained until the Lord in His Second Coming revealed the internal sense of His Word. Let me read you the explanation as given in the Writings:

     "By offending one of the little ones who believe in Jesus, is signified to pervert those who acknowledge the Lord. It being better that the mill stone of an ass should be hanged about the neck, signifies that it would be better not to know any good and truth, but only what is false and evil. By being drowned in the depths of the sea is signified to be cast down into hell. The reason why it is better or more expedient, is because to know goods and truths, and to pervert them, is to profane." (A. E. 1182.)

     And again we read: "A mill is truth serving faith; an ass is the natural, because it is a beast of service; hence the mill stone of an ass is the natural and worldly scientific; the neck is the conjunction of exterior and interior things; to be hanged there is the shutting out and interception of good and truth; to be drowned in the depths of the sea, is to be immersed into what is merely worldly and corporeal, thus into hell. . . . It signifies also to be immersed in scientifics by worldly and earthly things even to the denial of the Divine Truth." (A. C. 9755.)

     Let us now consider more particularly the meaning of a mill and a mill stone. Just as grain, flour, and bread stand as the most universal representatives of the good by which every man sustains his spiritual life, so a mill and a mill stone stand as the universal representatives of the truth by which good is prepared and refined for actual use. "Milling," therefore, is a universal operation. The Creator has provided for every man a little private mill which he carries with him wherever he goes,-a little mill consisting of sixteen upper and sixteen lower mill stones, by which the man grinds in all the food that he takes into his mouth, and by which also he grinds out all the speech that passes out of his mouth. It is on this account that these little mill stones-the teeth-correspond to the truths of doctrine that a man thinks and speaks.

     The use of the mill stones is to prepare the raw grain by reducing it to fine powder, and as such they correspond to the genuine truths which break open the outer appearances of things and remove the grosser things of selfish and worldly affections, which, if they remained about the good seed, would prevent the interior and purer good from coming forth into its higher uses.

     But one mill stone alone would be of no effect. There must always be two mill stones,-a lower one, or "bed-stone," which is fixed and motionless, and an upper one, or "runner," which is accurately pivoted and balanced above it. In both stones there must be certain grooves cut into them so as to correspond exactly below and above, so that when the upper stone revolves upon the lower one, the sharp edges of the grooves, in meeting each other, act like a pair of scissors, cutting, squeezing and crushing the grain that is between them.

     Thus also, in that universal mill of life which every one of us must pass through in order to be prepared for eternity, there are two great mill stones called external truth and internal truth, -the letter of the Word and its spiritual meaning. The nether mill stone is the letter itself, forever fixed and immovable, with its inexorable commands: "thou shalt" and "thou shalt not." The upper mill stone is the internal sense, in which alone there is life and activity. The grooves in both are the general principles of doctrine, which in both exactly correspond to one another. The act of grinding is the act of teaching the interior truth, at the same time comparing, illustrating and confirming by means of the exterior truth, thus removing all falsities, fallacies and sensual appearances, and in this manner preparing for his higher uses the person who is being taught.

     You may thus perceive why it is that a school, an educational institution, exactly corresponds to a mill,-is an intellectual mill. It is not only because the pupils, while there, are supposed to "grind away" diligently at their lessons, but more especially because the students themselves are the very grain that is to pass through the mill. The nether mill stone here represents not only the letter of the Word, but all external and fixed facts of nature, and also the laws and regulations of the school. The upper mill stone corresponds to the interior truths, the distinguishing principles and doctrines of the institution, as represented by the Faculty.

     Now the mill begins to work, and the individual grains immediately find themselves, as it were, rubbed and ground,-very gently, of course,-between the upper and the nether mill stones. Every hour in the class room teaches some new truths, removes some veil from the eyes, breaks up some of the external husks and bran of ignorance, nonsense or conceited opinions, while the gentle pressure of the upper mill stone,-the general discipline of the school,-does for the morals of the pupils what the grooves do for their intellectual improvement.

     And not only are the pupils thus ground fine by the two stones, but also, and mole tumultuously, by all the particular grains rubbing up against one another, and they soon find out that they cannot get along unless they let go of their various pet corners, their selfish notions and habits and anything that is offensive to the school mates. The whole may sound like a very dreadful process, but it is really a very pleasant one, if only we have sense enough to yield, to let go, for otherwise we are bound to be sifted out in the end. It is only by the one virtue of obedience that we can finally be ground up into that fine flour that can be made into bread to be assimilated among the useful citizens of the community, the country, the Church, and Heaven.

     You can realize, therefore, why a mill stone, and especially an upper mill stone, corresponds in general to a platform of interior principles, a general doctrine, which should be a doctrine of truths, but which may be, on the other hand, a doctrine of falsities. Of this we may be sure, that any doctrine that "offends one of these little ones which believe in Me,"-any doctrine that causes young people or any believing people to doubt the Lord and to deny Him,-is a false doctrine, a doctrine from hell, a doctrine that should be "drowned in the depth of the sea," that is, rejected to hell whence it came.

     It grieves me to tell you that such is the state of modern education in the Christian world, that nearly all their educational mills are continually instilling doubt and denial of the Lord. They may be magnificent schools in every other respect, but there is not one single institution in the world, outside the Schools of the New Church, that teaches the faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only God of Heaven and earth. It is truly terrible to think of it, to realize this awful fact. Every year the young people pour into the Colleges and Universities of Christendom as the grain pours into the mills. They come from professedly Christian homes and Christian Sunday Schools, and every child and young person carries with him some idea that the Lord Jesus Christ is Divine, and that His Word is Holy; that there is a life after this, and that man has an immortal soul.

But though there still are some religious schools where these ideas are not actually discouraged, there is not one even of these that is able to show why young people should believe in these things, while in all the worldly institutions of learning these holy truths are not only not taught, but are sneered at, laughed at, and denied as old-fashioned superstitions. Thus it is that thousands, nay, millions, of young people who enter into these schools, believing in the Lord, come out of the mills believing that they themselves are nothing but animals possessing no soul that is to live after death; believing that there is neither a heaven nor a hell; believing that the Bible is not the Word of God but a mass of forged documents; believing that the Lord may have been a very good man, but that He was neither the Son of God nor God Himself. Nay, to cap the climax of denial, they have been taught to doubt the very existence of God in His universe.

Some of you may think that I paint the picture darker than it really is, but I assure you that the great educators in the world outside the New Church admit that the situation is such as I have described. These doubts and denials are the very things involved in the word "offend," which in the original Greek is skandalizo, to spread scandals that may ensnare the innocent and destroy their faith. They are scandals and offenses against God and Religion such as will bring ruin upon the Christian world, unless this evil work can be counteracted by the educational work of a New Religion, a New Church descending from God out of Heaven, that shall defend instead of offending "these little ones which believe in Me."

Mark now the wonderful correspondence and significance of the words "the mill stone of an ass." In ancient times, and still in the Orient, the mill stones were turned either by horses or mules or asses, all of these animals signifying various degrees of intellectual force turning the mills of the mind. The difference between the mill stone of a horse and mill stone of an ass is the difference between a man who revolves the truth in his understanding, and one who turns it over in his memory only, without any spiritual intelligence.

The "mill stone of an ass" means therefore a doctrine which is of worldly science alone. The "neck," on the other hand, is the medium which conjoins the head with the rest of the body and Signifies the influx and conjunction of interior good and truth with the external things of the mind. To have a mill stone hanged about the neck means therefore to break off this influx by devoting all attention to the science of the world alone.

     This exactly describes the situation in the great colleges and universities in the modern world. A hundred years ago all these schools were connected with the various religious denominations, and though it was a false faith that was taught in them,-a faith in three gods,-still it was something of faith, for they at least acknowledged the Lord as one of the three Divine persons. But a great change took place. The old dogmas were gradually set aside as irrational and unbelievable, and interest in religious things grew more and more weak. Worldly science, on the other hand, increased at an enormous rate, and because the knowledge of worldly things brings external prosperity and wealth, therefore these schools began to hang the mill stones of earthly science about the neck, instead of keeping them beneath the feet. Thus the teaching of spiritual things ceased; the influx of interior good and truth was intercepted, while the mill stones grew heavier and heavier, until they dragged the educational institutions into the depth of the sea, an intellectual hell, where the human soul, the spiritual world, the Word of God, and the Lord Himself, are denied.

     And yet it is better so,-better that they have hanged these mill stones about their necks and that they have been drowned in this sea,-better than if they had committed that deadliest of all evils, the evil of profanation. For imagine the horrible mixture and the internal hypocrisy that would have resulted if these schools had continued to teach religion and, at the same time, atheism,-if they had inculcated atheism in the name of religion!

     For our own institution, as a school of the New Church, the lesson involved in the text is one of supreme warning from our Merciful Lord, who never gives a precious gift without warning against its abuse or profanation.

It teaches us to be constantly on our guard lest the overwhelming sphere of the world creeps in while we sleep. It teaches us not to hang any ass-mill stones about our neck, for they do not belong so close to the head. It teaches us to let religion, the spiritual truth, reign supremely in our School, in every department of knowledge, in every class and every teaching for only thus can the Lord supremely direct our work; only thus can it be the Lord's own School; only thus can be prevented every offense against "one of these little ones which believe in Me."
SEVENTH PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1913

SEVENTH PHILADELPHIA DISTRICT ASSEMBLY H. S 1913

Encouraged by our success of last year, and on account of the richness of the materials spread before us at banquet on that happy occasion, we decided this year to add another session or two. Accordingly the various Reports were heard on Friday evening, November 29th, and an informal session on Saturday afternoon, in addition to the regular session on Saturday evening, and the Services and the Banquet on Sunday. The attendance was very gratifying, the Philadelphia friends being present in force, with numerous representatives from New York, Philadelphia. Baltimore and Allentown. The presence of the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, of Pittsburgh, added greatly to the sphere of the occasion, but we missed the presence of the Rev. T. S. Harris, of Abington, Mass., whose visit was prevented by illness. His very interesting report of evangelistic work in Canada was read by Mr. Alden, and Mr. Llewellyn David, who spent last summer in Abington; gave an encouraging report of the Circle there. The activities in New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Allentown were duly reported by the pastors who regularly visit these places.

At the session on Saturday afternoon the Rev. Alfred Acton gave us a long but profoundly interesting lecture on the subject of "Substance and Matter," as viewed both from the Writings and from the Preparatory works.

This was followed by a lively discussion, is which some of the speakers expressed the opinion that the new views went rather too far in "naturalizing" what is spiritual. One gentleman created some astonishment by identifying the "third finites,"-being the first of dead substances-with the "prince of this world," which caused another speaker to ask if Lucifer had been hydrogenated, since the third finites had also been identified with Hydrogen!

     On Saturday evening we listened to an important paper from Bishop Pendleton on "the use of a Children's Sunday Service," such as we now have in Pittsburgh and Bryn Athyn. When New Church Day Schools were established, the Sunday Schools were generally abandoned in the General Church, since they could not compare with the Day Schools in the quality and quantity of Religious Instruction. Rut the Bishop pointed out that, aside from the instruction, there is a choral element, and an element of Worship in the, sphere of teachers, which had been lost, and he showed that such exercises are not only orderly, but highly desirable.

     The sermon on Sunday morning was by the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, and was deeply appreciated. It is published in the present issue of the LIFE. In the afternoon the Holy Supper was administered to 158 communicants.

     The Banquet in the evening was a marked success, though we were embarrassed on finding that the number of our guests was greatly in excess of our calculations,-a lesson for us for the future, at the expense of some of the young folks who had to go supperless! A pleasant feature of the Banquet was the many ringing songs,-some of them quite new, owing to the inspiration of our city friends. As in olden days, it was a singing Assembly. The only paper read was by Mr. Synnestvedt, on the subject of "Appreciation," which was followed by a brief but active discussion, in the course of which it was pointed out that there is but small danger of spoiling our ministers by occasionally expressing to them our appreciation of their work, and that it is not absolutely necessary to wait in silence until the "memorial meeting."

The toast to the work of "Church Extension" was answered by Mr. Alden, and the toast to an "Increase: in Our Appreciation of the Work of the Priesthood" received a stirring response from Mr. N. D. Pendleton. The Assembly then offered a toast of hearty good wishes to him who had recently been introduced into the third degree of the Priesthood. Mr. John Headsten responded to the toast to "The New Beginning in Sweden," whereupon a trio sang some of the Academy songs recently translated into the Swedish tongue. Mr. Acton answered to the toast to "The New Church Among the Gentiles," reading an account of the news from India. Mr. Pitcairn spoke of "Our Friends Across the Sea," and read an encouraging letter from Mr. Deltenre, whose new mission in Brussels is beginning to show a few green leaves. Mr. George De Charms, in responding to the toast to the "Hope of the Church,-the Young People," electrified us with his fiery eloquence. A final toast was offered to the success of the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith in his new field in the wilds of Chicago, and the Banquet ended gleefully with an exchange of wit between Mr. Smith and Mr. William Whitehead. H. S.
TWELFTH CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1913

TWELFTH CHICAGO DISTRICT ASSEMBLY 1913

The First Session was held on Friday evening, October 11th, 1912, at the Immanuel Church, Glenview. After a supper, the meeting opened with a brief service conducted by Bishop Pendleton, who then gave an address on the "Collective Reading of the Word." He showed that the Word is not only to be read by the individual, but by a number together in public worship. He spoke of the effects in the spiritual world where the Word is read by a man in the world, or by a congregation reading or singing together. This was illustrated by several passages from the Writings. It was shown that the Lord teaches the angels by means of the Word when read by man, even the angels who are from other earths, and through these all in the universe. Hence there must be a church on some earth where the Word is read. The conjunction of heaven with the human race is preserved by the reading of the Word. These things do not take place in a fully effective sense until there is a collective reading of the Word in public worship, that is, until there is a church where the Lord is known and worshiped.

     Rev. W. B. Caldwell.-I would like to express my delight at the presentation of the subject tonight. The idea that when the minister is reading the lessons the congregation is also reading it, if they are listening, was new to me. It shows the importance of our reading the Word together in one place and at one time. There is then a concentration of light from heaven, and this is greater when the numbers are larger. Individual reading day by day is important, but collective reading is of greater importance. The whole doctrine of consociation with the angels shows the importance of this reading of the Word together. No man can live, or have any thought and affection whatever, apart from consociation with the inhabitants of the other world. No man can have interior thought or interior affection without reading the Word, and thereby coming into interior conjunction with heaven. The Word says that "it is not good for man to be alone," and while this in the letter refers to marriage, we may also say that it is not good for him to be solitary and separate from consociation with others. If he is he falls into errors and heresies, from which he is delivered by coming together with others in the Church. No one in the world can appreciate the Letter of the Word as Newchurchmen can. We in the Academy have been accused of slighting the Letter of the Word, but the truth is that the more fully we appreciate the teaching of the Writings the more we will appreciate the Letter of the Word. I believe that there are none in the world who appreciate the Letter of the Word more than those who acknowledge the Writings. There is a basis in the Letter of the Word for all the societies of heaven, and the man who reads the Word through with continuity is, as it were, taking a journey through all the heavens, and visiting the societies represented by what he reads there.

     The Bishop.-There is a statement in the Writings to the effect that every verse communicates with some society of heaven.

     Dr. King.-The term "isolated receiver" is not exactly correct. Even if a man be on a desert island in the ocean, if he reads the Word he is consociated with spirits and angels, and therefore is not really isolated.

Devotion and praise goes up from his mind together with the spheres of others who are reading, however far away. One who lives away from New Church people may be thankful that he is not alone.

     Mr. S. G. Nelson.-The instruction we have had this evening will give an added interest and love for the worship we have learned to prize so highly. The subject has been illuminated to me as never before. The expression, "Reading the Word," suggests to me the sentence in the Writings where Swedenborg says, "The internal sense was given to me while I read the Word."

     Mr. H. L. Burnham.-Some practical applications of the subject occur to me. By an understanding of this subject we are helped to realize the sanctity of the Word and the holiness of the place where it is read. We see the necessity for the external organization of the Church, and the need of a holy place in the Church and in the home. We know that the Jewish reading of the Word in the Hebrew will some day come to an end, and that it is a future work of the New Church to learn to read the Old Testament in the original tongue. Another practical thing is that there is collective reading when the priest reads the lesson in Church, for which reason all should give attention to that reading. The same applies to the singing of Psalms and reciting the Psalter. In some families it has been customary to have reading of the Word together in unison, and I can see now that that was a useful thing. Even if the reading were in rotation, one verse after the other, concentration would be brought about by it.

     Mr. Alec. McQueen.-I would like to know whether in designing the Antiphons there was any rule according to which one line was allotted to the minister and the other to the people. Is there not already a natural system of response in the Word? Would the angels notice any difference and receive a different effect from the alternate reading?

     The Bishop.-The division of the Word into verses is the division made in modern times. Those who did it followed the natural divisions, for the most part. So the idea of the verse is that of a sentence. In the Antiphon the minister's verse is a complete sentence, and thus a complete idea, and associated with some society in heaven.

And the verses are put together in one Antiphon, which come under the leading idea of the Antiphon. In arranging the part assigned to the people, the object was to secure for their responses those portions of the Word that are more in the form of poetry. The idea of the Antiphon is that of unity under a certain doctrine, just as in the Writings a number of passages are brought together from the Letter of the Word to confirm a certain doctrine. It is like drawing doctrine from the Word, and confirming it thereby.

     Mr. Swain Nelson.-Is it useful to read the Word in connection with the internal sense? It has seemed to me to break the continuity.

     The Bishop.-The little book on the Internal Sense of the Prophets and Psalms gives the internal sense of a certain number of verses, and we are to take this as a natural grouping. In every group there is a leading idea in the spiritual sense corresponding to the leading idea in the natural sense. There is really no break. It is a passing from one group to another. A chapter communicates with a larger society of heaven, a verse with a particular society of a particular province.

     Mr. H. L. Burnham.-Do you recommend the use of the "Prophets and Psalms" in family worship? It has also seemed to me to break the continuity of the Letter.

     The Bishop.-We must judge from experience what is best to do. If you are reading to children I would not consider it necessary to bring in the spiritual sense. In preparing the chants and the psalter for the Liturgy we took the work on the "Prophets and Psalms," and reduced the internal sense as there given to single sentences, giving the leading idea of the series, and placed that at the beginning of each chant and each portion of the Psalter.

     Mr. A. E. Nelson.-A good deal is said about the Jews being preserved to read the Word in the original Hebrew. I would like to ask about the New Testament, and the importance of having that read in the original Greek.

     The Bishop.-There is not the same reason for reading the Greek. The Hebrew is called a primitive language, and every word is a root, involving an ultimate picture.

But the Greek had already become a complex language, having not only root ideas, but derivatives. In this it had ceased to be simple and primitive. The Hebrew brings the Word down to the lowest ultimate, and the lower the ultimate the more complete the reaction. That is why the Holy Supper is the most holy thing of worship, because we have therein not only sight and hearing, but also touch and taste. In that sacrament, worship comes down to a lower ultimate, and it is similar with the Hebrew. The ultimate of the Word in the Hebrew represents the Divine Sensual of the Lord, but the New Testament the Divine Natural. The New Testament rests upon the Old as the Writings upon the literal sense as a whole. A prophecy is not understood until it is fulfilled, and so the Jews were not able to draw any doctrine from the Old Testament, but Christians could, and the New Church can from both Testaments. When Christians in past ages read the Psalms, they did so from the light of the New Testament, and saw in it much of the doctrine which the Jews did not and cannot see.

     The Second Session was held on Saturday evening. The Bishop conducted the opening service, after which reports were read from Sharon and Immanuel Churches. Dr. J. E. S. King then read a paper on the subject of "Parental Love," which is published in the present issue of the LIFE.

     Mr. Alec. McQueen.-It is impossible to hear such a statement of what early education should be without contrasting it with much that is being taught today in the world, where the effort is being made to develop the intellect in early years. There are many who have elaborate plans for educating little children from their birth, but almost entirely with the object of giving them knowledges and making them crafty in worldly things. They do not pay attention to teaching them love to the Lord and charity towards the neighbor. We ought to be thankful for having the opportunity of developing these affections, knowing that the Lord will take care that their intellect will be developed at the proper time.

     The Bishop.-This suggests the teaching that this early period of life is the period for the formation of the will, and not of the understanding as yet.

We know how little of understanding children have at that age; although the beginnings are there. The parents should realize that it is not the understanding of the child that is the first thing, but the will,-the love, the affection,-for remains are implanted in the will. The effort to form the understanding at this early period is a misguided effort. That is the reason why obedience is necessary at this time, because it is by obedience that the will is brought into order.

     Mr. W. H. Junge.-It has always appeared to me that it is important to begin at a very early age to educate them to be unselfish. It is contrary to their nature to prefer the welfare of others to their own. But it is with small children that the beginning of a change can be made. That is the difference between New Church education and that of the world. The New Churchman is supposed to be trying to live a life of use, which should be unselfish, and opposed to that is our very love for our children. The many good things we are able to give them become dangerous, and they are willing to look for good things for themselves rather than for others. That is the difficulty,-they are continually looking for good things for themselves. I feel that that is one of the things we must guard against in the Church, not only with children, but with ourselves also.

     Mr. A. E. Nelson.-Referring to the subject of last evening,-"Reading of the Word." We are taught that the angels have more delight when the Word is being read by children, because children are in mutual love. What Mr. Junge has just said, that children develop the love of self so easily, caused me to wonder how far we can go with children in bringing about the state of mutual love with them. The general rule of shunning evils would mean the curbing of selfishness. How far ought we to go in a positive way to train and encourage mutual love? Is not that a most important thing in view of the doctrine?

     The Bishop.-It certainly is an important thing to do. Parents should encourage it continually. How far to go must be left to the judgment of each parent, and it cannot very well be laid down just what to let a child do.

So a parent must trust the guidance of the Lord to inspire into his mind the right thing to do. There is no question but that the parent should continually endeavor to inspire neighborly love into children, first by shunning or removing from them, and even punishing the things they do contrary to neighborly love,-the injuries they do to other children. The first thing is the removal of evil from our children. When they are grown they must do it themselves, but we must do it first.

     Dr. King.-In trying to inspire or teach children to love each other we must proceed in the order of adult regeneration, namely, first to shun the evil. Otherwise we begin at the wrong end.

     Mr. C. F. Browne,-There is the serious thought that the little ones are imitators. If we desire to have mutual good inoculated with them we must surround them with that sphere.

     The Bishop.-They are great imitators. They imbibe and absorb spheres, and if we wish to implant right principles in our children we must love those principles ourselves, and not do or say anything in their presence that is not according to Divine order. The children are easily affected by the spheres of affection they perceive in their parents. If we wish to instruct them to shun evil and do good, we must do this ourselves, not to say things that ought not to be said in their presence, as it inspires them to do the same thing, and so all the way through. If we speak some false principle of life and do it in their presence, it will be impressed upon their minds. The first thing in education is to begin with ourselves. When Oliver Wendell Holmes was asked the time to begin a child's education, he replied, "One hundred years before its birth."

     Rev. W. B. Caldwell.-The subject calls to mind the passage in the Writings in which the education of infants at the present day was represented in the other world by mothers who combed the heads of their children until they bled. An unwise love of children is in reality hatred. Love that is not spiritual does not love their good; it is not from the Lord, but is hatred, because it loves their evils, thus their eternal unhappiness. If we truly love them, we will wish to remove their evils. This may mean an attitude of aversion if they do not behave well.

Spiritual-minded parents, when they find that their children are not behaving well, avert their minds from them, and only from duty do what is necessary for them. This is the teaching, and it seems harsh, but the truth is that in hating their evils we are loving them,-loving their eternal welfare. At the same time we must remember that we cannot reform them all at once. In fact we cannot take their evils away at all, but we can prepare them for regeneration by suppressing their evils, by leading them away from disobedience. It is also stated that if men were in the love of true faith they would not have to write so many books on the education of children. They would have a perception of the truth that the overcoming of the faults of the child is the real thing. It is a remarkable thing in the world today that so few study how to bring up their children in the early years of their life. People will study everything else, but neglect this most important use that parents are called upon to perform. Dr. King then read another paper, the subject being "Old Age," which was briefly discussed.

On Sunday morning Bishop Pendleton conducted services in the Immanuel Church, which were attended by a congregation of 127. In the afternoon the Sacrament of the Holy Supper was administered. A Men's Meeting was held in the evening, and also a Ladies' Meeting, both proving useful and enjoyable occasions.

Church News 1913

Church News Various 1913

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. Before the tide of sociability, coincident with the District Assembly, had altogether subsided, the annual Fair was held, on December 6th, under the auspices of Mr. and Mrs. Roydon Smith. The sides of the Auditorium were lined with booths, and as the articles for sale were both pretty and inexpensive it was not long before everything was sold. The latter part of the evening was devoted to various amusements. A Polish dance was executed under the supervision of Miss E. Price. The Misses Glenn and Mr. R. Pitcairn displayed their alleged conception of a Gorand Opera, to the amusement of the audience. "The Reveries of a Bachelor" was enacted by "the Deka," with the assistance of Mr. Heilman, who starred in his well-known role of bachelor. An ingenious perversion of Hamlet, written by Mr. D. F. Rose to suit local conditions and presented by the "Basec," was received -with much laughter. The Fair brought two hundred and twenty dollars to the Building Fund.

     On Friday, the 13th of December, the doctrinal class was not held, but Mr. Whitehead, instead, gave a very interesting illustrated lecture on the Balkan War, after which a Mr. Dorizas, a Greek student at the University of Pennsylvania, addressed us on the same subject, dwelling on the present state of Greece and its relation to the war.

     The annual reception given by the boys of Stuart Hall, on Dec. 15th, is also an item of interest. The reception room was prettily decorated with evergreens, and all the rooms were open to the guests. Chocolate was served for refreshments; and a pleasant social time was enjoyed by the numerous visitors.

     MIDDLEPORT, O. Your correspondent has so long neglected to report the annals of this quiet neighborhood that he hardly knows where to begin. But not to go too far back we shall begin with the celebration of June Nineteenth. The day was celebrated by a supper, at which 32 were present. Our subject for the evening was "Ideals." Dr. S. B. Hanlin spoke on the Ideal Church Society; Mr. F. G. Davis on the Ideal Sermon; Miss Lucy Grant on Ideal Home Training; Mr. J. S. Boggess on The Ideal Minister; and the Rev. W. L. Gladish on The Ideal Layman.

As may be imagined the treatment of these subjects provoked many smiles, but all dealt gently with their neighbors' failings and no hard feelings resulted.

     In July we were all surprised to have one of our boys, who has been away from his boyhood home for several years, return with the announced determination to carry off one of our fair young ladies. The wedding,-Lewis J. Allen and Eva Davis,-occurred on July 19th, and they went at once to their home in Sibley, Mo. We were sorry to lose another of our earnest little band, but glad to have one more New-Church home established.

     Our church here suffers from continual removals. They go by individuals and by families. A year ago Mrs. Lena Davis took her family to Bryn Athyn; Mrs. Carrie Williams went to Wellsville, Ohio, and this fall Mr. and Mrs. Otto Barrows have moved with their family to Decatur, Ill.

     After a month's vacation the church was opened the first of September and a little later the various classes were resumed. The sermons, during September, October and November, have been in a series on the subject of Education unfolded from the twelfth and following chapters of Genesis and have been received with exceptional interest.

     SANDOVAL, ILL. Following the November meetings in Cincinnati I extended my trip to Sandoval, Ill., for my annual visit to Mrs. Sherman and her children and grandchildren. This is the brightest spot in all my missionary field and all due to the warm-hearted and intelligent love for the Church of one woman who ha.; been isolated all her life. Not that she is all alone: her two daughters, her son and his wife, and several grandchildren, together with her form the circle there. But that they love the Church is due to her devotion, with but little help from the organized Church and ministry.

     We held but two formal meetings, at which the Holy Supper was administered to 7 communicants and Mr. Neil H. Sherman was confirmed. But during the three days of my stay we spent many hours daily reading sermons and cosmology and discussing the doctrines and philosophy of the Church.

     Stopping at OLNEY, ILL., on my way home I gave a sermon in the New Church there on the Education of Infancy to 20 persons and the next night one on the Education of First Childhood to 11 persons. There were but 6 or 8 New Church people present, the others being members of other churches. W. L. GLADISH.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The Rev. Wm. L. Worcester, on Nov. 18th, suffered the loss of his wife, Mrs. Ethel Burnham Worcester, the grand-daughter of the late George Burnham, Sr., of Philadelphia, who also passed into the spiritual world within the last month, at the high old age of 95 years. For half a century he was perhaps the chief pillar of the Philadelphia First Society. Mrs. Worcester leaves five small children.

     The Rev. Charles A. Nussbaum has resigned the pastorate or the St. Louis New Church Society, to accept the call of the Society in Portland, Ore., where he will continue to edit the BOTE DER NEUEN KISCBE.

     Mr. William N. Hobart, the Nestor of the New Church in Cincinnati, and for nearly half a century a leading figure in the meetings of the General Convention, was removed to the spiritual world on Nov. 15th, at the age of seventy-six years.

     The Rev. Albert Bjorck, formerly of Stockholm, Sweden, and lately of Seattle, Wash., has been preaching in Riverside, Cal., during October and November. Arrangements have now been made with the Rev. J. E. Collom, of Los Angeles, to visit Riverside and preach for the society.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, with family, on the voyage to his new field of activity in Glasgow, Scotland, had an exciting and unpleasant experience. On the last day of the voyage, "at two o'clock that morning, as we were coming up the river, our steamer had run down another vessel. Awakened out of a deep sleep by the collision, hearing the commands of officers, the hurrying to and fro of the crew, the distressed voices of the men on the rapidly sinking vessel, (all were saved by our crew except one who returned for his belongings), we were more shocked and disturbed than we realized at the time."

It was therefore a great comfort to attend Divine services at the Queen's Drive Church the very same morning and the hearty welcome of the entire church in Glasgow, at the subsequent reception meeting, made Mr. Schreck feel very much at home in his new surroundings.

     The society in Edinburgh, after meeting for several years in hired premises, is once more housed in a building of its own. This was opened for worship on Sunday, June 18th, one of the members, Mr. J. S. Cottam, reading the service, and was formally dedicated by the Rev. J. J. Thornton on Sunday, October 6th. The building is a temporary structure, the land on which it is erected being held only for a short term of years.

     The Van Mission is being continued and is under the charge of Mr. Clifford Harley, a member of the Leeds Society. Starting from London in the Potteries, Mr. Harley is taking the van southwards into the Midlands.

     The MORNING LIGHT and the N. C. MAGAZINE give "official notice" that the Rev. W. R. Horner,-formerly pastor of the Liverpool Society, and more lately in charge of the New Church Van,-"has ceased to be a minister of the New Church. His resignation, sent to the Council and verbally communicated to the President of Conference, has been unanimously accepted by the Council." The church will naturally wonder what is the trouble.

     "There was again a good attendance at the meting of the Flodden Road Literary and Recreation Society on Monday, November 11th, when Mr. F. Hodson Rose delivered the third lecture of the session, his subject being 'Worship in the New Church; its spirit and its expression.' The Rev. W. E. Hurt presided.

     "The lecturer first showed that worship was both internal and external, and that in the case of individuals, the internal was a life of charity, this, strictly speaking being the only true worship. Nevertheless it was advisable that this true internal worship should find suitable expression in outward acts, which, taken collectively, were the worship of a church.

It was further shown that the worship of a Church could also be distinguished into internal and external; that the internal of it was the doctrine of the Church, while the formal acts of worship were the external. Quotations were made showing that the doctrines of a church were its soul, and that only when the externals corresponded with them, could this soul be said to dwell in its own body. Attention was then given to an analysis of the three divisions of external worship, as a preliminary to an examination of that which was in use in the New Church. It was shown that these divisions were prayer, praise and instruction, and it was contended that the prayers and praise were still too strongly marked with the doctrines of the Old Church, and that the trimming and alteration to which they had been subjected had failed to give them the soul of New Church doctrine. The section dealing with instruction received a larger share of attention and especially that associated with the reading of a portion of the writings as a third lesson. Notice was taken of objections that could be raised to such a course, but the lecturer pointed out that these objections were all directed to one point; the danger that their use in worship would tend to give them a status and authority which at present was only given to the Word in its letter. It was urged, however, that their use would raise the standard of doctrinal knowledge in the Church, would educate the young, strengthen their attachment, and tend to reduce the constant leakage from her ranks which the Church has to deplore. In conclusion, a plea was made for a revision of the externals of worship, so that instead of being an expurgated version of what existed elsewhere, they should be a true New Church ultimate for the soul of distinctive New Church doctrine.

"The lecture was a controversial one, and an animated but amicable discussion ensued." (MORNING LIGHT, NOV. 30.)

SWEDENBORG'S MISSION IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD 1913

SWEDENBORG'S MISSION IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD Rev. FRED E. WAELCHLI 1913

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XXXIII FEBRUARY, 1913          No. 2
     One phase of Swedenborg's mission in the spiritual world is familiar to all of the Church, namely, his learning there from the Lord the truths which constitute the faith of the New Heaven and the New Church, which truths are the internal sense of the Word, so that he might bring the same down into the natural world and teach them to men. It was necessary that he should live consciously in both worlds, in order that, as the servant of the Lord, he might be the teacher by whose instrumentality a Church might be established in which spiritual truth could be rationally understood.

     There is another phase of his mission in the spiritual world which suggests itself to the student of the Writings, and especially of the Memorable Relations contained therein, namely, his being a teacher also of spirits and angels, a use which he was capable of performing likewise by virtue of the fact that he was a conscious inhabitant of both worlds. This phase of his mission we shall today consider.

     If it can be established on the testimony of the Writings,-not meager, but copious testimony,-that Swedenborg had such a mission in the spiritual world, that this was widely known and recognized in that world, and that important events relative to the Last Judgment and the formation of the New Heaven centered in it, then must arise the question whether the Books written by the Lord through him, the Writings of the New Church, are not today performing in that world that very mission which he there performed in the day when he was the instrument of their giving; whether these Writings live, as did Swedenborg, in both worlds, performing their use in each.

     Let us, then, to the testimony; for on the nature and abundance of this must depend whether the suggested question calls at all for consideration.

     Among the cases mentioned, where Swedenborg instructed spirits in the world of spirits, are the following:

     1. Certain newcomers in the spiritual world, who were dignitaries of the Church, discoursed among themselves in Swedenborg's hearing as to three divine persons from eternity, and afterwards one of them, who in the world had been a bishop, opened his mind concerning this mystery. Swedenborg then taught him and his associates the true doctrine, which they did not accept. (T. C. R. 16.)

     2. Swedenborg, together with an angel, visited a philosopher who set forth to them his false notions concerning the center and the expanse, and related subjects. They then instructed him in the truth. (T. C. R. 35.)

     3. Some spirits who desired to understand the doctrine of the Divine Omnipotence, but could not, came to Swedenborg and told him their difficulties. He instructed them. When he had finished speaking a radiant light of a golden color flowed in through the roof and formed cherubs flying in the air. (T. C. R. 73)

     4. Swedenborg was once in a temple, in which persons were assembled who were conversing on Redemption, and agreed that it was effected by the passion of the cross. An angel was sent to instruct them, and at the close of his instruction he said: "Go to him who stands there (and he pointed with the finger to Swedenborg) and he will teach you from the Lord that the passion of the cross was not Redemption." (T. C. R. 134)

     5. Swedenborg went to a gymnasium in which there was a large assembly, discussing the subject "What is charity?" Five persons spoke, each setting forth some conception of natural charity. Swedenborg then asked permission to speak, and, this being granted, taught the doctrine of spiritual charity. (T. C. R. 459.)

     6. Swedenborg was once carried away in spirit to the southern quarter of the spiritual world, and into a certain paradise there which excelled all the paradises he had seen before.

He there instructed certain spirits how man can do good from God, and yet altogether as from himself. The spirits did not fully comprehend his teaching. As he withdrew from them, he saw a cedar table, upon which was a book. He looked and, behold, it was the ARCANA COELESTIA. And he said to those spirits that it was fully shown in that book that man is an organ recipient of life, and that he is not life. (T. C. R. 461.)

     [In A. R. 875, where the same relation is given, it is said that the book was DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM and DIVINE PROVIDENCE.]

     In the passages thus far adduced mention is made of instruction given to spirits. In those which now follow the same is mentioned, but also the further fact that a judgment followed the instruction.

     7. Swedenborg once heard beneath him as it were the roaring of the sea; and he asked, What is this? And one said to him it was a tumult among those who were gathered together in the lower earth, which is next above hell. And presently the ground, which made a roof over them, gaped open; and lo, through the opening birds of night flew out in flocks which spread themselves to the left hand; and immediately after them rose up locusts, which leaped upon the grass of the earth, and made a desert wherever they were. After this he saw beautiful birds from heaven, which spread themselves to the right hand. While he was looking and wondering at these things, suddenly a spirit came up from the lower earth, where that tumult was, who could make himself appear an angel of light; and he cried:

     "Where is he who speaks and writes concerning the order to which the omnipotent God has bound himself in relation to man? We have hear these things below, through our roof." He came running to Swedenborg and inquired whether he were the man, and asked him to tell what Order is. Swedenborg gave instruction on the subject. When he had finished, the birds on the left hand, together with the spectres, east themselves into the sea, which is there called the Sea Suph, and the locusts leaped after them; the air was cleansed, and the tumult below ceased, and it became tranquil and serene. (T. C. R. 71.)

     Here is clearly described a judgment upon a society of the lower earth, after instruction given by Swedenborg. The presence of heaven is indicated by the beautiful birds.

     8. Swedenborg saw at a distance a large gathering. He approached and heard them conversing together about Divine power being unlimited, and holding that there are no Divine laws of order. When they saw him, some of them ran up to him, and with some vehemence said:

     "Are you the one who has circumscribed God with laws? How impudent this is! Thus you have rent in pieces our faith." On hearing these words he opened his mouth, and, speaking in a loud voice, said: "Learn the laws of Divine Order, and afterwards open that faith, and you will see a vast desert." They endeavored to pour forth invectives, but durst not, because they saw heaven opened above him, and heard a voice thence: "Hear first with self-control what order is." Swedenborg then taught them. When he had concluded, some of the company went off to the right, praising God; others went away to the left. (T. C. R. 74)

     The judgment following instruction was in this case a separation between the good and the evil. The presence of heaven is again clearly indicated.

     9. Once Swedenborg heard some spirits condemning his work. THE BRIEF EXPOSITION. He went to them and said:

     "Here I am; what is the matter?" One of the company then inveighed against him. He in reply gave them instruction in the doctrine concerning the Lord. Then some favored his teaching and looked toward him; others did not favor and turned themselves away from him. Then on the right appeared a cloud of an opal color, and on the left a dusky cloud. (T. C. R. 112.)

     10. Swedenborg, together with two angels of the society of Michael, descended to the place called Armageddon, where are those who fight against the Lord's New Church, which is the New Jerusalem, and who were assembled to the number of some thousands. They engaged in controversy with them in regard to the doctrine of the Lord, Swedenborg evidently taking part in the discussion. The Armageddons became inflamed with anger, and from threats proceeded to violence; but then by power given to the angels and Swedenborg, they struck them with blindness, and not seeing the three because of this, they rushed forth, and ran in different directions, and some fell into the abyss which is mentioned in the Apocalypse. (T. C. R. 113.)

     11. Swedenborg was present with a company of spirits who had the idea of three gods. They explained their idea to him. Then by command of the Lord, three angels descended from heaven and were associated with him, in order that from interior perception he might speak with those spirits. He then instructed them. When he had finished, those spirits who actually had the idea of three gods looked toward hell, and those who had the thought of one God looked toward heaven; and to these appeared the sun of heaven, in which Jehovah is in His Human. (T. C. R. 135)

     Significant in this relation is the fact that by the Lord's command angels of heaven were present to inspire Swedenborg. Again, in this case, as in former ones mentioned, Swedenborg, the teacher of truth, was the instrument of the Lord, through heaven, in the effecting of judgment. Why should this instrumentality be used? We ask the question here, and shall endeavor to answer it later.

     12. Swedenborg entered a gymnasium, where a company of learned men were assembled, who were discussing what is involved by that which is said of the Lord, that, being taken up into heaven, He sitteth on the right hand of God. Most of them said that these words must be literally understood. But that they might not continue any longer in ignorance, Swedenborg taught them. They became enraged, but Swedenborg continued. They became tumultuous. And he said:

     "Take heed to yourselves; perchance a hand may appear under heaven, which strikes an incredible terror of power." Scarce was this said when a hand was stretched out under heaven, at the sight of which so great a terror seized them that they rushed in crowds to the doors and windows to cast themselves out, and some fainted away. A dark cloud covered the gymnasium. (T. C. R. 136.)

     Something of judgment after instruction also appears here; likewise the presence of heaven.

     13. A council was convened of those celebrated for their writings and learning concerning the faith of the present day.

On the right stood those who in the world were called Apostolic Fathers; and on the left men renowned in succeeding ages for their books. Before both parties there stood a man, a judge and critic of the writings of this age. He ascended the pulpit, and said:

     "Oh, what an age! There has arisen one from the laity who has pulled down our faith from heaven, and cast it into the Styx. Proceeding, he condemned Swedenborg and his doctrine: Those on the left approved his words, but those on the right, who were angels of heaven, were indignant, and one of them answered him who had spoken before. This angel asked Swedenborg to read to the council something from the Evangelical doctrine concerning the divinity of the Lord's Human. He read from the FORMULA CONCORDLE. Then, after asking the president certain questions, he pointed out the error of his doctrine. Next he exchanged words with another member of the council. Then a tumult arose, but it was stilled by light descending from heaven; in consequence of which many of those on the left side went over to those on the right. (T. C. R. 137.)

     Again a judgment, in which Swedenborg was an instrumentality; again heaven present, sustaining, inspiring. Let it be noted that in this judgment was involved the attitude towards the things written by Swedenborg.

     14. Swedenborg saw a number of the clergy who were confirmed in faith separate from charity. They appeared in a ship in the air as it were in heaven, and clothed therein in purple, their heads crowned with laurel. He went to them and presented to them the true doctrine. After that they were seen in a sandy place, in garments of rags, and girt about the loins with netting, through which their nakedness appeared. And they were sent down into an infernal society. (T. C. R. 462.)

     15. Swedenborg attended an assembly of learned men from every quarter, who deliberated on man's free will in spiritual things. A number of those present presented their falsities on this subject. Swedenborg stood near and listened attentively, and, growing warm in spirit, he, in a loud voice, exposed their falsities and taught the truth. Hearing this they all cried out, "We have spoken from what is orthodox; but you from what is rustic." But then suddenly lightning came down from heaven; and lest it should consume them, they rushed out in troops, and fled away, each to his home. (T. C. R. 503.)

     Something of judgment is here evident, and again we see the influence of heaven present in Swedenborg's work in the world of spirits.

     16. Swedenborg, together with an angel guide, visited the people of the age of iron mixed with clay in order to learn the nature of their marriages. They found them wholly lascivious and adulterous, and were harshly treated by them. They could give them no instruction, for there was no reception, but told them what their state was. On hearing this the spirits were kindled with anger, and cried out, and called the crowd together to cast the angel' and Swedenborg out; but at that instant, by virtue of power given by the Lord, they stretched out their hands, and lo! fire-serpents, vipers, hydras, and dragons from the wilderness approached and invaded and filled the city; at which the inhabitants being terrified fled away into the gulfs of the west, which appeared at a distance like pools of fire and brimstone. (C. L. 79)

     In regard to the judgment here described, the angel told Swedenborg that such events were taking place repeatedly in that place, at this day of iron mixed with clay. In the Divine Providence, Swedenborg was to take part in one of these judgments.

     The sixteen Relations, which have been cited, are, we believe, sufficient to establish the fact that Swedenborg, under the guidance of the Lord, and inspired and sustained from heaven, performed in the world of spirits the use of teaching its inhabitants. It further appears that his mission of teaching the truth of the Second Advent in both worlds was well known and became constantly better known throughout the world of spirits. Spirits arrayed themselves for and against those truths, the truths of the New Heaven and the New Church, and thus disposed themselves to judgment. In the Relations cited there were several cases where the reception was affirmative, and the spirits went off in the way toward heaven; but in most of the cases there was rejection and hatred, and in consequence a going toward hell. It could not be otherwise in a world whose inhabitants came from a consummated Church on earth.

The hatred and anger against the doctrines of the New Church was intense, and not only against the doctrines, but also against Swedenborg, the instrument of their giving. Several examples of this have been shown, and of them two are especially to be noted: the first, where there was a large gathering and some came running to him, saying: "Are you the one who has circumscribed God with laws?" and would have abused him but for the interposition of heaven; the second case is where spirits were in anger against him on account of the book, THE BRIEF EXPOSITION. Other cases of the same kind are told in the Writings, as where we read that the Babylonian nation came into a rage of anger when he showed them that what is said in the Word concerning the keys of Peter is not to be literally understood (A. R. 768); also where it is related that a man came running in great haste from the northern quarter, and looked at him with a threatening countenance, and addressed him in a passionate tone of voice, and said:

     "Art thou he that would seduce the world by establishing a New Church, which thou understandest by the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven; and by teaching that the Lord will gift with love truly conjugial those who embrace the doctrinals of that Church!" (C. L. 82.) We read also that many of those in faith alone were are sent while he was writing the doctrine concerning the Lord and concerning the life of charity, in such fury that he would scarcely have been able to write, unless he had been protected by the Lord by means of an angel (J. post. 186); and again that while he was writing, THE DOCTRINE OF THE NEW JERUSALEM and the FOUR DOCTRINES, dragonists from all parts of the Reformed Christian world stood around him, and combined with all their fury to devour, that is, to extinguish them. (A. R. 543.)

     These teachings, together with those that have preceded, cannot otherwise than convey the idea that Swedenborg and his mission were widely known in the world of spirits. This is further confirmed by the following passages:

     "It is a familiar thing for spirits to call me, The Marvellous." (S. D., Index, under "Mirabile.")

     "When my internal sight was first opened, and through my eyes spirits and angels saw the world and the things that were in it, they were so astonished that they said it was the miracle of miracles; and they were affected with a new joy that thus there was given communication of earth with heaven and of heaven with earth.

This delight lasted for months, but afterwards it became familiar, and now they do not wonder at all." (A. C. 1880.)

     Let us now turn our attention to the Relations in which Swedenborg speaks of his instructing angels:

     1. Once he was invited into a heavenly society and conducted to the prince, in whose palace he saw some hundreds assembled, and the prince in their midst. They told him that they found difficulty in understanding the doctrine of creation, and asked him to make known to them his thoughts upon the subject. He did so, and instructed them concerning the two suns and the three atmospheres of each. When he was saying farewell, rays of light from the sun of heaven descended through the angelic heavens into their eyes, and through these into the abodes of their minds; and when thus enlightened, they favored the things that had been said by him. (T. C. R. 76.)

     Why did the angels look to Swedenborg for instruction on this subject? The answer is not difficult. It was because being an inhabitant of both worlds he knew the things of both worlds; and this knowledge is necessary to the understanding of the arcana of creation.

     2. Swedenborg and some angels once noticed that the keepers of the gates to heaven, when examining certain new-comers, turned them round and saw that the hinder parts of their heads were hollow, and consequently rejected them. Swedenborg told the angels the cause of this, namely, that man has two brains, one in the back part of the head, called the cerebellum, and the other in the fore part, called the cerebrum, and that in the cerebellum dwells the love of the will, and in the cerebrum the thought of the understanding; and that when the thought of the understanding does not lead the love of man's will, the inmost parts of the cerebellum, which in themselves are heavenly, collapse, and thence there is hollowness. (T. C. R. 160.)

     It would appear that in this case Swedenborg's knowledge of ultimate scientific knowledge from the natural world enabled him to perceive a truth which he could impart to the angels.

     3. In one of the lower heavens Swedenborg instructed some youths and their teacher as to the distinction between the natural and the spiritual, and illustrated his instruction by various experiments.

After this a voice from a higher-a celestial-heaven was heard, saying to one who stood by, "Come up hither." And he went up and returned and said that the angels did not before know the difference between the spiritual and the natural, because there had not before been given any means of comparison with a man who was in both worlds at the same time; and the difference cannot be known without comparing and referring one to the other. (T. C. R. 280.)

     4. One day Swedenborg was taken up into heaven, and was conducted to a society there, in which were the Sophi who in ancient times excelled in learning. Afterwards he was introduced into an assembly of them, and was asked whence he came; he told them that in the body he was in the natural world, but in spirit in the spiritual world. Hearing this, those angels were made glad, and inquired, "What do they know and understand about influx in the world where you are in the body?" Swedenborg told them what a lack of knowledge on this subject existed in the world and then talked with them about the wonders which arise from the influx of the spiritual world into the natural. (T. C. R. 695.)

     5. After Swedenborg (while writing the work CONJUGIAL LOVE) had brought to a conclusion the meditations on conjugial love and had begun those on scortatory love, suddenly two angels, a man and wife, stood by him. They were from the heaven of innocence, into which they had come as infants. They could not understand the things on which he was meditating, and said they were nothing. He replied:

     "This love, on which I am now meditating, is not nothing, because it does exist." But as they could not understand, and in fact had no idea what evil is, he went into the subject fully, explaining; to them what evil is and its opposition to good. He even called thither an evil spirit and by conversation with him illustrated his teaching. (C. L. 444.)

     When these angels departed, Swedenborg begged them not to relate anything about this love to their brethren and sisters in heaven, because it would hurt their innocence. Nevertheless, it must have been in Providence that these two angels should receive this instruction.

     6. Swedenborg instructed the angels on the subject of miracles, telling them that in reality all things which appear in the three kingdoms of nature are produced by influx of the spiritual world into the natural, and in themselves are miracles, although not so regarded. He then explained to them how by means of influx there took place the miracles of the manna, the bread and fishes, the turning of water into wine, the withering of the fig tree. When he had finished his discourse, the angels kissed him for what he had told them, and said that they would occasionally invite him to their assemblies. We thanked them, and promised to return when leave was granted by the Lord. (DE MIRACULIS [Fragmentum].)

     These six instances should be sufficient to convince that Swedenborg was an instrument for the instruction of angels, and this by virtue of the fact that he was an inhabitant of both worlds. Yet lest there should remain, any doubt as to this, let us add the following teaching on the subject:

     "That there is such a difference (as described in preceding numbers] between the natural, the spiritual, and the celestial, no angel knows: the reason is that an angel does not change his state, nor does he; pass from a spiritual state into a natural one, so as to be able thereby to explore the difference. I have spoken with them on this subject, and they said that they do not know the differences. They believed that they thought, spoke, wrote, and operated in the same manner as in the world. But the difference was shown by this, that they changed states, and now thought in one state and now in another by turns; and similarly, that they spoke by turns in one state and in another; and further that they read their writings now in a spiritual state and now in a natural; and that they operated in like manner; and then they found that these is such a difference that it cannot be described. Concerning this thing it has been granted me to instruct the angels themselves, because it has been granted me to be in both worlds by turn, and from the one to explore the other; and they afterwards all confessed that it is thus." (DE VERBO

     That Swedenborg should be called to heavenly societies to instruct them is not remarkable in view of the fact that his mission was known throughout the heavens; yea, not only was it known, but the heavens were co-operating with him and he with them in the momentous things which were then talking place in both worlds.

We have seen how in those cases where Swedenborg was an instrumentality of judgment there was always some heavenly influence present. The last judgment was effected, we are taught, by a nearer approach of the heavens over the world of spirits and thence a stronger influx into that world. The influx was that of the Divine Truth, and Swedenborg's use was, on the occasions mentioned, that of an intermediary in the presentation of that truth, and, undoubtedly, in all these cases, a necessary intermediary, else he would not have been called to render the service.

     We have said that Swedenborg's mission was known throughout the heavens; but as it may be thought that the testimony of the Writings given in support of this statement is not sufficiently abundant, it may be useful to add more:

     1. Swedenborg was once taken up into the angelic heaven, and into one of its societies. And then some of the wise ones there came to him and said, "What news from the earth?" He answered, "This is new, that the Lord has revealed arcana which in excellence surpass those revealed from the beginning of the Church even until now." They asked, "What are they?" Swedenborg then made known to them the doctrines which were being revealed through him.

     2. When Swedenborg visited the palace over which was the golden shower and spoke with the angelic wives there, they said, in regard to certain things of their conversation: "Be prudent, and declare nothing of the sort except in an ambiguous sense, because it is a wisdom deeply reserved in the hearts of our sex." (C. L. 155a)

     Evidently Swedenborg's mission of declaring heavenly things to those on earth was known to these angels.

     3. When he visited that palace the second time, after the conversation, the wives said: "Probably you will reveal to the men what you have heard." He replied: "I intend to do so." And they said: "Reveal it if you like." (C. L. 208.)

     4. Swedenborg's thought was once deeply engaged on the question: In what region of the human mind does love truly conjugial reside? An angel instructed him and then said: "Enough for this time; inquire first whether these things are above the common understanding; if they are, what would be the use of saying more? But if they are not, more will be disclosed." (C. L. 270.)

     5. On the occasion of Swedenborg's second visit to the rose garden, the conversation was concerning the nature of the reception by wives on earth of the things that he had heard at his first visit. (C. L. 294.)

     6. After Swedenborg had seen the temple by which the New Church was signified, and over the door of which "Nunc licet" was written, an angel of the third heaven came to him from overhead, and handed him a paper; but as it was written with rounded letters, such as are in that world, he returned the paper, and begged that he himself would explain the meaning of the words there, in terms adapted to the ideas of his thought. And he replied, "This is there written: Enter hereafter into the mysteries of the Word heretofore closed; for its several truths are so many mirrors of the Lord." (T. C. R. 508.)

     7. When the BRIEF EXPOSITION was published, the angelic heaven from east to west, and from south to north, appeared of a crimson color with the most beautiful flowers. (ECCL. HIST. 7.)

     To these relations let us add several wherein we are told that Swedenborg was commissioned by the angels to declare certain things to men on earth; for these are still further testimony as to how well his mission was known in heaven.

     8. Once heaven was opened to him, and he saw angels standing in a circle and talking together. They were speaking about the one God, and about conjunction with him, and thence salvation. Afterwards they spoke with Swedenborg, and finally asked him to say from their mouth that, if any one does not go to the very God of heaven and earth, he cannot come into heaven: and that this one God is the Lord Jesus Christ; and that this is the Gospel which is to be preached. (T. C. R. 25, 26.)

     9. An angel instructed Swedenborg concerning creation by correspondences, doing this both by things he showed him and things he told him. Then he said, "Relate these things which you have seen and heard to the inhabitants of your world."

     10. The heavens were opened to Swedenborg, expanse above expanse, even to the third. Then there was heard out of heaven a voice as of a trumpet, saying:

     "We have perceived, and now see, that you have been meditating on conjugial love; and we know that as yet no one on earth knows what love truly conjugial is; and yet it is of importance that it should be known: wherefore it has pleased the Lord to open heaven to you, in order that enlightening light and perception thence may flow in into the interiors of your mind. With us in the heavens, especially in the third heaven, our heavenly delights are principally from conjugial love; wherefore, in consequence of leave having been given us, we will send down to you a married pair, in order that you may see." The pair descended and Swedenborg spoke with them. After their return to heaven, an angel appeared to Swedenborg out of that heaven, holding in his hand a parchment, which he unrolled, saying, "I saw that you were meditating about conjugial love. In this parchment there are arcana of wisdom concerning that love, which have never yet been disclosed in the world. They must now be disclosed, because it is of importance that they should be. Those arcana abound more in our heaven than in the rest, because we are in the marriage of love and wisdom; but I foresee that no others will appropriate that love to themselves but those who are received by the Lord into the New Church, which is the New Jerusalem." Having said this, the angel let down the unrolled parchment which a certain angelic spirit took, and laid on a table in a certain chamber, which he instantly locked, and held out the key to Swedenborg, and said, "WRITE." (C. L. 42, 43.)

     11. At the close of Swedenborg's first visit to the rose garden, there appeared at a distance a dove flying with a leaf of a tree in its mouth; but as it approached, instead of a dove there was seen a little boy with a paper in his hand; on coming up he held it out to Swedenborg and requested him to read it. He read these words: "Tell the inhabitants of your earth, that there exists a love truly conjugial, the delights of which are myriads, scarcely any of which are yet known in the world." (C. L. 293.)

     12. On the second visit to the rose garden, the boy again came with a paper, containing a second message, which was read. The company went with the boy as far as the way of his ascent into heaven; and they knew that the society from which he had been sent was a society of the New Heaven, with which the New Church in the earth will be conjoined. (C. L. 294.)

     13. After certain experiences, which are related, Swedenborg heard a voice from heaven, "Enter into your bed-chamber, and shut the door, and apply to the work begun on the Apocalypse, and finish it within two years." (C. L. 522.)

     Surely Swedenborg would not have been commissioned to say and to do the things that have been mentioned unless his mission had been well known in the heavens.

     As various messages from heaven have just been cited, this may be the place to mention two more, though not from heaven.

     1. The Pope Sixtus the Fifth came to Swedenborg. He was the ruler of a good society of Catholics [in the world of spirits]. He spoke with Swedenborg and wished him to say to those now living, that Christ is the God of heaven and earth, and that the Word is the Holy Divine. (A. R. 752.)

     2. Some spirits by permission ascended from hell, and said to Swedenborg: You have written many things from the Lord; write something also from us. He replied, What shall I write? And they said, Write that every spirit, whether good or evil, is in his enjoyment. (D. P. 340)

     Let us now gather together what we have thus far seen demonstrated from the Writings: 1. That Swedenborg taught spirits in the world of spirits and that such teaching was frequently followed by a judgment. 2. That his mission was widely known in the world of spirits. 3. That he often taught the angels. 4. That his mission was known throughout the heavens.

     All that has been adduced in support of these things is as it were collected into a one in that indeed memorable relation, which tells of the fulfillment of the things contained in the eleventh chapter of the Apocalypse, where we read that

"when the two witnesses shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them; and their bodies shall lie upon the street of the great city, which spiritually is Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified; and they of the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations shall see their bodies three days and a half, and shall not suffer their bodies to be put into sepulchers and they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and shall be glad, and shall send gifts one to another, because those two prophets tormented them that dwell upon the earth; and after three days and a half, the spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and a great fear fell upon them that saw them."

The two witnesses are the two essentials of the doctrine of the New Church, the doctrine of the Lord and the doctrine of Life. Now, all the things told of the two witnesses were fulfilled in the person of Swedenborg. He lay for three and one-half days dead in the streets of the city of Sodom; he was scoffed at, and burial was refused his body; but after three days and a half his spirit revived, and he went forth into the streets of the city and preached repentance. A voice from heaven confirmed his teaching. Then judgment followed, and the city was swallowed up, in the manner described in the same chapter of the Apocalypse. (T. C. R. 567.)

     Why were all these things fulfilled in the person of Swedenborg? It was because he, as the Lord's instrument, was the teacher of the truth of the Second Advent; he was known as that teacher in the spiritual world, for he taught also there; he stood for that truth; and therefore Sodom's attempt to destroy him was its attempt to destroy the doctrine of the New Church. But he rose up from the apparent death even as the doctrines of the New Church rise up from the apparently successful endeavors of their enemies to destroy them. And heaven was present and confirmed his words of exhortation, even as it is present and upholds the doctrine of the New Church.

     Let no one imagine that these things, or any of the things that have been adduced from the Memorabilia, were events of less moment than has been attached to them in this paper. They all took place in the Providence of the Lord in that series of events in the other world which related to the judgment and the Advent of the Lord. This is clearly indicated in the closing words of a relation, where, after describing the events which took place in a certain house in the world of spirits, he says: "It was of the Divine auspices of the Lord that I came to that house, and that they then deliberated on these subjects, and that all took place as described." (T. C. R. 390.)

     And now, before we proceed to a presentation of the deductions from what has thus far been given, let us, lest there be a misunderstanding, make one point clear as to the position of this paper, namely, that it is not held that there was no presentation of the truth of the Second Advent in the world of spirits except by Swedenborg's instrumentality.

What is held is that it was necessary that he should be such an instrumentality, and was it to a great extent, in order that it might be known throughout that world that the truth then inflowing from heaven was verily the truth of the New Heaven and the New Church; for, as already said, he stood for that truth; he was the representative of it; and was so regarded by spirits and angels.

     And this leads us to our deduction, which is the answer to the question proposed at the beginning of this paper, namely, that such as was Swedenborg's mission in the spiritual world, such is still, and will ever be, there, the mission of his Writings, wherein is presented the truth which he taught.

     That the writings of Swedenborg, or the Writings of the New Church, were known in the world of spirits is evident from several cases that have been mentioned, as where certain spirits condemned the BRIEF EXPOSITION as a schismatical work (T. C. R. 112); Where an evil spirit came running and said:

     "Where is he that speaks and writes concerning order?" (T. C. R. 71); where another spirit said: "Art thou he who would seduce the world by establishing a New Church?" (C. L. 82); and where certain English bishops condemned the books HEAVEN AND HELL, NEW JERUSALEM AND ITS HEAVENLY DOCTRINE, LAST JUDGMENT, WHITE HORSE, and EARTHS IN THE UNIVERSE (A. R. 716). And in other cases the Writings are spoken of as existing in that world, as where DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM and DIVINE PROVIDENCE were seen lying on a cedar table, and spirits were advised to read them; where Swedenborg was requested by the angels to read to certain spirits what he had written on a certain subject, and he read to; them from DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM. (C. L. 416); Where the books HEAVEN AND HELL and LAST JUDGMENT were given to certain Dutch spirits to examine (S. D. 5908); and where we are told that there was inscribed on all the books, "The Advent of the Lord," on all in the spiritual world. (ECCL. HIST. 8.)

     We have said that these Writings are in the world of spirits, but do not say that they are in the heavens. Our reason for this statement is as follows:

     The Word of the Lord exists in various forms. In the world it is natural, in the natural heaven it is celestial and spiritual natural, in the spiritual heaven it is spiritual, and in the celestial heaven it is celestial.

The difference is so great that not a single word is similar. (DE VERBO 14.) In the world of spirits the Word is the same as on earth, namely, natural. The memorable relations are full of examples where the letter of the Word was quoted by spirits and to spirits. Moreover, we read that Swedenborg spoke at times with spirits who did not care to know anything about the spiritual sense of the Word, saying that the natural sense is the only sense. In certain such cases angels who were present brought forward innumerable passages from the natural sense which could never be comprehended without the spiritual sense. (DE VERBO 5.)

     The Writings of the New Church are the Word of the Lord as it is in the heavens brought down to man's comprehension in the natural. They are celestial and spiritual truth naturally expressed; and they are such expression in fulness, for we are taught that there is no Divine Arcana that may not be perceived and expressed also in a natural manner, although in a more general and imperfect way. (DE VERBO 3.) The use of the Writings is therefore to the natural state, to the state of man on earth and of spirits in the world of spirits; they are the heavenly Word adapted to them, and preparing them for the use of that heavenly Word itself.

     With regard to the various forms of the Word, we read that while they differ so greatly, yet what is wonderful, when an angel reads his Word, he knows no otherwise than that it is similar to the Word which he had read when in the world. (DE VERRO 14.) This explains why it is that when angels descend to the world of spirits to perform uses there, they quote the letter of the Word freely and readily; for on that natural plane they give utterance naturally to that Word which they daily read and study spiritually.

     The same, we conclude, applies to use made by the angels of the Writings of the New Church in their work of instructing spirits in the world of spirits. The doctrine of those Writings is the doctrine of their Word, but naturally expressed; and just as in Swedenborg's time, angels sent spirits to Swedenborg for instruction, and asked Swedenborg to read from his Writings to spirits, so, we believe, do they now make use of those Writings in their instruction of spirits.

     The truths which are presented to spirits in the world of spirits are those which constitute the faith of the New Heaven and the New Church. And in what other form should these truths be presented to them than in the books on which stands written, on all of them, "This Book is the Advent of the Lord,"-books known throughout the world of spirits, even as Swedenborg and his mission were known. What else than these books of the New Church could be the means of separation for entrance into the New Heaven, which heaven makes a one with the New Church as do the internal and external of man?

     And herein we see a further reason why the Lord's twelve apostles were not sent forth into the whole spiritual world to preach the doctrine of the New Heaven and the New Church until the books of that doctrine had been written. When the writing of them was completed, when spirits could have access to them, then was the work of evangelization begun.

     The states manifested towards teaching given by Swedenborg in the world of spirits are the states which are at this day being manifested towards the Writings of the New Church in that world; some receive affirmatively, others come into anger and rage against them; thus by them judgments are effected. Further, there no doubt take place in societies there, especially in societies constituted of New Church people from this world, those very controversies in regard to teachings of the Writings which appear in the Church on earth; for the causes of things in this world exist in the other world.

     In the higher regions of the those who are in their third state, that of preparation for heaven, and where there is the gradual transition from the natural to the spiritual, these Writings must be the books of instruction; they are the link between the natural and the spiritual, by which there can be the passing from the one state to the other. The relation which tells us of the books of the Writings lying on the cedar table, which books the spirits were told to read, undoubtedly occurred in that region.

     Not only to spirits but also to the angels are the Writings of the New Church a means of instruction, even as was Swedenborg.

The angels, when performing uses in the world of spirits, learn from the Writings many things that are of value to them; and they also take up to themselves into their own societies things thus learned, even as Swedenborg was invited to come and enlighten them in certain things. Those Writings are for them the truth as an inhabitant of both worlds, by means of which they can learn arcana of creation which they otherwise could not know; likewise arcana concerning the relation of the natural and the spiritual, arcana concerning influx, arcana concerning the nature of evil, arcana concerning miracles.

     As in the days of Swedenborg so today the Writings of the New Church are the two witnesses, which Sodom and Egypt seek to destroy, but which heaven loves and protects, and vivifies from all the apparent death which may come upon them. The great conflict between the forces of evil and the forces of good, in which is involved salvation, centers in the attitude towards the Books which are the Advent of the Lord.

     Heaven loves the Writings of the New Church, and especially so does the New Heaven which makes a one with the New Church. The relation existing between the New Heaven and the New Church, as centered in the Writings, is a phase of our subject of which we had planned to treat, but the length to which this paper has grown forbid; our doing so now. We can, therefore, only sum up what might be said on this subject, and at the same time in a manner sum up all that has been said in this paper, by quoting the opening words of the True Christian Religion:

     "The Faith of the New Heaven and the New Church is prefixed in a universal form, that it may be as a face before the work which follows; and as a gate through which entrance is made into a temple; and as a summary in which the particulars which follow are duly contained. It should be known that in the New Heaven which the Lord is at this day establishing, this Faith is its face, gate, and summary."

MAN'S MEMORIES, BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH 1913

MAN'S MEMORIES, BEFORE AND AFTER DEATH W. REY GILL 1913

     (Concluded from the January issue.)

     It will now be interesting to see what the teaching is concerning the properties of the memory which spirits and angels enjoy, and the retention therein of their freshly acquired, or rather, infilled knowledges. Some of the teaching on this point at first glance appears contradictory. For instance, take the two following quotations:-"The more interior and perfect the angels are, the less they have of the memory of the past, and that therein consists their felicity. . . . Inasmuch as they do not possess the memory of the past, they have not the anticipation of the future, for this flows out of the same memory." (S. D. 2188.) "Angels have the most perfect recollection of past things, and the most perfect intuition of things to come." (A. C. 2493) But further reading and correlation of passages will show us that here, as in all other cases of apparent contradictions in the Writings, both of the above statements are true. For spirits do retain in their memory-the interior memory-everything they hear and see and understand, but of themselves they cannot recall them. Only the Lord can do this for them, and, strange to say, when He does so, the spirit or the angel thinks that he himself has recalled them, by virtue of the wonderfully good memory he possesses! "Whatever spirits hear they retain much more readily than man, although they do not know they retain these things; . . . the purer the angels the more readily and fully they retain, so that no idea may perish." (S. D. 3234.)

     A further detail respecting the memory of angels is that they have no memory of the external things and events of their past life in the spiritual world, but they have a memory of the past in regard to internal things, such as those of faith and eternal life, while not remembering how, when or where these internal things were acquired. (S. D. 4716)

     It is by means of the memory which the angels enjoy that they are enabled to progress in wisdom to all eternity. The more the things they hear and perceive are in accordance with their ruling love and enjoyment, the more deeply are these things impressed upon their memories: thus the good retain all the good and true things they hear, and the evil drink in with avidity all the knowledges and lusts of falsity, and evil that come their way, and let all other things as it were glide past them, hardly being at all affected thereby. Those who think from heavenly loves, "because their thought is directed through heaven by the Lord, see and choose nothing else in the fields and gardens of their memory than such as agree with the enjoyments of their loves, and are in harmony with the doctrines of their church, which doctrines they love. The things of the memory to these are like heavenly paradises." (A. C. 9394.) But those who have the truths of faith in their external memory only, appear to themselves to wander about among rocks and in forests. (A. C. 9481)

     The memories of spirits are sometimes representatively exhibited to the view of their associates, the appearance varying according to the character of the memory. For instance, those who have gloried in the fact that they have an exceptionally large memory appear to have it attached to their heads as a sort of callous growth, attended with such pain that they feel as though their scalps were being torn off. This refers to the exterior memory: when the interior one is presented to view it appears like a snowy soft substance. (S. D. 358, 771, 1077)

     As mentioned earlier, the interior memory is man's Book of Life, and this book, when the Lord permits, can in the other life be seen and read by the angels, even to the least particulars therein. Like everything else in both worlds, the interior memory through its activity gives off a sphere, and it is from this sphere that spirits can be recognized as to their quality and the opinions they hold, even when they are at a great distance. (A. C. 2489.)

     Celestial and spiritual angels are circumstanced differently in regard to their memories, for the former do not lay up Divine truths in the memory: "What they learn from preaching does not enter into their memory, but immediately into their perception and will, and becomes of their life; but what they see with their eyes enters into their memory, and they reason and talk about it.

From this it is plain that the way of hearing is to them the way of wisdom." (H.H. 271.) And because they have no need of a memory in which to retain truths, they appear naked; while spiritual angels appear clothed because they have truths inscribed on the memory; the law of correspondences effecting these appearances. (A. E. 240)

     SPIRITS AND THE MEMORY OF MAN.

     The spirits with whom: man is associated, when they come to him, take on the whole of his corporeal memory, and it is to them, for the time being, their external or sensual memory as well as the man's, for their own is in a state of quiescence. And, what is wonderful, they observe much more clearly than the man himself the least things in his memory. It even seems to the spirits that they are acquainted with the man's language. They can also speak among themselves from man's memories, without the man being conscious that they are doing so. (S. D. 78, 295, 3752.) They think what the man thinks, and what he wills they will, or, on the other hand, what they think and will so does the man. It follows that with the learned the attendant spirits "are learned, with the ingenious they are ingenious, with the wise they are wise . . . with the ignorant they are ignorant, with the stupid they are stupid, and with the insane and foolish they are insane and foolish." (A. C. 5857.) Or, as it is put in the SPIRITUAL DIARY: The ideas of the proximate spirits are as it were bound to the disposition of the memory vessels of the man with whom the spirits are. (S. D. 4042.) Another consequence of the assumption of the man's memory is that the spirits think that they have always been with the man to whom they are for the time adjoined.

     Before the Last Judgment it happened-and apparently it occasionally happens even now-that something from the spirit's own memory flows into that of the man, causing the latter to think he must have undergone the same experience before, though he knows he could not have done so in this life. It is this fact that gave rise to the theory of re-incarnation.

     But it is not all spirits who put on the whole memory of man. Some only take the general things therefrom, and such spirits can be instructed as to the particulars in that man's memory by other spirits who take it on more completely and see the more interior things therein.

     While spirits take a man's corporeal memory, angels possess his interior memory, and from this seat exercise rule and restraint over the spirits in the plane below. If evil spirits begin to enter and exercise control over the interior memory of a man, it is necessary for that man to be removed from this life, otherwise he would perish. (S. D. 3104.) Infants are protected from the approach of evil spirits, because they have not yet in their memory anything that can be taken on by such spirits. It is the sphere from the cupidity of evil spirits which has an exciting influence on the things in the man's memory that are accordant. The influx is effected in this way: the inflowing thought of the spirits induces a correspondent change in the memory vessels of the man, and in consequence the man has the same thoughts as have his attendant spirits. Angels, however, inflow into man's corporeal memory in a general way only and thus dispose it, but rather with affections than with thoughts. Their inflowing affections contain innumerable things, but the man can only receive those things for which he has formed correspondent vessels in his memory. We are told, however, that the rest of their influx encompasses men, and keeps them as it were in its bosom. (A. C. 6320.) "But evil spirits are, as it were, in a chain of connection with the particulars of the memory of those who think evil, so that not only are the nearest spirits in such a chain, but also more remote evil spirits. It is truly a chain, for with those who are not in true faith the particulars are produced by evil spirits." (S. D. 4044.)

     The material ideas of a man's thought are sometimes represented to the view of spirits as in the midst of a wave, which is an appearance of the things in the man's memory that are adjoined to the subject of his thought. An illustration of this is given from Swedenborg's own experience: "When I thought of a man, known to me, then the idea of him, such as it appears when his name is mentioned before men, was presented in the midst, but round about, as it were, undulating and flowing, all things which I had known and thought about him from childhood; then the whole of him, such as he was in my thought and affection, appeared among the spirits in an instant." (A. C. 6200.)

     THE MEMORY AS THE LIMBUS.

     The plane of the natural memory is the lowest and most external plane that remains to man after the death of the body. (A. C. 5079, Adv. II., 1374) That is to say, he then loses his exterior natural and retains as his outermost his interior natural, which is the same as his natural memory vessels, wherein his natural affections and desires operate after death as before death. (A. C. 5079;) Over and over again we are told in the Revelation to the New Church, that the things of the natural memory are the plane in which the interiors of man, that is to say, his spirit, are terminated: that they are after death, his ultimate, his foundation plane. (A. C. 2492, 3539, 3679, 4588; S. D. 2751, 2754, H. H. 345) The memory, as already shown from the Writings, has its seat only in the cortical substance of the brain, "in the substances which are the beginnings of the fibers." And we read in E. A. K. II., 297, that the spirituous fluid, or the soul', "never puts forth any representative or intuitive force in any place but where the substances of the fibers are in correspondence with it, or are accommodated for its reception anal transmission: thus in the body itself it puts forth none but the most general force." That the place, and the only place, where the soul does "put forth any representative or intuitive force," is in the cortical substance of the brain, see the same work in many places, as well as THE RATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY, and, to confirm all, the Writings of the Church.

     Thus the most ultimate human form which man has after he leaves his natural body is the form of the vessels of his memory, or the form of the cortical glands of his brain, as it was infilled and fixed with the purest substances of nature, during his life in the world. Indeed, one of the very chief reasons that he had to live in this world at all is to acquire this plane of fixity and permanence: after death the uses of the bodily shape as we know it here are finished, and therefore it is no longer needed except, maybe, in appearance.

This being the case it follows that this acquired and infilled form of the cortical glands is the outmost form; and shape of man's spiritual body as it is in reality,-not as it appears to every sense and sensation in the spiritual world, for there it appears in the same shape as here. It can appear no other way, except to the Lord alone, for it was formed to the accompaniment of the bodily sensations, and, after death, all sensations are necessarily accompanied with the like sensation of a body in the same shape as the material body which has been lost. For if after death the mind-form, or brain-form, has a certain thought or feels a certain affection, it assumes the same form as it did when adjoined to the material body, and therefore always has the accompanying sensation of the bodily shape, just as it did when it first took o-n the form of that certain thought or affection, and so perceived them.

     We have tried to prove our position logically, but perhaps it is a waste of words, for the Writings directly state that the natural substances in the natural mind make the cutaneous envelope (in other words, the limbus) of man's spirit after death. (D. L. W. 257) That the natural mind is where the corporeal memory is situated, read A. C. 3020 in connection with the passages adduced in the early part of this paper, and very many others throughout the Writings, which teach that the natural mind and memory has its seat and operates in the cortical glands of the brain only.

     Now, as the limbus, or the natural memory plane, is the cutaneous envelope of the spiritual body, it necessarily follows that it is only in appearance that our spiritual bodies are in like shape to that of the body we know here: otherwise the spiritual bodies would be either outside their own skins, or would have a body like ours, but enveloped in the covering of their brains!

     Lastly: it was the Lord alone who rose from death with the exterior natural plane-or plane of the senses of the body,-and therefore He alone after death, as before death, is the only perfect and complete Man on all the four planes.

ANTEDILUVIANS 1913

ANTEDILUVIANS C. TH. ODHNER 1913

     I.

     IN THE DAYS BEFORE THE FLOOD.

     We come now to the blackest chapter in the history of mankind, the terrible night of corruption and violence which culminated in that universal Flood of evil and falsity which destroyed the last generations of the celestial race. Indelibly impressed upon the memory of the race-man, the story of the Flood and of the state preceding it is found in the mythologies of all the nations of antiquity and in the legends of every gentile people and tribe in every corner of the earth. In the lore of antiquity the Nephilim of the Bible rise before us in the monstrous shapes of Titans, Pythons, Gorgons, Cyclops and Cloud-giants who inhabited the earth in the days before the Flood. It was an age of gold mingled with blood, of celestial love perverted and profaned, of gigantic persuasions and insane lusts such as had never existed before nor ever will exist again upon the earth. This state of wickedness was such that we will never fully comprehend it, for we are of a totally different genius and form of mind. The Antediluvians were of the celestial genius, though in the last stage of its perversion, and the spiritual genius cannot comprehend the celestial any more than a straight line call measure the curved. Nevertheless, we can grasp the outlines of their story as told in few words in Genesis and unfolded at length in the New Revelation.

     II.

     THE CELESTIAL WILL PERVERTED.

     "And it came to pass that man began to multiply himself upon the faces of the ground, and daughters were born unto them." (Gen. 6:1.) The Authorized Version translates this: "when men began to multiply," which entirely misses the point involved in the internal sense. That "man began to multiply himself means that he waxed great in his own conceit; and that "daughters were born unto them" means that all kinds of evil lusts sprang forth from a stupendous love of self. For as "sons" signify new ideas of truth arising in the intellectual mind, and, in the opposite sense, new ideas of falsity, so "daughters" signify new affections of good, and in the opposite sense, as here, new lusts or cupidities of an evil will.

     The love of the celestial age, which had been a supreme love of Jehovah God, and thence a heavenly love of the neighbor, when once perverted soon turned into its very opposite,-a most intense hatred of God and of the neighbor. From the daily tragedies of the divorce courts it is seen how love may turn into its opposite. The more intense the love of the honey-moon, the more fierce the hatred when love has turned. When the descendants of the Golden Age had lost their love of Jehovah God, this love turned through rapidly descending degrees to an insane love of self as the only object of worship; and as the love of self hates whatever stands in the way of its supreme control, the all over-ruling Deity became the object of the most passionate hatred. The love of dominion, which is the supreme form of the love of self, now took universal possession of the minds of men. They did not care so much for the riches and pleasures adored by the love of the world, but were consumed by a burning lust for dominion and power over others, especially the spiritual power over minds and souls, a determination to rule over the Church in this world and the next, and to cast down God Himself from the throne of Heaven. The memory of this fearful state is preserved in the mythological stories of the arrogance of that race of giants who piled upon Ossa when fighting with the gods for the possession of Olympus.

Nor has later history been lacking in instances of this insane love of rule, as may be seen from the Gregories and Innocents, Lees and Benedicts who as "gods on earth" claimed infallibility and universal dominion in this world, and in the other life-the keys of Heaven and Hell!

To this love of self, then, in the days before the Flood, there were born "daughters" in the alluring shape of flattering affections and lusts of the flesh,-derivative loves of evil such as the contempt of others, love of revenge and cruelty, robbery, adultery and despotism. Peace and mutual confidence became impossible on the earth. Distrust and suspicion filled each heart with malice against all, breaking out undoubtedly into internecine tribal wars of extermination. We may gain a faint idea of this state from the conditions of Europe during the Dark Ages, when the "robber barons" made life well-nigh impossible. Ovid has well described this state: "Then destructive iron came forth, and gold more destructive than iron. Then War came forth, that fights by the means of both, brandishing clattering arms in blood-stained hands. Men live by rapine; the guest is not safe from his host, nor the father-in-law from the son-in-law; good feeling between brothers is rare. The husband is eager for the death of the wife, she for the death of her husband. Horrible stepmothers mingle the ghastly woffsbane. The son prematurely makes inquiry into the years of his father. Piety lies vanquished, and the virgin Astrcea [the goddess of Justice] is the last of the celestials to abandon the earth, now drenched in slaughter." (METAMORPH. Fable IV.)

In the language of Scripture: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was multiplied on the earth, and that all the imagination of the thoughts of his heart war only evil every day." (Gen. 6:5.) For "the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth war filled with violence." (Gen. 5:11.)

     III.

     THE PROFANATION OF CELESTIAL TRUTH.

     "And the sons of God saw the daughters of man that they very good, and they took to themselves derives from all whom they chose." (Gen. 6:2.) The "sons of God" were the celestial truths of the Most Ancient Church, the knowledge of which still lingered with this degenerate race. These were now "married," i. e., conjoined with the filthy lusts signified by "the daughters of man,"-a horrible commingling which is the most direful kind of profanation. For "they immersed the holy truths of the Church in their cupidities, and thereby defiled these truths, and in this way they confirmed the principles of which they were so strongly persuaded." (A. C. 570.)

     There are many kinds and degrees of profanation, some milder, some worse, but the Antediluvians committed the worst kind of this "sin against the Holy Spirit" because they so turned and twisted the highest truths as to make them appear to excuse, support and confirm the worst of evils. By such confirmations truths and evils, and goods and falsities become so inextricably commingled that they cannot in the other life be separated by the ordinary processes of vastation, but must be violently torn asunder, leaving the miserable profaners almost devoid of life. (S. D. MIN. 4745.)

     "Hence it is that after death profaners are not spirits in the human form, as others are, but are mere phantasies, and appear to themselves to flit hither and thither without thought, and at last are separated from others, and are cast down into a hell the lowest of all, and as they do not appear in the human form they are called its, that is, non-man." (A. E. 375.) "In the light of heaven they appear like charred skeletons, and therefore are spoken of in the neuter gender. By degrees they lose human life, and become like ghosts." (S. D. 5950.)

     The recollection of these Antediluvian profaners, who after the Judgment upon them formed the first, deepest, and most fearful of all the hells, is strikingly preserved in the ancient Assyrian account of the "Seven Evil Spirits:"

     "Seven are they; seven are they.
In the abyss of the deep seven are they.
Male they are not; female they are not.
The deep is their binder.
Wife they have not.
Son is not born to them.
Reverence and kindness they know not.
Prayer and supplication they hear not.
Among the thorns on the mountains was their growth.
To Ea [Jehovah] they are foes.
Wicked are they; wicked are they.
Seven are they; seven are they.
Seven twice again are they."
     (G. Smith, CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF GENESIS, p. 105.)

     IV.

     THE NEPHILIM.

     "There were Giants in the earth in those days, and especially after the sons of God went in unto the daughters of man, and they bare to them; the same became mighty men that were of old, men of renown." (Gen. 6:4.)

     These "giants" were gigantic chiefly in their own conceit, filled as they were with monstrous persuasions of their own loftiness and pre-eminence, each one conceiving himself superior not only above all his fellows, but above the angels and above God Himself.

     The word "giants" in the Hebrew original is Nephilim, which, according to some authorities, is derived from the root pain, "to be marvelous," but, according to others, from naphal, "to fall," In either case the etymology of the word would fitly express the quality of this terrible race, who were "marvelous" in their own eyes, but "fallen ones,"-monstrous births, spiritual abortions,-in the eyes of heaven.

     Whether these people were actually of a gigantic stature may he a matter of conjecture. Certain it is that some of their remote descendants, the Anakim, were physical giants, for the spies sent out by Joshua testified that, compared with the Nephilim of Hebron, "we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight." (Numbers 13:22-33.)

Remnants of these Anakim found refuge among the Philistines and produced Goliath of Gath, who measured over ten feet and who had four brothers equally monstrous. (II. Sam. 21:10-20; 1. Chron. 20:4.) From them, also, came the Rephaim of Bashan, the last of whom was Og, king of Bashan, whose bedstead of iron measured some fourteen feet. (Deut. 3:11.)

     Every nation of antiquity, moreover, possessed legends of an aboriginal race of giants who lived after the Golden Age and before the Flood, but whether these were physically giants or not does not matter, for the ancients named things and persons after spiritual qualities rather than natural conditions. The words "there were giants in the earth in those days" is not an expression of admiration but of horror,-horror at the monstrous imaginations and persuasions of self-exaltation and self-worship which at that time existed among men.

     ANTEDILUVIAN PERSUASIONS.

     Abstractly considered, the "Nephilim" stand for gigantic Persuasions of self-conceit, the like of which never possessed men before or after those days. Persuasion is a very different thing from Conviction. Conviction is a good affection confirmed by genuine truth. Persuasion is an evil affection confirmed by truth perverted. The very term "persuasion" involves the idea of some irrational notion binding the mind by sweet flattery appealing to the external senses or "feelings" of emotion, rather than by the stern logic of solid argument. Take for instance the persuasion that man is saved by an instantaneous conversion through faith alone. The exhorter appeals chiefly to the feeling of fear-the fear of sudden death and subsequent hell fire; having properly shaken his hearers into a panic, throwing all rational thought into confusion by this fear, he next holds himself up as one purer than snow, saved and sanctified in an instance by a mere turning of the mind. No repentance is needed, no shunning of evils, no works of charity. The sinner, having risen from the "mourner's bench," is henceforth as one of the angels in heaven, and the "weaknesses of the flesh" are no longer imputed to him as sins.

No wonder this "persuasion" is the very palladium of the Protestant Religion, and is impossible to eradicate with those once fully captured by it!

     Such "persuasions immensely increase when men mingle truths with cupidities, or compel truths to favor the love of self and the love of the world; for then in a thousand ways they pervert these truths and force them into agreement with the lusts." (A. C. 794) The wretched descendants of the Most Ancient Church were completely filled with such persuasions, which with them assumed gigantic proportions because they were the perversions of celestial truths. And chief of these persuasions was the profane notion that they themselves were gods, and that there was no other God in the universe.

     Having received from their ancestors the knowledge that man was created in the image and likeness of God, they persuaded themselves that they were not only like God but were actually Divine. Knowing that in the creation of man God breathed His Spirit into the nostrils of Adam, they persuaded themselves that God thereby had transformed all His Divinity to man, that He had breathed Himself away. This notion had its rise in the insane whispering of the serpent that "in the day ye eat of the fruit of the tree your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God." (Gen. 3:5.) "This dire persuasion," says Swedenborg, "that God had transfused and transferred Himself into men, was held by the men of the Most Ancient Church at its end, when it was consummated. This I have heard from their own mouths; and on account of that horrible belief that in consequence they were gods, they lie deeply hidden in a cavern near to which no one can approach without being seized by an inward dizziness which causes him to fall." (T. C. R. 470.) "They had thought much about God, but had persuaded themselves that there is no God, but that men are gods, and thus that they themselves were gods, and they confirmed themselves in these persuasions by their dreams." (A. C. 1268.)

     "The people before the flood were such that at last they had almost no remains [of good and truth], because they were of such a genius that they became imbued with direful and abominable persuasions concerning all things that occurred to them or came into their thought, so that they would not go back from them one whit, but they supposed themselves to be as gods, and that whatever they thought was Divine.

No such persuasion has ever existed in any people before or since, for it is deadly and suffocating, and therefore in the other life antediluvians cannot be with any other spirits, for when they are present they take away from them all power of thought by injecting their fearfully determined persuasions." (A. C. 562)

     The idea that man is god, and the only god in existence, did not perish, however, when the antediluvians met their doom in the great Deluge; it exists at this day, and is openly proclaimed as the acme of philosophic truth by the various schools of Positivism, Monism, and Agnosticism generally. It lies, in fact, at the bottom of all forms of Atheism, and those who are possessed by this persuasion are called "modern Antediluvians," of whom there are great numbers at this day in the hells of former Christians. (See A. C. 1673, 2754; S, D, 3594, 4449, 5354) This persuasion, nevertheless, is not at this day so intimately bound up with the loves of the will as it was among the Antediluvians, but is more in the nature of an enormous intellectual stupidity. Many may claim, but few really believe, that they are "gods."
     * This is what is meant by Saturn devouring his new-born infants.

     "When such a persuasion takes possession of a man, it is like glue which catches in its sticky embrace the goods and truths which otherwise would constitute remains;* the result of this is that remains can no longer be stored up, and those which have been stored up can be of no use; and, therefore, when these people arrived at the summit of such persuasion they became extinct and were suffocated by an inundation not unlike a flood." (A. C. 563)

     We fancy that it was this deadly persuasion which the ancients imaged by the head of Medusa, the daughter of Titans, every hair of whose head was a writhing serpent, and whose aspect was so terrible, (the word gorgon means "terrible"), as to turn the beholder into stone. This monster was finally killed by Perseus and her head was affixed to the shield of Minerva to represent the fact that this fearful persuasion of the antediluvians was exposed by the Doctrine of Truth in the Ancient Church.

     VI.

     REMNANTS OF THE NEPHILIM.

     As a race the Antediluvians perished in the Flood, but a remnant lingered for ages in the land of Canaan, divided into seven horrible tribes known as the Avim, the Anakim, the Horim, the Emim, the Zuzim, the Zamzummim, and the Rephaim. These seven tribes, which in the Word are included under the collective name of Nephilim, are all described as men of gigantic stature and fearful aspect and habits,-a savage and vicious race of robbers and murderers, living like wild beasts in caves and ruins, yet preserving some sort of tribal organization by which they were above to resist the successive invasions of Hittites and Canaanites, until the coming of Chedorlaomer and the Hebrews.

     Of these Nephilirn the tribe called AVIM, (literally "ruined ones"), lived at one time in the coastland afterwards occupied by the Philistines. Better known are the ANAKIM, ("long-necked ones"), who lived in Hebron until they were finally destroyed by Joshua. The HORIM, ("cave-dwellers"), dwelt in Mount Seir until exterminated by the children of Esau. The EMIM, ("terrible ones"), lived to the east of the Dead Sea in the territory afterwards occupied by the Moabites. The ZUZIM and the ZAMZUMMIM Were so named by their conquerors, because of the "buzzing" sound of their speech; they lived in Mount Gilead, and were subdued by the Ammonites. The REPHAIM, finally, who lived in the land of Bashan, seem to have been the worst of all. Their name is said to be derived from a root meaning "to sink down, to be unstrung with fear," probably on account of the impression they made upon strangers. In the Authorized Version the name Rephaim is usually translated by "the dead," and in the Phoenician inscriptions their name is used as an expression of horror and execration, and as meaning the haunting ghosts of infernal spirits. Concerning these aboriginal tribes of Palestine we have treated at greater length in our CORRESPONDENCES OF CANAAN, pp. 51-62.

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They one and all signify most foul and horrible persuasions of falsity arising from a profound love of self.

     VII.

     LIFE AMONG THE ANTEDILUVIANS

     But few details are given in the Writings concerning the life of the people who lived in the days before the Flood, but those that have been revealed are of interest as illustrating the decline of the Golden Age. Among other things Swedenborg speaks of some of these Antediluvians, "not of those who perished, but of those who were somewhat better. At first they flowed in rather gently and imperceptibly, but it was given me to perceive that interiorly they were evil, and that interiorly they acted contrary to love. There exhaled from them a sphere of the odor of a dead body, so that the spirits who were about me fled away. They imagined themselves to be so subtle that no one could perceive what they thought. I spoke with them about the Lord, as to whether or not they had expected Him, as their fathers did. They said that they had represented the Lord to themselves as an aged and holy man with a gray beard, and they said further that they were made holy from Him, and in like manner bearded. Hence arose the great veneration for beards among their descendants. They added that now also they are able to adore Him, but from themselves. But then an angel came, whose presence they could not endure." (A. C. 1124.)

     "It was shown me how their women were clothed. They wore upon the head a round, black hat, projecting turret-like in front, and they had small faces, but the men were shaggy and hairy. It was shown me also how they gloried in the great number of their children, and that they had their children with them wherever they went, the children walking before them in a curved line. But they were told that all brute animals, even the worst of them, also have a love for their young, and that this is no evidence that there is anything good in them; but that if they had loved children, not from the love of self and self-glory, but from the love of seeing human society increased for the sake of the common good,-and especially if they had loved their children because by them heaven would be increased,-and thus for the sake of the kingdom of the Lord,-then their love of children would have been genuine." (A. C. 1272)

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Thus, in whatever they loved, or thought, or did, the love of self and of dominion entered in, defiling and profaning every good and truth, until at last they "could no longer visibly express any idea of thought, but what was most deformed." (A. C. 607) And then the Judgment came upon them.
NEED OF CANDOR AND SINCERITY 1913

NEED OF CANDOR AND SINCERITY R. B. CALDWELL 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
In the December number of the LIFE, p. 740, reference is made to the Editor's interpretation of the passage "Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock," attention being called to what appears to Mr. Buss as a lack of candor. I am writing to state that no lack of candor is apparent to me in your reply to Mr. Friend's letter.

Now that the subject of candor and sincerity has been brought before us, I think a use would be served at this time of peace and good will by a full retrospective consideration. The publishers of NEW-CHURCH REVIEW at p. 641, October number, 1910, in advertising the book, ACADEMY DOCTRINE, EXAMINED AND CONDEMNED, insert the NEW-CHURCH QUARTERLY is favorable notice of that book (July, 1910, p. 283). This notice was followed by an explanation in the October, 1910, issue, at p. 392. Their insertion of a favorable notice of this book without the explanation which followed in the next issue places Mr. Buss in a false position, which candor on the part of someone could put right. Then again in the current December issue: of the NEW-CHURCH LIFE, page 730, the Rev. O. L. Barler shows quite clearly that a little candor or sincerity on the part of Mr. Hay would have been in order. If, as Mr. Barler states, publicity was given to the charge that he had "committed a serious offence against the peace and harmony of the Church," I think all reasonably-minded New-churchmen must hold that similar publicity should have been given to his reply to this charge.

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In other words, Mr. Barler should have been treated with sincerity and candor.

     The Writings give us clear doctrine upon the subject of candor and sincerity. That to be faithful and sincere was one of the rules of life with Swedenborg is well known amongst us. That he observed these in every small detail, everything we know of him bears testimony. May we not profit by his example?

     A legitimate opening appears to have been made by Mr. Buss' reference to Mr. Friend's letter for enlargement upon the subject of candor and sincerity. May we not therefore hope for such in the columns of the REVIEW, the QUARTERLY and the LIFE? Will the editors please take note?
     Yours sincerely,
          R. B. CALDWELL.
Toronto, Ont., Dec. 16, 1912.
THEOLOGY OF THE SALVATION ARMY 1913

THEOLOGY OF THE SALVATION ARMY "SLAINTHE." 1913

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     My attention has been called to some editorial statements in the October and December numbers of NEW CHURCH LIFE on Salvation Army teaching. As these statements are at variance with the truth, I should be glad if you would insert these corrections from one who knows what Salvation Army teaching is.

     I was an officer for many years in the Salvation Army (though now a member of the New Church) and I can confidently state that the Salvation Army does not teach "instantaneous salvation by faith alone." In the little red book, known to all Officers and Cadets of the Salvation Army as the "D. D." or "Doctrine's and Discipline of the Salvation Army," and compiled by the late General, the section on "Conditions of Salvation" has the following:-

     Question-What are the conditions of salvation?

     Answer-The conditions of salvation are-

     1st-Repentance.
     2d-Renunciation.
     3d-Faith.

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     That is, sorrow for sin, and willingness to give them up and all that they know to be wrong and make restitution where possible and faith that the Lord came into the world to save them from their sins-certainly not in them!

     In my study of the Writings of the New Church I have been astonished at the agreement there is between what is taught in the Salvation Army and the fundamentals of the New Church.

     The Army holds unquestionably the Divinity of the Lord; the Word (in its literal sense) is their standard of life; charity towards the neighbor and that man must co-operate with the Lord for his salvation. In the latter the Army is at variance with the Reformed Churches. A favorite saying of the General's was: "It takes God and man to make a potato;" another was "the Lord has done His Work, but He hasn't done yours." In fact, the General was, and his successor is, dead against "faith alone." We read in the ARCANA, n. 3285: "If Charity were regarded as the essential then would each person say, in whatever doctrine or whatever outward worship he might be, "this is my brother, I see he worships the Lord and is a good man." What I have shown are Army teachings, Swedenborg over and over again asserts are the essentials of the Church. In the face of this such statements by NEW CHURCH LIFE about Army teaching are most unfortunate.

     The reference to "the uniformed and paid saint in the ring" also calls for a strong protest. If the reference is to a "soldier" (that is, the enrolled or ordinary member) it is untrue.

     No "soldier" is either paid or supplied with uniform. On the contrary, he pays and cheerfully contributes to the Army expenses, buys his own uniform and even, if a bandsman, pays for the instrument he plays.

     If the reference is to an Officer, it is still more uncalled for. Numerous slanders have been circulated about the Army, but in all my experience I have never seen it stated that they are what they are for money. As the "Chief" says, "the Man with the Muck-rake doesn't often come our way!" Of all its thousands of Officers, not one of them came into the Army with the promise of even a single day's pay. What they get is very scanty, allowing only enough for very poor fare and often very little of it.

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I have never, while an Officer, listened to such a highly colored statement as that which is put into the mouth of the speaker in the ring, though I should by no means say it is improbable. It cannot be too clearly understood that the speakers in the ring are not the mouthpieces of Salvation Army theology. For that one must go to the "Doctrines and Discipline" mentioned above. I would no more expect a statement of Salvation Army theology from a speaker in the ring than a resume of the ARCANA from any chance member of the New Church. Of course, I do not pretend that there are not many things which do not agree with New Church theology, but I do unhesitatingly assert that the essentials are there.

     In conclusion I should like to say, I have often wondered at the strong spirit of opposition and unfairness to the Army that exist in the Churches, and specially regret that it should not be absent from the New Church. I am therefore particularly grateful to Mr. Gardiner for his friendly and fair-minded letter. No unprejudiced mind who has read any of the information Headquarter is always ready to give, but will, at any rate, acknowledge the sincerity and devotion of the men and women in it.
     Yours faithfully,
          "SLAINTHE."
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1913

GENERAL ASSEMBLY C. TH. ODHNER 1913

The Eighth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Glenview, Ill., June 19th to 23d, 1913. C. TH. ODHNER, Sec'y.

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NINTH ONTARIO ASSEMBLY 1913

NINTH ONTARIO ASSEMBLY E. R. CRONLUND 1913

     The Ninth Ontario Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was held in Berlin, Ontario, from December 30, 1912, to January 1, 1913, inclusive. The total attendance was 163, comprising 120 members of the General Church in Ontario, and 43 visitors and young people. Of this attendance ninety-nine were from Berlin, thirty-five from Toronto, six from Randolph, five from Bryn Athyn, four from Milverton, three from Bridgeport, two from Brantford, two from Clinton, two from Lakeport, and one each from Gait, Streetsville, Wellesley, Windsor, and Fields Sta., Pa.

     First Session.

     The first session of the Assembly was held on Tuesday afternoon, December 31, at three o'clock. Bishop Pendleton, having opened the meeting with religious services, delivered an address on "THE COLLECTIVE READING OF THE WORD."

     Rev. A. Acton: In the paper there are brought together in a focus a great many doctrines. We realize the doctrine concerning the necessity of reading the Word in a fuller measure. This doctrine has been applied to the individual reading of the Word, and not so much to the collective reading of it. The doctrine given in the paper brings near before us this that the spiritual world and the natural are together. The relation between the two worlds is so close that nothing happens in this world but has its effect in the other world. Swedenborg's experience was unique because it revealed the relation between the two worlds. Swedenborg heard the Word read and sung in churches and noticed the effect on spirits and angels. And spirits and angels were given to know from whence their delights came. It is not only in reading the Word that we affect spirits and angels, but also in everything we do. Men in trouble find help in repeating some passage from the Word. If we study the relation between the mind and the body we see what is the relation between the spiritual world and the natural. When things are insinuated through the senses the Lord is able to insinuate truths.

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There can be nothing appropriated unless it comes both from without and from within. When we die we can have no active thought unless it be stimulated from without. That is the reason why the Lord has always preserved a church on earth. And when a genuine church could not be established on the earth the Jews were induced to feign an affection for the Word. The collective reading of the Word performs the same use as the individual reading of it, but in an exalted degree.

     Rev. F. E. Waelchli: We read in many places concerning the Word and its use in the other world. All the Heavens joined together in glorifying the Lord on account of His coming. They glorified Him from different portions of the Word. Is all such use of the Word in the Heavens dependent on a similar use at the same time here on earth? Can angels read their Word in the form in which it is written for them, only at such times as when if, is being read by men!

     Bishop Pendleton: It is as impossible for the angels td think apart from men as it is for men to think apart from them.

     Rev. W. H. Alden: The general doctrine is very clear that the relation between the two worlds is like that between mind and body. No man can act of himself. The two worlds act as one.

     Mr. Randolph Roschman: How were the angels instructed before there was a written Word?

     Bishop Pendleton: In the Most Ancient Church heads of families had visions and dreams. They saw representatives in the ultimate Heaven. These representatives were as it were the letter of the Word. They afterwards became the letter of the Word. They were able to retain those visions and dreams in their memories and to speak from them. The prophets had similar visions, but they had no perception of their signification.

     Second Session.

     The second session was held on Tuesday evening, December 31, at eight o'clock. The meeting was opened with worship conducted by the Bishop. A paper was then read by Rev. F. E. Waelchli on "SWEDENBORG'S MISSION IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD."

     Rev. W. H. Alden: The various "Lives of Swedenborg," hitherto published, pass over the important things in his career. The paper brings out the great scope of Swedenborg's life in the other world. I hope that some time there may be gathered together the materials for a complete biography of Swedenborg.

     Rev. A. Acton: Judgments in the spiritual world are effected by means of men on earth. The judgment that took place in the year 1757 was effected by means of Swedenborg, by means of the revelation given through him. When Swedenborg received this revelation by inspiration from the Lord, that ultimation of the Divine truth was a means through which spirits and angels were instructed, and through which judgment was effected.

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When we are discussing spiritual subjects instruction is given to the angels. Swedenborg began a work that is to be continued forever by the men of the New Church.

     Mr. I. G. Stroh: I am more than ever impressed with the doctrine that the Writings are the Word. How could Swedenborg have instructed those in the spiritual world unless the Writings were the Word?

     Mr. Rudolph Roschman: The quotations from the Writings in the paper open up a new field of thought. Those passages show how intimately acquainted and at home Swedenborg was in the spiritual world, and how he performed a specific mission there. This mission was of prime importance in effecting the Last Judgment so that a new Heaven could be formed. The paper ought to inspire us to read the Writings more.

     Rev. E. R. Cronlund: The paper brings to mind the teaching that revelation is made in both worlds. The Writings are not only for men in this world. Revelation is the coming of the Lord, and the coming of the Lord is effected in both worlds.

     Bishop Pendleton: The subject before us is one of great importance. It has not been treated before as it has been treated by Mr. Waelchli. Revelation is made in both worlds. The mission of Swedenborg was the mission of the Writings. Swedenborg wrote for all men. Think of what the Lord was doing by means of this man when he was reading the Word! The Writings are in the spiritual world. We have them in a natural form. The revelation made in the other world was immensely greater than the revelation made in this world. The New Church is confined to a few, but the work done by the Lord through Swedenborg was for all men in both worlds. We can scarcely realize what was done through this man.

     Third Session.

     The third session was held Wednesday afternoon, January 1, at 3:30 o'clock. The meeting was opened with worship conducted by the Bishop.

     The Rev. Messrs. E. R. Cronlund, J. E. Bowers and F. E. Waelchli then gave reports of the work done by them during the past year.

     Mr. John Pitcairn was to have given an account of the state of the Church in Europe, but as he was unable, through illness, to be present at the Assembly, Rev. W. H. Alden took his place and spoke of the state of the Church in Stockholm, Paris, the Hague, and Brussels.

     A paper on "WORSHIP" was then read by Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

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     Rev. F. E. Waelchli: The paper carries the thought back to the instruction given yesterday. It helps us to realize how important a thing worship is. It should be practiced collectively and individually. The paper shows that worship serves two uses. It is a plane on which internal things rest, and by it internal things are excited. If we did not have worship we would soon forget internal things. By it we are led to a desire to lead a regenerate life. Worship does not enter sufficiently into our educational work. Worship should be an important element in our schoolwork. The things of worship should be impressed on children. The home, of course, needs to co-operate in this. It is important that the Word of the Lord should enter actively into the daily life of children, for the sake of the heavenly influence under which they come by this means. It is important, too, that in the home there should be, just as frequently as possible, at least once a day, worship and reading of the Word. Collective repeating of the Word by parents and children is of great value. The forms of worship for school and home need to be perfected. Piety needs to be cultivated. There is help on the way for us. The School Hymnal will have forms of worship for school and home.

     Bishop Pendleton: An effort is being made to establish a form of worship for children. A children's service may be held on Sunday or in school. I am convinced of the necessity of developing piety in children. A book of worship for children is being prepared and is nearly ready.

     Mr. R. B. Caldwell: It is important that we should give proper observance to external worship. Great benefit is derived from strict observance of external worship. We have the doctrine that all power is in ultimates. They who neglect externals do not progress.

     Rev. A. Acton: All creation is from primes to ultimates. Internal worship is formed within external worship; not from it, but within it like a pearl within the matrix. We should compel ourselves to read the Word and the Writings and to go to Church. A father could give no better counsel to his children than to tell them to go to Church, to pray to the Lord, and to read His Word.

     Mr. R. Carswell moved a vote of thanks to the Berlin Society for the splendid manner in which they had provided for the Assembly and the entertainment of the visitors; this was seconded by Mr. R. R. Caldwell, and carried unanimously. After singing Hymn 112, the meeting adjourned.

     Worship.

     On Wednesday morning, January 1, the Holy Supper was administered by Bishop Pendleton, assisted by Rev. F. E. Waelchli and Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

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     Social Events.

     On Monday evening, December 30, a banquet was held at the Acadian Club. The first toast was, as usual, to "The New Church."

     The second toast, to "Spiritual Courage," was responded to by Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

     The third toast, to "The Reward of Spiritual Courage," was responded to by Rev. A. Acton.

     The regular program being now concluded, impromptu toasts and remarks followed. Among the impromptu toasts was one to the Rev. N. D. Pendleton, and with it were coupled the greetings of the Assembly on his introduction into the third degree of the priesthood of the New Church. There was also a toast to Mr. John Pitcairn, and regrets were expressed because of his inability to attend the meetings of the Assembly.

     The banquet was followed by a social.

     The Men's Meeting and the Ladies' Meeting.

     On Wednesday evening, January 1, a Men's Meeting was held. Bishop Pendleton read a paper on "POLYGAMY," which was followed by discussion.

     At the same time a Ladies' Meeting was held at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman, which was much enjoyed by all present.
     E. R. CRONLUND,
          Secretary.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE ONTARIO ASSEMBLY 1913

IMPRESSIONS OF THE ONTARIO ASSEMBLY 1913

Three things especially impressed themselves upon those who attended the late Ontario Assembly in Berlin. The first was the very effective organization. It was like a piece of machinery more or less complicated with all the wheels hidden. You only saw the smooth working of the machine, but with a little reflection one realized how much of careful planning and faithful carrying out of plans there was behind all this that we saw. The second thing was the intense interest of the young people in the serious matters of the meeting. We are very well accustomed to the activity of the young people in connection with the social events of the Church; with the banquets, and the socials and the dances, but at this.

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Ontario Assembly what was noticeable beyond all was the interest of the young people in the discussions. All the meetings were well attended by the young people. This, it was remarked, had not been the case in former Assemblies there. On this occasion, at all the meetings, even those for serious discussion, there were very few empty seats. Some of the young people were very young, only fifteen or sixteen. They said, in answer to questions, that they did not understand it all; but they understood some of it, and enjoyed it very much. The third thing was the nature of the discussion itself. It all turned about one point, which was the relation of the spiritual world to the natural, and the dependence of the spiritual world on the natural.

At the Banquet on Monday evening there were but two formal speeches, in order, partly, to leave the latter part of the evening free for dancing by the young people, and also to give opportunity for impromptu speeches. It had been calculated that there would be one hundred and seventy people in attendance, and the number did not fall much short of this. The accommodations in the Berlin building were not sufficient, so the Banquet was held in the rooms of the Acadian Club, which are commodious and admirably suited to the purpose. The banquet was in the charge of a small committee and the organization was so perfect that one did not need to ask for anything, but his needs seemed to be anticipated.

Mr. Cronlund read a paper on the subject of "SPIRITUAL COURAGE" and was followed by a speech by Mr. Acton on "THE REWARDS OF COURAGE." Mr. Acton's aim in what he said was to show that the reward of courage is character, and he excellently illustrated this by showing how when one compels the body or any part of it to do a certain thing that thing becomes habitual and easy. There was thus brought about an actual change in the organic forms. So when one compelled himself to do that which was according to the commandments, the result was a change in the forms of the mind, by which the doing of good, of acting according to the truth, became easy and delightful He said that if a man has the courage to hold his mind in a state of reflection on the Divine truth, and on his duty, the Lord, who is in the inmost of every man, comes down and gives him a helping hand.

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He spoke also of the need of courage in the Church in resisting doubts. If we do this, there comes a state of perception by which things formerly obscure become clear. A toast to the visitors was responded to by the Bishop in a way that was somewhat new. Most of those who were present, he observed, had not been born in the Church and were in that sense visitors. He referred to his own early days in the New Church, when with great enthusiasm he thought he should find in a society of the New Church a company of angels on earth, and then dwelt a little on his disappointment when at the first meeting of the Society, which he joined in New York, he found a Church quarrel over some trifling matter. So his ideas about those who were in the New Church being angels underwent some modification, but the general impression was nevertheless true that those who loved the Doctrines and the New Church were in a state which was extremely desirable.

The formal program ended at 10:30 p. m. and then there was dancing until the wee small hours.

On the afternoon of the next day, Tuesday, was the first formal session of the Assembly, when the Bishop read his address on THE COLLECTIVE READING OF THE WORD. The central point of the paper was based on the well-known teaching of the Writings that when the Word is read by men on earth the angels are in illustration. One very remarkable passage in the paper stated that when the Word was read on earth, not only the angers and spirits of our earth received illustration, but the angels and spirits of the universe, showing how the Word in the letter is the ultimate and basis from which the Lord instructs all in the Gorand Man. In the discussion it was brought out that by the reading of a verse or a single word whole hosts of ideas may be excited in the mind, and the application made of this thought was that when only a few or even one person reads the Word on earth countless numbers of angels and spirits are thereby enlightened in the heavens. The discussion also brought out the teaching that the relation of the spiritual world to the natural world is that of the mind to the body in man.

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The Bishop pointed out that the Jews, after the destruction of the Temple, when the worship of sacrifices was no longer possible, still had readings from the Word in the Hebrew. The use which had been performed for spirits and angels by the sacrifices was now performed by the reading from the Word. This reading from the Word, together with Baptism and the Holy Supper, became the worship of the Christian Church, the reading including the New Testament as well as the Old; and now in the New Church the Writings are read also. This reading of the Word in worship is a collective reading by which there is added strength given to the instruction for the angels. And it is very important to reflect that when the Word is read, we are not only in the presence of each other, but also in the presence of countless numbers of angels and spirits whose instruction is under the auspices of the Lord. One little obscurity was in some minds. It seemed to some as if men were instructing the angels, and it was brought out that it was not men, but the Lord who taught by means of the Word in ultimates, when that was read by man.

     In the evening of the same day was delivered a paper on the allied subject of "The Mission of Swedenborg in the Spiritual World." This need not be dwelt upon, as it appears in full in the present number of the LIFE.

     There was no formal service to usher in the New Year. But the young people were not to be repressed and so they assembled together with Mr. Acton and Mr. Waelchli to see that they were all right. And about twelve o'clock bacon and eggs were served, and "Auld Lang Syne" was sung, and the young folks had their fun. But they did not get to bed very early.

     On Wednesday, New Year's day, the Holy Supper was celebrated, the Bishop being assisted on the occasion by Messrs. Waelchli and Cronlund. About ninety-six partook of the communion, a very large number for this locality. The offering which was then taken up was for the uses of the General Church. In the afternoon, reports were read and a paper from Mr. Cronlund on "WORSHIP," which was followed by discussion as far as time permitted.

     In the evening was the Men's Meeting, during the first part of which the Bishop read a paper on the subject of "Polygamy," which led to interesting discussion.

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At about ten o'clock all adjourned to the lower hall where had been prepared an admirable banquet. But one toast was formally proposed, "To the Ladies," and responded to by Mr. Acton. Between the two bodies of men and of women, the latter having their meeting at the residence of Mr. Richard Roschman, messages were exchanged, and a tasteful box of candy sent by the men was reciprocated by a beautiful bunch of lilies of the valley. The following is the message to the ladies, including a beautiful extract from the Index of the Missing Treatise on Conjugial Love:

     "To our Mothers, Sisters, Sweethearts, Wives: May they be ever attended with those loves and joys which they give to us ten thousand fold in the prosperity and blessing flowing from
Conjugial Love.

     "As woman is beautiful, so is she tender; as she is tender, so is she perceptive of the delights of conjugial love; as she is thus perceptive, so is she a faithful guardian of the common good, and as she is the guardian of this, and according as the man is wise, so does she provide for the prosperity and the felicity of the home."

     The entertainment included the spontaneous deliverance of some of Mr. R. B. Caldwell's inimitable songs, and the singing of national songs appropriate to the country in which the Assembly was held: "Canada," "God Save the King" and "Rule Britannia," all sung with the power which could be give a with ninety patriotic New Church men behind them.

     A successful Assembly, the most successful, in point of numbers and interest, of any yet held in Canada. W. H. A.

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Church News 1913

Church News Various 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. The Christmas vacation opened on December 21 and his marked the beginning of a round of festivities which would occupy too much space to fully record. The regular Christmas service was held on the Sunday previous to Christmas, the Holy Supper being administered on Christmas Day. On Tuesday was the annual children's festival, which commenced with a series of tableaux continuing the subject of the life of Abraham, which was represented in last year's festival. Between the representations the different departments of the School rendered songs and hymns, and the tableaux were followed by the usual presentation of the gifts of the children and of the gifts from the School to the little ones.

     Several parties and dances enlivened the holidays; the Deka Club of the girls' dormitory entertained the two fraternities to dances; the boys' dormitory had an evening of games and dancing with their friends; and there were several very successful private affairs. The New Year brought forth more festivity; the example of last year was followed in giving up the watch night service in favor of a New Year's morn service and breakfast, but this did not prevent a good deal of private celebration of the birth of 1913, the two fraternities in particular making the most of this opportunity for a reunion and banquet. The New Year's service was conducted by Mr. Synnestvedt and afterwards all gathered in the Auditorium to a general breakfast, at which Mr. Synnestvedt read a paper, which was afterwards discussed by representatives of several local organizations.

     On January 2d the Civic and Social Club gave a very successful dance under the management of some of the younger members of the club. About 130 people were present and a little variety in the way of a program served to keep young and old well entertained.

     On January 4th the "Younger Generation" was entertained at a sumptuous banquet by Mr. W. Whitehead, at which the subject of the politico-economic possibilities of New Church community life was discussed.

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     School recommenced on January 6th. An interesting and enjoyable innovation has been the occasional introduction of a short address by one of the ministers into the morning exercises in the chapel, the Rev. Messrs. Acton, N. D. Pendleton and Waelchli having already given talks on subjects of particular interest to young people. A new element in the school work is the weekly dancing class for the whole School under the direction of Miss Ethne Price. The Basket Ball' team is establishing a reputation, having won four games to date without suffering a defeat. Occasional games are also being played with a team of the Civic and Social Club, and of the class of 1912, in all of which the regulars have been victorious.

     On January 11th the society was invited to the wedding of Mr. Curtis Hicks, of New York, to Miss Luelle Pendleton, of Macon. Ga.,-an afternoon wedding,-very simple, but very beautiful and impressive. The couple held an informal reception before departing for their home in New York.

     The Consistory has been holding meetings during the past week, which have attracted several distinguished visitors. These were present at the annual Founders' day banquet on January 14th, which was attended by 29 persons, including in addition to all the local ministers, members of the faculty and board, and theological students, the Rev. F. E. Waelchli from Berlin, Ont., the Rev. N. D. Pendleton from Pittsburgh, and Mr. Walter Childs, of Yonkers, N. Y. The banquet having outgrown its usual habitat in hospitable Cairnwood, it was this year held in the auditorium in the De Charms Hall.

     The Friday suppers, after an interval for the holidays, started again on January 10th. The society has enjoyed two evenings in hearing from the Bishop and Mr. Acton about the recent Berlin Assembly.     D. R.

     ABINGTON, MASS. Christmas with the Abington Society was much as it was last year, with the Christmas service and story at 5:30 p. m., then the march to the hall below where stood the tree waiting to be robbed of its load, and the good time afterwards enjoying our gifts.

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Mr. Emery Harris was with us, making another in the circle.

     Whist and dancing made our last Friday supper entertainment enjoyable, Miss Hazel Keene winning the honors at whist. Our pastor was not with us, being occupied in subduing a siege of New England grippe.

     Jan. 5, 1913, the Holy Communion was administered at the close of the morning service. G. M. L.

     GLENVIEW, ILL. Since the last report from this center the activity of social life has been somewhat dulled by the scarcity of coal. The city suffered from a temporary coal exiguity, but in the suburbs it amounted to a real fuel famine. A kindergarten party, some card parties, and a few informal dances have served to drive away dull care. The Philosophy class has resumed weekly meetings on Sunday nights, the PRINCIPIA being the subject of study.

     The usual bazaar was not held this year, but in its place a play was given under the management of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Lee. Four young ladies and four young gentlemen took the characters and acquitted themselves well. Between the acts, kneeling cushions, candy, book markers and nuts were sold by enterprising hawkers. The affair netted the considerable sum of forty-five dollars for the building fund.

     Among the visitors this Fall were Miss Johanna Boericke, Mr. C. S. Merrell and Mrs. Fogel. Miss Boericke entertained the ladies at their meeting with an account of her recent trip to Greece, illustrated with her own sketches. The Christmas celebration was a great success and was the fruit of long and patient work on the part of the Pastor and the teachers of the school. The Assembly Room was lighted with candles arranged in rows of seven. Holly and autumn leaves, tastefully arranged, beautifully and appropriately decorated the room. The recitations and the singing of the classes was beautifully done and showed painstaking preparation

     A handsome, well-behaved and interesting little stranger arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Stevens on Thanksgiving Day, making a welcome addition to our numbers.

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On the other hand six members of Dr. King's family have left Glenview for a cabin home in a lofty valley of the Rocky Mountains and thus one corner of the park has suffered a reduction in numbers. Our number has also been diminished by a wedding.

     The wedding of Mr. Louis E. King and Miss Dorothy Cole took place on December 28th, 1912, at 8 p. m. in the Assembly Room. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. Wm. B. Caldwell. The room was still ornamented by the Christmas decorations. There was a preliminary service with violin and organ music. Then the bridesmaids marched in with a slow and stately step followed by the young couple. The ceremony was simple and beautiful, and was finished by the now married pair taking the Sacrament of the Holy Supper.

     On New Year's Eve, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Lee arranged some amusements which was followed by a watch meeting. The early part of the evening was occupied with dancing; tables, already set for four, were then brought in and an inviting lunch offered to the guests. During this amusing recitations agreeably filled the interstices. The New Year was entered into with solemn service and prayer.

     On the next day-New Year's Day-the young bride and groom left for their new home, Divide, Colorado, accompanied with the affection and best wishes of their many friends.

     Also on that day, at 4 p. m., the new home of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carpenter was dedicated with an appropriate service, Mr. Caldwell officiating. The house was crowded to its capacity with well-wishing guests; toasts were offered, speeches made and a pleasant time enjoyed by all present.

     CHICAGO, ILL. The Sharon Church has again resumed services. The Rev. Gilbert H. Smith and family arrived here about the first of December and since then services have been held regularly.

     The first three Sundays we worshiped in the homes of the parishioners, the first two Sundays in the home of Dr. Marelius and the third Sunday and Christmas Day at the home of Mr. C. F. W. Junge.

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Now we have secured the use of a small pleasant room in one of the large down-town buildings. Our church on Carroll Avenue has been leased for manufacturing purposes. It was too far from the homes of the South Side families for them to bring the children, so it was decided that the best plan would be to secure a central location.

     The Christmas services were held Christmas morning at the home of Mr. Junge. Mr. Smith told the stories of the Wise Men and the shepherds and illustrated them with drawings, which held the attention of all present.

     The watch meeting on New Year's Eve was held at the home of Dr. Farrington.

     It looks as if we may have a live growing society in this great city if we all remain true and steadfast in our loyalty to the church. E. V. W.

     THE MISSIONARY FIELD. The members and friends of the General Church are always interested in what is done in the way of New Church evangelization. But it is not an easy task for one employed in this use to write reports for the LIFE. On account of the limited space which can be given to such matter in our Journal, only a few things can be said in a general way, and many particulars which might be related have to be omitted.

     We are following, in our Body, the method of evangelization which is evidently the most useful, in view of the conditions existing at this day. Isolated members of the Church, and believers in the Doctrines, are visited. We have conversations, supplemented by readings from the Writings. Where there are several families of our people in a locality we have meetings in one of their homes, for the worship of the Lord, and instruction in the form of a sermon; also the administration of the Sacraments. And also doctrinal class meetings during the week evenings, when practicable.

     We are content to minister to the few, who are interested in, and eager to hear, the new gospel,-the glad tidings of salvation and eternal life, revealed by the Lord in His new Advent.

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It is of the Divine Providence that often persons are present at our meetings, who have not yet any knowledge of the Heavenly Doctrines. And in such cases there are no doubt some in whose minds beginnings are made to receive that knowledge. The ways in which the Lord leads people into His Church, and provides for their preparation for the felicities of eternal life in heaven, are indeed wonderful.

     During the last tour on my circuit, which began on September 4th, and ended on December 17th, thirty-three places were visited, in parts of seven States and in Ontario. Following is a summary statement of where I was and what was done on Sundays:

     Erie, Pa., September 8. Services at the home of Dr. and Mrs. Edward Cranch. Attendance, including children, thirty. Mr. Gustaf Soneson, who had been an active member in the Swedish Baptist Church, and had been reading the Doctrines for more than a year, was baptized. Twenty communicants.

     Youngstown, O., Sept. 15. Meeting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Solomon Renkenberger. Nine adults and two children present.

     Columbiana, O., Sept. 22. Worship at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Renkenberger. Attendance nine, all being adults.

     Pittsburgh, Pa., Sept. 29. Preached for the Rev. N. D. Pendleton.

     Bellaire, O., October 6. Services at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Geo. W. Yost. One of our members was away from home and another was absent on account of illness. Six communicants.

     Givens, Pike Co., O., Oct. 13. With Mr. S. A. Powell. Some of the neighbors, whom I had met at former visits, requested my preaching in the School House in the evening. About forty people came. And all gave close attention to an extempore talk of an hour on the general doctrines of the Church, for the most part that concerning the Lord.

     Madison Co., O., Oct. 20. With Mr. and Mrs. Robert C. Beath and their two little children. They are quite isolated as to association with New Church people, there being no one of their faith, so far as they know, in that part of the country. My annual visit with them was pleasant and useful as ever.

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Mrs. Beath was baptized by the Rev. James P. Stuart in her infancy.

     Bourbon, Ind., Oct. 27. My semi-annual visit with Mr. and Mrs. John D. Fogle. They are very earnest members of the General Church, and it is always a pleasure to stop two or three days at their home.

     Rockford, Ill., November 3. Services at the home of Mrs. John Gustafson and family. Nine adults and three children were present. Among them Mr. and Mrs. Lundholm, who had become interested in the Doctrines. Mr. Lundholm bought a copy of "Brief View." All the adults took part in the Communion. The work of Mr. John Headsten, in Rockford last summer, was well spoken of.

     Glenview, Ill., Nov. 10. Preached for the Rev. W. B. Caldwell.

     Kalamazoo, Mich., Nov. 17. A visit with Mr. B. C. Henyan, the only believer in the Doctrines we now know of in that city.

     Mull, Kent Co., Ontario, Nov. 24. A meeting at the home of Mr. and Mrs. F. E. Woofenden in the evening. Attendance, fifteen. An infant was baptized.

     Clinton, Huron Co., Ont., December 1. Service at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Izzard, about twelve persons being present. The Circle here is visited by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli in the summer, when the meetings are larger because members from a greater distance can attend.

     Londesboro, same Co., Dec. 8. With Mr. and Mrs. James Cartwright. Only near neighbors could come to the meeting on account of a snow storm.

     Berlin, Ont., Dec. 15. Preached for Pastor Waelchli.

     Streetsville, Ont., Dec. 16-17 A visit with Mr. and Mrs. Robert G. Brown and their son, finished the trip on my circuit. J. E. BOWERS.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The Swedenborg Society, at its 102d annual meeting, made some important changes in its organization. The governing body has changed ifs time-honored appellation of "Committee" far that of "Council," and the office of President has been created, conferring ex-officio a seat in the Council. Sir Thomas H. Elliott, K. C. B., is the first President of the Swedenborg Society.

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     MR. BUSS ON NEW CHURCH EDUCATION. We copy the following from the Morning Light of Jan. 4th:

     The fourth lecture on the program of the Camberwell Literary and Recreation Society was delivered on the 9th inst. at Flodden Road by the Rev. Jas. F. Buss. There was a very good attendance, the audience comprising members from several South London Societies.

     In reply to the question, "Is there need for a distinctive system of education in the New Church?" the lecturer expressed his conviction that there was an imperative need. Many parents relied upon luck as t, how their children turned out, but they ought to recognize that environment was a very important factor in the bringing up of children, and a New Church environment ought to be provided by every conscientious New Church parent. Education was ten times as potent as heredity in turning New Church children into New Church men and women.

     By a distinctive system was understood a system which imparted definite instruction in a distinctive New Church manner, in accordance with the laws of the development of the mind. Unless the education were New Church in method as well as in matter, it could not be attended with the best results.

     After giving an interesting account of the laws of mental development, basing his remarks mainly on quotations from A. C. 10,225 and 1,555, Mr. Buss went on to point out that the application of New Church doctrine involved an incessant watchfulness on the part of the teacher over the instruction given in existing text books in use in day schools. In many subjects a strict editing of such books was needed and a radical reform was called for in some. It was almost invariably the case that the standpoint of text books on secular subjects was purely materialistic, and a materialistic explanation of things most tend to put out the eyes of the mind by persistently closing them against the existence of God and the spiritual world. The Writings contained the generals of all knowledges, and these generals should be instilled into the minds of all young people as soon as they could grasp them.

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     It was important to recognize that a New Church education was not by any means necessarily attained by putting up a New Churchman to teach. We must have trained teachers in all subjects. In this country there seemed no prospect of anything of the kind being provided for a very long while to come, but in America this vital point was receiving earnest attention at Bryn Athyn, and the work at the Academy Schools there deserved the thanks of all New Churchmen throughout the world. We might perhaps look to the Academy in years to come to furnish the New Church with original text books or revisions of existing text books.

     There was little prospect of New Church day schools in this country. We had Sunday Schools only, and no one could regard these as satisfactory. To Sunday School teachers, who devoted so much time and energy to their work, all praise was due, but very few of them had any expert knowledge of the work of teaching. There was no effort to carry out New Church principles in the mode of conducting the schools and imparting instruction. The idea seemed rather to be to assimilate the methods in vogue in the old church schools, particularly in regard to the Archibald system.

     The lecturer stated that he had grave doubts as to the utility of the examination system, although he admitted that, under existing conditions, it could not well be dispensed with.

     He concluded by sketching out briefly the different kinds of instruction which should be imparted to pupils of different ages in the Sunday School.

     In the coarse of the discussion which followed the lecture. Mr. Buss enlarged upon the importance of cultivating an affirmative state of mind in children, and consequently the importance of protecting their minds against the insemination of false ideas. To admit such ideas into the child's mind and then to destroy them and endeavor to substitute true ideas, was not, as might be supposed, a good way of cultivating rationality, but an almost certain method of bringing about an entirely skeptical trend of mind.

     A very hearty vote of thanks to Mr. Buss was proposed by the Chairman, the Rev. W. E. Hurt, who announced that the next lecture would be given by Mr. E. C. Mongredien on January 13th, the subject being "Spiritual and Natural Beauty."

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     SWEDEN. The December issue of the NYA KYRKANS TIDNING makes plain that the controversy which has broken out in Sweden and Denmark in regard to New Church Baptism, Education and related subjects is by no means near its end. Mr. Manby now publishes an editorial which fills almost half of his journal and is entitled: "Order in the building of the Church, A Retrospect. Is it only within the Academy that anything is being accomplished?" After a rambling account of the history of the New Church in Sweden, the editor finally claims that he really is at one with the Academy in respect to the work of Education, "provided the instruction and care of the children be conducted according to the principles of our [his own] church and not according to 'Academy' principles." What he conceives these principles to be is indicated by the statement that they are such "as ought to frighten people, even though the financial advantages might be seductive."

     The whole editorial is a further sample of Mr. Manby's recent policy of offering personal allusions and libellous insinuations as substitutes for doctrinal and rational arguments. Charity, decency and prudence seem to have been cast to the winds, and he pours forth, instead, dark hints as to "the gruesome consequences of the 'Academy' interpretation, which have been reported to us from across the Atlantic, besides the many things known to us before." The pestiferous sphere of scandal and gossip, which so long has poisoned the atmosphere of the Convention, seems to have been transferred to Sweden.

     In the same issue Mr. Gustaf Baeckstrom-a recent receiver of the Heavenly Doctrines-makes an eloquent appeal for charity, justice and peace in the New Church, and in a spirit of true chivalry offers himself as the object for the violent personal attacks hitherto directed against a courageous female member of the new "circle."

     Mr. Manby, however, thinks that "the demands of chivalrous consideration may go too far," and continues to attack the lady in question for daring to protest against his public accusation that the Academy teaches the doctrine of Polygamy!

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All kinds of side issues and subterfuges are grasped at in this campaign of personalities against truths, while the defenders of the Academy, in the Copenhagen journal, calmly continue the teaching of New Church distinctiveness. It is a conflict, typical of all the past battles of the Academy, and is one that will become memorable in the annals of the New Church, for it is conducted with unusual ability on both sides. It is conducted, however, in two foreign tongues, and it win be impossible for us to convey an adequate idea of it to our readers. We can only express the wish that our somewhat numerous readers of Scandinavian birth may subscribe to the two organs of the combating parties, in order to judge for themselves concerning the merits of the case.

SPAIN. The Christmas number of the NORDISK NYKIRKELIGT TIDSSKRIFT Publishes some interesting news concerning the missionary activity of Mr. J. H. Anderson, a Norwegian gentleman, resident in Valencia, (Alameda letra LL). "In 1910 he published at his own expense a little work of 70 pages, being extracts translated from the Swedish work, THE NEW SALEM. This created some interest, and some 500 copies have been circulated. The translation of HEAVEN AND HELL, which was published in America, had to be reprinted, as it was full of printer's errors and other blemishes. Mr. Anderson, moreover, has published an abbreviated free translation of the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, a volume of 580 pages, in an edition of 500 copies, again at his own expense. Since its appearance, in 1911, this book has been for sale in the principal bookshops in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia; 75 copies were distributed gratis to well known persons; the Swedenborg Society in London bought 50 copies and paid for a great part of the copies which had been given away. Two hundred copies have already been sold of this translation."

Mr. Anderson writes among other things: "Immediately after I received the consignment of copies of HEAVEN AND HELL from New York, a few days ago, I received an order from my bookseller in Barcelona for a new supply of the T. C. R., and the "New Salem." I have now sent him 30 copies of each. It looks, therefore, as if the interest was beginning to grow, and I hope that the work will bear fruit.

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I have also reasons to believe that the new political party, 'el Partido Reformista,' which has been formed by the noted popular orator, Melquiades Alvarez, is essentially the result of the T. C. R., of which this leader received a copy (before he had risen to leadership and still spoke only against clericalism). He wrote to me very appreciatively concerning this work, and added that he intended to institute a propaganda for these principles, which, he said, 'would bring salvation to Spain.' Mr. Anderson has also written a number of short articles for the 'Espana Libre, the organ of the party, putting into them as much New Church doctrine as was compatible with the subject, and several of these articles have been copied in other papers, and further developed by other writers.'

     "In March and April, 1911, Mr. Anderson gave a series of five lectures on 'Heaven and Hell,' each lecture being attended by about 150 persons. They were held in the 'Circulo Psycologico' and created much interest. It was noticed, however, that the majority of the audience were Spiritists, and 'it proved impossible to get any one of them to declare himself in favor of the New Church,'-a fact at which we are not surprised."

     In order to deal with the Spiritists Mr. Anderson desires to translate into Spanish Mr. Bronniche's excellent little work on "Swedenborg and Modern Spiritism," and he observes that "the Spiritists are glad enough to make use of Swedenborg's Writings, but only in order to advance their own doctrine. A psychological (or, rather, spiritistic) journal in almost every number publishes extracts from Swedenborg's T. C. R. and H. H., but with considerable mutilation. I have privately protested to the editor, but to small effect."

     MAURITIUS. The MESSENGER of Jan. 8th mentions two letters recently received from this far-off isle, asking for New Church literature. One is from an evangelist of the Church of England who has embraced the Doctrines, and the other is from a school master of the Church Missionary Society, who for the past two years has been in contact with the Rev. Dr. Fercken, and has become interested in his work. This man writes that under the Divine Providence he has been the means of bringing his own family,-consisting of five grown-up persons,-to the Doctrine of the New Church; then his assistant master; then his eldest sister; and then his elder brother with his family.

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We are happy to add that the Rev. G. J. Fercken has recently become a member of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     INDIA. In our issue for December, 1912, we gave an account of the meeting of Mr. Herbert N. Morris, of Manchester, with Prof. Bhatt, in Bombay, and of the first New Church services in India, on August 18th. We are happy now to be able to reproduce a photograph of the group of Hindu receivers, as it appeared in the N. C. YOUNG PEOPLE'S MAGAZINE for October, and to republish, from the December issue of the same magazine, the following letter, dated Bombay, Sept, 1912, from Mr. Morris to his niece:

     "I little thought, in coming to India on a business visit in July, that I should find anything of interest to tell you about the New Church there. I know, of course, that there were a few isolated members of the English New Church Societies living in Calcutta and Cawnpore, and a few other places, but not that there were more than one or two readers of Swedenborg among the native races of India.

     "I was fortunate in meeting here Prof. M. R. Bhatt, until recently Director of Education of the State of Bhavnagar, who was one of the [absent] Vice-Presidents of the Swedenborg Congress held in London in Igro. He came all the way from Bhavnagar to Botnbay, a day's journey by train, in order to meet a Newchurchman for the first time.

     "I found him a vigorous middle-aged man, a deep student of Swedenborg, and an enthusiastic believer in the teachings of the New Church. His story is an interesting one. Fifteen years ago, when in Bombay, he found in the public library a "Life of Swedenborg" by William White. His interest was awakened, and he sent to London for some of the advertised New Church publications, and began a systematic and thorough study of the Writings of Swedenborg. At this time he was the Principal of the Training College for Native Teachers at Baroda. He translated a number of selections from Swedenborg into Gujarati, and published two volumes, and about a thousand copies of each have been sold. In a letter to me, Prof. Bhatt says: 'I sent my translation of HEAVEN AND HELL to my former pupils, two among whom at once accepted the truth with joy and an access of light.' Both of the pupils referred to are now schoolmasters in the Baroda State.

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A third, also a former pupil, joined them later.

     "As soon as Prof. Bhatt became convinced of the truth of the great central teaching of the New Church, that in Jesus Christ is all 'the fulness of the Godhead bodily,' he wrote a public letter, and openly confessed his acceptance of Christianity as set forth by the New Church. He removed from his left shoulder the sacred thread which is the sign of the 'twice-born' Brahmin, and thus severed his connection with the caste of which he had been a member.

     "He was at this time well known through the whole of Gujarat as a writer of poems and historical works, and a considerable sensation was caused by the publication of his letter. Some said he had lost the use of his reason, and complaints were made to the Gaikwar [native ruler] of Baroda, as a result of which the Training College for Teachers, of which he was the principal, was closed. He was then appointed Educational Inspector for the Bhavnagar State, and later on Professor of English Literature at the Samaldas College, and from 1906 till this year he was Director of the Educational Department. Early this year he was attached to the highest office in the same State as Secretary, and has been writing such State papers of importance as are entrusted to him.

     "The three former pupils, who became Newchurchmen, did not hide the light they received, but many pupils of theirs, young men at the University, are now interested. Prof. Bhatt suggested that we should have a public New Church service in Bombay during my stay there." Then follows an account of the meeting of Aug. 18th already reported, after which Mr. Morris continues: "Last week Prof. Bhatt came again to Bombay to say good-bye, as I am expecting to return home in a few days. Another service was arranged, and was held in my room on Sunday, Sept. 22d. Most of the students from Poona came again, and although there were some changes in the congregation, we had an attendance of seventeen.

     "This time, although I gave a short address on the necessity and the value of prayer, and conducted part of the service in English as before, Prof. Bhatt shared the responsibility with me, and gave an address in Gujarati which they all seemed to follow with rapt attention. I could not understand what he said, but he took as his subject the parable of the Prodigal Son, and spoke eloquently for about half an hour to the manifest delight of his hearers.

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After the service, which concluded as before at about half-past nine, we had tea and biscuits and fruit, and the party did not break up until about eleven. This is all I have to tell you at present about the New Church in India."
WORD IS DIVINE DOCTRINE AND THE DIVINE DOCTRINE IS THE WORD 1913

WORD IS DIVINE DOCTRINE AND THE DIVINE DOCTRINE IS THE WORD 1913

     Announcements.

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XXXIII MARCH, 1913     No. 3
     The General Convention in the year 1902 adopted as a distinguishing plank of its doctrinal platform the complete denial of the truth that the Writings of the Lord in His Second Coming are the Word of God: "They are very far from being the Word of the Lord." It is clear that there is something wrong with this negative plank, for from-the beginning even to the present time the theologians of the Convention have been continually hammering at it and dressing it, to make it stay down and look like an affirmation.

     We have no doubt that they love and value the Writings, and it must be a deeply painful position to be unceasingly compelled to point out the limitations of that Divine Revelation, the supreme value of which they are also bound to proclaim. Thus they have to blow hot and blow cold in every alternate breath, mixing acknowledgments and negations, rational truths and fallacies, in a manner that is pitiful to behold.

     Two papers in the NEW CHURCH REVIEW for January, 1913, are typical instances of this mixture of the Yea and the Nay towards the Lord in His Second Coming. The Rev. James Reed, in a paper entitled "Nunc Licet," opens with a fine affirmation of the Divine nature of the Writings: "They are not presented to us as the mere product of his [Swedenborg's] own intelligence. He did not think out their teachings through the usual process of inductive reasoning." Yet in the next sentence the negations begin: "Thus what he wrote, though drawn from the Word, was clearly not the same as the Word itself. The matter was written in a Divine style," etc. And so the Yea-and-Nay continues throughout the paper.

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On the one hand the writer points out the "boundless" range of the Writings, "their immeasurable scope and value;" and on the other hand he must needs decry this boundless and immeasurable Revelation as compared with the Word in the letter. The latter, according to Mr. Reed, "is a Divine revelation of unique character,-the one revelation which can be truly said to proceed from the Lord's own mouth,"-and this in the face of Swedenborg's distinct and repeated testimony that the Writings of the New Church are also "from the mouth of the Lord alone." The truth is that the Writings alone, of all Divine Revelations ever given to men, are "from the mouth of the Lord alone," for every preceding Revelation was given through the instrumentality of some angel who was filled with the Divine. But the Writings of the New Church are the first, only, and final Revelation of THE LORD HIMSELF, in His own glorified Human, directly and immediately, without the medium of any spirit or angel.

Mr. Reed very frankly lays bare the secret of the whole negative attitude towards the Writings, in confessing that "we have no right to pretend that we believe things we cannot understand. Such a pretense is wholly false and hypocritical." The writer can but speak for himself, as Thomas did, but he must not accuse the Writings of inculcating hypocrisy when teaching: "The things which are of faith are arcana, which it is our duty to believe, even though we do not understand." (S. D. 857.) "We must believe the truths spoken by the Lord and concerning the Lord, even though we are not able to penetrate them by reason." (S. D. 2727.) "if we were to believe only what we understand, we would believe only what is false, even in regard to merely worldly and bodily things. How, then, can anyone say that he will believe nothing in regard to the spiritual and celestial things which he does not understand?" (S. D. 860.)

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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUMAN DOCTRINE AND DIVINE DOCTRINE 1913

     The Rev. John Whitehead, in the same issue of THE NEW CHURCH REVIEW, presents a paper on the subject of "The Word and Doctrine," in reply (indirectly, of course) to the little editorial note headed "But Not," in the December number of the LIFE. Mr. Whitehead sets out to determine what is "the difference, if any, between the Word and doctrine," and finds the one and all-sufficient definition of such difference in Swedenborg's answer to Dr. Beyer in respect to the apostolic writings:

     "In respect to the writings of the Apostles and of Paul, I have not quoted them in the ARCANA COELESTIA because they are doctrinal writings, and consequently are not written in the style of the Word, like those of the prophets, of David, of the, evangelists, and the book of Revelation. The style of the Word consists altogether of correspondences, wherefore it is effective of immediate communication with heaven, but in doctrinal writings there is a different style, which indeed has communication with heaven, but mediately." (Doc. 11:240.)

     Mr. Whitehead then observes that "Swedenborg thus draws a clear distinction between the Word and doctrine, emphatically saying that doctrinal writings could not be written in the style of the Word. He is indeed directly speaking of the writings of the apostles, yet he makes the broad application to all doctrinal writings," and the writer is convinced that "Swedenborg applies this distinction between the Word and doctrinal writings to his own theological works in their relation to the Word."

     Mr. Whitehead's analogy is extremely unfortunate, for it proves quite too much in the face of his own confession of faith. To reduce the Writings to the level of the Epistles is to deprive them of every Divine-quality. The Epistles are doctrinal writings, "good for the Church," etc., but their are after all merely human productions and in no sense a Divine revelation, whereas the Writings of the New Church are not only a Divine Revelation, but an immediate Revelation, as Mr. Whitehead admits. The Epistles simply represent human interpretations of the Word, but the Heavenly Doctrine, as Mr. Whitehead confesses, "is not the formulated understanding of any man, Swedenborg or others, but is the Lord's own understanding of His Word."

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The Epistles contain truths mingled with things that are fallacious, but the Writings, a, Mr. Whitehead states, "are continuous truths from the Lord." Paul "was not allowed to take a single parable, and not even a doctrine, from the Lord, to expound and explain it, but took all things from himself," (S. D. 4824), but Swedenborg, as Mr. Whitehead admits, took nothing from himself, but everything from the Lord. The Epistles are distinctly the works of Paul, Peter, James, Jude and John, but the Writings "are not my works but the Lord's." (S. D. 6102.) The Epistles did not reveal the Internal Sense of the Word, did not disclose the arcana of Heaven and Hell, did not effect any Last Judgment, did not constitute the Second Coming of the Lord, did not my the foundation for the crowning and everlasting Dispensation! Clearly, Mr. Whitehead's comparison of the Writings with the Epistles does not "hold water," but is leaking from every pore, and this for the simple reason that he does not observe the difference between human doctrine and Divine Doctrine,-a difference which is as great as the difference between the finite and the Infinite!

THE WORD IS DOCTRINE.

The underlying reason why so many members of the New Church cannot grasp the truth that the Divine Doctrine is the Word seems to be the fact that they do not realize that the Word is Divine Doctrine. "What then is the Word," asks Mr. Whitehead, "and what is doctrine?" In answer to the first question he has much to say about the letter of the Word effecting "immediate communication with heaven, even with infants and children," but he says nothing at all concerning the far more essential truth that the Word is Doctrine. This, indeed, is typical of all the writers of this "school of thought." They make much of correspondences, but make little of Doctrine. They pay almost exclusive attention to the external style of the Word as if it were some kind of magical instrument of communication with spirits and angels by means of "correspondences" instead of communication with the Lord Himself by His Divine Truth even in the letter of the Word. The fact that the angels are affected even when the Word is read by little children without much understanding is a delightful truth, but it is by no means the most important thing in the Doctrine concerning the Word.

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It is a particular, a detail, but this detail appears to have assumed such proportions in the eyes of most Newchurchmen that they seem to have lost sight of the one supreme truth that the Word, even the Word in the letter, is Doctrine, Teaching, Instruction, as the Scriptures as well as the Writings universally testify:

     Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall distill as the dew. (Deut. 32:2.).

     Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law. (Ps. 94:12)

     The people were astonished at His doctrine, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Matth. 7:29.)

     All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Tim. 3:16.)

     And in the Writings of the New Church we are taught that:

     As the Lord is Doctrine itself, or the Word which teaches, therefore He is called "a prophet." (A. 2534)

     The doctrine itself from the literal sense of the Word is one only doctrine, namely, the doctrine of charity and love; for this doctrine and a life according to it is the whole Word, as the Lord Himself says. (A. 3445.)

     The Lord is essential Doctrine, that is, the Word, not only as to the supreme sense therein, but also as to the internal sense, and even as to the literal sense. (A. 3393)

     "Beersheba" signifies the Divine Doctrine of faith. The doctrine of faith which is here signified by Beersheba is the literal sense itself of the Word; for the Word is doctrine itself. (A. 3436)

     Divine Doctrine is also the Word in the literal sense, in which it treats of those things which are in the world, and on the earth. (A. 3712.)

     The Lord is Doctrine itself. Hence it is that the Lord is called the Word, because the Word is Doctrine. (A. 3364.)

     The Word is the veriest doctrine itself of faith and charity. (A. 8904.)

     The Word is the one only doctrine which teaches how man is to live in the world in order to be happy to eternity. (A. 8939.)

     The Word is the Doctrine of Divine truth. (E. 612.)

     The ultimate of Doctrine is the sense of the letter of the Word. (E. 8116.)

     There are many things in the sense of the letter which are naked. These things of the Word serve for the doctrine of the Church, because in them there are spiritual natural truths. (DE VERBO 10:7.)

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     It will be seen, therefore, that all attempts to draw a distinction between the Divine Word and the Divine Doctrine are altogether artificial and forced. The term "Word" means Teaching or Doctrine.

     THE LORD IS DIVINE DOCTRINE AND HIS DIVINE DOCTRINE IS THE WORD.

     The writer in the REVIEW having proved to his heart's content,-by the unfortunate analogy with the Epistles;-that the Word is not Divine Doctrine, and that the Divine Doctrine is not the Word, he next proceeds to illustrate the difference between the two by an equally unfortunate analogy with the "white horse" in the Revelation. "What doctrine is in relation to the Word is shown," he says, "by the white horse on which the Lord sat, in the Revelation. As the horse is distinct from the rider, so the significance of it, which is doctrine, is distinct from the Word." According to this analogy the "interior or spiritual understanding of the Word" would be the horse, whereas the literal sense would be the Rider; for the name of the Rider is "the Word of God," and by the Word, according to Mr. Whitehead, is meant the literal sense alone. But the truth is that the Rider is the Lord Himself as the Divine Truth now revealed in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and the white horse is the interior understanding of the Word, directed by this Doctrine.

     For the Lord Himself is the Teacher, and the Teaching or Doctrine is one with the Teacher, and therefore the Doctrine is the Lord. And since the Lord is the Ward, therefore the Doctrine is the Word. "The Lord is Doctrine itself," (A. 2516, 2531); "the Lord is Doctrine itself, that is, the Word," (A. 3393); "hence it is that the Lord, as He is the Word, is also the Doctrine of the Church," (E. 19); "that the Lord is the Word is known; thus the Lord is Doctrine," (A. 2859);" the Lord is Doctrine itself. Hence it is that the Lord is called the 'Word,' because the Word is Doctrine," (A. 3364); "the Lord is essential Doctrine, that is, the Word, not only as to the supreme sense therein, but as to the internal sense, and also as to the literal sense." (A. 3393.)

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     From all these teachings it is evident that the Lord is the Word because He is Divine Doctrine, and that therefore the Word and Divine Doctrine are synonymous terms,-both meaning the same thing, viz., the Lord's own teaching of Divine Truth. This would seem so self-evident as to need no confirmation from the written Revelation, but it may nevertheless be of use to our younger readers to repeat Once more the well-known teachings, so persistently ignored by those who are trying to confirm themselves in the denial of the crowning Revelation being the Word of the Lord in His Second Coming.

     "He whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God, and God giveth not the Spirit by measure." (John 3:34.) Is there anyone in the New Church who would deny that Emanuel Swedenborg was a man sent by God? Why not acknowledge, then, that the words which he speaks are the words of God, in which the Spirit of God is given without measure?

     "That which the Divine has revealed is with us the Word." (A. 10320.) The Divine has revealed the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, and therefore it is with us the Word.

     "The Word is Divine Truth, and the interior or spiritual sense is the interior Word." (E. 948.) The Writings are the revelation of the interior sense, and therefore they are the interior Word.

     "The internal sense of the Word has gradually become obliterated, and at the present day to such an extent that its very existence is unknown, when yet this is the verimost Word, (ipsissimum Verbum), in which the Divine is most closely present." (A. 3432) The Writings are this internal sense now revealed and therefore they are the verimost Word.

     "'Their words were one.' . . . That 'word' signifies all doctrine concerning charity and faith thence, and that 'words' signify the things which are of doctrine is evident from David in Ps. 119:7-16.... (I do not forget Thy Word.' 'Word' here signifies Doctrine in general." (A. 1288.) The Writings
of the New Church are "Doctrine in general" and therefore they are the Word.

     "That 'words' in the original tongue also signify 'things' is because 'words' in the internal sense signify truths of Doctrine; wherefore all Divine Truth in general is called the Word." (A. 5075.)

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The Writings of the New Church are Divine Truth both in general and particular, and therefore they are to be called the Word.

     "In John we read: 'In the beginning was the Word.'. . .Few know what is meant here by 'the Word;' that [1] it is the Lord is evident from the particulars involved. And the internal sense teaches that [2] the Lord as to His Divine Human is meant. And because the Divine Human is meant, therefore [3] by 'the Word' is meant all Truth which is concerning Him, and from Him, in His Kingdom in the-heavens and in His Church on earth. And because the Truth is meant, therefore [4] by 'the Word' is meant all Revelation, thus [5] also the Word itself or the Holy Scripture." (A. 2894.) Can anything be more definite and more inclusive? But the teaching continues:

     "Divine Doctrine is Divine truth, and all Divine truth is the Word of the Lord. Divine Doctrine itself is the Word in the supreme sense, in which it treats of the Lord alone. Thence Divine Doctrine is the Word in the internal sense, in which it treats of the Lord's kingdom in the heavens and on earth. Divine Doctrine is also the Word in the literal sense, in which it treats of those things which are in the world and on the earth." (A. 3712.) Quod erat demonstradum.

     THE STYLE OF THE WRITINGS IS THE DIVINE STYLE.

     The claim that the Writings are not written in "the Divine style,"-that they are not written in correspondences,-that they contain no internal sense,-that they do not effect any immediate communication with heaven,-all these negations are pure assumptions, contrary to the plain teachings of the Heavenly Doctrine itself, and contrary to the logic of sound reason.

     1) That the Writings are written in the Divine style is absolutely evident from Swedenborg's testimony. As Mr. Whitehead says: "If we are to believe Swedenborg's testimony, and we do believe it," then that crowning Revelation which "excels all the Revelations that have been made since the creation of the world," (INV. 44), must be written in a style no less Divine than all the preceding and less excelling Revelations. How could it possibly be otherwise?

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     The primary touch-stone by which we may distinguish the Divine Books in the Bible from those which are not Divine is the principle of continuity. Those books are Divine in which the internal sense is continuous, but those are not Divine which do not contain continuous truths from the Lord. Human doctrine can never consist of continuous truths throughout, but the Heavenly Doctrine consists of nothing but "continuous truths, laid open by the Lord through the Word," (T. 508); it is "truth in every complex," (E. 724), and "Divine throughout." (A. 2531.) This continuity, therefore, at Once identifies the Writings with the Word, because it identifies them with the Divine itself, which is continuous because it is infinite.

     Again, "if we are to believe Swedenborg's testimony, and we do believe it," the very style of the Writings must be the Divine style. For Swedenborg most solemnly testifies that "the Internal Sense has been dictated to me out of Heaven," (A. 6597); that the new Revelation has been inspired "from the mouth of the Lord alone," (DE VERBO 13; COR. I8; INV. 38); that the Writings "are not my works but the Lord's," (D. 6102); that "the Books were written by the Lord through me." (ECCL. HIST.) In the face of such testimony how can we possibly doubt that what has been thus dictated, inspired and written by the Lord Himself, has been written in the Divine style? How else could the Lord write?

     2) Divine Doctrine is always written in the Divine style. The fact that the Writings of the New Church are works of Divine Doctrine by no means prevents their being written in the Divine style, for Divine Doctrine has always been written in the Divine style.

     The first doctrinal work ever written was the book composed by the generation known as Enoch, who from the lips of their fathers collected the Divine truths which had been written upon the hearts of the men of the Golden Age and which constituted the Word of the Most Ancient Church. This book, though doctrinal in form, was none the less the Word, the beginning of the Ancient Word.

     The man of the Ancient Church had no perception, as had the man of the Most Ancient Church, but had to learn what is good and true from the doctrinal things of faith collected and preserved from the perceptions of the Most Ancient Church, which doctrinals were the Word of the Ancient Church. (A. 920, 1071.)

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These doctrinals were their Word. (A. 1241.) The things thus signified were collected from their lips by their posterity and were by the latter formed into doctrinals which were the Word of the Ancient Church after the flood. (A. 1409, 1068.)

     As to the Word of the Old Testament we are taught that the literal sense here " is three-fold: historical, prophetical and doctrinal," (A. 2531, 3432), but the historical and prophetical parts also are so manifestly doctrinal in their import that even the theologians of the Gild Church recognize that these parts are intended to impress Divine teachings. Thus the whole of the Hebrew Word is essentially doctrinal, and in thousands of places openly and formally so, where the doctrine of genuine truth shines forth through the letter as a face through thin silk. In fact, "the general truths which are necessary for salvation are the same in the literal sense as in the internal sense." (A. 2225, 2609; DE VERBO 54.) But Why multiply quotations and references! Our opponents are as well acquainted with these teachings as we are, though they never adduce them. But we must ask them if they suppose that the Old Testament is written in "the Divine style" only in the historical and prophetical parts, and not equally so in the openly doctrinal parts' Are the doctrinal teachings of the Old Testament the Word or are they not?

     As to the Word of the New Testament, we cannot imagine that anyone would deny that the Gospels are almost wholly doctrinal, being the Lord's own unfolding of the Doctrine concerning Himself and concerning charity and faith as prefigured more or less openly in the Old Testament. The Lord here explains the universal internal sense of the Hebrew revelation as being the doctrine for the Christian Church, but His doctrine nevertheless, even where He Himself explains the inner meaning of His parables, still contains a further and more internal sense. Their doctrinal quality, therefore, does not destroy their "Divine style" or prevent their being the Word of the Lord Himself. The Doctrine in Greek is the Word of the Lord as much as the Doctrine in Hebrew.

     3) The internal evidence of the Writings themselves is the most convincing testimony to the Divinity of their style.

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Every receiver of these Writings, after he has been convinced of the Divinity of their contents, is confirmed in his faith by their wonderful consistency, and as he reads on, year after year, the marvel increases. From the first page of the ARCANA to the last page of the INVITATION he cannot find an actual contradiction of doctrinal statement or an inconsistency in the application of the law of correspondence. Apparent contradictions melt away as he keeps on studying, and as difficulty after difficulty is explained he exclaims to himself, again and again: "No man ever wrote thus. These books are written by God Himself! Swedenborg spoke true words when stating: 'they were written by the Lord through me.'"

     The very fact that the Writings can be interpreted from opposite to opposite is another evidence of their Divine style. Mr. Reed himself, in the same issue of the REVIEW, bears witness to this: "It has been often remarked," he says, "that almost anything can be proved from the Bible by one who is disposed to make use of it for that purpose. The same remark is true of the Writings of the New Church. There is no limit to the extent to which they can be falsified by ignorant or evil-minded persons." And the true reason for this is the fact that the Writings, like every other Divine Revelation, possess a letter and a spirit. Those who falsify the Writings remain in their literal sense, which, like the letter of the Word, can be bent from opposite to opposite, like a flaming sword. That the Writings are written in a form "like the literal sense," see S. D. 2185.

     4) That the Writings are written in correspondences can be denied only by those who have no idea of the universality of the law of correspondence. It is simply impossible for anyone in the natural world to utter or write a single word that does not have its corresponding equivalent in the spiritual world.

     All speech perceived by the ear passes into ideas not unlike those of sight, and these into intellectual ideas, and thus becomes a perception of the sense of the words. (A. 3342.) When there is order, then the scientifics, specifically and particularly, become the ultimate vessels which correspond to rational things, rational things correspond to spiritual things, and spiritual things correspond to celestial things. (A. 1476.)

     There is a correspondence of sensual things with natural things, a correspondence of natural things with spiritual things, a correspondence of spiritual things with celestial things, and finally a correspondence of celestial things with the Divine of the Lord; thus there is a succession of correspondences from the Divine down to the ultimate natural. (A. 5131, Read also A. 9407; H. 100; W. 202; R. 658.)

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     The Writings could not have been written at all unless written in correspondences, but the difference between the correspondences in the Writings, (as in every other form of the Divine Word), and those in human compositions, is that in the former the correspondences are "continuous truths," whereas in the latter, even the best of them, the correspondences are broken by things that are fallacious.

     5) That the Writings possess an internal sense follows from the fact that they are written in correspondences which are "continuous truths." It follows also from ordinary sound sense. To say that the Divine Doctrine does not have any internal sense is to say that there is nothing within it, that it is nothing but empty words, a dead letter. But every affirmative reader knows from experience that Within the literal statements of the Doctrine there is a deeper meaning, and depth beneath depth, and though he may study to eternity, he will never reach the end of it. For the whole of Heaven is within the Doctrine, the Divine Truth is within it, the Lord is within it.

     If the Heavenly Doctrine is the natural revelation of the spiritual sense of the Word, it must necessarily have an internal sense, for the spiritual sense itself has within it the celestial sense, and this again the Divine sense. In the Old Testament the internal sense rests not only upon the significance of the words, but upon the very curves and tittles of the Hebrew letters. In the New Testament the internal sense does not rest upon such ultimate sensuous forms, but upon the correspondence of the particular words and sentences. And in the Writings,-the third and final Testament of the Lord's Word,-the internal sense rests no longer upon sensuous forms, but upon rational forms, forms adapted to the highest degree of the natural mind,-the Divinely logical statements of the Doctrine. Hence this Doctrine is the final crown of all revelations that can be given to men in the natural world.

     6) By the Writings of the New Church there is immediate communication with heaven and the Lord.

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The supreme end of every Revelation is its use in effecting communication and conjunction with the Lord. The writer in the Review maintains that "the reading of the Word effects immediate communication with heaven, even with infants and children; but Swedenborg's Writings, being doctrine, effect mediate communication with heaven." And yet he quotes the teaching that the Heavenly Doctrine is an immediate revelation: "That at this day such an immediate revelation exists is because this is what is meant by the coming of the Lord." (H. 1) Does Mr. Whitehead seriously mean that an immediate revelation effects only a mediate communication? He himself says that "the object in revealing the spiritual sense of the Word, and of formulating its contents in doctrinal form, is that man may consciously know, think, and be affected by the same thoughts and truths as the angel's, . . . so that man and angel are in the same idea; whereas in correspondential language the natural idea is altogether different from the spiritual idea." Really, would it not be well to "stop, look, and listen" before running headlong into the train of logic? Even a child knows that two persons speaking the same language communicate immediately, but that the communication can be only mediate between two persons speaking in altogether different tongues. But Mr. Whitehead's formula is wrong at both ends. Even when reading the Writings we cannot possibly, while in this world, be in the same thought and idea as that enjoyed by the angels, nor when reading the Word in the letter are we in an "altogether different" idea, but in both cases we are in similar because corresponding ideas. The difference lies simply in the more and the less of similarity. The more we enter into the interiors of the Word, the more similar becomes our ideas to the heavenly ideas, and the more immediate becomes the communication. In the internal sense itself "the Divine is most closely present," (A. 3432), and the communication, therefore, is then most close.

7) The style of the most excellent of all revelations is therefore altogether Divine, as is manifest from all the evidence that has been adduced,-Divinely simple, clear and rational, Divinely consistent and continuous, Divinely affecting the affection of truth, and Divinely powerful in its very language in conveying the means of Salvation to the human race.

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How hopeless is the cause of those who deny the Word of the Second Coming is manifest, finally, from the fact that they are fighting against the prophetic spirit of that Word which they believe to be the only form of the Divine Word. In that Word there is a brief inscription or title which by the Divine Providence was affixed above the crucified body of Him who is and who was and who forever will be the Word Itself, the Divine Ruler of His Church. It was this inscription which first suggested to the earliest Newchurchmen the acknowledgment of the Writings as the Word. It is this inscription which still lies as the bed-rock of our faith, and this same inscription will inspire in all future generations the perception that the Lord in His Second Coming has come as the Latin Word: JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS IN HEBREW, GREEK AND LATIN.

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OPENING AND SHUTTING OF HEAVEN 1913

OPENING AND SHUTTING OF HEAVEN Rev. ANDREW CZERNY 1913

     "And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in, heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." (Matth, 16:19.)

     What these words involve can not be known without instruction from heaven: thus not without a revelation from heaven, which explains them. For in this place, as in so many other places in the Word, the internal sense is altogether different from the literal sense: and it is that sense which teaches how the Word is to be understood. Our text has been taken, and is still taken, literally in the Christian Church. It is maintained that the Lord actually gave to Peter the power of opening and shutting heaven. But he who abides in the letter can not but err in many things relating to heaven and the Church; for as the apostle says: "The letter killeth; but the spirit giveth life." To know what is involved in the words of our text we must inquire what the spiritual sense teaches concerning it. And from that we learn that the power of opening and shutting heaves belongs to the Lord alone. We further learn, that He shuts heaven to no one. Infinite love cannot do this. Men have claimed such power. The love of dominion from the love of self would dethrone the Lord, if it could. That love knows no bounds. Hence as no man, nor any angel, has the power to open or to shut heaven, it is plain that the Lord's words in our text involve something else, and that to discover their real meaning we must search the spiritual sense, as just observed.

     By "Peter" is signified the Divine Truth from the Divine Good; and in a derivative sense, the faith of truth from good. And because Peter had this signification, therefore, the Lord said to him:

     "Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock will I build my Church." Moreover the Lord said this to Peter, because Peter's confession involved an acknowledgment of the Lord in His Divine Human. Peter's words:

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     "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God," are an acknowledgment that the Lord is Divine even as to the Human. And this is the supreme of all Divine Truths. This truth must enter into everything of the Church. Where this truth is not acknowledged, there the Church is trot; for the Lord expressly declared upon this Rock will He build His Church: "Rock" signifying Divine truth; hence the words "this Rock" signify this supreme of all truths.

     After thus declaring that the acknowledgment of the Lord is the first essential of the Church, the Lord continues in the words of our text:

     "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose an earth shall be loosed in heaven."

     By the keys of the kingdom of heaven, in the supreme sense, is signified the Lord's Omnipotence over heaven and hell. That they have this signification must appear evident to every one, who possesses any degree of internal perception. Power over heaven and hell is power over all those who have passed into the spiritual world from the beginning. The power to open and to shut heaven involves also the power to keep in order all the heavens and the hells;-not to speak of the power to judge the states of man. Such power can not be given to any finite being, notwithstanding the fact that there are passages in the Word which seem to imply this. For our text is not the only passage which seems to imply this. In the Prophecy of Isaiah the Word speaks in similar terms of Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah, as of Peter. Concerning him we read:

     "And the keys of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open," by which similar things are meant in the internal sense as in our text. But the power of opening and shutting heaven (which in these passages seems to be transferred to men), is openly declared to belong to the Lord, in another place. Thus in the third chapter of the Apocalypse we read:

     "These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the keys of David; He that openeth, and no one shutteth, and shutteth, and no one openeth," who is no other than the Lord, who appeared to John.

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Thus in the supreme sense by "keys," when mentioned in the Word, is signified the Lord's Omnipotence. Thus in the supreme sense:-for "keys" have other significations, which are also involved in the internal sense of our text. Thus, for instance, they signify introduction into heaven; as also the means of introduction, which are spiritual goods and truths. They also signify the power of the angels over evil spirits, and over evils and falses generally.

     Having shown that the power signified by "the keys of the kingdom of heaven" belongs to the Lord alone, let us see what is meant by the Lord's words to Peter:

     "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." By these words is signified the Lord's operation from firsts by ultimates to save man. The ultimates by which the Lord saves man, are on the earth; indeed in man. For man's salvation is affected by means of knowledges from the Word, stored at first in his memory, whence they are elevated into the thought, where their application is perceived; and when perceived, may be made the means of reformation and regeneration, by which is salvation. This is also the way by which heaven is opened to man.

     But before we proceed in the explanation of our text it will be necessary to state what heaven is, from which it will also appear where the opening and shutting of heaven takes place.

     Heaven, we are taught, is a state of the interiors of the mind. It is a state of the mind formed by the reception of spiritual good and truth from the Lord. Every man has an internal mind and an external. Through the internal man receives life from the Lord. Into this the Lord's Divine Influx of good and truth takes place. In man's external mind are evils, both hereditary and acquired. Before man has reached the age of maturity the internal mind is neither open nor shut. The opening or shutting depends upon man's subsequent life. If, after he has reached the age of maturity, he suffers himself to be led out of evils, his internal mind is opened;-if not, it is closed.

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The opening takes place from above; the closing from below. That is to say, the Lord opens the man's interiors; and it is the man himself who closes them. And he does this by evils of life. The Lord does not open man's interiors so long as evils rule in the external mind; for to do so, before evils are conquered and reduced to subjection, would destroy man more interiorly. For the evils of the external mind would invade the internal, and defile this also. What the result would be may be seen from the fact that the interiors of man's mind belong to the planes of the heavens. Indeed man's interiors are in heaven. From which it follows that if man's interiors were opened before the evils in his external mind are reduced to subjection, his evils would invade heaven; disturb the sphere there; thus infest the angels. The Lord constantly guards against the mingling of opposites; because by such mingling order would be subverted, and confusion would prevail in the whole spiritual word.

Thus the opening of man's interiors is not in man's power. Man can not open his own interiors, nor those of another. And as by the opening of the interiors heaven is opened to man, it follows that it is not in man's power to open heaven, either to himself or to another. From which it also follows that the power of opening and shutting heaven was not transferred to Peter, nor to Eliakim, nor to any of their successors.

Now to shut heaven may be said to be in man's power; for the Lord never shuts heaven to any man. He wills to save all men, and uses all the means by which this may be effected; if man only suffers himself to be led to co-operate with the Lord, by removing the obstacles that stand in the way. These obstacles are his own evils;-those evils which he loves and cherishes. For a distinction is to be made between the evils and falses, which man has made his own, and those which he has not made his own. Those that he loves and wills after it has been pointed out to hint that they are evils and falses, these he makes his own, and these shut the interiors of his mind, thus heaven to him. On the other hand, falses and even evils that he has imbibed in ignorance, these do not shut heaven to him; for he does not know that they are falses and evils. And if he abstains from and rejects those that he does know to be such, he also abstains from and rejects in intention those that he does not know.

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The latter are easily stripped off in the other life, and form no serious obstacles to his preparation for heaven.

Thus by shutting heaven is meant the closing of man's interiors toward heaven. This is in man's power. But that power is restricted to the closing of one's own interiors. Man can not close the interiors of another; or to state it more correctly, not without the other's consent. What we mean is this: One man may lead another away from heaven. He may pervert his understanding by persuading him to accept falses; and he may lead him into evils, and encourage him in them, even to confirmation. In this sense it may be said that one man may close heaven to another. In reality every man that is shut out from heaven has closed it to himself. The evils in himself, loved and cherished, have induced upon his mind a form which can not receive nor endure the influx of heaven, which, indeed strives with all its might to keep it out.

Thus though the Lord alone has the power to open heaven; to man, man may, if he chooses, close it to himself; or, to put it in other words, he has the power to prevent the Lord from opening it to him. For the Lord desires to do so; but without the man's co-operation, the obstacles, which make it impossible to open his interiors, can not be removed. The external mind of man must first be reduced into order before the internal can be opened. By the external is meant that part of the mind in which man's conscious thoughts and affections reside. Thus not only that which is apparent before other men, but also that which does not appear,-all his thoughts and intentions. These are not heavenly before regeneration. Hence unless they become so by regeneration from the Lord there is no correspondence between the internal and external of man's mind. The internal has no ultimate into which it could flow, and through which it could operate. So long as the affections and the thoughts thence are evil, there are no forms in the external to receive the influx of heaven. The whole mind, while in this state, is in inverted order. Instead of God, self rules; instead of love to the neighbor, the love of the world or of pleasure rules. These must be conquered. What rules must learn to serve higher ends and principles.

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And the means whereby this change is brought about; in other words, the means whereby the external mind is to be reduced into order, are truths from good. Truth reveals the disorder. And the good within the truth enables man to overcome the evil of these loves and to render the latter subservient. Then, and not before, can man's internal be opened, and with it heaven.

     All this is signified by "the keys of the kingdom of heaven." The power to open heaven and to shut hell is signified by them. One involves the other. Heaven is open in so far as hell is shut. He who has the power to do the former has also the power to do the latter. Note! It is the power to open heaven and to shut hell, and not the reverse. The reverse is not of order, but of permission. And there is an infinite difference between what is of the Divine will and what is of permission. Is it of the Divine will to save; thus to open heaven. The closing of heaven-and the opening of hell are of permission. The Divine can never will them. The latter, therefore, are not meant by the keys of the kingdom of heaven, although this has been supposed to be involved.

     By the keys of the kingdom of heaven are also meant the means by which heaven is opened. These, as already stated, are truths from good. Through these, evils are overcome, the external mind is reduced into order and thus brought into the order of heaven. This is what is meant by the external mind being brought into correspondence with the internal. Correspondence exists between a heavenly external and its internal. But there is no correspondence between an unregenerated external and man's internal. And where there is no correspondence there is no conjunction; nor can there be communication between them. It is because truth from; good reduces the external mind into order that these also are signified by "the keys of the kingdom of heaven;" as it is by these that conjunction and communication between the external and internal is established.

     From what has been said, it is evident that the operations by which heaven is opened to man take place in the external from the internal. Whereas the operations whereby heaven is closed to man, take place in the external without the internal. The former is meant by the Lord operating from firsts by ultimates to save man.

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All evils are in the external man. If these are seen, and fought against until they are overcome, then the Lord opens heaven to man, end none can shut. If, on the other hand, man loves and cherishes evils, he confirms himself in them; thus he himself shuts heaven against himself, and none can open, not even the Lord, although he desires to do so. The external of man is signified by "the earth" in our text, his internal by "heaven." By "binding" is signified conjunction, by "loosing" separation. And as we have seen in so far as man's external, which is his earth, is in correspondence with his internal, which is his heaven, in so far communication and conjunction exist between them. While on the other hand, in the degree, as there is no correspondence between them, there is separation. This is meant by the Lord's words to Peter:

     "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall he loosed in heaven."

     It is on the earth alone, (understood in this sense), that man is permitted to operate, and to co-operate with the Lord. It is there also where he can frustrate the Lord's endeavor to save him.

     But the Lord says to Peter: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind. . .and loose." Peter has here a two-fold signification. In the supreme sense he signifies the Divine Truth; and here this truth, that the Lord is God, even as to the Human. In a derivative sense he signifies the faith of truth: from good, which confesses this truth. And it is a teaching that all truths from good acknowledge and confess the Lord; whereas falses from evil deny Him. Whether we say good and truth, or those who are grounded in them, it is the same. So also, whether we say evils and falses, or those who are confirmed in them, it is the same. For the former are goods and truths in from, and the latter evils and falses in form. Whence it follows that the former are in the constant acknowledgment and confession of the Lord; the latter in the constant denial of Him. From which again it follows that it is the acknowledgment and confession of the Lord, which opens heaven to man; for these are states of the interiors, thus of the life and love of those who are in goods and truths.

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And so, likewise, is the denial of the Lord a state; the state of evil and the false thence, which closes heaven to man. What the former state binds on earth is born in heaven. Nor can man, from any power in himself, conjoin himself with heaven. It is the truth from good from the Lord in him that effects conjunction.

This truth is now revealed to the man of the Church. The man of the Church may thus prepare himself for conjunction with heaven. The only thing needful to do so is to shun what opposes. The way to heaven is open to every man; but heaven itself is opened only to those who prepare themselves for it. In this and in no other way can man come into the state which acknowledges and confesses the Lord. Unless the state exists there is no real acknowledgment. And this acknowledgment is the key of the kingdom of heaven.

"And whatsoever [it] shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever lit] shall loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven."

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FORMATION OF THE MIND 1913

FORMATION OF THE MIND Rev. W. L. GLADISH 1913

     (A paper read at the Pittsburgh District Assembly.)

     How wonderfully a plant pushes its way through the ground, clothes itself with leaves, and finally bursts into bloom! Out of the dead soil is formed a thing of life and beauty. That soil, composed of corruption, of decaying vegetable and animal matters, yet gives root and body to a form of living delicacy and purity. The more closely it is examined the more our wonder grows. How marvelously all its parts are formed and fitted together and adapted to their several uses! How perfect is the unity of the whole! Examine under the microscope its interior structure and the circulation of its fluids, the way in which bark and wood, bud and petal are developed, and your mind cannot but be moved with awe, with reverence and praise to Him whose Divine Love and Wisdom can create such marvels.

     But if we admire the beauty of the lily how much more profoundly must we be moved to see the development of the human mind. The ground from which it springs is not only dead but is reeking with the impurities of all our evil ancestors. Yet out of this doubly dead ground, which not only has no life but loves death and hates life, the all-merciful Lord creates the human mind in His own image and likeness. He raises up a form of the utmost delicacy and complexity of structure. He embodies in it all the wonders of heaven and of earth, so that there is nothing either in this world or the next that is not imaged in the mind. And greatest marvel of all, with man's co-operation He makes this mind, which is the immortal spirit and the very man himself, even purer than the lily of the field.

     The processes of the formation and growth, the reformation and regeneration of man, are involved and represented in those chapters of the holy Word which tell of the life and journeys of Abraham and his descendants. Although this is true history,-every event having happened just as recorded,-yet within the history is this universal story of human life.

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And not only of human life, but of the one Divine-Human life! In its inmost bosom the Word, which was dictated by God Himself, is nothing but the life of Him who in the beginning was with God and was God, and who was made flesh for our salvation. Hence under all its history, its type and symbol, the Word describes how the Divine Human was made to spring up out of the dead ground of our humanity and grow into Life Itself. The soil in which this Divine Seed was planted was formed from the intensest love of self and sordid avarice in the lowest people in the world; yet out of this ground grew Love Itself, the Sinless One, He who in all the universe is the One altogether lovely. Here in His Word the steps of that development are set forth by representatives with a rich profusion of detail. And in the Word of His second coming the inner meaning of these representatives is now unfolded.

     INFANCY: CELESTIAL AFFECTIONS.

     By the call to Abram to leave the land of his nativity, (Gen. xii), for a land that the Lord would show him, was represented the dawn of light in the Lord's mind in infancy. By Canaan was represented the Heavenly Kingdom. By Abram's journeys in the land were represented the several states of the Lord's infancy until He attained perception: the Father appeared to Him, and love and wisdom were established like two great luminaries in His interior man. This state, which was His fourth, corresponding to the fourth day of creation, was represented by Abram's encamping between Bethel and Ai, building an altar and calling on the name of the Lord who had appeared to him.

     We can comprehend but little of the work done by our Lord in His Human at this period because it was infinite and divine, but we may understand something of what is done for our children in their infancy. They are kept in the sphere of the celestial heaven, hence in innocence and in love. It is the time of the opening of the will and its storing with the seeds of angelic life. Hence both the quantity and the quality of the future man's love of what is holy and true is largely determined during his infancy.

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And as the celestial sphere of the highest heaven is essential to the foundation of that basic plane of the mind, so, too, as an ultimate of that sphere, the conjugial sphere of the spiritual union of the father and mother is essential to a full store of celestial remains. The Word must be loved in the home, and all loves of the proprium must be subordinated to the love of eternal life. The image of the Divine Father as the Giver of every good must be indelibly impressed upon the tender heart of the babe, that it may be, through all his subsequent years, the center and molding principle of his life. "The last shall be first and the first last" is the Divine law. That love which is to prevail in the end must be instilled in the beginning. The Father appeared to the Lord in infancy as soon as He reached a state of perception. So must we cause their Heavenly Father to appear mutually to our children with their first perception. The Lord works through parents for the salvation of their children and what He can do within depends in large measure upon what He can do through the parents from without. All power is in ultimates. The power of the Lord and of Heaven must find its ultimate basis in a sphere from the Word filling the home and surrounding the infant, bearing him up as on wings to the Source of life. To the Lord in His infancy everything that He saw in the earth and the world was seen as created by God for some end and hence as a representative of the kingdom of God. (A. C. 1434.) The same should be taught to our infants.

     Nor is it enough to inspire affection for the Lord the Creator and His kingdom of uses. We must also guard against the activity of the love of self and the love of rule. These two corporeal loves, opposite to the heavenly loves of the Lord and of uses, especially threaten infancy. And our own selfish love of attracting attention to our little ones often awakens these evil loves in them.

     FIRST CHILDHOOD: INTELLECTUAL TRUTH.

     It is also recorded in Genesis xii that Abram went down into Egypt, and, lest he should be slain by the Egyptians, called Sarai his sister until it was revealed by the Lord to Pharaoh that she was Abram's wife.

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Then she was restored to her husband and he went up out of Egypt greatly enriched through Sarai his wife. The riches of Egypt are the knowledges gained through instruction. Our Lord willed to be instructed as another man through ear and eye. But He was unwilling to receive instruction from any other source but the Word. The Word was open to Him even unto His Father from whom it was given, and as it was written solely concerning His life in the Human it was to Him the chart of His life. The filling of His mind with the truths of the letter of the Word was represented both by Abram's descent into Egypt and by His own journey thither in infancy. (Matth. ii.) But the knowledges that the Lord in His first childhood drew out of the Word were such as are called in the Writings "Intellectual Truths." These are essential truths stripped of all finite appearances.

     He alone, of all men who have ever been born, thought from intellectual truth because His internal man was Jehovah. All finite men and angels think in the rational, thus in appearances of truth. Yet the little child just emerging from infancy is to be taught these very same truths that the Lord revealed to His Human out of the Word in His first childhood. For these truths, which transcend the rational, yet make the inmost of the rational. And they must be taught first: of all before the mind has learned to think in the light of nature, lest that fallacious light cause the true light to appear as darkness.

     Intellectual truths are such as these, viz., that God alone lives, while we have no life of our own but are merely dead forms animated by His life; that God alone is good, and no man has any good of his own but solely what he receives from Him; that God alone is wise and we are wise only by conjunction with Him through His Word, he being most foolish who fancies he has any wisdom of his own; and that he who knows he has no wisdom of his own may by conjunction with the Lord come into a perception of all essential truth.

     Such truths, which are the very vital principled of all religion, are above the grasp of our rational minds and contrary to the ideas of our feeble reason. They are to be accepted because the Lord teaches them in His Word. And if we do not accept them we never become rational.

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For the essential light of the rational is the light of the Sun of Heaven. Therefore all those truths which embody the light of that Sun are to be instilled in first childhood, that from within they may enlighten and rule over the light of this world. These truths are eagerly accepted by the little child who is delighted by the deepest truths, especially such as are contrary to appearances. This is from the soul's hunger for such truths as are in harmony with its own laws as a means of letting itself down into the body and the world. These truths are at first loved intellectually, i. e., for the sake of knowing and thinking. This is meant by Sarai as a sister. Intellectual truth, separate from its good, is very pleasing to the scientific spirit, i. e., the love of knowing. If truth and good could not be separated, good would never be received,-Abram would be slain. But after truth is accepted and loved for the sake of knowing until there is a full store, its good can also be received. The further purpose of truth, which is conjunction with the Lord in the uses of life, is seen and accepted. Sarai is restored to Abram and he goes up out of Egypt greatly enriched because of Sarai his wife.

CHILDHOOD: MUTUAL LOVE.

The thirteenth chapter of Genesis, under the story of the separation of Lot from Abram, describes the conjunction of the internal and external man in childhood after the awakening sensual loves of the external have been rejected. Abram represents the internal man and Lot the external. There are two loves which reign in the internal man and are its life: these are love from the Lord to the Lord and love toward the neighbor. But the two loves which possess the external man are love from self for self and love of the world. The internal man cannot come down into the external until these two latter loves are seen as evil and are rejected. This the Lord did in His childhood. And all the education of childhood should look to this as its final end. The period meant is that just preceding youth, approximately from the tenth to the fourteenth year. The cupidities of the external man can be rejected during this period and the internal and external can be conjoined because a mind formed by celestial truth (Sarai restored to Abram) has been added to infancy's store of celestial affections.

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Now must follow the bringing down of good and truth from the internal into the external, forming a life in harmony with itself.

     This involves the child's seeing the beauty of the external man when ruled by mutual love, and its infernal nature when ruled by love of dominating; it involves also the child's definite rejection of the latter and acceptance of the former. To this he should be led in all possible ways that he may now in heart make the choice of good to be confirmed in the next period, youth, by the acceptance of truth.

     YOUTH: SCIENCE.

     With the opening of the rational a new period begins. It is a time of combat between truths and falses in the rational mind. The child now begins to enter upon his own life. His hereditary evils awaken and incline him to believe falses. He no longer believes truth on the authority of parents and masters, but reexamines the truths which he had eagerly embraced in childhood and either confirms them or rejects them or holds them in doubt.

     During youth a great cycle of life is to be completed, the period of minority, to give place to manhood. During his minority he thinks from others: after his majority he thinks from himself, according to his own judgment. Therefore the time of youth has a twofold aspect. It looks back to childhood and forward to manhood. It reviews and gathers up all that has been accepted on the authority of teachers and masters, and out of these things selects what the man will accept as his own principles of life. It is therefore manifestly a time of mental conflict. This is set forth in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis. It takes in the letter the form of a history of wars. The kings of Sodom and Gomorrah rebel, having served Chedorlaomer twelve years, and he comes to subdue them in the fourteenth year.

     After making the compass of the Dead Sea, conquering all the nations in his path, he finally joins battle with the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah, defeats them and carries away all their goods, and also takes Lot, who was living in Sodom.

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Then Abram pursues after Chedorlaomer with 318 trained solders born in his house, puts him to rout by night and brings back Lot and all that had been captured.

     Here is described by representatives the battles of youth. The rebellious kings of Sodom and Gomorrah represent evils and falses which now rebel against the Lord. Cherdorlaomer and the kings with him represent the goods and truths of childhood from which the youth fights against his evils and falses and conquers them. After the conflict he is enlightened to see that the principles from which he fought were but external-such as he could receive in childhood. He then carries the conflict still further and displaces those external truths and gods by more internal and genuine ones now revealed to him. He sets Lot free from his captivity, i. e., he brings the freedom of genuine truth to his external man-Lot representing the external man. Every conflict of youth is twofold because he must first fight from his childhood's goods and truths and win the victory: by this victory he obtains principles of his own rationality-born in his own house-by which he carries the victory still further.

     The distinguishing characteristic of youth is this mental conflict between truth and falsity to determine what principles shall govern man through life. But all this is within him and is carried on by the youth himself. The education of youth provided by parents and teachers should be such as to fill the mind with great abundance of scientifics for his use in these conflicts. First of all, both in point of time and in importance, are the scientifics of the Word, that is, the doctrines of the church, taught as scientifically and completely as any science can be taught. There is also a distinct science of morals, again a science of civics or government, and finally all the physical and earthly sciences. The structure and development of the mind do not permit instruction to be given in systematic scientific form before the age of youth with its opening rationality.

     THE REPRESENTATIVE RATIONAL: ABRAM THE HEBREW.

     Science opens the rational mind because it furnishes the lowest degree of the rational. And the rational becomes operative only after it is complete.

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     That this may be understood, it must be known that the soul in reality forms the mind from above and lets it down by distinct steps into the body. (A. C. 1495, 2504.) The appearance is opposite to this. It appears as if the scientific plane of the mind is formed in childhood by knowledges and then upon that is formed the rational. But in fact the rational is forming through the whole period of childhood. It begins on emergence from infancy by the imbuing of intellectual truths. By these truths the inmost of the rational is formed and it is conjoined with the soul.

     In the middle period of childhood moral truths and the truths of mutual love and service are to be learned. These form the middle of the rational. In youth systematized knowledge or science completes the rational mind, which is thus threefold. The soul has now provided an intermediate by which it can begin to let down its own love and wisdom into its body and lift the external man up to conjunction with itself.

     Behold now the fair form of the human mind as it stands on the threshold of manhood equipped for the work of life. As described above, briefly and imperfectly stated, these are the laws of its growth and education as gathered from the opening of the 12th to the 14th chapters of Genesis in the ARCANA COELESTIA. But this is not the full-formed human mind. This is not the rational mind that is to be the very man himself. This is but a temporary structure provided for man in which he has had little agency of his own as a rational being. Through this he is now to build for himself his own rational. Or rather the Lord is now to gift him with a rational that shall be as his own because he has co-operated in its construction.

     MANHOOD: THE COVENANT.

     This is meant by Abram's prayer to God in the 15th chapter of Genesis:

     "Lord Jehovah, what wilt thou give me, seeing I walk childless, and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?"

     "And Abram said, Lo, to me thou hast given no seed: and lo one born in my house is mine heir."

     By Abram is represented the internal man. The mind or rational possessed at the end of youth is not the son of the internal man.

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It has been given through others, through parents and teachers. It is only external and immature. The internal man longs for ah external' that shall be wholly its own. All the education of minority has but provided the matrix in which that rational or interior man can be formed. The subsequent chapters of Genesis represent the successive formations, purifications and re-formations of the permanent mind, both in our Lord and, in a relative sense, in every man who is regenerated.

* * * * * *

Thus marvelously does the Lord operate for the formation of the human mind, its reformation and regeneration It is a work involving myriads of particulars every moment. It begins at birth, progresses throughout the whole of life and afterwards to eternity. Out of our death He thus creates a form responsive to His life; out of our evil He brings forth good; out of our corruption He forms the incorruptible He alone can do this work and can do it fully only in those who look to Him and seek to be conjoined with Him by faith and love. But in His mercy and love for us He gives to us to perform most vital Uses in this work of the education of our children. He makes their external welfare to depend largely on what we do for them. The establishment of the Church depends upon her devotion to this work of preparing her little ones for uses in the heavenly kingdom. May our love for the Lord and our love for our children combine to increase our affection for the work of Education. Amen.

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WORSHIP 1913

WORSHIP Rev. E. R. CRONLUND 1913

     There is internal worship and there is external worship. Internal worship consists in shunning evils as sins against the Lord, and by external worship is meant "that holiness which is effected by means of prayers, adorations, confessions, and the like, that proceed from the internals which are of love and charity." (A. C. 10177) Both internal and external worship are necessary. Internal worship is not full and complete without external; and external worship without internal is hypocrisy and idolatry.

     It is also taught that "the Lord's Divine Human, love to Him, and love towards the neighbor are the internal and holy things of all worship." (A. C. 3454)

     Internal worship is essential, but external worship is also necessary. That man may be saved it is absolutely necessary that he be in internal worship. That man may be fully prepared for eternal life it is also necessary that he be in external worship, or in the love of it. The Writings teach that it is a mistake to hold that if a person lives where there is no Church, preaching, sacraments, or priesthood, he cannot be saved, or can have no worship I when yet he may worship the Lord from the internal. But it is added that "it does not follow from this that there ought not to be external worship." (A. C. 1175.) A spiritual man is in the love of external worship whether he can practice
it or not. They who are in faith and charity practice the external's of worship whenever they are able, very earnestly and diligently, for internal worship produces a desire for external worship, and external worship is the effect of internal worship. All internal things are in the constant effort to ultimate themselves, and when an internal thing is ultimated it is full and complete, and the delight stored up within it is full and complete. "Worship itself is nothing but a certain activity coming forth from the celestial which is within. The celestial itself cannot possibly exist without activity.

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Worship is its first activity, for it puts itself forth in this way, because it perceives joy in it. All the good of love and charity is essential activity itself." (A. C. 1561.)

     The tendency of all internal things is to descend to ultimates, and when they have reached ultimates they are full and complete, and rest upon a firm basis. In the Doctrines of the Church we have this teaching: "There cannot be a Church unless there are both what is internal and what is external, the internal without an external would be something interminate, unless it were terminated in some external." (A. C. 1083.) Internal things rest upon ultimates as upon their foundation, nor can they exist Without ultimates. "Life is in its fulness when the natural lives from the spiritual. The ultimate of the life of man is his natural: this ultimate is as a basis to his interior and higher things, for these cease in the ultimate and there subsist; and therefore unless there is life in the ultimate, the life is not full, thus neither is it perfect; and moreover the interior or higher things all coexist in the ultimate, as in their simultaneous; hence such as is the ultimate, such are the interior or higher things; for these accommodate themselves to the ultimate, because it receives them." (A. E. 666.)

     That it is necessary to ultimate internal worship in external is evident from the following teachings of the Writings concerning ultimates: "All preservation depends on the state of the ultimates; for all the interior things cease there, and form a plane there, in which they subsist." (A. C. 9836.) "He that is deprived of ultimates is also deprived of prior things." (A. E. 66.)

     "Interior things are together and rest in ultimates. Ultimates hold the interior things together in connection, even in spiritual things. . . .Therefore in ultimates there is strength and power; and therefore there is holiness in ultimates." (A. C. 19044.) "The interior man as to goods and truths is as it were dead, if the natural man does not correspond to him as to goods and truths." (A. C. 3969.)

     That preservation depends on the state of the ultimates, and that spiritual things remain with man after death only so far as they have been ultimated in the life of the body, the Lord taught when He said: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth: shall be loosed in Heaven." (Matt. 16:19.)

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This shows that a man will worship the Lord after death only if he has worshiped Him in this world, only if he has worshiped Him internally and externally as well.

     The Writings show clearly that external worship alone, or piety alone, saves no one, because this when it is alone is nothing but hypocrisy. But they also declare emphatically that "it does not follow from this that there ought to be no external worship and no piety." (A. C. 1162.) And they declare further that "the frequenting of a place of worship, the hearing of preaching, and prayers, are also necessary." (A. C. 7038) Furthermore "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 therein they come forth together, as do causes in their effects or as do higher things in lower ones as in their vessels." (A. C. 5373)

     With regard to the use of external worship we have the following teaching in the Writings: "Man, while in the world, ought not to be otherwise than in external worship also; for internal things are excited by external worship, and by it also external things are kept in holiness so that internal things can inflow; besides that man is thus imbued with knowledges, and is prepared to receive heavenly things; and he is also gifted with states of holiness, of which he is unaware, which are preserved for him by the Lord for the use of eternal life; for all the states of his life return in the other life." (A. C. 1618.)

     And in another place it is said: "Man for the most part is such that he does not know what the internal man is, and what is of the internal man; and therefore unless there were external worship he would know nothing whatever of what is holy," (A. C. 1083.)

     These teachings show clearly the use and importance and necessity of external worship.

     Where there is no faith there is no worship, either external or internal. But everyone who is in faith wants to be in some worship; for this is common, and among all nations.

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For every one, when he beholds the universe, and still more when he beholds the order of the universe, acknowledges some supreme being, and as he desires hisown prosperity, he pays adoration to it. Moreover there is something within which dictates this, for such a dictate flows in from the Lord through the angels who are with man. The man who is not such is under the dominion of evil spirits, nor does he acknowledge a God." (A. C. 1308.)

     He who does not believe in the Lord does not worship Him, or if he does, his worship is hypocritical.

     They who are in no faith are internally averse to external worship, for we are taught with regard to the Sacrament of the Holy Supper that "the impious turn away from it, saying to themselves, What is it but a ceremony stamped with holiness by the clergy? For what is there in it but bread and wine?" (T. C. R. 699.) The impious turn away in like manner from all external worship, from all piety.

     The Doctrines teach that "all worship of God must derive its beginning from holy fear." (A. C. 6071.) Thus there must be something of fear that there may be worship. They cannot worship the Lord who fear neither God nor man. Most children at this day are brought up to fear and respect no one. Disrespect for all authority is the spirit of the age. The result is that there is scarcely any love of the Lord and scarcely any genuine worship of Him in the world. They, however, who claim that they fear no one and respect no one, although they regard themselves as heroes, are internally the greatest cowards. This is evident from what we are told in the Writings concerning a certain company of spirits seen by Swedenborg. These spirits had contempt for all Divine worship. "They had black faces, and had a white bandage round their heads, by which is signified that they regard Divine worship, and therefore the Lord's Word, as black, and useful only to keep the vulgar under the restraints of conscience. . . Such spirits ascribe all things to themselves and their own prudence, and boast that they fear no one. But they were shown that a mere hiss would terrify them and put them to flight, for on a hiss being heard they thought in their terror that all hell was rising up to carry them off, and from heroes they suddenly became like women." (A. C. 950.)

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     The spirit of disrespect for all authority, spiritual and natural, carries with it a contempt for Divine worship. The spirit of the old Church infests the New Church, and it is our duty to guard ourselves and our children against it.

      The man of the New Church should find delight, not only in the instruction given at the Church service, but also in the worship. There are those who listen to the sermon with pleasure, but find little or no delight in the first part of the service. But to care for the instruction only and not for the worship indicates a cold, wintry, intellectual state. To such the Doctrines of the New Church are merely a system of philosophy that is pleasing to the intellect. To such the Doctrines are not a religion. With such they do not delight the will as well as the understanding.

     It is evident from the Doctrines of the Church that man should humble himself before the Lord in prayer, that he should sing to Him, and glorify Him by means of all the externals of worship that are provided. The Writings teach that "he who is in the life of love, or in charity, keeps the Sabbath holy, for nothing is more sweet to him than to worship the Lord, and to glorify Him every day." (A. C. 1798)

     Furthermore, a place of worship, with all its furnishings, should be as beautiful as it is possible to have them. A temple should be such that upon entering it one should be struck at once with a feeling of awe and reverence, one should feel that it is a holy place, the house of the Lord. The very external senses should be moved and affected. This would assist man to worship the Lord devoutly and holily. The Doctrines teach that "Nothing can be called forth in man unless there be something to affect his senses." (A. C. 4733.) Externals are necessary. For this reason the Lord came into the world in person. He came that men might he able to see Him with the eyes of the body. If He had not come men would have worshiped idols.

     A temple should be as beautiful as it is possible to have it, for nothing is more beautiful than the Doctrines of the New Church, and the externals should be in correspondence with the internals as far as possible.

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     The tendency of man is to go to extremes. Therefore some think that as long as the Lord is worshiped from the heart it does not matter much what the place of worship is like. Others again make the externals all important and even essential. Both of these positions are wrong. Internals are essential, but the externals should truly represent the internals and therefore should be beautiful.

     This is not said with any idea of causing dissatisfaction with the things we have. We should be grateful to the Lord for the blessings we enjoy, but we should keep the ideal before us, and strive to attain it.

     It may thus be evident that worship is a necessity. The Latin word for worship, colo, means also to "cultivate," to "take care of," and this shows further that by means of external worship spiritual life is taken care of, is nourished and increased. We should therefore love and make use of all the means that the Lord has provided for our salvation.
Special Notice 1913

Special Notice 1913

Announcements.
The new address of the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt is 755 Lafayette Street, Denver, Colo.
Help Wanted 1913

Help Wanted 1913

A helper is needed in a New Church family with three children. No washing. For particulars, address, MRS. E. E. IUNGERICH, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
General Assembly 1913

General Assembly 1913

The Eighth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will meet at Glenview, Ill., on June 19th to 23d, 1913.

Further arrangements will be announced in the April issue of the LIFE. Ministers and secretaries of societies and circles are requested to send in their annual reports to the Bishop before June 10th.

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Editorial Department 1913

Editorial Department Editor 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     EVERY MAN, a new London weekly, (secular), in its issue for Dec. 24th, publishes an interesting account of Swedenborg by J. Howard Spalding, together with a full-page portrait of the revelator, drawn by W. H. Caffyn, who evidently is a real artist. This portrait, though somewhat idealized, seems to be based upon a careful study of the various original paintings of Swedenborg, (most of them of poor workmanship), combining the best features of them all, and producing a countenance of remarkable strength, refinement and beauty, the most pleasing and artistic portrait that we have ever seen.

     It was with profound sympathy we read the explanation of MORNING LIGHT as to how a "calf" appeared instead of "calm" in one of the issues. This paper, like the LIFE, "is set up on a Linotype machine, which, as most people are [not] aware, casts a whole line of type in one piece. When a mistake occurs the whole line must be recast. It was in the correction of another error that the 'calm' disappeared and the 'calf' made its unannounced and unwelcome entry." Our own sorely-tried readers will please take notice.

     We copy the following important announcement from the October issue of THE NEW PHILOSOPHY:

     Following the publication of the work ON GENERATION, Dr. Boericke, the Vice-President of our Association, now authorizes the editor of the NEW PHILOSOPHY to call for subscriptions for a proposed new edition of Swedenborg's work, THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. It is not proposed to make a new translation or even a revision, as this would involve too much labor and delay. What is proposed is simply to reprint the translation by Dr. Wilkinson originally published in two volumes in London, 1843-4, and since reprinted in America. The work is now exceedingly rare and is practically unobtainable.

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     The reprint by Dr. Boericke will be undertaken PROVIDED THERE BE 200 SUBSCRIBERS, AT $8.00 FOR THE TWO VOLUMES. The work will be published within two years after commencement of printing and will be sold to non-subscribers at not less than $10.00 for the two volumes.

     Subscriptions should be sent to The Editor, NEW PHILOSOPHY, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     The usefulness of our youthful contemporary, THE BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY, is with each number becoming more evident. The marked-literary talents of its editor, Mr. William Whitehead, as well as the great cause which the little journal is so zealously promoting, have convinced us that the members of the General Church as a whole are being deprived of a rare treat on account of the limited circulation of the BULLETIN. It is becoming more and more of a real Academy School Journal, giving an insight into the working of the Schools such as the LIFE cannot possibly convey, and we think all lovers of the Academy would be delighted to gain such an insight into the most important work that is at present being performed in the New Church. There seems to be but two things necessary to secure for the BULLETIN a more wide and permanent usefulness: to charge a regular subscription price, and to change its present rather cumbersome designation to one of lighter weight.

     THE SWEDENBORG ARCHIVES is the attractive title of a new serial publication, the first number of which has recently been issued by Mr. Alfred H. Stroh in Stockholm. The idea of this serial is to make it the permanent repository of all documents relating to Swedenborg and "Swedenborgiana," in the original Latin or Swedish, with English translations, and to include not only the new documents which Mr. Stroh is constantly bringing to light, but also all the materials collected by Dr. Tafel and his predecessors and successors in this work. The Tafel DOCUMENTS are each year becoming more difficult to obtain, while the new material is growing immensely. The interest in the historical aspects of Swedenborg is increasing both within and without the New Church, and there would be a great field for the ARCHIVES if it could be kept up.

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The present part is occupied entirely with "A series of Reports concerning Investigations and Proceedings in Sweden from 1902 to 1912,"-all of which are very familiar to the New Church public, though they have never before been collected into one compass. The issue, graced with a fine portrait of Prof. Gustaf Retzius, is published as a "festskrift" in honor of the seventieth birthday of this great and generous patron of Mr. Stroh's work in Sweden. He is without question the greatest living authority on the Human Brain, and-though not a Newchurchman-he is publishing at his own expense the magnificent volumes which, edited by Mr. Stroh, are being sent forth in the name of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. We are looking forward with keen interest to the next issue, which we hope will contain everything known concerning Swedenborg's childhood and university life.
SWEDENBORG SOCIETY'S EDITION OF THE "PRINCIPIA" 1913

SWEDENBORG SOCIETY'S EDITION OF THE "PRINCIPIA" Editor 1913

     THE PRINCIPIA OR THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF NATURAL THINGS. TO WHICH ARE ADDED THE MINOR PRINCIPIA AND SUMMARY OF THE PRINCIPIA. BY EMANUEL SWEDENBORG.

     Translated from the Latin by James R. Rendell, B. A., and Isaiah Tansley, B. A. The Swedenborg Society. London, 1912.

     After an interval of sixty-seven Years since the publication of the first English edition of this immortal work, a second edition has at length made its appearance. For more than a generation the PRINCIPIA has been out of print and has been unobtainable except at fancy prices. All students in the Church will therefore rejoice that this fundamental work of Swedenborg's Philosophy is once more accessible to the ever widening circle of those who have learned to appreciate it.

     On this occasion the thought wanders back to the time when Swedenborg brought out his magnum opus, in Leipzig, 1734-a magnificent folio edition externally worthy of its sublime contents. With supreme indifference to worldly fame the author declared that the love of truth is its own reward,-foreseeing, no doubt, that the work would not and could not be appreciated by his own contemporaries.

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Nor was he pleasantly disappointed in this expectation, for the learned world hailed the new system "of Cosmogony with-an absolute silence. As far as is known, not a single scientific journal took any notice of the work, yet it must have attracted some attention, for the pope, some years after its publication, honored it by a place in the Index Prohibitorum. A few princes of Science, such as Buffon, Kant, and Laplace, are supposed to have studied it, quietly borrowing some of its original conceptions, but this cannot be regarded as having been proved beyond dispute.

The first really appreciative reader seems to have been the Marquis de Thome, a distinguished French savant and a pronounced Newchurchman, who also was intimately associated with the earliest Swedenborgians in England. In September, 1785, he opened the propaganda for a recognition of Swedenborg's scientific merits in a lengthy and intelligent communication to the JOURNAL ENCYCLOPEDIQUE, (Vo1. VI., Part 2), in which he refutes the assertion-made by a Royal Commission appointed to examine Dr. Mesmer's Animal Magnetism-"that there did not
yet exist any theory of the magnet." De Thome not only shows that Swedenborg long ago had published such a theory in his PRINCIPIA, and that this theory affords a satisfactory solution of all the phenomena of Animal Mggnetism, but he also calls attention to the other and more general doctrines of Swedenborg's scientific system, and rebukes Buffon and Lavoisier for having drawn inspiration from Swedenborg without acknowledging the source.

Prompted perhaps by de Thome, a correspondent signing himself "Omikron," in the NEW JERUSALEM JOURNAL, of London, 1792, advised the members of the New Church to accept Swedenborg as their guide, philosopher, and friend, in things scientific as well as theological, and to train their minds as his had been trained, in order to secure a more perfect basis for the understanding of spiritual things. For this purpose he proposed the publication of faithful translations of Swedenborg's chief philosophical works, but for such an undertaking the infant Church was not yet ready. Twenty years later, however, Robert Hindmarsh-as ever the pioneer in unbroken fields-published the first Dart of a translation of the PRINCIPIA in the pages of the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY (Vol. 1, 1812; continued in the volumes for 1819 and 1820).

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In America the work was taken up in the year1827 by Dr. Edwin Atlee, a Philadelphia physician and Quaker preacher, who afterwards entered the Ministry of the New Church. He completed a translation of the PRINCIPIA, and Otis Clapp, of Boston, in the year 1832, made strenuous efforts to have the manuscript published, but failed to raise the necessary funds, though 250 subscriptions were actually secured. Mr. De Charms, however, printed parts of the translation in his PRECURSOR, in 837.

It is seen, therefore, that the interest was growing, both in America and in England, and in the year 1840 the Rev. Augustus Clissold, of London, started upon his translation of the PRINCIPIA, which he finished in 1842 and published at his own expense, in two volumes, in 1845 The whole edition was donated to the "Swedenborg Association," which was organized at this time for the specific purpose of publishing the Preparatory Works, since the Swedenborg Society then refused to print anything but the Theological Writings. The Association died out in 1854, and the Swedenborg Society persevered in the limited view of its scope of activity until a few years ago, when it passed a resolution to include also the scientific and philosophical works in its publications, and the present edition of the PRINCIPIA is the first fruits of its increased usefulness.

In the long mean-while the interest in the Preparatory Works, and in the system of genuine natural truth therein unfolded, was slowly but surely gaining ground-not in the outside scientific world, indeed, but among a few of the more profound scholars of the New Church,-in England represented almost solely by Dr. Wilkinson, and in America by men such as Richard De Charms, William H. Benade, Rudolph L. Tafel, Ernest A. Farrington, Frank Sewall, and some others,-all, with the notable exception of Dr. Sewall-identified with the Academy movement. In the pages of WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH and NEW CHURCH LIFE, and uninterruptedly in the Schools of the Academy, the truths and the claims of Swedenborg's Philosophy were upheld, while Mr. Sewall single-handed did the same in Urbana, where the Rev. Julian K. Smyth, though born in the Church, was actually converted by the study of the PRINCIPIA.

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But Urbana did not, like the Academy, succeed in raising up a whole generation of scholars enthusiastically devoted to the New Philosophy, and the cause waned in the Church at large, until, in 1897, one of the professors in the Academy suggested the formation of the present Swedenborg Scientific Association, independently of denominational affiliations.

     The suggestion proved a success, and the first work undertaken by the new Association was a new translation and publication of the PRINCIPIA. A Committee was appointed, and the work was started, but it stranded on the rock which the British Swedenborg Society presented when they were asked to co-operate and ultimately to publish the book. The English friends insisted upon conditions and methods which the Americans could not accept, and the work was taken out of the hands of the Scientific Association by the Swedenborg Society by the quiet method of ignoring all that had been done on this side of the Atlantic. For years we waited, hearing rumors of the English Society employing the services of a great Oxford Light to shed his rays upon the PRINCIPIA, and we had well-nigh given up all hope, when the new edition finally made its appearance at our meeting in May, last year.

     During the decade preceding this publication, the study of the PRINCIPIA had made an enormous advance in America, owing to the years of labor and the remarkable perception of Miss Lillian G. Beekman, who successfully established the actual harmony or correlation of the philosophical system of the Preparatory Works with the theological system of the Writings. After many internal conflicts this harmony was recognized by a number of students in the Church, among these the editors of the LIFE and also, we believe, many of our readers, who therefore will view with special interest the appearance of the new edition of the PRINCIPIA.

     While deeply grateful to the Swedenborg Society for bringing out so complete and inclusive an edition of this badly needed work, we must nevertheless express our regrets at the lack of wisdom and literary ethics exhibited by the editors.

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Our objections to the alien prefixes and suffixes thrust upon Swedenborg's noble work in the "Foreword" by Sir W. F. Barrett,-in the "Introduction" by the Rev. Isaiah Tansley, and in the "Appendix" by Prof. Frank Very,-our objections to these altogether unnecessary and at times disgusting encumbrances and obfuscations have been well but not quite fully expressed by the editor of THE NEW PHILOSOPHY in the preliminary review which we reprinted in September last.

     We can but marvel at the ignorance, conceit and palpable contradictions of Sir Barrett, whose special purpose seem; to have been to point out Swedenborg's alleged "failures," his "obsolete forms of thought," his " erroneous reasonings" and "fallacious ideas,"-the things which "will repel or excite a smile in the scientific reader," and all the other things which "we find vitiating Swedenborg's reasonings" and which are "dismissed" with a wave of the hand. But it is more marvelous still that the Swedenborg Society should employ a person the to introduce to the public Swedenborg's grand Philosophy, of the true import of which Sir Barrett has never enjoyed the faintest dream.

     Mr. Tansley's "Introduction," though far more intelligent and affirmative, is remarkable for its deliberate concealment of the real Swedenborg. The biographical part ends with the PRINCIPIA period, and not a word is said of Swedenborg's subsequent career, his great work as a physiologist and psychologist, and his final mission as theologian and revelator. We suppose Mr. Tansley did not wish to "prejudice" the outside scientific world by telling the historic truth, but if a scientific reader knows anything at all about Swedenborg, he knows him as "the Seer," and he will only smile at the effort to conceal the one well-known fact.

     Mr. Tansley's whole purpose is to show how fully Swedenborg, in every step of his cosmological reasoning, "is in line with modern results," how he "anticipated" this, that, and the other modern hypothesis and discovery, and this to the one end that "his precise place in the lineage of science should be determined." But when and if all this has been proved, what has been gained after all?

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If the scientific world should be forced to yield a grudging admission of the priority of Swedenborg's many "anticipations," the interest thus aroused would be simply an historical one, mingled with wonder that Science has arrived at these same results quite independently of Swedenborg, and without owing to him one scintilla of gratitude, find then, having installed Swedenborg in his proper case in the Museum of scientific curiosities, the learned world would drop the matter and return to the worship of Modern Science.

We are absolutely opposed to any interpretative Introductions to Swedenborg's works because they more or less force the unsuspecting reader to view the works themselves through the spectacles of the introducer-or traducer, as the case may be. While Mr. Tansley's Introduction presents the general outlines of the PRINCIPIA system in a manner that is interesting and valuable from a purely scientific and historical point of view, it is lamentably deficient in its comprehension of the higher, more deeply philosophical meaning of the work, as interpreted by Swedenborg himself in the work ON THE INFINITE, and it betrays also an astonishing misunderstanding of definite statements in the PRINCIPIA itself. Mr. Tansley, for instance, expresses his belief "that what Swedenborg designates the first element is the equivalent of what science calls ether," which shows an utter misconception of the author's description of the first aura. And when he states, as Swedenborg's own teaching, that "the planets themselves threw off the satellites just as the sun had cast off the parent bodies," he simply commits a ridiculous blunder.

The Introduction-seventy pages long-is followed by a "Translator's Preface," occupying three pages, with a reference, in four lines, to the first English edition of the PRINCIPIA,-the bare statement that the work "was first rendered into English by the Rev. Augustus Clissold, M. n., a clergyman of the Anglican Church, in 1845, and published by W. Newbery, 6 King Street, Holborn. It has been out of print for many years." And this constitutes the whole of the acknowledgment which Mr. Rendell and Mr. Tansley see fit to render to the great and invaluable labors of Mr. Clissold in the difficult pioneer work of translating the original. When, upon careful investigation, it proved that the present edition is not a new translation, but is essentially a revision of Mr. Clissold's work, we must confess to a feeling of indignation at the ingratitude and smallness of the "translators."

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The text of the new edition as a whole is Mr. Clissold's text, with revisions here and there, and occasionally new translations, some of which are an improvement and some of which are the reverse. But to claim that the whole is a new translation is a piece of plagiarism which the editors would not have dared to commit in the case of a work more widely known to the public.

The only part that is actually a translation is THE MINOR PRINCIPIA, which occupies 230 pages in the second volume, and which now for the first time makes its appearance in the English tongue, Mr. Tansley being the translator. This is followed by the little sketch entitled "Some Points Bearing on the First Principia of Natural Things,"-hitherto known as "Arguments to the Principia," occupying eleven pages, and the "Summary of the Principia," in seventy-one pages. Then comes two appendices, one of which should be "cut out" at once. This is "Appendix A. Notes on Swedenborg's Principia," by Prof. Frank W. Very. Appendix B, containing "Bibliographical Notes on the Principal Authors Cited," is by the late Rev. James Hyde, and is of actual usefulness. The volume closes with three Indexes, one to the larger work, one to the "Minor Principia," and the third is an "Index of Authorities," chiefly those quoted or referred to by Musschenbroek.

The whole constitutes two handsome volumes, in royal octave, comprising in all 1,340 pages, beautifully printed. We could wish that the publishers had enriched the work by a reproduction of the "Principia portrait" of Swedenborg, together with a later and better portrait of the author. The profile stamped upon the cover does not bear the least resemblance to any known portrait of Swedenborg.

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AGES OF THE PATRIARCHS 1913

AGES OF THE PATRIARCHS E. E. IUNGERICH 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
In your January issue, on page 29, you state in reference to the ages of the patriarchs: "The years of life ascribed to these antediluvians are, like their names, purely representative. Men never lived to an age so fabulously great as that of Methuselah, but the number of the years describes in a brief compass the whole state of that generation or church." I am aware there are passages in the ARCANA that declare the first eleven chapters of Genesis to be purely allegorical and representative. But on the other hand there are passages which show there must also be a genuine natural historical sense in this portion of the Word. This you yourself have already pointed out by showing that Noah and his three sons mean not only the Ancient Church and three varieties of its doctrine, but mean in a natural historical sense, if not specific individuals by those names, at least nations which embraced the Ancient Church and its doctrines. We might go further and say that they may even be actual types of some individual men in those nations.

In the LESSER PRINCIPIA, as you know, there is a passage which ascribes the longevity of the patriarchs to the more frequent revolutions of the earth about the sun: "A part of their years can indeed be assigned to their simple life, to the more innocent state of their customs, and to the consequent tranquility of animus, but a part is also to be assigned to the very brief circumvolutions of years, for these primaeval fathers in this manner could number 100 years or, what is the same, 100 recurrals of summer or winter, while we number only 10." Another passage states yet more specifically: "The year [then], although it had just as many days, yet consisted only of 1/10, 1/9, 1/8, 1/7, 1/6, 1/5, 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 3/4 the time of a year today, and likewise the daily revolutions of the earth were accomplished in a much shorter space of time. This Seems not only in agreement with our theory, but also with the history of the early times."

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     Without dogmatizing in favor of these declarations of the LESSER PRINCIPIA, I would urge the importance of considering, and not dismissing as untenable, the possibility of this being true. As an aid to this, permit me to add two suggestions that have occurred.

     First,-there are ten fractions given above and there are ten generations beginning with Adam and ending with Noah. Assuming that Swedenborg may have meant that the ages of each of the ten patriarchs were to be reduced according to these fractions, we get the following interesting table:

Adam lived          1/10 x 930 = 93      years, but begat children at      13      years
Seth lived           1/9 x 912 - 101 1/3      "     "     "     "     "      11 2/8     "
Enosh lived      1/8 x 915 = 114 3/8      "       "     "     "     "     11 1/4     "
Cainan lived      1/7 x 910 = 130     "      "     "     "     "     10      "
Maharaleel lived      1/6 x 895 = 149 1/6     "      "     "     "     "     10 5/6     "
Jared lived          1/5 x 962 = 192 2/5 "      "     "     "     "     32 2/5 "
Enoch lived      1/4 x 365 = 91 1/4     "      "     "     "     "     16 1/4 "
Methuselah lived      1/3 x 969 = 323     "      "     "     "     "     62 1/3      "
Lamech lived      1/2 x 777 = 388 1/2     "      "     "     "     "     91     "
Noah lived           3/4 x 950 = 712 1/2     "      "     "     "     "     375     "

     The extreme youth of some of these patriarchs when they begat children, as that of Cainan, who would only have been 10 years old measured in our present years, is no insuperable difficulty, for, as we are told in the Writings, the inhabitants of some earths in the universe become parents at an equally youthful age. The only real difficulties, as shown in the table, are the two dates assigned to Noah. It does not seem reasonable that he could have begotten sons at 375 and lived till 712-1/2.

     Secondly,-it might be urged that to accept the ages of the patriarchs as denoting literally the actual number of revolutions of the earth about the sun during the 10 generations would oblige us to accept the Biblical chronology which sets the creation of the world at 4004 years and 6 days before Christ. Various sciences have shown that the world must have been much older, but this can be explained on the ground that the 6 days were periods of great extent. The 4004 B. C. might possibly be taken to denote the actual time when the Most Ancient Church began to enter into its decline. That Swedenborg believed, as late as 1746, in a literal exactness of the Biblical chronology is evident from the following statements in the ADVERSARIA: "About 4400 years intervene from Noah to this day," 2 Adv. 1493.

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"4300 years from the creation of the world to the resurrection of God Messiah," 2 Adv. 2323. "6020, which seems to signify the time from the creation of the world [until] all the armies of Jehovah will go out from the land of Egypt" [Egypt used symbolically to indicate the Second Advent], 2 Adv. 2329.

     From these dates it would appear that the creation of the world, regarded as complete in the summit of the Most Ancient Church, was considered by Swedenborg to have occurred 4300 B. C.; that the time of Noah was approximately 2600 B. C., and that the Second Advent would take place about 1700 A. D. These values are evidently only approximate.

     I respectfully invite your attention to these curious matters.
          E. E. IUNGERICH.

     REPLY.

     The teachings upon which we based our statement concerning the years of the patriarchs are the following in the ARCANA COELESTIA:

     "What the years and the number of years, which are mentioned in this chapter, signify has never heretofore been known to anyone. Those who are in the sense of the letter suppose the years to be secular ones, but this chapter even to the twelfth contains nothing historical, such as appears in the literal sense, but all and single things contain other matters; as in the case of the names, so also in the case of the NUMBERS." (A. C. 482.)

     "That their ages were not so great-as that of Jared 962 years, and of Methuselah 969, may indeed be evident to every one, and also from what, of the Divine Mercy of the Lord, will be said in the next chapter, verse 3, [A. C. 575], where it is stated that their days shall be a hundred and twenty years;' the number of the years, therefore, does not mean the age of the life of any one man, but the times and states of the Church." (A. C. 515.)

     "Numbers in the Word are to be understood altogether abstractly from the sense of the letter; they are inserted only in order to connect the historical series which is in the sense of the letter, as has been said and shown before." (A. C. 813.)-EDITOR.

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Church News 1913

Church News Various 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. There are times when, in spite of the complexity of its social organization, Bryn Athyn suffers a dearth of festivity, and such a period seems to have visited us during the past month, for outside the activities connected with the school there is little to record. It appears strange that such a large center should sometimes fail to observe the important church festivals, but this was the case in connection with Swedenborg's birthday, which was celebrated by the school, but not by the Bryn Athyn Society. The school's celebration took the form of an Historical Pageant, representing, in tableaux, scenes from court and country-life contemporaneous with Swedenborg. These were interspersed with songs and dances, noticeable among which was a very well rendered minuet. The pageant was concluded with a short play illustrating an incident in Swedenborg's life, and after this the society, which was invited to view the pageant, returned to the unfestive sphere of the Civic and Social Club, and the school enjoyed a dance.

     Noticeable among the school activities was the Phi Alpha Fraternity Dance, which took place on January 18th. Several of the old members were present for the dance, and all who attended report a very successful occasion. The society was invited to view the decorations on the Sunday following the dance, and considerable surprise and admiration was expressed at the complete transformation of the auditorium which had taken place.

     On the Sunday evening the Fraternity held its annual banquet, at which the president's annual address was read, and a very good time enjoyed by a gathering of 20 Phi Alpha men.

     On Friday, January 31, the regular supper was converted into a banquet by the addition of ice cream and wine, and the evening devoted to a farewell social for the Rev. H. Synnestvedt, who was leaving us to join his wife in Denver, Col. The Bishop, speaking for the society, said that the friends who regretted so deeply the departure of our friend must endeavor to recognize with him the hand of Providence in this as in all things.

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Tribute of admiration and affection was paid to Mr. Synnestvedt by all; the Bishop spoke of the assistance Mr. Synnestvedt had been to him, and testified to the uses he had performed in other societies; members of the faculty spoke of his inestimable services to New Church education; the younger men expressed their regard for him as teacher, as house master in the dormitory, and as campfire friend. Several friends were present from the Advent Church, of Philadelphia, who spoke of the work Mr. Synnestvedt had done among them as pastor, and congratulated Denver on its acquisition. Mr. Synnestvedt, in reply, reviewed the vicissitudes of his life of service to the Church, saying that Providence seemed to have led him continually to the pastoral work, in spite of his interest in education, and that such seemed again to be the case. He paid a tribute to Mr. Gyllenhaal's work in Denver, and hoped that the exchange would prove satisfactory to that society; he hoped that his wife's health would permit of his return in a year's time, and this wish was devoutly echoed by all. The society presented Mr. Synnestvedt with a purse of gold, and presents were also made by the ladies of the society and the theological class.

Mr. Fred. Gyllenhaal's genial smile has again appeared in Bryn Athyn, as he is taking up the work of the Advent Church in Philadelphia; it will undoubtedly be of great advantage to them to have a resident pastor. The young men of the theological class have been receiving their initiation into ministerial work by assisting the Bishop in the Sunday services: The Bishop has been benefitting the society with a remarkable series of sermons on the Blessings contained in the fifth chapter of Matthew; doctrinal classes have been going on as usual, Mr. Acton's class on the WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD, which has been extended by the study of the unprinted part of the work, being now near its conclusion.

It may be that the society's social life is somewhat inhibited by the cold weather, but on the whole it seems that a rest of this kind may be both pleasant and profitable, and a good preparation for the activity which is presaged by the taste of spring occasionally felt in the air. D. R.

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     GLENVIEW, ILL. The social life here has dragged somewhat on account, probably, of the necessary preparations that must be made for the coming General Assembly. A portentous event like that casts a long shadow in advance. Mrs. Jesse Stevens after a sojourn at the hospital arrived home in excellent health to the great delight of her friends. The baby is reported to show most amiable traits. The remedy for cross babies-Chamomilla-reposes on a top shelf and is becoming dusty. The frequent soft spells of weather followed by sudden cold snaps have made it very encouraging for the doctor here. Colds of most magnificent varieties have been frequent and rampant. Swedenborg's birthday was celebrated in a splendid manner with much solid instruction and also much festivity. The chairman; Dr. King, called on some of the ladies to read papers, which was a very successful feature of the evening. Mrs. Alvin E. Nelson read a paper upon "Character-A By-Product" that was brilliantly composed and read in a most affectionate tone. Mrs. Paul Carpenter had a paper bristling with facts on the subject of "Reflection," and Miss Margaret Gyllenhaal kept up the reputation of the young people by a paper on "Contentment."

     A Bird Party with several novel features, due (we believe) to the ingenuity of Mrs. Gyllenhaal, was much enjoyed.     K.

     NEW YORK CITY. Pursuing the advice of the ancient sages, we have refrained for some time from rushing into print.

     Services are held weekly in Carnegie Hall, Mr. Acton, the pastor, presiding on the first and third Sundays in the month, and Mr. Keep, the assistant pastor, presiding on the other Sundays. The Christmas service was conducted by the pastor and included an address to the children of the society on the Nativity. January 19th, 1913, witnessed the baptism of Doris Nellie Carson, the infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carson. On Sunday, January 19th, 1913, our regular semi-monthly dinner was devoted to the celebration of the arrival among us of Mrs. Curtis K. Hicks,-and of Mr. Curtis K. Hicks, we might add, for since the happy event he has been quite another man.

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     The work of the society seems to be steadily progressing. Each week a class of men meet to read and discuss the "Cosmology." Doctrinal class is held every Sunday. Sunday School is conducted regularly, although the attendance is small. Among our recent visitors has been Mr. Alvin Gyllenhaal, of Glenview, who told the news of the ever progressive West to such of us as had the pleasure of meeting him. R. W. C.

     CHICAGO. On Jan. 29th we celebrated Swedenborg's birthday at the hospitable home of Mr. John and Miss Bessy Forrest.

     A number of friends from Glenview were invited by our generous host and hostess, as the celebration in Glenview was to be held the following Friday, in that way enabling both parishes to enjoy each other's wisdom and fun.

     The tables were arranged around and across the dining room so as to comfortably seat sixty-five. After a good supper we listened to the speakers and joined them in the toasts proposed to the day, to the Church, and to our host and hostess. A number of the gentlemen from both societies spoke on topics nearest to their hearts as they were called upon by the toastmaster, the Rev. Gilbert Smith. They spoke on our indebtedness to Swedenborg, and his remarkable freedom from the weight of earthly passions and from the heavy conceit that bends down to earth the majority of mankind; and of his consequent association with the angels of the highest heavens.

     Then as the thoughts took on a more personal tinge our debt of gratitude to the three dear patriarchs of the Chicago Church-one in heaven, and two still with us-was dwelt upon with loving memory of the many good times we had enjoyed in their homes. Father Forrest, whose home was the first meeting place of the leaders of the Academy movement in Chicago, and whose never-failing interest in the welfare of the Church was as surely to be depended upon as was his generous hospitality. Father Nelson, whose home was a center for social life, especially of the young people, and who kept open house on Sunday nights for all the Church people who wished to meet and talk and amuse themselves.

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Father Junge, who in the early days opened his house for doctrinal meetings an dances for the young people of Dr. Hibbard's time, who afterwards became the pillars of the Immanuel Church. The young people of well-nigh three generations have reason to be grateful for the warm affectionate hospitality of all three homes. Two of the gentlemen made gallant and chivalrous speeches about the ladies of the Church,-who were deeply though silently grateful for their generous good opinion. We all felt that a New Church home was a good place to celebrate the birthday of our beloved seer; and we left with a heart full of gratitude for the generous hospitality received within its walls. E. V. W.

     COLCHESTER, ENGLAND. The activities of our society have not been reported since June last, but we must now confine ourselves to more recent news. The fortnightly socials for the winter session opened on Oct. 10th. Mr. Potter has given us a series of very interesting lectures on "the Brain," and the class in "Cosmology," under Mr. Rey Gill, has had several meetings with an increased attendance.

     On Nov. 9th, Pastor Czerny officiated at the dedication of the home of Mr. and Mrs. Gill; the service included an excellent address in which the correspondences and uses of a house were presented, after which a copy of the Word and the Writings, (CONJUGIAL LOVE), Were placed in the position designed for their reception. On Christmas morning a short service was conducted by Mr. Appleton, and a collection was taken up for the Orphanage of the General Church.

     On Dec. 27th a very pleasant evening was spent at the Head Str. Studio to witness the production of two fairy plays, the joint work of Miss Beryl Gill and Miss Hilda Potter. The parts were well sustained by all, and much time and labor had been put into the production. There was a full attendance and the proceeds were devoted to the uses of the "Extension Fund."

     On Jan. 2d we met once more to celebrate the New Year at the Studio, every guest appearing in fancy dress representing some newspaper or magazine, the Church papers being represented by the NEW YORK CIRCLE, MORNING LIGHT and the N. C. QUARTERLY.

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After a program of songs, dances, etc., supper was served, at which toasts were proposed to the Church, the priesthood, and the memory of Mr. William Gill, who had been our genial host on so many former happy occasions. F. R. C.

     SWEDEN. New Year's was celebrated by the "Circle" in orthodox Swedish fashion with "lutfisk" and "risgrynjgrot" and an eloquent address from Mr. Baeckstrom, who is preparing to enter the Academy's Theological School. Swedenborg's birthday was commemorated by a meeting at Mrs. Swaneskog's. We were 18 in all, mostly young people. Mr. Stroh opened with a lecture on "Swedenborg's Preparation," especially emphasizing the importance of a distinctive New Church science and philosophy founded on the results of universal experience and led by the light of Divine Revelation. This was followed by the reading of what is probably the earliest poem ever written in honor of Swedenborg the revelator,-a eulogy by his friend, General Tuxen, printed at Stockholm in 1772. Mrs. Hildegard Ljungberg then recited the latest poem on the same subject, written by herself, after which Mr. Baeckstrom, in a speech on "What is Truth?" quickened our hearts to thankfulness for the Lord's spiritual bounty to His Church. Then came a rendering of Miss Plummer's hymn, "Patience," in Swedish words by Miss Cyriel Lj. Odhner, the program closing with a speech by Mr. Bertrand Liden on "The Practical Application of Truth."

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     BOHEMIA. The Czechish translation of HEAVEN AND HELL, on which Mr. Jaroslav Janecek has been at work for three years, has now been published at Prague by the London Swedenborg Society in an edition of 2,000 copies. It makes a fine volume of 552 pages, in large, clear print, and is sold at $1.20. The work has now appeared in sixteen different tongues: Latin, English, German, Swedish, Danish, French, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Welsh, Hindu, Arabic, Hungarian, Japanese, Spanish and Bohemian.

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     The publication of the bi-monthly NOVY JERUZALEM continues, and has found subscribers in many land outside of Bohemia,-in Hungary, Galicia, Rosnia, Servia and Turkey.

     INDIA. Mr. H. Morris, in a letter to the N. C. YOUNG PEOPLE'S MAGAZINE for January, describes a visit, in company with Prof. Bhatt, to the Brahmo Somaj Church in Bombay, where they were surprised to find "in one of the bookcases in the library the word 'Swedenborg' painted in large letters. I found there a complete set of the theological works of Swedenborg, and a collection of New Church books by Giles, Bayley, Noble, Spilling, Bush, and others.

     "Professor Bhatt and several New Church students who were with me were delighted with this discovery, which was as unexpected to them as to me. They found that the books could be borrowed by simply giving the name and address of the borrower to the librarian, so that it is to be hoped more use will now be made of this library than in the past.

     "The question that puzzled me was how came the library there! On further inquiry, I found that one of the founders of this branch of the Brahmo Somaj was a Mr. Dadoba Pandurung, who lived many years ago in Bombay, and who after accidentally buying a copy of Swedenborg's HEAVEN AND HELL at an auction sale, became a diligent student of the Writings, and wrote those HINDU GENTLEMAN'S REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITINGS OF SWEDENBORG, which Were published by the Swedenborg Society in London, [in 1878]. Mr. Pandurung was one who believed that in the Brahmo Somaj they had an institution that would draw together the people of all the religions and sects of India-Mahomedans, Hindus, Christians, Parsees, and others-in the worship of One God."

     We may add that the Brahmo Somaj is a Unitarian institution.

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NOAH AND THE FLOOD 1913

NOAH AND THE FLOOD Rev. C. TH. ODHNER 1913

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XXXIII APRIL, 1913           No. 4
     The Church of the Golden Age had come to its end, and the human race was threatened with universal destruction through the ever-growing increase of hereditary evil and through the overwhelming influence and power of the malignant forces that were gathering in the spiritual world. A Judgment had to come or no flesh could have been saved. But the hour of midnight was the beginning of a new day.

     THE BEGINNING OF A NEW CHURCH.

     The first indication of a new state is expressed in the words: "And Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah. Noah was a man righteous and perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God." (Gen. 6: 8, 9.)

     Degeneration, as wel1 as regeneration, is always an individual process. In a dying Church all do not rush simultaneously to the same degree of corruption, but there are always some who remain in a somewhat better state than the vast majority. These constitute "the remnant" of the former Church such as it was in its purer states, and it is to this remnant or to these remains of faith and love that the Lord appears in a new Advent or Revelation. Such remains are always few at the end of a Church, but: these few, when collected, inaugurated and instructed, serve as a nucleus or parent stock for the New Church which is afterwards established in its fullness among those who before had been in a gentile condition. This nucleus of upright people lingering in the midst of the corrupt Antediluvians are represented collectively by the name NOAH, a word which literally signifies "to rest," "to remain."

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     The persons thus represented were not, indeed, of the same celestial genius as their remote ancestors of the Golden Age, but were to a very great extent contaminated with the evils of the age and society in which they lived. "For every man had become corporeal, not only the Nephilim or Antediluvians, but also those called 'Noah,' before they were regenerated." (A. C. 628.) As with the others, so with the Noachites, the voluntary faculty had become corrupt and filled with all kinds of sensual lusts, as is indicated by the fact that the "ark" which they built,-i. e., their general state,-was made of gopher wood, which is a highly inflammable material, abounding in sulphur; and this structure, moreover, was "pitched within and without with pitch," (Gen. 6:14),-i. e., contaminated with the lusts and falsities prevailing in their generation.

     Nevertheless, "Noah was a man righteous and perfect. Noah walked with God." This does not describe the actual state of Noah before his regeneration, "but as to what he was capable of becoming, namely, that by the knowledges of faith he might be gifted with charity." "Righteous" signifies the good of charity. "Perfect" or upright signifies the truth of charity, and "to walk with God," (as was also said of Enoch), means to possess the doctrine of faith. (A. C. 615) All that remained with them was "a kind of rational truth and natural good, and therefore they could be regenerated." (A. C. 628.)

     Before their regeneration, therefore, there did not exist with these people any genuine spiritual love of good, but only a species of natural good, or of natural integrity, honesty and decency, not yet purified by the trials of temptation, but still remaining as a plane or vessel for the future reception of spiritual life. Nor did they, at first, possess any genuine understanding of spiritual truth, but there remained with them a certain intellectual faculty, enabling them to receive natural rational truth. This was the "window" in Noah's ark, through which the light of heaven could flow in to illumine his spiritual darkness. And the "door" of the ark, through which Noah later on could go forth into a new life, signifies a remaining affection of truth, which is the only door leading to the good of life. (A. C. 651.)

     There remained, finally, with them the traditions of heavenly doctrine handed down from their celestial ancestors,-the book or books written by Cain and Enoch.

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This code, which had been hidden from the fury of the Nephilim, was intrusted to the hands of the Noachites, and from it they learned not only general principles of spiritual truth and good, but also the science of correspondences, which became the science of sciences in the Church of the Silver Age. Without this key they could not have entered into the spiritual sense of those Scriptures which were subsequently given to the Ancient Church itself. The teachings contained in the book of Enoch were therefore the first means of Divine Revelation to the Church of Noah. This code was their WORD, in which they believed with a simple faith. (A. C. 736, 1068, 1071, 1409, 2897, 3432)

     THE SEPARATION OF THE WILL AND THE UNDERSTANDING.

     These doctrines of truth could be of no practical use to the completely corrupted descendants of the Most Ancient Church, with whom the will and the understanding acted as one faculty, for with such a people every truth of heaven was instantly swallowed up by the perverted will, (just as Saturn swallowed his new-born children), and turned into a falsity still further confirming the evil lusts. These monsters of old were Cyclops, possessing but a single eye, and that eye was evil. Their will had become infernal lust, their understanding mere persuasion. They could see nothing but that which flattered their lust, and it was impossible for them to recognize their own depraved nature. They were therefore hopelessly lost.

     But with the Noachites, who had not sunk to the same depth of corruption, a great change was miraculously effected by means of a new mental creation,-a total reorganization of the mind, resulting in a separation of the understanding from the depraved will. This separation is described in the Word by the "mansions" or "stories" which Noah was commanded to make in the ark. The lowest part of the ark,-i.e. the evil will,-was shut in and pitched over with pitch: it was covered up and closed, lest the evil lusts of the hereditary proprium should arise and overwhelm the understanding, which now was formed into a higher mansion, fit to live in by virtue of the windows of spiritual intelligence that was open to the light and atmosphere of heaven.

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     This separation was effected by the Cord through the implantation of a CONSCIENCE which henceforth stood between the rational understanding and the insane will. (A. C. 863). There remained in Noah, as was said, something of a natural rational quality still unperverted, by means of which he was still able to judge of the ratio or relation between good and evil, and between truth and falsity; and he was thus able also to view himself in the light of heaven. This natural-rational faculty of discrimination was implanted in him from early infancy not only by means of direct instruction, but also by means of castigations and vicissitudes of various kinds, resulting in a state of FEAR,-at first the fear of punishments, afterwards fear of the evil that leads to such punishments, and finally the fear of hurting with himself that which is good and true. This fear, which is the fear of God and the beginning of all wisdom, is the basis of that warning voice which is called Conscience with the man of the spiritual genius, and which with him takes the place of the native love of God and celestial perception that existed among the men of the Golden Age.

     Thus Jehovah God in His mercy established in Noah a protecting barrier against the inundation of the flood which now overwhelmed the rest of mankind, and within and above this separating plane called Conscience the Lord could now erect a new temple for Himself, a new dwelling place in which to operate for the eternal salvation of the human race.

     Having thus established in man a new means of salvation, a new power by which man was able to compel himself to resist the impulses of the evil will, the Lord now commanded Noah to enter into the ark and to take with him beasts and birds of every kind, both clean and unclean The man of the Church called Noah inherited and carried over with him into the Silver Age all kinds of thoughts and affections, both clean and unclean, and because of this mixed company there ensued with him a state of temptations represented by the forty (lays and forty nights during which the flood endured That the number "forty" throughout the Word signifies a state of temptations is readily seen from the forty Years of the Israelites in the wilderness, and the forty days of the Lord's own temptations. It is represented in human nature itself by the forty weeks of suffering which a mother endures while carrying her child.

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     But "God remembered Noah." Gradually the fountains of the abyss and the cataracts of heaven were closed. A wind was made to pass over the earth. The waters assuaged, and finally the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. As the most external evils of the proprium were gradually subdued by means of the Conscience, the "window" of the new intelligence could come more and more into its true use. Though the "raven," sent out from the ark, went to and fro upon the waters, and though the "dove" at first returned empty to Noah,-though falsities still for a time occasioned disturbances with the man of this new Church, because there still lingered some belief in his own power,-yet after a time the dove returned with an olive leaf in her mouth as a sign of progress in regeneration. And when at last the dove returned no more,-when the thought of good no longer reflected upon his own righteousness,-Noah knew that the ground was dry. Self-confidence had at last been subdued through the trials of temptation, and now a great new light appeared,-the mountains of ARARAT,-a name which literally signifies the "mountains of light." Noah could now freely leave his ark of gopher-wood, having mastered the tendencies of his hereditary proprium, and he now could build an altar unto Jehovah and offer burnt offering thereupon. A new spiritual Church was now safely established, and an internal and at the same time external and representative worship could be instituted.

     THE FLOOD.

     "The morning cometh, and the night also." As the light increased in the new Church, so the darkness grew in the former Church. The influx of falsity and evil which to the Noachites were the source of temptations, was to the Antediluvians a devastating inundation which at last caused the extermination of the accursed race.

     By those who are evil all misfortunes are ascribed to the punishing vengeance of God and this appearance is not only inevitable but necessary. The letter of the Word is written in the language of appearances and therefore it is said that God brought the flood upon mankind:

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"And I, behold I do bring the flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh wherein is the breath of life from under the heavens; everything that is on the earth shall expire." (Gen. 6:17)

     That no literal flood or universal deluge of water is here meant is evident from the small dimensions of Noah's ark, which could not possibly have contained space for representative specimens of all the animals in the world together with their food for forty days. Moreover, in order to cover the tops of the highest mountains, there would be required a volume of water extending five miles above the present sea-level, and such an inundation for so long a period would have destroyed under its fearful pressure not only the animal kingdom but also the whole vegetable kingdom, and the dove would never have been able to find an olive leaf. But by the "hood" is meant a spiritual deluge, an all-destructive influx of evil lusts and false persuasions from the opened hells, (it must be remembered that men still had open communication with the spiritual world, but now no longer with the angels of heaven but with the devils of hell), and when at last the Nephilim had "arrived at the summit of persuasion, they became extinct of their own accord, and were suffocated by an inundation not unlike a flood; and therefore their extinction is compared to a flood and was also thus described according to the custom of the ancients." (A. C. 563)

     Even in the present age men speak in similar terms of the movements of the mind and of the intellectual world. There are "currents" and "waves" of thought, a "stream" of ideas, a "flood" of various popular notions, and this is because influx from the spiritual world is an actual stream of affections and thoughts, the influx from heaven being a gentle and almost imperceptible flow, but the influx from hell a wild and devastating deluge of furious lusts and insane phantasies which actually let loose an over-supply of gall into the blood and sometimes cause physical death.

     "In that day were the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the cataracts of heaven were opened." (Gen. 7:11.) The fountains of the deep are the evils arising from hell, and the cataracts of heaven (the sky) are the false persuasions pouring in from the spiritual world. (A. C. 756, 757.)

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"And the waters were strengthened exceedingly upon the earth, and all the high mountains were covered." (Gen. 7:19.) The persuasions of falsity increased unceasingly throughout the doomed Church, and all the high mountains of celestial love were covered by evils of life until nothing of charity remained. (A. C. 792.)

     "And all flesh died that crept upon the earth . . . and every man; all in whose nostrils was the breathing of the breath of life, of all that was on the dry land, died." (Gen. 7:21, 22.) Every thought of truth and every affection of good perished with the last generation of the Most Ancient Church, and finally the men themselves became extinct. "As regards the man of the Church before the flood, he in course of time conceived direful persuasions, and immersed the goods and truths of faith in foul lusts, in so much that there were scarcely any remains with them; and when they came into this state they were suffocated as if of themselves, for man cannot live without remains." (A. C. 560.)

     The physical reason for this suffocation and as-it-were drowning, was that little by little the internal respiration,-the "breathing of the breath of life," which was enjoyed by the men of the Golden Age, came to an end; and "with those who were possessed by these dreadful persuasions and phantasies, it became such that they could no longer present any idea of thought except the most debased, the effect of which was that they could not survive, and therefore all became extinct." (A. C. 607, 805)

     "It was shown that the internal respiration of the men of the Most Ancient Church,-which was from the navel toward the interior region of the breast,-was changed, and receded more toward the region of the back, and toward the abdomen, thus more outward and downward; and that at length in the last posterity of that Church, which existed immediately before the flood, scarcely anything of internal respiration remained; and when at last there remained none of this in the breast, they were suffocated of themselves, but with some external respiration then began, and with it articulate sound or the language of spoken words. Thus, with the men before the flood, the respiration was in accordance with the state of their love and faith; and at last, when there was no love and no faith, but only a persuasion of falsity, internal respiration ceased, and with this also the immediate communication with angels, and perception. (A. C. 1120.)

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     IN TARTARYS.

     When, after death, the Nephilim entered the spiritual world, they herded together there in the first, deepest, and most terrible of all the hells. Concerning their condition in that direful place we are told a great many things in the Revelation given to the Church of the New Jerusalem.

     "They can never be where other spirits are, but are separated from the other hells and are kept at a distance from the world of spirits. They are neither permitted to ascend, nor can anyone be let in among them." (A. C. 1266.)

     The reason for this separation is that "they so kill and suffocate all spirits with their most dreadful phantasies, which exhale as a poisonous sphere from them:, that the spirits are deprived of the power of thinking and feel half dead; and unless the Lord by His coming into the world had freed the world of spirits from that poisonous brood, no one could have existed there, and in consequence the human race would have perished, since it is ruled by the Lord by means of spirits. They are therefore now kept in a hell as it were beneath a misty and dense rock, beneath the heel of the left foot, nor do they make the slightest attempt to rise out of it. Thus the world of spirits is free from this most dangerous crew. But it has been provided by the Lord that mankind should never again become imbued with such dreadful phantasies and persuasions." (A. C. 584, 1266.)

     "Those of them who obstinately try to emerge from that hell are cruelly treated by their companions; for they are possessed with deadly hatred against all, even against their own companions. Their greatest delight consists in holding each other in subjection and as it were in butchering each other. Those who more resolutely persist in their endeavor to force their way out are sent down still deeper under that misty rock; for it is their innate crazy ardor to destroy all, which leads them on; hence their efforts to emerge. They wrap all they meet in a cloth, in order to take them captive, and cast them into a certain sea, as it appears to them, or otherwise treat them savagely." (A. C. 1267.)

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     "I was led, guarded, toward that misty rock; (to be led to such spirits is not to be led from place to place, but it is effected by means of: intermediate societies of spirits and angels, the man remaining in the Same place; and yet it appears to him as a letting down). As I came near the rock I was met with a coldness which gripped the lower region of my back." (A. C. 1268.)

     After having been totally vastated, "the Antediluvians can serve as subjects, retaining only so much life as there is in the bony parts of the human body. They become as skeletons or as lifeless appendages, and life is afterwards breathed into them. Being scarcely aware of their own existence, or sensible, or conscious, they can thus serve for bones, [in the grand monster of hell], into whom other spirits can inflow." (S. D. 3912. See further A. C. 1270-73; S D. 3359, 3365, 4217.)

     A terribly graphic description of their hell is given in the CORONIS TO THE TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 38: "The hell of those who had been of the Most Ancient Church is the most atrocious of all the hell's. It consists of those who in the world had believed themselves to be as God, according to the deceitful saying of the serpent,* (Gen. 315); and deeper in that hell are those who had persuaded themselves that they were altogether gods, from the phantasy that God had transfused His Divinity into men, and that thus there was no longer a God in the universe. From this direful persuasion a deadly stench exhales out of that hell, which infests the neighboring regions with so fierce a pestilence that when anyone approaches he is at first seized with a delirious madness, and presently, after convulsive motions, he seems to himself to be in the agonies of death. I have seen a certain spirit near that place, lying down as if dead, but on being removed thence he revived.
     * Nowadays represented by "Christian Science" and similar reptiles.

     "That hell lies in the middle of the southern quarter, surrounded with ramparts, upon which stand spirits who with the voice of a stentorian trumpet call out: 'Approach no nearer!'

     "I have heard from the angels who were in heaven above that hell, that the evil spirits [cacodoemones] there appear like poisonous serpents, twisted into inextricable folds, which they derive from; their vain devices and incantations, by which they had persuaded the simple to acknowledge that they were gods and that there was no God beside them.

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The Ancients, who couched everything under fables, described these by the 'Giants' who assaulted the camp of the gods, and who were cast down by Jove with his thunderbolts, and were thrust beneath the fire-breathing Mount Etna, and were called 'Cyclops.' They also called their hells 'Tartarus' and the 'stagnant pools of Acheron,' and the deeper places there they called 'Styx,' and those who dwelt there they called 'Lernaean Hydras,' etc."

     THE VICTORY OF THE LORD OVER THESE HELLS.

     "They who, before the Coming of the Lord, had been of the Church and at the Same time had been evil' as to life, were in such falsity as had not been before, and was not to be afterwards. The reason was that those who were called Nephilim, and also Anakim and Rephaim, and were of the last posterity of the Most Ancient Church, had not yet been shut up in hell, but wandered about and infused dire and deadly persuasions wherever they could, thus also into those who were evil in the [Ancient] Church. This was the source of such falsity." (A. C. 7686.)

     The influence of these Antediluvian spirits is very evident in the history of the Ancient Church and of the classic world, especially in the insane love of battle and conquest, dominion and tyranny, which arose in the declining days of the Silver Age to fill with blood and tragedy the history of Chaldea and Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, Media and Persia, Greece and Rome, where kings and emperors demanded to be worshiped as gods. In Rome, especially, this love of dominion culminated at the time of the Lord's Coming, producing monsters on earth such as Marius and Sulla, Tiberius, Caligula, Nero and Caracalla, persons clearly possessed by the devils of the Nephilim. In Palestine, also, these devils were rampant, actually taking possession of the bodies of men and filling the land with a continual uproar, slaughter, frenzy and madness. At the head of this possessed nation of the Jews stood Herod, the most furious madman of all, who murdered his wives and his own sons and massacred the babes of Bethlehem. With a cunning born from the hells of the Nephilim, he knew that the Messiah was about to be born, and with their fear in his heart he "privily called the wise men, inquiring of them diligently what time the star had appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the young child, and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that 1 may come and worship him also." (Matth. 2:7, 8.)

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     Through a representative such as Herod the hells of the Nephilim were lying in wait, trembling with hatred and fear, to destroy, if possible, the seed of the woman that was to bruise the head of the serpent. Was it not prophesied that "Hell from beneath is moved for Thee to meet Thee at Thy coming; it stirreth up the Rephaim for Thee, even all the chief ones of the earth?" (Is. 14:9.).

     "Such were the wicked tribes against whom the Lord fought in His earliest childhood, and whom He conquered; and unless the Lord had conquered them by His coming into the world, not a man would have been left at this day upon the earth, for every man is governed by the Lord by means of spirits. These same Nephilim are at this day enclosed through their phantasies by what seems like a misty rock, out of which they are continually but in vain striving to rise. These, and others like them, were meant by the words in Isaiah: 'The dead shall not live; the Rephaim shall not rise, because Thou hast visited and hast destroyed them, and hast made all their memory to perish.'" (26:14; A. C. 1673)

     In the fourteenth chapter of GENESIS it is Said that Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam, "smote the Rephaim in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzim in Cham, and the Emim in Shaweh Kiriathaim, and the Horim in their Mount Seir." By Chedorlaomer, in the early chapters of the story of Abraham, is signified the Lord in His infancy, who then fought and overcame the hells of the Antediluvians, which were the first to attack Him because possessed of a cunning and a malignant hatred more terrible than that existing among the rest of the infernals.

     How the infant Savior could-as of Himself--have conquered these most malignant of all the hells we cannot describe. We only know that the victory is a fact of the universal Redemption which He wrought throughout His life on the earth. We know also that the deepest hells are those which most furiously hate the innocence of childhood, and that the diseases and death of so many little children is due-under Providence-to their infernal malice.

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We know, further, that the most decisive battles in our own lives are fought, almost unconsciously, in our own childhood in resisting the beginnings of evil. The child is the father of the man, and though the man may have forgotten the battles of his childhood, he knows that then it was that he chose the particular path upon which he is wandering in adult life. Watch the little one, and you will observe that he is continually choosing and selecting, running into one mischief, yet resisting the impulse to run into another. The psychology of the phenomenon can be known to the Lord alone, who is the only Father.

The history of the Lord's life on earth is foretold with an astounding wealth of details in the "Messianic Prophecies" of the Old Testament. In the various books of the Ancient Word, also,-as for instance the book known as THE WARS OF JEHOVAH,-these Prophecies must have been given with even greater details, as is evident from the legends of a future Redeemer which abound in the Mythologies of all ancient nations. Thus the combats of the infant Lord are depicted in the Egyptian representations of the infant Horus, trampling upon crocodiles and holding serpents and scorpions captive in his hands. And in the Greek legend of Hercules, who most manifestly prefigures the Messiah, we read of two great pythonic serpents attacking the babe in his cradle. But the babe reached out his chubby fists; grasping a python in each hand, strangling them to death. Thus also the Lord in His infancy strangled to death the first impulses of evil arising from the deepest of the hells to assail the Seed of the woman.

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BOOK OF LIFE 1913

BOOK OF LIFE Rev. F. E. WAELCHLI 1913

     "The books were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev. 20:12, 15.)

     These words treat of the last judgment effected in the world of spirits when the Christian Church reached its consummation. After those who constituted the dragon had been cast out of that world, a judgment took place upon those who were left, in the manner described in our text. Similar is the last judgment which takes place with every man who since that day departs from this world. The books are opened and he is judged out of what is written therein according to his works, and then is either elevated into heaven or cast into hell.

     He who does not know what is meant by the books and by the book of life out of which the dead are to be judged, cannot form any other idea, than that in heaven there are such books, and that in them are written the actions of all, whereof the memory is thus preserved; when yet by the books are not there meant books, but the remembrance of all things that have been done; for everyone
carries along with him into the other life the memory of his actions, thus the book of' his life.

     In our text are mentioned first "the books" and then "the book of life:" "The books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life." By "the books" is meant the memory of man, in which is recorded everything of his life, both good and evil; but by the "book of life" is meant a more interior record in the memory of those who are good, in which are recorded all states of good. The "books" are written by men themselves, according to their lives; but the "book of life" is written by the Lord. They who are evil, and whose names are not written in the book of life, are judged only according to their own books. But they who are good are judged according to the book of life, in which their names are written.

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Man's name becomes written in the book of life, that is, the Lord writes the book of life interiorly within him, when man endeavors to write his own book in accordance with the Lord's Will.

     Every good, whatsoever man has thought and done from infancy to the last period of his life, remains; in like manner every evil remains, so that the least portion thereof is in no wise lost; they are inscribed on that book of life which man himself writes, that is, on both his internal and external memory, and on his nature, that is, on his temper and genius; from them he has formed to himself a life, or, as it may be called, a soul, which is such after death.

     Man has an interior memory and an exterior memory. Whatever things he hears and sees, and is affected with, are insinuated, as to ideas and ends, into his interior memory, without his being aware of it, and there they remain, so that not a single impression is lost, although the same things are obliterated in the exterior memory. The interior memory, therefore, is such, that there are inscribed in it all the particular things, yea the most particular, which man has at any time thought, spoken and done, yea which have appeared to him as a mere passing shadow, with the most minute circumstances, from his earliest infancy to extreme old age. Man has with him the memory of all these things when he comes into another life, and is successively brought into all recollection of them. This is the man's book of life, written by himself, which is opened in another life, and according to which he is judged. All the ends of his life, which were to him hidden in obscurity, all that he had thought, and likewise all that he had spoken and done, are recorded, to the most minute circumstances, in that book, and are made manifest before the angels in a light as clear as day.

     Not only does everything that a man has done and thought in the life of the body return successively in the other life, but also often the persons affected by those deeds and thoughts appear. For example, when feelings of enmity, hatred, and deceit recur, the persons against whom they have been indulged, and whose injury has been clandestinely contrived, are also presented, and that immediately; for in the other world thought of another causes him to be present.

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Most lamentable states result in consequence. On the other hand, with the good all their states of friendship and love recur, and when the persons to whom these were directed appear, there is the greatest delight and happiness.

     Concerning the opening of man's book of life, full teaching is given in the work on HEAVEN AND HELL, Where Swedenborg relates things witnessed by him when the memories of men were laid open on their entrance into the other world. We there read:

     "That man takes with him from the world all his memory, has been shown me by many proofs; on which subject numerous things worthy of being mentioned have been seen and heard by me, some of which I will relate. There were some who denied the crimes and enormities which they had committed in the world; wherefore, lest they should be supposed to be innocent, these were all laid open, and were recited in order, from their own memory, from the first period of their life to the last: they consisted, chiefly, of adulteries and whoredoms. There were some who had practiced deception upon others by wicked arts, and who had committed robberies; their tricks and thefts were also enumerated in their order, though scarcely any of them had been known in the world, except to themselves alone. They also acknowledged them because they were made manifest as if in broad daylight, together with all the thoughts, intentions, pleasures, and fears, which occupied their minds on the several occasions.

     "There were some who had taken bribes, and made a trade of their judicial functions; these crimes were in like manner brought to light from their own memory, from which they were all recited from the first day of their entering on their office to the last. All the particulars appeared, both as to the amount of the bribe and its nature, with the time, and the state of their mind and intention at the moment; all rushed to their, recollection, and were displayed to the view of those present. The several transactions were many hundreds in number. This was done with several, and (what was wonderful) their memorandum books, in which they had noted down the particulars, were opened and read before them, page by page. Some were brought to a similar judgment who had enticed virgins to submit to be dishonored, or had violated the chastity either of maids or of matrons; when all the circumstances were brought forth and recited from their memory: the very faces of the virgins and women were also exhibited, as if they were present, together with the places, the words that passed between them and the state of their minds; and all was displayed as suddenly, as when a scene is unfolded to the view.

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"Such exposures sometimes are continued for several hours. There was a certain spirit who had accounted as nothing the evil of backbiting others. I heard his backbitings and defamations, with the very words he employed, recited in order; the persons respecting whom, and those to whom, he had uttered them, being discovered at the same time; all were brought forth, and vividly exhibited, together; and yet, in every instance his practice had been carefully concealed by him while he lived in the world. There was one who had deprived a relation of his inheritance by a fraudulent pretext: he, too, was similarly convicted and judged; and, what was wonderful, the letters and papers which had passed between them were read in my hearing, and I was informed that not a word was wanting. The same person, also, not long before his death, had clandestinely murdered his neighbor by poison, which was brought to light in this manner: He was seen to dig a hole under ground, out of which, when dug, a man came forth, like one coming out of a grave, who cried to him, 'What hast thou done to me?' All the particulars were then revealed; how the poisoner had conversed with him in a friendly manner, and had given him the fatal cup; together with what he had thought previously, and what happened afterwards; all which being brought to light, he was condemned to hell. In a word, all the criminal practices, the wicked deeds, the robberies, the deceptions, the artifices, of which he had been guilty in the world, are laid open to every evil spirit, being brought forth from his own memory; and thus he is convicted; nor is there any room for denial, since all the circumstances appear together. I also heard the particulars, when, from the memory of a certain spirit inspected and examined by the angels, everything that he had thought for a month, day after day, was recited, all without the least mistake; the particulars being recalled, just as he was engaged in them, on those days.

"From these examples it may evidently appear that man carries all his memory with him into the other world, and that nothing is so concealed in this world as not to be made manifest after death; and that, too, in the presence of many witnesses.

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From these things it may also be evident what is to be understood by man's book of life, which is spoken of in the Word. Whatever is there written is never erased. . . . Let not, therefore, any one imagine that there is anything which he has thought in his own breast, or has done in secret, that can be hidden after death; but let him be assured that all and each will then be manifest as in open day." (H. H. 462-463)

     Every man of the Church who meditates on these words of the Divine Doctrine, and reflects on his own state,-reflects on what is the nature of the record contained in his book, and how it must appear when it is opened up on his entrance into the other world,-cannot otherwise than feel that there can be but little hope for his salvation, yea, no hope, if he is to be judged according to it. But the Lord is ever merciful, and He judges all those whose earnest effort it is to write the book in accordance with His Will, not by the record which is in that book, but by the record contained in another book which He Himself writes in man's internal, and which is His Book of Life. It is the Lord's Will to judge every man according to this internal book, but as the evil do not have it written in their internal man, because they do not so dispose themselves that the Lord may write it, therefore they must needs be judged according to the book which they themselves write. That internal book, the Lord's Book of Life, is the record of all man's states as to good and truth. The interior quality of these states is there inscribed, namely, the interior quality of good, which is love and affection, and the interior quality of truth, which is the very spirit and life and light of truth. These the Lord Himself writes on man, or inscribes on him interiorly.

     Since everything of good and truth with man is from the Word, and thus is the Word in his life, or the Word living in him, therefore it can be said that that which is inscribed on the internal man is the Word. Thus the Lord's Book of Life is His Word, written in man's heart and soul.

     When the Word is thus inscribed on man, then heaven is inscribed on him, that is, his internal man is a heaven, an image of the universal heaven.

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Therefore it can also be said that the Lord's Book of Life is heaven in man,-heaven, with all that pertains to it, inscribed on the internal of man by the Lord, to remain there forever.

     The Lord Himself is His Word, and also is Heaven. Therefore He Himself is His Book of Life written in man. His presence in man, and His life imparted to man, is that Book.

     In order that the Lord's Book of Life may be written, it is necessary that man earnestly seek to write his own book of life aright, that is, earnestly seek to live according to the Word of the Lord, by a life of obedience to what is there revealed. Such a life exists where man fights against his evils,-against those evils which would make his record dark and black,-and overcomes them. That the name of him who does this will be written in the Book of Life, the Lord teaches where He says: "He that overcometh, he shall be clothed in white raiment, and will not blot out his name from the book of life." (Rev. 3:5.)

     When man enters the other world his judgment takes place, not indeed immediately, but as soon as his internal state fully manifests itself. When he appears before God for judgment, that is, in the presence of the Divine as manifested in His Word, the judgment takes place. For it is according to the Word of the Lord that man is judged from the things written in the books. It is made manifest whether what is there written is according to the Word or not. "The books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works." When the books of those who are evil are opened it is manifest that the record there is one contrary to the Word,-a record of disobedience to and denial of the Word; therefore they are cast into hell. There is nothing that can save them. There is in their interiors no Book of Life written by the Lord; or, as is said in our text, they are not written in that Book: "And whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire." The Word of the Lord is not inscribed on their hearts because they did not live according to the commandments given therein, and therefore they cannot otherwise than be condemned when the Word judges them as the Lord teaches in John: "if any man hear My words and believe not; judge him not; he hath one that judgeth him, the Word that I have spoken, that shall judge him in the last day." (12:47, 48.)

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     But when the books of the good are opened, there is Seen interiorly within their own book, the Lord's Book of Life, pr the Lord's Word inscribed on their hearts; for they have lived according to the Lord's commandments, and have believed in Him. Since, therefore, their internal man is in harmony with the Word, they are elevated into heaven. It is true their own book of life is also opened up, and the many evil things therein, recorded throughout the entire course of their life, are laid bare. But these are then tempered by good, from the interior Book of Life.

     Whether or not there be written within us the Lord's Book of Life depends on how we write our own book. If, therefore, we would know whether the Lord is writing His Book, we need but reflect on what we are writing in our book day by day, that is, we need to reflect whether we have entered upon repentance, or the shunning of evil as sin against God in accordance with the truths of the Word, and thus have turned over a new leaf, on which at least some things are being differently written than on preceding pages, or, whether we are going along in the same way as of old, daily entering up in our book the same record of disobedience, stubbornness and sin.

     It is important that every man of the Church reflect on what he is writing, and consider what the pages of his book would reveal if he should today be called into the other life. There can be no better self-examination than such reflection. Let him examine the pages of his book for the week that is past-examine his words, deeds, thoughts, intentions and endeavors, all of which, even as to the most minute things thereof, are recorded in his book. Let him see whether he has entertained feeling of enmity, hatred and revenge; whether he has occupied his thoughts with adulterous lusts; whether he has defrauded and deceived his neighbor in one manner or another; whether he has cherished jealousy and envy of those more fortunate than himself. It is especially important that he examine his thoughts, his secret and hidden thoughts, which are known to no one but himself. Have these been of love to the neighbor, or have they been in thoughts concerning him, thoughts wherein he meditated only on the advantage that the neighbor could be to himself, or wherein he despised the neighbor in comparison with himself.

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And there is one class of thoughts which more than others he should well examine, namely, those of phantasy, wherein he pictures for himself situations wherein he has opportunities to accomplish revenge, or to ultimate adulterous lust, or to amass wealth by dishonest means, or to rule and domineer over others, and the like. Such things are more than thoughts, they are potentially deed, they are the things man would do if there were opportunity and no fear of evil consequences. Man can see himself such as he really is in his phantasies more than in aught else that he records in his book of life. For it is in phantasies, more than in deeds, that most men lead an evil life. It is an actual leading of an evil life, an actual doing of the things meditated upon, for in will they are done. Such phantasies are opened up in all their hideous form in the other life in the presence of others, and those who behold them are filled with horror. Well is it indeed for man if he learns during his life in this world to see his phantasies as they appear in the light of heaven, and to have that horror of them which they inspire with others when laid bare in the other life.

Such examination of the record of a few days in one's book of life, should certainly lead man to repentance, so that he may be prepared for that day of judgment when his eternal abode is to be determined from the things written in the book. It should lead him to the earnest determination to turn over a new leaf, to lead a new life. But this determination will be of no value if it be not followed by the doing of that which is determined on. And in order that there may be such doing, man must turn to the Lord imploring His aid to carry out the resolution, and then live a life in accordance with the truths of the Word, following them absolutely, and permitting nothing of the loves of self and the world to prevent his so doing. That Truth will lead him into the new life, that Truth will write the new page in his record of life. For led by it he will fight against and overcome his evils, fight against them whenever they appear, daily, hourly. For let us remember that the entries in our book of life are made not now and then, but every moment; therefore, we cannot afford to allow opportunities to shun our evils to pass by.

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It will indeed seem to the man who is endeavoring to follow the Light of Truth as revealed in the Word as if his efforts were of little avail. Although he may turn over a new leaf, yet he soon finds that this page also, like those which precede, bears the record of much that is evil, yea, of far more that is evil than of what is good. But because of this let him not despair. Let him steadfastly shun what is of his ruling evil love, faithfully following the truth in the dark hours of trial and temptation, and he can be assured that all is well. For while he is doing this, the Lord is writing interiorly within him His Book of Life, is inscribing upon his heart and soul His Holy Word. And when his life here is completed, it is from that book that his judgment will take place, and thereafter he will rise into the blessedness of life eternal. The Lord in His mercy will close man's own book, with its record of so much that is evil, so that it will no longer be manifest, and will bestow upon him the happiness of that heavenly life which He has been storing up within. Amen.
SUNDAY MORNING 1913

SUNDAY MORNING E. E. IUNGERICH 1913

     A STORY

     It was a beautiful morning in June. The sun, already several hours high, shone into one of the coaches of a train that was rapidly approaching London to deliver there the passengers who had just disembarked from an American liner. In this coach are two men whom destiny will soon associate with our Anglican Bishop.*
     * "The Strange Adventure of the Bishop," NEW CHURCH LIFE, March, 1907.

     One of these is fair-haired and slender. Under proper conditions he might have posed as a Pre-Raphaelite angel. He is studiously employed for such an early hour of the day, and a closer scrutiny discovers he is concluding a sermon on the subject of "Purity," for such is the title at the head of the sheets on which he is writing. Carelessly opened beside him are two books into which he continually dips. The one he uses the oftener is the story of a dear little girl called Elsie. The other is an expurgated book by an anonymous writer, entitled MARRIAGE LOVE.

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From time to time he pauses to cast a loving look on the stretches of green country with its trim hedges and lanes, and the occasional clusters of bright cottages that are swept by. He belongs to a school of faith which holds that no one must enter upon the ministry of sacred things until conscious of some personal good of regeneration and able to preach such truths as he himself has lived. His loving look is a studied attempt to carry into his externals that interior goodness which made him eligible for its ministry. He has cultivated the loving look until it is second nature with him, for he looks just as lovingly a moment later on the somewhat dusty upholstery of the seat before him. Even when his gaze strays to the still more unlovely object,-his sole companion on the journey,-sitting by the other window of the coach, the loving look is unabated; though a close observer could note perhaps a slight contraction of the eyes as a sign of distrust. At this moment the other looked up from a book which he had been reading for some time with many grunts and chuckles betraying a keen relish, and his glance somewhat defiantly met the loving look.

     "Dear brother," said the minister softly in his welling voice, (the voice is as habitual as the look), "what is the book that gives you such enjoyment?"

     "A new detective story, just out!" came the reply in a raucous voice, the owner of which a moment later dropped his eyes before the minister's look of spiritual discernment, conscious of being detected in an untruth. He is a corpulent, elderly man, with a shaggy crop of gray hair, gray mutton-chop whiskers, and two protruding tusks which have earned him with his familiars the name of "Walrus." The book in his hand, to judge from the lurid title on the cover, seems to bear out his words, but, unfortunately, his veracity extends to the cover only. But such disguise avails little in the spiritual world. Badly shielded by this cover is a pamphlet in which are brought together all the passages expurgated from the book on MARRIAGE LOVE.

     The minister endeavored to return to his studies. "I must not blame him," he thought. "He may have been performing a use in reading it. It may have been a charitable motive that urged him to deceive me.

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He may have wished to save me a pain." As this charitable thought struck him, he darted a tender look of love upon the Walrus. "Even if he has sinned, it may be my fault for not shunning my evils as I should, so that more good than I have been able to give may go out to help and uplift him."

     A shrill whistle from the engine broke in upon these considerate and forgiving thoughts. Both automatically arose, placed their bags on the seats and put away the articles taken out for the journey. Half an hour later they emerged from the depot into the streets of London.

     They walked in silence, the minister absorbed in the sermon he was soon to preach, and the Walrus keenly interested in every detail of the network of streets they were threading. As they came out upon the dingy little square on which faced the church which was their goal, the Walrus laid a detaining hand on the minister's arm. "Bless my eyes," he ejaculated, "if there isn't an Old Church dragon! Looks a bit used up, too, I declare!" The minister looked whither the other pointed and beheld the slumbering figure of our Episcopalian, hatless, his clerical garments disarrayed, and huddled on the pavement in the angle between the wall of a house and some steps.

     "Brother," said the minister to his companion, in a voice as severe as his loving tones could assume, "how often must I remonstrate with you for using language so little in keeping with the spirit of charity which I am sure, which I know, you have. Don't you remember there is no Old Church any more? The Christian denominations are all organic parts of the New Church, and it is our duty and privilege as the heart and lungs of a sodality of Christian brothers not to withhold, but to bestow freely that love and consolation they are so greatly in need of. 'Dragon,' we are told in the work on ANIMALS of THE BIBLE, is a mystic term which means those in faith alone. The only dragons at this day," he continued with especial emphasis, "are those who are so opposed to charity that they segregate themselves into exclusive communities and avert themselves from their brethren in the Churches. This poor man is our brother. He may he sorely in need of the love and helpfulness we can shed upon his way."

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     This apostle of love thereupon knelt by the Bishop's prostrate body with a tender solicitude that was touching to see. The Walrus, somewhat crestfallen, stood sullenly several paces off. In a few minutes the Bishop heaved a sigh, and wearily opening his eyes looked into a face so soft, sweet, and gentle, and brimming with so much sympathy and love, that he had a bewildering impression of being in heaven.

     "Are you an-?" He meant to add "angel," but glancing at the other's clerical garb, which was similar in cut to his own, he changed it to "Churchman." "Are you a Churchman?"

     "Not Churchman, but Newchurchman," said the other in a tone such as Gregory might have used when he said, "Not Angles, but Angels." By this time the Bishop had risen to his feet, repaired his disarray, and gone through the formality of an introduction to the Walrus. This individual, as if to atone for his backwardness in succoring the distressed, now tried to make up for it in part by asking the stranger if he felt quite himself again, a query which was received by the Episcopalian with some frigidity.

     "Newchurchman . . . " he mused, "do you mean Swedenborgian?" They were now moving slowly along one side of the square. This was a half acre of dingy green sward dotted with occasional bushes and a few trees. Its stiff, ugly iron palisade, whose upright bars were from design so close together that no child could squeeze through between them, was not inexpressive of a religious denomination which did little for its young. "Can it be," he asked, as if troubled by some reflection, "that everyone in this life has got to become a Swedenborgian?"

     "He doesn't become one, he simply comes to the realization that he is one already. All good men, even on earth, all men who are on the King's Business, are Newchurchmen as to their hearts, if not as to their heads. I can see from your face and your kindly and earnest eyes that you, too, my brother, are one of us. I am sure that interiorly you are a Newchurchman."

     "I beg your pardon," said the Bishop coldly. "I am sure that I am no such thing. I hold to the faith once for all time delivered unto the saints, and will accept no new gospel, heedful of Saint Paul's warning."

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     "Paul's in hell!" chortled the Walrus with a suddenness that startled the Bishop, and which caused the sweet-voiced minister to deliver another reproof for this cruel, uncharitable, and improbable declaration. The two clergymen had been walking abreast, while the Walrus, close on their heels, in his eagerness to hear what they were saying, occasionally thrust his head between them.

     "Nay, brother," came the minister's sweet tones in reply to the Bishop, "you do your real self an injustice to say so. I for one do not give you up. I seem to know you better than you know yourself. I just know that you are a Newchurchman."

     "You seem at any rate to consider yourself well qualified in the matter of judging about me," said the Bishop with a fine irony, that was lost, however, on the minister.

     "He gets this penetration from his goodness as a clergyman," came from the recess between the mutton-chop whiskers which were again thrust between the pair. The minister smiled as if pleased at the adroitness of the other in making a remark which his own modesty would not have allowed him to father. The Bishop relaxed, decidedly amused at the odd remarks of the pair and their obvious striving to make an agreeable impression.

     "I recollect," he said musingly, "a verse in the Good Book that warns us against such priestly clairvoyance. 'Judge not,' it says, 'that ye be not condemned.'"

     "But you don't understand it. You don't know the science of correspondences, and that there is an internal sense to this and every other verse of the Good Book which gives an entirely different meaning to it. We must not judge that anyone is evil, must we? Wouldn't that be unkind?"

     "Well, in some cases, perhaps."

     "It does you credit to say so. Now the good thing is always the kind thing. The angel's always look at the good that is in everyone and try to bring that out. If they see anything evil in a man they either interpret it into good or else excuse it. Should we not be like the angels? If we shun evil, do we not do good? If we shun seeing evil in a man, and see much that is good in him, are we not justified in judging him to be a good man! When I call you a Newchurchman, I do not mean to say you are a member of an obscure little sect whose influence for good is still very limited.

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It is natural that a man of your broad sympathies should feel repelled at such a suggestion. When I call you a Newchurchman, I mean that you are one of that vast army of good men who are not confined within the borders of one little sect, but are to be found among all nations and all religions."

     The minister spoke with fervor. The Walrus beamed and looked proud of him.

     "Your logic is quite irresistible," said the Bishop. He was more and more amused. The man seemed evidently bent on proselytizing him, and yet kept Ceiling him that he was already that which the other one seemed to want him to become. "And I thank you for the delicacy of your compliment," he said. "What puzzles me, however, is why, if I am a Newchurchman already without knowing it, you are at such pains to assure me I am one and to desire me to plead guilty to the impeachment. I have attended evangelical meetings where the exhorter seemed to fancy it important for men to declare in public that they believed and that they were saved. Frankly speaking, however, I am skeptical as to whether any good ever comes of this."

     The minister looked nonplused, and the Walrus stared at the Bishop with open-mouthed wonderment.

     "Besides," continued the Bishop, "though you speak with such an easy, careless, every-day familiarity about angels, I am inclined to think you know very little about them. I have not been long in this spirit-world, but it is no further back than last night since I spoke with a man who, as well as I can understand it, must be an angel, and he was quite different from the kind of angels you talk about. To be sure, and that is against him, he did speak emphatically in favor of Swedenborgianism, and he said things that hurt and that seem unnecessarily harsh and untrue. But what he said was straight and sincere and he believed it. However, there may be a heaven for Swedenborgians, I am willing to grant. And if there is, he is undoubtedly from it. As for me, I am old-fashioned enough to believe there may be a corner of a Heaven somewhere for High Church Episcopalians. The Catholic Church was established by Christ and we have his solemn asseveration that the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

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I thank you, gentlemen, for your courtesy to me in the sorry plight in which I was unfortunate enough to be found. I have the honor to wish you good morning."

     They had reached the church door. The minister was visibly vexed that they were about to lose him. After what he had said, it seemed patently a waste of words to invite the stranger in to listen to his sermon. Yet he had hoped to accomplish this, knowing what an encouragement it would be to the congregation to feel how much good the stranger was getting; and what a stimulus it would be to himself to preach to a man who had not heard it all again and again. At this point the Walrus brought an unexpected assistance.

     "Tell us some more about that Swedenborgian angel before you go." Simple courtesy impelled him to stop long enough to render them this service. He therefore embarked upon the narration of his experiences in the spiritual world prior to the time when they had found him. He described how his brother-in-law, Edgar, who had died some twenty years previously, but looked not a day older, had rescued him from a throng who were bent evidently on self-destruction; and then how Edgar, when they were alone, had denounced the Episcopal Church in no uncertain manner and had urged upon him to turn to Swedenborg. He had not proceeded very far, however, in this latter part of his narration when startled exclamations from both his listeners caused him to look up and see signs of consternation written on both their faces.

     "That's no angel," burst out the Walrus the moment he was through. "That's a Parnassian."

     "It seems, indeed, to be so," said the minister drearily, as if these words had evoked sad and poignant memories. "But I would not have believed that anyone of them could have stayed so long in the world of spirits."

     At this moment the church bell began to toll, and the minister made haste to enter the building. The Walrus also made as if to enter, but the Bishop detained him. "You mystify me," he said. "I do not know what you are talking about. What's the matter with a Parnassian?"

     "Hush!" said the other, looking up and down suspiciously.

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"Not so loud! Others will hear you! A Parnassian," he continued impressively, though in muffled tones, "does not believe in the ten commandments. He is therefore no Christian, and consequently not a Newchurchman!"

"Really, you amaze me," said the Bishop in a tone that seemed almost sacrilegious to the other, who had supposed he would be too horrified for utterance. "This is a remarkable state of affairs. Here is Edgar who for twenty years has been studying Swedenborg to such profit: that he believes him, and you say he is no Newchurchman. While I, who scarcely know anything about Swedenborg and am not very anxious to learn any more, am acclaimed by your minister as a true Newchurchman, a worthy sheep of his fold. This is truly amazing!"

The Walrus said all this could be explained to everybody's satisfaction, but it was too long a matter to enter into just then. He wheeled about without further ado and entered the church. The Bishop, after wavering a moment, followed after him, resolving philosophically to brave the tedium of the ordeal he felt sure the minister was going to inflict, for the sake of studying a little further the characters of these two bizarre and amusing personages. He little thought that his entrance into this building would change the entire current of his life and foment associations and interests he had never dreamed of.

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TRANSFORMATION OF THE WILDERNESS 1913

TRANSFORMATION OF THE WILDERNESS Rev. J. E. BOWERS 1913

     The earth was created to be the dwelling-place of man during his natural life, while he is beginning to enter into states of spiritual life. It is according to Divine order that man's existence begins in the ultimates of nature, in the material world. All things in the universe are created for the sake of the human race and therefore for the sake of every individual man. And the Divine end in the conservation of all things in the natural universe is the formation of angelic heavens from the human race.

     When the earth had been prepared for the inhabitation of man, and when man was first created, the earth as to its physical conditions was a Paradise. From the substances in the mineral kingdom, the endless variety of forms in the vegetable kingdom had been produced. These forms, that is, of trees and shrubs, plants and flowers, were luxuriant; and thus nature was adorned with objects which were perfect and of marvelous beauty, having their origin in the Divine.

     These forms and objects were correspondences of the celestial and spiritual principles of thought and affection, in the minds of men who were to be created and to have their delightful dwelling places in the midst of the earthly Paradise which the Lord had prepared for them. This was not only very beautiful as to its external appearance, with its trees of various kinds, and their rich foliage; its flowers of exquisite forms, and the harmonious splendor of their glowing colors. But the perfection of the beauty of the primeval Paradise consisted in the forms of heavenly uses that were ultimated in its products, in the great variety of its fruits which were correspondences of things celestial and spiritual, and thus of the qualities of intelligence and wisdom derived from the Divine.

     The earthly Paradise, therefore, which had come into existence when man was created, was representative of, was a real and a perfect picture of the celestial Paradises in which the people of the Most Ancient Church were afterwards to have their delightful homes in the spiritual world to eternity.

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     When men were first created they were men from the beginning as to the physical form, but they were not at once men in the full sense of the word. But all the faculties, attributes and qualities which constitute man were developed by a gradual process of growth, according to Divine order. From mere forms recipient of life from God, there was first the development with men on the ultimate plane, the natural. The process of growth continued, and the formation and culture of the spiritual degree of the human mind was effected. And in the course of the ages the third or highest degree of the mind was opened and organized. Men then entered into a celestial state, which was the state of the infancy of the human race, and which in some respects corresponds with the Infancy and childhood of every individual man. Men were then the humble, trustful, obedient children of God, who provided for them in all things, and to Whom they looked, as innocent children depend upon their parents. Love, derived immediately from the Lord, and especially conjugial love, was the animating principle and delight of their life.

     With those primitive men was the Church signified by Adam, that is, Man, in Eden the Garden of the Lord. It was what we know from the doctrines as the Most Ancient Church, which was in prehistoric times and was called by the ancient writers the Golden Age. And the expression was according to correspondence, because the men of that age were in the good of love from the Lord and in genuine charity toward the neighbor. Their faith essentially was love. They were sincere, and had no idea of such a thing as simulation. The principle of doing things from selfish motives had not yet place in their minds, and was contrary to their nature. They were in states of innocence and hence were wise; the faculties of will and understanding with them were united in the orderly and harmonious exercise of the mind.

     The people of the Most Ancient Church had all the means needful for happiness of life which infinite love could provide for them in their rudimentary state in the natural world. But they were not content to remain in their integrity.

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What we know as the fall of man came to pass. And why did it take place? Men were created according to Divine order; and they were therefore created to have freedom, to have free agency in spiritual things, and thus to decide their eternal destiny for themselves. From the beginning men had the same privilege as men have at the present day, to act as of themselves; from an inborn disposition or inclination, to act in freedom according to reason and the laws of the Divine order, or contrary thereto.

The fall of man from his state of integrity, in the most ancient times, was in consequence of his eating of the forbidden fruit of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." (Gen. 2:17.) Men did what is signified by this in the spiritual sense. They were seduced by the serpent, that is, the sensual. There was derived from this sensual in them an inclination to do what is contrary to the absolute law that man, to be in the order of his life in relation to the Divine, must know and acknowledge that God, who created him, is the Source of all life in him, whence are all the faculties of his mind, all his affections and thoughts, desires and aspirations; in a word, all things that constitute his existence as a man. This inclination prevailed with a few men at first, and then followed the decline of the Most Ancient Church; and the establishment of every succeeding Church began with a few, with a very small remnant.

When the downward course of the degeneration of the race had once begun with a few, by men ascribing to themselves, and as being of themselves, the Divine things that are of and from the Lord alone, then it continued, because men had to be permitted to think and to act perversely; and thus could not be compelled to remain in the celestial state in which their ancestors had been. The lamentable conditions of man's violations of the laws of the Divine order continued and grew worse from generation to generation. The ideas of the disordered human imagination produced grievous delusions, direful persuasions, infatuations and insanities. As to their internal and spiritual states men had become vastated of what is human and had become monstrous in form. And concerning that condition in the spiritual history of the Church it is therefore said in the Word that "there were giants in the earth in those days." (Gen. 6:4.)

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     Those giants, in the original called Nephilim, were the worst class of the most ancient degenerates. We are told that they immersed the doctrinal things of faith in cupidities; and from the love of self-conceived direful fantasies concerning their own greatness above others. The Anakim and the Rephaim were their descendants.

     The Most Ancient Church ultimately perished, and its destruction is described by the flood, which was an inundation of falsities and evils which destroyed the spiritual life of the people of the Golden Age.

     The Ancient Church, which at its beginning was a spiritual Church, then succeeded. But on account of the perverted heredity derived from their ancestors by the people of this Church, it also was consummated, being destroyed by things magical and idolatrous. The people of this Church made images of various forms, representative of spiritual truths and moral virtues. But when, in the course of time, the knowledge of correspondences was lost, these images became idols. The people lost the idea of the living God they worshiped these idols, these dead forms made by their own hands; and thereby was destroyed the spiritual life of the people of the Silver Age.

     When the Israelitish Church was formed afterwards, all spirituality had ceased to exist in the hearts and minds of the people, and they were in an utterly natural and sensual state. It is revealed to us in the Doctrines that, interiorly, they also were idolaters, and that, therefore, the Church did not really exist with them, but that all things of their worship and ceremonials were the representatives of a Church to be established in a future age.

     The vastation of truth and good, of faith and charity; the perversion of every principle of the Church; the violation of all Divine order, as to the relation of finite beings to the Infinite, of man to the Lord, had continued for unknown thousands of years, since the most ancients, in consequence of their own evil doings, departed from the state signified by the garden of Eden; that is, from a state of wisdom and intelligence.

     These vastations went on in the passing generations, all along down the ages, to produce their sad effects, until in the time of Isaiah the prophet the spiritual conditions existing were more fully described in the letter of the Word, as, for instance, by the waste places, the-wilderness and the solitude.

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And in the same prophet it is also written: "Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. The house of our holiness and our beauty, where our fathers praised Thee, is burned up with fire; and all our pleasant things are laid waste." (Isaiah 64:10, 11.)

     It is a law of cause and effect that the spiritual states of the inhabitants of the earth are ultimated, and that corresponding conditions are produced, which are visibly presented in the world of nature. There are, therefore, on the earth vast desert regions, which are really solitudes, because they are not and cannot be inhabited. They are tracts of sand in which nothing can grow and which are without vegetation of any kind; where the melody or the singing of birds is not heard; where there are no streams of water; where there is a desolation the most oppressive because of the solitude in which is the stillness of death. Thus in nature; as in the spiritual idea, a desert is in all respects the very opposite of what constitutes a paradise.

     That Zion was a wilderness and Jerusalem a desolation applies especially to the Israelitish and Jewish Churches. The people of those ages were in dense ignorance concerning internal things. They were corrupted by the loves of self and of the world. They had receded from representative worship; had perverted and profaned all things of that worship; and so had "made the commandments of God of none effect by their traditions." They had devastated the Church, which was manifest by the destruction of the grand temple itself at Jerusalem. And when the Lord the Savior came into the world,-whose coming was predicted in the Word which they had,-they persecuted and crucified Him. And thus was completed the consummation of that Church.

     The preaching of John the Baptist, the herald of the advent of the Lord in the Human, was "the voice of one crying in the wilderness;. . . Make straight in the desert a highway for our God." (Isaiah 40:3.) The coming of the Lord in the Human was a distinctly new event in the history of the Church; and it was the most wonderful event, when God was made manifest in the flesh.

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But the First Christian Church, which was founded by the Lord and afterwards promulgated by means of the apostles, was also devastated by the falsification of all truth and the adulteration of all good. Thus again was the Temple at Jerusalem spiritually destroyed; as later it also was literally. According to the Lord's words, there was not left one stone upon another that was not thrown down,-in the consummation of the age.

     The time came for the fulfillment of the sublime prophetic words of Isaiah: "For the Lord shall comfort Zion; He will console all her waste places; He will make her wilderness as Eden, and her solitude as the Garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, confession and the voice of singing." (Isaiah 51:3.) The Lord made His Second Advent by giving a new Revelation of the Divine Truth; which is the opening of the Word as to its internal sense, and this Revelation therefore is the Word. The Lord again came into the world, in the spirit and power and great glory of His Word. Our only Lord God the Savior, who is the Word, laid the foundations of His final, crowning Church, the New Jerusalem, to establish on earth His kingdom, of which it is said that it shall not perish, but that it shall endure for the ages of the ages.

     The doctrine of this Church is signified by the man child whom the woman brought forth, as described in the Apocalypse, chapter 12. Those who are meant by that old serpent, the Dragon, endeavored to devour the child as soon as he was born; that is, to destroy the doctrine at its birth. But it is said that the woman fled away into the wilderness. By the woman is signified the New Church. And the wilderness is the desolation of the old church.

     The New Church may be compared to an oasis in a barren desert, in which are gardens and paradises, the beautiful forms, the useful products, and the delicious fruits of which are all correspondences of the doctrines and principles of the Church, received from the Lord by the people who have their homes in the midst of such pleasant surroundings.

     From the comparison just made we can form an idea of the significance of the New Church as a grand center, from which is to proceed the evangelization of the world.

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The Church is from the Lord, as the Divine Center of the created universe. All who are really of the New Church in the specific sense; that is, who have the Word in the revelation of its spiritual sense and thereby know the Lord as the one and only God, and live according to His precepts, are of the Church as a Center. Although consisting of individual members, of circles, societies, and a general body or bodies, the Lord's Church is one. And in the specific sense it is the vital part, the heart and lungs, of the Greater Man of the Church in the world.

The Church in the universal sense is scattered throughout the whole earth. All who are in natural good of life; who do not confirm themselves in falsities, but resist evils; who are in states of simplicity and desire to be instructed and to live well; who are in an affection of truth and will be delighted with the truth when, in the providence of the Lord, they are led to a knowledge of it; who will, either in this life or in the other, acknowledge the Lord and be saved: all these are of the Church universal. They are still in the wilderness. But the Lord knows, leads, protects and from infinite love provides for the salvation of every soul that is willing to come unto Him and be prepared for His kingdom. Among the people here spoken of are many of the gentiles, who are so favorably mentioned in numerous passages in the letter of the Word. That they also will in due time be enlightened by the truths of the heavenly doctrines; that the Church will be with them, and that they will become spiritual in affection and thought, is involved in these words: "The wilderness and the dry place shall rejoice for them; and the desert shall exult and flourish as the rose." (Isaiah 35:1.)

All the truths of the Word are Divine, infinite and eternal. And therefore every truth of the Word is of unlimited application. The Divine truth of doctrine, in the Writings of the New Church as in the letter of the Word, has reference to the past, the present and the future. The teaching concerns the states of all men, in all ages of the world. Thus, in these words of Isaiah, are involved the natural, spiritual and celestial states and conditions of mankind, in the entire history of the Church, from the very beginning.

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And the states and conditions are described which will exist in the Church, and for which the Lord will provide, in the illimitable ages of the world to eternity.

     There will always be on the earth waste places, the wilderness and the solitude, mentioned above. These physical conditions in nature are correspondences of spiritual states in human minds that will have place at all times. There will always be such states because, on account of the Perversions in the generations of the past, men will always be imperfect; as, indeed, in the nature of things, finite beings are; and therefore must needs be regenerated. We have reason to hope that in the course of many centuries, under the powerful influences of the Divine truth, an improvement may be effected in our race, so that from being with a few the Church may increase, and that far greater numbers may rejoice in the association with those who are of the faith and life of the New Jerusalem.

     That the New Church as a visible body is still in its incipiency is known from the fact that there are so very few who as yet have any knowledge of the Doctrines. And among these few there are some who have not acquired a rational knowledge of what the Writings of the Church are or what they really teach. They know that there is such a religious institution as the New Church, but as to what it essentially is they have no intelligent conception, but at the most a mere general notion. And therefore they are not in sympathy with those of the Church who read and enter into the particulars of the Heavenly Doctrines and faithfully apply them, looking to the Lord in His Revelation for instruction as to all the uses and duties of life of the individual member of the Church; and thus for the advancement of the organic body of the Church. But all, throughout the world, who hold this attitude, are interiorly united and in harmony; are of the Church in spirit and in truth, although widely separated as to space.

     After the long night of the "dark ages" of the former and consummated church there came the dawn of a new era which was the promise of a great change. In this change from dense darkness to the morning dawn there followed the rising of the Sun, the glorious sun of Divine Love and Truth, which was to bring to men on earth a signal enlightenment; and to fill the hearts and minds of men-the few who were able to receive them,-with new thoughts and affections, by means of rational knowledges and sublime teachings, newly revealed from heaven by the Lord out of the Word.

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The Lord's Advent in the Revelation of the internal sense of the Word, which is the distinctive revelation upon which the New Church is founded, and which includes all former Revelations, is in the letter of the Word spoken of as the rising of the Sun. And to those who can realize that they are in ignorance as to the things of religion,-those who reverently believe in a Supreme Being and desire to be instructed,-it is a great experience to be led out of the darkness into the light in which they are enabled to see, intelligently and clearly, the doctrines of the new and everlasting gospel. It is written: "But unto you that fear My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise, with healing in his wings." (Mal. 4:2.)

Zion represents the Church with men on all planes, as to all the degrees of the mind, the natural, spiritual and celestial. The Lord's presence is with all men who acknowledge Him, who put their trust in Him as the only Divine, and approach Him as the Father in the heavens. At all times and in all circumstances, whether the mind be obscured by dense clouds or the sky be bright with sunshine; in states of affliction during spiritual temptation combats or of rest and peace after the conflict is over; in all states of regeneration, while the purification of the mind from evils and falsities is being effected, the Lord is with everyone. The Lord's presence is, by His Holy Spirit, to impart the comfort and consolation which He alone can confer; and ever to lead His children away from the waste places, out of the dreadful wilderness and the dismal solitude, into the state of eternal felicity in the heavenly Paradise, which is signified by the words: "Joy and gladness shall be found therein, confession and the voice of singing."

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GLIMPSES OF SPIRITUAL TRUTH FROM THE WRITINGS ON PARACELSUS 1913

GLIMPSES OF SPIRITUAL TRUTH FROM THE WRITINGS ON PARACELSUS VALENTINE KARL 1913

     Paracelsus,-or Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, which was his real name-was born in 1490, at Einsiedeln, in Switzerland. His biographers describe him as a philosopher, physician, and alchemist, and about 130 books, or rather, treatises on chemistry, philosophy and magic are ascribed to him. Living at the time of the great revival of learning, the Renaissance of science and literature in the 15th century, he was one of the most remarkable men of his time, and he rose tot no little fame on account of his extraordinary art of healing. He is credited with having performed several miraculous cures on persons who had been given up as incurable by other physicians.

     A restless spirit, imbued with a strong desire for acquiring knowledge in regard to the secrets of alchemy and magic, he spent most of his life in traveling from one university to another in Europe, and he is even said of having gone as far as India. His eagerness to understand the nature of God and the true relationship between man and the spiritual world led him to the study of Neoplatonic Philosophy, and the writings of Hermes Trismegistus, and it is mostly from these sources that he gained that knowledge and insight into spiritual truth which may be found scattered throughout his philosophical writings.

     Neoplatonism, as is well known, represents Greek idealistic philosophy mingled with the religious science of Egypt. Neoplatonists claimed the possibility of gaining knowledge of supernatural things by assuming the existence of a capacity in man for passing beyond the limits of empiric knowledge. But the belief in the supernatural, so positively expressed in the Neoplatonic philosophy, had its source and origin in the Revelations given by God to the Ancient Church, written down by the prophets of that time, and later on preserved in the libraries of Egypt, the land where written language seems to have first originated.

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     Hermes Trismegistus,-Hermes the thrice greatest,-whom Paracelaus calls the father of all philosophers, is identical with the Egyptian Thoth, the scribe of the gods. Thoth (Tehuti) was, according to a long lost, but newly rediscovered tradition, one of the prophets of the Ancient Church., who, inspired by God (Osiris), revealed the laws of heaven to men, teaching among other sciences the art of writing, on account of which he became deified after death. Swedenborg once refers to Trismegistus: "Trismegistus living in the time of Moses, as is supposed, is believed to have invented the mode of expressing ideas of the mind by images of beasts, which are expressed in Hieroglyphics." (S. D. 6053) In fact, however, Trismegistus must have lived some hundred years before Moses, whose date was about 1300 B. C.; for Thothmes I., one of the Pharaohs of the XVIII. Dynasty, which lasted from 1700 to 1400 B. C.-believed himself to be the incarnation of Thoth, on which account he named himself Thoth-es or Tehuti-mes, i. e., God Thoth (Tehuti).

     The following article is made up of quotations from the philosophical writings of Paracelsus, found in a work entitled "LIFE OF PARACELSUS AND HIS TEACHINGS," by Franz Hartmann.* It will he noticed that Paracelsus had some knowledge of the science of correspondences; that he had a perception of the three degrees of the inner man, which he enumerates as, animal mind, spirit, and soul: further that he affirms the existence of the spiritual sun, and of the grand man, and that he speaks of the law which governs the intercourse of the spiritual and natural world, almost in the same terms as are found in the Writings of Swedenborg. But what he says is not claimed by him as something new, for, as he expresses himself: "That which a man writes is not created by him, but it existed before him, and it will exist after him; he only gives it a form. Therefore that which he writes is not his but another's; he is only the instrument through which truth or error expresses itself."
     * The full title of the book here referred to is as follows: "The Life of Philippus Theophrastus Bombast, of Hdhenheim. Known by the name of Paracelsus, and the substance of his teachings, concerning Cosmology, Anthropology, Pneumatology, Magic and Sorcery, Medicine, Alchemy and Astrology, Philosophy and Theology. Extracted and translated from his rare and extensive works, and from some unpublished manuscripts." By Franz Hartman, M. D. Second revised and enlarged edition. London. Kegan Paul, Trench, Truebner & Co. 1896.

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     THE SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY OF PARACELSUS.

     Whosoever desires to be a practical philosopher ought to be able to indicate heaven and hell in the Microcosm, and to find everything in man that exists in heaven and upon the earth; so that the corresponding thing of the one and the other appear to him as one, separated by nothing else but the form." "Thus the nature of man becomes known through an understanding of the upper sphere of the great world, as well as by investigating the lower sphere of his little world, as if they were apparently, (what they are essentially), one Firmament, one Star, one Being, although appearing temporarily in a divided form and shape." (pp. 51-52.)*
     * The numbers of pages refer to the book above mentioned, where the quotations may he found.

     "All men are one universal heaven, and heaven is only one universal man. Individual man is the individualized universal man and has his own individual heaven, which is apart of the Universal Heaven." (p. 212.) "The inner (or spiritual) man is formed out of the same Limbus* as the Macrocosm, and is therefore able to participate in all the knowledge and wisdom existing in the latter. He may obtain knowledge of all creatures, angels and spirits, and learn to understand their attributes. He may learn from the Macrocosm the meaning of the symbols, [the correspondences of things], by which he is surrounded, in the same way as he acquires the language of his parents; because his own soul is the quintessence of everything in creation, and is connected sympathetically with the whole of nature," (p. 82.)
     * Paracelsus uses the term "Limbus" in a different sense from that employed by Swedenborg. He calls it the (universal and potential) seed out of which all creatures are produced and grow, as the tree comes forth from its own special seed. Thus the "limbus" of Adam was heaven and earth, water and air. There is a dual "limbus,"-man, the lesser limbus, and that great Limbus (the universal chaos), from which he was produced.

     "As long as man remained in a natural state, he recognized the symbols of things and knew their true character; but the more he diverged from the path of nature, and the more his mind became captivated by illusive external appearances, the more this power became lost." (p. 55.)

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     "Hidden things (of the universal soul), which cannot be perceived by the physical senses, may be found through the spiritual (sidereal) body, through whose organism we may look into nature in the same way as the sun shines through the glass. The inner nature of everything may therefore be known through magic in general, and through the power of the inner (or second) sight. As the physical forms and colors of objects, or as the letters of a book can be seen with the physical eyes, thus also the essence and the character of things may be recognized and become known by the inner sense of the soul." (pp. 53-54.)

     "The signatum or signature* of a thing is often expressed even in the exterior form of things, and by observing that form we may learn something in regard to their interior quality, even without using our interior sight. We see, that the internal character of a man is often expressed in the manner of his walking, and in the sound of his voice. Likewise the hidden character of things is to a certain extent expressed in their outward forms." (p. 55) "Thus all natural forms bear their signatures, which indicate their true character. Minerals, vegetables, and animals, remain true to their nature, and their forms indicate their character. Man, who has become unnatural, is the only being whose character often belies his form, because, while his character may have changed into that of an animal, his form has retained the human shape. If such men could re-enter the Limbus of nature and be born again in the form which corresponds to their true character, they would be born into the shape of monkeys, camels, and buffaloes." (pp. 209-10.)
     * The term "signature," (signatum) as used by Paracelsus, stands in close relation to the term "correspondence" as used by Swedenborg. Paracelsus makes use of the science of correspondences in medicine, claiming that the outward form and sensible characteristic of certain plants correspond to their internal or spiritual characteristics, which indicate their healing power in regard to specific diseases.

     "All knowledge comes from the universal mind. Men do not invent or create ideas: the ideas exist, and men are able to grasp them.

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If all teachers of music would die in one day, heaven, being the original teacher of music, Would not die, and it would teach other persons that art." (p. 264)

     "All things are vehicles of virtues, everything in nature is a house, wherein dwell certain powers and virtues such as God has infused throughout nature, and which inhabit all things in the same sense as the soul in man. But the soul is a creature emanating from God, and returns again to God. The natural man is a son of nature, and ought to know nature his mother; but the soul being a son of God, ought to know God, the father, the creator of all." (p. 276.)

     "Nature being the Universe is one, and its origin can only be one eternal unity. It is an organism in which all natural things harmonize and sympathize with each other. It is the Macrocosm. Everything is the produce of one universal creative effort. The Macrocosm, and man the Microcosm, are one. Therefore every change that takes place in the Macrocosm can be sensed by the ethereal essence surrounding his spirit, and it may come to the consciousness and comprehension of man." (p. 47.)

     "All numbers are multiples of one. All sciences converge to a common point, all wisdom comes out of one center, and the number of wisdom is one. The light of wisdom radiates into the world and manifests itself in various ways, according to the substance in which it manifests itself. Therefore man can exhibit reason in a threefold manner: as instinct, as animal reason, and spiritual intelligence. The knowledge which our soul derives from the physical and animal elements is temporal; that which it derives from the spirit is eternal. God is the father of wisdom, and all wisdom is derived from Him. We may grow into knowledge, but we cannot grow or manufacture knowledge ourselves, because in our self is nothing but what has been deposited there by God." (p. 275.)

     "It cannot be denied that the air gives life to all corporeal things such as grow from the earth and are born from it; but the special life of each thing is a spiritual being, an invisible and intangible spirit. There is nothing corporeal which has not within itself a spiritual essence, and there is nothing which does not contain a life hidden within." (p. 48.)

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"There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of all heat, and all who are able to see may see the sun, and those who are blind and cannot see it, may feel its heat. There is an eternal Sun, which is the source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have awakened to life will see that sun, and be conscious of its existence, but those who have not attained full spiritual consciousness may nevertheless perceive its power by an inner faculty which is called intuition. Animal reason is active in the animal soul, and angelic reason in the spiritual soul. The former sees by the light of nature, which is produced by a reflection of the rays of divine light acting in nature; but the light of the spirit is not a product of nature, but the supreme of all that which in nature becomes manifest. Nature does not produce a sage. She only furnishes a natural vehicle for a sage. Nature is not perfect, but produces cripples and diseases, abnormalities and monstrosities, the blind and the lame; but that which comes from God is perfect,-Omne bonum perfectum a Deo; omne imperfectum a diabolo. Nature is a germ which is planted in the son of man, and man is the gardener and cultivator, whose business it is to surround it with elements necessary for its growth, so that when the earthly tabernacle is broken, the spirit attracted by his love, his eternal home, may return to it, having grown in knowledge, being clothed in purity and illumed by divine wisdom." (p. 283.)

"There is a light in the spirit of man illuminating everything, and by which he may even perceive supernatural things. Those who seek in the light of external nature, know the things of nature; those who seek knowledge in the light of (the inner) man know the things above nature, which belong to the kingdom of God. Man is an animal, a spirit, and an angel, for he has all three qualities. As long as he remains in nature, he serves nature; if he moves in the spirit, he serves the spirit (within him); if he live; in the angel, he serves as an angel. The first quality belongs to the body, the two others to the soul, and they are its jewels. The body of man remains in the earth, but man having a soul and the two additional dualities is enabled to rise above nature, and to know that which does not belong to nature. He has the power to learn all that which belong to heaven and hell, to know God and His kingdom, the angels and spirits, and the origin of evil.

228

If a man is to go to a certain place, it will be useful to him to know something of the place before he goes there; he will then, after his arrival, be enabled to move about freely, and to go wherever he pleases. As stated above, the quality of each thing created by God, whether it be visible or invisible to the senses, may be perceived and known. If a man knows the essence of things, their attributes, their attractions, and their elements of which they consist, he will be a master of nature, of elements, and of spirits." (p. 133)

"Man is an instrument through which all the three worlds-the spiritual, the astral (intermediate), and the elementary world, are acting. In him are beings from all these worlds, reasonable and unreasonable, intelligent and unintelligent creatures. A person without self-knowledge and self-control is made to act according to the will of these creature; but the true philosopher acts according to the will of the Supreme, the Creator in him. If the masters whom man obeys are foolish, their servant will also act foolishly. It is true, that every one thinks that he is the master and that he does what he pleases; but he does not see the fool within him, who is his master, and by whom he becomes a fool himself. A healthy mind, however, is a castle that cannot be invaded (by evil spirits) without the will of its master; but if lusts are allowed to enter, they excite the passions of men and women, they create cravings in them, they produce bad thoughts which act injuriously upon the brain: they sharpen the animal intellect, and suffocate the moral sense. Evil spirits obsess only those persons in whom the animal nature is preponderating. Minds that are illumined by the spirit of truth cannot be possessed; only those who are habitually guided by their own lower impulses will become subject to their influence. Man should therefore live in harmony with the divine parent and not in the animal elements of his soul. Man has an Eternal Father who sent him to reside and gain experience within the animal elements, but not for the purpose of being absorbed by them, because in the latter case man would become an animal; while the animal principle would have nothing to gain."

(To be continued.)

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Editorial Department 1913

Editorial Department Editor 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     The publication of the general table of contents of NEW CHURCH LIFE for the last twelve years gives emphasis to the importance of preserving or procuring the bound volumes of the LIFE as a vast storehouse of doctrinal information and historical interest. The bound volume for 1912 is now ready and may be obtained at the price of $2.00, with a reduction of $1.00 if the single numbers for the year are returned in good condition to the Academy Book Room.

     Subscribers who may not care to retain the old volumes of the LIFE can perform a genuine "benefaction of charity" by presenting full sets or single volumes to the students at present pursuing their studies in the Theological School of the Academy. They find themselves in constant need of full sets for reference studies and will need them for permanent use in their future work in the Ministry. Some of them possess incomplete sets, which may be filled out through the kindness of our friends. Information as to the volumes desired will be furnished by correspondence with our editorial office.

     The series of papers on the History of the Golden Age, begun in June, last year, is brought to a close with the installment on Noah and the Flood in the present issue. We have, in addition, a number of papers containing "Legends of the Golden Age," which wonderfully and beautifully confirm the revelations concerning the Most Ancient Church, but as many of these legends were published in NEW CHURCH LIFE for the year 1904, we will not now reproduce them in their expanded form. We have received many letters expressing appreciation of these articles and suggesting the usefulness of their publication in book form, not only as a textbook for educational purposes, but also as an attractive missionary work.

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The MESSENGER has been publishing, recently; a series of valuable papers by the Rev. John Whitehead on "Swedenborg on the Danger of Communication with Spirits," (Feb. 19); "Modern Spiritism," (Feb. 26); "Spiritism in the New Church," (March 5); and "Revelation by Voices," (March 12),-the whole constituting the most thorough, definite and practical treatment of the subject that has appeared since the same author published a series of articles on the same subject in NEW CHURCH LIFE for the year 1883. We have often received letters from subscribers asking for information as to some book or pamphlet defining the attitude of the New Church towards Spiritism, but we have not been able to point to anything now available, except the Rev. John Goddard's RIGHT AND WRONG UNVEILINGS OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD, (New York, 1912), a nice, gentle, little book, quite lacking in attack and vigor. It would therefore be most useful if Mr. Whitehead's present views were to be published-perhaps with some expansion-in the handy form of a pamphlet. Newchurchmen are in constant need of such material, not only in order to disabuse the outside world of the widespread impression that Swedenborg was a Spiritist, but also and most especially in order to ward off the insinuations of the spiritistic serpent ever lurking within the nominal New Church.

In this connection we quote the following in a recent letter from our friend, Mr. G. Barger, of The Hague: "Mrs. van Calcar, who may be called 'the mother of Spiritism in Holland,' and whom I often met many years ago, wrote a book: on Swedenborg in which she says that 'Swedenborg is the Father of Modern Spiritualism.' Many people believe that we are spiritists. There is a pamphlet on Spiritism in Holland, in which the author, Beversluis,-a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church and chief spokesman and defender of the Spiritists-states that 'those of the Spiritistic conviction call join any religious denomination; you find among them Catholics, Protestants, Israelites, Pantheists, and even Atheists,' and he candidly confesses that: Spiritism does not instruct, but leaves every one in exactly the same state of fancy respecting the future life in which he was before. This is just what Swedenborg stated, with detailed explanation, a hundred years before there was any modern Spiritism, as appears very clearly from his work ON THE ATHANASIAN CREED (n. 74), which I am now translating.

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Have you a book on this subject which would help me in preparing a pamphlet in Dutch on this subject?"
SLANDER VERSUS EVIDENCE 1913

SLANDER VERSUS EVIDENCE 1913

     Pastor Manby, in the January issue of his Swedish journal, publishes an editorial, entitled "The Most Vulnerable Point In 'the Principles of the Academy,'"-in answer, it would seem, to our December review of his recent attacks upon the Academy. In addition to his vile slander that the Academy teaches the doctrine of practical, though not nominal, Polygamy, Mr. Manby now raises the cry of "priestcraft," "papacy in reality if not in name," "literalism," etc. The Academy's "interpretation of CONJUGIAL LOVE seems to us to break down moral and social morality. It is of no avail to say that moral purity is the very thing that is cultivated at the center of the Academy, and that the most happy family relations exist there. This is elevating, but is of no avail when their doctrine of 'the intermediates' creates the impression that those things are neither sinful nor sinless, but are, as it were, indifferent before God."

     The doctrine of "intermediates" was not invented by the Academy, but is the teaching of the Lord Himself in His Heavenly Doctrine, (C. L. 455, 459, 462) This Doctrine does not teach that anything is "indifferent before God," but it does teach that there are degrees in the Divine Providence as well as in the Divine Permission (A. C. 2447) If this doctrine creates a wrong "impression," the fault lies not in the light but in the eyes that cannot endure it. Mr. Manby's sight seems to have been good enough until perverted by a book, entitled THE ACADEMY DOCTRINE EXAMINED AND CONDEMNED, which raised a great deal of dust in its day.

     To us that book appeared so full of self-evident inconsistencies and absurdities, not to speak of its filthy insinuations, that we refrained from the weary task of exposing its hideous nakedness, but to Mr. Manby it appears as the very essence of truth and he earnestly wishes to have it translated into Swedish.

232

This not being possible at present, Mr. Manby contents himself with translating the whole of the laudatory review of Mr. Seward's book, which the Rev. J. F. Buss published in the NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY for July, 1910, and which we answered in the LIFE for November, 1910.

     Mr. Buss, in his review, supported the claims of Mr. Seward, who asserted that he "had never heard of any indulgences on the part of the young men of the Church that have not been excused, or justified, by more or less loose and imperfect knowledge of the Academy teachings; and this is one reason why this heresy must be exposed and extirpated." One might suppose that any person with a grain of common sense would at once recognize the absurdity of this tangled statement. Mr. Seward possesses no personal knowledge of the moral conditions among the young men within the sphere of the Academy, and the indulgences of which he had "heard" must have been committed by those within his own observation in the Convention, where there is no knowledge of the Academy's teachings, except such "loose and imperfect knowledge" as might emanate from their own scandal mongers. This is the "heresy" which should be "exposed and extirpated," and the responsibility for it lies with Mr. Seward and his brethren.

     Blind to the inconsistencies in Mr. Seward's statement, Mr. Buss confirms it by testifying from his own "personal and pastoral experience" that the growing laxity of conduct among professing members of the New Church [in the Conference, we presume, for among the Academy people he has had no personal or pastoral experience] in matters of common sexual morality, is "traceable" to the publication of the Academy, which are never seen by the members of the Conference.

     In our reply to this review we openly challenged Mr. Buss to sustain his very serious charge by evidence as specific in its nature as the accusation itself. For more than two years we have waited in vain for the editor of the QUARTERLY to produce his evidence, but since the charge is now repeated before the New Church public in Sweden, we also repeat our demand. We call also upon Mr. Manby to bring out into the open light the proofs of his insinuations in respect to the "grewsome results" of the Academy's teachings, known to 'him by "confidences" whispered into his ears.

233

SWEDENBORG'S PHILOSOPHY AS A JOHN THE BAPTIST TO THE WRITINGS 1913

     We have received a number of letters from friends expressing anxiety as to our attitude towards Swedenborg's Preparatory works, and we are aware that there exists a state of unrest as to this subject with many members of the General Church. The fact that so many of the Clergy are united in a profound appreciation of the Preparatory works and perceive an intimate harmony between these works and the inspired Writings, has created an atmosphere that seems oppressive to some of, our friends who, while thoroughly loyal to the Writings, are not able to place so high a value upon the earlier works.

     These friends fear that in our enthusiasm for the newly perceived "correlation," we are in danger of raising the Preparatory works to the level and authority of the Writings themselves,-a proceeding which would result in a lowering of the Writing; to the level of the Preparatory works. There is a feeling that some of our students are going too far in their affirmative zeal, and that there is growing up a tendency to claim for the scientific works the same infallibility, authority, and immediate Divine inspiration which are recognized in the theological Writings,-that they are, in short, the very Word of the Lord on the plane of natural philosophy.

     Though we feel certain that this unrest and anxiety are based on misunderstandings, they nevertheless do represent a state which is not confined to a few,-a state which must be treated with toleration and sympathy from the simple fact that not long ago it was shared by most if not all of us. We all most heartily desire to see eye to eye with one another, and we would therefore venture to suggest the possibility of a common ground in the understanding of this subject. Such a basis seems to us to be found in the view which looks upon the relation of Swedenborg's Preparatory works to the Writings of the Second Coming as being analogous to the relation of John the Baptist to the Lord in His First Advent.

     No great event in history has ever taken place without Preparation, both general and special. The most fundamental event in all history-the Coming of the Lord in the Flesh-was preceded by a series of preparatory events and states reaching as far back as the first Messianic prophecy, given immediately after the fall of mankind.

234

The Ancient Church prepared the way for the Israelites; the fall of Babylon prepared the way for the restoration of the Jewish nation; the victories of Alexander prepared the way for a universal knowledge of the Greek tongue and for a new Divine Revelation in that language. The triumphs of the Roman Empire prepared the way for a temporary era of peace and law and order, in the midst of which the Word became incarnate and the Christian Church could be founded. And, as a most especial preparation for the Coming of the Lord, John the Baptist was sent: "Behold, I send my messenger before Thy face, who shall prepare the way for Thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make His path straight." (Mal. 3:1.)

     And so, also, the crowning event in human history-the Second Coming of the Lord-was preceded by a long series of events and states, reaching far back into the Dark Ages. In the blackest hour of the night there was a cock's crow. The pope himself preached the Crusade, which in time led to the Renaissance and the Reformation when the letter of the Word was set free from the prison-house of the Roman Church. This-the letter of the Word-was most universally John the Baptist come again to prepare the way for the revelation of the Word in its internal sense.

     The service of the letter of the Word to its Spirit is the service of natural truth to spiritual truth, and this service is special as well as universal. It is from this latter point of view that we would suggest that the system of natural truth;-truth scientific and philosophic,-which was conceived and developed in Swedenborg's mind during his youth and manhood, was in a most special sense the Baptist, the forerunner, which, by a Divine Preparation, fitted his mind for the mission of revealing the Lord in his Second Coming. Concerning this preparation we have Swedenborg's own statements, such as follows:

     What the acts of my life had involved I have been taught afterwards as to some of them, nay, as to many of them, from which n could at last clearly see that the tenor of the Divine Providence has ruled the acts of my life from my very youth, and thus has governed, so that at last I have arrived at this end: that I could thus understand through the cognitions of natural things, and could thus,-of the Divine Mercy of God Messiah, serve as an instrument for opening the things which lie inmostly concealed in the Word of God Messiah. (2 ADVERSARIA, 839, Comp. D. 3177.)

235

     Why, from being a philosopher, I have been chosen! The reason was that the spiritual things now being revealed may be taught and understood naturally and rationally; for spiritual truths have a correspondence with natural truths. . . . For this reason I was introduced by the Lord first into the natural sciences, and thus prepared; and, in fact, from the year 1710 to the year 1744, when Heaven was opened to me. . . . Moreover, the Lord has granted to me to love truths in a spiritual manner, that is, for the sake of the truths themselves; for he who loves truths for the sake of truth sees them from the Lord. (Letter to Oetinger. Doc. 232.)

     I was once asked [by Oetinger] how from being a philosopher I became a theologian? I replied, In the same way as that in which fishermen were made disciples and apostles by the Lord: and that I, too, from my earliest youth had been a spiritual fisherman. A "fisherman" signifies a man who investigates and teaches natural truths, and afterwards, rationally, spiritual truths. (INFLUX 20.)

     As the Lord our Saviour cannot come into the world in person, it was necessary that He should do it by means of a man, who should not only receive the Doctrine of that Church by his understanding, but also publish it by means of the press; and as the Lord had prepared me for this from my childhood, He manifested Himself in Person before me, His servant, and sent me to do this work. (Letter to the Landgrave of Hesse-Darmstadt, Doc. 246.)

     For this reason it pleased the Lord to prepare me from my earliest youth to perceive the Word; and He introduced me into the spiritual world, and illustrated me more nearly with the light of His Word. Hence it is evident that this is above all miracles. (INVITATION 55.)

     Testimonies such as these seal with the imprimature of a supreme Divine Preparation the works written by the servant of the Lord during his preparatory career. This preparation was a continuous preparation, from his earliest childhood even to the full opening of the celestial heaven to his internal sight. Throughout his works, even in the earliest efforts, there is evidence of a golden thread of genuine truth running through all of them, ever expanding and multiplying itself, weaving a texture of golden tissue out of which there was gradually fashioned a wonderful system of natural truth, which prepared the way for and corresponds to, the spiritual doctrines subsequently revealed by the mouth of the Lord Himself.

     It is to be observed, however, that the very term "preparation" necessarily involves an historical progression.

236

As Swedenborg matured, he became more and more prepared, and therefore his later philosophical works are the fruits of a more complete Preparation than is manifest in the earlier productions. It would seem irrational to claim that the DAEDALUS or even the tract on TREMULATION was written in a state of illumination as great as that shown in the PRINCIPIA, the ECONOMY, the ANIMAL KINGDOM, the WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD and the ADVERSARIA, or to claim that arty of the Preparatory works is absolutely free from error or infallibly true as to every detail, for this would be to confuse the preparation with the fulfillment. But if they are the records of a special and supreme preparation for a Divine Mission, we must approach them with an affirmative confidence that their teachings, as a whole, are teachings of truth, genuine natural truth, and not a tissue of falsities, for falsity in the natural mind can never act as a John the Baptist in preparing the way for spiritual truth.

But let us see in how far the analogy with John the Baptist hold; good. Manifestly, the Preparatory works, like John the Baptist, are the voice of one crying in the wilderness, "Repent ye, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." The whole burden of Swedenborg's earlier message is one of Repentance,-repentance from whole ages of false thought on the planes of science and philosophy-repentance, on the one hand, from the dogmas of scholasticism which for a thousand years had served only to enslave the human understanding in the chains of obedience to blind faith,-and repentance, on the other hand, from the Godless and soul-less science and philosophy, which, after the Reformation, grew up in the wake of the revolt from Rome. The whole purpose of Swedenborg, the philosopher, was to prove the presence and dominion of God in His universe and of the soul in its body, and the Preparatory works bear witness also of Swedenborg's own repentance, his conscious shunning of every thought and affection contrary to these universal truths.

Like John, the Preparatory works are garbed in the raiments of a Nazarite,-garments of camel's hair and a leathern girdle, and the meat which they serve appears at first like locusts and wild honey.

237

Much if not the greatest part of these works deals with science pure and simple; they are tremendous disquisitions on mineralogy, mathematics and physiology, the study of which certainly seems rather homely, uninviting and wearisome to those who re used only to the soft raiments of the King's houses, i. e., the spiritual and heavenly truths revealed in the inspired Writings. It requires courage to enter upon a study of the earlier works, and patience in plodding through them, for they seem at first like an endless wilderness of arid science. But if the student perseveres, he comes upon oasis after oasis of the loveliest and loftiest philosophy; and as he enters more deeply into each work,-particularly the later ones,-the wilderness begins to disappear and the country becomes a verdant pasture-land, inhabited by kindly beings whose faces bear a strange resemblance to the spiritual and celestial ideas which meet us everywhere on the mountains of the Heavenly Doctrine.

On looking back over the whole series of the earlier works, one cannot but marvel at the enormous labors of the author in his forty years of wandering through this seeming wilderness, patiently exploring the entire literature of past science and philosophy, copying, marshalling and commenting upon thousands upon thousands of pages of dry facts and abstruse thoughts, in order to place his deductions upon a secure and unshakable basis. It is not possible and it is not necessary for everybody to follow Swedenborg step by step upon these his wanderings, for everybody cannot be or become a poet, mechanician, mineralogist, metallurgist, astronomer, anatomist, physiologist, psychologist, political economist or metaphysician.

It would be unreasonable, we think, to expect the laity as a whole, and especially the young pupils in our secondary schools, to enter deeply into the study of these massive tomes, so full of technical terms and abstract reasonings. Such study should be encouraged, by all means, but not at the expense of the study of the Heavenly Doctrine, for Swedenborg himself would most humbly echo the words of the Baptist: "He [the Lord in His Second Coming] must increase, and I must decrease." We do not mean by this that our study and appreciation of the Preparatory works should grow less, for the students of the Church have barely begun to explore their treasures, but we mean that in all our studies we must look to the Writings as the Divine Master, whose teachings are to be, confirmed by the natural truth in the Preparatory works.

238

     The Lord said of John: "Among them that are born of woman, there has not risen one greater than John; notwithstanding, he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he." (Matth. 11:11.) And so also it seems to us that of all the systems of natural truth, born of the human mind, there has not risen one greater than the one presented in Swedenborg's preparatory works. Nevertheless, the least of the spiritual truths revealed by the Lord in the Writings is infinitely, because Divinely, greater than any human deduction. Nay, may we not go still further, and apply to the earlier works the confession of John: "I, indeed, baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to unloose. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with Fire." (Luke 3:16.) For the Preparatory works do, indeed, baptize with the water of natural truth, pure and clear as crystal, but the Lord Himself in the Writings baptizes with truth spiritual and celestial. And it would have been utterly impossible for Swedenborg of his own power to unloose even the "shoe's latchet" of the Lord in His Second Advent,-impossible for him, without the miraculous intromission into the spiritual world and the immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to reveal even the simplest arcana of the heavenly world, or of the Internal Sense of the Word.

     Nevertheless, granting that the earlier works are not "the Light" itself, is it not true that they have been Divinely provided to "bear witness of that Light?" Granted that they are not the "Bridegroom" Himself, is it not evident that they are the "friend of the Bridegroom," the cousin germane, in a human sense, the most genuine friend, forerunner, herald, supporter and confirmer
of the Divine Writings, that can be found in the whole field of human literature?

     The view here presented is a purely tentative one, set forth as an effort to discriminate between the two series of works without losing sight of their co-relation, and in the hope of seeing the subject further discussed in the pages of the LIFE.

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RIGHT AND THE LEFT CHEEK 1913

RIGHT AND THE LEFT CHEEK MARTHA WHITE 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     Will you kindly instruct me through the columns of the LIFE as to the meaning of Luke 6:29-30?

     We are a New Church family living some twenty-five miles from Adelaide and have several volumes of the Writings, but not all yet, and nowhere have I seen an explanation of the above. I have sense enough to see it cannot mean "he that steals thy purse, give him thy bank-book," but just what it does mean I cannot see, and yet I dare say it is very clear in the light of the Writings.

     We had the great pleasure of a visit from Mr. Richard Morse, of Sydney, a few months since and we felt something like "James Bronson" felt when he met the "Wrights," viz., "that he had met his kindred." (I dare say you know the story to which I refer. It is entitled "James Bronson" and appeared in NEW CHURCH LIFE for 1882 and 1883.)

     We feel that if there are any other New Church people of the same quality as Mr. Morse coming to Adelaide at any time, we will be very pleased to make their acquaintance. Mr. Morse is the one man we have met whom we consider capable of consolidating and upbuilding the true New Church in Australia.

     Your papers on the "Golden Age," its decline, etc., have been very interesting to me-the mother of a little four-year-old, who wants to know "Who made the evil things, and how?"
               Yours sincerely,
                    MARTHA WHITE.
     "Glenbrook," Macclesfield,
          South Australia, Jan. 12th, 1913

     REPLY.

     The story called "James Bronson," by Dr. E. P. Anshutz, is very well known to us, indeed, as it was the first means of bringing the light of the Academy to the undersigned, in 1883.

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It is a pity that all the New Church stories by Dr. Anschutz have not been published in book-form, as such a volume would be of great use to the young people in the Church, and would make a powerful missionary work for the Academy movement.

     As to the meaning of the Lord's words in Luke 6:29-39, these seems to be no direct reference in the Writings, but the same words in Matthew 5:39 are explained in A. E: 556b, as follows:

     That these words are not to be understood according to the letter is evident to every one, for who is bound by Christian love to turn the left cheek to him who smites the right, or to give a cloak to him who would take away the coat? In a word, who is there to whom it is not allowable to resist evil? . . . That one who is in Christian good will permit an evil person to take away good and truth as far as he can, is described by what the Lord says on the same subject: "Resist not him that is in evil" signifies that there should be no fighting back of retaliation, for angels do not fight with the evil, much less do they return evil for evil, but they allow it to be done since they are protected by the Lord, and therefore no evil from hell can do them harm. "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also," signifies that if any one wishes to do harm to the perception or understanding of interior truth, it may be allowed to the extent of the effort; "the cheek" signifies the perception and understanding of interior truth; the "right cheek," affection for it and consequent perception of it; and the "left cheek," the understanding of it. . . . "If any man wishes to sue thee at law, and to take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also," signifies that if any one wishes to take away truth interiorly with thee, it may be allowed him to take away also exterior truth; "coat" signifying interior truth, and "cloak" exterior truth. This also is what angels do when they are with the evil, for the evil can take away nothing of good and truth from angels but they can from those who on that account burn with enmity, hatred, and revenge, for these evils avert and repel protection by the Lord.

     The text seems to involve also the lesson that when evil men or evil spirits attack our personal loves, we are not to fight them from those affections, but from the affection of truth, repelling them with logical and impersonal reasons of truth. And if persons are disposed to wrangle with us about mere externals,-intellectual garments,-we should let them enjoy their cheap victories, for such matters are not really worth fighting about.-THE EDITOR.

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SHAPE OF THE SPIRITUAL BODY 1913

SHAPE OF THE SPIRITUAL BODY WILLIAM H. ALDEN 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     I have read with some care the article by Mr. Rey Gill which appears in the LIFE for January and February. While his title and main theme is "Man's Memories," the concluding portion of his paper is devoted to a re-affirmation of his strange theory that the shape of the spiritual body after death is the shape of the brain alone.

     Mr. Odhner has maintained, and ably, in the LIFE for December, 1911, the position which has, I believe, been commonly held in the New Church, and which is affirmed in numerous places in the Writings, namely, that the shape of the body of man in the spiritual world is the full human shape, just like the shape of the material body in the natural world,-i. e., furnished with head, trunk and extremities. That this full human shape is only an appearance, and that the actual shape of the spiritual body is merely that of the cortical substances of the brain, is an idea so new that it would seem needful to have it supported by such clear and straightforward reasoning and proof as should bear not even the appearance of evasion.

     Mr. Gill's whole argument rests upon the proposition that the organic mind, the seat of the memory, is confined to the cortical substances of the brain. We admit that the mind is the man after death; we admit that the limbus is the cutaneous covering of the mind. If, then, the mind is confined to the cortical substance as contained in the brain alone, as Mr. Gill contends, the form of the spiritual body of man and angel is that of the cortical substance of the brain. What, then, is Mr. Gill's "proof" of this fundamental proposition of his argument!

     He says, (LIFE, January, p. 8), "The organic substances of the mind are 'the substances which are the beginnings of the fibers,' in other words, the cortical glands or the grey cell nuclei of the brain. These cells are the vessels of the memory." Note here, first, that the phrase quoted by Mr. Gill, "The substances which are the beginnings of the fibers," is the only portion of this sentence which is quoted by him, and we are not given the source of this fragmentary quotation, so as to be able to consider it in relation to its context.

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But, more than this, the interpretation of the phrase which forms the rest of his sentence, is merely assertive. There may be authority for the assertion; Mr. Gill may be able to give his authority; but as a matter of fact he does not give it. And, having made the assertion, he later in the article makes use of it as if he had fully proved it.

Mr. Gill follows the sentence already quoted with a quotation from D. WIS. V:3, as follows: "The changes in their state are affections, the variations of their form are thoughts; the existence and permanence of the former and the latter is memory, while their reproduction is reminiscence." To the reader, unless he is critical, the antecedent of the pronoun "their," twice occurring in this quotation, would appear to be, from the connection in which it is placed by Mr. Gill, "the cortical glands or the grey cell nuclei of the brain," which are said to be "the vessels of the memory." But this apparent antecedent is not quoted from Swedenborg, but is, as has been shown, purely assertive. To find the actual antecedent, we must look to the passage in the Writings from which the quotation is made. We find the teaching of D. WIS. V. to be as follows:

In man after birth the will becomes the receptacle of love, and the understanding the receptacle of wisdom. . . . The reason why the will and understanding are called receptacles, is, that the will is not a kind of spiritual abstract something but a substantial subject, formed for the reception of love from the Lord; nor is the understanding a kind of spiritual abstract something, but a substantial subject, formed for the reception of wisdom from the Lord. For they do actually exist, although lying concealed from the sight, being interiorly in the substances which form the cortex of the brain, and also in a general way in the medullary substance of the brain, especially in the striated bodies, also interiorly in the medullary substance of the cerebrum, end also in the spinal marrow, of which they form the nucleus. . . . That these are receptacles and that they are so placed, is very clear from this fact, that they are the beginnings and heads of all the fibers of which the entire body is built up; and that out of the fibers sent out from these all the sensory and motor organs are formed, for they are their beginnings and: ends, while the sensory organs feel and the motor organs are moved solely from the fact that they go forth and are continued from the little dwelling-places of the will and the understanding . . . The changes of their state are affections, the variation of their form are thoughts, the existence and permanence of the former and the latter is memory, while their reproduction is reminiscence; these taken together are the human mind.

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     Now, Mr. Gill must have read this whole number, but it appears to have escaped his attention that the antecedent of the pronoun "their" is not merely the cortical glands of the brain, but "the will and the understanding" which form the mind, and which are situated not alone in the brain but throughout the whole body, which in its whole contexture is woven by them.

     Mr. Gill in the body of his paper says many interesting things of the exterior and the interior memories, but nowhere do I find anything more than the assertion which has been already quoted, to substantiate his fundamental proposition. Nevertheless we find him, in his summing up, formulating the following remarkable series of conclusions based upon this proposition, assuming calmly that it has been amply proved. I put the series of conclusions down without comment:

     The memory, as already shown from the Writings [!], has its seat only in the cortical substance of the brain.

     Thus the most ultimate human form which man has after he leaves his natural body is the form of the vessels of his memory, or the form of the cortical glands of his brain, as it was infilled and fixed with the purest substances of nature, during his life in the world. . . . After death the uses of the bodily shape as we know it here are finished, and therefore it is no longer needed except, maybe, in appearance. [The italics are my own.] This being the case it follows that this acquired and infilled form of the cortical glands is the outmost form and shape of man's spiritual body as it is in reality.

     Now as the limbus, or the natural memory plane, is the cutaneous envelope of the spiritual body, it necessarily follows that it is only in appearance that our spiritual bodies are in like shape to that of the body we know here: otherwise the spiritual bodies would be either outside their own skins, or would have a body like ours, but enveloped in the covering of their brains!

     All of these conclusions fail with the failure of the fundamental proposition that the mind is only in the cortical substance of the brain. Mr. Gill indeed asserts that this proposition is taught "by very many passages adduced in the early part of this paper," but the present writer has not been able to find such passages.

     How different and how clear is the teaching of the Writings as typically set forth in the following passage, which might easily be fortified by others of like tenor:

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"That the spirit of man is his mind, and whatever proceeds from it. By the spirit of man in concrete, nothing else is meant than his mind, for this it is which lives after death, and is then called his spirit. . . . The mind of every man is his internal man, which is actually a man and is within in the external man, which makes his body; wherefore when the body is rejected, which takes places by death, it [the spirit] is in the perfect human form. They therefore ERR, who believe that the mind of man IS ONLY IN THE HEAD. It is there only in its beginnings (principiis), from which there first goes forth all that which man thinks from the understanding and acts from the will; but in the body it is in its principiates, formed to feel and to act." (T. C. R. 156; see also T. C. R. 375, 403, and A. E. 775.) WILLIAM H. ALDEN.
Man's Memories Before and After Death 1913

Man's Memories Before and After Death RAYMOND PITCAIRN 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:

     The article by Mr, W. Rey Gill, entitled "Man's Memories Before and After Death," appearing in the December and January issues of the LIFE, is a most valuable and interesting treatise on the memory and limbus, worthy of the study of all who are interested in New Church philosophy; and I desire to record my indebtedness to the author for his essay.

     There is, however, one portion of the paper upon which a discussion in your columns might throw more light; I refer to the statement to the effect that the plane of the memory or limbus resides only in the cortical substance of the brain. A reading of the passages referred to by Mr. Gill on this point does not directly bear out his premise, whatever may be their import as gathered from a broader reading of the subject.

     There is indeed a passage in the DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM which would seem to accord with Mr. Gill's opinion:

     The natural substance of the mind which recede by death constitute the cutaneous covering of the spiritual body in which angels and spirits are. Through such covering, which is taken from the natural world, their spiritual bodies subsist. (D. L. W. 257)

     There are, however, passages which teach that

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     The soul constitutes not only the inmost things of the head, but also the inmost things of the body; so the mind . . . is actually in the whole body. (C. L. 175)

     The spirit is the internal of man and the body his external. [From this it] might be supposed that the spirit dwells within the body, and that the body as it were girds and invests it, but the spirit of man is in the whole and every part of the body, and is its purer substance, in both its motor and sensory organs and everywhere else, and the body is what is material everywhere annexed to it, adapted to the world in which it then is. (A. C. 4659.)

     It may well be that the finer substances of nature which remain after death are confined to those existing in man's brain, and I rather incline to this opinion; but it would be interesting to adduce passages which show this more clearly. Is the memory confined solely to the head? It would seem so to be, on first thought. But a chicken can run about, for a while, with its head cut off, and there are not wanting other phenomena of bodily habit which exist apart from the brain and would seem to be associated with the plane of the bodily memory. Can the same be said of man, and, if so, are such phenomena due to the natural memory?

     A deeper insight into the subject under discussion will undoubtedly enable us to understand the truth of the teaching in DIVINE LOVE AND WISMOM 350, that the spiritual is not a purer natural, and will also explain the difficult passages in the SPIRITUAL DIARY quoted in Mr. Gill's article in the LIFE for November, 1911.

     It may here be proper to take exception to the editorial answer to Mr. Gill's article last mentioned, in the February issue of the LIFE for 1912, wherein the effort apparently was made to explain certain passages in the DIARY by stating that "it must be remembered that this work was not edited by Swedenborg himself, in a final form for publication." This statement is indeed prefaced by the assurance that the writer has "no desire to invalidate the authority of the SPIRITUAL DIARY,"-an assurance which on the face of the editorial seems to be made by way of apology for the foregoing statement. At all events the explanation of the passages offered certainly does not explain, and as a reader of the LIFE I should be glad to see some further statement from the editor, whose stand in support of the authority of the SPIRITUAL DIARY as an integral part of the Revelation I do not question, the above quotation to the contrary notwithstanding.

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If the statement referred to is capable of an explanation not appearing from the four corners of the editorial, let the readers of the LIFE have it.

     Reverting to Mr. Gill's article, I desire to challenge a sentence uttered near its close which reads, "After death the uses of the bodily shape as we know it here are finished and therefore it is not longer needed except, maybe, in appearance."

     If the bodily shape is no longer needed after death, number after number in the Writings would not be devoted to teaching and description concerning the spiritual body and its resemblance in the smallest particular to that of man's earthly body. There is no "may be" about it. The appearance of the spiritual body is verily a real appearance, which I have no doubt Mr. Gill would readily admit, but his words at least are misleading, nor is apprehension altogether allayed by the following sentence, to wit:-

     This being the case it follows that this acquired and infilled form of the cortical glands is the outmost form and shape of man's spiritual body as it is a reality-not as it appears to every sense and sensation in the spiritual world, for there it appears in the same shape as here. (Italics the author's.)

     The unfortunate apposition of the reality to that which merely appears conveys the idea that the appearance of the spiritual body is something not real. The spiritual body is organic spiritual substance, more real than the material or earthly body.

     In conclusion, I should like to put a few closely related questions suggested by the following passages, which bear intimately upon the nature of man's spiritual body and the nature of spiritual substance in its various degrees.

     The reason angels and spirits have inward and outward affections is that they have mind and body. (C. L. 304.)

     How does the substance of the spiritual mind differ from that of the spiritual body? There is evidently a distinction in degree. How are degrees of spiritual substance distinguished physiologically?

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     Spirits and angels . . . all say that they possess a body as much as men in the world, but a spiritual one, and that they feel the beating of the heart and pulse at the wrist. (S. D. 1715, 2917, 2985, 3157.)

     How do the bodily sensations of spirits and angels differ from their mental sensations or those of their imagination? Or how does the organic or fibrous nature of a spirit's mind differ from the organic or fibrous nature of his body! Again, regarded as spiritual substance, how does a spirit's body differ from his clothes or his house?

     Since the mind is not only in the head, but also in the whole body (after death), they have a like body, for the body is the organ of the mind and is continued from he head. (5 MEM. 5.)

     How is the substance of the spiritual mind, which is organic, distinguished from its organ, the spiritual body?

     The angels have a body, a rational and a spiritual. (H. H. 334)

     Regarded as substance, what is it that distinguishes these three degrees? RAYMOND PITCAIRN. March 17, 1913.

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Church News 1913

Church News Various 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. The Civic and Social Club gave a social on March 7th, which, although devoted entirely to dancing proved a success both for young and old. A good orchestra helped a great deal in arousing the sociable spirit. The club has lately installed a new combination billiard and pool table in De Charms Hall, and dart boards and other light amusements are also provided. Mr. Reginald Smith is very active in connection with this side of the club's work; While it is recognized that the energies of the club should not be devoted too much to providing amusements for the "idle rich," it is nevertheless a great improvement to have these harmless luxuries under good management.

     The School held a successful dance on Feb. 22d, in celebration of Washington's Birthday. The Senior class has lately been entertained by Miss Alice E. Grant, at a gathering where several papers were read by members of the class. Some of our students visited the inauguration ceremony in Washington on March 4 and seem to have been duly impressed. But the most interesting item from the schools is the Children's Cantata, given on Feb. 28th. It was more than a Cantata,-it was Gorand Opera in miniature, with solos, duets and ensemble,-even a small chorus of very small people. All the sixty or more children of the local school took part, and great credit is due to Miss Helen Colley for the way in which she taught and drilled the chorus, and gently led the soloists into some conception of harmony. The entire lack of self-consciousness in the children is the chief charm of these performances, and that this should be preserved in a play involving so much individual work, and given before such a large audience, is really remarkable. D. R.

     ABINGTON, MASS. The Abington Society celebrated Swedenborg's birthday by a little party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Freeman.

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The papers and discussions were as follows: Swedenborg as an Infant,-a Boy,-a Youth at College,-a Student in Foreign Lands,-Engineer,-Lover,-Nobleman,-Heir,- Statesman,-Philosopher,- Inspired Writer,- Departed One. The papers were interspersed with songs, poems and toasts.

     To celebrate Washington's Birthday we postponed our Friday supper one night, thereby making it possible to celebrate on the proper day and entertain Mr. Richard Price and Emery Harris at the same time. Our pastor gave a short discourse on Washington and then the company supplied any other items of interest that they happened to remember about the "Father of Our Country." Games and dancing followed, and Messrs. E. Harris and Price gave a cowboy stunt.

     Our pastor is very busy, not only with the work of classes, services and schools in Abington, but also in writing letters to the interested members of his parish in the North Land, where the interest seems to be increasing daily and the opposition likewise; where those who manifest their sympathy are being attacked by those who fear the invasion in their midst of the new Doctrines. One of the receivers has succeeded in starting a Sunday School class among the children of his community. G. M. L.

     GLENVIEW, ILL. It was fondly imagined, when this Society moved from the crowded city, with its dust-laden, disease bearing, germ-inhabited air, that the members would no longer be under the necessity of employing doctors or taking medicine of any other kind than that furnished by sunlight and fresh air. But, alas! we get our full share of parotiditis, varicella, morbiola, otitis media acuta and other choice varieties of afflictions supposed to be bred exclusively in the city, and the doctor has had to be employed and has attended to his duties with a cheerful gloominess.

     The cause that called forth these pessimistic remarks is that we have had an epidemic of mumps and middle ear inflammations.

     The justly celebrated "lake," that lies somewhat northwest of the principal meridian and southeast of the school house, has been frozen over and added to the joy of life by affording excellent skating.

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     A party for the children was held in honor of Washington's Birthday, at which a play was enacted by the merry boys and girls. It was a veritable bal masque and presented a most pleasing spectacle.

     Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carpenter had, and still have, the running of the social affairs for the present period of two months. With the aid of an efficient committee they have done much to relieve taedium vitae. Last night, March 13th, were presented two dramas that greatly interested all. Notwithstanding a very short time for rehearsals, the young histrions gave a most effective presentation of a difficult play. It is lucky for the community here that the theatrical syndicate does not know that we are alive or our numbers would be decimated.

     Many of us have found employment of late in thawing out water pipes during cold spells, a task which was relieved from disagreeable monotony by the function of pumping out cellars when it was warmer.     K.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES, The General Convention will meet at Boston on June 7th.

     The Swedenborg Scientific Association will hold its annual meeting in Philadelphia on May 15th.

     The North Side Parish, Chicago, has extended a call to the Rev. Clarence Lathbury to become its pastor.

     Dr. R. D. Book, pastor of the circle in Columbus, O., on Jan. 26th was ordained into the ministry of the New Church by the Rev. Louis G. Hoeck, the general pastor of the Ohio Association.

     The New Church Society at Riverside, Cal., on Feb. 10th elected as their permanent pastor the Rev. Albert Bjorck, who has been ministering to this Society since the first of the year. Mr. Bjorck, we are happy to be able to state, has entirely revised the views as to the non-eternity of the hells, which some fourteen years ago led to the unfortunate upheaval in the New Church in Sweden.

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The change of mind came about through a gradually dawning recognition of the complete Divinity and consequent authority of the Writings of the Lord in His Second Coming.

DENMARK Swedenborg's birthday was celebrated this year by the New Church in Copenhagen, of which the Rev. S. C. Bronniche is the pastor. The public lectures on Thursdays have been well attended by strangers, and a beginning of New Church social life has been made. The TIDSKRIFT, which is a Scandinavian rather than Danish journal, has had 143 Subscribers during the past year, and is, of course, not self-sustaining, but will depend this year as in the past upon voluntary donations. The editor, in the February issue, denies Mr. Manby's allegation that the journal is "an organ for the Academy." Though members of the "Circle" in Stockholm have been permitted to express themselves in its pages, the periodical is declared to be simply "an organ for the New Church in the North." Writing in the NEW CHURCH MAGAZINE for March, Mr. Bronniche observes: "In Denmark we have begun more than ever to realize the necessity of a distinctive New Church baptism, and in different ways my attention has been drawn to this baptism as an important factor in the work, and in helping towards the building up of the Church."

GREENLAND. Agto, in Northern Greenland, is probably the boreal limit of the New Church in our small terraqueous globe. In the February issue of Mr. Bronniche's interesting Danish journal, the NORDISK NYKIRKELIGT TIDSKRIFT, We are told how the light of the Heavenly Doctrine has reached even to "Greenland's icy mountains." A Danish official, residing at Agto, describes-in a letter to his brother, who is associated with Mr. Bronniche's society in Copenhagen-how in the Writings of the New Church he has found the religion long sought for and how they have given him spiritual light and heat in the long, dark winters of Greenland. He also tells of a Danish Lutheran minister, stationed at Egedesminde, who at first opposed the Heavenly Doctrine, but who is now showing a favorable change of mind through further study of the Writings.

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Some day, no doubt, we shall have a New Church society among the Eskimos, who are described as a very intelligent people.
General Assembly 1913

General Assembly 1913

     Announcements.

     The Eighth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will meet at Glenview, Ill., on June 19th to 23d, 1913.

     The full program will be announced in the May issue of the LIFE. Ministers and secretaries of societies and circles are requested to send in their annual reports to the Bishop before June 10th.
Help Wanted 1913

Help Wanted 1913

A helper is needed in a New Church family with three children. No washing. For particulars, address, MRS. E. E. IUNGERICH, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Special Notice 1913

Special Notice 1913

Mrs. Emil F. Stroh, of Bryn Athyn, would like to communicate with a New Church woman or girl of good health and refinement who would like to assist her with the children and the lighter housework in return for a small salary and the privileges of home life and an equal share in the social life and classes of the Bryn Athyn society. She will be glad to correspond with anyone interested.

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CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT 1913

CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT C. TH. ODHNER 1913

Frontpiece: The Anch - Symbol of Regeneration and Spiritual Life. Plate 1.

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XXXIII. MAY, 1913      No. 5
     Swedenborg, in a paper addressed apparently to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, writes as follows concerning the Egyptian hieroglyphics:

     "It is well known that in Egypt there were Hieroglyphics, and that these were inscribed on the pillars and walls of the temples, etc.; and it is known, likewise, that no one at the present day knows what things were signified by them. But they are nothing else than the Correspondences of natural and spiritual things, which were cultivated by the Egyptians in their times more than by any of the people in Asia. The earliest inhabitants of Greece composed their fables according to these correspondences, and the most ancient style was none other than this.

     "'I shall add here this new information, that all the things which appear before angels and spirits in the spiritual world, are nothing else but pure Correspondences. For this reason also the whole of the Sacred Scripture was written by Correspondences in order that by means of it, and because it is such, there may be a conjunction of the men of the Church with the angels of heaven. But because the Egyptians-and with them others in the kingdoms of Asia-began to turn these Correspondences into idolatries, to which the children of Israel were prone, therefore the latter were forbidden to recall these for any use among themselves, as appears clearly from the first precept of the Decalogue: 'Thou shalt not make unto thee the sculpture of any figure which is in the heavens above, or which is in the earth beneath, or which is in the waters under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them, for I am Jehovah thy God,' (Deut. 5:8, 9), besides many other things elsewhere.

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     "From that time the Science of Correspondences fell into oblivion and, indeed, gradually to such an extent that scarcely anyone at the present day knows that there ever was such a science, or that it is of any importance. But as the Lord is now about to establish a New Church, which is to be founded upon the Word, and which is meant by the New Jerusalem in the Apocalypse, it has pleased the Lord to reveal that Science, and thus to open the Word such as it is interiorly in its bosom, i. e., in its internal sense. This was done through me in the ARCANA COELESTIA, published at London, and afterwards in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, published at Amsterdam.

     "Inasmuch as this Science of Correspondence was the Science of sciences among the ancients, whence their wisdom was derived, it is of importance that someone of your Academy should devote labor upon this science, which may be done especially from the Correspondences disclosed in the APOCALYPSE REVEALED and there demonstrated from the Word. If it should be so desired, I am willing to explain the EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS, which are nothing else than Correspondences, and to publish the explanation; nor can this be done by anyone else. "EM. SWEDENBORG."

     The italics are Swedenborg's own. The Latin original is published as an appendix to SWEDENBORG'S DREAMS, 1744, (Stockholm, 1860), and a rather faulty translation is given in Tafel's DOCUMENTS, Vo1. II, pp. 753-755.

     It does not appear that this remarkable paper was ever sent to the Royal Academy, but we can imagine the smiles of incredulity with which it would have been received. But the members of the New Church can realize that Swedenborg alone would have been able to explain the spiritual mysteries of Egypt, and that it remains for scholars connected with some New Church Academy to do so now or in the future. For in spite of the enormous development of modern Egyptology, from a linguistic and historical point of view, the sacred symbols of the ancient Egyptians are still enigmas which can be unfolded by the Science of Correspondences alone.

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     The Word of the Old and the New Testament abounds in references to Egypt, and the Writings of the New Church are teeming with statements concerning the spiritual significance of Egypt and its hieroglyphics. In the New Church, consequently, there has always been a great expectant interest in these matters, and especially in the Academy of the New Church where, from the beginning, this interest was cultivated by our great founder, the Rev. William W. Benade. Throughout his life he collected works on Egyptology, and these are now preserved in the Academy's Library. After his visit to Egypt in 1878 he became acquainted with the eminent Egyptologist, Prof. Lanzone, of Turin, and, through the generosity of Mr. John Pitcairn, acquired for the Academy Prof. Lanzone's choice collection of genuine Egyptian antiquities. This unique and invaluable collection is now exhibited in the archeological museum of the Academy, and constitutes, we believe, the most: complete collection of mythological figures to be found in America. On his return to Philadelphia Mr. Benade gave a series of lectures on the antiquities of Egypt, and ever afterwards cultivated among his students an ardent interest in this subject.

     In extenuation of the audacity of the present writer in attempting to unravel some of the mysteries of ancient Egypt, we can only say that this study has been our "pet hobby" for thirty years, not from a scientific but from a purely mythological and theological point of view. We believe that in the Science of Correspondences we have found the key to the symbols of Egypt, and that on applying the key to the doors of the ancient temples we have found there the Theology of the Ancient Church, in marvelous prophetic agreement with the universal Theology of the New Church. This claim, we know, and our tentative interpretations, will be received with incredulity by many of our brethren in the Church; they will seem like the births of an overheated imagination, but someone must make a beginning, fearless of ridicule. The illustrations will speak convincingly for themselves, and future scholars will improve upon these our earliest efforts.

     Before entering upon an interpretation of the Egyptian system of Mythology, it will be necessary to explain some of the most common emblems or symbols by which the various divinities are distinguished from one another, or which they possess in common.

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Many of them still remain unexplained, owing to the difficulty of ascertaining their exact natural meaning, for the
Egyptologists do not always know what natural objects are represented by some of these symbols. They seem but little interested in this branch of their science and care only for the linguistic value of the hieroglyphics. We will therefore confine our interpretations to those symbols which are most readily recognizable as to their natural signification, or most self-explanatory to the eye of a New Churchman.

     I.

     THE SACRED SYMBOLS OF EGYPT.

     These may be divided into two general classes: first, the conventional or artificial emblems, and, second, the sacred animals. Among the first we have the "anch" or sign of life; the scepters or staffs of various kinds; the crowns, feathers, plumes and other forms of headgear; the "tet-pillair" or tree of degrees; the "neter" or sign of divinity; the "menat" or emblem of joy; etc.

     Among the animals we have beasts such as the ram, the bull, cow, and calf, the lion and the cat, the dog-headed ape and the jackal, the "Set" animal, the hippopotamus and the swine; birds such as the hawk, the vulture, the ibis and the sphinx; reptiles such as the "uraus" or royal serpent, the frog, and the crocodile; and two insects, the "scarabaeus" beetle, and the scorpion. The correspondences of the animals are easily determined, but the conventional signs require more study. For the illustrations, copied by our untrained hand, we crave the indulgence of the reader.

     1. THE "ANCH."

     SYMBOL OF REGENERATION AND SPIRITUAL LIFE.

     Of all the symbol; of the Egyptians, the one most frequently seen is the peculiar cross which is known as the "anch" or "crux anchata,"-formed by the combination of a cross and a loop which was, perhaps, originally a circle. Almost every Egyptian divinity carries the "anch" in one of his hands, while with the other he grasps the long staff or scepter, known as the "tcham."

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[Drawings of Staffs and Scepters. Plate 2.] The rays proceeding from ATEN, the god of the solar disk, terminate in hands, each of which extends an "anch" to the worshipers. The resurrected spirit is often represented as rising out of the sepulcher, holding an "anch" in each hand, and on his final entrance into "Amenti" or Heaven, the justified spirit is again presented with the "anch" and the staff, as the symbols of eternal life and spiritual power of progress and usefulness.

     While all Egyptologists admit that they do not know the origin of this symbol, or what natural object it represents, they unanimously declare that it signifies life, and especially life after death, eternal life. The reason for this signification they do not profess to know, but they tell us that the earliest Christians in Egypt adopted it as the symbol of the crucifixion, and it is frequently found on the Christian monuments in Egypt."*
     * Wilkinson, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, vol. v, p. 283. We shall refer to this work as "Wilkinson, M. C."

     To a Newchurchman this interesting symbol suggests many things,-most obviously the crowd of eternal life which is won by the cross of temptations. The signification of the cross, as meaning temptation, suffering, and death, was known to the Ancient Church throughout the world, long before the crucifixion of the Lord made it the most sacred emblem of the Christian faith. Its very form suggests at once the idea of the self-will of man, (the downward stroke), being broken by the level stroke of rational truth, the experience, when successful, resulting in the circle of eternal happiness.

     The "anch" was represented in various elaborate forms, and in the BOOK OF THE DEAD it is Often provided with a pair of human arms and legs. In Fig. 3 (Plate 1) of our illustrations the "anch" clearly represents the regenerated human soul, with delicate arms raised in adoration of the heavenly Sun. To us this simple symbol is full of tender and touching religious affection.

     Closely connected with the "anch" is a symbol named "shen," which consists simply of a circle touching a horizontal line beneath it. "This amulet," says Wallis Budge in his work on EGYPTIAN MAGIC, p. 61, "is intended to represent the sun's orbit, and it became the symbol of an undefined period of time, i. e. eternity; it was laid upon the body of the dead with a view of giving to it life which should endure as long as the sun revolved in its orbit in the heavens."

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To us it seems more likely that it represents the Sun of the eternal world and for this reason eternity itself.

     2. STAFFS AND SCEPTERS.

     SYMBOLS OF THE POWER OF GOOD AND TRUTH IN ULTIMATES.

     Next to the "anch," the most common conventional symbol of the ancient Egyptians is the peculiar staff or scepter called "tcham" or "user," which every male divinity holds in his left hand. (Fig. 1, Plate 2). It consists of a long rod, with two prongs at the nether end, and is surmounted with the head of a "cucupha," an unknown but evidently gentle animal; whose ears terminate in a feather. (Fig. 2.)* The Egyptologists are unanimous in declaring that the back part of the ear represents a feather, and the whole, therefore, is a startling combination of the bird and the beast forms. Birds, with their wings and feathers, signify intellectual things, doctrinals and truths, and the feather, as will be seen, was the universal emblem of truth among the Egyptians. Gentle beasts, on the other hand, represent affections and goods, and the handle of the staff, therefore, represents the conjunction of good and truth, while the staff itself signifies the power of good and truth in ultimates.
     * Maspero, HISTORY OF EGYPT, [H. E.], vol. ii, p. 29. Wallis Budge, THE GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS, [G. E.], vol. i, p. 520.

     A staff signifies the power and forces of life from truth and good. In the original tongue a staff is so-called from its being leaned upon and affording support, which, in the spiritual world, is effected through truth and good. (A. 9098.)

     As a "rod" represents the power of truth, that is, the power of good through truth, kings carried scepters, and the scepters were formed like short rods; for kings represent the Lord as to truth, and the scepter signifies the power which they have, not through dignity, but through the truth which must command, and no other truth than that which is from good. (A. 4876.)

     In an evil sense the "staff of Egypt" is spoken of in the Word, as in Zech. 10:11: "The pride of Asshur shall be cast down, and the staff of Egypt shall recede," where the "staff of Egypt signifies power from the confirmation of falsities by means of the scientifics of the natural man." (E. 727:19)

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[Drawings of Crowns and Head-dresses. Plate 3.]

     The "tcham" scepter is often seen in combination with the "anch" and the "tet" or pillar of degrees, (Fig. 3), and a representation of THOTH, the scribe of the gods, shows this divinity holding a bowl, in which is seen the "anch" enclosed on each side by a staff. (Fig. 4.) The staff represents the Divine Truth in ultimates and thus most especially the letter of the Word which supports the internal sense and contains it in its fulness and power. The Pillar of degrees, as shall be shown, represents the three degrees of the internal sense, and the "anch" signifies spiritual life. Fig. 3, therefore, represents the whole of the Word, with its life and spirit from good and truth, contained in their fulness and power in the sense of the letter. And Fig. 4,-the symbol of THOTH, who stands for the whole Ancient Word,-signifies the letter of that Word, enclosing its internal spirit and life.

     This staff or scepter was, like the "anch," presented to every justified spirit upon his 6nal entrance into heaven, and the two "were deemed the greatest gifts bestowed by the Deity upon man." (Wilkinson, M. C., Vol. V, 283).

     OSIRIS,-who represents the risen Lord in His glorified Human, judging "the quick and the dead,"-is often seen holding this staff in his two hands, together with the shepherd's crook and the flagellum or whip, (Fig. 5). The staff prophetically signified Him who is the Word incarnate and glorified. The shepherd's crook stands for His priestly office, the power of Divine Good gently leading the justified to the rewards of heavenly life. And the flagellum or whip stands for his royal office, the power of Divine Truth, by which evildoers are punished and cast into hell.

     The staff held by the female divinities is a stalk of the papyrus plant, (Fig. 6), from which paper was made in ancient times. This plant, therefore, became the symbol of books, and especially the sacred books of the Ancient Word. The ark of "bulrushes," (Exod. 2:3), in Which the infant Moses was hidden, was made of the papyrus reed, and we may thus see why this ark represents the letter of the Word. In the hands of the goddesses, however, the papyrus staff represents more particularly the affection of truth, the love of the Word.

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     3. CROWNS AND HEADDRESSES.

     SYMBOLS OF LOVE AND WISDOM.

     The crowns and headdresses of the Egyptian divinities are of many and curious shapes. The simplest of all is the Feather of the goddess MAAT, (Fig. 1, Plate 3), which has furnished us the key to the interpretation of the other coronal emblems.

     The name of the symbolic feather, as of the goddess, is maat, which means "what is straight," a rod, rule, canon, and it came to mean everything that is "right, true, truth; what is real, genuine, upright, righteous, just, steadfast, unalterable." (Wallis Budge, G. E., 1:417). "The reason for the association of the ostrich feather with Maat, the goddess of truth, is unknown, as is also the primitive conception which underlies the name, but it is certainly very ancient, and probably dates from pre-dynastic times." (Ibid, p. 416). To a Newchurchman, however, the reason is not far to seek. The feather is the constituent part of a wing, and wings signify doctrines of spiritual truth, the systematic and orderly arrangement of truths in a series, by means of which the mind is elevated into higher regions of thought. Such were the wings of Pegasus; such are the "wings" of the angels. Thus the "great eagle with great wings and many feathers," in Ezekiel 17:7, "signifies the truths of faith, with an abundance of the knowledges of truth and good." (A. 8764; E. 281). The feather became the universal emblem of truth from the fact, also, that from time immemorial the quill has been used as the writer's pen, ("pen," from the Latin penna, means a feather), and writing-strange to say-was used originally for no other purpose than to communicate truth.

     This correspondence having been established, we may now discover the meaning of the two crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt, (Figs. 2 and 3), which, when united, resemble a champagne bottle in an ice-cooler. The crown of Lower Egypt (called "tesher") evidently represents a vessel for drawing water, and the curled feather, which is always seen rising out of it, is the general emblem of truth.

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[ Drawing of The Tet-pillar of Tree of Degrees. Plate 4.] The combination, therefore, suggests the faculty of the understanding containing the truths of wisdom, and as a divine crown it would seem to represent the Divine Wisdom whence the Divine Truth is derived. It is always painted a red color, because wisdom is of good.

     That this is the meaning of the red crown became a certainty when we discovered the signification of the crown of Upper Egypt (called "hetch"), the key to which was furnished by an ancient picture in which it was represented as a sheaf of wheat tied together near the top. Now, wheat is a general representative of good, and the will of good, and when used in a divine crown it represents the Divine Will, the Divine Love which consists of nothing but the Divine Good. The crown of Upper Egypt is always painted white, to show that Love is of Wisdom. The two crowns, taken together (Fig. 3, called the "pshent" crown), signify therefore the spiritual and the celestial, the understanding and the will, truth and good, faith and charity, and in the supreme sense the Divine Love within the Divine Wisdom.

     Applying this key, the mysteries of the whole Mythology of Egypt opened up as if by magic, for the key fitted into every door. Whenever a divinity carries the lower crown he represents some quality of the Divine Spiritual, and whenever he carries the upper crown he represents some quality of the Divine Celestial. This never fails, and it is confirmed by all the scientific facts of Egyptology.

     Sometimes the crown of Lower Egypt is in the background, as in Fig. 4, to signify that the celestial characteristics are more prominent in the divinity represented. Fig. 5 shows the headdress of the goddess SATI, who represents the celestial heaven. The vulture beneath the crown is the symbol of maternal love and protection, and the horns signify the power of celestial love. The "atef" crown consists of the crown of Upper Egypt alone together with a pair of feathers, and is shown either in profile, as in Fig. 6, or in full view, as in Fig. 7. The latter rests upon a pair of ram's horns and shows also the two suns, the Sun of the upper world and the sun of nature. Both figures represent celestial good with its own truth.

     The "ureret" crown, symbol of Amen-Ra, consists of two long double feathers or plumes, (Fig. 8), painted red, blue and green, in alternating sections.

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Its very form suggests at once something "standing forth," and, like Amen-Pa himself, it represents in fact the Divine Existere, the Divine in its first manifestation and proceeding out of the Infinite Esse.

     A crown signifies the wisdom which is of good, (A. 9930), and the Divine Good, from which is the Divine Wisdom, (E. 272). The golden crown seen on the Son of Man in Rev. 14:14 signifies the Divine Wisdom from His Divine Love, (R. 643). The reason a crown signifies wisdom is that all things which clothe a man derive their signification from that part of the body which they invest or distinguish. A crown, therefore, signifies wisdom, because it is a distinction for the head, by which is understood wisdom, because wisdom has there its residence, (E. 126).

     4. THE "TET"-PILLAR, OR TREE OF DEGREES.

     SYMBOL OF HEAVEN AS THE "MAXIMUS HOMO."

     Another very common symbol is the Pillar or "Tree of Degrees," of which thousands of little images, in clay or stone, have been found in the mummy cases. The hieroglyphic name has been variously read as "tet," "tat," or "didu"; we do not know which is the correct name, but for the sake of convenience we will call it "tet."

     All the Egyptologists agree that it is "the emblem of stability," but as to its further signification there have been all sorts of speculations. "The 'didu' has been variously interpreted," observes Maspero. "It has been taken for a kind of Nilometer, or a sculptor's or modeler'; stand, or a painter's easel, or an altar with four superimposed tables, or a sort of pedestal bearing four door-lintels, or a series of four columns placed one behind another, of which the capitals only are visible, one above the other, etc. According to the Egyptian theologians, it represented the spine of Osiris." (H. E. 1:184). Maspero himself believes that it represents "the trunk of a tree, disbranched, and then set up in the ground. The symbol was afterwards so conventionalized as to represent four columns seen in perspective, one capital overlapping another; it thus became the image of the four pillar; which uphold the world." (Ibid, p. 111). Dr. Budge, on the other hand, is certain that it is "intended to indicate the four branches of a roof-tree of a house, which were turned to the four cardinal points." (G. E., 11:125).

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[Drawings of Various Sacred Symbols. Plate 5.] Others, again, hold that it represents "the sycamore tree, in the trunk of which the body of Osiris was hidden by Isis," but all agree that "it became a symbol of the highest religious importance," (W. Budge, EGYPTIAN MAGIC, p. 44).

     Comparing the various pictures of the "Tree of Degrees," we have become convinced that it was originally a representation of a palm-tree, (Fig. I, Plate 4), but its natural origin is of less interest than its spiritual signification. We believe that it stands in general for (a) the Tree of Life, which figures so prominently in all the ancient mythologies, and that in prophetic anticipation it signifies (b) the glorified body of the Risen Lord, who Himself is the Tree of Life.

     It is to be noted that the "tet" is always and exclusively the symbol of OSIRIS, the God-man, who was born on earth, who blessed mankind with his wise teachings and beneficent rule, who was treacherously slain by the power of evil, but arose after death in his whole human but glorified body, to reign henceforth as the Divine Judge of the other world. Hence we often find the "tet" represented in the form of the mummied body of Osiris, holding the flagellum and the shepherd's crook.

     And since it is the Divine of the Lord that makes Heaven, the "tet" also represents (c) Heaven in its three degrees, as pictured, somewhat grotesquely, in Fig. 2. The lowest degree, which is furnished with two horizontal lines, appears to signify the natural heaven with its two divisions. The second degree, which is represented with a pair of eyes, clearly signifies the spiritual heaven, the heaven of intelligence. The third degree, forming the forehead, is the celestial heaven, above which there are two other degrees, colored dark, which perhaps represent the super-celestial regions, immediately beneath the Sun of the spiritual world. This remarkable figure is copied from Wilkinson's MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, Veil. VI, plate 25.

     Another wonderful representation, (Fig. 3, copied from the same work, Vol. IV, p. 253), shows a man kneeling upon the earth and upholding the "tet" with his hands; above his head is a small sun. The "tet" itself shows a pair of arms and the usual three degrees, above which a scarab is standing with its forelegs raised in adoration of a higher sun.

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The meaning of the figure is self-evident to a Newchurchman and could well be used as an illustration of the doctrine that the human race beneath the natural sun is the support and basis of Heaven as a Gorand Man. The scarab represents human life in ultimates and in inmosts, the whole of which is, or should be, directed solely to the worship of the Lord in His heavenly Sun.

     Figure 4, (copied from Wilkinson, M. C., Vol. VI, plate 23), shows the god PTAH in the mummied form of Osiris, holding in his hands the staff and the "anch," and behind him is the Tree of Degrees. The staff, as has been shown, represents the Divine Truth in ultimates. PTAH, as a mummy, with face and hands bare, represents the letter of the Word, which in itself would be dead but for the spiritual truth which in some places shines through it, (compare S. S. 55). The pillar behind him represents the Word in the heavens, i. e. the three degrees of the internal sense.

     5. VARIOUS SACRED SYMBOLS.

     Besides the symbol; described in the preceding pages there are many other conventional or conventionalized emblems, of which we will mention only the most prominent.

     The "SYMBOLIC EYE," called "utat or "utchat," is one of the most common of the symbols and is frequently found as an amulet made of glazed faience, wood, precious stones, silver, or gold, Whole necklaces, made of nothing but these eyes, were wrapped around the mummies within and also outside the cloth wrapping, and in the inscriptions the eye was placed wherever the emblem of "understanding" seemed appropriate. Sometimes it was furnished with a pair of wings, or wings and legs, or with a pair of arms in a worshiping attitude (Fig. 3), or holding the "anch" in the hands. It is usually seen as a single eye, either the left or the right, but very often both eyes are represented, and sometimes it is seen in triple or quadruple forms. It was a most popular amulet, as its possession was supposed to confer safety and happiness under the protection of the all-seeing eye of God, and as a word the "utat" or "utchat" means "good health, safety and happiness." (Budge, THE MUMMY, P. 264).

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The whole land of Egypt, among its other designations, was called "the land of the, Eye," (Wilkinson, M. C., V:48), perhaps from the national self-consciousness that the science of correspondences was cultivated and understood in Egypt more than in other parts of the Ancient Church.

The Eye was especially associated with the worship of PTAH and THOTH, the gods of the written Word, and it is strange that not one of the Egyptologists has been able to hit upon the simple meaning of the Eye in front of these gods. They know that both Ptah and Thoth, (who really are one and the same divinity), signify "revelation," but to the learned the Eye means simply "good luck," instead of its obvious signification as the understanding of the Word. But they do not know that the Ancient Church had a Word of its own. The Eye was not confined to these two divinities, however, but is found in connection with almost every god, and it is associated especially with the sacred boats or barges which so often are seen carrying the images of the various gods.

The association of Boats with religious ceremonies was not confined to Egypt, but is found in the rituals of many other ancient nations, especially Greece, where the image of Pallas Athene was carried about in a boat in the annual Panathenian festival. This was observed also in Rome, in the festival of Minerva on the Nineteenth day of June, and the reason was that Minerva or Pallas Athene represents Divine Doctrine, springing immediately from the brow of Divine Wisdom, and a boat signifies the same,-Divine Doctrine drawn from the Word, laden within with the good things of spiritual life. (A. 6385). This spiritual ship is made of the beams of rational truths well fitted together,-a system of interior truths absolutely needed in order to navigate in safety-to interpret correctly-the deep waters of the Word in the letter. This religious significance of a boat or ship was carried over into the Christian Church, without any understanding of its meaning. Little models of ships were preserved in the reliquaries of the churches throughout the Middle Ages and may still be seen in some of the old country churches in Europe, (the present writer has seen it more than once), and it is quite possible that the term "the nave" of a church (from navis, ship), is derived from this source. In ancient Egypt, however, every divinity had his own sacred boat, (which was carried about without touching water), for every god represented some general principle of religion, and each general principle had its own chapter of doctrine.

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And on each boat there was painted an Eye, or several eyes, because the value of each doctrine depends upon the correct understanding thereof. The boat, shown in Fig. 10, is copied from the work of Dr. Wallis Budge, entitled THE EGYPTIAN HEAVEN AND HELL, Vo1. I, P. 23, where it is called "the Boat of the Full Moon." (The title of this work suggests an association of ideas connected with Swedenborg's work on HEAVEN AND HELL, and the suspicion that the distinguished author is acquainted with Swedenborg is confirmed by the numerous and truly spiritual ideas which are found throughout his many works. For learning and intelligence Dr. Budge stands facile princeps among the Egyptologists of past and present, and his sincere and simple faith in the One-ness of God and the reality of life after death, make his works a pleasure to read. German and French Egyptologists are, nearly all of them, skeptics, materialists and atheists, and their attempts to interpret the lofty mythology of Egypt are simply ludicrous and, what is worse, "unscientific." According to them, all religion is based on the worship of dead matter. Osiris is the Nile, Isis the fruitful mud of the Nile, etc. But the English Egyptologists, such as Wilkinson, Rawlinson, Sayce, and especially Dr. Budge, show a more rational spirit, derived from the light of the Christian Religion,-and, with the last-named, the new and true Christian Religion may have had some unacknowledged influence.)

The MENAT, (Fig. 4, 5 and 6), is a curious emblem, the origin of which is not fully determined. It is sometimes carried in the hand by the gods. But is usually seen pendent from the back of the neck. It is always painted a light color and is said to be symbolic of joy and pleasure, (Budge. G. E., 1:430). As a word "menat" means death and a happy ending, and, to judge from its form and its position behind the head, it would seem to signify happiness after death from the conjugial of good and truth. Fig. 6 is the special symbol of HATHOR, the goddess of beauty, joy and conjugial love.

NETER, (Fig. 6 and 7), is supposed to represent an axe and is the universal emblem of Divinity. One axe signifies the One God (Osiris); many axes mean a company of gods; three axes stand for all the gods. (Budge, BOOK OF THE DEAD, Vocabulary, p. 182.)

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The axe evidently represents truth in its power, and hence dominion and authority; it was for this reason the Roman "lictors" carried an axe in a bundle of rods in front of the chief magistrates, and it may have been from a similar reason that the axe became the symbol of divinity among the ancient Egyptians, but the subject is involved in considerable obscurity.

The curious emblem shown in Fig. 9 is introduced here simply in order to invite suggestions from our leaders as to its possible meaning. It is often seen proceeding from the knees of the gods, but we have not been able to find any notice of it in the works on Egyptology, and it has proved too difficult for our unaided ingenuity. The tail, which is seen hanging behind the divinities, without touching their bodies, remains another mystery.

There are many other conventional emblems, of minor importance, which are more easily interpreted and which will be noticed in connection with the various gods and goddesses.

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THOUGHT FROM AFFECTION 1913

THOUGHT FROM AFFECTION Rev. ENOCH S. PRICE 1913

     "While he was yet speaking with them, and Rachel came with the flock which belonged to her father, for she was a shepherdess. And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, the brother of his mother, and the flock of Laban, the brother of his mother, that Jacob came near and rolled away, the stone from over the month of the well, and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel and he lifted up his voice and wept." (Gen. xxix, 9-11.)

     This chapter describes the uplifting of the Natural, that is, the glorification of the Human, which the Lord assumed in the world. It also describes the regeneration of the natural man, so that he may become spiritual and celestial. This is accomplished when man is affected by the truths of love. In the course of this process man passes through various states and vicissitudes. At one time the Word is open, and he sees clearly that the truths of religion, that is, the truths of love, are from the Word. In this state the stone which before closed the well to him is relied away, that is, the falsities of ignorance and of hereditary cupidities are for, the time dissipated. But he comes into temptations, fluctuates in state, and all becomes dark for the time. The well, that is, the Word, is again closed with a great stone of falsity, frequently of acquired evil, and thus it will remain unless man repent. But if truth prevail when man reflects on his state, charity will again have place with him, though he may be in obscurity whence it is. But no matter what its apparent origin, if it be real charity it is from the Lord, and from it will arise the affection of interior truth, that is, the affection of a truth or truths more interior than were with man in his former state.

     In this state man is endowed with a perception that he is making some advancement in his state of regeneration; in this state also he comes again, and more fully, into the perception that it is from the Word alone that man is to be instructed, for from the Word alone is all the science of things Divine and spiritual, or all the doctrinals of the Church.

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     When the stone is rolled away from over the mouth of the well then all in the Church are instructed who will open their minds to be instructed. If there be any who will not drink, though the water be drawn for them, then for them the well is the same as closed.

     In this state of man, when he is instructed from the Word,-when the stone has been rolled away from over the mouth of the well, he comes into something of perception and thought. This review brings us up to the words of ourtext, the internal sense of which in brief is as follows:

     "While yet he was speaking with them," signifies thought on the occasion. "And Rachel came with the flock," signifies the affection of the interior truth which appertains to the Church and doctrine. "Which was her father's," signifies from good as to origin. "Because she was a shepherdess," signifies that the affection of interior truth teaches what is in the Word. "And it came to pass as Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, the brother of his mother," signifies the acknowledgment of the affection of that truth from what origin it was. "And the flock of Laban, the brother of his mother," signifies the Church and doctrine from it. "And Jacob came near and rolled away the stone from over the mouth of the well," signifies the Lord from natural good uncovered the Word as to its interiors. "And he watered the flock of Laban, the brother of his mother," signifies instruction. "And Jacob kissed Rachel," signifies love for interior truths. "And he lifted up his voice and wept," signifies the ardor of love.

     Again if we collect this into continuous discourse we shall find this brief summary of doctrine, namely, that if there be instruction from the Word, that is, if the Church receives the instruction of its pastors and teachers and, especially, if it receives the instruction of the Lord, who is the great shepherd and teacher of all, (and when we say the Church we mean the man of the Church, the individual), then there will be vouchsafed a perception, and from the perception, thought, in respect to the affection of the interior truth which pertains to the Church and doctrine, that this interior truth is, as to its origin, from good in the Church and doctrine thence; and it is when man,-the Church-comes into this state of perception, thought and consequent acknowledgment, that the Lord can instruct from natural good, that is, in a way comprehensible to the natural man who is to be regenerated; now it is that man comes into a real love of interior truths, and indeed into the ardor of love for them.

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It is impossible to develop all the particulars of the internal sense of this passage of the Divine Word in a single discourse, or even in all the discourses that might ever be written; but let us consider for a while the phrase "While he was yet speaking to them," that is, while Jacob was yet speaking to the shepherds of Haran. This signifies that the Lord in this state of the Glorification came into thought from the perception of His internal or Jehovah Himself, (for Jehovah or the Lord in the Highest does not think, but eternally knows, that is, perceives), about the things of the Church. But in reference to man and his regeneration, the passage signifies that when man is instructed in the genuine truths of the Word, he comes into thought from those things, that is, they form and, as it were, father his thought; and what an important matter this is! You have no doubt heard it said "It does not matter what a man believes, that is, thinks, so long as he does what is right." Or, it is said of such and such a one that he is a declared atheist, a denier of God and religion, even of a life after death; but another says, "Look at the good he is doing. See how many people he has helped who needed help; how many hospitals and asylums he has founded," etc., etc. Is he a good man and will he be saved? We are warned that we must not judge individually except so far as to say, if a man be of such a character as he appears to be he will he saved or lost. So we can say of the declared atheist and denier of religion, that if he be really such as he appears to be, he will not be saved, but lost. For how can he come into heaven when he denies the very thing that makes heaven, and even the existence of heaven itself?

What a man thinks, i. e., the quality of his thought as to its origin, is the most important thing in a man's conscious life. You say it does not matter what a man thinks so long as he does what is right. How is a man to know what is right except from what he knows and reflects upon, thus thinks? How then can he do what is right if he does not know how to judge, that is, think, between right and wrong.

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     To say and to speak in the Word signify perception and thought respectively. Perception is the form of mental activity, if we may so express it, that prevails with the celestial angels and with men of a celestial character on earth. It arises from good so planted and confirmed in the internals of the mind that there is no need of a process of thinking and reasoning as to whether a thing be good or evil, true or false, but its character is seen and known instantly. This state is one rarely reached by men on this earth at this day. In place of perception men have thought. And the whole course of man's life in this world is devoted to shaping his thoughts by means of truth; and this course will be prosperous, and man's thought will be shaped into correct forms, forms that may be the receptacles of love to the Lord and charity to the neighbor, so far as the affection of truth, as represented by Rachel in our text, be the shepherdess of the flock. Unless man be in the affection of truth, unless truth have an effect upon him, he will have no thought from it, or if he have thought from it, his thought will be mere contrivance to gain his own ends. If he be in the affection of interior truth he will love truth for the sake of the truth and for the sake of the uses of eternal life.

     It is said in our doctrines that it is good from which a man perceives, but truth from which he thinks; for good is of love and its affections therefore perception is from it, but truth is of faith or what one believes and knows, therefore thought is from truth. But man thinks also from perception and, in fact, does his most perfect thinking from that; for the state of perception argues the most Perfect faith, truth or knowledge,-when life according to the truth from the ardent affection for it has become of second nature, and, therefore, of no effort, but is, a; it were, spontaneous.

     Thought is classified under three heads: thought from perception thought from conscience, and thought from no conscience.

     Thoughts from perception have place only with the celestial, that is, with those who are in love to the Lord. This is also the inmost ground and source of thought with man, and it is with the celestial angels in heaven. The celestial angels have no thought except from perception from the Lord, and through the celestial angels men on earth are able to think.

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It is impossible for the celestial angels to think contrary to perception for that would be to think contrary to their nature. Thoughts from conscience are inferior to thoughts from perception; they have place with those who are spiritual, that is, those who are in the good of charity as to life and doctrine. To think contrary to conscience is to them also impossible, for this would be contrary to the good and truth which is dictated to them by the Lord by means of conscience. Conscience may be defined as the general mental state of a man who has been instructed in the truths of religion, and may be either genuine or spurious. In the case before us only the genuine conscience is to be understood.

But there are thoughts from no conscience. These are the ratiocinations of those who suffer themselves to be inwardly ruled not by good and truth, but by the evil and the false, that is, not by the Lord, but by themselves. Such men believe that they think within themselves, as well as do those who think from conscience and perception, because they do not know what conscience is, still less what perception is; they believe that what they think is true, and that what they do in accordance with their thought, is good; but the difference is as great as the difference between hell and heaven, when compared with the thoughts of those who think from perception and conscience. They who think without conscience, think from lusts and fantasies of every kind, thus they think from hell, or, if they think otherwise, it is from external decorum, for the sake of their reputation. It will not avail that a man be accomplished and refined in an external way. We may be among the great of the earth in the eyes of men like himself, who also are without conscience, and who, sad to say, are in the ascendent at the present time. What of the pretended altruism of the world of science which will permit a man to say, and even applaud him for saying, that the life of a man is nothing when compared with a new fact in science?-in other words, that men may sacrifice other men to find out a new fact in science? How does this square with thought from conscience, based on the precept of the decalogue, which says, Thou shalt not kill? Not long since a man high in the scientific world came forth with the declaration that the size of a family should be regulated by the size of his income, that is to say, not by the Divine Providence.

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Does this square with thought from conscience formed on the basis of the very first command recorded in the Divine Word,-Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth? But why multiply examples! Is not this denial of God and His providence in the very air around us, and especially so with those who should be the leaders and directors of human society? Open your ears and listen to the reputed wise.

Now if the regenerating man be in thought from perception, as are the celestial angels, or in thought from conscience, as are the spiritual angels, then in that thought is born the affection of the interior truth of the Church. "Rachel comes with the flock"; the things of the Church and its doctrine become alive with man, not mere scientific facts in his memory, because she, Rachel, the affection, is a shepherdess, and a shepherd or shepherdess is one who feeds and keeps alive, that it, instructs in the goods and truths of Church, with affection for those truths for their own sake and for the sake of the uses of eternal life. In this state the natural is elevated, that is, the things of the natural mind are infilled from above with light from the Lord, so that man can see the internal sense of the Word as it applies to natural life; he can see how it teaches what he is to do on the natural plane in order to be saved,-"Jacob comes near and rolls away the stone from over the mouth of the well and waters the flock." When this state finds place with man, conjunction with the Lord, by means of the affection of interior truth, is accomplished-"and Jacob kisses Rachel;" the natural man is conjoined with the rational by means of the affection of interior truth, and to be conjoined with the rational is to be in agreement with the truths of the Church in the rational, thus to be conjoined with the Lord; for the truths of the Church are the Divine of the Lord in the Church, and thus the Lord Himself. In this state man comes into the ardor of love for the things of the Church-"And he lifts up his voice and weeps." Weeping is an expression of sorrow, and also of love; and it is the expression of the highest degree of both sorrow and love. Amen.

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"SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME." 1913

"SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME." Rev. RICHARD DE CHARMS 1913

     (This discourse was delivered to the New Church Society in Baltimore in May, 1845. It was found among the unpublished papers of the great pioneer of the Academy movement, now in the possession of his son, the Rev. Richard De Charms, 2d, and will of interest to our readers not only as a document of New Church History, but as a powerful plea for the distinctive religious education of the New Church.)

     It is now nearly three years and a half since a renewed effort has been made to raise up a New Church Society here in Baltimore. On Sunday, the first of April, 1792, the first society that was ever formed for New Church worship in these United States assembled in this city. This assemblage took place in the court house, which then stood, elevated on cross arches, about where the battle monument newsstands, at the intersection of Calvert and Fayette Streets. The Rev. James Wilmer, a clergyman of the Episcopal Church, had received our doctrines, and being a member of that first society, led its worship, and preached on that occasion from Colossians ii, 8, 9, upon the fundamental doctrine of our Faith, the sole and supreme divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Church thus opened consisted of twenty-two members, and subsequently met for worship in the old theater, after having occupied once or twice, by their kind indulgence, the Dunkers' Meeting House.

     Though gradually increasing, the society seemed not to gain anything like stability until the Rev. Adam Fonerden and Rev. John Hargrove, talented and popular ministers of the Methodist Church, embraced the new faith. The valedictory address of these ministers, in which they took leave of the Methodist connection and stated the grounds of their action, is dated June 5, 1795 The first society of the New Jerusalem in the world was formed in London in 1783. At first it was a "Universal Society for the promotion of the New Church," but in 1788 it opened the first place of worship in Great East Cheap, London; and appointed some eight of its members to lead in its worship and preach the doctrines in other places.

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Among these was Mr. Ralph Mather, who came to this country some time within the years 1793 and 1794. He first stopped at Philadelphia, where he preached for a while to the receivers of our doctrines, who had not yet instituted a regular Church. Afterward he removed to Baltimore, and he and Mr. Hargrove were ordained the first ministers of the New Church in this country, in 1798. Mr. Hargrove was ordained, and officiated as Mr. Mather's assistant.

     When Messrs. Mather and Hargrove were ordained, the society hired the chapel of the Dunkers for them to preach in. But efforts were made in the summer and autumn of 1799 to raise money for the building of a temple to be dedicated to the worship of the Lord. Twenty members of the society subscribed $500.00 for this purpose, and $600.00 were procured in donations from the citizens of Baltimore generally, chiefly through the solicitations and influence of Mr. Hargrove. Some money was raised in other parts; and the brick work of the temple and an adjoining parsonage was, I have been informed, put up by an ardent member of our Church from England, a Mr. John Higson, whose brother George, also a zealous advocate of the cause, some of us will never cease to remember with the strongest feelings of both natural and spiritual affection. With these means the structure on the South-West corner of Baltimore and Exeter Streets was reared; and the temple there was opened and was consecrated to the worship of Jehovah God in His Divine Humanity on the first Sunday of the year 1800.

     Thus about half a century has elapsed since the first society of the New Church in America came into active and efficient form here in Baltimore. Once it flourished with fair prospects of permanence and large increase. At one time persons of high standing and respectability in this city were its members. And yet, within a few years back its membership had dwindled to so few that a constitutional and legal provision was made for the transference of its property to trustees of the General Convention, in the serious apprehension that ere long there would not be three male members left to act as trustees in holding it for the uses which it was given to serve here. In fact the First Baltimore Society of the New Jerusalem of three or four years ago had become virtually extinct.

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Its temple, consecrated to the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ alone, has been for years desecrated as the hired house of worship for those who offer the incense of prayer to a tri-personal God; and its parsonage has been rented for an ordinary residence, ever since the venerable Hargrove left it for his "house not made with hands," in the eternal world.

     What a melancholy spectacle! How humiliating to the believers in the Lord's Second Advent! How triumphant verification of the prediction of its enemies that if they would only let this vaunted New Jerusalem Church alone it would soon die a natural death! But, my brethren, can it be that the First Society of the New Church here in Baltimore has thus dwindled almost into nonentity because our belief is false, our hope vain, and that therefore all our efforts to establish the New Jerusalem on earth must prove abortive? No! It cannot be. There has been error or defect in the receivers of the doctrines,-not falsity or error in the doctrines themselves.

     About three and a half years ago I stood in this place by your invitation, a feeble laborer in the heavy work of resurrection. I was called as it were to the sick-bed of a dying society, in the hope that, under Providence, I might be a mean; of raising up the New Church here again in Baltimore. You agreed to call me in as a sort of physician and get me to prescribe from the Word of God and the Writings of the Church those formularies of faith and life which might restore spiritual health and vigor to the Patient whose case has just been described. The pulse was felt, the cause of disease scrutinized, and you will perhaps recollect how the physician discoursed on the 19th of January, 1845.

     We then traced the cause of the disease to those defects in the lives of the early receivers of our doctrines, which had caused their children, as they grew up, to leave the New Church, and to go into the Old Church or into the world. We then went on to discourse at length upon the proper remedies for the cure of the disease. We showed that in the very first place the most particular attention must be paid to our children. We showed the importance, the power and also the danger of the sensual degree of the mind. And we pointed out how the early members of our Church had culpably neglected this principle by their failure to imbue the minds of their children early with the doctrines of the Church and the precepts of the Word.

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They had not established anything like a proper external worship for their children. There was nothing, or not enough, for the sensual; of the children in the rituals of their worship. They had not sown the seed of Religion in the delights of the children. The Church had not provided suitable pleasures for them. Hence they had to seen their pleasures in the world, and their sensuous faculties were drawn to those churches whose forms and models of external worship afforded what was attractive, or whose enthusiastic spheres enmeshed their spirits in the undefinable entanglements of blind spiritual persuasions. There were not in the first external worship of the New Church the sweet harmonies of music for the ear,- nor representative pictures from the Word for the eyes, nor the savors of the sweet correspondential odors for the sense of smell, nor the proper enchantment of any sense. Above all, there were no adequate efforts to store up, by precept and example, from the nursery through all the sacred avenues to the earthly temple of our God, those remains without which neither our children nor ourselves can ever be saved. We showed, too, how fatal a cause of the delinquency of our children from the faith of their fathers, was the neglect of the conjugial principle by their parents. And we have utterly failed in the discharge of our duty if we have not made every one of you see that the fountain head of the New Jerusalem on earth is in marriage on true New Church principles!

Three years and four months have rolled on. And what has been the result of our efforts to effect the cure of our maladies? We tried to improve our singing. We failed. We tried again and again, but have failed as often. We tried to get up social meetings; failed. Tried to get up a Sunday School; failed at that in several repeated efforts. Still the preacher labored to impress upon you the indispensable need of these things. Bear him witness, ye angels, and Thou, the great Lord and Master of angels and of us all, how repeatedly he has inculcated in you the duty, the imperative duty of taking spiritual care of your children! Of bringing them to the Lord for His blessing, and of forbidding them not!

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Assuring you by all that is sacred that if you wish to establish the Church, which is God's kingdom on earth, you must by all means bring little children unto it, "for of such is the kingdom of God."

     Well, the preaching was not in vain. Thank the Lord for His mercies, the hearts of New Church parents here were again touched. Oh! Our Father Who art in the heavens, may not Thy will be now done on earth as it is done in heaven? And as the chief employ of Thy highest and holiest angels there, is to prepare the young for the enjoyment of heavenly felicities, may we not be co-workers with them by training up for heaven our dear children here? Grant, then, Thy spirit in copious outpourings of its powerful influx! Seal with Thy approbation this renewed effort of Thy servants here to train up their children in the way they should go, and most graciously ordain that when they are old they may not depart from it! Thus, Great Husbandman, provide Thou seed for Thyself, and so plant it and so water it with the dews of Thy heavens, that it may sprout and grow and bring forth fruit abundantly for the prosperous and permanent establishment of Thy true and living Church on earth! Thus wipe Thou out the stigma that is now disgracefully marked upon Thy professed followers here! And grant them light to see and grace to obey the Divine precept of Thy sacred words: "SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME, AND FORBID THEM NOT; FOR OP SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD."

     Brethren, from my heart I commend your renewed effort to establish a Sunday School and found it on a lasting basis. With pleasure do I accord with your expressed desire that I would speak today on the subject of the education of children in the Church. And I shall most cordially lend you all the influence in my power to give sanction and force to the labors of your teachers to impress on the minds of the children themselves a proper sense of their duties and their privileges.

     But before I, in your name, come down to deliver those cards which are to serve as certificates to the scholars that they are members of the school, as well as an index of their duties and a badge of their honor, let me call your attention to that sacred precept of your Lord and Master which you have so appropriately chosen as your motto and regarded as His commission for your work.

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"Suffer little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the Kingdom of God."

     What does this imply? You believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, Who spoke these words, is God. You believe that He and the Father are one; and that He has all power in heaven and on earth. He commands His disciples to suffer little children to come unto Him. You are His disciples so far as you know the truth which is in Him, and which comes from Him, and is Himself in you; and you are His disciples in so far as you bear much fruit in renouncing the evil which His truth detects in you, and in doing the good which it enjoins. How are you to obey this His command to you as His disciples? Does it not require you to bring your own children to Him, that He may lay His hands upon them and bless them?

     But you cannot now bring them to Him in person? He is now no longer on earth in a form visible to your natural eyes; and you cannot approach Him by any movement in space. He is Omnipotent, Omniscient, and Omnipresent. He is an Infinite and Eternal Divine Spirit, Who is present only in what proceeds from Him and what is like Himself in men. And the only way by which He can now be approached is by that spiritual change in which men, by reformation and regeneration, become like Him and so draw near to Him. Therefore the disciples of the Lord,-those who are principled in the truths that flow from Him as Goodness Itself,-suffer little children to come unto Him, when they allow the innocence of ignorance to be so imbued with the truth of good as to become transformed at length into the innocence of wisdom. In short, your children must be brought to the Lord by being brought to "the Truth," which He is. To do this you must early inoculate their minds with truths from His Lord.

     You must do this early, I say, and this implies much more than you may at first suppose. First you must stamp truth in the very impress of their souls. The soul of your children are your own souls propagated. The earliest dawn of their existence is in their conception from you, their parents. If, therefore, you would early impress their souls with truth you must suffer the Lord so to reform your own souls, and so to regenerate them into His own image and likeness as to transmit that image and likeness into the hereditary propensities of your offspring.

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This you cannot do unless you found the Church, as the Lord does Heaven, in Conjugial Love,-unless you found the Church on marriage on New Church principles.

Therefore I have so often, at the risk of offending you, pressed this duty upon you. And I am sure that all attempts to establish the New Church must fail while the receivers of her doctrines are lax by forming marriage connections from mere worldly considerations and without any proper regard to spiritual and eternal ends. The stamina of the Church must be formed in this way:-the love of growing wise must be generated in male, children and the love of wisdom in the males must be generated in female children, or you will in vain establish and endeavor to keep up Sunday Schools for their instruction in spiritual things; for they will have no suitable innate capacity to learn those things when taught them; they will have no relish for instruction in them; you will find it difficult to get your children to come to school, the most frivolous excuses availing to keep them away; you will not find it easy for them to learn, if you get them there,-their minds being divested of everything of a spiritual nature by the vagrant cupidities of their natural desires for fun and mischief; and you will find all your instruction,-even if you secure their attention by any and every discipline,-like writing on water, the impression of which vanishes so soon as your finger is off, as they return from school to their sports at home.

But what has taken place cannot now be helped, and "what can't be cured must be endured." Many of us, all of us perhaps, have in fact not begun to establish the Church in this, the only right way. Either through ignorance or inadvertence, many have married without regard to the Church in contracting the marriage covenant. Many were married before they embraced the Doctrines of the Church; and others, who had previously embraced the Doctrines, had received them only in the intellect so as not yet to have them vitally formed in the degree necessary to fit them for any truly conjugial union with their partners. What, then, are we to do? Our children are in fact born with propensities that are repugnant to the things of the Church and of Heaven. Are we to hang down our hands in hopeless inactivity, because, not having generated spiritual propensities in our children, we cannot now change their natural ones for the better?

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No! For the Lord in His mercy provides that perverse inclinations in children may be corrected by parental discipline, and afterwards by a renewed rational free will in the children also when they come to adult years.

And, therefore, you must inculcate the truths of the Word on the souls of your children early by storing up remains of good in their tenderest infantile affections. This is the education of the nursery; and cannot be carried on without the removal from the nurse of all that will hurt those tender affections. The mother is here the only allowable instructor, and as she must take care of her own food lest he might so affect the nourishment which she gives her infant as to disease its body, so more especially must she guard against those inordinate affections of her own soul, which, if allowed to impart their quality to her blood so as to infect her milk, or to go forth in her sphere so as to affect the spirit of her child, might both endanger its physical and spiritual frames, and by offending its angels "which do always behold the face of its Father in Heaven" cause them to recede, and lay the planes of infernal influx in after years, by which the same evil affections may thus be excited in the child which are now indulged by the parent. In short the mother must bring her child to the Lord for His blessing in the nursery by a sphere of rigid correction of all that is impure and unholy in herself. She must, in other words, be a truly religious mother there. Then she must breathe the truth of the Word in her lullabies. She must nourish the infant, soothe its pains, calm it to rest, thus put it into the arms of attendant good spirits and impress on it in every way the affection of truth. A constant view to the child's heavenly heritage must ever be present in all the sphere of her spirit, which surrounds her infant as an atmosphere and affects its spirit with spiritual health.

Again, truths from the Word must be insinuated into the mind; of young children by regular and constant religious instruction at home. Family worship, as consisting of reading the Word and prayers, must never be intermitted or given up for that of the temple. No error can be greater than trusting to a Sunday School for religious instruction without such instruction at home.

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The one makes the other effective. All who have had any experience in teaching know how fruitless are their efforts to do good or teach truth to children whose parents do not favor and second those efforts by home instruction. Hence young children should be brought to pray as soon as they can lisp the words of prayer. And the parent should take special care to pray with and for the children in the very act of teaching it. Never, oh, never, let parents fail to spread thus around their children a sphere of prayer, which shall as it were embalm the soul of the child, and keep off infernal spirits by its fragrant odors. And as children grow older, let the parents at least once a day assemble with them around the family altar,-there read the Word with them, commit a verse or two of it to memory with them daily, and play with them to the Lord in Simultaneous repetition of the Lord's prayer. Thus, too, let them shed around their children the sphere of prayers and holy devotion to the Lord in the family circle. This, we confidently believe, is that way of taking our children, or suffering them to go unto the Lord, in which He can most effectually put His hands upon them and bless them. Without this the instruction of the Sunday School must always be more or less ineffective. Hence in the "Table of Lessons," which are now to be given to the scholars of your school, to indicate to them what lessons they are to learn each week, the co-operation of the family with the school which we have here pointed out as needful, is affectionately recommended. Be sure that you will fail in properly sustaining the Sunday School, which you are now so laudably reviving and in thereby laying the foundation of your Church's future prosperity in Baltimore, if you slight or disregard this recommendation.

Further, you must suffer your children to come unto the Lord by those inoculations of truth from the Word which they may receive by the instructions of your Sunday School. I need not enforce this here, as I have done it so fully on other occasions. Especially in the preface of the first number of the "Memorist" will be found our argument at length for the use and need of such instruction. The great use of it is to store up remains of truth from the Word in the minds of the older children. And the force of the knowledge of that truth in preparing the minds of the children to receive the truths and goods in after life, will be seen in those extracts from the Writings of the New Church which you will find printed on the backs of the cards that are now to be delivered to the scholars.

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Let me beg you to study those extracts, for they cannot fail to show you the great use and power of the Word. And when you see this you must then appreciate the immense advantage that is to be derived to your children by the lessons from it which they are to learn in your school.

I will also add here one or two other short extracts which have the same bearing. They show how your children are to be preserved from spiritual danger. All danger to the souls of children results from their being so indoctrinated with the false doctrines of a perverted church as to lay in their minds a plane for the influx of worldly, sensual, and corporeal spirits into them. Hence our Church teaches us "that to implant in infants and children an idea of three Divine Persons, to which inevitably adheres the idea of three Gods, is to take away from them all spiritual milk, and afterwards all spiritual meat, and lastly all spiritual reason; and to induce upon those who confirm themselves in it, spiritual death." (T. C. R. 25.) Thus you see the great danger of spiritual death to which your children are subjected by allowing them in any way to be instructed in the Doctrines of the Old Christian Church. And how New Church parents, aware of this danger, can suffer their children to attend the Sabbath Schools of the prevailing denominations of that Church or so let them come under the influence of its members as to imbibe its fallacies and falsities, has always been to me inexplicable. And can there be a stronger reason why we who receive the faith of the New Jerusalem should institute public worship according to that faith, and should have every form of our external church, as well as every appliance of public and social religious instruction, by which the minds of our children may be early and constantly consociated with angels for their preservation from all spiritual dangers?

In a word, can there be a stronger reason why we should do as you are now doing,-establish and perseveringly maintain a New Church Sunday School? For hereby the knowledges of truth from the Word are stored in their minds. And our Church teaches us that, "It is impossible for anyone as man to be conjoined to Jehovah, or the Lord, except by knowledges, for by knowledges man becomes man." (A. C. 1616).

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Again-"The man of the Church must be born anew or regenerated by the knowledges of good and truth." (A. C. 6025). And where and how are children to get these knowledge; which are the necessary means of their reformation and regeneration? Where but in the Word of God and by instruction from it? For thus again does the Church teach us: "Arcana are delivered in the historicals of the Word, in order that the Word may be read with delight even by children and the simple: to the extent that while they are in holy delight arising from the historical sense, their attendant angels may be in the sanctity of the internal sense-which sense is adequate to angelic intelligence, while the external sense is adequate to human intelligence. Hence is effected the consociation of man with the angels." What an argument, this, for causing children to read the Word! What an argument for parents to read the Word to their children before the children can read it themselves, and to impress it on their memories by repeating passages of it over and over to them until they can recite them by heart! And while parents are generally so solicitous that their children should be admitted into good society in this world, is it: not passing strange that any New Church parent should be found not most solicitous to have his children thus consociated with angels!

But let us learn still further how we shall promote the spiritual weal and safety of our offspring by having them instructed in truths from the Word by the tuition of our Sunday School. The Writings of our Church say that "the truths of faith being inrooted in the affection of truth, are the plane into which the angels operate. Wherefore, they who have not this plane cannot be led by the angels, but suffer themselves to be led by hell." (A. C. 5893) Most momentous Doctrine! And can you New Church parents disregard it? Will you not henceforth labor most sedulously to lay in your children's minds the plane for angelic operation? And how can you, ii you do not provide those affection; of truth to be stored as remains of good in the ways we have now indicated, so that the truths of faith may be inrooted in them, as the knowledge of such truth is required by your Sunday School and other instruction?

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And can you be so indifferent to your children's true and lasting welfare, as by negligence in this matter to subject them to the peril of their suffering themselves to be led by hell instead of being led by the angels?

     Do not, then, through this or any other neglect dissociate your children from the angels, by admitting any such falsities or non-truths into their minds, as must cause the angels to recede from them. For our Church teaches that "angels recede from man as infernal spirits draw nearer," (A. C. 5979). An "the reason why any one is not in safety is, because he is not in truths for they who are in truths are in safety whithersoever they go, even if in the midst of hell. The reason why they who are not yet in truths are not in safety, is because non-truths communicate with evil spirits." Here, my brethren, you see laid bare the whole ground of your children's danger and safety, as well as your duty in regard to them. Non-truths communicate with evil spirits, whence come all the dangers of eternal misery; truths from the Word consociate with the angels of heaven, whom the Lord causes to "encamp around the just" as a panoply of defense from all infernal influences. Therefore they only are in safety who are in the truths of faith inrooted in the affections of truth; for such have a plane of angelic operation in their minds, and are so mantled and encased in the sphere of heaven that they would be secure though plunged into hell, as were Shadrach, Meshachi and Abednego in the seven-times heated fiery furnace.

     Behold then, New Church parents, your duty! Guard your children from non-truths. All the false doctrines and persuasions of the old church, which are drawn from the mere letter of the Word unilluminated by a spiritual sense, and confirmed by the mere appearances and fallacies of sense therein, are non-truths. Guard your children from these. Keep them most sedulously from all old church associations as will be likely to infect their minds with them. And, on the other hand, fail not to bring your children to the Lord in your own Sunday School that they may there receive His blessing and enjoy eternal safety in and by those genuine truths of faith which they may there imbibe from Him in His Word.

     Moreover, you must bring your children to the Lord for His blessing by their strict observance of the rituals and the sacred ordinances of His Church.

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In a passage in Mark (x, 15) the Lord says, "Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein." And the sacred record immediately adds, (verse 16), "He took (the little children) up in His arms, put His hands upon them and blessed them." Can there be a more touching picture of His Divine goodness! But He cannot do this in person now in His Second Advent, as He did then in His first. How can He take our children into His arms and, putting His hands upon them, bless them now?

We have not time to answer this question fully here. Since the Lord's resurrection and ascension the Lord's humanity is no longer visible in a personal form to our natural eyes. But as He promised His disciples, He is with them even to the Consummation of the Age in their ministration of the ordinances of the Church. Heaven and the Church are His body. He dwells in His Church on earth as a spiritual soul is in a physical body. Therefore the externals of the Church are His arms and His hands. The external Church is founded on the Word. Its rituals are taken from the Word in the letter. They are part of those representatives, significatives, and correspondences by which heaven is consociated with man, and man through heaven is conjoined with the Lord for his eternal safety and felicity. Therefore the rituals and sacred ordinances of the Church are just such ultimates to the Lord's Holy Spirit in operating man's redemption and salvation, as the arms and hands of the body are in effecting the purposes of its soul. Therefore our children are taken by the Lord into His arms when they are introduced into His Church by the holy sacrament of baptism, and He puts His hands upon them and blesses them when by the representatives of the letter of the Word He so flows with His spirit through the heavens into their spirits as gradually to form and largely to increase them by the implantation and fructification of heavenly truths and goods.

Thus you see that Baptism, as the Holy Supper and the whole written Word itself, has been instituted by the Lord as an external representative means of conjoining your children with the angels of heaven and so of conjoining them with Himself. You see that I had intended, finally, to advert to the necessity of the Church's providing pleasure for her children as an indispensable way of bringing them through the Church to the Lord.

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But our time and space are now exhausted. And this subject has been so fully discussed before, that a bare allusion to it here is sufficient: It is enough to say that you must make religion pleasant and delightful to your children, or you will render yourselves most obnoxious to the charge of disregarding the Lord's injunction, not to forbid the bringing of them unto Him. Recollect what we have so fully shown respecting the power of the sensual plane of the mind, and our Church's privilege and duty so to connect it with spiritual principles in yourselves and your children, as to make the serpent, the sensual, a rod in the hand of Moses for their support and protection in the journeying of spiritual life. And let me now close by repeating that until we lay the foundation of our external or visible Church on the plane of sensuous delight in the minds of our children, any building up of Sunday Schools and means of other instruction for the establishment of our Church here, will be but as setting a house on the sand, to tumble in ruins when temptations come from pleasures of the world. And, therefore, we shall still have to deplore the decay and destruction of our societies consequent on that desertion of the faith of their fathers which has so lamentably characterized the offspring of New Church parents hitherto in Baltimore.

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HOW WE THINK 1913

HOW WE THINK WILFRED HOWARD 1913

     Before entering into the subject or Thought, it will perhaps be best to attempt a brief description of what Thought is. In A. C. 8910 we find the following statement: "It is believed that Thought is the man-but there are two things which constitute the life of man, the understanding and the will, and thought belongs to the understanding."

     "The angels of the inmost heaven think immediately from the Lord." (A. C. 10265.)

     "The esse of Thought is will, and the form of will is thought." (A. C. 9995.)

     From the above and other statements and from the general teaching on the subject we may conclude that Thought is, as it were, the nexus between the two worlds in man; it is in itself a purely spiritual activity, and, as the Writings say, all Thought can be traced back to the Infinite. Thought is, therefore, spiritual influx accommodating itself to man while he yet lives in the natural world. By means of Thought alone can he be conscious of the existence of another world.

     It would seem, therefore, that Thought is the nexus of consciousness between the two worlds, and is peculiar to man because he is to live after death, or because he is continually living in two worlds, even during his residence here upon this earth,-for by means of Thought he lives in the other world and is present here.

     Viewed in another series, Thought may be said to be the recipient form or vessel of the life or activity of the will;-and thus we are told that all Thought is according to affection,-which is according to love,-which is life,-which is from the Lord. Therefore, we may say that Thought is the reactive or containant of life, successively accommodated to man's reception. In other words. Thought is the reactive of life with man, giving him the sensation or consciousness of living.

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If, therefore, we try to focus our ideas as to what is Thought into a simple definition we might express it as follows:-Thought is an activity of life so accommodated that it can be received by the organic vessels of the brain, induce the consciousness of living from oneself, and change the substances or state of the substances within the brain.

If we have the above idea of Thought as a foundation, when we come to ask ourselves the question of "How we think," a picture of some organic process of thinking at once comes to the mind,-a picture that will become clearer and clearer the more truths we can present to the mind for its consideration. In order that there may be Thought there must first be external sensation, that is, impressions that have come to the mind through the senses. These external sensations act as vessels to clothe the interior life, which is really the active of Thought. Thus the perception of sensation, or the consciousness of sensation, is Thought, and not mere sensation. Dr. Saleeby, in his treatise on Thought and Memory, says:-"A thousand impressions are affecting our sense organs at the lame time, but we tend when fully awake to attend to one or to one group of them." The power of attention, the will to concentrate toward a given thought or group of thoughts, depends, however, upon the will, which is in reality from the spiritual world, so that the power of choice is a spiritual faculty, the internal of thinking and thus the very life of thought. Locke, IN THE HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, Book II, Chapter 1, says, "All ideas come from sensation or reflection, for our observation is employed either about external sensible objects, or about the internal operations of our minds, perceived and reflected on by ourselves;-these things supply our understanding with all the materials of thinking,-these are the two fountains of knowledge from whence all the ideas we have or call naturally have, do spring."

Although this statement is true, yet it fails to enlighten us as to the internal operation of thinking. Even the ideas of reflection have to be held and received in vessels that have come in through the senses. When we are thinking of Heaven, for instance, we do so by picturing beautiful sense objects,-vessels that we have received through the senses, so that reflection is not a purely internal fountain of knowledge, but a grouping or relation of sense-impressions that can receive internal ideas.

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     As Thought is as it were the nexus between the two worlds, so the rational mind, the Mens, is the plane in which thinking properly takes place. It is in this plane that man has the faculty to obtain a true ratio between the two worlds, the one within or above, and the other beneath or flowing in through the senses. In the external memory, the common sensory, are stored all the ideas that inflow through the senses. This is the plane of the imagination. It can be likened to a rich storehouse filled with all sense-pictures from the wonderful world about and without us. All that we have read or seen, or heard or touched, are here stored; they are as it were thrown together in a gorgeous chaotic state. There is nothing of judgment or ratio or order; no perception of ends or degrees or series. From this disorder it is that the imagination can run wild into phantasy,-can ignore higher powers; can create as it were a world of its own, and if is of itself, supremely sensuous.

     When man passes from the purely imaginative period into something of the rational, which is caused by the presence of interior thought, then a ratio begins to bet established; for, with the consciousness of another world, something of order is introduced. The imagination begins now to be used as a basis for thought, and its true relation,-as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself,-begins to be established.

     As thought and the rational were given to man to the end that he might be given freedom,-the freedom of seeing the ratio between two ends or two worlds, and choosing between them,-it follows that as man regenerates, Thought continually ascends; or the more interior planes of the mind, or organic receptacles, can become touched and made reactive to higher impulses and ends. As the Writings state: "The angels of the inmost heaven think immediately from the Lord." (A. C. 10265.) With such men or angels the rational has performed its use, by freely attaining to a conception of the ratio between higher and lower things, and has thus become a form of wisdom from the Lord,-a form receptive of thought directly from the Lord.

     In the Writings we are told that "there are thoughts from perception, thoughts from conscience, and thoughts from no conscience. Thoughts from perception exist with the celestial, thoughts from conscience exist with the spiritual, thoughts from no conscience with those who are led by self and the world; these latter think that thoughts arise from themselves." (A. C. 2515)

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We see, therefore, that the quality of Thought is dependent upon regeneration, or that it is bound inseparably to the state of the will or affections, and can never reach out beyond this state.

In conclusion: For the process of thinking the following things are necessary. First, an influx from the spiritual world,-an activity that can be accommodated even to the lowest plane of the mind. This is the very life of Thought, or the consciousness of sensation, even though it be on the plane of the imagination only. Secondly, there must be the external memory or common sensory, stored with impressions from the senses. This memory, or retentivity of impressions, constitutes the imagination. From the two above elements, variously modified, we are able to think. Habit is a state of organic memory, or the state of the memory acting unconsciously. The quality of Thought depends upon the opening of the interior mind and memory by means of the rational; this takes place when, by means of regeneration, the will becomes purified and the understanding is thus enabled to enter into greater light. This process gives the perception of the relation of man to the Creator. This end is as it were the supreme end of the rational, and there are no other ends that should be sought for so ardently as this. We learn that the more interior the thought becomes, the more far reaching it is in its effects. Thus by virtue of this truth, the celestial ideas of thought can comprehend infinite things, as compared with the thought of the lower heavens.

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Editorial Department 1913

Editorial Department Editor 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     We are happy to be able to announce that means have been provided for the publication, in book form, of the papers on THE GOLDEN AGE, which have appeared in the LIFE since June, last year.

     A correspondent in our last issue, (p. 245), asks for an explanation as to our attitude towards the authority of the SPIRITUAL DIARY, in view of our statement concerning this work in the issue for February, 1912. In reply we would refer our correspondent to an editorial on this subject in the issue for May, of the same year, (p. 297), to which we do not now have anything further to add.

     A curious coincidence has occurred in the publishing work of the New Church. Almost simultaneously there come from London and from New York announcements of the formation of two different organizations, for the publication of New Church collateral literature, under the same name, "The New Church Press." The American corporation, by reason of it; ownership by the Board of Publication, will be under the control of the General Convention, and will occupy quarters at 3 W. 29th Street, New York, on the fourth floor of the same building where the American Swedenborg Society occupies the seventh floor.

     The London company, which was formally organized on March 11th, is to continue and extend the work hitherto performed by the late James Speirs, and will have its office in the house of the British Swedenborg Society, No. 1 Bloomsbury Street.

     At a recent meeting the Board of Directors of the Academy of the New Church resolved "that the Academy publish a serial Quarterly to be entitled THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, the publication to commence with the next catalogue number."

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It will thus appear under the same title as that of the Journal published annually since the year 1901, and will constitute the official organ of the Academy, to be issued in January, April, July and October of each year. It will record all official actions, describe the work of teachers and students in the various departments, publish articles embodying research work of permanent value, present a current review of the theory and practice of New Church Education as advocated by the Academy, and afford an opportunity for the presentation and discussion of educational problems.

The publication will be in charge of a "Journal Committee," consisting of Mr. William Whitehead as Editor; the Rev. Charles E. Doering, the Superintendent of the Schools, and the Rev. Reginald W. Brown, the assistant Principal of the Boys' College. The April number, which will contain the Catalogue of the Schools, is now ready for publication.
LITERAL SENSE DERIVED FROM THE INTERNAL SENSE. 1913

LITERAL SENSE DERIVED FROM THE INTERNAL SENSE. 1913

It is of human doctrine it is said that it "is to be drawn from the sense of the letter of the Word and confirmed by it by those who are in enlightenment from the Lard," (S. S. 50, 57), but the Divine Doctrine is not thus drawn from the letter, but is derived immediately from Him and by Him who Himself is the Word in its inmost Divine Sense. In appearance, indeed, the Heavenly Doctrine is drawn from the letter of the Word-as it were by Swedenborg, and this appearance exists in order to gain the free and rational assent of those who have not yet realized that the Doctrine is Divine. But those who have come to see that the Heavenly Doctrine "is not the formulated understanding of any man, Swedenborg or others, but is the Lord's own understanding of His Word," cannot possibly maintain that the Lord in His Glorified Human derived this Doctrine from the letter of the Word, by comparing various statements with one another and drawing conclusions thence, as men do. HE HIMSELF IS the Doctrine, because He is the Divine Truth itself. The Internal Sense appears as if drawn from the literal sense, but in reality it is the literal sense that is derived from the internal sense, even as the body is derived from its soul.

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The internal sense is the thread from which the outer garment of the letter is woven. "The Law from the Divine, which is the internal of the Church, is the Word in the internal sense, and the Doctrine thence derived is the Word in the external sense." (A. C. 7231.)
ORIGIN OF RACE COLOR 1913

ORIGIN OF RACE COLOR 1913

     A correspondent in Australia writes for information as to the cause of the difference of color in the various races of mankind. "I have read and heard argued by people-some of them New Church Chat the cause is from the natural sun, first because people of hot climates are black, or dark, and those of the cooler climates are white, and that white people who go to live in the tropics turn dark. They think it only a matter of a few centuries before their descendants will become as dark as the original natives. Is not this reasoning from externals, and is not the cause from within rather than from without?"

     We do not know of any teaching in the Writings dealing directly with this interesting question except the universal law that all external appearances depend primarily upon internal and spiritual causes according to the ethnological chart in the tenth chapter of Genesis, the Ethiopian race, or Cush, was the eldest son of Ham, who signifies the Ancient Church corrupted by faith alone and consequent evils of life. "To the ancients such people appeared black from the heat of lusts, and from this they were called 'Ham."' (A. C. 1063). The name Ham, in Hebrew Cham, literally means "burned black." The Negro race is undoubtedly of Hamitic origin, and according to the latest ethnological theories it would seem that all the colored races,-yellow, brown, and red,-are branches of the same Hamitic stock. They all appear to represent the Ancient Church in the extremes of its vastation.

     "'Can the Ethiopian change his skin' (Jer. 13:23), signifies that evil cannot change its nature, for 'the Ethiopian,' because he is altogether black', is evil in its form, and the skin, because it is the outermost part of man, and corresponds to his sensual, means his nature." (E. 780b.)

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It is from a perception of this correspondence that "the Moors and Negroids, like the Africans, in the other life do not want to be black, but white; after they have been prepared they esteem whiteness as beauty, because all the angels of God Messiah are white, and the more internal of them love to be clad in white garments." (D. 432). "They detest the blackness of the body, for they know that their souls are white, but their bodies black, which they abominate." (D. 453.) "They say that when they are being treated badly, then they are black, but afterwards they put off the blackness, and put on the whiteness of the soul, and thus enter into heaven." (D. 454; comp. A. C. 2603).

This is all that we have been able to find in regard to the color problem, but the following may also be of interest as indicating the power of external environments, as contributory causes: "Among the Gentiles there are some who are more internal, and some who are more external, which difference comes partly from climate, partly from the stock from which they have sprung, partly from education, and partly from religion. The Africans are more internal than the others." (T. 835).
FROM RECENT LETTERS 1913

FROM RECENT LETTERS 1913

A correspondent, referring to the paper by Mr. G. E. Holman on, "Evolution or Separate Creations," in the NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY, states that Mr. Holman's argument that "the original creation took place 'in the beginning' at a period prior to the formation of some of the earliest geological strata in England, and in a country now probably buried beneath the ocean,' seems very plausible, and offers an explanation of the possibility of man's existence prior to animals of an evil correspondence and therefore caused by evil. But how are we to reconcile such a theory with the fact that Swedenborg apparently asserts that the Most Ancient Church existed in the land of Canaan,-the same land that now exists,-though it has undergone changes corresponding to the changes in the states of the Church?"

The same correspondent adds: "In the WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD there are two passage; which I do not know how to interpret. In n. 27, speaking of the creation of animals, Swedenborg says: 'for some were fierce and savage and delighted in nothing but blood: some of them, hating their own light and that of others, were black with gall.'

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In n. 37 there is another statement seemingly portraying the Sacred Grove, where the first-born came into existence, as surrounded by forests where wild animals existed."

     Will some of the geologists and biologists in the New Church please deal with these questions!

     A member of the General Convention, writing to thank us for the paper on the identity of the Word with Divine Doctrine, (in the March LIFE), adds, by way of postscript: "I hope this is not a transgression of any of your Academy customs, but I remember there was a time when my old friend-taught that no one should thank another and that no one should receive thanks." We, in return, "thank" our correspondent for this illustration of the manner in which "Academy teaching" is continually being misunderstood very likely the "old friend" had on some occasion emphasized the truths that all thanks are essentially due to the Lord alone, and that "the angels, therefore, refuse all thanksgiving for the good they do." (H. H. 9). But the Academy people possess a fair share of common sense as well as ability to quote passages, and we cannot imagine any Academy man so possessed by the one internal idea as to forget the general law that man, spirit and angel acts as of himself, and that this law applies to the great human virtue of gratitude.

     The same correspondent, who, years ago, was a rather hitter opponent of the Academy, now thanks us for having saved him "from an unpleasant though apparently necessary task," [why "unpleasant," and why not still necessary?] "in answering these men by shelving them what the Writings say on the subject of Divine Revelation and the manner in which the Lord makes His Second Advent." He assures us that "not all Newchurchmen or New Church ministers are party men, who side with or feel that they are bound by views that others hold in matters of doctrine."

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Why, then, friend, do you not exercise the courage of your convictions and rise openly in the tight for the one good cause. From letters now frequently being received, we know that there is in the Convention an element growing in their dissatisfaction with the anti-doctrinal and irrational principles of the "powers that be." All that is needed is a leader fearless of consequences because trusting in Providence.

Another member of the Convention, an ordained minister, who also was an avowed enemy of the Academy principles, writes in re the same editorial in our March issue: "I consider it a very able article. You have, of course, given much thought to the subject during many years, and did I not have personal experience and knowledge of the power of an idea over the thinking of man, when it once has got a hold on their minds, I should say that your argument would be convincing. But, judging from my own experience, I am inclined to think that it will not carry much weight with those who have taken hold of and are promulgating the idea that the Writings are a Revelation but are not the Word of God. I feel certain that you have not erred when you say that the secret of the whole negative attitude towards the Writings is the idea that we cannot believe things that we cannot understand. That was the idea that led me astray, and the Theological School is responsible for the spread of it among the clergy. The inevitable consequence of it is that when, in our reading of Swedenborg, we strike something we do not understand, we explain it according to our own wisdom, commonly based on the thinking and philosophy of the world.". . . "But all the statements in the Writings, and all the arguments based on them, will have very little power over the leaders of the Convention, I think. This impression I have got from the reading of the methods used in the Kramph Will Case."
BREAKING DOWN THE BARS 1913

BREAKING DOWN THE BARS 1913

The consistent teaching of Cambridge that the New Church is not separate from, but a portion of, that general church which comprehends the various denominations of the Christian world, is bearing increasing fruit as the years pass by.

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The latest result of this teaching in progressively breaking down the bars between the New Church and the Old, is found in two recent occasions which in effect are one, wherein New Church Societies and their pastors have united with congregations of the Old Church in union communion services, thus, as it seems to us, profaning that which is the holiest act of worship.

     Union Thanksgiving Day services there have been before, but these might be excused on the plea that Thanksgiving Day observance is rather a matter of the civil state than of the Church, but we believe that this is the first instance of the union of the New Church with the Old in the worship of the most holy place, the Lord's Supper.

     This now has taken place in Brockton and in Cambridge, both in Massachusetts. From a clipping from a Brockton paper we learn that the New Church Society there joined with nine other "Protestant" societies in the central portion of the city in a series of Holy Week Services, culminating in a united celebration of the Holy Supper.

     Of these services one of the participating ministers, in his Easter evening sermon, speaks enthusiastically, as a sign of "a new rising of the Easter Christ in the 20th Century," and contrasts the present condition with that which obtained fifty years ago, when "the pastor of the old First Congregational Church and the pastor of the New Jerusalem Church maintained their creeds with a proud dignity which involved little or no recognition of the offensive creed of the other." "Fifty years ago," he declared, "Congregationalists and Swedenborgians could no more cross the threshold of each other's church than they would leap between the jaws of an African lion. During the last week they worshipped together as children of a common father. A Methodist preacher stood in a Swedenborgian pulpit and gave to the representatives of that faith the message of the Gospel as interpreted by John Wesley and a long line of Methodist Divines." "The climax of the entire week was when Methodist and Universalist, Congregationalist, Adventist and Swedenborgian clergymen stood side by side behind a Methodist communion rail and jointly administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper to Baptists and Unitarians, Presbyterians and Universalists, Congregationalists, Adventists and Methodists,"-a climax, indeed, which recalls a discussion held in this very Church in Brockton in the Ministers' Council of the Convention some twenty-five years ago, as to whether New Church ministers should exchange pulpits with ministers of other churches.

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The Rev. Thomas B. King favored it; Mr. Giles asserted that he would risk the harm his own people might receive from the preaching of the Old Church minister, if he could thereby secure the opportunity to address the Old Church congregation. But old Mr. Warren Goddard opposed it, and Mr. Reed, while he would accept an invitation to preach in any Church, affirmed that he could not invite a minister who believed in a tripersonal God to preach in his church, which had been dedicated to the worship of the Lord Jesus Christ. We wondered whether in this latest development of "unity" and "charity" Mr. Reed, as General Pastor of the Massachusetts Association, has made any protest.

     The MESSENGER of April 2nd says of these Brockton meetings in its news-notes:

     "The members and adherents of the churches were urged to attend these union services . . . and thus seek to realize the Lord's prayer to the Father, 'That they may be one as we are.'" "The meetings are reported as a great success, ranging from 300 in attendance to nearly 700. The largest meeting was Friday evening in the large Methodist Church, . . . when Mr. Sperry, the 'Swedenborgian' minister, preached the sermon. The Communion was administered after the form of the Methodist Church, and all the ministers of the various denominations assisted in the administration. It was a momentous occasion and a turning point in the religious history of the city. The only denomination which refused, or whose pastor refused to join in the movement, was the Baptist."

     In the same MESSENGER is reported the similar union communion in Cambridge.

     "On the invitation of the pastor of the Old Cambridge Baptist Society, our minister, [the Rev. William L. Worcester], and two members of our Society, assisted at a Communion service in his church, in company with the ministers and members of the Congregational and Methodist Societies, on the evening of March to.

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The four ministers took part in the religious exercises and the eight members of the several Societies acted as deacons in handing round the bread and wine. The body of the large church was well filled, and the occasion was a memorable one, representatives of four different denominations thus unitedly commemorating the Last Supper of our common Lord and Savior."

Compare with this action the teaching of the Lord in His second coming:

"THE FAITH OF THE NEW CHURCH CAN NEVER BE TOGETHER WITH THE FAITH OF THE FORMER CHURCH, AND IF THEY ARE TOGETHER, SUCH COLLISION AND CONFLICT ENSUES, THAT EVERYTHING OF THE CHURCH PERISHES WITH MAN." (B. E. 102.) W. H. A.
"APOCALYPSE REVEALED" IN THE ISLE OF PATMOS 1913

"APOCALYPSE REVEALED" IN THE ISLE OF PATMOS F. E. GYLLENHAAL 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     At your request I will here relate the following interesting occurrence:

     In the fall of 1909 a Greek Priest, Father Peter Ferentinoy, attended a Sunday service and also a doctrinal class of the Church of the Lord's Advent, in Denver.

     Father Ferentinoy was born on the Isle of Patmos about sixty years ago, and is a monk of the monastery there, the chapel of which is the cave in which John is supposed to have had his visions, There are three degrees of the priesthood in the Greek Church, and Father Ferentiony is a priest of the second degree. He has been over to this country three times; the first time in 1892, when he was in New York the second time, a few years later, when he organized a Greek Church in Pittsburgh, and the third time in 1909-1910 when he organized a Greek Church in Denver. He was also, during several years, a professor of Greek music in the University in Athens.

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     I became acquainted with Father Ferentinoy in Denver, and for six months we met almost regularly twice a week, he to learn about the New Church and the Heavenly Doctrine from me, and also to perfect his English; and I to learn about the Greek Church and Greek music from him, and to study the ancient Greek language with him. However, we spent most of the time talking religion and especially about the New Church, concerning which Father Ferentinoy first heard in Denver, where he obtained from an acquaintance a copy of the APOCALYPSE REVEALED.

     His coming to our services is an illustration of the wonderful ways of Providence. For after he had organized a Greek Church in Denver he was taken severely ill and was confined to a hospital for several months. During this time his church called another pastor, and so, when released from the hospital, he found himself without a charge and without work of any kind. Waving a little money of his own he determined to remain in Denver until it gave out, in order to visit the various churches and gather material for a book explanatory of the Book of Revelation; he had the right to return to his monastery at any time and to live there, until death, without cost to himself. He laid aside money for his journey back to the Isle of Patmos. Then he commenced systematically to visit the different churches in Denver, and our church was the third or fourth which he attended, immediately after visiting the Christian Science Church, I believe.

     Father Ferentinoy had read through the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, and so was delighted to meet with some one able to enlighten him as to the book and its author. I gave him the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, HEAVEN AND HELL, and White's short Life of Swedenborg, and I know that he read portions of them, and have no doubt but that he has read all of them several times since. He was very much affected by the Heavenly Doctrine and declared that the books were the work of God and not of a man, and at our last meeting he told me that he would leave the Greek Church to enter the New Church, if it were not that he was an old man, dependent on the Greek Church, i. e., on the monastery in Patmos, for his support. But even so, he declared that he would leave the Greek Church and at once join the New Church, if the Lord would only give him a sign that he should do so. I recollect that he always used the name "Lord."

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     It is not for us to judge whether these declarations were made sincerely or not; it is simply of interest to know that in all probability this man has returned to the Isle of Patmos with the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, and is, perhaps, even now reading and meditating on the truths therein contained, in that cave which is generally believed to be the place where John had his Apocalyptic visions. Father Ferentinoy stated that he intended to take the books back to Patmos, and, although I failed to find him after I returned to Denver in the fall of 1910, I believe that he left that city for Patmos during the summer, and doubtless he took the books with him.

     Father Ferentinoy is a man of short stature, with brilliant eyes, old for his years, yet very quick, and exceedingly humble. He commented many times on the fact that he had never heard of the New Church, nor of Swedenborg, until he came to Denver; and he was surprised when I told him that there were churches of the New Jerusalem in both New York and Pittsburgh. He concluded, and no doubt rightly, that the Lord had led him to the Writings only when he had attained a state wherein he would be willing, as well as able, to read and believe them.
     Yours sincerely,
          F. E. GYLLENHAAL.
SPIRITUAL BODY PROPER, A SPHERE IN THE HUMAN SHAPE 1913

SPIRITUAL BODY PROPER, A SPHERE IN THE HUMAN SHAPE E. E. IUNGERICH 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
The point at issue in our thought about the bodies of spiritual beings is whether membranous tunics like blood vessels envelop the spirituous fluid, (1) throughout the whole body, or (2) through a limited portion of it only, the brain ganglia. Mr. Gill postulates that "the limbus or natural memory plane is the cutaneous envelope of the spiritual body," spoken of in the Writings as consisting of the purest things of nature. He concludes in favor of a restriction of membranous envelopes to the brain ganglia.

We may term for convenience of definition the brain ganglia, the spiritual mind proper, and the rest of the spiritual form below this, the spiritual body proper.

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The point at issue is whether membranous tunics or vessels exist (1) in the spiritual body proper, or (2) only in the spiritual mind proper.

     Certain misleading expressions about the spiritual body proper have, however, obscured the issue between these two points. Take, for example, Mr. Gill's statement that it necessarily follows that it is only in appearance that our spiritual bodies are in like shape to that of the body we know here." I am of the opinion that Mr. Gill's thought, if more felicitously expressed, would have read on this point as follows: "It necessarily follows that our spiritual bodies proper only appear to consist of membranous envelopes." Had his thought been formulated thus, the issue would not have been obscured, nor would he have aroused the apprehension that he was advocating idealism or opposing the many passages in the Writings, which teach that the spiritual body proper is a real thing and that it manifests itself in a shape similar to and substantially more real than the body we know here.

     Our denying that the spiritual body consists of membranous tissue does not plunge us into the alternative of regarding it as a mere fantastic appearance. We have still a third supposition, namely, that it is a sphere. This is supported by a direct statement from the ADVERSARIA: "Moreover, every single celestial and spiritual form is a sphere." (3 Adv. 2734) This supposition also satisfies the two requirements that the spiritual body proper should be, first, a real substance, and second, should be such that the man's soul, will and understanding are present in every part. To say that the spiritual body proper as a sphere would not be substantial, is to deny the substantiality of the third of the three inevitable essentials,-love, understanding and operation." The second condition is satisfied since the entire quality of a man is present in his sphere and in the least parts thereof.

     In order to test the relative merits of the rival theories that the spiritual body proper is a sphere, or that it is enveloped in membranous tissue, we will test them by the following specific doctrines: 1. SPHERES. 2. NO NATURAL OFFSPRING IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 3. INSTANTANEOUS MATERIALIZINGS AND DISAPPEARANCES OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. 4. VARIATIONS IN THE APPEARANCE OF THE SPIRITUAL BODY PROPER.

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Such tests should show that one theory agrees and the other disagrees with certain specific requirements, or, failing this, should show whether either gives promise of opening up new fields of profitable thought, or brings us against a barrier.

     1. SPHERES. We are taught that spiritual spheres do not manifest themselves through man's corporeal body on earth, but do manifest themselves in the other world. If the spiritual body proper were a membranous envelope about the spirituous fluid, the manifestation of the latter as a sphere would be inhibited to some degree. That it could be perfectly manifested under the other theory is self-evident.

     2. NO NATURAL OFFSPRING IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. If the spiritual body proper were a tissue of membranes, there would be even in the minutest part of every organ in the body a tunic or vessel containing spirituous fluid, said tunics or vessels being composed of the purest parts of nature. There would be thus everywhere "a portion from the soul furnished with most subtle tunics" (MECH. SOUL AND BODY 39), a condition which Swedenborg declares makes the realization of natural offspring possible. Such a condition and result could not follow if the entire spiritual body, including, of course, all the viscera assigned to the work of reproduction, were a sphere.

     3. INSTANTANEOUS MATERIALIZJNGS AND DISAPPEARANCES OF SPIRITUAL BEINGS. Imagine a company of spiritual beings seated in an audience-hall, each one a full membranous shape from head to heel. Can anyone suggest some physical mode whereby any of such beings could vanish completely if something crossed their love?

     But if we suppose the spiritual body proper to be a sphere, and that its visibility or invisibility is effected by the taking on or putting off of particles floating in the atmospheres, we have a solution. The work ON THE ATHANASIAN CREED and the ADVERSARIA teach that an important function of the atmospheres is to supply such particles to serve as investing material [induitio]. We know that in other planets and in ancient times on our earth, spirits and angels, and even the Lord Himself, have appeared before their inhabitants by instantaneously investing themselves in circumambient particles. (Cf. A. C. 1573, T. C. R. 90.)

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I ask, could this be understood except on the basis that the spiritual body proper is a sphere?

     4. VARIATIONS IN THE APPEARANCE OF THE SPIRITUAL BODY PROPER. Angels have youthful, comely forms. Devils are hideously deformed. Spirits who are being vastated may undergo the temporary loss of legs, arms, and other useful organs. Now the forms of angels and devils are real, substantial shapes, and yet are utterly different from each other because of a radical difference in the spiritual mind, that is, in the will and its enveloping cortical glands. The members lost by spirits undergoing vastation are real and substantial and not illusive or fantastic.

     If the spiritual body be regarded as made up of membranous tunics necessary to convey safely the precious spirituous fluid, such blemishes among devils as a lack of the occiput or of the whole head down to a grate of teeth; and the violent and instant removal from spirits of sundry vital portions of their anatomy, could not take place in accordance with such a theory without occasioning a loss of spirituous fluid equivalent to bleeding to death.

     But no such difficulty arises under the other theory. The love or will operating through the mind governs the gyre of the vorticles whose flow delineates the spiritual body proper. The cortical glands are in fact little heart-like pumps to propel their fluid. Any alteration in both will and mind causes a corresponding alteration in the anatomy of the spiritual body proper. I will and mind unalterably opposed to the Divine Order would propel the vorticles into gyres that are monstrous distortions of the human form. E. E. IUNGERICH.

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Church News 1913

Church News Various 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. The Easter Festival included a service on Good Friday evening after the regular supper, a children's service in addition to the regular service on Sunday morning, and the communion service in the afternoon. At the Friday evening service the 18th Psalm was sung for the first time for some years, and preparation having been made by the choir, the choral society, and the school, the psalm was well rendered and much enjoyed. The children's service on Easter Sunday was the last for this season, and has been replaced by a regular evening service at which sermons are being delivered by the members of the theological class; the offertory on these occasions is being devoted to the School Hymnal.

     A notable feature in our society life is the revival of the Bryn Athyn orchestra, under the direction of Mr. Frank Bostock. Its stimulating influence on local talent has already resulted in some effective public performances, and the usefulness of the orchestra in worship is shown in the beginning now being made in that direction. The orchestra attends in force at the meetings of the Choral Society,-an organization whose present purpose is the study and practice of the Psalmody, under the leadership of Mr. Roy Wells. The Choral Society,-or Psalm Club, as it is also called,-meets every week, with a membership of about 30, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Chas. Pendleton,-one of-the literary and artistic centers of Bryn Athyn social life,-and its work is bearing fruit in a revived interest in the Psalms and an improvement in their rendition in the Sunday services.

     On March 26 the society enjoyed a musicale; Mrs. Robert Hilldale and Mr. Frank Bostock made the chief contribution to the program, and were assisted by Misses Creda and Rhona Glenn, and Messrs. D. Edmonds, Roy Wells, and Ed. Bostock. Another notable event of the month was a lecture by Mr. John Helmus, of Washington, who, with living descriptions and lantern slides, guided us on a personally conducted tour through the Panama Canal.

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On April 5th the young men of the society demonstrated their native genius in a Minstrel Show, which netted $45 for local uses. The chorus, which was trained by Mr. D. Edmonds, consisted of 15 good voices; and was augmented by a six-piece orchestra. A long and effective program was given, including two distinct concerts of old and new songs and jokes, and during the intermission a violin solo by Mr. Karl Alden, a fancy dance by Miss Marjorie Wells, and a performance by our local trapeze artist, Mr. Doron Synnestvedt. After the show the Younger Generation entertained the ministers to light refreshments.

     The School celebrated the end of the Easter holidays by a successful dance, at which Mr. and Mrs. Edmonds, who are now residing in Bryn Athyn; were guests and favored the school with some much appreciated vocal music. On April 12th the Girls' Dormitory entertained the young ladies of the school and society to their annual Deka dance, which took the form of a kindergarten party. Judging by the hilarity that resounded from Glenn Hall during the evening, and from the rumors we hear of the costumes and the stunts, the young ladies must have had an exciting and recreative time.

     The base ball season is doing the best that can be expected under the circumstances; we won our first game, and the second and third were canceled by the weather. To our athletic enthusiasts the weather man is becoming anathema.

     Mr. F. A. Gardiner, of London, well known as the treasurer of the Swedenborg Society, on April 12th paid a flying visit to Bryn Athyn, as the guest of Mr. Pitcairn, and the next morning inspected the Academy Schools, the Library and the archeological museum.

     PHILADELPHIA, PA. The Rev. Homer Synnestvedt preached his farewell sermon here on January 26th to the largest congregation in several years there were fifty-eight present. Though reluctant to part with him and to lose his valuable and acceptable ministration, we, nevertheless, wish him success and happiness in his new field and trust that his absence will be only temporary. The Rev. W. H. Alden preached for us on February 2d, and the Rev. E. E. Iungerich gave us several lectures on the Tabernacle and the Temple during the latter part of January.

     The Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal was cordially welcomed on February 9th, and in the evening of that day was given an informal reception at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Simons.

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We have now, for the first time in several years, a resident pastor.

     The suppers, doctrinal classes and singing practices continue as heretofore, and the attendance has increased of late. Mr. Fred. J. Cooper leads the singing practice; and the quality of the singing at services testifies to the conscientious and thorough instruction and drill given by him. Mr. Cooper is also our faithful organist.

     The Sunday School has been reorganized, and opens at 9:30 A. M. with a Children's Service. Bishop Pendleton's new Children's Service is used, although somewhat shortened, owing to the need of class instruction here, where there is no New Church Day School. After the opening service Mr. Fred. J. Cooper teaches singing to all; then the school is divided into classes, Miss Sophie Roehner teaching the stories of the Word to the little ones, Mr. Sam. Simons having the older ones in map study of the land of Canaan, and Mr. Gyllenhaal teaching the oldest students the letter of the Word and the doctrines of the Church. After the class instruction all reassemble to learn Hebrew, and to commit to memory verses of the letter of the Word, under Mr. Will Cooper. Finally a hymn is sung and the Word is closed.

     At a special meeting of the society a Social Executive Committee was elected, monthly social committees determined on, but left to the selection of the Executive Committee, and a social fund established. We hope to have regular social life the year round.

     Lately we have acquired kneeling stools to accommodate sixty-four persons, and also a new announcement board; all of which contributes to the ease, smoothness and enjoyment of the worship. G. E. F.

     PITTSBURGH, PA. Our news notes have been neglected for a couple of months, but not owing to a scarcity of material. The first thing to come to mind is regarding the completion of the improvements which have been made in our building.

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Pews have been installed and a new chancel built. These final touches fully supply all the wants of the external man and present a sight of orderly and beautiful appearance.

     We are now having church suppers regularly every month. These occasions seem to be thoroughly enjoyed by all of our members and certainly promote a spirit of charity and good will.

     Mr. Pendleton has a doctrinal class for the older children every Friday afternoon, while the regular doctrinal class for the Society is held every Friday evening.

     Our social life is well taken care of now that we have our own hall for such things. A dance is held about once a month. B. P. O. E.

     WASHINGTON, D. C. It has been a long time since any news from this circle has gone to the LIFE, and the reason is that our activities are not in their nature of general interest. Mr. Acton has been visiting us for several years, on an average about four times a year. We are hoping this year to have him visit us at least once every six weeks and eventually monthly. At our last meeting the T. C. R., which has been the basis of lectures, was concluded, and it was decide; to take up the COSOMOLOGY in a series of lectures. Since our last report our circle has been reduced by the removal of Mr. and Mrs. Edmonds to Bryn Athyn. We miss them very much, but are glad that they are able to be in a New Church center. Our circle now numbers six adults and five children, and three adults who are not members of the General Church, but who attend our services more or less regularly.

     Washington recently was "done" by a party of eight young ladies from Bryn Athyn, under the care of Miss Dorothy Burnham. They were kind enough to forego sightseeing for one evening so that we might meet with them. The reception was held in one of the parlors of the Dolly Madison House, where the party was stopping. Only those who are isolated can fully appreciate the pleasure which it gave us to meet these young people, who proved delightful hostesses. During the evening Miss Bess Heilman favored us with a number of vocal selections, which, judging from the applause, was also much appreciated by other guests at the hotel. Several selections on the piano by Miss Freda Roschman and a clever impersonation of "Mrs. Newlywed" by Miss Margaretha Lechner concluded a very delightful evening.

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     GLENVIEW, ILL. Spring appears to be coming this way; a slight recrudescence of the flood, a choking smudge of burning leaves and the apparition of many of our residents with seed catalogues in one hand and a rake in the other, confirms the idea. With the view of presenting a smart appearance for the coming General Assembly, some announce their intention of painting their chicken-coops an agreeable and artistic green. St. Valentine's Day served as an excuse for a valentine cotillion, and Washington's Birthday for Mr. H. L. Burnham to deliver an interesting lecture on Washington, in which Washington was not mentioned. The patriotism of the children was stimulated by a patriotic party at which the little boys and girls were dressed in costume and prettily presented appropriate plays.

     During March the "weariness of life" was ameliorated by the drama; two well-acted plays were presented by the young folks. The dramatic critic of our society was so amazed by the genuine excellence of the character acting,-difficult characters at that,-that he has not been able to go to an ordinary theatre since with enjoyment. Later in the month a "post-Lenten" dance was enjoyed; it is called "post-Lenten" not only because it came after Easter, but also because the two "posts" which support the roof of our Assembly room "lent" beauty to the occasion by being decorated with branches and cherry blossoms.

     Dr. King's Philosophy Class is well attended by "the more intellectual" portion of the society; the Friday classes go on to the enjoyment and benefit of all and the Sunday services are well attended. After the supper of March 28th a so-called parents' meeting was held at which Miss Vida Gyllenhaal read a paper of considerable interest upon the subject of Children's reading. It is pleasing to note how the ladies are coming forward in this country without beating up any prime ministers or smashing of windows.

     It should have been mentioned that special Palm Sunday and Easter service's for the children were held. Each child received from the Church a Bible picture.

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     ABINGTON, MASS. The last month has been a trying one in connection with the services, as the usual ardor and enthusiasm has been considerably checked by colds, grippe and the usual winter ills. The usual Friday Supper of April 4 was postponed on account of a clash of dates with a social given by the High School, which all our young people felt in duty bound 20 attend.

     We have three reading classes during the week; one on Monday evenings reading APOCALYPSE REVEALED, with five present at the last one; another class on Tuesday afternoon, all ladies, and reading DIVINE PROVIDENCE, and one on Wednesday evenings for all, taking up A. C. Volume IV.

     The pastor is giving a course of studies on the stories of the Ancient Word, in Sunday School, giving us the spiritual interpretation of the story of the Creation, the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel, Noah, and the Tower of Babel.

     He has also begun a series of sermons on the Apocalypse. G. M. L.

     BERLIN, ONT. No news notes from this center seem to have found their way to the LIFE since the report of the Ontario Assembly. After that occasion the Society returned to its usual course of life, yet with the added zeal imparted by that most successful festival of the Church,-for such was that Assembly.

     The especially noteworthy social events since that time were the celebration of Swedenborg's Birthday, the Valentine Party, and the Annual Bazaar. The last mentioned event took place March 24th, and was much enjoyed by young and old. The various booths, the fish pond and the shooting gallery were all well patronized, resulting in the clearing of over eighty dollars, which goes towards improvements on the building.

     Since January the pastor visits the Erie Circle four times a year. To provide for the Sundays on which he is absent, on these and similar occasions, a plan has been adopted-unusual in the larger societies of the General Church,-namely, a layman leading the service and reading a sermon (by one of the ministers.)

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The doing of this was proposed by the pastor on recommendation of the Bishop, and was duly considered by the Society. Some hesitation was felt; a conscience against lay reading, formed in the days of the struggle for the recognition of the doctrine concerning the priesthood, needed some revision; but after deliberation it was recognized that there is no departure from order in a layman leading the service in the absence of a minister; in fact, that it is more in accordance with order that this should be done than that there should be no services. By the pastor's appointment Mr. Rudolf Roschman led the service twice in January and once in March. W.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The Book Rooms of the Massachusetts New Church Union have been removed from its well-known quarters at 16 Arlington Street, Boston, to 134 Bowdoin Street, next door to the church building of the Boston Society on Beacon Hill.

     During the visit of the Rev. Axel Lundeberg to Rockford, Ill., on March 17th, a New Church Society was formally organized and application made for admission into the Illinois Association of the General Convention.

     CANADA. The fifth census of the Dominion, taken in 1911, and now published, shows a total of 1,019 professed members of the New Church in Canada, as against 881 members in the census of 1901. There are 50 in Alberta, 33 in British Columbia, 27 in Manitoba, 8 in New Brunswick, 22 in Nova Scotia, 13 in Quebec, 168 in Saskatchewan, and 701 in Ontario.

     GREAT BRITAIN. The Glasgow New Church Society will celebrate its Centenary on Sept. 10th, 1913, and it is to be at the same time the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the New Church in Scotland. A circular, signed by the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, invites correspondence from all persons at any time connected with the Glasgow Society, now living in other parts of the world, and able to contribute reminiscences of or information as to the history of the New Church in Scotland.

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     "The sixth lecture of the course arranged by the Camberwell Literary and Recreation Society was delivered at Flodden Road on Monday evening, February 10th, by Mr. Leonard Clayton, B. A., who dealt with the question "Is the salvation of the world to be effected otherwise than through the Writings?" The Rev. W. E. Hurt presided, and there was again a large and interested audience including several members of neighboring Societies.

     "Beginning with a consideration of various passages from the Writings, explaining the position of the Writings as a Divine Revelation for the New Church (just as the Ancient Word was a Revelation for the Ancient Church, the Israelitish Word for the Jewish Church, and the Gospels and Apocalypse for the Christian Church), the lecturer deduced that the Heavenly Doctrines contained in the Writings were the only means for the salvation of the human race.

     "Several gentlemen took part in the discussion which followed.

     "The Chairman, in bringing it to a close, pointed out that the question before them was the future salvation of the world. The time would doubtless come when the New Revelation which the Lord had made would extend to all parts of the world and be the means of its salvation, but he could not conceive that in the meantime the New Church had the only means of salvation. It should be borne in mind that the Lord and not the Writings was the Savior of mankind, and His Truth was working everywhere as it always had been working. There was a difference between true statements of truth; the latter was only possessed in its purifying power by those who lived according to the precepts of the Word, and he differed from one speaker who had said that the only source of truth was the Writings. The only source of truth was the Lord Himself, whose divine influence of love and mercy was manifest throughout the world." (MORNING LIGHT, March 8.)

     Mr. Hurt's differentiation between "the Lord" and "the Writings" shows that he has failed to grasp the meaning of the solemn words in "the Faith of the New Heaven and of the New Church" in the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 3: "From this it is evident that without the advent of the Lord into the world, no one could have been saved.

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It is similar at this day; wherefore unless the Lord come again into the world in the Divine Truth, which is the Word, neither can any one whatsoever be saved." This Divine Truth, which is the Word, is revealed in the Writings and in them alone. Many who have not known of the Writings while in this world, will receive the Heavenly Doctrine in the other life, and thus also receive salvation, but without them no one of mortals can be saved.

AUSTRIA. The MONATBLAETTER for February records the Rev. A. L. Goerwitz's annual missionary journey for 1912. In Trieste he baptized the infant daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Cuppo and administered the holy supper to 16 communicants, two of whom, young men, Mr. Paolo Mitis and Mr. G. Ambrosio, received it for the first time. The Ambrosio family, consisting of a mother and three children, is a recent accession from Naples. The father, who was a zealous believer in the Doctrines, died in Naples several years ago. Mr. Goerwitz had planned to give a public address on the hereafter in a rented hall, but was prevented by the police, who took great exception to statements in the summary of the address, which had been submitted to them for approval, as the law requires from all who intend to give public addresses. On his visiting the police bureau in company with Mr. Peccenco, he discovered that there had been objection to his denial of a resurrection of the body. The police official, who turned out to be quite a theologian, explained that the resurrection of the spirit is the first resurrection, and that of the body is the second resurrection. "The Catholic doctrine," he told him, "is the reigning state religion, and we may not tolerate addresses which are in such opposition. If we sanctioned the address, the bishop and I the clergy would instantly overwhelm us with annoyances and difficulties of which you can have no conception." Mr. Paolo Cuppo, who has charge of the Sunday School, expressed the needs for a translation into Italian of some manual of religious instruction for children of high school age. The annual report of the sales of copies of the Writings in Italian showed that a large number had been disposed of, chiefly in Rome, and that the order had come as the result of advertisements in the daily papers.

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From Prague came a letter from Mrs. Janecek reporting that the translation of HEAVEN AND HELL into Czech is still selling well, largely as the result of advertisements in some 200 newspapers, and that Mr. Janecek expects good results from a forthcoming review in the most widely circulated daily paper by the editor, with whom he is personally acquainted. Two new families have been added to the circle, and there is another prospective member, a young man. The attendance at the Thursday evening meetings has risen to 18.
Help Wanted 1913

Help Wanted RAYMOND PITCAIRN 1913

     Announcements.

     A New Church girl for upstairs home work or position as waitress, at "Cairnwood." For particulars address.
     MR. RAYMOND PITCAIRN,
          Bryn Athyn, Pa.
British Assembly 1913

British Assembly A. CZERNY 1913

     The Twelfth Annual Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem in Great Britain will be held at Colchester, August 2d to 4th. The members and friends of the General Church are cordially invited to attend. Visitors are requested to send notice of their coming to Mr. F. R. Cooper, 11 Hospital Road, Colchester.
     A. CZERNY.
          169 Camberwell Grove,
               London, S. E.

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PROGRAM OF THE ANNUAL MEETINGS AND OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1913

Thursday, June 12, 1913
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. The Consistory.

Friday, June 13.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

     8 p. m. Symposium of the Clergy of the General Church.

Saturday, June 14.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

     8 p. m. Public Session: Annual Address by the Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

Sunday, June 15.
     11 a. m. Divine Worship.

Monday, June 16.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

Tuesday, June 17.
10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

     8 p. m. Teachers' Institute, Public Session: President's Address.

Wednesday, June 18.
     10 a. m. Teachers' Institute.

     3 p. m. Teachers' Institute. Executive Committee.

     8 p. m. General Council.
               Theta Alpha.
               Sons of the Academy.

Thursday, June 19.
     11 a. m. Services and Assembly Address, by Bishop W. F. Pendleton.

     3 p. m. Flower Pageant.

     7 p. m. Banquet.

Friday, June 20.
10 a. m. Opening of the Eighth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     10:30 a. m. Paper.

     3 p. m. General Assembly: Paper.

     8 p. m. Assembly Ball.

Saturday, June 21.
     10 a. m. General Assembly.

     3 p. m. Meeting of the Corporation of the General Church.

     8 p. m. General Assembly: Paper.

Sunday, June 22.
     11 a.m. Worship. Sermon.

     4 p. m. Administration of the Holy Supper.

     8 p. m. Concert.

Monday, June 23.
     10 a. m. General Assembly.

     3 p. m. General Assembly.

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COLLECTIVE READING OF THE WORD 1913

COLLECTIVE READING OF THE WORD Rev. W. F. PENDLETON 1913

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XXXIII JUNE, 1913      No. 6
     In order to understand the subject of the reading of the Word, and what is said concerning it in the Writings, it is necessary to consider it in the twofold aspect of the Word as read by the individual, and as read collectively, or by a number together in public worship. When we speak in common conversation of the reading of the Word, and when the Writings teach of the use of such reading, it is customary to think of it as applied to the individual member of the church in his reading of the Word, but it is not so common to think of the use that is performed by the reading of many together. It is important to take note of the fact that the Writings also have this in view when teaching is given concerning the reading of the Word and its use. It is proposed, therefore, to devote these remarks to the collective reading of the Word, or to consider the uses that are performed when the Word is read by a number together.

     The early Christians regarded themselves as fully justified at least in a collective hearing of the Word, by passages such as this in the Apocalypse, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein." But a collective reading and hearing of the Word, so far as we know from church history, had its origin in the reading of the law in the synagogue. It is said that the synagogue arose about the time of the Babylonian captivity, when the Jews were out of the land of Canaan, and away from Jerusalem. Worship by sacrifices was not allowed, except in the service of the temple, and so when they were carried away captive, they were obliged to leave their worship behind them; but they were permitted in other lands to read the law and to expound it, and to build houses for that purpose.

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This custom continued on their return from captivity, and synagogues were built in all parts of the land, in which the law was read and expounded, a custom which was in existence at the time of the advent of the Lord. (Luke 4:16. Acts 13:15, 27. II. Cor. 3:14, 15.)

     The reading of the Word in lessons by a minister, or by a reader appointed for the purpose, like some other features of Christian worship, had its origin in this public reading of the law in the Jewish synagogues; for the first Christians were Jews, and were disposed to follow as far as they could the Jewish custom and tradition, in such things of worship as were not distinctly abolished by the Lord; and hence as the reading of the Word and expounding it was an important part of the service of the synagogue, this was continued in the Christian Church, and has continued to this day.

     In the synagogue it was customary to read two lessons, one from the law and the other from the Prophets. The early Christian Church followed the example of the synagogue in having two lessons from the Word, but reading one lesson from the Old Testament and the other from the New. Afterwards other lessons were added from the homilies of the Fathers and from the nets of the Saints. These are, I believe, still read as lessons in the Catholic Church. The custom of reading two lessons has been continued in the New Church; but in our body, and wherever the Academy influence has extended, a third lesson has been added, a lesson from the Writings. And so we now read a lesson from each of the Revelations that have been given, and in the order in which they were given.

     The reading of the lessons is a leading feature of the service previous to the sermon. The lessons are read by the minister, and there is in this case a collective hearing of the Word as read. There is also a collective reading when the Psalms are sung, and in the responsive reading of the Psalter, as well as a common reading in other portions of the service. It may be remarked here that the word "lesson" is the proper term to use, since it signifies a reading.

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I am aware that some are disposed to substitute the term reading for lesson, but this does not appear to be an improvement on the customs of the past. Besides, the more poetic term is always to be preferred in ritual.

     As we have already remarked, when we speak of reading the Word, and are taught concerning it in the Writings, the mind at once reverts to individual reading, as if this were all that is meant; but when we enlarge our view, and think also of the collective reading of the Word, such as takes place in public worship, we gain much in a rational concept of the use of the worship of many who are assembled together for that purpose, a use to which a common reading of the Word is an essential contribution, and without which the ritual of worship is deprived of one of its most essential features.

     When we are taught in the Writings therefore, concerning the use of reading the Word, as we are taught in many passages, it will be useful for us to keep in mind this twofold idea of the reading of the Word, both the individual and the collective reading, and it will throw light upon the reasons why men have been led to construct the forms of worship mainly from the literal sense of the Word, and to insist that they should be read and sung together.

     One thing that impresses itself upon us, when we examine what is said in the Writings about the use of reading the Word, is concerning the effect of such reading, performed in this world, upon those in the other world who are associated with men in the reading, and the universal dependence of spirits and angels upon the reading of the Word by men, a dependence so great that neither spirits nor angels can live or continue to exist without the reading of the Word by men in the world. It is by such reading that the angels receive their daily bread.

     We are told that "the Word of the Lord is such, that although it appears rude in the letter, yet within it are stored things spiritual and celestial, which are made manifest to good spirits and angels, when it is read by man," and this accompanied by beautiful representations with inexpressible variety, according to the state of the angels at the time. (A. C. 1767) This teaching receives illustration from a certain experience of Swedenborg, as described in the DIARY, (n. 2289, 2290).

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On one occasion when he was reading the third chapter of Joshua, many innocent spirits who were present were filled with a desire to represent to themselves the passage of the Jordan, which was granted them, and which was carried out by them, according to the description in Joshua. It is not to be understood, however, that representations in the world of spirits and in heaven are confined to a mere reproduction of the scenes of the literal sense of the Word, but that representations take place "with inexpressible variety," (A. C. 1767), when the Word is read by man, a wonderful variety in the representations being then made possible in heaven,-far greater than is possible in this world,-on the basis of the Word as read by man. The point here is that the angels while wholly dependent for their representations on the reading of the Word by men in the world, are still able to afford "an inexpressible variety" to their representations on the basis of the literal sense as it exists in the world, and when read by men in private devotion or in public worship. Thus no external representation whatsoever, no outward appearance, is possible in heaven, except when the Word is read by man, but the varieties that may be reproduced before the sight of the angels, as evolved out of the simple forms of the literal sense with men in the world, are without number. It is by virtue of this that there are among other things, scriptures in the spiritual world in every society, (A. C. 6516, H. H. 255-264), which, like all representations there, come into existence by influx from the Lord and afflux from the world, man performing his part in the afflux and return by the reading of the Word, and keeping the things written therein. (John i:3.) We are thus able to see the necessity of the perpetual existence of a church on earth, where the Word is read and the Lord is known by the Word, and where the things are kept that are written in the Word,-necessary to the life and existence of heaven itself.

The representative objects that appear outside and around the angels, while they are from the Word as read by man, are, however, extended into the surrounding heavenly atmosphere, and take on objective form through the thoughts and affections inspired into the minds of the angels while the Word is being read on earth.

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Hence we are told that "the Word of the Lord was written not only for man, but also for heaven, and this in such a manner that when man reads it the angels have thence at the same time celestial ideas, so that by the Word heaven is joined with mankind" (A. C. 2176); also that whilst the Word is being read, and by means of it, fallacies in the minds of the angels are by degrees dispersed, and new ideas, which are conformable to the light of truth in which the angels dwell, are insinuated. This is more the case with the spiritual than the celestial." (A. C. 2249.) We learn further that "when a man of the church, who is in the good of faith, reads the Word, the angels adjoin themselves to him, and are delighted with the man, because the wisdom which is by means of the Word then flows into them from the Lord. It is from this that there is conjunction of heaven with man, which would not at all be without the Word; for the Word is such that there is not a tittle nor iota in its original tongue which does not affect the angels, and conjoin them to man; that this is the case I can assert, because it has been shown me from heaven." (A. C. 9152.)

Heaven is therefore conjoined to the human race by means of the Word as read by man, that is, by means of the delight in the things of the Word, then inspired by the into both angels and men by the reading of it, and this use is more fully accomplished when the Word is read in the original language; and we note also in the last number quoted that the angels are delighted and draw near to a reader of the Word who is in the good of faith because of the wisdom which then flows into them through the Word from the Lord. It is from this source that man has perception when he reads the Word, for the Lord is then teaching both men and angels, and the provision of a written Word on earth was for this cause, that men and angels might be taught and inspired at one and the same time, from the same fountain of truth.

A marvelous thing in connection with this is revealed to us. "It is to be known that the Word in our earth given through heaven from the Lord is the union of heaven and the world, n. 9212; for which end there is a correspondence of all things in the letter of the Word with Divine things in heaven; and that the Word in its supreme and inmost sense treats of the Lord, of His kingdom in heaven and on earth, and of love and faith from Him, and in Him, consequently of life from Him and in Him; such things are presented to the angels in heaven, from whatsoever earth they are, when the Word of our earth is read and preached." (A. C. 9357)

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     The foregoing number is taken from a series, which teach us the reason why the Lord was born on this earth, and not on another, the principal reason being for the sake of the Word that it might be written on our earth. There are many reasons why this was done, the chief and universal being the conjunction of angels and men, or heaven with the human race, by the reading of the Word; and the additional information is here given, that when the Word is read by men on this earth, the internal sense is then presented to the angels, from whatsoever earth they are. The Word, therefore, as read on this earth, is made the means by the Lord of instructing the angels of heaven,-not only the angels from this earth, but those from all the earths in the universe, who in their turn inspire and even instruct the inhabitants of the earths from which they came into heaven.

     That the Lord instructs the angels of heaven by means of the Word as read on earth we know from the following additional teaching:

     "The spiritual sense is for the angels of heaven, who are with man while he is reading the Word. There is also then influx from the angels of what is holy and also perception with those who are in the life of faith and charity." (A. C. 8971.)

     "All the wisdom of the angels is given by means of the Word when read by men, and when there is thought from it." (S. D.187)

     "Since it is from creation that end, cause and effect should together make one, so it is from creation that the heavens shall make one with the church on earth, but by means of the Word, when it is read by man from the love of truth and good." (E. 1084.)

     This conjunction therefore, of heaven with the human race, and of the human race with heaven, is by means of the Word when it is read by men on earth, and by the mutual and consociate delight which angels and men then experience together.

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The conjunction of heaven with mankind was preserved for many hundred years by the worship of the Jewish representative of a church, that is, by means of the Word as read by the Jews and acted out by them in the rituals of their worship. This exhibits to us the conjoining power of the Word with heaven, even with such a nation as the Jews, with whom there was no spiritual delight in the truths of the Word. A similar use is now being performed by the reading of the Word in the consummated Christian Church, and we are told that for this reason the forms of the worship of that church will continue, so long as there is delight in the reading of the Word. We are further taught that by the reading of the Word there the Church is they also have light who are outside of the church, as follows: "They who have the Word are few as compared with those who have not the Word. The Word is found only in Europe among the Christians who are called the Reformed. The Word is indeed among the Roman Catholics, but it is not read, and their kingdoms devoted to that religion, as France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, more than half of Germany, and also of Hungary, as well as Poland, do not read it. The Word is also but little read in Russia, but yet it is believed to be holy. That belief is a communication through the Word. Only in England, Holland, certain duchies in Germany, and in Sweden and Denmark is the Word taught and preached; but in Asia, Africa, and the Indies, among the Gentiles, who are more numerous than the Reformed Christians, the Word is unknown. But that the Word might not be lost, it has been provided by the Lord that the Jewish nation, among whom is the Word of the Old Testament in its original tongue, should still survive and dwell dispersed through much of the earth. Though this nation denies that the Lord is the Messiah or Christ, foretold by the prophets, and though it is of an evil heart, yet the reading of the Word has communication with certain heavens, for correspondences communicate, whatever the quality of the person who reads, if only he acknowledges the Word to be divine. This is the case today, as in old time; for when Moses, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, David, Elias, and many other names in the Word, are adored by them as deities, then the heavens perceive instead of those persons, the Lord, not knowing the person in the world on whose account that holy of worship arises.

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Such is the conjunction of heaven with man by means of the Word." (De Verbo 16.)

     It will be seen from this teaching that the Jewish nation, though dispersed throughout the world, still performs this use of the conjunction of heaven with mankind by means of the Word as read by them in the original tongue, a use they have continued to perform, although there is with them no internal communication with heaven; for as we read, the Word has such communication, whatsoever be the quality of him who reads, "if only he acknowledges the Word to be Divine." This is especially the case when the Word is read in the Hebrew language, and as it was foreseen that Christians would have but little concern about the Word in the Hebrew, the Jews have been preserved, even though scattered throughout the world. They were removed from the land of Canaan because it was necessary that their representative worship should be abolished, for it had become profane; but they were still preserved as a nation in other lands, in order that they might continue the use which they had hitherto performed as a nation, in fulfilling the Divine purpose of the conjunction of heaven with the human race,-but now by the reading of the Word in the Hebrew language in their synagogues, and not as before by the representative worship of the temple at Jerusalem. But this use is now to be transferred to the New Church.

     The same general teaching is further illustrated as follows,-

     "There were with me African spirits from Abyssinia. On a certain occasion their ears were opened, that they might hear singing in some temple in the world, from a Psalm of David; by which they were affected with such delight that they joined in the singing. But soon their ears were closed so that they could not hear anything from thence. And they were then affected with still greater delight because it was spiritual; and they were at the same time filled with intelligence because that Psalm treated of the Lord and of redemption. The reason of the increased delight was that communication was given them with that society in heaven which was in conjunction with those who were singing the Psalm in the world.

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From this and much other experience it was made evident to me that communication with the universal heaven is given through the Word. For this reason, by the Lord's Providence, there is a universal intercourse of the kingdoms of Europe, chiefly of those where the Word is read, with the nations outside the church." (S. S. 108.) This number brings distinctly before us the use of a collective reading or singing of the Word in public worship, the presence of spirits and angels in such collective reading and singing, and the communication and conjunction with heaven that is effected thereby. On this subject we read still further that "musical harmony and singing are so delightful to the angels, when the thoughts of man are concordant with their ideas-a fact which I have often experienced in churches when the angelic choirs were in concord c(with the psalms sung) with an interior perception of gladness, credible to none, and thus ineffable." (S. D. 491) Again we are told that once certain of the psalms of David were read, and they had such efficacy in heaven that the angels were so amazed that they confessed with a loud voice that they never could have believed such a thing. (S. D. 335.)

We may well share the surprise of the angels on learning that they have all their wisdom from the Word, when it is read by men, and not independent of such a reading of the Word. It is indeed a wonderful thing to learn that the angels have an their wisdom, all their affection, all their thought, yea, all their life by means of the Word when read by men in the world.

It is also a remarkable fact that the angels perceive and are affected by the internal sense, whether we understand it or not; for they understand, receive and are delighted with the Word, with its internal sense, even when the Word is read by little children, who understand but little of the literal sense. (A. C. 1776, 1871, 2290, 3690; De Verbo 14.) For instance, in the Lord's Prayer, a child-or even an adult, in the same prayer, or in the Holy Supper, may think only of bread, but the angels associated with him will think of the Lord's love, which is to them their daily bread. It is the same with all things of the literal sense of the Word,-a natural thought or image in the mind of a child, or of a man, is instantly turned by the attendant angels into a corresponding spiritual thought and image, which spiritual thought and image they otherwise could not have received.

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     Thus the Word, a written Word, must be somewhere, or on some earth, and it pleased the Lord in His mercy to place it on this earth where we dwell. But it must be read, cared for, loved and preserved. There must he an organized church that is charged with this sacred duty, the duty of preserving the Word, and of reading it in private and in public, individually and collectively.

     Our conscious purpose in reading it is that we may be inspired to obey its precepts. If we are in the effort to live by obedience a life of faith and charity, the angels who are with us in the reading will inspire perception together with a sphere of what is holy. They, however, do not teach a man who is reading, nor does the man teach them; this is no part of the work of either. This is the Lord's work. He teaches men and angels at the same time, and this twofold teaching He does when a man, or a number of men together, read the Word. This is the means the Lord uses to give men and angels their daily bread, the food of their life.

     But the Word is not only to be read, but there is to be meditation on it, inspiring to thought, speech, and action from the things that are read. This is to be the effect of the reading both with angels and men,-inspiration to effort, that there maybe consociation, not only in the reading, but in the thought, speech, and action inspired by the reading. To repeat what has been already quoted from the Doctrine, "All the wisdom of the angels is given by means of the Word when read by man, and when there is thought from it." (S. D. 5187.) "Such things are presented to the angels in heaven, from whatsoever earth they are, when, the Word of our earth is read and preached." (A. C. 9357) We see then that the Lord not only instructs man by the reading of the Word, by meditation on it, and by preaching from it, but He also instructs the angels by means of these things as done by men,-by means of a man's thinking from and concerning the things of the Word, and by means of his breaching from it; hence as reading performs a twofold use, so does meditation and preaching.

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This latter again brings to our mind the great use of a church organized for collective worship, that there may be a common reading of the Word, a common thought from it, and a common instruction; or the instruction of a number together, who are inspired by a common thought and a common purpose. The reader, the preacher, and those who are thinking and are inspired together, are not conscious of what the Lord is doing, are not conscious of the fact that two worlds are involved in what they do. Neither angels nor men are aware of it at the time. The Lord alone knows of what is being done, and we only know of it afterward from the doctrine of Revelation. We see in all this teaching, therefore, the use not only of individual, but of a collective reading of the Word. We see the use of an organized church. We see the use of public worship, the use of the forms of ritual, that is, the use of bringing the Word, as much as is possible and convenient, into public worship in the form of reading and singing together. For it is a truth that cannot be doubted by those who reflect on these subjects, that those denominations in the Christian world and survive the longest, which make much of this collective reading of the Word, or of ritual which is from the Word; and that the others, like the Quakers, who endeavor to lay aside entirely the forms of ritual, will disintegrate more rapidly. We have therefore strong reasons for encouragement in our efforts to develop the ritual of the church from the Word, so that there may be a complete form of public worship in a collective reading and singing of the Word; for it is a self-evident truth that there is more of a sphere from the same persons acting together as one than the sum of their spheres would be if acting separately. Let us therefore cultivate reading together, that we may be inspired to think together, that the church may become a choir on earth answering to the choirs of heaven.

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NAAMAN, THE LEPER 1913

NAAMAN, THE LEPER JOHN HEADSTEN 1913

     "Now, Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, zeros a great man with his master and honorable, because by him Jehovah had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper;" (2 Kings 5:1-15)

     The Word is the Divine drama in which the people of Israel and their country, together with the surrounding nations, are the actors and the stage. Owing to this all the acts recorded in its holy pages are representative of different states within the Church, which are determined by the attitude its members take towards the Lord. The story just read presents to us the state of those who have falsified the truths of the Word by the rejection of its Divine authority, and use it merely to form moral doctrines from the parts that appeal to them. Not only is their internal state and their faith described, but also, to a great extent, their external conduct.

     Before we proceed further let us recall to our minds that in the geography of the Word the land of Canaan is always the center. Also, that when the Israelites obeyed the law they prospered as a nation and wielded a great influence over the nations around them, such as Syria, Egypt, Philistia, Moab, etc. This was because the land of Israel represented the genuine Church. The different parts of that land, its boundaries and its cities, waters, mountains, plains and valleys represent the different principles in the Church as to the will and the understanding. The surrounding countries represent states which the man of the Church must go through before he becomes a true Christian. Sometimes they denote states which are evil and must be rejected.

     In the story we are considering mention is made of two countries, namely, Syria and Israel. Israel represents the spiritual Church, or the congregation of those who believe the Word and worship the Lord alone. "Jordan, the river of the land of Israel, signifies truths which introduce into the Church, which are the knowledges of truth and good from the Word." (A. E. 4757.)

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By Syria is represented the cognitions of truth and good, and the two rivers, Abana (meaning "firm," "permanent," "perennial") and Pharpar (meaning "swift"); denote these cognitions in the order they are mentioned in the Word, consequently, Abana the cognitions of truth, and Pharpar the cognitions of good. These cognitions, however, are mostly in the memory.

     Two men are named in this story. The first is a Syrian by the name of Naaman (meaning "pleasant"), and the other is the prophet Elisha (meaning "God is Savior"). Elisha was a man of God and lived in Samaria, and Naaman was a great captain, residing in Damascus.

     These are the two principal figures present in this sacred story-Naaman being the passive, or he who might help, and Elisha the active, or the one who imparted help. Concerning this we read:

     "By Naaman, the leper, are represented those who falsify the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, for leprosy is the natural equivalent of falsification, and Syria stands for knowledges of truth and good. By the waters of Jordan are meant truths introductory to the Church, which are the knowledges of truth and good derived from the Word, for the river Jordan was the first boundary by which the land of Canaan was entered, and by that land is denoted the Church; hence that river signified introductory truths, which are the first knowledges of truth and good from the Word. On account of this signification of the river Jordan, Naaman was commanded to wash himself seven times in it, by which is meant purification from falsified truths. Seven times corresponds to what is plenary, and is predicated of things holy, such as are truths Divine. By reason of this signification of seven times, it is said that his flesh was restored as the flesh of a little child, and by the flesh being restored is denoted spiritual life such as they have who are regenerated by Divine truths. Inasmuch as by the river Jordan is understood truths which introduce into the Church, which are the first knowledges of truth and good derived from the Word, and by washing therein is meant purification from falsities, and thence reformation and regeneration by the Lord; therefore baptism was instituted, which was first performed by John in the Jordan." (A. E. 475.)

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     Let us now proceed to the story. It opens: "Now, Naaman, captain of the host of the icing of Syria, was a great man with his master and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria. He was also a mighty man in valor but he was a leper."

     We have already seen that by Syria is meant knowledges of good and truth. These we all must have before we can become true members of the Lord's Church. These knowledges are widespread in the world, but our text refers to those which are found where the Word is read. But what are these knowledges-are they true or are they false? Within the New Church it is well known that they are falsified by the doctrine of a tripersonal God, salvation by faith alone, and especially by the denial of the Lord's Divinity. This latter falsification is what is signified by the leprosy of Naaman.

     In reformed Christendom these falsified knowledges are widespread; they even prevail, which is set forth in that the Lord gave deliverance unto Syria by Naaman, and that he was a mighty man of valor. Let us not think that these knowledges, although falsified, do not perform a use. They do; for in those who have an honest purpose the Lord uses them to perform a preparatory work.

     The sacred story continues: "And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away a captive, out of the land of Israel, a little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife. And she said to her mistress: Would God that my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy."

     Here an arcanum is revealed that brings hope even to those who have falsified the knowledges of truth and good. It lies concealed in the story of the little maid from the land of Israel; for she represents genuine affection for the truths of the Lord's Church. This affection is not in freedom with those who falsify they hold it in subordination to their own proper affection, which is meant by Naaman's wife, and the reason why the little maid spoke to her mistress is that a genuine affection can have no influence on the life of anyone unless it appeals to the affection proper to that life.

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The true affection for truth, even though it is a captive, is ever ready to induce man to go to the true prophet, i. e., doctrine. This work of the true affection is felt as when one becomes interested in something that vitally concerns his life. When the genuine affection has succeeded to make a favorable impression by means of known truths from the Word, then a determination is formed in the mind to inquire more deeply into what seems to be doctrine of hope, based on real truths. A spiritual leper is very unhappy and dissatisfied with his own state, and this impels him to listen to the message concerning the prophet in Samaria, i. e. Divine doctrine. In this state knowledges of truth and good come forth more clearly, for the Lord brings them forth, and makes of them further inquiry into the Divine truth. This touching is set forth in, these words: "And Naaman went In told his lord, saying: Thus and thus said the little maid that is of the land of Israel. And the king of Syria said: Go to, go, and I will send a letter to the king of Israel. And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment."

     Let us bear in mind that this story throughout treats of the changes as they take place in one mind; hence when it is said that he departed, it means to leave a former state and enter a new; and when one does so he takes with him whatever he has of truth and good stored in the mind, with their externals. The use of these are not seen by any man in this state, for he mixes them with false notions, and applies them to himself. But they are of use until genuine truths are procured, which separate and purge them.

     The sacred narrative continues: "And he brought a letter to the king of Israel, saying: Now, when this letter is come unto thee, behold I have herewith sent Naaman, my servant, to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy."

     These words, together with the king's command: "Go to, go," show that the whole mind of him who is to be cleansed from falsification must be in a true effort to come to the truth.

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But at this stage there are no genuine truths,-only appearances and falsities, together with a desire to reason-hence the king of Israel rent his clothes and said: "Consider, I pray you, how he seeketh a quarrel against me."

     Here the sacred story begins a new stage by the introduction of the prophet Elisha. It reads: "And it was so; when Elisha, the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent to the king, saying: Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes? Let him come to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel."

     Elisha is the great figure in this holy story. What does he represent! From the sacred history we learn that he was the successor of the prophet Elijah, who represents the literal sense of the Word. When this is seen, then it becomes clear that Elisha, the man of God, stands for the doctrine of Divine truth from the spiritual sense of the Word, and also those who preach and teach that doctrine for the salvation of men. His name also means God is Savior. And the circumstance that he lived in Samaria signifies that that doctrine cannot be anywhere else than where charity and faith make one to some degree.

     The narrative continues: "So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots and stood at the door of the house of Elisha."

     These words are significant, for they describe the state of those who falsify. They belong to the Church and take an active part in its uses. They learn the letter of the Word with zeal; and form to themselves doctrines from it, and their conception and doctrine is meant by Naaman's horses and chariots. But perhaps this question is asked: Have they who are meant by Naaman, the leper, a doctrine? Certainly they have for all of them take more or less interest in the Word. They study it, and select whatever is suitable to them about what to believe and do. They fight for their doctrine, and by means of it they win victories, and as it leads to an externally good life, therefore they who preach it are often considered valiant warriors of the cross.

     But what is their conception of the Word? And what is the chief characteristic of their doctrine! They do not hallow the Lord's name, which is the Word, and their doctrine does not acknowledge the Divinity of the Lord's Humanity-it lacks the acknowledgment of the Divine authority of the Word.

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A false doctrine is made up of things that suit only, and they who have it are always influenced by self-intelligence. For this reason it is never left out of sight-no, not even when they, owing to internal unhappiness, go to the true prophet for relief and help.

     As soon as those who falsify the knowledges of truth and good stop at the door of the prophet, i. e., come into living contact with the introductory truths which lead to genuine good, they begin to expound and show the excellency of their belief, as compared with the authority doctrine from the Word. Let us now bring down to concrete ideas the meaning of the house and the Man of God who lived in it. The Man of God signifies the doctrine from God out of heaven, and the house, the good of that doctrine. This doctrine wholly from the Word, and in it are no inventions of men, for it has been revealed by God Himself; hence it is the speech of truth Itself. This doctrine teaches in the first place that God is one in essence and in person, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is He, as He Himself taught: "I and the Father are one." This doctrine teaches also hat the Word is revealed by the Lord for the salvation of men, and that it speaks to all states of life, for the truths, which are for the most part appearances in the literal sense, become more and more profound, rational and help, as one enters into the interior, which is the spiritual sense of the Word. This doctrine further teaches that only a life of obedience to the Word leads to heaven; hence that men are saved in the degree that they make the commandments the rules of their life.

     Let us now return to the story: "And Naaman stood at the door of the house of Elisha. And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying: 'Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again unto thee, and thou shalt be clean.'"

     These words tell in the language of correspondences how true cleansing may come to those who falsify the knowledges of truth and good. As they do not acknowledge the Divine authority of the Word, they cannot enter into its good from the Divine truth, which is meant by the house. Nor can they see the prophet, or the Divine truth, before the literal dictates of the Word are believed and complied with.

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The prophet merely sends to him and tells what to do, and from his action it is seen that he represents a doctrine that has nothing of compromise in it; and yet it is filled with true love for the human race. It has this for a motto: "Do this and thou shalt live." Without circumlocutions and excuses it openly says: "Go and wash seven times in Jordan!" which means: Believe and acknowledge the Divine authority of the Word; fight against evils which are forbidden in it, and pray to the only God, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He may cleanse from falsities and evils which prevent the admission of the Divine truth. Be baptized into the true church. Do this and thou shalt learn that there is only one God, who is the Lord, and that He is worshiped in heaven and in His church on earth.

The inspired story then continues: "But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said: Behold, I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper. Are not the rivers of Damascus, Abana and Pharpar better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? And he turned and went away in rage."

These words show plainly what effect the true doctrine has on those who are in this falsification, when it is first presented before their internal view, even on those who desire to be set aright. The true quality of their own doctrine is revealed when genuine truths from the Word shine upon it. Also the attitude of this doctrine, with its adherent, to the internal sense of the Word. Wrath and scorn inflow from hell into their minds, and they push away from themselves the living doctrine in the same manner as Naaman did when he turned and went his way in rage. They have great thoughts about themselves and their own views of life. What concerns them is to be freed from their internal unrest and anguish without leaving their own principles. They cleave to their own doctrine, and insist that it must be respected and treated on an equal basis with the Doctrine of heaven. They wish to receive the benefit of the power of the Divine truth, and be conjoined to it, without renouncing their own falsities. This state is described in these words: "I thought he would surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord, his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper."

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     My beloved hearers: It is not all easy matter to renounce a falsified faith. As a rule it takes a long time, for they wire are meant by Naaman use what they know of truth and good to strengthen their position, taking what is suitable for them, rejecting the rest. Thus they renounce the truth concerning the Divine birth of the Lord; and the need of a Savior is wholly excluded. This gives the evil powers full sway to point out the excellency of their own tenets, which elevate the worth of man to heaven; make him intelligent and wise, and the maker of his own destiny. And on account of what men in this state properly love, they turn wrathfully away, exclaiming: "Are not my own doctrines concerning what to believe, and how to live, far superior to all that the Word teaches?"

     Owing to the influence from the enemy of our souls it feels as a debasement to acknowledge that one is ensnared in falsities which produce unhappiness only and it seems impossible to give up faith in one's own ability to full peace. This state with those who are meant by Naaman, the leper who was healed, is an infestation from hell allowed in order that their falsification may come out, so that they might see and fight against it in their own mind. That infestation is described in these words: "Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean? So he turned and went away in rage."

     But the Lord never leaves those who seek Him from any kind of a true affection, although they may rebel against Him as being the truth; hence we read: "And his servant came near unto him and said: My father, if the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? How much rather then, when he saith to thee: Wash and be clean."

     In these words is shown how the Divine Providence is ever near with all things needed for salvation. All the means are at hand, waiting for the opportunity to do its work. The servants that came near are truths from the literal sense of the Word which are known. These truths induce the will, which is here addressed as "father," to obey the heavenly truths. These servants of the Lord always serve men to counteract falsities from evil, which are endeavoring to destroy the work of God.

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These servants show plainly that the Divine truth asks nothing that is unreasonable, impossible or degrading for true manhood. It merely requires that man should leave falsities and strive to follow the truth.

     "Then went he down and dipped himself seven times according to the saying of the Man of God. And his flesh came again as the flesh of a little child, and he was clean."

     This teaches that even though a man may have gone so far as to have falsified truth and good, yet he may be brought to see his errors, turn to the true prophet, i. e., the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, and receive true enlightenment and a life, which is described by the flesh of a little child, free from uncleanness.

     After Naaman had thus been purified it is said: "And he returned to the Man of God, he and all his company, and came and stood before him; and he said: Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel."

     Here is set forth the result of true purification from falsities. His return to the Man of God signifies reflection on the Divine truth; and standing before the Man of God denotes conjunction with the Divine truth. This reflection and this conjunction with the truth could not take place before the literal precepts of the Word had been obeyed, hence it is said that Naaman's plans and expectations were not realized when he first came into contact with the prophet. But after purification, affirmative reflection and conjunction had taken place, then there is a perfect acknowledgment of the true God, for He is known only by means of the Divine truth. This is so because the Lord is the truth, and He reveals Himself as the truth only. This causes those who suffer themselves to be instructed and led by the Lord to exclaim: "Now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel." This God is the God of the New Church, for in it He is worshipped as the only true God, who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the ending, He who is and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty. Amen.

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CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT 1913

CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT C. TH. ODHNER 1913

     II.

     THE SYMBOLIC ANIMALS.

     Swedenborg, accompanied by an angel guide, once visited the heaven of the Silver Age. "We came first to a hill on the border between the east and the south, and while we were on its sloping height he pointed out to me a very extended region of country and far away as it were a mountainous eminence, and between it and the hill on which we stood there was a valley, and beyond that a plain and an acclivity gently rising from it.*
     * The view was such as might be gained by the mind's eye looking eastward from the Libyan hills over the valley of the Nile towards the mountains of Canaan and Sinai, and beyond these the plane of Babylonia and the plateau of Assyria.

     "We descended the hill to pass the valley, and we saw here and there on either side images of wood and stone carved in the likeness of men, and of various beasts, birds, and fishes. I asked the angel, 'What are these? Are they idols?'

     "He replied, 'Certainly not!' They are figures representative of various moral virtues and spiritual truths. With the people of that age there was a knowledge of Correspondences; and as every man, beast, bird, and fish, corresponds to some quality, therefore each sculptured form represents some aspect of virtue or truth, and a number of them together represent the virtue or the truth itself in a general comprehensive form. These, in Egypt, were called hieroglyphics." (C. L. 76.)

     And in the work on DIVINE PROVIDENCE we read:

     Amongst the ancients there was the science of correspondences, which is also the science of representations, the very science of the wise, which was especially cultivated in Egypt; hence their hieroglyphics. From their science of correspondences they knew the signification of animals of every kind, also the signification of all kinds of trees, and of mountains, hills, rivers and fountains, and of the sun, the moon, and the stars.

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And as all their worship was representative, consisting of pure correspondences, they therefore worshiped on mountains and hills and in groves and gardens. And for this reason also they consecrated fountains, and in their adoration of God they turned their faces to the rising sun; And they furthermore made sculptured horses, oxen, calves, lambs, and aiso birds, fishes, and serpents, and in their houses and other places they arranged these in series according to the spiritual things of the Church to which they corresponded or which they represented. They also placed such things in their temples, in order to call to mind the holy things which they signified. After a time, when the science of correspondences had been forgotten, their posterity began to worship the very sculptures as in themselves holy, not knowing that their fathers of ancient times had not seen any holiness in these things, but only that they represented and therefore signified holy things according to correspondences. (D. P. 255)

The custom of representing spiritual goods and truths, and their opposite evils and falsities, in the form of symbolic animals, arose from the representatives seen in the world of spirits in the days when the ancients enjoyed open communion with the other world. Here angels and spirits and their various affections and thoughts are actually seen represented in the forms of the animal world, especially when viewed at a distance, for on closer approach the human forms appear, And the reason for this is that as man was created in the image and likeness of God, so animals were created in a more or less remote likeness of man, in correspondence to human thoughts and affections.

To the Greeks and Romans,-among whom the Ancient Church itself had never existed,-the symbolic animals of Egypt were a source of merriment and ridicule. Thus Antiphanes, in his LYCON, speaking jestingly of the Egyptians, says: "Clever as they are reputed in other things, they show themselves doubly so in thinking the eel equal to the gods; for surely it is more worthy of honor than any deity, since we have only to give prayers to the gods; but upon the eel we must spend at least twelve drachmas or more,-merely to swell it,-so perfectly holy is this animal!" And Juvenal, in his 15th Satire; thus lashes the superstitions of Egypt: "Who knows what monsters mad Egypt can worship? This place adores a crocodile; this one venerates an ibis full of serpents; whole towns worship a dog, but nobody Diana," etc. But to such ignorant misapprehensions the Egyptian priests replied, in a conversation with the wisest man of Athens: "O Solon, Solon, you Greeks are always children, nor is there among you such a thing as an aged Grecian.

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All your souls are juvenile, neither containing any ancient opinion derived from remote tradition, nor any learning hoary from its existence in former periods of time." (Plate, in TIMAEUS, p. 467.)

     Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson observes, in this connection: "In justice, therefore, some allowance should be made for the allegorical religion of the Egyptians; and when we reflect that it contained many important truths, founded upon early revelations made to mankind, and treasured up in secret to prevent their perversion, we may be disposed to look more favorably on the doctrines they entertained, and to understand why it was considered worthy of the divine legislator [Moses] to be 'learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians.'" (MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, vol. iv, p. 166.)

     The symbolic animals of Egypt may be divided into four classes, according to their natural qualities:

     First, a few clean and useful animals, such as the ram, the bull, the cow and the calf, naturally representing good and noble things.

     Second, a great number of beasts, in themselves unclean or evil, but possessing certain particular properties which enabled them to represent qualities of good and truth; these included the lion and the cat, the dog-headed ape and the jackal, the hawk, the vulture and the ibis, the royal serpent, the frog and the beetle.

     Third, certain unclean and evil animals always representing infernal things; among these we have the hippopotamus and the swine, the sparrow, the crocodile, and the scorpion.

     Fourth, composite animals, of a purely mythological character, such as the sphinx, the "Set" animal, the phoenix, etc., representing either good or evil, according to their varying forms.

     In the present study, however, it seems necessary to consider these animals in the order of the frequency of their representation, taking up first those which have the most general and inclusive signification.

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     1. THE ROYAL SERPENT.

     The most common of all the symbolic animals is the "URAEUS" or royal serpent which meets us everywhere on the monuments; his winged emblem surmounts the "pylon" or gateway of every temple; his head and inflated chest protrude from the crown or head-dress of every god and king. He is, par excellence, THE national emblem of Egypt, which in its very geographical formation by the winding path of the Nile resembles a serpentine beast.

     The royal serpent of Egypt was, by the Roman writers, named "Uraeus," from the Egyptian arart, which is connected with the Coptic word ouro, "a king," while by the %reeks it was named "basilisk," from basileus, "king." It is a species of cobra, (Fig. 1, plate 6; copied from Maspero. H. E. 1:42), a small, black, poisonous asp, still abounding in Egypt; when approached it will erect its head and inflate its throat and chest in readiness to dart forward. Its bite is frequently fatal, but it is quite easily tamed by the serpent charmers and, if well fed with milk, it will even become a pet, permitting children to play with it. This quality, perhaps, is what is referred to in the words of Isaiah 11:8: "The sucking child shall play upon the hole of the viper, and upon the den of the basilisk shall the weaned child thrust his hand."

     A conventionalized and winged form of the "uraus" is shown in Fig. 2. Its puffed-up chest is a vivid image of the inflated pride of sensual science. Fig. 3 is the national emblem of Egypt: two great wings extending from a solar disk encircled by two basilisks. This is the figure which is always found above the pylons of the temples; the sun signifies love, the serpent wisdom in ultimates, and the wings the doctrines of scientific truth, protecting the worship of a sensual church.

     Fig. 4, (copied from Budge, E. H. H. 1:209), is a very curious combination representing a serpent with two heads but no tail: one head wears the crown of Lower Egypt and an "anch;" the other carries the crown of Upper Egypt. Between them a hawk rests on the serpent's back, and beneath it are two pairs of human legs, walking in opposite directions. The whole, possibly, signifies the science of correspondences which reaches from opposite to opposite.

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[Drawings of the Royal Vultures. Plate 6. Drawings of the Sacred Ram. Plate 7.]

     Fig. 1 (Budge, Ib. 1:147), shows a serpent with a human head, and in front three anch crosses and a pair of tongues. With this may be compared the image of the Philistine god, Dagon, "who was like a man above and a fish below; this image was so devised because a man signifies intelligence, and a fish knowledge, and these two make one." (S. 23.)

     Below this figure we have two serpents (Figs. 6, 7, Budge, Ib. 1:237), one carrying on his back the crown of Upper Egypt with a human head on either side and the other carrying the crown of Lower Egypt with one head in front. The latter represents, perhaps, science as the means of progress in the human understanding, while the former indicates that science is, or should be, more especially the means of progress in the doubly human virtue of charity and the good of life.

     The papyrus stalk with a winding serpent, (Fig. 8), is very commonly seen in the hands of the goddesses, and seems to represent the power of the affection and perception of scientific truth.

     As to the spiritual meaning of the serpent there is a great deal of information in the Writings.

     By serpents, in the Word, are signified sensual things which are the Ultimates of the life of man. The reason is that all animals signify the affections of man, and the affections of angels and spirits in the spiritual world also appear at a distance like animals, and the merely sensual affections appear like serpents. This is because serpents creep on the ground and lick up the dust; and sensuals are the lowest things of the understanding and the will, for they stand forth next to the world and are nourished from its objects and delights, which affect only the material senses of the body. Harmful serpents, which are of many kinds, signify the sensuals which are dependent on evil affections, which make the interiors of the mind with those who are insane from falsities of evil; and harmless serpents signify the sensuals which are dependent on good affections, which make the interiors of the mind with those who are wise from truths of good. (R. 455.)

     To the Egyptians, therefore, the serpent-cautiously raising its head to look about him-became the special symbol of the prudence, circumspection and astuteness which constitute the wisdom of the natural man; it is to be remembered that the Lord Himself taught His disciples to be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves."

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Nay, the Lord Himself assumed a human sensual nature which He glorified or made Divine, and this Divine Sensual was prophetically represented by the brazen serpent on the cross, which brought healing to those bitten by the fiery flying serpents, if they looked to it. This Divine Sensual is the visible and audible form of the Divine Human now revealed in the Writings of the New Church, and only by looking to Him can men be saved from the deadly influence of modern sensual science and modern sensual life. Here alone is our protection for the brazen serpent "signifies the Divine Sensuual of the Lord who alone exercises circumspection and Providence." (A. 179, 425; E. 70.)

We may understand, therefore, how the royal serpent of Egypt came to signify in the supreme sense the Divine Wisdom itself, and hence Divine Science, the science of Divine things, and especially the science of correspondences, which was the science of sciences in Egypt. In the Garden of Eden this serpent was a harmless, useful and necessary thing, created by God Himself, for the celestial man could not have existed in this world unless endowed with an ultimate sensual nature. This serpent, with them, was the possessor of "the tree of science," for all knowledges must first be imbibed by means of the external senses. It became a seductive and poisonous beast only when the men of the Golden Age permitted the appearances of the senses to over-rule the voice of celestial perception which spoke from within.

Throughout the subsequent ages, for good and for evil, the role of the serpent has been played by Egypt. In the Ancient Church the science of correspondences reached its highest development in Egypt, and from this spiritual science there gradually developed, a priori, the beginnings of natural sciences such as astronomy, geometry, mathematics, chemistry, geography, etc. In classical times Egypt was the great international university, where men such as Herodotus, Pythagoras, Plate and possibly Aristotle pursued their studies, and after the Macedonian conquest the "Museum" at Alexandria not only contained the greatest library in the world but was for centuries the home of the leading lights of science.

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Here also the Hebrew Scriptures were first translated into Greek, and here Philo, the Jew, laid the foundation for the Neo-platonic school of philosophy. But corruption, also, went hand in hand with the great scientific development; from the beginning of historic times Magic flourished in Egypt by means of correspondences perverted, turning religion into superstition and spreading moral corruption far and wide. The destruction of Egypt through the influence of a perverted science found a fitting symbol in the suicide of Cleopatra by the poison of the basilisk.

     In the Christian Church, also, Egypt at first proved a blessing, and then a deadly curse. The catechumenal school at Alexandria became the first Christian university, where the Christian Theology received its first scientific development at the hands of Clement and Origen. But the new light was soon extinguished by the jealousy of the hierarchy. Alexandria became the center of gnostical heresies, (gnosis means a pretended, hidden "knowledge"), and from this tree of science there came forth a two-headed serpent to seduce the Christian Church with Arianism on the one hand, and Athanasianism on the other,-both based originally on Egyptian tritheism.

     2. THE ROYAL VULTURE.

     As the "Uraeus" is the royal emblem of gods and kings, so the "Mut" or royal vulture is the emblem of goddesses and queens, who almost always wear a representation of this bird upon their heads, in place of a crown or head-dress: the head of the vulture protruding in front, with the wings falling down on either side of the lady's neck, and the tail feathers extending from the back (Fig. 11, Plate 6), the whole made into a kind of helmet, generally of gold. And as the winged "uraus" is placed above the pylons of the temples, so the vulture is represented with widespread wings (Fig. 10) on the ceilings of the temples, in the central avenues of the portico, and on the under side of the lintels of the doors which lead to the sanctuary. As an amulet a golden vulture was placed on the neck of the mummy on the day of the funeral, for this was supposed to carry with it the protection of "Mother" Isis. (Budge, THE MUMMY, P. 260.)

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     The name of this vulture, mut,-written with the hieroglyphics for a vulture, a female breast, an egg, and a woman,-is the regular word for "mother," and as such this animal is the special symbol of the goddess MUT, who, as the female counterpart of AMEN-RA represents "mother nature," the "great world mother," or the idea of motherhood itself: It is known in Egypt under the Arabic name rakham, which is identical with the Hebrew word rackam, a "gier-eagle," as it is translated in the Authorized Version, (Levit. 11:18 and Deut. 14:17). The Hebrew root racham means originally "womb," and hence "mother love, mercy, compassion," and the name was given to the Egyptian vulture on account of her intense love for her young. (Gesenius Heb. Lex.)

     This maternal instinct accounts for the Egyptian choice of an otherwise unclean bird to represent maternal love and protection, though it was venerated also on account of its great usefulness in removing dead bodies, offal, and other impurities which, if left on the ground, might cause great damage in the hot climate of Egypt. On this account it is treated with great consideration by the modern Mohammedans of Egypt, to whom it is known as "Pharaoh's hen." (Wilkinson M. C., V:203.) According to Budge "the cult of the vulture is extremely ancient in Egypt, and dates probably from pre-dynastic times, for one of the oldest titles of the Pharaohs of Egypt is 'Lord of the city of the Vulture (Nekhebet or Eileithyiapolis), lord of the city of the uraeus' (Uatchet, or Buto), and it is found engraved on monuments of the late pre-dynastic and early archaic periods. AElan [a Roman writer in the time of Alexander Severus] . . . says that all vultures are females, and no male vulture was ever known; to obtain young they turn their backs to the south, or south-east wind, which fecundates them, and they bring forth young after three years." (G. E. 11:372.)

     The vulture, like the eagle and the hawk, can have nothing but an evil correspondence, both being in themselves evil beasts. But even as evil men by certain external qualities may represent heavenly and Divine things, so the maternal instinct in the vulture makes a basis for a good representation. And on comparing the qualities of the vulture and the eagle, we find that they have a very similar signification, so much so that we may clearly interpret the symbol of the vulture by the meaning of the eagle.

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     We read in Deuteronomy that Jehovah found Israel "in a desert land and in a waste howling wilderness; He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle stirreth up her nest, flattereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings, so Jehovah alone did lead him." (32:10-12.)

     It is the instruction in the truths and goods of faith which is here described, and is compared to an eagle. (A. 3901.)

     Their instruction in truths, guarding from falsities, and the opening of the interiors of their minds so that they may come into the light of Heaven and thus into the understanding of truth and good, which is intelligence, is described by an "eagle," its nest on high, its brooding over its young, and carrying them upon its wings. (E. 281.)

     It is the work of EDUCATION, therefore, that was especially symbolized by the royal vulture of Egypt, for this work is the especial use of the maternal love of Heaven and the Church, as represented by the goddesses and queens of Egypt. For the work of Education was developed in Egypt as nowhere else in the Ancient Church, and Egypt as a whole, as has been shown, was the great international university of the ancient world.

     "The fourth animal was like a flying eagle," (Rev. 4:7), signifies the Divine Truth of the Word as to Cognitions and thence understanding. By "flying eagles" are signified the cognitions from which comes understanding, for while they are flying they know and see; they also have sharp eyes and see clearly, and the eyes signify understanding. "To fly" signifies to perceive and instruct and, in the supreme sense, to look out for and provide. (R. 244)

     A "flying eagle" signifies the appearance of the Divine Protection and Providence in ultimates as to intelligence and as to clear-sightedness on every side. (E. 281.)

     The "face of an eagle," (Ezech. 1:10), signifies circumspection and thence Providence. . . . Such was the signification of an eagle in the Ancient Church. (A. 3901)

     3. THE SCARABAEUS BEETLE.

     "Flying things of the lowest sort, which are insects, signify truths or falsities which are more ignoble and obscure, such as are those things which belong to the Sensual." (A. 7441.)

     "Flying insects signify such things as are of the thought, thus truths or falsities, but in the extremes of man." (A. 9331.)

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     Egypt as a whole represents the lowest or sensual degree of the human mind, and hence, consciously or unconsciously, the Egyptians were led to adopt some of the lowest forms of animal life-such as the serpent and the beetle-as symbols of the highest principles. As the serpent with them represented wisdom in ultimates and hence in the inmost, so the beetle represented to them life in ultimates and hence all life, life itself, for the ultimate is the containant of the whole.

     The particular beetle which was chosen for this supreme representation, (Fig. 1, plate 7), belongs to a very numerous group of dung-feeding Lamellicorns, (i. e., beetles having antennae terminating in a set of flat lamella or little plates). The Greeks gave to this beetle the name of sharebeios,-a word of unknown meaning,-but the Egyptians called it khepera, which means both esse and fieri, "being" and "becoming;" it also means "to roll, to evolve,"-a fact which should encourage the evolutionists in looking to the beetle as their racial ancestor.

     The scarabaeus beetle "is generally of a black hue, but amongst them are to be found some adorned with the richest metallic colors. A remarkable peculiarity exists in the structure and situation of the hind legs, which are placed so near the extremity of the body, and so far from eachiother, as to give the insect a most extraordinary appearance when walking. This peculiar formation is nevertheless particularly serviceable to its possessors in rolling the balls of excrementitious matter in which they enclose their eggs." (Budge, THE MUMMY, p. 232.)

     The scarabaeus is said to be born at the edge of the desert and spends the half of its life in crawling down to the bank of the Nile. Here the female gathers a ball of dung and mud, from one to two inches in diameter, and deposits in it a great number of eggs. The male and the female then take turns in rolling the ball back to the edge of the desert, where they bury it in a hole in the sand, to be hatched out by the heat of the sun. They usually drag it along with their hind legs, but are often seen carrying it on their heads with the front legs.

     There is scarcely any difference, externally, between the male and the female of the species, and hence there arose the notion that there were no females among them, but that all were male.

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On this account the scarabaeus came to typify the idea of "the Only-begotten of the Father," the medium of original creation. A survival of this ancient conception still remains in Upper Egypt and Nubia, for "to this day the insect is dried, pounded, and mixed with water, and then drunk by women who believe it to be an unfailing specific for the production of large families." (Budge; G. E., II:381.)

     The beetle was especially associated with Ra, the sun-god,-partly, perhaps, on account of the round shape of its ball, which contains the germs of a new generation as the ball of the sun contains the germs of all life in the universe,-and partly, also, because the scarabaeus becomes especially lively during the hottest hours of the day, flying about in the sunlight when all other creatures seek shade and rest. Hence the sun-god is often represented with a beetle on the top of his head, or with a beetle instead of a head. (Fig. 2.) Very often, also, the scarabaeus is shown with a small red ball behind him, and a large red ball in front, the two representing the nether and the upper sun.

     The resurrection of man in a spiritual body was also "symbolized by the germs of life rolled up in the egg-balls of the beetle, and the power which made those to become living creatures was that which made man's spiritual body to come into being." (Budge, G. E., 1:357.) "It was this idea which was at the root of the Egyptian custom of wearing figures of the beetle, and of placing them in the tombs and on the bodies of the dead; the myriads of scarabs which have been found in all parts of Egypt testify to the universality of this custom." (Ibid.) These scarabs, made of black or green stone, often contain brief inscriptions, stating the name of the deceased, with prayers or sacred formulas supposed to be useful in the other life. (Fig. 3.)

     4. THE RAM.

     Of all the symbolic animals of Egypt, the ram has the highest and Holiest correspondence. While seldom used as an hieroglyphic, he is seen most frequently in the shape of a sphinx, either in his own entire form, or as a ram with a human head, or with the body of a lion, or in various other combinations.

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Long avenues of these majestic sphinxes, beautifully carved and polished, are seen among the ruins of Upper Egypt, sometimes extending for miles, as in the case of the great avenue leading from Karnak to Lurer. These avenues of sphinxes represented to the Egyptians the stream of the Divine Providence, everywhere leading, guarding and protecting. This symbolic ram was furnished with two pair of horns,-one pair curving down and forwards, the other, long, flat and twisted, extending upwards and sideways,-(Figs. 4 and 5, plate 7) to represent the Divine Power of Love extending everywhere.

     The ram was the special symbol of two divinities, KHNEMU and OSIRIS. The former stands at the head of the Egyptian Pantheon and represents the Infinite itself, the supreme Esse, the Divine Father of all creation. The ram, as the father of the flock, was the fitting symbol of the Divine Fatherhood, and hence Khnemu was almost always represented as a man with the head of a ram; he is also painted a dark blue, to signify the invisible Divine.

     When associated with Osiris, the ram is a prophetic symbol of the Lord in His Divine Human, the "Lamb of God," the God-Man who has rendered visible the Infinite Divine. Hence Osiris is often represented with a pair of ram's horns, and he himself is called "the Ram, lord of Tattu," which means judge of the dead in the under world, or world of spirits. (Budge, G. E. 1:103.) The Greeks, mistaking this for "Amenti," or Heaven, made the Osiris ram known as the "Ram of Mendes," in whom the soul of Osiris was supposed to dwell. Mendes was also, identified with a town in ancient Egypt, where a sacred ram was kept in honor of Osiris. Like the Apis-bull, this ram was distinguished by certain peculiar markings, and when one ram died his successor was sought for with great diligence throughout the country, and, when found, consecrated with great festivities.

     As the sheep in general corresponds to celestial affections, the goods of charity and innocence, so the ram, as the male of the sheep, corresponds to the truth of celestial good, and the power of this truth. And in the supreme sense the ram signifies "the internal of the Lord's Divine Human united to the Divine good of His Divine love, which was in Himself," (A. 10052, 10076), that is, the union or unition of Osiris with Khnemu.

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JOHAN TYBECK 1913

JOHAN TYBECK HUGO LJUNGBERG ODHNER 1913

     A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

     Ever since the first establishment of the New Church there have appeared two general classes of Newchurchmen. The sentiments of the one is represented by the belief that the surviving doctrines of the Old Church, if regarded from a higher perception of their meaning, may be made to accord with the truths of the new dispensation, even though the two may appear contrary to each other in their literal form. The men of this class therefore hope to adapt the new truths so that they can be insinuated secretly into the Old Church, where increasing numbers will gradually gain a correct understanding of the Word without any formal reception of Swedenborg's interpretations as absolutely authoritative.

     The other class of receivers have held steadfastly to the teachings of the Writings in regard to the internal; state of Christendom and the falsities and evils which, from it, will constantly invade the Church. These men have proclaimed fearlessly the fundamental doctrines which are to constitute the walls of the New Jerusalem, without regarding numbers as their immediate aim in evangelizing, without encouraging the conditional acceptance of the Writings, without compromising with those who might follow the Lord in His Second Coming, provided they be allowed to persist in their old persuasions.

     It was among this latter class that Johan Tybeck unhesitatingly took his stand. A fearless champion of the Church Militant, he was almost the sole representative among his contemporaries in Sweden of that type which was just described. We must regard him as one of those pivotal figures in the history of our Church who in times of infestation and hesitation direct its progress into the right channels by their strong love and their simple-hearted acceptance of the Ipse dixit of Divine Revelation,-men such as Hindmarsh and De Charms, the forerunners of the Academy movement.

     Johan Tybeck was born in Nerike, Sweden, on the 26th day of January, in the year 1751.*

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His parents, who were of the laboring class, initiated him early into the trade of a saddler. But the youth felt yearnings for a more intellectual occupation. He began to study and made good progress, distinguishing himself as "the brightest among 140 school-mates." At the age of twenty-six he entered Upsala University, and two years later he was introduced into the Lutheran clergy. After having served for short periods as chaplain for families of the nobility, he was appointed army chaplain in 1780.
* According to others, 1752. Dr. Kahl, in his work "NYA KYRKAN," part 3 has given a somewhat extensive account of Tybeck, which has served as a basis for the present study.

Tybeck's active mind did not long remain satisfied within the narrow limits of interpretation which the Lutheran church prescribed for her students of Scripture. Therefore he is said to have turned his attention to Zinzendorff, whose taste in eloquence and poetry had ensnared quite a number of the Swedish clergy of that day. But when he had more deeply examined this system of Pietism he found that it led to an even greater extreme than the Lutheran in regard to the dogma of the Atonement. In this state of doubt and hesitation it must have been that Swedenborg's Writings fell into his hands. He at once received them and approved of them, becoming more and more ardent in his admiration; and finally it dawned upon him that this was indeed a new Revelation, the Second Coming of the Lord. He did not at once make up his mind whether to proclaim openly his new acquisition, but his sermons more and more became filled with distinctive New Church expressions, and he must have had a very difficult task to keep the new wine from leaking out of the old bottles. Then fortunately, in 1781, he was offered an invitation to become the domestic chaplain of the Baron Sven Liljencrantz, the governor of Sadermanland.* This gentleman was a prominent Newchurchman, and he and his family henceforth gave both their sympathy and their support to Tybeck in his future uses. The latter therefore came to Hesselbyholm, one of the old estates in the beautiful and romantic regions by the Lake Malar.

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Here he passed a great part of his life in the fameless position of a chaplain, but free from restraints he could now preach the Doctrines to the family of Baron Liljencrantz, his New Church patron.
     * The name of Tybeck's patron, is variously given as Sven, Svante, or J. Liljencrantz.

     During his residence here an incident occurred which gives us an insight in his character, and which, in spite of his humble position, caused his name to be carried all over the country for a short time.* A servant girl in that neighborhood had been attacked by a disease which affected her mind and caused her to behave as if possessed by demons. However this may have been, her fits of trances, obstinacy, violence and bodily illness could not be stopped by the remedies given to her. Then a colleague of Tybeck's found that by prayers and exorcism the alleged spirits were temporarily expelled. Only an ordained minister, however, had this power of restoring the girl's mental balance and Tybeck's help was demanded. At first he had no wish to resort to such extreme and fantastic measures, but finally his doubts were dispelled and he assisted in the old apostolic treatment of the case.
     * Certain contradictory data make it appear that this incident occurred while Tybeck was yet but little acquainted with the Doctrines. (Doc. ii, p. 1277)

     The Baron Liljencrantz had the girl moved over into his house and here Tybeck tended her in his unselfish way, sacrificing both time and health in nursing her day and night. Finally her mental obsession was removed almost wholly, but on account of her terrible experiences her constitution was rapidly breaking down.

     The tale of this occurrence spread over the whole country and so much attention was centered upon it that the Consistory of the diocese ordered Tybeck to desist from applying his primitive cure on the ground that it was absurd to believe that "the devil and the spirits of the dead" troubled the patient. Tybeck then asked to be relieved of his charge, but no one offered to take her; wherefore he felt obliged to disobey orders rather than to see the poor girl suffer. After some time, however, she was transferred to a hospital in the capital, and later to Copenhagen, where she died within a short time, and soon afterwards the names of our conscientious young clergyman was forgotten outside of the vicinity of Hesselbyholm.

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     But Tybeck was by no means inactive. He preached the truths of the New Jerusalem with great fervor and in spite of a weak health was most industrious in the pursuit of his studies. Up to the year 1797 he was chaplain at Hesselbyholm, and as a return for his services he received from his patron the gift of a pretty little country place on an island in the Lake Maelar, where he lived from 1803 until the time of his death. While living a quiet life, he by no means isolated himself from his co-religionists in other parts of the country. He was at first a member of the Swedenborgian "Exegetic and Philanthropic Society" in Stockholm, which in the years 1787-1791 was undergoing both fortunes, and vicissitudes in attempting to seek court favor; but when the Society forsook its first love and began to dabble in alchemy and animal magnetism, both Liljencrantz (who had been its first president and chief financial supporter) and Tybeck soon dissolved all active connections with it.

     The temporary toleration of "Swedenborgianism" in the country-due to the influence of court members who had even gained the crown prince as an ally-prompted Johan Tybeck to disseminate more widely the fruits of his studies by publishing some of his sermons. Thus, in the year 1785, he began his long and productive literary activity for the New Church. His first publication was characteristic of all the following ones. Its title was: "CONCERNING THE GOOD SAMARITAN, EXPLAINED ACCORDING TO ITS SPIRITUAL MEANING." In this work the author sought no excuse to hold the light under a bushel, but remembered only the command of his Lord to preach the gospel to all people. This was his greatest love. Soon, however, the public opinion turned against "Swedenborgians" and it proved to be difficult to get his little books published; it had been necessary to publish them in Copenhagen and thence to smuggle them into Sweden, but now the censure became more strict and the importation was full of perils. Yet he succeeded in putting eight more "tracts" through the press within the next two decades.

     In 1791 the Exegetic and Philanthropic Society was dissolved. The receivers of the Heavenly Doctrine were badly scattered and many a person supposed himself to be the only remaining member.

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Isolated receivers here and there, like Johansen, von Walden and Tybeck, still published some books or tracts, but no successful efforts toward organization were made until five years later, when some "genuine friends of the truth" came together and secretly organized the Society "Pro Fide et Charitate," which took warning from its predecessor and devoted itself more strictly to the uses of translating and publishing Swedenborg's works. The society was to be kept secret, and the whole tendency seemed to be to make it an organization for purposes of piety, in that its meetings should be held on Sundays (if possible), etc. But in avoiding pretense, vanity (and persecution), as well as fanatical extremes, the Society seemed to encroach upon the freedom of its members somewhat too much. The Society brought forth very few of its intended publications. One reason for its limited activity was very manifest, for until 1809 there was too close a censure on books to undertake publications on a larger scale. But the real reason for the Society's lack of success was the fear, on the part of its later leaders, of becoming the objects of persecution on account of their Swedenborgianism-now no longer a popular fancy. This fear soon led them to a ridiculous degree of caution, and about the year 1820 the Society virtually committed suicide by adopting new by-laws which excluded the names of Swedenborg and the New Church and "broadened" its scope to that of "an organization for unbiased religious enlightenment." And-what was worse-they excused this step by saving that the acceptance of Swedenborg's doctrines as authoritative would deprive them of rational freedom. Besides, they argued; "who knows if Swedenborg's religious opinions are the highest which man can receive from Providence?"

Tybeck seemed early to recognize the decadent tendencies within the Society and took very little active part in it. In 1803 he had to retire from regular ministerial work on account of ill health, but he still continued with some preaching, some translation work, and much writing. Dr. Tafel states that Tybeck "was compelled to keep silence" until the year 1809, when a coup d'etat restored the liberty of the press, (Doc. ii., p. 1277); but the fact that he, even before that time, published tracts with such uncompromising titles as "PROOFS THAT THE OLD DOCTRINE IS FALSE," does not seem to indicate that our author kept the truth from budding out simply on account of the wintry climate to which it would be exposed.

354

Nevertheless when at last the printing could be done in Sweden, the cost of publication was lessened and he was enabled to increase his activity.

     As his tracts and books thus grew more frequent they began to attract the attention of the authorities. In 1817 Tybeck brought out two little books; one went by the title of "BIBLICAL EXPLANATION OF THE TEXT (GOD WAS IN CHRIST AND RECONCILED THE WORLD TO HIMSELF," and the other was a "REPLY" to the review given in a public paper of that book. The author was quickly summoned before the civil magistrates, but the charge of having spread doctrines contrary to the fundaments of the orthodox Evangelical confession were held insufficient and he was declared "not guilty."

     Troubles by no means ended here. Members of the Consistory had looked upon him with suspicion ever since his unfortunate "exorcism" more than thirty-six years before. The adversaries now filed a new charge, this time addressed not to the civil authorities (the Court of Appeals having already confirmed Tybeck's acquittal), but to his ecclesiastical superiors.

     A solemn trial took place. At the age of sixty-six our dauntless champion had to suffer the ordeal of standing for hours, like a criminal, facing the assembly of black-robed prelates, while he underwent a cross-examination of eighty questions. Tybeck's "unusually thin and sallow figure" may have appeared pathetic, but "illumined by the sparkling black eyes which spread a clear and delightful radiance over his soulful and lively personality" it aroused not only sympathy, but admiration. (AFTONBLADET, 3 Feb. 1837) He did not seek to evade the questions of the inquisitors, but honestly repudiated the authority of the Symbolic books and the Lutheran dogmas of "Justification" and the "Trinity of persons." He said that he founded his belief upon the very first principle of the Lutheran system, viz:, that the Word of God is the only basis of doctrine.

     The verdict resulted in the deposal of Tybeck from his priestly office, which was accordingly executed in the summer of 1818. In the doleful ceremony which followed the old man was solemnly stripped of the insignia which he had worn for so long a time.

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An eye-witness tells how nobly he bore his official degradation.*
     * See Nya KYRKANS TIDN., 1910.

     The consequences of Tybeck's deposal came to be much more far-reaching than the Consistory had ever supposed. The unnecessary brutality which was shown to the venerable old priest both at the trial and afterwards called forth severe criticism in the secular press, which indeed was delighted at a chance to find fault with the ecclesiastical authorities. Charged with having proceeded in an unchristian and hierarchical manner, the enemies of Tybeck now resorted to a more indirect and less honest way of throwing a shadow upon his name. In 1818 an anonymous booklet appeared in the market under the fantastic title, "A TRUTHFUL TALE THAT THE GREAT DRAGON, THE ANCIENT SERPENT, WHICH IS CALLED DEVIL AND SATAN, RULES MEN BODILY IN OUR DAYS." The pamphlet contained an account of the case of demoniacal possession with which Tybeck unfortunately had been connected. It was printed from the manuscript report of the clergyman, who first had applied the cure. Some time later an "APPENDIX" was published, including the documents relating to the above case. But the motive for resuscitating this story out of the oblivion with which thirty-six years had veiled it was evidently the desire to expose Tybeck to ridicule and contempt, and to put the whole incident in such a light that he should pass for a fanatic who deserved to lose his office for his superstitions, even though his alleged heresies might be condoned and though his repudiation of the creeds ought not to have entailed suspension from office "in that enlightened age."*
     * See Kahl, NYA KYRRAN, iii, p. 131.

     Their scheme at first seemed to have the desired effect. The "ALLMANNA JOURNALEN," a public paper, soon appeared with a review of the pamphlet. Several pages were filled with unprofitable attempts to make the tale out as a huge joke and the aforementioned priest (Tybeck's colleague) as a demented fanatic. Tybeck himself was referred to as the author of "the advertised so-called Christian Sermons and the extremely unbiblical 'Explanations of 2 Corinth. 5:19,1 Certainly not dictated by the Holy Spirit."

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     To guard both himself and his former colleague from misrepresentations and calumny, Tybeck the next year (1819) retorted in a little tract, entitled "INTERESTING READING MATTER FOR THOSE WHO RELIEVE IN A FUTURE LIFE." Here he shows up the real facts about the printing of the documents and exposes the intolerance and insistent plotting of his persecutors.

     But not even now was Tybeck allowed to settle down to a well-earned rest. After he had published (in 1819) "CHRISTIAN EXAMINATION OF THE DOCTRINE OF THE APOSTLE PAUL, CONCERNING THE WORKS OF THE LAW, AND CONCERNING FAITH AND JUSTIFICATION," an attempt was made to convict him of having abused the freedom of the press. In spite of his poor state of health he was compelled to go to Stockholm for trial. His defense was a masterpiece. He showed how his accusers had based their charges upon statements torn out of their connection, and he formulated his case so clearly and with such conviction that he was acquitted. Thus by the courage of one man a momentous victory was won for the New Church in Sweden.

     But within that Church itself there were contending opinions as to Tybeck. Christian Johansen and C. J. Knas criticized him severely for his manner of evangelizing. They would rather that he had quietly untangled the Gordian knot of theology than honestly cutting it, as he did by openly rejecting the "Symbols" of the Lutheran faith. They believed that the Old Church with all its false doctrines was the "nourishing mother" of the New. The New Jerusalem, they maintained, harbored no unkind or disquieting thoughts against the Old Christian Zion. These and other "Crypto-Newchurchmen," especially those who were members of the clergy, disapproved of the outspoken old man and wrote very coldly concerning one who so ruthlessly imperiled their positions and salaries. Their opinion was that the doctrines would gradually become known by the instrumentality of the clergy, who, it was expected, would become receivers of them at the universities, and would then communicate them to the public at large.* The consequence of such a persuasion was that no resolute and honest attempt to spread the doctrines was made by any concerted effort. While rejoicingly watching the extensive progress of the philosophy of Schelling, "which approximates very nearly the New Church sentiments, and Serves as an admirable preparative," they feared to make their own views known.

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But God helps those who help themselves: the brave Tybeck-thanks to his few, but true, friends-never seemed to lack funds for publishing his numerous tracts, while the Society PRO FIDE ET CHARITATE, established for the express purpose of spreading the doctrines by means of the press, had only produced three small volumes up to the year 1815.
     * See letter from Jacob Olbers to the 22d New Ch. Conf., in Derby, Eng.

     A Swedish correspondent writes in 1813 to a Newchurchman in England: "The state of the New Church here is this, that since we have no societies which assemble in public, the whole is a progress in silence; yet we have several good reasons to conclude that privately and secretly the truth is more sought after than could be expected. Through the liberality of Mr. Billberg there are now in the Press at Stockholm several things under the title of LECTURES (or Essays) upon Religious and Philosophical subjects This Mr. Billberg, the president of the Society "Pro Fide et Charitate," writes in a letter: "Our best translator, [Carl Deleen], who has so well succeeded in what is already done, has been prevented by private business to please us with the rest of the ARCANA COELESTIA; for which reason we had chosen a clergyman by the name of Tybeck, a very diligent man, to assist us with the continuation thereof; but Unfortunately it happened, through his bold attempts to spread the plain knowledge of the truths, by some publications of his, he stirred up the clergy to a persecution against him, which ended by his dismissal from his clerical office, so that he for more than a year had been occupied in writing defenses of himself and the truths; which, notwithstanding the interruption in our proposed plan, we nevertheless regard as a providential step, permitting us a collateral comfort and aid, by promoting the great cause in another way. The hostile disposition seems, however, to diminish."

     More enthusiasm is shown by a correspondent to the London Swedenborg Society in 1821:

     "You are already informed through the letter of Mr. Billberg concerning the effective coming of the Lord in the clouds of the icy pole, by the inspired acts and courage of His servant, Mr. Tybeck, who is still continuing to send from the press the new doctrines under various titles, and with a great plenty of information.

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He writes books with incredible celerity, though in an ill state of health, and in his low circumstances supported by scanty subscriptions. His doings in the great cause are purely theological and they appear as if the Lord then descended with an outstretched arm to us for the purpose of lifting His most abject nation from the mire."

     Another Swedish Newchurchman, the Rev. Jonas Odhner, also speaks of him with appreciation: "A matchless friend of the truth has presented the very sanctuary and jewel of Christianity, and what a violent fermentation and stir it has caused! The Lord be praised! This has indeed done more good than harm."*
     * Minutes of the Society "Pro Fide et Charitate."

     Thus gradually Tybeck rose in the estimation of his fellow Newchurchmen. The attention which his works received by the more enlightened finally resulted in his being looked up to as the standard bearer of the New Church in that country and he became known as "the Bishop of the Swedenborgians." Now when he had sealed his spiritual separation from the vastated church by actually being severed from its priesthood, and the law had recognized his opinions as within the protecting shrine of the Swedish Constitution, there was no other restriction put upon his activity than that of his limited means. At first only a very few of his friends, such as the Baron Liljencrantz, the Major Leonard Gyllenhaal and the Councilor of Commerce, C. J. Schonherr, assisted him financially; but when it was at last recognized how useful were his writings private subscriptions were received also from others, even from abroad.

     Tybeck's antagonists also were active, and books and pamphlets of all descriptions were written against him and the New Church, some insinuating and slandering, others coldly courteous and couched in a more philosophical style. Tybeck's literary productions numbered over sixty books and tracts. His last one passed from the press in 1831. He had then forced his adversaries into silence.

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In a letter written in 1827 it is said: "After many controversial writings between the defenders of the Old and the New doctrines a mournful calm is established, of which we cannot as yet tell the issue. It is probable that the champions of orthodoxy have found themselves driven too hard, for the present, to renew the combat. The consequence is that not so many invectives as formerly are heard from the mouths of the clergy."

     But Tybeck's adversaries were not only in the Old Church. Even into the New Church various erroneous notions had crept in. Animal Magnetism, indeed, had been so ridiculed and exposed that it never returned. Yet absurd notions concerning Predestination, Phrenology and the Regeneration of the hells were being ventilated in good faith among the New Church families. The first of these was proclaimed by Col. M. Sturzenbecker, who once had been an active "magnetiser" in the Exegetic and Philanthropic Society. He afterwards published several books, one of which was named "CONSOLATION FOR THE CRIMINAL." The book was confiscated by the government on account of its tendency to encourage crime and Tybeck at once took up his pen to repudiate its author's identification with the New Church, and to show the absurd impracticability of his pietistic notions.

     Herman von Walden was another New Church "heretic" of the time. He insisted on the gradual regeneration of the hells and confirmed this not only by disattached statements from the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg, but also by his own spiritual experiences, which he describes in many of his publications Tybeck did not-to my knowledge-directly attack these ideas; but the soundness of doctrinal instruction, maintained throughout all his works, was in itself a repudiation.

     This method of repudiation he used also against the prejudices which were so general among his associates that the New Church was to arise by the "permeation" or "influx" of truth from the New Heaven into the Old Church and would be felt as a gradual reformation of and within that Church. Tybeck, however, perceiving that such a supposition would inevitably detract from the authority of the Writings, never took up with it. He proclaimed that it was in the Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg that the Second Advent had been accomplished; that the Old Christian Church had "passed through its successive ages and was now in its old age, in its winter, its night; its end, and its death," having constantly declined until it could be described as naught but the abomination of desolation; wherefore "its teachings are no longer such as they came from God, by the unadulterated contents of His Word, but such as the deceitful will, by the fatuous light of sensual ratiocinations, has created them."

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He points (as otherwise men have done) to the signs of the time, illustrated by Divine Revelation. As to the Writings Tybeck testified that they are "not only derived from the Word, and this chiefly from its natural or literal sense, and confirmed by its statements, but contain also new Divine Revelations from the Lord, not outside the Holy Written Word, which is the crown of all Revelations, but a revelation in this Word, and from its Spiritual Sense, its internal heavenly arcana. This Spiritual Sense was dictated to the Author from Heaven, and because it is the verimost life and soul of the Word, it is also this, which the Lord Himself calls the advent of the Son of Man in the clouds of Heaven with great power and glory." Tybeck also rejects the misconception that the New Church is a sect of the Old, and therefore he strongly advocated New Church Baptism and distinctiveness. But he prophesied that the future church would contain many kinds of men and many opinions; "variety," he adds, "or differences of opinion about certain less general points, should in the New Church, where charity will reign, only tend to make a more beautiful whole."

Like a true Michail, Tybeck faced the many trials of his life with Christian patience. He never was heard to complain over his fate or express any unkind feelings against his adversaries. In private life he was lovable and his conversation was always entertaining. It was especially when he talked of the one topic he so dearly loved that his kindly heart seemed to be mirrored in his eyes, even when his words appeared hostile. His life was peaceful and happy in spite of persecution, though his wife died a long time before him and left him without any children; In his old age he divided his time between his garden and his library. But his health had ever been weak, and during the last few years he slowly grew more and more helpless.

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On the 28th of January, 1837, his spirit passed into that world for which he had been preparing for eighty-six years.

How much his contemporaries owed to him was evident when his work was over. The "mournful calm" which hung oppressive over the Church in Sweden culminated in 1836, not in any violent attacks upon the bulwarks of the New Zion by its external enemies, but in the silent dissolution of the Society "Pro Fide et Charitate," which for years had been inactive. The Newchurchmen of the next generation recognized Tybeck's importance, but did not grasp the secret of the force which made it. Many of his adversaries, however, acknowledged him as free from that duplicity of which so many other members of the "Swedenborgians" in the Lutheran priesthood had been guilty; and they respected him for it. And those who will succeed him in the ranks where he fought, when they remember his indefatigable strength and his uncompromising loyalty, will freely grant that he was a hero in the Lord's New Church.

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WORD IN THE HEAVENS 1913

     A STUDY.

     A. THE WORD EXISTS IN HEAVEN AS WELL AS ON THE EARTH.

     1. The Word of God, which is among men on earth, exists in a complete and written form among the angels of all the heavens, and it is in use there as in the Church in this world.

     "There is a Word with the angels also, and they read it equally as do men on earth; their doctrinal things are from it, and their preachings are made from it. The Word is the same; its natural sense, however, is not in Heaven, but the spiritual sense. (H. H. 259.)

     "They have the Word there complete from beginning to end, so written that everyone can read it; the preachers there preach about it, and the rest read it as in the world; the spiritual are greatly delighted with the Psalms (canticis)." (S. D. 5603)

     "Whereas the Divine Truth, when it passed from the Lord through the three heavens even to men in the world, was written in every heaven and made the Word, therefore the Word is the union of the heavens with each other, and the union of the heavens with the Church in the world: for the Word is the same everywhere, and only differs in perfection of glory and wisdom according to the degrees in which the heavens are." (A. E.1074)

     2. In descending from the Lord to men on the earth, the Word passed through the three heavens, in each of which it was dictated to and written down by angels inspired by the Lord, in a form adapted to the angels of each heaven.

     "The three heavens have the Word; and each heaven is in its own sense of the Word, and from this is their heaven, and also their worship." (A. E. 6309)

     "That there should be writings in Heaven, was provided by the Lord for the sake of the Word.

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The Word, in its essense, is the Divine Truth, from which is derived all the heavenly wisdom enjoyed by men and angels; for it was dictated by the Lord, and what is dictated by the Lord passes through all the heavens in order and terminates with man.

     "The Word in its origin is the very Divine that proceeds from the Lord and which is called the Divine Truth; and this, when it was sent down to men in the world, crossed the heavens in their order according to their degrees, which are three; and in each heaven it was written in adaptation to the wisdom and the intelligence of the angels there: and at last it was brought down from the Lord through the heavens to men, and was there written and promulgated in a manner adapted to their understanding and apprehension." (A. E. 1073.)

     "A copy of the Word, written by angels inspired by the Lord, is kept with every larger society of heaven in its sacred repository, so that the Word may not be changed elsewhere in any point." (S. S. 72.)

     3. In Heaven as in the Church on earth the Word is used in the worship, as the sacred text for sermons and discourses.

     "Thus, on a Sabbath day, in an angelic society, when the congregation had assembled, the priest ascended the pulpit and preached a sermon full of the spirit of wisdom. The sermon was about the holiness of the Sacred Scripture, and the conjunction of the Lord with both worlds, the spiritual and the natural, by means of it. In the illustration in which he was, he fully proved that that holy Book was dictated y Jehovah the Lord, and that consequently He is in it, so far that He is the wisdom therein; but that the wisdom, which is Himself therein, lies concealed under the sense of the letter, and is opened only to those who are in the truths of doctrine." (C. L. 24)

     4. Almost every angel possesses a copy of the Word and reads daily therein.

     "The Word is in every heaven, and with almost every angel, in its own sense; and it is read by them every day, and there are also preachings from it, as on earth." (A. E. 1024.)

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     "The maidens there have the written Word, and Hymn books, and they take them with them to the preachings. They also read them; and if they do not read them, either some garment is taken away, or their little garden vanishes." (S. D. 5666.)

     "There were certain virgins who read in the Word every day; one of them was of the celestial genius, and the two others were intermediate between the celestial and the spiritual. These three had the Word, but when the [latter] two of them had not read it for ten days, then the book of the Word did not appear. They thought about this, and they perceived that it was because they had not read; then they took the book of the Word from its place, [ex petra?], and when they read it, the characters of the word were similar, [to what they were before], but they did not understand; they were of the celestial style. Afterwards they received the Word and read in it every day; their Word was, [now], according to the interior sense, which is intermediate between the natural and the spiritual; it was historical and prophetical, but instead of the names of persons and places and instead of numbers, there were things, and in place of Moses, Aaron, and David there was the Lord." (S. D. 5618.)

     5. The angels of each successive age possess and use their own Word. Concerning the Ancient Word in Heaven.

     "Moses was seen. . . . He has with him his five books, and also the Ancient Word. I asked him about the book of Jasher, and he said that he had seen it, and told me that that Word still exists among the ancients of his time, and is read. Also, that he knows about the subsequent Word of the present day, but does not read it." (S. D. 6107.)

     Interiorly in certain libraries in heaven Swedenborg saw books written by those who were of the Ancient Churches; and still more interiorly books for the Most Ancients, from whom the society called Enoch had collected correspondences. (S. D. 5999.)

     "They also have the Word of the Ancient Church, parts of which they call Moshalim, and parts The Wars of Jehovah, and Prophesies." (S. D. 5605.)

     "It has been told me that the first seven chapters of Genesis are in that Ancient Word, so that not even a syllable is missing." (S. S. 103.)

365

     "I have spoken with spirits and angels who were from Great Tartary concerning the Ancient Word. They said that they have among them the Book of Jasher, and also The Wars of Jehovah and the Prophesies, mentioned in Numbers xxi; and when I read in their presence the words taken therefrom by Moses, they searched and found them." (A. R. 11.)

     "In the western Ancient Heaven, of the Copper Age, we saw a sanctuary which contained within an ark the Ancient Word which had been given to the inhabitants of Asia before the Israelitish Word. The sanctuary appeared in the brightest light, and the angel said, That light is from that ancient Asiatic Word." (C. L. 77.)

     B. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE WORD IN THE HEAVENS AND THE WORD ON EARTH.

     6. Though essentially the same, the Word in the heavens is altogether different as to appearance from the Word on the earth.

     "The Word here meant in special is the same as that manifested through Moses and the prophets and through the Evangelists; it is this same Word which is with men in the world that is also with the angels in the heavens; but in the world it is natural, and in the heavens spiritual." (Doct. Lord, 2.)

     "In our natural Word, there are contained both the spiritual Word and the celestial Word; but in the spiritual and celestial Word the Natural Word is not contained; on which account the Word of our world is the one most full of Divine Wisdom, and hence is more holy than the Word of the heavens." (De Verbo xiv, 7.)

     7. The angels do not see the sense of the letter of the Word, nor do they know, anything about it, but only the internal sense. (A. E. 17.)

     "The spiritual angels do not know anything of the sense of the letter of the Word, but of its spiritual sense; they have the Word in this sense, and it is read by every one of them." (A. E. 831.)

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     "The angels who are in the internal sense do not see the sense of the letter nor do they know anything of it, but the internal sense only; and because they see this in the light of heaven, they see it in such series, in such connection, and also in such fulness, and thus in such wisdom as cannot be expressed in human words, or described." (A. E. 17.)

     "The difference between the Word as it is in the world and the Word as it is in the Lord's spiritual kingdom, is such that not a single word is similar." (De Verbo xiv, 2.)

     8. The Word in the heavens does not contain any names of persons or places, nor any numbers, such of the in the letter of Word on earth.

     "Abraham, David, the apostles, etc., are not mentioned in the Word which is in heaven, because that Word is the internal sense of that Word which is in the world." (H. H. 526.)

     "As their writing is such, there are none of the names of persons and places in their Word that are in our Word, but instead of the names there are the realities which they signify: as, instead of Moses, there is the historical Word; instead of Elias, the prophetic Word," etc. (S. S. 71.)

     "It is similar with the numbers: they are not in the Word which is in heaven; but instead of them are the things to which the numbers that are in our Word, correspond." (S. S. 71.)

     9. The Word in the heavens, as seen by the angels, consists of summaries of the internal sense.

     "These summaries have even been compared with the Word in heaven, and are in conformity with it." (S. S. 97.)

     "When I am reading the words, 'the blood of the Lamb,' and am thinking of the Lord's blood, the angels with me know no otherwise than that I am reading 'the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord,' and that I am thinking about it." (A. C. 9410.)

     (Certain Roman Catholic spirits) "wanted to know whether there is this spiritual sense in the Lord's words to Peter, [about the keys], on which account the Word was handed to them, in which there is not the natural but the spiritual sense.

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And when they read it they saw that Peter is not mentioned there, but instead of him truth from good which is from the Lord. When they saw this they rejected it in a rage, and would have torn it with their teeth, if it had not been instantly taken away." (L. J. 57.)

     C. THE IDENTITY OF THE WORD IN HEAVEN WITH THE WORD ON EARTH.
10. The Word in the heavens is the very same Word as that which was given through Moses, the Prophets, and the Evangelists on this earth. (Doct. Lord, 2.)

     The angels possess our Word, "complete from the beginning to the end," (S. D. 5603), even as they possess the Ancient Word in so complete a form that not even a syllable is missing. (S. S. 103; A. R. 11.)

     It is so much the same that "while an angel is reading the Word of the spiritual kingdom, he knows no otherwise than that it is like the Word which he read in the natural world." (De Verbo 142.)

     11. It consists of the same books as are contained in our Word, and is divided into the same chapters and verses.

     "They also explained to me the meaning of the Word in Psalm xxxii:2, [Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile],-from the letters or syllables alone; showing that the sum of their meaning was that the Lord is merciful even, to those who do evil." (S. S. 90.)

     12. Like the Word on the earth, the Word in the heavens is written in a fixed form, having an immutable text.

     "A copy of the Word, written by angers inspired by the Lord, is kept with every larger society of heaven in its sacred repository, lest the Word should be changed elsewhere as to any point." (T. C. R. 241.)

     13. In heaven, as in the world, there are Biblical critics who pay attention to the text of the Word which is there.

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     "There are four kinds of men there, just as here. The first kind attend to the uses in the Word, seeing, indeed, the other things, but paying no attention to them. Thus it is read by the celestial. The second are those who take out the doctrinal things of the Word from it; thus do the spiritual apprehend it. The third are those who are delighted merely with its holy external, without intelligence: these are they who are in the ultimate heaven. And the fourth are those who attend solely to the literal sense, and those who attend solely to the words,-such as the critics and those who write various things about this subject the former of these are at the threshold of heaven, and the latter are in the very extremes." (S. D. 5606.)

     14. Thus the Word in the heavens, like the Word on earth, contains a literal sense and an interior sense, the two senses being connected by means of correspondences.

     "Those angels who are more wise see in their Word, thus written, arcana more internal than the simple angels see. The things hidden therein are clearly evident before the eyes of the wise, but not before the eyes of the simple, just as is the case with our Word." (De Verbo xiv, 4.)

     "This is wonderful, that the Word in the heavens is so written that the simple understand it in simplicity, and the wise in wisdom; for there are many points and marks over the letters, which exalt the sense; the simple do not give attention to these, nor are they acquainted with them; but the wise attend to them, each according to his wisdom, even to the highest." (S. S. 72.)

     "In order to express 'horses harnessed to a chariot,' the spiritual angel's write only '1,' and this letter expresses it. They also write 'the understanding of doctrine' by means of '1,' but they are then in higher thought; from which it was evident that there are correspondences in the words of their language." (De Verbo 26.)

     15. The literal sense of the Word in Heaven is actually the same as to every least particular as the literal sense of the Word on earth; the angels, however, pay no attention to the letter, and therefore it is said that they do not have it, and do not see it; but they are able to see it whenever necessary.

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     "The nature of the interior memory may be evident from the fact that some seem to read in books, and to see and read everything therein, just as in the life of the body, nor is the smallest thing wanting. As, for instance, the Word, which those read there who have delighted in it here: they read every single thing, as to all the words, so that nothing at all has perished, and this even though they only had read it cursorily, (leviter), in the life of the body." (S. D. Min. 4738.)

     "As their writing is such, therefore the names of persons and places in the Word with them are marked with signs; therefore the wise understand what spiritual and celestial thing is signified by each name; as by Moses, the Word of God written through him, and in a general sense the historical Word; by Elias, the prophetic Word, etc. . . . From these things it may be evident that the Word in heaven is, as to the literal sense, similar to our Word, while at the same time it corresponds to it, and that thus they are one." (T. C. R. 241.)

     "If the men of the Most Ancient and Ancient Churches lived now, and read the Word, they would pay no attention to the sense of the letter, but to the internal sense." (A. C. 1540.)

     (To be continued.)

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Editorial Department 1913

Editorial Department Editor 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     The MESSENGER for April 23d declares, editorially, that "inmostly the devils are angels, (A. C. 1999), but the plane of life in which they live is infernal." Carefully scrutinizing the much abused passage referred to, we do not find one word about the angelhood of the infernals, whether in the "human internal" or on any other plane. Imagine human beings, who "inmostly are angels," living to eternity on an infernal plane!

     DEN NYA KYRKAN I NORDEN, (The New Church in the North), is the title of a Swedish pamphlet of twenty-eight pages, published at Copenhagen, 1913, and consisting of a reprint of a series of articles by Alfred H. Stroh which have appeared in the NORDISK NYKIRKELIGT TIDSKRIFT, in defense of the "Circle" in Stockholm, and of the Academy of the New Church, against the unjust attacks and misconceptions that have found expression in Mr. Manby's journal.

     THE REMINDER, published at Preston, England, is a small "occasional" contemporary of whom we have often spoken highly in past years. Of late, however, there has been a decided lowering of tone in its pages, and the issue for April is such that we are regretfully forced to protest against its teachings almost in total. Its treatment of the question: "Should a member of the New Church marry a non-member of the New Church?" is not only disappointing, but disgusting. And the negative answer of the editor to the question: "Is the Divine Providence in such trifles as the crossing of a street, bodily habits, etc.?" disregards the teaching that the Divine Providence is universal because it enters into every least particular of our life, even into the turning of a card, (D. P. 212); and that "the most minute single moments of the life of man have a series of consequences to eternity, wherefore unless all things in the least moments were ruled by the Lord, he would never be safe." (S. D. Min. 4652.)

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The latest foreign publication by the Academy of the New Church is a Dutch translation of THE LAWS OF THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE, (De Wetten der Goddelijke Voorzienigheid), as contained in A. E. 1135-1193. The translation is the work of our enthusiastic friend, Mr. Gerrit Barger, of the Hague, in association with the Rev. Dr. Ernst Deltenre, of Brussels, and is a continuation of THE DIVINE TRINITY AND THE CREED OF ATHANASIUS, (A. E. 1090-1134), which was published by the Academy in Holland, last year. The results of these "invitations to the marriage feast" are-like the Dutch and Christians generally,-slow in coming in, but gradually a faithful little circle is being formed about Mr. Barger, who for so many years labored in complete solitude. And this circle is now enjoying the regular pastoral visits of Mr. Deltenre, who, as we learn, on May 1st administered the baptism of the New Church to the first two converts in Belgium.

The editor of the QUARTERLY in a "keenly critical" review of the sermon on "The Divine Genealogies" in the LIFE for last December takes exception to the statement that "'no hostile Jew ever attempted to overthrow' the genealogies 'during the life of the Savior Himself;' " this, observes our contemporary, "sounds very impressive until one recalls the fact that they were not written, or at any rate published, for fully thirty years after the Lord's departure from the world!" We did not use the word "genealogies" in the passage quoted, but "proofs,"-proofs of the Lord's "human pedigree from David and Abraham,"-proofs that were known at the time and never questioned by the contemporary Jews, who according to many places in the New Testament spoke of Him as "the son of David." Mr. Buss also calls us to account for not quoting "chapter and verse" to prove our "assertion" that "if a man died without male offspring, but leaving a daughter only, the husband of that daughter was accounted as of the family of his wife, and her family tree was kept up through him."

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We blush to confess that our information was derived from an encyclopedia, the CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL LITERATURE, by M'Clintock and Strong, Vol. III., pp. 771-775, which, if Mr. Buss will consult, will give him the chapters and verses upon which these conclusions are founded.

The Rev. John Whitehead, in answering in the MESSENGER for April 16, a question as to whether communication with spirits will be restored in the New Church as if was in ancient times, shows by a review of the history of the successive dispensations that "the Lord has gradually led the successive Churches away from instruction by means of spirits and angels to instruction by means of the Word and Doctrine. In this way the instruction comes to him in a state of freedom and rationality, whereas instruction from spirits and angels directly tends to force man to do what is taught, without due rational consideration. Such influences do not open the mind, but tend to close it." "The revelation of the Heavenly Doctrines was a step further in the development of the Church, leading away from any direct instruction of mankind by spirits and angels through direct communication with men." And Mr. Whitehead concludes "that since the Word is now opened, the spiritual world revealed, the laws of spiritual development made manifest," there is now no necessity for instruction by direct intercourse with spirits and angels, and that "the future will not bring a restoration of the ancient mode of instructing man through spirits and angels." We must repeat our expression of hope that Mr. Whitehead's long continued series of papers on Spiritism will be reproduced in book form for the permanent protection of the New Church against one of her most persistent and deadly foes.

The paper on "The Origin and Permanency of Evil," by the Rev. Albert Bjorck, in the NEW CHURCH REVIEW for April, presents the remarkable and almost unique phenomenon of an independent thinker systematically refuting by science, philosophy and Doctrine a heresy to which in years past he had committed himself.

373

To the paper itself there is appended a "Personal Note" describing the considerations which led the author into his former error in respect to the non-eternity of the hells, and the intellectual repentance by which he was brought back to an acknowledgment of the Doctrine revealed by the Lord. The Note concludes as follows: "I was thus led to ask myself in what way I was prepared to judge in the matter of Swedenborg's personal understanding of the truth; how my intelligence compared with his, or how my knowledge of nature and the world compared with his. The more I reflected, the more humiliated I felt. Certainly, I could not claim a special guidance of the Lord or any illumination of my rational mind to be compared with Swedenborg's.

"In this way I came to lay aside the conceptions formed in the manner above related and humbly to accept the truth as it is stated by Swedenborg in the works containing the doctrines revealed to the Church from the Lord out of His Word. In so doing I do not accept it on Swedenborg's personal authority, but because I can perceive and understand that the Lord could speak through his understanding of the things he had been enabled to see and observe in the spiritual world, and that He so spoke to him while he was reading the Word, and revealed to him the doctrines which guide men into the New Jerusalem."
PRAYER FOR CHINA 1913

PRAYER FOR CHINA 1913

The whole Christian world stands bewildered, and all the Churches are jubilant, at the request of the republican government of China, that all the Christian communities in the country unite, on April 27th, in Prayer "for the National Assembly now in Session, for the newly established Government, for the President yet to be elected, for the Constitution of the Republic, that the Government may be recognized by the Powers, that peace may reign within our country, that strong, virtuous men may be elected to office, that the Government may be established upon a strong foundation."

There has been no similar event in the history of the world since the day in A. D. 311, when the Emperor Galerius by the Edict of Nicomedia proclaimed toleration for the Christians, whom for years he had bitterly hated and fearfully persecuted.

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He had been stricken with a mortal disease (and died the same year), and in his edict he made the proviso that the Christians "after this manifestation of grace should pray to their God for the welfare of the emperor, of the State, and of themselves, that the State might prosper in every respect, and that they might live quietly in their homes." This edict brought to a close the worst and last persecution of the Christians in the Roman Empire, and there is certainly a remarkable analogy here with the recent occurrence in China, coming so soon after the massacres of Christians in the Boxer uprising. Just what it means is difficult to determine, but there can be no doubt that the event is a step in preparation for the reception of the New Church among the Gentiles,-the multiplying signs of which we have been observing for years.

In this connection we must quote the following teachings from the Writings, which should serve to modify the hostility of many Newchurchmen to the missionary work of the Old Church among the heathen: "It is otherwise with the converted Gentiles outside the Church; these worship and adore the Lord as their only God; and they say with their mouth, and think in their heart, that they acknowledge Him as their God because He has appeared inhuman form. It is contrariwise within the Church." (A. C. 9198.) And again: "Many of those who are in this middle celestial kingdom are from the Gentiles of the Asiatic regions, and very many are of those who have been converted to the Christian religion by missionaries. These, when they acknowledge the Lord and so receive faith, believe in the Lord; nor do they care about those intricate questions and disputations as to whether faith saves, or charity, or about the pope, as to whether he is the head of the Church;but they live as Christians." (S. D. 4676.)
SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY 1913

1913

Many readers of the NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY for April were no doubt surprised to read the arguments of Mr. Geo. E. Holman in his effort to establish, from the WRITINGS and from the PRINCIPIA, the possibility of photographing spirits, and this by the direct action of "thought, (if strong enough)," by means of the second aura upon a film containing silver, on the ground that this aura is "composed of 'third finites,' from which are formed metals."

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     This, of course, involves the necessity of the spirit being to a certain degree "materialized,"-gathering to itself material particles from the elements of nature, etc., but it seems to us that this supposed phenomenon is contrary, not only to the laws of the doctrine of discrete degrees and to the Heavenly Doctrine in general, but also to the following definite teaching in the ECONOMY OF THE ANIMAL KINGDOM:

     "That when emancipated from the bonds and trammels of earthly things, the soul will assume the exact form of the human body. . . . The moment the soul is freed from its bonds, it again asserts its rights, and obeys its own laws of action. It follows from the proofs already brought forward that whenever this happens, it must return into its own verimost or common form yet this in such wise that it is then no longer the body, but the soul under the form of the body; the spirit without the red blood or the flesh and hard bone produced from the blood, the soul transmuted from a lower to a higher life. And it can never again attract elements from the three kingdoms of nature, or enter anew into a fleshly covering such as it had formerly carried about it; for the natural passages constructed of terrestrial materials for the purpose of successively insinuating and adapting elements of those kingdoms, and which might serve these elements as vehicles, now no longer exist. The necessity and the desire to open them have died together. Nor can the soul again migrate back into life by means of an ovum, according to the dreams of the ancient philosophers [metempsychosis], for the volume of the animal spirit is great and cannot possibly begin a new existence e minimo. Therefore the soul is under the necessity of living in its own state and in no other." (E. A. K. 351)

     This clear and deliberate conclusion of Swedenborg the philosopher in a fundamental work, edited and published by himself, throws considerable light upon the mooted questions as to the shape of the spiritual body and the possibility of the materialization of spirits.

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Swedenborg here states definitely that the soul "will assume the exact form of the human body," "the soul under the form of the body." And "it can never again attract elements from the three kingdoms of nature." And if so, it cannot possibly be photographed or phonographed or dragged down to nature by any other kind of a graph.

It seems to us that any efforts to tear down the veil that separates the spiritual world from the natural can serve only to open up unlimited fields of superstitious and spiritistic developments. But whatever be the theories of "spirit photography," the practice of the art in its every least form has been thoroughly and scientifically exposed as mere mediumistic trickery in a series of articles by David P. Abbott in THE CIPEN COURT, and most recently in a paper in the April issue of that journal, which we earnestly recommend to the attention of our readers. It seems a pity that Newchurchmen should waste their time in thinking up theories to explain things that have no existence in fact.
Title Unspecified 1913

Title Unspecified WILLIS L. GLADISH 1913

SPIRITUAL DIARY NO. 222Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     In the December LIFE you suggest a reconciliation of DIARY No. 222 With the common teaching of three natural atmospheres by making two atmospheres of the first element, one purely spiritual above the sun, the other natural' when it is united with our solar element.

     It seems to me that the true reconciliation is to apply the same principle to the second element rather than the first.

     In this number the magnetic vortex about the earth is regarded as an atmosphere and it is taught that this atmosphere acts on the exteriors of the natural mind, while the solar vortex acts on the interiors of the same mind.

     It is clearly and repeatedly stated that the atmospheres here spoken of are all from the natural sun and are natural, and they are distinguished (both in the number itself and in the index) from the celestial and spiritual spheres in which there is nothing natural.

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The two terms "element" and "atmosphere" are not always synonymous. There are but four elements, but wherever in any element a new center and vortex is set up there is a different atmosphere.

     Speaking in the PRINCIPIA (part 3, chap. 11:5) of the vortex about the earth Swedenborg says: "A smaller vortex formed in a larger separates itself, as it were, from the larger by reason of its motion. Consequently within the smaller vortex they (the particles) are in a different state of expansion and compression."

     It is also said in the same paragraph: "This, however, does not prevent the elements of the solar vortex from exercising a pressure within the minor vortex also, in proportion to their altitude, etc."

     Here we have just the condition that seems to be referred to in the DIARY 222: "This atmosphere (the magnetic about the whole earth) appears to produce reasonings in the natural mind. . . . The purest ethereal sphere is that universal sphere in the whole world which is present about the reasonings of the same mind."

     It is well known that by the whole world (mundus) Swedenborg nearly always means the whole solar system and not the universe. Therefore he here teaches and says that it was confirmed by an angel, that the tellurian vortex has one operation on the natural mind and that the solar vortex operates differently on the same mind, one being exterior, the other interior. WILLIS L. GLADISH.
SPIRITUAL BODY ONLY A SPHERE? 1913

SPIRITUAL BODY ONLY A SPHERE? 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
I have read with interest Mr. Iungerich's ingenious and suggestive communication in the May LIFE, arguing in favor of the spiritual body being only a sphere, on the basis of the statement in the ADVERSARIA that "every single celestial and spiritual form is a sphere." He defines the spiritual brain ganglia as "the spiritual mind proper" and the rest of the spiritual form below this as "the spiritual body proper," and then proceeds to divest the latter of all membranous tunics and vessels, reducing it to nothing but a sphere.

378

But on this basis there would not be a single membranous form in the whole spiritual world, nothing but spheres, and spheres within spheres, without a single nucleus able to receive, contain and hold the influx of life. I must therefore ask Mr. Iungerich to give us the context of the passage in the ADVERSARIA, upon which he bases his hypothesis, in order to ascertain the sense in which Swedenborg here uses the term "sphere." In one sense, of course, every membrane-no matter how dense-is a sphere, being nothing but a network of tissue through the interstices of which the Infinite flows as freely as if there was no obstruction whatsoever. But this is in relation to the Infinite, not in the relation of finite things to one another, for on this plane we must not confuse a sphere with the membranous tissue from which that sphere proceeds.

While I am not able to suggest any "physical" mode whereby spirits and angels can vanish from the sight of one another, the following from the DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM seems pertinent to the whole subject under discussion. Speaking of the spiritual Sun as the proceeding of the Divine Love and Wisdom, the angels said that "they have a clear perception of it in their own spiritual light, but that they cannot easily present it to man in his natural light," but they compared it to the sphere of affections and thoughts which encompasses each angel, whereby his presence is manifested to others near and far. But that encompassing sphere, they said, is not the angel himself, but is from each and all things of his body, from which substances continually emanate as a stream, and the things which emanate also encompass him; and these substances, contiguous to his body, continually actuated by his life's two fountains of motion, the heart and the lungs, excite the atmospheres into their activities, and by this means present a perception, as it were, of his presence among others." (291)

It may seem strange to hear of angels actually having a heart and lungs, (not heart-sphere and lung-sphere), but the teaching continues: "By these things I was confirmed that every one in heaven and every one in hell is encompassed by a sphere consisting of substances set free and separated from their bodies. (292.)

379

And again: "Those things which flow forth from angel and man, and constitute the Spheres about them, are not the angel or the man, but are from them, devoid of their life. This sphere makes one with the angel or man in no other way than that they are concordant, because taken from the forms of their bodies, which were the forms of their life in them." (294.)

     To speak of the spiritual body being merely a sphere, devoid of any membranous tissue, is to disregard the teaching concerning the "limbus" being the cutaneous envelope of the spiritual body. "Cutaneous" simply means skinny, membranous. And it is the spiritual body, not merely the spiritual brain, that possesses this cutaneous envelope from the finest things of nature. From it proceeds the sphere of the angel and this sphere, when descending into lower planes, "is clothed for use in a lower sphere with such things as are in that lower sphere, in order that the internal thing from which it proceeds may act in the lower sphere." (A. 5689.) "The angels and societies are conjoined and also disjoined according to these spheres." (A. C. 9606, 4126.)

     "This is the source of all sympathy and antipathy, and of all conjunction and disfunction, and presence or absence in the spiritual world is according to them." (C. L. 171.)

     The body of the angel therefore remains the same in his own plane of life,-a membranous body, certainly, for without a cuticle it cannot be a body,-but when the angel desires to descend into a lower plane in the spiritual world, this affection excites the atmosphere" of that plane, gathers to itself substances from that atmosphere, "and thus presents a perception, as it were, of his presence." (D. L. W. 291.) And when the affection ceases the actuation is stopped, and the atmospheric clothing is dissolved. Hence the disappearance. But to his wife and the associates in his own society the appearance of the body of the angel is permanent, because his love is permanent and to eternity clothed in a visible and tangible and membranous spiritual body.     X.

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Church News 1913

Church News Various 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. About this time, as the end of school approaches, the merry whirl of Bryn Athyn social life begins to near its height, and one and all, young and old, are drawn into its vortex. The past month has seen social life for everybody; the difficulty is to adequately chronicle it.

     The society was entertained at an evening of games and dancing on April 25, whereat much elderly dignity was sacrificed to the common good. On the next evening, the school were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. Doering at a military euchre,-one of the most successful card parties that Bryn Athyn has seen in a long while. The merry month of May opened appropriately with a song and dance festival by the children of the Primary School; marching, games, and folk and fancy dances on the college lawn. May 10th was a big day in the annals of the SIGMA DELTA PI fraternity, being the occasion of their annual dance in commemoration of their birthday. The dance was well up to the high standard set by the fraternity dances in the past, and by all accounts was a complete success. The decorations,-columns and canopy of orange and black, in a bower of green,-were left up for a day or two to be enjoyed by all. On the same evening the PHI ALPHA Celebrated its anniversary by a convivial picnic in the woods.

     On May 9th the spring meeting of the Bryn Athyn society was held and was the occasion of some interesting discussion. Miss Eo Pendleton read a paper on the subject of Story Telling; Miss Ethne Price on the uses of Physical Training; and Mr. Wilfred Howard on Manual Training. There was an interesting interchange of opinion on the question as to whether the broadening of the curriculum of the Primary School had been a step in the right direction, or had weakened the work on the vital subjects. The general agreement was that this extension of courses was in keeping with the endeavor to make the Primary instruction a basis for all future work.

381

     Doctrinal classes have been somewhat interfered with by these social events, but the evening services have continued regularly. On the evening of May 18th, Rev. C. Th. Odhner gave an address on the subject of "The Poetry of the Word," in lieu of the usual sermon. Bishop Pendleton has concluded his series of sermons on the "Blessings" in the fifth chapter of Matthew, with a sermon on the subject of "Influx Being According to Efflux."

     Local organizations are busy with annual meetings; the Younger Generation met on May 3d, for a social evening and the election of officers; Mr. William Whitehead was made president. The Phi Alpha Fraternity has elected Mr. Crebert Burnham president.

     An interesting incident in the school work was the exhibition given by the Seminary of the Physical Training class; Miss Ethne Price is to be congratulated on the remarkable results of her year's work. Mr. Raymond Cranch has given a lecture to the College on an interesting phase of modern business life:-"Government Control of Corporations." Two base ball games have been won and three lost, which shows that Bryn Athyn base ball is still subject to occasional depression.

     One of the most interesting evenings of the year was enjoyed on May 17th, when the newly organized Jefferson Club gave an "Irish Evening." The orchestra opened the evening; Mr. Whitehead then gave an address on the subject of the real worth of Irish literature, and some explanation of the plays to be given, Irish songs by Miss Winnie Boericke preceded the presentation of "The Land of Heart's Desire," a play by W. B. Yeats, which was given with considerable insight and delicacy by members of the Jefferson Club. Followed a violin solo,-presumably Irish,-by Mr. Francis Bostock, and then Miss Ethne Price gave an original Irish dance. By special request she further favored us with the famous "Beautiful Blue Danube" dance, which was much appreciated. "The Workhouse Ward,"-a comedy by Lady Gregory, very humorously and realistically given, concluded the evening.

     Our most recent visitors from abroad are three ladies from Stockholm, members of the "Circle" there: Miss Nancy Liden, Miss. Hildegard Ljungberg, (a sister of Prof. Odhner), and her daughter, Miss Cyriel Lj. Odhner. D. R.

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     BRUSSELS, BELGIUM. The Rev. Ernst Deltenre reports that his Mission in Belgium is now beginning to show not only "green leaves," but also some "ripe fruit." On Ascension Day, May 1st, the first two neophytes were introduced in the New Church through the gate of Baptism. One is a young lady, Miss Madeline Jeanmonod, and the other a young man, Mr. Prosper Balcaen, a printer. Both of them are converts from the Old Church who, for some time, have received regular instruction in the Heavenly Doctrine and also in Hebrew in Mr. Deltenre's classes. The Sunday services are always attended by a small, but interested group. Some who came from mere curiosity have fallen away, but their place is taken by others, among them a Roman Catholic lady, who had never heard of the Old and the New Testaments, and who asked if the pastor was Swedenborg; she is now being instructed in a private class, twice a week. The circulating library, established by the Academy, is performing a great use, fourteen different books, in thirty copies, being at present in the hands of interested readers. The greatest difficulty in the way of the mission is that of making the work known, the Catholic press being, of course, silent, and the Liberal press indifferent, but hand-bills, announcing the Mission, have now been prepared and will be widely distributed.

     STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. Since our last communication the meetings of the New Church Circle in Stockholm have continued uninterruptedly.

     Our latest service was held on March 20th, When Rev. S. C. Bronniche again paid us a visit. The Holy Supper was administered to quite a number of communicants. On the following day, Good Friday, the attendance at our morning service exceeded that of any other occasion, there being 26 present. The tranquillity and peace of these services was the more deeply appreciated, as everyone felt grateful that in the midst of all the trouble a haven of rest had been provided in this way. We were assembled in Mrs. Svaneskog's parlor, which was filled with the incense of fresh-cut pine, and in a simple way prepared for he worship of the Lord. The subject of the sermon was "The Lord's Two Witnesses; Their Death and Resurrection," Mr. G. Baeckstrom assisted in the readings.

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     In the evening we met again in the same cheerful rooms that housed us last year for a small banquet. After some introductory remarks Mr. Stroh introduced Mr. Bronniche, who spoke in enthusiastic terms of the upbuilding and organization of the Church in the North. Mr. Baeckstrom continued with the discussion of "The Present Situation," referring to our faith in the Academy against whose supposed "priest-craft" such ominous warnings have issued from our opponents, in their efforts to set up scarecrows in the Church. We have also been accused of "building our little pavilions on other people's grounds"-but the ground belongs to the Lord, not this or that pastor, and unless He build the house they labor in vain that build it." We have been accused of "persuading" people to loin us. Since all were now assembled the speaker earnestly requested that if there were any one present who ad been persuaded into joining us he would now speak up. Mr. Baeckstrom then took his seat, and profound silence was the eloquent answer to the unjust charge.

     The program closed with a few vocal numbers by Miss Weststom and Miss Odhner.

     On account of the departure of several members of the circle for America it was decided to suspend the formal meetings until next fall. Our last meeting, therefore, took the character of a farewell to the three members, who, on the 27th of April, left for Bryn Athyn.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     GREAT BRITAIN. Very encouraging reports are to hand of the winter's work in Glasgow under the able ministry of the Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, lately of Chicago. An effort has been made to bring the Church prominently before the inhabitants of the second city of the empire. A series of Sunday evening lectures were given by Mr. Schreck in the house of worship at Woodlands Road, extending from February 9th to March 16th, on subjects that were popularly attractive. Lantern lectures on Swedenborg were also given on two Tuesday evenings. There was extensive advertisement, and the response was most encouraging, the church being filled every Sunday evening, a number of the visitors coming again and again.

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The Tuesday evening lectures were also well attended. So marked was the interest that a further course, extending from March 23d until May 4th, has been arranged, and advertised by a manual which was distributed among the congregation at the last two lectures.
Change of Address 1913

Change of Address 1913

Announcements.

The Rev. R. J. Tilson, Stanley House, 7 Templar Street, Camberwell. London, S. E., England.
New Church Help Wanted 1913

New Church Help Wanted Mrs. GEO. G. STARKEY 1913

A strong woman for general housework, plain sewing and baby's wash. No upstairs work nor main wash. Wages, $22.00 a month. For further particulars, address
MRS. GEO. G. STARKEY,
5412 Madison Ave., Chicago, Ill.

385

PROGRAM OF THE TEACHERS' INSTITUTE OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, AT GLENVIEW, ILLS 1913

     Special sessions of the Teachers' Institute of the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be held at Glenview, Ill., on June 17 and 18, 1913. The general program will be as follows:

     Tuesday, June 17, 8 p. m. (Public Session).
Address by the President, the Rev. R. W. Brown, on "The Place of Physics in New Church Education."

     Wednesday, June 18, 10 a. m. and 3 p. m.
Address by the Rev. W. B. Caldwell (Vice-President), on "Reverence in the Young." Paper on "Purpose and Fulfillment in Education;" by Miss Helen Maynard. Outline of History-course in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School, presented by Miss Alice E. Grant. Paper on "Home Work," presented by Miss Elise Junge. Paper on "Phases of work in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School," by Miss Lucy Potts. Paper on "Harmful literature for the young," by Miss Amena Pendleton. Outline for Nature study in the Elementary School, presented by Miss Olive Bostock.

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PROGRAM OF THE ANNUAL MEETINGS AND OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1913

Thursday, June 1, 1913.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. The Consistory.

Friday, June 13.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

     8 p. m. Symposium of the Clergy of the General Church.

Saturday, June 14.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

     8 p. m. Public Session: Annual Address by the Rev. E. R. Cronlund.

Sunday, June 15.
     11 a. m. Divine Worship.

Monday, June 16.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

Tuesday, June 17.
     10 a. m. and 3 p. m. Council of the Clergy.

     8 p. m. Teachers' Institute, Public Session: President's Address.

Wednesday, June 18.
     10 a. m. Teachers' Institute.

     3 p. m. Teachers' Institute. Executive Committee.

     8 p. m. General Council. Sons of the Academy.

Thursday, June 19.
     11 a. m. Services and Assembly Address, by Bishop W. F. Pendleton.

     3 p. m. Flower Pageant.

     7 p. m. Banquet

Friday, June 20.
     10 a. m. Opening of the Eighth General Assembly of the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     10:30 a. m. Paper by Rev. N. D. Pendleton.

     3 p. m. General Assembly: Paper by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner.

     8 p. m. Assembly Ball.

Saturday, June 21.
     10 a. m. General Assembly.

     3 p m. Meeting of the Corporation of the General Church.

     8 p. m. General Assembly: Paper by the Rev. Alfred Acton.

Sunday, June 22. 11 a. m. Worship. Sermon.

     4 p.m. Administration of the Holy Supper.

     8 p. m. Concert.

     3 p m. General Assembly.

Monday, June 23.
     10 a. m. General Assembly.

Tuesday, June 24.
     10 a. m. Theta Alpha.

     8 p. m. Business meeting.

Wednesday, June 25.
     10 a. m. Theta Alpha. Business meeting.

     7 p.m. Theta Alpha. Banquet.

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CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT 1913

CORRESPONDENCES OF EGYPT C. TH. ODHNER 1913

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL. XXXIII JULY, 1913           No. 7
     III. THE SYMBOLIC ANIMALS.

     5. THE COW AND THE BULLOCK.

     It is a curious fact that the more a people is steeped in the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, the more do they worship merely natural good. Of spiritual charity they have no conception and do not wish to hear, but natural good, kindness, "helpfulness," "altruism," is to them the summum bonum, as long as it does not necessitate the shunning of spiritual evils as sins against God.

     This fact lies at the bottom of the worship of the bovine species among the faith-alone branches of the Hamitic race, nations such as the Babylonians, Phoenicians and Egyptians. The worship of the bull and the cow first arose among the Chaldeans, the direct descendants of Ham, in the idolatry of Enlil and Ishtar, and spread thence on the one hand to Canaan, where the Phoenicians worshiped the bull-headed Baal and the cow-headed Ashtoreth, and on the other hand to Egypt, where the bull became the special symbol of Osiris, "the Lord" par excellence, and the cow the symbol of Hathor, the goddess of beauty and love.

     To an agricultural people, such as the Egyptians, the bull and the cow naturally represented that which is most good and useful on the natural plane, furnishing as they do not only food-products such as milk, cream, butter, cheese and meat, but also service as beasts of burden. Thus the cow, by her usefulness, gentleness and beauty, (even the Romans spoke of "cow-eyed Juno" as the type of beauty), came to represent not only goodness in general, but that highest form of domestic good which we call conjugial love.

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This love they termed "Hathor" and represented it as a cow coming forth from the mountains of "Amenti" or Heaven. (Fig. 2, plate 8.) And the bull, on account of his great strength, fecundating power, and mightiness in battle, they looked upon as representing the truth of natural good, in which all interior forms of good and truth reside in their generative potency and fulness of power. Hence they regarded the sacred bull at first as the special representative of Osiris, the prophesied Redeemer, and afterwards as the incarnation of that god.

     Greek and Roman writers, such as Herodotus, Plutarch, Aelian, Ammianus Marcellinus, Diodorus Siculus and Pliny, relate many marvelous stories of the sacred bull, Apis, (in Egyptian Hap or Hapi), but their accounts are so full of manifest absurdities and contradictions that we can adopt as facts only those few features which they have in common and which agree with the discoveries of modern Egyptology.

     From these sources we learn that the veneration of the bull, Apis, is of unknown antiquity, dating from pre-dynastic times, and that it continued to the last period of Egyptian history. According to Herodotus, (book II:27-29), the sacred bull, which was always kept at Memphis, was black, with certain peculiar white markings, having a square white spot on the forehead, on the back the figure of an eagle, the outlines of a beetle on the tongue, and double hairs in the tail. But in the numerous antique bronze figures of the Apis, he is usually represented with a triangular piece of silver in his forehead, between his horns a solar disk and a serpent, on the back above the forelegs a vulture, (not an eagle), then the outlines of a square saddle cloth, and over the hind quarters a winged scarab. (Fig. 1, plate 8.)

     At Memphis the sacred bull was tended with the utmost care in a special temple and by a special priesthood. Here he was washed daily in hot baths, the body anointed with precious unguents, perfumed with sweetest odors, fed with the choicest food, watered from a special well, rested on the softest bedding; etc. His birthday was celebrated annually in a festival of seven days, when he was led about garlanded amidst the adoring shouts of the populace.

389

[Drawing of The Dog-headed Ape adoring Thoth. Plate 8.]

390

It is said that he was allowed to live only twenty-five years, when he was disposed of, carefully embalmed and buried at enormous expense, while all Egypt went into mourning until his successor had been found. Each Apis was buried in a rock-hewn tomb, and a small chapel was built over it. The chain of these subterranean tombs at Memphis was called the Serapeum, and in later times it became known as "the Labyrinth," which may still be seen at Sakkara.

     To find a new Apis was the next most important "new business" of the nation. The calf had to be born on the day when the old Apis died and had to have the same peculiar markings. Every herd in Egypt was minutely searched, and lucky was the owner of the herd in which the Apis was found. All Egypt went wild with rejoicing, and the bull-calf, after forty days of purification, was installed in his new honors amidst great festivities. For the use of the Apis was more than merely ornamental or representative he was, in fact, the chief living oracle in Egypt, being consulted on all important national affairs. If he ate certain food offered to him, it was a good omen if he refused, a bad omen. If he went into one of his stalls, the prospects were favorable; if into another, unfavorable, etc.

     Besides the Apis-bull at Memphis, there was another sacred bull, called Mnevis, (Fig. 3), kept at Hieropolis, to the northeast of modern Cairo, and there are reasons to believe that this one was the model of the "golden calf," made and worshiped by the Israelites of Mount Sinai. Hierapolis or On, the most ancient shrine in Egypt, was in the neighborhood of the land of Goshen, where the Israelites had sojourned, and Joseph, it will be remembered, had married the daughter of the priest of On. The Mnevis of On, moreover, is colored bright yellow on the monuments, while the Apis is painted black and white. But no images of either of them, actually made of gold, have been found in Egypt, for reasons easily imagined.

     Living or dead, the Apis was connected with Osiris. When dead, the soul of the old Apis went to join Osiris, while the soul of Osiris immediately filled the new Apis. The combined souls were called "Ausar-Hapi," or Oiris-Apis, whom the Greeks called Serapis.

391

This divinity was represented with the mummied body of Osiris, having the head of a bull, on his head the sun and the moon, and the two feathers of Amen-Ra; in his hands the full regalia of staffs and scepters, and on his side a breast-plate of divination. (Fig. 3, copied from Budge, G. E. II:198.) Under the form of Serapis, the combined worship of' Osiris and Apis survived the rest of the old Egyptian cult, and his image and temple were not destroyed until the fourth century A. D.

     The bulls and cows, adored by the Egyptians, were usually represented as young bullocks and heifers, and hence these images are spoken of as "calves" in the letter of the Word. Thus read in Jeremiah 46:20 that "Egypt is a very beautiful cow-calf,"-the historical sense evidently referring to the national worship of Hathor. And of the sacred "calves" in Egypt we read as follows in the Writings:

     For the sake of illustration, take the worship of the calf with the Egyptians. They knew what a calf represented, namely, the good of charity; and so long as they knew this and thought of this when they saw calves, or when in their feasts of charity they made the calf ready, and afterwards when calves were made use of in sacrifices, they thought sanely and together with the angels in heaven, to whom a calf stands for the good of charity. But when they began to make calves of gold, and placed them in their temples and worshiped them, they then thought insanely and together with the infernals. Thus they turned a true representative into a false one. (A. 7779.)

     The reason the children of Israel made themselves a golden calf and worshiped it as Jehovah, was that the Egyptian idolatry remained in their hearts. . . . In Egypt, the chief of the idols were cow-calves and bull-calves of gold, for the reason that a cow-calf signified scientific truth, which is the truth of the natural man, and a bull-calf the good thereof, which is the good of the natural man; also because gold signifies good. . . . But when the representatives of celestial things there were turned into idolatry and finally into magic, then, there as elsewhere, the very representative images became idols and began to be worshiped. Hence came the idolatry of the ancients and the magic of the Egyptians. (A. 9391.)

     By a "bullock" in the Word is represented "what is celestial natural, or, what is the same, natural good," (A. 2180), and in the supreme sense "the Divine Natural of the Lord." (A. 2830.) This is the reason why the Apis was considered the special representative of Osiris, for even as the Egyptians knew from the Ancient Word that the Lord as a Divine Man would glorify His Sensual degree, (which they represented by the royal serpent), so they represented the whole of the Natural with Him, glorified both as to truth and as to good, by the Apis of Osiris, whom they termed "the bull of the other world."

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     6. THE DOG HEADED APE.

     Among the sacred animals of Egypt, one of the most curious is the Cynocephalus or Dog headed Ape, which, usually painted green, is frequently seen on the monuments and in the papyri. This ape, in Egyptian called aan or aanau, was in ancient times, as at present, brought from upper Nubia and the Sudan, which is its native habitat and where it is still regarded as an extremely clever beast, in intelligence superior even to man.

     At sunrise these apes set up a mighty chattering in the forests and they were on this account regarded by the ancient Egyptians as incarnations of "the spirits of the dawn, which, having sung hymns of praise whilst the sun was rising, turned into apes as soon as he had risen." (Budge, G. E., II: 365.) On account of their supposed cleverness; also, they were generally represented as companions of THOTH, the god of science, literature and the written Word, and are almost invariably seen standing in the sacred boat of this Ibis-headed divinity, with forepaws stretched out in an attitude Of adoration. Sometimes the ape is seen alone, holding a small Ibis in his hand, and sometimes he is associated with RA, the sun-god, or KHONSU, the moon-god, always in a boat, and always in a worshipful attitude. The Egyptians supposed that he was singing hymns in praise of the god whom he is facing.

     In the remarkable "judgment-scenes" in the BOOK OF THE DEAD,-representing the final judgment upon man in the world of spirits,-the Cynocephalus is seated on top of the pillar which supports the great balance, in the scales of which the heart of the man is weighed against the "feather of truth." Being regarded as skilled in the science of numbers and measurements and as "the genius of the equilibrium and the equinoxes," the duty of the ape in the weighing of the soul was to watch the pointer and report to THOTH, (who is standing by with pencil and pad in his hands), when the beam is exactly level.

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He appears again in a scene representing the judgment upon a wicked spirit, who in the form of a dejected-looking pig is being driven away in a boat by two apes with whips. (Wilkinson, vol. VI., plate 87.) The head of the Cynocephalus also forms the cover of one of the four funerary urns in which were sealed up some of the entrails of the mummy and which were deposited in its sepulcher. The first urn is crowned with the head of a man, the second with a hawk, the third with a jackal, and the fourth with an ape; these were known as the "four genii of Amenti" or "the four children of Horus," which, we believe, originally represented the four divisions of heaven: the man, the celestial heaven; the hawk, the spiritual; the jackal, the celestial natural; and the ape, the spiritual natural.

In attempting to interpret the Cynocephalus as a symbol we must consider the signification of the dog as well as the ape. Dogs generally correspond to unclean lusts, but they also have a good signification. "Dogs are the appetites of saying and teaching such things as are of doctrine. When the appetites are good, the dogs are good; and when the appetites are evil, so are the dogs," (D. 4853.) For instance, the three hundred Israelites "who lapped water with their hands as a dog lappeth," in Judges 7:5, signify "those who have an appetite for truths; thus who, from some natural affection strive to know truths." (E. 455) In a good sense, therefore, dogs, on account of their humility, obedience and faithfulness, represent those who are the lowliest within the Church, and also the Gentiles outside the Church. (A. 7784, 9231.)

Apes, similarly, in general correspond to falsities and crazy persuasions, notions that are rational and human in appearance only, but they also have a good signification, as in I Kings 10:22, where we read that "once in three years there came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold and Silver, ivory, apes and peacocks to Solomon," all these tributes signifying "the truths and goods of the external Church." (E. 514.) From all these considerations we judge that the Dog-headed Ape stands as the representative of simple good spirits of the lowest order, or angels of the spiritual-natural heaven; in other words, affections of the natural truth revealed in the letter of the Word and the simple love of justice and fairness.

394

Hence the association of the ape with THOTH, the letter of the Word; and hence his position in the scene of the judgment. The illustration of the ape in the boat, (Fig. 3, plate 8), with the Eye above his hands and facing Thoth, seems to us to speak as clearly as the words of the Psalmist: "The opening of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple." (Ps. 119:130.)

     7. THE JACKAL.

     The Jackal, which is always associated with ANUBIS, the god of the burial and the resurrection, is a canine animal which is external appearance and internal structure is very similar to the domestic dog, especially a shepherd's dog; it has a long head, a very pointed muzzle and grayish-yellow fur, and is, in fact, regarded by some naturalists as representing that original stock from which the dog. is supposed to have evolved. Though extremely shy and cunning-, he is easily tamed, when in captivity, and becomes quite gentle and obedient, but on account of his offensive odor he is seldom adopted as a pet.

     Of distinctly nocturnal habits, the jackal of Egypt come forth at sunset from the caves and holes in the mountains of the desert, hunting in packs, prowling about the ancient ruins, (Fig. 1, plate 9), prying on the henroosts and vineyards of farms and villages, and making the night hideous with their peculiarly mournful howling. A shriek from one member of the pack is the signal for a general chorus of screams, barks and dismal whines, which often sound like the wailing cries of a child lost in the wilderness and this is kept up during the greater part of the night.

     This melancholy concert may account in part for the association of the wicked jackal with a gentle and benevolent divinity such as Anubis, as it probably reminded the ancient Egyptians of the lamentations and dirges of the mourners at a funeral party. The full figure of the animal is seldom represented on the monuments, but Anubis himself is always depicted as a human figure with the head of a jackal, (Fig, 2, plate 9), always painted black, to suggest night and death; the god is generally seen bending over the bier on which rests the body of the dead, gently stroking him into renewed life, and then conducting the resurrected spirit in his spiritual body into the judgment hall of Osiris in the intermediate world.

395

[Drawings of various animals. Plate 9.]

395

Just as the significance of the Egyptian vulture can be explained only by that of the eagle, so the symbolic meaning of the jackal can be solved only by the correspondence of the closely related dog. Those Greek and Roman authors who have written on Egypt, all supposed that the head of Anubis was simply the head of a dog who watched over the spirit of man in life and in death, because the dog, as Plutarch observes, "is equally watchful by day and by night." Wilkinson admits that "it is difficult to distinguish between the jackal and the fox-dog." (M. C. 5:143), and Wallis Budge regards it as proved that the Egyptians themselves "did not carefully distinguish between the wolf, the jackal, and the dog." (G. E. II:367). We may regard it as settled, then, that the ancient Egyptians looked upon the jackal as nothing but a species of dog whom they associated with the ideas of death, burial and resurrection, not only because of his mournful howling, but also because of his nocturnal habits, his habitat in the mountains and deserts where the dead were buried, and his prowling about the tombs at night. Thus they adopted him as the symbol and representative of those gentle spirits who stand guard over the dead body, who assist in the process of resuscitation, and who introduce the resurrected man into his new and spiritual life. (Comp. H. H. 449, 450.)

Obedience is the one great virtue of a good dog, and obedience, simple and unquestioning obedience to the will of the Lord, is the distinguishing virtue of the angels of the lowest or natural heaven, especially of those of the celestial natural heaven, even as obedience is in general the virtue that introduces man into the life of regeneration. Death and burial represent nothing else than the death of the self-life and resurrection into the regenerate life. Hence we conclude that even as the dog-headed ape of Thoth represents the simple affection of knowing and understanding the natural truth of the letter of the Word, and thus the angels of the spiritual-natural heaven, so the jackal of Anubis represents the affection of obeying this same truth in life, and thus the angels of the celestial-natural heaven.

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     8. THE LION AND THE CAT.

     The Lion is usually associated with RA, or HORUS, or deities of a solar character, the great, round, yellow face of the king of beasts calling to mind the solar disk, his fiery eyes and terrible power recalling the fierce heat of the Egyptian sun, etc. Dawn and sunset were represented as two lions, seated back to back, supporting between them the horizon over which the sun is seen traveling.

     Thus far go the somewhat obvious "interpretations" of modern Egyptologists, to whom the idea of both the lion and sun representing the Sun of spiritual life would seem like "wild allegorizing." They know, however, that the lion as an hieroglyphic signifies power, and as a phonetic sign stands for the letter R, because this sound expresses power. Spiritually considered, the lion, in his fighting and conquering strength, represents "the good of celestial 1ove and the derivative truth in its power; and in the opposite sense the evil of the love of self in its power." (A. C. 6367.) To "roar like a lion" signifies an ardent affection to defend Heaven and the Church, and thus to save the angels of Heaven and the men of the Church, which is done by destroying the falsities of evil by means of Divine Truth and its power." (A. E. 601.) And the Lord in His Divine Human, who from His own power subjugated the hells and reduced all things into order, is called 'the lion of the tribe of Judah' from the Omnipotence which is of His Divine Love and His Divine Truth thence." (Ibid.) This power He exercised through His Word, in which the Divine Truth is in its fulness, in its holiness and in its power, and hence "a lion signifies the Divine Truth of the Word as to power; and as the Lord is the Divine Truth itself, or the Word, He is called alien." (A. R. 265.)

     It was on this account that the cherubim seen by Ezekiel and John "had the face of a lion from the omnipotence of Divine truth from the Divine good, which is of Providence," (A. C. 6367), for the cherubim represent the power of the Word in the letter guarding and protecting the internal sense. Hence "because lions represent power, guard, and protection against falsities and evils, there were two lions at the sides of the ivory throne of Solomon, and twelve lions upon its six steps." (A. E. 278)

398

     This also was the origin of the SPHINXES of Egypt, which were of various forms, but most commonly figures of lions with human head. "The Egyptians placed statues of lions at the doors of their palaces and tombs to guard both the living and the dead, and to keep evil spirits and fleshly foes from entering into the gates to do harm to those who were inside them." (Budge, G. E; II:361.) For the ancients were well aware of the protective sphere of the celestial angels, whom the sphinxes represent, "because where these come, the evil flee away, for the evil cannot endure their presence; it is these who are signified by 'an old lion.'" (A. C. 6369.)

     The "great Sphinx" guarding the pyramids of Ghizeh is the noblest example of these leonine cherubim, even as it is without doubt the most ancient monument in Egypt, antedating the pyramids themselves. Exactly facing the rising sun, it was placed there not only as a protector of the vast necropolis of Memphis, but also, we believe, to represent the Divine Providence itself guarding the whole land of Egypt and the Church there. For from the east came the Egyptians themselves and all their light, and from the east came the worst of their enemies in a spiritual as well as a natural sense.

     Inasmuch as a lion signifies not only the Lord as to the Divine Truth, but likewise Heaven and the Church in respect to that Truth from the Lord," (A. E. 601), therefore the Egyptians represented a very prominent goddess, named BAST, with the head of a lioness. (Fig. 3, plate 9; G. E. 1:444.) Concerning this divinity there has been much speculation; the Greeks identified her with Diana or Athene, (both erroneously), and she is generally known as "the cat-headed goddess," though her head is unmistakably that of a lioness. Wallis Budge has given us the due to the signification of BAST, When he informs us that the name BAST is derived from bes, the word for fire, and that he regards this goddess "as a personification of the power of the sun, which makes itself known in the form of heat." (G. E. 1:447.)

     On the basis of this natural interpretation, which is supported by the evidence of all modern Egyptologists, we conclude that Bast, the lioness-headed "lady of the East," goddess of fire and heat, represents the same as the Greek Hestia or Vesta, goddess of the hearth and of the sacred fire: i. e., celestial good, which simply means the celestial love of the Divine Truth.

399

This identification of Bast with Vesta suggests an explanation of the extraordinary veneration of cats in Egypt, which caused so much merriment in the rest of the classical world. As at the present day, so in ancient times Egypt was swarming with cats, and they were regarded as so sacred that, as Cicero observes, "never did anyone hear tell of a cat having been killed by an Egyptian," while Dioderus Siculus tells a story of a Roman who was lynched by an Egyptian mob because he had accidentally killed a cat. When a cat died in a house, all the inmates shaved their eyebrows as a sign of mourning, and the body of the sacred puss was embalmed with great care, ceremoniously buried, and sometimes carried from great distances to Bubastis, the center of the worship of Bast, where thousands of cat-mummies have been found. This veneration for cats in the end proved the ruin of Egyptian independence, for it is related that Cambyses, when invading Egypt in 528 B. C., collected a great quantity of cats and placed them in front of his army at the fateful battle of Pelusimn. The Egyptians, rather than hitting the sacred animals with their arrows, turned tail and fled, and left the country open to the Persians.

     The constant association of the cat with Bast, the Egyptian Vesta, goddess of the fire and the hearth, does not require a far-fetched explanation. As in Greece and in other countries of the ancient world, so also in Egypt the domestic hearth and the ever-burning fire upon it were regarded as most sacrosanct in the private life of the family. And the cats constantly crouching by the fireside, thus became the companions of Bast and partakers of her supreme sanctity.

     9. THE HAWK.

     Among the symbolic birds of Egypt the most prominent are the hawk and the Ibis, the former sacred to HORUS, the latter to THOTH. Birds, with their power of elevating themselves from the ground and of proceeding rapidly on higher planes, represent rational and intellectual affections which "on the wings of thought" lift themselves from earthly things to higher and wider perspectives (A. C. 3901; A. E. 282, 1100.)

400

     The hawk, keen-eyed and swift, serenely soaring in highest air, was to the Egyptians a symbol of the Divine in the heavens, which is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Divine Intelligence. Hence this bird is always associated with HORUS, who is sometimes represented simply as a hawk, sometimes as a hawk with human head, or as a human figure with a hawk's head. (Fig. 4, plate 9; G. E. 1:466) In order to emphasize the idea of "intelligence," the sculptors adorned the face of the hawk with peculiar conventional features, making prominent its sharp eyes. That "to fly" signifies to proceed, is evident without any arguments, and it is equally self-evident that Horus, the son of Osiris, represents the Divine Proceeding. An inscription which we found in Dr. Budge's EGYPTIAN HEAVEN AND HELL, and which we here reproduce, describes Horus as always "journeying, journeying, traveling." (E. H. H. 1:115.)

     [Figures]

     The first figure of the above hieroglyphics represents an ax and is the ideogram for a god; the second is an "anch" and represents life; the third is a feather and signifies truth; then follow three snails in the act of creeping, and below them two papyrus rolls, each furnished with. a pair of legs in the act of walking; and finally a single line with a pair of legs. The whole is translated by Dr. Budge as "the god, living and true, journeying, journeying, traveling." But why the two papyrus rolls! The papyrus roll signifies a book, and here evidently the Word of God, which is the Divine Truth Proceeding from the Lord. In this connection it is of interest to note a statement by Diodorus, (quoted by Wilkinson, M. C., vol. V., p. 205): "The hawk is reputed to have been worshiped because augurs use them for divining future events in Egypt; and some say that in former times a book (papyrus), bound round with a Purple thread, and containing a written account of the modes of worshiping and honoring the gods, was brought by one of these birds to the priests at Thebes."

401

This manifestly refers to the primeval revelation of the Ancient Word, proceeding from the Divine in the heavens.

     10. THE IRIS.

     The banks of the Nile are teeming with all kinds of water fowls, but the reasons why among all these the Ibis was selected for extraordinary honors will perhaps never be fully known. There seems to be nothing very remarkable about this bird, which at the present day is seldom found in Egypt. Its native habitat is Nubia and Sudan, but in ancient times it must have been very common throughout Egypt, as mummies of the bird are found in all parts of the country. Bronze figurines are also very common and on the monuments and in the papyri it is one of the most familiar figures. It is the constant companion of THOTH, "the god of the divine words," and the god himself is invariably represented with the head of an Ibis. (Fig. 6, plate 9.)

     On account of its religious associations the bird is known to zoologists as the Ibis religiosa; its body measures about two feet six inches, and it has long black legs, white and black plumage, short tail, and a very long black bill, curved and slender. (Fig. 5, plate 9.) It does not, as far as is known, consume any greater quantity of reptiles than other water fowls, but Herodotus reports that it was revered because "it destroyed the winged serpents which were brought over into Egypt from the deserts of Libya by the west wind," and the ancient priests related that Thoth, when pursued by Set, the evil power, saved himself by assuming the form of an Ibis. The name of Thoth (TEHUTI) is, in fact, derived from tehu, which is the most ancient name of the Ibis.

     We are not able to give the particular correspondence of the Ibis, but its general significance seems clear. It is a bird of the water and as such signifies the affections of natural and sensual truth, such as stands forth in the letter of the Word. It is typically "a bird out of Egypt," (Hosea 11:11), which signifies "the scientific intellectual," (A. C. 1186), and it may be that the sight of this bird, standing on the bank of the Nile and gazing into waters, as it were in deep meditation, reminded the ancient Egyptians of an earnest student of the Ancient Word inquiring into the mysteries hidden in the letter. Hence, perhaps, its association with THOTH, and hence the figure of the sacred eye, which almost always accompanies the picture of the Ibis.

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     II. ANIMALS REPRESENTING EVIL.

     Among the animals which never have a good signification, but always represent evils and falsities, we need to note only the hippopotamus, the swine, the scorpion and the crocodile.

     A. THE HIPPOPOTAMUS. The name of this ugly and useless monster is certainly a libel on the noble horse, for it should be called a river-swine rather than a river-horse. It is no longer found anywhere in Egypt, but was very common in ancient times, and it was by no means regarded as sacred or worshiped, as the Egyptologists assert, but was feared, hated and killed, as is proved by frequent scenes representing the hunting of the beast. In the day-time wallowing lazily in the mud, at night they left the river, coming up in troops to cultivated ground, where they did immense damage to the growing crops, by their ponderous tread destroying even more than they could devour. Though generally harmless to people, they are apt to become ferocious when pursued, capsizing boats or crushing them between their enormous jaws.

     According to Plutarch, the hippopotamus "was reckoned amongst the animals emblematic of the Evil Being," (Wilkinson, M. C. vol. V:178), and the goddess TA-URT, the female counterpart of SET, the evil power itself, is always depicted with the head and body of the hippopotamus, long and flaccid breasts, hind quarters of a lion, and back and tail of a crocodile; in her hands she holds the emblem of lasciviousness,-most certainly a repulsive combination of sinister suggestions. (Fig. 2, plate 10.)

     The hippopotamus is not mentioned either in the Scriptures of the Writings, but as a great and evil beast of the river of Egypt it clearly corresponds to evil in general, more especially the evil of perverted sensual scientifics. As a convincing illustration we reproduce a Picture representing Horus, standing victoriously upon the back of a chained hippopotamus and driving a spear into its head. (Fig. 1, plate 10. Budge, G. E. 1:494)

403

     B. THE SWINE. That the swine represents filthy lusts is known by common perception. In Egypt this animal was always associated with Set or Typhon. In the BOOK OF THE DEAD, (chapter 112), we are told that Ra one day said to Horus: "Let me see what is coming to pass in thine eye," and having looked he said to Horus, "Look at that black pig." Horus thereupon looked and immediately felt that a great injury had been done' to his eye, and-he said to Ra, "Verily, my eye seemeth as if it were an eye upon which Suti had inflicted a blow." The text goes on to say that the black pig was none other than Suti (Set), who had transformed himself into a black pig and had aimed the blow which had damaged the eye of Horus. As the result of this, the god Ra ordered his companion gods henceforth to regard -the pig as an abominable animal. (G. E. 11:368.)

     C. THE SCORPION is frequently depicted on the monuments; it is generally associated with the powers of evil, but sometimes the goddess Isis is represented with a scorpion on her head. This, however, moans that the goddess had overcome the evil represented by the scorpion, for it was quite common, both in: Egypt and in Greece, to affix to the deities symbols of the enemies which they had vanquished. Scorpions are frequently mentioned in the Word, and by them' and their poisonous tails are signified "adroit reasonings from falsities through which they persuade and thus cause injury." (A. C. 10071.) "By a scorpion is signified a deadly persuasion. For a scorpion, when it strikes a man, induces a stupor on his members, and if the wound is not healed it causes death." (A. R. 425, 428.)

     D. THE CROCODILE, like the scorpion, was naturally regarded as the incarnation of falsity and evil, of death and all the powers of darkness. Owing originally to the fear which it inspires, they afterwards came to be regarded as sacred in some districts in Egypt, while diligently hunted in, other, often neighboring districts. This sometimes led to bloody naval combats between the worshipers and the hunters of the crocodiles. As to their signification we learn that "they who are in falsities from evil appear as basilisks and crocodiles," (A. R. 601). "In the Word, the deceitful are signified by crocodiles." (Ibid. 624.)

404

     12. FABULOUS AND COMPOSITE ANIMALS.

     Our account of the symbolic animals would not be complete without a brief consideration of a purely mythological and representative class of beasts, such as the phoenix, the "Set"-animal, the hell-dog, and a great variety of composite animals. These fabulous forms are not mere figments of imagination, but are actually to be seen in the world of spirits, and they were seen there by those in the Ancient Church who still possessed the open eye. We read that "in the world of spirits there are presented to view animals such as horses, oxen, sheep, etc., together with other animals of various kinds, sometimes such as are never seen on the earth but are only representative." (A. C. 2179.) All these animals are spiritual appearances formed out of the sphere-substances of the spirits and they vary according to the affections of the spirits. "There are as many spheres as there are affections, and compositions of affections," (A. C. 1515), and hence also "there are seen composite animals like those seen by the prophets and described in the Word." (A. E. 1200.) Swedenborg states that he had seen there such composite animals, as, for instance, "a monster rising out of the earth, with seven heads, his feet like those of a bear and his mouth like a lion's, altogether like the beast which is described in Apoc. 13:1, 2." (A. R. 926.) A person who in the life of the body had studied the things of the memory only was seen at a distance as an animal combining the parts the forms of a horse, a cow, and a dog. (S. D. 4011.)

     A. The PHOENIX or "Bennu" was a fabulous bird well known it throughout the ancient world, but originating probably in Egypt. "This bird is said to have created itself, and to have come into being from out of the fire which burned on the top of the sacred Persea tree of Hieropolis; it was essentially a Sun-bird, and was a symbol both of the rising sun and of the dead sun-god Osiris, from whom it sprang and to whom it was sacred. The Bennu not only typified the new birth of the sun each morning, but in the earliest period of dynastic history it became the symbol of the resurrection of mankind, for a man s spiritual body was believed to spring from the dead physical body, just as the living sun of today had its origin in the dead sun of yesterday." (Walis Budge, G. E. 11:371.)

405

[Drawings of Composite Animals. Plate 10.]

406

     B. The "SET"-ANIMAL is so called partly because it is unlike any known beast, and partly because it is always associated with SET, the power of Evil. His pictures look like the combined caricatures of a tapir, sheep, camel and ass; it is always of a dead black color; and adorned with ludicrous clipped ears and a long upstanding tail, bifurcated at the end. (Fig. 3, plate 10; Budge, THE MUMMY, p. 277; G. E. 11:242.) The original may have been some night-prowling beast of thieving and wicked disposition, and it may have been hunted and slain with such diligence that it became extinct in Egypt even in prehistoric times. It is reported that an animal remarkably like the "Set" has recently been found in the forests of the pigmy people in central Africa.

     The combined figures of SET and the hawk-headed HORUS, (Fig. 4, plate 10Io), strikingly represent the contrast of light and darkness, truth and falsity, keen-eyed intelligence and weak-eyed folly. But more will be said of Set in the story of Osiris.

     C. The HELL-DOG was a composite animal having one head of a crocodile, the forequarters of a wolf, or perhaps lion, and the hindquarters of an hippopotamus, the whole nevertheless leaving the impression of a barking dog. (Fig. 6, plate 10; G. E. 11:144) Its name in Egyptian is "Am-mit," and this name is said to mean "the eater of the dead," or "the devourer of the unjustified," (Budge, G. E. 1:60), because it was supposed to devour the souls of all those who had been weighed and found wanting in the judgment hall of Osiris. (Ib. 11:146.) In the judgment scenes it is always depicted as "the Accusing Spirit" seated on the closed portals of hell and reporting to Osiris all the evil things that could be found against the spirit who is being weighed, while on the other hand all the good things the man had done in his natural life are represented by cakes, fruits, onions, etc., piled on an altar in front of the merciful god. It is one of those frequent Egyptian illustrations that would seem to have the pouter to convince even a hardened sceptic.

     D. Beside the fabulous animals mentioned above there are a great number of other composite beasts of the most curious combinations, such as the leopard with the head of a serpent, (Fig. 5, plate 10; G. E. 1:59), a winged lion with the head of an eagle, the indescribable animal called "Sak," (Fig. 8, plate 10; G. E. 1:60), and the leopard with a human head and a pair of wings in the middle of his back. (Fig. 7, plate 10.)

407

This latter brings strongly to mind one of the four beasts seen by Daniel, which was "like a leopard which had four wings upon his back," the leopard signifying the Word falsified, and the wings signifying the confirmations of falsity by means of perverted intellectual reasonings. (A. R. 575; A. E. 780.)

408

BELIEVING WITHOUT SEEING 1913

BELIEVING WITHOUT SEEING Rev. E. R. CRONLUND 1913

     "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29.)

     The Divine truth bears testimony concerning itself. It is its own witness, and therefore it must be accepted on its own authority. He who is unable to see Divine truth in its own light will never be able to see it at all. "With Thee is the fountain of life in Thy light shall we see light." (Psalm 36:9.)

     But although the Divine truth is light itself and testifies concerning itself, still most men at the present day regard the testimony of the truth itself as insufficient. They are unwilling to hear Moses and the prophets. They desire external and sensual confirmations of the truth, for they have more faith in themselves and in their own senses than in the Lord, and this for the reason that in heart they deny the Lord and all things spiritual, and regard the things of this world as the only real and living things.

     Divine truth should be accepted by man even if he does not see external evidences and confirmations of it. Revelation teaches that the Divine providence governs all and single things, for it is written, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered." (Matth. 10:29, 30.) These teachings declare that the Divine providence extends itself even to the smallest things of life, that it is not general only but also particular. This man should believe even though he does not see the Divine providence. He who desires to see the Divine providence before he believes in it will never believe in it. The Divine providence hides itself. The Lord does not manifestly appear in His providence. The Divine providence may indeed be seen, not in the face however, but in the back; that is, not in the event but after the event. It works invisibly and incomprehensibly in order that man may in freedom ascribe an event either to providence or to chance; for if providence acted visible and comprehensibly, there would be danger of man's believing, from what he sees and comprehends, that it is of providence, and afterwards changing into the contrary, whence profanation would result. (A. C. 5508)

409

It is therefore the will of the Lord that man should believe in the Divine providence although he does not see it, for the Lord says, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

But although the Divine providence cannot be seen in the events of life, yet we know of a certainty that there is a Divine providence. Revelation teaches this, and human reason enlightened by Divine revelation can see clearly that the Lord must of necessity govern all and single things. For the Lord alone is omnipotent and omniscient. He alone knows the secrets of the human heart, and He alone can lead man away from evil and introduce him into good. Moreover all men are the children of the Lord, and He cannot forsake the work of His own hands. He leads every man even as a loving father on earth leads his children, for without Him man can do nothing. The Doctrines teach that "the universe consists of perpetual uses produced by wisdom but initiated by love." (T. C. R. 47.) And such as the Divine love and the Divine wisdom were in creating the universe such they are and continue to be in the created universe. The Divine love and the Divine wisdom can never depart from the earth. They are the all in all things, for without them there is no life, and there is no love and no wisdom except the Divine love and wisdom.

It can thus be seen that the Lord necessarily governs all things, for no one but the Lord Himself could do it, and He does it by means of His providence. He is present with every man every least part of a moment continually endeavoring to keep him from all evil, for it is written, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of My hands; thy walls are continually before Me." (Isa. 49: 15, 16.) Divine revelation teaches throughout that the Lord could not possibly leave nor forsake man, and also that no man could lead himself, and therefore they who are willing to believe in the Divine providence are fully able to do so even though the Lord does not manifestly appear in His providence.

410

And they who believe in the providence of the Lord, even though they do not see its guiding hand in the events of their lives, they are blessed indeed.

Divine truth should be accepted on its own authority. In His Word the Lord teaches as one having authority and there is no other authority than that of the truth itself. Many of those who will not accept the truth on its own evidence think that they would be able to believe if they could see signs and miracles. Miracles were wrought among the children of Israel before the Coming of the Lord, because no internal Church could be established with them. But when the Lord came into the world and performed redemption and revealed the internal things of worship and of regeneration, then miracles ceased, for an internal Church could then be established. Miracles are not done among those who are able to be in internal worship, because to these they are hurtful, for miracles compel belief, and what is compelled does not remain, but is dissipated. The internal things of worship, which are faith and charity, must be implanted in freedom, for then they are appropriated, and what is so appropriated remains, whereas that which is implanted in compulsion remains outside the internal man in the external, because nothing enters into the internal man except by means of intellectual ideas, which are reasons; for the ground which there receives is an enlightened rational. Hence it is that no miracles are wrought at this day.

They would be hurtful because they drive man to believe, and fix their ideas in the external man that the case is so; and if the internal man afterwards denies that which the miracles have confirmed, there results an opposition and collision of the internal and external man; and finally when the ideas derived from miracles are dissipated, there is effected a mixture of falsity and truth, and thus profanation. From this it is evident how injurious at the present day are miracles in a Church in which the internal things of worship have been disclosed. There also are the things signified by the Lord's words to Thomas, "Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." Thus they are blessed who do not believe through miracles. (A. C. 7290.)

411

     When the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen the risen Lord, he said unto them, "Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." And after eight days the Lord appeared unto Thomas and to the other disciples, and the Lord then addressed to Thomas the words just quoted.

     They who believe a thing to be so because the eye has seen, and the hand has touched, are in merely natural faith. Such faith is insinuated by an external way and not by an internal.

     But spiritual faith is that which is insinuated by an internal way, and at the same time by an external way; the insinuation by the internal way causes it to be believed, and then that which is insinuated by the external way causes it to be confirmed.

     The insinuation of faith by the internal way is effected by the reading of the Word, and by illustration then from the Lord, which is granted according to the quality of the affection, that is, according to the end sought in knowing the truth.

     Divine truth must be accepted on its own authority and seen in its own light. But although this is so still there are those at this day who are internally in a negative state, and who endeavor to enter into Divine truth by means of the sciences and by means of the things of philosophy. The case is, however, that Divine truths can never be apprehended by the senses, by scientifics, and by philosophy, but if these are consulted they will be denied in spite of their truth. The more they who think from a negative principle consult things rational, the more they consult scientifics, and the more they consult things philosophical, the more do they cast and precipitate themselves into darkness, until at last they deny all things. The causes of this are, that no one can apprehend higher things from lower ones; that is, spiritual and celestial things, still less Divine things, from lower ones, because they transcend all understanding and moreover everything is then involved in negatives from that principle.

     It is one thing to regard the doctrine of faith from rational things, and altogether another to regard rational things from the doctrine of faith. To regard the doctrine of faith from rational things is not to believe in the Word, or in the doctrine thence derived, until one is persuaded from rational things that it is so; whereas to regard rational things from the doctrine of faith is first to believe in the Word, or in the doctrine therefrom, and then to confirm the same by rational things.

412

The former is inverted order, and results in nothing being believed; whereas the latter is genuine order and causes the man to believe the better.

     The Writings teach that there are two principles, one of which leads to all folly and insanity, and the other to all intelligence and wisdom. The former principle is to deny all things, as when a man says in his heart that he cannot believe in spiritual truths until he is convinced by what he can comprehend or be sensible of; this is the principle that leads to all folly and insanity, and is to be called the negative principle. The other principle is to affirm the things which are of doctrine from the Word, or to think and believe within oneself that they are true because the Lord has said them; this is the principle that leads to all intelligence and wisdom, and is to be called the affirmative principle. And they who think from the affirmative principle can confirm themselves by whatever things rational, by whatever scientifics, and whatever things philosophical they have at command; for all these are to them confirmatory, and give them a fuller idea of the matter.

     It is evident therefore that the New Church does by no means teach that science and philosophy are of no use to the man of the Church, for they are of great use to him. But what the Church teaches is this, that he who is internally in a negative state can never enter into or apprehend spiritual things by means of science and philosophy He, however, who believes what the Word teaches may confirm himself in his belief by means of science and philosophy, for universal nature is a theater representative of the kingdom of the Lord; but man must believe in, the existence of that kingdom or else he will never be able to see it in nature. And they who believe in the Word, whether they are able to confirm its teachings or not by means of the knowledges of science and of nature that they possess, these are the ones of whom it is said, "Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

     The Word of the Lord is an infinite ocean of truth. The knowledges that man can acquire for himself from the Word are but as a few drops of water out of the ocean, and therefore what a man knows is as nothing in comparison with what he does not know.

413

As the light in the mind of any man is dim, no matter how much he may think he knows, therefore many of the mysteries of faith are necessarily obscure to him; there are many things that he finds it hard to grasp. Still he who is in an affirmative state by no means rejects or even doubts a truth because he does not understand it. We are taught that they who are in the faith of charity do not reason about the truths of faith, but say that the thing is so, and also as far as possible confirm it by things of sense and of memory, and by the analysis of reason; but as soon as anything obscure comes in their way, the truth of which they do not perceive, they defer it, and never suffer such a thing to bring them into doubt, saying that there are but very few things they can apprehend, and therefore to think that anything, is not true because they do not apprehend it, would be madness. (A. C. 1072.)

Man should believe all things that the Lord has been pleased to reveal. It is written, "I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right." (Psalm 119:128.) To believe in the Lord is to have confidence in Him, confidence that what We says is the truth. The first of the confirmation of truth with those who do not enjoy celestial perception is that it is called Divine, for then they at once have an idea of what is holy, which gives a universal confirmation to everything that is stated, even if they do not comprehend it. (A. C. 3388) The Doctrines further teach that the first medium of conjunction between the internal and the external man is the affirming or affirmative of internal truth, namely, that it is so. When this affirmative takes place then man is in the beginning of regeneration; good operates from within, and produces affirmation. This good cannot flow into what is negative, nor even into doubtfulness, before this affirmative takes place. (A. C. 3913.)

"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." This does not mean, as has been supposed by some, that they who believe without seeing are blessed because they do not see, but it means that they are blessed who do not reject Divine truth because they do not comprehend it.

414

Nor does it mean that Divine truth cannot be understood by man, or that it is not meant to be understood. They are blessed who believe that to be true which the Lord has revealed, but they are more blessed who also understand the truth. They who accept the Divine truth, even if they do not understand it, have spiritual life, but they who also understand it have life more abundantly. If a man hears a truth that he does not understand, he should not on that account reject or doubt it, but let him be assured that it can be understood, for there is no Divine truth that cannot in a certain measure be understood by man. Man can understand truth so far as he is in the love of truth and so far as he acquires the necessary knowledges from the Word. It is known that the angels of Heaven understand the truth, that they are in the bright light of truth. But it should be borne in mind that the measure of a man is the measure of an angel. A man has the same faculties and abilities that an angel has, for all the angel's were once men. It is indeed true that man while he is in this world cannot see truth in heavenly light, but he who shuns evil will be enlightened more and more while he lives in the world, and after death he will enter into angelic wisdom. He who follows the light according to the increase of its brightness will at length find the temple of wisdom. But that man may be able to receive wisdom he must first of all acknowledge that the Word of the Lord is right, and that all His works are done in truth. Amen.

415

CHASTE LOVE OF SEX 1913

CHASTE LOVE OF SEX Rev. E. E. IUNGERICH 1913

The mental picture or image of a revealed doctrine is a finite mode of expressing it. Though adequate for a time and Connoting a stage in the mind's apprehension of the Divine, it will be succeeded and replaced by a series of better concepts if the mind is one eternally open to a perfecting of the intelligence. But a finite picture retained as the immutable image, for all ages, of the doctrine involved, begets idolatry. It was thus that the representatives of the ancients and the ritual of the Hebrew races became idolatrous. So also the thought of the Christian fathers about the trinity became an idolatry when it became the immutable picture of two men and a dove. A similar idolatry enters the thought about the Heavenly Doctrines, whenever the concepts of one stage in the church are fastened as immutable pictures upon the conscience of succeeding ages. It is obvious that such early and elementary concepts as that which portrays the Word as a book written by correspondences terminating always in expressions like those of the obscurer parts of the Bible, or that which portrays the three heavens and two kingdoms as three storeys bisected by a vertical partition, must give place to more adequate images or else bind a cramping limitation upon the mind.

There is a similar idolatry with regard to the actions of the will if a code of definite and invariable actions becomes established as the immutable sign and index of certain internal affections and virtues which are priced. A celestial character does not necessarily evince itself by abstaining from eating flesh or from making unfavorable criticisms about falsities. Love of the neighbor does not clothe itself by benefactions to everyone without regard to quality. The existence of conjugial love between married partners does not involve an outward exhibition before others of uxoriousness with an accompanying abnegation of friendship with all others of the opposite sex. To prescribe a set of actions as inevitably portraying the existence or non-existence of such internal virtues is the idolatry of a prude and a pharisee.

416

It is an idolatry, for it externalizes the internal virtues by making am external the condition for their existence.

     Man is born with various natural loves, such as the love of self, the love of the world, and the love of sex, which are then impure, but not wholly evil since they can serve as matrices in which internal and pure loves can be set. During the stage of formation of the latter the man is in the first state of regeneration in which he is led by truths to good. After this stage has been passed, he comes into the good itself and from it descends into truths which are in the arena of the former natural loves. These natural loves the good associates to itself. It does not reject them as unworthy of such association or as impugning the existence of the essential good, so long as they are ruled by it.

     Take for illustration the love of sex. At first an inclination is felt for a number of the other sex with whom relations of friendship and social intimacy are cultivated. Although the external deportment be exemplary, this love remains non-chaste until a beginning of regeneration has been made and there is with it a desire that there be pre-eminently a love of one of the sex. But the birth of a love of one of the sex does not and should not end or diminish the love of a number of the sex. It purifies, ennobles and intensifies it, and from non-chaste makes it chaste. It matters not whether the individual with whom this change has taken place or those for whom he experiences the chaste love of the sex be still single or have become united in marriage with their conjugial partners. The love of sex is warmer, more ardent, and purer than before. Though from non-chaste it has become chaste, this does not betoken that any change has taken or should take place in the way it manifests itself. The change is an internal one.

     The doctrine on this subject is given in two memorable relations in the work on Conjugial Love, nos. 44, 55 An examination of these two passages shows that the chaste love of the sex is the delight of the morality of a youth with the beauty of a girl, that it is without any allurement from lust, that it partakes mot of the flesh, but only of the spirit; that it is interior spiritual friendship, that it is an endeavor to conjoin minds but not bodies, that it is a spiritual love, and that it exists with those only who are in conjugial love.

417

It is said to be sweet "because the beauty of woman from an innate inclination enters the mind at the same time." It far exceeds the love of male for male which is compared to that of two wrestlers who strive with each other, and the love of female for female which is compared to that of two pugilists who belabor each other with their fists, for it is a love which enters inwardly and conjoins. It is only exceeded by conjugial love.

We are further told that the un-chaste cannot think such a love to be chaste or pure, and are indignant, horrified and offended at hearing there is such a love. Such are like the prudishly pure in the world, who seeing how many there are who openly seek the companionship of others of the opposite sex as a, relief from that of their consorts suppose that virtue is to be found in such an aloofness from others of the opposite sex as will not arouse the faintest suspicion, even with the evil-minded, that a love is cherished for them. To such prudes the doctrine of the chaste love of sex seems impure and immoral. It does not seem to occur to them that if two are worthy to enter into the union of marriage, they should be the last of all to arouse suspicion because of cultivating that sweet companionship with others which ultimates the chaste love of sex. They are better protected than others from infestations to impure thought and act by virtue of the sphere about them which comes from the conjugial partner who is tenderly loved. It is sad if one partner fosters the germs of suspicion in his heart, and is unable to trust the other.

A valid inquiry may be made as to what external acts and relationships are in accord with a love which is said to partake of the spirit but not of the flesh. Obviously all those intimate ones are excluded which are peculiar and initiatory to conjugial love alone. But barring these, there yet remain many which will enhance and intensify the chaste love of the sex. Foremost of all is the cultivation of intellectual companionship with the zest and delight that come from beholding the growth of truths one loves in the mind of the other. But about this there must be various kinds of social recreations as an ultimate basis. As to the kinds of social recreations to be used, this depends on the genius and temperamental and racial habits of those concerned.

418

No one can justly rule against any forms of recreation except for himself alone, and then only because he recognizes that such recreation promotes with him thought about the flesh to the exclusion of thought about the spirit. There is no support for the pharisaic reasoning which says, "I am strong and can do this without hurt, but for the sake of the weaker brother who may think he can do likewise but will stumble, I will renounce and decry it." It is no argument against specific forms of recreation or against the endeavor to kindle the flame of the chaste love of sex, that there are at times in them infestations to debase the thought from the end in view, viz., conjunction of minds. The more sublime the love, the more grievous and arduous the temptations that are to be met. It is no argument, for inst8nce, against the endeavor to kindle the flame of conjugial love or against the various happenings that prove its quality, that one is made subject to severe infestations. The greater the end, the greater should be the courage to seek it and to make use of all means which will promote it.

Conjugial love is to the chaste love of the sex as love to the Lord is to love towards the neighbor. No component of either pair can exist apart from its fellow. Conjugial love and love to the Lord are to be called conjunctive loves, the chaste love of the sex and love towards the neighbor are to be called consociative loves. Conjugial love conjoins two married partners into one, but the chaste love of the sex consociates the members of a society together with an interior bond of spiritual companionship that no associations of mere men or mere women can promote. If we are ever to have a firm conjunction of minds among the members of any of our societies, it will only be brought about by a cultivation of a love which next to conjugial love is the sweetest of all.

419

WORD IN THE HEAVENS. 1913

     A STUDY.

     D. THE DIFFERENT FORMS OF THE WORD IN THE DIFFERENT HEAVENS.

     16. The Word exists in a different form in each of the three heavens.

     "The Word exists among the angels of each heaven, but with a difference according to their degree of wisdom, intelligence and science; and though it differs as to the meaning in each heaven, still it is the same Word." (A. E. 593)

     "The Divine Truth is in altogether another form in the heavens than in the world; in the heavens it is such as is the internal sense of the Word; in the world such as is its sense in the letter; yea in the heavens themselves it is in divers forms: in one form in the inmost or third heaven, in another in the middle or second heaven, and in another in the first or ultimate heaven. The form of Divine Truth, that is, its perception, thought and utterance, in the inmost or third heaven, so transcends what is in the middle or second heaven, that in this latter it cannot be apprehended, for it contains innumerable things which cannot be uttered in the second heaven, consisting of mere changes of state as to the affections which are of love. But the form of Divine Truth in the middle or second heaven transcends in like manner what is in the first in ultimate heaven, and still more the form of Divine Truth in the world," (A. C. 8920.)

     "The Word in the Lord's celestial kingdom is far more excellent and full of wisdom than the Word which is in His spiritual kingdom, and these two differ in a degree similar to the difference between the natural Word which is in the world, and the spiritual Word." (De Verbo xiv, 3.)

     "In the Word of the celestial kingdom the goods of love are expressed, and the marks are affections; but in the Word of the spiritual kingdom the truths of wisdom are expressed, and the marks are perceptions." (S. S. 74.)

420

     "The wisdom which lies hidden in the celestial Word transcends the wisdom which is in the spiritual Word, as thousands transcend a unit." (De Verbo xiv, 4.)

     17. Concerning the Word in the spiritual heaven.

     "They have the Word in heaven, and also books; in the spiritual heaven the writing is like writing in the world, in Latin letters: when I was in the natural state I could read it, but could not understand." (S. D. 5561)

     "The writing of the spiritual Word is from letters which are like the printed letters of our world; but each letter makes a meaning; and therefore if you were to see that writing, you would not understand a single word; for letter is placed next to letter in a continuous series, with little lines and points above and below." (De Verbo 14.)

     "The writing of the spiritual angels is like the writing of men in the world; but each letter signifies a thing; so that if you were to see it when in a natural state, you would say that it was mere letters." (De Verbo 37)

     "They have both written and as it were printed letters." (S. D. Min. 4811, 4812.)

     "With the angels of the spiritual kingdom the letters are similar to those used in our world in printing." (S. S. 71.)

     "Every consonant letter therein is one meaning, and every vowel letter is an affection. The vowel letters are not written, but are pointed." (D. Wis. vii:53.)

     "As regards the Word in heaven, it is written in a spiritual style, which is wholly different from the natural style. The spiritual style consists of mere letters, each of which involves a meaning and there are points placed over the letters, which exalt the sense." (S. S. 71.)

     18. Concerning the Word in the celestial heaven.

     "The angels informed me that the writing in the third heaven consists of letters inflected and variously curved, each one of which has a meaning; and that the vowels there are for the tone which corresponds to the affection." (S. S. 90.)

421

     "The angels of the third heaven do not write by means of letters as do the other angels, but by means of curvatures and inflections which contain arcana." (A. E. 828.)

     "The writing of the celestial Word is from letters unknown in the world. They are indeed alphabetical letters; but each is formed from inflected lines, with little horns above and below; and there are jots or points in the letters, and also below and above them," (De Verbo 14.)

     "The angels of the celestial heaven have among them the Word written with letters inflected with little curves and apexes which are significative." (S. S. 90.)

     (The Word in the celestial kingdom is written) "in letters similar to the old Hebrew, letters, curved in various ways, with marks above and within." (S. S. 71.)

     "Some words of the celestial language were shown to me they were simply curvatures in various forms, almost like the letters with certain oriental nations." (S. D. 5580)

     "The letters with the angels of the celestial kingdom, with some, are like the Arabic letters; with others they are like the old Hebrew letters; but they are inflected above and within, with signatures above, between, and within. Each of these, also, involves a complete meaning." (T. C. R. 241.)

     "In the celestial heaven they can by one such form express more things than can be expressed by very many words in the spiritual language." (S. D. 5579.)

     "In the highest heaven each letter involves a thing, the perception of which they have from affection, and not from thought." (De Verbo 73)

     "In the third heaven they cannot utter the vowels i and e, but instead of them use y and eu, and the vowels a, o and u are in use with them, because they give a full sound." (S. S. 90.)

     E. THE APPEARANCE, BEAUTY AND POWER OF THE WORD IN HEAVEN, AND THE PHENOMENA CONNECTED WITH IT.

     19. Concerning the light proceeding from the Word in heaven, and the rainbow-like appearances around it.

     "In the sacred repository in which a copy of the Word is kept, the light is flame-like and bright, surpassing every degree of the light which is outside of the repository in the heaven." (S. S 74.)

422

     "The Word itself, in the shrines of the temples there, shine before the eyes of the angels like a great star, and sometime like a sun; and also, from the bright radiance round about it there appear as it were most beautiful rainbows: this happens a soon as a shrine is opened." (T. C. R. 209.)

     "Certain angelic spirits entered into a chamber, the walls o f which shone as if golden; and they saw there also a table upon which lay the Word, set around with precious stones in heavenly forms. And the angel keeper said, `When the Word is opened a light beams forth thence with ineffable brightness; and at the same time there appears from the precious stones a rainbow above and around the Word." (A. R. 566.)

     "When any angel from the third heaven comes thither one looks at the opened Word, there appears above and around it rainbow of various colors on a red ground. When an angel from the second heaven looks upon it, there appears a rainbow on a blue ground. When an angel from the lowest heaven looks there appears a rainbow on a white ground, and when any good spirit comes and looks, there appears a variegation of light, as of marble." (A. R. 566.)

     20. Wonderful phenomena, produced by the Word with spiritual world.

     "In the spiritual world wonderful things appear from the Word, a few of which I will here relate:

     "That the truths of the Word each and all are shining, was made evident to me from this, that when any single verse of the Word is written out upon paper, and this is thrown into the air the paper itself shines in the form in which it was cut; wherefore spirits are able to produce by the Word various shining forms, even those of birds and fishes." (T. C. R. 209.)

     "What is still more wonderful, when anyone rubs his face hands, or clothing, with the open Word, touching them with it writing, the face, hands and clothing shine, as if he were standing in a star, surrounded with its light." (T. C. R. 209.)

423

     21. Concerning miracles effected by means of the Heavenly Doctrine.

     "There was a city (in the imaginary heavens), inhabited by Jesuits, and in the midst of their vast treasury, under the city, there was a miraculous lamp, ever burning, by means of which they made wonderful, shining appearances in the air, in order to mislead the simple. When these things were examined, "they said at first that they had done it by means of prayers, but it was shown that they had made the light by art, in that they had cast the HEAVENLY DOCTRINE into a crucible, and then into a fire; and when the crucible was sent down it was taken out of the fire and placed in that lamp; and it was found that they had also made the bright flying signs in like manner by means of that Doctrine, by casting it forth on high, and thinking at the same time of such things as appeared. As these had made use of such an art, which is a magical one most shocking, because done with Divine truths, they also subsided: the earth opened beneath their feet, and they were swallowed up, having been cast into hell. Afterwards inquiry was made in various places, and it was found that by means of that Doctrine they had made bright appearances in the air, in chambers, etc. The reason the Doctrine shone, was from the Divine truths therein." (S. D. 5413-5420.)

     22. How the Word affects those who are evil, in the spiritual world.

     "If anyone who is in falsities look at the Word as it lies in the holy place, thick darkness spreads before his eyes, and consequently the Word appears to him black and sometimes as if covered over with soot; and if he also touches the Word, there comes an explosion with a crash, and he is thrown to a corner of the room, and for a while he lies there as if he were dead." (T. C. R. 209.)

     "If something from the Word is written on paper by anyone who is in falsities, and the paper is thrown up towards heaven, then in the air, between his eye and heaven, there comes a similar explosion, and the paper is torn to atoms and vanishes. The same takes place if the paper is thrown towards an angel who stands near this I have often seen." (T. C. R. 209.)

424

     "If anyone comes up who has falsified the Word, the splendor is first dissipated; and if he approaches and fixes his eyes on the Word, there is an appearance of blood around it; and he is then admonished to depart, because there is danger." (A. R. 566.)

      "A certain prelate who in the world had been a prominent author on the doctrine of faith alone, boldly came up to the table, and, contrary to the warning of the angel, touched the Word. And then suddenly fire and smoke issued from the Word, and an explosion took place with a great crash, by which he was thrown to a corner of the room, and lay there as dead for half an hour." (A. R. 566.)

     Swedenborg once, in the northern quarter of the spiritual world, beheld an old man sitting among many books in a chamber, holding before him the Word and seeking therefrom what might be serviceable to his doctrine of salvation by faith alone. Entering into conversation with him, Swedenborg refuted that doctrine, whereupon "the old man became so angry that he leaped from his seat and cried out to his scribes to cast me out. And when I immediately went out by myself, he threw out of doors after me the book which his hand by chance laid hold of, and that book was the Word." (A. R. 484)

     This last phenomena seems to have taken place in the world of spirits, where the Word still appeared as an ordinary book. The relation shows the utter rejection of the Word by the evil spirits, before they are finally cast into hell. In hell itself the Word does not seem to exist in any form whatever. Swedenborg never mentions having seen the Word among the infernals, and it is easily seen that the presence of the Word among them would constitute a most terrible danger to them. The Divine Truth is present there, but now in the form of inexorable Law, restraining and perishing, but no longer conjoined with the Divine Good, as it is in the written Word.

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Editorial Department. 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS

     "In an address given at Bechstein Hall a few days ago, Mr. Dan Crawford, author of THINKING BLACK, made some illuminating remarks upon the character of the African. According to him, the Negro has a tremendous belief in the immortality of the soul. 'These people tell you that the dead do not really die, the body to them is the cottage of the soul. You say "he has departed." They say "he has arrived.

     "`No native will ever deny the being of an everlasting God. To them He is the ancient of days, the unraveling of all life's perplexities. They have a thanksgiving known as the "God Song.!"'" MORNING LIGHT, April 26.)

     While our "permeation" enthusiasts are rejoicing in the unification of the two great Presbyterian Churches in this country-the United Presbyterian and the Southern Presbyterian-as another evidence of "the dawning of an era of universal brotherhood," etc., it is of interest to note the theological features of the Joint Report adopted by the General Assemblies of these Churches at Atlanta, Ga., on May 16th. "Particular emphasis is expressed in the following `doctrines as essential part' of the union:

     The Holy Scriptures are to be believed as the very word of God.

     Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is not only the Son of God in respect to His natural, necessary and eternal relations to the Father, but also the true and Supreme God, being one in essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

     Our Lord, Jesus Christ, besides the dominion which belongs to Him as God, has as our God man mediator a two-fold dominion with which He has been invested by the Father as the reward of His sufferings.

426

These are a dominion over the Church, of which He is the living head and law-giver, and also a dominion of all created persons and things which is exercised by Him in subserviency to the manifestations of God's glory in the system of redemption and the interests of His church.

As to the constitution of the person of our Redeemer, the Scriptures plainly teach that He was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and was born without human father. He lived a life of perfect obedience and, by the shedding of his blood, made full atonement for sin and purchased redemption for his people.

The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, eternally proceeding from the Father and Son, does, by a direct operation accompanying the word, so act on the soul as to quicken, regenerate and sanctify it." (Public Ledger, May 17.) From all of which it would appear that the essential falsities of the Old Theology still remain in full force as the Dragon's soul.
SWEDENBORG IN LONDON 1913

SWEDENBORG IN LONDON 1913

     In an account of the ancient Scandinavian colony in London, published in the London MORNING POST for Aug. 19th, 1912, we find the following interesting reference to Swedenborg:

     SWEDENBORG IN LONDON.

     "From the time of the early invasions there has been a close connection between Scandinavia and Great Britain. To the Londoner the Scandinavian hardly appears to be a foreigner. He has introduced many of his words into the language and more especially into the Scottish dialects. And the work of his country's greatest thinker, Swedenborg, has profoundly influenced British thought. Swedenborg's association with London was peculiarly close. After many years of a wandering life, he found London, in the middle of the Eighteenth Century, a delightful place of residence, and he won here respect for his scientific attainments and a tolerance for his religious views that the Lutherans of his own country refused to concede to him. The house where he lived, 25 Bath-street, Coldbath-fields, has long been pulled down. Emerson has written of him: 'He is described when in London as a man of quiet clerical habit, not averse to tea and coffee, and kind to women and children.

427

He wore a sword when in full velvet dress and whenever he walked out carried a gold-headed cane.' There is nothing in Emerson's description of him that could have suggested to the good folk of Clerkenwell that their unobtrusive neighbor was the man who had visited Heaven and Hell and witnessed the Last Judgment and Second Coming of the Lord in 1757-fifteen years previous to his own death. For close upon a hundred and fifty years Swedenborg's body rested in London in the vaults of the old Swedish Lutheran Church in Prince's-square, Wapping, and it was only in 1908 that the body was removed to Sweden. It is unnecessary now to recall the strange vandalism that made his skull an object of barter in the early years of the Nineteenth Century, but it is singular as showing how closely modern London is in touch with the Swedish philosopher to recall that the service preparatory to the removal was conducted by Pastor John Lindskog, the present pastor of the new Swedish Church in Harcourt-street,"
WHAT THE NEW CHURCH DOES NOT STAND FOR. 1913

WHAT THE NEW CHURCH DOES NOT STAND FOR. Rev. B. N. Stone 1913

"WHAT THE NEW CHURCH STANDS FOR." The Distinctive Doctrines of the New Jerusalem. By Baman N. Stone. New York, New Church Board of Publication, 1912, pp. 120, 12 mo.

This little "Manual of Religious Instruction," constituting "Doctrinal series No. V," seems to be intended for general missionary work rather than the religious instruction of the young. The title is somewhat misleading, as the scope of the work is very limited and by no means expresses all that the New Church "stands for." As far as it goes, however, the Manual would be on the whole a useful introductory work, written in an exceedingly lucid and interesting style, and we could unhesitatingly recommend it to our readers, were it not for the unfortunate fact that the author has entirely failed to set forth a clear presentation of so "distinctive" a Doctrine of the New Jerusalem as-the Second Coming of the Lord! This is not even referred to by name, though there is a chapter on "The Mission of Swedenborg," where Mr. Stone quotes Swedenborg's well-known testimony in T. C. R. 779, and admits that "these writings of Swedenborg are to be regarded as divine revelation.

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The truths contained in them are not merely his own ideas and beliefs, the product of his unaided natural reason, nor were they drawn from the theology of the Church or even the instruction of the angels of heaven, but they were learned immediately from the Word of the Lord and the inspiration of his Spirit." Nevertheless, "Swedenborg's inspiration is to be carefully distinguished from the state of the men through whom the Scriptures were given," etc. And the writer proceeds to state that Swedenborg's office "was not to supplement the Law and the Gospel with another testament, nor add even one word to holy writ; least of all were his writings to replace and do away with the Bible."

All this, of course, is intended to ward off a possible accusation from some Old Church critic, but fails to convey any distinct idea of what the Writings are. If they are not "another testament,"-the Lord's third and final Testimony concerning Himself, the new and glorious Gospel of the Second Advent, the LATIN WORD, then what are they but the word of a mere man? Of course they do not "replace and do away with the Bible," but they fulfil it, even as the New Testament is the fulfilment of the Old. The Lord Himself told His disciples, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs; but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father." (John 16: 12, 25.) How can any Newchurchman doubt that the Writings are the fulfillment of this Divine promise? That the Lord Himself in them speaks "plainly of the Father?" And if the Lord speaks in them, why are they not the Word of the Lord as much as those revelations in which He does not speak "plainly" but "in proverbs?"

The warning in the closing words of the Apocalypse against adding to or taking away from holy writ refers to such action by "any man," but cannot Possibly refer to the action of the Lord Himself, who distinctly promised a further revelation. On the premises laid down by Mr. Stone, a Jew would be quite justified in his rejection of the whole New Testament, for it is distinctly said in Deuteronomy that "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it," (chapter 4:2); and again, "Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it," (12:32).

429

Nay, on the basis of these words the Samaritans feel justified in rejecting all those books of the Old Testament which were subsequently added to the Pentateuch.

To an Old Church critic Mr. Stone's disclaimers will not be convincing, for such a one-untrained in the Convention dialectics-cannot possibly be expected to distinguish between a new "Divine Revelation" and "another testament." And to any proselyte that may be gained by the little book the same disclaimers will act like poison in a mother's milk, communicating from the outset a doubt and denial of the real Divinity of the Lord in His Second Coming. As to ourselves we do not know whether the disclaimers represent Mr. Stone's own real sentiments or the Convention's official ukase, but it is painful to us to contrast his recent statement with the following words from his pen on a former occasion: "The truth contained in the Writings makes one with that of the Scriptures,-it is the same in kind if not in form. The Hebrew, the Greek, and the Latin Word form a continuous series of Divine revelations, wholly separate from the libraries of men. Many good books have in the general send of the term been inspired from heaven, but the Writings are heaven-revealed. Ministers of the Gospel preach from the Word, but the Writings are the Advent of the Lord Himself." (The Rev. B. N. Stone in THE NEW CHURCH REVIEW, July, 1903, p. 423 Italics ours.)
IS EVERY GOOD MAN A MEMBER OF THE NEW CHURCH? 1913

IS EVERY GOOD MAN A MEMBER OF THE NEW CHURCH? 1913

"Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Matt. vii, 21.)

There are certain people who claim that the New Jerusalem is descending over all the Christian churches and that the Lord in His Second Advent is received by all denominations of the old church. Consequently they hold that no specific New Church organization is necessary.

430

They believe that the leaven of New Church doctrine is gradually permeating all Christendom and that the Universal Christian Church at last will become the Lord's New Church.

     This opinion, however, does not seem to find any support whatever in the illumined Writings of our church. And it is to these Writings we must appeal for an authoritative answer to our question. And it is so much more necessary to do so as the pernicious notion that "every one who lives as a Christian" is a member of the Lord's New Church specific, is threatening to undermine and weaken our organization and prevent many receivers of the doctrines from joining the external body of the church.

     What are the express and definite teachings of the Writings in regard to this attitude?

     In "The New Jerusalem and Its Heavenly Doctrine" we read 6242, 244): "It is called the church where the Lord is acknowledged and where the Word is those who are outside the church, and acknowledge one God and live according to their religiosity in a certain charity towards the neighbor, are in communion with those who are of the church. It is hence manifest that the Lord's church is everywhere in the whole world, although specifically where the Lord is acknowledged and where the Word is."

     From this quotation it plainly appears that the Writings draw a distinctive demarcation line between the universal church composed of those who live a life of charity to the neighbor, and the specific church composed of those who acknowledge the Lord and have His Word and also live the life that is called charity.

     It is plain, therefore, that "the New Church is a distinct entity altogether from the church universal and is signified by the New Jerusalem in a specific sense."

     We cannot too strongly emphasize this plausible distinction. The "function" and "use" of the church universal-composed of those of the old churches who live the life called charity-is to do "good" and nothing else whatever. Consequently we find the old churches engaging more and more in works of charity and philanthropy and, in fact, caring very little for the Divinity of the Lord or the holiness of the Word. Yea, we find among all the old churches a growing tendency to neglect the doctrinal side of religion and almost exclusively cultivate ethical issues.

431

     The church specific, on the contrary, or in other words the Lord's New Church, has a very distinct and definite existence and function, and its "use" is "truth" or doctrine transformed into life. Accordingly do we everywhere in the Writings meet with the statement that "the church is from doctrine and according to it," and that it is the "understanding of the Word," and not the mere possession, or even knowledge of it "which makes the church." (S. S. 76.)

     We read further (A. C. 730): "In order that the church may be there must be doctrine from the Word;" and again "when doctrine is not received, the church does not exist, for the church is from doctrine."

     Let us dwell as emphatically as possible upon these plain and well-defined statements of the Writings, for we need them as a bulwark and a weapon of defense against the false prophets who would needs persuade us that the Lord's New Church is everywhere, and that it can exist without definite and distinct New Church doctrine.

     Again we read (T. C. R. 243, 247) that: "It is not the Word, but the right understanding of it, that constitutes the church; and the quality of the church is according to the understanding of the Word with those who are in the church-excellent and precious if the understanding of it is derived from genuine truths in the Word, but destroyed, yea, filthy, if from truths falsified."

     The unmistakable meaning of this sentence is that if a communion or an organization calling itself a church, though possessing the Word, does not rightly understand it, then it is not a true church at all, and certainly not the Lord's New Church specific; for let us inscribe these striking, palpable and unmistakable statements of the Writings with indelible ink at the top and at the bottom of our Creed: "It is the right understanding of the Word which makes the church." (S. S. 76)

     The church universal, therefore, composed of those within the old churches who live the life called charity possesses only one of the three principles which are said to be the essentials of the Lord's New Church, the two others being the acknowledgment of the Deity of our Lord and of the holiness of the Word in its letter and in its spirit, and consequently in no sense can be said to constitute the Lord's New Church in a specific meaning.

432

     The doctrines of the Lord's New Church, not being received by the church universal or the denominations of the old church, but rather being given the cold shoulder or rejected by them, it is in no sense whatever true that these old churches are being gradually transformed into the church which in the Word and in the Writings is called the New Jerusalem. Neither are the members of these old churches members of the Lord's New Church specific. They may be Christians, and as such not excluded from heaven, but they most certainly do not dwell in that region of heaven which constitutes its heart and lungs.

     So far from being transformed into the Lord's New Church by a slow and gradual process of evolution, as some misguided interpreters of Swedenborg claim, the Writings in no equivocal language and in plain English teach and emphatically and positively state that the church universal after the Last Judgment is involved in a process of vastation which will continue until nothing is left either of faith or charity and consequently no church exists. We read: "As doctrine from the Word constitutes the church, so when doctrine conflicts with the Word, there is no longer a church but a religiosity which counterfeits the church." (A. E. 786.) And further (A. C. 2986): "When any church becomes no church, that is, when charity perishes, a New Church is set up by the Lord." And still further (A. C. 2955): "When a former church is dead a new one is raised up by the Lord in its place (A. C. 1850), the present one remaining in its external worship as the Jews do in theirs, in whose worship, as is well known, there is nothing of the Church."

     This is in perfect harmony with the way the Lord's work of regeneration in the individual is proceeding. We learn in the Writings that the old "proprium" is never transformed into a new and heavenly one, but we are plainly told that the Lord creates in man a new will and a new understanding inside of the old proprium, which is not removed but simply recedes and is made quiescent or inactive serving as a protection around the new will and the new understanding.

     The Writings, therefore, give us no hope whatever that the old churches will ever become the Lord's New Church in a specific sense.

433

On the contrary these same Writings explicitly declare that "when any church becomes no church-and a new church is set up by the Lord, this is rarely if ever effected with those with whom the old church has been, but with those with whom there was no church before, that is with Gentiles." (A. C. 2986) And in another place (A. C. 2910): "Rarely, if ever, from the people of the former church, but from nations that have been in ignorance." And still, if possible, more positively and unequivocally (A. C. 9256): "A new church is always set up among Gentiles who are outside the church, which takes place when the old church has closed heaven against itself. For this reason the church was transferred from the Jewish people to the Gentiles, and the present church is also now being transferred to Gentiles-nor can a new church be set up with others."

     How can anyone in the face of so many clear, distinct and definite statements, which easily could be multiplied, claim that the old churches are receiving the Lord in His Second Coming, and thereby are being transformed into the Lord's New Church? And how is it possible to hold that everyone who is in the good of religion is a member of the Lord's New Church, when the Writings so plainly and emphatically teach just the very opposite? And how can a true Newchurchman be blind to the fact that there is grave danger for him in joining an old-church organization or intimately associating with old-church people?

     The Writings explicitly warn us (T. C. R. 346-449) to "guard against a friendship of love with any one." And in the way of an explanation of what is understood by "friendship of love" we read: "By the friendship of love is meant interior friendship, which is such that not only is one's external man loved, but also his internal or spirit, that is as to the affection of the mind." And how can a man be a member of an old church and not enter into this "friendship of love," with his associates, and thus share the "affections of their minds," which certainly is not for genuine truths but for falsities?

     And to further impress upon our minds the grave responsibility for entering into "friendship of love" with any one, the Writings expressly inculcate that the consequences of this temporizing with the old are so fatal as to be "detrimental even after death," "for those who in the world contracted with each other the friendship of love cannot like others be separated according to order, and assigned to the society correspondent with their life; for they are bound together interiorly as to the spirit, nor can they be severed, because they are like branches ingrated into branches.

434

Therefore if one as to his interiors is in heaven, and the other as to his in hell, they remain fast to each other, much like a sheep tied to a wolf, or a goose to a fox, or a dove to a hawk; and he whose interiors are in hell inspires the infernal things belonging to him into the one whose interiors are in heaven. For among things that are well known in heaven is also this, that evils may be inspired into the good, but not goods into the evil; this is because every one is by birth in evil. Consequently when the good are thus joined fast to the evil their interiors are closed, and both are thrust down into hell; and one who is good suffers hard things there, but after a lapse of time is taken out, and then first begins preparation for heaven." "I have heard that the good, when taken out, were afterward prepared for heaven by the means of reformation, but with greater difficulty than others."

     Let this not be so understood as if all associations with old-church people should be detrimental and lead to an unhappy state after death. The Writings say that natural or exterior friendship may with no grave danger be formed with any one, "even with the clown who jokes at the table of a duke." But if interior or spiritual friendship is entered into with no regard to whether the friends are acting "from love toward the neighbor and from love to God, and thus adapted to consociation with the angels of heaven, or whether they are from a love opposed to the neighbor and from a love opposed to God and thus adapted to consociation with devils"-then the above mentioned serious consequences might follow.

     This then is one of the grave dangers of temporizing or compromising with the old churches. But there are other inconveniences accruing from the same sources which are no less deplorable. By remaining in the old churches under the erroneous and false pretext that thereby we help to transform them into the Lord's New Church we hinder and retard the growth of the organized New Church and weaken its influence.

     And this is about the most serious mistake a Newchurchman can commit.

435

For the Writings tell us that when a church is vastated, as is now the case with the old churches, "there always remains some nucleus of a church" (A. C. 407), which "remains" at the time of the Flood were called "Noah" (A. C. 468) and in our time are the "remnant" from whom "the New Church may be formed" (A. C. 69), or in other words the organized New Church commonly known in this country under the name of the General Convention of the New Jerusalem in the United States, branches of which exist in a great many American cities.

     So far, therefore, from mixing with or joining the old churches in order to infuse a new spirit into them and thus make them new or transform them into the Lord's New Church-which we have seen is as impossible as to transform man's old proprium into a new one-we are given a hint to leave them, yea, even "flee from" them for we read (A. R. 707): "There will be nothing of doctrine in the old church, and therefore they (the receivers of the new) will flee from it."

     In conclusion: Not everyone who is in the good of religion is a member of the Lord's New Church.

     The old church by rejecting the Lord in His Divine Humanity and denying the Divinity and the holiness of the Word, of whose inner spiritual sense it knows practically nothing, is now being vastated and consummated and is dead.

     Instead of joining or remaining in this dying old church we should flee from it, and "let the dead bury their dead," and instead join the specific New Church, the Lord's New Church, the only church which in essence and in truth, in doctrine and in life acknowledges the Lord's sole Divinity in His Human; the holiness of the Word resting in its Divinity and Spiritual sense and the Life that is called Charity.

     And where do we find this church here in America? There is only one answer: The visible New Church, the nucleus of the church that is called the New Jerusalem descending from God out of heaven, is right here in the United States the religious body that believes and proclaims these three principles as the essentials of the Christian religion, without dl of which the Christian religion and the Christian Church is not.

     If you are a receiver of these truths your way lies open and straight before you.

436

Then do not hesitate. Turn your back upon the old-church, Sodom and Gomorrah, and enter upon your pilgrimage toward the New Jerusalem.

PERSONAL. For a long time the writer was laboring under the erroneous idea he is here trying to combat. A deeper study of the Writings has convinced him that he was wrong. For many of the references in the above he is indebted to the NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY of London. But the thoughts, the tendency and the convictions expressed are his own. (The Rev. Axel Lundeberg in the N. C. MESSENGER for June 4, 1913.)
WHAT IS THE CANON OF THE NEW CHURCH? 1913

WHAT IS THE CANON OF THE NEW CHURCH? F. HODSON ROSE 1913

     Communicated
     Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     Recent experiences have shown that there is a necessity for an enquiry as to what is or what is not of the Canon of the New Church.

     The need has arisen from the appeals which are now being made by certain writers within the Church to works written by Swedenborg prior to his illumination.

     It is done under the plea of correlating them with the acknowledged Writings, that is, by showing their mutual relation, but in actual practice it has resulted in the assuming for these earlier works, an authority which has hitherto been conceded only to the works prepared and published by command of the Lord. Quotations are given from them and references made to them as if such quotations or references involved a finality which rendered doubt or discussion impossible. It is not as if these writers had been content to use these quotations or references as auxiliaries or subordinates to the statements in the Writings themselves, but they have not hesitated to use them as a basis for theories which, if accepted, would profoundly modify, even if they did not negative, the teaching found in the acknowledged works of Divine Revelation.

437

     It is in this use of these earlier works for original research that the danger lies, for it tends to inflate their importance, until they overshadow by their abstruseness the simpler statements of the Writings and tend to develop an esoteric cult which is neither healthy nor desirable.

     This result is attained by spreading the cloak of "authority" over these earlier works, without defining what is the authority which is to be accredited to them. The use that is made of them would imply that their authority is the same as that of the Writings themselves, but few, if any, of those who thus use them, are prepared to avow that they are of Divine Authority.

     As this is the point upon which our present enquiry rests, it will be advisable to define what is meant by the words "of Divine Authority."

     These words involve the acknowledgment that the statements made, the information given or the doctrines taught, are such that man is not free to question their accuracy. He may not understand them, nor desire to obey them, but if he acknowledges them as being of Divine Authority they are by that acknowledgment elevated above the sphere of his criticism.

     We may put the question at issue before us in this form: Which and what of the manuscripts written by Swedenborg at different periods of his life are to be accepted by the man of the Church as being of Divine Authority?

     It will help us to a solution if we tabulate certain facts which have a hearing upon the answer. First and foremost is the fact that it was the Lord who called Swedenborg to the work and that from the first day of that call he received nothing but from the Lord alone.

     This fact enables us to separate the works written and published by Swedenborg prior to that call from those written and published subsequent to it.

It is a fact that the call of Emanuel Swedenborg to be the instrument of the Lord's Second Coming superimposed certain qualities into his works which had been previously absent and it is to these qualities that we generally refer when we speak of the Divine Authority of the Writings.

     But in addition to the two classes thus distinguished there is a third, which can be as definitely separated from them, and that is, the manuscripts which Swedenborg himself did not publish.

438

     That these three divisions exist is a matter of fact and is not and cannot be a question of opinion,-a distinction that should be borne in mind, for matters of fact are not open to dispute although the inferences drawn from them may be as various as the individuals making them. But the mere division into three classes does not exhaust the facts upon which we must build, for to a Newchurchman it is a fact that chance, caprice or misfortune has had no influence in deciding into which of these classes specific works should fall.

     The control of the Lord has been absolute over the fortunes of each work, and when we find works like the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED abandoned and so to speak superceded by the APOCALYPSE REVEALED, we must admit the selection to be of the Divine Providence. It is essential that this point should be thoroughly realized, for a recognition of it leads to the acknowledgment that it was of the Divine Providence that certain manuscripts written by Swedenborg should not have been published by him.

     We have, therefore, three well defined classes to be considered:

     1) Works written and published by Swedenborg prior to the opening of his spiritual sight.

     2) Works written and published subsequent to it, and

     3) Manuscripts written by him, but not published by him.

     The authority, the Divine Authority, of the second of these classes, is not questioned by any loyal Newchurchman, and the use of separating them into a distinct class is, that they are by that acknowledgment the standard of authority for the other classes. If we use them for that purpose towards those works which are in the first class, we find them absolutely silent as to the existence of these prior works.

     It is well that we should recognize how absolute this silence is, for even the diligent study of those who would endeavor to overcome it have failed to find anything more convincing than the reference in T. C. R. 33 to "what is said in my works, on the subject of creation," words which have to be strained almost to breaking point to include works like the PRINCIPIA. This silence, as has already been stated, cannot be supposed to be accidental, for to do so, would be to doubt the Divine Supervision, and can be better explained by associating it with the repeated statements of Swedenborg that he was not allowed to take anything relating to the Doctrines of the New Church; from any angel or spirit or even from himself.

439

This silence is in itself a reason why we should be careful to distinguish between these two classes, for to use them indiscriminately is to confuse that which comes with the authority of Divine Revelation with that which lacks that authority.

     This confusion results from the obliteration of boundaries, when those boundaries are definitely fixed by the manifestations of the Lord and the intromission of Swedenborg into the spiritual world as stated in T. C. R. 779. The works written prior to those events are separated by a discrete degree from those written subsequent to them. That this is so can be demonstrated. If these two classes of works were on the same plane and of a continuous degree, then there would be no need of a miraculous manifestation by the Lord, or the opening of Swedenborg's spiritual sight, or of his intromission into the spiritual world, for he could have proceeded by successive stages towards his future developments.

     If, therefore, these miraculous events were necessary before he could give to the world those works which are admitted to be of Divine Revelation, then the silence of these latter concerning their predecessors must be accepted as a denial that they come into the same category.

     It may be urged that this is no proof that these earlier works are not of Divine Authority, but to do so would be but to beg the question. The present analysis is not to advance a new position, but to re-establish one which has been threatened, not by a direct assault, but by the expansion of a rival. The position of the works written and published under the direct auspices of the Lord has not been questioned, but their supremacy has been challenged by the elevation of these earlier works, almost to an equality with the Writings themselves and the onus of proof rests with those who would give to the earlier works of Swedenborg an authority commensurate or nearly commensurate to that which they accord to the Writings.

     There is still the unpublished manuscripts to be considered and here we encroach upon territory whose boundaries are not so well defined.

440

     Those to be considered belong principally to the period of Swedenborg's illumination and range from works like the SPIRITUAL DIARY, which bear evidence that they were the unpremeditated record of his daily experiences, to those which like the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED were evidently almost completely prepared for publication.

     Why the Lord in His Providence permitted some of these, like the missing treatise on Marriage, to be lost to us, or others to be unfinished or fragmentary, can only be a matter of conjecture, but we are faced with the indisputable fact that there was some reason, some Divine reason, why they should not have been published by Swedenborg.

     We may hazard the opinion that they were more nearly associated with the preparation of Swedenborg himself than with the systematic Presentation of the doctrines of the Church, but the fact that they were not published under the direct auspices of the Lord should make us careful how we use them to override or qualify statements in those that were thus published.

     The line of demarcation cannot be strictly drawn, for these manuscripts are the source of much information which we do not elsewhere possess, although as a whole they lack that continuity of plan and orderly arrangement which is so marked a feature of the published Writings themselves. They resemble accumulation of material, whose source or origin can be affirmed, although it is only the Architect Himself who can define the use they performed or were intended to perform in the finished edifice.

     At times this use is indicated by the brackets that encircle portions of the SPIRITUAL DIARY, and it is also easy to trace elsewhere where corresponding passages exist both in the published Writings and the unpublished manuscripts, but even these instances still leave much information that exist only in these unpublished manuscripts, and the question arises, what is their authority?

It is not possible for a loyal Newchurchman to doubt their truth, but their non-introduction into the systematic exposition of the Doctrines of the Church should make him cautious how he uses them to erect theories whose top shall reach to heaven.

441

Statements or incidents true in themselves can be perverted by unjustifiable application into falsities, and herein lies the danger of grouping together these materials of which no use was made in the published Writings. The material itself may be the Divine Truth, but the plan and elevation of the structure may be merely the imaginations of the proprium of man.

The present paper does not aspire to define what is the limit of the canon of the New Church, but it would expressly place outside that canon all the works written by Swedenborg prior to his call to the office of revelator. It would also suggest that great caution should be used in advancing theories, the alleged basis of which is only to be found in the unpublished manuscripts, for it would take the position that their non-appearance in the published Writings is an indication that their introduction in the form in which they exist would disturb the balance of the systematic presentation of the doctrines or give undue prominence to a minor detail.

The question is necessarily a delicate one, and one that calls for individual expression of opinion, but it is one that is being forced upon the Church by the action of those, who, not content with the generally accepted Writings of the Church, are attempting to extend their authority to every work, manuscript or letter ever written by Swedenborg. F. HODSON ROSE.

442

Church News. 1913

Church News. Various 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. The rush of the School closing, the meeting of the Clergy, the Assembly, etc., prevents us this time from giving more than the barest facts concerning the most important events here. The "Junior Ball," on May 24th, as usual supplied us with much entertainment at the expense of suffering graduates. The "Senior Ball," on June 6th, was a very impressive occasion, the graduating class presenting to the Alma Mater a fine picture of the Rev. James P. Stuart, "the general," as he was called in the early Academy days; likewise a beautiful souvenir banner showing the opened Word, surrounded by the rays of the rising sun and the appropriate motto: "Ab uno disce omnia." The commencement exercises were held on the morning of June 6th. The annual address was delivered by Mr. Paul Synnestvedt; Mr. Theodore Pitcairn delivered the Class Valedictory; diplomas of graduation were presented to four young men: Laurence Burnham, Edward Davis, Theodore Pitcairn and Fred. Synnestvedt. Seven young ladies received the gold medallion: Jessie Campbell, Bess Heilman, Lenore Junge, Margaretta Lechner and Carita, Frieda and Yadah Roschman. Miss Dorothy Burnham and Miss Venita Roschman received graduate diplomas from the Normal Department.

     BERLIN, ONT. On the 19th of May there took place an event to which all connected with the Carmel Church had been looking forward with great expectation, namely, the wedding of Mr. Alfred Bellinger and Miss Alena Roschman. The service took place at six o'clock in the evening in the chapel in the presence of a large gathering of relatives and friends. The service opened with "Thou wilt show me the path of life," as an introit, and this was followed by part three of antiphon nine, which is exceedingly appropriate for such an occasion. Then came the hymn, "O Precious Sign and Seal of Heavenly Union," during which the bridal party entered, approached the altar, and took their places under a canopy of apple blossoms, which was supported by a double row of white pillars.

443

The marriage service of the liturgy followed. After the service about one hundred invited guests partook of the wedding supper in the school room, during which a number of toasts were proposed and responded to. This was followed by a general reception for all of the Society. Dancing was the order until a late hour, and in the course of this the couple quietly gave the confetti laden young people the slip. However, they were followed to the depot and given a hearty farewell on their wedding trip. Mr. and Mrs. Bellinger will reside at Windsor, Ont. (opposite Detroit).

     A week passed, and we gathered again in the chapel for an event of a very different character,-the memorial service of Mrs. Jacob Stroh. Mrs. Stroh was throughout life connected with the New Church in Berlin, and ever active in all the life and Uses of the Church. It will be a long while until we can accustom ourselves to her absence. She passed away on the 18th of May, and on the 21st, after the burial, the memorial service was held. The pastor delivered a sermon, in the course of which he mentioned that the last time Mrs. Stroh was present at worship was three weeks before, when the youngest of her children was received into the Church by the rite of confirmation, it being thus granted her to see what we may regard as the completion of her work as a mother.

     On the 6th of May the young men of the Carmel Church, and also some of those who may be reckoned by others as being beyond that class, organized an Athletic Association, which has thus far shown vigorous life. This Association had charge of the Society's Victoria Day (May 24th) Picnic on the school grounds, and provided an excellent Program of sports for young and old during the afternoon, and an exhibition of fire-works in the evening.

     On the 3d of June, Mr. Hugo Lj. Odhner arrived from Bryn Athyn, and will assist the pastor until the end of September. W.

444

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. "The sixteenth annual meeting of the Swedenborg Scientific Association, held at the Parkway building in Philadelphia on May 15, was an unusually large and encouraging one. Some fifty or sixty people were in attendance. The reports showed an increase in membership and in subscribers to the NEW PHILOSOPHY, a considerable sale of Swedenborg's GENERATION published last year with favorable notices from leading medical journals, and a small number of subscriptions received for the projected new edition of the ANIMAL KINGDOM. Swedenborg's work on the SENSES which has been appearing in the NEW PHILOSOPHY as a serial will now soon be published in a book, being its first appearing in English, the index only now being waited for. The work on the FIBRE is still in progress in the NEW PHILOSOPHY, the important numbers on the "Doctrine of Forms" having now been completed. This work on the FIBRE is also the first appearing of this very wonderful physiological and psychological study of Swedenborg's, in the English language. Complaint having recently been made quite widely that the Church at large and especially the General Convention was lukewarm in its support of the work of the Association, it was gratifying to learn that out of forty-four new members added the past year thirty-seven were members of the Convention. The membership is now between two and three hundred.

     The president, Dr. Frank Sewall, read his annual address on "The Present Problem in Philosophy: Is the World Self-Centered, or God-Centered?" This was followed by a paper illustrated by large diagrams, by Reginald W. Brown, showing the exact relation of the theory of the world's evolution out of the Infinite as given in the recently-published LESSER PRINCIPIA, and that of the PRINCIPIA itself. Marked differences in terms and in divisions or stages of progress were pointed out and the effort was made by the speaker and also by Dr. Iungerich, who followed, to bring the two series into harmony showing the progress in Swedenborg's own construction of his cosmogony and the bringing of the more crude and tentative scheme of the LESSER PRINCIPIA into the final and full perfecting of it in the PRINCIPIA.

445

The able and carefully-prepared address and the discussion were of deep interest and of historic importance, this being probably the first real setting forth in detail to any public of the scheme of evolution in the LESSER PRINCIPIA, the work which now, in the new London edition of the PRINCIPIA is first given to the world in a published form, having been transcribed and translated from the photolithographed MS. of Swedenborg and not from any published work of his.

An interesting and valuable paper by George W. Worcester, of Colorado, followed, giving a description of Swedenborg's doctrine of FORMS and an estimate of its importance as a key to the understanding of his entire system both philosophical and theological. The promise was held out that the long-awaited new edition of the work on the WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD complete with the Third Part now for the first time translated, to be published by the Rotch Trustees, will appear in June, it is hoped in time for the meeting of the Convention."-N. C. Messenger, May 28.

GREAT BRITAIN. "In the course of the next few weeks visitors to the metropolis will have an opportunity of seeing the alterations that are being made to the premises of the Swedenborg Society at No. 1, Bloomsbury street, and which will then be completed. The ground floor is being fitted up as a handsome book room and shop. Handsome library book cases and rich oak paneling will completely surround the large front room; Books will be open for the inspection of visitors, and the establishment will present more of the appearance of a library than a retail shop. The widespread interest which the public are taking in Swedenborg's writings and the many enquirers who now present themselves at 1, Bloomsbury Street, have made some such step imperative. The work has been undertaken in such a liberal spirit that the Swedenborg Society's depot will probably be unique in London. This is as it should be; the books published by the Swedenborg Society, as well as all the collateral literature of the Church, should be distributed from an establishment worthy of the high use performed.'"-Morning Light, May 17.

446

SOUTH AFRICA. From MORNING LIGHT for April 19 we learn that "for a period of some years there has been correspondence received from the minister of a congregation of the Catholic Church of South Africa, worshiping at Krugersdorp. A parcel of our books was sent some time ago, and the reply received is that they find the teachings in accord with the Scriptures, and the request is made that we send out men to them and receive them into our communion."
PRESERVATION OF THE CHURCH. 1913

PRESERVATION OF THE CHURCH. Rev. W. F. PENDLETON 1913

Announcements.

447

NEW CHURCH LIFE

     VOL. XXXIII AUGUST-SEPTEMBER, 1913 No. 8-9
     If we wish to find what it is that preserves the Church, and causes it to continue to exist, let us inquire what it is that builds it and we shall know. For according to a law of creation, that which builds a thing is that which continues to build it, and that which continues to build is that which preserves. It is so with the universe itself; for this was first built or created from the spiritual sun, and it is the spiritual sun that continues to build or preserve it,-or the Lord who is in that sun and is that sun; hence the means which the Lord uses to build the universe are the identical means by which he preserves it, and preserves it to eternity. It is so with the Church, for every Divine work is an image like every other; for we read that creation is the same, because the Divine is the same in greatest and least things. (D. L. W. 77.)

     As for the New Church itself, such as it is in itself, we know that it will be preserved; for Divine Revelation teaches that it is to endure forever. But it does not follow that any special body, or form, or organization, of the Church, will be so preserved; nor does it follow that it will be preserved in any individual man, in whom it has made a beginning. This is a matter of vital interest, of exceeding great moment to all of us. Will the church to which we belong, under whose banners we are arrayed,-will this our church continue to exist with us and with our children, and with continued increase in intelligence and wisdom. This is the New Church to us, and if we are true members thereof, it is our chief treasure on earth,-beyond price. Let us inquire, then, what it is that will preserve this our church.

448

     It is clear to begin with that if a church is to continue it must reach a state of good, a state of love to the Lord and love to the neighbor, a state of conjunction with God, like that which exists in heaven. The church must reach a state of good, and remain permanently fixed in good; for good is salvation itself, the one thing that is eternal; and hence if the church on earth, any form of the church, be in good, and be consociated with the angels of heaven in good, it will cc4ntinue to exist with perpetual increase.

     Now good is reached and acquired by means, and the means to good is truth. In all the universe there are no other means to good but truth; and there is no other end in truth but good. Truth looks to good alone and leads to it alone; and nothing else leads to good but truth. Means that are false can never lead to good. In means that are false the end is not good but evil. By truth is meant the truth of doctrine from the Word. In this only is the end of good, and by this only is good reached and acquired. By falsity is meant the falsity of doctrine which leads only to evil of life. There has never been a greater fallacy than that the end justifies the means, by which is meant that no matter what the means are, so that the end be good. Those who hold this and confirm it, do not know and are not willing to know, that there is never a good end in means that are false.

     The Lord by His Providence has in view some good for every man; first natural and then spiritual good, and the Lord is ever leading him to this good; but in order that it may be reached and acquired, man must co-operate, and in order to co-operate he must adopt sound principles of action, which are truths, in order to gain the desired end. The Lord works through these, and unless man does the same, no good will ever be reached by him. For let us repeat, it is the truth alone that leads to good, and there are no other means to good but the truth of the Word.

     The importance of sound doctrine thus comes naturally before us as a means, the one prime essential instrumentality, to the good and thus to the preservation of the church. For doctrine is the truth of revelation formulated for the use of faith and of life; and it has been given by the Lord for the express purpose of building and preserving the church, and of forming heaven
by means of the church.

449

     Before we proceed further, let us take note of the distinction between doctrine as it comes pure and untainted from the Lord, and doctrine as formulated, received and accepted in a body of the church, and by the individual members thereof. The former is the Lord Himself in His coming; the latter is so much of the Lord or of doctrine from Him, as the church is able to receive and appropriate for its faith and for its life. The use of the term doctrine inn these two senses is frequent in the Writings, and it is important to understand when the one is meant and when the other.

     It will, therefore, be seen that the gradual and progressive purification of doctrine, as received in the church, is vital to its very existence; and it will also be seen that the purification of doctrine is one with the purification of the understanding of doctrine from the Word; for it is doctrine that forms the understanding, and as doctrine is purified by the gradual removal of fallacies, so is the understanding purified, and the church draws continually nearer to good or to the Lord, thus nearer to its state of permanence and preservation.

     Hence we read that "truth is explored, as to what innocence is has, and presently as to what charity, before it is initiated into good and conjoined thereto," and that "in regard to the initiation of truth with good in1 every man, there is the most exquisite exploration, and such as surpasses all belief; to very good itself there is never anything admitted but very truth itself, when anything not so true approaches, it does not conjoin itself with good itself but with some good which in itself is not good, yet which appears as good; if anything false approaches, good betakes itself inwards, and the falsity conjoins itself outwardly with some evil that it believes to be good; this Divine disposing is effected of the Lord by means of spirits and angels, and is most hidden in this world, but perfectly well known in the other." (A. C. 3110.) We hardly need any plainer teaching that nothing can approach good but truth. It is for this reason that the truth is given, the truth of the Word and of doctrine from the Word, that there may be provided a way of approach to good, thus to the Lord,-a way that is the only way.

450

     We read further that "the church is from the Word, and that it is such with man as is his understanding of the Word," and "that the Word does not make the church, but the understanding of it, and that the church is such as is the understanding of the Word with those who are in the church." (T. C. R. 243.) And then the following teaching is added that "the church is according to its doctrine, and that doctrine is from the Word; but still doctrine does not make the church, but soundness and purity of doctrine, consequently the understanding of the Word." (T. C. R. 245.) It is clear that by doctrine in this passage is meant that truth which has been drawn forth from the Word, and has entered the understanding of the men of the church, and adopted as the foundation of its faith. Such doctrine is first drawn from the Word in its literal sense, and afterwards from the Word in its spiritual sense.

     Therefore, in order that the church may be built and preserved, doctrine must be drawn from the Word and confirmed by it, and this must be done by those who are in illustration from the Lord, (S. S. 50, 57); and the doctrine so drawn, becoming the faith of; the church, must be successfully purified and the understanding thereby successively enlightened. For there is no standing still. The church will either go backward or forward. Doctrine will either gradually lose its life, and the light of illustration will become less and less, and finally cease; or there will be a continual increase of life and light by the process of spiritual purification, or by temptations, and at the same time by the continued acquisition of new truth and new life in the truth. The preservation of the church, then, depends on the quality of its doctrine as received by the men of the church, or on its progressive growth in the "understanding of the Word.

     We are taught that if there be love to the Lord and charity, there will be perception, (A. C. 3122, 3125); and perception from love to the Lord is the true preservative of doctrine, and thus the true preservative of the church. It all comes back to the keeping of the commandments. As the commandments are kept in the external, so does love to the Lord grow in the internal, even as our Lord Himself said, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me," (JOHN 14:21), and as love to the Lord grows so does perception spring from that love, giving light and a continued renewal of light to the mind.

451

For the Lord Himself is in love to Him, and by the perception of that love ever leads the church through sound doctrine to the good of life, and thus to Himself.

But let us enlarge our view of the commandments. In the Decalogue in its literal sense there is to be found all the most general things of doctrine, but interiorly it contains the entire doctrine of heaven and the church. In a large view, therefore, by keeping the commandments is meant living according to the doctrine of the church,-using the term doctrine in its universal sense, as including all Revelation given, formulated, and adapted to the understanding of men, and the needs of the church. To keep the commandments, therefore, is to live according to the truths of the literal sense of the Word, and according to the truths of the spiritual sense as given in the Writings. We find then a fulness of meaning in the words of the Lord, "He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." And a similar fulness we find in the teaching that the church is where "doctrine is the rule of life." (A. C. 6637.) The church is preserved, therefore, when doctrine is made the rule of life,-doctrine that has been received and accepted, and successively purified in the understanding of men, for every truth is a doctrine, and every truth is at the same time a commandment of God. The reason why the church is where doctrine, as the commandment of God, is the rule of life is because such a life is one of obedience to the Lord, who is Doctrine itself, and who is thus present in all doctrine that proceeds from Him; and obedience is the foundation of all order and all organization in heaven and on earth, and where obedience is, there is perpetuation. When there is a spirit of obedience in the heart of the church, there is implanted in it the seeds of its preservation.

Now doctrine, in which is love to the Lord, and which has become the faith of the church-doctrine, as the prime essential factor in the establishment and perpetuation of the church, must itself act through instrumentalities, and the first of these is the priesthood. We read in the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, n. 229, that "The first of the church is affection, which is of charity or love. . . The tribe of Reuben was not first, but the tribe of Levi, inasmuch as by Levi was represented the good of charity; wherefore also this tribe was made the priesthood, and the priesthood is the first of the church."

452

In this passage we are told that affection, love, charity, or the good of charity, are the first of the church, and also that the priesthood is the first of the church. It is important to understand the related position of these two ideas. There cannot be two things that are first, if the word is used in the same sense in each case; but there can be one first and another first when there are two distinct series on two distinct planes. There is thus a prime first and a subordinate first. This is the case in the passage before us.

The real or essential first of the church is love to the Lord, and doctrine in which that love is; but the priesthood, as the exponent and representative of doctrine, as the representative of love to the Lord, is the first of the church as a function in an organized body of men. The teaching we have quoted simply means that the priesthood is the active internal or prime of the church considered as an organization, but that there is a prior first which is doctrine from love to the Lord. It may also be said that the priesthood is the brain of the church, as the brain is the first of the body; but the first of the brain is the soul, and the priesthood is not the soul of the church,-but love to the Lord and doctrine from that love.

The distinction is made quite clear in the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, n. 415, where we are told that the church is the neighbor in a higher degree than the country, and then it is added, "It is not meant that the priesthood should be loved in a higher degree, and from it the church, but that the good and truth of the church should be loved, and for the sake of these the priesthood; this only serves, and as it serves it is to be honored." By heeding the spirit and letter of this teaching we avoid the enormous error of making the priesthood the first of the church in an absolute sense, prior to the Word and even prior to the Lord Himself, as has been done in the Roman Catholic Church. The priesthood in such a case becomes the means of destroying the church,-when it was established for the sake of its preservation. This is the reason for its existence as the first in a body of men,-that it may be made instrumental in building and preserving the church, which it accomplishes when it preserves the soundness and purity of its doctrine; but otherwise it becomes rather an instrument of destruction.

453

     If the church, however, is to grow and increase, and reach its appointed station of permanence, it will take place in order of time as follows,-First, by obedience to the commandments of God; second, by love to the Lord and charity; third, by perception from love to the Lord; fourth, by doctrine continually being clarified of fallacies in the mind of the church, or by doctrine continually increasing in soundness and purity; fifth, by the building of a priesthood through doctrine from the Lord, and the church by the priesthood.

     There are, however, other stages or conditions following those first mentioned, which are necessary to the upbuilding and permanence of the church. The one thing needed, the first of the church as an organized body, is a priesthood,-which with loyalty and affection subordinates itself to doctrine as revealed by the Lord. If this be given then the next step is worship.

     Concerning worship we read that "the church is a church from a life according to doctrine, and a life according to doctrine is worship." (A. E. 799.) The worship here spoken of is worship as a state of life, or internal worship. This is the true preservative of the church, as we have already shown, since there is in it love and charity. But worship exists also as a function in what is known as public worship, and from this in families and with individuals. This is what is called in the Writings external worship, which we are told is not living unless internal worship be in it. Worship as a function in the general body is given into the charge and is under the ministration of the priesthood-public worship. External worship so administered continually nourishes internal worship by arousing and stimulating the affection for a life according to doctrine; for in public worship instruction is given and love is inspired for the things of the church, by which there is a continual renewal and purification of the thought of the understanding, thus of faith and of doctrine.

     Worship, therefore, is a chief instrumentality in the hands of the priesthood for the upbuilding of the church; and when there is soundness and purity of doctrine, and a doctrine continually advancing to greater soundness and purity, and at the same time a continually advancing understanding of the Word with the priesthood, there will be a corresponding advance with all the members of the church; for there will be a mutual action and reaction on the part of the clergy and the laity, and a resultant growth in all spiritual uses.

454

We are taught that the church is first formed with the clergy and by the clergy with the laity. (T. C. R. 784.) The church passes from the clergy to the laity by teaching and leading, by teaching the truth of doctrine from the Word, and leading by such truth to the good of life. A large part of this work is performed by the clergy through the instruction given in a sphere of worship. For the leading idea of worship is the acknowledgment of God from love to Him. The activity of the sphere of this love is worship, and the truth received in such a sphere penetrates the interiors of the mind, even to the heart itself. Laymen thus contribute to the perpetuation of the church by the reception of the truth in heart and life, and by co-operation with the clergy, and by the support of the same in all the uses of the church. The clergy also contribute to this as the laity, by reception of the truth in heart and life which they themselves teach. For the truth which a minister teaches is given him that he himself may receive it in common with others. Apart from his function there is not anything in his state that is different from the common state of men.

Another essential element in the preservation of the church introduces itself here. Men are to be taught and led in freedom according to reason. So important is freedom in the reception of doctrine, that it is not stating it too strongly to say that the church is preserved in the preservation of its freedom. The other conditions of preservation, which we have mentioned, will come to nothing if there is no freedom of choice in the reception of doctrine. Hence we read that while it is the duty of priests to "teach the people and lead them by truths to the good of life; still they must compel no one, since no one can be compelled to believe that which is contrary to what he believes from his heart to be true." (H. D. 318) For we read further, "the things which compel take away freedom, when yet all the reformation and regeneration of man is effected in his freedom; what is not implanted in freedom does not remain." (A. C. 5508)

455

Hence "it is a law of the Divine Providence that a man should not be compelled by external means to think and will, and so to believe and love the things of religion; but a man should lead, and sometimes compel himself." (D. P. 129.) Self compulsion does not take away freedom but increases and establishes it. So great is the importance of freedom to the reception of doctrine, that one of the universal ends in the Last Judgment and accomplished by it, was the restoration of freedom to the church.

We read also that where there is no freedom of speaking and writing there is no interior intellectual light; for where there is no such freedom, that light and thinking in that light, is obstructed, because it then has no outlet. (T. C. R. 807.) But a man in the exercise of his freedom of speaking and writing must beware lest he disturb the church, (A. C. 6047, H. D. 318), for a disturbance of the order and peace of the church also hinders freedom, and thus obstructs the growth of the church. Speaking and writing what is false and heretical must be permitted, but it must not go to the extent of disturbance. Hence there is to be no compulsion to the reception of doctrine, not even of persuasion; for persuasion is a form of compulsion, even though insidious. Persuasion does not excite spiritual affection, but some natural affection of the truth; and hence it offers some other inducement to receive the truth than the truth itself and its good. Hence one of the uses of the priesthood is to nourish and preserve the freedom of the church, thereby ministering to its preservation. For the church is preserved in the degree that its freedom of thought, thus is rationality, is preserved. Hence we are taught that freedom and rationality go together, and can never be separated.

Neither should we be anxious nor distressed if a truth which we see to be true, and essential to the church, is not received by others. If this anxiety and distress goes so far as to become impatience, it takes on the form or appearance of something like compulsion. Anxiety is a natural affection, not spiritual; and this is still more true of impatience. The truth is in no need of aid from the natural affection of man for its reception by others.

456

There are some minds that are troubled by doubts when a new truth is presented, and there is need of time for such a mind to expand and receive. Any one in this state is not yet ready to acknowledge and appropriate the truth, and in such a state there should be the absence of all urgency to receive the truth that is taught. In order that a mind disposed to doubt may have time for consideration and reflection, the Lord permits the opposite to be presented, for reasons that are given in the following teaching, "It is according to the laws of order, that no one should be persuaded instantaneously concerning the truth, that is, that truth should be instantaneously so confirmed as to leave no doubt at all concerning it. The reason is, because the truth which is so impressed becomes persuasive truth, and, is without any extension, and also without any yielding; such truth is represented in the other life as hard, and as of such a quality as not to admit good into it, that it may become applicable. Hence it is, that as soon as any truth is presented before good spirits in the other life by manifest experience, there is soon afterwards presented some opposite, which causes doubt; thus it is given to think and consider whether it be so, and to collect reasons, and to bring the truth rationally into their minds; hereby the spiritual sight has extension as to that truth even to opposites." (A. C. 7298)

Some of the truths now generally accepted were for a long time in doubt, and this was permitted for the reason given in the number we have just read. Let us, therefore, be willing to wait with patience for the acceptance of any truth, which we ourselves see and acknowledge, trusting in the good Providence of the Lord to lead in His own time and in His own way every earnest and sincere mind to the acceptance of the essential truths of the Word and of the church.

It is important also that there should be no element of hurry or haste in the understanding of doctrine on our own part. If we do not understand it now let us wait for the light to come, and it will come to every man who waits patiently on the Lord and His Providence. To force an explanation to ourselves or to others would probably lead to error or to persuasive faith. No minister, nor any one, should drive himself, nor allow himself, to be driven to force an explanation of that which he does not clearly understand.

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It is better to frankly acknowledge his limitation than to attempt a forced explanation of the truth. This is important for the preservation of freedom and sound doctrine in the church.

Our own duty lies in the direction of keeping the truth, which we hold and believe, pure and untainted by natural affection, by human prudence or human intelligence. When this is done we need not be concerned nor anxious about the reception of it by others. We need not be concerned nor anxious,-not even by views, opinions, or policies, that actively oppose the truth, whether in the church or in the world; for a true church, a church with sound doctrine, and in spiritual affection, will rest safe and secure founded on the rock of a living faith in the truth of the living
Word.

Let us now in conclusion repeat what we have already shown, that truth of doctrine from the Word is the one universal that builds the church, and by continuing to build, preserves it; that the doctrine and thus the understanding of the Word, must become successively more sound and pure; that there must be a continued increase in the activity of a life according to doctrine; that there must be a sound and loyal priesthood, which will teach and lead men to an ever more interior understanding of the Word; that external worship must be established for the sake of internal worship; that freedom in the reception of doctrine is to be ever cultivated and preserved,-all these for the building and preservation of the church. Let us pray the Lord to inspire us in this generation to labor, to protect and preserve these holy things which He has provided for us, that we may transmit them pure and untainted to those who are to come after us.

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NEW CHURCH AND THE GENTILES. 1913

NEW CHURCH AND THE GENTILES. Rev. C. TH. ODHNER 1913

     AN ADDRESS

     "He calleth to me out of Seir: Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman said, The morning cometh, and the night also." (Is. 21:11, 12.)

     Seir was a mountain in the country of the Edomites, a gentile people, and it stands therefore, in this beautiful passage in Isaiah as the type of the Lord's kingdom among the gentile races outside the Church. The watchman is one who observes the states of the Church. "The morning cometh," signifies that the Lord wilt establish His New and crowning Church among nations which hitherto have been in ignorance of the Divine Truth; "and the night also," signifies that while the Light of Religion is being transferred to the gentiles, spiritual darkness is increasingly overtaking the nations of the perverted Christendom.

     From the first inception of the New Church in the Christian world there have been watchmen among the receivers of the Heavenly Doctrine,-watchmen who have observed the "signs of the times" among Christians and gentiles. Among the very earliest receivers there were some whose hearts were fired by the revelations in the Writings concerning the Africans, their celestial characteristics and the descent of the New Jerusalem in the interior of the dark continent. It was owing directly to the interest of the two Newchurchmen, Augustus Nordenskold and Charles B. Wadstrom, in the freedom and welfare of the colored races, that the great movement arose which resulted in the abolition of African slavery. They even made an attempt to establish a New Church colony on the coast of Sierra Leone, in order to come into touch with that celestial development of the New Church of which they knew that a beginning had been made somewhere in the interior regions. The colony, however, failed owing to the European wars at the time, and there was a failure, likewise, of the attempt of the Rev. Robert Jackson to convert the Negroes in Jamaica, and of James Glen in his similar efforts in Demerara.

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     Since those times the members of the New Church have concluded that the gentiles are as yet beyond their reach, and they have confined their missionary activity to the Christian world, their labors after more than a century being crowned with a not-too-conspicuous success. The interest in the gentiles has never died out, however, but it has, perforce, been confined to an attitude of amazed but quiet observation of the Lord's marvelous doings on external planes in preparation for the reception of the New Church among the gentiles.

     The political, economic and social awakening of the gentiles in Asia has, indeed, been so rapid and so thorough as to fill with wonder and anxiety the nations of the Christian world. It is a significant fact that this awakening dates from the very year in which the Last Great Judgment took place in the spiritual world. It was in the year 1757 that Clive captured Calcutta and opened the way for the pacification and unification of India under British rule. This was followed, a century later, by the awakening of Japan, and, within the last few years, by the even more startling awakening of China.

     No Newchurchman can be doubtful as to the significance of all these signs of the times. The question naturally arises whether the time has now arrived, or may soon be at hand, for the New Church in Christendom to make any effort to extend a knowledge of the Lord in His Second Coming to these newly awakened gentile nations. Personally, I believe that the time is at hand, that the means are within reach, that our duty is clear and that the prospects of successful evangelistic work among them are far more promising than the prospects of success in the Christian world. But before stating my proposition, I beg leave to present, as fully as time permits, the teachings of the Lord in His threefold Revelation concerning His chosen people,-the gentiles.

     THE PROPHECIES IN THE OLD TESTAMENT.

     It would fill a volume were I to quote all the passages in the letter of the Word dealing with the subject of the gentiles. Not only in the New Testament but also in the Old do we find repeated in ever varying form the story of a consummated Church and the beginning of a New Church in the virgin soil of pagan nations.

460

The story begins with the transfer of the Lord's Church from the degenerate descendants of the Golden Age, through the remnant known as Noah, to the gentiles represented by Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The story is repeated a second time in the transfer of the Church from the idolatrous posterity of the Silver Age, through the remnant known as Eber, to the gentilized descendants of Israel in Egypt. And as soon as the Israelitish Church had begun to decline after the days of Solomon, the voice of prophecy again began to proclaim the transfer of the Church to the nations which were then sitting "in the valley and shadow of death."

     The prophet Isaiah may especially be called "the prophet of the gentiles," for it is in the revelation given through him that we find the most numerous and most striking references to the nations of the future Church. It is here that we find the words of the watchman to the one calling out of Seir concerning the coming of the morning and of the night also. The darkness among the gentiles, their humble recognition of their own ignorance and their almost hopeless despair are touchingly portrayed in these words:

     "Hoping for light we behold darkness; in thick darkness we walk, we grope for the wall like the blind, we grope as they that have no eyes; we stumble in the noonday as in twilight; among the living we are as dead. (Is. 59:9, 10.)

     But the prophet is rich in consoling promises: "I, Jehovah, will give thee for a covenant to the people, for a light to the gentiles: to open the blind eyes, to bring out the bound from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." (Is. 42:6, 7) "The gentiles shall walk to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thine eyes round about; they all gather themselves together; they come to thee; thy sons come from afar, and thy daughters are carried by nurses at thy side. Then thou shalt see and flow together, and thine heart shall be amazed and be enlarged, because the multitude of the sea is converted unto thee; the hosts of the gentiles shall come." (Is. 60:3-5.) "Behold, I have given Him for a witness to the peoples, a prince and lawgiver to the gentiles. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou hast not known, and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of Jehovah thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel." (Is. 55:4, 5)

461

For "in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the Book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of the thick darkness. (Is. 29:18.)

     THE NEW TESTAMENT PROPHECIES.

     But the Lord Himself in His human was in a super-eminent sense "the Prophet of the gentiles," for it was to them that His Gospel was most especially directed. Not only in words but in representative deeds He preached the redemption and salvation of those despised "Goyim" for whom the arrogant Jews had no other term than "dogs." All His miracles,-making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, the dumb to speak,-all these mighty deeds represented nothing else, in the internal historical sense, than the spiritual healing of the great soul-stricken world outside the self-righteous Jewish Church. (A. C. 6988-90; 9209.)

     He came, indeed, first to those who proudly termed themselves His "chosen people," but when He had come they would have none of Him. And, therefore, He said unto the people of Nazareth: "'A prophet is not without honor save in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.' And He could do there no mighty works, save that He laid His hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. And He marveled at their unbelief." (Mark 6:4-6.)

     "A few sick folk!" These represented here the pitiful remnant who alone among all the Jews were willing to heed His voice. And "a few sick folk," likewise, were all that could be found receptive when He made His Second Coming to the great Christian world. Yet it was among these "few sick folk" that a beginning had to be made, at each Coming, and it was on this account that He thus commanded His disciples, when sending them forth on their first apostolic journey: "Go not into the way of the gentiles, and into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." (Matth. 10:5-6.) And the same necessity of offering the light of the new Revelation to those of the former Church before extending it to the gentiles, is evident in the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman, to whom the Lord said: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

462

It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to the dogs. But the woman answered, Truth, O Lord! Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt." (Matth. 15:21-28.)

When, after the resurrection, the Lord imparted His final instructions to His disciples, they were no longer forbidden to go unto the Samaritans and the gentiles, but the field was widened so as to include all nations, but the beginning, nevertheless, was to be made at Jerusalem: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." (Matth.38:19) And He commanded them to "preach His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." (Luke 24:47.)

That the Church as a whole would be transferred to the gentiles is the Lord's constant teaching in the New Testament, and it was this announcement that especially embittered the Jews against Him. His first act in entering upon His public mission was to leave Nazareth to come and dwell in Galilee in order to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah: "Galilee of the gentiles: the people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death, light is sprung up" (Is. 9:23; Matth. 4:13-16) And on returning to visit His childhood home He at once began to preach the unpopular truths concerning the consummation of the Jewish Church and the Divine mercy for the Gentiles: "'Verily, I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in His own country. But I tell you of a truth, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine was throughout all the land. But unto none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, but none of them was cleansed save Naaman the Syrian.' And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these, things, were filled with wrath, and they rose up and thrust Him out of the city." (Luke 4:24-29)

463

     It was of a centurion of the gentiles that the Lord said: "Verily, I say unto you, I have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be east into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matth. 8:10-12.)

     The invitations to come unto the wedding feast of the King's son were indeed sent first to those of the Jewish Church, even as now for a century and a half the urgent call has been sent forth to those of the Christian Church. But the familiar friends were too busy in the pursuits of self and the world, and therefore the King commanded his servants to "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor and the maimed, the halt and the blind." (Luke 14:21.) And the meaning is equally clear in the parable of the husbandmen who slew their master's servants and finally killed his son. "He will miserably destroy those wicked men and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render Him the fruits in their seasons. Did ye never read in the Scriptures: the stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner. Therefore, say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." (Matth. 21:40-43.)

     Lesson upon lesson to the same effect was given by the Lord throughout His preaching, but we cannot here note all of them. Most strikingly is this lesson illustrated in the parable concerning the rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, while Lazarus, the beggar, lay at his door, full of sores and feeding upon the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Both died, and the rich man found his place in hell, while Lazarus was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. "By 'Lazarus, the poor man' are meant the gentiles who have not the Word, and who were despised and rejected by the Jews. The reason why the gentiles are meant by Lazarus, was that the gentiles were loved by the Lord, even as the Lazarus, who was raised from the dead, was loved by the Lord and was called His friend." (Luke 16:19-31; S. S. 40; H. H. 365.) "The Lord's raising up Lazarus from the dead involves the raising up of a new church from among the gentiles." (A. C. 2916.)

464

It may be of interest here to note another reason why Lazarus represents the gentiles: the name Lazarus is only the Greek form of the Hebrew name Eliezer, which was the name of that gentile of Damascus who was the steward of Abraham's house.

     Thus throughout the New Testament the Lord continues to hear witness concerning the gentiles, the prophecies culminating in the Apocalypse, especially in its last chapters. The leaves of the Tree of life in the midst of the New Jerusalem are said to be "for the healing of the nations," (Rev. 22:2), and we are distinctly taught in the Writings of the Second Coming that by the Holy City itself, the New Jerusalem coming down from God out of Heaven, is meant "the New Church among the gentiles, after the present Church in our European world has been vastated." (A. C. 9407) "And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it; and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it." (Rev. 21:24.)

     THE TEACHINGS OF THE HEAVENLY DOCTRINE.

     The testimony and prophecy concerning the gentiles, found in the Hebrew Word and in the Greek Word, is continued as if without any interruption by the lapse of time in that Latin Word in which the Lord has made His Second Coming. Here, however, it is given not only in the form of prophecy but also in the Divinely rational form of a genuine interior Philosophy of History.

     As we were unable to adduce all of this testimony as found in the earlier revelations, so in a still greater degree are we unable, from lack of space and time, to present in its fulness the testimony of the Writings concerning the gentiles. We can present here only a few outlines of the Doctrines, and, first, the prophetical element therein.

     I. THAT, AS IN PAST DISPENSATIONS, SO NOW, THE NEW CHURCH WILL BE TRANSFERRED TO THE GENTILES.

     "As Jacob and his posterity, like Larmekh, had no faith, the Church could not remain with them, but was transferred to the gentiles, who lived not in infidelity but in ignorance.

465

The Church rarely if ever remains with those who, when vastated, still have truths among them, but is transferred to those who know nothing at all of truths, for these embrace the faith much more easily than the former." (A. C. 409, 2910.)

     "Vastation is of two kinds: first, of those who know yet do not wish to know, or who see yet do not desire to see, like the Jews of old and the Christians of the present day; and, secondly, of those who, in consequence of their ignorance, neither know nor see anything, like both the ancient and the modern gentiles. When the last time of vastation comes upon those who know yet do not desire to know, that is, who see yet do not desire to see, then the Church arises anew, not among them, but with those whom they call gentiles." (A. C. 410.)

     "The destruction of the Christian Church is foretold by the Lord in the Gospels and by John in the Apocalypse, and this destruction is what is called the Last Judgment. Not that heaven and earth are now to perish, but that in some quarter of the globe a New Church will be raised up, the present one remaining in its external worship as the Jews do in theirs, in whose worship, as is well known, there is nothing of charity and faith, that is, nothing of the Church." (A. C. 1850)

     "It is to be known that when any Church perishes and a New Church is established by the Lord, rarely, if ever, is this effected with those among whom the Old Church had been, but with those among whom there was no Church before. It was thus when the Most Ancient Church perished, then the new Church, called Noah, was established with the gentiles. In like manner when this Church perished, then the semblance of a Church was instituted with the descendants of Abraham, who, when he was called, was a gentile, and the descendants of Jacob, while in Egypt, became still more gentile. After this semblance of a Church had been consummated, the Primitive [Christian] Church was established from the gentiles, the Jews being rejected. In like manner it will be with this Church which is called Christian." (A. C. 2986.)

     "The reason the interior things of the Word are now being opened, is that at the present day the Church is vastated so greatly,-that is, is so devoid of faith and love,-that although men know and understand, still they do not acknowledge and still less believe, except a few, who are in the life of good and are called 'the elect,' who now can be instructed and with whom a New Church is to be instituted.

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But where these are the Lord alone knows; there will be few within the Church; it was the gentiles with whom new Churches were established in former times." (A. C. 3898.)

     "Hence it is that when any new Church is being established by the Lord, it is not established with those who are within the Church, but with those who are outside it, that is, with the gentiles." (A. C .747)

     "From these things it may be evident whence it is that a new Church is always established among nations who are outside of the Church, which takes place when the Old Church has closed Heaven against itself. Hence it was that the Church from the Jewish people was transferred to the gentiles, and also that the present Church is now being transferred to the gentiles; nor can the New Church be established among any others." (A. C. 9256.)

     The angels stated to Swedenborg that they had but "slight hope of the men of the Christian Church, but a great hope of some Nation far from the Christian world, and removed from infesters thence, which nation is such that it is able to receive spiritual light and become a celestial spiritual man; and they said that among this nation interior Divine Truths are being revealed at this day, and are also being received in spiritual faith, that is, in life and heart, and that they adore the Lord."

     2. THE STATE OF THE GENTILES.

     Respecting the internal states of the gentiles we are taught that "as to the modern gentiles of our earth, they are not so wise as those of ancient times, but in most respects they are simple in heart." (A. C. 2594.) They are in many falsities and evils, but from ignorance rather than from internal confirmation. "Among themselves they live in obedience and in mutual charity." (A. C. 7975) Their innocence, humility and tenderness are illustrated in many passages.

467

Thus once, when Swedenborg began to read the Word in the presence of a wise gentile spirit, the latter said "that he could not remain there, because he perceived it to be more holy than he could bear." (A. C. 2592.) Another gentile, who had moreover also been an idolater, expressed the most profound and tender-hearted grief when he heard read the account in the Judges of the Danites taking away the graven images belonging to Micah. "I perceived his grief and I perceived at the same time the innocence in each of his affections, . . . from which it could be seen that gentiles come into Heaven more easily than do Christians at this day, who are not thus affected." (A. C. 2598) This gentile, who was afterwards instructed and raised into Heaven, was an Hindu. (S. D. 2411; H. H. 324)

     "The gentiles, who have led a moral life and have been obedient, who have lived in mutual charity and have received something like a consciousness according to their religion, are accepted in the other life, and are there instructed by the angels with solicitous care in the goods and truths of faith. And after they have been instructed they act modestly, intelligently and wisely, and easily receive and are imbued. For they have formed no principles contrary to the truths of faith," (A. C. 2590), and in consequence "there is not so great a cloud in the intellectual part among the gentiles as there is generally among so-called Christians." (A. C. 1059.)

     "A gentile more than a Christian thinks about God from religion in his life," (D. P. 322); "when they hear that God became man, they at once acknowledged it and adore the Lord." (H. H. 321). "They acknowledge and adore the Lord more than all others." (L. J. 51.) "They live a better life than the Christians." (H. H. 319). "Charity without faith, such as is with the upright gentiles, is the only ground in which faith is implanted." (A. C. 2839.) Hence it is that "the gentiles can be initiated into the heavenly choirs in a single night, while most Christians can scarcely be so in thirty years." (A. C. 2595.)

     3. THEIR ABHORRENCE OF THE CHRISTIANS.

     "They abhor Christianity because they believe that there is in it the worship of three gods." (B. E. 37.) "They abhor the doctrine of the Christians because they observe the life of the Christians, for nowhere does there exist a more detestable life than in the Christian world." (A. C. 916.)

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"There are gentiles who during their life in the world have known that Christians lead the worst kind of life-in adulteries, in hatreds and quarrels, in drunkenness and the like; at this they are horrified, because such things are contrary to the laws, customs and religions of the gentiles." (A. C. 2597.)

     "Moreover, the gentiles do not hate 6thers or avenge injuries, or weave machinations and deceits. Nay, they wish well even to the Christians, although the Christians despise them and do violence to them as far as they can; but they are delivered by the Lord from the unmercifulness of the Christians, and are protected." (A. C. 2590; H. H. 321.)

     On account of these experiences "they are timid in the other life in receiving the truths of faith, but they are instructed by the angels that the Christian doctrine, and the faith itself, teach the vary opposite, but that Christians live less in accordance with their doctrine than do the gentiles. When they perceive this, they receive the truths of faith and adore the Lord, though somewhat more tardily," than do such gentiles as have not come in contact with Christians. (A. C. 2597; H. H. 325.)

     4. THE WORK OF THE MISSIONARIES.

     In the New Church generally, and in the Academy especially, the missionary work of the Old Church has not been looked upon with a very favorable eye. The chief reason is, of course, that the missionaries do not have any true Christianity to offer to the gentiles, but only a tritheism and solafidianism that is little if any better than the old pagan systems. Moreover the missionary work has only too often been an excuse for the commercial exploitation and political aggressions of the money-hungry and land-hungry Powers of Europe. First came the missionaries with the Bible, preparing the way for the adventurous trader with the whiskey bottle. In their wake followed the great commercial companies with the opium: and the munitions of war for rebellions, preparing the way for the warships with the demands for indemnities, concessions and claims for the "hinter lands."

469

We all know the story of the conscienceless, hypocritical "Christian" treatment of the gentile nations, and there is small wonder that the gentiles look with fear and aversion upon Christians and that the missionary work as a whole has been a failure from a religious point of view.

     Nevertheless, in the Divine Providence, the missionaries and even the political influence of the Christians have been of great use in establishing greater external order and freedom among the gentiles, in introducing the scientifics of external civilization, and, chief of all, in making known to the heathen the existence of the Word of God. Nor can it be said that the missionaries have been entirely unsuccessful in building up active Christian Churches in Japan, China, India, Polynesia and Africa. This fact is becoming more and more evident, as also the fact that the converted gentiles care more about Christianity in general than about the sectarian differences of Catholics and Protestants, Methodists, Baptists, Presbyterians, etc., thus fully confirming the revelations in the Writings respecting the Christian missionary work.

     "They 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 Man." (A. C. 5256.)

     "The converted gentiles outside the Church worship and adore the Lord as their only God; and they say with their mouth and think in their heart, that they acknowledge Him as God, because He has appeared in a human form. It is contrariwise within the Church." (A. C. 9198.)

     "Many of those who are in this middle celestial kingdom are from the gentiles of the Asiatic religions, and very many are of those who have been converted to the Christian religion by missionaries. These, when they have acknowledged the Lord, and thus have received faith, believe in the Lord, nor do they care about those intricate questions and disputations as to whether faith saves, or charity, and about the pope, as to whether he is the head of the Church; but they live as Christians." (S. D. 9676.) "The gentiles marvel at the disputings among the Christians about matters of faith, and they say that they do not wish to hear such things, for they are reasonings from fallacies. (A. C. 2599.)

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     We may be sure, therefore, that the gentiles, who may be converted by the missionaries, will be protested from the interior falsities, and evils from falsities, of the perverted Christianity; and it goes without saying that we rejoice from our hearts that the Word of the Lord is being spread all over the world in to all tongue and languages and to every nation and tribe. The fact is that there is at this day an enormous demand for the Word among the gentiles, and that this demand exceeds that from the Christian world. For years I have been astonished at this demand, as shown in the annual Reports of the British and American Bible Societies. Just as an instance let me quote from the last Report of the British Society, where it is stated that "there has been an abnormal demand for the Society's Penny English Testament. In China the circulation rose to a record total of 1,868,000 copies! The momentous changes which are going forward in China have not diminished but deepened and intensified the Chinese spirit of inquiry into the Christian faith. For every two English books which the Society sold, it sold three in Chinese,-the vast bulk of the latter being single gospels." (Quoted in MORNING LIGHT, May 17.)

     In this connection I would point also to the significant fact that Swedenborg, when publishing the ARCANA COELESTIA, "gave expressed orders to John Lewis, his London publisher, that all the money that should arise from the sale of this work, should be given towards the charge of the propagation of the Gospel." (Doc. 11:495.)

     But, it may be objected, are we not told in the Writings that "the gentiles are instructed by their own angels" in the other world, (H. H. 515)? And do we not read that "the angels were glad that the advent of the Lord is now at hand, and that the Church, which is now perishing in Europe, will be established in Africa, and that this will take place from the Lord alone through revelations, and not through missionaries from with Christians'" (S. D. 4777) Surely, we could never expect that the New Church will be established among the gentiles or anywhere else through the missionaries of the Old Church.

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The revelations now being given to some of the nations of central Africa come to them in the form of celestial perceptions from the Lord alone. But they do not possess books and printing establishments, and we believe that the New Church will not be established in full external form, among the Africans until these internal perceptions find an outward basis and expression by means of the reception of the Word and the Writings, which also are "from the Lord alone." In the meanwhile, among the Asiatics, who are of a different genius from the Africans, the Heavenly Doctrine will undoubtedly be proclaimed by missionaries from the New Church in Christendom, preferably by natives educated in a genuine New Church Theological School!

     5. THE TRUE METHODS OF INSTRUCTING THE GENTILES.

     We are taught in the Writings that "the gentiles are instructed by doctrines adapted to their apprehension, which differ from the Heavenly Doctrine only in this: that spiritual life is taught to them by means of a moral life, which is an agreement with the good dogmas of their religion." (H. H. 516.) "Upright gentiles are instructed in the other life for the most part, and as far as possible, in accordance with their states of life and in accordance with their religion, thus in various ways." (A. C. 2600.) Three of these methods are described and illustrated by instances, the lesson derived from each case being that "in this manner, by means of their own religion, they are brought into the knowledges of good and truth." (A. C. 2602.)

     When, therefore, the time comes for special evangelistic work among the gentiles, it will be necessary for the New Church missionary to enter deeply into the study of the history, manners and customs, and especially into the religious ideas of the people which he wishes to reach, in order to adapt the new teachings to their apprehension and states of life. To the followers of Confucius it will be necessary to introduce the Heavenly Doctrine by means of its Doctrine of Charity, admitting and exalting the beauties of Confucian ethics, but uplifting them and filling them with genuine life by pointing out the correspondence of the old natural truths with the new spiritual truths of the Doctrine of Charity in the New Jerusalem.

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     In reaching the Buddhists the New Church missionary will lay hold of the central ideas of self-conquest and universal charity which constitute the very foundation of Guatama's doctrine, and show that these constitute also the foundation of the New Church Doctrine of Life, leading to a genuine Nirvana of not the obliteration of conscious existence-but the complete suppression of self-love in an eternity of useful love of the neighbor.

     To the Brahmans he will bring a knowledge of the Ancient Church and the Ancient Word, together with a complete interpretation of the whole mythological system derived from the Vedas and Puranas, showing how and why all the different divinities are but so many names of the various essential qualities of the one and only God, even as all the different races and casts of men are but so many branches of the one human brotherhood. And to the Mohammedans he will denounce tritheism and polytheism as heartily as do the followers of Islam, while explaining the unity and trinity of the one and only God who, even according to the Koran, revealed Himself as Man in Jesus Christ. The Mohammedan "Kismet" will afford a basis for introducing the Doctrine of the Divine Providence, and their realistic ideas of "Paradise" will afford an opening for the higher and nobler revelation concerning Heaven and its wonders.

     Thus to the believers of all gentile religions the New Church missionary of the future will bring,-not damnation and threats of hell-fire for the unbaptized,-but an infilling of spiritual light into the forms of their own ancient faiths. Such, at least, should be the fist approach, according to the directions of the Heavenly Doctrine.

     THE MISSION OF THE NEW CHURCH TO THE GENTILES.

     As in the early days of the Apostolic Church the Lord in His Providence as well as in His direct teachings drew the eyes of the apostles to the gentiles, so it seems to me We is doing also now in the early days of His New Church. After a few years of teaching among the Jews it became evident to the apostles that the salvable element in the doomed nation had been quickly exhausted, that the "remnant" had been gathered in, and that the rest of the Jews were absolutely unreceptive.

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On the other hand, the successful missionary journeys of Paul among the Gentiles, the vision of Peter at Joppa, the conversion of Cornelius and similar experiences of the other apostles, soon convinced the little Church in Jerusalem that the gentile world presented the most hopeful, and in fact the only hopeful, field of evangelization, and the policy of the Church in this direction was settled at the meeting of the apostles in the year 50 A. D., with results that abundantly justified the wisdom of their conclusions.

     And, therefore, Paul and Barnabas were directed by the Holy Spirit when speaking boldly to the multitude of Jews who were contradicting and blaspheming: "It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you; but, seeing ye put it from you, and have condemned yourselves, unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the gentiles." (Acts 13:46.)

     And in a somewhat similar manner it seems to me that the Divine Providence, after a century and a half of New Church history, is beginning to point the way to the gentile world. It has been observed, in hundreds of instances, that the element able to receive the Heavenly Doctrine in any one city or town in Christendom is quickly exhausted: a New Church society is formed in a few years of rapid growth, the "five wise virgins" hear the call of the Bridegroom at the hour of midnight, and then-the doors are closed. Few, if any converts are received thereafter, and if the Society does not then grow from within, from the young and the children, it gradually dies out in the course of half a century or so.

     The missionary work of the General Convention in this country, and of the General Conference in England, is admittedly a failure, for the primary reason that the Christian world is each year becoming more and more dead as to all interest in spiritual things. It is not that the New Church has been inactive in the effort to spread the New Gospel. Think of the enormous efforts that have been made by our various publishing houses for more than a century! Think of all the translations of the Writings that have been made into some eighteen different languages! Think of the thousands of different editions that have been issued, not to speak of all the tracts, journals and collateral works.

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The English Swedenborg Society alone, from the year 1810 to 1910, published no less than 3,500 editions, in 1,365,000, volumes. There is not a religious organization in the world that can point to any similar literary activity, in proportion to the number of members. Verily we may say to the Chorazin and Bethsaida of the Christian world: "if the mighty acts which have been done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sack cloth and ashes." (Matth. 11:21.)

I hope I may not he misunderstood in this Assembly by producing an impression that I am discouraged or pessimistic as to our own work, or as to the future of the New Church in the Christian world. We know that the Lord is now operating both mediately and immediately for the establishment of the New Church throughout the Christian world, and that her ultimate triumph is certain. But the field of operation here is far more difficult because the internal obstacles are far greater and more numerous than will be found in the field of the gentiles. We need but to look upon ourselves and to reflect upon the difficulties often appearing insurmountable; which the Heavenly Doctrine meets with in the way of obtaining dominion over our hereditary inclinations. Alas! It is no easy thing for a Christian to become a Newchurchman in affection and life as well as in thought and faith, and it will take many generations before the New Church inheritance of good natural inclinations will at all balance the evil inclinations derived from a thousand years or more of Old Church inheritance. Let us not close our eyes, therefore, to the indisputable fact that the progress of the New Church in Christendom will be slow, painfully and disgustingly slow, while among the gentiles it will be far more easy and rapid.

We will unremittingly maintain our successful work of New Church education, from which our ranks have grown, for some fifteen years, by the annual addition of some fifty souls to our membership. Ours is the only body in the New Church that is increasing at this rate, or is increasing at ad, and for this we are thankful while admitting that even this growth is tremendously slow. We will unquestionably maintain and extend our mote external mission for the gathering in of the remnants in the Christian world, sending forth evangelists as fast as the Lord provides the men and the means.

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There is no doubt that these men will meet with success, even though their success will come with the pace of a snail. But it is sure to come, and I would not recommend that we abate one iota of our present efforts. I do not ask that you take away any part of the bread which belongs to the "children," but I do ask that we remember "the dogs" with a few crumbs from our table.

     Judging from all past history as well as all the signs of the time, I would venture to predict that the New Church in Christendom will struggle along for two or three centuries in comparative obscurity, growing slowly but surely chiefly from within, while the Christian world is being more and more vastated not only spiritually but also socially and politically, and even numerically by the ever decreasing birth rate. In the meantime the gentile world will advance on all planes at an ever increasing pace, and when the Heavenly Doctrine once finds a foothold amongst them, it will "spread like leprosy," as a Hindu assured the General Convention a year ago. And then, as the New Church grows amongst them, and the center of civilization shifts to the world of New Church gentiles, there will be a powerful reaction from them upon the old Christian nations in Europe, America and other "white" parts of the world, accelerating the growth of the New Church among them also. But "he who lives, will see."

     WHAT THE NEW CHURCH HAS DONE FOR THE GENTILES.

     The only efforts thus far made by the New Church to place the truths of the New Jerusalem before the great world outside of Christendom, has been in the way of a few translations. The British Swedenborg Society, in 1894, published a Hindu version of HEAVEN AND HELL, translated by Mr. F. Pincott and printed at Benares. This was followed, in 1896, by an Arabic translation of the same work and of the DOCTRINE OF CHARITY. Prof. Manishankar R. Bhatt, of Gujerat, India, in the year 1899 published a version of the same work in the Gujerati language, translated by himself and issued at Baroda, and the same gentleman subsequently published a volume of extracts from CONJUGIAL LOVE in his native tongue.

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In 1909 the British Swedenborg Society published a Japanese translation of HEAVEN AND HELL, and this list comprises all that has been done for the gentile world. The Japanese edition, it would seem, was well advertized, for we have seen the statement that 1,200 copies have been sold within two years, and the works published by Prof. Bhatt have also had a somewhat wide circulation, but the Arabic and the Hindi translations do not appear to have been advertized to any extent, and only two or three copies a year have been sold since their first publication.

We need not be surprised, therefore, at the apparent indifference of the Mohammedans and the Hindus, as they cannot be supposed to learn of the existence of these books by some kind of natural intuition or celestial perception. No practical publishers in the world would issue a work and then place it on the shelves to perish of mildew while waiting for customers drawn by the power of "influx." The one great secret of successful business in modern life consists in advertizing. Advertize, and again advertize! Make known! Proclaim! Announce unto the four quarters of the world. This is what the Press exists for. This is the very first step to be taken in the work of evangelization.

But how is it possible for us to advertize; among the Heathen nations! The answer is most simple. These nations have newspapers, nowadays,-dailies, weeklies, monthlies and quarterlies, -a great periodical literature published not only in the various native languages, but also in English for circulation among the natives. In Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Algiers, Persia and India there are a great number of journals by which we can react the whole Mohammedan world by impressive but attractive advertisements setting forth the beauties of the Writings concerning the Unity of "Allah," the Laws of "Kismet" or Providence, the glories of Paradise, acid the necessity of "Islam" or Resignation. In India also there are journals for the Brahmins, the Buddhists and the Parsees, through which New Church advertisements properly adapted, will reach mere than two hundred millions of human souls, while in Indo-China, the Malayan Peninsula and Archipelago, in China and in Japan, there is a quantity of journals which, at a small price, would be glad to receive our advertisements.

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Think of the difficulties of our brother, Dr. Deltenre, in advertising the New Church services in Brussels,-the whole Catholic Press completely closed against him, and the Liberal papers unwilling to admit his announcements except at exorbitant prices! We would find a very different spirit, I think, in the Press of the gentile world.

     The extant editions of HEAVEN AND HELL in Arabic and in Hindi should be released from their store-rooms by liberal advertizing, and other volumes of the Writings should be translated into the various heathen tongues. But it is not necessary to wait for many years before this can be accomplished, for the English language is now actually the one international tongue of all the gentile races. Educated Mohammedans, I believe, are as yet better acquainted with the French than with the English language; but in Japan, China and India there are many millions of intelligent natives who would be quite able to understand the Writings in the English versions.

     It is essential, however, that the editions, thus advertized, be sold cheaply, at a very low price, indeed, for these peoples are poor, very poor, in a natural sense as well as spiritually. Even the upper classes are of very limited means, judged according to our American standard of living. But is it not better to give a way the books and let their light shine, rather than letting them mold in the cellars? It may be objected that people will more greatly prize that for which they have sacrificed something, but how can we expect people to pay a high price for an unknown article? Every practical merchant makes a reduction, a special bargain price, when introducing his good to a new market. Why, then, should not we, when offering to the gentiles these priceless gems of spiritual goods which the Lord in His Second Coming has opened to us in endless abundance, freely, gratis, and for nothing?

     I would propose, therefore, that the General Church, when in the judgment of the duly constituted authorities the time seems ripe, publish some book or part of The Heavenly Doctrine for distribution among the Gentiles. The introductory chapters of the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, treating of the Godhead, would form a very fitting beginning.

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And I would propose, secondly, that a small sum of money be devoted to the use of advertizing this publication in the native papers of India, where our good friend, Prof. M. R. Bhatt, is willing to act as our agent. If the enterprise proves successful, it can gradually be extended so as to include other countries.

Whether we are ready or not, at the present time, to enter upon this work, I know that the time will come when our beloved Academy will be the first great international New Church University, the heart and lungs, the center of New Church thought and affections, whence spiritual heat and light will flow forth unto the ends of the whole earth! Recall the vision in the pageant of last Thursday, when the representatives of all nations in the world were seen drawing night unto the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION! The day will surely come, and may not be very far off, when students from among the gentiles will come to our Academy,-students from India, China and Japan, from, the Mohamnedan world and from "darkest Africa," in order to study here the Gospel of the Second Advent and to prepare themselves foe the work of evangelization in their own homes. At first one will come, then several, then many, and more and more until they shall have circles and schools of their own in Bryn Athyn, with faculties of their own and social life of their own; returning to their homes to build up societies and churches, schools and universities, all of which will look back to our Alma Mater as indeed the Mother of Churches in the New Jerusalem. Indeed, the day will surely come when the Academy will behold a fulfillment of the prophecy: "Thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall be carried by nurses to thy sides." Then "thine heart shall be amazed and be enlarged, because the multitude of the sea is converted unto thee; the hosts of the gentiles shall come."

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JOURNAL OF THE EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE General Church of the New Jerusalem 1913

HELD AT GLENVIEW, ILL. FROM THURSDAY, JUNE 19TH, TO MONDAY, JUNE 23D, 1913.

     FIRST DAY-THURSDAY, JUNE 19th.

     The Eighth General Assembly was opened with Divine Worship at 11 a. m., conducted by Bishop W. F. Pendleton, who delivered an address on "The Preservation of the Church," which is published on p. 449 of the present issue of NEW CHURCH LIFE, and afterwards ordained Mr. John Headsten into the first degree of the priesthood, and inducted the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith into the second or pastoral degree.

     In the afternoon, at 3 p. m., the Assembly witnessed a beautiful pageant, rendered on one of the lawns in the Park and representing Swedenborg writing the closing lines of the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION on June 19th, 1770, the assembling of the twelve Apostles around the table on which rested the Book now completed, and their going forth into all parts of the universal spiritual world to preach the everlasting Gospel of the Second Coming of the Lord.

     THE BANQUET.

     At 7 p. m. two hundred and thirty persons sat down at the Banquet in the Pavilion which had been erected in the Park for the meetings of the Assembly. The Rev. William B. Caldwell, as Toastmaster, announced that the subject of the toasts and speeches of the evening would be the same as that of the Bishop's address of the morning: THE PRESERVATION OF THE CHURCH," and, introducing the speakers, he observed:

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     The Bishop in his address showed that the Church is built by the Lord alone, and that it is preserved by the Lord alone. On this anniversary of the beginning of the Church on the 19th of June, 1770, it is fitting, therefore, that we should consider how the Church is to be preserved among us. While we can have no doubt at all that the Lord will prosper this His greatest work of all the building up of the Church and of Heaven from it,-while there is no doubt that He will effect this His purpose, there may nevertheless be a doubt as to whether the Church is to be preserved in us. This, therefore, is a subject to which we may well turn solemnly and give earnest consideration,-the means whereby the Church may be preserved in us individually and collectively.

     The REV. C. TH. ODHNER was introduced as the first speaker, who spoke as follows on the subject of DOCTRINE AS THE FIRST ESSENTIAL IN THE PRESERVATION OF THE CHURCH.

     The Preservation of the Church is one with the establishment of the Church, for as subsistence means perpetual existence, so the preservation of the Church means its perpetual establishment, first, in each individual; secondly, in the general body of these individual churches, and, third, in each individual again, by means of the Church in general.

     Doctrine has been very wisely placed first among the means by which the Church is preserved, both in the individual and in general, for it involves all the other means, and it may, therefore, be regarded as, indeed, the only essential in the preservation of the Church. For the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem is the Lord Himself in His New Church, and it is the Lord alone who can preserve His Church. Men cannot do it. Human means have been tried to the full: gorgeous rituals, powerful hierarchies, subtle philosophies,-everything in human power has been tried in order to infuse new life into dead churches, but all have miserably failed, because they have neglected and forsaken the one Divine means: the Lord's own genuine DOCTRINE.

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     "Doctrine!" What a harsh, forbidden sound this word carries to the modern ear! It at once brings up the vision of a doctrinaire," a dry, pedantic, intolerant dogmatist, alien to the "uplift" of the modern spirit of "helpfulness" and "altruism." But in the Lord's ancient churches it was not thus. To the ancients the idea of "Doctrine" was as the very breath of life, and their descendants clothed this idea in the most sublime and poetic imagery. How nobly the idea of Doctrine stands forth in the glorious conception of Pallas Athene, the virgin goddess of wisdom, springing full-grown from the brow of Jove, clad from birth in the glittering panoply of war, now hurling her invincible lance against Titans and treacherous Trojans, but anon appearing without weapons, a lovely Divine teacher whose only symbol is the outstretched demonstrating hand from which the water of life is seen flowing.

     It is a remarkable fact that the birthday of this goddess of Divine: Doctrine,-the Roman Minerva, the Greek Athene, the Egyptian Neith,-was throughout all the classic ages celebrated on this Nineteenth day of June, which we tonight are commemorating as the birthday of the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem. It is a remarkable fact, also, that the birthday of the false doctrine of the perverted Christian Church may be dated from the same day, when the Council of Nicaea on the nineteenth of June, in the year 325, opened its fatal sessions. We must note some very remarkable occurrences that have taken place on this date in the history of the New Church the opening, (in Birmingham, 1791), of the first temple ever erected in this world for the worship of the Lord in His Second Coming; the organization, (in London, 1810), of the British and Foreign Swedenborg Society-a body which for more than a century has labored unceasingly for the publication of the works in which the Heavenly Doctrine has been revealed; and, finally, the formal organization, (in Philadelphia, 1876), of the Academy of the New Church,-that body whose great Michael-function it has been to defend the supreme Divinity, authority and integrity of the Heavenly Doctrine.

     For this supreme function, for this supernal use, the Lord in His mercy raised up our beloved Academy, out of which has grown the General Church of the New Jerusalem, for by the acknowledgment of the Writings as the very Word of the Lord, and by it alone, could the visible New Church be preserved from the destruction which was threatening her.

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It is not that the Academy as a body of men has preserved the Church, but the Academy has fought these forty years simply for an opening to permit the Lord as Doctrine to do His own work of preserving the Church. It is not only Doctrine, or the Academy's Doctrine, but it is the Lord's own Doctrine, the Lord Himself in and as His Doctrine, for in this Doctrine we see no other face, we hear no other voice, than the face and the voice of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Those who persist in looking down upon mere externals appear to see and hear only the man, Swedenborg, but when, with the Apostles at the Transfiguration, we look up, we can "see no man, but Jesus only."

     Brethren! What a glorious privilege is ours, to see and hear that which all the ages before us have longed for; the Lord Jesus Christ Himself speaking to us directly in the immediate revelation of His Heavenly Doctrine, speaking not in the awful tones of Divine thunder, nor in mysteries half-veiled, but holding out His arms to us in gentle reasonableness, inviting us to "come and let us reason together" with Him! Here He forces no one, threatens no one, but leads every one in freedom according to reason.

     It is this freedom of human reason to hold direct converse with the Divine Doctrine that the Academy has fought for from the beginning, and which the General Church must fight for unto the unending future, for upon this good fight depends the preservation, the entire salvation, of our City. And in this defensive warfare our one watchword must ever be: "No COMPROMISE," no yielding of the gate by even a hair's breadth. For there is danger ever lurking outside the gate. There are spirits ever offering compromises, ever carrying gifts of apparent affirmations, admitting in so many words that the Heavenly Doctrine is indeed Divine, a Divine Revelation, everything that it claims to be, with the one sole exception that it is "NOT the Word of the Lord."

     Were we to consent to this compromise, the key to the city would be in the hands of the enemy who, when once in possession, would mock at our simplicity in believing their professions.

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For while the men who offer these compromises are undoubtedly sincere, the spirits behind them, by whom they are deceived, are not sincere, for these realize clearly enough that a revelation which is not the Word of the Lord is not a Divine Revelation, is not Divine and Infinite in any genuine sense whatever, is nothing but the word of a learned philosopher who may be mistaken in this, that, and the other respect,-may be mistaken altogether. Soon it would be shown that Swedenborg made a great mistake in his characterization of the state of the Christian world, that the distinctive establishment of the New Church is a mistake, that marriage within the Church is a mistake, that it is a mistake to have so many children, that it is a mistake to educate them in distinctive New Church Schools, etc., etc., until we should be forced to give up one citadel after another and in time lose everything that has made a New Church life worth living.

On this account we recognize that the preservation of the New Church in our midst depends first of all and most essentially upon the acknowledgment of the Heavenly Doctrine as the very Word of the Lord in His Second Coming-not only "in a certain sense," but in every sense of that word. And, therefore, we hold fast to this Doctrine as the Church's own foundation, upon which the Lord will build His Church, and against which the hell's shall not prevail. For the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem is the Lord Himself in His glorified Human, and we worship this Doctrine as our only God and Lord, as our Savior from all falsity and evil, as our one Hope in life, in death, and in the life to come.
DOCTRINE AS THE RULE OF LIFE AND WORSHIP. 1913

DOCTRINE AS THE RULE OF LIFE AND WORSHIP. Rev. F. E. WAELCHLI 1913

     The Toastmaster now invited the Assembly to join in singing a song, composed for the occasion by Mr. Wm. H. Junge, and entitled "Know ye all, the day is dawning," after which he introduced the REV. F. E. WAELCHLI, who spoke on the subject of

     DOCTRINE AS THE RULE OF LIFE AND WORSHIP.

     All doctrine is given for the sake of life. Doctrine is the means and life is the end. There are many in the New Church who believe that the end can exist without the means, who exalt the end at the expense of the means, claiming that since life is the all, doctrine is of little consequence.

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It is not necessary in this gathering to show the error of this idea, but I wish to call attention to the teaching which points out the importance of doctrine to life. We are taught that all worship is prescribed in doctrine and performed according to it. Now by "worship" here is meant external worship and also internal worship which is worship of the life. There can be no worship, either external or internal, unless it be such as is prescribed in the doctrine of truth and performed in accordance with that doctrine. In order that man may truly worship externally and internally, it is necessary that he should know what worship is, Who it is that is the object of worship and how He can be worshiped, and these things are made known to us of the Church only in the HEAVENLY DOCTRINE. It follows from this that the sounder the doctrine the purer will be the worship and also the more interior the doctrine the more interior will be the worship. There is no way to more interior worship than by means of more interior doctrine.

Among the uses of our General Church, constituting the internal worship of our body, is that of the education of the young. Now, how can we know in what way we are to perform this use in order that it may be done in accordance with the Lord's will? Only by going to the doctrines of the Church and learning there what is prescribed for us that is to be done in the work of education. Since the beginning of this work, which has now been carried on for quite a number of years, some progress has been made. And what is it that has enabled us to make progress in this work? What is it that has enabled us to see more clearly what it is the Lord wishes us to do in this work? What other than the doctrines of the New Church pointing out to us the way in which we shall go in the following of this good and noble use? Before us lies progress in this use to which there is no limit, because the doctrines of the New Church which bear upon this work are without limit.

Another thing of our Church which we prize most highly as our most precious jewel is the life of conjugial love. Now how can this love enter our lives? How can it be established in this Church?

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How else than by means of the doctrine which teaches us concerning it. The doctrine of love truly conjugial has been restored to mankind in order that by means of it the life of love truly conjugial might be restored; and it follows as a consequence that the more interiorly we enter into that doctrine, -the more we know about it and the fuller our perception of it,-the more inward can be that love, so that it is only by the doctrine and entrance into the interiors of the doctrine that progress in life itself is open to us.

     Another illustration: As a Church and as individuals of the Church there must be with us a trust in the Divine Providence of the Lord. How can we know anything about that Providence? How can we know its laws? Only by means of that doctrine which the Lord has given us and in which He has opened our eyes to see the wonderful things of His love and mercy. And again here, the more clearly we see this doctrine, the more interiorly we see it, the greater can be the love.

     Another illustration, bearing upon external worship. We know that everything in that worship centers in the sacrament of the Holy Supper. How different is the Holy Supper in the New Church from what it is in the Old! Whereby is it rendered different? It is because to us of the New Church is granted to know what is involved in the Holy Supper, and the more we know what is involved in it the greater will be the benefit of that holiest act of worship.

     Doctrine must be our rule of life and when it becomes so then it forms and creates us anew. It alone can form and create us anew, for it is the Divine truth, the Word by which all things were made that are made, and as Newchurchmen we are such as the doctrine of the New Church makes us. The Lord is present with us as Divine doctrine, the Word, the Logos, but in order that He may be present with us we must go to Him. And the more fully we go to Him the more fully He is present with us and this ever fuller going to Him constitute in us an ever more interior entering into the Divine truth given to us in the doctrines of the New Church. To those who are satisfied with remaining merely upon the surface of the truth the Lord is present as to His Divine Natural, but to those who enter into the truth more interiorly He is present as to His Divine Rational.

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The presence of the Lord must lead to something higher and greater, namely, conjunction with Him, for conjunction is the end of His providence. When the Lord is present as to His Divine Natural then there can be conjunction with Him in the Divine Natural such as exists in the lowest heaven, but if the presence of the Lord be that of His Divine Rational, then there can be conjunction with the Divine Rational of the Lord such as exists in the higher heavens, and, therefore, we see that the more interiorly we enter into Divine truths the more is open to us interior conjunction with the Lord, thus at the same time a higher and happier love and life.

As is man's conjunction with the Lord such is the man. The world has its standards of manhood which at their best are but natural-moral and which for the most part have as their end merely worldly success. It is for each to decide whether the standards of the world or the standards of the Church are those to which he wishes to measure up and let him who desires measure by the standard of the Church know that the only way in which he can come up to it or at Feast be in the endeavor to come up to it, is in making the doctrines of the Church his rule in all things of life. When man is thus led by doctrine to life then in a new sense does doctrine become his rule of life, for then the new love, the new life, which is bestowed upon him by the Lord, uses that doctrine as means by which it may come forth into deed and into word and then those glorious doctrines become for him the beautiful wedding garment given to him by the Lord in order that, because of his wearing it, he may be so distinguished that he will not be cast out into outer darkness but will remain forever at the feast of the marriage supper of the Lamb.

What a wonderful treasure to us is this rule of life given in the doctrines of the New Church. Without it, what would our life be? How dark, how empty! What would we be, what would our lives be, how much of happiness would we miss, if in the mercy of the Lord, we had not been led to see many of the interior things which lie within that doctrine? And yet what we see is but a glimpse.

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Before us lies the way, going in which we will be able to see more and more of these wonderful things of truth, and this to all eternity. Before us lies the way of an ever fuller presence of the Lord and of an ever more interior conjunction with him. Before us lies a plain path and let it be our hope and prayer that as generation after generation passes, this Church of ours may progress and more and more fully enter into her destined glory. For the attainment of this end we have our work to do in this short day of our life in this world, and that work is that we make progress step by step in our loyalty to the Heavenly Doctrine both in faith and in life, to that doctrine wherein the Lord reveals Himself unto us as the way, the truth and the life.

The Assembly now joined in singing the song: "In the Church's widening circle," after which the Toastmaster introduced the REV. ELDRED E. IUNGERICH, who spoke on the subject of
DOCTRINE AND THE PRIESTHOOD. 1913

DOCTRINE AND THE PRIESTHOOD. Rev. ELDRED E. IUNGERICH 1913

One of the things brought out in the discourse this morning was that there are two fundamental things in the Church, the love of the Church and the love of doctrine. These two are the soul of the Church. To preserve this soul the Lord has raised up an arm whose function shall be to preserve the doctrine in its integrity and cause that doctrine to constantly develop. This principle is well expressed in the first chapter of Ezekiel. The subject of that chapter is the Word. The cherubs there described signify the protection placed in the external of the Word that man may not enter interiorly into the truth unless there is an affection for living the truth. But when something of that affection has been gained, then follows the vision of the wheels, and by the wheels is suggested progress. One of the functions of the priesthood is to keep things moving, to keep those wheels revolving. The spiritual man takes the statements of the letter and turns them about and derives a general doctrine drawn from the letter of the Word. Then those general doctrines are collected together, are again turned and revolved in the mind and there is produced a grand principle, an internal principle, such as was brought out in the teaching that the Writings are the Word.

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Those who in the beginning received the Writings derived certain principles of loyalty, and one of these was that the New Church is an eternal Church. Another principle derived from this was that this Church is to be distinct from all other Churches; another, that we ought to apply to life what these doctrines teach. Taking all these principles which were derived from the reading of the Writings, and revolving them, turning them about in the mind, there was derived this doctrine that the Writings are the Word.

     It is the function of the priesthood to keep this process continually going on, to keep those who read the Writings continually revolving them in their minds in order to gain new principles. If this is not done, if the wheels stop, it will be with the Church as with a watch which you let alone and do not wind up.

     The Bishop's address spoke of the function of the priesthood in drawing doctrine from the letter of the Word and from the internal sense of the Word. That leads us to consider our subject a little more deeply. Every revelation that has ever been given was a literal sense of the Word. For every revelation which has ever been given was written in a human language and expressed on earth as a letter of the Word. This is true also of the Revelation given to our Church. It is a letter of the Word. There is an explicit statement of this in the SPIRITUAL DIARY, Where Swedenborg says that the angels, examining what was being written, said to him that these things, though bright with the state of love of the New Church, were relatively gross, as a sense of the letter. So the Writings have a sense of the letter.

     Let us consider this subject carefully, what we mean by the sense of the letter. The sense of the letter, we are told, is written for those in more child-like states in order to impress them with the fundamental universals of the Church. One of the functions of the letter of the Word is to impress upon the mind general doctrines of the Church and to bring them forth in the most emphatic way possible. Therefore, in the letter of the Old Testament we find it said of the Lord, that He is angry, punishes, takes vengeance. All such expressions occur in the letter of that Word for the sake of impressing the simple with the idea that the Lord is all powerful.

489

That is a most important truth which should be impressed upon those who approach that Word in a simple child-like state. If they have not that truth vividly impressed upon them, they cannot perceive the rest. Yet they must enter interiorly into that idea. It will not do for them to confirm it as an invariable rigid fact. By the reading of many passages the doctrine is brought out that the Lord only appears to be angry. So the interior view is brought out that the Word is written according to appearances.

In the same way it may be said of the Writings of our Church that there are certain fundamental things in them by which we may be impressed forcibly. Among these are the following: That there is one God; that He is the Lord Jesus Christ; that He is a real being; that He is reality itself; that He is in the human form; that angels and spirits are in real forms, and that the spiritual world is a real world. All these statements are in the letter of the Word to the New Church. In all those statements there is more interior truth. Let me give an illustration from the letter of the Word. If a person reads the history of creation in the letter of the Word he would say that the world was created in six days. That is true, but he must not narrow that thought by thinking of that day as just a day of twenty-four hours. He needs to think of a day as a space of time; he needs to use a philosophy to explain that idea and develop it. Now some would think that if we use philosophy to explain this, we would make the philosophy the chief thing, but that would be a mistake, for we only use the philosophy to get the real truth into the mind.

We have found in the New Church need for having recourse to a philosophy which will give us Better forms for the expression of the truth. And some have been alarmed at this. Some have thought that we were making the study of the philosophy a duty, a controlling factor in our Church. But we are not. We are doing no more with that than what we do with geology, the philosophy which we use to explain the days of Genesis as extended periods of time. We have found a need for the new philosophy. We are taught that when Swedenborg wrote it he was led by the Lord. By the use of his philosophy we can turn over in our mind difficult subjects and bring them into more adequate farm, which will give us a more interior view of all things in the Church.

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That is one of the things that the Church is coming into the perception of in the use of these things.

Take for instance such a rudimentary principle in geometry as that things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. Now if you should say that all the regenerated men are angels, and add that all angels are in heaven: it would naturally follow that all regenerated men are in heaven. There can be no dispute about that; it is a simple logical proposition. Take the statement that everything which comes from the mouth of the Lord is the Word. The Writings of Swedenborg have come from the mouth of the Lord. What follows? They are the Word. Ninety per cent. of New Church people refuse to make that conclusion, though it is perfectly obvious. Again, all Divine truth is the Word; the Writings of Swedenborg are nothing but Divine truth. What follows? They are the Word. A perfectly sound conclusion of logic. Take the statements of Swedenborg: All Divine revelation is the Word; the Writings are a Divine revelation. What follows: They are the Word. Again, all Divine doctrine is the Word; the Writings are Divine doctrine. What follows: The Writings are the Word.

There is another principle involved in the address, viz., that if the priesthood is developing doctrine, there comes to be a standard of tradition formed by the experience of all the men who have worked in the Church. There is no minister in the Church today who can stand alone. He must look for support to those of his fellows in the ministry who continue in the work of developing doctrine t he needs to stand in relation to all the rest in the ministry. The reason that the ministry study in their ministry is because they have the love of saving souls. They have not the love of establishing their own will. They have not the love of establishing arbitrarily doctrines which the people are not prepared to accept. They are in the ministry because they love the doctrines to be received. It gives them great pleasure to have members who will meet them and discuss the doctrine with interest and affection, and show that they have received these doctrines, that they are like lights burning in all parts of the Church. It is one of the difficulties of the minister that he finds persons who do not show any interest in the doctrines of the Church.

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They may have it interiorly, but they do not show it to the minister. The result is that while the minister feels an interest in all the members of his hock and a desire to do them good, he feels the greater interest and naturally desires to see more often those who show an interest in the doctrines; for where there is the greatest interest in the things of the Church there is the greatest strength for the Church. So if you wish the minister to come and see you and to show a friendly interest in you, you should show your interest in the doctrines of the Church by asking him about them. This principle is a very important one. It is the duty and love of the ministry to communicate the things of the Word, the things of doctrine which have come to him. The priesthood, if it is an upright priesthood, if it is developing the doctrine, giving its life to the work, is doing what it can in spite of adverse conditions. You can never remove these conditions altogether, but you can make them quiescent, so that the sphere of the work of the priesthood can go forth and be conjoined internally with the spheres of heaven, which do not go forth in this world, because they are overlaid with the external spheres of this world. The sphere of external friendship is one of the most powerful spheres by which the use of the ministry can be performed.
DOCTRINE AND THE LAITY. 1913

DOCTRINE AND THE LAITY. G. A. MCQUEEN 1913

     After singing, "Then together let us stand, Priests and Laymen hand in hand," the Toastmaster introduced the next speaker, MR. G. A. MCQUEEN, who spoke on

     DOCTRINE AND THE LAITY.

     While I was thinking of this subject I noticed a statement in the BRIEF EXPOSITION that disposed me to decide to try to show the contrast between the attitude of the clergy to the laity in the Old Church and in the New Church. I read that this difference was that in the Old Church the priest used expressions in two senses. He would use a term with two meanings, one for the clergy and the other for the laity. Now that was, of course, to keep the people in subjection, in the Roman Catholic Church especially, and we must remember that something of the same practice goes on now: the keeping of some things from the laity, speaking to them with another voice.

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In the Old Church the preachers will preach anything rather than doctrine. They will pass over what is taught in the Word, and they preach about scientific things, talk about education and such questions, but they do not like to preach doctrine. We know the reason for this, because we are told that in the end of the Church, in the dead Church, there is no esteem for spiritual things. In fact, the estimate in which spiritual and celestial things are held, is referred to in that remarkable expression of the Apocalypse where it is said "a measure of wheat for a penny or three measures of barley for a penny," the emphasis to be placed on penny, indicating the estimate in which divine things are held at the end of a church, an estimate that can only be represented with the very smallest coin, a penny, a mere nothing, not counted at all. That is the condition referred to there.

I have just mentioned this as introduction to show the state existing outside of the New Church in order to point out what should be within our own body. We are looking for something different to this, and in our body there can be no accepting doctrine from the priest as a man. No one is expected to receive doctrines from priests except so far as they are seen to be faithful representatives of the Lord, devoting their time to study with a view to presenting the genuine truths of doctrine to the people. The position of the laity in the New Church is that of receptivity and the object of our assemblies and ministers' meetings is to bring the laity and clergy together. In the case of ministers we as a body have entire confidence in them that they come together to sink any desire to exercise dominion over the laity, and to submit their understanding to the Lord in order that they may reach the truth, not as in the former church where the truth was withheld from the laity, but the more plainly to present the truth before the laity. That is what we look to in the General Church. In the General Church the priest and layman must go hand in hand.

Granting all this, it becomes a question how far we as the laity in this body are becoming true recipients of the doctrines presented to us. Are we using the rod of iron to hammer ourselves into shape?

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We have presented to us the truth from the Word which is the rod of iron, and the question is whether we are endeavoring to ultimate that truth in our lives. The true test will be found in the application of the doctrine to the life. Now there is a statement in the Writings that after the Last Judgment external things will appear the same as they did before. It is said that the Old Church will be in external form as before, that her worship will go on apparently as before. Now, though things will go on as before, the passage can hardly mean that the New Church will appear the same as the others, that it is to appear just like one of the sects, so that you can not make any distinction, only that it is another body. It seems to me the time must come when the body of the General Church, a body even as small as ours, of only eleven hundred members, will exercise some visible effect on the world. The time must come when you shall hear a man say: "That is a body of New Church people. You can trust them with your life."

You know that in the world, if you refer to a man who professes religion, they will advise you to keep clear of that man. The business man says: "That man professes religion; keep your eye on him; he is not to be trusted." He may be a good man, but that is the general sphere. But we want to establish such a sphere that if a man be known as a Newchurchman, he will be looked upon as one whose religion is based upon doctrines which are absolutely true and which can produce nothing but right acting. That is what we want to look for in this world, such application of the doctrines that we can be relied upon in business and in anything we may engage in. If the Church can advance in this direction as time goes on, then the purpose for which the Church exists will be attained. This will be a grand ful and so inspiring, so heavenly, that I feel that mere words 19th of June for us if we can determine to make the General Church of the New Jerusalem an actual church ultimated to the very extreme of externals. The message was given in the other world in the year 1770 and was given unto us in the world through Swedenborg. It is being continuously given to our societies through our priests. When we as a body of laymen determine to act up to it and guide our lives by it, then the General Church of the New Jerusalem will be a blessing in the land.

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This being the end of the regular program of toasts, the Toastmaster invited general discussion, whereupon the REV. ALFRED ACTON spoke as follows on the subject of
PAGEANT. 1913

PAGEANT. Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1913

I would like on this occasion to make a few remarks on something with which I am sure the hearts of all here are full. I refer to that beautiful pageant we witnessed in the Park this afternoon. I know that in the production of a beautiful and harmonious picture such as we then witnessed,-a picture in which very many persons were engaged,-a great deal of hard and generous work was required; that in the getting up of such a beautiful pageant much supervision, much anxious thought, must have been expended, but the whole pageant itself was so beautiful thanks are inadequate; that those who have worked for this should feel the sphere going forth from us as the greatest evidence of our appreciation. This morning we listened to an address by our Bishop in which he pointed out what it is that preserves the Church,-the Heavenly Doctrine,-and he led our eyes to see that the Lord Himself is Doctrine. After that noble presentation of Doctrine we were privileged to behold the thing itself in representation even as though we were privileged to get a glimpse of those beautiful representations which not only fill the angels with delight but also impart to them much, very much instruction. We saw there the Lord descending from heaven as Doctrine. "Silent and reverent all" were the words which introduced the pageant; and we were all silent, and all reverent, because what was placed before us was the representation of the descent of the Divine Truth out of heaven from God. We admired the picture, our eyes were pleased with the details of it, but what affected us, what inspired us, what refreshed us, the real, the spiritual thing that was within the seeing, the actual seeing, was that it is the Lord alone descending as doctrine that builds our Church and will preserve it. No amount of study will build up the Church. No amount of cleverness in its professors will build up the Church, but the Lord descending from heaven, sending forth His apostles, sending forth His truth, the Lord will build His church; and He will build it when men are in illustration to receive it; and men,-not only priests, but laymen,-will be in illustration to receive it when they actually see, as we saw represented this afternoon, that the Lord Himself makes the Church; that it does not come from heaven, but comes from the Lord through heaven; and when we prepare our minds to be receptive of heaven and feel in our daily life that delight, that heavenly joy, that foretaste of heaven, which we were privileged to see represented this afternoon.

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Title Unspecified 1913

MR. H. L. BURNHAM: One act has been accomplished since the last meeting of the General Assembly, within this last year, that looks to the preservation of the Church, which should have notice on this occasion, and that is the ordination of another bishop in the General Church. The Bishop painted out to us that the preservation of the Church is accomplished by instrumentalities, and one of the essential instrumentalities is the priesthood. Without some provision being made for the perpetuation of the priesthood the Church will suffer. That provision has now been made and the Church has passed through what might have been a very serious crisis, and it has gone through it safely because we have subordination in the priesthood. The man who has been ordained as bishop and recognized as a bishop in this Church, is performing the duties in representing the Bishop, performing ecclesiastical services in the different parts of the Church. We have one who can assist our Bishop, and he is a man who not only has our profound respect but our affection. In Glenview here we probably feel somewhat closer to him than in some of the other parts of the Church. You know that our elder Bishop Pendleton was the first pastor of the Immanuel Church. Then, at the time he was our pastor, it was proposed that we should move into the country. We made one or two attempts to do this which were unsuccessful, and I well remember that our Bishop said that our difficulty was that there was not enough of charity among us. Subsequently when Mr. Dandridge Pendleton came here to assist Mr. Bostock, and when later on he became our pastor, and we became his first charge, in the providence of the Lord we were led to come to this beautiful spot and we found that what our Bishop stated was true, that it requires great charity even for Newchurchmen to live together.

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Probably there are none who can live together except Newchurchmen unless it is those who live together simply on the ground of the possession of wealth. Our new bishop was our pastor at that time and he smoothed over all those difficulties, so that today the settlement actually exists and it is due largely to his work as pastor, and we at Glenview, the Immanuel Church, know and feel confident that he will bring the same abilities to the episcopal office that he brought as a young man to the pastoral office here in Glenview. We feel especial delight in being here and attesting to our love and affection and confidence in him. We know that the entire Church holds this view, and this is the first time the entire Church has been together to meet the new bishop, and, therefore, I propose a toast to the Rev. N. D. Pendleton.
Title Unspecified 1913

Title Unspecified Rev. N. D. PENDLETON 1913

     This toast having been honored with acclamation, it was answered as follows by

     THE REV. N. D. PENDLETON.

     I know something is expected from me in the way of response, but I assure you it is exceedingly difficult. I have never been able to make a speech in response to a personal toast. I would like to say in response, that yell have placed upon me a very great burden of responsibility, a responsibility placed upon me by my brethren, the priests of the General Church. I earnestly believe that such a step as has been taken was necessary for the welfare of our Church, for its preservation in the future and so I heartily favored it. When in Providence the choice fell upon me it was necessary for me to accept the responsibility. I can only say in regard to it that it is my determination to do everything I can to assist Bishop Pendleton. There are not two bishops in this Church in the sense of two executives. There is one and only one. Certain powers I do hold and shall hold for the future of the Church, but as far as my actual work is concerned I am now and shall continue to be as I have always been, an earnest and subordinate assistant to Bishop Pendleton.

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Mr. Acton spoke in very beautiful words of the pageant of this afternoon, and even as we were affected by the pageant so we were affected by his description of it. It is indeed true that something heavenly descended on us assembled this afternoon. Never before in this world, so far as I know, has there been such a representation; and the thought that occurred to me in connection with it was that to our minds it really presented the history and progress of the Church up to today. Indeed it involved our whole idea of the Church, for the central thing in that pageant was the opening of the book;-a most simple act, one that we perform every day, a simple opening of the book. All else centered around that. But that opening of the book signifies and stands for the whole Divine Revelation that has been given. The sending out of the twelve apostles throughout the spiritual world, proclaiming the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ, was the same as the opening of the book, the revealing of the Lord's truth for the salvation of human souls. That is what our Church stands for, that and that alone. There is no other idea or aim in the work of the Church, no other work of the priest hood than the salvation of human souls, but there is now a beginning upon this earth of the new salvation, a salvation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ in His glorified human now for the first time revealed to all the heavens and to the whole world, a salvation that is greater and higher than has ever been. The truth exposing to view the glorified human of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, is a truth that is powerful to save many who would otherwise be lost. It is a truth powerful to lift men into heaven who otherwise would have fallen into hell. It is a truth able to raise those in their lowest states into a higher state. It is a truth that is capable of producing and will produce in heaven men and angel's who will fulfill the very will and love of God concerning the human race. For there is now possible a man who will be such a one as there has never been and could not be in the past, a man of whom Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden were the prophecy. The story of the human race is a story of its great fall and slow recovery therefrom. But it is also the story of the man who has sinned and repented and in the mercy of God is raised to a higher salvation even through the fall.

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Such is the Church. Such are the things involved in this New Church, but little known, scarcely dreamed of except only now these last few years past, indeed since the coming into the hearts and minds of men of a perception of the nature and quality of the Divine Revelation given to us,-only since that day has begun to dawn upon our minds the great and wonderful future before this Church now so feeble. But it is in the firm belief in the hearts of all of us of this Church in the truth and promise of its future that we labor in the work. Never in the world have men been given such a thing to love as we have, and it is the only thing that is worthy of our whole life's devotion, this wonderful Church, this God-given Church, this Church that is to be the crown of air the Churches, this Church that brings us directly into the presence of the Lord our Savior and enables us to receive from His hands an everlasting blessing,-this Church, surely, surely, we will love it with the love that the Lord God will give us. Nothing else is of any moment. Nothing else of life is of any consequence in the presence of this, and, brethren, let us join hands and hearts and go forward and do our life work and co-operate with the Lord in bringing this our Church one step nearer the fulfilment of its glorious destiny.
MR. JOHN PITCAIRN 1913

MR. JOHN PITCAIRN 1913

     MR. JOHN PITCAIRN then read a long and interesting letter from Rev. E. Deltenre, giving an account of his work in Brussels.

     Letters and telegrams of greeting were then read from individuals who could not come to the Assembly and from other centers of the General Church. A most delightful evening came to a close with the singing of the song: "To our Church and our Country above."

     SECOND DAY-FRIDAY, JUNE 20th.

     1. The first session of the Eighth General Assembly was opened at 10 a. m. with the reading of the Word by Bishop Pendleton and the singing of Hymn 82 in the Liturgy.

     2. The Secretary read letters and telegrams of greetings and good wishes to the Assembly from a number of societies and individuals.

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     3. The annual Statistical Report of the Secretary of the General Church was read, announcing the fact that the actual membership of the General Church now numbered exactly eleven hundred persons.

     4. The order of the day was then declared to be the paper on "THE NATURE OF THE SPIRITUAL WORLD," by the Rev. Alfred Acton. The paper occupied the whole of the morning session and more than an hour of the afternoon, but was listened to with the closest attention and appreciation throughout.

     5. At the opening of the afternoon session the Rev. F. E. Waelchli called attention to the presence with the Assembly of the Rev. J. S. David, pastor of the Convention Society in San Francisco, Cal., and on his motion it was unanimously

     Voted, That we welcome him to our Assembly and invite him to take part in our deliberations.

     6. After the conclusion of Mr. Acton's paper, the BISHOP, in inviting discussion, stated that "We are grateful for the presentation of this subject by one who is an expert; one who has been teaching this subject for years in the schools of the Academy. It will be impossible for us to take in in one sitting the reasoning of this paper. I would recommend most earnestly the close reading of it. It presents a very important subject to the Church."

     DR. KING expressed his appreciation of the very excellent paper, but thought it a mistake that it should have been so long. He believed that it would be a good principle to limit the length of papers read before the General Assembly.

     MR. JOHN PITCAIRN declared the paper to be a very important one, which would tend to dissipate erroneous ideas which had prevailed for the past two and a half years. He referred briefly to the several papers which had appeared in the LIFE, beginning with that of Mr. Ray Gill on the bodies of spirits and angels. Mr. Gill's paper had been highly appreciated, but in his opinion it contained some misleading statements in the apparent endeavor to show that spirits and angels had no actual spiritual bodies; this had disturbed many minds. The passages which Mr. Gill had quoted to support this contention had related to conditions in the world of spirits. Where Swedenborg apparently said that spirits had no bodies, it was evident that the material body was referred to. Swedenborg had pointed out that external men have no clear idea of the spiritual world, and they suppose when they wake up in the world of spirits that they have the same material body as they had possessed in the world.

500

It was this phantasy that Swedenborg denied. These passages he thought had been mistakenly supposed to teach that spirits and angels have no bodies, and he quoted, as expressing the true idea, Spenser's couplet:

     "For of the soul the body form doth take,
     For soul is form and doth the body make."

     and referred to the common perception in the minds of men that the spiritual body was in the form and the shape of the body on earth. He felt that the misconception had arisen because of lack of discrimination. Almost everyone who went to the spiritual world from Christendom was in phantasy. There was much of phantasy in the world of spirits; in hell the devils were in phantasy but the angels are not in phantasy. Mr. Acton had quoted from the DIARY a passage speaking of a spirit with three arms. He did not think that in heaven we would speak of "calling on our three legged friend or four legged neighbor." The angels are in the human form and in the human shape because they are not in phantasy. "Why is it," he asked, "that we have the human form? Because the spiritual body has this form and shape. And the soul has that form because the Lord has it." He felt that there was with some a tendency to Idealism, in doing away with the body in the form in which we know it. He had found many passages which taught that in the other world we would have the same form and the same shape as here.

     Mr. IUNGERICH thought that we should rather express our appreciation of the paper than criticize it. He would have enjoyed listening to such a paper for three days. He doubted whether such a subject which was so new to the Church could have been adequately treated in any shorter paper. He thought we should be very affirmative to the teaching of the paper. Mr. Acton's presentation of the subject was much better than his own. He wished to speak of one or two points.

     The truth of the reality of the spiritual world had been impressed upon the Church through many years, and in believing this we are believing in the genuine truth of the letter of the Writings. But we ought to enter interiorly into these teachings, and entering interiorly into them, be patient, avoid forcing a conclusion this way or that, but willing to be led. But in saying that we should be patient it was not meant that we should be inactive, should say, the subject is in the hands of good Newchurchmen; when they come to a decision then we will join in and say we always believed that way. When told to be reactive or recipients, it was meant that we were to do something ourselves. He wished to voice an appreciation of Mr. Gill. We might criticize the way in which he brought out the subject, but he was using his mind, and he was convinced that Mr. Gill was perfectly honest. We often make mistakes, but those mistakes were not harmful if we were willing to give them up when we saw something better.

     MR. ACTON: One word about "idealism." The charge has frequently been made about certain new thoughts with regard to the spiritual world, that they tend to Idealism.

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I do not think that those who have that in mind realize what the Idealism is that is condemned in the Writings. It is not Idealism to believe that interior ideas, spiritual ideas, that are given to man by the Lord, are real things with him. It is Idealism to think that man, after death, is nothing but a thought or a breath, without a substance which is a subject; and it is that Idealism which the Writings condemn, and which is proclaimed and known as Idealism in the world,-that man is merely a breath without a subject,-is life without an organic vessel?

     DR. KING showed, by various illustrations, that the brain is not simply an organ in the skull, but that it flows forth like a river into all parts of-the body and weaves it. And if you should remove from man's body all kinds of tissue except the nerves, you would have a complete nervous man; every organ would be there shown forth in the nervous tissue. This showed that the brains are not only in the head, but go forth like very fibers and are woven into the various parts of the body.

     REV. E. S. PRICE had been in disagreement with the paper in the beginning as he had been in disagreement with Mr. Gill, but the paper had had a very clarifying effect upon his mind, and he seemed to understand a good many things which he had not understood before. As to the length of the paper, he would rather have heard it in three or four days than in one.

     REV. N. D. PENDLETON: I wish to express my deep sense of appreciation of Mr. Acton's profound study, a study which is central to all progress in the understanding of life in the spiritual world, and consequently of life in this world.

     I am not disposed to criticize any view because it may not be very ably expressed, or expressed in words that are suitable. I say this with reference to any article which may be written, or any speech which may be made. We speak according to appearances. We speak with human words in the endeavor to convey the truth. Now in my opinion there has been brought to our attention, during the past few years, a great central truth, a truth that enables the mind to understand rationally the phenomena of the spiritual world. It necessitates something of a reversal of our former thought on this subject. In other words, it requires that we should enter into the apprehension of a certain law of the mode of operating; and in so doing to realize the fact that the interior life governing and controlling is not the same as the outward manifestation or apparent expression. Between these two there may, for a time, be a "pre-established harmony," but it will not endure, because either the on is the truth. In the other is the truth; that is to say, either the body of appearance or those things in the other world that appear round about spirits and angels are actual appearances and do inflow into man just in the same way and mode as the objects round about do here in this world, that is to say, appearing as an environment around spirits and angels, or they are simply subjective.

502

If they are objective I believe that almost all of the statements made in the Writings concerning things in the other world are not apprehensible. But if, on the other hand, the actual truth is that they are what scientific men describe as subjective appearances, then, indeed, not only can these marvelous statements, which are made, be understood, but, in fact, all the doctrines, practically all the doctrines, yield to such an interpretation. I believe that this is the case, and I think that as we progress in our Understanding of the subject we will know more and more that this is so and realize this fact in addition, that there is no difference between the way a man appears here while living in this life, and the way he will appear in the other life. The mental impressions are just the same. It may be said that we do not see the actual things round about us, but that there are wave lengths in a medium which come to us with a certain trembling of the atmosphere from those subjects and that the trembling passes into the eyes and optic nerves and causes glands to gyrate and that the result of that trembling is that these things are visible, in all their beautiful coloring. You will likely say that this may be so, but none the less I see what I see round about me. It is just the same in the other life. The only difference, in my opinion, is that instead of these things coming to the minds of men from objective existences, which in themselves are material, the same things are actually implaced and presented to them in the spiritual world and in the mind of the angels by means of a wave length or tremulation in the spiritual medium that surrounds and invests angelic and spiritual minds. In other words, the real thing here is just the same as the real thing there. Therefore there is no difference. Therefore there could be no perceptible difference between things appearing here and appearing there. If a man goes to sleep and dreams, he dreams in the moment between waking and actual sleeping, that is to say, he dreams when there is the raising of his mind above the body. The mere material body is capable of reacting to it and then the mind produces round about itself its own true environment. The dream is in this respect illustrative of the life after death. During our first states in the other life, it is much like the dream life because our spirit has not yet found its place. Spirits are stupid when they first enter, because they have not yet found their place, but when they find their place and when the spiritual body or spiritual organic or the spiritual physiological is once located and joined with its own kind, then it tomes into powers that are far greater than it could enjoy before, according to a law well known spiritually.

REV. J. S. DAVID: Before this session closes I wish to express to this Assembly my high appreciation of its kindness in according me the privilege of speaking in this meeting and taking a part in its deliberations. I feel that it is a great privilege. Although I am a Convention minister I feel quite as much at home with you here this afternoon as I have ever felt in the meetings of the Convention or in the presence of the ministers of the Convention.

503

I feel here a sphere of fellowship, a sphere of brotherly love, a sphere of real New Church love. I feel that, and I felt the same during the week I spent at Bryn Athyn not long ago. I listened with very deep interest to Mr. Acton's paper, while it was a long paper I was listening with the utmost attention, wide awake, which is not my usual method of hearing on a warm day. I hope, at some time, to see it published in the pages of NEW CHURCH LIFE so that I can get down to a study of it. I want to say that I have taken the NEW CHURCH LIFE from the very beginning, in 1881, and I have not been without it a single year since then. (Applause.)

     7.The session closed at 6 p. m. and was followed at 8 p. m. by the Assembly Ball.

     THIRD DAY-SATURDAY, JUNE 21st.

     8. The session was opened at 10 a. m. by the reading of the Word by the REV. J. E. BOWERS, and the singing of Hymn 20.

     9. The REV. N. D. PENDLETON presented a paper on "The Everlasting Gospel and the Divine Proceeding," after which Bishop Pendleton invited discussion of the subject.

     REV. W. B. CALDWELL: I listened with a great deal of delight to the paper. I was especially interested in the part in which Mr. Pendleton described the difference between the infinite sphere of the Divine proceeding around about the angels and the spheres that went forth from them, as being the difference between the active and passive; the Divine proceeding being the living active round about them and their spheres being relatively inert and entering into the interstices of the active spheres. I would ask whether there are not real degrees of the spheres proceeding from the angels themselves. In the ARCANA COELESTIA there are some statements describing the actual sphere which goes forth from the angels, pouring out from them and communicated to others and perceived by the senses. But, on the other hand, there are states which are communicated to the organic atmospheres of heaven; not actually poured out from them, but taken up, as it were, by the atmospheres and communicated to the societies at a distance; indeed, to an immense distance in some cases. I would ask what the difference would be between the spheres actually flowing from the angels and those which are communicated to others through the atmospheres of heaven, and what the difference would be in relation to the Divine proceeding, how the Divine proceeding would take them up and communicate them.

     Rev. N. D. PENDLETON: The angels are conjoined with angels in a great series. The conjunction of their spheres makes the sphere of a society and the conjunction of the spheres of all the societies makes the sphere of heaven.

504

REV. ALFRED ACTON: Many points have been suggested to my mind by this paper, which deals with subjects that have always been attractive to the active minds of the Church, and perhaps the very center of that attraction has been our hope of seeing more clearly into things that were not clear. One of the thoughts that come to my mind was that there is no human life without two elements, the proceeding of influx and afflux,-influx of life from the Lord and an afflux from sensation; and because this is so the Divine willed to appear to men by both ways. The Lord wished to appear to men not only from within, but also from without, and so there are two elements of the Divine proceeding, one the Divine proceeding as life for the sustaining of men, and the other the Divine proceeding as Divine truth for revealing itself to men, so that the two
can be conjoined. This Divine truth which proceeds to men, so that it may be comprehended by him was represented prior to the Incarnation in the Most Ancient Church, as Nature, and also appeared by means of angels; so that we may say that Nature itself in the Most Ancient Church was the ultimate of the Divine proceeding and was God's presence with man, but afterwards, when the world of spirits became filled with evil spirits and hence became perverted with evil representatives, then the Lord came as a representative Word; that is, the Divine proceeding as truth represented itself by means of men as a written Word which should come, as it were, to the outside of men, to knock at the door. That also failed, because it also became perverted, and then the Lord came on earth. In this connection I was extremely interested in Mr. Pendleton's statement that the Lord came to glorify His human, and that this necessarily could not have been revealed at that time; that is to say, the revelation of the Lord in His glorified Human could not have been made while the Human was being glorified. Preparation had to be made. Now since we know it is true that the Lord by means of His glorified Human reveals Himself to men from without, and reveals Himself to men as a man from without, as formerly he revealed Himself from without representatively by means of an angel and the written Word;-this opens to his an immense promise in our study of the Divine Human. I felt inspired by the paper and call attention to this immense promise which is given to men in this study and other studies that are being made, to enable us to see that it is our Lord Himself who appears before us; to See that Divine proceeding which had always hitherto prior to the Incarnation come by representatives, reaching men and affecting them; now comes no longer by representatives, but as the Lord Himself in his Divine Human, appearing to man in lasts. It is this higher degree of knowledge of the Lord in the Church, that He Himself comes to us in ultimates, that is now revealed to us in order that by means of Him in lasts we may more fully be recipient of Him in firsts.

REV. E. E. IUNGERICH repeated Mr. Caldwell's question as to what is the different effect of the spheres going out from an angel and the effect of what we call their telephone-like communication through a medium outside.

505

There are two ways in which they can communicate;- one by direct flowing forth of their spheres and the other by the tremulation or nerve message going along the nerves. Another point he would ask is as to Mr. Pendleton's conception of the three degrees or three stages in the first aura itself which is that form of the Divine proceeding which constitutes the three heavens.

REV. N. D. PENDLETON: In regard to the first question the explanation I have arrived at so far is this, that there is a communication between the actual spheres proceeding from a man or angel or the mind of man or angel, which is just the same thing, when these spheres are excited. When the loves or affections of an angel are aroused, the spheres which go forth from them tremulate or vibrate and wherever there may be other spheres that are of a like nature they may vibrate in tune with those angels, and immediate communication, and indeed presence, is brought about. The secret of this is the law involved in the subject of vibrations or radiations and it is the very same principle as that which is know in the world as wireless telegraphy. It is well known that an impulse in the ether passes thousands of miles and will be taken up by another instrument that is attuned to the original source by which the impulse is imparted. That is a beautiful and perfect illustration of the modes of communication in the other life, but it is communication through the ether medium. If you please, every angel is such an instrument and every other angel with whom there can be aroused any like vibration may be touched and moved, and when so touched and moved by excitation of the affections of the original, there is immediately brought about by it not only communication, but presence But there is no time and space and so there is none in the interiors of nature. Swedenborg, in his work on TREMULATION gives the fundamental idea concerning the structure of the whole universe from the highest to the lowest. The understanding of all the phenomena of the other life and of this life must be in the understanding of the doctrine of tremulation. In the ARCANA those passages that describe the representations appearing about angels and spirits describe those representations rather as to their quality than merely their mode of appearing. They are all described as representations by means of radiations of light, and there you have the same principle. Everything is accomplished there by radiations. All appearings whatsoever are modes of motion presented by radiations. The pulse of the spiritual world passing from the inmost through to the very ultimates of creation is the source of life and everything lives and has being according to the greater degree of his response to that pulse.

REV. T. S. HARRIS: This is one of the most profound subjects that can be presented to the mind of man the presence of the Lord with man. It has been beautifully and ably presented to us this morning in the paper of Mr. Pendleton. The presence of the Lord with man, the Divine presence, what is it!

506

It is the presence of a Man. We are in the presence of a Man, of a Divine Man. And who is this Divine man in whose presence we are? The Lord Jesus Christ. And where is He' In the spiritual world. But how can we be in His presence, if, as a Man, He stands in the spiritual sun! Answer: He is with us in the light and in the heat of that spiritual sun. And this answers the child's question, How can the Lord be everywhere at the same time? How can He be in my home and in Johnnie's home and in Tommy's home at the same time? And the children ask this question so often. When they understand that the Lord is present in the light and heat of that sun in which He dwells they will say: But can I see the light and heat of that sun and feel its presence? The little one can be taught to see that light and feel that heat. When he places his hand upon his arm and feels the heat of his blood he knows that that heat is from the spiritual sun, and when he feels his emotions stirring within him, he knows that the warmth is the sunshine from the sun in him, the sun in which dwells the Lord in His Divine person. Then he closes his eyes and he will describe to me the seats and desks of his room. He tells me he can see his teacher sitting there, the very color and shape of his hand, and the inkstand on the desk; the little form of his schoolmate in the class beside him, and I ask him: Is it dark, and he says, No, it is light. And how do we see those things? By what light do we see them? And he understands that it is the light of the spiritual sun, which is shining into his mind and that he sees in the light of the spiritual sun. He thinks because of the light of the sun in which the Lord dwells that is shining into his mind and he feels the heat; and so the very presence of the Lord fills him and thrills him from that sun and the Lord is present with him and is living in him, rejoicing in him every moment, in every thought and every feeling.

MR. RANDOLPH W. CHILDS: It seems impossible to consider the papers read yesterday and today entirely apart, and I wish to speak of a question that has arisen in my mind and must have arisen in the minds of others. In Mr. Pendleton's paper this morning, there seemed to be the idea that the scenery around angels is formed of the same sphere that proceeds from the angels, that it goes forth and seizes hold of the ether and forms actual objects out of the ether, objects which differ from those in this world because of the time in which they are formed, and, because they endure only so long as the sphere proceeding from the mind of the angel endures. In the paper read yesterday it seemed to me that there was a difference. In that paper it seemed as though the only thing that really exists, the only thing that is made out of actual particles is the brain itself and that the scenery in the spiritual world, all the phenomena of that world including the spiritual body itself, is merely an appearing from that brain. Now what seems to me to be the most interesting point is as to whether the objects appearing to the angel are formed of parts of the atmospheres or whether the objects appearing to the angels are simply appearances that have no composition or particles; for if it be true that the former is the case then it is not very difficult to have some idea of the nature of the spiritual body, the thought being suggested that the spiritual body itself may be composed out of particles of the atmospheres in the other world.

507

This thought seems to be very fundamental in the consideration of the subject of the spiritual world and the thought of the bodies of spirits and angels.

     THE BISHOP: The speaker is correct as to the close connection of these two subjects. The two papers will both be printed and can be studied. The chair is of the opinion that sufficient time, as much as can be spared, has been given to this subject in view of other material that has been provided for this Assembly.

     MR. MCQUEEN thought it would be useful to go on with the discussion.

     REV. W. L. GLADISH: The paper covers the whole field of New Church theology and therefore the whole field of the New Church, because, as we were told the other day, as physics cover the whole field of natural science because it is a universal subject, so is theology a universal subject, physics being the body and theology the soul. And so this story of the everlasting Gospel and the Divine Proceeding includes all that we have in the New Church philosophy and science, all that we have in the earlier works and all that we have in the theology of the Writings, and there is a wonderful correlation presented of the two sources of teaching that the New Church has. Mr. Pendleton called attention to the fact that there were four rings to the ark, the rings signify the Divine proceedings. In that is involved a reconciliation of the troublesome question of the three spiritual and three natural atmospheres, while there are only four elements. According to the philosophy of the PRINCIPIA the whole relation of man to God is involved in this study; how the sphere of angels is formed by particles that go forth from them. How, by means of their spheres, angel is conjoined with angel, society with society, and all with the Lord. In listening to it, so many things are involved and, as it were, touched upon; it seemed so profound that it leaves our minds, perhaps, in a kind of daze, hardly knowing just the relation of part with part. Nevertheless, in spite of its comprehensiveness, it is a simple presentation of two fundamental things: first, the Divine underpinning of all creation by God taking on our flesh and glorifying it so that no longer do we look to a God afar off and in the sun of the spiritual world alone, but a God who is Man, who has been here on earth, whom we can know and see face to face as man to man, and by this He no longer holds creation from above, but by his left hand, as it were, has also hold of it from below. He has come among sinful men so that many can be saved who could not have been saved otherwise. The Lord has now made Himself Man so that the most sinful can know Him, and know Him as a man and know Him as Himself, and therefore salvation was brought to all men. And there is that second point brought but about the spheres, and how all the suns of the worlds are carried in the motions of this living Divine sphere proceeding from the Lord.

508

Therefore each one of us, surrounded by his own little sphere, is lifted up and carried by the Divine sphere to his own orbit had his own place in relation to all men, and all is held up, bound up in the bundle of the life of God, so that we are absolutely safe and that no fear of evil can reach any one of us except what we choose to admit. Those two simple truths stand out throughout the whole paper, the fundamental saving power that the Lord took upon Himself by the glorification of the Human, and the new presence of God to all men so that in Him we actually live and move and have our being.

REV. W. H. ALDEN: I was very glad to have the question brought up which was asked by Mr. Childs. The same difference which he noted between the paper of yesterday and that of today was observed also by me. Mr. Pendleton gave expression to the view commonly held, namely, that the objects appearing in the spiritual world are actually objective, formed from the atmosphere of that world in accord with the outflowing spheres of angels and spirits. Mr. Acton's view is that objects in the spiritual world are merely appearances, being actually changes of state in the cortical glands which are declared to constitute the only organic formation of angels and spirits. I desire to emphasize the fact, as it seems to me, that Mr. Acton has, with masterly logic and wealth of illustration, after all, presented the position taken by Mr. Ray Gill in the papers which have given rise to some disturbance of mind in the Church. For better or worse I think we must recognize this fact. Mr. Acton may be right. I have to admit the strength of his argument. Nevertheless the position which he defends so ably differs in no essential respect from that advanced by Mr. Gill and does seem to suggest the nation of spirits and angels without human shape and a spiritual world without actual external objects; a world where the appearance of such human shape and of such external objects is due simply to the activity of the glands of the brain projecting the appearance of such shape and form to the spiritual consciousness. This view does appear to me, despite Mr. Acton's disclaimer, to be a form of Idealism; by which Idealism I understand not that philosophy which makes spiritual entities to be nothing, but an Idealism which makes spiritual phenomena to be simply subjective, simply the consciousness of changes of state in the minds of an angel and spirit. There are serious difficulties to my mind in accepting this view. One of these is that it appears to make the phenomenal life, in fact the whole conscious life of the spiritual world, dependent solely upon that which has entered into the actual experience of the natural life. It seems to say that the life of the spiritual world can use as its elements of expression as it were only those objects which had been sensually perceived during the life on earth. This would appear to limit the progress of the spiritual life by matters entirely apart from regeneration, matters in which Superficial accidents of wealth or opportunity would give one immense advantage over another.

509

It would seem to bar the infant, whose life in this world was bounded by but a single breath, from any expression of his life, since he had virtually no sensual images impressed in the natural world. Mr. Acton, indeed stated that the infant had a spiritual-natural plane, taking the place of earth's experience, but this is simply the statement of the Writings which Mr. Acton leaves without explanation, and which, under the view which he has presented, appears to me unintelligible. Mr. Acton may be able to overcome these difficulties, but, as a matter of fact, their solution does not appear in his paper.

MR. GEORGE DE CHARMS: I would like to say a word in regard to Mr. Caldwell's question as to whether or not there are degrees in the spheres proceeding from spirits and angels. I have gathered what is something of an answer to this question from the instruction given in the theological school and I am glad to present here the idea which I have gathered, in order that if I am heretical my heresy may nipped in the bud. As I understand it, there are degrees in all the spheres that proceed from spirits and angels and the degrees of the spheres depend on the degrees of the Divine proceeding. The word "proceeding" itself involves the idea of clothing and adaptation, and these clothings and adaptations are in degrees, so that there are degrees in the Divine proceeding, and the degrees of the Divine proceeding form the degrees of the three heavens and they form also the three degrees of the human mind. The human mind is an organ adapted to the reception of afflux from the world of nature. The human mind takes up the things that inflow from the world of nature in a similar way to that in which the body takes in food from the lower things and from the air and surrounding atmospheres and prepares it for food for the human body of the man, and this preparation is a raising or elevation of these particles until they become reactive for the degrees of the spiritual atmosphere. This is done in the world of nature by all the organic forms. The vegetable kingdom takes up particles from the mineral kingdom and raises up those particles until they become reactive to the ether. The animal takes up in a similar way particles from the two lower kingdoms and forms from them living organic forms which are reactive to higher atmospheres, and in a similar way man takes up those things from the three lower kingdoms and makes them reactive, not only to the atmospheres of this world, but, finally, reactive to spiritual atmospheres, and not only reactive to spiritual atmospheres, but reactive to the degrees of the spiritual atmospheres. This process is called the process of regeneration, so that at first the natural degree of the mind is opened and built up out of particles from the lower kingdoms and becomes reactive in the lowest degree of the spiritual atmosphere; and as regeneration progresses they are raised higher and become reactive to the atmosphere of the spiritual heaven, and again progress continually and become reactive to the atmospheres of the celestial heaven.

510

When the mind becomes so reactive it sends forth a sphere which surrounds it, and the quality of that sphere depends upon the Angel which is the source of it, so that the sphere is determined by the degree of the mind, and in this way the spheres themselves are taken from the lower kingdoms of this world, but are differentiated according to the degree of mind to which they are reactive or according to the atmospheres to which they are reactive. In this sense there are degrees of spheres around spirits and angels.

MR. ACTON: I had hoped that my paper had made clear those questions which Mr. Alden brought up, but still I am pursued all the time with the charge of Idealism, the charge of teaching that the spiritual world is nothing. I would ask you to try to elevate your thoughts and think spiritually on this matter, and to think spiritually on the matter is to think from the truth concerning it and not from appearances. I will illustrate. The doctrines teach concerning the Divine providence, but there is no one in this room who, if he thought naturally regarding the Divine providence, would not easily be led into doubt concerning it. We think spiritually of the Divine providence, because our, spiritual mind sees that it is, and we do not allow our natural mind to interfere with that. It is the same way regarding the spiritual world. I ask you to think concerning it from the principles laid down, not by me, but laid down in the Writings, and try to keep merely natural thought, which, after all, denies all reality aside from matter, subordinated. Perhaps the subject will become clearer if you will do this. I laid a great deal of stress in the paper on this one point, that there is nothing finite appearing to man unless there is afflux as well as influx. The only distinction I made was that in this world the afflux is from external fixed material objects, in the other world it is from angelic societies. By the states of afflux something is really there. My voice is going from my mouth into your ears. You hear something. What is between you and me) Is it nothing? Is it not a real thing between me and your ears? You cannot hear me unless there is a continuous medium between us and unless in that medium is an image of what is produced from me in your ears. It is the same in everything. I see objects, I say, but between me and those objects which are visible there is something which exists, by which the eye sees those objects. The thing exists in reality, but I cannot see it unless it comes to me by means of a medium between it and me, and unless it is received in some organic vessel, where it may become a sensation. The Lord gives all things in the spiritual world through angelic societies, and in the hells He allows fantasies to be given through infernal societies. That is afflux. Those are real things that proceed through the atmospheres. Those are real things that proceed from every spirit and every angel and those are the things that are proceeding from every one of you in this room spiritually. Those are the things, the finite things, which proceed from you and are your return for the gift received from the Lord. In the atmospheres they present an image of themselves in every particle of the atmosphere.

511

So angel or spirit or man on earth, is surrounded with images of himself, and if he reflects interiorly as is given him to do, he can see a picture of himself in his surroundings. That is what is done in the other world. Now the other conception is what seems to me a conception from natural thought. I do not think it is what Mr. Pendleton presented to us. I think that he is misunderstood, when he is thought to mean that the sphere preceding from angels has got to get hold of the atmosphere, and mold it into something tangible. This is really not necessary, and in any case the result would be a ghost-like thing. The other alternative of this mode of thought is to suppose that the sphere proceeding from the angels compresses the surrounding atmosphere into something solid or tangible. But this is contrary to the teaching that the solid, or matter at rest belongs to the earth. The doctrine that angelic societies and not fixed matters are the objects of the spiritual world, is a conception that satisfies every statement of the Writings; it gives us a true conception of the reality of the spiritual world, and enables us to think more spiritually than we have been accustomed to do,-to see that while all realities are from the Lord, yet He has given to man to see for himself finite realities; further, it enables us to see, what I do not think the New Church has paid enough attention to, in the past, viz., this truth, that the two worlds are alike in appearance, but altogether different in essentials. The first part of this truth has been fully recognized, but the second part has been but little understood.

     MR. ROBERT CARSWELL asked whether the objects of the spiritual world became fixed, something like the objects of this world. The paper this morning had stated that the objects of nature were the Word revealed to the Most Ancient Church and that it was so revealed in varied form in plants and animals before evils entered into the world. He asked whether it was possible that in a similar way in the spiritual world, objects going forth from the hells became fixed there and objects going forth in the heavens became fixed there, so that if angel or spirit has a home that home is fixed or constant where his character and life is. Swedenborg spoke of going to the habitations of those of the Most Ancient Church where they dwelt in tents; and as he understood it those habitations were objects, such as the objects are in this world, but made up of spiritual substances Was it possible that that world is real and not shifting, so that we would not know our own home tomorrow as we know it today?

     REV. E. E. IUNGERICH said that objects in the spiritual world endured as long as the state endured which caused them. They had books and libraries and could refer to them; but those books and those libraries only endured there so long as they had the love and desire for them. When they did not care to read the Word, the Word disappeared.

     10. The Assembly now adjourned at 1 p. m.

512

In the evening at 8 p. m. the Assembly listened to a paper and recitation by the REV. O. L. BARLER, entitled "The Story of a Song." This was followed by a paper on "The Reception of the Lord in the Holy Supper," by the REV. W. B. CALDWELL, With remarks by the REV. C. TH. ODHNER on the History of the doctrine concerning this Sacrament.

513

PUBLIC MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, A CORPORATION, IN GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, ON June 21, 1913. 1913

PUBLIC MEETING OF THE MEMBERS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM, A CORPORATION, IN GLENVIEW, ILLINOIS, ON June 21, 1913. PAUL CARPENTER 1913

     The meeting was called to order at 3 o'clock p. m. by the Chairman, pursuant to adjournment taken at the executive session on June 4, 1913.

     The President of the corporation, Mr. John Pitcairn, and the Secretary of the corporation, Mr. Paul Carpenter, acted, respectively, as Chairman and Secretary of the meeting.

     The roll was called and the following persons responded present in person, to wit.:

John Pitcairn, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Paul Carpenter, Chicago, Ill.
Hugh L. Burnham, Glenview, Ill.
Seymour G. Nelson, Glenview, Ill.
Felix A. Boericke, Philadelphia, Pa.
Richard Roschman, Berlin, Ont.
Charles E. Doering, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Robert Carswell, Toronto.
Rudolph Roschman, Waterloo, Ont.
Walter C. Childs, New York, N. Y.
Alvin E. Nelson, Glenview, Ill.
David H. Klein, Flat Rock, N. C.
Randolph Willard Childs, Yonkers,
William Hyde Alden, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
William H. Junge, Glenview, Ill.
E. R. Cronlund, Toronto, Can.
H. S. Maynard, Jr., Glenview, Ill.
Frederick E. Gyllenhaal, Philadelphia, Pa.
Anton Sellner, New York, N. Y.
Willis L. Gladish, Middleport, O.
John E. Powers, Toronto, Can.
Nels Johnson, Chicago, Ill.
Swain Nelson, Glenview, Ill.
Reginald W. Brown, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
John B. Synnestvedt, Glenview, Ill.
N. D. Pendleton, Pittsburgh, Pa.
A. T. Maynard, Glenview, Ill.
Alfred Acton, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Enoch S. Price, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
J. W. Marelius, Chicago, Ill.
Eldred E. Iungerich, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Alvin G. Gyllenhaal, Glenview, Ill.
Thomas Stark Harris, Abington, Mass.
George Schnarr Berlin, Ont.
Alfred L. Goerwitz, Glenview, Ill.
Henry S. Maynard, Glenview, Ill.
Roydon S. Smith, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
George de Charms, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
William J. Smeale, Glenview, Ill.
Louis S. Cole, Glenview, Ill.
William F. Junge, Glenview, Ill.
John R. Gyllenhaal, Glenview, Ill.
Arthol E. Soderberg, Philadelphia, Pa.
Colon Schott, Cincinnati, O.

514

Ernest F. Robinson, Bryn Athyn, Pa.
George A. McQueen, Glenview, Ill.
Daniel E. Horigan, Pittsburgh, Pa.
John Forrest, Chicago, Ill.

     Whereupon the Secretary stated:
Total number of members of the corporation........ ..... 112
Total number of members answering the roll call in person ........................................ 48
Total number of members answering by proxy ..........none
Total number of members represented at the meeting.... 48
Total number of members not represented at the meeting.. 64

     Whereupon the Chairman declared the meeting legally convened, a quorum present and the meeting open for business.

     The Treasurer, Rev. W. H. Alden, then read the report of the Treasurer, including reports of the General Fund, the Extension Fund, and the Pension Fund, and on motion duly made, seconded, put to vote unanimously carried, it was resolved that the Treasurer's report be received, audited and filed.

     MR. ACTON: I noticed in the report of the Extension Fund Committee a very important statement which I do not wish to let pass without full notice by this body. I refer to the very generous gift by a member of this body for extension work of the General Church. We have had many tokens of the affection of this member for the work of our Church, his willingness to support that work and his entire unwillingness to let that support in any way control the action of the Church. We feel deeply grateful for this gift and it seems proper that we put on record our appreciation in some form or manner. The best acknowledgment we can make of the gift and the way the donor will most appreciate is the wise use of the money for the extension of the work of the General Church and I trust that those who have the administration of the fund will be guided by the Lord to use it wisely and that it will be to us what the donor intended it to be, the means for the real extending of the spiritual work of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. I would move the adoption of the following preamble and resolution:

     "Whereas, This corporation of the General Church of the New Jerusalem has had reported to it the gift of $100,000.00 by Mr. John Pitcairn for the extension work of the General Church of the New Jerusalem; be it

     Resolved, That this meeting gratefully acknowledge this gift as a token of the interest of the donor in the work of the General Church and of his will that the work should be supported among us."

     The motion was put by Mr. H. L. Burnham, who asked that it be adopted by a rising vote. The vote was declared unanimous and was greeted with applause.

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     The report of the Orphanage Fund was read and ordered to be audited and placed on file.

     The minutes of the meeting of the corporation at the last General Assembly were read.

     The Treasurer made informal report that the Greenford property had been sold for the sum of $300, from which expenses amounting to $68.76 had been deducted, leaving as net proceeds the sum of $331.24, which had been deposited in Savings Fund account.

     A recess was taken for the signing of the roll by new members.

     The Chair declared the next business in order to be the election of members of the Executive Committee. The Secretary read the list of present members, as follows:-John Pitcairn, C. E. Doering, Paul Carpenter, E. Cranch, R. Pitcairn, P. Synnestvedt, F. A. Boericke, S. C. Nelson, S. S. Lindsay, W. C. Childs, W. H. Alden, N. L. Burnham, Jacob Schoenberger, R. Carswell, Richard Roschman, Rudolph Roschman, Anton Sellner, R. B. Caldwel1.

     It was voted that nominations be made in open meeting.

     Mr. H. L. Burnham, on behalf of the Executive Committee, stated that it was the opinion of the committee that it was right for them to nominate persons for membership in the Executive Committee and to give the reasons for their nomination. He therefore placed in nomination for members of the Executive Committee, Mr. John Pitcairn, who all would agree should be President of the corporation, Mr. Paul Carpeater, who had rendered valuable services as Secretary, Rev. William H. Alden, who was the most available person for Treasurer of the corporation, Rev. C. E. Doering, Mr. E. C. Bostock, Mr. Raymond Pitcairn, Dr. F. A. Boericke and Mr. Paul Synnestvedt, of Bryn Athyn, and Mr. W. C. Childs and Mr. Anton Sellner, who lived so near Bryn Athyn that it would be easy for them to attend meetings held at that place, Dr. E. E. Cranch, of Erie, Pennsylvania, Messrs. S. S. Lindsay and Jacob Schoenberger, of Pittsburgh, Pa., Mr. Robert Carswell, of Toronto, Messrs. H. L. Burnham and S. G. Nelson, of Chicago, Messrs. Richard Roschman and Rudolph Roschman, of Berlin, Canada.

     Rev. N. D. Pendleton nominated Mr. D. E. Horigan, of Pittsburgh.

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Mr. Acton suggested the importance in view of the meeting of the corporation in various places of having a number of persons upon the committee in those places where district assemblies were held.

     Mr. Arthol Soderberg nominated Mr. Knud Knudsen, of Philadelphia.

     On motion the Chairman appointed as tellers of the election Messrs. G. A. McQueen and R. W. Childs.

     Mr. Carswell desired to express his high appreciation of the munificent gift which had been given by the President of the corporation towards maintaining the uses of the New Church, and to point out how wonderful it was that he was here with us, one of us, that he had attached no string whatever to his gifts, that he had placed them freely in the hands of the Church, leaving us all as free as possible. This was a wonderful thing for a man to do. He wished to mention it as an appreciation and as a warning to ourselves. We needed to learn the lesson to give gifts and leave the Church in freedom in so giving them. He thought it well to speak of this as it was an unusual thing in the Church. It was an example worthy for us all to follow.

     The tellers reported that the following persons had received a majority of the votes cast and were duly elected as members of the Executive Committee:

John Pitcairn                47 votes
C. E. Doering               43
Paul Carpenter               47
E. Cranch                    43
R. Pitcairn                    44
P. Synnestvedt               45
F. A. Boericke               46
S. G. Nelson               46
S. S. Lindsay               43
W. C. Childs               46
W. H. Alden                46
H. L. Burnham               47
Jacob Schoenberger           47
R. Carswell                    45
Richard Roschman               44
Rudolph Roschman                45
Anton Sellner               43
E. C. Bostock               42

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     and that Messrs. Knud Knudson and D. E. Horigan, having received but 12 and 24 votes, respectively, failed of election.

     The meeting was then adjourned at the call of the President until the close of the General Assembly, and if no meeting was called before that time adjournment was made sine die.
     PAUL CARPENTER, Secretary.

     Approved: JOHN PITCAIRN, President.

     FOURTH DAY-SUNDAY, JUNE 22d.
     The Assembly at 11 a. m. attended Divine Worship conducted by the Bishop, the Rev. N. D. Pendleton delivering the sermon.

     In the afternoon at 4 p. m. the Sacrament of the Supper was administered to 185 communicants, the Bishop officiating, assisted by the Rev. E. E. Iungerich and the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith.

     FIFTH DAY-MONDAY, JUNE 23d.

     11. The meeting was opened at 10 a. m. by reading from the Word by the Rev. C. Th. Odhner, who then presented a paper on THE NEW CHURCH AND THE GENTILES.

     Before the discussion of the paper Dr. Starkey unofficially presented greetings from Dr. I. T. Kent, "probably the greatest mind in medicine since Hahnemann." He had not been in good health and he was unable to be present, but his interest was here and with the General Church. Dr. Starkey had heard him say that the New Church was everything to him, and he sent love and greeting to every one who knew him and sympathized with his work.

     The Bishop responded that we knew of old that Dr. Kent's sympathies were with our body. In the name of the Assembly he received his message and expressed the hope that his health might be improved and restored.

     The Bishop stated the subject of the New Church and the Gentiles had caused great interest from the beginning among Newchurchmen, and with the great renewal of New Church thought and life that came with the establishment of the Academy, there were renewals also with respect to this subject.

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We were grateful to Mr. Odhner for his researches in this line of New Church activity.

REV. F. E. WAELCHLI: I think that if our General Church will do the work which is near at hand it will enter upon such work as we have been told of in this paper. We know how the Academy of the New Church was raised up by the Lord for the establishment of a true New Church, a New Church which recognizes the revelation given by the Lord in the Heavenly Doctrines as being the Word of the Lord, as His appearing, manifesting Himself to men, in His Second Coming. This acknowledgment is the first thing necessary in the Church in order that the New Church may truly grow and prosper throughout the world. The first thing that was necessary was the establishing of a theological school from which men could be sent out to teach these truths; then the establishing of a university, then the gradual building up of societies as is now taking place in our church more and more. Firm and strong centers are being established, and in time the church must take a further step, not only taking up the work of spreading the New Church throughout the Christian world where there may be receptivity, but also the spreading of the New Church among the Gentiles. This necessitates the recognition of those principles which are essential for the success of such work. In the doing of this we will probably be the first instrumentality; but in time the work will need to be taken up by people f these various nations and carried on by them, just as in the other world the teachers of the Gentiles are such as have received the truth of the Lord's Second. Coming and teach these truths to their own people. The New Church among these people will take a somewhat different form from what it is among us and we will be benefitted by the states of the Church which come into existence among them. Our first contact will be with the people who are near the gates of the Gentile lands, but from these points the Church will proceed more and more inwardly over the continents and it will reach those places in Asia, where the Ancient Church at this day, exists, and where the Ancient Word is at this day in use in their worship and applied to their life. We are distinctly told in the Doctrine that the Ancient Word is today in use in these countries and that their worship and their life is in accordance with it, so that we have really at this day in those countries a continuation of the Ancient Church, and we of the New Church will come into contact with this state of the Ancient Church and that will be of immense benefit to us, exalting the state of the Church with us. The New Church will come to these people who are today in the state of the Ancient Church and will exalt that which they have, bringing the Lord's Second Coming to those who are still in the Ancient Church and establishing with them a spirit of the church differing from our own by which nevertheless we are to be benefitted.

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     But more than this, we know that the Lord is at this day establishing the New Church among a celestial people, among a people in Africa. We are told that these people are of a celestial genius, and that the Church among them will take a celestial form. We are taught that the same doctrines that are given to us in the Writings of the New Church are being revealed to these people. We are told also that the letter of the Word has been dictated from heaven to people of Africa, so that the New Church, in a celestial form, is being established there today. We are told also what will be the course of the spread of this celestial Church; that, beginning in Africa, it will pass into Arabia, and then take a northerly course and proceed into the interiors of Asia; that it will meet that state where the Ancient Word exists today, so that the two states of the Church,-the state among those who represent the Ancient Church, and the states with those who are celestial, will meet there. Then again we will receive benefit from that state of the Church. In the course of time, as this work progresses, the New Church will come more and more into its perfection, and there will be imparted to the New Church a certain quality of the Church which will come from the Ancient Church, and a still more interior quality coming from a state similar to that of the Most Ancient Church, which pertains to the Church now being established in Africa. So we see what it will mean for us when this work is entered into, as the Lord in His providence opens the way. It means a must wonderful exalting of the state of the New Church, so wonderful that probably we, at this time, can scarcely have any conception of it.

     MR. PITCAIRN asked how it could be that the Ancient Church still existed, when we were taught in the Doctrine that it had been consummated.

     MR. WAELCHLI: The Ancient Church does still exist, for the Ancient Word still exists in the interiors of Asia and there is worship there according to it; and we are told most wonderful things in the Writings concerning the state of the people in the interiors of Asia. Their states of piety and love of the neighbor are far beyond anything which we have in the Christian world. They have this from the Ancient Word. It is true that the Ancient Church has been consummated, but a remnant of it still exists. The New Church is to be established among the remnant of the Christian Church. So also there exists a remnant of the ancient Church at this day, and with that remnant the New Church will be established. In the same way we may say that here exists a remnant of the Most Ancient Church, a remnant of celestial state in Africa, and with that remnant also the New Church will be established.

     REV. J. E. BOWERS said that he had been deeply affected by the paper. All things of experience went to confirm the teaching of the Writings concerning the state of the Christian world. The general body of Newchurchmen had imagined that the New Church might be built up in the Old Church and in its extreme form this view maintained that a new organization was not required, that the universal Christian world would become New Church, a notion which was absolutely false, absolutely contrary to the teaching of the Writings.

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We had witnessed the failure of evangelization carried on under this idea. He recalled the powerful missionary preaching of the Rev. A. O. Brickman, half a century ago. When the speaker himself began his missionary work a quarter of a century ago, he would frequently speak to large audiences. But he had noticed a great change. According to the Doctrine when the New Church has been established, the former church becomes more and more natural and departs further and further away from the Lord and from all religion. That is what we are witnessing today, so that we find the New Church having a hard struggle for existence in the Christian World.

MR. IUNGERICH: There is another statement in the Writings that describes the Judgment in the spiritual world, how the remnant was collected there in ranks: the English were collected in the center, about them the Reformed: the Germans at the north, the Dutch in the east and south; the Swedes in the north and west, and the Danes further west; around these was a gathering of the Catholics, and around them the Mohammedans, and around them still further the various Gentiles. And to this may be added the description which occurs later on, of a four-square structure seen in the world of spirits, and that is also what was seen by John, the city of the New Jerusalem. Now putting those two statements together, we draw the conclusion that this four-square structure seen in the world of spirits consists of those who are being gathered to the New Church, being congregated there under the auspices of the New Church. And so also the first spread of the New Church has actually been among the English; and now it is spreading from this center among the Dutch, the Germans, the Swedes and the Danes. The next periphery to which we will be ready to preach will be the Roman Catholics. There has thus been an orderly progress from inmosts to outmosts. Among the Catholics it is said that the best of them are among the French. We have made a beginning among this noble French nation. Considering this order which we have mentioned, there will next be an expansion among the Catholics. The statement in the Writings is that the Catholics will enter more easily into the New Church than the Reformed. Our experience has been that they come in with greater difficulty, but it may be different when the proper missionary work is done among them. After them come the Mohammedans, and finally the Gentiles.

It is interesting to note why missionary work is in this order, why the Church comes first to those who will receive less and later to those who will receive more. This is on account of the degree of vastation which has been reached, the degree of simplicity of ignorance. In the inmost circles those under the dominion of the Old Church who have the letter of the Word, have the opportunity first to receive; but the extension here has been slight because of the opposing falsities of the Old Church.

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The Doctrine will be received more fully among the Gentiles when they are able to stand against those who would otherwise corrupt them.

     MR. WILLIAM WHITEHEAD urged the importance in missionary work of the use of the living voice and need for educating our young men and women to go out as missionaries among the Gentiles.

     REV. JOHN HEADSTEN compared Mr. Odhner's subject with the subject which had been considered on Saturday, "The Everlasting Gospel." This everlasting Gospel, which is that the Lord Jesus Christ reigneth, was the subject of our missionary preaching. He noted that the Church had been established first among individuals; then among Societies, all founded upon the solid foundation of the everlasting Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ reigneth. And in the General Church it is seen that this everlasting Gospel is the Divinity of the Writings of the New Church. The onslaught of the evil powers is today concentrated upon the body which seeks to spread this Gospel. This society is today trying to establish the Church upon the everlasting Gospel that the Lord Jesus Christ reigneth now by means of and through the Writings of the New Church, because they are the everlasting Gospel, and consequently the Lord Jesus Christ Himself who reigneth. He was sure that if this Church continued in the right path and permitted nothing of denial to enter into it, that it would succeed.

     MR. ACTON: Mr. Odhner, in his extremely interesting paper has brought to the attention of the Assembly a point for serious consideration, the teaching with regard to the spread of the New Church, that it will be among the Gentiles. That teaching has occupied the attention of the Church on former occasions, but I do not know that I have ever listened to any paper which presented in one discourse so much of the teaching of the Writings on the subject: so much that seems to point to the inevitable conclusion, that we may look forward to the spread of the New Church not in Christian lands, but among the Gentiles. "As it has been in former Churches, so it will be in this," was one of the quotations made. In the former Churches we know that the nations with whom the Church has been established have been vastated and the Church taken away from them and established with other nations. The Christian Church, though it was at the first established among the Jews, was yet actually taken away from them and established among a new people. Is it to be the same with the New Church? There are passages in the Writings which seem to intimate that it is. On the other hand, we have the teaching that the New Church is to be the crown of all the Churches and is to spread among all nations. We have indications that the New Church is to spread from a center, and from that center it is to spread among the nations; that it is not to find a center in some other nation, but from a center in the Christian world it is to spread over all nations, over all the earth. In former dispensations a new church was always established among a new race. The Church was established among the Jews in order that certain truths might be preserved, as a preparation for the incarnation of the Lord and the establishment of the Christian Church.

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The latter Church was established in order that the letter of the Word and belief ill the Lord Jesus Christ might be preserved as a preparation for the revelation of the internal sense of the Word. But the New Church is net to be established as a preparation for any other Church, but is to become a Church which shall cover the earth; and this seems to indicate a difference between this dispensation and former dispensations with regard to the nations with whom the Church shall be established. This consideration has led many to wonder whether those statements in the Writings which seem to indicate that the Church is to be lost in Christianity and to find its native home among the Gentiles, cannot be understood in some different way, to agree with what I have indicated with regard to the spread of the New Church.

As I understand it, Mr. Odhner's position is that while the New Church will spread very slowly for the next two or three hundred years in Christian lands, there are hopes that it will spread very quickly among the Gentiles. That may be true; it is very difficult for us to prophesy. The only thing that seems clear is that whatever spread the New Church is to have, is to be from its center in the Christian world. The New Church is dependent for its very vitality on its understanding of doctrine, and for the understanding of doctrine we must have a knowledge of the Latin tongue, of anatomy, of the sciences, and of all those things which have been so fully and so highly developed in the Christian world for the sake of the New Church. So that the spread of the New Church will have to be from the Christian world. And yet not from the Christian world, but from those in the Christian world who have separated themselves from the former Church and its falsities, and have built up a New Church mind and a New Church thought which shall be a receptacle for the descent of the Divine Revelation.

Now in the other world we seem to have the same thing. In the other world, we are told in the posthumous work on THE LAST JUDGMENT, that the New Church was established among Christians and then we are told that it spread to the Africans and other Gentiles. I think that examination of this work will show that when Swedenborg refers to the books being dictated to Africans, he is referring to a scene in the spiritual world, and not in this world. It would be a miraculous establishment of the New Church if we should find that the books referred to had been actually dictated in this world. This would be contrary to the genius of the New Church: but it can he shown very clearly from the Writings themselves that those dictations were made by spirits from the Christian world to Gentiles in the spiritual world. From those Gentile spirits thus enlightened in the spiritual world there is some sort of revelation to Gentiles on earth. What it is we do not know. Of one thing we may be sure, that it is something adapted to their genius; not in terms of science, not in terms of anatomy, not in the Latin language or in terms familiar to us in the Christian world; but a revelation of the essential truths of the New Church in some manner adapted to their genius.

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Such a revelation, we learn, takes place in Africa.

     In some way, which the Lord's Divine providence does not seem to have indicated, the New Church is growing in Africa, in what form we do not know: we know nothing but the fact. There is no doubt that it is growing in China among the Gentiles, but let me add this, that among those Gentiles with whom we come in more immediate contact, there seems to be little chance of our establishing the New Church, because while they have come into Christian Civilization they have also come into Christian evils, into Christian love of pleasure.

     MR. ODHNER: What Gentiles?

     MR. ACTON: Gentiles like the Japanese, who have made themselves familiar with the learning of the west and with whom, at the same time, there has been a spread of the vastation of the west. And my opinion is that me shall find practically as much difficulty if we advertise among the Gentiles who speak English as if we advertise among Christians. However, I believe in following every indication of the Divine Providence.

     In order to fully consider the whole subject we must consider other things that Swedenborg says about the growth of the Church. Swedenborg says that the New Church is to spread from the universities, and again that there is hope from the Catholics if they will only partake of both kinds in the Eucharist, and approach the Lord directly; that they will, in that case, receive the New Church more easily than others. And this will lead us, perhaps, to a new conception of what is meant by the Gentiles with whom the New Church can grow,-namely, that these Gentiles also include the Christian Gentiles. The Roman Catholics are called "Christian Gentiles." The term, "Gentiles" certainly includes Christian Gentiles and it has been suggested that it also includes all children.

     12. The Assembly adjourned at 12 P. M. and re-assembled again at 3 p. m.

     13. On motion the Rev. L. E. Wethy, pastor of the Englewood Society of the General Convention, was given the privilege of the floor.

     14. The Report of the Academy Book Room was verbally presented by the Manager, the Rev. W. H. Alden. He reported that after a series of years in which it had been possible to report but slight profit or none at all, it was gratifying to report a profit of $500.00 during the last year. He reported that it was now possible to pay off the last debt incurred on account of the publication of the Liturgy. When the Liturgy had been published the Book Room had borrowed seven hundred dollars in addition to using most of its own capital.

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Two hundred dollars of this debt had been paid off some time ago. Two hundred and thirty-nine copies of the Liturgy remained in stock from the original edition of fifteen hundred copies. No new publication had been undertaken during the year just past. The new translation of CONJUGIAL LOVE which had been for some years in preparation was nearly ready for the printer. A new work by Mr. Odhner on THE GOLDEN AGE Was in press.

     15. The Report of the Secretary of the Council of the Clergy was read.

     16. The Report of the Academy of the New Church was presented by the Rev. C. E. Doering, Superintendent of the Schools.

     17. The Report of the Committee on Church Extension was read.

     Mr. Alden added to the Report a statement of the intention of the Committee to send the Rev. W. L. Gladish to Spokane, Wash., for the months of July and August. The work in Spokane had been begun by Mr. Iungerich, who spent the summer there some six years ago. The interest then begun has since been continued, although the only touch with the organized Church has been by means of correspondence.

     Mr. Iungerich gave an account of his visit to Spokane and the work done by him, especially in the way of instructing the children in the essential doctrines of the New Church.

     18. Mr. William Whitehead, in the absence of any formal report, gave account of the organization of The Sons of the Academy and the work done by that organization.

     The original idea for the organization came from a daughter of the Academy and found a very ready acceptance in the mind of a Son of the Academy, who is today the President of the organization, Mr. Robert B. Caldwell, Jr. The organization was formed from ex-students of the Academy Schools, largely from those who, through circumstances, had not had the good fortune to obtain from the Academy a degree or diploma. The activities of the Sons of the Academy had been mainly directed to the securing of scholarships, and the use providing a scholarship fund had been turned over to the organization by the school authorities. The Sons of the Academy had, during the past year, contributed three full scholarships for the College and for the support of this use had drawn contributions from its own membership and from the members of the General Church.

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The plan had been followed of requiring from the students who have the benefits of scholarships that they shall consider the amount provided, as a loan to be returned within a certain time. Some of the money advanced has already begun to come back. The fund is thus self-perpetuating, in theory, at least. The Sons of the Academy had ended the last year $200.00 in debt, which debt had since been paid off. Several local chapters of the organization had been organized during the past year in the various centers of the Church. The organization issued a little journal, called THE BULLETIN, the aim of which was to bring the Academy news and life to every member of the General Church who cared to know about it and to come into touch with it. The endeavor had been made to fulfill the American idea of starting something and to avoid embarrassing anybody. It would be, in the coming year, on a self-sustaining basis, instead of being paid for by voluntary contributions as heretofore, and the subscription price would be fifty cents per year for a bimonthly periodical. Mr. William H. Junge had been instructed to receive subscriptions for THE BULLETIN, which was not intended to enter into competition with any other journal in the Church. It represented the interest in the educational work of the Academy from the view-point of those ex-students of the Academy who had gone out into the world. The held of its use had extended remarkably during the past year, and it was hoped by diligence and by following the indications of Providence, and not simply the exuberance of the young mind, to register further progress during the year to come, and not only to be a support to the Academy, but also to obtain some blessings for ourselves as loyal Sons of the Academy. Mr. Whitehead further reported the gift of a full scholarship to the Sons of the Academy from Mr. Mason, of Coshocton, O.

     19. Mr. Acton gave some account of the very interesting work which has been carried on in Prague, Bohemia, by Mr. Tar. I. Janoceck, and read some letters exchanged between Mr. Janoceck and Mr. Anton Sellner, of New York.

     20. A paper on THE NEGLECT OF EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG, by the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, was read by Mr. Alden.

     21. MR. WALTER C. CHILDS proposed a resolution expressing the very affectionate and grateful appreciation felt by all the visitors at Glenview of the delighted hospitality which had been enjoyed.

     The resolution was unanimously adopted by a rising vote.

     THE BISHOP: One name would express that hospitality, and that name is Leonard Gyllenhaal. This recognition would include that of the firm which he represents, who were willing that he should give his whole time to the Assembly.

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     22. MR. SEYMOUR G. NELSON moved and it was accordingly voted that we send to the British Assembly and to the several centers which will be visited by Bishop N. D. Pendleton during the coming summer, greetings from this Assembly.

     MR. ACTON: I would like to say a word about what seems to me to have been the spirit of this Assembly. There is always something distinctive about each Assembly, and to my mind the distinctive thing about this Assembly has been the recognition that the Lord alone makes the Church. That was the note sounded on the Nineteenth of June, that the Lord alone makes the Church. And perhaps we may add to the thought of how great an instrument for helping us to be willing servants in the Church these meetings of brethren are. I would express the wish that between now and the next General Assembly we may all come to more and more realize this truth, that the Lord alone makes the Church, and thus more deeply realize the benefit which this Assembly has brought to us.

     23. After the singing of Anthem No. 11 (p. 754), "The voice of one crying in the wilderness," the Eighth General Assembly was adjourned. C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary. W. H. ALDEN, Reporter.

     COMMUNICATIONS TO THE ASSEMBLY.      FROM BRYN ATHYN AND PHILADELPHIA.

     Dear Bishop and Friends: Bryn Athyn and the Advent Church join with you in celebrating this day of days. Our hearts are united though space intervenes. June 19th forever. (Signed.) BRYN ATHYN.

     FROM BERLIN, ONT.      Carmel Church, assembled, sends greetings, and may the Lord's blessings be upon your deliberations. (Signed.) CARMEL CHURCH.

     FROM TORONTO, ONT.      Happy New Year's greetings to the General Assembly from the Olivet Society. V. WILSON, Secretary.

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     FROM COLCHESTER, ENGLAND.      The members of the Colchester Society, though, unfortunately, unable to send a representative to your meetings, are thinking of you and are present with you in spirit. They feel that your deliberations will be of use throughout the Church, and they wish you all peace and happiness. F. R. COOPER, Secretary.

     FROM PARIS, FRANCE.      La Societe FranCaise de l'Eglise Generale vous prie de presenter a tous nos freres de l'Eglise Generale d'Amerique les voeux que nous adressons au Seigneur Jesus Christ pour votre bonheur et votre prospetiti a l'occasion de la fete du 19 Juni et la Congres. Je suis, cher Eveque, votre bien devoue. F. HUSSENET, Pasteur. Paris, le 2 Juin, 1913.

     FROM THE REV. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT.      I hope the Assembly will be all that good spirits and good people can make it, with the Divine blessing over it all. As the time draws nearer, I feel the drag almost irresistible, but I fear that Mrs. Howland will be the only one from here. We are with you in spirit, and will toast to you on the Nineteenth. H. SYNNESTVEDT. Denver, Colo, June 19, 1913. 7555 Lafayette St.

     FROM MRS. E. N. GRIGG.      Right Reverend and Dear Sir:-Although circumstances are such as to make it impossible that I be present on this occasion of The General Assembly of the Church, yet may I be glad in this, that I know how it is that the one common love of The Heavenly Doctrine of The New Jerusalem is a bond that serves to bring us spiritually together, and that, therefore, by consociation, I may, in spirit, be as one among you, even at this very time.

     I shall strive, reverently, to realize this at the hour of Holy Communion, on Sunday afternoon.     MRS. ELISE N. GRIGG, Hallock, Minnesota. Thursday, 19th June, 1913.

     FROM THE REV. ERNST DELTENRE.      I have just received the May number of NEW CRURCH LIFE and I will follow, from day to day, the program of the annual meetings and of the General Assembly.

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I will attend, in spirit, the Council of the Clergy of the General Church, and I am sending affectionate greetings to my Brethren in the Priesthood.

     The 19th day of June will be celebrated here by a service and celebration of the Holy Supper at 8 P. M., followed by a tea. The new nucleus provided by the Lord as a beginning for the establishment of His Glorious Church in the Catholic wilderness of Belgium will be heartily with the members of the General Church of the New Jerusalem assembled at Glenview in the Celebration of the Pentecost of the Everlasting Church!

     Uniting our voices with our American friends, we will sing the universal chorus:

     "Vive l'Amour, vive la Poi.
     Vive l'Academie!"

     With much love and appreciation from Mrs. Deltenre and the children, I remain Respectfully yours, ERNST DELTENRE. Brussells, May 21, 1913. 33 Rue Gachard.

     FROM MR. PROSPER BALCAEN.      It is a great joy to me to have been admitted as a member of the New Church. I thank you for my certificate of membership, and I send best wishes for the General Assembly on the Nineteenth of June. Kindly receive my sincere salutations. PROSPER BALCAEN. Brussells, June 8, 1913.

     FROM MR. C. BARGER.

     This will be the first time in the history of the New Church that a voice from the circumference in HOLLAND is heard in the center of the Church, at her General Assembly.

     That your body of New Church people are in that center there can be no doubt, whatever other friends of the New Church may think. A doubtful recognition, a half-way recognition, of the Divine Authority of the Lord's own and crowning Revelation, of Him Who alone reigneth and hath Authority, cannot exist in the inmost center of the heart of the Church. When the understanding reduces the love of affirmation, it hinders love; such love is then tied down to a particular part of its surface, and cannot be in the real center.

     And, that we have in Holland the beginning of a Church, is also result of the love and activity of The General Church, which you represent. It is right, therefore, that in the name of the few friends here, I send you our hearty greetings with the best wishes that the activity of your Assembly may be of much use to the Lords New Church all over the world.

     Your desire that a special Messenger shall this year visit the Circles in Europe, and also come to The Hague, has been heard of with much gratification, and we hope that this visit will strengthen our little body.

529

After a young betrothed couple, Mr. Bulthuis and Miss Gerritsen, shall have been baptized by our pastor, the Rev. Deltenre, on the 22d of June, our Circle will count eight members. Our fortnightly meetings, so far, are generally attended by four other persons. Our religious services we only hold, so far, every three weeks.

     Our external bond is the Dutch-Belgian Swedenborg Society, with sixteen members; we shall hold for the first time a proper Annual Meeting on the 21st of June, when the Rev. Deltenre and, we hope, also Mrs. Deltenre, will be present, and the first publication of our Society, "DE WEDERKOMST DES HEEREN" (a translation from "FUNDATION TRUTHS), will then also be laid on the table. This will be a good companion-piece to the translations for which your Church so generously has begun to defray the cost. The publication in Dutch of the "ATHANASIAN CREED" in four parts has now been completed. I am now engaged in translating the FOUR LEADING DOCTRINES, the first of which I hope to publish in August and the others before the close of the year,-which is exactly 150 years after the publication of Swedenborg's original. It seems that some interest in the Writings is beginning in Holland, but I find that most people connect Swedenborg in their thoughts with Spiritism. Many advertisements in which I have recently announced the new translations have not brought response, which I attribute to the antipathy against Spiritism, and I will have to combat this error in some suitable way.

     With many kind and respectful greetings, I remain, on behalf of the Dutch Circle. Yours very sincerely, G. BARGER. The Hague, May 26, 1913. 202 Adelheid Straat.

     FROM MR. RICHARD MORSE.      Through you I desire to convey to the General Church, at its General Assembly in Glenview in June, the fraternal greetings of those in Australia, who are living and working with it in the establishment of the New Church by means of the Revelation made by the Lord through Emanuel Swedenborg.

     Its noble work, as revealed in NEW CHURCH LIFE, is greatly appreciated; and we rejoice that, under the Divine Providence of the Lord, the General Church has been raised up to preserve unsullied the Divine Truths Committed to its charge, and that it has been led by temptations and combats into clearer light and larger uses; for we learn that it is only by temptations and combats, and the forsaking of everything which may hinder the Divine leading, that the Church, collective and individual, can be purified and made ready for conjunction with the Lord.

     We rejoice also to learn that the numbers of the General Church are increasing throughout the world, and we sincerely hope that with external growth there will be no decline in spirituality and obedience to the pure truths revealed by the Lord out of heaven.

530

The terms "New Church" and "Regeneration" are synonymous. One is not possible without the other. Unless the truths of faith that have been so abundantly given by the Lord in His new Revelation are put into the life, the Church is a mere name, a mere intellectualism, and, like a meteor flashing across the sky will disappear in the gloom and blackness of night. Otherwise, with increase comes greater perfection.

     We hope, ere long, to see the further increase of the General Church from this country. A requisition to the Bishop to authorize me to perform the uses of the ministry is now being prepared, and after Baptism has been administered application for membership will be made.

     Our members are few, and limited, so far as is known, to two only of the six States of the Australian Commonwealth (I speak, of a course, of the New Church in its distinctive form)-New South Wales and South Australia, the cities of which are over a thousand miles apart. But although small, numerically, there is a decided tendency towards healthy, spiritual growth. It is inevitable that, in the early days or states of the Crown of Churches, its establishment will be among a few.

     Believing that the forthcoming Assembly will be guided by the Divine wisdom in its work for the furtherance of the Church's spiritual growth, I remain.
     Yours fraternally,
          RICHARD MORSE.
Sydney, May 5th, 1913.

     REPORTS TO THE ASSEMBLY.      REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.      1. The membership of the General Church of the New Jerusalem numbers, at present, 1,101 persons, showing a net increase of 47 members over the membership reported in June, 1912. Altogether 55 new members have been received since the last report, while, on the other hand, two members have resigned, and six have passed into the spiritual world.

     2. The following members have resigned: Mr. A. Wunderlin, Cofumbiana, O.
Mrs. Harvey Brewer, Winnetka, III.

     3. The following members have died: Miss Lizzie Doering, Milverton, Ont., April 16, 1913
Mrs. R. T. Henderson, Philadelphia, July 25, 1912.
Mr. John G. Stidham, Erie, Pa., July 3, 1912.
Mrs. Jacob G. Stroh, Waterloo, Ont., May 18, 1913
Mrs. Anna Lechnei, Pittsburgh, Pa., June 12, 1913.
Mr. Wallace R. Faulkner, Allegheny, Pa., June to, 1913.

     4. The following new members have been received since the last report:

531

     New Members

     I. IN THE UNITED STATES.

     Bryn Athyn, Pa.
Mr. Karl R. Alden.
Mr. Winfred S. Hyatt
Miss Ida Myers.
Miss Erna Sellner.

     Philadelphia, Pa.
Miss Vernalou Cleare.
Mr. Fred. A. Finkeldey.
Miss Lorena Venetta.

     Brooklyn, N. Y.
Mrs. Laura E. Grant.

     Erie, Pa.
Miss Edith R. Cranch.
Mr. Miltiades Lloyd Glenn.
Mr. Gustaf Soneson.

     Renovo. Pa.
Mrs. Rachel H. Adams.
Miss Dorothy Kendig.
Mrs. Helen G. Meisel.

     Macon, Ga.
Miss Vida Pendleton.

     Chicago, Ill.
Miss Eugenie Headsten.
Mr. Joseph B. Headsten.

     Glenview, Ill.
Mrs. J. P. Cole.
Mr. John B. Gyllenhaal.
Mr. Raymond King.
Miss Eleanore Rauch.
Miss Abbie N. Stevens.

     Sandoval, Ill.
Mr. Neil Sherman.

     Beatrice, Neb.
Rev. O. L. Barler.

     Divide, Colo.
Mr. Louis B. King.
Mrs. Louis B. King.

     Portland, Ore.
Mr. Harry N. Putnam.

     II. IN CANADA.

Berlin, Ont.
Mrs. Mary Northgraves.
Mr. Nathaniel Stroh.

     Toronto. Ont.
Mr. Edward Craigie
Mrs. E. Craigie
Miss Edith N. Craigie
Mr. Louis Rothermel
Mr. Thomas Smith
Mrs. Thomas Smith

     III. IN ENGLAND.

Colchester.
Mr. William Sanfrid Appleton.

     London.
Mr. John Posthuina
Mr. Lionel A. Rose
Miss Olive Mary Rose

     IV. IN SWEDEN.
Stockholm.
Mr. Gustaf Baeckstrom
Mr. Bertram Liden
Miss Nancy Liden
Mrs. Hildegard Odhner Ljungberg.
Miss Sophie Nordenskojld.
Mrs. Fides Z. Svaneskog.

     V. IN HOLLAND.

The Hague.
Mr. Gerrit Barger.
Mrs. Gerrit Barger.
Miss Bertha Barger.
Miss Marie Barger

     VI. IN BELGIUM.

Brussels.
Mr. Prosper Balcaen
Miss Madeleine Jeanmonod

     VII. IN FRANCE.

Paris
Mr. Alexandre Cattelain

     VIII. IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Durban, Natal.
Mr. J. H. Ridgway
Mrs. J. H. Ridgway

     IX. IN MAURITIUS.
Rev. Gaston J. Fercken.

532

     5. The Clergy of the General Church numbers, at present, 2 ministers, of the third or episcopal degree, 22 of the second or pastoral degree, 2 of the first degree, and g authorized candidates for the ministry.

     6. The Rev. Nathaniel Dandridge Pendleton, on November 18, 1912, was ordained into the episcopal degree of the priesthood. The Rev. Gilbert H. Smith, on June 19, 1913, was ordained into the second degree, and Mr. John Headsten, on the same date, was ordained into the first degree.

     7. The Bishop, on May 29, 1913, authorized the following candidates for the Ministry: Mr. George De Charms, Mr. Hugo Lj; Odhner, Mr. Donald Rose, and Mr. Sidney Childs.

     8. The name of Mr. William Whitehead, at his own request, has been removed from the list of authorized candidates.
     C. TH. ODHNER, Secretary.
Glenview, Ill., June 20, 1913.

     REPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CLERGY.      The seventeenth annual meeting of the Council of the Clergy of the General Church of the New Jerusalem was held at Glenview, during the week preceding this Assembly, from Friday, June 13th, to Tuesday, June 17th. Nineteen members of the Council were in attendance.

     At the opening session the Bishop stated that he had recognized the Rev. N. D. Pendleton as a bishop in the General Church of the New Jerusalem.

     The reports by the ministers show that, in total, our clergy have, during the past year, officiated at 54 baptisms, 11 confirmations, 21 marriages, 7 funerals, and 85 administrations of the Holy Supper.

     The Rev N. D. Pendleton, in his report, states that, at the request of the Bishop, he visited Middleport and Cincinnati.

     The reports present an encouraging view of the activities of the General Church.

     In the societies having resident pastors, services and classes have been held regularly. In most cases, classes of three kinds are held: A general doctrinal class (following a weekly supper), a young people's class and a philosophy class. In several of these societies a Children's Sunday Service has been instituted.

     In December the Rev. Gilbert Smith became pastor of the Sharon Church in Chicago, succeeding the Rev. Wm. Caldwell.

     In February the Rev. Homer Synnestvedt, pastor of Church of the Advent, Philadelphia, and the Rev. Frederick Gyllenhaal, pastor of the Denver Society, exchanged pastorates.

     By these changes there has been an increase of two in the number of societies having resident pastors, namely, the Sharon Church and the Church of the Advent.

     To these can be added a third, namely, Brussels, Belgium, where the Rev. Ernst Deltenre is resident since July, and ministers to a small circle.

533

He also ministers to the circle at the Hague. In his report he designates himself Missionary to Belgium and Holland. At Brussels public worship is held every Sunday, and the attendance, not including the family of the pastor, has ranged from 2 to 14. Weekly classes are held in theology, cosmology, and Hebrew. The average number of visitors to the library, per month, has been 15. A number of books have been loaned out. Two persons have been baptized, and have become members of the General Church. The circle at the Hague has been visited four times. The attendance at services is about 10. On the occasion of the pastoral visit several meetings are held. Three adults have been baptized. Services are held every three weeks and a meeting every two weeks, under the leadership of Mr. G. Barger.

     A number of societies and circles are under the charge of visiting pastors, who, on the occasion of their visits, conduct services and classes. New York is visited twice a month and Washington every seven weeks by the Rev. Alfred Acton; Baltimore, twice a month, by the Rev. E. E. Iungerich; Colchester, every other week, by the Rev. Andrew Czerny; Allentown, once a month, by the Rev. E. S. Price; Cincinnati, once a month, by the Rev. W. L. Gladish; and Erie, every three months by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli.

     The number of centers having resident pastors is 13; and the number having visiting pastors is 8; a total of 21.

     Besides the work in societies and circles is that done among the isolated and in small circles, principally by the Rev. J. E. Bowers, who, during the year, visited 46 places in Ontario and in eight States,-28 places once, and Is twice. Similar work was done last summer by the Rev. T. S. Harris and the Rev. F. E. Waelchli at various points in Canada, and by Mr. Headsten in several States.

     A thriving circle of the General Church has, during the past pear, come into existence in Stockholm, Sweden. This circle, though having the benefit of the presence of Mr. Alfred Stroh and of the visits of Pastor Bronnicke, of Copenhagen, Denmark, has thus far had no direct General Church ministrations.
     Respectfully submitted,
          F. E. WAECHLI, Secretary.

     REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.
     The Executive Committee has to report that

     At the Annual Meeting of the corporation on June 16, 1910, the following gentlemen were elected members of the Board of Directors of the Executive Committee of the corporation to serve for the term of one year, and until their successors are elected:

534

John Pitcairn
Chas. E. Doering
Paul Carpenter
Edward Cranch
Raymond Pitcairn
Paul Synnestvedt
Felix A. Boericke
Seymour G. Nelson
Samuel S. Lindsay
Walter C. Childs
William H. Alden
Hugh L. Burnham
Jacob Schoenberger
Robert Carswell
Richard Roschman
Rudolph Roschman
Robert Benton Caldwell
Anton Sellner.

     That on the same day such Board of Directors or Executive Committee met with fifteen members present and elected the following officers:

John Pitcairn, President;
Hugh L. Burnham, Vice-President;
William H. Alden, Treasurer; and
Paul Carpenter, Secretary.

     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 1910 seven meetings were held by the Executive Committee, five being at the time of the General Assembly.

     In the year 1911 nine meetings were held, and in the year 1912 three meetings.

     Thus far in the year 1913 two meetings have been held, in addition to those held during the present Assembly. In stating the number of meetings as above, it should be understood that these are meetings where there has been a general attendance and action taken after discussion. It gives no consideration to the formal Quarterly Meetings of the Executive Committee and the formal annual meetings of the corporation which have been noticed and held in order to comply with the By-Laws and present a clean legal record.

     The plan of holding our meetings at the different centers of the Church, which was adopted in 1902 has been continued and has continued to prove most useful. The time selected has been, as heretofore, the time of the meeting of the District Assemblies, as far as practicable. Meetings have been held in Toronto and Berlin, as well as in Bryn Athyn. The increased interest in and attendance at our meetings has in consequence continued and has brought the committee into close touch with the different centers.

535

     REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CHURCH EXTENSION
     FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 31, 1913
     The Committee has held during the year closing May 31, 1913, sixteen meetings, on the dates, June 24, 26, July 91 Sept. 13, 18, Oct. 31, Dec. 10, 13, 1912; Jan. 9, 20, March 13, April 17, 22, May 7, 13 and 26, 1913.

     Appropriations were made, as in previous years for the assistance of the Rev. F. E. Waelchli in Berlin, Ont., of the Rev. A. Czerny in London and Colchester, Eng., for the Rev. W. L. Gladish for missionary services and for the Rev. T. S. Harris, Pastor of the Abingon Circle, and for the assistance of the Circle of the General Church in Paris, France.

     The Committee has increased the salary paid to the Rev. E. Deltenre in Brussels, Belgium, and provided for additional advertising. Special appropriations have been made to enable the Sharon Church in Chicago to call a pastor and to the Philadelphia Society to enable it to secure the entire time of the Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal during the year's absence of the Rev. H. Synnestvedt. Provision has been made for the support for one year from June 1, 1913, for Mr. John Headsten, who is to carry on missionary work in Chicago and vicinity, and for theological students who will preach during the coming summer at different centers of the Church during the vacation of their several pastors. This not only affords relief to the pastors of the several societies, and affords to the students the opportunity for valuable preparatory work, but in three cases, permits of the undertaking of important missionary work; enabling Mr. Harris to visit Canada, Mr. Waelchli to visit Northwestern Canada, and providing for the European visit of Bishop N. D. Pendleton as representative of the Bishop of the General Church. The appropriation hitherto made for the quarterly visits of the Rev. N. D. Pendleton to Erie, Pa., has been continued to the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, who has taken Mr. Pendleton's place in these visits.

     A visit of two months will be made, during the coming summer, by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, to Rosthern, Saskatchawan, and adjacent points. An invitation for this visit has been received by Mr. Waelchli from a prominent citizen of Rosthern, and it has been thought well for the Extension Fund to bear the very considerable expenses of the trip.

     Appeal has been made to the Committee from the recently formed Circle of the General Church in Stockholm, Sweden, for assistance to enable them to receive quarterly visits from the Rev. S. Bronniche, of Copenhagen, and also to provide for a place of meeting and library. The Committee has, as yet, taken no action in this matter.

     The Rev. Mr. Harris will again visit Canada this summer, as he did last year, for work among his own people.

536

A number of his own relatives and friends have become interested in the New Church, and he expects this year to baptize several and, perhaps, organize a circle of the General Church Extension Fund has borne, this year, the major part of the expense of the sending of a representative of the Bishop to England and the Continent. A circular which was sent out to the members of the General Church for a special contribution for this use, was responded to by few, and the amount received was $60.10, or about one-tenth of the sum needed. It seemed proper for the Extension Fund to meet this expenditure in view of the fact that the Bishop's representative will visit several places which are receiving aid from the Fund: Paris, Brussels and Stockholm.

     The work of the Committee has each year increased. In the first fourteen months of its existence the Committee expended fourteen hundred dollars, In its second year the amount rose to two thousand dollars, and in the third year to three thousand dollars. In its fourth the expenditure was forty-four hundred dollars. In the present year it will be approximately fifty-five hundred dollars.

     Each year an appeal has been sent out to the members of the General Church and means have been provided for each use as it appeared. The chief contributor to the Fund from the beginning has been Mr. John Pitcairn who has now crowned his generous support with a permanent endowment for this work of one hundred thousand dollars, so invested as to yield an income of fifty-five hundred dollars per year. But this income while larger than has been received in any previous Year will not cover the uses which lie possible before us. Our work already covers many fields, east and west, in this country and abroad. With every year new opportunities arise. The need is becoming evident for a general missionary who shall bear encouragement to little circles of the New Church here and there which already exist, and form new circles. The Lord's work must go on and increase. Its only limit indeed is that set up by the men and means at hand to perform it.          COMMITTEE.

     REPORT OF THE TREASURER
     GENERAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT
     FOR THE YEAR ENDING MAY 31, 1913. Balance on hand, June 1, 1912                     $427.05

     Receipts.
Interest on Bank Account                $9.41
Sale of Directory                         1.00
Rent of Addressograph                     5.00
                                             15.41

537

     CONTRIBUTIONS.
California                              25.00
Colorado                              28.90
Delaware                              .30
District of Columbia                     9.00
Georgia                               57.00
Illinois-General                         13.00
Chicago                               10.50
Glenview                              162.42
Indiana                              26.75
Kentucky                              5.50
Maryland                              12.00
Massachusetts                         13.92
Michigan                              7.00
Minnesota                              2.00
New York                              43.00
North Carolina                         1.00
Ohio                                    221.05
Pennsylvania-General                     240.50
Bryn Athyn                               2,336.60
Philadelphia                          74.88
Pittsburgh                              396.46
Texas                                   3.00
Washington                               13.80
West Virginia                          73.00
Wisconsin                               5.00
Canada-General                         62.75
Berlin and Waterloo                     167.02
Toronto                              241.90
Great Britain                         62.25
Scotland                              2.06
Sweden                              4.37
                                             $4,321.93

     NEW CHURCH LIFE.

Subscriptions                              975.45
Contributions                              8.00
Advertisements                              3.00
Special Contribution by Mr. John Pitcairn for
     Editorial Assistance                    240.00
                                             $1226.45
Total                                             $5990.84

538

     Expenditures.

     GENERAL CHURCH.

Bishop's Salary                               $2,200.00
Bishop's Traveling Expenses                     108.00
Salary of Rev. J. E. Bowers, Missionary           500.00
Traveling Expenses of Missionary                136.95
Salary of Mrs. R. M. L. Frost, Treasurer's Ass't 600.00
Traveling Expenses.
Rev. N. D. Pendleton to Meeting of Consistory      21.70
To Middleport and Cincinnati                     27.00
Rev. F. E. Waelchli to Meeting of Consistory      32.00
Rev. F. E. Waelchli, Services as Secretary
Council of the Clergy                          25.00
Printing and Mailing Quarterly Reports           32.00
Postage, Stationery, etc.                     52.52
Correcting Plates, Addressograph                5.81
Sundry Expenses                               17.58
                                             $3,758.56

     NEW CHURCH LIFE. Editor's Salary                               $500.00
Editor's Traveling Expenses (trip to Lancaster)      5.00
Printing                                    888.36
Paper                                    163.24
Cuts                                        14.55
Envelopes                                    16.14
Bound Copies to Subscribers and Complimentary      10.25
Editorial Assistance                          255.00
Postage, Stationery, Etc.                     35.30
Sundry Expenses                               25.27
     Total                                         $1,913.11
     Total Expenditures                               $5,671.67
Balance on hand, May 31, 1913                          $31917
Aid to NEW CHURCH LIFE                $926.66

     NEW CHURCH LIFE STATISTICS.      June, 1913. To-
     *Subscribers who are members of the General Church      340
     *Subscribers, non-members                          198
     Academy Book Room                               33
     Glenn Hall                                        3
     Stuart Hall                                        3

      * Of the above 27 free copies were sent to members and 19 to non-members, the latter largely to Libraries.

539

Academy Library                               2
Agents                                    15
Exchanges                                   26
Missionary                                    2

      Total                                   623

     New Subscribers, May 31, 1912, to June 1, 1913          25 Discontinued by request, May 31, 1912, to June 1, 1913      26
Discontinued for non-payment, May 31, 1912, to
June 1, 1913                                    22

     CHURCH EXTENSION FUND.      May 31, 1913. Balance on hand, May 31, 1912                         $2,615.22

     Receipts. Interest on Bank Account                     31.20
Interest on Invested Funds                     1,250.00

     CONTRIBUTIONS. Bryn Athyn                               $5,165.15
Chicago                              2.00
Colorado                               10.00
Glenview                               5.00
New York                               6.00
Pennsylvania                          49.50
Berlin and Waterloo                     14.50
Toronto                               27.00
London and Colchester                     25.71
                                             $5,304.86

     Total                                             $9,201.28

     Expenditures. Rev. T. S. Harris (Abington), 11 months           $916.70
Rev. A. Czerny (London and Colchester)           250.00
Rev. E. Deltenre (Brussels)                     2,424.27
Rev. W. L. Gladish (Middleport)                200.00
Rev. G. H. Smith, Secretary to Bishop, from
June to November, 1912                          300.00
Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal, Expenses to Philadelphia      100.00
Rev. F. E. Gyllenhaal (Denver)               100.00
Rev. F. E. Waelchli (Berlin)                    300.00
Rev, F. E. Waelchli, two visits to Erie, Pa.      50.00
Rev. F. E. Waelchli, on account of missionary
visit to Saskatchawan                          100.00
Rev. N. D. Pendleton, Expenses of trip to Europe
and the Continent, as Bishop's representative      439.90

540

Aid to Arbutus Circle                          31.00
Aid to Paris, France, Circle                     193.00
Aid to Philadelphia                          100.00
Aid to Sharon Church, Chicago                100.00
L. W. T. David, summer work in Abington, 1912      100.00
L. W. T. David, on account of summer work in
Pittsburgh, 1913                               40.00
Hugo Lj. Odhner, on account summer work in
Berlin, 1913                               65.00
Geo. de Charms, on account summer work,
Glenview, 1913                               50.00
Sidney B. Childs, on account summer work
Abington, 1913                               51.00
Academy Rook Room, books to Prof. Bhatt, India,
and postage on same                          12.80
Rental Box in Safe Deposit Vault                13.00
Postage, Printing, Etc.                     23.03
                                             $5,96970

     Balance on hand, May 31, 1913                          $3,231.58

     ENDOWMENT. May 10, 1913. Contributed by John Pitcairn, $100,000.00, invested in:
Mortgage bonds of Willamette Valley Co., @ 5%               $50,000.00
Bonds of Bergner & Engel Brewing Co., @ 6%                $50,000.00

     PENSION FUND.

     May 31, 1913.      Receipts.

From Invested Capital                     $2,650.00
From Invested Income                     160.00
Bank Interest                          22.24
                                              $2,832.24
Balance on hand, May 31, 1912                         1,134.42
                                                        $3,966,66

     Expenditures. Mrs. Mary Hyatt                          $300.00
Rev. J. E. Bowers                     200.00
Rev. D. H. Klein                          300.00
Rental of Safe                          6.55

541

John Pitcairn (invested in bonds of Bergner
& Engel, Brewing Co., face value,
$2,000.00, @ 6%                         2,035.00
                                                   $2,841.55
Balance on hand, May 31, 1913                              $1,125.11

     ENDOWMENT. John Pitcairn, original endowment                          $50,000.00
Gain on Conversion of securities in Jan., 1912                500.00
                                                   $50,500.00
Invested in-
Eastern Oregon Light and Power Co.
     10 bonds, @ 6%                              10,000.00
Willamette Valley Co.
     10 bonds, @ 5%                              10,000.00
Ontario Power Co.
     10 bonds, @ 5%                              10,00000
Anacostia & Potomac R. R. Co.
     10 bonds, @ 5%                               10,000.00
Westinghouse Electric Co.
     11 bonds, face value, $11,000.00, @ 5%           10,430.86
                                                            $50,430.86

     Uninvested capital                                        $69.14

     Investment of Income. Philadelphia Electrics, bonds (face value, $4,000.00, @ 4%)     $3,203.14
Bergner & Eneel Brewing Co. bonds (face value, $2,000.00, @ 6%
                                                  2,035.00
                                                   $5,238.14

     ORPHANAGE FUND
     OF THE
     GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.      STATEMENT FROM JUNE 10TH, 1912, TO JUNE 11, 1913      CONTRIBUTIONS.
Advent Church, Philadelphia                          $17.08
Ashley, Miss K. S.                               6.50
Baltimore Circle, Children's Christmas Offering      8.33
Berlin Society, Closing Contribution               9.36
Berlin Society, Contribution Box                    3.70
Berlin Society, Christmas Offering                     20.44

542

Boericke, Dr. F. A.                               25.00
Breitstein, Mrs. F. O.                               2.00
Brown, Mr. Charles                               15.00
Bryn Athyn, Children's Sunday Offerings                19.49
Bryn Athyn, Christmas Offering                     86.00
Bryn Athyn Elementary School, 4th Grade                1.01
Carswell, Miss Roberta                               1.00
Childs, Mr. Walter C.                               15.00
Childs, Mr. Sidney B., Trustee                     42.75
Colchester, Eng., Christmas Offering                2.24
Covert, Mich., Sunday School                          1.53
Denver Society, Christmas Offering                     5.90
Deppisch, Mr. George                               .25
Doering, Master Cyrus, Proceeds of Children's Play     5.50
Doering, Mr. G. W.                               1.00
Drost, Mr. Wm.                                    5.00
Ebert, Mr. C. H., Family Worship Offerings           1.29
Evens, Mr. Wm.                                    1.00
"Friend, A"                                    1.10
"Friend, A," Pittsburgh                          15.00
Fritz, Mr. J.                                    10.00
Grant, Miss Alice E.                               3.25
Grote, Mrs. C. H.                               25.00
Howland, Mrs. W. S.                               10.00
Immanuel Church, Christmas Offering                28.30
Immanuel Church, Additional                          1.00
Kessler, Mr. John                               3.00
Knudsen, Mr. and Mrs. K.                          2.00
Lechner, Mrs. Anna M.                               5.00
McKallip, Mrs. Margaret                          30.00
Middleport Society                               4.00
Middleport Sunday School                          4.36
Mitchell, Miss Eliza                               10.00
New York Society, Christmas Offering                15.05
Parkdale Society                                    33.20
Pendleton, Mrs. N. D.                              1.00
Pendleton, Bishop W. F.                          5.00
Pittsburgh Christmas Festival                     63.21
Potts, Miss Edith W.                              2.00
Potts, Mr. S. Warren                              2.00
Putnam, Mr. H. N.                               2.50
Reynolds, Dorothy, Alpha and Robert                    2.00
Ridgway, Mr. J. H.                               5.00
Roschman, Mr. Richard                               5.00
Roschman, Mr. Rudolph                              5.00

543

Schoenberger, Mr. J                              25.00
Scott, Mr. Geo                                   .50
Scott, Miss Margaret                              .10
Sharp, Mrs. Herbert H.                              10.00
Starkey, Dr. G. G.                               3.30
Starkey, Children of Dr. and Mrs. G. G.                1.50
Stroh, Mr. J. G.                                    2.00
Sullivan, Miss Rebecca E.                              1.00
Sweet, Mrs. B. M.                                   .50
Walker, Mrs. Annie M.                              20.00
Wallenberg, Miss Ellen V                         1.00
Werckle, Mrs. L.                                   10.00

Total Contributions, June, 1912 to June 11th, 1913      666.74
Add Cash Balance, June 10th, 1912                     254.27
Total                                                  $901.01

     DISBURSEMENTS.

Fitzpatrick, Mrs. E. J.                              $274.00
Frost, Mrs. R. M. L.                              160.00
Nahrgang, Franklin                              37.50

     Total                                                  $471.50
Balance in Bank. June 11, 1913                          $429.51

     (Signed.) WALTER C. CHILDS, Treasurer.

     REPORT OF THE ACADEMY OF THE NEW CHURCH TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

     Since the last report of the Academy to the Assembly the work has steadily progressed. The Library building, which was then under construction, has been completed and many volumes have been added to our collection in order that the work of education may be more efficiently done. Moreover, the endowment of the Institution has been increased from time to time by Mr. Pitcairn to meet the needs of the growing and expanding uses.

     I need not here enter into the details of the work in the various departments, as reports of the work in detail have been published from year to year in our JOURNAL OF EDUCATION, and it has been our endeavor to place this Journal in every home of the General Church. We are now to publish the Journal quarterly, and wish to make it available to every one who is interested.

     The Journal will be the official educational organ of the Academy. Its purposes are to describe the work of teachers and students in the various departments; to publish articles embodying research work of permanent value [such as papers presented by Mr. Brown and Miss Amena Pendleton to the Teachers' Institute]; and the Journal will afford an opportunity for presentation and discussion of educational problems.

544

We hope that in it will be collected much valuable material, now buried in manuscript, and thus make this material available to our New Church teachers everywhere, and in this way supply the needs of teachers in a limited degree of material for New Church text books.

     I have mentioned that report of the work of the departments is published in the Journal. In addition I wish to speak briefly of one department which has made unusual progress, viz., the Normal Department. A number of courses have been added which have developed the work along distinctive New Church lines, so that our Normal graduates are better prepared than ever before to carry forward our distinctive work. This department has become, I feel, what its name implies,-A Normal Department, and in this connection it is interesting to note that these courses are beginning to be attended by male students, where formerly there were only women students; and it is our hope that eventually every teacher in the Academy schools or local schools, whether male or female, will have received a thorough training in our Normal Department.

     One matter, however, which has not been noticed in the Journal, is that of phototyping the MSS. of the Writings, and for your information I wish to report that in 1910, during the Swedenborg Congress, the Academy joined with the Swedenborg Society and other New Church organizations in undertaking to phototype all the Theological MSS. of Emanuel Swedenborg which had not been photolithographed or phototyped. It was estimated that it would take five years to do this. Since then the ADVERSARIA has been phototyped, as well as a number of minor works, and work on the ARCANA has been begun and is progressing rapidly, although I doubt whether all will be quite completed in the time originally proposed; but it is a comfort to know that the phototyping of all is assured.

     I remarked that the work of the Academy has been making steady progress. This progress, however, consists not so much in the rapid increase in the number of pupils, that number being about the same from year to year, but, rather, in the quality of the work that is being done. We do not see much change from year to year, but making a comparison of times separated by a number of years, I think we can notice the development and growth of the work. There is growth because the spirit of the corps of teachers is to make our education a New Church Education,-to make new from the truths of the Writings every subject that is taught in the schools. We, of course, are yet in the beginnings of things and the progress in this direction is but small, but there is no science or language in which something of a beginning has not been made, and while this beginning is small, nevertheless, it is sufficient to differentiate our work in every line from that being done in Old Church schools.

545

It is so different that pupils who come to us from Old Church Schools with little previous instruction in the Doctrines, have difficulty in comprehending that which we are teaching; they are, as it were, dazed, and as if we spoke in a different tongue, and this not because they do not know or comprehend the facts of science, of literature, or of language, but because their understandings have not been trained in the same way. They do not have the same view-point, and this leads me to wonder whether more cannot be done for the children and young people before they come to the Academy in the matter of religious training. It has led me to wonder whether the families in the Church are doing all that can be done. I realize that it is difficult for the parents to give systematic instruction, but if the Word and the Writings are read daily in the family, remains will undoubtedly be implanted which will be of inestimable benefit to the development of the mind of the child. When we realize that it is the Divine Truth which alone can truly form the mind, then there dawns upon us a realization of the responsibility we have in giving those truths to the children which the Lord has given us, and let us remember that it is not only a responsibility but a privilege to have this to do for our children, for by it husband and wife may become more and more a conjugial pair, for as it is stated in Conjugial Love, the care and the education of children is one of the means for drawing husband and wife closer together.

At the meeting of the General Assembly held here fifteen years ago, a whole day was given to the consideration of the relation of the Academy to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, at which time the members of the Corporation of the Academy of the New Church pledged themselves to offer a resolution recognizing the Bishop of the General Church as ex-officio head of the ecclesiastical affairs of the Academy. This was done later at a meeting of the Corporation. Six years ago, in Bryn Athyn, the General Church in Assembly formally recognized the work the Academy is doing for the Church. So far, therefore, the relation of the two is settled and there is no question in the mind of anyone about it

At the same meeting, fifteen years ago, the question of the co-operation and support of the General Church with the Academy was briefly discussed, and it was said, "Send your children to the schools of the Academy." Since then the General Church and the Academy have both grown very much and to fulfill the promise of co-operation members of the Church have contributed funds for sending boys and girls to Bryn Athyn, and I think you will be surprised when I tell you how many have received aid from the various scholarship funds. The number has been 60, 28 boys and 32 girls. This is not inclusive of the scholarship tuition given by the Academy. And while many of the above mentioned 60 have been from scholarships of the Academy, yet it is encouraging to see the Church, as a whale, contribute to this use, and being a contributor, all have an interest in the pupils who receive the benefits of these scholarships.

546

I might suggest that everyone be on the lookout for promising material and write and let me know. The opinion has sometimes been expressed that every boy and girl should go to the Academy. This is a very beautiful ideal that I am sure will never be realized. Providence has so placed many that it is impossible for them to go unless funds are provided by others to do so. And since this is the case, I think very great care needs to be exercised in our making the selection as to who shall be the beneficiary, for, undoubtedly, some will make more use of the advantage we have to offer than others. And we, at the center, who have the work in charge, are dependent on the various centers for our information concerning those who are recommended to come.

     All recognize that New Church education in the schools is one of the means for keeping the young in the Church, and so it is desirable for all to have New Church education, but it is not the only means, and may fail if there has not been previous New Church education in the home. If the young come to us obedient to authority and in an affirmative spirit, we can do much to their development and growth, but it is a difficult matter and very uphill work if the above two principles are wanting. After all, the training in the home is the most important factor in keeping our young in the Church, and I cannot over-emphasize the point made previously in this report, viz., that there be more general instruction in the home. It is the early training, daily worship, the reading of the Word, and the Writings, that keeps the mind of the young in the affirmative attitude. I dwell on this point because I believe that I have noticed, and others have noticed, that the interests of some of the young people are greater in the matter of social life than in anything else. The ends and purposes of the school do not always seem to be recognized or appreciated by them, and while social good is one of the means of leading the young to something higher, yet it is discouraging when we see it occupy so much thought and affection that the school work suffers and little of the instruction is received.

     I am not pessimistic as to the future, but it is useful that we look at things as they are, and let us see whether it is not possible for us to do more for our children than we have done. It is this support of the Academy that counts for more than scholarships or money. It is the internal support which must be in all the other that they may be of the greatest use. It is this internal which will build the Church, and which the work of the Academy hopes to develop and strengthen. C. E. DOERING, Superintendent.

     REPORT OF THETA ALPHA.
     Since the last Assembly Theta Alpha has made good progress. The field for the collective uses of the Daughters of the Academy has enlarged along distinctly feminine lines and also has become more clearly defined.

547

     We first organized and have continued an organization because we love the sphere of the affection of truth in each other, and because there are many distinctively feminine uses that can better be performed collectively than individually. Our Bishop, our pastors and our mothers have encouraged us in this. We desire to support faithfully the uses of the priesthood in our collective capacity, and we think that our especial uses are in environing New Church education and New Church social life. We are only doing collectively what our mothers have done individually. We desire to confirm their teachings, to crystallize and perpetuate their uses.

     The mothers in the Academy are they who have fostered and protected the holy things. They have loved the truth and they have applied it, They have suffered the early hardships, they have sowed that we might reap, they have given us more than they themselves enjoyed, and we rise up and call them blessed.

     Theta Alpha could not have grown without the protection of their strong, kind sphere and we pray that we may deserve its continuance.
     Respectfully submitted,
          VENITA PENDLETON, President.

     ROLL OF ATTENDANCE AT THE EIGHTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

     I. Of the Clergy.

ILLINOIS, 2.
Chicago: Rev. Gilbert H. Smith.
Glenview: Rev. William B. Caldwell.

MASSACHUSETTS, 1.
Abington: Rev. Thomas L. Harris.

NEBRASKA, 1.

Beatrice: Rev. Orson L. Barler.

NORTH CAROLINA, 1.
     Flat Rock: Rev. David H. Klein.

OHIO, 1.
     Middleport: Rev. W. L. Gladish.

PENNSYLVANIA, 10.
     Bryn Athyn: Rev. Alfred Acton, Rev. William H. Alden, Rev. Reginald W. Brown, Rev. Charles E. Doering, Rev. Eldred E. Iungerich, Rev. Carl Th. Odhner, Rev. William F. Pendleton, Rev. Enoch S. Price.

     Philadelphia: Rev. Fred. E. Gyllenhaal.

     Pittsburgh: Rev. N. Dandridge Pendleton.

CANADA, 3.
     Berlin, Ont.: Rev. Fred. E. Waelchli.
     Toronto, Ont.: Rev. John E. Bowers, Rev. Emil E. Cronlund.

548

     II. Of the Laity.

COLORADO, 1.
Denver: Mrs. W. S. Howland.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, 1.
     Washington: Mrs. Arthur C. V. Schott.

GEORGIA, 2.
     Macon: Miss Philola Pendleton, Miss Vida Pendleton.

ILLINOIS, 103.
     Blue Island: Mr. and Mrs. Louis V. Riefstahl.

     Chicago: Dr. George A. Blackman, Mr. Lewis R. Blackman, Mrs. H. S. Brewer, Mi. Charles F. Browne, Mrs. Emma Burt, Miss Pearl Evans, Dr. and Mrs. Harvey Farrington, Mr. William A. Farrington, Mr. John Forrest, Miss H. Eugenie Headsten, Mr. and Mrs. John Headsten, Mrs. H. J. Jasmer, Mr. Nels Johnson, Miss Susan M. Junge, Miss Meaner Lindrooth, Miss Amy Marelius, Dr. and Mrs. J. W. Marelius, Miss Leora Marelius, Mr. and Mrs. John D. Pollock, Mr. and Mrs. T. F. Pollock, Mr. Nils O. Schuldz, Mrs. G. H. Smith, Dr. and Mrs. George G. Starkey, Miss Abbie Stevens, Miss Clara Wallenberg, Miss Ellen V. Wallenberg, Mr. Oscar M. Woefle.

     Glenview: Mrs. H. W. Barnitz, Miss Gladys Blackman, Mr. and Mrs. Harry E. Blackman, Miss Constance Burnham, Miss Dorothy Burnham, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh L. Burnham, Mrs. W. B. Caldwell, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Carpenter, Mr. and Mrs. C. S. Cole, Mrs. J. P. Cole, Mr. and Mrs. Louis S. Cole, Mrs. E. A. Farrington, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred L. Goerwitz, Mr. Alvin G. Gyllenhaal, Mr. John B. Gyllenhaal, Mr. Leonard E. Gyllenhaal, Miss Margaret Gyllenhaal, Mrs. Selma Gyllenhaal, Miss Vida L. Gyllenhaal, Miss Elise Junge, Mr. Felix Junge, Miss Frieda Junge, Mr. and Mrs. William F. Junge, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Junge, Miss E. Vivien King, Dr. and Mrs. J. B. S. King, Mr. Raymond King, Mr. and Mrs. Sydney E. Lee, Miss F. Maud McQueen, Mr. and Mrs. George A. McQueen, Mr. G. Alexander McQueen, Mr. Harold P. McQueen, Mr. Arthur T. Maynard, Miss Helen Maynard, Mr. and Mrs. H. S. Maynard, Mr. H. S. Maynard, Jr., Mr. G. E. Maynard, Mr. and Mrs. Alvin E. Nelson, Miss Adah T. Nelson, Miss Emilia Nelson, Miss Hannah Nelson, Mr. Swain Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Seymour G. Nelson, Mr. and Mrs. Oscar L. Scalbom, Miss Florence Smeal, Mr. William J. Smeal, Mrs. C. P. E. Staddon, Mr. and Mrs. Jesse Stevens, Mr. and Mrs. John B. Synnestvedt, Mrs. Mary Wiedinger.

     Hubbard Woods: Mr. Harvey I. Brewer.

INDIANA, 3.
     Bourbon: Mr. and Mrs. John D. Fogle.

     Williamsburg: Dr. Aifred H. Beam.

MICHIGAN, 1.

549

     Dowagiac: Miss Lulu Osborn.

MISSOURI, 1.
     St. Louis: Mr. Homer A. Waelchli.

NEW YORK, 5.
     New York: Mrs. Edward E. Boericke, Mr. Randolph W. Childs, Mr. Anton Sellner.

     Yonkers: Mr. Walter C. Childs, Miss Eliza Mitchell.

NORTH CAROLINA, 1.
     Flat Rock: Mrs. David H. Klein.

OHIO, 5.
     Cincinnati: Mr. Charles G. Merrell, Mr. Colon Schott.

     Columbus: Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Wiley.

     Middleport: Mrs. W. L. Gladish.

PENNSYLVANIA, 42.
     Bellevue: Mrs. L. B. McKallip.

     Bryn Athyn: Mrs. W. H. Alden, Miss Stella Bellinger, Dr. and Mrs. F. A. Boericke, Miss Winifred Boericke, Miss Margaret Bostock, Miss Helen Colley, Mr. George de Charms, Mrs. C. E. Doering, Miss Sophie Falk, Mrs. Robert M. Glenn, Miss Alice E. Grant, Miss Maria C. Hogan, Mr. Wilfred Howard, Mrs. Edward C. Iungerich, Miss Solange Iungerich, Miss Francis McQuigg, Miss Cyriel Lj. Odhner, Miss Amena Pendleton, Miss Eo Pendleton, Miss Venita Pendleton, Mr. John Pitcairn, Miss Alice K. Potts, Miss Edith W. Potts, Miss Lucy E. Potts, Mr. E. F. Robinson, Mr. and Mrs. Royden H. Smith, Miss Mary S. Snyder, Mr. William W. Whitehead.

     Erie: Miss Edith R. Cranch.

     Philadelphia: Mr. Arthol E. Soderberg.

     Pittsburgh: Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Caldwell, Jr., Dr. William Cowley, Mr. Charles H. Ebert, Mr. and Mrs. D. E. Horigan, Miss Ida E. Hunter, Miss Katherine Marshall, Mr. L. J. Schoenberger.

WISCONSIN, 2.
     Beloit: Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Ahlstrom.

CANADA, 17.
Arnprior, Ont.: Miss Bella Campbell.

     Berlin, Ont.: Miss Evangeline Roschman, Miss Edith E. Roschman, Mr. and Mrs. Richard Roschman, Mr. and Mrs. Rudolph Roschman, Mr. and Mrs. George Schnarr.

     Kenora, Ont.: Mrs. Catharine Schnarr.

     Toronto, Ont.: Mr. C. Ray Brown, Miss F. Edina Carswell, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Carswell.

     Waterloo, Ont.: Miss Celia Bellinger, Mrs. Adolph Ferdinand.

     Wellesley, Ont.: Miss Lucinda Bellinger.

ENGLAND, 1.
London: Miss May Waters.

550

SWEDEN, 2.
Stockholm: Miss Nancy Liden, Miss Sophia H. Nordenskiold.

     III. Visitors. CALIFORNIA, 1.
     San Francisco: Rev. Joseph S. David.

COLORADO, 2.
     Denver: Dr. B. A. Wheeler, Miss Mary West.

ILLINOIS, 90.
     Chicago: Mr. and Mrs. Julius W. Alden, Miss Helen Barler, Miss Laura Barler, Miss Agnes Benson, Miss Daisy Benson, Mrs. O. Benson, Mrs. L. Brackett Bishop, Mrs. L. R. Blackman, Chas. F. Browne, Jr., M;rs. Matthew Burton, Mr. and Mrs. W. Espy Curtis, Miss Bertha Farrington, Theodore Farrington, Winfred Farrington, Miss Bessie Forrest, Dr. M. R. French, Mr. Henry T. Frieman, Miss H. W. Gano, Miss Mary Goldsmith, Mrs. Nanette Gunsteens; Miss Landenberger, Miss Janet Lindroot, Mr. and Mrs. John McCabe, Mr. Ellis Nicholl, Mrs. Kate H. Nicholl, Mr. Harry Nelson, Mrs. Mabel Pearse, Miss Mabel Pearse, Dorothy and Kenneth Pearse, Mr. and Mrs. Gustav Rauch, Mrs. Adolph W. Reuter, Mr. and Mrs. George Rex, Mr. Wm. Rott, Agatha and Healdon Starkey, Mr. Herman Sternberg, Mr.and Mrs. Frederick Stevens, Miss Winifred Stevens, Mrs. E. A. Turner, Miss Ada Wallenberg, Rev. L. E. Wethey, Mr. Arthur T. Wiedinger, Miss Helen M. Wiedinger, Mr. Neville T. Wright, Mr. and Mrs. Frank F. Young, Frank and Violet Young.

     Glenview: Mr. Henry L. Barnitz, Mr. Henry W. Barnitz, Garner, Walker and Rudolph Barnitz, Mr. Geoffrey C. Blackman, Randolph Blackman, Mr. Lawrence Burnham, Mr. E. Crebert Burnham, Edwin Burnham, Phyllis Burnham, Clarence Burt, Mrs. E. R. Burnham, Miss Jennie Cole, Mr. Robert M. Cole, Miss Mildren Goerwitz, Richard L. Goerwitz, Miss Lenore Junge, Mr. Winfred Junge, Phoebe Junge, Mr. Arthur King, Mr. Laurence King, Miss F. A. McQueen, Miss Vera McQueen, Mr. Benjamin McQueen, Gertrude Nelson, Trumbull Scalbom, Mr. Hugh W. Smeal, Mr. C. P. E. Staddon, Mr. Alan Synnestvedt, Miss Ruth Synnestvedt, Hilda Synnestvedt, Ralph Synnestvedt.

MICHIGAN, 3.
     Charlevois: Miss Clara L. Tafel.

     Detroit: Mrs. John H. Fry.

     Sibley: Mrs. H. George Field.

NEW YORK, 1.
     Yonkers: Mr. Robert C. Mason.

OHIO, 1.
     Cincinnati: Mrs. W. E. Hathaway.

551

PENNSYLVANIA, 4.
     Bryn Athyn: Mr. Harold Pitcairn, Mr. Theodore Pitcairn, Mr. Fred. Synnestvedt.

     Pittsburgh: Malcolm Cowley.

     Gorand Total-Clergy                19 Members                     187
Visitors                     102
                         308

552

     DIRECTORY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.      OFFICIALS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH.      Bishop.      The Rev. William F. Pendleton.

     Secretary.
     Rev. C. Th. Odhner.

     Treasurer.
     Rev. W. H. Alden.

     Consistory.      The Bishop. Rev. A. Acton.
Rev. C. E. Doering.
Rev. C. Th. Odhner.
Rev. N. D. Pendleton.
Rev. Homer Synnestvedt.
Rev. F. E. Waelchli.

     The General Council The Bishop
Rev. Alfred Acton, Secr.
Rev. Wm. H. Alden.
Dr. Felix Boericke.
Mr. Hugh L. Burnham.
Rev. Wm. B. Caldwell
Mr. Robert Carswell.
Mr. Walter C. Childs.
Rev. Chas. E. Doering.
Mr. Seymour G. Nelson.
Rev. C. Th. Odhner.
Rev. N. D. Pendleton.
Mr. John Pitcairn.
Rev. E. S. Price.
Mr. Richard Roschman.
Mr. Rudolph Roschman.
Mr. Jacob Schoenberger.
Rev. Homer Synnestvedt.
Rev. F. E. Waelchli.

     The Executive Committee. Mr. John Pitcairn, President
Dr. Felix A. Boericke, Vice-President
Mr. Paul Carpenter, Secretary
Rev. Wm. H. Alden, Treasurer

Mr. Edward C. Bostock.
Mr. Hugh L. Burnham.
Mr. Robert Carswell.
Mr. Walter C. Childs.
Dr. Edward Cranch.
Rev. Chas. E. Doering.
Mr. S. S. Lindsay.
Mr. Seymour G. Nelson.
Mr. Raymond Pitcairn.
Mr. Richard Roschman.
Mr. Rudolph Roschman
Mr. Jacob Schoenberger.
Mr. Anton Sellner.
Mr. Paul Synnestvedt.

     The Church Extension Committee. DR. FELIX BOERICKE, Chairman.
REV. W. H. ALDEN, Secretary.
REV. ALFRED ACTON.
REV. C. E. DOERING.

553

     The Orphanage Committee. Mr. Walter C. Childs, Chairman and Treasurer.
Rev. Alfred Acton.
Mr. Anton Sellner.

     STATISTICS OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. General Assemblies.     Localities.          Dates     Membership     Not in Clergy
                                                  Creases
First General Assembly     Bryn Athyn, Pa.     1897     287          187          20
Second General Assembly     Glenview, Ill.     1898     454          167          26
Third General Assembly     Berlin, Ont.     1899     504          50          23
Fourth General Assembly     Bryn Athyn, Pa.     1900     560          56          24
Fifth General Assembly     Bryn Athyn, Pa.     1904     698          138          24
Sixth General Assembly     Bryn Athyn, Pa.     1907     834          136          25
Seventh General          Bryn Athyn, Pa.     1910     941          107          28
Eighth General Assembly     Glenview, Ill.     1913     1,101          160          36

     DIRECTORY OF THE CLERGY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

ACTON, ALFRED,
     Ordained, 4/6, 1893; 2d degree, 10/1, 1897. Pastor of the circles in New York and Washington, D. C. Professor of Theology, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

ALDEN, WILLIAM HYDE.
     Ordained, 30/5, 1886. 1st and 2d degrees. Manager of the Academy Book Room, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

BARBER, ORSON L.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, Nov. 1, 1879, Beatrice, Neb.

BOWERS, JOHN ELY.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, 11/5, 1873. General missionary, 37 Lowther Ave., Toronto, Ont.

BRICKMAN, WALTER E,
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, Jan. 7, 1900, 419 Evaline St., Pittsburgh, Pa.

BROWN, REGINALD WILLIAM.
     Ordained, 1st degree, 21/10, 1900. Professor of Natural Science, Academy of the N. C., Bryn Athyn, Pa.

CALDWELL, WILLIAM BEEBE.
     Ordained, 19/10, 1902; 2d degree, 23/10, 1904. Pastor of the Immanuel Church, Glenview, Ill.

554

CRONLUND, EMIL ROBERT.
     Ordained, 31/12, 1899, 2d degree, 18/5. 1902. Pastor of the Olivet Church, 20 1/2 Melbourne Ave., Toronto, Ont.

CZERNY, ANDREW.
     Ordained, 10/6, 1883; 2d degree, 21/3, 1886. Pastor of the Societies in London and Colchester, 169 Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, London, S. E., England.

DECHARMS, RICHARD.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, 21/1, 1877. Instructor in the Academy Schools, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

DELTENRE, ERNST.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, 26/5, 1912. Pastor of the circles in Brussels and The Hague, 33 Rue Gachard, Brussels, Belgium.

DOERING, CHARLES EMIL.
     Ordained, 7/6, 1896; 2d degree, 29/1, 1899. Superintendent of the Academy Schools, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

GLADISH, WILLIS LENDSAY.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, 3/6, 1894. Pastor of the Society in Middleport, O.

GYLLENHAAL, FREDERICK EDMUND.
     Ordained, 23/6, 1907; 2d degree, 19/6, 1910. Pastor of the Advent Church, Philadelphia, 222 N. 53d St., Philadelphia, Pa.

HARRIS, THOMAS STARK.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, 8/4, 1897. Pastor of the Society in Abington, Mass., 4 Chapel St.

HEADSTEN, JOHN.
     Ordained, 1st degree, 19/6, 1913 Missionary, 3848 N. Hermitage Ave., Chicago, Ill.

HUSSENET, FERNAND.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, 10/10, 1909. Pastor of the Society in Paris, 31 Rue Henri Regnault, St. Cloud, Seine et Oise, France.

IUNGERICH, ELDRED EDWARD.
     Ordained, 13/6, 1909; 2d degree, 26/5, 1912. Pastor of the Baltimore Society. Professor of Theology, Academy of the New Church, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

KEEP, RICHARD HAMILTON.
     Ordained, 27/6. 1897; 2d degree; 22/5, 1898. Assistant pastor of the New York Society, 125 Schermerhorn St., Brooklyn: N. Y.

KLEIN, DAVID HAROLD.
     Ordained, 26/6, 1898; 2d degree, 27/14 1902. Flat Rock, N. C.

ODHNER, CARL THEOPHILUS.
     Ordained, 10/6, 1888; 2d degree, 19/6, 1891. Professor of Theology, Academy of the New Church. Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

555

PENDLETON, NATHANIEL DANDRIDGE.
     Ordained, 16/6, 1889; 2d degree, 2/31 1891; 3d degree, Nov. 17, 1912. Pastor of the Pittsburgh Society, 706 Ivy St., Pittsburgh, Pa.

PENDLETON, WILLIAM FREDERICK.
     Ordained, 1st and 2d degrees, 3/9, 1873; 3d degree, 9/5, 1888. Bishop of the General Church of the New Jerusalem. President of the Academy of the New Church and pastor of the Bryn Athyn Society.

PRICE, ENOCH SPRADLING.
     Ordained, 10/6, 1888; 2d degree, 19/6, 1891. Professor of Sacred Languages, Academy Schools, and pastor of the circle in Allentown, Pa., Bryn Athyn, Pa.

SMITH, GILBERT HAVEN.
     Ordained, 25/6, 1911; 2d degree, 19/6, 1913. Pastor of the Sharon Church, 5445 Jefferson Ave., Chicago, Ill.

STEBBING, ERNEST JOHN.
     Ordained, 1st degree, 26/6, 1898, 302 Nichols Ave., Congress Heights, Washington, D. C.

SYNNESTVEDT, HOMER.
     Ordained, 11/6, 1891; 2d degree, 13/1, 1895 Professor of Theology, Academy of the New Church. At present, pastor of the Society in Denver, 755 Lafayette St., Denver, Colo.

WAELCHLI, FRED EDWIN.
     Ordained, 10/6, 1888; 2d degree, 19/6, 1891. Pastor of the Carmel Church, 380 King St., W. Berlin, Ont.

     CANDIDATES AND AUTHORIZED PREACHERS.

CHILDS, SIDNEY BENADE.
     Authorized, 1/6, 1912, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

DAVID, LLEWELLYN W. T.
     Authorized, 1/6, 1912, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

DECHARMS, GEORGE.
     Authorized, 29/5, 1913, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

EVENS, WILLIAM.
     Authorized to lecture and evangelize, 8/7, 1913, Randolph, Ont.

ODHNER, HUGO LJUNGBERG.
     Authorized, 29/5, 1913, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

PENDLETON, CHARLES R.
     Authorized, 4/6, 1905. Instructor in Natural Science, Academy Schools, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

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ROSE, DONALD FRANK.
     Authorized, 29/5, 1913 Bryn Athyn, Pa.

STROH, ALFRED HENRY.
     Authorized, 7/6, 1900. Editor of Swedenborg's Philosophical works, Odengatan 47, Stockholm, Sweden.

     DIRECTORY of SOCIETIES AND CIRCLES.

     UNITED STATES.      ABINGTON, MASS. Place of worship, 29 Orange St. Services on Sunday at 11 o'clock, Sunday School following service. The Rev. THOMAS S. HARRIS, pastor. Address, 4 Chapel St., Abington, Mass.

     ALLENTOWN, PA. Services held last Sunday in each month at private residence. The Rev. ENOCH S. PRICE, visiting pastor. Address, Bryn Athyn, Pa. For information, address Mr. Charles D. Weirbach, 708 N. 6th St., Allentown, Pa.

     ATLANTA, GA. For information address Prof. KURT MUELLER, 15 Forest Ave., Atlanta, Ga.

     BALTIMORE, MD. Place of worship, Arbutus, Md. (Post Office, Halethrope, Md.) Services every first and third Sunday in the month at 11 a. m. The Rev. E. E. IUNGERICH, Visiting pastor. Address, Bryn Athyn, Pa. For information address Mr. Emil P. Gunther, Halethorpe, Md.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. Sunday services at 11 a. m. Weekly supper and doctrinal class every Friday at 6:30 p. m. The Rev. W. F. PENDLETON, pastor. Address, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

     CHICAGO, ILL. Sharon Church of the New Jerusalem. Place of worship, Room 420 Kimball Hall, 304 S. Wabash Ave., Chicago, Ill. The Rev. GILBERT H. SMITH, pastor. Address, 5445 Jefferson Ave., Chicago, Ill. Rev. JOHN HEADSTEN, missionary. Address, 3848 N. Hermitage Ave., Chicago.

     CINCINNATI, O. Worship and doctrinal class monthly at home of Mr. Colon Schott, Clifton, conducted by the Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH.

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     DENVER, COLO. The Denver Society of the Lord's Advent. Place of worship, 543 Delaware St. Doctrinal class every Wednesday at 8:15 p. m. The Rev. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT, pastor. Address, 755 Lafayette St., Denver, Colo.

     ERIE, PA. Services on alternate Sunday evenings at private residence. Quarterly visits by the Rev. F. E. WAELCHLI. Semiannual visits by the Rev. J. E. BOWERS. For particulars address Dr. Edward Cranch, Secretary, 813 Sassafras St., Erie, Pa. GLENVIEW, ILL. The Immanuel Church of the New Jerusalem. Sunday services at 11 a. m. Supper and doctrinal class on Fridays at 7 p. m. The Rev. W. B. CALDWELL, pastor and headmaster of the parish school. Address, Glenview, Ill.

     MIDDLEPORT, O. Sunday services at 10:45 a. m. Doctrinal class on Sunday at 7:30 p. m. The Rev. WILLIS L. GLADISH, pastor. Address, Middleport, O.

     NEW YORK CITY. Place of worship, 859 Carnegie Studios, 57th St. and 7th Ave. Every Sunday except during the summer months when services will be held fortnightly in July and discontinued in August. The Rev. ALFRED ACTON visiting pastor. Address, Bryn Athyn, Pa. The Rev. R. H. KEEP, assistant pastor. Address, 125 Schermerhorn St., Brooklyn, N. Y. For particulars address the assistant pastor or Mr. W. E. Parker, Secretary, 232 W. 14th St., New York, N. Y.

     PHILADELPHIA, PA. The Advent Church of the New Jerusalem. Place of worship, Glenn Hall, 555 N. 17th St. Sunday services at 10:45 a. m. Sunday School at 9:30 a. m. Doctrinal class Thursdays at 8 p. m. Second week in month, Wednesday. The Rev. F. E. GYLLENHAAL, pastor. Address, 222 N. 53d St., Philadelphia, Pa.

     PITTSBURGH, PA. Place of worship, the chapel at Wallingford, near Morewood Ave., E. E. Sunday services at 11 a. m. Sunday School at 10 a. m. Doctrinal class on Wednesdays at 8 p. m. The Rev. N. D. PENDLETON, pastor and headmaster of parish school. Address, 707 Ivy St., Pittsburgh, Pa.

     WASHINGTON, D. C. Monthly visits by the Rev. ALFRED ACTON, of Bryn Athyn, Pa. For information address Rev. E. J. STEBBING, Congress Heights, Washington, D. C.

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     CANADA.

     BERLIN, ONT. The Carmel Church of the New Jerusalem. Place of worship, King St. W., opposite the High School. Sunday services at 11 a. m. Weekly supper and doctrinal class Fridays at 7 p. m. The Rev. F. E. WAELCHLI, pastor and headmaster of the parish school. Address, 380 King St., W. Berlin, Ont., Can.

     TORONTO, ONT. The Olivet Church of the New Jerusalem. Place of worship, the Chapel at El1111 Grove Ave. and Melbourne Ave., Parkdale. Sunday services at 11 a. m. Supper and doctrinal class every Wednesday at 6:45 p. m. The Rev. EMIL R. CRONLUND, pastor and headmaster of parish school. Address, 201/2 Melbourne Ave., Toronto, Ont., Can.

     ENGLAND.      COLCHESTER. Place of worship, Priory St. Services every Sunday at 11 a. m. Sunday School 3 p. m. Doctrinal class every other Sunday at 7 p. m. Fortnightly visits by the Rev.

     ANDREW CZERNY, visiting pastor. Address, 169 Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, S. E., London, Eng.

     LONDON, ENG. Place of worship, 169 Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, S. E., London, Eng. Sunday services at 11 a. m; Doctrinal class Friday 8 p. m. The Rev. ANDREW CZERNY, pastor and headmaster of parish school. Address, 169 Camberwell Grove, Camberwell, S. E., London.

     FRANCE.      PARIS. Services at 100 rue Lazarre. Rev. F. HUSSENET, pastor. Address, 31 rue Henri Regnault, St. Cloud, Seine et aise, France.

     BELGIUM.      BRUSSELS. Place of worship and Library at 33 rue Gachard; Sunday services at 11 a. m. The Rev. ERNST DELTENRE, pastor. Address, 33 rue Gachard, Brussels, Belgium.

     HOLLAND.      THE HAGUE. Services at the residence of Mr. Gerrit Barger. Monthly visits by the Rev. Ernst Deltenre. For information address Mr. Gerrit Barger, 202 Adelheid Street, The Hague.

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Title Unspecified 1913

     Editorial Department.      NOTES FROM THE ASSEMBLY.      In the present issue of the LIFE We publish the Journal of the Eighth General Assembly, held at Glenview, Ill., in June. This account, however, would not be complete without some reference to the place and the people among whom the Assembly was held, the meetings which took place before and after the Assembly, the social events, and a birds-eye view of the whole memorable occasion.

     For the benefit of those who have never visited Glenview, we may mention that this distinctive New Church community is situated in Cook County, Ill., seventeen miles north of Chicago and a mile away from the railroad station, (of the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul R. R.), around which clusters the village of Glenview. The approach to the New Church settlement runs along a dusty pike, bordered by a well-paved walk, and surrounded by flat prairie land, the intensely black soil of which is a constant source of wonder to an eastern visitor. The road next runs by the extensive and interesting Nelson Nurseries, ("landscapes without waiting"), and by an unexpected turn to the right the visitor suddenly finds himself in the midst of the still more beautiful "Park."

     To an "Academy man," acquainted with the existence of the "Bus," the approach to Glenview presents no terrors, but an adventurous Convention minister, in a recent letter, thus describes his harrowing experiences: "Alighting at the little station, I enquired where the Academy of the New Church was, and was told, Two blocks north and one west; no, one north and two east." Unable to tell directions, I started out, supposing I should easily find the place, as the town is small. I arrived at a church, which on enquiry proved to be of the Roman Catholic religiosity.

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I asked the way from five different strangers, without avail, and then stopped to question a driver. He thought a while and finally said, 'Oh, you mean a Swedish affair. There's something on at the Park; there are about three hundred people down there.' I said, 'That must be if but it's not Swedish; there's not a Swede there.' [Our friend will be surprised to learn that fully one-third of the inhabitants, are Swedish or of Swedish descent.] After a warm walk of a mile I began to get weary and thought I had better enquire before I got lost in the prairie. Seeing a house, I went to the back door and asked the girl if she knew where the 'Academy of the New Church' was. She looked doubtful and said, 'I'll see, and out came Mr. Dillingham, [Burnham?], who informed me I was there."

To one who has not visited Glenview since the second General Assembly was held there in 1898, the changes and improvements are, indeed, startling, not only in the growth of the trees and consequent landscape effects, but also in the increase of the number of the houses and of the young people and children who, as in Bryn Athyn, are swarming everywhere. A most comforting sight to the weary heart that wonders, at times, at the slow growth of the Lord's crowning Church! Here is visible and tangible evidence that this Church is growing, for to these youngsters "Our glorious Church" is the holiest thing on earth.

One of the secrets of the success of the Academy movement is to be found in the effort to provide for the young externals that shall in some measure correspond to the beautiful internal things of the New Church. In Glenview the Lord has, indeed, placed the Church in "pleasant places," the Park providing splendid play-grounds for the children, shaded walks and "lovers' lanes" for the youth, lovely landscape effects and quiet retreats for the reflective ages; and for all a visible centre of the common purpose which is welding the settlement more and more into one great New Church family. The single discord in the beautiful harmony of Glenview is the malignant activity of the "skeeters," which joyously breed in the smiling waters of the "lake."

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     The Park itself covers about forty acres and is of nearly circular form, with the houses of the New Church folks all around, some twenty in number, including the School-house, which is also serving for the uses of worship. Altogether there are 74 members of the Immanuel Church settled at Glenview, with 67 young people and children, 39 of whom are attending the Parish School, while 41 members and 22 young people and children are connected with the Sharon Church in Chicago. Mr. Hugh L. Burnham and Mr. W. H. Junge, with their families, were the first to settle here, in 1893, and were soon followed by the families of Swain Nelson, Seymour G. Nelson, Alvin Nelson, Leonard Gyllenhaal, Alfred Goerwitz, Dr. J. B. S. King, Henry Maynard, O. Blackman, H. Blackman, John Synnestvedt, Paul Synnestvedt, H. Smeal, Louis Cole and others; the houses of Jesse Stevens, Sidney Lee, Paul Carpenter, Henry Barnitz and Oscar Scalbom are of more recent construction.

     In the midst of the Park, on a slight elevation proudly called "the hill," a large pavilion was erected for the meetings of the Assembly,-an airy, well-lighted structure capable of seating about 300 persons. The meals were served in the basement of the School-house by caterers marshalled by the capable and untiring fac-totum, Mr. Leonard Gyllenhaal. Ice cream and other light refreshments were 'dispensed at a booth under the shady trees of "lovers' lane." The well known hospitality of Glenview was wide open, every house being crowded with visitors to its utmost capacity, but the many meetings prevented much "visiting around," except in the evenings when from the porch of every house the Academy songs, old and new, could be heard floating out over the fragrant night air.

     The series of meetings opened with the sessions of the Consistory, on Thursday, June 12th, followed by those of the Council of the Clergy, from June 13th to 17th. By resolution of the Council no report of these meetings will be published, as they are of a private nature, with the exception, of course, of the public meeting on Saturday evening, June 14th, when the Rev. Emil R. Cronlund delivered the annual address on "The Ministry of angels and spirits in the giving of Divine Revelation," a deeply interesting paper which will be published in a future issue of the LIFE.

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On Sunday morning, June 15th, Divine worship was held in the pavilion, the Rev. E. E. Iungerich preaching on the subject of "Conjunction of Spheres." (Ezech. 1:4.) The meetings of the ministers were characterized by earnest discussion of practical as well as interior subjects, and by a spirit of unanimity and fraternal affection such as does not, perhaps, exist in any other body of clergymen in this world.

     After the close of the Ministers' meetings, the Teachers' Institute opened its sessions with a public meeting on Tuesday evening, June 17th, when the president, the Rev. Reginald W. Brown, delivered an address on "The Place of Physics in New Church Education," which was followed by an animated discussion. The paper will appear in the forthcoming JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. The Teachers' meetings continued on Wednesday morning, June 18th, when papers were read on "Some new phases of the work in the Bryn Athyn Elementary School," by Miss Lucy Potts; "Home Work," by Miss Elise Junge; "Outline for Nature-study in the Elementary School," presented by Miss Olive Bostock; "Outline of History course in the Elementary School," presented by Miss Alice E. Grant. At the public session on the afternoon of June 18th, Miss Amena Pendleton read a paper on "Harmful Literature for the Young." Considerable discussion followed. By request, Miss Elise Junge again read her paper on "Home Work" for the benefit of the many parents present.

     The General Council met at Mr. Burnham's house, in the evening of the same day, while "The Sons of the Academy" held their annual meeting in the pavilion.

     The celebration of June the Nineteenth was opened with services, conducted by the Bishop who delivered a most inspiring address on "The Preservation of the Church," and in the afternoon the Assembly was treated to a sight which will linger forever in the memory of all present as perhaps the most impressive and certainly the most beautiful feature of the Assembly.

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This was "the Pageant," conducted on the great ball field, by the lake, where the trees and shrubs furnished a setting for a scene such as the imagination could easily picture as taking place in heaven. The spectators were seated in a shady margin facing the lawn, which at first was empty save for a table of cedar in the center.

To prepare the spectators and to inspire the thoughts of reverence, an introduction in blank verse was presented by a herald, (Rev. G. H. Smith). "Silence and reverence all!" were the first words, and the address, descriptive of what was to come, was modeled upon the heroic verse of Virgil which begins "conticuere omnes," etc. It was the sphere of reverence that contributed most to the success of the pageant. After the closing words of the herald the dignified figure of Swedenborg was seen approaching the table; he was handsomely garbed in the court dress of the eighteenth century, and walked slowly and in deep thought, accompanied by two beautiful angels. Arriving at the table the aged revelator took up a quill pen and wrote the final words in the manuscript of the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION, after which all retired, leaving on the table the open book as the visible sign of the presence of the Lord in His Second Coming.

A band of little children, representing celestial angels, then came dancing forth out of the shrubbery and decorated the table with a profusion of flowers, after which the charming little figures danced away again. Then from among the trees the music of our psalm, "The voice of the Lord," was sounded upon a comet, while the twelve apostles, now angels, hearing the call appeared two and two from various directions and approached the table. Here they knelt in worship while the Hebrew anthem "Hodhu" was rendered by a great combined choir to the accompaniment of wind instruments. The two angels who were at first with Swedenborg now advanced bearing other volumes of the Writings which they placed on the table.

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The apostles then arose and the angels placed in the hands of each a book of the Heavenly Doctrines. Groups of men, women and children now approached from various quarters, spirits from all nations of the Christian world, as well as Gentiles from Africa, Asia and America, to whom the Apostles now began to announce the everlasting Gospel that "the Lord God Jesus Christ doth reign." This was represented by the choir rendering the hymn that begins with these words, the spectators joining as it was repeated to the music of trombones and comets.

     While all were singing, the participants in the pageant, headed by the separate pairs of apostles, marched away with excellent effect through the far opening of the shrubbery. Rain was threatening the while, and at the end of the pageant there was a voice of thunder in the sky, which, if anything, heightened the solemnity of the production. After a brief interlude of music the whole Assembly joined in a procession, headed by the little children who were in the pageant, and made festive by flags and banners, bunting, red and white, and an abundance of flowers. The whole Assembly circled the field, while singing "Our own Academy," "Our glorious Church," etc., and then proceeded to the front of the pavilion, where a tree was to have been planted to commemorate both the Assembly and the pageant. But this part of the program was postponed on account of the torrents which began to fall just as all were safe within the building.

     The whole representation was profoundly affecting,-to such an extent that many of the spectators declared that at moments they knew not whether they were in heaven or still on this, earth. The illusion was increased by the fact that the faces of the participants were not recognizable; all acted with much grace and dignity in spite of very slight rehearsal. The idea of the pageant originated with Mr. Alvin E. Nelson, but the carrying out of the difficult plan and the exquisite poetic and artistic effects produced, must be credited to the Rev. Gilbert H. Smith and our New Church artist, Mr. Charles F. Browne.

     The Banquet in the evening has been fully reported in the Journal of the Assembly, and we have nothing to add except to express some regress that the speeches were so few and so long, and the bills presented by the unbidden winged visitors were so sharp.

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On Friday morning, June 20th, the Assembly held its first regular session, the secretary reading an encouraging report on the growth of the General Church which now numbers eleven hundred members; compared with the 287 members in 1897,-sixteen years ago-this growth is unprecedented in the history of the New Church, and it must be remembered that the source of the increase has been, with few exceptions, from the children born in our own midst. And more are coming, a great host of them!

It is with great regret that we find ourselves unable to publish in the present issue the paper by Prof. Acton, dealing with the Phenomena of the spiritual world and the bodies of spirits and angels, and also the paper by Bishop N. D. Pendleton on "The Everlasting Gospel." The former was read on June 20th, occupying the whole of the morning and most of the afternoon session,-a paper of gigantic proportions; the author has not yet been able to prepare it for publication. Mr. Pendleton read his paper on Saturday morning, June 21st, but could not place it in our hands as he expects to deliver it before the British Assembly. Of the subsequent sessions of the Assembly we need not speak here, as they are fully described in the Journal, but we give place to a young lady who will present a brief account of the leading social events.

The Assembly Hall, on June 20th, was a most enjoyable occasion, affording social recreation much appreciated in the midst of the Assembly week. The music was grand and the dances distracting, but none the less between the dances one could hear bits of animated discussion about the one absorbing subject: "the bodies of spirits" and phenomena in the other life. Songs by Mr. Colon Schott, of Cincinnati, and a humorous recitation by Dr. Starkey, added to the enjoyment of the evening. "After the ball was over," in the wee hours, a number of enthusiastic spirits kept up the festivity by speeches and songs, as they had been detained in the pavilion by a long and heavy rain.

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On Sunday evening, June 22d, there was a sacred concert, arranged by the pastor of the Immanuel Church. Local numbers were contributed by Mr. Colon Schott, of Cincinnati, and Miss Philola Pendleton, of Macon, Ga.; a Beethoven's Sonata was artistically rendered by Mrs. Royden Smith, of Bryn Athyn, while Miss Edina Carswell, of Toronto, and Mr. Jesse Stevens, of Glenview, gave us the pleasure of several selections on the violin. On Monday evening, after the close of the Assembly, a number of the gentlemen refreshed themselves with an impromptu "steinfest" in the school-house, while the younger men and most of the ladies enjoyed an informal dance in the pavilion. Among the extra features of this occasion were recitations by Miss Winnifred Boericke, Indian love song by Miss. Philola Pendleton, Swedish folksongs by Miss Cyriel Odhner, and a solo by Miss Edith Cranch. The long series of meetings ended with the sessions of the "Theta Alpha" on Tuesday and Wednesday, June 24th and 25th.
Title Unspecified 1913

Title Unspecified 1913

     Announcements.

     For Rent.      For school season of 1913-14, first floor, furnished, of house of R. G. Cranch, South Ave., Bryn Athyn, Pa., comprising living room, 14x17, dining room, 12x16, kitchen, hall, two bedrooms and bath, $15 per month. Address, R. G. Cranch, 715 N. Jefferson St., Jackson, Miss.

     Two chambers on second floor of new house in Bryn Athyn, Pa. Address, Miss Laura H. Vickroy, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

567

MINISTRY OF ANGELS AND SPIRITS IN THE GIVING OF DIVINE REVELATION. 1913

MINISTRY OF ANGELS AND SPIRITS IN THE GIVING OF DIVINE REVELATION. Rev. E. R. CRONLUND 1913

NEW CHURCH LIFE
Vol. XXXIII OCTOBER, 1913     No. 10
     (An address read at the meeting of the Council of the Clergy, Glenview, June 14th, 1913.)

     The angels of heaven are the Lord's servants and ministers. They are all "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation." The kingdom of the Lord is a kingdom of uses, and, therefore, it could not be otherwise than that the angels, who constitute His kingdom, should be given uses to perform. It is said in the Writings: "The reason why the angels are His ministers is in order that they may be in active life, and thence in happiness; nevertheless the ministries which they discharge are not from them, but from influx from the Lord, as also the angels unanimously confess." (A. C. 6482.) And it is further taught: "The Lord does each and all things from Himself immediately and mediately through heaven. That He acts mediately through heaven is not because He needs its aid, but that the angels there may have functions and offices, and consequently life and happiness in accordance with their offices and uses. From this there is an appearance to them that they act from themselves, but a perception that it is from the Lord." (A. C. 8719)

     Thus by giving the angels uses to do the Lord provides for their happiness. The uses that the angels are given to do are to them signs and evidences of the Lord's loving kindness and mercy.

     The uses that are done by the angels are innumerable.

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In this paper there will be considered in particular the services that angels have rendered to the Lord when it has pleased Him to reveal His truth to men.

     It is evident from the Writings that no Divine revelation has ever been given to the men of this earth without the ministry of angels. Whenever the Lord has come, the angels have served Him in His coming.

     In the Most Ancient Church there was no written Word. At that time men were informed about heavenly things by immediate intercourse with the angels of heaven; "for heaven then acted as one with the men of the Church, for it flowed in through their internal man into their external, and from this they had not only illustration and perception but also speech with angels." (A. C. 10355) Thus the men of the Most Ancient Church were instructed concerning heavenly things by means of angels. The teachings that they thus received were to them the Word. For they were instructed not by the angels, rut by means of them, for the truth is that they were taught by the Lord alone. The angels only acted as His ministers.

     When the Most Ancient Church fell a written Word was given by means of which the Ancient Church was established. Nevertheless with many of those who were of this Church open communication with heaven still remained. Many of those who lived in the good of charity were instructed by the Lord through angels. (A. C. 6692.) And the written Word that was given to this Church, the Ancient Word, was given through the instrumentality of angels. This is evident from what we are taught with regard to the way in which the Word that we have was given, concerning which we have the following instruction: "They were angels who were sent to men, and who spoke through the prophets; yet what they spoke was not from the angels, but through them, for their state then was such that they knew not but that they were Jehovah, that is, the Lord; but as soon as they had done speaking they returned into their former state, and spoke as from themselves." (A. C. 1915) And in the Apocalypse Revealed is it said: "The Lord spoke with John through heaven, and likewise spoke through heaven with the prophets; and with every one with whom He speaks He speaks though heaven." (943)

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We read of the Revelation that the Lord "sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John." (Rev. 1:1.) It is thus evident that the whole of the Word was given by the Lord to men by means of angels. The Lord Himself speaks the Word, but "in order that the speaking may come to man by words of articulate sound and in ultimate nature, the Lord makes use of the ministry of angels, filling them with the Divine, and lulling the things which are of their proprium; so that at the time they do not know but that they themselves are Jehovah. In this way the Divine of Jehovah, which is in the highest things, passes down into the lowest of nature, in which man is as to sight and hearing." (A. C. 1924) By means of angels, therefore, the Divine truth is accommodated to the state of men in the natural world.

     Even in the Jewish Church there remained something of open communication with angels. With the men of this Church information about heavenly things was not possible by influx into their interiors, and thus by illustration, "therefore angels from heaven spoke with some of them in a living voice, and instructed them about external things; but very little about internal things, because these they could not apprehend." (A. C. 10355) Furthermore, when inquiry was made of the Divine by the high priest of the Jewish Church, there was a shining forth (explendescence) through the Urim and Thummin, but "when the shining forth appeared, then at the same time an answer to the subject of inquiry was given in an audible voice. This was done through angels, to whom it was revealed by the Lord by means of such a shining forth; for Divine truths, which are answers, appear in this manner in the heavens." (A. C. 9905.)

     Thus although the Jews had the Word, still it was necessary, on account of their state, that they should be instructed in spiritual things by means of angels. Through the angels information was given in spiritual things, and thus they ministered to the Lord and to the Church.

     Even the Lord Himself was ministered to by the angels when He came into the world in person. It was an angel that told the Virgin Mary that she was to be the mother of the promised Messiah, for it is written: "In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.

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And the angel came in unto her and said, Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call His name Jesus." (Luke 1:26, 27, 31.) And when she was found with child of the Holy Spirit, Joseph was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus: for He shall save His people from their sins." (Matt. 1:18-21.) And when the Lord had been born in Bethlehem His birth was announced by an angel to some shepherds who were in the same country, keeping watch over their flocks by night, for "the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone around about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:9-11) And afterwards the birth of the Lord was announced by angels to some wise men in the East, and, therefore, they came to Jerusalem, saying, "Where is He that is born king of the Jews for we have seen His star in the East, and are come to worship Him." (Matt. 2:2.) The wise men came from Syria, where were the last remains of the Ancient Church. They were in the knowledge that the Lord was to be born, and they knew of His advent by the star which appeared to them in the East. This star was an angelic society. The appearing of the star was an announcement out of heaven to them that the Lord had come.

Thus the birth of the Lord was announced by angels, first to the Jewish shepherds: it was announced first to those who were of the Church, and then it was announced to the gentiles, for the wise men were from the gentile world.

And the star that the wise men had seen in the East appeared to them again in the land of Canaan, and led them to the house where the infant Lord was. And when they had found Him they fell down and worshiped Him.

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"And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy Him." (Matt. 2:13.) And in accordance with the command of the angel the Lord was taken unto Egypt. "But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, Arise, and take the young child and His mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life." (Matt. 2:19, 20.)

     When the Lord was baptized by John, preparatory to His entering upon His public ministry, it was announced by an angel that We was the Son of God, for immediately after He had gone up out of the water a voice came from heaven, which said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Matt. 3:17.)

     And when the Lord was transfigured on the mount in the presence of Peter, James and John, we read that out of the bright cloud that overshadowed them there came a voice which said, "This is my beloved San, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye Him." (Matt. 17:5.) In these words it was announced out of heaven to the three disciples who followed the Lord more than the rest, that the Lord was the Son of God, and thus their faith in the Lord was strengthened and confirmed.

     And if we turn to the story of the Lord's resurrection we find that there also the angels ministered to Him. The stone that had been rolled to the door of the Lord's sepulchre by Joseph of Arimathea, was removed from thence by an angel, for it is written: "And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it." (Matt. 28:2.) This angel also announced the resurrection of the Lord to Mary Magdalene and the other Mary who came to the sepulchre in the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, for he said to the women: "Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not here: for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay." (Matt. 28:6.)

572

     Thus when the Lord was born it was announced out of heaven that We had come. When He was about to enter upon His public ministry a voice from heaven proclaimed Him to be the Son of God; when He was transfigured it was again proclaimed out of heaven that He was the Son of God; and when He had risen again this also was made known out of heaven. These things were announced by the living voice of an angel. But the angels were of service to the Lord not only when He was born, when He was about to enter upon His public ministry, when He was transfigured, and when He rose from the dead, but throughout His life in the world, for they ministered to Him when He was in temptation-combats with the hells, and the Lord's life was a continual combat and a continual victory. That the angels ministered to the Lord in His temptations, is evident from the Gospel of Mark, when it is said that the Lord was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. "And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto Him." (Mark 1:13.) And when the Lord was enduring His cruel' and bitter temptation in the Garden of Gethsemane, when He was in such agony that His sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling down to the ground, it is said that "there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven strengthening Him." (Luke 22:43.) The angels also served as a means through which the Lord in His Human received consolation after His temptations. This is evident from the fourth chapter of Matthew, where the Lord's temptations are treated of. When the Lord had conquered and the temptations were over, it is said: "Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him."

     Concerning the presence of angels with the Lord while in temptation-combats, the Writings teach as follows: "That angels were with the Lord when He fought against the hell's is evident from the Word, and also from this that during His temptation-combats it could not be otherwise than that angels should be present, to whom the Lord, of His own power, gave strength and power to combat, as it were, together with Him, for the angels have all their power from the Lord." (A. C. 1752.)

     We are further taught that "By Mamre, Eshcol and Aner, are represented and signified the angels who were with the Lord when He fought in His earliest childhood, and who were adapted to the goods and truths then with the Lord." (A. C. 1705.)

573

     The reason why the Lord had around Him societies of spirits and angels when He made His Human Divine, was that "He willed that all things should be done according to order; but He summoned to Himself such as might be of service, and changed them at His good pleasure; yet He did not take from them and apply to Himself anything of good and truth, but only from the Divine. In this manner He also reduced into order both heaven and hell, and this by successive steps, until He had fully glorified Himself." (A. C. 4075.)

     The societies that the Lord summoned to Himself were of service to Him, for through them as a means He was introduced into knowledges of good and truth. But He took nothing from them, for "the Lord never took anything of good and truth from another, but only from Himself. Other good that was related to the maternal had indeed served Him as a means; but by that means He procured for Himself those things whereby He made His natural Divine by His own power. It is one thing to acquire something for oneself from a means, and another to acquire it by a means. The Lord acquired (things) for Himself by a means, because He was born a man, and derived from the mother an hereditary that was to be expelled; but not from a means, because He was conceived of Jehovah, from whom He had the Divine, and He, therefore, gave Himself all the goods and truths which He made Divine. For the Divine itself has need of no one, not even of that mediate good; except that He willed that all things should be done according to order." (A. C. 4065.)

     It is self-evident that the Lord could take no knowledges from any angel, for the Divine itself was His soul, and so far as hereditary evil was driven out Of the assumed Human, so far it was filled with the Divine wisdom and the Divine love.

     Now as the angels ministered to the Lord when the Most Ancients received their Word, when the ancients received theirs, when the Jews received theirs, and when the Christians received theirs, and as they ministered to the Lord Himself when He was in the world, so also they ministered to the Lord when the final and crowning revelation, the revelation for the New Church, was given.

574

For example, in the work on Conjugial Love, it Is said: "While I was meditating on these things (that is, on the love of ruling from the love of self, and on what that love leads to), it was said to me through an angel by the Lord, You shall presently see, and be convinced by ocular demonstration, what is the quality of that infernal love." (263.) And when Swedenborg had been shown the quality of the love of ruling from the love of self, two angels appeared to him, who said, "We have come down from heaven by the Lord's command, to speak with you about the blessed lot of those who desire to have dominion from the love of uses. We are worshipers of the Lord; I am the prince of a society; the other is the high priest there." (C. L. 266.)

     Thus through the ministry of angels the revelator for the New Church was shown what is the quality of the love of ruling from the love of uses and also what is the quality of the opposite love.

     There are many things in the Writings of the New Church that are apparently from angels and spirits. But the truth is that there is nothing in those Writings from them. The Lord came into the world the first time to glorify the assumed Human. In doing this the angels were of service to Him, for He was introduced into knowledges through them as a means, but still He took nothing from them. The Lord came into the world the Second time to glorify the letter of the Word. In doing this the angels were also made to be of service, for many things in the Writings were given by means of angels, and yet there is nothing in those Writings that is from them.

     There are those who hold that the things in the Writings that were spoken by spirits and angels are not Divine revelation, are not the Word. But that even those things are the Word becomes evident in the light of the teaching that "it is one thing to acquire something from a means, and another to acquire it by a means." Those things in the Writings of the Church that are apparently from angels and spirits were given by the Lord through their means.

     How it is possible for an angel to speak altogether from the Lord is evident from the following:

575

"Sometimes an angel does not speak from himself, but from the Lord, and he then does not know but that he is the Lord, but then his externals are quiescent. It is otherwise when his externals are active. The reason is that the internal man of the angels is the Lord's possession; and so far then as their own things do not obstruct, it is the Lord's, yea, is the Lord." (A. C. 1745.) For this reason it is that by an angel in the Word is signified something of the Lord. When the angels spoke with Swedenborg they did not speak from themselves, but it was the Lord who spoke through them as a means. "When the angels speak with a man they never speak with him from heaven, but the voice that is heard thence is from the Lord through heaven." (A. R. 816.)

In effecting His Second Coming the Lord caused not only angels but also evil spirits to be of service to Him, and, therefore, those things also in the Writings that are apparently from evil spirits are from the Lord alone. In the Spiritual Diary it is said: "It was now observed that evil spirits were constrained to utter the things that were to be noted (and recorded) by me, although ignorant of the reason of the constraint; on which account even those mucus-spirits became indignant that they should speak thus, not knowing that it was for such a purpose or that they spoke what I was to note down as coming from them. There was then given also a perception of what was to be observed, and yet evil spirits, as they have now said, knew not whence it came, and are disposed to abstain from uttering certain things for the reason that they dislike that anything should be divulged concerning them, from all which it appeared that even those things which I have learned by means of evil spirits I have learned from the Lord alone, though the spirits spake." (4034.)

Therefore, there is nothing in the Writings that is from spirits or angels. This is furthermore evident from the following in the Divine Providence: "I have discoursed with spirits and with angels now for many years; but neither has a spirit dared, nor any angel wished, to tell me anything concerning anything in the Word, or concerning any doctrine from the Word; but the Lord alone has taught me, who has been revealed to me, and has enlightened me." (135.)

576

Thus although spirits and angels were of service to the Lord and ministered to Him when He effected His Second Coming, still the Writings are from the Lord alone, and are the Lord in His Second Coming. And for this reason they are intended to instruct not only men but also angels. If the Writings were in any sense from the angels then they would not be a source of wisdom to all who are in heaven. There are those who believe that the Writings are from the angels and that they are not for them, for the reason that they are called "Heavenly Writings," or "Heavenly Doctrines." One of the works also is entitled "Heavenly Arcana." Another is called "Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom," and another "Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence." But the Writings are thus called, not because they are from the angels, not because they contain things that the angels have always known well, but because they are for the angels as well as for men. The Writings are the internal sense of the Word, and we have the teaching that the internal sense is for the angels, and also for men of angelic minds. Consequently the Writings are of use only to angels and to those who are becoming, or wish to become, angels. The Lord is the only teacher. He alone has taught the Churches that have existed in the past, and He alone is to be the teacher of the New Church, the crown of the Churches. The statement in the Apocalypse, "I, Jesus, have sent mine angels to testify unto you these things in the Churches, signifies a testification by the Lord before the whole Christian world, that it is true that the Lord alone manifested the things which are described in this book, as also those which have now been opened." (A. R. 953.)

Thus in the giving of every revelation in every Divine manifestation, the angels have ministered to the Lord. Yet there is nothing in the Word that is from the angels. The Word proceeds from the Lord, and, therefore, it is the Lord, and the Lord alone.

577

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF IGNORANCE. 1913

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF IGNORANCE. Rev. W. B. CALDWELL 1913

     A SERM0N

     "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." (Isaiah 64:4.)

     These words are a promise of reward to those who wait for the Lord, who expect and long for His coming, who are in a state of preparation to receive Him. There were such found watching and waiting at His coming into the world, and there are such at His second coming. To give this reward has been the Divine purpose from the beginning of creation, from eternity,-a reward not possible to bestow until the race had been prepared for it. Men have not yet heard nor seen what "He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."

     At His coming into the world men expected that the Messiah would raise up an earthly kingdom surpassing in glory and magnificence all the kingdoms of men. The disciples themselves looked for this, and it was their idea of the heavenly kingdom. But the Lord when in the world revealed a spiritual kingdom to men, revealed the truth of the spiritual life as the way to the angelic heaven, revealed truths that were new and strange to the men of the time. And by these truths He led them into a new heavenly light and a blessedness of life that had not been known before. This was the reward of His first advent.

     The apostle Paul, in the Epistle to the Corinthians, expressed this newness and mystery of the Gospel Revelation and the Christian life when He said, "We speak the wisdom in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew. . . . For, as it is written, 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. But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

578

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. . . . For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 'But he that is spiritual discerneth all things." (I. Corinthians 2:7-14.)

     These words of the Apostle show that the early Christians realized the promise of the words of our text, not in a new natural kingdom, but a new spiritual kingdom raised up with men at the Lord's advent, a kingdom not known or understood by the natural man, but by the spiritual man in the light and life of the Gospel.

     And so at His second coming, "when the Lord teaches plainly of Himself and His heavenly kingdom, when He sends forth His Spirit of truth to lead into all truth, the reward for those who are waiting for Him, and who receive Him in His New Gospel, the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, is a new knowledge of spiritual and Divine things, given to lead them into a "spiritual peace, glory, and internal blessedness of life," such as the men of the Church have never known before. He has come to "make all things new," to create a "new heaven and a new earth" to found His kingdom anew in the minds of men, in the light of spiritual and natural truth together. For those who "wait for the Lord," who believe in Him, who acknowledge the truth of His Divine Revelation, opening their hearts to receive heavenly love and its light-for these He has prepared a light of knowledge and a delight of life surpassing His former gifts to the children of men. "For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."

     The man of the Church is not introduced fully into the reward of spiritual life, into the blessedness of the Lord's heavenly kingdom, until after death. While man lives in the world he cannot know the mysteries, the wonders, the blessings of heaven, though the capacity for this lies stored up in his interiors if he be in the path of the spiritual life.

579

This interior life is awakened to its full conscious activity and realization only after the death of the body. In the meantime the beauties and wonders of natural things can present to him but an imperfect picture of the beauty and wonder of heaven. And also, during man's life in the world, his perception of the good and truth of the spiritual life, which are the essential life of heaven, will be dulled by the life of the body and the world. He may enjoy only an obscure sense of the heavenly delight of charity and faith that are stored up in his interiors. If he has loved his neighbor as himself in this world, he will love his neighbor better than himself in the world to come. And if, by the life of charity and faith, he acquires the virtues of the spiritual life, and suffers the Lord to build the kingdom of God within him while he lives upon earth; if, in this manner, he be ready and waiting for the Divine coming to call him from this life, then for the first time will he enter fully into the joy of his Lord, and receive the reward of the promise, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, what God hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him."

It is involved in the words of the text that man cannot know by natural sight and hearing, nor by any natural sense, what it can be given him to know by spiritual sense, by the sense of the spirit when separated from the body, which separation takes place at the resurrection, or which may be effected on occasion by the opening of the spiritual eyes, as was the case with the prophets and John, who were given to see wonders in heaven, with Moses when he was given to see the tabernacle on the mount, with the apostles, and many others. As the apostle says, "I knew a man in Christ caught up to the third heaven, caught up into Paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not possible for man to utter." (II. Corinthians 12:2, 4.) The knowledge of heaven that is now given to the New Church was revealed only by the opening of the spiritual eyes of a man, who testifies that for the most part the things heard and seen were inexpressible to the mind of man in the world.

580

     Since, therefore, man in the world cannot see and hear the things presented to sight and hearing in heaven without the awakening of his spiritual senses, still less can he know by any natural sense or natural thought what the Lord can give him to receive and know interiorly in his Spirit,-the interior good and truth of heaven, spiritually felt and perceived in the understanding, when it has been opened by the light of revealed Doctrine.

     For the natural sense and the natural thought of man know and think only from without,-objectively,-from the world; but the spiritual mind knows and thinks subjectively, from within, in itself, from the Divine influx through the inmost soul. And so this spiritual mind can be given to sense or perceive truths in the spheres of heaven, in the light of the interior realms of creation, the light of the spiritual sun, which light is distinct in degree from the light of the natural sun. The natural mind sees and thinks from natural objects, which all partake of space and time, and have regard to outer form; but the objects of the spiritual mind are truths, truths in which man may perceive the states of heaven with intellectual sight, truths revealed from heaven by the Lord, and otherwise unknown to man. Thus the natural mind is such that it cannot think, cannot grasp or comprehend, what the spiritual is able to perceive. It is indeed a wonder of the New Revelation of Doctrine to the New Church that purely spiritual truths are there reduced to writing, and thus brought within the grasp of the natural sense and thought of men, but this natural grasp is not truly a reception of spiritual truths, which are not really received until they are perceived in the light of the spiritual understanding. For this cause it is that man cannot truly know anything of heaven, anything of spiritual and Divine Truth, without an abstraction of his thought from the objects of sense. Without elevation of thought above the light of the world into the light of the truth of heaven, that is, without the opening of the interior faculties of the spirit,-the spiritual mind, and its understanding.

     This faculty of elevating the understanding into the light of heaven is, we know, preserved with every man, whether evil or good; it is preserved with the devils of hell. For without this faculty man in the world can know no more about a future life than the beast of the field, whose knowledge and affection and inseparable from its bodily sense.

581

This would be the state of man if the faculty of elevating his understanding into the light of heaven had not been preserved with him, and if Revelation from heaven had not been given him, teaching him first of all that nature in its perfection is a picture of heaven, a theater representative of the kingdom of God; teaching him further that heaven itself is a spiritual state, the "kingdom of God within him," a state of his interiors, a state of love and charity, of spiritual intelligence and wisdom from the Lord, to which interior state are added by a spontaneous creation all the outer wonders and beauties of heaven. "Seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you."

From Revelation alone man learns that both the interior life and the outer form of heaven are such that the words of natural language are inadequate to express them, except by analogy and correspondence taken from nature, except in the forms of human speech, all of which derive something from the natural ideas of men. This, however, is now done in the revealed Word of God, is now provided both in the correspondential letter of Scripture and the rational doctrine of the internal sense, to the end that man even in the world may have some beginning of a knowledge of the outer and inner form of heaven, to the end that his spiritual mind and its perception may be awakened to the life and intelligence of heaven, and that he may finally realize the heavenly reward that is prepared for those that wait upon the Lord.

Now as the Lord comes to man outwardly in Revelation and inwardly in the perception of the truth of Revelation, it is evident that a man "waits for the Lord," and is prepared for His coming, when he is in that genuine affection of truth which receives Divine Revelation in faith and acknowledgment of heart. The Lord comes spiritually to the individual man by influx of His love and wisdom into the interiors of the mind or spirit, influx of heavenly heat and light, imparting to man the warmth of spiritual affection,-love to the Lord and love towards the neighbor,-and the light of a spiritual perception of truth.

582

This influx takes place when the mind is opened to receive it, when man "waits for the Lord," not in a merely passive manner, but with active expectation, longing, and desire for the Lord's coming. "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning, and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their Lord." (Luke 12:35) And this active waiting "with lights burning," with affection enkindled, is a readiness to embrace the truth of heaven,-the Truth of Divine Revelation,-a state that exists with those who confess in heart that the light of the, world cannot give a knowledge of heaven and the promise of eternal life.

     It is such an acknowledgment that is made in the words of the text,-the acknowledgment that man in the world without Revelation from God cannot know the mysteries and secrets of Divine and heavenly things, cannot know what is prepared for him in the life to come, cannot know what wonders of heavenly wisdom and felicity the Lord in His infinite mercy has prepared for them that wait for Him.

     The acknowledgment of ignorance is the beginning of wisdom; it is the beginning of all progress in knowledge and the learning of truth. Without a confession of ignorance, a confession of the absence of knowledge and the need of it; without a confession that there are infinite things unknown, and that what is known is as nothing to what is yet to be learned,-without this as the perpetual attitude and heart's confession, a man is not in the state to learn, is not in the way of wisdom. Such a confession may be inspired in a man by a contemplation of the things unknown to him in the field of any natural science. In whatever direction he turns, a limitless vista is opened up before him, and he becomes aware that all future time would not be sufficient for him to acquire the knowledge of any one branch of learning.

     It is seldom, however, that even such an experience is sufficient to remove conceit from a man,-the conceit of what he already knows, or the pride of human discovery and achievement,-the state that does not sincerely confess human limitations. For the most part the thought of men begins and terminates in nature, because it begins and terminates in self. In this state the finite mind does not acknowledge it's limitations, or the meagerness of its present knowledge as compared with what is yet to be known; does not acknowledge the Infinite; does not acknowledge that there is that which the human mind can never fully compass to all eternity.

583

     And one cause of this is that men do not acknowledge a spiritual world and sphere, within, above, and beyond the natural,-a world and a sphere insensible to the body, and incomprehensible to the natural thought, and yet a world immensely richer than the natural world that is known to men. Another cause is that men do not acknowledge the Divine, the Infinite and Eternal Itself, Whose Being and Substance is within, above, and beyond the spheres of both the natural and the spiritual worlds, and yet omnipresent in and around them; in Whom we "live, and move, and have our being,"-the Divine, Who in Himself is incomprehensible to finite minds, but Who yet has revealed Himself upon earth, and Who reveals Himself in the Word of Truth, adapted to open the minds of men in the world to the knowledge of the spiritual that is above nature, and the Divine who is above all.

     Men would believe in the revealed truth if they would listen to the voice of the higher mind in themselves, not waiting for "flesh and blood" to reveal to them what can be made known only by the Father in Heaven. Because it is the truth that the Divine is, that the spiritual world is, and the acknowledgment of this that opens the higher mind to a contemplation of that which is unknown to the lower mind and the bodily sense. And it is this alone that will introduce men into a genuine confession of ignorance, a confession of the limitations of the natural mind, a confession that man can know nothing whatever-of spiritual and Divine things until he is led by the truth of Revelation to think in the very sphere of heaven, to think in his own mind and spirit that eye cannot see, nor ear hear, the things that are in the kingdom of God.

     The Psalmist has said that "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," (111:10), and this fear involves a humility before the Lord, before the Lord as He has revealed Himself in Divine Truth,-a humble acknowledgment that man of himself can know nothing,-a spiritual confession of ignorance. As man's acknowledgment of ignorance in natural things is the beginning of all learning, and opens the memory to receive, so his spiritual acknowledgment of ignorance is the beginning of eternal life, eternal growth in angelic wisdom.

584

For it is first of all the acknowledgment of the Infinite, of that which is not finite, not within the grasp of the finite mind, which can know only what it can apprehend.

     The merely natural man, a slave to natural thought and sense, believes only in that which he can apprehend and grasp naturally, and denies the existence of all else. But the spiritual man is awakened by Revelation to the truth that there is that which it can never apprehend, which it can know of but not understand,-to the truth that even what is spiritual is above the comprehension of the natural man, and that what is Divine is in Itself above the comprehension even of the spiritual and angelic mind, although revealed in a measure by the Divine Truth of Revelation. By Revelation man's mind is prepared to acknowledge the Divine, that in Itself it is Infinite, invisible, incomprehensible, imperceptible, inscrutable, and consequently inexpressible. In short, it is moved to acknowledge the unknown and the unknowable, to acknowledge what it does not and cannot know.

     It will be said that this presents a barrier to all progress, a closing and not an opening of the mind, which would be the case if it brought with it a content in mere ignorance, an acknowledgment of ignorance and an indolent content to abide in it, a "waiting upon the Lord," which is not also a longing and desire for Him. But there are two states of content in ignorance, the one indifferent or unwilling to know, the other sincerely longing for knowledge, but trusting in the Lord, "waiting patiently for Him" to give light in its time, and in the way of Divine order.

     A genuine acknowledgment of ignorance, while it has within it a longing, an avidity to penetrate the secrets of Divine wisdom, is also content to enter by degrees into interior things. It is not anxious to attain immediately to inner secrets. Consequently it is content to progress slowly from the known to the unknown. Its love is tempered by wisdom, by a submission to Providence, by an innocent willingness to be led by the Lord, to enter through the door of revealed truth into the mysteries of all things, and not to "climb up some other way, like a thief and a robber."

585

     Because the spirit of man lives forever it perceives within itself that it may grow in wisdom forever, that it will be fed out of the bounty of the Infinite wisdom and grow to eternity, advancing more and more in the knowledge, perception, and experience of the angelic life. "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31.)

     While confessing the limitations of his finite mind, man is able to perceive spiritually the truth that the finite is capable of receiving the Infinite, and that the spiritual forms of the human mind are of such a character that they can receive the Infinite more and more to eternity, never the Infinite as it is in Itself, but the Infinite as accommodated to finite apprehension, the invisible Divine as made visible in Divine Truth, the Word,-the Divine manifested in the Divine Human, the Son of God, who alone setteth forth the Father to view,-the Human in which the Lord made Himself visible to the natural eyes of men upon earth; the Human glorified, in which He may be seen to angels, the Divine Human Celestial and Spiritual, visible to the eye of angelic perception and understanding, clothed in the glory of Divine Truth. To all planes of human apprehension from lowest to Highest the Infinite Divine of the Lord has come to man, to make Himself known, visible, and conjoinable,-on the lower planes as a preparation for the higher, veiled that He may he revealed,-and all to the end that He may enter man more and more deeply to enlighten and bless.

     This has been the Divine end from eternity, and, therefore, the Lord has given progressive Revelations of Divine Truth on this earth, each more interior than the one preceding, even to the crown of Revelations in the Heavenly Doctrines of the New Jerusalem, wherein We has revealed the most secret mysteries of Divine and heavenly things, unknown before to men or angels, whereby He is to lead the human race into the reward of the prophetic promise, "Since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside Thee, what He hath prepared for him that waiteth for Him." "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

586

CATHEDRAL TONES. 1913

CATHEDRAL TONES. CYRIEL LJ. ODHNER 1913

Sound, sound thy grand and solemn beating measures!
     Reverberate in majesty of song!
Throb on my earth-bound sense with rhythmic treasures
     And bear my soul with thine to God along!

With echoes from a world of spirits laden,
     All heavy with a latent meaning, pour
Upon my list'ning soul thy swelling cadence
     To thunder in its depths for evermore.

Shake, shake, Oh, earthquake Voice, the spent foundation!
     Thy victory o'er those world-built walls exalt!
Lay bare my empty mansion's desolation,
     Then, roar thy dooming thunders in its vaults

Till I can bear no more the condemnation,
     Cry, gasping,-God!-and, trembling, own to fear.
Then, through that word's strong magic intonation
     My broken prayer above thy fury hear!

     Lull me, like sobbing child, to rest;
     Soothe me with hope against thy breast!
     Breathe of the whiteness of thy wings;
     Whisper the lore of inner things!
     Burdened with heaven's lullaby
     Tenderly fold me,-peace!
                              CYRIEL LJ. ODHNER.

587

NEGLECT AND THE CARE OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. 1913

NEGLECT AND THE CARE OF RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. Rev. HOMER SYNNESTVEDT 1913

     The conditions in this country in respect to religious instruction are truly appalling. Not only is the Bible not taught systematically in the public schools, but in a larger and increasing number of our States the use of the Bible, even in the opening exercises, is prohibited by law! The result is a generation of Egyptians that know not Joseph. Literally and actually, by tests held with college students, it was found that a startling percentage of them did not even know the leading characters of the Bible. First the Bible was dropped from the public schools on account of the mixed creeds of the pupils, with the presumption that it would and could be adequately taken care of in the Sunday Schools and in the homes. But the results have been increasingly disappointing and alarming to those who still have the Christian religion at heart.

     The time was, not many generations ago, when every school was a religious school, where the Bible with its wonderful stories and moral precepts was the central thing studied. Language itself was studied out of the Bible, and all our very best literature down to very recent times was saturated with its sacred forms and images. Now all this is being taken away from us. To say that we are neglecting the foundations of the Christian religion does not tell all to the average American or Englishman. They do not seem to realize that with the loss of the Word the whole foundation of our boasted civilization will be gone, even until, like the Temple at Jerusalem, there shall not he left one stone upon another that shall not be thrown down!

     We are told in the Heavenly Doctrine that the Old Church as an external form will persist as long as the Letter of the Word is not totally rejected. It is dead at its center, but the Word being still read and taught to children and the simple is doubtless the cause of its continuance as an external form of use But when this ceases it will be judged like Sodom, which the Lord was willing to preserve if only men could be found there, a mere remnant.

588

The Church exists wherever the Word is read, and by it the Lord is known. When the Word is no longer taught, the Church perishes. And unless then a New Church were raised up, the world also would perish, for the only channel of direct communication with Heaven would be cut off.

     It is written: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. By Him were all things made, and without Him was not anything made that was made." The Lord as the Word,-the Divine Love manifest in the Flesh, and worshiped by means of the Written Word and the ministry thereof,-is the "stone rejected of the builders, which is become the Head of the Corner." We hear it said that the worship of God Man, in and through His Holy Word, is the corner-stone and foundation of the Church. But do we realize that this involves the whole structure of human society! For it is through the rational alone, instructed and inspired out of the Word and the Writings, that men can at this day be led back to heaven, to charity and mutual love, and thus to conjunction with their Lord.

     Now, the proper time for implanting the foundation knowledges of the Christian faith is the period of childhood,-from five, six, or seven years at the latest, up to twelve or thirteen. In these few years must these foundations be laid, if they are to have their rightful place, and not have to be superposed later upon a mass of rubbish.

     Test this for yourselves. Do not the songs you sang or heard sung and the verses you learned well by heart at this age come back to you most readily? Can the songs you hear now, or the verses you learn now, make any such lasting and powerful impression upon you? No, the time for the foundation building of the memory is past, and happy is the man whose childhood was well furnished with those things that are Divine and of eternally increasing value,-such as the Letter of the Word and the genuine doctrine of truth,-rather than a mere mass of nature facts, or other such material, which now occupy the time of the schools to the exclusion of the far more precious things.

     States pass, and if the proper truths are not inserted when the time is at hand, there is a sort of closing or filling in with other things.

589

Therefore, we need to be diligent to give the food of each year in its year, and always be looking ahead and watching for the indications as to the next stage. Fathers especially should take walks with their boys, or otherwise keep in touch with them, with the aid of timely hints from the mothers or teachers. Mothers should sit quietly with their girls and commune with them, as their turbulent desires grow calm under the quieting influence of the "long seance."

     Those centers which are fortunate enough to have New Church day schools are not so apt to be lacking in this respect, for the teachers in such a school are kept in close touch with the priesthood and are also developing a strong professional sphere among themselves, which concerns itself primarily with those very matters. They are not only trained thoroughly to carry on the needed instruction systematically and successfully, but they are filled with a zeal that is more than professional for the welfare and happiness and real development of each child. Our teachers do not do perfunctory or routine work, where the individual child is lost in the mass, but truly they seem to feel as if each child were their very own and thus they most fully co-operate with the parents and eliminate the gaps.

     But the chief object of this paper is to call the attention of New Church parents to the pitiful inadequacy of the ordinary Sunday School, where the total time allotted to memorizing, choral drill and instruction is often not over half an hour per week! Teachers of much experience assert that the ground to be covered in those few years will require at least three good lesson hours per week, allowing for a summer vacation and other usual interruptions. If the needed singing practice, with the memorizing of the words of the songs, be provided elsewhere, and if they will do some of the verses at home, two lesson hours per week would be the minimum, and this would require a teacher of fair skill, who can keep good order and attention.

     Experience has shown us that others than New Church teachers can teach the common branches of worldly science as well as we can, and it is in fact a proper function of the State to furnish such instruction. The religious instruction should also be provided and supported in large measure from the same source.

590

The school is the one agency in the community whose function is to teach the young; and if it were not for the prevailing irreligion and heterodoxy, the schools would be employing a part of their valuable time and superior skill in furnishing the children of a Christian community with a good knowledge of the Christian Bible. But as things stand now, this is an idle dream. Neither among teachers or pupils could those he found, in whose sphere the holy things of the Word or the genuine truths of the Christian religion could be taught without a defilement that would be worse than the present ignorance. Let us be thankful, therefore, that at present they take such pains to avoid the subject.

     But that opens to us our opportunity, and places the burden of religious instruction squarely and solely upon the members of the New Church. And it is not too much to say that unless we do better than those about us,-both in the home and religious classes,-we shall share the prevailing decadence. That they have only worn-out false dogmas to teach, while we have the glorious rational truths of the new dispensation, will avail us nothing if we do not teach them, and that with due diligence and skill. Some claim that a living zeal for religious truth among the parents will prove easily contagious among the young,-and, indeed, this is indispensable, since it concerns the will and its attitude. But the understanding must also be furnished with its scientifics. It is the marriage of these two that constitutes the Church. Some societies, such as the Quakers and the Moravians, do not seem to be able to maintain their growth, in spite of great zeal in the matter of schools and schooling of their own.

     Let me now add a few suggestions as to the best means of providing for our needs.

     The first need is, of course, of a pastor, preferably one interested in the care of the young and skilled in it. Our Theological School aims to supply something of this training. Besides, our students cannot but imbibe much of both the spirit and practice of the education of children and youth, from contact with this work at Bryn Athyn.

     The second need is a teacher trained in the normal work at Bryn Athyn, which prepares them above all else to develop just this work: of religious instruction, together with choral spirit and comradeship among the children of the Church.

591

If such a one cannot be employed to make a small beginning of a regular day-school, and to help with the religious instruction, then, perhaps, the latter help could be secured by assisting one of our graduates to get a good position as a teacher in the neighborhood and offer her a room, at least, and such comforts of a New Church home as may be available, as an inducement to live among you. In return, ask her to interest herself in your Sunday School. The value of this sort of an arrangement may not have occurred to our outlying centers. But I feel that as the number of Academy-trained teachers increases, it may become more and more possible to do this.

     An alternative suggestion: Recognizing the great need of doing this use, and doing it well, especially where there is no New Church day school, and most especially where there is no regular pastor, perhaps there will be found a daughter of some of the families who would and could take the teachers' training course at Bryn Athyn, in order to do this work for their locality. Even if married, they could probably do some of it.

     The chief hope of our church, if not its only hope of extension and perpetuation, in the midst of a dying Christianity, is in the right education of our children,-and chiefly their religious education. So important is this use, that I feel we cannot overemphasize the desirability of making every possible use of all the instrumentalities of the educational field, and, where available, of the skill of trained teachers. Where there is a will, we are told, there is always a way, and now that the Lord in His mercy has put us into possession of such facilities as are available at Bryn Athyn, it is high time for the rest of the Church to bestir itself, and make the best of these opportunities. Nor do we seem to have realized yet all that is within our reach, nor the possibilities that open up just ahead of us.

     Certain it is, that if we would escape the decay of the churches that we see going on so rapidly all about us, we must bestir ourselves. No half measures will suffice in the long run, and I feel very strongly that the ordinary Sunday School, patterned after that of the Protestant Churches about us, is inadequate to this increasing task. But, as it is about all that is available in some localities, let us then address ourselves to the task of strengthening it and extending its uses in every possible way.

592

     The best way of all, at this day, is evidently the normal training at Bryn Athyn, but even if this is lacking it is manifestly the duty of every person who can to take hold and do his best.

     As a third suggestion: A week-day class in Religion, and choral work, singing, etc., such as the Friday classes have carried at times in certain centers. This can be arranged in some places by having the children come for one hour or so before the weekly supper. In some cases it would do to have them remain for the supper and then go home before the adults' class begins. A social hour in between is a delightful possibility in this connection. (But this is of most value for those over twelve.)

     Fourthly, after you have classes in Religion, you must practice regularity and punctuality. The children's estimation will depend on how we treat this use. If we are not regular and do not bind it upon ourselves as a primary obligation of use as they do in the public schools-the children will place it below these schools in their estimation. What we profess cannot stand ion against what we do.

     And, finally, use should be made of various pleasurable accessories, but they should not be the chief reliance, or take the place of the work. In the Old Church-in the Y. M. C. A., Boys' Clubs, etc.,-they cater to the natural delights, to the final overlaying of all sense of duty as to spiritual cognitions and scientifics. We must indeed reach the boy or girl, and they are necessarily natural-sensual, but we must also keep their good Remains alive and appealed to. The two planes can be combined. Their hearts, while natural, respond readily to various appeals-even to a sense of duty, (not of self-righteousness). Merit may enter in, but can be held in the background. Children need class-spirit-or something in common, although this is difficult when they are apart in day school. But we can manage it. Picnics, parties, "treats," (nickel shows, etc.), educational trips with a teacher, and a summer camp, are all excellent aids.

     All these means should be used, however, as things on the side. The heart of their flesh may center upon these things, but there is also a part reserved by the Lord in them whereby they will receive from their elders and maintain the persuasion that these are only secondary, and that the work or duty of applying themselves to learn the scientifics of the Word and of worship is primary.

593

I am well aware-that the father of our whole educational movement held that the religious instruction should never be made a task. I have reason to believe that this is still the prevailing view, but I feel that it is necessary to make an interpretation of this truth, or it will stunt our further progress. I have already indicated the modifications I would import, namely, that the chief appeal to make these tasks interesting be to their better remains, and not merely to natural inclinations. There is memory work connected with it that involves effort and application, and I feel that after the age of infancy it is a waste of valuable time and strength to expect them to pick up all these valuable materials by mere pleasurable imitation or absorption. This comes in and is a great help, but needs to be buttressed and founded on something more effort-producing and reliable, i. e., a sense of duty and a willingness to apply themselves to certain parts of the subject-matter as tasks. That this is a necessary part of the acquisition of knowledge is told in Proverbs throughout, and in the Word, nor does this contravene the other doctrine that delight is to be appealed to. Only it is a higher delight.

The master must first eat, before the servants can be fed. The master here is the sense of duty and the delight of the sense of accomplishment, of thorough mastery. The servants are the love of praise, the delight of variety and mere curiosity, the wonder sense, and the artistic delight of pictures, music, rhythmical motion, etc, All these instrumentalities that are being so skillfully applied to the improvement of the work of the secular teacher are now being borrowed and applied to Sunday School work. But they are going to fall far short of their purpose, unless there is the dominant religious motive and obligation, exalted and held above them by the sphere of parents and teachers, and re-echoed by their own Remains.

594

Editorial Department. 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     The "Correspondences of Egypt" will be resumed in our next issue.

     With apologies to the writer we cannot refrain from printing the following typical observation of a Convention minister in a recent letter to an Academy friend: "It seems to me that Mr. John Whitehead's answer in the July REVIEW to the editorial in March LIFE just about covers the field. I have not seen the LIFE article, so I cannot say much about it, but if the points which Mr. Whitehead puts in array against those of Swedenborg are correct, I feel there is not much left of your position."

     LA NOUVELLE JERUSALEM is the title of a four-page serial publication, the first issue of which was published in June last by the Rev. Ernst Deltenre, of Brussels. The issue is occupied by an excellent summary of the life of Swedenborg, and extracts from A BRIEF REVIEW, together with announcements of the Mission and services in Brussels. Dr. Deltenre states that Swedenborg "took the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1709," a statement which, though often seen, is open to question. He graduated in 1709, but we do not know whether he received any special title. Could Mr. Stroh give us exact information on this subject?

     The Rev. Frank Sewall, writing on "The New Church in France," in the MESSENGER for Aug 27, speaks of other European countries in which there exists, "at least, one organized New Church society" and observes that "We do not know that such exists at all in France, although there was Until recently in Paris a New Church house of worship and library." Mr. Sewall will be glad to learn that for a number of years there has existed an organized New Church society in Paris, connected with the General Church of the New Jerusalem worshiping at 100 Rue Lazarre, under the leadership of the Rev. Fernand Hussenet.

595

     The Rev. John Curtis Ager died on June 13th, at his summer home in Waterloo, N. H., at the age of 78 years. Mr. Ager, for more than forty years, was the pastor of the Brooklyn Society, and at the time of his decease was the Professor of Theology in the Convention's Theological School. For many years he was the general pastor of the New York Association, and was intimately connected with the work of the American Swedenborg Society, for which he edited the "Latin-English" edition of the Writings, and translated the APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED, HEAVEN AND HELL, DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, DIVINE PROVIDENCE and the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. While by no means in sympathy with the principles of the Academy, Mr. Ager always insisted upon fair play, of which he gave a notable example at the Convention in Washington, in 1889.

     The discussion in the present issue of the LIFE on "the Doctrinal Writings" mentioned by Swedenborg in a letter to Dr. Beyer, shows the importance of securing a literally correct translation of Swedenborg's theological correspondence with Dr. Beyer and others. These letters are full of doctrinal statements which have been subjects of controversy since the very beginning of the New Church. We have often noticed serious errors in Dr. R. L. Tafel's rendering of these documents, and these errors have often given rise to false conclusions. The letters should be phototyped by Mr. Stroh at the earliest possible date, and a volume should be prepared with the Swedish or Latin original on one side and the English translation on the opposite page, and the Church should not have to wait for an indefinite number of years for such a volume.

     Our bimonthly Scandinavian contemporary, the NORDISK NYKIRKELIGT TIDSKRIFT, continues in its friendly attitude towards the Academy, and presents many articles of historical and doctrinal importance.

596

The two issues for May-August contain among other interesting matters a paper by the editor, the Rev. S. C. Bronniche, on "the birth of conjugial pairs;" a biographical sketch of General Tuxen, the first Danish Newchurchman; a translation of Robert Hindmarsh's "Reasons for separating from the Old Church;" a series of papers by Alfred H. Stroh on Swedenborg's ancestry, childhood and earliest studies, containing much new and valuable material; a surprisingly long chronological list of all New Church literature in the Danish tongue, (of great bibliographical value); a translation by Mr. Olaf Nordenskiold of our little study on the Lord's Prayer, (from N. C. LIFE, January, 1912); and a translation, by the Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist of "the Principles of the Academy."

The editor of the MESSENGER, in his report to the General Convention, stated that "the financial status of the paper, as a result of increased operating expenses, etc., is not at all satisfactory. In spite of all efforts, the circulation continues to show a slight decline, due largely to the fact that as the older subscribers decease the younger members of their families frequently do trot continue to subscribe. Indifference to spiritual things seems to become more and more general, and the MESSENGER is one of the sufferers from it." In the ensuing discussion the Rev. Julian K. Smyth related "a statement which John Bigelow made to me some years ago when I was asking him to give me a little of his wisdom on this subject. He said, 'Mr. Smyth, the MESSENGER will never succeed, so far as increasing its circulation, until you put it in the hands of a man and say, Now, here is the church paper; here is your opportunity. You get no salary, but you root hog or die.'" (MESS. June 25, p. 426.)

597

MR. CHILDS' SOCIAL SONGS. 1913

The minstrel who has so often delighted us at Assemblies and other Church feasts has now, acceding to many requests, made it possible for a number of his songs to be more commonly used at our social gatherings. Mr. Walter C. Childs has for many years,-in fact, since the first organization of the Academy,-composed for us songs brimming with New Church affection, and expressing our feelings of delight in our Church relations, in our pastors, fellow members, brethren in distant lands, friends gone on before us, and many other themes.

Five of these songs have now been prepared for use; copies of words and music, on heavy paper, may be obtained from Mrs. Roydon H. Smith, Bryn Athyn, Pa. Single copies, five cents; in quantity, 25 cents per dozen. The following are now ready: "Dear Academia;" "Joy to This Meeting Fair;" "To the Church in England;" "To the Church in Canada;" "Here's to the Loved Ones Homeward Gone," (memorial song). Other songs are in preparation, including the following: "As One By One the Passing Years," (memorial song); "The Master Calls," (memorial song); The Academia March; To Church and Country; "We Pledge Our Friends, the Groom and Bride," (wedding song); "Toward Heaven May Their Lives Progress," (wedding song); "Now Say Farewell to Thoughtless Days," (coming-of-age song). Also some "Occasionals" or toast songs, such a "To Our Chief in Peace and War?" "Here's to Our Friend;" "To Friends Afar, the Loved and True," etc. Should there be a demand for any particular songs in the above list, a request to this effect, sent to Mrs. Roydon H. Smith, will insure an earlier publication of such songs.
"ADVENTUS DOMINI" INSCRIPTION. 1913

"ADVENTUS DOMINI" INSCRIPTION. C. J. WHITTINGTON 1913

Our readers will be interested in the following communication to the MORNING LIGHT of June 14th, by Mr. C. J. Whittington, respecting the copy of the BRIEF EXPOSITION, on the cover of which Swedenborg; wrote "Nic Liber et Adventus Domini:" To the Editor of MORNING LIGHT:

598

     Dear Sir:-I beg the use of your columns to give the following information which I feel sure will interest all readers of Swedenborg's Writings. If I appear to write at unnecessary length it is because I think it highly desirable to put on record all the facts, so far as I am acquainted with them, respecting a very interesting and important matter.

     It will be within the recollection of some of your readers that, in the year 1876 or 1877, discovery was made of a volume containing a copy of the original edition of the "Brief Exposition of the Doctrine of the New Church" which had upon its paper wrapper an inscription in Swedenborg's handwriting "Hic liber est Adventus Domini. Scriptum Ex mandate." (This book is the Lord's Advent. Written by command.)

     The volume was bought by Mr. James Speirs, of Bloomsbury Street, London, and remained in his possession until his death in 1912.

     It is known that the inscription was placed by Swedenborg upon only two copies of his works; for, in a posthumous writing or memorandum of Swedenborg's brought to light by the late Rev. Dr. R. L. Tafel, and entitled "Ecclesiastical History of the New Church," it is stated "Upon all the books in the spiritual world was written, 'Adventus Domni." The same I also inscribed by command upon two copies in Holland."

     Only the one copy of which I write is now known to exist. It is exceedingly interesting and precious from that fact alone: but, in addition to that, it must be an object of deep reverence to those who believe that the inscription was actually written "by command" (Divine command of course) and that it cannot be otherwise than the most external testimony possible of an acceptance by the Lord Himself of the work done by Swedenborg on His behalf.

     No one can tell what purpose may ultimately be served by this inscription, but it is certain that anything written by Divine command is intended in some way for the lasting benefit of the whole human race and for no private purpose.

     Convinced therefore that this one volume with the inscription should not remain the property of any one person, I have availed myself of the opportunity, kindly offered me by Mr. Speirs' representatives, to buy it and present it to the British Museum.

599

It will there remain, in perpetuity, the property of the British Nation, and will be shown to any person visiting the Museum and desiring to see the inscription.

     This course commended itself to me as the best possible under the circumstances, and I hope and believe it will meet with the approbation of readers of Swedenborg's writings throughout the world.

     My first thought was that the volume could have been put permanently on view in one of the glass cases of the Museum, but I was assured that no paper book, requiring to be always open at the same page, could be continuously exhibited without being sooner or later destroyed by the action of light, etc., and I am now satisfied that what the authorities propose is the best that can be done.

     It may be thought by some persons that the book should have gone to the Swedenborg Society; so I will add here that I would very gladly have presented it to that Society, but it seemed to me impossible that they could provide for the preservation of the volume and at the same time give public access to it with anything like the same safety and convenience of which one feels assured from the British Museum. Further, the Museum is within a stone's throw of the Swedenborg Society's house in Bloomsbury Street, and it is as convenient for anyone desiring to see the book to go to the one place as to the other.

     In addition to the copy of the "Brief Exposition" having the inscription, there are three other works bound in the one volume. These other works are the "Letter to a Friend," (the Rev. Thomas Hartley, Rector of Winwick), containing Swedenborg's autobiography, the "Intercourse between the Soul and Body" and the "True Christian Religion."

     All four works were published during the years 1769 to 1771.

     The inscription, as already stated, is upon the paper wrapper of the "Brief Exposition" in which that work was first issued and which is now bound up with the rest of it in the one volume. In March, 1877, a leaflet was published by the Rev. Dr. R. L. Tafel describing the volume and expressing the opinion that it "once belonged to Swedenborg's own library."

600

I do not know upon what evidence Dr. Tafel based his inference, which perhaps is not of much importance, but Dr. Tafel was well known as one of the greatest experts of his day on all matters connected with Swedenborg, and his testimony, at the least, puts the genuineness of the inscription beyond question.

     Alongside the inscription are four numbered references to the Arcana Coelestia, and there is also a fifth to number 626 of the Apocalypse Revealed.

     Of these numbers Dr. Tafel says that the four are in Swedenborg's handwriting, but that the fifth is the addition of some other person.

     The four passages in the Arcana show how it comes about that it is possible to say "this book is the Lord's Advent" and how that statement is to be understood.

     The numbers are 2513, 4535, 6895 and 8427, p. 191 (p. 19 means page 19 of the original edition upon which the latter part of number 8427 is printed), and each person can read these passages for himself. It is sufficient to say here that they are directed to show that the Advent of the Lord is not a personal coming, but is His appearing in the Word by the revelation of its internal sense, which takes place at the last time of the former church and the first time of the New Church.

     No doubt the statements made in T. C. R., 779, will also occur to readers of the Writings, viz.: that the Second Coming of the Lord is not a coming in person but effected by the instrumentality of a man able to receive the doctrines of the New Church in his understanding and also to make them known by the press; so that what is meant by the inscription, "Hic liber est Adventus Domini," is perfectly clear.

     I have received an acknowledgment from the Museum in the following terms:

     "I am directed by the Trustees of the British Museum to convey to you the expression of their best thanks for the present which you have been pleased to make them."

     I have also received other letters from which I extract the following:

     "The volume of tracts by Swedenborg containing his autograph has now been placed on the shelves of the Library in a locked case.

601

It will be entered in the General Catalogue with as little delay as possible, and we hope to be able to exhibit it to the public in the King's Library in the course of the present year. In the meantime the book can be seen by any visitor who asks for it.

     "The entry in our Catalogue was written a few days ago; it quotes in full the two lines written by Swedenborg. ('Upon all the books in the spiritual world was written, etc., etc.'), and mentions the fact that the book is one of the two copies so inscribed. Visitors who wish to see the book had better ask in the Entrance Hall for the Large Room, it is at the end of the King's Library; admittance is obtained by ringing a bell."

     I quote the above in order to show, in the words of the Museum authorities themselves, what has become of the book, the care that is taken of it, and how a visitor should proceed in order to see it. The exhibition in the King's Library of which mention is made, means exhibition in a case devoted to "recent acquisitions of interest," and I believe exhibits remain there for about a year and are then put away again in their permanent position.

     I am personally quite satisfied that the object I had in view, viz., to provide for the safety of the volume and at the same time to give anyone who desires it an opportunity of seeing it, will be accomplished in the best possible way, and I do not doubt that all who take an interest in the matter will be equally well pleased.
     I remain, dear sir,
          yours faithfully,
               C. J. WHITTINGTON.
Betchworth, Surrey, June 4, 1913

602

FINAL DISPOSAL OF "MARRIAGE LOVE." 1913

The General Convention, at its meeting in Boston, on June 11th, resolved to "defray the expenses, under the supervision of the General Council, of the committee on securing a faithful translation of Swedenborg's works on 'Conjugial Love,' together with a glossary of terms used by him." The Convention also unanimously adopted the report of the committee appointed to consider "Ways of Making the Teachings of the New Church Concerning Marriage More Widely Useful," together with a series of "Recommendations" relating to the book on "Marriage Love." The first of these recommends "a discriminating distribution and use of the work on 'Marriage Love.'" The second speaks discouragingly of the suggestion that an abridged edition of the work be published, omitting certain passages which are considered liable to misunderstanding,-one of the reasons for declining the suggestion being that "the plan would fail to accomplish the purpose intended, for it would in effect simply call attention to the passages which are found by some persons difficult to understand." The third recommendation reads as follows:

"3. In our judgment, the suggestion that future editions of 'Marriage Love' be carefully annotated, comes nearer to meeting the case. We approve the general character of the foot note upon n. 460 of the Library edition of 'Marriage Love,' putting a passage which, standing alone, might be misunderstood, in the light of the fundamental doctrine of the Church as found in the 'True Christian Religion' and the 'Doctrine of Life.' We recommend that notes of a like character be carefully prepared upon other passages of the book, which, standing alone, may seem difficult, putting them in the light of the central doctrines of the Church. We advise that it be earnestly recommended to the several publishers of this book: the 'American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society,' and the 'Rotch Trustees,' in America, and the 'Swedenborg Society,' in London, to include such annotations in all future editions of the book. And in the event of, any publishers adopting the suggestions, the Council of Ministers offers its services in providing such notes."

603

The report, as unanimously adopted by the Convention, is signed by Wm. L. Worcester, Julian K. Smyth, William F. Wunsch, Paul Sperry and Chas. W. Harvey. In the Council of Ministers, when first considered, this recommendation "met with a little opposition on the ground that it might lay the book open to violence from irresponsible commentators. It was finally adopted with the proviso that the annotations be made under the direction of a Committee of the Council."

Thus, after years of unhappiness, the Convention has finally disposed of this vexed question. The President of the Convention emphatically expressed the desire of the Convention that "this shall be the last time that this question shall come up before us. After years of not only persistent struggle and experience but prayerful study this Convention feels that it is justified in embracing it as its opinion that any accusations to the contrary of the principles which have been expressed must be deemed to be due to an unhappy state of ignorance and that it is furthermore a scandal to the Church to set them forth." THE CHURCH has finally spoken its lost word, and "the skeleton in the New Church closet" has made its positively last appearance. We are to have an authoritative edition of "Marriage Love," bespattered on every "questionable" page with interpretative notes of the character of the footnote to n. 460 in the Library Edition. The infallible correctness of these notes is to be guaranteed by a committee, and no reader, henceforward, shall be permitted to view the teachings of the work except through the spectacles of the annotators. But the Convention certainly makes a mistake if it; believes that these notes will not "in effect simply call attention to the difficult passages," or that "all future editions of the book" will adopt the notes.

604

ISSUE AGAIN TO THE FRONT 1913

     I.

     THE DIVINE HUMAN IN REVELATION.

     In the opening article, on "The Divine and the Human in Revelation," in the July issue of the NEW CHURCH REVIEW, the Rev. W. L. Worcester takes for his text the words of the angel in the Apocalypse who, when John fell down to worship him, said: "See thou do it not; I am thy fellow servant and of them that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God." (Rev. 19:10, 22:9).

     In this experience of John, Mr. Worcester sees pictured "the difficulty always experienced by men in distinguishing the Divine and the human in revelation. The Lord knows that we have this difficulty, for He described it in His Word, and perhaps that we have it especially in the revelations to the New Church, for they were angels who announced the gospel of the New Church and showed the Holy City, whom John was about to worship. The Lord speaks to warn us of this difficulty, to remind us that it is a difficulty, in which we need to be patient with one another. He speaks to warn us not to confuse the two elements in revelation, and not to worship as Divine what is human like ourselves."

     The bearing of these remarks becomes still more evident from their application to the Heavenly Doctrine. "But while we are not in danger of worshipping Swedenborg as Divine, and know him only as a servant of the Lord Jesus, like ourselves, still we may be in danger of confusing the Divine and the human in his writings. The principle of doctrine which he teaches is Divine, given, (as he declares), by no angel, but by the Lord alone, while he read the Word, yet the facts of natural science," etc., etc. And presently, as might be expected, Mr. Worcester points his application in a more specific direction: "The principle here presented, if we can clearly see it and apply it, will, I believe; go far to remove the difficulty which many persons have felt with
Swedenborg's work on "Marriage Love," especially with the part of the book which treats of the evil conditions which are opposed to marriage."

605

     Now, what is the effect of all these "warnings" but to create a distrust against Divine Revelation in general, against the Writings more particularly, and against the work on CONJUGIAL LOVE most especially? The negative spirit is ever hungry, and in Mr. Worcester's latest "warning" it will find sweet and helpful nourishment. This spirit feeds continually upon appearances, and the appearance is that there are these two "elements" in Divine Revelation. Nay, the appearance is that it is altogether human, and to follow Mr. Worcester's warning to its logical conclusion would lead to the rejection of all Divine Revelation. The words of the angel to John furnish a typical instance of human appearances, a plausible but flimsy ground for the perversion of the genuine truth. In all the passages in the Writings, where these words of the angel are explained or referred, (see Searle's INDEX), not a word is said or suggested as to the necessity of distinguishing between any "two elements" in Divine Revelation itself, but we are simply instructed that the human messenger is not to be worshiped instead of the Divine Message.

     But Mr. Worcester's warning is directed against the Message. We must be on guard against the Divine Revelation! It is the Revelation itself that is to be separated into two elements,-the Divine and the human,-which are to be as carefully distinguished from another as "the two natures in Christ" are distinguished in the Athanasian Creed. According to this model of orthodoxy, the Divine nature of Christ, begotten of the Father, is altogether Divine and not human, while His human nature, born of Mary, is altogether human and in no sense Divine, although the two natures or two Christs are to eternity joined together by a mysterious "hypostatic union." Though the visible trunks of the ancient dogmas may have been cut down in the New England School of New Church theology, it appears that the roots have remained in the ground and are continually shooting up in the form of old heresies clothed in New Church verbiage.

     There is no wonder Mr. Worcester realizes the "difficulties" which must beset any Newchurchman attempting to distinguish between the Divine and the human element of that Word which reveals and is the God-Man!

606

It puzzled the most acute intellects of the Oecumenical Councils. How is Mr. Worcester to decide what part of Divine Revelation is Divine and what part is merely human! By what infallible test will he be able to tell where the Divine "element" ends and the merely human "element" begins? The task is not only difficult but impossible, because the two supposed "elements" do not exist in Divine Revelation any more than they exist in the Lord Himself. For as He glorified His Human by fulfilling the Word,-filling it full of Himself even as to the least parts of the letter,-so He now stands revealed in the one element of the DIVINE HUMAN in every part of every form of His Word.

     II.

     THE DIVINE STYLE OF THE WRITINGS.

     The NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY for July, 1913, in its review of our journal, observes that "The opening article in the March LIFE, by the Editor, 'The Word is Divine Doctrine and the Divine Doctrine is the Word,' is an elaborate attempt to invalidate, as far as the Writings of the New Church are concerned, Swedenborg's statement to Dr. Beyer that 'doctrinal writings are not within in the style of the Word . . . [which] consists altogether of correspondences,' and hence are not 'effective of immediate communication with heaven,' but only of mediate. It is perceived that there is no getting away from the fact that the Writings of the New Church are 'doctrinal writings:' if, therefore? it is once admitted that 'in doctrinal writings there is a different style' from that of the Word, as Swedenborg expressly states, the Academy 'principle' that 'the Writings are the Word,' will clearly have to go. It is, of course, true, as the writer claims, that it is 'simply impossible for any one in the natural world to utter or write a single word that does not have its corresponding equivalent in the spiritual world!' The Writings, therefore, must be 'written in correspondences,' from this point of view. But, then, so must every other composition, human as well as Divine. This inevitable correspondential quality, which the Writings of the New Church possess in common with all other writings, does not, therefore, constitute 'the style of the Word!'

607

This, consequently, does not carry us very far in the way of proving that the Writings are written 'in the style of the Word'-as, indeed, Mr. Odhner admits.* Nor do we find ourselves convinced by any of his other arguments, or by all of them put together, that they are written in that style. To our mind, the fact-which there is no gainsaying-that the Writings do not have to be interpreted according to correspondences in order to arrive at their true meaning, whereas the Word does, is the final and incontestable proof that the Writings are not 'written in the style of the Word.'"
     * We do not understand to what "admission" Mr. Buss refers.

     In spite of his disclaimer Mr. Buss admits that he has been impressed by, at least, one part of our argument: that the Writings actually are written in correspondences, a point which has never before been recognized by any of our opponents. The only difficulty remaining in his mind would therefore seem to be this how the correspondences in the Writings differ from the correspondences in any and all of merely human compositions. This difficulty, however, cannot be cleared away unless Mr. Buss be willing to pay closer attention to our discriminations than he has done in the past.

     1. In criticising an opponent, fairness demands that his words should be quoted correctly. Mr. Buss quotes us as if we had said that "the Writings are written in the style of the Word," whereas we have never made use of such an expression. What we have claimed is that the Writings are written in the Divine style." Over and over again we have shown that the style of the Writings is NOT the same style as is used in the Old and the New Testament, but that it is nevertheless a Divine style.

     2. We have labored for years to make it plain that all Revelations of the Word of God have been written in the Divine style, yet each successive Revelation in its own style, adapted to its own age and dispensation. All the successive Revelations have had, in common, two universal features: a) an internal sense written according to the law of correspondence,-and, b) a Divine continuity of correspondences.

608

The most ancient Word was written by the hand of the Creator in the book of universal nature in a continuous series of correspondences which were also written by perception upon the hearts of celestial man. The Ancient Word was written first in a book of doctrines derived from the former celestial perceptions, and was afterwards written by more remote correspondences in numerous books, each of which possessed a continuous internal sense. The Hebrew Word was written in most ultimate sensuous correspondences, and the Greek Word in correspondences less ultimate and more openly teaching spiritual-natural truth. And in the Latin Word the last veil is rent asunder and the Glorified Human stands revealed in the form of Divine-rational Doctrine.

3. This final revelation of the Word of God is still written in continuous correspondences, but nor in the sensuous correspondences of the Old Testament, nor in the more internal correspondences of the New Testament, but in rational thought-images immediately suggesting to the rational mind an infinitude of corresponding spiritual ideas and celestial perceptions. This crowning revelation consists of books of Doctrine, but Divine Doctrine, different from any other doctrinal writings in this most important respect that the doctrinal correspondences of the Writings are continuous truths from the Lord, continually and forever opening deeper and more sublime arcana to him who studies.

4. The final Revelation does not have to be interpreted according to sensuous correspondences in order to arrive at its true meaning, for it is Divinely rational and therefore self-interpretative. But it interprets itself only to him who reads and studies, and according to the amount and quality of such study. And the interpretation most certainly takes place "according to correspondences," for to the superficial reader the Writings speak in general appearances of truth, while to the more thorough student they present more profound ideas, corresponding and continuously corresponding to the more external and introductory truths.

609

     III.

     SWEDENBORG'S STATEMENT TO DR. BEYER.

     The Rev. J. F. Buss, in the QUARTERLY, characterizes our editorial in the March LIFE as "an elaborate attempt to invalidate, as far as the Writings of the New Church are concerned, Swedenborg's statement to Dr. Beyer that 'doctrinal writings are not written in the style of the Word.' " And the Rev. John Whitehead, in the NEW CHURCH REVIEW for July, after quoting the statement in question, states that "Swedenborg here makes it perfectly clear that the Word is written in a different style from doctrinal writings. He does not confine his remark to the doctrinal writings of former churches, but says 'doctrinal writings could not be written in the style of the Word.' This is so clearly opposite to the position taken by NEW CHURCH LIFE that the Editor attempts to exclude Swedenborg's writings from its scope and application; he flatly contradicts Swedenborg's statement that 'doctrinal writings could not be written in the style of the Word.'" "Matters of doctrine could not be written in the style of the Word."

     These charges of "flatly contradicting" and "attempting to invalidate" any statement made by Swedenborg assume a rather ludicrous aspect when it is known that they are based on a wrong translation of the Swedish original. Our worthy opponents have formulated the infallible dogma that "matters of doctrine" could not and cannot, under any circumstances, be written in the style of the Lord or in a Divine style; and the only foundation they are able to find for this sweeping judgment is-a blunder committed by the editor of the DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG. As rendered by Dr. R. L. Tafel, (Doc. II, p. 240), Swedenborg writes as follows to Dr. Beyer:

     In respect to the writings of the apostles and Paul, I have not quoted them in the Arcana Coelestia, because they are doctrinal writings, and consequently are not written in the style of the Word, like those of the prophets, of David, of the Evangelists, and the Book of Revelation. The style of the Word consists altogether of correspondences, wherefore it is effective of immediate communication with heaven; but in doctrinal writings there is a different style, which has, indeed, communication with heaven, but mediately.

610

They were written thus by the apostles, that the new Christian Church might be commenced through them; wherefore matters of doctrine could not be written in the style of the Word, but they had to be expressed in such a manner, as to be understood more clearly and intimately.

     We now append the Swedish original, as found in the SAMLINGAR FOR PHILANTROFER, (Stockholm 1787),-the only publication, strange to say, in which the original has ever appeared; the italics are Swedenborg's own:

     Hvad Apostlarnes och Pauli Skrifter angar, sa har jag dem intet upptagit uti Arcanis Coelestibus, af orsak att de aro Laroskrifter, och saledes intet skrefne Stylo Verbi, sasom Propheternes, Davids, Evangelisternes och Apocalypsis. Stylus Verbi bestar helt och hallit utaf Correspondentier, hvarfore den ock gior immediate communication med Himmelen, men uti Laroskrifterna ar en annan styl, som val hafver communicatiton med Himmelen, men mediate: at de aro sa skrefne utaf Apostlarne var orsaken at den nya Christna Ecclesia skulle genom dem begynnas, och saledes kunde inte Dockilzalia skrifvas ipso stylo Verbi, utan pa satt som kunde klarare och narmare forstis.

     Literally translated, this document reads as follows:

     As to what concerns the writings of the Apostles and of Paul, I have not quoted [taken up] them in the Arcana Coelestia, for the reason that they are Doctrinal writings and thus not written in the style of the Word, such as that of the Prophets, of David, of the Evangelists and of the Apocalypse. The style of the Word consists altogether of correspondences, on account of which also it affects an immediate communication with heaven, but in the Doctrinal writings there is another style, which indeed has communication with heaven, but mediately. That they are thus written by the Apostles was for the reason that the new Christian Church was to make its beginning through them, and therefore the Doctrinal writings could not be written in the style of the Word itself, but in a manner that could be understood more clearly and closely.

     Dr. Tafel's rendering is on the whole fairly correct, but his blunder lies in translating the word "Laroskrifterna" with "doctrinal writings" instead of "the Doctrinal writings,"-the termination na being the plural definite article in Swedish.

     This definite article shows that Swedenborg here refers to the Doctrinal books of the apostles and of Paul, as is, of course, evident also by the context of the whole document. And Dr. Tafel afterwards makes the blunder worse by translating "Doctrinalia" with "matters of doctrine," when the definite article of "Laroskrifterna" shows that by the "Doctrinalia" Swedenborg again refers to the Doctrinal books of the apostles.

611

The whole document, in general and in all particulars, refers to these (human) doctrinal books. They formed the sole subject of Dr. Beyer's inquiry and of Swedenborg's reply, but the nature of the Writings is not discussed in the document.

     That Dr. R. L. Tafel is responsible for the mistranslation is evident from the first English translation of the document, as published in the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE of 1790, p. 30, and afterwards reproduced verbatim in Dr. Immanuel Tafel's collection of DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG, edited by J. H. Smith on and published in Boston, 1841, and New York, 1847:

     With regard to the Epistles of Paul and the other Apostles, I have not given them a place in my "Arcana Coelestia," because they are merely dogmatic writings, and not written in the style of the Word, as are those of the Prophets, of David, of the Evangelists, and the Revelation of St. John.

     The style of the Word consists throughout of Correspondences, and it therefore effects immediate communication with Heaven; but the style of these dogmatic writings is quite different, having indeed communication with Heaven, but only mediately or indirectly.

     The reason why the Apostles wrote in this style was that the first Christian Church was then to begin through them; consequently the same style as was used in the Word would not have been proper for its doctrines, which required statement in plain and simple language, suited to the capacities of all readers. (p. 124.)

     The translation in this first version is too free, but it very clearly emphasizes the fact that Swedenborg throughout the document treats of the apostolic writings, which the translator refers to as "merely dogmatic writings," "these dogmatic writings," and "its doctrines." The "merely" is not in the original and "dogmatic" is too strong a term for "Laroskrifter"; the idea of this term would be better brought out by the name "the Didactic writings," as differentiating the Epistles as a class from the historical Gospels and the prophetic Apocalypse. The Epistles are not "dogmatic" in a definite ecclesiastical' sense, nor are they "doctrinal books," in the sense of systematic theology, but they are "didactic," books of religious instruction, human but valuable collateral works.

612

     It is most astonishing that two New Church theologians, such as Mr. Buss and Mr. Whitehead, would deliberately reduce the Writings of the Second Coming to the level of the Epistles, merely on the basis of a single statement which they themselves, if they had carefully studied the context, might have recognized as a mistranslation. The very fact that Swedenborg refused to quote from the Epistles in the ARCANA COELESTIA, Should have caused them to pause in their hasty conclusion. If the ARCANA were on the same level with the Epistles, what reason would there be for one human work of doctrine refusing to quote another human work of doctrine?*
     * It is, indeed, a remarkable fact that in the whole of the ARCANA COELESTIA there is not a single reference to any of the Epistles, while there are numerous references in some of the later works, especially the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. The reason seems to be that in the ARCANA the Heavenly Doctrine is based directly upon the letter of the Word, while in the later works the Epistles are referred to in order to show the harmony of this Doctrine with the genuine doctrine of the primitive Christian Church.

     Our opponents have not paid the least attention to all the proofs from the Writings themselves which we adduced in our March editorial, showing the difference between human doctrine and Divine Doctrine. They are not convinced by any of these, or by all of them put together, but one careless blunder in translation strikes complete conviction that the Writings are not the Word of the Lord! Thus prejudice seizes upon the least semblance of support. But what is the result of their solemn dogma? To insist, with any degree of consistency, that "matters of doctrine" could not be expressed by the Lord Himself "in the style of the Word," is to deny the Divine omnipotence and is to deny the fact that the Lord has thus expressed all the matters of His Divine Doctrine, not only in the numerous places in the Word where the Divine Doctrine clearly shines forth, but also in those "darkest sayings" in the letter, which seem to carry "a sense altogether different from the internal sense." What is the whole of the Word but matters of Doctrine, expressed in the clothing of correspondences and representations?

     Mr. Whitehead, and also Mr. Buss, quotes with evident astonishment our statement that "by the Writings of the New Church there is immediate communication with heaven," as if this were a perfectly preposterous claim.

613

But the claim is not ours: "The spiritual sense of the Word has been disclosed by the Lord through me, which was never before revealed since the Word was written among the children of Israel; and this is the very Sanctuary of the Word. The Lord Himself is in it with His Divine, and He is in the natural sense with His Human. Of this not a jot could be opened except by the Lord Himself. This surpasses all the revelations which have hitherto existed since the creation of the world. Through this revelation THERE IS OPEN COMMUNICATION Of man with the angels of Heaven; and a conjunction of the two worlds has been effected." (INVITATION TO THE NEW CHURCH, 44.)

     IV.

     THE CONTINUITY OF THE WORD.

     Mr. Whitehead states that "the editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE believes he has discovered that which makes the real difference between books of the Word and books not of the Word. He says, 'It is in the principle of continuity.'" This definition our opponent characterizes as "a pure assumption which has not one word of support in the Writings of Swedenborg." "It is remarkable that Swedenborg never hints at such an explanation of the difference between the Word and other books." "When we test the editor's explanation by Swedenborg's teaching, we find it contradicted at every point; and therefore we conclude that his ideas on this subject were not drawn from Swedenborg."

     In reply we must state that we have never laid claim to the distinction of having "discovered" the touch-stone for the canon of the Word. We do not know who first "discovered" the teaching in the Writings-that the principle of continuity, in the internal sense is what differentiates Divine books from books not Divine, but we do anew that this principle was clearly pointed out to us by our great teacher, the Rev. William H. Benade, who, no doubt, pointed out the same to Mr. Whitehead. That the lesson has not been altogether forgotten is evident from the fact that Mr. Whitehead himself teaches this very principle of continuity when stating that "In general all the books of the Word are written by correspondences, representatives, and significatives in which the letter expresses a series of natural events descriptive of persons and things, carrying a sense altogether different from the internal sense.

614

But the books not so written are not the Word. A few books [such as Job and the Song of Songs] are written by correspondences which yet are not the Word, because they do not contain a series of spiritual and celestial ideas." And in support of this truth Mr. Whitehead quotes a number of passages containing teachings on this very subject of the series in the internal sense. Now, the "series" of things means continuity. See Webster.

     As Mr. Whitehead seems to avoid quoting any of the numerous statements in the Writings concerning the continuous series of things in the Word, we must be allowed to adduce the following teachings:

     The things contained in this chapter, (Gen. xiv), like all the rest, conceal in the internal sense the deepest arcana, which also follow in a continuous series from those things which go before, and connect themselves in a continuous series with those which follow. (A. C. 1659.)

     From this it is likewise manifest that the things, which are in the internal sense follow together in a continuous series. (A. C. 2659)

     The Word has this peculiarity above the writings of the ancients that the single things in a continuous series represent the celestial and spiritual things of the Lord's kingdom, and in the supreme sense the Lord Himself; and that the very historicals also are such; and, further, that they are real correspondences, and these are continuous through the three heavens from the Lord. (A. C. 4442)

     In the original tongue one series is not distinguished from another by means of interstitial signs, as in other tongues, but it appears as if continuous from beginning to end; those things which are in the internal sense are indeed similarly continuous and flowing from one state of things into another. (A. C. 4057)

     In the original tongue the meaning was not, at first, distinguished by punctuation, but the text was continuous, in imitation of the heavenly speech. (A. C. 5578)

     Angelic speech is continuous, possessing indeed terminations, but the preceding things in it are wonderfully connected with the things that follow. . . .Hence the end of each preceding period of speech can be fully connected with the beginning of each succeeding period, and thus out of many series there is formed one. (A. C. 7191. See further A. C. 7933, 8864, 9022, 9942, 10633 White Horse 16, etc., etc.)

615

Mr. Whitehead says that we have based our whole argument on the statement that "the doctrinals of the New Church are continuous truths laid open by the Lord through the Word," (T. C. R. 508), adding that "Swedenborg here is not treating of the Word, but is contrasting the dogmas of the Old Church with the doctrinals of the New." Well, what then? Is it true or is it not that the doctrinals of the New Church are continuous truths! Is a multitude of other passages needed to convince Mr. Whitehead that the Doctrine of the New Church states the Truth, the whole Truth, and nothing but the Truth? That the New Jerusalem is "built as a city that is compact together?" It seems incomprehensible to us that this Principle of continuity should be questioned by any Newchurchman, when it is the very thing that explains in philosophic light the truth that God is one "The Life, which is God, is continuous and not separable; from this it is that God is one." (A. E. 1121.) "Everything Divine, taken universally as well as singularly, is God; and because everything Divine coheres as one, it cannot but inspire in man the idea of one God." (T. C. R. 8.) The Divine is infinite because it is continuous, unbroken by any interstitial limits separating part from part. Hence it is seen that everything that is actually continuous is also infinite and Divine. (See Parmenides.) The Word of the Lord in its internal sense is continuous throughout, continuous by degrees of altitude as well as latitude; it is the focus and epitome of all the infinities of God. And the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, the revelation of this continuous internal sense, is infinite and Divine because it consists of nothing but "continuous truths." It is the inner seamless garment of the Lord, the inner Word of the Lord, which cannot be divided, as partly human and partly Divine, as our opponents would do, but must either be rejected as a whole, or else accepted as a whole and as altogether Divine, woven throughout of one continuous thread of Infinite Truth.

616

     V.

     THE POSITION OF THE WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH.

     "In conclusion," says Mr. Whitehead, "we will briefly quote from an authority which even the Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE will not question; nor will he use the term 'negative' in characterizing it." And he then quotes the following statements in WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH:

     The difference [between the Word and the Writings] is, as all New churchmen know, that the Word in the letter is Divine Truth clothed in correspondences, significatives, and representatives, whereas the internal sense, as revealed by the Lord in the Writings of Swedenborg, is Divine Truth unclothed of the drapery of correspondences, and presented in language doctrinal and abstract.*
     * Mr. Whitehead should have quoted the rest of the sentence: "and coming to us under the Divine auspices of the Lord, dictated by Him, and divinely formulated as the Heavenly Doctrine of the New Jerusalem." (W. N. C. 1:342)

     But the Divine style of the Word is not repeated, nor is it imitated in the Writings. The Word is the Lord as t6 the Divine Truth in the very ultimates of nature, speaking to us in parables, representatives, and correspondences. But the style of the Writings, as we have often expressed it, is doctrinal, didactic, and philosophic.

     The Writings, as all New churchmen know, are not an addition to the Word, or an extension of it, in the letter; they are not art enlargement of the volume of parables, types and correspondences, nor me they in the style of these; but they are the evolving by the Lord through His servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, of some of the Divine Truths which through the prophets He had caused to be involved and folded away in the Divine forms of the Word in the letter.

     The Word and the Writings then are not alike, nor are the Writings equal to the Sacred Scriptures; the very style is different, and indeed not on the same plane of utterance. (Words for the New Church, vol. i. pp. 38-44, 342, 347-348.)

     It is certainly curious to find the WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH quoted as an unquestionable "authority" in the NEW CHURCH REVIEW, which is the lineal descendant of the NEW JERUSALEM MAGAZINE, the ancient adversary of the early Academy. We could imagine that our Sturdy old friends, the Editors of the WORDS, would "turn in their graves," were they to hear their words used by one of their former students for the purpose of belittling that Divine Revelation for whose supreme authority they so valiantly fought.

617

And they would be the first to disclaim any "authority" for their own or any other utterances of fallible men. That for which they fought was freedom for the affirmative attitude to grow and expand forever, beyond the positions advanced by any one generation of teachers. To them, as to us, the only doctrinal authority in the New Church is the Heavenly Doctrine itself.

With the exception of a single statement, we can see nothing objectionable in the passages quoted by Mr. Whitehead from the WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH, provided they be understood as the Editors meant them. The ultimate style of the Word in the two Testaments is not repeated or imitated in the Writings. The latter are not an extension or enlargement of the volume of parables, types and correspondences, nor are they an addition to that volume, any more than the Greek Word was an extension or enlargement of the Hebrew volume. The Scriptures and the Writings are not alike in style or arrangement, nor are the Writings equal to the Scriptures in fulness, holiness and power, for they are on a more internal plane of utterance, just as the New Testament is on a more internal plane than the Old. As to all these things we are quite in agreement with the Editors of the WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH.

The only statement in their definitions to which we object, is the limitation which the Editors put upon the supreme Revelation when declaring that the Writings are the evolving "of some of the Divine Truths" which had been involved in the more ultimate forms of the Word. This is a theological error which would not have crept in, had the Editors been able to consult with their recognized leader, the Rev. W. H. Benade, for Mr. Benade, (who was then in Egypt, and had been absent from the editorial board for nearly two years), had previously on two important occasions announced that genuine truth of Doctrine which forms the very foundation of the Academy?-the acknowledgment of the Writings as the Word of the Lord which reveals the whole Doctrine of the Internal Sense in sufficient fulness for all future ages.

618

The first of these occasions was at the meeting of the Pennsylvania Association, in the year 1861, and the second was at the Ministers' Conference in Cincinnati, in 1873, (See N. C. LIFE, 1905, p. 618; 1902, p. 376). Somehow or other, the full import of these distinct announcements escaped the attention of the friends as well as the foes of the Academy, and it seems probable that the recognition of the Writings as the Word had not assumed very definite outlines among the majority of Mr. Benade's associates in the early Academy days. That, nevertheless, the idea was neither new nor repugnant to the Editors of the WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH is evident from their hearty approval of the numerous statements in the AURORA, in the year 1799, that "the Writings are really the Word of the Lord, as positively as the writings of any of the four Evangelists;" that "Swedenborg, as to his theological Writings, is no more an author than Matthew, Mark, Luke and John;" that Swedenborg "was under the peculiar direction of the Lord throughout the whole, and that his ARCANA in particular is no other than the Lord's own Word, opened and exhibited in its spiritual sense, its spiritual meaning, and, therefore, is infallible truth." Nay, the Editors of the WORDS would go even further, for they make the criticism that in the last quoted statement "there is a seeming discrimination in the Writings in favor of the ARCANA, to which we cannot agree. The ARCANA comes with the Divine Imprimatur upon it no more than the other Theological works published by Swedenborg." (W. N. C. vol. 1. p. 471.)

619

"SPIRIT" PHOTOGRAPHY. 1913

GEO. E. HOLMAN 1913

     Communicated
Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:-
     In your June number you make some remarks on a letter from me which appeared in the April number of the NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY, which you state is an "effort to establish, from the Writings and the PRINCIPIA, the possibility of photographing spirits." Will you kindly allow me to point out that you have entirely misunderstood my letter? I expressly stated (see p. 185 of the QUARTERLY, at foot) that "the materialized or photographed forms cannot be said to be those of spirits. They are materializations, or photographs, of mixed thought." The mixed thought is due to the memory of the obsessing spirit being confounded with that of the "medium." A spirit cannot, of course, be reclothed with matter (see D. L. W. 90), but a man on earth does, by means of his sphere, imprint his thought on the physical aura to a certain extent, and an obsessing spirit can, through the mind and thence the brain of the obsessed person, also affect the physical atmospheres, though indirectly.

     You remark, "It seems a pity that Newchurchmen should waste their time in thinking up theories to explain things that have no existence in fact." While much of the alleged spiritist phenomena is, no doubt, due to trickery, it is rash to assume that there is nothing but trickery. I think that a careful weighing of all the evidence must convince the impartial investigator that genuine phenomena do exist, and such phenomena need explanation. I do not, however, wish in any way to uphold the practice of spiritism. Indeed, it cannot be too strongly condemned.
     Yours faithfully,
          GEO. E. HOLMAN.
London, Aug, 7, 1913.

620

ROSTHERN, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA. 1913

ROSTHERN, SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA. F. E. WAELCHLI 1913

Editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     During the months of July and August it was my privilege to work among the German New Church people at Rosthern, Sask., Canada. The life story of these people and their forefathers is interesting. About one hundred and twenty-five years ago many Low-Germans emigrated to Russia and formed colonies there. During the years 1874 to 1876 large numbers of these people left Russia to settle in the southern part of the province of Manitoba, Canada. Beginning with the year 1892 many of them pushed farther west and north into the provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta.

     Of these people many were Mennonites, and although they had their own ministers, they were visited occasionally during the early days in Manitoba by ministers of their faith from the United States. Among these was the Rev. Marcus Seller, of Ohio, who came in the year 1884 or 1885. He was then a reader of the Writings, some of which he brought with him and gave to others to read, but without making any comments on them. One of those to whom he gave books was Mr. Abram Claasen, now living at Hague, Sask., and he became the first receiver. Others soon followed him. What was the subsequent history of the Rev. Marcus Seller I do not know, but I believe that he afterwards came out openly as a Newchurchman, and that one or more communications from him appeared about 1886 in BOTE DER NEUEN KIRCHE.

     Quite rapidly a circle of New Church people came into existence from among these Mennonites in Manitoba, and some of them joined the exodus to Saskatchewan and Alberta in 1892, and there spread the light to others of their formed faith, so that now these New Church people are to be found in various parts of the three prairie provinces, but principally in three centers: first, in southern Manitoba, at Rosenort; second, in southwestern Saskatchewan, where there are three societies, Waldeck, Hiebert and Chaplin; third, in central Saskatchewan, with societies at Rosthern and Hague.

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     These societies and also the isolated members are organized as a Conference, which meets once a year; but both the Conference and the component societies are independent of any general body of the Church.

     Ministers of the General Convention have visited these people from time to time, and some years ago when this was done by the Rev. S. S. Seward and the Rev. A. Roeder, the former ordained the Rev. Claas Feters, of Waldeck, and the Rev. P. Hiebert, of Chaplin. This year the Rev. Louis Hoeck made the tour and ordained the Rev. Mr. Enns, at Rosenort. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Hoeck at Rosthern, and of listening to two excellent sermons delivered there by him; also the further pleasure of receiving his hearty good wishes for the success of my work.

     My going to Rosthern was in response to an invitation from Mr. John Hamm, of that place, who, on visits to Berlin, Ont., had been impressed with the work done for the children and young people in the Carmel church, and desired that something similar should be done at Rosthern.

     I arrived at Rosthern July 5th, and remained until August 19th, the visit thus including seven Sundays. The entire time was given to work at this place and at Hague, eleven miles distant, excepting two missionary sermons given at Waldheim, eighteen miles from Rosthern, and one at Laird, fourteen miles from Rosthern. At Rosthern there are seven New Church families, at Hague eight, at Waldheim one, and at Laird six. In these twenty-two families there are about one hundred and fifty persons, old and young. About twenty-five miles west of Rosthem, at Blaine Lake, lives Mr. Peter Claasen, an able writer of New Church books and pamphlets, but to my regret I could not find an opportunity of visiting him.

     The Rosthern society has a pretty chapel, capable of seating about one hundred and twenty-five. At Hague, Laird and Waldhelm the school house is used.

     My weekly program was as follows: Every Sunday in the morning I preached at Rosthern, and, from July 20th on, in the evening, at Hague; Monday evening conducted a doctrinal class at Hague; Tuesday afternoon taught the children at Rosthern; Tuesday evening, young people's class at Rosthern; Wednesday and Thursday evenings were frequently given to missionary work; Friday afternoon, again taught the children, Friday evening, general doctrinal class.

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     At worship at Rosthern the average attendance was 37, and at Hague 28. The sermons were not evangelistic, but for the instruction of the New Church people. On Sunday, August 10th, eight children and one adult were baptized at Rosthern. On my last Sunday, August 17th, the Holy Supper was celebrated, and there were 22 communicants at Rosthern and 13 at Hague.

     At the general doctrinal class, both at Rosthern and at Hague, the teaching was on the opening sections of Divine Love and Wisdom, The average attendance at Rosthern was 13, and at Hague 24. At these classes there was much questioning.

     The young people's class at Rosthern was very encouraging. The average attendance was 14 young people and 2 adults. Teaching concerning heaven and hell was given. As at the general class, there were many questions asked.

     The school for the religious instruction of the children, held twice a week at Rosthern, was perhaps the most delightful part of the work. The average attendance was It children, of from 5 to 12 years of age, and 3 young people and adults. Instruction was given in the letter of the Word, Genesis and Exodus being covered, and on the Lord's Prayer and part of the Decalogue.

     The young people's class and the school were conducted in English.

     Six missionary sermons were given, at which the average attendance was 43, the highest 80. At Laird and Waldheim these sermons awakened considerable interest.

     During my stay Mr. Jacob Stroh, of Berlin, visited Mr. and Mrs. Hamm for two weeks, and his presence was enjoyed by all. He delivered an address at Rosthern and at Hague on the early history of the New Church in Berlin, which was listened to with great interest.

     An earnest love of the doctrines of the New Church characterizes these people. A number of them have many of the Writings, and some of them complete sets.

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These books are read, rather than collateral works, and thus the truth is drawn from its very fountain.

     On my last Sunday at Hague, after the services, I spoke a few words of farewell and expressed the pleasure I had found in the work, and in reply Mr. C. P. Unruh spoke in appreciation of what had been done. The next evening a meeting was held in the church at Rosthern at which I gave a farewell address. Then followed a surprise prepared for me, a social gathering and supper at the house of Mr. and Mss. William Wiebe, at which forty persons were present. A most delightful evening was spent.

     At all of the four places at which I worked the desire was heartily expressed that I return next summer, and this, Providence permitting, I shall do.

     On the return journey I stopped at Winnipeg, Man., and spent a pleasant evening with our two Berlin young men, Jacob Peppler and Fred. Roschman. Then I went on to Kenora, Ont., and spent four delightful days with the little circle there. On Sunday, August 24th, services were held, including baptism, sermon and Holy Supper.
     Sincerely yours,
          F. E. WAELCHLI.

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Church News. 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. The usual summer dullness of Bryn Athyn was broken only by two very pretty weddings. The first, on July 14th, was that of Miss Ethel Schwindt and Mr. Miltiades Lloyd Glenn. The ceremony was simple, but attractive; the color "motif" was lavender and white; the chapel was decorated with a profusion of the delicate, lace-like flowers of the wild carrot of the summer fields; and the Rev. Alfred Acton officiated at his first wedding function. The lovely bride and the stalwart bridegroom, after a "honey week" in Washington, D. C., departed for their home in Erie, Pa., where their presence will be a welcome addition to the New Church circle in that city.

     The second wedding, that of Miss Madeline Glenn and Mr. Edward C. Bostock, took place on September 3d. The chapel was artistically decorated with palms and clusters of white clematis, and the "motif," as a whole, was white. The impressive ceremony, conducted by the Bishop, was enhanced by classical selections on the violin by Mr. Raymond Pitcairn. After the ceremony the guests,-including the whole of the societies in Bryn Athyn and Philadelphia, with visitors from New York, Pittsburgh, Glenview, Toronto and other centers,-were entertained at a reception in the Auditorium, where the toast of congratulations was followed by a speech from Mr. Acton. Mr. Walter C. Childs was master of ceremonies and led in a ringing song to "the Bride and the Groom." Then refreshments and dancing.

     ABINGTON, MASS. Mr. Sidney Childs has taken the place of Mr. Harris this summer during the absence of our pastor in Canada, and has faithfully carried forward all the work laid out for him. The summer here has been a most delightful one, and everything has run smoothly in the Church.

     Mrs. Tilton and her two girls have moved into town and are regular attendants at church and Sunday School.

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Miss Bessie Harris has been with us for the summer, and Miss Jessie Campbell was here for several weeks before returning to her home in Canada. Miss Elsie Harris accompanied her.

     Mr. Richard Price has been in Abington recuperating from a slight attack of pneumonia.

     We have been entertaining Mr. Carlos Dexter, of Meriden, Conn., and Miss Phyllis Price, of Bryn Athyn. Mr. Walter C. Childs and Miss Eliza Mitchell were with us one Sunday, and Mr. Emery Harris was home on a vacation from his duties in Procter, Vt.

     ERIE, PA. The Erie Circle hopes, from time to time, to find a voice to tell something of its existence. Without a resident pastor to guide and assist in our social affairs, our activities along that line are few and far between; however, a committee has recently been formed to take charge of this branch, and it is to be hoped that success will attend their efforts.

     This year a charming addition has been made to our small circle in the person of Mrs. M. L. Glenn, formerly Miss Ethel Schwindt, of Bryn Athyn. On the evening of August 19th quite a number of us joined in giving the young bride and groom a surprise in the form of a miscellaneous shower, composed of articles both useful and ornamental. We met at the home of Mr. George Evans and walked down in a crowd to make the surprise complete. With the co-operation of Mrs. Oscar Glenn our plans worked well and our party of twenty-two spent a most delightful evening.

     On September 14th Rev. J. E. Bowers, on his semi-annual visit to Erie, preached at the home of Dr. Cranch. The attendance was large for us, twenty-five in all, and twenty who partook of the communion. We listened to a very fine sermon and the members enjoyed a friendly gathering. E. R. C.

     GLENVIEW, ILL. Since the recent General Assembly at this center, the people have been enjoying a period of otiosity, consequent upon their strenuous activities and consequent exhaustion. Some have fled to the shores of our justly celebrated Lake Michigan.

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Others to the mountains. Those who remain are enjoying the very satisfactory ministrations of Mr. George DeCharms. A number of visitors to the Assembly, remaining over for a time, helped to while away the after-tedium. On July 16th Mrs. J. B. S. King died after a short, sharp attack of dry or plastic pleurisy. She was well at the time of the Assembly and attended and enjoyed all the meetings of that occasion. Her quiet presence and genial, appreciative sphere will be greatly missed by the circle here.

     Mr. Oscar Scalbom met with a serious accident on August 9th. While returning home he was hit by a passing train and injured in such a way that the right foot was crushed and the left hip badly lacerated. So far he is doing well; the doctors are trying to save the foot.

     CHICAGO, ILL. The activities of the Sharon Church have progressed steadily since our last writing. We still hold our meetings on Sunday and Wednesday in a small hall down town. We are trying to get a larger, unfurnished room, in which we could have our belongings around us, thus giving us more of a home feeling in our meeting place.

     The ladies have held monthly meetings at the different houses and have discussed means by which the social side of the church could be developed. At one meeting Mrs. Gilbert Smith read a paper by Miss Beekman, and a desire was expressed by some that we might continue such readings at future meetings.

     On May 28 the doctrinal class was omitted that we might accept Mr. Brown's invitation to hear an art talk at his studio. Twenty-three of our members met at supper in his studio and listened to an interesting informal talk on Art.

     On Decoration Day an outing for the children was planned at Jackson Park. Fifty of our number, twenty-seven of them children, had an enjoyable time talking to each other and playing base ball with the young people. These meetings are to be held monthly during the summer.

     Dr. King has lectured, at least, once, during the winter, to an attentive and appreciative audience at our little meeting place down town.

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     We will long remember the bountiful hospitality of our friends in Glenview, by whose kindness we were enabled to enjoy the feast of good things at the recent Assembly held in Glenview. I can hardly refrain from giving a detailed account of that most enjoyable occasion, as the intense sphere of love for the Church made a deep and abiding impression on all.

     On June 15th Rev. W. L. Gladish delivered a sermon at Sharon Church on "The Lord's Mercy to the Evil." It was much appreciated.

     We have had several visitors, Miss Evans, of Middleport; Mrs. David Klein, Mrs. Bellinger and her daughter, Celia, and also Mrs. Ahlstrom, of Wisconsin, have all been with us recently. E. V. W.

     SPOKANE, WASH. Our work in Spokane beg-an Sunday, July 6th, and ended August 24th, including eight Sundays. Two services were held on Sundays, a doctrinal class Thursdays, a school for children three mornings each week, another class for two children twice a week, and still another for one child once weekly.

     Sunday evening lectures were tried in a public hall in the heart of the city and advertised in the papers, but after three Sundays the hall was given up and all meetings were held at Mr. Hansen's home.

     The subjects of these first three lectures were: "The Spiritual World; What and Where," "Em. Swedenborg, the Man and His Mission," "The Bible; How Given by God to Men." The attendance was 31, 23 and 15. The 15 were our own people. The strangers who attended the first two lectures did not come to learn but to teach. They were either spiritists or New Thought people.

     I had been told by a lady who at first thought she was in sympathy with us that a lecture on the Bible would not draw in Spokane. "They don't read the Bible here or care for it. Take what you wish out of the Bible or out of Swedenborg and give it to the people warm, with your own personality and magnetism, and you can do whatever you please with them, but a lecture oil the Bible will interest nobody."

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     The advertising, however, brought us in tough with two or three Newchurchmen who did not know of the circle meeting there. We were not at all sorry that we tried to interest the public; but our work really became more satisfactory when it became manifest to all that it must be confined to those already believing in the doctrines.

     Al1 instruction given looked to three subjects which, interiorly regarded, are one: 1. The Divine Authority of the Writings, that they are the Lord's presence on earth, and hence the only medium of salvation; 2. The distinctiveness of the New Church, and 3. The state of the Christian world.

     Lectures on "The Second Coming of the Lord," "The State of the Christian World; the Abomination of Desolation," and a final talk from the Lord's words to His disciples, "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves," served to emphasize these points.

     Instruction was also given on the need of New Church baptism and the use of the Lord's Supper.

     Seven adults were baptized and have become members of the General Church. Several of these had been members of the New Church for many years, but had not been taught the need of its baptism. Four little children were baptized. The Lord's Supper was administered to 9 communicants. The children's school had eight members. The first hour was devoted to the Word. The book of Exodus was covered and the power of the ark from the Decalogue within described, several Psalms were memorized and a number of the Memorable Relations were told or read. The second hour was given to the Decalogue in Hebrew. First they learned to read, then the alphabet and finally to add the vowels and spell by syllable. We had only five weeks of Hebrew, but at the end of that time the best student could read the whole of the Decalogue at pretty good speed without help. And the enthusiasm and delight in the study of it seemed to justify the choice.

     There were 45 people on my calling list in 13 families of these 25 were adults and to children, but it must be confessed that some of the adults were rather indifferent. Some who had been active in the church in the East seemed to have left their zeal behind them.

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     There is now in Spokane a good sound center and beginning of a church. It is to be hoped that the work begun may not be neglected, but that a minister may be sent each year. Spokane is a delightful city to spend the summer in, the days sometimes warm but nights always cool, air clear and bracing and scenery beautiful.

     It would not be right to close this account without testifying to the quality of the work of Mr. Emil Hansen, the leader of the society. The summer's work was but a reaping of what he and his good wife have sown. They are united and thoroughly "sound," and loyal to the General Church.

     Some years ago, grieved by the fighting between the two bodies of the Church, Mr. Hansen determined to keep aloof from both, go directly to the Writings and read for himself. The more he read the more he became convinced that the General Church simply stands squarely on the Doctrine in every particular, therefore he lost all sympathy with Convention and its aims and methods, and is a loyal adherent of the General Church. It was a rare pleasure to spend a summer in a home far out in the "wilderness" where there was such warm and intelligent reception of all that was taught. WILLIS L. GLADISH.

     BERLIN, ONT. The Carmel Church School was closed for the season on the 6th of June. The exercises in the school room that evening included recitations and dances by the children and a little play. The commencement service was held on the following Sunday evening, when the "Children's Service" was used for the first time in this society. The pastor gave a short address to the children.

     On the night of the 19th "New Church Day" was celebrated by a social at the School. A toast list had been prepared. Mr. Hugo Odhner acted as toastmaster and Messrs. Geoffrey Childs, Th. Kuhl and Jacob Stroh made speeches on the different phases of the "Establishment of the Church." This was also the subject of the sermon on the next Sunday.

     The quarterly meeting of the society was held on June 26th, when the pastor and others related the success of the Glenview Assembly, so that we felt its strong sphere of affection and thought; at the same meeting an attempt was made to adjust the teaching staff of the local school for the ensuing year so as to relieve the pastor of some of his work in the classrooms.

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A lawn party was given on our beautiful school grounds on the 30th of June. The lawn was illuminated by colored electric lights and by smiling faces. As the day was the eve of another year of life of the Canadian Dominion, the celebration naturally assumed a patriotic character; national flags constituted an important part of the decorations and in a simple, but impressive tableau the formation of the Dominion was represented allegorically. The inexhaustible social spirit of the Berlin young people, assisted by a fancy dance by three of the young ladies, a plenteous supply of ice cream and strawberries, "barbershop" harmonies among the trees, and-finally-dancing in the school room, also contributed to make the evening a success.

     The next day (July 1st) was Dominion Day and a goodly number of visitors from the Parkdale Society made it possible to arrange a base ball game between Berlin and Toronto. Berlin's victory was due to the recent organization of an Athletic Association among the young men here, who have thus played a number of games this summer with other local amateur base ball teams.

     The number of our visitors this season have made the summer a pleasant one. Misses Sophie Nordenskjold, May Waters, Cyriel Odhner, Cornelia Stroh, Bella Campbell and Lucy Boggess, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Bellinger, Mr. Jos. Hill, Mr. Theodore Rothrermel, Mr. Geoffrey Childs, and others, have spent some time here. In connection with these visits we have enjoyed several informal dances. The Phi Alpha also invited the society to a ball on the 12th of June, when the dance hall was prettily decorated by a vault of blue and white.

     But picnics are the most popular summer entertainment here, and Canada seems peculiarly adapted for them. Some of the young men are enjoying a perpetual picnic by camping by the Gorand river during the summer. One of the most pleasant outings this year was the annual picnic of the society, held in Waterloo Park and attended by over eighty persons.

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In the evening, when the pleasures of the park and lake were exhausted, the young people spited the hot weather by a dance in the pavilion.

     During the pastor's absence (in Glenview, and in the Canadian Northwest), all doctrinal classes have been suspended. The Sunday services have been conducted by Mr. Hugo Odhner. Two burials have taken place during the summer. A service for the late Mrs. Catherine Hill (nee Kuhl) was held at the home of Miss Emma Kuhl on the 19th of July; on the 8th of August another service was occasioned by the death of the first born infant of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Peppler. H. L. O.

     PARIS, FRANCE. As it was not possible for the members of the French society to meet on the 19th of June, the celebration was postponed until Sunday, June 22d, on which date the festival, which was a most successful one, was held at the home of the pastor, M. Hussenet. Twenty-one persons were gathered by 11 a. m., and at 1 o'clock the worship of the day was begun; it lasted one hour, concluding with the singing of the 87th Psalm, most appropriately chosen for our beautiful ceremony, which produced with us all a very strong sphere. All the members wore the badges of the society.

     The repast following the ceremony was enlivened by most interesting talks concerning our sublime truths; it was a fraternal, instructive "agape." Toasts were offered to the New Church, the Academy, the bishop, our brothers in America and to our absent brothers. A last unanimous toast was addressed to our devoted pastor, who was assured of our very great gratitude toward him. Many letters of regret were read by the pastor from friends who could not be present.

     Quite a number remained to supper, after which all dispersed, having had a most happy day and hoping to meet again for the celebration a year hence. LOUIS LUCAS, Secretary.

     DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA. I am glad to say that the whole society here is alive to the necessity of jealously guarding the children in the Church, and as far as possible giving them distinctive New Church environment.

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Organization is lacking, however, in the absence of a minister and of a day school attached, to the Church. The Sunday School, which was discontinued some months ago owing to various causes, has, I am pleased to say, been resumed, and it is hoped to shortly institute a series of Children's Services, based on the excellent little work recently published.

     Ordinary services are held at 11 a. m. every Sunday in the year, with the exception of the hottest month of the year, January, when the majority of our people seek rest in the country or elsewhere, and energy is diminished when the thermometer consistently registers something above 100 day after day. The remainder of the year is delightful, however, and I consider this amongst the finest climates in the world.

     We are all delighted here with the splendid stand which the LIFE so loyally makes for the authority of the Writings. Without this stand the Crown of all the Churches would in time die as past dispensations have done. But, thanks to the Divine Providence, the world is not to be left without such a stand.

     New Church Day was celebrated here on Thursday, 19th June, by means of a special evening service at 7:30, at which the new Liturgy was found to be invaluable. It is a veritable storehouse of appropriate services, and one is never at a loss to work out a service for every conceivable occasion. The service was well attended, and was followed by a social evening in the adjoining Bayley Hall, where all the members who could possibly be present attended and vied with each other in wholesome rivalry to make one and all gay and bright. The evening took the form of a games entertainment, accompanied by some dancing. The spirit of the day was upon us all, and the occasion was thoroughly enjoyed as only Newchurchmen can enjoy it.

     Those of our friends from overseas who have given us the pleasure of a visit will be glad to know that our numbers are steadily growing, and the work of the Great Cause is still going on in this distant spot. We shall soon lose count of the little ones who appear from time to time, and others are growing up to be useful members whose interest in the Second Advent appears to be steadily increasing. It is hoped that from these younger people we shall soon be able to form quite a good choir, which will then be merely assisted by the older people who have done the singing in the past. R.

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     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. The Rev. J. Paul Dresser has accepted a call to the pastorate of the Brooklyn Society, which has been vacant for about a year.

     The Rev. Thos. French has resigned the pastorate of the Los Angeles Society.

     The Rev. Joseph Worcester, for some fifty years pastor of the Lyon Street Society, in San Francisco, died on Aug. 3d, at the age of seventy-seven years.

     Two bodies of the New Church in this country experienced an agreeable surprise when, on July 25th, an Associated Press dispatch from Seattle, Wash., announced that "when the will of H. M. Peters, a Seattle real estate owner, who died last Sunday, was opened last night, it was found he had divided his $200,000.00 estate between the General Convention of the Church of the New Jerusalem of America, with headquarters in Boston, and the American Swedenborg Printing and Publishing Society of New York." From later news we learn that the estate, after the payment of some minor legacies, will amount to about $175,00000, to be divided equally between the two bodies named, and that the testator was a retired German sea captain, unmarried, and for many years a devoted reader of the Heavenly Doctrine and supporter of the uses of the Church.

     CANADA. The Rev. Louis G. Hoeck, general pastor of the Ohio Association, during the month of July, visited the German New Church society in Rosenort, Manitoba, where he ordained John H. Enns. He also visited Rosthern, Saskatchewan, where there is "quite a strong group of New Church people. They bought a small church from their Mennonite brethren, but vacated it to take possession of a still larger church, purchased from the same body. It is a beautiful little church. There I conducted a service in German on Saturday evening, and another in English on Sunday morning. About sixty were present at the latter gathering." (MESS., July 30.)

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It should be added that Mr. Hoeck here met the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, who has been spending the summer at Rosthern, on the invitation of New Church friends there, and who cordially invited Mr. Hoeck to occupy the pulpit con the occasion of his visit.

GREAT BRITAIN. The General Conference opened its 106th session in North Manchester, on June 16th, with a total attendance of 129 members. The reports showed "a distinct and widely spread decrease in membership, not entirely Counter balanced by increases in other directions, and a report of the critical condition of some of the societies," and in the addresses there was "a prevalent recognition of a lull or actual decline in such of the church's life at present, and a certain sense of strain in keeping up the various activities of the Conference, together with the saddening impression caused by the decease during the past year of a large number of prominent clerical and lay members of the Conference. . . . It is a strange fact that not only does 'misery love company,' but that it is the time of temporary trial and weakness that is chosen by many who are professed friends of a movement to come down upon it with their choicest notes of discouragement and criticism. Several instances of this kind were in evidence at the recent Conference. These, indeed, happen to be quite similar to our own experiences in the past if not so much in recent years. . . . As usual the battle waxed hot over the MAGAZINE, the Conference's publishing organ, and over the New Church College. To a stranger from across the seas it seems difficult to understand why in the discussion of these two institutions the rather harsh and revolutionary criticism and disparagements should have so preponderated." (From the "Notes" of an American visitor, MESSENGER, July 30.) The most revolutionary measure proposed was probably that of Mr. A. E. Friend, who had the audacity to nominate the Rev. J. F. Buss as editor of the MAGAZINE. This, however, was promptly voted down, and the Rev. J. R. Rendell was reappointed to continue the somnolent and moribund conduct of the journal.

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     The only hopeful sign of life in the late Conference was the unanimous adoption of a resolution proposed by Mr. David Wynter, and supported by F. A. Gardiner, J. F. Buss, I. Tansley and E. J. E. Schreck, that the sum of L100 be contributed by the Conference towards the work of phototyping Swedenborg's theological manuscripts.

     MORNING LIGHT for August 16th publishes an excellent likeness of the late Edward John Broadfield, who died at Manchester, August 1st, 1913, at the age of 82 years. Mr. Broadfield was undoubtedly the most prominent layman of his generation in the New Church in England, and the recognized leader of the General Conference which he had attended for fifty-two years without interruption.

     GERMANY. The Rev. Adolph Goerwitz, in the MONATBLATTER for March, 1913, reported that he had delivered three lectures in Stuttgart to an audience of 200 persons, among whom there was a former Roman Catholic priest who, before he was deposed from the Hierarchy, had openly pointed out the evil elements in his ecclesiastical organization. He afterwards received the Doctrine of the New Church and procured all the Writings. He had also read the German New Church novel, ET EXPECTO, and was deeply affected by the similarity of his own experiences with those of the young priest who is the hero of the novel.

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EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. 1913

EGYPTIAN MONOTHEISM. C. TH. ODHNER 1913

     ANNOUNCEMENTS.


NEW CHURCH LIFE

     VOL. XXXIII NOVEMBER, 1913     NO. 11
     "From ancient times the Egyptians knew Jehovah, because the Ancient Church had been in Egypt." (A. C. 7097) Under the name JEHOVAH the one true God was worshiped universally in the Ancient Church; to the men of the Silver Age in its purity this name was the Divine name, and to them it involved the whole of all theology and religion. But so holy is this name, so replete with Divine arcana, that "when Divine worship had been perverted in Egypt, they were no longer permitted to worship Jehovah, and at last not even to know that Jehovah was the God of the Ancient Church, lest they should profane the name of Jehovah," (A. C. 7097; 5702), as is evident from the reply of Pharaoh to Moses: "Who is the Jehovah, whose name I must hear, to send away Israel? I know not the Jehovah." (Ex. 5:2.)

     This loss of the knowledge of Jehovah must have taken place at a very early period of the decline of the Ancient Church in Egypt,-probably in pre-dynastic times, for the most ancient records that have been deciphered bear no trace of the name. There are, indeed, certain minor divinities whose names faintly resemble the sacred name, but these have been so variously transcribed by the Egyptologists that the connection must be considered doubtful.

     But while the knowledge of the sacred name seems to have been utterly lost even among the highest ranks of the Egyptian hierarchy, a knowledge of the Unity of the Godhead lingered with the priesthood even to the end of the nation.

     In the esoteric religions of antiquity this knowledge was guarded with jealous care by those who had been initiated into the sacred mysteries, while the common people, more and more tending to sensualism and superstition, were suffered to remain in gross polytheism, lest ignorance and vice should profane the last remnants of spiritual truth. Such, at least, was the pretense of the hierarchy.

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     Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, in his MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, was, perhaps, the first Egyptologist who clearly recognized the essential monotheism of the Egyptian religion. "The priests who were initiated into, and who understood the mysteries of their religion, believed in one Deity alone; and, in performing their adorations to any particular member of their Pantheon, addressed themselves directly to the sole ruler of the universe, through that particular form.

     "Each form, (whether called (Ptah, Amun, or any other of the figures representing various characters of the Deity), was one of His attributes; in the same manner as our expressions the Creator,' 'the Omniscient,' 'the Almighty,' or any other title, indicate one and the same Being; and hence arose the distinction between the great Gods and those of an inferior grade, which were physical objects, as the sun and the moon; or abstract notions of various kinds, as 'valor,' 'strength,' 'intellectual gifts,' and the like, personified under different forms.

     "Upon this principle it is probable that gods were made of the virtues, the senses, and, in short, every abstract idea which has reference to the Deity or man; and we may therefore expect to find, in this catalogue, intellect, might, wisdom, creative power, the generative and productive principles, thought, will, goodness, mercy, compassion, divine vengeance, prudence, temperance, fortitude, fate, love, hope, charity, joy," etc. (Vol. 4, pp. 172-173.)

     "Though the priests were aware of the nature of their gods, and all those who understood the mysteries of the religion looked upon the Divinity as a sole and undivided Being, the people, not admitted to a participation of those important secrets, were left in perfect ignorance respecting the objects they were taught to adore; and every one was not only permitted, but encouraged, to believe the real sanctity of the idol, and the actual existence of the god whose figure he beheld." (Ibid. p. 775.)

641

     "It is still doubtful if the Egyptians really represented, under any form, their idea of the unity of the Deity; it is not improbable that His name, as with the Jews, was regarded with such profound respect as never to be uttered, and the Being of Beings, 'who is, and was, and will be,' was, perhaps, not even referred to in the sculptures, nor supposed to be approachable, unless under the name and form of some deified attribute, indicative of His power and connection with mankind." (Ibid. p. 178.)

     Dr. Wallis Budge, after showing that the Egyptian term sekher neter, (in the Prisse Papyrus), should be translated "Divine Providence" and not "fate," asks this question: "Who then is the God whose power and providence and government of the world are here proclaimed? The answer to this question is that the God referred to is God, whose power men of the stamp of Ptah-hetep discerned even at the remote period in which he lived, and whose attributes they clearly distinguished; He was in their opinion too great to be called anything else but God, and though, no doubt, they offered sacrifices to the gods in the temple of Memphis, after the manner of their countrymen, they knew that God was an entirely different Being from those 'gods.'" (G. E. 1:126.)

     "We have no means of saying whether this idea of oneness or unity was first applied to Ra or to some more ancient god such as Horus, but it is, in the writer's opinion, quite certain that it existed in the minds of the educated classes of Egypt in the earliest times, and that in all periods it was the central point of their conceptions of God." (Ibid. p. 133.)

     According to the late Prof. C. T. Tiele in his article in the ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA, Vol. 20, P. 367, and in his HISTORIE, COMPAREE DES ANCIENNES RELIGIONS, the Symbolism of Egypt "being misunderstood by the ignorant folk, produced serious errors, and the forms under which the Egyptians represented their gods, and which are repellant to our defined tastes, answered in their minds to an idea of divinity which was purer and more spiritual than the noble and beautiful forms of the gods of Hellas. The ignorant felt no repugnance to monstrous representations because they appeared as representations having a profound and mysterious meaning; the learned understood the meanings of the symbols, and paid their adoration through them to the truth of which they were the coverings.

642

In other words, the uneducated loved a plurality of gods, while the priests and educated classes who could read and understand books, adopted the idea of One God, the creator of all beings in heaven and on earth, who, for want of a better word, were called 'gods.'"

     Dr Rouge, writing in the REVUE ARCHEOLOGIOUE, (1860, p. 73), says: "The unity of a supreme and self-existent Being, his eternity, his almightiness, and eternal reproduction thereby as God; the attributing of the creation of the world and-of all living beings to the supreme God; the immortality of the soul, completed by the dogma of punishments and rewards; such is the sublime and persistent base which, notwithstanding all deviations and all mythological embellishments, must secure for the beliefs of the ancient Egyptians a most honorable place among the religions of antiquity."

     Mariette Bey, in his description of the principal monuments at the Egyptian Pvluseum at Bulak in Cairo, says: "At the head of the Egyptian pantheon soars a God who is One, immortal, uncreated, invisible and hidden in the inaccessible depths of his essence; he is the creator of the heavens and of the earth; he has made everything which exists, and nothing has been made without him; such is the God who is reserved for the initiated of the Sanctuary." (NOTICE, 1876, p. 17.)

     Chabas states that "the One God, who existed before all things, who represents the pure and abstract idea of divinity, is not clearly specialized by any one single personage of the vast Egyptian pantheon. Neither Ptah, nor Seb, nor Thoth, nor Ra, nor Osiris, nor any other God, is a personification of him at all times; but of these sometimes one and at other times another is invoked in terms which assimilate these intimately with the supreme type; the innumerable gods of Egypt are only attributes and different aspects of this unique type." (CALENDRIER DES JOURS, p. 107)

     Perhaps the greatest of all the supporters of the doctrine of ancient Egyptian monotheism was the late Dr. Brugsch, "who assigned to the word for God, neter, the highly philosophical meaning which has been quoted above.

643

Accepting the view, which the Egyptians themselves held, that the gods were only names of the various attributes of the One God, he searched through the religious literature and collected from the hymns, prayers, etc., which were addressed to the various gods and goddesses in various periods, a number of epithets and attributes which were bestowed upon them by their worshipers. These extracts he classified, and when they were grouped and arranged they formed a description of God such as it would be difficult to find a parallel for outside of the Holy Scriptures." (Budge, G. E. 1:140.)

     "Whence came the Egyptian conception of monotheism, or when it first sprang up, cannot be said, but in its oldest form it is coeval with the dynastic civilization of Egypt at least, and it may well date from far earlier times. The monotheistic idea is not the peculiar attribute of any one people or period. It may seem unnecessary to discuss Egyptian monotheism at such lengths, but the matter is one of great interest and importance because the literature of Egypt proves it to have been in existence in that country for more than three thousand five hundred years before Christ; in fact, Egyptian monotheism is the oldest form of monotheism known to us." (Ibid. p. 145.)

     "The Egyptians, after the period of the IVth Dynasty, were the victims of conservatism and conventionality, and, we might also add, of the priesthoods of Heliopolis and Thebes; but for these powerful and wealthy confraternities the history of the religion of Egypt would have been very different. The conception of monotheism, which is so clearly expressed in the moral precepts of the Early Empire, would have developed rapidly, and in its growth it would have obliterated the remains of the old and obsolete faiths which had crystallized, and which existed in layers side by side with the higher doctrine. But the decay which set in after the IVth Dynasty, and which stifled the development of painting and sculpture, also attacked the religion of the country; and the noble conception of monotheism, with its cult of the unseen, was unable to compete with the worship of symbols which could be seen and handled." (Ibid. p. 154)

     In view of the almost unanimous testimony of the Egyptologists as to the original and essential monotheism of the Egyptian religion, the gross idolatry of the people as a whole, and the complicated polytheism of the Pantheon seem all the more amazing.

644

In no other nation of the ancient world do we find such a bewildering multitude of divinities. "One would think," says Maspero, "that the country had been inhabited for the most part by gods, and contained just sufficient men and animals to satisfy the requirements of their worship." (HISTORY OF EGYPT, 1. p. 108.) The people of Egypt represented the scientific mind in the Ancient Church, and this mind, being external, delights in a multiplicity of forms, of fixed and well defined systems, which, when once adopted, are adhered to with the greatest tenacity. The theology of the Ancient Church was thus formulated and systematized in Egypt more than in any other country. The essentials, the qualities, attributes and various operations of the one God were here enumerated and arranged in precise systems, and in a great variety of such systems; each quality was marked with a distinct name and received a distinct embodiment in some representative image, and these masses and images remained as objects of worship long after the internal ideas had been perverted and forgotten.

Again, the number of the deities were greatly increased by the habit of adding to their original appellations the names of the localities where temples had been erected for their worship. New divinities arose also by the combination of the names of several older ones. The rival priesthoods in Heliopolis, in Memphis, in Thebes, and other cities, insisted upon their own conceptions of the old ideas under special favorite names, systems and images. The veneration of departed saints and heroes added to the number of deities. A highly developed spirit-worship followed as a result of open intercourse with spirits among the Egyptian magicians. Foreign gods were gradually introduced by successive invaders from Syria and Ethiopia, and to add to the confusion, nature-worship arose as the spiritual correspondences were forgotten, demanding the adoration of natural auras and elements, the sun, the moon and the hosts of the sky, the four quarters of heaven, the Nile, the desert, etc., not to speak of all the sacred animals.

645

     When, in the year 1890, the present writer first essayed to unravel the intricate coils of Egyptian mythology,-having done the same, as we believe with some success, in the simpler systems of the Assyro-Babylonian-Canaanitish Pantheon,-*he was forced to give up the attempt an account of the apparent hopelessness of discovering any coherent system of theology in the mazes of Egyptian polytheism which were continually growing more confusing on account of the habit of each Egyptologist to give a new reading to most of the divine names. The effort, therefore, was permitted to rest for some twenty years, but in the meantime light was received in the interpretation of the Graeo-Roman system of mythology,** which we gradually recognized as being very closely related to the Egyptian system. We must acknowledge our indebtedness, also, to the epoch-making work of Dr. Wallis Budge, THE GODS OF THE EGYPTIANS, which has summarized and greatly simplified the Egyptian Pantheon. For the sake of convenience we have adopted the nomenclature introduced by Dr. Budge.
     * See the article on "Mythology in the Light of the New Church" in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1899, pp.141, 157, 177, 191; 1890, pp. 20, 39, 59, 104, 138.
     ** See articles in NEW CHURCH, LIFE, 1905, 1906.
TELLING THE NEIGHBOR WHAT HE IS TO DO. 1913

TELLING THE NEIGHBOR WHAT HE IS TO DO. Rev. W. F. PENDLETON 1913

     A SERMON

     "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." (John 13:17.)

     It may excite our wonder that the doctrine of salvation by faith alone, salvation without the deeds of the law, salvation without keeping the commandments of the Decalogue, should have been accepted by a large part of the Christian world as the very palladium of religion, when yet there are hundreds of passages in the Sacred Scripture, which plainly teach that the commandments are to be kept, that the words of the Lord are not only to be believed, but are also to be done, in order that men may be saved. The early Reformers were aware of these teachings of the Word, and explained them to mean that the Commandments are to be kept for the sake of moral life in the world, but that they do not contribute anything to spiritual life or salvation; that salvation is only by an act of faith in the merits of Christ, as He hung upon-the Cross, dying for poor, sinful men.

646

This doctrine is not so openly proclaimed now as in former times, but the secret fallacy in it, the secret falsity of evil in it, universally prevails and nothing can remove it but the spiritual truth of the Word,-now revealed anew-and that truth received into the understanding and by the understanding into the life. But it is not the purpose of this discourse to discuss and set forth the all pervading presence of the falsity of evil that reigns in the doctrine of faith alone, but we wish rather to bring before you a phase, result, or effect of that falsity in the lives of men; which goes back indeed to the root and cause of it in the love of domination or love of rule, showing itself especially in the love of controlling the conduct of others, which comes usually from a state of faith in the understanding, or of thought from the memory, and not from a state of charity in the will, and thus not from a human sympathy that has its rise in charity.

We find from church history, especially from the internal history of churches as given in the Writings, that in the spiritual decline and consummation of every church, there grows up and ever increases a love of dominion over the souls of men, and at the same time a state of faith in the understanding that is devoid of love to the Lord or of charity towards the neighbor: From this state there comes forth into practice the love of dictating, directing, and controlling the actions of men, in order to thoroughly rivet the chains of dominion over them. Churches in their consummation therefore multiply more and more the external observances and requirements of religion, and teach less and less the genuine principles of human action as revealed in the Word, thus successively closing the human understanding, and reducing it to a state of ignorance in all spiritual and Divine things. They thus place themselves in the power of controlling and directing the actions of men, establishing a complete dominion over their minds and souls by dictating their external conduct.

647

It will be seen that the direct effect of this closing of the human rational is, that men are led to follow blindly the dogmas of the leaders of the Church; or rather the prime effort of these leaders is to close the rational, to reduce the minds of men to a state of ignorance, in order that they may lead them blindly at will,-to establish a state of blind obedience to human invention, rather than to the truths of the Word revealed to the understanding, and given that the understanding may not be closed, but opened.

We read that on one occasion the Scribes and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, "Why do Thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread?" (Matthew xv, 1, 2.) For "When they saw some of His disciples eat bread with defiled, that is to say with unwashen hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding to the tradition of the elders. And when they came from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and Scribes asked Him, Why walk not Thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashen hands? He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying aside the Commandments of God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the washing of pots and cups; and many other such like things do ye. And He said unto them, Full well ye reject the Commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." (Mark vii, 2-9.)

The tradition of the elders had multiplied itself through successive generations, and had gradually taken the place with the Jews of the genuine teachings of the Mosaic law, by which the Commandment of God had become of none effect, for which the doctrines of men had been substituted, and so the Jewish Church had not only ceased to be a Church, but had even ceased to be the true representative of a Church; for all that was genuinely representative with them had been falsified and perverted by their traditions, the commandments of men.

648

Heaven was, therefore, closed to that church, and the members of it were made fully subject to their traditions; which were used by the "blind leaders of the blind" to establish a human dominion in the place of the government of Jehovah God, which had been inaugurated through Moses with their fathers in the wilderness. When the Jewish Church was invaded by these traditions, by these external requirements which were non-essential to salvation; when these had fully taken possession of that church in the hands of selfish and unscrupulous leaders, it was no longer possible for heaven to be opened to the Jews, no longer possible for the Lord's spiritual kingdom to be established with them; therefore that kingdom was taken away and given to others who could bear the fruits of charity, the fruits of a spiritual love of the neighbor.

The lesson herein is, that it is the love of dominion, and at the same time a state of faith without charity, which multiplies external requirements in order to so direct, control, and govern the conduct of men, that dominion over their minds and souls may be made effectual and complete. This same truth receives astonishing illustration in the history of the Christian Church which followed the Jewish. Established at first and intended to be an internal or spiritual church, intended to become a true rational church in which a spiritual understanding could be formed, by means of which heaven could be opened, it soon declined like the church of the Jews into a degenerate form, in which traditions ruled in the place of the Commandments of God, in which the entire Word was falsified, in which externals were multiplied almost without number,-pure human inventions, multitudinous requirements that were not essential to salvation, all invented for the sake of closing the human understanding and of thus gaining control over the actions of men, and through this to effectually enslave the human mind. Read the history of the Christian Church from the time of the Council of Nice down through the ages of the Catholic Church to the present day, and you will be surprised at the multiplication of rituals having in view the control of the actions of men,-multiplication in things non-essential, for it is in these and by these especially that dominion is obtained over the human understanding, and men are led captive at the will of unprincipled leaders; for a man is not in a state of freedom of thought, if the expression of his thought in conduct is under the restraint and control of another than himself.

649

In the increase of enlightenment that came over Europe a few centuries ago, men began to be conscious both of the political and religious slavery that had prevailed for so long a time, and there arose what is called the Reformation. It was seen more clearly than before that a man's conduct should be under his own control except so far as he does not violate established order, and commit offenses against the law to the injury of his neighbor. Especially was it seen by the early Reformers that the control over the consciences of men, which had been exercised by the Catholic Church, by means of a multitude of external observances and requirements, was contrary to the principles of human freedom and the teachings of the Word; and the yoke was thrown off by the northern nations of Europe, and the various sects of the Protestant Church arose. These external requirements by which the actions of men had been brought under the control of the priesthood were in large part abolished, and a new state of freedom dawned upon the world. But the habit of directing the conduct of others, of dictating what others shall do, still remained, and remains until this day. The early Puritans betrayed a disposition to improve even upon the Catholics in devising means for the control of human actions. This was shown especially in the invention of the dogma that the understanding is to be held under obedience to faith, and by faith was meant faith in the teachings of the leaders of the Church. The external requirements of ritual were not multiplied as formerly, but the new dogma took the place to a large extent of the observances of ritual, and tended more effectually to close the human understanding in the things of religion than ever before. Under it new requirements for individual action were invented, and the habit of dictating what others shall say or do was established and confirmed in the practices of the Church and in the life of men in general.

650

This disposition to control the habits of men was itself multiplied, distributed among many, and as a condition of human life it is now well nigh universal. For it is easier for the natural man to see and to say what others shall do than to see and to say what he shall do himself; the effort to dictate the conduct of others is easier than to establish the exercises of self-control.

     In the New Church this is all to be changed. All things are to be made new in human life. A religious freedom such as never existed is to become the heritage of men. The individual is to become responsible to the Lord alone in what he says and does. He is not to be subject to the will and command of another in the things of a religious and moral life, nor even in the things of civil life so long as he lives according to the laws of order. And in separating from the old Church one of the fundamental things to lay aside, to shun as a sin against God, is the desire and wish to control the actions of others, to dictate what another shall think or what another shall do.

     Now in respect to this thing, so important to the life of the Church, we are not without instruction, and the example and practice of the angels of heaven is given us, and by opposition the example and practice of the devils in hell. We are told that every one in hell wishes to exercise command over others and thus to become pre-eminent; nor is there anything that evil spirits so much delight in as to direct and control the actions of others. (H. H. 220.) But the contrary is the case in heaven. The angels of the higher heavens have such great power that they are able to subdue whole societies of hell, and yet they have no desire to exercise command over any one. (S. D. 4427) They love and take delight in the freedom of others, and minister to it in every way. Their power is exercised to give freedom rather than to take it away, even as it is with the Lord Himself. They will and desire that every angel, every spirit and every man should be in freedom to act according to his own judgment, according to the light in his own mind, in all that he says and does. We read in ARCANA COELESTIA (n. 5732), On this subject, as follows:

     "That to command signifies influx, is because in heaven no one is commanded or ordered; but thought is communicated, and the other acts willingly in accordance therewith.

651

Communication of thought, together with a desire which wills that something be done, is influx, and on the part of the recipient is perception, and therefore by commanding is signified also perception. Moreover in heaven they not only think, but also talk together, but about the things of wisdom; yet in their conversation there is nothing of command from one to another, for no one desires to be master and thereby to look upon another as a servant; but every one desires to minister to and serve the others." This they derive from the Lord Himself, who said, "I am among you as he that serveth" (Luke xx, 27); and who said also to His disciples, "Whosoever shall become great among you shall be your minister, and whosoever shall be first shall be your servant." (Matthew xx, 26-27.)

We are told also that there are some in the world who wait for influx before they do good, that is, wait to be told from heaven by a conscious impulse in their thought; but we are further informed that such as these do not receive any influx from heaven except a few who desire it from the heart; these sometimes receive a kind of response by a living perception in the thought, or by a mind of tacit speech in the thought. But what is it that they then receive, what is it that then flows into their thought from the angels of heaven? It is this: "Think and act as you please and as you are able, and if you act wisely you will he wise, and if you act foolishly you will be foolish." (D. P. 321) This is all and nothing more; they are simply reminded of a most general truth which they knew before, and the silent voice that speaks to them refuses to instruct them as to what they are to think or what they are to do, and for the most important of reasons, namely, that the human rational and human liberty would perish if men were instructed or told directly from heaven what to think and what to do; and the same is true, even though in a less degree, on earth with men in their relations with each other; for the rational is formed and genuine liberty grows as a man acts in freedom according to reason-according to his own reason and judgment, and not by the dictate and control of another. In this example of angelic advice from the work on the DIVINE PROVIDENCE, we may learn that in the greater part of the advice one man gives another in the world, there is that which does not minister to human freedom, because it mostly consists in telling another what he ought to do or what he ought not to do.

652

The angelic mode of giving advice is to say, Do as you please, and if you act wisely you will be wise, but if you act foolishly you will be foolish. If we on earth follow this mode, we not only minister to the growth of human liberty, but at the same time to the increase and development of human rationality in others; for as we have seen the dictating to and controlling the actions of men, is what consummates churches by closing the understanding and damming up the outflow of human liberty.

The angels do not give advice to others as to what they ought to do, or say anything that tends to the control of their actions, because such is not the Divine mode in respect to men. The Lord never tells any individual man what he is to do or what he is not to do, except in such a manner that the man appears to reach it by his own conclusion in his own thought. Even in the letter of the Word, which is addressed for the most part to children and the simple, no one is told or commanded what he as an individual is to do except in the most general terms. We are indeed told that we must speak the truth and believe the truth, that we must do good and love good, in order to be saved; and that if we know the truth and live according to it we shall be happy forever, even as in the text where the Lord says, "If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them." But there is no persuasion or compulsion to do, nor are we ever told on any given occasion that we are to do this or that thing. The Lord never comes to us and says, Do this or do that, but He gives us the general principles of truth in His Word, leaving the application with us according to our own freedom and our own reason. This truth appears especially in the internal sense of the Word as given in the Writings of the Church. The Writings treat throughout, not of action, but of that which is prior to the act, the principles of action. When a man has in his understanding the principles of action and conduct and loves them, the rational faculty is opened, and there is no need of telling him what to do, for he can tell himself better than others can tell him.

653

The Writings are addressed to the rational mind of man; their sole purpose and intent is to open and form a true rational, a spiritual rational, with men in the world, and thereby establish a true spiritual church on the earth; they therefore present reasons, principles, not actions, to men. Action or use is indeed in view, always in view, but the individual man is left to determine his own course of procedure in respect to action, work and use, in the light of the principles of action which are given. This point is illustrated in the TRUE CHRISTIAN RELIGION (n. 331), as follows: "That man ought to purify himself from evils, and not wait for the Lord to do this immediately, is comparatively as if a servant, whose face and clothes are daubed with soot and dung, should come up to his master and say to him, 'Wash me, sir.' Would not the master say to him, 'You foolish servant, what do you say? See, there is water, soap, and a towel. Have you not hands and power to use them? Wash yourself.' And the Lord God will say, 'The means of purification are from me, and also your will and your power are from me; wherefore use these my gifts and talents as your own, and you will be purified.'"

The means of purification are spiritual truths, principles of action, which the Lord has given us in His Revelation, and we are to use them as our own, not waiting for Him to tell us what to do, but act as of ourselves in the light and according to the light of the rational principles of action which have been revealed from heaven. This explains why no angel ever tells another what he is to do, but presents rather the general principles of conduct, and leaves his neighbor to act in his own freedom according to his own reason, in order that the as of itself may be cultivated, strengthened, and grow, and with it that the rational may be opened, and true heavenly freedom be established in mind and in life.

An important and an essential phase of education is involved in the principle which we are endeavoring herein to set forth. Human life begins in early childhood with the parent telling the child what he is to do. This is proper and necessary, for the rational is not yet opened with the child,-and it is important for this reason to begin with dictating the conduct of the child.

654

So doing does no harm at this early period of human development; it is indeed good, useful and necessary; for even with an adult who has no rationality, and concerning whom there is no hope of any rational opening of the mind, it is to some extent necessary to dictate what he is to do. But the direct control of the conduct of the child should relax as he grows older, especially when the period for the opening of the rational arrives, at the beginning of the age of youth. We are then to gradually cease saying to the child, now a youth, "Do this or do that," but we are rather to follow the line indicated by the Lord in the words of the test, saying to the child, "If ye know these things happy are ye if ye do them," and finally to say to him as the angels say, "Do as you please, if you act wisely you will be wise, but if you act foolishly you will be foolish." If dictating the actual conduct of the young be followed up until adult age and into adult age, the opening of the rational may be retarded and hindered; and so a wise parent and a wise teacher will relax the reins of government, the government of the conduct of the youth,-leaving him, as is frequently said, to his own resources, that is, leave him free to make his own conclusions from the principles of action that have been already given him, that he may become wise and happy in the doing of that which he knows to be true and right. For the Lord says, "if ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Therefore it is not wise to attempt to do for another what he ought to for himself, if he would become wise? and happy as the angels of heaven are.

One of the chief sources of unhappiness in society and in families is faultfinding, and the spirit of faultfinding. This is well known, but in this, as in so many other things of human life, the teaching of the text is not observed, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." We know that faultfinding is wrong, that it brings only unhappiness and distress, that it usually fails of its purpose. It may indeed suppress or repress, but it does not really remove the evil of another. In the New Church we know that the neighbor only can interiorly repress his own evils, acting not from without, but from within, acting not from men, but from the Lord.

655

But the evils or faults of others sometimes irritate us, and arouse a state of impatience from which we speak, and we give expression to a decided opinion as to what ought to be done, or what ought not to be done. This does not proceed from a true spiritual rationality in us, nor does it tend to cultivate a true spiritual rationality in another. It would, therefore, be wise to desist, to be silent until we shall have been able to assume a rational self-control, and speak from the rational rather than from the natural within. We know these things, and happy will it be for society and for the family when we shall find ourselves able to do them. We shall then realize that it is better for the neighbor, who is now an adult, in whom the rational is supposedly open, who is able to see truth in the light of his own mind,-it is better for him to find out his own faults, discover his own evils; for then he will perhaps be inspired of the Lord to fight against them and remove them from within, from heaven, and not from the world. If they are pointed out to him by another, especially if it is done in the spirit of reproach, he may suppress the fault or evil from without, and so cover it that it may be no longer seen, but he does not remove the roots, and he may cherish resentment, possibly revenge, and his last state will be worse than his first. Let him find it out himself. Bear with him; endure the fault that impinges on your sensibilities, and you will in the end receive a great reward.

It is in married life, between married partners, that this principle finds its most striking illustration. It is but too true that in many cases the beginning of marriage is the beginning of a struggle for dominion, which finally results in the complete subjugation of one or the other of the parties to the marriage covenant. It begins and continues in the effort of each to prescribe and dictate the conduct of the other. Let us draw the veil over this dark picture in the simple remark, that in marriage is the very battlefield of their human life, the battlefield of regeneration itself, and they who overcome, who overcome themselves, have before them to eternity a happiness that no human tongue can describe or human thought express.

In conclusion let us note the fact, which is well known, that to every general law there are what are called exceptions.

656

An exception to a rule or law, however, is but the appearing of another law in the boundary, and in the boundary it must be respected, even as every man must respect the boundary of his neighbor's property. We have already referred to some exceptions to the law that we are not to prescribe the conduct of our neighbor, or to say to him what he is to do or what he is not to do. Children in early life must be told what they are to do. Those who are like children among adults, or those in whom the rational is not opened, sometimes come under this exception; also subordinates in many fields of human activity. We see this especially in die life of a soldier who must obey the commands of: his superior officers. But even in these cases the principle of leaving some things to the discretion of the individual ought to be observed. Yea, in early childhood we may at times leave the child to himself with a view to what is to come when he grows older. Another exception would be the defense of our own conduct and life from the unlawful invasion of another. There are punishments also that, are legitimate, when it is necessary to say to another, "Thou shall," or "Thou shalt not." But with all those who are equals, the truth still holds, that it is not lawful for one to prescribe to; another in any manner what he is to do, or what he is not to do. Present principles, give truths, exhibit reasons, inspire affection, and then leave the neighbor to his own resources, simply saying to him in the name of the Lord, "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." Amen.
SIGHT IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 1913

SIGHT IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. W. REY GILL 1913

(A paper read at the British Assembly, Colchester, August 13, 1913.)

We are told in the Writings that men cannot apprehend naked spiritual things, and therefore the spiritual things of heaven can only be presented to our comprehension by a comparison with the objects to which we are accustomed in the world. But such external objects are only correspondent forms or derivative images of the things which exist in the spiritual world.

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The Writings besides describing the external appearances in that world, also explain the underlying realities, so far as this can be done in human 1anguage. These explanations are given for our use, and it is not, well always to remain satisfied with a knowledge of the appearances in that world we are so soon to enter.

     There is so much teaching given us in regard to the realities underlying the phenomena of sight in the spiritual world, that it has been extremely difficult to decide which aspects of the subject to present, and also to bring them, when selected, within the limits of this paper, which is therefore presented with diffidence as an introduction, of a very elementary character, to the great subject with which it deals.

     As we are considering the spiritual sense of sight which operates in a substantial world, allow me, as a preface, to recall to your minds some definitions given us in the Writings of these two terms-spiritual and substantial; and I would like you to bear these definitions in mind when these terms occur in the paper and the quotations selected therein from the Writings.

     SPIRITUAL.

     "The spiritual in its first origin is the Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord's Divine Human, which truth has Divine good in it." (A. C. 6885.)

     "Spiritual things are nothing else than truths from the Divine." (A. C. 3374.)

     "Spiritual things are not material, because they are forces from substances." (S. D. 2299.)

     "Spiritual things are Things; and natural things are the forms of them." (A. R. 7.)

     "As all the angels are receptions of [the proceeding Divine] they are spiritual; and so are men who receive the Divine Truth in faith and life." (A. E. 189.)

     "The spiritual has no existence," [that is, does not stand forth or present itself], "except in the rational, and, therefore, the spiritual man and the rational man are almost the same." (A. C. 3264.)

     SUBSTANTIAL.

     "The Divine, which is substance in itself, or the one and only substance, is the substance from which are each and all things which have been created." (D. L. W. 198. See also A. C. 7270.)

     "Things both celestial and spiritual, which are from the Lord, are living and essential, or, as they are called, substantial." (A. C. 1808.)

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     "Substantial things are the beginnings of material ones." (C. L. 328)

     "Everything which is in the other life is the substantial itself, because it is the origin of all the substantial things in nature. There is a living substantial there, or a purest ethereal; and this is formed by the Lord into things so wonderful that they can scarcely be described." (S. D. 4293.)

     "As love and wisdom . . . are substances, so in like manner are all things which are called civil, moral and spiritual." (D. L. W. 209.)

     Now before dealing specifically with the sight of spirits and angels, and the objects which are presented before their eyes, it will be well to recall the teaching as to the light by which they see; and to remember while we do so, that spiritual light is not a purer or more refined natural light, but that the latter is merely an analogue or correspondent of the former, and as it were its clothing; differing from it as discreetly as clothes do from a man.

     The only light that exists in the spiritual world is that which illumines our understandings and enables us to think and be rational while we are in this world; though here it is obscured through falling into our material ideas. This light is the Divine Truth which proceeds from the Lord as a Sun, and it contains in its bosom intelligence and wisdom. Further: the amount of spiritual light into which man comes after death depends entirely upon the mind of understanding he has formed from his life's love during his life here. Thus, "after death everyone comes into his own light." (D. P. 167) And, as the brilliancy of the light in which angels are is exactly proportionate to their intelligence and wisdom, the light of the angels of the higher heavens cannot be described in words, "for words are taken from a lower sphere." It amounts, then, to one and the same thing whether we say a person is elevated into intelligence and wisdom, and is illustrated, or that he is elevated into the light of heaven.

     Since the Incarnation, the light which the angel's perceive proceeds from the glorified Human of the Lord; and we are told: "After the Last Judgment . . . . there was light in World of Spirits such as there had not been before. . . . A like light also arose for men in the world, from which they have new illustration." (Cont. L. J. 30.)

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     What this light effects with the inhabitants in each of the three heavens, Swedenborg tells us from his own experience. He says: "In the light of the Highest Heaven I was in wisdom, in the light of the Second Heaven in intelligence, and in the light of the Ultimate Heaven in knowledge; and when I was solely in natural light I was in ignorance of spiritual things." (D. Wis. i, 4.)

     Everyone, be he angel, devil or man, receives the light of heaven differently from anyone else. We are taught, too, that it is the variation of this light that governs all the thoughts of angels, yes even of men. Not that the light itself ever alters, for that is the DIVINE TRUTH, but it is varied by the recipient vessels in the organic spiritual and natural substances of the minds or spirits of men. "The angels have changes of state between the highest amount of light and less light, or between the highest amount of wisdom and less wisdom." (A. C. 3693)

     Even the devil's and satans have spiritual light from the Lord, but, as their minds or spirits have not been formed to the reception of truths, the light or truth with them is modified by falsities only thus becoming in their case a feeble illumination like that from torches and burning coals, and is a fatuous and phantastic light similar to that by which cats see in the dark. In the world such spirits were in thick darkness as to Divine truths, and so after death they cannot see in the light of heaven. But it calls for some degree of thought even to confirm falsities, and hence arises the parody of light in which they are. "The light of their eyes has become fitted to this light; and for the same reason the light of heaven is thick darkness to them." (H. H. 583)

     In regard to what may be termed the spiritual physiological conditions of the mind of a man who becomes unable to receive the light of heaven, the following quotations are of interest:

     "The things which are of the natural mind are for the most part in the light of the world . . .but the things which are of the rational mind are in the light of heaven, which light is spiritual light." (A. C. 7130.)

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"The light from Heaven inflows into human minds above the memory, but the light from the world, beneath it." (B. E. 55.) "The closing up of the spiritual degree is like the retorsion of a spiral, which is the reason why after this degree has been closed it bends back the light of heaven." (D. L. W. 254.)

     The objects man sees, and even the things which he hears, are laid up in his memory under visual appearances, and from these the imagination, or image-making faculty, is formed. It depends upon the arrangements of these visual appearances in the memory as to how much of the interior heavenly light a man is able to perceive.

     What are the eyes by which man sees after death? The answer is given clearly and unequivocally: "The internal eye is the intellectual mind, and . . . has its sight from the light of heaven." (A. C. 6068, 6032.) And again: "The internal eye, that is, the understanding." (A. C. 3438, 10569.)

     One further quotation must be given here: "The earthly corporeal is no longer of any use to him, he being in another world where are other functions, and other powers and abilities, to which the nature of his body there is adapted. This body," (which appears to him like the body he had in the world) "he sees with his eyes . . . which are the eyes of his internal man, and by which through the eyes of the body he had before seen earthly and worldly things." (A. C. 5078.) It seems to the writer hard to suppose that these internal eyes, which use the natural eyes during life in the world, are organs shaped like the natural eye, (though they appear so after death, for it is the brain which we are taught is the organ of the internal senses, (A. C. 441, S. D. 3471), and by means of which man therefore sees in the natural world.

     Having seen that the intellectual mind is man's spiritual or internal eye, let us now consider some of the teaching concerning the sense of sight in the other world.

     The faculty of the intellectual mind or the understanding, is thought and the ability to understand truths; and truths, as will be shown later, are the objects of sight in the spiritual world. Thus we read:

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     "The sight of the spirit is the understanding." (A. C. 2701.)

     "The understanding is the spiritual sight." (A. C. 7533; H. H. 402; D. P. 166.)

     "Thought is internal sight." (A. C. 9213; D. L. W. 404.)

     "The understanding is internal sight." (A. C. 2245.)

     "To see signifies to understand; for which reason it is also said in common speech, that one sees that matter, and that he sees that it is truth; for the spirit of man has sight as well as his body. But by his spirit man sees spiritual things, because from the light of heaven: and spiritual things are real, but natural things are their forms. The sight of men's spirit is what is called the understanding." (A. R. 7.)

     "To see signifies to understand, which is the same as to view from the sight of the mind." (A. C. 2651.)

     In dreams we use our spiritual eyesight though the natural world may be in darkness. The objects we then see are seen in spiritual light, though we detect no difference in its appearance from that of the light of the natural sun. But in dreams the degree of spiritual sight exercised is of a relatively low order.

     The rays of spiritual sight are ideas (A. C. 1869), which is the same as if we should say that they are changes and variations of the interior substances of the mind. Now these rays of sight, or ideas, can be opened up in the life after death, and wonderful are the things then presented to view before the sight of angels and spirits. A lovely example of this opening of the rays of spiritual sight is afforded when the ideas are those of a person who has found great delight in reading and meditating on the Word, for as each of his ideas taken from this source is opened up, there appear before his sight and that of his companions, delightful and beautiful things surpassing any we can conceive of (A. C. 1869, 1870)

     This phenomenon of the spiritual world is of immense import. It implies that while we live here we are each making our own scenery, and deciding what objects we shall have around us, in the future life: choosing, even now, amidst what kind of surroundings we shall dwell to eternity. It also shows how literally we may take the Lord's words, "The Kingdom of Heaven is within you." For the teaching is clearly given that angels and spirits see within themselves (S. D. 5528), and what appears as outside themselves is as it were a reflection from the real spiritual things, or truths, which they see within themselves.

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"To see within one's self is from heaven; to see without one's self is from the world." (A. C. 10675)

     It is true that there is extension of sight in the spiritual world, but this means that the understanding of the inhabitants reaches to a higher or lower degree of truth, for the sight of all is according to their intelligence. Thus some have weak sight, some strong, and some see at times with the help of others-which is as if we should borrow someone's glasses to aid our vision.

     Moreover, the angels' eyes are so superior to those with which we view natural objects, that while the angels always keep their faces towards the Lord, that is, look to Him in all things-yet "they see to the south, north and west at the same time as to the east, but within themselves. It is as if their sight were also all around." (S. D. 5528, H. H. 144.) Truly a case of "other functions, and other powers and abilities" than those of this world Again: "Thousands of cohorts of evil spirits can be led, coerced, conquered and dispersed by one angel by truths from the Lord; and this merely by sight from a directing at them of the will." (A. E. 783) Which is the same as saying that they do so by dispersing the clouds of falsities with the evil, by letting in upon them rays of heavenly light, or ideas from DIVINE TRUTH, thus exposing the falsities and evils in all their hideous nakedness and impotence, and making the evil spirits as helpless as men in the dark.

     The sight of all angels and spirits acts as a one with their thought. We read: "their eyes are such as is their thought." As those in hell think only falsities "they believe what is false to be true, and therefore their sight makes the same, and they see things which are not, exactly as if they were; which is the reason why there are mere phantasies there, and nothing real." (S. D. 5905.)

     The spiritual or rational mind of man call see as from above the things which are in his external or natural mind, but-before the rational mind is opened-the natural man can understand nothing of truly rational or spiritual things; so, and for the same reason, the higher angel's can observe and, as it were, look down upon the lower angels, the spirits, and the satans and devils.

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But those below cannot see those above or in a more interior state, that is, those in whom the higher degrees of the mind have been opened; and, if the heavens do appear to good spirits, it is but as a white and shining mist or cloud; while to the evil ones the heavens appear as thick darkness.

     The sight of the angels in each of the three heavens is from a distinct origin, and is the distinctive faculty of the plane of the mind on which each grade of angel lives. The sight of the celestial angels is wisdom, that of the spiritual angels is intelligence, and that of the spiritual-natural is knowledge. (A. R. 351)

     Angels, of whatever degree they be, have a twofold sight-an internal and an external; for every angel has all internal and an external mind; but the two sights inflow into each other and act as one. In other words, what the angels think or see within themselves in their interior sight, that they see represented as it were outside themselves; though really it has no objective existence, but is purely subjective, for "as is the mind, so does the man (in the spiritual world) see objects." (C. L. 477.)

     It is true that even here we see external objects within ourselves, but the distinction between the two worlds is that in the natural world external objects exist as they appear, apart from the person who sees them, while in the spiritual world this is not the case.

     When kept in their external sight, or the sight of the external mind, evil spirits can see the beautiful representations that exist in the heavens, but as soon as the evil one is let back into his internal sight, which is that of his false principles, or lumen from the warmth of an evil love-he sees the truths of heaven distorted by his own eyes into opposite and unpleasing representations.
(C. L. 477.)

     The objects appearing before the eyes of spirits and angels are spiritual, that is, truths, doctrinals and knowledges. (A. C. 6068, 6032, 8861.) These are more clearly seen by angels than are natural objects by men. (A. E. 831) The law governing the appearance of these objects seems to be this: The Lord's life and light, which is the soul within an angel or spirit, flows into the objects stored up in his mind.

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These objects are spiritual ones, namely, knowledge and truths. After being veiled and altered by these until the naked truth is accommodated to the person, the Lord presents His truth within the mind, or spirit, or angel, who then sees it in representative or correspondential forms, as if outside himself. In the words of the Writings: "The things that exist in heaven do not exist in the same manner as those that exist on earth. All things in heaven exist from the Lord, according to correspondences with the interiors of the angels." (H. H. 173.) "Since all things that correspond to interiors also represent them, they are, therefore, called representatives. And because they are varied according to the state of the interiors of those who behold them, they are called appearances." (H. H. 175.)

     It depends upon the good or the love of the beholder as to whether the objects presented to his view appear to him lovely or not, for only those objects or truths that he loves are delightful to him, and only to such will he direct his view.

     All Newchurchmen will probably remember the description given us by the DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM, in the book thus entitled, of the beautiful bird which was shown to Sir Hans Sloan in the spiritual world. He held it in his hand and examined it carefully and found not the smallest difference between it and a bird on earth, though he knew it was merely an image of some angel's affection which was thus presented to view as if outside and apart from the angel, and that it would disappear as soon as the angel's state was changed.

     This instance will serve as an illustration that may be applied to all things which angels and spirits see with their eyes. Among the objects that are thus definitely stated to be such representative appearances of the interiors of the angels, and to have no existence apart from them, are clouds, rainbows, colors, garments, gold; silver and precious stones, gardens, parks, trees, flowers, fruits, houses, palaces and animals; besides other objects which are not seen in the natural world. In regard to the copies of the Word which appear in the heavens, see Bishop W. F. Pendleton's article in NEW CHURCH LIFE, June, 1913, p. 320.

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     It is said all the visible things of the spiritual world are merely correspondences of the affections of the spirits and angels. (Cent. L. J. 23, T. C. R. 78.) But, lest it be thought that this statement does not apply to the appearing bodies of the angels themselves, such passages as the following are given us: "The spirits of Mars appear to themselves as men such as they had been in the world, wherefore they also appear to others in the same way, for everyone in the other life appears to others as he (appears) to himself because the perception is communicated."* (A. C. 7475) "Spirits are appearances. A spirit also is an apparent man, for a spirit is a man appearing there before the eyes of others." (S. D. 5646) (See also A. C. 954, 959, 978, 2576:2, 6318, 7475e.)
     * This passage indicates the way in which one spirit or angel and his surroundings are seen by another: a person's perception of his own appearing body and surroundings being communicated to others in the spiritual world by means of the spheres which emanate from him in every direction. This, too, would be the method by which education and instruction is given in the other life.

     All the visual appearances mentioned above are only so far permanent as is the affection of the angel that gives rise to them or, as it were, creates them. The surroundings of angels are created in a moment and disappear in a moment, and when angels go to another place the objects around them Vanish too, new ones appearing when other angels arrive. In this way they can tell the quality of other angels and spirits by noticing what objects appear around them. For instance, "when truths and goods are presented in visible form, as they are in the other life manifestly to the eyes of spirits and angels, then truth is presented in definite quantity, consequently as much or as little, according to the quality of the truth; truth is also presented as angular in various forms, and it is also presented as white. But good is there presented in continuous quantity, thus not as much or as little; good is also presented as round, which is continuous in form, and in color as blue, yellow and red." (A. C. 8458.)

     It is in the Ultimate or First Heaven only that the truths which the angels see as objects appear like the things seen on earth.

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When the Divine Truth or Light inflows into the angels in the Third and Second Heavens, the forms in which it appears as it were outside the angels cannot be described in natural language, for in the Third Heaven this Divine Light is received and perceived as the good which is called charity; in the Second Heaven as truth from charity, and only to the angels of the ultimate Heaven does it appear as paradises, cities, palaces, and things of alike nature. (A. C. 4411. See also A. E. 369.)

     These appearances in the lowest heaven are forms of the thoughts and perceptions of the angels of the higher heavens, accommodated to the perceptions of the lower angels, for with the latter the Divine Truth, besides coming from immediate influx from the Lord, is also derived by mediate influx through the higher heavens. And the Divine Light flows lower yet, into the minds of men on earth, and there it finds a foundation or resting place from which, by the direction of man's sight by the Lord's providence to appropriate objects, it can from ultimates excite the required thoughts and affections in man's attendant spirits, and through the latter arouse the love and wisdom of the angels. "Thus whatever the Lord saw fit to represent [before the angels], still it would happen that the eye or the sight of the eye [of man] would be directed to such things as could be vessels [for such representations.]" (S. D. 3672.) In the case of those still in the World of Spirits, their surroundings are from those things which they perceive from the man's mind on whom they are attendant. (S. D. 5092, 3627; 1853-3, 3857) Those recently deceased appear to themselves to be in like surroundings to those to which they have been accustomed in the world, because they are still in the ideas of their external mind.

     But however interior the angel, still truth cannot be presented to him in its naked purity, but in some clothing from appearances in which his thoughts may rest; though, as said before, in the case of the higher angels such appearances are discreetly above anything that we can imagine from the things seen on earth.

     It is because they actually see truths, that the spiritual angels have wisdom. Moreover, if such angels are told that something is true, and they do not see it objectively in their surroundings, they do not believe it, and will say, "Do you suppose me to be insane, or yourself to be a god whom I am to believe?

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If I do not see it, it may be what is false from hell." (A. E. 1100.)

     But the celestial angels are not perfected in their wisdom by sight or understanding, as are the spiritual angels, but by hearings or immediate obedience to their perceptions of what is good and true. (H. H. 271) It is interesting to note here that the eye sight corresponds to those heavenly societies who have paradises for their surroundings; for the Ether, or Third Aura plane, is that on which natural light operates, and the lower heavens are founded on this aura, from which is also the soul of the vegetable kingdom.

     Not only do angels see truths with their eyes, but their spheres are sometimes presented to view, and when they think, or when they wish to convey their thoughts to others, they present their ideas visibly before them. Evil spirits abuse this faculty, performing magic by concentrating their thoughts on any object that they wish to present before other spirits; and it straightway appears. Such appearances are not real, but phantastic, and are instantly dispersed on the admission of heavenly light.

     An astounding phenomenon of the other life is the appearing of a person when thought of by another. This happens without the spirit, who thus appears without leaving his own situation. Thus the angels from their own heavenly society rule the hells. Further: a spirit can thus appear in very many places at the same time. But he always so appears as he is pictured in the mind of the one thinking of him, not necessarily as he really is.

     The closer the similarity of thought and affection, the nearer do spirits appear to each other; if of very similar disposition, they appear in the same house; if still more so, in the same room; but if they disagree the very house itself may fall apart and throw them out. "Houses are affections which so appear in a visible form." (S. D. 4705.)

     Now all the teaching presented above may give rise to the impression that the objects of the spiritual world are not so real as those of the natural world, because they are not so permanent or constant. But the truth is exactly the reverse. We read, "The representations which come forth in the other life are appearances, but living ones, because they are from the light of life. . . . Hence all things which exist from that light are real, not like those things which exist from the light of the world.

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[These representations] live, and thus immediately affect the life." (A. C. 3485.) Yes, the things of the spiritual and substantial world are in truth the only real ones, in them resides life and force; they are the beginnings of material ones, and nature only provides the tunics, sheaths and clothings.

     In the case of the bird appearing to Sir Hans Sloan, for instance, "he said that if that bird were filled in its smallest parts with corresponding matters from the earth, and so were fixed, it would be a durable bird, like the birds on earth." And it is for the very reason that man's mind, resident in the; cortical glands of the brain, has brought to it there by the blood stream "the corresponding matters from the earth," that he remains as to his internal mind or spirit and as to his external mind or spiritual body, permanent and unchanging in the spiritual world after death. And we learn that man himself would be in a no more permanent form in the spiritual world than are the visible objects there, had he been barn in that world instead of here. (D. Wis. viii, 3.)

     Again: It would be profane to say that when the Lord appears to angels, there is nothing real in the appearance, although we are distinctly taught that He appears to every angelic society according to the quality of the good in which the society is, (H. H. 55), and that the Lord is within every angel, and the angel within the Lord, although the Lord appears as a Sun before the
eyes of the angel, and as far distant as the sun from earth. (D. L. W. 125, D. P. 162.)

     Now, while the sight of angels is of such a discreetly higher degree than that of man's bodily eyesight, and has so much more wonderful properties; and although natural sight is only spiritual sight manifesting itself upon a lower plane,-"still it is not this, but the Lord through the internal man, who alone sees, because He alone lives, and gives to man to see, however much it may appear to him that he sees from himself." (A. C. 1954)

     "The Lord, who is light itself, sees each and all things in the thought and will of man, yea, in all nature, and nothing whatever is hidden from Him." (A. C. 5477.)

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Editorial Department. 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     The NEW CHURCH MAGAZINE for September, in a notice of the paper by the Rev. John Whitehead in the July NEW CHURCH REVIEW, on "The Word and the Heavenly Doctrine," observes that it "dears chiefly with a controversy which has ceased to trouble us on this side of the Atlantic." Neither does it trouble the Old Church.

     Returning from an Old Church funeral, not long ago, we looked up the meaning of the well known sepulchral words: "For dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return," and were shocked to find that they "signify that he is condemned and infernal." (A. C. 275, 278.) Naturally, this led to a doubt as to the propriety of using these words in the funeral' rites of the New Church.

     We are happy to announce that the Rev. Joseph E. Rosenqvist, of Gothenburg, Sweden, has applied for restoration to the membership and the priesthood of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and that his application has been accepted by the Bishop and the Consistory. We are also able to announce that Mr. William Evans, of Penetang, Ont., Canada, and Mr. Frank H. Rose, of London, have received authorization to lecture and perform general evangelistic work, and that Mr. Richard Morse, of Sydney, N. S. W., Australia, has been authorized to preach and administer the Sacraments of the Church, pending ordination.

     The MESSENGER for October 1st publishes a very good portrait and a brief account of the life of the Rev. John R. Stephenson, who died at Pittsburgh, Sept. 9th, at the age of forty-nine years. The obituary notice, written by the Rev. Thomas A. King, who officiated at the funeral,-mentions that Mr. Stephenson "was born in Liverpool, England, February 14, 1864.

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Early in life, he became acquainted with the doctrines of the New Church, and in 1885 came to Philadelphia and became a student in the Academy schools, from which he graduated in 1891.

     "He was ordained into the ministry of the New Church in London, England, in 1892. He spent three years in missionary work in Colchester, Liverpool and London, and later on was a teacher in the parish school at Camberwell, London. He came to Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1895, where he preached to a society in connection with the General Church. In 1897, Mr. Stephenson withdrew from the General Church and became a minister of the General Convention of the New Church, becoming the pastor of a goodly number of people, who followed him into the Convention. In 1903, he was called to the pastorate of the Pittsburgh Society, his former society disbanding and becoming members of the Pittsburgh Church. He remained pastor of the Pittsburgh Society up to the time of his death."


     The MANUAL Of the First New Jerusalem Society of Philadelphia for October, 1913, contains the following Interesting, and in some respects surprising "information:"

     "The passing on, this summer, of Mrs. Mary de Charms Barclay brings to our mind two most interesting periods in the history of the New Church. The first is the year 1784, only twelve years after Swedenborg's death, when James Glen, on the fifth of June, made what is claimed to be the first public presentation of the doctrines of the Church in the world, by delivering his now famous lecture at Bell's book store, on Third Street, in this city. After his departure to his home in Demerara, W. I., a parcel of books came to him from the London Circle, and, his whereabouts being unknown, they were sold at public auction. Some of them seem to have been bought by Francis Bailey, a convert of Glen's. He commenced a reading meeting at his own house. One of the readers was Miss Hetty Barclay, who, later, on her own initiative alone, introduced the new teachings to her family, in Bedford, Pa., from whom came Mr. R. D. Barclay and his two nieces, our present members, who still reside there.

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     "The second period is associated with Mrs. Barclay's maiden name. In the fifties of the last century, her father, Mr. Richard de Charms, was one of the initiators of the then Academy Movement,-a sincere effort for better Church organization and more thorough study of the Writings, the special teaching with which the later Academy Movement identified itself not having been then revived nor any division from the Convention suggested.

     "Our members today, brought up in well-established societies, are in danger of forgetting what we may well speak of as these 'rocks' whence we were 'hewn.'"

     There is more, but this is enough. It would, we believe, surprise Richard de Charms not a little to hear the claim that he was the "rock" whence was "hewn" the present Philadelphia Society, or that the Central Convention, to which we must suppose the MANUAL refers, embodied no suggestion of separation from the General Convention. And it would be difficult for the Editor of the MANUAL to point out any "special teaching" emphasized by the "later Academy Movement," which was not involved in the earlier movement, of which Richard de Charms was the leading spirit. W. H. R.

     It is now quite generally known that a Bibliography of all original documents relating to Swedenborg is being compiled under the direction of Mr. A.H. Stroh. While engaged on work for this purpose, Miss Cyriel Odhner has recently been examining the Academy Library and Archives. The Library is endeavoring to collect a set of all the scientific text-books referred to by Swedenborg. Among those already acquired is Sir Isaac Newton's famous PRINCIPIA. The copy proved to be the very one presented by the author to his friend, Edmund Halley, "the comet man." The inscription on the title page runs as follows:
"Sum Edmundi Halleji ex dono Illustriss :i Authoris." The PRINCIPIA opens with a laudatory poem, addressed by Hailey to Newton. This curiosity is especially interesting in view of Swedenborg's relation to both these eminent men.

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     Another book-entitled SCIOTHERICUM TELESCOPICUM: OR A NEW CONTRIVANCE OF ADAPTING A TELESCOPE TO AN HORIZONTAL DIAL FOR OBSERVING THE MOMENT OF TIME BY DAY OR NIGHT, by William Molyneux, 1686-honored by the autograph of Edmund Halley himself. The following lines occur about the middle of the book, just before the commencement of the mathematical "Tables:"

     "I conceive the defect of this Telescopical Diall to be in that the Instrument is very complicate, and the Radius thereof but small. E. Halley."

     A volume-entitled CHRISTOPHORI ADAMI RUPERTI . . . OBSERVATIONES POLITICAE, MORALES, HISTORICAE, PHILOLOGICAE, CRITICAE AD L. ANNAEI FLORUS RERUM ROMANORUM, etc.,-contains annotations probably in the handwriting of Eric Benzelius, Swedenborg's brother-in-law.

     Among the original editions contained in the Library of the New Jerusalem Church, at 22d and Chestnut Streets, Miss Odhner found a copy of the VERA CHRISTIANA RELIGIO bearing the autograph: "C. F. Mennander."

     That this work was presented by Swedenborg himself to Bishop Mennander is evident from the following statement in a letter to Dr. Beyer (See Dec. II, p. 384): 11 In a few days I shall send to Stockholm by the skipper Caspar Nyberg two copies of the work just published, entitled VERA RELIGIO CHRISTIANA; one for Bishop Menander, and the other for Bishop Serenius Swedenborg held Bishop Mennander in great esteem and previously had presented him with many of his theological works, such as the ARCANA COELESTIA, the FOUR DOCTRINES, etc. (See NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1896, p. 186.)
Title Unspecified 1913

Title Unspecified 1913

"THE PRACTICAL VALUE OF THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF THE WORD TO THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, BEING A REVELATION OF THE LORD AS HE IS WITHIN, IN THE WORD IN THE REGENERATED MAN THROUGH WHICH HE REVEALED IT. By a student of the Divine Humanity of the Lord."

This little book of 137 pp. 16mo., was received some time ago, and we regret that we have until now had no space to mention it. It consists mostly of classified passages from the Writings, bearing on the doctrine that the Word is the Lord.

673

The author-Dr. D. L. Thompson, of Toronto, Ont.,-often pauses to point out that the Writings are the Latin Word prophetically suggested by the inscription on the Cross in Hebrew, Greek and Latin.
Title Unspecified 1913

Title Unspecified 1913

     The charge that the New Church "offers a most dismal prospect for all eternity" figures as the chief argument in an article on the Heavenly Doctrine by Henry Jewell, in a pamphlet of 30 pp., entitled "WARNING WORDS AS TO SWEDENBORGIAN OR 'NEW CHURCH' TEACHING."

     The pamphleteer is an enthusiastic literalist; his work manifests no wish to understand those passages from the letter of the Word which he arrays against Swedenborg. This naive lack of philosophy makes his attempts to unearth contradictions in Swedenborg seem very humorous when he proceeds to advertise the manifestly paradoxical Old Church dogmas of the Atonement "by substitution," the Remission of sins "by Faith in the blood of Christ," and Instantaneous Salvation,-to which doctrines he gives his unqualified assent.

     The book on CONJUGIAL LOVE is not forgotten, but is assaulted with a vigor only rivaled by Dr. Enoch Pond and his recent successors within the New Church.* In speaking of Swedenborg's alleged permission of polygamy (!) the pamphleteer wished "at the same time to express the hope that members of the 'New Church' at the present day find reason for taking exception to Swedenborg's teaching thereon." No date being given on the imprint of the pamphlet, we are left in doubt whether the solafidian author's suggestion is the result or the origin of the Brockton Declaration. H. L. O.
     * Dr. Enoch Pond: Swedenborginnism Reviewed, Portland, Me., 1846. 296 pp.
MR. CHILD'S SONGS, POSTSCRIPT. 1913

MR. CHILD'S SONGS, POSTSCRIPT. 1913

Mimeograph copies of the words and music of these songs have now been printed on heavy paper. They may be obtained from Mrs. Roydon H. Smith, Bryn Athyn, Pa.

674

The complete set of twenty-one songs will be sold for sixty cents, or quantities of any one song may be had on application, at a law rate. The profit from the sale of these songs will be given to the Orphanage
Fund.

The titles of the songs are: "Dear Academia," "Joy to This Meeting Fair," "To the Church in England," "To the Church in Canada," "Here's to the Loved Ones Homeward Gone," "As One By One the Passing Years," "The Master Calls," "The Academia March," "To Church and Country," "We Pledge Our Friends, the Groom and Bride," "Toward Heaven may their Lives Progress," (wedding song); "Now Say Farewell to Thoughtless Days," (Coming of Age song); also some occasional or toast songs, such as "To Our Chief in Peace and War," "Here's to Our Friend," "To Friends Afar, the Loved and True," etc.
QUESTION RELATING TO MARRIAGE. 1913

QUESTION RELATING TO MARRIAGE. 1913

Does every lover from youth become united on earth with his partner? The closing phrases of No. 49 of CONJUGIAL LOVE have sometimes been taken as embodying a promise that everyone who from youth has religiously sought for a union with one and rejected roaming lusts will actually become united on earth with his partner. "The internal conjunction, which is of souls, makes the marriage itself; and that conjunction is not perceptible before a man puts off the external and puts on the internal, which takes place after death. This now is why separations and thereafter new conjunctions with (those) similar and homogeneous take place then, unless these have been provided for on earth, which is done by those who from youth have loved, wished for and besought from the Lord a lovely partnership with one, and who spurn and loathe roaming lusts."

There can be no doubt that such unions would inevitably occur on earth if the world and ultimate nature were in an order corresponding to heaven. This is the case in several earths in the starry heavens. It is related of the Fifth Earth, visited by Swedenborg, that youths and maidens repair at stated times to certain houses where the true consorts instantly recognize each other by a species of perception.

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It was so also in the golden age on our earth, as Swedenborg notes in the following comment to Genesis ii, 22-23: "Since Adam at first sight consecrated as bride her who at length had been brought to him, he also acknowledged her as born of his body and blood. . . . This is mentioned as an ultimate proof of the state of his intellectual mind and wisdom." (I. Adv. 30.)

     There can be no doubt that C. L. 49 can be translated so as to read as a promise that those who have religiously desired a consort from youth will have their desire fulfilled in a marriage on earth. To bring out such a sense it would only be necessary to translate the phrase I have italicized as follows: "unless the latter [the conjunctions, and not the separations], have been provided on earth, as occurs with those." There could be no great objection either to this translation, if the world were in a true order, or if the restoral of the Golden Age, now beginning, were accomplished.

     There are two reasons, however, why it seems best not to translate it so as to make it read as the promise of a marriage on earth as the inevitable consequence of a certain spiritual state.

     The first reason has already been outlined. The world is not now in an order corresponding to heaven, and internals do not invariably ultimate themselves in adequate externals. Our thought about externals must be mobile and fluent, and not prescribe rigid and invariable rules to occurrences in the plane of ultimates and effects.

     Secondly, if we conclude that all who have religiously from early youth desired a consort will have their wish gratified on earth, we are also obliged to infer that all who die unmarried must in some way or other have neglected to fulfill the spiritual conditions which would inevitably, under the rigid natural construction of C. L. 49, have secured them a blessed marriage here. The prescribing of rigid, invariable rules in the natural nearly always entails untoward results. In this case it would authorize an unfavorable judgment about the spiritual state of the unmarried. One should strive to think generally and not personally about the arcana of Conjugial Love.

676

     It seems preferable, therefore, to translate "NISI HAE PROVISAE FUERINT IN TERRIS, QUOD FIT ILLIS," as I did in the phrases italicized, viz., "Unless these have been provided for on earth, which is done by those." I regard the word "these [HAE] as referring to the "separations" and "conjunctions" of the previous clause as its antecedents.

     The sense of the passage is then that those on earth who have religiously from youth sought for their consort will not have to undergo the separations and conjunctions that others will have to pass through after death. Whether married or unmarried on earth, they have repented of or looked with horror upon any but a union that was based on that of souls. As often as one who is married on earth yields to the thought and wish to be united to another, so often is he or she separated from the consort and united spiritually to the other. Unless such separations are fully repented of and loathed on earth, they will actually occur in the other world as part of the ensuing vastation. As often as one who is unmarried or widowed, except under circumstances of dignity of office or order at home, yields to the thought and wish to be united to one of the opposite sex for some external reason, and not because of a conviction that it is the eternal partner, there is a conjunction spiritually which will be actual in the other world and have to be broken up there, if not repented of fully here.

     There are cases, however, where circumstances of dignity of office, or order at home, may lead one unmarried or one widowed of his conjugial partner to enter into marriage with another (C. L. 321). But since these are causes "separated from conjugial love," and arising from natural circumstances that are unavoidable, they would not cause in the other world a binding conjunction, to sever which would entail great agony and suffering of mind.

     To construe C. L. 49 as the promise of a marriage on earth to all who fulfilled certain spiritual conditions would nullify the second clause in C. L. 229,-"That the Lord provides similitudes for those who desire love truly conjugial, and that if they are not given on earth, He provides them in heaven."

677

This second clause teaches distinctly that some who desire love truly conjugial may yet not meet their similitudes on earth. The other passage ought not, therefore, to be construed in a manner that will contradict this. E. E. I.
PROFESSOR ACTON'S REVIEW OF THE "PRINCIPIA." 1913

PROFESSOR ACTON'S REVIEW OF THE "PRINCIPIA." 1913

The issue of THE NEW PHILOSOPHY for July, 1913, will become a memorable one in the history of Swedenborgian literature, not only on account of the remarkable "Physiological Papers" by Miss Beekman, but also and especially on account of the Rev. Alfred Acton's review-twenty-four pages long-of the new edition of the PRINCIPIA, "translated" by James R. Rendall and Isaiah Tansley. In all our reading of New Church reviews we have never met with a more thorough piece of work or a more complete exposure of a stupendous literary fiasco. In our own review (n the March LIFE) Of this edition of the PRINCIPIA we dealt chiefly with the historical and literary aspects of the work, leaving to Prof. Acton the critical examination of the text. As, unfortunately, not all of our readers subscribe to the NEW PHILOSOPHY, we here communicate a summary of Mr. Acton's conclusions, supported as they are by pages upon pages of "deadly parallel columns."

The reviewer finds that, as a whole, "the present edition of the PRINCIPIA is in every way inferior to the former." "The Index to the present work is a very inferior production. So far from improving on the Index of Mr. Clissold, the present revisers seem not to have even consulted that far more complete work." "Judged by this standard [a study of the Latin text] the present work is most emphatically not a new translation." "When these editors have undertaken to translate without the guidance of a previous translator, they have made the most ignorant and ludicrous blunders. We could have wished in the present case that they had followed Mr. Clissold more closely, or even had left him unaltered." "But of a truth, the work now before us is neither a new translation nor a revision,-unless it be a revision backwards."

678

"The faulty work of translation is ascribable to both ignorance and carelessness, but to the latter alone can we ascribe the reviser's numerous mistakes with regard to omissions." "A whole proposition is omitted in II. 585, and in II. 531', a whole chapter!"

     "There are other criticisms which might be made against this most unfortunate revision of the PRINCIPIA, such, for instance, as the apparent ignorance-and the actual ignoring-of the meaning of Latin moods and tenses; but sufficient has been said to show the faulty nature of the work."

     "We turn now to the MINOR PRINCIPIA, the only work included in the present publication in which the translator has had to rely solely on his own knowledge of Latin. And what do we find? Such gross blunders, the exhibition of such ignorance of even elementary Latin, that we are almost led to doubt the evidence of our own eyes. It would be useless to review this work by taking up the points that are ordinarily noticed in reviews of a translation,-e. g., style and the rendition of particular words; for the translation is utterly vitiated, not in one or two places, but in total.

     "The citations which we shall presently make in proof of this charge are but a few of the more than seventy-five serious blunders which we have found on comparing about one-fifth of the work with the original. Doubtless still more would have been noticed had our comparison been more leisurely. Here is involved no question of differences with regard to Swedenborg's philosophy; no conflicting views as to principles of translation; no dispute as to the rendition of words. It is simply a question of the meaning of Latin,-and not of difficult Latin, nor of Latin concerning which there can be any possible difference of interpretation; but of Latin so plain and simple that any competent scholar could translate it at sight. The failure to translate this Latin correctly is sufficient proof in itself of the utter incompetence of the so-called translator.

679

     LATIN.

      "Quod vero reliquas stellas attinet non aliam originem traxisse videntur rluam sol vel steila magni nostri vorticis. (Latin Ed., p. 73.)

     LITERAL TRANS.

     But as to the rest of the stars . . . they seem to have been drawn from no other origin than that from which the sun or star of our own great vortex was drawn.

     TANSLEY.

     But as to the rest of the stars they seem to have originated from the sun or star of our own mighty vortex (ii. 382).

     "The ignorance of the translator is shown in his translation of sol vel stella as if they were accusatives.

     "We pause here to note that this mistranslation has already served as the basis of a most unjust criticism against Swedenborg. Writing in the NEW CHURCH REVIEW for July, Professor F. Very, after quoting Mr. Tansley's "translation," characterizes it as "a statement which demonstrates that at this time the author had a totally inadequate conception of the magnitude of the stellar universe, and had entirely failed to grasp the idea that our sun is only a minor one lost among the myriads of the starry host." (N. C. Review July, 1913, p. 409)

     A review is usually rather dry reading, but Mr. Acton's scholarly criticisms are enlivened by bits of humor, such as the following: "To note only one point in the above, the word quin, the 'pons asinorum' of the schoolboy, is the translator's difficulty; and he solves it by making his author say the exact opposite of what he really said." . . . "We can account for this translation only by supposing that the translator, utterly at sea as to the meaning of the Latin, felt obliged to say something." [ ! ! !]. . . . "The present 'translation' needs not correction, but rejection."

     Prof. Acton concludes by expressing "extreme regret that we must give wholesale and well-nigh unqualified condemnation to a publication to which students have looked forward for so many years; which was brought out at great expense; and the appearance of which was greeted with such satisfaction. But we have been at considerable pains to compare the works with their originals, and we feel it incumbent upon us to lay the results of our study before the public. Nor is this done with any desire of holding up anyone to contempt or ridicule, though it is impossible to pass such criticisms as we have been obliged to pass without their involving the serious charge of incompetence against those responsible for the present publication, or, without feeling just indignation at their assumption of a work for which they are plainly incompetent.

680

But we have written, and written at some length, in the hope that when those concerned see the true nature of their publication they will take steps to remedy the matter, and that, in the meantime, our readers may be guarded against false presentations of Swedenborg's teachings."

In view of a judgment such as the one given in these quotations, the question arises: What is to be done by those students of the PRINCIPIA who are not the happy possessors of the old edition, now almost unobtainable? And what would be the best course to be pursued by the Swedenborg Society, which, we understand, has temporarily tied up its funds in the publication of the expensive new edition? Our advice may seem gratuitous, but inasmuch as the main work, the Larger PRINCIPIA, in spite of all the faults of the new edition, still remains fairly usable, while the MINOR PRINCIPIA is simply impossible, we would recommend that the publishers bind up the remaining copies in two smaller volumes, minus Sir W. F. Barrett's "Foreword," and Mr. Tansley's "Introduction," and minus the "MINOR PRINCIPIA" removing also Prof. Very's "Appendix."

681

OBJECTIVE IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. 1913

OBJECTIVE IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD. N. D. PENDLETON 1913

     Communicated
Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     The report of my remarks made at the last General Assembly, published in the August-September LIFE, does not clearly represent my view of the important subject under discussion. According to that report it appears that I held that the objects around spirits and angels are simply subjective phenomena, and in no sense objective. Curiously enough, on the following day I read a paper, concerning which Mr. Alden, in the printed report of his speech, makes the following comment: "Mr. Pendleton (in his paper) gave expression to the view that objects appearing in the spiritual world are actually objective."

     Now what I said, or at least tried to say, in my comments on Mr. Acton's paper, was that the landscape round about spirits and angels was a reflex of their subjective states, and certainly I recall making the statement, (which does not appear in the report of my remarks), that "this reflex was registered in and upon the surrounding medium." On the other hand, I also said that the things pertaining to the environment of spirits and angels are not objective as are the like things in nature. That is, they have no independent objective existence-no power of continuance apart from the subjective states of minds which gave them birth. These objective things are not created by an influx direct from the Lord, but by an influx mediated by the spirits and angels. In a word, the spiritual medium round about is such that every least intra-mural change within the organic minds of those in the other life is faithfully recorded, and this recording is such that real substantial things come into existence. As, for instance, Sir Hans Sloan's bird. That bird was said to be nothing but an affection of a certain angel. And yet the burden of the whole argument demonstrates that it was a real bird, forth standing to the sight and touch of others besides the angel from and through whom it was produced.

682

The bird was purely spiritual and altogether substantial, and the same is true of the hand that touched it. Both the bird and the hand touching it came into being by the same mode and from a like cause. Both would appear or disappear according to the changing state of some forming and disposing affections. I regard the bodies of spirits and angels appearing in the other life as real and substantial bodies, just as real and substantial as are all the other objects appearing on the proprial mind plane of the other life, which plane includes ah the heavens, from the celestial down. The objects appearing on this plane are all purely spiritual and non-fixed. They change, they appear, they disappear, in accordance with the alterations of states in the minds of the spirits and angels,-in accordance with the intra-mural changes of that fixed spiritual-natural organism which is formed within man during his life in the world. This organism as such does not appear in the after life.
Sincerely yours,
N. D. PENDLETON.
WRITINGS, THE WORD, BUT NOT SACRED SCRIPTURES? 1913

WRITINGS, THE WORD, BUT NOT SACRED SCRIPTURES? BAMAN N. STONE 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     Accept my thanks for the kind, if critical, notice of my little book on the DISTINCTIVE DOCTRINES OF THE, NEW JERUSALEM, in the July number of the LIFE.

     In reply to the criticism that "the author has entirely failed to set forth a clear presentation" of the doctrine of the Second Coming of the Lord, permit me to quote the following passages, perhaps not duly considered, in which, as well as elsewhere, it was my purpose to present the three closely related doctrines of the Consummation of the Age, the Coming of the Lord, and the New Heaven and the New Church.

     "Especially is it the prerogative of the Son of Man to come in the end of the age for judgment, for setting heaven and hell in order, opening the spiritual sense of the Word, and the establishment of a new church on earth." (pp. 85, 86.)

683

     "Then would appear a new revelation of divine truth from heaven to the mourning believers of earth. The Son of Man as the Word itself would come in the clouds or obscure ideas of the letter in its own celestial power and spiritual glory. And by this influx and evangel of divine truth from the angelic heavens the elect of the Lord, the good and true in every state of spirituality from internal to external would be gathered together into a new Church." (pp. 89, 90.)

     As regards the agency of Swedenborg in the coming of the Lord, his own testimony is quoted: "Since the Lord cannot manifest Himself in Person, as just shown above, and nevertheless has foretold that He will come and found a new Church, which is the New Jerusalem, it follows that he will do this by means of a man who can not only receive the doctrines of this Church with the understanding, but can also publish them by the press." (P. 104.)

     Of the service of the Writings it is said that they were "especially to be the means of revealing that external Word of Life and Light which is the Son of Man coming in glory." (p. 103)

     And the section on the Mission of Swedenborg closes as follows: "Upon all such truth-loving readers of Swedenborg the conviction will grow, we confidently believe, that he was a man divinely called and inspired to be our doctrinal guide in understanding the Sacred Scriptures and to open our spiritual vision to the glory of the coming of the Lord." (pp. 108, 109.)

     Now, as I understand, the revelation of the internal sense of the Word by the Lord, through His servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, at the end of the Christian age, for the establishment of His new Church, is His Second Coming. And I must confess my inability to see why the foregoing quotations do not give a brief, to be sure, yet clear presentation of this doctrine. At least the failure to do so should not, I think, be called total.

     Again, as regards the distinction which was made between the inspiration of Swedenborg and that of the writers of the Sacred Scriptures, your criticism appears to me to be quite irrelevant to what was really said. To your characterization of the Writings, as "the Lord's third and final testimony concerning Himself, the new and glorious Gospel of the Second Advent, the LATIN WORD," and to your claim that they are the fulfillment of the Lord's promise to His disciples of further and plainer revelation, I can heartily say Amen.

684

And I reaffirm my own words, which you quote from THE NEW CHURCH REVIEW. But it does not follow that the Writings are therefore "another testament," in the sense evidently meant, that is, additional books of Sacred Scripture. In confirmation of the statement, that it was not Swedenborg's office "to supplement the Law and the Gospel with another testament," it is a pleasure to cite the authority of WORDS FOR THE NEW CHURCH:

     "The Writings, as all New Churchmen know, are not an addition to the Word, or an extension of it, in the letter; they are trot an enlargement of the volume of parables, types and correspondences, nor are they in the style of these; but they are the evolving by the Lord through His servant, Emanuel Swedenborg, of some of the Divine Truths which through the prophets He had caused to be involved and folded away in the Divine forms of the Word in the letter." (For this quotation and others relating to the difference between the Word and the Writings, see THE NEW CHURCH REVIEW, July, 1913, p. 391.)

     The Writings are not a supplemental nor an additional testament, because they have not the marks distinguishing all divine Scriptures, from the Ancient Word to the Apocalypse, especially the characteristic of ultimate correspondences. But this negation is not in the least a denial of their divinity. The lack is no defect in them, but rather an excellence; as it is not a defect, but the glory of the eye that it is not the hand. The Lord is the inmost origin of both the Sacred Scriptures and the works of Swedenborg. Both contain continuous truths from Himself, divinely inspired and revealed. Both are His own Word voiced in the speech of men,-the one, in earthly parable, the other, in genuine heavenly doctrine.

     It was then clearly a mistake to think my intention in distinguishing between the two was "to ward off a possible accusation from some old Church critic;" it was rather to guard against the quite natural inference that because the Writings are divine revelation they are also Sacred Scripture.

685

For while all Scripture, inspired of God, is Revelation, not all revelation is Scripture in form, though not less truly the breath of His mouth.

The prediction, in concluding, of the effect of what you are pleased to call my "disclaimers" hardly needs answer, based so manifestly upon misapprehension of the meaning and purpose of what this criticized part of my book really stands for.
BAMAN N. STONE.
HOME OF PRIMEVAL MAN. 1913

HOME OF PRIMEVAL MAN. GEO. E. HOLMAN 1913

Editor NEW CHURCH LIFE:
     My attention has been drawn to the fact that your May issue contains an inquiry in which my name is mentioned and to which I ought to have replied. I must apologize for my omission to do so, and if it is not too late, and you, sir, will allow me, I should like to answer your correspondent's query now.

     You state (p. 295): "A correspondent, referring to the paper by Mr. G. E. Holman on "Evolution or Separate Creations," in the NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY states that Mr. Holman's argument that the original creation took place 'in the beginning' at a period prior to the formation of some of the earliest geological strata in England, and in a country now probably buried beneath the ocean,' seems very plausible, and offers an explanation of the possibility of man's existence prior to animals of an evil correspondence and, therefore, caused by evil. But how are we to reconcile such a theory with the fact that Swedenborg apparently asserts that the most Ancient Church existed in the land of Canaan,-the same land that now exists-though it has undergone changes corresponding to the changes in the states of the Church?"

     This objection was anticipated in an article, entitled "Geology in a New Light," which I published in the LIFE in June, 1900. But as your correspondent may not possess that number I will again state what I believe to be the truth of the matter.

     The Writings do not state that Canaan was the scene of the creation of the human race. Merely that the Most Ancient Church was there. Canaan, as a country, may be immeasurably older than other countries.

686

Its surface is almost entirely of chalk and that chalk must (if my theory be correct) be millions of years older than the chalk of, say, England, as the chalk of England is unknown ages older than the chalk now being formed in the bed of the Atlantic. Below the chalk of Canaan is a series of sandstones and, in these, traces of a terrestrial flora have been discovered; but, so far as I have been able to ascertain, no traces of "evil uses" have been found below the surface deposits of Canaan. The fact, however, that terrestrial fossil remains have been discovered below the chalk is proof to my mind, that Palestine itself was not the scene of man's creation.

Bearing in mind that all earth-changes, geographical as well as others, are correspondential, let us assume, (it is, of course, merely an assumption), that the actual creation of mankind took place on that portion of the globe now occupied by the Indian Ocean. Man, when first created, was Celestial-Natural, and as the race progressed towards Celestial-Spiritual, corresponding changes took place in the configuration of the land features of the earth. Fresh upheavals of dry land would occur, accompanied by creations of new types of vegetable and animal life, and by migration of men into the new lands more congenial to their character. The first tracts of dry land might cease to be elevated above the sea, and they would then commence to be denuded by the continual action of air and water; deposits of land debris would begin to form on the ocean bed and these would contain remains of land plants and animals. The remains found in the sandstones of Canaan may be the remains of such pre-Adamic (though not pre-human) life forms. The continual upheaval of new land would, in all probability, be balanced by the subsidence of the older lands until the first sub-aqueous deposits formed near the shores of the latter, became mid-ocean beds, and chalk (a pure deposit of minutes marine shells) covered them. The land of Canaan might have been formed in such circumstances and not elevated into dry land until some ages after the creation of mankind-at what stage in the history of the human race it was first inhabited, it is impossible to guess.

687

     I may here remark that it must be understood that the present continental areas were at that time open ocean, and that when the present continents did first come into existence, they were developed from land nuclei, remote from the Celestial continent, and thus were, during all the ages of their building, separated from that continent by the ocean. Otherwise, we should find traces of human migrants in early geological beds of the present dry land.

     It will perhaps be asked, if the law of correspondence could, in those early times, have effected such vast changes of the earth's surface, why was not the great spiritual change at the Last Judgment marked by great geological and biological changes on earth! I think this is explained by the fact that for many thousands of years past the state of the human race has been entirely natural, and the Natural degree is comparatively impotent. Even influences of a Spiritual character are much less effective than those of a Celestial nature. Compare, for illustration, the slight power which thought has over the human countenance with the profound changes effected by emotion. Morever, the Spiritual influences which now infringe upon our globe are vastly more complex than they were in the Celestial Epoch and for that reason are less manifestly effective, because one influence may counteract another. See how the simple mentation's of the child cause great and rapid changes in the shape of its skull, while the skull changes caused by the complex mind of an adult are almost imperceptible.

     I do not think your correspondent should attach too much weight to the references to "fierce animals" in the WORSHIP AND LOVE OF GOD. That work, although no doubt true in its main principles, cannot be looked upon as authoritative, and any detail therein which is not in accord with the Writings, must unhesitatingly be put aside.

     Hoping I have not unduly trespassed upon your valuable space, believe me,
          Yours truly,
               GEO. E. HOLMAN.

688

REPORT OF THE TWELFTH ANNUAL BRITISH ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. 1913

REPORT OF THE TWELFTH ANNUAL BRITISH ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. Rev. W. GILL 1913

     Reports.

The outstanding feature of this year's Assembly, which was held at Colchester, at Messrs. Gill & Son's Studio, from August 2d to 4th, was the number of centers of the Church that were represented. Among those present were, the representative of the Bishop, the Rev. N. D. Pendleton and his wife, from Pittsburgh; the Rev. E. Deltenre, from Brussel's; Mr. A. H. Stroh, Mr. Baeckstrom and Miss Ingrid Bjorck, from Stockholm; Mr. J. Pitcairn and his two sons, Messrs. Theodore and Harold Pitcairn, from Bryn Athyn; Mr. and Mrs. and Miss Carswell, from Toronto, and Mr. Carl R. Roschman, from Berlin, Canada; besides the large majority of the members of the London Society. In addition numbers of messages were read telling of nuclei of New Church Societies which were being formed in various parts of Europe, America and India, so that the keynote touched seemed to foretell the day when the Church should cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

     The Rev. A. Czerny invited the Rev. N. D. Pendleton to take the chair and preside over the sessions, and then the meetings opened with the Lord's Prayer, followed by reading from the Word. The minutes were then read and approved, and reports received from the respective secretaries of the London and Colchester Societies.

     On rising to address the meeting the Rev. N. D. Pendleton met with an enthusiastic reception. He said: "I have been asked by the Bishop to convey to this Assembly the spirit of the resolution of greeting to you which was made at the General Assembly recently held at Glenview; and also the Bishop's own greetings as the head of the General Church. He is greatly interested in the development here and on the Continent of that great movement which has, however, only recently received an organic form-the movement to recognize the Divine character of the revelation which the Lord has given to the Church.

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If the New Church is to grow it must be upon the basis of a recognition of the Divine authority of the Writings. We, as Newchurchmen, must enter interiorly into the revelation which the Lord has given us and in which He is unveiling Himself in His Glorified Human. It was a great day for the Church when it finally received an organic form founded upon the recognition of the quality of the revelation given. This body has greatly increased and is now being founded at different points on the Continent. It is beginning to be clear to our minds that the Church first known as the Academy, and now as the General Church, is to become a universal Church and, we hope and pray, an internal Church; for an internal Church is a universal Church, whilst an external Church is a local Church. There will be in time men all over the globe who will recognize the Writings as the very Word of God revealed and opened as to its Divine contents. It is in the hope of the continual growth and the further spreading of this,-the most important movement there is in world,-that we are endeavoring to found local bodies who will receive the Revelation with open minds and in a spirit of obedience to these revealed truths. It is in the spirit of these remarks that the Bishop has asked me to convey to you his love and greetings and I do so with very great pleasure."

Mr. Pendleton then read a paper he had prepared for this Assembly, entitled THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL AND THE DIVINE PROCEEDING.

Mr. Czerny expressed his keen appreciation of the paper and said he was especially interested in the point made that all the revelations previous to the last one were involutions of the Divine Proceeding. The Divine must take on a body and glorify it before the process of the evolution of the Divine Proceeding could begin. It is beautiful to know that the Lord came into the world in order that an interior faculty might again be formed in man. The new will and understanding of the man of the New Church are formed by means of the new Revelation given to that Church.

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     Many other speakers rose to thank Mr. Pendleton for his paper, and then Mr. Anderson asked for a fuller explanation of the statement in the paper as to the Revelation to the New Church leading to a celestial perception like that of the Most Ancient Church.

     MR. PENDLETON: If instead of "celestial perception" I had said "an interior rational perception" there would have been no difficulty. The doctrine is given in the ARCANA that the celestial is the inner degree of the rational, or human, mind. By celestial perception I, therefore, mean a development of rational perception on an interior degree. On the ground of the teaching that the celestial perceive the Divine in the doctrine, I maintain that the formation of the Academy was the result of a celestial perception; for certain men were then enabled to perceive the Divine nature of the doctrine given us. If the New Church is not to develop an interior rational, it could in no sense be called "the crown." The Writings were given us that we may develop a more and more interior rational mind.

     The point of my paper was that about 2,000 years ago the Lord glorified the Human, and now in the Second Advent the Human Glorified presents Itself in the Writings, and by them we can see the Glorified Human. If the Lord had not revealed that Human Glorified, the lost celestial perception could not have been restored. It is better to have an internal church composed of a very few men than an external church composed of very many. It is our duty to join in the formation of an interior church. The angels live on an ever-increasing perception of the Glorified Human. This is their food and their chief delight, of which we must not deprive them.

     Lack of space prevents the inclusion in this report of the remarks of the many speakers who followed. After the adjournment had been moved the company were so intent on conversation with each other that it was thought best to postpone the program of toasts which had been arranged, and refreshments were the only interruptions allowed.

     The congregation at the Sunday morning service numbered 85, and the sphere of worship was very powerful and affecting. The rite of Confession of Faith was administered to four young ladies and one young man. The Rev. N. D. Pendleton preached a sermon on the words, "I will not leave you comfortless: I go to prepare a place for you." The Sacrament of the Holy Supper was then administered to 67 communicants.

     The next session of the Assembly met in the evening, and Mr. Stroh's paper, THE PRESENT STATE OF THE NEW CHURCH, was called for and read.

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Mr. Stroh prefaced the paper by giving to the Assembly a message of affection and sympathetic good-will from the Church in the North.

     MR. BALL: It is a rich paper. The point about the universities and their influence in spreading the Church is very important. A great increase of the Church will, however, take place when the doctrines are accepted by the artisans,-men who follow the arts and crafts. I don't think it right to limit the hand of Providence to one method only in providing for the increase of the Church.

     MR. WATERS: I, too, am very taken with the idea of the Church spreading from the universities. Bishop Pendleton had a paper on the subject in which the suggestion was made that the word "universities" should be here taken in a broad sense, and include all education.

     MR. STROH: BY the term "New Church University" I meant to include all forms of education. We must first separate the New Church from the Old, and then the schools will be separated too. The learned at the present day are those who are most opposed to spiritual and Divine things. It is historically true, however, that the New Church was first received, both in England and America, by university men. The New Church will increase in a very different way when we have more New Church universities like the one at Bryn Athyn.

     MR. ROSE: The members of the New Church in England are mostly drawn from the artisan class, but the study of the doctrines of the Church is a real education, and so, after they have studied them, people forget what is their external station in life.

     MR. GILL: While greatly appreciating a large part of Mr. Stroh's paper, I feel a protest must be made against that part in which he maintains that the recent correlations which have been made between the Writings of the Church and Swedenborg's philosophical doctrines are untenable. For instance, the teachings given in each set of works concerning the atmospheres and the degrees of man's mind appear to me to correlate most perfectly. Time will not permit me to enter into details, but I strongly feel that these assertions by Mr. Stroh should not pass unchallenged.

     MR. STROH: It seems to me that there is a difference in the character of Swedenborg's writings after the period of the PRINCIPIA. In the ECONOMY-that wonderful work in which Swedenborg was guided by seeing lights and hearing voices-I find the doctrine of the two suns; but in the PRINCIPIA I do not find this doctrine, nor that of there being a spiritual as well as a natural world. I agree there are many cases in which you may make comparisons and find agreement, but there are several doctrines which do not agree with the earlier works. I do not agree that Swedenborg made no mistakes in these works.

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     MR. CZERNY: What does Mr. Stroh understand by the statement that Swedenborg was inducted by the Lord into the sciences? His preparation took place after he left the university, so the sciences taught there could not be the ones referred to. Could he be inducted by the Lord into what was false?

     MR. STROH: I think the statement is, "Led by the Lord into the sciences and thus prepared." I suggest the scientific and philosophical writings be called "preparatory works." It does not follow that because Swedenborg was introduced into the sciences that he, therefore, made no mistakes. I would take my light from the Writings. I believe we need science and philosophy, but, above all, we need theology. The real source of our sciences is to be found in the Writings themselves, and it is extraordinary how much you will find there about physics, anatomy and physiology.

     DR. DELTENRE: If Swedenborg made mistakes I would like Mr. Stroh to give us some examples.

     MR. STROH: I have already done so in the pages of NEW CHURCH LIFE. Swedenborg was not prepared by truths only; he was also prepared, like other men, by petting out of errors gradually, by making experiments, comparing evidence, and thus arriving at the truth. Swedenborg was in error as to the shape of the red blood corpuscle, but in his physiological writings he gives us the doctrine of the three bloods and their relation to the various atmospheres, as well as the doctrine of discrete degrees; and then, as he himself says, from having been a philosopher he became a theologian.

     MR. BALL: What impresses me is that Swedenborg said he must leave the analytic system and get to the synthetic. It, therefore, seems that he himself did make a distinction between the two periods.

     Mr. POTTER: I feel that the instances given us of discrepancies and mistakes in the philosophical writings are very much magnified. What are the small errors made therein compared with those splendid theories, many of which have since been verified by scientists? In regard to the shape of the red blood corpuscle, Dr. Carpenter agrees with Swedenborg that it is a sphere, though when pressed together they might appear as flattened discs. Swedenborg assigned certain definite functions to the cerebral cortex and to the spinal cord which have since been verified. He also discovered that the respiration of the brain was synchronous with that of the lungs. Before Swedenborg's time there was no idea of the planets having been evolved from the sun, and his system of cosmology is the true one. If we discard Swedenborg's science what are we to take in its place? The New Church would then have no science to be the handmaid of her theology. We ought to be thankful to the Lord for providing a science and philosophy for the New Church. I would make the distinction that the Writings teach theology and contain the generals of science, whilst with the philosophical works the reverse is the case.

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In the latter Swedenborg was taught mediately by good spirits, whilst the Writings are an immediate revelation constituting the Second Coming of the Lord.

     MR. STROH: Mr. Potter apparently makes out a strong case by giving instances of the wonderful things discovered by Swedenborg. I fully agree with him there. These discoveries are now being acknowledged outside the Church as well as within. But I spoke about the four degrees of atmosphere mentioned in the PRINCIPIA. There are three, not four. There are three spiritual atmospheres, three heavens, three hells, three degrees of the natural sun, and three degrees of the natural atmosphere. The prime series of degrees must be three, because of the three infinite discrete degrees in the Divine Man. There must be end, cause and effect.

     MR. PENDLETON: AS Chairman I should be impartial, but I have a decided viewpoint, and it is different from the one held by Mr. Stroh. His viewpoint is the one most of us held a number of years ago. It is quite clear to my mind that the four fundamental atmospheres of the PRINCIPIA include all the degrees of the spiritual and natural atmospheres mentioned in the Writings. Certainly in studying the human body, the three planes of the mind and that of the body correlate beautifully with the four atmospheres.

     I think it of vital importance that the New Church should study the scientific writings from the light given by Divine revelation. This is the true order and that is why I am afraid of the critical attitude that notes errors. If this attitude were carried over into the Writings you would find errors there also. When the light of Divine truth is let into these apparent errors we find a correspondence there which places the appearance in the position of a truth. The scientific and philosophical writings were the means by which Swedenborg's mind was prepared that he might receive the Divine revelation. Let these writings, therefore, be impressed on our minds rather than the science of today. Nothing can be understood except on the basis of some natural idea, and it is of primary importance that our natural ideas should be in correspondence with truth. If you collect the scientific statements from the Writings you will find them read like excerpts from the scientific works. Don't misunderstand the enthusiasm in the Church over the scientific writings and think that there is danger of these works being exalted to a level with the Writings. I believe that Swedenborg gives us the truth on all subjects which he studied. Study the scientific works on their own plane and with reference to the revelation.

     Let us hesitate before we say what does trot concur. At one time I thought that in certain places in the scientific works Swedenborg was speaking from the theology of the Old Church, whereas I now see he was talking from truths from the letter of the Word. There is a concordance of all truths and there is nothing artificial about the correlations that have been made. The sciences are like reflectors, and thus if we have in our minds a large body of natural truths the inflowing light will be apparently increased.

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I simply plead for a sympathetic study of these works, believing that they will afford a most profound basis for development.

     Dr. Deltenre was now invited to give an account of his work on the Continent, which he did in a most interesting way.

     MR. PITCAIRN: I have been familiar, from the beginning, with this mission, which is the first of its kind. Dr. Deltenre was the only person in Belgium who had any knowledge of the doctrines of the Church. He has made a start, and a very successful one, in making the new truths known in that country. The first folder he issued was exceedingly well done and would appeal to anyone. It would be well to translate it for missionary work in other countries. There is great hope for the Church in Belgium with Dr. Deltenre in charge, who is so well suited for that mission station.

     MR. PRYKE: Dr. Deltenre has been to me one of the most interesting figures in our own times. I think that considering the ground and the short time that has elapsed since a start was made there, the results are marvelous. Seventeen years ago I was in the Palais de Justice, at Brussels, when some impulse made me blow the Academy whistle there; I trust it will now echo there through the ages.

     MR. PENDLETON: The success of this mission is a matter of very great rejoicing to the whole General Church. We rejoice to know that the New Church founded on the basis of the Divine authority of the Writings is finding a foothold in Belgium. It is a remarkable fact, nevertheless it is not only true of Belgium, but similar circles are being formed at The Hague, and also at Stockholm, concerning which Mr. Stroh might give us an account.

     MR. STROH: In Stockholm we are fighting the old fights, for the necessity of separation from the Old Church, the necessity of baptism and the Holy Supper in the New Church, the necessity for New Church schools and distinctive lines of work, and the necessity for marriage within the Church. I have been asked to convey Pastor Bronnicke's greetings to this Assembly. I also have pleasure in introducing to you Mr. Baeckstrom, who is leaving Stockholm to study in Bryn Athyn for the ministry.

     MR. BAECKSTROM: I bring more recent greetings to you from Pastor Bronnicke. We are fighting the same battle as you. It is a fight between the darkness and the light. But the first signs of approaching Spring are appearing, and the snow and ice of the North will melt and the heavy clouds be dispelled. There is again a shouting that the Bridegroom is coming. There are now numbers of people in Sweden who are dissatisfied with the position of the old society in Stockholm. At present we are few, but numbers are not of so great importance. The disciples of the Lord were not many, but they had love, and with love,-that love of truth which will unite us all,-we, too, can do something of importance.

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A little Swedish troop of your brave army sends you greeting!

     MR. PENDLETON: This is one of the most touching messages I have ever heard, touching our hearts with the love of the Divine truth now revealed-a love we hold in common with our brethren all over the world. We are touched with a common love and it is a love which is bound to conquer, for it is a love of the Lord in His glorified Human. We are touched and moved most profoundly by this message; it gives us all courage and hope and leads us all to see that the Lord is building His Church.

     Messrs. Czerny, Ball and Waters also voiced the appreciation of the Assembly for the greeting conveyed by Mr. Baeckstrom.

     At the final session of the Assembly which was held on the Monday morning, Mr. Derick Elphick's paper was first chosen from the docket. Its title was, THE STUDY OF HISTORY IN THE NEW CHURCH.

     MR. ANDERSON: We can all see that the keynote on which the paper is founded rings essentially true. The writer has fixed firmly before him that everything works from the center to the circumference. The Lord in His Divine Human is the center and man could have known nothing except by Divine revelation. Through the ages the Lord has been continually revealing and accommodating Himself to the minds of men. In the revelation to the New Church there is contained all the knowledges given in former ones, and nothing will discover for us anything that is not disclosed in this crowning revelation. After all, the history of the Church is the true history, and modern histories will at a future day have to be set on one side.

     MR. STROH: The paper is remarkably systematic and clear. Some such conception of history as advanced by the writer we in the New Church must maintain. The idea of the macrocosm being paralleled in the microcosm struck me most. History itself must be in the human form, theological things forming its head, philosophical things its body, and science being in its extremities. The history of philosophy and its action upon Swedenborg's mind is most interesting. We are taught that the science of correspondences flourished in the East and was carried to Greece, where it was turned into fables, and after becoming as it were crystallized, became the natural science of the Greeks. The philosophy of the Greeks was received in France, the Catholics there taking Aristotle as their great philosopher. Descartes received these ideas and reacted tremendously against Aristotle, though he retained some of the best ideas of Greek philosophy. Thus these streams of thought that had passed over from Ancient Greece spread through Descartes' and Newton's philosophies, and were again connected by Swedenborg, who had found these things in Upsala, where he arrived a year before the conclusion of the tremendous controversy, which had lasted there for thirty years between the Newtonian and Cartesian schools of philosophy.

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In the New Church we must collect in systematic form everything we can find as to the influences which affected Swedenborg's philosophy. We now know the text-books he used. His doctrines of physics and anatomy were profoundly influenced by Descartes, whose special study these subjects were. At the university at Upsala Swedenborg studied the classics; then later the natural sciences under Benzelius. His direct or specific preparation for his great use began after he left the university. When he came to Eng- land he came into the sphere of Newton's philosophy, though he did not accept Newton's fundamentals, for Swedenborg saw that there must be a medium, and not a vacuum, in which gravity could act.

     After Mr. Waters had spoken of both the paper and the comments on it by Mr. Stroh, as affording evidence of the value of a New Church education, Mr. Gill was called upon to read his paper on SIGHT IN THE SPIRITUAL WORLD.

     MR. STROH: In the reign of Queen Elizabeth Dr. Gilberd, of Colchester, wrote a book on THE MAGNET, in which he introduces us into the interiors of nature. There seems to be something in the air of Colchester that induces such studies. The paper we have listened to deals with one-half of its subject and presents the teaching concerning the interiors of the spiritual world, but one must remember the exteriors, too. Idealistic points of view seem to be in the air at the present day. I should like to emphasize the realistic side, and then we shall have a complete thing. There always is an internal, an external, and a proceeding operation. In the other world there are substances and forms which are not fixed, but flowing, and they find their rest in the plane of effects. If we have in this world a substance, form, and operation, there must be a causal substance, form, and operation in the spiritual world. Thus, as we have here a brain, a nervous system, and skin and bones, there must be their causal correspondents in the other world. The substances of the spiritual world have formed the spiritual brain and body.

     MR. ROSE: I agree with Mr. Stroh. Permanence is here measured by time and space, but this is not so in the spiritual world, and although the bird seen by Sir Hans Sloan vanished, we have no means of judging of the time it endured. I do not think that the teachings in regard to the scenery in the other world refer also to man's spiritual body. Animals are not permanent there because, unlike men, they have no soul and no limbus.

     MR. WATERS: The quotations given in the paper seem to me to prove the objective reality of the objects in the spiritual world. Angels could not be instructed by things projected from their own mind; neither could children be thus educated.

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The ideas presented seem to me to destroy the conjunction of one person with another after death.

     MR. PITCAIRN: I feel under an obligation for this paper. The previous one by the same writer on the subject of the "Bodies of Spirits and Angels" was of great use to the whole Church, but there was an obscurity in the presentation and many readers thought it did away with the reality of the other world. We are taught that we are to think of a subject from essence and not from person, but we can't do away with the person, and this the paper seemed to do. We all agree that there are spiritual bodies, but I think it just as great an error to say that they are not in the human shape as to believe that they are material bodies. The mind was obscured by the quotations if that paper taken from the early part of the DIARY, which treats of the states of those in the World of Spirits who still thought they were in a material body. There is a great deal of phantasy in the World of Spirits, and the doctrine of degrees was brought in to show it was only on this plane and not in the heavens that such phantasies prevailed. In the heavens the scenery is even more permanent than it is here.

     In the DIARY it treats of two methods of traveling in the other world-one method is by aspect, and another is that in which angels are in their own society when they walk around with their whole body. There has always been preserved in the minds of the common people the idea that we shall be in the human form after death.

     MR. PENDLETON: Mr. Acton had a paper on "The Phenomena of the Other World," at the General Assembly. The position he takes and the one held by Mr. Gill are identical, and it is different from the general view that has prevailed throughout the Church. Messrs. Gill and Acton have presented the inside view. It is a question of the modus operandi of the laws of the spiritual world, where there are changes of such a nature that it is obvious there must be other laws operative besides those that operate in the natural world. If this were not so, there would be utter destruction of the bodies of spirits when they underwent such extraordinary experiences as are described. All agree that bodies like our present ones appear in the other life; the point is what is the essential truth! Is there seeing from within out, or is it from without in? Do the surroundings of angels and spirits have in existence independently of the angels and spirits! Is it not clear that the Lord does create these things; and that the law governing these appearances is the Lord's operation through the minds of the angels? The angels know if there is need for them to repent when the things around them appear obscure. The obscurity here is evidently in the minds of the angels. The things appearing round about them are representations of the things which inflow into them from the Lord. Obviously the same law must operate for the body and clothes and feet of a spirit as for the ground on which he walks.

     The natural body does actually live upon the things of this world.

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Food is digested and enters the blood, and then the blood going up to the brain serves continually to fix there every thought and affection that we have. There is a constant formation, therefore, of the organic spirit of man by this process, and the limbus is thus formed during life in the world. When man dies this process ceases and in the other life there is no longer need for food such as we have here. The food there performs a very different function from natural food. The food upon which spirits and angels live is knowledges, and it is of vast importance to grasp the essential difference between natural and spiritual food.

     MR. CARSWELL: God has all the organs of the body, though in Him they are infinite. We have these organs because the Lord has; so that every eye that sees, sees from the Lord. We have a spiritual beating of the heart and a spiritual breathing of the lungs; therefore, man must be in the same shape in the other world as here. When Swedenborg saw the Lord, and when he saw the Last Judgment take place, he could not then be seeing emanations from himself. Education, too, must be from objective or external things in the other world as it is here.

     MR. GILL: I am afraid that in this paper, as in the old one, I have not clearly expressed myself. I did not mean to convey the idea that all man sees in the other life is an emanation from himself, for he can see spirits and angels as well as their surroundings: though as these are seen within himself and altered according to the state of his own mind, things would appear differently to every observer. We are taught perceptions are communicated in the other life, and I believe all intercourse there is effected by means of the interchange of spheres. I cannot see that my paper is idealistic as I attempted to treat of the realities of the other life.

     The adjournment of the sessions of the Assembly to the following year now took place. All joined in singing the hymn, "Oh Zion, Rise in Glory," and then Bishop N. D. Pendleton pronounced the benediction.

     In the afternoon the young people of all ages met in a field and spent an enjoyable time. In the evening the Assembly photograph was taken, 85 being the number composing the group. Then till an early hour in the following morning a social meeting took place. A large number of letters of greeting to the Assembly from friends across the sea were read. Mr. Pitcairn also read a long letter from Mr. Alden containing much interesting news of Church extension work. Toasts were honored, the one to the visitors eliciting many interesting and appreciated responses. There were also songs, a short play, and then several dances, and, in conclusion, "Auld Lang Syne."
     W. REV. GILL,
          Secretary.

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Church News. 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. The Academy schools opened this year with 24 students in the seminary; 31 in the college; 62 in the elementary school, and 16 in the kindergarten. There are 7 regular normal students, with 16 special students, while the theological school, which commenced lectures on October 1st, contains 6 students. The school opening, in which all departments took part, occupied the morning of Monday, September 15th, and was an impressive and inspiring ceremony. Rev. C. E. Doering, as superintendent of the schools, addressed the students in regard to the essential end of the education given by the Academy; words of encouragement and guidance for the coming year. In the evening the faculty held a reception to the old and new students; old friends were greeted and new acquaintances made, and Mr. Whitehead offered a welcome to the scholars on behalf of the faculties, inviting all to a year of hard and intelligent work, and giving some inside information as to how to "make good." Now the schools are getting really busy; full classes, full courses, improved equipment, and a good spirit in the school, making ever for progress.

     The international character of our school is increased by the addition of three new students from foreign shores, Mr. Baeckstrom, from Stockholm; Mr. Guylee, lately of India; and Mr. C. H. Barger, from The Hague. The two former are theological students; the latter is taking a special course in the college.

     A word of notice is due to the school foot ball team, whose efforts have lately entertained us not a little. The first game, with Cheltenham High School, was an inglorious tie, and the second was lost to Swarthmore Prep, but all past failures were eclipsed in the sensational victory which the team wrested from the old church in the guise of the Episcopal Academy by the score of 28 to 17.

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The spirit that can "come back" and fight an uphill game to final victory is still to be found in Bryn Athyn boys.

     The population of Bryn Athyn has lately been increased by the advent of Mr. and Mrs. Synnestvedt and Mrs. Fitzpatrick, and their families, and by the arrival of a baby boy at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Emil F. Stroh. Social events in the society have been few; the Friday Suppers have resumed, and with them the weekly doctrinal classes and meetings of the choir, and the choral society held its first meeting on October 15th, opening the season with the study of the anthems in the liturgy. The Rev. N. D. Pendleton has given us an enjoyable evening with his account of his visit to Europe, and another evening was occupied by the annual meeting of the society. On October 4th the Younger Generation Club held its annual banquet at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. R. Pendleton, and discussed the subject of the "Uses of Men's Clubs," and other more tangible delicacies. But, for full accounts of all these occasions we must refer our readers to the Bulletin of the Sons of the Academy, whose business it is to keep up with the times. D. R.

     ERIE, PA. On Sunday, October lath, there was a large gathering of the people from far and near to attend the services conducted by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, on his quarterly visit to this circle. An interesting part of the service was the baptism of George Edward, son of Dr. and Mrs. A. Girard Cranch.

     The number at the service was unusually large, 35 in all, and 23 who stayed for the Communion. An evening meeting was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. C. Edro. Cranch, It being present. In this family also there has recently been a baptism. On Mr. Waelchli's previous visit, in June, he baptized their fourth child, William Edward. At that time the service was held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Evans and there was a large attendance. E. R. C.

     PITTSBURGH, PA. We have not been filling the columns of LIFE lately with glowing reports of what we have been and what we have not been doing, for the simple reason that our activities are mostly suspended during the summer months, with the exception of Sunday worship.

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     Our pastor left us in June to make an European trip. His place was taken by one of the theological students, Mr. David. Mr. David performed his work here in a very able manner and his sermons were much appreciated.

     Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton returned to Pittsburgh the first week in October. A reception was held in the church assembly room to welcome them home. Mr. Pendleton gave us an interesting account of his travels.

     The Ladies' Society resumed its meetings in September, and the Philosophy Club came back to life in October. Our monthly suppers were started the last Friday in October. The Pittsburgh Chapters of the Theta Alpha and of the Sons of the Academy have also been stirring themselves, each of these bodies having started their monthly meetings. The foregoing, of course, pertains to our social life. Our serious side, our real life, is not forgotten. Doctrinal classes are held every Friday evening, and a doctrinal class for the older children who have graduated and for those who do not attend our local school is held every Friday afternoon. Sunday morning services are held for children of all ages.

     A number of our folks have removed from Pittsburgh, namely, Mr. Paul Synnestvedt and family, to Bryn Athyn; Mr. G. Edgar Lindsay and family, to Clarksburg, W. Va., and Mr. Harvey Lechner, to Bryn Athyn. There has been one addition during the summer Mr. Francis Roy. B. P. O. E.

     DENVER, COL. Yes, dear readers. Denver is still on the New Church map and not so inert either, as one might fear from the absence of news contributions to the LIFE. This is due, however, solely to our Western modesty. We claim the proud distinction of being the smallest society with the largest resident pastoral family in the General Church. Times have scarcely begun to improve. But we are all much encouraged here by the evidences of an increase of zeal in the various uses of our little church family.

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For instance, the attendance at the Wednesday evening doctrinal classes, which are held at the pastor's residence, increased to ten or twelve, although we have no gustatory lure of any kind.

     The Sunday School prospects were hard hit when Miss Celia Bellinger suddenly left for the East. One of our overworked mothers, Mrs. Alvin Lindrooth, although without special training, took on the Infant Class and kept it up until the end of the season. The older class, in charge of the pastor, is sent to the chapel on Friday afternoons, directly after they are dismissed from the Public Schools. So far, only one absence has occurred. They receive regular practice in the songs and memory selections that are to be used in the Sunday School worship. Here again, one of the ladies, Mrs. Howland, gives her aid by playing and leading the singing. We have had some delightful entertainments growing out of these classes and expect to have a party of some kind for the children every month.

     Miss Hager, who has a wide acquaintance in the city and still keeps in touch with many persons who have once been interested in the Church, is conducting a campaign of Church extension, and we are gradually hunting up and trying to get hold of the children of those who have "married-out." If we had not lost our Academy trained expert, I should have tried to get money from some source to conduct an advertising campaign, in an effort to secure several more who still desire to have the solid foundations of the Christian Religion implanted in their children. I feel certain that there are a few such, and the public press is the way to reach them. But, of course, the first thing is to have something of a live, cohering and warm sphere here to bring them into touch with. The germs of this we seem to have thanks to the excellent work of former pastors, and the undying loyalty of our few members. Even these few are more or less hit by the exceedingly hard times, but in spite of this, we are realizing how much of the essential goods of Church work and worship we can have even in the smallest centers.

     What would you think of a Society without a single young lady? Our young ladies are all married. So in looking over the field, we found that we could piece together a perfectly good teacher for the Infant Class,-for we had one older lady with the experience, and one young girl with the good hearing and the nerve,-so between them they are doing this work.

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Miss Hager prepares all the things for the artistic and vivid presentation of the chosen story, and together they work it over, and then Evangeline gives the lesson. With a developing ritual and the talk to the whole School from the pastor, we are expecting to provide for both their instruction and their interest. After all, it is the interest and the strong backing of the parents that promise success, as that is what insures the attendance and the proper attitude.

     Nor should we omit mention of the bi-weekly Ladies' Meetings, held at the different houses. At each of the two meetings held this season, almost all of the ladies have been present, and the sphere has been delightful. First there is a brief reading from the Word and prayer, then a lecture from the pastor. The first one on "What a woman is, and how much depends upon her kind of wisdom;" the next on "First Love." (Rev. ii, 4.) Educational topics are to follow, such as Remains, Obedience, Prolonging Innocence, etc. Afterwards, we discuss and plan, over the coffee and cake, whatever is most urgently in need of attention.

     The women are indeed at the bottom of everything, and where their sphere of warm sustaining affection is active, and the men interested in the Doctrines, there need be no fear of extinction or even retrogression. If, however, the Church uses here are allowed to lag, the time is not far distant when one more altar fire may flicker and go out, and one more house of worship close its doors and be sold. This is what is happening to the Protestant Churches everywhere, and the New Church has not escaped the blight.

     Let no Newchurchman or friend of a Newchurchman go West or back again without calling "en route" upon us here in Denver. That is what Denver is for. Our function in the larger man of this great country seems to be like that membraneous network which lives by taking touch of what passes by on its way up or down.

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In fact, our Chapel itself, a charming, cozy little nook, with a long accumulated sphere of worship, is equipped upstairs like a club house, and has already housed many a passing guest. The pastor has his study there and is usually on hand from 9:30 A. M. until well along in the afternoon. It is only a fifteen-minute ride from the Union Station-take a "Cherokee" car, get off at Delaware Street and the number is 543. The Drinkwater Pharmacy, in the central shopping district, is a convenient meeting place, too. Besides there is our genial Treasurer, Mr. Alvin Lindrooth, or the Tylers, father and son (see phone book). The latter is a "Son of the Academy," our only specimen so far of that species. H. S.

     LONDON. Though we have not appeared in these columns for some time we have nevertheless been busy. On the Sunday previous to the 19th of June the Society celebrated New Church Day. Papers were read by our pastor, Mr. Czerny, and several members. Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Brown, of Toronto, were the honored guests and our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Rey Gill, and Mr. and Mrs. J. Pryke, added to the gathering.

     Thursday, July 10, was also a red letter day, when the Society witnessed the pretty wedding of Miss Margery Waters to Mr. Alwyn Appleton. The rooms were tastefully decorated with roses,-nature's beautiful symbol of Conjugial Love,-and the short but impressive marriage service in the Liturgy was added to by suitable wedding music. Several of the friends and relatives afterward met at the reception held at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Waters, and the Assembly in August made opportunity for the friends to visit the new home in Colchester.

     On Sunday, the 13th, the Rite of Confession of Faith was received by Misses Margaret and Janet Elphick, the Rev. Czerny officiating.

     On July 20 the Society welcomed the Rev. and Mrs. N. D. Pendleton. Bishop Pendleton conducted the service and on the 30th read a paper on the nature of the New Church and its difficult reception. The opening theme centered on the text, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air nests," and the entire discourse invited really serious thought to the subject, what is this wonderful thing called "The New Jerusalem."

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At the Sunday service friends were present from Burton Road, and at the lecture a few members from the Burton Road, Flodden Road and Kensington Societies.

     The British Assembly has already been noted. All we can add here is our appreciation of the genial hospitality of our Colchester friends.

     In movements personal we have lost two young gentlemen. Toronto at present claims Mr. Percy Barber, and Stockholm Mr. John Posthuma. Mr. Alfred Stroh, Mrs. and Miss Bertha Barger have added to our visitor list. F. W. E.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. Rev. Everett K. Bray has accepted a call from the St. Paul Society. Rev. L. E. Wethey has resigned the pastorate of the Englewood Parish, Chicago, to take effect early in December.

     Rev. L. G. Landenberger gave an advertisement to a firm in August of Swedenborg's "Heaven and Hell," to be inserted in weekly and monthly magazines having a combined circulation of over 5,000,000. From September 18, 1912, up to August 26 he has received orders for books from 1,795 persons.

     The Rev. W. B. Murray was installed as pastor of the Society in Bridgewater, Mass., on September 28.

     The Journal of the General Convention for 1913 reports 99 societies, 68 ministers and 6,458 members, a decrease of 7 ministers and an increase of 112 members since the last report.

     The Rev. Julian K. Smyth, president of the General Convention, has recently completed a widely advertised lecture tour in the West, the subject of the lecture being the Life, Mission and Main Doctrines of Emanuel Swedenborg. His audience in Minneapolis numbered 200 persons; in Portland, Ore., 200; in Seattle, Wash., 200; in San Francisco, 250, and in Denver, 375. One of his hearers writes that the lecture "was exceedingly well put together and delivered, and had but one fault. It gave the impression that the Heavenly Doctrines were the scholarly production of Swedenborg's highly scientific and eminently sane brain, but it failed to convey the news that the Lord Himself had made His promised Advent in these Writings."

706

     The Convention's Theological School, at Cambridge, Mass., opened its sessions on Sept. 25th. The teaching force for the year includes the Rev. William F. Wunsch, in the department of Systematic Theology; Horatio W. Dresser, Ph. D., in the department of Church History, and Mr. I. L. Winter, of Harvard University, in Reading and Speaking. Nine students are enrolled for the year, with some twenty students in the correspondence department.

     Owing to the complaints that Swedenborg's philosophical works are not studied in the Convention's Theological School, the General Convention last year adopted a resolution, (introduced by the Rev. Frank Sewall), requesting the managers of the Theological School "to make such provision as may be practicable for the introduction of such courses of study of the philosophical writings of Swedenborg,-by reading, by lectures-preferably by professional experts when possible-as will enable every student to comprehend, at least in general, the form of Swedenborg's scientific system, and its relation to the general doctrines of the Human Form, of Influx, and of the Gorand Man." In response to this request the Rev. W. L. Worcester, as president of the Theological School, reports in this year's Journal of the Convention that "after careful consideration the conclusion was reached, that so far as practicable now this is already provided in President Worcester's courses in Physiological Correspondences, with respect to the 'Animal Kingdom;' and in Professor Hite's courses with respect to the Philosophy of the 'Principia.' Some special lectures might be added when practicable."

     On Sunday afternoon, August 24th, a group of New Church people, summer residents of Palisades Park and Covert Resort, Michigan, dedicated a building lot at Covert Resort for use as the site of a building for worship and instruction according to the doctrines of the New Church. The lot was donated for this purpose by Dr. Waughen, the promoter of Covert Resort, and the deed is to be in the hands of four trustees, as follows: Henry Wunsch, Esq., of the Detroit Society; Dr. N. Bergman, of the North Side Parish, Chicago Society; Dr. Harvey Farrington and Mr. Seymour Nelson, of the General Church.

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The dedication service, in the presence of about thirty persons, was conducted by Rev. L. G. Hoeck, pastor of the Cincinnati Society, assisted by Rev. John W. Stockwell, pastor of the Frankford Society, both of whom are members of the summer colony at Palisades Park.

     On Friday afternoon, August 29th, a second meeting was held, this time at the summer home of Mr. Wunsch, at Palisades Park.

     This meeting occurred on the exact anniversary, to the day, of the meeting for organization held at the same place. At the 1912 meeting, Rev. E. J. E. Schreck, now of Glasgow, Scotland, and who was largely instrumental in starting the movement which has this year been definitely formulated, had been present. This fact was brought into mind directly and very pleasantly when, after Mr. Wunsch had been formally elected chairman, and Mr. Seymour Nelson, secretary, the latter proceeded to read the minutes of the meeting of August 29th, 1912. After the reading and approval of the minutes, the chairman invited the opinion of everyone present in turn as to the proposed building. After all had been heard, it was voted to authorize the trustees to arrange for the erection of the new building and to negotiate a loan to cover the cost over and above the amount already pledged. The desire was voiced by all present that, in addition to the worship on Sundays, there be provided on week days classes of instruction for both old and young at the new building, although it was agreed that the curriculum should not be too heavy to prove a tax during the summer weather.

     During the month of August, New Church services have been maintained in the Club House, Palisades Park, Rev. Messrs. Hoeck and Stockwell officiating; and union services, participated in by the ministers of the different denominations present in the Park, have been held at the Club House in the evenings. The New Church ministers have officiated in order in these union services.

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     GREAT BRITAIN. Several ministerial changes have taken place during the summer. Rev. S. H. Teed has left Derby and commenced his pastorate at Kearsley, near Manchester. Mr. Teed's place at Derby has been filled by Rev. W. A. Bates, whose removal has occasioned a vacancy at Willesden Green, in the suburbs of London.

     Rev. Harry Deans bade farewell to the Society at Wretham Road, Birmingham, on Sunday, July 27th, and has since entered upon the pastorate of the Church at Brightlingsea, in Essex.

     Rev. George Meek, B. A., has concluded his second pastorate of the Nottingham Society.

     AUSTRIA AND GERMANY. We quote the following from, the recent report of the Rev. Adolph Goerwitz to the General Convention: In Gyorkony, Hungary, I spent several days, holding services and administering the Holy Supper to eight persons. In Budapest, also, I spent some days preaching and lecturing to our small German Society, and administering the Holy Supper to eighteen persons. There were some new members, but they are very rare in that Magyar country. Of the Magyar edition of H. H. only few copies were sold.

     In Vienna I spent a week, holding several services and lectures, and administering the Holy Supper to forty-two persons. Since the New Church, as such, is not recognized by the State, and no public activity is possible on her part, the members have started a Swedenborg Society, with the scope of making known the name and works of Swedenborg; but they were forced by the Government to limit in these by-laws their propaganda to the scientific Writings of Swedenborg, and renounce all and every propaganda of religious doctrine and activity.

     In Austria, where the Church signified in Scripture by Babylon is ruling, it does not need to hide its true nature and is executing its rule over the souls of men in a way wholly incredible in the twentieth century of Christianity. Anyway, in this way, it was for the first time possible for me to deliver, with the knowledge of the police, a lecture to the Swedenborg Society in a hall specially rented for the purpose. My theme was the doctrine of spheres.

709

I also delivered a lecture before the Society Philanthropy, the successor of the Verein der Neuen Kirche (associated with the German Synod of the New Church in America), which has been dissolved after some irregularities on the part of some leading members. Since this Verein had been the custodian of a legacy of Kr. 9,000 ($1,800) destined for a future church building, and since the State was going to confiscate this money, a member of our New Church Society founded a new society as successor of the said Verein der Neuen Kirche, in order to save some of the money for the original purpose; to this society the name Philanthropy was given, since the Government would not permit any name or activity alluding to the New Church nor anything religious. After the tiresome suits at court have continued for three years in this matter, $300 of that fund will be secured for the original purpose, the rest having been given incorrectly to the heirs of the testator and to the lawyers in question.

In Prague, Bohemia, I preached on October 17, the memorial day of the first New Church service in Bohemia at the occasion of my first visit to Prague in 1909. On Sunday, October to, we had a very useful service, partly in German, partly Czech, and on this day I administered, for the first time in Prague, the sacraments of the New Church, the Holy Supper to eight persons and the Baptism to Mr. Janecek and his wife, Mr. Janecek receiving the name Immanuel at this occasion. As you doubtlessly will receive from him a special report of his activity, as editor of the Novy Jerusalem, as publisher of H. H., and leader of the circle in Prague, I shall omit details and simply state that I again received the best impressions of the work of Mr. and Mrs. Janecek and of the prospects of the New Church in this country; the Czechs are a deeply religious people, and I wish to express again my hope that, in time, Mr. Janecek may be enabled to give his whole time to the holy cause.

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EVERLASTING GOSPEL AND THE DIVINE PROCEEDING. 1913

EVERLASTING GOSPEL AND THE DIVINE PROCEEDING. Rev. N. D. PENDLETON 1913

     Announcements.

NEW CHURCH LIFE
VOL, XXXIII DECEMBER, 1913 No. 12
     The everlasting Gospel proclaims the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ in His glorified Human as the Supreme and only God who, in Person, is in the midst of the spiritual sun, and in essence and sphere is everywhere present throughout all the planes of creation. This truth is now acknowledged by all in the heavens, and is made manifest to the world by a revelation out of heaven from God through the instrumentality of a man called and commissioned to deliver the Divine Doctrine thereof for the founding of the Crowning Church, which Church by virtue of its reception of the Doctrine-the everlasting Gospel-and the direct approach to the Divine thereby granted, is to endure throughout the ages.

     This everlasting Gospel is the final truth. Behind it there lies no deeper, no more fundamental truth, yet to be revealed. As it stands now proclaimed it comprises all the former truth involved in past revelations, and holds within itself as manifest all that is to come forth in future ages. For in itself it is the very truth conceived from the beginning, brought forth in time, and everlastingly established. It is the truth itself and there is not another.

     This manifestation of the Person and essence of the Glorified Lord is, in effect, an inward coming of Him to the rational apperceptive minds of angels and men, and as such it excels every former revelation. No others may be compared with it since it vivifies, crowns and demonstrates them all. Its giving in these latter days is the fulfillment of the promised Second Coming and also of the sending of the Spirit which should teach all things-all things concerning God, heaven and the Church-concerning the way of life, the mode of regeneration and the Divine process of glorification-to declare the things which were from the beginning and will be unto the end-to open the mysteries of former revelations by an exposition of the internal sense of the Word.

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Yea, there is nothing which is not revealed to those whose eyes are open to see the glories of the Second Advent, the final coming of the Lord, whose minds are instructed to perceive its heavenly truths, each of which is an eternal verity reflecting some phase of the Divine in its relation to creation, or opening some truth of the creative, recreative process, or it may be recounting past states of the life history of the race, which in the providence of God are significative of those that now are or are yet to be.

By this new and final revelation of the person and essence of God, in His glorified Human, the Word of all past Scripture is brought to view as a continuous prophecy running throughout the ages-a prophecy concerning the virgin birth of the Lord God into the world-of the glorification of the Human then put on-and the subsequent manifestation of that Human as glorified, whereby the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Supreme and only God in ultimate fact and presence throughout the universe, might be established in the minds and lives of the angels of heaven and the men of the Church.

The actual assumption of the flesh and its glorification at the time of the First Coming, and thereby the presentation of a more ultimated Divine, above and within all the planes of creation, was the work of the First Coming, while the inward manifestation of this Human glorified was accomplished by the Second Coming. The Second Advent may thus be regarded as a full revelation of, or opening the mind to view, the Divine work accomplished at the First, whereby the purpose and result of that work was made known to, and rendered efficient in, the minds and lives of angels and men. The Second was, therefore, in no sense a repetition of the First, but its ordained conclusion whereby the purpose involved in the glorification, with reference to human salvation by means of the opening and development of an interior rational mind in the men of the Church, and thereby the restoration of the lost celestial perception to the children of men, was triumphantly accomplished.

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Therefore, at the time of the Second Advent the Lord did not come again as the Man-God in Person into the world as before, but He revealed Himself to the rational insight of men as the God-Man fully glorified in Person in the midst of the Spiritual Sun, and in essence as the Divine Love and Wisdom-spiritual Heat and Light-proceeding from that sun; by means of a living Divine sphere going forth and presenting itself as omnipresent in, and most powerfully operative, throughout the universe.

By the glorification of the Human assumed in the world the Sun of heaven was raised to seven-fold power, and the Divine sphere proceeding from that Sun was increased in like degree, the consequence being that after that event the Lord reigned with greater power and nearer presence than before, and was able to reach and save many who otherwise would have been lost. Before the Advent in the flesh, whereby the Divine descended into and assumed to itself the ultimates of nature, thereby standing over against man in ultimates, face to face, there was given on the part of the Divine no outside address or sense appeal save by representative types and images in the world of nature, and by angelic intermediation and representation in the world of the spirit. But these types and images in the world of nature could but feebly and from afar reflect the glorious majesty of God, could at best afford but a roundabout way of approach to the Divine on the part of those who had fallen from celestial perception. And on the plane of the spirit, outside address by angelic intermediation and representation, was losing its efficacy because of the removal of man from the heavenly sphere. But with the Human once assumed and glorified the Divine itself stood over against man in ultimates, and then it was that all idols ceased-the angel of Jehovah appeared no more. (T. C. R. 109.) While Moses and Elias were seen talking with Him, yet at the end of the vision of transfiguration Jesus was seen standing alone, the visible God, Himself forthstanding in unveiled presence in ultimates, whereby was given an outside contact and saving touch of man with his God, not provided for by the old order.

714

The glorification of the Human assumed from the ultimates of nature raised the power of the spiritual Sun and increased the efficacy of the Divine sphere proceeding therefrom, by giving a more ultimate Divine body to the primal essence of God which, from the beginning, stood forth as its original Sun of heaven and its first proceeding. It is this more ultimate enclosing Divine, sometimes called a second essence, which now comes to the inner rational view of men by means of the revelation of the Second Advent, which, therefore, presents itself in the Divine Doctrine of that revelation as the everlasting Gospel to be preached for the salvation of the world. It comes to view even as that which was significantly involved in and evolved from the Ancient Sacred Scriptures, standing forth as the spiritual and celestial meanings thereof. But the thing itself, this Second essence of the Human glorified, as a divine sphere and presence, above and within creation, though representatively involved in ancient prophecy and story, yet did not exist in ultimate fact and actual verity until the Human was assumed and glorified, and, therefore, could not be revealed in presence and power until after that event, and then only by means of a celestial rational revelation which should itself constitute a second and more interior coming of the Lord. This Advent may, therefore be called His essential coming as distinguished from His first personal appearing as a man in the world of nature. It is His essential coming inasmuch as it is a coming in the revealed forms of Divine love and wisdom, which is a manifestation, not of the outer appearing person of God, but of the mind of Him-even that mind which was opened and developed in our Lord while in the world by the process of glorification As love and wisdom make the mind of man, so Divine love and wisdom constitute the mind of God-even the mind of our Lord and Savior. And this is that which is now revealed-laid open to view-as to all the successive stages of its formation and empowerment in the Heavenly Arcana, as that which was representatively forecasted in the veiled story of the Patriarchs many centuries before its actual forthcoming.

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But the laying open-the full revelation of the glorified mind of Him who came upon our earth-could not be given at once, and this though the veiled history of it was given from the beginning of the days of prophecy, given in preparation for the incarnation and glorification, given in preparation for the subsequent manifestation of the Human glorified. A period of racial development after the glorification was needed. And this because the final revelation was to be as none other. While its mission was to open and develop the interior rational with men and thereby restore the lost celestial perception, yet its giving would be in the nature of a supreme test to the human mind and heart, since by it men were to be introduced into the unveiled presence of the Divine-the Human glorified-and this even now but few can endure. This revelation, unlike ah others, speaks plainly-openly-of inmost Divine mysteries. It leads directly to the Lord, not as He formerly walked a man by the shores of Galilee-not as He hung upon the cross-not to Him as a man-God in Person in the world-but to the risen and ever-living Lord and God, now in Person in the midst of the Spiritual Sun and in essence everywhere present by the proceeding sphere of His Divine Love and Wisdom. To Him, this Lord over all and with all, direct access is now given by means of the open truth of the final revelation, which constitutes His second and last coming for the establishment of the crowning church of the ages. The older forms of revelation, especially those in existence prior to the coming in the flesh, were not, and could not, be thus open and direct, because the Human was not yet put on and glorified. The Divine involved had not yet become the Divine evolved. Therefore of necessity the older forms of revelation were deeply veiled, clothed indeed in the lowly forms of human history, couched in "dark sayings" or "enigmatic utterances," given as prophetic enunciations, which would involve and reflect, however obscurely, the Divine story of the assumption and glorification afterwards to be enacted. It was with these ancient revelations, clothed in history, prophecy and law, as with John the Baptist the forerunner and announcer of the coming of the Lord. This John, as the Lord said, was a "burning and a shining light" and "men rejoiced for a season in his light."

716

But when he stood in the presence of the Lord he denied that he was either Elias or a prophet. For when in the Divine presence his light went out, even as the light of the moon fades when the day dawn arises. Yet John, in his representative capacity, was both Elias and a prophet, and so it was with the "dark sayings of old" and the whole ancient Scriptures. In their day, they were a "burning and a shining light" and men rejoiced for a season in their light. For they were Divinely Significative and by involution contained the fullness of the Divine. They were indeed a preliminary human vestment of the Divine descending, a representative clothing on the external plane of human ideas and imagery as preliminary to and preparatory for the actual and more ultimate assumption of the flesh. But such was the nature of this human Scriptural vestment that it both revealed and concealed the Divine contained. Its full significance could not become manifest until the Divine involved had reached still deeper, and from the ultimate basis of human flesh had begun the process of Divine evolution. The full meaning, therefore, of the ancient Scriptures could not be known at the time of their giving, and this for the further reason that celestial perception was lacking-that superb God-given faculty of the first men was lost, or on the point of being lost, when by the foreseeing providence of God, the first prophetic enunciation was delivered concerning the "seed of woman" (Gen. 3:15). Enough, however, was known to give assurance of the fact and establish a tradition concerning the coming of the Lord into the world by virgin birth,
the glorification of the human then put on, and the consequent redemption of mankind, whereby the lost faculty of celestial perception would be restored. But this not at once-not as an immediate effect of the glorification-but as a result of the subsequent manifestation of the Human glorified. Before the celestial faculty could be restored to human minds in full power and inner efficacy, it was necessary that the Lord should come a second time by an inward manifestation of the Human glorified, and this manifestation by the revelation given is now, and ever must be, the means of developing celestial perception, and this by the opening and formation of an interior rational which is the celestial degree of the human mind.

717

And this fact alone characterizes the truth of the second Advent, the everlasting Gospel, as a celestial Divine revelation. Only such a revelation could bring to view the Human glorified, and thereby open the inner rational and restore celestial perception to the fallen man. And these are the things that must be done before the crowning Church can be established-before paradise can be regained-and the beatific vision achieved. That vision, of which exalted minds have dreamed, is none other than the Glorified Human of God revealed opened to the view of the inward rational mind, instructed and formed from and by the truths of Divine Wisdom. For this reason and to this end the Divine revelation of the Second Coming appeals as no other to the reasonable mind of man-appeals by presenting the unveiled God in His glorified Human, and this in forms of the Divine Wisdom clothing the Divine Love, conveyed indeed in human words and statements, adapted to the natural rational minds of men in the world. By these words, and this statement, however, the Divine Wisdom of the revelation, containing the Divine Love, is not impaired, but only accommodated. In this respect the last is not unlike all former revelations-it differs from them only in degree-in the plane of the human mind which is addressed. Without accommodation there has never been, is not now, nor ever will be, given any communication of the Infinite with the finite, of God with men. Hence, it follows that all revelation has been and of necessity must be given through finite means-men filled with the Spirit and empowered. But this, as said, does not impair the Divine which thus passes through man to man by means of the words and ideas of human language and thought. For while the finite, as such, may by no process of evolution become Infinite, yet that which is finite may receive, hold, and when so ordered, convey the Divine, and this on the primary ground of the mode by which the Infinite produced the finite out of itself at the original instance of creation. This being so we may in some part understand how words and ideas may hold and convey Divine things. A word is significative of an idea, and an idea, in a certain image, represents a truth, and truth in itself is Divine. Now the human mind is so constituted that it may by a right ascending development pass from the word through the idea to the truth, and thus to God.

718

In this way it is provided that the Word in the letter, which by Divine involution contains all truth, the whole of heaven; and the fullness of the Divine, may by an orderly resolution, yield all these for those who search the Scripture in truth.

     Truth is, therefore, deeper than the spoken word, even than the intellectual idea. Words are signs, and ideas are mental images which in varying degrees reflect and represent the truth. Truth itself is the Divine going forth from God as a substantial and living sphere, which in the beginning made all things, and having made them ever sustains them from: within by a continual influx and supports them from without by encompassing them, even as the waters of the sea surround and support the fish that swim in its bosom, or as the ambient air surrounds and contains the living creatures upon the surface of the earth. Thus does the Divine Truth, the Creative and recreative sphere going forth from God,-now the God man in His glorified Human-sustain from within and support from without all living souls and herd them securely bound in the "bundle of life with the Lord God," as was said of the soul of David.

     Wherefore, the mandate is given in the Writings (A. C. 9498) not to think of the Divine Truth proceeding from God as speech inflowing into the ear, but as a sphere from the sun of heaven, which "by degrees is removed and decreases" until it rests in the ultimates of nature. Within this sphere, but far removed from the Spiritual sun, the angelic heavens are situated, and as well the whole natural universe, with its clustering suns of many colors, and circling earths as ground for the feet of men to stand upon the whole sustained from within and supported from without held together in bond and connection by this living sphere proceeding from the Lord as a spiritual sun. This is the Truth, which in itself is Divine, and thus are we to think of it.

     The story of its power of presence in creation is told in the Arcana in what is said of the Ark, the sacred wood of which it was made and the gold of overlaying. The Ark itself, made for the holding of the eternal covenant of God with His people, represents heaven-the highest and the inner degree thereof, where dwell the celestial, those of the blessed who are most nearly conjoined with the Divine, and with whom the Divine Truth proceeding is in its first reception as good.

719

This truth inflows with the angels of that heaven from within and sustains them with its life-giving presence. It also surrounds them on every side like a wall of defense against the breaking in of evil from Hell. In this way the whole of heaven is surrounded and every angel enclosed by the Divine Sphere-the Truth proceeding from the Lord.

The statement of doctrine is that that in heaven which encompasses, also serves as a basis of support, even as a house rests upon its foundation, or as the outer parts of the body rest upon the air and ether which press about them. In heaven this encompassing sphere supporting and sustaining is the Divine proceeding, but as it appears round about the angels, it is the "good" of which the Arcana speaks, which so encloses the angels as to prevent the breaking in of evil from Hell. As it forth stands round about them, and comes to their sense of apperception, it is said to be relatively external, or "such good as appears before the senses" and is signified by the gold of overlaying upon the Ark, which was external to the sacred wood. This wood stands for the very Holy of Holies of the Divine-the glorified Human itself, or that which is called the Good of His Merit, which pertains to no angel save as a free gift of influx, but as such it is continually Imparted to all, inflowing inmostly, and in passing down and around in returning, it is accommodated more and more and becomes as a gold of overlaying, relatively external, or such good as an encompassing sphere round about, pressing upon and holding together the organic forms of the angels in bond and order. As such it also sets "bounds" around them beyond or through which no evil impulse from Hell may pass to the injury or hurt of the celestial states of those innocent and peaceful ones. On this ground it is called in the Arcana the "bounding good which circumscribes or sets a limit" (A. C. 9492), and is signified by the border of gold round about the Ark.

Another name is given it in the DIARY (5363). It is there called the Divine Truth in ultimates, and is said to "appear in such forms as those of nature."

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It is everywhere present in the other life-"present in all places"-surrounding not only every angel, but also every angelic society and heaven as a whole; moreover, it presses down against the very face of hell, holding back the infernals who mold emerge. The statement is made that if those in the hells protrude but the head and arms a little, they are instantly assailed with dreadful pain and draw back, because such emergence causes them "to fall into the hands of the Divine Truth in ultimates."

     When the evil ones fall into the hands of this Truth they are smitten because theirs is the breach of Uzzah, who put forth his hand to touch, and fell down dead beside the Ark of God.

     Now this Divine Truth in ultimates, "appearing in such forms as those of nature," called in the Arcana "the good which appears before the senses," and which is that which comes to view in the external environment of the angels, is in its essential form a sphere or an atmosphere. And we are informed that it surrounds the angels "in like manner as the atmosphere of the world flows around a man and holds together all the surface of his body in connection so as to prevent its dissolution." "But," the statement of doctrine continues, "in the world that which does this is natural, and it operates upon the human body as on what is material, whereas in heaven (this encompassing sphere) is the Divine Celestial and the Divine Spiritual from the Lord, which so operate around an angel and holds him together in form and power."

     The essential form therefore of the external environment appearing about an angel is that of a sphere or atmosphere, not unlike the atmosphere about a man in the world-for according to the DIARY all heavenly things are made of a "most pure ether" and when unmade they are doubtless resolved into this "ether."

     The same may be said of the environment about a man. Its essential form is that of the atmosphere, which circumvents him, and out of and from which all the lower and more concreted forms have been derived.

     There is, however, a difference here between nature's own ultimates and the appearing ultimates in the other life, which put on a likeness to those of nature.

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The ultimates of nature are firmly fixed and absolutely spatial, and were derived from the atmosphere of the world by an age-long process, extraneous to, or without the intermediation of human minds, for these ultimates were brought into existence prior to the placing of men in the world, while the outside appearing environment about an angel is derived and produced instantaneously by the Lord and its determination is brought about by and through the mental states of the angels, which determination is registered upon the surrounding medium, producing in and upon that medium representative appearances not unlike those of nature. This circumfluent sphere pressing from without upon the angels, is in itself one and the same with that which inflows within and sustains them. In a word it is the universal medium called the Divine Truth proceeding. Here recall the teaching that the angels acknowledge the Divine, see the Divine Human, and are in the Divine Proceeding. In the number quoted above this universal sphere is called the Divine Celestial and Divine Spiritual to indicate the two primary grades of it in the first of which all human souls are immersed, sustained from within and bound from without, secure forever. And in the second the minds of all are founded and conditioned variously. From these two a third is derived, more ultimate, into which the external organic forms of angels and all spirits are determined. This latter appears to be the fundamental plane of the Divine Proceeding in its Spiritual-Natural ultimates, relatively external, where are reproduced appearing forms like those of nature.

The Divine Truth proceeding from the Lord as a Sun stands to view therefore as a great composite sphere of several grades or degrees of formation, which in the flow of its unceasing motion bears the heaven of angels from this earth upon its bosom as a little ark is up-born by the waters of a mightily flood. And not only the heaven of angels from this, but from all earths. For the whole universe of creation, the distant stars and ah their circling earths are caught in the drift of its currents and carried on their eternal rounds. Thus not only are the earths borne around their parent Sun, but the Suns themselves are moved through ranges and periods incalculable to man.

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A remarkable picture of this sphere is given in the DIARY (4723). It is there likened to a great wheel driven by a prevailing force, inwardly acted upon by various counter forces, and then to an atmospheric stream, in which all are affected, each according to his nature. Also, to a great river, or to many rivers of general affections unceasingly flowing, varying itself in a wonderful manner. Those who are within the sweep of this heavenly stream, the spiritual Eridanus, can never escape beyond its bounds. Swedenborg says, "I spoke with the angels whilst in such a river, and it was shown to the life how it operated. It rolled itself in such a way that I could be in another train of thought-and yet be impelled by that river and determined according to its influences. There are many such rivers," he adds. "They exist in every degree. In interiors they flow gently and constantly with pleasing variety, while in exteriors they flow incessantly and roughly-whence are derived irregular and incoherent promptings. Still all are under the direction of the general sphere."

This great sphere of the Divine Proceeding is therefore of several grades or degrees, one superior and interior to the other, as many indeed as there are planes of reception belonging to the human organism, and on these planes there is given a dual relation, that is, there is given an inner sustaining by influx, and an outer support by overlaying; the inner sustaining by influx parts life, while the outer support by overlaying holds the organism in bond and connection, and, as in the case of the angels, sets bounds round about lest evil break through and destroy.

Thus are the heavens and the angels thereof-the souls and minds of all reborn creatures-held forever secure through the passing ages. To signify this four rings of gold were placed upon the four corners of the ark, through which the staves of carriage were passed. And the command was given that these staves should never be withdrawn from the rings. By which was represented the "power of the Divine Sphere," "its endurance and perpetuity without change," or what is the same, the protection of the heavens and of all souls, and their everlasting preservation, by virtue of the enfolding Divine.

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This is meant by the words of Abigail to David, "The Lord will certainly make my lord a sure house, yet a man is risen up to pursue thee, and seek thy soul; but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God." David was safe, guarded by Providence, his soul enfolded in the Divine sphere of life, going forth from God, even bound up therein, as in a "bundle." For it is the nature of the Divine Proceeding so to dispose itself. The statement of doctrine is that "all truths form themselves into bundles." This is revealed, and it expresses the great fundamental law concerning the nature and conformation of the Proceeding Divine, which in the beginning went forth to create, and the same law prevails with reference to that Holy Spirit which, as a more ultimate and efficient Divine, now goes forth from the Human of the Lord glorified. For this reason the letter of ancient Scripture presents the doctrine of the Divine Human under the type of a "bundle"-the sheaf of Joseph to which the sheaves of his brethren bowed down.

Because it lies in the essential nature of truth proceeding from the Divine to descend by successive conglobations and fasciculations, therefore all things of creation have been and are brought into being by and according to this mode, and they stand forth as existences so characterized as to the whole and least parts of them. The human mind as a receiving vessel is so arranged and thence ah things of its brain and body. Because of this characteristic form and mode impressed upon all created things, the Divine descending as Truth in the beginning could and did enter and indwell in the created universe, clothing itself therewith as with a garment made of, by, and for itself. Because of this the Divine could, and did, in the fullness of time, come into the world of nature by means of a human body, made for itself and born of woman, and could, and did, by the process of elimination and glorification, make that body Divine. So that there was given a fundamental Divine as over against men in ultimates-a Divine in lasts as well as in firsts, a Divine from without as well as within, whereby the created work of God was underpinned and bound around, held secure in the everlasting arms of the Almighty-the effect of which, with reference to men, was the redemption of all souls, and the provision of a lasting salvation.

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This then is that everlasting gospel now revealed by an exposition of the internal sense of the Word, which constitutes the second and final coming of the Lord, and which, when received by men, opens to the view of the inner rational sight the glorified Human of God, now in Person in the midst of the Spiritual Sun, and in essence and sphere everywhere present throughout the universe.
MATTHEW I-IV. 1913

MATTHEW I-IV. Rev. ALFRED ACTON 1913

     A SERMON

We propose to Present here a general view of the first four chapters of Matthew as an introduction to a particular consideration of the Lord's Sermon on the Mount, which opens with the fifth chapter. The preceding chapters constitute the opening of the New Testament, the revelation given to the first Christian Church on which that Church was founded.

     The word Testament means witness, and in particular a witness to a covenant. The New Testament, therefore, is the new covenant between God and man,-a covenant which consists on the one part of the revelation of Divine truth from God, and on the other of the reception of that revelation by man and obedience to it. A new covenant or new revelation is always a restoration of the former covenant, whose truths have perverted and lost; but it is a restoration, not in the old form, but in a new form adapted to the state of man. And because it is a restoration and confirmation, therefore every new revelation is based on the former revelation and confirmed by it.

     This is the general truth contained in the opening chapter of the New Testament, which commences with the words: "The book of the nativity of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham." The chapter then recites the generations of Jesus from Abraham to the time of the nativity. The chapter involves a summary, and at the same time a confirmation of the whole of the Old Testament,-but a confirmation of this testament, not as it was understood in the decadent Jewish church, but as to its real teaching, namely, as a prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and a preparation for that coming,-a Prophecy fulfilled and a preparation accomplished.

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     The genealogical table of Matthew is a summary of the former revelation, and in the beginning of the Christian Church this is to be in the mind as the ultimate and basis in the light of which the Lord is to be seen in His new appearing. Moreover, it was not only to serve as a basis for the reception of the Lord by men, but it was also to be an, active ultimate on earth whereby spirits and angels who had been of the former church might be affected and might thus in their turn be prepared for the enlightenment and the judgment that was to follow. For spirits and angel's are associated with every, man, and the knowledge and thoughts that come to his mind are the means whereby they and through them other spirits and angels are enabled to see the interior truths that are involved.

     The New Testament therefore opens with an account of the genealogy of Jesus Christ; a summary and confirmation of the Old Testament, but in the now revealed light that it is the Lord Jesus Christ who was prophesied and who is now actually present. In like manner the Writings of the New Church are a recountal and confirmation of the Old and New Testament whose teachings are now to be seen in that light which themselves but foreshadowed.

     The genealogy proceeds to Joseph who was the last of that line of David which represented the Lord in his presence upon the earth. It was trot through Joseph that the Lord came actually into the world. But Joseph was the betrothed of Mary, and it was Mary from whom Jesus was born.

     By Mary is represented the affection of truth,-an affection which in Mary's case was an affection for the representative truths of the former revelation typified by Joseph; an affection which was a genuine natural affection and with which were associated the hosts of the angelic heavens who were wise in the truths of former revelations and who longed for the coming of Him whom they had seen and worshiped in those revelations. It was an affection which was such as to make Mary capable of being disposed by the holy sphere of heaven, so that through her the Lord could clothe Himself and could become actually present in the world.

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     But though the Lord was born of Mary, yet it was Joseph that was commanded to call Him Jesus, that is, to recognize Him as the fulfillment of prophecy by this is meant that the Lord descends from the Father into the world, by means of the affection of truth,-an affection which could be betrothed, but not married to the obscure truths then seen; and yet it was by means of these very truths that the Lord was to be acknowledged. It is so also in the New Church. The Lord becomes present to man by means of the affection of truth which is the affection of the Word, but His presence is acknowledged in the light of the truth of that Word in which He had formerly appeared. It was by means of the affection of truth that: the Lord could appear to Swedenborg, and in the mind of Swedenborg could clothe Himself with the truths of former revelations and illumining them could appear to the world as the Lord in His glorified Human.

     With regard to Mary, it cannot be doubted that by her very affection for the Jewish Scripture and her longing for the fulfillment of prophecy, she could serve as a medium for the descent of the Holy Spirit. She was betrothed to Joseph in order that the Lord might come into the world in the way of Divine order, i. e. in the sphere of marriage, and that she herself might by this sphere be prepared also according to order. But Mary was not married to Joseph; for there could be no full conjunction of the affection of truth with the representative truths of the former church, but only a preparation for conjunction. It is when the Truth itself appears that there is full conjunction. Therefore after the Lord was born Mary represents the Church, the wife of Him who is the spiritual Joseph.

     The second chapter of Matthew opens with the statement that the Lord's coming was effected in the days of Herod, the King. Herod was not a true king, but an usurper; for he was not of the line of David, which alone could rule. And by the Lord's being born in his days, is represented that the Lord appears at the end of a church when the Word is no longer acknowledged such was the case in the Jewish Church when the Lord's representative presence by the seed of David had been rejected. Such also was the case in the Christian Church when the Lord's presence as Jesus Christ was no longer acknowledged in the New Testament The state of the former Church is fully described by the acts, and still more by the intentions of Herod, in that he slew all the male-children of Bethlehem and its borders, and this with the mind of destroying the Lord Himself.

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For in the Church when it is devastated, the inmost effort inspired by the hell's is to destroy every truth whereby the Lord has been known and acknowledged, and also to destroy the Lord Himself in His coming. The truths of the former church were indeed destroyed, as the males were slain by Herod. So the truths of the Christian Church have been destroyed by the Arian spirit which has usurped the Lord's place in the church. But the effort to destroy the Lord Himself in His new revelation is fruitless and ever will be. The Divine end of revelation can never be frustrated; though the revelation be preserved with but a few, it is yet the Lord Himself with man, and the hosts of evils with which men assail Him avail nothing.

But even though the Lord appears in the vastated church where evils and falses prevail, yet are there some who receive Him. These are represented by the wise men, who "saw His star in the East and came to worship Him." By these men is evidently meant a remnant of an ancient church which existed prior to the Israelitish. For it was Balaam of Syria, who knew not the Jewish faith, and to whom nevertheless the Lord was known,-to whom indeed the Lord revealed Himself in vision,-it was the Balaam of a land far removed from Canaan, that prophesied the Lord's coming as the appearance of a star. "I shall see Him but not now, I shall behold Him but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, that shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth." (Num. xxiv, 17.) It was this remnant, preserving the ancient prophecy, that was led to the Lord in Bethlehem. They came to Jerusalem; for it was in the external Word of the Jewish Church, or by means of the priests of that Church, that they sought the Lord whose coming had been revealed to them. But they were wise men, and to them externals were but the representatives of internals. Therefore, when they had seen Him who was the Internal itself and the Word Itself, they cast off their former representative worship, and entered into internal worship of the Lord in His Human. They came through Jerusalem, but, warned by an angel, they returned "by another way."

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What became of these wise men is not known. But it seems clear that though they themselves had preserved some internal acknowledgment such as had distinguished the ancient church before its fall, and though they themselves could thereby come into perception and acknowledgment of the Lord as actually a man, yet the people from whom they came were of such a quality, that no internal church could be established among them at that time; and that therefore the knowledge of the Lord's coming, which had been given to the wise men, was lost, or but dimly preserved in the religions of the east. It seems also clear that these wise men by their coming and ultimately seeing and worshiping the Lord, provided on earth an ultimate of interior human thought and speech and act on which the spirits of the Ancient Church could rest,-an ultimate whereby those spirits who were in longing for the coming of the seed of the Woman, could be enlightened to see that He whom they had worshiped in type was now indeed God Man,-an ultimate whereby they could be prepared to see the light of the moon as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun as the light of seven days. For as we have already indicated, angels and spirits cannot come into any light and intelligence except so far as some ultimate is provided among men on earth on which they can rest and by which they can be introduced to interior truths. Without such an ultimate they could not even think, any more than the spirit of man can think unless it rests on his body. And so, when man departs from the body, he must rest on the bodies of other men,-and he is in his light and delight and in interior thought, so far as there is in those men something corresponding to his loves and affections. Therefore it is that even in the darkest ages something of the church is always preserved among men lest otherwise the heavens themselves perish. By reason of the darkness of the Jewish church this ultimate could not be fully furnished from that church; therefore wise men-a remnant of the Ancient Church,-came from the East, because they had seen His star, and willed to worship Him and to offer Him their treasures.

But though the wise men furnished this ultimate to the other world, yet that ultimate could not be preserved on the earth. It was necessary that the Lord should Himself teach men before they could come into any genuine acknowledgment of Him or any acknowledgment that could remain.

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The wise men represent the New Church which is to be the true and lasting and crowning ultimate on which the heavens rest,-an ultimate in which the Lord in His Divine Human is to be the center. And the New Church could not then be established because of the ignorance of the age. Along work of preparation was necessary, and the first of this preparation was the glorification of the human and the subjugation of the hells. It was necessary that the Divine Truth which has descended in and as Jesus Christ, should become the Divine Truth glorified,-the Divine Human which the Lord formed for Himself or earth, and should thus he capable of transmission to men through the Divine mind and the ultimate speech of the Glorified Lord.

And therefore the scene moves on and presents the child Jesus as taken down to Egypt, where he acquires the learning of the Egyptians, by which is represented that the Lord was instructed as other men, and that by knowledges thus received He formed for Himself the Divine Rational, the Divine Human, which he made one with the Divine Itself, which was His Father. From this Divine Human He fought against the Hells; from this He subjugated them and reduced them into order, so that the turbulent and evil spirits of the other world could no longer infest the men of the church by seizing their very bodies in devilish possession, or beclouding their minds so that they could not understand the Word of Truth. By conquering the hells, the Lord cleared the atmosphere of the world of spirits, so that the minds of men and especially the minds of those of the Jewish church who were not in interior conjunction with the evil legions of hell,-were cleared of the darkness that had prevailed, and thus enabled to hear and receive His doctrine.

The temptation combats of the Lord are described in a summary in the fourth chapter of Matthew, where it is said, that after His baptism,-by which is represented the glorification itself.-"Jesus was led of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." He was led of the spirit, because the spirit of God willed no other than that the hells should be subjugated, and the Divine Human glorified.

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This is represented by the appearance that the spirit led the Lord into temptations; but the truth is that the hells assailed, and that the Lord led by the spirit of love for the whole human race, resisted them, and in resisting subjugated.

     By the three temptations recounted in the fourth chapter of Matthew, are represented all the temptations of the Lord,-temptations which lasted even to the cross. But they are here recounted in a summary, that it might be seen even in the very beginning of the Church that the Lord is the Victor over Hell. Even as with every man this must be acknowledged at the beginning of regeneration, and so before the man himself has realized that the Lord in His Revelation is indeed the Conqueror over hell.

     It may also be added that the temptations recounted in the New Testament are few because the men of the first Christian church could not have been held in acknowledgment of the Lord's divinity if his temptation-combats had been more fully revealed to them.

     By combats against the hells and victory over them, the Lord became the Divine Glorified man,-the Divine Truth Itself, but now present in the world as the Teacher of man even by very word of mouth. But before the work of actual instruction could be commenced by the Divine Lord, a work of preparation must precede. It is this work that is the subject of the third chapter of Matthew, preceding the account of the Lord's temptations. There we are told of the appearance of John the Baptist, preaching to the Jews that they must repent in order to receive the coming kingdom of Christ.

     John is the last of the prophets,-the last of those who represented the spirit of God teaching the church,-He indeed was the spirit of God speaking to men through the words of the former revelation. His is the message of the Old Testament,-the message of the Lord in His representative appearance,-message which exhorted men to repentance as a preparation for the reception of the Messiah. But besides his representative character, John was actually seized with the spirit of God descending through angelic societies; and it was under the influence of this spirit that he taught and exhorted. But his teaching was confined to the truth that the Lord was to appear, and that only by repentance could preparation be made for the reception of Him through whom would come all truth.

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"I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who cometh after me shall baptize you with the holy spirit and with fire." John had naught but the genuine knowledges of the former revelation, and it was these knowledges that were to prepare, and it was in them that his message was clothed. Therefore he was clothed with camels hair; he ate locusts and wild honey; he preached in the wilderness, and baptized in Jordan; by all which is signified, that the Divine message given through him is the message of the letter of the Word,-the message of the former or external revelation. John, therefore, represents the letter of the Word whereby men were to be prepared to receive Him from whom proceeds the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. The message of the Letter of the Word is the message of repentance as a preparation for acknowledgment of the Lord and reception of Him. Such is the message of the Old Testament, in whose every word is foreshadowed the coming of the Lord. It was only those of the Jewish church who believed in the Messiah to come and who prepared themselves for that coming so that the Christian Church could be established. Of such was Mary and Joseph; of such the disciples of such were Anna and Simeon; of such the woman of Samaria, and all others who followed Jesus and were faithful to His teaching. And so in the preparation for the Lord's second coming. That preparation was by means of the New Testament, whose burden is that the Lord is one with the Father, that He will again appear and that men should prepare themselves against His coming. As with the Christian church, so with the New Church. It can be established only with those who receive the message of the former revelation,-with those who have believed in the Lord and obeyed Him.

In the Jewish church it was necessary that one man should actually arise to represent and to preach the genuine doctrine of the Jewish Scriptures, and this in order that by his preaching there might be in the Jewish church some ultimate acknowledgment of the Lord, on which the heavens could rest, and because the state of men at that time was so gross that it could not have been aroused, and thus prepared without an external, and, as it were, rude awakening. But though this use was performed by John prior to the Lord's showing Himself to Israel,-yet, afterwards, many became hearers of the Lords teachings who had not heard John,-a fact which confirms the truth that John represented the whole work of preparation accomplished by the former revelation;-a work which in the beginning was to come to the very ultimate of "the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

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     Such a specific or individual ultimate was not required in the beginning of the New Church; for the state of men was not so grossly blind in natural things. But the work of preparation itself was nevertheless accomplished,-accomplished by the exhortation of the New Testament, accomplished by the opening of the Word following the invention of printing and the revival of learning. And it was by this preparation that the way was opened for the descent of the New Jerusalem. For while the Lord made His second coming through Emanuel Swedenborg, the preparation for that coming was from of old, in preserving among men the spirit of repentance and obedience; and the immediate preparation was by the New Testament with its teaching of the Divinity of the Lord, its exhortations to obedience to His Commandments, and its prophecy that He would come as the spirit of truth, which leadeth unto all truth. It is to those who receive this, teaching that the New Church comes.

     This is represented by the Lord's making His first appearance as the Divine Teacher in Capernaum by the Sea of Galilee. For this city by the sea represents those who are in the externals of the Word, that is to say, who are in simple obedience to the former revelation, as opposed to those who are in the center of the devastated church, and have defiled the Word of God.

     It is to the simple that the Lord appears, and His first act is to select four men, Peter, Andrew, James and John, who are fishermen in the sea; to select them as His disciples, who were to learn from Him and to preach this gospel of His mouth.

     It is to be observed that this selection was made before the Lord commenced His work of public instruction, which indeed begins with the Sermon on the Mount,- a sermon which is clearly addressed to the disciples, and through them to the multitude. This noteworthy circumstance indicates something of preparation in addition to the work accomplished by means of John the Baptist. The church is to be prepared for by the call to repentance; it is to be established only among those who have heeded this call; but there is something more.

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Its commencement can be made only with those who have been fishermen, and from these it is to spread to many.

     The first disciples were fishermen in the Sea of Galilee, by which is represented the Word of the former revelation; and by their being fishermen in this sea, is meant that they were in the active affection of the truth; that they loved the Word, and sought therein the means of their life. At the end of a church there are few who are in this affection; few who read the Word and love it; few who with active minds think concerning the things of the church,-few indeed when compared with the vast multitude who are immersed in the loves of self and the world, and who in heart reject all things of religion; and few even when compared with those simple minds who, while in a state of good, are yet in no active thought concerning heaven.

     But the beginning of the church can be established only with such few even as the Lord's teaching could be addressed to the multitudes only after the fishermen had been chosen, and as even then His teaching was addressed directly to those whom He had chosen. And as it was in the Christian church, so it is in the New Church, and even to a greater degree. And here we are reminded that Swedenborg himself was a spiritual fisherman,-that is an investigator of natural truths, but who investigated them in the light of revealed religion and in the profound acknowledgment of the Divinity of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

     The New Church cannot be established at first except with a few. It cannot be established with all who are simple or who are in a good state. It must commence with those of the simple who are active in their desire for the food of the Word; with those who are in the active affection for the spiritual things of the Word; it is from these that the Church will spread to many. The reason is manifest, for a new revelation is a revelation of new and interior truths,-truths which, like those beginning "Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, . . . but I say unto you," seem to the ignorant and the evil, to deny or to overturn the former revelation. A new revelation is a revelation of things new and hitherto unknown, and undreamed of.

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And in the beginning such a revelation can be made only to those whose minds are spiritually active, who are in the appetite and desire for spiritual food. These are the fishermen to whom the Lord first addressed His teaching; these also are the "few" among whom the New Church will be established as a preparation for its spread among the many.

Let those therefore who love the New Church and who pray for its establishment, cultivate the love of truth,-cultivate the reading of the Divine revelation now given; cultivate active thought from it and concerning it, that they may come into the love of truth for its own sake. This love, and this alone, is the interior and real and vital prayer to the Lord that He establish His New Church upon the earth; that He enter into the temple of His holiness and that all the earth be silent before Him. Amen.

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MYTHOLOGY OF EGYPT. 1913

MYTHOLOGY OF EGYPT. C. TH. ODHNER 1913

     The Pantheon of Egypt numbers about eight hundred deities, but out of this chaotic multitude there are only about two dozen that stand forth in very distinctive outlines. These group themselves as follows, according to their emblems and attributes, in correspondence with the essential ideas of the Theology of the Ancient Church as understood in Egypt.

     MALE DIVINITIES.

     1. KHNEMU. Symbol, the ram = the Infinite Father, the Divine Esse.

     2. AMEN. Symbol, the two long plumes = the Divine Form, the Divine Existere.

     3. RA. Symbol, the solar disk = the Divine within the spiritual sun.

     4. PTAH. Symbol: the pillar of degrees = the Logos, Divine Revelation.

     5. THOTH. Symbols, the Ibis and writing tablet = the written Word.

     6. HORUS THE ELDER. Symbol, the hawk = the Divine Proceeding, before the Incarnation.

     7. KHENSU. Symbol, the moon = the Divine Truth as the proceeding Divine.

     8. OSIRIS. Symbols, the staff and the whip = the glorified Human, the promised Messiah, judging the quick and the dead.

     9. HORUS THE YOUNGER. Symbol, the infant lock of hair = the Holy Spirit proceeding from the glorified Human.

     10. ANUBIS. Symbol, the jackal = resurrection after death.

     11. KHEM, the one-armed mummy with a whip Ham, father of Mizraim and ancestral god of Egypt.

     12. ATEN. Symbol the solar disk with rays ending in hands the "Adonai" of the Hebrews.

     13. BES, a grotesque figure, with a harp = the god of mirth.

     14. SET. Symbol, the black tapir = the evil power.

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     FEMALE DIVINITIES.

     15. ISIS, the wife of Osiris. Symbol, a throne = the Celestial Kingdom and the Internal Church.

     16. NEPHTHYS, the associate wife of Osiris. Symbol, a house the Spiritual Kingdom and the External Church.

     17. SATET, the wife of Khnemu. Symbol, the Upper Crown celestial good; identical with Isis.

     18. ANQET, second wife of Khnemu. Symbol, a cap of feathers; identical with Nephthys.

     19. MUT, the wife of Amen. Symbol, the vulture universal motherhood of Heaven and the Church.

     20. MAAT, the wife of Ptah. Symbol, the single feather spiritual good, the affection of truth in general.

     21. HATHOR, the goddess of love and beauty. Symbol, the cow = natural good, conjugial love.

     22. BAST. Symbols, the lioness and the basket = the good of charity in general.

     23. NEITH. Symbols, the bow and the shuttle = the good of faith in general.

     24. TAURT, the wife of Set. Symbol, the female hippopotamus = the love of evil.

     KHNEMU.

     As the supreme head of the Egyptian Pantheon we recognize without hesitation the divinity with the head of a ram, whose name has been variously rendered as Khnemu, Chnumu, Chnuphis, Kneph, Neph, with several other variants. According to inscriptions quoted by Dr. Brugsch,* "the most glorious image of the Divine in Elephantine is the ram's headed Chnumu, the Former of man, the creator of the gods, he who first shaped this earth with his hands, he who is his own origin, the original creative power, primeval fountain of all that is, source of ah being, the father of the gods;" and the inscription further describes him as "the god Nun," i. e. the watery or elementary first substance out of which all forms, heavenly or earthly, have been made.

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He is "the maker of things which are, creator of things which shall be, the source of things which exist, Father of fathers, and Mother of mothers." He "made the first egg, [Chaos], from which sprang the sun, and he made the gods, and fashioned the first man upon a potter's wheel, and he continued to 'build up' their bodies and maintain their life." (Budge, GODS of THE EGYPTIANS, II:50, 51).
     * Religion Und Mythologie Der Alten Egypter, part II, pp. 297-311.

     [Drawing of Khnemu fashioning man on a potter's table.]

     According to all the authorities the name of Khnemu is connected with a root meaning "to join, to write," and also "to build,"-a derivation which suggests the idea of the Infinite Esse, the Divine Love, as the first and continuous Divine substance, in which all things are infinitely and yet distinctly one,-the one and only substance out of which all finite forms have been created or built.

738

This original substance is represented by the water-jug which forms the first and only essential component part of the hieroglyphics which form the name of Khnemu,-the others having a purely alphabetic value, the owl standing for the letter M, and the chicken for U. As the god of the primeval water or creative element, he is sometimes seen with outstretched hands over which water is flowing, and sometimes he is seen with the water jug above the horns of the ram.

Ancient as well as modern students of the Egyptian religion unite in ascribing to Khnemu the attributes of primeval creative power. Porphyry states that this god "is represented with an egg proceeding out of his month, and out of this egg proceeds another god, named Ptah." (Wilkinson, MANNERS AND CUSTOMS, IV:240.) "The inhabitants of the Thebais," says Plutarch, "worship their god Khneph alone, whom they look upon, as without beginning, so without end." (Ibid, 238.) Wilkinson regards him as identical with "the Spirit of God which moved upon the face of the waters," (Ibid, 237), and Wallis Budge describes him as "the god who existed before anything else was, who made himself, who was the creative power which made and which sustains all things" (G. E: II:,42.) "We have seen that the spirit or soul of Khnemu pervaded all things, and that the god whose symbol was a ram was the creator of men and gods, and in connection with this must be noted the fact that, together with Ptah, he built up the edifice of the material universe according to the plans which he had made under the guidance and direction of Thoth," (Ibid, p. 54),-that is, according to the Word which was in the beginning with God. The invariable symbol of Khnemu is the ram, which, as the father of the flock, represented the supreme Fatherhood of the Divine Itself, the Divine Esse. In order to represent this inmost Divine as being in itself invisible and incomprehensible, the body of Khenmu was painted a dark blue; and in order to signify that this inmost Divine is the Divine Celestial itself, or the Divine Love, the head of the ram wears the crown of Upper Egypt alone.

739

AMEN OR AMEN-RA

In Amen or Amen-Ra, the great god of Thebes, we have a clear-cut conception, easily distinguished and interpreted. The very first glance at his strong manly figure,-always depicted in an attitude of stepping forth, and always wearing the "ureret" crown of two lofty plumes towering from his head-dress,-impresses the beholder with the idea of something. Divine standing forth. Sometimes he is seen with the head of a ram, to indicate his close relation to the Divine itself as represented by Khnemu; sometimes with the head of a hawk, to show his relation to the Divine Proceeding represented by Horus; but always he is wearing the two plumes, in alternate sections colored red, blue and green I and it is said in the Book of THE DEAD, (chapter 17:30), that "the plumes upon the head of Amen-Ra are Isis and Nephthys," and again, "his two eyes are the two plumes which are upon his head."

740

     [Drawing of Amen-Ra.]

     A feather, as we have shown, was the universal Egyptian emblem of Truth, and the two great feathers or plumes of Amen-Ra represent; to our mind the two great truths or doctrines of good and of truth, of charity and of faith, which proceed from the Divine Wisdom of the Lord. These two, in their three degrees, (the colored sections), make the whole of the Word, and in their reception by the angels they constitute the two kingdoms of heaven, (Isis and Nephthys). And Amen-Ra himself,-whose body is often colored light blue, like the Brahman Vishnu, as if to indicate his exalted and heavenly character,-is a striking representation of the Divine in its first Standing Forth out of the Infinite, the Divine in its first Form and Manifestation, in other words, the Divine Existere, the Divine Spiritual itself. This interpretation is supported not only by his distinctive symbol; the two feathers, but also by the meaning of his name and by the fundamental characteristics attributed to him in the inscriptions.

     The name AMEN, (as a Sun-god he was called Amen-Ra), is said to mean "what is hidden," "what is not seen," and according to Dr. Budge "it indicates the god which cannot be seen with mortal eyes, and who is invisible as well as inscrutable, to gods as well as men." (G. E. II:2). But according to the same authority, the name is also connected with a root meaning "'to abide, to be permanent,' and one of the attributes which were applied to him was that of eternal." (Ibid.) All this agrees with the character of Amen-Ra as the Divine Form or Existere,-which in itself is Infinite and therefore "hidden," yet in its proceeding becomes manifest as the Eternal Form, the Divine Human from eternity. In the hymns to Amen-Ra we find the following expressions: "Homage to thee, O Amen-Ra, who dost rest upon Maat [Truth]. . Thou are unknown, and no tongue hath power to declare thy similitude; only thou thyself [canst do this]. Thou are the lord of intelligence, and knowledge is that which proceedeth from thy mouth. Hail, thou FORM who art ONE, thou creator of all things; hail, thou ONLY ONE, thou maker of things which exist. . . . Thou art the Beautiful Face which gladdeneth the breast. Thou art the Form of forms, with a lofty crown." (G. E. II:10, 11.)

741

     And in other papyri we read: "This holy god, the lord of all the gods, Amen-Ra, the first Divine substance which gave birth unto the other two Divine substances! The Being through whom every god hath existence, the ONE ONE who hath made everything which hath come into existence since primeval times when the world was created; the Being whose births are hidden, whose evolutions are manifold, and whose growths are unknown; the holy Form, beloved, terrible, and mighty in his risings; . . . the terrible one of the double Divine Face; the Divine Aged one; the Divine Form, who dwelleth in the forms of all the gods. . . . Though he can be seen in form, and observation can be made of him at his appearance, yet he cannot be understood." (Ibid, pp. 13-15.)

     Equally distinct is the idea of Eternity which is attributed to Amen-Ra: "Thou dost travel through untold spaces millions and hundreds of thousands of years; . . . the everlasting one who cometh and hath his might; who bringeth the remotest limit of eternity; . . . who maketh decrees for millions of double millions of years; . . . who hath formed eternity and everlastingness." (Ibid.) In this connection, and when comparing Khnemu with Amen-Ra, we call to mind the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine that "by the Infinite the angels understood the Divine Esse, and by the Eternal the Divine Existere." (D. P. 45; T. C. R. 31; n. E. 972).

     A highly significative scene which we here reproduce, (from G. E. II:17), represents Amen-Pa under two forms standing back to back,-the one form, with the head of a ram, facing inward, while the other form, with the plumed head of a man, faces outward. We have here a wonderful representation of the Esse and the Existere, the Infinite and the Eternal, and the picture strongly reminds us of Swedenborg's description of "the Nexus" and the First Natural Point, in the work ON THE INFINITE and in the PRINCIPIA,-that first and only Form of forms which is "infinite on one side and finite on the other," "the first Divine Substance which gave birth unto the other two Divine substances,"-the first and the second finite!

742

This grand conception, which forms the very crux of the whole doctrine of creation, was not absolutely original with Swedenborg, but was vaguely known also to the Greek philosophers, who undoubtedly derived the idea from Egypt and thus from the theology and cosmic philosophy of the Ancient Church.

     RA.

     Very closely connected with Amen, and almost undistinguishable from him as to general attributes, is the great and ancient deity known as Ra, who, like Amen, is generally represented in the human form, with the heavily bearded face of a man, though he is often seen with the head of hawk. His one distinctive emblem is the large, red solar disk above, his head, with a royal serpent entwined about the sun; the body itself of Ra is usually painted red. The center of his worship was the ancient city of AN, the Hebrew ON, a few miles to the northeast of Cairo. The Egyptians also called it Pa Ra, the "city of the Sun," which the Hebrews translated into Bethshemech and the Greeks into Heliopolis. Here was the greatest university and theological school in all Egypt, and here was kept the bull Mnevis, sacred to Ra; this place, also, was the supposed birth place of the mythical bird Phoenix, which represented the daily death and re-birth of the sun.

     [Drawing of Heru-sa-atop, king of Ethiopia, adoring Amen-Ra.]

743

With the exception of Osiris, none of the Egyptian gods enjoyed as general a worship as Ra, who seems to be the leading representative of the supreme Being, although he was not regarded as the: supreme Being himself, and in some respects appears to have been inferior to Khnemu, Amen and Osiris. Like them he was termed the creator of gods and men, the maker of heaven, the earth and the lower world, source of all life and light, the personification of goodness and truth, the eternal opponent of darkness and evil. As Dr. Budge remarks, "there is scarcely an attribute of importance ascribed to our God, for which there is no equivalent in the hymns and texts which relate to Ra." (G. E. 1:342).

The reason for this universality of Divine attributes ascribed to Ra, and the merging with him of almost every other deity, is to be found, we believe, in the root meaning of his name. Attempts have been made to derive the name from roots signifying "to make to be," "operative and creative power," etc., but most of the Egyptologists admit the name to be of unknown origin, and materialistic interpreters such as Maspero and Wiedemann, insist that "it means the suit and nothing more," but they refrain from telling us the origin of the word for the sun, (ra).

744

But knowing as we do that the Egyptians did not possess the sound of L in their language, but always pronounced it Ra we feel convinced that the name RA is nothing but the Egyptian form of the Hebrew EL or the Assyrian ILU, both of which involve the root meaning of strength and power, and stand for the general idea of "God."

     That Ra was a sun-god, and was identified with the sun of the natural world, we freely admit, but to the Egyptians the natural sun itself was but the chief mundane representative of the spiritual Sun, "the sun of the intellectual world," as Plate terms it. And as they knew this higher sun to be the first proceeding or immediate encompassing sphere of the God-man in its midst, so Ra became identified with the spiritual Sun and with the idea of God as a Man within it. His symbols, the red solar disk with encompassing serpent, signify the Divine Love, surrounded by the Divine Wisdom. As the Divine Man within the spiritual Sun, Ra is represented with the head of a man; as the first proceeding from the God-man, he is represented with the hawk's head of Horus, and in each case he stands for the general idea of "God."

     That the Egyptians were well aware of the existence of a spiritual Sun, is abundantly evident from direct statements in their sacred texts, and is self-evident also from symbolic representations too numerous for references. We need call to mind only the double suns, one nether and one upper, which are to be seen on almost every atef crown, (the white crown of Upper Egypt). As a final and convincing proof we reproduce below a figure of the upper Sun, inflowing into the lower one, as found in Maspero's HISTORY OF EGYPT, Vol. I, p. 148. The two birdmen, seen at each side, represent the souls of the blessed; in an attitude of adoration.

     In regard to the sun-worship of the Egyptians we learn in the Heavenly Doctrine that "the ancient Church understood nothing else by the sun than the Lord and the Divine Celestial of His Love, and, therefore, they had the rite of praying toward the rising of the sun, not even thinking of the sun at that time.

745

But their posterity, after they had lost this knowledge, began to worship the sun itself, and the moon; and this worship spread to many nations, to such an extent that they dedicated temples and set up pillars [obelisks] to them; and as the sun and the moon then took on an opposite meaning, they now signified the love of self and the love of the world, which are directly contrary to celestial and spiritual loves." (A. C. 2441; A. E. 401).

[Drawing of the Sun of Heaven and the sun of the world.]

In Egypt, according to Wilkinson, (vol. 4, p. 210), "the sun was both a physical and metaphysical deity, and under these two characters was worshiped as Ra and Amen-Ra: the real sun the ruler of the world in the firmament; and the ideal ruler of the universe as king of the Gods." And besides this, "it appears that the Egyptians made of the sun several deities: as, the Intellectual Sun, the physical orb, the cause of heat, the author of light, the power of the sun, the vivifying cause, the sun in the firmament, and the sun in his resting place" (Ibid, p. 299.). The same enlightened Egyptologist emphatically declares: "I must, from the evidence before me, deny that physical agents constituted the principal deities of the Egyptians.

746

If their metaphysical doctrines, divulged alone to the initiated, are not within our reach, sufficient is shown to convince us that the nature of the great gods was not derived from mere physical objects." (Ibid, pp. 292, 293). The fact is that the wiser ones amongst them did not at all worship, nor even think, of the physical sun, when adoring Ra or any other of the forms of the Sun-god, but all these were so many representations of the Divine Man who in ancient: times revealed Himself within the sun of the spiritual world.*
* See further our paper on "The Sun of Heaven as represented in the Ancient Mythologies," in NEW CHURCH LIFE, 1907, pp. 831 160.

Besides his character as the god of the Sun, Ra figures also as the king or god of the most ancient times, the Golden Age in Egypt, even as Ouranos figures in Graeco-Roman mythology. During his reign, long since vanished, "the soil was more generous; the harvests-without the laborer's toil-were higher and more abundant, and when the Egyptians of the Pharaonic times wished to mark their admiration of any person or thing, they said that the like had never been known since the time of Ra." (Maspero, HIST. EGYPT, Vol. 1:229.) According to this original representation of Ra, we find in Egypt distinct traces of legends from the Ancient Word, referring to the fall of the Most Ancient Church,-confused and tedious stories such as the Legends of Ra and Isis, describing in many words how Isis grew weary of men and was seized with the desire to rule over Ra in heaven, a power which could be obtained only by forcing the god to reveal his secret name. Ra, in the meantime, was growing old; his mouth ran, and the spittle fell upon the earth. Out of the mud resulting from the mixture Isis now shaped a serpent which she placed in the way of Ra. The god, bitten by the serpent, could find no relief until he had revealed his secret name to Isis, who then cured him by her magic formulas. (Wiedemann, RELIGION OF THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS, pp. 54-58). It does not seem difficult to discern here the essential elements of the story in Genesis: the woman, her desire to know and be as God, and finally the serpent.

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Other stories, related in the BOOK OF THE DEAD, allude to a myth in which Ra is said to have been mutilated by his son or grandson, Seb, even as Ouranos was mutilated by Kronos, (signifying that the Divine Truth of the Most Ancient Church was profaned by the Antediluvians). From the drops of blood which fell from Ra after his mutilation there arose a race of fearful giants known as the Ammiu, just as the Cyclops and Erinnyes arose from the blood of Ouranos. In another papyrus Seb is said to have been punished for this impious act by his son, Osiris, even as Kronos was overthrown by his son, Zeus. In the text Osiris states: "I, even I, am Osiris, who shut in his father, Seb, together with his mother, Nut, on the day of making the great slaughter," (Budge, G. E. 11.99, 100).

     In support of the same genealogical correlation we quote the following note from Wiedemann (R. A. E. p. 32) "According to a remarkable cosmological myth, at the beginning of the creation, after heaven and earth were uplifted from out the primeval waters, Ra produced his children Shu and Tefnut of his own body alone, without the cooperation of any goddess. From Shu and Tefnut were born Seb and Nut, and from these Osiris, Horus the Elder, Set, Isis, and Nephthys."

     This genealogical descent of Osiris, and the stories concerning Ra and Seb, are of the greatest importance in establishing the correlation of Egyptian with Greek mythology, as may be seen from a comparison between the two family trees:

Ra     Shu           Seb          Osiris          Horus the
     "          "          "               younger
     Tefnut     Nut          Isis
                         Horus the
                         Elder
                         Nephthys
                         "
                         Set

Ouranos          Kronos     Jupiter          Mars
"               "          "
Gaea               Rhea          Juno
                         Neptune
                         Ceres
                         Pluto

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In the Greek genealogy there is no generation corresponding to the Egyptian Shu and Tefnut, (by whom is probably represented the earlier posterity of the Most Ancient Church), but even so conservative an Egyptologist as Dr. Brugsch admits the striking correlation of the other generations of the two divine dynasties: Ra = Ouranos, [the Most Ancient Church itself]; Seb = Kronos or Saturn, [the Titanic antediluvians]; Osiris = Zeus or Jupiter, as Isis = June, [both of them representing the Ancient Church]. That Ra afterwards became the chief representative of the Lord in the spiritual Sun, may have been caused by a memory of the fact that the man of the celestial church actually did worship the Lord as a Divine Man surrounded by the Sun of heaven.

749

MUSIC AN INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. 1913

MUSIC AN INTERMEDIARY BETWEEN HEAVEN AND EARTH. HUBERT SYNNESTVEDT 1913

     A great thought expressed in words is at it were living, moving to and fro among men, ever performing its use as an inspirational factor in the life of man. Consider for a moment the following query of the "father of angling:" "Lord, what music hast Thou provided for Thy saints in heaven, when Thou affordest bad men such music on earth?" It is a wonderfully beautiful thought, suggestive of the divine harmonies of heaven, in which the angels ever exalt their Creator.

     This brings us to a realization of the high place music should have in our lives and in our education, since it serves to elevate the plane of a man's thought heavenward, and in doing so brings man in closer conjunction with the angels of heaven. In other words, the consociation of heaven and the life after death with man's interior is maintained in a very close union at times when his soul is reached by revelations of sound, for on the wings of music comes inspiration in orderly array of sound from God's Kingdom of Order. Therefore, music is an important intermediary between heaven and earth.

     Question has been put to the writer as to whether musical instruments in the home are a necessity or a luxury. The answer,-a luxury, decidedly. The Human voice was given to man as a means of production for his inborn sense of rhythm, melody and harmony, and it has not been improved upon and never will be. Unfortunately, all are not born with the voice of a Patti, but what voice they have is a natural means of expressing affection, and, therefore, childhood should not be taught to speak in a scarcely audible whisper, as is often the case with young folks who are being brought up to be well-bred and polite. Instead, they should be taught to use their speaking voices quite naturally, and should be instructed in the value of deep breathing to health and subsequently to singing.

     Subordinate to the voice are the instruments.

750

In logical sequence with relation to their correspondence, they are, first, the wind instruments, the woodwind in particular; second, the stringed instruments; and third, the instruments of percussion.

     Music is put to its highest use when it is made an inseparable and essential part of genuine religious worship. Then it is that its true, uplifting, inspiring and glorious strains reveal to man from the life to come great and beautiful thoughts. Clearly, then, it is seen how all-important some knowledge of this art is to every Newchurchman.

     A child once confided to the writer that he heard music from heaven every Sunday morning upon awakening. Deep was this child's disappointment and grief upon being informed that his tones from heaven were only the cathedral chimes, but in these chimes the child, in his soul, actually heard heaven's harmony. Such an incident tends to show the part music plays as a medium between the other life and the body.

     Since very few come into this world with the ear of a Mozart, it is incumbent upon us to musically develop and train what material we have. Such a course is of entirely as much educational value as the other common branches, and even more so because of its use as a medium to the spiritual in man.

     There are two great opposing factors in music, the consonant and the dissonant. Consonant harmony is productive of a restful state and dissonant harmony of an active state. There could be no music were one without the other. Each is all-important, and the most beautiful music we have is Nature's music, particularly that of the wind and the sea, which is strikingly a marvelous harmony of these two great factors.

     At the present day musical taste is, like many other things, perverted to a sad degree. Instead of portraying the spiritual, music too often portrays the sensual, but this perverted condition will in time be rectified by the steady growth of the New Church. And then the Art over which Euterpe presides will indeed be beautiful, even divinely so. "Lord, what music hast Thou provided for Thy saints in heaven, when Thou affordest bad men such music on earth?"

751

Editorial Department. 1913

     NOTES AND REVIEWS.

     The Massachusetts New Church Union makes the announcement that the Rotch edition of THE WORSHIP AND LOVE of GOD, long expected, will soon be issued and ready for sale.

     The BULLETIN OF THE SONS OF THE ACADEMY in its October issue contains an account of the Academy's school opening; a full report of the reunion of ex-pupils from the Berlin Church School last summer; a well composed editorial talk on "Apostacy;" breezy comments on recent philosophical follies; and the usual amount of news from church and school. The BULLETIN now charges a regular subscription price of fifty cents per annum, and deserves a liberal patronage by all the friends of the Academy,-young and old.

     It is with pleasure we note that the German New Church periodical, the NEUKIRCHENBLATT, which became defunct with the death of its last editor, the Rev. L. H. Tafel, has now again revived, to be issued as a quarterly publication of eight 4to pages. The paper will fill a great need to the German public within the Church. The first two numbers contain many interesting articles, two sermons by the Rev. R. S. Fisher, and the Constitution of the "Missions-Verein," the paper being the organ of this society. Among the news-notes there is an account of the Rev. F. E. Waelchli's visit among the German New Church people in the Canadian Northwest. The policy of the paper is for neutrality in the strife that has disturbed the Church in the past, and differences of opinion are to be treated with charity.

     The NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY for October, in reviewing the Rev. John Whitehead's "fine article on 'The Word and the Heavenly Doctrine,'" in the NEW CHURCH REVIEW for July, emphasizes the fact that "the Writings of the New Church are 'doctrinal writings,' which no one, surely, will have the hardihood to deny!

752

If they are, then, according to Swedenborg, 'they are nor written in the style of the Word,' nor can be; and should Mr. Odhner succeed in proving that they are, he will, in doing so, have proved that this plan and even emphatic assertion of Swedenborg's is false! That seems to us to be the alternative to which, in the point under discussion, we are shut up." It seems strange that yet another possibility did not suggest itself to the QUARTERLY; that the old translation of Swedenborg's statement might be false.

Some of our readers may remember that the late Rev. Arthur Faraday and his wife some years ago completed an extensive Index to the INTELLECTUAL REPOSITORY, (1812-1881), and to other New Church periodicals published in England prior to 1881. The General Conference authorized the publication of the Index, provided a certain number of subscriptions could be obtained, and a committee was appointed which issued a circular in 1909. One hundred and eleven subscriptions were secured, but the list of these, which was in the care of the late James Speirs, cannot now be found. The Committee, therefore, asks that all who desire to obtain the Index,-if and when published-at the cost of one guinea, will make known their wish. Every church library, every minister and student, should possess a copy of this Index, and communicate their desire to the Rev. William A. Presland, 5 Armington Road, Fortis Green, London, N.

The REMINDER for October, in trying to elucidate the question of "Mixed Marriages," points out that the teaching of the Heavenly Doctrine is that "love truly conjugial cannot exist between two who are of different religions, (H. H. 378; C. L. 242)." "The expression used is 'different religionst' not different formulas of faith. Religion is of life." We quite agree with Mr. Lardge that love truly conjugial cannot be obtained "by-subscribing to a certain formula of faith and marrying a partner professing the same faith."

753

A nominal "New Church" marriage based on faith alone may be as "heinous" in the sight of God and His angels as any marriage contracted by persons of "different religions." But we must earnestly protest against the elimination of faith as the first essential in point of time, for religion is nothing but life according to faith, and since faith varies according to doctrines, so also does religion. Hence we are taught that "marriages on the earth between those who are of differing religion are in heaven regarded as heinous; and, still more, marriages between those of the Church with those who are outside the Church. Conjugial love is heaven itself in man; this is destroyed when two married partners are of a dissimilar heart from a dissimilar faith, for thus the things which are of the Church are profaned." (A. C 8998.)

     It was rather startling to read, in an address published in the MESSENGER for October 29th, these opening words: "Fellow Members in the New Church: I know you do not read Swedenborg." We looked at an accompanying footnote, and found that the address was delivered at the recent meeting of the Massachusetts Association (of the New Church), and that the speaker was Mr. Clarence W. Barren, who is known for his blunt way of stating unpleasant truths.

     But can it be a fact that the members of the Massachusetts Association,-who constitute almost one-third part of the General Convention,-do not as a whole "read Swedenborg?" The Rev. James Reed described it as a lamentable condition a quarter of a century ago, and the Rev. John Worcester at the same time found consolation in the dream that the Church as a whole had left the "pulmonary" state of their fathers and had reached the more celestial "heart-state," where the truths of faith are no longer needed.

     Mr. Barren's recent revelation sufficiently explain many things. Where people "do not read Swedenborg" they have the safety of complete ignorance when legislating about CONJUGIAL LOVE and when passing and re-affirming "the Brockton Declaration." Heaven will excuse them and the world ignore them, and the most carping critic will smile indulgently at the claim of the MESSENGER (Oct. 8), that the Brockton Declaration not only saved THE CHURCH from disruption, but was the hidden mainspring of the present worldwide "PURITY" movement, and moreover prevented the entire Universe from going to pieces in a final cataclysm.

754

"There is no gainsaying the fact that the Academy is alone, in the whole history of the Church, in making New Church day school education a matter of persistent effort and of systematic study, and at any rate of something like scientific development. Many individual New Church people of other 'schools of thought' have regarded and do regard, the provision of- genuine New Church day schools-in which not only New Church doctrine shall have a recognized place in the curriculum and a New Church 'atmosphere' pervade the schools and the whole of their work, in virtue of their being staffed by avowed New Church men and women, but in which the government and all the teaching shall be in accordance with the Principles of psychology revealed in the doctrines of the New Church-as a consummation most earnestly to be desired; but it is mere justice to state that nowhere have these desiderata been prosecuted with such whole-hearted thoroughness, devotedness, steadfastness, singleness of purpose-AND SUCCESS-as in the Academy. This fact has been too little known in the Church. It is time, in the interests of the New Church, for it to be more widely known and fully acknowledged. We hold no brief for 'the Academy;' we have never made any secret of the fact that we differ seriously from it on some issues of the greatest moment; but we do hold a brief for THE NEW CHURCH, and we have no hesitation in saying that it is in the interest of the New Church that the splendid lead in the held of New Church education given by the Academy shall be honorably and ungrudgingly recognized, and earnest efforts made to profit by it to the utmost, in all Bodies of the Church without distinction." (THE NEW CHURCH QUARTERLY for October, 1913, pp. 368, 369.)

755

SANTA CLAUS AND THE CHRISTMAS TREE. 1913

     This is no pretty little Christmas story, but just an answer to a correspondent who asks what is our opinion as to the propriety of "New Church parents celebrating Christmas with a Christmas tree, and permitting the children to believe in Santa Claus." As there are divided opinions in the Church on these subjects we prefer not to present any views of our own, but will simply give a resume of the arguments pro and contra, as far as we have heard them stated.

     In an account of the Christmas celebration of the Academy Schools in 1888, (published in the LIFE for January, 1889, p. 11), it is reported that "from this service Santa Claus, the traditional saint of the Catholic Church, was banished, as being unworthy of a place in any ceremonial in honor of our Lord. The heathen Christmas tree was also discarded, because, being a tree without roots, it is dead; and with its lifeless branches, adorned with glittering gew-gaws, and hung with fruits that never ripened upon them, it is a correspondent of the dead Church by which it has been adopted. (T. C. R. 451, 185)."

     In consequence, possibly, of this seemingly authoritative announcement, the Christmas tree, as well as Santa Claus, henceforth met with discouragement in the families of Academy folks. There were some, however, who never regarded the criticisms of these two Christmas features as well founded, and in the course of years one or the other, or both, have gradually regained their former positions in many of our homes. This has been looked upon by some as a backsliding from strict New Church principles and customs, while others look upon it as a sign of a freer and less externalizing spirit. Some who believe in the Christmas tree will have nothing to do with Santa Claus, and vice versa.

     As to Santa Claus there are those who hold that there can be no harm in admitting the presence of the rubicund, jovial gnome who is such a universal favorite among the children,-appealing as he does to their sense of humor as well as to their gratitude,-so long as the little ones are taught to look upon him merely as a kindly spirit and in nowise representative of the Lord.

756

Others, however, maintain that the thought of the Lord should be supreme and all prevailing in the celebration of His birth in the world, and they believe that the figure of this Catholic saint not only contributes nothing to the thought of he Lord, but interferes with it by the injection of something ridiculous into the sphere of the most sublime. In the Old Church the figure of Santa Claus quite overshadows that of the Lord, and it is believed that the elimination of the "saint" is the least that can be asked for in giving something of a distinctive character to Christmas in the New Church.

As to the Christmas tree some hold that it is an inheritance from heathen times; that it, also, contributes nothing to the thought of the Lord; and that there are statements in the Writings indicating that it has an evil correspondence. It is stated, for instance, that spurious charity "is like fruit on a tree where it has not grown, but has been fastened on with a pin," (T. C. R. 451); and, again, in the same work it is said that the good works which the old theology claims as the fruits of faith alone, "do indeed hang from that tree, but still they do not cohere with it," (185) In reply to this the friends of the Christmas tree say that the "heathen tree" was originally a representation of the tree of life, which is found in all the mythologies derived from the Ancient Church; that the statements in the Writings do not necessarily refer to the Christmas tree; that a thing of beauty and of joy to little children cannot have an evil correspondence; and that the children need some visible object of glory to mark the Lord's natal day as the day of all days in the year.

Such are some of the arguments in the discussion of this subject and they all seem worthy of consideration, although the subject does not appear to be of such vital importance as to prevent friends from agreeing to disagree. In view of the division of views, however, it seems to us that neither Santa Claus nor the Christmas tree should be introduced as features of the distinctly religious part of the Christmas celebrations.

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FROM OUR SPECIAL AMBASSADRESS. 1913

FROM OUR SPECIAL AMBASSADRESS. BEATRICE CHILDS PENDLETON 1913

     Communicated
     When the autocratic editor of NEW CHURCH LIFE wrote Mr. Pendleton demanding an account of his European experiences, he did not anticipate the following impressions from an entirely different source. He doubtless expected a serious resume of services, meetings, situations and persons such as should grace the pages of his dignified periodical. In my opinion this was his right, but when the task was turned over to me, I stipulated that I be allowed to do it in my own way,-the only way possible to me.

     With this preamble, which entirely exempts everyone else "from all responsibility and blame," I proceed,-always in my own way,-to our first distinctly New Church impression on English soil.

     We reached London late in the afternoon of July 14th, after two hours' riding in a quaint little English railway carriage, drawn by a shrill whistling engine which resembled an overgrown toy. The beautiful English rural scenes through which we had passed, blending gradually, though with seeming unwillingness, into the inevitable dreariness of the outskirts of a great city, we came upon the world's metropolis by the usual unbeautiful house-top route, all the poverty and squalor flaunted before our eyes from the back yards and porches of tumble down tenements and narrow alley ways. But even here the ubiquitous English garden bravely held its own, giving a touch of color and a sense of hominess to the dreary scene, a humble expression of a great national virtue.

     To the unitiated foreigner it was a typical example of London weather, lowering cloud and persistent drizzle, such as Dickens might have described. We did not see such another day the three weeks we were in London.

     Waterloo station looked dark and inhospitable, quite as a big railway terminus looks everywhere.

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But in the crowd on the platform Mr. Czerny stood, so familiar, so each the same, that I could not realize the twelve years and the far country, nor the many changes since I saw him last. He was watching for us so intensely that, of course; he overlooked us, and I had the pleasure of coming upon him unawares. The heartiness of his greeting made London seem but a step from home.

     But on the way to the hotel, crossing over Waterloo Bridge, with Mr. Czerny pointing out the Houses of Parliament, the Abbey, the dome of St. Paul's in the distance, and the many other landmarks long familiar through reading of fiction and fact, it all began to seem a dream again, this London in its setting of fog and rain. It could not seem true that I was actually seeing the London of Dickens and Thackeray, of Mrs. Ward and H. G. Wells. I think in that first glimpse of the city I had all the correct tourist emotions.

     But as this is to be an account of New Church happenings, the next thing in order is to tell how, after several ineffectual attempts, we finally met Mr. Alfred Stroh. He was in England, working at the rooms of the Swedenborg Society, No. I Bloomsbury Street, not two blocks from our hotel.

     Mr. Stroh, unlike Mr. Czerny, had changed. I should say he was a considerably bigger man every way than the boy I went to school with,-it doesn't matter how many years ago. But we were soon re-acquainted, and then and there began the pleasant habit which clung to us all the time we were in London, and throughout the entire trip to within four days of our sailing, of lunching together whenever possible, so that Mr. Stroh and Mr. Pendleton might discuss matters of church interest in general, but of cosmology in particular, ranging from the first natural point of the universe to the rocks and stones of Sweden. Indeed, we finally breakfasted, and ofttimes dined, to the accompaniment of arguments scientific and theological on these and kindred topics, but the most interesting aspect to the non-combatant was the unchangeableness of the views expressed. As they were in the beginning, so they were at the last, and so they will continue to be, I am quite convinced, world without end!

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     On Thursday evening, July 17th, Mr. Pendleton attended the social which celebrated the school closing at Camberwell Grove, and met a number of old friends and acquaintances, among them Mr. Henry Acton, with whom he was associated in his work in Glenview for a number of years.

     On Sunday Mr. Pendleton preached for the Camberwell Grove society, during Mr. Czerny's absence in Colchester, and we had an opportunity to meet a great many New Church people hitherto familiar to us only by name. A number of visitors from Burton Road were present, and the rooms were crowded.

     On Wednesday evening we had the pleasure of dining at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Howard Spalding, at Ealing, with Mr. and Mrs. Buss and Mr. Stroh. It was my first glimpse of English home life and a very pleasant one. After the ladies had left the dining room, the gentlemen became involved in discussion, from which they evolved, rather shamefacedly, with profuse apologies, about eleven o'clock. They really need not have been so apologetic, but English gentlemen are wonderfully polite.

     We spent the week-end in the charming home of Mr. and Mrs. Rey Gill, at Colchester. Sunday was a perfect day, and after morning service and mid-day dinner, friends began to gather in the beautiful English garden, and by and by there was real English tea, and more friends, and so much in common to talk about that it was late before we knew it. And when the last guest was gone we had a quiet little supper tete-a-tete with our host and hostess, to say nothing of Toby, who mustn't be missed even though he is a dog and this is the NEW CHURCH LIFE. (In case the editor doesn't blue pencil this, Toby owes me a debt of gratitude, for I have secured him immortality.)

     And on Monday we went back to London, which seemed very much less English now, and more the cosmopolitan big city, in comparison with quaint, delicious old Colchester.

     That evening we had the honor of a call from Mrs. James Hyde. She had expressed, through Mr. Stroh, a desire to meet us, and we particularly appreciated her kindness and cordiality. Among other topics we discussed the possibility of our meeting in Belgium,-a possibility which afterward came true.

     On the following Wednesday evening Mr. Pendleton delivered a lecture at Camberwell Grove, and at the close invited expression of views,-an invitation of which no true Englishman is slow to avail himself, and as New Church Englishmen are very well read in the Doctrines and collateral literature and are fluent speakers, the meetings never drag.

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     As is usual our last week was our busiest. Our friends realizing that our time was limited proceeded to shower us with invitations. We spent one evening at Mr. David Wynter's beautiful home at Bishop's Wood, arriving, by invitation, in time for tea with Miss Wynter and a tour of the gardens with Mr. Wynter before dinner. The other guests, the Rev. and Mrs. Wilde, Mr. and Mrs. Faraday, Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Stroh, arriving, we sat down to a repast at which hospitality, good cheer and good things generally abounded, and the evening passed so pleasantly that it was really difficult to realize that it ought to be over, and to say good night and good-bye.

     On Saturday, August 2d, all General Church London went up to Colchester. They chartered special "carriages," and the rush was appalling. Perhaps the Bank Holiday had something to do with it. Certainly the holiday spirit prevailed, everyone seemed bent on enjoyment. There was no lack of hospitality and good cheer and strong New Church spirit, and the visitors from Bryn Athyn, Berlin, Toronto, Brussels, Stockholm and Pittsburgh felt very welcome and very delightfully at home.

     The Colchester Assembly has been too well recorded, both as to its serious and social aspects, in the LIFE and the BULLETIN, to need further description. Suffice it to say it was all so,-only more so. Assemblies are a real success in England, owing principally to the fact that the two societies are near enough to make a practically unanimous attendance possible, and yet far enough apart to give an element of freshness. Also there are quite frequently friends from "across the sea" to add zest to the meeting.

     On the day following the Assembly we started, with Mr. Stroh, on our long travels, reluctantly leaving our new friends,-who seem such old friends,-and the shores of Merrie England behind us.

     It was a wonderful trip, through wonderful countries, but I realized for the first time that we were travellers and aliens.

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Confusion of tongues makes one a stranger. Fashions and customs on the civilized portion of the globe are remarkably similar, but the difference in language is disheartening. One wishes it might be reversed,-that all the world might speak one mother tongue,-each country retaining its own customs and costumes. As it is, in traveling through Northern Germany, Denmark and Sweden we might have been looking at our own compatriots so far as any originality or difference in dress is concerned. We did not see a peasant costume until we visited Skansen, in Stockholm,-an ethnological park established for the preservation of things Swedish.

     Reluctantly I must hasten over the incidents of the trip across Holland to Luibeck, in Germany, and the hours on the Baltic sea, en route for Copenhagen. In Copenhagen Mr. Bronnicke lives and gives excuse for pausing. We saw a great deal of him the few days we were in Denmark,-(unfortunately we did not meet Mrs. Bronnicke nor "the little Michael," who were both away from home),-and we heard much of his brave little paper, the TIDSKRIFT, in the current issue of which had just appeared "The Principles of the Academy," translated into Swedish by Mr. Rosenqvist.

     Also we had the pleasure of worshiping with his congregational No. 11 Boyesgade, the room which, in its beautiful simplicity, bespoke the artist and the priest. The service was entirely in Danish, and, of course, quite unintelligible to us, but the sphere of worship was strong, and that we could enter into and enjoy. Afterwards Mr. Bronnicke asked Mr. Pendleton to address the congregation. The "message" was translated, phrase by phrase, and then Mr. Stroh spoke in Swedish. Several gentlemen followed with speeches, and last of all, a man nearly blind, whose words were so sincere and so full of love and gratitude for the Doctrines of the Church that his voice is unforgettable, though not one word could I understand.

     Among the many beautiful sculptures we saw in Copenhagen one stands forth supreme. The statue of the risen Christ of heroic size, which stands above the altar of the Church of Our Lady, the work of Denmark's greatest sculptor, Thorvaldsen. Everywhere, especially in Roman Catholic countries, the sorrowful, the crucified Lord, reigns, but here it is Christ risen.

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A beautiful face, all-comprehending, all-pitiful, all-loving. The sword thrust in the side is visible, the drapery having fallen a little, and the prints of the nails are in the outstretched hands, but the conception is worthy above all others I have ever seen and the living embodiment of His own words, "Come unto Me," engraved at the base. There is a great museum devoted to Thorvaldsen, but this statue of Christ is his masterpiece.

     We reached Gothenburg Monday afternoon, where we were met by our old friend, Mr. Rosenqvist. Owing to recent difficulties in the society, it seemed particularly fortunate that we should have had this little visit with him, giving him and his every loyal and warm-hearted supporters that sympathy and sense of comradeship which means so much in times of trouble. We met Mr. Bromberg and Mr. Lunden, and spent a very delightful evening with them, Mr. Rosenqvist and Mr. Stroh acting as interpreters.

     On Tuesday, August 12th, in the midst of a pouring rain, with our three loyal Gothenburg friends waving a cheery farewell from under their dripping umbrellas, we embarked on the famous "Gota Canal" trip. From the uninspiring little dock, ending ignominiously in a blank stone wall, we set forth on the most beautiful and varied trip the mind can conceive.

     Through green meadows, closed in by granite hills of solid rock past ancient fortresses and decaying hamlets where once kings held high revel-("and I warrant me there were knights and ladies to jest and dance and to make love there")-toward the marvelous falls of Trollhattan, which for grandeur and beauty are said to rival any place in Europe. To be appreciated they must be seen. My pen, at least, is unequal to the task of describing that tremendous body of water, seething over the great ledges of rock, with a noise that rivals thunder, into the bottomless caverns below. Niagara approximates it-but one feels the violence and rush of the waters more at Trollhattan, because it is possible to get right down among them, owing to the several small islands. The scenery is wild and rugged and would be perfectly in harmony, but for the fact that already the great falls are harnessed even as our own Niagara, and, for all their fury, obey the will of man.

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And man does not permit any aesthetic sentiment to interfere with dividends. Beyond the falls, the country gradually changes. We wound our way through luxurious forests of evergreen, birch and mountain ash, heavy hung with flaming clusters of scarlet berries, out onto great lakes all silver gray and opalescent blue, with only the white clouds to see, and back again into the forest coolnesses. Two days of dreamlike alternations, one picture melting into another,-and then the open sea! Thousands of tiny islands, many of them only great rocks, green waters churning between and about the boat, white gulls circling, diving, following on for miles and miles, their mournful cries haunting the gray loneliness of the scene. Then Stockholm by night-a queen of cities, the Venice of the North-with her stately buildings and illuminated waterways, and all the charm and mystery of the unknown.

     We spent five days in Sweden. Like all good Swedenborgians we visited the summer house-(now preserved at Skansen),-the site of Swedenborg's home, the House of Lords, where he had his seat, the streets where he daily walked, and last, but not least, we saw in the fireproof building, at the Academy of Sciences, where they are carefully treasured the very manuscripts of the Heavenly Doctrines, on which he labored. Also at Upsala, in the cathedral where his father preached, we saw the red granite tomb where lies all that is mortal of this Servant of the Lord.

     We had a red letter time in Stockholm. The return of Miss Sophie Nordenskiold and Miss Nancy Liden from Bryn Athyn a few days before our arrival, the warm-hearted cordiality of the genial Mrs. Svaneskog, the brimming enthusiasm of the ingenuous treasurer, Mr. Liden, the coming of Mr. Bronnicke and Mr. Rosenqvist, the hospitality of everyone in the Circle generally, combined to make this first Assembly of the General Church in the North a memorable occasion.

     And Mr. Stroh was in his element. The Circle is largely his work, and he should find great happiness and support in the staunch and loyal spirit of the old Academy, which prevails in it.

     Our first meeting with the members of the original Circle, held in Mr. Stroh's rooms, was a delightful occasion, as were also the more formal meetings of the Assembly proper, held on Saturday and Sunday evenings in an attractive; room secured by Miss Nordenskiold in the school where she teaches.

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     But the service on Sunday morning, with three priests officiating, in three different languages, was the crowning event. Never in any place, under any circumstance, has the Divine Presence seemed so palpitant, so enfolding, as during the administration of the Holy Supper. Each priest spoke his own language in administering the bread and wine and pronouncing the blessing, yet there was no sense of difference. The room was a simple school room, made by loving hands into a place of worship, the congregation small, but the promise was big for the future.

     On Monday night, under the auspices of "Providentia," we had a very sumptuous banquet, preceded by the Swedish "smorgasbord," which is a banquet in itself. There were nineteen persons present and the papers, to judge by the animated faces of the listeners, must have been interesting. Mr. Sandstorm's report on the progress of "Providentia" (a body originated many years ago by Mr. Rosenqvist, for purposes of New Church education), was received with particular enthusiasm as was Mr. Rosenqvist's paper on the uses of "Providentia."

     In company with good friends we spent a long, happy day at Upsala, and "old Upsala," where we climbed the prehistoric burying mounds, and drank mead from great silver-mounted horns fit for the Vikings of old. That night commenced our homeward journey. All the Circle, including Mr. Bronnicke, were at the station to see us off. My hands were full of flowers in the pretty foreign custom, in our ears rang a rousing Swedish cheer, as the train pulled slowly out, and we carry with us always the memory of new friends to warm our hearts.

     Mr. Stroh having been persuaded not to break up the party we all arrived at The Hague, via Berlin and Amsterdam, forty-eight hours later. Mr. and Mrs. Barger and their daughter, Miss Mary, came to call that first evening. They had met Mr. Stroh previously, but as he was temporarily absent I had some difficulty in convincing Mrs. Barger that we really were Mr. and Mrs. Pendleton. She had expected the Bishop's brother and his wife to be more advanced in life and impressive, but becoming convinced at length that we really were what we claimed to be, she grew reconciled, and admitted me to her motherly heart, unqualifiedly

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As for Mr. Barger, he is the most enthusiastic New Churchman I have ever met. He positively radiates enthusiasm Needless to say -dominated by his personality, the meetings were a great success. The presence of Dr. Deltenre and Mr. John Pitcairn, from Brussels; of the Misses Sadergren, from Stockholm, and the unexpected arrival of Mr. Wynter and Mr. Gardiner, of London, added greatly to Mr. Barger's pleasure and the interest of the meetings. As usual, the difficulty of communication stood in the way somewhat, but Mr. Barger made an excellent and judicious interpreter. There were nineteen persons present, including the visitors, Mr. Barger's family and the "Dutch friends."

     The formal meeting Saturday night was followed by services also in Mr. Barger's home, Sunday morning, when the communion was administered to eighteen persons.

     In the afternoon, at Mr. Pitcairn's invitation, Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Stroh, Mr. Pendleton and I dined at Scheveningen, on the seashore, and the conversation drifted into a long, long talk on Church topics of great interest, which I think we all remember most pleasantly The day ended in Mr. Gardiner's returning the compliment at The Hague, before he hastened on his predestined way-and another pleasant friend became a memory.

     While at The Hague we took several short trips with Mr. Pitcairn to Delft, to Rotterdam, to Leyden, each one interesting and unique, and all so great a contrast to our American cities of equal size.

     The night before we left The Hague we dined again with the Barger family. Mr. Barger, to commemorate the occasion, had written the menu cards himself. There was American-initiative soup, Swedish-research macaroni, International union of sirloin, vegetables, etc. English pudding, Dutch cheese, and Fruit an revoir!

     En route for Brussels we stopped over in Middleburg, of which it is said, as of Lubeck in Germany, that "it is a fly preserved in amber." Unfortunately we missed the market day, the real sight recommended by travelers, but we did see the characteristic Dutch costumes and head dresses, and the wooden shoes of most durable make.

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And we wandered around an adorable gem of an old abbey, built in the Middle Ages; and heard the chimes play the opening bars of the wedding march from Tannhauser every hour, and the remark elicited from a facetious inhabitant to the effect that those maddening hells sooner or later had their way and drew the victim to it, simply through their persistence!

     That evening we reached Brussels, after a distracting number of changes and delays. Mr. Pendleton and I were fortunate enough to be the house guests of Mr. and Mrs. Deltenre, where there were real children to talk to and the most winsome baby to love,-a fact much appreciated after so many weeks of hotel life. The days in Brussels were delightful, every one. There was so much to see and do and Mr. and Mrs. Deltenre were indefatigable. The Mission station itself is the most interesting place. It is really marvelous to see what human ingenuity can do. The long drawing room is divided into three compartments. The first contains the office and library; the second is the audience chamber; the third is the chancel. On this chancel Mr. Deltenre has lavished great skill and taste, making it harmonious and beautiful. I particularly liked the custom of keeping the silver communion service, veiled, on the altar.

     The services held on Sunday had been advertised, it having been stated that an American bishop would preside. Consequently there was a "crowd," the seating capacity of the small room being insufficient. Mr. Deltenre preached and administered the sacraments in French, Mr. Pendleton presiding. Among those present who took communion were Mrs. Hyde and Miss Hoeck, both of whom we had met in London.

     Mdlle. Jeanmonod and M. Balcaen, Mr. Deltenre's two converts; Mrs. Hyde, Miss Hoeck, Mr. Pitcairn and Mr. Stroh were invited to remain for dinner. We had a thoroughly delightful time.

     And through all the long day, the quiet composure of Mme. Deltenre remained unruffled. Mainspring and center of all the intricate machinery of a home that is likewise a mission station, she does her part with an efficiency which is little short of marvelous. Whatever glorious future awaits the enterprise, she will he quietly at the bottom of it all. The week that followed was a busy one. Brussels is a delightful city.

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Picturesque and old, rich and modern, comfortable and distracting,-it has an atmosphere all its own. Under the guidance of our friends we saw the very best of it.

     Again the inevitable partings came and once more we were regretfully upon out way.

     In Paris of church interest there is little to report. The church was closed for the summer vacation, and though we had the pleasure of meeting M. Hussenet and his older sons twice, the difficulty of the different languages made it impossible to converse satisfactorily. We also met and spent the day, at Mr. Pitcairn's invitation, with M. and Mdme. Lucas and their family, at St. Germain. Here again the same difficulty assailed us, but by this time we had become quite used to smiling intelligently when the occasion seemed to demand it,-made us feel sociable.

     Mr. Pitcairn took us to see all the old New Church landmarks in Paris, as well as very many other places of interest, including several famous cafes. But I think, were we four to find ourselves in Paris tomorrow morning, we should, with one accord, decide on the Caf? I'Odeon, in the Latin quarter, where we had two such pleasant lunches, and where the Subject under Discussion was pursued to a finish-nearly!

     On Tuesday, September 16th, Mr. Stroh returned to far-off Sweden. The next day Mr. Pitcairn left for Brussels, and on Saturday, September 20th, off Cherbourg, we bearded the good ship Philadelphia, and reveled for a few days in the novelty of being able to address intelligibly every one we met!

     And now it is all over-a good dream-full of pleasant memoirs. But already-quite unconsciously-we are talking of "next time!"
     BEATRICE CHILDS PENDLETON.

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Church News. 1913

     FROM OUR CORRESPONDENTS.

     BRYN ATHYN, PA. The Rev. C. Th. Odhner has been giving us a series of lectures on the land of Canaan, which have been much appreciated by both society and schools. The first of these took us along the coast, from Beyrut to Gaza; the second took us from Dan to Beersheba; while the third treated of Jerusalem. The final lecture conducted us from Sinai to Mount Hermon. These lectures have been illustrated by hundreds of lantern slides, and they are to be the means of acquiring for the use of the school a more complete collection of slides relating to the Holy Land.

     A weekly doctrinal class has been initiated in which Mr. Acton is taking up the subject of Cosmology. The Friday class with Bishop Pendleton is continuing the study of DE VERBO. The Ladies' Society has been enjoying lectures from several of its members.

     The Civic and Social Club held its annual meeting on October 20th, and after a somewhat lively meeting found itself in charge of a new board, consisting mostly of younger men, with Mr. Chas. R. Pendleton as the president. An attempt is being made to inaugurate a new spirit in the social life of Bryn Athyn, and to make more use of the co-operation and interest of the younger people. The club opened its program with a Hallowe'en dance, at which some weird and wonderful costumes were displayed and some unusual stunts perpetrated, while the young folks had almost enough of dancing. The Theta Alpha held a reception to the school girls on November 15th, and the young men took the opportunity to hold a social gathering at the home of Mr. Chas. R. Pendleton, and there talked over various social problems. The Younger Generation met on Nov. 1st, to hear and discuss a very useful paper by Mr. Emil Stroh, on the subject of Parliamentary Law.

     The monthly social of the school took the form of a Hallowe'en dance, at which a most brilliant array of fancy and humorous costumes were displayed.

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The Local School pupils were entertained at several similar functions at various homes in the settlement. A new department in the school work is a gymnasium class for the boys, in charge of Mr. Backstrom, who is initiating them into the mysteries of Swedish drill. Foot ball is over; our old friendly rivals, Radnor High School having trimmed us entirely to their satisfaction, and the attempt is now being made to interest the school athletes in the soccer game, as a tide-over between seasons.

     Occasionally one hears a protest going around to the effect that we are entirely too busy for our spiritual and physical welfare; that the evenings are made for something besides meetings, and socials and classes. But our complicated social system is now both a necessity and a habit; the only way to relieve the pressure is by a more general distribution of its responsibilities. Towards this the new order of things seems to be tending, but a well-balanced condition of social life is still ours to seek. D. R.

     ARBUTUS, MD. During the long interval since the appearance of the last report from Arbutus, the Baltimore Society has made much progress. We still retain the name, "Baltimore Society," although all our activities are at Arbutus. There has not been a meeting of any sort in town for about a year.

     With the election of the Rev. E. E. Iungerich as pastor, the society has adopted the form of government usual in General Church societies, in place of lay government. The wider usefulness and superior effectiveness of the new order is quite apparent.

     Mr. Donald F. Rose, of Bryn Athyn, was our "summer pastor" this year, and we are congratulating ourselves that it was so, for good came of his work.

     After enjoying services every Sunday this summer, we did not relish the thought of returning to the usual two services a month, so we applied to our old friend, the Church Extension Committee, for a "lift." They put us on our mettle by meeting us half way, and to our own surprise we have been able to make up the other half. So we now have services each Sunday.

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Mr. Iungerich visits us twice a month, and on the other Sundays we have one of the theological students. In each case they come down Friday evening and stay until Sunday afternoon.

     Next in importance is our local school, which has been making equal progress. Mrs. S. M. Coffin, who taught the kindergarten of the Academy Schools in Philadelphia in 1886, has now entered on the third year of her work at Arbutus. The first year she taught kindergarten only, the second year the first grade was added, and this year she has two scholars in the second grade. Altogether there are eight children in the school, and besides these we have eleven who go to public school.

     Mr. Synnestvedt's article in the October LIFE on Religious Education has stirred us deeply, and we are putting his advice into operation as far as we are able. For the older children who go to public school a Saturday afternoon class has been started; there is religious instruction, memorizing work, and singing practice, with some social amusement at the end.

     In the business affairs of the colony we are progressing steadily. The Arbutus tract, at first, was farm land of hill and hollow, but we are now completing the last stretch of road necessary to open up the whole property. Like the rest, it will be surfaced with oyster shells. Pipes supplying filtered water have already been laid through the whole tract. With the new road completed, we will now have a "breathing spell" in which to pay of same of our indebtedness.
We are sorry to lose Mrs. Fitzpatrick and her children but their removal to Bryn Athyn was for the best interests. There are five families at Arbutus now. Altogether the society has seventeen active members and thirty children from babies up to youths.

     The external inducements to keep up our work at Arbutus are not great. From the pastor down it is a "labor of love," with no other end in view than the building of a permanent center of the General Church, in which we may concentrate our efforts to co-operate with the Lord in the establishment of the kingdom of heaven among us.

     It was a hazardous thing to undertake colonization without a resident pastor, but Providence has favored us.

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What a colony needs is a strong hand at, the helm, who will preach the truth demanded by the occasion, and especially the Doctrine of Charity, without fear or favor. That is just what we have had, otherwise there may have been a sad tale to tell. And by the way, with the first of December begins the sixth year of Mr. Iungerich's ministry here.
     R. T.

     CHICAGO. The Sharon Church has acquired a new and more commodious home in the Athenreum Building, where we shall have the use of three good-sized pleasant rooms, which will be adequate for suppers, socials and Sunday School, as well as the regular service.

     The Pastor's Council, consisting of nine men, held a meeting September 20 in Dr. Farrington's office. Plans for the year were discussed and Mr. Forrest was appointed to secure a more adequate place for worship and socials-such as we now have secured in the Athenaeum Building. At the same meeting plans were made to organize a brigade of Boy Scouts, who would go with the pastor on walking trips into the country. There are ten boys of suitable age in the society.

     We have held classes on Wednesday evening during the fall, at which biography of Swedenborg was the subject of instruction. This course will be followed by a study of the New Jerusalem and its Heavenly Doctrines.

     Mr. Paul Schattuck and Miss Abbie Stevens were betrothed at the church the Sunday before their wedding, which occurred on September 10th.

     Mr. and Mrs. Klein are now with us, making our little circle stronger by their live interest in the church.

     On September 24th the first social was held at the home of Miss Bessie Forrest. Conversations, songs and refreshments made the time pass pleasantly. Mr. Smith made a short address on the early life of Swedenborg.

     A farewell social was given by Dr. and Mrs. Starkey at their home before they left-Dr. Starkey for New York and Mrs. Starkey and the children for Glenview.

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     As our pastor said in a letter to the society, if we all work together with all our strength and follow the leadings of the Divine Providence we may grow to be a strong little society. E. V. W.

     BERLIN, ONT. On Sunday, August 31st, and Monday, September 1st, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of a New Church school in Berlin was celebrated by a reunion of ex-pupils. The sermon on Sunday morning by Mr. Hugo Odhner was on the text: "Suffer the little children to come unto Me," and was an excellent presentation of the Law of Preparation, as applied to the work of education. In the afternoon the Holy Supper was celebrated. In the evening there was a general meeting at which informal addresses were made on the value of New Church education and related topics. On Monday morning a public session was held, at which Miss Venita Roschman read a paper on "Thoughts on Experience," and the Messrs. Harold Kuhl and Nathaniel Stroh each a paper on "How Can We Show Our Loyalty to New Church Education?" These papers were fully discussed. In the afternoon there were games on the grounds. In the evening a banquet was held at which ninety persons, nearly all of them ex-pupils, were present. A number of toasts were proposed and ably responded to by the young men. Dancing followed.

     The school opened for its twenty-sixth year on September 4th, with services in the schoolroom. The head master gave an address on Industry, showing the great importance of this moral virtue. Remarks on the same subject were made by the Messrs. Hugo Odhner, Jacob Stroh and Richard Roschman. There are this year twenty-two pupils in eight grades. The teachers are the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, head master, and the Misses Venita Roschman and Olivia Waelchli. Singing is taught by Miss Evangeline Roschman and dancing by Miss Beata Roschman.

     The first Friday Supper was held September 19th, and at the class which followed Mr. Odhner read a paper on "The Preservation of the Hebrew Word."

     On September 24th there was a social to say farewell to Mr. Hugo Odhner. Refreshments were served and toasts proposed.

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The first was to the General Church and its Extension Work, and Mr. Rudolf Roschman, in responding, spoke of the importance and excellence of the Extension Work, and pointed out that Mr. Odhner's being with us during the past four months was made possible by this work into which the General Church has now entered. The next toast was to Mr. Odhner. Mr. Stroh responded and spoke of the appreciation by all of the splendid work done by this student of the Academy's theological school, and as a token of this presented him with a purse in the name of the Society. Mr. Odhner in reply thanked the Society for the gift and also for the kind reception of his work, which he had very much enjoyed.

     Thanksgiving Day was celebrated Sunday and Monday, October 19th and 20th. The latter is the Canadian Thanksgiving Day. On Sunday the service for this occasion was held, this being made the more delightful by the chancel decorations of fruits, grains, vegetables and flowers. On Monday evening a banquet was held in the school room, which was also appropriately decorated. Mr. Edward Hill responded to a toast to "Thanksgiving for Natural Blessings," and Mr. Harold Kuhl to "Thanksgiving for Spiritual Blessings." Others also spoke on the same themes.

     On October 31st a Hallowe'en Social was held, opening with a sheet and pillow case masquerade. Then followed an entertainment consisting of numbers so weird that the scribe has but a dazed recollection of them, and is unable to describe them. W.

     CLINTON, ONT. This place was visited by the Rev. F. E. Waelchli, September 19th to 21st. On Friday evening, the 19th, a doctrinal class was held at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Izzard, at which seven persons were present. On Sunday, the 21st, services were held at the same place and a sermon given on Love to the Lord. There were present eighteen adults and seven children. At the close of the service the Holy Supper was administered to eight communicants. W.

     TORONTO, ONT. While no report has reached the Church News columns for some time, the Olivet Church has been having its full quota of work and play.

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     During the past season we studied "The Doctrine concerning the Church" at our Wednesday evening class; and on alternate Monday evenings the chapter on the Soul in the latter part of the work on THE ANIMAL KINGDOM.

     Nearly every month we had a social in the church, some of which gatherings were particularly successful. Especially so was a "German" gotten up by the young people, and a Sale of Work by the "Theta Alpha," at which the sum of $110.50 was realized. Now that the activities of a new fall season have commenced we have reason to be hopeful. The attendance at church services and at Wednesday evening supper and class is larger than ever. With us the interest in the class study of the Doctrines seems to center chiefly in the Wednesday evening class, which is preceded by supper. At this class the work on THE DIVINE LOVE AND WISDOM is being read.

     Our pastor also conducts a class on Swedenborg's Philosophy on alternate Mondays, which is attended by those interested in Swedenborg's scientific works.

     Financially we have reduced our mortgage to $2,900 and are hoping to pay it off a year from next March. Then for a new church building.

     We have been glad to welcome Mrs. Theodore Bellinger and Miss Celia Bellinger among us this winter; also, Mr. Fred. Synnestvedt.

     A committee of young people prepared a very successful Thanksgiving Social on October 17th The decorations were pretty and suggestive of the season and we were kept busy at a task interesting to young and old,-making picture books descriptive of our evening. All we had to do was to choose the pictures from magazines provided for us, no one was asked to make original sketches.

     Monthly men's meetings are being held this season. Three have been held so far and the subjects for discussion were, at the first, "How We May Enter Into the New Church;" at the second, "The Origin of Evil;" and at the third, "Friendship."

     Up till now we have been enjoying such delightfully balmy, autumn weather it is difficult to realize that Christmas and New Year are drawing near and with them Ontario Local Assembly time.

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We have decided to hold the Local Assembly in Toronto this year, so our slogan from now till then will be "Assembly!" B. S.

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN. During the month of August the Rev. and Mrs. N. D. Pendleton visited our Circle in Stockholm on their trip in Europe. Pastor Bronniche, from Copenhagen, and Pastor Rosenqvist, from Gothenburg, arrived here at the same time, and meetings were held from the 16th to the 18th. The first evening interesting papers were read and discussed; next day, Sunday, we had two services, one in the morning in Swedish and Danish, after which the Holy Supper was administered by Mr. Pendleton and the two pastors, and the other in the evening with a sermon by Mr. Pendleton. The following day we met again at a banquet at a restaurant, when several toasts were offered and papers read. Not until late in the evening all dispersed, having had a most happy time, and very much regretting that this our first Academy meeting in the North had come to an end. We all enjoyed our visitors very much and they won our hearts entirely. Persons who do not understand a word of English afterwards expressed their great delight in the prevailing strong sphere, and it is to be hoped that our friends in America will often pay us such visits and thereby strengthen our little movement.

In the middle of September the members of the Circle were again collected in Stockholm from different quarters, and now the main subject for our eager discussion was how to procure a place of our own for the Circle. After a good many projects we decided to rent two cosy rooms on a quiet street in the best part of Stockholm, Ostermalm, (the Eastern Quarter). The first time the Circle met in empty rooms, but in less than three weeks we had them furnished and in order, so that we could invite Mr. Bronniche to pay one of his quarterly visits on the 26th of October. This dedicatory sermon was on the beautiful text in Ezek. 47:1-13, and at the same occasion two of our members, Mrs. Hedvig Wahlstrom and Miss Lisa Liden, were baptized. In the evening the Holy Supper was administered, the solemnity of the occasion and the quietness of the evening and the place creating a strong sphere of affection and thought, which were further increased by the feeling that our little Circle now for the first time had received a home of its own.

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Next evening,-the anniversary of the first public appearance of our Circle,-Mr. Stroh gave us a most interesting paper on "The present state of the New Church in general and especially in the North," after which we all had supper. Afterwards followed toasts, and Mr. Bronniche read a fine paper on "Modern Theology interiorly examined." Greetings were received from and sent to the members of our Circle in Bryn Athyn and some of the friends there, and other greetings we received from Gothenburg, where a "Circle" movement has just been formed by some men belonging to the Church, under the leadership of Mr. Rosenqvist.

     The Stockholm Circle will meet on Sunday evening when the subject of discrete degrees and Swedenborg's development, which we have studied since 1910, will be continued. S. N-LD.

     FROM OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

     UNITED STATES. A local branch of the Swedenborg Scientific Association was organized in Minneapolis on October 11th, under the presidency of Dr. C. A. Swenson, with Mr. Chas. R. Abell as vice-president.

     The Rev. Hiram Vrooman has accepted a call to the pastorate of the North Side Parish, Chicago. It is understood that he will also assist the Rev. J. S. Saul in editing the NEW CHURCH MESSENGER.

     Mr. Harry Dean, the African traveler, who went to Liberia a year ago to prepare material for educational illustrated lectures and to place the works of Swedenborg in the libraries of the country and with the chiefs of tribes, has returned to Chicago, according to the MESSENGER of November 5th.

     At the meeting of the Michigan Association, at Almont, October 12th, the Detroit Society reported that since the engagement of the Rev. Frank A. Gustafson as pastor on November 10, 1912, thirty-six names had been added to the membership roll and four had been lost by deaths and removals, the actual present membership being 128 with an average attendance at Sunday morning worship of 87.

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The old church building, corner Cass Avenue and High Street, had been sold, and the Society is making an active search for a suitable site for a church building. In the meantime the Society holds its services and meetings in the chapel of Wayne Castle, K. of P., corner Cass Avenue and Bagg Street.

The Almont Society reported a membership of 57. The principal activity of this Society is connected with its Summer School, and in this respect a steady growth in interest and attendance was reported, the last session, in charge of the Rev. Gustafson, having been the largest in its history. Anticipating its need, a new dining hall had been erected prior to the last session, at a cost of $1,000, of which sum one-half was contributed by the trustees of the Gorand Rapids Fund.
Special Notice. 1913

Special Notice. 1913

     Announcements.
     The Hymnal for the use of schools and families in the General Church will be ready early in the new year. It will comprise about 300 pages. The price will be 75 cents. Others may be sent now to
     THE ACADEMY BOOK ROOM,
          Bryn Athyn, Pa.
ONTARIO ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. 1913

ONTARIO ASSEMBLY OF THE GENERAL CHURCH. E. R. CRONLUND 1913

     The Ontario District Assembly of the General Church will meet in Toronto, Ont., on December 31, at 3 P. M., and will continue in session until January 2, inclusive. All members and friends of the General Church are Invited to attend. The Parkdale Society will provide sleeping accommodation, breakfast and supper for all guests.

     Those who desire to attend are requested to communicate with Mr. Louis Rothaermel, 63 Melbourne Avenue, Toronto, Ont., or with Mr. Reginald Anderson, 22 Close Avenue, Toronto, Ont.
     E. R. CRONLUND,
          Secretary.